BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB (1987)

Judd Nelson and Raphael Sbarge

BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB (1987 two part four hour mini-series). Director: Marvin J. Chomsky.

Charismatic Joe Hunt (Judd Nelson), his best friend Dean Karney (Brian McNamara), and several of their wealthier friends form a group to make big money in investments. Some of the young men may or may not be aware that the whole thing is really just a variation on an illegal ponzi scheme. A con artist named Ron Levin (Ron Silver of Reversal of Fortune) gets involved with the group, allegedly giving them 14 million to play around with, only it's merely a paper account. Then Ron Levin goes missing. The Iranian-born father of one of the boys is found dead. Interspersed with a murder trial are flashbacks that show what happened and reveal the guilty parties.

Ron Silver 

Billionaire Boys Club should have been a riveting, taut, suspenseful and fascinating TV classic, but it never really rises above a mediocre level. For this the actors can't be faulted, as a talented group, led by a terrific Nelson, has certainly been assembled. Rafael Sbarge [Deadly Web] is a stand-out as one of two brothers who hangs on Hunt's every word until he realizes what a bad influence he has become. Fredric Lehne [Wiseguy] as Sbarge's brother, Stan Shaw as a sinister helpmate, Jill Schoelen as Joe's girlfriend, Amy, Allan Miller as a defense attorney, James Sloyan as the D.A., and especially Ron Silver as the ill-fated Levin, among others, are all good as well. Because it's an interesting true story this holds the attention, but that's all. The theatrical remake in 2018 wasn't much better. The real Joe Hunt, serving a life sentence in prison, now claims that Levin went on the run to avoid prosecution and is still alive.

Verdict: Not one of the great mini-series, but well-acted. **1/4. 

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (PLAYHOUSE 90 LIVE TV/1958)

Cliff Robertson and Piper Laurie

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1958). Playhouse 90 season three, episode 2. Directed by John Frankenheimer. Written especially for Playhouse 90 by J. P. Miller. Introduced by Sterling Hayden.

Joe Clay (Cliff Robertson of Obsession) stands up at a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous and relates the story of his life, his marriage to fellow alcoholic Kirsten (Piper Laurie of Carrie), and his dark descent and struggle back to sobriety. When Joe meets Kirsten at a party, it is already clear that she likes her liquor. After Joe loses his job due to his drinking, he and Kirsten and their little girl move in with her father, Ellis (Charles Bickford of Anna Christie), who unfairly blames Joe for his daughter's problem. But can Joe convince his wife that she has to give up alcohol entirely or they simply can not have a life together, and she cannot be their child's mother?

Cliff Robertson 

Days of Wine and Roses, as presented on the anthology series Playhouse 90, is a true classic of live television. (Frankly it's inexplicable how certain scene changes were enacted without any cuts or commercial breaks.) Hollywood had already dealt with alcoholism in The Lost Weekend, but this teleplay examines the affects of the disease on marriage and on an innocent child (although the latter aspect is downplayed). The script is strong, the performances from all three leads are excellent, and the teleplay, well-directed by John Frankenheimer [Seconds] early in his career, retains bite and interest. This was remade as a theatrical film starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. One of Robertson's finest performances.

Verdict: A prime example of why everyone raves about the early days of live television. ***1/2.  

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962)

Bottoms Up! Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962). Director: Blake Edwards.

"The world looks so dirty to me when I'm not drinking." -- Kirsten.

Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a public relations man who likes his liquor. When he first meets Kirsten (Lee Remick), the two don't exactly hit it off, but a persistent Joe finally gets a date with her. Although Kirsten doesn't drink, or even particularly like the taste of alcohol, Joe importunes her to try a Brandy Alexander, and she discovers she likes getting tight. When the two get married and have a daughter, both discover that alcohol is playing too large a role in their lives, only Kirsten won't admit she has a problem.

Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick

Days of Wine and Roses is based on a classic and excellent television play that was presented on Playhouse 90 in 1958. J. P. Miller wrote the script for both the show and the movie, although some questionable elements were added.to "open up" the story (one imagines director Blake Edwards also had a hand in that). The casting of Jack Lemmon [How to Murder Your Wife], who was mostly known as a comedian at the time, apparently necessitated sequences fabricated to let the audience slowly get into the eventually sombre mood by turning the first third of the film into a comedy as Lemmon pursues a disinterested Remick [Anatomy of a Murder]. The movie nearly sinks with an utterly ridiculous sequence in which Joe tries to get rid of the cockroaches in Kirsten's apartment, and her neighbors inexplicably complain about it.

Jack Lemmon and Charles Bickford 

The film eventually settles down into the main story, detailing how Joe loses his job due to his drinking, his recognition that both he and his wife are bonafide alcoholics, their moving in with her father, Ellis (Charles Bickford reprising his role from the TV version), who owns a nursery that Joe nearly destroys during a binge. (In both the TV and theatrical version we're not shown Ellis' reaction when he discovers what his son-in-law has done, which might have made for one intensely dramatic sequence.)

Lee Remick

Days of Wine and Roses is a good picture that is bolstered by fine performances from Lemmon (helping to establish him as a dramatic player as well as a comic one), Remick (possibly her best performance), and Bickford. Jack Klugman [12 Angry Men] is much less impressive as a representative of AA who tries to help Joe. The TV version is generally superior to the movie. In the original teleplay Joe is not responsible for Kirsten starting drinking, which he is in the film, and in the movie he never seems to feel any guilt about it. In the film Lemmon almost immediately takes a drink when Remick, in her lonely motel room, begs him to join her, whereas Cliff Robertson sits contemplating the bottle for awhile before he gives in. All in all, the teleplay is better if for no other reason than that it doesn't waste time with the sitcom-like stuff that the movie does. Both versions sort of gloss over the financial angles of the characters' situation, and other things are a bit prettified as well.

Verdict: Worthwhile picture, although not as good as the original. ***. 

BUS STOP

Monroe and Don Murray

BUS STOP (1956). Director: Joshua Logan. Based on the play by William Inge.

"Ain't it wonderful when somebody so terrible turns out to be so nice." -- Cherie.

Bo Decker is a young rancher who has a lot of energy but little experience with life or women. With his foreman and best friend, Virgil (Arthur O'Connell), he travels to Phoenix, Arizona to compete in a rodeo. He is certain that he will meet the right gal for him, and is convinced that that is just what's happened when he runs into nightclub entertainer Cherie (Marilyn Monroe). The trouble is that while Cherie may think Bo is handsome, she has no intention of marrying a complete stranger that she has just met. Bo, unfortunately, simply won't take no for an answer ...

Don Murray as Bo

Bus Stop was based on a stage play by William Inge, and it was opened up by screenwriter George Axelrod. Joshua Logan also directed the film version of Inge's Picnic the same year, although he had not directed the stage version of Bus Stop as he did Picnic. The movie benefits from inspired casting. Marilyn Monroe is simply outstanding as Cherie -- possibly the best performance of her career -- and is able to bring out the pathos and confusion in her character as well as her more comical aspects. Her interpretation of "That Old Black Magic" which she deliberately sings off-key in the saloon is very funny. Don Murray [Advise and Consent], whose first theatrical film this was, is also excellent, just perfect in fact, as Bo, managing to make a man who seems nearly psychotic at times a bit vulnerable and greatly appealing in some instances.

Arthur O'Connell and Monroe

As for the rest of the cast, Arthur O'Connell offers another of his spot-on performances as father surrogate Virgil. Betty Field [Seventeen] makes an impression, and seems to be channeling Mae West a bit, as the coffee shop owner, Grace. Robert Bray [Never Love a Stranger] has possibly his best role as the bus driver, Carl, who has a yen for Grace, and who has a fateful encounter with Bo. Eileen Heckart and Hope Lange are also effective in smaller roles as, respectively, Cherie's friend and co-worker and a young woman on the bus who befriends Cherie. Like Picnic, this romance has a bittersweet conclusion. Murray was nominated for an Oscar (supporting); Monroe should have been. The TV series Bus Stop was very loosely based on this movie.

Verdict: Very entertaining and well-acted comedy drama. ***. 

THE AFFAIRS OF DOBIE GILLIS

Bobby Van and Debbie Reynolds

THE AFFAIRS OF DOBIE GILLIS (1953). Director: Don Weis.

Dobie Gillis (Bobby Van) has enrolled in college but he doesn't seem to have much on his mind academically. He is much more interested in girls, especially Pansy Hammer (Debbie Reynolds), who is initially resistant. Pansy's parents, especially her grumpy father (Hanley Stafford), rarely approve of her boyfriends and Dobie is no exception. Further complicating the matter is that Dobie's pal and roommate, Charlie (Bob Fosse), goes for Lorna (Barbara Ruick), who only has eyes for Dobie. Then Dobie manages to get into trouble over and over again, and it seems as if he and Pansy are to be separated forever.

Roomies: Bob Fosse and Bobby Van

The Affairs of Dobie Gillis is a trifle, but what a charming and entertaining trifle it is, with a great cast of talented performers giving their utmost. Bobby Van [The Navy vs the Night Monsters], while not traditionally handsome, proves an adept leading man with both singing and dancing skills, a pleasant, outgoing personality, and plenty of exuberance and charisma. The same could be said for Bob Fosse, who is both cute (if not on a Tab Hunter level) and appealing, but chose to work primarily behind the scenes as a top choreographer in later years. Debbie Reynolds [Singin' in the Rain] is also cute and perky and while this is mostly Van's show, gives him her best in support. Barbara Ruick, who was in the film version of Carousel as well as Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, scores as the love-sick gal who adores her disinterested Dobie and is given at least one snappy number. 

Reynolds, Van, Freeman

As for the supporting cast, Hans Conreid, as a stuffy professor, reminds one of Mr. Livermore on I Love Lucy. Kathleen Freeman certainly adds to the fun as the comical leader of an all-girl band. Percy Helton shows up as a shop owner, Charles Lane is well-cast as a -- what else? -- grouchy chemistry professor, and there are bits by Alvy Moore,  Almira Sessions, and John Smith. Lurene Tuttle is Debbie's mother, and is fine, but Hanley Stafford as her father is all bluster and no laughs. The songs include "All I Do is Dream of You," "I'm Through with Love;" and "Can't Do Wrong If It's Right," which features some fancy footwork from Van and Fosse. The somewhat episodic film reminds one a bit of a sitcom at times, and indeed it wasn't long before The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was being telecast every week, although with a completely different cast.

Verdict: Lots of fun, good tunes, and fancy footwork. ***. 

HAPPY TRAILS: OUR LIFE STORY -- ROY ROGERS AND DALE EVANS

HAPPY TRAILS: OUR LIFE STORY. ROY ROGERS AND DALE EVANS. With Jane and Michael Stern. Simon and Schuster; 1994.

In alternating chapters, and with overviews provided by the co-authors, Roy Rogers [Wall Street Cowboy] and Dale Evans tell their love story and their life as entertainers and parents of several children, some of whom were adopted. Rogers' first wife died in childbirth, and the heart-broken cowboy made several films with Evans before finally falling in love with her and vice versa. Evans, whose first marriage ended in divorce, admits that in her younger days she cared about little else but her career and at first did not especially want to be one half of the Rogers-Evans combo. Despite toiling for low-budget Republic studios, Rogers caught on with the public and became a bonafide movie star, then garnered even more fans with his rodeo appearances with his beloved horse, Trigger (whom he later had mounted after the horse's death). Rogers, who somehow got out of WW2 military service, took advantage of the fact that rival cowboy Gene Autry went into the military and Republic promoted Rogers as "King of the Cowboys" during his absence. (Rogers' undeniable squinty-eyed sex appeal certainly didn't hurt.) When the film career petered out, Roy and Dale had their own successful TV series. Dale eventually found religion, and Rogers followed suit, although they seem unable to grasp that one can have positive values in life without necessarily having a personal relationship with God. On the other hand, they have helped a great many children, and the most affecting sections of the book deal with the tragic deaths of some of their adopted and biological youngsters. Roy and Dale clearly believed in corporal punishment, and despite the fact that their boys could often be naughty and rambunctious, there are passages that may raise eyebrows, particularly one in which Dale confesses she secretly fed a field mice to one of the boys because she'd heard it was a folk remedy for curing bed-wetting! Factoids in the book include the interesting news that sidekick Gaby Hayes [From Broadway to Cheyenne] was actually a well-educated man who could perform Shakespeare (!), and that Roy's favorite TV show was the soap opera, The Guiding Light!

Verdict: If you can get past the tiresome religiosity, this is more interesting than you might imagine, although it is primarily recommended for Roy Rogers addicts. ***. 

PICNIC

An iconic image from Picnic by James Wong Howe

PICNIC (1956). Director: Joshua Logan. NOTE: Logan also directed the stage play. This review gives away some important plot points.

Hal Carter (William Holden) is a drifter and failed, wannabee actor who winds up in Kansas where he looks up an old buddy named Alan (Cliff Robertson), hoping to find work. Alan's father gives Hal a job, but things are complicated at the Labor Day picnic when Hal and Alan's fiancee, Madge (Kim Novak), find themselves attracted to one another. Alan is furious, but Madge's mother (Betty Field) is horrified at the fate in store for her daughter if she runs off with Hal. Meanwhile Madge's younger sister, Millie (Susan Strasberg), is suffering growing pains, and their border, spinster schoolteacher Rosemary (Rosalind Russell), is having a crisis of her own.

William Holden and Kim Novak

Picnic is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning stage play by William Inge, and screenwriter Daniel Taradash has intelligently opened up the drama without apparently losing much of the original's meat. Both of the two leads, Holden and Novak, are too old for their roles -- Novak was twenty-three and Holden thirty-eight looking older -- and Holden is really not the right type for Hal at all, but he still manages to give quite a good performance, as does Novak, whom I've always believed could be quite accomplished with the right role and director. Betty Field and Susan Strasberg score as mother and younger daughter, and Rosalind Russell, while she tends to overplay in some sequences, has a terrific moment when she's begging her steady beau, Howard (Arthur O'Connell, carried over from the stage version), to marry her. Cliff Robertson gives one of his best performances as Alan, a nice guy who is treated badly even as he treats Hal badly out of jealousy. There are also nice turns by Verna Felton (the tough maid on I Love Lucy) as a very sympathetic neighbor who takes to Hal right off the bat, and Reta Shaw and Phyllis Newman in smaller roles.

William Holden

Just as straight writers composed stories that revolved around female objects of desire, some gay writers did the same thing with male figures as the centerpiece. Tennessee Williams comes to mind with his "Orpheus Descending," which debuted on the stage four years after Picnic (although Williams' first version, "Band of Angels," dates back to 1940. Meanwhile "Orpheus" was filmed as The Fugitive Kind with Marlon Brando three years after Picnic hit screens.) Both Picnic and Fugitive Kind deal with sexy bad boys and drifters who burst into town and inflame passions among women; the plays and movies were too soon before Stonewall to deal upfront with any gay influences. This is not to say that the characters were all meant to be male.

Rosalind Russell and William Holden

However, both plays have more on their minds than just virile rough trade. Picnic is basically a study of small-town desperation and loneliness; the film has persistent undercurrents of both. It is made clear that Hal is just as lonely in his own way as Rosemary is, culminating in a painful sequence when Rosemary humiliates Hal after he, in her mind, rejects her advances. The film also looks at the pain of growing older and the anguished jealousy it can engender when a middle-aged person is confronted by someone with youth and promise and more overt attractiveness and sensuality.

Cliff Robertson and William Holden

Picnic has many memorable sequences. There is the amusing montage of scenes at the picnic, with crying babies, cute dogs, and silly games, and -- in contrast -- the sort of sexy slow dance that Hal and Madge do together on the bandstand. James Wong Howe's cinematography is outstanding, and George Duning has contributed a sensitive score. Picnic has to be considered an anti-romantic film. Playwright Inge probably meant the ending to indicate that Madge is giving full range to her feelings and taking a chance on life and love and perhaps getting away from a stifling small-town environment, but in the bittersweet conclusion she's also going off with a man she has known for only one day. (Paging Dr. Phil!) And does anyone really think the relationship between Rosemary and Howard will work?

The play starred Ralph Meeker as Hal, Paul Newman as Alan, Janice Rule as Madge, Eileen Heckart as Rosemary, and Arthur O'Connell as Howard. Aron Copeland's beautiful opera The Tender Land, which debuted around the same time as the stage version of Picnic, also dealt with a young woman who falls in love overnight with a drifter and wants to run away with him.

Verdict: Despite some problems, this is an excellent picture. ***1/2. 

MY SISTER EILEEN (1942)

Rosalind Russell and Janet Blair

MY SISTER EILEEN (1942). Director: Alexander Hall.

Ruth Sherwood (Rosalind Russell) and her younger and prettier sister, Eileen (Janet Blair), feel that they'll get nowhere fast if they stay in small town Ohio, so the gals head for New York City with the encouragement of their grandmother (Elizabeth Patterson) and to the dismay of their father (Grant Mitchell). They manage to find an apartment in Greenwich Village, but soon discover that they're blasting for a new subway tunnel right underneath their feet. Ruth tries to sell her writing to a magazine edited by Bob Baker (Brian Aherne) while Eileen hopes to become an actress. As their money runs out they meet an assortment of characters who live in the building on Barrow Street. These include "Wreck" Loomis (Gordon Jones) and his jealous wife, Helen (Miss Jeff Donnell); the fortune teller Effie (June Havoc), who used to live in the apartment; drug store owner Frank Lippincott (Richard Quine); and slimy reporter Chic Clark (Allyn Joslyn).

Richard Quine with Blair and Russell

My Sister Eileen is based on a play by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, who also did the screenplay. The movie boasts some very adept performances and is consistently amusing and amiable. Although she was never quite the comic genius that Lucille Ball was, Rosalind Russell is still a fine actress who can not only do comedy well but can reveal the dramatic nuances under the laughs; she's wonderful. Blair is very effective as the not-so-naive Eileen, and once you get used to his blustering over-acting early on, Aherne makes a good foil for Russell. In addition to the others named above, there is also good work from Donald MacBride as a blithering cop; Chick Chandler as a friend of Effie's and an air raid warden; George Tobias as the landlord and wannabee painter, Apoppolous;.and Arnold Stang as the annoying copy boy, Jimmy. There are also the group of handsome Portuguese merchant marines who form a conga line in the village, a delightful sequence. And you must not miss the hilarious cameo by the Three Stooges!

The Fleet's In 

My Sister Eileen was turned into the Broadway musical Wonderful Town -- with a score by no less than Leonard Bernstein -- in 1953. Russell, who had already been a little old for the part in the film, and who couldn't really sing, was cast as Ruth yet again, and the show was a big hit, eventually being televised. In 1955 Columbia did a color and widescreen remake of My Sister Eileen with Janet Leigh and Batty Garrett. This was directed and co-written by Richard Quine [Sunny Side of the Street] , who plays Lippincott. To date there has been no theatrical film version of Wonderful Town, which is rarely revived.


Verdict: Fun movie with a terrific and talented cast. ***. 

WONDERFUL TOWN

"Why did I ever leave Ohio?"  McKeever and Russell

WONDERFUL TOWN (1958 telefilm). Director: Mel Ferber. Directed for the stage by Herbert Ross.

Ruth (Rosalind Russell) and her prettier younger sister, Eileen (Jacquelyn McKeever) come from Ohio to Greenwich Village to find fame and fortune and instead find a apartment house full of characters and the explosive booms from a new subway line below them. They also get involved with a variety of men, chief among them magazine editor Robert Baker (Sydney Chaplin). Despite her many suitors Eileen finds herself falling for Bob without realizing that Ruth has feelings for the fellow as well. Then there's the fact that if they don't get good jobs soon they will have to return to Ohio in disgrace ...

"It's Love!" Rosalind Russell and Sidney Chaplin

Rosalind Russell had already played Ruth in the film My Sister Eileen when she was tapped to star in a musical version for Broadway with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Comden and Green. Since the musical's producers wanted too much money for the film rights, the studio came out with their own musical version, also called My Sister Eileen, with a totally different score by Jules Styne. Wonderful Town was never filmed, but it was shown on television, nearly intact, although at least one song ('Pass That Football") was dropped. Reprising her role, Russell is as "wonderful" as ever, and McKeever, who has a very nice if imperfect voice, also makes her mark as Eileen. Chaplin, who has a good if not great voice, plays Baker very ably and with charm.

"I Love a Quiet Girl:" Sidney Chaplin

Wonderful Town may not be one of the really great musicals, but it has more than its share of delights, including the score, which includes such standards as "Little Bit in Love" and "It's Love!" as well as the pretty "I Love a Quiet Girl," the plaintive "(Why Did I Ever Leave) Ohio," the Irish ditty "Pretty Eileen," sung by the cops to the young lady, as well as a bouncy conga, a couple of lively jazz numbers, and the snappy "Greenwich Village." The other supporting roles are well cast by enthusiastic performers. McKeever was essentially a stage actress and had only a few other TV credits. Chaplin, the son of Charlie Chaplin, amassed 37 film and TV credits, but his greatest successes were on the stage.

NOTE: There have been at least four audio recordings of this musical. There is the original mono cast recording of the show with Russell and George Gaynes. Then a stereo studio set with Russell and the cast of this TV production was released, with all of the songs included. There is a London cast version that I have not yet heard, and a studio version conducted by Simon Rattle. The stars of this version are the ubiquitous Audra McDonald as Eileen, Kim Criswell (whose voice isn't that much better than Roz Russell's) as Ruth, and no less than operatic baritone Thomas Hampson as Bob Baker. His rendition of "I Love a Quiet Girl" (sung with quite strength and not at all over-done) is this album's highlight. Comden and Green's lyrics are comparatively trite but most of Bernstein's music is memorable if not on the level of, say, West Side Story.

Verdict: Tuneful and bouncy TV adaptation of a hit Broadway musical. ***. 

MY SISTER EILEEN (1955)

Janet Leigh and Bob Fosse

MY SISTER EILEEN (1955). Director: Richard Quine.

Ruth Sherwood (Betty Garrett) and her younger and prettier sister Eileen (Janet Leigh of The Spy in the Green Hat) come from Ohio to Greenwich Village to pursue careers as, respectively, a writer and an actress. Eileen becomes entangled with lunch counter waiter Frank (Bob Fosse) and on-the-make reporter Chick (Tommy Rail), while Ruth is involved with prominent magazine editor, Bob Baker (Jack Lemmon). Will the sisters find success and romance?

Bob Fosse and Betty Garrett

My Sister Eileen was originally filmed in 1942 with Rosalind Russell playing Ruth. Russell then reprised the role in a Broadway musical version entitled Wonderful Town with music by Leonard Bernstein. Columbia Pictures, which owned the rights to the original film, wanted to do a film adaptation of Wonderful Town with Judy Holliday stepping into the lead, but the show's producers wanted too much money. Therefore they decided to remake Eileen and add a completely new and different score by Leo Robin and Jule Styne. Meanwhile, Judy Holliday became unavailable and Betty Garrett, oddly, was signed to the part.

Jack Lemmon

Garrett, who was married to the blacklisted Larry Parks, is pleasant and competent enough as Ruth, but she can't hold a candle to Rosalind Russell. My Sister Eileen did not lead to major stardom for Garrett, who had bigger successes on television (All in the Family; Laverne and Shirley). Aside from a film noir feature some years later, Eileen was, in fact, Garrett's last starring role. Everyone in this remake is a step downward from the cast in the earlier film with the exception of Bob Fosse, who is very appealing, and Tommy Rail, who is handsome and adept, although, like Fosse, better known for his dancing (and in Fosse's case, choreography and direction). Ironically, Fosse's role in the original picture was played by Richard Quine, who co-wrote (with Blake Edwards) and directed this remake. Jack Lemmon is also quite nice as the editor, Bob Barker. Lemmon and Quine reunited for How to Murder Your Wife ten years later.

Kasznar, Leigh, Garrett, York

Other roles are filled by Kurt Kasznar as the landlord and Dick York as the off-season football player (which the skinny York scarcely resembles) who lives upstairs. The roles of the sisters' father and grandmother have been eliminated, along with the fortune teller Effie. This remake is not only in Technicolor and CinemaScope but it's been opened up with scenes in Frank's drug store, the El Morocco nightclub, and even the Brooklyn Navy Yard, although the apartment and Village scenes are clearly filmed on a sound stage. The Portuguese merchant marines have become Brazilian sailors. Expanding this sequence just creates a ridiculous scene in which these guys all chase after the not-very-sexy Garrett, something not handled quite so blatantly in the original. The conga scene from the original movie becomes a big production number but loses most of its charm. Another change has Ruth pretending that her stories about Eileen are really about her, an unnecessary development that goes nowhere.

Garrett, Fosse, Leigh, and Rail

Then there are the songs. Jule Styne, the composer of Funny Girl, Gypsy and Darling of the Day can be counted on for some nice numbers and he delivers such good tunes as "I'm Great But No One Knows It," "There's Nothin' Like Love" and "Give Me a Band and My Baby." One of the best scenes in the movie has Fosse and Rail doing a dancing dual as Eileen goes off for an audition.

Verdict: On its own terms, this can be entertaining, and the musical interludes are generally nice, but on a whole it's a cut below the original. **1/4.

LIFE IS A BANQUET: ROSALIND RUSSELL

LIFE IS A BANQUET: ROSALIND RUSSELL. Rosalind Russell with Chris Chase. Random House; 1977.

Published posthumously, Rosalind Russell's autobiography, very well-written by Chris Chase, has an affecting introduction by her widower, the producer Frederick Brisson. Russell writes of her comparatively privileged upbringing, her two sisters (one of whom was to remind her of Auntie Mame), her first stabs at acting, her long-lived marriage to Brisson, and her many famous roles, especially Mame, which she played both on Broadway and in the film adaptation. Her other notable film roles included Sister Kenny, Gypsy, Craig's Wife,  along with a few stinkers, such as What a Woman, which she declines to even mention. She does not relate that many backstage or behind-the-scenes stories, and is generally kind to her co-stars, although she does excoriate some unnamed film directors who have no idea of what they're doing and can not work with actors at all. Russell reveals that Hayley Mills was extremely unpleasant to work with when she appeared in The Trouble with Angels, as well as the fact that Russell and her husband were close, lifelong friends with Frank Sinatra, who took over and completely handled what sounds like an incredible 25th anniversary party for the couple. Russell indulges in some perfectly understandable name-dropping along the way, including people who were not in the film business. In later years, she worked hard to help people who suffered from arthritis, as she did. Russell always felt that she was not quite "of" Hollywood, that she wasn't one of those stars who was so devoted to her career and so obsessed with becoming a top-ranked star that she neglected everything else in her life, and it sounds like she was all the better for it. Russell insists that she was not dubbed at all for her singing in Gypsy, but it's very clear in the movie that she begins to sing a number until Lisa Kirk takes over; Russell never mentions her and seems to have a delusion about her true vocal contribution. Russell gives an excellent performance in the movie, however.

Verdict: Excellent film memoir is engaging and well-written, although not very "dishy." ***1/2. 

THE LOST WEEKEND

Belly up to the bar, boys! Ray Milland

THE LOST WEEKEND (1945). Director: Billy Wilder.

Feeling himself a failure as a writer, and living off his brother, Wick (Phillip Terry of Hold That Kiss), Don Birnam (Ray Milland) has become, in his brother's words, a "hopeless drunk" His girlfriend of three years, Helen (Jane Wyman of Johnny Belinda), refuses to give up on Don, and does her best to help him. But even when he winds up in an alcoholic ward and later gets the DT's and has scary visions, he still won't stop drinking. Will Helen be able to get through to him, to get him to let his better self come through, or is he doomed?

The Lost Weekend is based on the autobiographical novel by Charles Jackson. Although Jackson married and had children, late in life he identified as bisexual and moved in with a male lover. This aspect of his life, and the fact that self-hatred over his homosexuality added to his distress and undoubtedly contributed to his drinking, is, of course, completely unexplored in this 1940's movie. The only thing that is mildly homoerotic in the picture is an obnoxious male nurse, Bim (well-played by Frank Faylen), in the alcoholic ward. Jackson wrote other works after Lost Weekend, but none were ever as successful as his first, and, although the movie intimates that Birnam will overcome his addictions, that was, sadly, not the case in real life. In 1968 he committed suicide.

Phillip Terry, Jane Wyman, Ray Milland

Still, The Lost Weekend is a memorable film with some first-class performances. Ray Milland, who is generally excellent, won the Best Actor Oscar. (The film also won for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay [Wilder and Charles Brackett] and Best Cinematography [John F. Seitz of the silent Four Horseman of the Apocalypse].) Phillip Terry, one of Joan Crawford's cast-off husbands, had a rare opportunity in a "A" picture and delivers a solid job in probably his most memorable role. Jane Wyman is as sympathetic and adept as ever. Howard Da Silva scores as the bartender, Nat, as do Doris Dowling as the barfly Gloria and Mary Young as Birnam's landlady, Mrs. Deveridge.

An interesting aspect of the picture is that, as played by Milland, Birnam often seems arrogant about his drinking and his life, as if the world owes him a living. In a sequence when Birnam steals a woman's purse in a restaurant, he seems to smirk as if he's gotten away with something, as opposed to his being ashamed and humiliated by his actions. This suggests that Birnam has character failings that have little to do with his drinking.

Jane Wyman

The film has some notable sequences, such as when Birnam sits at a performance of La Traviata, and the opera's famous brindisi (or drinking song) sequence only reminds him of the bottle of hootch he left in his jacket at the coat check and he has to leave to get a drink. Then there's his desperate run from pawn shop to pawn shop so he can get money for his typewriter only to learn that all the shops are closed for the Jewish holiday.

As good as the film is, it now has a kind of dated aspect to it. All you have to do is look at one of the episodes of Dr. Phil where he has desperate family members bringing an alcoholic and drug-addicted person on the show for a last chance at help, to realize that a person rarely just decides to stop drinking. The film is sanitized -- what seems horrifying about the debased, pathetic lives of drunks in this film is nothing compared to the reality. As good as Milland is, he rarely looks or acts like a really hard-core drunk despite the DT's and all the rest. As noted, the photography is first-class, as is Miklos Rosza's score, although the music the composer uses to denote, so to speak, "Demon Rum," is a little over the top and sounds like something out of a science fiction movie.

Verdict: The Lost Weekend must still be remembered as probably the first movie to depict alcoholics not as comical drunks but as tormented and addicted individuals. *** 

JUPITER'S DARLING

George Sanders and Esther Williams -- in the same movie!

JUPITER'S DARLING (1955). Director: George Sidney.

"If Hannibal attacks and Rome is destroyed, we can be buried together as man and wife." -- Fabius.

In 216 B.C. Hannibal (Howard Keel of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) is marching toward Rome with hundreds of men and sixty elephants to sack the city. Inside the city, the dictator Fabius (George Sanders) tries his best to marry his recalcitrant fiancee Amytis (Esther Williams) while hoping he can hold the barbarians at bay. Amytis and her maid, Meta (Marge Champion), sneak off to grab a peek at the elephants -- and handsome Hannibal -- and before you know it they are captured by Hannibal's men. Now it's a question if Hannibal will murder Amytis as a spy or fall in love with her.

Howard Keel as the lusty Hannibal

Jupiter's Darling is a real oddity. First we have Esther Williams and George Sanders in the same movie, although it must be said that they play perfectly well together, although it's no question that despite Williams adroitness in this kind of stuff Sanders is the better actor. Then we have to take into consideration that this is, after all, an Esther Williams Musical and she does manage to get in a fair amount of swimming. Jupiter's Darling is also a kind of war movie (although the climactic battle never quite takes place) as well as a romance and action story. Everything but the kitchen sink. It would be all too easy to laugh at the picture if we were meant to take it seriously, but we're obviously not, and although the picture was a financial bomb for MGM -- it probably cost a fortune to make --  it is also quite entertaining and quite successful on several levels.

The magnificence of Rome

First there is the look of the picture. The cinematography by Paul Vogel and Charles Rosher is outstanding and the movie -- filmed in CinemaScope and Eastman color -- is great to look at throughout, thanks also to art direction by Cedric Gibbons [Tarzan and His Mate] and Urie McCleary. There is especially stunning underwater photography, and the underwater sequences are in every way splendid. Esther dances with some statues that come to life, and later is chased by three of Hannibal's men in an exciting and protracted sequence wherein you wonder when the participants managed to get some oxygen. The songs by Harold Adamson [Change of Heart] and Burton Lane are more than pleasant, with Keel warbling "The Road to Rome," "I Never Trust a Woman," and "Don't Let This Night Get Away." The soldiers come out with "Hannibal, Oh Hannibal," on more than one occasion. Although a dubbed Williams gets to sing "I Had a Dream", the duet she later sings with an un-dubbed Sanders, as well as a dance number for Marge and Gower Champion (playing another slave/soldier) was criminally cut, although it can be seen on the DVD.

Marge and Gower Champion dance with Hannibal's elephants

Speaking of the dancing, although his number about how he loves being a slave is in questionable taste, Gower delivers some fancy footwork in this sequence. Gower and his wife Marge really show off in a subsequent number in which they dance with a group of well-trained and talented elephants. (For the end of the film, the elephants were dyed different colors!) Hermes Pan did the lively choreography for the film. Keel, Williams, and especially Sanders, all offer good performances (albeit nothing Oscar-worthy), and they get excellent support from Norma Varden as Fabius' disapproving mother, Richard Hadyn as an historian, and Douglass Dumbrille as one of Fabius' generals.  An interesting aspect of the movie is that the heroine is essentially a traitress, although she does not kill anyone as some people have wrongly suggested. Another interesting aspect is that there's no way even audiences of the time could get around the fact that Hannibal and Amytis -- who fears becoming a vestial virgin -- are really shaking up that tent as Hannibal keeps postponing the sacking of Rome to satisfy his lusty appetites!

Verdict: Say what you will, this is an entertaining, colorful, and occasionally sexy MGM romp. ***. 

HOUDINI

Tony Curtis

HOUDINI (1953). Director: George Marshall.

Harry Houdini (Tony Curtis) is performing as the "wild man" in a carnival sideshow when he encounters the pretty Bess (Janet Leigh), who finds him a little headstrong. Nevertheless, he wins her over, the two are married, and the couple head for Europe where Harry is determined to become a great magician. Harry manages to escape from a strait-jacket, gets out of a Scotland yard jail cell, and nearly dies when he is caught beneath the ice in the Detroit River. Bess feels some trepidation as Harry prepares to extricate himself from the "Pagoda Torture Cell," which is filled with water and seems inescapable ...

Curtis and then-wife Janet Leigh

Houdini is loosely based on the life of the famous magician, although it does manage to get some of the facts straight. (The Pagoda Torture Cell was actually called the Chinese Water Torture Cell and Houdini escaped from it numerous times. not just once, and the ending to this film is pure fiction). Tony Curtis makes a perfect Houdini, combining brashness with slight nervousness, and giving an energetic performance, while his then-wife Leigh compliments him well as Bess. There are also notable turns by Torin Thatcher [Witness for the Prosecution] as the assistant to a late famous magician who comes to work for Houdini; Mabel Paige [Johnny Belinda] as a phony medium that Houdini exposes; Ian Wolfe [Foreign Correspondent] as the head of a magicians' society; and others. The film is also distinguished by good period atmosphere and the photography of Ernest Laszlo.

Verdict: Entertaining, colorful romp about a fascinating historical figure. ***. 

JANE WYMAN: A BIOGRAPHY

JANE WYMAN: A BIOGRAPHY. Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein. Delacorte; 1985.

Jane Wyman had a distinguished career with one Oscar win, several nominations, and Emmy awards for her work on the TV series Falcon Crest. It has been suggested that the fact that her ex-husband Ronald Reagan became president had a lot to do with her late-in-life success -- even this book makes that point -- but the book also makes clear that Wyman had quite a body of work and a long list of achievements that would have made her a major Hollywood figure no matter whom she was married to.

This book goes on a bit too much about Reagan, which is not necessary considering the life and career enjoyed by Wyman. But it also looks at Wyman's other marriages, her toiling as a contract player in numerous forgettable movies where she was the wise-crackng blonde, then her emergence as a serious player in such films as Johnny Belinda, Miracle in the Rain, The Blue Veil, All That Heaven Allows and others. Many were surprised that Wyman, who continued making (mostly minor) movies, fled to television for her own anthology series a la Loretta Young, when her movie career was going much, much better than Young's. Wyman, however, felt that her type of picture was on its way out. The series, Jane Wyman Theatre, lasted several seasons.

Wyman had two children via Reagan, Maureen and Michael (who was adopted), upon whom Wyman would use a riding crop when he misbehaved, although he apparently never held it against her. Wyman's show Falcon Crest, in which she was excellent as the scheming Angela Channing, lasted for nearly a decade. Her last credit was on an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. A conservative Republican like her ex-husband (whom she probably divorced because she found his constant yakking about politics boring beyond belief), Wyman refused to play "ax murderers or lesbians" (!) when she was offered scripts with same.  Wyman was a private woman, and the book has no major interviews with insiders who knew her well. Still, it manages to be a good read.

Verdict: Solid if sometimes superficial study of a very talented movie star. ***. 

ROUND UP OF NEW AND RECENT FILMS PART FIVE

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

The Unborn (2009). Written and directed by David S. Goyer. Casey (Odette Annable), a self-absorbed young woman, discovers not only that she had a twin brother who died, but that she is being haunted by a malevolent spirit called a dybbuk. Somehow this production managed to ensnare such name players as Jane Alexander (as the young lady''s grandmother) and Gary Oldman as a rabbi who tries to exorcise the dybbuk, but it's an illogical rehash of every horror movie ever made. There is an interesting sequence in a nursing home where an old man is transformed into a monster, and the closing theme music is snappy. **.

The Wife (2017). Director: Bjorn Runge. Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce co-star -- and are marvelous -- in this study of a long-term marriage when the couple travel to Stockholm where the husband is to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. But simmering tensions over the possible true authorship of his novels begin to boil over. Unlike a lot of modern-day movies, this film does not shy away from dramatic confrontations and is all the better for it. It's a good film all around, although one may come off with the nagging feeling that it could have been better, that some things don't quite jell. ***.

Dismissed (2017). Director: Benjamin Arfmann. High school English teacher Mr. Butler (Kent Osborne) comes into conflict with a bright and ambitious -- and unfortunately sociopathic -- student named Lucas Ward (Dylan Sprouse). Lucas takes serious exception when Butler gives his lengthy paper a B plus instead of an A, and Butler finds his life spiraling out of control. Dismissed is suspenseful and well-acted, and demonstrates how anti-social personalities can figuratively and literally destroy the lives of innocent people, but it can't exactly be considered a modern Bad Seed. **1/2.

Hereditary (2018). Written and directed by Ari Aster. A tragic and gruesome death in an already dysfunctional family causes a mother (Toni Collette) to seemingly go off the deep end, but are her problems really caused by the fact that her recently deceased mother was a Satanist? With its slow pace and off-putting style, Hereditary tries to disguise the fact that it's just another devil/possession movie masquerading as a family drama. When the spooky stuff starts late in the picture, it seems somewhat absurd and almost comical. Collette and some of the other actors give good performances, but stick with the less obtuse and more entertaining The Omen instead. **.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018). Director: J.A. Beyona. It turns out that the public zoo of Jurassic World was inexplicably built on an island with an active volcano, so the two leads of the last film decide to try to rescue the remaining dinosaurs. Unfortunately, some greedy people want to sell the monsters off to the highest bidder (would these savage beasts really make great weapons?) but it is no surprise that they wind up getting loose. JWFK is a pretty bad movie, with a terrible and stupid script hampered by dumb animal rights aspects and obnoxious characters, only one halfway memorable sequence, and moments that we have already seen over and over again. Chris Pratt seems so bored with the material -- and who can blame him? -- that he barely gives a performance. Terrible, despite some amazing and fluid FX work. *1/2.

Deadly Runway (aka Fatal Fashion/2018). Director: Doug Campbell. Jennifer (Linsey Godfrey), a disgraced fashion photographer now working in a high school, takes a shy, nerdy guy named David (Joshua Hoffman) to hand and manages to turn him into a top male model. But trouble begins when she gives the same treatment to Caitlyn (Ellen Michelle Monohan), and David becomes attracted to her. Meanwhile David's mom (Jamie Luner) worries about the relationship between Jennifer and David, as Jennifer goes full-out psycho. The cast in this is appealing and the film works as a decidedly minor thriller. **1/2.

Three Identical Strangers (2018). Director: Tim Wardle. This is the true story of three boys, triplets, separated at birth and who grow up in different households until they come across each other during their college years. They later learn that they were part of a study on twins and triplets that was done without their knowledge or consent. While the movie is nowhere near as "astonishing" as the hype would suggest, and I don't necessarily buy the thesis that being separated leads to depression and suicide (sadly, lots of people kill themselves without being separated in childhood), the documentary does have its interesting and poignant aspects. **1/2.

The Little Stranger (2018). Director: Lenny Abrahamson. In 1948 England a young doctor (Domhnall Gleeson) becomes involved with a once-prosperous family, including the mother (Charlotte Rampling), her disfigured veteran son (Will Poutler) and especially his sister, Caroline (Ruth Wilson). The film begins well, is well-produced and photographed with some good performances, but it abruptly turns into an unconvincing "ghost" story. With all of the elements the plot embodies, surely there could have been a stronger storyline to pin them to? Gleeson's performance plays a bit like a stunt. Based on a novel. **.

Replicas (2018). Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff. After his entire family is killed in an automobile accident, a scientist (Keanu Reeves) and his colleague (Thomas Middleditch, the nerd in the Verizon commercials) clone them and use special technology to transfer memories and personalities into the new bodies. The movie could have gone in several interesting and thoughtful directions, but instead turns into a mere "action" film with the family running from the stereotypical evil corporate executives -- which we've all seen a thousand and one times before. Often very illogical and comparatively shallow, the film takes intriguing notions and doesn't do enough with them. Reeves and Middleditch are okay, but Mona Foster, playing the wife, doesn't even appear to be an actress. Like a long and mediocre episode of The Outer Limits. **1/4. 

BURT LANCASTER AT THE FILM FORUM

BURT LANCASTER FESTIVAL AT THE FILM FORUM. 

New York's Film Forum --located at 209 West Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue (212-727-8110)-- is presenting a festival of Burt Lancaster films from Friday July 19th to Thursday August 15th, 2019.

Lancaster with Janice Rule in The Swimmer

The films include The Killers, The Swimmer (my favorite Lancaster performance), From Here to Eternity, The Leopard, Criss Cross, The Crimson Pirate, A Child is Waiting, Atlantic City, The Professionals, Brute Force, Birdman of Alcatraz, Desert Fury, Elmer Gantry, The Rainmaker, Seven Days in May, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Rose Tattoo, Sorry Wrong Number, and others.


For a complete list of films and more information click here.