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Post by topbilled on Jul 29, 2024 15:00:06 GMT
This neglected film is from 1947.
Dale Evans in rare noir role
When she wasn’t busy being a wife and mother, and saddling up alongside Roy Rogers in those popular B-westerns at Republic, Dale Evans occasionally got a chance to act. To really act. The singer-actress had begun her Hollywood career at 20th Century Fox in the early 1940s. That studio typically assigned her to B musicals and B comedies. She didn’t branch out into westerns until she moved over to Republic Pictures a short time later.
But Dale Evans had it in her to be a real star, and not just as a wholesome cowgirl with Roy, Trigger and company. Occasionally, Republic boss Herbert Yates would give Evans a more substantial role without Roy, either in a comedy or in this case a well-crafted crime yarn. Evans made THE TRESPASSER after the western BELLS OF SAN ANGELO, just before she would take a year off on maternity leave. Maybe this plum assignment was Yates’ way of gaining her loyalty and making sure she came back to do more movies after her maternity leave was over? I don’t know.
In the story Evans plays a nightclub singer, cast against type as a selfish woman who is only interested in her career and what a man can do for her. But we do not see her until the second main sequence. The story’s first sequence involves a wholesome gal (Janet Martin) who is hired to work for a local newspaper called The Evening Gazette. Martin is led to believe she will be replacing a literary critic (William Bakewell), though there has been a mix-up.
With the help of a nice reporter (Douglas Fowley), Martin is allowed to remain at the newspaper, but will instead be assigned to help in the ‘morgue,’ a room down in the basement where old articles are archived (in the days before computers) and research is done.
While she is settling into the job, we find out the literary critic is part of a forgery ring involving collectible books which are not really as valuable as they seem. I was impressed by how accurate the dialogue was with regards to rare book collections and manuscript details that can be studied to detect forgery. There are five people credited with the story/screenplay, and someone on this team obviously had expert knowledge about literature as well as the newspaper business.
Dale Evans comes into the story, because the crooked literary critic is her character’s husband (Bakewell). Bakewell is afraid that he will be exposed as a criminal, and he tries to frame Fowley’s character for his misdeeds, which involve an equally nefarious bookseller (Gregory Gaye). During a ride in a car with Fowley, Bakewell loses control of the vehicle which plunges off the side of a cliff in a very gripping action sequence filmed on location.
Suddenly, Bakewell’s character is dead; and from here Fowley must work to draw Gaye out into the open. We then see Fowley questioning a local bartender and other assorted individuals with knowledge or information that might be useful.
After the death of her husband, Evans’ character begins to soften. She is now interested in justice and in helping Fowley and Martin catch Gaye. There is a very suspenseful scene where the two women visit Gaye’s business and try to trick him. Naturally, the ploy puts them in great danger. Of course, Fowley and the police arrive in the nick of time to save them and thwart Gaye.
Ordinarily, this would be the type of film where we’d expect Evans to be cast as the more wholesome female, not a woman who is morally challenged like she is here in this story. It’s a good part for her, since she gets to look all glamorous as a nightclub entertainer and gets to sing. But more importantly, she is able to prove that she can perform a substantial dramatic arc that demonstrates considerable character growth. I enjoyed watching her portray someone who ultimately sets her career-related vanity aside to do what is right.
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Post by topbilled on Jul 29, 2024 21:03:37 GMT
An excellent print of THE TRESPASSER (1947) can be viewed here.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 9, 2024 15:25:46 GMT
This neglected film is from 1938.
Raucous farce about the sanctity of marriage
It’s not too difficult to see why the production code office had some qualms about the script for this very funny comedy from Republic Pictures. The main storyline involves a somewhat flippant attitude about the sanctity of marriage, since a young gal (Patricia Farr) goes out one evening and comes back home married to an older man (Neil Hamilton) she never met before. But that’s not all; she’s already married to a con artist (Joseph Schildkraut).
Worried that the young gal will go to jail for bigamy, her older sis (Sally Eilers) decides to take her place. Not exactly sure how that would stop Hamilton from claiming he was duped into marriage by a bigamous woman, but it gives Eilers a chance to infiltrate his wealthy estate and get to know his bratty kids (Marcia Mae Jones and George Ernest). The kids don’t want daddy married again, but Eilers won’t go away quietly. She takes the mother part of stepmother to heart and decides to give the kids a proper upbringing, though she is not technically married to their father.
Not only do we have a farce about marriage, we also have a farce about motherhood and childrearing. The actors play it broadly, and they all get a lot of mileage out of the zany material. I suppose you could call it a screwball comedy, though it’s not really about bizarre people; it’s about a bizarre set of circumstances that otherwise respectable people are mixed up in before things become normal.
Eilers is having a field day playing off Hamilton and the kids, as a woman who has finally found her calling in life. Though it really is Schildkraut, who enters into a strange “business” arrangement with the kids to help them remove Eilers from the home, who gets the best lines. In case Schildkraut becomes too much of a cad, we learn he has some decency in him. Since he still has feelings for Eilers’ kid sister, he does the right thing in the end by cutting Eilers a break so she can remain at the manse in the role she’s become accustomed to living.
As the film started to wrap up, I did wonder if the writers would be able to undo the bigamy part of the narrative in order to provide a morally acceptable happy ending. And to my surprise, the writers have done that, in a rather clever way. It turns out that Schildkraut has been declared legally insane, meaning the younger sister’s marriage to him was invalid, and she was legally wed to Hamilton.
Though she never really lived under Hamilton’s room as his wife, since her sister took on that role, she is able to successfully get a divorce. This clears the path for her to reunite with Schildkraut (who knows why, but love is strange), which then enables Eilers to marry Hamilton and be a real mom to his kids who are no longer the monsters they were.
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Post by topbilled on Aug 22, 2024 14:32:37 GMT
This is such a neglected film I was the first person to submit a review on the IMDb. It's from 1945.
Goodbye and hello again
This zany romantic comedy was made by Republic Pictures just after the studio had completed THE CHEATERS, and it reuses the main penthouse set. It features one of the same supporting players (Robert Grief) cast as the butler in both stories. That’s pretty much where similarities end, since THE CHEATERS is a poignant holiday story, though I did wonder if the role of the scheming Broadway producer (Nils Asther) was intended for Joseph Schildkraut who played an eccentric actor in THE CHEATERS. It does seem like a part that would have been tailor made for Schildkraut’s talents.
The female lead is portrayed by Virginia Bruce whose motion picture career was starting to go into decline. She’d recently had a decent part in RKO’s ACTION IN ARABIA the year before, as well as a starring role in Republic’s musical BRAZIL, which was meant to support the U.S. government’s “good neighbor policy” with South American countries during wartime. Bruce still looks lovely, though for scenes in this picture, she wears a slightly strange disguise.
The plot involves Bruce’s attempts to become a serious stage actress. She’s a society wife who hasn’t made her mark in life, but thinks she can wow audiences and critics on Broadway. Her Australian-born husband (Edward Ashley) is a highly successful attorney who will indulge his wife’s whims, as long as they are only temporary. He is secretly backing the new play. His tried-and-true secretary (Helen Broderick) is aware of this, and she is also aware that her boss is hoping for a flop, because instead of getting a financial return on his investment, he’d rather just get his wife back home full-time.
It’s a great concept for a film because in a way there is some sort of tug-of-war going on between the two spouses. Especially when the play does flop, and Bruce realizes Ashley was the secret backer and is glad her acting career ended before it started. In a moment of frustration and anger, Bruce moves out of their high rise apartment and takes up with Asther, a dubious producer who promises to put her in another play. Part of financing a new play would require funds Bruce can get from a nice divorce settlement.
There is a secondary plot that ties in nicely with the main plot. In this subplot, Victor McLaglen plays a tattoo artist friend of Ashley’s that is looking after a little girl (Jacqueline Moore) whose dad recently died. Child welfare workers are attempting to take the girl away, but will change their tune when Ashley gives McLaglen a good paying job as his new chauffeur. This means McLaglen and the little girl will move into these ritzy digs and the girl will have a decent upbringing.
The subplot connects to the main plot, because after Bruce has fled the marriage she hears about a young girl moving into her estranged hubby’s penthouse. She jumps to the wrong conclusion— naturally, since this is a comedy built on secrets and false assumptions— and believes the girl is her husband’s illegitimate child. She makes it her mission to find out who the girl’s real mother is. But to do so, she needs to go back. Again, because this is a comedy with screwball elements, she doesn’t return as herself, but uses her skills as an actress to play a French nanny!
Meanwhile Asther is getting impatient because Bruce is not hurrying up her divorce from Ashley. The twist is that Ashley sees through Bruce’s disguise and thinks he can use the scenario to his advantage to get Bruce to bond with the child. Previously, she had been so gung-ho about a career, she resisted efforts to have children. In a way, the writing is rather clever, since the whole point of the movie is for a woman in 1945 America to realize her greatest role is as a wife and mother. This would have mirrored what women would deal with as the war ended and gave their jobs outside the home back to the men, and prepared the nest for the baby boom.
The studio spent money on LOVE HONOR AND GOODBYE and gave the proceedings a solid cast and an overall nice polish. The scenes with Bruce and the little girl are among the funniest bits since her character doesn’t know anything about childrearing. The girl is not sickeningly cute; in fact she is rather bratty. Nobody will mistake her for a young Shirley Temple.
Perhaps what hurts the film a bit is the casting of Ashley, a decent actor but not really a star. If this had been cast with Cary Grant and Loretta Young, or with Ray Milland and Paulette Goddard; and if Schildkraut had played the cad producer, it would be better known today. Still, it’s a fine production, a fun film worth recommending.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 16, 2024 13:27:12 GMT
This neglected film is from 1956.
Another chance for their family
Not long after Steve Cochran made the outdoor adventure yarn THE LION AND THE HORSE (1952) for Warner Brothers, he read a script by Montgomery Pittman which became the basis for COME NEXT SPRING. Pittman had worked odd jobs and tried to break into acting. But instead of making his mark as an actor, he would find success as a writer and director. Before he made a name for himself in movies and on TV, Pittman took a job managing Cochran’s home in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Cochran had starred in THE LION AND HORSE, which was a hit for Warners. During production Cochran bonded with child star Sherry Jackson who played an orphan girl in the movie. His character became a father figure to her character. Off screen, life sort of imitated art. Cochran introduced Pittman to Jackson’s mother, a widow; and romance blossomed. Pittman married Jackson’s mom, with Cochran serving as best man; and Pittman became Jackson’s new dad.
Over the course of the following decade, Pittman often wrote parts for Jackson and directed her in various television programs. (Jackson was also appearing as Danny Thomas’s daughter on the sitcom Make Room for Daddy, starting in 1953.)
One of the parts that Pittman wrote for Jackson was in COME NEXT SPRING, in which she would play Cochran’s daughter. Cochran loved the script and knew it would be an excellent role for him, as a recovering alcoholic ex-farmer who returns home to reconnect with a wife and two children (Jackson and Richard Eyer) he’d abandoned.
Warner Brothers was not interested in the story. So, Cochran who was on the verge of leaving the studio, set up his own production company and looked for financing elsewhere to make the picture on his own. It took awhile, but ultimately, Cochran interested Republic Pictures boss Herbert Yates in the project. Yates’ studio specialized in westerns and rural dramas, and this story, set in Arkansas farm country where Pittman had been raised, was right up Republic’s alley.
Cochran began freelancing as an actor, and as a co-producer of this film, he had to help figure out who would play his leading lady. Ultimately, Yates okayed the casting of Ann Sheridan, another former contract player from Warner Brothers. Sheridan had left Warners in 1949, just as Cochran was getting started there. They hadn’t done any films together, but they had chemistry; and the casting made sense.
The story details how Cochran is back on the farm, angling for a chance to make up for his past mistakes with his estranged wife (Sheridan). It’s been a long separation, filled with much heartache for Sheridan’s character, who found the resilience to keep the farm going as an independent woman. The kids like having daddy back, and so does the family dog; but Sheridan has built up an emotional wall. She was badly hurt by Cochran and doesn’t want to get hurt again, despite the fact she’s falling for his sweet talk again.
It’s surprising how good Cochran and Sheridan both are in their roles. We believe them as a couple working out their personal issues. It’s nice to see Sheridan play a mother on screen. And she helps bring out the best in Cochran who demonstrates his range as a dramatic actor.
Though set in the Ozarks, COME NEXT SPRING was shot on location outside Sacramento. But rural California stands in quite well for Arkansas. The film was a sleeper hit for Republic and later, Sheridan cited it as the best film she made. She would pass away in 1967 from cancer. Cochran died two years earlier in 1965. And Pittman had died in 1962, also from cancer. Jackson and Eyer are both alive as I write this. When anyone watches this film, the work they did lives on.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 22, 2024 14:59:14 GMT
This neglected film is from 1956.
Small town prosecutor protects a way of life
I guess there’s a bit of irony in the fact that a man who winds up dead after bowling a strike starts a movie called WHEN GANGLAND STRIKES. But the mob character on trial for this murder is striking back at society in another way. And he will do whatever it takes to avoid taking the rap, even if he has to blackmail a small town prosecutor in Rosedale U.S.A.
This was a remake of Republic’s earlier crime yarn MAIN STREET LAWYER in which Edward Ellis played the title character in 1939. Anita Louise costarred as his daughter. Both their characters’ names have been changed for the remake. In many ways the “updated” version is not very updated at all and still feels like it takes place in the 30s. However, the folksy small-town atmosphere still translates well, and the slow moving plot which other reviewers criticized, helps provide some rich characterization.
The stylized dialogue indicates the naivety of the times; and the use of highly idiomatic expressions feels like something from the studio’s popular serials. In fact the strange dialogue gives the film considerable charm. Raymond Greenleaf who portrays the old prosecutor is a fine actor that delivers his lines perfectly. Richard Deacon is on hand as an opposing attorney, and he is similarly excellent.
Marjie Millar, cast as the lawyer’s daughter, is given more emotional scenes than her costars. Especially when it is learned her character’s birth was mired in scandal. This was Millar’s third and final film. She had been a discovery of producer Hal Wallis a few years earlier. Previously she appeared in two Paramount “A” films for Wallis. An accident sidelined her career and she turned to teaching.
One reviewer tried to link the film to television shows made at the time. Just because a few of the actors appeared on TV doesn’t mean this is like an episode of Perry Mason. And I certainly wouldn’t associate the town’s values with those espoused by Judge Hardy or even Andy Taylor. The sentiments in this story are wholly unique, displaying a unique brand of down-home appeal.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 12, 2024 7:32:44 GMT
This neglected film is from 1945.
Woman comes back to sleepy New England town
This 1945 gem was made independently but distributed through Republic Pictures. Nancy Kelly stars as the title character, a woman who comes back to a sleepy New England town to find things quite unsettling.
First, I should provide a bit of background on the character she plays, as well as the other inhabitants of Eben Rock. She left the area when she was younger and is now going back on a bus. Sitting next to her is an elderly woman also from the same town. They talk about the people of Eben Rock. The old hag seems somewhat superstitious and might even be a supernatural manifestation of the evil that happened there in the past.
Their conversation is interrupted when the bus careens off the road during a storm and plunges into an icy river. Members of the local community rush to the site of the crash, and it is quickly learned there were no survivors, except Kelly. She has a sketchy memory of the crash and cannot provide many substantial details. She does remember the old woman and describes her, but no such person is listed as having been on the bus.
As the story continues, strange things occur. Local townsfolk accuse her of being a witch, and she begins to wonder if it’s all connected to the woman she met on the bus.
The writers are careful not to make it too hokey, but there are suggestions that either the hag has cast a spell on her, or that she is the old woman reincarnated and that she had seen a part of herself on the bus. It’s all rather thought-provoking and Nancy Kelly does a great job conveying the terror that increases inside her, when she starts to believe as others do that she’s really a witch.
Of course, there’s a love story too, when one of the men in town has fallen for her. He doesn’t believe she’s a danger to anyone, only to herself if she keeps behaving this way. The love interest is played by John Loder, and he turns in a subtle performance, wisely letting his costar drive the film’s narrative forward.
By the time it all ends, answers have been provided that explain the disappearance of the old woman. And our heroine seems to regain her sanity. But this is no dream, and it’s not explained away as anyone’s fanciful imagination. She really does seem to have been possessed.
The new love she’s found with Loder gives us an idea of what was missing when she began to doubt her own basic goodness. At least it ends happily and she doesn’t self-destruct. This movie is a real scream!
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Post by topbilled on Oct 22, 2024 15:33:23 GMT
This neglected film is from 1958.
Vera Ralston’s movie swan song
The man whose death occurs twice in this story is about as bad as they come. He probably deserved to die a few more times, just for good measure. The first death is a staged one, where criminal T.J. Brennon (Don Megowan) pretends to go over a cliff in a car. He has fooled the police and members of the underworld into thinking he’s perished, by substituting his body with another hood’s body, which is charred beyond recognition.
Megowan’s lovely wife (Vera Ralston, in her last motion picture) is summoned to identify the remains, what little there may be. She grieves the man she loved and thought she knew well. They’d only been wed for three months, after they met when she started singing at his club.
They enjoyed a whirlwind courtship and lavish honeymoon in Mexico. Then came the car crash, which is followed by a few more deaths in rapid succession.
The latest deaths take place at Ralston’s apartment, on her balcony. These involve some goons fighting over drugs stashed inside the place. A third man has vanished up the fire escape. We are not told till much later that this mystery man, whom Ralston hasn’t been able to identify with certainty, is Megowan. We are also not told that in addition to running a trendy club, Megowan is a heroin dealer. He is in debt to two different mob families.
One thing I like about the film is that all the pieces fit together, but we are deliberately kept in the dark about much of what’s going on. I guess that is so we can either sympathize with Ralston, or else suspect her since she keeps claiming she doesn’t know anything. When Megowan’s brother (Rod Cameron) comes to town, he is suspicious of Ralston at first, then starts to fall for her charms. The casting of Cameron and Megowan as brothers is inspired, since they really do resemble each other.
Vera Ralston was never going to be considered the world’s best actress. In fact, she is often maligned for her skills as a performer. But she was still a movie star, and one thing I always like about Ralston is how much kindness she radiates on screen, even when playing a morally ambiguous character. She always wins me over.
In her final motion picture at Republic Pictures, she shows us once again what class and grace she possessed. She also conveys more maturity and understanding of the English language and American culture than she does in her previous efforts. While this is not a great noir, it is still competently made and a good production for our lead actress to wrap up her career.
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Post by topbilled on Oct 22, 2024 16:23:44 GMT
A restored copy of THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE has been uploaded on YouTube.
The nice thing about this copy is that it is actually in Naturama (Republic's version of CinemaScope) and nothing's been cropped...no pan and scan.
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Post by topbilled on Nov 8, 2024 15:41:13 GMT
This neglected film is from 1942.
A symbol of invincible strength
The word invincible means too powerful to be defeated or overcome. Such is the spirit of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) in this Republic war film. They were a group of determined U.S. pilots who fought the Japanese in China during the second world war. Of course, they’re more commonly known as the Flying Tigers, which gives the movie its title.
Just as invincible during this period: the solidarity among Hollywood studios who often worked together for the sake of the war effort. The studios frequently loaned talent to each other to make sure these films had quality craftsmanship and would serve a greater purpose, which was unabashed flag-waving propaganda after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
For this particular production, Republic borrowed musician Victor Young from Paramount who wrote the patriotic score; and from MGM borrowed director David Miller and actor John Carroll. Carroll would end up splitting his contract between the two companies, making more films for Republic than he did at Metro. Carroll plays the second lead, a doomed flyer in a triangle with costars Anna Lee and John Wayne, before he goes on a spectacular suicide mission against the Japanese.
This was the Duke’s first war flick. He was an admirer of actress Laraine Day whom they tried to get from MGM to play the role that eventually went to Anna Lee. Day had just starred in A YANK ON THE BURMA ROAD, released at the start of 1942. She would later costar with Wayne in TYCOON (1947) and THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954).
The AVG, or Flying Tigers, had been formed before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but they did not begin their missions until after the United States entered the war. There is a stirring sequence where the entirely of FDR’s speech ‘This is a day that will live in infamy…’ is heard on radio, signaling the official entry of the U.S. in the war.
As I watched this section of the story, with the various reaction shots of the cast, I had to remind myself that this was filmed only a short time after these people had actually heard Roosevelt make his declaration live on the radio. They were reliving their own recent history. Such powerful cinema! It feels as relevant today as it undoubtedly was then. There is only one word that can describe the heroic men and women from that era: invincible.
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Post by topbilled on Nov 18, 2024 14:09:10 GMT
This neglected film is from 1950.
Lang helms gothic drama for Republic
I recently rewatched Fritz Lang’s gothic noir HOUSE BY THE RIVER. I’ve always liked this film, because of its precise period detail. This was the only time Lang directed a film at Republic Pictures, a studio known for its modestly budgeted programmers and B-westerns. But I guess if Republic could bankroll projects by Orson Welles and Frank Borzage after the war, why not also bring Fritz Lang on board…
HOUSE BY THE RIVER has many indelible characteristics associated with the Hollywood phase of Lang’s career. Plus it features Jane Wyatt in a leading role. It’s interesting to see her in this type of cinematic fare. Most people remember her as the wife on TV’s Father Knows Best.
There are memorable atmospheric touches, and Lang makes good use of on-location exteriors involving a corpse floating down river. I suspect Alfred Hitchcock enjoyed HOUSE BY THE RIVER and borrowed from it when making PSYCHO.
The way the body is wrapped up and ‘drowned’ in the water seems repeated later in Hitchcock’s film. Plus, there’s a line where a character says the killer is like a harmless fly…and that is definitely repeated at the end of PSYCHO.
The main set piece is a foreboding mansion by the river. It’s just as much a looming character here as the Bates home is in PSYCHO. Of course, there are some unusual things going on inside the house.
The movie’s cast do an admirable job with the material, most especially Miss Wyatt who anchors the proceedings and tries to stay calm despite everything that’s happening. She does a rather convincing job as a society wife who comes to discover that husband Louis Hayward is a nefarious murderer.
Hayward’s character has pinned a recent killing on his nice-guy brother (Lee Bowman). Halfway into the story there’s a courtroom sequence where Bowman is on trial for murder.
Tension in the courtroom builds, as the lives of two brothers– and a wife caught in the middle– depend upon a just outcome. There is a notable shot where one of the attorneys rolls a pencil across the table where he is sitting. Lang has the camera show the pencil rolling across the length of the table before reaching the edge of the surface and falling to the floor.
The camera then cuts to Hayward, who’s on the stand giving false testimony, hoping to railroad his brother into prison. He is completely unbothered by the interruption of the pencil dropping. Viewers may wonder why Lang has nearly stopped the narrative to focus on a runaway pencil. But I think it’s because the attorney knows Hayward is lying on the stand, and he’s trying to see if he can rattle Hayward and expose his perjury.
Does Hayward eventually get caught? Or does he kill again? I will let you watch the film to find out for yourself.
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Post by Fading Fast on Nov 18, 2024 15:18:23 GMT
From your review: "The movie’s cast do an admirable job with the material, most especially Miss Wyatt who anchors the proceedings and tries to stay calm despite everything that’s happening. She does a rather convincing job as a society wife who comes to discover that husband Louis Hayward is a nefarious murderer."
In the past several months, I've seen Wyatt in '44's "None but the Lonely Heart" and '48's "Pitfall" and have two thoughts about her: One, she had the talent and screen presence to have been a major star, but for whatever reason, it didn't happen and, two, she is quietly beautiful.
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Post by topbilled on Nov 18, 2024 15:42:57 GMT
From your review: "The movie’s cast do an admirable job with the material, most especially Miss Wyatt who anchors the proceedings and tries to stay calm despite everything that’s happening. She does a rather convincing job as a society wife who comes to discover that husband Louis Hayward is a nefarious murderer."
In the past several months, I've seen Wyatt in '44's "None but the Lonely Heart" and '48's "Pitfall" and have two thoughts about her: One, she had the talent and screen presence to have been a major star, but for whatever reason, it didn't happen and, two, she is quietly beautiful.
Her family, a well-heeled east coast clan, did not approve of her being an actress. Her career succeeded in spite of these things. She started to specialize in loyal wife roles, but occasionally she was able to sink her teeth into something meaty like the femme fatale she had played in THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF.
She became a household name on television. And ironically, her fame on the small screen allowed her to snag new roles on the big screen. This is why we see her do a Disney film in the 70s, and why she had a plum part as Spock's mother on the original Star Trek series and in one of the Star Trek films in the 1980s.
While other top tier actresses her generation had come and gone, she was still a respected presence on screen decades later. Although she never became a movie star, she still made her mark even if she did not have a traditional career trajectory and did not have the support of her family.
She married a wealthy man (that her family approved of)...and she could have been content to withdraw from Hollywood and focus on charity work. But she still continued her career as an actress, maybe in defiance of her family's wishes. Audiences benefited from her decision to persist with her chosen vocation.
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