BEYOND THE FOREST

"What a dump!" Joseph Cotten and Bette Davis

BEYOND THE FOREST (1949). Director: King Vidor. Colorized version.

"You wear that yourself. No dead cat for me -- mink!" -- Rosa to Jenny. 

Rosa Moline (Bette Davis) lives with her doctor husband, Lewis (Joseph Cotten), in the town of Loyalton, Wisconsin. Growing older, Rosa is desperate to find a more exciting life in Chicago with businessman Neil Latimer (David Brian), with whom she is having an affair. However, Rosa's plans are stymied when she runs off to Chicago and discovers that Neil has a new fiancee. But when Neil comes back to Loyalton for a birthday party for his employee Moose (Minor Watson), Rosa realizes that she still has a chance with Neil. But Moose may throw a monkey wrench into her plans ... 

"If I don't get out of this town I'll die!"

Excoriated for years -- even Davis expressed her hatred for the picture -- Beyond the Forest has come in for reassessment and garnered new fans over the years. What the movie has going for it is Davis' vivid performance, solid supporting performances from most of the cast, fast-paced and dramatic direction from King Vidor, an evocative score by Max Steiner that makes adroit use of the song "Chicago" but also has its own compelling themes, and fine cinematography from Robert Burks. While Rosa is not exactly an admirable woman -- she is rather a pathetic figure, in fact -- Davis gets across her utter desperation, especially in a sequence when she stands by her bedroom window with the fiery smelters in the background. "If I don't get out of this town I'll die. If I don't get out of this town I hope I die."

I'm not just any woman -- I'm Rosa Moline!

Ann Doran as a woman with many children has an interesting exchange with Rosa in the post office. Doran expresses sympathy for Rosa, possibly because she herself feels a bit trapped by the small-town life she lives with half a dozen offspring to look after. "This town has been tough on Rosa," she says, to which a neighbor replies, "Rosa's been tough on the town." Vidor peppers the film with other interesting vignettes as the movie unfolds, a murder occurs, along with a decidedly unwanted pregnancy. Rosa's husband is a perfectly nice man, but he can't give Rosa what she needs and is terrible unexciting. You sense if he slapped her around she would respect him more (or kill him). 

Davis with David Brian

Dona Drake (of Kansas City Confidential)   certainly makes an impression as Jenny, the slovenly, funny maid who works for the Molines and exchanges comical barbs with Rosa, reminding her that if she fires her she, Rosa, will have to do the work. Drake also figures in the bravura climax to the picture, when a fever-wracked Rosa makes up her mind to get to the train to Chicago come Hell or high water. There's an operatic intensity to this sequence as Rosa determinedly if on unsteady legs makes her way to the train station where she meets her ultimate fate. 

Verdict: Think what you will of this, Davis saunters through this saucy film noir, a variation of Madame Bovary, with aplomb. ***. 

THE MONEY TRAP

Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford

THE MONEY TRAP (1965). Director: Burt Kennedy. 

Cop Joe Baron (Glenn Ford) is married to Lisa (Elke Sommer), and they have serious money troubles. When Dr. Horace Van Tilden (Joseph Cotten) shoots a burglar in his house, it turns out that the burglar's wife is Baron's old girlfriend, Rosalie (Rita Hayworth). Then there's Baron's partner, Pete (Ricardo Montalban), who would also like to get his hands on some green. I won't give away any of the twists or plot developments because that's about all this picture has going for it. Despite the gun play, love scenes, and so on, this is remarkably dull. Elke Sommer is as inadequate as ever, but the rest of the cast, especially Hayworth, is fine. This just never really comes to life. 

Verdict: A waste of money. *1/2.

THE OSCAR

THE OSCAR (1966). Director: Russell Rouse.

Frankie Fane (Stephen Boyd) is a low-level garment worker who sort of falls into acting because he "impresses" a lady talent scout named Sophie (Eleanor Parker). Sophie gets him a top agent in "Kappy" Kapstetter (Milton Berle), who manages to convince studio head Kenneth Regan (Joseph Cotten) to sign him to a contract even though Regan senses something off about the guy. Fane becomes a star, but keeps biting the hand that feeds him -- even though some of his remarks to those who helped him have a point. When his career starts slipping badly, he has nightmares of going back to being nobody, and hitches upon a desperate plan to nab an Oscar and put himself back on top. The Oscar does show how undeserving louts can become movie stars simply because somebody has the hots for them -- which has happened more often than anyone imagines. The movie might have had more bite had Fane been someone desperately committed to the art of acting, but this can't be confused with the far superior Career -- it's basically entertaining trash with mostly one-dimensional characters and often hokey dialogue -- and not a few tedious moments. Once Fane begins to slide, however, the pic picks up. The fact is that the narcissistic, ambitious, self-absorbed Fane is all too typical of most Hollywood actors.

Elke Sommer and Boyd

Although miscast as some low-bred tough guy, Boyd is not at all bad as Fane, and has his best moment at the very end of the movie (you almost feel sorry for him). As his pal and procurer, Hymie, Tony Bennett seems amateurish until he has some powerful moments at the climax. Jill St. John gives it a good try, but she hasn't the real acting chops to make the most of her scenes as the girlfriend Fane stole from Hymie. Elke Sommer is okay as Kay Bergdahl, a designer Fane makes a play for and eventually marries, and Berle is at least flavorful as Kappy. Eleanor Parker gives the sauciest performance as Sophie, and makes St. John and Sommer look like a couple of kittens in comparison. But Edie Adams and Ernest Borgnine almost walk off with the movie as a husband and wife who are celebrating their divorce in Mexico when they encounter Fane and Kay and re-enter their lives in an unexpected fashion. Peter Lawford has a small but significant scene where he plays a once-famous actor who is now a headwaiter at a Hollywood restaurant; Lawford is excellent and this is probably the best scene in the movie. There are some celebrity cameos and Hedda Hopper as well. One of the screenwriters was Harlan Elison, who became better known as a science fiction writer.

Verdict: Not exactly Eugene O'Neill but fun. ***.

'CHARLOTTE" REVISITED

"Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte"

HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964). Director: Robert Aldrich.

NOTE: My original review read as follows: 

"She's not really crazy. She just acts that way because people expect it of her."

This film seems to get better with the passage of time. Originally this was meant to be a follow up to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? re-teaming Bette Davis with Joan Crawford (who would have been great in the picture and should have completed it) but Crawford quit the production and Olivia de Havilland stepped in -- with happy results. As others have noted, watching sweet "Miss Melanie" of Gone With the Wind doing the things that de Havilland does as Miriam gives it all an added kick.

Olivia De Havilland and Joseph Cotten

Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) lives alone in a forlorn mansion that is about to be torn down to make way for a bridge. She calls on the only family she has left -- cousin Miriam Deering (de Havilland) -- to come and help her, but Miriam has other things on her mind. For most of her life Charlotte has been the chief suspect in the mutilation murder of her lover, John Mayhew (Bruce Dern), a supposedly sensitive soul who wrote a love song to Charlotte (the title tune) and put it in a music box. Charlotte is haunted by her lost love and by her feeling that it was her father (Victor Buono in a bravura turn) who killed him.

Bette Davis as Charlotte

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte takes a cast of golden age stars and character actors and places them in a classy production with a sop to the teen audience via the graphic, well-executed (pun intended) murder scene that almost opens the picture, and which is actually bloodier than the Psycho murder of 1960 (we never do learn what became of the poor man's head and hand, which were apparently carried off by the murderer). This alone predisposed many 1964 critics to dismiss the film out of hand, although the rest of the film is entirely tasteful. Not only tasteful, but extremely well done. Aldrich's direction and handling of the suspense scenes is far superior to his work on Baby Jane. Joseph Biroc's cinematography is consistently outstanding and the production values first-rate -- this is one good-looking movie. (Frank) DeVol's musical score is extremely effective. One could argue that Baby Jane had a kind of cheapjack feel to it, but that is definitely not true of Charlotte. The screenplay by Henry Farrell and Lukas Heller, while it may at one point borrow a plot gambit from Diabolique, is suspenseful and full of great dialogue. Most scenes, such as a murder on a staircase and the bitter arguments between the neurotic principals, are handled with great dramatic flair.

Olivia de Havilland

And then there's the acting. Davis gives one of her finest latter-day performances, getting across the pathos of the character as well as her mania. (Her pantomime at the end as she reads a letter with tremendously important information in it is marvelous.) As Miriam, Olivia de Havilland is on target from her entrance until the final moments. Witness her wonderful delivery of her rejoinder to Dr. Bayliss. "You were always free with your compliments. It was your ... intentions... that were a little vague." As the charming if reptilian Bayliss Joseph Cotten offers another dead-on characterization. Agnes Moorehead almost walks off with the picture as the unfortunate housekeeper Velma. Mary Astor, Cecil Kellaway, and others offer highly superior supporting performances.

Hush...Hush deserves to be recognized as a certified classic.

Verdict: Fascinating! ****.

2020 UPDATE: Oddly, although the plot line isn't as original as in Baby Jane, Hush ... Hush is, I believe, the better picture, even if I might take one half star away from my verdict. Although she is very good, there is no way Davis would ever have received an Oscar nomination for this film as she did for Baby Jane -- her scene on the staircase when she supposedly descends into gibbering madness is more comical than anything else. It doesn't make much sense that Charlotte would stay in town where everyone thought she was a cleaver-wielding lunatic just to cover up for her father (who she thinks is the real murderer) -- she could have gone anywhere and everyone would have still thought "she done it." Then we have the question of the murder itself. It takes a great deal of strength to cut off a man's hand with a meat cleaver with just one blow, not to mention a head with a few whacks. How could anyone think Charlotte could have done it, let alone the real killer, maniacal strength notwithstanding? (And why on earth did the killer walk off with the head and hand?) Also the two villains of the story had to count on an awful lot happening, on Charlotte falling in with their plans, for things to work out as they do. On close inspection the whole Gaslight plot seems highly suspect. But these are quibbles -- as the movie is extremely entertaining if you just suspend disbelief. A scene with a corpse falling sideways and threatening to reveal itself to a reporter at the door of the mansion is terrific!

Verdict: Diabolical story of resentment and revenge --- lots of classy if ghoulish fun. ***1/2.  

THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTLE

Van Johnson and Ruth Roman

THE BOTTOM OF THE BOTTLE  (1956). Director: Henry Hathaway.

Near the Mexican border, lawyer "P. M." Martin (Joseph Cotten) gets an unwelcome visitor, his brother Donald (Van Johnson), who has just escaped from prison with five years to serve on a sentence for manslaughter. Donald can't cross the border to Mexico, where he wants to be reunited with his wife and children, because of rushing flood waters, and hopes PM will somehow get money to his family who are about to be put out on the street. Meanwhile Donald, using a fake name, meets his ultimately sympathetic sister-in-law, Nora (Ruth Roman of Lightning Strikes Twice), and the partying neighbors, while PM hopes Donald can resist temptation and not take a drink, the very thing that got him into trouble in the first place ...

Joseph Cotten and Ruth Roman

The Bottom of the Bottle certainly sets up an interesting situation, but at times it comes close to sinking under its contrivances. While not perfect casting for the rough-hewn, stupid, and rather unlikable and self-justifying Donald, Van Johnson [The Big Hangover] gives an excellent performance, with Cotten and Roman just a cut below in their portrayals. Johnson has an especially good scene when he's talking to his wife and small children on the phone, his heart clearly breaking from his being separated from them as well as his desperate circumstances.

Jack Carson, Van Johnson and Margaret Hayes

Jack Carson and Margaret Hayes are cast as neighbors, the Breckinridges, who hold frequent parties, with the wife almost recoiling from her husband's touch, setting up the dime store psychological notion that he's out to get Donald (when the latter robs a store of guns and liquor) out of some kind of sexual frustration. (Carson briefly affects a limp wrist as he leads the posse, whatever the heck that means.) There is an unintentionally comical moment when Johnson has a positive, even scary screaming meltdown in front of the Breckinridges and their reaction to this -- because the script has him being thrown out of their home at a somewhat later point -- is hardly what one would expect given his behavior. One gets the sense that most of the characters in this are acting the way they do because the script demands it of them, not because they are real people behaving in a realistic fashion. For instance, Nora's motivations for some of her lines and actions are not satisfactorily explained by her dissatisfaction with her marriage.

Despite its flaws, The Bottom of the Bottle isn't too easily dismissed, not just because of Johnson's performance, but because of the high-quality of Lee Garmes' widescreen cinematography and an effective score by Leigh Harline. There is some amazing stunt work when Donald is nearly run over by a train, and an exciting climatic battle between the two brothers on horseback in the raging river. The film also has a moving wind-up, although many things have not quite been resolved.

Verdict: Not exactly East of Eden, but not without its interesting aspects, and a fine dramatic performance from Van Johnson. **3/4. 

GASLIGHT (1944)

Boyer and Bergman

GASLIGHT (1944). Director: George Cukor.

Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman) lived in a house in London with her aunt, a famous opera singer who was strangled to death. Years later she comes back to that house with her new husband, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). The autocratic Anton berates Paula for her bad memory and for losing things and inexplicably taking pictures from the wall and hiding them. Is Paula going crazy or is there something more sinister going on? Gaslight doesn't make any attempt to disguise the identity of the bad guy in this, but the film is suspenseful in spite of it. Bergman won her well-deserved first Oscar for her portrayal of the confused Paula, and Boyer is equally expert and fascinating. In her first film role, Angela Lansbury [A Life at Stake] scores as the saucy, borderline rude maid, Nancy, and Dame May Whitty is charming as the nosy old biddy, Miss Thwaites. Joseph Cotten offers another effective portrait as a policeman who once met Paula's aunt and is struck by the resemblance; against orders, he takes a new interest in the case. Barbara Everest is also notable as the cook, Elizabeth. The best scene in the film is when Paula nearly has a nervous breakdown at a piano concert. Although Cukor was not a suspense specialist along the lines of Hitchcock, he still manages to craft a nifty thriller, as he did with A Woman's Face. Bergman and Boyer re-teamed for much less felicitous results in Arch of Triumph, as the chemistry just wasn't right for those particular characterizations. At one point Paula shows her husband a glove worn by her aunt and signed by no less than Charles Gounod, in whose Romeo and Juliet she had performed -- what a memento! This is far superior to the 1940 British version of the story.

Verdict: A mesmerizing performance by a resplendent Bergman and fine support from Boyer, Cotten, and Lansbury.  ***1/2. 

77 SUNSET STRIP

The cast of 77 Sunset Strip

77 SUNSET STRIP (1958 - 1964).

This hour-long black and white private eye series lasted for six seasons and was one of the most successful and influential of its type on television. The main stars were Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Stuart Bailey and Roger Smith as Jeff Spencer. Edd Byrnes ["Final Escape"on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour] as Gerald Kookson III or "Kookie," originally parked cars for the real-life Dino's Lodge next door -- the club was owned by Dean Martin who never appeared on the show -- did odd jobs for the detectives, and later became an employee with Bailey and Spencer. When Bourbon Street Beat was canceled Richard Long and the character he played were both moved over to Sunset. Louis Quinn played Roscoe, a horse player who made money also doing odd jobs for the agency; Jacqueline Beer was their secretary, Suzanne; and Robert Logan [Claudelle Inglish] took Kookie's old parking job, hung around the office, and got involved in a case or two. In the last episodes of the final season Stuart Bailey was the only private eye in sight, the others (as well as "Bailey and Spencer," Kooky, the agency's offices, the logo and theme,  and everything and everyone else) were all gone, possibly in a cost-cutting move.

While not every episode was a winner, the show, produced by former actor William Orr [The Hardys Ride High], managed to maintain a high-standard of entertainment value. Some of the most memorable episodes include "The Duncan Shrine," in which the statue of a dead western star is stolen from a cemetery; "Pattern for a Bomb," in which the gang try to stop a clever bomber-extortionist (with Joan Marshall); "The Gemologist Caper," in which a half million in gems disappears from a gallery; "Tarnished Idol," in which Suzanne goes undercover to investigate a paralyzed tennis player (Van Williams; Edgar Barrier); "Never to Have Loved," in which an actress tries to break with her Svengali-like husband/director; "By His Own Verdict," with Joseph Cotten as a lawyer whose acquitted client admits he's guilty; and one of the very best, "White Lie," in which a land claim dispute centers around a mulatto woman who has been passing for white, and who is understandably reluctant to answer tough questions in court (Gene Evans; Elizabeth Montgomery). The show featured many well-known guest-stars, such as Bert Convy, Paula Raymond, Diane McBain, George Petrie, Pat Crowley, Robert Clarke, Joan Taylor, Robert Vaughn, Jay Novello, Gena Rowlands, and many, many others. Orr also produced Surfside 6, which lasted two seasons.

Verdict: Snappy detective show with a finger-snappin' theme and appealing players. *** out of 4.

LYDIA

Merle Oberon

LYDIA (1941). Director: Julien Duvivier.

"If I can't have all there is I don't want less."

An unmarried elderly woman named Lydia (Merle Oberon) invites a few old male friends to a gathering where she reviews her life and loves over the past few decades. Bob (George Reeves) runs off with Lydia after her grandmother Sarah's (Edna May Oliver) disapproval, but they never make it to the altar. Frank Andre (Hans Jaray) is a blind pianist whose love for Lydia remains unrequited. Michael (Joseph Cotten) is all set to marry Lydia but she doesn't feel the passion for him that she feels for Richard (Alan Marshal of House on Haunted Hill), a handsome sailor who tells her he must go off to settle some past romantic affairs and to wait for her. Well, it'll be a long wait ... Lydia is an unusual and unpredictable movie in that it defies romantic Hollywood conventions and doesn't offer up a traditional happy ending, meaning some viewers will find it unsatisfying, but it's just that difference that makes the movie interesting. The performances are excellent throughout, with a luminescent Oberon; George Reeves [The Adventures of Sir Galahad] proving that he was more than just Superman (whom he would essay a few years later); Joseph Cotten as good as ever; Alan Marshal charming as the mountebank; and Edna May Oliver nearly snatching away the movie from everyone else with her peppery portrayal of the hypochondriac grandmother. Sara Allgood is also on target, as usual, as the mother of a blind boy (Billy Ray) that Lydia befriends and Gertrude Hoffman is fine in a very small role. This has a nice score by Miklos Rozsa as well. The film is in some ways similar to Letter from an Unknown Woman, particularly in its conclusion.

Verdict: Romantic yet uncompromising. ***.

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES

Vincent Price

THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971). Director: Robert Fuest.

Many years ago the wife of Dr. Anton Phibes died on the operating table,and he himself was incinerated in an auto crash. Or was he? Now the members of the medical staff who attended Mrs. Phibes are being murdered one by one, in manners that relate to the ten biblical curses of the Pharaohs. One poor man is attacked by blood-thirsty bats, while another is given a toad mask to wear that eventually crushes his head. Terry-Thomas has all of the blood removed from his body, quart by quart. The head surgeon, Dr. Vesalius (Joseph Cotten) is warned by Inspector Trout (Peter Jeffrey) that his first-born son (Sean Bury) may be in deadly danger... The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a zesty, well-acted black comedy that is as gruesome as it as comical. Price [Tower of London], Cotten [Half Angel] and Jeffrey are all excellent. Phibes' lovely assistant Vulnavia (Virginia North) has no dialogue, and neither does Caroline Munro, who stands in for the late Victoria Phibes. Followed by Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Fuest also directed the terrible Devil's Rain.

Verdict: As delightful as it is appalling, and definitely not abominable. ***.

NIAGARA

NIAGARA (1953). Director: Henry Hathaway.

"For a dress like [Monroe's], you better start making plans at about 13." -- Polly.

A young couple on their honeymoon, Polly (Jean Peters) and Ray (Max Showalter aka Casey Adams), become entwined with another couple staying at the same cabins near the falls. George Loomis (Joseph Cotten) is unaware that his wife, Rose (Marilyn Monroe), has taken a darkly handsome lover, Ted (Richard Allan), and that Rose wants this younger man to murder George. However, the best laid plans ... The actions of some of the characters in this are pretty dumb, but the movie is not boring. Monroe [Love Happy] looks sensational, although she's given better performances elsewhere. Cotten [September Affair] and Peters are fine, but Showalter's golly-gee-whiz attitude quickly grows tiresome, and he's not very good. The picture has an exciting, if somewhat abrupt, climax on the falls. Don Wilson and Lurene Tuttle are fine as Ray's associate and his wife. Very good use of Niagara locations. Peters and Showalter were both in Vicki.

Verdict: Monroe sizzles sexily while those waters keep rushing! ***.

THE STEEL TRAP

THE STEEL TRAP (1952). Director: Andrew L. Stone.

A bank officer named Jim Osborne (Joseph Cotten), with a wife, Laurie (Teresa Wright), and a small daughter, hits upon a scheme of stealing a million dollars and taking his family to Brazil, where no extradition treaty exists. But getting out of the country with the loot proves no easy feat, as there's one complication after another involving passports in locked offices, missed flights, curious customs men, and the like. The Steel Trap is extremely suspenseful, especially at the nail-biting climax, and the two leads give superlative performances; Cotten is particularly effective. What perhaps prevents this from being a masterpiece is that the characterization is comparatively minimal. Johnathan Hale is fine as Osborne's boss, Mr. Bowers, and there are short appearances by two of the cast members of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman: William Hudson is a bank teller, and Michael Ross, who played the alien giant and the bartender in that film, is a building guard in this one. Wright and Cotten were most famously teamed in the earlier Shadow of a Doubt while Hale was in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. 

Verdict: Quite memorable and tense thriller. ***.

SEPTEMBER AFFAIR

Joseph Cotten and Joan Fontaine

SEPTEMBER AFFAIR (1950). Director: William Dieterle.

When their plane to New York touches down near Naples for repairs, two strangers -- businessman David (Joseph Cotten) and concert pianist Manina (Joan Fontaine) -- decide to use the time to go sightseeing together, but miss their plane. They decide to continue sightseeing, then learn that the plane they were supposed to be on crashed, killing everyone aboard -- and they are listed in the paper as two of the victims. Unable to get a divorce from his wife, Catherine (Jessica Tandy), David importunes Manina to start a new life with him in Florence, where they rent or buy a villa with the aid of her teacher, Maria (Francoise Rosay). But will this merely be a brief if intense affair, and will the pull of the past prove too much to them?

A major problem with September Affair is the reaction the couple has to the news about the plane crash. They were on the plane, saw the passengers and some of the crew members, yet they never express the slightest pity for these people and their awful deaths, making them seem remarkably callous and self-absorbed. The plane crash and the deaths of over thirty people are simply an "opportunity" for these two losers. The shame of it is that just a brief moment of scripted compassion on their part would have made them more sympathetic and human. A bigger shame is that otherwise September Affair is not a terrible picture, although in the manner of soap operas it ignores certain realities such as remains and making a living. David writes Maria a check so she can cash it for him [considering the size of their palazzo it must have been a mighty sizable check], but he does it two days before the plane crash, making him seem positively prescient [or the check was post-dated].

On the plus side, Cotten and Fontaine, especially the latter, give very good performances, and Jessica Tandy [Adventures of a Young Man] nearly steals the picture as the confused, grieving wife. Robert Arthur also makes a positive impression as David's handsome, sensitive son [David is a selfish and terrible father, however.] The movie is drenched in romantic music, everything from "September Song" from Knickerbocker Holiday [an unofficial theme of the movie] to Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, which Manina plays in a concert. There are some beautiful Italian settings as well. A nice surprise is the appearance of Jimmy Lydon (Henry Aldrich) as a soldier in a restaurant who betrays a very pleasant voice when he sings "September Song" as Manina plays the piano. The frankly absurd ending seems forced by the production code of the period. William Dieterle also directed Love Letters with Joseph Cotten and many other movies.

Verdict: Lush and classy soap opera in many respects, but with a key flaw, confused and superficial script, and characters you sometimes may find it hard to root for. **1/2.

A DELICATE BALANCE

Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield

A DELICATE BALANCE (1973).  Director: Tony Richardson. Play by Edward Albee. AFT [American Film Theatre] production.

"I can't stand the selfishness. Those who want to die and take their whole lives to do it." 

"I was not and never had been an alcoholic. I had nothing in common with them. They were sick. And I was merely willful."

Agnes (Katharine Hepburn) and Tobias (Paul Scofield of A Man for All Seasons) are a married couple who live in an upscale Connecticut community.  Also living with them is Agnes' sister, Claire (Kate Reid of She Cried Murder). who has a "drinking problem" whether she wants to admit it or not, and is continuously berated by Agnes. The couple's daughter, Julie (Lee Remick of The Omen), is also coming home when it looks as if her fourth marriage is going to wind up on the rocks along with the first three. But the strangest house guests are Agnes and Toby's best friends, Harry (Joseph Cotten) and Edna (Betsy Blair), who come over to stay when they suffer a panic attack [over encroaching age, fear of death, fear of losing one another?] that absolutely terrifies them. They move into Julia's bedroom, but when she returns Julia is horrified to realize that her parents aren't going to ask them to leave. They are friends, yes, but she's their daughter. Yet Harry and Edna seem to think they have more right to the room than she has. This situation brings out all the tensions in the family (albeit most of them were out already) making the atmosphere even more poisonous... A Delicate Balance won Edward Albee a Pulitzer Prize --  although it was back in the days when most Pulitzers went to wealthy white guys like Albee. Albee isn't the first person to write about a dysfunctional family and others have done it better [for instance, this in no way compares to O'Neill's brilliant Long Day's Journey into Night]. If Delicate Balance  has anything going for it it's some excellent -- if occasionally dated --  dialogue, but the people are perhaps more dreary than interesting. As with Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe the playwright resorts to black comedy -- and much of this is quite funny -- when all else fails. The characters (archetypes that border on stereotypes) are more obscure than well-developed, as if they were all people Albee knew but he isn't able to make them really come alive for anyone who didn't personally experience them. This is left for the actors to do, and they do their best, even if the casting isn't perfect. Hepburn and Scofield are quite good, Remick is fine, Reid quite intense, Cotten actually gives one of the best performances of his career, and Blair, while a cut below the others, has some excellent moments. The acting and situations hold your attention, but ultimately this is unsatisfying, and hardly a really great drama.

Verdict: A lot of talk, some of it interesting, that ultimately goes nowhere. **1/2.

DUEL IN THE SUN

Jennifer Jones watches as horse gives Gregory Peck a kiss

DUEL IN THE SUN (1946). Director: King Vidor.

In post-Civil War Texas, the tempestuous "half-breed" Pearl (Jennifer Jones) comes to live with her aunt Laura (Lillian Gish) after the death of her father (Herbert Marshall), who was convicted of murdering her mother. Laura's husband, Senator McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) is an anti-Indian bigot who refuses to accept Pearl, and whose main occupation is keeping the railroad off of his property [leading to a tense confrontation between cowboys and train men halfway through the movie]. McCanles has two sons, the decent Jesse (Joseph Cotten) and the more unsavory Lewt (Gregory Peck). While Pearl falls in love with the kind Jesse, she can't fight her attraction to the sexy "bad boy," Lewt, creating a lot of problems, not to mention a highly perverse climax. Producer David Selznick was hoping for another Gone With the Wind when he made Duel in the Sun, but the film is almost forgotten. The acting in this entertaining "epic" is generally of the second-rate "Hollywood" variety across the board, but on that level it isn't bad. Jones [Love Letters] gives a good performance, although she looks almost ugly in some shots, and a miscast Peck [Mirage] does his best with a role he's really not suited for; neither Peck nor Jones are that good with transitions of mood, which occur frequently in their exchanges. Barrymore, Butterfly McQueen (who is great despite the patronizing attitude held toward her by both the other characters and the filmmakers), Charles Bickford (as one of Pearl's suitors), Otto Kruger, Charles Dingle as a sheriff, and Scott McKay as nasty Syd all make a favorable impression. Some beautiful cinematography from Lee Garmes and others. King Vidor also directed Beyond the Forest and the silent masterpiece The Crowd. Possibly the first of the "sex-westerns," as lust has a lot more to do with it than cow-punching.

Verdict: This could have been a lot better, but it certainly has its moments. ***.

HALF ANGEL

Joseph Cotten and Loretta Young

HALF ANGEL (1951). Director: Richard Sale.

"What the night shift has done to what was once irresistible beauty!"  -- Nurse Kay

Now here's a weird one. Nurse Nora Gilpin (Loretta Young) is engaged to her boyfriend Tim (John Ridgely), but at night she enters a trance state and pays lascivious calls on a man she normally hates, a lawyer named John Raymond (Joseph Cotten). John is convinced he knows Nora from somewhere, but when he tries to speak to her during the daytime, she becomes apoplectic, leading to a trial and various complications. Half Angel seems to be using an old screwball script from the 1930's but it just doesn't work twenty years later, even though both Young and Cotten give good performances. Cecil Kellaway is Nora's father, and Irene Ryan of The Beverly Hillbillies adds a slight bit of fun as Nurse Kay. Jim Backus also has a supporting role. As usual in movies of this nature, Ridgely's character is treated very badly.

Verdict: Sleepwalking and multiple personalities given the allegedly comedic approach. **1/2.

BEYOND THE FOREST

Rosa and the saw mill: "If I don't get out of here I'll die."

BEYOND THE FOREST (1949). Director: King Vidor.

"There's only one person in this town who does anyone a real favor. That's the undertaker -- carries them out." -- Rosa Moline.

"No more dead cat for me! Mink!" -- ditto.

NOTE: Some plot points are given away in this review. Based on a novel by Stuart Engstrand, this vivid melodrama, a kind of poor man's Madame Bovary, has always polarized Davis fans and general movie-goers alike. Davis plays Rosa Moline, a self-absorbed, aging woman in the small town of Loyalton, Wisconsin, which has one industry -- a sawmill constantly issuing smoke and stench -- and one doctor, Rosa's gentle husband, Louis (Joseph Cotten). Bored Rosa, who wants much more out of life than Louis can give her, is having an affair with wealthy businessman Neil Latimer (David Brian of The Damned Don't Cry). Things run hot and cold with Rosa and Latimer for some time, but just when things look perfect Rosa is confronted by Latimer's caretaker, Moose (Minor Watson), who threatens to divulge information to his boss that will utterly ruin things for Rosa. Before she knows it, Rosa is put on trial for murder ...

Hardly anybody, including me, likes Beyond the Forest the first time they see it, perhaps because Davis and the movie seem overblown and slightly grotesque, but the damn thing grows on you and actually has quite a bit going for it. First there's Vidor's direction, which makes the most of Rosa's claustrophobia and frustration, and pulls the viewer along from the very first moment until the highly dramatic climax. Davis has been criticized for supposedly playing a teenager when she was in her forties, but nowhere is it said in the film that Rosa is that young, and one can't assume she is just because the character was younger in the novel. [The characters in the novel "The Postman Always Rings Twice" may have been teenagers or at least very young, but no one has suggested that Turner and Garfield were playing teens in the movie.] Davis comes off like the middle-aged woman whose opportunities are running out just as time is, and who does her best to look and act much younger, and her performance, despite some odd moments perhaps, is vital and effective. Robert Burks' photography makes the most of the bucolic locations and grim situations. Max Steiner's snappy and attractive score was nominated for an Oscar.

Rosa's dilemma is that she fancies herself a non-conformist, different from and superior to the other townspeople, but she hasn't the gifts that would enable her to get away without latching on to some man. The odd thing about Beyond the Forest is that while it's hard to like Rosa, you can't help but find yourself sympathizing with this somewhat sociopathic female who just has to get to Chicago or die [and this has much to do with Davis' performance]. The ending, in which a feverish, dying Rosa literally drags herself inch by inch and step by step to the train station, is not only operatic, but extremely well-handled by Vidor, superbly acted by Davis, and whatever else you think of the film, is just plain good movie-making. The stylized scene when Rosa gets lost in the big city and encounters weird characters is a bit problematic, but sort of works anyway.

Joseph Cotten (Shadow of a Doubt) perhaps makes Louis even more placid than he needs to be. [Some people writing about this movie don't seem to get that it doesn't matter if Louis is "nice" and "pleasant" and forgiving and so on. To Rosa his placidity is deadly.] Dona Drake (Valentino) is excellent as the Native American maid who is so mistreated by Rosa but gives as good as she gets. Minor Watson, a fine actor, played a very different role from Moose, a studio executive, in his next film with Davis, The Star, and is equally convincing in both pictures. Ruth Roman (Invitation) is lovely as Moose's daughter; Davis has a fine moment putting on Roman's mink and looking at herself in the mirror. David Brian is probably the weakest of the cast members, but he's perfectly competent as the rugged Latimer, who's used to getting what he wants, including Rosa. The ubiquitous Ann Doran is one of Loyalton's disapproving [of Rosa] housewives.

Verdict: Love it or hate it, it plays. ***.

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS

THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942). Writer/director: Orson Welles.

Orson Welles' follow-up to Citizen Kane was based on Booth Tarkington's brilliant novel, which was not only a trenchant small-town family drama but a look at the changes wrought in American society after the turn of the century and its effects on several citizens. Welles' film was cut by the studio, stripped down to bare basics, but still emerges as a creditable movie with some fine performances. Tim Holt probably never did anything better than his performance as spoiled young George Minafer, whom the whole town is hoping will eventually get his comeuppance. Eugene (Joseph Cotten) had been in love with George's mother, Isabel (Delores Costello,) but she married another man. Now she is a widow, and Eugene is a widower with a grown daughter, Lucy (Anne Baxter). A complication is that George's Aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorehead) has always been carrying a torch for Eugene. "Just being an aunt isn't really the great career it may seem to be," she tells George. A bigger complication is that George is vehemently opposed to any romantic union between his mother and Eugene. [George and Fanny have a number of scenes together which Welles almost always films in long takes.] Eugene is also planning on manufacturing motor cars, which upsets the more genteel members of the Minafer family. As the film progresses there are dramatic developments and the fortunes of the Minafers take a turn for the worse, leading to a situation wherein George has to really prove what kind of person he is. The cast, including Ray Collins [Lt. Tragg on Perry Mason] as Uncle Jack, is excellent, although I fear that Agnes Moorehead is perhaps a bit more odd and semi-hysterical than she needed to be as the desperate and lonely Fanny [she received a supporting Oscar nomination, however]. The movie is handsomely produced and looks great [the art direction and Stanley Cortez' cinematography were also nominated].

Verdict: Nearly a masterpiece. ***1/2.

LOVE LETTERS

Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten and Cecil Kellaway

LOVE LETTERS (1945). Director: William Dieterle.

"Most people aren't happy. They wait all their lives for something to happen to them."

"Women must understand that the returned soldier is not the man she knew and loved before he went away."

Allen Quinton (Joseph Cotten) does a favor for a callow Army buddy, Roger (Robert Sully), by writing love letters to the latter's girl back home, a woman named Victoria. Allen is disturbed because he fears when Victoria marries Roger, she'll be thinking he's an entirely different sort of man because of the letters. Years later Allen hears that Roger was killed by his wife during an argument, and is told that she, too, is dead. But is she? Allen meets a mysterious woman who goes by the one-word name "Singleton" (Jennifer Jones) at a party and at first barely notices her. But who is she really? And will the truth of her identity drive her to a nervous breakdown? Love Letters may sound intriguing, but be warned that it's a deadly bore, very slowly paced as if everyone concerned thought they were summoning up something deeply profound here. There were certainly possibilities in the premise, but Ayn Rand's un-cinematic screenplay fritters them all away with much talk and some truly suspect developments that make little sense -- it's almost as if she was writing a parody of a romantic film! Cotten is excellent, as usual; Jones has to deal with playing a very irritating character [but she received an undeserved Oscar nomination  anyway]; and Cecil Kellaway and Gladys Cooper (in a truly thankless part) are as wonderful as ever. But this is a misfire that even a pleasant score and some good dialogue can't save. File this under "Bad Hollywood Amnesia Movies."

Verdict: Leave "Singleton" to herself! **.

SUSPICION VOLUME 1

SUSPICION Volume 1.1957 TV series.

Fifteen of the filmed episodes (apparently half of the show's episodes were taped live) of the mystery/suspense series Suspicion have been collected on three discs in an initial volume. The show was produced by Alfred Hitchcock's TV unit, and the Master directed the first episode, "Four O'Clock," himself. Taken from a Cornell Woolrich story it concerns a jealous husband (E. G. Marshall) who plants a time bomb in his basement to kill his wife and her alleged lover. (Frankly, Hitch seems a little disinterested with the material until the nail-biting final minutes; still this is a good episode.) Other memorable shows include: "Heartbeat," a sad tale in which David Wayne gets a misdiagnosis from a heart specialist and doesn't realize how much he is in danger if he exerts himself (also in this episode is that very weird actress Barbara Turner); "Protege," an All About Eve variation with an excellent (as always) Agnes Moorehead  as an alcoholic actress on the comeback trail bedeviled by a viper-like, ambitious assistant (Phyllis Love); and "Death Watch" in which witness Janice Rule and protector-cop Edmond O'Brien learn that the former is to be targeted by a dirty cop whose identity is unknown. (The only trouble with this suspenseful episode is the highly illogical wind-up). 

The best episodes in this collection are "The Way Up to Heaven," a Roald Dahl concoction in which a wife (the wonderful Marion Lorne), who desperately wants to fly to Paris to see her grandchildren, is continuously stymied by the selfish manipulations of her husband (Sebastian Cabot) until he gets his amusing comeuppance; and especially "Doomsday," which features a knock-out performance by Dan Duryea as a notorious criminal planning a major bank heist -- with major complications. Other guest-stars on the show include Donna Reed, Audie Murphy, Michael Rennie, Rafael Campos, Rod Steiger (excellent in "The Bull Skinner"), John Beal. Joseph Cotten, William Shatner, and Bette Davis in the fairly awful "Fraction of a Second," in which she gives another of her pretty terrible latter-day performances.

Verdict: Good old show with more hits than misses. ***.

THE BARBARA STANWYCK SHOW VOLUME 2

THE BARBARA STANWYCK SHOW. Volume 2. 1960.

There are three outstanding episodes in volume 2 of The Barbara Stanwyck Show, but the rest are catch as catch can. Kent Smith, Robert Emhardt and John McGiver guest-star in "The Golden Acres," about a manipulative woman who lost out on love and now just wants cash. "Adventure on Happiness Street" has Stanwyck again playing Josephine Little in Hong Kong, a downbeat story of a doctor (Lew Ayres) who needs drugs for his free clinic and makes the mistake of dealing with Robert Culp. "High Tension," very well-directed by Robert Florey, is an excellent suspenser in which Barbara plays a woman returning a deaf adopted child to the orphanage when the bus they are on hits high-tension wires trapping everyone but the child aboard. [This is an especially ironic episode considering Stanwyck herself adopted a son and it didn't work out too well.] As usual, Stanwyck gives excellent performances in these, although she's miscast and somewhat weak in a black comedy called "Assassin." She appears in every episode except "Big Jake," which stars Andy Devine. A couple of episodes are nearly unwatchable, but other episodes that are entertaining include "Frightened Doll," in which Babs runs off with mob money, and "The Hitch-Hiker," in which she plays a lady lawyer married to Joseph Cotten. Other guest stars include Dana Andrews, Peter Falk, Joan Blondell, and Robert Horton. Sometimes the show is introduced as The Barbara Stanwyck Theatre and Babs herself always calls it "your gas company playhouse." Jacques Tourneur directed most of the episodes.NOTE: Click here to read a review of Volume One.

Verdict: It's always fun to watch Stanwyck. ***.