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Post by topbilled on Jul 19, 2024 15:59:06 GMT
Most independent movie producers during the golden age of Hollywood inked deals with United Artists for distribution of their films.
But there are a few exceptions...some producers, the true independents, who found ways to retain control of their product and managed to handle their own distribution.
This thread will be for reviews of films made by David Selznick and Robert Lippert, since we will occasionally look at their output. Interestingly, both these men operated at different ends of the spectrum. Selznick specialized in high-end artistic filmmaking; while Lippert specialized in low-budget fare that made the cheapest poverty row productions look rich by comparison!
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Post by topbilled on Jul 20, 2024 13:58:19 GMT
This neglected film is from 1947.
Marriage on trial
THE PARADINE CASE was the last collaboration between legendary Hollywood producer David O. Selznick and director Alfred Hitchcock. Their previous efforts had included REBECCA in 1940 and SPELLBOUND in 1945.
British writer Robert Hichens had published his novel The Paradine Case in 1933, and the story was based on two sensational murder cases in England, where wives had each killed their husbands. In one case, the gruesome act was carried out by poison; the second instance involved a shooting.
Hichens’ publication was a bestseller, and MGM quickly purchased the rights to adapt his novel into a film. This occurred during Selznick’s tenure at the Lion, and the idea was to cast Greta Garbo as the glamorous wife on trial for murder. But for various reasons, MGM never produced a film version.
A short time afterward Selznick took over the rights, since it was a story that he felt would make an interesting motion picture with the right actress in front of the camera. By 1947, Selznick had gone into independent production with his own banner; and he had Hitchcock under contract. He also had Gregory Peck under contract, plus he’d just acquired the services of Italian actress Alida Valli, who was eager to make her mark in America.
For the other roles, Selznick used a group of distinguished character actors, including Charles Laughton as the judge who oversees the trial; as well as Ethel Barrymore as the judge’s all-knowing wife. Charles Coburn was also hired to play a solicitor. And for the part of the valet, who may have been in on the killing, Selznick brought French actor Louis Jourdan to Hollywood.
Indeed, it was a first-rate cast.
As was always the case with Selznick, he micromanaged the project to the nth degree, giving Hitchcock extensive notes (and probably giving Hitchcock extensive headaches). Also, Selznick undertook great effort to revise the script during the shooting process. The original screenplay contained the work of Ben Hecht as well as Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville and Scottish playwright James Bridie. But Selznick was a perfectionist and continually fine-tuned the dialogue.
One does have to give Selznick kudos for his presentation of the subject matter. The film is flawless in its painstaking detail of British legal procedures and seems to have been carefully researched.
We are supposed to be kept in the dark about Valli’s character, with regards to just how evil she may be. I think it helps the story considerably, keeping her as a somewhat aloof woman that Peck’s character can’t help but be drawn to while representing her in court. Of course, Peck has a morally upstanding wife (Ann Todd), and why he’d be willing to throw it all away for a scandal is anyone’s guess!
In addition to the drama that plays out inside the courtroom and the conflicts in Peck’s marriage to Todd, we see aspects of the case reverberate in the relationship between Laughton and Barrymore. They are the film’s older couple, whose long-term union may be regarded as commentary on the ambiguities of married life.
Perhaps some of this is a self-reflexive exercise by Reville on her marriage to Hitchock. While Selznick, who was soon to divorce his wife of nearly twenty years to marry starlet Jennifer Jones, might have been putting aspects of his failing marriage into the relationship of Peck’s character with Todd’s.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 20, 2024 15:05:12 GMT
⇧ You want to read the great color on all the inside-Hollywood machinations about this movie from TopBilled in his excellent review above.
⇩ I wrote these comments about three years ago.
The Paradine Case from 1947 with Gregory Peck, Alida Valli, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Colburn, Ethel Barrymore and Louis Jordan
The pieces of this Hitchcock movie are better than the whole, which might be why it's generally considered one of the master director's middling efforts.
But some of those pieces are outstanding, as is the incredibly talented cast with the one weak choice of Gregory Peck, a fine actor otherwise, in the lead.
Ostensibly, the story is about a young, beautiful woman, played by Alida Valli, accused of killing her older, blind and wealthy husband with Peck brought in to play her brilliant defense attorney.
Yet, it is really about Peck becoming so besotted with Valli that he risks his marriage and professional objectivity. This, in turn, means he's risking his personal life and career all over his platonic "affair" with Valli (she's being held in jail the entire time he knows her).
That is also the story's weakness as Peck's "falling in love" with Valli, pretty much at first sight, is never convincing. Valli is just too cold; beautiful, yes, but chilly. Peck, meanwhile, seems more angry with Valli for disturbing his thoughts than in love with her. The entire movie balances on this weak pivot.
If you just go with it, though, you get all these wonderful scenes and relationships. Ann Todd, playing Peck's arrestingly beautiful and smarter-than-him wife, immediately senses what is going on and tries to give her struggling husband room and time for his dumb mental infidelity to burn itself out. I'm firmly against physical violence, but kept hoping Todd would just punch her stupid husband in his face.
You also get Charles Colburn playing Peck's friend and legal mentor having an incredible tête-à-tête with his whip-smart young daughter who sees Peck's descent into idiocy before Colburn.
Equally engaging is the scene where bullying Charles Laughton, playing the judge in the case, belittles his perceptive but browbeaten wife, played by the incredibly talented Ethel Barrymore. She, also, comes across smarter than her "brilliant legal mind" husband. Say what you will of sexism from that era, but almost every woman is smarter than every man in The Paradine Case.
When the movie finally shifts to the climatic courtroom scenes, the drama is solidly engaging. Peck's crafty defense convincingly shows that the butler did it (well almost, the husband's aide, Louis Jordan). But then (spoiler alert), Valli, his client, destroys her own defense by confessing to the murder. This exonerates Jordan, whom she now acknowledges has, all along, been her lover (this is a dagger right through Peck's lovesick heart).
After that, it's all clean-up as Valli is off to the hangman, while Peck assumes his career and marriage is all washed up. But once again, it's his wife, super Ann Todd, to the rescue.
Here's when you know you have received more than you deserve in life. Ann Todd agrees to marry you. Ann Todd is your good loving wife. You then act like a complete *ss to Ann Todd over an infatuation with another woman. But when it's all over, understanding Ann Todd takes you back, not because she's weak, but because she's strong and accepts your weaknesses. Ann Todd deserves better. Roll credits.
N.B. A rule of murder mysteries: never trust the rich woman (pathologically aloof Valli, in this case) who sleeps in an overly ornate room with an elaborate headboard that includes a large narcissistic portrait of herself.
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Post by topbilled on Jul 20, 2024 16:14:14 GMT
Great review.
I love this line: "I'm firmly against physical violence, but kept hoping Todd would just punch her stupid husband in his face."
And yes, the female characters are smarter than the male ones in this film.
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Post by NoShear on Jul 20, 2024 16:24:53 GMT
This neglected film is from 1947.
Marriage on trial
THE PARADINE CASE was the last collaboration between legendary Hollywood producer David O. Selznick and director Alfred Hitchcock. Their previous efforts had included REBECCA in 1940 and SPELLBOUND in 1945.
British writer Robert Hichens had published his novel The Paradine Case in 1933, and the story was based on two sensational murder cases in England, where wives had each killed their husbands. In one case, the gruesome act was carried out by poison; the second instance involved a shooting.
Hichens’ publication was a bestseller, and MGM quickly purchased the rights to adapt his novel into a film. This occurred during Selznick’s tenure at the Lion, and the idea was to cast Greta Garbo as the glamorous wife on trial for murder. But for various reasons, MGM never produced a film version.
A short time afterward Selznick took over the rights, since it was a story that he felt would make an interesting motion picture with the right actress in front of the camera. By 1947, Selznick had gone into independent production with his own banner; and he had Hitchcock under contract. He also had Gregory Peck under contract, plus he’d just acquired the services of Italian actress Alida Valli, who was eager to make her mark in America.
For the other roles, Selznick used a group of distinguished character actors, including Charles Laughton as the judge who oversees the trial; as well as Ethel Barrymore as the judge’s all-knowing wife. Charles Coburn was also hired to play a solicitor. And for the part of the valet, who may have been in on the killing, Selznick brought French actor Louis Jourdan to Hollywood.
Indeed, it was a first-rate cast.
As was always the case with Selznick, he micromanaged the project to the nth degree, giving Hitchcock extensive notes (and probably giving Hitchcock extensive headaches). Also, Selznick undertook great effort to revise the script during the shooting process. The original screenplay contained the work of Ben Hecht as well as Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville and Scottish playwright James Bridie. But Selznick was a perfectionist and continually fine-tuned the dialogue.
One does have to give Selznick kudos for his presentation of the subject matter. The film is flawless in its painstaking detail of British legal procedures and seems to have been carefully researched.
We are supposed to be kept in the dark about Valli’s character, with regards to just how evil she may be. I think it helps the story considerably, keeping her as a somewhat aloof woman that Peck’s character can’t help but be drawn to while representing her in court. Of course, Peck has a morally upstanding wife (Ann Todd), and why he’d be willing to throw it all away for a scandal is anyone’s guess!
In addition to the drama that plays out inside the courtroom and the conflicts in Peck’s marriage to Todd, we see aspects of the case reverberate in the relationship between Laughton and Barrymore. They are the film’s older couple, whose long-term union may be regarded as commentary on the ambiguities of married life.
Perhaps some of this is a self-reflexive exercise by Reville on her marriage to Hitchock. While Selznick, who was soon to divorce his wife of nearly twenty years to marry starlet Jennifer Jones, might have been putting aspects of his failing marriage into the relationship of Peck’s character with Todd’s. Laughing, TopBilled: "extensive notes/extensive headaches"! |
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Post by NoShear on Jul 20, 2024 16:31:17 GMT
⇧ You want to read the great color on all the inside-Hollywood machinations about this movie from TopBilled in his excellent review above.
⇩ I wrote these comments about three years ago.
The Paradine Case from 1947 with Gregory Peck, Alida Valli, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Colburn, Ethel Barrymore and Louis Jordan
The pieces of this Hitchcock movie are better than the whole, which might be why it's generally considered one of the master director's middling efforts.
But some of those pieces are outstanding, as is the incredibly talented cast with the one weak choice of Gregory Peck, a fine actor otherwise, in the lead.
Ostensibly, the story is about a young, beautiful woman, played by Alida Valli, accused of killing her older, blind and wealthy husband with Peck brought in to play her brilliant defense attorney.
Yet, it is really about Peck becoming so besotted with Valli that he risks his marriage and professional objectivity. This, in turn, means he's risking his personal life and career all over his platonic "affair" with Valli (she's being held in jail the entire time he knows her).
That is also the story's weakness as Peck's "falling in love" with Valli, pretty much at first sight, is never convincing. Valli is just too cold; beautiful, yes, but chilly. Peck, meanwhile, seems more angry with Valli for disturbing his thoughts than in love with her. The entire movie balances on this weak pivot.
If you just go with it, though, you get all these wonderful scenes and relationships. Ann Todd, playing Peck's arrestingly beautiful and smarter-than-him wife, immediately senses what is going on and tries to give her struggling husband room and time for his dumb mental infidelity to burn itself out. I'm firmly against physical violence, but kept hoping Todd would just punch her stupid husband in his face.
You also get Charles Colburn playing Peck's friend and legal mentor having an incredible tête-à-tête with his whip-smart young daughter who sees Peck's descent into idiocy before Colburn.
Equally engaging is the scene where bullying Charles Laughton, playing the judge in the case, belittles his perceptive but browbeaten wife, played by the incredibly talented Ethel Barrymore. She, also, comes across smarter than her "brilliant legal mind" husband. Say what you will of sexism from that era, but almost every woman is smarter than every man in The Paradine Case.
When the movie finally shifts to the climatic courtroom scenes, the drama is solidly engaging. Peck's crafty defense convincingly shows that the butler did it (well almost, the husband's aide, Louis Jordan). But then (spoiler alert), Valli, his client, destroys her own defense by confessing to the murder. This exonerates Jordan, whom she now acknowledges has, all along, been her lover (this is a dagger right through Peck's lovesick heart).
After that, it's all clean-up as Valli is off to the hangman, while Peck assumes his career and marriage is all washed up. But once again, it's his wife, super Ann Todd, to the rescue.
Here's when you know you have received more than you deserve in life. Ann Todd agrees to marry you. Ann Todd is your good loving wife. You then act like a complete *ss to Ann Todd over an infatuation with another woman. But when it's all over, understanding Ann Todd takes you back, not because she's weak, but because she's strong and accepts your weaknesses. Ann Todd deserves better. Roll credits.
N.B. A rule of murder mysteries: never trust the rich woman (pathologically aloof Valli, in this case) who sleeps in an overly ornate room with an elaborate headboard that includes a large narcissistic portrait of herself. Hey, your Ann Todd, Fading Fast! Remember, though, Joseph Cotten's Holly Martins pretty much did the same thing with Alida Valli's Anna Schmidt in THE THIRD MAN. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 20, 2024 17:11:05 GMT
Hey, your Ann Todd, Fading Fast! Remember, though, Joseph Cotten's Holly Martins pretty much did the same thing with Alida Valli's Anna Schmidt in THE THIRD MAN.
Fading Fast:"I just want to freeze the movie for a second to look at something."
Girlfriend: "If you freeze a scene with Ann Todd one more time, I'm going to rap you over the head with the remote."
Fading Fast: [feigning innocence] "Is Ann Todd the blonde or brunette one?"
Girlfriend: "And you ask me why you come into a room sometimes and I'm quietly sobbing in the dark."
N.B. I know I owe three more top-five pics in the "Is That What You're Wearing" thread. |
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Post by NoShear on Jul 20, 2024 17:25:43 GMT
Hey, your Ann Todd, Fading Fast! Remember, though, Joseph Cotten's Holly Martins pretty much did the same thing with Alida Valli's Anna Schmidt in THE THIRD MAN.
Fading Fast:"I just want to freeze the movie for a second to look at something."
Girlfriend: "If you freeze a scene with Ann Todd one more time, I'm going to rap you over the head with the remote."
Fading Fast: [feigning innocence] "Is Ann Todd the blonde or brunette one?"
Girlfriend: "And you ask me why you come into a room sometimes and I'm quietly sobbing in the dark."
N.B. I know I owe three more top-five pics in the "Is That What You're Wearing" thread. Laughing, Fading Fast!! As to your Top Five, I feel a little hurt that you haven't asked me about mine. After all, I've been one of your most ardent enablers.  |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 20, 2024 17:46:29 GMT
Oh, is Ann Todd in this one?
Fading Fast:"I just want to freeze the movie for a second to look at something."
Girlfriend: "If you freeze a scene with Ann Todd one more time, I'm going to rap you over the head with the remote."
Fading Fast: [feigning innocence] "Is Ann Todd the blonde or brunette one?"
Girlfriend: "And you ask me why you come into a room sometimes and I'm quietly sobbing in the dark."
N.B. I know I owe three more top-five pics in the "Is That What You're Wearing" thread. Laughing, Fading Fast!! As to your Top Five, I feel a little hurt that you haven't asked me about mine. After all, I've been one of your most ardent enablers.
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Post by NoShear on Jul 20, 2024 17:57:26 GMT
Laughing, Fading Fast!! As to your Top Five, I feel a little hurt that you haven't asked me about mine. After all, I've been one of your most ardent enablers.
Laughing, Fading Fast!! |
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Post by NoShear on Jul 20, 2024 18:00:25 GMT
Hey, your Ann Todd, Fading Fast! Remember, though, Joseph Cotten's Holly Martins pretty much did the same thing with Alida Valli's Anna Schmidt in THE THIRD MAN.
Fading Fast:"I just want to freeze the movie for a second to look at something."
Girlfriend: "If you freeze a scene with Ann Todd one more time, I'm going to rap you over the head with the remote."
Fading Fast: [feigning innocence] "Is Ann Todd the blonde or brunette one?"
Girlfriend: "And you ask me why you come into a room sometimes and I'm quietly sobbing in the dark."
N.B. I know I owe three more top-five pics in the "Is That What You're Wearing" thread. Looking forward to other three, Fading Fast... |
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Post by topbilled on Aug 23, 2024 14:04:22 GMT
This neglected film is from 1951.
They don’t want to be cherished, they want to be free
Hollywood stars Veronica Lake and Zachary Scott headline the English language version of this story. A Spanish language version called FURIA ROJA (RED FURY) was filmed simultaneously and released a month later. It had been standard practice in the Hollywood motion picture industry to make dual language versions in the early days of sound, before widespread dubbing practices took place.
I think in this case, the reason the story was filmed in two separate versions is because it was financed by a Hollywood producer (Robert Lippert) along with Mexican backers who probably thought Lake and Scott’s participation would ensure a U.S. and Canadian audience; while they could use two of the more popular Mexican stars in the lead roles in the second version, to increase box office success in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
It would be Lake’s last movie for more than a decade. She had left Paramount in 1948 and had done one other film at Fox called SLATTERY’S HURRICANE directed by then-husband Andre de Toth, where she was a second female lead under Linda Darnell. If you think about it, Darnell would probably have been a better choice for STRONGHOLD/FURIA ROJA as she was bilingual and could have easily appealed to both the North American and South American markets.
Mexican star Arturo de Cordova, who’d had success at Lake’s home studio Paramount in the 1940s as a crossover star, had recently returned to his roots south of the border and would continue to be a presence in Mexican cinema. He plays the second male lead, a follower of Benito Juarez who’s opposed to the aristocracy represented by Empress Carlotta and Emperor Maximilian (Iren Agay & Felipe de Alba, who appear in both versions).
The character portrayed by de Cordova is an anti-hero who captures Lake and her mother (Fanny Schiller) as they return from their burned down plantation in the U.S. to the mother’s family hacienda in Mexico. The relatives of Lake and her mother own a profitable silver mine, which de Cordova and his men would like to take over, since it will help fund a revolution. Of course, Lake has no desire to be part of an uprising.
One thing that the story gives us is the incredible irony that Lake and Mamacita are trying to escape a Civil War north of the border, but then get involved in another similar war in Mexico. Obvious comparisons are made between Abraham Lincoln and Benito Juarez. At one point, Lake tells de Cordova that she cherished her slaves in the U.S. But he says she cherished them like children and treated them like children, when they wanted to be free men and women. These conversations lead her to reconsider her point of view.
The subplot and inevitable romantic triangle involves Scott’s character. He is a distant relative on the mother’s side, who is trying to retain control of the silver mine for his own monetary gain. He’d also like to marry Lake, and naturally, sees de Cordova as not just a political enemy but as a rival in love. Since Scott usually plays cads or characters that go full-on criminal, it is not a surprise that he tries to kill de Cordova in a spectacular sequence near the end of the picture where de Cordova is trapped in an underground cavern and Scott attempts to flood the cavern.
For an independently made feature from the early 50s with two Hollywood stars on the downswing, this is not a bad adventure drama. In some ways it feels like an elongated TV western of the period with historical aspects thrown into the mix to educate viewers about freedom fighters. It helps considerably that it is not entirely a Hollywood-based production, and all the filming is done on location in Mexico with many Mexican performers. Despite the hokier aspects of the plot, there is an air of authenticity which elevates the proceedings.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 24, 2024 11:53:26 GMT
This neglected film is from 1948.
She knows their superstitions and fears
Not all low-budget fare is as bad as one might expect. This hour long adventure yarn was one of independent producer Robert Lippert’s first productions. Made cheaply, it doesn’t totally compromise on quality. Lippert borrowed George Reeves to star in it; Reeves was under contract to Paramount at this time. Reeves had made B films at Warner Brothers earlier in the decade then went to Paramount where he had supporting roles and second leads in more prestigious flicks.
The other lead male role in this movie is played by Ralph Byrd, who’d just finished contract assignments at RKO. The female star is Wanda McKay, a lovely actress who had started at Paramount but ended up in a series of poverty row pictures.
McKay’s career didn’t reach the heights it should’ve reached. As the title character in JUNGLE GODDESS, she exudes considerable charm and a soft-spoken quality that is very calming and endearing.
The story, which is a bit razor thin in spots, has McKay as a white goddess in the wild jungle of Africa. She had a wealthy Dutch father, now deceased, who left a sum of money in his will for any adventurer who is able to find her in the middle of nowhere.
This is where Reeves and Byrd come in, since they are adventurers and own a flying business together. They take off in their plane to scout locations where McKay might have ended up.
They soon locate McKay among a tribe that worships her. The tribesmen believe she has special powers because she helped save the life of a native woman (played by Mexican actress Armida). Part of McKay’s success with the tribe is that she studied nursing, but more importantly, she knows the superstitions and fears of the locals which she can use to her advantage. She’s a smart cookie.
Since this is a rather tame film meant to appeal to a matinee crowd, McKay is dressed in attractive garb but nothing too sexy or shocking. She lets us know that none of the natives are cannibals. And though she tells Reeves and Byrd that some of the men are prone to violence, particularly a witch doctor (Smoki Whitfield), no real brutality is shown on screen until a flight sequence at the end. Even that is done briefly and sparingly.
The suggestion of violence is what gives the film the requisite dramatic tension. Byrd has accidentally killed a tribesman after he and Reeves landed their plane in the area. So he is scheduled to die, but there seems to be a temporary stay of execution. Meanwhile, McKay conspires with Reeves to escape. They will take Byrd with them, though he is starting to crack up and go mad. When Byrd’s erratic behavior is brought to McKay’s attention by Armida, Reeves is still reluctant to believe it which will prove to be a mistake.
One thing I liked about the film was the tender romance that develops between Reeves and McKay. Reeves is a few years away from Superman, but he’s in his prime. He has a likable screen presence. Also, I liked how writer Jo Pagano included references to the recent war, especially the dropping of the atomic bomb and how living through the war was still affecting these flyers. Plus there is some exploration regarding the background of McKay’s character, depicted through a series of flashbacks, as to how she went to Africa to find her father during the war and was the sole survivor of a plane crash.
Not that the film had to be harrowing, but I would like to have seen some of the emotional scars that McKay had experienced being away from civilization so long. Similarly, when she is told her father’s dead, she seems to get over that loss rather quickly. I think some of what she’s been through would make her as much a warrior as a goddess.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 24, 2024 11:59:55 GMT
⇧ This sounds like one that TCM would run on a Saturday or Sunday morning and I'd be surprised by how engaging it is.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 24, 2024 13:45:44 GMT
⇧ This sounds like one that TCM would run on a Saturday or Sunday morning and I'd be surprised by how engaging it is.
There is one bit that I didn't include in my review. McKay's goddess character takes Armida under her wing and starts teaching her English. But Armida does not quite master the language (putting it mildly). Byrd is a bit of a sexist and when he meets Armida he teaches Armida that the word 'dumb' means 'smart.' So she goes around telling people she is 'dumb,' proud that she has mastered another vocabulary word in her new language. This type of dialogue wouldn't fly today, it would be seen as degrading. But I do have to admit it was kind of funny.
Incidentally, Wanda McKay reminded me, looks-wise, of a blonde Paulette Goddard.
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