THE MEANEST GAL IN TOWN

Zazu Pitts and El Brendel

THE MEANEST GAL IN TOWN (1934).  Director: Russell Mack. 

Tillie Prescott (Zazu Pitts) owns a small town clothing store and has been keeping company with barber Chris Peterson (El Brendel) for a decade. Chris tells her he won't marry her until he can afford a second barber chair. Tillie decides to splurge on $300 for the chair, but discovers that Chris has installed a sexy lady -- a stranded actress named Lulu (Pert Kelton) -- as his manicurist. Tillie stops speaking to Chris and winds up being taken advantage of by a slick salesman named Jack (Skeets Gallagher). Chris determines to get Tillie's store back for her while Jack and Duke Slater (James Gleason) compete for the favors of Lulu. Will true love win out in the end?

Pert Kelton as Lulu

 The Meanest Gal in Town is a cute picture with good performances and many funny moments. Pert Kelton was the original Alice on The Honeymooners -- first playing the character on Cavalcade of Stars -- and also played Marion the Librarian's mother in The Music Man. Mae West had appeared in two or three films by 1934 and Kelton at times seems to be channeling her (perhaps deliberately), although in general Kelton has her own style. 

Verdict: Amiable comedy with gifted players. ***. 

WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME

Betty Grable

WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME (1948). Director: Walter Lang. 

Burlesque performers Bonny Kane (Betty Grable) and her husband Skid Johnson (Dan Dailey) have dreams of the big time when they learn that Skid has been offered a big part in a Broadway show. Bonny is happy with her husband's advancement but she isn't thrilled when she learns he'll be performing with her rival, a predatory blonde named Sylvia (Jean Wallace of The Big Combo). Skid has a more serious problem than Sylvia and that's his love of liquor. Will Bonny succumb to the charms of admirer and rich rancher Harvey Howell (Richard Arlen) or will she be able to overlook her husband's peccadilloes? And will Skid wind up in Bellevue's dipsomaniac ward or back on Broadway? 

Dan Dailey and Betty Grable

Although many might consider this another Betty Grable Musical and she is very good in the picture the fact remains that this is Dan Dailey's show from start to finish. Dailey earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his strong and demanding turn as the frustrated, sad, and alcoholic Skid, and he delivers in every scene, the charming ones as well as the more difficult moments. He gets good support from such cast members as June Havoc (of My Sister Eileen) and Jack Oakie (of Million Dollar Legs) as another burlesque team, James Gleason as theater owner Lefty Moore, and Arlen and Wallace. Betty isn't showcased all that well in a weird torch number in which her movements are more strange than sexy, but she does a nice job with a pretty new number entitled "By the Way." This is the third version of a play entitled "Burlesque," so there are plenty of cliches on hand, but the picture is smoothly directed, photographed in beautiful technicolor, and despite its dramatic moments, is colorful fun. I'll leave it to individual viewers to decide if the ending is a happy one or not. Dailey does an imitation of Ted Lewis at one point and Jack Oakie does Al Jolson.  

Verdict: Dailey's fine performance gives this show biz drama some heft. ***.  

THE FEMALE ANIMAL

Heartbroken: Hedy Lamarr

THE FEMALE ANIMAL (1958). Director: Harry Keller.

Tippling unhappy aging actress Vanessa Windsor (Hedy Lamarr) almost has an accident on her film set, but she is saved by handsome extra Chris Farley (George Nader). Entering into a romance with Vanessa, Farley moves into her beach house as a "caretaker," but he bridles at the thought of being seen as a gigolo. He accidentally gets involved with a pretty blond named Penny (Jane Powell) -- also coming to her rescue -- and is unaware that she is actually Vanessa's daughter. The fur will fly when Vanessa finds out she's competing with her own daughter for the man she's falling in love with ...

Jane Powell as a "drunken slut?" 

The Female Animal was forty-four-year-old Lamarr's last picture. It's likely that she wasn't crazy about being cast as Jane Powell's mother,  as Powell was only fifteen years younger, although Lamarr was still quite beautiful. She also gives a good performance in this, vividly bringing to life the sad situation of a successful woman who fears aging and being alone in the twilight years but who is doomed to meeting mostly men who just want to use her. Her emoting makes her character more sympathetic than she might have been. Most of Powell's great pictures [Seven Brides for Seven Brothers] were also behind her at this point, but she was obviously trying to broaden her range -- as a drunken slut, no less! -- and succeeds admirably, giving a terrific performance as a young woman who feels abandoned by her self-centered mother -- Vanessa fears the public even knowing that she has a daughter that age.

George Nader and Hedy Lamarr

George Nader is also good in the film, and there are notable turns from Jan Sterling as a fading actress with a yen for younger men, James Gleason as a bar owner, Jerry Paris as Chris' buddy, Mabel Albertson as Chris' landlady, and Ann Doran as Vanessa's sympathetic nurse. The movie is, in essence, a soap opera, but it works quite well on that level, and features the occasional saucy line, although it does not boast what one might call a brilliant screenplay.  Harry Keller also directed The Unguarded Moment with Nader and Esther Williams (also trying to broaden her range).

Verdict: No Sunset Boulevard, perhaps, but entertaining and generally well-acted. ***. 

MONEY, WOMEN AND GUNS

Jock Mahoney

MONEY, WOMEN AND GUNS (1958). Director: Richard Bartlett.

Western detective "Silver" Ward Hogan (Jock Mahoney) rides into town and is immediately assigned the case of an elderly murdered prospector. Hogan discovers that the killer might be one of the people mentioned in the old man's will, so he sets out to find them and see what's up. The beneficiaries include a cute little boy named Davy (Tim Hovey), who lives with his widowed mother, Mary (Kim Hunter), and who ignites Hogan's cautious interest. Then there's the bearded Briggs (Don Megowan); the supposedly reformed crook Clinton Gunstone (William Campbell), who lives with his wife Mary (Judi Meredith); and the oldtimer Henry Devers (James Gleason), whose best pal is Art Birdwell (Lon Chaney, Jr.). Hogan also has a rival in bounty hunter Johnny Bee (Jeffrey Stone, who makes a good impression in a strange role).

The comically generic title of the movie, along with its poster, promises something that the flick doesn't quite deliver. One imagines Mahoney stumbling out of a dance hall with a smile on his lips and lipstick all over his face, but any dance hall gals in this movie are kept far, far in the background. Instead, Money, Women and Guns is a relatively serious and well-written western-mystery whose major flaw is its very abrupt wind-up. Smaller roles in the film are played by Phillip Terry as a lawyer, Tom Drake as the brother of two desperadoes, and Gene Evans [The Giant Behemoth] as an autocratic sheriff. Kim Hunter [The Seventh Victim] is fine if a bit out of place as Mary, little Tim Hovey is a scene stealer, and James Gleason [Racket Squad] arguably offers the best performance as Devers. Mahoney has charisma and is competent but is frankly out-classed by some of the other actors. From Universal-International, this is a color CinemaScope production.

Verdict: Entertaining, minor western with a good premise. **1/2. 

SMART WOMAN (1948)

Constance Bennett

SMART WOMAN (1948). Director: Edward A. Blatt.

Prosecutor Robert Larrimore (Brian Aherne) is brought to town to clean up after the corrupt district attorney Bradley Wayne (Otto Kruger). In Wayne's employ is Frank McCoy (Barry Sullivan), who pressures attorney Paula Rogers (Constance Bennett of What Price Hollywood?) into helping them by suggesting harm could come to her young son, Rusty (Richard Lyon). Larrimore and Bennett face each other in court, but in spite of this a romance develops. But just when things are getting good for the couple, they find themselves on opposite sides again when McCoy is accused of murder.

Mad as a wet hen: Otto Kruger and Brian Aherne

Larrimore is convinced that McCoy is guilty, but while Paula knows McCoy is a crumb she doesn't believe he is a murderer. During the trial, a secret comes out about the relationship between Paula and McCoy, further threatening her future with Larrimore. Smart Woman is billed as a "Constance Bennett Production," but she should have been smarter and chosen a better script. Despite romance, murders and other assorted skulduggery, as well as dramatic courtroom revelations, the main feeling you get from Smart Woman is how overlong, hopelessly contrived, and essentially dull it is. Aherne seems miscast, Bennett is good if a little too breathless at times, but Otto Kruger is as good as ever, Sullivan [Pyro] makes a decided impression, and there's nice work from Isobel Elsom as Paul's dithery mother, Richard Lyon as Paula's appealing son, and Selena Royle [The Big Hangover] as Mrs. Wayne. James Gleason and Michael O'Shea have smaller roles. Bennett has some good moments in court and talking to her son about his father.

Verdict: There's a reason why some movies are forgotten today. **. 

RACKET SQUAD

Reed Hadley

RACKET SQUAD (1951 - 1953).

"There are people who can slap you on the back with one hand and pick your pocket with the other. And it could happen to you." -- John Braddock.  

Racket Squad was a very popular half hour TV show from the fifties that exposed bunco operations and lasted three seasons and 98 episodes. Reed Hadley [Sunset Murder Case] played Captain John Braddock, who introduced and narrated the episodes, and often took part in the story lines as well, such as one episode when he's nearly blown up in a mine explosion. Racket Squad was a snappy series that educated the public about schemes that are still going on today (imagine what a modern version of the show could make of Internet rackets). The best episodes focused not just on clever and occasionally diabolical schemes but the characters that got embroiled in them, including the criminals and the often gullible and sometimes greedy victims.

Hillary Brooke in Lady Luck

Among the most memorable episodes: "A Place for Grandma," with Mabel Paige as an elderly woman taken advantage of by the nasty woman who runs a boarding house; "The Case of Two Little Country Girls," which details an amazing scheme to rip off a hotel of thousands of dollars;  "The Christmas Caper," in which a kind man (Lloyd Corrigan) is exploited by people running a crooked charity for children; "The Family Tree," with Hugh Beaumont as a phony genealogist trying to scam Frances Bavier; "Miracle Mud," in which a phony health farm scheme is engineered by an unlikely suspect; "Sting of Fate," in which a couple scams a hotel with a fake ankle injury; "The Longshot," featuring a stupid old gambling woman with a fake Irish Sweepstakes ticket; "The Case of the Expensive Tumble," in which a high school boy is victimized by a gang who stage phony accidents and the resulting insurance fraud; "Lady Luck," with Hillary Brooke [Heatwave] as a woman who just can't stop cheating at cards; and "Pick a Number," with Byron Foulger playing a clearinghouse accountant who is innocently pulled into a dangerous scheme plotted by Edgar Barrier.

Garner and Gleason in His Brother's Keeper

Of the episodes I've seen, the most outstanding are "The Soft Touch," in which con artists, thinking the others are pigeons, try to out-con each other at a hotel, proving -- as Hadley puts it -- that anyone can be taken; and the moving "His Brother's Keeper" in which James Gleason [Spring Reunion] expertly plays an old bum who bonds with a boy (Don Garner) when both are forced into a phony begging racket in this grim tale of the exploitation of the homeless.  

Reed Hadley -- tough but compassionate, firm but fair -- makes the perfect lead for the show. After Racket Squad ended its run the unconventionally handsome actor sort of switched sides and became The Public Defender. 

Verdict: Nifty old crime show is worth a watch. ***.

SPRING REUNION

Betty Hutton and Dana Andrews

SPRING REUNION (1957). Directed and co-written by Robert Pirosh.

A small town is the location of a 15 year reunion for the high school class of 1941. The most popular girl in school, Maggie Brewster (Betty Hutton) is unmarried and works in her father's real estate office. Maggie has been trying to sell off a house owned by old classmate Fred Davis (Dana Andrews) -- "most likely to succeed" -- when he comes back to town and changes his mind. A romance begins between the two even as Maggie's friend, Barna (Jean Hagen of Singin' in the Rain), who has a husband and children, finds herself attracted to married former football hero, Jack Frazer (Gordon Jones of The Green Hornet), who seems to exist on reflected glory. Spring Reunion is a pleasant surprise, a light romantic drama greatly bolstered by some excellent performances. Betty Hutton, who I can find overbearing in some of her comedies, is not only lovely and comparatively subdued in this, but gives one of the best and most poignant performances of her career. Andrews is similarly excellent, as are Hagen and Jones, and Laura La Plante [Show Boat] and Robert F. Simon are wonderful as Maggie's parents. Spring Reunion is full of interesting scenes, such as one when Maggie's father makes it clear to her mother that he doesn't like the idea of taking a vacation without his daughter along, that it won't be much fun, and the mother's expression speaks volumes. In another good sequence, Maggie and Fred try to figure out why their lives didn't quite turn out the way they'd intended. James Gleason (billed as "Jimmy") is fine as a lighthouse keeper, and Sara Berner is fun as an impressionist who performs at the reunion. Irene Ryan (Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies) plays a high school official who doesn't know what "Smirnoff" is yet loves the spiked punch, but she isn't given enough to do. Hutton sings "That Old Feeling" and nails it, and Chopin's "Nocturne in E Flat Major" is used as an evocative theme.

Spring Reunion does reflect the attitudes of the time it was made in. Many single women in the fifties probably did feel like "old maids" because they were unmarried in their thirties, but even today women -- and men -- still hope to find someone special to share their lives with. As for Spring Reunion, many of Hutton's fans were disappointed that she wasn't the overly zany Betty Hutton they remembered. Subsequently, this was her last film, although she starred in her own TV show and had other television credits. This was also the last film -- and last credit -- for silent movie star Laura La Plante.

Verdict: Nice romance with some unpredictable touches. ***. 

ON YOUR TOES

Eddie Albert and (Vera) Zorina

ON YOUR TOES (1939). Director: Ray Enright.

"Russian art is always morbid." -- Vera.

Phil Dolan Jr. (Eddie Albert), a childhood hoofer who had an act with his parents, now wants to be a composer. To this end he hooks up with Ivan (Loenid Kinsky), a Russian composer  who helps him work on his ballet, "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue." He meets his old friend, Vera (Vera Zorina), now a ballet dancer, and she encourages the mild-mannered man in his work. He winds up dancing in his own ballet, unaware that two Russian hit men have confused him with someone else, and are planning to kill him at the climax. This is a textbook example of how not to make a film out of a hit Broadway musical (which was successfully revived in the 80's). First you hire two leads who can't sing, then cut out each and every one of Rodgers and Hart's tunes (one or two play in the background and that's it), then cobble together a screenplay that makes the movie resemble more a typical dopey musical of the period than anything else. "Slaughter on 10th Avenue" was performed much more successfully nine years later in Words and Music, the Rodgers and Hart biopic. There's some mild suspense involving the hit men, but mostly the movie is more tedious talk than music and comedy, with mostly unfunny shtick from the players. Accomplished ballet dancer Zorina [I was an Adventuress] was getting the build-up from Sam Goldwyn, and the film's credit reads "Zorina in On Your Toes." Talk about making somebody a star before they're a star! That said, Zorina has a pleasing personality and gives a capable performance, but her career was derailed when she was replaced in From Whom the Bell Tolls by Ingrid Bergman. Albert is okay, but James Gleason and Queenie Smith as his parents, as well as Erik Rhodes [Charlie Chan in Paris] as the temperamental ballet star, Konstantin, make a bigger impression, as does a charismatic Donald O'Connor playing Albert as a boy. Gloria Dickson has little to do as a flirtatious patron of the arts, but boisterous Alan Hale is all over the movie as the head of the ballet troupe.

Verdict: Aside from a couple of moments this is basically a waste. *1/2.

BAD BOY

Audie Murphy

BAD BOY (1949). Director: Kurt Neumann.

Danny Lester (Audie Murphy) is an incorrigible, nasty young man who beats, shoots and robs and is nearly sentenced to a reformatory or prison. However Marshall Brown (Lloyd Nolan) is convinced, without any real basis, that Danny's anti-social tendencies stem from something that happened in his youth. [Danny acts like a sociopathic creep, so it's a question if what happened in his youth even matters, but in movies like Bad Boy there has to be some dubious psychological explanation.] Brown importunes Judge Prentiss (Selena Royle) to take Danny under his wing and bring him to the Variety Clubs Boys Ranch in Texas, where he steals, acts all bitter, and has the boys so mad at him that they all give him the silent treatment. Can this boy be saved...? In his first starring role Murphy, the most decorated soldier in WW2, proves not to be a "great" actor, but is more than competent, displaying charisma and surliness in equal measure; he would develop in time. Jimmy Lydon of the Henry Aldrich series plays another student, Ted, and is excellent, as is James Gleason [The Girl Rush] as Brown's more cynical associate, "Chief." Jane Wyatt [The Man Who Cheated Himself] is Brown's wife; Martha Vickers is Danny's half sister; and Rhys Williams [The Corn is Green] is his step-father. There are some fairly interesting developments in this but the movie never really amounts to much. Murphy would go on to better things. Murphy single-handedly held off a squadron of German soldiers while standing atop a tank that could have exploded at any second -- it's safe to say Hollywood couldn't have scared him that much!

Verdict: Half-baked melodrama. **1/2.

THE GIRL RUSH

"

The forgettable "Hillbilly Heart"

THE GIRL RUSH (1955). Director: Robert Pirosh.

Kim Halliday (Rosalind Russell) works at the Providence Historical Society wherein she learns that she co-owns a Las Vegas hotel with an old friend of her father's, Ferguson (James Gleason). Unfortunately, she mistakes the glamorous Flamingo casino, owned by Victor Monte (Fernando Lamas), for the dilapidated, closed place next door that she actually owns. Then she learns that Ferguson gambled the place away to Monte, who will claim it unless they come up with the money Ferguson owes him. A possible savior comes along in the form of hotel man Elliott Atterbury (Eddie Albert), whose father is looking for a property in Vegas. Kim balances both men romantically while her Aunt Clara (Marion Lorne) tries to jitterbug or something with Ferguson. Well ... The Girl Rush is one of those silly old musicals with mostly lousy music and a lead actress whose singing voice sounds like an out-of-tune foghorn; her dancing is slightly better but she can't compare to the chorus boys, who include Don Crichton. Albert and Lamas can sing in tune, however, and both are in fine fettle, especially the latter, whose amiable personality helps the movie no end. When she's not butchering a song, Russell is swell, but hardly anyone could save this third-rate material, which goes for the songs by Martin and Blane, although "Out of Doors" and "Alone" at least have respectable melodies. The film's nadir is the terrible production number "Hillbilly Heart," which even the chorus boys can't save. Gloria DeHaven and Robert Fortier are perky and talented as a dancing brother and sister act. Marion Lorne's "Aunt Clara" is exactly like the Aunt Clara she played years later on Bewitched [without the magic] so one might imagine that her performance in this movie won her that role. Pirosh also directed Valley of the Kings.

Verdict: Makes So This is Paris seem like West Side Story. **.

SEARCH FOR BEAUTY

Ida Lupino and "Buster" Crabbe

SEARCH FOR BEAUTY  (1934). Director: Erle C. Kenton.

"Baby, come to Mama!"

Larry Williams (Robert Armstrong) and Dan Healy (James Gleason), with the help of Jean Strange (Gertrude Michael), try a new con by putting out a "health" magazine and hiring above-board Olympic winners (Ida Lupino and "Buster" Crabbe) as editors to make it all look legitimate. Before long the editors are clashing with the publishers, who confuse a fitness mag with something a little bit racier. There's a search for perfect male and female physical specimens to work at a health farm, where Williams and company find they must adhere to the strict regimen along with all of the other guests even though they'd rather drink and watch pretty gals dancing on tables. The film is ful of risque dialogue and attractive performers -- and the lead actors are all swell -- but this pre-code movie ultimately doesn't amount to much.

Verdict: If only there were more solid laughs and a better story. **.

MEET JOHN DOE

MEET JOHN DOE (1941). Director: Frank Capra.

"For the John Does all over the world, many of whom are homeless and hungry."

When her paper is sold and streamlined and she gets fired, columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) decides to fake a letter from a "John Doe" threatening suicide for her last submission. The column causes a big stir, increases circulation, and gets Mitchell her job back -- now they have to find someone who can pretend to be the real John Doe. [Only in a Hollywood movie will the man they choose just happen to be as handsome as a movie star!] The guy who gets the job is unemployed, hungry John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), who gives a speech -- written by Ann -- in which he suggests people should act toward one another as if it were Christmas 365 days a year [not exactly a radical idea]. This leads to the formation of John Doe clubs, neighbors helping neighbors, people finding jobs instead of hand-outs and getting off relief, and so on. Then publisher D. B. Norton (Edward Arnold) wants to start a John Doe party with himself as presidential nominee, which does not sit well with Willoughby. Worse, what happens if perchance "John Doe" is exposed as a phony...?

Meet John Doe takes a while to get going and its simplistic premise is never quite as solid as, say, that of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but eventually the movie and its various elements begin to click. Although Robert Riskin's screenplay doesn't really give Cooper a fully dimensional character to play, the actor nevertheless gives one of his best performances. Barbara Stanwyck is as terrific as she always is, impassioned and dynamic in equal measure. The movie has some lovely scenes: editor James Gleason talking about his father dying in front of his eyes during the war; Regis Toomey telling Cooper how he and his wife (an uncredited but excellent Ann Doran) reached out to a grumpy old neighbor and it snowballed into a committee of neighbors helping one another with their problems, and "John Doe" begins to realize what might actually be accomplished by his deception. [On the debit side, Walter Brennan's character, who thinks a man is "free" when he's broke, is an idiot and a pure Hollywood concoction.] Irving Bacon and Spring Byington are also in the cast. Capra wasn't able to use the bittersweet ending that he wanted, but the alternative he came up with works nearly as well. 

Verdict: Despite obvious flaws and perhaps an unreal air about it, this is another Capra winner. ***1/2.

ONCE UPON A TIME

ONCE UPON A TIME (1944). Director: Alexander Hall.

"Despite all of its grief and turmoil, there are still beautiful things in the world."

Okay. Producer Jerry Flynn (Cary Grant), who is in danger of losing the theater he owns because of one flop after another, runs into a boy, Binky (Ted Donaldson), who has a pet caterpillar, Curly, who can dance -- but only to the strains of "Yes, Sir, That's My Baby." From that premise, you might expect that the film would be a rollicking farce, but instead it's a comedy-drama-fantasy with Grant giving his usual adept performance but he's perhaps more restrained, given the subject matter, than he should have been. Janet Blair is Binky's concerned sister, and James Gleason is Jerry's pal and colleague. Once Upon a Time wants to be a whimsical, meaningful [see quote above] fantasy, but never quite approaches that level, although it does look into adult-child relationships, keeping promises, personal accountability, with some degree of success. The best scene -- which finally reaches the level of loopiness that the premise deserves -- is when a trio of scientists inspect Curly in a laboratory, and are stunned by their findings. ["Maybe a 1000 years ago he was Salome."] The problem with Curly is that it's hard to sympathize with the creature because we never actually see him (until the end, after he's undergone an expected metamorphosis). In any case, this damned picture has an undeniably moving conclusion. Little Donaldson not only gives a terrific performance as Binky, but is right up there with Grant throughout the picture. He went on to appear in a number of "Rusty" dog films, and was also in Phone Call from a Stranger.

Verdict: At least it's different. ***.