A LIFE OF WILLIAM INGE: THE STRAINS OF TRIUMPH

A LIFE OF WILLIAM INGE: The Strains of Triumph. Ralph F. Voss. 1989; University Press of Kansas.

William Inge wrote several noteworthy plays -- Come Back, Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop -- which were also made into excellent motion pictures. He also did an original screenplay for Splendor in the Grass, for which he won an Oscar, as well as the screenplay for All Fall Down. The Stripper was based on his unsuccessful play A Loss of Roses, and one of his one-acts was turned into Bus Riley's Back in Town, a film he later discredited. This in-depth biography looks at Inges' early years growing up in Kansas, his relationships with other family members, his struggles to find success as first an actor and then a playwright, his early Broadway successes, his friendship and rivalry with Tennessee Williams. his negative feelings about his homosexuality, and the post-success periods of the sixties and seventies in which nothing he wrote seemed to work and he tried much too hard to be hip and trendy. Inge's problem wasn't that he was gay, but that he couldn't accept it. He attended AA meanings with the writer Charles Jackson, a fellow self-hater and alcoholic, which was like the blind leading the blind. Inge's internalized homophobia probably reached its nadir in his 1965 play Where's Daddy? which was put out of its misery after only 21 performances. In this the main character, "Pinky Pinkerton," is a gay man who seduces teenage boys and tries to convince one of them to, in essence, go straight with a wife and kid! Inge lived to see Stonewall, but author Voss does not record Inge's reaction to it, if indeed he had one. Despite Inge's negative feelings about himself, he was a gifted playwright who managed to craft works that still resonate and that are still being produced today. This biography, while not without flaws and perhaps with too much (and conversely too little) preoccupation with his sexuality, gives Inge his due as both a man and an artist.

Verdict:  Insightful and absorbing biography of a great playwright. ***1/2. 

VOICE IN THE MIRROR

Bar mates: Richard Egan and Arthur O'Connell

VOICE IN THE MIRROR (1958). Director: Harry Keller.

"We're all in the same boat, none of us more than one drink away from the gutter for the rest of our lives."

"I spilled more whiskey than you ever drank."

Commercial artist Jim Burton (Richard Egan) claims to have started drinking since the death of his little girl, but his doctor, Leon (Walter Matthau), reminds him that he was drinking before that and would probably have used any excuse. Jim's patient wife, Ellen (Julie London of The Helicopter Spies), is forced to put up with broken promises and wondering if and when he'll come home and what condition he'll be in. Now Leon tells him that his alcoholism may have created serious nerve damage. A fellow drunk named Harry (Harry Bartell) tells him that he thinks the solution to their problem may be through spiritualism, but Jim discovers that the secret may be to help other drunks --  alcoholics can help other alcoholics stay sober. Although set twenty years later, Voice in the Mirror basically appears to be the story of the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous (although the term is never used and there's not as much emphasis on religiosity; AA's famous slogan is used at the end, however.) In any case, the picture is absorbing and generally well-acted, with a moving conclusion. Egan and London are not exactly perfect casting for this film (stolid Egan never quite seems desperate enough for one thing), but both of them have their moments; oddly, London is better in her more emotional and difficult scenes than in her quieter ones. Harry Bartell and Doris Singleton, who plays Jim's sympathetic co-worker, have nice bits; both of them appeared several times on I Love Lucy. Arthur O'Connell nearly steals the picture as one of Jim's sad friends, and Matthau, in an unexpected role as the no-nonsense doctor, is also excellent. Ann Doran and Peggy Converse make their marks, respectively, as a landlady and the mother of a suicidal young drunk played by Troy Donahue. Eleanor Audley [Sleeping Beauty] is fine as a woman at a soup kitchen, and I believe that's Mae Clarke [Frankenstein] playing the first woman member of Jim's group. One of the best scenes depicts Jim's frightening nightmare in which he is caught in a train tunnel as a rushing train threatens to run him down.

Verdict: Imperfect but interesting and affecting drama. ***.

I AIN'T DOWN YET: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY LITTLE MARGIE GALE STORM

I AIN'T DOWN YET: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY LITTLE MARGIE. Gale Storm with Bill Libby. Bobbs-Merrill; 1981.

Gale Storm appeared in some musicals and other movies for Monogram and other studios before finding lasting fame on two hit TV series, My Little Margie and Oh Susanna!. A big problem with this book is that it's less of a performing arts autobiography than it is an inspirational tome about alcoholism. Storm can't figure out why she began drinking [the fact that it got serious when she switched from hit TV shows to dinner theater may have had something to do with it] but she was in serious denial over her problem even when her liver expanded to "three to four times its regular size." The book has a few pages on show business and the people Storm worked with, and many, many more pages that read as a testimonial for an alcoholism clinic that Storm credits with saving her life and for which she eventually became a paid consultant. This book may have some value for people with drinking problems, but if you're expecting something that tears the lid off TV and tinsel town, look elsewhere. Storm doesn't even have that much to say about her co-stars. Sections are written by her husband, four children, and even the head of the aforementioned clinic. Storm's religiosity occasionally becomes borderline cloying. Readable, fast-paced, and not badly done for what it is, it still should have been so much more.

Verdict: Watch an episode of My Little Margie instead. **1/2.