THE I DON'T CARE GIRL

Bob Graham and Mitzi Gaynor

THE I DON'T CARE GIRL (1953). Director: Lloyd Bacon.  Produced by George Jessel.

The real George Jessel is trying to produce a picture about old vaudeville star Eva Tanquay (Mitzi Gaynor of Anything Goes) and importunes his scriptwriters (Warren Stevens and Craig Hill) to locate people who knew the entertainer. These include Ed McCoy (David Wayne), supposedly the man who discovered her as well as her former partner; Charles Bennett (Oscar Levant of The Barkleys of Broadway), a composer; and Larry Woods (Bob Graham), another composer-performer who falls in love with Eva but is married. Larry is separated from his wife but a bigger problem is the seductive Stella Forest (Hazel Brooks of Sleep, My Love), who wants to star in Larry's operetta. Will true love win out over all?

David Wayne, Warren Stevens, Craig Hill

Hollywood is famous for coming out with biopics that have little to do with the real lives of their subjects, but The I Don't Care Girl takes the cake, as there's very little -- but the bare basics -- that have anything to do with Ms. Tanquay. The movie is really just an excuse to show off the admitted skills of Mitzi Gaynor, who gives a good performance, sings quite well, and is a sensational dancer with sensational gams. Ms. Gaynor is featured in some creative -- some might say overly creative -- big production numbers that have very little to do with anything ever seen on a vaudeville stage and everything to do with fifties fashion. 

Mitzi Gaynor and Oscar Levant

The title of the picture comes from Ms. Tanquay's most famous number, "I Don't Care." (Judy Garland, somewhat mimicking Tanquay,  arguably gives the best performance of this song in In the Good Old Summertime.) As for Tanquay, she was certainly a more interesting character than the sanitized version we see in this picture. Essentially forgotten today, she was once a tremendous international star, an early feminist, an absolutely relentless self-promoter, and had two or possibly three husbands as well as at least one affair. For a publicity stunt, she "married" a cross-dresser and wore a tuxedo while he wore the wedding dress. You can bet you won't see that in this movie! 

As for Bob Graham, the fellow is handsome, has a great baritone voice, and makes a smooth, likable leading man. But this was his last picture out of seven. What happened? Even the Internet Movie Data Base has very little information on him, including his date of birth and death. He is not to be confused with another actor named Robert Graham. 

Verdict: The story is just a mass of cliches but the cast is game and the dancing is great. ***.   

SLEEP, MY LOVE

SLEEP,  MY LOVE (1948). Director: Douglas Sirk.

Sutton Place heiress Alison Courtland (Claudette Colbert) wakes up on a train to Boston with no idea how she got there. Turns out this is not the first time that this has happened. She also has weird nightmares and swears she keeps seeing a strange man in horn-rimmed glasses who claims to be a Dr. Rhinehart (Ralph Morgan) but looks nothing like the real one. We can also see this man, whose name is Charles (George Coulouris) and are let in early on that he's involved in some scheme with Alison's faithless husband Richard (Don Ameche), who has fallen for the slinky Daphne (Hazel Brooks) and has unpleasant plans for Alison. Bruce Elcott (Bob Cummings) is a man Alison met on the train and has become friends with; he's the only one who really believes she keeps seeing creepy Charles. The Gaslight -like plot of Sleep, My Love may not hold a lot of surprises, but the film is very entertaining in spite of it, thanks to Sirk's smooth direction and fine performances from the entire cast who make the most of the material. Raymond Burr appears briefly as a cop; Rita Johnson is Alison's muddle-headed friend Barby; and Keye Luke is Bruce's honorary brother, whose honeymoon is interrupted by sinister events. Hazel Brooks is as sexy and compelling in this as she was in Body and Soul with Garfield.

Verdict: Fun if minor suspense item with a creditable cast. ***.

BODY AND SOUL

BODY AND SOUL (1947). Director: Robert Rossen. Screenplay by Abraham Polonsky.

Charley (John Garfield) seeks a way out of his hopeless poverty and decides to become a professional boxer. His mother (Anne Revere) is against the whole notion, and she watches helplessly as his success goes to his head. He has a very supportive girlfriend, Peg (Lilli Palmer), but dallies with the more overtly sexy gold digger, Alice (Hazel Brooks). A turning point comes when Charley has a fight with Ben Chaplin (Canada Lee), unaware that the man has a blood clot in his brain. One could argue that the film is at times simplistic and employs the usual boxer cliches, but it's so well done on every level that it scarcely seems to matter. Garfield, Palmer, and Anne Revere [one of her best roles] are simply excellent, and there is also some fine work from Canada Lee, Joseph Pevney (as Charley's friend and manager), James Burke as Ben's manager, William Conrad as fight promoter Quinn, and Lloyd Goff/Gough as Roberts, a much more loathsome version of Quinn. Introduced in this film after having bit parts in several movies, Hazel Brooks is quite arresting, but although she lived for many years afterward, she retired from acting in the mid-fifties after having only a very few credits. James Wong Howe is cinematographer and Hugo Friedhofer provides a very interesting score.

Verdict: Forget Raging Bull -- this is the real deal. ***1/2.