HOME IN INDIANA

Lon McCallister and Jeanne Crain

HOME IN INDIANA (1944). Director: Henry Hathaway. 

"If you'd been a boy we'd have been the greatest pals!" 

Orphaned "Sparke" Thornton (Lon McCallister), who got into some unspecified trouble in the big city, comes to live on his aunt and uncle's farm in Indiana. His first impulse is to run out the back door but then he discovers there's a stables and track -- and two pretty girls -- next door. His Uncle "Thunder" Bolt (Walter Brennan) himself has only one old and blind filly left, but Sparke contrives to secretly mate this animal with the neighbor's prize stallion, resulting in a possibly champion racing horse. It isn't long before Sparke, with the help of Thunder, "Char" (Jeanne Crain) and the more glamorous "Cri-Cri" (June Haver) -- not to mention stable boy Mo' (Willie Best) and employee Tuppy (George Reed) -- is off to the races! 

Charlotte Greenwood with McCallister

The performances -- by those named as well as a wonderful Charlotte  Greenwood as Aunt Penny -- greatly help put over this somewhat entertaining but unriveting horse drama. It seems Lon McCallister was too often teamed up with horses (The Boy from Indiana) and mules (Scudda Hoo!, Scudda Hey!, which reteamed him with Haver and Brennan) as often as he was with the ladies. He's earnest and appealing in that "gosh oh golly" way of his. He, Haver and Crain, although all three had had bit parts in previous films, were "introduced" in this movie.  McCallister plays very well with both Crain and Haver, although his switching his affections from one to the other occurs rather abruptly and without any real explanation. The girls' fathers are played by Ward Bond and Charles Dingle. Remade as April Love with Pat Boone.

Verdict: Horse lovers will get more of a kick out of this. **1/2. 

SCUDDA HOO! SCUDDA HAY!

Walter Brennan, June Haver, Lon McCallister

SCUDDA HOO! SCHUDDA HAY!  (1948). Written and directed by F. Hugh Herbert. 

"Snug" (Lon McCallister) lives with his father, Milt (Henry Hull), termagant stepmother (Anne Revere), and nasty stepbrother, "Stretch" (Robert Karnes) on a farm. Fed up with his horrible wife, Milt goes back to sea while Snug goes to work for the dyspeptic farmer McGill (Tom Tully). McGill has two daughters: the adorable little "Bean" (Natalie Wood), and the older, curvaceous "Rad" (June Haver). Snug makes a deal with McGill for two mules that the farmer doesn't want, and with the help of old Tony (Walter Brennan), turns the mules into a team that will bring in good money. But McGill and Stretch cook up a nasty scheme to get the mules back -- or will they? 

Is that June -- or Marilyn?

I had heard of this oddly-tilted movie -- the title is actually a kind of mule call -- for decades, but never had that much desire to see it until I discovered the "adorable one" -- Marilyn Monroe -- was in the cast. Alas, her part was cut down so drastically that I couldn't even spot her until I checked again and saw her say hello to June Haver while coming out of church. And that's it! The poster tries to make the flick look as sexy and exciting as possible, and wouldn't you know that June Haver actually looks a lot like Marilyn Monroe in the ad! As for the film itself, it does have some good moments (the two step brothers have a rip-roaring fight; Rad tells off her father) and even a bit of suspense at the end as our hero sort of "bets the farm" on whether or not his mules can pull a tractor out of the mud, but other than that it gets a little tedious. As ever June Haver is bland, pretty, and professional, while Lon McCallister is a combination of charm and petulance. At times Snug hardly seems much nicer than Stretch. Brennan and the rest of the supporting cast are all terrific, and Natalie Wood nearly steals the movie in her very cute turn as the precocious and intelligent Bean. Geraldine Wall subdues her usual feistiness as McGill's wife but is good. Lee MacGregor has a nice scene when he comes to tell Rad that Snug's father died at sea. 

Lon McCallister was an appealing actor who was often cast in these kind of roles. He was the boyfriend of actor William Eythe, who co-starred with Tallulah Bankhead in A Royal Scandal. In this film you will learn that mules are a combination of horses and donkeys but are actually more intelligent than either -- yes, it's true!

Verdict: Way too much about mules! **1/4. 

THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

THE STORY OF VERNON AND IRENE CASTLE (1939). Director: H. C. Potter.

Encouraged to stop doing low comedy routines for Lew Fields (the real-life vaudevillian who plays himself, albeit years older), Vernon Castle (Fred Astaire) starts a dancing act with his new wife, Irene (Ginger Rogers). After a false start in Europe, they become a sensation dancing at the Cafe de Paris, and rapidly make their way back to New York City. They introduce many new dances, including the Foxtrot, sell various products under their names, while Irene unveils the new bob hair cut for women and influences clothing fashions as well. Then Vernon becomes a military flier in World War One. Training pilots back in the states, Vernon has a date with destiny ... Vernon and Irene is such a delightful and upbeat picture that the tragic ending almost seems out of place, were it not for the fact that it's part of history.  But for most of its length, this is a joyous film with top performances from the leads (as well as from Fields, Walter Brennan [Nobody Lives Forever] as their pal, Walter, and tart Edna May Oliver as the Castles' manager)  and some excellent singing and dancing. A particular highlight is the ballroom dancing the Castles do for their audition in Paris. A clever bit shows the couple going on tour in the United States by picturing a big map with dancing figures superimposed all over it. Still a top team, Astaire and Rogers did not make another film, The Barkleys of Broadway, for ten years.  In real life, Walter was actually African-American, and the lady manager was happily gay. Vernon Castle was only thirty when he died while Astaire was ten years older when he made this picture.

Verdict: Very entertaining musical biopic. ***. 

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT

Lauren Bacall and Hoagy Carmichael

TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944). Director: Howard Hawks.

Charter boat captain Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) meets up with adventuress Marie (Lauren Bacall) in Martinique just after France has fallen. Needing money, Harry agrees to bring two members of the French resistance, De Bursac (Walter Szurovy) and his wife (Delores Moran of Old Acquaintance), into Martinique, but he comes afoul of the corpulent Captain Renard once they arrive. Renard wants their whereabouts, and captures Harry's old sot friend, Eddie (Walter Brennan) to achieve his ends. But Harry may have a trick  or two up his sleeve ...  If you're expecting a serious or faithful version of Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name, look elsewhere, for this movie is pure Hollywood and little else. Bogart and Bacall, who fell for each other while making this movie -- they were married the following year -- certainly had a unique chemistry despite the difference in ages and attractiveness. This was Bacall's first picture, and she's fine, probably due in no small measure to Hawks' special tutoring . Dan Seymour [Return of the Fly] is just plain strange as Renard, but amusing, speaking in musical cadences as he makes silent threats with his eyes and belly. Walter Brennan is Walter Brennan. The presence of real-life songwriter Hoagy Carmichael as Crickett, the piano player in a club, almost turns this into a semi-musical. The best thing about the movie is the ending, with both Bacall and Brennan boogieing their way out of the club, albeit in entirely different manners. As a thriller, if that's what it is, To Have and Have Not is almost a complete failure, as scenes that should crackle with tension are flat (if well-acted). The movie holds the attention for the most part, but it's a little too odd and Hollywood-ish to be effective. This was remade as The Breaking Point, which is a much better and much more serious picture.

Verdict: Not much to do with Ernest Hemingway. **1/2.

NICE GIRL?

Franchot Tone, Deanna Durbin, Robert Stack

NICE GIRL? (1941). Director: William A. Seiter.

Small-town girl Jane Dana (Deanna Durbin) has a perfectly swell, handsome boyfriend in Don Webb (Robert Stack of The Tarnished Angels), but wanting to appear more sophisticated, she makes a flagrant play for an older man, Richard Calvert (Franchot Tone of Honeymoon), which only makes her seem like an idiot. That's basically the plot of this dull movie that hasn't enough drama or laughs to make it even worth sitting through -- not even Durbin's singing can save it! There are some good actors in it, including Robert Benchley [The Bride Wore Boots] as Jane's father; Helen Broderick as a housekeeper, Cora; and Walter Brennan (almost looking young) as a mailman who has a hankering for Cora. Ann Gillis and Anne Gwynne play Jane's younger sisters, and we've also got Elisabeth Risdon from the Mexican Spitfire movies and Kenneth Howell from the Jones Family series in much smaller roles.

Verdict: This picture is so slight it hardly seems to exist. *1/2.

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Haworth, Walter and Parker camp it up

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1972 telefilm). Director: John Llewellyn Moxey.

Okay, get this. An old man lives alone in a mansion with his second wife, who was once accused of poisoning her first husband. Now the old man is convinced his wife is trying to poison him, and he's asked his four daughters to come home for Christmas to help him. However, he has been estranged from his daughters for years because most of them think he is responsible for their mother's suicide due to his affair with wife # 2. Then the murders begin ... Now add to that great premise the fact that the old man is Walter Brennan, his second wife is Julie Harris, and the daughters are played by Eleanor Parker (old faithful), Sally Field (li'l adorable), Jill Haworth (sharp-tongued sophisticate) and Jessica Walter (pill-popping dipsomaniac) -- and that the script is by Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's Psycho -- and you've got an ABC "Movie of the Week" to reckon with! Frankly, with all that talent one would have hoped that Home for the Holidays would have been a lot more memorable, but it is an engaging and well-acted [by all] bit of grotesquerie that holds the attention and has a certain degree of atmosphere [of the "it was a dark and stormy night" variety]. George Tipton contributed an interesting score. One of the actors, however talented, sort of gives the game away with an overly, shall we say,  dynamic performance, but the ending will still be a surprise to some. John Fink plays the cute doctor who lives in town and knows all the women.

Verdict: And you think your family holidays are bad ...! **1/2.

BARBARY COAST

Robinson and Hopkins

BARBARY COAST (1935) Director: Howard Hawks.

Mary Rutledge (Miriam Hopkins), known as "Swan," arrives in San Francisco during the gold rush, fully expecting to find a fiancee and a million bucks waiting for her. Instead she winds up at a crooked roulette wheel in a casino-saloon owned by Luis Chamalis (Edward G. Robinson). Chamalis is a racketeer who runs the town with the aid of killer Knuckles (Brian Donlevy), who's fond of shooting people in the back. Swan becomes rather hardened by her life and Chamalis' persistent and unwelcome wooing of her, but she's softened a bit by an attractive and kindly young prospector, Jim (Joel McCrae), but their next encounter is quite unpleasant ... Hopkins and Robinson make an interesting team -- more interesting than Hopkins and McCrea -- but that's not enough to save this picture, whose basically light tone is at odds with the grim subject matter. Despite some good performances from the leads and the supporting cast -- Frank Craven (In This Our Life) as a colonel who starts a newspaper is especially noteworthy -- the movie is a mediocre mish mash, and not one of Robinson's better pictures. Walter Brennan offers another of his bizarre portraits as the cackling "Old Atrocity."

Verdict: Begins promisingly but goes in too many dull directions. **1/2.

NOBODY LIVES FOREVER

NOBODY LIVES FOREVER (1946). Director: Jean Negulesco.

Nick Blake (John Garfield) is fresh out of the army, and discovers his girl, Toni (Faye Emerson) hasn't exactly been idle during his absence. He leaves for Los Angeles with his buddy Al (George Tobias), and is offered a lead role in a new scheme by fellow low-life, Doc (George Coulouris): he is to romance a recently widowed and wealthy woman named Gladys (Geraldine Fitzgerald) with the aim of parting her from her newly-acquired dough, a percentage of which he'll turn over to Doc and his racketeer cronies. But what happens if Nick genuinely falls in love with Gladys? Nobody Lives Forever is a surprisingly dull suspense drama with a shoot 'em out climax that seems to last an hour. Garfield is fine, but his character is unreal and uninteresting, and while Fitzgerald gives a good performance as the very naive and lady-like Gladys, it has no spark or fire, and neither does her character. The whole story is contrived and unbelievable in many respects to start with. George Coulouris (Womaneater; Citizen Kane) is excellent but George Tobias is irritating and adds absolutely nothing to the picture. Emerson [Lady Gangster], Walter Brennan [A Stolen Life] and Robert Shayne [The Neanderthal Man] are all fine in smaller roles. Again Brennan plays a character who is much older than he was at the time of filming.

Verdict: Phony and lifeless. **.

MANHATTAN TOWER

Mary Brian in a pensive moment

MANHATTAN TOWER (1932). Director: Frank R. Strayer.

Inside the high stories of the Manhattan Tower the lives of several people begin to intersect. Mary (Mary Brian) and her boyfriend Jimmy (James Hall) are saving up to get married and buy a home in Kew Gardens. Mary is secretary to the lecherous and all around unpleasant Kenneth Burns (Clay Clement), whose wife, Ann (Irene Rich), has finally had enough and wants her freedom to marry lawyer David Witman (Hale Hamilton) -- whose office is also in the Tower. Whitman has a dizzy secretary who unwittingly causes a run on the bank in the building because of something she overhears. Then there's Marge (Noel Francis), another rather sluttish secretary who is not unwelcoming of Burns' oily advances. Mary asks Burns to invest some money for her, which does not sit well with Jimmy. It all culminates in a horrifying confrontation in Burns' office. The film is well-directed and edited and has an interesting cinematic technique in that the camera turns into film strips that go higher or lower depending on which floor the next scene occurs. There's a morally ambiguous ending in which one brash character pretty much gets away with causing another's death. While the victim may not have been an especially nice person, even he didn't deserve the awful fate he endures [and the other characters are much too blase about it all]. The only familiar faces in this are Wade Boteler as Jimmy's boss and Walter Brennan in a small role as Jimmy's stuttering co-worker. [Ironically, Brennan went on to fame while the others were all forgotten.] The film is full of more than competent actors who never achieved any kind of lasting fame. Mary Brian, who started in silents, had quite a few credits both before and after this film. Hall also started in silents; this was his last film credit and he died 8 years later at age 39.

Verdict: Entertaining trifle with some good actors and interesting developments. **1/2.

MEET JOHN DOE

MEET JOHN DOE (1941). Director: Frank Capra.

"For the John Does all over the world, many of whom are homeless and hungry."

When her paper is sold and streamlined and she gets fired, columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) decides to fake a letter from a "John Doe" threatening suicide for her last submission. The column causes a big stir, increases circulation, and gets Mitchell her job back -- now they have to find someone who can pretend to be the real John Doe. [Only in a Hollywood movie will the man they choose just happen to be as handsome as a movie star!] The guy who gets the job is unemployed, hungry John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), who gives a speech -- written by Ann -- in which he suggests people should act toward one another as if it were Christmas 365 days a year [not exactly a radical idea]. This leads to the formation of John Doe clubs, neighbors helping neighbors, people finding jobs instead of hand-outs and getting off relief, and so on. Then publisher D. B. Norton (Edward Arnold) wants to start a John Doe party with himself as presidential nominee, which does not sit well with Willoughby. Worse, what happens if perchance "John Doe" is exposed as a phony...?

Meet John Doe takes a while to get going and its simplistic premise is never quite as solid as, say, that of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but eventually the movie and its various elements begin to click. Although Robert Riskin's screenplay doesn't really give Cooper a fully dimensional character to play, the actor nevertheless gives one of his best performances. Barbara Stanwyck is as terrific as she always is, impassioned and dynamic in equal measure. The movie has some lovely scenes: editor James Gleason talking about his father dying in front of his eyes during the war; Regis Toomey telling Cooper how he and his wife (an uncredited but excellent Ann Doran) reached out to a grumpy old neighbor and it snowballed into a committee of neighbors helping one another with their problems, and "John Doe" begins to realize what might actually be accomplished by his deception. [On the debit side, Walter Brennan's character, who thinks a man is "free" when he's broke, is an idiot and a pure Hollywood concoction.] Irving Bacon and Spring Byington are also in the cast. Capra wasn't able to use the bittersweet ending that he wanted, but the alternative he came up with works nearly as well. 

Verdict: Despite obvious flaws and perhaps an unreal air about it, this is another Capra winner. ***1/2.

A STOLEN LIFE

A STOLEN LIFE (1946). Director: Curtis Bernhardt.

Kate Bosworth (Bette Davis) falls for a handsome lighthouse keeper named Bill (Glenn Ford) but he finds that her twin sister Pat has a little more "frosting" on her and marries the latter, devastating Kate. This is an interesting study of unrequited love with a little melodrama thrown in for good measure. Despite some trenchant dialogue, this is essentially a pure soap opera and it's perfectly swell on that level. Davis is fine and successfully limns two separate personalities as Kate and Pat. Ford merely has to look cute and be pleasant and this he does adroitly. Walter Brennan is his usual peppery self as the other "elderly" lighthouse keeper (Brennan was only 52 at the time!) and Charlie Ruggles scores as the twins' wise and compassionate cousin. Dane Clark is okay as the bitter starving artist Karnock but frankly it would have been wiser to forget about him and show us scenes of domestic discord with Bill and Pat -- that certainly would have been more fun. Bruce Bennett has a small role as one of Pat's extracurricular interests. A bit on the slow side at times, but the photography by Sol Polito and Ernest Haller is excellent, as is Max Steiner's score. The FX blending the two sisters together -- Davis acting with herself (and doing very well!) -- are very well executed and seamless.

Verdict: Handsomely produced soaper. ***.