THE CRASH

THE CRASH (1932). Director: William Dieterle. 

Linda Gault (Ruth Chatterton) grew up very poor and is determined that she'll never be poverty-stricken again. Her husband Geoffrey (George Brent) drinks and importunes her to get stock tips from a man (Henry Kolker) who's smitten with her. When Geoffrey goes broke after the Wall Street crash of 1929, Linda takes what money she can gather and goes off to a sun and fun retreat where she meets millionaire Ronald Sanderson (Paul Cavanagh). Should she go for the loot or settle for love? Who cares? This is a minor film with Chatterton giving a surprisingly stiff and obvious performance. A secondary love story concerns Linda's French maid Celeste (Barbara Leonard) and her lover Arthur (Hardie Albright). 

Verdict: Watch Dodsworth [with Chatterton in fine form] instead. **.

I TAKE THIS WOMAN

Hedy Lamarr

I TAKE THIS WOMAN (1940). Director: W. S. Van Dyke.

"Time wounds all heels." -- Marcesca.

Georgi Gregore (Hedy Lamarr) tries to throw herself off of an ocean liner due to an unhappy love affair, but she is saved by the compassionate Dr. Karl Decker (Spencer Tracy). Georgi is still dealing with her feelings for the married Phil Mayberry (Kent Taylor), when she gets involved with Karl -- who works at a clinic for low-income patients -- and marries him. But trouble begins when Karl joins a practice that caters to the wealthy, and Georgi runs into her ex-lover, Phil, once more. Can this marriage be saved?

Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr

When I Take This Woman was first released, it came in for a mostly critical drubbing, and over the years has been considered a very bad picture starring a completely mis-matched Tracy and Lamarr. In actual truth, while the film is certainly not excellent, and at one point begins to rip off The Citadel, it is entertaining and very well-acted, with Tracy and Lamarr  playing very well together and making a very convincing romantic couple. In addition we've got some good work from Verree Teasdale as Georgi's effervescent friend, Marcesca, Kent Taylor as Phil, and Mona Barrie [Something to Sing About] as his bitter, heart-broken wife. Laraine Day, Louis Calhern, Frances Drake, and Paul Cavanagh also have notable supporting parts, along with Marjorie Main, Willie Best, Reed Hadley [Racket Squad], Don Castle [Roses are Red], and others.

I Take This Woman, alas, makes the mistake of trying to ape Frank Capra, throwing in a final scene that is sentimental in the wrong way and unconvincing. But the picture is still easy to take, Lamarr looks stunning, and the performances by both stars are quite memorable.

Verdict: Tracy and Lamarr make a better team than you might imagine. **3/4. 

CHARADE (1954)

Pamela Mason and James Mason 

CHARADE (1954). Director: Roy Kellino. Produced by James Mason.

Actor James Mason had founded a film company with the director Roy Kellino and his wife, Pamela, in the thirties, and did so again with the same principals in the fifties. In the interim Roy and Pamela got divorced and Pamela then married James Mason, with whom she'd had an affair, and Mason produced this trio of stories co-starring his wife -- with the cuckolded ex-husband doing the directorial duties. Okay. The first story concerns a lonely lady artist whose neighbor, another woman, is strangled one night. The artist does a sketch of the man she sees coming out of the murdered woman's apartment. She sees the man (Mason) again when he moves into the now empty apartment, and the artist and the stranger become friends. The artist becomes mesmerized by the stranger and is not at all horrified by the fact that he's also a strangler. This can't lead into anything good and of course it doesn't. The premise is interesting but the people are too unpleasant to fully engage us, and as a story of erotic obsession it's too tepid. The second story, "Duel at Dawn," (from Dumas) concerns a Major Linden (Mason) who is engaged to the Baroness Tanslan (Pamela Mason of The Navy vs the Night Monsters). Captain Stamm (Scott Forbes, who appeared on Zane Grey Theater with Joan Crawford), whose proposal of marriage to the baroness had been rejected, so insults the major that the latter challenges him to a duel -- although the terms set by the captain are outrageous. This is the best of the three stories and is suspenseful and intriguing in equal measure. The last story, apparently scripted by the starring couple, is a dull mess about a wealthy man in New York who quits it all to become a butler back in England, where he meets the maid Lily, marries her, and winds up back in his office in New York. Meant to be funny, this segment is merely tedious. The Masons would have been better off if they had done a full-length version of "Duel at Dawn," which is terrific. James and Pamela are both excellent actors, and Mason is especially good as the major. Forbes, Paul Canavagh as Colonel Heisler. Bruce Lester as Captain van Buren, Sean McClory [Valley of the Dragons] as Jack Stuydevant, the wealthy man's friend in episode three, all give excellent support, as does the uncredited actor who plays Mason's employer in the final story. Pamela and James appear as themselves at the opening and ending and in introductions to each segment. They divorced ten years later.

Verdict: This vanity production is one third all right. **3/4.

CLUB HAVANA

"Isabelita" (Lita Baron) does her stuff

CLUB HAVANA (1945). Director: Edgar G. Ulmer.

"You know darling, even when I hate you the most I still love you."

In a fashionable Latin-themed nightclub that could be anyplace, several people converge. Newly divorced Rosalind (Margaret Lindsay) discovers that her lover, Johnny (Don Douglas), no longer wants her. Piano player Jimmy (Eric Sinclair) realizes that he can smash the alibi of mobster and accused murderer, Joe Reed (Marc Lawrence) and calls the police, causing consternation for his girlfriend, the entertainer Isabelita (Lita Baron). Wealthy old Mrs. Cavendish (Renie Riano) proposes marriage to borderline gigolo, Rogers (Paul Cavanagh), who obviously needs an income. A middle-aged separated couple decide whether or not to reconcile, and an intern (Tom Neal) goes on his first date with the nervous Lucy (Dorothy Morris). Myrtle (Sonia Sorel), the switchboard operator, tells Joe Reed what Jimmy has done, leading to a dramatic climax. Hovering over everything are the host, Charles (Pedro de Cordoba) and the ladies room attendant, Hetty (Gertrude Michael). Club Havana is a snappy and entertaining picture with music that could have benefited from another twenty or thirty minutes of character development and background. Using the same name as her character, Isabelita (which she also used for other pictures), Lita Baron [Jungle Jim] sings s nifty version of "Besame Mucho." The picture is smoothly directed by Ulmer and quite fast-paced. The performances are all good, with Michael [Flamingo Road] and an emotional Lindsay [Dangerous] taking top honors.

Verdict: Fun movie with nice music and some very good sequences. ***.

TARZAN AND HIS MATE

Cheeta gives Tarzan a kiss

TARZAN AND HIS MATE (1934). Director: Cedric Gibbons.

In  this first sequel to Tarzan the Ape Man, Harry Holt (Neil Hamilton), who is still in love with Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) returns to Africa to try to get her back, as well as to get some ivory. His slimy friend, Martin (Paul Cavanagh), is broke and after ivory as well, and has no moral values whatsoever. Harry wants Jane to importune Tarzan (Johnny Weissmuller) to take the men to the elephants' graveyard -- which Holt was trying to find in Tarzan the Ape Man - but Tarzan won't allow the place to be desecrated -- besides, Jane's father is also buried there. Then there is an angry tribe of nasty natives who go after the party and kill many of their number after first murdering two rival ivory hunters, whose corpses are left to rot, hanging from trees and covered with crawling insects. Tarzan and His Mate is essentially a retread of the first, more interesting picture, but it is also intense and violent, and has several good scenes: Tarzan battling a truly humongous crocodile; Jane taking a sensual nude swim with Tarzan (in his loincloth); and a climactic attack by a pride of hungry lions. The original Cheeta, who appears almost man-sized, dies in the film and is replaced by a new, smaller Cheeta, who at one point, in the movie's funniest scene, rides on the back of an ostrich! Considering some of his actions, Martin's death isn't nearly horrible enough. The performances are adequate, with Cavanagh [Son of Dr. Jekyll] having the edge. Cedric Gibbons was originally an Oscar-winning art director [Mad Love] and reportedly Jack Conway and others worked on this film uncredited. Gibbons only directed this one film.

Verdict: For heaven's sake -- stay away from the elephant's graveyard. Nothing good ever comes of it! **1/2.

SHADOWS ON THE STAIRS

Frieda Inescort and Mary Field have a heated confrontation

SHADOWS ON THE STAIRS (1941). Director: D. Ross Lederman.

In a boarding house run by a retired actress, Stella Armitage (Frieda Inescort) and her husband, Tom (Miles Mander), odd things are going on which seem to concern the Indian student Ram Singh (Turban Bey) and import-exporter Joseph Reynolds (Paul Cavanagh). Joseph is beloved by Stella, even as he is fooling around with the maid, Lucy (Phyllis Barry of Cynara). When a dead body turns up, the suspects are numerous, including all of the above-named, as well as spinster Miss Snell (Mary Field of Sea Raiders), writer Hugh Bromilow (Bruce Lester), and Stella's daughter, Sylvia (Heather Angel), who is involved with Hugh. Then a second dead body is discovered in a closet, and things really get heated, with accusations flying ... This is a suspenseful and intriguing mystery, although the "twist" at the end may either seem clever to viewers or make them groan. In any case, it's a good, well-acted mystery, with Inescort [Foxfire] really turning in an excellent performance as an understandably emotional woman. Another cast stand-out is Lumsden Hare as the inspector on the case, but everyone is really quite good.

Verdict: Short and snappy little "B" mystery. ***.

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 CASE OF THE BLACK PARROT

Eddie Foy Jr., William Lundigan and Maris Wrixon

THE CASE OF THE BLACK PARROT (1941). Director: Noel M. Smith.

Jim Moore (William Lundigan of Riders to the Stars) is a reporter who works with a photographer named "Tripod" (Eddie Foy Jr.) and has a girlfriend named Sandy (Maris Wrixon). Sandy's Uncle Paul (Charles Waldron) has returned from Europe with an antique cabinet that seems to have a lot of secrets surrounding it. For one thing, it has hidden drawers containing all sorts of surprises, and for another, anyone who touches the thing drops dead right afterward, with what appears to be a strange bite mark on their hands. Then there's the master criminal, the Black Parrot, suspected of stealing the Mona Lisa and substituting a fake -- like a parrot, he imitates, get it? Now he seems to be after this cabinet, which itself may be only a copy. Others involved in this intrigue include Max Armand (Paul Cavanagh of Son of Dr. Jekyll); Madame de Charrier (Luli Deste); an anxious lady named Julia (Phyllis Barry); and of course Rogers the butler (Cyril Thornton). Inspector Grady (Joseph Crehan) tries to solve the case, but he's not quick enough for Moore. This is a pleasant enough but unremarkable programmer with little to recommend it, although the cast has some appeal, and there are a couple of mildly clever touches. Barry, who gave a fine performance nine years earlier in Cynara with Ronald Colman, is utterly wasted in this, and the oddly-named Wrixon makes a somewhat odd leading lady by Hollywood standards.

Verdict: At least it's only about an hour long. **.

MADAME BOVARY (1949)

Emma (Jones) wants a more exciting life and husband (Heflin)

MADAME BOVARY (1949). Director: Vincente Minelli.

"A man can change his life if he wants to ..."

Published in France in 1857, Gustave Flaubert's brilliant novel "Madame Bovary" was  accused of being an "outrage against public morals" and the author put on trial (and acquitted). This film version of the book begins with James Mason as Flaubert in the courtroom, explaining his creation, and then proceeding to [unnecessarily] narrate the early sequences of the movie. Farm girl Emma (Jennifer Jones) meets and falls in love -- or so she thinks -- with a simple, unambitious country doctor named Bovary (Van Heflin). But her day to day life is tedious and lacks color, and she realizes she is living with the wrong man, kind but dull. Her need for passion and excitement is even more energized when the couple are invited to a ball at the home of the Marquis D'Andervilliers (Paul Cavanagh) and she sees how wealthy people live and realizes how many men find her attractive. Guilt-wracked and initially resistant, she is drawn into affairs with Rodolphe Boulanger (Louis Jourdan), who shatters her, and later a young lawyer named Leon (Christopher Kent, who later became the director, Alf Kjellin). Meanwhile her taste for the finer things in life means that her debts are adding up alarmingly, but it may be her husband who has to pay the piper. Emma isn't evil, but her dissatisfaction with her life with Bovary makes her susceptible to, shall we say, outside stimuli. Madame Bovary is pretty faithful to the novel, despite a couple of changes. In the book Dr. Bovary is pressured to operate on the clubfooted Hippolyte (Harry Morgan, herein known as Henry) with almost tragic results, while in the film he wisely realizes that he hasn't the skill of a surgeon, making him somewhat more sympathetic. The more licentious scenes of the novel, such as Emma and Leon driving all around town in a carriage obviously having sex in the back behind lowered blinds, have been jettisoned. Although Madame Bovary could have been better cast -- Heflin never comes off as that dull or unattractive and Jones isn't the perfect Emma, although Jourdan is fine -- the actors are still quite good, including those of the large supporting cast, which includes George Zucco as Leon's boss; Gladys Cooper as his mother; Ellen Corby as the maid, Felicite; Mason as Flaubert; and especially Frank Allenby as the slimy salesman, Lhereux. The film is well directed by Minelli and has a nice score by Miklos Rozsa. Kjellin/Kent later appeared in Ice Station Zebra and directed the telefilm Deadly Dream.

Verdict: Certainly not the masterpiece that the novel is, but on it's own terms vivid and entertaining, with Jones in very good form. ***.

THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET

THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET (1945). Director: Ralph Murphy.

Dr. Julian Karell (Nils Asther), doctor and painter, has fallen in love with Eve Brandon (Helen Walker), but he has a big secret. He may look like a man in his thirties, but with the help of colleague Dr. van Bruecken (Reinhold Schunzel) and via the transplanting of glands, he has managed to extend his life for decades and is actually quite elderly. Eve's father (Edmund Breon) and his associate Dr. Latimer (Paul Cavanagh) distrust Karell, and prompt Scotland Yard into doing an investigation. Could Karell be the same man who committed murder decades in the past? Morton Lowry is a medical student that Karell tries to use in his experiments. The Man in Half Moon Street has an intriguing premise, but it's a bit slow, only picking up in the final quarter, but leaving the audience with more questions than answers. Asther and Walker are excellent and the climactic scenes are well done. This was remade as the superior The Man Who Could Cheat Death. Walker was also in Nightmare Alley and Impact.

Verdict: Fairly interesting lost horror. **1/2.

THE WOMAN IN GREEN

THE WOMAN IN GREEN (1945). Director: Roy William Neill. 

"By the way, you may have noticed all through time that prominent men have prominent noses." 

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) is called in when Scotland Yard is stymied by a series of "finger murders," in which young woman are killed and then have one of their fingers removed and taken away. Today we would think a serial killer is at work, carrying off "trophies," but there's a more fiendish motive to the murders which Holmes, of course, uncovers. This is an entertaining modern-dress Holmes outing, but it's less atmospheric than others in the series. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Watson are excellent, but Hillary Brooke makes a comparatively colorless villainess. Henry Daniell is a fine actor, but his portrayal of Moriarty doesn't compare to that of Lionel Atwill or George Zucco. Paul Cavanagh is as solid as ever as Sir George Fenwick, who comes afoul of the villains. Tense climax on a roof top and many amusing sequences. Brooke appeared on My Little Margie for several years. 

Verdict: Watson to the rescue! ***

THE HOUSE OF FEAR

THE HOUSE OF FEAR (1945). Director: Roy William Neill.

"No man goes whole to his grave."

Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) is called in when members of a club in Scotland called the Good Comrades are being murdered off one by one. The bodies are always found in a deplorable condition as the victims are crushed or burned and so on. Loosely based on Doyle's story The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips -- which was about the revenge of the Ku Klux Klan -- this is basically an original screenplay which is bizarre and intriguing [even if today it might not hold up forensically]. Paul Cavanagh may not have appeared in every Sherlock Holmes movie, but it certainly seems as if he did -- in this he's Dr. Simon Merrivale, who may have gotten away with murdering his wife. Sally Shepherd is creepy as the cook and housekeeper Mrs. Monteith. Rathbone and Bruce are as wonderful as ever.

Verdict: Eerie and quite entertaining. ***.

THE SCARLET CLAW

THE SCARLET CLAW (1944). Director: Roy William Neill. 

"For the first time we've been retained by a corpse." 

After learning of the murder of Lord Penrose's (Paul Cavanagh) wife, supposedly at supernatural hands, Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) receives a note from the very same woman telling him of her fears and apprehensions. Holmes and Watson then head to the small Canadian village of Le Morte Rouge [The Red Death] to investigate the series of mysterious deaths that have occurred there, including that of Lady Penrose. Creepy and suspenseful, with those great Universal sets and that certain atmosphere, The Scarlet Claw emerges as one of the best of the "modern-dress" Holmes films. This was not based on any of Doyle's original stories. Rathbone and Nigel Bruce are as wonderful as ever, as is the ever-reliable Cavanagh, and there's fine support from Gerald Hamer, Miles Mander, Kay Harding, Ian Wolfe and Arthur Hohl. Very well-directed by Neill. Watson makes an interesting reference to a famous "Father Brown" story by Chesterton. 

Verdict: Spellbinding. ***1/2.

WITHIN THE LAW

WITHIN THE LAW (1939). Director: Gustav Machaty.

This is a remake of Paid, which really put Joan Crawford on the map. In this version Ruth Hussey acquits herself nicely in the same role, Mary Turner, who's wrongly convicted of stealing jewelry from her employer, Gilder (Samuel S. Hinds), and winds up the big house for three years. She vows to get even with Gilder when she gets out. Studying law books she realizes that there's a way to earn quick cash unethically while still staying "within the law." As part of her revenge scheme, she romances Gilder's son Richard (Tom Neal of Detour fame). This is a snappy, entertaining picture with a good cast: Paul Kelly, Paul Cavanagh, James Burke, and Rita Johnson are among the thieves Mary falls in with; William Gargan is the cop who's out to get them.

Verdict: Not a lost classic from 1939 but creditable enough. ***.

THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE

THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE (1959). Director: Edward L. Cahn. 

This gleefully and surprisingly gruesome old movie is a melange of boiled heads, sandals made of human skin, fingertips that have skulls branded on them, ancient Jivaro Indian curses, and 200 year-old men whose blood is mixed with the poison curare. Ever since an ancestor wiped out a tribe of Jivaro Indians after they beheaded an associate (the witch doctor escaped, however) the men in the Drake family have been dropping dead around their 60th birthday. Although their deaths are attributed to heart failure, their heads are always missing when they go into the family crypt. Jonathan Drake (Eduard Franz) is the last surviving male member of the family, and his daughter Alison (Valerie French) and policeman Jeff Rowan (Grant Richards) try to find out what's going on, as does the family doctor, Bradford (Howard Wendell). Meanwhile Dr. Emil Zurich (an absolutely splendid Henry Daniell), a family friend, offers tea and sympathy -- and more? You might wonder why the curse lets its victims live 60 long years instead of killing the men off in their twenties. Orville H. Hampton, who wrote the screenplay, also did the script for Atomic Submarine and many others. French co-starred with Glenn Ford in Jubal and with Gene Barry in The 27th Day. She also had a smaller role in The Garment Jungle. Paul Cavanagh appears briefly as Drake's brother. The effectively blaring score is by Paul Dunlap. 

Verdict: Heads you'll like it. ***.

THE VERDICT (1946)

THE VERDICT (1946). Director: Don Siegel. 

Scotland Yard superintendent George Grodman (Sydney Greenstreet) loses his job to a rival, Buckley (George Coulouris), when it is discovered that a man he sent to the gallows for a murder was actually innocent. Then another murder occurs in the same family as before, and Buckley sets out to find the killer as Grodman does what he can to help him. Peter Lorre is cast as Victor Emmric, an artist friend of Grodman's, and Paul Cavanagh is Russell, who becomes a major suspect in the second murder. Rosalind Ivan is the hysterical landlady, and Joan Lorring is Lottie, a nightclub singer who was involved with the dead man. The picture at first seems to go in many different directions, but it eventually builds up quite a bit of suspense as to the identity of the murderer. The acting all around is excellent, although at times it may seem as if that wonderful team of Greenstreet and Lorre are just going through the motions (although it may just be some consummate underplaying). Terrific ending, and the film is fascinating on many different levels. Very well-directed for maximum tension by Donald Siegel, who also directed the science fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This was his third directorial assignment. Lorring also appeared with Lorre and Greenstreet in Three Strangers. 

Verdict: Greenstreet and Lorre are always fun! ***1/2.

TRANSGRESSION

TRANSGRESSION (1931). Director: Herbert Brenon.

"It is not wise to leave a beautiful young woman alone in Paris too long."

 You can say that again. Robert Maury, (Paul Cavanagh) sends his wife Elsie (Kay Francis) to Paris for a year while he's seeing to some tedious stuff in a rough environment abroad. Before long Elsie is being wined and dined by the handsome Spaniard Arturo (Ricardo Cortez, pictured), who maneuvers her into visiting him in Spain without an escort. Elsie decides to send her husband a letter asking for a divorce -- and well, things don't quite work out the way anyone hoped they would. Good performances by the three leads -- Cortez is especially memorable -- bolster this otherwise pedestrian romance/soap opera, which is nevertheless reasonably absorbing. The ending is just a touch pat. Nance O'Neil, who was rumored to be Lizzie Borden's lover, is vivid as a witchy relative of Robert's who hates his wife.

Verdict: Ricky and Kay make an interesting couple. **1/2.