CinemaScope Four:
M-G-M
MOVIES
Light Up the Screen
John Howard Reid
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Copyright (c) 2011 by John
Howard Reid
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THE “CINEMASCOPE SERIES” No. 4
2011
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Books in the CinemaScope Series:
1. CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ’Scope
2. CinemaScope Two: 20th Century-Fox
3. CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge
4. CinemaScope Four: M-G-M Movies Light Up the Screen
Table of Contents
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)
All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)
Around the World Under the Sea (1966)
B
the Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957)
C
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Company of Cowards [see Advance to the Rear (1964)]
D
Doctor, You’ve Got To Be Kidding (1967)
Don’t Go Near the Water (1957)
F
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)
G
the Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)
Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
H
I
It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)
J
K
L
Love in Las Vegas [see Viva Las Vegas (1963)]
M
Merry Wives of Windsor Overture (1953)
N
Night of the Quarter Moon (1959)
O
P
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Q
Quentin Durward [see Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)]
R
S
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
the Slave [see Son of Spartacus (1963)]
T
Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957)
This Rebel Age [see the Beat Generation (1959)]
V
W
Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968)
the Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
M-G-M’s CinemaScope Movies List 1: Feature Films
M-G-M’s CinemaScope Movies List 2: Cartoons
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“George Addison” and “G.A.” are pen names for John Howard Reid, who (with the full approval of the editors) submitted film reviews to two ostensibly rival weekly newspapers (they were actually owned by the same firm) through the 1950s and 1960s.
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Van Johnson (Carlson), Martine Carol (Tracy), Herbert Lom (Trifon), Gustavo Rojo (Henri), Anthony Dawson (security officer), Anna Gerber (Mara), Yvonne Warren (Katina), Helen Haye (the countess), Sean Connery (Mike), Pepe Nieto (Kol Stendho), Norman MacOwan (Trifon’s father), Helen Goss (farmer’s wife), Richard Williams (Abdyll).
Director: TERENCE YOUNG. Screenplay: Robert Carson. Based on the 1955 novel by James Wellard. Photographed in Technicolor and CinemaScope by Desmond Dickinson. Film editor: Frank Clarke. Art director: Scott MacGregor. Music: Humphrey Searle. Sound recording: Sash Fisher. Producer: Kenneth Harper.
Copyright 1957 by Loew’s Inc. A Claridge Film Production, released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at Loew’s neighborhood cinemas as the lower half of a double bill with Jailhouse Rock: 19 November 1957. U.S. release: August 1957. U.K. release: 22 September 1957. Australian release: 21 November 1957. Running times: 97 minutes (Australia), 93 minutes (U.K.), 91 minutes (U.S.A.).
SYNOPSIS: Hero enlists Albanian bandits to help rescue the heroine’s dad from a Communist jail.
COMMENT: Very attractive location photography distinguishes this somewhat slackly acted and none too briskly directed adventure yarn. In fact, the movie rates as somewhat disappointing, considering the talents involved. Both the screenplay and the movie itself really needed even sharper editing than that given the 91-minute American version. Van Johnson himself put up half the money to make the film, but I very much doubt of he received any dividends. [Not at present officially available on DVD, although there are poor quality non-’Scope copies floating around on VHS].
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Susan Hayward (Ada), Dean Martin (Bo Gillis), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Sylvester Marin), Ralph Meeker (Colonel Yancey), Martin Balsam (Steve Jackson), Frank Maxwell (Ronnie Hallerton), Connie Sawyer (Alice Sweet), Larry Gates (Joe Adams), Charles Watts (Al Winslow), Robert S. Simon (Warren Natfield), Mary Treen (club woman), Ford Rainey (speaker), Gene Roth (oath minister).
Director: DANIEL MANN. Screenplay: Arthur Sheekman, William Driskill. Based on the 1959 novel by Wirt Williams. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Joseph Ruttenberg. Art directors: George W. Davis and Edward Carfagno. Film editor: Ralph E. Winters. Costumes designed by Helen Rose. Music conducted by Robert Armbruster. Assistant director: Al Jennings. Sound recording: Franklin Milton. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten. An Avon Production.
Copyright 1961. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 25 August 1961. U.K. release: floating from October 1961. Australian release: October 1961. 9,730 feet; 108 minutes. [The Warner Archive plan a DVD release in 2012].
SYNOPSIS: While campaigning for the governorship of a southern state, Bo Gillis, a folksy politician, falls in love with and marries, Ada, a reformed prostitute, whose dubious background alarms both Bo’s press agent, Steve Jackson, and his political advisor, Sylvester Marin.
COMMENT: Despite its name cast, this movie seems to be totally forgotten today. True, it’s a curate’s egg of a picture, and not one that’s likely to send Dean’s fans into raptures. He sings a snatch of a song right at the beginning and that’s it as far as Dino’s harmonizing is concerned. His performance is great, but halfway through he drops out of the action for quite a spell while Susan Hayward takes control.
And what a naïve perspective the scriptwriters have of legislature procedure as Susan is sworn in as lieutenant-governor! And director Daniel Man’s relentless use of Hayward close-ups (even in tracking shots) doesn’t help either.
Nonetheless, Wilfrid Hyde-White has a field day. Admittedly, his dialogue is the sharpest and most interesting in the picture. Maybe he brought his own writer along to the set. Maybe he wrote it himself. In a lesser role, Ralph Meeker’s fascinating performance as a slimy police chief also deserves watching.
As said above, Ruttenberg’s superb cinematography is often wasted on ineffective close-ups, but CinemaScope does come to the fore in some of the location set-ups in what certainly look like real government buildings and legislative chambers. These scenes, plus the cab trip and our first exposure to the executive office, give the film much-needed dramatic effectiveness plus an engrossingly taut political atmosphere. What a shame, it’s so often undermined!
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Glenn Ford (Captain Jared Heath), Stella Stevens (Martha Lou), Melvyn Douglas (Colonel Claude Brackenby), Jim Backus (General Willoughby), Joan Blondell (Jenny), Andrew Prine (Private Owen Selous), Jesse Pearson (Corporal Silas Geary), Alan Hale (Sergeant Beauregard Davis), James Griffith (Hugo Zattig), Whit Bissell (Captain Queeg), Michael Pate (Thin Elk), Yvonne Craig (Ora), Chuck Roberson (Monk), Bill Troy (Fulton), Frank Mitchell (Belmont), J. Lewis Smith (Slasher O’Toole), Preston Foster (General Bateman), Harlan Warde (Major Hayward), Allen Pinson (Private Long), Sugar Geise (Mamie), Linda Jones (Junie), Britta Ekman (Greta), Paul Langton (Major Forsythe), Charles Horvath (Jones), Mary LeBow (Mary), Joe Brooks (Bannerman), Richard Adams (courier), Eddie Quillan (Smitty), Paul Smith, Barnaby Hale (lieutenants), Harvey Stephens (General Dunlap), Robert Carson (Colonel Holbert), Janos Phohaska (flag pole sitter), Clegg Hoyt, John Day (loafers), Towyna Thomas (Law and Order League), Sailor Vincent (deckhand), Bob Anderson (steamer captain), Gregg Palmer (gambler), Kathryn Hart, Ann Blake (League ladies), Peter Ford (townsman), Ken Wales (lieutenant aide).
Directed by GEORGE MARSHALL. Screenplay by Samuel A. Peeples and William Bowers. Story by Jack Schaefer. Suggested by the 1956 “Saturday Evening Post” story “Company of Cowards” by William Chamberlain. Music by Randy Sparks, played and sung by the New Christy Minstrels, adapted and conducted by Hugo Montenegro. Director of photography: Milton Krasner. Photographed in Panavision. Art direction: George W. Davis and Eddie Imazu. Set decoration: Henry Grace, Budd S. Friend. Special visual effects: J. McMillan Johnson. Film editor: Archie Marshek. Assistant director: William McGarry. Hair styles by Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up supervision: William Tuttle. Recording supervisor: Franklin Milton. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A Ted Richmond Production.
Additional credits: Camera operator: Alfred Lebovitz. Assistant camera operators: Paul Koons, Owen Marsh. Assistant film editor: Leonard Lieberman. Songs: “Company of Cowards”, “This Ol’ Riverboat”, “Today”, “Whistlin’ Dixie”, “Anything Love Can Buy”, “Ladies”, “Company Q Whistle March”, “Way Down in Arkansas”, “Brackenby’s Music Box”, “Charleston Town” by Randy Sparks, all played and sung by New Christy Minstrels. Script supervisor: Cleo Anton. Men’s wardrobe: Frank Beetson, Lee Plunkett, Luster Bayless. Women’s wardrobe: Sylvia Posner. Make-up artists: Lynn Reynolds, Terry Miles, Ed Butterworth. Hairdresser: Agnes Flanagan. Gaffer: Wesley Shanks. Head grip: Hank Forrester. Property master: Dick Neblett. Wrangler ramrod: Dick Webb. Dialogue director: Harold Clifton. 2nd assistant director: George Marshall Jr. 3rd assistant director: Jack Barry. Sound boom operator: A. Murray Jarvis. Sound recording: Walter Goss. Sound mixer: Paul Kamp. Westrex Sound System.
Copyright 31 December 1963 by Ted Richmond Productions. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening as the top half of a double bill with Mail Order Bride: 10 June 1964. U.S. release: 15 April 1964. U.K. release: 11 January 1965. 97 minutes. [The Warner Archive plan a DVD for 2012].
U.K. release title: COMPANY OF COWARDS (cut to 86 minutes).
Spoiler Alert! COMPLETE SYNOPSIS: During the Civil War a Union Army general officer has a comfortable encampment and a pleasant “agreement” with the enemy: every morning his company fires at them, they fire back, and no one gets hurt. When finally he is ordered to attack, his horse bolts and charges to the rear with the infantry following. As punishment for his apparent cowardice, he is put in charge of a company of misfits and sent west to Indian Territory. Through an error, the fact that his unit is replacing one that is protecting Union gold has been overlooked. The men journey westward by riverboat and are joined by a group of camp followers led by Easy Jenny and including Martha Lou Williams, a Confederate spy. A romance develops between Martha Lou and Captain Jared Heath, though he perceives her devious purpose. Her efforts to obtain information, while retaining her virtue, produce a result in which the misfits lose their horses, their pants, and the Union gold to a group of renegades. Undertaking a countercharge in their long underwear, they then lose their weapons, but using their eccentric talents to defend themselves, they save the gold by building and using a catapult.
NOTES: Jack Schaefer expanded Chamberlain’s short story into a novel Company of Cowards which was published in 1957. The property was acquired by producer Charles Schnee as a vehicle for Hugh O’Brian. M-G-M inherited the package and announced on 11 April 1957 that Rod Serling would write the screenplay. He didn’t!
COMMENT: Good entertainment (70%). The cast was appealing — who could resist Stella Stevens and Melvyn Douglas? Glenn Ford was at his most amiable and the support cast including Australia’s Michael Pate (was his voice dubbed?) as a villainous Red Indian, was delightful (did you spot Eddie Quillan in an uncredited though sizable bit as a Confederate corporal?); we also liked Alan Hale’s easy-going impression of a conscience-stricken sergeant and James Griffith’s glumly philosophical man-who-has-his-price. However, Joan Blondell’s admirers will be disappointed by the smallness of her part. The script is amusing enough — it has some lively situations and witty dialogue. George Marshall’s direction is capable and there is a jocund music score which cleverly adds to the humor of almost every scene.
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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)
Eddie Hodges (Huckleberry Finn), Archie Moore (Jim), Tony Randall (the king), Patty McCormack (Joanna Wilks), Neville Brand (Pap Finn), Mickey Shaughnessy (the duke), Judy Canova (sheriff’s wife), Andy Devine (Carmody), Sherry Jackson (Mary Jane Wilks), Buster Keaton (lion tamer), Finlay Currie (Captain Sellers), Parley Baer (Grangerford man), Josephine Hutchinson (Widow Douglas), John Carradine, Dean Stanton (slave catchers), Dolores Hawkins (river boat singer), Sterling Holloway (barber), Minerva Urecal (Miss Watson), Royal Dano (sheriff), Sam McDaniel (servant).
Director: MICHAEL CURTIZ. Screenplay: James Lee. Based on the 1884 novel by Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Ted McCord. Film editor: Frederic Steinkamp. Art directors: George W. Davis and McClure Capps. Music: Jerome Moross. Songs: Burton Lane, Alan Jay Lerner. Producer: Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.
Copyright 1960. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at Loew’s: 3 August 1960. U.S. release: May 1960. U.K. release: 14 August 1960. Australian release: 24 December 1960. 9,612 feet; 106 minutes. [Warner Archive plan a DVD for 2012].
SYNOPSIS: Hannibal, Missouri, 1840s. Daredevil youngster runs away from home.
COMMENT: Taking a leaf out of his father’s book, producer Samuel Goldywn, Jr., has spared no expense in bringing Huckleberry so artistically and excitingly to the big screen. Odd that this version has slipped into obscurity, because it’s undoubtedly the best of the batch. Not only is the familiar story given fresh life by a first-rate cast, but Curtiz and McCord have imbued the movie with exactly the right atmosphere. A great music score and superb art direction help too. Who could forget such scenes as the deserted river-boat, tilted at a crazy angle, lapped in the green slime of the swamp, its lantern swinging horribly in the room of death; or that on board the steamer as Finlay Currie expounds in his beautifully resonant voice the splendor and treachery of the Missisippi?
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Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)
Robert Taylor (Quentin Durward), Kay Kendall (Isabelle), Robert Morley (Louis XI), Alec Clunes (Burgundy), Marius Goring (de Creville), Wilfrid Hyde White (Master Oliver), Ernest Thesiger (Lord Crawford), Harcourt Williams (bishop of Liege), Duncan Lamont (de la Marck), Laya Raki (Gypsy dancer), George Cole (Hayraddin), Eric Pohlmann (gluckmeister), Michael Goodliffe (Count de Dunois), John Carson (Duke of Orleans), Nicholas Hannen (Cardinal Balue), Frank Tickle (Petit-Andre), Moultrie Kelsall (Lord Malcolm), Billy Shine (Trois-Eschelles).
Director: RICHARD THORPE. Screenplay: Robert Ardrey. Adapted by George Froeschel from the 1823 novel by Sir Walter Scott. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Christopher Challis. Film editor: Ernest Walter. Art director: Alfred Junge. Costumes designed by Elizabeth Haffenden. Music: Bronislau Kaper. Sound recording supervisor: A.W. Watkins. Producer: Pandro S. Berman.
Copyright 1955 by Loew’s Inc. An M-G-M picture. U.S. release: 21 October 1955. New York opening at the Mayfair: 23 November 1955. U.K. release: 26 March 1956. Australian release: 11 April 1956. Sydney opening at the St James. 9,011 feet. 100 minutes.
U.S. and Australian release title: QUENTIN DURWARD.
SYNOPSIS: Refusing to marry her aged suitor, a duke’s ward flees to the king.
NOTES: M-G-M embarked on a movie version of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe in 1952. (This marked the first time any Scott novel had been filmed since way back in 1923). Its enormous box-office success prompted Quentin Durward. Both these films were directed by super-fast, economy-conscious Richard Thorpe, who also turned his hand to M-G-M’s first CinemaScope production, Knights of the Round Table (1953). These three movies all share two other features— they were all lensed in England and all starred Robert Taylor.
COMMENT: Knighthood is indeed in full flower in this handsomely produced, energetically directed adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s classic novel of a Scottish swordsman’s adventures at the French court. Mind you, Robert Taylor is certainly no Scot, but he plays the role with such dash and finesse, it really doesn’t matter that his accent is all wrong for the part. And he’s helped out by a truly wonderful support cast, including the lovely, high-spirited yet suitably vulnerable Kay Kendall in an ideal role, and Robert Morley perfectly at home as the crafty king.
Except for one unfortunate scene (the rape of the monastery), director Richard Thorpe and screenwriter Robert Ardrey keep a nice balance between adventure and comedy. With the exception of this one scene, the film maintains the right flavor of derring-do and then comes to a really fine action climax in a blazing bell-tower, which really knocked us blasé critics right out of our seats. The sets and color ’Scope photography are most attractive. Whatever, you do, don’t bother to see this movie in a non-’Scope print. An excellent ’Scope DVD is available from Warner Archive.
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All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)
Robert Wagner (Chad Bixby), Natalie Wood (Salome), Susan Kohner (Catherine), George Hamilton (Tony), Pearl Bailey (Ruby), Jack Mullaney (Tinker), Onslow Stevens (Joshua Davis), Virginia Gregg (Mrs Davis), Anne Seymour (Mrs Bixby), Addison Richards (McDowell), Mabel Albertson (wife), Louise Beavers (Rose).
Director: MICHAEL ANDERSON. Screenplay: Robert Thom, suggested by the 1957 novel, “The Bixby Girls”, by Rosamond Marshall. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by William H. Daniels. Film editor: John McSweeney. Art directors: George W. Davis and Edward Carfagno. Costumes designed by Helen Rose. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Assistant director: Al Jennings. An Avon Production.
Copyright 1960. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Criterion: 22 September 1960. U.K. release: May 1960 (sic). Australian release: 29 August 1960. 10,990 feet; 122 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Physically and mentally scarred by the cruelty of his clergyman father, Chad Bixby turns to Salome, the hard-working daughter of poor and puritanical Joshua Davis; but she rejects him and flees to New York, where she marries a playboy student.
COMMENT: Even a few songs from Pearl Bailey and a few snatches of hot trumpet-playing cannot save this hoke. All four principals are both uninspired and unconvincing. The plot is a tired amalgam of trite clichés, and director Anderson (who has slipped a long, long way from his peak with Around the World in 80 Days) seems as utterly bored with the absurdly melodramatic proceedings as we are. Ludicrous, preposterous and utterly ridiculous, this movie is every bit as boring as its catchpenny title suggests. I’m glad to say that no DVD is available at present, but beware if it does hit the stores in the future.
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Robert Mitchum (Mike Morrison), Elisabeth Mueller (Lisa), Stanley Baker (Konrad Heisler), Gia Scala (Eletheria), Theodore Bikel (Tassos), Sebastian Cabot (Chesney), Peter Illing (Leonides), Leslie Phillips (Ray Taylor), Sir Donald Wolfit (Dr Stergiou), Marius Goring (Colonel Oberg), Jackie Lane (Maria), Kieron Moore (Andreas).
Director: ROBERT ALDRICH. Screenplay: A.I. Bezzerides. Based on the 1955 novel by Leon Uris. Photographed in CinemaScope by Stephen Dade. Film editor: Peter Tanner. Art director: Ken Adam. Music: Richard Bennett. Producer: Raymond Stross.
Copyright 1959 by Raymond Stross Productions. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at neighborhoods: 15 July 1959. U.K. release: 8 March 1959. Australian release: 4 June 1959. 9,461 feet; 105 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Wounded by a Nazi collaborator, a war correspondent in 1941 Athens, flees to the hills.
COMMENT: This confused and muddled tale of espionage in war-torn Greece, is the result, Aldrich claims, of savage cutting and mutilating by producer Stross after shooting had been completed. This would certainly explain the totally inept concluding sequences, but not the general slackness and lack of suspense throughout the last hour or so of a rather rambling yarn. (Even an attempt to tighten the movie still further has worked no magic. The print under review runs 97 minutes).
Some of the acting is best described as hesitant. Aldrich states in a rather roundabout way (he blames himself rather than the actor) that Mitchum was totally uncooperative, although it is really only in the last third of the movie that Mitchum suddenly decides to stop taking direction. Up to that point, he is quite acceptable. Perhaps he simply lost confidence in the script. Indeed, until the sudden introduction of Elizabeth Mueller, the screenplay is one of Bezzerides’ best. The plot deploys some memorable characters and out-of-the rut dialogue. I particularly enjoyed Marius Goring’s brilliant portrait of a punctilious, hypochondriacal German major who dreams of a little man as big as his thumb.
The first half of the movie is all directed in an appropriately bravura style. A swinging light in a museum sequence, heralds a really breath-catching chase scene. The interrogation sequence with Baker running his finger along the map, the night raid and the execution episodes are also prime examples of Aldrich’s masterly directorial flair.
No DVD version is available as we go to press.
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Around the World Under the Sea (1966)
Lloyd Bridges (Dr Doug Standish), Shirley Eaton (Dr Maggie Hanford), Brian Kelly (Dr Craig Mosby), David McCallum (Dr Phil Volker), Keenan Wynn (Hank Stahl), Marshall Thompson (Dr Orin Hillyard), Gary Merrill (Dr August Boren), Ron Hayes (Brinkman), George Shibata (Professor Hamuru), Frank Logan (Captain of Diligence), Don Wells (sonar man), Donald Linton (vice president), Jack Ewalt (superintendent, mining barge), George DeVries (lieutenant, coast guard), Tony Gulliver (officer), Joey Carter (technician), Celeste Yarnall (secretary), Paul Gray (pilot).
Directed by ANDREW MARTON. Written by Arthur Weiss and Art Arthur. Based on a story by Elmer Parsons. Diving sequences directed by Ricou Browning. Music by Harry Sukman. Director of photography: Clifford Poland. Director of underwater photography: Lamar Boren. In Panavision and Metrocolor. Associate producer: Ben Chapman. Technical adviser: Harry Redmond Jr. Art directors: Preston Rountree, Mel Bledsoe. Set decorator: Max Pittman. Music supervisor: Al Mack. Special effects: Project Unlimited, Inc. Underwater engineering: Jordan Klein. Underwater research: Richard Tuber. Special diving suit manufactured by Mordecai Grebow of Sea Salvage Specialities. Film editor: Warren Adams. Unit production manager: Ed Haldeman. Assistant director: James Gordon McLean. Recording supervisor: Franklin Milton. Assistant to producer: Norman Siegel. An Ivan Tors Production. Presented by M-G-M. Made with the co-operation of the United States Coast Guard, Miami Seaquarium, Marineland of the Pacific, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, United States Department of Defence and the University of Miami. Filmed on locations in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, in the Bahamas, in Dade and Broward counties, Florida; and at the Ivan Tors Studios in Miami, Florida. Producer: Andrew Marton. Executive producer: Ivan Tors.
Copyright 31 December 1965 by Ivan Tors Enterprises. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. New York opening at neighborhood theatres: 20 July 1966. U.S. release: 2 June 1966. U.K. release: 27 June 1966. Australian release: 5 January 1967. 9,962 feet. 111 minutes. The film was trimmed by slightly less than a minute in Australia in order to qualify for a General Exhibition certificate.
SYNOPSIS: When volcanic eruptions cause a series of violent earthquake disasters, a team of internationally prominent scientists board a specially-designed submarine equipped for the placing of electronic sensors on ocean beds throughout the world. The crew consists of Dr Doug Standish, his assistant Craig Mosby and four specialists in underwater work — Dr Phil Volker, Dr Maggie Hanford, Hank Stahl and Dr Orin Hillyard. At first all goes well though some tensions are roused by Maggie’s presence as the only woman on board, and by the fact that Volker has forced Standish’s hand by agreeing to come only if the submarine will make a special dive to recover a sunken treasure of valuable crystals.
COMMENT: What do you make of two reviews like this? Variety says, “Imaginatively-made undersea thriller.” The New York Times on the other hand headlines Bosley Crowther’s “Submarine Saga Hits Bottom”. I guess the only thing to do is see the movie for yourself. Especially if you like Shirley Eaton.
The truth of the matter of course lies between these two extremes. The film has its fair share of entertaining suspense and excitement. What’s more, it is for the most part attractively produced, competently acted and capably directed.
Naturally, we have some complaints. Miss Eaton is none too well served by her cliched role. Worse, she’s dowdily costumed, flatly directed and unappealingly photographed. Yet hero Lloyd Bridges comes across remarkably well — though it must be admitted that he does seem to have the knack of making the script’s heroics and clichés passably convincing.
The other principal, Brian Kelly, is a bore, but fortunately his part is small. Fans of Gary Merrill will not be happy to find their hero in a similarly paltry, unrewarding role. His star is fading. David McCallum and the rest of the crew all seem to be in their proper niches. Our main problem with the casting is, as stated, that Shirley Eaton deserves better.
Andrew Marton’s direction is typically straightforward and pretty well on target so far as action is concerned. Other technical credits, including effective special effects, also hit the mark, though some purists may object to Sukman’s music score which always lets us know when the action is about to get exciting.
Produced on a fair-sized budget, this Around the World makes, all in all, a reasonably entertaining diversion, especially for underwater-thirsty action fans.
No DVD version is available as we go to press.
OTHER VIEWS: Ivan Tors, who stirred public imagination with underwater exploits in his successful Sea Hunt teleseries, returns to the mysterious and fascinating world below the ocean’s surface for this unusual feature. He has taken the challenge of the deep and woven an arresting tale where beautiful underwater photography figures importantly. Generally good performances are delivered by the cast. Technical credits are outstanding.
— Variety.
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David Niven (Miles Doughton), Shirley MacLaine (Meg Wheeler), Gig Young (Evan Doughton), Rod Taylor (Ross Taford), Jim Backus (Maxwell), Claire Kelly (Lisa), Elisabeth Fraser (Jeannie Boyden), Dodi Heath (Terri Richards), Read Morgan (Bert), Carmen Phillips (refined young lady), Helen Wallace (hotel manager), Myrna Hansen, Kasey Rogers, Carrol Byron, Norma French, Kathy Reed (girls), Mae Clarke (woman on train), Mickey Shaughnessy (cigarette smoker), Percy Helton (janitor).
Director: CHARLES WALTERS. Screenplay: George Wells, based on the 1958 novel by Winifred Wolfe. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Robert Bronner. Film editor: John McSweeney, Jr. Art directors: William A. Horning and Urie McCleary. Set decorators: Keogh Gleason, Henry Grace. Costumes: Helen Rose. Music: Jeff Alexander. Assistant director: Al Jennings. Producer: Joe Pasternak.
Copyright 1959. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 21 May 1959 (ran 4 weeks). U.K. release: 18 October 1959. Australian release: 10 September 1959. 8,404 feet; 98 minutes. [Warner Achive plan a 2012 DVD].
SYNOPSIS: Small-town girl arrives in Manhattan in search of a job and a husband.
COMMENT: Although some critics hailed this super-predictable yarn as a bright and witty sex comedy, it is mostly a bore, enlivened only by the energetic playing of Shirley MacLaine (and, in lesser roles, Jim Backus and Gig Young). Walters’ relentlessly pedestrian direction doesn’t help Wells’ plodding screenplay either. And he does so little with CinemaScope, one wonders why the studio bothered with the process at all.
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Bob Hope (Adam J. Niles), Lana Turner (Rosemary Howard), Janis Paige (Dolores Jynson), Don Porter (Jynson), Jim Hutton (Larry Delavane), Paula Prentiss (Linda Delavane), Virginia Grey (Camille Quinlaw), Agnes Moorehead (Judge Peterson), Florence Sundstrom (Mrs Pickering), Clinton Sundberg (Rodney Jones), John McGiver (Austin Palfrey), Mary Treen (Mrs Freedman).
Director: JACK ARNOLD. Screenplay: Valentine Davies, Hal Kanter, Charles Lederer. Story: Vera Caspary. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Joseph Ruttenberg. Art directors: George W. Davis, Hans Peters. Costumes designed by Helen Rose. Music: Henry Mancini. Assistant director: Erich Von Stroheim, Jr. Producer: Ted Richmond.
Copyright 23 October 1961 by Ted Richmond Productions. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release. New York opening at the Capitol: 16 November 1961. U.K. release: 17 December 1961. 9,797 feet; 108 minutes. [A remastered edition of this movie is currently available on an excellent Warner DVD].
SYNOPSIS: Author needs to write a best-seller. Author moves into Paradise Hill Village and begins researching the housewives. Local husbands become suspicious and mistake author’s motives.
NOTES: The title song was nominated for Best Song, but lost out to Mancini’s own “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
COMMENT: For the first half-hour, as the Hopeful wisecracks flow thick and fast, we get all set to really enjoy ourselves. Unfortunately, the satiricial promise of the plot is all too soon deflected by the super-familiar mistaken motives theme, despite the fact that any husband with half an ounce of sense would realize that housewives are not the slightest scrap interested in middle-aged, funny-looking men unless they are Midas-rich and/or celebrities. Lana Turner is also miscast. The other players do what they can to save the movie, the direction is consistently smooth, but all told, this turns out to become a most disappointing effort.
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Spencer Tracy (the stranger in town), Robert Ryan (Reno Smith), Anne Francis (Liz Wirth), Ernest Borgnine (Coley Trimble), Dean Jagger (Tim Horn), Lee Marvin (Hector David), Walter Brennan (Doc Velie), John Ericson (Pete Wirth), Russell Collins (Hastings), Walter Sande (Sam),
Director: JOHN STURGES. Screenplay: Millard Kaufman. Adapted by Don McGuire from a story by Howard Breslin. Photography In CinemaScope and Eastman Color by William C. Mellor. Film editor: Newell P. Kimlin. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown. Set decorators: Edwin B. Willis and Fred MacLean. Make-up: William Tuttle. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Special effects: A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newcombe. Assistant director: Joel Freeman. Sound supervisor: Wesley C. Miller. Associate producer: Herman Hoffman. Producer: Dore Schary.
Copyright 6 December 1954. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at at the Rivoli: 1 February 1955. U.S. release: 7 January 1955. U.K. release: 28 March 1955. Australian release: 21 May 1955. 7,305 feet. 81 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A stranger alights from an express train at Black Rock, Arizona, an ingrown, self-contained hamlet so small and insignificant that passenger trains have not stopped there for years. Who is the stranger? What does he want?
COMMENT: Bad Day at Black Rock has an interesting and intriguing opening but unfortunately it doesn’t deliver the goods, despite earnest (and in the case of Robert Ryan, inspired) playing by a superstar cast. Of course Borgnine and Marvin were not mega-stars when this film was made and their parts are comparatively small, though both play them (or over-play them) to the hilt. Tracy, of course, remains firmly Tracy, investing his role with all his customary mannerisms.
The locations are quite fascinating, but the action sequences, alas, don’t amount to much, and are further undermined by speeding up and intercutting very obvious back-in-the-studio material.
All in all, despite its powerful trailer and sweepingly dramatic credit titles, Bad Day at Black Rock is a film that doesn’t deserve its enormous critical reputation, a reputation built up more by M-G-M’s skilled publicity department than the movie’s intrinsic quality. A Mickey Mouse music score which heavily underlines and overemphasizes every “dramatic” point doesn’t help either. Of course, the film does have CinemaScope and occasionally the wide screen is very effectively utilized and occasionally very effectively composed.
Would you believe that, shorn of similarly dazzling titles and credits, M-G-M re-made the movie as a black-and-white, standard-screen “B” in 1960 with Mickey Rooney (yes, Mickey Rooney!) in the Tracy role? The movie was entitled Platinum High School in the USA, Rich Young and Deadly overseas.
You can catch Bad Day anytime. The Warner Archive markets an excellent DVD.
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Alan Ladd (Peter Van Hock), Ernest Borgnine (John McBain), Katy Jurado (Anita), Claire Kelly (Ada Winton), Kent Smith (Cyril Lounsberry), Nehemiah Persoff (Vincente), Robert Emhardt (Sample), Anthony Caruso (Commanche).
Director: DELMER DAVES. Screenplay: Richard Collins. Based on the 1949 novel “The Asphalt Jungle” by W.R. Burnett. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by John Seitz. Film editors: William H. Webb, James Baiotto. Art directors: William A. Horning, Daniel Cathcart. Technical advisor: Wilford Babcock. Assistant director: Ridgeway Callow. Producer: Aaron Rosenberg. An Arcola Production.
Copyright 1958. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at sixty neighborhoods: 3 September 1958. U.K. release: 14 December 1958. Australian release: 4 December 1958. 7,477 feet. 83 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Alan Ladd plays a Dutchman (!) who wants to rob a mine in Prescott, Arizona. He hires Ernest Borgnine as his gunslinger. Ernest falls in love with an attractive Mexican girl, Katy Jurado.
COMMENT: Well below what you would expect of a Daves western, especially as it was made so close to Three Ten to Yuma and The Last Wagon. Daves claims that when he was making the movie, neither he nor any of the players or technicians were aware that the script was a re-hash of Asphalt Jungle with a number of extremely odd changes, including an astonishing finish in which the Sam Jaffe character rides off into the sunset with the Marilyn Monroe. It’s hard to completely credit Daves’ claim, because he seems to have done his best in certain scenes to out-Huston Huston. The extraordinary opening, for instance, featuring a fight among six convicts who are chained together, and the shot of Borgnine, an embittered prisoner, stumbling out of the opaque blackness of solitary into the blinding daylight. Of course, Alan Ladd also exerted some influence on the movie, insisting on the hiring of the noted film noir cameraman, John Seitz, who has certainly contrived some striking effects. Nonetheless, despite some fine slices of action, including the mine robbery and the climactic (but infuriatingly brief) gunfight, this is a patchy film. Nonetheless, for those fans who can’t do without, the Warner Archive markets an excellent DVD.
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the Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957)
John Gielgud (Barrett), Jennifer Jones (Elizabeth Barrett), Bill Travers (Browning), Virginia McKenna (Henrietta Barrett), Maxine Audley (Arabel Barrett), Jean Anderson (Wilson), Leslie Phillips (Harry Bevan), Susan Stephen (Bella Hedley), Vernon Gray (Captain Surtees Cook), Kenneth Fortescue (Octavius Barrett), Keith Baxter (Charles Barrett), Michael Brill (George Barrett), Nicholas Hawtrey (Henry Barrett), Richard Thorp (Alfred Barrett), Brian Smith (Septimus Barrett), Laurence Naismith (Dr Chambers), Moultrie Keslsall (Dr Ford-Waterlow).
Director: SIDNEY A. FRANKLIN. Screenplay: John Dighton. Based on the stage play by Rudolf Besier. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by F.A. Young. Film editor: Frank Clarke. Art director: Alfred Junge. Music: Bronislau Kaper. Costumes designed by Elizabeth Haffenden. Producer: Sam Zimbalist.
Copyright 1957. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 17 January 1957 (ran two weeks). U.S. release: 1 February 1957. U.K. release: 1 April 1957. Australian release: 27 May 1957. 9,453 feet; 105 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Tyrannical Victorian father keeps his grown-up daughter a virtual prisoner in his Wimpole Street (London) home.
NOTES: The stage play opened on Broadway at the Empire on 9 February 1931 and ran 372 performances. Katharine Cornell and Brian Aherne starred. The 1934 film starred Norma Shearer, Charles Laughton and Fredric March, and, like this version, was directed by Sidney Franklin.
COMMENT: Originally designed as a vehicle for Grace Kelly, this lifeless re-make, filmed entirely in England, was the first movie Franklin had directed since The Good Earth (1937). He produced twelve features in the intervening years. This version of Barretts was also the second last film with which Franklin was associated in any capacity. It is a sad farewell to an often distinguished career, dating way back to 1914.
Fortunately the movie is redeemed in part by Sir John Gielgud who makes his Barrett such a monster incarnate, he acts everyone else – except Susan Stephen (in the small but important part of Bella Hedley – right off the screen. No wonder Jennifer Jones makes such a pallid Elizabeth. But at least she is watchable. Bill Travers, on the other hand is an absolute disaster. Although he tries hard to make his dull, slow voice move impetuously, his “exuberance” takes the form of repeating everything twice. True, he does seem to have more than his fair share of stilted dialogue, but repeating it does not make it sing, it only makes it worse.
Franklin’s 1934 version had a force and intensity, that this monotonously routine, watered-down, slow, overly mannered, and – aside from Gielgud and Stephen – totally insipid version signally lacks. [A DVD version will be available from Warner Archive].
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Steve Cochran (Dave Culloran), Mamie Van Doren (Georgia Altera), Ray Danton (Stan Hess), Fay Spain (Francee Culloran), Louis Armstrong and his All Stars (band), Maggie Hayes (Joyce Greenfield), Jim Mitchum (Art Jester), Jackie Coogan (Jake Baron), Cathy Crosby (singer), Ray Anthony (Harry Altera), Dick Contino (singing beatnik), Irish McCalla (Marie Baron), Vampira (poet), Billy Daniels (Dr Elcott), Maxie Rosenbloom (wrestling beatnik), Charles Chaplin, Jr (Lover Boy), Paul Cavanaugh (Will Belmont), Sid Melton, Guy Stockwell (detectives), Gil Perkins (Lovers’ Lane bandit).
Director: CHARLES HAAS. Screenplay: Richard Matheson, Lewis Meltzer. Film editor: Ben Lewis. Photographed in black-and-white CinemaScope by William H. Castle. Art directors: William A. Horning, Addison Hehr. Costumes designed by Kitty Mager. Music: Lewis Meltzer, Albert Glasser. Dialogue coach: Jackie Coogan. Assistant director: Ridgeway Callow. Producer: Albert Zugsmith.
Copyright 1959. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at neighborhood cinemas: 21 October 1959. U.S. release: July 1959. U.K. release: September 1959. Australian release: 29 July 1959. 95 minutes.
Alternative title: This Rebel Age.
SYNOPSIS: Detectives Culloran and Baron are assigned to the case of a rapist-robber. Culloran, an experienced street cop, doubts the first victim’s story.
COMMENT: Uncle Albert’s usual recipe of gathering together an interesting cast to dress up his trashy material, gets this exploitation item off to a good start. Alas and alack, however, some of the more interesting players are glimpsed but briefly in order to make room for a long, dull stretch in the middle of the film which concentrates relentlessly on the two least engaging members of the cast, Mr Cochran and Miss Spain. Haas’ dull direction emphasises the inadequacy of this duo (or trio if you like to add Irish McCalla, here looking anything but the ravishing beauty in which she appears on the enticing covers of men’s magazines). Miss Van Doren’s admirers are also going to be disappointed. Her role is not particularly important and has obviously been built up at the expense of pace and momentum. [No DVD version is available as we go to press].
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Anne Baxter (Monica Johnson), Steve Forrest (Gregory Fitzgerald), Simone Renant (Francesca), Maurice Teynac (Trevelle), Robert Christopher (Tony Lugacetti), Ina de la Haye (Mama Lugacetti), Joseph Tomelty (Father Cunningham), Victor Francen (Father du Rocher), Raymond Bussieres (concierge).
Director: MITCHELL LEISEN. Story and screenplay: Jo Eisinger. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by F.A. Young. Film editor: Frank Clarke. Art director: Alfred Junge. Music: William Alwyn. Costumes for Miss Baxter designed by Helen Rose. Costumes for Simone Renant and mannequins designed by Jean Desses. Producer: Henry Berman. [No DVD version is available as we go to press].
Copyright 1955. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Palace: 22 April 1955. U.K. release: 25 July 1955. Australian release: 17 June 1955. Sydney opening at the Metro Minerva, Kings Cross (no city showcase). 89 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: On his way to Innsbruck, where he is to enter a Theological Seminary, a repressed and somewhat unworldly young American candidate for the priesthood, meets a super-sexy cabaret singer during a stopover in Paris. He discovers that she is hiding from a gangster who is determined to kill her.
COMMENT: A history-making movie on a number of fronts:
1. It was the second CinemaScope movie from any Hollywood studio to lose almost its entire production cost. A minimal amount in this case compared to the huge loss sustained by Jupiter’s Darling, but that movie did manage to attract the connoisseur and corduroy sets. Bedevilled, on the other hand, charmed no-one.
2. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer publicity claimed this as “the first CinemaScope film to be shot in Paris.” While this claim is strictly correct, the movie was by no means the first anamorphic wide-screen movie to be made in the French capital. Not by a long shot! It was simply the first anamorphic wide-screen movie to be shot in Paris with lenses supplied by Bausch and Lomb.
3. Although Leisen is credited as sole director, he supervised only the location scenes. All the studio interiors were entrusted to Dick “Print It” Thorpe, an expert graduate of the don’t-make-it-good-make-it-Monday school of film-making.
4. M-G-M’s high hopes of grooming Steve Forrest for stardom were dashed by his poor showing in what was admittedly an indifferently-scripted role.
5. Anne Baxter never fully recovered from this turkey. She had just made three huge boxoffice hits in a row: I Confess, The Blue Gardenia, Carnival Story. Despite top billing in The Spoilers (1955) and top female billing in The Ten Commandments (1956), she was overshadowed by her male co-stars.
6. Even though he was bounced from directing the studio scenes, Mitchell Leisen was the biggest loser. This tedious excuse for a thriller virtually put paid to his cinema career, although he did get to direct The Girl Most Likely (1957) and footage for a movie called Las Vegas By Night (1963), which was never released but incorporated into Spree (1967). (His friend, Ray Milland, came to his rescue by hiring him to direct episodes in his “Markham” TV series).
7. Despite this film’s dime-novel plot, indifferent characters and tedious romantic episodes, Jo Eisinger continued to work steadily in both movies and television.
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Judy Holliday (Ella Peterson), Dean Martin (Jeffrey Moss), Fred Clark (Larry Hastings), Eddie Foy, Jr (J. Otto Prantz), Jean Stapleton (Sue), Ruth Storey (Gwynne), Dort Clark (Inspector Barnes), Frank Gorshin (Blake Barton), Ralph Roberts (Francis), Valerie Allen (Olga), Bernie West (Dr Joe Kitchell), Gerry Mulligan (Ella’s blind date), Dorio Avila (delivery boy), Nancy Walters (actress), Gil Lamb (party guest), Steven Peck (gangster), Oliver Prickett (passer-by), Olan Soule (nervous man), Madge Blake (woman), Hal Linden (m.c.).
Director: VINCENTE MINNELLI. Screenplay: Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Based on their musical play. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Milton Krasner. Art directors: George W. Davis, Preston Ames. Set decorators: Henry Grace, Keogh Gleason. Film editor: Adrienne Fazan. Costumes designed by Walter Plunkett. Assistant director: William McGarry. Producer: Arthur Freed.
Songs by Jule Styne (music), Betty Comden, Adolph Green (lyrics): “Bells Are Ringing” (chorus); “It’s a Perfect Relationship” (Holliday); “Is It a Crime?” (Holliday); “It’s a Simple Little System” (Foy); “Do It Yourself” (Martin); “It’s Better Than a Dream” (Martin and Holliday); “Hello” (Holliday, Martin and chorus); “Mu Cha Cha” (Holliday, Avila and Storey); “Just In Time” (Holliday and Martin); “Long Before I Knew You” (Holliday and Martin); “Drop That Name” (Holliday and chorus); “The Party’s Over” (Holliday); “The Midas Touch” (chorus); “I’m Going Back” (Holliday). Music adapted and conducted by André Previn. Orchestrated by Alexander Courage, Peter King. Choreographer: Charles O’Curran.
Copyright 1960. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 23 June 1960 (ran 7 weeks). U.K. release: 9 October 1960. Australian release: 20 October 1960. 11,309 feet. 125 minutes. [Available on a Warner DVD].
SYNOPSIS: The operator of a telephone answering service falls in love with one of her clients.
NOTES: Judy Holliday’s last film. She died 7 June 1965. Also Arthur Freed’s last musical and his second last film. (Light in the Piazza was his final fling). M-G-M production number: 1760. Shooting from 7 October 1959 through 24 December 1959. Negative cost: $2,203,123. (For once, all the money was well spent. It’s an innovative movie that simply oozes production values). Initial world-wide rentals gross: $3,985,950 (which means that after adding print, advertising and distribution expenses, the film did little more than break even). The Screen Writers Guild gave Comden and Green an award for the Best Written American Musical of 1960.
COMMENT: A much under-rated movie. Admittedly, it was, according to all reports, difficult to make. Judy Holliday (repeating her stage success) was not in good health, but there is no sign of any nervousness or strain in her ebullient performance. Her timing is perfect, and she enlivens every scene in which she appears. Dean Martin also shines. In fact, he often looks as bewildered as we are by the delightfully screwy plot. As a musical, Bells Are Ringing is commendably innovative – an odd mixture of realism, fantasy and even surrealism. Alas, neighborhood audiences were not entranced. But the movie will always have a central core of fervent admirers. Count me as one! You’ll notice that Comden and Green, who wrote the Broadway success, also penned the screen adaptation. That’s why, for once, all the elements – including the songs – that thrilled Broadway audiences have not only been caried forward intact to the movie, but enhanced!
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Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur), Jack Hawkins (Quintus Arrius), Stephen Boyd (Messala), Haya Harareet (Esther), Hugh Griffith (Sheik Ilderim), Martha Scott (Miriam), Sam Jaffe (Simonides), Cathy O’Donnell (Turzah), Finlay Currie (Balthazar), Frank Thring (Pontius Pilate), Marina Berti (Flavia), George Relph (Tiberius), Andre Morell (Sextus), Terence Longden (Drusus), Laurence Payne (Joseph), Duncan Lamont (Marius), Ralph Truman (aide to Tiberius), Ferdy Mayne (captain), Tutte Lemkow (leper), John Le Mesurier (doctor), Adi Berber (Malluch), Jose Greci (Mary), Stella Vitelleschi (Amrah), John Horsley (Spintho), Dick Coleman (Metellus).
Director: WILLIAM WYLER. Screenplay: Karl Tunberg. Photographed in Camera 65 and Technicolor by Robert L. Surtees. Music: Miklos Rozsa. Art directors: William A. Horning, Edward Carfagno. Film editors: Ralph E. Winters, John D. Dunning. Set decorator: Hugh Hunt. Costumes designed by Elizabeth Haffenden. Sound recording supervisor: Franklin Milton. Producer: Sam Zimbalist.
Copyright 1959. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production. New York opening at Loew’s State: 18 November 1959. U.S. release: November 1959. U.K. release: December 1959. 213 minutes. [Warner DVD rates ten out of ten].
SYNOPSIS: If you’re trying to win a chariot race, don’t compete against your ex-best friend.
NOTES: Based not only on the 1880 novel by General Lew Wallace but the script for the 1925 version (see below), this screenplay also engaged the talents of Maxwell Anderson, S.N. Behrman, Gore Vidal and Christopher Fry. Only Tunberg, however, was credited and only Tunberg was nominated for a prestigious Hollywood award. This annoyed director Wyler no end. “It’s inconceivable that Christopher Fry, a man who stood at my side throughout most of the shooting and who contributed to almost every scene, should be excluded,” Wyler protested to the governors of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As it happened, however, Tunberg didn’t win the award for Best Screenplay, which – to the surprise of everyone – was carried off by Neil Paterson for Room at the Top. Wyler, however, won the award for Best Director, Charlton Heston for Best Actor, Hugh Griffith for Best Supporting Actor, while Robert L. Surtees was handed the award for Best Color Cinematography. The picture also won awards for the art directors, the sound supervisor, the film editors, the costume designer, the special effects wizards A. Arnold Gillespie and Robert MacDonald (visual effects) and Milo Lory (sound effects). Plus, of course, Best Picture. Interestingly, Douglas Shearer (head of Metro’s sound department), Robert Gottschalk (who invented the anamorphic system known as Panavision) and John R. Moore (of Panavision, Inc.) were given an award “for the development of a system for producing wide-film motion pictures known as Camera 65”.
Ben-Hur also won Best Picture awards from The New York Film Critics, the British Film Academy, The Screen Producers Guild, and The Screen Directors Guild. In The Film Daily Annual Poll of U.S. and Canadian film critics, however, the movie placed third to The Apartment and Elmer Gantry. The National Board of Review, on the other hand, voted The Nun’s Story as Best Film of the Year.
Negative cost: $15 million. Initial world-wide gross: $65 million.
Final film for producer Sam Zimbalist who succumbed to a heart attack in Rome shortly before principal photography was completed. After Zimbalist’s death, William Wyler himself took over as producer.
A re-make of the 1926 version directed by Fred Niblo, starring Ramon Novarro (Ben Hur), Francis X. Bushman (Messala), May McAvoy (Esther), and Carmel Myers (Flavia) [see below].
COMMENT: This is a film that will succeed or fail on the shoulders of the actor who plays the central character. Fortunately, Charlton Heston, although not Wyler’s first choice for the role [Wyler wanted Burt Lancaster], carries the film magnificently. True, he doesn’t look particularly Jewish, but he could pass. Fortunately, he has an excellent adversary in Stephen Boyd (who never had a better part, but was generally overlooked when praises were being handed out).
Although second billed, Britain’s most popular male star with both critics and moviegoers, Jack Hawkins, actually has little to do but keep the plot turning at a pivotal moment. Mind you, he does get one chance to impose his powerful presence on the movie, namely in the skilfully edited rowing tempo scene.
The rest of the players, dwarfed by vast sets and enormous production values, contribute little or nothing, although Australian actor, Frank Thring, makes a good try with his austere Pontius Pilate.
How Hugh Griffith managed to capture an award for his performance is one of the great mysteries of Hollywood. That award should have gone to George C. Scott for Anatomy of a Murder. (My own theory is that Scott’s vote was partly split by those who preferred Arthur O’Connell’s performance in the same film, and thus Griffith managed to achieve a small advantage. Certainly Griffith himself entertained no hopes whatever and didn’t even bother to attend the ceremony. And who would blame him? The role was not only small, it offered little more than a routine slot in the way of charisma. Compared to Griffith’s memorably flamboyant characterizations in such films as A Run for Your Money, The Titfield Thunderbolt and Lucky Jim, Sheik Ilderim was a nothing part).
Rozsa’s score has come in for a great deal of praise, but, alas, I was disappointed. Rozsa is my favorite film composer, but this is not one of his best scores. Repetitious, self-derivative, even banal. I particularly cringed at the solemnly pedantic theme that heralded every appearance of the Christ.
Unfortunately, Wyler’s tendency to focus on inadequate players like Haya Harareet, Martha Scott, Cathy O’Donnell and Sam Jaffe who, although admittedly poorly served by the script, do little or nothing to impose their presence or their “signature” on the movie, does slow the film down. This lack of drama is fortunately not so evident in the first half of the film which comes to a heart-stirring climax in the famous chariot race, so skilfully staged here by Andrew Marton and Yak Canutt. But after the race is over, the film is allowed to drag on and on. The introduction of spurious religiosity does not help either. I am a Christian. But if the Christ I serve was anything like the ridiculous charade presented in this movie, I would resign immediately. Only the Crucifixion scenes are presented with power and authority, but even here the film-makers’ visions seem oddly blurred. Is Wyler (himself Jewish) trying to tell the world that the Christ was not tortured and executed at the behest of a rent-a-crowd hired by the High Priest (as the Gospels tell us), but by the very people He had embraced and healed? That’s the impression I received.
So I looked at the 1926 version which was probably closer to Wallace’s novel (and on which Wyler himself had worked as a production assistant). Ah! Wallace presumably argues it was the Romans, not the Jews, not the priests, who put Jesus to death! But good old M-G-M couldn’t make this point in the 1959 movie because it was filmed in Italy and the Romans would not have been pleased at all by a script that even so much as implied that they were to blame. So in Wyler’s 1959 account, no-one is to blame. For reason or reasons totally unknown, Jesus is put to death by Roman soldiers before a huge and 100% totally sympathetic crowd of impotent Jewish well-wishers!!!
No wonder Hollywood has such a bad reputation among Fundamentalists! Although, as I say, it was probably General Lew Wallace who gave birth to this notion to whitewash all those fine Jewish leaders and blame the Romans instead!
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer publicity has made much of the fact that Ben-Hur was nominated for twelve awards and won eleven of them! A fine achievement! But the one it missed out on is surely significant. Screenplay! It didn’t win the award for screenplay. And no wonder! The screenplay is not good. It’s verbose, confused, over-long yet uncertain of its direction, ludicrously over-reverential yet gutless and pussy-footing, inadequately characterized, with gaping plot holes all over the place, a boring love story (shorn of all the drama that Wallace had put into it), and dialogue that would not seem out of place in a dime novel. Above all, it’s pointless. Who are the villains? The Romans, the script argues, following Wallace’s lead at first. But no! Perhaps it’s just one too ambitious, snake-in-the-grass Roman that’s at fault. The emperor seems a nice old guy. The Roman soldiers seem far more well-behaved in this version that in the 1926 movie, and even Pontius Pilate is presented with considerable dignity. It’s just that one rotten apple! But once he’s so excitingly disposed of, the script tediously wanders on and on and on and on and on…
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Ramon Novarro (Ben-Hur), Francis X. Bushman (Messala), May McEvoy (Esther), Betty Bronson (Mary), Claire McDowell (Ben-Hur’s mother), Kathleen Key (Tirza, Ben-Hur’s sister), Carmel Myers (Iras), Nigel De Brulier (Simonides), Mitchell Lewis (Sheik Ilderim), Leo White (Sanballat), Frank Currier (Quintus Arrius), Winter Hall (Joseph), Charles Belcher (Balthazar), Dale Fuller (Amrah), Claude Payton (Yeshua), Myrna Loy (hedonist), Reginald Barker, Clarence Brown, Marion Davies, John Gilbert, George Fitzmaurice, Sidney Franklin, Douglas Fairbanks, Lillian Gish, Sid Grauman, Rupert Julian, Henry King, Harold Lloyd, Colleen Moore, Mary Pickford (crowd extras in chariot race), Clark Gable, William Donovan, Gilbert Clayton, Carlotta Monti (extras), Ray Elernborn (background extra), Rosita Garcia (bit), Harry Gordon (centurion), Tom Tyler, Leonora Summers.
Director: FRED NIBLO. Associate directors: Alfred L. Raboch, B. Reeves Eason. Uncredited additional direction: Charles Brabin, Rex Ingram, J.J. Cohn, Christy Cabanne. 2nd unit director: B. Reeves Eason. Nativity scene directed by Ferdinand P. Earle. 2nd unit photography: Paul Ivano. 2nd unit camera operator: George Gordon Nogle. Scenario: Bess Meredyth, Carey Wilson from an adaptation by June Mathis of the 1880 novel by Lew Wallace. Titles: Katherine Hilliker, H.H. Caldwell. Photography: Rene Guissart, Percy Hilburn, Karl Struss, Clyde De Vinna. Additional photography: E. Burton Steene, George Meehan. Trick photography: Paul Eagler. Film editor: Lloyd Nosler. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Horace Jackson. Miniatures: Arnold Gillespie. Technicolor color consultant: Dr Herbert Kalmus. Assistant film editors: Basil Wrangell, William Holmes, Harry Reynolds. Wardrobe: Herman J. Kaufmann. Production manager: Harry Edington. Production assistants: Silas Clegg, Alfred L. Raboch, William Wyler. Assistant director: Charles Stallings. Traveling mattes: Frank D. Williams. Producers: Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn, Irving Thalberg.
Copyright 8 October 1927 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. New York opening at the George M. Cohan Theatre: 30 December 1925 (sic). 12 reels. 11,693 feet. [Available on an excellent Warner DVD].
COMMENT: I said in my review of Wyler’s version above, that the success of this movie rests squarely on the shoulders of the leading man. In this case, those shoulders are totally – and by totally I mean 95% – inadequate. From our first glimpse to the last, Ramon Novarro is an inescapable liability. He doesn’t look the part. Worse, he acts against the part. He is weak when the script demands he be strong. He is moony when he is required to be decisive. He is supine rather than charismatic, impotent rather than forceful, delicate rather than robust. He is an absolute dead loss throughout the whole movie, except oddly for one sequence. Surprisingly, he handles the galley-slave scenes with vigor, dignity and guts. He’s perfect in these scenes, but a liability everywhere else. You should see the flippy way he holds the reins from his chariot. There’s Francis X. Bushman whipping his horses into a frenzy, and what’s pallid little Novarro doing? He’s namby-pambying along at about two miles an hour, showing not the slightest signs of sweat or exertion, while the other charioteers are kicking up dust all around him. “What, me worry?” he seems to be saying. “Let the stunt men do all the work. And anyhow, every man, woman and child in the audience knows this race is fixed anyway!” Presumably, the galley scenes were not directed by easygoing Niblo but by someone like Brabin or Ingram with a bit more authority.
Otherwise, the movie is a blend of good, bad and indifferent. It is good to see Joseph depicted as an elderly man, but somewhat odd to see someone ask him if he is “Joseph of Nazareth?” And even more peculiar to see him answer in the affirmative. How could he possibly be Joseph of Nazareth? The title-writers have just gone to a great deal of effort to tell us he is “Joseph of Bethlehem”. The movie then repeats the canard that the wise men visited the Child at the stable (here converted into a cave) even though Luke makes quite an issue of the fact that the wise men actually arrived much later, after the Divine Family had settled into a “house”. Normally, the introduction of a strong, charismatic hero at this stage would soon make an audience forget such piddling points (as indeed is the case in the remake with Charlton Heston). But, as said, the disappointing excuse for a hero presented by weak-as-water Novarro only draws more attention to other script defects. Fortunately, director Fred Niblo was blessed with supporting players, led by Francis X. Bushman and Nigel De Brulier who do their best to focus the audience’s eyes elsewhere. In fact, Niblo adds lots of clever little touches that Wyler didn’t dare repeat, like the extra woman who sneers at the jubilant Jewish bible-basher who feels that prophecies are being fulfilled; and the naked girls who strew flowers along the road for the Roman conquerors; and the soldiers who rip the bodice from a bystander just for the hell of it; and the slimy, contemptible Jewish apple vendor who browbeats a venerable old man for stealing one of his apples.