GIRLS TOWN

Mamie Van Doren and Paul Anka

GIRLS TOWN (1959). Director: Charles F. Haas.

Now here's a weird one. Busty Silver Morgan  (Mamie Van Doren) is accused of killing a guy and sent to "Girls Town," which is not a reform school but a home for young ladies who have gotten in trouble with the law and which is run by nuns! There she meets Mother Veronica (Margaret Hayes of House of Women); Vida (Gloria Talbott); tall, gawky Flo (Peggy Moffitt); and Serafina (Gigi Perreau), who has a semi-demented crush on singer Jimmy Parlow (Paul Anka). Talbott practices judo on Van Doren when the latter gets out of line, and Anka delivers a punch to fellow singer/cast member Mel Torme who is, incredibly, cast as a leather jacket-clad borderline thug who goes drag racing at one point! Torme does not sing, but Anka does his "Lonely Boy" and, unfortunately, takes a pitiful stab at "Ave Maria." He fares much better, however, than Cathy Crosby, who makes little impression as the "girl singer." Other cast members include Sheila Graham, who barely appears as another nun; and offspring Jim Mitchum, Harold Lloyd Jr.,( who is killed off early) and Charles Chaplin Jr., who only have minor roles. Elinor Donahue [Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare] of Father Knows Best shows off serious acting chops as Silver's younger sister; Van Doren is Van Doren. Anka and Torme give adequate performances. The Platters sing one number, but for some inexplicable reason the lead singer's face is never shown -- we only see his hands and his back! The orchestra leader Ray Anthony plays a private eye investigating Van Doren. She and Torme were both in The Big Operator with Mickey Rooney.

Verdict: You won't want to miss a single second, but maybe you should miss it anyway. **.

ENCHANTMENT

David Niven and Evelyn Keyes

ENCHANTMENT (1948). Director: Irving Reis.

During the London blitz an elderly man, Rollo (David Niven of The Pink Panther) thinks back on his life after he meets his niece, Grizel (Evelyn Keyes), who is an ambulance driver. Flashbacks tell the story of how Lark (Teresa Wright) came to his house in childhood after her parents were killed in an accident. A grown-up Rollo and Lark fall in love, but there is interference from Rollo's jealous sister, Selina (Jayne Meadows). Rollo tries to convince Grizel not to turn away from love with a soldier, Pax (Farley Granger), just because she was once hurt, sparing her his fate. I wanted to like Enchantment but somehow this romantic movie just doesn't work for me for several reasons. The going back and forth from the past to WW2 becomes tiresome, the characters never seem that dimensional, and Lark's actions and subsequent fate are slightly mystifying. The acting isn't bad, although Jayne Meadows plays her character like an all-too-obvious villainess. Gigi Perreau (introduced in this picture, although she'd appeared in several earlier films) and Peter Miles [Possessed] are excellent as Lark and Rollo as children. Miles was Perreau's brother and was also in The Red Pony and The Betty Hutton Show. Sherlee Collier is also good as Selina as a child; she died at only 35.

Verdict: Star-crossed but unconvincing love story. **.

FOR HEAVEN 'S SAKE

Edmund Gwenn and Clifton Webb

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE (1950). Director: George Seaton.

"Successful angels do not use sarcasm."

Charles (Clifton Webb) and Arthur (Edmund Gwenn) are angels sent down from heaven to oversee the birth of two little angels (Gigi Perreau; Tommy Rettig) whose parents seem reluctant to bring children into the world. Charles sees actress Lydia Bolton (Joan Bennett) and her husband, Jeff (Bob Cummings) as selfish, irresponsible people when they are simply talented artists who quite sensibly don't want to have children. But snippy Charles, to the horror of prissy Arthur, decides to help things along by becoming human for a time and interfering with the lives of the Boltons. Inspired by a Gary Cooper movie, Charles takes on the persona of wealthy rancher "Slim" Charles, but will the allures of earthly passions prevent him from completing his assignment ..? For Heaven's Sake is bolstered by a good cast, with Webb and Cummings especially helping to put this weird material over. Jack La Rue [The Story of Temple Drake] also makes his mark as a tough guy actor who is not as hard as he thinks, and the dour Charles Lane [The Invisible Woman] is well-cast as an IRS man who wonders why "Slim" doesn't pay any taxes. Perreau and Rettig are suitably adorable. Harry von Zell [The Saxon Charm] and Joan Blondell make shorter appearances. Bennett was very effective in both slinky and maternal roles; in this she's sort of caught in the middle. It's interesting that the little girl is determined to be born to such wealthy parents, although nothing is ever made of this.

Verdict: Charming in spite of itself. **1/2.

THE LADY PAYS OFF

Stephen McNally and Linda Darnell

THE LADY PAYS OFF (1951). Director: Douglas Sirk.

Evelyn Warren (Linda Darnell), an unmarried teacher who's sick of the men who want her just to be a mother to their children, has just won a "Teacher of the Year" award. She goes off to Nevada for a vacation and tries her hand at gambling, not realizing that the chips she's playing with are each worth $100 instead of a buck. Before long she's in the hole for $7000! Fortunately, the manager, Matt Braddock (Stephen McNally) offers her a chance to pay the money off by temporarily becoming a companion and tutor to his young daughter, Diana (Gigi Perreau). But still Evelyn won't let go of her dislike for Matthew, although things may be percolating behind her unpleasant demeanor. The Lady Pays Off is a contrived comedy-drama with good performances from the three leads, as well as good support from Ann Codee as the housekeeper, Virginia Field [Dial 1119] as Matt's old girlfriend, Kay, and especially Nestor Paiva [Mr. Reckless], who is a riot as a crazy captain of a fishing boat. The ending is completely unconvincing. McNally also played a pit boss in the superior The Lady Gambles with Barbara Stanwyck.

Verdict: Easy to take if instantly forgettable. **1/2.

SHADOW ON THE WALL

SHADOW ON THE WALL (1950). Director: Patrick Jackson.

Early in Shadow On the Wall we learn that Celia (Kristine Miller), the wife of David Starrling (Zachary Scott), is having an affair with her own sister's fiance, Crane Weymouth (Tom Helmore). When sister Dell (Ann Sothern) learns of this ultimate betrayal, all of her pent-up sibling rage spills out and she shoots her sister dead; she then lets David take the rap. When she learns that David's young daughter Susan (Gigi Perreau) might have seen her commit the murder, she comes to the conclusion that the child must follow her stepmother into the grave. In the hands of a Hitchcock or any superior director, Shadow on the Wall might have been a nail-biting suspense item, but not only is it flaccid but it never quite recovers from its many improbabilities. For instance, little Susan is not an idiot and she's not that young, so she probably would have known her aunt Dell was responsible for the murder all along. And it's hard to believe that David would get the death penalty for a crime of passion that most likely would have been pled out as voluntary manslaughter. But at least the story holds your attention and the performances are good, including Nancy Davis-Reagan [East Side, West Side] as a child psychologist whose methods are bizarre to say the least, and John McIntire as her associate. Little Jimmy Hunt [Pitfall] has an amusing scene with Perreau [Journey to the Center of Time] where he covets a glass of chocolate milk she refuses to drink.A bathtub resuscitation sequence that is shot strictly from the victim's point of view in two shots and closeups is one of the more effective moments in the picture.

Verdict: Psychologically dubious. **.

DANCE WITH ME, HENRY

Lou Costello and Mary Wickes

DANCE WITH ME, HENRY (1956). Director: Charles Barton.

The last film for the Abbott and Costello team -- and the very last film for Bud Abbott -- is a depressing and dull experience, more resembling a sitcom than anything else. Lou Henry (Lou Costello) is foster father to Shelley (Gigi Perreau) and Duffer (Rusty Hamer), and owns an amusement park with his partner, Bud Flick (Bud Abbott). Bud has gambling debts, which means that unsavory characters are coming to Lou's home hoping to find him and get money, a situation that doesn't sit well with social worker, Miss Bayberry (Mary Wickes), who threatens to take the children away. Later on Lou is accused of murdering the district attorney (Robert Shayne) when he's shot dead in the amusement park. There's also an unctuous priest (Frank Wilcox), a friendly cop (Robert Bice), and a rockster named Ernie (Ron Hargrave). Bud and Lou do their best with a third-rate script, but Wickes, strangely, seems defeated by the material or just couldn't get into playing a harridan. The children are talented and Hamer later wound up on Make Room for Daddy. Lou Costello followed this up solo with The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, which was even worse.

Verdict: The last -- and possibly the least -- of A & C's feature films. *1/2.

THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck

THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956). Director: Douglas Sirk. Produced by Ross Hunter.

Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray) is a toymaker with a wife (Joan Bennett) and children, but he also has a nagging sense of a lack of fulfillment. He runs into an old employee, Norma (Barbara Stanwyck) and the old feelings they used to have for one another begin to rekindle. Clifford's son Vinnie (William Reynolds) is convinced his dad is up to no good, while his girlfriend, Ann (Pat Crowley) reminds him that men and women can be friends and have innocent encounters. But are Clifford's feelings for Norma quite so innocent ... ? There have been lots of movies about [supposedly] "neglected" wives, but few about neglected husbands. Clifford seems a little unfair and unrealistic in getting jealous of his wife's understandable and necessary attention to the children. Still, MacMurray etches a poignant portrait of a man suffering a mid-life crisis and crying out for passion and romance. In the meantime, Norma gives a rather simplistic speech to the concerned children. The three leads all give fine performances, and Reynolds, Crowley and Gigi Perreau as the young daughter are all notable as well. The ending is not exactly a happy one although audiences were probably expected to be pleased with the resolution.

Verdict: Not exactly Brief Encounter, but not without merit. ***.

THE "CRAPTASTIC" BETTY HUTTON SHOW

Dennis Olivieri and Betty Hutton

THE BETTY HUTTON SHOW (1959 - 1960).

When I first came across this sitcom that I never heard of on the Internet Archives -- a site that lists thousands of public domain TV shows, films, radio broadcasts and more for free watching or downloading -- my attention was caught by the term "CRAPTASTIC" -- the term with which the person who uploaded the show onto the site labeled the series, meaning it was bad, bad, bad. How bad is The Betty Hutton Show? I just had to find out, wouldn't you know? Judging by the three episodes available for viewing, it was pretty bad. In other words: Craptastic! Hutton plays Goldie Appleby, a manicurist who becomes guardian of three park avenue children. Their lawyer is played by Tom Conway (George Sanders' less interesting brother), who had a long, long list of mostly B movie credits. The teenage girl is played by child star Gigi Perreau [Journey to the Center of Time], and the boys by Peter Miles and Dennis Olivieri, who is a very talented boy and easily out-acts almost everyone on the show, including Hutton, who is generally terrible. Norma Varden [Witness for the Prosecution] plays Goldie's aunt, and is also vastly superior to Hutton. (Peter Miles was the brother of Perreau and appeared with her in Roseanna McCoy, in which he was excellent.)

In one episode a bosomy client of Conway's sets her cap for the lawyer, so Goldie concocts a dumb story about his having a wife and children. In another Goldie encourages Perreau to take up painting, and a misunderstanding develops when she overhears the girl and a boy friend acting out parts in a play. The third, and most watchable episode, has Goldie dealing with two con artists who try to con her out of money allegedly for an orphanage (they are very well played by Robert Emhardt and Ellen Corby). This last episode at least has a couple of minor chuckles.

Unfortunately, the others are almost unwatchable. Hutton -- and I admit she was never one of my favorites -- is at her most over-bearing worst, shamelessly mugging, obvious and vulgar, and even seems drunk at times. Unlike Lucille Ball, Joan Davis and even Eve Arden, she has no real skill as a comedienne, but simply lumbers about trying desperately to get laughs.

Betty Hutton, producer, should have fired Betty Hutton, star. The show lasted only one season.

Verdict: Definitely "craptastic!" *. 

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME (1967). Director: David L. Hewitt.

A warp in the space-time continuum sends an entire laboratory working on time travel first 5000 years into the future -- where Earth has been decimated by aliens -- and then into the prehistoric past where they try to dodge a supposedly big lizard-dinosaur. Scott Brady plays Stanton, who is skeptical of the whole project until he, too, is hurtled into the future along with former child actress Gigi Perreau as Karen and Anthony Eisley as Dr. Mark Manning. The amusingly named actress Poupee Gamin plays a future-alien -- she had only two more TV/film credits -- and Abraham Sofaer is Dr. Gordon. Lyle Waggoner of the Carol Burnett Show plays another alien, his name misspelled "Waggner." This is the kind of movie that doesn't do much for anyone's career but turn it backwards. The actors give their all, the premise is entirely workable, but this is a tacky production that holds the attention but little else. This was probably influenced by the series Time Tunnel, which debuted the previous year. So similar to The Time Travelers (1964) that some consider this to be a remake!

Verdict: Interesting storyline defeated by low budget and insufficient imagination. **. 

ROSEANNA MCCOY

ROSEANNA MCCOY (1949). Director: Irving Reis.

"Don't talk with your knife in your mouth!"

Hollywood's look at the famous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys of Kentucky has Roseanna McCoy (Joan Evans) falling in love with Johnse (sic) Hatfield (Farley Granger) while the relatives fuss, fight, sass, and shoot. The main problem with the film, besides a script that's half-baked, is the miscasting of the leads. Granger is no Kentucky mountain man by a long shot, and Evans [pictured with her godmother Joan Crawford], although not totally awful, is too inexperienced and passionless -- not to mention comparatively plain and pudgy-faced -- to amount to much of a heroine. The much more talented supporting cast is certainly interesting, however. Raymond Massey and Aline MacMahon, are Roseanna's parents, while Charles Bickford and Hope Emerson of Caged fame are the Hatfield folk. Arthur Franz, Marshall Thompson and Richard Basehart also have roles, and do fine with them, Basehart in particular. Gertrude Hoffman of My Little Margie and Mabel Paige of I Love Lucy and The Sniper also have small roles. But perhaps the best and most impassioned performance in the film is given by little Peter Miles, who plays "Little Randall" McCoy, and is the brother of Gigi Perreau (who was his sister in real life and in the film). Years later Miles wrote the novel upon which Robert Altman based his film That Cold Day in the Park. While there's some fairly exciting gun play at the climax, the entire project is mostly forgettable.

Verdict: Watch the Beverly Hillbillies instead. **.