Remember when we went on our John Mills kick, around April of 2021? He may have been the first actor we binged-watched, before Ron Foster, John Agar, Ann Savage and others. It began when we saw Mills in "Tiger Bay" (I think), and we liked him so much that we started searching for his films on Youtube. We got really jazzed about it and called it our "John Mills kick", and as mentioned, it led to other such kicks, an honor previously reserved for directors. But Mills was the first of our "actor kicks" in the Youtube era, and we thought we'd seen all his available films. That often happens, and we are sometimes later proved wrong (witness Ron Foster and "House of the Damned"), which is what happened last night, when we got a recommendation for a John Mills movie called "Car of Dreams"(1953), a romantic comedy that's so whimsical it has an air of fantasy. There's even a few Mills-sung musical numbers. But he alone isn't the surprise here. In watching, we also made the discovery of an actress named Grete Mosheim, who I hadn't heard of. She was apparently a big star in pre-war Germany, and it's easy to see why, because she comes across as a Teutonic kewpie doll. And, she's funny as heck.
The first thing you notice is her voice. As with many Brit Flicks of that era (mid-30s), they start with ten minutes of hijinx, without a proper introduction of the characters, and in Britspeak, so unless you're English you sort of have to intuit what's going on. Grete plays "Vera Hart", who is part of a half-German (her Dad) half-English (her Mom) family. Mom runs the show. Dad has an antique shop in the front of their house, but he's so in love with his wares that he refuses to sell anything. As a result, the Harts are broke. The viewer gets confused, however, because this is played a mile a minute, and one daughter has an English accent, then comes Grete Mosheim with her lispy voice. You can't tell at first where she's from, nor why her accent is different from the rest of the family. No context is initially provided. But she's very cute, with an overbite, and she has your attention. Her Mom decides Vera needs to get a job because Dad is bankrupting the family, so her sister gets her hired at a musical instrument factory owned by a super rich millionaire. Prior to this, Vera's hobby was going to fancy department stores, pretending she's rich, and having expensive dresses modeled for her, which she "snobbishly" rejects, proclaiming them "too ordinary". Her fantasy is that she's a wealthy girl.
And now she has her job at the factory, where she rubber stamps invoices. John Mills is "Mr. Miller", her boss, but he's never in the building and only nominally runs the company in the stead of his retiring father. What he actually does all day is hang out at the nearby Rolls Royce dealership, admiring all the latest models, and there are indeed some beauties. Well, one day, in walks Vera Hart after work. She's doing her Rich Girl impersonation again, asking to test drive the "Dream Car" in the showroom. It's a knockout. Well, Mr. Miller spies her through the showroom window, and he's smitten. His pal, a Rolls Royce salesman, says, "Why waste your time? When she finds out who you are, you'll never know if she likes you for yourself or your money." Mr. Miller agrees, then says, "but what if she doesn't know my identity?" Vera has never seen him at the factory. So he then does two things: he anonymously buys the car for her on the spot, and has it delivered to her house. Her Mom has a fit, and comes down to the dealership to demand they take it back, until she finds out it's free of charge and that Vera didn't "disgrace herself" to obtain it. But now that the car is hers, Mr. Miller does the second thing: he goes to her house, again anonymously, and says, "Excuse me, I saw your beautiful car out front. you wouldn't happen to need a chauffeur, would you?"
Now begins the farcical setup, and on top of it, Mr. Miller doesn't know - yet - that Vera works at his factory, because he's always at the Rolls Royce showroom, hanging with his buddies. So now we've got a a royal twist-up. John Mills is just a kid here, reminding one of a young Michael J. Fox. As Mr. Miller, he becomes a confidante of Vera's Dad, who sneaks him shots of gin from a hidden bottle in his antique shop. Everything is going smoothly until he finds out how much Vera earns at his company, and decides to raise her salary. This backfires, because - again - it causes resentment, especially with the secretary who has a crush on Mr. Miller: "Vera Hart? She's only been here two weeks, and all of a sudden she's getting a five pound raise? What'd she do to earn that?" For her part, Vera agrees, saying, "I don't even know Mr. Miller! I want my salary lowered again!" She doesn't like the implication behind the sudden raise. But, though she doesn't realise it, she does know Mr. Miller. He's her chauffeur! And now, because of the pay raise fiasco, Miller has the Rolls Royce salesman posing as him, so he won't have to blow his cover. It sets up a rivalry between the two men because the salesman decides he likes Vera too.
This movie, I'm telling you. at first you won't understand what's going on, because it's geared for British audiences circa 1935. Then, you'll be charmed by John Mills and Grete Mosheim, which will keep you watching. And by the time the plot kicks in at the fifteen minute mark, you'll be hooked. Then it builds, and gets wackier, and wackier, until it rivals any rom/com you've ever seen (for real). The last twenty minutes is the stuff comedy legend is made of. SNL, when it had its best casts, could've done a great send-up of this movie if it wasn't already farcing itself. The clothing is fantastic, there's even an ice follies near the end, which turns into a spite match when Vera finds out that Mr. Miller isn't who he says he is.
Reading up on Grete Mosheim, who was half-Jewish on her father's side, but is blonde and German looking, I learned that she moved to England after Hitler came to power, and died in New York City in 1986, after receiving the German equivalent of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She's virtually unknown here, but you won't be able to take your eyes off her. We've got to find more of her movies. And so, a new John Mills "find" turned into the discovery of Grete Mosheim. Two Huge Thumbs Up bordering on Two Gigantic for "Car of Dreams", and I'd give it that rating (our highest) if it had the Criterion restoration it deserves. Give it a shot, and hang in there for the first ten minutes, when the Britishness will be hard to understand. Then sit back and enjoy the comic ride. It's a riot and the picture is soft but watchable. ////
The previous night we were back in Korea again, this time in "Battle Taxi"(1955), a thrilling, action-packed "advertisement" for the Air Force's then-new helicopter rescue squadrons. Arthur Franz stars as "Lt. Pete Stacy", a hotshot jet pilot who, in his words "made the mistake" of signing up for helicopter training. Now he's stuck on an air rescue squad. Disgruntled by the safety regulations, he's always taking chances to rescue his old pals from the fighter squads. When one of their F-80s goes down, he'll risk hide and hair to pick the pilot up, even if it means chancing the valuable chopper and it's crew. His superior, "Captain Russ Edwards" (Sterling Hayden), is constantly tearing him a new one. "Listen Stacy, I am gonna make or break you because I need you, but I'll see you court martialed before I let you transfer out." It's kind of a reverse of the Richard Gere/Lou Gossett battle, re: "I got no place else to go!"
But Stacy's insubordination is brief and only in place to establish some dramatic context, because this flick is all about the air rescues, and demonstrating the capabilities of the chopper and various fighter jets. If you like the hardware aspect, you'll love this movie. It's gotta be one of the greatest helicopter flicks of all time. In one scene, Lt. Stacy lowers his chopper over a Chinese tank that has an American platoon cornered. Stacy's heli is ungainly; it's nothing like the nimble Apaches and other, smaller and faster choppers of later wars, but he's a talented enough pilot to dance it around the tank like a hornet, diverting its attention from the ground troops and saving their lives until the fighter support arrives to blow the tank to smithereens. The whole movie is like the opening scene of "Apocalypse Now", although the choppers here carry no armaments.
in one scene, Stacy and his co-pilot "Lt. Tim Vernon" (Marshal Thompson) rescue a drowning pilot from the ocean, using a frogman, then Stacy hears over his radio that another pilot is down - in Chatsworth Park - and decides to rescue him, too, even though his fuel gauge reads empty. He's already been warned once by Captain Edwards, but these are his buddies, the jet pilots: "It could've been me down there. Hell yes I'm gonna pick 'em up." "But Lieutenant, we're out of fuel," says Vernon.
Stacy gets an idea. After retrieving the second pilot, with Chinese troops closing in, he goes in search of something he and Vernon passed on their way in: a bombed-out Chinese convoy, consisting of wrecked troop trucks. He lands next to it, saying, "Fill 'er up". Lt. Vernon looks at him like he's crazy, but the plan works. They refill the chopper with gasoline when what it needs is aviation fuel. The rotor sputters but they make it back to base, and even though the engine is nearly ruined, Stacy says "It was worth it. We saved two pilots." But on his final mission, he isn't so lucky. He himself had predicted, "I know I've been pushing my luck. One day it's gonna run out." On what appears to be an easy pick-up, again in Chatsworth Park, a Chinese sniper team is laying in wait, ignoring the downed airman in favor of the bigger prize, the rescue chopper. This is the penultimate scene, complete with MASH crew aftermath. Sterling Hayden, Stacy's nemesis, has to fly out to rescue him.
As noted, the movie is like a cinematic advertising poster for the USAF's helicopter rescue division. Korea was the first war for US fighter jets, the first for the USAF as it's own service branch, and the first war in which choppers were widely used. The movie demonstrates all of this with ample use of stock footage, and USAF sponsored, shot-on-location chopper stunts. In the comments of the Youtube channel I watched it on, there were many kudos from real life airmen from Vietnam and Afghanistan, which therefore makes it a movie for the filmmakers to be proud of. Two Huge Thumbs Up for "Battle Taxi", which has a Tom Cruise renegade thing happening: "Rogue pilot makes good". Arthur Franz was an excellent actor who shows he can play a hard guy. Sterling Hayden was a Marine in real life and also an OSS agent in WW2. The picture is razor sharp. /////
And that's all for tonight. My blogging music is "Blue Jays" by Justin Hayward and John Lodge, and "Long Distance Voyager" by The Moody Blues. I hope you had a nice day, and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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