FROM VIENNA WITH LOVE: HEDY LAMARR

FROM VIENNA WITH LOVE: HEDY LAMARR.

This week Great Old Movies looks at the beautiful film star Hedy Lamarr (1914 - 2000), reviewing several of her movies as well as a biography written about her. We look at the film that first brought her to international attention, Ecstasy, and later films in which she did fine work, such as H. M. Pulham, Esq. and I Take This Woman. You can learn more of the biographical facts of the lady's life by reading the review of the book below.

Lamarr was often unfairly considered just a gorgeous manikin, but she could act, even if you might not have considered her for a role in, say, O'Neill or Williams. With the right part and director and sympathetic co-stars, she could often be quite adept and effective, and she could play romantic scenes with the best of them. A documentary of her life is entitled Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story and goes into her considerable scientific achievements (she was no dummy). Several of her films have already been reviewed on this blog -- just type in her name in the search bar on the above left and they will come up.

THE KISS (1914)

William Desmond Taylor, Margaret Gibson, Myrtle Gonzalez

THE KISS (1914). Director: Ulysses Davis.

In this silent short, Alice (Margaret Gibson) is a shop girl with a plain boyfriend, a floorwalker named Fred (George Holt). Into the store come dapper society man George Dale (William Desmond Taylor) and his fiancee, Helen (Myrtle Gonzalez); Dale catches Alice's eye. There's also a new shop girl named Mazie (Jane Novak) whose fashionable clothing makes Alice envious. Determined to get George to notice her, Alice buys a new outfit, including one of the most hideous hats imaginable, but George asks her out anyway. When George introduces her to Helen and other friends, Helen gives Alice an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Later when he is having a drink alone with Alice, her tries to kiss her and she says "That's where she kissed me because she loves you!" Exit Alice. Okay. Alice learns it is better to stick with her simple life and floorwalker Fred [and hopefully she'll get rid of that hat!]. Because of the presence of Taylor and Gibson [aka Patricia Palmer] The Kiss is of historical interest, but it is hardly a lost classic. It only lasts about ten minutes and the acting is broad.

Verdict: Not one of the more memorable silent films. *1/2.

TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE

Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin and Marie Dressler

TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE (1914). Produced and directed by Mack Sennett. Restored version.

Tillie (Marie Dressler) is a hard-working country girl who gets little love and lots of abuse from her father (Mack Swain), who is fond of booting her in the rear. Therefore she is easily duped by a stranger (Charlie Chaplin) into running off with him with her father's stash. Unfortunately for Tillie, the Stranger already has a much prettier girlfriend, Mabel (Mabel Normand), and the two of them run off with Tillie's money. Tillie gets a job as a waitress, but is arrested when she sees the couple and takes after them, but she's released when the cops learn she is the niece of a certain millionaire (Charles Bennett). Tillie's uncle is just as mean to her as her father, but when he falls off a mountain she becomes his heir, a fact that she doesn't know but the Stranger does ... Tillie's Punctured Romance is the film adaptation of Marie Dressler's hit Broadway show Tillie's Nightmare, and it was similarly well-received by the public. The three leads are fine, with Dressler getting the lion's share of the action and most of the laughs. Tillie is so put-upon that you almost can't blame her when she positively runs amok at the end of the picture, although Dressler isn't really given much opportunity to milk her role for pathos in this farcical comedy. She inherits her uncle's millions without benefit of inquest or probate! Some very amusing bits in this, and Dressler, while bordering on the vulgar at times, is ever-delightful [although it perhaps remained for the sound era to unveil her special genius]. This is probably the closest one can come to getting any sense of what Dressler was like in vaudeville and on the legitimate stage.

Verdict: Overlong but quite cute in spots. **1/2.