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. ***.  

BURY ME DEAD

June Lockhart and Hugh Beaumont

BURY ME DEAD (1947), Director: Bernard Vorhaus.

"I'm sorry you're alive -- I wish you were dead."

Barbara Carlin (June Lockhart) is supposedly burned to death in a barn fire, but she shows up alive and well at her own funeral. Now she and her husband, Rod (Mark Daniels), have to figure out which woman's body is actually buried in Barbara's grave, and whether it was Barbara or this unknown woman who was the killer's target. Suspects include Barbara's neurotic and hateful sister, Rusty (Cathy O'Donnell); Barbara's boxing paramour George (Greg McClure); Rod's girlfriend, Helen (Sonia Darrin); Barbara's lawyer, Michael (Hugh Beaumont); or even the butler (Milton Parsons). Bury Me Dead is one of PRC's better movies, with a neat premise, plenty of plot twists, and interesting characters and performances. The main problem with the movie is that it mixes far too much foolish domestic comedy in with the suspense. Lockhart makes a good heroine, and Mark Daniels [The Invisible Avenger], a handsome and pleasant leading man with charm to spare, deserved a much bigger career. Cathy O'Donnell [Ben-Hur] certainly makes her mark as the nearly-demented Rusty, and Hugh Beaumont's work is on the money as well. McClure [Sky Liner] is fine as the boxer who seems at least one bulb short of a chandelier. The picture consists mostly of flashbacks, and there's a brief if fairly exciting "cat fight" between Lockhart and Darrin. Vorhaus also directed So Young, So Bad with Paul Henreid.

Verdict: PRC nearly presents a real winner. ***.

OOPS!

Greg McClure

OOPS!

Years ago I thought it was kind of funny the way some obsessive film buffs would become irate if someone misidentified an obscure actor. "It was Gladys Humble, not Ginny Bumble, who played Maggie in Knock-Off Nellie," they would go. Get a life, I would think. But the fact is that even old character actors or long-dead second leads and so on should be identified properly.

In my review of Sky Liner, I mistook actor Greg McClure with Michael Whalen -- the two look nothing alike. In truth, I was not especially familiar with either of them, despite their both having numerous credits. I'm not certain how I made the mistake, but I assume I attributed one character's name to another character, then matched Whalen's name with the wrong character on the cast list. (Anyway, the mistake has been corrected.)

A handsome hunk, McClure had his biggest role playing John L. Sullivan in The Great John L with Linda Darnell. He was seriously considered as a replacement for Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan, but the part was given to Lex Barker. After appearing in twenty movies, McClure was blacklisted and his career was over. Obviously still in great shape, McClure became a nudist  and why not?

I became aware of my error when "Michael Whalen" -- the actor I thought was McClure -- appeared in a couple of movies after Sky Liner but I just couldn't spot his distinctive rugged (and kind of mean) features. When I did a search for Michael Whalen his photos showed that he was not the actor I thought he was. It happens!

Anyway, feel free to let me know if I ever misidentify a player. Hopefully it won't happen too often.

Happy Viewing!