DADDY O [LOST PILOT]

Lee Philips and Don DeFore

DADDY-O (unsold pilot/1961). Director/producer: Rod Amateau.

Daddy-O was a situation comedy with a fairly unusual premise. Ben (Don DeFore of Killer Bait) is a carpenter who is working on a house for TV producer Albert Shapian (Lee Philips). For some reason, never explained, Albert thinks Ben would make a good actor, and the fellow winds up in a show called Daddy-O, produced by Shapian, wherein he plays a hapless family man in slapstick situations. The show-within-the-show is a big hit, but despite all the money Ben is dissatisfied. He thinks his work is frivolous whereas before he was helping to build homes and thereby helping the nation. He wants to quit Daddy-O, but Shapian won't think of it. At a hospital where Ben's wife Polly (Jean Byron) volunteers, he meets an elderly female patient who tells him how much the show means to her and other lonely people of all ages, to whom it has given a family. Ben decides to stay with Daddy O, not realizing that the old lady was an actress paid by Shavian, although she tells the producer that she actually meant every word. Other characters in the show include Ben's two teenaged sons, and Shavian's dumb brunette but sexy secretary. In the opening sequence -- a scene from Daddy O -- Sheila James from Dobie Gillis plays his daughter. Shavian seems to have a bit of a thing for Polly.

This pilot was apparently aired but wasn't turned into a series. The actors are fine -- even bland DeFore -- but perhaps it was too critical of dumb sitcoms for its own good, and without delivering the major laughs that any good sitcom requires. A surprising scene has Shapian and his colleagues adjusting the laugh track on an episode  -- the fact that sitcoms used laugh tracks was generally downplayed in this era. Still Daddy-O is amiable and has a few chuckles in it. Had this gone to series it might have developed into a memorable show. Philips at least gives the project a little sex appeal, as does his uncredited secretary. Created and written by Max Shulman. DeFore wound up in the long-running Hazel with Shirley Booth.

Verdict: Had possibilities. **1/2.

CITY WITHOUT MEN

CITY WITHOUT MEN (1943). Director: Sidney Salkow.

Tom Adams (Michael Duane of Redhead from Manhattan) is framed for  picking up Japanese in a boat, and wrongly convicted of collaborating with the enemy or something and sent to jail for several years. His fiancee, Nancy (Linda Darnell) not only vows to wait for him, but moves into a woman's residence right next to the prison where other wives and girlfriends wait patiently for their men to be released. The husband of the owner of the house, Maria (Sara Allgood) is in jail for life, and in the film's best scene, another wife, Mrs. Slade (Rosemary DeCamp), nearly collapses when her husband is executed at midnight. Other residents of the house include brassy Billie (Glenda Farrell), Winnie (Doris Dudley), Dora (Margaret Hamilton), and high-hattin' Gwen (Leslie Brooks of The Secret of the Whistler), who is dating Mr. Peters (Don DeFore) and hopes to learn where her husband (Sheldon Leonard) hid some money. Edgar Buchanan plays a shady lawyer who is ostensibly trying to help Nancy, but spends most of her money on booze. This is a "concept" movie that seems to have been cobbled together from cliches from other movies, and it's never convincing, becoming fairly ridiculous towards the end. Darnell is fine -- odd that she was cast in this bad "B" movie -- and Allgood, Farrell, DeCamp, and DeFore give very good performances as well.Years later Salkow directed Vincent Price in Twice-Told Tales.

Verdict: Not utterly terrible but not worth the time it takes to tell. **.

IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE

IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE (1947). Director: Roy Del Ruth.

Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) is a bum who lives in boarded up mansions while the owners are away for the season. His latest domicile is the Fifth Avenue mansion of Michael O'Connor (Charles Ruggles). A new interloper in the mansion is a homeless soldier, Jim (Don DeFore), and through him a couple of families with children who also need a place to stay. Popping into the mansion for a coat is O'Connor's daughter, Trudy (Gale Storm), who doesn't tell anyone who she is, and when her father and divorced mother (Ann Harding) show up, swears them to secrecy as well. So the world's richest man pretends to be a bum while a hobo dines on his food and wears his clothing ... only in Hollywood! It Happened on Fifth Avenue is meant to be a frothy, hilarious social comedy, but it falls utterly flat. First of all, no movie can convince anyone that it's better to be a homeless hobo than to have money and security -- of course O'Connor is the stereotype of the rich man who has lost touch with real values -- and the film is miscast and not very funny. Don DeFore could be fine in certain roles such as in Too Late for Tears, but he's not exactly Cary Grant. Pretty Gale Storm is equally competent, but this was before she developed a real flair for comedy as on My Little Margie. Victor Moore and Charlie Ruggles are old pros, as is Ann Harding [The Unknown Man], who is pretty much wasted as Trudy's mother; all are given sub-standard material. Grant Mitchell of The Man Who Came to Dinner is his customary tight-assed self. Alan Hale Jr. [Advance to the Rear], later of Gilligan's Island, is fine as one of Jim's soldier buddies. Although Gale Storm could sing and even cut some recordings in later years, her singing voice is dubbed in this.

Verdict: Almost like watching paint dry. *1/2.

DARK CITY

Lizabeth Scott and Charlton Heston

DARK CITY (1950). Director: William Dieterle.

"We're a great pair. I haven't got a voice and you have no ear."

Danny Haley (Charlton Heston), who has a shady past, participates in a poker game which he thinks is honest but ultimately fleeces a former soldier, Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) of a five thousand dollar check that doesn't belong to him, causing Winant to commit suicide. As Haley dodges questions from Captain Garvey (Dean Jagger) and words of love from smitten songstress Fran (Lizabeth Scott), a mysterious figure with a big ring is murdering all the men who were in the card game. Trying to track down the killer, Haley even becomes involved with Winant's widow, Victoria (Viveca Lindfors) and her little boy, Billy (Mark Keuning). Heston was introduced in this picture and has a certain intensity and ability, even if one couldn't say he was exactly a brilliant performer. Scott and Lindfors are both more than adequate if not incredibly impressive; both have been better. DeFore, Jagger, Ed Begley, Harry Morgan and especially Jack Webb [in a role very different from what he played on Dragnet] give the most notable performances. The characters could all have used a little more dimension, but at least this holds the attention and has a nice ending.

Verdict: Not prime film noir but not without interest. ***.

THE FACTS OF LIFE

THE FACTS OF LIFE (1960). Director: Melvin Frank.

Pasadena housewife Kitty Weaver (Lucille Ball) and neighbor Larry Gilbert (Bob Hope) drift into a (unconsummated) affair while vacationing in Acapulco, and are comically stymied in their attempts to finally be intimate. While there's some attempt to look at middle-class malaise and suburban boredom, this is basically a lighter and more superficial examination of adultery. Recognizing the light approach -- and that her co-star was Bob Hope -- Lucy plays it all in just the right note, and she even manages to create a character who isn't just Lucy Ricardo. On the other hand, Hope gives an over (or under) rehearsed, stilted performance that he practically just phones in for much of the film's running time; Fred MacMurray would probably have been much better in the part. But despite these quibbles, the movie eventually becomes absorbing, thanks to Lucy and the audience's wondering if these two will ever get together in the sack. There are plenty of amusing moments, and even if Hope's performance is less than stellar, he and Lucy still make an interesting team. A very pleasant and entertaining movie despite its obvious flaws. Hope's wife is the attractive Ruth Hussey; Lucy's hubby is the dull Don DeFore.

Verdict: You can hardly go wrong with Lucy. ***.