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Post by topbilled on Aug 31, 2023 12:32:55 GMT
This month:
September 2: THE LADY VANISHES (1938)
September 9: SO LONG AT THE FAIR (1950)
September 16: LAST HOLIDAY (1950)
September 23: DOUBLE CONFESSION (1950)
September 30: ALL FOR MARY (1955)
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Post by topbilled on Sept 2, 2023 23:40:24 GMT
Essential: THE LADY VANISHES (1938)
TopBilled:
 This month our theme is ‘On Holiday– British Style.’ Basically, we are looking at films where British characters are traveling somewhere on a holiday, either within Britain or outside Britain. Our first selection is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s better known efforts from the late 1930s and it has some thematic similarities with our second selection, SO LONG AT THE FAIR.In SO LONG AT THE FAIR Jean Simmons has gone to the Paris Expo with her brother (David Tomlinson). When her brother disappears, she thinks she’s going mad…because the other guests at the hotel where they’re staying don’t believe her, that a brother even existed. There is a cover-up taking place for reasons unbeknownst to her. In THE LADY VANISHES, Margaret Lockwood is the pretty damsel. She’s journeyed to some Alpine village where her trip has been delayed by a recent avalanche. After the tracks are cleared, she is able to board a train out of the village where she has sought lodging. While leaving the lodge, she’s been befriended by a kindly old gal named Miss Froy (May Whitty, who also worked with Hitchcock in SUSPICION). After getting settled in their compartment, the women head to the dining car for tea and become better acquainted. A short time later, Lockwood has returned to the compartment to take a nap. She needed rest due to a slight head injury. But when she wakes up and looks around, she discovers Miss Froy is no longer with her. Miss Froy has disappeared.Like Jean Simmons’ delirious search for her brother in SO LONG AT THE FAIR, Miss Lockwood walks up and down the length of the train interrogating people about what happened to Miss Froy. But nobody believes her that such a woman ever existed. Some, it turns out, do know about Miss Froy, but have their own reasons for not corroborating Lockwood’s claims. That is part of the brilliance of the film, in that we have all these holiday travelers from disparate backgrounds with their own motivations, most of them at odds with Lockwood’s desire to uncover the truth. Lockwood receives assistance from a handsome man (Michael Redgrave). And though it is said she is engaged to marry someone else, she starts to fall for Redgrave’s charms even while she seems to be falling apart emotionally. Lockwood gives an intriguing performance, delicately balancing the willfulness and vulnerability of the character. One thing that I don’t really buy into, however, is how she would feel so devoted to finding Miss Froy, when they barely had enough time to become acquainted. At least in SO LONG AT THE FAIR, Simmons has grown up with Bogarde and it makes sense that she’d be frantic if her beloved brother had vanished into thin air.But in this case, it doesn’t make total sense that Lockwood and Whitty would have forged such a strong bond in such a short period of time. Anyone else would say, ‘oh the old gal must have switched compartments while I was asleep. Maybe my snoring bothered her. I will probably bump into her later. And if I don’t, then, oh well.’ Of course, that is not what happens in THE LADY VANISHES. Hitchcock, along with his cast and crew, build a whole ‘whatever happened to’ routine from this scenario that takes several twists and turns before it’s all over. I guess I can overlook some of the story’s deficiencies, since I rather enjoy how Hitchcock uses a claustrophobic train set to unleash a suspenseful tale of inertia that plays out in some unexpected ways.***Jlewis:
 Released 85 years ago last month to British theaters, THE LADY VANISHES was an international smash in its day. It has often been ranked alongside THE 39 STEPS as Alfred Hitchcock’s most critically acclaimed effort of his pre-Hollywood thirties, although other titles like MURDER!, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH and SABOTAGE come pretty close in competition (the last is probably my personal favorite of the cluster). An inferior remake featuring Cybill Shepherd and Elliot Gould only temporarily drew attention away from it but, curiously, it started falling through the cracks of mass collective movie mass memory shortly after the director’s passing in 1980 and a couple factors may have played a part.One key issue were the many murky public domain prints released in the then-new media format of VHS before a more satisfactory copy became more widely available from the Janus collection in the early nineties, with Criterion’s wonderful two-disc DVD version coming out in 2007, roughly a decade after its one-disc version. Thus, many were introduced to this classic in a less than satisfactory format. Secondly, there is its overly talky nature, with the very British accents being a trifle too fast and hard to follow by those with wandering attention spans. The often repeated story-line of missing people on a train may also have become less suspenseful over time thanks to entertainment saturation. Although then newcomer Michael Redgrave in the original is fondly remembered today as Vanessa and Lynn’s famous daddy and May Whitty and Paul Lukas may still be familiar faces to some, this is not one of those mega-star vehicles that most gravitate toward.Some modern viewers may also feel it has aged a bit due to its modest production values with equally dated special effects to match. These include the all too obvious painted backdrops in studio-bound sets (fake snow included) and miniature trains awkwardly mixing with footage of real trains and documentary outdoors scenery. Even Hitch himself was critical of this effort in later years and made certain that such later train oriented efforts like NORTH BY NORTHWEST looked far more realistic. Then again, those later films had bigger budgets and more advanced cinema technology at Hitch’s disposal. Quaint or not, I have always enjoyed it since I first saw it, possibly on PBS, as a teenager. My favorite scenes involve Iris (Margaret Lockwood) and Gilbert (Michael Redgrave) investigating a baggage car on the train and stumbling upon a magician’s act (Philip Leaver plays the eccentric Signor Doppo on board), along with cute animals (calf, bunny rabbits and white pigeons). This magical quality adds to the whole plot-line of a disappearing Miss Froy (May Whitty) and poor Iris debating if she is imagining all of this or others on board are committing a magic act on her to prevent her involvement. Spoiler alert: the latter is true, with evil Dr. Harts (Paul Lukas) involved and Froy being a international spy that foreign agents want to get rid of. I also find it amusing how the name “Froy” on the window mysteriously changes positions in two different shots, obviously a boo-boo that the editors did not fix but also adding to the whole hallucinating state-of-mind that Iris battles with.Iris and Miss Froy first meet up at an alpine hotel (in a bogus place called “Bandrika”…originally, under the previously contracted director Roy William Neill, this was set to use Yugoslavian locales) where their shared train is delayed by snow. A clonk on the head by a plant pot adds to Iris questioning her own sanity once Froy vanishes and nobody is cooperating. Of course, we must include the stock boy-meets-girl set-up: Gilbert first annoys Iris at the hotel by having folk dancers make noise while she tries to sleep in much the same fashion that Fred Astaire and his tap dancing annoyed Ginger Rogers in TOP HAT a few years earlier, but she later needs him as moral support. She is avoiding her ex-boyfriend in our cab scene towards the end and Gilbert predictably becomes her new love interest due to their shared adventure.Other characters try not to get involved for various reasons, all delaying Iris getting to the truth. Mr. Todhunter (Cecil Parker) is a judge who refuses to divorce his wife but is carrying on with a lady posing as “Mrs” (Linden Travers) and naturally feels threatened by any unwanted publicity. He proves to be quite the cad and coward, waving a white flag in our climax, and must, therefore, become the solo casualty in our story. Catherine Lacey plays a helpful character posing as a nun who plays on both sides, preventing Iris and Gilbert from being drugged by Hartz in their wine and allowing them to get the upper hand over him.Then there is the amusing bro-buddy duo of Charters (Basil Radford) and Caldicott (Naughton Wayne), who enjoyed considerable success in subsequent years together in other features and on television. They are in a frantic hurry to get back to England for a cricket match (spoiler alert: it is delayed anyway by rain in our final scenes), but Charters becomes supportive of our central characters later despite a bullet blaze across his hand. At the time, they were viewed merely as a British variation of Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello, but the early scenes have particular interest to modern viewers who like to read all kinds of subtexts in their relationship. For example, at the alpine hotel, they not only share a room but also a bed together with Charters sporting an extra long pajama top (and likely nothing underneath) and Caldicott in bottoms only. A daffy maid flirts with them to no avail because, after all, why would they be interested in her when they have each other?Frequently confusing to first time viewers is the climax in the final twenty minutes or so involving the train being stopped and gunfights dominating, confusing if you are not knowledgeable of the time period in which this was made. We are not given any specific country names and locales apart from several characters being British, but there are subtle references to Nazi Germany and a civil-war torn Spain having an impact on European borders and how citizens traveled about then.All efforts were made to make this film marketable internationally without offending anybody in particular, but the years leading up to the second world war were polarizing and intense. Around the time that principal photography ended, Austria was annexed by Germany which made the whole situation all the more volatile. On a more basic story-line level, what is particularly confusing here is that the only characters actually involved in all of the train-bound action are our central ones and you have to ask the obvious question: where are all of the other passengers on this train whom we saw earlier in many scenes? Despite a few plot holes that only fussy folk like me question, the dialogue is a lot of fun and maintains excellent pace throughout. Credit goes to Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliant keeping it all lively, loosely adapting from Ethel Lina White’s The Wheel Spins. Again, I especially enjoy the magic act scenes mid-way and the gags involved: Gilbert pulls out a Sherlock Holmes lookalike hat out of nowhere and Iris also does the same with a pipe to match, followed by him spoofing a stuffy Oxford professor as they both try figuring out their mystery scenario.All great Hitch films involve plenty of visual razzle-dazzle and this one is no exception. Poisoned wine-glasses are shown at crazy low angles in front of Lukas’ Hartz. Iris experiences a dizzy spell post head-hit as her friends become multiple images of themselves waving her goodbye and, later, other passengers blur their faces with the missing Froy in her mind. Although some of the back-projection scenes are a little too revealing, there are still some stunning shots like that of Gilbert climbing out of a window and narrowly missing a rival train going the opposite way, all done with great technical finesse and is still enthralling in its adventure today. This is still a movie that is best viewed in a darkened theater or, at least a wider screen than one made available on your computer or iPhone, despite its age.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 9, 2023 17:42:39 GMT
Essential: SO LONG AT THE FAIR (1950)
TopBilled: It had been awhile since I had seen this classic British suspense yarn, and when I rewatched it recently, it occurred to me just how perfectly cast Jean Simmons is in the main role. Unlike Margaret Lockwood, who portrays a similar character in THE LADY VANISHES, there is something quite uneasy about Simmons’ approach to the ‘is she or isn’t she crazy’ character she’s playing. And this uneasiness draws the viewer into the story in unexpected ways.In THE LADY VANISHES, we know that Lockwood is not really crazy. There is a considerable twenty-minute prologue where she’s at a lodge waiting to board a train the next morning, and she’s perfectly sane. So that later when she’s on the speeding locomotive and people start to think she’s nuts, we know she isn’t actually nuts. As a result, there is less suspense in Hitchcock’s version of this tale. But in SO LONG AT THE FAIR, we really don’t have much time to observe or study Simmons during the introductory scenes. All we know is that she and her brother (David Tomlinson) have traveled from Britain to Paris for the world expo, that they are interested in going up the Eiffel Tower and that handsome Dirk Bogarde erroneously assumes they are a couple instead of siblings. There isn’t much time to develop Simmons straight away, so we don’t have a true picture of her the way we do with Lockwood in the previous film.A short time later, when the brother goes missing and Simmons takes to wailing ‘where’s my brother, what have you done to my brother?,’ she is quickly on the brink of insanity. And we may wonder if those earlier scenes were part of a hallucination…perhaps she didn’t really come to Paris with a brother. Perhaps she’s a looney bird and belongs in a psych ward somewhere. Adding to the discomfort we feel watching this is how Simmons amps up the agitation and neuroticism her character may have even if she’s not one hundred percent loco. I also think Simmons is more suited to the part, because she’s not quite as put together as Miss Lockwood. In all her films, Margaret Lockwood comes across as assured and confident, even in a mysterious or dangerous situation. But Simmons is never that self-confident. Off screen the actress battled insecurities and a drinking problem, so when her character on screen becomes high strung, it feels more believable. Simmons also does a fantastic job in 1957’s HOME BEFORE DARK— that time she is a woman recovering after a recent breakdown.Back to SO LONG AT THE FAIR…whether or not she’s hallucinating, and going all mental, she has dashing young Mr. Bogarde at her side as an ally. He believes her story, even if the others who may be conspiring, do not seem to. Of course, this provides the narrative’s romantic strand, because if he can help prove she did have a brother and that he may still be alive somewhere, she will be vindicated and free to take up with him. I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t seen it. But like THE LADY VANISHES, there is a cover-up of sorts going on. And there are plenty of nail-biting scenes where our fragile heroine, with the help of the handsome man, is finally able to expose the truth.***Jlewis:
 Directed by the team of Terence Fisher (more famous for his Hammer Films work) and Antony Darnborough for Gainsborough Pictures, this is one British title that I had never heard of prior to doing this month’s batch of reviews. The stars are all familiar faces, however, and the story has been done multiple times with only slight alterations for old-time radio. I specifically recall “The Vanishing Lady” episode of CBS’s ESCAPE aired twice with different voice actors. You can hear one of them here:Watching this movie half-way through, I felt a bit of déjà vu and could easily predict the outcome since, well, I had already been spoiled by this same story in the other format. The original source material is Nancy Vincent McClelland’s A Mystery of the Paris Exposition published in 1897.My guess is that the fictional tale has some basis in truth, but nobody can confirm it due to how much actual evidence was erased. Government cover-ups done in the name of tourism and big money is a great topic that isn’t explored enough these days due to major corporations dominating mass entertainment. What is most intriguing to me about both this movie and its radio counterparts is that they involve British characters dealing with the French rather than authorities in their own country.
 The setting is the Exposition Universelle of 1889, the one that introduced the Eiffel Tower to the world, and kudos to the wonderful set design and costumes here. Vicky Barton (Jean Simmons) is sightseeing with her stuffy brother Johnny Barton (David Tomlinson, later of MARY POPPINS fame). George Hathaway (Dirk Bogarde) is another Brit tourist who catches Vicky’s eye, despite already accompanied by Mrs. O’Donovan (Betty Warren) and daughter Rhoda (Honor Blackman, too young and unrecognizable more than a decade before JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and GOLDFINGER). Unfortunately, Johnny is not having much fun here as he appears to be coming down with a cold…… and disappears without a trace. The hotel mistress Madame Hervé (Cathleen Nesbitt) does not recall ever meeting him when Vicky questions. Johnny’s separate room has changed appearances and has different occupants. Everybody at the hotel (other characters here played by Marcel Poncin and Eugene Deckers) insist that Vicky came alone with no record of his name in the register book. The British Consul (Felix Aylmer) and other authorities (Austin Trevor as Police Commissaire) are no help, prompting her to think she is going insane. Yet another potential witness who could prove Vicky is not delusional, Nina (Zena Marshall), dramatically dies in a hot air balloon explosion!Fortunately, George steps in much like Gilbert in THE LADY VANISHES to offer emotional support and assistance in Vicky’s search by revisiting the hotel to do some additional snooping. Speaking of the hotel, should it be that silent at night in a bustling city like Paris? George had met Johnny for a brief time previously and is not part of the great conspiracy. Plus Vicky has run out of funds and no longer has a place to stay in this foreign place, with George being quite the gentleman in support. The two revisit the hotel again with her in disguise. Now… I won’t spoil any further for those who wish to go into this unspoiled, but there are some key differences between the film and radio shows, including a visit to Doctor Hart (André Morell) and a happy ending rather than a tragic one. Yet the basic set-up of “why” Johnny disappeared in each of these versions is the basically same. Although I kinda favor the more pessimistic ending over the one depicted here simply for realism sake, I do like the fact that Gilbert and Vicky both learn the truth together rather than separately.This is a good spotlight on actress Jean Simmons during her youthful peak years.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 16, 2023 17:57:36 GMT
Essential: LAST HOLIDAY (1950)
TopBilled:
 The whole thing’s success hinges on Alec Guinness who is in almost every scene until close to the end. He plays a typical working class bloke who visits the doctor one fateful day and is told some bad news. It seems he has contracted something called Lampington’s and doesn’t have much time to live. Since it is a fictional disease, devised by the scenarist, we don’t have to concern ourselves with the ghastly details of his impending demise (and neither does he). The doctor just says he has a few weeks left and will go quietly in his sleep.Needless to say the news is a game changer. Guinness’ character promptly quits his job. Then he cashes in his life’s savings and heads off to an idyllic seaside resort to enjoy what time remains. While he’s living out his last days at the resort, he becomes involved in the problems of others. This includes the guests who are mostly leisure class, as well as the hotel’s staff, which is of course comprised of the working class.Most of the subplots are engaging, and the individual story threads come together to form an impressive tapestry. Each person gets to know our main character who ultimately functions as a pseudo Christ to them. This is not a serious film, despite the fact he is going to die. Much of the dialogue is cheeky and the situations are occasionally irreverent. However, there’s a sense that they are all heading towards a grand solution, with closure.There are two twists I won’t reveal here. Suffice it to say there is a ‘will he or he won’t he really die’ aspect to the plot in the final sequence. This creates a bit of tension and uncertainty. LAST HOLIDAY is not a perfect film, but it is a very good one. It helps viewers deal with the unexpected and to appreciate the overlapping of human lives. Especially in how we can better serve one another and unite when the chips are down. That’s when we find meaning in our shared existence. ***Jlewis:
 Associated British Picture Corporation (owned by Warner Bros.) backed this modest Brit-pic in association with Watergate Films. Directed by Henry Cass in 1949 for spring ’50 release from a J.B. Priestley’s script, it showcases Alec Guinness as George Bird, a salesman diagnosed with a fatal disease who decides to enjoy life to its fullest in his final months at a country resort. Posing as a much wealthier bloke than he is, he becomes quite the gossip interest among his fellow guests. Among these are Sheila and Derek Rockingham (Beatrice Campbell and Brian Worth), the lovely (widowed?) Mrs. Poole (Kay Walsh), Chalfont (Wilfrid Hyde-White), the Clarences (Sid James and Jean Colin), Miss Mellows (Helen Cherry), stuffy Lady Oswington (Muriel George) and her quiet sidekick Miss Fox (Esma Cannon) and wealthy tycoon Sir Robert Kyle (Moultrie Kelsall).There may be too many characters to keep track of here, but at least everybody has something witty to say on screen. Then there’s Inspector Wilton (Bernard Lee) investigating the more sinister characters here like Derek who is involved in counterfeit money. Sheila and Mrs. Poole are of primary interest to George, both taking a shine to him and trying to pry out secrets he may have. Yet George’s predicament has made him lose some of his inhibitions and he tells it like it is in some matters, especially with Sheila even though he also supports her and her husband in a desperate time of need.In fact, George is quite the angelic do-gooder here, winning at gambling unexpectedly, getting new job proposals and increased income and supporting anybody else in need such as servant Miss Fox when she thinks she has lost her job with Lady Oswington. Part of this film’s message is that we must focus less on our own problems and try to solve problems for others so that we can be remembered fondly in our short time on this planet.
There are two twists at the end that are unique in a way, but not exactly satisfying since viewers like me had developed an uplifting feel for George during the first three quarters of the film’s running time. Spoiler alert: a mix-up in X-ray results reveals “I’m not going to die” but a mirror breaking prompts new unexpected bad luck (reminding me of other dark-twist titles we have reviewed here like WAGES OF FEAR from the same time period). His friends at the resort plan a celebration dinner for him after learning the good news of his diagnosis but… A nice violin performance by an off-screen musician is shown in ghost-like shadow at both the opening and closing of this, adding a nice supernatural bent to the proceedings. Intriguingly, this was remade with Queen Latifah and LL Cool J in 2005, proving that any good old movie script, even the uneven and quirky kind like this, can easily be refurbished for changing audience tastes.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 23, 2023 15:06:24 GMT
Essential: DOUBLE CONFESSION (1950)
TopBilled:
 Sometimes we don’t need to know what the inspiration or source material is, we just need to take the movie on its own terms and let it work its magic on us. DOUBLE CONFESSION isn’t a magical motion picture per se, but it does cast a spell on its spectators, who are quickly drawn into a hodgepodge of scenarios and intriguing character studies that play out along a coastal resort area.The central focus involves the death of a married woman that may have been having an extramarital affair. Her dead body is found inside a seashore cottage. Not too far away, a blackmailer’s body has also been found down near the water. Police take their sweet time investigating both deaths and it is implied the woman was murdered while the man had accidentally fallen off a cliff. But these pronouncements are later reversed, when it’s revealed the woman had in fact committed suicide while the man was pushed off the cliff. The two deaths which happen on the same night are linked since both of the deceased individuals knew a businessman (William Hartnell) in town. Part of the mystery here is just how culpable Hartnell’s character is in the two deaths, with police and invested local parties offering a wide array of theories. One theory belongs to the dead woman’s husband (Derek Farr) who has just returned from a few years abroad. After a lengthy separation, he was on his way to the cottage to reunite with his wife when he found her lifeless corpse. He doesn’t exactly cooperate with the police, but he puts pressure on Hartnell since he holds Hartnell responsible for what’s happened and has a score to settle. This unnerves Hartnell’s sleazy associate (Peter Lorre, who steals every scene he’s in). Hartnell and Lorre enjoy a slightly unusual relationship. Particularly since there isn’t anything Lorre won’t do out of loyalty for Hartnell. At one point, Lorre devises a plan to divert suspicion from Hartnell and cause an ‘accident’ for Farr. As I said, there’s an assortment of scenarios playing out here, and you almost need a scorecard to sort who’s who and what their individual motives may be. While all this is happening, Farr takes time along the shore to relax. He meets a pretty tourist (Joan Hopkins) with troubles of her own, involving a domestic crisis at home. She’s here to clear her mind and regain perspective. She and Farr start falling for each other, even if she wonders whether he may have killed his wife, until it is proven the wife committed suicide. There’s a memorable scene where Farr and Hopkins each have their fortunes read inside a tent, and they hear things told to the other about their respective pasts and futures, which draws them together even more.Meanwhile, there is a standalone subplot that involves a single woman past her prime (Kathleen Harrison) who sets her sights on unsuspecting prey (Leslie Dwyer). The film keeps cutting back to them for lighter, amusing moments and eventually we see them pair off. They are totally unaware of the two dead bodies and the investigations that have been going on with the other characters. Although this is not a brilliant movie, it’s one I enjoy a great deal. Would it have been better in the hands of a skilled director like Alfred Hitchcock? Probably. Especially the scene in the lake where Lorre tries to kill Farr with a speedboat while Farr’s out for a swim with Hopkins. The editing would have been more strategic and suspenseful if Hitchcock had overseen that sequence. But as it is, DOUBLE CONFESSION still casts a spell on us. It draws us into a series of interconnected activities about the dead and the living. The living who are facing death, get a second chance at life.***Jlewis:
I had mixed feelings about this film but it is a fascinating detective drama that is worth a look due to its cinematic appeal. It was released in the same month (May 1950) and by the same company (Associated British Pictures) as last week’s LAST HOLIDAY. Ken Annakin, the director, is probably most famous for the trio of Disney titles he was involved with (like SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON). Despite Peter Lorre being in it, it did not get shown much on TV after its initial run and, curiously, was thought to be “lost” for a brief period but only because the British Film Institute didn’t have a copy of it when requested a few times. It was “re-found” and eventually released on DVD. We open with a Ferris wheel, placing us into a scenic summertime resort. Then we get to night-time scenes and two off screen murders: one man along the beach and somebody… a woman… in a cottage. The woman was the wife of Jim Medway (Derek Farr) who is angry that she was (he thinks) carrying on an affair with a businessman named Charlie Durnham (William Hartnell), married with two kids and fearing any publicity from Jim’s talk.Yet Jim wasn’t all that romantic with his wife in her final days and is rather quick to get over her and start up a seaside vacation romance with apparent spinster Ann Corday (Joan Hopkins). Ann later reveals she has a two year old daughter being raised by relatives after her previous fiancé ditched her. There is a fun scene of both Jim and Ann getting their palms read by fortune tellers that unravels certain details in their backstories. At one point, Jim suggests to Charlie that he killed his own wife and Ann later overhears this information and second guesses their burgeoning relationship. Yet this is no clear cut who-done-it. We get two confessions before our final climax moments, a second by Charlie’s business associate Paynter (Peter Lorre) who wants to take credit for her death as well! Although the story stretches into hyper dramatics, it is made believable by the main performances. All through this, Inspector Tenby (Naunton Wayne) figures out the truth of the late Lorna Medway’s death, which…spoiler alert!…did not involve anybody but herself. Yet Paynter is accused of the “accidental” fall of the man, named Arthur Carson, over a seaside cliff and this prompts actor Peter Lorre to get all Lorre-lly Loony and echo some of his building height hi-jinks in past successes like THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. To be honest, I really, really wanted to like this movie but the story seemed to be going into too many directions without much cohesion. I was still clueless how Ann revealing she is a mother had anything to do with what was going on with the who-done-it. The primary three men in this drama (not Peter Lorre’s Paynter obviously…since he is the eternal ham you can’t take your eyes off) are a bit drab and stuffy, less emotionally involving than Joan Hopkin’s Ann. As much as I enjoyed all of the shots of vacationers, children, carnival barkers and one goofy couple starting up a relationship that mirrored Jim and Ann, they didn’t blend all that well with the main story in the same way as, to give two more famous examples, PICNIC with its Labor Day celebrations and Alfred Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON THE TRAIN with its own amusement park scenes. But maybe that was the point: apart from spectators getting curious towards the end, vacationers tend to be in their own worlds and oblivious to anything sinister going on in their mists. Nonetheless it is still worth a watch, despite my criticisms and I am sure many reading my review will enjoy it far more than I did.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 30, 2023 13:49:06 GMT
Essential: ALL FOR MARY (1955)
TopBilled:
 The title character Mary is a beautiful attraction, but she is not the central focus. Mostly she just sets up the story, then reappears to remind viewers what the two male leads are competing over. Mary is played by Jill Day, a performer who had success as a pop singer.Miss Day had only been in one feature prior to this, and in that earlier production she did a specialty number. So technically, this is her first major role in a motion picture. It seems as if she’s been hired for her looks and her ability to croon a tune, since she has a musical number here too. The lead male characters couldn’t be more different from her, or from each other. But this discrepancy is undoubtedly intentional and gives the film much of its surreal charm. Nigel Patrick, who typically excels in dramatic parts, is cast as a blowhard sportsman who’s vacationing at a Swiss chalet. When he meets Miss Day, he falls for her and decides she will be his latest game. However, a few obstacles get in the way. More on that in a moment…The other male lead is played by David Tomlinson, who usually handles comedic roles. Tomlinson is cast as a rather meek guy, also staying at the Alpine resort, who falls for Miss Day too. He probably wouldn’t stand a chance of getting the gal, except fate intervenes in a most peculiar fashion. This is when both men suddenly come down with a case of the chicken pox. They are contagious and must be kept away from guests who haven’t had the disease before. They are quickly moved into a secluded suite under quarantine together. Of course, the men dislike each other intensely and both intend to get well as soon as is humanly possible, to resume their respective pursuits of Miss Day. But Tomlinson has an advantage. He summons his old childhood governess, called Nannie, to come nurse him back to health. She will help keep Patrick at a disadvantage in the pulchritude sweepstakes and work her magic to convince Day to choose Tomlinson.The scenes were Nannie turns up at the inn and takes over are uproarious. A role like this has to be played by only the most skilled comedic actress. And since the producers have brought in eccentric Kathleen Harrison as Nannie, they’ve snagged one of the best. Miss Harrison is so funny, so memorable with all her line deliveries, that she steals the picture. In addition to the antics, she provides a tender melancholy portrayal. We come to understand that Nannie thrives when she is feeling useful…she likes helping people and doesn’t want this time to end. Ironically, David Tomlinson would interact with another caregiver later, in the form of Mary Poppins. This movie is a pleasure to watch, and I am itching to see it again. Scratch that, I will re-watch it right now.***Jlewis:
 ALL FOR MARY is a comedy in bright Eastmancolor, with one connection with the previously reviewed SO LONG AT THE FAIR in character actor David Tomlinson, given a well-suited starring role here. (Disney fans will recognize him from MARY POPPINS, THE LOVE BUG and BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, but he is much the same here in his stuffy humor.) We open with a fluffy song and then some slapstick on an airplane with Tomlinson as neurotic “Humpy” Miller sitting next to calm and collected Captain Clive Norton (Nigel Patrick), both going on a ski holiday in the Alps with the former’s nervousness prompting some chaos among the other passengers. Wendy Toye directed this amusing look of Brits enjoying the jet-set life of the early Queen Elizabeth era. We are two years past her coronation and a full decade after VE Day; thus, there is an overall rejection of post-war austerity. Switzerland is the destination and, fittingly, we are coming full circle to THE LADY VANISHES with another mountain resort full of snow and dancing among the locals…and some similar painted backdrops that surprisingly don’t look TOO obvious in color due to better props and shrubbery in the foreground and some scenic travelogue shots cleverly interspersed.Mary (Jill Day) is the lady hostess of the lodge run by fussy Monsieur Victor (David Hurst) and a blonde sweetie whom both rival business men take a liking to as each receive their own ski instruction. Jealous of their flirtations is the flamboyant Billy Gilbert-ish Gaston Nikopopoulos (Leo McKern), but Mary takes it all in stride as she croons sexy numbers to entertain the guests over dinner. Another lady enters our story on a sleigh at the twenty minute mark: “Miss” Cartwright (Kathleen Harrison) is a nanny of multiple children. She arrives just in the nick of time to bring about her nurse-ly duties. Bad luck hits Humpy as he contracts chicken pox and is put in quarantine, followed by Clive and both are an-itching and scratching. Lo and behold, this nanny once nursed Humpy when he was much younger and the reunion is most adorable between the two. She views both grown men as “little boys” with “Master” Humpy as the “good” one and “Master” Clive the grumpy “bad” one, a total turnaround to the way the two presented themselves at the start of our picture. Of course, Gaston makes full use of their time away to make his move on Mary. Rather than “popping into bed” as Nanny tells them, Humpy and Clive insist on using the telescope to observe what may be happening on the ski slopes. At first, they think Mary is carrying on a bit too much with Gaston, but actually she is in friendly cahoots with Nanny…of all people! Gaston does not interest her as much as Humpy (since she favors the shy one over Mister Personality).It does not take long for the two to escape quarantine before they are totally safe, dressing as Arab sheiks at a costume ball before Nanny catches up to them and locks them back into their shared room. Yet Mary finally visits them and tells them of Gaston being quite the annoyance. With Nanny’s help, they all decide to give that third rival his comeuppance… and allow Humpy to become the object of Mary’s affections over Clive. I can not say this film is terribly funny, at least by today’s standards, but it was a popular adaptation of a Harold Brooke and Kay Bannerman’s play, adding just enough much-needed visual slapstick to make it cinematic. The story doesn’t amount to much, but Kathleen Harrison and David Tomlinson are still delights and Nigel Patrick at least makes an adequate David Niven/Dean Martin “straight-man”. Other stars playing support include familiars like Lionel Jeffries, Nicholas Phipps and Joan Young.
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