HOLLYWOOD HOTEL

Dick Powell and Rosemary Lane

HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (1937). Director: Busby Berkeley. 

Saxophonist Ronnie Bowers (Dick Powell of Susan Slept Here), who has somehow been given a movie contract, is tapped to accompany movie star Mona Marshall (Lola Lane of The Woman Condemned) to a big premiere. He is unaware that an angry Mona has refused to attend and his date is actually a lookalike named Virginia (Rosemary Lane). When the studio drops Ronnie's contract due to the complaints of Mona, Ronnie and Virginia cook up schemes to get him back in the business. Meanwhile Benny Goodman and his band play a couple of snappy numbers, Dick and the Lane sisters sing some pleasant if forgettable songs, and three comparative freaks of nature -- supremely homely columnist Luella Parsons, "singer" Johnnie Davis, and buck-toothed Mabel Todd as Mona's sister -- nearly shatter the camera lens. 

Freaks: Johnnie Davis and Louella Parsons

Hollywood Hotel is an amiable bit of nonsense with a slender plot and some lively musical moments. Fritz Feld has a very funny bit as a Russian customer in a coffee shop, Ronald Reagan appears for a few seconds as an emcee at the premiere, Harry James -- still playing for Benny Goodman at this point -- makes smooth music with his trumpet, and Raymond Paige and his orchestra play an exciting Russian-style number. Others in the cast include Ted Healey (who put the Three Stooges together before being ousted) as "Fuzzy," Ronnie's alleged manager; Frances Langford; Glenda Farrell as Mona's secretary; Alan Mowbray (of Becky Sharp) as Mona's leading man; Perc Westmore as himself; Grant Mitchell as the head of the studio; Allyn Joslyn as his assistant; and others. Goodman's integrated band includes drummer Gene Krupa and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton. A gay fashion designer is named "Butch" -- oy vey!

Verdict: Some fun but perhaps not enough. **1/2. 

THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING

Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit

THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING (1955). Director: Richard Fleischer. 

Young model Evelyn Nesbit (Joan Collins) is so attractive that she comes to the attention of many men, including famous New York architect Stanford White (Ray Milland), who is married, and Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw (Farley Granger), who is not. Evelyn and Stanford fall in love but he refuses to leave his wife, and she has little interest in being a kept woman on the side. Stanford's attempts to turn her into a kind of daughter, sending her to finishing school, don't work out, but Evelyn finally marries the abusive and rather obnoxious Harry. Harry is still obsessed with her past relationship with Stanford, and his murderous actions will lead into the real-life "trial of the century."

Collins with Ray Milland

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, for which Nesbit herself served as consultant, is a highly entertaining mix of truth, half-truths, fabrications and dramatic license. Although she claimed on the witness stand that she was drugged and raped by Stanford, this film suggests that she was perjuring herself upon the insistence of her mother-in-law. (How old she actually was when she and White had sex is debatable.) Despite situations that would blacken her character back in the day, the film generally treats her in a sympathetic manner; White as well. Collins and Granger give good if imperfect performances, but Milland comes off best. 

Farley Granger with Collins

There are some fine supporting performances in the film. Glenda Farrell, whom I didn't even recognize, as Mrs. Nesbit; Luthor Adler [House of Strangers] as Shaw's lawyer; Gale Robbins [Double Jeopardy] as Gwen Arden, Evelyn's friend and fellow entertainer; Frances Fuller as White's wife, Bessie; Cornelia Otis Skinner as Harry's mother; Richard Travis as Charles Dana Gibson; and others. The film is handsomely produced with a score by Leigh Harline and cinematography by Milton R. Krasner. The movie Ragtime also looks at the Stanford White murder, although in that movie Evelyn Nesbit is not only presented basically as a greedy dingbat but is almost a comic figure. Marilyn Monroe refused to do the film and it would have been interesting to see her take on Evelyn. Richard Fleischer also directed Fantastic Voyage and many others. 

Verdict: If taken with a grain of salt this is a slick, well-acted drama. ***1/4. 

THE DEFENDERS (1961): Season One

Robert Reed and E. G. Marshall

THE DEFENDERS (1961 TV series). Season One. 

Lawrence Preston (E. G. Marshall) and his son Kenneth (Robert Reed) are partners in a law firm that represents criminal defendants. The show lasted for four seasons and won numerous awards and accolades. Only the first season has been transferred to DVD and it gives a good taste of the series' good and bad points. Marshall and Reed are both excellent as the highly dignified if personable Lawrence and his comparatively hot-headed son. The interplay between the two, which is often quite argumentative, is one of the best things about the show. 

Marshall with Jack Klugman

The Defenders was created by Reginald Rose, who also scripted several of the episodes. The series is unlike Perry Mason because it often deals in social issues and eagerly embraces controversy. One might say it has "depth," although there are times that the show is more pretentious and irritating than anything else and worse, becomes quite preachy and even muddled. The series takes place in Manhattan and was shot at the Filmways Studio in New York, giving it an added veracity and lots of local color with its location filming. The directors who worked on the series include Daniel Petrie, Franklin Schaffner, Buzz Kulik, Paul Bogart, and others. Jack Klugman appeared sporadically as one of the ADAs in the district attorneys office and is quite good in the role. Guest stars on the show included Elizabeth Ashley, Ben Piazza, Frank Gorshin, Pat Hingle, Robert Duvall, Robert Loggia, Sylvia Miles, Ken Kercherval, Gloria De Haven. and Zachary Scott. 

Reed with Salome Jens

Most of the episodes were solid "Bs" with a few that were even better. "The Point Shaver" deals with a college athlete who is accused of taking bribes. "Death Across the Counter" has a vet (Clu Culager) accused of shooting a man during a robbery but Ken is convinced, against all odds, that he is innocent. "The Treadmill" has the Prestons doing their damnedest to save a man from the death penalty for a crime he committed 25 years in the past. "The Search" has a man confessing to a murder that another man was executed for and Larry tries to find out the truth while he and the prosecutor (Jack Klugman) try to figure out what went wrong with the system.  "The Best Defense" is a terrific story in which a mobster is arrested for murder but swears he is innocent -- this has a highly ironic finale. In "The Naked Heiress" a man leaves his money to a stripper (Salome Jens), then falls in front of a train (Glenda Farrell is outstanding as the stripper's mother). "Reunion with Death" has Larry presiding over a mock trial when Korean vets accuse one of their number of selling them out under torture. The very best season one episode is arguably "The Bedside Murder," in which an elderly doctor (Sam Jaffe) is accused of murdering a wealthy old woman because she left him money in her will. 

"The Attack:" Marchand, Barbara Barrie, Kiley

Although not quite as good as the aforementioned episodes, "The Attack" presents an interesting situation when a man (Richard Kiley) goes after the youth who assaulted his little girl, only to learn that he killed the wrong man; Nancy Marchand played the dead man's mother. Hands down, the absolute worst season one episode was "Gideon's Follies," in which a rich man is murdered and all of his many ex-wives are the suspects. Foolish and unfunny, it played like a witless spoof of Burke's Law, a series that did not debut for another two years. It was as if the producers, told that some people found The Defenders too grim, decided to lighten things up for one episode -- but it was a disaster. 

Verdict: Some very good scripts, but not nearly as much fun nor as classy as Perry Mason. **3/4. 

LITTLE CAESAR

Edward G. Robinson

LITTLE CAESAR (1931). Director: Mervyn Leroy. 

 "Mother of mercy -- is this the end of Rico?" 

 The great Edward G. Robinson became a star with this exciting and entertaining gangster flick. Rico (Robinson) wants to be somebody and have everything while his buddy Joey (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who comes off convincingly lower-class) just wants to be a dancer. The two should have just gone their separate ways, but Rico seems obsessed with his pal (any homoerotic aspects of this go unexplored). Rico rises in the rackets until he takes over an important gang, and forces his old pal Joey to help him rip off the establishment where he entertains with his girlfriend, Olga (Glenda Farrell). Rico gets bigger and bigger but there are forces conspiring against him ... Robinson is just terrific, and he has a solid supporting cast, including the aforementioned performers as well as Thomas Jackson as Sgt. Flaherty; William Collier Jr. as Tony; and Sidney Blackmer (who had an important role many years later in Rosemary's Baby) as "Big Boy." 

Verdict: Fun to watch Robinson rise and fall. ***1/2.

SUSAN SLEPT HERE

Dick Powell

SUSAN SLEPT HERE (1954). Director: Frank Tashlin.

Screenwriter and bachelor Mark Christopher (Dick Powell of Pitfall) finds himself with an unusual Christmas "present." Two cops of his acquaintance want him to babysit a 17-year-old girl, Susan (Debbie Reynolds), over the holiday so they won't have to actually book her for some minor offense on Christmas Day. Mark reluctantly agrees but this causes problems for his sort of fiancee Isabella (Anne Francis), and upsets his household, which consists of secretary Maude (Glenda Farrell) and his old Navy buddy, Virgil (Alvy Moore). But is the middle-aged author more drawn to lovely, very young Susan than he would care to admit?

Farrell, Moore and Reynolds

One thing this comedy has going for it is some excellent performances. Debbie Reynolds, who was actually twenty-two at the time, is simply outstanding. Powell --fifty playing thirty-five but not getting away with it -- is no slouch, either. Farrell uses all she learned about acting since the thirties to make a distinct impression, and Moore manages to emerge an almost poignant figure, although his chief function is to get more laughs. Anne Francis also scores in the thankless role of the fiancee who is treated rather badly but whom Mark apparently never took seriously to begin with. Maidie Norman [What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?] and Les Tremayne [The Monolith Monsters] are also good as, respectively, Mark's maid and lawyer.

The characters at least seem a little more dimensional than in most comedies of this type, but that may be due to the performances. The picture goes on about twenty minutes too long, and there is a very tedious dream sequence in which Susan imagines Annabella literally snaring Mark in her web. (You would think that Powell and Reynolds would actually dance together, but they never really do.) Red Skelton has a funny cameo. This was Dick Powell's last theatrical film; he appeared strictly on television thereafter.

Verdict: Strangely appealing May-December romantic comedy that shouldn't work but does. ***. 

LULU BELLE

George Montgomery and Dorothy Lamour

LULU BELLE (1948). Director: Leslie Fenton.

Around the turn of the century, new lawyer George Davis (George Montgomery) stops into a tavern to see a client and is mesmerized by the singer there, a lady named Lulu Belle (Dorothy Lamour). Before long he has ditched his practice and fiancee and taken off to New Orleans with her. Lulu Belle loves George, but she also loves money and the good life, and she gets involved with a boxer named Butch (Greg McClure), his wealthy manager, Mark Brady (Albert Dekker). and eventually a really rich married guy named Randolph (Otto Kruger) who brings her to New York where she becomes a Broadway star. The movie begins with a double-shooting, and then the main story is told in flashbacks narrated by George and then Lulu Belle's friend, Molly (Glenda Farrell). Dorothy Lamour is quite good in a role that seems more suited for Yvonne De Carlo, and George Montgomery, in a very winning performance, makes his character more sympathetic than he should be considering the way he ditched his loving girlfriend as well as some of his subsequent actions. Greg McClure [Sky Liner] has possibly his very best role as Butch, and is terrific, and both Dekker and Kruger [Woman Who Came Back] are as smooth and professional as ever. Both Glenda Farrell and Charlotte Wynters offer flavorful support, the latter in the role of Kruger's wife, and Addison Richards makes an effective police commissioner. There are gaps in the story that were presumably left on the cutting room floor but the movie is unusual in that it doesn't end with an expected clinch but has a more realistic wind-up. Director Leslie Fenton started out as an actor in such films as The Public Enemy. He was also Ann Dvorak's first husband. |The character of "Mark Brady" is most likely based on the real Diamond Jim Brady.

Watching Lulu Belle in the wake of the metoo# movement, one can easily see how it not only illustrates how some men can treat women like mere possessions for their sole pleasure, but the other side of the coin as well -- women who go after men for their own advantage, a sort of mutual exploitation.

Verdict: Absorbing romantic melodrama with good performances. ***.  

THE KEYHOLE

Kay Francis and George Brent

THE KEYHOLE (1933). Director: Michael Curtiz.

"The next time you try to kill yourself, let me know -- I'd love to help you!" -- Anne about Maurice.

Anne (Kay Francis of In Name Only) is married to the much-older Schuyler Brooks (Henry Kolker of Meet the Baron). When she learns from her first husband, Maurice (Monroe Owsley), that their divorce wasn't valid, he blackmails her. Anne gets advice from her sister-in-law, the formidable Portia (Helen Ware), and takes off for Cuba to get Maurice out of the country. Meanwhile Brooks, fearing Anne is unfaithful, hires private dick Neil (George Brent of Dark Victory) to follow her and see if he can tempt her into an affair. Neil's partner, Hank (Allen Jenkins), gets involved with con lady Dot (Glenda Farrell), with both thinking that the other one is wealthy. Will Anne keep putting Neil off, or will she succumb to his charms? Who cares? The Keyhole is a minor comedy-drama that never gets very dramatic and isn't especially funny. The leads are fine, but any fun in the movie is provided by Jenkins, and especially Farrell, who gives the most notable performance. Kolker and Ware are also good, but the movie is not memorable.

Verdict: Smooth but not terribly interesting. **.

THE TALK OF THE TOWN

Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur

THE TALK OF THE TOWN (1942). Producer/director: George Stevens.

Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) has been falsely accused of setting fire to a warehouse and killing the watchman, so he breaks out of jail. He hides out in a house that has just been sold to law professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman), who shows up a day earlier than expected while Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur) is fixing things up. Wanting to be able to feed Dilg while he's hiding in the attic, Nora takes a job as Michael's cook and secretary, while Leopold comes downstairs and introduces himself as the gardener. This strange trio will have to contend with the authorities as they tear the town apart looking for Dilg, who is right under their noses. Meanwhile, which man will Nora ultimately wind up with? You may not find yourself caring all that much, because the script for Talk of the Town is, frankly, beneath the talents of its three wonderful leading players, all of whom are at the top of their game (although one could argue that Grant is a little too insouciant considering the desperate situation he's in).The movie begins with a very cinematic opening depicting Dilg's escape, but then there's an abrupt change in tone as what started out as a melodrama turns into a screwball and borderline slapstick comedy; then there's another shift into melodrama. This might have worked in some of Frank Capra's pictures, but this is an uneasy blend of some genuine laughs with a more serious underlying tone, and the two never quite jell. Glenda Farrell is less obnoxious than usual as the girlfriend of Clyde Bracken, played by Tom Tyler [The Phantom] of serial fame. Edgar Buchanan, Leonid Kinskey, Charles Dingle and Rex Ingram [The Thief if Bagdad] have smaller roles. George Stevens also directed Woman of the Year and many other, much better pictures.

Verdict: Tries to be Capraesque, but fails -- although the leads are all great! **.

CITY WITHOUT MEN

CITY WITHOUT MEN (1943). Director: Sidney Salkow.

Tom Adams (Michael Duane of Redhead from Manhattan) is framed for  picking up Japanese in a boat, and wrongly convicted of collaborating with the enemy or something and sent to jail for several years. His fiancee, Nancy (Linda Darnell) not only vows to wait for him, but moves into a woman's residence right next to the prison where other wives and girlfriends wait patiently for their men to be released. The husband of the owner of the house, Maria (Sara Allgood) is in jail for life, and in the film's best scene, another wife, Mrs. Slade (Rosemary DeCamp), nearly collapses when her husband is executed at midnight. Other residents of the house include brassy Billie (Glenda Farrell), Winnie (Doris Dudley), Dora (Margaret Hamilton), and high-hattin' Gwen (Leslie Brooks of The Secret of the Whistler), who is dating Mr. Peters (Don DeFore) and hopes to learn where her husband (Sheldon Leonard) hid some money. Edgar Buchanan plays a shady lawyer who is ostensibly trying to help Nancy, but spends most of her money on booze. This is a "concept" movie that seems to have been cobbled together from cliches from other movies, and it's never convincing, becoming fairly ridiculous towards the end. Darnell is fine -- odd that she was cast in this bad "B" movie -- and Allgood, Farrell, DeCamp, and DeFore give very good performances as well.Years later Salkow directed Vincent Price in Twice-Told Tales.

Verdict: Not utterly terrible but not worth the time it takes to tell. **.

WE'RE IN THE MONEY

Blondell and Farrell

WE'RE IN THE MONEY (1935). Director: Ray Enright.

Ginger (Joan Blondell) and Dixie (Glenda Farrell) are process servers for dithery lawyer Homer Bronson (Hugh Herbert). Their latest assignment is to serve papers on a host of men who are being sued for breach of promise by the same Frenchwoman, Claire LeClaire (Anita Kerry), who was actually born in Brooklyn. Using various tricks and clever maneuvers, the gals are able to pass on the subpoenas, but there's an awkward snag when it turns out that the "chauffeur" Ginger is dating, and is in love with, is actually wealthy Richard Courtney (Ross Alexander), one of the litigants! We're in the Money is an amusing, well-played comedy with the ladies in top form, and good support from Kerry, Herbert [The Black Cat] and Alexander, as well as Lionel Stander and Phil Regan as two more of LeClaire's victims. One of the best scenes has Ginger serving Regan as he entertains in a nightclub. Enright also directed River's End.

Verdict: Cute and snappy. ***.

MARY STEVENS M.D.

MARY STEVENS M.D. (1933). Director: Lloyd Bacon.

Mary Stevens (Kay Francis, pictured) and Don Andrews (Lyle Talbot) are life-long friends who both become doctors and set up practice together. Mary has long been carrying a torch for Don, but he marries a wealthy gal for career reasons and makes quite a few dumb and immoral mistakes. Smart women, foolish choices -- Mary still hankers for him and winds up pregnant. The scene in this pre-code film when she joyfully announces that she's carrying his baby would have certainly had a different, "sinful" tone in later years; this matter-of-fact approach is absolutely refreshing. But there are more trials and tribulations for our Mary, including cases of infantile paralysis when she's returning from Europe. This is a very entertaining, snappy comedy-drama with an interesting heroine who lives by her own rules. Francis is good in the role, although she's not quite up to the more challenging and tragic sequences. Talbot gives one of his better performances. Glenda Farrell nearly steals the picture as Mary's delightful friend and nurse-assistant, also named Glenda. Instead of Farrell's more typically brash and obnoxious portrayals which she used when she played reporters, in this she's much more likable and appealing. Thelma Todd appears briefly as Don's wife, and Una O'Connor is more subdued for a change as a mother worrying over her very sick daughters on shipboard. Too fast-paced to give you time to think about its flaws or improbabilities.

Verdict: Dig in! ***.