HOME BEFORE DARK

Jean Simmons

HOME BEFORE DARK (1958). Director: Mervyn LeRoy.

Charlotte Bronn (Jean Simmons of Dominique) returns home after a year in a mental institution due to a nervous breakdown. Married to the cold fish Professor Arnold Bronn (Dan O'Herlihy), Charlotte had imagined that her husband was really in love with her stepsister, Joan (Rhonda Fleming of The Nude Bomb), and allowed her alleged delusions to get the better of her. When the Bronns got married Arnold moved into Charlotte's house, and the couple lived with Joan and Charlotte's stepmother, Inez (Mabel Albertson). Bad idea!

Simmons with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. 

Trying to adjust to her new state of freedom, Charlotte finds her husband as cold as ever, and she is somewhat drawn to their boarder, Jacob Diamond (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), a Jew who was championed  by Arnold against anti-Semitic colleagues until it no longer suited his purposes. Jacob has feelings for Charlotte, as does her old boyfriend, Hamilton  (Stephen Dunne). Their attentions, however, do not prevent additional feelings of paranoia for Charlotte over a possible relationship between Arnold and Joan. Although Home Before Dark is not a thriller, it does work up some suspense over whether or not there is anything between husband and stepsister-in-law before the final revelations.

Rhonda Fleming, Dan O'Herlihy, Mabel Albertson

Home Before Dark is decidedly overlong at nearly two and a half hours. One could argue that there's really not enough plot for such a lengthy motion picture, but despite some tedious moments the picture manages to be absorbing, in no small part to a superb performance by Jean Simmons. There is a particularly good scene worth waiting for in which Charlotte shows up in a Boston restaurant trying to look like a grotesque imitation of her stepsister. Dan O'Herlihy is fine in the thankless role of a seemingly passionless husband; Dunne scores as the cast-off boyfriend from years ago; Fleming and Albertson are memorable as Charlotte's other family members; and even Zimbalist is okay as Jacob, although it's a wonder why this rather sexless and bland actor was constantly cast as a romantic figure in movie after movie. In smaller roles one can find Joan Weldon [Them], Eleanor Audley, and Lucy's mother Kathryn Card in the peppery role of the housekeeper Mattie. Oddly, the score for the film consists of snippets from various previous films by a variety of composers. Photographed by Joseph F. Biroc.

Verdict: Love-starved wives are always entertaining in these kind of movies, but this is on a somewhat higher level than a soap opera. ***.

ADA

Dean Martin and Susan Hayward

ADA (1961). Director: Daniel Mann.

Bo Gillis (Dean Martin of Sergeants 3) is a pleasant, uncomplicated good ol' boy running for governor under the direction of men like Steve Jackson (Martin Balsam) and savvy if crooked politico Sylvester Marin (Wilfrid Hyde-White). One night Bo is introduced to"B" girl Ada (Susan Hayward of And Now Tomorrow) and against everyone's advice eventually decides to marry her. Bo becomes governor and Ada, who doesn't trust Marin as far as she can throw him, makes a deal with him to become Lt. Governor, an idea that goes badly with Bo's male pride. When Bo announces that he's going to start reading bills before signing then and is out to clean up corruption, he is badly injured in a murder attempt. Now Ada is the acting governor, but she may find that Marin and his forces are not about to let this former whore boss them around.

Ada tells off biddies, including Kathryn Card, 2nd from left

With a plot like that -- hooker winds up becoming governor -- you would think that Ada would be a real trash wallow, but it's actually somewhere between a strong drama and a guilty pleasure and never quite makes up its mind which. The film does have a feminist perspective, even if it's only from a dated sixties point of view. Dean Martin is perfect casting for Bo -- he has to have enough charm and charisma to convince the voters but also be laid-back enough to be seen as comparatively "weak" next to strong-willed Ada. Hayward plays with her customary authority, and is especially good in a scene at a party at the governor's mansion, where she tells off a bunch of patronizing old biddies -- one of whom is Kathryn Card, Lucy's mother on I Love Lucy, here a tough old bitch and not the dithery Mrs. McGillicuddy.

Ralph Meeker and Susan Hayward

As for the supporting cast, Ralph Meeker [The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown] makes the best impression as Colonel Yancy, employing his trademark insolence to good effect as he makes flagrant passes at the governor's wife on a regular basis. (In the book this film is based on, Ada Dallas, Yancy and Ada were former lovers.) Martin Balsam is always solid but in this he isn't given much to do. The usually reliable Hyde-White is a major disappointment, giving a performance devoid of flavor and nuance -- there are at least a dozen character actors who could have given this role more bite.

Although Hayward and Martin performed surprisingly well together on camera, they did not like each other at all off-screen. For more on this and other Martin films see Martini Man: The Life of Dean Martin.

Verdict: Minor potboiler with some interesting elements. **3/4. 

PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES

David Niven and Doris Day

PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES (1960). Director: Charles Walters.

Kate MacKay (Doris Day) and her husband, Larry (David Niven of Enchantment) are raising four adorable if rambunctious boys and planning a move to the country. Larry, a professor of drama, is made a theater critic for a top newspaper. In a contrived event, he is assigned to review his best friend, Alfred's (Richard Hadyn), new musical, and not only slams it, but prints that the leading lady, Deborah Vaughn (Janis Paige of This Side of the Law), has no talent. This leads into amusing encounters between Larry and Deborah as well as an opportunity for Alfred to get a kind of revenge on Larry. Meanwhile Kate is worried that her husband is turning into the kind of justifiably-abhorred critic who is more interested in making clever jokes at a playwright's expense than in writing serious and fair-minded theater reviews. If you take some of the improbable developments (they move into a house that resembles a castle) with a grain of salt, Please Don't Eat the Daisies is a delightful comedy, with the two leads in top form. Day and Niven work very well together and seem to be having as much fun as the audience. Some of the critical words that come out of the mouth of Doris' mother make her seem like a monster, but the casting of sweet Spring Byington makes her character more palatable.  Patsy Kelly plays the housekeeper but isn't given much of a chance to shine, although Hadyn scores as the angry Alfred, and Paige is just wonderful and very sexy as Deborah. Jack Weston is also fine as a taxi-driving wannabee playwright, and Kathryn Card of I Love Lucy appears briefly as a principal. The business with the baby being kept in a locked cage would raise eyebrows today and frankly makes little sense. (The rationale is that he can pick locks, but wouldn't that include the locks on his cage?) Please Don't Eat the Daises -- the title comes from a reference to one of the boys eating flowers -- is based on a novel by Jean Kerr, a playwright who was married to Walter Kerr, best-known as a theater critic for the N.Y. Times; the couple had six children. Doris does a reprise of "Que sera, sera" from The Man Who Knew Too Much and also nicely warbles the title tune and "Anyway the Wind Blows."

Verdict: Very amusing and well-acted comedy with an especially winning Day. ***.

A KISS FOR CORLISS

Tom Tully, Shirley Temple and Gloria Holden

A KISS FOR CORLISS (aka Almost a Bride/1949). Director: Richard Wallace.

In this sequel to Kiss and Tell, Corliss Archer (Shirley Temple) gets in more hot water when her father, Harry (Tom Tully), represents the wife of a much-married man in a divorce action. Kenneth Marquis (David Niven), the husband in the case, hates Harry Archer and begins playfully courting his daughter for spite. Meanwhile Corliss writes fake stories about her involvement with Kenneth in her diary in order to make boyfriend Dexter (Darryl Hickman) jealous, resulting in the engagement of Kenneth and Corliss hitting the papers and Harry having conniption fits!.A Kiss for Corliss has an amusing script, but the problem is in the casting. Temple is fine as Corliss, but I can think of a dozen actors who could do more with the part and be a lot funnier than Tully (who played the role of a neighbor in the earlier film). Gloria Holden as Corliss' mother is most famous for playing the lead in Dracula's Daughter, but again she's hardly a skilled comedienne. Niven's role is completely one-dimensional but he displays his customary charm. Hickman, also cast in another role in the earlier film, takes over from Jerome Courtland as Dexter, and Kathryn Card returns as the Archer housekeeper, as does Virginia Welles as Corliss' friend, Mildred Pringle -- all are fine. Oddly, Mildred got married to Corliss' brother in Kiss and Tell, but seems to be single -- with no husband or brother in sight -- in the sequel. Robert Ellis [Space Master X-7] is fun as the nasty little teen Raymond Pringle; later he played Dexter in the 1954 TV series Meet Corliss Archer. This was Shirley Temple's last film, retiring from movies at the ripe old age of 21.

Verdict: Goodbye Shirley! **1/2. .

THAT HAGEN GIRL

THAT HAGEN GIRL (1947). Director: Peter Godfrey.

"Well, what are we going to talk about now?"

A middle-aged couple, Minta and Jim Hagen (Dorothy Peterson and Charles Kemper), come back to town carrying a baby about the same time as a scandal erupts over a disturbed young lady, Grace Gateley (Kyle [sic] MacDonnell) and her boyfriend Tom Bates (Ronald Reagan). Somehow the whole town gets it into its head that the Hagen baby is actually the child of Grace and Tom, with the result that that child, Mary Hagen (Shirley Temple), has had to put up with odd looks, remarks, and a discriminatory attitude towards her all of her life. When Tom comes back to town, Mary decides to find out if he actually is her father or not. Meanwhile, Mary discovers that while her boyfriend, Ken (Rory Calhoun) wants to marry her, his disapproving old bitch of a mother (Nella Walker) has other ideas. That Hagen Girl is a study of small-town narrow-minded attitudes and is very good at getting across the astute point that men gossip just as much as women do. The problem with the movie is that the two leads, Temple and Reagan, while competent, are so weak that the picture never recovers from the miscasting. Temple plays the entire movie in the key of "pout," while Reagan is simply mediocre, as he was in Kings Row. Calhoun [Night of the Lepus] is handsome, if a little odd-looking; Penny Edwards [Feudin; Fussin', and A'Fightin'] is effective as another gal interested in Calhoun; Lois Maxwell [yes, "Miss Moneypenny" of James Bond fame, but without her British accent] is nice as the sympathetic teacher, Julia Kane; and Kathryn Card, Lucy's mother on I Love Lucy, is fun as the termagant school board member who catches Mary being bussed by horny Dewey Koons (Conrad Janis). Franz Waxman's opening theme is lovely, but the movie that follows the credits is quite disappointing.

Verdict: Excellent premise but this never amounts to what it could have. **.

PAULA

Teaching Davey to speak: Rettig, Knox and Young

PAULA (1952). Director: Rudolph Mate.

After a miscarriage Paula Rogers (Loretta Young) is told by her doctor that she can't have any more children, and it is in this distracted mental state that she accidentally hits a young boy, David (Tommy Rettig), while driving home. Although she immediately gets out of her car and rushes to the child, an old man, Bascom (Will Wright)  -- who actually contributed to the accident -- decides unfairly that she is drunk and forbids her to accompany them to the hospital. As Paula's husband, John (Kent Smith) may lose a coveted position if there's any hint of scandal, Paula hides the truth and decides to help the boy behind the scenes. She becomes a kind of nurse's aid, befriends the boy -- who has lost his ability to speak due to the trauma, and is an orphan -- and eventually takes him into her home. But what happens when and if he recognizes her from that night? And there's still that horrible old man who claimed she was inebriated ...  Young gives a good performance and Rettig (Elopement), with his little, expressive face, is just marvelous. Alexander Knox (Son of Dr. Jekyll) plays a doctor who tries to get Davey to speak, and Kathryn Card (I Love Lucy) is cast as a nurse. While this is more of a light drama than a suspense film, it definitely has a lump-in-your-throat finale. Mate also directed the classic D.O.A.

Verdict: Minor but effective enough on its own terms. **1/2.

KISS AND TELL

Shirley Temple and Jerome Courtland

KISS AND TELL (1945). Director: Richard Wallace. Screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert from his play.

"I think it's all very dumb."

Teenager Corliss Archer (Shirley Temple of Miss Annie Rooney) is a fickle, rather spoiled young lady, but she knows how to keep her mouth shut -- at the wrong time. This is one of those movies when a whole lot of complications could be avoided simply by having the characters reveal the truth, which would certainly make things less of a mess than lying. Corliss' older brother, Lenny (Scott Elliot), has married her best friend, Mildred (Virginia Welles) but are keeping it secret, with the convoluted result that Corliss' parents think she is pregnant [not that that word is ever used!] by her sometime boyfriend, Dexter (Jerome Courtland of Sunny Side of the Street). Of course Corliss doesn't reveal the truth, even though the fact that Mildred is expecting would certainly jettison any plans her parents might have for having the marriage annulled, something that never occurs to the none-too-bright Corliss. if the movie has anything going for it it's the performances, which are swell, with a spirited Temple in the lead, and good back-up from Courtland, Welles, and young Darryl Hickman as Mildred's brother, Raymond, who thinks everything is "very dumb" (and is right in most cases). Walter Abel also scores as Corliss' often apoplectic father. The maid Louise is played by Kathryn Card, Lucy's mother on I Love Lucy. Followed by A Kiss for Corliss in which Hickman took over the role of Dexter. Wallace also directed The Fallen Sparrow and many others.

Verdict: If you can put up with people behaving like nitwits ... **1/2.

SCANDAL SHEET

Broderick Crawford

SCANDAL SHEET (1952). Director: Phil Karlson.

"You're a neurotic screwball!"

The stockholders of the New York Express are up in arms because new editor-in-chief Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford) has decided to increase profits and circulation by turning the paper into a vulgar tabloid. Chapman has been promised a significant bonus if he can really turn the paper around, and he's determined to publish hard-hitting stories no matter who he upsets. His protege, Steve (John Derek), wants to be just like Chapman, while Steve's girlfriend, Julie (Donna Reed), wishes he'd emulate just about anybody else. Things become complicated when a woman at a lonely hearts gathering sponsored by the Express recognizes Chapman as the husband who deserted her twenty years before, only now he has a different name ... Before long Steve is tracking down a story that Chapman wishes he could bury twenty miles deep. Scandal Sheet has an interesting premise and characters, is quite well-acted by the entire cast, but somehow it just misses the boat, perhaps because you're always one step ahead of most of the characters -- it just lacks sizzle and tension. Crawford is fine, and Henry O'Neill makes a notable impression as the alcoholic ex-reporter, Charlie, as does Rosemary DeCamp [Nora Prentiss] as Chapman's wife. Others in the cast include Kathryn Card and Ida Moore [The Egg and I], both of whom appeared on I Love Lucy. This was based on a novel by Samuel Fuller.

Verdict: Comes so close but misses. **1/2.