LET'S LIVE A LITTLE

Hedy Lamarr

LET'S LIVE A LITTLE (1948). Director: Richard Wallace.

Advertising man Duke Crawford (Robert Cummings) is fed up with women after dealing with his ex-fiancee Michelle Bennett (Anna Sten), a cosmetics queen. Michelle insists upon acting as if the two were still engaged, and Duke desperately needs her to sign a contract. Hoping for a male client, Duke decides to do publicity for a shrink who's written a book, but Dr. J. O. Loring (Hedy Lamarr) turns out to be a woman -- and what a woman! Finding Duke nervous and excitable, Dr. Loring takes him on as a patient, which does not sit well with her boyfriend, Dr. Field (Robert Shayne). Which woman will Duke ultimately wind up with?

Anna Sten and Hedy Lamarr

If Let's Live a Little works at all it is strictly because of the actors, all of whom give very good performances, but they are certainly let down by a script that strains to be funny. The screenwriter even resorts to using a variation of an old Marx Brothers line, with Duke telling Michelle "If I held you any tighter I'd be in back of you." A scene when the two rivals for Duke's affections sit at the same nightclub table could have been witty and scintillating, but falls flat instead. Most of the very few amusing moments in the picture are provided by Cummings, who is at home in this kind of material, whereas he was always miscast in dramas and suspense films. Lamarr is adept, and along with Sten and Shayne there are nice turns by Mary Treen [Swing Parade of 1946] as Duke's secretary and Norma Varden [Witness for the Prosecution] as Loring's nurse. Ernest Laszlo insures that gorgeous Lamarr looks luminescent throughout. Richard Wallace also directed Kiss and Tell.

Verdict: The actors try mightily to put this over but the material just isn't there. *1/2. 

A KISS FOR CORLISS

Tom Tully, Shirley Temple and Gloria Holden

A KISS FOR CORLISS (aka Almost a Bride/1949). Director: Richard Wallace.

In this sequel to Kiss and Tell, Corliss Archer (Shirley Temple) gets in more hot water when her father, Harry (Tom Tully), represents the wife of a much-married man in a divorce action. Kenneth Marquis (David Niven), the husband in the case, hates Harry Archer and begins playfully courting his daughter for spite. Meanwhile Corliss writes fake stories about her involvement with Kenneth in her diary in order to make boyfriend Dexter (Darryl Hickman) jealous, resulting in the engagement of Kenneth and Corliss hitting the papers and Harry having conniption fits!.A Kiss for Corliss has an amusing script, but the problem is in the casting. Temple is fine as Corliss, but I can think of a dozen actors who could do more with the part and be a lot funnier than Tully (who played the role of a neighbor in the earlier film). Gloria Holden as Corliss' mother is most famous for playing the lead in Dracula's Daughter, but again she's hardly a skilled comedienne. Niven's role is completely one-dimensional but he displays his customary charm. Hickman, also cast in another role in the earlier film, takes over from Jerome Courtland as Dexter, and Kathryn Card returns as the Archer housekeeper, as does Virginia Welles as Corliss' friend, Mildred Pringle -- all are fine. Oddly, Mildred got married to Corliss' brother in Kiss and Tell, but seems to be single -- with no husband or brother in sight -- in the sequel. Robert Ellis [Space Master X-7] is fun as the nasty little teen Raymond Pringle; later he played Dexter in the 1954 TV series Meet Corliss Archer. This was Shirley Temple's last film, retiring from movies at the ripe old age of 21.

Verdict: Goodbye Shirley! **1/2. .

KISS AND TELL

Shirley Temple and Jerome Courtland

KISS AND TELL (1945). Director: Richard Wallace. Screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert from his play.

"I think it's all very dumb."

Teenager Corliss Archer (Shirley Temple of Miss Annie Rooney) is a fickle, rather spoiled young lady, but she knows how to keep her mouth shut -- at the wrong time. This is one of those movies when a whole lot of complications could be avoided simply by having the characters reveal the truth, which would certainly make things less of a mess than lying. Corliss' older brother, Lenny (Scott Elliot), has married her best friend, Mildred (Virginia Welles) but are keeping it secret, with the convoluted result that Corliss' parents think she is pregnant [not that that word is ever used!] by her sometime boyfriend, Dexter (Jerome Courtland of Sunny Side of the Street). Of course Corliss doesn't reveal the truth, even though the fact that Mildred is expecting would certainly jettison any plans her parents might have for having the marriage annulled, something that never occurs to the none-too-bright Corliss. if the movie has anything going for it it's the performances, which are swell, with a spirited Temple in the lead, and good back-up from Courtland, Welles, and young Darryl Hickman as Mildred's brother, Raymond, who thinks everything is "very dumb" (and is right in most cases). Walter Abel also scores as Corliss' often apoplectic father. The maid Louise is played by Kathryn Card, Lucy's mother on I Love Lucy. Followed by A Kiss for Corliss in which Hickman took over the role of Dexter. Wallace also directed The Fallen Sparrow and many others.

Verdict: If you can put up with people behaving like nitwits ... **1/2.

THE FALLEN SPARROW

John Garfield

THE FALLEN SPARROW (1943). Director: Richard Wallace.

John Garfield enters Alfred Hitchcock territory with mixed results in this story of John "Kit" McKittrick (Garfield), who escaped from a Spanish prison and has something [the "MacGuffin"] that Nazi agents are after. In New York he investigates the death of a close friend who fell or was pushed from an upper story window during a party. Kit gets embroiled with three women: Toni Donne (Maureen O'Hara); old girlfriend Barby (Patricia Morison); and young singer Whitney (Martha O'Driscoll), none of whom he can trust any more than the men he encounters. Then there's the mysterious limping man who was a torturer in the Spanish prison and is now skulking around New York [his identity comes as no great surprise]. Garfield, Morison and O'Hara are all fine, and Walter Slezak scores as a strange professor in a wheelchair. Nestor Paiva [Mr. Reckless] and Hugh Beaumont [Larceny in Her Heart] have small roles as well. The movie is only sporadically interesting and can hardly be considered one of Garfield's more interesting pictures. What this needs is Alfred Hitchcock and a stronger script.

Verdict: Watch Body and Soul instead. **1/2.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (1942)

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (1942). Director: Richard Wallace.

Writer Jeff Troy (Brian Aherne) and his wife, Nancy (Loretta Young), movie into an apartment at 13 Gay Street in Greenwich Village in a building that was once a speakeasy. Nancy hopes it will provide the right atmosphere for his new book, but they get more than they bargained for. Troy has an altercation with a guy at a nearby restaurant (presided over by Lee Patrick), and the fellow winds up dead as a doornail on their patio the next morning. Sidney Toler of Charlie Chan fame plays the detective assigned to the case. A very large turtle that Jeff knew as a boy wanders around the apartment. Gale Sondergaard, James Burke and Blanche Yurka are in the cast. There are some laughs, Aherne and Young are okay doing the "cutesy" bit, but the film is not that memorable.

Verdict: A bit too precious. **1/2.