DUFFY'S TAVERN

Ed Gardner

DUFFY'S TAVERN (1945). Director: Hal Walker.

Archie (Ed Gardner), the manager of the old-fashioned saloon Duffy's tavern, has hired 14 soldiers as waiters in the owner's absence because the record factory where they worked has closed down. O'Malley (Victor Moore) tries to raise money to reopen the factory but the bank won't extend him credit. His daughter, Peggy (Marjorie Reynolds of Up in Mabel's Room), meets and falls for one of the out of work soldiers, Danny (Barry Sullivan), not knowing that Archie is in love with her. Archie finally gets the idea of getting celebrities from a nearby hotel to put on a show and raise the needed capital. Archie acts as master of ceremonies, introducing sketches and song numbers with such guest artists as Betty Hutton, Brian Donlevy, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, and other performers from Paramount studios. 

Billy DeWolfe, Bing, and Betty Hutton

I can imagine how the public must have felt back in 1945 when they went to see a film allegedly starring Bing Crosby, and Der Bingle doesn't even show up until after 80 minutes into the running time! Instead we are treated to dull alleged comedy from Ed Gardner and Victor Moore, one of the unfunniest pairings in film history. Gardner had starred in the radio show Duffy's Tavern, and this picture was a film adaptation; ten years later Gardner starred in a TV sitcom of the same title. Based on his performance in this movie, I can see why Gardner has been completely forgotten -- he also contributed to the largely unfunny screenplay. He might be better known as Shirley Booth's first husband. 

Buck-toothed and brassy: Cass Daley

The last third of the film is somewhat of an improvement although much of it is also nearly unwatchable. Betty Hutton hollers her way through one number, and her less attractive clone Cass Daley (of Red Garters) also screams through a similar number -- both women lamenting the lack of interest they inspire in men. (The question is did Hutton rip off Daley or vice versa?) A terrific dance team temporarily lifts the audience's spirits and there's a quick, mildly amusing sketch with Paulette Goddard, Sonny Tufts, and Brian Donlevy.  The finale features Bing Crosby, first in a cute bio of his life with special guest-stars, and then his rendition of "Swingin' on a Star" with Dorothy Lamour and others joining in. The other generally forgettable songs are by Burke and van Heusen. This is one of the worst of the all-star studio films. Star Spangled Rhythm was a far superior Paramount compendium. 

Verdict: Put on any show but this one! **. 

LULU BELLE

George Montgomery and Dorothy Lamour

LULU BELLE (1948). Director: Leslie Fenton.

Around the turn of the century, new lawyer George Davis (George Montgomery) stops into a tavern to see a client and is mesmerized by the singer there, a lady named Lulu Belle (Dorothy Lamour). Before long he has ditched his practice and fiancee and taken off to New Orleans with her. Lulu Belle loves George, but she also loves money and the good life, and she gets involved with a boxer named Butch (Greg McClure), his wealthy manager, Mark Brady (Albert Dekker). and eventually a really rich married guy named Randolph (Otto Kruger) who brings her to New York where she becomes a Broadway star. The movie begins with a double-shooting, and then the main story is told in flashbacks narrated by George and then Lulu Belle's friend, Molly (Glenda Farrell). Dorothy Lamour is quite good in a role that seems more suited for Yvonne De Carlo, and George Montgomery, in a very winning performance, makes his character more sympathetic than he should be considering the way he ditched his loving girlfriend as well as some of his subsequent actions. Greg McClure [Sky Liner] has possibly his very best role as Butch, and is terrific, and both Dekker and Kruger [Woman Who Came Back] are as smooth and professional as ever. Both Glenda Farrell and Charlotte Wynters offer flavorful support, the latter in the role of Kruger's wife, and Addison Richards makes an effective police commissioner. There are gaps in the story that were presumably left on the cutting room floor but the movie is unusual in that it doesn't end with an expected clinch but has a more realistic wind-up. Director Leslie Fenton started out as an actor in such films as The Public Enemy. He was also Ann Dvorak's first husband. |The character of "Mark Brady" is most likely based on the real Diamond Jim Brady.

Watching Lulu Belle in the wake of the metoo# movement, one can easily see how it not only illustrates how some men can treat women like mere possessions for their sole pleasure, but the other side of the coin as well -- women who go after men for their own advantage, a sort of mutual exploitation.

Verdict: Absorbing romantic melodrama with good performances. ***.  

STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM

Dick Powell and Mary Martin

STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM (1942). Director: George Marshall.

"I just can't make it tonight -- Veronica Lake is going to show me her other eye. " -- Bob Hope.

In this all-star Paramount wartime picture, the main plot has to do with Johnny Webster (Eddie Bracken), a sailor on leave who comes to Hollywood with his buddies. Eddie's father was once "Bronco Billy" Webster (Victor Moore of Carolina Blues), star of silent pictures, but is now reduced to being a guard at the studio gate. Ashamed of this comedown, Billy has lied to his son and told him that he is head of the studio! Eddie's girlfriend, Polly (Betty Hutton of the "craptastic" Betty Hutton Show), helps "Pop" put over the deception but needs some big help from the stars when Pop foolishly promises that his Paramount stars will put on a show for the sailor boys ... Star Spangled Rhythm has some slow stretches -- the whole second half consists almost entirely of acts, including one stop-the-movie-dead skit where four men play poker as if they were women -- but it also has its share of delights, including a hilarious bit when Polly enlists the aid of two men to help her get over the wall of the Paramount studio. Dick Powell and Mary Martin and an uncredited black group (the Mills Brothers?) do an excellent "Dreamtime" number on a train; there's a splendid and rather sexy production number called "Swing Shift" in a factory; and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson stars in another vibrant and all-Black dance number called "Sharp as a Tack." Dorothy Lamour, Veronica Lake, and Paulette Goddard spoof their images in "Sweater, Sarong, and Peekaboo Bang," and Sterling Holloway [Shake, Rattle & Rock], Walter Catlett and Arthur Treacher play the same ladies in drag. William Bendix has a funny shower scene with Bob Hope. Bracken, Hutton, and Moore are all on the money; Walter Abel scores as the real studio head, as does Anne Revere as his secretary; and Cecil B. Demille proves a perfectly adept actor playing himself. Cass Daley does her weird shtick, buck teeth and all. George Marshall keeps the pace fast and makes things visually interesting as well.

Verdict: Enjoyable romp. ***.

SLIGHTLY FRENCH

Don Ameche and Dorothy Lamour

SLIGHTLY FRENCH (1949). Director: Douglas Sirk.

"Goodbye, John. It's been weird knowing you." -- Mary.

French star Yvonne La Tour (Adele Jergens) proves difficult to handle and there seems to be no way to salvage her film after she's been dismissed, a major problem for borderline has-been director John Gayle (Don Ameche) and his boss Douglas Hyde (Willard Parker of What a Woman). But along comes carnival performer Mary (Dorothy Lamour), who can do a fairly convincing French accent. Mary moves in with John and his sister, Louisa (Janis Carter) and is given lessons in being French by Nicolette (Jeanne Manet). Will she be able to pull it off and star in the movie, saving the careers of John and Douglas, and which man will she ultimately fall for? Slightly French is a trifle with decent performances, but it's ironic that Adele Jergens -- as one fan put it, she was the eternal starlet -- is so much prettier and sexier than Lamour, and does her few scenes with that certain scintillating oomph. Jergens [The Fuller Brush Man] was never really given a chance at genuine stardom. The other cast stand-out is Janis Carter [I Love Trouble], who is very snappy and attractive as Louisa. At one point she says, "the only way I'd be happily married is if I were a widow." I believe the song "Let's Fall in Love" was introduced in this picture. This seems an unusual assignment for Douglas Sirk.

Verdict: Pleasant enough. **1/2.

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.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

Cornel Wilde pitches the woo to Betty Hutton

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952). Producer/director: Cecil B. DeMille.

Late in The Greatest Show on Earth, star Betty Hutton (also star of the "craptastic" Betty Hutton Show), playing trapeze artist Holly, is shown doing acrobatics on a cross bar in a parade down Main Street. Or rather Hutton is superimposed over the parade, and you can actually see through her in an embarrassingly cheap process shot. That pretty much encapsulates this whole cheesy movie, which purports to be about circus life. What it actually is -- against a backdrop of Barnum and Bailey/Ringling Brothers circus -- is a tiresome soap opera wherein Holly is in love with manager Brad (Charlton Heston), rival trapeze artist Sebastian (Cornel Wilde) is in love with Holly, and Jimmy Stewart wears clown make up throughout because he's hiding a secret. Dorothy Lamour of Donovan's Reef sings a number or two and is sardonic, while Gloria Grahame, also carrying a torch for Heston, has a good scene trading minor barbs with Hutton. The acting in this isn't bad -- even Hutton is more palatable than usual -- but you may find the elephants far more impressive. Wilde swaggers around with an okay Italian accent and is effective. (Although Wilde is billed over Heston, the latter is featured on the DVD cover due to the vagaries of Hollywood fame.)  There's a not-bad train crash at the climax. DeMille only directed one more movie, The Ten Commandments, four years later.

Verdict: Okay, but Berserk is more fun. **1/2.

DONOVAN'S REEF

John Wayne and Elizabeth Allen

DONOVAN'S REEF (1963). Director: John Ford.

"What young girl of my age doesn't contemplate matrimony?" -- Miss Lafleur [Dorothy Lamour at 49]

On an island in French Polynesia lives bar owner Donovan (John Wayne) and his fighting buddy Gilhooey (Lee Marvin), who are always punching each other out over a long-ago offense neither can remember, and the local doctor Dedham (Jack Warden). While Dedham is off-island his daughter Amelia (Elizabeth Allen) from Boston society, who has never met her father, shows up on the island. [She has been told that Daddy's inheritance will go to her if she can prove moral lapses on his part, but this sub-plot is dropped pretty early, with no mention of it made again.] Donovan is afraid Amelia will have a bad reaction if she discovers that she has three "half-caste" siblings so he pretends the children are his own -- a bad idea. Meanwhile the island's governor (Cesar Romero) learns how much money Miss Dedham has and tries to interfere with her budding romance with Donovan. [When 56-year-old Wayne smooches with 34-year-old Allen, it's like she's kissing her father!] This is a perfectly amiable, minor-league film with more than adequate performances that holds the attention while never quite being side-splitting or terribly dramatic. But while it's sort of a slice-of-life movie in some ways, its presentation of Polynesian ways is rather cliched, and it's nowhere in the league of Ford's How Green Was My Valley. For some reason, Ford doesn't use nearly enough close ups, possibly to minimize the age difference between the romantic leads. Dorothy Lamour isn't given much to do as a saloon entertainer who hopes to marry Gilhooey. Some amusing scenes and beautiful scenery, and Dedham's children are adorable. Allen was basically a theater actress who starred on Broadway in the Richard Rodgers-Stephen Sondheim collaboration Do I Hear a Waltz?

Verdict: This shouldn't work at all but somehow it entertains in spite of itself. ***.

MANHANDLED

MANHANDLED (1949). Director: Lewis R. Foster. 

"I wouldn't dream of depriving you of the opportunity of making a vulgar display of yourself." 

Alton Bennet (Alan Napier), an upper crust type with money problems, sees a psychiatrist (Harold Vermilyea) to tell him of a persistent nightmare he has in which he beats his rather trampy wife (Irene Hervey) to death with a very large perfume bottle. When the woman is murdered during a jewel robbery, the shrink's secretary Merl (Dorothy Lamour) becomes the chief suspect. Sterling Hayden plays Joe Cooper, the insurance investigator assigned to the case, while Art Smith and Irving Bacon are the police officers. Dan Duryea is suitably oily as a supposed friend of Lamour's, and Phillip Reed plays an attractive architect who is Mrs. Bennet's favorite date. Manhandled is no world-beater, but it holds the attention for the most part, has good performances, and some twists up its sleeve that you may not see coming. Napier [Alfred the Butler on Batman] certainly makes an impression as the snooty, oh-so-superior Bennet. Lamour handles this type of material with aplomb. Hervey is also vivid. 

Verdict: More Noir Lite. **1/2.

CHAD HANNA

CHAD HANNA (1940). Director: Henry King.

"Why don't you go back to your pigs -- and stay there!"

In 1841 young Chad Hanna (Henry Fonda) runs off with a small, struggling circus to avoid a sheriff and to court pretty bare back rider Albany Yates (Dorothy Lamour). Caroline (Linda Darnell) also joins the circus to get away from her hateful father (Olin Howlin in a bigger role than usual) and winds up falling for Chad. However, this isn't the usual triangle as both women seem to like and respect one another and there is no stereotypical "bitchiness" between them. Chad Hanna is an amiable comedy-drama detailing the assorted tribulations of the circus as Chad tries to figure out whom he's in love with. Guy Kibbee and Jane Darwell are amusing and excellent as the owner and his wife. Lamour is solid, Darnell gives a lovely performance, and Fonda plays Chad as if the young man were slightly "touched" in the head. Ted North, John Carradine, and Frank Conlon are also notable. Charles Middleton isn't given enough to do as the barely-seen sheriff. Very pleasant and absorbing, and with a memorable score by David Buttolph. Funniest bit has a very hefty Darwell sizing up an elephant and saying "If he ever develops a taste for meat ..."

Verdict: Charming and different. ***.