THE SHRIKE

THE SHRIKE (1955). Director: Jose Ferrer.

Jim Downs (Jose Ferrer) is placed in the mental wing of a hospital after trying to commit suicide. He is estranged from his wife Ann (June Allyson), and in love with a woman named Charlotte (Joy Page). After initial success as a theater director, Downs fell on hard times and was down to his last few dollars. While he had very good reasons for feeling despair,  the doctors have to see him as someone who could be dangerous to himself and others. Not only is this sensitive, intelligent man virtually held captive by the mediocrities on the staff, but it becomes clear that his wife -- who wants him back under any circumstances -- holds all the cards. If he wants to go free, he has to renounce the woman he really loves.

Joseph Kramm's Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Shrike debuted on Broadway in 1952, where Jose Ferrer not only directed but played the lead part of Jim Downs. Three years later Ferrer did double duty again on the film version. In the play Charlotte did not appear at all, but the film was opened up to include flashbacks both of Jim and Charlotte and of his courtship of, and marriage to, Ann. Ann isn't given much chance to express her point of view in either the play or picture (in the movie, Ann is an actress who gave up her career when she got married), but it's really Jim's story. The movie tacks on a somewhat hopeful ending that is entirely unrealistic. It also has a dumb scene -- not in the play -- in which a psychiatrist, sensing the vindictive nature of Ann under her surface concern and sweetness, essentially compares her to a bird called a shrike, which is not only awkward but even more unrealistic than the phony ending. (And for several reasons goes against the grain of the play as well. The playwright felt no need to elaborate for the theater audience.)

June Allyson and Mel Ferrer

All three leads -- Ferrer, Allyson and Page -- give fine performances, although it's hard to imagine that Allyson was as good as Judith Evelyn in the play. Still, Allyson is not at all a bad choice for the role, as she manages to fool almost everyone into thinking she's as sweet and uncomplicated as she seems. There are good supporting performances from Will Kuluva, Mary Hayley Bell, Martin Newman and others as hospital staff and patients. Ed Platt plays Downs' brother, worried about what having a mental patient in the family will do to his career.

Yet for all the good stuff, there's something unsatisfying about both the play and the film. One suspects the play was forgotten because its characters were (as compared to, say. O'Neill and Williams) rather ordinary and under-developed, and because of its depressing wind-up. And by making compromises, the film doesn't deliver the wallop it should, and wound up being forgotten as well. Too bad, because both projects are certainly worthwhile if flawed, and the film is certainly worth seeing. The Shrike is chilling in its depiction of how a person has to prove his sanity in a mental ward even as he's nearly being driven crazy by the very situation he's in. Jim discovers that he's been offered a life-saving job which might end his career and financial woes, but the good doctors won't let him keep the appointment! 

Isobel Bonner, who played Dr. Barrow both on Broadway and in the film, was married to the playwright, Joseph Kramm. She was performing the same part in Los Angeles the same year the film was released, when she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died right in a middle of a scene on the stage.

Verdict: I always thought Allyson was a shrike at heart! ***.

RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE

RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE (1961). Director: Jose Ferrer.

In this sequel to Peyton Place, Allison MacKenzie (now played by Carol Lynley) goes to New York with her roman a clef manuscript about the town she grew up in, and falls for her handsome married publisher (Jeff Chandler). Her mother Constance is now married to Mike Rossi (these two are now played by Eleanor Parker and Robert Sterling of Topper TV series fame), and while mama is appalled, Mike wants to place the book in the school library. Selena (now played by Tuesday Weld) is mortified that Allison chose to write about her rape and subsequent trial in her novel, and Roberta Carter (Mary Astor) is outraged that the principal wants to put his step-daughter's filthy book in the library where anyone could read it. 

Mary Astor, Brett Halsey, Luciana Paluzzi

Brett Halsey is Roberta's son Ted, who shows up with a new wife (Luciana Paluzzi, who later did Thunderball) in tow. Meanwhile Selena meets a guy named Nils (Gunnar Hellstrom). (They ignore the fact that Selena and Ted were not just friends but were once engaged). The acting is good and there are a few surprises. Although few would argue that Eleanor Parker was a more talented actress than Lana Turner (despite the latter's fine stint in A Life of Her Own), Turner was actually more suitable for the role of Constance Mackenzie (and it doesn't help that Parker is doing one of her "actressy" turns). Brett Halsey comes off better than usual. It's absolutely no surprise, however, that the whole movie is positively stolen by the superb performance of Mary Astor, who gives the entire cast and everyone who sees the film a lesson in sharp and superlative thesping.

Verdict: A pleasant return to old Sin City. ***.

SHIP OF FOOLS

Oskar Werner and Simone Signoret

SHIP OF FOOLS (1965). Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer. Based on the novel by Katherine Anne Porter. 

"There are over a million Jews in Germany. What are they going to do -- kill all of us?" -- Lowenthal. 

"I've met women like you. You're 46-years-old and still think you're a coquette." 

"I didn't even see a Jew until I was fifteen." -- Tenny. "Maybe you were too busy lynching Negroes to take time for the Jews." -- Mary. 

In 1933 an ocean liner sets sail from Mexico to Germany with a motley group of crew and passengers. Dr. Wilhelm Schumann (Oskar Werner) is the ship's doctor, a married man with a heart condition who develops a romantic relationship with La Condesa (Simone Signoret), a woman who faces prison in Cuba because she spoke out against the oppressive government. David (George Segal) is an American "starving artist" who loves his girlfriend Jenny (Elizabeth Ashley), but fears she is too "modern" for him even as she fears he can only settle for the traditional wife who has no life or career of her own. Karl Glocken (Michael Dunn) is a dwarf who is not invited to the Captain's Table, any more than Lowenthal (Heinz Ruhmann), who is Jewish, but the two sit together and become friends. Bill Tenny (Lee Marvin) is a washed-up baseball player, and Mary Treadwell (Vivien Leigh) an aging and desperately lonely divorcee, who eventually have a distinctly unpleasant encounter. 

Vivien Leigh

Ship of Fools is not on the level of Stanley Kramer's masterpiece Judgment at Nuremberg, because even though it deals with matters German and (in part) with anti-Semitism, it doesn't have as good nor as powerful a story line. There are also some odd casting choices in this. Jose Ferrer as a Nazi? Simone Signoret as a Spanish noblewoman? Nonetheless Signoret did get a Best Actress Oscar nod, and Werner was also nominated as Best Actor. Both give good performances, although their love story isn't entirely convincing because one can't see any real on-screen chemistry between them, although they play well together. Poor Vivien Leigh is given the utterly thankless role of yet another desperate and aging woman to follow Blanche Dubois of Streetcar and Mrs. Stone of The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone -- Still attractive, she must have gotten awfully sick of it. Leigh was fifty-two at the time, playing forty-six, although she holds up better than Signoret, who was forty-four playing forty-two. The irony is that Mary Treadwell acts as if she's all washed up when down the hall La Condesa is getting action with the handsome ship's doctor! Leigh's performance is fine but her portrayal is dated.  

Lee Marvin and Michael Dunn

Michael Dunn, infamous as the evil Dr. Loveless on The Wild, Wild West TV program gives a notable performance, but although Lee Marvin has his moments, he seems to have wandered in from a different movie. Liz Ashley, in her pre-sex pot phase, is more than credible as Jenny, as is George Segal as her painter boyfriend. Charles Korvin is appealing as Captain Thiele. Jose Ferrer is completely miscast and not very good in the film, but there is fine work from two lesser-known actors: Alf Kjellin [Madame Bovary] is wonderful as Freytag, who is forced to leave the Captain's table because he is married to a Jewish woman, but suffers from great guilt because he abandoned her for his career; and Charles De Vries makes an impression as young Johann, whose elderly father is a miser. Werner Klemperer has some nice moments as a crew member who hopes to initiate a relationship with Mrs. Treadwell and is rather cruel to her when he is rejected. 

Ernest Gold's score is effective and Ernest Laszlo's cinematography deservedly won an Oscar. (The film also won as Best Picture, and the art direction also received a statue.) Abby Mann's screenplay, however, just doesn't delve deep enough into the characters, of which there are too many (the character of the ball player doesn't even belong in the movie). The film can't be said to be boring, as such, but it is never riveting the way the far superior Judgment at Nuremberg is. Still, it has memorable scenes, such as the sad one when Dunn observes that Lowenthal is a "fool", because he just isn't able to believe the dire and hopeless future for the Jews in Germany. 

Verdict: Despite many good moments, this should have been a much more absorbing and powerful picture. **3/4. 

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. ***.

STATE FAIR (1962)

Pat Boone and Ann-Margret

STATE FAIR (1962). Director: Jose Ferrer.

In this CinemaScope remake of the 1945 State Fair, the Frake family are off not to a fair in Iowa but in Texas. Mom (Alice Faye) and Dad (Tom Ewell) still want ribbons for their mincemeat and boar, respectively, but now the son Wayne (Pat Boone) races cars while sister Margy (Pamela Tiffin), still restless, is bored with her now-handsome fiance, Harry (David Brandon). At the fair Wayne meets up with entertainer Emily (Ann-Margret) and Margy encounters radio interviewer Jerry (Bobby Darin). Now let's see -- Darin  and Boone [Mardi Gras], of course, simply had decades of experience in musical theater (!) but in spite of this they are not as bad singing show tunes as you might expect. In fact, after Tom Ewell, Boone actually gives the best performance in the movie (credit director Jose Ferrer, perhaps). Boone has a nice voice, and puts over such numbers as "That's for Me" and a new song (Rodgers composed several new numbers for this remake), "Willing and Eager." Darin, usually a very different kind of singer, also delivers when he croons "You're Not an Angel." Faye is given a new number that she sings to her daughter, "Never Say No to a Man" and she and Ewell, who obviously can't sing "I Owe Iowa" anymore, perform "The Littlest Things in Texas" instead. The new songs are perfectly pleasant. Unfortunately, "Isn't It Kind of Nice?" is horrendously staged, first as a weird burlesque and then jazzed up with Ann-Margret [Any Given Sunday] tearing at that lobster again while she sings, although she is better when she relaxes a bit doing "Willing and Eager" with Boone. "It's a Grand Night for Singing" doesn't get a big production nearly as good as the one in the original. Unlike Dana Andrews in the first version, Darin plays the character like a cheap and common playboy, making it improbable that Margy would fall for him or vice versa; Wayne's hasty romance with Emily is only slightly more convincing. Wally Cox [The Night Strangler] is funny as the judge who gets inebriated on mincemeat. Alice Faye is okay as the mother, but there are times when you get the impression she'd rather be anywhere else than in this movie. She's given some funny lines -- "[Ewell] won't be happy until that hog shows up in Who's Who" -- but her delivery is always flat. Faye was to play the daughter's role in the 1945 movie but abruptly retired; this was supposedly her comeback. State Fair was finally turned into a Broadway musical in 1996 using songs from both movies and a couple from lesser-known Rodgers and Hammerstein shows.

Verdict: Has some nice moments but decidedly inferior to the original. **1/2.

FEDORA

Fedora (Marthe Keller) accepts her Oscar

FEDORA (1978). Director: Billy Wilder.

"Moral turptitude. You can have six husbands but you can't have one illegitimate child. Now you can have no husbands and six children and nobody cares."

Years ago Barry Detweiler (William Holden) once had a fling with the famous actress, Fedora (Marthe Keller). Now she's a recluse in Corfu, living on an island with an old countess (Hildegard Knef) and her doctor (Jose Ferrer of The Shrike). Detweiler, who is now a rather desperate producer, tries to use this slender, long-ago connection to the woman to coax her into coming out of retirement, especially as she looks many years younger. But Fedora's associates seem determined to keep her out of the limelight ... Fedora was pilloried by many critics when it came out primarily because it wasn't Wilder's earlier "Hollywood" picture, Sunset Boulevard, which has many similarities to Fedora (Holden stars in both movies and in each gets involved with an aging actress who is no longer in the business.) Taken on its own terms, however, Fedora is a fascinating picture, not quite a Gothic horror story, that examines image vs reality, irresponsible and tragic behavior, and in the end unravels a decidedly bizarre deception. Marthe Keller was criticized for her work in the film, but she actually gives an excellent performance, far outstripping the others, especially Holden, who seems completely listless. Mario Adorf makes an impression as the Corfu hotel manager. Miss Balfour (Frances Sternhagen of Outland), Fedora's companion,  is almost comically evil and the picture is a trifle overlong. Still, it is a worthwhile companion piece to Sunset Boulevard with its twisted and tragic story. Based on the novella from Thomas Tryon's "Crowned Heads."

Verdict: Weird old Hollywood story generally well-told. ***.

WHIRLPOOL

WHIRLPOOL (1949). Director: Otto Preminger. NOTE: Plot points are mentioned in this critique.

Gene Tierney, the wife of a prominent psychiatrist (Richard Conte) is caught shoplifting when the ne'erdowell Jose Ferrer comes to her rescue. After using his influence to stifle the incident, Ferrer uses hypnotism to cure Tierney of her insomnia, but his real purpose is to frame her for a murder he plans to commit. His previous girlfriend (Barbara O'Neil) is threatening to go to the D.A. because he helped her embezzle money from her daughter's trust. Tierney is arrested for the crime, but her husband insists that Ferrer is the true murderer – the trouble is that Ferrer was in the hospital after an operation at the time of the murder. This is a very predictable suspense story that runs out of gas long before it's over. Every time Preminger tried one of these thrillers and mysteries (and that includes Laura) he would only show that he lacks the skill of an Alfred Hitchcock when it comes to handling this kind of material. Gene Tierney's performance will hold your attention, but it's also very affected and “actressy” and never real. Jose Ferrer isn't bad in a role that both George Sanders and Vincent Price could have made more of [the least attractive of this trio, it's hard to imagine Ferrer as some kind of lover boy with the ladies]. Richard Conte barely registers as the husband, but Charles Bickford is a bit better as the detective assigned to the case.

Verdict: Not very memorable. **.