COME SEPTEMBER (1961)

Wealthy American businessman Rock Hudson has a mistress (Gina Lollobrigida) in Italy with whom he spends every September. This year, however, he gets the urge to go visit in July. He calls Gina to let her know. Unbeknownst to Rock, Gina, tired of her arrangement with Rock, was about to marry a drab Brit (Ronald Howard), but his call revives old feelings so she cancels her wedding and heads off with Rock to his lush villa. But the caretaker of the house (Walter Slezak) is also in for a surprise: without telling Rock, he's been running the house as a small luxury hotel between October and August. Despite trying to hide the evidence (including a front desk and a plaque out front for the Hotel La Dolce Vista), Slezak can't hide the current guests, a group of sightseeing teenage girls and their adult chaperone. Rock blows up when he finds out, at least partly because, since he and Gina aren't married, they can't indulge in any romantic interludes while the guests are present. He tries to get them all to another hotel, but the chaperone falls and hurts herself and they must all stay put for a few more days. In the meantime, a group of somewhat obnoxious American teenage boys end up camping out on the villa's front lawn, and the boys and girls get along—and cocky Bobby Darin and innocent Sandra Dee in particular get along well—so Rock tries his best to stop any canoodling between the groups. Eventually, Gina gets fed up with Rock's moral hypocrisy and decides to go back to her Brit, so Rock makes one last attempt to patch things up permanently.

If you just go with it, this is a cute and colorful romantic/sex comedy. Because coitus interruptus farce can get tired fast, I tried fighting it for a while. Logically, Rock and Gina should have just pretended to be married, but of course, then there'd be no conflict, or not as much conflict. The problem for me is that the plothole seemed so huge, I couldn't get past it. But I eventually quit fighting and enjoyed the light comedy skills of Hudson and Lollobrigida, who work well together, as well as Hudson and Doris Day. Walter Slezak does some nifty scene-stealing as the caretaker who keeps getting fired and rehired. Darin and Dee, who married in real life not long after filming, are so-so, but they pretty much remain secondary characters. A young Joel Gray is one of Darin's buddies. The location shooting in Italy is lovely, as is the villa. This was probably considered sophisticated in 1961 (the fact that Rock and Gina are sleeping together out of wedlock is a given and not punished). Now it's a little threadbare in plotting, but it's nice to see the lead actors have fun with the fizzy comedy. [TCM]

HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959)

A French actress from the town of Nevers is in Hiroshima in the last days of filming a movie that seems to be at least partly an anti-war, anti-nuclear weapons story. She meets a local Japanese architect and the two have a torrid affair despite both claiming to be happily married. Each is still dealing with past traumas: he lost his family in the bombing of Hiroshima; she took a German soldier as her lover during the war and was punished as a collaborator after the soldier was killed. Sex is had, as are philosophical post-coital conversations; he wants her to stay, and for a time it seems like she might, but in the end, they part at the Café Casablanca, her calling him Hiroshima and he calling her Nevers.

This is not a movie that a plot summary can do justice to. Not that I am all that enamored of Alain Resnais’s new wave film: I saw this many years ago and remembered little about when I sat down to watch it again, and I suspect not much of it will stay with me this time, either. The movie is known for its fragmented narrative and its often lovely and sensuous visual imagery. The first thing we see is entangled naked bodies with glittering ash falling on them, surely intended to refer to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima; later, we see more graphic and upsetting footage of the bombing’s aftermath (though most of the very graphic things we see are actually from a fictional recreation of the bombing for a 1950s Japanese movie). The first ten minutes or so of the movie consists mostly of our naked lovers embracing and engaging in an odd conversation: she insists she has seen a number of sights in Hiroshima and he insists she could not have. We get footage of the town and the bombing museum; I took it that she did “sightsee” but that he insists that such behavior is not the same as having truly engaged with the horrors and tragedies of Hiroshima. We also get flashbacks of her affair and its aftermath—the villagers shave her head and she is exiled to her parents’ basement until she just leaves one day. The presentation of past and present events is not strictly chronological, though the end of the movie is also the end of their fling. The most interesting insight (to me) was her proclamation that, despite being married with children, she feels that by telling her story to the architect, she has betrayed her past soldier lover. Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada do the best they can with their amorphous characters. Interesting as one of the earlier new wave films. [TCM]

THE UNHOLY FOUR (1954)

Philip Vickers, whom everyone calls Vic, walks into his big country home where his wife is throwing a party. He causes quite a sensation because he's been missing, presumed dead, for four years. He'd been with three business partners (Bill, Job and Harry) on a fishing trip in Portugal when he apparently slipped over the side of the boat and was never seen again. He remembers a voice threatening him, a blow to the head from behind, then blackness, then amnesia. His memory back, his return indeed proves a disruption to the friends and to his wife Angie, who appears to have taken Harry as a lover; in fact, she faints when she sees Vic. As Vic hopes his memory will clear even more so he can identify his would-be killer, Harry is found dead, and Vic thinks his wife did it to get him out of the way, and even wonders if she was involved with the initial attack on him. Meanwhile, we discover that Joan, Angie's secretary who lives in the house, resents Vic because her father killed himself years ago after some financial problems which were laid at Vic's feet. Vic sends Joan away to isolate himself with Angie in an attempt to reestablish their relationship. When a company accountant named Sessions is found dead, pressure increases on the police to straighten out the tangled motives and secrets of Vic and Angie and friends.

Frankly, my attention wandered a bit during the running time of this sluggish melodrama so I may have a few of the details off. I blame lackluster direction; the script is promising and most of the acting is adequate, with William Sylvester (Dr. Floyd in 2001) as Vic and Alvys Maben as Joan especially good. Unfortunately, Paulette Goddard, in one of her last screen roles, is atrocious as Angie. Her first few scenes are fine (she pulls off her faint convincingly) but after that, she's all downhill, with her big eyes and her squeaky little-girl voice that does not fit the character. Though I was interested enough to care about Vic's fate, most of the other characters didn't engage me, and by the time the solution was presented, I didn't care. I liked seeing this other side of William Sylvester (pictured at right); we wonder for a while how far he might go in seeking revenge, and though this isn't really a film noir, his character would have made a good noir lead. Based on a crime novel by actor George Sanders (actually ghostwritten by sci-fi author Leigh Brackett who went on to contribute to the script for The Empire Strikes Back). The YouTube print I saw is in the wrong aspect ratio—it looks like a more or less full screen movie that got stretched to widescreen. Also released as The Stranger Came Home. [YouTube]

THE COUNT OF THE OLD TOWN (1935)

In the Old Town section of Stockholm, the person everyone calls the Count is a cheerful older man whose sole support is as a newspaper delivery man. Business is good lately because of the headline-making actions of a daring diamond thief. The Count and his buddy Gurken (named for the pickle) mostly saunter about town trying to get a few drinks, which is difficult to do as the country has begun rationing alcohol to cut down on alcoholism. We meet other denizens of the Old Town including the chief policeman, Goransson, who is generally disliked and referred to as "the Lord," a blind man named Karlsson who helps a widow write a personals ad for the "joint happiness' section of the paper, and Berglund, a slick suitor to the widow. When a stranger named Ake arrives in town and takes a room at the local hotel, some suspect he may be the thief, especially when he seems anxious to avoid the police. But the Count comes to like him because he lets the Count use his liquor ration card. The hotel keeper's wholesome young maid Elsa has a meet-cute moment with Ake and they begin a flirtation. Still, we wonder what he’s up to with his comings and goings. And why does the blind man leave a light on in his apartment at night? This cute character-driven comedy occasionally spins its wheels a bit but is overall a pleasant viewing experience. The conflicts here never get too serious and the mystery of who might be the jewel thief does become fairly engrossing. This is the movie that introduced Ingrid Bergman to the silver screen, in the role of Elsa; she is fine in the role but she hasn't quite yet come into her own. One problem might be Edvin Adolphson (pictured with Bergman at left) who plays Ake in a rather gruff and uninvolving way (he also directed the film), so their chemistry never really sets off sparks. Waldemar Dalquist is fun as the Count as is Sigurd Wallen as his buddy who has a distinctive chuckle. Its Swedish title is Munkbrogreven, and it crops up sometimes as The Count of the Old Monk’s Bridge. This doesn't seem to have gotten any kind of major theatrical release in the United States in its day. [TCM]

UNDER MILK WOOD (1972)

This is an adaptation of a "play for voices" by Dylan Thomas, originally produced on radio. Two men, identified in the play as First Voice and Second Voice, narrate the occurrences over one day's time in the Welsh village of Llareggub. There is not a traditional plot, just windows into the lives of the villagers, some happy, some sad, though none tragic. Here, Richard Burton (pictured) does the bulk of reading as First Voice (or First Man as the movie credits him) as he and an older companion (Ryan Davies as Second Man) wander through town, mostly unseen by others (except for their rather odd threesome with a woman in a barn, apparently not part of the original play), reading the lovely poetic descriptions of Thomas' play as we see vignettes involving the townsfolk. Myfanwy (Glynis Johns) and Mog (Victor Spinetti) are merchants who send each other love letters but only see each other in their dreams. Mr. Pugh is a henpecked husband who waits on his wife hand and foot, but every day dreams of putting poison in her tea (thriller movie music plays during his dreams). Lord Cut-Glass lives in a small house filled with clocks all set to different times. The bartender is madly in love with a young woman named Gossamer, but never tells her, though when he's pumping the beer taps he imagines himself having sex with her. Mr. Owen spends most evenings getting dead drunk at the pub, and sometimes knocks his wife around a bit, but she always forgives him, and the two seem like the happiest couple in town. The mailman steams open everyone's letters and tells them exactly what's in each message (and the townsfolk don't seem to care). The town prostitute keeps having babies and complains that nothing seems to grow in her garden by the shore except laundry. A twice-widowed woman is visited by the ghosts of her dead husbands whom she orders around as if they were still alive. And the old blind sailor Capt. Tom Cat (Peter O'Toole), who knows what's going on in town despite his blindness, dreams of his late lover, the buxom Rosie (Elizabeth Taylor).

This film is often criticized for being too pedestrian, for lazily showing us the images and actions that Thomas's poetry presents in words. It's true that the procession of images becomes predictable, and the characters remain mostly one-dimensional, more symbols than people, especially a minister who preaches to no one out on the steps of his church. But between Burton's fine handling of the poetic narration and the sometimes amusing, sometimes touching situations depicted, this eventually had me fairly engrossed, though I can't say I ever cared about any of the townspeople. The star billing of Taylor is a tease; she's on screen for maybe four minutes. O'Toole is a bit of a ham in his old man make-up and blind eye contact lenses. But honestly, with the exception of Burton, this is not a showcase for acting as much as direction and cinematography, and on those levels, it's fairly interesting throughout, though certainly not for all tastes. The beginning and end seem to hint that the villagers might be selkies, mythological creatures who can transform from seal to human, but nothing is done with that. However, for a kick, try spelling the town's name backwards. [YouTube; this print was stuttery and a bit murky]

THEY ALL COME OUT (1939)

Calm down, this is not a 30s movie about gay liberation; the "all" in the title refers to prisoners. The assumption given at the beginning of the movie by the real-life director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons is that all prisoners eventually come out and rejoin the world. This film follows the story of two of those prisoners. Joe (Tom Neal, pictured), a down-on-his-luck guy having a hard time finding a job, eats a meal at a diner and then says he can't pay for it. Just as the owner is set to call the sheriff, Kitty (Rita Johnson) pays for it, then offers him a job as a getaway driver for a crook named Reno and his small gang. They pull off a big bank vault robbery, and Reno and Joe hide the money until the heat is off. Unfortunately, they get involved in a shoot-out at an auto court. When Kitty is wounded, Joe stays behind to take care of her and they're both arrested. Reno and the others also wind up behind bars. We are then made privy to the discussions of prison officials. Kitty is sent to a women's prison, and because Joe is new to the life of crime, he is sent to a men's reformatory to keep him from being influenced by other hardened criminals. Both get early releases, with Kitty getting a job at a beauty salon and Joe being trained as a welder. Groper, one of the gang members, is diagnosed as paranoid and gets medical treatment. Bugs is tempted to go straight by the possibility of reclaiming his role as husband and father. But Reno has none of it and gets involved in a prison breakout attempt. Winding up at Alcatraz, he hears that Joe has gotten paroled and has gotten a job, and he sends Vonnie, a former cellmate, off to check up on Joe and make sure he doesn't give up the hidden money, and to try and tempt him back into a life of crime. Can Joe and Kitty beat the odds and stay in the straight life?

This B-movie started life as a documentary about the prison system, hence the opening segment as two federal officials discuss the positive aspects of prison. A handful of shots were taken in actual federal prisons. It winds up being largely a propaganda movie about the wisdom of prison officials, which detracts a bit from the character study of Kitty and Joe, who, thanks to the acting of Johnson and Neal, are interesting, and it's disappointing that their stories don't get fleshed out a bit more, instead getting squeezed to make room for the other gang members. Reno (Bernard Nedell) is strictly a clichéd and uninteresting thug; Edward Gargan is OK as the frustrated family man, and John Gallaudet has some good moments as the screwy Groper. Overall, this movie is best treated as a novelty, as an early model perhaps for a docudrama, and it's short enough that it doesn’t wear out its welcome. [TCM]

THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1948)

Walking through a gloomy woods at night on the way to Limmeridge House where he is to be the drawing instructor for the young and wealthy Laura Fairlie, handsome Walter Hartwright runs across a pale woman dressed all in white, looking a bit like an apparition. She is flesh and blood, and also shy and skittish, and claims to be running from folks out to get her. When a carriage stops on the road and the driver asks if Walter has seen a woman in the woods who has escaped from an asylum, he says no. What he doesn't see is a large, threatening looking man sitting in the carriage. When the carriage leaves, the woman has gone as well. At the house, Walter meets Marian, friend and companion to Laura; Laura's uncle Frederick who is almost as nervous and impaired as Poe's Roderick Usher; and Count Fosco, the large man from the carriage who is alternately jolly and sinister. When Walter eventually meets Laura, he is shocked that she is a dead ringer for the mysterious woman in white. There are a number of plotlines that get spun out from here: Fosco has talked Fredrick into arranging a marriage for Laura to Sir Percival Glyde; Walter hits it off well with Marian, but then also strikes romantic sparks with Laura. We discover that Fosco and Glyde have plotted Laura's wedding so they can get their hands on the money she will soon come into, but their plans seem to hinge on the woman in white staying out the picture. Walter and Marian, sensing that things aren't right, try to stop the marriage, but aren't successful, and Walter and Marian both leave the house while Laura goes on a long honeymoon. Months later, Marian returns to find Laura changed (for one thing, gasp, she's taken up smoking!). As their devious plotting threatens to fall apart, Fosco and Glyde may have to resort to murder.

This is based on a famous gothic mystery novel by Wilkie Collins. It's been at least 30 years since I read it, but this seems to be fairly faithful to the book, as much as a 110 minute movie can be to a 500 page novel. There are some complications involving who's related to whom that get a bit tricky-—I'm still not sure if Marian is related to Laura or not. But if you keep your attention on Fosco, you won't stray far. The acting all around is quite good. Sydney Greenstreet (billed third but really the star of the show) makes a wonderfully malevolent Fosco, truly a villain you love to hate. He goes through all his mannerisms here—the wicked chuckle, the intense stare, the brisk stride—but we'd be disappointed if he didn't. A very young Eleanor Parker (this was her 18th movie in five years) is lovely as Laura, though the character's effectiveness is limited by her role being a bit underwritten. First billed, and almost more important to the plot than Laura, is Alexis Smith as Marian and she's excellent. Some critics find Gig Young miscast as the romantic hero Walter, but to my eyes, he's fine. He disappears from the middle third of the movie and is missed. John Emery is nicely slimy as Glyde and John Abbott is convincingly neurasthenic as Fredrick. Agnes Moorehead drops in late in the film (as the plotting kicks into overdrive) for an important role as Fosco's wife. The sets evoke a Gothic atmosphere without going overboard. The book's famous spooky opening scene of Walter meeting the title character isn't done justice by the movie, but otherwise, it's an enjoyable watch. Pictured are Greenstreet and Smith. [TCM]

FITZWILLY (1967)

Or, what exactly is a Christmas movie?

I'm sure I've mentioned in the past my obsessive concern with what makes something a Christmas movie. Years ago, I read an article that said it wasn't enough for a movie to be primarily set at Christmas; it should also have some element of magic. Think of movies like Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, or any version of A Christmas Carol. I like this criterion, though it’s not a foolproof test; A Christmas Story, The Holly and the Ivy, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and its ilk (stories of suburban holiday antics) may not have any magic or fantasy, but they are laser-focused on Christmas. For some viewers, any movie which features a Christmas scene or setting is a Christmas movie (see Die Hard fans); for me, defining a Christmas movie is like defining pornography: I know it when I see it. When I wrote my review of BEYOND TOMORROW, I realized that there are, more or less, two kinds of Christmas movies: those that are clearly striving for Christmas movie status, and those that have that status thrust upon them. This, like BEYOND, has become a Christmas movie by default for two reasons: the climax takes place in Gimbels department store on Christmas Eve, and the film is currently in the Turner Classic Movies library so they show it every December as a holiday classic. However, there really is little else about this that deserves the Christmas movie label.

Fitzwilly (Dick Van Dyke) is butler and head of household to the rich, elderly and philanthropic Victoria Woodworth (Edith Evans), but as we discover, she is no longer rich. Fitzwilly and his staff have been acting as Robin Hood and his merry men, engaging in theft and con games in order to support Woodworth in her charitable ways. Their well-intentioned larceny goes off smoothly until Victoria hires Juliet (Barbara Feldon) as a secretary to help her with a dictionary of misspelled words that she hopes to get published. After a prickly initial encounter, Juliet and Fitzwilly slowly warm up to each other. Juliet, without realizing it, begins throwing monkey wrenches into the plans for the staff's criminal behavior. When she discovers what they've been doing, Fitzwilly agrees to stop, but he has to pull one last big heist: steal all the cash in Gimbels department store at 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Parts of this are fun, but overall it should be fizzier and looser than it is. One problem is Van Dyke; much as I love him on TV, he just doesn't have what it takes to come alive on the big screen (Bye Bye Birdie excepted). He feels pent up, like he wants to let loose with some slapstick but can't. He has more chemistry with the staff (including John McGiver, Noam Pitlik and a young Sam Waterston) than he does with Feldon, who herself comes off as absolutely charming. I'm not sure why Feldon didn’t have a bigger movie career—maybe because it seemed like she was always playing variations on her Agent 99 character on the 60s TV comedy Get Smart. The big Gimbels climax is lots of fun, but getting there is sometimes a bit trying. As for whether or not it's a Christmas movie, I don't think so, but I guess that really depends on the viewer. [TCM]

CHRISTMAS SHORT TAKES 2

HOMETOWN CHRISTMAS (2019)

The week before Christmas, Noelle (Beverley Mitchell) moves from Chicago back to her small hometown in Louisiana to work at a medical clinic with her widowed father Pete. She is happy to be back with her brother Will (and his fiancée Jen) and pleased to meet up with old friends, but less happy to run into her high school boyfriend Nick (Stephen Colletti, pictured); they broke up ten years ago when he went off to a career in professional baseball and old wounds still fester. Before she starts working in the new year, she decides to restage the beloved nativity that her late mother used to hold every Christmas. Noelle slowly warms to Nick's presence, especially when she finds out that Nick's baseball career is on hold until he recovers from a serious shoulder injury and he's donating his time to running an after-school baseball camp for some adorable children. Just as it seems like Noelle and Nick are getting back in their old groove, she finds out that he plans on leaving town and going back to his career as soon as he's recovered, despite the fact that the local high school has offered him a coaching job. This Lifetime Christmas romance is pretty much par for the course: attractive leads, moderately interesting side characters, and lots and lots of Christmas visuals, despite being set in Louisiana which doesn't get much snow. Mitchell and Colletti have good chemistry, but so do Erin Cahill (Jen) and Donny Boaz (Will), so it's a little disappointing that their story is handled rather sloppily. Somewhat surprisingly, the plot conflicts never get too melodramatic. The word "pleasant" describes it well, and if you're looking for something edgier or more dramatic, look elsewhere. 3 Christmas trees out of 5 [Lifetime]

CHRISTMAS CRUSH (2019)

Addie and her best friend Drea work at a high-powered party-planning company. They have one week to plan a holiday party for a demanding client, the Donner Legacy Foundation—the one thing that works in this movie is the running gag of people calling it "the Donner party." Addie has been nursing a crush on Sam, the guy in the next apartment. We see her literally run into him in the hallway, and though he seems approachable, Addie gets tongue tied in his presence. Her chummy neighbor Mrs. Motley notices Addie's predicament and gets Addie to wish on a falling star, telling her all Christmas wishes come true. Addie wishes that her neighbor would fall in love with her. But she's not quite precise enough with the wish. The next day, just as Addie is starting to make some headway with Sam, she discovers that a high school friend, Pete, has moved in across the hall from her, and Pete is the one who falls head over heels in love with her. He's a sweet-natured goof but he proves to be an obsessed nuisance, messing up a date with Sam and even threatening the smoothness of her party-planning activities. Drea and Mrs. Motley try to help her, but she's convinced that only another Christmas wish can right this wrong. I appreciate the attempt at an element of magic here (the falling star wish), but that’s about all I appreciate. Cindy Sampson is fine as Addie, though her performance is part of the problem with the story—she seems way too well-adjusted not to be able to fix this problem in a hurry: tell off Pete without mincing words and be honest with Sam about her feelings. Of course, then the movie would be about 45 minutes long. Robin Dunne (Sam), normally a charming Christmas movie lead, comes off as drab and unappealing. In a different Christmas romance, Sam would be the loser boyfriend. Chris Violette (Pete) has the quirky frat boy thing down, but his performance is pretty one-note, again due as much to the writing (and direction) as to his acting. 2 Christmas trees out of 5. [Ion TV]

GINGERBREAD MIRACLE (2021)

Maya grew up in a small town in Colorado, had a high-school crush on Alex, and, unable to tell him about her feelings, wrote him a long letter, stuck it in his jacket pocket, and then left for a lengthy European vacation. He doesn't respond so when she gets back, in order to make him jealous, she exaggerates a relationship she had with a French boy. The stunt doesn't work and the two go off to separate colleges, both becoming lawyers. Now, some ten years later, Maya has gotten burned out on the fast pace of a big law firm and is in her hometown living with her parents and freelancing via Zoom. Meanwhile, Alex, with a law firm in New York City, is home for the holidays (and also working remotely) to be with Luis, the uncle who raised him, as he goes through the process of selling his Mexican bakery. Alex is a bit miffed when he finds out that Luis has hired Maya to help him with the sale, but that's because Alex is always insanely busy in New York. Of course, she warms up to him and he to her, but their unresolved past still stands between them (it turns out the letter she left in the jacket got lost for a while, but he did eventually read it). There’s a legend that the gingerbread cookies Luis bakes can cause wishes to come true--that could happen here, if these two mixed-up kids ever discover what it is they really wish for. This Hallmark Christmas movie hits all the usual beats at the usual times, including the complicating factor in the romance at the 90-minute mark and the long-delayed kiss in the fadeout (and, as in the above movie, a magical power of a wish). What puts it a slight notch above the norm is the main setting, the Mexican bakery, and the legit Latino actors—Jon Ecker as Alex and Jorge Montesi as Luis. Honestly, those two have as good if not better chemistry as nephew and uncle than Ecker and Merritt Patterson (Maya) have as romantic leads. Ecker is kinda smolderingly handsome but also a little too broody throughout. Patterson is fine as are Patch May as Jacques, the French baker who wants to buy Luis's bakery (and maybe play kissy-face with Maya), and Preston Vanderslice as a subplot boyfriend of a subplot character. Likable and harmless. 4 Christmas trees out of 5. [Hallmark]

CHRISTMAS SHORT TAKES 1

THE CHRISTMAS EDITION (2020)

Carly Hughes is a newspaper journalist jonesing for a promotion to head of the newsroom, but when a digital media conglomerate (represented by the brittle Marie Osmond) buys the paper with plans for it to go online only, Hughes decides to leave her job and take on the responsibility of getting a small town Alaska paper back on its feet after its owner passed away and his son (Rob Mayes, pictured at right), who works as a glassblower, has been unable to stop it from turning into a once-a-month shadow of its former self. She turns it into a town sensation by focusing on Christmas doings and local businesses, and she becomes a beloved local figure. Having struck some sparks with Mayes, Hughes plans to stick with the job and the challenges of post-Christmas existence, but when Osmond gets wind of the paper's success, she heads up to Alaska with an offer to buy the paper–and make it online only. She also offers Hughes her newsroom job at her old paper. Will Mayes sell? Will Hughes leave? Will Osmond, who seems to have had lots of face work, be able to express any emotion beyond dismissive haughtiness? My mini-crush on Mayes, good at playing unpolished average guys, kept me watching this painfully predictable movie. Mayes and Hughes are both fine, though their chemistry is lacking—a scene at an observatory, which should be the romantic highpoint, fizzles. Osmond seems uncomfortable, though she loosens up a bit near the end. 3 Christmas trees out of 5. [Lifetime/Amazon Prime]

SENSE, SENSIBILITY & SNOWMEN (2019)

Erin Krakow and Kimberly Sustad are sisters (the Dashwoods, as in Jane Austen's novel from which this takes its inspiration) who run a Chicago party-planning business. There is tension between the two: Sustad, the more serious sister, thinks that Krakow isn’t carrying her weight. Luke Macfarlane is the new head of a toy company built by his father, but Dad is unwilling to fade into retirement and still bosses Macfarlane around. When Krakow meets Macfarlane, they don’t hit it off, but they agree to work together when he hires her to throw a big toy company holiday party. She sees this as her chance to impress her sister with her skills, and he sees this as a chance to show dad that he can stand alone. Meanwhile, Sustad hits it off with Jason McKinnon, Macfarlane's cousin. In the end, the party goes off perfectly, Dad decides his son is OK on his own, and the couples couple up. Fairly bland overall. Krakow has a nice loosey-goosey approach to her role, unlike the predictable approaches of most Hallmark leads, but I sort of wished that Sustad, the more interesting actor, had Krakow's role. Macfarlane is handsome but seems to be (almost literally) gritting his teeth to get through the role—to be fair, his character is supposed to be uptight so maybe this was an acting choice but I found it distracting. The supporting cast is practically invisible and not given much to do. 2 Christmas trees out of 5. [Hallmark]

CHRISTMAS INHERITANCE (2017)

Eliza Taylor is about to inherit her father's business but she has a reputation in the tabloids as the "playgirl heiress" so her dad wants her to prove her mettle by carrying out the relatively simple task of heading to the small New England town of Snow Falls a few days before Christmas to deliver some letters to her dad's former business partner Zeke. But as in a fairy tale, there are requirements: she can't take her credit cards, she can only have $100 in cash, she has to go by bus, and she can’t tell anyone who she is. Her high-powered fiancé is not happy as he wants her on his arm at a big Christmas Eve party, but she assures him she'll be back in plenty of time. In town, she meets the handsome Jake Lacy (pictured at left), taxi driver and manager of the inn she is booked into for the night. Of course, there is friction between them at first, but as she sees what an all-around nice guy he is, and he sees a more humble side of her, they soften toward each other. Will Eliza fulfill her duty? Will she and Jake be more than friends? This one has a few strikes against it. The delivery of the Christmas letters is a strange plot device that is never fully explored. The fiancé is no more than the usual stock bad-guy boyfriend with zero personality. Snowstorms (with barely a covering of snow on the streets) and spotty cell phone reception play roles in the intrigue. Andie McDowell is a local who becomes a friend and confidante to Eliza, but she remains just a convenient plot device. The saving grace here is the chemistry of the lead actors. Australian actor Eliza Taylor does a nice job as Ellen—her playgirl behavior is absolutely vanilla—and Jake Lacy (the rich and hateful husband in HBO's The White Lotus) is frat-boy handsome and generally charming. The plot's one interesting quirk is his negative reaction to hearing "Silent Night" because a former girlfriend broke up with him years ago with that song playing in the background. Overall, pleasant but a bit lame. 2.5 Christmas trees out of 5. [Netflix]

BEYOND TOMORROW (1940)

As the song "Silver Bells" says (and a brief opening montage makes clear) it's Christmastime in the city and three wealthy older men, partners in an engineering firm who live together in a big house, are waiting for their invited guests for Christmas Eve dinner. The household consists of Harry Carey (cantankerous and cynical), C. Aubrey Smith (pleasant but still haunted by the death of his young son in the war) and Charles Winninger (always jolly and optimistic), and their maid (Maria Ouspenskaya), a former Russian countess. When their guests have to cancel, they become gloomy until Winninger suggests a way to share their dinner: they each toss a wallet with $10 and a business card out on the sidewalk and wait to see if any honest people turn up to return the money. Despite Carey's insistence that no one will show up, two people do: Richard Carlson, a Texas rodeo rider stranded in New York City and Jean Parker, a young woman who works as a children's health clinic. They all hit off that evening and soon the three men are spending time socializing with Carlson and Parker as the two become romantically involved. Sadly, a plane crash takes the lives of the three older men who, in their will, leave the house and some money to Carlson. When Carlson is interviewed on the radio, he gets a shot at singing on the air and becomes a success, but his relationship with Parker is strained when radio star Helen Vinson puts the moves on him. However, the three dead men return to earth as ghosts (only Ouspenskaya can sense their presence) and take it upon themselves to try and bring Carlson and Parker together before they get called back to the hereafter.

The first half-hour or so of this movie is set on Christmas Eve and has a strong holiday atmosphere, but by the time the fantasy element sets in, Christmas has been long forgotten. But television's appetite for movies that can be run every year, and even better, movies which have fallen into the public domain and can be run free of charge, has turned this into a minor Christmas "classic." (A colorized version has been released under the title Beyond Christmas.) The prints I have seen of this are dark and murky, and give it a film noir look. It's got a B-movie feel to it that is accentuated by the split in the acting. Winninger, Smith and Ouspenskaya are very good; Carlson are Vinson are OK; Carey and Parker are a little weak. The ghost "rules" are not well explained. The three seem to have been sent back to Earth in a kind of purgatory state, perhaps specifically to help Carlson and Parker, though that is never made plain. They are called back to the afterworld one by one: Carey by thunder and lightning, perhaps being sent to Hell; Smith by his dead soldier son; Winninger chooses to stay to finish up his matchmaking, though he is told by a booming supernatural voice that if he stays, he will "linger in the shadows of earth for all time." Despite this, Winninger and Carey are reunited and taken to Heaven in the end. A better screenplay would have helped. This is interesting and watchable, but whether it deserves the label "classic," I'm not sure. Pictured: Winninger, Smith and Carey as ghosts with Ouspenskaya in the middle. [DVD]

A DICKENS OF A HOLIDAY! (2021)

The small town of Dickens, Ohio is about to stage their 100th anniversary production of A Christmas Carol, but the older actor who usually plays Scrooge has a problem with vocal nodules and can't speak for an entire month. Brooke D'Orsay, who is directing the show, is encouraged by the mayor to contact Hollywood actor Kristoffer Polaha, the star of an action movie franchise; his catchphrase is "Do the right thing or it's the last thing you'll do!" Polaha grew up in Dickens, still has a brother there from whom he is estranged, and more importantly, he and D'Orsay had a brief attachment in high school. Desperate to get hired for a serious dramatic role (in a movie based on his late mother's favorite book), Polaha turns her down, but when he discovers that he's not up for the role, he decides to head to Dickens and take the role of Scrooge. While he's at it, he manages to patch things up with his brother, become a doting uncle to his young nephew (who's playing Tiny Tim in the play), and get close to D'Orsay. Suddenly a complication rears its ugly head: he might be up for the film role after all, but he has to attend a Christmas Eve party at the director's house back in Hollywood and will have to skip out on the show. In addition to jeopardizing the play, and his relationship with D'Orsay, will this also jeopardize Polaha's personal growth? 

This one is a delight, due largely to the performance of the charming Polaha. There's a fun scene in the beginning showing Polaha filming an action scene against a green screen that portends more unpredictable fun scenes. Unfortunately, this is not to be–except for Polaha's entrance in the small town theater as he booms out "Bah, humbug!," there are few other deviations from the Hallmark norm. Still, the lightness of touch that Polaha has and the committed performance of D'Orsay combine to set this at the top of the recent Hallmark film stack. The problematic relationship with the brother (Chad Willett) is fleshed out just enough to make us care about its outcome. Nerdy-cute Nathan Lynn is good as Polaha's personal assistant who genuinely wants good things for his boss, and their relationship is also delved into a bit. It's fun to see Polaha overact in his first rehearsal scenes, and fun to see D'Orsay try to steer him in a different direction. This is one of the few Hallmark films I would feel comfortable recommending to friends who aren't Hallmark fans. [Hallmark]

SINGLE ALL THE WAY (2021)

In this year's gay Hallmark Christmas movie that isn't actually on Hallmark, Peter (Michael Urie) is ready to fly from Los Angeles to small-town New Hampshire to spend Christmas with his family and introduce them to his new boyfriend Tim. But when Nick, Peter's roommate and best friend of eight years (Philemon Chambers), discovers that Tim is married with kids, Peter is devastated. He begs Nick to accompany him to New Hampshire with the story that the two have finally become romantically involved, something Peter's family has been hoping would happen. But in New Hampshire, Peter's mom Carole (Kathy Najimy) has already set up a blind date for Peter, with the handsome and hunky James (Luke Macfarlane), a trainer at the gym, so the charade collapses immediately. Peter and James hit it off, but his family begins actively pushing for Peter and Nick to get together. Eventually, we learn that both have had feelings for the other in the past but they were never acted on. Now, Peter worries that if they become a couple and things don't work out, he'll lose his best friend. Peter decides to stay in New Hampshire, which Nick takes as a sign that he's staying for James, so Nick decides to head back to L.A before Christmas Day. Can Peter's family meddle enough to get Peter and Nick to realize they love each other?

Being that this is in every way except the genders of the main couple a Hallmark romance, that answer is not in doubt. I am happy that the Christmas romance movie genre has expanded a bit to let in sexual and racial minorities, but I also wish that the types of plotlines and tropes and characters could be more creatively expanded. Having said that, this is a cute and frothy rom-com which benefits from a good cast. Urie is delightful and Chambers has good chemistry with him. Macfarlane, who regularly plays leads in Hallmark romances, is fine as the blind date, though he and Urie never work up much chemistry, so even though in the beginning I wanted them to get together, there's never really any danger of that happening. The great supporting cast includes Kathy Najimy as the mom and Barry Bostwick as the dad. The two nieces who become the biggest meddlers are nicely played by Madison Brydges and Alexandra Beaton. Jennifer Coolidge steals every scene she's in as the eccentric aunt who is putting on a kids' Christmas pageant, the title of which I can't mention as it would give away the single funniest moment in the movie. Harmless fun I sort of wish was a little less harmless. Pictured are Chambers and Urie. [Netflix]

MERRY KISSMAS (2015)

Carlton is a director and choreographer who has come to Palo Alto at Christmas to stage The Nutcracker. Secondarily, he is also throwing a big party celebrating his engagement to his business manager Kayla, who grew up in Palo Alto. But two seconds into their first scene together, we know this relationship won't last. Carlton is driven and obnoxious, and the only reason for the party is for the press it will get him. Kayla loved him once, but now realizes that his career will always be his first priority. Meanwhile, her hometown friend Jana is planning the party and working with her friend Dustin, a caterer and baker. The meet-cute is elaborately presented: Dustin needs a nutcracker as a model for the nutcracker cookies he is making and sees one in the window of a knick-knacks shop; Kayla, looking for a nutcracker herself, sees the same one. Dustin gets it first, and as he carts it home, Kayla is being chased down by the shop owner, a fan of Carlton's. In escaping, she winds up in an elevator with Dustin and to get rid of the woman, she gives Dustin a passionate kiss. The ruse works, Dustin is amused, and Kayla looks a little dazed. One thing leads to another and soon, egged on by their friends (Jana and Dustin's cousin Kim), Dustin and Kayla are falling in love. However, the jealous Carlton begs for another chance and Kayla says OK. Right away, we see Carlton flirting with one of his dancers but it takes another forty minutes or so of movie time for Kayla to finally come to her senses, break things off with the wrong man, and start kissing, for real, the right man.

I don't quite understand the hate for this movie on IMDb. It generally has most of the pluses and minuses of the average Christmas TV-movie. It may not quite have the glossy Hallmark sheen—it originally aired on Ion TV—but that alone is not necessarily a minus. I admit to one big prejudice in favor of this film: Brant Daugherty (Dustin) is handsome and charming and can do no wrong in my eyes. He's an expert at what I call 'whimsical masculinity,' the ability to balance, well, being whimsical and masculine, a good talent for Christmas romances. He has nice chemistry with his leading lady Karissa Lee Staples (Kayla) who is quite good in her own right. Ion Overman (Jana) and Brittany Underwood (Kim) are fine in support, and I liked the fact that Dustin has two female buddies instead of the traditional male buddy or parental figure. There are some weak points. I agree with the critics who point out that the movie basically wraps up at the halfway mark when Kayla breaks it off with Carlton (David O'Donnell, who hams it up a bit too much as the bad boyfriend), and then it’s a case of 'wash, rinse, repeat' as we go through the same story again with little variation, except for the addition of a scene at a dog shelter in which cute puppies climb all over our cute leads. (Dustin winds up with one of the puppies, mostly in support of a cute joke in which Kim, frustrated that Dustin isn’t doing enough to fight for Kayla, tells him that she’s going to get him some cats because he’s on his way to being the male version of a crazy cat lady.) Carlton’s production of the Nutcracker looks awfully low-rent from the little glimpses we see of rehearsal. Doris Roberts, the year before she passed away, has a tiny throwaway cameo as an irritating old lady who keeps trying to catch Dustin in the elevator under some mistletoe—I guess it was daring to make the sweet lovable Roberts unlikable. Don’t trust the negative viewer comments on IMDb; I’d recommend it, especially if you’ve never seen Brant Daugherty—pictured above left with Staples and alone at right. [Amazon Prime]

YOU, ME & THE CHRISTMAS TREES (2021)

Olivia (Danica McKellar) is the University of Connecticut's star arborist (didn't know Star Arborist was a thing), known by some as the Christmas Tree Whisperer for her ability to tend to sickly pine trees. She's about to take off to spend Christmas with her mom, though she's never comfortable with her mother's focus on socializing, especially this year when Olivia has called off what was supposed to be a Christmas wedding to her longtime boyfriend Justin. But an emergency call from Jack Connor (Benjamin Ayres), of Connor's Christmas Tree farm in the nearby small town of Avon, gives her an out: his cut trees are turning brown and losing needles at an alarming rate, and this is hurting his business, not to mention putting in jeopardy his ability to supply a giant tree for the Christmas Eve tree lighting in the town square, a hundred-year tradition which his grandfather started. She heads to Avon for what she expects to be an overnight visit, and the two meet cute when they have a fender bender in a roundabout. Eventually, Olivia sees what a warm and good-hearted person Jack is—he's always willing to help families in need. She runs some tests that are inconclusive and winds up staying in town for several days; romantic feelings develop, egged on by Jack's best friend Elliott and Jack's gal pal Lisa. But when Olivia suggests that Jack diversify his crops (better for the soil and would avoid having all his business hurt in the situation he is in now), he responds with negativity, insisting he would be betraying his late father by doing so. At almost the last minute, Olivia has a breakthrough on how to save the trees, but 1) will it work? and 2) will the two overcome their growing animosity over Jack's stubbornness?

A slightly above-average Hallmark Christmas movie, mostly due to the unusual circumstance of having a woman with a degree in forestry be the heroine. (The title is cute, but The Christmas Tree Whisperer would have been better.) McKellar comes off as intelligent and charming; Ayres is nice-looking but sometimes there seems to be some menace hiding behind his eyes—he has a squint that is just a degree away from being an evil leer. The supporting cast, except for Linda Darlow as Jack's mom, is underdeveloped and lackluster. The friends never become important to the story. Jason Hervey (the older brother in the original Wonder Years) has a couple of scenes as Jack's rather shady competitor. I appreciate that the usual romantic complications involving previous loves are absent--we never meet Justin or even know why Olivia left him. Some odd cutaway shots indicate rushed post-production; apparently this was shot in Canada in August during a 100 degree heatwave, though the snow settings generally look convincing. Reference is made to a glass ornament containing sand from Normandy that a relative brought back from D-Day, but nothing comes of this, and that adds to the somewhat unfinished feel the movie has. But it's certainly watchable, mostly due to good chemistry between the leads (pictured above). [Hallmark]

EIGHT GIFTS OF HANUKKAH (2021)

Sarah is an optometrist who is having her office renovated by her childhood best friend Daniel, with whom she has remained friends. Four months after a breakup, she is getting into the online dating scene, and amid the losers, including a guy in a Santa suit who tugs down his beard and gives her a sexy "Ho, ho ho" leer, she finds a couple of possibilities including Adam, a shy but rich tech genius, and Nigel, a local celebrity chef with a charming English accent. Even her ex-boyfriend Paul is making noises about getting back together. On the first night of Hanukkah, as she gathers with her family and friends (including Daniel), someone leaves an anonymous gift for her on the front porch. Over the next few nights, a new gift appears, always anonymous and always a perfect gift from someone who obviously knows quite a bit about her. Observant viewers, or anyone above the age of 10, will realize immediately that Daniel is the mysterious gift giver; there was a moment in high school when the two could have hooked up romantically, but the moment passed. Now Daniel, still smitten with Sarah, wants her to figure out that the giver, who knows so much about her, is him. He admits to his buddy Jimmy that it's kind of a test and she's failing—even after she gets a pair of glasses she's wanted that reminded her of her beloved grandmother's glasses, she can’t quite figure out that Daniel, one of the only people she told about the glasses, is her secret admirer. As Sarah works hard on holding the annual Matzoh Ball for the community (and gets all her would-be suitors to help out), will she finally realize that her true love is right there working away in her office?

Though this is set at Hanukkah and features Jewish leads (and an optometrist heroine!), this Hallmark holiday romance still follows the template of their Christmas romances. So yes, there will be conflicts and misunderstandings and jealousies, but Sarah and Daniel will finally kiss in the last two minutes. Sarah's inability to even come close to guessing that Daniel is the gift giver is frustrating, but the two lead actors carry the show here. Israeli actor Inbar Lavi is appealing as Sarah, and Jake Epstein is quite charming (and quirkily handsome) as Daniel. I especially liked the fact that he never acts snarky or petty toward the other men Sarah is dating. His passivity may go a bit too far—finally, on the seventh evening, he has to break down and tell her his secret, something that should have happened long before. But the final scene is satisfying. Notable in supporting roles are Andrew Zacher (Adam), Oliver Rice (Nigel), and Doron Bell (Jimmy). Despite the Hanukkah trappings, you will never forget that you're really watching a Christmas romance. [Hallmark]

THREE LIVE GHOSTS (1936)

London, 1918, at the end of the First World War. Mrs. Gibbins (Beryl Mercer) regularly holds séances to communicate with Jimmie, her son who was declared dead in the war. An American detective named Bolton visits, looking for information about Bill, a buddy of Jimmy's who is also presumed dead, and tells her there is a thousand dollar reward for verifiable information on Bill. Soon, who should come strolling down the street than Jimmie (Charles MacNaughten) and Bill (Richard Arlen), alive as can be, with their shell-shocked buddy Spoofy (Claude Allister) whose primary activity is stealing things--mostly grabbing hats off of people's heads and putting them on. Ma is happy to see her son, but even happier to see Bill since she can now contact the detective for a big payoff, but when she realizes she has lost his phone number (Spoofy innocently stole the newspaper it was written on), she becomes frantic. Meanwhile, Peg, Jimmie's girl, and Ann, Bill's girl, are living in the same building and happy to see their men alive, but Bill, uncertain of why he is being tracked down and hence unsure about his future, acts like he's no longer interested in her. When he finds out she is about to be kicked out the building due to late rent, he allows Mrs. Gibbins to turn him in if she gives half the reward money to Ann. One night, Spoofy leaves the building, enters a strange house, and steals some jewels—and a baby. The presence of police is not so welcome now, but eventually everything gets cleared up, with happy endings all around. This mild comedy is the third film version of a successful Broadway comedy from 1920. It can't quite escape its stage origins, as most of the film takes place in one setting, the Gibbins' apartment, with an occasional street scene and the memorable nighttime walk taken by Spoofy. It's competently made and acted, with the standouts being Mercer as the conniving mother and Allister as the goofy Spoofy—because his shellshock is played for laughs, we know he's going to get a happy ending like all the others. Harmless fun. Pictured from left: Arlen, McNaughten and Allister. [TCM]

THE STRAWBERRY STATEMENT (1970)

At an unnamed university in San Francisco, we see the crew team rowing through a river in the early dawn. Crew seems to be the first priority of Simon (Bruce Davison), a young, preppyish student who is ignoring the current campus unrest. A large group of politicized students has occupied the administration building protesting the university's purchase of an inner-city playground as a place to house the ROTC (a military training program which became controversial during the Vietnam era). Soon, however, as classes are shut down and police become omnipresent, Simon sneaks his way into the occupied building and seems to become radicalized; he remains a sit-in occupant and volunteers to make secret grocery store runs to keep the students fed. But his motives are not ideologically pure—he stays largely because he has become smitten with fellow occupier Linda (Kim Darby), who is truly devoted to the student cause. He also manages to make time most mornings to get to crew practice where he deals with two friends: Elliot (Bud Cort), a gentle but non-political sort, and George (Murray MacLeod), a tough-guy conservative who punches Simon in the face for his politics but who eventually, along with Elliot, joins the occupation, for reasons not made clear. When George takes his activist turn, he is beaten up as nearby cops ignore him, and he winds up in the hospital with a broken leg. This more than anything else seems to cement Simon's commitment to the protest, and the film climaxes with a confrontation between a mob of students occupying a gym while chanting "Give Peace a Chance" and armed police and National Guard called in by the university president.

This is one of the last of the Hollywood movies of the era that tried to be socially conscious, when Hollywood thought that being relevant would lead to big box office like Easy Rider did and so many others after that didn't. This had the bad luck to be released just weeks after the Kent State shootings; audiences weren't interested in reliving that as entertainment and the film was not a hit, critically or commercially, despite having a soundtrack that includes Buffy St. Marie's version of Joni Mitchell’s "The Circle Game," Neil Young's "Helpless," Graham Nash's "Our House," and Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" which became a top 40 hit after exposure in the movie. (Because this was made by MGM, the only album covers we see in the movie are the soundtrack LPs for Dr. Zhivago and 2001.) One problem is that the characters are undeveloped—despite the fact that Simon is in every scene in the movie, we never get a handle on his background or his personality. Even when he seems committed to the protest, we get the sense that he's still just living out a fantasy of being popular. When George punches him out, leading to a bloody lip, he tells the occupiers that he was a victim of police brutality. He imagines himself in front of the crowds, giving heartfelt and inspiring speeches, but when he does finally express himself, it's in an incoherent rant calling everything "bullshit!" Davison holds the center well enough, though his character is so passive, it's difficult to identify with him too strongly. Darby is fine but she is given little to do, a problem with many female characters in counterculture films of the era. I particularly like MacLeod as George; he's charming enough to pull off the unmotivated switch in the character's politics. Bob Balaban and James Coco have small roles, and Jeannie Berlin, the daughter of Elaine May, has one scene early on as "Girl with Clipboard"; she looks and sounds just like her mother. 

The visual style dates the movie almost as much as the material, with lots of fast, choppy edits and unusual camera angles. It's OK in the beginning but gets overworked. An initial student protest at the playground is played for slapstick laughs—when they are all hauled down to the police station and put against the wall, Simon tries to fight back, only to be told by a weary cop, "Please, we've got a busy day. Up against the wall." But the climactic demonstration is shot realistically, to the point where it feels like it must have been filmed at a real confrontation (though it was not), and gives the movie a satisfying, if ambiguous, ending. This was based on a nonfiction book about a real campus uprising at Columbia, and the title comes from a statement by a Columbia dean, dismissing student concerns about university issues by saying, "Whether students vote 'yes''or 'no' on an issue is like telling me they like strawberries." Pictured are Cort, Davison and Darby. [TCM]

THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY (1944)

This film is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Thornton Wilder. I've never read it, but every description I've run across implies that the central event of the narrative is the tragic collapse of a rope bridge high up in the Peruvian Andes in 1700s, after which a friar named Brother Juniper spends years digging into the lives of the five people who died in the collapse. This film begins with this incident which occurs just after Brother Juniper has told a native that, despite human suffering, God is everywhere. Unfortunately, after this interesting opening, the film is not particularly effective in following individual characters to a point of destiny. In fact, it's not clear who among the characters introduced will be the five on the bridge; that may be the intent of the filmmakers as a way to keep us in suspense, but it leads to a turgid, run-of-the-mill melodrama. Set in Lima, the main character is Michaela Villegas (Lynn Bari), a singer and aspiring actress who is discovered by the kindly Uncle Pio (Akim Tamiroff) who becomes a mentor and father-figure to her. She is in love with a sailor named Manuel (Francis Lederer) who is frequently gone for months. His twin brother Esteban (also Lederer) seems to have a supernatural connection to Manuel, able to sense when he will show up in town; thinking that Michaela is no good for Manuel, Esteban interferes in their romance to the point where he feels morbidly guilty about it and tries to kill himself, though his brother intercedes just in time. 

In the meantime, Michaela has come to the attention of the local Viceroy (Louis Calhern) and soon becomes a regular visitor at court. She is mocked by many, but the Marquesa (Alla Nazimova) seems to be her friend; little does Michaela know that the Marquesa is actually scheming to make her own young companion a court favorite. (Clearly, these women are in the running to be the Viceroy's mistress, but that point is blurred over the movie.) The thickly-plotted story continues until everyone is on the road to San Luis Rey and the bridge collapse claims the lives of four of them—the fifth is a lowly local peasant. At nearly two hours, this is far too long and boring to hold much interest. None of the characters are especially interesting or likable except perhaps for Brother Juniper and Uncle Pio. In the book, the theological trappings may be more obvious, but here they are buried beneath the romances and squabbles between the characters. Lynn Bari is not up to the task of playing a multi-dimensional character--based on a real person, apparently; Lederer is OK in a dual role, though I never saw Manuel's charm. Calhern is fine as the Viceroy, Donald Woods as Brother Juniper (pictured) is quite good in what amounts to a limited role, and it's fun to see the legendary silent star Nazimova chew a little scenery now and then. I really had to struggle to stick with this, but it did whet my appetite to read the novel. [DVD]

YOUR CHEATIN' HEART (1964)

This biopic about country music legend Hank Williams begins with Hank as a 12-year-old shoeshine boy who sings and plays guitar with his older Black mentor Teetot. Hank can even make up songs as he shines shoes. Teetot dies of a heart attack in front of Hank, and the next thing we see is a 20-year-old Hank (George Hamilton) making a living with a traveling medicine show. Audrey Williams (Susan Oliver) sees him singing and, impressed with his raw talent, steals him away to join her band, the Drifting Cowboys. While getting gigs at high schools and church socials, Audrey sends one of his songs to famous music publisher Fred Rose who locks him up in an office to write a song, to prove he's not stealing from others. He proceeds to write "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," so Rose agrees to publish his songs and gets the band a gig on the Louisiana Hayride radio show. We get a one-minute montage of newspaper headlines, and suddenly Hank is (relatively) rich and famous. He's married to Audrey, they live in a nice suburban house, and he's had a sting of hits. But he's also running into writer's block and has taken to sitting around the house in his sweaty underwear, getting drunk while trying to get inspired. Even if you know next to nothing about Hank Williams, you know the trajectory of the Hollywood biopic: humble beginnings, fame, romance, people hurt along the way, downfall, redemption (or not). That's what happens here. Hank starts arriving late to concerts or showing up drunk, gets picked up by the Grand Ole Opry, and later dropped because of his unreliability, and alienates his wife and friends. In the end, he goes through a sort of rehab process (offscreen) and winds up sober but weakened, and on the way to a New Year's gig, he stops at a diner where the people recognize him and ask him to play a song. As he begins, he looks out the window and sees the face of Teetot peering in at him. Sensing that death is at hand, he asks Teetot for one more song, which he sings. Later that night, his death is announced at the concert hall and the audience spontaneously stands and sings a gospel song of his, "I Saw the Light."

We all know that Hollywood biographies rarely stick to the truth, so I won’t even begin to tally up the factual problems here except to note two things. First, it hurts the movie that we don't really get to see Hank's rise--it all happens in that one-minute montage. Second, the real story of his death--he died being driven to a concert in an ice storm--is at least as interesting as the fiction presented here, though the shot of Teetot (Rex Ingram) at the end is touching. Most critics who dislike this film focus on George Hamilton's performance. He may not be perfect, but I found him believable as a charming but abrasive and self-destructive musician. His melodramatic acting style, undoubtedly coached along by director Gene Nelson, fit the times when the movie was made, and fits the larger-than-life image of Williams that MGM wanted to sell. Williams' first wife Audrey was a technical advisor and pulled some strings to get what she wanted, but she still comes off as, if not villainous, at least manipulative and generally unpleasant. We never see the two of them very happy with each other. Susan Oliver is fine in the part, as is Arthur O'Connell as Fred Rose. The songs are lip-synced by Hamilton to new recordings made by Hank Williams Jr., who was only 14 when he sang them, and they sound great. The more recent biopic, I Saw the Light, with Tom Hiddleston, is probably a bit truer to the historical record, but this is enjoyable enough for people who know who Williams was but aren't necessarily die-hard fans. [TCM]