MA AND PA KETTLE AT HOME

Marjorie Main and Brett Halsey

MA AND PA KETTLE AT HOME (1954). Director: Charles Lamont.

Ma (Marjorie Main) and Pa (Percy Kilbride) Kettle learn that a New York magazine is offering a scholarship to college as a prize, and that their son, Elwin (Brett Halsey), entered the contest, but in his essay has made their farm sound much more ideal than it is. Complicating matters is that Elwin's girlfriend, Sally (Alice Kelley), has also entered the contest, even though her grumpy, penny-pinching father, John (Irving Bacon), could afford to send her on his own. Two judges (Alan Mowbray of Becky Sharp and Ross Elliott of Tarantula) come out to the farms to inspect each applicant and their way of life, and Ma and Pa hurry to fix up their old farm, although there's really no reason they couldn't have just used their new-fangled house. As usual Pa gets his Indian friends to do all of the work. Much of the humor in the film is centered around Alan Mowbray as a persnickety city fellow who has to use out-dated plumbing and finds a frog in his bath (courtesy of little Billy Kettle, played by Richard Eyer), among other atrocities.

Christmas with the Kettles

Ma and Pa Kettle at Home is not the best of the series but it's an improvement over Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki. Lori Nelson and Richard Long as the two oldest Kettle children are nowhere in evidence and are never mentioned. Although he had bit parts before this and appeared on TV, this was Brett Halsey's first credited role in a motion picture and most of the time he just seems scared. Emory Parnell returns as store owner Billy Reed, and Mary Wickes again receives short shrift as a librarian who develops an interest in Mowbray. Kilbride and Main are as wonderful as ever, and Main is given a great bit in which she recites a funny poem at a Christmas party. Pa not only treats his Indian friends like unpaid slaves, but at one point has them dress up in warpaint and go on the warpath so he can "rescue" Mowbray from them and be seen as a hero. At least the Native Americans are pretty disgruntled at doing this.

There were two more Kettle films made without Kilbride in the fifties (who did not pass away until 1964). In one film, The Kettles in the Ozarks, Pa was left out and an uncle was substituted, and in the final Kettle movie, The Kettles on Old MacDonald's Farm, Pa was portrayed by Parker Fennelly.

Verdict: Can't keep those Kettles from coming! **3/4. 

BLACK SUNDAY (1977)

Bruce Dern and Marthe Keller

BLACK SUNDAY (1977). Director: John Frankenheimer.

German-Arab Dahlia (Marthe Keller) is a member of the terrorist group Black September. She has been able to manipulate her lover, a bitter Viet Nam vet named Lander (Bruce Dern), into helping her in a plot to kill thousands of Americans. She hopes to send a message to the U.S. to stop aiding Israel. A taped message that she had planned to release to the media after the event has been recovered following a raid so that now the government knows something deadly is planned but doesn't know what. (The fact that Lander is one of the pilots of the Goodyear blimp for the Superbowl should give you a clue.) Israeli agent Kabakov (Robert Shaw) and FBI man Sam Corley (Fritz Weaver) join forces with others to find this woman -- whom Kabakov should have killed during the raid but didn't -- and stop her plan before she can kill over 83,000 people -- and the President -- at the Superbowl in Miami.

Robert Shaw

Black Sunday is a thinking man's thriller, the kind they generally don't make anymore, in that it has some great action set pieces and lots of suspense, but it also has interesting characters and heroes who are not quite superhuman. The film is over two hours long but never boring as it follows the deadly exploits of the daring terrorist duo and their equally daring pursuers, with speed boat chases, telephone bombs, hotel shoot-outs and a climax involving a blimp, a helicopter, a sub-machine gun wielded all too well by Dahlia, and a bomb that will fire thousands of metal pellets into a crowd of cheering and clueless fans if something isn't done to prevent it.

Marthe Keller 

The acting in the film could not be bettered. Marthe Keller of Fedora gives another excellent and passionate performance as the terrorist, and Bruce Dern [Coming Home] is simply superb as the tormented and vengeful vet who spent months in a POW camp and whose wife left him for another man when he finally returned home. Robert Shaw is similarly on target, as are supporting performances from Weaver, Steven Keats [The Last Dinosaur] as another ill-fated Israeli agent, and others. There's a horrifying scene in a warehouse when the evil duo test their weapon on an innocent caretaker who only thinks they're going to take his picture, and many other memorable moments. John Williams' score is also quite effective.

This is based on a novel by Thomas Harris. I always thought it was far superior to his over-rated Silence of the Lambs and that this earlier film is far superior to the film version of Lambs. Back in 1977, terrorist plots like this were strictly the stuff of movies and books, not to mention James Bond, but 9/11 certainly changed that notion, as we soon realized, sadly, that now anything was possible ...

Verdict: Terrific thriller with a great plot and excellent performances. ***1/2. 

FATAL ATTRACTION

Glenn Close and Michael Douglas

FATAL ATTRACTION (1987). Director: Adrian Lyne.

Lawyer Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) is happily married to wife Beth (Anne Archer) and the two have a small daughter. One night at a party Dan meets Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) and sparks immediately strike between the two. A second chance encounter leads into dinner and a heated sexual liaison, then an intense weekend fling. Alex knows that Dan is married but she is not to be put off when she demands that he see her again. Dan wants to think of this as just a pleasant interlude, but Alex is already making marriage plans. Before long she is phoning and stalking Dan and getting personally involved in the lives of his family. It's a question of who will break first, angry husband or angrier paramour.

Bad boy: Michael Douglas

Fatal Attraction is a well-made and absorbing picture although one could argue that it skirts the tougher questions. The picture also has an old-fashioned tone to it in that the wife in this is pretty much expected (after some initial anger) to meekly put up with her husband's peccadilloes, especially when you consider what Alex puts her and her family through. Then there's the fact that Dan shows not the slightest trace of hesitation or guilt as he throws himself pell mell into an affair when his trusting wife and child are out of town  -- he hardly ever seems remorseful. Some of this is due to Douglas' performance, a glibness that may inadvertently give a clue to Dan's (lack of) character. Anne Archer is more than solid as Beth, and Ellen Latzen makes an adorable young daughter.

Alex having a bad moment

And then there's Glenn Close, who steals the movie. Close herself has remarked how the film does not delve enough into the events or psychological traumas that might have made Alex the unwrapped person that she is, but Close does her best to vividly bring the woman to life in spite of it. Whether she's being flirtatious or murderous, giving vent to a psychotic rage or almost engaging the audience's sympathy due to her loneliness and unrequited feelings, she is always on top of things (she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar).

Glenn Close

But let's not be too sympathetic for her. While women who have affairs with married men often say, rightfully, that the husbands are worse because they are married, the mistresses (although Alex never quite becomes a mistress) shouldn't be let off the hook. Alex enters into the relationship with Dan even though she knows he's married -- it is possibly her sheer narcissism that convinces her that Dan will almost immediately drop his wife for her. The punched-up ending involving a bathtub and a butcher knife is like something out of a slasher film only not as gory. The film is compelling enough on its limited terms that it probably would have worked with its original wind-up. Considering that Dan is a prick -- not for how he treats Alex so much but for how he treats his wife -- I would not be so quick to say that the film has a happy ending. Dan may choose his next paramour with more care, but there will be more paramours in the future, you can bet. Cheaters cheat.

Verdict: Not exactly Hitchcock, but well-made and occasionally suspenseful and exciting. ***.

LARCENY

John Payne and Joan Caulfield

LARCENY (1948). Director: George Sherman.

"If she's your cousin, I'm a boa constrictor in high heels." -- Tory.

Rick Mason (John Payne of Hats Off) is part of a group of con men led by Silky Randall (Dan Duryea). Silky is nuts about blowsy blond Tory (Shelley Winters), but she is really crazy about Rick and vice versa. Silky tries to send Tory to Havana while Rick starts a new con involving a wealthy war widow, Deborah (Joan Caulfield), but Tory shows up in the same town. Now Rick not only has to keep Deborah from finding out about Tory, but Silky as well. Tory's presence could put paid to Rick's scheme to steal $100,000 earmarked for a youth center, but a different complication is that he finds that he's genuinely falling for Deborah.

Shelley Winters and John Payne

Larceny is an absorbing melodrama with solid performances from the entire cast, although Shelley Winters pretty much walks off with the movie with her zesty and sexy portrayal of Tory. Tory is given the best and most amusing lines (by Margolis, Morheim and Bowers) and Winter's sassy performance makes the most of them. She gets some competition from Dorothy Hart [Tarzqn's Savage Fury] as Madeline, a secretary who can wear glasses and still get passes -- and make some of her own. Patricia Alphin is yet another lady, a waitress, who makes eyes and more at handsome Rick. There are other notable performances from Percy Helton (playing a sweet old guy for a change); Dan O'Herlihy as another con man; and Richard Rober as Max, another one of Silky's associates. Percy and Payne had a different kind of interaction in The Crooked Way. Don Wilson and Gene Evans have smaller roles. The con man who goes soft for love is an old, old stereotype but this is one of the better movies on that theme, even if the conversion isn't entirely believable, and the characters aren't as dimensional as you might like.

Verdict: Absorbing and snappy film noir. ***. 

THE MAGNIFICENT FRAUD

Akim Tamiroff and Mary Boland

THE MAGNIFICENT FRAUD (1939). Director: Robert Florey.

Sam Barr (Lloyd Nolan) is friend and aide to Alvarado (Akim Tamiroff of After the Fox), the president of San Cristobal. When Alvarado is killed by a bomb, Sam importunes actor Jules LaCroix (Akim Tamiroff again) to pose as the president until some papers are signed and a certain loan secured -- only Sam has his own plans for the money. But there are complications in the form of Duval (Ernest Cossart) of the French Surete, who wants LaCroix for murder, and two females who are recent arrivals in San Cristobal: Geraldine (Mary Boland of Nothing But Trouble) is a former opera singer who knew Alvarado -- whom she knew as "El Toro" -- quite well in her youth, and is determined to see again. Then there's her younger friend, Claire (Patricia Morison), whom Sam begins to fall for, even though he knows he really isn't right for her. The biggest complication is that LaCroix is beginning to enjoy his performance -- the best of his life -- a little too much and delays and delays in signing those papers ...

Patricia Morison and Lloyd Nolan

The sad fact about The Magnificent Fraud -- at least for me -- is that even with an interesting plot, a good director, and several of my favorite actors -- Tamiroff, Boland, George Zucco as a doctor -- in the cast, the movie is an effort to sit through. Time and again I thought of stopping and putting it in my next Films I Just Couldn't Finish post, but I somehow managed to make it through. True, it's not the fastest moving of movies, but it's not that slow. Perhaps it's that movies like this which are basically serious in tone yet have a kind of comical premise either work for you or they don't, and this one just didn't. It doesn't help that Lloyd Nolan is simply too homely to make a convincing lover boy. Tamiroff is wonderful, but Boland isn't given that much opportunity to be fun, although she and Tamiroff have a splendid dramatic moment together at the very end of the film. Morison doesn't make much of an impression in this flick; she was more scintillating in later films.  Remade as a comedy entitled Moon Over Parador. The prolific Robert Florey also directed Johnny Weissmuller's last appearance as the Ape Man, Tarzan and the Mermaids.

Verdict: Not one of the classic films of 1939. **. 

NIGHT AND THE CITY

Richard Widmark

NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950). Director: Jules Dassin.

In London Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark of Don't Bother to Knock) is a hustler for a night club and is always coming up with one get-rich-quick scheme after another. His loving girlfriend, Mary (Gene Tierney), sings at the same club and tries her best to keep Harry's flights of fancy from careening out of control. He meets the son, Nikolas (Ken Richmond), of a famous retired wrestler. Gregorius (Stanislaus Sbyszko), and decides to become the younger man's manager. But this doesn't sit well with Gregorius' other son, Kristo (Herbert Lom), who has the fight racket in London sewn up. Besides, Harry needs money to stage a match, and if he can't get it from the corpulent club owner, Philip Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan of Hell's Island), he'll get it from the man's wife, Helen (Googie Withers), who has a thing for him. But  Harry may find he's bitten off more than he can chew as he attempts to balance all these factions and emerge a winner ...

Tierney and Widmark

Although he does over-act at times (although this also gives a hint of Harry's essentially neurotic and desperate nature), Widmark gives an excellent performance in this, and he's able to make the man sympathetic, despite his flaws, as well. Gene Tierny has such a small role, and is off-screen for so much time, that you wonder why she even bothered to take the part, but she is nevertheless effective. Sbyszko and Richmond were professional wrestlers in real life and are pretty good, especially the former, considering they weren't really actors. Herbert Lom gives another sharp and dynamic performance as Kristo. Sullivan, who had a lengthy career, adds some nuances to his portrayal of Philip, and Googie Withers, who also had a long career, is quite effective as his unhappy wife, Helen. Mike Mazurki scores as the wrestler known as "The Strangler" and Hugh Marlowe, although his acting is solid, is kind of lost in this crowd as an upstairs neighbor who is carrying a torch for Mary. One must also note the contributions of cinematographer Max Greene, and composer Benjamin Frankel.

The Connecticut-born Jules Dassin also directed Rififi. Night and the City was remade in 1992 with Robert De Niro in the Harry Fabian role but the film was not well-received.

Verdict: Unusual drama with a rich and interesting cast. ***. 

A SONG TO REMEMBER

Cornel Wilde and Merle Oberon

A SONG TO REMEMBER (1945). Director: Charles Vidor.

Child piano prodigy Frederic Chopin (Cornel Wilde of The Big Combo) is urged to go to Paris by his teacher, Professor Elsner (Paul Muni). Chopin's parents won't allow the boy to go so it isn't until Chopin is grown, and forced to flee Poland after insulting the Czar, that he finally arrives in Paris. There he and Elsner have trouble convincing others of his greatness. Chopin's patriotic fervor is dampened by the presence in his life of the writer George Sand (Merle Oberon of The Price of Fear), who insists that a true artist must forget about the petty struggles of the "rabble." But Professor Elsner isn't about to let Chopin forget about where he came from nor about the Polish people.

Cornel Wilde as Chopin

A Song to Remember is a very heavily fictionalized version of the life of the great composer, with some incidents simply being made up to propel the story along and add some drama. The funny thing is that the lives of Chopin and Sand were already quite dramatic and full of incident, so the fabrications weren't even necessary. Still, there are basic factoids about the composer in the film, and one could argue that it portrays his essence if not his reality. Cornel Wilde is quite good as the Hollywood version of Chopin and was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. If there is any problem with his portrayal it is within the script, as it makes Chopin out to be an ungrateful snob who literally snubs the man who has done so much for him. He redeems himself at the end, but still ...

Paul Muni and Maurice Tauzin

George Sand doesn't fare much better, coming off as monstrously self-absorbed. In this case, Oberon doesn't help with her one-dimensional emoting. Oberon is unable to get across the possibility that it is her need for Chopin that turns her into a selfish creature who makes outrageous statements. However, Paul Muni gives an excellent performance as the professor. He can be forgiven some "cutesy" moments because his role borders at times on the comic, but he is otherwise superb. Little Maurice Tauzin [Tarzan and the Huntress] also makes an impression as the great composer at age ten. There is also very good work from Stephen Bekassy as Franz Liszt, George Coulouris as impresario Louis Pleyel, Nina Foch as Chopin's concerned sister, and Howard Freeman as the critic Kalkbrenner. Even if you're unconvinced by the dramatics, the score consists of some of Chopin's most beautiful and memorable pieces -- you might be surprised by how many works you will be familiar with.

Verdict: Fine performances, a beautiful score, and lushly romantic. ***1/4.  

THE SECOND GREATEST SEX

Jeanne Crain

THE SECOND GREATEST SEX (1955). Director: George Marshall.

In the old west of 1880 there are range wars between three towns who are all trying to get the lawful county seat by getting their hands on the papers inside a big safe. The men have been gone for a long time but when they finally come home with the safe, Matt Davis (George Nader) and Liza McClure (Jeanne Crain) finally get hitched. Unfortunately, before the marriage can be consummated, the safe is stolen and the war is back on. Liza and the other ladies decide to take a page from Aristophanes "Lysistrata" and hole up in a fort, withholding favors and everything else from the men folk until they give up fighting. Considering that men are "the second greatest sex," it us up to the women to set things right.

'With All My Heart" George Nader

I had heard of this flick for years but had trepidation about it because I was afraid it might be terminally cute, but while it's not quite a laugh-riot, it's still an entertaining movie. It is also a musical, with several songs by teams I'd never heard of. Things get off to a lively start with "What Good is a Woman Without a Man?" Matt (dubbed) sings a nice romantic ballad to Liza ("With All My Heart") and Reverend Maxwell (Keith Andes) leads the men in a rousing chorus of "Send Us a Miracle." And then there's the dancing, with which the picture really distinguishes itself.

Dancer Tommy Rall as Alf

The chief dancer in this is Tommy Rall [World in My Corner], who plays Alf Connors. First he is featured in an outstanding post-wedding number when he competitively dances with two other men who drop from exhaustion while he goes on to triumph. Later he does a ballet as his wife Katy (Kitty Kallen) dreams about him. As for the acting in this, Jeanne Crain makes the perfect leading lady, and Bert Lahr [Mr. Universe] makes a good impression as her father, Job. Jimmy Boyd is fun as Job's teenage son, who is always asking about S E X although -- as usual -- Job hasn't a clue as to how to discuss it with him. George Nader is fine as the hero, and we've also got good work from Paul Gilbert [So This is Paris] as a traveling salesman, Edna Skinner as the old maid schoolteacher who falls for him, and even Mamie Van Doren as a pretty maiden who sets her cap for the town preacher! George Wallace is one of the men trying to get the safe away from Matt and the others. Not as good as the earlier Seven Brides for Seven Brothers but fun.

Verdict: Say what you will about it, it's different. ***. 

THE FEMALE ANIMAL

Heartbroken: Hedy Lamarr

THE FEMALE ANIMAL (1958). Director: Harry Keller.

Tippling unhappy aging actress Vanessa Windsor (Hedy Lamarr) almost has an accident on her film set, but she is saved by handsome extra Chris Farley (George Nader). Entering into a romance with Vanessa, Farley moves into her beach house as a "caretaker," but he bridles at the thought of being seen as a gigolo. He accidentally gets involved with a pretty blond named Penny (Jane Powell) -- also coming to her rescue -- and is unaware that she is actually Vanessa's daughter. The fur will fly when Vanessa finds out she's competing with her own daughter for the man she's falling in love with ...

Jane Powell as a "drunken slut?" 

The Female Animal was forty-four-year-old Lamarr's last picture. It's likely that she wasn't crazy about being cast as Jane Powell's mother,  as Powell was only fifteen years younger, although Lamarr was still quite beautiful. She also gives a good performance in this, vividly bringing to life the sad situation of a successful woman who fears aging and being alone in the twilight years but who is doomed to meeting mostly men who just want to use her. Her emoting makes her character more sympathetic than she might have been. Most of Powell's great pictures [Seven Brides for Seven Brothers] were also behind her at this point, but she was obviously trying to broaden her range -- as a drunken slut, no less! -- and succeeds admirably, giving a terrific performance as a young woman who feels abandoned by her self-centered mother -- Vanessa fears the public even knowing that she has a daughter that age.

George Nader and Hedy Lamarr

George Nader is also good in the film, and there are notable turns from Jan Sterling as a fading actress with a yen for younger men, James Gleason as a bar owner, Jerry Paris as Chris' buddy, Mabel Albertson as Chris' landlady, and Ann Doran as Vanessa's sympathetic nurse. The movie is, in essence, a soap opera, but it works quite well on that level, and features the occasional saucy line, although it does not boast what one might call a brilliant screenplay.  Harry Keller also directed The Unguarded Moment with Nader and Esther Williams (also trying to broaden her range).

Verdict: No Sunset Boulevard, perhaps, but entertaining and generally well-acted. ***. 

MA AND PA KETTLE AT WAIKIKI

Percy Kilbride and Marjorie Main

MA AND PA KETTLE AT WAIKIKI (1953). Director: Lee Sholem.

Pa Kettle's (Percy Kilbride) cousin, Rodney (Loring Smith of Shadow of the Thin Man), who once hoped to marry Ma (Marjorie Main) but instead stayed in Hawaii to run a pineapple business, has been told to take it easy by his doctor. Rodney and his associates decide to importune Pa -- whom they wrongly think is rich and successful -- to temporarily run the pineapple business in Honolulu until Rodney's health improves. They also think Pa's brilliance will put the company on the fast track again. Against all odds, the ever-lazy Pa seems to come up with schemes that enrich the firm's coffers. But then he's kidnapped and taken to an island where he thinks there's buried treasure.

Percy Kilbride as the lazy Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki starts out well with several amusing sequences revolving both around Pa's efforts at the pineapple plant and Ma's encounters with the snobby bank president's wife, Teresa Andrews (Mabel Albertson of The House That Would Not Die) and her condescending lady friends. Unfortunately, the flick falls apart in the second half with the introduction of the thoroughly uninteresting kidnappers (including Russell Johnson and Myron Healey) and the whole dull business with the treasure hunt. Even the insertion of a Hawaiian version of Ma and Pa and their huge brood doesn't help, but leads to even more tedious sequences when these characters attempt to rescue Pa with Ma's super-butch assistance and a lot of coconuts. Okay, there's a cute business with a crab but that's about it.

Lori Nelson returns as the Kettle's grown daughter, Rosie, and goes to Hawaii with them, and her new love interest is Bob Baxter (Byron Palmer), who works for Rodney Kettle. Birdie Hicks (Esther Dale) returns briefly and is back to hating Ma again, leading into a funny sequence involving an air-conditioner that doesn't work the way Pa intended. This script has Ma seeming much more stupid than usual.

Verdict: Some fun, but otherwise a disappointment. **1/4. 

RALPH MEEKER

Ralph Meeker in Code Two

RALPH MEEKER (1920 - 1988).

Meeker came to the public's and critics' attention when he replaced Marlon Brando in the stage version of A Streetcar Named Desire and won very good reviews. Then he got the lead role in William Inge's Picnic. The story goes that he turned down the lead in the film version because he didn't want to be tied down to a studio contract, and this negatively affected his career thereafter. He never attained the super-stardom of, say, a William Holden (who took Meeker's part in the film version of Picnic) but he did have a solid career and won many raves for his work in the years to come, amassing 110 credits in movies and on television. His pictures include The Naked Spur, Ada, The Food of the Gods, Jeopardy, The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown, and others that Great Old Movies is looking into this week (see below) -- including the famous Kiss Me Deadly, Meeker had three wives, the best-known of which was the actress Salome Jens of Seconds. He was only 67 when he died. 

SOMEBODY LOVES ME

Ralph Meeker and Betty Hutton

SOMEBODY LOVES ME (1952). Director: Irving Brecher.

Blossom Seeley (Betty Hutton of Spring Reunion) becomes a top vaudeville entertainer and sees a trio performing in a club one night. Spying the handsome crooner Benny Fields (Ralph Meeker of Jeopardy) -- one of the trio --  she decides "that's for me!" and hires all of them for her act. This arrangement doesn't work for long, until Benny proposes and becomes her accompanist. But soon he's "Mr. Seeley" and feels like a kept man. But did he marry Blossom for love or other motives?

Billie Bird and Cheetah? 

Although pretty much forgotten today, the real-life Seeley and Fields were once as famous as Jack Benny and Burns and Allen. This biopic revived their careers in the fifties. Betty Hutton gives one of her best performances in this, bold and brassy when she needs to be, and more subdued and lovely at other moments. Although generally one would hardly think of Ralph Meeker for the leading role in a musical, he's fine in this flick, and while he's really not a dancer, he sexily shakes his booty in one number. Robert Keith and Billie Bird [The Cat Burglar] are both first-rate as Blossom's manager and her best friend, who was once an entertainer herself. Adele Jergens also scores in an early sequence when she's a condescending headliner who gets undone by Bird and an adorable chimpanzee (who reads Variety no less). Jack Benny has a famous cameo as himself as a master of ceremonies.

Ralph Meeker

The film has some lively dance numbers and a good score comprised of classic tunes (like Gershwin's title song) and a few new numbers by Livingstone and Evans. The highlights are "I Cried Over You;" "Jealous;" "When I Was a Kid in Dixie;" and "Dixie Dreams." Meeker's voice was probably dubbed by Fields himself, as it sounds like him. An interesting scene has Benny admitting to Blossom that their marriage was essentially a career move, although according to this film he did fall in love with her later on. Hutton did only one more film after this one and then had a few TV appearances.

Verdict: Nice music, excellent performances, put over this lively musical biopic. ***. 

CODE TWO

Ralph Meeker, Jeff Richards, Robert Horton

CODE TWO (1953). Director: Fred M. Wilcox.

Three young men -- Chuck (Ralph Meeker), Russ (Robert Horton) and Harry (Jeff Richards of Born Reckless) -- join the police academy in Los Angeles and eventually ask to be assigned to the motor(cycle) squad. Chuck is a cocky if likable lug who goes after Russ' sister-in-law, Jane (Elaine Stewart of The Tattered Dress) but her focus is more on the shy-but-sexy Harry. Russ at first keeps the news about his assignment from his wife (Sally Forrest) because she fears for his safety, but tragedy is in store for one of the other men, with his two friends doing their best to avenge him. It all leads to an exciting climax in a warehouse with a boiling lime pit and a host of bad guys trying to make mincemeat of our heroes.

The three leads all give solid performances with fine support from the ladies and from Keenan Wynn as Police Sergeant "Jumbo" Culdane. William Campbell [The Young Racers] is also notable as a nasty, murderous trucker. Also on hand in smaller roles are Chuck Connors as a cop and James Craig as a police lieutenant. As for Meeker, he struts through the film with great charisma and authority.

Verdict: Well-done if minor cop melodrama. **1/2. 

KISS ME DEADLY

KISS ME DEADLY (1955). Produced and directed by Robert Aldrich.

Private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) picks up a desperate runaway, Christina (Cloris Leachman of Happy Mother's Day, Love George), on the highway, embroiling him in a convoluted and dangerous case after they are waylaid and she is tortured and murdered. Mike barely survives himself, but he is intrigued and angry enough to determine to find out what's actually going on. As Hammer proceeds in his investigation over the objections of Lt. Pat Murphy (Wesley Addy of The Garment Jungle) -- who takes his licence away -- the bodies begin to pile up. Meanwhile Mike decides to shelter Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers), the late Christina's terrified roommate. She and everyone but Velda (Maxine Cooper), Mike's secretary, seem concerned over a certain package that contains what Velda refers to as a "whatzis." After a number of people are beaten and killed, and Mike himself is subjected to truth serum by an unseen foe, he learns that Velda has been kidnapped. The climax occurs at a beach house occupied by a certain sinister doctor, all leading to a literally explosive finale.

Wesley Addy and Ralph Meeker

Kiss Me Deadly is one of Aldrich's best films. Although one could easily argue that it becomes hard to follow at times and under close inspection may not even make much sense, it is so brisk, well-acted, and absorbing that it is actually quite fascinating. Frank De Vol's score adds to the atmosphere,
as does Ernst Laszlo's superb cinematography, making the most of its LA locations. Then there's the acting. Meeker follows in the footsteps of Biff Elliott of I the Jury made two years earlier, and he is also near-perfect as a more thuggish variation of Mike Hammer. (Mickey Spillane did not care for the changes made to the character from novel to film.)

Percy Helton comes afoul of Ralph Meeker

Gaby Rodgers is so good as Lily that it's a surprise that she didn't become better known, but in addition to a few TV credits, she only did two pictures, this and an independent film that was barely released. Paul Stewart scores as a sinister mafia bigwig, Wesley Addy makes a convincing cop, and Marian Carr, Albert Dekker, and Maxine Cooper give flavorful performances as well. Percy Helton is up to his usual weaselly no-good-ness and figures in a sequence when Hammer uses an especially sadistic method to get a morgue attendant to talk. For a film made in the fifites, Kiss Me Deadly can be rather raw. Although Christina's torture is never actually shown, her dangling naked legs and the horrendous screams she omits tell the story in a way that might have sickened the stomachs of some viewers back in the day. (Alas, she keeps screaming as if the pliers were still being applied to her even though it's clear that no one is standing beside her any longer.)

Kiss Me Deadly deserves its reputation, although there are some critics who wax quite pretentiously about it -- profound it is not; cinematic it is. NOTE: Ahead of his time, Mike Hammer keeps an early version of an answering machine in his home office. Although much of the film's basic plot is derived from the novel, it deals strictly with mafia hoods and nothing radioactive.

Verdict: Despite the silly title, this is hard-hitting and very well done. ***1/2. 

PATHS OF GLORY

Kirk Douglas and George Macready

PATHS OF GLORY (1957). Director: Stanley Kubrick.

"There is no such thing as shell shock." -- General Mireau

French WW 1 General Paul Mireau (George Macready) initially makes it clear to General Brouard (Adolphe Menjou) that there is no way his battalion can possibly take a strategic position known as the "anthill." But Mireau changes his tune when Brousard talks about a promotion, even though they expect at least 60% casualties among their men.

Wayne Morris and Ralph Meeker

Now Mireau's second-in-command Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) is told in no uncertain terms that the men -- already exhausted and demoralized -- must take the hill the next day or else. Although the soldiers try their damnedest, it is an impossible and indeed suicidal task, and Mireau accuses them of cowardice. (Mireau even wants to fire on his own men because they aren't moving fast enough!) Mireau is talked out of shooting a hundred soldiers, but three are to be court-marshaled as an example. These three men are Private Arnaud (Joe Turkel of The Glass Wall); Private Ferol (Timothy Carey of The World's Greatest Sinner and Kubrick's The Killing); and Corporal Paris (Ralph Meeker), who is picked because he knows that his superior officer, Lt. Roget (Wayne Morris), essentially murdered one of his soldiers. Dax represents the men in what is basically a kangaroo court with an outcome that is clearly pre-ordained.

Old pros: Macready and Menjou

Paths of Glory is a powerful and maddening film, examining the outrageous miscarriages of justice and heartlessness that can take place during war time even among men fighting on the same side. The performances are excellent: a borderline slimy Menjou; an upright and morally-repulsed Douglas; Meeker, whose trademark cockiness eventually vanishes when he faces his own mortality; and Wayne Morris giving an unexpectedly strong performance as the morally-bankrupt Roget. Turkel and Carey are also notable -- as is Richard Anderson as the prosecutor --  but the one actor who positively walks away with the film is George Macready, who gives an absolutely ferocious and mesmerizing portrayal of the utterly loathsome and infuriating Mireau -- forget Gilda (in which I didn't think Macready was even all that great), this is the performance he should be remembered for.

Kubrick beautifully -- or rather horrifically -- recreates the WW 1 battlefield, and scenes of the men in the trenches as bombs explode unnervingly all around them are compelling, The film almost goes a bit off-course in the second half when it has aspects that remind one of the later Dr. Strangelove, but for the most part this is one of Kubrick's most successful and effective movies. Several years later the film King and Country had a similar theme but was not as good.

Verdict: George Macready's finest hour and a half and a highly memorable if imperfect picture for Kubrick. ***1/2. 

SOMETHING WILD (1961)

Carroll Baker and Ralph Meeker

SOMETHING WILD (1961). Director/co-screenplay: Jack Garfein.

Mary Ann Robinson (Carroll Baker of Bridge to the Sun) walks home from work one evening, and is pulled into the bushes and raped. This traumatic experience leads into a series of strange actions, such as her leaving home without telling her mother (Mildred Dunnock) or stepfather (Charles Watts), taking a job in a five and dime store in another neighborhood, and moving into a cramped "apartment" about the size of a closet. One afternoon on the Brooklyn Bridge she tries to throw herself into the river, but she is stopped by the intervention of a worker named Mike (Ralph Meeker). But this apparently kind stranger may have even more problems than Mary Ann does and she finds herself locked in his apartment ...

Carroll Baker

Something Wild was based on a novel named Mary Ann and directed (and co-written) by theater man Jack Garfein, who was married to Carroll Baker at the time. Baker is deglamourized in this and generally gives a good performance, as does Meeker, although both are given rather impossible characters to play. I believe the film is trying to say that two damaged individuals can find love with each other, but there's a big difference in being a (rape) victim and being (in essence) someone who commits criminal actions like holding someone against their will, so turning this into a "love" story -- and yes the film does try to make us believe this has a happy and romantic ending -- would be almost as ludicrous as having Mary Ann fall in love with her rapist (who never shows up after the opening sequence). Apologists for the film -- and there are many -- try to suggest that Mike only locked Mary Ann in because he didn't want her killing herself, but she could just have easily killed herself in the apartment and his motives for keeping her a prisoner aren't nearly so noble.

Cinematography by Eugene Shufftan

The shame of it is that this hopelessly muddled, even offensive film has a lot going for it. In addition to the leads we have notable work by Mildred Dunnock as the concerned if ineffectual mother; Jean Stapleton as a slatternly neighbor of Mary Ann's; Doris Roberts as a co-worker at the five and dime who is put off by what she perceives as Mary Ann's stuck-up attitude; Martin Kosleck [The Flesh Eaters] as the somewhat sleazy landlord; and others. The film has a highly interesting score by no less than Aaron Copland [The Heiress], and is strikingly photographed in black and white by Eugen Shufftan, who makes the most of some very familiar New York City locations. Shufftan gives the film a very grim and intense atmosphere throughout. Garfield's direction is good if imperfect. He only directed one other movie, The Strange One. 

Despite all the notable aspects, Something Wild is done in by its contrivances. One suspects the plot was concocted before the characters were conceived, and -- in the film, at least -- they are never developed all that well.

Verdict: Should these two sick individuals get married? Where is Dr. Phil when you need him? **. 

OUR VERY OWN

Ann Blyth and Joan Evans

OUR VERY OWN (1950). Director: David Miller.

Gail McCaulay (Ann Blyth) is just about to turn 18. Gail, who has two younger sisters, is practically engaged to her handsome beau, Chuck (Farley Granger). The elder of Gail's two siblings, Joan (Joan Evans of On the Loose), is attracted to Chuck and very jealous of their relationship, and during an argument she lets slip that Gail was adopted, something Joan only recently discovered by accident. Gail's world is upended by this revelation, and she decides to seek out her birth mother (Ann Dvorak), but will she be able to ultimately handle her feelings and accept that she is very much loved by her true and supportive family? And what will her "real" mother be like?

Ann Dvorak and Jane Wyatt

Our Very Own is an absorbing and pleasant movie with good performances from Blyth, Evans and Granger as well as from Jame Wyatt and Donald Cook as the girls' parents. Ann Dvorak also scores as the birth mother who is so afraid her husband will find out about her child, and you wish she was given  more screen time. Natalie Wood is adorable as the youngest of the three sisters, and she has a cute scene when she's driving a TV installer (Gus Schilling) to distraction with all of her questions. Phyllis Kirk also appears to advantage as Zaza, a very sympathetic friend of Gail's -- her wealthy father would rather go to a party than attend her graduation.  Martin Milner is Bert, who has a crush on Joan and is rather unkind to Gwen (Kipp Hamilton of The Unforgiven), a slightly chubby girl who has a crush on him. Those who hope the film might be a trash wallow along the lines of Three Bad Sisters will be disappointed, as there are no cat fights and no talk of genetic issues that may derail marriage plans and the like.

Verdict: Compelling romantic drama with a heartwarming conclusion. ***. 

THE BONNIE PARKER STORY

Jack Hogan and Dorothy Provine

THE BONNIE PARKER STORY (1958). Director: William Witney.

In 1930's Oklahoma Bonnie Parker (Dorothy Provine of Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die) has a dead end job as a waitress after her husband, Duke (Richard Bakalyan), is sent up the river for 175 years. But then Bonnie meets the cocky "Guy Darrow" (Jack Hogan of The Cat Burglar), whose first passes are easily blocked by the feisty and easily-angered Bonnie. Eventually Guy convinces his new girlfriend that they could make a lot of money knocking off gas stations and the like, but Bonnie -- who proves much more strong-willed than Guy -- is sick of getting comparative chicken feed. Her new plan is to to break her husband out of jail and start robbing banks ...

Dorothy Provine as Bonnie Parker

Made almost ten years earlier than the more famous Bonnie and Clyde, this is arguably the better of the two pictures. Provine and Hogan give more convincing performances as these rather vicious individuals, and William Witney -- who helmed numerous cliffhanger serials -- knows how to keep things moving at a brisk pace and also creates lots of suspense in key moments. There are other good performances in the film as well: Joe Turkel [The Glass Wall] as Guy's brother; Patricia Huston as his girlfriend; William Stevens as a budding architect who sees a more romantic and tender side of Bonnie; Richard Bakalyan as Duke; Douglas Kennedy as a cop who is pursuing the couple; and others.

Jack Hogan as "Guy Darrow"

The picture has several good scenes, including the hold-up of a armored truck which is nearly interrupted by a boy scout troop and the terrified scoutmaster (Sydney Lassick), and a tense if amusing business when a cute little boy (Stanley Livingstone) seemingly identifies Bonnie and the others as "bank robbers." The climactic shoot-out is also extremely well-handled. One could argue that the film may not have a lot of period atmosphere and it's strange that Clyde Barrow's name was changed, albeit not very much.

Verdict: Very snappy AIP crime drama with vivid players. ***. 

A PAIR OF BRIEFS

Mary Peach and Michael Craig

A PAIR OF BRIEFS (1962). Director: Ralph Thomas.

Tony Stevens (Michael Craig) is a young lawyer hoping to get "briefs" -- cases -- that will pay more money than others. Tony is annoyed when newcomer Frances (Mary Peach) gets a high-paying case right off the bat due to connections, so he importunes a drunken friend of his in the prosecutor's office to let him stand up for the defendant in the same case (a highly unlikely scenario). Frances is representing Gladys Worthing (Brenda de Banzie), a shabby middle-aged woman who is suing her alleged husband, Sidney (Ron Moody of Murder Most Foul), for "restitution of conjugal rights." For his part, Sidney insists that he and Gladys were never married. As the case proceeds, Judge Haddon (James Robertson Justice) nearly has apoplexy dealing with the oddly reticent plaintiff as well as the conduct of the two opposing barristers.

Nicholas Phipps

A Pair of Briefs tries hard to be a hilarious near-farce of a comedy, but it is never as funny as it might have looked on paper. The performances are fine, with handsome Craig managing to actually come off like a nerd through much of the movie. What makes the film worthwhile and memorable are the developments and twists that come in the final third of the film, which are amusing. Also in the cast is Nicholas Phipps, who wrote the screenplay, as he did for the Craig vehicle Doctor in Love, in which he also appeared. A small part is played by Judy Carne, who later went on to fame on Laugh-In and through her combative marriage to Burt Reynolds.

Verdict: Interesting developments and a good cast help put this over. ***. 

MA AND PA KETTLE ON VACATION

Parisian dining: Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbride

MA AND PA KETTLE ON VACATION (1952). Director: Charles Lamont.

Ma (Marjorie Main) and Pa (Percy Kilbride) Kettle receive an invitation from Elizabeth and Jonathan Parker (a returning Barbara Brown and Ray Collins) -- their married daughter's in-laws -- to accompany them on a trip to Paris after their original traveling companions cancel. Once there, the foursome get embroiled in a silly story involving a nest of spies and secret Naval plans. Ma and Pa Kettle On Vacation is a step down from the previous movies in the series, although Ma and Pa remain utterly endearing creations and Main and Kilbride are superb in bringing them to life. There are still humorous lines and sequences in the film, such as when Ma belts an Apache dancer in a nightclub because she thinks he's actually hitting his lady partner, and Ma cluelessly refers to Parisians as "Parasites!"  The supporting cast includes Sig Ruman [Thank You Mr. Moto] as a spy, and the ever-versatile Jay Novello has a very small role -- as a Frenchman no less!

Verdict: The screenplay is weak but the players are spirited. **½.

PARIS MODEL

Eva Gabor and Tom Conway 

PARIS MODEL (1953). Director: Alfred E.  Green.

Four women who pick out a fancy dress -- a "Paris model" or a cheaper copy of it -- want to wow their men but wind up getting their comeuppance, except in the last instance. Gogo (Eva Gabor) hopes to hook the wealthy Maharajah of Kim-Kepore (Tom Conway) but her billing the dress to another man may cause a problem -- not to mention the appearance of a gorgeous brunette (Laurette Luez). Betty Barnes (Paulette Goddard) is in love with her boss (Leif Erickson), but his wife, Cora (Gloria Christian), may out-do the grasping secretary in the fancy dress sweepstakes. Marion Parmalee (Marilyn Maxwell) pulls out all of the stops with her husband's flirty boss Sullivan (Cecil Kellaway) in the hopes of getting hubby (Robert Bice of Invasion U.S.A.) the new presidency when the boss retires, but she doesn't reckon with Sullivan's formidable wife (Florence Bates). Marta (Barbara Lawrence) hopes that boyfriend Charlie (Robert Hutton) will propose to her for her 21st birthday dinner at Romanoff's and she may get a little help from "prince" Michael Romanoff [Arch of Triumph] himself.

Secretary vs wife: Paulette Goddard and Gloria Christian

I confess I nearly dumped Paris Model in my latest collection of "Films I Just Couldn't Finish" because the first episode with Gabor and Conway is so lame -- aside from a modestly amusing wind-up -- that I couldn't see spending much more time on it. (One can't imagine either of the Gabor sisters being crazy about having their thunder stolen by another woman.) But once I understood the point of the film, that it dealt with the dress and the stymied manipulations of its wearers -- not to mention that the later segments were more entertaining -- I found this quite enjoyable. The performances are generally good (although Eva Gabor is just plain weird, like a dopey showgirl from another dimension), with Kellaway and Bates taking the acting honors. The film comes full circle with a very funny ending when Tom Conway shows up again as the horny Maharajah. Alfred E. Green directed everything from science fiction (the aforementioned Invasion U.S.A.) to old Bette Davis movies [Dangerous] to Copacabana and everything in-between. Tom Conway's brother, George Sanders, was married to both Zsa Zsa and Magda Gabor, but somehow he never got around to Eva.

Verdict: More fun than you first imagine it will be. ***.