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! ***.

A ROYAL SCANDAL

William Eythe and Tallulah Bankhead

A ROYAL SCANDAL (1945). Produced by Ernest Lubitsch. Directed by Otto Preminger. 

Devoted Russian soldier Lt. Alexei Chernoff (William Eythe), hearing of a plot against his empress, Catherine the Great, dares all to rush to her side and warn her. Catherine (Tallulah Bankhead) already knows of the plot but is almost instantly smitten with the handsome Alexei. Although Alexei is engaged to the countess Anna (Anne Baxter), it isn't long before he is ensconced in the palace, the commander of the palace guards -- and a colonel to boot. Knowing that Catherine has undoubtedly had a long line of "commanders" as lovers, Anna is not about to take this lying down. But Catherine is hardly the type to put up with insubordination either from her ladies-in-waiting or from her lovers. The fur will fly!

Anne Baxter, Charles Coburn, William Eythe

A Royal Scandal is a very funny royal farce with an outstanding performance from Tallulah Bankhead who brilliantly mines every comic gem in the script. William Eythe and Anne Baxter are no slouches and deliver excellent performances, and we also have adept and amusing work from Charles Coburn as the Chancellor, Sig Ruman as General Ronsky, Vincent Price as the French ambassador, Misha Auer as Captain Sukov, Grady Sutton as Ronsky's nephew, and others. Briskly directed and with a notable theme by Alfred Newman, this is a real treat. William Eythe was a talented actor who died tragically young at 38. Although he had a brief and unsuccessful marriage, he was the boyfriend of actor Lon McCallister. Eythe somewhat resembled Tyrone Power and had a voice that reminds one of Audie Murphy. 

Verdict: Delightful and stylish comedy with engaging and highly adept players. ***1/2. 

THE WALLS OF JERICHO

Cornel Wilde

THE WALLS OF JERICHO (1948). Director: John M. Stahl.

"Whatever possessed him to marry such a creature?"

"You don't go living with somebody forever just because you feel sorry for them."

In 19th century Kansas, Dave Connors (Cornel Wilde) lives in the town of Jericho with his unhappy, tippling wife, Belle (Ann Dvorak). His old friend, Tucker Wedge (Kirk Douglas), who owns the town newspaper, is pressured into going into politics by his ambitious wife, Algeria (Linda Darnell), when she discovers Connors has similar ambitions and that she is attracted to him. An added complication is that childhood acquaintance, Julia (Anne Baxter), is now a grown lady lawyer who has developed a passion for Dave and vice versa. It all comes to a head when Dave and Tucker run for the same Senatorial seat, and a young lady named Marjorie (Colleen Townsend) is arrested for murder ... With this cast you might wonder why you've probably never heard of The Walls of Jericho and the answer is that the movie just isn't very good. It holds the attention, there's some decent acting and then some, but despite a couple of climaxes and anti-climaxes, it never quite comes to a full boil or distinguishes itself. Handsome Wilde [The Naked Prey] is as appealing and professional as ever; Baxter is overwrought but effective; Darnell [Day-Time Wife] makes an impression as a simmering small-town Lady MacBeth; and Kirk Douglas is most impressive of all in his fine turn as an essentially decent man overruled by his man-eating wife. Dvorak has one big scene but is otherwise criminally under-utilized in the picture. Barton MacLane, Henry Hull and Marjorie Rambeau have smaller roles and all acquit themselves nicely. Colleen Townsend [When Willie Comes Marching Home] had only a few credits but is fine.

Verdict: Small scale small-town melodrama with a highly interesting and often adept cast. **1/2.

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

Barbara Stanwyck

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE (1962). Director: Edward Dmytryk.

"I know what it's like to love someone and not be able to do anything about it."

In the novel A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren, the protagonist, Dove Linkhorn, is a 16-year-old drifter who winds up in the sex business when he's paid to deflower [supposed] virgins for eager voyeurs. In the Hollywood adaptation, Dove is now thirty [played by British Laurence Harvey], a former caregiver for his dying father, and is shocked to discover that his lady love, Hallie (Capucine), has become a prostitute at a famous New Orleans brothel. The story is still set in New Orleans in the 1930's, but everything else is screenwriters John Fante and Edmund Morris' invention and has virtually nothing to do with Nelson Algren. Dove has gone to work for the Italian store owner Teresina (Anne Baxter) while hoping to re-connect with Hallie, a sculptress who is now hooked up with brothel owner Jo Courtney (Barbara Stanwyck), who seems to think Hallie is her personal property. Courtney's husband Dockery, (Don "Red" Barry) has lost his legs, and Jo deludes herself that her feelings for Hallie are not lustful [this latter business is more tacit than explicit]. When Dove does his damnedest to get Hallie back, all Hell breaks loose, resulting in tragedy. The "Doll House" is the least bawdy "bawdy house" that I've ever seen on film, and I've no doubt some viewers at the time had trouble figuring out whether Hallie was a prostitute or not. Jane Fonda has a supporting part as Kitty, another lost gal who winds up at the Doll House, and Richard Rust, who played the bellboy who marries the blond in Homicidal, is vivid as one of Jo's nastier associates. The performances are okay, with Fonda and Stanwyck, especially Stanwyck, taking top honors, although the material is far beneath the latter. It's pretty much beneath everyone, in fact.

Verdict: Vaguely entertaining and well-made but kind of schlocky in spite of it. **

THE RAZOR'S EDGE (1946)

Tyrone Power at the height of his good looks

THE RAZOR'S EDGE (1946). Director: Edmund Goulding.

Larry Darrell (Tyrone Power) is engaged to wealthy Isabel Bradley (Gene Tierney), who wants Larry to get a good job and make money. But Larry is seeking something other than mere materialism in his life, so instead of marrying Isabel he goes off to find himself in India. Observing, commenting and interacting with the others is Somerset Maugham himself (Herbert Marshall), who wrote the novel upon which the film is based. Other major characters include Isabel's uncle, Elliot Templeton (Clifton Webb) -- of Larry he says, "my feeling is he's living in the Latin Quarter with some 'bint' who's no better than she ought to be" -- and Sophie MacDonald (Anne Baxter), whose life becomes embroiled in tragedy upon tragedy. As a fairly obvious Christ figure (although in some ways Larry comes off more like an unambitious schmo), Power is adequate, but his insufficiency shows up in such scenes as when he reacts [or doesn't] to sad news about Sophie; he's hardly ever looked more handsome, however. The best performances come from a poignant Anne Baxter and from an especially superb Webb, who etches a fascinating portrait in his personification of the snobbish but likable Templeton, but Tierney and Marshall are also effective, along with Lucile Watson [Templeton's sister] and Elsa Lanchester in smaller roles. John  Payne has a fairly good part and is fine, although out-classed by the rest of the cast. At one point Maugham remarks that Templeton is "sitting pretty" -- Webb would appear in the famous film of that title two years later -- to which Templeton replies: "that is an American colloquialism, which you British seem to use, but which describes my state accurately." In addition to its over-length, The Razor's Edge has underdeveloped supporting characters whose fates never have the impact they're supposed to, and the movie never seems to get anywhere. Still, Webb and Baxter make it worth watching.

Verdict: Entertaining, in spite of itself. ***.

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942). Writer/director: Orson Welles.

Orson Welles' follow-up to Citizen Kane was based on Booth Tarkington's brilliant novel, which was not only a trenchant small-town family drama but a look at the changes wrought in American society after the turn of the century and its effects on several citizens. Welles' film was cut by the studio, stripped down to bare basics, but still emerges as a creditable movie with some fine performances. Tim Holt probably never did anything better than his performance as spoiled young George Minafer, whom the whole town is hoping will eventually get his comeuppance. Eugene (Joseph Cotten) had been in love with George's mother, Isabel (Delores Costello,) but she married another man. Now she is a widow, and Eugene is a widower with a grown daughter, Lucy (Anne Baxter). A complication is that George's Aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead) has always been carrying a torch for Eugene. "Just being an aunt isn't really the great career it may seem to be," she tells George. A bigger complication is that George is vehemently opposed to any romantic union between his mother and Eugene. [George and Fanny have a number of scenes together which Welles almost always films in long takes.] Eugene is also planning on manufacturing motor cars, which upsets the more genteel members of the Minafer family. As the film progresses there are dramatic developments and the fortunes of the Minafers take a turn for the worse, leading to a situation wherein George has to really prove what kind of person he is. The cast, including Ray Collins [Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason] as Uncle Jack, is excellent, although I fear that Agnes Moorehead is perhaps a bit more odd and semi-hysterical than she needed to be as the desperate and lonely Fanny [she received a supporting Oscar nomination, however]. The movie is handsomely produced and looks great [the art direction and Stanley Cortez' cinematography were also nominated].

Verdict: Nearly a masterpiece. ***1/2.

GUEST IN THE HOUSE

Ruth Warrick and Anne Baxter

GUEST IN THE HOUSE (1944). Director: John Brahm.

Dr. Dan Butler (Scott McKay) brings his girlfriend and patient Evelyn (Anne Baxter) to his family home for a rest cure, and she manages to bring simmering tensions to the surface. Others in the household include Dan's artist brother Douglas (Ralph Bellamy), his wife Ann (Ruth Warrick), their Aunt Martha (Aline McMahon), their little girl Lee (Connie Laird), the peppery maid Hilda (Margaret Hamilton) and her husband John (Percy Kilbride), as well as Miriam (Marie McDonald), who is Douglas' model and who some suspect is carrying on with the painter. Evelyn sets her cap on Douglas but although she's blamed for the events that transpire they seem precipitated more by the others' suspicions than by her manipulations. The cast makes the movie more interesting than it might have been otherwise, but Leave Her to Heaven the following year made much more of the theme of an emotionally disturbed, selfish woman causing havoc in a household. Baxter gives a typically vivid and appropriate performance, while the others are all on target as well, and there's a pleasant score by Werner Janssen, but this is a half-baked melodrama and little else. Well-directed by Brahm, who also directed The Undying Monster, The Mad Magician, Hangover Square, The Locket, and many episodes of such shows as Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Verdict: At least it isn't predictable. **1/2.

CARNIVAL STORY

Anne Baxter and George Nader

CARNIVAL STORY (1954). Director: Kurt Neumann.

"If you were starving to death, howling for food, I wouldn't throw you a rotten bone."

In this arresting and amusing melodrama, a female pickpocket named "Willie" (Anne Baxter) joins up with an American circus traveling in Germany. She falls hard for her first benefactor, Joe Hammond (Steve Cochran), but winds up doing a high-diving act with Frank Collini (Lyle Bettger). The third man in her life is photographer Bill Vines (George Nader), not to mention the circus owner Charley (Jay C. Flippen) and the mute strong man Groppo (Adi Berber). While hardly a filmic masterpiece, Carnival Story is very entertaining and Baxter gives a riveting performance, be it great acting or not. The supporting cast is also quite good, and there's a nice, evocative score by Willy Schmidt Gentner. Part Italian opera, part E.C. horror story, part masochistic romance, the movie is a lot of fun. Neumann also directed Kronos and Mohawk.

Verdict: Anne chews up the scenery, the dialogue, and everything else -- good for her! ***.

THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT (1952)

THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT (1952). Director: Joseph M. Newman.

The film begins with a tense, well-executed bank robbery in the town of Poker Flats, but then goes downhill from there. This is the third of several film versions of Bret Harte's famous short story, and is a very loose adaptation. After the robbery the town decides to turn loose certain immoral elements and several people are told to get out or be hanged. A gambler, John Oakhurst (Dale Robertson) suggests they go to a cabin he knows of; they are joined by a young couple about to have a baby. Not only is there a storm on the way and no food, but along comes bank robber Ryker (Cameron Mitchell) looking for his wife Cal (Anne Baxter), who's developed a tender feeling for Oakhurst. Miriam Hopkins is apparently the town's madam. What might have been developed as a strong drama turns into a mediocre melodrama that wastes most of its cast. The main problem is that the characters aren't developed enough for us to give a hoot about them. Generally well-acted, although Robertson is a bit of a lightweight compared to the others.

Verdict: Lost in a snow storm all right. **.