UNHOLY LOVE

Joyce Compton and Lyle Talbot

UNHOLY LOVE (1932). Director: Albert Ray. 

Sheila (Joyce Compton of Dark Alibi) meets a young doctor named Jerry Gregory (Lyle Talbot) when he ministers to her dying father, a gardener. It isn't long before the couple are married, a distressing notion to Jerry's father, Daniel (H. B. Warner of Kidnapped), who has to give the bad news to the woman Jerry's practically engaged to, Jane (Lila Lee), and her mother (Kathlyn Williams). However Jane is a compassionate adult woman who is nice to Sheila whereas others from society shun her. Sheila shows her true colors when she doesn't resist the romantic entreaties of oily writer Alex Stockmar (Ivan Lebedeff of The Mystery of Mr. Wong) and the two embark upon an affair. Meanwhile Sheila's debts are increasing, Alex might be losing interest in her, and her foolish husband hasn't a clue -- but daddy does. 

Unholy Love is a very loose, Americanized version of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and it is more of a curiosity than anything else, although it holds the attention. H. B. Warner offers the best performance as the wise and understanding father, with Lila Lee and Lebedeff offering fine support. The biggest problem I have with Joyce Compton is that she looks and sounds a bit too much like a slightly prettier version of Una Merkel (!) to make a convincing sexpot. Lyle Talbot, billed as "Lysle" Talbot, is pretty much the same rather dull fellow as ever. Jason Robards Sr. plays a sleazy character who also has his eyes on Sheila. 

Verdict: Read the excellent original or watch the 1949 version with Jennifer Jones instead. **1/2

LOST HORIZON (1937)

Jane Wyatt and Ronald Colman

LOST HORIZON (1937). Director: Frank Capra.

Author and foreign secretary Robert Conway (Ronald Colman) winds up shanghaied by plane with his brother, George (John Howard), and several other passengers: fussy paleontologist Lovett (Edward Everett Horton); possible embezzler Barnard (Thomas Mitchell); and a dying, hard-boiled young lady named Gloria (Isabel Jewell of She Had to Choose). The group winds up in the lost city of Shangri-La, which is run by a man named Chang (H. B. Warner of Kidnapped) and ruled by the supposedly wise and benevolent High Lama (Sam Jaffe of The Accused), a 200-year-old priest who discovered and founded the place. The High Lama tells Conway that the most important thing is to "be kind,' but it never occurs to him that it's not exactly "kind" to literally kidnap a bunch of innocents just because the lovely Sondra (Jane Wyatt) has seen Conway's books (and, presumably, his author photo) and developed a yen for him. Understandably, George wants to get back to his own life, while the others find happiness of a sort in Shangri-La. George doesn't believe the High Lama's story, and takes off with a "young" woman, Maria (Margo) in tow with unexpected -- or rather expected -- results. I haven't read James Hilton's novel in a while (I did review certain portions of it after watching the film) but it has to be better than this movie, which takes an interesting premise and dumbs it down to an incredibly superficial level (there are significant differences between the book and the film). Learning that the pilot is dead, the emissaries from Shangri-La -- the guy's own people -- have absolutely no reaction. Presumptuous Sondra has no guilt that her adored one's brother has been dragged along against his will -- after all, why would anyone want to live anywhere besides the rather dull Shangri-La? -- and Robert seems selfishly absorbed in his love for Sondra. The main problem with Lost Horizon isn't that the hypocritical High Lama preaches love and sanity (he also prophecies WW2 and the atom bomb!)  but it never occurs to anyone that running away from the world's problems is hardly the way to solve them -- an influential man like Robert simply wants to drop out! Portraying George as a hot-head, the movie tries its damnedest to strip the character of any dignity or sympathy, and of course Maria has the temerity to lie about her age. [The man who desperately wants to escape from a land that others worship was later borrowed for a plot point in Brigadoon.] The first half of Lost Horizon is quite entertaining, and there are some good adventure scenes in the snowy terrain surrounding Shangri-La, but the movie becomes irritatingly stupid in the second half, so anti-intellectual, in fact, as to be mind-numbing. As in most movies about lost cities, whether in Africa or Tibet, there's a scene when everyone has to walk along a narrow cliff with a mile-high drop inches away -- surely after centuries they would have found a safer way to travel? Capra's direction is swell, but the wrong-headed script ...! The cast, however, is uniformly good. NOTE: This review is of the restored, mostly complete version.

Verdict: Watch the first hour and then turn it off! **.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946). Producer/director: Frank Capra.

"Youth is wasted on the wrong people."

Facing what he sees as the worst crisis of his life, suicidal George Bailey (James Stewart) attracts the attention of an angel, Clarence (Henry Travers of Dark Victory), who reviews his past history while up above, then descends to earth to show George what life would have been like for everyone if he had never been born. This fantasy comedy-drama is a wonderful if imperfect picture with a terrific performance from Stewart and a marvelous supporting cast. Bailey is certainly a flawed hero, which makes him more interesting -- and perhaps less sympathetic -- as a character. If, to paraphrase, the measure of a man isn't what happens to him him but how he reacts to it, then George certainly fails the test. When $8000.00 disappears and George realizes he and his business can be ruined, and he might even face criminal charges, he takes it out on his wife and children, and even screams at some poor teacher on the other end of the phone when he goes home. In real life people have faced worse situations and still kept their heads, but poor George simply becomes hysterical. Part of this, of course, is because George never wanted to stay in the little town of Bedford Falls and take over his father's business, Bailey Building and Loan, in the first place; and his frustrations have finally caught up with him [it's possible that not quite enough is done with this aspect of the story]. One could also wonder why, if George no longer exists, and no one in town can recognize him, they can still see and talk to him. The business with George's wife, Mary (Donna Reed) turning into a stereotypical old maid (if he was never born) complete with glasses and drab hair is unintentionally comical, and most of the business with Clarence, especially the prologue in heaven, is rather tiresome. Still the movie is well-made, very well-directed by Capra, beautifully photographed [you must see the crisp new digitally remastered version to fully appreciate this], and has several superior performances in addition to Stewart's. Thomas Mitchell is excellent as Uncle Billy, who misplaces the money and is cruelly treated by his nephew. Lionel Barrymore is the cackling personification of hate and greediness as Mr. Potter (who never does get his comeuppance). H. B. Warner [City of Missing Girls] scores in his sad portrait of the druggist, George's employer, who is mourning his son and nearly makes a fatal error. There are also nice moments from Lillian Randolph as the wise Bailey maid, Annie; Robert J. Anderson as young George; and Todd Karns [Andy Hardy's Private Secretary] as George's brother, Harry. The movie is full of interesting touches, such as the menagerie Billy keeps in his office, including that persistent crow, and the squirrel that climbs on his shoulder as if in sympathy.

Verdict: That ending is pure fantasy all right, but if you take it with a grain of salt this is still an entertaining and admirable picture. ***1/2.

CITY OF MISSING GIRLS

CITY OF MISSING GIRLS (1941). Director: Elmer Clifton.

"It's not the disappearance. It's what happens to them after they disappear that's the tragedy."

A series of young women either disappear or are found murdered, and they are all somehow tied to the Crescent School of Fine Arts. ["If that's dramatic acting, I'll take fish," says one wag.]  Philip Van Zandt is snappy as King Peterson, a racketeer who owns the school: "These girls only interest me from the standpoint of profit, understand me?" he snaps. Peterson is apparently more interested in grooming prostitutes than actresses. H. B. Warner is the police captain who's heading up the investigation, and Boyd Irwin is Thompson, Peterson's silent partner, whose daughter, Nora (Astrid Allwyn), is a reporter who is unaware of her father's involvement with the "school." Gale Storm of My Little Margie has a small role as a friend of one of the victims. Kathryn Crawford plays the sarcastic Helen. This film has some good dialogue, including the lines "Do you mind if I smoke?" / "I don't care if you burn" which later wound up on The Honeymooners. When all is said and done, however, City of Missing Girls is a mediocre mystery with some okay performances.

Verdict: Miss it if you can. **

FIVE STAR FINAL

FIVE STAR FINAL (1931). Director: Mervyn LeRoy.

To drum up circulation a newspaper does a story on a woman who, twenty years before, murdered a man who knocked her up and refused to marry her. She was acquitted, married someone else, and now has a daughter who is engaged to a society fellow -- the daughter has no idea that her mother murdered her biological father. When the story breaks, there are serious repercussions in the family. This is the kind of dull, self-righteous drama that falls flat on its face due to its superficiality and ludicrous contrivances. Edward G. Robinson is lively as the editor who becomes disgusted with it all, and Aline MacMahon scores as his secretary. Boris Karloff offers an interesting performance as a weirdo reporter. H.B. Warner and Frances Starr are very effective as Mr and Mrs. Townsend, the doomed murderess and her husband, but Marian Marsh overacts as their daughter, Jenny. The picture moves fast but isn't very absorbing.

STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM. No one ever makes the point that, even if the murdered man were a stinker, he didn't deserve to die, nor is the point made that Mrs. Townsend murdered her child's father. It's just accepted that homicide was somehow the only solution to her problem! Mrs. Townsend commits suicide, leaving her daughter, and the man who stood by her all those years, to fend for themselves, and Mr. Townsend, after finding his wife's body, also commits suicide, leaving the daughter he raised to face the music by herself! We're supposed to feel sorry for such utterly self-centered people? Talk about lousy parents! At the end of film Jenny blames the newspaper for the suicides, and even -- a chip off the old block -- pulls out a gun and tries to shoot them -- ridiculous! Five Star Final wants to engage the emotions but it certainly never engages the intellect. A script with much more depth might have helped this to amount to something.

Verdict: Even Eddie can't save this stinker. *.

KIDNAPPED (1938)

Freddie Bartholomew

KIDNAPPED (1938). Directed by Alfred L. Werker.

Loosely based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson Kidnapped juxtaposes the stories of young David Balfour (Freddie Bartholomew) and Scottish rebel Alan Breck (Warner Baxter), whom Balfour comes across on his way to his wealthy uncle's castle in 1747. Although David does not at first approve of the activities of the British-hating Breck, he comes to admire the man and even does his best to save his life. As David comes afoul of his evil uncle, he keeps encountering Breck and Jeannie (Arleen Whelan), a woman Breck was taking to a compatriot who has to flee Scotland; instead Breck falls in love with her and vice versa. Although a touch obvious at times, Freddie is excellent, Whelan is lovely and affecting, and there are also wonderful performances from the likes of C. Aubrey Smith, Miles Mander, and H. B. Warner. Warner Baxter is heroic enough, but his acting leaves something to be desired. There's a great scene with a crumbling staircase, and the whole business with David being shanghaied, encountering Breck and Jeannie on ship board, is very exciting Well photographed by Gregg Toland.

Verdict: Good show! ***1/2.