IT STARTED IN PARADISE

Martita Hunt and Jane Hylton

IT STARTED IN PARADISE (1952). Director: Compton Bennett. 

In the years leading up to WW2, Martha Watkins (Jane Hylton of The Manster) is frustrated that her employer, fashion designer Mme. Alice (Martita Hunt), thinks her designs are far too modern. Martha takes advantage of the situation after she importunes Alice to go off for a rest cure, and makes major changes to the line and even the studio itself. With the backing of her boyfriend, Arthur (Ian Hunter), Martha rises in the world of fashion, but makes the mistake of falling for a supposedly French bounder named Edouard (Terence Morgan). Meanwhile a younger designer, Alison (Muriel Pavlow of Murder She Said) and her boyfriend, Michael (Brian Worth), may prove formidable competition to Martha. Will ruthless Martha come undone?

Paging RuPaul!

If this film had been made in the United States ten years later it might have starred Susan Hayward at her bitchiest and been a lot of fun, but this comparatively dull British flick never really catches fire. Jane Hylton is a more than competent actress but she lacks that intense and fiery presence that might have made her performance more compelling. The others in the cast are all good enough, and Kay Kendall sparkles a bit as a superficial creature who makes an arrangement with Martha to bring in customers in exchange for clothing. The movie has an absolutely hilarious climax in which Alison shows up Martha with her own showing, featuring designs based on Elizabethan clothing. While these outfits might work for a costume party -- or for some drag queens -- the ordinary 20th century female would hardly be caught dead in most of them! Compton Bennett directed much better pictures, such as Daybreak. Malcolm Arnold's score helps just a bit. 

Verdict: Dig those crazy gowns! **. 

THE BRIEF, MADCAP LIFE OF KAY KENDALL

THE BRIEF, MADCAP LIFE OF KAY KENDALL. Eve Golden with Kim Kendall. University Press of Kentucky; 2002.

Since most if not all of the major stars have been covered ad nauseam, many publishers have come out with books on 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier celebrities. British actress and comedienne Kay Kendall [Les Girls; Wings of Danger), who did indeed have a brief life and career, fits into the lattermost of those categories. Kendall was talented and tragic, dying young of leukemia, which her husband and family tried very hard to keep her from knowing until nearly the end. Her husband was Rex Harrison, and Kendall would have probably been forgotten by all but her most obsessive fans, however many, if it had not been for that association with a much bigger star. Kendall's marriage to Harrison played out during a time when the latter was ascendant due to his triumphs in both the stage and screen versions of My Fair Lady. Eve Golden's entertaining and page-turning book won't necessarily have you admiring Kendall's character, although she was probably no worse than a lot of other husband-stealing, rather "trampy" and superficial starlets; Kendall also became full of herself. (Kendall stole Harrison from Lilli Palmer, who had herself broken up an earlier marriage to Harrison. Harrison claimed that he primarily married Kendall only because she was dying.) Kendall was great friends with Dirk Bogarde and his partner, Anthony Forwood. Biographer Golden does a very good job dissecting Kendall's films and performances while never neglecting her interesting personal life. 

Verdict: Good read for those interested in this talented if minor British actress. ***. 

FATAL CHARM: THE LIFE OF REX HARRISON

FATAL CHARM: THE LIFE OF REX HARRISON. Alexander Walker. St. Martin's; 1992.

This superb biography takes a thorough, exhaustive look at the life and career of Rex Harrison, highlighting his enormous talent and good points while unsparingly detailing his less admirable traits, which were many. Walker covers Harrison's early British films and stage work, his coming to America to appear in Anna and the King of Siam with Irene Dunne, his triumph in both the Broadway and movie versions of My Fair Lady, and his many marriages to the likes of Collette Thomas, Elizabeth Rees, Lilli Palmer, and Rachel Roberts, among others. Roberts was a particular handful, an alcoholic whose behavior in public was often disgusting, and who even after her divorce from Harrison and his subsequent remarriage never stopped trying to get him back. Then there are the numerous affairs, the most publicized of which were with Carole Landis (who committed suicide over him) and Kay Kendall [Les Girls], whom Harrison married, divorcing Palmer, after learning Kendall had only a couple of years to live. Walker's biography maintains a balance between Harrison's career and personal life, analyzing his performances, and is bolstered by many interviews and comments from friends and co-workers.

Verdict: A damned good show! ****.

CHANGE LOBSTERS AND DANCE

CHANGE LOBSTERS AND DANCE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Lilli Palmer. Macmillan; 1975.

Apparently without a ghostwriter, Lilli Palmer [Body and Soul] writes affectingly of her life and a bit of her career and writes so well that she proves as talented an author as she was an actress. Palmer tells of growing up a Jew in Berlin, leaving the country for France and then England when Hitler reared his ugly head, her early struggles to have a career as an actress and winding up as part of a singing act in sleazy nightclubs, her work in theater and films, and her marriage to Rex Harrison. From an insider's pov, Palmer tells of the effect Harrison's affair with Carole  Landis [Out of the Blue], a suicide, had on her and her husband's lives -- they essentially had to flee Hollywood for New York until My Fair Lady changed everything -- as well as the major impact of his affair with co-star Kay Kendall [Les Girls] , whom Harrison had to take care of as she was dying, a fact that was kept from her.  It was difficult for Palmer to continue co-starring with Rex Harrison in "Bell, Book and Candle" in London after he fell in love with Kendall, but the producer wouldn't let her out of her contract. She lied and told Harrison that she would return to him after Kendall's death, but told him the truth afterward. Palmer then had a happier marriage to Argentinian actor and author Carlos Thompson [Raw Wind in Eden]. Palmer provides interesting portraits of such folk as co-stars Gary Cooper, Clark Gable and close friend Laurence Olivier, as well as of Noel Coward, Greta Garbo, Helen Keller, and the malicious Hedda Hopper, but the best sections relate her impressions as anti-Semitic feelings grew in Germany, and her reactions when she returned to make films in her homeland many years later, wondering which of her co-workers were Nazis and which weren't.

Palmer goes behind the scenes of a couple of her movies, but most of her film work is only mentioned in passing. (She doesn't even mention stuff like The House That Screamed.) Interestingly, second husband Thompson did not want her appearing on the New York stage because, as she puts it, "I couldn't possibly ask him to sit around and twiddle his thumbs for a whole year ... " this coming not long after Thompson spent two years away from Palmer researching a book! Sadly, Palmer died of cancer about ten years after this book was finished, and Thompson committed suicide four years later.

Verdict: Absorbing and very well-written memoir. ***1/2. 

LES GIRLS

Elg, Kendall and Gaynor

LES GIRLS (1957). Director: George Cukor.

Retired dancer Lady Sybil (Kay Kendall of Wings of Danger) has written a book about her life in which she claims that a former colleague, Angele (Taina Elg), attempted suicide out of her unrequited love for their boss, Barry Nichols (Gene Kelly). Angele is outraged -- and so is her husband, Pierre (Jacques Bergerac of The Hypnotic Eye) -- so a libel suit results. Most of Les Girls consists of flashbacks

"Wild One" Kelly and his Leather Boys

as Sybil tells her story, then Angele tells hers, and finally Barry comes into court to tell his side of things. Les Girls has an interesting hook with the libel suit, but the script becomes increasingly stupid with each section, and even Cole Porter's songs are second or third-rate for this composer. The film's highlight is a sequence when Kelly walks in with a gang of motorcycle toughs and does a splendid dance number with Mitzi Gaynor [The Joker is Wild], but most of the production numbers are disappointing. Kelly and the ladies are all excellent, however. Henry Daniell plays the judge presiding over the case and Patrick Macnee [The Avengers] is one of the lawyers; Leslie Phillips is Kendall's husband. In CinemaScope and Metrocolor. This was Porter's last film score, and Kelly's last MGM musical. 

Verdict: Cute but unremarkable. **1/2. 

WINGS OF DANGER / HAPPY ACTUAL 35OOTH POST

Zachary Scott and  Naomi Chance

WINGS OF DANGER (aka Dead on Course/1952). Director: Terence Fisher.

Pilot Richard Van Ness (Zachary Scott of The Unfaithful) has a secret: he gets black outs that come on without warning. For this reason he has delayed in marrying Avril (Naomi Chance of The Gambler and the Lady) but keeps on flying. Avril's brother, Nick (Robert Beatty) flies off one afternoon and is presumed dead after his plane crashes into the drink. Richard discovers that Nick may or may not have been involved with a gang who cleverly smuggle gold that has been disguised as tools. Nick has a girlfriend, Alexia (Kay Kendall), who may also be involved with the dangerous smugglers, and there is more than one murder. Zachary Scott was one of a number of American leading men who went to England to make "B" movies where their names still had marquee value. Scott deserves better than this TV-type "thriller" that is rather dull despite Terence Fisher's very brisk and efficient direction. The performances by all the named actors are fine, and there is good work from the supporting cast as well, but despite a positive conclusion relating to Richard's condition and his relationship with Avril, the movie is strictly ho hum. This was another of Lippert's Hammer studio "film noir" non-classics. Diane Cilento [Stop Me Before I Kill!] has a small role as a woman who gets involved with Nick. Malcolm Arnold's music helps a bit.

Verdict: You can't say it's awful but it just doesn't excite despite the occasional car chase and crash. **.

NOTE: A while ago I erroneously reported that Great Old Movies had reached its 3500th post. Well, I was never good at math! This is the real 3500th post for GREAT OLD MOVIES (wish it had been about a better picture)!