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.                                                                                                 

PRINCESS OF THE NILE

Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter

PRINCESS OF THE NILE (1954). Director: Harmon Jones.

Egypt 1249 A.D. Princess Shalimar (Debra Paget of The River's Edge) is supposedly confined to the palace, but she sneaks out at night via an underwater passageway and becomes the super-sensual dancer, Taura. It is in the tavern where she dances that Shalimar first encounters equally gorgeous Prince Haidi (Jeffrey Hunter of Man-Trap) of Bagdad, as well as the nasty Bedouin, Rana Khan (Michael Rennie). Shalimar's weak father is under the thumb of his shaman (Edgar Barrier), who is in league with Rama Khan and would also like Haidi out of the picture. After all sorts of palace intrigue, Khan tells Shalimar he will spare her loved ones if she will marry him, a fate truly worse than death ... Princess of the Nile offers a starring role for Paget, who gives an authoritative and sexy performance; a hot love couple in Paget and Hunter (who is equally good and quite romantic); two "bodies beautiful" for the price of one; and also boasts solid work from Rennie, Barrier, and Wally Cassell as the good-humored slave, Goghi. Dona Drake [Beyond the Forest] is also on hand as a helpful handmaiden and good friend to Shalimar. (Other handmaidens include Merry Anders and Honey Bruce Friedman of Dance Hall Racket). Billy Curtis plays the lovable little guy, Tut. Princess of the Nile is a minor film, but it is fast-paced and entertaining (and quite short at 70 minutes) and both the locales and attractive leads are very nice to look at in Technicolor. Six years later Paget was cast as Cleopatra's Daughter. Harmon Jones also directed Gorilla at Large. 

Verdict: Two sexy lead actors never hurt. **1/2. 

THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL

Phyllis Calvert

THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL (1947). Director: Brock Williams.

Jackie (Phyllis Calvert) is one of two daughters of a struggling farmer named Farnish (Brefni O'Rorke of The Upturned Glass). She is engaged to a pleasant fellow named Albert (Hubert Gregg), whose unpleasant father, George Grice (Arthur Young), talks the weak man into marrying someone else. Grice also refuses to loan Jackie money for her father, so they have to auction off the farm (including the family dog!). Devastated, Jackie makes up her mind to get money and power and get her revenge on Grice. She is torn between two men, Joe, (John McCallum of The Woman in Question), an honest farm worker who loves her; and Charles (Michael Rennie), who goes into business with her. But will her rise into a world of wealth and power only lead to tragedy? The Root of All Evil, a standard rags to riches/revenge story, would have been a lot more entertaining had it starred, say, Joan Crawford, who could have really slapped home those bitter, angry lines with aplomb. Phyllis Calvert [They Were Sisters] is a good, but less interesting actress, at least in this type of role. The other performers are fine, including Hazel Court as her sister; Moore Marriott as Scholes, a landowner with a grudge; and especially Arthur Young as the venal if ultimately pathetic Grice. There's an exciting climax with a fire and some redemption for at least one character.

Verdict: Routine in all departments. **.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)

"Gort" and Patricia Neal

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951). Director: Robert Wise.

Klaatu (Michael Rennie), an emissary from a group of united planets, arrives on earth in a large saucer, accompanied by a potentially destructive law enforcement robot named Gort. Klaatu has come to earth to warn the world that the other planets will not tolerate earthlings, who have recently discovered atomic power, bringing their violent aggressiveness into outer space. His solution if earth doesn't mend its ways: destroy the entire planet! [Talk about aggressiveness!]

Held prisoner by the military, Klaatu, who wants to learn earth ways, escapes and moves into a boarding house, where he meets the lovely widow, Helen (Patricia Neal) and her likable little boy, Bobby (Billy Gray). Once Helen discovers the truth about the mysterious visitor and his plan, you keep waiting for her to argue about all the good in the world, the notable doctors, scientists, artists, and to tell Klaatu that most of the world's wars are caused  by a mere handful of residents. You expect her to say "innocent children like my son will be killed along with the warmongers," but she never does. This is the major reason why I've never particularly cared for this "classic." While Helen and Bobby represent good earthlings, too much of this portrayal is distinctly negative and unfair.

One can imagine, of course, that none of the aliens really wish or intend to wipe out the billions of earth's inhabitants, but foolishly hope this warning might suffice. But surely these powerful aliens can simply deal with the spaceships of more aggressive nations instead of dooming every person on the earth? No one even suggests this much more sensible solution.

That being said, The Day the Earth Stood Still is modestly entertaining and thought-provoking, although probably not in the way the filmmakers intended. Michael Rennie offers perhaps his best performance as the enigmatic Klaatu, his face registering amusement or bafflement and suggesting a certain superiority without becoming obnoxious about it. Neal is warm and sympathetic, but probably wasted in this movie. Billy Gray [The Navy vs the Night Monsters], Hugh Marlowe (as Helen's fiance) and others all give good performances and Robert Wise's direction is fine. The film also boasts Leo Tover's [The Snake Pit] excellent cinematography, and a superb score by Bernard Herrmann, whose spooky, jangling music influenced dozens of later scores. [Tover and Herrmann also worked on Journey to the Center of the Earth] The film itself was also very influential, with Hugh Marlowe headlining Earth vs the Flying Saucers a few years later and many other aliens-visit-earth films to come.

One last troubling aspect to the movie: After an over-zealous soldier shoots Klaatu at the beginning of the film, Gort responds by disintegrating tanks and rifles, but doesn't injure any men. Later, however, he completely disintegrates two soldiers who weren't even firing at him! Klaatu explains at one point that Gort is like a policeman, apparently one who is as quick-to-shoot as that first soldier was. The two dead men, whose deaths were completely unnecessary, are never mentioned again. Most likely they were killed so that the audience could feel Helen was in danger when she goes to give Gort a command that will stop him from further action. Still ...

The Day the Earth Stood Still (the title refers to Klaatu suppressing all energy world wide as a demonstration of his power) was remade in 2008 with Keaua Reeves playing a variation of Klaatu. Kathy Bates played an aggressive secretary of defense. Despite some good performances and effects and a much higher body count, the movie was not really an improvement over the original, itself no masterpiece.

Verdict: A bit too simplistic and even childish at times, but Herrmann's score is great. **1/2.

5 FINGERS

Unholy Alliance: James Mason and Danielle Darrieux

5 FINGERS (1952). Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Based on a true story, 5 Fingers looks at the secret "career" of Ulysses Diello (James Mason) who is valet for the British ambassador in Turkey, a neutral country, during WW2. Diello had originally been valet for the late husband of the Countess Anna Stavisky (Danielle Darrieux of Madame de), who has become friends with the ambassador and is the "impoverished widow of a pro-German count." Diello wants to make a lot of money and doesn't care how he gets it, so he steals top secret papers from the ambassador's safe and sells them to the Germans. He enlists the countess' aid and she agrees -- for a price. Still, the countess may still see Diello as a servant, even if she is attracted to him... Michael Rennie [Phone Call from a Stranger] is a British Intelligence agent who takes over the security for the embassy, but it sure takes a hell of a long time for anyone to change the combination to the safe. In spite of that, 5 Fingers is absorbing and very well acted, with Mason giving another terrific performance; Darrieux is also on the money. Mankiewicz is no Hitchcock, and does little to maximum the story's considerable suspense, but the movie is still effective enough in spite of it; Bernard Herrmann's musical score certainly helps. There are ironic developments and an interesting climax.

Verdict: Mason at his slimiest. ***.

LES MISERABLES (1952)

LES MISERABLES (1952). Director: Lewis Milestone.

Victor Hugo's famous novel had already been filmed with Fredric March and Charles Laughton in 1935 when this remake appeared 17 years later. In this version Michael Rennie stars as Jean Valjean, convicted of stealing a loaf of bread, and later coming afoul of policeman Javert (Robert Newton). This version shows us much more of how ex-convict Valjean transformed himself into the eminently respectable Mssr. Madeleine, but it completely cuts out the innkeepers, as well as the business with Javert getting suspicious when he sees Madeleine lift a carriage off of a man, The chase sequence from the first picture has also been eliminated. What this version substitutes is much more of a romance between Marius (Cameron Mitchell) and Cosette (Debra Paget), and unfortunately it's dull; it also intimates that Valjean might be in love with Cosette. The scene in the sewers has been expanded and is rather well-done. Rennie is just as perfunctory in the opening courtroom scenes as March was, but in general he's competent if unexciting. Edmund Gwenn and Sylvia Sidney both make positive impressions as, respectively, Bishop Courbet and Fantine; Elsa Lanchester and James Robertson Justice are also in the cast and are fine. As Javert, Newton is much more low-key than Laughton was, and about one fifth as memorable. Well-directed by Milestone, and with a memorable theme by Alex North.

Verdict: Interesting, but a cut below the 1935 version. **1/2.

THE 13TH LETTER

THE 13TH LETTER  (1951). Director: Otto Preminger

In a small town in French Quebec, an unknown person is sending anonymous letters to various parties, spreading lies and gossip, causing emotional upheaval, and in at least one case, causing a suicide. Much of the gossip seems centered on the new doctor in town, Pearson (Michael Rennie) and the wife, Cora (Constance Smith), of another doctor, Laurent (Charles Boyer). The suspects include Denise Turner (Linda Darnell) and nurse Marie (Judith Evelyn of The Tingler). Rennie isn't bad, Darnell gives one of her lesser performances, and Boyer and Evelyn walk off with the acting honors. Dark, intriguing, and suspenseful movie. Alex North's unusual musical score is exceptional, especially during a grim funeral sequence. This is a remake of the French film Le corbeau, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

Verdict: A lost Preminger film that is worth hunting down. ***.

THE LOST WORLD (1960)

THE LOST WORLD (1960). Director: Irwin Allen.

"Eaten alive! Horrible! Horrible!"

Colorful and loose adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel has a motley group trapped on a South American plateau with a variety of prehistoric monsters and cannibalistic natives. Fitted with bibs, horns and the like, the "dinosaurs" are actually rather majestic lizards, and the sets during the climax are redressed from Journey to the Center to the Earth [especially the Atlantis scenes). The peppery exchanges between Professor Challenger (Claude Rains) and Summerlee (Richard Haydn) are amusing, and Jill St. John as the only woman in the group is as saucy as ever. The climactic scenes as the party is chased by natives through the foggy Caves of Fire -- and encounter the monstrous Fire God -- are suspenseful and exciting. David Hedison, Michael Rennie, and Fernando Lamas don't do that much more than walk through the picture, but Jay Novello is as splendid as ever as the weasel-like Costas who winds up a blue plate special. Uneven effects. You have to see the pink poodle Frosty come up against a leaf-munching dinosaur to believe it. NOTE: For more on this film and others like it see Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies. FURTHER NOTE: It is best to see this in wide-screen and high definition.

Verdict: Silly but entertaining creature feature. ***.

THE INVADERS (1967)

THE INVADERS (ABC Television 1967.) 

One night driving while he's tired, architect David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) stops for a moment and sees a spaceship in the distance. From that moment forward his life is never the same, as he learns that an alien race from a dying world has secretly come to Earth and is working to take it over and change the environment to make it more favorable for them. The aliens have changed into human form (without our internal organs, however) and some of them have a "mutated" fourth finger that makes their pinkie stick out. Otherwise they are indistinguishable from us. They even have special academies that train them in being able to mimic human emotions. Whenever an invader dies, his body disintegrates, making it even more difficult for Vincent to convince others of the invasion. (The aliens die very easily. Wounds that might merely put a human being into a hospital kill them instantly.) Vincent devotes his life to tracking down every lead he can to the aliens' presence, and manages to outwit several of their dastardly schemes. (One episode acknowledged that Vincent still had a living to make and had him take on an architectural assignment. Fans probably wondered if he were independently wealthy!) Eventually Vincent gained some important allies in his fight, and there was a group of alien-hunters actively working against the inhuman antagonists. (Kent Smith became a regular in the second season.) An early episode suggested that any alien with emotions or a heart was a mutation, but later episodes suggested some aliens had almost "human" feelings, or at least were learning to understand the human viewpoint and could even be sympathetic – to a point. 

Out of 43 episodes, only two or three were mediocre. Most were quite good and a few were outstanding, including: “Quantity Unknown,” in which James Whitmore gives an excellent performance as a victim of the aliens; “The Innocent,” in which Michael Rennie, equally good, plays an alien who takes Vincent into one of their spaceships; “The Betrayed,” in which Ed Begley hires Vincent to design a plant and Vincent’s girlfriend, Susan (Laura Devon), is killed off; “Moonshot,” which features the substitution of a lookalike alien for an astronaut (Peter Graves); “Wall of Crystal,” which features Vincent’s brother and sister-in-law; and “The Condemned,” with Ralph Bellamy. 

Season two also had its share of memorable episodes: “The Saucer," with a couple on the run coming across an abandoned saucer; “The Watchers,” with Shirley Knight as the blind niece of a wealthy man (Kevin McCarthy of Invasion of the Body Snatchers); “The Trial,” focusing on the alleged murder of an alien; “The Prophet,’ with Pat Hingle as a phony alien evangelist; the very suspenseful “Labryinth,” with quirky Sally Kellerman in a story of a struggle to hold onto alien X-rays; “The Believers,” in which Vincent has a whole group to work with; “Task Force,” with Linden Chiles and Nancy Kovack; “Counter-Attack,” in which things get very tough for Vincent; “The Pit,” with Joanne Linville; “The Organization,” with hoodlums working for and against the aliens; “Light Seekers,” which features friendly aliens who are working against the invasion scheme; and “The Pursued,” with Suzanne Pleshette as an alien who can’t control homicidal impulses. 

In addition to the aforementioned guest stars, other actors who appeared on the series included: Diane Baker; Roddy McDowell; Zena Bethune; Virginia Christine; Fritz Weaver; Dana Wynter; Gene Hackman; Carol Lynley, Karen Black; Phyllis Thaxter; Barbara Hershey; Ed Asner; Arthur Franz; Burgess Meredith; Anne Francis; Dabney Coleman; Jason Evers; Charles Drake; Jack Warden; Roscoe Lee Brown; Barbara Luna; Robert Walker; John Ericson; Susan Oliver: Anthony Eisley; and many others. The Invaders was created by Larry Cohen and was highly influential on The X-Files, V and other programs. Domimic Frontiere’s theme music was suitably ominous and memorable. The science was not always consistent or well thought out, but in many ways The Invaders was more of a drama than a science fiction series. Star Roy Thinnes was perfect for the role of Vincent, getting across the character’s haunted, intense, obsessed state-of-mind in virtually every episode. The acting of the guest-stars was generally of a high order as well. The show engendered a series of paperback books and a TV mini-series many years later. 

Verdict: The ultimate paranoia program.***½.

PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER

PHONE CALL FROM A STRANGER (1952). Directed by Jean Negulesco. NOTE: This review includes important plot details so you may want to wait until after you've seen the movie to read it.

Now this is an odd one. The premise is workable: A lawyer (Gary Merrill) becomes friends with three other passengers on a plane that crashes. These three people are among the victims, and Merrill pays a call on their relatives and helps them resolve some conflicts. Nunnally Johnson's script -- which goes all over the lot -- may have looked good on paper, but the finished product is a mite ungainly and decidedly uneven. Some of the flashbacks to the earlier lives of the passengers occur after they've been killed, and some of these run on and on and on. There's something disjointed about the entire movie. The shame of it is that there are lovely and trenchant moments in the film, parts of which are quite moving. Merrill is workmanlike, stoic, but generally effective in a modest sense, low-key but much too inexpressive. Shelley Winters scores as a failed show biz hopeful who's winging her way back to hubby, who -- unbeknownst to her -- has filed for divorce. Michael Rennie offers one of his better performances as an alcoholic doctor who has decided to fess up about his role in a deadly drunk driving accident five years earlier. Keenan Wynn is as fine as ever as a gregarious jokester who is married to Bette Davis, who is much too artificial, perfunctory and grand lady-ish as the wife, but who has a solid moment recalling how much Wynn forgave and loved her. Evelyn Varden offers a dead-on portrait of a harridan mother-in-law to Winters, and Beatrice Straight turns in perhaps the best supporting performance as Rennie's grieving wife. Helen Westcott and Warren Stevens also do good work as, respectively, Merrill's once-unfaithful but still loving spouse, and Davis' lover, who leaves her flat after she becomes ill. Ted Donaldson is also good as Rennie's troubled son. Jean Negulesco's direction is smooth and both the drunk driving and plane crash scenes are powerful and expertly handled without being too grisly. Franz Waxman's opening theme music is also memorable. But the movie suffers from a surfeit of logic, such as Merrill getting hardly a scratch on him (comparatively) when most of his fellow passengers have been killed. The movie begins very well but wears out its welcome before too long.

Verdict: Not so great despite memorable moments. **1/2.