RECKLESS

RECKLESS (1935). Director: Victor Fleming.

By the time agent Ned Riley (William Powell) realizes he's really in love with his client, singer-dancer Mona Leslie (Jean Harlow), Mona is being swept off her feet by the wealthy Bob Harrison Jr. (Franchot Tone). Harrison even goes so far as to buy out every seat for a performance of the show Mona is in. Mona's wise old grandmother (May Robson) scolds and gives sage advice in equal measure. Rosalind Russell turns up as Harrison's kind of forgotten fiancee, Henry Stephenson is his concerned father, and little Mickey Rooney is his usual charming self as an enterprising youngster befriended by Ned (perhaps the film's most touching sequence has Rooney trying to help out Ned when he thinks he's down and out). If that cast weren't enough, we've also got Allan Jones singing a romantic ballad in his inimitable way, Leon Ames turning up both with and without his mustache, Charles "Ming the Merciless" Middleton playing a district attorney, and Margaret Dumont showing up for one line as a heckler in the theater! Powell, Harlow, and Tone are all just marvelous, and Robson almost manages to steal every scene she's in. The story veers in unfortunately melodramatic directions, but the film still manages to be quite entertaining. And that cast! 

Verdict: Crazy script but a feast of fine actors! ***.

PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED

Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage

PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED  (1986). 

Director: Francis (Ford) Coppola. 

Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) is separated from her husband, high school sweetheart Charlie (Nicolas Cage of Ghost Rider), due to his adultery. She has mixed emotions about going to her 25-year high school reunion, but her daughter, Beth (Helen Hunt), importunes her to attend. After being crowned queen, Peggy Sue passes out and wakes up a quarter century in the past. She has an adult mind in a teenager's body! Trying to figure out if she's dead or simply going crazy, she has to determine if she wants to make the same mistakes -- such as marrying Charlie -- that she made before. 

Nicolas Cage

The basic premise of Peggy Sue, while not especially original, is compelling. Unfortunately, what the screenwriters have come up with doesn't do nearly enough with the material. Peggy Sue boasts some fine acting -- Turner and Cage are especially good if imperfect -- Jordan Cronenweth's photography is first-rate, and whenever the film seems emotionally moving it's undoubtedly due to John Barry's evocative scoring. The movie is a typical Hollywood "concept" picture which does as little with the concept as it possibly can. What could have been an especially affecting sequence when Peggy Sue goes to see her long-dead grandparents is turned into a weird bit of nonsense involving the old man's lodge brothers. (We never learn if her parents were still alive 25 years later.) It's as if the movie was merely a sequence of bits thrown together in the hopes it will turn into a cohesive whole. By the ending, nothing is really resolved. Peggy Sue is right back where she started. The whole time travel business is handled too prosaically anyway. 

Barbara Harris

A disturbing aspect of the picture is that more than once Peggy Sue mentions how much she loves and misses her two children (we only see one). This begs the question: how can she not marry Charlie when it means her beloved children (at least one of them) will no  longer exist -- but this never seems to occur to her. The superficial script doesn't wrestle with metaphysical issues in any case. So we're left with some interesting casting: Barbara Harris [Family Plot] as Peggy Sue's mother; Leon Ames and Maureen O'Sullivan as her grandparents; Barry Miller as the high school geek who makes good; John Carradine as a lodge member; and Kevin J. O'Connor [Deep Rising] as the romantic, mysterious school poet. While Barry's score adds a lot to the movie, it is not as good as his work on Somewhere in Time or Out of Africa. 

Verdict: Well-acted and reasonably entertaining, this is still a perfect example of how Hollywood can screw up fantasy-type movies. **1/4. 

LADY IN THE LAKE

Audry Totter and Robert Montgomery's reflection

LADY IN THE LAKE (1946). Director: Robert Montgomery.

Philip Marlowe (Robert Montgomery) submits a short mystery story based on truth to a pulp magazine and is invited in to meet the editor, a woman named Adrienne (Audrey Totter). She is more interested in hiring Marlowe to look for her boss, Derace Kingsby's (Leon Ames), wife, who has supposedly run off with a man named Chris (Dick Simmons of Man with the Steel Whip). This leads into a series of murders and a kind of strange affair between Marlowe and Adrienne, whom the private eye doesn't quite trust. Then he starts tripping over bodies ...

Man in the mirror: Marlowe gets first aid

Lady in the Lake is one of six films directed by star Montgomery, who decided to shoot this as an ill-advised stunt. Except for three brief sequences in which he addresses the camera to move the plot along, Marlowe/Montgomery is only seen in mirrors. While the plot and acting is interesting enough to keep the viewer entertained for most of the film's length, the gimmick gets a little tiresome and one longs for a more traditional approach. Another problem is that Montgomery is miscast as Marlowe (the detective's first name is misspelled as "Phillip"); he's as gruff and obnoxious as the script requires but he doesn't make a convincing Marlowe.

Audrey Totter and Leon Ames

On the other hand, Audrey Totter steals the picture as Adrienne, giving a fascinating and multi-leveled performance, a snarling bitch one minute, a cloying child the next, belting out orders and disdain in equal measure with one hand, and purring kittenishly with the other. She lacks the raw sex appeal of, say, Veronica Lake, but she's extremely effective nevertheless. Leon Ames, Tom Tully [A Kiss for Corliss] as a police captain, and especially Lloyd Nolan [Sergeant Ryker] as a vicious cop are all terrific. Jayne Meadows also has some fine moments, although she isn't always completely convincing in her portrayal. Dick Simmons makes a positive impression as the oddly likable gigolo, Chris.

One has to pay careful attention while watching this picture, because at the end you still may not be certain who did what to whom and why. Raymond Chandler's source novel undoubtedly spelled it out in more detail. In any case, the movie is suspenseful, and there's at least one creepy scene when Marlowe searches inside a bathroom.

Verdict: Watch for Totter if nothing else. **3/4. 

THE BIG HANGOVER

Van Johnson and Liz Taylor

THE BIG HANGOVER (1950). Written, produced and directed by Norman Krasna.

David Muldon (Van Johnson) had a strange experience in the war that left him so "allergic" to alcohol that he can get tipsy just with a sip of it. The sensible thing to do would be to tell everyone of the situation without going into details, so that he wouldn't feel required to drink a toast, for instance, and act silly. Instead his boss's daughter, Mary (Elizabeth Taylor), decides to try to help him overcome the problem. You would think from its title that The Big Hangover is a riotous tale with frequent scenes of an "inebriated" David making a comical fool of himself, and while there are such scenes in the movie, that's not really what the picture is about. David has gotten a job with a prestigious law firm because he is an honor student and valedictorian. In a touching and well-played sequence, he demonstrates the speech he'll give on graduation day to Mary, telling of his best buddy, who dreamt of being a lawyer, but who died in his arms overseas during combat. He is determined to follow in his footsteps. When a Chinese-American doctor (Philip Ahn) is locked out of his apartment with his pregnant wife by a racist manager, David assumes his law firm will side with the doctor, who is not a "Chinaman" but an American born in the U.S. But David learns that the law isn't always on the side of what's right. While one can't necessarily say that this ranks with the best of Frank Capra as a thoughtful comedy-drama, it is still an entertaining and worthwhile picture that has more on its mind than at first glance. Van Johnson gives another excellent performance, maintaining the perfect balance between humor and seriousness, handling every sequence with aplomb. Elizabeth Taylor, who is no comedienne, at first seems miscast, but once you settle into the true tone of the picture, she is very warm, winning, and adept. As for the supporting cast, we've got Percy Waram and Fay Holden as Mary's parents; Leon Ames [The Velvet Touch] as a public attorney who is outmaneuvered by high-priced lawyers and Rosemary DeCamp as his wife; Edgar Buchanan and Selena Royle [The Damned Don't Cry] as Davis's amusing aunt and uncle; and Gene Lockhart [A Scandal in Paris] as a senior partner in the firm who does his best to get David drunk at a swanky gathering (a scene that will make you want to reach into the TV set and give Lockhart a major bitch slap!). The supporting performances are all wonderful, with Leon Ames having a fine, underplayed moment when he admits to his mediocrity during the aforementioned dinner, and Philip Ahn is as dignified and effective as ever as Dr. Lee. If I have one quibble I wish that they film hadn't tacked on an unconvincing happy ending to the love story. One simply can not see La Liz happy with a husband who isn't wealthy and successful, and who tells him she admires him but doesn't want someone who's so noble. Still, it hardly ruins the movie. If Percy Waram is unfamiliar to most viewers, it's because he was primarily a British stage actor and had very few credits in pictures.

Verdict: A lost gem of a movie. ***1/2. 

ELLERY QUEEN AND THE MURDER RING

Blanche Yurka and Ralph Bellamy

ELLERY QUEEN AND THE MURDER RING (1941). Director: James P. Hogan.

Augusta Stack (Blanche Yurka) is a nasty old lady who runs a hospital, senses chicanery everywhere, and treats her own children like crap. We learn early on that son John (Leon Ames) is plotting murder with the help of two bumbling confederates. But when the termagant kicks off, are the conspirators actually responsible for her death? Then there are more murders. Writer/amateur sleuth Ellery Queen (Ralph Bellamy) investigates with the help of his cop father, Inspector Queen (Charlie Grapewin), and Ellery's secretary, Nikki (Margaret Lindsay). Ellery has a very condescending attitude toward Nikki, who also seems to be his girlfriend, but she also seems a lot smarter than he is. Notable cast members include George Zucco [The Mad Monster] as a doctor suspected of assorted bad things; James Burke as a cop; Olin Howland (Howlin) as another, rather merry doctor; and especially Mona Barrie [King of Burlesque] in a vivid turn as nurse Marian Tracy, who is involved with John. Dennis Moore has a small role as another doctor, and wouldn't you know Pierre Watkin shows up as lawyer Crothers and is as bland and minor as ever. The basic plot is workable, but there is too much unfunny "comedy" relief surrounding the hit men, and the movie becomes fairly tedious before too long. Characterization is minimal; there's no attempt to explain why Mrs. Stack has such a bad relationship with her children, for instance. The Spanish Cape Mystery, with Donald Cook playing Ellery Queen, was better than this. This was Bellamy's last appearance as Queen.

Verdict: Some people like this picture; they're welcome to it. *1/2.

THE THIN MAN GOES HOME

Harry Davenport and Myrna Loy

THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1945). Director: Richard Thorpe.

Nick Charles (William Powell), his wife Nora (Myrna Loy), and their little dog Asta (Nick Jr. is away at school) travel to Nick's hometown of Sycamore Springs for his unspecified birthday (Powell was 53 at the time). Nick has always had a difficult relationship with his father, Bertram (Harry Davenport), because he didn't become a doctor like his father did, and Nick aches for his approval. But his mother (Lucile Watson) is a peach. Nick gets to prove his skill at detecting when a dead man practically shows up on the Charles' doorstep. Bertram can't believe that one of his old friends might be the killer ... Powell and Loy are excellent, as usual -- Loy is especially notable in this entry -- and the supporting cast, including Davenport [Son of Fury] and Watson (cast against type, like Fay Holden in the Andy Hardy films, as a small-town housewife), could not be bettered. Special mention must go to Anne Revere [Body and Soul], who plays "Crazy Mary," the town's pathetic loony; Anita Sharp-Bolster as  the hilariously weird maid, Hilda; and Donald Meek as Willie Crump, who sells paintings for a living -- the plot revolves around a painting of a windmill that Nora buys for her husband's birthday. Other suspects and persons of interest are well played by Leon Ames, Donald MacBride, Irving Bacon, Morris Ankrum, Helen Vinson, Minor Watson, Lloyd Corrigan, and Gloria DeHaven as a breathlessly pretentious heiress. One very cute bit has Nick and Nora leaving Asta with the coat check girl as if he were a hat, but the funniest scene has Nora unexpectedly doing a wild, zippy dance with a sailor. This was the next to last Thin Man movie -- this was followed by the disappointing Song of the Thin Man.

Verdict: Very satisfying and amusing Thin Man movie. ***.

CHARLIE CHAN ON BROADWAY

Warner Oland, J. Edward Bromberg and Harold Huber

CHARLIE CHAN ON BROADWAY (1937). Director: Eugene Forde.

Charlie Chan (Warner Oland) stops over in New York with Number One Son Lee (Keye Luke) and attends yet another banquet in his honor. While this occurs, Lee winds up rounded up as a suspect in the murder of a young lady of dubious reputation, Billie (Louise Henry), whom they met on the boat. Billie was involved with Burke (Douglas Fowley of Three on a Ticket), who owns the Hottentot Club, but he now seems more interested in dancer, Marie (Joan Woodbury of Brenda Starr, Reporter). The third lady in the case is reporter Joan Wendall (Joan Marsh) who has a romantic rivalry with fellow scribe "Speed" Patten (Donald Woods). Others involved include editor Murdock (J. Edward Bromberg); slick operator Buzz Moran (Leon Ames); Thomas Mitchell (Marc Lawrence of Jigsaw) who's been following Billie; and Inspector Nelson (Harold Huber) of the NYPD. From the title one would figure this is a backstage mystery, but it has nothing to do with the theater, more's the pity, although it is reasonably entertaining if not especially memorable. Oland and Luke are as good as ever; that big-faced gal Woodbury is excellent as Marie and does a lively dance number; and Henry and Marsh are also notable. Huber is perhaps a bit too exuberant -- but good -- and Leon Ames hits the right note as he generally does. An interesting aspect to the plot is that the Hottentot Club has a "Candid Camera" Night where patrons take pictures of the other customers with their own cameras and one of them wins a prize -- nothing much comes of this, however, as the photo that figures in the solution is taken by a reporter. An unexpected denouement caps the proceedings.

Verdict: Amiable Chan vehicle with some good acting. **1/2.

THE VELVET TOUCH

Sydney Greenstreet and Rosalind Russell

THE VELVET TOUCH (1948). Director: John Gage (Jack Gage).

"You've produced so many bad plays you're beginning to believe them."

Broadway actress Valerie Stanton (Rosalind Russell) wants to break away from her usual producer, Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames) and the treacle he has her appear in, and try "Hedda Gabler," but he only laughs at her. Dunning, who refuses to let her go and is carrying a torch for her as well,  threatens her, and during a struggle Valerie bops him on the head and kills him. This is followed by a long flashback during which Valerie meets new love Michael Morrell (Leo Genn of Personal Affair), who is not only unimpressed by her status but is positively condescending -- and unattractive to boot; nevertheless Valerie falls for him. The third part of the film brings in Sydney Greenstreet as the corpulent Captain Danbury, who is a fan of Val's and is investigating the murder. The front runner in suspects is not Val but Marian Webster (Claire Trevor), who has been pining for Dunning for years, hates Val, and is incredibly bitter. Will Valerie come clean about what happened, or let Marian take the rap? The Velvet Touch is no All About Eve -- made two years later -- but it is a very entertaining backstage drama with an outstanding performance by Russell and fine support from Trevor [The High and the Mighty], Ames, and Greenstreet. Irving Bacon scores as a chatty waiter at Sardi's, and Lex Barker is also in the cast as a young actor.

Verdict: Strangely compelling. ***.

ANGEL FACE

Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum

ANGEL FACE (1952). Producer/director: Otto Preminger.

"If you want to play with matches, that's your business, but not in gas-filled rooms."

Ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) goes out on a call to a California estate where Mrs. Tremayne (Barbara O'Neil of Stella Dallas) has had a close call with a gas jet in her room. Frank meets the woman's step-daughter, Diane (Jean Simmons), and the two begin a sort of romance, despite the fact that Frank has a steady and reliable gal in Mary (Mona Freeman). Diane loves her father (Herbert Marshall of Girls' Dormitory), a writer who is down on his luck and living off of his wife, whom Diane loathes. Then there's a horrendous accident in which two deaths occur ... how much did Diane have to do with it? Angel Face is a very entertaining melodrama with very good performances from the entire cast, which includes Leon Ames as a defense lawyer and Kenneth  Tobey as another ambulance driver with an eye for Mary. There are two incredible car crash sequences, a knock-out ending, and a fine score by Dimitri Tiomkin. For my money this is superior to Preminger's Laura. Some people find similarities in this to Leave Her to Heaven, made in 1945, and they probably aren't wrong.

Verdict: Zesty, absorbing film noir with some bite to it. ***1/2.

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)

Garfield and Turner

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946). Director: Tay Garnett.

Cora Smith (Lana Turner) and her husband Nick (Cecil Kellaway) run a combination gas station and cafe, but their placid lives become unsettled when Nick hires a drifter named Frank (John Garfield) to help around the place. Cora and Frank are attracted to one another, and suddenly she can't see herself spending the rest of her life with her much older and unattractive husband, especially when he abruptly tells her that they're selling the restaurant (for which Cora had a lot of plans), moving in with his sister, and Cora will have to be nursemaid for the paralyzed woman for the rest of her life. (In other words, Nick is almost begging to be killed. His complete disregard for his wife's feelings makes him quite unsympathetic). What happens next is a black comedy of errors, accusations, recriminations -- and murder. Although Lana Turner gave some good performances in later years, such as in A Life of Her Own, she's a little too unseasoned to make the most of Cora, although she isn't terrible. Garfield and Kellaway come off much better, of course (although they're hardly as pretty!) and they have some solid support from the likes of Leon Ames as a D.A., Hume Cronyn as a lawyer, and Audrey Totter as a gal who briefly dallies with Frank. The Postman Always Rings Twice is a good, entertaining picture -- much better than the dreadful remake with Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson -- but somehow it's not quite a classic like the superior Double Indemnity, which was also taken from a James M. Cain novel. This Hollywood version takes a lot of liberties with the plot and characters, the usual case with Cain. For instance, in the novel the lovers were practically kids.

Verdict: Not the best adaptation of a Cain novel, but certainly not without merit. ***.

FROM THE TERRACE

FROM THE TERRACE (1960). Director: Mark Robson.

"I guess he hated me so much he couldn't even stand to be alive on the day I got married."

Alfred Eaton (Paul Newman) has always been in the shadow of his older brother who died, and has a terrible relationship with his father, Samuel (Leon Ames), who berates his neglected wife, Martha (Myrna Loy) for her drinking and her adulterous affair. Eaton's bad luck continues when he marries Mary (Joanne Woodward), who still has a big thing for old boyfriend Jim (Patrick O'Neal), but things look up when he meets Natalie Benzinger (Ina Balin). The trouble is that Eaton's boss thinks infidelity is worse than a divorce, Mary has no desire to stop being Mrs. Eaton, and Alfred has to choose between true love and his career. Newman saunters through the movie with aplomb and has several good moments, Woodward is sexy and interesting, Balin is lovely [if perhaps too understated at times], and Loy almost walks off with the picture as Alfred's lonely and alcoholic mother. Ames plays against type and is quite effective. This entertaining study and dissection of the American dream was based--probably loosely -- on a novel by John O'Hara. Nice score by Elmer Bernstein.

Verdict: Reasonably absorbing slice of Americana with some good performances. ***.

DIAL 1119

DIAL 1119 (1950). Director: Gerald Mayer.

"You'd better leave God out of it. God's got other fish to fry besides you."

Gunther Wyckoff (Marshall Thompson) escapes from a mental institution, murders some people, and winds up in a bar where he holds several customers and staff members hostage. These include the blonde barfly, "Freddie" (Virginia Field), the obnoxious bartender, Chuckles (William Conrad), handsome waiter Skip (Keefe Braselle), Helen (Andrea King), who wants to make changes in her life, and married Earl (Leon Ames), who hopes to be one of those changes. There's also a reporter, Harry (James Bell), who thinks he's finally on top -- literally -- of a great breaking story. Sam Levene plays Gunther's psychiatrist, Dr. Faron, who goes in to talk to the man against the advice of the police [although it's never explained why they at least don't give him a bullet-proof vest]. Thompson is okay, but Field and Conrad give the most memorable performances. Taut and absorbing for the most part, Dial 1119 is still strictly minor-league. This film is included in the Film Noir Classics Collection Volume 5.

Verdict: Not bad for what it is. **1/2.

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932)

MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1932). Director: Robert Florey.

In this very loose adaptation of Poe's famous short story, Dr. Mirakle (Bela Lugosi), who works in a sideshow with an ape named Erik, kidnaps, binds, and tortures women, ultimately injecting them with the ape's blood, bringing about their deaths. (He callously drops their bodies through a trapdoor into the river.) Mirakle has developed an unhealthy interest in pretty Camille (Sidney Fox), and there is a recreation of a scene from the story when the ape comes into the home of a young woman -- in this case, Camille -- and her mother and attacks them. A disconcerting note is that close-ups of an obvious chimp are intercut with long shots of a man in a gorilla outfit, and they certainly don't match. However, there are some great Parisian sets and shots, and the acting isn't bad. Leon Ames [as Leon Waycoff] plays "Pierre" Dupin, a friend of Camille's who investigates the case when the police get nowhere. Not one of the great Lugosi's better roles or performances.

Verdict: For those who can't tell the difference between a chimp and a gorilla! **.

MERTON OF THE MOVIES

MERTON OF THE MOVIES (1947). Director: Robert Alton.

Red Skelton stars as a movie usher, Merton Gill, with big dreams who winds up going to Hollywood and supposedly becoming protege of big star Lawrence Rupert (Leon Ames), who has no use for him. Befriended by a stunt woman, Phyllis (Virgina O'Brien), who also has ambitions, he winds up starring in parodies of Rupert's films -- only he thinks they're supposed to be serious. Not much of a "laugh out loud" movie but the picture is well-acted, good-natured and pleasant, with a happy wind-up for all. After Skelton, Gloria Grahame is the cast stand-out as sexy movie star Beulah Baxter, who at one point tries to "vamp" Merton. O'Brien is a perfectly pleasing leading lady with a certain elusive quality, yet ... somehow she lacks a certain oomph, although she's more than competent. She does show more emotion in this than she did as a singer (her funny shtick was to have an immobile face as she sang).

Verdict: pleasant time waster with nice performances and sentiment. **1/2.

THE SHOW-OFF (1946)

THE SHOW-OFF (1946): Director: Harry Beaumont.

One of several versions of a play about an overbearing know-it-all and braggart who drives his in-laws to distraction but is loved by his wife, who recognizes his essential good heart and that he means well. Skelton is very well-cast in the part of Aubrey Piper, and as his gal, Marilyn Maxwell is more subdued and pleasing than usual. But the picture is nearly stolen by Marjorie Main as Skelton's exasperated mother-in-law. Marshall Thompson is Skelton's young brother-in-law, and Leon Ames is married to Maxwell's sister, Clara (Jacqueline White). Virginia O'Brien is Maxwell's girlfriend, who arranges a double-date wth Skelton. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson also appears briefly. Good supporting cast and a typically winning performance by Skelton makes this a pleasant, amusing, if somewhat minor comedy-drama.

Verdict: Fast-moving and entertaining. **1/2.