RAW WIND IN EDEN

RAW WIND IN EDEN (1958). Director: Richard Wilson.

"This is just a question -- not the bell for the next round." -- Laura

"What are you doing here? You belong on an island with nobody on it." -- ditto

Laura with no last name, the oldest fashion model in the world (Esther Williams was nearing forty when she made this film) is in Rome when she gets a visit from her married lover's lawyer, Wally Drucker (Carlos Thompson). She decides to return home with him in his plane, but they make a crash landing on a small island located near Sardinia. The only inhabitants of the island are Urbano (Eduardo De Filippo) and his daughter, Costanza (Rossana Podesta), who is betrothed to a strange man named Moore (Jeff Chandler), who came to the island seeking peace and isolation and never left. As Laura and Wally try to fix up a yacht to take them off the island, Laura and Moore find themselves attracted, even as strange acts of sabotage occur on the boat, and Costanza's handsome ex-lover, Gavino (Rik Battaglia), shows up now and then in his rowboat gunning for Moore. Laura makes up her mind to find out exactly who "Moore" is and where he comes from. 

Carlos Thompson and Esther Williams

If you think this movie might be interesting, be forewarned that it's not a fraction as entertaining as it sounds. There's a lot of empty posturing with no substance underneath, hollow, under-written characters, and lead actors who are competent but completely miscast. While there's what passes for smoldering passion between Laura and Moore, and Wally seems hot for everyone, the movie has an erotic charge that registers zero. With more than one climax, it seems to take forever to finally end. Thompson seems to have been dubbed by Paul Frees, and the pseudo-romantic music, some of which is nice, is by Hans Salter. Wilson also directed The Big Boodle with Errol Flynn.

Verdict: The only memorable thing about this tedious mess is the title. *1/2.

MAKE HASTE TO LIVE

Stephen McNally and Dorothy Maguire

MAKE HASTE TO LIVE (1954). Director: William A. Seiter. 

At the very beginning of Make Haste to Live, a shadowy stranger arrives at the home of Crys Benson (Dorothy Maguire) -- who has learned that her dangerous husband Steve (Stephen McNally of The Black Castle) has just been released from prison and may be coming to kill her -- and is able to easily open the front door which is not even locked and get inside. This is just one of many problems with the script for Make Haste, but the movie has other issues as well. 

John Howard with a distraught Maguire

Crys (originally named Zena) got away from her husband after she discovered he had shot and killed a cop. He gets away with that murder but winds up going to jail for the murder of Zena in an explosion (it was actually another unknown woman and it may have been an accidental death). Zena has reinvented herself and lives far away from Chicago in New Mexico with her teenage daughter, Randy (Mary Murphy of The Mad Magician). She has a boyfriend named Josh (John Howard of The Mad Doctor) whose proposals she keeps rejecting. The scene when Steve shows up -- something "Crys" has clearly been dreading and is terrified of -- completely lacks tension and impact and is badly muffed. Maguire was certainly a talented actress but in this sequence she acts as if it was only her brother -- whom Steve pretends to be -- showing up instead of the man who spent twenty years in prison for her alleged murder! McNally could also give decent performances but there are a dozen actors who could have made much, much more of this interesting role. For that matter Barbara Stanwyck could also have made a lot more of Crys and her situation. 

Ron Hagerthy and Mary Murphy

The supporting cast, including Howard, Murphy, Ron Hagerthy as her boyfriend, Edgar Buchanan as the sheriff, and Carolyn Jones as Crys' old friend, Mary -- who at Zena's direction tells the authorities she is alive but who is not believed -- are all good, and there is an effective score by Elmer Bernstein [Far From Heaven]. But there are a few too many holes in the plot, and Crys' actions are often senseless. The reactions and attitudes of the two lead characters in an incredibly difficult situation simply do not ring true. There are interesting elements to this that never jell. A bit with a bottomless pit in some Indian diggings being worked by Josh leads to a moderately exciting climax. From Republic studios. 

Verdict: An intriguing situation but you can see why this flick is completely forgotten today. **1/4. 

THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING

Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit

THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING (1955). Director: Richard Fleischer. 

Young model Evelyn Nesbit (Joan Collins) is so attractive that she comes to the attention of many men, including famous New York architect Stanford White (Ray Milland), who is married, and Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw (Farley Granger), who is not. Evelyn and Stanford fall in love but he refuses to leave his wife, and she has little interest in being a kept woman on the side. Stanford's attempts to turn her into a kind of daughter, sending her to finishing school, don't work out, but Evelyn finally marries the abusive and rather obnoxious Harry. Harry is still obsessed with her past relationship with Stanford, and his murderous actions will lead into the real-life "trial of the century."

Collins with Ray Milland

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, for which Nesbit herself served as consultant, is a highly entertaining mix of truth, half-truths, fabrications and dramatic license. Although she claimed on the witness stand that she was drugged and raped by Stanford, this film suggests that she was perjuring herself upon the insistence of her mother-in-law. (How old she actually was when she and White had sex is debatable.) Despite situations that would blacken her character back in the day, the film generally treats her in a sympathetic manner; White as well. Collins and Granger give good if imperfect performances, but Milland comes off best. 

Farley Granger with Collins

There are some fine supporting performances in the film. Glenda Farrell, whom I didn't even recognize, as Mrs. Nesbit; Luthor Adler [House of Strangers] as Shaw's lawyer; Gale Robbins [Double Jeopardy] as Gwen Arden, Evelyn's friend and fellow entertainer; Frances Fuller as White's wife, Bessie; Cornelia Otis Skinner as Harry's mother; Richard Travis as Charles Dana Gibson; and others. The film is handsomely produced with a score by Leigh Harline and cinematography by Milton R. Krasner. The movie Ragtime also looks at the Stanford White murder, although in that movie Evelyn Nesbit is not only presented basically as a greedy dingbat but is almost a comic figure. Marilyn Monroe refused to do the film and it would have been interesting to see her take on Evelyn. Richard Fleischer also directed Fantastic Voyage and many others. 

Verdict: If taken with a grain of salt this is a slick, well-acted drama. ***1/4. 

RAGTIME

Howard E. Rollins Jr. as Coalhouse Walker

RAGTIME (1981). Director: Milos Forman. 

A well-to-do couple (James Olson and Mary Steenburgen) live with their young son and her brother (Brad Dourif) after the turn of the century. They take in a homeless black woman, Sarah (Debbie Allen), and her baby, and become friendly with the child's father, Coalhouse Walker (Howard E. Rollins Jr.). Dourif pursues a relationship with Evelyn Nesbit (Elizabeth McGovern), whose husband Henry Thaw (Robert Joy) shoots and kills her former lover, the architect Stanford White (Norman Mailer). Evelyn also encounters Tateh (Mandy Patinkin) and his little daughter, and winds up starring in the silent films he makes when he goes to Hollywood. When Coalhouse is humiliated by a bunch of Irish firefighters, feces dumped in his model T, he tries to get justice. Failing that, he somehow puts together a virtual militia with many weapons and begins bombing firehouses and shooting firemen. Dourif agrees to supply them with explosives. Nothing good will come of this ...  

Elizabeth McGovern as Evelyn Nesbit

For me Ragtime pretty much falls apart about this time as despite Coalhouse's understandable anger at his treatment, his murderous overreaction seems wildly contrived -- it's not as if these firemen killed anyone after all. (Besides, I have never found any kind of terrorism to be justifiable no matter how legitimate the grievances.) Dourif's character and his actions go undeveloped and unexplored, and the whole notion of mingling the Stanford White/Evelyn Nesbit story and its "trial of the century" with the Coalhouse Walker story (novelist E. L. Doctorow based all this on a German novella entitled Michael Kohlhaas, and claimed Ragtime is a homage to it) is perhaps ill-advised to begin with. What might have worked on the printed page doesn't always work in the cinema. 

Mandy Patinkin, Mary Steenburgen, James Olson

There are good performances in the film -- Rollins (who was Oscar-nominated and died of AIDS-related complications at only 46); an excellent Olson; James Cagney (at 81 playing a real-life police commissioner who was actually in his thirties at the time); Moses Gunn as Booker T. Washington trying to convince Coalhouse of the error of his ways --  and a notable score by Randy Newman. But as a whole I found the movie unconvincing and occasionally ridiculous. Other old-time stars in the film are Pat O'Brien and Donald O'Connor. Later this was turned into a Broadway musical. 

Verdict: Has its pleasures, but overall a misfire. **1/4. 

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS (2005)

ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. Wonderful World of Disney. (2005 ABC telefilm.) Director: Kathleen Marshall. Teleplay: Janet Brownell; based on the Broadway musical. 

This is a delightful version of the Broadway musical starring Carol Burnett, who this time relinquishes the role of the princess to an excellent Tracy Ullman and essays the role of Queen Aggravain. Burnett falls back on some of her typical shtick at times, but otherwise is magnificent. The story, of course, is based on The Princess and the Pea. Aggravain is pathologically determined to prevent her son from marrying (it would undermine her power, for one thing) so she dreams up impossible tests for the female candidates to pass – or rather, fail. The latest hopeful is Princess Winnifred the Woebegone (Ullman) who eventually discovers that she is to prove her “sensitivity” as she sleeps by feeling a pea that has been placed beneath twenty mattresses. Complaints that the leads are too old miss the point that this situation has been going on for years and years and the prince is approaching middle-age, which makes the song during which his father the King explains the facts of life to him even funnier! (Besides, the prince is called Dauntless the Drab, not Harry the Hunk! In any case, it's the secondary love story of Lady Larkin and Harry that features a young, more traditionally attractive couple.) 

The cast of Once Upon a Mattress

Ullman may lack that certain endearing “homeliness” of Burnett and Sarah Jessica Parker, but she manages to make a very effective and amusing Winnifred. Denis O'Hare is splendid as the dorky but appealing prince, and Edward Hibbert as funny as ever as the Wizard. Zooey Deschanel and Matthew Morrison make a convincing Larkin and Harry. As the mostly mute King Tommy Smothers has little to say but he gets his character across admirably nevertheless. The songs – lyrics by Marshall Louis Barer and music by Mary Rodgers – are tuneful and pleasant and occasionally memorable. Rodgers' melodies are easy on the ears, and sometimes better, although none have that magical specialness of her famous father, Richard Rodgers', work. That said, "Happily Ever After" is a swell, jazzy number; "Shy" is a lot of fun; "In a Little While" is sweet; and "Sensitivity" is a riot. On the other hand, I could do without "I'm in Love with a Girl Named Fred." All of the songs are well-sung and well-orchestrated, with no attempt to turn them into generic pop tunes as often occurs. TV versions of Gypsy and South Pacific may not have been very good, but Once Upon a Mattress is a very happy surprise. Oddly, the DVD for this program was released only two days after it premiered on television. 

NOTE: Burnett played Winifred in two earlier versions of Mattress in 1964 and 1972. Once Upon a Mattress is now on Broadway (direct from a production at City Center's "Encores") with Sutton Foster in the lead role. I had completely forgotten about this version until I came across my review -- reposted here -- on an old website!

Verdict: If you can't get to Broadway ... ***1/2. 

HE LAUGHED LAST

Frankie Laine and Lucy Marlow

HE LAUGHED LAST (1956). Director: Blake Edwards. 

When prohibition mobster Big Dan Hennessy (Alan Reed of I, the Jury) is wiped out by an ambitious underling, Max (Jesse White), the latter discovers that the dead man has left everything to an employee, singer-dancer Rosie (Lucy Marlow), including his stake in all of his rackets. This causes problems for Rosie because she is engaged to a cop, Jimmy Murphy (Richard Long). Surveying all this while having little impact on events is the late Dan's benign henchman, Gino Lupo (Frankie Laine), who also sings now and then. Max cooks up the idea of having handsome dancer Dominic Rodriguez (Anthony Dexter of Fire Maidens of Outer Space) become Rosie's partner and romance her, hoping to win her heart and hand and control of the rackets for Max. But Rosie may have other plans. 

Dick Long with Marlow

After the success of the film version of Guys and Dolls the previous year, there were all sorts of Damon Runyonesque-type stories featuring comical gangsters, of which He Laughed Last is one of the worst. Despite the title, the movie has virtually no laughs, and no one in the cast is remotely amusing. Frankie Laine, whose character doesn't really have much to do in the story, has no great comic skill, Jesse White is as annoying and unfunny as ever, Richard Long is certainly no comedian, and although Lucy Marlow plays it cute she's not a barrel of laughs, either. Blake Edwards script is, in a word, a stinker, an idea that should never have seen the light of day. 

Marlow with Anthony Dexter

He Laughed Last is not an actual musical, although Marlow is given two numbers and Laine sings a couple of times as well. The one and only highlight of the picture is when Rosie and that Latin Lover Boy Dominic dance a sexy tango together and the movie is (very) temporarily scintillating. Dexter had played Valentino five years earlier and uses the smooth assurance he displayed in that film to good affect in this, but he doesn't have enough screen time. Blake Edwards also directed Bring Your Smile Along, his first film, which also featured Marlow and Laine. It's a question why Laine even chose to appear in this picture. This might be the only time Richard Long was billed as "Dick Long."

Verdict: One tango does not a worthwhile movie make. *1/2. 

NEW FACES

Robert Clary stinks up another number

NEW FACES (1954).  Director: Harry Horner.

Making CinemaScope productions of Broadway revues was certainly a rare occurrence in the 1950's, but New Faces was quite successful and it was supposed that it would transfer well to the screen. Well ... the trouble is the material and some of the players. The two performers who get the most screen time are Eartha Kitt and Robert Clary.  Kitt (of Anna Lucasta) was a very talented actress, but her voice was not always exactly euphonic. Clary, best-known for a supporting role on the sitcom Hogan's Heroes, must have had an uncle or somebody else who backed the show, for his appearance in this is inexplicable. He does number after number but betrays no great singing talent nor comedic ability. You'll be reaching for the fast forward button!

"Love is a Simple Thing" dance routine

Fortunately there are a few more talented people in the movie. Paul Lynde (of Bye Bye Birdie) does a hilarious routine on going on a disastrous vacation in Africa. Singers Virginia Wilson and June Carroll do a couple of numbers each. Carol Lawrence [A View from the Bridge] and Alice Ghostly [Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella] also appear, the latter doing a forgettable skit with Lynde. The rest is decidedly a mixed bag. "Penny Candy" is an awful number that seems to go on forever; Kitt is at least given a fairy decent song with "Santa Baby," and "Love is a Simple Thing" is the most memorable tune; the dancers excel during this number. "You Can't Chop Your Papa Up in Massachusetts" -- about Lizzie Borden -- is meant to be cute and whimsical but is simply an exercise in bad taste. In the barely existing backstage plot, Ronny Graham tries to get Virginia's father to fork over the money for the show. Harry Horner also directed Vicki, a murder mystery set in the theater world. 

Verdict: Too much tedium but Paul Lynde helps a lot. **. 

PAID IN FULL

Bob Cummings and Lizabeth Scott

PAID IN FULL (1950). Director: William Dieterle.  

"Youth should be a blessing, not an apology." 

Jane Langley (Lizabeth Scott) makes continual sacrifices for her spoiled sister, Nancy (Diana Lynn), and even steps aside when both women fall in love with the same man, Bill Prentice (Robert Cummings). Bill and Nancy get married but he soon realizes that he got hitched to the wrong sister. Nancy is too selfish and immature to make a good wife or mother, but both Jane and Bill are too dumb to see it. When a tragedy involving a child occurs, no one seems to be held responsible for it. Meanwhile Dean Martin sings "You're Wonderful" on the soundtrack and Eve Arden, playing an arch gal named "Tommy," delivers her advice in her usual sardonic style. 

Cummings with Diana Lynn

Paid in Full is somewhat absorbing romantic schlock with generally credible performances. Others in the cast include Ray Collins of Perry Mason as a doctor, John Bromfield and Dorothy Adams, as well as Charles Bradstreet and Carol Channing in bits. Lizabeth Scott [I Walk Alone] delivers each and every line in a beatific style that makes her come off like the biggest sap on the planet. Shot by Leo Tover and with a score by Victor Young. William Dieterle also directed Dark City with Scott.

Verdict: Not one of the great classics of Hollywood. **1/4. 

FEAR NO MORE

Mala Powers appeals to Jacques Bergerac for help

FEAR NO MORE (1961). Director: Bernard Wiesen. 

Sharon Carlin (Mala Powers of Edge of Doom) is having a bad day. A man points a gun at her in a train compartment and accuses her of murdering the dead blonde whose body is nearby. This man disappears and a police officer (Robert Karnes) shows up and tries to take her into custody. When she runs off she is nearly run over by Paul Colbert (Jacques Bergerac of Twist of Fate), who is travelling with his young son. Paul eventually comes to care about Sharon and tries to help her figure out what's going on, especially when her employer, Milo Seymour (John Harding), denies all knowledge of sending Sharon on that train trip. Then Mrs. Seymour, for whom Sharon was hired as  a companion, shows up but is a completely different woman (Helena Nash). Still Paul supports Sharon until he learns that she was in a mental institution and may have murdered her last elderly employer. Still, something just doesn't sit right with Paul ... 

Powers with Jon Baer

Fear No More will hold your attention as it maneuvers the various twists and turns of the interesting plot, although Sharon's actions are often stupid, and a lot of the details of the alleged plot she's gotten herself into don't make much sense when all is said and done. However, Powers gives a good accounting of herself and she gets good support from Bergerac, Harding, Nash, and John Baer [Terry and the Pirates] as Keith, a tippling friend of hers who comes to an bad end. Anna Lee Carroll is also good as Paul's ex-wife, Denise. The picture leads up to a tense confrontation at a cabin in the woods. 

Verdict: Intriguing if imperfect mystery-thriller with a good cast. ***. 

DON'T JUST STAND THERE

Mary Tyler Moore and Robert Wagner just read the script

DON'T JUST STAND THERE (1968). Director: Ron Winston. 

Martine Randall (Mary Tyler Moore of Just Between Friends) works for romance novelist Sabine Manning (Glynis Johns of The Cabinet of Caligari), who has run off to who-knows-where. Kendall Flannigan (Barbara Rhoades) is hired to finish Manning's latest opus, but after she is accused of killing her boyfriend she is kidnapped by his gangster friends. Martine hires Lawrence Colby (Robert Wagner of Say One for Me) to finish the book, and he winds up affecting a rescue of Kendall. And it gets more confusing and stupider after that. 

Wagner and Moore went in disguise after pic's release

I'm afraid that Don't Just Stand There is one of those alleged comedies that is simply busy and frenetic instead of funny. I believe I laughed exactly once during the entire hour and forty minutes. Moore and Johns must have been appalled at the results if and when they saw this incredibly bad movie disaster. Both, especially Moore, are capable of being funny, but the script defeats them. Even Harvey Korman in a supporting role doesn't garner a single laugh. This is the first film for Barbara Rhoades and she's lucky it wasn't her last. Glynis Johns at least isn't on screen for that long. Charles Williams, who wrote the book (The Wrong Venus) this was based on also wrote the screenplay, so he has to get much of the blame. Possibly this was never meant to be a comedy? 

Verdict: Atrocious film is an effort to sit through despite some good players. *. 

GREAT OLD MOVIES SUMMER SCHEDULE

 

GREAT OLD MOVIES

is going on a Summer Schedule. There will be occasional posts in the hot months, but in general we will return on a regular basis in the Fall. This will give me time to finish up some book projects.

However, don't despair! My brother blog, B MOVIE NIGHTMARE, will maintain a regular schedule during the summer months and may even come out with more frequency. Yeah! 

THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL

Lord Olivier and La Monroe

THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL (1957). Director: Laurence Olivier.

"We are not dealing with an adult but an unruly child."

On the eve of the coronation of the new British King in 1911 London, the Grand Ducal Highness of the Balkan nation of Carpatha, AKA Charles (Laurence Olivier), invites a pretty American showgirl named Elsie (Marilyn Monroe) to supper at the Carpathian embassy. Alas, the Grand Duke doesn't realize that Elsie is a lot smarter than she looks -- and not quite as "easy" as he hopes. During the night and the following day, the two argue and banter, and Elsie manages to wend her way into Carpathian politics and  more via the Duke's son Nicky (Jeremy Spenser), soon to be king, and the prickly if lovable Queen Dowager (Sybil Thorndike). The cast in this entertaining if overlong comedy, including Jean Kent as an actress friend of Charles and Richard Wattis as Northbrook, a liaison, is uniformly excellent. Olivier is fine as the rather stuffy if amorous duke, and Monroe is natural, unaffected and marvelous -- luminescent, in fact -- as Elsie. I'm not the first to think that she sort of out-acts Olivier at times, but both are splendid. The ending is a bit strange, but this is a colorful, unusual picture.

Verdict: The High and the Horny. ***.

ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE

Ellen Burstyn

ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1974). Director: Martin Scorsese.

After the death of her husband in an accident, Alice Hyatt (Ellen Burstyn of The Exorcist) packs up and drives off to a new life as a singer with her young son Tommy (Alfred Lutter). Trying to get a job as a singer -- although she's not very good -- she winds up as a waitress in a diner in Arizona and along the way gets involved with two very different men (Harvey Keitel and Kris Kristofferson). This once very popular movie hasn't worn well with time. Although Alice was hardly the first Hollywood movie to deal with a widow moving on and starting a new life for herself, stumbling all the while, it came out in a decade reappraising women's roles and therefore seemed more novel than it actually was. Burstyn is good, if a bit overwrought at times, and won the best actress Oscar for the role. Lutter as her son is terrific and the rest of the supporting cast, including a young Jodie Foster as a friend of Tommy's, is excellent. A product of its time if little else.

Verdict: Pleasant and well-acted. **1/2.

HOUSEWIFE

HOUSEWIFE (1934). Director: Alfred E. Green.

Nan Reynolds (Ann Dvorak) helps to push her husband Bill (George Brent) to success, then has to deal with it when he falls in love with a man-hungry co-worker, Patricia Berkeley (Bette Davis) and says he wants to marry her. You can argue that the film is fairly predictable and formulaic, but it's also well-acted by the principals and surprisingly entertaining. Dvorak is very lovely and capable, Brent proves again that he could give many a winning performance, and Davis is saucy and likable despite her "bad girl" role. John Halliday and Ruth Donnelly also score as, respectively, one of Bill's clients (in his advertising business), who falls for Nan, and Nan's amused and amusing sister-in-law, Dora. 

Verdict: Easy to take and quite enjoyable, with a winning cast. ***

THE COWBOY AND THE BLONDE

THE COWBOY AND THE BLONDE (1941). Director: Ray McCary.

"Oh, you beautiful dope!"

Actress Crystal Wayne (Mary Beth Hughes), a complete bitch, is softened when she falls in love with a hopeful new cowboy star, Lank Garrett (George Montgomery), which is just as well because Garrett proves to be a hopeless actor except when he's doing love scenes with Crystal. The couple have a series of dumb misunderstandings throughout the 64 minute movie, which seems three hours long. Alan Mowbray plays Crystal's liaison in the studio. Minerva Urecal shows up for a minute or two. It's hard to believe this dog was actually released by 20th Century-Fox, as it looks like nothing so much as a poverty row item with an undistinguished cast. Hughes is at least somewhat vivid as Crystal; Montgomery has some charm but little else. This "comedy" has not got one single real laugh in it.

Verdict: 64 minutes long and only one half-hearted chuckle! *.

THE MAD MONSTER

George Zucco

THE MAD MONSTER (1942). Director: Sam Newfield.

"I'm not interested in your imbecilic mouthings."

Dr. Cameron (George Zucco) wants revenge on the scientific colleagues who mocked him, so he uses a formula created from wolf's blood to turn his handy man Petro (Glenn Strange) into a voracious monster complete with two fangs, a shaggy beard, and lipstick! Petro goes out to take care of Cameron's alleged enemies. Anne Nagel of The Secret Code is the doctor's daughter, Lenora, and Johnny Downs [Adventures of the Flying Cadets] plays a reporter named Tom Gregory. The film has its share of foggy atmosphere, but there's an awful lot of talking about things we already know. But the performances are good: Nagel [Black Friday] is always a pleasure, and Zucco is fun to watch no matter what the vehicle.

Verdict: Low-grade wolf man film with some limited appeal -- and Zucco! **.

THE SECRET OF THE PURPLE REEF

Brothers: Richard Chamberlain; Jeff Richards 

THE SECRET OF THE PURPLE REEF (1960). Director: William Witney. 

When a ship disappears in the Caribbean, and their brother is presumed dead, Mark Christophe (Jeff Richards of Born Reckless) and his other brother, Dean (Richard Chamberlain), try to find out what happened. Does it have something to do with another ship that was scuttled in that area around the same time? And is a man named Tom Weber (Peter Falk of Penelope) somehow mixed up in this? With the help of their late brother's pal, Tobias (Robert Earl Jones), they try to get information from the shifty loner Ashby (Terence de Marney) and from Weber's girlfriend, Rue Amboy (Margia Dean). But are the brothers asking too many questions? 

Peter Falk and Margia Dean

The Secret of the Purple Reef seems to have everything going for it: attractive leads, beautiful scenery, an interesting Calypso score, a fairly intriguing plot, and an experienced action director in serial specialist William Witney [King of the Mounties]. But the script is a bit of a letdown and the movie never really catches fire. As well the action sequences lack that great exciting touch that Witney brought to his cliffhangers and other movies. Peter Falk gives an excellent performance, with de Marney and Jones (the father of James Earl Jones) also notable. Chamberlain and Richards look great and are competent. Margia Dean, sort of the love interest, is middle-aged, matronly, and completely miscast. This picture needed a really sexy lady to complement the two handsome leads. 

Verdict: Such possibilities, but this just doesn't quite work. **. 

MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET

Maria Montez as Marie Roget

MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET (1942). Director: Phil Rosen.

Notorious actress Marie Roget (Maria Montez of Arabian Knights) goes missing in Paris, and Inspector Gobelin (Lloyd Corrigan) and the famous Dr. Dupin (Patric Knowles of Five Came Back), who solved the case of the Murders in the Rue Morgue, are called in to investigate. After a few days Marie turns up alive, and her grandmother, Cecile (Maria Ouspenkaya of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman) suspects that Marie's stepsister, Camille (Nell O'Day) may be the subject of a devious murder plot. There is also a faceless corpse of a woman in the river. Dupin accompanies Camille to a party, but when another dead body turns up in the river it may be a surprise to everyone whose it is. Dupin, with the help/interference of the Inspector, uncovers the murderer and his motive. 

Knowles and Corrigan

Mystery of Marie Roget is very loosely based on the famous short story by Edgar Allan Poe, which in turn was inspired by a real murder case -- the first mystery story to do this -- although the murder occurred in New York and not in Paris. One problem with this film adaptation is that there aren't enough suspects, which include John Litel as the family lawyer, and Edward Norris as Camille's shady fiance, and even the old grandmother herself. Although the film still has some suspense in spite of this, the solution doesn't come as much of a surprise. As for the cast, Corrigan is as fun as ever, Knowles makes a credible Dupin, Ouspenkaya is suitably peppery (and borderline bitchy with the Inspector), Montez looks classy and actually gives a perfectly good performance, and Litel and Norris are on-target throughout the proceedings. The film is well-paced under Phil Rosen's direction and well-produced. Rosen directed several Charlie Chan movies and many others. 

Verdict: Not Poe perhaps, but entertaining, atmospheric, and well-made. ***.  

PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE GRINNING GORILLA

Raymond Burr with special guest-star

PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE GRINNING GORILLA. Season 8, episode 28. 1965. Director: Jesse Hibbs.  

Now here's a weird one. Della Street (Barbara Hale) buys the diary at auction of a woman -- the secretary of an eccentric millionaire who keeps various kinds of apes in his home -- who died while at sea during a storm. Della wants her boss, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), to somehow get involved, but he winds up giving advice to Josephine Kempton (Lurene Tuttle), a housekeeper who is suing her former employer -- said millionaire -- for slander after he fired her for stealing. Perry is able to find out who actually stole the items in dispute, but has to defend the peppery and difficult Miss Kempton when she's accused of murder. Did she stab somebody with scissors or was it the "grinning gorilla?"

Perry confers with his client, Lurene Tuttle

Jackson Gillis' script for this twisty and entertaining episode has some strange elements, foremost being that Perry and Della occasionally act out of character. I mean, Della has tripped over plenty of dead bodies accompanying Perry, so it seems strange for her to get hysterical when she sees a gorilla far in the distance, or to worry unduly about Perry going into the millionaire's mansion to meet Josephine. Perry seems very impatient with his secretary throughout most of the episode as well. However, Lurene Tuttle of Psycho fame gives an excellent performance in this, and we've also got Gavin MacLeod from the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Victor Buono from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, along with Robert Colbert as a DA and Janos Prohaska as a gorilla. Yes, Perry faces a gorilla-on-the-loose at one point!

Suspects in Grinning Gorilla

There have been better episodes of Perry Mason than Grinning Gorilla, but it is fun and suspenseful and has some clever twists. Perry does not appear in a courtroom at all in this episode, and the whole business is resolved before there even is a trial, something that did not happen too often on the show. Raymond Burr appeared in more than one gorilla-oriented movie, such as Gorilla at Large with Anne Bancroft and Bride of the Gorilla with Barbara Payton, but he was also in such classics as Hitchcock's Rear Window. 

Verdict: Perry has more than one encounter with an adorable chimp! ***

WHITE WOMAN

Kent Taylor and Carole Lombard

WHITE WOMAN (1933). Director: Stuart Walker.

Down in Malaysia, Judith Denning (Carole Lombard of In Name Only) is considered notorious because it is said she drove her husband to suicide by taking a lover. She is also a "white woman" who sings in a cafe that caters to the natives. When the rich owner of a rubber plantation, Horace Prin (Charles Laughton), who calls himself the "King of the River," makes her a proposition, she decides to become his wife. On the plantation she comes to realize that Prin is a monster, and also that his overseer, David (Kent Taylor of Western Pacific Agent), is the man for her. It isn't long before the two are making plans to leave together, but Prin will not be so amenable to this decision of theirs. 

Claude King, Charles Laughton, Ethel Griffies

White Woman is a weird but intriguing movie, dripping with humid atmosphere, interesting performances, sinister jungle natives who are fond of lobbing lopped-off heads through windows, and the like. The centerpiece, of course, is Laughton, who gives a bizarre account of himself. On one hand he adds great flavor to his portrayal of a man who might be sociopathic, but at other times he is borderline campy, playing it like a vicious and childish "queen." Lombard is perhaps not quite as expressive as one might have hoped for, but she is good, and she plays quite well with Kent Taylor, who gives a very good reason for deserting. Percy Kilbride can't quite get away from Pa Kettle in his portrayal of Laughton's associate, Jakey, but he is effective enough. Others in the cast include Claude King as the administrator who wants Judith to "get out of town," Ethel Griffies as his highly disapproving (of Lombard) wife, and Charles Middleton [Drums of Africa] and Marc Lawrence as other workers on the plantation. Charles Bickford, who is as good as usual, shows up late as the new overseer and certainly keeps Laughton on his toes!

Verdict: Unusual romance with a suspenseful climax. ***. 

HOLIDAY IN HAVANA

Mary Hatcher, Desi Arnaz

HOLIDAY IN HAVANA (1949). Director: Jean Yarbrough.

Bus boy turned bandleader Carlos Estrada (Desi Arnaz of Cuban Pete) wants to sign up singer Lolita Valdez (Mary Hatcher) to be a vocalist with his group. Talking to what he thinks is Lolita through a hotel room door, Carlos is highly insulted by the gal's termagant mother, Mama Valdez (Minerva Urecal of That Other Woman). Hating Lolita for "her" remarks, Carlos attempts to find a new singer with which to enter a competition at a carnival in Havana. Through a sequence of events, Lolita winds up accompanying Carlos and his band to Havana, but he thinks she is a woman named "Delores." Meanwhile two opposing agents, Marge (Ann Doran of Violent Road) and Sam (Ray Walker), are both anxious to sign Lolita to a contract that will bring her to New York. 

Ray Walker, Minerva Urecal, Ann Doran

I asked myself while watching "why is Holiday in Havana so dull?" Desi Arnaz is charming and talented -- I was never crazy about his voice but he does know how to put over a song -- as is his leading lady, Mary Hatcher, and there is fine back up from Urecal, Doran, and Steven Geray and Sig Arno as members of the band. There are also some snappy song numbers -- Hatcher scores with the lovely "I'll Take Romance" while Desi does "The Straw Hat Song" (which he reprised on Lucy) and that exciting bongo-rhumba finale. But then there's everything in-between, silly situations with no real laughs even though the cast is more than game. The movie runs a little over an hour but it seems three times as long. Mercifully, Arnaz found gainful employment, and showcased his considerable talent, on I Love Lucy two years later. Despite her ability, Mary Hatcher's film career -- after only a handful of credits -- was over that same year. Hatcher had a beautiful near-operatic voice and did some Broadway musical productions in addition to film assignments. 

Verdict: Desi has energy to spare but he needs a better script. **1/2. 

CRY OF THE CITY

Richard Conte and Victor Mature

CRY OF THE CITY (1948). Director: Robert Siodmak. Colorized. 

Career criminal Martin Rome (Richard Conte) is laid up in the hospital after a bank job -- during which he shot a cop --goes awry. Lt. Candella (Victor Mature) learns that a woman (Debra Paget)  came to see him and is determined to discover her identity. Could Rome have had something to do with a jewel robbery in which an elderly woman was beaten and strangled? Others involved with Rome include shifty lawyer Niles (an excellent Berry Kroeger); Nurse Frances (Betty Garde), who does Rome a big favor; gal pal Brenda (Shelley Winters); and sinister masseuse Rose Given (Hope Emerson). When Rome breaks out of jail there will be more than one death attributed to him.

A lady to watch out for: Emerson and Conte

Richard Conte gives a good performance in this but Victor Mature is even better. One could easily complain that the film is full of cliches -- a hood with an adoring younger brother (Tommy Cook) and heart-broken mother (Mimi Aguglia), for instance -- but the film is so well-written, acted and directed that it just doesn't matter. Everyone is perfectly cast and at the top of their game. This is another film in which those two hefty, homely and gifted actresses Garde and Emerson both appear, although they have no scenes together in this as they do in Caged. Garde is good but Emerson is outstanding in her portrayal of a truly slimy female reptile. Fred Clark and Roland Winters are also notable in smaller roles, as is Walter Baldwin as inmate Orvy. 

Betty Garde deals with Mature while Clark and Conte look on

This unpredictable movie has several memorable scenes: the suspenseful  business when Rome breaks out of his prison hospital cell; a violent confrontation in Nile's office between the lawyer, Rome and an unfortunate secretary who gets too nosy; and the tense subway stand-off between Rome and Candella with Emerson getting in the way. Alfred Newman contributes an exciting score and the film is shot by Lloyd Ahern Sr.

Verdict: Terrific film noir with a great cast. ***1/2. 

PATTERNS

Face Off: Van Heflin and Everett Sloane

PATTERNS (1956). Director: Fielder Cook. Screenplay by Rod Serling. Colorized. 

Recruited by Walter Ramsey (Everett Sloane of The Big Knife), the head of the Ramsey Corporation, Fred Staples (Van Heflin) moves with his wife (Beatrice Straight) to New York for an important position. Fred will be working with veteran Bill Briggs (Ed Begley of Odds Against Tomorrow) but doesn't know that Ramsey intends for Fred to be Briggs' replacement. Ramsey is doing his best to get Briggs to quit, yelling at him and humiliating him, but Briggs is determined to stick it out. Ramsey gives all the credit for a joint report to Fred even though many of the ideas were Briggs', leading to a tense boardroom confrontation that may lead to tragedy. Will Fred stay working for Ramsey, a man he admits he hates ...

In the boardroom

With an excellent script by Rod Serling and a superb cast -- Elizabeth Wilson also gets high marks for her portrayal of secretary Marge, whose heart is breaking for Briggs -- Patterns emerges as a compelling and intelligent drama that hasn't lost any of its power. Heflin gives another strong performance as a man who has principles and doesn't wish to compromise them, and is perfectly willing to take on the more ruthless Sloane on a day by day basis. Although one could accuse Sloane of occasional over-acting, he also makes Ramsey much more than just a one-dimensional villain, as much of what he says is logical and impassioned and there are signs that he is not without a conscience. The picture is well-cast down to the smallest role, well-directed and paced. This film was undoubtedly influential on many other films and TV shows about corporate intrigue.

Verdict: The human factor vs. logistics. Good show! ***1/2. 

THE BANK DICK

THE BANK DICK (1940). Director: Edward F. Cline.

W. C. Fields is simply splendid as Egbert Souse (pronounced Sousay, and don't you forget it!), who inadvertently foils a bank robbery and is given a job as a bank guard as a reward. Egbert's future son-in-law, Og (the wonderful Grady Sutton) borrows money from the bank for an investment opportunity and discovers to his horror that the bank examiner J. Pinkteron Snoopington (the superb Franklin Pangborn) is in town to look over the books! Egbert does what he can to prevent Snoopington from discovering the missing loot until Og can return it and has other assorted misadventures as well, even winding up directing a film. Una Merkel and Cora Witherspoon are terrific as members of Egbert's family. Jan Duggan from The Old-Fashioned Way has a cameo as a customer in the bank, and Pierre Watkin [Atom Man vs. Superman] is actually excellent as the bank president.

Verdict: This is a very funny and well-acted movie. ***1/2.

JIGSAW (1962)

JIGSAW (1962). Produced, directed, and written by Val Guest. 

A young woman (Moira Redmond) makes the mistake of telling her unseen lover that she is two months pregnant, and perhaps now would be a good time for him to break from his wife. Unfortunately, this gent has a different idea on his mind. Some time later part of the lady's corpse is found in the garage of a rented house. Detective Fellows (Jack Warner of Dear Murderer) and Detective Wilks (Ronald Lewis) are part of a team assigned to not only find out who killed the woman but who she was. Doing dogged police work (although it seems to take forever for them to bring in someone to work with an identikit) leads to mistaken identities and bum steers. Finally they discover the killer has been hiding in plain sight for quite some time. 

Jigsaw is a very absorbing British police procedural with Warner playing an amiable, highly professional detective. Lewis is also good, but he's always more interesting as a bad guy, such as in Stop Me Before I Kill! Yolande Donlan -- who was married to director Val Guest --  really makes an impression as another woman who dallies with the killer, and there's notable work from Redmond, Michael Goodliffe [The Gorgon], John Barron, John Le Mesurier [Jack the Ripper] and others. This is not another British copy of Psycho and focuses much more on the solving of the crime than it does on the crime itself. Guest also directed The Day the Earth Caught Fire. 

Verdict: Suspenseful British mystery. ***.