WINTER A-GO-GO (1965)

Just the other day, a friend asked me if I thought I would ever run out of "old movies" to review on this blog. I said no. Why then, you might ask, am I reviewing a mid-60's ski-bunny teen comedy with no stars and very little comedy? I've run out of "real" classics? Dementia has set in? I could say that it was over 90 degrees yesterday and I needed a movie that might cool me down. I could say that I'm interested in the way genres get reworked, deconstructed, and received from generation to generation. Well, it was over 90 degrees and I am interested in genre theory, but the real reason I stuck with the movie to the bitter end: two handsome leading men. But you would have figured that out soon enough. Actually, as teen comedies of the era go, this one is perhaps a smidge better than the average beach party movie which it emulates. William Wellman Jr. (yes, son of the respected director of films such as The High and the Mighty and Battleground) has inherited a dilapidated ski lodge which he and his buddy, James Stacy, are determined to turn into a going concern. They hire a small group of attractive and energetic guys and gals to help out and are soon doing well, until an villainous local businessman hires two goons to break up the fun.

I have rarely stuck with a 60's beach movie to the end, I think because, despite the eye candy, the plots of most of them are ridiculous, with weird inventions, stolen gems, mistaken identities, and characters named Eric Von Zipper. This ski resort variation dumps most of that stuff and sticks with romantic maneuvers and a basic good guy/bad guy conflict. Wellman's secretary, Beverly Adams, pines away for him, Stacy pines away for any girl in a bikini (yes, they wear bikinis even in the snow), and a foreign-sounding rich lady, Jill Donohue, is stalking any man in a ski sweater, trying to forget her ex-boyfriend, who it turns out is one of the not-so-menacing thugs. There are songs, two written by Monkees songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, and others by Norman Greenfield, who was Neil Sedaka's songwriting partner, which are just a tiny notch better than most beach movie songs; the catchy title track is by the Hondells, of "Little Honda" fame. There's a fun brawl, a midnight pajama "square dance," and a couple of tedious skiing scenes. Stacy is very cute in a clean-cut way, Wellman only a little less so (though he looks adorable in green velour); Nancy Czar, as the booty-shaking Jonesy, is very sexy; Adams only a little less so. There's a running joke about the bar only serving Cokes (early product placement?), and another one about an electric-eye device set to catch the horny Stacy when he tries to sneak into the women's rooms at night. The waitresses wear outfits that make each one look like Wonder Woman if she worked at Santa's Toyshop. The negatives: Stacy and Wellman, though adequate actors, don't have the chemistry or energy that would have made them a fun team; the chef (H.T. Tsaing) is an obnoxious Chinese stereotype; I didn't give a darn about any of the romantic pairings. Still, I did stick with it to the very end, a ski lodge wedding with "Here Comes the Bride" played as a surf instrumental, and I didn't feel too bad the next morning. [TCM]

DESERT SANDS (1955)

B-movie desert adventure which is nowhere near the 30's standards of GUNGA DIN or BEAU GESTE, but does have a few minor pleasures. At an isolated Foreign Legion post (is there any other kind?) in the Sahara Desert, the men are waiting for a band of relief troops who should be marching in any time now. The new commander (Ralph Meeker) arrives by helicopter but they soon find out that all the other men have been slaughtered by an Arab tribe led by El Zanal (Keith Larsen) and his hot sister Zara (Marla English). Larsen claims to be fighting for a "pan-Islamic Sahara" but it seems to be more important to him to seek revenge against the Legion for the murder of his father fifteen years ago--though we have seen that Arab wine merchant John Carradine is actually responsible. After we get to know a few of the ethnically diverse Legionnaires, Larsen and his tribe attack, killing several men and holding the rest hostage so they'll carry out his plan to kill the rescue band that the Legion has on its way. Meeker appears to go along with Larsen's plan, but actually carries forward a plot to thwart the slaughter. A budding romance between Meeker and English (who whips Meeker in the face the first time she sees him) complicates things. In the end, of course, Meeker and his men triumph.

I became a fan of Meeker, a medium-sized chunk of mild, mumbling American masculinity, after seeing him in KISS ME DEADLY, but sadly that movie seems to have been his career peak. He's fine here as a B-lead as he doesn't have to stretch past his acting limits. Larsen is far too much of a hunky California-type to be believable as an Arab, but his villainy is acceptable--undercut a bit in a scene in which he is dressed in an white Elvis jumpsuit; English is pretty much terrible all the way through. The supporting cast includes Ben Wright (the Nazi Zeller in Sound of Music), Philip Tonge (Mr. Shellhammer in Miracle on 34th Street) doing an outrageous Scottish accent, the always reliable J. Carroll Naish, Ron Randell, and blonde hunk John Smith as a Legionnaire from Texas. The only surprise in the predictable plot comes late in the day and involves Larsen's motives for the attack. Some of the dead bodies seen in the background are surprisingly bloody for a 50's movie, though given all the hot desert action, no one ever appears very sweaty. [TCM]

THE TRIP (1967)

Peter Fonda, a director of hip TV commercials, is in the midst of a divorce from Susan Strasberg. When smoking pot with his friends (including Dennis Hopper) at an incredibly psychedelic Haight/Ashbury house doesn't chill him out enough, Bruce Dern offers to be his guide for an acid trip, his main advice being a quote from Timothy Leary by way of the Beatles: "Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream." The rest of the movie is Fonda's day-long trip; we shuttle back and forth between his visions and objective "real life." A pastoral stroll turns into a creepy chase through a medieval wood. A dip in Dern's very nifty pool (half inside, half outside) turns Fonda into a sobbing, naked mess. Hopper appears in his visions as an inquisitor, haranguing him about his commercials. Fonda imagines making love to Strasberg as swirly light-show projections play over their bodies. He also freaks out about death and, later in the evening, he has a vision of Dern lying dead in his living room, and he races out into the night for a series of minor adventures: he breaks into a suburban house and watches TV with a little girl, chats up a bemused woman at a laundromat, goes to a disco, and picks up a woman for more swirly, light-show sex. In an ambiguous finale, Fonda wakes up the next morning and claims that the trip was an insightful, positive experience, but at the final freeze frame, his image cracks like a broken mirror.

Since this film is a relic of the psychedelic era, I was expecting it to be a terribly dated, garish, and preachy experience that I would give up on halfway through. Surprisingly, it still holds up all these years later, albeit more as a novelty than as a truly gripping film, but an honorable novelty nonetheless. Director Roger Corman dropped acid at least once to see what it was like before filming--I could make an educated guess that Fonda and Hopper already knew, though Dern was actually vehemently anti-drug. The most effective scenes are the sex scenes; the lights projected on bodies add an interesting texture to the proceedings. Fonda's "real life" interactions while he's high (especially the nighttime ones) ring truer than the "visions," which look like outtakes from some of Corman's Poe movies. The scene in which Dern preps Fonda for the trip comes off like a gay porn moment--a lot of tension building as Fonda says, "I'm nervous," and Dern replies, "Relax, man, you're beautiful." Hopper, shirtless, comes off like a genuine stoned blond surfer dude. The big Victorian psychedelic house is wildly cool but a little too crisply bright in its colors to seem real. Jack Nicholson wrote the screenplay, and the producers, apparently worried that the film portrayed an LSD trip too positively, forced Corman to add an opening disclaimer and the "mirror crack" shot at the end. Corman regulars Dick Miller, (A BUCKET OF BLOOD), Barboura Morris, Luana Anders, and Beach Dickerson (CREATURE FROM THE HAUNTED SEA) appear in small roles. The music, some by the Electric Flag, is disappointing; a bigger budget might have let them use Jefferson Airplane. Much easier to sit through than I would have thought, though I prefer Corman is his horror mode. [DVD]

ONE BODY TOO MANY (1944)

An old-dark-house, reading-of-the-will B-comedy, notable for featuring Jack Haley, Oz's Tin Man, in a rare starring role. He's a mild-mannered insurance salesman who has an appointment to sell insurance to an old eccentric millionaire named Rutherford who's a strong believer in the occult, but by the time he gets to the house, the old man is dead and the relatives have already gathered for the reading of the will, which has some bizarre requirements. Rutherford wants to be buried in a glass domed vault and the will stipulates that his guests must stay until he is interred, after which everyone learns who gets how much. In addition, if his burial wishes are not met, the will bequests will be reversed, so the person who would have gotten the least will get the most, and vice versa. This gimmick holds absolutely no water if you think about it for more than 10 seconds, so don't. When Haley arrives, he is mistaken for a private detective who has been hired to keep watch over the body until the burial, and when the bodyguard never shows up, Haley agrees to fill in, mostly because he finds himself with a crush on cute heiress Jean Parker, one of the few relatives that the old man actually liked, and one who seems to be in danger when a large stone falls from the top of an observatory and just misses her. There is a very funny scene in which Haley reads a spooky story out loud while spooky things are going on right behind him. Another highlight is when Haley hides in a coffin which is then carried out and tossed in a lake. The climax is well staged, hurt only the low budget. Bela Lugosi, who gets top billing, is a red herring mysterious butler who is always offering people coffee (which may or may not be poisoned); other recognizable names in the cast include Lyle Talbot, Blanche Yurka, and Douglas Fowley. Good fun, if not quite in the same league as Bob Hope's similarly plotted CAT AND THE CANARY. [DVD]

BEDTIME STORY (1941)

Decent romantic comedy; if it offers nothing new (it comes off as a watered-down version of the screwball classic THE AWFUL TRUTH), it still goes down smoothly with a good cast having a good time. Loretta Young is a famous actress who is about to announce her retirement from the stage to go live the easy life on a newly-bought Connecticut farm; however her husband, playwright Fredric March, refuses to give up the Broadway life, so he sells the farm without consulting with her and continues working on his play. She storms out in a huff, heading to Reno for a divorce until March plants a gossip item in the papers that he can't go on without her. She falls for it and returns to New York and the rest of the film consists of March's hijinks to get Young back, and her hijinks to make him suffer. One of March's stunts involves hiring a young actress (Eve Arden) to pose as Young's replacement in the play; in typical screwball fashion, Young arranges to marry a stuffed shirt, in this case, banker Allyn Joslyn—of course, we know he'll never do, just as we know that poor Ralph Bellamy won't do for Irene Dunne in AWFUL TRUTH (or, for that matter, won't do for Rosalind Russell in HIS GIRL FRIDAY). There are more phony scenes, including a fun one in a hotel room that was probably inspired by the famous stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers NIGHT AT THE OPERA. Naturally, the couple finally compromise and make up, getting the farm back and putting on the play, and the movie ends with her announcement from the stage that she's pregnant (another "relationship problem" movie of the era that is resolved by biology). There is solid support not just from Arden but from Robert Benchley and Helen Westley (who has a funny drunk scene). March and Young try hard, but feel a little like second-string performers pinched into service. Bubbly and fun, if not quite in the top rank of screwball comedies. [TCM]

THE LOVE-INS (1967)

It's a given that practically any Hollywood movie about LSD, hippies, and anything the least bit psychedelic is going to be lame. This one, however, is a notch above the average, more entertaining than many of the morality-tale downers of the era. James MacArthur and Susan Oliver, the oldest, squarest looking Haight-Ashbury residents ever, have been expelled from college for publishing an underground newspaper. English professor Richard Todd resigns in sympathy with them. They invite him to a Love-In and soon Todd is living, commune-style, with the kids on the Haight and preaching the psychedelic gospel to growing crowds. His slogan, "Be more, sense more, love more," clearly signals that he's a fictionalized version of Timothy Leary. After Oliver, who has started sleeping with Todd, has a bad trip, MacArthur becomes disenchanted, claiming that Todd's whole movement is a scheme for personal gain. Todd's fame grows, and on the eve of a major rally, Oliver tells Todd she's pregnant and he demands she get an abortion. She tries to kill herself; MacArthur saves her but can't save the baby, and heads off to Todd’s rally with a gun.

This is at heart an old-fashioned melodrama of love, sex, and ambition, dressed up in 60's drag. Though the film obviously doesn't take a pro-LSD stance, it also doesn't completely dismiss the hippies, either. Scenes of hippie bliss are disrupted by "straights," in one case a motorcycle gang and, more damagingly, a bunch of jocks pissed off that a hippie sleep-in demonstration in the park is interfering with their football game, and it's made clear that it's not the hippies who in the wrong. Oliver's bad trip scene is rather laughable; on a night club dance floor, while a band performs a song that references "Alice in Wonderland," she imagines that she's Alice in a bizarre Wonderland ballet. She seems to suffer no ill effects the next day, though later one young tripping man who thinks he can fly leaps out a window to his death during the street riot. There's also a subplot which goes nowhere about a father trying to get his daughter, who is living at the commune with her boyfriend, to come home. The father is made to look intolerant if not exactly ridiculous. Though Todd is clearly meant to be seen as an exploiter--we never see him take any drugs and his attitude toward Oliver is piggish, to say the least--he's not developed well enough as a character to come off as a real bad guy, and conversely MacArthur, the hero figure, seems largely motivated by jealousy; he's likable, yes, but that's not the same as being heroic. Todd sounds like Richard Burton and looks like the smarmy British English teacher in BYE BYE BIRDIE. Not a moment of the action along the Haight looks authentic and the ending, which should be suspenseful, is completely botched, in the writing and the action and the acting. Otherwise, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. [TCM]

HARRIET CRAIG (1950)
CRAIG'S WIFE (1936)

Both of these films are based on a 1920's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "Craig's Wife" by George Kelly. The basic situation is the same in both, but there some plot differences. I saw the 1950 film first, so I'll use that as the basis for my summary. Joan Crawford is Harriet Craig, a woman who seems to have it all: a gorgeous house, servants, and a loving and successful husband, Walter (Wendell Corey). Childless, she has invested all her time and energy into taking care of her large, spotless house, with the help of servants whom she treats badly. While Harriet is out of town with her cousin Clare (K.T. Stevens) visiting her sick mother, she explains to Clare that a woman needs to carefully train and control her man. When they return unexpectedly early, Harriet is shocked to see the house in disarray from a party that Walter threw, and we discover that Harriet's meticulous ways have alienated most of Walter's old pals. She treats the house like a museum, and when an expensive Ming vase on the mantle is pointed out to us, we know it will wind up broken before the end of the movie. Clare takes a shine to a co-worker of Walter's, but Harriet does not approve and tries to subvert their relationship. We find out that Harriet has told people that Walter doesn't want kids, but in reality she has lied to him, telling him she can't have children--we also see her blatantly use sex as a bargaining tool. She's jealous of a widow neighbor whom Walter occasionally visits. The last straw occurs when Walter winds up in line for a promotion and Harriet, upset at the changes to her lifestyle that the new job might entail, lies to his boss, saying that Walter is an irresponsible gambler. Soon, Harriet's web of lies collapses and she is left alone, no husband, no relatives, no servants, and no friends, just the house. The icy, hard persona that Crawford had developed in her movie roles of the late 40's makes her the perfect match for the role. Corey is a washout as the husband, and the rest of the cast is overshadowed by Crawford, though Lucile Watson is quite good in a small but crucial role as Walter's boss' wife, and Allyn Joslyn is effective as a friend of Walter's.

The earlier film stars Rosalind Russell and, though the trajectory of the plot is the same, certain details are different (though I assume closer to the original play). There are still friends, neighbors, relatives, and servants to be abused by Harriet, and the Ming vase is still teetering on the mantle. But instead of a job promotion, a melodramatic crime plot is Harriet's downfall--because of Harriet's unfounded jealousy, Walter becomes a suspect in the death of a friend of his. In this version, an aunt and a female housekeeper, driven away by Harriet, leave together to travel the world--a quiet nod to lesbianism, perhaps, thanks to the director Dorothy Arzner? It is also stated directly here that Harriet believes that a woman can only achieve "emancipation" through a good marriage, and she has done so, with her house as the proof. Russell is different from Crawford but almost as good; she makes the character a bit more sympathetic and just a smidge less cold. John Boles as the husband is only marginally better than Wendell Corey; Billie Burke is the neighbor, and Jane Darwell and Raymond Walton are familiar faces in the cast. Both versions are well worth catching, though the Russell one is hard to find, not being on DVD yet. [DVD/VHS]

This week on Turner Classic Movies:

One of my favorite Christmas movies of all time, THE BISHOP'S WIFE, will be on Monday the 7th at 2 p.m. It's a lovely fantasy appropriate for any season. Tuesday morning at 10 is CAPTAIN SINDBAD, a grand 60's fantasy adventure, as good if not better than Ray Harryhausen's JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS which will be on later that day. It's Rosalind Russell month on TCM and two of her best, HIS GIRL FRIDAY and THE WOMEN, have already aired, but this Tuesday night is CRAIG'S WIFE, a solid "woman's movie" melodrama which I'll be reviewing soon. Thursday night are two great all-time classics: THE AWFUL TRUTH, perhaps the best screwball comedy ever, at 10; and ALL ABOUT EVE, one of the best movies ever of any genre, at 11:45. Finally, a fun 60's camp movie called THE LOVE-INS is on TCM Underground Friday night/Saturday mornign at 3.45 a.m.

THE SPHINX (1933)

A Poverty-Row mystery with a nifty twist. Someone has been killing stockbrokers, then stopping and asking a nearby witness for the time. At the site of the latest murder, the witness is a slightly drunk janitor (Luis Alberni) who pegs well-dressed, well-known philanthropist Lionel Atwill as the killer, but everyone knows that Atwill is a deaf-mute, who, as a doctor testifies at the trial, was born with paralyzed vocal cords and could not have asked for the time, so Atwill is exonerated. Reporter Theodore Newton has a hunch that somehow Atwill is indeed behind the string of killings, though Newton's girlfriend (Sheila Terry) is equally sure that it couldn't be such a nice guy. She begins visiting Atwill at his mansion to collect material for a story on his life, and he starts to fall for her. Newton tries to trick Atwill into showing that he can hear, but nothing works, though he does get a strange reaction out of the deaf-mute when Newton plunks at Atwill's piano. That piano turns out to be a key to the mystery, but will the solution come at the cost of Terry's life? Mystery fans will have no trouble figuring out what's going on, but the film is fun anyway, in spite of the low budget production (sparse sets--except for the opening office building hallway--little background music, sluggish pacing, a couple of Newton's blown lines left in). The basic idea for the movie is good but the script is weak; for example, there is no clear reason given for Newton to continue suspecting Atwill except that otherwise there'd be no movie. Atwill is always fun to watch in his villainous roles, though here he stumbles a bit; when he uses sign language, he flips his fingers around like a little kid playing at sign language. Luckily, his hands are kept mostly at the very edge of the camera range, so it's not too distracting. The Alpha DVD print is so-so. [DVD]

RAINTREE COUNTY (1957)

This romantic melodrama set during the Civil War is clearly a Gone With the Wind-wannabe, but it never even comes close, lacking sweep, grandeur, and interesting characters. In a small town in Indiana in 1859, Montgomery Clift is graduating from Pardee Academy and has plans to marry childhood sweetheart Eva Marie Saint. Though Clift is looked upon as a catch, he's also looked on as a bit of a misfit who believes in the existence of the mythical Chinese raintree, supposedly planted in the middle of the town swamp. The person who finds it will find the answer to the mystery of life, and Clift really seems to believe that someday he'll find it. One day, Southern belle Elizabeth Taylor arrives in town and sets her cap for Clift. They have a brief affair which ends up in a pregnancy, so Clift marries Taylor. On their honeymoon, she is shocked to find out that Clift is an abolitionist. Complicating this is some bizarre self-hatred on Taylor's part: she believes that her birth mother was her family's black maid. There's also some mystery about a house fire years ago, and, oh yeah, Taylor has a pathological attachment to her doll collection. When the war breaks out, she returns South and Clift joins the Union Army. Years later, he discovers she has gone certifiably mad. He frees her from an asylum and they make a stab at a new life together, but when he runs for Congress, she is convinced that she is holding him back, so she heads off to the swamp to find the raintree.

There is much more going on, and many more actors in supporting roles, including Lee Marvin, Rod Taylor, Agnes Moorehead, Walter Abel, and Tom Drake, but it all feels like an oddly empty three hours. There are visual echoes galore from GONE WITH THE WIND, including a riverboat honeymoon, a ballroom dancing scene, and a ruined Southern mansion, but oddly for a movie about miscegenation and the Civil War, there are virtually no major black characters. Taylor is fine, but Clift seems like an alien who was beamed onto a movie set and is incredibly uncomfortable there. Maybe he was a bit ahead of his time (I could imagine Sean Penn in a remake), or maybe it was the notorious car crash he was in during filming; his jaw was shattered and he had to have major reconstructive surgery. An oddity I can't really recommend. [TCM]

ONE IN A MILLION (1936)

My first (and maybe last) Sonja Henie movie. Henie, a Norwegian skater, had just won her third Olympic gold medal in 1936 when she decided to go professional and head to Hollywood. 20th Century Fox signed her and had some success with her in a short string of films over the next ten years. Based on this one, my guess is that, while a pleasant enough personality, she couldn't have made the leap to non-skating roles. An all-girl band led by Adolphe Menjou and his wife (Arline Judge) is on a bus tour of Switzerland. Their hotel burns down just before they arrive, so they wind up taking over most of the rooms at a small inn run by Jean Hersholt and his daughter (Henie). Years before, Hersholt had won a gold medal in skating but had it taken away because of some doubts about his amateur standing. He has been training Henie to compete in the current Olympics, and when Menjou sees her practicing, he asks her to join the band as a specialty act. She says she can't get paid for her work until after the Olympics, but she does join them in an "exhibition" performance. The problem is that Menjou and the band have gotten paid for the show, so when competition time comes around, Henie wins, but the question of whether or not the show was "professional" work raises its ugly head. Don Ameche, a reporter who is convinced that a mysterious guest (Montagu Love) may be a dangerous anarchist, gets involved with Henie and her problems and helps to save the day. The skating routines are well shot, but Henie's moves are not nearly as elaborate as those of modern-day skaters. There are a few songs (none sung by Henie) and a couple of novelty bits by the Ritz Brothers, most notably "The Horror Boys of Hollywood" in which they caricature Charles Laughton (as Mutiny on the Bounty's Bligh), Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff. Russian harmonica player Borrah Minevitch does his own little comic novelty bit. Good old dour, dry Ned Sparks is fun as Ameche's sidekick. Ameche hadn't yet settled into a persona and seems a little shrill here, and Henie isn't required to do much more than skate and look pretty; overall the movie is harmless fun but I don't know that I need to see another Henie vehicle. [FMC]

THREE SMART GIRLS (1936)
SOMETHING IN THE WIND (1947)

Until this week, I used to confuse Deanna Durbin with Sonja Henie, imagining both of them as little 30's-era, skating Hilary Duffs. Now I know the difference: Henie was the cute skater and Durbin was the cute actress. A chapter in Jeanine Basinger's excellent book "The Star Machine" got me interested in seeing some of Durbin's films (previously, I'd only seen her adult turn late in her career in the noir CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY in which she plays the next thing to a hooker, decidedly not representative of her earlier films). THREE SMART GIRLS was Durbin's first movie; it feels like a mash-up of Andy Hardy, Heidi, and Disney's Parent Trap. Three teenage daughters live in Switzerland with their mother (Nella Walker), whose ex-husband, Charles Winninger, is a rich businessman in New York City. Walker still harbors the hope that they will get back together again, and the sisters, who haven't seen Dad in ten years, impulsively decide to go to New York with their accommodating housekeeper (Lucille Watson) to play matchmaker. Winninger is engaged to the gold digging Binnie Barnes (with her meddling mother, Alice Brady, always present), and most of his acquaintances don't like her, so they're only too happy to help the girls. A scheme is cooked up in which a business associate (John King) pays a drunken, down-on-his-luck Russian count (Mischa Auer) to show up at a nightclub and woo Barnes, making her think he's a better match, but signals get crossed and a real British lord with real money to burn (Ray Milland) is mistaken for Auer. One of the sisters (Barbara Read) falls for Milland, another (Nan Grey) falls for King, and that leaves the younger Durbin, too young to hang out in nightclubs, to right all wrongs and give everyone (except Barnes and Brady) a happy ending. Durbin is a great singer, getting not only a couple of pop tunes, but a little opera aria as well. She's lovely and perky; she's sometimes compared to Shirley Temple--older, less syrupy--but I think a more apt comparison is to Judy Garland. The movie is great fun, with good acting and strong production values, though the script is a little weak at times.

SOMETHING IN THE WIND comes eleven years later and is one of her last movies. When the rich patriarch of the Read family dies, it's discovered that he's been sending a monthly allowance to a mystery woman named Mary Collins. We find out Mary (Jean Adair) was Read's first love, but the family disapproved of her, so he married someone else (Margaret Wycherly) and, when Adair had to raise her late sister's child, also named Mary (Deanna Durbin), Read started sending her money to help out. Son John Dall investigates and assumes that Durbin was Read's mistress. Durbin, pissed off by being essentially kidnapped by Dall and Wycherly, plays along (and pretends to have a baby by Read) and says she wants a million dollars to keep quiet. Of course, even though Dall is engaged to someone else, he and Durbin fall in love. Durbin is still attractive and peppy, and gets to do some singing, most notably the semi-novelty "The Turntable Song," but she and the neurotic Dall have no chemistry at all--he would put that high-strung persona to better use the next year as a hedonistic gay killer in Hitchcock's ROPE. The real star of much of the show is the young Donald O'Connor as Dall's whimsical third cousin who is in love with Dall's fiancée; he and Durbin bond as they plot to get what they want, but at the end, I was disappointed that she and O'Connor didn't wind up together. O'Connor has a hyperkinetic number, "I Love a Mystery," which was clearly an inspiration for his even more spectacular "Make 'Em Laugh" a few years later in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. Charles Winninger is here again as a mildly crazy uncle. It's watchable but it feels just a little off. I'd be open to watching some more Durbin movies in the future, and I'll get around to Sonja Henie tomorrow. [DVD]

KID GLOVE KILLER (1942)

Samuel S. Hinds is elected mayor on a law-and-order platform, and when the DA is murdered, Lee Bowman, the head of Hinds' election campaign and a fiercely anti-crime radio host, is appointed special prosecutor to look into the case and continue to clean up the city. Bowman's buddy, Van Heflin, is head of the police forensics lab who is working on some evidence found at the murder scene, and Heflin and Bowman are both sweet on Heflin's assistant, Marsha Hunt. What Heflin and Hunt don't know is that Bowman is in league with the bad guys. A suspect is killed, but when the mayor expresses concerns about how much money Bowman is throwing around, a car bomb kills the mayor. A disgruntled restaurant owner (Eddie Quillan), who was seen hanging around the mayor's house to complain that he was still getting harassed by mobsters, is arrested and it's up to Heflin, Hunt, and the CSI technology (such as it was in the 40's) to clear Quillan and put the finger on Bowman. This is basically a run-of-the-mill B-detective film with a moderately interesting focus on crime scene science. There is a nice bantering chemistry between Heflin, Hunt, and Bowman, with Bowman in particular giving a good performance as a villain hiding behind a good guy's face. Also with John Litel as a bad guy and, according to IMDb, Ava Gardner as a car hop. I never figured out what the title meant. [TCM]

THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (1933)

Dark, stylish crime melodrama from Fritz Lang featuring what may be the first modern "supervillain" in pop culture history. We see Hofmeister, a disgraced policeman, on the run from a gang of counterfeiters who attack him with barrels of chemicals which create a huge fireball; he escapes and calls his former boss, Inspector Lohmann, to rat out the criminals, but just as he's about to talk, the lights go out and something awful happens to make Hofmeister turn into a lunatic. However, he does manage to scratch the name "Mabuse" into a window. Lohmann learns of a Dr. Mabuse, a former crime lord, who has spent the last several years in the local asylum completely mute, spending most of his waking moments filling notepads with indecipherable scrawls about an "endless empire of crime" that would disrupt society on every level. Soon the asylum's Dr. Baum discovers that among his writings is a detailed description of a recent unsolved robbery. How could Mabuse be running a crime ring from his isolated cell? Meanwhile, we meet Thomas Kent, a man who joined the counterfeiters (who are also into blackmail and dope) out of desperation when he was unemployed; now that he has the love of a good woman, Lilli, he wants to get out, but the gang wants him to prove his mettle by committing a murder. The boss of the gang is an unseen figure who sits behind a curtain in an otherwise empty and dilapidated room, giving orders through a microphone. When Kent and Lilli are captured and brought into the boss's room, they discover that the figure behind the curtain is just a cardboard cutout. They are locked in the room and told they will die in three hours when a bomb will go off. Back at the asylum, Mabuse is found dead, but suddenly Dr. Baum begins acting strangely. Has he been possessed by the dead crime lord?

This is a striking film from start to finish: the opening chase with guns and barrels has a loud clanking industrial sound in the background that prefigures the feel of a David Lynch film, the ending is creepy and irrational, and much in the middle is unsettling. The sets (which alternate between cluttered and stark) and visuals are always interesting. The film partakes of several genres: crime film, romance, supernatural thriller, comedy (there is some comic relief, mostly involving Inspector Lohmann), and social commentary--many critics see the powerful madman Mabuse as a Hitler figure, though I'm not sure that parallel really holds up to scrutiny. Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who plays Mabuse (and Rotwang the mad inventor in METROPOLIS) doesn't have much to do but he certainly looks appropriately mad and creepy. Gustav Diessl, star of several of the German Mountain films of the era, gets the showiest part as Kent, and does a fine job with it. Much of the film has the feel of a serial, but the somewhat open-ended conclusion ends things with a more modern touch. Lang made an earlier film with the Mabuse character, and others have been made since. A must-see for film buffs. [TCM]

BLONDE ICE (1948)

An obscure Poverty-Row noir gem; it's not terribly well made, but it moves quickly, is full of incident, and winds up being great femme fatale fun. Claire (Leslie Brooks) is a former society reporter who, as the film begins, is juggling three men: 1) rich man Carl (John Holland) whom she's just married; 2) ex-flame Les (Robert Paige) whom she kisses passionately while still wearing her wedding gown; and 3) weaselly Al (James Griffith), a reporter from her past. On their honeymoon, Carl (in a clumsily staged scene) finds Claire writing a love letter to Les and demands a divorce. Wanting to keep her hands on Carl's money, Claire gets a pilot named Blackie (Russ Vincent, doing a low-rent Bogart) to help her in a scheme to kill Carl and make it look like a suicide done while she was out of town. Because the circumstances are deemed suspicious, Al finds himself investigating the death, and it's Les who falls under suspicion. Meanwhile, as Claire has to deal with the return of Blackie who is trying to blackmail her, she gets her paws on a lawyer named Stanley who's running for Congress. After Stanley wins the election, he comes upon Claire cozying up to Les, and, on the advice of a psychiatrist who thinks Claire is a bad marriage prospect, dumps her. In her usual reaction to being dumped, she kills him, but this time she may not get away with it so easily.

It's the crazy narrative, chugging along like a locomotive, that makes this movie transcend its low budget and second-string cast. Claire is a wonderful creation and it would have been great fun to see someone like Barbara Stanwyck or Mary Astor or even DETOUR's Ann Savage in this part. Brooks is OK, but it never feels like she's settled into the role. She's a cross between Jean Heather, who played Stanwyck's daughter in DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and June Lockhart, neither one a femme fatale type. The men are totally interchangeable except for Russ Vincent (who, BTW, eventually married Brooks in real life). The film's style is more cheap than noir until near the end when the camera work gets a little interesting. There are rumors that famous B-director Edgar G. Ulmer had a hand in the screenplay, and indeed, it's the screenplay that is the best part of the movie. At one point, someone delivers a line that sounds an awful lot like "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows," which I've always assumed was a Bob Dylan quote. There's also a great last summation of the character of Claire: "She wasn't even a good newspaperwoman." Not a timeless classic, but a good one to screen for your noir night. [DVD]

PRETTY POISON (1968)

Anthony Perkins, playing a slightly less crazy variation on Norman Bates, is a young man just released from an institution; he burned down his aunt's house when he was 15, causing her accidental death. He is placed in a small town and gets work at a chemical plant; his parole officer warns him about the dangers of an overactive fantasy life, but soon Perkins is pretending to himself that he's a CIA agent on the trail of a plot to poison the town's water supply. He develops a crush on high-school senior Tuesday Weld and gets her to believe his story. However, the innocent-seeming Weld actually has a sociopathic bent that put Perkins's problems in the shade. For a while, it seems like the pair will turn into a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, but the film's final twists take it in a different direction to a BODY HEAT-like ending. This film from first-time director Noel Black is a small masterpiece of black comedy; the story has a distinct noir feel, though the style isn't noir at all. Perkins and Weld have a remarkable chemistry (which carried over to their later film PLAY IT AS IT LAYS, less successful but still worth seeing) and both give excellent performances. Both are also attractive--they could easily have been the leads in a quirky romantic comedy--and Weld is an utter knockout, both in looks and talent. It's a damned shame her career never quite fulfilled its early promise. The same could be said about director Black who followed this up with the poorly-received COVER ME BABE and then turned to TV movies. B-movie queen Beverly Garland is very good as Weld's bitch of a mother, and you'll recognize John Randolph (the parole officer) and Dick O'Neill (Perkins' boss) from lots of TV supporting roles. A must-see. [DVD]

DAUGHTER OF SHANGHAI (1937)

Federal agents are working on busting a ring of crooks smuggling illegal aliens from Asia. In one case, when the Feds get too close to a plane with human cargo, the smugglers don't hesitate to dump an entire family out over the ocean to their deaths. When smuggler J. Carroll Naish tries to bully a renowned Chinese art dealer into giving jobs to some of the aliens, he refuses; in retaliation, the dealer and his daughter (Anna May Wong) are kidnapped, shot, and dumped at the docks. Wong manages to escape and goes to the rich and respected society matron Cecil Cunningham for help, not realizing that Cunningham is actually the big boss of the smuggling ring. Chinese federal agent Philip Ahn is working on the case, but Wong decides to work on her own and tracks down the other end of the ring to a Central American island where Charles Bickford, owner of a sleazy nightclub, rounds up the illegals to send north. Wong takes a job as a dancer there and finds incriminating evidence; she also finds Ahn who is working undercover with the smugglers. Together, they get on the boat for San Francisco, but are discovered mid-trip. They manage to escape only to wind up at Cunningham's house where they discover the truth about the nice old lady and tables get turned a couple of times before a happy ending for Wong and Ahn, who get engaged after the ring is broken. This hour-long B-thriller was part of TCM's Asian Images in Film series, and is one of the few studio movies of the era to feature two Asian leads played by Asian actors, though oddly, Anna May Wong is billed first and Ahn, who is clearly the male lead, is billed ninth! Otherwise, aside from the shocking opening scene of the family dumped to their deaths (which perhaps inspired a similar scene in a Ronald Reagan B-film a couple of years later), this movie is strictly routine. The bad guys include Buster Crabbe (who also played Tarzan and Flash Gordon) and Anthony Quinn, and Frank Sully has a small but crucial role as Cunningham's Irish chauffeur. [TCM]

DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON (1931)

Exotic dancer Princess Ling Moy (Anna May Wong) is the toast of London; her manager Morloff lives next door to Sir John Petrie of Scotland Yard, who was the arch-foe of the villainous Fu Manchu (Warner Oland). Scotland Yard has assumed that Fu is dead, but Chinese detective Ah Kee (Sessue Hayakawa) arrives with news that Fu is alive and in London, and out to get the remaining living Petries. Sure enough, Sir John's tobacco gets laced with poison and he falls down a staircase to his death. Fu himself is shot and escapes through a secret passage to Morloff's house where he reveals to Ling Moy that she is his daughter. As Fu dies, she vows to steel herself against her feminine nature to become his "son" and complete his revenge by killing Sir John's son Ronald (Bramwell Fletcher). Even though Ronald has a fiancée, he falls for Ling Moy and she for him. She tries to kill him in his sleep but can't bring herself to do it. With help from Morloff and his servant Lu Chow, she rededicates herself to revenge, pretending to fall for Ah Kee to keep him off-guard, then a scheme involving kidnapping and torture plays out rather predictably, coming to a solid, action-filled climax.

This is about average for a B-thriller of its day, but it makes for interesting viewing for a few reasons: 1) as a Paramount vault movie, it doesn't see the light of day very often; 2) though the action scenes are few and far between, there are some very stylish directorial touches; 3) it's one of the few early Fu Manchu movies that still exists; 4) it's one of Anna May Wong's rare starring roles. But for me, it was most interesting as a vision of a Hollywood "road not taken." This is one of the few classic-era films I've seen to have leading Asian characters actually played by Asian actors. I've always bought the argument that the big studios needed to have Caucasian actors play Asian roles in "yellowface" because there was no pool of Asian actors who could guarantee good box office returns. But both Hayawaka and Wong were popular in their day, and they work well in their limited time together—she is actually rather wooden through most of the film, but he's fine, if a little low-key. [Of course, the main romance in the film is between the Chinese Wong and the blond (and bland) British Fletcher; that kind of "exotic" romance was titillating to audiences of the day, but the censors would never have allowed such an interracial relationship to be consummated in a film.] Based on the evidence here, it seems obvious that studios could have groomed Asian actors as stars if they'd wanted to. I'll still enjoy watching Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto movies, but I'm sorry that Hollywood never allowed such potential talents to flower. [TCM]

THE DRAGON PAINTER (1919)

Tatsu (Sessue Hayakawa) is a tormented artist and wild mountain man who is obsessed by the idea that his "princess" was turned into a dragon a thousand years ago, and he incessantly paints landscapes with dragons visible only to him; when an observer asks where the dragon is in one drawing, he replies that it's sleeping under the lake. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, respected but aging artist Kano Indara (Edward Peil Sr.) is sad because he has no son or other suitable heir to mentor in the ways of art—his daughter Ume-Ko (Tsuru Aoki, Hayakawa's wife), being a woman, is apparently not eligible. When a surveyor discovers some of Tatsu's work, he gets the artist to come to Tokyo and work with Indara; as bait, they tell him that Ume-Ko is his missing princess. Soon, Tatsu is fully tamed (nice haircut and modern civilized clothes), tutored, and married, but his contentment gives him "artist's block"; since he now has his princess/muse, he is no longer inspired to create. Ume-Ko vanishes, leaving a note saying she has killed herself in order in inspire him once again, and sure enough, in his grief, he starts producing paintings again, enough for a successful exhibition. He begins seeing haunting visions of Ume-Ko; is it possible he can somehow get her back?

The Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa is best known as the war camp commandant in BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, but back in the teens, he was an "exotic" Hollywood matinee idol, rivaling Valentino. He had his own production company which made almost 20 films between 1918 and 1922, most of which are apparently lost. If you only know him from KWAI, he will be a revelation here: young, attractive, and charismatic. He is especially effective as the "untamed" artist. The acting is fine, generally more subtle than we think of most silent-movie emoting. There is a lovely nighttime garden scene which was shot day-for-night but is tinted blue. It's a shame that more of Hayakawa's films of this era haven't survived. [TCM]

THE STORY ON PAGE ONE (1959)

Anthony Franciosa is a small-time lawyer who agrees to take the potentially explosive case of a housewife (Rita Hayworth) accused of conspiring with her lover (Gig Young) to murder her husband. The case has already made headlines, and when Hayworth's mother (Katherine Squire) comes to Franciosa, he suggests she get a high-powered attorney, but Squire has very little money, so he reluctantly takes the case. In flashback, we see the circumstances that led to the death: Hayworth's husband, a cop (Alfred Ryder), is a mean drunk and afraid of getting kicked off the force because of a hearing problem. He comes close to being abusive to Hayworth and their little daughter. Hayworth becomes friendly with their widowed accountant (Young). Both of them seem battered down by life--Young lives in fear of his domineering mother (Mildred Dunnock)--and Squire actually encourages Hayworth to have an affair. The two have a sad little one-night stand, and Dunnock, who has figured out what's going on, threatens to expose them unless she gives him up. Young flies in from a business trip to talk things out with Hayworth, but Ryder overhears them talking and confronts them with a gun. The men grapple and the gun goes off accidentally, killing Ryder. Franciosa believes her story, though the D.A. (Sanford Meisner) tries to build a case that the death was premeditated because Hayworth wanted to get Ryder's insurance money. The last half of the film is set in the courtroom as Franciosa and Meisner spar back and forth, each getting the upper hand at various times, until the verdict is announced.

This movie was released the same year as ANATOMY OF A MURDER, and it seems to be an attempt to reproduce that film's success, even to using some sensational sex-related language and innuendo now and then; when Meisner notes that Squire, who lived with her daughter and son-in-law, pushed Hayworth toward adultery, he proclaims, "Madam, what kind of house were you running?" This film has problems in pacing, especially during the courtroom half, but the acting is solid. Hayworth is good in a completely non-glamorous role; Young's performance builds slowly and we gradually see him as a passive neurotic, and both come off as basically decent people stuck in sad, pathetic situations. Dunnock's fine as a monster mom (also a slow-building part), though Squire is just as good in a much less showy role. Meisner, a famous acting teacher and co-founder of the influential Group Theater, goes a bit over the top on occasion but is generally fun to watch. The Welsh actor Hugh Griffith is almost unrecognizable as the judge. But the real honors here go to Franciosa, an intense and sexy man who sets off sparks in every scene he's in. The character, about whom we learn very little, is set up as a down-on-his-luck heavy drinker, but once he gets on his feet and commits to the case, his character isn't developed any further. Frankly, I think he does Oscar-caliber work here, and the film makes me want to hunt down more of his movies. The scene in which he tears Dunnock apart on the stand is spectacular. The movie is a little long, but well worth catching, even if it all seems rather old hat nowadays when sordid trials like this can be seen every day on TV. [FMC]

Coming Up Soon:

TCM is doing a series in June on Asian Images in Film. It looks like a fair amount of work went into the programming (some rarely seen silents) and the licensing of films (they'll be including a couple of Charlie Chans and one Mr. Moto, all of which are Fox films, and even a couple of public domain Mr. Wong films with Boris Karloff). I'm excited about DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON, a 1931 Fu Manchu film with Charlie Chan himself, Warner Oland, as Fu and Anna May Wong as his daughter. It airs tonight at 12:45 a.m EDT. I'm too late to suggest THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN and THE MASK OF FU MANCHU which ran earlier this week, but I do recommend FIRST YANK INTO TOKYO (Tom Neal, tough-guy B-movie star gets plastic surgery to become a spy) on June 12th, and the night of Asian detective films, June 10th. They'll be showing THE GOOD EARTH and DRAGON SEED on the 12th, but I don't know if I can stand to watch so many hours of Caucasians like Katharine Hepburn and Paul Muni in painfully dignified "yellowface," even if it was done with the best intentions. Do catch the Chans, Wongs, and Motos, with pre-film context established by Robert Osbourne and film scholar Peter Feng.

I don't see much else on TCM's schedule during the next week or so to point out except the very fun Hitchcock thriller THE 39 STEPS which is on this Friday at midnight. Over on Fox Movie Channel, the solid anthology film TALES OF MANHATTAN is on Sunday the 8th at 8 a.m.; on Fox Monday morning is the fun fantasy adventure CHANDU THE MAGICIAN at 6 a.m. followed by the Tyrone Power's creepy noir NIGHTMARE ALLEY at 7:30. Tuesday at 6 a.m is MAN HUNT, with Walter Pidgeon as a man who gets the chance to shoot Hitler. The Sundance Channel has the Beatles' HELP! Monday the 9th at 10 a.m and GIMMIE SHELTER, the documentary about the notorious Rolling Stones show at Altamont, that evening at 7.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1931)

Another one of George Arliss's somewhat stagy but spirited historical impersonations; these films may not be the absolute truth but Arliss is always fun to watch. The film begins in 1783 with George Washington's farewell to his troops; Hamilton notes that with the unifying factor of the war over, the states will begin squabbling and he talks Washington into taking on the job of President in 1789. Hamilton himself becomes Secretary of the Treasury; he realizes that many American troops still have not been paid and that the government owes heavy foreign debts, so he pushes for a strong centralized government to assume the war debts of the States. He is opposed by Thomas Jefferson and others who fear the threat of monarchy. In the midst of various political conflicts, the married Hamilton is set up to be seduced by Mariah Reynolds, who fakes a fainting spell at his house and takes money from Hamilton, supposedly to leave her husband. The two do indeed have an affair (though the movie is discreet about it, it seems to be at least a one-night stand), and Reynolds' husband than tries to blackmail Hamilton out of pushing through his "assumption of debts" bill. However, Hamilton bravely goes public, believing that his private affairs are no one else's business. His wife forgives him, Washington arrives to express his continuing confidence, and his bill gets passed. The film is based on a play which was a Broadway vehicle for Arliss (and which he co-wrote) and while it may not be terribly accurate, it has been opened up and has just the right mix of political intrigue and personal melodrama. Arliss was apparently way too old to be playing Hamilton (the actor was in his 60's, while Hamilton was in his 30's), but has the necessary gravitas for the part, though he is less credible as a dallying lover. Familiar faces in the cast include Alan Mowbray as Washington, Montagu Love as Jefferson, and Dudley Digges as a skirmishing senator. I'm sure it's asking too much for a George Arliss DVD boxed set, but maybe when the well runs dry, Warners will look into it. [TCM]

A word on Sydney Pollack:

Director Sydney Pollack, who died last week, didn't start making movies until the mid-60's, so he's not exactly a classic-era filmmaker, but he always seemed to have more in common with the studio wizards of the 30's and 40's than with his contemporaries like Altman, Kubrick, or Coppola. Like Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Adventures of Robin Hood, Mildred Pierce), Pollack didn't have a distinctive personal style or stamp, but he made well-crafted, entertaining films. In my book, his strongest films are Tootsie, Three Days of the Condor, The Firm, and the remake of Sabrina--not as good as the original but a solidly-made comedy. I'm not as crazy about Out of Africa or The Way We Were, which both could have used doses of interesting style in the storytelling or the visuals.

But I'll miss Pollack more as an actor. He was good at playing friendly but authoritative father figures. I guess I'm mostly thinking of his recurring role as Will's father in Will & Grace, but I also liked him in Tootsie, Husbands and Wives, and in last year's Michael Clayton (in which he was not friendly, but sinister). He only acted in a handful of movies, but he was making acting a bigger part of his career as time went by and I'm sorry for all the grandfatherly (good or sinister) roles he won't get to do.

SMASH-UP: THE STORY OF A WOMAN (1947)

I'm not a fan of Susan Hayward's overwrought performances in the string of 50's women's melodramas that made her a star, but this one, her first starring vehicle, is a little less bombastic than the others and is fairly enjoyable, especially when you're watching for the real-life context. Hayward plays a nightclub singer named Angelica Evans who was supposedly modeled after singer and actress Dixie Lee; in the beginning, her career is on the rise, but she lets it take a backseat to her life as wife to crooner Ken Conway (Lee Bowman), based on Bing Crosby, who has just gotten a job as a singing cowboy on the radio. He adopts a twangy style of singing and, scheduled at 6 in the morning, isn't having much success until Hayward gives birth; because he's on the air while she's having her baby, he sings a song he wrote for her, in his normal singing voice, and he's a smash hit. His show is moved to 6 in the evening, he develops a fan base, and he begins touring. The emotionally insecure Hayward, who always needed a drink before she went on stage, starts drinking again to face the crowds of fans and business people who are suddenly part of their lives. As Bowman's career becomes more and more of a priority, her drinking becomes more obvious; a doctor (Carl Esmond) advises Bowman to give her more attention, but when Hayward suspects that Bowman and his assistant (Marsha Hunt) are having an affair, things spiral downward quickly. After she physically attacks Hunt at a party, Bowman initiates a divorce and seeks custody of their daughter. Hayward tries to restart her singing career, but she gets drunk opening night and misses the show. She kidnaps her little girl, leading to a climactic scene involving a fire, but also to a too-abrupt redemption for all, including Bowman who suddenly decides it’s time to make time for Hayward.

I like Hayward here, a whirlwind but not as over-the-top as she could get later in films like I WANT TO LIVE!; she was nominated for an Oscar for this film. Bowman, usually a supporting player, does a fine job as the Crosby stand-in; it also helps that the man who dubs his songs (Hal Derwin) has a bit of the Crosby lilt in his voice. Eddie Albert is likeable as a songwriter buddy of Bowman's. I especially liked Hunt as the potential "other woman" and the way her relationship with Bowman remains ambiguous until the end. Dorothy Parker co-wrote the original story. In real life, Crosby was quite a drinker early in his career, and as he gained fame (and control over his drinking), his wife slipped into alcoholism which led to her early death a few years after this film was released. This is shot in a murky noir style which fits its mood. The song Bowman sings for Hayward, "Life Can Be Beautiful," is quite nice, if overused by the end. [TCM]

THUNDER BIRDS (1942)

This average WWII propaganda programmer is notable primarily for its stunning Technicolor, rare for a relatively short film that was probably intended as a second feature, though its production values are generally high. The film is set at a real place, Thunderbird Field in Arizona, where, according to John Gunther’s opening narration, the Army was using civilians to train British and Chinese pilots for their respective air forces, probably before the U.S. was officially in the war--Gunther mentions American pilots, but the story doesn’t feature any, so I assume it was filmed and/or written before Pearl Harbor. Preston Foster (the hero of THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII) is a veteran pilot who offers his services at Thunderbird. One of his most promising British students is John Sutton, the son of a pilot Foster knew and admired in WWI, but he suffers from an extreme form of vertigo which causes him to get sick every time he goes up in a plane. The commander, Jack Holt, wants to wash Sutton out and replace him with a likelier candidate, but Sutton assures Foster that he can overcome his problem and Foster goes to bat for him. Their relationship is strained when Sutton falls for lovely Gene Tierney, granddaughter of local rancher George Barbier, before he realizes that Foster has carried a torch for her for quite a while--though Tierney seems to think of Foster as more like an uncle (and frankly, that's what he seems like).

That’s pretty much it for the narrative; if you’ve seen any of these wartime buddy pictures, you’ll know from the start that Sutton will eventually, thanks to the noble Foster, overcome his weakness and make a sterling pilot, saving Foster’s life and bagging Tierney in the process. Sutton wisely underplays his part, though it takes a while to warm up to him; Tierney's acting talents aren't strained, though she is beautiful; Dame May Whitty has a small role as Sutton's grandmother in a flashback scene; a very young Richard Haydn (best known as Max in THE SOUND OF MUSIC) has a comic relief role as another British pilot; Reginald Denny is the head of British forces at the field. The use of Technicolor makes this beautiful to watch; particularly striking are the desert vistas and the bright blue and yellow planes the students fly. The film is clearly what some critics call a "preparedness" film (getting the public ready for our participation in the war and boosting a particular branch of the military), as there are no war scenes and very little talk of war, but with that in mind, it's entertaining enough. [DVD]

STAKEOUT ON DOPE STREET (1958)

Thanks to crime writer James Ellroy's perverse obsession with 1958, the year in which his mother was murdered, I was able to see this odd little juvenile delinquent/noir which would probably otherwise have never seen the light of day on Turner Classic Movies. Ellroy was a guest programmer one night and picked all fairly obscure crime movies from '58. This one was the most obscure so it's the one I watched. Two cops bust in on a drug deal but are shot at by two other crooks who were keeping watch. A briefcase which contains a can filled with heroin winds up in the tall weeds to be found by grocery delivery boy Jonathan Haze. He and his buddies, aspiring artist Yale Wexler and bodybuilding jock Steven Marlo, don't know what they have at first, but when they do, they decide to sell it to raise some money, with some help from drooling junkie Allen Kramer, but soon both the cops and the crooks are searching for the heroin. There's a long scene of Kramer describing the horrors of withdrawal before the poor guy gets worked over by the bad guys. Marlo also gets a fierce ass-whooping in a well-shot scene before the cops corner the baddies, save the day, and teach the boys a lesson. The movie has a very low-rent feel, but it has a nice jazzy score by Richard Markowitz who later wrote the score for the Murder She Wrote series; the director, Irvin Kershner, is best known for helming THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. The cinematography is by the famous Haskell Wexler (under the pseudonym Mark Jeffrey) and lead actor Yale Wexler is his brother. Though the buddies are all dating girls, there is an odd homoerotic tension in an early scene in which the artist is sketching the bodybuilder during his sweaty workout. Haze is best remembered as Seymour in the original LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. [TCM]

SHOPWORN (1932)

Poor Barbara Stanwyck! Her father, working on a blasting crew, is killed in an accident; left all alone, she finds work at a campus diner run by her aunt (Zasu Pitts), but has to put up with blowhard frat guys hitting on her. Studious student and rich boy Regis Toomey thinks she's a bit on the trampy side, but they hit it off. However, Stanwyck proves too rough for Toomey's nasty meddling mother (Clara Blandick) who schemes to get her son away from her by faking a heart condition and insisting that Toomey accompany her to Europe for her treatment. Toomey, to his credit, insists on taking Stanwyck with him and he plans their wedding, but Blandick, with some help from her friend, a judge (Oscar Apfel), tries to pay Stanwyck to go away. When that doesn't work, they get her committed to the State Home for the Regeneration of Females on trumped-up morals charges. In a 20-second montage sequence which covers six years, we see Stanwyck leave the Home, become a chorus girl, then an actress, and finally a star of the stage (with Pitts as her maid). When Toomey and Stanwyck meet again, she thinks that he OK'd her heist to the reform school, and he thinks that she took money to leave him. The rest of the film follows their eventual reconciliation, despite Blandick's continued meddling (even the judge counsels Blandick to get psychiatric help). The plot contrivances get more outrageous until the last scene in which Blandick actually pulls a pistol on Stanwyck. Sadly, the happy ending is rushed and awkward, but until then, this is a fun over-the-top mother-love melodrama.

The title is misleading, as Stanwyck isn't really "shopworn"; in the last half, we see that she has made headlines as the third party in a divorce case, and the townsfolk refer to her as "notorious," but we never know how much of this reputation is deserved. Toomey is a bit too bland, but Stanwyck is fine. Even better is Clara Blandick, mostly known as Aunt Em in OZ. She gives a full-blooded performance as a bitch you love to hate. Stanwyck gets a couple of good pre-Code lines: She tells Toomey about her rough-and-tumble upbringing in construction camps, "I could cuss when I was 6 and say no when I was 14." In a discussion about discussing sex, she says, "In this country, we call sex anything but." And this film must mark the first use of the word "ejaculate" in a Hollywood movie--even though it's in the context of a dictionary-browsing session, it's still rather startling. [TCM]

LORD JIM (1965)

It's been a few years since I read Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim"; I liked it a great deal, but I remember it as a relatively dense novel of ideas buried in an obliquely told narrative, with a central character who remains a cipher. Custom made for Hollywood, eh? Peter O'Toole is Jim, an officer in the Merchant Marine on board the S. S. Patna. The narrator Marlow (Jack Hawkins) tells us that O'Toole had big dreams of glory, of being someone important, but all that is scuttled when the ship, carrying 800 Muslims to Mecca, is overcome by a storm at sea. O'Toole lets his fear get the best of him and imagines he sees the hold flooding. He and some of the other men abandon the ship in a lifeboat, leaving the pilgrims to a watery fate, but it turns out that the ship was only damaged, and it and its passengers survived. An inquiry is held and O'Toole confesses to desertion. Instead of a life of fame, he hides in anonymity and takes any job he can get. When he saves a small boat's cargo from fire, its owner (Paul Lukas) hires him to go upriver in the Malay jungle, with weapons and supplies, to help the natives of Patusan free themselves from a vicious warlord (Eli Wallach). The natives accept O'Toole as a leader and after a prolonged battle, Wallach is defeated, but a group of his cronies, led by Curt Jurgens, escape. With the help of the notorious Gentleman Brown (James Mason), they return to get hold of some precious jewels and O'Toole leads the villagers' defense. After the defeat of the crooks, O'Toole lets himself be talked into allowing them to leave unharmed, but Mason has a trick up his sleeve, leading to a final deadly and tragic conflict, with O'Toole sealing his own fate.

Made in the model of the David Lean period epics of the day (by Richard Brooks who also directed In Cold Blood and Looking for Mr. Goodbar), the movie does a nice job of condensing the action of the story as well as conflating characters, but it can't make up for the fact that the central character remains an enigma (as he does in the book). O'Toole was probably not the right actor for the part—I saw someone with a bit more physical bulk—but he's OK, though it often seems like he's still playing T.E. Lawrence, in the jungle rather than the desert. Wallach never seems as menacing as he should. The exotic Dahlia Lavi is wasted in a useless role as O'Toole's native love interest, and the usually reliable Mason is ill-used here. I did like Jurgens and Akim Tamiroff as villains, and Lukas, in his last major film role, is excellent. Most of the film looks very good, especially the scene toward the end of O'Toole and Mason meeting in the middle of a foggy river near dawn. I also like the sound of the wind chimes as O'Toole faces his fate at the very end. The story deals with the themes of fate, guilt, heroism, redemption, and responsibility, maybe a few too many things for what was marketed as an adventure film. It's also too long, with the first battle and its preparations in particular going on at tedious length. Not a bad movie, but if you have to choose between the movie and the book, read the book. [DVD]

How I Operate:

Someone recently asked me if I could post the movies I'm going to review in advance so readers of this blog could catch them. Unfortunately, that's not terribly feasible given the way I operate here. Each day or two I scan the TCM schedule via my cable provider's on-screen program guide and I set the DVR to record the movies I want to see. I then watch them at my leisure, and sometimes they stay on the DVR for months before I get around to them. I eventually watch them, taking notes along the way, then write up my review as a Word document and store it on my computer or hard drive for retrieval when I post the review here, which might be months later. However, I sometimes wait quite a while before I write my review--hence the note-taking so I don't forget key details--so ultimately, I may not post a review of a movie for six months to a year after it actually aired on Turner Classic or Fox Movie Channel. I currently have over 100 reviews backed up on my computer, and probably about 40 movie notes stuck away in a folder which I haven't turned into reviews yet.

But what I can do is scan the TCM schedule a week or two ahead of time and post here periodically a list of movies that 1) I'm planning on catching for review, and 2) movies I've reviewed in the past or have enjoyed without reviewing which are coming up. Below is my first such list (all air times Eastern):

* On TCM's Jimmy Stewart day, Tuesday, 5/20, three of my favorite Stewart films are airing: SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (9:45 a.m.), PHILADELPHIA STORY (11:30 a.m.), and VERTIGO (5:45 p.m.)

* I may try to catch MISS SADIE THOMPSON (5/22, 7:15 a.m.), Rita Hayworth's take on the famous prostitute from Somerset Maugham's "Rain," though I'm sure the movie won't be better than the Joan Crawford early 30's version.

* The lovely young John Payne is on display in the amusing boxing movie KID NIGHTINGALE (5/23, 9:15 a.m) which also has the always reliable Jane Wyman in her early B-movie days when she was fun.

* BREAKER MORANT, an excellent Australian military courtroom drama from 1980 is on Saturday night, 5/24, at 11:15 p.m.

* TCM's Memorial Day war movie schedule (5/26) has THE LOST PATROL (8:30 a.m.) which served as a template for many later war films in which a small group of soldiers is being picked off one by one in an isolated location. It's a good one. Also SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (2:00 p.m.), a solid WWII homefront film, better than MRS. MINIVER.

* On 5/27 at 6:00 a.m., I'll be recording ATLANTIC ADVENTURE, a mid-30's B-movie I know nothing about except it has Lloyd Nolan, who was always good in those kinds of films.

DIRIGIBLE (1931)

This adventure film breaks down neatly into two halves. Part 1: Navy commander Jack Holt, anxious to drum up support for the Navy's dirigible (airship) fleet, talks Hobart Bosworth, leader of an expedition to the South Pole, into using a dirigible to get there instead of planes. Holt asks his buddy, ace pilot Ralph Graves, to fly along in his plane, but Graves' wife (Fay Wray), whom Holt has feelings for, asks Holt not to take Graves away from home again, so without telling him why, Holt dismisses Graves from his team. On its way south, the airship runs into a huge storm and breaks apart over the ocean. Graves leads the rescue team, then takes a leave of absence from the Navy to become a full partner in Bosworth's expedition. Part 2: The unhappy Wray writes Graves a letter to be opened when he gets to the Pole, telling him she's getting a divorce (she's "tired of being married to a headline") and will be begging Holt to marry her. The group sets up a base camp on Antarctica, but when Graves flies a handful of men to the Pole, they crash and the plane burns up. A harrowing sequence follows, showing the men planting a flag, then trying to make the long trek back to base camp in harsh conditions, with the gravely injured Bosworth strapped to a sled. Holt and his crew take an airship to the Pole to attempt a rescue, but not everyone survives.

Last year, Turner Classic Movies showcased films involving aviation and this little-seen early effort by Frank Capra was included. It feels like one of the military preparedness films of the late 30's, though in this case, it's not about getting ready for war, but for selling the public on the Navy's use of dirigibles--by WWII, only a few such airships were being used by the U.S and the fleet was soon phased out altogether. Actually, the film, with its "man vs. natural phenomena" setpieces, feels more related to the German Mountain films, especially SOS ICEBERG. The relationship subplot is tedious and predictable, but the two big disaster scenes are well done and involving, especially the airship crack-up at sea. Capra's usual themes, such as the championing of the little guy, and his sentimental streak are not in evidence here, but there is an interesting modern feeling to the direction, with some use of casual overlapping dialogue. Neither Holt nor Graves would have been my first choice for their roles--maybe the young Spencer Tracy and Douglas Fairbanks--but they're OK, better than Wray who doesn't have much to work with. I don't know where the location footage was done, but I didn't have to suspend much disbelief to imagine they were near Antarctica. Roscoe Karns does a nice job as one of the potentially doomed members of the Pole expedition. Worth seeing, especially for a different take on Capra. [TCM]

WAIKIKI WEDDING (1937)

I recently read the first volume of Gary Giddins' masterful biography of Bing Crosby, "A Pocketful of Dreams," which covers the man and his career up to 1940, and I've been anxious to see more of Crosby's early, that is, pre-"Road," films. A recent 5-film DVD set from Universal includes this little gem, a big moneymaker for Paramount (as most of his movies were). It's as fluffy and insubstantial as cotton candy but it has a certain charm, and has the added plus of imaginative production numbers. The film, set entirely on the Hawaiian Islands, begins with a nicely shot native wedding scene with Crosby as best man, serenading the couple in a surprisingly deep voice. He plays a PR man for a pineapple company who has to deal with a promotion gone bad: a contest winner (Shirley Ross) who is supposed to be writing a series of newspaper articles about her wonderful paradise vacation is having a miserable time and wants to leave. The head of the company (George Barbier) wants Crosby to make sure that she changes her mind. He gets off on the wrong foot when he accidentally dunks her in the water. The next day, as she's about to leave the islands, a man asks her to wear a necklace for him so he can smuggle it past customs. She agrees, but is waylaid by a group of Hawaiian men who tell her that the necklace has a stolen pearl in it that she must return to its proper place to placate the volcano gods. Crosby accompanies her on her adventure, along with his sidekick Bob Burns and her pal Martha Raye. About halfway through the movie, we learn that the entire escapade, even the threatening volcano, has been arranged by Crosby to give Ross the time of her life, but along the way, she starts to fall for him, and he for her. Just as her cocky fiance (Leif Erickson) flies out to see her, she learns that not only did Crosby fake her adventure, but he's also been publishing newspaper articles about her trip under her name. Which of the suitors will she wind up with? Um, duh, but as in most romantic comedies like this, it's not the conclusion but the getting there that's the point.

Crosby is his usual mellow, charming self, and sings two great songs, the Oscar-winning lullaby "Sweet Leilani" and the lovely "Blue Hawaii," which is sung once as a duet with Ross in which Crosby is supposed to be teaching her the song, a scene that may have influenced his performance of "White Christmas" with Marjorie Reynolds in HOLIDAY INN. There's also a very fun dance number, "Hula Heaven" which involves some sexy dancing on top of giant drums, and a man doing a wild knife dance. Ross, who sang "Thanks for the Memory" with Bob Hope in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1938, is OK but doesn’t exactly burn up the screen. Raye's over-the-top mugging gets a bit obnoxious, and I could have done with a bit less of Burns and the pig he carries everywhere. Even though we are clearly meant to find Erickson immensely unlikable, he is sort of hot. Also in the supporting cast is Grady Sutton as Barbier's piggy son, Granville Bates as Erickson's uncle, and Anthony Quinn in one of his earliest credited roles as one of the native men who helps Crosby out with his charade. Though most of it was obviously shot in the studio, the tropical sets are nice and it looks like there is some location footage in the background on occasion. Quite fun; as I noted earlier, fluffy but charming. [DVD]

A PLACE OF ONE'S OWN (1945)

A mild but effective modern-day ghost story which plays out like a British version of THE UNINVITED. James Mason and Barbara Mullen, an elderly couple, buy a house which has been empty for 40 years since the previous tenant, a sickly girl named Elizabeth, died of an overdose, having been spurned by a local doctor. The house may be haunted--they hear a strange voice on a speaking tube "intercom"--but they vow to stay on with their young hired companion (Margaret Lockwood). There are snatches of ghostly conversations, breezes of unknown origin, and a spooky storm, and Lockwood, who can't play the piano, can suddenly play it like an expert. When Lockwood collapses and takes to her sickbed, Mason and Mullen believe she's been possessed by the dead girl and their only hope is to find the doctor from Elizabeth's past. Mason, even with old-age makeup, seems too young for the part, but Mullen is nicely sly. Dennis Price plays a young doctor who helps out, and Ernest Thesiger has a small but crucial role in the climax. Though not a comedy, there is a light tone throughout, as in THE UNINVITED; things lag a bit in the middle, but for an old-fashioned ghost story, this is solid entertainment. [TCM]

THE BACHELOR PARTY (1957)

Don Murray is a young married bookkeeper who is taking night classes in hopes of advancement, but his wife's announcement that she's pregnant throws him for a loop. With his wife already complaining about the number of nights she has to spend alone, he thinks about quitting school and vents his general frustration with his buddies at an informal bachelor party one night. During the course of the evening, the guys go to dinner, watch some stag films (which put them to sleep), go out for drinks, and wind up at a wild Greenwich Village party. Along the way, lots of other problems bubble to the surface. The groom-to-be (Philip Abbott) is a 30-something virgin who still lives with his mother and is having second thoughts about his "arranged" marriage to a distant cousin whom he likes but for whom he feels no passion; Jack Warden, a bachelor, keeps pushing the guys to keep the party going until the wee hours, and secures the services of a hooker for Abbott; Larry Blyden, closest to Murray in age and circumstances, isn't able to give Murray much advice about his situation, and confesses to an extramarital fling a few years ago. When Murray asks if he loves his wife, Blyden replies with a string of the obligations he's gotten into in the name of family and ends with, "I'd better love her!"; E.G. Marshall, the oldest of the group and typically an easygoing fellow, gets drunk and admits that his doctor has told him he's a very sick man and needs to move to Arizona, but he can't face leaving the big city and starting a career from scratch. Murray himself is tempted to stray with a beatnick nympho (Carolyn Jones), and when he does head home, he and his wife argue over their options: Should he quit school? Should she get an abortion (which was illegal back then)? As in most 50's Hollywood films, the complex issues brought up are all banished far too easily in the final moments by the mouthing of banal platitudes about love.

Having said that, I should note that I am all for love and fidelity, but this film's happy ending (at least for Murray) feels fake and unearned. Up until that point, I liked this look at 50's middle-class male angst a lot, mostly for the acting. Warden and Marshall are fine as one would expect, and Blyden is good enough to make me sorry he didn't do more film acting--he wound up mostly in TV, known best today for game show appearances. Jones was nominated for an Oscar even though she's only on screen for about five minutes; nevertheless, she makes a strong impression, and the climax of the narrative occurs when she gets Murray in a clinch and says desperately, "Just say you love me--you don't have to mean it!" Patricia Smith is OK in the thankless role of the passive-aggressive wife who brings up the issue of abortion only because she's sure that Murray would be against it, and she's shocked when he's not. Nancy Marchand (Tony's mom on The Sopranos) is very good in a small role as Smith's sister-in-law who confesses her own unhappiness with her philandering husband. Best of all is Murray, who is not only excellent in the lead role (and is in almost every scene) but handsome and sexy as hell, in that 50's button-down way. He inhabits his role so well, I was disappointed that we didn't get to see him work out his frustrations in an explosive tryst with Jones. He has a leading man face--and here, often looks like an intense, depressed puppy dog--but a sidekick voice and persona; after a strong start in his first few films, he never quite made it to star status, but he has continued acting right up to the present day. He's probably best known now for a continuing role in Knot's Landing in the early 80's, though I remember him as the Congressman with a hidden gay past in ADVISE AND CONSENT. I'll have to keep my eye out for more Murray. [TCM]

THE LADY IN QUESTION (1940)

An odd duck of a movie, especially for 1940--essentially, it's half a black comedy involving a woman accused of murder, and half a romantic comedy with much of the romance erased and replaced by familial love. Brian Aherne and his wife, Irene Rich, run a bicycle/music shop (yeah, that seemed like a strange combo to me, too) in Paris, and live in the building with their son (Glenn Ford) and daughter (Evelyn Keyes). Aherne, excited to be called to jury duty, sits on the case of a lovely young woman (Rita Hayworth) accused of murdering her benefactor. First, he's convinced she's guilty, but soon he comes around to thinking that she couldn't be, and by asking a question about the timing of events on the night of the murder, he raises just enough doubt among the jurors that she's acquitted. After the trial, Aherne discovers that Hayworth is homeless and he offers her a job and a place to stay. He doesn't tell his family who Hayworth is, and, though at first his wife suspects he has a romantic interest in the girl, Hayworth is soon accepted by the family. Ford, an astronomy buff who has a telescope and huge models of the planets in his work room, knows who she is but becomes smitten with her anyway until he overhears one of Aherne's fellow jurors (Curt Bois) visiting and raising doubts about Hayworth's innocence. There are two running subplots; the major one involves Keyes' finace (Robert Norris), a dance teacher--always a suspect occupation in the classic movie era--who begins a flirtation on the side with Hayworth. The lesser comic-relief plot involves a pudgy man who keeps trading single bikes for tandem ones when he gets engaged, then returns for the single bike when his girl dumps him. All the plot strands come together on a near-tragic Christmas Eve which turns into a happy Christmas Day for most everyone.

Aherne, not quite 40 at the time, is made up fairly well to look older and does a nice job in a part that could have stood a bit more development; in the original French film GRIBOUILLE, there is apparently more ambiguity in the feelings the father has for the girl (father figure vs. lover), though in this version, that possibility is left pretty far in the background, and Aherne's paternalistic relationship with Hayworth is stressed much more than Ford's romantic one. Hayworth is fine, though her character is even less well defined. Ford is very young and boyish and is maybe the best actor in the bunch, though he's not around for a big chunk of the middle of the film. Keyes has a couple of scenes in which she sounds just like the whining Suellen she played in GONE WITH THE WIND. George Coulouris is Hayworth's lawyer and Frank Reicher (who looks a bit like Harry Davenport) is a judge. Even though the story wasn't based on a play, it sometimes feels stagy (not necessarily a bad thing), and I loved the set of the large multilevel house with its many windows from one room into another. [TCM]

DETOUR (1945)

Tom Neal is an unshaven hitchhiker at a roadside diner who freaks out when a song from his past plays on the jukebox. In a flashback, we see that Neal was once a promising pianist in New York City (at a club called the Break O' Dawn), but when his girlfriend, a singer at the club, leaves to make a name out in California, he becomes dejected, sadly plunking out rather avant-garde pastiches which drive away customers. Even big tips don't make him happy--when one patron gives him ten dollars, he says to himself, "What's a 10-spot? A piece of paper crawling with germs." Neal decides to hitchhike out west to be with his gal and winds up riding for a while with a chatty businessman (Edmund McDonald). As fate would have it, the man drops dead of a heart attack while Neal is driving. Not sure what to do, Neal dumps the body and takes his ID, money, and car, and soon discovers that the man was out to cheat his rich father, whom McDonald hadn't seen in years. He picks up a hot bimbo (Ann Savage) who sees through Neal's deception. She threatens to turn him in to the cops and say he murdered McDonald, so he lets her take control of their relationship. Savage basically imprisons him in a cheap motel room, and when they find out that McDonald's dying father is looking for his son, they figure Neal could pose as the son and get some dough out of the old man. But before they can even get out of the motel room, fate takes another hand and trips them both up, and Neal gets up back on the road, with the law just a step or two behind.

This is the movie that critics and film buffs point to as the ultimate example of how a Poverty-Row studio could occasionally create a movie as entertaining and memorable as any big-studio product. You do have to adjust your expectations a bit--after all, the movie was made in a week with B-level actors--but it's one of the best film noirs ever. Neal, who never got past B-movie lead status, is excellent as the sweaty, passive, pathetic guy who may or may not be telling us the truth. Some critics have made some grandiose claims about this movie's use of the unreliable narrator (since it's all in flashback, how do we know Neal is really as innocent and abused as he claims?). I think these critics are mostly just trying to cover up ambiguities and gaps caused not so much by intention as by speed and cheapness of execution, but it is fun to "read" the narrative that way. Savage is just as good as Neal, looking so hard and ugly that she's sexy, and spitting out her lines in a raspy voice. Without a doubt, these are two of noir's greatest characters. The cheapness of the production, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, the Orson Welles of B-movies, gives everything an almost surreal feeling; the road scenes are all blatantly shot in a studio in front of a rear projection screen, and a New York City street scene consists of a street sign in darkness and mist. There are no pristine copies of this public domain film around, though some DVDs are better than others. Still, this is one to catch no matter what shape the print is in, and certainly not to be missed if you are a noir fan. [TCM]

RED HEADED WOMAN (1932)

[Spoilers follow!!]
It's been years since I'd seen this, one of my favorite pre-Code movies, and I'm happy to review it on the occasion of its DVD debut last year as part of Warner’s first Forbidden Hollywood set. The focus of the story, set in a fictional Ohio town, is Jean Harlow as Lil, the title character, a brassy gold digger who works as a secretary for Chester Morris, a married man from a prominent family. She's decided that she'll snag him, come hell or high water, and she gets all dolled up to deliver some papers to him at his home while his wife's away. It takes some doing on her part, but eventually he succumbs to her charms; there is a gap in the narrative here which makes it unclear exactly how far things go between them, but whatever happens, it doesn't completely satisfy Harlow. However, just as she seems ready to go to bat again, the wife (Leila Hyams) comes home and chases her out (Harlow tells her roomie, Una Merkel, “There we were like an uncensored movie…”). Morris's father (Lewis Stone) tries to transfer Harlow to Cleveland, but she won't budge and continues to pester Morris. He goes to her apartment for a showdown, even slapping her, but when Harlow moans, “Do it again, I like it!” he gives up, and winds up getting a divorce and marrying Harlow. She has grand plans for crashing high society (or what passes for it in an Ohio town), but the socialites shun her so she seduces a rich businessman (Henry Stephenson) who's visiting Morris and blackmails him into bringing important folks to her house for a party. The plan works briefly, but when she finds out that her guests left early to attend a "better" party, she throws a fit and leaves town. For a time, she shacks up with Stephenson, but sleeps on the sly with his chauffeur (Charles Boyer in what amounts to a bit part) and when Morris gives Stephenson photos of Harlow and Boyer, she's given the heave-ho. Things come to a head when Harlow comes back to Ohio with a gun, looking for Morris. She shoots him, he recovers, and the shocker is that after all this "immoral" behavior, everybody winds up with a relatively happy ending: Morris remarries Hyams, and Harlow's free and easy in Paris, scamming rich old men with Boyer’s help. Morris and Harlow are in fine form and their scenes together crackle with sexual energy. The supporting cast is strong (though I wish the wonderful Una Merkel had more to do) and includes May Robson in a small role. Highly recommended, especially as a starting point for viewers unfamiliar with the pleasures of pre-Code movies. [DVD]

THE MAN WHO FOUND HIMSELF (1937)

John Beal is a young man who is following in his father's footsteps and becoming a physician. He's engaged to be married to Jane Walsh, who complains that Beal hasn't quite found himself yet--his father thinks his problem is that he has too much youthful exhilaration, as evidenced by the hot-dogging flights he takes in his private plane. One stormy night, Beal gives a young lady a ride to Philadelphia in his plane, but he crashes. He survives but she dies and a love tryst is assumed. Beal is put on probation by the medical board, and Walsh won't leave the big city as Beal wants to, so Beal sets out alone to find himself. He changes his name, rides the rails, works on a road crew, and, out in L.A. where he's befriended by old pal Phillip Huston, gets a job as an airplane mechanic. He starts a flirtatious relationship with ambulance corps nurse Joan Fontaine and, despite his reluctance, she gets him to fly an emergency run (with hysterical patient Dwight Frye). When he's hired as a pilot, she discovers his true identity, as does a reporter named Nosey (Jimmy Conlin). Fontaine tries to arrange a reconciliation between Beal and his father, and things climax with a train wreck in which Beal proves he still has his doctoring skills, and perhaps has finally found himself. That's about all there is to this predictable melodrama, which is a perfectly acceptable way to pass an hour. The biggest surprise is seeing roly-poly comic actor Billy Gilbert (Pettibone in HIS GIRL FRIDAY) in a small but serious role as a train-riding hobo. [TCM]

SOMETHING WILD (1961)

Wild, this movie isn't. Creepy and disturbing, maybe, but in a bland way. Carroll Baker is a college student living with her parents in New York City. One night, on her way home, she's attacked and raped. She cuts up the clothes she was wearing and flushes them down the toilet, then withdraws, dropping out of school, leaving home and getting a small apartment in a tenement (without telling her parents where she's gone) and taking a job as a cashier at Woolworth's. She doesn't fit in with her neighbors and co-workers, can't cut the job, and has a breakdown. As she's about to jump off a bridge, she is saved by working class mechanic Ralph Meeker. Without knowing anything about her, he takes her home to his apartment (which isn't in much better shape than hers) and tells her to stay and recover while he goes to work. That night, he comes home stumbling drunk and tries to assault her. She kicks him in the eye which knocks him out cold. The next day, he can't remember what happened and thinks his eye injury (which winds up being permanent, requiring him to wear an eye patch) was the result of a bar fight. But though he feeds her and seems to think he's treating her well, he keeps her a prisoner in his apartment, for no reason he can articulate except that she's his "last chance." Eventually, these two damaged souls do forge something of a "normal" relationship, though I was not convinced that it would last.

This material might have worked better as a play, as practically all of the last half takes place in Meeker's apartment, though that is also the part of the movie that grows tedious. Neither Meeker not Baker inhabit characters who are all that interesting. We know a little bit about Baker, and the part of the film that focuses on her decline is good, but we know virtually nothing about Meeker's unpleasant character, and we have to accept on faith that he's a nice guy at heart. I did like the fact that much of the first half was shot on the streets of New York, giving the film a kind of neo-realist feel. It was also great fun to see Jean Stapleton, who I know mostly as Edith Bunker, as a hooker who, in a bizarre scene, manhandles a shirtless drunken sailor. A very young Doris Roberts also has a small role as a Woolworth's worker, and Mildred Dunnock is good as Baker's neurotic mother. For Ralph Meeker completists only. [TCM]

BAGDAD (1949)

Maureen O'Hara, of the fiery red hair and fiery Irish temperament, is Marjan, a Bedouin princess who was raised in England and has returned to her homeland to see her father. Sadly, just before she arrives, he is killed in a raid by the Black Robes, a rebel tribe. The Pasha (Vincent Price) tells her that the notorious Prince Ahmed is the leader of the Robes and she vows revenge. She finds herself attracted to Hassan (Paul Christian), a lowly camel driver, but we soon find out that he is actually Ahmed, trying to clear his name of any connection with the Black Robes--even Ahmed's cousin Raizul (John Sutton) thinks he's guilty. O'Hara, in a ridiculous plot contrivance, sings at a café (with very bad lip syncing), and soon finds out that Hassan is Ahmed. She has an altercation with the Pasha, whom she discovers is in league with the leader of the Robes, who is in fact not Ahmed but Raizul, and she learns that the Robes are planning to kill some visiting nobility. Marjan and Ahmed soon join forces to set things right. This feels very much like a typical "exotic" B-movie of its era, except it's in bright Technicolor, which is a big plus. I've decided that, as much as I like Maureen O'Hara in MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET, she's really not a great actress. She is lovely and can express disdain, but most other emotions seem beyond her. Price does his usual shtick, and I noticed halfway through that he keeps his right eye shut throughout the entire film; I have no idea why. Swiss actor Christian (who later went by Paul Hubschmid) makes a fetching leading man. This is passable 40's escapist fare, done no better than it had to be. [TCM]

THE CORSICAN BROTHERS (1941)

In 19th century Corsica, the Franchi family is holding a huge feast in celebration of the birth of an heir; because of a blood feud, Colonna (Akim Tamiroff) and his men invade the party and slaughter as many members of the Franchi family as they can. The doctor (H.B. Warner) attending the birth delivers Siamese twins and manages to escape with them along with the loyal Lorenzo (J. Carroll Naish). The doc separates the twins and to ensure their safety, they are split up; Mario (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is left with the Dupree family and grows up privileged in Paris; Lucien (also Fairbanks) stays with Lorenzo in the Corsican woods and becomes a Robin Hood-type bandit, stealing mostly from the Colonnas. They can feel each others pains and ecstasies even though they aren't aware of each other's existence. When they turn 21, they are brought together by the doctor. They vow revenge against Colonna but their budding relationship is strained when they both develop a crush on the lovely Countess Gravini (Ruth Warrick) whom Mario knew previously in Paris. When Colonna tries to force her to become his wife, the brothers go to her aid, but Lucien becomes jealous when he senses that she and Mario are in love. A plot involving a disguise and a death-simulating drug is carried out, and swordfights and gunplay follow to a satisfying ending.

I tend to think of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as a star of swashbuckler epics like his father had been, but according to Robert Osborne on TCM, this was his first swashbuckling role, and it came over 15 years into his acting career; as far as I can tell, he only did one other similar role (in 1947's SINBAD THE SAILOR). Still, he's very good here, charming and handsome and athletic, and he does a nice job of giving the two brothers different personalities. There is some fine split-screen work, though I suspect much of the "twinning" is done with a stand-in. Still, it's effective. Warrick, who didn't specialize in glamour parts, is very good, as are Warner and Naish. Tamiroff isn't bad, but he sounded a little too much like Boris Badenov from Rocky & Bullwinkle for me to take him seriously. Henry Wilcoxon has a small role as the Franchi patriarch who gets killed off in the first few minutes, and Gloria Holden (of DRACULA'S DAUGHTER fame) is the mother of the twins. Solid classic-era adventure, lacking the bells and whistles (and color) of Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, but still quite fun. [TCM]