250 reviews
I don't know who first said the famous line "Show business is my life" but that certainly could have been said by Kaye Ballard. From her teenaged years to right before her death at age 93, she lived for the limelight. She was respected, acclaimed, and loved by audiences but still rarely got a "star turn", mostly working in supporting roles. It's kind of ironic for the film to ponder that given even the opening credits of this documentary don't give her first billing, instead listing the all-star interviewees alphabetically before her name comes up as part of the title (and a touch upsetting for Ballard admirers).
Ballard is most famous for the closest thing she came to bona stardom in the 1960's sitcom "The Mothers-in-law" in which she starred with Eve Arden that ran two seasons but she was a well-known supper club star in the 1950's and had major roles in a number of Broadway shows as well as being a familiar tv presence throughout her career, particularly in the 1950's and 1960's. She was better known as a singer for years thanks to her nightclub act and a number of well-received record albums and the documentary has many clips of her stunning vocalizing from various old tv variety shows. It's regrettable there never was a Broadway producer of composer who created a showcase vehicle just for her. And certainly Kaye had the great ideas, recording an album of Fanny Brice songs in the 1950's and later a comedy and music lp based on the Peanuts characters, mainly her as Lucy with Charlie Brown, years later classic Broadway musicals created along those lines as "Funny Girl" and "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown".
She has fond memories of virtually everyone she worked with, even friends she never did such as Marlon Brando and Lenny Bruce, adding at one point "I'm one of the few people who loved Jerry Lewis (who worked with him)." One person she doesn't have good memories of was Phil Silvers who was terrible to her throughout the run of their Broadway show "Top Banana". She also loved all the various talk show hosts but wonders why Johnny Carson virtually never used her on The Tonight Show.
Famous friends such as Carol Channing, Ann-Margret, and Carol Burnett praise her talent and as a person, as does director Hal Prince and Woody Allen, in a rare appearance in such a documentary. There is very little downbeat in this film other than Kaye briefly suggesting her parents were not warm people but she loved them, nevertheless. Others may wonder why she didn't become a bigger star but Kaye, here at the end of her life, has nothing but happy memories, adding "the last fifteen years have been the best of my life". I do recall somewhere years ago though reading an interview with her if she had any regrets or disappointments and she said that she never won any major show business awards or was even nominated. But her career was a triumph, much more so than many who did win such trophies. One regret her admirers surely have is that she passed away several months before this film was released, missing any chance to see first-hand any lovefests this picture would have given her at the screenings. This movie can be seen online and on television via a number of sources.
Ballard is most famous for the closest thing she came to bona stardom in the 1960's sitcom "The Mothers-in-law" in which she starred with Eve Arden that ran two seasons but she was a well-known supper club star in the 1950's and had major roles in a number of Broadway shows as well as being a familiar tv presence throughout her career, particularly in the 1950's and 1960's. She was better known as a singer for years thanks to her nightclub act and a number of well-received record albums and the documentary has many clips of her stunning vocalizing from various old tv variety shows. It's regrettable there never was a Broadway producer of composer who created a showcase vehicle just for her. And certainly Kaye had the great ideas, recording an album of Fanny Brice songs in the 1950's and later a comedy and music lp based on the Peanuts characters, mainly her as Lucy with Charlie Brown, years later classic Broadway musicals created along those lines as "Funny Girl" and "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown".
She has fond memories of virtually everyone she worked with, even friends she never did such as Marlon Brando and Lenny Bruce, adding at one point "I'm one of the few people who loved Jerry Lewis (who worked with him)." One person she doesn't have good memories of was Phil Silvers who was terrible to her throughout the run of their Broadway show "Top Banana". She also loved all the various talk show hosts but wonders why Johnny Carson virtually never used her on The Tonight Show.
Famous friends such as Carol Channing, Ann-Margret, and Carol Burnett praise her talent and as a person, as does director Hal Prince and Woody Allen, in a rare appearance in such a documentary. There is very little downbeat in this film other than Kaye briefly suggesting her parents were not warm people but she loved them, nevertheless. Others may wonder why she didn't become a bigger star but Kaye, here at the end of her life, has nothing but happy memories, adding "the last fifteen years have been the best of my life". I do recall somewhere years ago though reading an interview with her if she had any regrets or disappointments and she said that she never won any major show business awards or was even nominated. But her career was a triumph, much more so than many who did win such trophies. One regret her admirers surely have is that she passed away several months before this film was released, missing any chance to see first-hand any lovefests this picture would have given her at the screenings. This movie can be seen online and on television via a number of sources.
SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) is, of course, one of the greatest American films of all-time, most film buffs would comfortably place among the top two dozen. The movie starred silent film legend Gloria Swanson and gave her what many consider second only to Scarlett O'Hara as the cinema's most iconic screen heroine, Norma Desmond. It was Swanson's first film in almost a decade and arguably her first major film in twenty years, a "comeback" (sorry, Norma, the word applies) to a level that has almost never happened before or since. Without it, Miss Swanson might be just as obscure with the general public of recent decades as such contemporaries as Norma Talmadge or Corinne Griffith. Swanson received a Best Actress Oscar nomination (arguably, her loss was the most unjust in Oscar history) and made her a household name again in America. She was able to keep her fame up to her death in 1982 thanks to the film's enduring fame, Gloria's multiple television appearances for the next thirty years, and a best-selling autobiography but getting another great film role proved fairly impossible, being in her fifties in an era when no film studio would dream of producing star vehicles for a woman of that age. Dabbling in music in during her "early talkie" career, Swanson came up with the idea of doing a Broadway musical on her screen triumph in the mid 1950's back when Andrew Lloyd Weber was just a schoolboy. A gay couple in Hollywood, struggling songwriter Dickson Hughes and unsuccessful actor Richard Stapley, were trying to get a career going running stage revues and nightclub acts and had a revue they thought Swanson might be interested in. She wasn't - but the fact that "songwriters" were eager to work with her thrilled her and she immediately tried to interest them in working on her dream project.
BOULEVARD! Can't help but make comparisons between what was going on with Gloria and the men to the plot of SUNSET BOULEVARD itself; this has been overdone many times in articles, books, and documentaries when some veteran star befriends some obscure writer or wannabe producer. In this case, it's unquestionable true, down to a bizarre scene when Swanson accidentally kills a baby chick that echos the death of Norma's pet monkey but especially when Gloria develops a romantic interest in Stapley if not as possessive as Norma's to Joe Gillis certainly even more improbable.
The production never gets very far though all continue to work on it even without any legal rights to the project, audaciously to the point of Swanson performing a number from the "upcoming musical" on a television variety series. For all of Swanson's astute vision (Broadway musicals based on films was almost unheard of at that point), there are the big problems in that the songwriters are not that good nor does Swanson have the voice to project while singing on the stage. Beyond an inability to get the rights secured, there's also no major interest from potential investors. And when it's clear Stapley has no romantic interest in her or possibly becoming husband number six, Gloria interest starts to wane as well although it takes some time before she completely gives up since there are no other projects on the horizon.
Classic movie buffs will eat this up with a spoon. There are many tantalizing snippets of rare footage of Swanson (candid and televison clips) that one longs to see more than the brief clips shown. Several film historians are interviewed including Cari Beauchamp and Swanson biographer Stephen Michael Shearer and Hollywood publicist Alan Eichler (whom many may know of thanks to his archive of amazing vintage videos on youtube), as well as brief comments from beloved Robert Osborne. Gloria's granddaughter also provides invaluable insights on her grandmother.
The movie is heavily illustrated with wonderful caricature art by Maurice Vellekoop although I do feel it was a mistake to use some of it for poster art which gives the impression it's a campy story rather than a nonfiction film that's straightforward and often moving.
Richard Stapley almost proves to be as fascinating as Swanson. A British actor who briefly had an MGM contact (though hardly considered "the next Clark Gable" as the film suggests though it may have BS hype that was told to him), the studio dropped him after supporting parts in just two films in the late 1940's. Good-looking but not the stunningly handsome man the commentors suggest (I personally think Dickson was better looking), he trudged through with generally small parts on film and television making no impact. Stapley was gay but played the Hollywood game by marrying a woman though it was pointless given his very minor career. And then he met Dickson Hughes, an aspiring musician and fell in love, becoming a couple.
Not long after the ties with Swanson were cut, their gay romance also fell apart and Stapley, now in his thirties returned to England. His career actually picked up working steady in leads and having filled out a bit, he got better looking as well. But again, stardom alluded him and it pretty collapsed yet again in the early 1970's.
But this story doesn't end there and with the success of the Weber musical, the history of the first attempt becomes known and is reworked by Hughes as a musical on their project much like this film, with Hughes audaciously not informing Stapley of the production and outing him on stage in the process. To add unintended new Sunset Boulevard touch, the elderly Hughes plays himself in the project with a young hunk half his age cast as Stapley! The filmed clips from that performance look like incredibly amateur, cheap production that looks like the worst smalltown little theatre project one could imagine and what we hear of the songs is certainly not promising. This is a fascinating story that true movie fans will love and despite that it's clear only the idea was the only good thing about the project, one ends up admiring not only Swanson but Stapley and Hughes.
BOULEVARD! Can't help but make comparisons between what was going on with Gloria and the men to the plot of SUNSET BOULEVARD itself; this has been overdone many times in articles, books, and documentaries when some veteran star befriends some obscure writer or wannabe producer. In this case, it's unquestionable true, down to a bizarre scene when Swanson accidentally kills a baby chick that echos the death of Norma's pet monkey but especially when Gloria develops a romantic interest in Stapley if not as possessive as Norma's to Joe Gillis certainly even more improbable.
The production never gets very far though all continue to work on it even without any legal rights to the project, audaciously to the point of Swanson performing a number from the "upcoming musical" on a television variety series. For all of Swanson's astute vision (Broadway musicals based on films was almost unheard of at that point), there are the big problems in that the songwriters are not that good nor does Swanson have the voice to project while singing on the stage. Beyond an inability to get the rights secured, there's also no major interest from potential investors. And when it's clear Stapley has no romantic interest in her or possibly becoming husband number six, Gloria interest starts to wane as well although it takes some time before she completely gives up since there are no other projects on the horizon.
Classic movie buffs will eat this up with a spoon. There are many tantalizing snippets of rare footage of Swanson (candid and televison clips) that one longs to see more than the brief clips shown. Several film historians are interviewed including Cari Beauchamp and Swanson biographer Stephen Michael Shearer and Hollywood publicist Alan Eichler (whom many may know of thanks to his archive of amazing vintage videos on youtube), as well as brief comments from beloved Robert Osborne. Gloria's granddaughter also provides invaluable insights on her grandmother.
The movie is heavily illustrated with wonderful caricature art by Maurice Vellekoop although I do feel it was a mistake to use some of it for poster art which gives the impression it's a campy story rather than a nonfiction film that's straightforward and often moving.
Richard Stapley almost proves to be as fascinating as Swanson. A British actor who briefly had an MGM contact (though hardly considered "the next Clark Gable" as the film suggests though it may have BS hype that was told to him), the studio dropped him after supporting parts in just two films in the late 1940's. Good-looking but not the stunningly handsome man the commentors suggest (I personally think Dickson was better looking), he trudged through with generally small parts on film and television making no impact. Stapley was gay but played the Hollywood game by marrying a woman though it was pointless given his very minor career. And then he met Dickson Hughes, an aspiring musician and fell in love, becoming a couple.
Not long after the ties with Swanson were cut, their gay romance also fell apart and Stapley, now in his thirties returned to England. His career actually picked up working steady in leads and having filled out a bit, he got better looking as well. But again, stardom alluded him and it pretty collapsed yet again in the early 1970's.
But this story doesn't end there and with the success of the Weber musical, the history of the first attempt becomes known and is reworked by Hughes as a musical on their project much like this film, with Hughes audaciously not informing Stapley of the production and outing him on stage in the process. To add unintended new Sunset Boulevard touch, the elderly Hughes plays himself in the project with a young hunk half his age cast as Stapley! The filmed clips from that performance look like incredibly amateur, cheap production that looks like the worst smalltown little theatre project one could imagine and what we hear of the songs is certainly not promising. This is a fascinating story that true movie fans will love and despite that it's clear only the idea was the only good thing about the project, one ends up admiring not only Swanson but Stapley and Hughes.
I saw a trailer for this online and it appeared that the lead was played by the actress Sarah Baker who played the beleaguered librarian on YOUNG SHELDON so delightfully and so I decided to watch it. In fact it's not her but two-time Oscar-nominated actress Jacki Weaver. Ms. Weaver may have some years on Ms. Baker but like her she does a very good Texas accent. I actually don't recall seeing Ms. Weaver in anything despite a fairly high profile career but then I don't watch that many contemporary movies. This is apparently a rare starring role for her and she is terrific, finding a real human being in a somewhat improbably drawn character. She plays Maybelle Metcalf, a Texas woman somewhere in her sixties who is the choir director for her local Baptist church. Maybelle receives a telephone call from San Francisco informing her that her long-estranged gay son Ricky has died from a drug overdose. She is devastated and flies in for the funeral although her more hardline conservative husband refuses to go. She is very uncomfortable when the services have blue jokes, F bombs, and drag queens and leaves in a few minutes. Still hurting though, she stays in town in hopes to meet Ricky's partner Nathan perhaps to find someone who can share her grief in a more comfortable setting only to find Nathan is quite bitchy toward her in part due to the estrangement but also because he's stressed that the failing gay club he "owns" with Ricky has everything legal in Ricky's name and their not being married means he has no access to his bank accounts or financial records to keep it going. When Maybelline learns Ricky was broke from his records she decides to keep the club going with her own money. Not telling her husband what the money is for or Nathan that it's her money, claiming it was in Nathan's account. This is rather hard to believe someone would give thousands to a stranger who was nasty toward them but perhaps it's partly due to a desire to keep her son's dream and legacy going. She decides to stick around and act as something of a manager, teaching the drag queens to sing in harmony rather than lip-sync to records and fixing up the place in hopes of making it turn around.
This is actually a fairly gentle drama with only occasional touches of humor and might be something that the real Maybelline Metcalfs of the world could relate to, the bluer parts few and far between. The script alas has several holes and improbabilities. It's pretty hard to believe Maybelline could so quickly get into the world of drag entertainment after so long disapproving of her son's involvement. Indeed, we know hardly anything on Ricky and his parents history; the movie says they were estranged for ten years but given the actors playing Ricky and Nathan are over forty that seems a little too recent. Perhaps the roles (and that of Maybelline) were written for younger actors (someone's review thought Weaver too old which is obviously not true to play the mom of someone that age). Ricky and his mom apparently occasionally wrote so why wouldn't they call now and then? Would such a conservative as married Maybelline flirt with a local hotel executive her age (and honestly, would such an executive be interested in a woman his own age?) It's also a little hard to believe Maybelline would be so immediately supportive of the various drag queens when she had issues accepting her own son but one scene that absolutely rings true is when she visits the estranged mother of one of the "girls" at the diner she works at and urges her to accept and reconcile, wishing someone had done this for her.
This movie is set in San Francisco but obviously was not filmed there; Ricky's club looks like something in a run-down strip mall in a low-income area.
The performances are what makes this work particularly Jacki Weaver who is excellent and moving even in the moments the script or director aren't helping much. She is perfect as a Texas woman, soft and gentle but with a tough edge when need be, a little too dominated by her husband but also able to stand up to him. Adrien Grenier's part all but disappears a half hour into the movie which is weird given Maybelline is constantly at the club and he's still running it.
The final musical number is a knockout with Maybelline on stage singing a famous 80's melodramatic pop song with video of Ricky in drag imposed on her as her mind flashes back thirty-plus years as she and her son sang the tune in the day. It's very moving and a show stopper for this modest little film that is ultimately is successful in it's goals.
This is actually a fairly gentle drama with only occasional touches of humor and might be something that the real Maybelline Metcalfs of the world could relate to, the bluer parts few and far between. The script alas has several holes and improbabilities. It's pretty hard to believe Maybelline could so quickly get into the world of drag entertainment after so long disapproving of her son's involvement. Indeed, we know hardly anything on Ricky and his parents history; the movie says they were estranged for ten years but given the actors playing Ricky and Nathan are over forty that seems a little too recent. Perhaps the roles (and that of Maybelline) were written for younger actors (someone's review thought Weaver too old which is obviously not true to play the mom of someone that age). Ricky and his mom apparently occasionally wrote so why wouldn't they call now and then? Would such a conservative as married Maybelline flirt with a local hotel executive her age (and honestly, would such an executive be interested in a woman his own age?) It's also a little hard to believe Maybelline would be so immediately supportive of the various drag queens when she had issues accepting her own son but one scene that absolutely rings true is when she visits the estranged mother of one of the "girls" at the diner she works at and urges her to accept and reconcile, wishing someone had done this for her.
This movie is set in San Francisco but obviously was not filmed there; Ricky's club looks like something in a run-down strip mall in a low-income area.
The performances are what makes this work particularly Jacki Weaver who is excellent and moving even in the moments the script or director aren't helping much. She is perfect as a Texas woman, soft and gentle but with a tough edge when need be, a little too dominated by her husband but also able to stand up to him. Adrien Grenier's part all but disappears a half hour into the movie which is weird given Maybelline is constantly at the club and he's still running it.
The final musical number is a knockout with Maybelline on stage singing a famous 80's melodramatic pop song with video of Ricky in drag imposed on her as her mind flashes back thirty-plus years as she and her son sang the tune in the day. It's very moving and a show stopper for this modest little film that is ultimately is successful in it's goals.
This 1934 film had to be one of the very last films to slip by before the production code went into effect! Although set in a small town with mostly middle-aged performers (well, middle-aged for the 1930's, everyone's at least in their mid 30's) this has some of the raciest lines and situations you will hear. The title is a bit of a misnomer, it could only be referring to Pert Kelton's scheming little floozy, but she's not mean, just using men for suckers. She's among a group of performers touring in a play who are left stranded when their manager runs off with the funds and leaves them stranded and locked out of the hotel unable to get their items. The movie could care less what happens to the other members of the play, never to be seen again with the exception of one in a brief appearance. The broke group sits in woe about their situation but Pert is nonplussed, saying she's going on the town. "Whatcha gonna do walk the streets all night?" someone asks. Well, that's one possibility but she's not quite going that far, just out for a stroll to vamp the local hicks. Skinflint James Gleason pursues her and even buys her a meal, a stack of pancakes that costs $2.36 to his chagrin. He pays to the penny (no tip of course) and when she leaves a little, he decides to eat the rest himself since he paid for them. She tells him she's not allowed to return to her hotel, so he lifts her up to climb in a back window and hops in himself with the promise he can join her in her room for a game of "cards". Once inside and at her room door, she tells him alas she has no cards, so he hurries down to the hotel lobby to buy some (two packs for a dollar, seems high for the era when magazines were often just ten cents). He returns to her door and knocks but she tells him she's already in bed, but she guesses he can come in - which of course delights him only to open the door and find she is indeed in bed - with her mother (actually the seamstress with the traveling company) which of course leads to his fast retreat. It's a funny bit and happens so fast audiences probably had no time to ponder how did this older woman get into the hotel since the whole company was locked out and certainly there was no time for her to get in and dressed for bed in the brief moments Gleason went down to the lobby to buy some cards.
El Brendel runs a local barber shop that is barely making any money and won't marry his ten-year girlfriend ZaSu Pitts until his business prospers. ZaSu owns a small clothing store that's been in her family for years and makes more money but has sold a share of it to an unscrupulous business who put a clause in the contract where they could take over it which she didn't realize.
Pert tells her sob story to El Brendel who hires her as a manicurist for his shop and her flirty ways cause business to boom but jealous ZaSu now won't have anything to do with him. James Gleason buys the shop from El Brendel to keep tabs on Pert but soon finds he has major competition with seedy traveling salesman Skeets Gallagher.
This movie is not only loaded with discreet blue humor (extended butt shots not only Pert as she walks the street but ZaSu as well as she cranks a car) loaded lines (like my review header, a comment from ZaSu about the history of her family shop) and even some bad taste comedy gags such as Gallagher commenting on his nicked shave and El Brendel receiving unsolicited donations that are rare even in pre-codes and are more like something out brash comedy from recent decades.
This little movie barely runs an hour and boy does it run; a fast-moving sassy work played to the hilt by all. While tilted toward Pert Kelton who is terrific, she gets a real run for the money from Skeets Gallagher as a BS artist every bit her match. It's surprising this film does not have a bigger reputation among the fans who love saucy pre-codes, perhaps because there's no glamorous movie queen in it (Pert Kelton vamps the local boys but she's really a character actress rather than a glamour girl). The Meanest Girl in Town will probably be the raciest movie of the day on Turner Movie Classics every time it airs.
El Brendel runs a local barber shop that is barely making any money and won't marry his ten-year girlfriend ZaSu Pitts until his business prospers. ZaSu owns a small clothing store that's been in her family for years and makes more money but has sold a share of it to an unscrupulous business who put a clause in the contract where they could take over it which she didn't realize.
Pert tells her sob story to El Brendel who hires her as a manicurist for his shop and her flirty ways cause business to boom but jealous ZaSu now won't have anything to do with him. James Gleason buys the shop from El Brendel to keep tabs on Pert but soon finds he has major competition with seedy traveling salesman Skeets Gallagher.
This movie is not only loaded with discreet blue humor (extended butt shots not only Pert as she walks the street but ZaSu as well as she cranks a car) loaded lines (like my review header, a comment from ZaSu about the history of her family shop) and even some bad taste comedy gags such as Gallagher commenting on his nicked shave and El Brendel receiving unsolicited donations that are rare even in pre-codes and are more like something out brash comedy from recent decades.
This little movie barely runs an hour and boy does it run; a fast-moving sassy work played to the hilt by all. While tilted toward Pert Kelton who is terrific, she gets a real run for the money from Skeets Gallagher as a BS artist every bit her match. It's surprising this film does not have a bigger reputation among the fans who love saucy pre-codes, perhaps because there's no glamorous movie queen in it (Pert Kelton vamps the local boys but she's really a character actress rather than a glamour girl). The Meanest Girl in Town will probably be the raciest movie of the day on Turner Movie Classics every time it airs.
Of interest today almost exclusively due to the appearance of Carole Lombard in one of her first films at Paramount, SAFETY IN NUMBERS is one of those mediocre musical programmers from the early talkie screen that almost killed the movie musical genre. Buddy Rogers (Mary Pickford's future husband) stars as a young heir who has been raised by his uncle since his parents' deaths. Now twenty, his uncle decides the boy needs to experience the world a bit more since he's on the eve of receiving his parents' millions. Uncle Richard Tucker particularly wants him to be wary of golddiggers, so he sends him to New York to be looked after by, all of people, three showgirls, mistress types he trusts (how he knows them is never quite explained!) to keep predatory floozies away from him and help him find a nice girl (with payment for their assistance, of course). These chicks are scarcely older but hardened types but they quickly became enamored of the sweet young man themselves, so unlike the sleazy middle-aged men who pay their rent and give them expensive gifts (these broads are initially p.o.'d that the young heir has given them jewelry valued at "only $2,000" but are touched when they learn that's all the money he has with him.) Brunette Kathryn Crawford particularly likes him and he her, but when he meets a lovely young innocent telephone operator (Virginia Bruce) they all are upset. Crawford in particular has a conscious via her crush, with her long history with sugar daddies she's knows she's not good enough for him.
This is the first time I ever saw Buddy Rogers carry a picture. He was fairly popular at the time in such musicals although his quivering voice is not particularly good. He's kind of a cuter Arthur Lake or unsassy William Haines; he's passable as a lead but definitely not major star material.
This is a very typical early Paramount talkie; the camera is often so far back it's like you're watching a filmed play. The print I viewed was very good but the sound was not; I don't think this was an issue with an aged print as the sound was not static or muffled, it's just hard to hear some of the lines suggesting the mikes were too far away from the actors. Director Victor Schwertzinger later made such excellent films as "The Fleet's In", "One Night of Love" and the first two Hope-Crosby-Lamour Road movies but he doesn't show much promise in the way he handles this picture but then the script is bad and he's got a musical on his hands where nobody can really sing! Actually, somebody can, black character actress Louise Beavers who has a very good voice and gets to sing part of a song perhaps because her costars are not adept.
This is also a typical early Paramount talkie in that it features quite obscure players opposite the leading man (or leading women, in other films), actors who never really went anywhere and quickly disappeared from the screen, the case here being Kathryn Crawford and Josephine Dunn. Carole Lombard has the smallest role of the female trio but she gets the few laugh lines so ultimately has the best role. All three are coated with heavy makeup making them looking like Sadie Thompsons of New York. Complete with gaudy earrings and presumably unintentionally ugly gowns. Lombard's beauty is buried underneath all this, making Virginia Bruce in a small role stand out. Indeed, despite the size of her role, Bruce was often pictured in publicity shots with the four leads perhaps because her loveliness warranted it.
The songs are fairly bad (the movie opens most unpromisingly with a bad number that mercifully is not completed) but two are pretty good, particularly "My Future Just Passed". Lombard's talents alas did not include singing, and she has to talk her way through a terrible number that at east has a very racy line "You're the key to my ignition" (the movie also has a fairly audacious song "I'd Like to Be a Bee in Your Boudoir" that wouldn't have been used post-code). "My Future Just Passed" must have been something as a hit as it is one of the most common pieces of vintage movie sheet music of the day to be found now. Not remotely a good movie but it's nice to know it still exists.
This is the first time I ever saw Buddy Rogers carry a picture. He was fairly popular at the time in such musicals although his quivering voice is not particularly good. He's kind of a cuter Arthur Lake or unsassy William Haines; he's passable as a lead but definitely not major star material.
This is a very typical early Paramount talkie; the camera is often so far back it's like you're watching a filmed play. The print I viewed was very good but the sound was not; I don't think this was an issue with an aged print as the sound was not static or muffled, it's just hard to hear some of the lines suggesting the mikes were too far away from the actors. Director Victor Schwertzinger later made such excellent films as "The Fleet's In", "One Night of Love" and the first two Hope-Crosby-Lamour Road movies but he doesn't show much promise in the way he handles this picture but then the script is bad and he's got a musical on his hands where nobody can really sing! Actually, somebody can, black character actress Louise Beavers who has a very good voice and gets to sing part of a song perhaps because her costars are not adept.
This is also a typical early Paramount talkie in that it features quite obscure players opposite the leading man (or leading women, in other films), actors who never really went anywhere and quickly disappeared from the screen, the case here being Kathryn Crawford and Josephine Dunn. Carole Lombard has the smallest role of the female trio but she gets the few laugh lines so ultimately has the best role. All three are coated with heavy makeup making them looking like Sadie Thompsons of New York. Complete with gaudy earrings and presumably unintentionally ugly gowns. Lombard's beauty is buried underneath all this, making Virginia Bruce in a small role stand out. Indeed, despite the size of her role, Bruce was often pictured in publicity shots with the four leads perhaps because her loveliness warranted it.
The songs are fairly bad (the movie opens most unpromisingly with a bad number that mercifully is not completed) but two are pretty good, particularly "My Future Just Passed". Lombard's talents alas did not include singing, and she has to talk her way through a terrible number that at east has a very racy line "You're the key to my ignition" (the movie also has a fairly audacious song "I'd Like to Be a Bee in Your Boudoir" that wouldn't have been used post-code). "My Future Just Passed" must have been something as a hit as it is one of the most common pieces of vintage movie sheet music of the day to be found now. Not remotely a good movie but it's nice to know it still exists.
There are only four other reviews to this movie, all of them at least somewhat negative. I, on the other hand, absolutely loved it! SOIS BELLE ET TAIS-TOI (translated as either "Be Beautiful and Shut up" or "Look Beautiful and Shut up" although it was released in England as BLONDE FOR DANGER and not released in the states) is a terrific little light film noir with a dash of comedy.
Mylene Demongeot was a rising French starlet at the time. She plays an 18-year-old who is taken a reformatory for bad behavior. She immediately escapes that night with another girl (Béatrice Altariba as Olga) who then introduces her to her boyfriend Alain Delon and two other young friends (one of them a startlingly young Jean-Paul Belmondo). The quartet makes money on the side helping a smalltime crook (René Lefèvre as Raphaël) with his deeds, including what they think is smuggling cameras across the border to be sold, unaware they are actually smuggling stolen emeralds Raphael has placed inside the cameras and the notorious elusive crook Charlemagne (Roger Hanin) is behind the operation.
Mylene accompanies Beatrice and Alain on a joyride in Rene's car without permission who rather stupidly reports his missing car to the police given he has illegal weapons inside of it. Mylene is caught and taken to jail where she encounters hunky older man Henri Vidal, whom she presumes is another person hauled in for bad deeds. Actually, he's an inspector but he goes along with her misunderstanding to win her confidence hoping to pump information from her since he thinks the guns may be tied to Charlemagne. That's not the sort of pumping Mylene is wanting!! He takes her to a local museum where she slips away and reclines on some of the antique furniture and before you know it has turned the tables and gotten Henri to succumb to her lead, in some pretty passionate clinches you'd never seen in an American film from 1958. They are caught by the museum manager who is outraged and calls the police which puts Vidal in a very delicate spot. His boss insists he then marry Mylene to try to kill the potential scandal which he does. Mylene is peeved she'd been had by the inspector but her attraction to him is strong enough she goes along with it, though still befriending and getting involved with the teenaged gang of petty thieves.
Mylene Demongeot is bluntly packaged as a rival to new French sex goddess Brigitte Bardot much like American actresses Cleo Moore and Mamie Van Doren were to Marilyn Monroe in the states. Mylene is cleverly cast in a "bad girl blonde" type role that Cleo and Mamie were starring in at the time in America but the considerably less censorship in French films at the time than in the United States allows the cast to curse on occasion, saying both "b" words, the famous French slang for manure, and even a singular F bomb which wouldn't be heard in American movies for another decade.
Demongeot is a gorgeous baby-faced vamp and gives a very good performance. Veteran French star Henri Vidal is also terrific. Belmondo's part is somewhat small and is listed deep into the credits while Delon gets special end credit billing which seems odd for what is a seemingly small part until the climax where he plays a crucial part.
Most of the French films Americans get to see are usually distinguished productions which is probably the cause of the negative reviews for this programmer picture which nevetheless is just as entertaining if not more so than most of the American "bad girl" movies of the era. The film is beautifully photographed on the streets of Paris and it's charming to see sites like a "Milk Bar" which appears to be something of a glass vending machine for dairy drinks and snacks.
There are some genuinely funny moments in the movie, most of them thanks to Darry Cowl as a bungling inspector who is a coworker. It's not a full comedy though and has some notable noir moments including someone getting bumped off in a bumper car at a small amusement park. This little film is a great showcase for both Vidal and Demongeot. Vidal passed away the next year of a heart attack at age 40. Also dying the next year was elderly character actress Gabrielle Fontan who plays his grandmother in the film. Ms. Fontan got a late start in films at age 56 but she made up for lost time with over 100 credits before her death at age 86 in 1959.
Mylene Demongeot was a rising French starlet at the time. She plays an 18-year-old who is taken a reformatory for bad behavior. She immediately escapes that night with another girl (Béatrice Altariba as Olga) who then introduces her to her boyfriend Alain Delon and two other young friends (one of them a startlingly young Jean-Paul Belmondo). The quartet makes money on the side helping a smalltime crook (René Lefèvre as Raphaël) with his deeds, including what they think is smuggling cameras across the border to be sold, unaware they are actually smuggling stolen emeralds Raphael has placed inside the cameras and the notorious elusive crook Charlemagne (Roger Hanin) is behind the operation.
Mylene accompanies Beatrice and Alain on a joyride in Rene's car without permission who rather stupidly reports his missing car to the police given he has illegal weapons inside of it. Mylene is caught and taken to jail where she encounters hunky older man Henri Vidal, whom she presumes is another person hauled in for bad deeds. Actually, he's an inspector but he goes along with her misunderstanding to win her confidence hoping to pump information from her since he thinks the guns may be tied to Charlemagne. That's not the sort of pumping Mylene is wanting!! He takes her to a local museum where she slips away and reclines on some of the antique furniture and before you know it has turned the tables and gotten Henri to succumb to her lead, in some pretty passionate clinches you'd never seen in an American film from 1958. They are caught by the museum manager who is outraged and calls the police which puts Vidal in a very delicate spot. His boss insists he then marry Mylene to try to kill the potential scandal which he does. Mylene is peeved she'd been had by the inspector but her attraction to him is strong enough she goes along with it, though still befriending and getting involved with the teenaged gang of petty thieves.
Mylene Demongeot is bluntly packaged as a rival to new French sex goddess Brigitte Bardot much like American actresses Cleo Moore and Mamie Van Doren were to Marilyn Monroe in the states. Mylene is cleverly cast in a "bad girl blonde" type role that Cleo and Mamie were starring in at the time in America but the considerably less censorship in French films at the time than in the United States allows the cast to curse on occasion, saying both "b" words, the famous French slang for manure, and even a singular F bomb which wouldn't be heard in American movies for another decade.
Demongeot is a gorgeous baby-faced vamp and gives a very good performance. Veteran French star Henri Vidal is also terrific. Belmondo's part is somewhat small and is listed deep into the credits while Delon gets special end credit billing which seems odd for what is a seemingly small part until the climax where he plays a crucial part.
Most of the French films Americans get to see are usually distinguished productions which is probably the cause of the negative reviews for this programmer picture which nevetheless is just as entertaining if not more so than most of the American "bad girl" movies of the era. The film is beautifully photographed on the streets of Paris and it's charming to see sites like a "Milk Bar" which appears to be something of a glass vending machine for dairy drinks and snacks.
There are some genuinely funny moments in the movie, most of them thanks to Darry Cowl as a bungling inspector who is a coworker. It's not a full comedy though and has some notable noir moments including someone getting bumped off in a bumper car at a small amusement park. This little film is a great showcase for both Vidal and Demongeot. Vidal passed away the next year of a heart attack at age 40. Also dying the next year was elderly character actress Gabrielle Fontan who plays his grandmother in the film. Ms. Fontan got a late start in films at age 56 but she made up for lost time with over 100 credits before her death at age 86 in 1959.
SWEETIE is a better than average musical from 1929, the first year talking pictures were the norm but many were quite stiff. This one is well photographed, moves well, and most thankful for a 1929 Paramount, the cast is including the men are not decked out in heavy makeup.
Rising Broadway starlet Nancy Carroll and college football quarterback Stanley Smith decide to leave their current activities behind and elope. Coach Wallace MacDonald talks Stanley out of it since he's important to Pell College potentially getting their first winning season ever and the college's survival may depend on it. Alas Nancy has already quit her show and she is furious when Stanley asks her to wait until the season's over, just eight months. They break up and she goes back to Broadway - and has to start over as a chorus girl. Revenge shows up out of nowhere (in one of the weirdest ever "meeting again" scenarios in films) when Nancy's distant cousin dies, and it turns out she will inherit the very college Stanley attends! The all-boys school welcome the young beauty with open arms including a surprised Stanley but she has revenge up her sleeve even if it closes the college!
Nancy Carroll is the nominal star but I'd venture both Stanley Smith and Helen Kane have more footage; there's quite a piece before Carroll enters the picture and even then she is off the screen for periods. Carroll was fast becoming a popular star on the early talkie screen but here her character is considerably more devious and selfish than in other films. Another comet of the era is Helen Kane, now a legendary vocalist but her peak was also brief. Helen Kane was one of a kind, a slightly plump comic vocalist specializing in sexy songs and as man hungry in her films as Mae West would later be. She may be an acquired taste but plenty of fans myself included most definitely acquired it. She's delightful and keeps this film moving with her cute songs, including the now classic "He's So Unusual" which was given renewed fame in the 1980's by Cyndi Lauper. Jack Oakie, early in his career and much thinner than in his salad days, is good as Nancy's pal and Helen's song partner. He pens a new college song for Pellham, a sassy "Alma Mammy", a parody of a Al Jolson number which is given three performances in the film, one by Oakie, a quite elaborate one by the school chorus including the girls from the neighboring college, and finally and unfortunately one at the big football game in which the chorus wears comic black masks.
Three supporting players of note standout here. William Austin is a kindly, effete staff member named "Professor Willow" (the credits suggest his nickname is a word often used before willow, and which probably would be censored here but I didn't hear anyone use it; it was either cut or the work of some bad boy in Paramount's credits title division). Austin had a long career playing "sissy" types in films but rarely gets mention in film history books like Franklyn Pangborn. Wallace MacDonald was playing bits from the early 1910's, often in Charlie Chaplin pictures. He was quite a handsome hunk of a man and looks remarkably young at 38 for this era when most men of his age back then seemed quite middle aged, he later had a brief career in B westerns beore moving on to a long career as a film producer for Columbia. Another handsome supporting player was Joe Depew as one of the youngest on the football team (just 17 in 1929) , his acting career never got off the ground but he worked behind the scenes and worked steady as a associate director for Paul Henning on his television shows in the 1950's leading to his being the director of over 140 (over half of the series) for the legendary sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies".
Neither Stanley Smith nor Stu Erwin, as a dumb student, seem that credible as football heroes (Smith is both the star quarterback and the composer of the school's musicals!) but this movie is quite fun and has a talented cast that makes it work, perhaps so much so that there were dozens of similar musicals in the next few years.
Rising Broadway starlet Nancy Carroll and college football quarterback Stanley Smith decide to leave their current activities behind and elope. Coach Wallace MacDonald talks Stanley out of it since he's important to Pell College potentially getting their first winning season ever and the college's survival may depend on it. Alas Nancy has already quit her show and she is furious when Stanley asks her to wait until the season's over, just eight months. They break up and she goes back to Broadway - and has to start over as a chorus girl. Revenge shows up out of nowhere (in one of the weirdest ever "meeting again" scenarios in films) when Nancy's distant cousin dies, and it turns out she will inherit the very college Stanley attends! The all-boys school welcome the young beauty with open arms including a surprised Stanley but she has revenge up her sleeve even if it closes the college!
Nancy Carroll is the nominal star but I'd venture both Stanley Smith and Helen Kane have more footage; there's quite a piece before Carroll enters the picture and even then she is off the screen for periods. Carroll was fast becoming a popular star on the early talkie screen but here her character is considerably more devious and selfish than in other films. Another comet of the era is Helen Kane, now a legendary vocalist but her peak was also brief. Helen Kane was one of a kind, a slightly plump comic vocalist specializing in sexy songs and as man hungry in her films as Mae West would later be. She may be an acquired taste but plenty of fans myself included most definitely acquired it. She's delightful and keeps this film moving with her cute songs, including the now classic "He's So Unusual" which was given renewed fame in the 1980's by Cyndi Lauper. Jack Oakie, early in his career and much thinner than in his salad days, is good as Nancy's pal and Helen's song partner. He pens a new college song for Pellham, a sassy "Alma Mammy", a parody of a Al Jolson number which is given three performances in the film, one by Oakie, a quite elaborate one by the school chorus including the girls from the neighboring college, and finally and unfortunately one at the big football game in which the chorus wears comic black masks.
Three supporting players of note standout here. William Austin is a kindly, effete staff member named "Professor Willow" (the credits suggest his nickname is a word often used before willow, and which probably would be censored here but I didn't hear anyone use it; it was either cut or the work of some bad boy in Paramount's credits title division). Austin had a long career playing "sissy" types in films but rarely gets mention in film history books like Franklyn Pangborn. Wallace MacDonald was playing bits from the early 1910's, often in Charlie Chaplin pictures. He was quite a handsome hunk of a man and looks remarkably young at 38 for this era when most men of his age back then seemed quite middle aged, he later had a brief career in B westerns beore moving on to a long career as a film producer for Columbia. Another handsome supporting player was Joe Depew as one of the youngest on the football team (just 17 in 1929) , his acting career never got off the ground but he worked behind the scenes and worked steady as a associate director for Paul Henning on his television shows in the 1950's leading to his being the director of over 140 (over half of the series) for the legendary sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies".
Neither Stanley Smith nor Stu Erwin, as a dumb student, seem that credible as football heroes (Smith is both the star quarterback and the composer of the school's musicals!) but this movie is quite fun and has a talented cast that makes it work, perhaps so much so that there were dozens of similar musicals in the next few years.
Mae Murray, one of the true superstar divas of the silent screen, returned to pictures for the first time in nearly twenty years with the filming of this little one-reel film history released as an episode for Columbia's long-running SCREEN SNAPSHOTS series ( Mae made several appearances in the series almost thirty years prior!). No, it's not a comeback on the level of Mae's erstwhile rival Gloria Swanson, who the same year captured one of the screen's most iconic femme roles, Norma Desmond in SUNSET BLVD, but it's good to see Mae once again. She was now in her sixties (some sources have her as 65 in 1950) but she's still a charming, endearing if a tad eccentric little butterfly, full of wistful sweetness with a gentle, slightly fragile voice full of fairytale romance. Host Ralph Staub just happens up what is supposed to be Mae's patio I guess, and she greets him with warmth and answers his question about the great matinee idols of the silver screen back in the day. This launches into a long clip fest of quite a number of silent movie heroes from their own movies, with Mae narrating about their appeal and successes. The lone talking heartthrob is at the end of the line, king of Hollywood, Clark Gable who is seen in candid footage with his late wife Carole Lombard. Mae Murray's life beyond the end of her screen career in 1931 was pretty hard so it's nice to see her get a little moment of glory on the screen one more time (she did do a couple of television interviews later on that are impossible to find now). This film can be purchased quite inexpensively on Ebay as Hearthrobs of Yesteryear (note the slightly different title) on a dvd with two other similar one-reel documentaries.
Vivien Leigh, in my opinion and that of many others as well, is one of the five or so greatest actresses ever in motion pictures. Poor physical health, mental health issues, and her personal preference for the stage resulted her making a regrettably small number of films, just nine after reaching icon status playing Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND, four in the 1940's and just two in the 1950's and another two in the 1960's. Of these nine films, THE DEEP BLUE SEA was the least successful and it's astonishingly difficult to see, never airing on American cable channels despite moderately good reviews at the time of theatrical release. Perhaps it's a legal rites issue as it's based on a Terrence Rattigan play and many of the major playwrights had clauses in their contracts concerning distribution of a film past it's initial release. The movie is currently on youtube although in a mediocre print, particularly sad given this is one of just four color Vivien Leigh films.
Vivien plays Hester Collyer, longtime wife of a distingushed judge, whose life is thrown into upheaval by being pursued by a slightly younger test pilot Kenneth More. The Collyer marriage is one of comfort, security, and boredom and while she brushes off the initial advances, being pursued by a virile man two decades younger than her sedate husband is too much to fight and they eventually began an affair. When More is transferred to Canada, Vivien leaves her husband to be with him but before the year is up he's transferred again back to England. The couple rent an apartment together and feign being married. The film opens as Hester is discovered in a suicide attempt at the flat. The presumed catalyst being More forgot her birthday (!!) but clearly there's more to the story than that. More hits the roof when he discovers the birthday excuse and storms out, gets drunk, and plans to leave.
Hester is desperate to get him back despite the reappearance of her faithful, abandoned husband and the fact she clearly was unhappy in the liasion with the shallow More.
THE DEEP BLUE SEA introduced to moviegoers the "final" Vivien Leigh persona, the weary middle-aged woman still looking for passionate love, also on display in the later THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE and A SHIP OF FOOLS. Although A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE's Blanche DuBois was also in this mold, Vivien in 1951 still had her lovely voice and girlish figure, with a limp blonde hairstyle and superb acting she was able to suggest a fading woman. Four years later, Vivien actually had been aged by Mother Nature, though still quite beautiful and barely forty. Her voice had now deepened to a wary huskiness, her gait and personality showed a woman who had been frequently been hit by life. The film's director gives her very few closeups, just why is up for debate by I feel her eyes projected a hurt and sadness that was deeper than even this suicidal character was supposed to feel. Her performance is excellent but this excessively talky, fairly cold story (despite the passions displayed) won't please many viewers.
Kenneth More was hyped as "the next Olivier" at the time so it's ironic he's Vivien's leading man here; 20th Century-Fox for a short period tried unsuccessfully to make him an international film star with roles opposite Vivien, Lauren Bacall, and Jayne Mansfield but America at least could have cared less. He's a good actor, of course, but he lacks the dashing quality that would have made a society woman give it all up though he's more effective revealing the immature and rather boorish man underneath the polished uniform. Moira Lester throws in a touch of spice as the nosey neighbor across the hall though her character does not develop into the troublemaking snoop we are expecting.
I believe this was the first Rattigan motion picture financed by the American studios and give its failure at the box office it's a bit of a surprise they were more to come, all of them at least modest successes, THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE, and the Oscar-winning SEPERATE TABLES.
Vivien plays Hester Collyer, longtime wife of a distingushed judge, whose life is thrown into upheaval by being pursued by a slightly younger test pilot Kenneth More. The Collyer marriage is one of comfort, security, and boredom and while she brushes off the initial advances, being pursued by a virile man two decades younger than her sedate husband is too much to fight and they eventually began an affair. When More is transferred to Canada, Vivien leaves her husband to be with him but before the year is up he's transferred again back to England. The couple rent an apartment together and feign being married. The film opens as Hester is discovered in a suicide attempt at the flat. The presumed catalyst being More forgot her birthday (!!) but clearly there's more to the story than that. More hits the roof when he discovers the birthday excuse and storms out, gets drunk, and plans to leave.
Hester is desperate to get him back despite the reappearance of her faithful, abandoned husband and the fact she clearly was unhappy in the liasion with the shallow More.
THE DEEP BLUE SEA introduced to moviegoers the "final" Vivien Leigh persona, the weary middle-aged woman still looking for passionate love, also on display in the later THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE and A SHIP OF FOOLS. Although A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE's Blanche DuBois was also in this mold, Vivien in 1951 still had her lovely voice and girlish figure, with a limp blonde hairstyle and superb acting she was able to suggest a fading woman. Four years later, Vivien actually had been aged by Mother Nature, though still quite beautiful and barely forty. Her voice had now deepened to a wary huskiness, her gait and personality showed a woman who had been frequently been hit by life. The film's director gives her very few closeups, just why is up for debate by I feel her eyes projected a hurt and sadness that was deeper than even this suicidal character was supposed to feel. Her performance is excellent but this excessively talky, fairly cold story (despite the passions displayed) won't please many viewers.
Kenneth More was hyped as "the next Olivier" at the time so it's ironic he's Vivien's leading man here; 20th Century-Fox for a short period tried unsuccessfully to make him an international film star with roles opposite Vivien, Lauren Bacall, and Jayne Mansfield but America at least could have cared less. He's a good actor, of course, but he lacks the dashing quality that would have made a society woman give it all up though he's more effective revealing the immature and rather boorish man underneath the polished uniform. Moira Lester throws in a touch of spice as the nosey neighbor across the hall though her character does not develop into the troublemaking snoop we are expecting.
I believe this was the first Rattigan motion picture financed by the American studios and give its failure at the box office it's a bit of a surprise they were more to come, all of them at least modest successes, THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, THE YELLOW ROLLS ROYCE, and the Oscar-winning SEPERATE TABLES.
CHANGE OF HEART is a disappointing, by the numbers drama despite a good cast headed by Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ginger Rogers, and James Dunn. The foursome is shown on college graduation day as they plan to go as a group to New York to make their fortunes, Janet as a writer, Charlie in big business, Ginger as a stage actress, and James as a radio crooner. They room together in apartment but after several months in the Big Apple fail to make any headway. Curiously, none of the group has ever really dated although Janet is in love with Charlie who is in love with Ginger who is in love with James who is in love with Janet. It strains credibility than no one other James (gently rebuffed by Janet) has tried to make something of it.
Ginger is successful in crashing social circles and is pursued by a millionaire and for awhile leaves the little clique. James achieves his dream of being a radio star in a ludricious plot twist by confronting a radio producer and demanding to be heard (which we hear about but don't see, it would have been too ridiculous as an actual scene). When Ginger announces her engagement to the millionaire, lovesick Charlie is suddenly at death's door with a vague sickness that leaves him bedridden and in need of Janet's constant attention and nursing. Charlie pulls through, announces he is in love with Janet now, she confesses her long crush on him and they become engaged. Meanwhile, fickle Ginger breaks off with the money man, writes Charlie a mush note confessing her love and while Charlie goes through with the marriage to Janet, he and Ginger start seeing each other for "lunch".
It's disappointing to see this likable cast in this silly soap opera which consistently lacks credibililty. Janet and Charlie, of course, are one of the great screen teams yet it's absurd that he could suddenly fall in love with her after years of thinking of her as just a pal. The movie refuses to accept the possibility that his new affection is due to gratitude and sensitivity for all she did for him during his illness but the viewer won't be so unrealistic.
Gaynor, Farrell, and Dunn were all in their late twenties playing young people just out of college and while it's acceptable for actors in that age range to play such, trouble is Dunn, basically a character actor, has no youthfulness in his persona and seems a decade older than his real age. Ginger Rogers, newly a "name" thanks to her first picture with Fred Astaire, does well in an atypical role as a blonde bombshell (though several of her early roles were also flirts) but her character lacks credibility as someone whose supposed to be a close friend yet also a potential homewrecker. She goes through three beaus in a film set in about a year's time and while there is a promise she will settle down with her first choice, can there be any doubt this gal will soon encounter man number four? And don't get me started on the insane subplot of Janet working at a charity shop with elderly Beryl Mercier which discreetly works as a means to find homes for orphaned babies, Mercier and Gaynor convincing the wealthy people who donate their old clothes that what they really want are kids of their own!
Of note is the (very) fleeting appearance of Shirley Temple as the gang is on the plane to New York. Shirley is an extra in a scene that runs barely ten seconds, has no lines and is only seen in profile for a moment and then just the back of her head. Apparently filmed before but released after STAND UP AND CHEER, the film that was Shirley's big break, the producers of CHANGE OF HEART manage to give her end-credit billing for this, probably one of the tiniest parts ever in a movie to receive screen credit outside of films that billed a supporting actor who actually wasn't in the final cut of a film!
Ginger is successful in crashing social circles and is pursued by a millionaire and for awhile leaves the little clique. James achieves his dream of being a radio star in a ludricious plot twist by confronting a radio producer and demanding to be heard (which we hear about but don't see, it would have been too ridiculous as an actual scene). When Ginger announces her engagement to the millionaire, lovesick Charlie is suddenly at death's door with a vague sickness that leaves him bedridden and in need of Janet's constant attention and nursing. Charlie pulls through, announces he is in love with Janet now, she confesses her long crush on him and they become engaged. Meanwhile, fickle Ginger breaks off with the money man, writes Charlie a mush note confessing her love and while Charlie goes through with the marriage to Janet, he and Ginger start seeing each other for "lunch".
It's disappointing to see this likable cast in this silly soap opera which consistently lacks credibililty. Janet and Charlie, of course, are one of the great screen teams yet it's absurd that he could suddenly fall in love with her after years of thinking of her as just a pal. The movie refuses to accept the possibility that his new affection is due to gratitude and sensitivity for all she did for him during his illness but the viewer won't be so unrealistic.
Gaynor, Farrell, and Dunn were all in their late twenties playing young people just out of college and while it's acceptable for actors in that age range to play such, trouble is Dunn, basically a character actor, has no youthfulness in his persona and seems a decade older than his real age. Ginger Rogers, newly a "name" thanks to her first picture with Fred Astaire, does well in an atypical role as a blonde bombshell (though several of her early roles were also flirts) but her character lacks credibility as someone whose supposed to be a close friend yet also a potential homewrecker. She goes through three beaus in a film set in about a year's time and while there is a promise she will settle down with her first choice, can there be any doubt this gal will soon encounter man number four? And don't get me started on the insane subplot of Janet working at a charity shop with elderly Beryl Mercier which discreetly works as a means to find homes for orphaned babies, Mercier and Gaynor convincing the wealthy people who donate their old clothes that what they really want are kids of their own!
Of note is the (very) fleeting appearance of Shirley Temple as the gang is on the plane to New York. Shirley is an extra in a scene that runs barely ten seconds, has no lines and is only seen in profile for a moment and then just the back of her head. Apparently filmed before but released after STAND UP AND CHEER, the film that was Shirley's big break, the producers of CHANGE OF HEART manage to give her end-credit billing for this, probably one of the tiniest parts ever in a movie to receive screen credit outside of films that billed a supporting actor who actually wasn't in the final cut of a film!
FRANKIE AND JOHNNY was for many years considered one of the better if not the best of Elvis' movies made during the late 1960's that's why I'm surprised to see several negative reviews and a rather low rating of the film on IMDb. Regarding some claims about a lack of chemistry between Elvis and Donna Douglas, this movie was aimed at the "family" audience, it's basically Elvis in a Disney picture. You are not going to see any heavy flirting or intense passion in any films of this nature. Even the vampy Nancy Kovack's part is really a one man woman! Although it was released before the ratings code took effect, it's obviously meant to be a "G" picture. Elvis and Donna in fact make a very appealing couple, she's one of his best, most compatible leading ladies, and have the natural interaction of people from the same part of the country (Elvis was born in Mississippi, Donna in Louisiana). And certainly "chemistry" happened off the set, it's widely known they had a romance during the filming .
This movie is set during the late 19th or early 20th century (this may be easy for many to overlook given Elvis acts and is groomed very contemporary 1960's) and is in the tradition of ON MOONLIGHT BAY, CENTENNIAL SUMMER, and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS as a colorful look at days long gone by. This sort of film was enormously popular in the 1930's into the 1960's but Hollywood pretty much stop making movies with that sort of wistful rose-colored nostalgia around 1970 and apparently some later viewers find this sort of setting boring. I'll admit the direction could have been a little more inspired but it's still an enjoyable picture with Elvis is surrounded by one of the best supporting casts he ever had in his movies. I enjoyed all of the cast. I really like Elvis' performance of the title number, a legendary folk song most often associated with Mae West. Mae West kind of jazzed it up when she sang it so certainly Elvis had the right to rock it although it's closer to a Broadway musical number here. It is ironic though that a family movie was made out of this song as it was considered extraordinaily racy in it's day with the suggestion that Frankie shot Johnny in his manhood!! Obviously that is not going to happen in an Elvis Presley picture and that line in the song was dropped. FRANKIE AND JOHNNY is a enjoyable film, it's not on the level of his classic 1950's movies but it's quite entertaining.
This movie is set during the late 19th or early 20th century (this may be easy for many to overlook given Elvis acts and is groomed very contemporary 1960's) and is in the tradition of ON MOONLIGHT BAY, CENTENNIAL SUMMER, and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS as a colorful look at days long gone by. This sort of film was enormously popular in the 1930's into the 1960's but Hollywood pretty much stop making movies with that sort of wistful rose-colored nostalgia around 1970 and apparently some later viewers find this sort of setting boring. I'll admit the direction could have been a little more inspired but it's still an enjoyable picture with Elvis is surrounded by one of the best supporting casts he ever had in his movies. I enjoyed all of the cast. I really like Elvis' performance of the title number, a legendary folk song most often associated with Mae West. Mae West kind of jazzed it up when she sang it so certainly Elvis had the right to rock it although it's closer to a Broadway musical number here. It is ironic though that a family movie was made out of this song as it was considered extraordinaily racy in it's day with the suggestion that Frankie shot Johnny in his manhood!! Obviously that is not going to happen in an Elvis Presley picture and that line in the song was dropped. FRANKIE AND JOHNNY is a enjoyable film, it's not on the level of his classic 1950's movies but it's quite entertaining.
GOIN' TO TOWN was Mae West's fifth film and even if the Hays Office was now trying their best to clamp down her sexy persona, Mae was still very much a red-hot firecracker in this 1935 release getting some surprising saucy lines and actions past the censors. Set in rural Texas, Mae is quite the uninhibited prairie playgirl. The movie was even publicized with the tag "Variety is the Spice of Life" and the fact that Mae has seven lovers in the film (actually, it's "just" five - two of the men are merely devoted and platonic associates). As Mae notes in the picture, "Where there's a man concerned, I always do my best." And best she does, GOIN' TO TOWN is easily one of her top five pictures.
Mae stars as Cleo Borden, goodtime gal in a Texas saloon who states "I'm a good woman for a bad man." She is particularly pursued by Buck Gonzales, a wealthy rancher who nevertheless engages in stealing cattle. The sheriff is on to Gonzales and warns him, which both he and Cleo dismiss. "Buck ain't got nothing bad on his mind but me," says Cleo. Cleo is not exactly a one man woman though, romancing another cowboy (Grant Withers) on the side. Buck is determined to have her for himself and proposes marriage which intrigues but not necessarily thrills Cleo, who decides to play a game of dice with him to decide whether she will marry him or not. Buck wins and in his eagerness to claim her as his wife, makes a will declaring her his sole heir and they plan to marry within two weeks. On the eve of their wedding though, Buck is caught cattle rustling and is shot to death by the law. Cleo learns of his death as she arrives to be married and is soon informed she has now inherited his estate.
It doesn't take Cleo long to pursue her next man, a British geological engineer Edward Carrington (Paul Cavanaugh) working Buck's property with whom she engages in a cat and mouse routine. She tries her best to vamp him and almost suceeds but is aware she is not the typical woman such a well-bred gentleman pursues. Oil is discovered on the estate and Cleo is wealthier than ever but Carrington's work is now done and he leaves. With the help of the ranch's bookkeeper Winslow (Gilbert Emery), also British, who has stayed on to help her "with the cattle and the men" who work there (Cleo immediately replying, "Just the cattle, I'll take care of the men'), Cleo decides to polish herself up and upon learning Carrington is currently in Buenos Aires to attend the horse races, she decides to enter Buck's racing-trained stallion Cactus in the race and goes down there herself to deliberately bump into Paul again. The blonde bombshell is a hit with the international males in Argentina and Carrington seems happy to see her again but there's trouble brewing when she clashes with a wealthy socialite (Marjorie Gateson) and Paul is appalled by her flirting with a sleazy gigolo (Ivan Lebedeff).
This comedy is packed with lots of Mae's delicious wisecracks and sass and has one of greatest ever slams, directed at the Russian gigolo whom she's now sized up, "We're intellectual opposites...I'm intellectual and you're opposite." Cleo and Paul have a classic love-hate burgeoning romance in then brand-new IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT fashion but is there any doubt Mae West will get what she wants? Mae is wonderful and looks great dolled up in minks and high fashion and vamping her way through three songs as well as an aria from the opera "Samson and Delilah".
Leading man Paul Cavanaugh is quite good in one of his more notable movie roles, but I do agree with another reviewer that Leslie Howard would have been better cast in the part as Cavanaugh doesn't quite have the sex appeal of a man a woman would chase around the world. Standing out in the cast are three classic 1930's supporting players. Marjorie Gateson was perhaps the most formidable advisory Mae ever had on the screen. Elegant and middle-aged (three years Mae's senior), Ms. Gateson specialized playing frosty socialites and here was at her most malevolent. When Monroe Owsley was in a movie, you knew there was going to be trouble for the leading lady with this untrustworthy beau and he serves that purpose here for Mae as he did for Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, and scores of other movie queens (sadly, he passed away two years after this film's release at age 36.) Owsley was such a good actor at times he fooled the audience as much as the female star. There was no such shading in sinister Ivan Lebedeff, the international equivalent to Owsley, playing sleazy bad guys the likes of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were sorry they had crossed his path, though here Lebedeff is more of a birdbrain than his stock character yet just as predatory.
There's some pretty racy and controversial stuff here for a post-code; Cleo's blithe attitude toward marriage, her later marrying society figure Owsley just to crash society and the circles Carrington socializes in with the intent to divorce once she's achieved her goal. There's even a couple of derriere jokes (riding a horse for an extended period for the first time, Mae cracks "Usually it's my feet that hurt" and later looking over a map opened up on a table by Paul she coos, "You can find some amazing things on a map," and proceeds to sit on the edge of it.) The raciest line though doesn't go to Mae but to young character actor Jack Pennick, a regular supporting actor in John Ford films, playing a tongue-tied cowboy who has a hard time getting his words out right. Informing the other cowboys who wonder what's going on behind closed doors with Cleo and Mae at the saloon (which Jack learns by peeping through the keyhole!), he tries to say"She's got him tied, roped, and ready for branding" but it comes out, "She's Got him tope (sic) rided (sic) umm ride toped (sic) umm tied roped and betty for randing (sic) umm randy for bedding umm she's got him ready!" GOIN' TO TOWN is a fabulous showcase for one of the cinema's most delightful stars, Miss Mae West.
Mae stars as Cleo Borden, goodtime gal in a Texas saloon who states "I'm a good woman for a bad man." She is particularly pursued by Buck Gonzales, a wealthy rancher who nevertheless engages in stealing cattle. The sheriff is on to Gonzales and warns him, which both he and Cleo dismiss. "Buck ain't got nothing bad on his mind but me," says Cleo. Cleo is not exactly a one man woman though, romancing another cowboy (Grant Withers) on the side. Buck is determined to have her for himself and proposes marriage which intrigues but not necessarily thrills Cleo, who decides to play a game of dice with him to decide whether she will marry him or not. Buck wins and in his eagerness to claim her as his wife, makes a will declaring her his sole heir and they plan to marry within two weeks. On the eve of their wedding though, Buck is caught cattle rustling and is shot to death by the law. Cleo learns of his death as she arrives to be married and is soon informed she has now inherited his estate.
It doesn't take Cleo long to pursue her next man, a British geological engineer Edward Carrington (Paul Cavanaugh) working Buck's property with whom she engages in a cat and mouse routine. She tries her best to vamp him and almost suceeds but is aware she is not the typical woman such a well-bred gentleman pursues. Oil is discovered on the estate and Cleo is wealthier than ever but Carrington's work is now done and he leaves. With the help of the ranch's bookkeeper Winslow (Gilbert Emery), also British, who has stayed on to help her "with the cattle and the men" who work there (Cleo immediately replying, "Just the cattle, I'll take care of the men'), Cleo decides to polish herself up and upon learning Carrington is currently in Buenos Aires to attend the horse races, she decides to enter Buck's racing-trained stallion Cactus in the race and goes down there herself to deliberately bump into Paul again. The blonde bombshell is a hit with the international males in Argentina and Carrington seems happy to see her again but there's trouble brewing when she clashes with a wealthy socialite (Marjorie Gateson) and Paul is appalled by her flirting with a sleazy gigolo (Ivan Lebedeff).
This comedy is packed with lots of Mae's delicious wisecracks and sass and has one of greatest ever slams, directed at the Russian gigolo whom she's now sized up, "We're intellectual opposites...I'm intellectual and you're opposite." Cleo and Paul have a classic love-hate burgeoning romance in then brand-new IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT fashion but is there any doubt Mae West will get what she wants? Mae is wonderful and looks great dolled up in minks and high fashion and vamping her way through three songs as well as an aria from the opera "Samson and Delilah".
Leading man Paul Cavanaugh is quite good in one of his more notable movie roles, but I do agree with another reviewer that Leslie Howard would have been better cast in the part as Cavanaugh doesn't quite have the sex appeal of a man a woman would chase around the world. Standing out in the cast are three classic 1930's supporting players. Marjorie Gateson was perhaps the most formidable advisory Mae ever had on the screen. Elegant and middle-aged (three years Mae's senior), Ms. Gateson specialized playing frosty socialites and here was at her most malevolent. When Monroe Owsley was in a movie, you knew there was going to be trouble for the leading lady with this untrustworthy beau and he serves that purpose here for Mae as he did for Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, and scores of other movie queens (sadly, he passed away two years after this film's release at age 36.) Owsley was such a good actor at times he fooled the audience as much as the female star. There was no such shading in sinister Ivan Lebedeff, the international equivalent to Owsley, playing sleazy bad guys the likes of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were sorry they had crossed his path, though here Lebedeff is more of a birdbrain than his stock character yet just as predatory.
There's some pretty racy and controversial stuff here for a post-code; Cleo's blithe attitude toward marriage, her later marrying society figure Owsley just to crash society and the circles Carrington socializes in with the intent to divorce once she's achieved her goal. There's even a couple of derriere jokes (riding a horse for an extended period for the first time, Mae cracks "Usually it's my feet that hurt" and later looking over a map opened up on a table by Paul she coos, "You can find some amazing things on a map," and proceeds to sit on the edge of it.) The raciest line though doesn't go to Mae but to young character actor Jack Pennick, a regular supporting actor in John Ford films, playing a tongue-tied cowboy who has a hard time getting his words out right. Informing the other cowboys who wonder what's going on behind closed doors with Cleo and Mae at the saloon (which Jack learns by peeping through the keyhole!), he tries to say"She's got him tied, roped, and ready for branding" but it comes out, "She's Got him tope (sic) rided (sic) umm ride toped (sic) umm tied roped and betty for randing (sic) umm randy for bedding umm she's got him ready!" GOIN' TO TOWN is a fabulous showcase for one of the cinema's most delightful stars, Miss Mae West.
I loved this show back in the day! HGTV was pure gold in it's first decade with interesting home and garden shows with excellent hosts and this was my top favorite. Mike Siegel was perhaps the best host, he was comic but never putting his personality above the program which alas most hosts of shows like this do now. Phillip Palmer (very different) was a close runnerup, smooth and professional; Grant Goodeve was good, too. I loved how the new owners of these vintage homes celebrated and honored the late residents of the past; I'm afraid most new owners of old homes probably trash any momentos left behind in attics and cabinets, particularly things like photos and ephemera which is not worth much. I recorded several of these in the good old days of dvd recorders (alas, as gone today as the old treasures the new homeowners found in these houses.) Back in the first decade of this century I barely watched any television other than Turner Classic Movies and HGTV, sadly the glory days of HGTV are long since gone,
MR. CHUMP is a slight, fairly funny comedy musical toplining trumpeter-comedian Johnnie Davis and Penny Singleton, months before she became famous as Blondie. Davis is Bill Small, a lazy musician with big ideas but no job. He rents a room in the house inherited by his girlfriend Betty (Singleton) and her sister Jane (Lola Lane) but is behind in his payments. Jane, a young harridan, has enough problems with her considerably older husband Ed (Chester Clute) only bringing home $20 a week as a clerk in a small bank and is ready to kick Bill out. Another bank clerk, Jim Belden (Donald Briggs) has eyes for Betty and she's also getting tired of Bill's lack of ambition. Bill plays fantasy stock market regularly and brags to everyone he'd be rich if he had invested for real, pulling out years worth papers showing he'd have millions from his projections influenced by a stock tip newsletter he receives. Penniless Bill moves out and churchmouse Ed decides to try his luck on the stock market with Bill's old system but foolishly using unauthorized "borrowed" money from the bank.
This little B" comedy is not even seventy minutes long so it flies by pretty fast. Warner Bros. Briefly had Davis under contract for about two years and worked him nonstop but he never caught on although he is no worse (or better) than most second or third-tier movie comics. He and Penny Singleton worked several times together; Penny was also worked to death in her one-year Warners contract knocking out twelve films for them in 1938 in addition to three films elsewhere that year! She lucked out big time when her contract was not renewed and she was free to audition and land a starring role at Columbia as "Blondie" which became a series and led to her being a Columbia star for a dozen years. Davis' career in Hollywood, on the other hand, was over after Warners let him go.
Lola Lane is given second billing due to her fame as one of the Lane Sisters but her role is the smallest of the five main characters. Penny is delightful, chirping the comic "It's Against the Law in Arkansas" and doing the eccentric dance moves that brought her a touch a fame in early talkies like "Good News" under her real name, Dorothy McNulty. Johnnie Davis also a pretty good jazz number "As Long as You Live (You'll Be Dead When You Die)" delivered in a performance style very reminiscent of Cab Calloway. Obscure character actor Chester Clute is fun too as the hen-pecked Ed. "Mr. Chump" was a pleasant enough little B movie that I suspect 1938 audiences enjoyed and completely forgot the next day after seeing it.
This little B" comedy is not even seventy minutes long so it flies by pretty fast. Warner Bros. Briefly had Davis under contract for about two years and worked him nonstop but he never caught on although he is no worse (or better) than most second or third-tier movie comics. He and Penny Singleton worked several times together; Penny was also worked to death in her one-year Warners contract knocking out twelve films for them in 1938 in addition to three films elsewhere that year! She lucked out big time when her contract was not renewed and she was free to audition and land a starring role at Columbia as "Blondie" which became a series and led to her being a Columbia star for a dozen years. Davis' career in Hollywood, on the other hand, was over after Warners let him go.
Lola Lane is given second billing due to her fame as one of the Lane Sisters but her role is the smallest of the five main characters. Penny is delightful, chirping the comic "It's Against the Law in Arkansas" and doing the eccentric dance moves that brought her a touch a fame in early talkies like "Good News" under her real name, Dorothy McNulty. Johnnie Davis also a pretty good jazz number "As Long as You Live (You'll Be Dead When You Die)" delivered in a performance style very reminiscent of Cab Calloway. Obscure character actor Chester Clute is fun too as the hen-pecked Ed. "Mr. Chump" was a pleasant enough little B movie that I suspect 1938 audiences enjoyed and completely forgot the next day after seeing it.
Masquerade in Mexico was a musical remake of the classic comedy Midnight starring Claudette Colbert. It was made just six years after the original film and starred Paramount's other brunette superstar, Dorothy Lamour. Paramount needed a new film for Dorothy and director Mitchell Leisen, who had future plans for a musical adaptation of his original, decided to go ahead and work up a rush job for the project. The end result is a pleasant though unexceptional film most notable for Dorothy Lamour at perhaps her loveliest in glamorous and elegant costumes by Edith Head.
The story has been changed a fair bit from the original but fans of the first film will easily recognize it's origins. Lamour flies into Mexico to meet her fiancée only to learn the guy is a con artist and thief and finds he has hidden a stolen diamond in her baggage. Seeing the police at the airport searching the travelers she (not too upright herself) drops the diamond in the jacket pocket of another traveler, Patric Knowles, and scoots away but she is penniless in a foreign country. A friendly cab driver (Mikhail Rasumny) takes her around to audition to at the nightclubs, first as a dancer, then as a singer and finally, she is hired. Alas, her first night on the job she is spotted by patron Knowles, who is attending the nightclub with his soon-to-be ex-wife Ann Dvorak and her lover, bullfighting legend Arturo De Cordova. Seeing how bewitched De Cordova is with the American beauty, Knowles, knowing Lamour was the one who hid the diamond on him, decides to blackmail her into vamping De Cordova to get him out of the way and win his wife back.
As mentioned, Dorothy Lamour is beyond beautiful in this picture and does very well as the cynical Cinderella. The emphasis here is on romance and music rather than comedy like the original; Lamour's character is not the sharp-witted handful of a coquette Colbert was in the first film. Patric Knowles' part is a combination of the John Barrymore and Don Ameche roles, while De Cordova has the Francis Lederer part which is beefed up considerably here. DeCordova was a major star in Mexican films and Paramount briefly tried breaking him into American films; in a year or two he was back on his home base and his old success.
Knowles is no Barrymore when it comes to comedy (the bogus sick child phone call notably does not pack the punch of the original) but then his role here is not really written as comic; as the new Ameche, however, he is more of a dashing gentleman and makes the ultimate romantic connection seem more credible than perhaps in the original where Claudette was virtually harassed in to giving in to Ameche's designs. Ann Dvorak's role as the cheating wife is much the same as Mary Astor's but Dvorak gives a better performance, not bothering with the sugary insincerity that Astor played. The biggest change from the original was transforming the brazenly gay, drama-loving Astor confidant played by Rex O'Malley into an equally gossipy socialite buddy for Dvorak played by Natalie Schafer but alas without the good lines from the original.
While this movie really should have been in Technicolor, it's glamourous Mexican settings work very well in stylishly photographed black-and-white. Lamour's singing is wonderful and she dances surprisingly well for someone who rarely did so in pictures. One mistake is an extended amateur (though lavish) opera Dvorak throws for her friends at her home; the segment is dull and ends rather abruptly as if Leisen realized it wasn't working and just stopped it, keeping the footage already shot. Masquerade in Mexico doesn't have the bubbly perfection Midnight's champagne, but it's a perfectly acceptable evening cocktail. Both films seem an ideal candidate for a restored, double-feature release for Criterion if Universal ever decides to let the original slip out of print on dvd.
The story has been changed a fair bit from the original but fans of the first film will easily recognize it's origins. Lamour flies into Mexico to meet her fiancée only to learn the guy is a con artist and thief and finds he has hidden a stolen diamond in her baggage. Seeing the police at the airport searching the travelers she (not too upright herself) drops the diamond in the jacket pocket of another traveler, Patric Knowles, and scoots away but she is penniless in a foreign country. A friendly cab driver (Mikhail Rasumny) takes her around to audition to at the nightclubs, first as a dancer, then as a singer and finally, she is hired. Alas, her first night on the job she is spotted by patron Knowles, who is attending the nightclub with his soon-to-be ex-wife Ann Dvorak and her lover, bullfighting legend Arturo De Cordova. Seeing how bewitched De Cordova is with the American beauty, Knowles, knowing Lamour was the one who hid the diamond on him, decides to blackmail her into vamping De Cordova to get him out of the way and win his wife back.
As mentioned, Dorothy Lamour is beyond beautiful in this picture and does very well as the cynical Cinderella. The emphasis here is on romance and music rather than comedy like the original; Lamour's character is not the sharp-witted handful of a coquette Colbert was in the first film. Patric Knowles' part is a combination of the John Barrymore and Don Ameche roles, while De Cordova has the Francis Lederer part which is beefed up considerably here. DeCordova was a major star in Mexican films and Paramount briefly tried breaking him into American films; in a year or two he was back on his home base and his old success.
Knowles is no Barrymore when it comes to comedy (the bogus sick child phone call notably does not pack the punch of the original) but then his role here is not really written as comic; as the new Ameche, however, he is more of a dashing gentleman and makes the ultimate romantic connection seem more credible than perhaps in the original where Claudette was virtually harassed in to giving in to Ameche's designs. Ann Dvorak's role as the cheating wife is much the same as Mary Astor's but Dvorak gives a better performance, not bothering with the sugary insincerity that Astor played. The biggest change from the original was transforming the brazenly gay, drama-loving Astor confidant played by Rex O'Malley into an equally gossipy socialite buddy for Dvorak played by Natalie Schafer but alas without the good lines from the original.
While this movie really should have been in Technicolor, it's glamourous Mexican settings work very well in stylishly photographed black-and-white. Lamour's singing is wonderful and she dances surprisingly well for someone who rarely did so in pictures. One mistake is an extended amateur (though lavish) opera Dvorak throws for her friends at her home; the segment is dull and ends rather abruptly as if Leisen realized it wasn't working and just stopped it, keeping the footage already shot. Masquerade in Mexico doesn't have the bubbly perfection Midnight's champagne, but it's a perfectly acceptable evening cocktail. Both films seem an ideal candidate for a restored, double-feature release for Criterion if Universal ever decides to let the original slip out of print on dvd.
THE KETTLES IN THE OZARKS was the penultimate film in the Ma and Pa Kettle series, the first one without Percy Kilbride, who had retired, and the only one without the Pa Kettle character. Ma and fourteen of her children take the train down to Arkansas to help Pa's brother Arthur Hunnicutt whose farm is in danger of foreclosing. The brood arrives shortly after brother has been fooled into letting Northern gangsters rent his unused barn where they set up a moonshine unit and plan to take over the local bootlegging racket. Ma meets brother's longtime finance Una Merkel who is still waiting after twenty years to walk down the aisle and decides to help make Una's dream a reality.
Despite being very late in the series this is an often quite funny entry even without Kilbride's presence. Arthur Hunnicutt, a well-known character player of the era, as brother is just as shiftless as Pa and is very good. It's also delightful to see the endearing actress Una Merkel with a role this large late into her career, she's as lovable as ever and has even a poignant moment or two when, helping Ma out with her brood, she wistfully realizes it's "a little late" for her to have children of her own even if she can manage to become another Mrs. Kettle. There's also a fun segment on the train where Ma and her "young-un's" manage to wreac havoc and particularly annoy another passenger, Elvia Allman, who a decade later would create a memorable hillbilly character of her own, belligerent Elverna Bradshaw on multiple episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies". I particularly enjoyed this segment: who hasn't been in Allman's shoes when a stranger talks your ear off telling you all sorts of information you are not remotely interested in or are encouraging them to proceed, and a particularly funny and real bit is when Ma's youngest, listening in with gusto, adds to the patter with intimate family details even chatterbox Ma doesn't want shared. Best of all are some terrifically trained animals on brother Kettle's farm, particularly a unforgettable galosses wearing duck and there's a hilarious segment when the whole barnyard gets drunk getting into the dumped mash from the corn squeezing.
Of course, the gangster plot is absurd (as if there would be big money from moonshine in the 1950's) but then you don't expect credibility from a Kettle film, after all, "Ma" is well into her sixties and her youngest is all of six! Just sit back and enjoy. Marjorie Main remains one of the best character comediennes in film and has a good supporting cast helping her make this little family comedy highly entertaining.
Despite being very late in the series this is an often quite funny entry even without Kilbride's presence. Arthur Hunnicutt, a well-known character player of the era, as brother is just as shiftless as Pa and is very good. It's also delightful to see the endearing actress Una Merkel with a role this large late into her career, she's as lovable as ever and has even a poignant moment or two when, helping Ma out with her brood, she wistfully realizes it's "a little late" for her to have children of her own even if she can manage to become another Mrs. Kettle. There's also a fun segment on the train where Ma and her "young-un's" manage to wreac havoc and particularly annoy another passenger, Elvia Allman, who a decade later would create a memorable hillbilly character of her own, belligerent Elverna Bradshaw on multiple episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies". I particularly enjoyed this segment: who hasn't been in Allman's shoes when a stranger talks your ear off telling you all sorts of information you are not remotely interested in or are encouraging them to proceed, and a particularly funny and real bit is when Ma's youngest, listening in with gusto, adds to the patter with intimate family details even chatterbox Ma doesn't want shared. Best of all are some terrifically trained animals on brother Kettle's farm, particularly a unforgettable galosses wearing duck and there's a hilarious segment when the whole barnyard gets drunk getting into the dumped mash from the corn squeezing.
Of course, the gangster plot is absurd (as if there would be big money from moonshine in the 1950's) but then you don't expect credibility from a Kettle film, after all, "Ma" is well into her sixties and her youngest is all of six! Just sit back and enjoy. Marjorie Main remains one of the best character comediennes in film and has a good supporting cast helping her make this little family comedy highly entertaining.
THE LITTLEST RANGER was the first Our Gang film to be produced by MGM, after years oof the studio distributing the series by producer Hal Roach. It also happens to be one of the best entries ever in the series and possibly the best of all the MGMs.
Alfalfa Switzer is waiting outside the movie theater for his "date" Darla Hood to show up with their movie pass. Lovestruck Mugsy (Shirley Coates), a taller and considerably less pretty girl than Darla, unsuccessfully begs Alfalfa to go in with her on her pass. Darla suddenly shows up with her new date, bully Butch (Tommy Bond), and they stride into the theatre, leaving Alfalfa to take up Mugsy's offer of using her pass.
The dueling duos sit next to each other and watch the cowboy picture; Alfalfa soon falls asleep in the middle of the cowboy's song and dreams it's he and Darla as the screen's western sweethearts in a neat editing segment that fades from the screen couple to Alfalfa and Darla in their roles, with Alfalfa doing one of his classic song manglings as he takes over the number. But their screen/dream happiness quickly ends when villain Butch appears on the scene with his gang, kidnapping Darla and tying up Alfalfa. Walking on to the scene, Mugsy discovers Alfalfa's predicament, and he tells her to alert sheriffs Buckwheat (Billie Thomas) and Porky (Eugene Lee) to meet him at Butch's hideout. Alas, Butch's gang ties up all three good guys and leaves them at the site with a lit dynamite keg.
This is a very cute and funny little picture and it's particularly delightful for film buffs to see a phenomenon of the era being portrayed on the screen- the 1930s/1940s B western afternoon movie matinee playing to a packed house of children.
THE LITTLE RANGER was the largest and best role in the series for child actress Shirley Coates; she was only in eight Our Gang episodes, usually in fairly small parts. Although she didn't have much luck with the series, Ms. Coates was one of its more fortunate cast members in real life, one of the few to live deep into her senior years and into the 21st century. Little flirt Darla Hood is adorable in bonnets and old-fashioned garb as the inner movie's heroine playing pint-sized Scarlett O'Hara. Darla was usually Alfalfa's official girlfriend; she did occasionally play the field in the series with Butch or Waldo and sometimes made love-struck Alfalfa jump through hoops; even her fans though will enjoy seeing the little coquette for once getting her comeuppance.
Alfalfa Switzer is waiting outside the movie theater for his "date" Darla Hood to show up with their movie pass. Lovestruck Mugsy (Shirley Coates), a taller and considerably less pretty girl than Darla, unsuccessfully begs Alfalfa to go in with her on her pass. Darla suddenly shows up with her new date, bully Butch (Tommy Bond), and they stride into the theatre, leaving Alfalfa to take up Mugsy's offer of using her pass.
The dueling duos sit next to each other and watch the cowboy picture; Alfalfa soon falls asleep in the middle of the cowboy's song and dreams it's he and Darla as the screen's western sweethearts in a neat editing segment that fades from the screen couple to Alfalfa and Darla in their roles, with Alfalfa doing one of his classic song manglings as he takes over the number. But their screen/dream happiness quickly ends when villain Butch appears on the scene with his gang, kidnapping Darla and tying up Alfalfa. Walking on to the scene, Mugsy discovers Alfalfa's predicament, and he tells her to alert sheriffs Buckwheat (Billie Thomas) and Porky (Eugene Lee) to meet him at Butch's hideout. Alas, Butch's gang ties up all three good guys and leaves them at the site with a lit dynamite keg.
This is a very cute and funny little picture and it's particularly delightful for film buffs to see a phenomenon of the era being portrayed on the screen- the 1930s/1940s B western afternoon movie matinee playing to a packed house of children.
THE LITTLE RANGER was the largest and best role in the series for child actress Shirley Coates; she was only in eight Our Gang episodes, usually in fairly small parts. Although she didn't have much luck with the series, Ms. Coates was one of its more fortunate cast members in real life, one of the few to live deep into her senior years and into the 21st century. Little flirt Darla Hood is adorable in bonnets and old-fashioned garb as the inner movie's heroine playing pint-sized Scarlett O'Hara. Darla was usually Alfalfa's official girlfriend; she did occasionally play the field in the series with Butch or Waldo and sometimes made love-struck Alfalfa jump through hoops; even her fans though will enjoy seeing the little coquette for once getting her comeuppance.
SUDS is one of Mary Pickford's finest hours, a multi-faceted comedy-drama that runs the gamut from slapstick to heart-touching poignancy. Set in 1800s London, Mary stars as Amanda, a homely little laundress in a dump of laundry. Her only friends are the boy and an old, half-dead horse that deliver the cleaned clothes. Amanda gets through her grim existence nursing a crush on a well-dressed if smug customer, her only link to a better world, who eight months earlier dropped off a shirt to clean which he's never returned to pick up. Twice weeks she washes the shirt in hopes of his eventual return. The other women laugh at her delusions as she claims he's her boyfriend and they are both from the upper classes, her father having kicked her out for their romance to see if anyone will love her for herself and not her inheritance. It's all baloney, of course, but it seems Amanda half believes it herself. There's an enchanting segment where Amanda tells her coworkers her story that allows Mary to be beautiful and glamorous (her faux boyfriend's looks and clothes also having improved from reality) as she is shown in her castle of her home, with Amanda, the beau, and her father all speaking via screen titles in the broken Cockney English of Amanda and her earthy associates. Misfortune continues to plague Amanda and when she least expects it, the phantom "boyfriend" returns for his shirt at long last (or rather, comes in with another shirt to clean).
Mary is wonderful in this charming movie often compared to a Chaplin vehicle but perhaps more of a realistic fairytale with touches of D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett, often wearing a tight grin that suggests a poor girl hiding bad teeth and also force optimism. The supporting cast has only small parts but then Mary never did really need any help to make a movie an extraordinary experience.
Mary is wonderful in this charming movie often compared to a Chaplin vehicle but perhaps more of a realistic fairytale with touches of D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett, often wearing a tight grin that suggests a poor girl hiding bad teeth and also force optimism. The supporting cast has only small parts but then Mary never did really need any help to make a movie an extraordinary experience.
FINE MANNERS was the last film of Gloria Swanson's contract with Paramount which had built her from an obscure Mack Sennett actress to one of the greatest stars in the industry, perhaps second only to Mary Pickford among women. La Swanson could play it all, from a moneyed diva to an earthy little broad and in FINE MANNERS she ends up playing both in one role! Gloria is a gal named Orchid who meets a Prince Charming on New Year's Eve. He's Eugene O'Brien, a socialite bored with the way the rich celebrate the Holiday who decides to go out and mingle among the hoi polloi. He is charmed by the beautiful but somewhat uncouth Orchid and they fall in love. When he announces his plans to marry the girl to his stuffy aunt who is aghast at his choice. She reluctantly agrees to try to polish up the girl while O'Brien is out of the country for months. When he returns he is horrified that his unpolished gem has turned into a frosty snob just like the social set he had abandoned.
This is a pleasant if unmemorable film, rather sharply divided with the first half a comedy and the second half a drama. Gloria is always a delight but I couldn't help but feel her performance had undercurrents of slumming, as if she couldn't wait to get out away from Paramount and move to projects she had more control over. Eugene O'Brien is reasonably good, he was a rather colorless leading man of the era and few of his films circulate now. Gloria went on to some of her biggest triumphs in the years after this film and more than twenty years later she finally returned to the Paramount lot for another movie, the name of which escapes me for the moment -not lol!!!
This is a pleasant if unmemorable film, rather sharply divided with the first half a comedy and the second half a drama. Gloria is always a delight but I couldn't help but feel her performance had undercurrents of slumming, as if she couldn't wait to get out away from Paramount and move to projects she had more control over. Eugene O'Brien is reasonably good, he was a rather colorless leading man of the era and few of his films circulate now. Gloria went on to some of her biggest triumphs in the years after this film and more than twenty years later she finally returned to the Paramount lot for another movie, the name of which escapes me for the moment -not lol!!!
"The Widow from Monte Carlo" is a short comedy that is surprisingly entertaining and as good as many 90-minute comedy romances of the era. Dolores Del Rio is the Duchess of Rye, a young widow who is restless as she is closing in on one year of mourning. She sneaks out to the casinos of Monte Carlo and watches the games as a stranger beside her (Warren William) makes small talk and flirts a bit, asking her age so he can wager on that number, not particularly a good pickup line for any woman, although Del Rio goes along with it, albeit not speaking, nodding as he points toward "24" (in the real world, Dolores was actually a decade older though she could pass for mid-twenties). He wins, he impulsively kisses her (potential harassment in today's world and maybe then, too) and as he collects his earnings, she slips away like Cinderella, leaving him to ponder just who was this mystery lady. Back at the hotel with her late husband's parents, they persuade her to accept the proposal of the rather sexless acquaintance, Lord (Colin Clive) so she can go on with her life.
Williams is friends with a wealthy middle-aged couple. The husband has made his fortune in marmalade, the wife (Louise Fazenda) an ambitious social climber who has long been trying to make contact with the duchess next door - Del Rio. When Fazenda spots Del Rio on a barge at the beach, William swims out to meet this elusive woman whom he begins to realize was the mystery woman at the casino. He tries to talk her into going to a British equivalent of Coney Island with him on a date, which she agrees to after several requests, tired of being bored sitting at home with her staid in-laws and the colorless Clive. They have a ball and, returning home, pick up an American (Warren Hymer) who happens to be a friendly, garrulous gangster!
The next morning, Del Rio comes to her senses and sends William a note telling him they should no longer see each other, considering she is engaged. Visiting William, Fazenda finds the note, steals it and decides to use it to blackmail Del Rio into attending her party.
This is a cute little comedy/romance with Del Rio (stunning as always) and William making a good screen couple. The movie is notable for casting Clive and Fazenda in roles against type. Clive, famous for the man scientist who created Frankenstein and similar roles, plays a milquetoast albeit pleasant royal while Fazenda, best known for playing earthy hicks, plays a pushy social climber who is not averse to using dirty tricks to get what she wants. Fazenda, a comedy star of the silent era, here is into her six-year contract at Warner Bros, where she was a supporting character actress. She's excellent in a Mary Bolandish part as a chatterbox wife with added menace edge. Warren Hymer is also very good as the gangster on the lam who decides to buddy around with new "pal" William.
This movie is so short it never has any time to drag and could have gone on for another twenty minutes if the producers had wanted but then Warner Bros. Usually did keep most of their programmers fairly brief in the early and mid 1930's, all the better to watch two or three of them in one sitting.
Williams is friends with a wealthy middle-aged couple. The husband has made his fortune in marmalade, the wife (Louise Fazenda) an ambitious social climber who has long been trying to make contact with the duchess next door - Del Rio. When Fazenda spots Del Rio on a barge at the beach, William swims out to meet this elusive woman whom he begins to realize was the mystery woman at the casino. He tries to talk her into going to a British equivalent of Coney Island with him on a date, which she agrees to after several requests, tired of being bored sitting at home with her staid in-laws and the colorless Clive. They have a ball and, returning home, pick up an American (Warren Hymer) who happens to be a friendly, garrulous gangster!
The next morning, Del Rio comes to her senses and sends William a note telling him they should no longer see each other, considering she is engaged. Visiting William, Fazenda finds the note, steals it and decides to use it to blackmail Del Rio into attending her party.
This is a cute little comedy/romance with Del Rio (stunning as always) and William making a good screen couple. The movie is notable for casting Clive and Fazenda in roles against type. Clive, famous for the man scientist who created Frankenstein and similar roles, plays a milquetoast albeit pleasant royal while Fazenda, best known for playing earthy hicks, plays a pushy social climber who is not averse to using dirty tricks to get what she wants. Fazenda, a comedy star of the silent era, here is into her six-year contract at Warner Bros, where she was a supporting character actress. She's excellent in a Mary Bolandish part as a chatterbox wife with added menace edge. Warren Hymer is also very good as the gangster on the lam who decides to buddy around with new "pal" William.
This movie is so short it never has any time to drag and could have gone on for another twenty minutes if the producers had wanted but then Warner Bros. Usually did keep most of their programmers fairly brief in the early and mid 1930's, all the better to watch two or three of them in one sitting.
Alice White was a unique comet of a movie star in the early talkie years. She played floozies in an brief era when a bimbo could be the movie's heroine. Alice was quite cute though only slightly pretty and her odd delivery of her lines often suggest she had never seen a play - or a director - in her life, nevertheless she was quite endearing and likeable and her earthy shopgirl personality apparently resonated with a lot of people in the early Depression though not for long, her time at the top was very short. "Show Girl in Hollywood" was one of the best movies she ever made, a mixture of music, comedy, and pathos with a blunt look at the Hollywood industry where a director could be in a meeting while his name is being scraped off the other side of his office door.
Dixie Dugan (Alice) is a New York showgirl featured in a Broadway musical that has just flopped. The playwright Jimmy Doyle (Jack Muhall) blames the producers for not casting her in the lead but in a supporting role. Dixie and Jimmy go on the town to drown their troubles at a nightclub when famous Hollywood director Frank Buelow (John Miljan) is also there. Dixie doesn't have to be asked twice to perform a song at the nightclub in front of the director and while her half-song is sung in a wobbling voice, Buelow is impressed and promises her a movie contract at a major film studio. Jimmy sneers (with accuracy) that Buelow is the type to "feel a girl's ribs as he offers her a screen test" but Dixie sees this a chance to crash Hollywood and agrees to go back to his hotel room to "talk business" (a scene we don't see). Presumably, Buelow got what he wanted and Dixie's now out to get what she wants, showing up in Hollywood unannounced at the studio. She learns studio executive Sam Otis (Ford Sterling) knows nothing about this idea and that it's long been Buelow's habit to promise young girls such roles. Defeated, she runs into Buelow at the studio and he convinces her his promise was legit. Later, she spots veteran actress Donny Harris (Blanche Sweet) on the lot. Donny had been Dixie's childhood idol and they hit it off like gangbusters, both of them needing a friend. Donny is now unemployable in Hollywood at the grand old age of 32 but still clings to hopes of a comeback and knows the hard times in store for Dixie. She also happens to be the abandoned wife of playboy dirtbag Buelow.
Tried of Buelow's stunts, Otis fires him after he learns his newest screenplay is plagiarized from a Broadway musical, that very musical being the one Dixie was in that had bombed. Sterling signs original author Jimmy to a contract who then insists Dixie get the lead. Only weeks into filming, Dixie gets a diva mentality and insists on script changes and other demands even though she hasn't yet had a single film released! Urged on by Buelow to walk off the picture to get her demands accepted, she follows through, unaware he is being vengenful against the studio, knowing fully well she will canned and unemployable and the studio will lose a fortune with the aborted film.
This little movie is a frank look at the film industry with all it's postives and negatives, one of the first films to do so. There are several snappy lines in the script like my review's title and there's one priceless scene where the viewer might be presuming to watch a bad guy committing murder only to have Dixie walk by the background window - she'd been snooping around a film set on her first day in Hollywood and walked into a scene being filmed!! It's one of the most hilarious bits ever.
Alice White is terrific in her own adorable little way in a role that runs to gamut from star-eyed wannabe to delusional hot-head, but the movie is stolen by legendary silent film actress Blanche Sweet as the fairly tragic Donny. For those disbelieving you could be washed up at 32, one only has to look at Miss Sweet's actual career in this period. With no offers for a lead role for a while, this supporting part was really her "comeback" and sadly, it lead to nothing more than another supporting role or two although she is sensational here, quite moving and even putting over the film's best song, "There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood". A similar fate happened to Miss Sweet's longtime rival, Mae Marsh, who was reduced to being an unbilled extra within a few years. Also very good are Jack Mulhall as the devoted Jimmy and John Miljan as one the first on-film examples of a Hollywood sleazeball (you know he's going to be a creep by the way he chews his food in his first scene). I also enjoy seeing silent movie comedian Ford Sterling in a change of pace role. Well-directed by Mervyn LeRoy, "Show Girl in Hollywood" is not on the level of "Sunset Blvd" and "A Star is Born" as a drama or "Bombshell" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" as a comedy yet definitely deserves to be acknowledged when discussing some of the best films made about behind the scenes Hollywood.
Dixie Dugan (Alice) is a New York showgirl featured in a Broadway musical that has just flopped. The playwright Jimmy Doyle (Jack Muhall) blames the producers for not casting her in the lead but in a supporting role. Dixie and Jimmy go on the town to drown their troubles at a nightclub when famous Hollywood director Frank Buelow (John Miljan) is also there. Dixie doesn't have to be asked twice to perform a song at the nightclub in front of the director and while her half-song is sung in a wobbling voice, Buelow is impressed and promises her a movie contract at a major film studio. Jimmy sneers (with accuracy) that Buelow is the type to "feel a girl's ribs as he offers her a screen test" but Dixie sees this a chance to crash Hollywood and agrees to go back to his hotel room to "talk business" (a scene we don't see). Presumably, Buelow got what he wanted and Dixie's now out to get what she wants, showing up in Hollywood unannounced at the studio. She learns studio executive Sam Otis (Ford Sterling) knows nothing about this idea and that it's long been Buelow's habit to promise young girls such roles. Defeated, she runs into Buelow at the studio and he convinces her his promise was legit. Later, she spots veteran actress Donny Harris (Blanche Sweet) on the lot. Donny had been Dixie's childhood idol and they hit it off like gangbusters, both of them needing a friend. Donny is now unemployable in Hollywood at the grand old age of 32 but still clings to hopes of a comeback and knows the hard times in store for Dixie. She also happens to be the abandoned wife of playboy dirtbag Buelow.
Tried of Buelow's stunts, Otis fires him after he learns his newest screenplay is plagiarized from a Broadway musical, that very musical being the one Dixie was in that had bombed. Sterling signs original author Jimmy to a contract who then insists Dixie get the lead. Only weeks into filming, Dixie gets a diva mentality and insists on script changes and other demands even though she hasn't yet had a single film released! Urged on by Buelow to walk off the picture to get her demands accepted, she follows through, unaware he is being vengenful against the studio, knowing fully well she will canned and unemployable and the studio will lose a fortune with the aborted film.
This little movie is a frank look at the film industry with all it's postives and negatives, one of the first films to do so. There are several snappy lines in the script like my review's title and there's one priceless scene where the viewer might be presuming to watch a bad guy committing murder only to have Dixie walk by the background window - she'd been snooping around a film set on her first day in Hollywood and walked into a scene being filmed!! It's one of the most hilarious bits ever.
Alice White is terrific in her own adorable little way in a role that runs to gamut from star-eyed wannabe to delusional hot-head, but the movie is stolen by legendary silent film actress Blanche Sweet as the fairly tragic Donny. For those disbelieving you could be washed up at 32, one only has to look at Miss Sweet's actual career in this period. With no offers for a lead role for a while, this supporting part was really her "comeback" and sadly, it lead to nothing more than another supporting role or two although she is sensational here, quite moving and even putting over the film's best song, "There's a Tear for Every Smile in Hollywood". A similar fate happened to Miss Sweet's longtime rival, Mae Marsh, who was reduced to being an unbilled extra within a few years. Also very good are Jack Mulhall as the devoted Jimmy and John Miljan as one the first on-film examples of a Hollywood sleazeball (you know he's going to be a creep by the way he chews his food in his first scene). I also enjoy seeing silent movie comedian Ford Sterling in a change of pace role. Well-directed by Mervyn LeRoy, "Show Girl in Hollywood" is not on the level of "Sunset Blvd" and "A Star is Born" as a drama or "Bombshell" and "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" as a comedy yet definitely deserves to be acknowledged when discussing some of the best films made about behind the scenes Hollywood.