A DISTANT TRUMPET

Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue

A DISTANT TRUMPET (1964). Director: Raoul Walsh.

"Burning while Rome fiddles?"

Lt. Matt Hazard (Troy Donahue) is sent from the graduating class at West Point to Fort Delivery in Arizona. Doing things by the book, he whips the soldiers into shape -- to their dissatisfaction. When a merchant, Seely Jones (Claude Akins), offering booze and women to the troops, shows up, Hazard contrives to get rid of him. Although he has a fiancee, Laura (Diane McBain), back east -- who eventually appears -- Hazard is romantically drawn to Kitty (Suzanne Pleshette), who is married to Captain Mainwaring (William Reynolds). In addition to a love triangle and resentful soldiers, Hazard has to deal with Indian troubles in the person of Chief War Eagle (uncredited) -- and the U.S. Army itself, which may go back on its promises to Native Americans.

When Ladies Meet: Pleshette with McBain

A Distant Trumpet, the last film for director Raoul Walsh, was excoriated by critics when it was released, and star Troy Donahue along with it. In truth, the picture, although certainly not a forgotten classic, is not terrible and neither is Donahue. Although still a bit stiff in quieter scenes, Donahue plays the lieutenant in an authoritative fashion and has a commanding presence. The two ladies give good performances if only on a soap opera level; McBain is stronger than expected, and Pleshette not as good as one might have hoped. (She was married to Donahue for a grand total of nine months!) All of the leads are a bit too contemporary in style. William Reynolds is good as Mainwaring but he disappears too quickly.

Donahue with James Gregory

Others in the cast are more memorable: Although a trifle too pompous at times, James Gregory scores as General Quaint, who goes to bat for Hazard when he confronts the Secretary of War (Kent Smith) over the treatment of the Indians. Claude Akins is flavorful as the ever-scheming Jones. Larry Ward is effective as the undisciplined Sgt. Krogur, as is Bobby Bare as the alleged deserter Crenshaw. Lane Bradford makes an impression as the nasty Indian-hating Major Miller, who gets a sock in the jaw from Hazard for his trouble. 

Hazard at West Point

A Distant Trumpet can be classified as one of those movies that is good enough that you wish it had been better. Walsh turns in an adept directorial job that keeps things moving and Max Steiner's score, especially the martial theme, is excellent, embellishing every sequence. William H. Clothier contributed the sweeping Panavision cinematography. But A Distant Trumpet is still unsatisfying, probably due to the weaknesses of the script, some unlikable characters (although Hazard is a bit redeemed at the end), and the lack of a dramatic climax. 

Verdict: Reasonably entertaining Western that looks good and has some interesting sequences. **3/4. 

THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW

Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck

THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956). Director: Douglas Sirk. Produced by Ross Hunter.

Clifford Groves (Fred MacMurray) is a toymaker with a wife (Joan Bennett) and children, but he also has a nagging sense of a lack of fulfillment. He runs into an old employee, Norma (Barbara Stanwyck) and the old feelings they used to have for one another begin to rekindle. Clifford's son Vinnie (William Reynolds) is convinced his dad is up to no good, while his girlfriend, Ann (Pat Crowley) reminds him that men and women can be friends and have innocent encounters. But are Clifford's feelings for Norma quite so innocent ... ? There have been lots of movies about [supposedly] "neglected" wives, but few about neglected husbands. Clifford seems a little unfair and unrealistic in getting jealous of his wife's understandable and necessary attention to the children. Still, MacMurray etches a poignant portrait of a man suffering a mid-life crisis and crying out for passion and romance. In the meantime, Norma gives a rather simplistic speech to the concerned children. The three leads all give fine performances, and Reynolds, Crowley and Gigi Perreau as the young daughter are all notable as well. The ending is not exactly a happy one although audiences were probably expected to be pleased with the resolution.

Verdict: Not exactly Brief Encounter, but not without merit. ***.

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS

Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955). Director: Douglas Sirk.

"As Freud says, when we reach a certain age sex becomes incongruous."

""You were ready for a love affair, but not for love."

Cary Scott (Jane Wyman), a small-town widow approaching middle age, finds a second chance for happiness with a somewhat younger gardener named Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). Even though Ron has his own successful business, he is seen as a poor choice for Cary, whose first husband was an affluent businessman. While the town busybodies gossip, even wrongly suggesting that something was going on between Cary and Ron even before Mr. Scott's death, Cary's son, Ned (William Reynolds), and daughter, Kay (Gloria Talbott), have strenuous objections to their mother's relationship with Ron. Concerned about her children's feelings, Cary makes a fateful decision, only to discover her children haven't time to give much thought to their mother's feelings. [A great scene has the children giving Cary a television set for Christmas, and the camera pulls in toward her sad reflection in the screen as she realizes this TV is meant to be her "companionship" for the future.] Jane Wyman gives an excellent and sensitive performance that holds up through all of the plot contrivances, and Hudson, if not on his co-star's level, is good and romantic and at the height of his male beauty. This is a typically handsome Ross Hunter production with picture postcard Technicolor cinematography. The screenplay tries [and fails] for added depth by making Kirby a Thoreau addict who tries, along with his friends Mick and Alida (Charles Drake and Virginia Grey), to turn aside from mindless ambition and enjoy life's simpler pleasures. [Only in a Hollywood movie can people who eschew the rat race and Keeping Up With The Jones' live in such utterly sumptuous surroundings. Anyone who lives in a reconverted, refurbished mill house has to have bucks.] That being said, there is some good dialogue and supporting performances from such as Gloria Talbott [as the constantly psychoanalyzing daughter], William Reynolds, Donald Curtis as a lecherous suitor, and Agnes Moorehead as Cary's good friend, Sarah. Jacqueline DeWit is the bitchy Mona, who dishes dirt on everyone, Nestor Paiva is one of Ron's circle of friends, and David Janssen is Kay's boyfriend. Although the film makes some attempt at dealing with ageism, it's also guilty of it in its treatment of Harvey (Conrad Nagel), who is Cary's steady date. Harvey may be twenty years older than Cary, but it's still a bit ludicrous to suggest that a man in his late fifties [as Nagel was] would settle for a sexless marriage with a younger woman, as Harvey more or less suggests. Setting aside these and other quibbles, All That Heaven Allows is not without appeal, although it is nowhere near as good as a similar vehicle with Barbara Stanwyck, My Reputation. Nice Frank Skinner score with classical themes.

Verdict:  Attractive soap opera with compelling leads [if for different reasons]. ***.

THE LAND UNKNOWN

THE LAND UNKNOWN (1957). Director: Virgil Vogel.

A helicopter carrying passengers lands in a lost world full of prehistoric animals and dangerous plant life. No, it's not The Lost World, it's The Land Unknown, which came out from Universal three years earlier and was similarly in CinemaScope [if black and white]. The Technicolor 20th Century-Fox production of Lost World, with bigger names in the cast and a ton of publicity, sort of eclipsed this earlier film, which is not bad at all. Commander Roberts (Jock Mahoney), reporter Maggie Hathaway (Shawn Smith), Lt. Carmen (William Reynolds) and machinist's mate Steve Miller (Phil Harvey) set out in their copter to explore the South Pole and wind up descending through mist into a lost world of monsters, discovering the sole human inhabitant is a crashed scientist, Dr. Hunter (Henry Brandon). There are lots of gigantic slithering lizards (which Hunter can control with a horn), some mechanical T-Rex's with slobbering jaws, and a creditable lake monster with big flippers and a long memory, not to mention a big rubbery plant that badly wants to wrap its tentacles around Maggie Hathaway. The optical work can be uneven, but there are many effective shots, as well as an exciting bit with Comdr. Roberts running from a voracious T-Rex. There are some impressive and elaborate sets and excellent art direction, and the film manages to work up some suspense [if the group doesn't get out of this valley in a certain number of days, their ship will leave without them]. Despite their phony appearance, the T-Rex's are better than the ones in Unknown Island and actually work well enough in context. Despite the absence of stop-motion effects, which would have greatly improved the picture, The Land Unknown is still quite entertaining, with the cast more than adequate for the proceedings. Vogel also directed The Mole People. Henry Brandon had a very long list of credits, probably his most famous role being nasty old Barnaby in the 1934 Laurel and Hardy masterpiece Babes in Toyland, in which he was made up to look older than he does in Land Unknown 23 years later! He also had the title role in the 1940 cliffhanger serial Drums of Fu Manchu. Phil Harvey appeared in a number of Universal horror/sci fi films of the period, including The Monolith Monsters. NOTE: This movie is now available in a remastered DVD which keeps the widescreen ratio intact and is complete, a far better way to see it than on TV with commercials, missing sequences, and no Cinemascope, which is how most people have seen it, unfortunately.

Verdict: For big lizard and lost world lovers. ***.