Last night's film was a murder mystery produced in the style of "Laura", right down to the first named female of it's title : "Vicki"(1953). Jean Peters stars as a coffee shop waitress who hits the big time after being discovered by a publicity agent. One night, while she is waiting tables, "Steve Christopher" (Elliott Reid) happens by on a stroll. He peers through the window and sees the pretty Vicki. "Could be my next big find", he muses to his friend "Larry Evans" (Max Showalter), a New York showbiz columnist. In a wink, they're sitting down in the diner. Steve gives Vicki his card and the rest is history. It's a version of the Lana Turner fable, turned deadly. Because as the movie opens, Vicki is found murdered in her high rise apartment. Her story is told in flashback. I've just given you the introduction.
Her agent Steve is the first likely suspect. He's the one who found Vicki's body. Her sister Jill (Jeanne Crain) witnessed him in her apartment. But the cops don't have enough to hold him. For the moment they have to let him go. Over in Noo Joyzee, a detective is going on vacation. He's "Lt. Ed Cornell" (Richard Boone), a Type A inspector who's never off the job. He sees the headline as he's checking into a resort : "Top Model Killed"! Immediately he grabs a phone : "Yeah yeah, I know......I know I've got two weeks off! But I don't need it anymore. I'm coming back, Cap. I want this case! It's mine, you've got to hold it for me"!
The homicide dicks are questioning Jill when he gets in. "No, no.......you've got it all wrong", she tells them. "Steve adored my sister, in a professional way of course. He doted on her every whim. Yes he was hunched over her body when I found him, but that doesn't mean he killed her. She was his prize client, for goodness sake"!
Boone takes charge : "Get that broad outta here, and get that agent back in"! He's intense, and scary. He's got a bug up his rear about this case. But why? Soon we find out that he knew Vicki too, in a manner of speaking. Jill calls Steve to tell him she recognized Boone : "He's the man who used to hang around the shop after hours. He'd come by right when they were closing, and stare at Vicki from a table. She told me he gave her the creeps. I don't think she knew he was a cop".
Boone starts hounding Steve and Jill, who can feel a frame job in the works. In an effort to solve the case themselves, they question other potential suspects, such as "Robin Ray" (Alexander D'Arcy), a puffed-up Broadway star who was "paired" with Vicki for publicity. They also check on her apartment manager, a quirky young man who has the habit of disappearing whenever they need to see him. A quick note on the actor playing this role : he's Aaron Spelling! I was saying to myself......is that a young Robert Evans? No, he's too geeky. And it turned out to be Spelling. Who would've thought, from this movie, that he'd one day own the biggest pad in Hollywood? Appearances can be deceiving, it is true.
But this is Richard Boone's movie, and he's downright terrifying as Lt. Cornell. Boone's gonna pin the murder on Steve if he has to plant the evidence to do it. After cuffing Steve at his apartment, and beating him to a bloody pulp, he hides a pair of brass knuckles in a dresser drawer, "Oh, is this what you used to kill her", Boone says, pulling them out again. Boone's got something personal against Steve, but we won't find out what it is til the end. Before I go any further, I've gotta ask : what's the deal with Richard Boone? He was a very good actor, so I don't mean that. I'm talking about his aging. He was born in 1917, so he's 36 in this movie, and he more or less looks it, accounting for the heavy cigarette and alcohol habits that many actors had at the time. But then in 1978 he was in a remake of "The Big Sleep", and he looked like he was run over by a truck. His face had turned to hamburger and he'd aged 50 years in half that time. Guess it was the booze, and it happened to other actors, but not to this extent (except for maybe Neville Brand). Anyway, he's great as the psychotic detective, and we find out why he's dogging Steve. And Jeanne Crain is luminous as always, projecting the reserved quality that made her more appealing than some beauties, like Peters, who was a good actress but comes on a bit strong as "Vicki", too brassy and overconfident for a poor girl from the tenements. Peters was married to Howard Hughes for many years, so maybe that toughness was borne of instinct, who knows.
"Vicki" gets Two Big Thumbs Up for style more than plot. It's apparently a remake of a film called "I Wake Up Screaming", which I believe we saw many years ago, but to me it's a take on "Laura", the classic Noir with Gene Tierny, right down to it's theme music and framed portrait of the protagonist, hanging on the culprit's wall. I didn't tell you who that is, but you might be able to guess. Still, the print is razor sharp and the acting is mostly good. Give it a watch for Richard Boone. /////
For our second picture, I'd like to go back a couple weeks, to a film that was omitted due to work schedule. "Arrowsmith" (1931) stars Ronald Colman as "Martin Arrowsmith" a promising medical student who aspires to cure disease. As the movie opens, he's offered a job as the assistant to a top researcher, "Professor Gottlieb" (A.E. Anson). Arrowsmith turns him down, however, not wanting to be chained to the disciplines of scientific method. He wants results now. Also, he's just met "Leora" (Helen Hayes) a nurse who shares his independent spirit. They marry and move to her small town in South Dakota. From there, Martin sets up his practice. In addition to treating the townsfolk, he's called on for veterinary advice.
Local farmers are losing their cows to smallpox. A state regulator orders a certain percentage to be destroyed. Arrowsmith sees no need for this, and develops a serum for the bovines. Many of them are saved and he becomes a local hero. This serves to piss the regulator off, however. He threatens to report Martin to the authorities for not going through proper channels.
Deciding to move on, Martin and Leora head back to New York. He asks Professor Gottlieb is his offer is still good; it is, and Arrowsmith joins the professor's research team. He now has a multi-million dollar budget to work with, and wants to tackle bubonic plague, a strain of which is wiping out thousands in the West Indies. Still feeling hampered by the strictures of Gottlieb's methods, Martin aligns himself with a Swedish virologist who's just been in town for a lecture. Dr. Gottlieb is understanding, because the matter is very serious. Time is of the essence with the plague. He gives Martin his blessing, with unlimited finances to develop a serum under the Swedish doctor's direction.
In the West Indies, Martin experiments with different antidotes until a viable serum is developed. But now it must be tested, and here is where the movie's main conflict arises. The Swedish doctor informs him that, to prove it's effectiveness, it must be administered in conjunction with a placebo. "50% of the diseased will be given the serum, the other half an inactive solution. If the death rate is substantially reduced, your vaccine will be verified".
Arrowsmith protests : "But Doctor, the other fifty percent.......they are certain to die. We can't in good conscience do this to them".
"Ah.....but again, it's the importance of the scientific method. If we do not include a control factor, who's to say the serum alone is responsible for fewer deaths? We don't yet have the statistics for analysis. The outbreak is too recent. I'm sorry, Martin......this is the only way".
"Arrowsmith" was directed by John Ford from a book by Sinclair Lewis, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1925. Though some fans at IMDB (with more background on the book than I) claim that Ford watered the story down, he still made clear that the medical establishment - personified by the Swedish researcher - was willing to experiment on "indigenous people", where a death rate of fifty percent was certain. I don't know if author Lewis made a stronger condemnation of this in his book, but in the movie it's presented as being the only choice; Arrowsmith has an experimental serum for plague. There isn't time for a long, drawn out testing process. Martin wants to administer it to all of the diseased victims. The Swedish expert tells him "only half", for control reasons.
I won't reveal the outcome, but there's another crisis that presents itself. Martin's wife Leora has accompanied him to the West Indies against his wishes (he feels it's too dangerous). While there, an incident occurs that will affect both their lives. Once again I can't tell you what it is, but this is the one detail where I feel Ford made a misstep. Of course we are supposed to suspend disbelief in motion pictures, at times, but in the scene in question, what occurs would never happen under any circumstances in a medical setting. It has to do with the serum, that's all I can say.
"Arrowsmith" was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It has the plot structure of a biopic - a life history - and I had to look up "Martin Arrowsmith" to see if he was a real person (he wasn't). That gives an indication, however, of the quality of Ronald Colman's performance. The real find, though, is Helen Hayes as his supportive wife Leora. In all the hundreds of movies we've watched, we haven't seen much of her, which must be remedied. Most of us only know Hayes from her "old lady" roles on television ("The Snoop Sisters" and various guest star appearances), but she had a long career dating back to Silent pictures, and was also known as The First Lady of the American Theater. So yeah, we've been slacking on the Hayes front, but we'll definitely catch up. Two Big Thumbs Up for the movie. ////
Well, that's all for the moment, except let's do a tentative Stephen King Top Ten. Remember we said we were gonna make a book list? Let's do it, with a couple of disclaimers. 1) The list is in no particular order, except the first book. 2) It's not necessarily his scariest books, though most of them are, in my opinion. The list is not finalized yet, but pretty close.
1) It
2) The Shining
3) The Stand
4) Christine
5) The Tommyknockers (SK hates this one, but what does he know?)
6) Pet Sematary
7) The Green Mile
8) Black House
9) 11/22/63
10) The Outsider
We'll have to keep refining it. It was hard to leave out "Cujo" and "Lisey's Story", which is also King's favorite, but for now that's my list. Which ten would you choose?
Happy Summer! Have a great afternoon. I send you Tons and Tons of Love, as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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