FLYING FORTRESS (1942)

Weak propaganda film with a cliched storyline: rich playboy wrecks people's lives but redeems himself by becoming a war hero. Like other films of its era which were shot before the U.S. officially entered the war, the hero has to get into the fighting through a back door, in this case, via the Royal Canadian Air Force. The playboy, Richard Greene, is an plane enthusiast, and the film begins with a drunken Greene, flying a small plane with his hired pilot in the back seat, causing an accident which kills a passenger. The pilot, who has the clever nickname "Sky" (Donald Stewart), is legally considered at fault since the flight was his responsibility, and he loses his license. His reporter sister, Carla Lehmann, decides to get the goods on Greene and begins dating him under false pretenses, then actually falls in love with him, but is rejected when Greene learns her real identity. Next, in a rather unmotivated move, Greene joins up to ferry American B-17's (the Fortresses of the title) over to England for the war effort. Stewart happens to be his boss and when they wind up overseas, who should they run into but Lehmann, who is still in love with Greene. After experiencing an air raid and feeling helpless, the two men join the RCAF and the film climaxes with a bombing raid over Berlin in which Greene rather improbably saves the day by climbing out on the wing of the plane to extinguish a fire.

Actually, the film had potential, but editing has made hash out of the plotline and characters; Halliwell lists the film with a running time of 108 minutes in Great Britain, but here it was trimmed to 68 (to serve as a second feature, no doubt) so important plot details and character motivations have vanished. Greene, most famous as the TV Robin Hood of the late 50's, is handsome and does the B-movie hero thing fairly well; the other supporting players are just adequate, including Betty Stockfeld as a titled "Lady" slumming amongst the hoi polloi to do her thing for the war and providing some romance for sidekick Stewart. Basil Radford, a delightful supporting actor in films like THE LADY VANISHES and NIGHT TRAIN TO MUNICH, has little to do in a small role but still manages to outshine everyone else. The flag-waving finale, with the words of Churchill intoned over newsreel footage, ignores the outcomes of the characters. There is some impressive footage of bombing raids, but it's mixed with some truly wretched special effects. The British cut of this film might be worth seeing, but the current print is of interest only for die-hard buffs of the era. [TCM]

KEPT HUSBANDS (1931)

A fairly average pre-Code romantic drama; the main reason for watching this is Joel McCrea, the primary "kept husband" of the title. He's a working class guy and former college football star currently in the employ of steel magnate Robert McQuade. When McCrea heroically saves some fellow workers from a potentially fatal accident, the boss asks him to dinner where he attracts the attention of McQuade's daughter, Dorothy Mackaill, who bets her father that she can rope him into marriage in four weeks, and she does, though she takes the unorthdox step (for the era) of proposing to him. He then becomes a "kept" husband, as Mackaill intends to have them essentially live comfortably off of her family. She keeps him in Europe on their honeymoon for weeks, with a promise from her father that he will give McCrea a raise and also give her a secret allowance that will let her live in the manner to which she has become accustomed. McCrea becomes a vice-president with essentially no duties, leaving him free to learn how play bridge during his office hours (in a funny scene with his equally bored secretary). Soon, however, McCrea gets a chance to work on a real project and he goes at it gung-ho, much to the irritation of his wife who is tempted to stray into an affair with a dissipated pal. McCrea decides to leave her, and to resign as "kept vice-president," but McCrea's mom (Mary Carr), a salt-of-the-earth type, advises him that all husbands are kept one way or another, whether by money or love; she pushes him to try again and the two finally reconcile, this time with McCrea re-proposing to her, getting to set things right symbolically by the rigid gender codes of the time. The incredibly young and comely McCrea seems completely natural, but next to him Mackaill is too mannered and brittle; she might have come off as an early feminist, but instead she's just a spoiled "rich bitch" whom we know will be "humanized" in the end, and our sympathies go to McCrea, no matter how we feel about the gender issues under consideration. Ned Sparks lends some nice comic relief as a former work buddy of McCrea's who lives in Carr's house, although here a little of him goes a long way. Freeman Wood has a very small role as a passive kept husband who is presented a couple of times in the background as a warning of what McCrea might heading for. McCrea fans will love this one, but others can take a pass. [TCM]

GUADALCANAL DIARY (1943)

One of the best of the early WWII films, perhaps partly because it's centered on an actual event, the first major ground offensive by American troops. The film is based on a book by a journalist who was with the first group of Marines who invaded Guadalcanal, a small island in the Solomon Island chain, and though I haven't read the book, the film does stay true to the journalistic form, with voice-over narration and an episodic nature. We begin observing the group of new troops on a ship somewhere in the South Pacific, waiting for action. It became a cliche for movie troops to be a varied bunch of stereotypes, and this is most likely one of the movies responsible for the development of that cliche, but the types are worn lightly and rarely feel overdone (despite the fact that the very first line of dialogue involves a Jewish man singing "Rock of Ages" at a Sunday morning service). Ostensibly, the main character of the film is the stolid Irish chaplain (Preston Foster), but William Bendix, as the pug from Brooklyn (nicknamed "Brooklyn"), gets the most screen time. Others we get to know include the relatively seasoned sergeant Lloyd Nolan, intellectual Richard Conte, Latino Anthony Quinn, and baby-faced teenager Richard Jaeckel--the narrating reporter (Reed Hadley) is only seen occasionally. The opening 20 minutes sets up a nice, casual intimacy among the men, who don't mind napping on each other's shoulders or jitterbugging with each other. Their landing on the island, which has a Japanese-built airstrip that the Americans would dearly love to occupy, is easy as there is virtually no resistance, but when a large group of men attempt to invade a beach at the mouth of the Matanikau River, they are slaughtered with only one soldier, Quinn, able to swim back to safety. He can only watch as the Japanese soldiers brutally bayonet the American corpses littering the beach. Jaeckel, despite being warned, tries to steal a sword from a dead Japanese only to wind up getting wounded by a nearby sniper; the payoff occurs later when the lad uses a similar trick on the enemy. The battle scenes are well done, though not nearly as graphic as they would be in later movies, and in general, the conditions have clearly been sanitized for the homefront viewers; for example, there is very little hint of the malaria that ravaged the men in real life. Still, we do get a strong sense of how the men change over the course of their ordeal, especially at the end when the weary Marines greet their Army replacements. Crusty old Lionel Stander, who I think was a crusty old man even in his youth, has a small role. Not the most realistic war picture, but definitely recommended. [DVD]

THE CONSPIRATORS (1944)

A CASABLANCA knockoff that's not bad, but would be a whole lot better if it wasn't always reminding us that it supposed to be a CASABLANCA knockoff. Paul Henreid is a Dutch resistance fighter known as the Flying Dutchman on his way out of Europe to England, spending an enforced 2-day layover in neutral Lisbon (not nearly as exotic as Vichy Casablanca) where he is supposed to meet up with a local underground figure. Hedy Lamarr, also in the resistance, witnesses a man she has just passed information to get shot in an alleyway, so she ducks into the Cafe Imperoli (way fancier and not nearly as fun as Rick's) and runs into Henreid. After this, the events happen fast and furiously, with lots of sound and fury but not signifying much. Sydney Greenstreet, the head of the local underground group, suspects that one of his associates is a double agent. Is it Peter Lorre, the only one with more than a couple lines of dialogue? And what's going on with Lamarr's "secret" husband (Victor Francen), a German diplomat?; he may be a Nazi but he also managed to get Lamarr out of Dachau and might be a closet member of the Resistance. Some elements that seem designed to conjure up CASABLANCA include a deadly dust-up in the streets over identity papers, a song sung in a club that affects the listeners (not patriotically but sentimentally), and a roulette game called in French. The pace of the movie never flags, but the lack of chemistry and relative listlessness of the leading duo, particularly when compared to Bogart and Bergman, cause much of the film to feel flat. The finale at a seaside casino is filled with action but is awfully convoluted. Most of the pleasures here are in the noir-inflected cinematography and the supporting players. Greenstreet effortlessly steals every scene he's in, and it's nice to see him as a good guy; Francen does a fine job keeping us in the dark about his ultimate sympathies, and Joseph Calleia does an OK turn as a Claude Rains-ish cop. Steven Geray and Kurt Katch, as the other underground members, don't have many lines, but add atmosphere as they skulk in the shadows. Supposedly Marcel Dalio, the croupier from CASABLANCA, is also the croupier here, but I didn't notice him. [TCM]

TOO MANY GIRLS (1940)

A glossy college musical from RKO which, while not up to the standards of the studio's Astaire/Rogers films, and definitely no GOOD NEWS, is still watchable and fun. The movie never quite lives up to its opening minutes, a clever pre-credit shot of a bunch of football players singing a song about hating the spring because they're "Heroes in the Fall." The story proper begins at a little country inn called the Hunted Stag (there's a nice gag about a visitor looking for the Stunted Hag) where a bunch of Princeton football players working part-time during the off-season are recruited by a rich businessman as guardians for his wild daughter (Lucille Ball) who is going to Pottawattamie College in New Mexico. They enroll as students and are supposed to surreptitiously keep an eye on her so she doesn't misbehave (though even by 40's standards, she's hardly a loose cannon, joining up with a sorority whose members wear caps identifying them as girls who don't kiss boys). The father makes the football players sign an "Anti-Romantic Clause" but of course, the rest of the thin plot is all about romantic complications (and football games). Richard Carlson is quite charismatic as the boy who falls for Ball; Desi Arnaz pairs up with Ann Miller (playing a Latina) and they do some nice dancing; Eddie Bracken moons over Francis Langford. Tall vaudeville dancer Hal LeRoy is the fourth player and gets to do a nice tap number. The cast also includes Douglas Walton as an older Noel Coward-type writer who has a rather improbable flirtation with Ball, and Grady Sutton and Van Johnson (in his film debut) have small roles. The most memorable song from the Rodgers and Hart score is "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," sung first by Ball (dubbed by someone else) and Carlson, and later in a burlesque fashion by Bracken to Arnaz. The plot and setting are reminiscent of the Gershwin musical GIRL CRAZY, a play from the 20's which was made into a movie in the 30's with Wheeler and Woolsey and in the 40's with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland; the music here can't hope to match that of the other show, but this is overall more fun. [TCM]

ARMY SURGEON (1942)

It is difficult to find anything in the usual reference sources (Halliwell, Maltin, etc.) about this B-grade propaganda movie, and the cable on-screen guide only gave it one star, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that it's as good as, and maybe a little bit better than, the average wartime programmer. Filmed during the first half of 1942, the film begins (in a pre-credit sequence, quite rare in movies back then) with references to our then-current involvement in WWII, and sets itself up as an explicit lesson in the importance of military medical units, but the bulk of the story takes place during WWI. Jane Wyatt is a doctor who has "reduced" herself to the status of nurse in order to serve near the front lines with the military in 1917. She works for brain doc James Ellison and proves that she is made of strong stuff during some marathon surgery. Ellison wants to move his base of operations to the front lines but can't convince the brass to let him go until Wyatt makes the case, behind his back, to their commanding officer. Things get tough for the unit, and even tougher for Ellison who, as he begins to develop feelings for Wyatt, has to deal with an old flame of hers, pilot Kent Taylor, who shows up and tries to rekindle the spark. To add insult to injury, Ellison discovers that Wyatt was responsible for their move to the front and his male pride is hurt. Eventually, during a heavy bombardment by the Germans, the three of them are trapped along with several severely wounded soldiers when the hillside they are dug into collapses and traps them with little air and even less food. Taylor and Ellison work together and save the day, and of course because Ellison is more handsome and charming than Taylor, he gets the girl. The movie's framework has Wyatt (in effective middle-age make-up) in 1942, telling her story to some young sailors aboard a ship in the Pacific. At 63 minutes, the movie is well paced and the performers are all fine. The good if small supporting cast includes Walter Reed as a buddy of Ellison's who is killed during a stretcher run, James Burke as a comic relief soldier, and Lee Bonnell as a delirious patient. There are two very effective uses of long panning shots by cinematographer Russell Metty (who later won an Oscar for SPARTACUS), one during a Christmas scene in the ward as the men sing "Silent Night" and the other showing the wounded men gasping for air after the ward has been buried. No masterpiece, perhaps, but behind that nondescript title, there is an unjustly forgotten piece of B-movie wartime propaganda. [TCM]

THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (1964)

Interesting black comedy in which both main stars (James Garner and Julie Andrews) play against type; they do a fine job, but that might be one reason why the movie wasn't a big hit in its day. Another reason is that its anti-war tone (more on that later) may have been out of place in a mainstream movie in '64. Had it been made just three or four years later, the public reaction might have been different. Set just before D-Day in England, the movie stars Garner as an American naval officer and admitted coward who has gotten a snug assignment as a "dog-robber"; basically, as an aide to an admiral, his main job is to make his boss's life run smoothly, both on- and off-duty. This primarily means procuring food and drink (and women) for social function--and while he's at it, getting women for his fellow officers as well. Julie Andrews is a British war widow who is called on to serve as his driver. Garner's glad-handing ways don't work too well with her; the first time he gives her a little flirtatious smack on the bum, she smacks him in the face. But soon he gets serious about her and she finds herself returning the romantic interest. As someone who has lost several family members to war, she warms to this man whom she knows will do everything in his power *not* to be a hero. Garner's boss, Melvyn Douglas, a recent widower himself and in the throes of a long, slow mental breakdown, proposes that a special camera crew be sent along on the D-Day invasion on a public relations mission: to capture on film the first Navy man to die in the battle. It has to be a Navy man so that the role of the Navy doesn't get diminished in the post-war shakeout. No one takes the admiral's suggestion too seriously, but the project rolls along on its own steam until Garner, despite his best-laid plans, does in fact wind up the first sailor on Omaha Beach. True to his cowardly nature, he tries to run back toward the ship, but his gung-ho buddy, James Coburn, shoots at him and forces him back to the beach where it appears that he is indeed killed by enemy fire. Just as the planned PR campaign gets going (with a blurry picture of the running Garner on the covers of all the news magazines), Garner turns up alive at a hospital. He decides to expose Douglas' crazy motives, but Andrews talks him into taking a different way out, one that gives their relationship a happy ending, but is also cynical about the issues of war and glory that have been raised.

Much of the film feels like a slightly more realistic version of DR. STRANGELOVE (the crazy officer, the moral confusion about war), but the romantic elements soften the story's bite. Still, I think it was quite brave to set a movie which questions the valor of war during the one modern war that everyone seems to agree was The Good War. Theoretically, the movie's satire isn't aimed at feeding anti-war sentiments; as Garner and Andrews point out more than once, yes, war is sometimes necessary, but we should quit holding it up as valorous and noble. The screenplay, by renowned writer Paddy Chayefsky (who also wrote the wonderfully bitter and prescient NETWORK), is quite talky but generally effective, particularly one scene in which Garner, in the service of truth-telling, destroys the illusions of Andrew's "dotty" mother, played wonderfully by Joyce Grenfall, who herself has been damaged by the valorization of war. Also with Keenan Wynn and Steve Franken (as two drunken sailors who wind up being Garner's camera crew), William Windom, Douglas Henderson, Liz Fraser, and Judy Carne as one of Coburn's one-night stands. Coburn overplays his part, but most everything else about this movie is just right. [DVD]

BACK TO BATAAN (1945)

I seem to going through a WWII movie phase lately, so expect lots of war movie reviews over for the next few weeks. The title of this film, one of John Wayne's earlier war movies, isn't quite accurate. The episodic narrative begins just after the fall of Bataan and focuses on the native Filipino guerrilla forces who aided the Allies in retaking the Philippines from the Japanese. Wayne is a colonel in charge of a loose group of Filipino resistance fighters; his chief associate, Anthony Quinn, is the grandson of a legendary Filipino hero (an actual historical figure) who has to deal with hearing his former girlfriend (Fely Franquelli) broadcasting over the radio as a Tokyo Rose-type commentator taunting the Allies. (It turns out that she is actually a double agent, sending out important information to the Allies about Japanese movements.) The central event of the movie is the fall of the small village of Balintawak to the brutal Japanese forces. Beulah Bondi plays a strict but brave schoolteacher from the town who joins Wayne's band; Vladimir Sokoloff is the principal who won't bring down the American flag at the school and, in a very effective scene, is hung by the Japanese in the schoolyard, by the flag rope with the flag draping his dead body. Quinn is captured and winds up in the Bataan death march, though Wayne gets him out and sends him, disguised as a monk, on a mission to Manila. There he meets up with Franquelli and works with her to achieve an ambush against the Japanese during a ceremony at Balintawak celebrating the "liberation" of the Philippines by the Japanese.

The action scenes are fairly well done, though a sentimental side plot about a young student of Bondi's who is tortured and sacrifices himself to save the guerrillas doesn't come off too well. The subplot with Franquelli is interesting, and it's the kind of melodramatic sidebar story that would vanish from WWII films in the 50's, when the focus moved away from thriller elements and propaganda concerns and more toward the grittier details of planning and fighting. Lawrence Tierney, who later gained a reputation as a tough noir villain (see BORN TO KILL) has a small role as a Navy officer; also in the cast are traditional WWII-era bad guys Richard Loo and Philip Ahn. The movie has a false opening of sorts, about the Allies raiding a prison camp at Luzon (the plotline is not part of the film proper); footage of some of the actual soldiers who were liberated is shown at the beginning and end of the movie, apparently as a way of making it timely. [TCM]

DOWN IN SAN DIEGO (1941)

A strictly routine B-movie second feature, but one that is packed with action, humor, and charm, and a dollop of pre-wartime propaganda. It's perhaps best described as the Hardy Boys meet the Bowery Boys, and that should tell you whether or not you are likely to enjoy it--and it's actually a lot more like a Hardy Boys book than any actual Hardy Boys adaptations ever were. When Dan Dailey (looking impossibly young) heads off to San Diego to join the Marines, he worries about leaving his kid sister (Bonita Granville) all alone in Los Angeles. However, she has what would be called today a strong support network, including Ray McDonald (a gawky but cute kid who is sweet on Granville) and Leo Gorcey (sounding every bit the Brooklyn hood he played with the Bowery Boys). The night before Dailey leaves, some thugs he used to work for frame him for a murder, blackmailing him into doing some Nazi spy business in San Diego. The kids find out and head out after Dailey to help him. Following one tip, about a dog that is missing part of an ear, they all get jobs and immediately are on the trail of the spy ring, which operates out of the back of a barber shop (the spies' password is to ask for a "shortwave" treatment). The shenanigans, alternately amusing and dangerous, culminate in a wild waterside chase involving a stolen experimental Navy boat and a clutch of Nazis who might resort to murder to get hold of the boat. The kids are all as good as the script requires, and of particular note is Stanley Clements as a San Diego newsboy who is recruited by the gang to help out; he went on to appear in over fifty films, most notably as the head delinquent who gets won over by Father Bing Crosby in GOING MY WAY. McDonald is quite charming; I don't know why his movie career never took off, though he did continue in the business as a dancer on stage and in nightclubs. Rudolph Anders, who played many a Nazi throughout the war (THE MORTAL STORM, DESPERATE JOURNEY), is effective as the chief villain and there are some familiar faces in small roles (Henry O'Neill, Joe Sawyer, Ludwig Stossel, Connie Gilchrist). One minor problem is that between the city street sets and the stew of accents (Brooklyn, the South), this movie's L.A. seems much more like New York. Still, this is one of my very favorite B-movies and I recommend it wholeheartedly. [TCM]

THE RAINS CAME (1939)

I imagine that this film along with the earlier IN OLD CHICAGO and SAN FRANCISCO were among the first examples of the disaster film genre. At the genre's peak in the 70's (and in the occasional example made since then), the disaster was pretty much the be-all and end-all of the movie, but back then it was a catalyst for further plot and character development. In the beginning of these films, we get to know the characters and their situations; a large-scale disaster hits and the narrative grinds to a halt so we can see what the special effects department has come up with; in the aftermath, we see how the characters prove their mettle, how they change (or fail to), and who must sacrifice himself or herself for the greater good (or to achieve personal redemption). In the province of Ranchipur in India, British sexpot Myrna Loy, bored witless by her stodgy old Lord of a husband (Nigel Bruce), meets up with an ex-lover (George Brent), but soon falls for his friend, Indian doctor Tyrone Power, a selfless and well-respected man in the community. Brent is busy fending off frisky young Brenda Joyce, as well as trying to make sure that Power doesn't get in over his head with Loy. Torrential rains, an earthquake, a broken dam, and rampaging malaria make life miserable for all and force the characters to make decisions that will affect their futures. It's a fairly predictable turn when Loy's character makes the biggest sacrifice and winds up like Bette Davis did in the previous year's JEZEBEL. Power, under dusky makeup, looks splendid and acts quite well, as do all the leads, even the sometimes leaden Brent. The large and wonderful supporting cast includes Henry Travers and Jane Darwell as missionaries, H.B. Warner as a Maharajah, Joseph Schildkraut, Laura Hope Crews, Mary Nash, and in a small but memorable role (as all of hers were) Maria Ouspenskaya as the Maharani who is particularly concerned that Power will be tempted away from the village by Loy. Though the sets and effects look fairly stagy today, they are still effective, especially the flooded streets of the town. Someday I'll see the 50's remake (RAINS OF RANCHIPUR) but I doubt it will measure up this original. [FMC]

CRASH DIVE (1943)

Despite the title, and despite being released well after the U.S. entered the war, this is really a throwback to the pre-WWII pseudo-wartime action movies that were actually romantic triangles in disguise. Tyrone Power is a Navy lieutenant who is pulled away from the P.T. boats he loves to serve as second-in-command on a submarine stationed at New London, Connecticut. He and his commander, Dana Andrews, quickly become buddies and they and their crew acquit themselves well after running into a Nazi ship (disguised as a Swedish freighter), but back home, trouble brews when Power flirts with a pretty schoolteacher (Anne Baxter), not realizing she's Andrews' longtime girlfriend. After a comic misadventure in Washington, D.C., Baxter falls for Power, and Andrews finds out what's going on just as the men ship out on a dangerous mission to raid a Nazi island base. Tensions on the sub are high until the raid, when, of course, the men re-bond in order to kick some Nazi ass. Despite the corny set-up, this is an above-average film of its type, due in part to good use of Technicolor (which still looks great after all these years) and also due to the script and acting. Power and Baxter are lovely and have chemistry, and Andrews does what has to be done in a relatively thankless role; since Power is far better looking, and first-billed, you know that he'll end up with Baxter. The Washington shenanigans are fun and verge on screwball comedy, and the climactic raid sequence is, despite looking very stagy, exciting. The only other major subplot involves old-timer James Gleason, who is trying to keep his heart condition a secret, and the black cook, Ben Carter, who knows Gleason's secret and keeps an eye on him. Harry Morgan (later Col. Potter on TV's MASH) is seen briefly on the sub, and Dane May Whitty has a small role as Power's grandmother. Parts of this were shot at the real New London sub base. Quite fun and worth seeing, as long as you know you're not getting a gritty, realistic war story. [FMC]

ROCKABYE (1932)

George Cukor directed this one fairly early in his career and pulled off a total bomb--thank goodness he improved enough to deliver classics like THE WOMEN and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY later. To be fair, he's not the only problem here; his leading lady, Constance Bennett, never feels fully invested in creating a character, and the melodramatic story of thwarted mother love was a bit creaky even back then, though the specifics of the plot have potential. Bennett is a Broadway actress who has to testify in a court case involving a former lover (Walter Pidgeon) and it comes out that she is trying to adopt a baby that is, it is strongly implied, the product of their illicit union. The publicity surrounding the case causes the adoption officials to deny her custody of the child, which leaves Bennett heartbroken. She goes to Europe to recover and returns after several months to appear in a new play called "Rockabye" that mirrors her own situation. Her agent, Paul Lukas, who has harbored an unrequited love for Bennett for years, urges her not to take the part, but she does, and she also falls in love with the handsome playwright (Joel McCrea), who is in the middle of a divorce. Things go well for Bennett for a time; Lukas arranges for her to spend regular time with her "daughter," and she and McCrea become a hot item with marriage in their future. However, on the very night that Bennett's play opens (and is a hit), McCrea finds out that his soon-to-be ex-wife is having a baby. McCrea's mother comes to Bennett and asks her to let him return to his wife. Will she do the right thing? What pleasures there are here come from some of the actors, mostly McCrea, Lukas, and Jobyna Howland as Bennett's blowsy mother. Sterling Holloway, later the voice of Winnie the Pooh in the Disney cartoons, has a brief scene as a kid who begs a pianist to play "Poor Butterfly," which leads into a song by Bennett. There is a wonderful pre-Code scene from early in Bennett and McCrea's relationship showing breakfast burning on the stove while the two go at it, presumably on the kitchen floor, and she wakes up the next morning in a bed full of balloons. Except for that single scene, the direction is pedestrian at best, and there are many moments of ragged editing and awkwardly inserted shots that detract from the flow of the film. [TCM]

STAR OF MIDNIGHT (1935)

More William Powell from TCM's birthday salute. This seems clearly to have been an attempt to create more "Thin Man" magic, here between William Powell and Ginger Rogers, and in fact the two do work up some star chemistry, though they don't quite spark like Powell and Loy did. Powell is a lawyer who admits he enjoys detective work more than being in the courtroom; he agrees to help old friend Rogers get some incriminating letters back from a gangster (Paul Kelly). This plotline winds up being a red herring: it turns out the letters aren't hers (she's just helping out a friend in trouble) and Rogers starts throwing herself at Powell, who treats her more like a kid sister than a romantic interest. The real story involves the mysterious musical star named Mary Smith, who always wears a mask in public. A man who is in the audience of her show "Midnight" (Leslie Fenton) recognizes Mary as his missing girlfriend Alice, and calls out her name, which unnerves her and apparently causes her to bolt from the theater during intermission, never to return. Fenton hires Powell to help find her and Rogers tags along. A reporter who was present at the show claims to know something about the case, but is shot and killed in Powell's apartment (and Powell is wounded). Fenton, who was hiding in another room, vanishes and is immediately the police's number one suspect, but there are other suspects as well, including Ralph Morgan, a lawyer who is also searching for Alice; his wife (Vivien Oakland); the producer of "Midnight" (Frank Reicher), and even Powell's butler (Gene Lockhart). After some Thin Man-like scrapes, there is a fairly ingenious finale in which Powell telephones all the suspects and sets up a nice little trap for the guilty party.

The solution to the mystery feels like something arrived at rather randomly by the writers, but it doesn't matter because the pleasures of this film are mostly in the characters and performances. Kelly's gangster is a threatening figure at first, but becomes somewhat more likeable and less one-dimensional than the average movie thug. Gene Lockhart is quite good as the butler in a change-of-pace role here (though this early in his sound film career, I guess he really didn't have a "pace" yet). Perhaps best of all is J. Farrell MacDonald as the police inspector; instead of being an adversary to Powell, he is more an admiring onlooker, slyly enjoying watching Powell work around the police, and fully collaborating with him in the climax. At times, the comic pacing is a bit too slow, but it always recovers, and there is a very amusing bit with a toilet that plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" when it is occupied. I'm guessing the movie didn't do well enough to justify a sequel or two, but it's certainly fun to watch. [TCM]

FASHIONS OF 1934 (1934)

Given the title and the fact that this came from Warner Brothers in the pre-Code era, I was expecting an elaborate, vaguely risque musical with peppy fashion models standing in for the peppy chorus girls of the "Gold Diggers" series. Seeing the names of William Powell, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh, and Busby Berkeley in the opening credits was also encouraging. However, the film itself was a huge letdown. Powell is a con-man whose latest front, an investment company, has just gone under. He and sidekick McHugh meet up with unemployed dress designer Davis and they decide to go into business in Paris bootlegging the latest fashion designs and selling them to American companies. After they're caught, they discover that one of the biggest of the French designers (Reginald Owen) gets his best ideas by copying clothing sketches out of old books, so they do the same thing and go into business for themselves (backed partly by American ostrich-feather salesman Hugh Herbert). When Powell finds out that Owen's current mistress, a Russian countess, is actually an ex-girl friend of his pulling her own con job, he gets her to get Owen to help back them, and they put on a stage-show revue to highlight their fashions (most of which involve lots of ostrich feathers). After the show, there are more snags and cons before Owen buys Powell's shop and Powell and Davis head off into the sunset.

The high point here is definitely the Berkeley number, "Spin a Little Web of Dreams," which features semi-nude girls as human harps. Unfortunately, that is all Berkeley is given to do, though there is also a more traditional fashion show sequence which stops the action briefly. Powell seems to be trying hard, but he's just not up to his usual deadpan frothiness. Davis is hardly trying at all; her part might as well have been done by some second- or third-string Warners contract player. McHugh is reliably strong and Verree Teasdale shines in the limited role of the mistress (a part very much like Norma Shearer played in IDIOT'S DELIGHT); Philip Reed is a handsome songwriter who briefly flirts with Davis; other supporting players of note include Henry O'Neill, Gordon Westcott, Jane Darwell, and Arthur Treacher (as, what else, a butler). There are a few bawdy lines of dialogue, such as a patron asking Powell, "You handle lingerie, don't you?" to which he replies, "Yes, I take care of that personally." I realize that some of my problems with this film are due to unrealistic expectations, but it's still hard to recommend this one except to fans of the actors involved. [TCM]

VOGUES OF 1938 (1937)

This is an odd little mishmash: part musical revue, part romantic comedy, with both taking a back seat to the Technicolor fashion show which seems to be the movie's reason for existing. Warner Baxter plays the head of a ritzy fashion house; his wife (the wonderful ice queen Helen Vinson) is desperate for Baxter to back a Broadway show in which she wants to star, but she doesn't know that the company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Enter Joan Bennett, a socialite from a family whose finances are also in bad shape; her family pressures her to marry the rich and older Alan Mowbray, but she leaves him at the altar and winds up taking a job as a model for Baxter. Bennett sets her cap for Baxter, though being a Code-friendly faithful husband, he stays cool until the end, when Vinson's show flops and she, angry that he won't sink any more money into the show, gets a Reno divorce. There are other promising subplots that don't pan out. One involves a rival designer (Mischa Auer) who marries one of Baxter's assistants, hoping to get a corporate spy in the family. Another centers on Baxter's second-in-command (Alma Kruger), who, in a set-up used to better effect in 1935's ROBERTA, gets sick on a European tour; her eventual death proves to be a wake-up call for Baxter to finally take control of his business and his life. In the end, Baxter uses the sets from the failed musical to produce an eye-popping fashion show that saves his career.

Every time the plot and characters get interesting, the movie stops for a musical number or a fashion show. I'm not a fashion connoisseur, so I can't say much about the dresses except to note how colorful and creative they are. The numbers are OK, though only one song, the Oscar-nominated "That Old Feeling" really stands out. One number had some unintentional (I assume) humor, as it extols the virtues of strolling models as "ladies of the evening, ladies of the night." There is also a striking number set at the Cotton Club in Harlem. Baxter is good, even better than he was as the beleaguered director in 42ND STREET, and Bennett (looking and sounding just like Myrna Loy) and Vinson are both fine. Jerome Cowan has a small role as the director of the flop that Baxter backs, and Penny Singleton (later Blondie in the movies) appears briefly doing her squeaky-voiced thing. Enjoyable, if not a classic, and the print shown on Turner Classic was restored and in great shape. [TCM]

ADVISE AND CONSENT (1962)

Political movies (that is, movies explicitly about some aspect of the American political scene) had a heyday of sorts in the early 60's--think of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, THE BEST MAN, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, and FAIL SAFE. This one is often touted as the most realistic one of the bunch, and as much of it was filmed at actual Washington settings, it certainly looks real. The atmosphere put me in mind of a Senate version of "The West Wing." Apparently many of the situations and characters are based on real events and people (despite a big disclaimer at the end of the opening credits), although except for certain similarities to the McCarthy debacle, I couldn't make any one-on-one connections. Despite this (or perhaps because of this), I found the movie to be mostly compelling, if a little tough to parse on occasion. Ailing president Franchot Tone has picked Henry Fonda to be his new Secretary of State. During confirmation hearings in the Senate, it comes out that Fonda may have dabbled in Communism in his youth and powerful Southern senator Charles Laughton leads an effort to block Fonda's appointment. Young hotshot George Grizzard, pissed that he was passed over as chairman of the hearings committee (for young coolheaded Don Murray) makes an aggressive attempt to push Fonda's nomination ahead, and he gets so desperate that he tries to blackmail Murray over a homosexual affair he had in the Navy during the war. That, in a nutshell, is the plot, largely presented as two separate stories which intertwine briefly.

The movie is filled with solid performances: in addition to Laughton (who, in his last movie, chews the scenery in a mostly fun way) and Murray (whose quiet but powerful performance is the polar opposite of Laughton's), there's Burgess Meredith as a neurotic ex-commie called to testify against Fonda, Lew Ayres as the ambitious but realistic vice-president, and Inga Swenson as Murray's in-the-dark wife. Walter Pidgeon, as the Majority Leader, anchors the movie with the best performance I've seen from him, and it's also fun to see people like Paul Ford and Edward Andrews get to stretch a bit. What I liked best about it is that there aren't really good guys and bad guys; even the men who come off the worst are more assholes than evil. Fonda (who, despite being top-billed, practically vanishes for the last hour of the film) is used to great advantage: the audience knows that his persona is that of an good and admirable man, so it's a wonderful shock to realize halfway through that he's not so very admirable after all, though he may still actually be the best man for the job. The gay angle is handled in a way that was quite sensationalistic in its time, but seems tame and quaint now--the glimpse we get of a New York gay bar makes it look quite preppy and not at all decadent and shameful as one might have expected. Otto Preminger's widescreen style is not splashy but it is quietly effective. The movie is a bit long, but it's worth sitting through, especially since the unpretty picture it presents of political wheeling and dealing still seems quite relevant today. [DVD]

THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET (1949)

The title of this movie refers to the tense, noir-like opening scene in which a key witness in a corruption trial is murdered at his home, despite being under police surveillance. After this promising opening, the tone lightens up considerably as we focus on crusading reporter Wayne Morris, who blows his muck-racking story on mobster Bruce Bennett; the mobster threatens the paper with a libel suit and Morris is re-assigned to the lovelorn column. Coincidentally, it is through a visit from a lovelorn letter writer (Barbara Bates) that Morris gets on the right track and is able to find real evidence to bring Bennett down. This is based on a 30's movie (HI, NELLIE) which Warners remade in the late 30's as LOVE IS ON THE AIR with Ronald Reagan, and again in the early 40's as YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FOREVER. I'm not sure the material is strong enough to warrant a fourth version, but it's a pleasant little film. Morris does a nice job with one of his rare leading roles, Janis Paige is good as his gal, and there are good performances from Alan Hale as the newspaper owner, James Mitchell as a goon for the mobster, and James Holden as Bates's boyfriend who winds up breaking the case for Morris. I think the '42 version with George Brent and Brenda Marshall is more fun. [TCM]

FOOLS FOR SCANDAL (1938)

I'm not a Carole Lombard fan, and this movie didn't convert me, but watching it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning. It's basically a screwball comedy played at a relatively slow pace. Lombard is an American movie actress who is in Paris in disguise for the weekend with her boyfriend, insurance agent Ralph Bellamy (playing another in a long line of patsy stooges who exist as easy targets for the *real* romantic hero to knock down). She meets cute with down-on-his-luck French nobleman Fernand Gravet--maybe I missed something, but I never did figure out why he was so poor when all of Paris seemed to know him, and he was apparently a hell of a chef. They go through the usual on-again, off-again romantic shenanigans of this kind of movie until they wind up together at the end. Gravet was good, though he had an odd accent for a Frenchman: a little French, a little New York. At times, he sounded like Cary Grant. Allen Jenkins does his usual fine job as comic sidekick, and Marie Wilson is just as good, though in a role too small for her to shine. There's a big Noah's Ark costume ball where all the participants wear animal masks, and this leads to a cute payoff scene later when, with dozens of reporters camped out in Lombard's bedroom, Gravet serves her breakfast with a pig mask on. The scene toward the end where the lovers finally sort out their feelings goes on too long, but the very last shot, of the couple kissing onstage in the middle of an opera performance, was nice. There's a musical number in a nightclub called "Petit Harlem," and Lombard and Gravet do a little sing-songy thing halfway through that's like a musical number which no one had the heart to finish. Recommended, if not enthusiastically. [TCM]

SENSO (1954)

This early Luchino Visconti movie is renowned for its beautiful Technicolor look, but the print shown on Turner Classic Movies was washed out, dirty, and in need of restoration. Host Robert Osborne did helpfully set up the historical context for the narrative, set in the 1860's. Austria has occupied Venice and tensions between the Austrian soldiers and the occupied citizens are brewing. Alida Valli is an Italian countess whose cousin is an agitator in an underground movement to get rid of the Austrians. During a political demonstration which breaks out at an opera house during a performance of Il Travatore, she falls for an Austrian soldier (Farley Granger). Even though he is the enemy, and she is married, she pursues him and they have a passionate affair. As the possibility of war increases, Valli gives Granger money so he can bribe his way out of the army, but he then uses some of the money to shack up with a whore. Valli finds out and, already on the verge of a nervous breakdown, snaps and betrays him to his commander. He is killed by firing squad and she wanders the streets, distraught. This material has potential, but for the first hour or so, it's sluggishly paced and drawn out, without really bringing the characters to life. In the last half, things get more interesting as Visconti goes into an almost operatic mode of melodrama and the pace picks up nicely. Granger is OK, although the fact that his Italian dialogue is dubbed by someone else is a little distracting. Valli is excellent as the woman who loses her stability in a lusty affair. Toward the end, when she catches a dissipated Granger cheating on her, she is superb, and the whole thing was worth watching for that scene. I really wish they had been able to show a restored version, because I'm sure the original color print was lovely. [TCM]

THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN (1936)

If Hitchcock rather than Josef van Sternberg had directed the Marlene Dietrich melodrama SHANGHAI EXPRESS, this might have been the result. There is a lot of attention to camerawork, shadows, and close-ups of faces in the directing style of Lewis Milestone, but there is also a Hitchcockian atmosphere (as in THE LADY VANISHES and THE 39 STEPS) in the tale of a man and woman falling in love as they get in and out of spy troubles. Gary Cooper is an American mercenary in China who is trying to help Mr. Wu (Dudley Digges) buy weapons to give to a peasant army to fight heinous warlord Yang (Akim Tamiroff). Cooper takes a train to Shanghai with a belt full of money intended for Digges, but sickly American Porter Hall and his lovely daughter, the incongruously British Madeleine Carroll (a Hitchcock heroine in 39 STEPS), working for Tamiroff, betray Cooper. Hall goes to Shanghai with the money to complete a deal for Tamiroff with drunken arms dealer William Frawley but Cooper manages to throw some monkey wrenches into the warlord's plans, sometimes with and sometimes without the help of Carroll. The narrative is plot-heavy, and some loopholes emerge (Did Cooper and Carroll know each other before their China days? Why did Tamiroff send the clearly ineffective Hall to finish the financial transaction for the weapons?), but the twists and turns keep things moving quickly to a very atmospheric finale involving a scene of mass suicide, quite explicit for a 30's Code movie.

There is much romance and humor amongst the spy-thriller trappings. Cooper and Carroll make a great couple; he was at the height of his comeliness and we get to see him bare-chested, displaying his lithe physique, twice (Carroll remains fully clothed, though her close-ups are fetching). Tamiroff got an Oscar nomination and he is good at giving a new twist to the Hollywood stereotype of the inscrutable and sinister Oriental. Whenever he appears, he always makes a grand entrance, with his own little musical theme bursting out of the soundtrack--this becomes a nice bit of black comedy as the movie goes along. Korean-American actor Philip Ahn, known much later as Master Kan in the TV show "Kung Fu," shows up in a small role as Tamiroff's second-in-command. Hall, usually known for his comic portrayals of cowards or bureaucrats, stands out in this more serious part. Frawley, who will always be first and foremost Fred Mertz, is practically a revelation as the constantly drunken "ugly American," always seeming on the verge of passing out as he sings, "I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal you" to no one in particular; at first, he seems just a comic relief character, but he plays a crucial and violent role in the climax. Irish character actor J.M. Kerrigan has a nice turn as an amoral agent whose loyalty seems to be constantly shifting--his ultimate reward is quite satisfying. Also in the film are Leonid Kinskey (CASABLANCA'S bartender) and writer John O'Hara in what I assume is an in-joke cameo as an opportunistic reporter. A fun movie, which has been rendered excellently on DVD in Universal's wonderful Gary Cooper collection (5 great films, none previously available on DVD) on 2 discs for a very reasonable price. [DVD]

BATTLEGROUND (1949)

This has a reputation as one of the best war movies of its era. Though it's not as gritty as THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (an earlier film from the same director, William Wellman), it is compelling both in its first hour as a character-driven narrative about tense soldiers waiting for action, and in its second hour as a full-out battle film. Based on an actual event, the episodic narrative is centered on a division of American soldiers stuck near the village of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. (The credit sequence ends by referring to the film as the story of the "Battered Bastards of Bastogne.") As the film opens, in early December, 1944, the men of the 101st Airborne Division are looking forward to some R&R in Paris, but instead are sent to Bastogne to help fight a German offensive. Among the men are smiling everyman Van Johnson, farmboy Jerome Courtland (who always takes off his boots to sleep and is constantly uttering the phrase, "That's for sure, that's for dang sure!"), an older guy nicknamed "Pops" (George Murphy) who is anxiously waiting for his discharge, and other "types" (Latino Ricardo Montalban, intellectual journalist John Hodiak, easy-going Don Taylor). The story unfolds more or less through the viewpoint of a new replacement (Marshall Thompson) who goes from sensitive guy upset at being separated from his buddy to battle-hardened soldier (symbolized largely by him taking up smoking). Most of their time early on is spent in "hurry up and wait" mode, and there is a nice interlude in the village involving Johnson flirting with a young woman (Denise Darcel). Once they get to the Ardennes woods, there is a lovely moment as they wake up in their foxholes covered with snow, but from there on, the situation turns tense after they let a group of Germans disguised as American soldiers past them and soon realize they are surrounded with little hope for reinforcement. The action scenes in the last 45 minutes are well done and surprisingly do not suffer for being studio-bound (the snowy forest is done so well, I was sure they must have filmed in some northern locale, but the entire movie was shot at the MGM studio, with occasional newsreel bits spliced in here and there). Some characters die (not always the ones you assume will), but most make it through, if a little sadder and tougher. The movie may not seem especially realistic compared to some of the war films that came in the 1950s, but because the makers didn't have to worry about highlighting flagwaving propaganda messages, the focus on character and the everyday details of the WWII soldier make this stand out head and shoulders above most other war films of the era. [DVD]

REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1938)

I suspect the well was running dry for Shirley Temple vehicles by this time--this was her 18th starring role in four years. Temple is fine, as are most of the other actors, but the plot is rather threadbare. Temple plays an 8-year-old in the custody of her stepfather, a washed-up vaudevillian (William Demerest). He makes her audition for a radio contest search for Little Miss America and she wins the title, but Demerest, thinking that she lost, leaves the station and, giving up on Temple's potential as a meal ticket, takes her out to her Aunt Miranda's place in the country and leaves her with the stern old lady (Helen Westley). As it happens, the radio executive responsible for the contest (Randolph Scott) has a country place right next to Westley's. It also happens that Westley has a lovely young niece (Gloria Stuart) living with her who soon grows smitten with Scott. Furthermore, Scott's assistant (Jack Haley), who auditioned Temple, just happens to hear the little girl singing one day, puts two and two together, and the next thing you know, everyone's in cahoots plotting to get Temple to sing for the radio show behind the back of the disapproving aunt. Then, after the aunt rather suddenly thaws and lets Temple sing, Demerest comes around with a court order letting him take custody of Temple. How on earth will it all work out? The actors are all fine, especially Westley. Phyllis Brooks plays a singer who becomes a rival for Stuart; Franklin Pangborn has a funny bit as an "emergency organist" at the radio station who faints when he finally gets a chance to fill in on the air; Bill Robinson has a thankless role as a house servant who ends up dancing on stage with Temple in the underdone finale. In a bizarre self-referential twist, Temple, who is supposed to be a complete unknown, sings a medley of songs that she supposedly introduced to the radio public--of course, it's a medley of Temple hits such as "Good Ship Lollipop" and "Animal Crackers in My Soup." Best line: Haley, flirting with Brooks: "Couldn't you go for a guy like me?"; Brooks: "Yeah, with an axe!" [FMC]

WITHIN THE LAW (1939)

This is an MGM B-movie remake of a 1930 Joan Crawford vehicle, PAID, and even though I haven't seen the original, this still felt like a rehash of familiar material. However, an interesting cast makes it worth watching. Ruth Hussey is a shopgirl who is accused of shoplifting jewels from the store she works for. We know that the person who did it was about to be caught and dumped the jewels in Hussey's locker. But big boss Samuel S. Hinds is tired of being soft on shoplifters so he prosecutes Hussey to the fullest extent of the law, despite her claims of innocence. She gets thrown in jail and spends her time studying the law, planning to get her revenge in a legal fashion when she gets out. Three years later, she meets up with Rita Johnson, a blackmailer she had become friends with in prison, and winds up being the legal brains of a petty crime gang headed up by Paul Kelly. They set Hinds' department store up to arrest Johnson on charges that they can't make stick, and that's just the beginning of Hussey's revenge, which includes marrying the boss's son (Tom Neal) under false pretenses. However, after a double cross and a declaration of genuine love, Hussey redeems herself, Hinds apologizes for his errors, and even Johnson gets a happy ending. Hussey is fine, but she's upstaged by the sexy, spunky Johnson, perhaps best known as the murdering wife in HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (the role that Dyan Cannon made her own in the 70's remake HEAVEN CAN WAIT). Neal is something of a plastic-looking pretty boy here and isn't terribly effective. The studio may have been grooming him for a persona for which he wasn't suited--he was much better as the tough guy loser in the B-classic DETOUR a few years later. Also notable are William Gargan as a cop and Paul Cavanagh as a double crossing gangster. There is a joking reference to MGM star Myrna Loy and *two* references to their hot property of the same year, GONE WITH THE WIND. [TCM]

PICCADILLY (1929)

This British film from the late silent era is, plotwise, a run-of-the-mill romantic melodrama; it is notable today for two things: the inventive style of German director E.A. Dupont and the performance of Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong. This may have been a career peak for them both: Dupont went on to do mostly B-movies in Hollywood, and Wong's career started on a downward slide three years later after her memorable co-starring role with Marlene Dietrich in SHANGHAI EXPRESS. Wong is third-billed here, but she has the most interesting role. The stars are ostensibly Jameson Thomas, as the owner of the Piccadilly Club, and Gilda Gray, as his dancing star Mabel. The two are carrying on a affair, unbeknownst to her dancing partner, Cyril Ritchard, who has been trying unsuccessfully to woo her. When Ritchard's attentions become overbearing, Thomas fires him, even though he is the stronger draw, and sure enough, business drops. One night, after an irate customer (Charles Laughton in a cameo) complains about a dirty plate, Thomas discovers Wong, a dishwasher, dancing on a table instead of working. He fires her, but finds himself attracted to her, and after a secret "late night audition," he re-hires her to supplement Gray in the floor show. This doesn't sit well with Gray, particularly when she discovers that the two are carrying on behind her back. Another person disturbed by the affair is Jim (King Ho Chang), Wong's lover (she refers to him as her cousin, but it's never made clear if he really is). Things come to a head one night when Gray goes to Wong's apartment with a revolver in her purse. Wong indeed winds up dead, but was the killer Gray? Or Chang? Or maybe Ritchard has come back in the picture?

The opening credits are presented as posters on the sides of double-decker buses, and the movie is filled with creative, fluid cinematography; the camera is constantly winding through the crowds at the club, swinging up and back from the dancers, and surprising us with shots from interesting angles. Wong gives the best performance, though her dancing leaves something to be desired. The relationship between Wong and Chang is unusual; at first, I thought he was coded as gay because, when Thomas and Wong go to a costume shop to find a dancing outfit for the show, Wong makes Chang put it on. We are told they are cousins, though later we assume they are lovers, although even that is not made crystal clear. I enjoyed seeing stage actor Ritchard in one of his rare movie appearances--he is best known for playing Captain Hook in the Mary Martin "Peter Pan." The DVD from Milestone has been restored fairly well, but the new score is irritating; it doesn't sound contemporary to the time of the film, and though it has some nice melodies, they are used too often and sometimes with little regard for the mood of a scene. There is also a strange, static little prologue, shot in sound and presented as an extra, which adds nothing to the story. An interesting if predictable film which should be seen for its unique style. [DVD]

SANTA FE TRAIL (1940)

Despite the title, this isn't really a western, but a historical drama about cavalry men Jeb Stuart (Errol Flynn) and George Custer (Ronald Reagan) and their pursuit of activist abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey). All these characters are based on real people, but I must admit I know next to nothing about the Civil War era so I can't judge how accurate the storyline is or how closely the characters hew to the historical figures--knowing Hollywood, I assume little fidelity. We first meet Flynn and Reagan as fresh West Point graduates when they get into a fight with fellow cadet Van Heflin over the abolition movement; Heflin is a follower of John Brown, a religious fanatic who wants the slaves freed immediately even if it involves widespread bloodshed. Heflin is discharged and joins up with Brown; Flynn and Reagan wind up stationed in Kansas, which is split over the issue of whether or not to enter the Union as a slave state. Brown is violently fomenting dissent and the cavalry is trying to keep things under control. Between run-ins with the Brown clan (including son Gene Reynolds, who winds up on Flynn's side) and his followers, there is time for a typical Hollywood romantic triangle with Flynn and Reagan vying for the hand of Olivia de Havilland, daughter of the man who hopes to establish a safe passage to Santa Fe (hence the rather misleading title). There is comic relief with Alan Hale and Guinn Williams as wagon train workers who quite improbably join up with the cavalry. The politics of the situation are handled delicately and therefore confusingly: Brown is portrayed as a crazy killer who, when he is able to free slaves, basically leaves them high and dry, but de Havilland speaks a few words in defense of the man, saying that he has "great and good reasons" for his actions; our heroes aren't allowed to express many political opinions, but do note that abolition must come gradually and peacefully rather than suddenly and violently. In trying to offend no one, the movie muddles its politics and history beyond repair. But taken as a rousing "boy's adventure" movie, it definitely succeeds. Standouts in the large supporting cast include William Lundigan as de Havilland's brother, Henry O'Neill as the father, Ward Bond as an abolitionist, and John Litel as a slaver. The three leads (Flynn, Reagan, and Massey) are fine, but all wind up playing cardboard cut-out versions of historical figures. Given that caveat, I would recommend this to fans of the era's action films. [TCM]

PARACHUTE BATTALION (1941)

Released just a few months before Pearl Harbor, this may have been intended as pro-military propaganda, but it works better as a light buddy comedy in the old Cagney/O'Brien tradition. The film follows three men who join the Army's Parachute Corps in Fort Benning, Georgia: Robert Preston is an Ivy League football star, and Buddy Ebsen is a hayseed farmboy, but the focus is on Edmond O'Brien as a young man on the road to alcoholism who joins to get rid of his self-esteem problem; it turns out he's the estranged son of the Corps' commander (Robert Barrat). The three meet and become friends on a train to Fort Benning, where they also have a run-in with their soon-to-be instructor (Harry Carey) and his daughter (Nancy Kelly). O'Brien and Preston become rivals for the hand of Kelly; Carey, all crusty and hard-boiled on the outside, turns out to be mostly a softie who inspires great loyalty among his charges. Richard Cromwell plays a twitchy coward who goes nuts up in the sky just as he's supposed to make his first jump. O'Brien is instrumental in helping Carey handle the situation, but he's also afraid to jump, so the rest of the movie is about how O'Brien gains self-confidence so he can make the jump, regain his father's respect, and get the girl. The performances are fine (and you can see the seed of Prof. Harold Hill in Preston's cocky character) with Paul Kelly providing strong support as Carey's assistant. Nancy Kelly (no relation) is best known as the neurotic mother in THE BAD SEED. Ebsen is his usual gangly self and gets to do a novelty dance to "Turkey in the Straw." The film was shot partly at Fort Benning, and there is plenty of footage of men from the real battalion in parachute action. An RKO B-movie that's almost up to the standard of Warner Brothers. [TCM]

THE CASINO MURDER CASE (1935)

A slightly better Philo Vance movie than BISHOP. This one has more comedy than most Vance films, which takes some getting used to, but the light tone works. So does the lead performance of Paul Lukas as Vance. Most critics don't like his portrayal, and I agree that his thick Hungarian accent is quite out of place for the New York City playboy that Vance is supposed to be, but he fleshes out the part better than Rathbone did, though he's no William Powell. This time around, Vance is called in to help protect wealthy Donald Cook, who is threatened by letter with death that night if he goes to the family casino. He goes and, despite protection, is poisoned but recovers. However, his wife, an old friend of Vance's who is unhappy in her marriage, is poisoned at the house and dies. There are other deaths and the discovery of suspicious experiments with "heavy water" before Vance solves the case. The supporting cast includes Rosalind Russell, secretary for the family, who becomes both a sidekick and a mild romantic interest for Vance; Alison Skipworth as the family matriarch; Eric Blore as Vance's befuddled butler. Ted Healy does a fine comic turn as a policeman who is always one step behind Vance, and Louise Fazenda and Leo G. Carroll as the maid and butler make positive impressions in their brief time on screen. [TCM]

THE BISHOP MURDER CASE (1930)

The detective Philo Vance, created by writer S. S. Van Dine, was featured in over a dozen movies from the late 20's through the 40's, but he seems to be the sleuth that time forgot, maybe because so many actors played him with such a wide range of approaches that there was not a consistent portrayal in the public mind. He's a little like the Falcon or Nick Charles (and William Powell did play him early in his career) in that he's a rich man who helps the police track down killers, but no "hook" ever developed (like the Falcon's jewel thief past or Nick's wife Nora) to make him stand out. Nevertheless, many of the Vance movies are fun--though none that I've seen are as good as the books. This one has a fascinating set-up: people who live in the neighborhood of the Dillards are getting bumped off in ways that suggest that nursery rhymes are the inspiration for the dastardly deeds (a young man nicknamed Cock Robin is killed by an arrow and a man dies due to a fall from a wall like Humpty Dumpty), and the killer leaves clues in a series of notes signed The Bishop--is he a religious fanatic or a chess enthusiast? The plot is intriguing and fairly easy to follow, and sticks close to the book. The supporting cast is OK (with Roland Young as the chief suspect and Leila Hyams as the attractive young damsel who winds up in distress) and the directing style is occasionally interesting, especially the presentation of one murder which involves the toppling of a house of cards. However, Basil Rathbone is rather bland as Vance. This may be largely the fault of the writers, but Rathbone doesn't help by sleepwalking through the proceedings. Ironically, Vance is compared at least once in the movie to Sherlock Holmes, the role that Rathbone would make his own a few years later. There are separate credits for "screen direction" and "stage direction" which may explain why the moody non-dialogue scenes work best. The lack of background music doesn't help the static feel of the movie's pace, though the silence is sometimes effective. You will probably guess who the killer is, but the way he meets his fate is surprising. Other Vance movies I've reviewed: THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, THE DRAGON MURDER CASE, and CALLING PHILO VANCE. [TCM]

COPACABANA (1947)

With solid mainstream musical performers such as Dennis Morgan or Betty Grable, this B-level showbiz musical might have come off. But instead the more outsized and untamed talents of Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda are confined by the average material, weak direction, and relatively low budget and it all comes off as a rather sad and dismal affair. Marx and Miranda are a struggling showbiz couple, not married but engaged for years (like Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine in GUYS AND DOLLS) and therefore, this being made under the constraints of the Production Code, living in two separate hotel rooms, and about to get evicted from them. Marx decides to retire from performing and serve as Miranda's agent, and he promptly gets her a job as a Latin songbird at the Copacabana. However, there's a hitch: the boss (Steve Cochran) wants a French singer as well, so in order not to blow his cover, Marx has Miranda pose as the veil-wearing Mademoiselle Fifi. Carmen is a success, but Fifi is an even bigger hit, and they must continue the charade to stay employed. Romantic entanglements arise: 1) Cochran is apparently in love with Fifi while, 2) his loyal secretary (Gloria Jean) pines away for Cochran and, 3) singer Andy Russell, who seems incapable of much passion for anyone, is mistaken for an admirer of the  secretary. Of course, after some lame attempts at farce and some tepid production numbers, all is righted at the fade out. In the beginning, I was embarrassed for Marx, who seems to know just how far he's sunk, but by the middle, he redeems himself a bit with a brief dual role number; Marx, as the agent, introduces Marx, in his 30's greasepaint-mustache persona, as a comic singer doing the amusing "Go West, Young Man." Miranda is fine; Cochran isn't bad, really, but he was better at the tough guy roles he did later in his career. Russell and Jean are bland as can be and the specialty acts sprinkled through the film are forgettable. Famous gossip columnist Earl Wilson has a cameo. [DVD]

DEVIL'S ISLAND (1939)

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of the Warner Brothers B-movie unit that cranked out dozens of unpretentious and entertaining low-budget films in the 30's and 40's. This, however, is one of their rare missteps. Usually, these movies which came in at 60 to 75 minutes sped along quite nicely, so that even if the movie had its weak moments, it was easy for the viewer to get past them because a funny or exciting scene was just around the corner. This one is just a smidge over an hour but feels much longer. The story has potential: Boris Karloff is a French brain surgeon who is sentenced to ten years of hard work on Devil's Island, the notorious penal colony in French Guiana in South America. His crime, operating on a mortally wounded criminal, is clearly based on the case of the real-life Dr. Mudd who served jail time for attending to John Wilkes Booth after Lincoln's assassination, and if the movie had delved into the moral ambiguities of such a situation, it might have been more interesting. However, after Karloff is sentenced, the movie becomes a rather static tale of men surviving the best they can under brutal conditions on the island, made worse by the cruel hand of overseer James Stephenson. When an already weak prisoner dies on work detail, Karloff is involved in a small uprising against the guards and the group is sentenced to death; however, when Stephenson's little daughter is badly hurt in an accident, he strikes a deal with Karloff to save their lives if Karloff will operate. Karloff does, but Stephenson reneges on his deal and executes one of the men. A daring escape follows, with the men helped by Stephenson's wife (Nedda Harrigan) who feels her husband has become too tyrannical. In the end, Karloff is saved and Stephenson is arrested on corruption charges. The story proceeds in predictable steps, with little humor and even less real excitement. Karloff and Stephenson are OK, but the supporting cast (which is often the saving grace of many a B-film) is completely unmemorable. The main musical theme is haunting the first five or six times it's heard, but by time 20, it's irritating. Not exactly terrible, but difficult to recommend. [TCM]

THE SPORT PARADE (1932)

This little-known film is built on the warhorse narrative frame of a romantic triangle between two close buddies and the girl who threatens to tear apart their friendship. However, the acting and the directorial style (not to mention the youthful pulchritude of leading man Joel McCrea) make this one stand out. McCrea and William Gargan play college friends and teammates on Dartmouth's winning football team. After graduation, Gargan goes the traditional career route and becomes a sports writer. McCrea, however, is seduced by promises of quick money (made by the comically shady Walter Catlett) to be garnered through endorsements and public appearances. Within two years, McCrea is out of work and reduced to hocking his gold football pin for a plane ticket to make a nostalgic visit to the latest Dartmouth game. The two old friends meet by accident and Gargan gets McCrea a job writing a joint column with him for the sports page. Soon, Marian Marsh, Gargan's unenthusiastic squeeze, gets the hots for McCrea and vice versa, which leads to a nasty split between the two pals. McCrea goes back to Catlett and forges a name in pro wrestling, but faces a dilemma when he is asked to take a dive with Gargan and Marsh in the audience. Will he do the right thing?

Given wrestling's reputation, it's hard to care much about the ethical fine points of the sport, but the climactic match is well shot and even works up a little suspense. In fact, the director, Dudley Murphy, best known for co-directing the avant-garde short "Ballet Mecanique" in 1924, makes the entire movie (nicely paced at just over an hour) fun to watch, with fluid camerawork and tricky shots abounding. McCrea, shirtless and provocatively posed in the boxing ring and in an early locker-room scene, is very good, as is Gargan, who isn't bad looking himself. Sturdy support is offered by Catlett, Skeets Gallagher as a sight-challenged photographer who accidentally gets the shot of a lifetime at a car race, and the always amusing Robert Benchley as an inept (and sometimes inebriated) sports announcer. The passive, wooden Marsh is the only disappointment in the cast. Film buffs will enjoy seeing Clarence Wilson and George Chandler in small roles. This early David Selznick production isn't much loved by the critics, but if it ever shows up again on Turner Classic, it's worth a look. [TCM]

THE DEVIL'S IN LOVE (1933)

An odd little Foreign Legion melodrama which might have had worked better with more exotic personalities in the lead roles. Victor Jory is a doctor at a Legion post; after he treats the much-despised commander (Robert Barrat) for heartburn, the commander is found dead the next morning and Jory is accused of murder. Jory's friend and fellow legionnaire David Manners knows that Jory couldn't have done it--and we know that Barrat's servant (J. Carrol Naish) did it--and when Jory is sentenced to death, Manners helps Jory escape. He winds up under an assumed name, taking care of outcasts at Fort Zamba, and falls in love with Loretta Young, niece of the local missionary. As it happens, Young is Manners' girlfriend, and things come to a head when police chief C. Henry Gordon figures out that Jory is a fugitive; Jory winds up back at Manners' fort, risking his freedom by treating the men for a deadly fever. Together, Manners and Jory trick the real killer into thinking he's dying of the fever so he'll confess to the crime. On top of this, the fort is under attack, and Young winds up in the midst of it all. There's a happy ending for Jory, a less happy one for Manners. Jory is not leading man material and, though he's not bad, he doesn't have the charm or appeal that someone like Douglas Fairbanks or Gary Cooper would have brought to the role. Young and Manners are fine, and it's nice to see Bela Lugosi in a non-horror role as a military prosecutor. Herbert Mundin is a comic relief sidekick, but I kept wishing Frank McHugh had the part instead. When you spend much of the movie imagining other actors in major roles, you know there's a problem. BTW, the title is meaningless. [FMC]

WANTED: JANE TURNER (1936)

No one could beat Warner Brothers as putting together solid, entertaining B-movies. This RKO entry helps prove that point. Lee Tracy and Gloria Stuart are postal service inspectors who are assigned to crack a case involving a group of mail thieves who have murdered a driver and stolen some money. The money is sent from New York to Los Angeles to a Jane Turner, in care of General Delivery; Tracy and Stuart track the letter and Stuart follows Turner when she picks it up, hoping she will lead them to the big boss (Paul Guilfoyle, father of the actor who plays Brass on TV's "C.S.I."), but it turns out that this Jane Turner is not a gangster's moll but a woman whose boyfriend's job is in trouble because of financial irregularities. She wants to use the money to save his job. Meanwhile, the fake Jane Turner shows up at the post office, and Tracy snags her and one of her accomplices. Eventually, the bad guys are led to the real Jane Turner's apartment where the relatively exciting climax occurs. I don't typically care much for Lee Tracy (an understatement), but he is not as offensively shrill and grating as usual here. Gloria Stuart is quite good (and quite lovely) in her role. The two are intended to have some screwballish appeal as a couple who, despite surface antagonism, are attracted to each other, and they have some fun moments, but overall, I don't really buy it. Had this been a Warners movie, the writing would have been a little stronger (and the sets wouldn't have looked so cheap) and it would have worked better overall. I like the throwing-in of two subplots. One involves the very funny vaudeville actress Irene Franklin as one member of a team of ladies who are running a fake mail-order bride scheme; Dick Elliot (the mayor of Mayberry in the early Andy Griffith shows) is a rustic sheepherder who shows up to make Franklin make good on her promise. The other plotline has Tracy turn all sensitive as he gives money to an old man who haunts General Delivery waiting for financial help from his son, who seems to have forgotten all about his dad. Barbara Pepper, who later played Doris Ziffel on "Green Acres," also appears. Not too bad, but considering it's only 65 minutes, it felt a little long. Still, I'm glad to have seen it for a chance to see Gloria Stuart--she's been so good in everything I've seen her in, I have to wonder why she got stuck in B-movies and supporting parts, until her comeback in TITANIC. [TCM]

A CHILD IS BORN (1939)

A B-movie remake of LIFE BEGINS. The plot is identical to the original, so I can essentially just paste in my review of the original movie and change the names of the actors: Gale Page presides over a ward of "problem" maternity cases. First and foremost is convicted killer Geraldine Fitzgerald, brought to the ward in handcuffs; her boyish husband, Jeffrey Lynn, is nervous (and not quite as hysterical as Eric Linden was in the original) and though the cops don't want him staying with her, he manages to sneak in a couple of times. Other expectant mothers in the ward include Spring Byington, an old pro at childbirth with six previous kids, and Gladys George as a crusty vaudeville performer who is expecting twins and doesn't want to keep them. Before she gives birth, she finds out she's been dumped by her partner. She puts gin in her "candy" box, gets drunk, and behaves callously toward Fitzgerald, but by the end of the movie, she gets all nurturing and decide to keep the kids. Fay Helm is a psycho case who wanders through the wards, stealing babies. Johnnie Davis is a nervous father sent off on a fool's errand (to buy a can of "Twilight Sleep") to keep him out of the nurses' hair. Others in the large supporting cast include Eve Arden as a nurse, Henry O'Neill and John Litel as doctors, Gloria Holden as a woman with a problem delivery, and Nanette Fabray & Johnny Downs as a young couple whose families disapprove of their marriage. As in the original, none of the mothers look at all pregnant (an onscreen taboo of the era, I guess). Fitzgerald and Lynn are a letdown as the leads, but George, Davis, Byington, and Arden are all fun to watch. Overall, I'd have to recommend the 1932 version over this one, though this is certainly tolerable. [TCM]

THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 (1949)
aka I MARRIED A COMMUNIST

A tight, well-made noir thriller which, despite having a bad critical reputation, is well worth watching. Robert Ryan is a former dock worker in San Francisco who has worked his way up to an executive position with a shipping company. After a two-week courtship, he has married Laraine Day; they know little about each other, though she had dated union leader (and pal of Ryan's) Richard Rober. Suddenly, shady figures from Ryan's past return to pull off some blackmail: Ryan, in his youth, was a Communist and apparently was responsible for the death of a worker during a strike. Commie bigshot Thomas Gomez threatens to reveal Ryan's past unless he goes along with a scheme to foment unrest among the shipworkers and start a crippling strike. More pressure is applied by Ryan's former lover, Janis Carter, who still has a thing for him but goes after Day's young brother (John Agar), not only getting him in the sack but also slowly turning him into a Communist. Keeping all this secret from Day, Ryan agrees to help and a strike is eventually called, but when Agar is killed and Day threatened, Ryan sacrifices himself to bring the Commies down. The anti-Communist propaganda is so ludicrous it cancels itself out and the film is much more fun if you read Gomez as a more typical film noir sadistic gangster. Ryan is good and once Day has something to do (in the last 15 minutes), she's fine as well. However, the best performances come from two supporting players. William Talman is a thug killer hired by Gomez who, in a great scene, sends stoolie Paul Guilfoyle to a watery death and later goes after Day. The real find here is Janis Carter, who mostly made B-movies and retired from movies just five years later. She is excellent, showing strong A-movie potential as the icy blonde bad girl. When she's on screen, you pretty much ignore everyone else. The film is short, so we don’t get as much character development as I'd like, and the ending is quick and perfunctory, but the noirish visual elements are nicely done by director Robert Stevenson, best known for a string of live-action Disney films in the 50's and 60's (most notably MARY POPPINS). The official release title (PIER 13) doesn’t really mean anything; in this case, the more sensational title actually better describes the film. Highly recommended. [TCM]

THE GIRL SAID NO (1930)

Silent star William Haines made the transition to sound films with his popularity intact, but MGM kept putting him in glorified juvenile roles and, at 30, he was getting too old for these parts. Apparently, this film was a box-office hit but his career would essentially be over just three years later. Haines is a reckless playboy from a rich family; he comes home from college still a playboy, which disappoints his rich father, who tries to get him a banking job. Haines, however, is smitten with Leila Hyams, who is engaged to drab stick-in-the-mud Ralph Bushman. This doesn't stop Haines from using every obnoxious trick in the book to try to win Hyams over, basically turning into a shrill stalker. Nothing works until Haines's father dies and Haines, somewhat humbled, turns over a new leaf and proves capable of earning his own living. Still, Hyams decides to go through with her wedding to Bushman, so Haines kidnaps her moments before the ceremony and they finally wind up together. Haines isn't terrible, but he is grating and rather over-the-top, and Hyams is pretty but bland. Bushman, the son of silent star Francis X. Bushman, is good at being drab (I guess that's a compliment). Polly Moran is fun as a persnickety housekeeper, and Marie Dressler steals the show with a brief scene as a rich old lady whom Haines is trying to butter up. The scene works not only due to Dressler, but also because Haines turns down the frantic tone a couple of notches and becomes much more likeable. Worth seeing for fans of Haines or Dressler. [TCM]

NAZARIN (1959)

God bless Turner Classic Movies for their interesting programming choices. This month, they featured Mexican cinema and spent one night on the films of Luis Bunuel. He is known for his surreal touches and his strong critiques of the clergy, particularly Catholics; this film was done in a realist mode, but does have some stinging anti-Catholic commentary. The handsome and charismatic Francisco Rabal plays the title character, an itinerant priest trying to make his life an imitation of Christ: he has few material possessions, lives on charity (and gives most of that to the poor), befriends social outcasts, and tries to help others do the right thing. Unfortunately, despite his best intentions, he is usually ineffective at best, and sometimes causes more hurt or confusion than he cures. He spends most of the movie in the company of a whore (who has committed murder) and her sister, who falls in love with him. The church and the society look down on him and he endures tests of faith which shake him but never quite break him. He is called a saint and a healer by the common folk, but winds up at the end under arrest and headed for an uncertain future. The last scene is puzzling: hungry and headed for prison, he is given a pineapple by a merchant. After looking tortured, he eats it and the film ends. I like to think this is a positive moment in that he has finally learned to truly accept charity, but who knows? I seem to have, by coincidence, watched several movies recently which I like to put under the umbrella category Bleak Black-and-White Films about Religion (see my review of Pasolini's GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW) and I'll write up more of them next month, as well as reviewing a couple more Bunuel films. [TCM]

THE EMPEROR WALTZ (1948)

Charming and good-natured Bing Crosby musical, much more fun than most critics allow. Perhaps they expected too much since Billy Wilder directed and co-wrote it; it's certainly not in the same league as other Wilder romantic comedies, such as SOME LIKE IT HOT or THE APARTMENT, but as a Crosby vehicle, it works quite nicely. In an operetta-like European setting, Crosby plays an American phonograph salesman trying to get the emperor of Austria (Richard Haydn) to endorse his product (he even has his dog along to strike the famous RCA "His Master's Voice" pose). He falls in love with countess Joan Fontaine, whose scoundrel of a father (Roland Culver) is trying to curry the emperor's favor by mating Fontaine's dog with one of the royal dogs. Of course, things get sticky for both the people and the dogs before the happy ending. The colorful sets and beautiful backgrounds (with a national park in Canada doubling rather nicely for the mountains of Austria) are definite pluses, as are the performances: Fontaine is relaxed, Culver is wickedly sly, and Crosby is at the peak of his leading man appeal. The bulk of the movie is told in flashback at a huge ball the emperor is throwing (Crosby calls it a "clambake") and Lucile Watson is loads of fun as a gossipy dowager relating the ups and downs of Fontaine's romance to party guests. Another plus: some good songs, including a yodeling number that Crosby sings on a mountain pass with his own echo. A couple of relatively minor minuses: the dog stuff takes center stage for too long and the mood of frothy whimsy is eventually flattened out by the end--at 106 minutes, it's maybe 15 minutes too long. But if you're in the mood for an old-fashioned romantic musical, this will satisfy you. [DVD]

HITLER--DEAD OR ALIVE (1942)

Bizarre B-movie propaganda film, ultra cheap but watchable. Ward Bond is a gangster, just out of Alcatraz after a 10-year stretch. He and his buddies (Warren Hymer and Paul Fix) visit a scientist who is offering a million dollars to anyone who can kill Hitler or bring him to justice--his brother was killed by the Nazis and he wants personal revenge. Bond and friends go to Canada, join the Royal Canadian Air Force (the story is set before the United States officially entered the war), hijack a plane and its pilot (Bruce Edwards), and head to Germany. They are caught and wind up in Dachau (presented as essentially just a prison), and claim to be spies with an important message for Hitler. Meanwhile, the Countess von Brandt (Dorothy Tree), mistress to a Nazi colonel, takes an interest in the fliers--she turns out to be the legendary Rosebud, a Resistance worker who helps to free prisoners of the Nazis. They escape (with Fix sacrificing his life for the rest) and Tree gives them a hiding place; though she's against Bond's murder plot because of possible retaliation by the Nazis against innocent women and children, she is forced to allow them to pose as musicians who accompany her to a social date with the Fuhrer. Joining them is an old acquaintance of Hitler's who, while saving his life from an assassination attempt years ago, accidentally gave Hitler a disfiguring scare on his lip, which is the reason he wears his distinctive mustache. In the climax, Bond gets Hitler (Bob Watson), and shaves off his mustache to make sure he's got the right man and not a double; when the Nazis catch up with them, they don't recognize their cowardly leader and they shoot him dead. Bond is killed by firing squad, but Edwards and Tree escape to the States to spread the message they've learned that it's not just one man but an entire evil movement that needs to be destroyed.

The above description makes the movie sound more interesting than it really is. As a scrappy pulp-fiction anti-Nazi adventure story, Warner's DESPERATE JOURNEY with Errol Flynn is far more enjoyable. The extremely low budget leads to cheap-looking sets and a terrible music score. The actors aren't bad, especially Dorothy Tree (who got her start in talkies in a wordless role as one of Lugosi's undead brides in DRACULA), although Bond gives a weak one-note, over-the-top performance. I like him a lot in supporting parts (GONE WITH THE WIND, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, MALTESE FALCON) but maybe he just wasn't cut out for lead roles. The tone of the movie, if not quite comic, is light, but a scene near the climax of crying children being lined up against a wall and shot feels startlingly out of place. Watson is OK as a comic-book version of Hitler, and there is something satisfying in seeing him turn squealing coward when captured by Bond. [DVD]

FOLIES BERGERE (1935)

In the past, I have found myself immune to the charms of Maurice Chevalier, but I must admit he is quite good in this frothy musical, the best Astaire/Rogers musical that Astaire and Rogers never made. Chevalier seems to be playing a version of himself, a French music-hall entertainer named Charlier. He happens to be the spitting image of the famous financier Baron Cassini and so has worked an impression of the Baron into his act. One night, the Baron (also Chevalier) and his wife (Merle Oberon) come see Charlier's act, but before the two men can meet, Cassini is given the bad news that an land deal into which he has sunk a great deal of his bank's money has soured and he leaves, planning a secret trip to London in order to secure some loans before news of the potential crash can leak out. After he's left, his business partners decide to hire Charlier to impersonate Cassini at a social function the next night, which might be attended by the Minister of Finance. For no good reason except that it suits the plot, Charlier doesn't want the baroness to know about the impersonation, but the partners tell her anyway, so she knows but he doesn't know she knows. In the middle of the party, Charlier's jealous wife (Ann Sothern) arrives, which begins a string of improbable occurrences leading to the last half-hour becoming much like the Lunt-Fontanne comedy THE GUARDSMAN, with the Baroness being unsure if she spent the night with her husband or with the music-hall singer. (In the dialogue, everyone is much concerned about the two having kissed after the party, but the plotting really makes no sense unless the audience translates "kissing" to "having sex.") Of course, everything works out for everyone in the end.

I usually find Chevalier insufferable, but here, he has a light touch that works nicely, and he does an excellent job making his Cassini different from his Charlier--the two never meet, so no special effects are required. Oberon, another performer I've never liked much, is quite good here in her first Hollywood film; she's lovely and sexy and has a nice comic touch. Sothern is fine, but doesn't really get much screen time. There is strong support from such reliables as Eric Blore, doing his flustered butler bit to perfection, Robert Grieg, and Halliwell Hobbes. Early in the movie, there is the very modern touch of having the Baron and Baroness declare themselves as having an "open" marriage (with Walter Byron playing the somewhat effete admirer of the Baroness), but this makes the outrage over Oberon supposedly having an affair with Charlier seem blown way out of proportion. I'm guessing the foolish figure of the not-quite-lover (also found in Astaire/Rogers films and the 1939 screwball comedy MIDNIGHT) was a way to get around the strictures of the Code. I also need to mention the fine production numbers by Dave Gould, who won an Oscar for this movie; there are lots of Busby Berkeley touches, like neon lightning bolts, aerial shots of elaborate dance patterns, and dozens of dancing girls with props. The numbers are clustered at the beginning, with one last "Straw Hat" number at the end, and they are every bit as fun as any of the Warners' "Gold Diggers" routines. Highly recommended. [FMC]

FLIGHT ANGELS (1940)

Since the last two movies I wrote up involved airplane pilots, this one will complete the trilogy. The title refers to stewardesses, but they are really just background for the real story of a male pilot, his gal, his pal, and his ego. Dennis Morgan is a playboy pilot, Virginia Bruce is his long-suffering girlfriend, and Wayne Morris is the friend. Doctor John Litel discovers that Morgan's eyes are giving out and airline boss Ralph Bellamy reassigns him to teaching stewardesses a class on the basics of flying. Naturally, Morgan is frustrated staying on the ground and, when a new "stratosphere ship" that he and Morris have been working on is ready for a test, Morgan punches out Morris and takes the plane up himself, with almost tragic results. There is a subplot involving Morris's girl Jane Wyman, who gets into a knockdown catfight with snotty Margot Stevenson. The leads in this B-movie are all fine, with Wyman especially fun in her scenes in the stewardesses' lounge, where the man-hungry angels chatter endlessly. Rather dated, but solid in that breezy Warners way. Also with John Ridgely, Jan Clayton (later the mom in the original Lassie show), and Dorothea Kent. Best line, from Wyman: "The stork that brought you should have been arrested for smuggling dope!" [TCM]

CENTRAL AIRPORT (1933)

This doesn't seem to be a remake, nor has it been officially remade, but the plot is very familiar: two men, related by blood and/or in the same profession, fight for the love of a woman. In this case, the two men are brothers and pilots, and this specific set-up has distinct echoes of an earlier Warners film, THE CROWD ROARS in which the brothers were car racers. Richard Barthelmess is the older brother, an airline pilot who crashes in a storm and is fired for recklessness. He takes a job at a bank, replacing his kid brother Tom Brown who has a job as a test pilot. Barthelmess meets up with Sally Eilers, a stunt parachutist, and when her flying partner (also her brother) is killed in a crash, Barthelmess takes his place. The two travel around the country doing their act, and become lovers in the process, but when he balks at marriage (in his words, "Just because you're hungry, you don't have to buy a restaurant"), she leaves him. Of course, it being such a small world and all, doesn't she wind up pairing off with Brown, who *does* marry her. Barthelmess takes any flying job he can, and when we see him next, he's got a limp and an eyepatch, and there is still some spark between him and Eilers. Brown, now an airline pilot, crashes and Barthelmess flies out in a storm to save him. Will Barthelmess make it back in thick fog? Who will Eilers stick with? 

The movie has some good flying scenes--the director, William Wellman, was a pilot and directed the Oscar-winning WINGS--and some nice pre-Code touches. I especially like fact that there is no pussyfooting around in letting us know that Barthelmess and Eilers are sleeping together; this wouldn't have been possible in the movies a year later. The movie's main liability is Barthelmess who had been a big silent star, but whose career was fading fast in the early 30s. He's stiff and, at 38, seems a bit too old for the part; conversely, the 23-year-old Brown looks about 18 and seems a smidge too young. Still, Brown and Eilers are good, and the sexual tension between the three is well played. Fans of character actors will recognize Grant Mitchell, Charles Lane, and James Murray. Predictable but fun, with a less predictable and satisfying ending. [TCM]

BRIGHT EYES (1934)

I don't quite know how I got to be 40-something without ever having seen a Shirley Temple movie. Strictly speaking, that's not quite true since I've seen two movies from the mid-1940s in which she played supporting roles (SINCE YOU WENT AWAY and I'LL BE SEEING YOU), but I had never seen any of her child star movies of the 30s until now. This, featuring one of her first starring roles, is famous for her rendition of her signature song, "On the Good Ship Lollipop," and who knew that the ship in question was actually not a boat, but an airplane? Temple is the daughter of Lois Wilson, maid to the wealthy, snooty Smythe family. Temple's father was a pilot who died in a crack-up some years ago and the little girl has become something of a mascot to the local pilots ever since; she especially idolizes James Dunn, who treats Temple like a daughter. The Smythes don't like the pilots hanging around the house and decide, after Christmas, to fire Wilson. However, on Christmas day, Wilson is hit and killed in a car accident. The family agrees to keep Temple briefly, but plan on shipping her out to an orphanage as soon as possible. Dunn wants to adopt her, but so does Uncle Ned (Charles Sellon), a grumpy old man who is tolerated by the Smythes only because they stand to inherit a bundle from him, and who is happy only in the presence of Temple (and who insists on puncturing the family's pretensions by pronouncing their last name "Smith"). Entering this custody battle is Judith Allen, a visiting socialite who had been engaged at one time to Dunn; gee, if only she and Dunn could patch things up and make a traditional family for Temple! There is virtually no suspense as to the outcome, so a scene in which Temple stows away on Dunn's plane during a terrible storm is thrown in to give some tension to the last half of the film. It's not a bad movie--Temple is good and not nearly as syrupy as I had been led to expect. She has a fine antagonist in Jane Withers, playing the bratty daughter of the Smythes, who steals most of the scenes she's in. Dunn, best known as the alcoholic father in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, is also fine, and Jane Darwell has a small role as the family cook. The "Lollipop" number is a bit strange, occurring as it does in a passenger plane with a dozen or so butch pilots crooning along. I was rather hoping that Temple would wind up living with the hunky single pilots at the airport, though I suppose that unorthodox family situation would have been way too subversive for the time. [FMC]