A FRONT ROW SEAT Nancy Olson Livingstone

A FRONT ROW SEAT: An Intimate Look at Broadway, Hollywood, and the Age of Glamour. Nancy Olson Livingstone. University Press of Kentucky; 2022. 

Books written by second and third tier celebrities have to rely on a lot of name-dropping to create reader interest, and Livingstone certainly does a lot of that. She can be forgiven because she did, after all, have a good part in the famous Sunset Boulevard (as Nancy Olson) and was married to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner of Lerner and Loewe fame (My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, etc.). So the lady has plenty of anecdotes to share, including her impressions of the Beatles, whom she met through her second husband, record executive Alan Livingstone. However, she really doesn't go into much detail about Sunset Boulevard or any of her other movies, which include such Disney films as Pollyanna and The Absent-Minded Professor. She seems to be more interested in telling how JFK made passes at her and taking pot shots at Joan Crawford. Her anecdotes about Arthur Laurents and closet queen Moss Hart are not so much homophobic as naive and dated. However, she admirably exposes the anti-Semitism of the period. This overlong tome could have been reduced by a quarter if all of Livingstone's detailed descriptions of the clothing she wore were excised. Initially interesting, I eventually found the book rather tedious. 

Verdict: Some interesting passages to be sure, but hardly essential reading. **1/2. 

POLLYANNA

Hayley Mills

POLLYANNA  (1960). Director: David Swift. 

Now that she has become an orphan, young Pollyana (Hayley Mills) is shipped off to a small midwestern city where she is to live in a mansion with her stern and uncompromising Aunt Polly (Jane Wyman). So as not to disturb her sleep, Polly gives her niece the smallest room up in the attic. Despite her travails, Pollyana has the most upbeat nature in the world, and refuses to see defeat in anything or anybody. Mayor Warren (Donald Crisp) wants the town to build a new orphanage while Polly -- the wealthiest citizen, who happens to own the building -- thinks all it needs is new plumbing. When everyone decides to hold a fair to raise money for the new orphanage, Polly forbids her to go, but she sneaks out anyway, nearly leading to tragedy. 

Mills with Richard Egan

A very popular movie in its day -- and the first film Mills did for Walt Disney -- Pollyana is undeniably entertaining and generally well-acted, especially by young Ms. Mills. A sub-plot has to do with the romance between Polly's assistant Nancy (Nancy Olson) and George Dodds (James Drury), not to mention Polly's interactions with old flame Dr. Chilton (Richard Egan). Pollyana also interacts with the hypochondriacal Mrs. Snow (Agnes Moorehead, badly over-acting); the weird recluse Pendergast (Adolphe Menjou); orphan boy Jimmy (Kevin Corcoran); grumpy maid Angelica (Mary Grace Canfield); the termagant Mrs. Tarvell (Anne Seymour); peppery cook Tillie (Reta Shaw); and the amazingly wishy washy and weak Reverend Ford (Karl Malden). Pollyana offers a surprisingly negative portrait of the minister, although he does eventually grow a spine. 

Egan with Jane Wyman

Pollyana is a little too long - surely the little ones in the audience grew impatient, not to mention needed bathroom breaks? -- and the whole business with Pendergast and his prisms that create rainbows gets tiresome very quickly. How faithful the film is to its turn of the century period I can't tell. Despite the open-endedness of the finale, the movie is extremely pat in virtually solving all of the problems of the characters with what seems like the snap of a finger -- this is almost funnier than anything else in the movie. Still, if you can take all that with a grain of salt, the movie may work for you. It is fun. 

Verdict: Classic Disney film with a fine lead performance. ***. 

SON OF FLUBBER

SON OF FLUBBER (1963). Director: Robert Stevenson. 

Fred MacMurray's career was revitalized by his assignments with the Disney studios, such as this sequel to The Absent-Minded Professor, and indeed many baby boomers who grew up with the comical, slightly dithering MacMurray incarnation were surprised to learn he was once a romantic leading man in such excellent films as Double Indemnity. Son of Flubber is a far cry from that movie. Ned (MacMurray) gives his formula to the government and learns he'll have to wait many a moon to receive any remuneration, so he tries to invent something else that may make money for him. MacMurray is fine, as are Ed Wynn and Leon Ames, and we've also got Charlie Ruggles, Paul Lynde, Tommy Kirk and William Demarest [who would eventually appear with MacMurray on My Three Sons] in the cast. There are dumb developments with Ned's wife (Nancy Olson) becoming jealous of an old girlfriend. The climactic football game is more tedious than funny. Joan Davis's daughter Beverly Wills appears as a woman in a commercial. 

Verdict: Good-natured but stupid. **.