Tonight's movie was once again a surprise find : an English crime thriller called "Tiger Bay"(1959), starring Hayley Mills as an adolescent tomboy who witnesses a murder in the tenement apartment building where she lives with her Aunt. The location is on the coast (city unnamed) near the docks. A merchant seaman (Horst Buchholz) has just disembarked after a long voyage and makes his way to Hayley's building to visit his girlfriend. When he arrives, though, she tells him she's got a new man. She's tired waiting for him while he's at sea, and their relationship is over. An argument ensues, the woman pulls a gun from a drawer, Bucholz wrests it from her and shoots her dead. All of this is witnessed by Hayley, a precocious sort who's been looking through the mail slot of the apartment.
She's also a bit of a juvenile delinquent, so after Horst Buchholz leaves, stashing the gun in a crawlspace, Hayley retrieves it, because it will make a great showpiece for the boys on her street who are always shutting her out of their games of Cops and Robbers. She's got a real gun to show off and is thinking "how d'ya like me now"? Actually, it's a bit more discreet than that. The next Sunday she brings it to church, where she sings in the choir (hooray for choir singers, nudge nudge). During a break, she shows the gun to a local boy, but she doesn't know that Horst Buchholz has attended the service, and has seen her, until it's too late.
This will begin a chase, with Buchholz trying to pin down the elusive Mills, who has all the energy of a twelve year old, and knows every hiding place in her neighborhood. Once he does find her, however, a friendship begins, and this is the real theme of the movie. Horst Buchholz was a German actor who crossed over to international stardom in the early 60s, and he is about 25 here. He's also very handsome. The young Mills character immediately sees a kinship in a fellow "outlaw" and also idolises him because he's older. She has no parents, only her too-busy-to-be bothered Aunt, and she has no role models, only her own street smarts to rely on. In Buchholz, she sees a romantic leader who she hopes will take her out to sea with him on his next odyssey. So when the police come calling (in the form of Haley's real life father Sir John Mills) to ask her questions about the murder, she protects Buchholz by lying about what she saw.
I was impressed, but not surprised, to discover on IMDB that the movie won a BAFTA award for Best Newcomer (Hayley Mills) and was nominated for Best British Picture. This was Mills' debut, and she shot right out of the gate as a personable child star. Of course, people my age remember her in the mid-60s for her teenage roles in the original "Parent Trap" and "That Darn Cat!", by which time she was a major earner for Disney.
All told, "Tiger Bay" has the context of a solid suspense movie, and director J. Lee Thompson keeps the wire stretched taut. But it's really about the need for love and companionship between two youthful outsiders who have no one else in the world to hold on to. The print of this film is razor sharp on Youtube, and it gets a very high recommendation on all counts, but especially for the performances of Hayley Mills and Horst Buchholz, two young actors who were extremely talented. /////
Don't go away yet, because I've got another movie for you. I felt bad after delivering a short blog last time, so tonight I've got a Double Feature. Last evening I was searching for another Edward Arnold movie, having enjoyed him as the blind detective in "Eyes in the Night", and I found a film called "Man of Conflict"(1953), which came with an unexpected bonus when I checked IMDB, and discovered that Arnold's co-star was none other than John Agar! (a round of high fives is in order, you can stop reading momentarily to deliver one). So anyway, there was no question I was gonna watch, and as the opening credits rolled, I saw another name listed toward the end : Dick Reeves, in another bit part as a heavy, and I realised I'd hit the Trifecta, having searched for an Edward Arnold flick, then getting John Agar as a bonus, with the final addition of Mr. Reeves, who lived across the street from us in Reseda. Me and Pearl go past his house every day. If you don't know Mr. Reeves by now you haven't been paying attention. :)
Arnold plays "J.R. Compton", a cold hearted industrialist who heads up a large manufacturing plant. He also owns the town his workers live in (which looks like a SoCal suburb in the early 50s). He's the head of the Whole Shebang and his employees better damn well appreciate it.
As the movie opens, his son John Agar is returning from college, having just earned an MBA. Arnold plans to groom him to take over the company, but Agar - not having a ruthless business sense - wants instead to learn the factory from the ground up. He wants to start as a lathe worker, a machinist. "How better can I understand the needs and responsibilities of our workers"?, he asks his Dad.
But as Mr. Howell once said on an episode of Gilligan's Island, concerning a similar situation, "Well, that's all very nice Gilligan, very warm and sympathetic..........but stupid".
Mr. Howell was of course the Ultimate Capitalist, and in this movie the character of J.R. Compton is not far behind. He's about profits over people, but his son is entirely the opposite, much to J.R.'s dismay. This is one of John Agar's Sincere Roles, and I find that I am liking him every bit as much in this capacity as I do when he's playing things arrogant or smug in a cheezy sci-fi flick. Here, he falls in love with the daughter of a co-worker whom his father despises.
That's all I'm gonna give ya of the plot, because the hour is late, but it's a worthwhile view, clocking in at 72 minutes, and what's more, you'll get to see Mr. Reeves punching out John Agar and vice versa. If that isn't legendary, I don't know what is.
See you in the morning. Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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