WOMAN OBSESSED

Stephen Boyd and Susan Hayward

WOMAN OBSESSED (1959). Director: Henry Hathaway.

When her husband (Arthur Franz) is killed during a forest fire, Mary Sharron (Susan Hayward) hires a man named Fred Carter (Stephen Boyd) to help her on the farm. Mary has a little boy named Robbie (Dennis Holmes), who is a little wary of Fred at first. Eventually Mary and Fred decide to marry, but the latter's parenting skills are noticeably lacking. This causes decided problems between husband and wife which are hardly helped by his backslapping her and then forcing her to have sex with him. Sexual assault anyone? 

Mary and Fred fall for each other: Boyd; Hayward

From the title and the star you might hope that Woman Obsessed is a trash wallow with Hayward chewing the scenery as she deals with man troubles and other women, but nothing much like that ever happens. The sluttish and homely Barbara Nichols shows up now and then as Fred's ex-girlfriend (he definitely stepped up in class when he married Hayward), but there are no cat fights -- although Fred and Nichols' new boyfriend do have a lively fistfight late in the picture. Instead we are offered some dubious dime store psychology from Hayward's doctor (Theodore Bikel) in regards to Fred's attitudes towards alleged cowardice and other things. Some of the occurrences in the film are predictable; others are not. Both the doctor, Hayward, and the film itself gloss over the rape that clearly occurs (offscreen) halfway through the movie. 

Dennis Holmes with Hayward

Modern-day audiences will have a problem getting past the rape, although there is an attempt to redeem Fred with his heroic efforts to save Mary's life after she has a miscarriage, and his change in attitude towards the boy once he realizes that he, too, can feel fear. Hayward gives a more subdued performance as fits her character and Boyd is actually quite good. Affecting a kind of Canadian accent -- this takes place in Saskatchewan -- it disguises and offsets the somewhat nasal quality of his voice. 9-year-old Dennis Holmes (playing 7, not too big a stretch) is wonderful as little Robbie; he was best-known for a role on the western TV series Laramie with Robert Fuller. Everything is wrapped up in the end like a fifties sitcom. 

Verdict: A nice score (Hugo Friedhofer) and some good acting aren't enough to make this memorable. **. 

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1962)

Joyce Taylor and Mark Damon

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1962). Diretor: Edward L. Cahn.

Althea (Joyce Taylor) travels with her father, Count Roderick (Dayton Lummis), to a kingdom presided over by the young and recently coronated King Eduardo ( Mark Damon of The Young Racers). Althea, who is affianced to Eduardo, expects a warm greeting but discovers that her fiance is "indisposed" and there is hardly any staff in the castle aside from his chief aide Orsini (Eduard Franz). Althea sees the handsome Eduardo in the morning, but he tells her that their wedding may have to be postponed. It's worse than that -- a curse was placed upon Eduardo by a alchemist who was sentenced to death by Eduardo's father when he refused to share his secrets. Now each night Eduardo grows fur, claws and fangs and becomes a benign if tormented werewolf (of sorts). If Eduardo's nasty Uncle Bruno (Michael Pate) finds out, his regime may come to a decidedly violent conclusion.

Anders, Pate and Burrke

Beauty and the Beast is a rarity in that it's probably the only TechniColor film directed by B Movie maestro Edward L. Cahn. (This was Cahn's last film, as he died the following year.) Mercilessly skewered for its low-budget and a comparison to Cocteau's 1946 film of the same name, on its own terms Beauty and the Beast is a minor but entertaining film that probably works best for young viewers. Taylor and Damon, especially the latter, give good enough performances; Pate and Merry Anders as his gal pal, Sybil, are fine; Franz and Lummis are credible; and Walter Burke gives the most notable performance as the slimy and scheming Grimaldi, servant to Bruno.

Mark Damon. 

The werewolf design is by Ernie Young and the famous Jack P. Pierce. It doesn't look bad, although an unfortunate side effect of the big teeth is that it comically affects Damon's speech. Hugo Friedhofer's musical score is a plus, especially the theme music. A former pop singer and Howard Hughes discovery, Joyce Taylor appeared in Atlantis the Lost Continent and other genre films; her last feature was in 1971. Mark Damon starred in Roger Corman's House of Usher, did many films overseas, and became a producer. Merry Anders was in Hear Me Good and Ib Melchior's The Time Travelers, among others. Beauty and the Beast has a notable climax when the couple race to get married with Bruno's hate-filled followers in rabid pursuit. Edward L. Cahn directed Zombies of Mora Tau and about a zillion others.

Verdict: More than acceptable children's fantasy film. ***. 

JOAN OF ARC

A captive Joan prays: Ingrid Bergman

JOAN OF ARC (1948). Director: Victor Fleming.

"We can win only if we become God's army."

Joan (Ingrid Bergman), a young farm girl in France, claims to hear voices from God, telling her to speak to the Dauphin (Jose Ferrer) -- who would become King of France -- and to rally the French troops to force the British interlopers out of the country. She is on a mission from God to save France. Initially people are skeptical --  she is eventually seen as a witch by some, and a saint by others, and she marches into battle as a kind of unarmed mascot. But Joan's admirers are growing in number, and the French powers-that-be are disturbed ... Joan of Arc was excoriated when it was first released, primarily because it cost more than Gone with the Wind but was a financial bust. It's hard to understand why contemporary critics found the film boring and almost worthless. I am not at all religious, but I was impressed by the film's performances --virtually every well-known character actor working in pictures at the time -- the score (Hugo Friedhofer), and the beautiful color cinematography (Joseph Valentine) which often makes each shot look like a painting. The movie moves quite quickly as well. Bergman gives an Oscar-winning performance, and is wonderful. The only quibble I might have is that in scenes when she is supposed to be utterly exhausted due to no sleep she merely seems mildly fatigued -- even make up would have helped, but one supposes no one wanted to mar her features. Bergman was 33 at the time of filming (Joan was put to the stake at 19) and always wanted to play the role; a younger actress might have lacked the ability and strength the part required. Jose Ferrer, who was introduced in this picture,  also won a Best Actor Oscar, and while he's not on Bergman's level, he is quite good as the rather foppish Dauphin. Of the huge supporting cast there is notable work from Richard Derr as a knight and Joan's first follower; John Emery [Kronos] as the sympathetic Duke d'Alencon; and Jeff Corey [Seconds] as a jailer intent on Joan's rape. There are also appearances by Jimmy Lydon (!) as Joan's brother; Alan Napier (Batman's butler) as the Earl of Warwick; Hurd Hatfield as Father Pasquerel; and brief bits with Henry Brandon, Thomas Brown Henry, George Coulouris, and many others. The worst performance is by Francis L. Sullivan [Hell's Island], who plays Pierre Cauchon, Joan's chief accuser, almost as if he were a villain in a cliffhanger serial. The movie employs a lot of dramatic license, as a great deal is not known about Joan, and the picture simply takes her at face value, with no indication (from the movie's point of view) that she may be either demented, opportunistic or both. Her horrible death is depicted but rather glossed over -- she doesn't even break out into a sweat as the flames supposedly consume her.

Verdict: At times the movie seems to exist in a vacuum, but it is beautiful to look at, well-paced, and features some marvelous performances. ***.