HE LAUGHED LAST

Frankie Laine and Lucy Marlow

HE LAUGHED LAST (1956). Director: Blake Edwards. 

When prohibition mobster Big Dan Hennessy (Alan Reed of I, the Jury) is wiped out by an ambitious underling, Max (Jesse White), the latter discovers that the dead man has left everything to an employee, singer-dancer Rosie (Lucy Marlow), including his stake in all of his rackets. This causes problems for Rosie because she is engaged to a cop, Jimmy Murphy (Richard Long). Surveying all this while having little impact on events is the late Dan's benign henchman, Gino Lupo (Frankie Laine), who also sings now and then. Max cooks up the idea of having handsome dancer Dominic Rodriguez (Anthony Dexter of Fire Maidens of Outer Space) become Rosie's partner and romance her, hoping to win her heart and hand and control of the rackets for Max. But Rosie may have other plans. 

Dick Long with Marlow

After the success of the film version of Guys and Dolls the previous year, there were all sorts of Damon Runyonesque-type stories featuring comical gangsters, of which He Laughed Last is one of the worst. Despite the title, the movie has virtually no laughs, and no one in the cast is remotely amusing. Frankie Laine, whose character doesn't really have much to do in the story, has no great comic skill, Jesse White is as annoying and unfunny as ever, Richard Long is certainly no comedian, and although Lucy Marlow plays it cute she's not a barrel of laughs, either. Blake Edwards script is, in a word, a stinker, an idea that should never have seen the light of day. 

Marlow with Anthony Dexter

He Laughed Last is not an actual musical, although Marlow is given two numbers and Laine sings a couple of times as well. The one and only highlight of the picture is when Rosie and that Latin Lover Boy Dominic dance a sexy tango together and the movie is (very) temporarily scintillating. Dexter had played Valentino five years earlier and uses the smooth assurance he displayed in that film to good affect in this, but he doesn't have enough screen time. Blake Edwards also directed Bring Your Smile Along, his first film, which also featured Marlow and Laine. It's a question why Laine even chose to appear in this picture. This might be the only time Richard Long was billed as "Dick Long."

Verdict: One tango does not a worthwhile movie make. *1/2. 

BRING YOUR SMILE ALONG

William Leslie and Constance Towers

BRING YOUR SMILE ALONG (1955). Director: Blake Edwards.

School teacher Nancy Willows (Constance Towers) leaves her job to go to New York and find work as a lyricist. Before you can say "are you kidding me?" Nancy just happens to discover that a composer named Marty (Keefe Brasselle) lives across the hall with his roommate, Jerry (Frankie Laine), an aspiring singer. Before long Nancy and Marty are writing successful tunes while Nancy worries about her fiance, David (William Leslie) back home and her developing feelings for Marty. Meanwhile Jerry becomes a big singing star. Bring Your Smile Along was a vehicle for Frankie Laine, who was very popular at the time. Aside from appearances in TV episodes, and one other movie besides this one, Laine generally played himself in pictures. He has a nice voice (despite occasionally irritating vocal tics), an appealing presence, and is not a bad actor for this kind of stuff; he makes a much better impression in this than he did playing himself in the earlier Sunny Side of the Street. Towers was introduced in this picture (this was also the first film for director Blake Edwards, who would make one more film with Laine) and is as lovely and adept as ever. Considering her fine singing voice -- she appeared on Broadway with Yul Brynner in a revival of The King and I -- you would think "Nancy" would have pursued a singing career instead of work as a lyricist. Brasselle and Leslie [Andy Hardy Comes Home], as the two men in her life, are both good, and both Lucy Marlow and Bobby Clark make an impression as, respectively, the secretary Marge, who falls for Laine, and the cute little neighborhood kid, Waldo. Some memorable songs include the title tune, "If Spring Never Comes," and "Mamma Mia." Towers remains married to John Gavin of Psycho fame.

Verdict: Strangely appealing if minor musical. **1/2.

SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET

SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET (1951). Director: Richard Quine.

Frankie Laine plays himself, a singer with a TV show whose sponsor, a peanut brittle company, is represented by Gloria Pelley (Audrey Long). Gloria's old boyfriend, "Stretch" or Ted (Jerome Courtland) is hoping to make it in show business, and he has a pretty agent Betty (Terry Moore of Mighty Joe Young fame, pictured with Laine) who has a big crush on him. Naturally she's jealous of the attentions of Gloria, who wants to sign Ted up for the Frankie Laine show. Moore and Courtland are cute and competent, Pelley has a little more spice, and Frankie Laine was simply not cut out for success in the movies. Lynn Bari plays Betty's older roommate Mary and is given all the sardonic lines, but she's not in the class of Eve Arden when it comes to delivering them. One singer does an hysterically overwrought version of "I Get a Kick Out of You" -- awful! Very minor musical is as insubstantial and gooey as cotton candy.

Verdict: Try and miss it. *1/2.