MOVIES
MAGNIFICENT
150 Must-See Cinema Classics
John Howard Reid
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Copyright (c) 2011 by John
Howard Reid
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reviewed by John Howard Reid
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HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS NUMBER ELEVEN
2011
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 Supporting Program
8. Hollywood’s Movie Miracles of Entertainment
9. Hollywood Gold: Famous 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. Movies International: 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
Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD
WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD
British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD
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Table of Contents
Affair of the Heart (see Body and Soul)
Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940)
Andy Hardy’s Double Life (1942)
Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary (1941)
Anna and the King of Siam (1946)
B
Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
Bachelor Knight (see Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer)
Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Big Heart (see Miracle on 34th Street)
C
Circle (see Strictly Unconventional)
Courtship of Andy Hardy (1942)
D
Down Went McGinty (see Great McGinty)
E
F
Fighting Westerner (see Rocky Mountain Mystery)
Fighting Sullivans (see Sullivans)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
G
George Washington Slept Here (1942)
H
I
J
Johnny in the Clouds (see Way to the Stars)
K
L
Lady Hamilton (see That Hamilton Woman)
M
Millionaire for Christy (1951)
Murder in Thornton Square (see Gaslight)
N
None But the Lonely Heart (1944)
Northwest Mounted Police (1940)
O
Outside the Law (see Strange Case of Doctor Meade)
P
Perfect Strangers (see Vacation from Marriage)
R
S
Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
Strange Case of Doctor Meade (1938)
Strictly Unconventional (1930)
T
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)
Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
U
V
W
Woman Who Was Forgotten (1929)
Y
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John Garfield (Sergeant J.B. Winocki), Gig Young (Lieutenant William Xavier Williams), Harry Carey (Sergeant R.L. White), George Tobias (Corporal B.B. Weinberg), Arthur Kennedy (Lieutenant T.C. McMartin), Johnny Mack Brown (Lieutenant T.A. Rader), John Ridgely (Captain Michael A. Quincannon), Stanley Ridges (Major Mallory), Warren Douglas (control officer), Murray Alper (demolition squad corporal), Ray Montgomery (Private Henry W. Chester), Charles Drake (Lieutenant M.W. Hauser), Moroni Olsen (commanding officer), Edward S. Brophy (Sergeant J. J. Callahan), Richard Lane (Major W.G. Roberts), Bill Crago (Lieutenant P.T. Moran), Ann Doran (Mary Quincannon), Faye Emerson (Susan McMartin), Dorothy Peterson (Mrs Chester), Ward Wood (Corporal Gustave Peterson), Tom Neal (marine), James Millican (marine with dog), William Forrest (Group Commander Jack Harper), George Neise, (officer at Hickham Field), Henry Blair (Quincannon’s son), James Bush (2nd control officer), Walter Sande (Sergeant Joe), George Offerman Jr. (ground crew man), Theodore Von Eltz (1st lieutenant), Ross Ford (2nd lieutenant), Rand Brooks (co-pilot), Ruth Ford, Leah Baird, Lynne Baggett, Marjorie Horshelle (nurses), William Hopper, Sol Gorss (sergeants), Willard Robertson (Colonel Chapman), Addison Richards (Major Daniels), James Flavin (Major Bagley).
Director: HOWARD HAWKS. Original screenplay: Dudley Nichols. Uncredited screenplay contributors: Arthur T. Horman, and William Faulkner (Faulkner worked on two sequences including the death of the pilot of the “Mary Ann”). Photographed by James Wong Howe. Aerial photography by Elmer Dyer and Charles Marshall. Film editor: George Amy. Art director: John Hughes. Set decorations: Walter F. Tilford. Gowns: Milo Anderson. Special effects directed by Roy Davidson and photographed by Byron Haskin, Rex Wimpy and H.F. Koenekamp. Music composed by Franz Waxman and directed by Leo. F. Forbstein. Assistant director: Jack Sullivan. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Chief Pilot: Paul Mantz. Sound recording: Oliver S. Garretson. A Howard Hawks Production. Producer: Hal B. Wallis. Executive producer: Jack L. Warner.
Copyright 20 March 1943 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. A Warner Bros.-First National Picture. New York opening at the Hollywood: February 1943. U.S. release: 20 March 1943. Australian release: 3 May 1945. 11,421 feet. 127 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: December 1941. The adventures of the U.S. fighter bomber “Mary Ann” in the Pacific theatre of war.
NOTES: George Amy won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ award for Film Editing, defeating Owen Marks (Casablanca), Doane Harrison (Five Graves to Cairo), Sherman Todd and John Link (For Whom the Bell Tolls), and Barbara McLean (The Song of Bernadette).
Air Force was also nominated for Original Screenplay (lost to Princess O’Rourke by Norman Krasna); Cinematography — black-and-white (lost to Arthur Miller for The Song of Bernadette); and Special Effects (lost to Crash Dive).
Air Force was selected by Bosley Crowther of the New York Times as one of the Ten Best Films of 1943. One of the seventeen critics in the New York Film Critics panel voted Air Force as the number one film of the year. (That critic was not Mr Crowther, who voted for the ultimate winner, Watch on the Rhine). Air Force was selected as number three on the National Board of Review list (behind The Ox-Bow Incident and Watch on the Rhine).
Domestic gross: $2,700,000.
COMMENT: Many World War 2 propaganda films now appear excessively dated to-day. Unfortunately, Air Force is no exception. The characters are the usual reluctantly gung-ho types, the dialogue is forced and the incidents strained. Even the action sequences are undermined by obvious process and model work.
The players do what they can with their two-cent parts, acting out all the false camaraderie with a too-eager patina of sincerity. Hawks’ deliberately eye-level direction comes across as strictly pedestrian. Even Howe’s photography (particularly in its ineptly filtered day-for-night sequences) is not up to his usual classy standard — though he was doubtless striving to give the film a grainy, “washed-out” (i.e. an image with no highlights) newsreel look. As for Amy’s Award-winning film editing, it’s routine “hand me another shot of that stock footage” stuff which doesn’t light a candle to Casablanca.
Hawks’ auteurist admirers will find plenty of their hero’s usual “themes”, but most viewers will be either bored silly or downright irritated by such unlikely and phoney devices as the rebel who turns into a hero, the “lovable” little dog who becomes the bomber’s mascot, the softly-spoken Southern officer-gentleman who is actually made of steel, the rough-voiced sergeant whose heart is chockers with loving kindness, etc., etc. 127 minutes of such drearily dated clichés is more than enough for any man. I hope I never see Air Force again.
OTHER VIEWS: Under-rated Howard Hawks war film with the director in superb form. Although the story has the usual heroics it is all brought vividly to life with superb performances, especially John Garfield. It’s the perfect culmination of an interest that began with The Air Circus.
— E.V.D.
A high ranking general in the Army Air Corps who was a friend of Hawks asked him to make this film as a contribution to the war effort. The air battles are a fine example of Hawks’s remarkable ability in handling action sequences; their editing and composition was better than anything up to 1943.
— Richard Roud.
A straight propaganda film, pushing the U.S. Air Force for rather more than it’s worth, with excessively slapstick comedy, spectacular action, and the usual sentimental passages; but beautifully made and having an exciting climax in the attempt to get the reconstructed bomber off the ground as the Japanese advance. Hawks, Garfield and the whole Warner production unit of the time, contribute characteristic work, with photography the major asset.
— B.P.
Captain Hewett T. Wheless and Captain Sam Triffy helped me prepare this complicated production… Nichols wrote a fine script involving characters that were a cross section of the Allies: an Irishman, a Pole, a Swede, a Jew, a Welshman and an Englishman… Dudley and director Hawks condensed the script and Joe Breen made more cuts on censorship grounds. He wanted army air force men to talk like choirboys. Typical cuts were: “Let’s go after those sons of heaven”; “This place is a hell-hole”; “He’s a pain in the pants”; “This is a lousy war”; “Go thumb your nose at him.”
In August 1942, Hawks and a very large cast left for Tampa, Florida… There was trouble as usual on location. Hawks had a tendency to rewrite dialogue… Tenny Wright, my production manager, reported constant changes and re-arrangement of scenes. I wired Howard to stop meddling with the script… I became more and more furious at the rapidly escalating budget caused by added sequences and Hawks’ slowness… On August 19, I lost patience, and demanded that Hawks wind up production and return home immediately. He flatly refused to do so, insisting he had three more days’ work — shooting a flight of B-17’s coming back to the airfield at dusk… It made a great shot… Jimmy Howe, a wizard, and one of my favorite cameramen… was marvelous.
— Hal B. Wallis in Starmaker
by Hal Wallis and Charles Higham
(Macmillan, New York, 1980).
According to Lawrence Howard Suid in his Introduction to the published screenplay (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1983), technical adviser Samuel Triffy did an enormous amount of uncredited work on the screenplay and on supervising the production generally (including the writing of dialogue, the shaping of the story, the construction of sets, the co-ordinating of Air Force co-operation, and piloting in the flying sequences). Suid notes that the dialogue in Nichols’ Final Revised shooting script bears “only a general relationship” to what the characters actually speak on the screen. Suid attributes the re-writing of the dialogue to Hawks and Triffy.
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Charles Boyer (Pepe Le Moko), Sigrid Gurie (Ines), Hedy Lamarr (Gaby), Joseph Calleia (Inspector Slimane), Gene Lockhart (Regis), Alan Hale (Grandpere), Walter Kingsford (Chief Inspector Louvain), Paul Harvey (Commissioner Janvier), Stanley Fields (Carlos), Johnny Downs (Pierrot), Charles D. Brown (Max), Robert Greig Giraux), Leonid Kinskey (L’Arbi), Joan Woodbury (Aicha), Nina Koshetz (Tania), Claudia Dell (Marie), Bert Roach (Maxim), Ben Hall (Gil), Gino Corrado (trigger-happy plainclothesman), Luana Walters (native waitress), Stanley Price (native with hookah), Armand Kaliz (police sergeant).
Director: JOHN CROMWELL (following Julien Duvivier). Screenplay: Henri La Barthe, Julien Duvivier, Jacques Constant, John Howard Lawson. Additional dialogue: James M. Cain. Based on the 1931 novel Pepe Le Moko by Henri La Barthe (under the pseudonym, “Detective Ashelbe”, a homophone for the author’s initials, HLB). Photography: James Wong Howe. Film editors: Otho Lovering, William Reynolds (following Marguerite Beaugé). Art directors: Alexander Toluboff, Jacques Krauss. Music composed by Vincent Scotto and Mohammed Ygerbuchen. Costumes designed by Irene (for Miss Lamarr) and Omar Kiam (for Miss Gurie). Associate art director for Mr Toluboff: Wade Rubottom. Hair styles: Nina Roberts. English lyrics: Ann Ronell. Stills: Robert Coburn. Camera operator: Arthur Arling. Grip: Buzz Gibson. Chief electrician: Guy Gillman. 2nd unit photography: Lloyd Knechtel. Technical advisor: Jamiel Hasson. Production manager: Daniel Keefe. Assistant director: Horace Hough. Sound recording: Paul Neal. Western Electric Sound Recording. Producer: Walter Wanger.
Copyright 8 August 1938 by Walter Wanger Productions, Inc. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 14 July 1938 (ran three weeks). U.S. release: 5 August 1938. Australian release: October-December 1938. 10 reels. 96 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A leading French criminal, Pepe le Moko, is holed up in the Casbah, a slum section of Algiers were the police are unable to lay hands on him. A shrewd native police inspector forges a plan to force Pepe to venture into the streets.
NOTES: Charles Boyer was nominated for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Annual award for Best Actor, losing to Spencer Tracy in Boys Town.
The picture also received nominations for Supporting Actor, Gene Lockhart (losing to Walter Brennan in Kentucky); Cinematographer, James Wong Howe; and Art Director, Alexander Toluboff [only Toluboff was nominated, not his associate, Wade Rubottom, nor even Jacques Krauss whose designs Toluboff and Rubottom scrupulously followed] (losing to Carl Weyl’s Adventures of Robin Hood).
An outstanding success at box-offices worldwide, the film made an international star of Hedy Lamarr, here making her first English-language film. Hedy was borrowed from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the insistence of Charles Boyer (who himself was forever identified with his role in this picture).
Although Algiers did not make Frank S. Nugent’s “Ten Best Films of 1938” for The New York Times, the movie does figure prominently in his supplementary list.
COMMENT: Virtually a 90% shot-for-shot remake of the Duvivier Pepe le Moko (see later in this book), even down to the casting of the support players and their costumes. True, Boyer does create an individual portrait, much softer and more romantic than Jean Gabin’s. He is helped by changes in the script which make Le Moko far less vicious and by a slightly different ending which preserves his romantic image. Otherwise, this is simply Pepe le Moko re-visited, with slight changes of emphasis and camera angles here and there, some for the better, some neutral, but fortunately none for the worse. The acting is easier to compare. Leonid Kinsky (of all people) comes over with particular effectiveness in this version and—thanks to some clever bits of business of his own invention—easily outshines an extremely skilful Marcel Dalio. All the other players, however, including Miss Gurie and Miss Lamarr, are either equaled or outclassed by their French equivalents. Gene Lockhart’s portrayal is scrupulously modeled on Charpin’s even down to his facial expressions, while Joseph Calleia gamely attempts to imitate Lucas Gridoux right down to the way he twirls his swagger stick. Nonetheless, if you’re imitating someone or something that’s really first class, you can’t do better than that!
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Edward Arnold (Daniel Webster), Walter Huston (Mr Scratch), Jane Harwell (Ma Stone), Simone Simon (Belle), Gene Lockhart (Squire Slossum), John Qualen (Miser Stevens), Frank Conlan (sheriff), Lindy Wade (Daniel Stone), Geo Cleveland (Cy Bibber), Anne Shirley (Mary Stone), James Craig (Jabez Stone), H.B. Warner (Justice Hawthorne), Jeff Corey (Tom Sharp), Sonny Bupp (Martin Van Aldrich), Eddie Dew (farmer), Alec Craig (Eli Higgins), Fern Emmett (wife), Robert Emmett Kean (husband), Carl Stockdale (Van Brooks), Walter Baldwin (Hank), Sarah Edwards (Lucy Slossum), Virginia Williams (3-month-old baby), Stewart Richards (doctor), Patsy Doyle (servant), Anita Lee (infant), Harry Hood (tailor), Harry Humphrey (minister), Ferris Taylor (president), Robert Dudley (Lem), Frank Austin (spectator), Jim Toney (another farmer), Bob Pittard (clerk), Charles Herzinger (old farmhand), Robert Strange (clerk of court), Sherman Sanders (caller), James Farley (studio gateman), William Alland (guide), Sunny Boyne (bit), Bob Burns (townsman).
Directed by WILLIAM DIETERLE from a screenplay by Dan Totheroh and Stephen Vincent Benet, based on the 1937 short story “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Vincent Benet. Photographed by Joseph August. Film editor: Robert Wise. Music composed and directed by Bernard Herrmann. Art director: Van Nest Polglase. Set decorations: Darrell Silvera. Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Special photographic effects: Vernon L. Walker. Dialogue director: Peter Berneis. Assistant director: Argyle Nelson. Sound recording: Hugh McDowell, Jr. Sound re-recording: James G. Stewart. Associate producer: Charles L. Glett. Producer: William Dieterle. William Dieterle Productions.
Copyright by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., 6 October 1941. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 16 October 1941. U.S. release: 17 October 1941. Australian release: 20 November 1941. 9,746 feet. 108 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Faust up-dated to 1840 and re-set in New Hampshire.
NOTES: Bernard Herrmann won the AMPAS award for Music Scoring of a Dramatic Picture (defeating a huge line-up of 19 other contenders including his own Citizen Kane — and Edward J. Kay’s King of the Zombies). Huston was nominated for Best Actor, but lost to Gary Cooper’s Sergeant York.
COMMENT: Of important, critically praised U.S. feature films released 1940-1950, there are very few I haven’t seen. One, alas, is All That Money Can Buy, co-scripted by Stephen Vincent Benet himself from his famous short story, “The Devil and Fdaniel Webster”. Although reissued so many times that it has accumulated no less than four alternate titles (The Devil and Daniel Webster, Here is a Man, Daniel and the Devil, A Certain Mr Scratch), it has never re-surfaced in my neck of the woods — not even on television — after its original 1941 release. Huston’s charismatic performance (he replaced Thomas Mitchell, who was injured early on in the production), along with Dieterle’s always stylish direction, Herrmann’s award-winning music score and August’s atmospheric camerawork are assets to fire the anticipation of any movie fan.
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Mickey Rooney (Andy Hardy), Lewis Stone (Judge Hardy), Fay Holden (Mrs Hardy), Cecilia Parker (Marian Hardy), Judy Garland (Betsy Booth), Sara Haden (Aunt Milly), Ann Rutherford (Polly Benedict), Tom Neal (Aldrich Brown), Diana Lewis (Daphne Fowler), George Breakston (Beezy), Cy Kendall (Carrillo), George Lessey (Underwood), Addison Richards (Benedict), Charles Trowbridge (butler), Charles Coleman (head waiter), Erville Alderson (bailiff), Gladys Blake (Gertrude), Clyde Wilson (Francis).
Directed by GEORGE B. SEITZ from a screenplay by Annalee Whitmore and Thomas Seller, based on characters created by Aurania Rouverol. Photography: Sidney Wagner and Charles Lawton, Jr. Film editor: Harold F. Kress. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Gabriel Scognamillo. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis. Costumes: Dolly Tree. Songs, “Alone” by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed; “I’m Nobody’s Baby” by Benny Davis, Milton Ager and Lester Santley. Music composed by David Snell, arranged by Roger Edens. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Producer: George B. Seitz.
An MGM Picture, copyright 1 July 1940 by Loew’s Inc. New York opening at the Capitol: 1 August 1940. U.S. release: 5 July 1940. 9 reels. 89 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: The deb in question is not Judy Garland but Diana Lewis. Needless to say, the gormless Andy pursues this attractive young lady with his customary vigor, so that by film’s end he can confide to his pal, Betsy Booth, that Deb Daphne was “just another milestone in my career.”
NOTES: In 1942, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented a Special Award to MGM “for its achievement in representing the American Way of Life in the production of the Andy Hardy series of films”.
COMMENT: One has to wait 20 minutes for Judy Garland to come on and an equal length of time for her to sing “Alone”. This and Miss Garland’s other number are the only points of interest in this tedious, sententious, and embarrassingly gauche piece of boredom. The direction is as dull as usual and the acting as hammy.
Diana Lewis is a winning lass, but loses out in her efforts to offset the camera-hogging of her team-mate Mickey Rooney.
So why am I including this movie in 150 Must-See Cinema Classics? Simple! There are actually more than 150 movies in this book. That gives me plenty of room to include a few lesser endeavors – like those of Mr Joseph Yule, Jr.
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Mickey Rooney (Andy Hardy), Lewis Stone (Judge Hardy), Fay Holden (Mrs Emily Hardy), Cecilia Parker (Marian Hardy), Ann Rutherford (Polly Benedict), Sara Haden (Aunt Milly), Esther Williams (Sheila Brooks), William Lundigan (Jeff Willis), Susan Peters (Sue), Robert Pittard (Botsy), Bobby Blake (Tooky), Arthur Space (Stedman’s attorney), Howard Hickman (Lincoln’s attorney), Frank Coghlan, Jr. (Red), Mantan Moreland (butler), Addison Richards (Benedict), Erville Alderson (bailiff).
Directed by GEORGE B. SEITZ from a screenplay by Agnes Christine Johnston, based on characters created by Aurania Rouverol. Photography: John Mescall and George Folsey. Film editor: Gene Ruggiero. Music score: Daniele Amfitheatrof. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis, Richard Pefferle. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Carey Wilson.
An MGM Picture, copyright 1 December 1942 by Loew’s Inc. New York opening at Loew’s State: 11 January 1943. U.S. release: December 1942. Australian release: 23 December 1943. U.S. length: 8,281 feet (92 minutes). Australian length: 8,326 feet (92½ minutes).
SYNOPSIS: Shuttling between Ann Rutherford and Esther Williams, Andy Hardy finally decides on…
NOTES: In 1942, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented a Special Award to MGM “for its achievement in representing the American Way of Life in the production of the Andy Hardy series of films”.
Number 13 in the series.
Film debut of Esther Williams.
COMMENT: Even with Esther Williams in the cast, this overload of homespun philosophy is pretty hard to take. MGM evidently didn’t want Andy to get to college too soon. In fact, this film’s final sequences are used as the beginning for the next film in the series, Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble. This film is really nothing more than some tedious padding and marking time. The direction of George B. Seitz is, as usual, aggressively nondescript.
Still 19-year-old Esther is a very nice girl and is most attractively photographed by photographer Folsey. It’s an impressive debut. Her scenes positively sparkle. What a shame the rest of the movie is such a bore!
So why am I including this movie among the 160 or so in this book? Simple! As implied above, I love Esther Williams.
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Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary
Mickey Rooney (Andy Hardy), Lewis Stone (Judge Hardy), Fay Holden (Mrs Hardy), Ian Hunter (Steven Land), Sara Haden (Aunt Milly), Ann Rutherford (Polly Benedict), Kathryn Grayson (Kathryn Land), Todd Karns (Harry Land), John Dilson (Davis), Addison Richards (Benedict), George Breakston (Beezy), Margaret Early (Clarabelle Lee), Gene Reynolds (Jimmy MacMahon), Donald Douglas (Harper), Bertha Priestley (Susan Wiley), Joseph Crehan (Peter Dugan), Lee Phelps (Barnes), Hal K. Dawson (shop assistant), Governor John S. Spaulding (himself), Noel Kent (shop assistant).
Directed by GEORGE B. SEITZ from a screenplay by Jane Murfin and Harry Ruskin, based on a story by Katherine Brush utilizing the characters created by Aurania Rouverol. Photography: Lester White. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, John S. Detlie. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis. Film editor: Elmo Veron. Musical program: “The Voices of Spring” by Johann Strauss; an aria from “Lucia di Lammermoor” by Gaetano Donizetti; “I’ve Got My Eyes On You” by Cole Porter. Music director: Herbert Stothart. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Lou L. Ostrow.
An MGM Picture, copyright 17 February 1941 by Loew’s Inc. U.S. release date: 21st February 1941. New York opening at the Capitol: 6 March 1941. Australian release: 18 December 1941. 10 reels. 9,090 feet. 101 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Andy is such a go-getting know-and-do-it-all in his last year at Carvel High that he flunks his graduation exam.
NOTES: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented a Special Award to “Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio for its achievement in representing the American Way of Life in the production of the Andy Hardy series of films”. (Presented at the 1942 Awards Ceremony).
Kathryn Grayson’s film debut.
COMMENT: A screaming bore! In this one, the judge’s homespun axioms, Rooney’s frantic facial mugging and the cornball situations come uppermost. Seitz’s direction is at its most monotonously routine. One prays for Miss Grayson to sing to relieve the tedium and when she does (finally) one is sorry one asked. Worst horror of all, the film never seems to come to an end. Up with the land of the free is just another excuse for circular dialogue padding.
Miss Grayson is not served well by MGM’s tacky sound department, particularly in her “Mad Scene” from “Lucia di Lammermoor”. Still, she has a certain youthful charm (which transcends her somewhat unattractive clothes), but all told it’s not a particularly auspicious debut. Not her fault though. She agrees with me that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s sound department, under the leadership of Norma Shearer’s brother, was a distinctly hit-or-miss affair. Mostly miss. “Douglas Shearer was actually a genius in reverse,” Kathryn told me. “That man could take a 90-piece orchestra and make it sound like a tin whistle!”
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Irene Dunne (Anna), Rex Harrison (king), Linda Darnell (Tuptim), Lee J. Cobb (Kralahome), Gale Sondergaard (Lady Thiang), Mikhail Rasumny (Alak), Dennis Hoey (Sir Edward), Tito Renaldo (man prince), Mickey Roth (boy prince), Richard Lyon (Louis Owens), William Edmunds (Moonshee), John Abbott (Phya Phrom), Leonard Strong (interpreter), Connie Leon (Beebe), Diana Van den Ecker (Princess Fa-Ying), Si-lan Chen (dancer), Marjorie Eaton (Miss MacFarlane), Helena Grant (Mrs Cartwright), Stanley Mann (Cartwright), Addison Richards (Captain Orton), Neyle Morrow (Phra Palai), Julian Rivero (government clerk), Chet Vorovan (Siamese guard), Dorothy Chung, Jean Wong (Amazon guards), Yvonne Rob (Lady Sno Klin), Loretta Luiz, Chabing, Marianne Quon, Lillian Molieri, Buff Cobb, Sydney Logan (King’s wives), Olie Chan (old woman), Ted Hecht (judge), Ben Welden (3rd judge), Aram Katcher, Rico DeMontes (guards), Pedro Rigas (guide), Hazel Shon (slave). Joe Garcio, Constantine Romanoff (whippers).
Directed by JOHN CROMWELL from a screenplay by Talbot Jennings and Sally Benson, based on the 1944 book by Margaret Landon. Photography: Arthur Miller. Film editor: Harmon Jones. Art directors: Lyle Wheeler and William Darling. Set decorations: Thomas Little and Frank E. Hughes. Music composed by Bernard Herrmann. Special photographic effects: Fred Sersen. Make-up: Ben Nye. Costumes: Bonnie Lashin. Assistant director: Saul Wurtzel. Sound recording: Bernard Freericks, Roger Heman. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Louis D. Lighton. Executive producer: Darryl F. Zanuck.
Copyright 20 June 1946 by 20th Century Fox Film Corp. U.S. release date: August 1946. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 20 June 1946. U.K. release: 30 September 1946. London opening at the New Gallery, and Tivoli, Strand: 11 August 1946. Australian release: 2 January 1947. 14 reels. 11,548 feet. 128 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: English governess meddles in state affairs in 19th century Siam.
NOTES: Winner of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ award for Best black-and-white Cinematography: Arthur Miller (defeating George Folsey’s The Green Years).
Also winner of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ award for Best black-and-white Art Direction (defeating Kitty, and The Razor’s Edge).
Also nominated for Supporting Actress, Gale Sondergaard (Anne Baxter in The Razor’s Edge), Adapted Screenplay (The Best Years Of Our Lives), and Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (The Best Years Of Our Lives).
Number three in The Film Daily annual Poll of U.S. film critics.
Cutting-room floor players: Sir C. Aubrey Smith (Sir John Lawford), Margaret Bannerman (Mrs Hillary).
Rex Harrison worked out his interpretation of the king in conjunction with his drama coach, Elsa Schreiber, much to the displeasure of director John Cromwell, who complained to studio head, Darryl F. Zanuck. When Harrison was supported by Zanuck, however, the director refused to even speak to Harrison on the set, concentrating all his attention on Irene Dunne.
COMMENT: A disappointingly boring piece of feminist propaganda, somewhat overshadowed by its musical remake, The King and I. Cromwell’s direction is surprisingly dull and the film would benefit by some sharp cutting. Most of Lee J. Cobb’s scenes could go for a start. He is miscast and looks most incongruous as a native head-of-state. Then we would slice into quite a few of Miss Dunne’s scenes and eliminate some of her close-ups from the ones we left. Rex Harrison’s rounded portrait of the king is the film’s chief asset, though he is not as dynamic as Yul Brynner. Gale Sondergaard has a few effective moments as the king’s first wife and Linda Darnell is surprisingly powerful as the unstable Tuptim.* But the rest of the cast is completely overshadowed by the script’s and the director’s relentless concentration on Miss Dunne. The film is lavishly produced (though the sets and costumes cry for color).**
OTHER VIEWS: An exotic soap opera. Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison as the leads are a help but running gags like everyone singing “No Place Like Home” as part of Dunne’s campaign for separate accommodation or Harrison’s drinking soup from a plate don’t really mesh with the remarkably bizarre incident where Linda Darnell as the defecting favorite is burned at the stake; and the child’s death finally plunges the whole film into the lavish weepy bracket. Cromwell’s direction is indecisive. Anna and the King of Siam used to be a must-see experience for Siamese traveling away from their homeland where it was banned.
— B.P.
* Originally, Gene Tierney was assigned to this role but
she rejected it as she felt “it was too
small”.
** Nevertheless, the film won The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards for Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography — in the black-and-white division. The Yearling won these three awards for color.
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Jack Lemmon (C. C. Baxter), Shirley MacLaine (Fran Kubelik), Fred MacMurray* (J. D. Sheldrake), Ray Walston (Dobisch), Edie Adams (Miss Olsen), Hope Holiday (Margie MacDougall), Jack Kruschen (Dr Dreyfuss), David Lewis (Kirkeby), Joan Shawlee (Sylvia), Johnny Seven (Karl Matuschka), Naomi Stevens (Mrs Dreyfuss), Frances Weintraub Lax (Mrs Lieberman), Joyce Jameson (blonde), Willard Waterman (Vanderhof), David White (Eichelberger), Benny Burt (bartender), Hal Smith (Santa Claus), Dorothy Abbott (office worker).
Director: BILLY WILDER. Screenplay: Billy Wilder, I. A. L. Diamond. Photographed in Panavision by Joseph LaShelle. Art director: Alexander Trauner. Set decorations: Edward G. Boyle. Film editor: Daniel Mandell. Music: Adolph Deutsch. Songs “Lonely Room” by Adolph Deutsch; “Jealous Lover” by Charles Williams. Make-up: Harry Ray. Special effects: Milton Rice. Production manager: Allen K. Wood. Assistant director: Hal Polaire. Sound: Fred Lau, Gordon E. Sawyer. Associate producers: Doane Harrison, I. A. L. Diamond. Producer: Billy Wilder.
A Mirisch Company production, released by United Artists in July 1960 (U.S.A.), 25 September 1960 (U.K.), 1 June 1961 (Australia). (11,277 feet). (125 minutes). New York opening simultaneously at the Astor and the Plaza: 15 June 1960.
SYNOPSIS: Junior executive has an apartment which he loans to senior management personnel for use as a rendezvous with various girl-friends.
NOTES: Prestigious Hollywood awards for Best Picture, defeating The Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, The Sundowners; Best Directing, defeating Sons and Lovers, Never On Sunday, Psycho, The Sundowners; Best Original Screen Story and Screenplay, defeating Angry Silence, Facts of Life, Hiroshima, Never on Sunday; Best Black-and-White Art Direction, defeating Facts of Life, Psycho, Sons and Lovers, Visit to a Small Planet; and Best Film Editing, defeating The Alamo, Inherit the wind, Pepe, Spartacus.
Also nominated for Awards for Best Actor, Jack Lemmon [Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry], Best Actress, Shirley MacLaine [Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8], Supporting Actor, Jack Kruschen [Peter Ustinov in Spartacus], Black-and-White Cinematography [Sons and Lovers], Sound Recording [The Alamo].
Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay — New York Film Critics.
Best Picture — Film Daily poll of over 500 film critics.
Best Film — British Film Academy.
Best American Film — Foreign Language Press of New York.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Adults.
COMMENT: In many ways, the best of Wilder’s comedies and of Lemmon’s performances, and by any standards one of the best films of its period. Scene after scene is worked out in terms that are both moving and funny, as when Lemmon tries to cheer MacLaine with such housekeeping tricks as straining the spaghetti with a tennis racquet (“You should see me serve the meat balls!”) or the ending with the build-up of the run along the street turned into a laugh by the shot of Lemmon standing with the champagne pouring over his hand.
The film has a remarkably bitter strain even for Wilder, with lift-girl MacLaine saying, “Just ’cos I wear a uniform doesn’t mean I’m a girl scout!” and the office heads selling out the hero only to be outclassed by four-star swine MacMurray as the boss who is prepared to use his power as dispenser of keys to the executive washroom to reward the underling. Each of the characters is beautifully caught by an excellent cast.
The Apartment relates to Wilder’s other movies in its realistic settings (Double Indemnity, Lost Weekend, Kiss Me Stupid) and in such marvellous gags like the Santa Claus who rushes into the bar explaining that his sled is double-parked, or the landlady who accuses Lemmon of being a beatnik because he uses paper towels.
Trauner manages to work harmoniously in a number of different studio styles — the modern office, the dilapidated apartment, which almost become characters themselves. The photography is superlative and it is surprising to see how many important scenes take their key from the music.
— Barrie Pattison.
The last black-and-white movie to win a Best Picture “Oscar”, The Apartment holds the attention rigidly throughout, despite its somewhat tawdry premise. Partly this is due to the skill of the writing, which has a sharp, caustic, realistic cynicism; partly to the deft direction with its involving lighting and camerawork, its rapid pacing and rhythmic film editing; but mostly to the brilliance of the interpretations. The portraits Wilder has drawn from his players are amongst the best of their careers. As the heavy, MacMurray is an absolute stand-out.
— G.A.
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Doris Day (Ethel “Dynamite” Jackson), Ray Bolger (S. Winthrop Putnam), Claude Dauphin (Philippe Fouquet), Eve Miller (Marcia Sherman), George Givot (Francois), Paul Harvey (Secretary Sherman), Herbert Farjeon (Joshua Stevens), Wilson Millar (Sinclair Wilson), Raymond Largay (Joseph Weimar), John Alvin (Tracey), Jack Lomas (cab driver), Veronica Pataky (Mimi Fouquet), Dee Carroll, Jill Richards (secretaries), Don Brodie (employee), Donald Kerr (usher), Harry Tyler (janitor), Maurice Marsac (representative), Eugene Borden (master chef), Nestor Paiva (ship’s captain), Andrew Berner (Jacques), Robert Scott Cornell (Charles), Pat Mitchell (Marie), Patsy Weil (Jeanne), Delfina Salazar (Yvonne), Bess Flowers (numerous walk-ons, including airline passenger, theatregoer, diner on board ship).
Director: DAVID BUTLER. Original screenplay: Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson. Photographed in Technicolor by Wilfrid M. Cline. Film editor: Irene Morra. Art director: Leo K. Kuter. Set decorator: Lyle B. Reifsnider. Costumes: Leah Rhodes. Make-up: Gordon Bau. Technicolor color consultant: Mitchell G. Kovaleski. Assistant director: Phil Quinn. Sound recording: C.A. Riggs and David Forrest. Producer: William Jacobs.
Songs: “April in Paris” (chorus, reprised Day, reprised Dauphin, reprised Day and Dauphin, reprised chorus), lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, music by Vernon Duke; “It Must Be Good” (Day and chorus), “I’m Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight” (Day, Bolger and ensemble), “That’s What Makes Paris Paree” (Day, Dauphin and chorus), “Isn’t Love Wonderful?” (Day, Dauphin and Bolger), “Give Me Your Lips” (Dauphin), “The Place You Hold in My Heart” (Day), “I Know a Place” (Day), “I’m Going to Rock the Boat” (Day), “State of the Union” (Bolger), “I’m On My Way — Life Is Such a Pleasure” (Bolger), “French Verbs” (Day, Dauphin and male chorus), all by Sammy Cahn (lyrics) and Vernon Duke (music); “Aupres de Ma Blonde” (Day, Dauphin), traditional. Music director: Ray Heindorf. Orchestrations: Frank Comstock. Musical numbers staged and directed by LeRoy Prinz. Vocal arrangements: Norman Luboff.
Copyright 3 December 1952 by Warner Bros Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 24 December 1952. U.S. release: 3 January 1953. U.K. release: 6 April 1953. Australian release: 29 April 1953. Sydney opening at the Regent. 9,057 feet, 100 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Singer Ethel Jackson is delighted when she is told by the State Department that she has been chosen to represent the American theater at a Paris festival. During a theater party for her, S. Winthrop Putnam, an official from Washington, arrives to tell her that a mistake has been made — Ethel Barrymore was the intended representative. The press, however, hails the selection of Miss Jackson for its democratic principle. Putnam induces Ethel to make the Paris trip and accompanies her with other officials. On board a French ocean liner, Ethel finds her companions boring and accepts Philippe Fouquet’s invitation to attend a party for the kitchen help. Out of funds, the debonair Philippe is forced to work his way home as a waiter. Putnam, intent on berating Ethel for her conduct, crashes the party; they fall in love and are married by the ship’s captain. But it is Francois, a busboy impersonating the captain, who performs the ceremony.
NOTES: Number 42 at Australian ticket windows for 1953.
While the film itself did not break into the ranks of the top thirty domestic box-office champions, Doris Day herself was voted number 7 of the nation’s money-making stars of 1952 in a poll of all U.S. exhibitors conducted by The Motion Picture Herald.
Ray Bolger was often berated by director Butler during shooting for his efforts to crowd Doris Day. Why the egotistical Bolger should try these tricks to overshadow his co-star is a mystery. He is extremely well treated throughout and often seems to be enjoying an undisputed lead. He even has an elaborate special effects solo in which he dances with himself as both a costumed Washington and Grant.
VIEWERS’ GUIDE: Okay for all.
COMMENT: Just because a movie was popular in all sections of the community (the carriage trade, the middle classes, the workers), doesn’t mean critics have to look for faults. April in Paris far from deserves its so-so critical reputation. For at least three-quarters of the way through, the dialogue is not only bright and snappy with fast, witty comebacks, but even amusingly risqué. It’s true the fountain runs a bit dry towards the close, and is therefore replaced by unlikely farce, but even this comparative wasteland is enlivened by a delightfully photographed production number for Doris Day.
As for the songs, though they seemed no more than mildly pleasant at the time, they have improved with repetition. What’s more, they’re colorfully staged. Bolger’s comic dancing, lithe and superbly timed, is such a joy, so cleverly choreographed in fact, one wishes there were more.
Miss Day herself is a gem, whilst Dauphin makes the ideal spoof of a Frenchman.
It all just goes to show how spoilt we were back in 1953. A film as pacy, as superbly photographed and never mind the expense, with the occasional inventive bit of direction, would cause a sensation if newly released in 2011. (And some of the dialogue, amazingly frank for 1952, would seem right at home).
OTHER VIEWS: A musical’s plot may be slight, it may even be ridiculous, or worse — overtalkative. Just like here. But if the songs are bright and bouncy, the costumes colorful, the dances imaginative, all’s well with this Parisian world.
— G.A.
Despite stock shots of Paris and the obvious conclusion that this April in Paris was lensed entirely at Warner Bros, production values are still solid enough to warrant a big cheer for the film’s technicians and their expertise. The costumes are certainly most colorful, the dances have zest and the acting throughout is nothing if not enthusiastic. But the songs whilst bright and sassy are a pretty ordinary bunch — not a really memorable tune amongst the lot of them. The players are well cast, making up in enthusiasm what the script often lacks in genuine humor or wit, transforming situations that in less enthusiastic hands would be only feebly funny, into moderate amusement. Claude Dauphin has a chance to shine in a major role and while he is no Maurice Chevalier, it is good to see him giving the master a run. Doris as usual is charmingly photographed and costumed and is in excellent voice and spirits throughout. Bolger is well cast, has some good dances (one of them lessened by very wobbly special effects). Paul Harvey, George Givot and Eve Miller lend creditable support. Butler’s direction lacks pace but he does let the laughs come naturally without force or obtrusive tricks.
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Claudette Colbert (Augusta Nash), Ray Milland (Tom Martin), Dennis O’Keefe (Shep), Walter Abel (Phillips), Dick Purcell (Pink), George Zucco (prison governor), Frank Puglia (Father Jacinto), Esther Dale (Susie), Paul Leyssac (Bresson), Ann Codee (Mademoiselle Bresson), Stanley Logan (Colonel Tubbs Brown), Lionel Pane (Lord Kettlebrook), Aubrey Mather (Achille), Cliff Nazzaro (Botzelberg), Michael Mark (Botzelberg’s assistant), Jesus Topete (guard), Nestor Paiva (uniformed clerk), Fred Malatesta (mechanic), Juan Duval (Spanish driver), Paul Bryar (desk clerk), George Davis (porter), Alan Davis (cameraman), Jean Del Val (conductor), John Easton (waiter at Cafe Magenta), Eugene Borden, Jean De Briac (waiters at Maxim’s), Sarah Edwards, Fern Emmett (spinsters), Jacques Vanaire, Olaf Hytten, Louis Mercier, Guy Repp (employees), Paul Everton (husband), Mrs Wilfrid North (wife), Maurice Maurice, Marcel de la Brosse, Francois Richier (French newsboys), Douglas Kennedy (college boy), Charles de Ravenne (bellboy), Charles Bastin (elevator boy), Nadia Petrova (girl at Maxim’s), Major Fred Farrell (cab driver), Reginald Sheffield (steward), Tempe Pigott (woman in Irish pub), Rafael Storm, Alphonse Martell (French correspondents), Hans Fuerberg (German sentry), Sherry Hall (American correspondent), Leyland Hodgson (English correspondent), Jack Luden (American correspondent), George Bunny (fiacre driver), Blanca Vischer (brunette at Maxim’s), Poppy Wilde (Hungarian girl).
Director: MITCHELL LEISEN. Screenplay: Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder. Adaptation: Jacques Thery. Original story: Benjamin Glazer, John S. Toldy. Photographer: Charles Lang, Jr. Film editor: Doane Harrison. Art directors: Hans Dreier and Robert Usher. Set decorations: A.E. Freudemann. Costumes: Travis Banton. Music composed and directed by Victor Young. Producer: Arthur Hornblow, Jr.
Copyright 8 November 1940 by Paramount Pictures Inc. New York opening at the Paramount: 16 October 1940. U.S. release: 8 November 1940. Australian release: 30 January 1941. 12 reels. 9,915 feet. 110 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Girl reporter rescues rebel leader from Spanish prison — exciting, ingeniously cliff-hanging stuff — but, alas for the good of the rest of the picture, they fall in love.
NOTES: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed their Annual Award to Benjamin Glazer and John S. Toldy for Best Original Story (defeating Comrade X, Edison the Man, My Favorite Wife, and The Westerner). Also nominated for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards for black-and-white photography (won by George Barnes for Rebecca); black-and-white art direction (won by Pride and Prejudice); Best Music Score (won by Alfred Newman for Tin Pan Alley).
COMMENT: Made by the same team responsible for Midnight a year earlier, but this time the Brackett-Wilder script is the weakest link. After a very exciting first reel, it goes slowly but steadily downhill until all we are left with of interest is Walter Abel periodically exclaiming, “I’m not happy!” But that first reel is must-see material. Frank Puglia is terrific!
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the Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
Cary Grant (Richard Nugent), Myrna Loy (a judge), Shirley Temple (her younger sister), Rudy Vallee (district attorney), Ray Collins (court psychiatrist), Harry Davenport (Uncle Thaddeus), Charles Halton (headmaster), Johnny Sands (Jerry), Don Beddoe (Tony), Lillian Randolph (Bessie), Veda Ann Borg (Agnes Prescott), Dan Tobin (Walters), Ransom Sherman (Judge Treadwell), William Bakewell (Winters), Irving Bacon (Melvin), Ian Bernard (Perry), Carol Hughes (Florence), William Hall (Anthony Herman), Gregory Gaye (maitre d’hotel), Marilyn Mercer (girl), Myra Marsh (Miss Wells), Charles Marsh (Roberts), J. Farrell MacDonald (bailiff), Ellen Corby (woman), Kay Christopher (girl), Jack Gargan, Mickie Simpson (cops in court), Elena Warren (Mrs Baldwin), William Forrest (Baldwin), Carlotta Jelm (Doris Baldwin), Ned Roberts (cab driver), Pat Flaherty (coach), Robert Bray (man at gate).
Director: IRVING REIS. Story and screenplay: Sidney Sheldon. Photography: Robert de Grasse, Nicholas Musuraca. Film editor: Frederick Knudtson. Music composed by Leigh Harline, directed by Constantin Bakaleinikoff. Art directors: Albert S. D’Agostino, Carroll Clark. Set decorations: Darrell Silvera, James Altweis. Special photographic effects: Russell A. Cully. Costumes: Edward Stevenson. Miss Temple appears by arrangement with David O. Selznick. Assistant director: Nate Levinson. Assistant to the producer: Edgar Peterson. Sound recording: John L. Cass, Clem Portman. RCA Sound System. Producer: Dore Schary.
Copyright 24 July 1947 by RKO Radio Pictures Inc. Released: 1 September 1947 (U.S.A.). New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 24 July 1947. U.K. release: December 1947. Australian release: 24 December 1947. 8,706 feet. 96½ minutes.
U.K. release title: Bachelor Knight.
SYNOPSIS: Teenager falls in love with an older man who is forced to pretend that he returns her affections.
NOTES: This somewhat forced little comedy received such a remarkable string of laudatory reviews (from some of the sourest critics in the business too!) that a nomination for Best Original Screenplay was inevitable. That it won over such competition as Polonsky’s Body and Soul, the Kanins’ A Double Life, Chaplin’s Monsieur Verdoux and Amidei, Franci, Viola and Zavattini’s Shoe-Shine is even more astonishing. But that award (and it was the only nomination for an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award he ever received in his Hollywood sojourn) certainly set Mr Sidney Sheldon on the path to his present bestseller fame and fortune.
Domestic rental gross: an amazing $5,550,000.
This is the film that introduced the famous routine: “You remind me of a man!” — “What man?” — “Man with the power!” — “What power?” — “Power of hoodoo!” — “Hoodoo?” — “You do!” — “Do what?” — “Remind me of a man!” — “What man?” — “Man with the power!”
COMMENT: A very agreeably played comedy. The script is moderately amusing, the direction capable, if undistinguished, and production values are well up to “A” standard.
Of course a lot of the humor at the expense of teenage fashion and mores is now rather dated but those of us with a sense of nostalgia will find that a bonus to the fun. Whether the film will be appreciated — or even understood — by today’s drive-in kids is entirely another matter.
Certainly the producer has gathered a delightfully persuasive roster of players — star, character and minor — including some of our top favorites like Rudy Vallee, Ray Collins, Harry Davenport, Charles Halton, Veda Ann Borg and Dan Tobin. The three stars are happily cast, with Myrna Loy moving gracefully into comedy after the rigors of The Best Years of Our Lives.
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Bing Crosby (Father Chuck O’Malley), Ingrid Bergman (Sister Benedict), Henry Travers (Mr Bogardus), Ruth Donnelly (Sister Michael), Joan Carroll (Patsy), Martha Sleeper (Patsy’s mother), William Gargan (Joe Gallagher), Rhys Williams (Dr McKay), Dickie Tyler (Eddie), Una O’Connor (Mrs Breen), Bobby Frasco (Tommy), Matt McHugh (clerk), Edna Wonacott (Delphine), Jimmy Crane (Luther), Minerva Urecal (landlady), Cora Shannon (old lady), Gwen Crawford, Aina Constant, Eva Novak (nuns), Dewey Robinson (truck driver), Jimmy Dundee (taxi driver), Joseph Palmer (workman), Peter Sasso (blind man).
Director: LEO McCAREY. Screenplay: Dudley Nichols. Based on an original screen story by Leo McCarey. Photography: George Barnes. Film editor: Harry Marker. Musical score: Robert Emmett Dolan. Art director: William Flannery. Special effects: Vernon L. Walker. Songs: “Aren’t You Glad You’re You?” by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen; “In the Land of Beginning Again” by Grant Clarke and George W. Meyer; “The Bells of St. Mary’s” by Douglas Furber and A. Emmett Adams; “Ave Maria”; “Adeste Fidelis”. Associate art director: Albert S. D’Agostino. Costumes: Edith Head. Set decorations: Darrell Silvera. Assistant director: Harry Scott. Sound technician: Richard Van Hessen. Sound re-recording: James G. Stewart. RCA Sound System. Producer: Leo McCarey.
Copyright 6 December 1945 by Rainbow Productions Incorporated. Released by RKO. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 6 December 1945. U.S. release date: 23 November 1945. United Kingdom release date: 16 September 1946. Australian release date: 31 October 1946. 11,574 feet. 128½ minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Father Chuck O’Malley continues Going My Way.
NOTES: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Annual Award for Sound Recording: Stephen Dunn (head of RKO’s sound department) — defeating The Flame of the Barbary Coast, Lady on a Train, Leave Her to Heaven, Rhapsody in Blue, A Song to Remember, The Southerner, They Were Expendable, The Three Caballeros, Three Is A Family, The Unseen, and Wonder Man.
Also nominated for Best Picture (The Lost Weekend), Best Actor, Bing Crosby (Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend), Best Actress, Ingrid Bergman (Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce), Directing (Billy Wilder for The Lost Weekend), Music Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (Miklos Rozsa for Spellbound), Best Song, “Aren’t You Glad You’re You”, composed by James Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “It Might As Well Be Spring” from State Fair) .
Best Film of 1946 — Photoplay Gold Medal Award (voted by U.S. picturegoers).
Bing Crosby, Best Actor of 1946 — Photoplay Gold Medal Award (voted by U.S. picturegoers).
Ingrid Bergman, Best Actress of 1946 — Photoplay Gold Medal Award (voted by U.S. picturegoers).
Number 4 on The Film Daily annual poll of U.S. film critics.
Best Feminine Performance of 1945, Ingrid Bergman (for this film and Spellbound) — New York Film Critics.
Top boxoffice champion of 1945 in the U.S. and Canada. RKO’s most successful film in its entire history. (Initial net profit: $3,715,000).
The film was also highly successful in Australia, being RKO’s 3rd top drawcard of 1946 (Wonder Man was first, followed by The Spiral Staircase).
COMMENT: Well, kiddies, here is a load of old-fashioned sentiment prepared for you by that master of the saccharine, Uncle Leo McCarey. No, I take that back — syrupy the film is, but masterful it is not. It’s hard to believe that McCarey was once a director of skill (Duck Soup) and talent (The Awful Truth) to judge by this poor offering. Every scene is handled with old-fashioned fade-outs and fade-ins and concentrates almost exclusively on close-ups of the most banal reaction shots of Bing Crosby and Henry Travers. McCarey doesn’t even take care to see that Crosby is registering the same expression in the two-shot as the close-up with which it is intercut. This occurs too often to be excused on any other grounds than sheer ineptitude. It’s a black mark too against the film editing of Harry Marker, who should have trimmed some of the excesses of facial mugging anyway. In fact, the whole film could be cut by a considerable amount. The story is slight and only marginally captures audience interest — the sub-plot involving Martha Sleeper (Mrs Gallagher) and Joan Carroll (Patricia) is a bore.
Crosby’s priest is one of the most incredible we have come across — even in a Hollywood film. No priest would indulge in the sort of flip dialogue (particularly in his first scene with Martha Sleeper) that this one does nor would he be a party to such a tawdry plot device as hiding from Sister Benedict the true reason for her transfer. There is absolutely nothing of true spirituality or depth in this picture.
McCarey has his usual array of cute kids in store for us including a re-enactment of the Christmas story by six and seven-year-olds, and a boy whom Sister Benedict secretly teaches to box for a return engagement with the school bully. It is all superficial and blatantly corny, with equal parts of propaganda (the children pledging allegiance to the American flag), bad taste, and crude slapstick (the cat in Crosby’s boater).
Ingrid Bergman in nun’s habit is hardly likely to entrance her fans — warm, radiant and sympathetic though she looks in the hands of cinematographer George Barnes. Oddly enough, Barnes has lit and photographed Crosby from some very unflattering angles. Another funny thing is that though Bing has four or five songs, he doesn’t get to sing a single one of them right through, but is either cut off in the middle or sings a truncated version.
As mentioned earlier, Henry Travers plays Horace P. Bogardus with his usual unbridled mugging. The rest of the cast does not get much of a look-in. After a lengthy introductory scene, Una O’Connor virtually disappears; Ruth Donnelly has nothing of consequence to do or say as a side-kick of Miss Bergman; Gargan has but a small role, appearing in only two scenes. The others are no more than adequate.
Some money has been spent on sets, (though some we suspect are contrived mainly through special effects), and some of the lighting effects obtained by Barnes are quite pleasing. Why a top designer like Edith Head was engaged to design the costumes when these are mainly confined to habits is a typical example of Hollywood largess. Those costumes Miss Head has come up with — like Miss Sleeper’s, for example — are nothing to marvel at, and could have been selected from the racks of any dime-and-ten.
We like the title song, but the others are quite pedestrian. Bing Crosby’s voice often seems to be out of its range, but this could be the effect of poor sound recording.
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Myrna Loy (Milly Stephenson), Fredric March (Al Stephenson), Dana Andrews (Fred Derry), Teresa Wright (Peggy Stephenson), Virginia Mayo (Marie Derry), Cathy O’Donnell (Wilma Cameron), Hoagy Carmichael (Butch Engle), Harold Russell (Homer Parrish), Gladys George (Hortense Derry), Roman Bohnen (Pat Derry), Ray Collins (Mr Milton), Steve Cochran (Cliff), Minna Gombell (Mrs Parrish), Walter Baldwin (Mr Parrish), Dorothy Adams (Mrs Cameron), Don Beddoe (Mr Cameron), Erskine Sanford (Bullard), Larlene Aames (Luella Parrish), Michael Hall (Rob Stephenson), Charles Halton (Prew), Ray Teal (Mr Mollett), Dean White (Novak), Rowland Chamberlin (Thorpe), Victor Cutler (Woody Merrill), Pat Flaherty (Karney, construction foreman), Norman Phillips (Merkle), Clancy Cooper (taxi driver), Teddy Infuhr (Dexter), Ralph Sanford (Mr Gibbons), Robert Karnes (technical sergeant), Bert Conway (ATC sergeant), Blake Edwards (corporal), John Tyrrell (Gus, waiter), Donald Kerr (Steve, bartender), Jack Rice (desk clerk), Ruth Sanderson (Miss Garrett), Ben Erway (Latham), Claire Dubrey (Mrs Talburt), Harry Cheshire (minister), James Ames (Jackie), and Hal K. Dawson, Heinie Conklin, Amelita Ward, Alan Bridge, John Ince, Mary Arden, Billy Newell, Leo Penn, Tom Dugan, Earle Hodgins, Mickey Roth, Peggy McIntyre, Joyce Compton.