LUST FOR GOLD

Jacob (Glenn Ford) stakes his claim

LUST FOR GOLD (1949). Director: S. Sylvan Simon.

Inspired by the true legends of the Lost Dutchman mine in the Superstitious Mountains of Arizona, the major portion of this film takes place in the last century with modern-day framing sequences that carry their own interest. Jacob "Dutch" Walz (Glenn Ford) commits murder to preserve the secret of the mine's location, then goes to town to stake his claim. There he encounters duplicitous Julia Thomas (Ida Lupino), who owns a bakery but dreams of a better life which she knows her husband (Gig Young) will never provide. So she begins a romance with an unsuspecting Walz. Lupino and Young are fine, and Ford is especially good as one of the more unpleasant characters he's played. If the main story's climactic gun battle near the mine weren't enough, the absorbing film also boasts a terrific cliffside fight as the modern-day story's thrilling finale. William Prince, Edgar Buchanan, Paul Ford and even Percy Helton [as a barber] are members of the supporting cast, and all are swell.

Verdict: Snappy and extremely entertaining. ***1/2.

THE GAY SISTERS

THE GAY SISTERS (1942). Director: Irving Rapper.

The Gaylord Sisters have been waiting 27 years for their father's will to be probated, but a stubborn businessman named Charles Barclay (George Brent) refuses to accept their settlement offer. Seems the man has a personal grudge against one of the sisters, Fiona (Barbara Stanwyck), the reason for which comes out as this highly entertaining movie progresses. The other sisters, Evelyn (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and Susie (Nancy Coleman), don't like each other very much, with a true-to-form Evelyn doing her best to steal Susie's beau, "Gig Young" (played by Gig Young, who took his screen name from this picture). Then there's that little charmer Austin, who's sort of been adopted by Fiona. But whose little boy is he really? There are very interesting twists to this very well-acted and directed drama that transcends soap opera due to Lenore Coffee's excellent script and its sheer quality. Stanwyck is excellent, as are Fitzgerald and Coleman, and a large supporting cast including Donald Woods, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, and Grant Mitchell. Young and Brent aren't slouches, either. Certain to stimulate debate is a scene between Stanwyck and Brent that could be taken as consensual (if cynical) sex or as rape! Irving Rapper, who is in full command of the picture, also directed Deception, The Corn is Green, Now, Voyager, and many others.

Verdict: Really the kind of movie they don't make anymore. ***1/2.

THAT TOUCH OF MINK

Doris Day and Cary Grant

THAT TOUCH OF MINK (1962). Director: Delbert Mann.

"When a man donates $200,000, he's entitled to use the facilities."

Wealthy entrepreneur Philip Shayne (Cary Grant) is in his limousine when it splashes mud on out-of-work Cathy Timberlake (Doris Day.) Philip sends his associate, Roger (Gig Young of Hunt the Man Down) to apologize for him, but Cathy insists Philip do it himself. When she meets him, however, she is so instantly smitten that she apologizes to him. Thus begins a difficult romance in which Cathy does her best to maintain her virtue even as Philip flies her off to exotic places and wines and dines her par excellance. A series of comical misunderstandings may or may not lead to the altar ...

A date from Hell: Doris Day and John Astin

That Touch of Mink is a funny movie, greatly abetted by the performances of the two leads. One could quibble that both of them, especially Grant, are a bit too old to be dancing around this whole sex-or-no-sex business, but they make the skirmishes amusing in spite of it. John Astin is also notable as a sleazy man in the unemployment office who has a hankering for Cathy and winds up wishing that he didn't.

Although there's nothing necessarily wrong with Audrey Meadows' performance, I was somehow disappointed by it. Meadows certainly knew how to slap down a line on The Honeymooners, but maybe this part should have been essayed by Eve Arden. Laurie Mitchell, the Queen of Outer Space herself, has a bit part as a showgirl, and John Fiedler is amusing as a confused bridegroom who gets the wrong idea about his wife. That Touch of Mink is typical of many sixties comedies in that it milks some humor out of a misunderstanding over a character's sexual orientation -- in this case Roger's shrink (Alan Hewitt, who is also very good) thinks he is gay. It does lead up to a silly but nevertheless hilarious final sequence.

Verdict: Despite its dated qualities (on so many levels), this is a consistently amusing picture with extremely adept leads. ***. 

OLD ACQUAINTANCE

Millie (Hopkins) and Kit (Davis) have a disagreement

OLD ACQUAINTANCE (1943). Director: Vincent Sherman.

"There's a certain ecstasy in wanting things you know you can't get." -- Kit

"It's late -- and I'm very tired of youth and love and self-sacrifice." -- Kit

"I'm sure if she was a man she wouldn't have shaved!" -- Millie

Katherine "Kit" Marlowe (Bette Davis), who has a written a well-received if slack-selling literary novel, comes to visit her very dear old friend Millie Drake (Miriam Hopkins), who not only tells her that she and her husband Preston (John  Loder) are expecting a baby, but that she, too, has written a novel, a romantic potboiler that she is sure will become a bestseller. She's right, and several years and many books later. the Drakes are visiting New York even as Kit is awaiting the opening night of her first play. Millie does little to deal with the fact that her husband is in her shadow, and she doesn't even notice that he's fallen in love with Kit -- and vice versa. But Kit decides that sometimes a sacrifice has to be made in the name of friendship, but will Millie ever appreciate what she has done? Old Acquaintance is well-acted, entertaining, and often very funny in its tale of the self-absorbed if likable Millie and her more sensitive and understanding best friend, and it has some fine dialogue. John Loder could often be dismissed as a cinematic lightweight, but he's perfectly cast in this and has some very decent moments. Gig Young makes an impression in one of his earliest roles as one of Kit's beaus, and Delores Moran is quite pretty and competent as Millie's grown up daughter, Deirdre. Anne Revere and Esther Dale are notable in interesting supporting parts as, respectively, a reporter who speaks too freely, and a maid who knows her own mind and isn't afraid to speak it. A very amusing scene has the two friends having a confrontation, with Kit finally giving in and shaking the life out of her irritating buddy. Old Acquaintance is by no means perfect -- it's probably more soap opera than [comedy-]drama -- but for most of its length, it works. The two lead actresses are both excellent, although the ever-affected Davis sometimes comes off like a drag queen doing a Davis impersonation! This was remade years later as Rich and Famous, which, if I recall correctly, was pretty terrible.


Verdict: This is no Old Maid -- which also starred Davis and Hopkins-- but it is fun and fast-paced. ***

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS (1965). Director: Melvin Frank.

"No more gay, married bachelor!"

Inter-Allied Petroleum executive Carter Harrison (Rock Hudson) literally bumps into artist Antonia "Toni" Vincente (Gina Lollobrigida) in London, and the two get married practically the same day, only to discover that Toni is a free spirit and Carter much more conservative. After seven years of separation Toni finally files for divorce so she can marry old boyfriend and boss, Harry (Edward Judd of First Men in the Moon), only a willing Carter discovers that he's up for a huge promotion, and his boss prefers happily-married employees. Can Carter win Toni over once again; can he put up with her "antics" and she with his stuffiness; and is he really in love or just play-acting for his job? In the climax, Toni (un)dresses up as Lady Godiva to protest the moral outrage over a piece of artwork. Strange Bedfellows is not a classic comedy, but it does have some solid laughs and an enthusiastic cast. The two leads are effective, and they get fine support from, Judd, Terry-Thomas (in a small, funny role of an undertaker), Gig Young (as Carter's co-worker, a thankless part he makes the most of), and Nancy Kulp as a friend of Toni's who winds up in bed with Carter (who also winds up in bed with Harry!) A highlight is a cab ride with some funny exchanges between the principles and the driver, and the low light is this business of dragging in civil unrest and massacre in Africa as part of Carter's plot to foil Toni's Godiva plans. The film has less to do with Toni's cause of Freedom of Artistic Expression as it does with titillating double entendres.

Verdict: Fair-to-middling mid-sixties sex comedy. **1/2.

HUNT THE MAN DOWN

HUNT THE MAN DOWN (1950). Director: George Archainbaud.

A busboy named Kincaid (James Anderson) becomes a hero during an attempted robbery, but it turns out that he's an accused murderer on the lam. Supposedly he murdered a jealous man who accused him of having an affair with his wife. Paul Bennett (Gig Young, pictured) is the public defender who hunts down witnesses and tries to figure out who actually committed the killing. Hunt the Man Down is like a slightly longer episode of the Perry Mason TV show with just a little more action in it. Gerald Mohr and Cleo Moore are also in the cast.

Verdict: Worth missing. *1/2.

THE TUNNEL OF LOVE

THE TUNNEL OF LOVE (1958). Director: Gene Kelly.

Richard Widmark plays a married man who comes to the conclusion that he actually fathered the baby that he and his wife (Doris Day) are to receive from an adoption agency – and that the mother is the woman who came to assess their suitability (Gia Golan)! When the baby arrives, even Day is convinced the tyke looks just like Widmark at that age. This amusing, fast-paced, well-acted comedy keeps you guessing over this bizarre situation until the conclusion. Day is less cloying than usual, although still a bit too perky for my taste. Widmark displays hithero unexplored comic talents as her befuddled husband. Gig Young and Elisabeth Fraser are very good as the next-door neighbors, who have several children; Young tries to offer Widmark points on the fine art of philandering in one scene. Elizabeth Wilson is as sharp and fun as ever as another woman from the adoption agency. A very pleasant comedy with a risque premise that is absurd but certainly gets points for originality. Based on the Broadway show (in which Wilson, but none of the other film principals, appeared).

Verdict: Good fun! ***.

DESK SET

DESK SET (1957). Director: Walter Lang.

Although it has generally been considered that this is not one of the better Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy vehicles, it is actually a warm, funny, extremely well-acted and well-written comedy with heart and splendid performances. Not only is Hepburn at her most winning in this film, but she plays one of her most likable, admirable, entirely lovely characters, a head of a research department who longs desperately for her boyfriend (Gig Young) to marry her and shows real concern and kindness for the people who work under her, even the mail room boy (whom she advises in getting bonuses). Spencer Tracy is extremely charming and adept in his portrayal of a kind of efficiency expert who is helping to bring automation and computer services to the workplace via a big machine that will be used to answer research questions. Will Hepburn and her cohorts be out of a job? Hepburn worries over this particular question even as she draws closer to Tracy and Gig Young (finally) draws closer to her. At one point Joan Blondell, as one of Hepburn's colleagues, does a dead-on impression of Hepburn. The supporting cast is terrific, the pace is fast, and Hepburn is truly amazing. In one scene, when Gig Young comes by to cancel an engagement, she gets across her disappointment, hope, wearied anguish, and bewilderment over their relationship and her true placement in his life in telling fashion.

Verdict: Kate is Great! ***1/2.