I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965)

A drink before death: John Ireland; Joan Crawford

I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965). Produced and directed by William Castle. Colorized.  

Two teenage girls -- Libby (Andi Garrett) and Kit (Sara Lane), plus Libby's younger sister, Tess (Sharyl Locke) -- play a foolish phone game where they either call up and pretend to be a man's mistress (a rather cruel thing to do to the wife) or say "I saw what you did and I know who you are." This causes consternation in one Steve Marak (John Ireland), who has just finished slaughtering his wife, Judith (Joyce Meadows of The Girl in Lover's Lane). The girls drive by Steve's house to see what he looks like, whereupon Libby is violently accosted by Steve's jealous neighbor, Amy (Joan Crawford), who has a hankering for Steve that stays just as strong even after she figures out what he did. Steve discovers that killing is easy for him, and decides to see just what Libby knows about what happened. Just as she's convinced him that she really knows nothing, the truth comes out and the murderous chase is on ... 

Joyce Meadows standing in for Janet Leigh

I Saw What You Did, while not one of Castle's best films, is still better than I remembered it. Despite the fact that the film seems geared for teens, the most interesting sequence is when Castle attempts to duplicate the Psycho shower murder -- which he didn't even do in his Psycho rip-off Homicidal -- when Marak murders Judith. Judith approaches the shower stall where Steven is apparently showering, then he suddenly opens the door, pulls her in, and stabs her repeatedly, finally pushing her out through -- and shattering -- the glass shower door. This is all effective enough, but hardly as cinematic as the scene in Psycho -- Castle's shower murder has only 24 shots. 

Lane, Locke, and Garrett

Crawford gives her customary authoritative performance in this, and one suspects her character was probably not in the novel the film was based on, but was inserted to give Crawford some marquee value. Although Ireland gives one of his better performances, he radiates little actual menace. (Crawford and Ireland also appeared together in Queen Bee, in which the former also lusted for the latter.) Lane and Garrett, introduced in this film, give good performances, and little Sharyl Locke is adorable as Tess. (None of the three went on to have long careers, however.) Others in the cast include Patricia Breslin of Homicidal and Leif Erickson of Strait-Jacket as Libby's parents, and John Archer of Destination Moon as Kit's father. Russ Bender has a bit as a police sergeant. I Saw What You Did is entertaining and fast-moving enough, but it's also a bit "cutesy" and Van Alexander's terrible score is absolutely no help. 

Verdict: Crawford gives it a touch of class. **3/4. 

KINGS ROW

"Where's the rest of me?" Ann Sheridan &  Ronald Reagan

KINGS ROW (1942). Director: Sam Wood.

"He went to a place in my heart that was waiting for him."

Small-town boys and buddies Parris Mitchell (Robert Cummings) and Drake McHugh (Ronald Reagan) have misadventures and romantic entanglements; a climactic crisis develops when the latter loses his legs in the movie's most famous sequence. When Warner Brothers decided to do an adaptation of Henry Bellamann's controversial novel -- the Peyton Place of its day -- they first had to bowdlerize it to please the production code, then made grievous mistakes in casting and choosing the director. Although Sam Wood had directed a few "serious" films before, his best movies were comedies like the magnificent "A Night at the Opera," and he wasn't a wise choice for this particular production. While actors such as Bob Cummings, Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan could be perfectly swell in lighter parts, and are competent enough in Kings Row, they are hardly the best choices for the leads, giving the film a hollow center. 

But worse, the movie is talky and ponderous and its "big" moments don't really work at all. Charles Coburn is given one of his most loathsome characterizations after In This Our Life and Claude Rains doesn't even have a real character to play as the movie removed the incestuous relationship between him and his daughter (Betty Field); he now kills her and then himself because she wanted to leave home and was "mental" -- what a guy! The most powerful and haunting sequence in the movie has nothing to do with the main storyline but shows a miserable little boy, Willie, weeping hysterically on a stoop as his father, being operated on without anesthetic, screams out from the house behind him. Willie was played by the talented child actor, Henry Blair (in fact it might be said that the other child actors, Scotty Beckett and Douglas Croft, who play Parris and Drake as boys, out-act their adult counterparts. The following year Croft was the first actor to play Robin in the Batman serial.) The best thing about the movie is Erich Wolfgang Korngold's  theme music: it's a good thing it's so beautiful because it's repeated and repeated and repeated throughout the movie. Scripter Casey Robinson contributed some decent dialogue but it's generally mouthed by the wrong actors. The improbable ending suffers from its being rushed as well as from Reagan's insufficient acting.

Verdict: Listen to the opening credits, wait for Willie's scene, and then turn it off. **.

THE BIG SHAKEDOWN

Charles Farrell and Bette Davis

THE BIG SHAKEDOWN (1934). Director: John Francis Dillon.

Jimmy Morrell (Charles Farrell) owns a neighborhood drug store and employs his sweetheart Norma (Bette Davis) behind the counter. Along comes smooth operator and racketeer Dutch Barnes (Ricardo Cortez), who discovers that Jimmy can make toothpaste just the same and just as good as the best-selling brand. Jimmy agrees to go to work making duplicate toothpaste and other stuff for Barnes, but he assumes they'll be marketed under a new brand name. Instead Barnes simply puts the bogus stuff into tubes with the label of the original brand on them and distributes them as the real thing. Jimmy is nervous about this development, but he keeps making fake toiletries and cosmetics for Barnes to distribute, until one day Barnes decides to duplicate a famous antiseptic -- only without the specific ingredient that makes it antiseptic -- and there are worse things to come. 

The Big Shakedown has a good premise and there are some dramatic developments, but the picture doesn't present them with any flair or intensity. Farrell is fine, but while Cortez plays the very suave and polished villain with his usual aplomb, it's also a distinctly superficial portrait. This was one of the thankless roles that Bette Davis -- top-billed with Farrell although she hasn't much to do -- was handed in the early days. She looks cute and is quite adept; Glenda Farrell has a somewhat larger role as a girlfriend of Barnes' who gets into a zesty hair-pulling match with Renee Whitney as her rival Mae LaRue. Perhaps the best thing in the picture is Barnes' flamboyant death scene, even if it doesn't make too much sense. Many years later Charles Farrell was Gale Storm's father on My Little Margie; he was not related to Glenda Farrell.

Verdict: This had possibilities but it's nearly a snooze. *1/2.

LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY

Ida Lupino and Monty Woolley

LIFE BEGINS AT EIGHT-THIRTY (1942). Director: Irving Pichel.

"On the stage you're still a god. Off, you're still a hairy monster." 

Kathy Thomas is a lame young lady who lives and cares for her actor father, Madden Thomas (Monty Woolley), an irascible chap who is rather too fond of his liquor. Madden figures that he's all washed up in the theater, but he's offered a job by a neighbor, composer Robert Carter (Cornel Wilde), and then has a chance to star in a new production of "King Lear." But will he muff his chances for success with his usual self-destructiveness, and will his selfless daughter wind up an unloved spinster caring for her father for the rest of his life? 

Life Begins at Eight-Thirty doesn't dodge the tough questions about being a caregiver, especially for someone you love but find exasperating, and also ponders how much of a person's life they should give up for another's. (Of course, Madden is not exactly ready for a nursing home.) The worst dialogue is given to Wilde, who's quite stiff as Robert and offers one of the least romantic proposals ever seen on film. Lupino and Woolley are excellent, but the picture is nearly stolen by Sara Allgood, perennial supporting player, who has one of her best and longest roles as Robert's wealthy aunt, who has been carrying a torch for Madden for many years.

Verdict: Entertaining comedy-drama with equal parts cliche and insight. ***.

DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE

The not so happy couple arrive at a party

DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE (1970). Director: Frank Perry.

"Do you realize our party is only nine days away?" -- Jonathan

"Can't you do something about that godawful hair of yours?" -- ditto.

"I came here to get help with my very real and troubling problems. She has a husband, a lover, and an eight-room apartment on the park. Why does she need help?" -- woman at encounter group.

Tina Balser (Carrie Snodgress) is an unassertive Upper East Side housewife whose self-absorbed husband Jonathan (Richard Benjamin) treats her more like a child or servant than a beloved spouse. He is fixated more on social climbing than in fulfilling her needs. But Tina goes from the frying pan into the fire when she begins a supposedly for-sex-only affair with author George Prager (Frank Langella), who is condescending, epicene, and sexually ambiguous to boot. Tina's other problems include a horribly chauvinistic psychiatrist and her two little girls, one of whom, Sylvie (Lorraine Cullen), is rude and obnoxious beyond words. 

Snodgress gives an imperfect but mostly effective performance (albeit Oscar-nominated); Langella, who is quite good, seems to be channeling his inner Bette Davis at times; and Benjamin nearly walks off with the movie with his excellent, three-dimensional portrait of the not entirely unlikable Jonathan. Tina starts off as a drip but becomes more empowered as the movie progresses. As George, Langella radiates such a negative aura that it's a wonder Tina is attracted to him, but he is a famous writer and more sophisticated than her husband. Based on a novel by Sue Kaufman (with a screenplay by the director's then-wife, Eleanor Perry), Diary of a Mad Housewife is one of the few topical late sixties/early seventies films that still holds up today. It was also one of the first "modern-day" movies to present the problems of the comparatively wealthy, and there were many movies to follow about the sufferings of neglected upper east side and Hampton wives. The final scene set at an encounter group that Tina attends is hilarious. A party scene at the Balsers is also very funny. Well-directed by Perry.

Verdict: Very amusing and very entertaining. ***1/2.

AMERICAN PSYCHO

AMERICAN PSYCHO (2000). Director: Mary Herron.

This is a rare case of a movie being better than the book it's based upon -- in this case Bret Easton Ellis' shlocky, pseudo-literary pop novel -- although it's still no great shakes. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale, who also plays Batman) works for an investment firm and enjoys killing people whenever he feels like it. Sometimes it's people he can't stand or who have annoyed him in some way; on other occasions he's just in the mood to off someone. Bateman feigns concern for minorities and the poor, but is actually a typical, over-bearing, insufferably smug over-privileged jerk who thinks he's better than everyone else. The social commentary is fairly thick and obvious, so the movie gets no points for that. As a thriller it is passably entertaining, with a certain degree of suspense, but Herron is hardly a Hitchcock. The movie is certainly more entertaining than the novel, possibly because it doesn't seem to take itself as seriously, among other reasons. Bale gives an excellent performance, and in general is better than the material. Reese Witherspoon plays his fiancee; Willem Dafoe is an investigator looking into the "disappearance" of one of Bateman's colleagues. The picture looks good, but whatever its merits, it's ultimately as empty and unsatisfying as its unsatisfied lead character. Chloe Sevigny scores as Bateman's likable secretary, Jean, and there are several other good performances.

Verdict: You'll probably forget it the minute it's over. **.

LOVE HAPPY

"Some men are following me:" Groucho and the Adorable One

LOVE HAPPY (1949). Director: David Miller.

The Marx Brothers get embroiled with a penniless theatrical company when the evil Madame Egelichi (Ilona Massey of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman) learns that a stolen necklace she covets is in a can of sardines lifted by Harpo, who brings food to the actors. Groucho is a private detective who narrates the story and in one brief sequence dallies with Marilyn Monroe in a cameo that was not her first film appearance. (She had a big part in Ladies of the Chorus with Adele Jergens the previous year, for one thing.) Chico is a wannabe performer who adopts the theater company, or vice versa. 

Love Happy is not a comedy classic like A Night at the Opera; in fact, it's not a very good movie and wastes the talents of its stars. As the femme fatale of the piece, Ilona Massey certainly has a voluptuous figure -- in one outfit her nipples look like loaded weapons -- but hasn't the face to match, giving her all the sex appeal of Margaret Hamilton. At first chubby-cheeked ingenue Vera-Ellen (Three Little Words) seems so squeaky clean she makes Doris Day look like a dominatrix, but she also has a good figure -- and is a very good dancer -- and when she plays Sadie Thompson in a production number she's not as bad as one might think. Paul Valentine makes little impression as the director/producer of the show-within-the-show. The songs by Ann Ronell are best described as forgettable, especially the lousy title tune and a truly dreadful number called "Who Stole the Jam?" which is performed by Marion Hutton (In Society), Betty's less successful sister, as Bunny. Raymond Burr plays -- and plays well-- one of Massey's thug cohorts, resulting in a bizarre moment when Harpo slaps Perry Mason in the face! There are some funny moments, especially relating to Harpo's coat from which voluminous items are pulled in one great gag, but Love Happy is mostly a sad comedown for the clowns and kind of tedious to boot. Director Miller also helmed Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford and many others.

Verdict: Not such a happy affair. **.

THE HONEYMOONERS SPECIALS

Ralph and Ed Norton do drag!

THE HONEYMOONERS SPECIALS

"Just what I always suspected! I'm calling Anita Bryant in the morning!" -- Alice's mother after seeing Ralph rubbing Ed's back. 

"The Honeymooners: Second Honeymoon" (1976). Director: Jackie Gleason.
"The Honeymooners Christmas Special" (1978). Director: Jackie Gleason.
"The Honeymooners Valentine Special" (1978). Director: Jackie Gleason. 

Jackie Gleason brought back most of the cast of the original Honeymooners  -- Jane Kean of the Color Honeymooners replaced Joyce Randolph -- for four reunion specials in the late seventies, three of which are available on DVD. In "Second Honeymoon" Ralph (Jackie Gleason) and Alice (Audrey Meadows) are going to renew their vows at the raccoon lodge when Ralph gets the mistaken impression that Alice is pregnant. In the Christmas special, Ralph gets another hare-brained idea and uses his savings, his mother-in-law's social security check, and Norton's Xmas bonus to buy hundreds of lottery tickets. 

Trixie and Ed and Ralph and Alice

In the Valentine special, the funniest of the three, Ralph is convinced that Alice is plotting to murder him due to a gigolo she's met, and he and Ed (Art Carney) dress in drag to trap this other man. Some of the routines in these are over-familiar, the apartment looks especially stark on a large stage and in color, and Ralph and Alice still don't have a phone or most modern conveniences, but the cast's timing is still impeccable and there are a lot of laughs. Eileen Heckart [The Bad Seed; Miracle in the Rain] plays Ralph's mother-in-law in the Valentine special, and while she's a fine actress, she's not really suitable for the role. Templeton Fox is a little more on the mark, but neither of them can compare to Ethel Owen, who really nailed the role in the original series in the fifties. The fourth special had Ralph putting on "A Christmas Carol" for the Raccoon lodge, but this has not yet been released on DVD. Jane Kean was in the right time and place when these reunions were announced and got the part of Trixie again, but in all fairness it should have gone to Joyce Randolph, the original Trixie, as these were "reunions."

Verdict: Everyone's a little grayer, but the magic is still there. ***.

MAN OF STEEL

Superman carries Lois Lane to safety, naturally

MAN OF STEEL (2013). Director: Zack Snyder.

Shot to Earth as an infant from dying Krypton by his father, scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe), Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is adopted by the Kents and faces his greatest challenge before he's even begun his career as Superman proper: General Zod (Michael Shannon), an evil Krptonian despot, has escaped from the Phantom Zone and wants the codex that can make Krypton live again. Unfortunately, this will result in Earth and its inhabitants being destroyed. Superman sets out to stop him with the aid of the military, but it's an uphill battle. There's the germ of a good idea in Man of Steel, but its execution is highly disappointing. The story isn't told in a linear fashion but is interrupted with frequent annoying flashbacks, giving the whole project a disjointed continuity that pulls you out of the story instead of pulling you in. There are also some pretty stupid moments, such as when Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) simply allows himself to die so that Superman won't reveal himself too soon (even though Superman can move super-fast, and the awful effect Kent's death will  have on his wife)! The prologue on Krypton is overlong and relatively uninteresting, and dead Jor-El (or rather his "consciousness") seems to pop up all the time, more to make use of Crowe than for any other logical reason. The movie has a kind of Marvel X-Men flavor to it, especially in Superman's uneasy relationship with the authorities. 

Handsome Cavill strikes the right note as a Superman at the very start of his career, but the rest of the casting is problematic. A lady reporter doesn't always have to be aggressive and perky to a fault, but Amy Adams is a bit too drab as Lois Lane. Laurence Fishburne as an African-Amerrican Perry White is adequate, but he wasn't that great as a leading man, let alone a character actor. Crowe, Costner, and Diane Lane as Martha Kent are okay, but Christopher Meloni quit Law and Order: Special Victims Unit for only a small role as an Army man? You don't really see enough of Ayelet Zurer to judge her performance as the evil Krptonian Lara Lor-Van. As Zod, Shannon isn't terrible, but he's somewhat lacking in dramatic flair but for a couple of sequences (after all, this is a comic book movie, not a drama, and a little overplaying is allowable). The best thing in the movie -- and virtually the only time it really comes alive -- is when Zod and Superman take to the skies and have a lively, protracted fight to the death. Otherwise, this Man of Steel rarely flies. The original Christopher Reeve version may have had its flaws, but it was better than this. Man of Steel is about on the level of the equally disappointing Superman Returns. As I predicted Man of Steel is much less entertaining than the excellent animated feature, Superman vs. the Elite.  Cavill reprised the role of Superman in Batman vs. Superman, and played Napoleon Solo in the terrible big-screen version of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; he was also in the crappy Immortals.

Verdict: The really great Superman movie has yet to be made. **1/2.

CONFLICT

Bogart contemplates his actions

CONFLICT (1945). Director: Curtis Bernhardt.

Richard Mason (Humphrey Bogart) has a bit of a problem. He's married to the somewhat demanding Kathryn (Rose Hobart of Mr. and Mrs. North), but hopelessly in love with her beautiful younger sister, Evelyn (Alexis Smith). What to do? What to do? The audience learns early on that Mason intends to murder his wife, but the fun is waiting to see how he does it, if he succeeds, and how and if he'll get caught. Bogart had no problem playing (somewhat sympathetic) villainous roles, as he also did in The Two Mrs. Carrolls (also with Alexis Smith), which his homely mug might have forced him to do in some alternate universe anyway. Bogart is fine, but he has formidable (in every sense of the word) competition from Sydney Greenstreet, as Dr. Hamilton, a friend of the Masons; Hobart and Smith are also good. The twists in the picture lead to a predictable but satisfying conclusion. Charles Drake plays a young professor who's in love with Evelyn, and you may not believe whom she prefers. Conflict is a smooth, well-played, and well-paced time-passer, thanks to director Bernhardt, and while not in the league of a Hitchcock classic, the picture holds the attention and has some suspense. Supposedly Jack Warner offered this script to Joan Crawford for her first Warner Brothers assignment and wanted her to play the role of Kathryn, which is really just a supporting part -- she wisely took Mildred Pierce instead. It would have been interesting to see Bogart and Crawford together, however.

Verdict: Bogie is a bad boy. **1/2.

CHASE A CROOKED SHADOW

CHASE A CROOKED SHADOW (1958). Director: Michael Anderson.

On an estate near Barcelona, Kim Prescott (Anne Baxter) is mourning the death of her father. Then a stranger named Ward Prescott (Richard Todd) shows up claiming to be Kim's brother. But Kim insists to police commissar Vargas (Herbert Lom) that her brother was killed in an auto accident the year before. "Ward" then invites a woman, Elaine Whitman (Faith Brook), to move in with them. Kim does everything she can to expose the man she insists is an impostor, but no matter what she tries it seems that the strange man is really Ward Prescott. Even her uncle Chandler (Alexander Knox) thinks Ward is the real deal, and there's some skulduggery involving missing diamonds. Then Kim begins to fear for her life ... 

Chase a Crooked Shadow is an intriguing suspense film with Baxter [Carnival Story] chewing the scenery in superior fashion -- she actually gives an outstanding performance wherein her intensity and overwrought quality make perfect sense. Todd [Stage Fright], Lom

[Mark of the Devil] , and the others are pretty much along for the ride. The ending is satisfying if implausible, as -- without giving too much away -- we have a case of entrapment, coerced confessions, and the police acting in such a way that would probably never hold up in court. Chase a Crooked Shadow might have been even more interesting if we could have witnessed the legal shenanigans that would have resulted after the end of the story proper. Producer Douglas Fairbanks Jr. shows up at the finale to admonish the audience not to give away the denouement.

Verdict: Anne steals the show! ***.

VALERIE

Sterling Hayden and Anita Ekberg

VALERIE (1957). Director: Gerd Oswald. Colorized.

Valerie begins with a literal bang as two men enter a home, shots are fired, and in short order there are three corpses lying in the living room. However, one of these corpses, Valerie (Anita Ekberg of Back from Eternity), is still alive, although it is a question if she will ever wake up out of a coma. Her husband, John Garth (Sterling Hayden of The Asphalt Jungle), is put on trial but insists he only fired in self-defense. He tells his story on the witness stand,  as does Reverend Stephen Blake (Anthony Steel of Another Man's Poison), who tried to get Valerie to safety although Garth claims he was "running off" with his wife. These conflicting accounts have everyone confused, until Valerie wakes up and tells everyone her side of things -- and a completely different story emerges. 

Peter Walker and Sterling Hayden

Nowadays Valerie -- which takes place in the post-Civil War period -- is a forgotten movie, but it doesn't deserve to be, as it has themes that resonate even today. It's fascinating the way the viewer is carried along by the original narrative -- poor John Garth married a faithless woman who's just after his money -- only to have it turned on its head by the climax, which is as violent as the opening. One also comes to conclusions about Valerie because of her voluptuousness. Hayden's performance seems slightly off in this perhaps because in many scenes he has to play it a certain way to keep the viewer in suspense. Ekberg is not only gorgeous, but convincing as the confused and tormented Valerie. There is also good work from Anthony Steel, who was (briefly) married to Ekberg at the time. Peter Walker, who mostly did television work, is adequate as Garth's brother, Herb. 

Anthony Steel

Valerie is well-photographed by Ernest Laszlo. It also has a good and interesting score by Albert Glasser, who usually scored science fiction and monster movies such as The Beginning of the End, but here is allowed to flex his musical muscles and delivers. Gerd Oswald also directed Ekberg in Screaming Mimi and Paris Holiday, but he got his best work from her in Valerie. Oswald's most famous film is A Kiss Before Dying. 

Verdict: An unusual and twisted romance. ***. 

SING BOY SING

Tommy Sands and Nick Adams

SING BOY SING (1958). Producer/Director: Henry Ephron. Colorized. 

Singer Virgil Walker (Tommy Sands) is becoming a big star with the teenybopper set and his manager, Joseph Sharkey (Edmond O'Brien of The Bigamist), is doing his best to run his career -- and his life. Sharkey is especially concerned that Virgil's revivalist grandfather (John McIntire) will be a bad influence on him, as the old man thinks Virgil's singing and shaking makes him a "sinner." Sharkey's employee, Arnold (Jerry Paris of The Glass Wall), does his best to run interference, but Sharkey really can't tolerate former delivery boy C.K. (Nick Adams), whom a lonely Virgil puts on his payroll and turns into a buddy. When the grandfather has a heart attack, Sharkey tries to prevent Virgil from going home, but the whole gang, including C.K. gets on a plane ... 

Edmond O'Brien and Jerry Paris

It would be easy to assume that Sing Boy Sing is the story of Elvis Presley and manager Colonel Tom Parker, except that Tommy Sands was also a client of Parker's and many of these rags to riches show biz stories have similar elements. Sing Boy Sing is entertaining and its mostly due to the performances. As an actor Sands is better than a singer, and I found his vocal style -- at least in this flick -- to be severely off-putting. O'Brien and Paris are both excellent, and Nick Adams nearly walks off with the movie in his colorful turn as the amiable, Hillbilly-like C.K. Although top-billed with Sands, Lili Gentle makes little impression as his sort-of girlfriend in her brief scenes with him; she made one more movie then retired. (Gentle made a much better impression in the previous year's Young and Dangerous.) 

Tommy Sands as Virgil

Regis Toomey of Burke's Law shows up as Rev. Easton, and Josephine Hutchinson is another cast stand-out as Virgil's aunt, who has a great speech talking of how her father pretty much ruined her life with all his talk of "sin" and won't allow the same thing to happen to Virgil. There are several song numbers in the movie, but they are all pretty much forgettable. Sing Boy Sing was not a "B" movie but a Twentieth-century Fox release in CinemaScope (albeit in black and white). 

Verdict: Despite its flaws and an uneven lead performance, this is an entertaining flick. ***. 

AMERICAN HUSTLE

The cast of American Hustle

AMERICAN HUSTLE (2013). Director: David O. Russell.

"Sometimes all you have in life are fucked-up, poisonous choices."

Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a married con artist/loan shark with a really elaborate comb-over who works with his lover, Sydney (Amy Adams), in conning desperate and larcenous people out of their money. They get caught by arrogant, ambitious agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), who tells them they can stay out of jail if they help him in a sting operation. The target for entrapment is Atlantic City mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner of Mission Impossible -- Ghost Protocol), who needs money to bring gambling to AC (this takes place in the late seventies). When Polito begins making deals with gambling experts who happen to be mobsters, such as Victor Tellegio (Robert De Niro), Richie, who begins an affair with Sydney, figures he can bring down even bigger fish than Polito. Realizing they are the ones the gangsters will go after when the whole thing blows up, Irving and Sydney come up with a secret counter-scheme, but will Irving's jealous wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), cause more problems than they can handle? 

American Hustle is an okay movie with some clever moments and a fairly satisfying ending, but it's incredible that it won an Oscar as Best Picture -- all four lead actors won Oscars as well --  proving that studio backing and aggressiveness can and often is more responsible for the garnering of awards than genuine quality. The acting is okay (but never outstanding) for the most part -- one could single out Bale [American Psycho] for his character role -- but the cast members all seem to be exuding personality in a naturalistic manner rather than acting (a common occurrence in modern-day movies). Also the movie is played as a black comedy, which is also typical of many new movies, and has not a single likable character. It also has senseless scenes, such as a girl-on-girl kiss between wife and startled mistress in a ladies room, that seem thrown in for titillation and nothing else. American Hustle also tells an 80 minute story in two and a half hours! It in no way compares to great con man/film noir classics of the past such as Too Late for Tears/Killer Bait.

Verdict: This isn't terrible, but a masterpiece with truly great acting it is not. **1/2.

THE SHRIKE

THE SHRIKE (1955). Director: Jose Ferrer.

Jim Downs (Jose Ferrer) is placed in the mental wing of a hospital after trying to commit suicide. He is estranged from his wife Ann (June Allyson), and in love with a woman named Charlotte (Joy Page). After initial success as a theater director, Downs fell on hard times and was down to his last few dollars. While he had very good reasons for feeling despair,  the doctors have to see him as someone who could be dangerous to himself and others. Not only is this sensitive, intelligent man virtually held captive by the mediocrities on the staff, but it becomes clear that his wife -- who wants him back under any circumstances -- holds all the cards. If he wants to go free, he has to renounce the woman he really loves.

Joseph Kramm's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shrike debuted on Broadway in 1952, where Jose Ferrer not only directed but played the lead part of Jim Downs. Three years later Ferrer did double duty again on the film version. In the play Charlotte did not appear at all, but the film was opened up to include flashbacks both of Jim and Charlotte and of his courtship of, and marriage to, Ann. Ann isn't given much chance to express her point of view in either the play or picture (in the movie, Ann is an actress who gave up her career when she got married), but it's really Jim's story. The movie tacks on a somewhat hopeful ending that is entirely unrealistic. It also has a dumb scene -- not in the play -- in which a psychiatrist, sensing the vindictive nature of Ann under her surface concern and sweetness, essentially compares her to a bird called a shrike, which is not only awkward but even more unrealistic than the phony ending. (And for several reasons goes against the grain of the play as well. The playwright felt no need to elaborate for the theater audience.)

June Allyson and Mel Ferrer

All three leads -- Ferrer, Allyson and Page -- give fine performances, although it's hard to imagine that Allyson was as good as Judith Evelyn in the play. Still, Allyson is not at all a bad choice for the role, as she manages to fool almost everyone into thinking she's as sweet and uncomplicated as she seems. There are good supporting performances from Will Kuluva, Mary Hayley Bell, Martin Newman and others as hospital staff and patients. Ed Platt plays Downs' brother, worried about what having a mental patient in the family will do to his career.

Yet for all the good stuff, there's something unsatisfying about both the play and the film. One suspects the play was forgotten because its characters were (as compared to, say. O'Neill and Williams) rather ordinary and under-developed, and because of its depressing wind-up. And by making compromises, the film doesn't deliver the wallop it should, and wound up being forgotten as well. Too bad, because both projects are certainly worthwhile if flawed, and the film is certainly worth seeing. The Shrike is chilling in its depiction of how a person has to prove his sanity in a mental ward even as he's nearly being driven crazy by the very situation he's in. Jim discovers that he's been offered a life-saving job which might end his career and financial woes, but the good doctors won't let him keep the appointment! 

Isobel Bonner, who played Dr. Barrow both on Broadway and in the film, was married to the playwright, Joseph Kramm. She was performing the same part in Los Angeles the same year the film was released, when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died right in a middle of a scene on the stage.

Verdict: I always thought Allyson was a shrike at heart! ***.

TWILIGHT OF HONOR

Claude Rains and Richard Chamberlain

TWILIGHT OF HONOR (1963). Director: Boris Sagal.  

David Mitchell (Richard Chamberlain) is stunned when Judge Tucker (Edgar Stehli) insists he defend an Army vet, Ben Brown (Nick Adams), accused of murdering the beloved citizen and cop, Cole Clinton (Pat Buttram). David hasn't been in a courtroom in years, and then he was a prosecutor! Forced to take on the case, he consults with his aged mentor, Art Harper (Claude Rains), who agrees to help him. A widower, David draws closer to Harper's smitten daughter, Susan (Joan Blackman), as he prepares his case. He is convinced that even if Brown killed Clinton, it might be a justifiable homicide under New Mexico law if Clinton was sleeping with Brown's wife, Laura (Joey Heatherton). But the question of adultery -- and prostitution -- might test the limits of the angry town's patience, not to mention Clinton's widow, Amy (Jeanette Nolan). But David might be surprised by what Amy tells him outside of court ... but will she repeat it under oath?

Heatherton, Buttram, Adams

Twilight of Honor is a very good and absorbing courtroom drama that benefits from a swift pace, sharp direction, interesting twists, a certain sixties-style frankness, and some excellent performances. Taking time off from his hit medical series, Dr. Kildare, Chamberlain certainly delivers as the impassioned and intelligent, no-nonsense defense attorney. Nick Adams fought hard and spent much money to get a supporting Oscar, and while he was nominated -- and is quite good as well -- his screen time may have simply been too limited, and he lost to Melvyn Douglas. Rains is as good as ever, but perhaps the most impressive performance is from James Gregory (of A Distant Trumpet) as the special prosecutor -- he has a superb turn as a rather slimy character who's out to win at all costs, and makes no bones about it. Joey Heatherton -- introduced in this, her first movie -- proves that she had more than sexiness going for her, and Jeanette Nolan also scores as the widow who knew her husband's peccadilloes all too well. 

Chamberlain with Jeanette Nolan

There are also smaller roles played well by Paul Langton, Pat Buttram (as the victim), Don Barry, Arch Johnson, Edgar Stehli (as the judge), Bert Freed as the sheriff, and George Mitchell as the D.A. Linda Evans, later famous for Big Valley and Dynasty, plays the victim's angry daughter -- her first film as well. The only player who really doesn't impress is Joan Blackman; most of her credits were on television although she also did a couple of films with Elvis and was Jerry Lewis' leading lady in Visit to a Small Planet. Boris Sagal did most of his work for television, but also helmed such features as The Omega Man. 

Verdict: Solid courtroom drama with generally excellent performances. ***1/4. 

ANN SHERIDAN: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF HOLLYWOOD'S OOMPH GIRL

ANN SHERIDAN: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF HOLLYWOOD'S OOMPH GIRL. Michael D. Rinella. McFarland; 2024. 

Never quite in the front rank along with Davis and Crawford, Ann Sheridan nevertheless had a very successful career and proved herself a snappy and adept actress in both comedies (The Man Who Came to Dinner) and dramas (Nora Prentiss). Sheridan was a beauty contest winner who came to Hollywood and beat the odds by actually getting a long-time career out of it. For a long time she had minor roles in minor films until the studio came up with the idea of billing her as the "Oomph Girl," with "oomph" replacing "It" as a combination of sex appeal and dynamic presence. Sheridan grew to hate the appellation and feared people would assume she wasn't a real actress. Sheridan married three actors -- Edward Norris, George Brent, and Scott McKay -- only the third seemed to work (until her death). She was not above being a homewrecker on more than one occasion, however. When her film career began to dry up, she turned to television and starred in a western sitcom called Pistols 'n' Petticoats, which was fairly successful  -- but Sheridan died of cancer during its run. Some of her more memorable films include The Unfaithful and George Washington Slept Here, which illustrate her abilities as both a dramatic thespian and comedienne. 

Verdict: A workmanlike career study of a most interesting performer. ***. 

GO WEST, YOUNG LADY

Glenn Ford

GO WEST, YOUNG LADY (1941). Director: Frank R. Strayer. Colorized.
 

The town of Headstone is regularly besieged by a masked villain known as "Killer" Pete and his gang. Then into town comes the official replacement for the murdered sheriff, Tex Miller (Glenn Ford of Gilda). Bar owner Jim Pendergast (Charlie Ruggles) is expecting his nephew, Bill, to take over as sheriff, but "Bill" turns out to be his niece, Belinda (Penny Singleton of Young Widow), who's dad always wanted a boy. Belinda and Tex are immediately drawn to one another, while Pete keeps robbing the saloon. Judge Harmon (Jed Prouty), Deputy Hank (Allen Jenkins), and businessman Tom Hannegan (Onslow Stevens of The Vanishing Shadow) are at their wit's end, but one of them is hiding a secret. Meanwhile dance hall gal Lola (Ann Miller) knows much more than she's telling. 

Penny Singleton and Ann Miller have at each other!

Go West, Young Lady is a delightful western musical comedy that is bolstered by fast-paced direction, a great spirit of fun, and terrific performances. Ford is appealingly boyish, and while Singleton could be accused of simply playing Blondie Out West, she is also very good. Miller is suitably nasty as Lola, and she and Singleton have a protracted "cat fight" (they are not fighting over Ford) that is one of the best examples of a femme fight scene I've ever seen in the movies. Ruggles, Stevens, and Jenkins are also terrific -- Jenkins has a funny song and dance number with Miller -- and Edith Meiser is also notable in a small bit as an angry townswoman (she appeared in the I Love Lucy episode when Ricky makes the mistake of putting Lucy on a schedule). 

Charlie Ruggles and Ford

Go West, Young Lady is punctuated by several songs -- the title tune and "Take Your Time" are the most memorable -- but all of the tunes are pleasant. Waffles the dog makes an impression, and we've got numbers by the Foursome, as well as Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. The opening, with Ford and Singleton shooting attacking Indians, is a bit problematic, but the ending, in which the ladies of the town take matters into their own hands, is wonderful! Frank R. Strayer also directed several installments of the Jones Family movie series in which Jed Prouty played the father. 

Verdict: An utterly charming musical comedy with the added bonus of a major "cat fight!" ***.

VALLEY OF FIRE

Gene Autry

VALLEY OF FIRE (1951). Director: John English. Colorized.  

Although Tod Rawlings (Harry Lauter of The Crooked Web) and hard-boiled gal pal Bee Laverne (Christine Larson of Valley of Headhunters) try to fix the election, Gene Autry (Gene Autry of The Phantom Empire) manages to become mayor, appointing buddy Breezie (Pat Buttram of Twilight of Honor) as sheriff. Gene decides to send for a wagon train full of women who want husbands, and one of the gals is the gold-digging Laurie (Gail Davis). Rawlings does his best to shanghai the ladies to the new town where he's taken up residence, while Laurie falls for Steve Guilford (Russell Hayden), who actually shot the driver of a stagecoach and stole the gold on board. Gene and Breezie have their hands full dealing with Rawlings and also trying to prove that Guilford is both a crook and a murderer. 

Autrey with Larson and Lauter

Gene Autry once said of himself: "I'm not a good actor, a good rider or a particularly good singer, but they seem to like what I do, so I'll keep on doing it as long as they want." Autry was also not particularly attractive and was a bit paunchy as well. In spite of all that, he was hugely popular and is still considered by many to be the greatest cowboy star of them all. Valley of Fire has a couple of pleasant and forgettable song numbers, and is, like the star, completely amiable. The film is well-produced when it comes to cinematography and scoring and there is an enthusiastic supporting cast. Teddy Infuhr is amusing as young Virgil, a bratty kid who keeps bedeviling Breezie; he amassed 104 credits! 

Verdict: Minor western comedy-musical-drama is easy enough to take and to forget. **1/4. 

BACK FROM ETERNITY

BACK FROM ETERNITY (1956). Director: John Farrow.

In this widescreen if black and white remake of Five Came Back (which was also directed by John Farrow), a motley group of passengers survive a crash in the South American jungle, only to realize that only a few of them can fly away and there are headhunters right around the corner. Back from Eternity could have been a terrific, gut-wrenching movie if only all of the dumb "Hollywoodisms" had been excised from the script. True, I've watched plenty of silly if entertaining dumb Hollywood movies, but what makes Eternity worse is that it had so much potential. True, the final few minutes are suspenseful, the acting isn't bad, and the conclusion has a certain power, but otherwise it's not a very good movie. Anita Ekberg [Screaming Mimi] got the lion's share of the publicity, and aside from being beautiful and busty, she's not a bad actress, either (by Hollywood standards, at least), although her American career didn't last long. (She appeared in this before her famous role in Fellini's La Dolce Vita.) Robert Ryan as the possibly tippling pilot is perhaps less effective in this than in other films, but Rod Steiger offers the best performance as a condemned man being brought back for execution. Phyllis Kirk and Gene Barry are effective enough as an engaged couple who have problems, and Beulah Bondi and Cameron Prud'homme are fine as an elderly professor and his wife. Jesse White is Jesse White.

SPOILER ALERT: Now let's talk about those "Hollywoodisms:" Fred Clark is taking Steiger back for execution, but he uses no handcuffs on a supposedly dangerous felon. Kirk and Ekberg have a completely ridiculous "cat fight" over a man that serves only to show the latter in a wet, clinging outfit. Worse still is the whole business with the lovely stewardess, Maria (Adele Mara of Night Time in Nevada). First let's make it clear that Maria is a friend and co-worker of the pilot and his co-pilot (Keith Andes), and is an attractive and really nice person. Saving a little boy (Jon Prevost) from falling out of the plane when a tank smashes open the door, she herself falls to her death in a horrifying moment. There is no scene when Andes tells Ryan what happened. After the plane lands in the jungle, Ryan says to Andes "everyone all right?" to which Andes replies that the passengers were only a little bruised. There's absolutely no mention of brave Maria and her horrible death throughout the rest of the movie, and these are her co-workers!  (A somewhat similar sequence occurred in another plane crash drama The Crowded Sky.) Admittedly, the passengers are having their own problems, but even during a quiet, contemplative moment much later on, when the pious professor and his wife lead everyone in the Lord's Prayer, nobody offers up a prayer for Maria. It's unbelievable, cold-blooded and illogical scenes like this (or the lack of them) and others that make me classify Back From Eternity less as drama than as schlock. Farrow's direction, although the plane scenes are well-handled, also does little to disguise/detour around some moments of really bad acting.

Verdict: The final quarter has its moments but then there's the rest of it ... **.

IT'S LOVE I'M AFTER

Bette Davis and Leslie Howard

IT'S LOVE I'M AFTER (1937). Director: Archie Mayo. Colorized.  

Basil Underwood (Leslie Howard of Pygmalion) and his battling lover and acting partner Joyce Arden (Bette Davis) are appearing in a production of Romeo and Juliet (which they aren't very good in) when starstruck heiress Marcia West (Olivia de Havilland) comes to his dressing room dripping with adoration. Her fiance, Henry (Patric Knowles of Five Came Back), begs Basil to come out to the West estate and disillusion Marcia, act the cad, so that she will fully belong to him. (Apparently he's unaware that Marcia did not expect to see Basil again). With his faithful retainer Digges (Eric Blore of Swiss Miss) in tow, Basil arrives at the estate and puts his plan into motion -- only everything he thinks up backfires on him! Then Joyce shows up and is told by Marcia that she must step aside, Basil belongs to her. Indeed?

de Havilland with Howard

It's Love I'm After is a delightful screwball comedy that has a funny script and situations and some wonderful performances. Howard throws himself into the spirit of the thing from the very beginning and is a lovable egomaniac and ham. Davis, generally too intense for comedy, is fine in this as the angry woman whose long-awaited wedding to her paramour never quite seems to take place. Olivia de Havilland is also excellent, and she gets fine support from George Barbier as her consistently befuddled father and Knowles as the eternally unamused fiance. Bonita Granville and Spring Byington add to the fun as members of the West household, and Eric Blore nearly walks off with the movie as the wise and long-suffering Digges, who excels at bird calls. 

Verdict: Cute picture. ***. 

MARGARET SULLAVAN: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF A RELUCTANT STAR.

MARGARET SULLAVAN: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF A RELUCTANT STAR. Michael D. Rinella. McFarland; 2019. 

Margaret Sullavan drove the studios she worked for crazy because she refused to follow the rules. While other actors played ball because they knew they were being paid comparatively exorbitant salaries, Sullavan would do what she wanted and to hell with the bosses. This interesting and readable tome on the actress delves into her films, her marriages (Henry Fonda, Leland Hayward etc.), and her relationships with James Stewart and others. Whatever her flaws as a person, Sullavan rarely gave less than 100% in her performances, and although not really a great beauty by Hollywood standards, was often described as "luminescent" in her pictures. As her heart remained in the theater -- although a hearing problem in later years caused problems in that regard -- Sullavan made comparatively few movies. Among her more memorable films are No Sad Songs for Me; Back Street with Charles Boyer; So Ends Our Night; and The Shop Around the Corner; among others. This bio and career study is compelling and informative. Sullavan fans will also want to check out Lawrence Quirk's Margaret Sullavan: Child of Fate. Film buffs are aware of Sullavan, of course, but to the general public these days she's virtually unknown. 

Verdict: Solid bio and career study of talented movie star. ***. 

TIGHT SPOT

Ginger Rogers

TIGHT SPOT (1955). Director: Phil Karlson. Colorized.

Prosecutor Lloyd Hallett (Edward G. Robinson of All My Sons) is out to deport murderous racketeer Ben Costain (Lorne Greene) but needs the help of inmate Sherry Conley (Ginger Rogers of We're Not Married). She is taken to a hotel in Manhattan, watched over by cops Vince Striker (Brian Keith) and Mrs. Willoughby (Katherine Anderson), while Hallett promises her that she won't go back to prison if she only testifies against Costain. Meanwhile, there are attempts on her life at the hotel, attempts which only convince her that it means certain death if she plays ball with the authorities. Can Hallett convince her to help them? 

Brian Keith with Lorne Greene

Although you can't quite say that she gives a bad performance, Rogers acts in a somewhat "cutesy" style that makes it seem as if she thought she were starring in a comedy! As Rogers has given perfectly good performances in dramatic roles, one wonders why she made this poor choice. The film itself is merely mediocre, with Keith and especially Greene, excellent and sinister in a malevolent role, coming off best. Robinson is fine, of course, but the material is very much beneath him, making you wonder why he took on the role in the first place. Lucy Marlow of Queen Bee appears very briefly in the opening scene in the women's prison, and Kathryn Grant has a bit as a frightened newlywed in the hotel. There is at least one surprise in the film and an okay climax. 

Verdict: So-so suspense film with an odd lead performance and a ho hum veneer. **.