PAID IN FULL

Bob Cummings and Lizabeth Scott

PAID IN FULL (1950). Director: William Dieterle.  

"Youth should be a blessing, not an apology." 

Jane Langley (Lizabeth Scott) makes continual sacrifices for her spoiled sister, Nancy (Diana Lynn), and even steps aside when both women fall in love with the same man, Bill Prentice (Robert Cummings). Bill and Nancy get married but he soon realizes that he got hitched to the wrong sister. Nancy is too selfish and immature to make a good wife or mother, but both Jane and Bill are too dumb to see it. When a tragedy involving a child occurs, no one seems to be held responsible for it. Meanwhile Dean Martin sings "You're Wonderful" on the soundtrack and Eve Arden, playing an arch gal named "Tommy," delivers her advice in her usual sardonic style. 

Cummings with Diana Lynn

Paid in Full is somewhat absorbing romantic schlock with generally credible performances. Others in the cast include Ray Collins of Perry Mason as a doctor, John Bromfield and Dorothy Adams, as well as Charles Bradstreet and Carol Channing in bits. Lizabeth Scott [I Walk Alone] delivers each and every line in a beatific style that makes her come off like the biggest sap on the planet. Shot by Leo Tover and with a score by Victor Young. William Dieterle also directed Dark City with Scott.

Verdict: Not one of the great classics of Hollywood. **1/4. 

BEDTIME FOR BONZO

Diana Lynn, Ronald Reagan, and Bonzo in the back

BEDTIME FOR BONZO (1951). Director: Frederick De Cordova.

College professor Peter Boyd (Ronald Reagan) gets in hot water with Dean Tillinghast (Herbert Heyes), when the latter finds out Boyd's father was a criminal. Tillinghast wants Peter to resign at the end of the semester, and orders his daughter, Valerie (Lucille Barkley) to end their engagement. Peter sets out to prove that environment and upbringing have more to do with criminal behavior than heredity. How does he do this? By taking the science department's chimp, Bonzo, home with him, and hiring a woman, Jane (Diana Lynn) to act as the ape's "mother!" That is the incredible premise of this movie, which gets stupider by the second. Since I happen to be very fond of chimps and their antics, I thought this movie might be cute and entertaining, but another Bringing Up Baby (which had a leopard instead of a chimp) it is not. I need not say that Ronald Reagan [Kings Row] is hardly in the league of Cary Grant, but his performance in this isn't bad, and Diana Lynn [Ruthless] is charming. Walter Slezak is fine as another professor, while Jesse White is typically obnoxious and unamusing as a man named Babcock. Considering Peter is a professor it's odd how often he refers to Bonzo as a monkey instead of a chimp. Bonzo is a cute and capable performer, but the chimps are a lot more fun in the Tarzan movies.

Verdict: Why Reagan went into politics. **.

AND THE ANGELS SING

AND THE ANGELS SING (1944). Director: George Marshall.

Pop Angel (Raymond Walburn) lives with his four daughters and tries to encourage them in a musical career, but only one of them, Bobby (Betty Hutton), has singing aspirations. Forcing her sisters to accompany her on a club date, they meet bandleader Happy Morgan (Fred MacMurray), a heel with a conscience. He promises Bobby a job in New York and takes money she won gambling, which sister Nancy (Dorothy Lamour) is determined to get back. To Manhattan the four gals go. Happy finds himself romancing both sisters to keep them at bay, although he's only in love with one of them. Can true love find a way through this mess...? And the Angels Sing is pleasant and the performances are good. The other two Angel sisters are played by Diana Lynn [Ruthless] and Mimi Chandler. MacMurray sings, but not that well, and Hutton [The Betty Hutton Show] "overacts" her supposedly comedic song numbers to the point where they're hard to take. A subdued Frank Albertson [Psycho] plays Nancy's easily discarded boyfriend, Oliver, and Eddie Foy Jr. is cast as MacMurray's bandmate, Fuzzy. There are a couple of saucy song numbers.

Verdict: Amiable tomfoolery. **1/2.

RUTHLESS

RUTHLESS (1948). Director: Edgar G. Ulmer.

"You're the only friend I have." -- Horace

"And I hate your insides." -- Vic

Horace Woodruff Vendig (Zachary Scott) makes an announcement of the formation of a sort of charitable trust and tries to convince a gathering of victims that he's changed his self-centered tune, but his "best friend" Vic (Louis Hayward) isn't convinced, as flashbacks show their history since boyhood. Raised by a fairly wealthy small-town family after saving the daughter from drowning, Horace is determined to gain riches and power at any cost, going so far as to drop even those who helped him when he no longer requires their assistance. Victims include said daughter (Diana Lynn), who is desperately in love with him and is even affianced to him for a time; second fiancee Susan (Martha Vickers); wife Christa (Lucille Bremer); her ex-husband Buck (Sydney Greenstreet); and worst of all Bruce McDonald (Charles Evans), who helped Horace get his start in a profitable stock business but is turned down when he goes to him for help. Other cast members include Edith Barrett as Lynn's mother, Raymond Burr as Horace's father, and Bob Anderson in a fine turn as Horace as a boy [Arthur Stone as the young Vic is also notable]. Ruthless could have used twenty or so minutes more of character development, but it's a very interesting picture, the entire cast is excellent, and Werner Janssen has contributed an evocative score.

Verdict: One of director Ulmer's best movies. ***.

THE BRIDE WORE BOOTS

THE BRIDE WORE BOOTS (1946). Director: Irving Pichel.

The marriage of Sally Warren (Barbara Stanwyck) to her writer husband Jeff (Bob Cummings), has already been tested by his disdain for the horses Sally loves, as well as the continual, irritating presence of would-be boyfriend Lance (Patric Knowles), but now there's a new threat in the form of pretty and perky Mary Lou (Diana Lynn), who has a crush on Jeff and wants to be his secretary -- and more. Naturally the couple break up, come together, and break up again, with all sorts of amusing complications. Willie Best (of My Little Margie and many movies) works for the Warrens, and little Natalie Wood is one of their adorable children. Stanwyck has always been as adept at comedy as she is at drama, and proves it once again, where she's right up there with skilled comedian Cummings. Peggy Wood and Robert Benchley are fun as, respectively, Sally's mother and uncle, and Lynn and Knowles are also effective. Gertrude Hoffman, also of My Little Margie, has a small role as a club woman. The picture is fast-paced and cute and very well acted.

Verdict: A trifle, but nice. ***.

HENRY ALDRICH PLAYS CUPID

HENRY ALDRICH PLAYS CUPID (1944). Director:Hugh Bennett.

Henry (Jimmy Lydon) is in dutch with Principal Bradley (Vaughan Glaser) and figures he might become an old softie if he only had a wife. [Apparently Henry and everyone else forgot that confirmed old bachelor Bradley actually had a wife who appeared in Henry and Dizzy and was played by Maude Ebern, who ironically has a small bit in this picture.] Suspecting that the principal's stern countenance might work against him, Henry encloses a photo of a man he thinks is his uncle when he [unknown to the principal] places a lonely hearts ad for Bradley. Alas, the photo is actually of Senator Caldicott (Paul Harvey), a hated rival of Henry's father (John Litel), and when strange women come rushing up to the married man thinking he's their dreamboat, he's convinced Mr. Aldrich put them up to it. Uh oh. It's Henry who's up to it -- and how! Pretty funny entry in this long-running series, which only had one more picture to go. Vera Vague is one of the women who answers the ad. Charles Smith and Diana Lynn are on hand as Dizzy and Phyllis.

Verdict: More Aldrich fun. ***.

PLUNDER OF THE SUN

PLUNDER OF THE SUN (1953). Director: John Farrow.

Insurance adjuster Al Colby (Glenn Ford) winds up involved with two mysterious women, thugs, and murderers while hunting treasure almost by default in Mexico. Seems everyone wants to get their hands on a certain Spanish manuscript. Julie Barnes (Diana Lynn) is a boozy, man-hungry self-described "tramp," while Anna Luz (Patricia Medina) is a more patrician and enigmatic beauty. Francis L. Sullivan and Sean McClory are also involved in the skulduggery. This is a mediocre, standard thriller with a low thrill level, most of the excitement coming from Antonio Diaz Conde's richly-orchestrated musical score, which pulls you in from the opening credits. The acting is perfectly okay, but the movie never really comes to a boil. Filmed on and around the Zapotecan ruins in Mexico.

Verdict: The title is very pretentious. **.

HENRY ALDRICH GETS GLAMOR

HENRY ALDRICH GETS GLAMOR (1943). Director: Hugh Bennett.

The Henry Aldrich series, about a bumbling, girl-crazy teen, was made to cash in on the popularity of the Andy Hardy series. This entry is a charming if mildly amusing time-waster that has Henry winning a date with a glamorous movie star, Hilary Dane, played by Frances Gifford. Hoping to convince her studio that she's innocent enough to play Juliet in a new production of Romeo and Juliet, Gifford decides to string Henry along for a romance and goes to the dance with him. When a photo of him supposedly kissing the star winds up in the paper in Centerville, everyone improbably assumes that Henry has become a big lover boy. Soon he's gotten the reputation of a wolf, and his father's plans to run for office are derailed. His reputation as an unlikely Casanova is cemented when he takes Gifford out to the secluded patio at the dance and walks back in sporting the huge lipstick imprint of a kiss on his face. Jimmy Lydon offers a splendid comic portrayal as Henry Aldrich, and he gets able support from Charles Smith as his loyal buddy “Dizzy” and Diana Lynn as Phyllis, the shy girl who has an unrequited crush on him. John Litel is Aldrich's father; while competent, he's not in the league of Lewis Stone, the “father” of the Hardy series.

Verdict: Mildly amusing and easy to take. **1/2.