BEYOND THE FOREST

"What a dump!" Joseph Cotten and Bette Davis

BEYOND THE FOREST (1949). Director: King Vidor. Colorized version.

"You wear that yourself. No dead cat for me -- mink!" -- Rosa to Jenny. 

Rosa Moline (Bette Davis) lives with her doctor husband, Lewis (Joseph Cotten), in the town of Loyalton, Wisconsin. Growing older, Rosa is desperate to find a more exciting life in Chicago with businessman Neil Latimer (David Brian), with whom she is having an affair. However, Rosa's plans are stymied when she runs off to Chicago and discovers that Neil has a new fiancee. But when Neil comes back to Loyalton for a birthday party for his employee Moose (Minor Watson), Rosa realizes that she still has a chance with Neil. But Moose may throw a monkey wrench into her plans ... 

"If I don't get out of this town I'll die!"

Excoriated for years -- even Davis expressed her hatred for the picture -- Beyond the Forest has come in for reassessment and garnered new fans over the years. What the movie has going for it is Davis' vivid performance, solid supporting performances from most of the cast, fast-paced and dramatic direction from King Vidor, an evocative score by Max Steiner that makes adroit use of the song "Chicago" but also has its own compelling themes, and fine cinematography from Robert Burks. While Rosa is not exactly an admirable woman -- she is rather a pathetic figure, in fact -- Davis gets across her utter desperation, especially in a sequence when she stands by her bedroom window with the fiery smelters in the background. "If I don't get out of this town I'll die. If I don't get out of this town I hope I die."

I'm not just any woman -- I'm Rosa Moline!

Ann Doran as a woman with many children has an interesting exchange with Rosa in the post office. Doran expresses sympathy for Rosa, possibly because she herself feels a bit trapped by the small-town life she lives with half a dozen offspring to look after. "This town has been tough on Rosa," she says, to which a neighbor replies, "Rosa's been tough on the town." Vidor peppers the film with other interesting vignettes as the movie unfolds, a murder occurs, along with a decidedly unwanted pregnancy. Rosa's husband is a perfectly nice man, but he can't give Rosa what she needs and is terrible unexciting. You sense if he slapped her around she would respect him more (or kill him). 

Davis with David Brian

Dona Drake (of Kansas City Confidential)   certainly makes an impression as Jenny, the slovenly, funny maid who works for the Molines and exchanges comical barbs with Rosa, reminding her that if she fires her she, Rosa, will have to do the work. Drake also figures in the bravura climax to the picture, when a fever-wracked Rosa makes up her mind to get to the train to Chicago come Hell or high water. There's an operatic intensity to this sequence as Rosa determinedly if on unsteady legs makes her way to the train station where she meets her ultimate fate. 

Verdict: Think what you will of this, Davis saunters through this saucy film noir, a variation of Madame Bovary, with aplomb. ***. 

THE SEX SYMBOL

Connie Stevens phones her shrink

THE SEX SYMBOL (1974 telefilm). ABC Movie of the Week. Director: David Lowell Rich. NOTE: This is the expanded European version with nudity. 

Movie star Kelly Williams (Connie Stevens) has just been let go from her latest picture -- gossip maven Agatha Murphy (Shelley Winters) cackles on TV that she is through in Hollywood -- and reviews her life, marriages, and love affairs with an unseen psychiatrist. Kelly has a dalliance with Senator O'Neal (Don Murray), and marries former football star Butch Wischnewski (William Smith) and artist Calvin Bernard (James Olson). Will her pills and alcohol lifestyle eventually be Williams' undoing?

Stevens

Connie Stevens, best-known as the petulant, cloying "Cricket Blake" in Hawaiian Eye, was clearly trying to change her squeaky-clean image with this TV movie, and even bares her breasts in a couple of scenes that were added to the theatrical European version. (It's a bet ABC didn't show these!) The Sex Symbol is obviously based on the life of Marilyn Monroe -- the men in Williams' life are stand-ins for JFK, Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller -- but Stevens' has none of that special quality that so distinguished "the adorable one." One can't imagine "Kelley Williams" ever having the kind of career or impact that Monroe had. In fact there are times that Stevens comes off as if Philip, the social director at the Hawaiian Village Hotel on Hawaiian Eye, decided to put on the Marilyn Monroe Story for the hotel's theater and put Cricket in the part! 

James Olson

Stevens gives it the ol' college try and is not terrible, just not that impressive. Shelley Winters seems to be having fun as the gossip maven but does little to make the woman more than a complete caricature. James Olson comes off the best and gives a more than solid performance, and the scenes between him and "Kelly" are psychologically astute. Smith and Murray are fine, but it's weird to see Murray, as he co-starred with the real Monroe in one of her best films, Bus Stop. A notable performance is given by, of all people, director-producer William Castle, who proves quite adept as an actor, playing a sleazy producer. Nehemiah Persoff is another sleazy character, and Milton Selzer and Jack Carter are Kelly's agents. Madlyn Rhue plays Kelly's friend and companion.  

Stevens with William Castle

The Sex Symbol has its entertaining moments, but the scenes of Kelly's long, boozy meltdowns eventually become boring. Although Marilyn Monroe's life story played out in the fifties and sixties, The Sex Symbol seems strictly of the seventies when it was made. Stevens followed this up with a raunchy film called Scorchy, then did numerous TV guest-spots and more made-for-TV movies. Although the real Monroe only joked about putting her breasts in the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater, Kelly Williams actually does it.

Verdict: Stick with the real thing. **1/4.

IN THE NAVY

Bud Abbott, Dick Foran, Lou Costello

IN THE NAVY (1941). Director: Arthur Lubin. Colorized version. 

Russ Raymond (Dick Powell), singing star, wants to get away from his adoring fans and become anonymous in the Navy. Reporter Dorothy Roberts (Claire Dodd of Babbitt) is determined to get a photo of him for her magazine, somehow thinking this will be a big story. (Even Elvis getting a haircut for the Army wasn't that big a story!) Russ in his new identity encounters the film's true stars, Abbott and Costello, as sailors Smoky and Pomeroy. Chubby Pomeroy thinks of Patti of the Andrews Sisters as his girlfriend, but she may not be so inclined. Everyone sings! 

In the Navy is an amiable if minor A&C comedy with some amusing moments and pleasant tunes that are not that memorable all told. Bud and Lou do their usual schtick and do it well. Dick Foran is fine as their slightly grouchy superior officer and Powell does his best as straight man for the boys. Claire Dodd is professional but comparatively bland as the persistent reporter. Patti Andrews displays personality to spare, and she and her two sisters sing up a harmonizing storm. The highlight of the movie is actually some splendid tap-dancing from the Condos Brothers duo. Foran and the Andrews trio also appeared together in Private Buckeroo, where Foran gets to do a lot more singing. The Andrews Sisters did a pilot for a TV sitcom in 1951 but no network picked it up. 

Verdict: The boys have done better but this has its moments. **1/2. 

THE BLACK ABBOTT (1963)

The Black Abbott on the prowl

THE BLACK ABBOTT (aka Der schwarze Abt/1963). Director: Franz Josef Gottlieb. 

Lord Harry Chelford (Dieter Borsche of Dead Eyes of London) lives on his estate -- which is reputed to be haunted by a Black-robed Abbott -- and is engaged to Leslie (Grit Boettcher), although she clearly prefers her fiance's cousin, Dick Alford (Joachim Fuchsberger). Leslie's brother, Arthur (Harry Wustenhagen), has a great deal of debts, and is taken advantage of by his employee, Fabian Gilder (Werner Peters) -- Arthur either talks his sister into marrying Gilder, or he will send Arthur to prison. In the meantime, Gilder, Mary (Eva Ingeborg Scholz) who wants Lord Chelford for herself, and others -- including the berobed abbott -- are searching the grounds of the Chelford estate for a rumored treasure of gold. Someone has already been stabbed to death -- who will be next?

Kinski with Fuchsberger

The Black Abbott is based on an old novel by Edgar Wallace which is convoluted and dull and which I never did manage to finish. This film version -- there have been several -- is almost too faithful to the story and is also convoluted and dull. Frankly, although I generally love West German krimi (crime) movies based on Edgar Wallace novels, if this had been the first one I watched I probably wouldn't have sat through the others. Fuchsberger and Peters are familiar players -- Klaus Kinski (of Web of the Spider) is also in this, playing a sinister butler with a criminal history -- and we are also plagued by the presence of the awful Eddi Arent in his usual role of police bumpkin and alleged comedy relief.  

Mismatch: Werner Peters with Grit Boettcher

The Black Abbott has some atmosphere but not much suspense despite so many different characters running around to little effect. More than one of them dress up as the Black Abbott on different occasions, although there usually isn't much sense to it. There was a British film version of the novel in the thirties, and other krimi movies were based on it afterwards (such as The College-Girl Murders in 1967), although these took a lot of liberties. If you're looking for a horror film with a sinister monk beheading people, this isn't it. What you will get instead is a tedious mystery film that fades from memory even as you're watching it. 

Verdict: Could have killed the West German Edgar Wallace sub-genre practically at the starting gate. *. 

HOLLYWOOD HIGH: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of TEEN MOVIES

HOLLYWOOD HIGH: A Totally Epic, Way Opinionated History of TEEN MOVIES. Bruce Handy. Avid Reader Press/Simon and Schuster; 2025.  

Be forewarned if you're looking for a book that critiques dozens and dozens of movies about teens that came out in the fifties and sixties, this is not that book. What it is is an amusing and informative look at Hollywood's attitudes towards teenagers -- and vice versa -- from decades ago until recent days. He has a section on Andy Hardy but doesn't really analyze the various entries in that series, then quickly moves on to an in-depth analysis of Rebel Without a Cause, the Beach Party movies, and then mostly focuses on other select films such as American Graffiti, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Boyz in the Hood and more. With the exception of Graffiti, which I never especially cared for, I haven't seen or wanted to see most of the movies Handy covers. He has a whole loooong chapter on John Hughes, a filmmaker I have never had the slightest interest in. But here's the rub: Handy is such a good and entertaining writer, that he kept me turning the pages as much as if he were writing about subjects more to my liking -- he's that good. No, Handy hasn't convinced me to rush out and pick up a slew of Hughes' movies, but he does a good job of informing the reader about his subject while keeping us engaged and amused. 

Verdict: The great teen movie book has yet to be written, but this highly interesting tome is worth perusing until it is. ***.