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On the Town (1949)
One of the best of all the MGM musicals
One of the things I notice about IMDB reviews is that most of the classic MGM musicals (other than Singin' in the Rain) routinely get good but relatively unimpressive scores. Anchors Aweigh: 7.0, An American In Paris: 7.1, For Me And My Gal: 7.0, Summer Stock: 7.1, Take Me Out To The Ball Game: 6.6, The Pirate: 6.9, Easter Parade: 7.3, etc. Even The Band Wagon --considered one of the very best of all -- has an average score of only 7.4.
So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that On The Town only has an average score of 7.3.
I don't know what people want from these movies, when you have some of the best musical performers of all time (Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Ann Miller, etc.), some of the best directors, the best songwriters and screenwriters, the best set and costume designers, cinematographers, etc. I just have to conclude that some people here don't like or enjoy musicals very much.
On the Town was the first movie directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, and these two guys, one a movie star and both of them dancers and choreographers, proved they could direct a big movie as skillfully as the best of them (Kelly also choreographed the film). And there was something special about it. It was more energetic, with more vitality than a Vincente Minnelli musical, and it was smarter and more sophisticated than a Charles Walters musical.
The energy and the excitement -- and the humor -- greatly aided by the screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green -- never lets up in this delightful movie about three sailors on a few days' shore leave in New York.
There's also some really impressive choreography and dancing. I don't think everyone appreciates this aspect of movie musicals in this era. Not only is there Vera-Ellen and Ann Miller -- Vera has a very impressive and delightful number ("Miss Turnstiles") near the beginning of the movie that's incredible.
Later, she and Gene (as well as Carol Haney, Jeanne Coyne, and others) perform a ballet the likes of which had never really been seen on the screen before. (Not a traditional ballet, but a "film ballet" in a style developed and perfected by Kelly in his musicals.) This sensuous number has moves that could never have been put on film in a non-musical of the time. Similarly, women's costumes in these shows were much more revealing, with short skirts, etc., than any other movie costumes of those days. Which might be one reason so many men went to musicals in those days.
There's so much wit and humor in the film, and the whole enterprise really gives you a feeling of what it's like to be on a holiday in New York -- partly because it was filmed on location, to some extent (Kelly and Donen fought for that). And the non-location (Hollywood-filmed) scenes represent the brilliance of the MGM special effects and art departments.
Gene Kelly is fantastic -- it's not one of his biggest or arty-est movies but it's still one of his best. Frank Sinatra at that time was still playing a sort of variation on the somewhat naive, enthusiastic young man he had perfected in Anchors Aweigh. Betty Garrett really came into her own in movies with this film and Neptune's Daughter -- likeable and talented. Ann Miller -- great, as usual. Jules Munshin -- perfect. Alice Pearce (later famous for playing Mrs. Kravitz on TV's Bewitched) is hilarious and you can't take your eyes off her when she's on the screen. Even Florence Bates, in a small role as a Russian dance instructor, is very funny.
The song numbers are not all the ones heard in the Broadway show -- since apparently the studio felt Leonard Bernstein's music was too far from what people were used to hearing in movie musicals. Some of the songs he co-wrote with Betty Comden and Adolph Green made it into the film, but others were substituted that were by MGM's vocal coach and Freed Unit staple Roger Edens (again with Comden and Green) -- and they aren't too impressive. But they're presented so well that it almost doesn't matter (in addition to the Bernstein songs, his ballet music was more or less retained -- and its great).
All in all, the movie gives you a lift and doesn't have a dull moment . It's brilliantly presented and never makes you feel you're being talked down to or performed down to, which is a pretty great thing. If you like musicals -- especially the old MGM kind -- this is one of the best, so don't miss it.
Midnight Lace (1960)
A wife in distress
This Ross Hunter attempt at a somewhat serious thriller in the Gaslight mode works in some ways and not in others. David Miller (who did it better in Sudden Fear, with Joan Crawford) manages to give it some suspense. It's acted and directed well enough to keep you watching.
Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts wrote the screenplay. They also wrote the screenplay for Ross Hunter's Portrait in Black (from their play). Their greatest accomplishment was probably the screenplay for the James Cagney vehicle, White Heat (1949). They were a good writing team, but some of Midnight Lace seems rather contrived.
The story takes place in London and involves an American heiress, named Kit (Doris Day) married to an English businessman, Tony Preston (Rex Harrison). She's terrorized right from the opening credits by a weird voice saying scary things in a London fog. She also often hears it on the phone.
The film wasn't made in London. (Just some second-unit establishing shots.) It's a major drawback, in 1960, when many films were being made on location. Maybe it would have worked in black & white, but color just exposes the fake quality of everything, from the Universal back lot sets to the phony fog.
Doris Day (who had done terror before, in The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Julie) is appropriately hysterical; almost too emotionally real at times for for this glossy Ross Hunter production. Apparently Doris even had a breakdown on set, living the emotions of the role, and the movie had to be shut down for a while. She's admirably raw. But somehow it seems wasted on this kind of glamourous entertainment, where Doris is required to wear a new high-fashion outfit in practically every scene.
Rex Harrison is a good choice for the husband, suave and expert. Myrna Loy (as Doris's aunt) is fine and believable. The rest of the cast includes names like John Gavin, Roddy McDowall, Herbert Marshall, John Williams, Natasha Parry, Hermione Baddeley, Richard Ney and Doris Lloyd.
Unfortunately, a lot of these actors and the situations they find themselves in seem too reminiscent of old MGM movies like Mrs. Miniver and Random Harvest.
It's all very Hollywood English, right down to the nice cup of tea, and the old fashioned attitudes.
I also found Doris Day somewhat miscast as an heiress and socialite, a role that might have better suited Grace Kelly (if she'd still been working). She doesn't really even look completely comfortable in her swank wardrobe, which doesn't always suit her.
Having said all that, the movie does have quite a bit of entertainment value, despite being too slick and shallow. As an old-fashioned psychological thriller, it will probably keep you interested until the final fade-out.
The Pink Panther (1963)
Delightfully sophisticated mix of high and low comedy
I confess I'm not much of a Blake Edwards fan--growing up with a lot of his movies, I thought they were sometimes amusing, sometimes forced, or crude, or pushing for laughs. Around 1979 or '80. I saw The original Pink Panther for the first time, with an audience, and thought it was a totally entertaining, delightful movie.
I had seen several of the other Pink Panthers by then and while they were entertaining and funny, I found them over-the-top and "anything for a laugh". I'm not saying they weren't good for a couple of hours of laughs, but I've forgotten them, while I haven't forgotten the original.
I suspect the things I liked are what some other people here didn't like. The opening with the introduction of the characters and the various locations. The elegance of the settings. That love scene with David Niven and Claudia Cardinale.
Combining a sophisticated, romantic jewel-robbery type of film with the slapstick of Clouseau/Sellars and the other physical comedy scenes was one of the best things Blake Edwards ever pulled off. I really wish all the subsequent Pink Panther films had as much charm and panache.
I feel Peter Sellars was even funnier when he wasn't the focus of the whole movie. I also thought it was great to give him a cheating wife (who can blame her?), who turns out to be a great comic foil for him (Capuchine giving a surprisingly adept comic performance).
Niven and Robert Wagner are both amusing in their different ways, and not only give the movie class, but also weight. Niven, particularly, is a character who has some serious aspects, and you really get involved with him. It doesn't all have to be a laugh a minute.
Though most of the time, the film is quite funny. It just also happens to be witty. And it's in good taste, which was not always the case with a lot of Edwards' later movies, where I felt he was sometimes a bit of a dirty old man leeringly telling creepy sex jokes. And he could get farcical (which he does at some points in this one, but it's not overdone). It's good to catch some directors at a point where they hadn't gone to extremes, yet.
The way this movie balances sophisticated wit with silliness and slapstick has a lot to do with the fact that Peter Sellars replaced Peter Ustinov as Clouseau. While Ustinov was quite funny in a droll and delightful way, Sellars was a comic genius who makes most of his scenes into hilarious little sketches that should seem out of place for a police inspector in a heist picture, but instead are very welcome and just make the movie much more enjoyable. Nonetheless, despite stealing the movie, Sellars is part of an ensemble and I think he's in the film exactly the right amount. Not too much, not too little.
The cinematography here is by Philip H. Lathrop--It's gorgeous. The music is of course by Henry Mancini. In the middle of it all is a song number that shouldn't be there but works beautifully, with singer Fran Jeffries ostensibly performing in the bar/restaurant of a ski resort in Cortina D'Ampezzo but playing directly to the camera--breaking the fourth wall--which makes no sense!--but is wonderful just the same.
This is my favorite Pink Panther movie by far and I know not everyone will agree with me. But it captures a moment in time--and in movies-- that glamorous, comedic early-'60s vibe that might also have something to do with co-screenwriter Maurice Richlin, who also co-wrote Operation Petticoat with Blake Edwards, as well as Pillow Talk, Come September, and other comedies of the era.
Enjoy.
North Hollywood (2021)
Well done comedy-drama about a NoHo skater trying to go pro
It seems like there are some people who came on here to give good reviews to this film because they felt they should, to help support it.
The fact is, it's actually a really good movie. I'm well past my skateboarding years but even if I had never seen a skateboard I think I would have enjoyed this movie.
North Hollywood has a quirky kind of humor and charm, and an underlying honesty that doesn't let up.
It's a slice of life type of film about a guy who is doing whatever he can to try to take the first steps to being a pro skateboarder. He has almost no idea how to proceed except get attention for his skills and meet local pros who can help him.
Nobody else really has a big dream, around him. Some of these people get what he's trying to do, some don't. The film does a very good job of capturing the loneliness of having a dream and believing you can make it happen (and having doubts, as well). Going against family and friends.
His dad (Vince Vaughn) loves him but is misguided in some ways, having seen Mikey's goofiness and not being too assured he can make it at anything as difficult as a pro career. Out of love (and a rigidness he can't shake because it's too ingrained) he wants his son to go to college, and, barring that, construction. Despite the two actors looking nothing alike they work well together as dad and son. Vaughn as the dad has some crazy ideas but basically is doing his best.
The movie has an interesting aspect in showing the hero to be religious (Catholic), being an altar boy, praying at church, saying grace, etc. - as well as having a lot of crosses around. Of course he's no angel and even steals a skateboard deck from Zumiez, or someplace like that, at the mall, at one point.
I thought there was a lot of warmth and love and humor in the movie and, no, there was not a strong plot, and people today aren't used to that. It's a lot like 70s films, in that way.
I also liked the eclectic choices of songs. Especially 'Something Cool,' by Billy Barnes (LA songwriter), sung by June Christy. The cinematography was great to look at and was creative without being in your face.
There are also enjoyable skating scenes and the cinematography is excellent.
The only actors I was familiar with were Vince Vaughn, Miranda Cosgrove (heard of her but never saw her in anything) and Thomas Barbusca (small part as one of the new altar boys--the one who's smoking.). I decided to give this movie a try, in spite of some negative reviews here. Maybe the reviews lowered by expectations. Because I thought it was a really good movie. I would watch it again.
Lady in the Lake (1946)
Compared to Dark Passage...
Though Dark Passage (1947) doesn't present the entire story from a subjective POV, it does do so for a good portion of the film (interspersed with cuts to an objective viewpoint, here and there). The idea works well in that film and is creatively done.
In The Lady in the Lake what we have is a completely subjective camera for almost the entire film - an interesting experiment that doesn't really work. The shots that are supposed to represent private detective Philip Marlowe's viewpoint never seem to come to life. The characters speaking to Marlowe seem to be interacting with a camera.
There is one scene after Marlowe has had a bad experience, out on a road, where the subjective idea is finally used more dramatically. It's too bad there aren't more scenes like that.
Robert Montgomery plays Marlowe mainly with his voice - except when glimpsed in a mirror - and, unfortunately, he often sounds as if he's reading from a script. Also, the whole tone of the movie is somewhat off, not really Chandleresque - more like pulp fiction.
I like Jayne Meadows but someone needed to reign her in, here (Audrey Totter, in the main female role, does pretty well but is also guilty of some overplaying).
The film has been done on a relatively low budget (low for MGM, anyway). Atmospheric parts of the novel that take place at a lake in the mountains aren't included in this version. They're merely referred to.
While I don't think this is a totally bad movie, it's a somewhat frustrating one. I think it's fun, at times, but it could have been much better.
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Wonderful entertainment
I wasn't a big fan of this movie, or the Joe Pasternak MGM musicals in general, at first. Somehow, when I discovered old movies, as a teenager, I had more sophisticated tastes. I preferred the Arthur Freed musicals like An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, etc.
I still like those films, but now I tend to also enjoy movies like Anchors Aweigh, as well - because I can see them for what they are - pure entertainment. Undemanding, light, feel-good films. I can understand why they were so popular at the time.
Anchors Aweigh probably represents the zenith of those types of wartime MGM musicals (Two Girls and a Sailor, Music for Millions, etc.). It has three big stars - Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and Gene Kelly. It's in Technicolor. It's 140 minutes long. It was nominated for Best Picture. Gene Kelly was nominated for Best Actor. It's even set in Hollywood, which is where the two leads - sailors - spend their shore leave. It also has conductor-pianist Jose Iturbi, to play and conduct some light-classical pieces (Hungarian Rhapsody, The Donkey Serenade).
In fact Iturbi kind of sets the plot in motion after he conducts the Navy band on a ship anchored in Los Angeles harbor, where Joe and Clarence (Frank and Gene) receive medals. When they get leave, Clarence tags along to see how Joe ("the biggest wolf in the Navy") attracts women. They're picked up by the cops to talk to a little boy who has run away to join the Navy, eventually meeting his Aunt Susie, who both of them fall for. When they mess up her chance at an audition for the Philharmonic, Joe mentions Clarence knows Iturbi, and the two go off in pursuit of the elusive conductor.
Each of the three stars gets more than one solo, or showpiece.
Sinatra sings Why Does the Sunset?, The Charm of You, I Fall in Love Too Easily, and Brahms' Lullaby.
Grayson performs All of a Sudden My Heart Sings, Jealousy, and Tchaikovsky's Waltz Serenade.
Kelly sings and dances The King Who Couldn't Sing and Dance, leading into The Worry Song, performed with an animated Jerry The Mouse, from the Tom and Jerry cartoons. He dances Las Chiapanecas with 7 year old Sharon McManus, on a recreation of Olvera Street. He also has an impressive acrobatic fantasy number set to La Cumparsita, swinging up to the rafters of a movie set and jumping over the rooftops.
Kelly and Sinatra also duet on three songs: We Hate to Leave, I Begged Her (which features the pair dancing), and If You Knew Susie. Colombian baritone Carlos Ramirez is also featured, briefly - performing a bit of the aria from The Barber of Seville
Pamela Britton is a cute waitress from Brooklyn who has a thing for Sinatra, even if he only has eyes for Grayson (who Pamela says "sings just like a boid"). And Grayson and Kelly only have eyes for each other.
Rags Ragland is around (as a cop) and so is Dean Stockwell (as Grayson's nephew). Edgar Kennedy, Grady Sutton, Billy Gilbert, Leon Ames, Henry O'Neill, Henry Armetta James Flavin, James Burke, and Chester Clute have other roles.
The picture (written by Isobel Lennart, with songs by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn) is very lavish and colorful, with some location shooting at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as at MGM itself, letting us through the front gate onto the lot and into some of the sound stages.
It's great escapist entertainment - and, to paraphrase Mr. Sinatra in That's Entertainment (1974): You can wait around and hope, but you're not likely to ever see anything like this again.
The Band Wagon (1953)
One of the greatest screen musicals
Tony Hunter (Astaire), a Hollywood has-been, accepts an offer to star in a Broadway show, to be directed by Jeffrey Cordova (Jack Buchanan, spoofing a type like Jose Ferrer, who was known for starring in and/or producing/directing several hit shows at once). Cordova has the idea of co-starring Gabrielle Girard (Cyd Charisse) - a ballet dancer - with Hunter. Not necessarily in the show that Tony's friends, Lily and Lester Marton - a married team of playwrights/songwriters - have envisioned, but in a modern-day version of Faust.
The film, from then on, is about a show being put on. It's nothing like it was in Mickey Rooney's old movies. Screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green (who based the Martons on themselves - though they weren't married to each other) had written and starred in shows like On the Town. Minnelli had directed several Broadway hits. Set designer Oliver Smith worked primarily on Broadway. Fred Astaire, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan had all appeared on the New York stage - and in some cases, the London stage. These people were all insiders. They knew their stuff. They knew how to gently spoof the profession while presenting it in a respectful and delightful way.
This was one of those MGM-Arthur Freed musicals - like An American in Paris, and Singin' in the Rain - written around a catalog of old songs by an established composer or composing team - in this case, the team of Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz. Schwartz and Dietz even came up with a great new song - That's Entertainment - to go along with standards such as By Myself, Dancing in the Dark, and I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan.
Michael Kidd was the choreographer, giving us such great numbers as the Girl Hunt Ballet (an homage to hard-boiled detective fiction, narrated by Astaire: "She came at me...more curves than a scenic railway"), and the ingenious Triplets, with Fred, Nannette, and Jack as toddlers, a deception accomplished by tying back their lower legs and making them perform on their knees for part of the number. They were actually administered shots of novocaine because it was so painful - but the results were hilarious. Then there was the inventive A Shine On Your Shoes, danced by Fred and a shoeshine man in an arcade - and the graceful Dancing in the Dark number where hoofer Astaire and ballerina Charisse discover they're able to blend their styles and dance together.
This was the movie that finally made a star of Cyd Charisse, after many years in supporting roles. The fact that the ballet star she plays has a French name suggests to me that the part may have originally been intended for French ballet dancer (and then-current MGM star) Leslie Caron. The fact that Cyd was almost a decade older than Leslie works better for the film, though. And it's a pleasure to see her opposite the master, Astaire. She was a great dancer - and gorgeous, as well.
Oscar Levant - as Fabray's better half - is around, too. Apparently no one, including Oscar, was very happy while making this film (due mostly to outside reasons), but it doesn't show. Maybe best of all is Vincente Minnelli's brilliant direction - his visual style, his understanding of the material. His ability to direct comedy. It all comes together. I sincerely hope you have as great a time watching The Band Wagon as I always have.
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956)
Persons, like you see on the train
Gregory Peck plays a white-collar suburbanite who moves up from a safe job at a non-profit foundation to an executive position at a television network ("UBC") located on Madison Avenue.
Jennifer Jones, as Peck's wife, is the one who urges and convinces him to make the switch - a chance at a little more money. At the same time, his grandmother has died and has left him her old house - but the inheritance is being disputed by her former caretaker.
In all these things, Tom Rath (Peck) is cautious, while his wife, Betsy, wants to take risks. In the world we're dealing with - the '50s - he's the breadwinner, and she can only advise from the sidelines. But the film makes it clear that such a relationship isn't necessarily a power imbalance. Betsy is quite assertive and is obviously an equal partner in the marriage.
But something is missing - which she acknowledges, while he doesn't. Something hasn't been right since the war. There's an air of defeat and resignation that hangs over everything. It has to do with those repressed memories of Tom's, that keep coming out in sudden flashbacks.
Nunnally Johnson, a very good screenwriter, took several cracks at directing, around this time. As a writer-director, he was no Billy Wilder or Joe Mankiewicz. Some of his scenes are unnecessarily slow, and long. Like the ones with Fredric March (as the network chief) and Ann Harding (as his wife), for example. Harding's line delivery is particularly lugubrious. Lee J. Cobb, as a suburban Connecticut judge, seems to draw his scenes out to infinity, as well -- with many yawns, long pauses, and sighs. He's good, but it's like he could use a cup of strong coffee.
Gregory Peck himself is has not always been a ball of fire, exactly, as an actor, but he at least conveys a convincing and compelling inner intensity - and he gets to emote in some of those war flashbacks.
The one actually lively performance in the film comes from Jennifer Jones. Her energy almost seems out of place, so out of sync is it with the rest of the movie. But it's often welcome.
The funny thing is, the deliberate pace of the film does have a way of drawing you in. Though protracted, it isn't actually boring. You never really know where things are going, or how they'll turn out, and that makes you want to keep watching.
Mainly, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit explores everyday ethical and moral dilemmas, and how an honest man can only be happy doing what he feels is right. It also explores how the things we did in the past, that seem to be gone and forgotten, have a way of intruding on the present in significant ways.
A few years earlier, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit would probably have been filmed in black and white, in the old "Academy" aspect ratio (think A Letter To Three Wives, or All About Eve). But by 1955, 20th Century-Fox was committed to making almost all their films in wide-screen CinemaScope and color. It's interesting to see an intimate drama done in this way. It has the effect of opening it up, especially the WWII flashback scenes.
Stick with it and you'll probably enjoy it. It's an interesting and well-acted story that still has relevance today.
The Law and Jake Wade (1958)
The Law And Jake Wade, with canned music
The reviewer, hondo55131, on December 2005, titled his review, "If only a different composer." If I'm not mistaken, no composer is credited on the film. Stock music was used for the score. It was by Fred Steiner, but wasn't composed for the movie.
In 1958 there was a strike in Hollywood by the American Federation of Musicians. That's apparently why no original music was recorded for The Law And Jake Wade (several other MGM movies of 1958 suffered the same fate).
The lugubrious canned music has nothing to do with what we're seeing onscreen, has no character, and really does drag everything down. It might have been better to have had no music in the movie at all.
At any rate, what we do have is a pretty good, moody western, rather deliberately paced, that picks up near the end, but even that final sequence could possibly have used more punch. Noted action director John Sturges could be brilliant (Bad Day At Black Rock, Last Train From Gun Hill) but sometimes he was just okay. This movie isn't as gripping or suspenseful as it should be, but isn't bad.
Through a series of circumstances, Marshall Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) and his fiancee (Patricia Owens) find themselves the hostage of Wade's former partner in crime, Clint Hollister (Richard Widmark). Wade and Hollister were in Quantrill's Raiders together - now Wade has sprung Hollister out of jail before a hanging - "to repay a debt of honor" - but the outlaw wants to know where Wade has hidden the proceeds from an old robbery. His gang is along to keep Wade in line.
At times I thought Jake Wade acted like a bit of a fool, too trusting and noble. At other times, he could have been a bit more honest. There are some inconsistencies.
Also, though it probably was not the intention, there's almost a homosexual subtext in the relationship of Widmark and Taylor. A sort of love-hate thing.
Both Robert Taylor and Richard Widmark are good. The California locations are stark and well-chosen: the Lone Pine and Death Valley areas.
They Were Expendable (1945)
Superbly directed depiction of WWII events
They Were Expendable is based on a novel that in turn was based on real-life events in the Philippines in World War II. It was filmed mostly in Florida and at MGM studios in Culver City, California by the great John Ford, who is at his best here.
Ford served in the Navy and manages to capture something that seems real and honest, as well as heightened and sentimental, but never maudlin. The mundane and somewhat random aspects of war seem better portrayed here than in most war films. And despite the leads being played by attractive, larger than life movie stars, they seem like real people after a while. You feel as if you're living the story along with them.
The somewhat subdued quality of the movie when the battles aren't being fought is in itself a pleasure, since so many other filmmakers then and now want to give us "drama". Also enjoyable are Ford's brilliant compositions, and his wit, at welcome intervals.
Montgomery never had such a great role and he plays it with simplicity and a certain grit that make him memorable. John Wayne as his second in command gives a strong and involving, as well as occasionally charming, performance. Lovely Donna Reed as a nurse who is his love interest for a brief interval is perfect. Her eyes are the key to her performance - it's clear the character has seen grim reality and has an uncertain future, just by looking at those eyes.
The supporting cast is memorable, particularly Louis Jean Heydt, Ward Bond, Leon Ames, Charles Trowbridge, and Russell Simpson as a character with a corn cob pipe that seems like he could have stepped out of Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath.
The film is an unflinching look at grim events but is leavened by its humanity and occasional humor, as well as Ford's underlying warmth as a filmmaker.
Ivanhoe (1952)
Rich dramatic pageant of early Britain
There's a real flavor of long-ago Britain in this rousing yet rather serious adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's epic novel.
I think this may be Robert Taylor's finest hour; he's really superb in the title role. No, he's not English, nor does he have the accent. But he seems to have an innate understanding of the character. His eyes are very expressive. He almost gives a 'method' performance - intense, internal, believable - yet fully within the dictates of the costume-picture realm.
I enjoyed Joan Fontaine's "would that I were a man" musings as Rowena - she's far more spirited than the usual Medieval movie heroine and one gets the impression she would gladly joust with the best of them if given half the chance. She's also suitably romantic when necessary. This also happens to be one of Fontaine's best portrayals of her postwar career.
Elizabeth Taylor apparently had little desire to make this film, and the result may be her very low key and underplayed approach to the role of Rebecca, daughter of the Jew, Isaac of York (Felix Aylmer). But whatever the reason for her quiet, melancholy interpretation, she all but steals the film with it. She also was very likely never as lovely as she is here.
George Sanders, as her brusque Norman would-be suitor, Brian de Bois-Gilbert, is suitably threatening and yet appropriately sympathetic when it's called for. Finlay Currie, as the estranged father of Ivanhoe, Cedric, takes up a sword when necessary (at age 74) and generally gives a stubborn, spirited portrayal. Emlyn Williams plays Wamba, Cedric's fool, freed by Ivanhoe, who gets one of the film's best lines: "For every Jew you show me who's not a Christian, l'll show you a Christian who's not a Christian."
Although Ivanhoe is not generally known as one of Hollywood's message pictures of the period, it does in fact contain a strong message of religious/racial tolerance, as you will see if you watch it.
There's also plenty of action - much of it filmed outdoors in England (and a bit in Italy - substituting for Austria), or on the back lot and sound stages of MGM's British operation at Borehamwood.
The lush Technicolor cinematography by F. A. Young, brilliant art direction by Alfred Junge, costumes by Roger Furse, and the rest of the production have been upgraded recently to blu ray and the results are sparkling. Miklós Rózsa's musical score is outstanding.
Pandro S. Berman's production, directed by Richard Thorpe, is an entertaining motion picture experience.
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Historical Epic for the DeMillions
I first saw this great and greatly entertaining film on the big screen, when it was re-released in the 1970s.
Since I was a kid, I loved Cecil B. DeMille films such as Union Pacific and Reap The Wild Wind. Yes, I found them hokey even then. But also a delight. And wonderful storytelling. Many of the them had a love triangle as the basis of the screenplay, regardless of the era or the setting. So does The Ten Commandments (Moses, Rameses, and Nefretiri).
DeMille had of course done Spectacle before - it was his stock in trade - but in many cases the films didn't really live up to the hype, in that one way. They were wonderful films - like The Sign Of The Cross, and Samson and Delilah - but they weren't really big. No DeMille film was as big as MGM's Quo Vadis (1951), for example. Not even close. Not until 1956's The Ten Commandments.
It's really a biography of Moses, from birth to death. At the same time, it doesn't really ever get very close to Moses or give us any real psychology of the man. It's as much about the story as the character. That's very typical of DeMille, though, and surprisingly, despite essentially "staying outside" of who Moses was or what motivated him, the film is an enormously compelling historical and religious drama. As well as a romance, an adventure, a bit of a sophisticated comedy, at times (the scenes at court, with Cedric Hardwicke as Sethi, that have an almost G. B. Shaw-like wit), something of a travelogue (taking us to ancient Egypt and traversing some of the very ground Moses walked upon - as an opening credit informs us) and even a docudrama (as DeMille himself narrates scenes of brickmaking, etc.).
The filmmaker was highly anti-Communist by the 1950s, and if you see a version with his onscreen prologue, he makes a comparison of the ancient Israelites and their enslavement under the Egyptians, to the people living under Communist regimes in the Eastern Bloc at the time of the film's release.
So many people have talked about the cast, I don't know what else I can say. I do know DeMille offered the part of Lilia (played by Debra Paget) to Pier Angeli, and Joshua (played by John Derek) to Cornel Wilde. Both of whom turned him down.
The two main stars, Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner, are so perfectly cast it's difficult to picture any other actors in the roles of Moses and Rameses (though DeMille did consider casting William Holden as Rameses! Hard to picture that.)
I've always thought Anne Baxter (at around 30, and never really considered a sex symbol) was a somewhat odd choice for the role of Nefretiri, who arouses the rivalry of two princes of Egypt. DeMille originally wanted Audrey Hepburn, because he thought she resembled the women depicted in ancient Egyptian art. One can also easily envision young beauties of the time such as Jean Simmons or Elizabeth Taylor in the role. Baxter was originally considered for the part of Moses' shepherdess wife, Sephora. It might have made more sense for her to play Sephora and sexy Yvonne DeCarlo to have played Nefretiri - though DeMille's decision to cast both actresses against type is interesting. DeCarlo got some of the best notices of her career for her performance. And Baxter has moments near the start of the film that remind one of sexy young Claudette Colbert in DeMille's earlier films. And she's particularly effective in the sequences near the end where she plays the older wife of the Pharaoh with appropriate rancor and bitterness. (By the way, I've always wondered whose child, exactly, "Princess" Nefretiri is supposed to be. She's not Rameses' sister - I hope).
All in all you will probably enjoy The Ten Commandments - but if you can, see it on the big screen, or in at least high definition.
Phffft (1954)
Love American Style
One summer night as a high-school-age teen with nothing to do, I watched this movie on TV. I had never seen Judy Holliday before and I suppose part of my enjoyment of the film was discovering how good she was. I already knew Jack Lemmon was good. I thought the film was funny and delightful from start to finish.
At any rate, a lot of years later, I watched Phffft again, and was very disappointed. I really want to see it a third time, now, because I wonder if I was just in a bad mood, or something. I don't understand how my reaction could be so different. I found it dull and slow-moving, and most surprisingly, not very funny. It also looked kind of cheaply made, and it probably was (cheapness being sort of a hallmark of Columbia Pictures, unless it was a big, important film - and even then, sometimes).
I can usually get into an older film and appreciate the humor based on what was humorous then, but I found a lot of the wit too dated to enjoy, and even at times in bad taste (although nothing like the bad taste of some current movie humor).
I like all four of the main actors a lot, so I'm sorry to report I didn't really get into this listless and rather strained marital comedy this time around.
Silk Stockings (1957)
Oh, you mad, romantic Russians!
In this remake of Ninotchka, based on a Broadway musical version with songs by Cole Porter, a dour Soviet emissary (Cyd Charisse) is charmed by a Hollywood producer (Fred Astaire) and the glories of Paris. We hear a lot of about Paris, but - except in some establishing shots - we don't see a lot of it. Most of the film takes place indoors, unlike Fred Astaire's other 1957 musical, Funny Face, which was at least partially filmed on location in France.
That said, director Rouben Mamoulian does a lot with what the budget and MGM's technicians have given him. The interiors are certainly lavish, and the story still holds up. It's been reworked from the original, and updated for the Cold War. Instead of a fight over Russian crown jewels and whether they belong to exiled royalty or the State, we now have a composer (Wim Sonneveld) who has fled to Free Europe and whose services are required by both the Soviets and a Hollywood film company shooting a new version of War And Peace, starring Peggy Dayton, an Esther Williams-like swimming star (Janis Paige).
Along for the fun are three pleasure-seeking Russian government officials (Peter Lorre, Jules Mushin, and Joseph Buloff), whose behavior is being monitored by Ninotchka with increasing disgust - until she herself begins to succumb to similar temptations.
Unless you get the chance to see it in actual CinemaScope, on the big screen, the film (including the spectacular dances) may lose some of its impact. And many of the jokes that were once topical may not land in the same way as they did in the '50s.
But then you still have the Cole Porter songs, the wonderful solo dances and duets of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire, and the added fun of comic numbers by Paige and the three Russian stooges, Lorre, Mushin, and Buloff. There's also a great contribution from the background dancers, who really stand out, here.
Rouben Mamoulian brings his unique, sophisticated, and refreshing style to the whole thing, a great musical talent but often forgotten next to Minnelli, Stanley Donen et al. He later worked on Cleopatra and Porgy And Bess, but ended up being replaced on those projects, so this was his final released film.
Undercurrent (1946)
Glossy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer suspense
I've read some reviews saying this isn't as good as Hitchcock, and isn't a good film noir. It might be better to just take the movie on its own terms.
Undercurrent is an enjoyable piece of entertainment, in an old fashioned, magazine fiction type of way, which benefits greatly from the stylish direction of Vincente Minnelli and the leading performances by Katharine Hepburn and the often underrated Robert Taylor.
This was Taylor's first film on his return from WWII. He's cast quite differently from his prewar films. Actually, Hepburn is also cast against type. There are elements of Gaslight and Rebecca, with Kate as the inexperienced, rather gawky bride of an industrialist, who whisks her away from her New England college town to the glamorous atmosphere of Washington, DC, Georgetown, and Virginia's rural horse country.
Hepburn is surprisingly effective as the insecure young woman (the actress was close to 40 here but she pulls it off). She really makes us feel her nerves as she tries to fit in, and live up to her husband's expectations.
But it's clear after a while that the husband, Alan Garroway, has a secret or two. Kate (as Ann) keeps uncovering layer after layer - some of it having to do with a sensitive brother that Alan seems to be jealous of, and that Ann begins to almost fall in love with, despite never having met him.
Big MGM movies of this period have a certain leisurely pace and this one is no exception, so you may not find yourself on the edge of your seat, gripped every minute by taut drama. But if you take it for what it is, and settle in, you will likely enjoy the outcome.
There's an emphasis on glamour and sumptuousness - Miss Hepburn wears a lot of beautiful clothes by costume designer Irene - and you won't be surprised that the book it's based on was serialized in Women's Home Companion magazine.
Hepburn gives a very affecting and natural performance; Taylor is also very effective as the husband whose motives remain unclear throughout most of the film. Robert Mitchum (coming off an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting actor the year before) is the third above-the-title star and gives his usual intelligent performance.
Jayne Meadows plays a girl who's supposed to resemble Hepburn's character. Marjorie Main is Hepburn's dad's housekeeper. Leigh Whipper is a worker on Garroway's Middleburg, Virginia, estate. Kathryn Card is a horsewoman. Etc. All do good work.
There are some rather characteristic Vincente Minnelli touches, particularly the, shall we say, undercurrent of thinly-veiled emotional chaos beneath the beauty and order on the surface of things.
Another Man's Poison (1951)
Storm in a teacup
I can only guess that the attraction of working in England on a film together was the draw for Bette Davis and Gary Merrill when they chose to do this project. Still, I can't believe they read the script and thought it would make a good movie. It's just a far-fetched, second rate murder melodrama, based on a not very well known play, with only a few characters.
Having done a little research I now know Bette and Gary didn't care for the original script (by Val Guest) but that Bette and costar Emlyn Williams - writer of Night Must Fall, and The Corn Is Green - attempted a re-write on set.
At any rate, having just made All About Eve, you'd think both actors would have been careful about selecting good follow-up material, Bette to solidify her comeback, and Gary to build on his recent success after coming to films from Broadway. Instead this is a bad melodrama and a bore at the same time. It's not long, but it has no feeling of pace. It's like watching a play on '50s TV, and not a good one.
Bette plays an Englishwoman and lets her Boston accent suffice, with a few plummy pronunciations thrown in. She's really the only interesting thing to keep you watching this low-budget affair.
Anyway, you probably will want to see this film once, if you like Bette. She gives a rather bad performance, at times, but at least gives you a lot of bang for the buck. She's a charismatic performer. Gary Merrill is just ok, and the rest of it seems stupid and cheap.
The Bottom of the Bottle (1956)
Wide-screen southwestern drama
While not quite a masterpiece or a classic, The Bottom Of The Bottle is involving, suspenseful, and watchable. Like many movies of the era filmed on location, especially those made by director Henry Hathaway, it uses the atmosphere and landscape to get you involved. It's hard to picture this story taking place anywhere else (though it's based on a novel that took place in France).
Van Johnson heads the cast as an escaped convict and an alcoholic, who ends up at the doorstep of his older brother (Joseph Cotten), an affluent lawyer in Nogales. Arizona, during the aftermath of a big rainstorm that has caused the local river to rage and flood its banks. Johnson needs to get across to Mexico, where his wife and children are waiting, down to their last cent.
As a prominent attorney, it would be career suicide for Cotten to help his brother to leave the country. He seems cold and unfeeling, but after all, he has his own life to think of. It turns out, though, that years ago, he had a chance to help his brother (who's innocent) and didn't. He has become a shell of his former self, and his wife (Ruth Roman) realizes they're living a kind of half-life, partying and socializing with the other well-off people in town, in a kind of substitute for real happiness.
Eventually their friends (who have met Johnson, whom Cotten has passed off as someone else) realize Johnson is the escaped convict they've all become aware is in the area. But he has escaped into the wilderness, and is going to try to cross the turbulent river waters - even though he's gone back to drinking, in his desperate state. What happens from then on, you'll have to see.
Van Johnson is pretty great - he was an actor who played for charm, usually, and created a kind of familiar, laid back personality that he used in a lot of his roles. But here he has to create a completely different character, that you might expect to see played by a different type of actor.. And he pulls it off. Cotten, also, plays against type, and does it well. They don't really seem much like brothers. There's roughly a 10 year age difference, and they're different physical types. But being good actors, they make it work.
The great Lee Garmes photographed in CinemaScope, and the screenplay is by Sidney Boehm. Though somewhat turgid and heavy, the movie keeps you going and has a suspenseful last quarter and a satisfying pay off.
Charade (1963)
Good mystery and suspense with charismatic stars
Despite this being called "The best Hitchcock film Hitchcock never directed" it really isn't on that level. Stanley Donen is not the Master Of Suspense.
It's a pleasant, if sometimes unbelievable, romantic comedy thriller, the benefits of which are two charismatic stars (in their only pairing), a good supporting cast, Parisian locations in color, and occasionally witty dialogue.
There are weaknesses in the story and plot that are somewhat obscured by the charms of Grant and Hepburn. Cary is remarkably well preserved for a 59 year old man. He looks good, and some of the things he's required to do in the film would exhaust a man ten years younger. I don't think there's much sexual chemistry between him and Audrey, but that doesn't seem to bother too many people who see the film.
There are a few good set-pieces, in the Hitchcock vein, like the fight on a hotel roof and the business with the theater trap doors. Though I think if Hitchcock had made a film in Paris, he would have come up with better ideas. I also think he would have made Paris look better than it looks here. Other than the cruise on the river, the locations that are chosen are somewhat drab or mundane.
Overall, the premise seems a bit contrived, and the people don't seem real, but a lot is done to try to hide that fact. The movie is watchable and entertaining and passes the time pleasantly - and there just aren't stars like Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant any more. Though I think Grant might have had more chemistry with the other Hepburn, Katharine.
I Could Go on Singing (1963)
The Lonely Stage
For Judy Garland fans this is a special treat - to be able to see an older Judy giving a rounded, dramatic portrayal of a complex character. Her style is interesting - likeable, casual, offhand, at times. She knows when to emphasize, and when to pull back. This could have been heavy, in someone else's hands, but she plays it in a very direct fashion that wins us over.
The film starts off without fanfare, with Judy's character (Jenny Bowman, an American concert star on tour, modeled after Garland) visiting a well-off London medical specialist for her throat. But very quickly we discover these two have a history, and are the parents of a son Jenny gave up at birth and now wants to see again. The doctor, (played by Dirk Bogarde) who has raised the boy, refuses at first, then relents, when Judy promises only to meet the child, then go on her way.
That's not what happens, of course, when the two visit their son, now in his middle teens, at boarding school. Though she doesn't reveal her identity, Jenny and the boy develop a strong bond. Eventually she wants him back.
The boy has been led by the doctor (and the boy's stepmother, who is now dead) to think he's been adopted. Eventually he overhears an argument and learns that the Bogarde and Garland characters are in fact, his real parents.
Though it sounds like a melodrama, it's not played or directed in that style. It becomes a touching, and (mostly) underplayed drama of a situation that seems both believable and fairly realistic.
Though Jenny Bowan is obviously based on Judy Garland (despite being just a singer, not a film star/actress), the character doesn't seem to have a lot of Judy's own issues, and is not exactly like Judy. So that a scene that occurs near the end of the film - which finds Jenny in the ER, visited by David (Bogarde) - as well as the following scene at the Palladium with Jenny late for a performance - make more sense for Garland than for Bowman. Dramatically, the scenes seem to come out of nowhere. The hospital scene was apparently re-written by Bogarde and Garland. It's strong, revealing, and dramatic - the film needs some excitement, here - but Jenny has not really behaved particularly self-destructively up to this point, and the scene addresses that issue - confusingly, as if Jenny has suddenly become Judy.
Unfortunately, these final scenes also lack resolution. You may find yourself confused when the words The End flash on the screen. David has just told Jenny he loves her - it should lead somewhere - we should find out where their relationship is going - or how they intend to raise their son - but it's all left up in the air.
But, overall - especially if you enjoy Judy Garland - it's a good musical drama, with that reseved, understated quality that British films of the period had. It presents likable people and you do care about them. It also has some nice color photography of London and the countryside, along with good backstage atmosphere, Judy sings four or five numbers, the best of which are the standards, By Myself, and It Never Was You (recorded live, on set - with solo piano).
Her Cardboard Lover (1942)
Cukor directs Shearer and Taylor
As others have said, this was Norma Shearer's last film. I have no idea if she intended it to be, at the time, but it was, and she retired. Norma was, I think, 39 in this movie.
Shearer didn't appear in many comedies. The Women (1939), also directed by George Cukor, was fantastic, and a big hit. She was the lead, but her part was more serious, and she wasn't required to do the comedic heavy lifting (that was left mostly to co-star Rosalind Russell and the supporting cast).
I guess what I'm trying to say is that Norma didn't particularly have the light touch necessary for this type of sophisticated comedy. It's the sort of thing Claudette Colbert could have done in her sleep - and she would have made it seem better than it actually was.
It's a trifle about a woman hiring a good-looking man (Robert Taylor) as a secretary - but really it's to give the impression of being her lover, in order to make her boyfriend (George Sanders) jealous. Taylor's character already has a crush on her when he's hired.
Shearer is good enough, but the role seems to expose not only some of her acting weaknesses but also some of the qualities that made her a little hard to take as a personality. She was always able to rise to the occasion in difficult material - having triumphed in Romeo And Juliet (1936) (another occasion where she was directed by Cukor), and Strange Interlude (1932), as Eugene O'Neill's complex heroine, Nina Leeds. But as a film personality required to just "play herself" in this piece of fluff, she tends to come off as both strained, and, at times, strange.
Robert Taylor wasn't known for his comedic abilities, either, but the times he was cast in comedies he actually did very well. He's funny, here - but there's not a lot of chemistry between him Miss Shearer. And unfortunately he was almost a decade younger- and looks it. (George Sanders was also younger than Norma by a few years.)
Shearer and Taylor had been paired previously in the drama, Escape. They weren't a totally effective screen couple, but then Taylor seemed do do better opposite actresses who could display more vulnerability - such as Margaret Sullavan, Katharine Hepburn, and maybe especially, Vivien Leigh. (Strangely enough, Shearer's final acting role was in a 1951 radio adaptation of Waterloo Bridge - Taylor's one film with Leigh.)
Finally, director George Cukor is simply off his game, in this one. It didn't happen very often, but it was obvious when it did. Not that the script is up to the level of The Philadelphia Story, Holiday, or anything remotely that good. The story is really extremely light and a little dumb, and probably required some very expert, elegant, comedy stars to make you forget that fact. Which Shearer, Taylor, and Sanders were not, unfortunately.
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times put it on his 10 Worst list for the year, and it was a box office bomb. Norma Shearer turned down Mrs. Miniver to make it - paving the way for Greer Garson to take her place as First Lady of MGM.
By Love Possessed (1961)
Well-made film
You have to get into the rhythm of this movie to enjoy it. I think if you had bought a ticket to it, in 1961, and had settled down in your seat to watch a good story unfold, you would have enjoyed it. It's a well-made, well-acted, interesting drama. It's not a masterpiece of cinema and I doubt anyone intended it to be.
Too many people seem to have expected a Douglas Sirk melodrama, and to have been disappointed because this wasn't Imitation Of Life. But this is a completely different sort of story with different themes, and an altogether different tone and style.
It's about the inter-relationships of the families of three men who are law partners in a small New England town. It was filmed partly on location in Groton, Pepperell, and Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
At the start of things, we note that all these wealthy people seem to be living lives of quiet desperation (to quote a local author, Thoreau). Some problems are out in the open - Jason Robards has had an accident in the past which leaves him unable to physically satisfy his beautiful wife, Lana Turner, who drinks and sometimes rides a horse at the gallop to compensate.
Some are more sub-surface: Efrem Zimbalist and Barbara Bel Geddes were childhood friends but have a marriage without real love or passion. At present she's in the local hospital (that bears their last name - as does the county - Winner), She's had a minor tennis accident but they're keeping her there for days. Her husband brings her wine and good food, she plays cards with the doctor. Their son (George Hamilton) is in a relationship with the ward of the elderly third partner (Thomas Mitchell). This ward, Susan Kohner, is a lovely girl, but not very exciting, even a bit downbeat - and the young man seeks out the local bad girl (Yvonne Craig) who works as a waitress at the town diner, for some tawdry sexual fulfillment.
The things driving the plot are that Mitchell has somehow juggled the books and used money that didn't belong to him for his own purposes. The other partners discover this but don't know what to do about it. And Hamilton's affair with the waitress has gotten him into a legal situation. And Zimbalist has begun an affair with his partner's wife, Turner.
A tragedy brings things to a head, and the plot threads eventually come together, for a rather satisfying ending.
It's an enjoyable story, like one of those old-fashioned novels. It rings true most of the time. It isn't overblown. The acting is good, the writing is good.
The only thing you might need to be aware of is that Lana Turner doesn't carry the bulk of the plot (despite her top billing). She's offscreen for long periods of time. She does have some good scenes, though. It's really more of an ensemble film.
The Little Hut (1957)
Comedy so light it almost floats away
If you're looking for a very light comedy to pass the time, starring three attractive, talented stars, you could do worse than The Little Hut - a hit in its day, but quite forgotten now.
It's a shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island comedy about a married couple and a friend who's in love with the wife. The couple are Stewart Granger and Ava Gardner, the friend is David Niven.
It's the sort of very British (though originally French) comedy where the men dress in black tie for dinner despite being in the middle of nowhere. Basically, Granger is so proficient at survival and remaining civilized that he hardly seems to mind having been shipwrecked. He goes around building things and creating a reasonably comfortable environment. Displaying little emotion or depth, the husband is almost in a world of his own, and Granger plays him to perfection. Niven, as the friend who lives in the little hut, whom wife Ava uses to try to make hubby jealous, is, as usual, delightful. Ava herself, in a rare comedy, is at the apex of her beauty and turns in an adroit, sophisticated performance.
At any rate, today what goes on in this little comedy may seem completely incomprehensible. Morals, the conventions of society, sexual politics - they're all different, at least in movies. A play like this wouldn't be filmed, today. There's not a lot of call for wit, any more. Even in its day, this piece was so brittle and light it wouldn't have appealed to everyone. But if you want to see an offbeat little comedy of the sexes with a good cast and witty situations, this may be for you.
Johnny Tremain (1957)
Revolutionary Boston through the Disney lens
Johnny Tremain is a well-enough made film and can be enjoyed on its own terms. I'm kind of torn about Disney versions of great books because, on the one hand, I enjoyed them immensely as a kid. They have a certain style all their own (in the art direction, music, costumes, production values) that I still find pleasing. On the other hand, the "Disnifying" of books like Johnny Tremain often takes the real heart and soul out of the work, substituting a kind of formulaic style that still manages to be heart-tugging and soul-stirring, but in a much more simplistic way.
You see it over and over, in all kinds of adaptations. I would describe it as cartoon-like. Every complex situation or emotion can be reduced to this Disney formula. If a book has a child protagonist and Disney gets a hold of the book, you can expect this same treatment of the material. Or at least you could, back in the 50s and 60s.
Robert Stevenson, a good director who had once worked for RKO (Jane Eyre, Walk Softly Stranger, The Las Vegas Story) was at the helm of a lot of these films. I sometimes wonder how he could justify to himself directing so many bowdlerizations of great books. But then, the movies were box office hits, so maybe it wasn't so hard.
Anyhow, looking at the film, it's not bad, but it's also a little weak. The adults in the audience might cringe when the patriots start singing "We are the sons of liberty" as if it were a Nelson Eddy musical..
The acting is fine, with some talented character actors on hand (Sebastian Cabot, Virginia Christine, Walter Sande, Rusty Lane, Gavin Gordon, Whit Bissell, Will Wright). I never cared too much for Richard (Dick) Beymer, who plays Rab, but he's good in this. Hal Stalmaster plays Johnny well. But he's not given as much to work with as he might have been, had they stuck closer to the book (where Johhny is a cocksure kid at the beginning who burns his hand and ruins his chances of being a silversmith, then becomes more humble). The character grows, in the film, but in a less interesting way.
Turning Johnny Tremain into a lighter adventure of the early days of the Revolution, rather than a dramatic piece of historical fiction, doesn't really ruin it. Somehow it still has a thrilling feeling of history in the making. Film itself is an exciting medium, and through the use of color, design, camera placement and movement, a sense of the dramatic can be achieved, and it is, here. That it gives us a happy ending without emotional depth, and a kind of pageant of history rather actual history, or any true human drama, is not unusual from this studio.
Young Man with Ideas (1952)
Amiable
It was the early 1950s, when a lot of young couples were moving to California in what has since been called "The Great Migration." It seemed to be a land of opportunity.
Glenn Ford is a young attorney who's doing fairly well at a Montana law firm, but who's clearly propping up some of the partners. His wife (Ruth Roman) sees his talents going to waste, and at dinner one night, having had a few drinks, she tells off her husband's bosses. All is more or less forgiven, but then she urges him to assert himself, one thing leads to another, and they decide to try L. A.
Arriving in California, they find that the home they had wired ahead to rent is unavailable. They end up in a rather seedy bungalow court, with a lot of telephones, because it's a former bookie joint. This figures in a whole series of misunderstandings, that should be funny (and occasionally, dangerous). And gets the couple involved with gangsters.
Meanwhile Glenn has been cramming for the California bar, along with law student Nina Foch, who gets him a job in the collection agency where she works to support herself. Glenn is not exactly the type to go after deadbeats. He even ends up helping out an aspiring French singer played by Denise Darcel. So now he has three attractive women in his life.
Lovely Ruth Roman is fine, in a change-of-pace comedy role, but Jean Arthur she's not. Darcel is cute and sexy, Foch is charming and attractive, and gives possibly the best performance in the movie. Ford is a good actor who sometimes overdid the shambling-mumbling-bashful routine, as he does here.
The final scenes give Glenn's character, Max, a chance to show off his legal skills in a courtroom, and it all ends happily.
Unfortunately, film is slightly contrived. I found myself wishing it had been simpler. Focusing more on how a young married couple adjusts to a new life in Southern California. In a more realistic manner.
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)
"A pinch is a pinch in any man's language"
Three Coins In The Fountain deftly weaves together three love stories about American secretaries in Rome. Miss Frances (Dorothy McGuire), who has been in Rome for 15 years, lives with a younger woman, Anita Hutchins (Jean Peters), and they're joined by another young woman, Maria Williams (Maggie McNamara), just arrived from the States.
Frances has been in love with her boss, the expatriate American writer, John Frederick Shadwell (Clifton Webb), all these years. Anita gets into a forbidden relationship with Georgio (Rossano Brazzi), a translator who works at her place of employment (a US government agency where office relationships between American girls and local men are taboo). Maria meets a playboy prince (Louis Jourdan), and comes up with a plan to get him interested in her as more than just a prospective conquest.
It's not deep, but it's all very well done, good to look at, fairly witty and generally involving. It's really the nicely-drawn characters, the somewhat sopisticated dialogue, the enjoyable performances that keep you interested, though the scenery is certainly worth the price of admission.
The music of Victor Young adds a great deal to the enjoyment of the film. Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn penned the title tune, sung by Frank Sinatra (offscreen) as musical accompaniment to a prologue that showcases the fountains of Rome.
Dorothy Jeakins designed the attractive fashions for the three women stars.
CinemaScope doesn't have the thrills on TV that it must have had on the big screens of the 1950s, but there is enough in the way of clever writing and attractive acting to interest the viewer. Three Coins In The Fountain is a fine example of colorful, light entertainment.