THE SWAN

THE SWAN (1956). Director: Charles Vidor.

"[Like a swan] be a bird but never fly. Know one song but never sing it, until the moment of her death. And so it must be for you, Alexandra. Head held high, cool indifference to the staring crowds among the banks, and the song, never."

"[Albert] spends more time with the tutor than he does with Alexandra."

Beatrix (Jessie Royce Landis) has spent her whole life preparing for the marriage of her daughter, Princess Alexandra (Grace Kelly), to her cousin, the Crown Prince Albert (Alec Guinness). When he shows up at their estate, however, Beatrix and her relatives are appalled by his behavior, and worse, he hardly pays the shy Alexandra any attention [some have theorized that Albert is gay]. Beatrix hits upon the idea of inviting her young sons' tutor, Nicholas (Louis Jourdan), to the ball, with the intention of making Albert jealous. This plan seems to backfire when Nicholas declares his true feelings for the princess ... The Swan, frankly, is a highly-imperfect film -- a bit slow, neither funny nor dramatic enough until the ending -- but the acting can not be faulted. Kelly [Rear Window] offers a lovely lead performance as the princess; Guinness scores as Albert, who is resigned to a life he seems not to aspire to; Landis and Estelle Winwood (as her mother) are fine as the elder ladies of the court; Brian Aherne [The Locket] is excellent as Landis' brother, who resigned from royal life to become a monk; and Agnes Moorehead [Dark Passage] makes her mark, as usual, as the termagant mother of Albert. Jourdan is good, but he, perhaps, underplays too much during some of his romantic sequences, and the movie, as a whole, takes much too long to create any real conflict. But then there's that wonderful, bittersweet -- in fact, downright depressing -- conclusion. It's ironic that Kelly made just one more movie before becoming a princess in real life, also with a bittersweet conclusion, as she wanted to make a comeback (with Hitchcock) but was not allowed to, and apparently found herself quite disillusioned with life in the palace.

Verdict: The acting makes the movie. ***.

HIGH SOCIETY: THE LIFE OF GRACE KELLY

HIGH SOCIETY: THE LIFE OF GRACE KELLY. Donald Spoto. Three Rivers Press/Crown; 2009.

This is an entertaining and absorbing look at the life and career of Grace Kelly, the actress who worked with Hitchcock and others and dropped out of Hollywood to become the princess of Monaco. Kelly was the niece of the playwright, George Kelly, who wrote "Craig's Wife" and other plays so she did have a special "in," although her looks, bearing and talent may have helped her in any case. Kelly appeared on many live television dramas such as "The Rockingham Tea Set" on Studio One, as well as on the stage, where she hoped to make a name for herself. But Hollywood called, and after a couple of minor (Fourteen Hours) and major (Mogambo) roles  she wound up in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder  and two others for the Master, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief. Kelly won an Oscar for her work in The Country Girl and was set to become one of Hollywood's most important mega-stars when she fell in love with the prince of Monaco and sailed off for what wasn't quite a fairy tale ending. Spoto makes it clear that Kelly itched to act [she did one short film much later which has been suppressed by the royal family] and was rather bored with her duties as a princess and her allegedly storybook life in the castle. Hitchock nearly got her out of retirement by offering her the lead in Marnie, but as much as Kelly wanted to do the film, it didn't work out. While High Society may not be the last word or is as rigorously in-depth as it could have been, it is a solid, readable account of Kelly's life and career.

Verdict: Interesting look at a Hollywood legend. ***.

REAR WINDOW

Hitch does his cameo in Rear Window.

REAR WINDOW (1954). Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

Photojournalist "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) is stuck in an apartment with a broken leg and a cast when he'd rather be out covering action in far-flung places with exotic names. Jeff has a beautiful girlfriend named Lisa (Grace Kelly), but he fears proposing to her because he doesn't think her patrician, elegant manner will go well with the places he has to travel to [although nowhere is it written that the wife must accompany her husband on such assignments]. Bored and needing distraction, Jeff begins observing his neighbors (on a marvelous, detailed set that shows many different kinds of apartments and tenants), such as the voluptuous dancer across the way, a pair of newlyweds who disappear behind the shade after moving in, a frustrated composer of romantic music, and a woman he calls "Miss Lonelyhearts" (Judith Evelyn) who talks to imaginary dates while she's having supper and gets drunk in bars. Eventually Jeff focuses on a man named Thorwald (Raymond Burr), whose nagging wife disappears one afternoon and never comes back. Jeff has reasons to believe Thorwald murdered the woman -- and eventually gets both Lisa and his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) on his side -- but his smug detective friend Doyle (Wendell Corey) assures him that he checked and the woman really is out of town. But is she? Jeff and the ladies begin an investigation of their own that leads them into some serious danger. Some viewers of this wonderful film don't like being put in Jeff's position all the time, peering through windows, and find the film claustrophobic, but I can't agree. The movie, while imperfect, is very cinematic and well-made. It does take a while for the basic mystery plot to begin unfolding, but the two main characters and their dilemma -- two very different people in love but uncertain of how it will work out -- are interesting enough to hold the attention, and Stewart and Kelly give fine performances, along with Ritter, Evelyn and others. [This is another film like The Tingler in which the talented Evelyn gets across a character without really saying a word.] The movie builds in suspense and has a creepy and exciting finale. One thing Rear Window is missing is a great score by, say, Bernard Herrmann, but you can't have everything. John Michael Hayes' screenplay is full of black humor, even relating to the dismemberment of the woman's corpse, which is a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it. Based on  a story by Cornell Woolrich.

Verdict: Smooth, unusual suspenser from the master. ***1/2.

DIAL M FOR MURDER

Anthony Dawson and Grace Kelly  

DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954). Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

Margot Wendice (Grace Kelly) is married to former tennis bum Tony (Ray Milland), but after she senses a certain change in her husband she falls in love with the American writer Mark Halliday (Robert Cummings). The viewer learns early on that Tony basically married Margot for her money, and has no intention of losing it if she divorces him in favor of Halliday. What to do? What to do? He runs into an old acquaintance of his (Anthony Dawson) who has seen better days and offers him a proposition. But the best laid plans ... Based on a play by Frederic Knott (who also wrote the screenplay), Dial M for Murder can be talky and a bit stage bound at times --- there is even an intermission [as if between acts] even though the film is under two hours long -- but it has its cinematic moments as well, although the pivotal sequence isn't handled with as much Hitchcockian inspiration as one might have hoped for. The second half drags a bit, with characters talking too much about things we and they already know. A trial sequence is filmed so cheaply that it's almost comical. However, the movie is very well acted by Kelly, Milland, and Dawson; Cummings is more than adequate; and John Williams nearly steals the picture as Chief Inspector Hubbard. As British mysteries go it's no Witness for the Prosecution, but it is quite entertaining (if a bit improbable at times), and it's fun to see how the villains will be ultimately out-witted. I believe this was Hitchcock's one and only experiment with 3-D.

Verdict: Smooth if unspectacular Hitchcock. ***.

FOURTEEN HOURS

Richard Basehart and Robert Keith

FOURTEEN HOURS (1951). Director: Henry Hathaway.

A troubled and emotionally disturbed man, Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart), climbs out on a ledge of a New York City hotel and refuses to leave. No one -- not his ex-fiancee (Barbara Bel Geddes), mother (Agnes Moorehead), father (Robert Keith), or a traffic cop named Dunnigan (Paul Douglas) -- can coax him to come inside as others try to figure out who he is and what's upsetting him. Fourteen Hours is well-photographed and well-acted -- Douglas is especially outstanding -- but neither its characters nor psychological undertones are developed in any compelling fashion, and as a thriller it only works sporadically. The big climax is disappointing as well. Still, it holds the attention and has some exciting moments even though it fails to sustain the tension of the situation. (Part of the trouble is that you sense Cosick's problems aren't all that severe. Some feel that he is a gay man struggling with his sexuality in a less-enlightened time period, and while that might certainly fit, the film itself doesn't really explore or confirm this.) Grace Kelly plays a woman in a divorce lawyer's office in a building across the way, while Jeffrey Hunter makes time with another woman (Debra Paget?) down in the crowd -- these unnecessary side stories are not well-integrated into the plot. (The lady Hunter is interested in seems to have concern for Cosick, but why would she actually want to be there to see it if he jumped?) Howard Da Silva plays a testy police chief.

Verdict: Okay suspense film with some good performances. **1/2.

TO CATCH A THIEF

Kelly and Grant in To Catch a Thief

TO CATCH A THIEF (1955). Director: Alfred Hitchcock.

John Robie (Cary Grant), who used to be a thief known as the Cat before becoming a hero in the resistance, is suspected of a new series of burglaries on the Riviera, especially by his former comrades. Annoyed by the whole situation, he decides to track down the real culprit by getting close to potential victims, such as wealthy American Jessie Stevens (Jessie Royce Landis) and her beautiful daughter Frances (Grace Kelly), with whom he gets very close. While this may lack the intensity of other Hitchcock, movies, it is also smooth, well-made, and full of fine acting and wonderful dialogue [courtesy of John Michael Hayes]. Grant and Kelly are as wonderful as ever, as is Landis, and John Williams -- one of Hitch's favorites -- is as usual on the money as insurance man Hughson. Playing the daughter of one of Robie's old associates, Brigitte Auber may have been younger than Kelly but the latter pretty much blows the former out of the water. All this and a nifty car chase sequence, too.

Verdict: Hitchcock treading water maybe, but who treads water with more -- pun intended -- grace? ***

STUDIO ONE: THE ROCKINGHAM TEA SET

STUDIO ONE: THE ROCKINGHAM TEA SET (1950). Director: Franklin J. Schaffner.

"You''ll never be rid of me! Never!"

For curiosity's sake since it stars Grace Kelly, Turner Classic Movies resuscitated this utterly forgettable melodrama from the golden age of live television. The Rockingham Tea Set is an episode of Studio One. A young nurse (Grace Kelly) tells the story of her last employer, a neurotic woman, Celia Arden (Louise Allbritton), who became crippled after a car accident. Her fiance, David (Richard McMurray), was driving the car at the time and has been doing penance ever since. Celia is convinced that the nurse and David are falling in love with one another and it all leads to alleged tragedy. Kelly is quite good; Allbritton chews the scenery but is effective. [For a much more interesting Allbritton performance see Son of Dracula.] This is a riot of unreal characters, lousy dialogue, and some stilted acting as well.

Verdict: Not everything in the golden age was golden. *1/2.

DARLING

DARLING (1965). Director: John Schlesinger.

Diana (Julie Christie) is a pretty young model/actress/wannabee who leaves her husband for another man (Dirk Bogarde), dallies with yet another man who can help her career (Laurence Harvey), and then marries an Italian prince and becomes even more famous -- but empty. Back when Darling was released it was meant to explore "modern" mores and amorality and was seen as hip and trendy. Over forty years later it's only dated and boring. Churned out by Hollywood, this might have amounted to a slick soap opera with some timeless "entertainment" value -- say, like A Rage to Live. Cobbled together by Schlesinger -- who's done much, much better films -- it just plods along detailing the uninteresting lives of under-developed characters that are just as vapid as the movie itself. Despite some minor similarities, the movie does not really seem to be based on the life of Grace Kelly, as some have theorized. Even in the sixties, Diana's behavior was hardly atypical of people in show business or elsewhere. The sexually ambiguous characters and incidents are handled rather awkwardly in Frederic Raphael's rather poor screenplay (incredibly, he won an Oscar, as did Christie. The performances are perfectly okay, but everyone has done much better in other films.) Very tiresome stuff. Even in 1965 studies of ambitious, amoral people who had affairs and so on was hardly new, and there were much better ones than Darling.

Verdict: Could help with insomnia. *1/2.