HOTEL

Catherine Spaak and Rod Taylor

HOTEL (1967). Director: Richard Quine. Based on the novel by Arthur Hailey.

The beautiful and stately St. Gregory's hotel in New Orleans is in danger of shutting its doors forever. The owner, Warren Trent (Melvyn Douglas), is fielding two offers, the most aggressive of which comes from Curtis O'Keefe (Kevin McCarthy) who isn't above playing a few dirty tricks, such as using his girlfriend, Jeanne (Catherine Spaak), to get information from the hotel manager, Peter McDermott (Rod Taylor of The Liquidator). While this is going on there is a thief (Karl Malden) loose in the hotel, and a Count (Michael Rennie) and Countess (Merle Oberon) are being blackmailed by the house dick (Richard Conte) because they ran over a child in their expensive car. 

Kevin McCarthy and Taylor

Hotel is basically sixties schlock, devoid of deep characterization or any meaning whatsoever. At one point, when a dignified black couple is turned away at the desk of the St. Gregory according to the hotel's long-standing racist policy and their unproven fear that it will cost them clientele, it looks as if there might be something of substance to say. But everyone seems much more upset at what bad publicity will do to their coffers than their unfair and dated policy toward "Negroes." It's a case of "this is bad for the hotel" as opposed to "this is just plain bad." Peter may not be a racist but his employer definitely is.

Michael Rennie and Merle Oberon

In spite of all this, the film is smooth and mildly entertaining, with good performances. Taylor is commanding and pleasant, McCarthy and Douglas are solid pros, and Rennie and Oberon, especially the latter, nearly walk off with the movie. We never learn anything about the boy who was killed, nor do either of these privileged people ever express the slightest feeling about the child's death! Although we're supposed to believe that McDermott is a great manager, he doesn't shut down an elevator that is acting funny (resulting in the liveliest scene in the movie and undoubtedly a major lawsuit for the hotel) and seems to spend more of his time imbibing cocktails in the bar than anything else. Spaak and Malden both appeared in Cat O' Nine Tails.

Verdict: Watch Grand Hotel instead. **1/2.                                                                                                 

THE TOY WIFE

Luise Rainer

THE TOY WIFE (1938). Director: Richard Thorpe. Screenplay by Zoe Akins.

"A woman is like a postage stamp. Once there's a black mark on her, she's no good to nobody." -- Pick.

In pre-Civil war Louisiana, two sisters live on a plantation with their slaves and their father. Gilberte, or "Frou Frou" (Luise Rainer) is the pretty and somewhat muddle-headed younger daughter, and Louise (Barbara O'Neil) is the more practical and less attractive older daughter. The young mountebank, Andre Vallaire (Robert Young), wants to propose to Frou Frou, but he is too late, as she has already decided to accept a proposal from the lawyer, George Sartoris (Melvyn Douglas). The trouble is that Frou Frou doesn't love George, but Louise does ... and Andre will not forget Frou Frou. Things come to a boil when George asks Louise to come and run the household, as Frou Frou --  a "toy wife," in his estimation -- seems incapable of doing so.

Luise Rainer and Alan Perl 

Had The Toy Wife starred, say, Bette Davis, it would probably not be a nearly forgotten film today. Luise Rainer, who is outstanding in the film, had already won back to back Best Actress Oscars (for The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth) before appearing in this film, but for various reasons her career faded out soon after and long-lasting major stardom never materialized. Douglas, Young and especially O'Neil are also very good in the film, along with Theresa Harris [The Flame of New Orleans] as Frou Frou's maid and companion, "Pick," Libby Taylor as the housekeeper Suzanne, and Alma Kruger [Saboteur] as Andre's disapproving mother. Little Alan Perl is a charmer as George and Frou Frou's son, Georgie.

The Toy Wife's patronizing treatment of black characters is typical of the period, unfortunately, but the film is still absorbing and has a very touching conclusion. There is first-rate cinematography from Oliver T. Marsh and a nice score by Edward Ward.

Verdict: Memorable, well-acted, and unpredictable drama. ***.

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.  

ON THE LOOSE

Joan Evans

ON THE LOOSE (1951). Director: Charles Lederer.

Jill Bradley (Joan Evans) is a small-town 16-year-old girl who has distracted parents (Lynn Bari and Melvyn Douglas) and a seemingly devoted boyfriend named Larry (Robert Arthur of Naked Youth). When Larry brings Jill to his house when his parents are gone, he passes out on the sofa and is found hungover the next morning. Larry is forced to break up with the "fast" Jill, who dates lots of guys to get over her heartbreak and winds up with a "reputation," nearly leading to tragedy. On the Loose is a time capsule of a movie, looking back at 1950's attitudes towards dating and premarital sex, as well as at timeless troubled marriages, and on that level is quite effective. Joan Evans [Roseanna McCoy] gives a very good performance as the confused and unhappy young woman, and the rest of the cast are also on target, with Melvyn Douglas [Hud] delivering some fine moments when he does his best to bond with his daughter in the second half of the film. Hugh O'Brian makes an impression as a kind-hearted doctor, and Tristram Coffin plays a judge, who shows up after some melodramatic developments in a bar. The ending is unrealistically happy but nevertheless touching.

Verdict: Teen angst well-played. ***. 

HUD

Three generations: Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Brandon De Wilde

HUD (1963). Director: Martin Ritt.

"You live just for yourself, and that makes you not fit to live with." -- Homer regarding Hud.

Homer Bannon (Melvyn Douglas) has been a cattle rancher all of his life, but a crisis develops when he learns that his stock may have hoof and mouth disease and could have to be destroyed. His surviving son, Hud (Paul Newman) is an immoral cad who suggests they sell off the cattle to an unsuspecting buyer. Hud's young nephew, Lon (Brandon De Wilde), looks up to his uncle in a way, but his values are more in line with his grandfather's. Hud has always assumed his father hated him because he blamed him for his brother's death, but it runs deeper than that. As stubborn as his son is irresponsible, Homer is bound to butt heads with Hud. Then there's the housekeeper, Alma (Patricia Neal) -- an underwritten role --  and the sexual tension that exists between her and Hud. All these factors will come to a boil ... Hud is an interesting picture that casts a certain spell, but one suspects it is due less to the story and actors than to the superb cinematography of James Wong Howe, who seems to imbue every shot with added resonance. Hud is also well-directed by Martin Ritt, although he is perhaps less successful in getting his cast to completely cross over that fourth wall that leads to total veracity -- the emoting is technically proficient but all on the surface. This is not to say that the acting is bad -- Newman, Douglas, and Neal all won Oscars (as did Howe and Ritt, the two most deserving) -- but Newman is miscast despite the fact that he manages to work up some effective swagger for an actor who was never that good at swaggering. One has to remember that these aren't the most communicative or openly emotional of people, so there really aren't any dramatic fireworks as such, But the strikingly moody film, a study of a dying way of life and all that it implies, has its own quiet power and is well worth watching. Yvette Vickers [Attack of the Giant Leeches] gets one line as a married woman who dallies with Hud in a coffee shop sequence, and John Ashley [Frankenstein's Daughter] is a cowboy. I have not read the Larry McMurtry novel this is based on, but I have a feeling the film is a rather sanitized version. Amoral characters like Hud are very, very commonplace today in movies and on television. Martin Ritt also worked with Newman and Howe on The Outrage.

Verdict: One imagines that Hud eventually turned into J. R. Ewing. ***1/2.

GOOD GIRLS GO TO PARIS

Rivals: Melvyn Douglas and Alan Curtis

GOOD GIRLS GO TO PARIS (1939). Director: Alexander Hall.

British teacher Ronald Brooke (Melvyn Douglas of A Woman's Face), is an "exchange teacher" with an American university, where he meets a vivacious waitress named Jenny (Joan Blondell). Jenny wants to get rich quick, and tries to get cash for a breach of promise suit against the scion of a wealthy family. When that fails, Jenny goes to New York, and winds up ensconced with the very family that Brooke is about to marry into. With two suitors and Brooke harboring secret feelings for the audacious Jenny, exactly which man will she wind up marrying? Good Girls Go to Paris has a promising and pleasant first quarter, and things really pick up with the introduction of Walter Connolly [So Red the Rose], who is the grandfather of the handsome hunk, Tom (Alan Curtis), that Jenny has set her cap for. Connolly is even more amusing than usual in his portrayal of the dyspeptic, hysterical and neurotic Olaf Brand, the grumpy head of the household. Unfortunately, after a very amusing middle section, the picture gets bogged down with too many suitors and sub-plots and developments that probably confused the audience as much as it does the characters. It just stops being fun, with only Connolly supplying any relief. The other performers, including Joan Perry, Isabel Jeans, Alexander D'Arcy [Vicki], and Clarence Kolb, are fine. Douglas and Blondell make a better team that one might suppose, but while Blondell is a good actress, she can't quite get across some of her lines with that certain skill of, say, a Lucille Ball.

Verdict: Half a good picture. **1/2.

THE GUILT OF JANET AMES

Rosalind Russell lost in a fantasy

THE GUILT OF JANET AMES (1947). Director: Henry Levin.

Janet Ames (Rosalind Russell) is a war widow whose husband died throwing himself on a grenade, thereby saving the lives of five men. A bitter Janet decides to find out if these five men were worthier of life than her husband, but the problem is the method the film employs to help her do so. Instead of actually meeting these men (aside from one of them) Janet encounters an alcoholic reporter named "Smitty" (Melvyn Douglas) who helps her fantasize about these men in tiresome dream sequences, supposedly inspired by a character in Peter Ibbetson. [One of these men is comic Sid Caesar of Curse of the Black Widow playing, well, a comic.] Smitty has his own dark secret, relating to Janet's husband, and Janet also has to face some harsh truths about her marriage. The premise is excellent, and this is -- or could have been -- strong, adult material, but the screenplay and approach are silly and pull the viewer out of the story despite some interesting developments. Russell and Douglas both give excellent performances, however. Arthur Space [Target Earth], Hugh Beaumont [Murder is My Business], and Harry von Zell are also in the cast.

Verdict: Perhaps well-intentioned, but it just doesn't work. **.

THEODORA GOES WILD

Irene Dunne

THEODORA GOES WILD (1936). Director: Richard Boleslawski.

Seemingly the whole town of Lynnfield, Connecticut is up in arms because a risque novel by a "Caroline Adams" is being gleefully serialized in the town paper by editor Jed Waterbury (Thomas Mitchell). The most outraged townsfolk are members of the Lynnfield ladies literary circle, who would be astonished to learn that one of their number, Theodora Lynn (Irene Dunne) is actually the author of the scandalous book! On a trip to New York to see her publisher, Arthur Stevenson (Thurston Hall), Theodora encounters a man named Michael (Melvyn Douglas), who follows her back to Lynnfield and threatens to expose her secret. Only Michael has secrets of his own ... Theodora Goes Wild still makes a timely statement today about small-town hypocrisy, how people are secretly titillated by what they profess to abhor, and the need to shed off constricting small-mindedness and be true to one's instincts and nature. Even better is that it has some very good performances and a number of laugh-out-loud funny sequences. Unfortunately, the middle section, with Michael coming to Lynnfield where he becomes a gardener for Theodora and her aunts and drives them crazy with his constant whistling (the audience as well!), drags a lot and is rather tiresome, although the movie picks up in the final quarter. Dunne and Douglas are fine, with great support from Mitchell and Hall, Nana Bryant (Possessed) as Hall's jealous wife, and Elisabeth Risdon (The Egg and I) and Margaret McWade as Theodora's prudish but loving aunts. Spring Byington (Walk Softly Stranger) has a great scene when she reads an "offensive" passage from Adams' book with such gusto that you can tell she's privately thrilled with it. Robert Greig also makes an impression as Theo's free-spirited Uncle John, who wants her out from under the influence of his spinster sisters. Jake the dog is rather wonderful, too. This comes so, so close to being a classic but misses by that much.

Verdict: Still good for a laugh or two and a lively message. ***.

BEING THERE

Peter Sellers

BEING THERE (1979). Director: Hal Ashby.

"Nobody likes a dying man, Chance, because nobody knows what death is."

"You always gonna be a little boy, ain't ya?"

"It's a white man's world in America for sure" -- Louise, the black maid, after she sees Chance on TV. 

Based on a novel by Jerzy Kosinski, this is the story of the simple-minded gardener Chance (Peter Sellers), who has to move out of the house where he worked after his elderly employer dies. By chance -- no pun intended -- his is hit by a limo, injures his leg, and is taken in by the very wealthy Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine) and her ill, much older husband, Ben (Melvyn Douglas) who is friends with the President (Jack Warden). Before long Chance is "advising" the leader of the free world on policy, even though he really has no idea what he's talking about and can only relate everything to a garden. Instead of recognizing that Chance is mentally challenged, everyone thinks he's the height of profundity and he winds up on TV and being toasted by the media and intelligentsia. In this variation of Hans Christian Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes" -- which essentially said the same thing with more economy -- Ashby skewers the stupidity and superficiality of the rich, powerful, political, and influential, although one has to suspend disbelief that no one he meets after leaving his home seems to get that Chance is, well, just plain stupid. Sellers is fine, although he isn't really given the opportunity to go wild as he does in the Inspector Clouseau films. MacLaine and Douglas are marvelous, and there are notable supporting performances from Jack Warden, Richard Dysart as Ben's doctor, and Ruth Attaway as the maid, Louise, among others. As for the ending -- everyone can make up their own mind what that's about.

Verdict: Absorbing and sadly amusing satire. ***.

ADVANCE TO THE REAR

ADVANCE TO THE REAR (1964). Director: George Marshall.

During the civil war, Union brass are so dismayed by a unit of screw-ups headed by Colonel Brackenbury (Melvyn Douglas), that they reassign them to a backwater outpost -- then realize that they made a dreadful error: a consignment of gold is coming and needs to be guarded by the screw-ups. In the meantime rebel spy, Martha Lou William (Stella Stevens), engages in a cat and mouse game with Brackenbury's second-in-command, Captain Jared Heath (Glenn Ford). Can Brackenbury's men manage to keep the gold out of rebel hands? This is a generally amiable if distinctly minor comedy with a few amusing sequences and characters. Douglas, of course, gives the best performance, but the others are good as well, including Jesse Pearson, who played Conrad in Bye, Bye Birdie, as a soldier with an odd attraction for horses. Jim Backus [I Married Joan], Whit Bissell [The Family Secret], Joan Blondell [Nightmare Alley], and Alan Hale Jr. [The Killer is Loose] are also in the cast.

Verdict: If you think the Civil War was funny ... **1/2.

A WOMAN'S FACE

 

A WOMAN'S FACE (1941). Director: George Cukor.


"What the well-dressed gargoyle will wear."

Anna Holm (Joan Crawford) is a bitter, disfigured woman who heads a gang of petty criminals and blackmailers. But in her future are fateful encounters with an oily sociopath, Torsten Barring (Conrad Veidt), whom she loves, and a blackmailing victim's husband, Gustav (Melvyn Douglas)  -- who just happens to be a plastic surgeon. Will Anna find love, happiness, and a pretty face -- or will she become inveigled in Barring's plot to kill off his lovable nephew, Lars, for dollars? The plot may sound pretty silly but A Woman's Face is a winner all the way, with a strong performance from Crawford [who, ironically, looks strikingly beautiful in some shots], and a superb supporting cast, including Douglas and Veidt, as well as Connie Gilchrist and Donald Meek as members of Anna's gang; Marjorie Main as a feisty housekeeper; Henry Daniell and George Zucco as officers of the court; and little Richard Nichols as the little boy, Lars. And we mustn't forget Osa Massen as Gustav's wife, who was given the most memorable role of her career in this picture. Dickering with Anna over the price of some indiscreet love letters, she makes the mistake of exposing the latter's scars and insecurity and gets slapped around for her trouble in the picture's liveliest scene [see video]. However, there are other highlights, such as a suspenseful sequence in a cable car and the sleigh ride climax. While Cukor may never have been a Hitchcock, he handles these sequences quite well. Despite the grimness of the subject matter, Donald Ogden Stewart's screenplay doesn't eschew humor any more than it does pathos.

Verdict: Absorbing and first-class all the way. ***1/2.

A WOMAN'S SECRET

Maureen O'Hara

A WOMAN'S SECRET (1949) Director: Nicholas Ray.

Flashbacks relate what led up to the shooting of young singer, Susan Caldwell (Gloria Grahame), nicknamed Estrellita, who is the protege of Marian Washburn (Maureen O'Hara, pictured), who took over Susan's career when she lost her own singing voice just as she was on the verge of making it. This sounds like it might make for a very juicy soap opera at the very least, but what results is a pretty boring, minor-league account, with Marians' boyfriend Luke (Melvyn Douglas) talking the whole business over with police inspector Jim Fowler (Jay C. Flippen); Mary Philips is fun as Fowler's take-charge wife. Flashbacks are not very riveting or compelling. Victor Jory is fine as an impresario who is smitten with Susan, and Bill Williams turns up as a man from her past. Gloria Grahame is excellent as Susan, but the movie that surrounds her is a comparatively dull disappointment.

Verdict: Not even worth wasting a rainy day for. *1/2.