Gene Barry in "The Houston Story", and "The Master Plan" with Wayne Morris and Norman Wooland

Last night's film was "The Houston Story", an epic crime saga, directed by William Castle, that tells the story of an ambitious oil "roughneck" who develops a plan to siphon the stuff from the wells of neighboring drillers. Gene Barry stars as "Frank Duncan". In the opening scene, he can barely pay his rent. But he's smart, and studies diagrams day and night to learn the layout of the oil fields. He knows from the trade that a well can be drilled into at an angle. This also allows potential crooks to drill sideways and steal from a well adjacent to their property. Duncan has considered every necessity, from paying off foremen to look the other way, to finding independent distributors who will buy the stolen oil with no questions. When his plans are complete, he takes his scheme to a mob-connected nightclub owner, "Gordon Shay" (Paul Richards). Shay introduces him to "Paul Atlas" (Edward Arnold), the number two man to a corrupt oil company owner, "Mr. Constant" (John Zaremba). Duncan offers to give him five million dollars worth of stolen oil, in exchange for a place on the board. 

Mr. Constant likes Duncan, who delivers on his promises. But Duncan steps on too many toes. By ingratiating himself with Mr. Constant, he's gone over the heads of Gordon Shay and Paul Atlas, the two guys who got him where he is. Shay in particular isn't happy. He sends his goons to rough Duncan up. But Duncan is one of those guys who always comes out on top. Think Pacino, working his way up the ladder in "Scarface". Duncan intimidates Shay's enforcers, then steals his girl, "Zoe Crane" (Barbara Hale) a singer at Shay's club. He also has a nice gal on the side. "Madge" (Jeanne Cooper) runs the local truck stop cafe. She knows him only as Frank the oil worker, and nothing about his other life as a master criminal. Madge believes Frank when he promises to marry her. Meanwhile, he's out on the town with Zoe Clark. Duncan finally bites off more than he can chew. After cooking up a scheme to expose Gordon Shay to investigators, he plans to get rid of Paul Atlas in the bargain. Then he'll only have Mr. Constant above him. Like Scarface, he gets a little too big for his britches. 

The film bogs down at times, in the minutia of oil company dealings. It tries, once again like "Against All Odds", to be all things to all moviegoers, by having Duncan talk drilling technology one minute, then romance his two broads the next. The plot would've been tighter had they focused on the crime. For instance, after hearing about all the know-how that's needed to drill sideways into a competitor's well, we never see the actual theft take place. All Castle shows us is that Duncan now wears a suit. He's got money, which tells us that his plan was a success. But this is essentially a heist movie, and in heist movies, we see the robbers break into the bank. It would have been interesting to watch them steal the oil, but we don't get a single frame. More suspense would have helped the plot, and less "sweeping melodrama". Having said that, the protagonist is an overly ambitious man, so I suppose that his rise and fall took precedence over the crime theme.

It's still a very good film, and at 81 minutes, despite the outsized story, there's basically no fat. As a Hitchcock fan, William Castle was good at keeping things moving. Gene Barry, who you might remember from the late '60s series "The Name of the Game", is great as the would-be oil king Duncan. Barbara Hale is alluring and tough as nails as the passed-around nightclub singer Zoe. Let's give "The Houston Story" Two Big Thumbs Up. As with every Castle flick, the black and white photography is spectacular. The whole shebang is highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp. ////

The previous night we watched an interesting but very low budget espionage film entitled "The Master Plan"(1954), staring Wayne Morris as "Major Thomas Brent", an American officer assigned to a Cold War base in Germany. The base is shared with British counterintelligence, headed up by "Col. Mark Cleaver" (Norman Wooland). Major Brent is there to help stop an information leak emerging from the Colonel's office. There are only a handful of people who could be responsible, but something is happening to Major Brent. He blacks out in the middle of conversations. We see this happen first on his flight to Germany, when he spaces in the middle of a chess game.

Col. Cleaver chalks it up to post traumatic stress. Major Brent suffered a concussion from a mortar attack in the Korean war. And yet, he seems almost zombielike at times, as if he's in some kind of trance. Not good for a man in a high security operation. Col. Cleaver is dismayed that Brent is often out of commission. He takes it out on his secretary (Mary Mackenzie), who he accuses of eavesdropping on Brent's phone calls. He suspects she's manipulating Major Brent in some way. He questions her loyalty due to her friendship with a German woman, "Helen" (Tilda Thamar). But Col. Cleaver dates her himself in his off hours. Could he be the mole, trying to draw attention to others?

That's what I thought, and of course I can't tell you. What you will find out, though, is that Major Brent is the guinea pig in a mind control experiment, like something out of "The Manchurian Candidate". The objective is to make him look like a commie. These programming scenes are the highlight of the movie, which is limited to just a few sets and a static camera. Most of it takes place in the Colonel's office. As noted, the budget must have been minimal, but director Cy Endfield does a good job with what he's got. The mind control aspect makes the average spy plot quite interesting, and for that reason, and the performance of Norman Wooland as the dogged Colonel Cleaver, "The Master Plan" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is slightly flat, but watchable. ///

Well, that's it for 2021. Can you believe we watched 361 movies this year? My goodness! That's what our discovery of Youtube led to. Before Covid, I swore I'd never watch a movie on a computer. But last year the libraries closed up, and I've never had Netflix or cable. So Youtube was a last option, and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as far as old films are concerned. We've found dozens and dozens of flicks that will never be on dvd, and we've become b-movie historians and archivists in the process. That's not to say we haven't watched a lot of high-grade stuff, too. And earlier last Spring, we did watch several Major Studio Epics on dvd (and what amounts to The Big Screen nowdays, i.e. a TV set), including "Cleopatra" and "West Side Story" (the original, not the recent crummy remake). We'll do a brief Year in Review in an upcoming blog. In the meantime, I wish you a Happy New Year. 2022 has got to be better than 2021, right? Fingers crossed......

I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):) 

Dana Andrews in "The Purple Heart", and "Bullet Scars" starring Howard Da Silva and Regis Toomey

Last night we found a tremendous World War 2 movie called "The Purple Heart"(1944), about a US Army Air Corps bomber crew who are forced to bail out over China, then are captured by the Japanese occupiers and put on trial for trumped up war crimes. The story is based on the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo in 1942 (see Jimmy Doolittle), where some downed airmen were subject to a Japanese kangaroo court. In the movie, Dana Andrews plays "Captain Harvey Ross", who - in the opening scene - makes the decision to ditch the B-25 he's piloting, after it loses power in a storm. Although the crew parachute safely to the ground, they are picked up by a Chinese civil servant who turns out to be a spy for Japan. We next see the men in court, where reporters from countries sympathetic to the Axis cause are being welcomed, to provide biased coverage in favor of the prosecution. The Japanese judge is a religious figure or a warlord of some type, dressed in ceremonial robe with a long beard. He appears to have more power than the military generals on the panel. One airman, "Lt. Greenbaum" (Sam Levene) is a lawyer in civilian life. He demands counsel for the Americans. "You have to allow us a defense! It's part of the Geneva Convention". "Ahh, but Japan did not sign that", says the Judge. "However, we will provide what you ask". They are given a public defender who does basically nothing.

During a recess, a general (Richard Loo) is called before the Judge, who demands to know how the American air raid got through to Yokohama. "What happened to the early warning system"? "I think, Honorable Magistrate, that they launched from an aircraft carrier. That is why no one saw them coming". General Loo is then put on the spot by the judge, who orders him to prove his theory. If he can't show how the raid originated at sea, it'll be off with his head. This begins the movie's long second act, where the General, smiling all the while in a caricature of Japanese inscrutability, orders each prisoner to a secret room, one at a time, where they are tortured into revealing the raid's origin. None of them will talk, so the tortures become more and more brutal. The men cope in different ways. Some pray, one (Richard Conte) recites Shakespeare. When one prisoner, young "Sgt. Clinton" (Farley Granger) is choked into unconsciousness during his interrogation, the men know that the General has raised the stakes to life or death.

A Swiss official, attending the trail as an advocate, tells the judge that if the Americans are killed, the US will retaliate. "Remember, there are 100,000 Japanese interned in camps". Then the judge makes an offer. "Okay, we will let them go free - if they give us the names of their superior officers, and where their base is located". Knowing his men will be executed if found guilty (and they will be, because it's a show trial), Ross gives them the option to talk if they wish. General Loo advises they do so. His neck is on the line, too. A vote is taken in their communal cell. Each man votes "no". They're willing to die for their country. I won't say how it turns out. The movie is based on an actual prisoner-of-war trail in Japan that made headlines in American papers. Dana Andrews, as Captain Ross, gives a bitter, rousing but prophetic speech at the end that would curdle the blood of today's audiences, and would likely not be included in a modern picture. It must be remembered, however, that in the context of the times, people were very angry, about Pearl Harbor and verified Japanese war crimes. That's why you hear the three letter slur, used to refer to Japanese people, used in some movies of the era.

Taken as a war movie - and war is not PC - "The Purple Heart" is harrowing but honest. It's not an easy watch, but I give it Two Huge Thumbs Up. The all-star cast is stellar and the picture is razor sharp. ////   

The previous night we watched an excellent B-grade crime film, "Bullet Scars"(1942), about a bank job gone bad. Prototypical tough guy Howard Da Silva and his gang have just shot it out with the security guard. His buddy "Joe" (Tod Andrews) is badly wounded and needs a doctor, pronto. They can't take him to the hospital, so they find an old physician in the suburbs and force him to operate. When he tries to sneak off and call the cops, Da Silva shoots him dead. Now they need another doctor, fast, or Joe is gonna die. One of the gang knows a nurse named "Nora" (Adele Longmire), who happens to be Joe's sister. She knows an MD named "Stephen Bishop" (Regis Toomey) who's practice is up in the mountains. Da Silva and his gang relocate there, and hold Bishop hostage while pretending to be "legit businessmen". At first, Da Silva tries a cover story, giving Bishop a spiel about being a hunter who accidentally shot his friend. Holy Shades of Dick Cheney, Batman! Da Silva doesn't want the doctor getting scared, because Joe needs brain surgery, which is gonna be difficult enough without a hospital and a full operating room staff. So he tries playing the Accidental Hunter, and promises to buy Dr. Bishop a whole new laboratory if the operation is successful.

And if it isn't?

Well, don't tell Dr. Bishop, but Da Silva's gonna kill him if that happens. Nurse Nora knows the truth, that Da Silva and his chums are bank robbers, but she keeps quiet because she knows they'll kill her too. Being Joe's sister only counts for so much. So to recap, Dr. Bishop is under the false impression that Howard Da Silva is a well-to-do hunter who shot his friend Joe by accident. The guys with him (who look and talk like hoodlums) are just part of the hunting party. One, "Pills Davis" (Ben Weldon), is a total nitwit who's along for comic relief. All he thinks about is swallowing as many vitamins as he can get his hands on. Da Silva explains his need for secrecy to Dr. Bishop thusly : "It would be bad for my business reputation if the accident got out to the press. You know how it is with newspaper reporters, doc". Fortunately for Joe, and Dr. Bishop too, the operation is a success. But Joe is facing a long recovery. Bishop has to go into town for medical supplies, and he can't understand why Da Silva doesn't trust him. "What's the problem? Don't you want your friend to get well"? It's not that, it's just ...well, what if Bishop knows more than he's letting on? Or what if he hears a radio report about bank robbers on the loose in the area? Then the gig will be up for sure, and the operation on Joe will have been for nothing.

One thing you've gotta give Howard Da Silva, he's the most loyal gang boss in bank robber history. Most would have just let Joe die. Not only won't Da Silva do that, but he's willing to wait while Joe recuperates, which may take a very long time. I'm not gonna tell you how the waiting period plays out, but because it's a crime film from the 40s, you can assume the law is gonna catch up with the gang at some point. When that happens, get ready for one of the biggest shootouts in Hollywood history. We're talking "Wild Bunch" level, full-on, all out. Guns blaze by the dozen from every direction. "Bonnie & Clyde" has nothing on this movie. My goodness, the budget for bullets must've equaled the rest of the production. The shootout alone is worth the price of admission (which is free, btw), but all kidding aside, this is a different take on the "holed up in the mountains" hostage story, a theme we saw in "Storm Fear" with Cornel Wilde, and "A Strange Adventure", directed by William Witney. "Bullet Scars" is the only one where the criminals pull a ruse, to put the hostage at ease. It's very well acted by Da Silva and Toomey. Ben Weldon is funny as the knucklehead health nut "Pills", but might get on your nerves here and there. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Bullet Scars". The picture is watchable, but I'm calling for a Criterion restoration, for the shootout scene alone. It's very highly recommended! ////

Well, did you get enough rain? That was pretty crazy, glad it's finally stopped. We'll wrap up the year in movies tomorrow, with one last blog for 2021. I wish you a nice evening and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Another Michael Shayne Mystery : "Sleepers West" with Lloyd Nolan, Mary Beth Hughes and Lynn Bari, and "Hunt the Man Down", a Top Notch Noir

Last night (Dec. 26th), we watched another Michael Shayne mystery, "Sleepers West"(1941). Lloyd Nolan was back, along with Mary Beth Hughes, an unbeatable duo for crime/com tomfoolery. This time they're on a train. Nolan is of course Michael Shayne, Detective. MBH, instead of portraying his girlfriend (as she did in "Blue, White and Perfect"), is the star witness for the defense in an upcoming murder trial. Her testimony will free a wrongly accused man, which means that the real killer will want her dead. That's why Shayne is hiding her in a sleeper car, in disguise, with an order not to answer her door. Before the train departs, we meet "Kay Bentley" (Lynn Bari), a reporter friend of Shayne's. Always on the lookout for a scoop, she tricks him into revealing his assignment.

The Michael Shayne formula seems to be about interactive character setups and the confusion (read amusement) they produce. First of all, the train is behind schedule, so the engineer orders the coal stoker to "burn it white hot", i.e. so he can haul some major league bootation. Now it's running too fast down the tracks. Is an accident just around the corner? Then, one of the porters finds fifteen thousand bucks in an open suitcase. This sets off a rumor that there's a bank robber on the train. Michael Shayne hears about the money, and wonders - instead - if it's a payment for a hit on Mary Beth. He checks in on her and finds a man in her room. Is he a killer? MBH says no. "This is Mr. Jason" (Louis Jean Heydt), she tells Shayne. "He and I were just sharing a drink". A bunch of drinks, actually. They're both hammered. Jason's a family man who's running away from his life. "It's too conventional, don't you see? Nothing ever happens that's exciting". If it's excitement he wants, he's come to the right place. Mary Beth has that look on her face again, like she's either gonna laugh or blow her stack, and this time she's drunk so watch out. You can see why she's a cult favorite in these movies. Meanwhile, Kay Bentley, while  angling for a story, gets stuck in the room next door and has to call for the porter's help to get free. Shayne comes to her rescue instead, and finds out she's been spying on him. This sets up a conflict with her fiancee, who turns out to be the crook with the money.

1930s wiseguy Edward Brophy, who goes all the way back to Buster Keaton (see the classic dressing room scene in "The Cameraman") is also onboard as a dumbell Private Eye. I have very much enjoyed the two Michael Shayne mysteries we've seen. They're all about the characters, the setups and the banter with the plot being a secondary concern. I liked "Sleepers West" even better than "Blue, White and Perfect". It's the best "trouble on a train" movie since "Narrow Margin", and I give it Two Big Thumbs Up. Watch it and become a fan of the series. The picture is razor sharp. //// 

The previous night - on Christmas - we saw an excellent little Noir : "Hunt the Man Down"(1950), starring James Anderson as "Richard Kincade", a fugitive who claims he was wrongly accused of murder. As the movie opens, he's working under an alias as a dishwasher in a small town cafe, having escaped from custody twelve years earlier. He's eluded capture all this time by leading a nondescript life. Then one night after closing, as he and waitress "Sally" (Lynne Roberts) are about to lock up, the cafe is robbed. A fight ensues. Kincade grabs the robber's gun and shoots him dead. He's hailed as a hero in the local paper, but the attention costs him his freedom. A prosecutor from the D.A.s office recognizes his picture. "That's him! This guy calling himself 'Bill Jackson' is Richard Kincade"! He's arrested and brought back to the city to face trial. "Paul Bennett" (Gig Young) is appointed as his public defender. 

The movie then becomes a courtroom drama, and Paul Bennett takes over as the protagonist.  He's gotta track down seven witnesses from the original trial. The murder Kincade is accused of committing took place in 1938, after a party where he danced with a married woman. Her husband showed up drunk; later that night he was shot. Circumstantial evidence points to Kincade. Gig Young is stellar in his role as the public defender. He hires his father, an ex-cop, as his assistant, and together they track down every witness from the 1938 party who saw Kincade's fight with the drunk husband. Much of the plot hinges on their recall after all that time, and Young, as Paul Bennett, is expert at ferreting out their deceptions. The innocent tend to forget the details over the years, while the guilty remember everything that happened. However, they are expert at hiding it.

Cleo Moore, the Blonde Bombshell from the Hugo Haas movies, turns up late in the film as a surprise prosecution witness. Sweet Lynne Anderson stands by Kincade even when it looks like he's going to the chair. Also making an appearance in a surprisingly non-smarmy role is our old pal Gerald "Less Is" Mohr, as the new husband of the murder victim's widow. At 69 minutes, "Hunt the Man Down" has the tightly layered plot of a film 20 minutes longer. While filled with memorable performances from it's large and varied cast (including Frank Cady, i.e. "Sam Drucker" from Green Acres, as a European pupetteer), it's Gig Young who carries the movie. We saw him last year in "The Neon Ceiling", a legendary TV movie from the 1970s, and remarked on what a great actor he was. His life took tragic turns due to alcoholism, though you'd never know it watching him in this movie. "Hunt the Man Down" is an interesting take on the Wrongly Accused Man formula,  and filled with unexpected twists. It gets Two Big Thumbs Up from your trusty reviewer and is highly recommended. The picture is sharp but not razor.  ////

And that's all for this evening. I'm heading out for a Freezing Cold Walk. I trust all is well as we head into the New Year and I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Deanna Durbin in "Lady on a Train", and "Blue, White and Perfect" with Lloyd Nolan and Mary Beth Hughes

This blog was begun on Christmas Night, 2021 :

Last night I found the perfect movie for this Christmas Eve. Normally I get in the spirit and watch a dozen holiday classics and throw in a Dickens miniseries for good measure, but because of recent circumstances, I didn't think I could handle the sentiment. Then I got a recommendation for "Lady on a Train"(1945) starring Deanna Durbin, one of our very favorite stars. Described as a screwball noir, it takes place at Christmastime, making it the perfect remedy for my Yuletide Blues while also fitting into the season.

Deanna plays "Nikki Collins", a San Francisco ingenue, traveling by train to New York. As the movie opens, she's reading a murder mystery in her compartment : "The Case of the Headless Bride". She's engrossed in the book, and is startled when the train stops unexpectedly. Then, without warning, she witnesses a real-life murder through the window of a nearby building. Arriving at the depot, she ditches her father's butler (who's supposed to chaperone her) and hurries to the nearest police station to report what she has seen. Fred Mertz is the sergeant on duty. After listening to her story, he notices the book in her hand, with it's shocking title. Now he thinks she's making the whole thing up. "Listen lady, it's Christmas Eve. Unofficially, I've got the night off. Why don't you take your wild imagination elsewhere"? Now, as a mystery aficionado, she has something of the natural born detective in her, so she looks up the book's author "Wayne Morgan" (David Bruce) in the telephone directory. He's listed, along with his address. Instead of calling him, she goes straight to his house. "Mr. Morgan! I need your help! I've just witnessed a murder. The police don't believe me. Please, you're the only one I can turn to". "But how can I be of help"?, he asks her. "You write mysteries, you know all about murder!", she tells him, as if the answer should be obvious. Unfortunately, Morgan can't be bothered. His girlfriend (Patricia Morison) is suspicious. "Who was that woman?", but as Deanna is leaving, he does give her one good piece of advice : "Why don't you do what the murderer would do? Return to the scene of the crime!" 

She then walks along the train tracks, trying to locate the building where the terrible deed took place. When she can't find it, she goes back in search of Morgan, who's now at a movie with his girlfriend. This sets off a disruption in the theater, displaying the kind of hijinx you're in store for throughout the picture. When Deanna's about to leave in frustration, a newsreel plays the story of the death of a shipping tycoon. She turns back to look and sees it's the same man she saw from the train. The newsreel shows his mansion. You can guess where she turns up next. At the mansion, she's accosted by the servant, then the tycoon's son (Dan Duryea, yay!) who mistakes her fora nightclub singer named "Margo Martin", his dead father's fiancee. This allows Deanna to play along with his misconception. She enters a conference room with Duryea where the old man's will is being read. Everything he had, including stocks bonds and real estate, goes to Margo, meaning Deanna in this case. She witnessed his murder on a train, now suddenly a day later she's mistaken for his fiancee and has inherited his estate.

That's how you do creative screwball screenwriting, but you've gotta make the changes seamless.

Continuing to indulge her Nancy Drew complex, Deanna - as Margo - gets in good with the family. You'd think they'd know she isn't the real Margo Martin, but I guess the father never introduced her and it's never made clear. At any rate, Dan Duryea tells her he'd love to come and hear her sing. Of course, because it's Deanna Durbin, this isn't going to be a problem and of course it's written into her contract. Pretending to be Margo, she goes to the club and saunters on stage, after locking the real Margo in a closet in her dressing room. She's going to such lengths because she's committed to justice. It's extremely important to her to find the murderer, who she's now certain is a member of the family. And while she's singing (as Margo Martin), who should show up at the nightclub but Wayne Morgan, the mystery author. He's again with his girlfriend, who's now really teed off. "It's that same woman who was at the house! You came here to see her on purpose"! The girlfriend storms off, and Morgan is very confused. As played by David Bruce, he has the look and timing of Johnny Depp in his light comic roles. Now that Morgan's girlfriend has left him, he and Deanna are headed for a screwball romance, but first they've got to solve the murder. 

Back at the mansion, Deanna finds a pair of bloody slippers, belonging to the dead tycoon. This causes the nightclub manager to send out a thug to try to kill her. He ends up killing the real Margo Martin instead. Finally, she and Wayne Morgan get framed for Margo's murder and that of the old man. They end up in jail, and it's looking like curtains for the two of them, but then Ralph Bellamy bails Deanna out. He's another of the tycoon's sons, and tells Deanna, "It's wrong that they're trying to pin this on you". That's all I'm going to reveal about the plot, which you'll need a strong cup of coffee to keep up with.

I learned about Deanna Durbin from my Mom, as I may have mentioned in an earlier blog. Mom knew all the old stars and their movies, which is how I got into older films in the first place. She was a fan of Deanna and spoke about her voice, which - to me - is the greatest singing voice in motion pictures (well, tied with Judy Garland). In "Lady on a Train" she sings three songs in all. This was one of her later films, when she branched out to do things like screwball comedy. As an adolescent, she always played the sweet but precocious young teen, more savvy than the adults. It was a great "look" for her (and she topped Shirley Temple at the box office), but she found it stifling and in her twenties she wanted a chance to stretch out. Then at 29, she married one of her directors and retired. Out of the blue, she moved with him to France and was basically never heard from again. Mom mentioned that it was one of the most abrupt and complete withdrawals from Hollywood, right up there with Greta Garbo. In any event, she's absolutely great in this movie, and she should be more well-remembered, I think.

Keeping up with the plot is not all-important, and it isn't easy to do. If you don't stay right on top of it, you'll miss a twist or two, but don't worry. It's more about the style and delivery, and you won't lose your place, even if you fall behind. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Lady on a Train". Watch it now or save it for next Christmas (I say watch it now). The picture is widescreen and razor sharp, it's very very highly recommended. //// 

The previous night, during the heavy rainstorm, we found an entertaining Crime Comedy/Mystery starring Lloyd Nolan as Detective Michael Shayne in "Blue, White and Perfect"(1942). Nolan, who folks my age remember as the sixty-ish doctor on Diahann Carroll's groundbreaking TV show "Julia"(1968), was at one time a young movie star. His hairline was receding even then, but he was quick with a quip, and hip. You might not imagine Lloyd Nolan as hip, but he was, and from what I read in the IMDB comments, he was a genuine box office draw. He made seven films in the Michael Shayne series, which was continued with Hugh Beaumont for five more. In "Blue, White", he's tracking down the theft, once again, of industrial diamonds, a theme we encountered last week in "Operation Amsterdam". As Detective Shayne, he's got Mary Beth Hughes waiting back at home. She wants him to give up being a gumshoe. "It's too dangerous and you said you'd marry me"! Every time he fibs, in order to sneak out on a case, she throws crockery at him - tea pots and coffee cups and lanterns and figurines. They smash against the wall and the door frame, as Shayne makes an exit on his heels.

There were a number of stylized Hollywood Sleuths in the 1940s, including "The Falcon" and "The Saint", among others. This is the first "Michael Shayne" mystery we've seen, and it's good enough to look for the rest of the films in the series. Much of the action takes place on a ship, heading for Hawaii on the day before Pearl Harbor. Future "Superman" George Reeves plays an undercover cop working independently of Shayne. Nazis are of course the culprits, including a blonde Femme Fatale, played by Helene Reynolds. Blossom Rock, aka "Grandmama" from The Addams Family makes an appearance also, and as with most of the light comedy detective movies of the era, the panache is more important than the plot. For my money, the main reason to watch is the interplay between Lloyd Nolan and Mary Beth Hughes, another actress we love because she's always such a character. She often has a look on her face like she's either gonna explode or burst out laughing. Here, she just wants to domesticate Michael Shayne, and if she can't do that she's gonna kill him. It's strictly for fun, but with A-list production values. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is razor sharp. ///

That's all for tonight. I just went for a freezing cold CSUN walk and saw not one, but two coyotes. They were trotting together down Lindley Ave, near the gym. I'm guessing they must've come all the way down from Rinaldi, where the foothills start, close to Aliso Canyon. That's three miles from CSUN, so the poor guys must be pretty hungry. I hope they make it back to the hills okay.

I hope you had a nice Christmas, and I send you Tons of Love, as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)    

Lloyd Bridges in "Secret Service Investigator", and "Half a Sinner" starring Heather Angel and John "Dusty" King

Last night we had Lloyd Bridges in "Secret Service Investigator"(1948), a variation on our recent Inspector theme, and at 59 minutes, another Paul Shortino (who's now more famous as a Movie Category than he was as a singer, which is no slight on his musical career, but just sayin'....). Bridges plays "Steve Mallory", a war hero returning to the big city. In need of a job, he goes to the local paper. There he meets pretty "Susan Lane" (Lynne Roberts), the want ad clerk, who knows all about his WW2 exploits. This foreshadows romance later on. Mallory places an ad, which gets a quick response from a guy named "Joe". Joe turns out to be a Fed, or so he tells Mallory. "I'm with with the Secret Service". He shows Steve a man who's unconscious and lying on a couch. The man looks exactly like Steve. "That's why we need you, Captain Mallory", Joe says. "It's why I answered your ad. This man is a counterfeiter. You look just like him. We need you to go undercover in his place, to catch the brains behind the operation".

Mallory takes the job. But before he can track down Mr. Big, he's corralled into another office. "Who are you guys and what do you want with me"?, he asks. "You're Steve Mallory, are you not"?, says a serious looking man. "Yes I am, but what of it"? "You were supposed to come and see me about that ad you placed in the paper". "What do you mean? I just met the guy who responded! What the hell is this, a setup"? "No, Mr. Mallory, I'm afraid you've already been set up. Who is the man you met with"? "He said his name was 'Joe'. He replied to my ad about a job. He was six feet tall, dark hair, moustache. He said he was with the Secret Service. Hey what are you, a cop"?

"No, Mr. Mallory. My name is 'Joe'. Well, at least that's the alias I used. You see, I am the man who actually responded to your ad. I am in fact with the Secret Service. The other man you met is an impostor, and I have a feeling I know who he is".

Ahh, the old Impostor Ploy again. We've dealt with it a lot recently. We also just saw a movie called "The Counterfeiters". Once again, someone's stolen a set of high-grade plates. The unconscious man in the first Joe's office is the forger who designed them. The first Joe is a hoodlum named "Henry Witzel" (Trevor Bardette). He's hoping Steve Mallory will lead him to the thief.

Steve goes back to the paper to talk to Susan Lane. "Do you remember the man who responded to my ad"? She describes him, but it doesn't match Henry Witzel. "He was old and rather odd looking, with a weak voice and dirty fingernails". Using his ingenious powers of perception, Steve figures he must either be a mechanic or a printer. He and Susan are now a team (you knew that was coming). Together they scour the city, going to every print shop in the phone book, until they find the man in question. His name is "Miller" (Milton Parsons), a mealy-mouthed squealer who gives up the guy he's really working for, a big shot named "Otto Dagoff" (George Zucco).

Now that George Zucco's on board, we can start to work through the confusion. He never plays second fiddle, so when he shows up you know you've got the Boss Man. Zucco, as "Dagoff", wants the plates and he's none too happy, considering he's shelled out 30 Grand and hasn't received a doggone thing. Henry Witzel, i.e. the first Joe, is the guy who screwed him over. Zucco wants payback. So, he tells the screenwriter, "Look pal, I know you've got a clever gimmick here with the dueling Joes. You've got Lloyd Bridges, in his first starring role, chewing up the scenery. But I'm taking over because we need an end to this picture. You've got us going round in circles". Zucco cuts to the chase, playing hardball. He mows people down to get his freakin' plates back. This is the kind of Noir you wish you were watching all along. The last fifteen minutes of "Secret Service Investigator" is top notch. It also makes you wish for a restoration, because if the picture quality was better, all of the early plot flummery might not be so distracting. A razor sharp picture works wonders for viewer concentration. It still rates Two Solid Thumbs Up, however, and is recommended especially for the performances of George Zucco and Milton Parsons. ////

The previous night's film was a screwball crime caper called "Half a Sinner"(1940), about a prim young schoolteacher who decides to kick out the jams (i.e damn the torpedoes, take a chance, rock the boat, etc.) "Anne Gladden" (Heather Angel) is dedicated to her job, you could call her a cheerful disciplinarian. "You can't make your own rules", she tells a young miscreant at the beginning of the movie, who she's detained after school to write "I won't misbehave" (or something of that nature) 100 times on the blackboard. Miss Gladden pins her hair down and wears no makeup. She wears frumpy clothes. A colleague, "Margaret Reed" (Fern Emmett), tells her she should enhance her looks. "Listen honey, you're pretty. You could be homely like me. I'm forty now and over the hill, but when I was your age, I'd have given anything for a chance to live it up"! Miss Reed encourages Anne to get out there and break the rules. On her next day off, she does just that. Now she's all dressed up with her hair styled, eyes highlighted; she's a knockout. She heads out the door to the astonishment of her mother. "I'm going to live this day my way. I'm even going to get a little reckless".

She goes to a park where she sits on a bench, presumably to attract a man. It works, except he's not the kind of man she bargained for. He's big and he's a thug. He puts the make on Anne, then grabs her arm. She fights back and pushes him over the park bench. She jumps in a nearby car (which conveniently has the keys in the ignition) and drives off. What she doesn't know is that there's a dead body in the back seat. The car was initially stolen by the thug and his partner and they set out to get it back. The cops are looking for it, too.

As Anne is driving down the road, which looks to be somewhere on the coast of California, she encounters a man, "Larry Cameron" (John "Dusty" King) whose car has broken down. He talks her into giving him a lift to the nearest service station, and the escapade is on. If the cops catch Anne with the car, they'll inevitably find the body. Then she'll charged with murder. Worse than that, if the thugs catch her first, she's liable to get murdered. Well, she wanted an exciting day, didn't she? At the gas station, the attendant recognizes the car's licence plate number, which has been broadcast over the radio. He tries phoning the cops, but Larry Cameron ties him up. Now Larry's involved as a fugitive also. 

Before they can leave the station, another car pulls in, belonging to "Mrs. Jefferson Breckenridge" (Constance Collier), a wealthy widow. Seeing an opportunity, Larry switches licence plates with her. She turns out to be a feisty old dame who likes being involved in a caper. To hide from both the police and the bad guys, Anne and Larry break into an empty house, and that's all I'm going to tell you.

"Half a Sinner" works well on the charms of it's cast. Heather Angel (yes that's her real name) is delightful as Anne, who's equal parts thrilled and afraid at what she's gotten herself into, and of course the dead body is played for laughs. John "Dusty" King, a tall, good-natured and very handsome gent, makes a gentlemanly foil to Anne's uncharacteristic criminal ditziness. She's not used to living outside the law. Criminal behavior, or at least cheering it on, seems to come naturally to Mrs. Breckenridge, however. Constance Collier plays her as the kind of opinionated, down-to-earth rich lady who loves to let the hot air out of stuffed shirts. These three, along with the inept thugs, deliver the character contrasts in this fast paced screwball comedy. It gets Two Big Thumbs Up, and also runs 59 minutes. ////

I know I'm a day late with this one, but I'll get back on schedule with the next blog or two. I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Eve, and I wish you a very Merry Christmas tomorrow. Don't forget to check the NORAD Santa Tracker and put out the milk and cookies!

I send you Tons of Love, as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)       

Boris Karloff and Nick Adams in "Die, Monster, Die!", and "The Counterfeiters" with Hugh Beaumont and Lon Chaney

Last night's movie was "Die, Monster, Die!"(1965), starring Boris Karloff as an elderly scientist, living in a mansion in England and protecting a family secret. Yeah, not very Christmassy I realise. I haven't done Christmas movies this year, because......well, you can guess. It's been very hard for me since Pearl passed away, and if I watch a Christmas movie I might dissolve. Still, we might try one or two by Christmas Eve. I certainly didn't set out to go to the opposite extreme and watch a horror flick, but because this one was a Youtube recommendation and it had Boris Karloff, I decided to give it a try. Boris plays "Nahum Witley", a botanist and heir to the Witley Estate. His father and grandfather were scientists before him.

As the movie opens, an American named "Stephen Reinhart" (Nick Adams) is getting off a train in the village. He's en route to see a girl named "Susan Witley" (Suzan Farmer), who he met in college in New York. He asks around for directions to "the Witley place" but the locals won't help him. Worse, they shun him as if he's speaking of the Devil. Therefore he sets out on foot. When he reaches the mansion, there's no answer to his knock. Of course, it's a horror movie so the door is ajar. It swings open, he enters into an expansive living room, in which the furniture looks like it hasn't been changed in a century. As he walks toward the hall ("Hello? Is anybody home"?), another door opens. There sits Nahum Witley in his wheelchair. "Who are you? Get out of this house"! Obviously, there's a bad vibe at the joint. Reinhart noticed it on his way up. The hillside below the property is burned to a crisp. Nothing grows there, not even weeds.

He tells Mr. Witley that he's not about to leave. "I came to see your daughter and I was invited by your wife!" It was one of those "please come at once" letters that you see in movies like "Dracula". Witley isn't pleased by Reinhart's insistence, but he's old and infirm. There's not much he can do to prevent him from staying. Reinhart finds Susan, who's elated to see him. Later he finds her mother in her bedroom. Now things are getting weird. Mom is in bed behind curtains of gauze. She begs Reinhart to take Susan away. "I beseech you! Take her back to the United States"!

The mother, "Letitia" (Freda Jackson), gives Reinhart an earring. "You want to know what's going on here? This will give you a clue. It belonged to my maid, Helga, who's since disappeared. She became ill after she started wearing it. It isn't a coincidence, Notice the stone in the middle". That night, Reinhart goes snooping around in the basement, where there are all kinds of creepy paintings of demons and other abominable figures. One is a portrait of old Corbin Witley, Nahum's grandfather. Man, he's a spook. Nahum rolls up in his wheelchair and catches Reinhart staring at the painting. "Ahh, you insist on prying. I've tried to tell you to leave. I was not the one who brought the evil into this house, not I who uttered the incantations". He's insinuating it was Grandpa Corbin. Reinhart leaves early in the morning to find the local doctor, believing Letitia is ill. On his way, he's attacked by what looks like a troll. The doctor tells him the family has a history of fatal illness. "Corbin Witley died in my arms! But don't ask me how or why. I've got nothing more to say about it".

If you've ever seen Nick Adams as "The Rebel" in the Western TV series, you know he doesn't take "no" for an answer. He's the same way here as Reinhart. When he gets back to the mansion, he passes by the greenhouse. It appears to be glowing in the early morning light. He grabs Susan to investigate. Inside, they discover plants that are thrice their normal size, each one a perfect specimen. However, their scent is too sweet, the smell of decomposition. "What the hell is going on here"?, Reinhart asks. Then a horrid scream pierces the fetid air. It's coming from a locked room. Reinhart busts the door down, he and Susan rush inside. What they see turns their stomachs and also their minds. In cages are a menagerie of mutant creatures. Are they animals? Were they animals? They look like rejects from H.R. Puffnstuf.

The sight of them repulses Reinhart, but he thinks he's knows what's going on now. "Those things are mutations. Think about it, Susan. The plants, the whatever-it-was that attacked me, the burned area on the hillside.......what do they all have in common"?

If you said "radiation", give yourself a gold star. The movie was based on "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft, which I've never read, but I know he had a fascination with the Otherworldy. Further poking in the greenhouse leads Nick and Susan to discover green stones buried in the soil of each plant, as fertilizer. "They're the same as that rock in the earring"! I won't tell you where they came from, though Lovecraft's title probably gives it away. Reinhart is now out to shut down the entire Witley operation. The troll reappears to try and stop him. Nahum Witley feels guilty about suppressing the family history and tries to destroy the radiation source. "I was only a horticulturist! I wanted to feed the world". Alas, he gets contaminated and turns silver, emitting so many rads that the filmmakers use an optical effect to show him phasing.

It's plodding at times and there's a lot of wandering around the house. It's one of those "I'm not leaving til I get some answers"! plots. Still, the production design is as good as in a Hammer Film (the Witley Estate is a terrific set), and Nick Adams is the perfect foil, with his stocky build and tough guy Chicago accent, to Boris Karloff's lisp and sunken-eyed pallor. There aren't a lot of scares but the atmosphere is A-plus. That's why it gets Two Big Thumbs Up. It's widescreen and in color and the picture looks brand new. "Die, Monster, Die!" is highly recommended. ////

The previous night we watched "The Counterfeiters"(1948), a self-explanatory title about a hood (Hugh Beaumont), his moll (Doris Merrick) and a stooge (Lon Chaney Jr.), who steal the plates for a phony but perfect looking twenty dollar bill. An agent from Scotland Yard (John Sutton) tails them from England where they've also stolen the plates for a five pound note. Sutton introduces himself to Beaumont on the plane, posing as a fellow counterfeiter to get his attention. Beaumont sees through the scam, and after the plane lands, he beats Sutton up on the way to Santa Monica. Actually he's about to kill him until Merrick steps in. "You said there'd be no murder"!, she screams. Beaumont reluctantly leaves Sutton lying in the road. 

Later, at the race track, Lon Chaney tries passing some of the funny money. His horse wins big, which gets the attention of a chiseler named "Frankie" (George O' Hanlon, famous as the voice of "George Jetson"). Besides providing comic relief, Frankie has all kinds of big investment plans for the counterfeit, which gets Lon Chaney in trouble with Hugh Beaumont. "I told you not to use the money at the track"! Now the Feds are also on the trail. They haven't identified Beaumont yet, but they're gonna use Lon Chaney and Frankie to get to him. Meanwhile, Doris Merrick is making nice with John Sutton, who she still believes is a fellow counterfeiter. She wants him to help her steal the plates from Beaumont, but he can't trust her and neither can the viewers. Merrick pulls more double crosses in this movie than in all Noirs put together. You can't even keep track of 'em. Lon Chaney doesn't even know who he should pound, so confused is he by the machinations of Merrick.

There's also a Mr. Big above Hugh Beaumont, the man who created the plates. He's Herbert Rawlinson, playing Doris Merrick's father, a talented artist. His personal enforcer is a squinty-eyed thug named "Jerry" (Scott Brady, the real-life brother of Lawrence Tierney). Sorry if I'm confusing you by using the actors' names instead of their characters but I'm writing this a million miles an hour. Don't worry too much about the plot, it's simple : everybody wants the plates, no one knows who's got 'em. That's why Merrick keeps pointing a gun at everyone. The movie was directed by Sam Newfield who worked mostly for Poverty Row. He gets a good performance out of Hugh Beaumont, who's as mean and ruthless as the hood, as he is nice and fatherly as "Ward Cleaver", his most famous role. John Sutton went on to play cold-blooded English highbrows in many a TV Western. Here he's a handsome charmer. Lon Chaney is hapless, huge and easily hoodwinked. He's the reason I chose the movie, after finding Lugosi in "Postal Inspector" the night before (and then we found the Boris Karloff movie too, giving us three horror legends in three nights. We'll make up for it by watching Christmas movies next Halloween).

Give "The Counterfeiters" a try for fun and fast action. It gets Two Solid Thumbs Up. The picture is slightly washed out. //// 

And that's all I know for tonight. Rams won again, hooray! Today is the Winter Solstice, which means the Sun is heading back in the right direction. I send you Tons of Love as always.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)    

Peter Finch and Eva Bartok in "Operation Amsterdam", and "Postal Inspector" with Ricardo Cortez and Bela Lugosi

Last night we saw a very interesting WW2 movie,"Operation Amsterdam"(1959), about a special ops mission to remove all the industrial diamonds from Holland. They're important because they're used in machining. The year is 1940. The Germans have just invaded. They want the diamonds for use in their tank and aircraft factories. A British agent (Tony Britton) is sent to Amsterdam on a Royal Navy destroyer along with two Dutch diamond experts (Peter Finch and Alexander Knox). They have 14 hours to get in and get out of the country before their ship departs. They're tasked with going to banks in the city where the diamonds are held, and taking them back to England. Finch plays "Jan Smit" (Peter Finch), the son of the largest diamond broker in Amsterdam. The agents reach land with the help of an oarsman, but all hell is breaking loose in the streets. The Germans are attacking, citizens are taking flight. the roads are clogged and the agents are on foot. They need a car to get to the banks. Then a woman tries to drive off a nearby bridge. She's "Anna" (Eva Bartok), despondent because her husband, a Jew, is missing. Finch stops her and says "sorry but we need your car". Later we'll find out that her "suicide" was a staged ploy. It turns out she's a resistance agent herself.

The film is slow to build but epic in scope. There are foot chases through the city as the agents acquire the diamonds. Tense moments occur when they're confronted by acquiescent Dutch police, who've rolled over to the Nazis without a fight. The streets are mostly empty except for the calliopes that have been wheeled out to celebrate a national holiday. One of these will be used for it's loud volume when the agents need to mask an explosion. Finch's father, the diamond broker, goes to his gentleman's club to recruit his fellow merchants to contribute their stocks of diamonds to the cause. One man tries to use his gems to buy his way out of the country. "As you know, I am Jewish. My wife and I will be detained". Mr. Smit refuses to let him board the ship. "I am sorry but if I admit you I'll have to admit a thousand others". The plot plays out in an approximation of real time. The removal of the diamonds proceeds with few hitches, until it is discovered that the bank with the biggest supply has a time lock on it's vault, which won't open until the holiday is over.

Action supersedes plot points. The twists are few but the suspense is high, as to whether Finch and company can get hold of all the diamonds, including those behind the time lock, in the allotted fourteen hours. The destroyer will sail at 10:30pm, with or without them. The man with the rowboat has promised to be waiting. The finale is spectacular and harrowing as the group is trapped on the open highway with not much time to spare. Cars are stopped because their drivers have fled or hit the ground. A German fighter plane is making pass after pass, relentlessly strafing the road. I won't tell you what happens after that, but it's one of the greatest scenes in any war movie. There's also a lot of guerrilla warfare shown, in what is primarily a special operation. At 105 minutes, it's a little slow in places, but the cumulative effect is tremendous. Tony Britton is tough as nails as the intrepid agent "Dillon". Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Operation Amsterdam", which is based on a true story. The black and white photography is panoramic and the picture is razor sharp. It's very, very highly recommended. ////

The previous night we had "Postal Inspector"(1936), not to be confused with "Special Inspector" from last week. Inspectors apparently make good subjects for short movies, and at 56 minutes, "Postal" was a lot of fun with a great cast. Ricardo Cortez stars as "Postal Inspector Bill Davis". He's on a plane when the movie opens, flying through heavy fog. Nightclub singer "Connie Larrimore" (Patricia Ellis) is on board also. She sings some show tunes to calm the nervous passengers. Davis thanks her for the effort. On the ground, she meets his brother "Charlie" (Michael Loring). They hit it off. She takes Charlie to her club where he's introduced to her boss "Gregory Benez" (Bela Lugosi). Yes, you read that right. Bela in the credits was the main reason I pressed play. It turned out to be a very different kind of role for him, almost like a New York mobster.

This is one weird mashup of a movie. Part crime film, part musical, part commercial for the post office, it starts with the endangered plane flight, then moves into the plot, which begins by demonstrating an inspector's responsibilities. Davis was traveling with a load of gold bullion, ensuring it reached it's destination. Now he's going to return via train, to safeguard three million in retired bills, which are set for destruction by the Treasury. I've heard about the jurisdictional power of the Postal Inspection Service, and apparently it's no joke. These guys have FBI-level clout. Anyhow, this time, some crooks find out about the money and steal it from an armored car before Bill Davis can get there. Hmm, who could be behind it? Surely not Bela Lugosi. Why, he's just a Legitimate Businessman. When he learns that Davis is on his trail he plans his escape, but there's just been a major league flood. Stock footage shows houses floating away, streets are underwater. How is Lugosi gonna abscond? By motorboat, of course. It makes for a crazy chase at the end. Meanwhile, Patricia Ellis belts out more songs with her maid Hattie McDaniel. And when he's not chasing robbers, Ricardo Cortez as Inspector Davis investigates run-of-the-mill fraud, including an ancient mail-order bride and gadgets that don't work as advertised. This movie is so goofy that I recommend you see it twice, in order to take in everything that's going on. There's even a brief appearance by Bill Burrud (remember him?), as a frightened child who's mother is missing in the flood.

Two Big Thumbs Up for "Postal Inspector", a must for fans of off-kilter flicks and Bela Lugosi completists. The picture is close to razor sharp. ////

That's all the news for tonight. I'm still reading "Eruption: Conversations with Eddie Van Halen", which caused me to listen to "Balance" for the first time. I always swore I'd never listen to the Sammy Stuff, but I discovered there's some good music on those records. Check out the song "Feelin' ", about Kurt Cobain, for an example. EVH also mentions Jose Arredondo, his legendary amplifier repairman. In December 1980, when I bought my Marshall amp, the kid who sold it to me in Beverly Hills said it was modified by Arredondo, "the same guy who does Eddie Van Halen's amps". I wound up taking that amp to Jose for new tubes. "Oh, you like Eddie"?, he asked me. When I said yes, he gave me directions to his wedding! That was in April 1981. I was at the church when Eddie and Val walked out the door. Man that was cool. Thanks Jose Arredondo. But in the book, Eddie says Jose never modified his amps. "All he did was change the tubes. I said that to give him some business"! That's some funny stuff, weird and wild, too.

I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Charles Boyer and Jessica Tandy in "A Woman's Vengeance", and "Trapped by Television" with Nat Pendleton and Lyle Talbot

Last night's film was "A Woman's Vengeance"(1948), a murder mystery melodrama with a heavy Gothic air. Charles Boyer stars as "Henry Maurier", a sophisticate married to a wealthy woman. She's ill with a heart condition. He finds her histrionic and resents her continued existence. They fight. She says, "you wish I was dead"! He doesn't deny it, but because he's Charles Boyer (pr. Schalles Boy-yay), everything he says reeks of charm. His wife's best friend is sympathetic. She's "Janet Spence" (Jessica Tandy). She tells Boyer, "I know how hard it must be for you". Janet is in love with him but keeps it to herself. A friend points this out to Boyer. He responds : "Yes, but she's 35 now. If it were ten years ago she might've had something". He should talk. He's 50 and a total cad. While he charms Janet and keeps her on a string, he has no intention of reciprocating her love. Anyway, he's got "Doris Mead" (Ann Blyth) waiting in the wings. She's 18 and head over heels for him.

Okay, so there's your set up. But then there's Mildred Natwick. She plays the wife's nurse and makes no secret that she hates men, especially Boyer. One afternoon, she's serving lunch to the couple on the lawn. "Oh I'm sorry", she says to the wife. "I forgot your medication. I'll go back and get it". Charles Boyer stops her. "That's okay Miss Braddock, I'm going upstairs myself. I'll bring it back with me".

His wife soon dies.

Boyer isn't exactly heartbroken, but he thinks he knows how it happened. He accuses Natwick. "You served her those red currants! The doctor told her not to eat them". Natwick doesn't take kindly to being accused. She suspects Boyer of trying to frame her and turns the tables. Soon the coroner is exhuming the wife's body. An autopsy determines she was poisoned with arsenic. Mildred Natwick testifies at the coroner's inquest : "Mr. Maurier brought home a bottle of weed killer the day before his wife died".

Janet Spence was going to testify on his behalf, hoping to nullify Natwick's statement. "I heard you mention weed killer weeks ago! I'll tell them how dedicated you are to your garden". Then during a raging thunderstorm (a metaphor for combustible impulse), Janet can't hold back. She tells Boyer that she's loved him all her life. "And I believe you feel the same about me. I know it hasn't been long since Emily died, but now we can get married". Her confession forces his hand. "I'm sorry to tell you this Janet, but while I'm fond of you I don't love you. Beyond that, I have already remarried. We were going to announce it when the inquest is over, but now I guess you might as well know the truth".

Janet's face goes blank. She forces a smile and says "Remarried? To whom"?

"To Doris Mead". The beautiful dreamy eyed teenager. Janet tries playing the gracious romantic loser. "Oh, the young girl I've heard so much about? Well congratulations to the two of you. I hope you'll introduce us soon". When he does introduce them, Janet can barely keep the fire from her eyes. Now, instead of being a friendly witness at the inquest, she's noncommittal on the topic of the weed killer. "Yes, he did bring it home the day before. I was there visiting Emily". She says nothing about his love of gardening or that he mentioned it weeks in advance. The judge decides it's enough evidence to hold Boyer over for trial.

When questioned by the prosecuting attorney, Janet takes things a step farther. "Yes, I was there that day. Mr. Maurier told Miss Braddock - she was Emily's nurse - that he would bring the medicine down. I suppose he could've added the weed killer while he was upstairs". Though the supposition is stricken from the record, it's enough to taint the jury. A guilty verdict is returned against Boyer. The judge later sentences him to hang. Doris, his young bride, weeps and visits him in prison. This is where the story changes gears. The screenplay was written by the philosopher Aldous Huxley, who examines Boyer's fate through a fatalistic existential lens. Boyer comes to accept his sentence, telling Doris, "in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter if I die. I know I didn't do it. All that's important is that you believe me". He's wistful about it, which causes Doris to erupt into another flood of tears. Ann Blyth can sure play the Star Crossed Lover. She's only twenty here but one heck of an actress, most famous as Joan Crawford's angry daughter in "Mildred Pierce".

Back to the story, the wild card is the dead wife's doctor, played by Cedric Hardwicke. He spends the night before the execution conversing with Janet Spence. He gets her to talk about her feelings for Boyer. "I never loved him", she lies. "I think he's getting what he deserves". Hardwicke has a way of questioning her that makes her second guess her answers. He creates a deception involving the hands of a clock. Then another thunderstorm hits.......and that's all I can reveal.

We love Charles Boyer and think he's never less than exceptional. Here, he manages to create sympathy for what should be an unlikable character. Huxley's dialogue has a lot to do with that. He has Boyer state things that are likely his own philosophical opinions, giving the character an intellectual quality that attracts the women to him. Jessica Tandy, best known as "Miss Daisy", is incredible as the spiteful Janet Spence. The scene where she has to look happy after her rejection by Charles Boyer is a master class in facial expression. "A Woman's Vengeance" has the emotional undercurrent of a movie like "Rebecca". It's long by our standards at 96 minutes but the many twists keep it from dragging. It gets Two Big Thumbs Up and is highly recommended. The picture is near razor sharp. ////

Now then, do you remember an actor named Nat Pendleton? We remarked on him several years ago when we were watching a lot of pre-Code movies. He was a broad shouldered man who started out as an Olympic wrestler. In the movies he played both good guys and heavies. His onscreen persona was that of a half wit savant, which seems like an oxymoron until you see him play it. He comes across as a lunkhead who's really smart, and he speaks in a Three Stooges accent. But unlike the Stooges, he's a handsome guy. Once you get Nat Pendleton into your head, he's in there for life. There's always a comedic touch to his roles and I think he was something of a genius. He co-starred in our previous night's picture, a Poverty Row crime comedy with the curious title "Trapped by Television"(1936). Because we saw a movie with a similar title last year, "Murder by Television"(1935) starring Bela Lugosi, I figured that anything from the 1930s with "by Television" in the title has got to be a winner. Many folks don't know that while TV went into homes beginning in the late 1940s, it's invention had been in the works 20 years earlier. Therefore, a movie involving the subject that was made in the mid-30s is going to show TV in the experimental stage, which is always fun.

Pendleton plays "Rocky O'Neil", an enforcer for a collection agency. He's sent out to repossess some electronic components from an inventor, "Fred Dennis" (Lyle Talbot). Dennis asks him to please hold off. "I'm working on a machine that will transform the world. It's called a television". For comedic effect, Fred's also late on his rent. Rocky says he'll help him bamboozle his landlady if Fred will cut him in on the TV investment. "Listen pal, I can help you sell that thing". One of the clients on his list of overextended credit is "Bobby Blake" (Mary Astor), an inventor herself, who's list of failures includes an obsolete potato peeler and lessons to "speak Greek in six weeks". She wants in on the deal too. Hijinx result. Then things turn serious when mobsters get involved. It's part screwball, part crime film, but the real star - besides Nat Pendelton - is the "Television Machine" itself, an enormous contraption that looks like a science fiction transmitter. Lyle Talbot gets it to work, but then it's sabotaged. Can he fix it in time for the pitch to a broadcast corporation? If he can, the first TV show ever aired may turn out to be a classic. That's a hint to stick around till the end. Though it takes a little while to get rolling, "Trapped by Television" gains steam with the development of the invention, which Talbot explains in what sounds like scientific terms. Two Solid Thumbs Up for the movie, Two Big Thumbs for the fun. The picture's a tad soft but it's highly recommended, as anything with Nat Pendleton should be. ////

That's all for tonight. I'm listening to classical Christmas music on Jim Svejda's show on KUSC, while sending you Tons of Love as always.   xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  

John Garfield and Jennifer Jones in "We Were Strangers", and "Special Inspector" with Rita Hayworth

Last night's movie was "We Were Strangers"(1949), a political thriller with the heart of a crime film. Set in 1930s Cuba and directed by John Huston, it tells the story of a small band of revolutionaries who attempt to kill the President, a tyrant who rules by spreading fear. It's based on a true story and while I'm not huge on films about foreign governments (or political revolucion in general), I was drawn by it's stars, Jennifer Jones and John Garfield. You really can't do better than those two, and their presence suggested a traditional Hollywood format. One thing we've gotta get out of the way before we start is the Cuba/Koobah/Queber issue, having to do with pronunciation. Left wingers say Koobah, John F. Kennedy pronounced it Que-ber, but the correct way to say it is a combination of the two, Que-bah. Now that we have that settled, let's begin.

Jones plays "China Valdez", a bank teller whose brother is a budding revolutionary. He spreads the message by dropping pamphlets from his car. One day he's shot as he walks up the steps at his university. China sees the assassin, a secret policeman named "Ariete" (Pedro Armendariz). She swears to kill him and joins her brother's group, which is headed up by an American named "Tony Fenner" (Garfield). Fenner is looking for a way to overthrow the government. After China takes him to see her brother's grave, in an unmarked "potter's field" section of the cemetery, he gets an idea. The group will kill a senator. When his funeral is held in the very same cemetery, the President will surely attend. Fenner and the group will then detonate a bomb, which will kill him and any dignitaries present. One of the members asks "how will we place the bomb? It will be seen when we deliver it". Fenner answers, "We're gonna set it off underground. We'll dig a tunnel underneath the gravesite". China's house is close by the cemetery. They use her basement as a headquarters and tunnel from there in round the clock shifts. During this effort, which takes a month, the members of the group get to know each other.

China goes to work in the daytime, and is dogged by Ariete the secret policeman. He tries to entrap her in the usual fascist way, with a combination of charm and vaguely threatening innuendo. Because she's beautiful, Ariete wants China to like him and is offended by her association with Tony Fenner, whose cover is that he's in Cuba looking for musical talent to import to America. Ariete suspects him of being a terrorist and has China tailed, to try and find out where he's living. The performance by Pedro Armendariz as Ariete is tremendous (though the character is despicable), and there's a scene in the middle of the 105 minute movie where he "visits" China at her house. Her conspirators are hiding in the basement. Ariete proceeds to make himself at home. He's brought dinner for the two of them. China won't eat. He offers her rum. She says "I don't drink". So he eats and drinks by himself, smashing crab legs with his fist and shoving them into his already stuffed mouth. He continues to try to sweet talk China, then switches to political discourse and his role as a policeman. He's trying to justify himself to her because of his desire. It's a classic Hollywood fascist weakness - the pretty and decent woman. The Cuban version is no different than a Nazi. But China holds her ground, scared but not succumbing. Ariete drinks glass after glass of rum, and shoves more crab down his throat, until he's half crazed with lust and propaganda. Then he passes out. It's an Oscar moment for the actor Armendariz, who unfortunately committed suicide when he was only 51. 

But back to the story, while Ariete is hounding China Valdez, unaware that she knows he killed her brother, Tony Fenner and his cohorts are digging the tunnel in China's basement. It's slow, hard work. The men began as strangers (hence the title) but now are getting to know one another. "Guillermo" (Gilbert Roland) is a carefree dock worker who, when he isn't digging, is always strumming his guitar. "Miguel" (Wally Cassell) is a bicycle repairman. "Ramon" (David Bond) is a graduate student of philosophy. Their politics band them together. However, when the decision is made of which Senator to kill, Ramon protests. "The man is a friend of my family. I know he supports the President, but can't we choose someone else"? Fenner tells him no. "It's too late to change our plan". Ramon starts to worry about how he will face his parents. He anticipates the guilt he will feel at taking part in the Senator's murder. This causes him to drink heavily. One night, hammered on rum, he leaves the tunnel and comes up from the basement. Staggering to a nearby market, he starts babbling to people about the Fenner group's plot. Guillermo and Miguel rush out to bring him back. I can't tell you what happens with Ramon, but it will lead to further scrutiny of their hideout.

The tunnel is dug through gruesome conditions, including a stretch where the men have to shovel below the cemetery. In the potter's field section, the bodies are buried without caskets. You can guess what happens then. But Fenner and the group press on, dedicated to the overthrow of the government. Finally they reach the burial plot of the family of the targeted Senator. He's already been gunned down by another arm of the group. His funeral is upcoming; the President is scheduled to attend, just as Fenner predicted. All that's left to do is assemble and place the bomb. But when the bombmaker arrives..........boy oh boy.

Imagine you just made a pot of chili. You spent all day, it smells really good, you can't wait to sit down to dinner. Then, when you start to ladle it out, you knock over the freakin' pot. The chili spills out all over the floor. That's kind of what happens to the plotline. Now, not to worry, because - to use the same analogy - there's still some chili left, but at first the accident leaves you very disappointed. I was going "you've gotta be kidding me", but then as I say, things are righted.

Jennifer Jones is very good as the determined but vulnerable China. John Garfield is terse and stoic as always. Former Silent star Gilbert Roland exudes Latin charisma and as noted, Pedro Armendariz steals the show. Don't worry about the glitch in the plot. It leads to a whopper of a finish and also, the story doesn't bog down in it's politics, which you might have expected from John Huston. This helps to earn "We Were Strangers" Two Huge Thumbs Up. The black and white photography is exceptional and the picture is razor sharp. Don't miss it! ////

The previous night's movie was "Special Inspector"(1938), a Canadian Quota Quickie made for Veddy Britttissh audiences and running just 55 minutes. Charles Quigley stars as "Tom Evans", a US Customs Inspector working undercover north of the border. He's posing as a truck driver in order to infiltrate a gang of fur smugglers. He and his partner "Bill" (Edgar Edwards) are hijacked on his first night on the job. Note to truck drivers of any sort in a Noir - if you're in the middle of nowhere, and you see a sign that says "Detour", don't take it. It's an ironclad rule that the detour has been set up by hoodlums who are out to shanghai your shipment. This is what happens to Quigley and Bill. But before that they pick up Rita Hayworth. She's "Patricia Lane", a young woman traveling on her own to San Francisco. Quigley and Bill meet her at a cafe. They think it would be gentlemanly to offer her a ride (yeah, right) and to their surprise she accepts. When their truck is seized at the detour, she escapes. Bill and Quigley are left stranded. Quigley now knows Bill was in on the hijacking. What he doesn't know is that earlier the gang killed Rita's brother. She's running her own investigation, which is why she hasn't gone to the police (hey wait a sec, that makes two sisters who are out to avenge their brothers' deaths. Remember Jennifer Jones in our first movie).

The plot is pretty standard for this kind of film and the dialogue is rat-a-tat-tat. That's because when you only have 55 minutes to work with, you've got to include a lot of exposition. "Special Operator" is still a lot of fun, though, and you get to see Rita in one of her earliest movies. It gets Two Solid Thumbs Up, but a very high recommendation for entertainment value, and the picture is close to razor sharp. ////

And that's all I know. I turned into a popsicle tonight on my walk. Now I'm thawing out. I send you Tons of Love, as always!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)  

Cornel Wilde and Victoria Shaw in "Edge of Eternity", and "Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard" with Howard St. John and Amanda Blake

Last night we found another Don Siegel movie, "Edge of Eternity" starring Cornel Wilde, who recently stood out in "Storm Fear" (reviewed a couple weeks ago) as a bank robber on the run. He's on the other side of the law here, playing a Sheriff's deputy in Kingman, Arizona. The movie starts with a struggle. A man gets out of his car at the edge of the Grand Canyon to take in the view with binoculars. While he's doing that, another man sneaks up, releases the emergency brake on his car, and pushes it toward the first man, intending to knock him off the cliff. But the first man rolls away. The car goes over the cliff. The two men engage in a punchout, and the second man falls into the Grand Canyon. The first man stumbles away. His car is gone, he's all beat up. He ends up wandering down the road where he babbles incoherently to a prospector. This scares the grizzled Old Timer, who runs off to look for Deputy Wilde. When he finds him, clocking speeders by the highway, he tells him about the crazy sounding man.

But Wilde's heard it all before. "Oh, c'mon Eli. Is this another one of your tall tales"? "No, I swear I saw him". Just then a car speeds by, driven by a pretty woman. Wilde starts his engine. "Okay, I promise I'll take a look, right after I issue her a citation". He takes off in pursuit. The woman is a reckless driver, doing 80mph around the hairpin turns. But when Wilde pulls her over, her beauty and her charm work to her advantage. "This time I'm only gonna cite you for speeding", he says, trying and failing to sound stern. "I'll even mark it down to 45mph. But you could've killed somebody, at the very least yourself. If I catch you driving like that again I'll throw the book at you". The woman is "Janice Kendon" (Victoria Shaw), the daughter of a gold mine magnate. The scene serves to hint at a possible future romance, but also to show off her driving skills. There will be a reason for that later on.

Wilde lets her go, then heads back to the station. When he gets there, Eli the prospector is waiting for him. "That man! The one I was telling you about? He's dead! Hangin' by his neck in the mining office"! This time, Wilde believes him. He takes Eli back to the office, where a man is indeed strung up. He looks about 60 and is wearing an expensive suit, but he has no wallet and therefore no identification. To Deputy Wilde, it looks and sounds like a suicide. After all, Eli said the man sounded crazy. We know, however, that it's the man from the beginning of the movie, who got into the fight on the cliffside. Someone has likely murdered him. If it was murder, there has to be a third man involved. But who? No one knows. Wilde turns the case over to his boss, "Sheriff Edwards" (Edgar Buchanan, aka "Uncle Joe", who this time is Movin' Kinda Slow at the Junction).

The Sheriff assigns Wilde to track down the hanged man's identity. He interviews people who might've seen him in the area, including "Bill Ward", who - before he played drums for Black Sabbath - was Jack Elam, the foreman for a bat guano mine. Wilde also goes back to talk to Janice Kendon, who lets on that the man's death has something to do with gold. "There's still 20 million dollars worth sitting underground. All those open mine shafts? Sometimes the locals go down there. But it takes a lot of know-how to locate a vein. Lots of equipment, too. Still, if someone got lucky, someone else might've wanted in on his strike. The suit that guy was wearing cost a lot of money". Being a fashion plate herself, she happens to know the tailor. This establishes that the man is originally from New York. An interview with a motel clerk I.D.s him.

It's an interesting premise for a murder mystery, and this one is intercut with romance. It's also a widescreen Eastmancolor epic, where the landscape is the backdrop for the storyline. Grand Canyon gold fever is the name of the game. Deputy Cornel Wilde is now sweet on Janice Kendon, who acts like she knows more than she's telling. Her younger brother "Bob" (Rian Garrick") is a terrible alcoholic and her father the mine owner doesn't like Wilde coming around. It's not your typical case-hardened Don Siegel movie. He spends a lot of time on close ups of Victoria Shaw's dazzling smile. Things do slow down a bit during these interludes, but Siegel makes up for it with a teeth gritting finale, having to do with the bat guano mine. Though the plot takes time to develop, the last third of the movie is well worth the wait. The location photography is spectacular. There's also a subtheme about a district attorney who's up for re-election and is trying to get rid of Cornel Wilde. Were it a little tighter, it could've earned Two Huge Thumbs Up. But "Edge of Eternity" is one of those ambitious crime flicks like Taylor Hackford's "Against All Odds", where instead of sticking to the nuts and bolts of Noir, the director includes an Epic Location and a Sweeping Romance. Even the titles are similar. It's still good enough to rate Two Bigs, however, so it's definitely recommended, and the picture is Blu-ray razor sharp. /////  

The previous night's picture was a low budget - but surprisingly good - espionage flick called "Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard"(1950). Howard St. John, who played the brutal sportswiter "Al Judge" in "The Big Night" (reviewed December 9th), this time is good guy "Counterspy David Harding", who heads up an intelligence team to stop a group of American Communists, who are out to steal secrets from the Army's first ballistic missile test. When an officer at the base is "suicided" by the Commies, the Yard offers their help. They send over "Agent Simon Langdon" (Ron Randell), who goes undercover to get to the heart of the spy group. This leads him to "Karen Michelle", the secretary for the dead officer. She's undergoing psychiatric treatments for her experiences in a concentration camp. Counterspy Harding suspects there's a connection between her psychiatrist and her bosses' death, which he's certain was a murder. The screenplay here is heavily layered, something you don't often see in a 67 minute movie. There's also no fat. Intelligence techniques are realistically represented. There are stake outs, a wiretapping operation. It turns out the shrink is using narcohypnosis to extract top secret test launch information from Karen Michelle, who - as a secretary for the missile program - has clearance to know the results.

Harding and his team home in on the shrink but they need proof before they can bust him. June Vincent plays his evil secretary. The way the information is passed out of the high security base is extremely clever. I won't tell you how it's done, but Agent Langdon discovers it after donning a disguise to infiltrate the psychiatrist's office. This is about as tight a spy flick as you're ever likely to see. IMDB says that the Counterspy character originated on a radio show. There are also supposed to be other movies so I'll see if I can find them. The budget is low, but "Counterspy Meets Scotland Yard" has the hallmarks of an A-list movie. That's why I'm gonna give it Two Huge Thumbs Up. You absolutely don't wanna miss it. The picture is good, though not razor sharp, and TV tough guy John Dehner is great as an agency operative who's pretending to be an electrician. ////

That's all I know for this evening. Rams beat Cards, hooray! I hope your week is off to a good start and I send you Tons of Love as always.   xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):) 

Terry Moore and Lee Marvin in "Shack Out on 101", and "Hollywood Story" starring Richard Conte and Julie Adams

With a title like "Shack Out on 101"(1955), you've gotta click "play", especially when the star is Lee Marvin. The rest of the cast is alone worth the watch : Terry Moore, Frank Lovejoy, Keenan Wynn, Whit Bissell. Let me ask you this - have you ever seen Whit Bissell in a movie that was bad? I'll answer for you, no you haven't. And you've seen him in at least a hundred films. So right there, notwithstanding all the other actors, you know you're guaranteed a decent picture. And then, for good measure (depending on if you can stand him), you also get Len Lesser, aka "Uncle Leo" from "Seinfeld". Me? I can't handle Uncle Leo. But Lesser is more this time around.

What kind of a show are we talking about here? Hmm, I'm not really sure what to call it. Is it a Noir, is it a crime story, perhaps a spy flick or a black comedy? I'm at a loss, you'll have to categorize it yourself. It feels like a play, the way the actors read their lines, and it takes place almost all in one setting, a seaside cafe off the highway near San Diego. Lee Marvin, young and thin, plays "Slob", the joint's cook. As the movie opens, he takes advantage of "Kotty" (Terry Moore), the waitress. She's on the beach sunbathing. Slob sneaks over and gives her "mouth-to-mouth". When she pulls him off and slaps him, he acts hurt. "Aww, c'mon Kotty. I thought you were passed out". He didn't really think it, but that's the kind of guy Slob is, an animal who takes what he can get.

He seems jovial, however. When cafe owner "George" (Keenan Wynn) tells him "I'll pound you and then I'll fire you if you ever bother Kotty again", Slob shrugs it off with a grin and a sly insult. "You'll never find another cook as bad as me to make your lousy food". The next thing you know, they're lifting weights together in the dining room after closing, comparing pecs with their shirts off. So are they friends, or not? Maybe so, as long as Kotty isn't in the way. Slob calls her "the tomato". "You'd love to get your hands on her too, George, admit it". But George is more noble than Slob. His feelings toward Kottie are gallant.

As for Kottie herself, she's in love with one of the regular customers, "Professor Sam Bastion" (Frank Lovejoy) a highbrow physicist from a top secret Army base down the road. "Why can't you tell me what you do there"?, she's always asking. "Because it's classified, like the Manhattan Project", he answers. "Eddie" (Whit Bissell) is another regular. He and Professor Sam were in the D-Day invasion together. Eddie has PTSD from the experience. Professor Sam, though not a shrink, gives him advice that cheers him up. "Just keep telling me what to do, Sam, and I'll be all right. I always feel better after talking to you".

One night a guy named "Perch" (Len Lesser) comes into the cafe after closing. Slob is the only one there. Perch hands him a small object that looks like a film container. Slob stashes it in a chest he hides below his bunk (he lives in the back room). I won't reveal what it is because it's central to the end of the movie. Meanwhile, there are two other regulars, "Artie" and "Pepe" (Jess Barker and Donald Murphy). They're the delivery drivers for the company that supplies George with fresh fish, but there's something fishy about them. They always hang around till closing. "Don't you guys have to finish your run"?, Slob wonders. 

Finally, there's "Professor Claude Dillon" (Frank DeKova), Prof. Bastion's cohort. He only comes in once, then he turns up dead. His body is found washed up on the beach. Because he worked at the top secret base, his death is front page news. Slob says "it's probably suicide. Think of the pressure those guys are under". But what he doesn't know is that Kotty overheard him talking to Professor Dillon and Perch. Now, when the police interview everyone at the cafe, Slob says he never met Dillon. Kotty then does something you wouldn't expect, especially from a helpless young woman. She confronts Slob with his secret conversation. I'm not going to tell you what happens after that, but believe it or not, this isn't a full-on spy flick. As much time is spent on verbal hijinks between Slob, George and the others, with a lot of exaggerated clowning around, and again as much is spent on Slob's pursuit of Kotty, which earns him the enmity of Professor Sam as well as George, so you know there's gonna be a showdown. The spy plot is established early on but doesn't kick in until the last half of the movie.

Like me, you'll no doubt be wondering "what kind of movie is this"? At first it has the feel of a farce, or a very black comedy, and as noted it's staged like a play with the singular set (the cafe), and characters entering and leaving. But because the actors are so good - especially Lee Marvin, who was adept at light comedy - you'll find yourself glued to the screen, even if the style is unclear. Later on, there'll be no doubt it's a serious film, but before that it's a weird one. Slob and Kotty are the main characters. Terry Moore was good in "innocent-but-tough" roles like this one. Every time I see her I forget she was married to Howard Hughes. Like a lot of folks in Hughes' orbit, she's a Mormon (she's still alive at 91). They were only together from 1949 to 1956, but Moore claimed they never divorced. Hughes said the marriage was never legal in the first place. He died in 1976. Though I did think the verbal sparring went on just a smidge too long, and that the movie could use a trim of 3-5 minutes, "Shack Out on 101" still gets Two Big Thumbs Up just because it's so different. And that cast. Man what a great ensemble. It's an oddball of a Noir, it's highly recommended and the picture is razor sharp.  ////

The previous night's film was "Hollywood Story"(1951), another movie-within-a-movie, or maybe a movie about the movies. Either way, it was almost certainly based on the notorious 1922 murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor, which was never solved. The story consumed Hollywood at the time. Suspects included famous stars like Mabel Normand and Mary Miles Minter. As re-imagined by our old pal William Castle, it's a stylish mystery with a sense of fun. Not too much fun, mind you. Castle was an admirer of Hitchcock, so the main element is suspense. Whodunit is what counts here, and it's more complex than a Ten Little indians, but what Castle really wants is to deliver a paean to the old days, when the studios were omnipotent, and Silents were just giving way to Talkies.

Hollywood plays itself. The main location is Chaplin Studios on La Brea, (where we met Ringo Starr when it was A&M Records). Cameos are made by Silent stars Francis X. Bushman (whose grandson was Pat Conway of "Tombstone Territory" fame), Betty Blythe, William Farnum and Helen Gibson (a suspect in the original murder case). 40s/50s star Joel McCrea also makes an appearance. 

Jim Backus narrates as "Mitch Davis", agent for Broadway producer "Larry O' Brien" (Richard Conte). As the movie opens, he meets O'Brien at the Burbank airport. O'Brien wants to break into movies. Davis takes him to a studio (the aforementioned Chaplin), where the security guard gives them a guided tour. When he regales the men with the story of the murder (the fictional director's name is Franklin Ferrara), O'Brien decides to make a movie about it. Everyone tries to talk him out of it, including his agent Davis and his business partner "Sam Collyer" (Fred Clark). "That story's old news", Collyer says. "No one cares anymore and besides, it was never solved, which means you don't have an ending". All that does is make O'Brien more determined. "Well that's even better", he declares. "We'll solve the murder ourselves! Not only will that give us our ending, but think of the publicity"! To him it's an ingenious proposition.

But first he'll need a script. To that end, he seeks out "Vincent St. Clair" (Henry Hull), a screenwriter from the Silent days who wrote the original movie. When Ferrara was killed, his career went down the tubes, as did everyone's who worked on the picture. O'Brien finds St. Clair in a shack on the beach (not the Shack Out on 101). He's all washed up, living inside a bottle, but O'Brien wants him and no one else. "You were there; you can recreate what happened". St. Clair gets his act together and takes the job. Soon production is underway. Then a guest shows up unexpectedly : "Sally Rousseau" (Julie Adams), the daughter of Silent actress Amanda Rousseau. Amanda was seen with Ferrara the night he was murdered. Sally doesn't want her late mother dragged into this. This puts her at odds with Larry O'Brien. With his money invested and production underway, there's no chance he's gonna call off the movie. Slowly, he brings her around to seeing things his way. "If anything, it'll help clear your mother's name". Sally comes to trust him, and later they fall in love, but there's another reason she doesn't want her mother mentioned. Of course I can't reveal what it is.

As O'Brien begins his own investigation, working from Vincent St. Clair's script, an aging Silent film star becomes the prime suspect. He's playing a butler in the new movie. Sally Rousseau is nervous about him. O'Brien wonders why. His business partner Sam Collyer has a grudge against the old actor. Is he at the bottom of the secret everyone's been keeping for 20 years? While the plot is not high-tension, it's convoluted enough to hold your interest. Moreover, because it's directed by William Castle, the movie looks fantastic. You might recall when we binge watched a set of his horror movies a couple years back, we remarked on his talent for composition or mise-en-scene. He's very good at arranging the frame, and his black and white photography always has a velvety texture. Like "Shack/101", "Hollywood Story" is powered by a great cast. Besides Richard Conte (one of our go-to guys of 2021), you get the tall and rather toothy Henry Hull, best known as the "Werewolf of London". You also get the beautiful Julie Adams, she of "Creature from the Black Lagoon" fame. You get Richard Egan as a smirking cop, and a little bit of Jim Backus - pre-Howell - for good measure. Because of all this - the stars and the style - "Hollywood Story" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. While we don't have a standout masterpiece this time around, and our first movie is downright odd, I'd recommend not missing either one of them. You could even watch 'em both the same night; they kind of go together in a strange way. The picture on "Hollywood Story" is razor sharp. ////

That's all for tonight. Baby it's cold outside! I hope you're enjoying the Christmas Season and I send you Tons of Love as always.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)

Greta Gynt in "Three Steps in the Dark", and "The Big Night" starring John Barrymore Jr.

Last night's movie was an entertaining whodunit called "Three Steps in the Dark"(1953), about a mean but wealthy old man who calls on his younger relatives to attend a reading of his will. Fave gal Greta Gynt stars as "Sophie", the niece of "Arnold Burgoyne" (Nicholas Hannen). She's a crime novelist by profession. Uncle Arnold hates her books, but she's the only member of the family he tolerates. He detests his two nephews, "Philip" (Hugh Sinclair) and "Henry" (John Van Eyssen), one of whom's a cad (P), the other's broke (H). Nevertheless, perhaps because they're men, he's planning to leave them his estate, in a certain order. Henry is first. He gets the mansion, if he can produce an heir. This will give him stability and a place to live. Uncle Arnold knows he can't fend for himself. Henry has a fiance, so the question of a scion looks promising. But Uncle Arnold says she's not who she claims to be. He's got evidence. 

The fiance, humiliated, storms out of the house. Henry follows to console her. While they're outside, gunshots are heard. Someone's blasted Uncle Arnold. Who could it have been? Henry and his bride-to-be aren't above suspicion. "Mrs. Riddle" (Katie Johnson), Uncle Arnold's maid, says the shots came from outside his window. This film is just for the fun of it, a Shortino running 57 minutes. We haven't had a short film in a while, and this one's a Ten Little Indians, but it has a great British atmosphere and a lot of canny interplay between the Inspector (Alastair Hunter) who arrives to solve the murder and Sophie, who has her own theories based on the plots of her books. It's one of those mysteries where No One Is Allowed To Leave The Premises. The Inspector leans hard on nephew Philip, who seems to have the most to gain. With Uncle Arnold dead, and Henry having not yet had a son, Philip stands to inherit the estate. He's also got a secret; the affair he's been having with cousin Sophie. Does his wife know about it? Maybe she shot Uncle Arnold. Did she do it for Philip? Maybe so, to win him back by obtaining the mansion. 

Or maybe The Butler did it. We see him on the phone. He hangs up when he notices we're watching him. And what about Greta Gynt? But what reason would she have? Yes, she and Philip have a long-standing affair, but she's trying to break it off. Well, how about this : maybe she did it in the service of a book. Maybe she's trying to write the perfect murder. You're going to like "Three Steps in the Dark". Me, I loved it. Again, it's not a movie you have to heavily invest in, it's strictly an escape, but hey - an hour of Greta? What's not to like? One caveat; the ending is abrupt. Some fans at IMDB say it's indeterminate. I disagree. I think it's pretty clear what happens, though it's very sudden and the movie ends there. If you have any trouble figuring it out let me know. Two Big Thumbs Up for "Three Steps". It's recommended and the picture is razor sharp. ////

Now then : before there was James Dean, there was John Barrymore Jr. He starred in the previous night's picture, a melodramatic Noir called "The Big Night"(1951). Barrymore plays "Georgie LaMain", a handsome but nerdy young man. He's coming home from school on his 17th birthday when some neighborhood punks rough him up. It amounts to no more than a hazing but it's a precursor of what's to come.

Georgie puts his books away and goes downstairs to his Dad's bar, where he works behind the counter. Dad (Preston Foster) is there with his business partner and their roommate "Flanagan" (Howland Chamberlin). The evening regulars are on their stools, in a homogeneous state of inebriation. Dad, a somber steadfast man, brings out a birthday cake for Georgie, who's all raw nerves. Georgie manages to blow out all the candles but one, as the barflies serenade him with the traditional song.

Then the door slams open. The meager party is over. Three men enter the bar, one older, two hoodlums. The older man, besuited and walking with a cane, orders Dad to come out and take his medicine, in the form of a vicious beating. Dad complies by removing his shirt and kneeling. The older man whomps him on the back with the cane as the bar denizens look on, glumly. Georgie cries out - "Stop"! Dad's partner Flanagan holds him down. "Don't look, Georgie, don't look". Then it is over. The thugs leave the bar. Dad hobbles upstairs to lie down in bed. His back is raised with welts. Who were those men, and who was the one who beat him? Was he a Mob boss? Did Dad owe him money? Is that why he gave in without a fight?

Well no, not exactly. The older man with the cane, crippled but savage, is in fact "Al Judge" (Howard St. John), a sportswriter. Yes you read that right. What the hell's going on? Why would a sportswriter have such (forgive the pun) clout? Maybe he's an enforcer for the Mob? Hmm, that's what I was thinking. I thought Dad was maybe late on an "insurance payment", and took his beating to avoid being killed. But that's not how things shake out, as the plot kicks in and young Georgie finds his inner Bronson. He steals Dad's gun and heads out into the night, vowing to kill Al Judge. His odyssey takes him to a boxing arena, where he and his Dad were supposed to attend the evening's fight. That was before Dad got beat up. Georgie figures Judge will be covering the match. After getting swindled out of his extra ticket by a strong-arm hood (in a scriptural red herring), he takes his seat and meets "Dr. Lloyd Cooper" (Phillip Bourneuf). Dr. Cooper is a philosophy professor who is also a lush. He seems to know why Georgie is there. "So you're gonna get Al Judge, are you? Hit him with a right, then an uppercut. But watch out for that cane of his". Again we wonder, what's going on? Who is this Dr. Cooper? Is he leading Georgie into a trap?

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you'll recall that we've hammered on about the art of screenwriting, and how - in a well done script - there is no "fat", no extraneous material or characters, especially ones the director may have favored in order to present his "vision" but who, when the end result is viewed, serve only to distract from the forward motion of the story or act as red herrings. For a perfect script, see "Taxi Driver", which wastes nothing. Every scene and line of dialogue leads into the next one, right up to the resolution of the movie. Here, in "The Big Night", director Joseph Losey seems confused. He's got a hard core Noir theme (revenge) and he's got John Barrymore Jr. knocking it out of the park as the teenage Georgie. It's too bad Barrymore Jr. went crazy in real life because he was one hell of an actor (and he was Drew's Dad, by the way). But director Losey can't choose between style and substance, and so the plot becomes a mishmash. Georgie ends up wandering through the night. He can't get to Judge at the boxing match, so he enters a nightclub, where he becomes infatuated with the African-American chanteuse. Outside, he tells her she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen : "for a.....".  He leaves out the "N" word, and then he's embarrassed. "I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it! I meant you're the most beautiful woman, period"!

But it's another red herring, and really not even that. There's simply no reason whatsoever for the scene to be included, except to inject the subject of racism into the story. Yet the thing is, it doesn't fit with Georgie's character. Being a nerd who get's picked on himself, and being an ultra-sensitive young man, he seems unlikely to be the type who would use the "N" word, especially to a lady's face, and while he holds back from actually saying it, it still seems out of place. Why have Georgie, teary eyed, slather the woman with compliments, only to finish with an epithet? Well anyhow, maybe it's the kind of language he hears at the bar, and is too immature to know he shouldn't use it.

Later on, he obtains Al Judge's home address. Georgie's pretty drunk now, he's gonna walk up the stairs and shoot him. But Judge isn't home. A woman hears him pounding on the door. She's "Marion Rostina" (Joan Lorring), Judge's neighbor. She invites Georgie in and calms him down. A tentative romance evolves as the hours pass. Georgie needs Marion. She's older and represents the mother he thinks is dead. We'll find out differently later on. It turns out Marion is living with Dr. Cooper. Remember him? He's the wisecracker Georgie met at the boxing match. When he gets home, we find out he's not as nice as we thought. Georgie finds himself back out on the street. When he does finally meet up with Al Judge and confronts him about the beating of his father, Judge tells Georgie "it's not what you think". We might never have thought of it either. In the end it's for you to decide : did Dad deserve the caning or didn't he? There's evidence enough that it shouldn't be ambiguous, but because it's not a linear plot, the story seems more about Georgie's coming of age at this point than in does about Judge and his Dad.

Though it's muddled, "The Big Night" still gets Two Big Thumbs Up, due to the performance of John Barrymore, Jr. who's only nineteen here, making his accomplishment all the more impressive. Everyone knows James Dean's rebel "Jim Stark", one of the most iconic characters in motion picture history. That's the better film of the two, an undisputed classic, but I think Barrymore Jr.'s portrayal at the very least equals Dean's, and in some ways goes him one better. That's because Georgie isn't pretending to be a tough guy; deep down he knows he's a wimp, therefore his character is more defined than Dean's. Barrymore has to go through every stage of realising this lack of grown-up manhood. He's trying to stick up for his Dad and in the end he just can't do it. Two things happen that will bring him face to face with the consequences of his Big Night. I can't tell you what they are, but the ending makes up for the wayward storyline, and style-wise the movie is tremendous. It's a shame about John Barrymore, Jr., whose life you should read about on Wiki. To me, he could've been one of the great actors of all-time. We also saw him last year in "While the City Sleeps"(1957), as a hotshot conniving reporter - an entirely different type of role but with equal onscreen charisma. Joan Lorring, who was excellent as the strumpet "Bessie" in "The Corn is Green", is also very good here as "Marion" the older woman who gives Georgie respite for a short time. As with John Barrymore, Jr., she shows great range, playing a polar opposite character from one film to the other. "The Big Night", despite it's flawed plot, is very very highly recommended. Don't miss it, the picture is razor sharp. /////

And there you have it for the evening, a short-but-fun mystery and a gut-wrenching melodrama with great acting. I hope you had a nice day and I send you Tons of Love as always!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)