Too Much Knowledge

This is my entry in the Doris Day Blogathon hosted by Love Letters to Old Hollywood.

My earliest memories of Doris Day were when she had a TV show back in the 60's.  I don't really remember anything from those days except that she sang the song "Que Sera, Sera" in the opening credits. But I can still recall the song, which is significant since I probably haven't even heard it done since those days.  (Not including the watching of the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much recently, which I found out is where the song originally appeared onscreen...)

An interesting side note about the song.  Hitchcock was not particularly agreeable to having a song in his film, but the production company, Paramount, insisted that there had to be one.  (Probably due to the fact that Doris Day had been cast for the film.)  Hitchcock approached the writing team of Jay Livingston and Ray Evans stating that he needed a song, but he didn't know hat he wanted.  After hearing what the duo came up with he told them that that was exactly what he wanted.  So what may or may not be Doris Day's signature song was the result of a happy turn of events necessitated by a production company's insistence on having a song.

Hitchcock had wanted Doris Day for the role all along, but associate producer Herbert Coleman states in an interview on the commentary of my DVD that he had some misgivings.  He didn't think Day could pull off the dramatic scenes in the movie, especially the pivotal emotional breakdown after finding out about the fate of her son.  But Hitch, as always, got his way, and in retrospect Coleman admitted he was wrong and that she was perfect for the role.

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956):

Married couple Ben and Jo McKenna  (James Stewart, Doris Day) are on vacation in north Africa with their son, Hank (Christopher Olsen).

  They encounter a Frenchman, Louis Bernard (Daniel Gelin) who is very inquisitive about them, arousing Jo's suspicions.

Upon arrival in Marrakesh, Bernard offers to take them to dinner, but cancels out after a mysterious man (Reggie Nalder) appears at their door. 

Instead the go to dinner alone, where they meet Edward and Lucy Drayton (Bernard Miles, Brenda de Banzie).  The four end up eating together and arranging to go sightseeing the next day.

While in the marketplace, a man in Arabian attire is murdered.  It turns out to be Bernard in disguise.  He whispers to Ben, just before he dies, that a foreign dignitary is going to be murdered in London and tells Ben to find "Ambrose Chapell".  When Ben and Jo are questioned by the authorities about the murder they discover that Bernard was an agent of the French secret service (a spy).

But before Ben can tell the authorities what happened he receives a mysterious call telling him that Hank has been kidnapped and will be killed if he, Ben, reveals what he knows.  Thus, Ben's driving force is to find out where his son is and save him.  To such measures he is even willing to let the events play out with the assassination if only he can retrieve his son safely.

Thus begins the frantic search which leads the two to London.  A fruitless attempt to track down Ambrose Chapell reveals that Ben and Jo are on the wrong track. 

And that people are not all whom they claim to be.  Of course, the fact that the Draytons obviously are involved because they were the last ones to be with Hank is not entirely surprising, but there is much more involved in the political intrigue.

Even after the assassination attempt is foiled, the two still have to track down and rescue Hank.  Which leads them to the embassy of the foreign dignitary.

The Man who Knew too Much was a remake of a 1934 film Hitchcock had mad with Peter Lorre, but much of the plot was changed so seeing both films together makes for an entertaining evening.  Hitchcock himself describes the first film as having been made by talented amateur and the second as having been made by a professional.

One should note a few recognizable faces in the film.  Reggie Nalder may look familiar.  He was the vampire in the 1979 TV version of Salem's Lot as well as Zoltan, The Hound of Dracula's master.  And Carolyn Jones, best known as Morticia Addams in the TV show The Addams Family is also recognizable, despite the fact that she is decked out in very short cropped red hair.  And look for Walter Gotell, a familiar Russian agent from James Bond movies in a brief role as a Scotland Yard policeman.

Time to fire up the Plymouth.  Drive safely, folks.
Quiggy

Momma and the Strangers Take the Train

This is my entry in the 3rd Alfred Hitchcock Blogathon hosted by Maddy Loves Her Classic Films

Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most influential film makers of his time.  Over a career of some 50 years, he directed around 70 or so movies and TV shows, and a lot of his stuff ends up on the list of best suspense films of all time.  He had a knack for throwing in red herrings that would fool audiences into going in the opposite direction of the eventual climax.  In a decently fair world he would have won an Oscar or two for his films,   but despite being nominated five times, he came away winless all five times.  (To be fair, Rebecca did win an Oscar for Best Picture, however).

Strangers on a Train (!951):

Did your mother ever tell you "don't talk to strangers"?  Perhaps she had someone in mind like Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker).  Bruno is just a wee bit off-kilter.  (OK, so he's pretty much full bull goose loony..)  Bruno is a psychopath and extremely malicious sort.  He's the sort of guy who would pop a child's balloon, just for the hell of it.

On a train, Bruno meets Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and starts up a conversation with him.  (Given that Bruno knows a hell of a lot about Guy and his private life, it's probably a good deduction that the meeting wasn't a coincidence.)  Bruno proceeds to tell Guy that he has a father that is extremely unsympathetic to Bruno's wants and desires and that he, Bruno, wishes his father were dead.  He also notes that Guy has a wife that is promiscuous and unfaithful to Guy and that Guy wants to divorce her so he can marry a senator's daughter.

Bruno has an idea that he thinks just might work out to the benefit of them both.  Each would murder the other's victim.  Any normal person would probably run screaming for the exit, but Guy is a bit naive.  He just thinks Bruno is a bit off, but not necessarily a danger and just humors Bruno.  But Bruno is dead serious.  And he thinks he has a deal with Guy just on those terms of swapping murders.  And it doesn't help matters when Guy is overheard threatening his wife

Bruno proceeds to tail the wife,  Miriam (Laura Elliot, who has also performed under the name Kasey Rogers), and corners her in a dark corner of a carnival where he strangles her.  Then he informs Guy that now he, Guy, must reciprocate on the deal and kill Bruno's father.

Although suspicion for Miriam's murder falls on him, no one really believes that Guy is guilty, but his alibi is a little faulty.  Mainly because he was on a train, but the one witness who can confirm their meeting on the train was drunk and can't remember a thing.   The police decide that without the alibi, there was plenty of time for Guy to have taken a different train and still have murdered his wife.  And of course, Bruno isn't going to confess.  Not only that but Bruno continues to show up in places where Guy is or calls him, in order to try to convince him or intimidate him into following through with what Bruno considers a deal.

If you have never seen a Hitchcock movie,  you are in for a treat.  Walker is excellent and Granger does a pretty decent job as the harassed victim of Bruno's insanity.  Strangers on a Train is in my top 5 Hitchcock films along with Rope, Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho (not necessarily in that order.)   Strangers on a Train also inspired the next movie in our double feature.

Throw Momma from the Train (1987):

A twist on the old Hitchcock story, Larry Donner (Billy Crystal) is a creative writing teacher and frustrated writer.  Frustrated because he is suffering from writer's block.  The writer's block stems directly from the fact that his ex-wife, Margaret (Kate Mulgrew) stole his book, the one he had spent several months writing, claiming it as her own and having it published in her name.

Owen Lift (Danny DeVito) is also a frustrated writer.  But writer is a generous designation, because apparently he can't write worth a crap.  He takes Larry's creative writing class, but he must either be as dense as a brick, or else he really has no talent whatsoever.  Owen is a bachelor who lives with his widowed mother (Anne Ramsey), a harridan who makes Owen's life miserable.

Owen keeps bugging Larry for advice, and just to get rid of him, Larry tells him to go study Hitchcock  (Alfred Hitchcock, who just happens to have a revival of one of his movies playing at the theater, Strangers on a Train).  Owen gets the idea that Larry is hinting at using the plot of the movie to solve his own problem with his mother and for Larry with his ex-wife, whom Larry has been heard shouting vociferously "I wish she were dead!".

Shades of Hitchcock!  Owen goes to Hawaii, where Margaret is now living and manages to apparently push her overboard on a cruise ship, then returns to tell Larry that he has completed his part of the bargain and now Larry must reciprocate by killing Owen's mother.  Since Margaret has disappeared, it seems apparent that Owen has indeed killed her, but suspicion falls on Larry, who has no real alibi, since he spent the entire not on the beach on a rock, with no witnesses.




Although Larry tries to get Owen to fess up, Owen is more than a bit dim-witted.  And child-like.  (One of the most revealing scenes in the character of Owen is when he shares with Larry his coin-collection.  Only the coins have no intrinsic value.  They are just coins that his father gave him when they went out together when he was a kid.)

At one point, however, Larry becomes frustrated enough that he decides to help Owen kill his mother.  Which leads to the hilarious scenes where they try to "throw momma from the train."  (Come on.  That can't be a spoiler... go back and read the title of the movie...)

Anne Ramsey deservedly was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the movie, which she lost to Olympia Dukakis for Moonstruck.  She was also nominated for a Golden Globe, which she also lost to Dukakis.  She did however win a Saturn Award for the role.  (She also won the same award for her role in The Goonies and if you haven't seen that you are missing out...)

The concept of "swapping murders" may not be entirely sound as a plot, but damn, it sure does make for a thrilling concept for a movie, whether done in all seriousness as Hitchcock did, or as a black comedy, as done by DeVito et.al.  (DeVito, by the way, has been hit or miss in his career, being nominated for both good awards and Razzies [on different occasions], but Throw Momma from the Train desrves a look, no matter how you feel about his other stuff.)


Well, folks, it's not a train, and I don't intend on riding with any psychopaths or dimwits, but it's time to fire up the old Plymouth.  Drive safely, folks.


Quiggy

Dark Shadows in Berlin

 This is my entry in the "non-English" Language Blogathon hosted by Thoughts All Sorts

One of the classics of pre-war, pre-Hitler German cinema, according to historical references the movie almost didn't get made.  When Fritz Lang, the director, announced his plans to film a movie called Mörder unter uns, the head of his studio, Staaken, denied him the space to use to film it.  Still prior to Hitler's rise to power, but the Nazi party had its adherents even then, one of whom was the studio head.  He and the Nazi Party both suspected it was going to be a veiled condemnation of the Nazis, and as such Lang was denied the use of the studio.  Only after Lang assured them that it was not going to a political movie was he allowed to film it at Staaken.

Lang's first film to incorporate sound, also almost didn't get made as is because Lang had a reluctance to film the movie with sound.  But certain parts of it prove that once he got into the use of sound, he had an ability to use it to maximum effect.

M (1931):

The movie opens with a scene of children playing and chanting a rather dark rhyme about some secretive shadowy stalker.  One of the mothers listening tells the children to stop chanting that dark rhyme but kids being kids they start it back up anyway.  The woman in question is waiting for her daughter to return home from school.  There have been several incidents of children disappearing and she is concerned, but not too worried.  At least until lunch time has come and gone and no daughter shows.

This is because, by now, her daughter has become another victim to this scourge of the city.  Although no one knows he is anything other than just an average citizen, Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) roams the streets following little children.  He spies his prey and poses as a friendly stranger, buying balloons and candy for his victim, later killing them. 

He has sent letters to the police and newspaper, taunting them, something like Jack the Ripper, and the police, under intense pressure from the public, increase their focus on finding this scoundrel.  They put pressure on the criminal world, and disrupt regular criminal activities in ther zeal to discover the identity of the murderer.

As a result, the criminal world puts their own network to work in trying to find out who he is.  They use beggars and street people to keep a watch out for suspicious activity.  One of the street people, a blind man who sells ballonns, remembers a man who whistled Edvard Grieg's "In the hall of the Mountain King".  (And after watching this movie you may become a little apprehensive every time you hear the tune outside of the movie).

Eventually the criminals are the ones who capture Beckert and bring him to an abandoned warehouse where he is forced to stand trial before what is essentially the entire criminal contingent of the  city.  Talk about a jury of your own peers!  Beckert has the benefit of a man who is supposed to be his defense attorney.  During the trial he breaks down with an impassioned plea, stating basically that he is compelled by his own mind to do these terrible things (basically trying  to use an insanity defense), but the jury is unrelenting, and pronounces him guilty, giving him a death sentence.

Then his defense attorney takes over, berating the criminal society and telling them they have no right to declare judgement on the man.  What happens next is very interesting. 

The movie was Lorre's first starring role, but the after effect was he was typecast as a criminal and undesirable in many of his subsequent roles.  But it did show his incredible acting ability.

Well folks, time to go home. Drive safely. 

Quiggy

The Bird is the Word

This is my entry in the Humphrey Bogart 117th Birthday blogathon, hosted by Sleepwalking in Hollywood and Musings of a Classic Film Addict

He was born into the camera (so to speak), if stories can be believed. He was the model for a drawing for an advertising campaign for a brand of baby food called Mellin's.  Note:  It is a false rumor that he was the model for the Gerber's baby.  As noted in a snopes.com  article, Gerber's did not begin producing baby food until Bogart was well into his adult years.  The Mellin's baby food picture was indeed drawn by his mother, who surely used him as a model, however.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Maltese Falcon was originally published as a novel, by Dashiell Hammett, in serial form in Black Mask, a pulp detective magazine from pre - WWII.  It was published in 5 installments from September 1929 - January 1930.  The story told of a whole raft of people who are as ruthless and cunning as any you'll ever meet.  At the end of the fourth installment (in the Dec. 1929 issue), which ended just as Spade walks into his apartment to find the fat man and his cohorts waiting for him,  a footnote was added by the editor.

"To our readers:
     I read this story just as you have read it-installment by installment.  When I got this far I was as uncertain as you are how the story comes out, or who killed Archer and Thursby.  I had ideas, of course, just as you probably have.  It wasn't until, practically speaking, the very last word of the last installment (the installment you will read next-in the January issue) that i knew the answer and it took me completely by surprise.
      As a matter of fact, when I finished reading the last installment I was breathless and overwhelmed.  In all of my experience I have never read a story as intense, as gripping or as powerful as this last installment.  It is a magnificent piece of writing; with all the earnestness of which I am capable I tell you not to miss it.
                                                   THE EDITOR"*

Whew!  Barring that it might be hyperbole, it is easily some of the best breathless salesmanship for the next issue of Black Mask, at the very least.  Would that I were capable of such prose...  "Don't miss my next blog entry, folks. Suspense! Action! Drama!  All this and more, as I review the fantastic Thomas Edison extravaganza The Sneeze!"

Now, of course I'm just trying to be witty.  Both The Maltese Falcon versions, book and movie ARE extremely well written an well done.  By the way, today's version of the Falcon story was actually the third attempt to bring it to the big screen.  The first, made in 1931 starred Ricardo Cortez and Bebe Daniels.  The second, which actually only had most tenuous of connections to the original story was made (As a comedy! Egad!) as Satan Met A Lady,  in 1936.  But the Bogart/Huston/Astor version was the grandaddy of them all, proving that sometimes the remake can be better than the original.

The movie opens with a brief history about the Maltese falcon, which is repeated, more or less, by Kaspar Gutman (Sydney Greenstreet) later in the movie.  The action proper begins in San Francisco in present day.  Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) is in his office when his secretary (Lee Patrick) announces the arrival of a potential client, a Miss Wonderley (Mary Astor)

Spade and Archer get a new client

Miss Wonderley wants to hire the firm of Spade and Archer (Jerome Cowan) to get her sister away from a mysterious figure named Floyd Thursby, whom she thinks has either kidnapped or seduced her sister.  Before the night is over, both Archer and Thursby are dead, killed in separate locations, so it wasn't the result of a shootout.

Spade is visited by Tom Polhaus (Ward Bond), a police detective friend, and Lieutenant Dundy (Barton MacLane) at his apartment to try to get some details, but also to intimate that they have suspicions that Spade killed Thursby in revenge for the death of his partner.

Spade vs. the cops

The next day Spade gets a call from Miss Wonderley, now going by the name of Miss LeBlanc.  But upon arrival at her new digs, it is finally revealed that her real name is Brigid O'Shaunessey, and that the story she told about her "sister" was not true.  But she is still vague about the real truth.

Spade agrees to do what he can to help her, despite some misgivings about the whole shebang.  After returning to his office he meets Joel Cairo (Peter Lorre), who wants his help in finding a missing "ornament" (the titular falcon).  Cairo offers $5000 to get Spade's help, but missteps when he pulls a gun and wants to search Spade's office by force.  After knocking out Cairo and determining some of his identity through a search of his pockets, Spade offers his help for a small fee.

Getting physical with Cairo

A mysterious figure follows Spade as he leaves his office, but Spade manages to elude him and returns to Brigid's rooms.  When he tells her about his meeting with Cairo, she immediately becomes cagey.  But after a bit she finally reveals some of the details about her past and what part the falcon plays in it.

The unwanted shadow

Spade finally meets his mysterious shadow, Wilmer (Elisha Cook), and manages to make an instant enemy. The twists and turns of this story abound.  Wilmer is actually a hired gunman for "the fat man", the aforementioned Kaspar Gutman.  Eventually Spade meets up with Gutman and finds out the true story of the falcon.  It turns out that it may be worth considerably more than the $5000 Cairo offered Spade to find it.

Making deals with the dark side

I don't want to get too much more into this movie because it is well worth the watching.  Considered by most people to be one of the best examples of film noir, it could be further detailed here, in this blog entry, but to do so would be denying you of the thrill of discovering it's assets for yourself.

Bogart, for his part, is defined, in many people's eyes, for his performance in a handful of movies, of which this is probably the second most common one. Gotta give a nod to him in his role of Rick in Casablanca, even here, as probably being number one.  (Of course, there are others, but so as not to offend anyone for leaving a specific favorite out, I'll limit it to these two...)

Bogart plays Spade as a hard and determined individual, one who has his moral compass set in the right direction, but is still willing to manipulate it to achieve his ultimate goal (which, despite any indications to the contrary, I think is still on the side of good, if not necessarily law and order).

Bogart did not get a nomination for Best Actor for his performance (although the film was nominated for several awards, including Best Picture, but lost to How Green Was My Valley, and Greenstreet got a nom for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Donald Crisp).  Film noir  was not the pariah that science fiction seemed to be for the Oscars, however.  Just 4 years later Ray Milland won a Best Actor for his performance in The Lost Weekend, as did the movie for Best Picture.

But Bogart would not receive his first (of three) noms for Best Actor until 1943, for the aforementioned role of Rick in Casablanca, and he would not win one until 1951 for the role of Charlie Allnut in The African Queen.  Still the role of Spade should not be discounted (nor, for that matter, should almost any of Bogart's roles, with the exception, maybe,  of The Return of Doctor X).

Hope you enjoyed this entry, folks.  Time to fire up the old Plymouth Fury and see if I can get home without being followed by ne'er-do-wells.

Quiggy

*  The quote from Black Mask editor was transcribed from The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories, ed. Otto Penzler © 2010.

Psychotic Tendencies

This is my entry in the A Celebration of Classic Hollywood blogathon hosted by An Old Fashioned Girl.

John Wayne is my absolute favorite actor, no question about it.  But if I were forced to add to the list #s 2-whatever, I'd almost surely list Robert Mitchum in the top 5, maybe even as high as #2.   Mitchum could pull off anything, from comedic roles (Holiday Affair, What a Way to Go!), dramatic turns (Thunder Road, The Enemy Below), even romantic hero (Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison).  One of my favorite Mitchum performances, which is also my favorite John Wayne movie is the previously reviewed El Dorado, wherein Mitchum plays a drunken sheriff, paired with Wayne to fight off an unscrupulous land baron.

To really get a good example of Mitchum's talent, however, you have to see how well he can pull off unadulterated evil.  Whether as a convicted rapist bent on revenge against a former state's witness that helped put him in jail, or as a renegade preacher/ serial killer, bent on finding his former cellmate's stolen booty, Mitchum can exude such malevolence as to give one nightmares.

























Night of the Hunter (1955)

Mitchum plays Harry Powell in a film that was based on a book by Davis Grubb which in turn was based on real life events.  (There really was a man named Harry Powers who killed two women and three children) .  Powell is in the guise of a travelling preacher, but is like no man of the cloth in reality.  At the beginning of the movie he is caught and arrested for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.

At the same time, Ben Harper (Peter Graves) is arrested for having committed robbery and murder.  Just before his arrest, however, he arranges to hide his booty with his son, John (Billy Chapin).  Only John and his sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) know the secret.  Their mother, Willa (Shelley Winters), does not know of the secret.

Ben ends up in the same jail cell as Harry.  He mutters in his sleep about the hidden money, but Harry can't get the secret out of him.  Ben is executed for the murder, and Harry gets out after serving his time and immediately makes a beeline for the Harper's home.  He convinces everyone he is a legitimate preacher, and begins to woo Willa, meanwhile also trying to wangle the hiding place of the money from the children.

Harry eventually kills Willa.  Poor Shelley Winters.  That's twice she is killed in a movie, with an unscrupulous fiend trying to get access to her brood.  (She was also the mother of the teenager Lolita Haze  in Lolita, although James Mason didn't actually kill her to get access to her daughter.)  Harry then begins in earnest on John and Pearl.  Under threat to kill them, John tells Harry that the money is under a rock in the cellar.  (Not really the place, we already know it's in Pearl's doll, but Harry doesn't).  They trick Harry and run for their lives, escaping on a boat.

The children end up down river and become involved with an older widow woman, Mrs. Cooper (Lillian Gish).  But eventually Harry finds out to where the kids have escaped.

This one is a nail-biter to the bitter end, and you'll never be able to hear the hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" without a twinge of fear in the back of your mind...  Mitchum is pure evil, but an evil that is more subdued and hidden.  He saved his best evil menace for a role he played 7 years later....

Cape Fear (1962)

Mitchum was cast in his most iconic psychopath role at the behest of his eventual co-star, Gregory Peck, who had bought the rights to the novel The Executioners by John D. McDonald.  Peck intended to play the role of Bowden, but he thought the meatier role was that of Cady and he wanted an actor with a great screen presence.  According to one source I read, Telly Savalas (who eventually played the role of Charlie Seivers, a private detective) was considered for the role.  Think about that one for a minute.  If you saw The Dirty Dozen you know he could pull of psychotic, but I just can't imagine anyone but Mitchum in the role.  Although Robert De Niro pulled off an incredible job in the Scorcese remake.

In Cape Fear, Mitchum is Max Cady. Cady just got released from doing a stretch in the penitentiary for rape.  A key instrument in his conviction was Sam Bowden, an attorney who witnessed and interrupted Cady's attack on his victim.   Cady spent 7 years in prison, nursing his grudge.  Upon his release he immediately heads to Savannah to confront his nemesis.

Bowden's first encounter with Cady is a rather intense moment as Cady reaches in the open window of Bowden's car and snatches his keys.  He then airs his grievances with Bowden, telling him how much he suffered in prison because Bowden had the temerity to act as a witness on the stand.  As Bowden leaves, Cady mutters that he's going to make Bowden see the situation from Cady's angle.

Cady then begins a systematic course of becoming a nuisance, all within the legal limits of the law.  Cady knows the law, he studied law during his time in prison and knows just what he can get away with.  Bowden attempts to have him arrested on vagrancy, and intimidate him with the help of his police friend (Martin Balsam).  It turns out, however, that Cady has money.  He sold his parents house after they died, while he was in prison.  So running him out of town on vagrancy is out.

Bowden is given the suggestion of hiring a private detective to follow Cady.  While Cady eventually does slip into his old ways and brutally batters and rapes a woman he picks up in a bar, she is totally humiliated and scared and refuses to testify against Cady.  So yet another avenue of getting rid of Cady is closed.

Bowden then hires a couple of thugs to beat up Cady.  But Cady overpowers them (3 to 1 and he still comes out on top).

 Cady's lawyer, an unscrupulous jurist in his own right, threatens to have Bowden disbarred.  At his wits end, Bowden plans to go down the only avenue he seems to have left;  lure him to Bowden's private houseboat on Cape Fear.

This one is a nail-biter in ways that the previous movie could only imagine.  Polly Bergen, as Sam's wife, Peggy, and Lori Martin as his young daughter Nancy are both put into separate incidences of jeopardy, and you will wonder just how far Sam will have to go to rid himself of this terror that has come into his life.

This one is actually going to be on TCM next month, if you are now sufficiently intrigued.  Check out your December 2016 schedule for the exact times.

Be sure to lock all your doors tonight when you get home, you never know what unexpected visitors might show up.  Sleep tight, folks.

Quiggy