HOUSE OF SECRETS (1956)

Michael Craig and Barbara Bates

HOUSE OF SECRETS (aka Triple Deception/1956). Director: Guy Green.

"He's too smug to live."

Sailor Larry Ellis (Michael Craig) is drafted by the Criminal Investigation Association (CIA)  -- "international cops," as Larry puts it -- when it develops that he bears a striking resemblance to a deceased criminal named Steve Chancellor. Coached by his superiors, he infiltrates a gang who plan to release scads of counterfeit cash into the world's economy. Ellis' job is to find out who the real ringleader is and stop the plot. Chancellor's girlfriend, Judy (Barbara Bates), is actually an undercover agent, and there's another woman in Chancellor's life, Diane (Julia Arnell) who is the niece of the dragon lady conspirator, Madame Ballu (Brenda de Banzie of The Man Who Knew Too Much). Julius (Gerard Oury) and Anton (Anton Diffring) round out the gang, but there's an unknown traitor in the CIA who is Ellis' most dangerous adversary. This pre-Bond film comes off more like a spy thriller than a crime drama, and is not badly done. Craig, who is swaggering, rakish and sexy throughout, would actually not have made a bad 007, as he loves up the women and engages in fisticuffs with equal aplomb. There's a lively dressing room knife-fight, some decent slug-fests, and an exciting climax on a plane with a bomb on it. I had always thought that Craig suppressed his British accent in certain films, such as Mysterious Island, but his North American voice is his true one (having been raised in Canada) and he affects a British accent for such pictures as Doctor in Love. He and the other cast members are all quite good -- Anton Diffring [The Man Who Could Cheat Death] is rather wasted, however --  and the picture is fast-paced and entertaining.

Verdict: Craig would have made a fine Bond. ***.

ALL ASHORE

ALL ASHORE (1953). Director: Richard Quine.

This is another sailors-on-shore-looking-for-girls movie (like the Quine-directed So This is Paris), and not one of the better ones. Joe (Dick Haymes) and Skip (Ray McDonald) importune "buddy" Moby (Mickey Rooney) to stake them to an outing to Catalina. Joe and Skip behave so badly toward Moby -- at one point Joe even walks off with Moby's date -- that after awhile it becomes more depressing than funny. There are assorted misadventures, with Moby winding up in bed in the girls' apartment, and so on. The "girls" are Peggy Ryan, Barbara Bates, and Jody Lawrance [The Family Secret] and none of them make much of an impression. Haymes [Irish Eyes are Smiling] has a fine voice, McDonald is a swell dancer, the ladies are pretty, Rooney aims for pathos with a number about how he's a loser etc., but this is not very entertaining. Some of the Wells and Karger songs are okay.

Verdict: Even Mickey Rooney can't save this one. *1/2.

BELLES ON THEIR TOES

BELLES ON THEIR TOES (1952). Director: Henry Levin.

Cheaper by the Dozen was so successful that a sequel was inevitable, despite the fact that the main character played by Clifton Webb died at the end of that movie. In Belles Myrna Loy and Jeanne Crain take center stage as the wife and oldest daughter. Loy's Mrs. Gilbreth, who we learn was also a doctor and engineer like her late husband, is sort of reinvented as an early feminist; Loy seems a little more at home playing the woman than she did in the first picture. Much of the movie details the romantic adventures of daughters Ann (Crain). Martha (Debra Paget), and Ernestine (Barbara Bates). The illegally good-looking Jeffrey Hunter plays a doctor who falls for Ann, and Martin Milner [13 Ghosts] has a smaller role as Al Lynch. The weird butler, Tom (Hoagy Carmichael), seems to have wandered in from a different movie! Verna Felton and Edward Arnold also have roles, the latter as a man who reluctantly goes into business with Loy and has romantic aspirations toward her. Little Jimmy Hunt, who was charming in the first movie, is given no dialogue in the sequel.  At one point the movie threatens to turn into a musical when the whole gang sings a forgettable song about, of all things, beans!

Verdict: Where is Clifton Webb when you need him? **1/2.

FALLEN ANGELS: THE LIVES AND UNTIMELY DEATHS OF 14 HOLLYWOOD BEAUTIES

FALLEN ANGELS: The Lives and Untimely Deaths of 14 Hollywood Beauties. Kirk Crivello. Citadel Press; 1988.

In this very interesting book, Crivello examines the often tragic lives of several different actresses, then has a round-up of dozens more at the end, amply illustrating the dark side of Hollywood fame -- and infamy. Along with such famous women as Monroe, Mansfield, Natalie Wood, and Sharon Tate, Crivello covers the careers, trials and tribulations of Barbara Payton, Gail Russell, Barbara Bates and several others. Some of these stories are so heart-breaking that they really hit you in the gut. It's a shock to read about actress Suzan [sic] Ball, her struggles with disease, and then learn that after all she'd been through she was only 22 when she died. These women had fame, beauty, talent and promise, but they all came to sad ends -- some due to accidents, some to suicide -- and many were just abandoned by Hollywood and couldn't deal with it.

Verdict: A sad, absorbing read. ***.

IT'S A GREAT LIFE

IT'S A GREAT LIFE. 1954 TV series. Shown on American Life TV.

Before she was Aunt Bee of Mayberry, Frances Bavier was the mainstay (although supposedly a supporting character) of this lively and often amusing -- and virtually forgotten -- sitcom that has been exhumed by American Life TV. Bavier plays Amy Morgan, a widow who lives with her no-account, generally unemployed brother, Earl (James Dunn). Amy takes in two boarders, girl-crazy ex-servicemen named Denny (Michael O'Shea) and Steve (William Bishop) -- who also seem to lose more jobs than they even get hired for. Barbara Bates, who played the young fan of Eve Harrington at the end of All About Eve, played Amy's daughter Cathy for about a third of the episodes. Good-natured and enthusiastically played, It's a Great Life could be silly but there were several funny episodes, particularly one in which the gang buys a tea house, unaware that it's been used as an illegal gambling den. Bavier has a lot of fun squaring off against the tough lady leader of the gang. In the naive fifties, Denny and Steve sleep together in one bed. Michael O'Shea was married to Virginia Mayo and there are occasional in-jokes relating to the sexy actress.

Verdict: Not a terrible time passer. **1/2.

QUICKSAND

QUICKSAND (1950). Director: Irving Pichel.

Probably trying to change his image and show his range the way song and dance man Dick Powell did years before, Mickey Rooney starred in this film noirish thriller about a mechanic who winds up on the run from police after meeting a tough blond with expensive tastes. Rooney is loved by a good brunette (Barbara Bates), but is more fascinated by the zesty blond (Jeanne Cagney) who lusts after a two thousand dollar fur coat. Rooney's troubles begin when he “borrows” twenty dollars from the till to take Cagney out on a date. Before long he's pawning watches he doesn't quite own, mugging drunks carrying wads of cash, stealing cars from his boss, breaking into arcades for the night's take, and strangling his employer. But the movie refuses to truly let Rooney be a bad guy even though it's clear that he is. His criminal actions aren't prompted by a desire to feed a starving family but by expediency; throughout the picture he consistently makes the wrong and most evil choices. SPOILER ALERT: Running off with the good brunette after presumably murdering his boss, he conveniently hijacks the car of a sympathetic lawyer and eventually learns that his employer is still alive. (“Men don't die easily,” the lawyer tells Rooney. “They take a lot of killing.”) At the unconvincing conclusion, Rooney assures everyone that he's ready to take what's coming to him, that he's essentially a “decent” person (who mugs, robs and “murders!”). In a part that could have been tailor-made for a young Cagney, Widmark or Garfield, Rooney acquits himself nicely, only resorting to stock good guy mannerisms – as if to redeem his unlikable character -- in the film's final quarter when the story goes completely awry and his formerly vital, emotionally-true thesping becomes perfunctory. The film's standout performance is from vivid Jeanne Cagney, who positively sizzles as the blond who's only out for herself. Equally good in a supporting part is Peter Lorre, who plays the arcade owner who's carrying a torch for former employee Cagney; he and Rooney have several good scenes together. Barbara Bates' mediocre acting proves beyond a doubt why little was heard of her after she appeared in this and at the ending of All About Eve the same year. The picture is well-directed and has an effective if unmemorable score by Louis Gruenberg, who decades before was composing operas for the Met.

Verdict: Not great but has its moments. **1/2.