Tales of the Easily Distracted

"In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain,by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels...but pirates seized the galley carrying this token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day...."

Open your Golden Gate,and get me Rice-A-Roni!

The classic 1941 version of John Huston’s The Maltese Falconwas hisfirst film as a writer and director, as well as being the third big-screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s seminal detective novel about cynical San Francisco private detective Sam Spade, and how he gets embroiled in the quest for the Maltese Falcon, a black statuette that might be worth a fortune—or get the adventurers killed—or maybe both! The cast is a perfect quartet of crime—and the best, as many film fans agree! Check out this great Rogue’s Gallery:

*Humphrey Bogartas Sam Spade. Kids sure grow up fast! Who’d have thought Maud Humphrey’s darling baby boy, born on Christmas Day to a patrician New York City family, would become a Best Actor Oscar-winner particularly known for his roles as tough, complicated men, as well as eventually having a happy marriage with his co-star Lauren Bacall until Bogart’s death from cancer in 1957.

*Mary Astor(one of Team Bartilucci’s favorites) as the alluring but treacherous Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Fun Fact: Take a good look at the scene where Joel Cairo is leaving the theater; the movie marquee is for The Great Lie, for which Mary won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar! More about Mary shortly…

*Jerome Cowanas Miles Archer,Sam Spade’s ill-fated partner. The busy Cowan was also the District Attorney in Miracle on 34^th Street, as well as Torrid Zone; Mr. Skeffinington; There’s Always a Woman; and many TV appearances.

*Sydney Greenstreet as Kaspar Gutman, a.k.a.“The Fat Man,” whose benevolent chuckles thinly disguise his ruthlessness. Ironically, despite his great performances with the famous husband and-wife team of Lunt & Fontanne, Greenstreet was a nervous wreck when it was time for his very first scene in the film, despite his many years as a renowned stage actor! On the Maltese Falcon set, Greenstreet begged his co-star: "Mary, dear, hold my hand. Tell me I won't make an ass of meself!" Huston was holding his breath, too! Luckily, Greenstreet performed his first scene flawlessly, and the renowned stage actor became an in-demand character actor and film star! Greenstreet was always a trouper despite his chronic illness, the kidney disorder Bright’s Disease, bless him. (I’m reminded of a gag by another of my favorites, the humorist and screenwriter S.J. Perelman: “I have Bright’s Disease, and he has mine!” But I digress….)

*Peter Lorre as the exotic and wily Joel Cairo, he of the gardenia scent, among other things. Lorre became a star in Fritz Lang’s searing drama M, andAlfred Hitchcock’s original 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. As an in-demand character actor, Lorre’s many roles ranged from dramas to comedies, including Crime & Punishment;All Through the Night;My Favorite Brunette; Casablanca; several pairings with Greenstreet and Lorre, including The Mask of Dimitrios;and The Verdict. Lorre was also the first James Bond villain, playing the evil Le Chiffe in a 1954 TV version of Casino Royale in the series Climax! (The decidedly un-British Barry Nelson played “Jimmy Bond”!)

Elisha Cook Jr. as Wilmer Cook, Kaspar Gutman’s weaselly henchman and gunsel (a word of many meanings). Whether the 5-foot-five Cook was comical, sinister, or poignant, he was always memorable and often a scene-stealer in such films as The Big Sleep;I Wake Up Screaming; The Killing; Electra Glide in Blue; and so much more! Fun Fact: Lee Patrick and Elisha Cook Jr. were the only cast members to reprise their original roles in the 1975 comedy spoof/sequel, The Black Bird, which Vinnie will be discussing!

Lee Patrick as Effie Perine, Sam’s trusty secretary and kind yet firm voice of reason. She too was a multifaceted actress, shining in such hits as Auntie Mameplaying bigoted boob Mrs. Upson; The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao; Dangerously They Live;Caged; Mildred Pierce; and Vertigo.

Gladys Georgeas Iva Archer, Miles Archer's hot but clingy widow, who's hoping to become Mrs. Spade, even though Sam's just not that into her! Ms. George earned an Oscar nomination for Valiant Is the Word for Carrie. She was also in Flamingo Road and The Best Years of our Lives.

Meet Miss Wonderly...Or is it LeBlanc?
O’Shaughnessy?! Heck we'd retain her anytime!

The 1941 version of The Maltese Falcon proves the old adage: “The third time’s the charm!” No wonder John Huston’s taut, wryly cynical take on Hammett’s tale put Huston on the map as a writer/director. His version has the best of everything in one terrific package: the best private eye thriller; the best Dashiell Hammett movie adaptation; the best remake; and the best nest-of-vipers cast, includingthe signature Humphrey Bogart role/performance!

Sure, I’ve been a completest when it comes to watching all three versions of The Maltese Falcon for the past few weeks, and it’s been interesting and fun to watchall three versions to compare each of them, but let’s face it, the 1941 version is the best; accept no substitutes! Once I settled in to watch the DVD (because I never get tired of that, either), I said out loud, “Now this is more like it!” Even the opening credits are better, with the fabulous Maltese Falcon statue glaring in shadowy profile as Adolph Deutsch’s brassy main title music blares. Musical director Leo F. Forbstein really nailed it this time, blending suspense, foreboding, and wry wit. The fateful falcon’s background story scrolls up, lending “The Black Bird” a mythical aspect that the previous movie adaptations lacked. It’s no wonder John Huston’s take on Hammett’s tale put him on the map as a writer/director. For my money, the 1941 version has the best of everything in one package: the best private eye thriller; the best remake; the best Dashiell Hammett novel-to-movie adaptation; and the best nest-of-vipers cast, including the signature Humphrey Bogart role/performance!

Cairo tries to eliminate the middleman, the fool!

Granted, I’m biased, but to me, Huston’s powerhouse 1941 cast makes the previous casts look like rejects from high school class productions of the film, and not good ones, either! That said, don’t confuse those with writer/director Rian Johnson’s fascinating Hammett-influenced high school noir 2005 Brick—but that’s a blog post for another time! Huston’s actors were born to play these characters. The cast is perfection; even the great Walter Huston shows up, doing a memorable cameo for his son John as the ill-fated Captain Jacobi! Huston’s lean, mean pacing and striking visuals come broodingly alive, thanks to Director of Photography Arthur Edeson and his expressionistic images. Thomas Richards’ editing is right on the mark. I love the way the overall faithfulness to the novel makes me feel like Huston & Company opened the book and shook it until the characters fell out and started filming! In the One Magnificent Bird documentary, it’s claimed that Huston and/or his secretary typed the exact dialogue straight from the book into script form. I can believe it!

Ah, shadows, a classic element of film noir!

As I said earlier, Humphrey Bogart may not look like Hammett’s “blond satan,” but he’s got Sam Spade’s attitude down perfectly. Besides, he’s Bogart, with all the toughness, charisma, and wry humor that implies. What’s not to love? Indeed, The Maltese Falcon was the film that truly made Bogart a full-tilt star at last. Even if I’d read Hammett’s novel before I saw the 1941 film back in my high school days at dear old St. Catharine Academy in the Bronx, Bogart’s star-making performance would still be engraved on my brain. Bogart deftly balances toughness, trickiness, and tenderness, but he never lets his tender side make a sap out of him, unlike Ricardo Cortez’s Sam Spade or Warren William’s Ted Shane, both of whom apparently live to chase skirts, and seem to be trying just a little too hard in my opinion. Then again, some people might say, “Hey, nice work if you can get it!” But as far as I’m concerned, Bogart’s performance as Sam shows him to be as sexy as he is tough and wily, with just enough tenderness to show he’s not made of stone. Women are drawn to Sam out of his sheer charisma and strength of character, not just throwing themselves at them willy-nilly. Somehow, he doesn’t seem to need to work at it. Now isn’t that more fascinating and appealing than a guy who aggressively pitches woo at dames until they give in out of sheer exhaustion?

Sardonic Sam tells Miles Archer, "You've got brains. Yes you have."
But not enough for Miles to dodge a bullet! R.I.P!

In an early scene with Brigid, Sam has a line about how all he has to do is stand still and the cops will be swarming all over him. Substitute “women” for “cops” and the line would still be accurate! But Mary Astor's career was nearly scuttled twice during her long career, due to public scandal in the mid-1930s. First of all, Mary, who was still quite young at the time, was sued for support by her greedy parents. Later, she was unfairly branded an adulterous wife by her vindictive ex-husband during a custody fight over Mary’s daughter—what nerve! Luckily, Mary was able to turn her lemons into lemonade when her performance in The Maltese Falcon brought her well-deserved accolades! As the quicksilver Brigid, Mary’s watchful eyes, elegance, and that beseeching throb in (her) voice as she enlists Sam’s aid makes her utterly fascinating. She's totally believable as an avaricious adventuress with a prim, sweet façade—a woman who would kill a guy as soon as kiss him, and keep him guessing about her intentions until the bitter end! That’s what made Astor and Bogart such a great team in both The Maltese Falcon and Across The Pacificthat year. In Bogart and Astor’s capable hands, Brigid and Sam are two wily, street-smart people who are onto each other, yet also into each other! (As I’ve mentioned elsewhere at TotED, Mary Astor looked and sounded remarkably like my late Auntie Joy back in her youth—and if you knew what a stylish, rambunctious pair my late mom and Auntie Joy were, you’d know that’s a big compliment!) Let’s face it, The Maltese Falcon is another one of those superbly-cast films that doesn’t have a bum performance in the bunch. By the way, not to sound like a prude, but after the way women fawned over our hero in the first two films, it was refreshing to see Effie being both friendly and professional with Sam. Sure, there’s warmth between Effie and Sam, but it stops well short of neck-nuzzling and lap-sitting!

The Hat Squad arrives! Lt. Dundy and Detective Tom Polhaus
visit Sam after Miles' murder, cracking foxy and such!

Even Elisha Cook Jr. shines in his supporting role as Wilmer. One of my favorites among his scenes is that brilliant scene where Wilmer is on the verge of shooting the cool, calm Sam while Wilmer’s eyes fill with tears of rage as he whispers, “Get on your feet. I’ve taken all the riding from you I’m gonna take.” Vinnie and I also love the scene where Wilmer comes to after Sam has punched him out, dread and horror spreading over his face as each of the conspirators stare at him coldly, in another triumph of skillful editing and Edeson’s photography. When Wilmer comes to, he knows he’s in big trouble without anyone saying a word!

Huston’s powerhouse cast was born to play these characters. Between the perfect performances (even the great Walter Huston is memorable in his brief cameo as the dying Captain Jacobi), Huston’s lean, mean pacing and striking visuals (Arthur Edeson’s expressionistic photography and Thomas Richards’ editing work beautifully), and the overall faithfulness to the novel, it’s as if Huston & Company just opened the book and shook it until the characters fell out, then started filming.

Humphrey Bogart doesn’t match Hammett’s description of Sam Spade as a “blond Satan,” but he’s got Spade’s attitude down perfectly, and besides, he’s Bogart! What’s not to like? Bogie deftly balances toughness, trickiness, and tenderness, but he never lets his tender side make a sap out of him. I find Bogart’s Spade sexier than skirt-chasing Ricardo Cortez or Warren William in the previous films because the dames are drawn to Bogie because of his sheer charisma and strength of character, as opposed to him aggressively pitching woo at them until they give in from sheer exhaustion. In an early scene with Brigid, Spade has a line about how all he has to do is stand still and the cops will be swarming all over him; substitute “women” for “cops” and the line would still be accurate!

"Sam, are you sure we can trust Miss O’Shaughnessy?
She keeps asking for Prince Albert in the can!"

Mary Astor’s supposed so-called "shady-lady" past informs her spot-on performance as quicksilver Brigid O’Shaughnessy, but it’s her watchful eyes, elegance, and that beseeching “throb in (her) voice” as she enlists Spade’s aid, making her so fascinating and believable as an avaricious adventuress with a prim, sweet façade—a woman who’d kill a guy as soon as kiss him, and keep him guessing about her intentions until the bitter end. That’s what made Astor and Bogart such a great team; in their capable hands, Brigid and Spade are two wily, street-smart people who are onto each other as well as into each other.

Every actor in The Maltese Falcon shines, from Bogart and Astor toWard Bondand Barton MacLane(also Team Bartilucci faves)as Sgt. Polhaus and Lt. Dundy, to to Gladys George as the clingy, vindictive Iva Archer, to the only cast members who reprised their roles in the otherwise so-so 1975 sequel/spoof The Black Bird. Elisha Cook Jr. as gunsel Wilmer Cook and Lee Patrick as Spade’s trusty secretary Effie Perine. After Spade’s tomcatting with Effie and other babes in the early films, it's kind of refreshing that Effie’s interest in Spade here is a bit more professional than personal. Sure, there’s warmth between them, but it stops well short of neck-nuzzling and lap-sitting.

"Hey, Brigid, what do you want to do tonight?"
"I don't know, Sam, what do you want to do tonight?

Still, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre come closest to stealing the show. As Kasper Gutman, Greenstreet blends menace with avuncularity, his voice a cultured growl. Greenstreet’s performance is so assured, it’s hard to believe The Maltese Falcon was this veteran stage actor’s first movie job, but it’s easy to see why he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Huston also earned a Best Screenplay Oscar, though Mary Astor wasn't nominated. Happily, she soon had her own Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Great Lie! The Maltese Falcon also made Greenstreet an in-demand character actor and one of cinema’s most memorable villains, especially in his team-ups with Peter Lorre. Lorre’s witty, sly performance as the smoothly effeminate yet ruthless weasel Joel Cairo is a marvelous addition to the rogues’ gallery of lowlifes Lorre played over the course of his long career. After The Maltese Falcon's success, the great cast worked together in various combinations in many movies, including Casablanca.
Brigid:"What else can I buy you with?" SOLD!
I’ve always wondered what a Maltese Falcon sequel would be like. Can you imagine a caper film sequel following Gutman and Cairo to Istanbul, with Sam on a case and wily Brigid somehow getting the gang back together for one last caper?

Meet Kaspar Gutman, a man who likes talking with men
who like to talk. But is his talk cheap?

Poor Captain Jacobi! But at least it gave Walter Huston a swell cameo!

Wilmer has a rude awakening as the rest of the gang gives him the Hairy Eyeball!

Sam:"The stuff dreams are made of." Tom: "Huh?"
(I love that Tom gets the last word, and unwittingly at that!)

The Maltese Falcon has so much memorable dialogue, often laced with sardonic humor, that I’d be virtually transcribing the whole script if I quoted all my fave lines. Here at Team Bartilucci HQ, we often quote such ...Falcon lines as “The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter;” “When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!” (not that we've ever done so, being gentle folk despite our goofiness) have often been jokingly quoted. Then there’s Gutman’s deliciously ironic toast with Spade: “Here’s to plain speaking and clear understanding.” Plain speaking and clear understanding with this band of greedy, duplicitous cutthroats?! Good luck! But it’s fine with us, because the talk’s a joy to listen to; as Gutman continues: “I distrust a closed-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says all the wrong things. Talking is something you can’t do judiciously unless you keep in practice.” The Maltese Falcon has one of cinema’s greatest last lines, Spade’s answer when Polhaus asks what the statue is: “The stuff that dreams are made of.” (To which Polhaus replies, “Huh?” Good old Ward Bond, getting the last word!) I also love the climactic scene with all the principal players, especially the dialogue between Spade and Gutman about how to go about getting what they want: “If you kill me, how are you gonna get the bird? And if I know you can't afford to kill me, how are you gonna scare me into giving it to you?” By the way, Perry Mason fans should keep an eye out for TV’s Perry Mason co-star William Hopper in a brief early role as a reporter!

The bottom line: The Maltese Falcon is truly “The stuff that dreams are made of”!

(Comments also from TCM’s Scott McGee & Sarah Heiman)

Believe it or not, my first experience with Notoriouswas when I saw, not Sir Alfred Hitchcock’sintense 1946 romantic thriller, but rather a 1992 made-for-TV retread starring John Shea (Missing) and Jenny Robertson (Bull Durham), because the video rental folks didn’t have the original version at the time! Really? Really?! Please! I remember my dear late mom and me having a better time fun poking fun at the dull, witless script! What were they thinking with their silly attempts to “improve” upon it? It’s like those wackos in H.P. Lovecraft’s supernatural stories about the evil monster Cthulu, whose followers always think the beast will be their best buddy after they summon it, only to be stunned when the monster lays waste to the villains. It just goes to show that when it comes to classic movies, film fans must accept no substitutes!

Screenwriter Ben Hecht (Spellbound; His Girl Friday) introduces us viewers to the beautiful but troubled Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman from Casablanca; herOscar-winners Gaslight and Murder on the Orient Express) has been a party girl and a heavy drinker for some time. In fact, she’s only been along for the ride in life ever since her father was convicted of treason and collaborating with the enemy. Since then, Alicia broke family ties with her disgraced father, and made booze her constant companion, aside from partying. After another one of her parties, Alicia chats up a potential conquest, a handsome stranger. When Alicia speeds way past the speed limit without the cop him giving him a summons, she realizes the handsome stranger is a Fed, one T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant, who also worked with Hitchcock on Suspicion and North by Northwest), and boy, is she furious when she discovers he’s a Fed! Dev doesn’t let Alicia’s wildcat antics bother him—it’s just lights out for Alicia! The next morning, she wakes up at Dev’s place with a splitting headache, a glass of milk (always popular in Hitchcock movies), and bittersweet news: Alicia’s father has died by his own hand. Even Alicia herself is surprised at her own unexpected sorrow for her late father: “I don’t know why I should feel so bad. When he told me a few years ago what he was, everything went to pot. I didn’t care what happened to me. But now I remember how nice he was he once was, how nice we both were, very nice. It’s a very curious feeling, as if something had happened to me and not to him. You see, I don’t have to hate him anymore, or myself.”

Make a note of that, Crime-stoppers!

From there, Alicia and Dev work with spymaster Paul Prescott (Louis Calhern of Duck Soup;The Asphalt Jungle)and his Washington colleagues, who send her and Dev to infiltrate the Nazi scum in Rio (by the sea-o)! Don’t let their suave clothes and good manners fool you—they’re no-goodniks, no matter how sensitive and dashing they look underneath it all! With Alicia sobering up, both she and Dev succumb to each other’s magnetism and they can’t help falling in love with each other, in spite of the fact that they both have more issues than a Hudson’s News stand! Dev can be a prickly pear in any case, considering his serious trust issues where women are concerned. In fact, sometimes Notorious feels like a version of The Lost Weekend with sexier stars! But when Alicia and Dev do let their hair down, those scenes are among the hottest, most romantic scenes on film; I’m surprised the film stock didn’t simply burst into flames! Notice how cold Dev acts when Prescott mentions how their main target, Alexander Sebastian (Oscar nominee Claude Rains from The Invisible Man; Casablanca) acts toward Dev when Prescott mentions Alicia’s long-ago “hunger” for Alicia when he was in love with her. Tsk, tsk, Devlin sure isn’t being very business-like! What would James Bond say?

Emile freaks out when it seems he’s got the wrong
bottle of wine at dinner. Maybe he’d prefer a nice Ripple?
Or maybe cement shoes?

Alicia makes contact with Alex, thanks to the old runaway horse trick, and suave Alex and Alicia pick up where they left off, while Dev acts like a jealous lover instead of the cool spy-type guy he needs to be on this assignment. It’s amazing any work gets done at all with these two, especially when jealous Alex takes the next big step: marrying Alicia! Prescott thinks it’s a swell idea; now it’ll be even easier for the new Mrs. Sebastian to keep her eyes and ears on the Nazi scum, to Prescott’s delight and Devlin’s passive-aggressive frustration! Frankly, Devlin is especially in danger of shooting himself in the foot, perhaps literally! Someone needs to give those crazy kids a time out, or maybe just a smack in the head! No doubt it must annoy Dev no end that Alex is so suave and attentive to his lovely new wife. Too bad Alex is both a Nazi and an insecure older man trying to keep his new bride happy. Sheesh, where’s Ingrid Bergman in another romantic Hitchcock thriller when you need her: Dr. Constance Petersen from Spellbound!

A key moment in the film!

Instead of a honeymoon, our sexy spies throw a party to celebrate the newlyweds, with their old pal Dev keeping their eyes and ears open. They hit pay dirt when Dev accidentally knocks over a wine bottle that’s actually “vintage sand!” In fact, it's actually metal ore; that’s one way to perk up a honeymoon, as well as giving Dev and Alicia an opportunity for some romance, by George! But jealous Mama Sebastian (the regal, superb Leopoldine Konstantin) has Alicia’s number, and it’s gonna come up snake-eyes unless Dev stops acting like a jealous dolt and saves Alicia so that, as Grant said in North By Northwest:“You and I are going to do a lot of apologizing in private!”

Ingrid Bergman gives one of her very best performances as Alicia, juggling danger and romance in a relationship that’s complicated, to say the least! Dev can be glacial or sizzlingly romantic at the blink of an eye. The “Good Guys” essentially force Alicia to prostitute herself by marrying her off to suave Alex. The hell of it is that Alex, an old friend of her father’s, is far more loving and romantic than Dev, despite his insecurity about his beautiful young wife, especially with Alex’s Mother-in-Law From Hell. In any case, this sure tosses a monkey wrench into Alicia’s sizzling yet stormy romance with Dev! It’s one of the most adult movies Hitchcock ever made; despite Bergman and Rains seemingly sleeping in separate beds, this film was quite adult for its era. It’s not only a crackerjack espionage thriller, but also a moving, disturbing look into the dark recesses of the human heart.

For goodness sakes, hasn’t
Bing Crosby ‘s horse come in yet?

In Robert A. Harris & Michael S. Lasky’s book The Films of Alfred Hitchcock (Citadel Press, 1976), Hitchcock realized he and co-author Ben Hecht (Spellbound; His Girl Friday), had turned out to be ahead of their time when they decided to make uranium metal ore Hitchcock’s MacGuffin, a.k.a the item that makes our heroes hot and bothered, suspense-wise! Indeed, Hitchcock used the uranium gambit even before it was used at Hiroshima! Nobody was supposed to know about its powers, or that it would be used in an atom bomb for the movie. In fact, producer David O. Selznick thought it was such a preposterous idea that instead of producing Notorious himself, Selznick sold the package to RKO (including Duel in the Sun). Apparently even having the term “uranium” in the script was scaring the producers! I was amazed by the visuals of Director of Photography Ted Tetzlaff (My Man Godfrey; The More the Merrier), especially that long shot at the party that ends on the key in Alicia’s hand—wow!

Can't you fix it for me? For old times' sake?

Hitchcock’s talented daughter Patricia Hitchcock O’Connell was a triple threat herself, having co-starred in her father’s films; Stage Frightwas her debut); then Strangers on a Train;(for which she deserved an Oscar nomination, if you ask me); Psycho; and many appearances on TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents as she eventually became a producer. I was lucky enough to interview Pat (if I may be so bold) in 1990 for Video Review, and she explained: “My father was really able to do all the things he enjoyed doing artistically and technically. He also used brilliant actors down to the smallest parts, like the Germans—especially Leopoldine Konstantin as Alex Sebastion’s mother…The only problem was that because of the politically sensitive plot about making a bomb out of uranium, my family was followed by the FBI for months.” How’s that for cinematic realism?

The whole cast is absolutely stellar, including the always-suave Rains, terrific in a complex role that requires him to be believable not only as a suave lover and villain, but also a doting yet jealous and insecure husband of a lovely young wife, as well as being a villain, and having to put up with a domineering mother to boot; to quote North by Northwest, I'm beginning to think Rains was underpaid! I think his Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination was richly deserved. (I understand Rains was quite the romantic lover in real life!) At times, I almost felt sorry for Alex, knowing Alicia was just stringing him along and coping—and even worse, he has to put up with The Mother From Hell, too, always a staple in Hitchcock’s wicked little arsenal! With a forbidding matron of a mom like Mme. Leopoldine Konstantin as Alex’s mother, it’s no wonder Alex is still under Mama’s thumb despite his suave manners. I must admit that the first time I watched the climactic love/rescue scene with Alicia and Dev’s “pillow talk,” in which Dev rescues Alicia from an agonizing death from slow poison had seemed a little corny at first. But when I watched it again after all this time, now with a fresh outlook, I found it touching my heart! Roy Webb’s swoony score is excellent, yet sometimes I wish I could somehow build a time machine or Way-Back Machine or the like, so that Hitchcock could have met and worked with Bernard Herrmann earlier in his career!

Claude Rains was only 5' 6" tall, a good three inches shorter than Bergman. They were able to hide the difference when everyone was moving about, and in scenes where they stood next to each other, he just stood on a small platform. But when he was moving and Ingrid stood still, they had to rely on strategically-placed ramps he'd walk up as he approached. Watch how much taller he gets as he walks towards the camera here!

Steve Martin used footage from Notorious in his comedy Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Here's how two scenes from very different parts of the film were stitched into one very differently-toned one!

As seen in THE DARK PAGES!

“Impact, the force with which two lives come together. Sometimes for good, sometimes for evil.”

Brian Donlevy in a film noir? I’m there! Brian Donlevy in a film noir directed by Arthur Lubin, the gent who brought us the Francis the Talking Mule movies and TV’s Mr. Ed?! Um, oh my, look at the time, gotta go! Normally that would have been my reaction, but you see, I actually came across United Artists’ Impacton TCM early one Saturday morning, and I was hooked. I sincerely apologize for my skepticism, and I assure my fellow film noir/suspense film fans that you’ll be on the edge of your seat watching this twisty yet surprisingly poignant film noir.

I first saw Brian Donlevy’s movies when I was a kid, watching Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass science fiction thrillers with my older brother: The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass II: Enemy From Space, a.k.a The Creeping Unknown (1957). We of Team Bartilucci, especially my husband Vinnie, first got to know and love Donlevy in the movie versions of Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass science-fiction novels, directed in England by Val Guest. Admittedly, Donlevy’s portrayal of scholarly British scientist Dr. Bernard Quatermass goes through considerable changes, probably to attract us excitable Yanks. Vinnie gets a kick out of these particular flicks; he feels that half the fun of Donlevy’s portrayal is that viewers half-expect Quatermass to just punch the evil aliens’ lights out, saving the world in no time!

Impact's opening scene! All this, and proper spelling, too!

Over the course of Donlevy’s 46-year career, the two-fisted star’s 101 films and TV appearances included the 1942 version of The Glass Key; Preston Sturges’ The Great McGinty (1940); and Beau Geste (1939),for whichDonlevy earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor as sadistic Sergeant Markoff. Impact shows us a more vulnerable side of Donlevy, and I, for one, like it! His career and colorful life could fill a blog, a book, or even a movie of its own, including Donlevy’s war record and valor in battle (14-year-old Donlevy lied about his age to join the Army). He performed in stage plays, and then acted in both silent and sound films. His career continued to soar with such box-office hits as The Remarkable Andrew; In Old Chicago; Wake Island; I Wanted Wings; and Nightmare (which I’ve never seen, and want to. Paging TCM! The versatile Donlevy was even a model for illustrator J.C. Leyendecker!

You’ve heard of sister acts? Well, Impactwas a brother act! Meet the Popkin Brothers:

Leo C. Popkin (1914—2011)produced D.O.A. (1950); The Well (1951);And Then There Were None (1945).In fact, the Popkin brothers actually produced two movie versions of that beloved Agatha Christie thriller, first published in the UK in 1939 under the now-decidedly un-PC title Ten Little Niggers—swiftly retitled to And Then There Were None for the 1945 movie. It was also remade in 1965 as Ten Little Indians. Heck, we could write a whole article about both of those movies, but we’ll save that for some other time!
Harry M. Popkin (1906—1991) co-produced both D.O.A; The Second Woman (1950); and The Thief (1952),the latter being especially memorablebecause its stars, including Ray Milland and Rita Gam, never say a word throughout this entirethriller! But that, too, is an article for some another time!

Impact seems to be one of those movies people either love or hate — at least if you were New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther. Crowther often seemed to run hot and cold; either he loved a film with every fiber of his being, or utterly despised any film he deemed unworthy for one reason or another. Then again, some movies have a few flaws, yet they’re nevertheless riveting and entertaining because the story and its characters just find a good home in your gut and stay there. Well, that’s how it is with me and Impact!

Life is a circus at Walt and Irene Williams' home,
the way she puts Walt through hoops!

The Shadow knows— not! The tragicomedy of deadly errors begins with the unsuspecting Su Lin!

When we say Impact, we don’t mean aching molars! Screenwriters Dorothy Reid (a.k.a. Dorothy Davenport, from the renowned Davenport acting family) and Jay Dratler (Laura;The Dark Corner), working from Dratler’s original story, have crafted a twisty tale of illicit love, greed, duplicity, misunderstandings, and murder. Our hero, Walter Williams (Donlevy) is a San Francisco executive and self-made man. Walt sure seems to have it all: a big, thriving company, a gorgeous apartment with a posh sunken living room at the swanky Brocklebank Apartments (where Kim Novak’s Madeleine Elster lived in Vertigo) and a beautiful wife he adores, Irene (the multitalented Helen Walker from Nightmare Alley;Murder, He Says;The Big Combo; the 1945 version of Brewster’s Millions; Call Northside 777. She's had a dramatic life, too, but that's for another blog post). He dotes on Irene, who nicknames Walt “Softy.” Proud of his latest business coup, he describes it to Irene word for word from his recent business meeting, declaring, “Either I get what I want, or you get another boy!” Uh-oh! All aboard for a tragicomedy of grievous errors that plunge our man into peril, starting with theWilliams’ housekeeper, Su Lin Chung (the fabulous Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, from Shanghai Express; The Thief of Bagdad; Dangerous to Know). Poor Su Lin overheard Walt’s loud voice (this is Brian Donlevy, after all!), followed immediately by a large glass vase accidentally knocked over violently in the wrong place at the wrong time! How was Su Lin supposed to know that Walt was simply explaining his business triumph to Irene, having the bad luck to drop the vase and the tea service? If only they’d used paper or plastic cups!

The lovely Irene is suitable for framing—or
killing the unsuspecting Walt!

Clumsy and expensive accidents aside, Irene sure seems to have it made, with a rich, loving husband who spoils her rotten! Alas, “rotten” is the operative word: the ungrateful Irene has a sweetie on the sly, Jim Torrance (Tony Barrett from Born to Kill; the 1940s Dick Tracy movies; and many TV appearances, including Peter Gunn and 77 Sunset Strip). Irene and Jim have cooked up an evil plot in which Irene stays home with an alleged toothache while her “Cousin Jim” (kissing cousins indeed!) furtively slits the tires and takes over the driving to kill Walt in a car crash, leaving the wicked lovebirds living wealthily ever after. If you ask me, I’d say Irene’s got the nomination for Ingrate of the Year all sewn up!

Aimless chitchat about cousins from Irene’s side of the family gradually gets Walt’s Spidey-Sense tingling a bit, with Jim’s little white lies about being in Italy during the war, and family info that “Cousin Jim” should have known. Alas, Walt gets wise too late; as soon as they’re alone in the dark fixing that flat on that lonely highway cliff, “Cousin Jim” snaps, “This is from Irene and me, sucker!” He klongs Walt on the head and rolls our poor unconscious-and-assumed-dead hero down the steep incline. But oops! What’s the matter Jimbo, can’t find your keys after all that hard work? See, you should always make sure you have your keys on you before you flee a crime scene! Now Jim’s the “sucker”— a charbroiled sucker after he smashes into a huge high-octane gas truck! *Tsk* *tsk,* what amateurs! It galls me to say it, but where are Phyllis Dietrichson and Walter Neff from Double Indemnitywhen you need them?

"This is from Irene and me, sucker!"
(Actual dialogue from the film! Poor Walt!)

I sympathize with Walt for being shocked and heartbroken, after being set up and almost murdered, and yet it’s kind of refreshing to see Walt’s more vulnerable side. Poor Walt; it’s not often you see a strong man like Brian Donlevy cry! After the fatal-to-Jim truck accident, (good riddance, homicidal creep!), Walt can’t help but be shell-shocked and humiliated for a while, kinda like Dan McGinty in his hobo days. To borrow a line fromAlfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, it’s kind of painful for a man to discover he’s been a chump. Eventually, he finds himself in the town of Larkspur (it’s a real town in Idaho, filmed on location). There, Walt meets Marsha Peters (Ella Raines of Phantom Lady; Tall in the Saddle; Hail the Conquering Hero), a pretty young war widow with cat-like green eyes and a warm personality. Mars may not need women, but Marsha and the town of Larkspur sure need assistants for her garage in these post-war days! Walt introduces himself as Bill Walker, and shows Marsha he’s got the right stuff, car-wise. She hires him forthwith, and soon they're playfully calling each other “Boss.” Over time, the chip on Walt's shoulder erodes, and he and Marsha grow close, albeit in a chaste, wholesome way (hey, our Marsha’s a nice gal, not an evil lying femme fatale like Irene!). Even Marsha’s mom (veteran actress May Marsh from Three Godfathers; Birth of a Nation; the Michael Shayne mystery Blue, White, and Perfect) accepts Walt like one of the family. Walt still keeps newspaper clippings of his near-fatal accident and further news on the case (announced on the radio by columnist Sheilah Graham, no less!). Can Walt be big enough to work past the agony Irene has put him through? I’m a gentle soul, but if I were Walt, I’d sure be itching to punch Irene’s lights out! Where’s Donlevy’s two-fisted Professor Quatermass when you need him?

Jim Torrance has monogrammed cuffs, thanks to Irene.
Guess he’s too chicken to get tattoos!

As time passes and Walt gradually feels more like his can-do self (though I bet Walt will never use “Softy” as a pet name again, not even to a puppy!), the tables get turned on Irene. The car crash and Walt’s apparent death was front-page news, and Lt. Quincy (no, not Jack Klugman, but Charles Coburn of The More The Merrier;The Lady Eve;Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) takes charge of theinvestigation. Quincy’s sleuthing uncovers the fancy monogrammed handkerchiefs and cuffs Irene had made for Jim, as well as the moving van where the injured Walt hid with his briefcase.

Oh, how tables can turn! Three months have passed, and Irene is charged with conspiring to kill Walt, with Jim Torrence still missing! After all the agita Walt’s been through, he decides to simply let evil Irene take the rap; who’d blame him? Eye for an eye, and all that! Ah, but Walt’s conscience starts needling him, with some gentle help from Marsha. He fesses up to his past and is ready to leave in order to keep Marsha out of it. Instead, Marsha convinces Walt to return to San Francisco together to substantiate Walt’s account of murder and woe. Well, they say no good deed goes unpunished: the police confront Irene with Walt, and being a poor sport, Irene immediately accuses Walt of killing Jim, claiming that she and Walt had argued after he refused to give her a divorce, and Su Lin could back her up! Poor Marsha is devastated at this turn of events for the man she loves, but Walt assures her he’s gained so much from her, and he wants to believe in the same values Marsha does.

"What a nightmare! I dreamed Irene & her cuz
were gonna kill me! It's real?! Calgon, take me away!"

Luckily, in the great tradition of Phantom Lady, The Dark Corner, and other classic Women Who Save Their Man’s Bacon, Marsha and Lt. Quincy search for Su Lin on the streets of San Francisco (where are Karl Malden, Michael Douglas, and Quinn Martin when you need them?). Will Su Lin work up her courage and talk? Watch and enjoy this San Francisco treat for yourself!

*Snif* thanks for finding my monogrammed hanky, Lt. Quincy. These
hankies look ridiculous, but they're all I have to remember Walt by, along with a zillion bucks."

Adorable Marsha Peters can be our grease monkey anytime!

Walt comes to Larkspur, where
people have the guts to walk under ladders!

Even Larkspur's volunteer Fire Department makes Walt happy!

Marsha, Su Lin, and Lt. Quincy save the day for Walt!

But I can’t go to the slammer! They won’t let me have silk sheets!

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My name is Dorian Tenore-Bartilucci, and my movie blog is titled TALES OF THE EASILY DISTRACTED. It's been going strong for three years, and we hope there will be many more to come! Thanks!

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TALES OF THE EASILY DISTRACTED

This post is part of the Sleuthathon, hosted by Fritzi Kramer of Movies, Silently, from March 16th through March 17th, 2014. Don your deerstalkers and have a great time!

Ironically, this is NOT a scene from The Lost Weekend!

Paramount’s 1948 thriller The Big Clock (TBC), based on poet/novelist Kenneth Fearing’s 1946 suspense novel, is not only a riveting hunted-man story with a fresh twist, but also a cautionary tale about what can happen if you let your job dictate your life:

You’ll miss your own honeymoon, as well as every family vacation.
Your marriage will suffer as your loving, understanding wife and child start to lose faith in you, along with your endless excuses, as your family life erodes.
What am I saying? Family life? What family life? Kiss it goodbye!
Worst of all, when your obsessive, uber-controlling Boss From Hell kills someone in a fit of rage, you just might find yourself suspected of the crime!

Happily, in real life, TBC was a family affair, with director John Farrow (Five Came Back; His Kind of Woman) working with his real-life wife Maureen O’Sullivan (The Thin Man; Tarzan the Ape Man and its many sequels). Last but far from least, Farrow cast the real-life husband-and-wife team of Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, whoalso teamed up forWitness for the Prosecution, the latter earning Oscar nominations for both Charles and Elsa! It’s even a reunion of sorts for star Ray Milland and composer Victor Young, who brought us the 1944 chiller The Uninvited, also starring Milland; who could forget the beautiful“Stella by Starlight,” as wellas the delightful Road to Morocco?

Poor George! Maybe he can give his pursuers
the slip by pretending to be a light display!

Stop the presses!
Overworked George Stroud
tells boss where to get off: Wheeling, West Virginia!

Noel Neill of The Adventures of Superman wishes
she could fly up, up, and away from fresh elevator operators!

Janoth Publication's big clock: The Hands of Fate!


"Georgette, it's not what you think! We're singing along with Pauline to "Do-Re-Me!"

Set in NYC (in 1948,that was present-day), TBC introduces us to George Stroud (Milland), letting us in on our anxious hero’s innermost thoughts as he hides in the giant clock in the Janoth Publications lobby at night. George works for a huge Time-Warner/Henry Luce-style publishing company. Director of Photography John F.Seitz (Double Indemnity; The Lost Weekend)works superbly in the film’s “docu-noir” style, with Edith Head’s costume design always a pleasure to see. In flashbacks, we see that despite being married for seven years, George and his lovely and charming wife Georgette (O’Sullivan) have never had a honeymoon. We also learn that the head man at Janoth Publications, Earl Janoth (Laughton), hired George after he cracked a major murder case on his old newspaper in Wheeling, WV, and control-freak Janoth hasn’t given George a day off since, always snatching the Stroud family’s vacations from under them at the very last minute. Adorably enough, George and Georgette have a young son, George Jr. With the prestige and great salary Crimeways affords him, George has always been reluctant to say “No” to Janoth, especially since Janoth does NOT take “No!” for an answer. However, our hero is getting fed up, big-time! So is Georgette, who sadly notes, “Sometimes I think you married that magazine instead of me…Little George hardly knows you...We’re like two strangers sharing an apartment.” George and Georgette do their best to get as much family time as possible under the circumstances; perhaps that’s why the Stroud family’s names are all in various versions of the name “George”— papa George, mama Georgette, and son George Jr., sometimes even just calling each other “George” just for the heck of it. At least it helps the family to keep track of each other! You have to wonder how George and Georgette even got time to start a family!

Louise Paterson tries to get her painting back, only to find she's in a bidding war!

Meet Pauline York, Janoth's mistress, an aspiring singer.
Is she tired of singing for her supper, or does she have a veiled agenda?

Time really is money in Earl Janoth’s tight, suffocating world; for instance, this phone conversation between Janoth’s right-hand man Steve Hagen (George Macready from Gilda; Paths of Glory; My Name is Julia Ross): “On the fourth floor, in the broom closet, a bulb has been burning for several days. Find the man responsible, dock his pay.” I know we’re all trying to conserve energy (even back in the 1940s), but Janoth doesn’t have to be a tyrant about it! In this sharp, twisty manhunt thriller, the renowned mystery writer Jonathan Latimer (The Glass Key;They Won’t Believe Me; TV’s Perry Mason) had ably adapted Fearing’s novel for the silver screen, with its blend of suspense, urban cynicism, and smart, snappy dialogue virtually intact. I also find it intriguing that everything at Janoth Publications seems to be carved in stone, all cold and unyielding. George does make big money at Janoth Publications,and it’s always cool to work in the big city, but I’ve also known people like George, who have grueling hours and no time to themselves, to the detriment of their family lives, some even getting divorce from the pressure.

Check out the Crimeways Clue Chart! That'll fix those no-goodniks!

I happen to love both the novel and the Paramount movie version of The Big Clock. The book is more gritty and complex, but there’s also plenty of wry humor in it, too. For example, in Kenneth Fearing’s novel, the Strouds actually have a little daughter, Georgia. My husband Vinnie and I always get a kick out of the scenes with the Stroud family at breakfast; they always crack us up, because they remind us of our own goofy yet loving family life (not to put the whammy on it! We’re great believers in not taking our happiness for granted). For instance, here’s the Stroud family at breakfast in the novel, starting with papa George:

“Orange juice,” I said, drinking mine. “These oranges just told me they came from Florida.

My daughter gave me a glance of startled faith. “I didn’t hear anything,” she said.”

“You didn’t? One of them said they all came from a big ranch near Jacksonville….”

Here’s my own favorite Georgia Breakfast Bit Breakfast scene from the novel, where George regales us with The Adventures of Cynthia! She’s…

“…about five, I think. Or maybe it was seven… (she) also had a habit of kicking her feet against the table whenever she ate. Day after day, week in and week out, year after year, she kicked it and kicked it. Then one fine day the table said, ‘I’m getting pretty tired of this, and with that it pulled back its leg, and whango, it booted Cynthia clear out of the window. Was she surprised.”

This one was a complete success. Georgia’s feet pounded in double-time, and she upset what was left of her milk…”

Some of the film’s grittier elements were softened a bit in the 1948 film version, probably for the Breen Office’s sake. Janoth and Pauline’s fight in the film results from infidelity between Janoth and his mistress and possible aspiring blackmailer, Pauline York (played by radio actor-turned-film star Rita Johnson from Here Comes Mr. Jordan;Sleep, My Love; Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor. More about Ms. Johnson momentarily).

The film is as gripping as the book, sometimes more so. In Fearing’s novel, our hero George Stroud talks about the “big clock” which inevitably runs our lives no matter what:

“Sometimes the hands of the clock actually raced, and at other times they hardly moved at all. But that made no difference to the big clock…all other watches have to be set by the big one, which is even more powerful than the calendar, and to which one automatically adjusts his entire life…”

Keeping in mind that film is, of course, a visual medium, the “big clock” metaphor becomes a literal big clock — a huge clock/globe that can tell you the time anywhere in the world — and lots of little clocks sprinkled all over the headquarters of Janoth Publications, a Henry Luce/Time-Warner style magazine empire whose periodicals include ace editor George’s magazine Crimeways, as well as Airways;Newsways; Sportways;Styleways; etc.in the 1948 film version.

Some of the film’s grittier elements were softened a bit in the 1948 film version, probably for the Breen Office’s sake. Janoth and Pauline’s fight in the film results from infidelity. Earl Janoth and his mistress, Pauline York (played by radio actor-turned-film star Rita Johnson from Here Comes Mr. Jordan;Sleep, My Love; Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor. More about Ms. Johnson momentarily). But in the novel, their affair ends in murder when each accuses the other of being a closeted gay (keep in mind this was 1946).

"Georgette, darling, I was desolate! Thank goodness
this was the film version so I couldn't get into worse trouble!"

George and Georgette better enjoy his firing while they can,
before George has to clear himself, by George!


Henchman Bill doesn't talk much, but I bet he's thinking: "Life is too short to massage this jerk! I'm joining the Army"!

What's this? A sundial, used for a shady purpose!

It’s not all family fun and games when Earl Janoth’s mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson of The Major and the Minor; Sleep, My Love; Susan Slept Here) overhears George justifiably bellyaching to Janoth’s right hand man, Steve Hagen (George Macready from Gilda; Paths of Glory; My Name is Julia Ross) about his treatment at Janoth’s hands. At the Van Barth bar, Pauline tries to involve George in a blackmail scheme targeting Janoth, but George isn’t interested, though he does finally stand up to Janoth, getting himself fired and blackballed, and drowns his sorrows at the bar with Pauline, only to realize too late that he missed his train, with his disappointed family already heading to West Virginia without him. It’s The Lost Weekend time as the tipsy George and Pauline go on a bar crawl all over the East Side of Manhattan, hunting for green clocks to spite Janoth on behalf of a colleague who was fired for wanting to use red ink. Sheesh, Ray Milland’s characters really need to knock off the booze! Didn’t Ray Milland learn anything from The Lost Weekend? George and Pauline drop by Burt’s Place (Frank Orth from; Lady in the Lake; Wonder Man, and of course, The Lost Weekend), where you can find anything from a bubble to a sundial, in keeping with the time theme. The tipsy George and Pauline keep the sundial as a souvenir. George is also lucky enough to get a painting by George’s favorite artist, Louise Patterson (Lanchester) . Of course, she’d probably appreciate it more if George hadn’t taken it from her in an impromptu auction, as she huffs, “It’s a pity the wrong people have money!”

In Fearing’s novel, Janoth’s mistress is Pauline Delos. Janoth and Pauline have a far more heated quarrel in this version, starting with sex between George and Pauline, which they’d apparently been doing for some time! For people who are always swamped, they always seem to find time to be frisky! Anyway, one night, after a visit to Pauline’s pad, Janoth spots George in the shadows; fortunately, he couldn’t actually see George clearly. This time, Janoth and Pauline have a far more heated argument in the novel as they each draw first blood. Compare and contrast each version:

The Movie Version:
Janoth:“At least this time he wears a clean shirt.”

Pauline:“Are you bringing that up again? Throwing that cab driver in my face? You never forget him, do you?”
Janoth: “No. Do you?”
Pauline: “No, you cheap imitation Napolean!
Janoth: “And you don’t forget the bellboy or the lifeguard last summer, or the tout at Saratoga, and who knows how many others? You don’t forget any of them, including the one to come.”

George leads the Crimeways manhunt for "Jefferson Randolph," with ace investigator Bert Finch!
He saved us all from The Thing from Another World, for goodness' sake!

Pauline:“Do you think you could make any woman happy? Have you lived this long without knowing that everybody laughs at ya behind your back? You’d be You’d be pathetic if you weren’t so disgusting!” (Ouch!)

The Novel’s Version
(Prepare for swear words and adult situations!)

“At least this time, it’s a man.”

“Are you bringing that thing up again? Throwing Alice in my face?...You talk. You, of all people….What about you and Steve Hagen?...Do you think I’m blind? Did I ever see you two together when you weren’t camping?...As if you weren’t married to that guy, all your life…Go on, you son of a bitch, try to act surprised.”

Well, Pauline is surprised, all right—dead surprised when Janoth loses it, killing Pauline in a fit of rage! Whango—was Pauline ever surprised! Which just goes to show that booze, adultery, and vicious insults are no way to go through life, kids! In the film version, George and Pauline’s relationship in the film ends as fast as it starts, with him waking up fully-clothed on her couch after their pub crawl. Seeing Janoth’s car on the street, Pauline hustles the dazed George out the door. Alas, Janoth is outside waiting for his turn with the sly blonde. Though he doesn’t see George’s face as he slips out of sight, Janoth still suspects the worst. He lets Pauline have it, bludgeoning her with the heavy sundial, killing her instantly. The tight close-ups on the quarreling lovers’ angry faces, especially Janoth’s; nobody’s jowls quiver like Charles Laughton’s! In any case, these scene adds enough intensity to make up for the bowdlerized argument before the murder.

The desperate but wily Janoth gets a brainwave: he’ll have Steve rig the clues to misdirect suspicion, and he’ll recruit the crack staff of Crimeways to track down the culprit, catching a killer and boosting magazine sales at the same time—and who better to lead the manhunt than our own George Stroud! George can’t turn Janoth down this time; by leading the investigation, he can help to save himself do with some clever misdirection, buying time for our hero to find the real killer as the tension mounts ; George is actually doing double duty as both cat and mouse! If George doesn’t deserve a huge bonus if he escapes this nightmare, I don’t know who does! Fans of TV’s Harry Morgan of M*A*S*H fame will get a swell change of pace as a superbly sinister henchman!

On a bittersweet note, Rita Johnson didn’t quite live happily ever after. In a twist of fate, Rita was seriously injured at a beauty parlor when a 40-pound hood which apparently frequently fell to the floor frequently. Nowadays, she’d lawyer up and sue those dopes! There were also rumors that Rita’s then-beau, Broderick Crawford (who went on to win an Oscar for All The King’s Men) had roughed her up, but there was no proof. Rita managed to get supporting roles, but she was never really the same, and she died at the age of 52.To borrow a line from North by Northwest, it’s so horribly sad, how is it I feel like laughing?

https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/the-booby-trapped-life-of-rita-johnson

R.I.P. to Pauline York, would-be blackmailer. The cleaning lady isn't gonna like this!

Louise Patterson: "I think I've captured this mood rather successfully, don't you?
(Actual dialogue from the film as George is aided and abbetted by Louise!)

Check out The Los AngelesReview ofBooks for more on “The Booby-Trapped Life of Rita Johnson” by Matt Weinstock (August 13, 2013).”


Leave it to a radio actor to help George save his bacon! (Lloyd Corrigan is one of Team Bartilucci's favorite character actors!)

Baby, you're the greatest! Wheeling, West Virginia,
we're going home, for keeps!

Milland’s superb performance balances suavity, sympathy, and desperation. He and O’Sullivan ring true as a loving couple whose relationship is being sorely tested. Laughton is marvelously odious and sadistic with a pathetic undercurrent. Macready makes a stylishly devious right-hand man. The supporting cast includes a silent, sinister young Harry Morgan as a masseur-cum-henchman. I was delighted to see one of our favorite character actors, Douglas Spencer of Double Indemnity and The Thing from Another World as Crimeways reporter Bert Finch (not to be confused with Burt from Burt’s Place, played by Frank Orth); and the ever-jolly Lloyd Corrigan (the Boston Blackie films; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; The Manchurian Candidate) played Burt’s pal, a radio actor of a thousand guises, including the faux suspect known only as “Jefferson Randolph.” TBC has been reworked twice, as1987’s No Way Out and 2003’s Out of Time.They’re both fun movies, but TBC is still my favorite version of the story.

This post for Backlot’s Hitchcock Halloweencombines both new and previous material. Happy Halloween to Fearless Leader Lara & Bloggers!

*** Caution! You’re in The House Where Spoilers Dwell! ***

(No fooling — SPOILERS galore here!)

Face One:

For me, Vertigo keeps getting better over time! It’s hard to believe now, but when I was younger, I used to have a love/hate relationship with Alfred Hitchcock’s classic romantic psychological thriller Vertigo.I loved its suspense; its moving performances; the dreamlike quality of its haunting love story; and most of all, Bernard Herrmann’s score. So why did it take me years to embrace Vertigoas wholeheartedly as our beleaguered hero John “Scottie” Ferguson embraces his beloved Madeleine Elster? The ever-awesome James Stewart (from such classic Hitchcock thrillers as Rear Window; the 1956version of The Man Who Knew Too Much; Rope; and the not-Hitchcockian but nevertheless delightful Stewart’sOscar-winning performance in The Philadelphia Story (yes, sometimes even Team Bartilucci enjoys non-Hitchcock movies!).

Dames! They always put a guy in a spin!

Stewart plays John Ferguson, “Scottie” to friends (more about that shortly). Scottie is a former police detective who finds out the hard way that he has acrophobia (fear of heights, to us laypeople) when he can’t save a patrolman from falling to his death during a rooftop chase. Since Vertigo is a Hitchcock movie, what better place for our hero to live and wrestle with his phobia than San Francisco; oh, that Hitch, always adding a touch of sadism for his beleaguered protagonists to work through, that scamp!

Poor Scottie would rather be on The Spirit of St. Louis right now!

We meet Scottie as he’s visiting longtime friend Midge Wood, played by scene-stealer Barbara Bel Geddes from Panic in the Streets; I Remember Mama; TV’s Dallas as the beloved Miss Ellie. Fun Fact: Bel Geddes was also the daughter of Norman Bel Geddes, the renowned theatrical and industrial designer. But I digress! Scottie and Midge had been engaged “for three whole weeks” before they opted to be just friends instead, though it sure looks to me like it’s clear Midge would like more. Midge is working on a cantilever bra invented by an engineer; nice work if you can get it! Ever loyal, Midge tries to help Scottie overcome his fear of heights gradually with stepladders: “I look up, I look down...” And it was all going so well! Too bad the ladders happened to be next to Midge’s high-rise apartment window; poor guy, it's always something!

Madeleine Elster: It's magic...or maybe witchcraft...whatever it is,we're spellbound!

Scottie’s old college chum Gavin Elster (suave Tom Helmore from Designing Woman;Advise and Consent; and several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, of course)offers Scottie a private investigator job tailing his lovely but troubled young wife, Madeleine (Kim Novak in her finest, most challenging, and moving performance, even more so than The Man with the Golden Arm and the 1964 version of Of Human Bondage). It seems that Madeleine—one of the coolest and most elegant of the director’s legendary “Hitchcock Blondes"—thinks she’s possessed by the spirit of her late great-grandmother Carlotta Valdes, and is behaving accordingly. Scottie, ever the “hard-headed Scot,” is a tough sell at first:

Gavin Elster:“Scottie, do you believe that someone out of the past, someone dead, can enter and take possession of a living being?”

Scottie: “No.”

Gavin:“If I told you that I believe this has happened to my wife, what would you say?”

Scottie: “Well, I’d say take her to the nearest psychiatrist, or psychologist, or neurologist, or psycho—or maybe just the plain family doctor. I’d have him check on you, too.”

But it soon becomes clear Gavin is serious about his troubled wife, so for old times’ sake, Scottie takes the job and discreetly tails Madeleine all over San Francisco to the places where the tragic Carlotta lived, loved, and went mad after her sugar daddy “threw her away” and kept their love child. Midge has plenty of knowledge about the old days of San Francisco, like “…who shot who in the Embarcadero in August 1879.” Midge and Scottie go to The Argosy Book Shop, where all the great San Francisco sleuths like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Phillip Marlowe inThe Big Sleepand Murder, My Sweettake care of no-goodniks, with the help of book seller/historian “Pop” Liebel (Konstantin Shayne from The Secret Life of Walter MittyThe Stranger; The Seventh Cross).It’s like the most elegant, discreet shadowing ever — that’s what I call class!

Madeleine and Scottie: so close and yet so far!

Our determined hawkshaw finally comes face to face with his quarry after saving her when she jumps into the bay in one of her fugue states. That’s “meeting cute” on a whole other level! Interestingly, Scottie introduces himself by his Christian name, John, and Madeleine says she likes that strong name — and yet they both end up calling him “Scottie,” a more playful, almost childlike name. Perhaps it’s because the two of them aren’t truly comfortable because Madeleine just might be hiding secrets from him? To quote The Marvelettes, the hunter is captured by the game. Soon Scottie and Madeleine are mad for each other— but it seems poor troubled Madeleine is also mad in a less romantic way. When she confides in Scottie about her recurring morbid dreams about the Mission at San Juan Bautista, Scottie brings her there in hopes of curing her obsession. Bad move, Scottie — Madeleine bolts to the bell tower! Scottie gives chase, but his vertigo paralyzes him halfway up the stairs (great spatial F/X here). Poor Madeleine! Where’s Dr. Constance Petersen from Spellboundwhen you need her? And poor Scottie! He hears a woman screaming, sees a body fall past the window...and his beloved Madeleine is no more.

Carlotta Valdes' final resting place...unless she's subletting with Madeleine's soul!

Or is she? After he recovers from a grief-induced nervous breakdown, Scottie spies shopgirl Judy Barton (the versatile Novak again). Except for her red hair and somewhat tacky fashion sense, Judy’s a dead ringer for Madeleine! As their relationship grows, so does audience apprehension as Scottie obsessively tries to give Judy the ultimate makeover, recreating his lost love. Granted, the hosts of What Not to Wear have lately gone their separate ways while still being pals, but still: where are Stacy and Clinton when you need them?!

Yikes! Not a lifeguard in sight! Thank goodness for Scottie's
quick thinking and Madeleine's natural buoyancy!

Judy actually turns out to be a quick study — because she’s really Madeleine! You see, Judy was Gavin Elster’s mistress, and he coached her to look and act like the real Madeleine Elster as part of a murder plot. ’Twas the real Mrs. Elster who died at the mission that fateful day, and Elster’s real purpose for poor Scottie was to witness the “suicide.” The hell of is that Judy truly loves Scottie. On top of that, she also has all the self-esteem of a squashed grape, poor thing, and doesn’t want to spill the murder plot, what with those pesky laws and such. So Judy’s willing to play Eliza Doolittle to Scottie’s macabre Henry Higgins. But the jig is up when, post-makeover, Judy wears a necklace Scottie recognizes as part of Madeleine's Carlotta Valdes Collection! Furious at being played for a sucker, Scottie takes Judy to the mission tower and forces her to confess. With their emotions kicked up, Scottie and Judy embrace with yearning and regret, but a black shape looms. Guilt-ridden Judy is so spooked by what turns out to be a curious nun (Judy must’ve gone to one of those tough parochial schools) that she loses her balance and falls...and a shattered Scottie loses his Madeleine a second, final time, looking like he wants to join her.

I love Scottie and Madeleine's big romantic kiss;
it's like From Here to Eternity with clothes on!

When I first saw Vertigo in my college years during its 1980s re-release, I thought it was well worth seeing, but Scottie’s necrophilic mania to recreate Judy as Madeleine really upset me at the time. I found myself rooting for/angry at/sorry for Scottie and Judy all at once. Stewart’s portrayal of a man obsessed is tragic and unnerving; Hitchcock really knew how to tap into his leading man’s dark side. As if the ghoulishness of Scottie’s romantic obsession and the malleable Judy’s heartbreaking lack of self-esteem weren’t frustrating enough, even the department store salespeople and salon personnel in the film go along with Scottie’s demands. As the salon stylists say, “The gentleman certainly seems to know what he wants,” and even they were giving Scottie odd looks, despite Judy’s anguished protests. Even Vinnie, my husband, aptly noted that everyone on screen acted as if Scottie was simply having a pedigreed dog groomed. Kind of brings a new take on Hitchcock’s famous “Actors are like cattle” bon mot, doesn’t it?

Poor Scottie! Even in his dreams, Carlotta gives him the Hairy Eyeball!

On my first time around, it seemed to me that Hitchcock gave away the mystery's solution too soon, making the rest of the film anticlimactic. But my appreciation for Vertigo grew over the years as I matured and learned more about life, people, and emotions. By the time Vinnie and I saw the beautifully restored version of Vertigo at NYC’s Ziegfeld Theatre in 1996, Judy’s revelatory letter touched my heart and added to the suspense of waiting for the other shoe to drop for Scottie. There’s no question that Vertigo has long since become one of my favorite Hitchcock films! (Fun Fact: Our longtime buddy Jason Simos of Focus Features happened to be waiting on line for the movie, so we all went together and had a great time, and I was surprised with a baby shower at my mother-in-law’s home!

Face Two: The Lighter Side

Make no mistake, I’ve found Vertigo progressively more riveting and fascinating over time. I wouldn’t change a frame of it now, from the powerful performances to Bernard Herrmann’s swooning, poignant score. That said, in my heart of hearts, I’m still a sucker for, if not a full-tilt happy ending, then at least a hopeful one. Heck, I’ll even take an ending that isn’t entirely plausible, if only because I find myself feeling for the characters. That’s why I’ve sometimes toyed with alternate ways that Vertigo’s plot could have turned out, at least to satisfy my own private amusement and “what-if” thoughts about the characters' fates. It’s just that I’ve come to care so much about those obsessed but strangely lovable crazy kids John “Scottie” Ferguson and Madeleine Elster, a.k.a. Judy Barton, so the softie in me can’t help wondering how Vertigo’s plot would have unfolded with just a few little behavioral tweaks in these characters. Goshdarnit, where are screenwriters Alec Coppel & Samuel Taylor and source authors Pierre Boileau & Thomas Narcejac when you really need them?

"Oh, Johnny-O, where's your wry sense of humor? And you wonder
why we broke up our engagement in college!"

"Coffee, tea, or me?"

The most obvious change, of course, would have been for Judy not to go along with Gavin Elster’s wife-killing scheme in the first place, but then we’d have no movie. So let’s say Judy goes along with the San Juan Bautista murder plot up until the fateful moment when, in Madeleine mode, she skedaddles up to the mission tower—where poor acrophobic Scottie can’t follow her—and screams when Scottie can no longer see her, cuing Elster to give his real wife’s body the big sendoff, making it look like poor possessed Madeleine leapt to her death. Remember how, before Judy/Madeleine breaks free from Scottie’s embrace to dash for the tower, he gives her that heartfelt speech about how the past should be forgotten, they’re together now, and hugging and kissing ensue? What if Judy took a moment to think it over (by now it’s obvious that she loves Scottie more than that fiend Elster anyway) and said, “You’re right, Scottie my love, we were meant for each other. Let’s blow this clambake and start a new life together,” or some Madeleine-appropriate equivalent? I can see it now: Scottie and his beloved drive away while that murdering bastard Elster is left holding the bag, no pun intended. If nuns or tourists should happen upon Elster getting ready to toss the real Madeleine’s corpse over the side, he might try to squirm out of it by claiming she slipped and hit her head, breaking her neck. Elster might even try to sue the mission for damages—unless, of course, an autopsy proved foul play. How sophisticated were autopsies in 1958, anyway?

Judy's gonna sit right down and write herself a letter confessing the murder plot—or will she?

Considering Scottie is still calling our heroine “Madeleine” at this point, I’m imagining her snuggling up to him as they drive away, cooing, “You can call me Judy. All my friends do.” Hey, if Scottie can go by his nickname, so can Judy!

"Pop" Leibel" knows all the scuttlebutt from old San Francisco,
plus the first-ever draft of Fifty Shades of Gray, that slyboots!

Of course, presuming our lovebirds don’t head off at once for someplace where a suspicious San Francisco death might not be news, Judy would probably have some explaining to do when Scottie got wind of Mrs. Elster’s untimely demise. Would Judy tell Scottie the truth, taking a chance on him becoming disillusioned with her and leaving? Would she try to make it look like Elster had backed her into a corner, leaving her no choice but to go along with his plan until the last minute?

It's not easy to live a double life (oy, my head...)

Then again, if Elster were arrested for murder, Judy would surely either be arrested as an accomplice or be required to testify in court. (In 1958, would Raymond Burr have been cast as Judy’s attorney?) Would Scottie decide that, regardless, he loves Judy so much (especially in her Madeleine garb) he’d lie for her, or run off with her to Rio or some other place where extradition is more trouble than it’s worth? And what about his faithful, long-suffering gal pal, Midge Wood? What if she gets tired of being Scottie’s soft place to fall, finds out about Scottie trading her in for Judy/Madeleine, and decides to make trouble for the lovebirds? Sounds like a heck of a film noir to me!

On the other hand, Midge might decide her “Johnny-O” isn’t “the only man for (her)” after all. Come to think of it, we never did find out why Scottie and Midge broke off their college engagement. What was the real story behind that, I wonder? Maybe he’s got cold feet, or maybe Midge did. Sometimes it’s easier to fall in love with someone he can never really have because of his own issues. Anyway, I want to see Midge find a nice fella on her wavelength who’d give her his undivided attention. She could stop worrying about Scottie and concentrate on her career. She could join forces with that engineer who came up with the cantilevered bra Midge was working on when we first met her. They could design the lingerie and the factory!

...but there's some perks to the gig!
Stacy & Clinton would approve!

Let’s say love conquers all plot devices, and Scottie and Judy make a life together. What about his obsession with “Madeleine”? Would Judy decide blondes really do have more fun, and stick with the Madeleine look on her own terms and not just because Scottie’s dotty about it? I can hear the lovebirds now:

“Scottie, sweetie, I’ll wear my hair Madeleine style Monday through Friday and wear it loose on weekends, okay?”

“Aw, Judy, honey, if the style’s too much work, I’ll learn how to make that little chignon ’do for ya.”

Oh, to be torn 'twixt love and Judy!

Would Judy gradually bring in more Judyish attire? V-e-r-y gradually, since Scottie has apparently become more of an expert on feminine fashions and grooming than most “red-blooded” men of that era would dare admit. Scottie Ferguson, World’s Earliest Metrosexual! So would Judy sport a tacky bracelet here, a schmear of fire-engine-red lipstick there, until she’s more like her old pleasantly trashy self? She could even come home from the beauty salon one evening with more of a strawberry blonde tinge to her tresses. If Scottie ever complained that “You’re not the girl I fell in love with,” he’d be right!

Here's a clip of that magnificent 360 shot that shifts from the hotel room to the mission.

And here's a fan-made video of the song "Carlotta Valdez" by Harvey Danger!

This revised version of Witness for the Prosecution is hosted by the Diamond & Gold Blogathon, hostedby Caftan Woman and Wide Screen World. Enjoy!

Witness for the Prosecution(WftP), another one of my all-time favorite movies,sizzles, sparkles, and surprises from its opening credits in the Old Bailey, to its rollercoaster twists and turns, to its jaw-dropping climax. In fact, one of the things I love about the plot twists of this 1957 thriller is that they play fair with the audience, unlike so many films that don’t care if a twist doesn’t make a lick of sense as long as viewers get a momentary shock, however cheap and sloppily executed. The Billy Wilder Touch adds cynical wit to his sparkling adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie's suspenseful, internationally-beloved courtroom drama with some of the best lines in a Wilder movie since Double Indemnity, thanks to writers Wilder, Harry Kurnitz, and Larry Marcus. Sir Wilfrid’s query about the features of defendant Leonard Vole’s eggbeater,"Is that really desirable?" has become a catchphrase in our household, as well as the title of one of Team Bartilucci's blogs. Indeed, the only thing keeping me from putting WftP on my list of “Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies That Hitchcock Never Made” is the fact that even Hitchcock himself admitted that courtroom dramas weren’t among his considerable strengths or interests.

Miss Plimsoll, won't you join me
in a duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside"?

Not sure you can trust your client?
Sir Wilfrid's Monocole Test Never fails!

Sir Wilfrid Robarts comes home, recovering from his "teeny-weeny heart attack" as nurse Miss Plimsoll reveals he wasn't released, he was expelled -- conduct unbecoming a cardiac patient!
(Sir Wilfrid to Miss Plimsoll: "Put these in water, blabbermouth")

Talk about powerhouse stars! The versatile Charles Laughton (his many great roles include his Oscar-winning The Private Life of Henry VIII; Hobson’s Choice; The Big Clock) plays Sir Wilfrid Robarts, a.k.a.“Wilfrid the Fox,” a brilliant veteran barrister who won’t let his cardiac health issues stand in the way of helping a client beat a murder rap riddled with circumstantial evidence. This adds extra suspense during the trial as we in the audience nervously wonder if Sir Wilfrid will keel over with a heart attack from the strain of it all! Laughton’s real-life wife Elsa Lanchester is a delightful foil for him as chipper yet no-nonsense nurse Miss Plimsoll. Laughton and Lanchester shine in the most engaging performances of their careers, garnering well-deserved Oscar nominations! (WftP also earned nominations for Best Picture, Billy Wilder’s direction, Daniel Mandell’s editing, and Gordon Sawyer’s sound recording, but it was The Bridge on the River Kwai’s year; sorry, guys!) The comic sparring chemistry between Sir Wilfrid and Miss Plimsoll, and the playful warmth and understanding that grows between them by movie’s end, had my husband Vinnie opining that if another movie was made featuring these characters, Miss Plimsoll would probably end up as Mrs. Robarts before it was over. What a delightful series that could have been, kind of like a British Thin Man (okay, so Laughton was chubby; it makes him cuddly!) with Sir Wilfrid being the eager crime-stopper and Miss Plimsoll making a show of tut-tutting until she finally goes along with Wilfrid the Fox’s schemes with a smile!

Back to the plot: Even though Sir Wilfrid’s friends and colleagues keep telling him to relax and take it easy after his heart attack, he can’t resist taking the case of a new client who needs help, but quick! Sir Wilfrid’s new client is Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power of The Razor’s Edge; The Black Swan; Nightmare Alley). Look up “Vole” in the dictionary, and you’ll see how clever his name is.) Leonard is an unemployed but affable inventor, the kind of fella you can’t help liking, especially when a lonely widow like Mrs. French needs a friend, especially if he’s younger than Mrs. French and they’ve both got time on their hands—a real lady-killer, perhaps? Leonard has been accused of murdering Emily Jane French, the kind of older woman who often has too much time on her hands, or as the French say, “Women of a certain age.” Was Mrs. French killed by a burglar, as Leonard insists? Or was it, as Mr. Meyers (Torin Thatcher from The Fallen Idol; Major Barbara) sardonically suggests the culprits are all random burglars and/or burglaresses. The luckless Mrs. French is played by one of Team Bartilucci's favorite character actresses, Norma Varden (from The Glass Key; Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train). Varden and Power work together beautifully in their scenes, portraying Mrs. French’s sweet-natured longing as funny and poignant at the same time.

Christine Vole: Hostile Hottie Witness!

Busted! Sir Wilfrid's nurse,, Miss Plimsoll
already knows where the bodies, er, cigars, are hidden!

Speaking of beautiful, Marlene Dietrich is absolutely mesmerizing in both looks and acting talent as Leonard’s war bride Christine, she of the duplicitous tactics, malleable marriage contract, and unshakable alibi against the gobsmacked Leonard! Is Christine truly the ultimate bitch, or is there more to her agenda? The entertaining flashbacks that Wilder and company deftly weave throughout the film to give it more verve and movement works beautifully, especially in Christine and Leonard’s sexy meet-cute/fall-in-love/dig-those-legs scenes, in and out of flashbacks. Dietrich and Power are dynamic in their scenes, whether it’s love or hate or payback time! It's a shame Dietrich’s brilliant, multifaceted performance wasn't nominated for an Oscar as well, on account of the producers not wanting to spoil a certain crucial surprise twist! Tyrone Power's usual ever-so-slightly wooden delivery actually serves him well as defendant Leonard Vole; somehow it adds to his air of feckless innocence. Veteran character actors Henry Daniell (The Great Dictator), John Williams (Dial M for Murder), Ian Wolfe (Rebel Without A Cause; Red , and Torin Thatcher provide able support, too, with original Broadway cast member Una O'Connor (The Invisible Man; Bride of Frankenstein)stealing her scenes as Mrs. French's loyal Scottish housekeeper Janet MacKenzie, who’s suspicious and “antag’nistic” to the beleaguered Leonard. Sadly, WftP was O’Connor’s final film before her death in 1959, but what a memorable swansong it was. In our household, "Is that really desirable?" has become a catchphrase (as well as the title of one of Team Bartilucci’s blogs: http://itrd.blogspot.com ), along with many other gems from the mouths of star Laughton and the rest of the sterling cast! :-)

Another satisfied customer from Leonard Vole, Inventor!

What kind of person was the late Mrs. Emily Jane French?
What breed? A lady with a perky hat on, thanks to her new best buddy Leonard Vole!
Just make sure she doesn't go to dinner parties with Alfred Hitchcock!

Maybe it’s a British thing, but I was struck by how people took Sir Wilfrid’s cantankerous side in stride. It’s a refreshing change from what my husband Vinnie calls “gas-permeable people” whose overly-fragile feelings are crushed by any response that’s less than 100% sweet and sensitive. I love how nobody takes Sir Wilfrid’s cranky pronouncements to heart, including Miss Plimsoll, who gives as good as she gets, like when she reveals she knows all about the cigars hidden in his cane (not to mention the brandy he’s squirreled away).

No disrespect to Mrs. French, but Christine Vole rocks that hat way better!

I promised Vinnie I’d carry on the tradition of not revealing the surprise ending of WftP (I won’t blab!) Here’s the filmmakers word of warning:

“Notice! To preserve the secret of the surprise ending, patrons are advised NOT to take their seats during the last few minutes of Witness for the Prosecution.”

While you’re at it, don’t blab to your friends, either! I’ll only say I'd have paid good money to see the sequel that the ending implies. The film’s suspenseful surprises were so zealously guarded that when WftP was shown in London for a Royal Command Performance, even the Royal Family had to promise beforehand not to reveal the surprise ending to anyone else!

Looks like Leonard doesn't have a leg to stand on,
but Christine sure does!

Hear Sir Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester in their romantic duet,
Baby, It's Cold Outside"!

This revised version of It's A Wonderful World (1939)comes from The James Stewart Blogathon! Hosted by The Classic Film & TV Café from April 14th to April 17, 2014!

Welcome to Edwina Corday's Poetry Corner! Here's her poetry-chart-topping rhyme, "It's A Wonderful World":

The night will be here when we are gone,
Though we are gone, the stars will be here,
And other throats will sing in the dawn,
It’s a wonderful world, my dear

Don’t rack your brain trying to remember Edwina’s lovely poem from your poetry class; you’ll find her body of work in the Hollywood School of Poetry. Our gal Edwina is a ditzy but soulful poetess; yes, that’s what they call her in the comedy-adventure It’s A Wonderful World(1939), a poetess, not a poet. And no, it’s not Frank Capra's classic Christmas film It’s A Wonderful Life, though we wouldn’t blame you for the confusion; more about that momentarily. I guess poets were like that in 1939. But I digress!

Things aren't going well for Guy!
Where are Nick & Nora, and Asta when you need them?

Edwina is played by that luminous Oscar-winner Claudette Colbert ofIt Happened One Nightand The Palm Beach Storyamong so many other hits. With that title alone, you’d have every right to expect itto be a wonderful screwball comedy-mystery, at the very least. It’s got heck of a pedigree, starting with Oscar-winning director W.S. “Woody” Van Dyke, who brought us San Francisco (1936) as well as Team Bartilucci favorite The Thin Man (1934) and several of its sequels. The script was a collaboration between talented, versatile screenwriters Ben Hecht and Herman J. Mankiewicz (the latter being part of the Mankiewicz filmmaking family, including his grandson Ben Mankiewicz of TCMfame), whose combined resumes included such classics as Nothing Sacred;Twentieth Century; Dinner At Eight; Citizen Kane; The Front Pageand its distaffremakeHis Girl Friday;andseveral of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films. Now team up Claudette Colbert with a pre-Oscar James Stewart (note that Colbert’s name appears onscreen in a larger font than Stewart’s, since she was the bigger star at the time). It didn’t hurt that the film’s title brought to mind the stars’ beloved previous filmsIt Happened One NightandIt’s a Wonderful Life(even if …Life took audiences quite a while to get into film fans’ hearts. I won’t lie to you, folks: we of Team Bartilucci have always found It’s a Wonderful Life infuriating for myriad reasons! But I digress again; sorry about that!). The action is set in both New York City and upstate New York, which is a plus for a native New Yorker like me. Furthermore, keep in mind that 1939 was a banner year for great movies all around! With all that going for It’s A Wonderful World, the resulting collaboration should be a real crowd-pleaser, right?

Dig that crazy Coke bottle Boy Scout disguise!
Good thing Edwina has good "Guy" sight!

Well…almost! It’s A Wonderful World was watchable enough, but for much of its 86-minute running time, I found it more amiable than actually wonderful, or laugh-out-loud funny, or nail-bitingly suspenseful. Sure, the film has its moments, but as a whole, it didn’t truly grab my undivided attention until aboutthe last 40 minutes , when the joint was jumpin' with shooting, tension, and clever scheming to unmask the villains. But I’m getting ahead of myself!

Stewart plays a NYC private eye with the manly-man name of Guy Johnson. Showing his range just as he did in After the Thin Man (1936), Stewart’s Guy is no folksy charmer here, but a cynical tough guy who thinks dames are dopes, and isn’t afraid to cuff ’em one if they start squawking. If Guy tried that today, he’d be in for a lawsuit! Come to think of it, the role of Guy was probably good practice for the darker, more emotionally-complicated roles Stewart played under the direction of Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Mann in the 1950s!

Guy Kibbee as “Cap” Streeter is sapped by Edwina,
who thinks she’s helping and thinks she killed Cap! Oy!

Guy works with his older, more seasoned partner Fred “Cap” Streeter (Guy Kibbee from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; 42nd Street; Babbitt) for a private investigation firm called, appropriately enough, Private Inquiries. Their biggest client is the much-married souse and tobacco heir Willie Heyward, a.k.a.“Willie the Pooh” (played by Ernest Truex, great as put-upon milquetoast types in His Girl Friday; Whistling in the Dark; and TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents). Having previously worked demonstrating electric belts in drugstore windows for all to see before he became a private eye, cynical Guy is determined to hang onto his meal ticket: “Willie the Pooh’s my dream man, and I’m gonna keep fishing him out of manholes just as long as he keeps paying off.”

Too bad Willie gets himself framed for the murder of Dolores Gonzales (Cecilia Callejo from Blood and Sand;The Falcon in Mexico), a “Broadway nymph” and bubble dancer in the Sally Rand mold, who’d been all set to sue Willie for allegedly jilting her—until Guy and New York’s Finest find Dolores murdered on the floor with the ever-drunken Willie not knowing which end is up.

“Willie the Pooh,” found at one of the
places he's been seen going around.

But he brings his troubles on himself, considering he keeps demanding to kill “wops” when he’s “snoozled,” especially when he’s in public. Where are Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man and/or its other sequels when you need them? The only clue to Dolores’ killer is a dime mysteriously cut in half. Our perplexed P.I. finds him
self framed by Vivian Tarbel, a.k.a. the newly-minted Mrs. Heyward (Frances Drake of Mad Love and the 1935 version of Les Miserables) and her honey, Al Mallon (Sidney Blackmer, the great character actor who’s graced everything from Charlie Chan in Monte Carlo to Rosemary’s Baby). Before you can say “Philo Vance,” Guy is charged with conspiracy and sentenced to a year in Sing Sing.

On the train to prison, Guy is handcuffed to Sergeant Koretz (Nat Pendleton, Thin Man alumnus and one of Team Bartilucci’s favorite wrestlers-turned-actors), accompanied by Lieutenant Miller (Edgar Kennedy, Mr. Slow Burn himself) as they pass the time playing poker. Guy notices a personal ad in a nearby newspaper: “Why don’t you come to Saugerties Theater Wednesday evening, and see your long-lost husband? HALF-A-DIME.” (For you readers unfamiliar with upstate New York, yes, Saugerties is a real town.) Guy tricks Koretz into leaving their compartment for a smoke, and *SPLASH!* Guy manages a watery escape under cover of night (shouldn’t Edwina be in bed at that hour? Surely she’d lose too much of her beauty sleep).

But our perky poetess happens to see the whole thing. Before you can say “I swear by my eyes,” which Edwina says all through the picture, Guy takes Edwina hostage, and wacky hijinks ensue. Elsewhere, in one of my favorite bits, Sgt. Koretz tries to convince the local police that he was jumped by a mob instead of Guy tricking him and knocking him out singlehandedly. If you ask me, Guy could be so obnoxious sometimes, I wouldn’t have minded if someone had punched his lights out! For that matter, I’d love to see where Edwina got the notion that criminals are gallant. Maybe she’s been reading and writing too much poetry? Then again, Guy isn’t always as smart as he thinks he is, either! For instance, Edwina actually gets Guy out of a jam when they’re lost in the woods. Boy Scout Stanley Cavendish pretends to go for help, but Edwina realizes just in time that the scout is about to sic John Law on him! The kid isn’t even honest about his name; it’s really Herman Plotka! If you ask me, Guy needs to brush up his P.I. skills. Where’s Sam Spade when you need him? Stewart’s Coke-bottle glasses disguise cracked me up! (Fun Fact: Herman’s name comes from Mildred Plotka, a.k.a. Lily Garland in the 1934 comedy Twentieth Century.)

How do you like them apples?
Isn't this how Stockholm Syndrome starts?

Bit by bit, the comedy starts to percolate as Guy and Edwina find themselves obliged to join forces out in the wilds of upstate New York, with Edwina alternately helping and unwittingly hindering Guy as he tries to prove his innocence and save Willie from the electric chair. As I said, the first two-thirds of It’s A Wonderful World is watchable, if not exactly full-tilt hilarious.

But.

As our dear friend and fellow blogger R.A. Kerr might say, a miracle happens, as described by my husband Vinnie: “Suddenly Claudette Colbert shifted the plot into reverse psychology!”

A guy, a poetess...romance?

By some miracle, comedy and suspense suddenly blend together beautifully at the Saugerties County Theatre’s production of the Maxwell Anderson/Laurence Stallings play What Price Glory? Slowly but surely, Guy warms up to Edwina , who’s already falling in love with Guy despite the bickering that always seems to be expected in such situations; just ask Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll in The 39 Steps. Our heroes infiltrate the theater when scene-stealing grand-dame theater director Madame J. L. Chambers (Cecil Cunningham from the 1931 Monkey Business; The Awful Truth) hires Guy as the play’s new Southern-accented actor, “Cyril Hemingway.”

"Do you-all have shootin' in this play?"
"Nothing but. It's the noisiest backstage since Ben Hur".

Cap comes to help Guy, only to become a human Whack-A-Mole as Edwina’s well-meant attempts to help both men keep backfiring. I was worried that poor Cap would be brain-damaged before this dizzy tale was over! What’s more, Vivian’s Aussie ex turns up, unaware he’s got a target on his back, poor fella! The stage cast within the movie’s cast (is there a scorecard in the house?) includes Team Bartilucci favorite Hans Conried (The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.; TV’s Make Room For Daddy; Fractured Flickers); as well as George Chandler (Bogart fans will remember Chandler as nervous bartender Louis Ord in Dead Reckoning); as well asAnchors Aweigh; and Grady Sutton, who I always remember from TV’s Odd Couple episode “The Flying Felix” as Tony Randall tries lip-reading: “I sense…much…trouble…in…the…fuselage…Frederick!”

CATFIGHT!!!

All kidding aside, there’s genuine suspense in the urgently-whispered conversation between Cap and Guy as we’re reminded that Willie’s life is at stake. There’s even a nifty little catfight between Edwina and Vivian at the end!
Leading man Stewart was under contract to MGM at the time, but the studio never seemed to know how to exploit his talents until other studios led the way for them. A 1937 loan-out to Columbia for Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You had proven his skill at folksy comedy, which explains Stewart’s casting in this screwball farce. But his fans at the time were horrified to see him playing a cynical, chauvinistic private eye who at one point even slugs his leading lady!

As Frank Miller explains in his article on the TCM Web site, “Claudette Colbert had looked forward to getting MGM’s legendary glamour treatment. However, her hopes “were dashed when director W.S. Van Dyke was assigned to the picture. Although he had helped create the screwball genre as director of The Thin Man in 1934, he was popular with studio head Louis B. Mayer mainly because he worked quickly, earning the nickname ‘One-Take Woody.’ His female star was appalled at how quickly he threw the film together, being used to the more leisurely pace at her home studio, Paramount, where great care was always taken to showcase her beauty.” Anyway, Colbert got more opportunities for glamour roles at MGM in films like The Secret Heart (1946).

Although It's a Wonderful World got some good reviews, particularly from Hecht fan Otis Ferguson in The New Republic, it was mostly dismissed by critics for having too many cheap laughs. Writing for the New York Times, Frank Nugent complained, “Ben Hecht must have sent out native beaters with tom-toms and slapsticks to drive stray gags from miles around into the Metro corral for It's a Wonderful World....The comedy is almost too strenuous for relaxation." After only three years as an MGM producer, Frank Davis would return to writing after this picture, scoring some of his biggest successes with his scripts for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) and The Train (1964). Before that, however, he would issue his own rather prophetic assessment of the production: “The studio should have known that Jimmy Stewart would never do any of those unconvincing things. However, I predict that his next film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [1939], will more than make up.” And how!

This post is hosted by the Great Villain Blogathon, hosted by Ruth of Silver Screenings; Karen of Shadows and Satin; and Kristina of Speakeasy, from April 20^th through April 26^th, 2014. It’s wickedfun!

Poor frustrated Marion Crane (Janet Leigh of Touch of Evil; The Manchurian Candidate) is not a happy camper. She doesn’t ask for much, just love and happiness with her hunky California sweetie Sam Loomis (John Gavin of Midnight Lace; Spartacus).

Jeepers, it's 15 days before Christmas already!

Those crazy kids Marion and Sam may not have money and time,
but they'll always have Phoenix! Here's looking at you, kids!

Caroline (Patricia Hitchcock) called to see if Teddy called! She can flirt with us anytime!

Marion is so new to crime; I hope she remembers
which is Bad-Girl Black or Good-Girl White!


Don't spend all that $40,000 in one place!

Much as they love each other, Marion and Sam are both frustrated because Sam’s still slaving away for his ex-wife’s alimony, as Sam says, “I’m tired of sweating for people who aren’t there. I sweat to pay off my father’s debts, and he’s in his grave. I sweat to pay my ex-wife alimony and she’s living on the other side of the world somewhere.” Marion’s dullsville job in a Phoenix real estate company doesn’t inspire her much either, unless you count the hot sex in cheap hotels while she and Sam have steamy sex during their lunch hours. (Somehow, that doesn’t sound that bad!) Much as Marion loves Sam and vice-versa, she longs to have a bright future of her own with Sam, with money, romance, and happily-ever-afters, maybe even a big tuneful finale, like that other Marion: Marian the Librarian from The Music Man! (Hey, if you’re gonna dream, dream big!) “I’ll lick the stamps,” Marion vows to her sweetie. Then fate steps in for Marion when Mr. Lowery, Marion’s boss (Vaughn Taylor ofThe Power;In Cold Blood) comes in with $40,000 from one of their customers, oil lease man Tom Cassidy (Frank Albertson from Fury; Wake Island). But like Sam, Marion is also tired of toiling for people who aren’t there, so when Mr. Lowery asks Marion to bank Cassidy’s dough over the weekend, Marion loses her mind, er, I mean, makes a bold, sudden move, and scrams with the $40,000. It’s all in the name of love, right? Yeah, Marion, keep thinking that way while you make your getaway, getting more paranoid at every turn while cops give you the Hairy Eyeball, fumferring all the way! Then again, hon, it’s not too late to come to your senses and lick those stamps with Sam…

Hi, Mr. Lowery, it's just little old me, Marion, off to pick up those headache pills! Gotta run!

Marion made it through the rain! Now for Marion's Dinner with Norman!

Trusty umbrella service, homemade sandwiches, fresh milk; a pretty girl, taxidermyl
What's The Bates Motel got that Courtyard By Marriott doesn't?

He sees you when you're peeping!

At last, Marion finds shelter at The Bates Motel. It’s clearly had better days since the main road was washed up, but it you love stuffed birds, you’ll love it! Just steer clear of that nice young man’s mother, Mrs. Bates. Word has it that young Norman (played by Anthony Perkins from Friendly Persuasion;Murder on The Orient Express;Pretty Poison ) is rather henpecked. But maybe we should give the old gal a little slack; after all, Mother isn’t quite herself these days, especially when pretty young strangers drop by….

Stephen Rebello’s Psycho commentary track mentions that some first-time viewers felt that Marion comes across as stupid! However, I agree with Rebello that we must keep in mind that Marion is an amateur, not at all a practiced thief; indeed, she seems to be in some kind of fugue state, confused and troubled. As long as Marion has our sympathy, I say give the girl a break while they still can! Psycho wasn’t named on AFI’s 100 Thrills List for nothing!

Aren't Hitchcock's cameos fun?

Bernard Herrmann’s compelling score (North by Northwest; the Oscar-winner The Devil and Daniel Webster, a.k.a. All That Money Can Buy; North By Northwest) grabs you from the driving theme to those shrieking violins! Psycho was written for strings only. Herrmann called it “his black-and-white music.” Fun Fact: In Orson Welles’ 1958 thriller Touch of Evil, young Dennis Weaver (Duel; TV’s McCloud) played a nervous, twitchy motel manager!

(When in doubt, the answer is "C")

Vinnie whips off his wig and discusses The Shower Scene

It's possibly the most iconic scene in film, certainly in horror/suspense. It is perfection. Two and a half minutes of masterfully crafted shock. Rife with not even implied violence and nudity, but crafted so that you will infer violence and nudity. The knife is never seen entering flesh, indeed there are only two moments where the knife is even seen near Marion. And there's no blood - it's chocolate sauce, as everyone now knows - but it's only seen dripping into the bathwater and down the drain, but we imagine it all over poor Ms. Crane. But it's shot so fast, and so well, that persistence of vision makes you see them together almost constantly.

The Shower Scene is SO iconic, it's been parodied
in the most amazing of places, from Mel Brooks'
High Anxiety to this episode of Tiny Toon Adventures.

Taken out of context and watched on its own, it's still compelling. So much so that film makers have tried to match it in endless kill scenes in Friday the 13th and endless other horror films. But to truly understand the impact of the scene, you have to see it in the context of the film.

First off, the scene breaks one of Hitch's rules - if you TELL the audience what's coming, the dread and suspense they feel will make for a far longer and more harrowing experience. But the scene comes straight outta nowhere; indeed, at this point in the film, you expect to see Marion get back in her car and go back to face the music and AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Take this one step further - as far as people knew, Janet Leigh was the star of the film. For her to be removed from the board had never been done before. It left the movie-goers rudderless at sea - they had no idea what was going to happen, where the story was going to go. It was that sense of being utterly out of their comfort zone that gave the moment its true shock. When Norman comes in and begins to clean up, the audience naturally assumes that he's the new hero of the film, exactly as they were supposed to.

And as if that's not good enough, they do the exact same shock turn again - just as you start to place emotion into Arbogast, even if you think he's the BAD guy in the movie, who's going to make life merry hell for Poor Norman and his wacky mother, in come the violins and the screaming. There's only two on-screen kills in the film, and they both come out of left field of a stadium in another state.

The film is filled with left turns where you think yo know what it's about, and suddenly it isn't. You assume Marion's the main character, wrong. You assume the money is the McGuffin - wrong, it gets tossed into the trunk of the car and is never mentioned again. You think Norman is the new hero, and...well...

The First Romantic Comedy Blogathon is hosted by Backlots and Carole & Co. from May 1st through May 4th, 2014. Thanks for letting us play in your
garden!

I’ve always enjoyed screwball comedies that blend romance and comedy, and the zanier, the better, especially when there’s mystery in the mix! Case in point: Columbia Pictures’comedy-mysteryThere’s Always A Woman(1938). All the filmmakers had to say to make me love this movie were three names

Joan Blondell(Nightmare Alley;Three on a Match
Two-time Oscar-winner Melvyn Douglas(Hud; Being There; Ninotchka).
(Fun Fact: Douglas was also the grandfather of actress Illeana Douglas (Dummy; Martin Scorsese’s remake of Cape Fear.
Mary Astor, Best Supporting Actress Oscar-winner for The Great Lie;The Palm Beach Story).

Based on a story from American Magazine and directed by Alexander Hall (My Sister Eileen; The Great Lover) and producedbyWilliam Perlberg (Miracle on 34th Street; The Song of Bernadette), There’s Always a Woman is kind of like the wiseacre kid brother who’s really swell beneath it all. The cast includes Frances Drake of Mad Love; Thurston Hall (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Lady on a Train).

Sally helps Bill to root, root, root for the home team!

Wow! Two Reardons for the price of one!
What a scoop! Eat your heart out, Miss Marple!

Lola Fraser wears widows' weeds well!

Big owie! That's what you get for hogging Sally's credit, Bill, you bad boy!


Bill and Sally get soused soused while looking for clues at the Skyline Club! Sally:"Why didn't you pick me up?" Bill: "I did it before, and look what happened."

What does detective Bill Reardon have that
Willian Powell doesn't have, besides Myrna Loy?
Clients, that's what!

"I see it all now! You and the upstairs maid. Do the old boy in, you said.
Elderberry wine and old lace, you said! Then, the clean getaway,
but you weren't smart enough, John, alias Johnny, alias Jack, alias Jackie!"

New York City private detective Bill Reardon (Douglas) went into business for himself, but perhaps more successful detectives like The Thin Man's Nick Charles spoiled the broth in the Big Apple for Bill’s agency, no doubt snapping up the pricey clients that were just out of Bill’s reach. Luckily, Bill’s former boss, the D.A. himself (Hall) is glad to have Bill back. But Sally (Blondell), Bill’s wife and assistant, thinks she could cook up a clientele, being as loving as she is sassy and determined; what a gal! Before Sally can start closing up shop for good, in comes Lola Fraser (Astor), a rich society matron who wants to find out if Lola’s husband is stepping out with lovely young Anne Calhoun (Frances Drake from Mad Love;It’s A Wonderful World). Sally puts The Reardon Detective Agency under new management! Then Lola’s hubby get bumped off, and suspects galore pop up, like shifty nightclub owner/gambler Nick Shane (Jerome Cowan from The Maltese Falcon; Miracle on 34^th Street; quite a few familiar faces here!).
TCM’s Lorraine LoBianco reports There’s Always a Woman set was a family affair, with ex-sister-in-law Connie, who’d just divorced Blondell’s brother, and then her sister Gloria Blondell a contract! No wonder Joan was happy to be at Columbia, except for just one little thing: for some reason, Warner Bros. (where she’d worked at the time) didn’t want Blondell to wear her hair in her signature curly ringlets hair. Luckily, director Alexander Hall gallantly made sure he had brunettes and redheads among the actors so that Blondell would attract all eyes.

Fun Facts:

There’s Always A Woman also had a 1939 sequel with Douglas, There’s That Woman Again. This time, Virginia Bruce played Sally Reardon..

Also, don’t blink or you’ll miss:
•A young Rita Hayworth in a brief role as a secretary!
•Whitey of the Dead End Kids, a.k.a. The Bowery Boys!

Sally knows a detective must keep track of their partners
I bet they need more toilet paper, too!

*KLONG!* Big owie! That'll teach Bill to hog all of Sally's credit!

Those kooky lovebirds solve the case, though they'll need hairbrushes afterward!

This blog post is hosted by the Fabulous Films of the 1950s Blogathon, hostedby the Classic Movie Blog Association (CMBA), running from May 22 through May 26,2014. We hope you’ll enjoy this blast from the past!

Today’s parents are often accused of “Helicopter Parenting,” but after the harrowing adventure the McKenna Family endures in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, who can blame them for being a heck of a lot clingier than usual?

As TCM’s Brian Cady notes, the original 1934 smash hit got Hitchcock started on a nearly unbroken string of wildly popular suspense thrillers that made him “The Master of Suspense.”

Hitchcock's films were well known for their cymbalism...

But Hitchcock had never been the type to rest on his laurels. Sure, the original Man Who Knew Too Much (let’s just call it “Man,” we’re all pals here!) was already a classic, but Hitchcock felt his original masterpiece would be even better with Paramount’s glorious VistaVision and the other new technologies available at the time, making the 1956 version even better.

Producer/actress/daughter Patricia Hitchcock O’Connell (Stage Fright;Strangers on a Train;Psycho;Rear Window)described this remake as taking the work of a gifted amateur, and crafting it into the skill of a seasoned pro; we Hitch fans know how detail-oriented a director like “Hitch” could be! What’s more, at that time, Hitchcock owed Paramount another movie, and they felt a new “Man” could more easily adapt to what was then the present day. Also, Herbert Colman, Hitchcock’s longtime Associate Editor and Producer, had to consider that the cast and crew in Morocco had to be mindful of the fast-approaching religious holiday of Ramadan; luckily, they made their deadline. Whew!

And what a cast! Hitchcock had always had great actors for his stars, but I especially liked Man’s great cast here:

*Oscar-winner James Stewart(The Philadelphia Story), returning to rejoin Hitchcock from his triumphs in Rear Window; Vertigo; and Rope;

*Doris Day,talented singer and versatile actress in such films as Love Me or Leave Me; Pillow Talk; Calamity Jane; Midnight Lace; and TV’s The Doris Day Show.

Not to mention being a spy, eh, Louis?

We meet the McKenna Family from Indianapolis, Indiana, touring with the family on a trip to France, and now Marrakesh, on their own little family world tour, with dad Ben (Stewart), who’s a surgeon; and mom, Jo McKenna Conway (Day), who’d been a popular singing star as Jo Conway before she retired from her successful musical career to become a wife and loving mom mother to their young son Hank, played by Christopher Olson (Bigger Than Life; The Tarnished Angels).

The McKenna Family’s Hitchcockian ordeal starts pronto as the family sits in a sightseeing bus in French Morocco, watching the sights from the bus, when suddenly the bus abruptly lurches as little Hank accidentally yanks off a Muslim woman’s veil. Being a Muslim, her hubby isn’t the understanding type, to the Arab’s fury! Luckily, a suave Frenchman, Louis Bernard (The Lovers of Lisbon; Stain on the Snow) quicklycalms the Arab, explaining to the McKennas, “The Muslim religion allows few accidents.”

The McKennas are most grateful for Louis’s help, and he invites Jo and Ben to take the family for dinner (with a baby sitter). Louis is both charming and inquisitive, yet he can be surprisingly vague when Jo asks Louis things that shouldn’t be all that mysterious. Moreover, Jo notices later that the angry Arab seemed pretty chummy with that Arab guy later! Jo seems to be the worldly one in the McKenna Family; must be Jo’s show-biz know-how. I say we deputize Jo!; the boys in the McKenna clan seem too darn naïve! Time for a husband and wife pow-wow about Louis Bernard:

Jo:“Now, what do you really know about him?”
Ben: “What do I know about him? I know his name. We were sitting there, we were talking.”
Jo:“You don’t know anything about this man, and he knows everything there is to know about you.”

Jo's ability to deal with her new life as a housewife
reaches the breaking point by the film's climax

Jo and Ben end up laughing it off. But at dinner, while they’re giving us viewers comedy relief as they try to figure out how to eat Morocco cuisine without making fools of themselves, Jo notices a strange middle-aged couple, who Jo remembers seeing them at the hotel—and here’s that strange couple again! At last, the middle-aged English couple apologize and introduce themselves: they’re the Draytons, Lucy (Brenda De Banzie from Hobson’s Choice, one of Team Bartilucci’s favorites) and Edward (Bernard Miles, from Tom Thumb; The Spy in Black). Jo is flattered to find that the Draytons are fans of hers, so they strike up a friendship during their holiday. We alsoget to see that despite the family’s overall happiness, Jo has her regrets at times, like this scene at dinner with the Draytons:

Jo: “Broadway musical shows are not produced in Indiana. Of course, we could live in New York. I hear the doctors aren’t starving there, either.”
Ben: “It’s not that I have any objection to working in New York, it’s just that it’d be hard for my patients to come from Indianapolis for treatment.”

I...fear...much...trouble...
in the...fuselage...Frederick!

Personally, I think Jo and her New York pals should put together a cool dinner theater in Indianapolis, and Jo could sing her heart out! Everybody would win!

Death spoils our family's holiday when a dying Arab stabbed to death before Ben's eyes turns out to be Louis! It turns out Bernard was the Marrakesh version of James Bond, and the authorities at the Deuxieme Bureau are giving the police the Hairy Eyeball (there's a lot of that going around, it seems! Can't we all just get along?). After all this agita, all that Ben and Jo want is to rest and get Hank…but the little tyke is nowhere to be found. In fact, all they hear from their son is a sinister voice warning they’ll never see Hank again if they bring the police and blab about the upcoming assassination--the evil kid-stealing fiends!!

Never heard of him - what's he been in?

The supporting cast is excellent, too, including Jo’s friends from her singing career, adding needed comic relief when Ben and Jo have to keep running in and out while trying desperately to find Hank without tipping off the ruthless villains. Our heroine Jo may have swapped the role of stage star for the even more demanding role of mother and wife, but her fans and friends are still loyal, bless them! Their puzzled show-biz friends include:

*Alan Mowbray (I Wake Up Screaming); *Carolyn Jones: Best Supporting Actress Oscar Nominee for The Bachelor Party, as well as TV’s beloved Morticia Addams on TV’s The Addams Family;
*Hilary Brooke from Ministry of Fear; Road to Utopia.; *AlixTalton from The Deadly Mantis; Romanoff and Juliet.

Bad Guys:
Bernard Miles (Tom Thumb) and Brenda de Banzie, quite versatile as duplicitous Mrs. Drayton. We also love deBanzie as a good gal in the comedy Hobson’s Choice, co-starring another Team B. fave, Charles Laughton. Hmm, could deBanzie be recruited to the good guys’ team after all?

Reggie Nalder, Villain: The original 1934 version of The Man Who Knew TooMuch was a tough act to follow with Peter Lorre as the evil Abbott, but in the role of the assassin Rien, Nalder’s Death’s Head grin gave us the willies! Nalder had been badly burned in his youth, with scars all over the scarred lower-third of Nalder’s face, forever casting him as a villain. Nalder had at least three different explanations for them. Whatever the true cause, it was this disfigurement which bestowed upon him a permanent place in the annals of film history.

Jo sings for Hank’s life at the Embassy!

Finally, Jo and Ben are in London, where our beleaguered but determined couple have a fighting chance of finding little Hank back safe and sound, praying and hoping all the way!

Luckily, Mrs. Drayton has a kind heart after all, and between Jo’s lovely loud voice and Hank’s whistling prowess (whistle, Hank, whistle like the wind!), they save the day in time for everyone to wake from their afternoon naps! Still, I don't think Jo and Ben will ever ask any couple to baby-sit for them ever again!

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Man thus: “…Mr. Hitchcock spins a fast tale that sweeps incongruously through a taxidermist’s shop, a cultist chapel, a foreign embassy, and the crowded concert hall. Fast, did we say? It had better be, for the story that John Michael Hayes (Rear Window,among other Hitchcock scripts) has been revamped from the original script by Charles Bennett and D.B. Wyndham-Lewis is quite absurd, and it would be death to leave the audience a moment to stop and think. But logic and credibility were never were Mr. Hitchcock’s long suits. He depends upon daring deception. And that’s what he has in this film.” Works for us, thank you!

Possibly one of the best closing lines in film!

This post has been revised and republished as part of theSnoopathon: A Blogathon of Spies, hosted by Fritzi Kramer! The Blogathon will run fromJune 1^stthrough June 3rd, 2014. (Quick, what’s the password?)

The ever-versatile choreographer-turned-director Stanley Donen began his entertainment career with tuneful, urbane, inventive musicals including hits like On the Town (1949); Singin’ in the Rain (1952); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954); Funny Face (1957). Like 1963’s comedy-thriller Charade (Fun Fact: that’s the year I was born!), Arabesque is another fabulous Universal romantic thriller in the grand stylish comedy-thriller tradition, including some of the same personnel!

After Stanley Donen’s Hitchcockian romantic comedy-thriller Charade(1963)became a smash hit, Donen had a decision to make:

Should he play it safe and make another film just like Charade? Keep in mind that this was in the days before filmmakers sequel’ed hit films to death, often lazily giving them titles like, say, Hit Movie Part 2.
Or…
Should Our Man Stan go boldly go where he hadn’t gone before in his film career?

Well, Donen finally opted for a little of both with Arabesque (1966), and why not? Don’t we all deserve more of the finer things in life, including entertaining suspense movies? But I digress! Arabesquehas just about everything a moviegoer could want in a fun escapist comedy-thriller: spine-tingling suspense; international intrigue; sexy romance between Oscar-winning movie stars, albeit not both for Arabesque; yousee, star GregoryPeck won his Best Actor Oscar for To Kill A Mockingbird,(1962), while Sophia Loren won her Best Actress Oscar for the searing Italian drama TwoWomen (1960).
Loren and Peck make a wonderful match with their delightful onscreen chemistry, accompanied by the great Henry Mancini(Charade; Hatari; Breakfast at Tiffany’s;Two for the Road).

I love screenwriter Peter Stone (Charade; Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe and collaborators, including Peter Stone) smart and snappy dialogue brimming with memorable lines; eye-catching English locations; jazzy Henry Mancini music infused with such exotic Middle Eastern touches as zithers and mandolas; inventive visuals with a pop art vibe; and the beguiling Sophia Loren in glam shoes, courtesy of foot-fetishist sugar daddy Alan Badel (The Day of the Jackal), and Christian Dior clothes! What’s not to love?

The eyes have it, and Prof. Ragheed's gonnaget it!

If Charade was Alfred Hitchcock Lite, then Arabesqueis Hitchcock Lite after taking a few classes in James Bond 101, including an opening title sequence by Maurice Binder, who also did the honors for Charade and most of the James Bond movies. Gregory Peck plays David Pollack, a hieroglyphics expert Yank professor at Oxford who finds himself embroiled in Middle Eastern intrigue while decoding the cipher (which also happens to be the title of the Gordon Cotler novel which inspired the film, adapted by Julian Mitchell, Stanley Price and Pierre Marton. More about Marton in a moment) which serves as Arabesque’s MacGuffin.

Our hero finds himself up against four Arabs who want to know what’s on the hieroglyphic-like cipher:

Prime Minister Jena (pronounced “Yay-na” and played by Carl Duering of A Clockwork Orange), who’s in England on a hush-hush mission;
Nejim Beshraavi (Badel), the suave-bordering-on-unctuous shipping magnate whose ships may be laid up for good if Jena signs a treaty promising to use English and American tankers;
Yussef Kasim (Kieron Moore of Crack in the Worldfame, among others),whose penchant for then-hip lingo a la Edd “Kookie” Byrnes on 77 Sunset Stripbelies his ruthlessness; and...

In any language, nobody can resist Yasmin!

Beshraavi’s beautiful, unpredictable lover Yasmin Azir, played by the dazzling, hazel-eyed Loren. She’s sharp, witty, and alluring as all get out in her fabulous Dior wardrobe, including a beaded golden burnoose, plus Sophia rides horses convincingly!

John Merivale of The List of Adrian Messenger fame is memorable as Sloane, Beshraavi’s put-upon henchman, who gets a memorably tense opening scene in a doctor’s office, and is treated as a combination lackey and punching bag for the rest of the film. I almost—only almost—felt sorry for the guy. Anyway, some of David’s new associates have no qualms about stooping to murder, and soon the chase is on, with suspenseful scenes at the Hyde Park Zoo and Ascot. Our man David is subjected to truth serum and knockouts, and I’m not just talking about Loren: “Every time I listen to you, someone either hits me over the head or tries to vaccinate me.” Poor David doesn’t know where to turn, especially since he can never be sure whether or not he can trust the mercurial Yasmin.

Kieron Moore attempts to kill Peck and Loren with a construction site.

Kieron Moore reads the Arabesque script:
"I talk like Kookie and get knocked off how?!"

The usual ever-so-slightly wooden note in Gregory Peck’s delivery is oddly effective as he tries to loosen up and deliver witticisms in the breezy style of Cary Grant, Donen’s business partner and original choice to play David Pollack. Word has it that Grant and Loren had a steamy real-life romance while filming Houseboat, and things got complicated on account of Loren still being married to producer Carlo Ponti. In any case, it helps that those witticisms were written by none other than Charade alumnus Peter Stone under the nom de plume “Pierre Marton,” and Stanley Price as well as Julian Mitchell. Peck may not be Mr. Glib, but he’s so inherently likable (he won his Oscar for playing Atticus Finch, after all! (Ask my husband Vinnie to do his Gregory-Peck-Impersonating-Cary-Grant impersonation sometime; it’s delightful!).

If the shoe fits, Beshraavi will have Yasmin wear it!

Peck seems so delighted to get an opportunity to deliver bon mots after all his serious roles that he’s downright endearing, like a child trying out new words for the first time. Besides, the bewitching Loren can make any guy look suave and sexy! Co-star Alan Badel (The Day of the Jackal) looks like a swarthy, polished version of Peter Sellers wearing cool shades; he virtually steals his scenes as the suave-bordering-on-unctuous villain with a foot fetish. Shoe lovers will swoon over the scene with Badel outfitting Loren with a roomful of fancy footwear and a comically/suggestively long shoehorn. Speaking of things of beauty, Director of Photography Christopher Challis (The Red Shoes; Sink the Bismarck) is utterly dazzling and inventive; no wonder he won a BAFTA award (the British equivalent of the Oscars), and Christian Dior got a BAFTA nomination for Loren’s elegant costumes!

Giddy-up, giddy-up, let's go! Let's vanquish a foe!

The only thing that disappoints me about Arabesque is that director/producer Donen didn’t seem to like this sparkling, twist-filled adventure as much as our family and so many other movie lovers do. Specifically, he felt the script needed work. In Stephen M. Silverman’s book about Donen’s films, Dancing on the Ceiling, Donen is quoted as saying about Arabesque,“We have to make it so interesting visually that no one will think about it.” Boy, did they ever! In an article about Arabesque on the TCM Web site, Stone had said that Donen “shot it better than he ever shot any picture. Everything was shot as though it were a reflection in a Rolls-Royce headlamp.” I don’t think Donen gave himself or the movie enough credit, though. If you ask me, Arabesque is a perfect example of one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best-known quotes:“Some films are slices of life; mine are slices of cake.”Now that Arabesque is finally available on DVD (my own copy is part of Universal’s Gregory Peck Film Collection, a seven-disc DVD set that Vin bought me for Christmas 2011), I wish someone would get Donen and Loren together to do the kind of entertaining, informative commentary Donen did with the late Stone for Criterion’s special-edition Charade DVD, while they’re both still alive and well enough to swap stories, or perhaps even put out a whole new deluxe edition of the film!

Our heroes saddle up for action! Nice horsies!

At Ascot, that's the ticket - to frame our man David Pollock for murder!


Reflections in two sexy spies! (Great F/X work!)

Odd, I don’t usually get hieroglyphics in my fortune cookies!

Double-cross Beshraavi, and you’re in for a date with the falcon—
and we don’t mean George Sanders!

Now that's what I call breakfast in bed!

This blog post is hosted by the Billy Wilder Blogathon, hostedby the talented IrishJayhawk66 of Outspoken & Freckledand
Aurora of @CitizenScreen of Once Upon a Screen.
(By the way, ladies, we loveyour description of you two smart and lovely ladies describing your fabulous Blogathon: “We’re girls gone Wilder!”)

Meet our protagonist, C.R. MacNamara, as played by James Cagney:

“On Sunday, August 1st, 1961, the eyes of America were on the nation’s capital, where Roger Maris was hitting home runs 44 and 45 against the Senators. On that same day, without any warning, the East German Communists sealed the border between East and West Berlin. I only mention this to show the kind of people we’re dealing with: real shifty!”

"A gift from my employees on the tenth
anniversary of the Berlin Airlift."

Writer/Director/Producer Billy Wilder has long been among my favorite filmmakers because he’s equally deft with both comedies (Ball of Fire; The Apartment; The Fortune Cookie; and drama (Double Indemnity; Stalag 17;Ace in the Hole), and he’s always gleefully unapologetic about ruffling feathers— even if they’re audiences! I especially got a kick out of the film’s sprinkling of its playful references to our star James Cagney, even including co-star Red Buttons doing a swell imitation of the man himself.

In Cameron Crowe’s book Conversations with Wilder (Alfred A. Knopf),
it’s been said that Wilder and his co-writer I.A.L Diamond claimed that One, Two, Threewasn't so much funny as it was fast: “We did just did it, nine pages at a time, and he never fumbled.” Apparently another Cagney bio claims that wasn't completely true, but I say the nit-pickers need to lighten up! Our family fell in love with One, Two, Three and its breakneck pace and hilarious pace!

The rollicking cast includes:

James Cagney; Oscar-winner for Yankee Doodle Dandy, as well as great performances in White Heat; *Love Me or Leave Me*
Howard St. John, who you may also remember from Mister 880, and his memorable dramatic turn as Captain Turley in Alfred Hitchcock’sStrangers on a Train.
Pamela Tiffin (Harper; The Pleasure Seekers)
Horst Buchholz (The Magnificent Seven; Nine Hours to Rama)
ArleneFrancis, actress and TV personality (The Thrill of it All)
Lilo Pulver(A Time to Love and a Time to Die; a Global Affair)

C.R. MacNamara was tasked with getting "German business-
men to have Coke with their knockwurst"

One, Two, Three takes place in Berlin, in what was then present-day 1951. That’s where C.R. MacNamara (Cagney), nicknamed “Mac,” is Coca-Cola’s head of bottling in Germany. Mac’s hopes and dreams of getting back in the good graces of his boss Mr. Hazeltine (St. John) is on the line. You see, Mac has still been smarting over the unfortunate Benny Goodman incident, in which a sandstorm cancelled Goodman’s concert, resulting in irate music-lovers burning down the American Embassy, leaving poor frustrated Mac in the doghouse! But it's redemption time for Mac as he open negotiations to bring Coca-Cola behind the Iron Curtain. But Hazeltine informs Mac he's wasting his time -- Coke has no interest in giving the Reds the Pause That Refreshes (This was actually the case -- however, Pepsi had no such qualms, which is how they became the cola of choice - the ONLY choice -- in Russia). Instead, Mr. Hazeltine is sending his teenage daughter, Scarlett Hazeltine (Tiffin) to hop a plane to Germany in hopes busting-up Scarlett’s newest teenage sweetie, thus throwing the family’s vacation plans going hither and tither! But that’s only the beginning of this daffy farce.

Meet Scarlett Hazeltine (Pamela Tiffin), hot-blooded teenage world-traveler. If Scarlett was up for an award, she’d be a shoo-in for “Girl Most Likely to Give Mac’s Family High Blood Pressure!”

Almost as soon as she arrives, it turns out she's been seeing the sights after the MacNamaras hit the hay, bribing the family chauffeur to sneak over to the Russian sector! Worse yet, she's married a scruffy-headed Party-member named Otto Ludwig Piffl (Buchholz)! Who needs Tiffany's for an engagement ring, when you can have rings "forged from the steel of a brave cannon that fought at Stalingrad"? Phyllis MacNamara (Arlene Francis), hearing from Mac about Scarlett’s new Communist husband, says “She married a Communist? This is gonna be the biggest thing to hit Atlanta since General Sherman threw that little barbecue!”

Poor Otto, he doesn't know that all his troubles are behind him.

No worries, Mac has a plan. Our naïve Otto is so busy thinking of love and rhetoric that he doesn't realize he's being framed! Mac plants a balloon on the tailpipe of Piffl's motorbike, reading "Russki Go Home", and gives him a wedding present -- a cuckoo clock with a little Uncle Sam that plays "Yankee Doodle" -- wrapped in the Wall Street Journal, yet! As Otto makes his way across the Brandenburg Gate, the East German guards stop him for the balloon, the Yankee Doodle time bomb goes off, and Otto is arrested and placed in "Enhanced Interrogation" for being a spy!

Waterboarding, eat your heart out!

Mac thinks all's well with the world...until it turns out that Otto and Scarlett have had time to consummate their wedded bliss -- she's "Schwanger", as they say in German. So now Mac has to make his way into the Eastern sector, liberate Piffl, and turn him into a good little Capitalist, all before the Hazeltines arrive on the Yankee (you should pardon the expression) Clipper in under 24 hours! Easy, right? As Mac puts it, "I wish I was in Hell with my back broken!"

True, some of the more topical gags may seem dated today, but with Wilder and his co-writer I.A. L. Diamond (based on a play by Ferenc Molnar) , the smart snappy cast, and the breakneck pace, there wasn't a single scene that didn't leave me laughing out loud! Can this howling hilarious satire save the day and the Free World? Would Billy Wilder let you down? Watch and laugh!

“How would you like a little fruit for desert?”
(Cagney kids his Public Enemy grapefruit gag while arguing with Buchholz and Pamela Tiffin.

Vinnie returns the empties as he has his say:

As The Wife mentions, the topical jokes in this film may require some explanation, but much like the jokes in any Warner Brothers cartoon, once they're explained, a whole new level of irreverence stands revealed. The obvious physical gags like the Russian trade ministers all resembling various Russian leaders (including Leon Askin, best known to TV mavens as General Burkhalter from Hogan's Heroes) are easy to spot -- the minister taking his shoe off and banging it against the table to the rousing music and dancing of Lilo Pulver might miss a few heads as it sails over.

Otto: We will take over West Berlin. We will take over Western Europe.
We will bury you!
C.R. MacNamara: Do me a favor. Bury us, but don't marry us.

Topical jokes like this are missed by modern audiences, but cut deep at the issues of the day.

The ministers' joke about "sending Cuba rockets" would come true the next year, as the center of the Cuban Missle Crisis. And in what might be the most obscure in joke of them all, when Cagney tells Otto he must give the couple a wedding present, Scarlett claims that Otto's friends did not give them any gifts but instead sent the money to unemployed cotton pickers of Mississippi. Cagney was accused of being a communist sympathizer for sending money to striking cotton workers in the 1930's.

The climax of the film, as Mac and his cohorts must pull a Piffl pecuniary Pygmalion, is a masterpiece of comedic timing. The chiming of the Uncle Sam clock gets imperceptibly faster each time it goes off, subtly underlining the increasingly frenetic pace as merchants and tradesmen teem through the Coca-Cola offices to add some white and blue to the little Red. As legend has it, Cagney was having trouble with the machine-gun monologues as he rattles off orders to his underlings, so much so that he began to suspect he was, perhaps, not quite over the hill, but able to see the precipice without binoculars. He walked to a corner of the soundstage, gave himself a quiet pep-talk, came back and nailed the speech in one more take. The stress of the film caught up with him - this was his last film before his return in Ragtime.

Hard to believe Lilo Pulver was usually cast as a tomboy, ain't it?

Produced by brothers Leo C. Popkin and Harry H. Popkin, The Popkin Brothers (Impact; D.O.A.; The Well) produced the film adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie’s 1945 film version of her thriller And Then There Were None, with great success. And Then There Were None was produced by 20th Century-Fox and directed by the great Rene Clair, and based on Agatha Christie’s best-selling suspense novel, blending chilling suspense and wry humor. However, Mrs. Christie’s original British version of the novel was originally titled Ten Little Niggers, which didn’t go over well with us Yanks!

Just as well, as screenwriter Dudley Nichols (Stagecoach; Scarlet Street) did a swell job of of adapting Mrs. Christie’s worldwide smash, adding more wickedly witty bits of wry dark humor!

Thank goodness we’re about to dock!
I've still got the willies from that ordeal with the U-Boat
and Connie Porter!

As the film begins, the all-star cast slowly thaws the ice as the characters arrive in a boat, most of them being English.

The characters don't talk much, at least at first; they just smile and nod politely, no small feat when many of them are trying not to toss their cookies after that boat ride! The crashing waves over the opening credits work perfectly; I was tempted to get my snorkel! Let’s meet our travelers, shall we?

Barry Fitzgerald from Mark Hellinger’s The Naked City; The Quiet Man) as Judge Quincannon.
Walter Huston (Oscar-winner for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Dodsworth; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, as Dr. Edward G. Armstrong). (Mind you, this was before his son John Huston became a writer and director!)
Mischa Auer (You Can’t Take it With You; My Man Godfrey) as Prince Nikki Starloff.
June Duprez (The Thief of Bagdad; None But the Lonely Heart) asVera Claythorne.
Louis Hayward (Ladies in Retirement; The Man in the Iron Mask) as Phillip Lombard.
Roland Young (Topper; The Philadelphia Story) as Detective Blore.
Judith Anderson from Laura; Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, as Emily Brent.
Sir C.Aubrey Smith (Tarzan the Ape Man; Rebecca) as General Mandrake.

And of course, the guests have to eat, don’t they? That’s where the servants, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, come in: Mr. Rogers is played by Richard Haydn from Ball of Fire; The Sound of Music; Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. Mrs. Rogers is played by Queenie Leonard (from the original animated Disney version of 101 Dalmations, as well as the film noir The Narrow Margin; Queenie sure had range! Of course, we also fell in love with Haydn’s comedic voice for various Looney Tunes, especially Team Bartilucci’s favorite, Super-Rabbit (1943)!

Mischa Auer's Prince Nikki chokes to death on
a small piece of scenery.

Nikki’s macabre ditty seems about down to the final verse of the “last little Indian" as per the 10 Little Indian rhyme-- but in fact, it’s only the beginning when a male voice accuses them all of various killings! The deaths involve elderly General Mandrake, who was accused of murdering his rival for the woman he loved, and now seems to have Alzheimer's; Emily Brent’s teenage nephew was put in jail because his heartless Auntie Emily thought he had it coming, resulting in the desperate young man hanging himself in prison; Nikki’s hit-and-run killed a young couple; Dr. Armstrong is accused of drunkenness that killed one Mary Cleves; Judge Quincannon is accused of being a “hanging judge” for his own selfish motives; Blore had been hired to watch the guests, though he's not exactly James Bond; Vera is accused of killing her own sister’s fiancee -- jeepers, now that’s sibling rivalry! What’s more, how can we be sure at least some of the accused might be getting a raw deal? Curiouser and curiouser!

A dune to a kill!

Will there be a body count in the guests’ futures, if not lawsuits? Where’s Kayak.com when you really need it? Rogers does what he can as the weekend slowly unravels in terror, what with the guests slowly but surely coming unglued, especially with the body count climbing as each guest is murdered by each new macabre killing, including poor Mrs. Rogers becoming one of the early casualties, supposedly from heart failure. The body count climbs as General Mandrake pushes up daisies; an accidental overdose of his medicine, or something more sinister? Time to face facts: the killer is one of the guests!

Janet! Dr. Scott! Janet! Brad! Rocky!

Emily Brent is the most cold-hearted, if you ask me, not giving a rat’s rectum about her young nephew killing himself; all she cares about is where her next jar of marmalade is coming from! I think it’s safe to say this inn won’t be giving out any five-star ratings anytime soon from Booking.com, even if the guests do even live that long! Suspense blends with deft wit. I especially enjoyed Richard Haydn and his delightful daffy delivery. Even when the body count rises, there’s plenty of comedy along with the dread and suspense.

Who will survive? Watch And Then There Were None on July 21 -- and the 1965 version, too, coming ever so soon!

There is Nothing Like a Dame! We mean Dame Agatha Christie, of course! Here in our latest series of blog posts saluting the talented and prolific films based on the novels of Mrs. Christie, this time we’re watching one of our favorites, Ten Little Indians, the 1965 version (1966 in some posts). Our favorite brother act, The Popkin Brothers, (Impact; D.O.A.) again produced the film, along with co-producer Harry Alan Towers (who deserves an article or even a book, but that, too, is another story). We’ve watched and enjoyed the 1945 version, And Then There WereNone, but this time, Mrs. Christie’s chilling tale gets even more exciting, thanks to screenwriters Peter Yeldham and Towers himself, under the nom de plume“Peter Welbeck”; talk about a man of many faces!

George Pollock, who directed the delightful Miss Marplefilms starring Margaret Rutherford, blends suspense, action, humor and sexy romance with this swell cast, produced by Harry Alan Towers, who also had the rights to Ten Little Indians:

Leo Genn (Oscar-nominee for Quo Vadis; The Snake Pit
Daliah Lavi (Casino Royale; The Silencers)
Dennis Price (Kind Hearts and Coronets; I’m All Right, Jack
Fabian (The Longest Day; North to Alaska
Shirley Eaton (Goldfinger; The Girl Hunters
Wilfrid Hyde-White(The Third Man; My Fair Lady)
Hugh O’Brian (The Shootist; TV’s Wyatt Earp)
Stanley Holloway (The Lavender Hill Mob)
Marriane Hoppe (The Wrong Move; Romance in a Minor Key)
And *Mario Adorf (The Tin Drum; The Bird with the Crystal Plumage)

Similarities between the two film versions
abound, like this "keyhole" shot!

This version has it all: violence, fisticuffs, hot hunks, and beautiful babes; you’ve got Team Bartilucci’s attention, all right! This time, the beleaguered house party guests with targets on their backs are jet-setters in the Swiss Alps (played by Ireland; give our regards to Barry Fitzgerald!). Each guest was lured by invitations, ranging from old friends (O’Brian), movie stars networking, like film star Ilona Bergen (Lavi) and such, invitations supposedly sent from old friends, or promises of hobnobbing with the promise of more movie and/or TV/film roles roles, like film star Ilona Bergen here to hobnob (Lavi); popular but obnoxious rock singer Mike Raven (Fabian); and other devilish ruses to keep our party guests around in hope for more roles and such. It’s the ultimate house-party gone lethally wrong! Malcolm Lockyer’s gorgeously brassy musical scoreheats things up, which will come in handy when the lovely Shirley Eaton and the ruggedly handsome Hugh O’Brian have a super-hot love scene! (I love that this scene is truly sexy and genuinely loving!)

With all the Currier & Ives-style winter wonderland atmosphere, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas — except that nobody knows each other, not even hired secretary Ann Clyde (Eaton). Leave it to a movie star to break the ice, namely renowned actress Ilona Bergen (Lavi):

“How utterly marvelous! You all came to a house party without knowing your host!”
Hugh:“Well, what about you, Miss Bergen?”
Ilona: “Darling, it happens to me all the time!”(Oh, those jaded jet-setters!

Our absent host U.N. Owen takes his sweet time showing up; what would Miss Manners say? Luckily, Judge Cannon (Hyde-White) has a toast for the occasion: “To absent friends, the ten little Indians, and of course, our host.” Keep an eye on your guests, you guys and gals; they might not stay very long, and not just because they’re jet-setters! Soon a chilling, unknown voice breaks the ice with a series of accusations about the guests and the murders in their pasts. The unknown "U.N. Owen (gotta hand it to the fiend, he (or she?) sure has a great sense of gallows humor!

"We've gotta have a romance, by George!"

Fun Fact: The mysterious U.N. Owen’s sinister voice was played by the one and only Christopher Lee!

Our stranded guests finally let their fair down and admit their crimes: General Mandrake sent five men to their deaths to in what turned out to be a tragic blunder, but was decorated anyway; the Grohmanns were accused of a mercy killing by their elderly charges. Ilona had been a British Army Officer’s wife, bored but sticking with him until she finally got a chance to get a screen test, then blowing that Popcicle stand and propelling herself to stardom—and when she dumped her sad hubby, he killed himself in despair, the poor guy. She does seem to have some remorse, though my cynical side has me thinking she was more sorry for herself than anything else. Mandrake knew all about her because Ilona’s husband had been Mandrake’s superior! News travels fast in a snowbound Château! Judge Cannon had convicted a truly evil man, one Edward Seton, including other wicked things he’d done to save time; there’s multitasking for you! And then there was Dr. Armstrong, living (but not for long) while he was literally drinking and driving while drunk, resulting in a killing a young couple.And the body count begins...

Ah, but Owen is far from infallible, at least when it comes to our budding lovers Hugh and Ann! You see, Ann’s disturbed sister had killed her fiancée, and has lived in a mental home ever since. Hugh had come to the Châteaubecause his friend, one Charles Moreley (note the initials “C.S”), had beenhad killed himself after in remorse after being responsible for a young woman’s botched abortion. Oy! How will Hugh and Ann get out of this fix?

I especially got a kick out of the Whodunit Break to give us viewers one minute to see who the killer is: “The Whodunit Break: “…A First in Motion Pictures! Just before the gripping climax of the film, you’ll be given sixty seconds to decide to guess the who the murderer is…WE DARE YOU TO GUESS!”

Personally, I’d like to think the great William Castle is watching this in Heaven and grinning from ear to ear!

It was four years ago today(-ish) on August 22, 2010 - that I began my blog post, Tales of the Easily Distracted, often with my witty and delightful hubby Vinnie Bartilucci as Team Bartilucci! We're still enjoying blogging about our favorite movies every couple of weeks, mostly films with suspense and tongue-in-cheek wry comedy. Most of all, we have been happy to get to know new fellow movie lovers as well as enjoying our longtime friends' awesome blogs I'm also getting back in the saddle to polishing my novel The Paranoia Club; but hey, one thing at a time! What the heck, wish me luck anyway, and Vinnie and I hope you'll all enjoy all the swell upcoming movie fun here and with other swell blogger pals! Now then, let's cut the cake, and watch our favorite movies, old and new, for many more movie delights!

This blog is sponsored byThe O Canada Blogathon, running through Saturday, October Fourth, through October Ninth, 2014,
hosted byRuth from Silver Screenings and Kristina fromSpeakeasy, hosted by Kristina Dijan and R.A. Kerr!

Dori's pick - Two O’Clock Courage (1945): I’m Just Wild About “Harry!”

Anthony Mann is one of film’s most compelling and versatile directors/ producers, covering genres ranging from Westerns, like The Tall Target (1951),starring Dick Powell; and Robert Cummings in The Black Book, a.k.a Reign of Terror (1949) a film noir thriller set during the French Revolution, among others. The multifaceted Mann could do it all, including helming rough and ready urban noirs such as T-Men (1947), Side Street (1950), and Raw Deal (1948), as well as costume epics like the aforementioned The Black Book. Mann especially excelled with his noir-style collaborations with James Stewart, including Winchester '73 (1950), Stewart’s neo-noir Westerns, including The Far Country (1955), Bend of the River (1952), including The Naked Spur(1953); Bend of the River (1952); The Far Country (1955); and The Man From Laramie (1955).

Two O’Clock Courage turned out to be Anthony Mann’s first directorial assignment, a good solid “B” picture” for RKO Radio Pictures! (Say it with me a la The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A: “An RKO Radio Picture. What the heck is a Radio Picture?”). Since then, the film has had a strong following and acclaim, with many of Mann’s signature tropes on display. Two O’Clock Courage was produced at RKO Radio Pictures! Mann’s film may have had a relatively short running-time of fleet-footed 70 minutes, but director Mann shines in his directorial debut. The film weaves suspense and playfully cheeky humor, while blending film noir suspense with wry wit. Fun Fact: The script by Robert E. Kent is full of surprises, including co-writer Robert E. Kent’s original treatment, based on the work of humorist and children’s-book author Gelett Burgess, who I loved as a kid! Who knew Burgess had film noir in his soul as well? Now there’s a gent with range!

You can't get blood from a stone, but you can from
Tom Conway's head! (Big owie!)

The cast blends memorable stars and entertaining character actors, including Richard Lane (Wonder Man;the Boston Blackiemovie series with Lane as Inspector Farraday. Watch for another up-and coming young star, billed as “Bettejane Greer”; she soon rose to stardom as noir temptressJane Greer,who became a film star in Out of the PastandThe Big Steal,as well asthe James Cagney biopicMan Of A Thousand Faces (1957)! Our star is Tom Conway from The Falconfilm series, as well as Cat People; I Walked With A Zombie (1943;) The Seventh Victim (1943) from Val Lewton)! Fun Fact:Conway was also married to Queenie Leonard from And Then There Were None (1945); The Narrow Margin; 1001 Dalmatians (the original Disney animated film!

Beaned, slugged, crowned; it all means the same - Amnesia!

The ever-suave Tom Conwaystars as a mystery man — a man so mysterious, even he doesn’t know who he is! Where’s The Falconwhen you need him?! But that opening scene is swell, starting with a tracking shot of Conway as he staggers up to a street sign, blood trickling slowly from under his hat, is a stylish grabber of an opening that keeps you hooked! This poor dazed guy is lucky our heroine, Patty Mitchell, taxi cab driver by day, would-be stage actress by night, was paying attention when our man-in-distress almost got run over! But when it becomes clear that our guy is in a bad way, kind-hearted Patty helps him to find out who he is as we drive into the night in Patty’s cab, “Harry”! (Yes, that’s what Patty calls her taxicab,“Harry!)

Ann Rutherford - they don't make cabbies like her no more!

Is our man in trouble, or a troublemaker? Can our charming, spunky heroine Patty Mitchell (Ann Rutherford),a cabbie and would-be actress, lend him a hand? Fate steps in just in time to for Patty to save our dazed stranger and would-be stage star, and they’re off to see who our man is, and who wanted him clobbered. The only clue is a script titled "Two’Clock Courage"(Yay, we have title!),and the hot stage star Barbara Borden(Jean Brooks from Val Lewton's The Seventh Victim, as well as several Falcon films; Brooks looks lovely as a blonde, too). In Robert to Osborne’s intro to Two’O ClockCourage, he playfully describes co-star Ann Rutherford as: “the prettiest cab driver you’ve ever seen!”

Even when she was starlet
"Bettejane Greer", Jane Greer
was smokin'!

Ms. Rutherfordhad long been an endearing young MGM ingénue as Mickey Rooney’s sweetie, Polly Benedict at MGM, as well as Red Skelton’s fiancée in the comedy-thriller Whistling in the Darkand its comedy-mystery sequels, not to mention a modest little flick called Gone With The Wind,where our gal Annplayed her sister Carreen at Selznick Studios, plus her MGM days as Andy Hardy’s sweetie, Polly Benedict in the “Andy Hardy” movies. And don’t forget Ann as the dreary yet hilarious fiancée of Danny Kayein The Secret Life of Walter Mitty fromSamuel Goldwyn!

Fun Fact: Ann Rutherford had thought she she’d been a U.S. citizen all her life, until her plans to visit Europe in the 1950s showed her otherwise: our Ann was a Canadian! Happily, she was able to get citizenship papers, and Ann became a citizen of the U.S, fair and square!

Back to Patty and her new amnesiac friend, it’s not all playtime for our no-name hero, by any means! On closer inspection, it turns out the natty gent has a nasty gash on his head, and he can’t remember who he is, despite his sharp clothes. Even worse, Patty realizes this dashing fellow is injured, all dazed with blood dripping (albeit tastefully by 1945 suspense movie standards), without a clue as to where and who he’s from and who he is. Diagnosis from Doctor Dorian: Protagonist on a darkLos Angelesstreet, almost getting run over by our heroine’s taxi! Patty Mitchell ( poor guy almost gets run over by a cab driver, just missing a hit-and-run from our dazed hero)!

This hat band is brimming over with clues!

Luckily for our traumatized fella, he finally catches a break with the help of Patty Mitchell (Rutherford from Gone With The Wind;The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; the comedy-mystery Whistling in the Dark and its three sequels, also in Whistling in the Dark and co-starring Rutherford and Red Skelton) feel sorry for our beleaguered hero. Patty and her trusty hack, Harry – yes, that’s the name of Patty’s cab (Hey, I have a car named “Moonpearl’, so why I shouldn’t our gal Patty have a car called “Harry”? But I digress!) Patty realizes this dashing fellow is injured, all dazed with blood dripping (albeit tastfully by 1945 suspense movie standards), without a clue as to where who from and who he is. Diagnosis from Doctor Dorian: Amnesia, the scourge of every film noir victim, the poor devils! Our man Patty and Patty go all through the night with wit and tenderness between the zanier parts of our caper.

How we had to look things up before Google.
Fun Fact: In addition to being a busy film star at MGM and Samuel Goldwyn(the latter being Goldwyn’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty),Ann Rutherford was also married for many years to David May, the head honcho of the May Department store for the rest of their lives, I’m told, bless them!

Two O’ClockCouragewas a remake from 1936, starring Walter Abel, longtime veteran of movies and Broadway. In fact, Abel played the amnesiac hero in the 1936 suspense drama Two in the Dark, which was remade in 1945 with Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford as Two O’Clock Courage, hence our tale!!

Fun Fact: Tom Conway has a brother: Oscar-winning Best Supporting actor George Sanders, Suave Fall of Fame Winner! He was also the Oscar-winning Best Supporting Actor in All About Eve!

Either "Dave Renwick is a clothes horse,
or he's got a double life!

Ann Rutherford need her papers, - our hero made
sure Patty got hers!

Along the way of this playful mystery, our manat least he east has a name, even though it’s a nickname. Our amnesiac hero just might be a killer, yet he’s equally sure he’s not a killer, goshdarnit! The ever-perky Ann Rutherford plays the young actress/cabbie who takes pity on poor helpless Conway and helps him find both his true identity and the real murderer, with both warmth and zany comedy, including a nosy landlady, complicating this dizzy case with nosy reporters (RichardLane ofWonder Man)and zany comedy. During their search for answers, our man and Patty run into and afoul of L.A.’s Finest as the newspapers start asking for answers, too; it’s always something!

Sometimes the broad comic relief is jarring compared to the overall taut film noir mood, but the pace is fast, and Conway and Rutherford have a charming rapport. Jean Brooks and Tom Conway especially moved me in their dramatic roles. Conway in particular had a sad, haunted look in his eyes that touched our hearts.

Service with a slam!

Vinnie's pick - Strange Brew (1983) - "To Be or Not to be, eh?"

The genesis of Great White North, possibly the most well known recurring skit from SCTV, is as eminently Canadian as the sketch. The show needed two minutes of "local" material to satisfy the stringent rules for Canadian Content. Dave Thomas sarcastically suggested that he and Rick Moranis dress up in flannel and parkas and ramble for two minutes in easy chairs in front of a map of Canada. The producers said that'd be fine, and Canada's favorite sons were born.

After TV fame and a hit record album (featuring a hit single with lead vocals by Geddy Lee from Rush), the world of film was the obvious next step. With a script by Moranis and Thomas with help from Steve De Jarnatt (the devious maniac who brought us Miracle Mile and Cherry 2000), the McKenzies stepped into an expanded cartoony world in a tale that was blatantly ripped off from Hamlet.

We first see the brothers as they introduce their science fiction magnum opus, The Mutants of 2051 A.D. When the film breaks and the audience riots, Bob gives their father's beer money to a distraught father whose kids saved up their allowance to attend the premiere. This requires a clever plan to get their dad some beer, but as they are not clever men, they stuff a mouse in a beer bottle and attempt to complain for free beer. They're sent to the Elsinore (!) brewery, where most of the plot is located.

We meet in rapid succession Pam Elsinore (Lynne Griffin) who is set to inherit the company after the passing of her father, Claude Elsinore (Paul Dooley), her uncle and now step father, who married her mother just a tad too soon after the passing of her father (Like I said, Hamlet) and Brewmeister Smith (Max Von Sydow) a man with plans for world domination through a plan that includes drugged beer, organ music, lunatics, and hockey.

With the exception of Thomas and Moranis, and magnificent character actor Paul Dooley, the cast of the film is largely made up of actors who are World Famous In Canada. Lynne Griffin has had a solid career in Canadian productions, as has Angud MacInnes who played ex-hockey star Jean laRose. Smith's assistant Brian McConnachie, in addition for a steady acting career and a writer for both SCTY and Saturday Night Live, is best known for being a writer for the National Lampoon, which was a vicious and magnificent humor magazine back in the day, as opposed to being nothing more than a brand name you can license and slap on your product like Black and Decker.

"I could crush your head...like a nut.
But I won't. Because I need you."
Shakespeare couldn't have written a better line.

But the star of the film is undoubtedly Max Von Sydow. He is that rarest of actors who can look at a script, figure out exactly how much fun he can have with a role, and deliver a performance that both shines and works perfectly in the film. This is a man who started working with Bergman in great works like The Seventh Seal, played in a TV movie in The Diary of Anne Frank, and yes, I was getting to it, was Ming the Merciless in the nigh-legendary version of Flash Gordon. He's currently filming a part for the next Star Wars film. If there was a just and righteous God in heaven, he would again be playing Ming.

The film takes place in a mad cartoon-logic world where people can stay underwater for almost an hour by breathing the air trapped in empty beer bottles, ghosts communicate via video games, a man can drink an entire vat of beer, and dogs can fly if sufficiently bribed with the promised of beer and bratwurst.

It's a mad film that never fails to bring a smile to my face, and it was a delight popping it into the DVD player to enjoy again. I expect the same will be true for you.

This is posted for The CMBA Forgotten Stars Blogathon, in this case, Kay Francis! Check out the other fabulous stars who deserve a comeback!

“My life? Well, I get up at a quarter to six in the morning if I’m going to wear an evening dress on camera. That sentence sounds a little ga-ga, doesn’t it? But never mind, that’s my life…As long as they pay me my salary, they can give me a broom and I’ll sweep the stage. I don’t give a damn. I want the money... so that no sign of my existence is left on this earth. I can't wait to be forgotten.”
"Kay Francis’ Private Diaries, ca. 1938.”

Kay Francis just might be the biggest of the so-called Forgotten Stars,at least toas far as I’m concerned. Kay came into my life by way of my college days at both Fordham University in the Bronx and courses at both the Bronx and Manhattan branches of Fordham University. Whenever I had time both time andmoney, I’d go to buy film goodies from Movie StarNews, a treasure trove of vintage posters, movie scripts, and so much more wonderful memorabilia from decades of amazing posters and other goodies for us movie lovers. Movie Star News was run by the brother and sister team brother of Irving and Paula Klaw in the Village. Paula kind of gave me the Hairy Eyeball at first (understandably; they treat their wonderful wares like they were their children, and who can blame them?), but when Paula realized we were on the same page, we became friendly, and that was how Kay became one of my favorite classic stars!

Kay might be considered a “forgotten star” here in 2014 (unfairly, at least in this gal’s opinion), but that wasn’t always the case! She is considered the biggest of the “Forgotten Stars” from Hollywood’s Golden Age. In Kay's heyday in the 1930s, she was tagged as “The Queen of Warner Brothers,” with a hefty salary of $115,000, comparable to Bette Davis with $1,800! Nice work if you can get it, indeed!

Ironically, Kay didn’t out start as a movie queen, even though she was the daughter of actress Katherine Clinton, unless you count that Kay’s first job was royalty of another kind: Kay sold real estate and arranged swanky parties for wealthy socialites; I guess that'one way to learn one the ropes! !"Following her marriage in 1922 to wealthy James Dwight Francis, Kay naturally, Kay adopted “Kay Francis” as her stage name. And what a pedigree: Kay’s first dramatic role was as the lead in a modern version of Hamlet, with Kay as “The Player Queen!.”

Throughout the decade of the 1930s, Kay Francis was a top Hollywood star, her career a perfect example of the sort that once flourished in the studio system. A tall, sultry beauty, she wore clothes with style and grace, and her name became synonymous with glamour, fashion and modern womanhood. She starred in stylish comedies such as Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise (1932), and the Marx Brothers's The Cocoanuts (1929), but she is best remembered for her films in which a woman of poise and intelligence "faced life," such as Dr. Monica (1934), Living on Velvet (1935), In Name Only (1939), and House on 56th Street (1933).

Kay Francis and William Powell get in cozy in One Way Passage (1932)

She had limited success in the early 1940s and, no longer able to land good roles, retired from film in 1946. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Francis turned to the stage, appearing with some success on Broadway in State of the Union and touring in various productions of plays old and new, including Windy Hill, TheLast of Mrs. Cheyney, Let Us Be Gay,Favorite Strangers, Goodbye, My Fancy, The Web and the Rock,Mirror, Mirror, and Theatre. She also acted in two television programs. She died in 1968 of breast cancer (damn cancer!).

Kay got her first film rolein the first MarxBrothers comedy, The Cocoanuts (1929), playing Penelope, a slinky jewel thief who gets in the middle of the Marx Brothers’ zany romp during the Florida land boom, with the boys running a hotel (practically into the ground!) and making merry mischief at an auction land, thwarting Penelope and her partner, helping, and generally act like their zany, incorrigible selves. The grey-eyed beauty with the a voice as warm as honey was poised for sound and glamorous in her looks and her poise; no wonder Kay was lauded in her heyday as “Hollywood’s Best Dressed Woman,” with designers like Dorothy Jeakins, Travis Banton and Adrian. After Kay got her big break she became an in-demand a leadingladyin the Ernst Lubitsch comedy Trouble in Paradise (1932); Doctor Monica; One Way Passage (1932), starring another Team Bartilucci favorite,William Powell; I Found Stella Parish (1935);and so much more.
But we're here to celebrate Kay, so let's enjoy two of Team Bartilucci's favorite blog posts saluting our gal Kay!

Kay Francis Double Feature
1: One Way Passage (1932)

I admit it: I usually don’t enjoy “weepies,” those sentimental movies where you’d better get out your hankies. I’d rather watch an MST3TK episode T3K episode, because life is too short to be sad if I don’t have to be! However, I was pleasantly surprised that that One Way Passage had an enjoyable blend of comedy, drama, and tenderness. Kay and William Powell (another Team Bartilucci fave) have worked together before (For the Defence; Jewel Robbery, and the pair work together beautifully under the sure hand of Director Tay Garnett (The Postman Always Rings Twice; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court).Orry-Kelly’s fabulous wardrobe is outrageously over the top, but on Kay, it suits her perfectly, especially her hats and gowns, and Powell’s snappy duds are sharp, too!

One Way Passage is the story of two starcrossed lovers: Dan Hardesty (Powell) a murderer who killed a no-goodnik who needed killing, but Dan’s handler, Steve (Warren Hymer), is a bit more sympathetic to Steve when after Dan saves him from drowning instead of letting him and his "bracelts" scram! Meanwhile, we meet Joan (our gal Kay Francis), a woman who loves life, but has little time left. The doctor suggests quiet, but when she sees the dashing Dan, Joan knows what she wants, and it isn’t peace and quiet; as Auntie Mame would say, “I want to live, live LIVE!” Instead of spending her numbered days sitting in bed with no what-not, Joan is determined to..."cram in all the intense beautiful happiness in what life I've got left. That's all living's for! If it's only for a few hours, I want to have it, and I'm going to have it, all I can get my hands on!" You tell '''em, Kay!, er, Joan! The trick is to keep the sad news for each of them -- why each can't come clean in these kind of movies always bewilders me, but those you know how these star-crossed sweeties are in these films! Anyway, Kay and Powell are so endearing, even a cynic like me can't help loving them, It also helps that the supporting cast is enjoyable, with Aline MacMahon as a con artist posing a countess, and Team Bartilucci fave Frank Mc Hugh as a loveble tippler who nevertheless helps the lovebirds in their zany ways.

Kay Francis 2: Raffles (1930)

Raffles takes that nursery rhryme seriously!

My dear late mom was a woman of many facets, including her love of fashion. She would tell me about the styles of the era, and how dashing actors like Ronald Colman were. With that velvet voice and charm, who would't want to join Raffles in derring do and romance -- other then Inspector MacKenzie, and even HE admits he can't help liking the guy!

Raffles, AKA The Amateur Cracksman, is a right guy, saving his desperate friend Bunny, who's in hock to the bankers. Our clever hero, who has a knack for a caperr with the Marchioness of Melrose. Just one snag: another flock of thieves is muscling in! It's up to Raffles to set things right in his debonair way -- as long as Inspector McKenzie doesn't gum up the works! Luckily, his fiancee, the Lady Gwen (played by our gal Kay) is sympathetic to his zany yet suspenful dilemma.

Wow, who knew Lady Melrose was a cougar, that little minx!

Gwen, my darling, I love you more!
No, my sweet, I love YOU more! No, you!

Alas, Kay’s reign was coming to an end at Warner Brothers; Kay’s salary was getting too expensive for Warner Brothers, and she was pink-slipped when Warner Brothers felt she was getting too expensive to keep. It’s been claimed that Warner Brothers’ writers were sneakily sabotaging Kay with her lisp becoming more noticeable as Kay, it’s said, was ’s “L“L”’ dubbed Kay,"The Wavishing Kay Fwancis" -- wiseguys!

Kay was relegated to Monogram, though she did excellent work like the trouper she was. She did some TV and stage work before she finally decided to retire in 1952. Kay spent the rest of her life in New York and her estate in Falmouth, Cape Cod until, sadly, she died of breast cancer in 1966. She left some of her estate (in excess in of $1 million) to the Seeing Eye Incorporated. Kay’s personal papers are accessible at the Weslyan Cinema Collation, as requested.

Will Kay Francis have a well-deserved renaissance? Well, I agree with other fans like me who agree. So, as Kay and her co-star William Powell in One-Way Passage would say, let’s not say farewell, but instead, let’s say “Say auf wiedersehen,” because I think Kay is due for a renaissance We Kay fans are coming around to rediscover the grey-eyed Kay for a comeback for her, indeed, even a renaissance, if you ask me and other fans! Don’t count her out yet!