FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN

Grant Williams and George Nader

FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN (1957). Written and directed by Jack Sher.  

A Hollywood studio wants to make a biblical epic about Esther, but their biggest star (whose face we never see) wants 50% of the profits. Therefore it is decided to find a new star and bring in four gals to do a screen test: American Kathy (Julie Adams), whose mother (Mabel Albertson) is pushing her to perform; Viennese Ina (Marianne Koch of The Monster of London City), whose husband recently died in a road accident; Italian Maria (Elsa Martinelli of One on Top of the Other), who appears to be a good-time girl who loves the men, especially the ones with money; and French Vicki (Gia Scala of The Big Boodle), who is trying to hide the fact that she has a husband and small son. 

John Gavin comes on to one of the "girls" 

Mike Snowden (George Nader) will helm the young ladies' screen tests, even though he'd much rather direct the picture itself. His best friend, Johnny (Sydney Chaplin) is a film composer nursing a broken heart and many hangovers. Mike is also friends with wealthy playboy Spencer Farrington Jr. (Grant Williams), who pursues women and does little else but attend parties with that end in mind. Tom Grant (John Gavin) is an actor who is chosen to appear in the tests with each of the ladies. Naturally these four men get involved in varying degrees with the "four girls in town." 

Nader with Gavin

I wish I could report that Four Girls in Town is a trenchant drama about Hollywood or at the very least a real trash wallow, but it's neither, although I can't say I ever found it boring. The acting is generally more than professional -- although none of the cast members really stand out -- and the picture has a good pace, but it just never quite comes alive. Maybe it just needed a few sensationalistic scenes to perk up the viewers' interest. An odd sequence has Mike taking some of the ladies and gents on a nighttime grunion hunt, a sequence that was a little more entertaining in Piranha 2: the Spawning, of all things. Jack Sher also directed The 3 Worlds of Gulliver. 

Verdict: At least it has a very attractive cast! **3/4. 

MIDNIGHT LACE (1960)

Natasha Parry and Doris Day

MIDNIGHT LACE (1960). Director: David Miller.

Wealthy Kit Preston (Doris Day) lives in a beautiful London townhouse with her husband, businessman Anthony Preston (Rex Harrison). She hears creepy voices in the pea-soup fog threatening to kill her, and gets obscene phone calls that Inspector Byrnes (John Williams) thinks may be imaginary. Is Kit overly anxious for her busy husband's attention, or is somebody actually out to get her? If so, there are numerous suspects: Malcolm (Roddy McDowall), the maid's son, who is shiftless and threatening; Brian (John Gavin), who supervises the construction site next to the townhouse and may be overly solicitous; a weird stranger who follows Kit about (Anthony Dawson); and Tony's business associates, Charles (Herbert Marshall) and Daniel (Richard Ney). Doris Day gives one of her best performances in Midnight Lace, convincingly getting across her character's terror and nervousness throughout the movie. Okay, there are times Day rather rabidly masticates the scenery a bit -- especially when she has a meltdown on a staircase -- but her hysteria fits the character, who is so wimpy and helpless at times that you want to slap some sense into her. The other performers are all excellent as well, including Natasha Parry as Kit's friend, Peggy, and Myrna Loy, who adds some class as Kit's Aunt Bea. John Gavin, incredibly handsome in this picture, uses a British accent and is better than usual. Russell Metty's cinematography is first-rate and Frank Skinner's score certainly adds immeasurably to the tension of certain sequences. When Kit asks for bus directions to a London neighborhood, leading to her near-death, you have to wonder why such a fabulously wealthy woman would bother taking a bus in the first place! Williams and Dawson both appeared in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder. David Miller directed Joan Crawford in an even better woman-in-jeopardy film, Sudden Fear.

Verdict: Smooth, solid, well-acted suspense film. ***.

BACK STREET (1961)

BACK STREET (1961). Director: David Miller.

"There isn't a marriage in the world where one doesn't love more than the other."

NOTE: This review contains spoilers. The third film version of Fannie Hurst's novel [earlier versions appeared in 1932 and 1941] makes just about every mistake conceivable in adapting the material. Rae Smith (Susan Hayward) falls in love with soldier Paul Saxon (John Gavin) without realizing that he's already married. She is going to fly to New York with him to start a new life, but misses the plane. They meet up years later and resume their affair while Paul's conveniently drunken and nasty wife (Vera Miles) insists she'll never give him a divorce. The first problem with the picture is that mistresses, while still capable of raising eyebrows, were not quite as scandalous in the sixties as they were in the thirties, forties and earlier. Another problem is that the life-long affair of the novel and other two film versions only occupies a few years in this version. The wife, mostly unseen in earlier versions, was never supposed to be a shrew but a perfectly nice person, one of the reasons the married man never divorces her. The earlier film versions concentrated on the loneliness endured by women in back street affairs, but Hayward has a successful career and lots of friends. Worst of all, in this version the married man's son is just a child, incapable of eventually reaching an understanding as regards to his father and the other woman he loved, (making the ending all the more inexplicable). In the first two film versions, Walter/Paul was only engaged and decided to marry Ray/Rae, but in this version he wants her to run off to New York with him without first telling her he's got a wife! At the end, after his and his wife's death in an accident, his very young children suddenly show up at his mistress' door and want to be friends with her -- which makes absolutely no sense at all [their being orphans notwithstanding]! At the time of filming Hayward was 44 and Gavin was 30 and the difference in their ages quite apparent, but the script unwisely ignores it. Hayward, who seems justifiably bored with the material, just goes through the motions for the most part. Gavin makes an effort and is acceptable. Miles comes off the best, with good support from Virginia Grey, Charles Drake, Natalie Schafer, Reginald Gardiner, and Robert Eyer as the son.The liveliest scene has Miles invading a charity auction to make snide remarks about Hayward and carry on in supremely bitchy fashion.

Verdict: A completely unnecessary remake that shows some promise at first but gets more tedious with every passing minute. **.

PSYCHO

PSYCHO (1960). Director: Alfred Hitchcock. 

 "I think that we're all in our private traps, clamped in them. And none of us can ever get out. We scratch and claw, but only at the air, only at each other. And for all of it, we never budge an inch." -- Norman Bates. "If you love someone, you don't do that to them even if you hate them" -- Norman Bates. 

You can quibble about Psycho's flaws, but let's talk about the virtues of this incredibly influential motion picture. Anthony Perkins gives an outstanding performance, and his scene when he's questioned by an equally wonderful Martin Balsam as the investigator Arbogast is practically a textbook example of great two-party acting. Janet Leigh has gone up in my estimation. Yes, she delivers some lines that are meant to be ironic in too matter-of-fact a style, but she's quite good in her nervous scenes with the cop and the used car salesman, not to mention Norman. Simon Oakland as the psychiatrist in the epilogue plays the guy as if he's a bit nutty and insensitive, but he makes what could have been a dull scene a lot more interesting. Vera Miles displays an effective intensity and even John Gavin is better than usual. Frank Albertson is great as the wealthy guy with the forty thousand who starts the whole horrific ball rolling. Even the very small roles are well cast. Joseph Stefano's screenplay is full of wonderful -- and occasionally wicked -- dialogue. [For instance when Janet Leigh's much plainer co-worker Caroline (Pat Hitchcock) says to her : "He was flirting with you -- I guess he must have noticed my wedding ring."] Bernard Herrmann's score is one of the finest ever composed for a motion picture, from the stabbing violins to the German romanticism (heard softly behind the opening hotel room scene) that underscores the doomed love affair between Marion and Sam. His music embellishes every scene, such as the long sequence when Norman cleans up after "mother's" murder and drives Marion's car into the swamp. John L. Russell's crisp black and white photography is of a very high order, as are the sets and art direction. The basic set of the old house and the motel is a wonderful juxtaposition of the Gothic and the modern. There's no sense in saying Psycho isn't Shakespeare; its brilliance is on a cinematic level. In general Hitchcock's direction is assured and masterful. Even when you already know every plot twist, the picture holds your attention. And then we have the fascinating Norman Bates, inspired by the real-life Ed Gein but with his own unique and formidable facets. 

Verdict: Still an absolute masterpiece. ****.