JULIE

Doris Day and Louis Jourdan 

JULIE (1956). Written and directed by Andrew L. Stone.

Julie Benton (Doris Day) is married to her second husband, Lyle (Louis Jourdan), a famous concert pianist. However, Lyle is not only pathologically jealous, but Julie comes to realize that he may have murdered her first husband, who was supposedly a suicide. Julie seeks help from old friend Cliff Henderson (Barry Sullivan), as well as the police, but their hands are tied. She is convinced that Lyle is going to kill her as he promised ...

Doris Day and Barry Sullivan 

Julie is unusual in that the movie seems to begin in the middle of the story. More often pictures of wives with sinister husbands show the courtship, wedding, and early days of the marriage until it starts going south, but Julie gets off with a bang: our girl rushes off after Lyle has caused an off-screen scene at a gathering. This is followed by a well-done and exciting sequence in which Lyle and Julie drive off and Lyle nearly causes the car they're in to crash as it goes crazily careening down a coastal highway.

Day is in control!

The often under-rated Doris Day gives a very vivid and convincing performance as the tormented and frightened heroine, who finds herself in a terrifying position faced by many women whose husbands and boyfriends refuse to let them go and are psychopathic to boot. Jourdan may underplay too much, but he's effective enough as Lyle, and Sullivan is more than solid as the concerned Henderson. The movie's climax, in which stewardess Day winds up piloting an airliner, may seem absurd (although it actually plays out convincingly), but it's generally tense and very well acted by all. One could argue, however, that it might have been better if the wife vs psychopath scenario had played out in a more intimate manner.

Julie is well-directed by Andrew L. Stone, who keeps things moving so the audience won't ask too many questions, and Leith Stevens' [The Bigamist] score is effective backup to the proceedings. Frank Lovejoy (a cop), Ann Robinson (another stewardess on the plane), Jack Kelly ( a co-pilot) and Barney Phillips (a doctor on the flight), among others, are good in supporting parts. Aline Towne, Pamela Duncan, and Mae Marsh appear in smaller roles. Four years later Day played another terrified spouse in the equally entertaining Midnight Lace. Stone also directed the creditable Steel Trap.

Verdict: Doris in the cockpit! ***.

THOSE FORGOTTEN PRIVATE EYE SHOWS

Frank Lovejoy as McGraw

THOSE FORGOTTEN PRIVATE EYE SHOWS.

Most baby boomers will have heard of and possibly even seen such well-known private eye/adventurer shows as Peter Gunn with Craig Stevens, Michael Shayne with Richard Denning, Mike Hammer with Darren McGavin, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective with David Janssen, among others. But back in the fifties and sixties there were a whole bunch of private detective shows that resurface from time to time on DVD or on youtube, but which never quite caught on with the public, or at least are not too well remembered all these decades later. For instance:

Meet McGraw, also known as The Adventures of McGraw, lasted for one season and 42 episodes in 1957. Frank Lovejoy [The Crooked Web] plays a sort of private eye who gets involved in various adventures. Lovejoy was good in the part, and first played the character on an episode of Singer's Five Star Playhouse entitled "One for the Road." In this Audrey Totter plays a woman who supposedly wants protection from her jealous husband. Very few episodes of this show are available. The first one I saw, "The Fighter," about a boxer who is inexplicably nervous about his upcoming match, is supposed to be one of the best but is mediocre. Much better is "Ballerina," an interestingly convoluted piece with someone apparently trying to frame a dancer's husband for nefarious acts, with Hans Conreid as guest-star. I liked Lovejoy and hope someday to come across more episodes of this series. **1/2.

Philip Carey as Marlowe, outfitted with scar

Philip Marlowe is, of course, Raymond Chandler's famous private eye, but this 1959 show only lasted for one season and 26 episodes. Philip Carey [Zane Grey Theater] is fine in the part, and the show seems interesting. In "The Ugly Duckling" the mistress (Barbara Bain) of a married man is murdered and his wife (Virginia Gregg) is arrested; Marlowe tries to find out who really killed the woman. In "Murder is a Grave Affair" Gene Nelson plays a director with a dismissive wife (Betsy Jones-Moreland) whose delusional girlfriend is found murdered. Both episodes are good enough to make me wish more were available. **1/2.

The Files of Jeffrey Jones (aka From the Files of Jeffrey Jones) only lasted for 16 episodes in 1952. I have seen one episode, "Pigeon Hunt," which has L.A. private investigator Jones (Don Haggerty) investigating when a boxer he knows tells him that he is afraid he might have murdered a woman while under the influence. Lyle Talbot plays his manager, and Alix Talton is a hard broad who is also involved in the case. Tristram Coffin plays a cop on the show. This episode was good enough to make me want to see more. There's a lively and amusing fight scene between Jones and a hulking bouncer in this one. **1/2.

Don Haggarty and Patricia Morison

Don Haggarty [Footsteps in the Night] also starred in another 1952 series, and this one lasted just 13 episodes: The Cases of Eddie Drake. In this Haggarty plays a more traditional hard-boiled private eye; he also plays the role in a sexy fashion that has him practically leering at any woman he encounters. An interesting feature of this short-lived series in that the episodes unfold as flashbacks being told by Drake to a pretty lady shrink played by Patricia Morison. I've seen only one episode of the show, "Shoot the Works," and it is terrific, making me wish more of these classics were available. In "Shoot the Works" a wealthy, cheating wife hires Drake to find a watch given to her by her husband, but which was stolen during a robbery at a casino. The story has a number of interesting plot twists, real snappy dialogue, and is very well-acted by all, with Haggarty playing Drake in just the right note. A radio show entitled The Cases of Mr. Ace and starring George Raft used the same device of having the private eye tell his stories to a shrink, and may have been the basis for this program. Haggarty would have made a terrific Michael Shayne. ***.

Lee Bowman as Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen, or The Adventures of Ellery Queen, debuted live on the Dumont network in 1950 with Richard Hart playing Queen. The character of Ellery Queen -- a novelist and amateur sleuth whose father is a police inspector -- is not forgotten, of course; in fact Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is still being published. However, today people are more likely to remember the 70's Ellery Queen TV series than any other. The 1950's show lasted several seasons, with Lee Bowman [Next Time I Marry] eventually replacing Hart as the protagonist. Four or so seasons in, the show changed its name to Murder Is My Business, and Hugh Marlowe was cast as Queen. In 1959 there came a new series, The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen, this time starring George Nader as the hero.

Ellery Queen was a bit primitive, with that old organ music and all, but Hart and Bowman were both fine as variations of the character. Judging from the very few episodes I've seen, the show had some good scripts. In "The Hanging Acrobat" Kurt Katch makes an impression as the trapeze artist Hugo, whose wife is strangled. "Death Spins a Wheel," in which a piano player is murdered near a nightclub that may be a front for a counterfeiting racket, features another knock-put performance by Robert H. Harris as the club owner; this time he's affecting a very convincing accent. In "The Adventure of the Man Who Enjoyed Death," a mentally-disturbed district attorney, who lost a case due to Queen's testimony, gets even with him by playing a cat and mouse game in which he strangles a series of women. John Newland, best known as the host of One Step Beyond, is very good as the D.A. In "Buck Fever" Queen gets involved in murder and corruption when a deputy is shot while deer hunting and the detective is initially accused. "Murder to Music" features Jerome Cowan as a maestro whose crippled wife seems neurotic and dangerous to his protege, a pretty young pianist named Anita, but she may be up to something. Cowan is as terrific as ever but the show is stolen by the excellent actress who plays Anita, but whose identity I could not uncover although I tried several sources. ***.

Updated on 9/25/2018. 

THREE SECRETS

Eleanor Parker and Patricia Neal

THREE SECRETS (1950). Director: Robert Wise.

"Is he going to be surprised! You know what his grounds [for divorce] were? He said I wasn't a woman!" -- Phyllis, on learning that she's pregnant.

A plane crashes on a mountain and the only survivor is a little boy. As rescue workers prepare for the dangerous two mile ascent, three women arrive on the scene, all of them wondering if the child is the one they gave up for adoption. The little boy was born on the same day as their child, and came from the same orphanage. Susan (Eleanor Parker) is afraid her marriage may not survive if her husband (Leif Ericson) learns she had a child out of wedlock. Phyllis (Patricia Neal) was a war correspondent whose husband (Frank Lovejoy) left her because she was never home and wouldn't conform to being a traditional wife; she learns she is pregnant after he remarries. Ann (Ruth Roman) gave birth to a boy fathered by a conscienceless wealthy man who paid the ultimate price for his callousness. Three Secrets concentrates on the emotional turmoil of the women's lives and not on the harrowing details of the rescue of the boy, which would have been a completely different picture. The three leading ladies all give fine performances, with Parker and Neal being especially notable. Katherine Warren is also good as Susan's mother, and Kenneth Tobey appears briefly as an army officer who catches Susan with her soldier boyfriend (Arthur Franz). The film's premise is contrived but irresistible, but some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt. An orphanage might acquire three baby boys on the same day in a big city, but all three women basically arrive there at the same time, and how likely is it that Phyllis will remember Susan, who she barely speaks to, five years later, reporter or no. But these are minor concerns: the picture plays beautifully, is very well-acted and well-directed, and has a very moving conclusion. David Buttolph's score disconcertingly reworks the melody of "I Get a Kick Out of You." Although it's been unfairly compared to it, this is completely different from A Letter to Three Wives. This was remade for television in 1999.

Verdict: Oh a higher plateau than the usual soap opera. ***1/2.

THE CROOKED WEB

Lovejoy, Blanchard and Denning on the road

THE CROOKED WEB (1955). Director: Nathan Juran.

Joanie (Mari Blanchard) works for boyfriend Stanley (Frank Lovejoy) in his drive-in. Along comes her ne'er-do-well brother Frank (Richard Denning) who knows a way they can all make a lot of money if Stanley is willing to kick in. Thus begins a saga that eventually lands the trio in post-war Germany. The best thing about The Crooked Web is the first half hour which has more than one twist that turns bad guys into good guys and vice versa. [Warning: the imdb.com synopsis gives the twist away, as it often does.] The rest is a fairly routine crime melodrama that has a modicum of suspense but is comparatively flat. The three lead performances are all quite good, however, with Blanchard especially zesty as the gal who's looking for "security" any way she can get it. Harry Lauter [Trader Tom of the China Seas] is an Army sergeant, and Roy Gordon [War of the Colossal Beast] plays the father of a murdered M.P.

Verdict: If only the twists had kept coming ... **1/2.