THE FLAME

John Carroll and Vera Ralston

THE FLAME (1947). Director: John H. Auer. Colorized. 

George MacAllister (John Carroll of Zorro Rides Again) is in love with a nurse named Carlotta (Vera Ralston), who happens to be looking after George's supposedly dying brother, Barry (Robert Paige of Hellzapoppin). Carlotta marries Barry with the full approval of George, who is hoping to wrest his brother's fortune away from him. Complicating matters are another gal pal, Helena (Constance Dowling), and a guy with a big crush on her, Ernie (Broderick Crawford of All the King's Men). Then there's the termagant Aunt Margaret (Blanche Yurka), who casts a dim eye on Carlotta and Barry's marriage. Which of the two brothers will Carlotta ultimately wind up with, and which will be alive at the end? 

Robert Paige and Ralston

The Flame is an interesting if flawed bit of film noir from Republic Studios starring Ralston, the wife of the studio head. She seems to give a more convincing performance in this than in other films, although she'll never be seen as another Barbara Stanwyck. Carroll is excellent, however; Paige is somewhat less notable but good enough, Yurka scores as the aunt, and Crawford and Dowling nearly walk off with the movie. Crawford proves that there's much more to him than Highway Patrol, and Dowling does a snappy and sexy song and dance number in a nightclub. The generally unpredictable film keeps throwing curveballs at the viewer when it comes to the inter-relationships of the characters. Victor Sen Yung is a breath of fresh air and is very effective as George's manservant, Chang. There's also good work from Henry Travers as a doctor and Hattie McDaniel as a cheerful domestic. Reggie Lanning's cinematography and Heinz Roemheld's score are added attractions. It is never specified exactly what is wrong with Barry and he never seems to be "dying" or even ill. Much of the story takes place at Manhattan's tony Hampshire House on Central Park West, which is still standing today. 

Verdict: Some more character development might have helped, but this is intriguing enough in its own way. **3/4. 

BLACK ANGEL

Dan Duryea and June Vincent

BLACK ANGEL (1946). Director: Roy William Neill. Based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich.

When sexy singer Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is murdered, the chief suspect is her lover, Kirk Bennett (John Phillips), who was being blackmailed by her. In spite of his affair, his wife, Catherine (June Vincent), remains loyal, as well as convinced that he is innocent. When he winds up convicted and on death row, with time running out, she makes up her mind to uncover the real murderer, and winds up working with the victim's ex-husband, Martin Blair (Dan Duryea of Terror Street), who was investigated by police and cleared. Catherine and Martin get a job as a singer and accompanist at a night spot owned by Mr. Marko (Peter Lorre of The Verdict), whom Martin swears he saw at Mavis' apartment house the night she was killed. Can the couple uncover the truth before they become more of his victims ,..? Black Angel is an absorbing, nominal film noir with some fine performances and a degree of suspense. Although June Vincent [Shed No Tears] is better cast as a bad girl and at first seems out of place in the movie, she has her typically sharp and unusual delivery to set her apart from the standard heroine. Duryea is, as ever, first-rate for the most part, and Lorre, in another in a long line of supporting roles that wasted his talent, is effortlessly excellent. Broderick Crawford plays the investigator on the case and is about as usual. There's a good score by Frank Skinner, and a snappy number called "I Wanna be Talked About" warbled by a dubbed Vincent. The ending is strangely moving, but you may be scratching your head at a couple of loose ends that make the denouement a bit suspect.

Verdict: Credible mystery with interesting cast. ***. 

PUKEY REPEATS

PUKEY REPEATS (1946). Director: Federico Fellini.

Although the studio deemed the June Allyson comedy Pukey to be unreleasable, famed Italian director Federico Fellini caught a special screening of it during a trip to Hollywood and was -- bizarrely enough -- totally enchanted. He contacted Allyson and arranged to make another Pukey film which can be considered a sequel or a remake or both. In this the cookie-tossing singer Pukey (Allyson) decides to take up opera, with completely unamusing results. Although she can't even sing normally, she somehow manages to acquire a contract with La scala in Milan, where much of this was filmed. Keefe Braselle, who appeared in the first film, absolutely refused to be associated with the second, so he was replaced by Broderick Crawford, who makes a highly unlikely love interest for Allyson. You have to hear Allyson attempting to croak out "Nessum Dorma" from Puccini's Turandot to believe it! Fellini filled the film with his usual interesting and exotic faces, but the script -- based, believe it or not, on a play by Italian artist and WW 1 hero Gabrielle D'Annunzio -- is just abysmal.

Verdict: Dreadful! *.

ANNA LUCASTA (1949)

Wickes, Goddard, Crawford, and a sleeping Homolka

ANNA LUCASTA (1949), Director: Irving Rapper.

The Lucasta family of Mayberry, PA. consists of daughter Stella (Mary Wickes); her husband, Frank (Broderick Crawford); her brother, Stanley (Whit Bissell); his wife, Katie (Gale Page); the mother, Theresa (Lisa Golm); and her husband, Joe (Oscar Homolka), a rather nasty alcoholic. When Frank discovers that Rudolf Strobel (William Bishop), the son of Joe's old friend, is coming to town to look for a wife and has money to burn, he and Stella come up with the idea of marrying him off to Stella's sister, Anna (Paulette Goddard), who was thrown out of the house because of a simple kiss with a date. Joe is violently importuned to go to Brooklyn to get his daughter back to Pennsylvania, so she leaves her sort-of boyfriend, sailor Danny (John Ireland), and comes back to the crowded suburban home. Just when things seem to be going well between her and Rudolf, whom she genuinely loves, Danny shows up, and her father shows his daughter just how utterly loathsome he can really be.

Anna Lucasta was based on a play of the same name that was originally about a Polish-American family, but which was turned into a play about a black family before its Broadway debut. (Playwright Philip Yordan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur Laurents, was himself Polish-American). It was inspired by O'Neill's Anna Christie in many ways. (It also has some similarities to Miller's later A View from the Bridge.) A London production reinstated the Caucasian family and Paulette Goddard played Anna as she does in the film. Almost a decade after the movie version was released, there was a superior remake with a black cast starring Eartha Kitt.

This version is more of a comedy-drama than the subsequent film. Goddard offers an okay Hollywood-style performance but she can't compare to Kitt who really lives and feels the part. It is made very clear that Anna has become a streetwalker even in this earlier version. If anything, her father's probably incestuous feelings for his daughter seem more overt than in the remake.

The supporting performances are the film's saving grace. You wouldn't think that Broderick Crawford and Mary Wickes would make a convincing husband and wife, but they sure do. Oscar Homolka is outstanding as the father, and there is fine work from Golm as his long-suffering wife. Gale Page makes a perfect, understanding sister-in-law to Anna. Two smaller roles are also of note: Dennie Moore [These Glamour Girls] in a marvelous turn as the bar waitress Blanche; and Grayce Hampton doing a wonderful dignified drunk routine as the soused patron, Queenie.

Verdict: Imperfect if interestingly-cast study of a clearly dysfunctional family. **1/2,

ALL THE KING'S MEN (1949)

Broderick Crawford, Mercedes McCambridge, John Ireland

ALL THE KING'S MEN (1949). Director: Robert Rossen.

All the King's Men traces the parallel rise and fall of Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford of Scandal Sheet) and a reporter, Jack Burden (John Ireland), who's covering his story as he goes up against seemingly impossible odds to become governor. Just as Stark wants to prove himself to the public and his cronies, Jack needs to prove himself to his fiancee, Anne (Joanne Dru), who has been raised by her presumably incorruptible uncle, Judge Stanton (Raymond Greenleaf of Over-Exposed). Stark, however, is certainly not incorruptible, as power goes to his head and his path leads inexorably to tragedy. Others in his orbit include his wife (Anne Seymour); his mistress-associate, Sadie (Mercedes McCambridge); his son, Tom (John Derek); and Anne's brother, Adam (Shepperd Strudwick of Three Husbands). All the King's Men is an absorbing and well-acted film, although none of the players. including Crawford, are especially outstanding (although Crawford and McCambridge won Oscars, along with the picture itself). Ralph Dumke and Walter Burke have smaller roles. The score is by Louis Gruenberg, and Burnett Guffey is director of photography. A similar plot was used for the later A Lion is in the Streets, in which James Cagney also played a Willie Stark-type. Remade in 2006.

Verdict: Solid drama with an interesting cast. ***.

NOT AS A STRANGER

Olivia de Havilland

NOT AS A STRANGER (1955). Producer/director: Stanley Kramer.

"Chris, help me, for God's sake, help me." --Lucas Marsh.

Lucas Marsh (Robert Mitchum) is determined to be a doctor but hasn't got the financial backing he needs to continue his internship. To get the money he romances the adoring Swedish nurse, Kristina (Olivia de Havilland), who has saved up quite a bit of money. The two get married, Lucas is able to complete his studies, and the couple relocate to a small town where Lucas becomes assistant to the aging family doctor, Dave Runkleman (Charles Bickford). Then there's the complication of the seductive Widow Lang (Gloria Grahame). Will Lucas ever be able to feel an honest and profound love for his wife? Not as a Stranger is a nice picture with winning performances, with Mitchum [Angel Face] doing some of the best work of his career. De Havilland [The Dark Mirror] is on the mark as Kris, as is Grahame, but she is given so little to do that it's a wonder her character was even included. It's also a mystery why Frank Sinatra [The Kissing Bandit] took the role of Al, Lucas' intern-buddy, as it's really a relatively minor supporting part. When Sinatra and Mitchum are on screen together, Frank looks unbelievably scrawny in contrast, which the crooner must have hated, but his performance is fine. Lon Chaney Jr. is not memorable as Lucas' drunken father, playing it in too obvious and phony a fashion, but Gertrude Hoffman has a nice bit as an old woman who tells the doctor that she has nowhere to go. The film introduces some weighty matters -- is the doctor's job just to keep people alive no matter what even when they're ready to let go? -- but never quite gets a grip on them. People in the doctor's office  include everyone from Nancy Kulp to Alfalfa! Lee Marvin and Mae Clarke have smaller roles as nurse and intern. Broderick Crawford offers a gruff but interesting performance as Lucas' and Al's teacher in the early hospital scenes. Franz Planer's photography is excellent, and it could be said that George Antheil's score is more than partly responsible for the whole success of the movie.

Verdict: Some moving moments and an interesting story, with a very well-cast and effective Mitchum. ***.

SCANDAL SHEET

Broderick Crawford

SCANDAL SHEET (1952). Director: Phil Karlson.

"You're a neurotic screwball!"

The stockholders of the New York Express are up in arms because new editor-in-chief Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford) has decided to increase profits and circulation by turning the paper into a vulgar tabloid. Chapman has been promised a significant bonus if he can really turn the paper around, and he's determined to publish hard-hitting stories no matter who he upsets. His protege, Steve (John Derek), wants to be just like Chapman, while Steve's girlfriend, Julie (Donna Reed), wishes he'd emulate just about anybody else. Things become complicated when a woman at a lonely hearts gathering sponsored by the Express recognizes Chapman as the husband who deserted her twenty years before, only now he has a different name ... Before long Steve is tracking down a story that Chapman wishes he could bury twenty miles deep. Scandal Sheet has an interesting premise and characters, is quite well-acted by the entire cast, but somehow it just misses the boat, perhaps because you're always one step ahead of most of the characters -- it just lacks sizzle and tension. Crawford is fine, and Henry O'Neill makes a notable impression as the alcoholic ex-reporter, Charlie, as does Rosemary DeCamp [Nora Prentiss] as Chapman's wife. Others in the cast include Kathryn Card and Ida Moore [The Egg and I], both of whom appeared on I Love Lucy. This was based on a novel by Samuel Fuller.

Verdict: Comes so close but misses. **1/2.  

THE VULTURE

THE VULTURE (1967). Writer/producer/director: Lawrence Huntington.

A woman (Annette Carrell) sees a grave opening from below and then a huge bird-like monster with a human head and hands emerges. Everyone thinks she must be crazy except for Dr. Eric Lutens (Robert Hutton) of the Atomic Energy Commission. Lutens, who is married to the niece, Trudy (Diane Clare), of two men named Stroud who live in the area (Broderick Crawford, Gordon Sterne), is immediately convinced -- without a shred of evidence -- not only that the creature is real but that it is the product of "nuclear transmutation." In other words an unknown person, seeking treasure, used energy to change places with the skeleton in the grave, but was unaware there was a vulture buried in there as well, so the result is a half-man/half-bird mutation [a la The Fly]. Surely there would have been easier ways to get treasure out of a grave! Anyway, this monster sets out to destroy its enemies one by one. Okay, the plot is patently absurd even for a low-budget British horror movie, but the movie is still fun and works up some suspense and creepiness. Crawford, as gruff as ever, is fine, Hutton is okay, but the picture is stolen by wily old Akim Tamiroff as Professor Koniglich. This was the last film  for Huntington, who died the following year. Hutton was also in The Man Without a Body.

Verdict: Utterly illogical but amusing. ***.

THE BLACK CAT

Gale Sondergaard

THE BLACK CAT (1941). Director: Albert S. Rogell.

In this entertaining comedy-thriller, the relatives of elderly Henrietta Winslow (Cecelia Loftus) are gathered inside the obligatory spooky mansion waiting for her to die and wondering how much they'll each get. Naturally murders and weird goings-on ensue. The Black Cat certainly has an unusual collection of actors: everyone from Bela Lugosi (as a groundskeeper) to Broderick Crawford to Alan Ladd to Gale Sondergaard [who at least you expect to see in stuff like this] and even Gladys Cooper [whom you don't]. Sondergaard is very amusing as the sinister housekeeper, Abigail, and Gladys Cooper practically steals the picture in her turn as Myrna -- her husband is played by no less than Basil Rathbone, and he, too, is excellent. Anne Gwynne, Claire Dodd, and John Eldredge also have roles and Hugh Herbert is comic relief -- or something. Some may find this a little too humorous to sustain any kind of real atmosphere but it's fun and has an exciting climax.

Verdict: Any picture with this cast can't be all bad. ***.

HUMAN DESIRE

HUMAN DESIRE (1954). Director: Fritz Lang. 

Vicki Buckley (Gloria Grahame) is married to the rather bestial and jealous Carl (Broderick Crawford) who forces her to accompany him when he plans to murder one of her alleged lovers. Into this unpleasant mix comes railroad engineer Jeff Warren (Glenn Ford), who falls for Vicki and whom she hopes will help her get out of the trap that her marriage has become. The opening with the train zooming along is excellent, and everything that follows certainly holds the attention, but a big problem with the picture is that it has no real climax. Brockerick is terrific; Ford gives one of his better performances; and Grahame has her moments as the femme fatale but she's uneven and never altogether convincing. Well-directed by Lang and beautifully photographed by Burnett Guffey. Despite her somewhat cold nature, it's hard not to see Vicki in part as a victim, but the film doesn't encourage the audience to feel much sympathy for her. Kathleen Case as the "good girl" in the story is just as sexy as the bad girl, if not more so. Her first appearance, filling out her sweater, makes you wonder why Warren even bothered with Vicki. Inspired by a novel by Emile Zola. 

Verdict: Compelling if imperfect. ***.