Tales of the Easily Distracted

It’s been said that our late loved ones are always with us, watching over us in the hereafter—but Danny Kaye takes the concept and runs with it in 1945’s supernatural RKO/Samuel Goldwyn comedy Wonder Man(WM)! If you thought Danny was hilarious on his own, wait’ll you see him in the dual roles of famous nightclub star Buzzy Bellew and his brother Edwin Dingle! As the Doublemint gum commercials, say, it’s double your pleasure, double your fun!

Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone(I Wake up Screaming,Sun Valley Serenade; several Charlie Chan films, among others), WM’s screenwriters included Up in Arms’ Don Hartman; Melville Shavelson from Kaye’s 1946 boxing romp The Kid From Brooklyn; Philip Rapp, creator of Fanny Brice’s Baby Snooks; Arthur Sheekman, gag writer for The Marx Brothers; and Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch, and Eddie Moran from Topper and Way Out West. If these fellas didn’t know their comic ghosts, I don’t know who would! They say that too many cooks spoil the broth, but in this case, WM turned out to be a musical-comedy smorgasboard and a hip, hilarious, tuneful romp indeed!

From Borscht Belt tummler to Broadway star to multitalented movie star, Danny’s secret weapon was Sylvia Fine, Danny’s brilliantly talented lyricist, composer, manager, and his wife from 1940 until Danny’s death in 1987. Sylvia was truly the woman behind the man. With her brilliant lyrics and wordplay, and Danny’s unbeatable talent and energy, they were an amazing power couple!

Sylvia & Danny:
They're so fine!

Danny’s first film, the 1944 service comedy Up in Arms, was a box-office hit. But with the theatrical release of WM in June 1945, Danny really knocked it out of the park—Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, that is! As I’ve said in other TotED blog posts, as a native New Yorker, I enjoy watching movies where the action is set in any of New York City’s five boroughs. I don’t even mind that WM was actually filmed at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in California and not NYC, since the cast, writers, and sets all have that New York feeling (not to be confused withthat Barton Fink feeling). Even better, the cast includes Huntz Hall, one of our favorite Bowery Boys, as a young sailer who unwittingly gets entangled in the wacky, ghostly hijinks.

We viewers first meet Buzzy Bellew (Kaye) as the star attraction at New York City’s posh Pelican Club (what the world needs now are more affordable swanky nightclubs! But I digress….). The brash and brassy Buzzy is as likable as he is zany and hyper, likable, bursting with energy. To borrow a line from Steve Martin back in his stand-up comedy days, Buzzy is a wild and crazy guy (in the most entertaining ways, of course)!

Enough bad news! Where's the sports page?

Buzzy and his Pelican Club co-star, singer/dancer Midge Mallon (dynamite dancer and former Radio City Music Hall Rockette Vera-Ellen in her movie debut, followed by The Kid from Brooklyn; On the Town; White Christmas, and so much more!) have been a couple for a long time. Although it’s clear that Buzzy and Midge are both into each other, somehow the cute, talented couple never quite manage to actually get hitched at any of their attempted weddings. But Midge is a good sport about it, perhaps because Buzzy is always funny, sweet, and apologetic—or maybe because their Pelican Club colleague Monte Rossen (Donald Woods from Watch on the Rhine; True Grit; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and more), is a decent, patient joe who’s willing to wait until Midge finally comes to her senses and realizes the devoted Monte is a better bet when it comes to building a life together.

*POP* goes the marriage proposal!
Buzzy and Midge are betrothed at last!

Ah, but Buzzy’s serious this time, giving Midge a jack-in-the-box attached to a diamond ring! Vera-Ellen is adorable as Midge, and she and Danny have delightful chemistry. And what a dancer she was! Ironically, according to the TCM Web site, even though Vera-Ellen had a perfectly swell singing voice, her numbers were dubbed! I guess it was like when Audrey Hepburn’s singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and My Fair Lady: they could sing, but apparently not quite well enough for the movies. Go figure!

People can’t help loving Buzzy—except for notorious mobster, counterfeiter, and killer Ten-Grand Jackson (Steve Cochran, also making his film debut here)! See, DA O’Brien (Otto Kruger of Murder, My Sweet; Saboteur; High Noon)and the Assistant DA (Richard Lane, best known to Boston Blackie fans as Inspector Farraday)needs Buzzy to testify in the murder trial, one of whose victimsincludeone Choo-Choo Laverne, a fan dancer who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our antic, overly optimistic entertainer is too overconfident to let New York’s Finest provide him with police protection—not a smart move for a high-profile witness in a murder case, especially when Ten-Grand has just been released on bail!


What's this? Inspector Farraday in league with Jules Amthor?!

Alas, Buzzy realizes too late that he should’ve taken advantage of that police protection, or at least taken the time to read those ominous newspaper headlines splashed all over the news. Instead, Buzzy makes a fatal splash as Ten-Grand’s strong-arm boys Chimp (Allen Jenkins of Ball of Fire, but this timein funny-yet-sinister-villain mode, as he was in Lady on a Train) and Torso (Edward Brophy, ditto, as he was in The Thin Man and All Through the Night)send Buzzy to sleep with the fishes in Prospect Park’s lake. You have to hand it to the writers for being able to make cold-blooded murder funny without being depressing!

Onstage, Buzzy and Midge are on a Bali high!

Enter Buzzy’s twin brother Edwin Dingle (also played by Danny, natch), a quiet, bookish librarian and researcher. Edwin and Buster (Buzzy’s real name) haven’t been in touch since young Buster ran away to try his hand at show business, rechristening himself as Buzzy Bellew. Well, the Dingle boys are about to have a family reunion to catch up with each other, avenge Buzzy’s death, and put Ten-Grand Jackson behind bars for good—but that doesn’t mean ectoplasmic Buzzy won’t liven things up with merry, macabre hijinks along the way! This isn’t Hamlet, you know! What’s more, romance is blooming between Edwin and his charming co-worker Ellen Shanley (Virginia Mayo, my favorite among Danny’s leading ladies since I saw her in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). Keep your eyes peeled for Natalie Schaefer—yes, Gilligan’s Island’s Lovey Howell herself!—appearing briefly and amusingly as a pesky patron of the local library who’s both bewildered and fascinated by Edwin’s ambidextrous abilities. But Edwin’s date with Ellentakes a hilariously crackpot turn when Buzzy’s ghostly music gets Edwin all farshimmelt on the way to pick up potato salad for their dinner date, and…well, you may never look at deli food with a straight face again, especially with the hilariously frustrated S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall as the deli proprietor! Another highlight: Danny’s madcap sneezy rendition of the classic Russian song “Otchi Chornniya,” and the climactic opera that collapses into a side-splitting free-for-all! Hey, wouldn’t WM and A Night at the Opera be a swell double-feature?

I love a man who can cookand wear an apron with confidence!

Fun Fact: In addition to WM, Steve Cochran and Virginia Mayo also co-starred in such Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning classics asWhite Heat andand The Best Years of our Lives. Cochran also co-starred in many of Chester Morris’ aforementionedBoston Blackie movies (a favorite here at Team Bartilucci HQ). I love the charming chemistry between Kaye and Mayo! WM was Virginia Mayo's first leading lady role with Danny; before that, she had a brief uncredited role in Up in Arms.

"You can lose your mind/
When brothers are two of a kind!"

Exasperated S.Z. Sakall is his usual "Cuddles"-some self!

WM did very well indeed come Oscar time, winning for the Best Special Effects for John Fulton’s cinematography and A.W. Johns’ sound effects. Leo Robin and David Rose’s number for Vera-Ellen, “So in Love,” got an Oscar nomination for Best Music, Original Song, as well as Best Music Scoring for a Musical Picture, under Ray Heindorf’s direction. But I can’t complain about Heindorf losing, considering the Best Music Scoring Oscar that year went to another of my all-time favorites, Miklós Rózsa for Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound! According to the TCM Web site, at one point in WM, Buzzy impishly slips his torso (no, not Edward Brophy’s character!) on a bust at Prospect Park, quipping, “What is this, trick photography?” Definitely not “palpably inadequate!” WM is one of Danny Kaye’s very best movies!

Dead or alive, Buzzy sure knows how to make an entrance! Hiya, Bro!

Sailor Huntz Hall & palsare gobsmacked at Edwin's supernatural powers, courtesy of Buzzy!

All right, opera singer dame, give someone else a turn!

Aw, don't you just love a happy ending?

This post is part of the CMBA’s Fabulous Films of the 1940s Blogathon, running from February 17th through February 22nd, 2013. Enjoy!

After The Maltese Falcon became a hit in 1941, Warner Bros. wasted no time in following up with Across the Pacific(AtP) in 1942, reuniting its powerhouse stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, composer Adolph Deutsch, and of course, director John Huston, this time working from a script by Richard Macaulay (They Drive By Night; The Roaring Twenties; Born to Kill), based on the serial Aloha Means Goodbye. (Macauley was later known for testifying as a “friendly witness” before HUAC during the McCarthy era, but that’s a story for another time.)

AtP has plenty of suspense, romance, and flag-waving, what with the U.S. poised to enter World War 2 any minute. The result was an entertaining adventure with that cheeky Huston feel, at once suspenseful and playful, while never forgetting that war is on the horizon and you can never be sure who to trust. Only Peter Lorre was missing among the AtP cast—but he turned up just long enough to horse around, according to TCM’s Bret Wood: “Without informing his cast, Huston had Lorre enter the background as a waiter, clumsily disrupting the scene until announcing his presence with a wet kiss on the back of Astor’s neck.” Oh, those impish Warner scamps!

Love, exciting and new! Come aboard, we're expecting you!

Would you believe I first saw AtP in colorized form? Yes, that was back in the bad old days when Ted Turner thought people would turn up their pert little noses at black-and-white movies. Instead, the colors looked muddy and just plain awful. Lovely Mary Astor’s lips looked gray—blecch! Give me glorious black-and-white anytime!


Even Canada, our friendly neighbor to the North, won't let Rick fight!

Our story is set in 1941, where our hero Rick Leland (Bogart) is in the very un-heroic position of being dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army, with woman trouble indicated. So our antihero Rick comes aboard the Genoa Maru, a ship heading toward Panama; after all, there’s always something a freelance adventurer can do to earn a few bucks! Rick meets Dr. Lorenz (Greenstreet), an American who seems to be a lot more sympathetic to the Japanese than most of us Yanks would’ve been during that era, being on the brink of war and all. Another passenger, Joe Totsuiko (Victor Sen Yung, a.k.a. Sen Yung of The Letter; Number Two Son Jimmy Chan in the Charlie Chan movies; and Hop Sing on TV’s Bonanza, among others), is a sharp young Japanese-American who grew up in the U.S., and has almost the same hepcat lingo as Kookie from TV’s 77 Sunset Strip(*snap snap*). But don’t underestimate his boyish charm and thick glasses; Joe’sjujitsumoves will knock you on your butt!

Romance on the high seas for Rick and Alberta...

War or no war, there’s always time for romance, by George! Rick romances passenger Alberta Marlow (Astor, for whom I’ve always had a soft spot, as she reminds me of my late Auntie Joy), who’s pretty gosh-darn glamorous for an unassuming little lady supposedly from a town called Medicine Hat. (By the way, there really is a town called Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada!) But hey, aren’t cruises supposed to be exciting and romantic? While I don’t always agree with venerable New York Times film reviewer Bosley Crowther, I do agree with his comment about our leading lady: “Miss Astor is so beautiful a creature that you naturally know you must reserve your trust.”

...til mal-de-mere strikes! Can Alberta get a refund?

TCM’s Bret Wood goes on to say: “Once war was declared, it was difficult for the crew to hold onto their Japanese-American actors, who were suddenly considered a threat to security. According to Astor, ‘a little indignation and some wire-pulling held them at least until the picture was finished.’ The Japanese actors were forced to endure a fair amount of racial stereotyping in the wartime film. Most speak pidgin English, while Victor Sen Yung was required to wear grotesque magnifying spectacles. In spite of this thinly disguised racism, Across the Pacific is in many ways respectful of Asian culture and in several instances attempts a serious understanding of the Japanese character and the philosophy of Judo.”

A pleasure cruise on the fab Genoa Maru!
Hope they got entertainment & all-you-can-eat buffets!

Our travelers sure do get their share of adventure and intrigue, eventually foiling a dastardly Japanese plot against the Panama Canal (keep in mind this was wartime in the 1940s, well before WW2 ended and the U.S. and Japan became chummy so everyone could make money on electronics and such.) Happily, we discover Rick really is on the side of the angels; he’s working for amiable spymaster A.V. Smith (Charles Halton of To Be or Not To Be; The Best Years of our Lives; Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent), who’s basically Rick’s spymaster for this mission. (He was gonna be reinstated once his mission was over, wasn’t he? I assume nothing!) I enjoyed the swell repartee between Rick and Alberta. The dialogue is witty, fast, and peppery. For example:

Alberta:“I can do without money.”
Rick:“Stick with me and you’ll get plenty of practice.”

Rick notices Alberta’s comparatively skimpy cruise garb:
Rick:“I never saw anybody like you. You never have any clothes on.”
Alberta:“Well if anyone heard you complaining about it, they would put you in a psychopathic ward.” (Note: Alberta’s so-called skimpy sea togs just looked like nice bathrobes and skirts to me, but this was 1942, so Astor’s fashions may well have seemed racy at the time!)

According to the TCM Web site, John Huston and many other Hollywood actors and filmmakers accepted commissions to become a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Huston was called into service just before AtP wrapped. Vincent Sherman (Mr. Skeffington; The Young Philadelphians; and one of my favorites,All Through the Night) took over.

Um, this guy is just here to put
a refreshing mint on Rick's pillow, right?

Huston and his cast work together as beautifully as they did in their previous hit. Astor has always been deft at drama (The Great Lie, for which she won her 1942 Best Supporting Actress Oscar), but she’s also always had a flair for comedy, too (The Palm Beach Story being a delightful example). Astor and Bogart are an engaging onscreen couple, whether they’re playful or serious. In one running gag (literally), Astor’s Alberta Marlow makes a prim, hilarious victim of seasickness: “Even if I live, I’ll never be the same again.” And don’t get her started on the ship’s bread pudding! The action goes from sea to land, from New York City (where Alberta insists on Rick buying a new suit. Guess she never heard that line from The Spanish Prisoner:“Beware of all enterprises which require new clothes.”), and finally, from Cristobal to Panama where the action gets red hot. No wonder Crowther had more to say about AtP:“It’s like having a knife to your ribs for an hour and a half.” That’s in a good way, I assure you!


Careful who you drink with, Rick! Remember when you drank with that Gutman character who slipped you a Mickey in San Francisco?


Don't mind me, Mr. Leland, I'm just looking for my cufflinks!

Anyone got a compact? My lips are delightfully schmeared after all this gunplay!

"Mine's bigger than yours." Actual dialogue from the movie!

Alberta tells Rick that passenger T. Oki is not okey-dokey! So much for all Japanese looking alike!

Not a finger!

"Hey, hon, if we have a great time on this cruise, let's make a date at the Empire State Building a year from now!"

A great cast is worth repeating! Sydney Greenstreet, Humphrey Bogart, Victor Sen Yung, Mary Astor

This post is part of the John Garfield Blogathon, hosted by Patti of They Don’t Make ’Em Like They Used To, running from March 1^st through March 4th, 2013. Enjoy!

In 1941, John Garfield’s often-turbulent life was in transition—and this was before World War 2 sent the whole world reeling! Having achieved stage stardom in New York City’s Group Theatre with his performance in Awake and Sing, then moving on to bigger Broadway success as the title character in CliffordOdets’ Golden Boy, and then becoming a movie star with the Lane Sisters in Four Daughters in 1938, Garfield was on a roll—until William Holden got the the Golden Boy role in the 1939 movie version that our man Garfield had created on the Great White Way! Warner Bros. stepped in with the sweet consolation prize of a long-term contract. But according to Richard Harland Smith at TCM's Web site, Garfield wasn’t really feeling it with his next projects, such as The Sea Wolf, in which Garfield was billed below co-stars Edward G. Robinson and Ida Lupino. So Garfield kicked his agents at Lyon & Lyon to the curb, joining forces with super-agent Lew Wassermann and business manager Bob Roberts to help Garfield set up his own production company.

Smiling Jane Graystone, visiting the U.S. for the first time, looks forward to a vacation chock full of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolets….

…until Eddie Mars turns up! Didn’t that bounder
learn his lesson in The Big Sleep?!

Smith makes an excellent case that Garfield was eventually drawn toDangerously They Live (DTL)(1941) because the script by writer/producer Marion Parsonnet (Gilda; My Forbidden Past; I’ll Be Seeing You) surely would have appealed to him because he was a member of the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League long before America entered World War 2 in December, 1941. No doubt Garfield enthusiastically approved of the film’s uncompromising depiction of German agents wreaking havoc in the free world; I sure would!

Directed by Robert Florey (from Murders in the Rue Morgue; The Cocoanuts; Meet Boston Blackie; TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Dick Powell Theatre), we meetour heroine, Jane Graystone (Nancy Coleman in her film debut; she also co-starred in Kings Row; Mourning Becomes Electra; The Gay Sisters; and TV’s Ryan’s Hope), a lovely lass with a slight British lilt in her voice. Jane seems to be checking out the sights and sounds of The Big Apple as she checks in with another British gent. What’s with all the U.K. visitors? Is there a Doctor Who Con in town? But judging from the men giving Jane the hairy eyeball as she innocently grabs a cab, our heroine will be forced to confront the aforementioned Big Apple's worms lurking in our otherwise fair city!

Hmm, I’m kinda liking the way Dr. Mike Lewis
displays his bedside manner!

Before you can say, “Where’s Traveler’s Aid?,” a henchman identified as John (John Ridgely of The Big Sleep;The Man Who Came to Dinner;Air Force) hangs around the the British Export Bureau. Somehow I don’t think John's there to buy Travelers Cheques. Sure enough, Jane’s cab driver deliberately smashes the car into a wall, with a little help from from the fiendish cabbie. Pandemonium reigns, and Jane is brought to the hospital as evil John and his cabbie cohort beat a hasty retreat!

Enter chipper, cocky-yet-likable Dr. Michael “Mike” Lewis (Garfield), as he gives Jane a through examination:

Jane:“I’ve got all my arms and legs and everything?”
Mike:“Yes, and believe me, they’re worth keeping.”

Dr. Mike looks forward to treating temporary amnesia victim Jane
like other doctors look forward to Christmas!
Nice to know he’s serious about his work!

As Mike admits Jane to the hospital, our anxious damsel-in-distress can’t remember a thing about herself. Mike’s examination of his pretty new patient indicates temporary amnesia all right, giving Mike a perfect opportunity to fully examine a temporary amnesia patient, something he’s apparently been wanting to do for ages. How’s that for on-the-job training?

Before long, Mike gets a visit from Jane’s dad, John Goodwin (Moroni Olsen ofThe Glass Key;Pride of the Marines, also starring Garfield; and Alfred Hitchcock’sNotorious)turns up to aid his darling daughter. Looks like a real fatherly, pillar-of-the-community type…but Jane doesn’t recognize him, either, and she swears the photos he brought to help kick-start her memory aren’t doing the trick, either. It’s gradually dawning on our stalwart sawbones that Jane’s scared, and not just because of this alleged amnesia! She finally gets alone with Mike — no, not because of his bedside manner or his attractive tush:

Jane:“You’re a good doctor, but you weren’t there when I was born, and I was. That’s not my father.”

Mike (humoring her):“Now take it easy. Everything will be all right.”

Jane: “Yes, if you’ll stop humoring me and listen! I work for British Intelligence, and that man is not my father. He and his gang are trying to find out what I know. Would you do me a favor? Keep your eyes and ears open, and please never be far away from me?”

Call me paranoid, but Jane’s Dad strikes me as creepy,
not fatherly. Maybe he needs cuddlier glasses!

Mike does so, and during Jane’s hospital stay, she and Mike get to know and become increasingly fond of each other during their otherwise increasingly sinister predicament. But now Jane must keep the amnesia gambit going, or it’ll be curtains for both of them—and we don’t mean the drapes in the Psychotic Game Room! In the meantime, at least Mike and Jane can enjoy the lovely melody “You’re Not So Easy to Forget” in the background. If fans of MGM’s Thin Man movies listen carefully, they’ll hear that song in the final Thin Man movie, Song of the Thin Man (1947). It’s a nice touch, considering the film’s amnesia motif!

Dr. Mike and Head Nurse Johnson(Lee Patrick from The Maltese Falcon; Auntie Mame;Vertigo)discuss who’s going to pay for Jane’s hospital tab:
Mike:“Don’t worry, I’ll pay for it.”
Head Nurse Johnson: “With what?”
Mike: “Don’t tell me you prefer blood.”
Head Nurse Johnson:“Not yours; I like it red. Did you find out who she is yet?”
Mike:“No, she can’t remember a thing.”
Head Nurse Johnson:“I don’t know what a brilliant student of mental diseases would do to find out a girl’s name, but I’d check her laundry mark.”

Mike: “Not bad, Sherlock—but they may be in Chinese.”
Hmm, could it be mere coincidence that Jane’s laundry mysteriously goes AWOL soon afterward? Are Head Nurse Johnson and/or the other busy little elves at the hospital just being unwittingly overzealous about putting away patients’ clothes, or is there something more sinister afoot? If this story wasn’t set in 1941, I bet there would be lawsuits galore!

When it comes time for Jane to leave the hospital, it seems she and Mike just might catch a break: Mike’s older colleague, Dr. Ingersoll (Raymond Massey from Abe Lincoln in Illinois;The Woman in the Window;Arsenic and Old Lace) agrees to let Mike come home with Jane to help her emotional healing—where we find out for sure that Dr. Ingersoll is, to borrow a line from cartoonist Mark Martin of CBG’s 20 Nude Girls 20, a “bad mans!” Mike and Jane’s lives get more fearful and paranoid every day. Seems Jane’s faux dad Mr. Goodwin and Dr. Ingersoll are really Nazi scum, and they’re tormenting the poor groundskeeper, Mr. Steiner (Christian Rub from You Can’t Take It With You; he’s alsothe voice of Geppetto in Walt Disney’s Pinocchio), who’s under these creeps’ collective thumb. With the villains packing heat and doing a fine job of keeping our heroes under control and away from anyone who could help them (their most potent weapon seems to be the aforementioned Hairy Eyeball), the war of nerves alone makes escape harder than getting Alicia Huberman out of Alex Sebastian’s house in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious! Where are Humphrey Bogart and his tough yet lovable Runyunesque pals from All Through the Night when you need them?!


Jane and her protector Mike couldn't be safer in Dr. Raymond Massey’s care; after all, he’s Honest Abe Lincoln! Then again, he was also evil Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace!Yikes!

Aha! It’s the ol’ Halifax trick, like inAcross the Pacific!

In today's news, minor accident on Fifth Avenue leads to romance!

May 3^rd through May 10^th, 2013
Co-Hosted by Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci of Tales of the Easily Distracted
and R.A. Kerr of Silver Screenings.

It all started in February with the CMBA’s recent Fabulous Films of The 1940s Blogathon. For my TotED post, I blogged about one of my longtime favorites, the World War 2 comedy-thriller Across the Pacific(1941), starring three of my favorite classic film stars, Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet. (They were all awesome in The Maltese Falcon, too, of course, but I’m sure others would love to tackle this classic; don’t want to be greedy!) As the comments rolled in, it became clear that many of us participating in the Blogathon also love the witty, beautiful, versatile Ms. Astor! (As a bonus, Mary has always reminded me of my Auntie Joy, my wonderful Mom’s older sister; but I digress…) I began to joke with other bloggers about the possibility of a Mary Astor Blogathon, and people were liking the idea, and happily, a Blogathon was born!

This wouldn’t be strictly a CMBA blogathon, but simply a fun, casual affair open to all who love Mary's movies, and wish to participate.

While we won't keep people from doing the same films, we will let everyone know what films have been "taken" on this page, so you can keep track.

Young Mary Astor anxiously awaits the Blogathon in her honor!

To sign up, visit the main Blogathon page and leave a comment with your info, or contact either myself, Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci or R.A. Kerrto ask any questions!

Click for more details about signing up for our Mary Astor Blogathon HERE!

No doubt about it: Back in 1947, 20th Century Fox’s Nightmare Alley (NA) left movie audiences shaken and stirred in ways that would’ve startled even James Bond! Even the ominous score by Cyril Mockridge (My Darling Clementine; The Dark Corner;Miracle on 34th Street)plays like a carnival from Hell, deftly setting the sordid tone, and I mean that as a compliment. How ironic that producer George Jessel was a multi-talented entertainer who had a big hit with what I consider the evil opposite of Nightmare Alley, namely the heartwarming classic song “My Mother's Eyes,” one of my dear late mom’s favorite tunes. Even though the movie version of NA was softened a bit to give star Tyrone Power at least a little shot at redemption, it was still strong stuff to unnerved audiences seeing their beloved matinee idol in smooth scoundrel mode.

Jules Furthman (The Big Sleep; To Have and Have Not; Rio Bravo) adapted the film based on William Lindsay Gresham’s controversial 1946 novel which, according to Wikipedia, had in turn been inspired by conversations with a former carnival worker while they volunteered with the Loyalist forces in The Spanish Civil War. Greshamgot started on the novel, his first, while working as an editor for a “true crime” pulp magazine in New York Cityin the 1940s. He outlined the plot and wrote the first six chapters over a period of two years, then finished the book in four months. Each chapter was represented by a different Tarot card. Director Edmund Goulding’s films included The Great Lie, Grand Hotel; and The Razor’s Edge, the latter reuniting him with star Tyrone Power. I’ll admit I used to think Power was just another handsome pretty-boy matinee idol who was mostly style and little substance. It took Witness for the Prosecutionto make me realize that, to borrow a line from The Producers, "there’s more to him then there is to him," and NA confirmed my change of mind!

Forget the "missing link" - this carnival needs hot young
Stan Carlisle in a T-shirt! You're hired, kid!

We meet handsome young carnival roustabout Stanton “Stan” Carlisle (Power), who’s just begun his carny career. Standing in the carnival crowd, Stan checks out the Ten-in-One, listening in almost morbid fascination to the spiel introducing the carnival’s geek. The geek is usually a guy down on his luck who can only get work biting the heads off live chickens. Goulding cleverly keeps us viewers from actually seeing the geek show onscreen, distracting us with noisy crowds and shrieks from squawking chickens and customers, but they get the point across well. Stan realizes he’s found his calling. As he explains to co-worker and casual lover Mademoiselle Zeena, a.k.a. Zeena Krumbein (the fabulous Joan Blondell of Public Enemy; Three on a Match; Dames and more, still looking fab to boot!), “Lady, I was made for it…This gets me. I like it. All of it.”

Pete predicts: "I see a little silhouette of a man...
Scaramouche! Scaramouche!"

Bruno and Molly: Beauty & the Big Lug!

Zeena takes care of her husband Pete (Ian Keith, who started in silent films like the 1935 Three Musketeers; the 1956 Ten Commandments; and many film, stage, and TV appearances). She and Pete used to have a great mind-reading act, but Zeena cheated on Pete, breaking his heart and driving him to drink. Zeena feels terribly guilty about it, and she’s been trying to make it up to the melancholy Pete ever since, hoping to get Pete back on his feet with "the cure." Meanwhile, Stan has his eye on Molly (Coleen Gray of Kiss of Death;Red River; Kansas CityConfidienital). She’s an innocent with a big boyfriend, Bruno, the carnival’s Strong Man (Team Bartilucci favorite Mike Mazurki of Murder, My Sweet;The Shanghai Gesture;Some Like it Hot,and more!), who jealously tries to interrupt whenever Stan is nearby.

When Stan learns of the mind-reading act Zeena and Pete had before they joined the carnival, he tries to convince them to revive the act, but Zeena won’t go for it: she and Pete are saving the act to sell as money for their retirement, plus Pete is too drunk to do the bit well any more. Stan’s mind-reading act starts to catch on when even the crusty local marshal becomes convinced of Stan’s “second sight” after a poignant demonstration. But Zeena is spooked when her tarot cards show death - and sure enough, Pete is found dead. To his horror, Stan realizes he unwittingly gave Pete wood alcohol to drink instead of his usual moonshine! Stan may be shocked, but he’s no fool, so he keeps his mouth shut. By the way, I'd like to state for the record that Joan Blondell and Coleen Gray are fabulous babes!

She was only Frankenstein's wife,
but she had a great pair of bolts!

Meanwhile, Stan and Molly become attracted to each other. It doesn’t hurt that Stan alsoloves Molly’s ability with the mind-reading gimmick! When Bruno eventually finds out Molly and Stan have become an *ahem* item, he and the rest of the carnies force him into a shotgun marriage, literally! But it becomes a blessing in disguise, because now Stan and Molly have the code to themselves, launching them into the Smart Set in the swanky Spode Room(Spode Room?!) in Chicago. That code turns out to be a mighty useful wedding gift when Stan polishes up their routine, repurposing himself as the swanky and wildly successful mind-reader, The Great Stanton, with loving Molly as his lovely assistant!

"I'm tellin' ya, there was a stage where she worked,
and some booths!"

Stan's getting warm...warmer...you're red-hot, Doc!

As I’ve mentioned in the fabulous film noir magazine The Dark Pages,Mazurki’s 56-year screen career began in his uncredited film debut, 1934’s Belle of the Nineties, and he continued to work in films and TVuntil his death in 1990. His roles ranged from comedies (Neptune’s Daughter; Some Like It Hot) to suspense and film noir (The Strangler in Jules Dassin's 1950 noir Night and the City), including one of Mazurki’s earliest roles in the 1945 movie version of Dick Tracy, as villain Splitface—and in one of his final roles, the 1990 film version of Dick Tracy! In fact, I first saw Mazurki on TV’s The Monkees when I was a kid, making him literally part of my childhood! Fittingly, Mazurki and his old friend actor/producer Dick Powell also appeared together in several Dick Powell Theatre episodes. Mazurki even appeared in singer Rod Stewart’s 1984 music video “Infatuation,” as a bodyguard forcefully protecting alluring Kay Lenz from obsessed shutterbug Stewart.

Nightmare Alleyhas long since been hailed as a classic, but upon its 1947 release,it wasn’t exactly the feel-good movie of the year! 20thCentury-Fox gave it a strong ad campaign, but audiences protested what was then scandalous content.

The Great Stanton's next great feat: guessing what's
in the pinata at the fabulous Spode Room!

In the great tradition of “Six Degrees of Separation,” Murder, My Sweet and Nightmare Alley led to great changes for the better in the careers of both Mazurki and Dick Powell. As a result, neither Nightmare Alley nor Murder, My Sweet would pack as much of a punch without Mazurki!

As sordid as Nightmare Alley must have seemed back in 1947, the wily, out-for-himself Stan isn’t quite as sharp as he thinks he is. Beneath the slick demeanor he’s created for himself, there are chinks in Stan’s armor, especially when he encounters Zeena and Bruno again. Even with The Great Stanton’s nightclub success, the small but smoldering spark of Stan’s guilt over Pete’s accidental death, and the superstition underlying Zeena’s tarot cards, are slowly, surreptitiously wearing down Stan’s confidence, like Chinese water torture.

At the height of Stan and Molly’s success with their mind-reading act, who should drop by to say “Howdy” but Stan and Molly’s old carny friends Bruno and Zeena! Innocent Molly is happy to see them, but Stan is less than thrilled, certain that Molly must have blabbed about using Zeena and Pete’s code for their classy act. A friendly game of cards should loosen things up — until Zeena goes for her Tarot deck. Stan doesn’t want Zeena to flip that tarot card, but she does so anyway. It comes up as “The Hanged Man”— uh-oh, maybe Stan should quit while he’s ahead! Anyone for Go Fish? Later, Stan gets a massage to calm himself down, only to find he can’t help smelling the rubbing alcohol, reminding Stan of the wood alcohol with which he’d accidentally fatally poisoned Pete.

Dr. Lilith Ritter's a shrink,
but no shrinking violet!

An elegant woman turns up at the Spode Room and catches Stan’s act. She looks very interested — a groupie, perhaps? It turns out the lady in question is Dr. Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker, from Call Northside 777; The Big Combo; the 1945 version of Brewster’s Millions). The lady also happens to bea shrink, though I’m sure she’d prefer to be referred to as a psychiatrist. She’ll be called another name or two as the film goes on when she and Stan forge an unholy alliance to exploit Lilith’s patients for fun and profit! *Tsktsk*, what’s the world coming to when you can’t even trust your therapist to keep your confidences? Wait’ll the AMA hears about this! Walker makes a magnificent femme fatale, with her Mona Lisa smile hiding plenty of trouble.

Is it all just nerves, or is fate messing with Stan, or is it payback time for all of Stan’s chicanery? Things come to a head when Stan collapses while doing a reading in his act about a young girl named Caroline, now deceased. Now it seems the resourceful Stan has branched out again and become a mentalist (where’s Simon Baker when you need him?) with the ability to talk to the dead — so versatile! Of course, it helped that Stan’s new cohort Dr. Ritter has joined forces with Stan to get her unsuspecting patients’ files for authenticity. The rich, powerful Ezra Grindle (Taylor Holmes), who misses his late daughter terribly, is interested in what Stan has to say, explaining to Molly, “I told him he wasn’t ready yet for spiritual communion. He should prepare himself a little more with prayer and good works. He gave me enough to start building the finest tabernacle in the country…and he’s going to buy me a radio station of my own.”

Stan, you've let yourself go!
Life ain't pretty when you're a carny geek!

There’s always a catch, of course. Stan’s catch is that Grindle wants proof. So Stan fixes Molly up to look like his beloved “Dory,” despite Molly’s misgivings. The ruse is nearly completed when Molly’s guilty conscience gets the best of her. Dr. Ritter swaps Stan’s money from the scam for a measly $150, and she tries to convince Stan that he’s losing his mind because of his guilt complex — as if! Trying to do the right thing for Molly’s sake (for once!), Stan puts Molly on a train, and he lives the hobo life. Sooner or later, all roads lead to Rome, er, home eventually, and Stan finds the only job available in the carnival: the geek! Oh, how the mighty have fallen! But there’s hope for redemption and love after all when it turns out Molly is working at this carnival as well.

Vinnie games the rig - It's amazing how good a look at the world of a carnival sideshow this film is, and from so many years ago. It's fun to hear them talking about the "Ten-in-one", a classic setup of carnivals where they promise ten unique acts or performers for one fee, a dime back in the day. Of course, in a classic ten-in-one, each act would be selling souvenir photos, or pamphlets on how to juggle, or the like, and a ten-cent admission could end up costing you a couple dollars at the end. It's also always fun to hear the original definition of "geek" as well.

One of the things about this film that just amazes me is the fact that they explain, clearly and distinctly, for all to see, how carny psychics (a term which here means "all psychics") con people. Stan is briefly fooled by a fortune telling that seems to speak to him personally, only to learn that he's just had a "cold reading." The psychic will drop a bunch of very generic statements onto the table that could refer to anything. The mark will do all the work for them, figuring out what the vague clues mean. Saying "I see an 'M'..." will get the mark to pore through all the dead people they know for one whose name starts with M. It's easy to learn, as Stan does in the film, and soon he's got people wrapped around his finger.

Of course, people will ever claim that yes, sure there are some fraudsters out there, but THIS guy is the emis. And all I say is to watch any of the TV psychics, like the guy on the Sci-Fi channel (a delicious irony), and watch how they throw out only the most tenuous of feelers, and the person being read will grab onto them, inferring meaning where none was implied.

Here's the address for more of this awesome film noir magazine:

The Dark Pages
P.O. Box 2716
Chicago, IL 60609-2716http://hqofk.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/first-look-dark-pages-special-nightmare-alley-issue/

Team Bartilucci brings you a new double-feature! Telekinesis and giant insects - what's not to like? Enjoy!
Vinnie: The Power (1968)
George Pal is certainly a name you associate with science fiction, but not with paranoia thrillers. But he served as producer of this smart and tight little thriller from the late sixties about a man with amazing power, and the horrors he inflicts on a group of rocket scientists.

Based on a novel by Frank M. Robinson, it stars George Hamilton as Jim Tanner, a scientist at a think tank experimenting on the limits of human endurance, in preparation for the rigors of space travel. At a meeting, Professor Hallson (Arthur O'Connell) is in a near-frenzy, insisting that the lab's recent aptitude tests revealed that one of the team has, well, you should forgive the lift, but powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. The tests, alas, were anonymous, so there's no way to know WHO the amazing genetic freak is, just that they exist. When it's suggested they all try to use their mental faculties to spin a piece of paper skewered on a pencil, they are all surprised to see the paper begin to budge, then spin, and eventually burst into flame.

Theories fly thick and fast as to who among them could wield such ability. But when Jim and and his colleague and lover Professor Marjorie Lansing (Suzanne Pleshette from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, and the 1970s version of TV's The Bob Newhart Show) find Hallson dead in the centrifuge (after a chilling scene in his office), it becomes clear that someone is out to quash any evidence of this miracle-person's existence. Tanner is quickly targeted by the mysterious someone - the police suspect he's behind Hallson's murder, and mysteriously, his credentials suddenly turn up as fraudulent. Walking the streets, he begins to hallucinate, similarly to the way we saw Hallson being tortured in his office. He assumes that this mysterious figure is after him next, and decides the best way to fight back is to learn more about him. All he has is a name Hallson scrawled on a scrap of paper..."Adam Hart".

Arthur O'Connell throws the world's most horrific Gookie.
(Click to see un-happified image)

Traveling to Hallson's hometown, he learns that Hart was a childhood friend of his, and everyone in the town remembers him...differently. A woman in the cafe remembers his icy blue eyes, but Hallson's parents recall him to have black eyes, to match his hair. One fellow in the town, finding out that Jim is asking after Hart, tries to kill him...just as Adam had told him to do, ten years before.

Returning to California, Jim finds out the rest of the science team have been quite nervous indeed. And oddly, almost every one of them seem to think he's the mysterious man with the Power. Professor Scott (Earl Holliman (EARL HOLLIMAN!)) offers to become his toady if he'll just let him be near him, and Professor Melincker (Nehemiah Persoff) comes at him with a knife when Jim comes to visit him. They're half right - he's not the film's bad guy, but in a confrontation with the film's villain (whose name shall be left unmentioned in an attempt to leave some modicum of suspense about the film), it's revealed that Tanner is as genetically advanced as Mr. Hart.

"You'll have to excuse my friend, he's just dead."
Miss Beverly Hills cannot help Nehemiah Persoff;
he's fallen to THE POWER!

Once the big secret is spilled at the film's climax, many things throughout the film make much more sense. As Hamilton makes his way through the film, women seem to throw themselves at him. Even Yvonne deCarlo (of TV's The Munsters and film noir fame), playing Hallson's widow, hangs all over him when he visits her. It's said that Adam had the same effect on women, so even before he knows about his power, women seem to sense his superiority. It's somewhat similar to Remo Williams in the Destroyer novels - his Sinanju training makes him almost irresistible to women, and at the same time renders him almost apathetic about them. It also explains how he's able to survive Hart's numerous attempts to kill him, and the various hallucinations he sees near the start of the film, where the phrase "Don't Run" appears in the background. His unconscious mind is trying to reach out to him and let him know he's got the stones to beat Hart.

The film is tense, and keeps the pressure up. From the opening shot, where the time of the film is given as "tomorrow," the film stays grounded in at least plausibility, if not true reality. The score by Miklos Rosza is a classic, featuring what may be the only use of a hammered dulcimer in a thriller soundtrack. The makeup by William Tuttle is impressive for the time, including quite a grisly look for O'Connell after an 8G ride in the centrifuge.

The Power was released by Warner Archives as part of their impressive print on demand DVD line. It's well worth a look.

Dorian: THEM! (1954) Uncle Milton Doesn’t Sell an Ant Farm That Big!

In the deliciously sneaky tradition of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960),and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn (1996),THEM!begins as a suspenseful police procedural, starting with a little girl of maybe 5 or 6 years old, wandering alone on a lonely New Mexico road. She’s in a wide-eyed state of shock, not saying a word. As a mom myself, I was already hooked, as anxious as if the poor dazed kid were my own child, especially when it becomes clear that this child is the sole survivor of some kind of truly bloody, horrific attack — but what kind?

THEM! pulls the rug out from under you as it morphs into an eye-popping, edge-of-your-seat Big Bug monster movie, one of the best ever made! You see a body or two…you hear yelling and screaming (the Wilhelm Scream, to be specific… You don’t see the monster just yet, but when you do…

I’d first heard of THEM! director Gordon Douglas back when I was a little tyke growing up in the Bronx. Back then, The 4:30 Movie was aired Monday through Friday, often shown in two parts, serial-style. If I recall correctly, that was how I first saw THEM!, as well as the Bond-style spy adventure In Like Flint (1967), as well as my dad’s favorite Frank Sinatra movies, Tony Rome (1967); The Detective and Lady in Cement (both in 1968). Ironically, Douglas actually got his start as a child actor in Hal Roach’s comedies, and grew up to be a gag writer for Our Gang before he became a movie director! Anyway, back in the Bronx, Mom and Dad always steered little me back to the G-rated films and TV shows in the next room, leaving me to wait to learn about Sinatra’s tough-guy roles in my early teens instead.

Director of Photography Sid Hickox (The Big Sleep; White Heat; Dark Passage;and a great many TV series) gives THEM! a feeling of both film noir and docudrama, with suspense to spare! Douglas and Company take just enough time to whet your appetite for the inevitable Big Reveal, with weird piercing noises here…and mangled bodies there….
You can lose your mind
when coppers are two of a kind!

You couldn’t beat this superb cast of great character actors with ant swatters! Many of the stars eventually became award winners and nominees over time:

· * As Sgt. Ben Peterson, who first finds the child known only as “The Ellinson Girl” (Sandy Drescher, also in Space Children): James Whitmore from The Asphalt Jungle; Oklahoma!; Give ‘Em Hell, Harry!, for which he earned an Best Actor Oscar nomination. Also, that’s William Schallert of The Patty Duke Show playing the ambulance driver.

As FBI Agent Robert Graham: James Arness, who went from playing The Thing from Another World, to the classic war film Battleground, toMarshal Matt Dillon in TV’s long-running Western Gunsmoke.
As Dr. Harold Medford: Edmund Gwenn, Oscar-winner for Miracle on 34^th Street; and super supporting actor in Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent and The Trouble with Harry.
As Dr. Patricia “Pat” Medford: Joan Weldon, actress/singer in So This is Love; Deep in My Heart; Home Before Dark.
AsBrigadier General Robert O'Brien, Onslow Stevens of Night Has a Thousand Eyes; House of Dracula; Angel on My Shoulder.
As Major Kibbee: Sean McClory fromThe Quiet Man; Storm Warning; Niagara(albeit uncredited for some reason); as well as many TV appearances.

But who—or what—on earth killed the rest of the Ellinson family? The only clues are the doomed family’s wrecked trailer. (If only they’d gone to Disneyland like everyone else!) The trailer looks like a tornado destroyed it (someone better put out an APB on The Wicked Witch of the West!), and there are torn, bloody sacks of both granulated sugar, and sugar cubes. Is the killer a madman with a raging sweet tooth? Ironically, Ellinson was an FBI agent, but he wasn’t on a case. He was simply vacationing with his family, including two other kids. Poor Ellinson and his family couldn’t have imagined the terrible fate that awaited them, whatever the hell it was!

If Marshal Dylan, Harry Truman, and Kris Kringle
can't destroy those giant ants, nobody can!

The FBI gets involved when Agent Robert Graham (Arness) from their Alamogordo office comes to help. The autopsy of another murdered local, Old Man Johnson, shows that Johnson was put through the wringer, big-time: broken neck and back, crushed chest, fractured skull, and here’s the kicker: “He had enough formic acid in him to kill 20 men!” Yikes! But it gives Dr. Medford an idea to help snap the kid out of it. He waves a vial of formic acid under her nose, and quickly gets horrifying, heart-wrenching results as the poor child shrieks and sobs, “THEM! THEM!”

My cheeky wisecracks notwithstanding, THEM! put a pang in my heart because of the human factor. I was so moved by Ben’s gentle kindness to the poor little Ellinson girl. The characters are genuine people you can sympathize and empathize with. For me in particular as a mom, I couldn’t help getting weepy when families were killed or left as widows and/or orphans. We have the superb character actors to thank for breathing life into THEM! and making an already great horror movie film something truly special. The script by screenwriters Russell S. Hughes and Ted Sherdeman, based on a story by the great George Worthing Yates, blends wry humor with genuine poignancy, not to mention suspense and jumbo-size creepy critters! The whole cast won me over, with everyone getting memorable moments of fear, drama, and playful wit that had me caring about these characters. Indeed, both the father and daughter Medfords let down their hair (Professor Medford’s thinning hair notwithstanding), and are soon calling each other Pat and Bob—but don’t worry, nobody’s forgotten about those murderous giant ants! (How could they? Where could you possibly hide them?).

We see lovely Dr. Patricia Medford
is getting a leg up on the mystery!

By the way, Edith Head designed the costumes, and Joan Weldon in particular arrives in a smart, tasteful Moss Mabry outfit when they arrive; it goes great with her desert safety goggles! I especially got a kick out of Dr. Medford Sr. trying to get the hang of the helicopter radio. Also, as a Perry Mason fan, I enjoyed seeing character actor Olin Howland (billed here as “Howlin,” also known to me from the 1930s Perry Mason movies on TCM) as the alcoholic in the mental hospital who wants our heroes to "Make me a Sergeant, charge the booze!" Bronislau Kaper's music (Auntie Mame) orchestrations by Robert Franklyn and Ray Heindorf (Wonder Man) is both sweeping and suspenseful, working perfectly for THEM’s rollercoaster of emotions, especially for those who’ve been in real-life horrors, like many people we know who experienced the tragedy of New York City on September 11^th, 2001. It sure makes you thankful that THEM! is only a movie!

Those crazy kids & their hippie LSD sugar cube parties!
Hey, wait, it's 1954 and LSD hasn't been invented yet!

ur Strong.” Howland steals his scene as in the alcoholic ward, enthusiastically urging our heroes to “…make me a Sergeant, charge the booze!” The versatile Bronislau Kaper’s music

Vinnie stirs the anthill: The "Wilhelm" scream first appeared in the 1951 film Distant Drums, and was used as a simple stock effect for decades. It's named after a character from a later film, The Charge at Feather River. It's appeared in over 200 films, but it wasn't until sound engineer Ben Burtt found them and started using them as a running gag in the Star Wars films, and then the Indiana Jones films, etc., that it became a pop culture thing.

I say "it" but it's actually "they" - there are several screams that are part of the Wilhelm 'library", and THEM! uses them liberally. The one universally known as "the" Wilhelm scream is seen in clip three below.

The scream(s) are generally credited to pop singer Sheb Wooley, he of "Purple People Eater" fame. But regardless of who made them, they're as important a part of recyclable entertainment history as those three rocks on Star Trek.

This post is part of the Mary Astor Blogathon, hosted by Tales of the Easily Distracted and Silver Screenings, running from May 3rd through May 10th, 2013!

Ah, how times and mores change over the decades! Consider this:

1.) In 1942, writer/director Preston Sturges brought us The Palm Beach Story(TPBS, a riff on the 1940 comedy The Philadelphia Story), in which a young couple find themselves living beyond their means and about to be evicted from their New York City duplex apartment. As potential renters circle the couple like vultures, one would-be renter, an elderly gent, takes a liking to the young wife.

The older man turns out to be “The Wienie King…Home of the Texas Wienie.” (Make your own naughty jokes here, as needed.) And he’s loaded—with money, not just wienies! Despite the wife’s kind but firm no-thank-yous, the older man is touched by the young couple’s financial predicament, and gives her $700, which went a long way back then! He doesn’t want to bed down with our heroine or get into any indecent proposals; he just wants to give these crazy kids a hand, not a handout!

Got them to the church on time—eventually!

2.) Now fast-forward to Adrien Lyne’s much-discussed 1993 drama Indecent Proposal. This time, the helpful wealthy stranger wants to have sex with lovely young Wifey for a million dollars! Granted, most folks would probably consider Indecent Proposal’s co-star Robert Redford to be a lot sexier than TPBSsupporting actor Robert Dudley (scene-stealer though he is), but even when comparing the mores of both the early 1940s and the mid-1990s, as well as today’s attitudes, there are gals out there who’d gladly hop in the sack with Redford, or with Dudley’s Wienie King, for that matter. For many people, money talks! As for me, I’ll take The Palm Beach Story anytime; all told, it’s got way more laughs and far less agita! Indeed, audiences embraced TPBSas a welcome tonic to the downbeat war movies focusing on combat and troubled families shattered by war. Who could blame moviegoers for wanting to laugh? Hey, it worked for another great Sturges hit, Sullivan’s Travels!

Scenes from a marriage ceremony?!

For all its American-ness, TPBSfeels to me like both a French farce and a surreal lunatic 1940s version of Christopher Nolan’s thriller Memento (2000). Claudette Colbert is first seen tied up in a muffler that Doctor Who would envy. Then she’s shoved into a closet, and apparently there’s another Claudette Colbert who kicks her way out. All the while, their maid keeps fainting with each new unexpected version of our heroine. Meanwhile, bridegroom Joel McCrea is scrambling to get himself to the church on time, as is our heroine on the other side of New York City. What the Sam Hill is going on?! Luckily,Entertainment Weekly’s Keith Staskiewiczexplains it all for us, courtesy of http://popwatch.ew.com/author/keithstaskiewicz/

“Preston Sturges had one of the most impressive runs of any writer-director: In a span of five years, he produced more classic comedies than most do in a lifetime. That easily includes this hilarious, Hays Code-testing film about love and marriage, but it should also include a film he didn't make, the finale of which we glimpse at the start of The Palm Beach Story. As the opening credits roll, we see a madcap dash to the altar involving not only stars Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert, but also their respective twins, as well as a series of accidental switcheroos. Only Sturges would be so wackily brilliant as to start his movie with the conclusion of another, and then tie them both perfectly together once more at the end.”

Our heroine gets no kick
from matrimony, Sturges-style!

Well, that explains that, at least for the nonce! I guess that also explains why Tom and Gerry (appropriate names for a screwball comedy couple) apparently gave their maid her walking papers, or maybe the poor frazzled woman ran screaming from the Jeffers’ employ; it takes stamina to work in a screwball comedy! Since Tom and Gerry finally made it to the altar, I bet Gerry’s twin also finally left in a huff or some other form of transportation. Or maybe getting tied up in a thick muffler left Gerry’s twin with second thoughts: “If this is marriage, you can keep it! I’m gonna live happily ever after with my dozen cats! Here, kitty, kitty….” Anyway, our lovebirds finally got married and lived happily ever after! Or did they?

TPBS is an irresistible blend of screwball comedy and surprisingly tender romance, with a great cast of Preston Sturges’ zanies. Actually, New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther resisted it with a vengeance, but I think he might have been the only one. Besides, Crowther was a mercurial kind of guy anyway; there’s just no pleasing some people! But whether they’re happy or sad or freaking out, the characters really get an emotional workout. Sure, it’s mostly laugh-out-loud funny, but you can also feel the characters’ anxiety beneath their witty repartee, making me sympathize with them. Even now in 2013, our country’s financial issues make it easy to sympathize with Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea from Sullivan’s Travels; Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent; Ride the High Country) and his wife Gerry (Claudette Colbert from It Happened One Night;It’s A Wonderful World;So Proudly We Hail!)

Meet The Wienie King,
Fairy Godfather-type! Who knew?

Murder, My Sweet's Mrs. Florian is in the chips;
now she's after the Jeffers' joint
as Franklin Pangborn dithers!

Tom and Gerry have been happy with each other for the past 5 years, but they’ve also faced lean financial times. (As a native New Yorker, I can’t remember a time when The Big Apple WASN’T an expensive town!) Tom and Gerry still love each other (even when they try to convince themselves they're not), but right now, they’re not exactly thrilled about the high cost of living in a Manhattan duplex! I bet Tom’s the type who won’t let his wife work; it’s probably a pride thing for him, especially during that era. If only Tom could get his floating airport off the ground! Well, that’s where the aforementioned Wienie King (played by scene-stealing Sturges stalwart Robert Dudley from The Lady Eve;The Sin of Harold Diddlebock; The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek) comes in—right into the couple’s bathroom, in fact! It’s OK, he’s just checking out his potential new home, like any savvy real estate prospect would: “I'm the Wienie King! Invented the Texas Wienie! Lay off 'em, you'll live longer.”

While Tom is out trying to interest prospects in his revolutionary airport,The Wienie King’s garrulous wife (Esther Howard of Murder, My Sweet;Detour; Born to Kill) cases the Jeffers’ joint while Gerry and the Wienie King chat. It becomes clear that although The Wienie King is half-deaf, he’s also all heart and deep pockets! He has the kindness and the means to give Gerry a lucky financial break. Gerry keeps spurning the dough, but The Wienie King won’t take “No!” for an answer, so despite her protests, The Wienie King gives her $700 (big bucks back then!) to pay off the couple’s debts. Gerry gratefully gives The Wienie King a kiss on the cheek, then uses the money to pay off all their overdue bills. Happy days are here again!

Tom and Gerry's love is sole-deep!

Or are they? When Tom comes home and finds out about The Wienie King’s generous windfall, he’s peeved instead of grateful, letting his pride mess with him. We see Tom has a history of giving the heave-ho to any man Gerry gets friendly with—and we really mean only friendly, no hanky-panky. But when Gerry turns on her natural charm, Tom votes with his fists (only with guys, not Gerry). Just out of curiosity and empathy, I’d love to know more about how Gerry and Tom got themselves in such dire financial straits after 5 otherwise happy years together. Was it because of World War 2, or were Tom and Gerry unwittingly careless with their money, as many young married couples have been? (Even Vinnie and I had tight financial times in our younger days, like many others in today’s economy; no shame in it if you learn from your mistakes, like we did.) Goshdarnit, Sturges has me caring about those wacky lovebirds! Where the heck is Spellbound’s Dr. Constance Petersen when you need her?

Too bad those crazy kids didn’t get some kind of budget counseling (presuming such things existed back then) before the couple’s ensuing nutzoid hijinks became necessary, but otherwise, we wouldn’t have a movie! If Tom would get over his stupid jealousy and misplaced pride, and let backers at least give Gerry a discreet, tasteful flash of leg like she did inanotherColbert classic, It Happened One Night, Tom and Gerry’s problems would be fixed in a jiffy! Admittedly, I’m no aviation expert; does anyone reading this post know if Tom Jeffers’ floating airport could have worked in the real world (the real world of 1942, at least)?

So our lovebirds have a heart-to-heart talk about the situation:

Tom: “We’ll get ahead someday.”

Gerry: “But I don’t want it ‘someday.’ I want it now, while I can still enjoy it. Anyway, men don’t get smarter as they grow older, they just lose their hair…I’m very tired of being broke, darling, and feeling so helpless about having my hands tied. I could have helped you so many times, but every time I tried to, you tried to punch the man in the nose."

Heartbroken yet determined, Gerry decides there’s only one solution: she must go to Palm Beach, Florida, where millionaires meet millionairesses and marry them, living happily and wealthily ever after. If all goes well, whatever new millionaire falls in love with Gerry and wants to marry her will be able to fund Tom’s revolutionary airport. Granted, neither Tom nor Gerry can afford a divorce, but she figures whatever new rich hubby she finds will surely cough up dough for said divorce, and make his airport dream a beautiful reality. Only in the movies!

100 (or so) drunk Ale & Quail Clubbers and a girl!

Of course, Tom doesn’t want any part of this hare-brained scheme, but once Gerry accidentally sticks a farewell note in her hubby’s rump via safety pin after their tipsy night of love, the chase is on, and hilarity ensues, Sturges-style! Tom does his best to catch up with Gerry, but she reaches Pennsylvania Station (Penn Station, as it’s called today) first. Still, all isn’t lost yet, thanks to The Wienie King, bless him. Mr. and Mrs. Wienie King have rented the Jeffers’ duplex, and he also he gave Tom money to go and catch up with Gerry, and nobody had to get punched in the nose, at least not yet!

At Pennsylvania Station, Gerry stands around looking like a foundling waif (a well-dressed waif, granted) until a group of wacky rich hunters calling themselves The Ale and Quail Club take Gerry under their collective wing and into their private railroad car. The First Ale & Quail member (William Demarest, another Sturges stalwart from The Great McGinty and The Lady Eve) is peeved at having to put up with dames in his hunting car, but the rest of the gents take a shine to her, dubbing her their mascot. Gerry doesn’t get much sleep, though, what with the happy hunters alternately trying to sing Gerry to sleep, using the Club Car for target practice, and disconnecting the Club Car when the conductors get fed up with the drunken dopes. It’s pandemonium in the funniest sense!

The Ale & Quail Club puts on the dogs!

Luckily, the good-natured bespectacled gent who ends up stranded along with Gerry is none other than millionaire John D. Hackensacker 3rd (Rudy Vallee, crooner and actor, who’d also starred in George White’s Scandals;How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying;Live A Little, Love a Little with Elvis Presley; and of course, many Sturges comedies). Kind, chivalrous, deep-pocketed John falls in love with Gerry, taking great pleasure in buying her gifts, jewelry, and gorgeous fashions by Irene, kinda like a far more cheerful, upbeat version of Vertigo.It looks like smooth sailing for Gerry and her hopes of getting John to fund Tom’s airport. Considering how generous he is to Gerry, I’m surprised John isn’t into tipping, claiming “It’s un-American.” Then again, maybe that’s why he's fabulously wealthy while Tom and Gerry have been struggling. I must say I admire John’s thriftiness and generosity, inside and out, and he did bestow help and gifts on our heroes when they were up against it. Maybe Tom and Gerry could learn something from him? What’s your opinion? We’d like to know!

And then there's Maud, a.k.a. The Princess Centimilla!
(Our birthday girl Mary Astor!)

We got us a speedboat, it seats about twenty...

John’s sister Maud, a.k.a. The Princess Centimillia, (our gal Mary Astor from The Maltese Falcon; Across the Pacific; andBest Supporting Actress Oscar-winner for The Great Lie), likes Gerry instantly: “We can look for new husbands together!” Maud is also delighted to see how happy Gerry has already made“Snoodles,”as she affectionately calls her brother. Ironically, our Ms. Astor wasn’t crazy about her own performance in TPBS, and for the life of me, I can’t imagine why. As far as I’m concerned, Mary steals the show; heck, I think she deserved another Best Supporting Actress Oscar for TPBS! It’s too bad that she didn’t appreciate her own wonderful performance as much as the rest of us do. She's got terrific comic timing, looked lovely in her stylish Irene fashions, and she looks fabulous as a blonde. I can well imagine that a gal like Maud would probably enjoy trying different hairstyles and haircolors, a la Auntie Mame.

But whango,is Gerry ever surprised when Tom turns up on the dock at sunny West Palm Beach, with roses yet! (My late mom and stepdad lived about an hour’s drive or so from West Palm Beach, and we had plenty of vacation fun in the sun during our visits to their home! But I digress…) Blindsided by Tom’s passionate kiss, Gerry quickly introduces Tom as her brother, “Captain McGloo” so as not to give the scheme away:

Gerry: “I thought your mother’s maiden name was McGloo.”
Tom: “That was McGrew!”)

And so, the gals’ husband-hunting gets underway. With both playfulness and determination, Maud takes quite a liking to Tom (“I grow on people…like moss.”), to the frustration of perennial houseguest Toto (Sig Arno from of On Moonlight Bay; The Hunchback of Notre Dame; Up in Arms with Danny Kaye.) Arno steals his scenes armed only with indecipherable gibberish and natural zaniness. This makes Gerry all the more frustrated when the loving but frustrated Tom won’t play along (not that this stops the irrepressible Maud). Even supporting players steal the show here!

Here's one of my favorite scenes between Maud and "Snoodles" regarding Gerry:

Maud : “Why don’t you marry her? She’s lovely.”

John: “In the first place, she isn’t free yet. In the second place, you don’t marry someone you just met. At least, I don’t.”
Maud: “But that’s the only way, dear. If you get to know too much about them, you’d never marry them….nothing is permanent in this world except Roosevelt...”

The Palm Beach Story is a "bundle" of joy! Just ask Princess Maud and company!


Truly, *TPBS*is one of the zaniest yet endearing comedies yet in movie history! Watch and enjoy!

It’s funny to think the movie version of To Have and Have Not(TH&HN) came about as a wager between producer/director Howard Hawks and author Ernest Hemingway! According to TCM’s John Miller, Hawks was trying to persuade his Nobel Prize-winning author pal Hemingway to try screenwriting. Hemingway balked, saying most of his writing was unfilmable. Hawks wouldn’t give up that easily, boasting that he could make a good film out of what he considered Hemingway’s worst novel: “That bunch of junk To Have and Have Not.” From what I’ve heard about “Papa” Hemingway, I would’ve expected those fellas to duke it out at that point, but Hemingway was up to the challenge. Jules Furthman banged out a screenplay, turning “that bunch of junk” into an exciting, sexy, totally irresistible adventure with what turned out to be one of the best romantic teams in movie history, onscreen and off-screen!

We’ve said this here at TotED before, but we’ll gladly say it again: For our money, there seemed to be no genre that Hawks couldn’t tackle with the greatest of ease, and there’s never been a more perfect romantic team than Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, the latter becoming Mrs. Bogart in 1945, and staying happy together until Bogart’s death in 1957. (Damn cancer!) Admittedly, the kind of perfection I’m talking about has nothing to do with such trifles as linear, crystal-clear plotting. (Clarity? We don’t need no stinkin’ clarity!) The elements that made Hawks’ best films so entertaining and unforgettable included charismatic actors in memorable roles, whether they were big stars or character actors; zesty direction; rapid-fire delivery, which inspired the late Robert Altman’s directorial style; and those sleek, smart, bewitching Hawks women, almost all of whom try to seduce the hero to one degree or another. I know I’ve said this elsewhere, too, and I still mean it: I want to be a Howard Hawks kind of woman when I grow up!

Screenwriter Jules Furthman (from the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty; Nightmare Alley; RioBravo) and novelist/screenwriter William Faulkner (The Big Sleep; The Long Hot Summer; Intruder in the Dust) were no slouches in the excitement department when it came to crafting entertaining movies! Our story starts in: “Martinique in the summer of 1940, shortly after the fall of France.” Meet Harry Morgan (not to be confused with the co-star of the TV version of M*A*S*H), a rugged fisherman for hire (the ever-awesome Humphrey Bogart of The Big Sleep;Across the Pacific; All Through the Night). World War 2 is on, and Martinique is Vichy-controlled, so it’s not exactly the most carefree place in the world. War is Hell indeed! Harry and his first mate, Horatio (Sir Lancelot), charter fishing boats for tourists. Harry’s current client, Mr. Johnson (Walter Sande of Don Winslow of the Navy;The Blue Dahlia; Detective Mathews in the Boston Blackiemovies), is a handful.

Johnson is an inept fisherman who blames others for his careless and expensive mistakes, as well as being a cheapskate and a whiner. Right now, he’s complaining about Harry’s longtime friend Eddie (three-time Oscar-winner Walter Brennan from Come and Get It;Kentucky;The Westerner; and the hit 1957 TV series The Real McCoys). Apparently Eddie’s cheerful blathering is getting on Johnson’s nerves—aw, poor baby, our hearts bleed for you! Hey, if Harry and Horatio can shrug off Johnson’s whiny personality—not to mention losing the rod and reel due to his ineptitude—he should be able to put up with Eddie’s gabbiness and occasional mistakes (which our hero matter-of-factly sets right). Eddie can’t help it, though, with his alcoholism:

Johnson: “I don't see why you want that rummy around.”
Harry: “Eddie was a good man on a boat before he got to be a rummy.”
Johnson: “Well, he's no good now... What do you look after him for?"
Harry: “He thinks he’s lookin’ after me.”

So since then, Harry has taken Eddie under his wing, looking after Eddie as if he was an addled but endearing old dad. Harry’s kindness to Eddie endeared me to him right away. Note that even with Eddie’s issues, he’s still more capable on the boat than bumbling "Blame Game" Johnson, who comes mighty close to getting tossed overboard when Johnson tries to get tough with Eddie (“Are you a good swimmer, Mr. Johnson?”)! TH&HN has terrific atmosphere, thanks to Charles Novi’s Art Direction, Casey Roberts’ Set Decoration, and Sid Hickcox’ cinematography.

I like the AMCWebsite’s response to Eddie's recurring Dada-esque question:
“Was you ever bit by a dead bee...a honey bee?” It’s a perfect Rorschach-style personality character test for every character that crosses Eddie’s path. Harry, of course, understands Eddie, so they’ve long since passed the “Dead Bee” test with flying colors. If Eddie’s question triggers confusion, impatience, and/or anger from others, we know these people are, if not full-tilt villains, then at the very least, they’re not Harry’s kind of people (or ours)!“Frenchy” Gerard (Marcel Dalio from Grand Illusion; Sabrina; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), a member of the French Resistance, offers Harry big bucks to smuggle a good-guy member of the French Resistance out of the country. Being no fool, Harry sticks his head out for no one. But then along comes a woman who’s just checked in at Frenchy’s hotel: the sulky and sultry Marie Browning, played by native New Yorker and model-turned-actress Lauren Bacall in a film debut that puts the “WOW!” in the “Wow Factor”!

Although Marie seems cool, calm, and insolent, she’s actually living by her wits, starting with cozying up to the unsuspecting Johnson in the café and picking the big boob’s pocket. Granted, Johnson is getting a little too hands-on with Marie, but Harry isn’t letting her get away with it: “You ought to pick on someone to steal from who doesn’t owe me money.” Lucky for Harry, our gal Marie gains Harry’s trust when Johnson gets tripped up by his own lies about being penniless until the next day, when in fact Johnson was all set to hop a plane at dawn! But no sooner does Johnson begin to sheepishly sign his Traveler's Chequesthan gunfire rings out in the café, leaving the joint in a mess and Johnson dead in the crossfire. As Harry says, “He couldn’t write any faster than he could duck. Another minute and his cheques would have been good.” Thanks to that vile Vichy gunfire, both Harry and Marie are in the soup, and we don’t just mean vichyssoise! Now the slimy Vichy Captain Reynard (Dan Seymour from Key Largo; Johnny Belinda; The Way We Were) and Lt. Coyo (Sheldon Leonard, who went from supporting roles like Another Thin Man in the movies to becoming a wildly successful TV producer) have Harry and Marie over a barrel.

Actual dialogue from the film:
“He couldn’t write any faster than he could duck.
Another minute and his chequewould have been good.”

Harry can tell that Marie’s life hasn’t been a bed of roses, unless you count the thorns; during Reynard’s grilling, Marie takes a slap in the face without batting an eye. She admits she’s trying to get home to the States: “I’d walk, if it wasn’t for all that water.” In the great Hawks tradition, Harry and Marie get closer, including cool pet names: “Steve” for Harry, and “Slim” for Marie—which were actually Mrs. and Mrs. Howard Hawks’ pet names for each other in real life! The mating dance between “Steve” and “Slim” is tantalizing, yet still yields Harry’s better instincts as he agrees to help Marie get back home in exchange for smuggling Frenchy’s refugee friends.Well, they say that adversity brings people together in hard times, so our heroes have no choice but to help Frenchy and his Resistance allies, and help Marie in the bargain.


Cricket and Slim make beautiful music together at the café!

French Resistance Fighter Paul deBursac (Walter Szurovy, a.k.a. Walter Molnar) boards Harry’s boat, with a new last-minute passenger: his wife, Hellene(Dolores Moran from The Ghost Breakers; Old Acquaintance; The Horn Blows at Midnight). Staying calm and paying attention doesn’t seem to be the deBursacs’ strong suit: despite Harry’s warnings to just get flat on the deck and stay there, that peacenik Paul shouts out,“Don’t shoot!” All he gets for his trouble is a bullet in the shoulder, though Harry gets them to land and safety. When they get back, Harry discovers our gal “Slim” has found a sweet gig as a chanteuse at the café, just goes to show you can’t keep a great gal down! And not a moment too soon; turns out Frenchy snuck the injured Paul in the cellar so jack-of-all-trades Harry could operate on our little Freedom Fighter in peace—especially when well-meaning but overprotective Mme. deBursac accidentally knocks herself out with the chloroform she was supposed to use to operate on Paul. Well, at least now we can get Paul healed in peace and quiet! Boy, Harry can’t seem to get a moment to himself! He’s tangling with bad guys, beautiful women, French resistance fighters, lovable (albeit needy) alcoholic sidekicks—sheesh, the man can’t seem to get a moment to himself! He needs a “Do Not Disturb” sign!

Two’s company and a gaggle of Resistance Fighters is a crowd when "Slim" and "Steve" are interrupted's by Frenchy and his Resistance pals!

It’s been said that Hawks got his nose out of joint for a time because Hawks wanted Bacall all to himself, to no avail. *Tsk tsk!* No point being greedy, Hawks, especially since he already had a charming and lovely wife at home! But beautiful Dolores Moran could surely have been a fine runner-up as Mme. deBursac, even if her character was often more of a hindrance than a help in her well-meaning but overbearing way. In real life, Dolores Moran had a reputation for going around with well-known married Hollywood heavyweights, as well as supporting parts in The Ghost Breakers; Old Acquaintance; and The Horn Blows at Midnight.

Will the lovely and well-meaning but maddeningly

overprotective Hellene deBursac turn out to be Hell on wheels?

“Harry, you was ‘fraid I’d get hurt. You was thinkin’ of me!”

"That’s right, Eddie, this is all about you. Now let me steer before we crash into a luxury liner or Nazis, will ya?!"

Mme. de Bursac goofs and ends up knocking herself out with Harry’s chloroform. Thank goodness, we thought that dame would never shut up!

Here’s the complimentary breakfast we give Freedom Fighters in our charming café. Now scram, toots, and let “Steve” and me catch up on our nookie!

Bacall wasn’t the only one making a film debut in TH&HN; so was Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (for Here Comes the Groom; Starlight; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), playing piano man Cricket at the café. In fact, the catchy background music at the café makes me wonder if anyone considered making this a Broadway musical. I’d see it if I had the dough!

Whether Bogart and Bacall are being playful or serious onscreen (or offscreen, for that matter), the sparks between them are hotter than July 4th fireworks—and nobody even had to get naked, at least onscreen!

Johnson: “I don't see why you want that rummy around.”
Harry: “Eddie was a good man on a boat before he got to be a rummy.”
Johnson: “Well, he's no good now... What do you look after him for?"
Harry: “He thinks he’s lookin’ after me.”

So since then, Harry has taken Eddie under his wing, looking after Eddie as if he was an addled but endearing old dad. Harry’s kindness to Eddie endeared me to him right away. Note that even with Eddie’s issues, he’s still more capable on the boat than bumbling "Blame Game" Johnson, who comes mighty close to getting tossed overboard when Johnson tries to get tough with Eddie (“Are you a good swimmer, Mr. Johnson?”)! TH&HN has terrific atmosphere, thanks to Charles Novi’s Art Direction, Casey Roberts’ Set Decoration, and Sid Hickcox’ cinematography.

Although Marie seems cool, calm, and insolent, she’s actually living by her wits, starting with cozying up to the unsuspecting Johnson in the café and picking the big boob’s pocket. Granted, Johnson is getting a little too hands-on with Marie, but Harry isn’t letting her get away with it: “You ought to pick on someone to steal from who doesn’t owe me money.” Lucky for Harry, our gal Marie gains Harry’s trust when Johnson gets tripped up by his own lies about being penniless until the next day, when in fact Johnson was all set to hop a plane at dawn! But no sooner does Johnson begin to sheepishly sign his Traveler's Chequesthan gunfire rings out in the café, leaving the joint in a mess and Johnson dead in the crossfire. As Harry says, “He couldn’t write any faster than he could duck. Another minute and his cheques would have been good.” Thanks to that vile Vichy gunfire, both Harry and Marie are in the soup, and we don’t just mean vichyssoise! Now the slimy Vichy Captain Reynard (Dan Seymour from Key Largo; Johnny Belinda; The Way We Were) and Lt. Coyo (Sheldon Leonard, who went from supporting roles like Another Thin Man in the movies to becoming a wildly successful TV producer) have Harry and Marie over a barrel.

Actual dialogue from the film:
“He couldn’t write any faster than he could duck.
Another minute and his chequewould have been good.”
Harry can tell that Marie’s life hasn’t been a bed of roses, unless you count the thorns; during Reynard’s grilling, Marie takes a slap in the face without batting an eye. She admits she’s trying to get home to the States: “I’d walk, if it wasn’t for all that water.” In the great Hawks tradition, Harry and Marie get closer, including cool pet names: “Steve” for Harry, and “Slim” for Marie—which were actually Mrs. and Mrs. Howard Hawks’ pet names for each other in real life! The mating dance between “Steve” and “Slim” is tantalizing, yet still yields Harry’s better instincts as he agrees to help Marie get back home in exchange for smuggling Frenchy’s refugee friends.Well, they say that adversity brings people together in hard times, so our heroes have no choice but to help Frenchy and his Resistance allies, and help Marie in the bargain.


Cricket and Slim make beautiful music together at the café!

Two’s company and a gaggle of Resistance Fighters
is a crowd when "Slim" and "Steve" are interrupted's
by Frenchy and his Resistance pals!

Will the lovely and well-meaning but maddeningly

overprotective Hellene deBursac turn out to be Hell on wheels?

“Harry, you was ‘fraid I’d get hurt. You was thinkin’ of me!”

"That’s right, Eddie, this is all about you. Now let me steer before we crash into a luxury liner or Nazis, will ya?!"

Mme. de Bursac goofs and ends up knocking herself out with Harry’s chloroform.
Thank goodness, we thought that dame would never shut up!

Here’s the complimentary breakfast we give Freedom Fighters in our charming café.
Now scram, toots, and let “Steve” and me catch up on our nookie!

Bacall wasn’t the only one making a film debut in TH&HN; so was Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Hoagy Carmichael (for Here Comes the Groom; Starlight; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), playing piano man Cricket at the café. In fact, the catchy background music at the café makes me wonder if anyone considered making this a Broadway musical. I’d see it if I had the dough!

Our dear friend and fellow blogger Yvette Banek of "...in so many words..." has enticed my husband Vinnie Bartilucci of The 40-Year-Old Fanboy and I into a Flash Fiction writing challenge. With summer upon us and the suspenseful yet charming illustrations of Mario Cooper, Vin and I were happy to join the fun! Thanks for letting us play in your garden, Yvette!

LIFE'S A BEACH, by Team Bartilucci
(Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci & Vincent Bartilucci)

Milo grunted against the door, wet with sweat instead of the resort’s cool, refreshing pool. “I needed this today?”

After all the work and red tape it had taken Milo and Rosalie -- the latter being Milo’s charming, hot (in every sense, given the heat) assistant and beloved -- to get the MacGuffin Pool open at last, they couldn't get in the pool fast enough. They could see the crowds getting longer and thicker than a Mister Softee Double Sundae, from the window. Just one little problem: some idiot had trapped them in the old bank vault that they’d been assured would be gone and headed to the scrap heap by now.

Milo kept himself from yelling at Rosalie by focusing his increasing rage at the frozen deadbolt that kept them locked inside the tiny poolside cabana at the resort, the most exclusive in Brooklyn. He had to remind himself that in all fairness, he was the one who shut the door behind him to prove that she COULDN’T have locked herself in all by herself moments before. By pressing against the swollen door and not making eye contact, he hoped she wouldn’t choose to bring that…

“Oh no, honey, these things don’t stick, look…”

Oh, well.

Rosalie rose from the dusty wicker chair and stormed about as well as she could across the modest floor.
After a time, Milo heard voices from the other side of the door. He couldn’t make out the words, but the voices were high-pitched and numerous. He pounded on the door with an open hand, calling for help, and the voices went silent. The chattering began again, a bit closer. Another pound at the door was met with what sounded like girlish giggling. Then there was a quiet tap at the door, met by more tittering. The voices were closer to the door now, and he could make out they were not speaking English; it sounded more like Japanese.

“Great,” thought Milo, “If I’d stayed married to my first wife, SHE could have talked to them.” Rosalie either didn’t hear him, or heard it PERFECTLY, and chose to file the comment for later use, seeing as she had plenty to use at the moment. He tried to call through the door to the (based on the pitch of their voices) girls to get them to help, but the tinkling tones from outside the building brought a shadow to his face.

“Softee-san! Softee-san!” chattered the younglings, and a chorus of feet stampeded out of the room. Milo slapped the door, this time in frustration.

“Will you please get that thing open so we can get in the pool? The sun’s going down already!”
Milo didn’t even turn as he asked, “How do you know” You’re not even wearing a watch!”

“I can SEE it through the curtains!”
…

Milo turned, but from the look on Rosalie’s face, she had already come to the same conclusion he did.

He walked across the small room, opened the floor length curtains…

He turned the lock on the glass patio doors, and with a flourish, bowed and waved at the door.

“Ladies first.”

Rosalie collected her picture hat, wrap, and dignity, and walked through the door.

“Let’s not come back here.”

“Let’s find those little kids, then kick them in the pool.”

“I’ve always loved you.”

Husband-and-wife stars Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall teamed up again for the 1947 film noir Dark Passage (DP, not to be confused with our favorite noir magazine,The Dark Pages). I could have sworn that Philadelphia-born author David Goodis had originally titled this novel The Dark Road after Warner Bros. snapped up the movie rights for Bogie and Baby, giving it the more suspenseful title Dark Passage; does anyone here know for sure? On a recent TCM Friday Night Spotlight on noir authors, film historian Eddie Muller explained that many of these suspense writers had to suffer the slings and arrows of seeing their books “chopped up and channeled as B-movies before they ever got A-list recognition, but Goodis did it backwards with DP, his first crime novel. It was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, and then Warner Bros. snapped it up for Bogart and Bacall for the silver screen." Nice work if you can get it! Goodis was touted as the new Dashiell Hammett, writing pulps and radio serials in the 1940s.

Author David Goodis hard at work

Travel tip: If you're going to San Francisco,
be sure to hide inside a huge prison drum!

Goodis was apparently one of those maverick types who had his own ideas about what he wanted to write and how to go about it—imagine that, writers with minds of their own! Back in the day, filmmakers didn’t always know what to make of quirky types like Goodis, but he was nevertheless prolific with novels such as The Blonde on the Street Corner and Street of No Return (both from 1954); The Moon in the Gutter and The Burglar (both from 1953), and Cassidy’s Girl (1951). Goodis eventually returned to Philly to take care of his ailing brother, spending the 1950s writing paperback originals with moody, broody plots focusing on troubled protagonists who couldn’t win for losing. Somehow, I get the feeling Goodis wasn’t exactly the kind of guy who faced each day with a smile on his face and a jaunty tune on his lips—but whether or not that was true, Goodis sure could write. In fact, nowadays, a first edition of the 1946 hardcover of Dark Passage is now valued at more than $800!

4th floor, framed fugitives from justice, everybody off!

The DVD’s absorbing documentary featurette suggests that Bogart and Bacall’s participation in the star-studded Committee for the First Amendment, which was intended to defend colleagues called before HUAC, might have been among the reasons that DP wasn’t as big a hit as the real/reel-life couple’s earlier screen collaborations. However, I suspect that audiences past and present may have found DP harder to cozy up to because instead of the cool, wisecracking, insolent-yet-playful Bogart and Bacall of To Have and Have Notand The Big Sleep,this film version of Goodis’ novel presents a more melancholy, vulnerable Bogart and Bacall—which, in my opinion, is not at all a bad thing, just unexpected from this star team at that time! That Bogart & Bacall chemistry is still there, but it’s sweeter, as if they’d decided to let their collective guard down and allow tenderness to take over. Instead of the cocksure Bogart character we all know and love, DP protagonist Vincent Parry is wary, fearful, fumbling in his attempts to clear himself of his wife’s murder, escaping the cops like he escapes from prison in the film’s opening scenes. Vincent has few allies, but the ones he has are at least willing to help. There’s Irene Jansen (Bacall), whose father had died in prison after being framed for murder. Irene has been following Vincent’s case during his trial, and she ends up in a position to help hide him while he does his best to prove his innocence.

You realize this means an angry letter to the Times!

Then there’s Sam, the cab driver (Tom D’Andrea from Pride of the Marines; Night and Day; Humoresque). Sam is cynical, yet he’s basically a kind, lonely soul, as are many characters in DP. Sam suggests that Vincent should go to back-alley plastic surgeon Dr. Walter Coley (Houseley Stevenson from Sorrowful Jones; Crime Doctor; Native Land). Dr. Coley may have been kicked out of his practice for being ahead of his time, but like others in DP, he too got a bum rap and is also a decent guy. The proof is in the pudding: Vincent’s operation went so well that he now looks like Humphrey Bogart! Isn’t 1940s medicine wonderful? Wasn’t Vincent lucky to get comrades like Irene and Sam and Dr. Coley? If only they didn’t have to keep their secrets so close to the vest, they could put together a support group; how about Wrongly Accused Protagonists Anonymous?

Meet Dr. Coley, brilliant hush-hush plastic surgeon to the wrongfully accused! Highly recommended by Sam the Lonesome Cab Driver! Free cigarettes for new customers!

Trippiest face-lift ever! Lauren Bacall can blow our minds anytime!

1947 seemed to be The Year of the Subjective Camera, between DP’s first hour shot from Bogart’s viewpoint, and Robert Montgomery doing the same in Lady in the Lake, using the technique throughout the film. Unlike Lady…,DP’s plastic surgery gimmick provides a good plot reason for the audience not to initially see Bogart’s face, though we frequently hear that unmistakable Bogart voice to make up for it. It may take a while before they actually get Bogart out of his bandages as Vincent Parry, but on the positive side, we also get to see more of the lovely Lauren Bacall as Irene, as well as all those great spellbinding Warner Bros. character actors in lieu of Bogie. The tenderness between Irene and Vincent is palpable. There isn’t an uninteresting face or a bad performance in the bunch, with standout performances from Bogart and Bacall and a superb array of character actors. In addition to D’Andrea and Stevenson, there’s Rory Mallinson (Cry Wolf; Nora Prentiss; Possessed) as Parry’s musician friend; and the ever-dependable Bruce Bennett (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Mildred Pierce; Mystery Street).

A kiss isn't just any old kiss with
Bogart and Bacall as Irene and Vincent!

The man I love to hate most in DP is cheap hood Clifton Young, a former Our Gang star (oh, the irony!). As the villainous Baker, the adult Young grew up to have an oily grin and a cleft chin that looks like it got lost on the way to Cary Grant’s face by mistake; you might also see Young on TCM, where he was a hoot in the hilarious “So You Want To…” shorts.

Vincent gets the drop on would-be blackmailer Clifton Young!
To think he was such a cute little tyke in Our Gang!

Director Delmer Daves has a cameo as
Irene's late wrongly-accused dad!

The Hates of Rapf—Madge Rapf, Dangerous Dame!

And the woman I love to hate in DP? None other than the wonderful Agnes Moorehead, with a resume ranging from The Mercury Theatre with Orson Welles, to stage and screen, including four Oscar nominations (Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte; Johnny Belinda; Mrs. Parkington; The Magnificent Ambersons); and scene-stealer Endora onTV’s Bewitched! Moorehead steals the film as Madge Rapf, the kind of woman who won’t join any club that would have her as a member. Madge is some piece of work: she’s a stylish dame who goes out of her way to spread stress and misery wherever she goes. Sticking her nose into everyone’s business, Madge manages to lure people to her and push them away at the same time, and if she can’t have you, she’ll make damn sure nobody else can have you, even if that means murder! With her delivery dripping honey one minute and venom the next (especially in her climactic scene with Bogart), the commanding presence of the quicksilver Moorehead and her unconventional yet undeniably striking good looks ensure that you can’t take your eyes off her whenever she’s onscreen.

If you’re looking for a tight mystery plot, this ain’t the place! While DP has many suspenseful moments, it’s primarily a character study and a mood piece about loneliness, redemption, and starting over, with a strong undercurrent of postwar paranoia, all underscored beautifully by Franz Waxman’s stirring music (with contributions by an uncredited Max Steiner. I love the use of “Too Marvelous for Words” as Vincent and Irene’s song). The bus station scene is a touching example of this. Incidentally, that lady at the bus depot, Aunt Mary, is Mary Field from Ball of Fire (as Miss Totten); The Dark Corner (as the eavesdropping movie ticket-taker); Wonder Man(as thestenographer); andMinistry of Fear(as avant-garde artist Martha Penteel)! Mary’s so versatile, bless her!

Vincent's pal George Fellsinger, young man with a horn!

But the reactions of people who meet protagonist Vincent with with his post-op face and new name, “Allan Linnell,” are so suspicious I wondered if writer/director Delmer Daves (who cameos as the photo of Irene’s doomed dad. His real-life kids have bit parts, too) was indicating that Parry was really projecting his own paranoia onto the people around him. His new name in particular makes people look at him like he just dropped in from the planet Neptune: “Linnell? That’s a very unusual name.” What’s so freakin’ unusual about it?! What, it’s not blandly Anglo-Saxon enough? I wonder if singer/songwriter John Linnell from They Might Be Giants (one of Team B’s favorite bands) ever had to field such absurd questions? But I digress…

Madge shows her true colors!

Even when DP drops the subjective camera style so we can see Bogart in all his glory, the visuals are striking thanks to Sid Hickox’s moody black-and-white photography. That said, I recently saw a colorized still of Moorehead as Madge, and I must admit it looked pretty darn impressive! With the emphasis on Madge’s love of all things orange, I can imagine a partly-colorized version a la Sin City, with everything black-and-white except Madge’s orange clothes and belongings! The Lodger, perhaps? Speaking of Hitchcock, DP and Hitch’s 1958 classic Vertigo might make an interesting double feature since they share themes of loss, loneliness, new identities and fresh starts as well as a San Francisco setting. (That could also work for another San Francisco film I like, Impact, but that’s a blog post for another time!) If you want to see a softer side of Bogart and Bacall, DP is well worth watching. You may also enjoy the DVD’s fun and interesting extras, like the original theatrical trailer (for me, the hyperbole of movie trailers of that era is part of their charm) and “Slick Hare,” one of the Bugs Bunny cartoons that affectionately lampoon Bogart; it’s been claimed that Bogart liked to pal around with the animators at Warner Bros.’ “Termite Terrace” and he actually did his own voice work for Slick Hare and 8-Ball Bunny!
Nevertheless, Director of Photography Sid Hickox had plenty of innovative visual techniques in glorious black-and-white. I particularly liked the use of the glass floor when Vincent discovers a dead body (I won’t say who); a tip of the hat to Alfred Hitchcock’s

Baby, you're smokin'!

Oh, no! George, Vincent's only friend, has clearly played his last song!

After all the agita Irene and Vincent have been through, they deserve a happy ending!
Good luck, you crazy kids!

According to Wikipedia, the TV series The Fugitive became a hit in 1963—and Goodis took the producers to court, considering the show had many elements in common with Dark Passage. In 1963, ABC television began airing the television show The Fugitive, the story of Richard Kimble, a doctor wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife. Kimble subsequently escapes and begins a long search for the "one-armed man", the person he believes to be the real killer. For that matter, the whole case was originally inspired by real-life Dr. Sam Sheppard, who’d been accused of murdering his pregnant wife. It just goes to show that there’s nothing new under the sun, in fiction or real life!

May Emmerich (Dorothy Tree):“Oh, Lon, when I think of all those awful people you come in contact with—downright criminals—I get scared.”

Alonzo D. Emmerich(Louis Calhern):“Oh, there's nothing so different about them. After all, crime is only... a left-handed form of human endeavor. “

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)is a dynamic, suspenseful combination of character study and tense thriller. W.R. Burnett’s hard-boiled 1949 novel was snapped up for the movies by producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. of Witness for the Prosecution.Oscar-winningwriter/director John Huston had always been a fan of Burnett’s work, which included the novels Little Caesar and High Sierra, also adapted into classic suspense films. Huston joined forces withscreenwriter Ben Maddow (The Secret of Santa Vittoria; The Chairman), and the result was one of the best caper thrillers ever made. The intense score by the great Miklos Rosza (Alfred Hitchcock’sSpellbound; The Lost Weekend; The Power) accompanies the film with a sense of urgency that keeps you riveted. The title theme always makes me think of bullfighting somehow, as if Huston himself is daring the film’s characters to get away with their meticulously-planned jewel heist. In any case, you know you’re in good hands when you have the writer/director of the classic 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon on your team!

Watch your back in this town, Dix, or the "Happiness Boys"
will have you zigging when you oughta be zagging!

Gus sure knows how to keep his customers safe!

Fred Flintstone in a lineup?!
How will he ever explain this to Wilma?

The first character we meet among The Asphalt Jungle’s characters is rugged Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden from Dr. Strangelove; Johnny Guitar; The Godfather), slipping in out of columns in the early dawn, walking stealthily yet with a sense of purpose. Harold Rosson’s cinematography lends the early dawn an Ansel Adams look. At six-foot-five with a booming voice, Dix is easy to hear and see, so it’s no surprise that with the police cracking town on suspicious characters, Dix gets hauled in for questioning for a series of stick-ups. Indeed, Dix barely has time to grab some chow at The Pilgrim House, where his friend Gus Minissi (James Whitmore of Battleground;THEM!;Give ’em Hell, Harry!) serves up good old “American Food—Home Cooking,” like it says right on the brick signage! Chain restaurants? We don’t need no stinkin’ chain restaurants! Gus happens to be a hunchback, but that doesn’t stop him from being kind to folks who need food and money, including the ever-broke Dix. Gus is also kind to stray cats and stronger than he looks—disaster to the jerk who threatens cats in Gus’ place!
Dix is always trying to earn money, either from borrowing money from Cobby (Marc Lawrence from Key Largo;Marathon Man;Foul Play), an alcoholic bookie who sweats like a human waterfall, or getting it at gunpoint. But his gambling and stick-ups just aren’t doing the trick. As a result, Dix always seems to be borrowing money from Gus:

Dix:“I just can’t be in Cobby’s debt and keep my self-respect.”

Gus:“I guess it’s all right to owe me, huh?”

Dix (as sheepish as a lug like Dix can ever be):“I guess.”

Gus:“Yeah. It’s just my luck.”

Sam Drucker's gonna need a shady rest
after the cops sweat him!

Still, dig the company Dix keeps inthe lineup scene! That first doleful-looking guy is Henry Corden, prolific character actor and voiceover artist, who took over the voiceover role of Fred Flintstone after the original Fred, actor Alan Reed, died in 1977; Corden continued in the role until his death in 2005. While you’re at it, look at the way Dix glowers at the Night Clerk as he stands in the lineup, giving that poor nervous witness the Hairy Eyeball. That clerk is played by Frank Cady from Alfred Hitchcock’sRear Windowand TV’s Petticoat Junction. No wonder the Night Clerk can’t bring himself to I.D. Dix to the hardnosed Lt. Ditrich (Barry Kelley from The Manchurian Candidate; Elmer Gantry;The Love Bug). Frank’s not in Hooterville anymore!

The setting in The Asphalt Jungle is identified only as an unnamed Midwestern city. With all that crime, maybe that burg is ashamed to identify itself! Police Commissioner Hardy (John McIntire from Psycho; Winchester ’73; Scene of the Crime) is fed up with lazy, shifty incompetents like Ditrich who whine that they don’t know what to do. Hardy reads Ditrich the riot act: “Lock up the witness! Scare him worse! It’s your job, knowing what to do!” Hardy’s even more fed up with the gambling rackets, as Ditrich whines, “I close them down, but they only open up again.” Hardy is unsympathetic: “You don’t close them hard enough! Rip out the phones, smash up the furniture!” On top of that, the notorious jewel thief Erwin “Doc” Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe from Gunga Din; Ben-Hur; TV’s Ben Casey) has just been released from prison, looking all spiffy and dignified in his Sunday best as he ditches Doc’s tail with the greatest of ease. Ditrich is behind the eight-ball, so Hardy gives him three options: “I can reduce you to the rank of Patrolman and send you down to Five Corners; I can bring you up for departmental trial on charges of incompetence; or I can give you one more chance to make good on your responsibilities. I think that’ll be the greatest punishment of all.”

Would YOU dare to say "No!" to a guy like Dix Handley?

Doc loves, he loves, he loves his calendar girls!

Now that Doc’s a free man again, maybe he’ll spend his new-found freedom hanging out with the neighborhood kids, teaching them from his experiences that crime doesn’t pay. Yeah, and Christmas comes in July! But Doc is interested in spending quality time with the girls—you see, Doc prefers pretty girls of a tender age, dirty old man that he is! With no young babes to drool over, Doc gets down to business, bringing Doc and Cobby to the posh pad of the eminent, high-powered lawyer Alonso D. Emmerich (Louis Calhern from Duck Soup; Annie, Get Your Gun; Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious).
Doc’s caper involves a jewel heist that, if it succeeds, would net our perpetrators more than enough money to live on for the rest of their lives! Their target: Belletier’s, one of the Midwest’s biggest, most fabulous jewelry stores. Doc makes the pitch in his calm, assured way: “Everything is here, from the observed routine of the personnel to the alarm system, the types of locks on the doors, the aging condition of the main safe, and so forth. Take my word for it, Mr. Emmerich, this is a ripe plum ready to fall.” But can they be sure this ripe plum won’t slip through their fingers, leaving a mess behind? Our thieves do their best to protect themselves from potential peril, with the following personnel:

*Gus as the getaway driver. His take would be $10,000.

*Louis Ciavelli (Anthony Caruso fromAcross the Pacific;My Favorite Brunette;His Kind of Woman). Louis is a professional safecracker, or “boxman,” so he’ll be earning the most money: $25,000. He needs it, too, for his family’s sick baby; the poor little tyke sounds like he has whooping cough!

*And last but not least, the gang decides on their “hooligan” for the tough stuff: our man Dix Handley, getting the gig for $15,000! That would be more than enough for Dix to get back to his family farm in Kentucky and start fresh, if he stays focused and all goes well….

Doll Conovan comes to Dix in fake eyelashes and real tears!

All that Doc and his crew would need to put the plan in motion is $50,000, with way more to come if the robbery succeeds, of course. That sure sounds more lucrative than the dollar and a dream the lottery commercials always ballyhoo! Our thieves could have quite a haul—in a perfect world, anyway. (If it were me, I’d be happy with just the fifty-grand!) They’ve got to be careful, though; the “Happiness Boys” on the police force are giving folks like our thieves the push, leaving bookies, “dime-a-dance” dames, and other folks with livelihoods of questionable repute in jeopardy. It’s hard out there for a crook lately, as well as the people who depend on them to make ends meet. And you thought New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg was tough on crime with his soda wars!

Oh, that Emmerich—what a heel!

"Uncle Lon"s kept-tootsie Angela
is "some sweet kid"!

Uh-oh! Is it curtains for Doc, Dix, and Louis?

And then he kissed meeee! It's about time Doll got a smooch in this movie!

Fellas, please tell me that's just the Mister Softee truck I'm hearing, not alarms!

Diamonds are a guy's best friend! Wish Angela were here to sing a few bars!

They're in the money—or are they? Watch the whole movie for the suspenseful conclusion!

Good morning, and welcome to Breakfast with Doll and Dix!
Today, Doll whips up her special Corncracker pancakes, and Dix recommends his favorite colts!

But can Emmerich be trusted? After the conspirators leave, Emmerich admits to his right-hand man, private detective Bob Brannon (Brad Dexter of The Magnificent Seven; Violent Saturday; Von Ryan’s Express), that his extravagant lifestyle has left him broke, and he’s trying to keep it from his sickly, unsuspecting wife May (Dorothy Tree, veteran actress and speech coach, with films including The Men; Crime Doctor; Knute Rockne, All-American) and his gorgeous young mistress Angela Phinlay (Marilyn Monroe in one of the early roles that put her on the map, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; All About Eve; and Niagara). Sheesh, what’s the world coming to when you can’t even trust a rich guy with a caper? Emmerich agrees to cough up the dough, then suggests that he help the gang out by taking charge of safekeeping of the loot himself, instead of divvying it among several “fences” like most robbers do. Aw, isn’t Emmerich thoughtful? Hmm, what’s that smell—a king-size rat, perhaps?

Doll has been working at this clip joint, The Club Regal. Wouldn’t you know Hardy has closed it down, and on pay night, to boot? Poor Doll; she tries to be brave when she comes to Dix’s door, with nowhere else to turn, but she dissolves in tears, her pretty face smudged with make-up and wet false eyelashes when she admits her dilemma. She’s in love with Dix, even if having horses on the brain 24/7 has Dix virtually blinded. Dix isn’t so great at winning money, but he loves horses, and he’s OK with letting Doll stay around for a while, even as Dix gruffly adds, “But don’t get no ideas, Doll.” That said, I was touched that Dix let Doll stay in her time of need, and how she made breakfast for him. In Dix’s tunnel-visioned way, he even seemed to appreciate it, even asking for her forwarding address. When Dix waxes rhapsodic about the colt he loved back in Kentucky, it just seems to make Doll love Dix even more, and it made me wish those crazy kids could’ve somehow carved out a future together. Despite his unfortunate habit of getting money by sticking people up, Dix isn’t really a bad guy; he’s justreally, really focused on his dream of getting his Kentucky horse farm back. The heist could solve his problems, and maybe Doll’s problems, too.

The great cast of character actors is unforgettable, and the robbery itself is 11 minutes of nail-biting suspense. The Asphalt Jungle isn’t some slick, stylish entertainment that melts out of your brain like cotton candy by the end (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Suspenseful though it is, it also made me feel for these characters long after I watched it, especially poor hard-luck Doll Conovan, played so movingly by Jean Hagen of Adam’s Rib;Sunrise at Campobello; and Singin’ in the Rain, for which Hagen was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar of 1952 for her hilarious performance as obnoxious, tone-deaf silent film star Lina Lamont. Wow, did Hagen have range, or what?

Dr. Drew Casper, who holds the Alfred and Alma Hitchcock Chair at the USC School of Film & Television in Los Angeles, points out on The Asphalt Jungle’s DVD/Blu-Ray commentary track how unusual it was to have Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer producing this stark crime thriller: “What’s a movie like this doing at MGM, or what’s MGM doing with a movie like this?” Indeed, where were the glamorous musicals and their splashy production numbers, and the wholesome entertainment of the Andy Hardy movies and such? Well, the post-war days of MGM in 1950 had just begun, and Toto, we sure weren’t in Kansas anymore! Broadway producer/playwright Dore Schary brought his biopic play Sunrise at Campobello to both stage and screen,including Oscar nominations. Schary inevitably climbed the ladder at MGM, becoming its Chief of Production in 1948.

As post-war America rapidly became a very different animal, Schary and Louis B. Mayer were in synch—or so they thought. It turned out Mayer was looking toward mirroring the past, while Schary was looking toward how people lived now, in this brave new world where things weren’t always pretty, happy and peppy. During Schary’s MGM reign, social consciousness was encouraged in both the “A” film and the so-called “B” film units, so a novel based on the likes of W.R. Burnett seemed to be just what Hollywood needed to shake up the 1950s.

On the DVD/BluRay commentary track, Whitmore actually quotes Emmerich’s famous line: “Crime is just a left-handed form of human endeavor.” Whitmore adds, “I always liked that, and that’s exactly what John got on the screen, that they were just people. Hayden and ‘Jeannie’ Hagen , and Sam Jaffe and I became lifelong friends after The Asphalt Jungle wrapped.” The Asphalt Jungle’s movie ads boasted: “80 minutes of continuous excitement’,” according to Bennett Cerf of the Saturday Review of Literature. But The Asphalt Jungle’s running time is 112 minutes! Maybe they didn’t factor in the Coming Attractions?

I feel for these characters, especially Louis and his wife and their sick baby; Gus, with his kindness to cats; and especially poor sweet hard-luck Doll , who breaks my heart and who’s stuck on Dix, even if he’s slow to pick up on her feelings for him. I love the way Dix gets so much more talkative when he starts talking with Doll about horses, and how Doll tries to understand him. You know how in Some Like It Hot, hard-luck Marilyn Monroe says, “Why do I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop?” Well, in The Asphalt Jungle, Marilyn Monroe’s character Angela is the one who’s got it made—for now, at least—while poor Doll is the one who’s getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop, and worse! Still, Dix is kind to Doll in his blinkered way; he gives her money when she’s broke, and near the end of the film, it seems Dix is slowly but surely getting it through his horse-happy head that Doll loves Dix, and the feeling seems to be mutual—but is it already too late for these poor poignant losers?

The one thing John Huston always thought was most important in staying alive (and it must have worked, since he had a great life) was his interest in life, and how to enjoy it and appreciate it. No doubt that’s why John Huston and Sterling Hayden worked so well together. Hayden’s one lifelong regret was that he’d cooperated with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) for what he considered “ratting.” Ironically, rugged tough-guy Hayden began his movie career as a Paramount heartthrob! My dear late mom was a big Hayden fan, and she’d filled me in on Hayden’s career, including his four-year marriage to the beautiful and talented Madeleine Carroll (The Prisoner of Zenda and My Favorite Blonde, as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps and Secret Agent), and his love of sailing and writing (he’d written two best-selling books, his 1963 autobiography Wanderer, and his 1976 novel, Voyage). Indeed, Hayden was up for the role of Quint in the 1975 film version of the terror classic Jaws; alas, he couldn’t take the part due to tax problems. (Would that have been cool, or what?) The Asphalt Jungle had legs, spawning three remakes: The Badlanders (1958), Cairo (1963); and Cool Breeze (1972), with an all-African American cast. There was even an Asphalt Jungle TV series starring William Smith and Jack Warden, with theme music by Duke Ellington, though the show only lasted one season.

To slightly paraphrase a line from a later quote in Marilyn Monroe’s career, it looks like “Uncle Lon’s” luscious kept-tootsie Angela Phinlay (Marilyn in her big break!) will be getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop once the caper unravels. Come to think of it, just about everyone in The Asphalt Jungle seems to get the fuzzy end of the lollipop eventually. With the agita these thieves have to put up with, maybe working for a living wouldn’t be so bad after all. Considering “Crime Doesn’t Pay” was still pretty much the norm in movies back in 1950, moviegoers might not be guaranteed a happy ending—but at least Dix finally gets a colt at last. And let this be a warning to everyone eager for easy money: Beware of dapper little men eager for quick money and very young ladies! And remember what "Uncle Lon" always says above: "After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor." (No offense meant to the southpaws in the audience!)

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This post is part of the William Castle Blogathon, hosted byThe Last Drive-Inand Goregirl's Dungeon, running from July 29th through August 2nd, 2013! Enjoy!

With all the horror and suspense in William Castle's filmography, we of Team Bartilucci thought it'd be neat to feature two of the gimmick-meister's comedy turns for the Blogathon—especially, as Vinnie so sagely pointed, out: "Mr. Sardonicus is probably already taken."

When my talented friend and fellow film blogger Jo Gabriel of The Last Drive-Ininvited me to take part in the William Castle Blogathonwith her fab co-host Patti of Goregirl’s Dungeon, I admit I was a little nervous at the prospect, because horror movies usually send me to The Coward’s Corner, scaredy-cat that I am. But when my Pal Joey recommended Castle’s 1967 comedy-thriller The Spirit is Willing(TSIW), I knew I was in for a frightfully funny good time! Besides, Castle’s own come-on come was irrisistable, too: “Kiss-Hungry Girl Ghosts Looking for a Live Lover in a Haunted House of Mayhem!” Brava on a great choice, Jo—beaucoup thanks!

But first, a bit of background: William Castle was born in 1914 as William Schloss in New York City (I’m always glad to see my fellow native New Yorkers making good!). Sadly, Castle’s parents each died fairly young, leaving the boy an orphan. Even then, young Castle knew how to get noticed: a dexterous lad, little Billy wowed the other kids by taking his legs and putting them behind his neck, earning the nickname “Spider Boy.” The kid became an applause junkie! His chutzpah took him far; for instance, he kept renowned German actress Ellen Schwanneke from being forced or tricked into a German film festival that would have trapped her among the Nazis forever, thus combining patriotism and ballyhoo—and a tall tale or two! Yes, that was all young Bill Castle’s idea to get publicity for the show, even going so far as to paint swastikas on the theater, then denouncing the Nazi swine trying to muzzle free speech!

Castle’s clever ploy grabbed the attention of the notorious and powerful Harry Cohn, head honcho of Columbia Pictures. He was impressed by Castle’s youth and eagerness, so he hired Castle as a dialogue coach—before he even knew what a dialogue coach was supposed to do! Now there’s an eager beaver, considering that in the 2007 documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, fellow director Budd Boetticher described Cohn as “probably except for Hitler and Mussolini, the most frightening, despicable man you ever saw in your life.” But surprisingly, Cohn took a shine to young Castle’s enthusiasm and determination—go Bill!

Castle directed his first film at Columbia Pictures with the 1943 Boston Blackie adventure The Chance of a Lifetime. Talk about a good omen! Then Castle bought the film rights to the mystery novel If I Die Before I Wake. Castle took it to his old pal Orson Welles to direct—and Welles took the book to Cohn without him! Sure, Bill was irked, but ultimately decided working with Welles as his Assistant Director was still a darn good place to start. Besides, Castle found himself learning plenty from working with Welles, including a taste for expensive cigars, and making sure that when Castle himself became top dog, he’d make sure his name was on the picture—and so it was! Even more important, the Castle Family was lucky to find themselves in a longtime loving marriage and a great family life, which is more than many other filmmakers can say!

Andso, Team Bartilucci's double-feature begins!

The Spirit is Willing (1967) - Behind the ghastly green door

Bizarre love triangle!

Accompanied by Vic Mizzy’s sprightly, playful score, the prologue of TSIW opens in 1898 with Captain Ebenezer Twitchell (Robert Donner), who’s just recently rescued an important cargo and survived a mutiny to boot. (Call me cynical, but I wonder if Ebenezer somehow did something to make the crew mad!) His client (Nestor Paiva) wants to give Ebenezer all kinds of riches and land—including the boss’ unmarried daughter, Felicity (Cass Daley). Unfortunately for Ebenezer, poor plain whinnying Felicity is what Webb Wilderwould describe as "un-voluptuous." Still, she’s rich, available, and looking forward to herwedding night—until she discovers that Ebenezer finds lovely housemaid Jenny Pruitt (Jill Townsend in the first of her three roles) to be much more his type, and the feeling is mutual with Jenny. Too bad romance and adultery don’t mix harmoniously, especially when Felicity makes her point with sharp cleavers!

But love never really dies, especially in a William Castle movie with a wicked sense of humor like this one. The credits sequence show decades of the ghosts of Felicity, Captain Twitchell, and Jenny wreaking deadly havoc on unsuspecting renters over the centuries. Too bad these folks apparently couldn’t afford less lethal accommodations; if only Hotel.com had been around back in 1967! Still, that cheeky Addams Family-style opening credits sequence is drolly entertaining. If only the Internet had been around back in 1967, our heroes could have scrammed pronto and saved themselves a lot of funeral expenses!

Sure, we wanted fresh air, but enough already!

Now it’s a whole new decade (1967, the year TSIW was released). The Powells, a new family of would-be victims from New York City (my hometown!), arrives to rent this charming New England seaside cottage on their summer vacation. Let the supernatural screams of horror and hilarity begin, in a nutzoid take-off of The Hauntingand other classic supernatural thrillers! Despite Mama Kate (Vera Miles) assuring Papa Ben (Sid Caesar) that his boss simply recommended the vacation because of Ben’s bad back. I bet it’s like in Rear Window: Ben sounds like the kind of guy who’s just too valuable to his magazine to fool around with! Nevertheless, worrywart Ben is convinced that instead of enjoying a vacation, he’s actually about to be fired from his long-time writing gig in The Big Apple, fretting, “They haven’t changed my typewriter ribbon in months…Twelve years on a job, you think you’re doing great, and all of a sudden (Ben snaps his fingers), you get a vacation!” (To be fair, most of us native New Yorkers have often felt paranoid that way, too!) Well, maybe the sea air and the quaint villagers will relax him, with their part-beatnik/part Irish sports clothes—“when in Rome,” and all that jazz!

Gloria Tritt sure knows how to
roll out the red carpet for guests—blood-red?!

The frightful fun starts as soon as they step inside, with local denizen and cleaning woman Gloria Tritt (Mary Wickes)—who almost accidentally clobbers the Powells!

Gloria:“I wasn’t expecting you till later.”
Steve:“Who are you?”
Gloria:“I’m the cleaning woman.”
Kate:“Have you ever tried using a broom?”
Ben, Kate, and their teenage son Steve (Gordon) opt for the New England rental. Oh, that poor unsuspecting family! Steve’s already bummed-out and a tad surly because this New England trip is a drag for him without his city pals:
Steve: “I didn’t ask to be born.”
Ben:“You’ve asked for everything else!”

Still, Ben and Kate look forward to some romantic “couple time” together on this trip. I must say that even with the encroaching ghosts, possible employment worries, and Ben’s back problems, Caesar and Miles really do make an unexpectedly sweet and sexy screen couple in their love scenes! Even with the traditional NYC-style yelling and kvetching, you can see this family really does care about each other.

But these ghosts aren’t just any old poltergeists: they’re ectoplasmic squatters. What nerve! Ebenezer, Jenny, and Felicity are vindictive little imps, and they’re taking their anger out on young Steve—the poor kid’s being framed! Well, at least now Steve has a good excuse to be an “angry young man! “ Even when Steve gets to spend a night on a yacht with the family's rich, pompous Uncle George (John McGiver), a toilet bowl tycoon, those ornery ghosts turn out to be good swimmers, too! Ghosts continue to literally haunt Steve everywhere, from land to sea. The kid can’t even ditch the ghostly trio in the sea when he gets a part-time job underwater salvaging Uncle George’s luckless yachts to earn money (Steve’s saving up for a car)!

Luckily, Steve finds allies with the locals at the neighborhood bar, Mother’s, including the lovely Weems sisters, teenage Priscilla and sexy librarian Carol. They both happen to be Jenny Pruitt’s descendants, also played by Townsend. I know director/producer William Castle was tight with a buck, but I hope he gave the busy Townsend a decent wage for her triple-threat performance! Anyway, our heroes brush up on their ghost lore, including picking up cosmetics and other girly things to lure the spirits of Jenny, Felicity, and Ebenezer, to lay them to rest at last—though not before the befuddled adults get all bent out of shape looking for *ahem* gender issues where there are none. Kate in particular is mistakenly convinced that Ben’s research on the ghosts with Carol means he’s attracted to her (granted, Carol is a looker). Kate, you misguided hot mama you, you’re thinking of “Marian The Librarian” from The Music Man! But I digress…)

By a waterfall, I'm drowning yoo-ooo...
It's The Shining with less blood and more laughs!

The young folks know their ghost lore, at least enough for TSIW’s purposes. Priscilla gives Steve helpful hints:

Priscilla: “Be at the cemetery at—”
Steve:“I know, be at the cemetery at midnight.”
Priscilla: “That’s only in books. See you at eight, after the ghosts have dinner.”

Even babysitting comes in handy when Steve and Priscilla bring little Miles Thorpe (little Ricky Cordell from The Singing Nun), to lend a hand (not literally!), since he too is a descendant of the ghostly love triangle. What the heck, Priscilla had to babysit the kid anyway; she’s such a multitasker, bless her! All manner of mirthful menace breaks out in the frenetic finale as our heroes set things right on Steve’s birthday, in a plot involving pirate-garbed men (apparently Felicity liked the bad boys), gals who look like Jenny did back in the day, and…well, let’s just say Steve might not need a Bar Mitzvah to prove this boy has definitely become a man!

About time Ben and Kate got "couple" time, by George!

Our heroes tiptoe thru the gravestones in the moonlight!

The sprightly, cheeky music by Vic Mizzy (The Addams Family; Green Acres; The Busy Body), sets the tone delightfully, and Ben Starr’s whimsically macabre screenplay was based on the novel The Visitors by Nathaniel Benchley—yes, that Nathaniel Benchley, kin to Robert and Peter!

The amazing cast of ghoulish goofballs include a swell gaggle of gals, goons, and ghouls! Check out this lineup:

*Sid Caesar, legendary star of Broadway, films, and TV, including the classic Your Show of Shows, andmovies including Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie; The Busy Body; and It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

*Vera Miles, whose beauty and talent caught Alfred Hitchcock’s eye, resulting in her unforgettable roles in Psycho and The Wrong Man, as well as Henry Hathaway’s 1956 suspense thriller 23 Paces to Baker Street.

*Barry Gordon: As a child actor, Gordon had his film debut in the movie version of Herb Gardner’s Broadway hit A Thousand Clowns, which won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Martin Balsam—and who just happened to play Arbogast, the detective in Hitchcock’s Psycho. Talk about a small world! Gordon has been in films and on TV from everything from sitcoms, dramas, and animated films and TV shows (our daughter loves Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SWAT Kats), and nowadays he’s also a rabbi!

*John McGiver:Midnight Cowboy; Breakfast at Tiffany’s;Fitzwilly;

*Robert Donner: Cool Hand Luke; Vanishing Point; High Plains Drifter; TV’s Mork and Mindy, as Exidor.

*Mary Wickes:The Man Who Came to Dinner;The Music Man; the Sister Act movies.

*Jesse White: Harvey; The Reluctant Astronaut; Matinee; the beloved MaytagRepairman!

*Nestor Paiva:The Creature from the Black Lagoon; Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House; The Southerner. (TSIW was Paiva’s last film before his death.)

*John Astin: That Touch of Mink; TV’s The Addams Family and I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster.

*Jill Townsend: British actress, beauty, and journalist known in both the U.S. and the U.K., the latter including the popular TV series Poldark and the film Alfie Darling, the sequel to Alfie. Townsendmetrenowned actor Nicol Williamson during the filming of Herbert Ross’ film version of The Seven-Percent Solution (1976),in which Williamson played Sherlock Holmes. Townsend and Williamson had a long, tempestuous marriage, and eventually she divorced Williamson for good. Townsend became a financial columnist for The Daily Mail and Windsor Cable Television. She later returned to the U.S. and became a spiritual counselor. The talented and versatile Townsend also shows off her versatility in TSIW in three different roles; talk about the Triple Crown!

*Cass Daley: Daley started as a chanteuse, but Red Skelton brought out Daley’s funny side. According to the IMDb, Daley started as just a traditional torch singer, but one night, she was upstaged during one of her singing performances by a buffoonish emcee—Red Skelton! She decided full-tilt wacky comedy was a lot more fun and lucrative. She blended singing and slapstick, and a star was born as Daley stole the show in such films asDuffy’s Tavern; Red Garters; Olsen and Johnson’s Crazy House. *Jay C. Flippen as “Mother” (no, he’s not in drag) who runs the titular bar and finds allies in Steve and the Weems sisters, Priscilla and Carol (also played by Townsend).

*Doodles Weaver(The Birds; Topper; Pocket Full of Miracles)

*Harvey Lembeck (Stalag 17; The Unsinkable Molly Brown; TV’s Sgt. Bilko)

Ben and Steve get unexpected Father and Son bonding time!

Director William Castle is having some thumb now in this cameo!

Memorable Lines from The Spirit is Willing:

“Kiss-Hungry Girl Ghosts Looking for a Live Lover in a Haunted House of Mayhem!

Ebenezer Twitchell (Donner) to his soon-to-be father-in-law, after almost accidentally klonging him in the head: “Sorry, sir. I’m always a bit jumpy after a crew mutinies on me.”

At Mother's Bar:
Fess Dorple(Jesse White): “Mother, will you make her (Mary Wickes as Gloria)shut her yap?”
Mother (Jay C. Flippen), to Fess, dryly: “I’ve had a request from you to ‘shut your yap.”
Gloria:“The Constitution guarantees Freedom of Speech. Anybody thinks different is welcome to go outside.”
Mother: “Your move.”
Fess:“I know her type. You hit ‘em once, and you’ve got a lawsuit on your hands...”

Mother:“I’ve heard from that party again concerning your big mouth.”

ZOTZ! (1962)

Tom Poston likely is best known to modern audiences from his many appearances on Bob Newhart's various shows. He got his start as one of Steve Allen's stable of performers, with recurring roles in his "Man on the Street" sequences. He made a great name for himself as a character actor, with a great deadpan delivery. He didn't get to play the lead very often, but one of William Castle's early films for Columbia, "ZOTZ!", is a notable exception. It's also an exception in that it's one of Castle's few comedies. As mentioned in the intro, Castle dealt mostly in horror, albeit often with his tongue in his cheek.

Poston plays Professor Jonathan Jones, a traditional "Bookish" type teacher, complete with wacky health diet of wheat germ and sauerkraut juice, tho a sight short of the Absent-Minded variety. His niece receives a letter from her boyfriend, not working as an archeologist in a non-existent but real-sounding country. He sends her as a gift an ancient coin, covered in words from an ancient language. A language which Professor Jones, an expert in ancient languages, can translate. It's a magic talisman in honor of an ancient god, one that gives the bearer great powers if they engage in the of both drawing and drinking blood (Which Jones accidentally does by prinking his finger and sticking it in how mouth.

The weirdness starts early after Jones unwittingly activates the coin - a freak thunderstorm shakes the house, and causes a passing bystandard to be struck by lightning, blowing all her clothes off. He assists her in her moment of full-body wardrobe malfunction, and gets back to his studies. People in his company begin experiencing odd pain when he gestures at them. He sets out to translate the rest of the coin's inscriptions - it's amazing how much detail they crammed in. If the bearer points at a person, the target experiences agonizing pain. If coin-older speak the name of the god, the eponymous "Zotz" anything they stare at slows to a crawl. If they point at something AND speaks the magic work, the target is destroyed instantly.

Eager to demonstrate this power, he plans to exhibit it at the home of the college's Dean (Cecil Kelleway). The Dean has been trying to decide who should succeed him, a decision rival professor Horatio Kellgore (Jim Backus) has made every attempt to guide by pointing out Jones' various odd behaviors. The Dean holds a cocktail party to introduce the new professor to the faculty - imagine Jones' surprise when "Professor Fenster" turns out to be the woman he assisted the night before! After a bit of less blush-worthy conversation, he remembers his plan to display hiw new ability. Jones releases a cage full of white mice at the Dean's cocktail party, expecting to disable them. Of course, his niece has taken the coin back, resulting in his great embarrassment and her suddenly gaining the ability to reduce people to a wincing fetal position.

Jones is requested to see a psychiatrist (James Milhollin, another character actor who got a lot of work playing psychiatrists and other stuck-up authority types), and eventually asked to take some time off. He realizes it's his duty to take this power to the military. He sets off to the Pentagon, where an apathetic colonel (Fred Clark) is sick of hearing from kooks who claim to have invented the next super weapon. He completely ignores the Professor's demonstration...but a somewhat Slavic-looking window-washer doesn't. Sent home all but laughed at, he is quickly contacted by an agent from "The Government" ... he coyly neglects to mention WHICH government. Yep, he's a Dirty Red, who whisks the Professor onto a plane headed for Russia. Jones attempts to escape, but when he's told his niece and Professor Fenster are in custody by one of their agents (a largely silent but still hilarious Mike Mazurki), he must resort to strategy. Telling them he doesn't have the coin with him, they turn back and head for the damsels in distress. A mad chase ensues where Jones ends up using the power on both the Commie rats and himself, before the ladies can eventually find assistance for them all.

The film features one of Castle's cameos, right over the opening credits. In one of only a handful of times they allowed people to mock the Columbia Logo, Castle sits in his director's chair at her feet and attempts to ensorcel her with the mystic title of the film.

gif courtesy GoreGirl's Dungeon

It's a wacky bit of fun that, like The Spirit is Willing, offered work for a large number of character actors. In addition to one of Margaret Dumont's last films, it's also got a cameo by Louis Nye, another of Poston's fellow cast members from the Steve Allen Show. Somewhat dated due to the whole Red Scare subplot, it's still fun as a sort of time capsule of the era. In a couple of goofy visual gags, the pilot of the aircraft in which they whisk away the Professor resembles Khrushchev, and his driver resembles Stalin. Ever the self-promoter, Jones niece and her date go to the drive-in, which is showing Homicidal. Also, given his propensity for a gimmick with his pictures. first-run theatergoers received a replica ZOTZ! coin that glowed in the dark.

Castle always brought a bit of whimsy to his films, and in these two rare comedies, he had the opportunity to bring that comedy to the fore.

This post is part of The Best Hitchcock Movies (That Hitchcock Never Made) Blogathon, running from July 7th through July 13th, 2012. On July 7th, please wish Sir Alfred Hitchcock's lovely and talented daughter Patricia Hitchcock O'Connell a very happy 84th Birthday!

Henri-Georges Clouzot, the director of French suspense films such as The Wages of Fear and Le Corbeau, premiered his 1955 thriller Diaboliquein New York City at what was then The Fine Arts Theater. How ironic that this premiere was doubling as a benefit for the Herald Tribune Fresh Air Fund, considering the moviegoers found themselves gasping for breath from terror! Produced by Vera Films, named after Clouzot’s leading lady in real and reel life, Vera Clouzot (The Wages of Fear; Les Espions), Diabolique continues to haunt audiences not only because of its fear factor, but also for its moving characterizations and performances. Diabolique’s title translates variously as Les Diaboliques; The Fiends; and The Devils, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s one of cinema’s most suspenseful films in any language! (For those of us who don’t speak French, distributor Janus Films provided subtitles.)

You're witnessing a rare sight:
Christina DeLassalle smiling!

It’s been said that no less than Team Bartilucci’s favorite fearmeister Alfred Hitchcock was itching to get the rights to the source material, the French suspense novel She Was No More (Celle qui n'tait plus) by Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac, only to find Clouzot had just beaten Hitch to the punch. Either way, Hitchcock made darn sure he got the rights to another Boileau & Narcejac thriller pronto: D’Entre Les Morts, translated as From Among the Dead—or as Hitchcock and companymore intriguingly titled it,Vertigo. In any case, for Diabolique, director Clouzot worked with co-writers René Masson, Frédéric Grendel, and Jérôme Géronimi to adapt Diabolique for the big screen.

Over Diabolique’s opening credits, there’s a tight close-up of already-brackish water, accompanied by a quote from French author Barbey D’Aurevilly, who specialized in tales of mystery and suspense exploring hidden motivations, hinting at evil without being explicitly concerned with anything supernatural:

“A painting is always quite moral when it is tragic, and it gives the horror of the things it depicts.”

D’Aurevilly is starting to sound like the French granddaddy of film noir to me! Heck, even Armand Thirard’s saturated black-and-white cinematography plunges us viewers into a sense of eerie foreboding without even trying. Just watching a lady walking with an open umbrella primed me to get ready to flee, or at least duck!

Our story begins at Institution DeLassalle—or as the subtitles I.D. it, DeLassalle Boarding School, which has clearly seen better days. It’s bad enough that Headmaster Michel DeLassalle (Paul Meurisse of Army of Shadows; The Truth; Le deuxième soufflé) is sadistically cruel to his lovely but sickly wife, Christina (Ms. Clouzot), who has a serious heart condition. Michel’s idea of kindness and sympathy is to cruelly tease Christina about being a “cute little ruin.” But Michel doesn’t stop there; he even mistreats his mistress and fellow teacher Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret, Oscar-winner for Room at the Top and nominee for Ship of Fools, among her other triumphs). Indeed, when we first meet teachers Christina and Nicole, they’ve long since bonded over their mutual love-turned-hatred for Michel, to the amazement of the rest of the school’s mostly male staff. On top of that, Christina is paying for the school in every sense; she’s not only footing the bills (it’s clear Michel married Christina for her money), but she’s also paying in emotional abuse, including her sorrow for the way the schoolboys have to eat lousy food, and how she has to beg for every little thing, as if she was some kind of servant instead of being the head of the school. No wonder she and Nicole have joined forces to put Michel’s lights out—and we’re not talking about the school’s electric bills! The murder plot has poor Christina even more jittery than usual, since she’s a staunch Catholic, and she takes the whole “Thou shalt not kill” thing seriously. (Sadly, those were the only three films Vera Clouzot made; ironically enough, it turned out that like the character she played in Diabolique, she really did have a weak heart, and she died in 1960.)

Anyone can have a love triangle,
but these three have a hate triangle!

Although Christina is glum and/or fearful more often than not, when she’s walking and talking with her fellow teachers early in the film, we briefly see her as the bright, happy young woman she must have been before Michel wormed his way into her heart and bank account in her native Brazil. The holiday weekend has begun, and Christina is wearing a perky little outfit and twirling her parasol. Her lovely smile almost breaks my heart, because life with Michel gives her so few things to smile about. Let this be a lesson, all you headstrong movie romantics: Get to know your sweeties before you decide to make a life with them! Heed the lessons learned the hard way by Christina, Audrey Hepburn as Reggie Lampert in Charade, and so many others! Oy!

You know, if the DeLassalle Boarding School was a real place and its shabby conditions were discovered today, some hotshot news team would make it a cause célèbre even before anyone got wind of the murder plot Nicole and Christina are hatching! I can see it all now: muscular, no-nonsense Robert Irvine of The Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible storming in to kick the entire staff’s collective butt while overhauling the menu big-time, then force-feeding Michel DeLassalle his own disgusting rotting fish. Meanwhile, the equally tough-as-nails Anthony Melchiorri of The Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible would overhaul the kids’ shabby dorms, too! Do the boys’ parents ever actually visit this neo-hellhole? If Diabolique took place today, there would be lawsuits galore! By the way, fans of Michel Serrault, perhaps best known to us Yanks as the star of La Cage Aux Folles and its two sequels, as well as Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud and Deadly Circuit, plays one of the teachers, Monsieur Raymond. He and the other teachers mostly put-up and shut-up; I guess they figure a job in a crummy boarding school with a nasty headmaster and unappetizing food is better than no job at all. And don’t get me started on that nasty, brackish swimming pool; the best use for it would be for a remake of Creature from the Black Lagoon…or an ingeniously wicked murder plot which ultimately pulls our gals into a murderous game in which death is only the beginning of their nightmare! I can say no more!

Nobody will be seated during
the disgusting rotting fish scene!

As is the case with Hitchcockian thrillers such as, say, Stanley Donen’s 1963 thriller Charade, Clouzot’s Diabolique is one of the (say it with me, people) Best Hitchcock Movies that Hitchcock Never Made!The crucial difference is that Charade and other playful Hitchcockian thrillers (as opposed to genuine Hitchcock films by Big Al himself) recall Hitchcock’s polished, soignée-yet-cheeky side a laNorth by Northwest, while Diabolique is more like a precursor of Hitchcock’s darker, more sinister thrillers such as Psycho; Shadow of a Doubt; The Wrong Man; Strangers on a Train; or Frenzy. I’ll admit it would have been fascinating to see how Hitchcock would have approached Diabolique. Darkly magnificent as Psycho is, Diabolique’s gloomy, misogynistic take on the story sinks into your gut and haunts your dreams, especially with the film’s taunting suggestions that perhaps there’s a touch of the supernatural in all this that nobody can escape. Even Diabolique’s opening credit sequence immediately makes us uneasy with that merciless close-up of the rainy, run-down DeLassalle Boarding School’s murky swimming pool, accompanied by children shrilly singing Georges Van Parys’ music off-key and off-screen. The film starts out at a leisurely pace, but as it goes along, the tension tightens like a noose, helped by skillful use of shadows and light. Without giving away its twists, I’ll only say that Diabolique gives new meaning to the phrase “cruel to be kind.”

“First I add a generous portion of gasoline. Then some nitroglycerine… a goodly amount of gunpowder…some Uranium 238…shake well, strike an ordinary match, make Michel drink it, and voila!”

"Do you have Prince Albert in the can?"

Has Michel come back to life just for
the school picture? Now that’s school spirit!

"Here's looking at you, kids!"

Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret are electrifying as partners in suffering and murder. As the women plot to kill the bastard, Ms. Clouzot’s delicate loveliness and her anxious air plays beautifully off Signoret’s sexy, smoldering intensity and streetwise demeanor. As Christina and Nicole try to act like nothing is wrong after Michel takes his final dip in the DeLassalle School’s pool, weird things keep happening that make them wonder if Michel is somehow still alive after all their efforts. Michel’s suits unexpectedly turn up from the local cleaners, and in the school picture, there’s a shadowy figure who looks unnervingly like Michel! Is the creep still alive and messing with the women’s heads, or is it karma, or could there really be something supernatural going on? (*GULP!*)

On top of that, Inspector Fichet (Charles Vanel of Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear and Hitchcock’sTo Catch a Thief, as well as several Tintin movies!)has been trying to help Christina in his kindly Columbo-esque way, but is this likable shaggy dog of a man actually a bulldog hot on the scent of the women’s guilt?That’s not to say there aren’t touches of comedy, albeit of the pitch-black variety. I especially got a kick out of of the scenes earlier in the film, when Nicole and Christina come to town for the next phase of their murder plot. As Christina and Nicole lure Michel to come to town for a permanent dip in the bathtub, their upstairs neighbors, Monsieur and Madame Herboux (Noel Roquevert and Therese Dorny) are unable to hear whether or not they won a prize on the radio show, because the tub the women use to weigh Michel down gets noisy when they have to drain the tub! Diabolique is even darker than Hitchcock at his darkest! Which is scarier, the water sports in Diabolique or in Psycho? Watch them and decide for yourselves! :-)

I won't spoil the big shocker ending for you; I'll just repeat the request from the filmmakers:

"Don't be devils! Don't ruin the interest your friends could take in this film. Don't tell them what you saw. Thank you for them."
Trust me, your patience will be rewarded!

Great heavenly days! As of August 22nd, 2012, Tales of the Easily Distracted(TotED,for any newcomers)is two years old today! Where the heck does the time go? Time to party!

Timber-r-r-r! Could Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) throw a shindig, or what?

What a difference two years makes! I’ve made so many friends, and I’ve read so many fascinating and entertaining blogs, and learned so much more about classic movies than I ever imagined. I also got the hang of Blogathons, thanks to talented folks like Page Inciardi from My Love of Old Hollywood, as well as Becky Barnes from ClassicBecky’s Brain Food,who, along with my sweet and supportive hubby Vinnie Bartilucci and our favorite inspiration, our 15-year-old daughter Siobhan, gave me the courage to put on my own Blogathon this past July, The Best Hitchcock Movies (That Hitchcock Never Made), for which I continue to be grateful! The support from my family and friends also spurred me to finish writing and polishing my suspense novel The Paranoia Club, and thanks to my wonderful editor Nicole Bokat (if you need a great editor, Nicole is your go-to gal!), I’ve finally begun sending queries to agents. I know getting published is a long, hard road more often than not, but I’m going to give it my all; nothing ventured, nothing gained. Wish me luck!

Revisions, revisions, always revisions!
( Kate Hudson and Luke Wilson in Rob Reiner's Alex and Emma)

Thanks so very much, everyone, for welcoming me among all you wonderful people in the dark—and out of the dark, for that matter! Here’s to another year of film fun and frolic, with many more to come, I hope!

Our favorite contemporary Oscar-winning actor
and all-around nice guy Adrien Brody approves!

Interested in the origins of TotED? Check out the link below!

http://doriantb.blogspot.com/2010/08/picture-of-dorian-tenore-bartilucci-or.html

This post is part of the CMBA Gene Kelly Blogathon, running from August 20 through August 25, 2012.

We of Team Bartilucci have joined forces for another double-feature in the CMBA's salute to the one and only Gene Kelly! We hope you'll enjoy our mad yet lovable ramblings!

Dorian’s Pick: The Devil Makes Three (1952)

With so many of us writing about Gene Kelly’s musicals for the titular CMBA Blogathon, I thought it would be an interesting change of pace to focus on one of Kelly’s action-adventure films. Mine has a Salzburg Connection, though it doesn’t have a Helen MacInnes plot (that would be the bailiwick of our friend and fellow blogger Yvette Banek of…in so many words fame)! I chose the 1952 action-drama The Devil Makes Three (TDM3). The title explains a tenet in Islam: an unmarried boy and a girl should never be alone together. It’s acceptable to have two boys or two girls in a room, or larger numbers and permutations. But if a boy and a girl are alone together, it’s said the devil is the third person in the room. With that in mind, I’d say the real devil to fear in this moody suspenser is the poverty and desperation which force hard choices on our protagonists, Captain Jeff Eliot (Kelly, excellent in a dramatic role); and the vulnerable yet determined Wilhelmina Lehrt (Pier Angeli of Somebody Up There Likes Me; Teresa; and Merry Andrew, who left us way too soon), or “Willie,” asJeff affectionately nicknames her. But you know what really piqued my interest in TDM3? Two words: Snowmobile Nazis! How’s that for a high concept?

Disney on Ice is nowhere near as badass
as these snowbound Wild Ones on Ice!

Set in 1947 just after the war, we viewers get a catch-up prologue from Colonel James Terry (Richard Rober of The Well; Father’s Little Dividend; The Tall Target),with our story being “a composite of case histories taken from the Munich headquarters file, Criminal Investigation Division Corps of Military Police, United States Army.” Over footage of the notorious Braunes Haus that housed the Nazis, Col. Terry dryly notes, “There isn’t even a ‘For Sale’ sign on the lot where the Braunes Haus once stood.” After this prologue, the action begins! Around the Christmas holidays, a woman (Charlotte Fleming) drives on an icy road, skidding. She stops, hurries into a phone booth, and speaks urgently—only to have her phone call cut off permanently when two motorcycle cops pull up and shoot her dead in a hail of bullets! Yikes! Talk about Hell on wheels!The only clue is a business card with the insignia “Silhouette.”

I see a little Silhouette of a club!
(Scaramouche! Scaramouche!)

Meanwhile, our hero Jeff has just left the U.S. to return to Germany (instead of vice-versa as one would expect). Jeff has been writing to the Lehrt family and sending them gifts since he returned to the States, and he’s brought all the trimmings of an old-fashioned Christmas to thank the Lehrts for saving his life during the war. But when he drives to the address he knew, he finds the place practically in ruins, with a German family that’s definitely notthe Lehrts! The family now living there are strangers to Jeff; they shamefacedly admit nobody else has lived there for ages, and they’ve been accepting Jeff’s care packages all this time because otherwise, they’d be starving in the rubble of what’s left of their ramshackle home. Being a decent joe despite his frustration and puzzlement, Jeff gives the bombed-out family the gifts he’d intended to give the Lehrts, then sets out to see what the heck happened to them.

Our hero Captain Jeff Eliot thinks
he can see his house from here!

When Jeff gets together with Lieutenant Parker (the versatile Richard Egan from Love Me Tender; Violent Saturday; Pollyanna), he and us viewers get more background. The Lehrts were a family of musicians and singers, and pretty young Willie was only 15 the last time Jeff saw her. He’d met the family during the war, when his outfit was captured in a raid over Innsbrook, then thrown into a nearby prison camp. Two days later, the Lehrts had managed to hide the injured Jeff in the family’s cellar. Shortly after New Year’s Day, the family smuggled him to an area where he’d be able to walk to safety. Parker suggests they check the Central Registry, where there’s a complete casualty list, even if it means forgoing his previously planned evening of beer, bratwurst, and knockwurst—now That’sEntertainment (not to mention friendship)!

In Germany, our heroes hope for the best,
but expect the wurst!

At the Central Registry, Jeff and Parker get the bad news: Mr. and Mrs. Lehrt were killed by bombs in July 1944, and there’s no further info about Willie on file. Parker deduces that Willie would be about 18 by now: “If she’s still alive, and she’s still pretty, there are just so many joints in Munich where she could be, and I know every one of them.” Jeff is skeptical: “Not Willie. She wasn’t the type.” Parker ruefully replies, “If she’s been hungry long enough, she’s the type.” So the search for Willie begins. On the bright side, if all else fails, at least our heroes will get a pub crawl out of it!

Is that a bruise under Willie's eye?
Poor girl, she probably wishes
shecould be marching home!

Their search bears fruit. Of all the gin joints in all the world, Jeff and Parker find Willie (Angeli) at her workplace—none other than Silhouette! It’s full of beautiful girl singers and tough-looking guys who aren’t exactly gentlemen. Let’s just say the gals at Silhouette aren’t working there because it’s their dream job. Willie has grown up into a lovely, doe-eyed young woman with a bruised psyche. Having been orphaned and living on her own, she’s become understandably cynical since she last saw Jeff. They talk as they walk among the bombed-out buildings in the moonlight (almost sounds romantic, in a film noir way):

Willie:“Enjoying the sights, Captain?”

Jeff: “Oh…from the air, it all looks different. You had one idea up there, and that was to navigate the plane to the aiming point.”

Willie (sarcastically):“You did a good job.”

Another of my favorite TDM3lines:

Willie:“You will like it here at Silhouette. At midnight, Kris Kringle comes down the chimney and does a strip-tease.”

Jeff wants to make amends and thank Willie on account of her late parents having saved his life. He’d like to start by giving Willie the Christmas holiday with all the trimmings that she’d loved in happier, pre-war, pre-Nazi days. Since Jeff is doing well at his navigation instructor job in the States, he wants to go all out to show Willie a happy time, so they’re off to Salzburg for the holidays! I love Willie’s running gag about “getting a commission” from businesses around town, like at the car dealership. Ah, but as soon as Jeff and Willie hit the road, good ol’ Honest Oberlitz (Bum Krüger) scrambles into the garage, yelling in German, and who should come roaring out but those evil motorcycle guys, hell-bent for leather and burning rubber! What the heck do those no-goodniks want from our heroes?

As they drive on the Autobahn, which Jeff compares favorably to the Pennsylvania Turnpike (wow, the Autobahn must have been way less crowded in the 1950s!), Willie gives Jeff a history lesson:

Willie: “The Fuhrer built it. It was supposed to carry its conquering armies to glory. Now it carries the conquerors. How does it feel to be a conqueror?”

Jeff:“Most of the guys stationed here would rather be driving along the Turnpike. We’re not cut out to be conquerors.”

I must say I enjoyed TDM3’s touches of wry humor, poking good-natured fun at the gentler post-war changes at Germans vs. Austrians, such as the Austrian diner with a juke-box, where the personnel use American slang like “Adam and Eve on a raft.” I also loved the beautiful locations, with shots of the locations as pretty as a postcard, especially since this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to that part of the world!

I keep expecting to hear Gene Kelly and the kids
singing “I Got Rhythm” in German!

But things get serious when Parker discovers that, unbeknownst to Jeff, that German car is chock full of contraband—specifically, there’s gold under the car’s top coat! It turns out Willie had to secretly drive contraband across the Austro-German border, though Willie is having second thoughts after falling in love with Jeff (can you blame her?), plus the poor phone booth gal killed earlier in the film was a friend of Willie’s, and she doesn’t want to meet the same awful fate. What’s more, apparently this dastardly Nacht de Legernogen (sic), described as “The Last Will and Testament of the Third Reich,” outlines chilling procedures after the hoped-for defeat. Grr! Nazis—I hate those guys (don't we all?)! Can Willie and Jeff conquer the bad guys and go on to live happy lives of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, Chevrolets, and, for Willie, American citizenship? Although Kelly doesn’t get any song-and-dance numbers, I found him both tough and tender as the determined yet caring Jeff, and I thought he and Angeli worked well together. I was especially moved as Willie did her best to survive with dignity while being forcedinto hard choices just to stay alive.

No mistletoe required!

TDM3was filmed on location in Munich and Salzburg, with a screenplay by Jerry Davis (known for such Warner Bros TV series as 77 Sunset Strip, Bourbon Street Beat,Surfside Six,Bewitched, and The Odd Couple, as well as the 1955 horror thriller Cult of the Cobra),and based on a story by producer Lawrence P. Bachman, known for his 1960s series of comedy-whodunits based on Dame Agatha Christie’s Miss Marplemysteries, starting in 1961 with Murder, She Said. That movie series is dear to Team Bartilucci’s collective heart, especially since it starred the delightful Dame Margaret Rutherford (and we all know there’s nothing like a Dame!), as well as Children of the Damned, the 1964 sequel to the horror classic Village of the Damned.


**Uh-oh! X doesn’t mark the spot in a good way here!**

Hurry, Jeff, distract the villain
with a dance number!

The film was directed by Andrew Marton, who was no stranger to action films and war films. His work included The Longest Day; the 1950 version of King Solomon’s Mines; science-fiction thriller Crack in the World,another Team B. fave;and the 1964 version of James Jones’ celebrated novel The Thin Red Line. (Terence Malick’s 1998 version included an all-star cast, including future Oscar-winner and Team Bartilucci favorite Adrien Brody, but that’s a story for another time.) The driving rhythm of Bronislau Kaper’s music (Gaslight; Whistling in the Dark; The Naked Spur) sets an appropriate pulse-pounding pace as TDM3 moves along. But it’s not all action movie music by any means. Since the story is set in post-war Munich and Austria during the Christmas season, there's poignancy and grim reminders of the aftermath of World War 2. Bombed-out ruins, some of which housed the Nazis (good riddance, Nazi scum!), sit side-by-side with the new buildings of the ongoing reconstruction, while ironic reminders of the war appear along with holiday music such as “Oh, Christmas Tree” (in both English and German). TheNew York Times movie reviewer, identified only as H.H.T (the venerable Howard Thompson, perhaps?) was underwhelmed with Jerry

“Hi, I’m Claus Clausen, I’ll be
your Otto Preminger for this evening….”

Boy, Oberlitz's coffee sure is a knockout!

Davis’ screenplay for the post-war adventure drama The Devil Makes Three (TDM3). Oh, well, can’t please everyone!

Vinnie’s Pick: What A Way to Go! (1964)

I must confess to bending the rules slightly with this entry. This is undoubtedly a film that belongs to Shirley MacLaine. Like a housecat who graciously lets people live in their homes, Shirley allows several leading men to share the screen with her, and each time she makes them feel comfortable, like they're the only man in the world. Gene Kelly is the last of them, but it could be argued that his appearance is the grandest and most over the top.

Shirley plays Louisa May Foster, a shy, unassuming girl who through no fault of her own, appears to be cursed. For every time she attempts to marry for love, her husbands seem to become bestowed with uncontrollable success. Everything goes their way, they become engrossed in their work, and it ends with them dying in progressively outlandish fashions, leaving her alone, and each time, exponentially wealthier. The film begins with her attempting to give all her money to the IRS in the form of a single check for 250 million dollars. She is met with doubt, and is sent to a psychiatrist (Bob Cummings) to whom she bares her tale of woe.

Starting with her childhood in Crawleyville, named after the town's richest family, she is pressed by her mother (Margaret Dumont!) to marry the Crawley's indolent son, Leonard (played by the indolent Dean Martin). She instead turns her eye to Edgar Hopper (Dick Van Dyke), owner of a barely open general store, who lives his life by the tenets of Thoreau. They marry, and out of spite Crawley proceeds to make their life hell, mocking their meager existence. Hopper snaps, and becomes a marketing dynamo, turning his general store into the most successful business in town, driving the Crawleys into bankruptcy. The strain is too much for him, and he dies from a massive (and ironic) coronary, his last words being "a little hard work never hurt anybody!"

Louisa is now a wealthy woman, and travels to Paris to start anew. There she meets Larry Flint - not that one, a struggling artist played by Paul Newman. He lives the stereotypical life of an artist, in a loft surrounded by other eccentric creators, including a chimpanzee who's currently more productive than any of them. Larry's medium is a mechanical painting device of his own invention that converts sound to brush strokes. Louisa, happy to find another man who abhors wealth, marries him, and they live the simple life in their paint-stained loft. But she whammies him as well, and when she suggests he play beautiful music for the machine to interpret, it paints a masterpiece. He builds an assembly line of them, and is making money hand over waldo, leaving her alone again, first figuratively, and later literally when the machines turn on him and turn him into their living (for a while) canvas.

Her third try, she goes the opposite direction - Rod Anderson (Robert Mitchum) is even more staggeringly wealthy than she, and they hit it off immediately. During a wild montage of parties and truly spectacular costumes (all created by the equally spectacular Edith Head), Rod is amazed to learn that athough he's been totally ignoring his business, he's actually made MORE money. However, Louisa convinces him to sell everything and live his dream - to move back to a farm like the one he grew up on. They do so, and are blissfully happy...until one morning, Rod accidentally tries to milk their prize bull, Melrose. The moment is understated and only implied, but is truly hilarious - his last words, "Melrose, forGIVE me!", are preceded by a strained and surprised bovine bellow, and followed by him being kicked out the back of the barn.

Her next paramour comes in the form of Pinky Benson (Yes folks, you've been patient - it's Gene Kelly) an earnest but happy where he is song and dance man who performs in a local tavern called the Cauliflower Ear. His act is pure schmaltz - he wears a clown getup, and does a fast hoofer nonsense number in the style of fifties performer Pinky Lee. He's barely noticed by the audience, which is just fine by the owner - a status quo that's lasted fourteen years. Once again, Louisa thinks she's found a man who wants no more out of life than he's already got, and they wed. And it all goes very well. Until...

One of the recurring motifs in the film is Louisa's complimentary comparison of each of her marriages to a different kind of classic film. Her early time with Hopper was like a melodramatic silent film where love conquered all, her time in France like a French impressionistic picture, and the high-rent world of Rod like a series of lavish entrances in a "Lush Budgett" glamour film. Her time with Pinky / Kelly, predictably enough, is portrayed as an over the top musical production. Kelly, at 52 by the time of this film, is still staggeringly light on his feet, and Shirley more than keeps up with him.

Heading out for his birthday party after a performance, Louisa suggests he save time by not applying his makeup, and do the act in his street clothes. He feels a bit shy without his costume, and he sings his number softly, and at half speed. Rather than his clownish (naturally) buck and wing, he does a gentle soft-shoe number. As the raucous restaurant slowly grows silent to pay attention to him, Louisa realizes she's done it a again. Pinky is discovered before they can finish a whip-pan, and Louisa is morosely lounging around a massive Hollywood mansion as Pinky works on a number of films at once. Far from the soft-spoken hoofer she married, Kelly now plays Pinky in full-on parody mode, with a brassy voice and the traditional "My public" mode of the triple-threat mogul.
At his latest premiere, they arrive in an all-pink Rolls, Louisa's head buried in a pink wig, and wrapped head to toe in pink mink. The film, naturally, is a smash. The surging crowd of fans are out of control, and his producers suggest he leave out the back entrance. Just as they're about to leave, he realizes he can't do it to his fans, and pops out from the alley to surprise them. BAD move. They thunder toward him, their advance deftly mixed with shots (and sound effects) of stampeding elephants. He is literally trampled to death by his adoring public.

As the dream sequences get progressively longer, so too her time spent with each husband, which means that Kelly gets the most time on screen. He gets to play a good spectrum, from the shy tavern performer, to the lovestruck husband to the bombastic movie icon. MacLaine is adorable throughout the film, eternally desperate for love, spending most of her time swathed in the most astounding finery, alternately covering her entirely, and leaving so little to the imagination you wonder how brother Warren didn't storm onto the set and slap all the cameramen. Her high pitched voice sounds like if she were in a comic book, it'd have little musical notes in her word balloons, like Melody from Josie and the Pussycats did.

I deliberately tried to keep my summaries of the rest of her paramours brief, as this is a Gene Kelly tribute. But let me assure you, I left out a LOT of detail, and it's all worth a look. The film's been making the rounds on cable, and is pretty easy to catch up with. And well worth doing, as well.

When RKO’s 1938 screwball comedy-mystery The Mad Miss Manton(TMMM) was shown on TCM, our genial host Robert Osborne noted that Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda had made three films together, all comedies: TMMM, The Lady Eve, and You Belong to Me, the latter two released in 1941. Set in then-contemporary New York City (but actually filmed in Burbank, CA in 100-degree heat, according to John M. Miller’s TCM article!), TMMMcame first. Director Leigh Jason had also worked with Stanwyck and co-star Hattie McDaniel in The Bride Walks Out (1936), before McDaniel won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Gone With The Wind (1939).

Stanwyck’s part was originally meant for Katharine Hepburn, but Bringing Up Baby’s bad box office put the kibosh on that, though of course nowadays it’s hailed as a classic. Besides, things worked out fine for Hepburn, as she moved on to her Oscar-nominated performance in The Philadelphia Story (1940), among so many other triumphs. In any case, Stanwyck’s flair for comedy is just right for her role as Melsa Manton, madcap heiress extraordinaire. That’s my favorite kind of heiress, especially if she’d like to plunk a few bucks into my pocket during one of her charity scavenger hunts!

Melsa Manton has The Thin Man’s Nick and Nora Charles beat when it comes to chic yet zany sleuthing, at least when it comes to sheer numbers: she has eight gorgeous debutante girlfriends who are as loyal as they are endearingly kooky, with no-nonsense maid Hilda (McDaniel) shaking her head at these nutty rich folks. For the most part, the girls are happy to help Melsa solve murders, the occasional growled threat or thrown knife notwithstanding. Fun Fact: Melsa and her eight gal pals were no doubt playfully modeled on the northeastern women’s colleges known as “The Seven Sisters:” Barnard; Bryn Mawr; Mount Holyoke; Radcliffe; Smith; Vassar; and Wellesley. Of course, this being a Hollywood movie, another “sister” was added. That’s Hollywood for you, always making everything bigger and bolder!

We first meet Melsa walking a gaggle of cute little dogs at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m.; is this how our pet-loving heroine makes extra spending money, or does she prefer to take her pets walkies when the neighbors are in bed, unaware Melsa’s pooches are leaving, er, souvenirs? She notices Rex Realty signs plastered all over the house. Turns out it belongs to Sheila Lane (Leona Maricle, who’d also worked with Stanwyck in My Reputation), the wife of wealthy banker George Lane. Suddenly a car speeds past the site of the new subway. Melsa recognizes local gent Ronnie Belden (William Corson). Unlike the usual stereotype of New Yorkers who mind their own business, Melsa lets her curiosity get the best of her. Her impromptu investigation brings her to the deserted Lane house, where she finds a diamond brooch—and Lane’s bloodied body! As she flees in panic, Melsa drops the brooch. By the time Melsa gets ahold of Lieutenant Mike Brent (Team Bartilucci fave Sam Levene from The Killers; After The Thin Man; Shadow of The Thin Man; Last Embrace), the corpse has gone AWOL.

Don’t worry about the press as long as
they spell your name right!

Lt. Brent and the rest of New York’s Finest are pretty darn peeved, considering that Melsa and her friends have a reputation as merry pranksters. Too bad our heroine happens to be dressed in a Little Bo-Peep costume for an artists’ ball, which doesn’t exactly do wonders for her credibility. Granted, Melsa swears their playful pranks were only meant to draw positive attention for the good causes they work on in the name of their various charities, like running a TB clinic and other helpful, clean-cut activities. Melsa and her pals clearly mean well, but haven’t they ever heard that charity begins at home? Maybe they should stay out of trouble by making lanyards for the poor or something. To add insult to injury, not only do Lt. Brent and his men refuse to investigate, but Peter Ames (Fonda), editor of The Morning Clarion, writes a stern article about Melsa’s hijinks, resulting in much comical slapping. One lawsuit, coming right up! With their reputations on the line, Melsa and the girls become amateur sleuths. Debutante Roll Call, sound off now!

Frances Mercer as Helen Frayne, the most sensible of Melsa’s gorgeous friends. The daughter of prominent East Coast sportswriter Sid Mercer, the raven-haired beauty was a “Powers Girl” model in New York in her teens back in the 1930s (as were my dear mom and aunt. Wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall with those gals swapping stories). Mercer went on to act and sing on stage, screen, and TV, including the Broadway musicals All the Things you Are;Very Warm for May; and Something for the Boys.
Kay Sutton as Gloria Hamilton. This lovely brunette’s screen credits include Carefree; The Saint in New York; Vivacious Lady. Gloria gets a nice punch line when the girls find what may or may not be bodily fluids:
Dora:“How can that be blood? It’s blue.”
Gloria:“Maybe he shot Mrs. Astor.”

Oh, Kay!
Catherine O’Quinn as ditzy Dora Fenton. I’m almost certain O’Quinn is one of the blonde Goldwyn Girls in Team Bartilucci fave The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). Anyway, she gets some delightful lines here, especially this TMMMbit, which becomes a running gag:
Melsa:“Helen, you search the upstairs.”
Helen:“Oh, no, I was never much of an individualist. If the upstairs has to be searched, we’ll search it together.”
Dora:“Why, that’s Communism!”
Whitney Bourne, as Pat James(Blind Alibi; Double Danger; Beauty for the Asking, with Lucille Ball)), who never saw a snack she didn’t like, even at a murder scene! I’m sure Lt. Brent is thrilled to see his crime scene ruined. Hey, Pat, you gonna finish that? Don’t your rich parents feed you at home, you poor little rich girl you?
Ann Evers as Lee Wilson (If I Were King; Gunga Din; Casanova Brown).
Linda Perry, billed here as Linda Terry. By any name, she plays Myra Frost, Melsa’s flirty friend. Ms. Perry’s credits include They Won’t Forget; The Great Garrick; and the 1937 movie adaptation of the Perry Mason film The Case of the Stuttering Bishop.
Vickie Lester (billed as Vicki Lester) as Kit Beverly. Vickie’s star was born in Tom, Dick, and Harry; Tall, Dark, and Handsome; The Great Plane Robbery.
Eleanor Hanson as Jane. (Guess it's one of those one-word names, like Margo or Annabella.) She also appeared in the Western Flaming Frontiers and bit parts such films as The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, and worked again with TMMMco-star Penny Singleton in Blondie Goes to College. Wonder if Singleton and Hansen ever reminisced about making TMMM?

One stiff, hold the mayo!

Before long, the lawsuit takes a back seat, along with a corpse or two, as Peter finds himself falling in love with the spirited Melsa and trying to save her from shady characters like ex-con Edward Norris (Stanley Ridges of Possessed; To Be or Not to Be; Sergeant York), a convicted murderer who’s working on the subway and just might have a score to settle. Even Blondie gets into the act—no, not songbird Debbie Harry, but the original Blondie, Penny Singleton, formerly Dorothy McNulty from After the Thin Man. She’s funny and memorable in this pre-Blondie comedy caper as Frances Gluck, who’s stuck on Norris and tries to convince the girls of his innocence, even trying to pass off the future Blondie Bumstead as an old chum, with hilarious results and a smattering of social commentary.

Kit(talking to Hilda with her mouth full): “Have you another piece of cake, Hilda?”

Hilda:“Yes, I have, but the kitchen’s closed for the night.”

Melsa:“Hilda! Miss Beverly is our guest.”

Hilda:“I didn’t ask her up!”

Helen:“Come the revolution, we’ll stop being exploited by our help.”
Melsa (giving Hilda a wry look):“In my house, the revolution is here!”

Who needs Charlie's Angels
with 8 crimefighting debs?

“Lt. Brent, the good news is we’ve found George Lane’s body. The bad news…er….”

Blondie Beats a Murder Rap!

Lt. Brent saves the day!
Who knew he was a counter spy?

Although Fonda and Stanwyck were great onscreen, Henry Fonda was less than thrilled with his role. He’d been borrowed from Walter Wanger Productions and, as Axel Madsin wrote in his biography Stanwyck, Fonda “...hated his role, hated the script's sneering repartee with his leading lady, and tried his best to ignore everybody.” Fonda himself later admitted, "I was so mad on this picture; I resented it." Philip G. Epstein’s script from an unpublished Wilson Collison novel was clearly meant as a female star vehicle, and as Miller suggested, “Fonda probably did not appreciate the scenes in which he was beaten up by eight flighty debutantes!” But Fonda got over it, happily co-starring with Stanwyck again in two other hits, as mentioned earlier, and becoming close friends. In fact, Robert Osborne said Fonda admitted to his subsequent wives that he carried a torch for Stanwyck for the rest of his life (and why not?)!

Here's a link to our pal Dawn Sample's great Noir and Chick Flicks blog post from 2011!

http://dawnschickflicks.blogspot.com/2011/05/mad-miss-manton-1938_27.html

I knew those crazy kids would make beautiful music together!

You say you want a revolution?
Hilda's your go-to gal!

Whoop it up, wranglers! Frank and the boys show
Texas visitors action in All Through the Night

This review is part of theWhat A Character! Blogathon,hosted by Paula of Paula’s Cinema Club, Kellee of Outspoken and Freckled, and Aurora of Once Upon A Screen. The Blogathon runs from September 22nd through 24th, 2012. By all means, please leave comments for one and all! :-)

My husband Vinnie and I first saw character actor Frank McHugh (1889-1981) on TV, when we were watching the 1942 Warner Bros. wartime comedy-thriller All Through the Night(ATtN) on TCM. We of Team Bartilucci loved both Frank and the movie right away! And why wouldn’t we, with its great high concept: “Damon Runyon Kicks Nazi Heinie in NYC.” Heck, we could easily devote this entire blogpost to ATtN alone, considering the cast’s many wonderful character actors. In addition to our Frank, ATtN’s cast included Humphrey Bogart (who I’ve always thought had the soul of a character actor along with his star quality); William Demarest; Jackie Gleason; Phil Silvers; Barton MacLaine; Edward Brophy; Wallace Ford; Charles Cane; Conrad Veidt; Judith Anderson; Martin Kosleck; and Peter Lorre. But for us, Frank stole the show as Barney, the newlywed among the tough but good-natured “sports promoters” (translation: bookies and gamblers) in Bogart’s crew. We’ll always affectionately think of Frank as “Annabelle’s Husband” in honor of Barney’s new bride (Jean Ames), who barely even gets time to kiss her groom before Bogie & Company whisk him away to fight Fifth Columnists in New York City. As Barney, Frank gets some of the best lines in this totally entertaining blend of comedy and action:

Barney:“Annabelle’s waiting for me…after all, I’m a married man. I got obligations.”

Gloves (Bogart):“All right, send her flowers.”
Barney:“Well…that wasn’t my idea.”

Slugger Frank clobbers Fifth Columnists in All Through the Night!

Talking to Madame (Anderson) at the auction house after Gloves and Sunshine (Demarest) are knocked out and tied up:

Barney:“Lookit, lady, when we started out tonight, there were three of us. Twenty minutes later, there was only two. Now there’s only one. One of us isn’t enough to leave here alone!”

Hooch your daddy? Frank and James Cagney in
The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Of course, before Frank became one of our favorite character actors,Francis Curray McHugh was born in Homestead, PA in 1889, the youngest member of a family of character actors. Indeed, the McHugh family had their own stock company, including sister Kitty McHugh and brother Matt McHugh. Sometimes they got screen credit, and sometimes they didn’t, but the McHugh family was always working, whether it was Matt playing uncredited roles like “Third Man on Death Row” in My Favorite Brunetteor faux waiter Frisco inThe Mad Miss Manton, or Kitty McHugh getting screen credits as Mae in The Grapes of Wrath or Goldie in Blonde Trouble. Fans of the 1947 film noir The Dark Corner may also recognize Matt as the milkman who comes to Lucille Ball’s apartment. At the age of 10, young Frank literally got into the act and began his own acting career with the rest of the clan.

Frank and James Cagney as sea salts in
Here Comes the Navy (1934)

Frank made his Broadway bow in 1925 in The Fall Guy. Five years later, Hollywood came a-knockin’, and he made his film debut in The Dawn Patrol. Warner Bros. hired him as a contract player, where he usually played the hero’s sidekick and/or comedy relief. Usually looking and sounding nervous yet likable, Frank appeared in over 90 movies at Warners, as well as Paramount’s Going My Way and My Son John, both of which cast McHugh as priests. (My Son John was Robert Walker’s last film, which you can read about in myStrangers on a Trainpost, if you’re interested. But I digress….). Frank’s regular-joe characters ranged from mechanics to newspapermen to sidekicks to tough guys—or not-so-tough guys, like the aforementioned Barney—with hearts of gold. Frank often appeared with another in-demand character actor, Allen Jenkins (Ball of Fire;Lady on a Train; the voice of TV’s Officer Dibble on Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat). Sometimes Frank even got the girl, a laATtN!

Frank as Father Timothy O'Dowd in Going My Way

During Radio’s heyday, Frank proved to be as versatile a voice actor as he was a film actor, starring in 1935’s in Shell Chateau, and then in 1938 in the Warner Brothers Academy Theater. The next decade saw Frank performing in several Radio dramas. Then, in 1946, Frank got another break: popular Film and Radio comedian Stuart Erwin had been starring on the CBS Radio sitcom Phone Again, Finnegan.Realizing he was spreading himself too thin with commitments, Erwin stepped down, and Frank got the gig, joining the cast as Fairchild Finnegan. By the early 1950s, Frank’s film career was winding down, so he migrated to Television, racking up over 80 TV credits. From 1964 through 1965, Frank and his Going My Way co-star teamed up for The Bing Crosby Show, where Frank played Bing's comic foil, Willis Walter.

Frank's in the swim with Elvis
in Easy Come, Easy Go (1967)

Ironically, Frank had supporting roles in two different films titled Easy Come, Easy Go (ECEG),which just goes to show that everything old is new again, at least when it comes to movie titles! The first ECEG was a 1947 comedy-drama described on the IMDb as “A film that possibly held the record for the most Irish-descent players in an American-produced movie before The Quiet Man was shot on location in Ireland, and that includes The Informer.” The secondECEG was a 1967 Elvis Presley comedy-adventure with Navy frogman Elvis and local shopkeeper Frank joining forces to find undersea treasure—which turns tricky when Frank’s character, Captain Jack, confesses he’s afraid of water!

Being an in-demand
character actor is thirsty work!

Frank quietly retired from show business in 1969 with his wife, Dorothy, and died of natural causes in 1981, survived by his wife of 48 years and his three children. Of course, he lives on in the hearts and films of his many fans, including all of us here at Team Bartilucci HQ. What A Character, indeed!

The 1947 Easy Come, Easy Go. Don't mix those two up!

If you want to hear more about All Through the Night,check my review here.

Where there’s life, there’s Hope—Bob Hope! Okay, so I borrowed that from an ad line from another one of Hope’s comedies, but the point is, Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard were a delightful team in their first film together, Paramount’s The Cat and The Canary (TC&TC). Produced by Arthur Hornblow of Witness for the Prosecutionfame,and based on John Willard’s original 1922 stage play, the popular thriller was eventually adapted for both stage and screen in 1927 and 1930. Director Elliott Nugent(My Favorite Brunette, Up in Arms)joined forces with Hope and Goddard for this 1939 version of the story, adding more witty, playful comedy and romance to Willard’s thriller. This version worked so well that Hope and Goddard made two more films together: The Ghost Breakers (1940), and Nothing But the Truth (1941). For the record, there was also a 1979 version. I never saw it, but the stars sound promising: Yanks Carol Lynley and Michael Callan, and Brits Honor Blackman, Wendy Hiller, Edward Fox, Olivia Hussey, Daniel Massey, Peter McEnery, and Wilfrid Hyde-White. But I digress….

Here's looking at you, kids!

Universal actually owned the rights to Willard’s play, but sold them to Paramount. Fun Fact: the film, along with the 1940 film The Ghost Breakers(which I’ll discuss next time), was an inspiration to Walt Disney for his Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland! Focusing on the funny, The New York Times’ film critic Frank S. Nugentdescribes Bob Hope not as the thing with feathers a la Emily Dickenson, but as having“a chin like a forehead and a gag line for every occasion… (This version of the story) is more hair-brained than hair-raising, which is as it should be.” I agree: with this cast, fun and suspense make a swell team, including the delightful Nydia Westman (the 1933 version of Little Women;The Remarkable Andrew; The Ghost and Mr. Chicken) as Cousin Cicily, a charmingly daft flibbertigibbet among the late Cyrus Norman’s relatives. The supporting cast weren’t small potatoes, either, with George Zucco (The Mummy; After the Thin Man; The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and Gale Sondergaard(Anna and the King of Siam; The Letter; and Best Supporting Actress Oscar-winner for Anthony Adverse). I especially enjoyed Sondergaard as Miss Lu; she’s kinda like a sophisticated Bayou Mrs. Danvers played for straight-faced laughs, blending mystery, menace, and mirth. Both Zucco and Sondergaard playfully spoof the more ominous roles they were known for, while still being spooky enough to keep viewers on their toes, blending suspense and comedy into a sparkling cocktail. As Lawyer Crosby (no relation to Hope’s future screen co-star Bing Crosby), George Zucco’s foreboding presence adds the right touch of menace.

Meet the lady known as Lu!

Hope’s movie career had begun with The Big Broadcast of 1938, and Goddard started her career as a child model, debuting in The Ziegfeld Follies at the tender age of 13! Goddard’s fame as the Follies’ girl on the crescent moon put her on the map. She was married to a a millionaire at the age of 16—and divorced not long after that. After dissolving her marriage in 1931, Goddard went to Hollywood, where her natural talent and beauty sent her stardom soaring, bewitching Hollywood’s elite. She earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination in the 1943 war drama So Proudly We Hail! She attracted some pretty remarkable fellas as husbands, too: Charlie Chaplin; Team Bartilucci fave Burgess Meredith; and author Erich Maria Remarque of All Quiet on the Western Front fame. Goddard also did her bit for higher education, leaving over $20 million to New York University when she died in 1990. What a gal!


Hello, I’m Mrs. Trumbull! Mrs. Ricardo recommended me. Anyone need a babysitter for spectral spooks?

The plot involves a gaggle of distant cousins who’ve come together after 10 years for the reading of Cyrus Norman’s will. In the great comedy-thriller tradition, the prettiest and most generally winsome gal, Joyce Norman (Goddard) finds herself the designated Lady in Distress, while the affable, quip-slinging actor Wally Campbell (Hope) has noticed how little Joyce has grown up quite nicely. Attraction is in the air, and no wonder, with the delightful chemistry between Hope and Goddard! I especially liked the way Wally manages to be brave for Joyce in spite of his nervousness.

Joyce and Wally ain’t afraid of no ghosts!
That comes later, in The Ghost Breakers!

In addition to Joyce and Wally, the prospective victims, er, heirs include Fred Blythe (John Beal of Double Wedding; My Six Convicts; The Firm); Charlie Wilder(Douglass Montgomery, another 1933 Little Women cast member); and Aunt Susan (Elizabeth Patterson, whose long career included Intruder in the Dust;Lady on a Train; TV’s I Love Lucy as babysitter Mrs. Trumball). Wally tries to put the others at ease with quips: “I hear old Uncle Cyrus’s ghost is holding bank night.” What’s more, thanks to Wally’s theatrical background, he can’t help predicting each new spooky suspense cliché, keeping the others’ heads turning suspiciously, prompting Wally to suggest to Joyce, “I’ll recommend a nice quiet bomb-proof cellar to you for the next 30 days.” Sorry, guys, everybody’s gotta stay overnight whether they want to or not. As Wally wryly explains, “The members of Local Number 2 of the Bayou Canoe Paddlers and Putt-Putt Pushers Union fold putt after midnight.” Well, that’s OK; Wally and Joyce and company can always while away the time looking for a diamond necklace worth a fortune while trying to avoid being bumped off.


Oops, Joyce grabbed the wrong book. She was looking for Bazooka Joe’s bubble gum bio, The Psychology of Fleer!

On top of the creepy goings-on at ol’ Blue Bayou, the local authorities announce that there’s a fugitive psychopath on the loose from Fairview, the local asylum. “That’s all we needed,” Wally says. “Well, anyway, he’ll feel right at home.” The killer is known as “The Cat,” but this “Cat” sure isn’t the suave Cary Grant/To Catch A Thief kind of cat burglar! Soon Wally and Joyce are up to their ears in danger and romance, with more secret panels than The Game Show Network as Miss Lu stirs the pot with ominous warnings and whatnot! Can Wally and Joyce live happily ever after, “live” being the operative word? One thing’s for sure: with Hope and Goddard, it’ll sure be fun finding out!

Hey, Joyce, give a guy a hand!

Fun Facts:

According to Wikipedia, Universal owned the rights to Willard’s play and sold them to Paramount Pictures. Indeed, it inspired Walt Disney to create the original beloved Haunted Mansion at Disneyland!
Don’t blink during the first scene, or you’ll miss Chief Thundercloud(Hudson’s Bay)as an Indian guide!

If you like The Cat and The Canary, check out other reviews of this fun film by other swell bloggers!

1.) Yvette Banek from her stupendous blogIN SO MANY WORDS from March 2012!

2.) John Greco’s Twenty-Four Framesreview from May 2011!

Also, don't miss an uncredited Charles Lane (Ball of Fire; I Wake Up Screaming, etc.) in the final scene! I admit it, I'm a sucker for a happy ending, especially a funny one!

As fond as I am of the 1939 version of The Cat & The Canary, the words of that great philosopher Daffy Duck leap to mind: “If they like that mess, they’re starvin’ for some real hoofin’!” Well, if Paramount’s 1940 tweaking of The Ghost Breakers (TGB) isn’t the real hoofin’, I don’t know what is! It’s a premium blend of snappy comedy, playful romance, and genuine spooky suspense. Producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. (Witness for the Prosecution; The Asphalt Jungle; Oklahoma!) reunites The Cat & The Canary co-starsBob Hope and Paulette Goddard, as well as director George Marshall (The Gazebo; It Started with a Kiss). Their funny, sparkling chemistry together is better than ever, blending warmth, romance, and comedy as deliciously as a daiquiri. Hope and Goddard are so darling together, I want to hug them and bring them home for the holidays! (But a DVD will do!) I like the cheeky references to Paulette Goddard’s Cecil B. DeMille movies, too (Unconquered; Reap the Wild Wind, etc.).

Be very, very quiet; we're hunting ghosts!

Based on the work of Walter DeLeon and based on the play by John Willard and Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard (any relation to co-star Paulette Goddard?), the film gets off to an exciting start in New York City during a violent thunderstorm that’s almost worthy of Hurricane Sandy. “Nice night for a murder,” says our heroine Mary Carter (Goddard) as she packs for her voyage to pre-Castro Cuba. She only thinks she’s kidding, with all the mystery and intrigue afoot! You see, Mary’s off to Cuba to claim her family inheritance, Castillo Maldito, or “Black Island.” Sounds cozy already, huh? Mary’s mom had told her about Black Island and its sinister legends, but Mary’s a good-natured yet skeptical New Yorker who doesn’t scare easily: “(My mother) also told me about Santa Claus, Snow White, and the Seven Dwarves.” Of course, her Cuban advisor, Senor Havez (Pedro de Cordoba of Anthony Adverse;The Corsican Brothers; Hitchcock’s Saboteur) gives Mary a last friendly warning: “We must admit there is a dividing line somewhere between superstition and the supernatural. All I know is that during the last twenty years, no human being who has tried to spend the night in Castillo Maldito ever lived to see a sunrise.” You never know; I can imagine the eager developers eventually showing up waving contracts for chain restaurants and hotels anytime now! But Mary gets an urgent phone call from Ramon Medeiros (Anthony Quinn of Road to Singapore and Road to Morocco, aswell as winningBest Supporting Actor Oscars for Lust for Life and Viva Zapata!) about her upcoming trip.Alas, whatever it was he wanted to say gets lost in a hail of gunfire, and poor Medeiros is no more. What was Medeiros trying to tell Mary before everyone got trigger-happy?

"Johnny Ola told me about her! They call her 'Superman'!"

Meanwhile, meet our hero, radio star Larry Lawrence (Hope) and his valet Alex (Willie Best of High Sierra; Cabin in the Sky; and Hope and Goddard’s third film together, Nothing But the Truth). Larry’s full name is in fact Lawrence Lawrence Lawrence, a name so nice they named him thrice! “My parents had no imagination,” Larry explains. He and Alex are packing for a fishing trip, but will they end up sleeping with the fishes instead? You see, as if the storm and the hotel’s resulting blackout weren’t already agita-inducing, Larry’s radio show focuses on dishing the dirt on notorious criminal underworld types. Wouldn’t you know Larry has run afoul of gangster Frenchy Duvall (Paul Fix of After the Thin Man;Dr. Cyclops; and ironically, TV’s The Rifleman, as Marshal Micah Torrence!)? Now Duvall is out for blood. Sheesh, underworld types can be so sensitive! As more gunplay ensues, Larry fears he’s the one who accidentally killed Medeiros, and he and Alex end up unwittingly joining Mary on a slow boat to Cuba!

Young Richard Carlson as The Man in the White Suit!

Romance blooms for Mary and Larry, though that doesn’t stop others from trying to keep our heroes from reaching Black Island, including Dr. Parada (Paul Lukas of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; Watch on the Rhine, the film that won Lukas his Best Actor Oscar), Anthony Quinn again, this time as Ramon Medeiros’ brother Francisco. Look sharp during the scene at the Las Palmas nightclub with Lloyd Corrigan (Whistling in the Dark; The Big Clock;The Manchurian Candidate; the Boston Blackie movies) for a brief appearance by lovely Dolores Moran (To Have and Have Not; The Horn Blows at Midnight; Old Acquaintance) and a dapper young Richard Carlson (The Little Foxes; The Creature from the Black Lagoon; It Came from Outer Space; and the fact-based 1953 to 1956 TV series I Led Three Lives) as Mary’s old friend Geoff Montgomery. Carlson is in one of my favorite scenes:

Geoff: “A zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring.”

Larry: “You mean like Democrats?”


They won't hear nothin' more from The Mighty Quinn....

TGB’s comedy and horror elements blend superbly, with character actor Noble Johnson (King Kong; Jungle Book; The Most Dangerous Game) playing a truly haunting, memorable zombie. John M. Miller from the TCM Web site notes that TGB pre-dates Val Lewton’s I Walked With A Zombie by three years. For better or worse, like any actors who were even remotely swarthy, both Anthony Quinn and Noble Johnson were frequently cast in supporting roles at Universal Studios and RKO as Native Americans, Latinos, Arabs, and other so-called “exotic” types.

...Or will they? He resurrects real good!

TGB’s production values are top notch, from Edith Head’s gorgeous wardrobe for Paulette Goddard, to Hans Dreier and Robert Usher’s Art Direction, to the cinematography of Charles Lang (Charade;Some Like It Hot; How to Steal a Million). Farciot Edouart’s special effects photography with the ghosts emerging is eerily captivating.

Willie Best was highly praised by none other than his co-star Bob Hope, who said Best was one of the best actors he ever knew—and yet so many people have criticized him, or more specifically, the African-American stereotypes he was called upon to portray. I say you can’t fault a performer (or anyone else) for NOT being ahead of his time! My dear friend and fellow blogger Becky Barnes of ClassicBecky’s Brain Food renown agrees: “Willie Best was one of the best comedians of the era. It's such a shame things were the way they were then. I think he just about carried The Ghost Breakers, and he deserves acclaim for his work.” Amen to that, sister!

Bob Hope and Willie Best agree: no comedy-thriller holds a candle to The Ghost Breakers!

Just as zombies never die, neither do remakes: The Ghost Breakers was successfully remade in 1953 for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as Scared Stiff, with Lizabeth Scott as the heiress-in-distress, including voiceover cameos by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby!

I think Mary would prefer a free drink or a mint on her pillow!


Ooh, The Zombies! I loved that band!

Laura, er, Mary is the face in the misty light....

Aha, we've solved the mystery! Mary's ancestor was Dr. Phibes!

Don't you just love a happy ending on the high seas?

Wonder Man: Potato Salad Days!

Across the Pacific: Pan-ama-demonium!

Dangerously They Live - Garfield and Fiends

The Mary Astor Blogathon is Coming in May!

NIGHTMARE ALLEY: You've Got the Power!

Team Bartilucci Double-Feature: The Power and the Formicidae

Mary Astor Blogathon - The Palm Beach Story: The Subject Was “Snoodles”

To Have and Have Not: When Bogie Met Baby

Actual dialogue from the film:
“He couldn’t write any faster than he could duck.
Another minute and his chequewould have been good.”

To Have and Have Not: When Bogie Met Baby

Flash Fiction Challenge: "Life's A Beach," by Team Bartilucci (Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci & Vincent Bartilucci)

Dark Passage: The Softer Side of Bogart and Bacall

It’s an Asphalt Jungle Out There!

William Castle in Duo-Vision! The Spirit is Willing and ZOTZ!

How Christina and Nicole Spent their Weekend Vacation

Happy Second Anniversary to TALES OF THE EASILY DISTRACTED!

Gene Kelly Unplugged: Half-Singing, Half-Dancing, All Acting Team Bartilucci Double-Feature!

The Mad Miss Manton: Swing Out, Sisters!

What A Character! Frank McHugh, Annabelle’s Husband, & So Much More

The Cat and The Canary (1939) - Cat Ballyhoo!

THE GHOST BREAKERS: Havana Frightful Good Time!

Actual dialogue from the film: “He couldn’t write any faster than he could duck. Another minute and his chequewould have been good.”

Actual dialogue from the film:
“He couldn’t write any faster than he could duck.
Another minute and his chequewould have been good.”