BOULEVARD! A HOLLYWOOD STORY (2021)

BOULEVARD! A HOLLYWOOD STORY (2021). Director: Jeffrey Schwarz. 

Finding herself without too many opportunities despite her (Oscar-less) triumph in Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson decided she would turn the movie into a Broadway musical. To that end she hired two young songwriters, pianist and composer Dickson Hughes and lyricist Richard Stapley, who were a romantic couple at the time, to work with her on the project. The fact that she apparently knew the two men were lovers didn't prevent Swanson from developing romantic and sexual feelings for the very handsome Stapley, but these feelings were not reciprocated. (Although Swanson was not unattractive, she had never been a great beauty, what with those teeth and chin, and probably even much younger hetero men might not have wanted to share the sheets with her!) Director Jeffrey Schwarz examines this triangle situation via archive footage (including Swanson doing a number from the show on Steve Allen), a video interview of Stapley taped by a friend, and Schwarz's audio interview with Hughes, as well as commentary from people who knew the two men (now deceased). Interspersed with these is some attractive animated footage illustrating some of the scenarios. 

Richard Stapley

Richard Stapley was an English actor who went to Hollywood in the hopes of becoming a major star. He had a good role in The Strange Door with Boris Karloff and Charles Laughton but wound up in stuff like Jungle Man-Eaters from the Jungle Jim B movie series. The documentary doesn't quite make it clear why he and Hughes broke up, but Stapley went back to England, changed his name to Richard Wyler, got married (his second wife, who seemed to have really been just a beard), became a macho motorcycle racer, and starred in several Eurospy movies as super-spy and super-stud Dick Smart. Swanson was never able to secure the rights to Sunset Boulevard -- in 1974 she starred in the amusing telefilm Killer Bees -- but Andrew Lloyd Webber had no such problem. Once Webber's show debuted in London, Hughes got to work. He couldn't do a show based on the movie, but he could do a show that depicted the attempts to make a show based on the movie. Using the songs that had already been written, and using himself, Stapley and the now-deceased Swanson as the main characters, he mounted "Swanson on Sunset" at a small venue in LA. What happened next is revealed in the documentary.

Hughes, Swanson, Stapley

The most interesting aspect of Boulevard may not be the whole business with Swanson and Sunset Boulevard, but the relationship between the two men, the cruelty of the vagaries of Hollywood, the terrible price often paid by people who relentlessly pursue stardom and deny their own true selves as they do so. Stapley did not age well, but he returned to Hollywood and kept plugging away practically until the day of his death. Hughes didn't get the major Broadway show -- and we don't learn if he had any long-term relationships after Stapley -- but he seems to have been happy enough in his life. One commentator seemed to feel that Stapley's letters to his boyfriend reveal a deep love, but we don't know how Hughes felt, possibly because he didn't want to talk about it. Was he heartbroken when Stapley walked out of his life, or did he feel "goodbye to bad rubbish." There is an implication that Stapley, like a lot of good-looking Hollywood types, could be an opportunist who thought of his career -- what there was of it -- above all else. What we hear of the songs written for the aborted show indicate that they were pleasant and adept show tunes if not quite on the level of, say, Richard Rodgers. Jeffrey Schwarz also directed the superb Vito, and many others. 

Verdict: With Swanson as a springboard, this is an interesting look at Hollywood dreams turned to dust. ***. 

3 FOR BEDROOM C

Gloria Swanson and James Warren

3 FOR BEDROOM C (aka Three for Bedroom C/1952. Director: Milton H. Bren. 

Movie star Ann Haven (Gloria Swanson), who has just won an Oscar, discovers there are no compartments available for her and her daughter, Barbara (Janine Perreau), and she must take a train to Hollywood in a hurry. She simply takes over a compartment and is lucky enough to discover that the true occupant, chemist Dr. Oliver Thrumm (James Warren), finds the two ladies charming. As other arrangements are made with the help of steward Fred (Ernest Anderson), Ann and Oliver find themselves falling for one another. But there are complications when Oliver finds out who Ann is, as well as interference from her manager, Johnny (Fred Clark of White Heat), the press agent Jack Bleck (Hans Conreid of The Twonky) and a declasse theater person, Conde Marlowe (Steve Brodie of Desperate), who is heading for Hollywood. Will the romance between Ann and Ollie run smoothly?                

Conreid, Clark, Brodie

Despite her performance in Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson found herself with few movie offers (or turned them down) after her triumph in that picture. Unfortunately, her choice of this light -- very light -- comedy was not a good one. Her choice of leading man was also odd, as you have to wonder why she didn't go after someone with more box office clout. A former star of low-budget westerns, James Warren was handsome and competent enough, but he was no Cary Grant (who would certainly have turned this script down). Swanson herself is quite good, as are the supporting cast members already mentioned, and there are slightly amusing cameos from Margaret Dumont (who certainly doesn't get enough to do) and Percy Helton. 

As for Ernest Anderson, he plays the role of the intelligent, wise and educated steward with dignity. Anderson also had a good part in In This Our Life. Swanson had only two more theatrical films in her future -- a foreign comedy about Nero and Airport 1975 -- along with a host of TV show guest spots. She did her best to constantly reinvent herself and stay in the public eye. Janine Perreau, another member of the Perreau acting family, is more annoying than cute. 

Verdict: Labored comedy that is easy enough to take but never really gets off the ground. **. 

KILLER BEES (1974)

Gloria Swanson and her little darlings

KILLER BEES (1974). Director: Curtis Harrington.

Semi-estranged from his family, who own vineyards as well as a town, Edward van Bohlen (Edward Albert) brings his pregnant fiancee, Victoria (Kate Jackson), home to meet the family. This consists of his father, Rudolf (Craig Stevens), brother Helmut (Roger Davis of House of Dark Shadows), and Uncle Matthias (Don McGovern), not to mention his grandmother-matriarch Mrs. van Bohlen (Gloria Swanson). Victoria has a hard time being accepted by the van Bohlens, and matters are made worse by attacks from bees swarming all over the vineyards. Seems the van Bohlens have a strange connection to the bees that came with the family decades ago from Africa. Given bizarre roles to play, both Jackson [Night of Dark Shadows] and Swanson [Beyond the Rocks] manage to acquit themselves nicely, with the latter clearly enjoying herself as she puts on a rather hammy show at times. The movie could easily have been called Queen Bee if it hadn't already been used for a Joan Crawford movie. The bees themselves never actually seem to "attack" anyone but there is a macabre climax in the mansion's attic. Curtis Harrington also directed Queen of Blood.

Verdict: If you take the absurd developments with a grain of salt, this is one of Harrington's better latter-day movies. ***.

Farewell Larry

Gloria Swanson with reporter Larry Quirk

LAWRENCE J. QUIRK 1923 - 2014

Larry Quirk was my best friend and longtime companion for 35 years. Larry had been an Army sergeant during the Korean War, a Hearst reporter covering the crime beat, a Hollywood columnist and publicity man, and the author of numerous books on movies and celebrities, such as the bestselling Fasten Your Seat Belts: The Passionate Life of Bette Davis and The Kennedys in Hollywood, to name just two. Larry and I collaborated on a few books as well.

It's fitting that of the two pictures I've chosen for this post -- one when Larry was relatively young, decades before I'd met him, and another when he was older -- the first features Gloria Swanson a year or two before she did Sunset Boulevard, a still from which graces this blog. After a solid body of books behind him, Larry began tendering "Quirk Awards" named for his uncle, James. R. Quirk, who edited and published Photoplay magazine back in the golden age. Therefore the second photo shows Larry giving Claudette Colbert an award in her dressing room when she was appearing on Broadway. Originally the awards were for films and actors, but when I began tendering them along with Larry we made them full-fledged performing arts awards, with venues ranging from the Roosevelt Townhouse to the 5 Oaks bar and Rose's Turn in the village, to St. Clement's Theatre on 46th street.

Larry with Claudette Colbert

There was nobody like Larry. He liked people and liked to help them, and while the "Quirk Awards" may not have had the prestige of other awards, they were given respectfully and sincerely to both talented newcomers and older people with a solid body of work behind them. Larry had a great sense of humor and enjoyed life to its fullest.

He was a true original, and I and others will miss him very much.

Rest easy, Larry.

SUNSET BOULEVARD

"I'm ready for my close-up."

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950). Director: Billy Wilder.

A down-on-his-luck screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), meets and moves into a mansion with silent screen star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Together the pair intend to fashion a major screenplay that will give Norma an opportunity for her comeback. But Joe eventually feels trapped by Norma and her cobwebs, and figures her project is utterly hopeless in any case. But will Norma let Joe go before she's through with him ...? So how well does Sunset Boulevard hold up after 58 years? Pretty well. Okay, maybe it's not an out and out masterpiece, but it undeniably exudes a certain fascination. If I had one problem with the movie it's that I feel there's way too much narration. Although Joe's narration is well-written, it's describing (albeit poetically) things that we can already see. Swanson gives a terrific performance (her "over-acting" at times is appropriate given the flamboyant, emotionally disturbed nature of Norma Desmond) and Holden isn't bad as Joe, although there's no doubt that the first actor cast in the part, Montgomery Clift. would have brought a lot more to the role. Better than Holden is Nancy Olsen, who gives a lovely and often passionate performance as the young lady who falls in love with him. The scene when Norma returns to her studio to see DeMille is touching. Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton are among the more interesting bit players, as well as an uncredited Yvette Vickers of Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches fame -- yes, that's her as the girl on the telephone during the New Year's Eve party scene. Less a drama than a weird black comedy, Sunset Boulevard always threatens to go over the top but never quite gets there.

Verdict: Certainly unique. ***.

BEYOND THE ROCKS

BEYOND THE ROCKS (1922). Director: Sam Wood.

Theodora Fitzgerald (Gloria Swanson) is married off to a much older man, Josiah Brown (Robert Bolder). He's kind to her, she's a good wife, but along comes Lord Bracondale (Rudolph Valentino, pictured) who falls for her and awakens in her strong feelings of romantic passion. Bracondale had saved Theodora's life on two previous occasions, making him not just romantic in her eyes but downright heroic. This triangle situation (based on a novel by Elinor Glyn) was probably nothing new even in 1922, but Beyond the Rocks is touching, beautifully acted by the three leads, especially Swanson, and has many memorable sequences, particularly the suspenseful scene when Theodora nearly falls off a cliff. Call it hokey and sentimental it you like, but it works. A new score by Henry Vrienten (as well as a few sound FX) adds immeasurably to the drama's emotional impact. Well photographed and directed as well.

Verdict: Good (mostly) silent show! ***1/2.