CinemaScope 3:
HOLLYWOOD TAKES THE PLUNGE
A Detailed Survey of
164 Wide-Screen Movies from “Around the World Under the Sea”
to
“The Wonders of Aladdin”
John Howard Reid
****
Published by:
John
Howard Reid at Smashwords
Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid
****
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Smashwords
Edition Licence Notes
This ebook is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be
re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share
this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for
each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did
not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then
please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.
****
Copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.
Inquiries: johnreid@mail.qango.com
****
Books in the “Hollywood Classics” series:
1. New Light on Movie Bests
2. “B” Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies
3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s
4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West
5. Memorable Films of the Forties
6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s
7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program
8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment
9. Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties
10. Hollywood “B” Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills
11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics
12. These Movies Won No Hollywood Awards
13. Movie Mystery & Suspense
14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest
15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic
16. Hollywood Movie Musicals
17. “Hollywood Classics” Index Books 1-16
18. More Movie Musicals
19. Success in the Cinema
20. Best Western Movies
21. Great Cinema Detectives
22. Great Hollywood Westerns
23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema
24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies
25. Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Films Reviewed in Books 1-24
--
Additional Movie Books by John Howard Reid
CinemaScope
One: Stupendous in Scope
CinemaScope Two: 20th
Century-Fox
CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD: A Guide to the Best in Cinema Thrills
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
Silent Films and Early Talkies on DVD: A Classic Movie Fan’s Guide
MUSICALS on DVD
(c) 2011 by John Howard Reid
--
Table of Contents
AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
JOHN GOLDFARB, PLEASE COME HOME
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
K
L
LOVE IS A MANY-SPLENDORED THING
M
N
NICE LITTLE BANK THAT SHOULD BE ROBBED
O
P
Q
R
S
T
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS
U
V
W
WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER
--
Around the World Under the Sea
Lloyd Bridges (Dr Doug Standish), Shirley Eaton (Dr Maggie Hanford), Brian Kelly (Dr Craig Mosby), David McCallum (Dr Phil Volker), Keenan Wynn (Hank Stahl), Marshall Thompson (Dr Orin Hillyard), Gary Merrill (Dr August Boren), Ron Hayes (Brinkman), George Shibata (Professor Hamuru), Frank Logan (Captain of Diligence), Don Wells (sonar man), Donald Linton (vice president), Jack Ewalt (superintendent, mining barge), George DeVries (lieutenant, coast guard), Tony Gulliver (officer), Joey Carter (technician), Celeste Yarnall (secretary), Paul Gray (pilot).
Directed by ANDREW MARTON. Written by Arthur Weiss and Art Arthur. Based on a story by Elmer Parsons. Diving sequences directed by Ricou Browning. Music by Harry Sukman. Director of photography: Clifford Poland. Director of underwater photography: Lamar Boren. In Panavision and Metrocolor. Associate producer: Ben Chapman. Technical adviser: Harry Redmond Jr. Art directors: Preston Rountree, Mel Bledsoe. Set decorator: Max Pittman. Music supervisor: Al Mack. Special effects: Project Unlimited, Inc. Underwater engineering: Jordan Klein. Underwater research: Richard Tuber. Special diving suit manufactured by Mordecai Grebow of Sea Salvage Specialities. Film editor: Warren Adams. Unit production manager: Ed Haldeman. Assistant director: James Gordon McLean. Recording supervisor: Franklin Milton. Assistant to producer: Norman Siegel. An Ivan Tors Production. Presented by M-G-M. Made with the co-operation of the United States Coast Guard, Miami Seaquarium, Marineland of the Pacific, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, United States Department of Defence and the University of Miami. Filmed on locations in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, in the Bahamas, in Dade and Broward counties, Florida; and at the Ivan Tors Studios in Miami, Florida. Producer: Andrew Marton. Executive producer: Ivan Tors.
Copyright 31 December 1965 by Ivan Tors Enterprises. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. New York opening at neighborhood theatres: 20 July 1966. U.S. release: 2 June 1966. U.K. release: 27 June 1966. Australian release: 5 January 1967. 9,962 feet. 111 minutes. The film was trimmed by slightly less than a minute in Australia in order to qualify for a General Exhibition certificate.
SYNOPSIS: When volcanic eruptions cause a series of violent earthquake disasters, a team of internationally prominent scientists board a specially-designed submarine equipped for the placing of electronic sensors on ocean beds throughout the world. The crew consists of Dr Doug Standish, his assistant Craig Mosby and four specialists in underwater work — Dr Phil Volker, Dr Maggie Hanford, Hank Stahl and Dr Orin Hillyard. At first all goes well though some tensions are roused by Maggie’s presence as the only woman on board, and by the fact that Volker has forced Standish’s hand by agreeing to come only if the submarine will make a special dive to recover a sunken treasure of valuable crystals.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Despite the Australian censor’s qualms above, I would rate the full version as suitable for all.
COMMENT: What do you make of two reviews like this? Variety says, “Imaginatively-made undersea thriller.” The New York Times on the other hand headlines Bosley Crowther’s “Submarine Saga Hits Bottom”. I guess the only thing to do is see the movie for yourself. Especially if you like Shirley Eaton.
The truth of the matter of course lies between these two extremes. The film has its fair share of entertaining suspense and excitement. What’s more, it is for the most part attractively produced, competently acted and capably directed.
Naturally, we have some complaints. Miss Eaton is none too well served by her cliched role. Worse, she’s dowdily costumed, flatly directed and unappealingly photographed. Yet hero Lloyd Bridges comes across remarkably well — though it must be admitted that he does seem to have the knack of making the script’s heroics and cliches passably convincing.
The other principal, Brian Kelly, is a bore, but fortunately his part is small. Fans of Gary Merrill will not be happy to find their hero in a similarly paltry, unrewarding role. His star is fading.
David McCallum and the rest of the crew all seem to be in their proper niches. Our main problem with the casting is, as stated, that Shirley Eaton deserves better.
Andrew Marton’s direction is typically straightforward and pretty well on target so far as action is concerned. Other technical credits, including effective special effects, also hit the mark, though some purists may object to Sukman’s music score which always lets us know when the action’s about to get exciting.
Produced on a fair-sized budget, this Around the World makes, all in all, a reasonably entertaining diversion, especially for underwater-thirsty action fans.
--
Michael Parks (Adam), Ulla Bergryd (Eve), Richard Harris (Cain), John Huston (Noah/narrator), Stephen Boyd (Nimrod), George C. Scott (Abraham), Ava Gardner (Sarah), Peter O’Toole (the three angels), Zoe Sallis (Hagar), Gabriele Ferzetti (Lot), Eleonora Rossi Drago (Lot’s wife), Franco Nero (Abel), Pupella Maggio (Noah’s wife), Alberto Lucantoni (Isaac), Luciano Conversi (Ishmael), Robert Rietty (Abraham’s steward), Adriana Ambesi (Lot’s daughter), Grazia Maria Spina (Lot’s daughter), Maurizio Promutico (Cain as a child), Roberto Promutico (Abel as a child), Flavio Bennati (the Serpent), Peter Heinze (Ham), Gabriella Pallotta (Ham’s wife), Angelo Boschariol (Shem), Anna Maria Orso (Shem’s wife), Erik Leutzinger (Japheth), Rosanna De Rocco (Japheth’s wife), Claudie Lange (the queen, Nimrod’s wife), and Pamela Tudor. In the Italian version, Arnoldo Foa provides the voice of God and the words of the Bible.
Director: JOHN HUSTON; “The Creation” sequences directed by ERNST HAAS. Photography: Giuseppe Rotunno. Screenplay: Christopher Fry; assisted by Jonathan Griffin, Ivo Perilli and Vittorio Bonicelli. Adapted from episodes from “The Old Testament”. Photography: Giuseppe Rotunno. Music composed by Toshiro Mayuzumi; conducted by Franco Ferrara. Editor: Ralph Kemplen. Art director: Mario Chiari. Associate art director: Stephen Grimes. Set decorations: Enzo Eusepi and Bruno Avesani. Special effects: Augie Lohman. Choreographer: Katherine Dunham. Sound: Fred Hynes, Basil Fenton-Smith, Murray Spivak and Leslie Hodgson. Costumes: Maria De Matteis. Make-up: Alberto De Rossi. Hair styles: Elda Magnanti. Associate producer: Luigi Luraschi. Production supervisor: Bruno Todini. Assistant to the producer: Ralph Serpe. Associate to the director: Gladys Hill. Assistant directors: Vana Caruso and Ottavio Oppo. Dialogue for the Italian version: Mario Soldati. Associate art directors: Mario Scisci & Pasquale Romano. Music consultant: Goffredo Petrassi. Religious consultant: Monsignor Salvatore Garofalo. Story consultant: Emilio Villa. Technical consultant for the walking of the animals sequence: Angelo Lombardi. Co-film editor: Alberto Gallitti. Still photos: Ernest Haas, Paul Ronald, Louis Goldman. RCA Sound System. Producer: Dino De Laurentiis. A Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica Production, released in Italy by Dear-20th Century-Fox. English version released by 20th Century-Fox. Filmed in Rome, Sardinia, Sicily and North Africa. Photographed in 70mm (Dimension 150). Color by Technicolor, prints by De Luxe.
Copyright 6 October 1966 by Dino De Laurentiis Cinematografica. New York opening at Loew’s State: 28 September 1966. U.S. release: 28 September 1966. U.K. release: 10 March 1968 (sic). Australian release: 2 June 1967. Sydney opening at the Century (a most unsuitable cinema for a 70mm presentation, considering the auditorium’s poor sight lines). 19,649 feet in 70mm. 175 minutes (excluding Interval). Cut by 20th Century-Fox to 158 minutes in Australia.
Italian release title: LA BIBBIA.
SYNOPSIS: Episodes from the Old Testament: The Creation; Eden and the Expulsion; Cain and Abel; Noah and the Ark; Nimrod and the Tower of Babel; Abraham and Sarah; Abraham begets Ishmael upon Hagar; Sodom and Gomorrah; Lot’s Wife; The Birth of Isaac; The Lord asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
NOTES: The Bible was originally intended to be but one of several films encompassing the whole of the Old Testament. Five years in the making, at a reported cost of $18,000,000, this film covers only the first twenty-two chapters of the Book of Genesis. Filming the remaining portions was never undertaken.
Only film of Ulla Bergryd.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Borderline.
COMMENT: Some years ago, Albert Gout made a film about Adam and Eve which received a real roasting from all the critics. Well, that film was more entertaining than this one. Admittedly some of the episodes here are very exciting, particularly the building and destruction of the Tower of Babel and all the material with the Ark — though there were quite a number of disappointing omissions from the roster of animals. But some of the episodes are very dull indeed — all the stuff about Abraham and Sarah with some dreadful hamming by George C. Scott who makes of Abraham an incorrigible old bore, and Peter O’Toole, ludicrously cast as three angels, whom he plays like a dissipated Dorian Gray.
Ava Gardner as Sarah is not very attractively photographed and she is often upstaged by Zoe Sallis (Hagar).
Sodom and its destruction is a very disappointing affair compared to the Ark and Tower of Babel sequences.
Gabriele Ferzetti (Lot) and Eleonora Rossi Drago (his wife) are completely wasted.
What the film needs is drastic pruning. Its present running time of 175 minutes is about 55 minutes too long.
OTHER VIEWS: The chief problem in filming the bible for large-scale commercial release is resolving the conflict between Christianity and commerce. On the one hand, there has to be more than an inkling of spectacle and sensationalism to draw in the paying customers, on the other there has to be an acceptable level of traditional reverence to forestall the censor. This has resulted in your standard religious epic — of which The Bible is a representative example — in which scenes of movement and destruction, teeming with thousands of costumed extras, jostle with episodes of interminable boredom in which the bad characters are berated and morals are indefatigably pointed. This traditional reverence approach to the bible by the churches — both Christian and Jewish — imposed upon Hollywood’s traditional preoccupation with sex and scandal, results in films that are unsatisfying both as biblical interpretations and as entertainments.
Underlying this problem is the failure by both Hollywood and the churches to understand what the bible is. If we look below its surface layer of viciousness, cruelty and intrigue — the aspects always so well played-up by Hollywood — we find the bible is not primarily a blueprint for well-ordered moral and ethical behaviour, but it is principally a record of God’s dealings with man in the past (and a dismal record of man’s failures to respond to God’s repeated invitations at that!) and an indication of how God intends to deal with man now and in the future.
Admittedly, most churchmen appreciate past failures and are ever ready to point to dire warnings of future punishments, but the present they see only in terms of the bible’s moral and ethical teachings — thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that!
I am fed up with films like The Bible with their perpetual re-iterations of boring platitudes and their endorsements — both implied and explicit — of shallow observances and meaningless rituals. I dislike being talked down to or preached at, and I loathe the empty formalism and superficial going-through-the-motions of most religious services. If this is religion, I don’t want it!
The relationship between God and man as expressed in the bible is one of intimacy and vitality. This is the experience and the relationship we should be seeking to-day. This is what the bible is all about. Yet this film sees its characters as quaint and even ludicrous, its relationships outmoded and its events as dusty and dead as antiquity. As far as fidelity to the text is concerned, both in letter and especially in spirit, this film fails utterly.
— John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
It isn’t surprising that with the exceptions of Arthur Knight and the reviewer for the trade paper Variety, contemporary critics gave the film a roasting. Judith Crist called it “reverent and dull” and Bosley Crowther found it “lacking a sense of conviction of God” and in a particularly scathing review, Time found it “empty” and advised: “Better read The Book!”
— John Howard Reid writing as Charles Freeman.
Ridiculously blasphemous, sacrilegiously corny, clothed in unintentionally risible dialogue — with Huston himself sanctimoniously quoting Genesis and God — plus a laughable off-screen commentary, in addition to pretentious photography and special effects, it’s hard to say a good word about The Bible. True, Richard Harris does half-nobly by the thankless part of Cain. Unfortunately, his efforts to make Cain a sympathetic character (Cain tills hard at the unyielding soil, whilst Abel lazes around, blowing his pipes of Pan. It’s no sweat for Abel to offer God the first of his flocks, he did no work to produce them), are rather at odds with your traditional Sunday School interpretation. In any event, the part is not all that large. Cain has only a few lines of dialogue — including the famous “Am I my brother’s keeper?” which Harris delivers in a striking fashion. A couple of other times, however, Huston has him acting in outrageous pantomime: uplifting his fist to heaven, rolling his eyes...
— John Howard Reid writing as Xavier Xerxes.
--
Stephen Boyd (Vic Brennan), Juliette Greco (Marie Brennan), David Wayne (Samuel Brennan), Gregory Ratoff (Kaltenberg), Sybil Thorndike (Aunt Cathleen), Fernand Ledoux (customs official), Marie Kean (Cynthia), Harold Goldblatt (priest), Maureen O’Dea (Margaret Brennan), J. G. Devlin (driving instructor), Philip O’Flynn (John Brennan), Fergal Stanley (Davey Brennan), Jess Hahn (1st mate), Alain Saury (Lieutenant Francois), Jacques Marin (hotel clerk), members of the Abbey Theatre Company, Ulster Theatre, Comedie-Francaise (participating players).
Director: RICHARD FLEISCHER. African sequences directed by Elmo Williams. Original screenplay by Irwin Shaw. Director of photography: William Mellor. Production manager: Julien Derode. Assistant director: Paul Feyder. Production assistant: Christian Ferry. Art director: Jean D’Eaubonne. Film editor: Roger Dwyre. Camera operator: Henri Tiquet. Sound supervisor: Jo de Bretagne. Exteriors filmed in Ireland (Dublin), South of France (Camargue-Provence-Ardeche), West Africa-Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). African sequences photographed by Henri Persin. Miss Greco’s jewelry: Alicia Moi. Alternate assistant director: Bernard Farrel. Music composed and conducted by Maurice Jarre. Script girl: Lucie Lichtig. Optical effects: Lax. Supervising sound editor: Leon Birnbaum. Westrex Sound System. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck. A Darryl F. Zanuck Production. Photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color. Interiors filmed in London and Paris.
Copyright 31 December 1960 by Darryl F. Zanuck Productions, Inc. Released through 20th Century-Fox. New York opening at the Paramount: 1 September 1961. U.S. release: 1 September 1961. U.K. release: 21 May 1961. Australian release: 19 October 1961. 9,009 feet. 100 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: As the boat from England docks at the Port of Dublin, Marie Brennan (Juliette Greco) hurries down the gangplank and into the arms of her waiting husband, Vic Brennan (Stephen Boyd).
At a gathering of Vic’s family, Vic outlines his plan to buy a truck and follow in the path of a former shipmate who is making a fortune in the hauling business in the Cote d’Ivoire. He needs their help in financing the project.
His Aunt Cathleen succeeds in bullying the family into putting up the necessary money. The one stipulation is that Cousin Samuel Brennan (David Wayne) accompany Vic and Marie and keep a watchful eye on the family’s investment.
The Dione, their 10 ton truck arrives at Labuti. A briefcase containing the custom papers entrusted to Samuel is swept overboard and lost. The customs official insists on impounding the truck until new papers can be secured from Ireland. This means a long delay and the trio have only two weeks to get to Jebanda before the rains will start and shut them off from their destination.
At a hotel, a handsome young French naval lieutenant, Francois (Alain Saury) rushes up to Marie. She introduces him to Vic and Samuel as an old friend. When Francois breezes out, Vic’s temper gets the best of him and he quarrels with Marie. He stays in the bar to have a drink and Marie stomps up the stairs and locks the door to her room.
Vic buys 300 cases of beer with their reserve. Sure they can double their money when they get it to Jebanda. They accuse him of being crazy. Marie tells Vic that no matter what he does, she loves him and is as big a gambler as he is.
The next morning, their truck is now released. As fast as they can, they load it and start for Jebanda.
Adventure follows adventure as their journey takes them through jungles and across flat plains. One night they come to an impasse. A large tree has fallen across the road and they sideswipe it before Vic can bring the truck to a grinding halt. Samuel has a slight cut on the head and they bed down for the night.
The next morning, Vic heads back for the native village they had passed the previous day and Marie tenderly administers to Samuel. He assures her that if anything comes between her and Vic, she can always count on him for help.
Vic returns with the native chief and two of his counselors. Marie comes to the rescue by speaking in French, which the chief understands. The men go to another village for help, return with a swarm of pygmies. In no time at all they pull the tree from the road. Vic rewards them with several cases of beer.
Back on the plain they see a jeep weaving towards them. It doesn’t stop until it skids into a smashing halt against the side of the truck. Heaving himself up majestically, the white driver introduces himself as Hans Kaltenberg (Gregory Ratoff), an old Africa hand. Off they go towards Jebanda as Vic tries to keep up with the new guide. A flat tire forces them to stop. While Vic and Samuel are changing it, Marie goes to a nearby grotto to fill their canteens from its spring. Unseen by Vic and Samuel, Kaltenberg follows her. He urges her to come with him to Lamy. Marie tells him to “drop dead” just as Vic comes up and threatens to bash Kaltenberg’s head in if he ever catches him talking to his wife again.
NOTES: This marked the final film appearance of Gregory Ratoff. The 63-year-old actor/producer/writer/director died in Switzerland of a blood disease on 14 December 1961.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: The Big Gamble is a big disappointment. That’s the way it turns out anyway. It starts off in a most promising fashion, but the characters are poorly fashioned and developed. When the writer runs out of interesting plot ideas about halfway, there’s nothing and no-one for the audience to take much interest in. Except the scenery.
OTHER VIEWS: Expensively produced but surprisingly uninvolving variant on The Wages of Fear. Uninteresting players are as much to blame as a script that runs out of steam. Irwin Shaw is a master of the short story, but lacks the ability to draw characters of sufficient depth to sustain a long narrative.
— John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
--
Frankie Avalon (Frankie & Potato Bug), Annette Funicello (Dee Dee), Martha Hyer (Vivien Clements), John Ashley (Johnny), Don Rickles (Big Drag), Harvey Lembeck (Eric Von Zipper), Keenan Wynn (Harvey Huntington Honeywagon), Jody McCrea (Deadhead), Candy Johnson (Candy), Danielle Aubrey (Lady Bug), Meredith MacRae (Animal), Delores Wells (Sniffles), Paul Smith (first officer), James Westerfield (second officer), Donna Loren (Donna), Janos Prohaska (Clyde), Timothy Carey (South Dakota Slim), Val Warren (teenage werewolf), Little Stevie Wonder, The Pyramids, The Exciters Band (themselves), Boris Karloff (art collector), Renie Riano (old lady).
Director: WILLIAM ASHER. 2nd unit director: ANTHONY CARRAS. Screenplay: William Asher, Leo Townsend and Robert Dillon. Photography: Floyd Crosby. Music: Les Baxter. Choreography: Tom Mahoney. Art direction: Daniel Haller. Set decorations: Harry Reif. Editor: Fred Feitshans. Sound: Don Rush and Kathleen Rose. Special effects: Roger George and Joe Zonar. Titles and photographic effects: Butler-Glouner. Costumes: Marjorie Corso. Make-up: Ted Coodley. Hair styles: Eve Newing. Production supervisor: Joe Wonder. Production assistant: Jack Cash. Assistant director: Clark Paylow. Photographed in Panavision and Pathé Color. An American International Picture. Producers: James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Co-producer: Anthony Carras.
Copyright 22 July 1964 by American International. New York opening at The Palace and other cinemas as a support to The Masque of The Red Death: 16 September 1964. U.S. release: 16 September 1964. U.K. release through Warner-Pathé/Anglo Amalgamated: 25 July 1965. Australian release through Paramount: 27 August 1965. 8,923 feet. 99 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Frankie, Dee Dee and their gang arrive at Bikini Beach for a surfing holiday. Next morning they find on the beach a large Oriental tent, headquarters of the Potato Bug, a British recording star, and his pretty bodyguard, Lady Bug, who is a specialist in French foot-fighting. Since the Potato Bug shows signs of wanting to compete with Frankie for the attentions of Dee Dee, Frankie determines to compete with the Potato Bug at the latter’s sport of drag racing. Meanwhile H.H. Honeywagon is using his pet chimpanzee Clyde to demonstrate the level of teenage intelligence. He campaigns through his newspaper to close the beach to the kids. Eric Von Zipper and his gang arrive at Big Drag’s Pit Stop, a hangout for both surfers and drag racers. The Potato Bug sets a new speed record, which is instantly broken by a mystery rider, who turns out to be the chimpanzee. Honeywagon, under the romantic influence of a schoolteacher named Vivien, changes his attitude towards surfers and racers. This enrages Eric, who sabotages the Potato Bug’s machine.
NOTES: A box-office sequel to Beach Party.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Bikini Beach has four things going for it: Frankie Avalon’s remarkable performance in a dual role in which he delightfully spoofs an English pop singer; Harvey Lembeck in a very amusing take-off at the expense of The Wild One and Marlon Brando; Boris Karloff in a guest spot with inside dialogue (“I must tell Vincent Price about this place!”) — incidentally, many magazines published tributes to Karloff after his death with extensive filmographies, but I don’t recall this film being mentioned in any of them; a smashing free-for-all at the climax.
The special effects work involving Frankie Avalon is so skilled I didn’t notice it at all (in fact, I didn’t even realise until the credits at the end of the film that Frankie was playing a dual role), but other work from that department including the clumsy back projection when Clyde is riding the surfboard has less to commend it. Some poorly matched stock shots and the use of a very obvious double when Frankie is in the surf also militate against the film.
But worst of all is the gross and unfunny over-acting by some members of the cast, particularly Jody McCrea and Don Rickles, and the efficient, but tediously dull direction of William Asher to whom may also be sheeted home those laborious sections of the script dealing with the clean-living beach boys and the efforts of a misguided oldie to suppress them.
--
Patty Duke (Billy), Jim Backus (Howard Carol), Jane Greer (Agnes Carol), Warren Berlinger (Mike Benson), Billy De Wolfe (Mayor Davis), Charles Lane (Coach Jones), Dick Sargent (Matt Bullitt), Susan Seaforth (Jean Matthews), Ted Bessell (Bob Matthews), Richard Deacon (Principal Wilson), Bobby Diamond (Eddie Davis), Michael Fox (Ray Case), Clive Clerk (Ted Chekas), Harlan Warde (Dr Hall), Jean MacRae (Nurse Webb), Allan Grant (himself), Georgia Simmons (Mrs Hosenwacker), Arline Anderson (Mrs Clifton), Layte Bowden (Miss Channing), Mathew M. Jordan (reporter), Shirley J. Shawn (Mrs Harper), Maria Lennard (Adele Colin), Brenna Howard (Mary Jensen), Craig W. Chudy (starter).
Producer-director: DON WEIS. Screenplay by Ronald Alexander. Based on his play “Time Out For Ginger”. Music composed and conducted by Dominic Frontiere. Choreography by David Winters. Cinematographer: John Russell. Art director: Arthur Lonergan. Film editor: Adrienne Fazan. Camera operator: Paul Hill. Art directors: Hal Pereira, Arthur Lonergan. Set decorations: Sam Comer, James Payne. Title design: Richard Kuhn, National Screen Service. Assistant film editor: Neil Travis. Songs (all rendered by Patty Duke): “Lonely Little In-Between”, “Funny Little Butterflies”, “The Girl Is a Girl Is a Girl” by Lor Crane, Bernice Ross and Jack Gold; “Billie” by Dominic Frontiere and Diane Lampert; “Victory Dance” by Dominic Frontiere. Music arranged by Arnold Goland. Vocals supervision: Jack Gold. Choreography: David Winters. Women’s costumes: Dolores Sheppard. Men’s costumes: Jerry Alpert. Make-up: Del Acevedo. Hair styles: Dean Cole. Assistant directors: Dick Moder (1st), Dale Coleman (2nd). Production manager: John Clarke Bowman. Assistant to the producer: H. Bud Otto. Production secretary: Matty Lake. Script supervisor: Stanley Scheuer. Athletic technical advisor: Rafer Johnson. Property master: Everett Israelson. Grip: Herb Weltz. Gaffer: Norman Cassidy. Assistant choreographer: Donna McKechnie. Miss Duke’s wardrobe co-ordinator: George Drew. Sound mixer: Harry Lindgren. Associate producer: John Ross. In charge of production: Milton Ebbins. Executive producer: Peter Lawford. Filmed in Technicolor and Techniscope. A Chrislaw Production. Released through United Artists.
Copyright 1 September 1965 by Chrislaw-Patty Duke Productions. U.S. release: 1 September 1965. New York opening at the Astor, the Trans-Lux East and others: 15 September 1965. U.K. release: 13 December 1965. Australian release: 25 August 1966. 7,800 feet. 87 minutes. Censored to 85 minutes in Australia.
SYNOPSIS: Billie Carol (Patty Duke), tomboyish teenager can do anything any boy on the athletic team of Harding High can do, only better. This embarrasses her father, Howard Carol (Jim Backus), who is running for mayor on a “male supremacy” ticket. Billie’s boy friend is Mike (Warren Berlinger) who is also on the team but runs her a poor second. This gets him mad and he demands she quit so that he may shine. She refuses and they break up.
An undignified photo of Billie and her father falls into the hands of Mayor Davis (Billy De Wolfe) whom Billie’s father means to unseat, and he makes the most of it. A rumor gets around that Billie’s older sister Jean (Susan Seaforth) is pregnant, and Davis makes the most of this, too.
NOTES: Time Out for Ginger as presented by Shepard Traube opened on Broadway on the 26 November 1952 at the Lyceum, running a successful 248 performances. Nancy Malone, Polly Rowles, Philip Loeb and Conrad Janis starred.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: A big welcome back to Billy De Wolfe, making his first film for some time. His debates with Jim Backus are the highlight of the film. Other veterans present include Jane Greer, Charles Lane and Richard Deacon. Don Weis’ direction is nondescript enough, but there are some amusing lines and, all in all, the film is an agreeable surprise.
OTHER VIEWS: The association of Peter Lawford, Patty Duke and Don Weis in Chrislaw Production’s Billie, the gay, romantic Technicolor United Artists release, is a reunion of long time friends as well as a combination of top-flight Hollywood talent.
Weis is producer-director of this, Miss Duke’s first Hollywood starer, and Lawford is its executive producer.
At Metro a few years ago, Weis directed two television pilots in which Lawford starred — Dear Phoebe and The Thin Man — and went on to direct additional episodes of each.
Currently he is fulfilling a contract to direct a number of episodes of television’s The Patty Duke Show which Lawford produces for the Chrislaw company and which is distributed by United Artists Television.
With two Directors Guild Awards and an additional Guild award nomination to his credit. Weis’ motion picture and television accomplishments lead one to believe that he hasn’t had a day off since coming to Hollywood and such, indeed, is pretty nearly the case.
Born in Milwauke in 1922, Weis went to school there and arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to attend USC, an attendance which was interrupted by World War II in which he served for three-and-a-half years in the air force.
After working as a script clerk and dialogue director for, among others Stanley Kramer, he went to M-G-M where he directed such films as Bannerline, A Slight Case of Larceny and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
He left M-G-M for television where his name appeared in the credits for many big shows.
— U.A. Publicity.
--
Deborah Kerr (herself).
Photographed in CinemaScope and Deluxe Color. Approximately 4 minutes. A 20th Century-Fox picture.
This title disguises what is actually a trailer for The Blue Angel. Speaking from the projection room at Fox’s Hollywood studios, Deborah Kerr tells us that “last year at this time, May Britt was an unknown.” That’s untrue, but Miss Kerr warms to her thesis by showing us a brief clip of Britt and Brando from The Young Lions, before launching into her main task of promoting The Blue Angel.
OTHER VIEWS: Miss Britt was discovered for American films by 20th Century-Fox executive producer Buddy Adler when he saw her in a small role in War and Peace.
Adler asked director Jean Negulesco to make a test of her in Europe, and on the basis of this test she was given the role of Marlon Brando’s love interest in The Young Lions.
Prior to her discovery, Miss Britt worked as a photographer’s assistant in her native Stockholm where she was recruited by Italian producer Carlo Ponti for a role in a film he was then making.
In all, Miss Britt made eleven motion pictures in Italy before her discovery by Adler. Following her role in The Young Lions, she played the female lead in The Hunters.
In The Blue Angel, Miss Britt emerges as a star in her own right.
— Fox Publicity.
--
Gene Hackman (Sam Clayton), Candice Bergen (Miss Jones), James Coburn (Luke Matthews), Ben Johnson (“Mister”), Ian Bannen (Norfolk), Jan-Michael Vincent (Carbo), Mario Arteaga (Mexican), Robert Donner (reporter), Robert Hoy (Lee Christie), Paul Stewart (J.B. Parker), Jean Willes (Rosie), John McLiam (Gebhardt), Dabney Coleman (Jack Parker), Jerry Gatlin (woodchopper), Sally Kirkland (Honey), Walter Scott Junior (Steve), Bill Burton (Billy), Buddy Van Horn (Slim), Joe Brooks (barber), Lucia Canales (Mexican whore), and Darwin Lamb.
Written and directed by RICHARD BROOKS. Director of photography: Harry Stradling Jr. Assistant director: Tom Shaw. Music by Alex North. Film editor: George Grenville. Art director: Robert Boyle. Script supervisor: John Franco. Public relations: Al Horwits. Research material: Los Angeles Times and Denver Post. Chief electrician: Cliff Hutchinson. Property master: Ray Mercer. Sound: Al Overton Jr. Sound re-recording: Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Richard Tyler. Sound editor: Kay Rose. Music editor: Joan Biel. Assistant editors: Don Roth, Nancy Sammons. Orchestrations by Hershy Kay. Wardrobe: Rita Riggs. Make-up: Fred Blau. Camera operator: Tim Vanik. Key grip: Tom May. Set decorator: Robert Signorelli. Optical effects: Westheimer Co. Production supervisor: Gene Levy. 2nd assistant director: Charles Bonniwell. Special effects: Chuck Gaspar. Horses: Rudy Ugland Jr. Production services: Emerald Service Company. Photographed in Panavision and Eastman Color. Filmed on locations: The Carson National Forest, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Division of State Parks, Valley of Fire State Park; Lake Mead, Nevada, National Recreation Area; The White Sands National Monument, New Mexico — Courtesy of the Department of the Interior. With the co-operation of the Albuquerque District Office, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior; and the State of Colorado. Producer: Richard Brooks.
A Perksy-Bright/Vista Production for Columbia release. New York release at Radio City Music Hall on 26 June 1975. U.S. release: June 1975. 11,791 feet. 131 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: An action-adventure drama inspired by accounts of endurance horse races over the rugged terrains of the western United States in the years from 1880 to 1910. Starred as contestants in a marathon race across Wyoming and Colorado in 1906 are Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, James Coburn, Ben Johnson, Ian Bannen and Jan-Michael Vincent. The motion picture was filmed on locations in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado.
Gene Hackman is Sam Clayton, cowboy and ex-cavalryman with Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Candice Bergen is an ex-Fair Cyprian (colorful expression used by newspapers of that era to describe a hooker). James Coburn is a cynical, easy-going soldier-of-fortune, with the biblical name of Luke Matthews. Ben Johnson plays “Mister”, an old hand of the old West.
Jan-Michael Vincent is one of the new breed. As Carbo he has the role of a tough youngster lookin’ for a reputation.
Ian Bannen, of the English stage and cinema and an acting award nominee for Flight of the Phoenix, rides an English saddle on a steeplechaser. Mario Arteaga, who performed stunningly in The Professionals, has a more important role in this movie. Robert Hoy, an exceptional horseman, rounds out the principal contestants in the race.
All do their own riding. Hackman, Bergen and Coburn are astride broncos. Vincent rides a mustang, Bannen a thoroughbred, Johnson a quarter-horse and Arteaga’s is a crossbreed Arabian and thoroughbred. Hoy’s mount is a pure Arabian mare.
These members of the cast spent five weeks, prior to location, becoming acquainted with their horses, riding them daily under the watchful eye of chief wrangler, Rudy Ugland Jr. They came to know the animals and toughened their “riding muscles”.
During the 68 days of “shooting”, the actors were put to the severe test of bitter cold, snow, altitudes of 11,000 feet, blazing hot badlands and searing desert sand dunes. Never was there a complaint from the cast or crew.
From the outset all concerned knew it wasn’t going to be easy. In the two weeks spent in Nevada’s Valley of Fire, winds of 50 miles an hour created problems for cast, crew, camera, sound, animals and even the natural denizens of the badlands.
Originally, it had been planned to head for Death Valley after completion of The Valley of Fire site. Brooks shifted to Alamogordo, N.M., after a hasty trip to Death Valley revealed he would not get the proper visual concept which the vast White Sands of Alamogordo provided.
The motels in town were 25 miles from the location, 17 over paved highway, the balance on dusty trails and sandy roads. On two occasions at the White Sands testing grounds, Brooks required sunrise shots. In April, at Alamogordo, the sun rises at 6am. The crew call was 4.30 — the actors five o’clock. For Brooks and cameraman Harry Stradling Jr it was three o’clock.
There were days when Brooks selected sites about two sandy miles from the road. Camera equipment, reflectors, sun-guns and extremely heavy batteries had to be carried in on horseback and man’s back including actors, crew, director, cameraman, secretaries and wranglers.
Survival became more of a goal than winning the endurance race.
For example, Candice Bergen, playing a former prostitute, not only had to take the rough riding and Nevada desert exposure, but endured a scene in which she is viciously attacked by a desert scavenger.
The leading actors rode horses in the film and used them to get around when autos could not penetrate location sites.
There were three weeks of shooting from 2.00pm until midnight. Brooks “shot” through a heavy rain that turned to snow before the night ended.
One location, five miles past Cumbres, could be reached only by the narrow-gauge train. There were no roads nor trails on which to transport equipment, cast, crew or animals.
On the first day of this location work, the train was stopped by a sliding snow bank. Everyone picked up a shovel, broom or pick-axe to clear the tracks.
Another endurance test came when location was shifted to Sublette, Colorado. A putt-putt, gas-driven handcar was used between locations and base. The run was over a rough rail-bed and, while it was scenic, it was frightening to contemplate the sheer drop of 6000 feet.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: This western has some shortcomings. First of all, at 131 minutes it is undoubtedly too long. True, there are no scenes that are really expendable. What is needed is some judicious trimming within the scenes themselves — the slow-motion sequences could go for a start. (Not only are they intrusive, but they slow down the action). Next is the problem of the characters themselves. There are eight riders in the race — and they are all likable. Although there’s still some dramatic tension between the characters, it’s not as much as it could be. Furthermore, as there’s no really bad character, the plot suffers. No characters play any mean tricks or try to take any really unfair advantage of the other contestants. In fact it’s a much more friendly race than the publicity blurbs would have us believe. This lack of a conventional villain causes an additional plot problem — how to dispose of some of the contestants before the finish line. One has a heart attack (a scene that’s handled very effectively, particularly by the two actors concerned), two lose their horses (understandable), but two are conveniently removed by the sudden intrusion of a group of convicts. This melodramatic episode does not jell at all well with the very carefully documented realism of almost all the film’s other scenes.
This brings us to the film’s assets, which fortunately far outweigh its debits. Atmosphere it certainly has. There’s a real sense of toil and sweat against a hostile environment. There’s a real sense of cutting loose at the end of a back-breaking, dust-chewing trail. For the most part, the characters are very believable. The one important exception is the girl played by Candice Bergen. This is not Miss Bergen’s fault — it is simply that the whole idea is preposterous and has no rightful place at all in a film that is seemingly an attempt to recreate the vistas, the feelings and the atmosphere of the Old West.
Brooks has directed with a sure but somewhat indulgent hand. Some scenes are allowed to run too long. Perhaps we should sheet home a bit of blame for this on the film editor as well. All the other technical credits are first-class.
The acting cannot be faulted. Brooks has provided for the most part characters that are well-rounded and he has elicited performances — particularly from Gene Hackman, James Coburn, Ben Johnson, Ian Bannen, Jan-Michael Vincent and Mario Arteaga — that continually engage our sympathies even when they display traits that are not always admirable.
OTHER VIEWS: Candice Bergen has been described as a beautiful actress who projects her intelligence, humor, vulnerability and self reliance, all attributes that combine to make her a good actress, and who can be relied upon to give a consistently outstanding performance.
For the major female role in Bite the Bullet, she needed to display exceptional horsemanship. The role is a change from the All American girl she played in Carnal Knowledge and the college girl of Getting Straight.
Miss Bergen combines her acting talent with an insatiable desire to travel. She travelled to Formosa to star opposite Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough in The Sand Pebbles, to Greece for The Day the Fish Came Out, to France as a co-star with Yves Montand in Vivre Pour Vivre, and to Spain with Sean Connery in The Wind and the Lion. Her past credits also include The Adventurers, Soldier Blue, The Magus, and Hunting Party. In 1972, she was named one of the top ten box-office attractions in Great Britain.
Intensely interested in people and places, she has produced magazine articles and photographic essays observing the world with a keen eye for detail and humor. Her latest articles deal with the Masai Tribe of Kenya, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, and a Playboy account of her four-week trip to Red China, entitled “Can a Cultural Worker from Beverly Hills Find Happiness in the People’s Republic of China?”
She also wrote and photographed the cover story on Charles Chaplin’s return to the United States for LIFE. Her articles on her first film The Group, the mayhem of roller derbies, a social history of Bel-Air, profiles of former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, Oscar Levant, Paul Newman, and Lee Marvin, and the Presidential primaries in 1968 have appeared in Esquire, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan.
Born 9 May 1946 in Los Angeles, Candice is the daughter of Edgar and Frances Bergen. She has one brother, Kris. She attended the Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles, the Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., as well as a school in Switzerland, and the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in art, history and creative writing. At Penn, she won the best actress award for her performance as the neurotic, introverted Alma in Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke. She also has won awards for her photography.
While studying at Penn, she commuted to New York for modeling assignments and was still a student when she made her motion picture debut as the mysterious, glamorous Lakey in The Group.
— Columbia Publicity.
--
Hugh Marlowe (Lorn Crawford), Coleen Gray (Jeannie), Richard Gilden (Dewey Crawford), Angie Dickinson (Sally), Strother Martin (Thorny), Paul Richards (Murdock), Charles Gray (Chick Hainline), William R. Hamel (Constable), Patrick O’Moore (governor), Dorothy Schuyler (Delilah), Sheb Wooley (Lasater), John Pickard (Sheriff Persons), Adele Mara (Ruthie), Harry Landers (Fiddler), Howard Culver (Dr Gillette), Duane Thorsen (Deputy Floyd), Rush Williams (Jailer Garner), Sid Curtis (bartender), Rick Arnold, Robert Garvey, Bill Ward (red legs).
Directed by CHARLES MARQUIS WARREN. Director of photography: Joseph Biroc. Story and screenplay by Orville Hampton. Music composed and conducted by Raoul Kraushaar. Production manager: Glenn Cook. Supervising editor: Fred W. Berger. Assistant director: Lester Guthrie. Sound: Lloyd D. Wiler. Script supervisor: Richard Chaffee. Property master: Mike Gordon. Set dressing: G.W. Bernstein. Wardrobe: Robert Odell. Make-up: Jack Dusick. Hair dressing: Patti Whiffing. Sound facilities: Roderick Sound, Inc. Optical effects: Jack Rabin and Lewis DeWitt. Filmed in Regalscope. Producer: Robert Stabler.
Copyright 1956. A Regal Films Inc. Production. A Regalscope Picture, released by 20th Century-Fox. No New York showcase. U.S. release: December 1956. U.K. release: 25 February 1957. Australian release: 21 March 1957. 77 minutes. Censored by approximately 90 seconds in the U.K.
SYNOPSIS: In a small western town shortly after the Civil War, a girl wearing a black hood slips into the local jail and forces the jailer to release outlaw Chick Hainline (Charles Gray). Sheriff Persons (John Pickard) suspects one of four dance-hall girls aided the outlaw escape. He rounds them all up and runs them out of town. The girls are Delilah (Dorothy Schuyler), Sally (Angie Dickinson), Ruthie (Adele Mara), and Jeannie (Coleen Gray). They leave in an old rig, but along the road the wheel breaks and all are stranded.
Young Dewey Crawford (Richard Gilden), who, with his brother Lorn (Hugh Marlowe), runs the Star Valley Inn servicing stages, discovers them and takes them back to the inn. Lorn, however, realises the danger of the girls’ presence. It seems that Hainline is connected with Murdock (Paul Richards), the man with the black whip, whose “Blacklegs” are part of Quantrill’s old outfit. Lorn repairs the rig and is about to get rid of the girls when Murdock and his gang show up.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: A cut above the average RegalScope production. The script by Orville Hampton is promising, and there is Angie Dickinson in the cast. But the script develops its ideas poorly and soon bogs down in wordy dialogue. And Miss Dickinson has a very small role.
It was a mistake to boost up Coleen Gray’s part by giving her all the dialogue while the other three girls stand mutely in the background. Not only is Miss Gray an unattractive actress, but her hogging the scene makes the other characters seem so unimportant, we no longer care who let Chick Hainline out.
The climax is moderately exciting, even though it is spoilt by the fortuitous arrival of the sheriff.
Nonetheless, with considerable cutting of the talk (say, about twenty minutes), The Black Whip would make quite an acceptable programmer. True, Charles Marquis Warren’s direction is content to level peg on the competent but undistinguished mark. True, also, that production values are pretty dreary. But the script has something to offer, and most of the acting is reasonably in shape.
--
Scott Brady (Dan Kree), Paul Richards (Brill), Phyllis Coates (Bess Jameson), Don Haggerty (Gabe), Rocky Shahan (Taslatch), Des Slattery (Ceppi), Bill McGraw (Norm), Patrick O’Moore (McKenzie), Jeanne Bates (Aimee), Richard Gilden (Little Otter), John Dierkes (Ez), Diana Darrin (Lennie).
Director: CHARLES MARQUIS WARREN. Screenplay: Fred Freiberger. Music composed and conducted by Raoul Kraushaar. Photography: Fleet Southcott. Production manager and assistant director: Nathan R. Barrager. Film editor: Michael Luciano. Art direction: James W. Sullivan. Set decoration: Raymond Boltz Jr. Sound: Hugh McDowell. Script supervisor: Mary Chaffee. Properties: Ted Cooper. Wardrobe: Joseph Dimmitt and Vou Lee Giokaris. Make-up: Jack Dusick. Photographed in black-and-white Regalscope. Producer: Robert Stabler. Executive producer: Charles Marquis Warren. An Emirau Production for Regal Films, Inc. Released through 20th Century-Fox.
Copyright 1958 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 1 April 1958. U.K. release: 30 March 1958 (sic). Australian release: 4 December 1958. 6,655 feet. 74 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: While young Bess Jameson (Phyllis Coates), a Mormon girl, waits at a Wyoming trading post for small-pox serum to arrive from the East for her stricken Mormon settlement, Little Otter (Richard Gilden), a new Blackfoot chief, starts war against the whites.
When the serum arrives, Bess can find no one to escort her over the dangerous trail until she meets Dan Kree (Scott Brady), a down-and-out scout; Brill (Paul Richards), a gambler who believes there’s gold in the Mormon valley; and Gabe (Don Haggerty), a trapper who is trying to find his partner, Ez (John Dierkes). Bess promises the three men $600 in gold if they will help her, and with Taslatch (Rocky Shahan), a mute Blackfoot whose tonge has been torn out, they start the hazardous journey.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: This limited budget Regalscope western has little to commend it, though we liked Jeanne Bates and Don Haggerty. The film’s opening is so-so; but it gets worse as it ambles along, with Scott Brady recounting his Freudian childhood, between wan bursts of action.
Even the music score is ruthlessly pedestrian.
--
Curt Jurgens (Immanuel Rath), May Britt (Lola-Lola), Theodore Bikel (Kiepert), John Banner (Principal Harter), Fabrizio Mioni (Rolf), Ludwig Stossel (Professor Braun), Wolfe Barzell (clown), Ina Anders (Gussie), Richard Tyler (Keiselsack), Voytek Dolinski (Mueller), Ken Walker (Ertzum), Del Erickson (Lohmann), Edit Angold (Emilie), Gene Roth (drunken mariner), Stella Stevens, Ilse Burket, Barbara Luna, Carmen Austin (girls).
Director: EDWARD DMYTRYK. Screenplay: Nigel Balchin. Based on a screenplay by Karl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmoeller and Robert Liebmann, from a novel by Heinrich Mann. Photography: Leon Shamroy. Music: Hugo Friedhofer; conducted by Lionel Newman. Choreography: Hermes Pan. Art direction: Lyle R. Wheeler and Maurice Ransford. Set decoration: Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox. Special photographic effects: L. B. Abbott and James B. Gordon. Film editor: Jack W. Holmes. Costumes: Adele Balkan. Make-up: Ben Nye. Hair styles: Helen Turpin. Assistant director: Joseph E. Rickards. Sound: E. Clayton Ward and Harry M. Leonard. Orchestrations: Earle Hagen. Color consultant: Leonard Doss. Location scenes filmed in Rothenburg, Bavaria. Photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color. Producer: Jack Cummings. A Jack Cummings Production. Songs: “Falling In Love Again” by Frederick Hollander (Britt); “Lola-Lola” by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston (Britt); “I Yi Yi” by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren (ladies of the ensemble).
Copyright 1959 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Paramount: 4 September 1959. U.S. release: September 1959. U.K. release: October 1959. London opening at the Carlton, Haymarket. Australian release: 29 October 1959. 9,677 feet. 107 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Immanuel Rath (Curt Jurgens) is a martinet botany professor at a German high school who finds postcards bearing the revealing likeness of Lola-Lola, “The Blue Angel” (May Britt), in the possession of his pupils. That evening, he goes to the café where she is appearing to see if any of his pupils are there, and spots two of them.
In the course of chasing them, he meets Lola and the manager of the troupe, Kiepert (Theodore Bikel). He returns the next evening and becomes involved with Lola, the first woman he has ever known.
His visit to the café, and the fact that he spent the night with Lola, becomes common knowledge and he is forced to leave his school post. In spite of the protests of his friends, he marries Lola, who is intrigued by the idea of being the wife of a professor.
Unable to get work due to his wife, Rath falls lower and lower and finally we see him a thoroughly broken character, reduced to performing odd jobs around the troupe and living off the earnings of Lola.
On a return to his hometown, he is talked brutally into allowing himself to be a shill for Kiepert in a magic act so as to attract customers from among his old students and friends.
NOTES: This film is a remake of the 1930 German film that brought international fame to its director, Josef von Sternberg, and its two stars, Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich... In the original Blue Angel, the degraded schoolmaster went insane and died sitting at his desk in the classroom where he had once taught.
The Blue Angel is Jack Cummings’ first production for 20th Century-Fox after having worked many years for M-G-M, where he started as an office boy and worked his way up to producer. Some of his more memorable productions were Kiss Me Kate, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Last Time I Saw Paris and Teahouse of the August Moon.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: As you might expect, this remake cannot handle a candle to the von Sternberg version in any department — script, direction, cinematography, sets or acting.
Script: Changing the ending of the story and updating it was a big mistake.
Direction: Flat, lifeless and pedestrian.
Cinematography is too colorful and postcard-like. It tends to eschew the creation of mood and atmosphere in favor of an almost M-G-M musical approach.
Sets and costumes are attractive, but not in keeping with the story.
Aside from May Britt, who makes a valiant attempt not to imitate Dietrich (which would have been a mistake) but to flesh out Lola-Lola with her own seductively appealing personality, the acting is a disaster. Jurgens’ portrayal is not only almost entirely superficial but downright boring and dull, whilst Theodore Bikel succeeds in being repulsive without any saving graces of charisma.
OTHER VIEWS: This labored, lethargic, intolerably slow-moving re-make manages the seemingly impossible task of being deadly dull, despite the alluring presence of May Britt, a charmer to rival Dietrich if ever there was one!
— John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
--
Carol Lynley (Janet Willard), Brandon de Wilde (Arthur Bartley), MacDonald Carey (Major Malcolm Bartley), Marsha Hunt (Jessie Bartley), Nina Shipman (Lillian Bartley), Warren Berlinger (Ernie), Buck Class (Axel), Vaughn Taylor (Professor Willard), Roberta Shore (Cherie), Mary Young (Aunt Bidda), William Schallert (vice president), Michael Gainey (Hobie), Jennie Maxwell (Marion), Junie Ellis (woman in car), Anthony J. Corso (soda jerk).
Director: PHILIP DUNNE. Screenplay: Edith Sommer and Philip Dunne. Based on the play by James Leo Herlihy and William Noble. Photography: Leo Tover. Art direction: Lyle R. Wheeler and Leland Fuller. Set decoration: Walter M. Scott and Paul S. Fox. Editor: William Reynolds. Assistant director: Ad Schaumer. Costumes: Adele Balkan. Make-up: Ben Nye. Hair styles: Helen Turpin. Sound: Charles Peck and Harry M. Leonard. Music: Bernard Herrmann. Photographed in black-and-white CinemaScope. Westrex Sound System. CinemaScope lenses supplied by Bausch & Lomb. Producer: Charles Brackett.
Copyright 1959 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Victoria: 30 July 1959. U.S. release: August 1959. U.K. release: October 1959. Australian release: 12 November 1959. 8,046 feet. 89 minutes.
U.K. and Australian release title: BLUE JEANS.
SYNOPSIS: In a small suburban town, two teenagers fall in love. The boy, Arthur Bartley, is sixteen; a fairly good student and athlete, he finds it impossible to communicate with his preoccupied parents and spends most of his time in his basement den. The girl, Janet Willard, is a 15-year-old whose widowed father is trying to make her into an exact image of her late mother. Janet becomes pregnant.
NOTES: Running a modestly successful 166 performances, Blue Denim opened on Broadway at the Playhouse on 27 February 1958. Barbara Wolferman and James Hammerstein were the producers and Joshua Logan was the director. Burt Brinckerhoff, Chester Morris, June Walker and Pat Stanley created the roles played respectively by de Wilde, Carey, Hunt and Shipman. For the film version, Lynley and Berlinger repeat their stage characterisations.
Fox’s 5th most popular film in the U.S./Canadian market for 1958-59. Initial rentals gross was close to $4 million. The movie came nowhere near duplicating this sort of success in overseas markets. In Australia, I doubt if the rentals return managed to offset the print, advertising and distribution costs.
A sequel Blue Denim Baby was planned for 1961, but never got off the ground.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: The critics were right about this one. Despite the sincerity of the young players, the dullness of the direction, the excessive dialogue and the fact that the movie is obviously derived from a stage play, plus the very modest production values and the very routine credits (aside from Tover’s slick photography), not to mention the obtrusive and ill-conceived music score make the film somewhat less than mediocre entertainment.
--
Alan Ladd (Dr James Calder), Sophia Loren (Phaedra), Clifton Webb (Victor Parmalee), Jorge Mistral (Rhif), Laurence Naismith (Dr Hawkins), Alexis Minotis (government man), Piero Giagnoni (Niko), Charles Fawcett (Bill B. Baldwin), Gertrude Flynn (Miss Dill), Charlotte Terabust (Mrs Baldwin), Margaret Stahl (Miss Baldwin), Orestes Rallis (chief of police), The Penegrysis Greek Folk Dance and Songs Society.
Director: JEAN NEGULESCO. Screenplay: Ivan Moffat, Dwight Taylor. Based on the 1955 novel by David Divine. Photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color by Milton Krasner. Film editor: William Mace. Art directors: Lyle R. Wheeler, Jack Martin Smith. Set decorators: Bruno Avesani, Ugo Pericle. Wardrobe: Franco Salvo, Anna Gobbi. Make-up: Henry Vilardo. Hair styles: Catherine Reed. Music composed and adapted from Greek folk airs by Hugo Friedhofer, orchestrated by Edward B. Powell, directed by Lionel Newman. Title song by Takis Morakis (music), Paul Francis Webster (English lyrics), J. Fermanglou (Greek lyrics). Folk music assistant and advisor to Mr Friedhofer: Takis Morakis. Choreography: Yianni Fleury. Greek songs and dances directed by Dora Stratou. Special photographic effects: Ray Kellogg. CinemaScope lenses: Bausch & Lomb. Assistant director: Eli Dunn. 2nd assistant director: Carlo Lastricati. Sound recording: W.D. Flick, Harry M. Leonard. Producer: Samuel G. Engel.