SING BOY SING

Tommy Sands and Nick Adams

SING BOY SING (1958). Producer/Director: Henry Ephron. Colorized. 

Singer Virgil Walker (Tommy Sands) is becoming a big star with the teenybopper set and his manager, Joseph Sharkey (Edmond O'Brien of The Bigamist), is doing his best to run his career -- and his life. Sharkey is especially concerned that Virgil's revivalist grandfather (John McIntire) will be a bad influence on him, as the old man thinks Virgil's singing and shaking makes him a "sinner." Sharkey's employee, Arnold (Jerry Paris of The Glass Wall), does his best to run interference, but Sharkey really can't tolerate former delivery boy C.K. (Nick Adams), whom a lonely Virgil puts on his payroll and turns into a buddy. When the grandfather has a heart attack, Sharkey tries to prevent Virgil from going home, but the whole gang, including C.K. gets on a plane ... 

Edmond O'Brien and Jerry Paris

It would be easy to assume that Sing Boy Sing is the story of Elvis Presley and manager Colonel Tom Parker, except that Tommy Sands was also a client of Parker's and many of these rags to riches show biz stories have similar elements. Sing Boy Sing is entertaining and its mostly due to the performances. As an actor Sands is better than a singer, and I found his vocal style -- at least in this flick -- to be severely off-putting. O'Brien and Paris are both excellent, and Nick Adams nearly walks off with the movie in his colorful turn as the amiable, Hillbilly-like C.K. Although top-billed with Sands, Lili Gentle makes little impression as his sort-of girlfriend in her brief scenes with him; she made one more movie then retired. (Gentle made a much better impression in the previous year's Young and Dangerous.) 

Tommy Sands as Virgil

Regis Toomey of Burke's Law shows up as Rev. Easton, and Josephine Hutchinson is another cast stand-out as Virgil's aunt, who has a great speech talking of how her father pretty much ruined her life with all his talk of "sin" and won't allow the same thing to happen to Virgil. There are several song numbers in the movie, but they are all pretty much forgettable. Sing Boy Sing was not a "B" movie but a Twentieth-century Fox release in CinemaScope (albeit in black and white). 

Verdict: Despite its flaws and an uneven lead performance, this is an entertaining flick. ***. 

THE WORLD WAS HIS JURY

Paul Birch 

THE WORLD WAS HIS JURY (1958). Director: Fred F. Sears. Colorized. 

During the party for the last night of the voyage of a luxury liner, Captain Barrett (Robert McQueeney) is accidentally struck on the head and appears drunk when he staggers onto the bridge. A fire causes much loss of life and serious injuries, and the ship sinks as well. Barrett then finds himself accused of dozens of charges of manslaughter, not just facing the loss of his career but decades in prison. Assisted by private eye Tony Armand (John Beradino), attorney David Carson (Edmond O'Brien of The Bigamist) decides to defend Barrett, something which even his wife, Robin (Mona Freeman of That Brennan Girl) -- who thinks he has been defending far too many creepy guilty people -- is against. Carson will discover that it will be an uphill battle to prove that his client isn't guilty of criminal negligence, and the damaging testimony of officer Martin Ranker (Paul Birch of Not of This Earth) certainly won't help.

Mona Freeman and Edmond O'Brien

The World Was His Jury not only has an interesting and completely absorbing storyline, but it features fine performances from (as expected) O'Brien but also from the rest of the cast. Paul Birch is outstanding and riveting as Ranker, who is forced to give negative testimony despite his alleged friendship with the defendant. Richard H. Cutting (of Seven Were Saved) and Harvey Stephens (of The Flight that Disappeared) score respectively as the prosecuting attorney and the no-nonsense judge. There's also nice work from McQueeney, Mona Freeman and  Karin Booth as the captain's wife. Director Sears [Earth vs the Flying Saucers] passed away before the film was released, and this was Freeman's last movie, although she frequently appeared on television afterwards. McQueeney was primarily a television actor. 

Verdict: Highly interesting drama with an excellent cast -- and Paul Birch makes the grade! ***.

THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA

Humphrey Bogart and Ava Gardner

THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (1954). Written, produced, and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. 

Spanish dancer Maria Vargas is turned into a movie star by spoiled wealthy producer Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens of The Price of Fear), famous director Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart), who has been on the wagon for several months, and ass-licking public relations man Oscar Muldoon (Edmond O'Brien). The beautiful Maria is desired by a great many men, including the South American millionaire Alberto Bravano (Marius Goring), and Italian Count Torlato-Favrini (Rossano Brazzi), but she has other dalliances with men not quite as rich. One of these dalliances will lead to tragedy ... 

The Barefoot Contessa opens with Maria's funeral, so you know her fate from the first, and the movie's flashbacks show how she got there. There isn't much about the picture-making process, and Maria -- although she stars in three films in a row -- is never shown on a set, nor do we see Dawes working his magic on his star. One of the most interesting sequences purports to show Maria dancing in a nightclub, although we never actually see Maria, only the varying reactions from the people in the audience, an audacious touch. (Later on Maria is shown dancing with a gypsy in the forest.) A lot about Maria's character is given away in drips and drabs. Gardner is really required only to be beautiful and sensual and a bit enigmatic, and she carries this off quite well, although it could not be called great acting. On the other hand, Bogart gives one of his best performances in this. O'Brien won an Oscar for his supporting performance, although it's well within his rather wide range. Stevens and especially Goring are both fine as dueling millionaires, and their sallies at one another at a party makes for one of the most arresting sequences in the movie. Edwards seems to derive no joy from his money, while Bravano enjoys life to the fullest. Rossano Brazzi is certainly a very handsome fellow, but in this film his performance lacks passion, although one could argue that he is playing a highly depressed character who probably has trouble getting excited about anything, except perhaps Maria, from whom he keeps a terrible secret.

Warren Stevens and Ava Gardner

There are some solid supporting performances in the picture: Mari Aldon as Myrna, who is badly mistreated by Edwards; Diana Decker [Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary?] as a drunken blonde at a party who gets into it with Maria; Elizabeth Sellars [The Chalk Garden] as Jerry, a script girl who is Dawes' girlfriend; Valentina Cortese as Brazzi's sister; young Enzo Staiola [The Bicycle Thief] as a busboy with an eye for the ladies; Franco Interlenghi as Maria's brother, Pedro; Carlo Dale in a sexy, insinuating silent performance as Brazzi's chauffeur and Maria's lover; and former silent star Bessie Love as a patron at what is probably meant to be the casino at Monte Carlo. 

The Barefoot Contessa is an entertaining and absorbing picture, but there may be less here than meets the eye. Mankiewicz' targets are pretty familiar: wealthy movie producers who never worked a day in their lives and have no real taste; glamorous movie stars who seem to have no appreciation of their careers and what it's given them: oily publicists; the idle rich and the European jet set; and so on. Still, there are some amusing and trenchant observations scattered throughout the picture, along with some great dialogue. The situation with Maria and the count is a pathetic and intriguing one as well. The ending, in which Bogart is saddened by Maria's death but displays no anger at her killer is odd, but may be indicative of the production code's edict that adulterers must be punished. It's a major weakness in the movie. Marlon Brando was originally sought for the part played by Bogart, but I can't imagine Brando in the role. 

Verdict: Colorful picture that is not exactly about the picture business. ***.

THE KILLERS

Virginia Christine, Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner

THE KILLERS (1946). Director: Robert Siodmak.

Torpedoes Max (William Conrad) and Al (Charles McGraw) come to the town of Brentwood and (improbably) announce to people in the diner that they are going to kill a guy known as the Swede or Pete Lund (Burt Lancaster), which they do. The rest of the film presents assorted flashbacks from various points-of-view as insurance investigator Jim Reardon (Edmund O'Brien) tries to find out more about "Lund" and the reasons for his murder. Reardon hooks up with former cop Sam Lubinsky (Sam Levene) and discovers that the latter's old friend the Swede, actually Ole Anderson, a former boxer, was mixed up in a robbery plot as well as with a beautiful if duplicitous female named Kitty (Ava Gardner). But before Reardon's investigation is over, those two torpedoes just may have more work to do. 

Waiting for death: Burt Lancaster

The Killers is a fine and memorable piece of film noir. In his very first film, Lancaster gives a strong performance and he is backed up by an old pro in O'Brien. Conrad and McGraw certainly make in impression in their brief but chilling appearances. Levene and Virginia Christine (Anderson's old girlfriend and now Lubinsky's wife) are solid as well. And then there's Ava Gardner in her 27th film, but clearly still growing as an actress. She makes a good impression in the early scenes but doesn't quite cut it in her climactic moments. There are good turns from Phil Brown [Weird Woman] as Nick Adams, Vince Barnett as old Charleston, Albert Dekker as the architect of the robbery plot, Donald MacBride as Reardon's boss, Jack Lambert [The Unsuspected] as a member of the gang, Queenie Smith as Queenie, Anderson's sole beneficiary, and especially Jeff Corey as Blinky. (Charles Middleton plays a farmer but I didn't spot him.) Although Anderson is in some ways an unsympathetic character, you can't help but feel sorry for the miserable way in which he is played for a sucker. The Killers boasts an evocative score by Miklos Rozsa and fine photography by Elwood (Woody) Bredell. 

Verdict: Totally absorbing, very well-acted crime drama. ***1/4. 

THE LAST VOYAGE

Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone

THE LAST VOYAGE (1960). Written and directed by Andrew L. Stone.

Robert Adams (George Sanders) is the captain of the cruise liner SS Claridon, which will be retired after only five more voyages. Adams is hoping that he will be given a new ship and a promotion, and is therefore reluctant to see a major problem when a fire breaks out in the hold. Unfortunately, this fire leads to an explosion that not only causes a number of deaths, but traps one lady, Laurie Henderson (Dorothy Malone), under a piece of steel in her shattered cabin. As the captain and crew argue about what to do next, Laurie's husband Cliff (Robert Stack) tries to get someone, anyone, to help him free his wife before the ship goes down, and also importunes a compassionate crew member, Lawson (Woody Strode), to get his little girl, Jill (Tammi Marihugh), into a lifeboat.

Strode, little Marihugh and Stack

Part of the reason that this gut-wrenching disaster film works so well is that it was filmed not on a Hollywood sound stage but on the SS Ile de France, which was retired the previous year. The ship was partially sunk and these sequences certainly add a chilling veracity to the proceedings. The climax with surviving characters racing to get off the boat as gallons of water wash down the corridors and over the decks is thrilling and fantastic. Not only is there the horrible dilemma of whether or not Cliff can leave his wife to die so that he can be a father to their child -- Laurie even contemplates suicide to free him from that choice --  but at one point the little girl is trapped herself over a huge hole in the floor.

George Sanders

There is also some first-rate acting from such players as Malone, Sanders and Strode, although Stack hardly gets across the desperation that his character would be feeling. Edmond O'Brien is fine as the chief engineer, who clashes bitterly with the captain in one especially effective sequence. Little Tammi Marihugh is a natural performer, and when she has to crawl on a board over a deep pit you have to wonder if she was actually acting or not; she certainly out-acts Stack. There are several very good supporting performances as well from such as Jack Kruschen, George Furness, Marshall Kent, and others.

Woody Strode 

The action in The Last Voyage starts even before the credits begin and never lets up, so the screenplay doesn't have much room for character development, but some of the actors are able to get it across in any case. We don't learn that much about Laurie and Cliff, but Lawson emerges as a brave and highly sympathetic figure and Sanders etches a classic portrait of the man in authority who is too concerned about his job and appearances to make sure that people are safe, and we all know how many people there are who fit that description. Andrew L. Stone also directed Doris Day in Julie. Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone were previously teamed in Written on the Wind.

Verdict: Highly entertaining and often nerve-wracking suspense film. ***1/2. 

WHITE HEAT

Margaret Wycherly and James Cagney

WHITE HEAT (1949). Director: Raoul Walsh.

Cody Jarrett (James Cagney) is head of a gang that robs a train, a robbery in which four people are murdered. Hiding out with his cronies, as well as his devoted mother, Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly) -- who is nearly as tough as he is --  and not-so-devoted wife, Verna (Virginia Mayo), Cody conceives of a plot to keep him from being sent to death row by copping to a comparatively minor robbery that he didn't commit. In stir for two years, Cody meets a fellow prisoner, Vic Pardo (Edmond O'Brien), who is actually undercover cop Hank Fallon, and learns from his beloved Ma that Verna has run off with Big Ed Somers (Steve Cochran), who wants to take over Cody's gang. Cody makes up his mind to get out and take care of Big Ed and everyone else ... White Heat is a slick, well-directed, and fast-paced crime thriller that features excellent performances across the board, with Cagney charismatically playing a mentally-deranged killer who suffers debilitating attacks from time to time (these sequences are handled very well by Cagney). Wycherly [Keeper of the Flame] manages to etch a highly effective portrait of Cody's mother without descending into caricature, and Mayo offers one of her best performances as the duplicitous if clever Verna; Cochran also makes an impression as her easily-discarded lover. There's also nice work from John Archer [No Man's Woman] as the head cop on the case, and Fred Clark [Back from Eternity] as one of Cody's confederates. Sid Hickox' cinematography is first-rate, and Max Steiner, whose genius wasn't limited to romantic pictures, offers a memorably tense and very exciting score for the picture. This has a classic ending with Cagney hollering "Top of the World, Ma!" at the top of a refinery.

Verdict: Brisk, tense, entertaining crime picture with a powerful Cagney performance. ***.

A DOUBLE LIFE

Shelley Winters and Ronald Colman

A DOUBLE LIFE (1947). Director: George Cukor.

Anthony John (Ronald Colman) is a well-known theater actor who is divorced from, but still in love with, his ex-wife, Brita (Signe Hasso of A Reflection of Fear). They have remained friends and co-workers and decide to do their rendition of Shakespeare's Othello. Never too tightly wrapped to begin with, Anthony begins unraveling as the successful show goes on month after month, developing an intense jealousy over Brita (and a publicist named Bill played by Edmond O'Brien), that threatens to rival Othello's equally unfounded jealousy over Desdemona. Is someone going to pay the ultimate price for Anthony's madness, and who will it be? A Double Life has a famous star -- Colman won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance -- and director, but the movie is successful neither as drama nor suspense film. The characters in the script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin are too superficial to make us actually care about anyone, and there is no real tension in the movie, Shelley Winters plays a waitress that Colman dallies with, but this very good actress is hardly given enough to work with in her two brief scenes with the star. Signe Hasso comes off better as Desdemona than Colman does in his okay but often hammy interpretation of Othello. There are people who really love this movie (they go on about it as if were along the lines of he actual Othello) and Colman's performance, but I think Colman has given better performances in much better pictures than this. Betsy Blair has a nice bit as a hopeful actress, and Ray Collins, Whit Bissell, and Joe Sawyer also have minor supporting roles. Cukor has directed better melodramas than this, including Gaslight and A Woman's Face. In the final sequence Hasso seems to be indulging in a bit of silent movie acting! I believe Colman's Oscar was given for his body of work. This bears some similarities to the earlier The Brighton Strangler, which some may actually consider the better movie..

Verdict: See a performance of Othello instead. **.

THE TURNING POINT (1952)

Alexis Smith and William Holden

THE TURNING POINT (1952). Director: William Dieterle.

"I don't need a speech about honor or integrity -- from either one of you." -- John Conroy.

John Conroy (Edmond O'Brien) is a special prosecutor determined to break the hold that the rackets have on his city. Unfortunately, his good friend, reporter Jerry McKibbon (William Holden), has discovered that Conroy's own father, Matt (Tom Tully of Where the Sidewalk Ends), is a crooked cop in the employ of mobster Neil Eichelberger (Ed Begley), Conroy's chief antagonist. Adding to Conroy's troubles is the fact that his girlfriend and co-worker Amanda (Alexis Smith of Whiplash) is falling for Jerry and vice versa. There's a lot going on in The Turning Point -- a "B" movie with an "A" cast from Paramount and not Republic-- but much of it is handled in so perfunctory a manner that you wonder why the sub-plots -- Conroy's father being secretly corrupt; the love triangle -- were even introduced; Jerry is especially under-developed as a character. Still, the movie has interesting aspects and is well-acted, especially by Begley and Adele Longmire as the terrified witness, Carmelina. Carolyn Jones has a nice turn as another ditsy witness, and Russell Johnson [Attack of the Crab Monsters] briefly plays a cold-blooded hit man, as does Neville Brand. O'Brien's unemotional, reigned-in performance may fit the stoic character, but it also makes it harder to sympathize with someone who's having a really lousy year. The movie cries out for a good musical score, which it doesn't get.

Verdict: Borderline film noir with intriguing situations but it's perhaps less effective than some cheaper movies without major stars. **1/2.