Parrish

While this film is hardly at risk of being called the greatest movie ever made, it's also not bad...a decent film.

If I have one complaint about the film it's the role played by one of my favorite character actors -- Karl Malden. Playing the "bad" father shouldn't have meant that it had to be over the top, and Malden really goes over the top here. It's a shame; he was normally a very fine actor. I'm guessing the blame lies with the director and/or screenwriters who apparently didn't understand that most people -- unless they're bipolar -- have a rather even demeanor most of the time.

Probably the best acting in the film is by veteran character actor Dean Jagger. His presence is a blessing in any movie, and certainly in this film.

The lead -- Troy Donahue -- whose talent was about as shallow as a summer stream -- actually does fairly well here. Other than a handsome face and blonde hair, there certainly wasn't much to the skinny, almost puny (though tall) actor. While not a memorable performance by any stretch of the imagination (were any of his roles?), he plays the part satisfactorily.

This was Claudette Colbert's final big screen appearance, and she is always a welcome presence in virtually any film. What a shame she walked away from movies. What a wonderful, wonderful actress.

The plot here is quite good, and production values were high, and much of it filmed on location. It's a longer-than-average movie, but it still ended rather abruptly (and predictably). Recommended, with reservations.

Last weekend I wanted to watch a film from my teen years... something that would take me back to those years of wonderment and yearning. I looked through my collection, spotted "Parrish" and knew I had found what I was looking forward. The story of a young man and his mother who move to Connecticut and involve themselves in tobacco farming, meeting a ruthless man and his family and a kind man and his spoiled daughter, it was a feast of young actors and respected mature stars. There wasn't a teen girl of those days and I dare say a few boys whose hearts didn't beat faster at the sight of Troy Donahue. His acting was pouty and wooden but there were those slim, handsome, blond looks, often wearing a red jacket that made teens break their clinches and sit up and pay attention. Whether he was romancing Connie Stevens (the first of their three films together) or Diane McBain (she hooked up with Donahue on the tube) or brunette Sharon Hugueny or whether he was emoting with Claudette Colbert (who came out of retirement for "Parrish" and then promptly retired again) or the esteemed Karl Malden and Dean Jagger, Donahue always came out second best in the acting department. This was Donahue's second of four straight films with director Delmer Daves and the older man certainly learned how to showcase the young blond hunk. The film has a bright and shiny look, plenty of melodrama and a gorgeous Max Steiner score. Get yourself some popcorn, put your feet up on the table and sit back and enjoy "Parrish."

This is a semi-guilty pleasure. In some ways it retains the sheen and talents at the waning days of the big studio machine, and that's a plus. It's soapy, melodramatic and over-the-top, which is certainly entertaining if you don't look for Art with a capital A. And there is a visual lushness in the cinematography not to mention the emphasis on physical lushness, eg Troy Donahue and Diane McBain, and some of the other characters, all dressed to the nines in suits, ties, contrasting sharp vests, crinolined party dresses, preppy red v-neck sweaters backdropped against a blue sky on an impossibly handsome blond Adonis. I can't even say anymore if Troy Donahue is a good actor. I just like watching and listening to him, and I think he does have a certain conviction- his earnestness - which lends authenticity to his performances. Others call him wooden. I think he's more than good, and under-rated. (And my eyes can't get enough of his physical beauty.) Then there's Diane McBain, who I scantly know but is right up there with Donahue - breathtakingly beautiful. Claudette is okay, but the part itself is anachronistic and annoying - a bit long-suffering and stoic, as her parts often are - in a role that demands she ignore a cruel, brutish, crass man she marries. And rounding out the pluses, I love Max Steiner's lush, anachronistic score. The negatives do abound: the script is a bit shrill and melodramatic, which you expect of soap operas of that period. I can't decide if Karl Malden is dynamic or excessive, though he's always effective. Connie Steven was never my perky cup of tea. Dean Jagger caught my attention as a gentle father-figure, and touched me deeply. Ultimately, my feelings are colored by the bias of nostalgia. I very young when it was released, and have some residual nostalgia for what I remember and miss from that era. Someone twenty years old would find it mostly silly, I think.

I recall a review of this one in which the cinematographer, Harry Stradling, Sr., was given high marks for his very classy showcasing of the young Diane McBain's ravishingly blonde beauty. She gave a riveting performance in this one, amidst some rather high-powered competition from the likes of Karl Malden, Dean Jagger, Claudette Colbert, and Connie Stevens getting some well-earned sympathy as a poor young thing besotted with her yearning for pretty-boy Troy Donahue. Miss McBain's filmography is a sorry testament to how Hollywood could take an extraordinarily attractive young actress, possessed of some genuine talent, and misuse and disuse her until everyone within the industry eventually believed that she had nothing worthwhile to offer.

The story was quite a mish-mash and I remember being quite upset that the lovely Miss Colbert had come out of retirement to play a role that reinforced the old cliche that "It's a man's world and you women better kowtow or else!" I wanted her to give that greedy old brute, mercilessly enacted by Karl Malden, and his bullying sons some kind of a comeuppance, which certainly shouldn't have been beyond the screenwriters, whose contrivances were about as convoluted as one could get away with before the revolutions in social mores, just a few years away when this was filmed, overwhelmed us.

But it's a guilty pleasure nevertheless. Delmer Daves really knew how to maneuver the elements to give audiences back then a good measure of mindless satisfaction. It's worth a not-too-demanding look-see.

There is an extreme close-up of Diane McBain fairly early in the picture, when she runs into Troy on the lawn of the manor house. It is still one of the most beautiful close-ups I have seen, ever. It never fails to take my breath away, even when I know its coming.

McBain was equally beautiful in "Claudelle English". Of the three women, McBain, Connie Stevens and Sharon Hugeny, it is Connie who takes the acting honors. She was even better in her follow up, "Susan Slade".

How strange that McBain's career would end with weird films like "Thunder Alley" and "Mini-Skirt Mob". By then her acting was excellent and there is a powerful scene in "Mini" when she describes a snake eating a mouse. But her looks had become shockingly hard.

Connie became more and more beautiful, but too Vegas and cartoon-like to play real people.