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Reviews
Blaze of Noon (1947)
Engrossing aerial soap opera
Anne Baxter was just coming off an Oscar win for her portrayal of a drug addicted woman in 20th Century Fox's adaptation of THE RAZOR'S EDGE when she was loaned to Paramount for the lead role in this aviation drama. Interestingly, she heads a cast that includes Paramount's top matinee idols of the postwar period- William Holden who plays the man she marries; and Sterling Hayden who is on hand as Holden's brother and the man she probably should have married.
The idea of putting Hayden and Holden into the same film, directed by John Farrow, is inspired since they actually do look like brothers and have similar mannerisms. In addition to these two, Sonny Tufts whose career at Paramount was in full swing plays an older brother, while Johnny Sands portrays the youngest kid brother. All four of the McDonald bros are pilots, some of them having flown during WWI. Now it is the mid-1920s and since they have bills to pay and since they can't seem to get flying out of their blood, they perform aerial stunts at carnivals. What they do is thrilling and dangerous.
But when Holden meets pretty nurse Baxter, he realizes he needs to settle down and have a more stable job. So he and his brothers leave the stunt shows and start careers delivering airmail. The historical aspect of the airmail business in Ernest Gann's popular novel, adapted by real-life flyer turned screenwriter Frank Wead, gives the story great credibility.
Because this is an 'A' budget picture, the studio ups the drama by putting all four brothers into daring situations. The younger McDonald (Sands) is killed early on; and Tufts' character takes the blame and soon quits flying to become a car salesman of all things.
A friend who is also a pilot, and is played by William Bendix in the film's comic relief role, gets busted for zooming too close to a train on the ground. So, with his license being reviewed and having been put on suspension, he also quits and joins Tufts selling cars.
This leaves Holden and Hayden doing the mail runs, but Baxter is now pregnant and she'd like Holden to stop taking flights in bad weather. Meanwhile, Hayden has fallen hard for Baxter...but he can't have his sister-in-law as more than a friend, so he cracks up in the air and becomes disabled. Sterling Hayden gives a thoughtful performance here. We feel his anguish over his unrequited love; and when he ends up crippled which leads to the end of his career, we sense how much this setback means.
The drama isn't done, because there is one more huge tragedy yet to happen. And this time it involves Holden's character. He takes off in the fog on a special flight that will make extra money he needs to support his wife and newborn child. But the aircraft disappears in the fog, and he's never heard from again.
There's a wonderful scene with Holden at the controls, facing imminent death, talking on the radio to Baxter who's on the ground realizing they'll never see each other again. Anne Baxter is truly magnificent in what amounts to a highly touching role. Most actresses would have gone full throttle with the histrionics near the end, but she wisely underplays it, and I do think this performance is just as good, perhaps even better, than the one for which she earned the Oscar. Her Lucille McDonald is just so believable; very much a 'real person' on screen.
One thing that made me give the film a high score was that when I reflected back on the whole narrative, I could see that the writers were foreshadowing Baxter and Hayden to get together, even though their relationship was impossible. After Holden dies, Hayden as the baby's uncle is present at the christening; and since it would be distasteful to show that Baxter is ready to move on, as it would be too soon after her husband's death, I think we can assume that she will eventually marry Hayden. So we have this suggested happy ending, but not yet quite happy ending, which felt very mature and honest to me.
I also liked how all four brothers who loved flying so much are no longer fliers at the end. Their lives go in such unexpected directions. As a result, this is not a predictable or very formulaic studio picture; and with Baxter's sincere performance at the center of it, it is a real keeper.
Stage Fright (1950)
The curtain- close the curtain
At the beginning of this Alfred Hitchcock film Marlene Dietrich's character, a glamorous stage actress, tells Richard Todd to close the curtain as she enters a room with him. Later, a heavy stage curtain falls on him and kills him, after he's revealed to be a killer fleeing a detective (Michael Wilding) and the police. But we spend much of the film not knowing he's the culprit, because Hitchcock pulls a fast one which some contemporary critics did not like.
Hitchcock starts the film by having Todd's character on the run after the killing of Dietrich's husband. But he proclaims his innocence to a girl friend (Jane Wyman). The first section of the film is his narration and flashback, which like Wyman's character we take at face value as the truth. Only it's not the truth. When he does turn out to be guilty later, we've been misled. I suppose this makes sense because most killers wouldn't tell the truth, and it would help to dupe an impressionable friend to help facilitate a plan to hide from the authorities.
However, Hitchcock and his cinematographer (Wilkie Cooper) might have done something different with the camera or the lighting during the false flashback to imply the feeling something's off. Another thing regarding the flashback, these events are told to Wyman; but in the flashback there is a passage of time, and Todd recounts some events to Dietrich within the flashback. It's as if Hitchcock and his writers got a little too clever for their own good and then couldn't quite keep it all linear.
The original story upon which the screenplay is based has another lesser character as the murderer. My guess is Todd's character was made the bad guy, so that it would be easier for Wyman to wind up with Wilding at the end. I do think Todd is excellent at playing emotionally troubled men; and I like how Dietrich supposedly goaded him into the killing, which makes her an accomplice and not in the clear.
Some parts of the story are strangely humorous. Dietrich overplays her role and is so busy vamping for the viewers that she almost verges on self-parody. Supposedly Hitchcock wanted Tallulah Bankhead for the role, whom he'd previously directed in LIFEOBAT, but Warners insisted on Dietrich. If Bankhead had been in it, then undoubtedly the camp value would have increased even more.
In addition to Dietrich's posturing, we have some slight overplaying by Alastair Sim as Wyman's father, a not quite reformed rascal. His heart's in the right place where his daughter is concerned, which I think is meant to mirror Hitchcock's own relationship with his daughter Patricia who is cast in a minor role as a friend of Wyman's.
Wyman is truly the best thing in the movie. Unlike Dietrich who is amping up every conceivable human action (including breathing), Wyman wisely underplays her role yet stays alert and focused throughout. Wyman received top billing by the studio after her recent Oscar win for JOHNNY BELINDA, and this is truly deserved. She has a wonderful way of using her eyes to register different emotions. Whenever Hitchcock cuts to her for a reaction shot, we are given a plethora of registered responses pertaining to the action at hand. She judges and balances the whole movie.
One thing I want to add is that this story was a way for Hitchcock to delve into what actors do, how they take on certain roles and perpetuate an inordinate amount of nonsense and falsehood in order to put something across. You almost need a scorecard to keep track of what each person really knows about the other. Ironically, this gives the film some richer meanings, though untangling it all probably requires multiple viewings.
Parachute Nurse (1942)
Women supporting the war effort
I had never heard of this Columbia programmer until just a few days ago. It's a shame that it hasn't been restored, because I think it provides a unique window into the war effort during the time it was made and how Hollywood propaganda films were used to encourage enlistments as well as entertain, and on some level, start training. In this case the enlistees would have been women watching in the audience.
PARACHUTE NURSE has a story that was written by a female writer, and a real life aviatrix who helped establish the Aerial Nurse Corps of America- Lauretta Schimmoler- as one of the picture's stars.
Schimmoler does not play herself, because while she was a pilot and well-versed in flight, she was not a nurse. Instead, she is cast in a slightly fictional role as a captain who leads a squad of new recruits. Miss Schimmoler is no Greta Garbo in the glamour department and she is no Bette Davis in the acting department, but she brings with her credibility and an air of authenticity.
A bunch of the studio's prettiest starlets portray the recruits, headed by Marguerite Chapman who was very popular at Columbia in the 1940s. The less attractive female members of the cast are on board to provide some comic relief. But all these gals are sincere and show that team work is key. One of the women joining the squad gets drummed out by Schimmoler because she's a troublemaker- actress Louise Allbritton has a field day vamping it up before she's thrown out.
It's true there are some basic stock characters as all war films have them, but I would say in this case, it's more about how they band together for Uncle Sam that keeps us interested in them. Their efforts are jingoistic; we want them to succeed. Of course, some of their success is not just learning to keep their cots tidy or learning to parachute from a plane. Some of it involves their getting along with the men who help train them, and in a few instances, as with Chapman's character, there's romance with a handsome guy (William Wright).
One thing I appreciated about the film, despite its modest budget and standard performances, was how it relied on cliches but still managed to connect with me. It should be noted that I was watching it in 2024; so if it affected me this positively, imagine the impact it had on viewers in 1942 who left the movie theater and went off to get an application and sign up.
Seven Waves Away (1957)
A full house at the wrong time
I remembered watching this film only once before, more than a decade ago. But I remembered it as one that was meaningful, and rewatching it, I can see why I felt that way. There comes a point two-thirds of the way into the story where Officer Alec Holmes (Tyrone Power) tells the crew and passengers with him that they are now in the last extremity of the voyage they are all making together. When phrased like that, it's bleak.
Things get started with a bang, literally, in the film's first few minutes. A cruise ship has been exploded by colliding into a derelict mine. Many die right off, but the ones who have managed to withstand the initial blast, find themselves floating in the Atlantic with the wreckage. Power's character is among those immediately glimpsed, and he quickly organizes them all aboard a lifeboat.
However, the boat can only hold so many. Some take turns treading in the water, alongside the vessel, while the last remaining shark repellent is used to keep them safe as long as possible. There is talk about limited supplies of water and food; rationing becomes a necessity. They must all follow orders and cooperate to stay afloat until they are retrieved by a rescue ship.
Power, who produced the film, is directed by writer Richard Sale with a predominately British cast. Hollywood name Lloyd Nolan is also present, having costarred with Power back in 1940's JOHNNY APOLLO. Nolan's character only makes it to the one-hour mark; but he imparts plenty of wisdom before dying, and his death scene is very dramatic. He's the first one to be sacrificed for the others.
At this point, knowing that a huge storm is forming overhead, Power must decide which ones are strongest to keep rowing the lifeboat. This means he decides which ones need to be cut loose, thrown overboard, and basically given to the sharks. The sea around them has now become a watery grave. It's harrowing to watch the scenes where Power holds them at gunpoint and decides which ones can be saved and which ones must be jettisoned.
To be fair he insists that he will even jettison himself if the time comes that he is no longer one of the strong ones. That scene happens a bit later, where after receiving a wound, he gives up on himself, ironically, just as the rescue ship finds them. Emotions run high when Power plays executioner, and he's told that he's committing murder. But to him, he's doing the right thing in a utilitarian sense.
Sale's story was based on a real-life incident that had previously been depicted in Paramount's SOULS AT SEA in 1937, that time with Gary Cooper as the officer who had to make difficult life-or-death decisions. But I think this film, with its lack of studio polish, comes across a lot grittier and more realistically. Former glamour boy Power has a very unglamorous role here, and he is more than up to the task.
One thing that impressed me was how Power was willing to let himself look old and weathered in the last sequence. This showed the experience had drastically aged the character. The female costars (Mai Zetterling and Moira Lister) wear plenty of make-up in the early scenes then become more beaten up by the elements, while still looking beautiful. In short, the performers aren't worried about how they look. Movie star narcissism is forced to surrender to the realism of the plot on screen.
Of course there's only so much realism that can be allowed. We are never privy to dialogue about how they will relieve their bowels. And while there is discussion that a floating dog may become supper at some point, that never actually happens.
At one point in the narrative, a survivor shows a lucky poker hand. Apparently he was on a winning streak aboard the cruise ship just before it blew up. He had three aces and two kings; a full house. This mirrors the fact that the lifeboat is overcrowded. It's the luck of the draw, whether or not a person is able to stay alive when there is disaster at sea.
The Gilded Lily (1935)
Watching the world go by
THE GILDED LILY a comedy, but it's also a two-character study. Despite the obstacles in their path, we know the characters played by Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray will end up as a romantic couple. In the beginning we're shown that they are good friends, though both still have a lot to learn about life and about themselves. The story isn't even that funny, to be honest. It's amusing, but nothing uproarious. Mostly we are drawn in because Miss Colbert has an easy rapport with Mr. MacMurray. They both have considerable respect for each other in their scenes, and that's gold. It's no wonder they'd make a total of seven motion pictures together.
The premise is simple. Colbert & MacMurray meet up each Thursday night on a New York City park bench to "watch the world go by." They discuss what's going on with their jobs-- he's a reporter, and she's a stenographer. Usually, this involves giving advice to each other, while munching on their favorite snack-- popped corn.
We are not told how they met or how long they've known each other. But we can be sure they're kindred souls. MacMurray is eager to move beyond the platonic nature of the relationship, but Colbert doesn't feel the same way about him, at least not now. She has fanciful notions of what it would be like to be swept off her feet. She soon meets a British aristocrat (Ray Milland) and falls for him, which causes angst for MacMurray though he still remains loyal as a pal.
The two lead stars are naturals with each other, and most of what transpires on screen works. There's a funny bit where they go for a drink at Luis Alberni's nightclub, and Colbert's character has had a little too much to drink. She slides off her seat, and crashes with a thud under the table.
There's also the part where it seems like she's been jilted by Milland. The idea of a working class gal catching the eye of British nobility then getting left behind is too much for MacMurray to resist, and he builds a series of articles around it. You might say he's exploiting their friendship, but he also has ulterior motives, which involves winning her for himself.
In the meantime, she gains notoriety, which he thinks they can play to their financial advantage. A short while later he gets her to perform in front of paying customers at the club. She awkwardly sings and dances, without much discernible talent, and lands in the lap of a V. I. P.
As I watched the film, it occurred to me how brave Miss Colbert is. She's not afraid to take risks with the material, continually testing her comfort level. Of course, she's dressed in the finest outfits, photographed from the best angles and given plenty of glamorous touches.
Something else I noticed-- Colbert is basically playing a good girl. But MacMurray's character manipulates her situation...so she is depicted in the press as a bad girl who says 'no' to everyone and puts on airs. He's constructing an image that will render her unattainable to any other man...since he wants her for himself.
Their mutual enjoyment of popcorn is cute. At various points in the story, we see them buy bags of the stuff. There is also a scene inside Colbert's apartment where they make a fresh batch, popping kernels by the fireplace. She pours it into a large bowl. He adds the butter and salt, and she stirs it with a wooden spoon. It is their ritual. And it makes them seem like real people, who do ordinary things, while trying to figure out what's important in life.
Take Me to Town (1953)
Ann Sheridan's in town
At this point in his Hollywood career, director Douglas Sirk had moved from artistic-minded independent productions to routine genre assignments at Universal. Sirk would remain with the studio through the end of the decade, scoring some of his biggest hits. Universal provided Sirk with better budgets as well as the chance to collaborate with more "A" list stars.
TAKE ME TO TOWN is a western comedy that Sirk made as part of a trilogy for Universal. The other two films were MEET ME AT THE FAIR, starring Dan Dailey; and HAS ANYBODY SEEN MY GAL?, with Rock Hudson. These pictures were filmed in vivid Technicolor, and they were nostalgic diversions about America at the turn of the century. TAKE ME TOWN differs from the previous two, since it does not have an urban setting. It's interesting to see a German-born filmmaker do so well with movies about American life.
TAKE ME TOWN stars Ann Sheridan and Sterling Hayden. There are some lovable kids and an assortment of character actors in supporting roles who are all quite memorable. Sheridan performs a lively musical number in the beginning that is aided considerably by cinematographer Russell Metty's use of Technicolor. In fact the whole picture bursts with energy, even in some of the more pedestrian scenes where not much seems to be occurring.
The storyline works on two levels. First, there's an adult angle with Sheridan as a "naughty" saloon gal. She's running from the law in much the same way Betty Grable was on the lam in THE BEAUTIFUL BLONDE FROM BASHFUL BEND. Only Sheridan's character was in the wrong place at the wrong time when her previous place of employment had been raided. She escapes from a marshal and legs it to a sleepy logging town. When she gets to Timberline she makes friends with the owner of an "opera house" (code for brothel) and gains employment. She does a nightly floor show to warm up the customers. No opera music is ever heard.
While performing "opera," she changes her name to Vermillion O'Toole (so named because of her bright red hair). Despite these seedier elements, the storyline works on a wholesome level, too. A family angle occurs when Vermillion develops a soft spot for the three young sons of a widowed preacher (Hayden).
The boys leave home one day when pa goes off logging. They've heard that a snooty society woman intends to become their new ma, and this simply won't do. So they head into town to find someone more suitable to join the family. You guessed it. They quickly spot Vermillion when they sneak into the "opera house." They try to convince her that she should become their new ma, since she's just so darn pretty and pa would certainly like her!
At first Vermillion is unwilling to leave with the boys, despite bonding instantly with them. But when the marshal (Larry Gates) arrives, hot on her trail, she decides maybe going off to the country and playing mother might not be such a bad alternative. Of course when preacher Will Hall learns there's a strange woman at his house with the boys, he says she will have to leave first thing in the morning. This isn't proper.
In the meantime, Will enjoys her cooking and realizes that his kids have really taken a shine to Vermillion. And the following day, when Vermillion saves the youngest one from being mauled by a bear, Will takes a shine to Vermillion, too. She's obviously not going anywhere. Her days of singing "opera" are over, and she is going to become a proper ma to Corney, Petey and Bucket.
The story will have a happy ending. Vermillion will become domesticated, and at some point, the audience knows she will be cleared of any wrongdoing. But what makes the story work so well is the chemistry Sheridan has with Hayden, and the rapport they develop with the boys. Also, there are a few engaging subplots.
In one situation the marshal undergoes a transformation, deciding that life is not necessarily black and white, and there are gray areas. Plus we have the townsfolk, particularly a ladies aid group led by the snooty society woman, who dial down their prejudices and allow Vermillion a chance to prove herself. She does this during a special outdoor festival, where they stage a show with melodrama and musical interludes, to raise funds for the construction of a new church.
Ann Sheridan seems to excel at playing maternal roles, something she didn't have a chance to do during her years at Warner Brothers. In some ways, this film reminds me of Republic's drama COME NEXT SPRING, where she again played a rural mother who put her kids first.
Sterling Hayden also seems to do well at this material. It's nice to see him in lighter scenes and prove he could ably take on a paternal role. He seems very relaxed and smiles a lot on camera, which goes against the persona he developed for himself in his other films. They all seem to be having a good time making this movie. Perhaps that can be attributed to Sirk's smooth direction and Sirk's ability to put actors at ease and elicit more natural performances.
It should also be pointed out that TAKE ME TO TOWN was the first motion picture Ross Hunter produced on his own. He'd been associate producing, directing dialogue and acting prior to this. It was Ann Sheridan who encouraged him to take on increased responsibility behind the scenes. They'd previously done two other films together. Of course, Sirk and Hunter would go on to make less nostalgic films at Universal. But this was the beginning of something great.
It Happened in Flatbush (1942)
Two teams of nine and four bases in a diamond-shaped design
This is one of those delightful B films with a sports theme that doesn't exactly wow the viewer but certainly entertains. The picture's two stars, Carole Landis and Lloyd Nolan, share an easy rapport and they'd go on to make MANILA CALLING later in the year. The country was already at war, but it was nice to know that a pleasurable American pastime like baseball might still be enjoyed.
Landis plays a society chick, born in Brooklyn, but now living in posh Manhattan, who doesn't like to remember where she's from originally. But when a wealthy auntie (Sara Allgood) dies, Landis and a bunch of other relatives are left with controlling interest in a Brooklyn baseball team (which is not referred to as the Dodgers, but it is implied).
One amusing plot point is that Landis and the other snooty family members have no real understanding of baseball like Allgood did. To them, it's just an asset they'd rather sell to pocket some more cash. Nolan, an ex-player who was recruited to manage the team by Allgood before she passed on, can see that he's got his work cut out for him with this clan.
Nolan's job will not be confined to just getting the team in shape to win the pennant (something the real-life Dodgers did the year before), but in getting Landis to see the value in holding on to the team. During their interactions, they learn more about each other as well as the different parts of society they inhabit. We know Landis will become a real fan of baseball, and that she will end up with Nolan, but half the fun is in seeing them navigate the divide that exists between them during the early portions of the story.
Director Ray McCarey really seems to get a lot of spirited performances from the cast, more than is probably owed such a simple yet modestly budgeted item. The men cast as the ballplayers are not as in shape as we might expect them to be, but it's evident they play the game well.
There are some likable character actors who bolster the scenes...besides Allgood whose role is all too brief at the beginning, we have William Frawley as an old crony of hers plus Mary Gordon as the mother of a rookie player; and Jane Darwell as Nolan's ma. We also have young Scotty Beckett as a wise beyond his years batboy who steals almost every scene in which he appears. Sadly, Beckett would die of a drug overdose in 1968.
This is not the most spectacular baseball flick ever made, but it's fun to watch. Carole Landis seems very relaxed and at ease on screen. She didn't have the most peaceful life, and died in 1948 from a drug overdose. Ray Carey also died in 1948 from a drug overdose. Though unhappy times were ahead for some, IT HAPPENED IN FLATBUSH is a cheerful motion picture in which they all hit a home run.
Just a Gigolo (1931)
Unusual courtship will probably result in unusual marriage
Leading lady Irene Purcell who brought her role from the hit Broadway play to this MGM screen version was signed by the studio based on the strength of her stage performances. She would only make two more pictures at Metro, then freelance briefly at other studios the following year. So, with only a two year tenure in Hollywood resulting in just six motion pictures, she has the leanest of filmographies for a studio star. But she made an indelible mark regardless, before returning to Broadway.
For all intents and purposes this is not a vehicle for newcomer Purcell, though; it's a project for Metro's leading man William Haines, the only member of the cast to have his name above the title in large lettering. Haines' flamboyant personality suits this story of an irresponsible youth with a devil-may-care attitude, shunning convention at every turn. When his uncle (C. Aubrey Smith) decides something must be done about the nephew's reckless behavior, our main plot kicks into gear.
The two men wage a bet that if Haines is not able to prove that the gal (Purcell) Smith has chosen to be Haines' wife isn't immoral like many women seem to be, then Haines will give up his gigolo antics and settle down to marriage. Smith has help from the girl's aunt (Charlotte Granville, recreating her stage role) who would also like to push Haines & Purcell together.
At first, there is a lot of silliness with Haines leading Purcell on, and Purcell rejecting him, which is new territory for Haines with women. Then things turn predictably serious when Haines realizes he's falling in love with Purcell and almost wouldn't mind losing the bet to uncle and ending up married to Purcell after all. But when it seems there will be a happily ever after, Purcell learns the truth about Haines who has been impersonating a dance teacher (code for gigolo) and that he's really a titled British lord.
The last sequence has Purcell deciding to turn the proverbial tables and teach Haines a lesson, by letting him think she's a loose woman, so that his ideal of the perfect woman is shattered. Of course, he finds out it's all just a gag, and she's leading him on as he had led her on earlier. They do finally settle down at the end, but we know theirs won't be a conventional marriage.
While the two stars do not radiate a ton of sexual chemistry, they perform opposite each other with great panache and we root for them as a couple. Helped by pros like Smith and Granville, the whole thing ends up a merry affair, one of the more delightful precode romps that come to mind.
The Damned Don't Cry (1950)
If they don't cry, then what is it they do?
It had been several years since I'd watched this one, which I don't exactly consider noir as much as it's a classic gangster crime drama. Warner Brothers started making these types of stories with great frequency in the early 1930s. By this point, twenty years later, they have crystallized the formula; invested money in better sets and lighting techniques; and rounded up the best director and cast on the studio payroll.
It might be argued that Crawford, at age 45, is a bit too old to play this role...particularly scenes at the beginning when she is a young married woman with a young son. But she's developed such a hardboiled style by this point and knows how to tilt her head at just the precise angles so the tears will cascade down her face the exact moment she is photographed from that side, it's like a masterclass in gritty yet melodramatic acting.
In some scenes, I felt the script was actually too easy for her, so to get enjoyment from it, she vamps it up almost as if she's spoofing rival Bette Davis's performance methods. Indeed, these were probably scripts leftover from when Davis had recently left the studio; so I don't think it's a stretch to say that Crawford is playing Davis playing the character in the script.
One thing that helps the film is having more 'innocent' costars alongside her. Kent Smith is perfect as the naive accountant who falls under her spell and saves her life at the end. David Brian, as a powerful mobster, is almost too altruistic despite the more villainous aspects of his storyline; even when he's "investing" in Crawford as his mistress and using her for his own purposes, there is sincerity on his part. And Steve Cochran as a rival mob boss who romances Crawford in the second half of the picture seems like putty in her hands. She's the real boss of these men.
One irony that doesn't escape me is that in a way the story is about people who leave poverty behind and create new lives for themselves. This involves a fair bit of name changing and impersonation, which is what most of these Hollywood movie stars did in real-life. Joan Crawford as a stage name is as synthetic as they come; she was born Lucille LeSueur (pronounced La Sir). David Brian was really Brian Davis; Steve Cochran's first name was Robert. These personalities on screen were invented from the raw materials of their backgrounds and revised considerably when necessary. If we factor in my theory of Crawford impersonating Davis in her role, then there is an extra layer of postmodernism and pastiche.
The best scene, which puts this film into Crawford's top five for me, is the scene near the end where David Brian's mob character shows up at Crawford's place with Smith and beats her, before Cochran arrives and shoots it out with him. This is where we get Crawford transferring on to the screen what she knows about abuse. It's so precisely choreographed the way she allows herself to be throw into a table, the way she uses her hands and arms to knock over the props on the desk at the right moments.
But at the same time she's taken her mind into the real horror of such moments, where women become punching bags. This is a gutsy performance, that despite all its prefabricated artifice still strikes an honest note.
Tender Comrade (1943)
Feeling the effects of war after losing their loved ones
A lot can be said about the communism screenwriter Dalton Trumbo appears to have 'inserted' into the film. I don't disagree with those who say it is there- in a story where a group of women during wartime share a communal living space. Trumbo took a traditional women's melodrama with a theme about home front efforts, and he used it to talk about fascism in America.
Of course, for most of the audience, such ideas went sailing over their heads. And for some who did have a vague understanding of Trumbo's goals, they probably didn't share Trumbo's sense of urgency. During the postwar era Trumbo and his pals- including the director of this film (Edward Dmytryk)- paid dearly for exploring these issues in TENDER COMRADE.
I've read reviews that zero in on Ginger Rogers' performance as well as the performance of her leading man Robert Ryan. I didn't have a problem with either one of them, though some of their scenes are a bit corny. Ryan even has a line where he refuses to let Rogers know the contents of a love note he wrote to her, since he admits it was sappy.
Contemporary critics commented on the other women Rogers shares a house with in the movie. I'd say Ruth Hussey probably has the best supporting role, playing a lonely wife who tries to justify her unfaithfulness. She gets a few showy scenes, and those moments take the focus away from Rogers.
Also, a very young Kim Hunter does a swell job as a newlywed, especially in scenes near the end when her character's husband returns from combat. I didn't particularly care for Mady Christians' stereotypical German housekeeper. Trumbo should be blamed for making her a cliched foreigner with a thick accent and predictable expressions about her homeland. Most of the housekeeper's dialogue is unintentionally funny. She's best when she's off screen.
There aren't many factory scenes. We get one sequence near the beginning of the film, with Rogers riding a forklift in front of a process shot, acknowledging the other women working with her. Hussey has a brief moment riveting, then we cut to a lunch break where they all decide to pool their money to rent a house together. We're led to believe this is a story about American women who feel the effects of war after their loved ones have been taken away from them.
There are some interesting speeches where they complain about rationing, or about having to do their part while the men are gone fighting. The film launches into very lengthy flashbacks that focus on the romance between Rogers and Ryan. It is almost like Trumbo couldn't figure out whether to set it in the time right before the war or in the present day. I suspect extra flashbacks were added to increase Ryan's screen time, since he was an RKO star in the making, and his character is sent off to war and otherwise never seen again.
Finally, I want to comment on how anti-climactic the ending is. As you can see, even the film's title card indicates the husband has died. During the film, when the editors prepare us for one of the many romantic flashbacks, there are screen dissolves that show the couple walking in some heavenly realm. It is very obvious he will be killed, long before she receives the telegram informing her about his death.
Though I must say the scene where she sets the telegram down and lifts the baby out of the crib and "introduces" him to his father (in a picture frame) is very poignant. After she sets the baby back into the crib, she realizes she will have to keep her chin up and move forward. And I suppose when women saw the film and left the theater, they were trying to keep their chins up, too.
One in a Million (1936)
"You don't know what you're passing up, she's one in a million!"
A show promoter (Adolphe Menjou) is stuck at a Swiss inn with his group of traveling musicians and his sarcastic wife (Arline Judge, who has some great zingers) when he makes a fortuitous discovery. The discovery is the daughter (Sonja Henie) of the innkeeper (Jean Hersholt), who is a natural ice skater- what else- and someone that Menjou realizes could be a star with his guidance.
Of course Menjou sees dollar signs more than he sees a chance of nurturing talent, but he does have the connections to turn Henie into a bonafide professional, which is something she might like. In the meantime, her father's been training her for the Winter Olympics, which in 1936 were held in Germany. Footage from the '36 Winter Olympics is edited in to the movie. Miss Henie had just competed at those games earlier in the year and won her third gold medal for her home country (Norway not Switzerland), before retiring from amateur competition to become a real-life professional skater.
The events of this film in some respects seem to mirror Henie's own life up to this point. For instance, there is considerable dialogue about amateur sports and professional sports. Also, her character performs at Madison Square Garden at the end of the movie, and by the time Henie had signed with 20th Century Fox, she had also developed a deal to play top venues as a touring ice show performer.
Henie would remain under contract at Fox for the next seven years, appearing in ten films for the studio- nine as the star and one in which she just made a cameo appearance. ONE IN A MILLION was her first hit for Fox; a Hollywood star was born. Her leading man Don Ameche would also team up with her for HAPPY LANDING a year later, which became her most financially successful picture. There are plenty of nice moments between Henie and Ameche, who is cast as a smooth talking newspaperman. But the best parts, obviously, are when Henie's on ice.
As for the supporting cast, Menjou and Hersholt deliver excellent performances, though Menjou's style is more comedic and exaggerated. The plot's most dramatic moment is handed over to Hersholt. This occurs later in the story when there is a mix-up, where Henie is believed to have skated professionally for Menjou, before winning an Olympic medal as an amateur. Hersholt takes the medal back to the committee to disqualify her, and he appeals to the Olympic Secretary (Montagu Love) to be compassionate and spare his daughter from any public embarrassment.
Of course, because it's a mix-up, Henie is not in the wrong. She gets to hold on to the gold medal, retire from amateur competition and work as a professional without any scandal. She also gets to have her happily ever after with Ameche.
The most romantic scene with Henie and Ameche takes place inside a German Hofbräuhaus, with Ameche singing to her. In addition to this musical number, there is a number with an ensemble known as Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals; they're certainly energetic and fun to watch even if harmonica music is not your thing. Oh, and the Ritz Brothers, in their second film for 20th Century Fox, pop in and out with their comic shtick. One bit has them doing a horror boys routine.
One final note: Sonja Henie was not married when she made ONE IN A MILLION. Ironically, her first marriage in 1940 would be to future New York Yankees owner Dan Topping, who at this point, in 1937, was married to Henie's costar Arline Judge. Topping had enjoyed the limelight playing on the amateur golf circuit; but I guess he wasn't ambitious enough to forge a side career as an actor in a series of golf musicals!
Titanic (1953)
At 11:40 p.m. on the 14th of April 1912
The stories of the survivors are startling, no other word can describe it. And truthfully, no motion picture is ever going to come close to depicting what they endured during the sinking and what haunted them all the years that followed. Most of their families had been torn apart forever, with fathers and older brothers left on the doomed vessel to face death.
When 20th Century Fox premiered its 'A' budget extravaganza on April 16, 1953 (which nearly coincided with the April 15, 1912 date of the sinking), several survivors attended the event in New York City. Two of them were Leah Aks and her son Frank Phillip Aks, who hung out with Thelma Ritter at the premiere. More than four decades had passed since the tragedy, but you can imagine what seeing the film was like for them.
The film went on to do respectable business at the box office and earned an Oscar for its screenplay. However, contemporary critics complained that the studio didn't stick to the most important facts. As a result, there are some historical inaccuracies, but as a work of fiction inspired by a true event, the feel of the picture probably seems right. There were separate socio-economic classes on board the vessel which was traveling from England during its maiden voyage to America. British families and American families were on board, though not all their issues mirrored the made-up problems of the Sturges clan in the movie.
I've always thought Clifton Webb was miscast in the role as the father, since he's not usually the first person who comes to mind when you think of a man that Barbara Stanwyk, playing the wife, would have married. Yet Webb was Fox's first choice for the role. The teen daughter was played by Audrey Dalton on loan from Paramount, though initial reports said Margaret O'Brien was considered for the role. In the part of the younger brother is child actor Harper Carter. Incidentally, Dalton and Carter are both still living as I write this.
James Cameron's 1997 remake likes to act as if it's not a remake by tacking on drawn-out scenes with Gloria Stuart's centenarian character that bookend the story. Cameron's version was undoubtedly influenced by news about divers finding parts of the wreckage in the mid-1980s. So there was a renewed interest in what had happened to the Titanic.
By the 1980s and 1990s, some of the last remaining survivors began to speak about the experience. Many of those who came forward did so after years of avoiding publicity and after years of dealing privately with what they had lost. The very last survivor, Millvina Dean, died in May 2009 in Britain. She was only two months old when she and her family boarded the ship. Her anecdotes were things her mother had told her. Interestingly, she wasn't informed she had been a Titanic survivor until she was eight years old. That demonstrates how difficult it was for the families to discuss it.
The longest-living survivor who had actual memories of the ship going down was an American woman, Lillian Asplund, who died in 2006. She was five and a half when she took the trip with her relatives.
She shunned interviews and took no money from media outlets that wanted to publish her recollections. One of her memories was how the ship looked when it was sinking, while she and her mother and a young brother were put on a lifeboat. Lillian recalled seeing her father and older brothers on the deck looking down at them one last time before they turned and took off, presumably to find another lifeboat (which sadly, did not exist).
Many bodies of the deceased could not be identified but the body of Lillian's father was identified due to his pocket watch being on the corpse. The watch had frozen and stopped keeping time at 2:19 a.m., one minute before the Titanic was fully submerged in the icy cold waters south of Newfoundland.
Lillian also remembered what is was like being rescued around 4 a.m., when she and her brother were hoisted with their mother from the lifeboat up on to the Carpathia. She mentioned how her clothes had to be removed because they were wet and dirty. But there were no other clothes to change into...these are the kinds of real-life stories that aren't depicted in the movie recreations.
Going back to Millvina Dean for a moment, her family had been leaving England to start a new life in the United States, Kansas to be specific. But they never made it to Kansas. Since her father had died and her mother was now penniless, they took another ship back to England a month later. Whole lives were changed because of an iceberg.
Ride Out for Revenge (1957)
Thought-provoking western
The 1950s were not an easy time for liberal filmmakers, given the red scare and blacklisting that occurred in Hollywood. The conservative establishment wanted to control the amount of power liberals had over film projects. Because leftist ideas could be dangerous to the establishment, and those ideas came from the writers and the actors who spoke their words on screen, writers and actors were the easy targets. Occasionally there would be someone like Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas conservative audiences still liked, despite these actors' politics leaning to the left.
Douglas had formed his own production company, Bryna, in the middle of the decade. Most of the films that Bryna made starred Douglas or pals of his, and they were often released thru United Artists. Typically, they had limited budgets and were workshops for progressive stories that would not be seen on television at this time. Westerns dominated the TV airwaves in the 50s, and a feature film in this genre would have to set itself apart from what could easily be found for free on the small screen. Something like RIDE OUT FOR REVENGE is not standard conservative fare.
Rory Calhoun takes the lead role of a marshal who is stripped of his badge because he's an Indian lover, quite literally. He's fallen for the daughter (Joanne Gilbert) of a murdered chief who refused to obey army orders and take his people from the Dakota territory to Oklahoma where they would basically be prisoners on a government reservation. Calhoun sympathizes with this tribe of Cheyenne natives, and he's not afraid to voice opposition.
Calhoun's outspoken views put him directly at odds with an army captain (Lloyd Bridges) who is as racist and unsympathetic as they come. Bridges is behind Calhoun's public demotion, and he intends to get the tribe moved out of the territory so he and others like him can claim land that is rich in gold. Complicating matters is Gilbert's brother, the new young chief who has taken their father's place- he's played by Vince Edwards who a few years earlier had portrayed HIAWATHA (1952).
There's an interesting subplot involving second-billed Gloria Grahame. She's a widow in town who runs the boardinghouse where Calhoun and his orphaned nephew (Michael Winkelman) live. Grahame lusts after Calhoun and is in a tizzy because he won't dump the native maiden (Gilbert) he loves.
Grahame is not all selfish; she is fond of Calhoun's nephew and considers herself his surrogate mother. The boy is shockingly killed off in the middle of the film during a skirmish that sees Edwards and his fellow tribesmen seek revenge for the death of Edwards' father. This skirmish takes place in town against the whites while young Winkelman is attempting to run away because he's mad that his uncle is siding with the Cheyenne. Yes, there are some heavy themes playing out in the story.
The death of Winkelman's character, an innocent boy, becomes a rallying cry among the locals and the army unit, led by Bridges, to enact a new policy of revenge against the Cheyenne who still are not heading off to the reservation willingly. Because Calhoun's own nephew became a casualty, he is expected to help kill Edwards. But in an emotional scene, he is unable to pull the trigger; and this leads to a knife duel in a nearby river instead.
Ultimately Edwards dies and Calhoun ends up with Gilbert. She is not expected to go off to the reservation as she will become Calhoun's wife. Meanwhile, Grahame seems to have accepted her fate as a lonely widow. She gets off a few good lines telling Bridges that she pretty much considers him scum, which means with all that venom and passion inside her, she'll probably end up marrying him!
The film's last scene is the most thought-provoking part of the whole movie. As they watch her people being displaced, Gilbert asks Calhoun what will happen when the whites face losing their land someday. It seems like a progressive apologetic statement from filmmakers in 1957 who are producing a document that lets minorities of the future know that the white hegemonic power would ultimately be history one day.
Honeymoon in Bali (1939)
Career woman has a decision to make
HONEYMOON IN BALI is a charming romantic comedy from the late 1930s that was produced by Paramount, when the studio was making other delightful farces like EASY LIVING and MIDNIGHT. It has slipped into the public domain, and can sometimes be found online under its reissue title, MY LOVE FOR YOURS. It was one of five films that paired the studio's leading man Fred MacMurray with British actress Madeleine Carroll.
The theme of the film is one which might have resonated with a growing number of women at the time it was made. Miss Carroll plays a single female executive at a big city department store. She begins to ask herself if a husband and a child are necessary for her to be happy. She turns to a window washer (Akim Tamiroff), a gal pal (Helen Broderick) and a fortune teller (Astrid Allywn) for answers. As the cheeky best friend, Helen Broderick has the funniest lines.
The dialogue exposes sexist attitudes, but it seems to reinforce them, too. Allan Jones plays a rival suitor, someone who supports wives that work. But of course, we know Carroll won't pick him. She will pick macho MacMurray who expects his wife to be the stay-at-home type. As a direct contrast to this, there's Osa Massen as a shallow debutante MacMurray knew back in Bali. She's followed him to New York City. But is she serious competition, especially when a child is involved?
Carroll does an excellent job playing an icy businesswoman. She begins to thaw when she meets an orphaned girl named Rosie (Carolyn Lee). There are pleasant diversions along the way- such as a musical scene performed by MacMurray; and an operatic selection by Jones. But the main focus is on the romance developing between the main characters, and how the little girl brings them closer together.
The film's story is bookended by two sequences involving Tamiroff's character, the window washer. You might say he serves as a Greek chorus of sorts. Near the end, Carroll has a heart-to-heart talk with him, and it causes her to make a life-altering decision. She does an honest-to-goodness reappraisal of her situation and realizes she has to go to Bali...for a honeymoon she doesn't want to miss.
I Love Trouble (1948)
Getting in and out of trouble
Franchot Tone's movie career was in decline when he agreed to do this programmer at Columbia. He no longer could rely on scripts based on hit plays as he had done at MGM a decade earlier. He was no longer as youthful as he had been. And he no longer was appearing in films with big budgets and polished production values. Indeed, this noir offering seems like it was made quickly and economically; many scenes feel like they were the first and only take.
But one thing Tone does still have is style, a way to turn a phrase with charm and the requisite sarcasm. Oh, and he has some very beautiful lady costars in this picture. The gals include Janis Carter who a year earlier appeared in FRAMED with Glenn Ford; Janet Blair, who'd played Rosalind Russell's sister in the original version of MY SISTER EILEEN; and Adele Jergens who'd been in DOWN TO EARTH with Rita Hayworth, and oozes plenty of sensuality in a second lead role.
Also playing a second lead role is former Warner Brothers contract player Glenda Farrell. Nobody could crack wise like Farrell, except for maybe Eve Arden. Farrell is brilliant in a thankless role as Tone's ever faithful and totally under appreciated secretary. Sometimes I found myself more focused on her acting than watching Tone and the other players, whenever she was in a scene. She is that good. The whole movie should have been built around her, with Tone supporting her!
The script is by Roy Huggins who also penned the classic noir TOO LATE FOR TEARS. Huggins has a knack for creating tense situations that don't become too overwrought, since he likes to toss in plenty of humorous lines. As a result, we never take the plot too seriously and can just go along with it, even when some of the story details don't make a whole lot of sense.
I did get the feeling that Huggins was inspired by THE BIG SLEEP, since it has that same convoluted feel to it, where the male detective is being lied to and used by two sisters. He must read between the lines and figure out what's really going on. It also reminded me of MURDER MY SWEET, since like Dick Powell's character in that picture, Tone gets knocked out a few times and drugged. The camera work in the scenes where he is drugged is done in almost the same exact disorientating style that we see in MURDER MY SWEET.
Despite that fact that some of what we glimpse on screen is hardly original, it's all presented in a mostly tongue-in-cheek fashion, with plenty of eccentric characters and double crosses to keep us entertained. I guess these kinds of films were popular in the postwar era, because they were about a guy trying to make sense of everything in a world where a lot of things were no longer as cut-and-dried as they had been before the war.
Angels One Five (1952)
Britain under siege
As an American it's interesting to learn more about the crisis Britain was under in mid-1940, a full year and a half before the United States would enter the war and become one of Britain's most important allies. By this point the French had already been under assault by the Nazis, and now the Germans were focusing on the British...with the goal of forcing Britain's surrender.
Another interesting thing I learned reading up on the Battle of Britain, to use the phrase first spoken by Churchill, was that British historians and German historians disagree on the length of this part of the war. British historians consider it that period from the summer into the late fall of 1940, while German historians also factor in the continued blitz that kept Britain under siege into 1941.
In 1952 Templar Productions produced this first-look at the Battle of Britain with a strong cast supported by military advisors who only a decade earlier had served in the war. Contemporary critics seemed to be fairly united in their praise for this production. This would be in stark contrast to the critically panned 1969 production BATTLE OF BRITAIN which featured an even more distinguished cast but a longer running time with repeated aerial footage and dull dramatic scenes.
The title ANGELS ONE FIVE comes from the fact that 'Angels' was a code word for Altitude and 'One Five' meant 15,000 feet. This was one of the radio procedures of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The motion picture's cast is headed by Jack Hawkins portraying the Group Captain of a squadron. Meanwhile, John Gregson plays a replacement pilot whose neck is injured during a freak accident and is assigned a post in the operations room under Hawkins while his neck heals.
Part of the film details the risks involved during a key bombing raid. During the raid, the Luftwaffe attacks England with its twin-engined fighter bombers. There is considerable attention to detail and historical accuracy as these sequences play out on screen.
Eventually Gregson's character has recovered from his injuries to rejoin the other British flyers. But then he is mortally wounded in the air while fighting a German aircraft. Though there is no happily ever after for men like Gregson, their efforts helped keep Britain from surrendering to the Nazis, before the U. S. and other western allies joined the movement towards victory.
Brides Are Like That (1936)
Do you work without living, or do you live without working?
Barry Conners' play ran on Broadway in the mid-1920s and finally transferred to celluloid when Warner Brothers made this charming romcom a decade later. Originally titled 'Applesauce,' it's about a young man (Ross Alexander) who is related to an independent orchard owner (Joseph Cawthorn) but doesn't seem to want to do any work. He is known for his flattery and blarney, which people sarcastically refer to as applesauce.
Alexander's character pours on the charm with women, which goes over well for him. Especially with regards to a young gal (Anita Louise) he loves, who coincidentally is engaged to someone else (Dick Purcell). But Alexander's uncle (Cawthorn) and Louise's put-upon father (Gene Lockhart) take different views and consider him fairly worthless. As a result Louise is pressured to remain engaged to Purcell, even when Purcell becomes too controlling and business-minded about the planned marriage.
This is basically a filmed play that contains some good dialogue and rather thoughtful characterizations, which the competent cast is able to capitalize on with its sharp performances. Only two main sets are used. One is the interior of Lockhart's home where Louise lives before she decides to dump Purcell and impulsively wed Alexander. Another is the apartment where the newlyweds live above a drug store.
After the young couple is wed, the story focuses on whether or not they will be happy. Will Alexander make good and take up a career, or will Louise will have to return home and admit she made a mistake? In contrast to the impulsive qualities of the newlyweds' union, we see Louise's parents struggling to keep their own marriage fresh and spontaneous. The mother is played by Kathleen Lockhart, who in real life was married to Gene Lockhart. BRIDES LIKE THAT was the Lockharts' first Hollywood film together.
One thing I rather enjoyed, besides Ross Alexander's excellent acting, is how the character he plays is not meant to be pitied or frowned upon. Yes, he goes through periods where he's unable to maintain employment; but he has a dream he eventually makes good on; and his character is deeply in love with the woman he married. It's refreshing to see such a flawed man on screen who is not an outright villain; just someone who needs a bit more time to hit his stride. It's easy to root for the twosome as they get started.
It's also nice to glimpse what a real marriage looks like on screen, in the form of the Lockharts' sparring and loving reconciliations. One thing the casual viewer will learn is that in a good marriage, the wife remains the apple of her husband's eye. That's no lie; I mean, that's no applesauce.
The Last of the Fast Guns (1958)
"A saddle tramp doesn't have much call to be a gentleman."
There's something I've always liked about westerns from this period that star Jock Mahoney. He began as a Hollywood stuntman, and his athleticism and natural acting style make him ideal for this genre. When his character is meant to ride into a scene fast and jump off, as happens in this picture, there is no double.
Mahoney does most of his own stunt work; there are never quick cutaways by the editors to go to the double and then back to him in close-up. As a result, there is greater fluidity with the camera when he is on the scene, which increases the realism.
I also think Mahoney, while not exuding tremendous sex appeal, still manages to have respectable chemistry with his leading ladies. In this film the leading lady is Argentinian born actress Linda Cristal who would make her mark later in a popular TV western series called High Chaparral. She was under contract at Universal and would soon earn her first Golden Globe for a comedy supporting Tony Curtis.
Here Cristal is cast as the part Mexican daughter of an expatriate American (Lorne Greene) who has settled on a ranch south of the border. Greene is right at home and seems to be practicing for his long-running role as Ben Cartwright on Bonanza. At first Greene's character seems suspicious, because everyone in the story is meant to come across with ulterior motives...at least, until we get to know them.
Mahoney has been hired by a rich eastern man (Carl Benton Reid) to travel to Mexico and find out if the man's brother is still alive. The last two gunfighters Reid hired to do the job ended up killed. Mahoney accepts the assignment, since he will earn a substantial fee which he'll need to settle down. After arriving in Mexico, Mahoney meets some famous ex-gunman who have "retired" down here. But they claim to know nothing about the person Mahoney is seeking.
In the next part, when Mahoney meets Greene and Greene's top foreman (Gilbert Roland), he wonders if Greene has had a role in the brother's disappearance. Greene does know where the mystery man is hiding, but Greene turns out to be a good guy. The person that Mahoney should be on guard about is Roland, who has his own double cross in mind.
One thing I love about this film, aside from it being filmed mostly on location in Mexico in Eastman color, is the way the story is structured. The first half has Mahoney on a mission but also sort of nomadic, figuring out what the next part of his life will be after he completes his mission. Related to this is a mystery, since he does not know where the missing man is actually hiding.
In a good twist, it turns out the man is hiding in plain sight, as a beloved priest of the people.. The priest, who is called Padre, is played by character actor Eduard Franz. Franz was a Universal contractee. Just a year earlier he played a disturbed old man who stalked the child of clergyman George Nader in MAN AFRAID (1957). This time he's on the right side of the law and the right side of God.
Before we find out that Franz is the man that Mahoney is looking for in Mexico, there are some good bonding scenes between Mahoney and Roland. This makes it rather unfortunate when halfway through the picture, Roland turns out to be a villain who intends to kill the priest to collect a different bounty that will be paid by a man in San Antonio who wants the padre dead.
We know that in order for Mahoney to save Franz, he is going to have to kill Roland. This eventually leads to a climactic shooting with Roland falling to his death off the side of a steep cliff. After the death of Roland's character, Mahoney then has to decide if he will take the priest away from the peasants who need him, to return him to his brother in the U. S. Ultimately, he decides against it.
In the end, Mahoney sacrifices the hefty reward he'd have received for his work, which he planned to use to buy a ranch of his own in Oregon. But now he will just remain in Mexico, commit to a future with Cristal, and will probably end up running Greene's ranch. So, it's not like this adventure has all been for nothing.
Lifeboat (1944)
Unlimited danger in a limited setting
Though critically lauded now, this film did not do so well upon its original release. Executives at 20th Century Fox lost faith in the production and gave the picture a limited release. The top star, Tallulah Bankhead, usually did better on Broadway; in Hollywood, her work tended to be a mixed bag. It had been over eleven years since she made the precode FAITHLESS at MGM. If she was going to resurrect her screen career, she needed a big hit. But LIFEBOAT would not be it.
A year later Fox put her in a romantic comedy called A ROYAL SCANDAL which was directed by Otto Preminger and Ernst Lubitch. It, too, did not do so well at the box office. So Bankhead's attempts at a motion picture comeback in the mid-1940s were stymied. If LIFEBOAT had been a hit, things may have turned out differently for her. At least she could say she worked with Alfred Hitchcock and alongside an interesting array of costars in the supporting roles.
I'm a fan of John Hodiak, and I do think he has the right masculine quality for the leading man role. But I don't think he meshes properly with Bankhead. Let's face it, Bankhead is so narcissistic in her performance that all she needs is herself and a mirror, not a man. I would much rather have had Hodiak paired with someone like Katharine Hepburn in this story.
Then perhaps we would have had the requisite classy female and the subsequent culture clash between her and a he-man; but Hepburn would have brought more humanity to it than Bankhead does.
The film ran into trouble with critics who derided the story for having a sympathetic German military character in it, played by Walter Slezak. Of course, Slezak does a brilliant job depicting the vulnerability and the absolute ruthlessness of a man who is above all else still a Nazi. But the critics thought all the characters on the lifeboat should have been suspicious of him right away, that they should have all been united in their opposition of him.
Hitchcock does seem to want to humanize Slezak's character and add some sympathetic touches. This dramatic choice in 1944 at the height of a world war against Hitler, is certainly odd to say the least. It's not surprising that critics and the public turned against the film. It didn't stand a chance.
In a way the drama that unfolds is predictable. Only the least important characters will die. And it has to tick all the right demographic boxes in terms of presenting a group of people that are socially correct, having survived the sinking of a passenger ship and a German boat. So besides the token Nazi (Slezak), we have an early feminist (Bankhead) as well as: a hunky hero (Hodiak); a rich man (Henry Hull); a despondent mother (Heather Angel); an African American (Canada Lee); and a crippled man (William Bendix); plus a strange romantic subplot with a somewhat unattractive couple (Hume Cronyn & Mary Anderson).
If this story had been made now for the first time as a film, there would undoubtedly have to be an LGBTQ individual on the lifeboat, an Asian person; and an African American female to pair off with the African American man. There would probably also be a teen character, to appeal to the youth segment of the movie audience. Maybe even a kid and a dog if Disney were co-financing the project.
About fifteen years ago I screened LIFEBOAT along with a five or six other classics from the 1940s as part of a public library summer movie series. I don't think the group was as enthralled with it as they were the week we watched THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, but I think they still found it engrossing. There was that Gilligan's Island aspect of the story they could all tap into...a melodrama about people from different walks of life stranded at sea, needing to work together to survive, etc.
The Inside Story (1948)
The value of a dollar
This classic film from the postwar period may be a bit hard to understand in the modern sense. The basic concept, about how money circulates through a small community, is easy enough to comprehend. But the commentary that people should be encouraged to take hoarded money out of bank vaults and spend it to help the economy, as relates to the Great Depression, would probably be lost on some of today's viewers.
The story begins in 1948 with Charles Winninger's character going into a bank vault to store some government bonds. He tells another person in the vault that he invests in the government instead of letting his money sit in a metal box out of circulation. It's a bit preachy to be sure, but people watching the film at the time of its release would have remembered very well when there were fears about spending money and the need to keep valuables locked up during an uncertain economic time.
One thing that struck me was how when the story flashes back to 1933, there is mention of a new president. And that FDR would have remained in office until the war ended. So that's a long period for the U. S. to have been under one administration. But despite the passing of the years, attitudes about wealth and saving up for an emergency wouldn't have changed much.
To illustrate the writers' points, there is a young couple back in 1933, played by Marsha Hunt and William Lundigan who are struggling financially. Lundigan is a painter who owes about a thousand dollars to Hunt's father (Gene Lockhart) who owns the local inn. Lockhart is not impressed with Lundigan's apparent inability to earn a decent living. He would like Hunt to throw the guy out. Of course, she's deeply in love with Lundigan and her father's opposition to her romantic choice is not easy for her deal with...besides, she believes Lundigan will eventually make good as an artist and just needs time.
Meanwhile, there is another guest at the inn who asks Lockhart's clerk (Winninger) to put a thousand dollars into the safe. Later Lockhart finds the money in the safe, and he mistakenly thinks it was put there by Lundigan to square his debts. After Lockhart erroneously claims the cash, he pays off his debts...chiefly to a store owner (Will Wright). The store owner uses it to pay what he owes to his landlady (Florence Bates).
She in turn gives the money to an attorney (Robert Shayne) to cover the cost of legal fees. The lawyer's wife (Gail Patrick, in her last film) then takes the money to pay Lundigan for a portrait she's having done for her husband. Amusingly, the money does end up going to Lundigan, who would then have given it to Winninger to give to Lockhart...thus causing the whole cycle to begin again.
I wouldn't say the plot is entirely clever, but it's a good way to show how the members of one community are all connected to each other, personally and financially. Into the mix we have a subplot involving two visiting crooks (Roscoe Karns & Allen Jenkins) who are struggling to go straight and tempted to steal the dough.
In some ways this felt like a radio play that was developed into a feature length movie, with the required padding to run nearly an hour and a half. Some of the performers are better at this kind of material than others. But all in all, it's a harmless way to spend 87 minutes and the monetary history lesson may help the viewer reflect on what's important in life.
The Power and the Prize (1956)
Corporate melodrama about a society of power
"I am a creature of power. I pursue it totally, and I obey it totally. You pursue it partially, and so you fail." Says Burl Ives' corporate titan to his underling Robert Taylor, whom he's been grooming for the top spot upon his retirement...but now, he is going to demand a resignation, since he feels Taylor has besmirched the name of Amalgamated World Metals. The film is full of standoffs and surprising reversals not too different from MGM's previous corporate melodrama EXECUTIVE SUITE.
The film moves slowly, methodically, towards an inevitable showdown between Ives and Taylor. We find out in the beginning that Ives has long taken pride in nurturing Taylor along in business, but when he sends Taylor to London to finalize a deal with another metals company owned by Cedric Hardwicke, he is disappointed that Taylor is not as ruthless as he expects him to be. In fact, Taylor softens considerably when he's in London, falling in love with a European refugee (Swiss actress Elisabeth Mueller making her Hollywood debut).
Not only is Ives irate about the bungled merger, he's also upset that Taylor won't be able to marry another woman whom Ives handpicked for him. Yes, Ives' character has a god complex in the worst way. Any other method actor would have had trouble reigning in the scenery chewing, but Ives to his credit, manages to be both larger than life and adversarial, as well as subdued when necessary.
Helping to balance out the scenes between Taylor & Ives are several notable supporting players. We have Hardwicke, of course, who provides some integrity in the negotiations...as well as some key domestic moments with Mary Astor as Ives' wife. Also, Charles Coburn is on hand as a board member with sway. We're never told much about the background of Coburn's character, how he made his money, what his exact connection is with Ives. But he is an important presence. He spends much of the film looking on, until he must take decisive action for the good of the company.
The film's director, Henry Koster, does a good job eliciting strong performances from the entire cast, including Taylor who is better than usual. In some ways, the cast has its work cut out for itself, since the studio decided to photograph this one in CinemaScope, which means there is a lack of intimacy, as the emphasis is on spatial compositions stretched across a wide screen. There is a lack of much-needed close-ups which would have made the story resonate more, especially the scenes where Taylor and Muller first meet and fall in love.
Interestingly, there is plenty of political discussion woven into the story. Mainly because Mueller's character is a foreigner during the cold war, and in xenophobic U. S. A., she is automatically suspected of being a communist.
Taylor is afraid to have Mueller investigated, so that task falls to Coburn. But Taylor must be willing to confront the truth, whatever it may be, if he is to hold on to any power of his own. Of course, we know Mueller is innocent, and her reputation is being trashed by Taylor's business enemies. A good deal of the plot has been set up to lead us into a boardroom meeting where Taylor will ultimately triumph in matters of industry and in matters of the heart.
Second Chance (1953)
Noir thrill drama
After a decade on the studio payroll, this was Robert Mitchum's last completed film at RKO. During the previous ten years he had gone from relative unknown to major stardom; he would continue to make films and appear on television into the 1990s so this was far from the end of the line for him. Leading lady Linda Darnell, however, saw her motion picture career go into decline after recently leaving home studio 20th Century Fox.
Mogul Howard Hughes was fond of Darnell and he helped keep her employed in 'A' pictures while he was in charge of RKO. But while she is a decent enough performer, the material in SECOND CHANCE is hardly challenging for her. Truth be told, this is the type of part that would have suited Jane Russell better. Since Russell already had been in two noir hits with Mitchum at RKO, neither one in color or made in 3-D like this production, one wonders why they weren't teamed up again.
In addition to the advances in technology and a script that combines elements of crime drama and Hitchcockian suspense, the film benefits from some very nice on location filming in Mexico. As a result, we get some authentic exteriors that are not projected on a rear screen inside a Hollywood studio; as well as convincing locals in the background for the shots that are done on the streets.
Interestingly, Darnell was fluent in Spanish. Yet, they have her playing a woman on the run in this foreign locale who only knows English (another clue this script was not really intended for her). It's a bit silly when Mitchum's character brags that he knows how to count to ten in Español, to impress her. I am sure Darnell probably rolled her eyes when she read that dialogue in the script.
The plot's fairly basic. Mitchum is playing a pug who is on a bit of a sabbatical in Mexico, though he can still be induced to go a round or two with a Mexican fighter. Meanwhile, Darnell is the ex-girlfriend of an unseen mob boss who's on trial in the United States. She's hiding out here in San Cristobal, afraid that if she returns to testify there will be retribution against her.
Despite these circumstances Mitchum and Darnell meet then enjoy romance amid the beautiful surroundings. Complicating matters is the presence of one of the mobster's main hitmen (Jack Palance). He's decided to take a Mexican vacation, so that he can catch up with Darnell and whisk her off somewhere more private.
Some of Palance's actions are a bit repetitive. He spends countless scenes stalking Darnell. Then when he manages to corner her, he exhibits considerable menace...before she breaks free, and it starts up all over again. Of course, as a method actor, Palance makes the most of these moments.
Palance's character doesn't count on opposition from a fighter (Mitchum); and things become rather tense between them. Publicity notes tell us that both of these men, Mitchum and Palance, had boxed professionally in their early days; and the two got a bit carried away with their punching scenes. Also, while on location in Mexico, Mitchum supposedly decked a tourist who got in his face; while Palance engaged in a brawl inside a nightclub where gunfire broke out. They were real tough guys!
The last ten to fifteen minutes of the story comprise the most suspenseful portion of the movie. This is when Mitchum, Darnell & Palance plus a group of well-defined supporting characters find themselves dangling between two peaks. A funicular they are taking from a summit point back to San Cristobal has malfunctioned and is now stuck midway down the side of the mountain. One of the cables has snapped. And an engineer has died. Mitchum lowers himself down with a rope to get help. The stunt work is truly phenomenal. If you have acrophobia, you may occasionally look away from the screen or else do plenty of nail biting.
Family: We Love You, Miss Jessup (1977)
Miss Jessup
A year earlier, Family's producers and writers had done a story called 'Rites of Friendship' about a young man's sexual orientation. This is what you might call the lesbian version of the same story. Again, it involves an outside guest character known by the Lawrence family. But instead of the drama being connected to Willie (Gary Frank), this time the drama is connected to Buddy (Kristy McNichol). For it is Buddy's favorite teacher (played with considerable grace by Blair Brown) who is lesbian, whose secret comes out in the community.
Another guest character, a snooty woman named Mrs. Palmer (Joyce Van Patten), heads up a school committee that Kate (Sada Thompson) and Doug (James Broderick) sit in on. Mrs. Palmer has found out about Miss Jessup's sexual orientation, and she's determined to get the woman fired. It's bad enough that Miss Jessup is teaching a Carson McCullers novel in the school's literature class (gasp!) but she left her previous job at a young woman's college, due to some scandal. Of course, Mrs. Palmer's been burning up the phone wires to convince others they need to circulate a petition and force this perverted instructor out.
Some of the dialogue in the school committee meeting is a tad over the top, but I did like the way Kate and Doug are presented as more liberal minded, willing to hear Miss Jessup's side before rushing to judge and condemn her. The bigotry and homophobia espoused by Mrs. Palmer and her cronies is far from subtle, and of course, she's intended to be the real villain of the piece, not Miss Jessup.
Related to all this is Buddy's difficulty handling the situation. She doesn't seem to have a problem with Miss Jessup's orientation per se, but she is troubled by the other girls (a young Helen Hunt among them) needling her about liking Miss Jessup so much. There is an outdoor school scene where the other girls taunt Buddy that she may be a lesbian herself. Of course, these scenes are ironic since Kristy McNichol would come out as lesbian a few decades later. But in this storyline, we are told that Buddy is heterosexual and likes boys. However, she also has a platonic crush on Miss Jessup and enjoys reading now, because Miss Jessup is a great lit teacher.
My review would not be complete without mention of the dinner scene at the Lawrence home in the second half of the episode. Miss Jessup has been invited over for a meal, but Buddy feigns being sick, since she is now uncomfortable associating with Miss Jessup. At the dinner table, Kate and Doug hear Miss Jessup's side and learn about the scandal that caused her to leave her previous teaching position. They have compassion for her, especially Kate, who had until this point been on the fence about the whole thing.
After the meal finishes, Miss Jessup is allowed to go upstairs to talk with Buddy. I found this scene to be very unrealistic. First, even a liberal minded couple like the Lawrences would probably think that it could be inappropriate having Miss Jessup go up to Buddy's bedroom alone (where Miss Jessup attempts to touch Buddy's shoulder). Wouldn't responsible parents, not worrying about Miss Jessup but still worrying about Buddy's frame of mind, choose to have their daughter come down to the living room for this heart-to-heart, instead of sending Miss Jessup up to an impressionable young girl's bedroom? It just felt like an odd choice by the writer.
One thing that did ring true to me was the unsung work of hardworking teachers. Sexual orientation issues aside, the Miss Jessup character is a good instructor, and the community is lucky to have her employed at their school. Incidentally, Kristy McNichol would later work as an acting teacher. So in a way, it feels like her teenaged self is preparing for her later role in life as an open lesbian educator.
Hellfire (1949)
Followed by BRIMSTONE (1949)
In the spring of 1949 the folks at Republic Pictures released this exquisitely photographed western in its Trucolor process. A few months later they would release a follow-up western called BRIMSTONE, which was also made in Trucolor and included some of the same cast members (Jim Davis & Forrest Tucker in key support roles, and Jody Gilbert in a minor role). Different directors were utilized but the results in these productions are strikingly similar.
In both pictures we have characters on the wrong side of the law with the possibility they may be redeemed and things turn out all right in the end. Of course, in BRIMSTONE Walter Brennan plays a corrupt patriarch who gets a little too much pleasure rustling other people's cattle and leading his boys down a dark path, but one son is interested in reforming himself. That redemption theme is also present in HELLFIRE.
This time we have Bill Elliott playing a professional gambler traveling the west. He has participated in too many crooked card games and someone comes gunning for him. A preacher ends up taking the bullet meant for Elliott. Realizing he's lucky to be alive and the irony of the situation not lost on him, he decides to change his life. He's promised the late clergyman he will fulfill a mission of building a church. He then takes up the dead man's Bible and becomes a preacher himself. It's a bit contrived I suppose, but not really. People do experience life-changing moments.
At the same time there is a female outlaw (Marie Windsor) who is on her own course of self-destruction. That is, until she meets up with Elliott and is now challenged to change herself. Yes, the plot gets a tad heavy handed in this regard, and pun intended, may be perceived as being somewhat preachy. But I don't think the main goal of the film is to convert moviegoers to Christianity, as much as it is probably to reinforce the Christian beliefs of the rural audiences who usually went to see Republic's films.
Actress Catherine McLeod who was under contract at Republic in the late 1940s and early 1950s talked very positively about her experiences at the studio. She had previously been employed at MGM, but wasn't getting anywhere because she couldn't compete with the Judy Garlands, June Allysons and Lana Turners over there. She said Republic liked to give disciplined performers who were not a household name a chance to prove themselves, occasionally in lead roles. I am sure Marie Windsor would agree with this.
Windsor specialized in portraying shady femmes in westerns and noir. During her screen career, she was not associated with one particular studio. In between studio assignments she often took parts in low-budget productions. At Republic, she had the chance to appear in several 'A' budget films; HELLFIRE was one. She would also have key second leads at the studio in other genres, such as the popular crime flick HELL'S HALF ACRE (1954).
But I think Windsor was always served better in western fare, since she could successfully offset the hardened character aspects of frontier life with her delicate physical features. When she ends up in Elliott's arms after a fatal shoot-out, she is still quite lovely, despite the terrible things her character is alleged to have done.
Family: Rites of Friendship (1976)
Zeke
First, I'm surprised there haven't been reviews already written and posted for this groundbreaking episode. The premise gives us a frank depiction of one young man's struggle concerning his sexual orientation. There are occasional leaps in logic in the storyline, but most of that is forgivable.
One thing that did seem illogical was when Zeke Remsen (Brian Byers) a friend of Willie (Gary Frank) said he had come back from school to talk to him. Yet it takes Willie and Buddy (Kristy McNichol) finding him inside a taco joint to make that reconnection. Why hadn't Zeke already dropped by the family home? Or at least called and left a message he was back in town?
Another sticking point for me, and this is also a tiny quibble, is how Zeke could have gained access to a bar when we are told later in the episode that the court is treating him as a legal minor. So did he have a fake ID? Then there is the fact that his physically striking a cop is glossed over, and the judge showed compassion and dismissed the charges (all off-screen). I don't think the court system works that way, now or then, where charges for assault would just be dropped because the defendant was struggling with his sexuality.
Yes, the writers (two female writers) were trying to make the audience root for the kid, and I don't begrudge them that. But a bit of realism and less glossing over of the crime would have gone a long way. On to what I did like, what I did think was successful in this episode...
The show seems to be at its best when it is about core relationships. This episode provides plenty of that. The subplot focuses on Buddy's attempts to learn how to dance, and her need to bond with older sister Nancy (Meredith Baxter Birney). I thought those scenes were well written and sincerely played. There is also some good bonding between Buddy and Zeke, when he helps teach her some moves since Nancy is busy; though, Buddy has a small part in the main plot involving Zeke's orientation and arrest.
The writers make a point of focusing on the long-time friendship between Willie and Zeke, hence the title. And we see reflected through both of them their individual core relationships with the parents (Sada Thompson and James Broderick). Not only does Doug Lawrence (Broderick) help provide legal representation for Zeke, he also tells Zeke outside court that he considers him another son. Earlier in the episode, Kate Lawrence (Thompson) makes a point of not exactly consoling Zeke but offering strong emotional support the way his own mother might have done.
One thing that slightly amused me was dialogue about The Book (not the Bible, but another Book) that says it's normal for young teens to have same sex attractions. The scene referencing this featured a heart-to-heart between Doug and Willie in Willie's bedroom, with Doug even admitting there was a male person in his youth he had a crush on. This seemed to be written and performed in earnest. But I think it sort of ran the risk of implying that same sexuality was a phase that teens may experience briefly then grow out of...which wasn't really the case for Zeke or viewers watching the episode back in late 1976. And probably for some viewers watching it today, all these years later.