Music, Thrills, Mystery, Comedy & Suspense
on Video & DVD
by John Howard Reid
Smashwords Edition Copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid
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OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES
Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD
Silent Movies & Early Sound Films on DVD
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) on DVD
British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
MUSICALS on DVD
Table of Contents
Abbott & Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950)
About Face (1952)
Advice to the Lovelorn (1933)
Affairs of a Gentleman (1934)
Against All Odds (1984)
Alice (1990)
The Ambushers (1967)
An Angel from Texas (1940)
Another Fine Mess (1930)
Arch of Triumph (1948)
Arizona to Broadway (1933)
As Good As It Gets (1997)
Border Town (1934)
Break of Hearts (1935)
Bride of the Gorilla (1951)
British Intelligence (1939)
Broadway Bad (1933)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1958)
Cat People (1942)
Church Mouse (1934)
City for Conquest (1940)
The Clock Watcher (1944)
The Company She Keeps (1950)
Crossfire (1947)
The Crowd Roars (1943)
Doctor Kildare Goes Home (1940)
The Dolly Sisters (1945)
Fifth Avenue Girl (1939)
Fly-Away Baby (1937) Torchy Blane series
Forbidden (1931)
Fun on a Weekend (1947)
The Garden of Allah (1936)
The Gay Divorcee (1934)
The Ghost Ship (1943)
The Harder They Fall (1956)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
I Found Stella Parish (1935)
I Know Where I’m Going (1945)
In Caliente (1935)
In This Our Life (1942)
The Iron Major (1943)
It’s Love Again (1936)
Jack of All Trades (1936)
Jumping Jacks (1952)
June Bride (1948)
The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
Ladies in Retirement (1941)
Lady Luck (1946)
The Lamp Still Burns (1943)
The Last of Mrs Cheyney (1937)
The Last Outpost (1935)
Macao (1952)
The Mad Genius (1931)
Mandalay (1934)
Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
Man’s Favorite Sport? (1963)
Marie Galante (1934)
Marriage on the Rocks (1965)
Men in White (1934)
Music Is Magic (1935)
Mutiny in the Big House (1939)
My Heart Is Calling (1934)
My Reputation (1946)
Navy Blues (1929)
Neighborhood House (1936)
Noah’s Ark (1929)
No Way Out (1950)
Oil for the Lamps of China (1935)
Out of the Past (1947) Build My Gallows High
Private Detective 62 (1933)
The Purchase Price (1932)
Pursuit to Algiers (1945)
Separate Tables (1958)
She Had To Say Yes (1933)
Song of the Thin Man (1947) Thin Man Series
So You Want To Play the Horses? (1946)
Special Agent (1935)
Spite Marriage (1929)
The Sun Shines Bright (1953)
Sweet Aloes (1936)
The Thing (1951)
T-Men (1947)
The Trouble with Harry (1955)
We Were Dancing (1942)
White Zombie (1932)
Wonder Bar (1934)
You’ll Never Get Rich (1941)
Young In Heart (1938)
Young Widow (1946)
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950)
Bud Abbott (Bud Jones), Lou Costello (Lou Hotchkiss), Patricia Medina (Nicole), Walter Slezak (Sergeant Axmann), Douglass Dumbrille (Sheik Hamud El Khalid), Leon Belasco (Hassam), Marc Lawrence (Frankie), Tor Johnson (Abou Ben), Wee Willie Davis (Abdullah), Fred Numey (commandant), Sam Menacker (Bertram), Henry Corden (Ibrim), Paul Fierro (Ibn), Jack Raymond (Ali Ami), Dan Seymour (Josef), Guy Beach (Saleem), Alberto Morin (lieutenant), David Gorcey (newsboy), Charmienne Harker (Arab girl), Jack Shutta, Ernesto Morelli, Chuck Hamilton (thugs), Ted Hecht (proprietor), Buddy Roosevelt (orderly), Mahmud Shaikhaly (referee), Bobby Barber (man), John Cliff (bit). Narrated by Jeff Chandler.
Director: CHARLES LAMONT. Screenplay: John Grant, Martin Ragaway, Leonard Stern. Original screen story: D.D. Beauchamp. Photography: George Robinson. Film editor: Frank Gross. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun, Eric Orbom. Set decorators: Russell A. Gausman, Ray Jeffers. Special photography: David S. Horsley. Technical advisor: Mahmud Shaikhaly. Music director: Joseph Gershenson. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Joan St Oegger. Sound recording: Leslie I. Carey, Robert Pritchard. Producer: Robert Arthur.
Copyright 11 August 1950 by Universal Pictures Co., Inc. A Universal-International picture. New York opening at the Criterion: 12 August 1950. U.S. release: August 1950. U.K. release: 14 August 1950 (sic). Australian release (as a support, cut to 69 minutes): 13 July 1951. 80 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A slapstick comedy about the misadventures of a pair of wrestling promotors who unwittingly become entangled with slave girls, warring Arabs, a French spy; and the Foreign Legion.
— Copyright entry.
NOTES: In 1951, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello enjoyed a moment of glory when voted by British cinema exhibitors into second place as the previous year’s top money-making stars. Only Bob Hope sold more tickets in 1950. The distributor had quickly adjusted to the team’s sudden surge of popularity and began releasing A&C efforts such as this one as well-promoted “A” features. In Australia, the absolute reverse was happening, whilst on their American home front, A&C were still raking in good money but not the windfalls of the early 1940s. [Available on an excellent Universal DVD].
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: After a none-too-promising opening, this Abbott and Costello comedy gets into stride once the comedians reach the land of Lost in a Harem. Charles Lamont’s direction improves, the script becomes genuinely amusing, the photography is A-1, and we are introduced to two very personable villains, admirably portrayed by Walter Slezak and Douglass Dumbrille. There is a good climax, starting with a wrestling match which the comedians deftly turn into a free-for-all before the villains’ dumbfounded eyes and ending with a glorious chase in which our heroes in a stolen jeep are pursued by a commendable number of dress extras mounted on camels. Although the sets are nowhere as lavish as those in Lost in a Harem, art directors Bernard Herzbrun and Eric Orbom have created settings that are reasonably beguiling. Love the towels in the Sheikh’s bathroom: a great big His and numerous small Hers.
OTHER VIEWS: Although the 1950’s excursions of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are not highly regarded by professional critics, I found this one beautifully produced and often delightfully funny! Any film with Walter Slezak can’t go too far wrong. I mention Douglass Dumbrille in the same breath too! Plus the attractive Miss Medina and many equally appealing harem girls! Our comedians are given plenty of mirthful opportunities to shine, what with verbal gags, slapstick, wild chases and mishaps galore. We love Costello loose with a machine gun and all the other Beau Geste legionnaire mayhem. Yes, plenty of action. A fast-paced, brightly photographed 79 minutes. And it’s all stylishly narrated by Jeff Chandler! What more could any fan ask?
About Face (1952)
Gordon MacRae (Tony Williams), Eddie Bracken (Boff Roberts), Dick Wesson (Dave Crouse), Phyllis Kirk (Alice Wheatley Roberts), Virginia Gibson (Betty “Short” Long), Larry Keating (Colonel Long), Aileen Stanley Jr (Lorna Carter), Joel Grey (Bender), Cliff Ferre (Lieutenant Jones), John Baer (Hal Carlton).
Director: ROY DEL RUTH. Screenplay: Peter Milne. Based on the 1936 Broadway stage play Brother Rat by John Monks Jr., Fred F. Finklehoffe. Technicolor photography by Bert Glennon. Film editor: Thomas Reilly. Art director: Charles H. Clarke. Set decorator: Lyle B. Reifsnider. Costumes: Leah Rhodes. Make-up: Gordon Bau. Technical advisor: Sergeant August Kunkel. Songs by Charles Tobias (lyrics), Peter De Rose (music): “Reveille” (MacRae, Bracken, Wesson, and male chorus), “S.M.I.” (chorus, reprised chorus, reprised chorus), “Tar Heels” (chorus), “If Someone Had Told Me” (MacRae, Bracken, Kirk), “Wooden Indian” (MacRae, Wesson, chorus), “Spring Has Sprung” (Wesson, Gibson), “They Haven’t Lost a Father Yet” (MacRae, Bracken, Wesson), “I’m Nobody” (Grey), “The Rhythm of Piano, Bass and Drums” (MacRae, Wesson, Stanley), “There’s No Other Girl For Me” (MacRae). Orchestrations: Frank Perkins. Choral supervisor: Norman Luboff. Music by Peter De Rose, directed by Ray Heindorf. Musical numbers directed by LeRoy Prinz. Technicolor consultant: Mitchell Kovaleski. Sound: C.A. Riggs, David Forrest. Producer: William Jacobs.
Copyright 10 May 1952 by Warner Bros Pictures Inc. (In notice: 1951). New York opening at the Warner Theatre: 23 May 1952. U.S. release: 31 May 1952. U.K. release: 3 November 1952. Australian release: 26 March 1953. 94 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A musical comedy featuring three cadets in a Southern Military Academy. [Available on an excellent Warner DVD].
COMMENT: Although M-G-M and Fox musicals generally, and Warner Brothers’ efforts with Doris Day were extremely popular abroad, About Face would be lucky to land top spot on a midweek double bill around capital city suburbs. Its main selling point for Oz audiences was Technicolor. Gordon MacRae had a small following. None of the other players had any box-office pull whatever. Audiences expecting an ultra-lavish M-G-M clone would be very disappointed.
What we have here has been produced on an obviously moderate budget (which even relies on some stock footage), yet worse it comes across as very much a filmed stage play, as evidenced by all the talk in confined sets.
True, there are occasional break-outs into the unexpectedly spectacular like the final surprise tap-dance production number. This is the best choreographed of the numbers, though Joel Grey’s delightful solo runs it a close second for sheer energy, vitality and cleverness.
Joel Grey is a one-man dance team and it is gratifying to see him acquit himself so well in a major part so early in his career. The rest of the players are not quite in his league, though Mr Wesson makes his usual game try.
The girls (Kirk, Gibson and Stanley), though over-made up in typical mid-fifties style, are stylishly dressed and differentiate their characters amusingly.
Alas, poor old Eddie Bracken has more than his share of the hokey plot to carry. His heart isn’t in it. Even his pratfalls seem contrived and anticipated.
On the other hand, Cliff Ferre is especially adept despite some obvious wigs. Keating and Baer also contribute their share to the fun. If only there wasn’t so much talk. There’s even a half-hour near the end where’s so much plot, even the songs don’t get a look in. They are a pleasant if unmemorable lot, some of them quite lavishly (if not particularly inventively) staged.
Del Ruth’s direction is competent enough and other credits are “A”. There’s quite a lot of added material that’s not in the original stage play and film, including the running gag with the hair dye.
OTHER VIEWS: Warners were re-working their comedies as musicals at this stage. One of the Gold Digger films turned up as Painting The Clouds With Sunshine, Male Animal as She’s Working Her Way Through College. This is a version of Brother Rat. It’s in color and, like the others, a pleasant but inferior re-hatching.
Advice to the Lovelorn (1933)
Lee Tracy (Toby Prentiss, alias Miss Lonelyhearts), Sally Blane (Toby’s girlfriend), Sterling Holloway (Toby’s assistant), Jean Adair (Toby’s mother), Paul Harvey (Toby’s boss), C. Henry Gordon (racketeer), Isabel Jewell (racketeer’s ex-friend), May Boley (real Lonelyhearts), Thomas Jackson, Wade Boteler (feds), Charles Lane (circulation manager), Jimmy Conlin (radio man), Matt Briggs (Richards), Adalyn Doyle (Miss Curtis), Judith Wood (Cora), Etienne Girardot (Horace), Ruth Fallows (Miss Howell).
Director: ALFRED WERKER. Screenplay: Leonard Praskins. Based on the novel by Nathanael West. Photography: James Van Trees. Film editor: Alan McNeil. Art directors: Richard Day, Joseph C. Wright. Music director: Alfred Newman. Costumes designed by Gwen Wakeling. Associate producers: William Goetz, Raymond Griffith. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck.
Copyright 1 December 1933 by 20th Century Pictures. Released through United Artists: 1 December 1933. 7 reels. 62 minutes.
COMMENT: Aside from its main idea, this movie bears little resemblance to Nathanael West’s celebrated novel. That’s actually most fortunate, because while the book is certainly most stylishly written, you can’t translate literary finesse to the screen. You need more than an intriguing central character. You need a well-defined supporting cast, and above all, an attention-grabbing plot, set in motion by your lively, fascinating characters. All this, the Praskins screenplay abundantly supplies. And when you add charismatic players to give color and life to your script and a skilful director to make it move on the run, plus a producer who is prepared to spend top money to ensure everything impacts as breathtakingly real, you’re in seventh heaven. Lee Tracy has one of his best roles, Sally Blane looks great, Isabel Jewell makes her mark, and even Sterling Holloway contributes an appealing characterization. The DVD from VintageFilmBuff rates 9 stars, in my opinion. And it’s available as a double disc with Lee Tracy’s 1934 You Belong To Me.
Affairs of a Gentleman (1934)
Paul Lukas (Gresham), Leila Hyams (Mrs Durland), Patricia Ellis (Jean Sinclair), Onslow Stevens (Durland), Phillip Reed (Vaughn), Dorothy Burgess (Nan Fitzgerald), Lillian Bond (Carlotta), Joyce Compton (Foxey), Murray Kinnell (Fletcher), Dorothy Le Baire (Gail Melville), Richard Carle (Bindar), Sara Haden (Gresham’s secretary), Charles Wilson (inspector), Marcia Remy (Bindar’s secretary), Gregory Gaye (Bela), Wilfred Hari (Sato), James Flavin (Donovan), Walter Miller (Damon).
Director: EDWIN L. MARIN. Screenplay: Cyril Home, Peter Ruric, Milton Krims. Based on the stage play, Women In His Life, by Edith Ellis and Edward Ellis. Photography: John J. Mescall. Film editor: Edward Curtiss. Art director: Charles D. Hall. Music: Edward Ward. Associate producer: Edmund Grainger. Producer: Carl Laemmle, Jr. A Universal Picture, copyright 12 May 1934.
U.S. release: 1 May 1934. 7 reels. 68 minutes.
COMMENT: Almost everyone knows that the position of an actor in a movie’s credits does not necessarily indicate the importance or the size of the role. But even by Hollywood standards, these credits are most unusual. Lukas is the star, that’s for sure. And a fine job he does of making the cheap, cynical author a man of stature and even sympathy. Next in importance in both size and significance is the role of the author’s publisher, superbly played here by Richard Carle who makes the most of his many sharp lines and fascinating changes of mood. And where does Carle figure in the list? Way, way down, near the bottom. Lukas’ co-star is allegedly Leila Hyams whose role is so small that if you blink, you’ll miss her at the party. True, she does return for another scene, but this time she’s over-shadowed by her escort, Onslow Stevens, who does almost all of the talking! The film’s feminine lead is actually Patricia Ellis, although she doesn’t have much to do except look radiantly beautiful, but even here she is outclassed by Lillian Bond. All the real acting on the distaff side of the ledger is done by Dorothy Burgess – surely one of the most under-rated stars of the 1930s. Sara Haden is no slouch in the acting department either. But I didn’t even spot Joyce Compton. I’m surprised to learn she was one of the faces in the crowd. And then there’s Murray Kinnell who has more lines than anyone else in the cast except Lukas and Carle!
Although the script’s origins obviously lie in a stage play, it has been cleverly opened out, and Marin keeps it moving along nicely with his extraordinarily adroit direction. Admittedly, his editor has helped him out in the important Dorothy Burgess scene by printing up some effective close-ups.
All in all, an intriguing tour-de-force, this gem of a movie is available on an excellent DVD from VintageFilmBuff.
Against All Odds (1984)
Jeff Bridges (Terry Brogan), Rachel Ward (Jessie Wyler), James Woods (Jake Wise), Alex Karras (Hank Sully), Richard Widmark (Ben Caxton), Jane Greer (Mrs Wyler), Dorian Harewood (Tommy), Swoosie Kurtz (Edie), Saul Rubinek (Steve Kirsch).
Director: TAYLOR HACKFORD. Screenplay: Eric Hughes. Based on the 1947 screenplay, Out of the Past, by Daniel Mainwaring. Photographed in Eastman Color by Donald E. Thorin. Film editors: Fredric Steinkamp, William Steinkamp. Production design: Richard Lawrence. Set decorator: Garrett Lewis. Costumes designed by Michael Kaplan. Original music: Larry Carlton, Michel Colombier. Producers: Taylor Hackford, William S. Gilmore.
A New Visions/Columbia Picture. U.S. release: 2 March 1984. Oz release: 31 May 1984. 128 minutes. [An excellent Sony DVD].
SYNOPSIS: Ex-football player takes a job to hunt down the ex-girl friend of a shady acquaintance. She’s hiding somewhere in Mexico.
NOTES: Phil Collins was nominated for his title song for both a Golden Globe and Hollywood’s most prestigious award.
COMMENT: Although the screen credits imply otherwise, Daniel Mainwaring (pronounced “Mannering”) had no input into this considerably augmented yet at the same time watered down remake of his Build My Gallows High (novel)/Out of the Past (screenplay), both of which he wrote under the pseudonym, “Geoffrey Homes”. True, the new script mirrors the original closely at times, but there are wide divergences at others. Even more annoying, Hughes has added a number of extra scenes which do nothing to advance the plot but tend to dissipate atmosphere and tension. One often has the feeling that the producers’ aim was to provide employment for as wide a number of their actor and professional friends as possible. Admittedly, this does result in some agreeable casting. It’s always a pleasure to see Richard Widmark snarling away, and a real treat to find Jane Greer, the star of Out of the Past, here cast as her original character’s mother! However, when all’s said and done, this movie runs a wearying 128 minutes. The original, on the other hand, told us basically the same story in a far more terse and involving 98.
Alice (1990)
Mia Farrow (Alice), William Hurt (Doug), Keye Luke (Dr Chang), Joe Mantegna (Joe), Gwen Verdon (Alice’s mother), Blythe Danner (Dorothy), Cybill Shepherd (Nancy Brill), Judy Davis (Vicki), Alec Baldwin (Ed), Bernadette Peters (muse), Robin Bartlett (Nina).
Director-screenplay: WOODY ALLEN. Photographed in Eastman Color by Carlo Di Palma. Film editor: Susan E. Morse. Art director: Speed Hopkins. Production designer: Santo Loquasto. Costumes designed by Jeffrey Kurland. Producer: Robert Greenhut. Executive producers: Jack Rollins, Charles H. Joffe. Prints by DeLuxe.
A Jack Rollins and Charles H. Joffe Production. Copyright 1990 and released by Orion Pictures Corp. New York opening: 25 December 1990. 106 minutes. [A superb DVD from M-G-M].
SYNOPSIS: A moody housewife consults a Chinese herbalist with startling results.
NOTES: Mia Farrow won the National Board of Review’s award for the year’s Best Actress.
Final movie appearance of Keye Luke. It was his 200th film.
COMMENT: Woody Allen at his very best! In fact, I’m particularly attached to this movie. When the opening credits ran by to the accompaniment of “Limehouse Blues”, I knew I was in for a real treat, music-wise. As it turned out, however, the superb music score was overshadowed by the delightful fantasy of the screenplay and the brilliant performances delivered all the way down the line, but most especially by Mia Farrow, Joe Mantegna and Keye Luke.
The Ambushers (1967)
Dean Martin (Matt Helm), Senta Berger (Francesca Madeiros), Janice Rule (Sheila Sommers), James Gregory (MacDonald), Albert Salmi (José Ortega), Kurt Kasznar (Quintana), Beverly Adams (Lovey Kravezit), David Mauro (Nassim), Roy Jenson (Karl), John Brascia (Rocco), Linda Foster (Linda), Penny Brahms, Kyra Bester, Lena Cederham, Ulla Lindstrom, Yumiko Ishizuka, Terri Hughes, Suzanna Moore, Karin Fedderson, Dee Duffy, Jann Watson, Marilyn Tindall, Alena Johnston, Egidia Annabella Incontrera (Slaygirls), and John Indrisano.
Directed by HENRY LEVIN from a screenplay by Herbert Baker, based on the 1963 novel by Donald Hamilton. 2nd unit director: James Havens. Photographed in Technicolor by Burnett Guffey and Edward Colman. 2nd unit photography: Jack Marta and Tony Braun. Film editor: Harold F. Kress. Costumes: Oleg Cassini. Art director: Joe Wright. Music composed and conducted by Hugo Montenegro. Title song by Hugo Montenegro (music) and Herbert Baker (lyrics) sung by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Special effects: Danny Lee. Assistant director: Jerome M. Siegel. Sound recording: James Flaster and Jack Haynes. Associate producer: Douglas Netter. Producer: Irving Allen. Set decorator: Richard Spero. Unit production manager: Howard Pine. 2nd unit assistant: Harold Lewis. Dean Martin’s wardrobe designed by Sy Devore. Make-up supervisor: Ben Lane. Hair styles: Virginia Jones. Choreography: Mary Jane Mangler. Property master: Max Frankel. Sound supervisor: Charles J. Rice. An Irving Allen Production. [Available on a Sony DVD].
Copyright 1 December 1967 by Meadway-Claude Productions. Released through Columbia Pictures. New York opening at the DeMille and other theatres: 22 December 1967. U.S. release: 20 December 1967. U.K. release: 28 January 1968. Australian release: 1 March 1968. 9,166 feet. 102 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A United States flying saucer is stolen by a power-hungry beer manufacturer who lives in Acapulco. There is only one man who can retrieve it: Matt Helm ( Dean Martin), a constantly slushed top secret agent.
— Harry and Michael Medved: The Fifty Worst Films Ever Made.
NOTES: Number three of the four “Matt Helm” films: The others: The Silencers, Murderers Row (both 1966), The Wrecking Crew (1969).
The movie turned in a tidy domestic rentals gross of $4.7 million, but overseas returns were disappointing.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: The third and least entertaining of the Matt Helm adventures, this one has an even sillier script than Murderer’s Row. Dean Martin gives an extremely lack-lustre performance, delivering even his few witty lines in a bored, listless fashion. Levin’s direction is tired too, and the action scenes lack punch. There is a comic execution scene that is not even a fraction as funny as that performed by Raymond Griffith way back in 1926 in Hands Up. Albert Salmi over-acts, but Kurt Kasznar turns in a delightfully amusing portrayal, and Senta Berger is eye-catchingly decorative. For the first time (and in response no doubt to numerous requests), the Slaygirls are given a few lines to speak. In future, I guarantee they will keep their mouths closed. And personally, I found their costumes on this occasion too grotesque.
OTHER VIEWS: While production values remain strong, acting, writing and direction are pedestrian.. Although visual aspects — the Oleg Cassini wardrobe and overall fashion supervision — are very good, the pic at same time has that slapdash quickie look. Second unit lensing, in Mexico, is poorly matched to sound-stage mountain greenery. Title song has a good bounce. Other credits are adequate.
—Variety.
There’s absolutely nothing special about Dean Martin’s new vehicle, The Ambushers, except its air of tired stupidity and professional staleness.
—Howard Thompson in The New York Times.
Lecherous, sluggish, tatty, and full of pauses for laughs which don’t come, the number 3 Matt Helm — like all other attempts to repeat the comic strip zest of The Silencers — falls short. Janice Rule’s warmth and a welcome re-appearance of Kurt Kasznar are wasted. Everything else looked better in other pictures: the South American setting in Levin’s Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, the exploding bra in The Tenth Victim, the brewery shoot-out in The Scarface Mob, the papier mache effects in King of the Rocket Men. The whole idea of Dean Martin leading a force of bikini cuties into battle to prevent Albert Salmi from ruling the world should have been much funnier than it is here, but what is even more unforgivable, they photographed Senta Berger unattractively. Watch for a cameo from an animated Alexandra Hay from Skidoo and Model Shop if you’re suckered into seeing this one.
—B.P.
From singing stooge to super souse, Dean Martin managed to parlay a few conventional heroic assets — tall, dark, moderately handsome, good voice, aggressive yet bemused “Who? Me?” personality — into two distinct careers, both of surprising longevity.
— T.H.
An Angel from Texas (1940)
Eddie Albert (Peter Colman), Rosemary Lane (Lydia Weston), Wayne Morris (Mac McClure), Jane Wyman (Marge Lane), Ronald Reagan (Marty Allen), Ruth Terry (Valerie Blayne), John Litel (Quigley), Hobart Cavanaugh (Robelink), Ann Shoemaker (Addie Lou Colman), Tom Kennedy (Chopper), Milburn Stone (“Pooch” Davis), Creighton Hale (1st bank manager), Ralf Harolde (Garvey), Emmett Vogan (Benham), Vera Lewis (gossip), Edward Gargan (cop), Billy Wayne (short order chef), Paul McVey (sound-effects man), Cliff Clark (uniformed townsman), Ralph Dunn (captain of palace guard), Paul Phillips (Louis), Ferris Taylor (Mayor O’Dempsey), George Irving (actor), Lottie Williams (Aunt Minnie), Mira McKinney (Mrs Mills), Jack Kennedy (station master), Eddie Acuff, Jimmy Fox (stage-hands), Al Stedman (stage manager), Joe Levine (small boy), John Deering (bus driver), Dudley Dickerson (black man), Dorothy Vaughan (Mrs Rogers), Charles Costello (guard), William Gould, Gus Glassmire (bankers), Jack Mower (prop man), Al Stedman (stage manager), Claude Wisberg (bellboy), Johnny Albright (elevator boy).
Director: RAY ENRIGHT. Screenplay: Fred Niblo Jr, Bertram Millhauser. Based on the 1925 stage play The Butter and Egg Man by George S. Kaufman. Photographed by Arthur L. Todd. Film editor: Clarence Kolster. Dialogue director: Hugh Cummings. Art director: Esdras Hartley. Costumes: Milo Anderson. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Music: Howard Jackson. Sound recording: Charles Lang. Western Electric Sound System.* Incidental music, “A Small Hotel”, composed by Richard Rodgers. Associate producer: Robert Fellows. Executive producer: Jack L. Warner. A Warner Bros.-First National Picture.
Copyright by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. Copyright and U.S. release date: 27 April 1940. U.K. release date 31 March 1941. New York opening at the Palace (as the support to a move-over of Johnny Apollo): 9 May 1940. Australian release: 27 June 1940. 7 reels. 6,318 feet. 70 minutes. [DVD from Warner Archive].
SYNOPSIS: A rustic comes to New York ostensibly to invest his money in a hotel but actually to seek out his girl-friend who is supposed to be leading a glamorous career on the stage. In point of fact, she is only the innocent secretary of two fast-talking theatrical promoters who try to inveigle the rustic out of his cash.
NOTES: The only stage play Kaufman did NOT write in collaboration, opened on Broadway at the Longacre on 23 September 1925, running a nicely successful 241 performances. James Gleason directed Gregory Kelly, Sylvia Field, Lucille Gleason, George Kelly and Eloise Stream. There are another four film versions, all produced by Warner Bros, who certainly got their money’s worth out of this purchase: The Butter and Egg Man (1928), starring Jack Mulhall; The Tenderfoot (1932), starring Joe E. Brown and Ginger Rogers; Dance Charlie Dance (1937), starring Stuart Erwin and Jean Muir; Three Sailors and a Girl (1953), starring Gene Nelson and Jane Powell.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: The running time indicates that this film was intended as a “B”-feature, or at best as the top half of a strong double bill. Yet, by “B”-feature standards, it has been rather lavishly produced. It opens in the hamlet of Lone Star, Texas, where a couple of hundred of the citizenry have gathered to farewell the heroine. Soon afterwards, we find ourselves plumb in the centre of the jostling, crowded streets of New York City, and it is not until that scene has concluded that we pick up Messrs Reagan and Morris and not until they have had a run-in with Hobart Cavanaugh that the curtain finally opens on the interior of their office (where it is safe to assume the original play was set). The film then settles down to lots of talking, but the impression of a filmed stage play is lessened by the rapidity of the talk, the general fast pace and swift movement of the proceedings with characters dashing madly from one door to another, and the fact that the screenwriters have opened the play up with many brief excursions to other sets and scenes. The bulk of the action however, still takes place in the office. And the fact remains that the film is still a rather talky 69 minutes. Some songs would help to provide relief. Not only could they have been inserted quite naturally into the action, they would have fleshed out the film’s running time to “A”-feature length. However, we have to judge the film as it is, and not as we would like it to be.
The basic idea of the plot was used again, with considerable variations, by Mel Brooks in The Producers, a much funnier and much wittier film. The plot is old-hat and the characters of An Angel From Texas are one-dimensional caricature — still, for all their lack of dimension, they are played with considerable vitality. Wayne Morris and Ronald Reagan are ideally cast as a couple of fast-talking confidence men — and they are more believable in this type of role than as the sympathetic hero figures they so often attempted to portray! Eddie Albert is perfect too as the schnook of the title and while Rosemary Lane makes little impression as the heroine there is a solid supporting cast headed by Jane Wyman (looking more attractive here than in her later films as queen of the Universal weepies), Ruth Terry (a delightfully vindictive leading lady), Hobart Cavanaugh (the put-upon Robelink), Milburn Stone (a flashy gangster), Tom Kennedy and Ralf Harolde (his amusingly sinister strong-arm boys). John Litel over-acts his brief part as an attorney, but the rest of the cast is first-rate.
Ray Enright’s direction is very smooth, his fast pacing and deft timing making the situations and wisecracks as funny as possible. Other production credits are likewise professionally able. The music score is pleasant, the costumes and sets reasonably attractive, the film editing unobtrusive. Enright knows when and how to use the camera to get an effect: there are some pleasing uses of the track and dolly early on in the film. Generally, however, the camerawork like the lighting photography is inclined to be routine.
OTHER VIEWS: Eddie Albert as hero? The country schnook outsmarting city heavies was a tried and trusted formula, but the schnook needs something more than Albert can lend him. He needs much more than talk. In fact he doesn’t need talk at all. Witness Harold Lloyd. Or Harry Langdon. Or Buster Keaton. Or Chaplin.
—T.H.
Another Fine Mess (1930)
Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy (themselves), Thelma Todd (Lady Plumtree), James Finlayson (Colonel Buckshot), Eddie Dunn (Meadows), Charles Gerrard (Lord Plumtree), Gertrude Sutton (the real maid), Harry Bernard, Bill Knight, Bob Mimford (police officers), Robert “Bobby” Burns (bicycle rider), Joe Mole and his brother (bicycle-riding goat), Betty Mae Crane, Beverly Crane (usherettes).
Director: JAMES PARROTT. Screenplay: H.M. Walker and Stan Laurel. Based on a music hall sketch “Home from the Honeymoon” by Arthur J. Jefferson. Photography: Jack Stevens. Film editor: Richard C. Currier. Music: Le Roy Shield. Sound recording: Elmer R. Raguse. Producer: Hal Roach.
A Hal Roach Studios Production, copyright (8 December 1930) and U.S. release (29 November 1930) by M-G-M. 3 reels. 28 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Chased by a policeman, Laurel and Hardy find refuge in an apparently deserted mansion. When Lord Plumtree and his lovely young wife come to inspect the place (with a view to renting it), Hardy is forced to impersonate the absent owner, Colonel Buckshot, whilst Laurel has a shot at both Hives the butler and Agnes the maid. [Available on an 8/10 DVD from Lions Gate].
NOTES: Arthur J. Jefferson was Stan Laurel’s father.
The second of only two three-reelers starring Laurel and Hardy. [The other: The Laurel and Hardy Murder Case (1930)].
COMMENT: Although Stan’s father hated the way his son had americanized his little sketch, this is a most amusing entry which not only allows both stars some wonderfully comic opportunities, but also provides a showcase for Thelma Todd, here at her prettiest and wittiest. Slapstick is at a minimum. Instead the film relies heavily on situational humor. Hardy’s smooth savoir-faire as the bogus huntsman-millionaire is an absolute joy. True, Walker has provided him with some great dialogue, but only an expert comedian like Hardy could serve it up with such masterful (if seemingly improvised) relish. Stan has his moments too, particularly in a risqué (and side-splitting) scene with Thelma Todd:
THELMA: How many bedrooms are there, Agnes?
STAN: Four. There’s mine and the master’s and the master’s and mine.
THELMA: That’s only two.
STAN: Oh, yeah? Then there’s the nursery.
THELMA: I didn’t know the colonel was married.
STAN: He’s not. He has that in case of accidents.
OTHER VIEWS: No written credit titles on this one. Instead, they are engagingly spoken by a couple of pretty usherettes. Except for a brief opening and the obligatory chase climax, the movie is confined to the one luxurious setting which enables the jokes and gags to build up to a marvelous series of comic climaxes.
Arch of Triumph (1948)
Ingrid Bergman (Joan Madou), Charles Boyer (Dr Ravic), Charles Laughton (Haake), Louis Calhern (Morosow), Ruth Warwick (Kate Hagstrom), Roman Bohnen (Dr Veber), Stephen Bekassy (Alex), Ruth Nelson (Madame Fessier), Curt Bois (tattooed waiter), J. Edward Bromberg (hotel manager), Michael Romanoff (Alidze), Art Smith (inspector), John Laurenz (Colonel Gomez), Leon Lenoir (Spanish captain), Franco Corsaro (Navarro), Nino Pipitone (aide), Vladimir Rashevsky (Nugent), Alvin Hammer (Milan porter), Jay Gilpin (refugee boy), Ilia Kamara (Russian singer), Andre Marsaudan (croupier), Hazel Brooks (Sybil), Byron Foulger (policeman), William Conrad (official), Peter Virgo (Polansky), Feodor Chaliapin (chef).
Director: LEWIS MILESTONE. Screenplay: Lewis Milestone, Harry Brown. Script consultant: Bertolt Brecht. Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque. Photography: Russell Metty. 2nd unit director: Nate Watt. Production design: William Cameron Menzies. Film editor: Duncan Mansfield. Music composed by Louis Gruenberg, directed by Morris Stoloff and Rudolph Polk. Art director: William E. Flannery. Set decorations: Edward G. Boyle. Costume designers: Edith Head, Marion Herwood Keyes. Process photography: Mario Castegnaro. Special effects: Robert M. Moreland. Camera operator: Jack Russell. Focus: Norman Lloyd. Script supervisor: Evelyn Earle. Hair styles: Lillian Lashin. Make-up: Gustav M. Norin. Grip: Walter Dalton. Still cameramen: Scotty Welborne, Durwood Graybill. Production manager: Joseph C. Gilpin. Assistant director: Robert Aldrich. Sound technician: Frank Webster. Associate producer: Otto Klement. Producer: David Lewis. Assistant to producer: Joseph Henry Steele.
Copyright 30 April 1948 by Arch of Triumph, Inc. Presented by Enterprise Studios, released by United Artists in the U.S.A.: March 1948; M-G-M in the U.K. 9 May 1949. New York opening at the Globe: 20 April 1948. Australian release through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer: 7 October 1948. 10,962 feet. 122 minutes. Cut to 114 minutes in the U.K. Negative cost: $4,000,000. [Available on a Republic VHS tape and DVD disc].
SYNOPSIS: To Paris in 1938 come many refugees from the Nazis, among them Dr Ravic (Charles Boyer), a former member of the Austrian underground and a surgeon. While walking on a bridge over the Seine, Ravic saves from suicide a Parisian drifter, Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman). He goes with her to her apartment, where her lover lies dead in bed. Ravic arranges matters to disinvolve Joan from the coroner’s inquest. Then he sets her up in a room and finds her a job singing at the Scheherazade, where the doorman is his ex-Czarist-officer friend, Morosow (Louis Calhern), a wry, philosophic type. Ravic has sworn revenge on his enemy Haake, (Charles Laughton), a Nazi bigwig sojourning in Paris.
NOTES: Despite its star line-up, the film failed to earn back its negative cost for Enterprise Studios. By the time distributors had taken their cut, Enterprise received less than 50% of their $4 million investment.
COMMENT: The final collaboration of Cameron Menzies and Milestone. While it is not one of the best films this distinguished cast and crew have made, it is still distinctly superior with its interesting twin themes of the love of displaced persons Boyer and Bergman and Boyer’s need for revenge on Nazi-beast Laughton (an excellent portrayal) all played out in a studio-built Paris symbolically in the shadow of the Arch of Triumph. The idea of the stateless people trying to find some kind of life as they are shuttled across international frontiers was more interesting in the Remarque original, but most audiences will find it hard to judge this aspect as the film is invariably shown these days in a cut version (from which Ruth Warwick’s part has been completely eliminated).
— B.P.
OTHER VIEWS: Great cast, impressive sets, atmospheric photography, often inventive direction fail to wholly enlighten a dismally dreary story. Boyer seems miscast as a Russian refugee, though in point of fact the characterization is more realistic than it appears to our uneducated eyes and ears. White Russians were required to be fluent in French. It was naturally to France that they looked for fashion, culture, and eventually support.
— John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
Of the many French stars who sought Hollywood fame in the 1930s, only two reached the top of the superstar ladder and only one retained that title throughout the 1940s: Charles Boyer — the “great lover” — at least on the screen. In private life he was inextricably devoted to his wife, the supremely lovely Pat Paterson.
—T.H.
Arizona to Broadway (1933)
James Dunne (Smiley Wells), Joan Bennett (Lynn Martin), Herbert Mundin (Kingfish Miller), Sammy Cohen (Morris Blitz), Theodore Von Eltz (Wayne), Merna Kennedy (Flo), Earl Foxe (Sandburg), J. Carroll Naish (Tommy Monk), Max Wagner (Pete), Walter Catlett (Ned Flynn) [Ed Wynn], Jerry Lester (Jimmy Dante) [Jimmy Durante].
Director: JAMES TINLING. Original screenplay: Henry Johnson, William Conselman. Photography: George Schneiderman. Location photography: Gilbert Warrenton. Film editor: Louis Loeffler. Art director: William Darling. Costumes designed by Sophie Waschner. Sound recording: E. Clayton Ward. Producer: William Fox.
Copyright 16 June 1933 by Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 21 July 1933. 6,033 feet. 67 minutes. [Available on a good VintageFilmBuff DVD].
SYNOPSIS: It’s virtually impossible to provide a synopsis of this muddled mess which was obviously written on the run as the film was actually shooting. Indeed, most people will be so confused by the first ten minutes, they’ll switch to something else. That would be a shame because there are some good scenes in the movie. True, the climax is partly ruined by three hammy imitations. Admittedly the Mae West “take” is not too bad, but the Ed Wynn and Jimmy Durante impersonations are strictly from hunger.
COMMENT: As a support to the Roxy’s superb vaudeville bill, headed by James Melton, Arizona to Broadway was never intended to win scads of admirers. Nonetheless, it’s glorious to see Herbert Mundin billed above the title. Although his role is not a typical one, he gives it a game try. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for James Dunn – he sleep-walks through his part – or the obviously totally confused Theodore Von Eltz. At least J. Carroll Naish knows how to play his role. He’s a villain from the word, “Go!” In fact, he pours on the menace so effectively, we’re quite sorry to see him get his comeuppance. As for the lovely Joan Bennett, she felt so ill-treated by being cast in this fascinating turkey that she broke her contract with Fox and didn’t return until the studio was purchased by 20th Century Pictures. Although it’s certainly not a bad movie (I love the chorus girls), you will enjoy it more if you savor it as it comes and don’t expect a five-star comedy triumph.
As Good As It Gets (1997)
Jack Nicholson (Melvin Udall), Helen Hunt (Carol Connelly), Greg Kinnear (Simon Bishop), Cuba Gooding, Jr (Frank Sachs), Skeet Ulrich (Vincent Lopiano), Shirley Knight (Beverly Connelly), Yeardley Smith (Jackie Simpson), Lupe Ontiviros (Nora Manning).
Director: James L. Brooks. Screenplay: James L. Brooks, Mark Andrus. Story: Mark Andrus. Photography: John Bailey. Film editor: Richard Marks. Production designer: Bill Brzeski. Art director: Philip Toolin. Set decorator: Clay A. Griffith. Costumes designed by Molly Maginnis. Music: Hans Zimmer. Producers: James L. Brooks, Bridget Johnson, Kristi Zea.
TriStar Pictures. U.S.A. release: 19 December 1997. 139 minutes. [Available on a superb Columbia TriStar DVD].
COMMENT: This is definitely a movie that plays with far more power on the home screen than it does in a theatre where the director’s monotonous TV style, with its tendency to rely on close-ups to carry the emotive action, can become very irritating. It is indeed fortunate that players of the caliber of Nicholson and Hunt can make the best of searching close-ups (they also have the best lines), whereas Kinnear, Gooding and Knight, lacking a similar box-full of histrionic tricks, tend to out-stay their welcome. It’s not surprising that Nicholson and Hunt carried off the year’s Best Acting awards. In fact, both players are so skilful, they can even hide holes in the script and its inconsistencies of characterization.
Bordertown (1934)
Paul Muni (Johnny Ramirez), Bette Davis (Marie Roark), Margaret Lindsay (Dale Elwell), Eugene Pallette (Charlie Roark), Soledad Jimenez (Mrs Ramirez), Robert Barrat (padre), Gavin Gordon (Brook Mandille), Henry O’Neill (Chase), Arthur Stone (Manuel Diego), Hobart Cavanaugh (drunk), William B. Davidson (Dr Carter), Oscar Apfel (judge at law school), Samuel S. Hinds (judge at trial), Edward McWade (dean), Wallis Clark (friend), John Eberts (Alberto), Chris-Pin Martin (José), Eddie Shubert (marketman), Carlos Villar (headwaiter), Marjorie North (Janet), Addie McPhail (Carter’s girl), Frank Puglia (police commissioner), Alphonz Ethier (banker), Dolores Mandez (maid), Jack Norton (customer), Sam Appel (dealer), Harry Semels, Juan Duval (waiters), Wade Boteler (buyer), Fred Malatesta (foreman), Eddie Lee (Sam), Ed Mortimer, David Newell, Jack Trent (men), Vivian Tobin, Mary Russell, Elsa Peterson (women), Alfonso Pedroza, Juan Ortiz (motor cops), Arthur Treacher (butler), Julian Rivero (prosecuting attorney), Ralph Navarro (defense attorney), Harry J. Vejar (judge).
Director: ARCHIE MAYO. Based on the 1934 novel by Carroll Graham. Adaptor: Robert Lord. Screenplay: Laird Doyle, Wallace Smith. Music: Bernhard Kaun. Art director: Jack Okey. Photography: Tony Gaudio. Film editor: Thomas Richards. Costumes: Orry-Kelly. Music played by the Vitaphone Orchestra, conducted by Leo F. Forbstein. Production supervisor: Robert Lord. Producer: Hal B. Wallis. Executive producer: Jack L. Warner. [Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD].
Copyright 15 December 1934 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 23 January 1935. Australian release: 1 May 1935. 10 reels. 89 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A disbarred young lawyer gets a job as a bouncer in a border gambling house, gradually working himself up to a position as junior partner. Unfortunately, Potiphar’s wife attempts to seduce the young man. Although he rejects her advances, she sees to it that he is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: A melodrama. It is difficult to believe in the characters, but it is even more difficult to believe in the plot — which is, incidentally, a long time in getting under way. It seems even longer because the part of the hero’s mother is irritatingly over-acted with all stops out by Soledad Jimenez. Not much better is Robert Barrat who essays the part of the padre. The role is against Barrat’s usual type and he goes through his clerical motions most unimpressively — though admittedly he is not helped by the cloying script. Muni does somewhat better as the over-confident peasant attorney though he too is inclined to over-do the eye-rolling and the Spanish accent. However, it is primarily Muni’s engrossing performance that gives his character any traces of verisimilitude.
The support cast is first-rate. Margaret Lindsay is perfect as the unserious socialite. Her subtle portrayal is more than a match for Bette Davis’s fascinatingly edgy study of an opportunistic floosie. Eugene Pallette is delightfully larger-than-life as the bistro proprietor and he and William B. Davidson (of all people!) make a wonderfully comic team. The script gives Miss Davis some particularly witty lines. Altogether, the scenes with Pallette are the best in the film. Gavin Gordon, who played the hero in Romance , gives an entirely different impersonation here. I couldn’t even recognise him for the first couple of minutes, he was so adeptly disguised.
Archie Mayo’s direction is a cut above his usual standard. The establishing shot of the bordertown bistro which is an enormously long track past numerous neon signs and into the bar itself, is uncommonly inventive. The sets are exceptionally realistic-looking and have been constructed on a staggering scale. The film has obviously been realised on a budget that spared no expense. Some of the scenes are realised with terrifying force (the trial with the accused man sitting in a cage in the court-room) but the script tends to go off in all directions and we would not be surprised to learn that it was written during the course of shooting. The way the gambling syndicate is introduced, for example, is effectively sinister: a close-up of Pallette mopping his brow while a face quietly hectors him from the top left-hand corner of the screen. But the syndicate turns out to play a benign part in the action. And the conclusion is just impossible.
Although the film is not successful as a whole, there are many scenes so powerful they stay in the memory.
The film has many flaws, but it does not deserve the contempt with which it is regarded by modern audiences. I saw Bordertown at the National Film Theatre. Although it was showing on a double bill with another interesting Warner’s film of the thirties, Dust Be My Destiny , only a dozen people turned up — and three or four of these left before Bordertown concluded!
OTHER VIEWS: A fascinating variant on the Biblical story of Joseph, as told in the book of Genesis. The favorite of his community, and revered and only son of his mother [his father is dead], is sold into slavery in a foreign land by his brother lawyers, where through sheer weight of his brains he works himself up to a position as right-hand man of the local big wheel. Muni is most adept in the Joseph role, whilst Eugene Pallette has one of his meatiest parts ever as the chief of the gambling tables. His wife of necessity makes an extremely late entrance, but when she does come on, Davis rivets the attention — partly through her supreme acting charisma, partly through the incredibly slinky costumes Orry-Kelly has designed for her here.
Of the support players, Samuel S. Hinds as the initial trial judge and William B. Davidson as an opportunistic dentist make the most impression. Other cameos we enjoyed were Willie Fung as Wong (“I no cleep, walkie same alla time!”), Oscar Apfel as the sententious Barnswell, and Frank Puglia as the police captain. I hope you spot Chris-Pin Martin as a policeman, Jack Norton as the first man in Roark’s casino, and Hobart Cavanaugh as an easily-led drunk (the reverse of his fighting part in Rose of Washington Square ).
Assisted by Tony Gaudio’s superlative camerawork, Archie L. Mayo’s direction reveals a skill and a flair that we don’t usually associate with his work. The camera is often on the move, with sweeping tracking shots making light of what would otherwise be dull dialogue scenes.
Although Muni is undoubtedly the star, the script gives all the sharpest, wittiest and most colorful lines — as well as the best bits of business — to other players, particularly Davis who has a wonderful stooge in Pallette. In fact, the Muni character emerges as less colorful even than Roberts, the butler, played by Arthur Treacher. Sincere and earnest enough, Muni is full of fighting words, but inclined to be dull.
The art direction is incredibly lavish. The interior of the re-designed casino will knock your eyes out. And many are the sweeping tracks down meticulously created backlot streets as the characters go about their business in Bordertown.
The film was re-made as They Drive By Night in 1941, with Ida Lupino in the Davis role; and again in 1953 as Blowing Wild , with Barbara Stanwyck.
— John Howard Reid writing as Tom Howard.
Break of Hearts (1935)
Katharine Hepburn (Constance Dane), Charles Boyer (Franz Roberti), John Beal (Johnny Lawrence), Jean Hersholt (Professor Talma), Sam Hardy (Marx), Inez Courtney (Miss Wilson), Helene Millard (Sylvia), Ferdinand Gottschalk (Pazzini), Susan Fleming (Elise), Lee Kohlmar (Schubert), Jean Howard (Didi Smith-Lennox), Anne Grey (Lady Phyllis Cameron), Inez Palange (violin student’s mother), Edmund Mortimer (man at New Year’s party), Lowden Adams (Albert Henderson, Roberti’s butler), Gino Corrado (messenger), Jay Eaton (man in hotel), Jason Robards Sr (ticket seller), Egon Brecher (bit), Dick Elliott (Max, florist), Sam Hayes (radio announcer), Eddie Kane (Lubin), Cornelius Keefe (Bill, dance partner with Constance), Ray Mayer (man at the music publisher’s), Torben Meyer (the headwaiter), Michael Visaroff (bassoon player), Adrian Rosley (Bierbauer, a card player), Charles Darwin (stand-in for John Beal), Patricia Doyle (stand-in for Katharine Hepburn), Newton House (stand-in for Charles Boyer).
Director: PHILIP MOELLER. Screenplay: Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman, Anthony Veiller. Based on a story by Lester Cohen. Treatment by Vincent Lawrence. Research: Elizabeth McGaffey. Continuity: Jane Murfin. Photography: Robert De Grasse. Film editor: William Hamilton. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase, Carroll Clark. Make-up: Mel Berns. Costumes designed by Bernard Newman. Associate director: Joan Loring. Music composed and directed by Max Steiner. Music orchestrator: Bernhard Kaun. Camera operator: Joseph F. Biroc. Production manager: C.J. White. Assistant director: Edward Killy. 2nd assistant director: C.C. Thompson. Sound recording: John Tribby. Music recorded by P.J. Faulkner, Jr. RCA Sound System. Producer: Pandro S. Berman.
Copyright 31 May 1935 by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 16 May 1935 (ran one week). Australian release: 16 October 1935. 80 minutes. 9 reels.
SYNOPSIS: An unknown composer (Hepburn) enters into a blissful romance with a popular conductor (Boyer), unaware he is married.
NOTES: John Barrymore was originally scheduled to co-star opposite Hepburn, but his romantic appeal had declined considerably in the few years since making such an impassioned partner to Greta Garbo in Grand Hotel (1930). Francis Lederer was substituted but he and Hepburn did not strike the right sort of sparks. [Available on a 9/10 Warner Archive DVD].
COMMENT: Everyone hates Break of Hearts , but I wonder if its critics have actually seen the film recently or are merely relying on Andre Sennwald’s negative review in The New York Times . In one respect at least, Sennwald is very, very wrong, and that is in his description of Moeller’s direction as “lifeless and static”. In actual fact, the direction is extremely similar to that employed in most modern films and television plays, in that it has an enormous and extraordinary reliance on close-ups. If Moeller’s handling is “lifeless and static”, I wonder what Sennwald would make of almost every movie release since 1980. Whereas Moeller’s close-ups are radiant, full of shimmering light and beauty, most modern efforts are unbearably ugly. And whereas Moeller’s close-ups are inventive, imaginative and well-crafted in their inspired use of various camera angles and set-ups, modern usage is invariably monotonous, arbitrary, and obtrusively jerky. When the mood is appropriate, Moeller does move his camera quite dramatically, whereas modern hacks employ a camera that seems bolted to the floor. True, the radiantly beautiful close-ups of Hepburn and Boyer are achieved with the expert assistance of photographer Robert De Grasse. But even when lighting is not so important, Moeller’s mise en scene, his handling of crowd scenes, etc., are likewise laudably effective. Admittedly, the story is old-hat, but it is put across with tremendous panache and sheer imaginative craftsmanship.
OTHER VIEWS: An old-fashioned story (often re-made, cf. Intermezzo ), beautifully crafted and told. John Beal is a bit of a pain (but then he’s supposed to be just that, and his part isn’t large), but both Hepburn and Boyer are entrancing. Jean Hersholt (without his glasses) plays the hackneyed part of the old professor with his usual professionalism. Max Steiner’s lovely score and the other musical interludes are superbly recorded.— G.A.
Bride of the Gorilla (1951)
Barbara Payton (Dina Van Gelder), Lon Chaney, Jr (Taro), Raymond Burr (Barney Chavez), Tom Conway (Dr Viet), Paul Cavanagh (Klaas Van Gelder), Carol Vargo (Larina), Paul Maxey (Van Heusen), Giselle Werbisek (Al-long), Woody Strode (native policeman), Martin Garralaga (native man), Moyna MacGill (Mrs Van Heusen), Felippa Rock (Van Heusen’s daughter), Steve Calvert (gorilla). Narrated by Lon Chaney, Jr.
Director: CURT SIODMAK. Screenplay: Curt Siodmak. Photography: Charles Van Enger. Film editor: Francis D. Lyon. Art director: Frank Sylos. Set decorator: Edward G. Boyle. Wardrobe man: Elmer Ellsworth. Wardrobe woman: Betty Zackin. Hair styles: Ann Kirk. Make-up: Gus Norin. Special effects: Lee Zavitz. Music: Raoul Kraushaar and Mort Glickman. Assistant director: Richard Dixon. Special effects: Lee Zavitz. Assistant to the producer: Herman Cohen. Sound recording: Bud Myers. Associate producer: Edward Leven. Producer: Jack Broder. [Alpha DVD rates at least 8/10].
Copyright 29 September 1951 by Jack Broder Productions, Inc. U.S. release through Realart Pictures: October 1951. No New York opening. U.K. release through British Lion: December 1951. No record of theatrical release in Australia. 5,844 feet. 65 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: “A jungle melodrama of jealousy, snake bites, native sorcery, and violent death. Setting: a jungle in South America.” — Studio publicity.
Klaas Van Gelder, owner of a rubber plantation in the wilds of South America, dies after a fight with his manager, Chavez, over the attentions Chavez has been paying to his wife, Dina. Chavez fakes the nature of his employer’s death, ascribing it to snake bite. But Van Gelder’s old servant woman knows the score. She spikes Chavez’s drink with a poison that turns him into a gorilla.
COMMENT: Don’t be deceived by the prominent billing of Lon Chaney jr or the advertising that stresses all the horror in this little yarn. In point of fact, Mr Chaney is confined to a rather small role. He is neither husband nor foreman. He’s not even the gorilla! Mr Chaney stays firmly on the right side of the law for once, while Raymond Burr in his usual confidently cool, surly, self-assured manner enacts the title role opposite the legendary Barbara Payton (here looking extremely attractive, thanks to flattering photography and most seductive—if rather inappropriate by jungle standards—costumes. She speaks her lines adequately too).
Tom Conway walks through his part with his usual, blandly smooth impeccability, whilst Carol Varga’s eye-catching native girl gives Barbara a fair run in the beauty stakes. Woody Strode is also on hand as a policeman with just the one scene with a black-robed, rather sinister servant-lady. As a director, Mr Siodmak takes great care that every word of the fatuously hokey dialogue he has contrived for his script, be clearly and distinctly heard. His actors are coached to speak carefully and to enunciate with great deliberation so that not one boring cliché be lost. Otherwise, Siodmak’s handling has little to recommend it. The pacing appears not only excrutiatingly slow, but tired, listless, dull. Except for a few shots of the camera tracking subjectively through the undergrowth and the jaws of the gorilla flashing momentarily right in front of the lens, Siodmak displays a preference for the most boring and uninteresting set-ups.
All told, Bride of the Gorilla turns out as a tame and tedious affair that signally fails to deliver the frights and the terror promised by its script and its advertising. We see only a few flashes of the gorilla (an obvious impersonation by a stuntman in the same well-used monkey suit the costume company has been renting out for twenty years) and there’s no impressive special effects work either.
Most of the movie perambulates around a single set and was obviously lensed on an extremely tight budget. Bride does have two factors in its favor, however. Barbara Payton, I’ve already mentioned, and the photography by Charles Van Enger. If you love glossy camerawork and don’t mind a tediously empty script with otherwise zero production values, Bride of the Gorilla is your meat.
OTHER VIEWS: This is one of those awful low-budget movies that are so laughably inept in direction, acting and script they are wonderfully entertaining. And this one boasts not one, not two, not three, but FOUR icons of the corduroy set in Barbara Payton, Chaney Junior, Raymond Burr and Tom Conway.
British Intelligence (1939)
Boris Karloff (Franz Strendler), Margaret Lindsay (Helene von Lorbeer), Maris Wrixon (Dorothy), Bruce Lester (Frank Bennett), Leonard Mudie (James Yeats), Holmes Herbert (Arthur Bennett), Winifred Harris (Mrs Bennett), Lester Matthews (Thompson), John Graham Spacey (Crichton), Austin Fairman (George Bennett), Clarence Derwent (milkman), Louise Brien (Miss Risdown), Frederick Vogeding (Kugler), Carlos de Valdez (Von Ritter), Frederick Giermann (Kurtz), Willy Kaufman (corporal), Frank Mayo (Brixton), Stuart Holmes (Luchow), Sidney Bracey (Crowder), Jack Mower (Morton), Glen Cavender (Unteroffizier Pfalz), Dennis D’Auburn (Captain Lanark), Lawrence Grant (brigadier general), Carl Harbaugh (German soldier), Leyland Hodgson (Lord Sudbury), Crauford Kent (Commander Phelps), Jack Richardson, Bob Stevenson (Cockney soldiers), Hans Schumm, Ferdinand Schumann-Heink, Joe De Stefani, Arno Frey (German officers), Gordon Hart (doctor), Morton Lowry (Lieutentant Borden),Paul Panzer (peasant), John Sutton (officer), Evan Thomas (Major Andrews), Sam Harris (cabinet minister), David Thursby (mysterious man), Henry Zynda (German), Leonard Willey (Captain Stuart). [Warner Archive have a 10/10 DVD].
Director: TERRY MORSE. Screenplay: Lee Katz. Additional dialogue: John Langan. Based on the stage play “Three Faces East” by Anthony Paul Kelly. Photography: Sidney Hickox. Film editor: Thomas Pratt. Art director: Hugh Reticker. Costumes: Howard Shoup. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Music: Heinz Roemheld. Additional music: Bernhard Kaun. Dialogue director: John Langan. Assistant director: Elmer Decker. Sound recording: Stanley Jones. Associate producer: Mark Hellinger. Producer: Bryan Foy.
Copyright 1 January 1940 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Globe: 11 February 1940. U.S. release: 29 January 1940. No Australian theatrical release. 5,446 feet. 60 minutes.
U.K. release title: Enemy Agent .
SYNOPSIS: This time, Boris Karloff essays the German spy who has secreted himself in the household of a cabinet member, whilst Margaret Lindsay is the British agent who sets out to expose him.
NOTES: 3rd (and final) re-make of “Three Faces East” (see above).
COMMENT: Incredibly, this is a remake of that awful movie, Three Faces East. Needless to say, Lee Katz’s script could not help but be an improvement, while director Terry Morse has it all over a sorrowful hack like Roy Del Ruth. But oddly, Boris Karloff, despite the character’s more plausible motivation and sharper dialogue, offers little in the way of charisma.
In fact, we often have the impression that Karloff is trying so hard not to imitate “the man you love to hate” that he goes into reverse!
Bring back Erich von Stroheim!
OTHER VIEWS: Not only is the plot unduly intricate, but the atmosphere is totally unconvincing. The alleged background of London in the Great War has never existed—except in the imagination of Hollywood designers and scriptwriters. Boris Karloff not only has a small part as the spy, but he uses so many aliases that half the time it’s difficult to interpret his actions with any degree of accuracy.
— Kinematograph Weekly .
Broadway Bad (1933)
Joan Blondell (Tony Landers), Ricardo Cortez (Craig Cutting), Ginger Rogers (Flip Daly), Adrienne Ames (Aileen), Allen Vincent (Bob North), Francis McDonald (Charlie Davis), Frederick Burton (North), Robbie Cosbey (Big Fella), Donald Crisp (North’s Attorney), Margaret Seddon (Bixby), Eddie Kane (jeweler), John Davidson (the prince), Harold Goodwin, Max Wagner (reporters), Spencer Charters (Lew Gordon), Carmelita Geraghty, Betty Francisco, Geneva Mitchell, Claudia Morgan, Charlotte Merriam (showgirls), Phil Tead (Joe Flynn).