ANN SHERIDAN: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF HOLLYWOOD'S OOMPH GIRL

ANN SHERIDAN: THE LIFE AND CAREER OF HOLLYWOOD'S OOMPH GIRL. Michael D. Rinella. McFarland; 2024. 

Never quite in the front rank along with Davis and Crawford, Ann Sheridan nevertheless had a very successful career and proved herself a snappy and adept actress in both comedies (The Man Who Came to Dinner) and dramas (Nora Prentiss). Sheridan was a beauty contest winner who came to Hollywood and beat the odds by actually getting a long-time career out of it. For a long time she had minor roles in minor films until the studio came up with the idea of billing her as the "Oomph Girl," with "oomph" replacing "It" as a combination of sex appeal and dynamic presence. Sheridan grew to hate the appellation and feared people would assume she wasn't a real actress. Sheridan married three actors -- Edward Norris, George Brent, and Scott McKay -- only the third seemed to work (until her death). She was not above being a homewrecker on more than one occasion, however. When her film career began to dry up, she turned to television and starred in a western sitcom called Pistols 'n' Petticoats, which was fairly successful  -- but Sheridan died of cancer during its run. Some of her more memorable films include The Unfaithful and George Washington Slept Here, which illustrate her abilities as both a dramatic thespian and comedienne. 

Verdict: A workmanlike career study of a most interesting performer. ***. 

GUEST IN THE HOUSE

Ruth Warrick and Anne Baxter

GUEST IN THE HOUSE (1944). Director: John Brahm.

Dr. Dan Butler (Scott McKay) brings his girlfriend and patient Evelyn (Anne Baxter) to his family home for a rest cure, and she manages to bring simmering tensions to the surface. Others in the household include Dan's artist brother Douglas (Ralph Bellamy), his wife Ann (Ruth Warrick), their Aunt Martha (Aline McMahon), their little girl Lee (Connie Laird), the peppery maid Hilda (Margaret Hamilton) and her husband John (Percy Kilbride), as well as Miriam (Marie McDonald), who is Douglas' model and who some suspect is carrying on with the painter. Evelyn sets her cap on Douglas but although she's blamed for the events that transpire they seem precipitated more by the others' suspicions than by her manipulations. The cast makes the movie more interesting than it might have been otherwise, but Leave Her to Heaven the following year made much more of the theme of an emotionally disturbed, selfish woman causing havoc in a household. Baxter gives a typically vivid and appropriate performance, while the others are all on target as well, and there's a pleasant score by Werner Janssen, but this is a half-baked melodrama and little else. Well-directed by Brahm, who also directed The Undying Monster, The Mad Magician, Hangover Square, The Locket, and many episodes of such shows as Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Verdict: At least it isn't predictable. **1/2.