A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951)

Alistair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge

A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1951). Director: Brian Desmond Hurst. NOTE: The colorized version, which I watched, is also known as Scrooge.

Ebenezer Scrooge (Alistair Sim) is a tightwad and rather heartless individual whose only response to the holiday season is "humbug!" On Christmas Eve the ghost of his late partner, Marley (Michael Hordern), appears to him, warns him that he's facing a dark future, and tells him that three more ghosts will appear, those of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Days to Come. Scrooge sees visions of his past and the pivotal events that shaped him, such as selling out his employer, Fezziwig (Roddy Hughes)  and losing the love of Alice, (Rona Anderson), the only woman he wanted to marry. He sees the plight of the poor and his own future, as well as that of his employee, Bob Crachit (Mervyn Johns) and his crippled son, Tim (Glyn Dearman). With these increasingly depressing visions, the true spirit of Christmas -- practicing kindness instead of cruelty -- finally takes possession of Ebenezer Scrooge.

"God bless us, everyone." Tiny Tim

A Christmas Carol is a wonderful movie, bolstered by a superb performance from Sim [The Belles of St. Trinian's], great supporting performances, a fine Richard Addinsell score, and superior direction from Hurst.  Every time the film comes near to being a trifle cloying, the next second I'd have a lump in my throat. In other words, you don't need to be Christian or even religious to enjoy and be moved by this picture and Charles Dickens' great story. George Cole plays young Scrooge; Patrick Macnee [The Avengers] is Marley as a young man; Hermione Baddeley is Crachit's wife; Kathleen Harrison is the hysterical Mrs. Dilber; and Ernest Thesiger is notable as Marley's anxious undertaker. Hurst also directed the dull Hungry Hill.

Verdict: Beautiful! ***1/2. 

THE BELLES OF ST TRINIAN'S

Alistair Sim

THE BELLES OF ST TRINIAN'S (1954). Director: Frank Launder.

Millicent Fritton (Alistair Sim of The Millionairess), the clueless headmistress of the St. Trinian's School for Girls, is in a quandary. The school's bank account has only $400 but it is in debt for ten times that much. The students are incorrigible monsters who ignore their teachers when they aren't blowing each other up with bombs. The teachers are a weird lot consisting of inebriates and felons. Both the Ministry of Education and the police are investigating the school, although representatives from the Ministry never seem to return from their visits there. Policewoman Ruby Gates (Joyce Grenfell of Stage Fright)  is directed to infiltrate the school as a new professor, where she discovers that there is an active gin-making business among half the students while the other half are trying to manipulate a horse race -- by stealing a horse -- in order to make some cash (an idea that after some outrage appeals to Ms. Fritton). Someone else who wants to make money on the race is Millicent's brother, Clarence (also played by Sim) and his daughter, Jackie (Diana Day), a nearly middle-aged women who should have been out of school years before. Inspired by the cartoons of Ronald Searle, The Belles of St. Trinian's is a very clever and consistently amusing black comedy that gets high marks for utter originality. The casting of Alistair Sim as the headmistress is absolutely inspired, as Sims does a dead-on impression -- if you can even call if a mere "impression" -- of a dowager who will maintain her dignity no matter what vulgar or appalling shenanigans are going on all around her. There's also a terrific and fun score by Malcolm Arnold [Stolen Face], and a host of wonderful supporting performances. The soccer match is hilarious, and the ending is a pip! Followed by several sequels and an inferior remake.

Verdict: This picture is not a drag. ***1/2.

NOTE: This post is part of the Gender Bending the Rules Blogathon co-hosted by Angelman's Place and The Midnite Drive-In. 

LATE EXTRA

James Mason with photo of Virginia Cherrill

LATE EXTRA (1935). Director: Albert Parker.

In his first film, James Mason, who stars, plays ambitious reporter Jim Martin, who lobbies to get assigned to the story of a cop killing. Bank robber Rudolph Weinhart (Clifford McLaglen) shot a police officer while he was fleeing from the crime scene. As Jim pursues the story, he is both helped and hindered by his girlfriend, fellow reporter Janet Graham (Virginia Cherrill). Even as Jim looks over another crime scene, that of a murdered woman who had called him saying she had information, Janet encounters another woman, Sylvia (Antoinette Cellier), who begs Janet to leave her out of the story or her own life may be forfeit. Inspector Greville (Donald Wolfit of Life at the Top) suspects that someone in the newspaper office has more information than he may be telling the police. Late Extra is one of those big city crime reporter sagas that shows life as it purports to be in a bustling newspaper office where everyone's after the big story and murder is the biggest story of all. Although Mason and most of the other actors are fine, the script is mediocre and this can hardly be called an auspicious debut for James Mason. Alastair Sim [The Ruling Class] plays a kindly older reporter named MacPherson. The picture has humor, sentiment and even a little action, but all told it just isn't very good.

Verdict: Fortunately Mason went on to much better vehicles. *1/2.

THE MILLIONAIRESS

Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers

THE MILLIONAIRESS (1960). Director: Anthony Asquith.

Ephifania Pererga (Sophia Loren), the daughter of a late magnate, is a spoiled, haughty heiress who has already had one bad marriage. For her next husband she hopes to land Ahmed el Kabir (Peter Sellers), a selfless doctor who ministers to the poor. Ahmed seems more confused and amazed by the strange woman than especially interested in her, but Ephifania tries to win him over by making something of herself with only a small pittance to start with, and by hoping he'll win her hand by doing the same. Can these two people on such different wavelengths ever get together? Based on a play by George Bernard Shaw, one can only assume that this is a gross bowdlerization and extreme vulgarization of Shaw's original concept, as neither Ephifania or Kabir come off like real people, which is especially true in the former's case. Loren [Boy on a Dolphin] manages to do a nice job even though she's playing an impossible role, and Sellers also acquits himself nicely, with an excellent Indian accent, but it's a wonder that the two actors manage to play so well together in spite of everything. Alistair Sim [The Ruling Class] nearly steals the picture as Ephifania's lawyer, while Gary Raymond, as her first husband, has little to do but run away from the lady while sher's throwing everything she can get her hands on at him. Vittorio De Sica, who later directed Sellers in After the Fox, has a supporting part as Joe, a sweatshop owner, and he's quite good, and Pauline Jameson is also notable as Sim's secretary, Muriel. In addition to a lousy script, the film suffers from the fact that the heroine, if that's what you can call her, despite some admirable qualities, is never a nice person. Judging from the outfits Loren is caparisoned in, one imagines the clothes budget for the picture was roughly equal to her salary.

Verdict: Sellers is far superior to the material in this. **.

THE RULING CLASS

Peter O'Toole

THE RULING CLASS (1972). Director: Peter Medak.

When the Earl of Gurnsey (Harry Smith) dies in a grotesque, kinky accident involving a tutu and a hanging, his son Jack (Peter O'Toole) becomes the new Earl. The problem is that Jack has been institutionalized for years and is convinced that he is Jesus and/or God. In spite [or because] of this, his Uncle Charles (William Mervyn) decides to marry him off to Charles' mistress, Grace (Carolyn Seymour) so that they can re-commit him once he's delivered an heir. But Jack, whose persona is definitely becoming darker, has different plans in mind. Coral Browne is Charles' wife, Claire, and the great Alistair Sim (Belles of St. Trinian's) is cast as the befuddled Bishop, "Bertie." The entire cast is splendid, including Michael Bryant as Jack's psychiatrist; Nigel Green [Let's Kill Uncle] as another nutcase; James Villiers as Jack's cousin, Dinsdale; and especially Arthur Lowe, who [along with Sim] nearly steals the picture as the family butler, who has inherited money from the late earl and feels free to tell everybody what he really thinks of them even as he waits on them. The first half of this zany movie, which roasts British class distinctions, religion, conservative values and the like, is very, very funny, with madcap musical numbers, such as "Varsity Drag," interspersed to complete the fun and lunacy. Alas, there's too much of a good thing, the movie goes on way too long, blunting its satiric points, and before long you're just wishing it were over. O'Toole is excellent, but his obnoxious, screeching Jack gives you a headache after a while. Some moments are painfully obvious, such as when Jack addresses the House of Lords and they are depicted in quick cuts as skeletons awash in cobwebs. This was filmed in  Harlaxton Manor, a huge, impressive [but rather ugly] house in Lincolnshire. which is now actually the British campus for the University of Evansville in Indiana.

Verdict: A little too surreal and self-indulgent for its own good. **1/2.

STAGE FRIGHT

STAGE FRIGHT (1950). Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

A cute little boy scout walks up to a stage where a glamorous singer is performing and holds out a doll that has a big bloodstain on its white dress -- the singer gasps and looks at the doll in horror. I'd be willing to bet that it was this scene that prompted Hitchcock to film Stage Fright, which is one of his lesser-loved movies but has its moments. Aspiring actress Eve (Jane Wyman) hides out the man she loves, Jonathan (Richard Todd), in her father's house after he tells her that he helped the woman he loves, actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich), cover up the supposedly accidental death of her husband. Hoping to ferret out the truth, Eve replaces Charlotte's personal maid and dresser even as she romances and falls for the police inspector on the case, Wilfred Smith (Michael Wilding). If you're expecting an edge-of-your-seat Hitchcock thriller, look elsewhere - Stage Fright is more along the lines of a romantic comedy, and it has some very funny dialogue by Whitfield Cook (screenwriter) and Alma Reville (adaptor), among others. The picture is entertaining without quite coming to a full boil, although it does have many interesting segments, the aforementioned boy scout scene chief among them. The performances are also top-notch, not just the four leads but Alastair Sim as Eve's father, Kay Walsh as Charlotte's nasty regular dresser, Joyce Grenfell as the toothy comical gal at the shooting gallery, and Sybil Thorndike as Eve's mother. Pat Hitchcock does her customary good turn as a friend of Eve's, and Hitch himself shows up forty minutes into the movie as a quizzical man who passes by Eve on the sidewalk. Crisply photographed by Wilkie Cooper. One big dramatic flaw in the film is that by the time the revelations come Eve's feelings for the hunted man have done a big about-face.

Verdict: Not one of Hitchcock's thrilling masterpieces but certainly not without interest. ***.