BACK STREET (1941)

Charles Boyer and Margaret Sullavan

BACK STREET (1941). Director: Robert Stevenson.

"There's one half of Walter Saxel's life -- and here comes the other half." 

In old Cincinnati Ray Smith (Margaret Sullavan) meets a visitor named Walter Saxel (Charles Boyer), and the two fall madly in love. Unfortunately it turns out Walter already has a fiancee. In spite of this he determines to marry Ray, only fate conspires to keep them apart at the fateful moment. Years later the two meet in New York, and begin a life-long affair ... The best screen version of Fannie Hurst's famous novel transcends soap opera via its superior script, direction, and acting from the leads and indeed the entire cast. Ray Smith's tragedy is that she is clearly an independent-minded woman of strength and character who is undone by her love for a man who needs to keep up appearances and is somewhat selfish in his all-consuming need for her. Boyer doesn't always play up the vulnerability in his character -- Ray fell in love with more than a businessman, after all -- but he is still quite good, and Sullavan is, as ever, simply marvelous for the most part. Richard Carlson [White Cargo, Creature from the Black Lagoon], Frank McHugh, Esther Dale, and young Tim Holt all score in supporting roles. There is an excellent score by Frank Skinner. The book was filmed earlier in 1932, and much later in 1961.

Fannie Hurst's novel has a different, much grimmer ending than any of its film versions. In the 1932 and 1941 versions Ray simply expires a few days after the death of her lover. (The 1961 version has Susan Hayward bravely moving forward in relative splendor.) In both of these versions, as in the novel, Walter's oldest son Richard offers to take care of Ray with monthly stipends. In the novel, Richard is killed, and the stipends cut off. An aging Ray descends into poverty, and takes to gambling (and occasional prostitution) to survive. At the end of the novel she ironically and accidentally has a five hundred franc note thrown into her grasping hands by Walter's surviving younger son. She sees this, in a sense, as Walter still looking after her. When she's found dead of starvation in her room, she's still -- to the amazement of the landlord -- clutching the note ... 

Verdict: A romantic gem if ever there were one. ****.

ANNA LEE MEMOIR

ANNA LEE: MEMOIR OF A CAREER ON GENERAL HOSPITAL AND ON FILM, Anna Lee with Barbara Roisman Cooper. McFarland; 2007.

Although in her later years Anna Lee was best known for her work as the matriarch on the soap opera General Hospital, she had a long career in movies and on television. After the soap, many people recall her as the neighbor of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? But she also appeared in dozens of films, being the leading lady in many early productions, including Bitter Sweet, The Man Who Changed His Mind with Boris Karloff, King Solomon's Mines and others. As a supporting actress Lee had notable turns in several John Ford films (she was one of his favorites), including How Green Was My Valley and The Last Hurrah, as well as roles in such films as Summer Storm (with George Sanders, whom she disliked), the spy flick In Like Flint, and Sam Fuller's The Crimson Kimono. 

Lee writes in a flavorful style of her childhood in England, her early days in British pictures, her three marriages (to director Robert Stevenson; a sexy American captain she met during WW 2 while entertaining the troops; and the author Robert Nathan, when they were both in their dotage), and can be forgiven for frequent name-dropping as she met and/or knew such folk as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, screenwriter Charles Bennett, the ultra-ambitious Merle Oberon, the hateful Fritz Lang, General George S. Patton, and Alfred Hitchcock, who gave her away at her second wedding! In her final years, Lee was confined to a wheelchair but still managed to make it to each taping of General Hospital that required her appearance. She died in 2004.

Verdict: Despite Lee not being a major star, hers is a very interesting story. ***. 

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! **.

IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS / THE CHILDREN OF CAPTAIN GRANT

Maurice Chevalier and Hayley Mills

THE CHILDREN OF CAPTAIN GRANT/aka Les Enfants du capitaine Grant, 1867. Jules Verne.

 IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS (1962). Director: Robert Stevenson.

"No matter where you are in the world, it is always different but it is always the same."

The Novel:

Jules Verne wrote Les Enfants du capitaine Grant [The Children of Captain Grant aka In Search of the Castaways], a three part novel, just before writing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Although it never became as well known as other works by the French author, it is a masterpiece, beautifully written, continuously suspenseful, and full of colorful adventures and thrills. The two young children of the missing Captain Grant are convinced that he is still alive due to a message in a bottle, and set off on the Duncan with Lord and Lady Glenarvan, who are touched by their story, to find Grant. The French geographer Paganel guides them, first to South America, and then to Australia and New Zealand. Despite all the changes in setting and solid research, the novel never becomes a dull travelogue and pulls one along from start to finish. Although two of the main characters are children, this is not juvenile fiction; in fact scenes when the group are captured by cannibalistic Maoris are not only gruesome but quite revolting. Verne not only throws multiple twists and turns at the reader, but sometimes piles danger upon danger -- the group take refuge in a tree during a flood, which catches fire, but when they try to escape into the water, a group of hungry gators come by etc. All in all, an excellent read.

The Film:

Having had a great success with an adaptation of Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Walter Disney studios decided to try for another hit with Verne. 20th-Century Fox came out with Journey to the Center of the Earth and Columbia beat them to the punch with Mysterious Island (both a dreadful serial version in 1951 and an excellent feature film ten years later), so Disney turned to The Children of Captain Grant, probably attracted to its youthful protagonists and colorful storyline. Unfortunately, Disney also turned a rather brilliant adult novel (even if the emphasis is on harrowing action) into an unremarkable kiddie feature that hasn't stood the test of time at all well. The basic plot remains the same, but everything has sort of been dumbed down and anything remotely offensive to children or their parents excised, giving the whole thing a sanitized air. In the novel the characters often go through Hell but in the film it all seems like a jolly good time, even when they're careening down an icy mountain slope on a piece of cliff that has broken off during an earthquake (this scene is therefore deprived of true thrills). There is one marvelous bit of business in the movie, and that is when the flood overtakes them and they must seek refuge in an enormous tree in the middle of a formerly dry stretch of land (this, too, is taken from Verne). Although the FX in the film are variable and often outdated, in this sequence they are quite impressive. Once the story moves from South America to New Zealand, the film loses its tension (the only reference to cannibalism is a quick remark about a "stew pot").

Still, the movie is at least well-acted by Hayley Mills; little Keith Hamshere as her brother; Michael Anderson Jr,. as Glenarvan's son (not in the novel, if I recall correctly) and Mills' love interest; the ever charming Maurice Chevalier as Paganel; George Sanders as the villain of the piece (who was much more complicated and interesting in the book); Wilfrid Hyde-White as Glenarvan (his wife has been eliminated); and Wilfrid Brambell as the rather loony Bill Gaye (don't remember if he is in the book or not). Chevalier and Mills sing a couple of pleasant enough songs, including "Let's Climb." (At least the studio resisted bringing in, say, Fabian or Frankie Avalon to play a role and warble a ditty or two.)

A remake is in pre-production for 2014, so let's hope that this time they get it right. Verne and the novel deserve better. 

Verdict: The Children of Captain Grant. ****
             In Search of the Castaways **1/2.

THE SHAGGY D.A.

THE SHAGGY D.A. (1976). Director: Robert Stevenson.

In this sequel to The Shaggy Dog, Wilby Daniels -- the young man who turned into a sheepdog in the first film -- has grown up and is now played by Dean Jones. Running for office, he finds himself turning into a dog at very inopportune moments. Although Fred MacMurray is sorely missed, this has a great cast that includes Suzanne Pleshette, Keenan Wynn, Hans Conreid, Iris Adrian, and especially Tim Conway as an ice cream vendor whose dog is the one that switches places and brains with Wilby. This is a cute picture, if no world-beater, and the best sequence has a bunch of dogs in a pound who all talk with the voices of such famous actors as Peter Lorre, Mae West, Bogart, and Edward G. Robinson!

Verdict: If you liked the original you might get a minor kick out of this. **1/2.

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. **.

WALK SOFTLY STRANGER

WALK SOFTLY STRANGER (1950). Director: Robert Stevenson.

Chris Hale (Joseph Cotten) is a small time gambler and hood who enters into a relationship with crippled beauty Elaine Corelli (Alida Valli) in a small midwestern town. He becomes a surrogate son for his kindly landlady, Mrs. Brentman (Spring Byington), and holds up a casino with a buddy, Whitey Lake (Paul Stewart). This character study of redemption through love holds the attention and has interesting facets, but it doesn't quite work as either drama or thriller, and the romance between the two leads is never quite convincing. However the acting is, for the most part, quite good -- Byington and Stewart come off best, in fact -- and there's a suspenseful car ride sequence near the end. Adroitly directed by Stevenson, and with a pleasing score by Friedrich Hollaender. Although Valli is not Ingrid Bergman and isn't exactly passionate in her playing, her performance in this is decent and Cotton is as solid as ever. Future talk show host Jack Paar is pleasant as a co-worker of Cotten's. 

Verdict: At least it's different. **1/2.