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Post by topbilled on Sept 13, 2023 14:48:47 GMT
This neglected film is from 1933.
Once upon a time
This is a charming precode with lots of cute and endearing moments. Maurice Chevalier had been making romantic comedy musicals at Paramount with Jeanette MacDonald, but this time he is more or less on his own, and there are only a few musical interludes. The music bits are well integrated into the story. When Chevalier becomes tuneful it is either because he’s courting a lady, lamenting the end of a relationship, or singing a lullaby to Baby LeRoy. Yes, that’s right, Baby LeRoy.
Studio publicity notes that Chevalier and director Norman Taurog had discovered Baby LeRoy in an orphanage. But that seems to have been invented P.R…because even though the six-month old infant is playing an orphan on screen, his first contract with the studio was signed by his grandfather; his mother, who was still alive, was only 16 and legally underage to give consent.
A BEDTIME STORY would be the first of nine features the tyke made at Paramount. Three of these would occur alongside W.C. Fields. He was said to be the youngest contract player at any motion picture company in Hollywood. In 1938, Baby Le Roy appeared in his last film role. Imagine being washed up in Hollywood by the time you went to kindergarten.
Probably the child’s winning closeups are what endeared him to movie audiences and led executives to realize what a little star they had on their hands. He steals almost every scene opposite Chevalier, costar Edward Everett Horton and leading lady Helen Twelvetrees. But it’s obvious the grownups are okay with that, since all of them are enjoying their interactions with ‘Monsieur Baby’ as he’s called.
It all starts when Chevalier’s employees find orphaned Baby in the backseat of a Rolls Royce. At first Chevalier decides to turn him over to the police, but after holding him then noticing a resemblance, some long-dormant paternal instincts kick in.
Chevalier decides to keep Baby and adopt him. There’s an uproarious scene in which Chevalier bathes Baby and they splash water all over the place.
Of course, Baby needs a mother, or at least a nurse. This is where Miss Twelvetrees comes in. She’s heard about the job at an employment agency though she technically does not have a nursing license.
Still, Chevalier is pleased with how well she gets on with Baby, so she is allowed to stay…and of course, she starts to fall in love with Chevalier, who has many other women clamoring for his attention.
A good subplot involves Chevalier’s engagement to a shrewish woman (Gertrude Michael) who doesn’t have a single maternal bone in her body. The haughty maven has no desire to become a mother, especially to an orphan. This effectively ends the proposed marriage, freeing Chevalier to marry Twelvetrees.
There are no real surprises. We know that Chevalier, Twelvetrees and Baby will be a family unit by the end of the picture. But what we don’t realize is how warmly sentimental the picture will turn out to be. By the time the last scene plays, we have found a new favorite that we will likely watch again.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 13, 2023 16:01:10 GMT
A Bedtime Story from 1933 with Maurice Chevalier, Helen Twelvetrees and Edward Everett Horton
A Bedtime Story is not quite a romcom, not quite a musical and not quite a drama, but instead, it is really a lighthearted fairytale with almost enough charm to overcome its thin story and choppy directing.
Maurice Chevalier plays a wealthy titled Parisian playboy who finds a baby in his limousine one evening. The baby, making his first screen appearance, is played by the huge 1930s infant star Baby LeRoy, whose most famous screen pairing would come later with W. C. Fields.
Womanizer Chevalier, engaged, but about to have three separate rendezvous with comely women that night, misses them all as he becomes smittened with the baby. Women being miffed at Chevalier, like the three from that evening, are a big part of the movie.
That is the setup with the rest of the movie being the fallout from Chevalier's changed life as he decides, on a whim, to keep the baby with the legal niceties being ignored for the present.
Director Norman Taurog tries to do three things with his movie from here. One, he employs all the normal screwball baby comedy including both a crazy splathing bath scene and several scenes where the baby breaks men's expensive pocket watches.
Two, he has singing star Chevalier perform several songs because, just like Elvis movies several decades later, that's what the public wanted and expected from a Chevalier picture at that time.
Finally, Taurog develops a narrative about Chevalier trying to disentangle himself from his very complicated old life - from all his paramours, plus his fiance - while he falls in love with the poor, pretty and waiflike baby nurse, played by Helen Twelvetrees, whom he hires.
The baby screwball stuff and Chevalier's singing will either work for you or not as both are very dated today. The story, too, is hardly original, but it does have its moments as Chevalier shines best when he's doing his charming rogue Frenchman thing.
He's helped along by his butler, played here by Edward Everett Horton doing his usual exasperated and put-upon shtick, which makes him a perfect straight man for Chevalier. Their scenes together are some of the best in the movie.
Twelvetrees, a now-forgotten but talented actress and leading lady of the early 1930s, never fully engages in this one. Other than a few cute scenes early on with Chevalier, when her character first arrives, she plays her nurse role too staid for the movie's romcom angle.
That's an issue since the fun in this one is supposed to be the journey of Chevalier and Twelvetrees falling in love and overcoming hurdles, hurdles that include several women and one jealous husband who are quite angry at Chevalier.
There is the standard, for the 1930s, near-climatic scene of rich people staying in a big mansion for a weekend and getting either confused or angry about who winds up in whose room at night. Of course, a few women wind up in Chevalier's, but it feels uninspired.
The resolution of the baby's fate, which was never really in doubt, plays fast and loose with the adoption laws of even the 1930s. Like several other things in this movie, the adoption is tossed in almost haphazardly when the writers, seemingly, realized they needed to close a loose end.
A Bedtime Story has several good scenes, but it never comes together as the key element needed to carry the movie, the love story, doesn't come alive. All that's left, then, is some screwball baby comedy, a few songs and Chevalier's charm, but it's not quite enough. |
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Post by topbilled on Sept 26, 2023 15:26:52 GMT
This neglected film is from 1949.
Delilah and Samson
This Paramount classic was a runaway success with audiences. Released in late 1949 to qualify for the Oscars, it went on to make the most money of any motion picture in 1950. The studio re-released it in the late 1950s and again it cleaned up at the box office. Eventually it had home video releases on Beta, VHS, Laser Disc, DVD and Blu-ray.
Though it came later in Cecil B. DeMille’s career, this was a project that he had been trying to direct for nearly fifteen years before Paramount finally green-lit it. He managed to convince the execs that it would be more than just a religious drama, it would be a story about two of the bible’s most passionate lovers. In anticipation of its popularity with the moviegoing public, the studio allowed Mr. DeMille a sizable budget with a substantial cast.
The studio and director scored another huge hit with THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH in 1952, that time winning the Oscar for Best Picture. I would argue the Oscar for GREATEST SHOW was a belated consolation prize for SAMSON AND DELILAH, which is arguably Mr. DeMille’s best picture.
Much like the search to find the right Scarlett O’Hara for GONE WITH THE WIND, many Hollywood actresses coveted the part of Delilah. DeMille knew it had to be someone with great skill as an actress, just as good as any stage-trained performer, but someone who had obvious sex appeal. Possible candidates for the role were Lana Turner, Jennifer Jones, Marta Toren and of course, Hedy Lamarr.
Miss Lamarr is the perfect choice to play Delilah because she imbues the sort of contradictory characteristics needed. She can be soft and soothing; she can be alluring and desirable; and she can be ruthless and dangerous. There is nothing clumsy about her or her movements. She is in total command of her actions, as well as the actions of everyone else around her.
The beginning of the film focuses on the Danite Samson (Victor Mature) who seeks to marry a Philistine woman (Angela Lansbury), and the obstacles he faces. Lamarr plays Lansbury’s cunning sister who wants Samson for herself. Of course, Samson rejects her and forges ahead with marrying Lansbury. However, there is really a quadrangle going on since a prince (Henry Wilcoxon) wants Lansbury. On the night of the wedding, several quarrels take place and the Philistines trick Samson with Lansbury’s help.
Feeling betrayed Samson seeks vengeance. There is considerable bloodshed, and Lansbury winds up dead. So does the old man who is father to Lansbury and Lamarr. It is not surprising that Lamarr would want to avenge these deaths. She becomes more obsessed than ever about Mature, who has fled into the desert.
While Lansbury is on screen, Lamarr is somewhat sidelined. But after Lansbury’s death, Lamarr takes center stage. We see her dealings with a king (George Sanders), and her plot to go after Mature and make him pay.
She reasons that the king’s men are powerless against Mature because of his great brute strength…but as a woman she has certain charms at her disposal and will be able to bring him down.
In some ways it becomes DELILAH AND SAMSON instead of SAMSON AND DELILAH since Mature is basically playing a one-note character, the dimwitted hulk….while Lamarr gets to essay more variety of emotion. Also, her character experiences a huge change of heart at the end, which means she is able to demonstrate more growth on screen than Mature does.
A few of the film’s plot points are rather silly, and I think these weaknesses actually stem from weaknesses in the original biblical story. We are told Samson’s power comes from having thick, long hair. When Delilah finds out, she cuts his hair and he suddenly loses his power. But of course, any person with common sense would know that he’d certainly regain such strength in a month or two as it wouldn’t take long for his hair to regenerate and grow back.
Another weak spot in my opinion is how minor characters Miriam (Olive Deering) and Saul (Russ Tamblyn) are included. I never felt like they were properly fleshed out. They sort of drift in and out like a proverbial Greek chorus, functioning as a sounding board for our hulking hero. But where are they when we don’t see them? Are they helping the Danites battle the Philistines? Also, they are spotlessly clean at all times and never seem to sweat, when most of their scenes take place in the desert.
I have to do some slight nitpicking about the incredibly stage-bound feel of the picture. Most of it is filmed under DeMille’s careful guidance on a Hollywood set. Yes, the costumes, props and the architecture seem historically accurate. But one can’t get away from the feeling that this is all being presented inside a Paramount warehouse. There is little attempt to film any of the action outdoors.
Some of the exterior footage was recorded by a second unit in the Holy Land, but none of the actors journeyed to the Middle East. And any time we see outdoor footage, it is usually just extras, camels and horses filmed at long distances…much of it projected against a backdrop while our stars perform their dialogue on the sound stage in front of this rear projection.
Do I think SAMSON AND DELILAH is a classic? Most definitely. But I am not in awe of it like I am in awe of so many other epics from this period. It seems to lack realism, and it seems to lack a strong emotional core. I never once felt any sort of pity for Samson, because Victor Mature never had me believing in the plight of his character.
I did believe more in what Lamarr was accomplishing on screen, and I thought both Lansbury and Sanders did a fair job with their mostly limited roles. But I wanted to feel a stronger connection to the material, to the people and their situation. And that didn’t quite happen for me.
I did find the destruction of the temple at the end of the film rather dramatic and it was a memorable way to end the story.
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Post by kims on Sept 26, 2023 21:49:42 GMT
Interesting story in Henry Wilcoxon's book THE LIONHEART IN HOLLYWOOD. Second unit went to desert location to film Samson fighting the lion. Mature was better suited to urban film noir. All his fight scenes were by his double because Mature would not risk getting hurt. 2nd unit sets up in the desert and the lion is extremely old, mane falling out, extremely lethargic. Mature waits until all is set up to refuse to get out of the car. Double fills in, 2nd unit creative with camera angles to prevent double Kay Bell from being recognized.
The dailies are viewed with Demille, there's good action, photography looks good. Demille compliments the 2nd unit, then politely points out the film can't be used--telephone poles are in the background.
Demille liked doing Biblical stories and would have made more if there had been backing. He admitted these stories were difficult to do: appeal to the general audience, avoid offending any religion or sect while staying true to the story in the Bible.
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Post by kims on Sept 26, 2023 21:56:26 GMT
And one more thing. In the Bible, Delilah didn't cut Samson's hair. She got him drunk so (I forget the man's name) could cut Samson's hair.
You won't win any trivia points with this information, but I love to point it out (and other often mistaken stories in the Bible) to people who sanctimoniously tell me they know the Bible. I'm not implying that anyone here is in that category.
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Post by marysara1 on Sept 27, 2023 9:28:29 GMT
And one more thing. In the Bible, Delilah didn't cut Samson's hair. She got him drunk so (I forget the man's name) could cut Samson's hair. You won't win any trivia points with this information, but I love to point it out (and other often mistaken stories in the Bible) to people who sanctimoniously tell me they know the Bible. I'm not implying that anyone here is in that category. That was in the movie Fitzwilly. |
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Post by topbilled on Oct 1, 2023 14:15:11 GMT
This neglected film is from 1947.
The land and its people
Ray Milland is an unusual choice for the lead role. Especially since he hadn’t done a western before. It would be the first of his four collaborations with director John Farrow, which included COPPER CANYON. Milland developed a fondness for the Hollywood western, and his directorial debut was in this genre at Republic Pictures in 1955.
Cast as Milland’s leading lady is Barbara Stanwyck. Though she’d already made a few western movies by this stage of her career, they would become her bread and butter in the 1950s, as well as in the 1960s on television.
Character actor Barry Fitzgerald is third-billed. He probably has the most interesting role here as a champion for the underdog.
In early scenes Fitzgerald displays compassion for Stanwyck’s character, a saloon gal accused of cheating at cards and stealing men. She gets thrown out of a midwestern town and is allowed to join a wagon train headed for California, thanks to Mr. Fitzgerald’s intervention.
Stanwyck and Milland get off on the wrong foot, but there’s more than a few sparks between them. One night, the wagon train has stopped to set up camp in the desert. Since old habits apparently die hard, Stanwyck charms her way into a poker game the men are playing. She wins a bunch of cash, which prompts Milland to assume she’s using a marked deck. After examining the cards, he realizes she’s been on the level. He sits down and plays a hand with her. Of course, she cleans him out too.
While this is a western with hard-fisted action and romance, it is also a historical drama. We learn about the different pioneers heading to the coast– some of them drifters, most of them farmers, all with dreams of a better life. California was still under Mexican authority at this time, but it would soon become a republic, then part of the United States. The gold rush was underway.
It is no coincidence that Paramount released the film in January 1947, to mark a special 100th anniversary. California joined the union on January 13, 1847, although official statehood didn’t take place until 1850.
Some of the drama depicted on screen involves disputes that occur after the wagon train reaches the coast, where farmers and miners battle greedy land barons. The biggest villain is a guy named Pharaoh Coffin (love that name!) played by George Coulouris. At the same time there are Mexican noblemen associated with Coffin. This group is led by Anthony Quinn. There is also a military leader (Roman Bohnen) who appears, since Milland’s backstory concerns desertion from the army.
A lot is jam packed into a 97-minute running time. Paramount pulled out all the stops and we are treated to vibrant Technicolor; musical interludes (Stanwyck’s singing is dubbed); and an abundance of background players, though not quite as many as we’d find in a DeMille spectacle. There is also plenty of on-location filming in Arizona and of course, in California itself.
It’s a film that takes a look at the land and people of California as well as its form of government. I would call it a golden production befitting a golden state.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 10, 2023 14:00:16 GMT
This neglected film is from 1941.
Overcoming trouble in paradise
This was the second film that Sterling Hayden made for Paramount, billed as Stirling with an ‘i’ instead of an ‘e.’ His motion picture debut had occurred earlier in 1941, in VIRGINIA– another Technicolor drama that also starred Madeleine Carroll, whom the actor would marry in 1942.
While making BAHAMA PASSAGE, the couple worked on location in Salt Cay, the second largest of the Turks Islands in the Caribbean. The Turks and Caicos Islands were then and still are today, British territory. Sterling Hayden was quite familiar with this region. He had dropped out of school at age 16 to find work as a sailor; and he had made many trips from Massachusetts down to the islands. It was a happy place for him.
BAHAMA PASSAGE began production in the summer of ’41. The completed film was released the second week of December, a few days after the U.S. entered the second world war. Interestingly, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor attended the premiere which was held in Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas. Proceeds from the premiere were sent to a war-relief charity back in England.
The movie was a hit with audiences. Today it provides a unique look at Salt Cay where the majority of on-location scenes took place.
Salt Cay is only two-and-a-half miles long. For over three generations, it was ruled by the wealthy Harriott family. The Harriotts’ home, called The White House, was built in 1825 and it still stands.
In the shot on left, below, Sterling Hayden performs a scene in 1941 with actor Leigh whipper a short distance from The White House which can be seen in the background. The image on the right is The White House in 2022, with a tourist’s golf cart driving by. As you can see, not much has changed in all these years!
The White House is a popular tourist destination now. From the 1800s until 1950, the Harriott family lived there, overseeing the main industry, which was– no surprise– salt mining.
A descendant of Rosalie Harriott, the last member of the family to live in The White House, still owns the property today. Rosalie went off to school in Canada in 1949, and her parents left Salt Cay a year later. The salt mining business ended due to a changing post-war economy. I mention some of this, because the main plot of BAHAMA PASSAGE is about how the family, named Ainsworth in the movie, is trying to keep their salt business afloat. Mr. Hayden plays the descendant, who is forced to bring in outside help after his father dies and his mother (Flora Robson) is on the verge of a breakdown.
Help comes in the form of a ruthless consultant (Leo G. Carroll) and his socialite daughter (Madeleine Carroll, no offscreen relation). Mr. Carroll’s tactics soon alienate the local workers, which is mostly comprised of the black population.
The race relations depicted in the film suggest how the Harriotts held on to their empire and ran Salt Cay. In its heyday, Salt Cay had a population of 200 people Today it is more like 100. When the Harriotts were in charge, there were three separate social classes– whites (the rich and powerful ruling family); lights (a mulatto group that ran the shops and handled some of the shipping); and blacks (the working class miners).
Paramount’s production uses a screenplay based on a bestselling novel by Nelson Hayes that was published in 1940. The book has a rather unfortunate title (unfortunate by today’s standards, since most people would associate it with a phallic sex toy, not a species of cactus that grows in large quantity on the island).
In Hayes’ novel, there is considerable misogyny in the way the white Ainsworth family and their new business consultant deal with the blacks. Also, there are feminist implications, since Miss Robson’s character is quite mad. It is said the men marry to keep a bloodline going, and the women who are mostly unloved, go insane.
Side note…the Harriotts were unhappy with Hayes’ book and threatened to sue him and his publisher. I would imagine the reason they did not carry out legal action is because the island did benefit financially when Paramount went there to make the movie.
Back to the story…while Hayden’s character ponders his future, Leo Carroll’s character has trouble controlling the black workers. During a climactic party scene, he fires a gun to scare some of the men. Two people die as a result of this– a worker who took a bullet from the fired weapon; and Robson’s character, whose heart is too weak to withstand the scandal.
Leo Carroll is taken off by the blacks who plan to enact their own justice. He tries to get away and drowns in an apparent suicide. After this turn of events, Mr. Hayden and Miss Carroll work together to ease tensions and save the salt company. Meanwhile, they’ve fallen in love amid this exotic backdrop.
Hayden’s character has a wife who has been living apart from him. But when she is discovered to have a lover and is now seeking a divorce, it seems like there will be nothing but paradise for our two lovebirds.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 15, 2023 15:03:49 GMT
This neglected film is from 1939.
Jack Benny and company in the U.K.
Sometimes a film will just entertain an audience, nothing else. No heavy-handed social messages, no need to make specific points about society. Just entertain. Paramount’s MAN ABOUT TOWN with Jack Benny is one such film. It puts the popular comedian alongside some skilled studio contract players, and it reunites him with some of the more well-known personalities from his long-running radio program. In this case, bandleader Phil Harris as well as Benny’s sidekick and occasional foil Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, who both transfer over to the big screen from radio.
I wouldn’t say this film is laugh out loud funny, but there are some rather amusing bits. Every now and then Mr. Benny can’t resist revisiting a joke that didn’t work too well the first time, or redoing a gag that is probably past its expiration date. In short, not everything that Jack Benny considers funny is actually funny to the audience, but once a gag is finally finished and we return to the story and Jack’s hilarious facial reactions resume, things quickly get back on track.
The story for this 84 minute farce involves Benny playing an American entertainer named Temple, who is basically a fictionalized version of Benny himself. He’s in London with his troupe of performers about to put on a show that involves some swing music and sexy gals.
The musical numbers vary in length, and they present the ladies in glamorous shots. Some of the revue numbers expose a lot of female flesh and present some rather risqué ideas, which seem like they belong in a precode that Hollywood would have made several years earlier.
The film’s director is Mark Sandrich, having recently moved over to Paramount from RKO where he made five musical comedies with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Sandrich has the right understanding for this type of fluffy material, particularly when it comes to staging musical segments for lead actress Dorothy Lamour and supporting actress Betty Grable. Miss Grable would soon headed over to 20th Century Fox and major stardom. As for Mr. Sandrich, he’d spend the rest of his motion picture directing career at Paramount; these productions rival anything MGM director Vincente Minnelli did in the genre.
Supporting cast members include some of the finest character actors and actresses of this era. Edward Arnold is a larger than life aristocratic businessman negotiating a contract with a French businessman (Monty Woolley). Their wives feel neglected and use Benny’s hapless character to make them jealous one weekend at a country estate. One of the wives is played by Binnie Barnes, who has good rapport with Benny.
We also have E.E. Clive as a sour-faced British butler and Cecil Kellaway in an uncredited part as a headwaiter. Really and truly, the cream of the crop.
But the biggest scene stealer, of course, is Eddie Anderson as Rochester. He had only been with Benny’s radio show for two years and was already quite a fan favorite. Incidentally, this was the first time the Rochester character appeared on screen with Jack Benny. There’d be a few other movie collaborations. It’s obvious Benny admired Anderson’s talents, since Anderson is given two very memorable musical numbers of his own.
Rochester’s first number involves some intricate footwork that seems like a precursor to Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. The second number has him dressed in a Middle Eastern costume doing a routine in which he ends up moving around on the floor, which feels like an early form of breakdancing.
When Rochester isn’t singing and dancing, his comedy shtick is paving the way for later comedians like Flip Wilson. Lots of talent on display in this movie, which is a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half of your time.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 20, 2023 15:02:59 GMT
This neglected film is from 1954.
A story of contrasts
The story begins a bit slowly. Parker’s character has flown from her family’s home in New Orleans to the Amazon and is taking a boat upriver to meet her husband for the first time (Charlton Heston). Imagine marrying a man by proxy, only for him to turn out to be such a hunk as this guy. Lucky her. And of course, lucky him, since she’s the prettiest thing for miles around.
There’s an interesting scene when she first arrives at the plantation. Heston is working in the nearby jungle and is unable to meet her right away. Instead she is greeted by a man named Incacha (Abraham Sofaer) and the local people. The way the natives gawk at her, and the way she studies them uneasily, seems to foreshadow the Baroness interacting with the Von Trapp children.
In the next part Parker finally meets Heston, and they discuss why they agreed to this arrangement. They seem a bit incompatible, personality wise, but we can be sure they will forge a bond somehow. A bit of amusing business occurs when she thinks she has eaten chicken for dinner, only to be told it was lizard. Surely he’s joking, right!
As the rest of the story unfolds we learn that Parker was married before, and Heston is not fond of getting a “used” woman. They have their first quarrel about this.
He’s obviously a first class jerk, and she’s a fiery ornament with experience. The next day she witnesses a tribesman being killed, because the guy had committed adultery. She is shocked that her husband allows such punishment to take place on their land.
When Parker and Heston conclude their ‘trial’ marriage is a bust— they haven’t even consummated it yet, and there are hints that he has been impotent— they agree she is to return to New Orleans. They trek down river through the jungle together, where he will drop her off at a transit point. While this is occurring, he has had differences with another plantation owner (John Dierkes), which are mediated by a local commissioner (William Conrad).
THE NAKED JUNGLE is more than a story of contrasts, more than a tale about people from different backgrounds, struggling to get along in the jungle. Since this is a film produced by George Pal, we can be sure that there will be some fantastic possibly supernatural element. And there is.
Human conflicts become secondary, when there is news of a marabunta. This would be a large army of foraging, predatory ants. The marabunta are driving away birds and monkeys, and people, jeopardizing the area’s delicate ecosystem. Interestingly, marabunta is also a Caribbean slang word for ill-tempered woman, which may apply to Parker’s character in this story!
The last sequence of the picture contains some sensational imagery of the large colony of army ants taking over the land, with ominous music playing. Heston and Parker have to unite alongside the others to defeat a huge threat to survival in their unusual exotic habitat.
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Post by kims on Oct 20, 2023 22:22:49 GMT
THE NAKED JUNGLE is one of those films that before seeing it, you are confident after a lot of conflict, that lust will win out in the end. And it delivered well-lots of shots of the stars in provocative clothes or poses. My memory of the film is about my mother: using the new idiom I learned recently-she was a petri dish of lust for Heston. Years later I understood how she could feel this way about Heston while loving my father. When this film aired on tv, my father went across the street to visit a neighbor for the duration. His parting words were, "I don't want to watch my shortcomings"
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Post by topbilled on Oct 21, 2023 4:14:08 GMT
THE NAKED JUNGLE is one of those films that before seeing it, you are confident after a lot of conflict, that lust will win out in the end. And it delivered well-lots of shots of the stars in provocative clothes or poses. My memory of the film is about my mother: using the new idiom I learned recently-she was a petri dish of lust for Heston. Years later I understood how she could feel this way about Heston while loving my father. When this film aired on tv, my father went across the street to visit a neighbor for the duration. His parting words were, "I don't want to watch my shortcomings"
THE NAKED JUNGLE is a guilty pleasure. |
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Post by topbilled on Nov 3, 2023 8:38:09 GMT
This neglected film is from 1950.
The file on Barbara Stanwyck
Sure, there was Martha Ivers. But for quite some time after her electrifying performance in DOUBLE INDEMNITY, Barbara Stanwyck, as one of Hollywood’s great femme fatales, became an actress in need of a suitable follow-up to Phyllis Dietrichson. This time, she’s found it with Thelma Jordon, the title character of a picture where she is allowed to be even more dangerous and even more sinister than that earlier incarnation of evil.
Miss Stanwyck’s work as an up-to-no-good dame is first class, and audiences are in for quite a few jolts. Such a thrilling performance is guided by Robert Siodmak, whose direction is on par with Billy Wilder’s best efforts.
The File on Thelma Jordon is apparently a rather extensive one. In its most gripping moments, the film provides a powerful examination of the justice system– a cautionary tale, if you will– showing how someone can get away with murder and manipulate the system to her own ends.
We see this when Miss Stanwyck’s character is on trial, and it is rather clear she’s not going to hang for her misdeeds.
There is a long tracking shot as bad-girl number one is brought over from the jail to hear the verdict. Siodmak shows her marching along the street, up the steps and into the courtroom, almost as if it were a victory parade.
All throughout this process, Stanwyck shows us the harder edges of the character while suggesting shades of humanity and vulnerability. Another benefit of this production is a special quality that Wendell Corey adds, expertly playing a pansy lawyer who gets sucked into her schemes to evade justice. The actors could easily chew the scenery in this one, but they wisely avoid the temptation to indulge in such theatricality. Thelma Jordon may be guilty of many things, but she is innocent of that.
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Post by topbilled on Nov 7, 2023 7:19:11 GMT
This neglected film is from 1955.
Desperate acts
Dramatists who are inspired by real-life events tend to, well, over-dramatize those events. Why? Because it’s their job, and also because some of the actual details might seem mundane, and if a situation is going to become the basis for a book, play and motion picture, which is what happened here, then it has to be exciting with elements of danger. A Pennsylvania family, the Hills (called Hilliards in Joseph Hayes’ recreated version and transplanted to Indiana) ended up suing over how they were depicted in the story. They claimed their captors were quite polite and not as menacing as seen here.
THE DESPERATE HOURS isn’t quite the level of IN COLD BLOOD, but there are desperate acts and a murder takes place while the home invasion scenario plays out. The three captors, recent penitentiary inmates who’ve engineered a jailbreak, are on the lam and duck into a suburban home to hide out, while waiting for funds to finance their continued escape.
On stage, the middle-aged suburban couple was portrayed by Karl Malden and Nancy Coleman. Paramount’s feature film adaptation is shot in VistaVision in black-and-white (because the leads were past their prime and looked slightly younger in b&w). The couple is portrayed by Fredric March and Martha Scott. Film buffs will note that March and Scott had previously been cast as a morally upstanding couple in 1941’s ONE FOOT IN HEAVEN.
The lead convict is played by Humphrey Bogart, in his penultimate motion picture. His character is a re-do of his famous gangster role Duke Mantee from THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1936). Bogart’s long career at Warner Brothers was built on playing these types of hoodlums, so it’s interesting to see him revisit this in 1955 as an older man.
The Broadway production had featured rising star Paul Newman as the ringleader, which means the screenplay had to adjust for Bogart’s age. One thing the screenplay glosses over is the fact that one of the other guys is his younger brother (Dewey Martin). Instead of proportionately aging the younger bro, they keep him the same age he was in the play.
Bogart was 24 years older than Martin and it shows. But I guess Bogart didn’t want to play Martin’s father, and so we have two brothers with a rather huge disparity in their ages.
The play and film both take their time to get to the final standoff with police surrounding the house. Mrs. Hilliard (Scott) is the first to be “visited” by the felonious crooks. As the other members of her family arrive home during the day, they all become hostages. The rest of the family includes a teenaged daughter (Mary Murphy) and preteen son (Richard Eyer), as well as the husband (March).
There’s a subplot involving the Mary Murphy character who wants to marry a businessman, played by Gig Young. Mr. Young is old enough to be Miss Murphy’s father. I think if they’d had Young switch roles with Martin, the casting would have been more correct. Despite some of the incongruities, the picture provides electrifying performances...especially from Bogart and March. Incidentally, March’s role as the patriarch was intended for Spencer Tracy, who refused to take second billing under Bogart. A few years later, Tracy and March would team up for INHERIT THE WIND, with March once again second-billed, because Tracy still wouldn’t relinquish top billing.
I should mention that the Broadway production of The Desperate Hours was a hit. It received financial backing from actor Robert Montgomery and his daughter Elizabeth Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery directed the Broadway version, and he earned a Tony award for his efforts; while Miss Montgomery would marry Gig Young in 1956.
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Post by Fading Fast on Nov 7, 2023 16:42:27 GMT
The Desperate Hours from 1955 with Fredric March, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Middleton, Arthur Kennedy, Dewey Martin, Gig Young and Mary Murphy
Acting, writing and directing talent elevates this "home invasion" movie above many of its peers in this perennially popular Hollywood genre.
In The Desperate Hours, Fredric March plays the father of an upper middle-class family - Martha Scott plays his wife, Mary Murphy; his nineteen-year-old daughter and Richard Eyer; his nine-year-old son - whose home is taken over one morning by just-escaped convicts looking for a temporary hideout.
Humphrey Bogart plays the leader of the gang, which includes Dewey Martin playing Bogie's younger brother and big Robert Middleton playing the "muscle" of the three.
Director William Wyler sets the tone early as Bogie's thuggish and scruffy gang appears completely out of place - like invaders - in the Marchs' clean and pretty house.
They randomly break things and look silly eating off of nice china at a comfortable dining room table with their guns resting next to their plates.
It's a long, tense movie as Bogie is waiting for his girl to come with money for their escape, while March is always looking for an angle that gets his family out of this safely. Meanwhile, the police, searching for the convicts, have no idea where they are.
Many of the usual home invasion things happen including innocent tradesmen and neighbors knocking on the door, the phone ringing too often and playmates and boyfriends showing up.
In a neat and tense twist, March and his daughter are allowed to go to work to keep up appearances, while his wife and son remain hostages. Meanwhile, young thug Martin eyes March's pretty daughter Murphy, especially when Murphy's boyfriend, played by Gig Young, comes knocking.
What centers and drives this one, though, is Bogie facing off against March as we see two acting pros draw you into their mano-a-mano story, where Bogie starts off cocky only to see March slowly begin to outmaneuver him.
Also engaging is the theme of criminals taking versus honest people earning. March has a job he goes to everyday to pay for the things his family has; whereas, Bogie and team take by force; the contrast could not be more stark.
This is further brought home when we see Martin begin to realize that his older brother has sold him on a bad philosophy - a life of crime and not being "the sucker." Martin can't help noticing the house's pretty curtains, comfortable furniture, well-stocked refrigerator and the general comity of the family - all things he's never had.
When Martin finally snaps at Bogie, who's played a father figure to him, and tells Bogie you never taught me how to get a home like this, the movie's theme is laid bare: hard work and honesty, not stealing, is the path to a better life.
It's a well-written script where we see even the police at odds as the lead detective, played by Arthur Kennedy, fights over priorities with his boss, played by Ray Collins.
Collins, with an eye on the upcoming election, simply wants what will be popular with the public, Bogie's gang dead or captured; whereas, Kennedy wants to do the right thing and put March's family's safety first.
It's a powerful scene that shows that even the police have conflicting and, sometimes, selfish motives that don't always nicely align with "protect and serve."
Almost every actor is outstanding in this one, but you want to keep a special watch out for Middleton's incredible performance as the lumbering, psychotic giant whose unpredictability combined with his menacing street smarts makes him the scariest member of the gang.
Maybe the end is a bit too cute and gimmicky, but it's also tense and dramatic as movies like this have to do their thing and deliver an emotional and action-filled climax.
The Desperate Hours is an engaging, albeit not groundbreaking picture. Still, with a smart script, Wyler at the helm and too-many talented actors to name, it's what a good movie should be: entertaining as heck with a small message tucked inside. |
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