MEET THE STEWARTS

Frances Dee and William Holden

MEET THE STEWARTS (1942). Director: Alfred E. Green. 

Candy (Frances Dee of Mr. Scoutmaster) practically blackmails Michael (William Holden of Picnic) into proposing, an idea he resists because he wants to be able to support her on his own. This works out fine, because Candy's wealthy father, Mr. Goodwin (Grant Mitchell of It Happened on Fifth Avenue) has no intention of supporting his daughter once she's married. The newlyweds struggle to make ends meet, live in a house they can't quite afford, wind up in debt to a country club to which Candy thought she still belonged, and argue endlessly about finances. Will these two be able to settle their differences, or are they headed for divorce court?

Money, money, money

Meet the Stewarts is a perfectly pleasant if forgettable trifle that examines the usual problems young couples face such as finances, jealousy, meddling in-laws and the like. The film is mildly amusing, but it could have been very funny with different leads. While Dee and Holden are more-than-competent players they are not skilled comic actors -- Jack Lemmon, Cary Grant and others could have gotten more out of the frequently funny lines. A better impression is made by Grant Mitchell as the father and Anne Revere as Michael's blunt, no-nonsense sister, Geraldine. Margaret Hamilton has a few amusing moments as the maid, Willametta (as if struggling couples could afford a maid!). The film shows its age when one fellow proudly says "all wives have to be smacked around now and then." Alfred E. Green was a busy director who helmed a wide variety of pictures, including several Bette Davis films such as Dangerous. 

Verdict: Just nothing special in this mild comedy which at least boasts one rousing fist-fight that would not have been out of place in a cliffhanger serial. **1/2. 

BECKY SHARP

Miriam Hopkins and Frances Dee

BECKY SHARP (1935). Director: Rouben Mamoulian.

Becky Sharp (Mariam Hopkins), a charity case in a finishing school, goes off with her wealthy friend Amelia (Frances Dee of I Walked with a Zombie) where she hopes to become affianced to Amelia's portly brother, Joseph (Nigel Bruce). Things don't go quite the way Becky expected, but she advances in society due to her looks, her aggressiveness, and many compliant men, including the Marquis of Sheyne (Cedric Hardwicke) and her husband, Rawdon Crawley (Alan Mowbray), whom she seems to love sincerely. But Becky's scheming may eventually undo her ...

Miriam Hopkins and Alan Mowbray

This version of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, filmed in early Technicolor, is amusing and engaging. Hopkins demonstrates true star quality, although her performance is at times overwrought and overly theatrical, yet she always plays with undeniable passion. It's hard to see Alan Mowbray [Dante], better known as a comic foil than anything else, as a romantic figure, but he is as good as ever, as is Hardwicke. Frances Dee is fine as Amelia, even though her character is allowed no real fireworks even when she thinks her husband is carrying on with Becky. Nigel Bruce offers one of his best portrayals as Joseph, and Alison Skipworth is a riot as Rawdon Crawley's peppery Aunt Julia. Billie Burke has a small role, and Mrs. Leslie Carter is lost in a crowd with no lines. (Five years later Hopkius would play Carter in Lady with Red Hair.) An exciting sequence takes place at a ball when Napoleon arrives at the nearby village of Waterloo.

Verdict: An arresting if uneven performance by Hopkins in an absorbing, fast-paced adaptation of a classic novel. ***. 

MR. SCOUTMASTER

Scene-stealers: George "Foghorn" Winslow and Clifton Webb

MR. SCOUTMASTER (aka Mister Scoutmaster/1953). Director: Henry Levin.

Robert Jordan (Clifton Webb) has an intellectual TV show, but the ratings are dropping because it doesn't appeal to children. Jordan decides to correct this by getting to know the little darlings, and when the old scoutmaster flees, he takes over the man's position. At first the boy scouts are mightily unimpressed by Jordan, but he does manage to bond -- sort of -- with the littlest cub scout, Mike (George "Foghorn" Winslow), an adorable kid who doesn't quite have the propensity for telling the truth. As Jordan's lovely wife Helen (Frances Dee) begins falling in love with Mike, Jordan discovers the rather dismal reality of the youngster's home life, but can't get past the fact that he was lied to. Will his much, much wiser and warmer wife be able to break through her husband's stony reserve and get him to admit his feelings for the child? Mr. Scoutmaster boasts several fine performances, from the always-excellent Webb, the delightfully deadpan Winslow, the warm and winning Dee [So Ends Our Night], and Edmund Gwenn [Them] as Dr. Stone, as well as a host of talented youngsters. Veda Ann Borg also scores as little Mike's slattern of an aunt. This is a cute and funny picture, but I have to say. softie that I am, that it also gave me a lump in my throat. Webb and Gwenn also appeared together in For Heaven's Sake.

Verdict: Sentimental, moving, and amusing in equal measure. ***.

BECAUSE OF YOU

Jeff Chandler gives one of his best performances

BECAUSE OF YOU (1952). Director: Joseph Pevney.

Flashy Christine Carroll (Loretta Young) is given a package by her fiance, Mike (Alex Nicol), and suddenly finds herself arrested and in jail despite her truthful protestations of innocence. She trains to be a nurse in prison and winds up ministering to a handsome vet named Steve Kimberly (Jeff Chandler), with whom she falls in love and vice versa. Her parole officer (Helen Wallace) warns her that Steve must be informed of her prison record before they can marry, so an apprehensive Christine manages to get around this, and a child soon follows. Then Mike comes back into her life and everything starts unraveling ... Because of You is an entertaining soap opera that soon becomes a study of frustrated mother love, with good performances from Young (in a Joan Crawford-type role) and Chandler, who is at his best in this. Notable supporting players include Alexander Scourby as a doctor at the veteran's hospital; Frances Dee as Steve's lovely sister, Susan; Lynne Roberts as his friend, Rosemary; Gayle Reed as little Kim; and Arthur Space as a judge. Pevny also directed Chandler in Female on the Beach and Foxfire.

Verdict: Pleasant enough if unremarkable soaper with two solid lead performances. **1/2. 

SO ENDS OUR NIGHT

SO ENDS OUR NIGHT (1941). Director: John Cromwell.

"When she dies, I'm done for anyway."

Based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Flotsam this deals with the plight of Jewish and other political refugees from Germany just before the Nazi occupation of Austria, and then France. Josef Steiner (Fredric March) is wanted by German authorities for political actions and is afraid that his wife (Frances Dee), whom he must leave behind when he flees, will suffer because of his actions. Their long-distance relationship takes a back seat to the burgeoning love affair between two of Steiner's friends, Ludwig (Glenn Ford) and Ruth (Margaret Sullavan), both of whom are Jewish. As we see the difficulties these and others have because they are official non-persons without passports, the film builds up to a situation in which both couples are in crisis, cruelly separated, with Steiner and Ruth each racing desperately to be with the one person in the world they love above all others. Ford and Sullavan make a more compelling team than you would imagine, and March, while he "acts" a bit too much, has some excellent moments as well; Sullavan is as splendid as ever. Dee hasn't as much to do as the others but makes full use of a very expressive face. There are a host of fine character actors as well, including Erich von Stoheim as a German police officer. This film is yet another that shows that Glenn Ford was not just a merely competent pretty-boy, but an accomplished and versatile performer. Louis Gruenberg's score is a little weird at times, but overall is very effective. Two scenes stand out: Ludwig trying to sell some meagre possessions to two extremely weird old sisters, and an unexpected and very dramatic murder-suicide that comes late in the picture.

Verdict: Imperfect, perhaps, but intelligent, adult fare with fine performances. ***1/2.  

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE

I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943). Director: Jacques Tourneur.

One of the better-known horror films produced by Val Lewton, this is typically tasteful, moody and interesting, if it never quite jells. Although Lewton is said to have appropriated the plot of Jane Eyre for the movie -- and there are plot similarities -- this is really nothing like Jane Eyre (the first film version with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, with a score by Bernard Herrmann, is far superior to this, for one thing). Frances Dee comes to Haiti to care for Jessica Holland, who acts as if she's been lobotomized but supposedly suffers from the disastrous effects of a fever. Dee learns that there is bad blood between her husband Paul (Tom Conway) and his half brother Wesley (James Ellison) because Jessica and Wesley had been planning on running away together. Conway is supposed to be such a fine man -- and Jessica a viper -- but we never really get to learn her side of things, and Paul -- although Conway's performance is good -- never seems like that nice a fellow. Dee is fine, but James Ellison is a little too lightweight to convincingly get across Wesley's torment over the sad fate of the woman he illicitly loved. Edith Barrett (one of the wives of Vincent Price) nearly steals the picture as Wesley and Paul's mother. There is some very interesting dialogue in Curt Siodmak's screenplay, such as when Conway tells Dee that most of the inhabitants of St. Sebastian were brought over in slave ships and had miserable lives. Which is why they "weep when a child is born and make merry at a funeral." The atmospheric photography is by J. Roy Hunt. Of the African-American cast members, Theresa Harris as the maid, Alma, and calypso singer Sir Lancelot, make the best impression, while Darby Jones certainly has a memorably eerie look as the purported "zombie" Carrefour. There is much to admire in I Walked with a Zombie, but if you're not tuned into its charms, you're liable to think it's much ado about nothing.

Verdict: Okay, but give Jane Eyre a try, too. **1/2.