THESE GREAT MOVIES WON NO HOLLYWOOD AWARDS
A Film-Lover’s Guide To The Best Of The Rest
John Howard Reid
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Howard Reid at Smashwords
Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid
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2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.
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HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 12
2011
Other 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 Great 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 Movies Reviewed in Books 1-24
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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
British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD
Musicals on DVD
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Table of Contents
B
Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Buck Privates Come Home (1947)
C
Charley’s (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940)
D
Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939)
F
Fanny Hawthorne (see Hindle Wakes)
G
Girl Was Young (see Young and Innocent)
Great Stagecoach Robbery (1945)
H
Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952)
I
J
L
M
Miracle from Mars (see Red Planet Mars)
Mr Denning Drives North (1951)
N
No Time for Tears (see Purple Heart Diary)
O
O’Flynn (see Fighting O’Flynn)
P
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
Passe Muraille (see Mr Peek-a-Boo)
Phone Call from a Stranger (1952)
Q
R
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938)
Rookies Come Home (see Buck Privates Come Home)
S
Sunny Side of the Street (1951)
T
Time, the Place and the Girl (1946)
Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)
Tonight and Every Night (1945)
Torpedo of Doom (see Fighting Devil Dogs)
W
When Boys Come Home (see Downhill)
Y
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939)
You Can’t Get Away with Murder (1939)
You Can’t Have Everything (1937)
More Great Movies That Won No Hollywood Awards
SPECIAL ADDED ATTTRACTION:
Rita Hayworth (Chris Emery), Glenn Ford (Steve Emery), Alexander Scourby (Max Fabian), Valerie Bettis (Veronica), Torin Thatcher (Inspector Smythe), Howard Wendell (Anderson), Karel Stepanek (Walters), George Voskovec (Dr Franz Huebling), Steven Geray (Wittol), Walter Kohler (Peter Bronec), Juanita Moore (Dominique), Gregg Martell (Olaf), Mort Mills (Martin), Robert Boon (pilot), Ralph Moody (coroner), Ross Elliott (Neal Emery), Franz Roehn (refugee), Don Kohler (Peters, the reporter), Kathleen O’Malley (stewardess), Fred Baker (airport clerk), Don Blackman (Bobby), Ivan Browning, Roy E. Glenn Sr., Joel Fluellen (fishermen), John Sherman (Englishman), Leonidas Ossetynski (passenger), Calvin Emery (newspaper reporter), John Parlow, Albert Szabo (butlers).
Director: VINCENT SHERMAN. Screenplay: Oscar Saul, James Gunn based on a story by Virginia Van Upp and Berne Giler. Film editor: Viola Lawrence. Cinematographer: Joseph Walker. Music score: George Duning. Music director: Morris Stoloff. Art director: Walter Holscher. Set decorator: William Kiernan. Costumes: Jean Louis. Make-up: Clay Campbell. Hair styles: Helen Hunt. Songs: “I’ve Been Kissed Before” (Hayworth dubbed by Jo Ann Greer) and “Trinidad Lady” (Hayworth dubbed by Jo Ann Greer), — both by Lester Lee and Bob Russell. Vocal arrangements: Saul Chaplin. Dances created and directed by Valerie Bettis. Assistant directors: Sam Nelson (1st), Earl Bellamy (2nd). Executive consultant for the Beckworth Corporation: Jackson Leighter. Sound engineer: Lodge Cunningham. Western Electric Sound System. Associate producer: Virginia Van Upp. Producer: Vincent Sherman. Executive producer: Rita Hayworth.
Copyright 23 July 1952 by Beckworth Corp. Released by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Victoria: 30 July 1952. U.S. release: September 1952. U.K. release: 6 October 1952. Australian release: 26 December 1952. Sydney opening at the State. 100 minutes. Cut to 8,822 feet (98 minutes) in the U.K.
SYNOPSIS: After a promisingly intriguing start, this turns out to be a routine spy yarn.
NOTES: Miss Hayworth states that the screenplay was mostly the work of Virginia Van Upp. Other writers who contributed revisions included Andrew Solt, Dalton Trumbo, Michael Wilson, Lewis Meltzer, Marion Parsonnet, Helen Deutsch, Lesser Samuels and Jo Eisinger. Heavily publicized as Hayworth’s comeback film — her previous fiction feature was The Loves of Carmen back in 1948, although she did play herself in the obscure, rarely-shown documentary Champagne Safari in 1951 — Affair in Trinidad emerged as one of America’s top-grossing pictures of 1952. The movie was almost equally successful in Australia, where it rated as the 17th most successful release of 1953. In fact, in Australia’s urban regions where Glenn Ford rated number one and Hayworth was extensively promoted in city newspapers, Affair in Trinidad was the big cinema event of the year. In Sydney, it opened as the Christmas attraction at G.U.’s palatial showcase, the State. I remember the theatre besieged by huge mobs of people during the Trinidad season — admittedly not quite as overwhelming as the colossal throngs which clamored for tickets for Fabiola, another Columbia release at the State earlier in ‘52 — but amazingly enthusiastic crowds nonetheless.
Jean Louis was nominated for an AMPAS Award for Best Costume Design in black-and-white, losing to Helen Rose’s costumes for The Bad and the Beautiful.
Negative cost: $1.2 million.
COMMENT: Engagingly acted, smoothly directed, atmospherically photographed and opulently produced, Affair in Trinidad has only one major drawback. A script that starts on a high plane of interest — promising plot, intriguing characters, snappy dialogue — but proceeds relentlessly and steadily, even if gradually, down-hill.
OTHER VIEWS: Although the 80-minute TV version leaves a few holes in the script and omits a couple of minor characters (I didn’t notice any refugees), it is a considerable improvement on the original which will please just about everybody except Mr Ford’s most rabid fans. Mr Ford makes a late entrance and disappears from the film altogether during most of the climax, but his absence is not missed all that much. He is less indulgently photographed than Miss Hayworth and his mannerisms seem even more theatrical than usual.
Miss Hayworth is very kindly treated by Joseph Walker’s soft-focus lighting and is stunningly gowned. She has the lion’s share of the action and acquits herself so effectively in the dramatic sections that the climactic sequences will have most viewers on the edges of their seats. Sherman’s direction shows his customary skill in the handling of action and his usual efficiency in dialogue scenes. Walker’s atmospheric photography is a big help in creating suspense.
Alexander Scourby comes over as delightfully sinister as Max Fabian. Surprising to see dance choreographer Valerie Bettis as one of his confederates (she has the inside gag line, “Maybe I ought to learn to dance!” which was no doubt penned on the set) and essaying a scene in which she is slightly whiffed most effectively too! Torin Thatcher plays a police inspector with his usual air of forthright efficiency, whilst Howard Wendell does rather better as the American consul here than he does as the police commissioner in The Big Heat. Steven Geray tries a part right off his usual track and is most effective as a corrupt night club proprietor. The other roles are comparatively small, but are well cast and played.
Production values leave nothing to be desired — with the exception of the songs which are pedestrian and the dances which contrive to be both distasteful and unexciting.
— John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
Action is Sherman’s strong point and there is sufficient in this thriller to maintain strong audience interest. With the exception of Glenn Ford [who has a thankless role and is presumably along purely to make it another Hayworth-Ford box-office combination. The others: The Lady in Question (1940), Gilda (1946), The Loves of Carmen (1948) — Hayworth’s last film before Affair in Trinidad — and The Money Trap (1966)], acting is particularly impressive.
— John Howard Reid writing as Xavier Xerxes.
Miss Hayworth so aptly put it some years later:
“It wasn’t really a movie. It was a culmination of compromises made by everyone from the gateman at Columbia right up to Harry Cohn himself.”
Affair in Trinidad was Rita’s first feature film released in four years, and the public was therefore anticipating her return with great pleasure. But just four days prior to beginning principal photography, Rita announced her dissatisfaction with the script. Well aware that the public wanted Hayworth back on the screen, Harry Cohn put writers James Gunn and Oscar Saul to work revising the script and sweet-talked Rita into beginning on schedule.
When the caustic trade-paper reviews appeared after the first sneak preview, nobody at Columbia suspected that Affair in Trinidad would outgross Gilda by more than a million dollars! Resigned to the fact that Hayworth apparently could do no wrong, Cohn reissued Gilda.
Here are excerpts from two typical reviews of one of 1952’s top-grossing films:
Cue magazine:
“Before carrot-topped Rita Hayworth became royalty, she played (in Gilda) a tough, sexy songbird stranded in South America and sought after by every man within a thousand miles. Tempus fugits, and an actress becomes a princess and vice-versa and lo, and behold! — Rita is back again in Hollywood. And know what she’s playing? A tough, sexy songbird stranded in South America and sought after etc., etc.
“For students of cinematic curiosa, it is worth knowing that it was Glenn Ford who slapped her then and slaps her now, who saved her from an international cartel then and from a Russian espionage ring now. If this scratchy sound track seems to be repeating itself, it’s no accident. The plot is hemstitched a little differently, but not enough to disturb the fact that if you think you’ve seen and heard all this before, it’s simply because you have... All this is unwittingly comic rather than melodramatic, since Rita is supported (if that’s the word), in addition to Mr Ford, by a large cast that includes sneering villain Alexander Scourby, dancer Valerie Bettis (who never gets a chance to dance, with Rita in the picture), and Torin Thatcher.”
Howard McClay in the Los Angeles Daily News:
“Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford are pitted against a villainous ring of international spies in Affair in Trinidad and not the least among their adversaries is a tricky, cloak-and-dagger script which, despite occasional flairs of completely literate dialogue, becomes so knotty it would take an Eagle Scout to unravel it.”
— Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth.
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Will Rogers (Bill Harper), Greta Nissen (Countess Ilka), Marguerite Churchill (Queen Vania), Ray Milland (Lothar), Tad Alexander (King Paul), Gustav von Seyffertitz (De Polikoff), Ferdinand Munier (Senator Pilsbury), Edwin Maxwell (First Secretary), Lon Poff (chauffeur), Arnold Korff (palace protocol), Frank Atkinson (embassy valet), Tom Ricketts (Ambassador Littleton), Ben Turpin (butcher), Ernest Wood (Northfield Slater), Herbert Bunston (British ambassador), Theodore Lodi (French ambassador), Michael Mark (anarchist sniper), Paul Panzer (revolutionary), Toshia Mori (dinner guest), Russ Powell (revolutionary celebrant), Eric Mayne (dignitary).
Director: SAM TAYLOR. Screenplay: Guy Bolton. Story: Vincent Sheean. Film editor: Harold Schuster. Photography: John Mescall. Art director: Duncan Cramer. Costumes designed by Guy S. Duty. Music: Arthur Kay. Stills: Alexander Kahle. Assistant director: Walter Mayo. Sound recording: Alfred Bruzlin. Producer: Winfield Sheehan.
Copyright 13 October 1931 by Fox Film Corporation. New York opening at the Roxy: 13 November 1931. 6,300 feet. 68 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Good old Will – I mean Bill – brings the blessings of democracy to strife-torn Sylvania.
COMMENT: This interesting and quite charming movie actually improves immensely on a second viewing. First time around, the story seems not only overly cliched and sentimental but only sporadically amusing. I also found Ray Milland’s rather odd portrait of the ex-king somewhat distracting, and I didn’t warm at all to Tad Alexander’s eager-beaver child monarch. Even worse, I thought Sam Taylor’s direction routine at best. True it is that Milland didn’t improve much on second sight. He’s miscast, but does his best and isn’t actually on hand a great deal anyway. (Uneasy lies the actor that wears a crown). But everyone and everything else gallops away to glory. I enjoyed both Rogers’ homespun philosophy and his rope tricks, and I loved Greta Nissen’s engaging femme fatale. Edwin Maxwell has a delightful role. Ferdinand Munier and Tom Ricketts also presented some joyous bundles of fun. Sam Taylor’s direction, whilst unobtrusive (except for a couple of royally splashy dolly shots) rates as a most skilful achievement, making a brilliantly effective use of sound effects and setting off the film’s rich production values (particularly in sets, costumes and cinematography) to great advantage. Guy Bolton’s sly screenplay, despite its obvious bias, comes over as both chucklesome (if not downright hilarious) and fascinating.
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Robert Barrat (Sheriff Bill Cummings), Noah Beery jr (Chick Lyman), Guinn “Big Boy” Williams (Billy Sweet), Andy Clyde (Henry Cluff), Paul Hurst (Dogface), Robert Coote (Eaton), Addison Richards (Raeburn), Douglas Walton (Mulford), Francis Ford (Charlie Garth), Francis McDonald (Lopez), Carlyle Moore jr (cavalry lieutenant), Billy Wilkerson (Indian).
Director: LEW LANDERS. Story and screenplay: Clarence Upson Young. Photography: Frank Redman. Film editor: George Hively. Art directors: Van Nest Polglase and Feild Gray. Music: Roy Webb. Music director: Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Assistant director: Sam Ruman. Sound recording: Earl A. Wolcott. RCA Sound System. Production supervisor: Lee Marcus. Producer: Robert Sisk.
Copyright 11 August 1939 by RKO-Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 8 August 1939. U.S. release: 11 August 1939. Australian release: November 1939. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A posse is trapped in the mountains by Apache Indians.
COMMENT: The dramatic idea of isolating a varied assortment of characters in a perilous, life-or-death situation is not exactly new, but it is given a vigorous work-out here in this highly-charged western, enacted by a fine cast of veteran players led by Robert Barrat. The direction by Lew Landers is surprisingly taut. Frank Redman’s grippingly atmospheric photography also helps keep the audience’s eyes and ears firmly on the screen.
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Bob Hope (Jimmy Walker), Vera Miles (Betty Compton), Paul Douglas (Chris Nolan), Alexis Smith (Allie Walker), Darren McGavin (Charley Hand), Joe Mantell (Bernie Williams), Horace McMahon (prosecutor), Richard Shannon (Dick Jackson), Willis Bouchey (Arthur Julian), Sid Melton (Sid Nash), George Jessel (himself), Walter Catlett (Al Smith), Charles Meredith (Walker’s old professor), Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Durante, Jack Benny (themselves), James Flavin (fire commissioner), Joe McTurk (night club proprietor).
Narrated by Walter Winchell.
Director: MELVILLE SHAVELSON. Screenplay: Jack Rose, Melville Shavelson. Based on the 1949 biography by Gene Fowler. Photographed in Technicolor and VistaVision by John B. Warren. Film editor: Floyd Knudtson. Art directors: Hal Pereira, John Goodman. Set decorators: Sam Comer, Frank McKelvy. Costumes: Edith Head. 2nd unit photography: Wallace Kelley. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Special photographic effects: John P. Fulton. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Hair styles: Nellie Manley. Technicolor color consultant: Richard Mueller. Music arranged and conducted by Joseph J. Lilley. Songs and musical numbers staged by Jack Baker. Songs: “Manhattan” (Miles dubbed by Imogene Lynn), music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart; “Will You Love Me in December?” (Hope and company) by James J. Walker and Ernest R. Ball; “Someone To Watch Over Me” (Miles dubbed by Imogene Lynn) by George Gershwin (music) and Ira Gershwin (lyrics); “The Sidewalks of New York” (Hope, Durante, Benny and company) by James Blake and Charles Lawlor, with special Yiddish lyrics for the film by Sammy Cahn; “His Honor the Mayor of New York” by Sammy Cahn (lyrics) and Joseph J. Lilley (music); “When We’re Alone” by Will Jason and Val Burton. Assistant director: Michael D. Moore. Production associate: Hal C. Kern. Sound recording: Charles Grenzbach, Hugo Grenzbach. Westrex Sound System. Producer: Jack Rose. Executive producer: Bob Hope. A Hope Enterprises Production, released through Paramount Pictures.
Copyright 1956 by Hope Enterprises, Inc. New York opening at the Astor: 26 June 1957. U.S. release: July 1957. U.K. release: 11 August 1957. Australian release: 17 October 1957. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 25 October 1957 (ran 11 days). 9,609 feet. 106 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Handsome, debonair James John Walker (1881-1946) served as the 100th mayor of New York City from 1926-1932 when he was forced to resign over allegations of corruption.
NOTES: In British prints, the off-camera commentary was spoken by Alastair Cooke.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: The film raises important questions of morality, both public and private. Essential viewing for all.
COMMENT: A more or less straight role which fits Bob Hope like a glove. The real-life Walker had plenty of quips and show business in his blood (he wrote the song “Will You Love Me in December?”). Hope not only exploits these traits to the full (there are two musical highlights, one with Hope joining an exuberant Jimmy Durante in “The Sidewalks of New York”) but presents Walker as a likeable and fully rounded personality, constantly battling Tammany and the Catholic Church, whose only mistake is trusting his own judgment as to the honesty and integrity of the key officials he appoints. This is undoubtedly one of Hope’s best performances ever, but it proved not overly popular with his fans. More disappointingly, the comedian’s fellow actors failed to appreciate how brilliantly he’d handled a very complex and difficult role. Even the wisecracks are delivered in true Jimmy Walker style.
Hope is assisted by a fine gallery of support players led by the perfectly cast Paul Douglas as a politically wise ward-heeler, the vulnerable Vera Miles and the opportunistic Alexis Smith. Walter Catlett has a stand-out cameo as Al Smith.
Shavelson and Rose have penned a script that is sharp, witty, pointed yet poignant; Rose has produced on an expensive budget, with wonderful photography, sets and costumes; Shavelson has directed with force and flair.
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Mae Questel (voice of Beety Boop).
Director: DAVE FLEISCHER. Animators: Roland Crandall, Thomas Johnson. Producer: Max Fleischer.
Copyright 14 April 1934 by Paramount Productions, Inc. A Betty Boop cartoon (in black-and-white). 1 reel.
COMMENT: Sad to say, as Betty got older, she grew a bit wiser, but neither funnier nor more quirky. A critic recently commented that from a child’s point of view, the earlier Fleischer cartoons are very creepy because everything in them is animated. In this one, for instance, a grandfather clock suddenly comes to life and a pair of socks are magically transformed into a couple of snarling dogs! In fact, this delightfully sly take-off on Alice in Wonderland not only crams just about all the well-loved characters into a fast-paced seven minutes, but brims full of marvelous effects, not the least of which is the full-frame animation in which dozens of figures cavort around in a single set-up.
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Silvana Mangano (Silvana Melita), Doris Dowling (Francesca), Vittorio Gassman (Walter), Raf Vallone (Marco), Checco Rissone (Aristide), Nico Pepe (Beppe), Andriana Sivieri (Celeste), Lia Corelli (Amelia), Maria Grazia Francia (Gabriella), Anna Maestri (Irene), Dedi Ristori (Anna).
Director: GIUSEPPE de SANTIS. Screenplay: Giuseppe de Santis, Ivo Perilli, Corrado Alvaro, Carlo Musso, Carlo Lizzani, Gianni Puccini. Based on a story by Giuseppe de Santis and Carlo Lizzani. Cinematographer: Otello Martelli. Music composed by Goffredo Petrassi conducted by Fernando Previtali. Film editor: Gabriele Barriale. English adaptation and titles: Clare Catalano. Producer: Dino De Laurentiis.
Not copyright 1948 by Lux Films. New York opening in a sub-titled version at the World: 18 September 1950. U.S. release through Lux Films (sub-titled version) on 21 September 1950 and through Italian Films Export (dubbed version) in 1952. London opening of the sub-titled version at the Rialto, around March 1950. U.K. release of this version through Gelardi, Rashbrooke. Australian release in an English-dubbed version by RKO Radio Pictures: 7 March 1952. Sydney opening at the Esquire. Running times: 112 minutes (Australia), 103 minutes (London), 107 minutes (New York), 93 minutes (U.S. dubbed version).
Original Italian title: RISO AMARO.
SYNOPSIS: See below.
NOTES: Giuseppe de Santis and Carlo Lizzani were nominated for the 1950 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture Story, losing to Panic in the Streets.
COMMENT: Riso Amaro has for its background the rice-fields in the valley of the northern Po — fields to which Italian girls go every year to work under appalling conditions. It is a startling background — panoramic, seething with life and incident. De Santis seizes all the possibilities, and often realizes them brilliantly, though the political trimmings are halfhearted. Fortunately, Silvana is played by a magnificent creature, Silvana Mangano, whose first important film part this is. The frequent knee-angle shots of her emphasise her remarkable animal quality and physique; as an actress she is fairly competent, and more than this in the boogie-woogie sequences, which have the passion of authenticity.
— Gavin Lambert.
OTHER VIEWS: Italian films of the forties and early fifties always pose a bit of an aural dilemma for me. I mean the dubbing. On the whole, I have a preference for the English-dubbed version because in most cases the British or American stars post-sync their own voices, whereas in the Rome version, none of the players — aside from the really big stars like Anna Magnani, Gino Cervi and Amedeo Nazzari — are allowed anywhere near a microphone. It’s strange to hear Vittorio Gassman’s distinctively throaty voice replaced by a bland radio actor’s; and equally disconcerting to find Silvana’s peasant girl speaking beautifully cultured studioese.
Of course, Bitter Rice was such a sensational success, it launched not only Mangano, but Gassman and Vallone as well on to the international scene. Gassman was offered a Hollywood contract and before long was co-starring opposite the likes of Elizabeth Taylor. Mangano continued her career after marrying this film’s producer in 1949. Incidentally, Bitter Rice was not her first film. She’d previously made L’elisir d’amore for director Mario Costa in 1947. And she was eighteen, not seventeen, when she starred in Riso Amaro.
Alas, the film did nothing for the waning career of that ultra-classy siren of The Blue Dahlia, Doris Dowling. Forced to play second fiddle to Mangano, she’s not only dowdily dressed but robbed of her voice.
I thought the attempt to marry documentary neo-realism with a melodramatic plot worked rather well. The realistic backgrounds made the story seem far more credible, whilst at the same time the more sensational aspects of the story lend an added power and poignancy to the plight of the rice workers. The four leading characters are skillfully delineated. The writers give them enough quirks to make their behavior and reactions individualistic without descending into caricature.
Director De Santis and photographer Martelli’s probing camera explore the teeming settings to the full, assisted by a no-holds-barred budget and an appropriately atmospheric music score.
— J.H.R.
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Jane Wyman (Louise Mason), Charles Laughton (Fred K. Begley), Joan Blondell (Annie Rawlins), Richard Carlson (Gerald Kean), Agnes Moorehead (Mrs Palfrey), Don Taylor (Dr Robert Palfrey), Audrey Totter (Helen Williams), Cyril Cusack (Frank Hutchins), Everett Sloane (district attorney), Natalie Wood (Stephanie Rawlins), Vivian Vance (Alicia), Carleton Young (Mr Palfrey), Alan Napier (Professor Carter), Warner Anderson (Bill), Les Tremayne (Joplin), Dan Seymour (Pelt), Dan O’Herlihy (Hugh Williams), Henry Morgan (Charles Hall), Gary Lee Jackson (Robert Palfrey as a boy), Gregory Marshall (Harrison Palfrey), Dee Pollack (Tony), Dr John F. Scott, Rev. F.C.B. Bellis, Rev. Joseph A. Erickson Jr (themselves), Miles Shepherd (guard), Ann Moore (Sarah), Richard Norris (Denis), Jane Liddell (Denis’ wife), Torben Meyer (photographer), Jim Hawkins (Tommy), Sammy Shack (cabbie), Sylvia Simms (Miss Quimby), Joy Hallward (Miss Golub), Lewis Martin (archbishop), Lillian Albertson (Mrs Lipscott).
Director: CURTIS BERNHARDT. Screenwriter: Norman Corwin based on a story by Francois Campaux. Film editor: George J. Amy. Cinematographer: Franz Planer. Music composed by Franz Waxman and directed by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Songs: “Daddy” (Blondell) by Bob Troup; “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” (Blondell) by Billy Higgins and W. Benton Overstreet. [Waxman adapted his background theme into a song called “Devotion” with lyrics by Jack Brooks, but only the music was heard in the film]. Art directors: Albert S. D’Agostino, Carroll Clark. Set decorators: Darrell Silvera, Al Orenbach. Gowns designed by Milo Anderson. Miss Wyman’s make-up and hair styles created by Perc Westmore. Still photographs: John Miehle. Technical advisor: Dr John F. Scott. Sound recording: Jean L. Speak, Clem Portman. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Raymond Hakim. Producers: Jerry Wald, Norman Krasna. A Wald-Krasna Production.
Copyright 27 October 1951 by Wald-Krasna Productions, Inc. Released by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. New York opening at Loew’s Criterion: 26 October 1951. U.S. release: October 1951. U.K. release: 26 November 1951. Australian release: 8 February 1952. 10,256 feet. 114 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: After the death of her own baby, a World War 1 widow devotes her life to looking after other people’s children.
— Copyright summary.
NOTES: A re-make of the 1942 French film of the same name, directed by Jean Stelli from an original story and screenplay by Francois Campaux, starring Gaby Morlay.
Jane Wyman was nominated for an AMPAS award for Best Actress, losing to Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire. Joan Blondell, nominated for the AMPAS award for Best Supporting Actress, dipped out to Kim Hunter, also of Streetcar.
However, Jane Wyman did win the 1951 Golden Globe Award (voted by members of the Foreign Press Association) for Best Actress of the year.
With a world-wide film rentals gross of $3.55 million, one of RKO Radio’s most popular pictures of the year. In Australia, the movie proved a particularly strong drawcard, coming in at number 20 on the nation’s list of major ticket-sellers for 1952.
COMMENT: A lengthy portmanteau film, tied together by a nurse who is not only the script’s central character, but its active protagonist who appears in every single scene! Naturally, the film will stand or fall by the casting of this central role — and unfortunately it falls. Jane Wyman is totally inadequate. This is a woman who is supposed to have spunk and personality, but Jane Wyman’s portrayal is consistently dreary, — the mousy, self-effacing stiff-upper-lip of the earlier scenes turning into the garrulous, old, cliché-chattering windbag of the concluding episodes (which are doubly slow-moving as Miss Wyman has chosen to totter through them at half her normal, snail-like pace).
The only other character that runs through the film is that of the misanthropic toy-shop proprietor, a creation of mind-boggling incredulity. It is never revealed that this character has any hidden wealth or private means, yet his shop is always well-stocked even though he persistently chases his few customers away. It is hard to see how the Jane Wyman character could be attracted by this anarchist, especially in view of the charmless manner in which he is played by Cyril Cusack.
The rest of the cast is rather better. Laughton over-acts atrociously, but Joan Blondell brings plenty of zing to her sketch and is only cowed by the impossible dialogue in a climax of sheer bathos. The other cast members flit across the stage but briefly and do not get a chance to make a deep impression, though Agnes Moorehead, Audrey Totter, Everett Sloane and Henry Morgan make the most of their limited opportunities.
The direction is competent but stolidly undistinguished, though it is well-served by the photography and art direction. Still, no matter how good these factors might be, you can’t build a house on a foundation of straw — a script that descends to bathos and cliché at every opportunity and a lackluster performance in the pivotal role.
OTHER VIEWS: For their first independent production the Wald-Krasna team have taken over a mediocre French film, Le Voile Bleu, as a basis for a long, episodic, unashamed tear-jerker. The changes are determinedly and rather tediously rung on a single theme — self-sacrifice carried to lengths which appear unnecessary and excessive — with an extra twist of pathos to each episode until the contrived and whole-heartedly sentimental happy ending brings Louise’s sufferings to a close. The Blue Veil has the advantage of being quite clear as to what it is about: its rarified emotional atmosphere is seldom endangered by too close a contact with reality. In the circumstances the script (Norman Corwin) is reasonably restrained, with dialogue which occasionally rises above the superior soap-opera level attained by Curtis Bernhardt.
Jane Wyman — whose rate of ageing has been adjusted to the demands of the plot, with rapid acceleration towards doddering senility in the last scenes — gives a performance which, although conscientious, is both too calculated and too self-satisfied to achieve the pathos attempted. There is a lively and welcome diversion from Joan Blondell, as the selfish actress, before she, too, surrenders to the prevailing sentimentality.
— Penelope Houston.
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Stan Laurel (himself), Oliver Hardy (himself), Antonio Moreno (Devilshoof), Jacqueline Wells (Arline as adult), Darla Hood (Arline as child), Mae Busch (Mrs Hardy), James Finlayson (Captain Finn), William P. Carleton (Count Arnheim), Thelma Todd (Gypsy queen’s daughter), Zeffie Tilbury (Gypsy queen), Harry Bowen (the drunk), James C. Morton (constable), Mitchell Lewis (Salinas), Eddie Borden (foppish nobleman), Harry Bernard (town crier), Andrea Leeds (maid and governess), Margaret Mann (Arnheim’s mother), Harold Switzer (gypsy kid), Sam Lufkin (shopkeeper/guard in torture chamber/victim of pickpocket), Bob O’Conor (tavern waiter), Bobby Dunn (cross-eyed bartender), Felix Knight (Gypsy tenor), Dick Gilbert, Leo Willis (brutes in torture chamber), Jack Hill, Arthur Rowlands, Lane Chandler, Baldwin Cooke, Lee Phelps (soldiers), Bill Madsen, Frank Darien (bits), Sammy Brooks, Howard Hickman, Edward Earle, Alice Cooke, Tony Campenero, Jerry Breslin, Eddy Chandler, Rita Dunn (Gypsy vagabonds), Charlie Hall (voice-over for Gypsy offering congratulations), “Yogi” (talking mynah bird), “Laughing Gravy” (dog), Paulette Goddard.
Directors: JAMES W. HORNE, CHARLES ROGERS. Screenplay: Charles Rogers, James Parrott, Charlie Hall, Stan Laurel, Frank Butler, Hal Roach. Based on the 1843 opera with music by Michael W. Balfe, book by Alfred Bunn. Photography: Art Lloyd, Francis Corby. Film editors: Bert Jordan, Louis McManus. Re-cut under the supervision of Hal Roach and Stan Laurel. Music director: Nathaniel Shilkret. Songs: “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls” (Wells), “Then You’ll Remember Me” (Knight), “The Heart Bowed Down”, “But Memory Is the Only Friend that Grief Can Call Its Own” by Michael W. Balfe (music), Alfred Bunn (lyrics); “Heart of a Gypsy” by Nathaniel Shilkret and Robert Shayon . Art directors: Arthur I. Royce, William L. Stevens. Production manager: L.A. French. Sound recording: Elmer R. Raguse. Producer: Hal Roach.
Copyright 12 February 1936 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corp. New York opening at the Rialto: 16 February 1936. U.S. release: 14 February 1936. Australian release: 8 July 1936. 8 reels. 70 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Based on the operetta by Balfe, this is a tale of gypsies who, offended by the master of a noble house, kidnap his only child, and raise her as one of their own. Years later, the gypsy band returns to the same locality, where the old nobleman still mourns the loss of his daughter. The girl, now a young lady, in love and unaware of her past, is betrayed by a jealous gypsy woman and wrongly blamed for a theft from her father’s house. About to be flogged for the crime, her identity is unexpectedly revealed and she is re-united with both her father and her lover.
NOTES: Final film appearance of Thelma Todd, who died under mysterious circumstances on 16 December 1935. In order to eliminate controversy, most of her scenes were dropped.
M-G-M’s biggest boxoffice success in France for 1936.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.
COMMENT: One could be nasty and say that it was difficult to tell which was funnier: the scenes that were meant to be funny or those that were meant to be taken seriously. The directors lost a grand opportunity to really send up this ridiculous old operetta by having most of the players including Moreno, Wells, Busch and Carleton play with heavy theatrical over-emphasis admittedly but perfectly straight nonetheless — and even Mr Hardy himself is guilty in his few dramatic scenes. One could say this except that the funny scenes in the hands of such two accomplished masters of timing are so funny, particularly the last couple of reels with Stan doing some delightful business with some empty bottles and a climactic run-in with our old friend James Finlayson and Stan delightfully putting the soldiery to flight with a whip; and we love Oliver’s masterful fade-out on the scene in which he is suddenly presented with a six-year-old child — “Come, Stanley, let’s spread the glad tidings!” enunciated with delightfully comic emphasis. Where McCabe gets the idea there are only two songs I don’t know. The 52 minute TV version is full of songs, not only solos for some romantic gypsy, Miss Wells and Mr Carleton, but numerous choruses of gypsies and soldiers and an insistent music score that heavily underlies every scene whether “dramatic” or comic. The songs themselves are not bad and some are quite catchy but in keeping with the film’s generally drab production values, the sound recording is tinny and the staging is straight out of a stage presentation of the operetta by the Lower Podunk Amateur Dramatic Society. At least the corny and unintentionally ludicrous presentation matches the wheezes of the dialogue (which seems to have been lifted straight from the stage) and the risibly melodramatic turns of the plot. Oddly enough the 52 minute TV version in which some unsung genius has made a game try to improve the film by extremely sharp editing and elaborate cross-cutting in the first 30 minutes or so is a reasonable success. Aside from L&H, Finlayson and Zeffie Tilbury alone of the players enact their ludicrous lines with the tongue-in-cheek heartiness they deserve.
OTHER VIEWS: The full 70 minutes version is entertaining and also moves fast, though there is still a bit of inventive cross-cutting and the censor has chopped Moreno’s flogging scene (which is accompanied bizarrely by a light-hearted tune from the background orchestra). Laurel and Hardy’s fortune-telling episode which was deleted from the 52 minutes version has been restored — and a very funny sequence it is too. Oddly it also boasts one of the most effectively inventive camera angles of any L&H movie (not generally noted for their photographic finesse). L&H are remarkably at home in the weird plot, but the support players fare less adroitly. Fin is great but doesn’t enter till the climax. On the other hand, Tilbury and Todd (who has virtually nothing outside of her introductory song, which is dubbed anyway) disappear without explanation after their initial scenes. When she finally enters, Julie Bishop makes a fetching heroine, though saddled with obvious dubbing for her famous solo, “I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls”. Despite the poor sound quality and primitive staging, the songs come across excitingly enough to maintain interest in the overly melodramatic plot. A bizarre fade-out with the boys saved NOT just in the nick of time is typical Laurel and Hardy. A technical note: I can’t distinguish the work of the two photographers. Most of the film is eerily half-lit. None of the images have the sharp quality of the extant still photos. Deliberate? or the result of duping?
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Armida (Conchita), Don Terry (Bob Hamlin), J. Frank Glendon (Buck Adams), Marjorie “Babe” Kane (Nina), Victor Potel (Slim), Wesley Barry (Victor Hamlin), Nita Martan (Gloria), Harry von Meter (captain of rurales), William Costello (lieutenant or rurales).
Director: RICHARD THORPE. Original story and screenplay: John Francis Natteford. Photography: Harry Zech. Film editor: Richard Cahoon. Art director: Ralph De Lacy. Music director: Al Short. Songs by Will Jason and Val Burton: “Song of the Rurales” (chorus), “The Girl from Topolombo” (Kane), “Yo Te Adoro” (Armida and Terry), “My Desert Rose” (Terry). Sound engineer: J. Stransky Jr. RCA Sound System. Producer: Lester F. Scott.
Copyright 13 May 1930 by Tiffany Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Colony: 25 May 1930. U.S. release: 18 May 1930. 7 reels. 5,974 feet. 66 minutes. Print under review is the re-issue presented by Amity Pictures.
SYNOPSIS: Bob Hamlin, his younger brother Victor and their helper Slim are horse-traders in Mexico. Their horses are stolen. Whilst pursuing bandits, they themselves are seemingly hunted by the rurales who want to question them about a tavern shooting in which a Mexican was killed. Bob still finds time to romance both Conchita, a diminutive yet spirited senorita, and Gloria, a bar-girl friend of the horse bandit; whilst Slim, who has saved some money, is vigorously pursued by his ex-wife Nina, a singer in the local cantina.
NOTES: Also released in a silent version.
Movie debut of Marjorie “Babe” Kane (not to be confused with Helen Kane. See Nothing But the Truth in this book).
VIEWER’S GUIDE: A fight between two wild stallions may disturb some people, but otherwise Border Romance is too quaint to offend.
COMMENT: This remarkably curious film certainly whets our appetite for more of the same. By the standards of the independent early sound western, it is not only lavishly produced but technically quite accomplished. There are no odd cuts, washed out photography or other evidences of primitive sound recording. Zech’s rich photography exhibits a nice range of contrasts, the film editing is reasonably deft, and the recording of the songs, whilst obviously dubbed, is still agreeably proficient.
Even more curious is that the film belongs not to the William S. Hart and The Covered Wagon traditions of the silent western, but is firmly in the camp of Rio Rita and Girl of the Golden West. Not only do the characters break into incongruous if pleasing song at every likely and unlikely opportunity, but they play to each other as if they were acting on a stage. They project their voices with stage emphases, they exaggerate their facial expressions, and their movements are blocked out within invisible but still potent stage confines.
This said, Armida makes a most attractive little heroine. Fans of “Babe” Kane will not be disappointed either, though she has only the one quick song, followed by a typically snappy dance. Don Terry is a bit wet as the hero, whilst Potel and Barry overact as his sidekicks — particularly Potel, though he does have one or two genuinely funny lines.
If it’s action and not song or comedy you’re after, you will probably be a bit disappointed, despite the long shoot-out, riding-to-the-rescue climax. Which brings us to our final curiosity. It’s an odd western indeed in which the comedy, romance and music are obviously regarded by all concerned as far more important than chases, fights and gunplay. In fact the songs are very tuneful indeed. Notice also that the music tends to play under the dialogue scenes whilst the action spots are left to the mercy of primitive sound effects.
The director: Richard Thorpe had already directed over sixty western features before Border Romance. A devotee of the don’t-make-it-good-make-it-Monday school of film-making, Thorpe was noted for his celerity in printing takes that other directors would have described as less than perfect. Thorpe always believed that striving for perfection was a waste of money and time. Mr and Mrs Average Picturegoer didn’t know and couldn’t tell the difference between Thorpe’s okay first or second take and William Wyler’s masterly 37th or 49th. Usually his films are staged with reasonable vigor but little imagination. Border Romance is less vigorous but more imaginative.
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John McCallum (David Howarth), Honor Blackman (Susie Bates), Patrick Holt (Sam Walters), Diana Dors (Ada Foster), Maurice Denham (Bill Martin), Leslie Dwyer (Steve Hall), Anthony Newley (Charlie Ritchie), Megs Jenkins (Nan Ritchie), John Blythe (Frankie Martin), Alison Leggatt (Mrs Howarth), Julian Mitchell (Mr Howarth), Hal Osmond (Mr Bates), Thora Hird (Mrs Bates), Amy Veness (Grandma Bates), Margaret Avery (Ginger), Cyril Chamberlain (Bert Gardner), Vera Cook (Helen Gardner), Barry Letts (Syd), Geoffrey Best (Harry), Patrick Halstead (Willie), Joan Seton (Beryl Howarth), Lyn Evans (policeman in cafe), Margot Bourke (Mary Bates), John Howlett (Alf Pearson), Wilfrid Lawson (dog seller), and Dennis Peck, Vera Williams.
Director: RALPH SMART. Screenplay: Ted Willis. Story: Ralph Keane, John Summerfield. Photography: Ray Elton. Location photography: Phil Grindrod. Film editor: James Needs. Music composed by Kenneth Pakeman, played by the London Symphony Orchestra. Music director: John Hollingsworth. Supervising art director: Maurice Carter. Designer and art director: Richard Yarrow. Make-up: W.T. Partleton. Camera operator: Frank Bassill. Cycles supplied by B.S.A. Cycles, Ltd. Production manager: Jack Hicks. Assistant director: Robert Lynn. Production controller: Arthur Alcott. Sound director: Brian C. Sewell. Sound recording: Al Rhind, W. Salter. Associate producer: Alfred Roome. Producer: Ralph Keane.
A Gainsborough Picture, presented by J. Arthur Rank. Never theatrically released in the U.S. Released in the U.K. through General Film Distributors: 20 June 1949. Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 10 November 1950. 8,468 feet in Australia; 8,251 feet in U.K. Australian running time: 94 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Landowner’s son buys a bike to aid him in his pursuit of a pretty cyclist.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.
COMMENT: This little-known (it isn’t even so much as mentioned in Best of British) naturalistic regional comedy gem not only boasts a fine cast of interesting players who are all given excellent opportunities in a fascinating script, but takes its characters firmly out of doors to explore the picturesque Yorkshire countryside (which is cleverly contrasted to the cramped, gloomy, claustrophobic environs of the town). Whether you’re interested in cycling or not, this movie is a must. A further bonus is the presence of Honor Blackman and Diana Dors, both of whom are not only attractive in looks and personality (though Diana has a character role), but act with pleasing assurance and total conviction. The script is well-paced and deftly directed, guaranteed to rivet the attention from starter’s flag to finish line.
OTHER VIEWS: Despite an ending that is both unsatisfying and unconvincing (McCallum has been playing his role with charm and sincerity throughout, are we suddenly to accept in the last few minutes that he has been insincere all along?) and a few other loose ends in the script (the destroyed bike, apprehension of the real thieves, and what happens to Bert?) plus unsatisfactory and obvious studio inserts of the principal players against a process screen during all the cycling episodes, this is a charming and entertaining regional romantic comedy/drama. It’s also difficult to believe that Diana Dors of all people would have to scratch around for someone to take her to the local dance. (Admittedly, the film was made before her period of super-stardom when Diana was in brilliant form in character roles, but even at her most girl-in-the-crowdish, she exuded terrific sex appeal). Otherwise the direction and the exterior camerawork with its rapid tracking shots of cyclists along country roads is exhilarating. And it’s nice to see Honor Blackman (with a very convincing Yorkshire accent too) even though she is not all that attractively costumed or photographed. Holt rates as fair, Newley, Denham and Blythe come over with appropriate conviction, Hal Osmond and Amy Veness never fail to be amusing (yes, it’s a shame they have only the one scene here) and the rest of the cast is okay. Music figures attractively and credits ride smooth.
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Fred Astaire (Johnny Brett), Eleanor Powell Clare Bennett), George Murphy (King Shaw), Frank Morgan (Bob Casey), Ian Hunter (Bert C. Matthews), Florence Rice (Amy Blake), Lynne Carver (Emmy Lou Lee), Ann Morriss (Pearl), Douglas McPhail (masked singer), Trixie Fischke (juggler), Gladys Blake (Miss Martin), George Chandler (Jones), Joseph Crehan (Dawnland manager), James Flavin (Dawnland worker), Chic Collins (Dawnland sailor), Jack Mulhall (theatre ticket-taker), Hal LeSeuer (Casey’s chauffeur), Vera Vague (receptioniste), Joe Yule (unemployed actor), Hal K. Dawson (O’Grady, press agent), Irving Bacon (soda jerk), Libby Taylor (Clare’s maid), William Tannen, Alphonse Martell (Emmy Lou’s friends), Charlotte Arren (audition singer), Johnny Broderick (audition singer’s accompanist), Herman Bing (silhouette artist), Jean Del Val (waiter), Blair Woolstencroft (unicyclist), E. Alyn Warren (“Pop”), Carmen D’Antonio (soprano), The Music Maids (singing quartette).
Director: NORMAN TAUROG. Screenplay: Leon Gordon, George Oppenheimer. Original story: Jack McGowan, Dore Schary. Additional script contributors Preston Sturges, Albert Mannheimer, Walter DeLeon, Eddie Moran, Thomas Phipps, Vincent Lawrence, Sid Silvers. Photography: Oliver T. Marsh, Joseph Ruttenberg. Film editor: Blanche Sewell. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, John S. Detlie. Musical numbers designed by Merrill Pye. Set decorator: Edwin B. Willis. Gowns: Adrian. Men’s costumes: Valles. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Jack Cummings.
Dance directors: Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell. Chorus directed by Bobby Connolly. Additional choreography (namely the chorus work for “I Concentrate on You”: Albertina Rasch. Songs by Cole Porter: “Please Don’t Monkey With Broadway” (Astaire, Murphy), “Between You and Me” (Murphy, Powell dubbed by Marjorie Lane), “I’ve Got My Eyes On You” (Astaire), “I Concentrate On You” (Astaire, Powell), “Begin the Beguine” (Astaire, Powell, D’Antonio dubbed by Lois Hodnett), “I’ve Got My Eyes On You” (Astaire, Powell, Murphy), — all by Cole Porter. “Jukebox Dance” (Astaire, Powell) by Walter Ruick. “All Ashore” (Powell) by Roger Edens. “Il Bacio” (Arren) by Luigi Arditi. Music director: Alfred Newman. Arrangements: Roger Edens, George Bassman, Murray Cutter, Wally Heglin. Vocal arrangements and orchestrations: Edward B. Powell, Leo Arnaud, Charles Henderson.
Copyright 9 February 1940 by Loew’s Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 28 March 1940. U.S. release: 9 February 1940. Australian release: 4 July 1940. 11 reels. 9,144 feet. 101 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Astaire and Murphy play a couple of struggling song-and-dance men in New York. Their act is seen by a big theatrical agent who picks out Astaire to be the dancing partner in his big new show opposite the big star, Powell. Through an accident of mistaken identity Murphy gets the job instead, but by the end this is straightened out and Astaire gets not only the part but, apparently, the girl as well.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Fine dancing, good songs, silly story. True, Frank Morgan conjures up a mildly amusing portrait, but the romantic triangle with the principals is not only dull but does them all — particularly Astaire — a distinct disservice. Judicious cutting would certainly help. We’re surprised that editor Sewell left in so much rubbishy padding between the musical numbers. Taurog’s middle-of-the-road direction lacks any sparkle and finesse that might have lifted the boringly straight script into the realm of passable entertainment. Fortunately, once they put on their dancing shoes, Astaire, Powell and Murphy kick up some suitable storms!
OTHER VIEWS: The last of The Broadway Melody series would seem to promise much in the union of Astaire and Powell (with George Murphy thrown in as a bonus) — plus a Cole Porter score — but alas in dancing terms it delivers somewhat less than expected. Too much attention is paid to the trite surrounding story for one thing.
— G.A.
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Michael Redgrave (Andrew Crocker-Harris), Jean Kent (Millie Crocker-Harris), Nigel Patrick (Frank Hunter), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Frobisher), Brian Smith (Taplow), Bill Travers (Fletcher), Ronald Howard (Gilbert), Paul Medland (Wilson), Ivan Samson (Lord Baxter), Josephine Middleton (Mrs Frobisher), Peter Jones (Carstairs), Sarah Lawson (Betty Carstairs), Scott Harold (Rev. Williamson), Judith Furse (Mrs Williamson), Joan Haythorne (Mrs Wilson), Vivienne Gibson (Mrs Saunders), Johnnie Schofield (taxi-driver), Russell Waters (school porter).
Director: ANTHONY ASQUITH. Screenplay: Terence Rattigan, based on his stage play. Photography: Desmond Dickinson. Art director: Carmen Dillon. Film editor: John D. Guthridge. Assistant director: George Pollock. Camera operator: Russell Thompson. Hair styles: Biddy Chrystal. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Teddy Baird. Made at Pinewood Studios by Javelin Films, London. Executive producer: Earl St John. Presented by J. Arthur Rank.
Released in the U.K. through General Film Distributors on 16 April 1951; in Australia through B.E.F. on 22 May 1952; in the U.S.A. by Universal in October 1951. Copyright in the U.S.A. on 27 April 1951 by Javelin Films, Ltd. New York opening at the Sutton: 29 October 1951. 8,070 feet. 90 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A schoolmaster is forced to retire in penury, due to ill-health.
NOTES: 5th best “foreign film” of 1951 — National Board of Review.
Whilst Bosley Crowther of The New York Times did not include The Browning Version is his “Top Ten”, he did give the movie a rave review and named it in his supplementary list.
COMMENT: The powerful and engrossing central role comes most vividly and most effectively to life here, thanks to superlative acting by Sir Michael Redgrave. He is given solid support by Jean Kent, while Wilfrid Hyde-White has one of his most memorable roles as the hypocritical old headmaster. In her review, Penelope Houston criticized Hyde-White for not bringing out the headmaster’s malicious delight in the humiliations he inflicts on Crocker-Harris, but I thought he handled this aspect superbly well under a none-too-subtly-disguised mask of affability. Ronald Howard’s part, however, proves surprisingly small, whilst Nigel Patrick approaches his role on far too superficial a level.
Asquith’s direction has class. Production credits and production values are first-rate. However, the movie is obviously a filmed stage play. Aside from the cricket match sequence, Rattigan has done little to open up the action. The weight of dialogue tends to be a little too suffocating at times, but the pace and grip of the film could be heightened by some slight, judicious cutting.
OTHER VIEWS: The screen version is an accurate and faithful translation of the play, adding nothing but the ending, and it is this ending which flaws the impression created by the rest of the film. Crocker-Harris is a victim less of circumstances than of his own character — his weakness, his inability to make friends, his essentially negative characteristics. The positive gesture of the speech to the school is out of key with all that has gone before: defenses built up over years of humiliation might have been cracked by a kindness, but not so completely shattered. Rattigan, as in the play, is content to show us both Crocker-Harris and the other characters from without, to state their motives and emotions rather than to explore them with any depth. The writing is sufficiently adept for each scene to carry its own conviction, but one is left with the impression that pieces are being moved skillfully on a chessboard rather than given life of their own.
— Penelope Houston.
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Bud Abbott (Corporal Slicker Smith), Lou Costello (Herbie Brown), Tom Brown (Bill Gregory), Joan Fulton (Sylvia Hunter), Nat Pendleton (Sergeant Collins), Beverly Simmons (Yvonne LeBru), Don Beddoe (Mr Roberts), Don Porter (Captain Christie), Donald MacBride (police captain), Lane Watson (1st lieutenant), William Ching (another 1st lieutenant), Peter Thompson (Steve), George Beban, Jr (Cal), Jimmie Dodd (Whitey), Lennie Breman (Hank), Al Murphy (Murphy), Bob Wilke (Stan), William Haade (husband), Janna de Loos (wife), Buddy Roosevelt, Chuck Hamilton (New York cops), Charles Towbridge (Quince), Milburn Stone (track announcer), Russell Hicks (Appleby), Joe Kirk (real estate salesman), Patricia Alphin [Audrey Young] (young girl), Ralph Dunn (Ed), John Sheenan (Drew), Cliff Clark (Quentin), Jean Del Val (Duprez), Frank Marlowe (buyer), Ottola Nesmith (French matron), Eddie Dunn (Mulroney), Harlan Warde, Lyle Latell, Myron Healey (medics), James Farley (bank guard), Rex Lease (chauffeur), Ernie Adams (tie customer), and Eddie Acuff, Milton Kibbee, Bully Curtis, Frank Mayo, Lee Shumway, Donald Kerr.
Narrated by Knox Manning.
Director: CHARLES T. BARTON. Screenplay: John Grant, Frederic I. Rinaldo, Robert Lees. Original screen story: Richard Macauley, Bradford Ropes. Film editor: Edward Curtiss. Music: Walter Schumann. Art directors: Bernard Herzbrun and Frank A. Richards. Set decorations: Russell A. Gausman and Charles Wyrick. Costumes: Yvonne Wood. Hair styles: Carmen Dirigo. Make-up: Jack P. Pierce. Assistant director: Joseph E. Kenny. Music orchestrations: David Tamkin. Special photography: David S. Horsley. Sound recording: Charles Felstead. Sound technician: Robert Pritchard. Producer: Robert Arthur.
Copyright Universal Pictures Co., Inc. and C.S. Co., 25 March 1947. New York opening at the Winter Garden: 11 April 1947. U.S. release: April 1947. U.K. release: 4 August 1947. Australian release: 16 October 1947. 6,942 feet. 77 minutes.
U.K. release title: ROOKIES COME HOME.
SYNOPSIS: After serving nobly — if ineffectually — as soldiers in World War II, Slicker (Bud Abbott) and Herbie (Lou Costello) board a troop transport to return to the United States.
During an inspection on board ship, Sergeant Collins (Nat Pendleton) and his captain (Don Porter) discover Evey (Beverly Simmons), a six-year-old French orphan whom Herbie has smuggled aboard.
The captain orders that Slicker and Herbie peel spuds until they mend their ways and that Evey be held for immigration authorities by a nurse, Sylvia (Joan Fulton), who also is a passenger.
NOTES: A sequel to Buck Privates (1941), with Bud Abbott, Lou Costello and Nat Pendleton reprising their original roles. In fact this film actually opens with the famous “drill routine” footage from Buck Privates.
VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.
COMMENT: Upstanding entertainment for Abbott and Costello fans with some amusing routines and a good chase finale. It is the only Abbott and Costello feature that is a sequel to another film and the only one to use footage from one of their previous features. In fact, the first ten minutes consists of a reprise of Buck Privates, including the opening sequence and the classic drill routine, tied together with some stock newsreel footage and a commentary spoken by Knox Manning. It is also unusual in its absence of musical numbers. There is a snippet of a going home song when the film itself starts, but that is all. There is also a very slight attempt at serious social comment, a factor not present in any other A&C film. The story itself is on the sentimental side, though it is not laid on to anything like the same extent as The Little Giant. Production values are first-class.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: In order to get race shots that would burn up the movie screens, Producer Bob Arthur and Director Charles Barton checked all recent auto race results and found the men with the best records. A full week was spent at Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles shooting the racers from all different angles, with the drivers often cutting loose at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
Included in the list are four of last year’s Indianapolis 500-mile racers, Ronnie Householder, Duke Nalon, Henry Banks and Louis Tomei. There also are five of the Pacific Coast’s top drivers, including Cal Niday, Al Sherman, Bob Pankratz, Chick Barbo and Lyle Dickey. George Davis, Australian champion, was brought in for the film, as were Mark Hilling, former motor cycle racer who has switched to the small cars, and Duane Carter who is well-known in the eastern and mid-western circuits.
— Universal Press Release.
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Audie Murphy (Logan Keliher), Darren McGavin (Sam Ward), Ruta Lee (Lottie), Beverley Owen (Susan), Skip Homeier (Pink), George Tobias (Diggs), Alan Hale, Jr (Leach), Berkeley Harris (Jeff), Edward C. Platt (Tucker), Kevin Tate (Sammy), Cece Whitney (Goldie), Mort Mills (Ira Snow), Buff Brady (Townsman Regas), Bob Steele (Sheriff Moore), Ray Teal (sweeper).
Director: R.G. SPRINGSTEEN. Screenplay: Mary Willingham, Willard Willingham. Based on the 1958 novel Renegade Posse by Marvin H. Albert. Photographed in Eastman Color (by Pathé) by Joseph Biroc. Film editor: Russell F. Schoengarth. Music composed by Frank Skinner, supervised by Joseph Gershenson. Art directors: Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead. Set decorator: Oliver Emert. Make-up: Bud Westmore. Hair styles: Larry Germain. Costume supervisors: Edward Armand, Olive Koenitz. Unit production manager: Howard Pine. Assistant directors: Phil Bowles (first), Carl Beringer (second). Sound recording: Waldon O. Watson, Joe Lapis. Westrex Sound System. Producer: Gordon Kay. Filmed at Universal City Studios, and on locations in Utah.