MEET THE STEWARTS

Frances Dee and William Holden

MEET THE STEWARTS (1942). Director: Alfred E. Green. 

Candy (Frances Dee of Mr. Scoutmaster) practically blackmails Michael (William Holden of Picnic) into proposing, an idea he resists because he wants to be able to support her on his own. This works out fine, because Candy's wealthy father, Mr. Goodwin (Grant Mitchell of It Happened on Fifth Avenue) has no intention of supporting his daughter once she's married. The newlyweds struggle to make ends meet, live in a house they can't quite afford, wind up in debt to a country club to which Candy thought she still belonged, and argue endlessly about finances. Will these two be able to settle their differences, or are they headed for divorce court?

Money, money, money

Meet the Stewarts is a perfectly pleasant if forgettable trifle that examines the usual problems young couples face such as finances, jealousy, meddling in-laws and the like. The film is mildly amusing, but it could have been very funny with different leads. While Dee and Holden are more-than-competent players they are not skilled comic actors -- Jack Lemmon, Cary Grant and others could have gotten more out of the frequently funny lines. A better impression is made by Grant Mitchell as the father and Anne Revere as Michael's blunt, no-nonsense sister, Geraldine. Margaret Hamilton has a few amusing moments as the maid, Willametta (as if struggling couples could afford a maid!). The film shows its age when one fellow proudly says "all wives have to be smacked around now and then." Alfred E. Green was a busy director who helmed a wide variety of pictures, including several Bette Davis films such as Dangerous. 

Verdict: Just nothing special in this mild comedy which at least boasts one rousing fist-fight that would not have been out of place in a cliffhanger serial. **1/2. 

BLITHE SPIRIT

Margaret Rutherford as Madame Arcati

BLITHE SPIRIT (1945). Director: David Lean. Based on the play by Noel Coward, who also produced the film.

To do research for his next book, writer Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) and his wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) invite well-known psychic Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) to dinner and a seance. Everyone at the dinner party thinks the madame is slightly nuts, and definitely a phony, but to Charles and Ruth's surprise she inadvertently manages to call back the spirit of Elvira (Kay Hammond) -- Charles' first wife, leading to expected -- and a few unexpected -- complications! 

Rex Harrison

One critic called the source material for the movie, the play of the same title by Noel Coward, "a wearying  exhibition of bad taste" and indeed it is the sort of dark comedy/farce in which tragic situations are milked for laughs and characters sort of suppress natural human emotions for the sake of the story. Many will feel there's a definite streak of (probably benign and possibly unintended) misogyny running through the movie as well. Harrison and Cummings are fine as the husband and his second wife, but Kay Hammond -- although her performance isn't bad -- has so affected and unnatural a voice, with its jutting lower lip and distasteful inflections, that she becomes positively repulsive as Elvira. Margaret Rutherford, on the other hand, is as delightful as ever as the medium and steals the movie from everyone else. Blithe Spirit is not exactly a laugh-riot (although any pathos the situations might have had goes unexplored) but it is amusing and entertaining. A bonus on the remastered DVD of the film is an interview with Coward scholar Barry Day, who provides much interesting information  on the background both of the play and movie, and also explores the many differences between the two -- and Coward's reaction to the film as well; Day is marvelous. The play was also turned into the cute if mediocre musical "High Spirits." 

Verdict: Certainly worth a look. ***.

THE WITNESS CHAIR

Walter Abel and Ann Harding

THE    WITNESS CHAIR     (1936). Director: George Nichols Jr. 

Stanley Whit-taker (Dou-glass Dumbrille) is found dead of a gunshot in his office. Although he left a suicide note admitting to embezzlement, the police determine that his death was really a homicide. Whittaker's associate, Jim Trent (Walter Abel of Fired Wife) is put on trial for the murder, but other suspects and interested parties include secretary Paula Young (Ann Harding of When Ladies Meet), bookkeeper Grace Franklin (Margaret Hamilton), office boy Benny Ryan (Billy Benedict), and even Trent's daughter, Constance (Frances Sage), who inexplicably wanted to run off with the much older and not especially attractive Whittaker. During the trial, the truth behind the murder eventually comes out. 

William "Billy" Benedict

The Witness Chair is an entertaining if very minor crime/court-room drama with generally good performances and a tidy if unspectacular screenplay. Ann Harding is as efficient as ever, even if her performance is of the long-suffering, hand-wringing variety. Back in the day, Harding was a major star -- this is a lesser vehicle for her -- but today she is known only to film buffs. Like Kay Francis and others, her films didn't show up on the late show until the days of TCM. Walter Able, a fine actor, was a leading man who later became a supporting player. The prolific Billy Benedict almost steals the film with his comic turn as the office boy, who hopes for a singing career and is annoyed that he gets such a short time in the witness chair. Margaret Hamilton is snappy as the outraged bookkeeper who insists that her boss, Whittaker, was innocent of theft. 

Verdict: Smooth easy watching if nothing to get excited about. **1/2. 

CONVERSATIONS WITH CLASSIC FILM STARS

CONVERSATIONS WITH CLASSIC FILM STARS: Interviews from Hollywood's Golden Era. James Bawden and Ron Miller.  University Press of Kentucky; 2016.

I have already posted on the sequel to this book, You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet, which came out the following year. This is Bawden and Miller's first collection of interviews with famous film folk, and frankly, this volume is superior, with some really solid and interesting interviews. There's a funny piece on the ever-eccentric Gloria Swanson in the section on silent film stars; Joseph Cotten and Melvyn Douglas being rather blunt in their pieces in the section on Leading Men; everyone from Anne Baxter to Dorothy Lamour to Anna Lee and Jane Wyman are covered in Leading Ladies; Audrey Totter and Marie Windsor have their say in Queens of the Bs; and we've got the Singing Cowboys, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers; plus a piece on Bob Hope, and a final section  on not-quite-stars like Keye Luke, Harold Russell, Margaret Hamilton, and Diane Varsi (who did Peyton Place and then pretty much disappeared because she rebelled against her studio). Other stars interviewed include Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas and more.

The stars are frequently scathing in their assessment of other actors, with Melyyn Douglas insisting that both Spencer Tracy and Fredric March were "one-dimensional" (!) in Inherit the Wind (Douglas did a TV version). Joan Fontaine comments on her sister Olivia De Havilland ("it takes two to feud"). You'll also learn that Jane Wyman got so sick of former movie goddesses being hired for her series Falcon Crest, that she laid down the law: "No more international harlots!" I didn't know that beautiful Jane Greer was once married to Rudy Vallee nor that Margaret Hamilton was nearly killed playing the witch in The Wizard of Oz and spent some time in the hospital. The book gets across that most self-absorbed movie stars are simply not normal people.

Verdict: Fun, informative book that is hard to put down. ***1/2.  

SARATOGA

Jean Harlow and Clark Gable

SARATOGA (1937). Director: Jack Conway.

Margaret Hamilton to Frank Morgan: "You have no idea what my face looked like before I used your cream."

Frank Morgan to Margaret Hamilton: "I can imagine."

Race track gambler Duke Bradley (Clark Gable) thinks that Carol Clayton (Jean Harlow), the daughter of his friend, Frank Jonathan Hale), is a bit snooty. Carol is engaged to the rich "sucker" Hartley Madison (Walter Pidgeon), but she finds herself drawn to the cruder Duke even as she engages in verbal fisticuffs with him. Will Carol and Duke admit their feelings for one another? This is the slight premise of Saratoga, which also has some bits of business about bidding on horses, switching jockeys at the last minute, and betting on the climactic race, most of which is a little confusing and even a bit on the dull side. This is a shame, because each and every cast member is working at the top of his or her game, and that not only includes the already-named, but Una Merkel as Duke's racing pal; Frank Morgan as her befuddled and jealous husband, who markets cold cream as "Harriet Hale;" Hattie McDaniel as Carol's saucy and lovable maid/companion; Frankie Darro as an obnoxious jockey; and George Zucco (doing a rare turn at comedy) as a slightly strange doctor. Margaret Hamilton also scores in a small role as one of Morgan's unsatisfied customers, and Lionel Barrymore is fine, as usual, working in his befuddled, cranky, old-timer mode.The acting in this is just wonderful and there are some memorable scenes, such as a near-silent one in which Duke communicates to Carol that her father has died. There's a very enjoyable train scene with the various principals taking turns at singing a chorus, their acting skills and personality making up for untrained voices. Despite several genuinely amusing moments, the film has an air of sadness because Harlow died tragically young while making this picture, and her scenes had to be finished with a dubbed double seen only from the back or behind binoculars. The film has an amiable nature, even though the Walter Pidgeon character is treated especially shabby, and Carol doesn't come off like the most likable of creatures.

Verdict: So many fine actors and so many good things in it that it's too bad this really isn't all that memorable. **1/2.

DISHONORED LADY

DISHONORED LADY (1947). Director: Robert Stevenson.

"You're a voluptuous pain in the neck."

"I'm mad about you -- in my own foul way."

Beautiful New York City magazine editor Madeleine Damian (Hedy Lamarr) tries to kill herself out of what seems to be ennui and is counseled by a rather patronizing psychiatrist (Morris Carnovsky), who encourages her to start a brand new life for herself. She meets a handsome scientist, David (Dennis O'Keefe), who lives upstairs and falls in love, but then her past intrudes, in the form of sleazy lover boy Felix Courtland (John Loder) and even sleazier former co-worker Jack Garet (William Lundigan). When Madeleine is accused of murder, David turns against her in the snap of a finger! [Why anyone would expect such a beautiful woman not to have admirers and previous boyfriends ... !] Lamarr [Crossroads] and the other actors are perfectly fine in this, but the screenplay is a load of rot. Paul Cavanagh and Natalie Schafer [Female on the Beach] are their usual adept selves as Madeleine's former associates, and there are appearances by Margaret Hamilton as a landlady, and Douglass Dumbrille as a prosecutor; both are swell. (Ms. Damian is quite a woman: it's not that she doesn't scream at the sight of a mouse, but that she's actually able to grab and pick up one of the little vermin without trouble! Faster than a mouse? Sure!)  It's fun to watch those two blond Hollywood pretty boys, O'Keefe and Lundigan [The White Orchid], having a knockdown, drag-out battle -- guess who wins? Lundigan is effective in an unusual bad boy role for him.

Verdict: An attractive, competent cast doesn't hurt, but oh that story! **.

THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA

Marsha Hunt and Richard Carlson

THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA (1942). Director: Jules Dassin.

The town of Rock Bay, Long Island is in an uproar when a columnist publishes an item about how one of the maids is going to publish a memoir about the family she works for. The ladies of the town hold one meeting, while all of the maids hold another. Meanwhile Martha (Marsha Hunt), who works for the Sommerfields and is secretly married to son Jeff (Richard Carlson), has to deal with romantic overtures from her publisher, Joel (Allyn Joslyn), as well as a young lad named Danny (Barry Nelson), when she then discovers that Jeff has come home with a fiancee (Frances Drake). While Martha has some similarities to the earlier Theodora Goes Wild, it has much less on its mind, although a spirited cast makes certain that the picture is generally fun. In addition to the already named there are good performances from Marjorie Main [The Law and the Lady] as the Sommerfield cook, Spring Byington as Mrs. Sommerfield, and Virginia Weilder as her precocious daughter, Miranda. Sara Haden, Margaret Hamilton and Grady Sutton all have smaller roles. Jules Dassin also directed Thieves' Highway.

Verdict: Cute if minor comedy. **1/2.

CITY WITHOUT MEN

CITY WITHOUT MEN (1943). Director: Sidney Salkow.

Tom Adams (Michael Duane of Redhead from Manhattan) is framed for  picking up Japanese in a boat, and wrongly convicted of collaborating with the enemy or something and sent to jail for several years. His fiancee, Nancy (Linda Darnell) not only vows to wait for him, but moves into a woman's residence right next to the prison where other wives and girlfriends wait patiently for their men to be released. The husband of the owner of the house, Maria (Sara Allgood) is in jail for life, and in the film's best scene, another wife, Mrs. Slade (Rosemary DeCamp), nearly collapses when her husband is executed at midnight. Other residents of the house include brassy Billie (Glenda Farrell), Winnie (Doris Dudley), Dora (Margaret Hamilton), and high-hattin' Gwen (Leslie Brooks of The Secret of the Whistler), who is dating Mr. Peters (Don DeFore) and hopes to learn where her husband (Sheldon Leonard) hid some money. Edgar Buchanan plays a shady lawyer who is ostensibly trying to help Nancy, but spends most of her money on booze. This is a "concept" movie that seems to have been cobbled together from cliches from other movies, and it's never convincing, becoming fairly ridiculous towards the end. Darnell is fine -- odd that she was cast in this bad "B" movie -- and Allgood, Farrell, DeCamp, and DeFore give very good performances as well.Years later Salkow directed Vincent Price in Twice-Told Tales.

Verdict: Not utterly terrible but not worth the time it takes to tell. **.

STATE OF THE UNION

STATE OF THE UNION (1948). Director: Frank Capra.

"We even had a democrat in that bed one night!" -- housekeeper Margaret Hamilton.

"If I've got to listen to speeches, you'd better make me another sazerac right away!" -- Lulubelle Alexander

Newspaper publisher Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury) and long-time politico Jim Conover (Adolph Menjou) work together to get plane manufacturer Grant Matthews( Spencer Tracy) to toss his hat in the Republican ring. Although she has reservations -- particularly regarding the participation of Kay, who is carrying a torch for Grant -- Matthews' wife Mary (Katharine Hepburn) agrees to go along on the campaign trail, hoping her husband will win the party's nomination. But as the weeks go by she watches in horror as Grant succumbs to the manipulations of Kay and Jim, compromising to the point where he's turning his back on what he really believes in just so he has a chance at the white house. Something's gotta give, and boy does it! This wonderful, still topical movie features top-notch performances from the actors named, as well as from Van Johnson as a snappy reporter named Spike. Margaret Hamilton has an amusing supporting part as a housekeeper who has a yen for Spike, and Maidel Turner is a riot as Lulubelle Alexander, a judge's wife who loves her sazerac cocktails; Charles Dingle, Raymond Walburn, Howard Smith and Irving Bacon also score. Hepburn's first name is misspelled in the opening credits, there are a couple of stupid moments, but everything else is just about perfect!

Verdict: Another Capra winner! ***1/2.

GUEST IN THE HOUSE

Ruth Warrick and Anne Baxter

GUEST IN THE HOUSE (1944). Director: John Brahm.

Dr. Dan Butler (Scott McKay) brings his girlfriend and patient Evelyn (Anne Baxter) to his family home for a rest cure, and she manages to bring simmering tensions to the surface. Others in the household include Dan's artist brother Douglas (Ralph Bellamy), his wife Ann (Ruth Warrick), their Aunt Martha (Aline McMahon), their little girl Lee (Connie Laird), the peppery maid Hilda (Margaret Hamilton) and her husband John (Percy Kilbride), as well as Miriam (Marie McDonald), who is Douglas' model and who some suspect is carrying on with the painter. Evelyn sets her cap on Douglas but although she's blamed for the events that transpire they seem precipitated more by the others' suspicions than by her manipulations. The cast makes the movie more interesting than it might have been otherwise, but Leave Her to Heaven the following year made much more of the theme of an emotionally disturbed, selfish woman causing havoc in a household. Baxter gives a typically vivid and appropriate performance, while the others are all on target as well, and there's a pleasant score by Werner Janssen, but this is a half-baked melodrama and little else. Well-directed by Brahm, who also directed The Undying Monster, The Mad Magician, Hangover Square, The Locket, and many episodes of such shows as Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Verdict: At least it isn't predictable. **1/2.

THE NIGHT STRANGLER

Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland

THE NIGHT STRANGLER (1973). Producer/director: Dan Curtis. Written by Richard Matheson.

Reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) from The Night Stalker is back, this time working with old boss and nemesis Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) on a paper in Seattle. More women are being murdered, and Kolchak discovers these type of killings have been occurring every twenty years since the 19th century. There's a hideous, sinister figure who lives in the ruins of Old Seattle underneath the city proper. The best scenes take place in this very eerie under-earth atmosphere. McGavin and Oakland are perfect, and they get fine support from the likes of Jo Ann Pflug (one of the worst names in show business) as a dancer; Wally Cox as a researcher; Margaret Hamilton as a professor of the arcane; Scott Brady as a cop; Al Lewis as a derelict in the underground; and John Carradine as a publisher. Nina Wayne is fun as a dopey stripper whose lover is a butch lesbian stereotype apparently added for dumb comic relief. Richard Anderson is also good in an unusual and pivotal role. This is basically a variation of The Man in Half Moon Street and The Man Who Could Cheat Death. Superior to The Night Stalker, this telefilm was successful enough to get Kolchak his own series.

Verdict: Love that Old Seattle! ***.

GEORGE WHITE'S SCANDALS

GEORGE WHITE'S SCANDALS (1945). Director: Felix E. Feist.

Joan (Joan Davis), a comedienne with George White's Scandals, wants to marry partner Jack (Jack Haley), but his older sister Clarabelle (Margaret Hamilton) insists he can't wed until she does. And with her looks and personality that's a real problem. This plot -- if you can call it that -- is regularly interrupted by performances by Gene Krupa and his band and others. BetteJane (Jane) Greer is cast as a bitchy chorus girl, and Phillip Terry (Mr. Joan Crawford # 3) plays one of White's staff. The men in this movie seem to have a real disdain for women, or at least chorus girls, whom they dismiss and talk about as if they were so much cattle. Rose Murphy is fun as Joan's saucy maid, Hilda. Fritz Feld, who seems to have been in every other movie ever made, is in this one, too. Glenn Tryon plays George White. Hamilton is swell and her encounters with Davis are very amusing.

Verdict: Anything with Joan Davis in it is worth watching, but this ain't no masterpiece. **.

13 GHOSTS

13 GHOSTS (1960). Director: William Castle. 

Cyrus Zorba (Donald Woods) and his family have serious financial problems, but discover that an uncle has left Cyrus his spooky old house-- and all of its ghosts. This movie has two clever ideas -- that the uncle actually collected ghosts to study, and that he invented a pair of weird goggles through which one can actually see the ghosts. Aside from that 13 Ghosts isn't one of the more memorable William Castle thrillers, although it's fun in its minor way. Rosemary DeCamp is Cyrus' wife and little Charles Herbert is his mischievous son, Buck; Martin Milner plays Ben Rush, the uncle's lawyer, who may have his own agenda -- all give good performances. Margaret Hamilton might seem like a casting coup as the dead uncle's creepy housekeeper and assistant, but her performance is only adequate. Donald Woods is perfect as the put-upon Cyrus, however. 

Verdict: Worth seeing once. **1/2.

PLAY GIRL

PLAY GIRL (1940). Director: Frank Woodruff.

"She's said good-bye to more men than most women have said hello to."

Grace Herbert (Kay Francis, pictured) has unapologetically made a living by romancing wealthy men and suing them for breach of promise. Unfortunately, the game is getting tougher as she gets older. Along comes orphaned, hungry Ellen Daley (Mildred Coles), whom Grace decides to make her protege. Their first target is Grace's old pal Bill Vincent (Nigel Bruce), but Ellen also has her eye on a handsome rancher named Thomas (James Ellison). It's hard to believe that Ellen would be so upset that Thomas is worth millions, but she's afraid Grace will get her hooks in him -- and maybe she will. Despite the unconvincing attitudes and actions of the protege, Play Girl is an amusing and appealing trifle with a nicely sentimental wind-up. Francis gives a top-notch performance as the world-weary Grace, and Coles and Ellison do a fine job as the young lovers. Margaret Hamilton has a few funny moments as Grace's friend and housekeeper, although you kind of wish Eve Arden was along for the ride. Bruce is a lot of fun as the lovable if slightly buffoonish Bill.

Verdict: A winner for Kay! ***

COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN

COMIN' ROUND THE MOUNTAIN (1951). Director: Charles Lamont.

"Anybody who'd kiss me would kiss anybody!" -- Lou Costello.

Wilbert (Lou Costello), a client of talent agent Al (Bud Abbott) learns from Dorothy (Dorothy Shay), another of his clients, that he may be a long lost member of the McCoy clan from the hills and there's a treasure a'waitin' for him back home. For years the McCoys have been feuding not with the Hatfields but the Winfields, one of whom, Clark (Kirby Grant) Dorothy falls for. Wilbert is crazy for Dorothy, however, so he goes to a witch (Margaret Hamilton) to get a love potion to make Dorothy fall for him. (The film's funniest sequence has Hamilton and Costello sticking pins in the posteriors of each other's dolls!) This was singer Shay's only film (she did TV work twenty years later); she's pleasant but unpolished and lacks that certain "X" factor. Kirby Grant is a bland love interest for Shay; the following year he was cast in the title role of TV's Sky King and played it for seven years. Joe Sawyer is as good as ever as one of the McCoys while Glenn Strange (who played Frankenstein's monster a couple of times) has one of his best roles as "Devil" Dan Winfield. But this is not one of the more memorable Abbott and Costello features.

Verdict: Not enough real laughs. *1/2.

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1940). Director: A. Edward Sutherland.

Essentially unrelated to the first two Invisible Man movies, this is an out and out comedy starring John Barrymore -- giving a very funny performance -- as an absent-minded professor who advertises for a human guinea pig for his invisibility machine. Kitty Carroll (Virginia Bruce, pictured), a model who's fed up with her nasty boss Growley (Charles Lane, playing his usual grumpy Gus and playing it well), volunteers because she wants to get even with Growley without his knowing that it's her. A racketeer in exile, Blackie Cole (Oskar Homolka), also wants the machine so he can return home literally without being seen. Then there's the not-so-wealthy millionaire playboy Rich Russell (John Howard) who has been sponsoring Barrymore, and his ever-suffering butler Charles Ruggles. This is a very cute picture with many amusing moments and lines, some of which sneak up on you, and John P. Fulton's effects are as good as ever. The whole cast is quite good, including the bellicose Donald MacBride and Shemp Howard (of 3 Stooges fame) as Blackie's henchmen. Margaret Hamilton plays Barrymore's housekeeper and she and "the Great Profile" make a very funny team. Terrific ending!

Verdict: If you're in a silly mood on a rainy Sunday. ***.