ONE TOO MANY

Ruth Warrick contemplates her next drink

ONE TOO MANY (1950). Director: Erle C. Kenton.

Helen Mason (Ruth Warrick of Guest in the House) was once a well-known concert pianist who gave it up when she married reporter Bob (Richard Travis of The Man Who Came to Dinner) and had a daughter named Ginger (Ginger Prince). She has substituted booze for her career while Bob is what Dr. Phil would call an "enabler." Helen is convinced she is not an alcoholic and can get off the sauce without going to AA. But in this she is kidding herself. Helen and Bob find their lives spiraling out of control as Helen not only continues to drink but to drive drunk, endangering herself, her daughter, and everyone else on the road ... 

The Harmonaires pad out the running time

One Too Many probably has its heart in the right place although its polemical approach to the material is not as dramatic as intended. Much of the movie has Bob and others arguing that alcoholism is a disease that needs treatment and special hospital wings, dismissing the notion that all addicts are just weak-willed drunks of low character. Unfortunately these sequences turn the movie into a lecture that makes some good points but is not terribly entertaining. Strangely, the movie is padded with a long concert sequence at the end when the black group the Harmonaires do three numbers, and Warrick plays "The Minute Waltz" and a more contemporary number on the piano in a nightclub. 

An enabler? Richard Travis

Warrick gives a good performance in this although she's not the kind of riveting actress who can give an added bite to the picture a la Stanwyck or Crawford. Travis is, as usual, likable and pleasant and laid-back even when his world seems to be falling apart. William Tracy, who plays a photographer, is given a long, tedious sequence -- more padding -- as he waits outside the window in the maternity ward where his wife is having a baby. Ginger Prince is a talented child actress who can also sing and dance. Rhys Williams, Mary Young, Thurston Hall, and Victor Kilian are all good as Sully the bartender and his wife, newspaper publisher Simes, who hates drunks, and Emery, a mayoral candidate who gets caught in an inebriated state in a bar. Larry J. Blake is fine as Helen's old friend, bandleader Walt Williams. Erm Westmore appears briefly to give Warrick a makeover. Little did audiences of 1950 know that the scourge of drugs would almost replace alcoholism as a social ill. Erle C. Kenton also directed Why Men Leave Home, which also has Westmore and Prince in it and is even worse. From Hallmark. 

Verdict: A long commercial for AA -- a cocktail might help. **. 

THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING

Joan Collins as Evelyn Nesbit

THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING (1955). Director: Richard Fleischer. 

Young model Evelyn Nesbit (Joan Collins) is so attractive that she comes to the attention of many men, including famous New York architect Stanford White (Ray Milland), who is married, and Pittsburgh millionaire Harry Thaw (Farley Granger), who is not. Evelyn and Stanford fall in love but he refuses to leave his wife, and she has little interest in being a kept woman on the side. Stanford's attempts to turn her into a kind of daughter, sending her to finishing school, don't work out, but Evelyn finally marries the abusive and rather obnoxious Harry. Harry is still obsessed with her past relationship with Stanford, and his murderous actions will lead into the real-life "trial of the century."

Collins with Ray Milland

The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, for which Nesbit herself served as consultant, is a highly entertaining mix of truth, half-truths, fabrications and dramatic license. Although she claimed on the witness stand that she was drugged and raped by Stanford, this film suggests that she was perjuring herself upon the insistence of her mother-in-law. (How old she actually was when she and White had sex is debatable.) Despite situations that would blacken her character back in the day, the film generally treats her in a sympathetic manner; White as well. Collins and Granger give good if imperfect performances, but Milland comes off best. 

Farley Granger with Collins

There are some fine supporting performances in the film. Glenda Farrell, whom I didn't even recognize, as Mrs. Nesbit; Luthor Adler [House of Strangers] as Shaw's lawyer; Gale Robbins [Double Jeopardy] as Gwen Arden, Evelyn's friend and fellow entertainer; Frances Fuller as White's wife, Bessie; Cornelia Otis Skinner as Harry's mother; Richard Travis as Charles Dana Gibson; and others. The film is handsomely produced with a score by Leigh Harline and cinematography by Milton R. Krasner. The movie Ragtime also looks at the Stanford White murder, although in that movie Evelyn Nesbit is not only presented basically as a greedy dingbat but is almost a comic figure. Marilyn Monroe refused to do the film and it would have been interesting to see her take on Evelyn. Richard Fleischer also directed Fantastic Voyage and many others. 

Verdict: If taken with a grain of salt this is a slick, well-acted drama. ***1/4. 

MOTOR PATROL

Jane Nigh and Don Castle

MOTOR PATROL (1950). Director: Sam Newfield.

"Hope to see you again real soon." -- Happy, the morgue attendant.

Larry Collins (William Henry) is an officer with the traffic division of the LAPD. His sister, Jean (Gwen O'Connor), is engaged to a friend and fellow cop, Ken Foster (Don Castle of Roses are Red), who also wants to be on "motor patrol." When Larry is murdered by people involved in a hot car racket, Ken steps in to do undercover work, but seems somewhat ill-prepared. Connie Taylor (Jane Nigh of State Fair) is in love with Russ Garver (Charles Victor), who is the head man in the gang. Connie is secretary to George Miller (Frank Jaquet), a formerly honest car dealer who reluctantly works with the crooks. Motor Patrol is a routine, plodding, if professional low-budget cops and robbers production with little to distinguish it. Richard Travis [Missile to the Moon] and Onslow Stevens play, respectively, a police detective and lieutenant. Sid Melton is less obnoxious than usual as the manager of a coffee shop where some of the "action" takes place.

Verdict: Few if any thrills in this. *1/2.

SKY LINER

Would you want this shifty guy (Greg McClure) on an airliner?

SKY LINER (1949). Director: William Berke.

A diverse group of people are flying to San Francisco on TWA. Few of them realize that George Eakins (John McGuire of Sea Raiders) of the State Department has been murdered and been replaced by a man known only as Smith (Steve Pendleton). Smith, who is hoping to sell important papers on the flight, is accompanied by Eakin's secretary, Amy (Rochelle Hudson of Meet Boston Blackie). Steven Geray [The Unfaithful] plays Bokejian, a representative of a foreign power who is anxious to buy those government secrets. An added complication is the presence on the flight of one J. S. Konigsby (Greg McClure), who is a dangerous jewel thief. But when one of those characters is murdered, Federal agent Steve Blair (Richard Travis) teams up with intrepid stewardess Carol (Pamela Blake) to ferret out the murderer and keep the passengers under control. Sky Liner is not quite as interesting as it sounds, but it's a mildly entertaining programmer with a generally competent cast. William F. Leicester is the pilot, Captain Fairchild; George Meeker is a financier; and Jack Mulhall is Colonel Hanson.

Verdict: There have been worse ... **1/2.

ROARING CITY

Hugh Beaumont and Richard Travis

ROARING CITY (1951). Director: William Berke.

"You couldn't find an ingrown toenail if it was on your left foot." -- O'Brien to Bruger.

Hugh Beaumont had played private eye Michael Shayne in several films when he was cast in another, briefer series playing another tough P.I., Dennis O'Brien; Roaring City is the second of the three films. O'Brien is hired by a manager to place bets against his own boxer, who doesn't take a dive as expected and winds up murdered. Suspected of the crime, O'Brien convinces Inspector Bruger (Richard Travis) of the San Francisco police department that someone else is the guilty party. In the second of two stories, Irma Rand (Joan Valerie of Charlie Chan at the Wax Museum) hires O'Brien to pretend to be the husband of a friend, Sylvia (Wanda McKay), whose hood boyfriend, Rafferty (Anthony Warde) is back in town and looking for trouble. In both cases, O'Brien winds up in dutch because his clients are as shifty as any bad guys, and O'Brien seemingly won't say no when there's money concerned. Roaring City comes off like two TV episodes spliced together. The acting is sufficient, with Warde [The Masked Marvel] especially vivid as the nasty Rafferty. Edward Brophy [Romance on the Run] also makes the most of his role as O'Brien's pal and assistant, the professor. There's too much narration. From Lippert pictures.

Verdict: Watchable, but ultimately quite dull. **.

BIG TOWN AFTER DARK

Hillary Brooke and Philip Reed

BIG TOWN AFTER DARK (1947). Director: William C. Thomas.

This is the second of two 1947 films based on the radio show Big Town -- the first film was also called Big Town -- and it was followed by a TV series of the same name in the fifties, and even a comic book. Steve Wilson (Phillip Reed) is the managing editor of the Illustrated Press of a city known as Big Town. When his crime reporter, Lorelei (Hillary Brooke), decides to quit to write more novels, he immediately hires the publisher's niece, Susan (Ann Gillis) to take her place. But is she also taking Lorelei's place in his affections? When Steve and Susan go to a gambling den run by Chuck LaRue (Richard Travis), Steve gets into an altercation with employees and he fears that Susan has been kidnapped. Her uncle winds up being forced to invest in the gambling racket, but Steve has a trick or two up his sleeve and manages to uncover the full truth behind the story. Reed [Weekend for Three] and Brooke [Strange Impersonation] are professional if uninteresting, Gillis is fairly vivid, and the big surprise is that Richard Travis (Missile to the Moon) walks off with the picture with his zesty portrayal of LaRue -- the actor should have played more nasty bad guys in his career. The climax is suspenseful and while the movie is quite minor it is watchable.

Verdict: Radio with faces. **1/2.

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1942). Director: William Keighley.

Why are you standing there like the kiss of death?"

The irascible man of letters Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) breaks his hip while attempting to enter a home for a dinner engagement in Mesalia, Ohio, settles into the library, and stays for weeks, interfering in everybody's lives. This is my second favorite comedy of all time (after A Night at the Opera). Each time I see the picture I realize that there's a quip or joke that got past me on previous viewings. This is a wonderful film version of the Kaufman and Hart play, with superior performances by everyone involved. Woolley makes the most of his acerbic part, and is also completely convincing during his occasional forays into sentimentality. While Bette Davis is a bit mannered, she never over-shadows Woolley (which probably wouldn't have been an easy feat even for her). Ann Sheridan really scores and is very funny as the affected movie star Lorraine Sheldon. Jimmy Durante is great just playing himself, more or less. [He refers to Sheldon as the "umphh" girl; Sheridan was known as the "oomph girl." For one of her dramatic turns, see Nora Prentiss.] George Barbier makes the most of his role as the somewhat vague Dr. Bradley, who's written a lengthy memoir of his life as a doctor. And let's not forget the great Mary Wickes as Miss Preen, the poor put-upon nurse hired to look after Whiteside. Grant Mitchell has perhaps the defining role of his career as Whiteside's unwilling and horrified host Mr. Stanley. [There's also nice work by Reginald Gardner, Billie Burke, and others.] Richard Travis may not have been much of an actor but he has a certain naive quality that fits his character, although one can't imagine "Bert Jefferson" having the intelligence to write a great play "perfect for Cornell." [Travis later wound up in stuff like Missile to the Moon.] One could argue that the whole "Lizzie Bordon" business at the end is a bit tasteless, even cruel, if you take it too seriously. Otherwise this is a consistently entertaining and highly amusing motion picture.

Verdict: A Great Old Movie indeed. ****.

BLONDE BAIT

BLONDE BAIT (1956). Directors: Elmo Williams; Herbert Glazer.

British women's prison drama Women Without Men with added American-shot scenes filmed with star Beverly Michaels and new players Richard Travis and Jim Davis (both of whom were former leading men of Bette Davis, Travis in The Man Who Came to Dinner and Davis in Winter Meeting). Michaels is a vivid performer with an overbite and a statuesque body. Wrongly imprisoned, she has to break out to keep a New Years' Eve date with the man she loves, and she goes to much trouble and effort to get there, with interesting results. In the new sequences the break-out is engineered by authorities who want to trap Michael's lover, a criminal played by Jim Davis. Good performances help put this one over, but the original was probably better and more ironic.

Verdict: Not bad time waster. **1/2.

SPY TRAIN

SPY TRAIN (1943). Director: Harold Young. 

In an attempt to blow up a case containing papers that can expose them, a German spy gang winds up inadvertently planting a time bomb on a train. This sounds exciting, and it might have been with some decent direction and a lively script, but this dull programmer has virtually nothing going for it, aside from a few seconds of minor suspense practically at the very end. Richard Travis, who had starred with Bette Davis in The Man Who Came to Dinner two years previously, demonstrates some charm in this, and Chick Chandler is his usual bouncy self as his buddy. Catherine Craig is the unexceptional heroine of the piece. Travis also starred in Missile to the Moon, which is a lot more fun, and Chick Chandler was in The Lost Continent (1951); ditto. 

Verdict: Pretty much the waste of an hour. *.

MISSILE TO THE MOON

MISSILE TO THE MOON (1959). Director: Richard Cunha. 

Missile to the Moon is one of a series of astronauts-encounter-beautiful-women-on-a-sinister-planet films of the fifties, which include Queen of Outer Space, Fire Maidens of Outer Space, and Cat-Women of the Moon (of which Missile is a loose remake). None of these would be considered great movies, but they are fun to watch if taken in the right spirit. For one thing, many critics over the years seem to have ignored the fact that these films – certainly Missile to the Moon – were made for juvenile audiences. Some critics, such as Bill Warren in his entertaining “Keep Watching the Skies!,” rant about the ineptitudes of the film and its dumb science, which seems besides the point when you consider that it is clearly a fantasy “comic book” movie geared for children. Missile is actually entertaining in its own dopey way, far more so than its model Cat-Women of the Moon. We have a collection of gorgeous women trapped in an oxygen-rich cavern inside the moon; a giant spider “dark monster” that eats sacrifices; rock monsters that blend in with cliff walls and then pull away to clunk after their victims; a cat-fight between the heroine and the moon bitch who has her eye on the hero; and the enormous bosom of said bitch Nina Bara, who stabs her leader (or “Lido”) in the back so that she can be ruler of the dying (all the men are gone) little moon community. Years before he made this film Richard Travis co-starred with Bette Davis in The Man Who Came to Dinner; his career went on a downslide that never quit (at least Jim Davis, who had been with Bette in Winter Meeting, eventually wound up on TV's Dallas). In Missile Travis plays a scientist who inadvertently goes along with his girlfriend (Cathy Downs), their colleague who built the rocketship, and two escaped convicts on a trip to the moon. Tommy Cook is fairly vivid as the nasty little Gary, and Gary Clarke is competent as his fellow jailbird, Lon. Laurie Mitchell, who played the Queen of Outer Space, has a small role in this and gets eaten by the unconvincing, wiggly prop spider and Marjorie Hellen, another one of the moon gals, betrays some sensitive acting skills that are generally unappreciated in movies like this. (Later she changed her name and became better known as Leslie Parrish.) Nina Bara chews up the scenery (some might say she acts with her breasts) but she's undeniably vital if not downright operatic. Travis merely proves that he really wasn't much of an actor. Several alleged beauty contest winners were chosen to fill out the cast but they are merely decorative; not one of them gets to say a line. Cathy Downs gets the best dialogue: Looking around at the gorgeous moon women, she says “ If I'd known there was going to be this kind of competition I'd have undressed for the occasion.” {DVD available from Image Entertainment. Includes some interesting publicity and backstage shots in a photo gallery extra.} 

Verdict: Entertaining nonsense. **1/2.