Classic Movie Hub Blog

Classic Movie Travels: Valeska Suratt

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Annette Bochenek

Valeska Suratt

Valeska Suratt was born on June 28, 1882, in Owensville, Indiana, to Ralph and Anna Suratt. When Suratt was six years old, her family relocated to Terre Haute, Indiana. By 1899, she dropped out of school to work at a photography studio, later moving to Indianapolis, Indiana, to work as an assistant in a department store millinery.

Suratt had an interest in performing, and eventually began working as an actress onstage in Chicago, Illinois. She began by working in vaudeville and was part of a duo act with Billy Gould. The two of them had an Apache dance number. Gould and Suratt married in 1904.

Suratt made her Broadway debut in The Belle of Mayfair, followed by additional roles. In 1908, Suratt and her husband had separated and ultimately divorced in 1911. During this time, she started a solo singing act, wearing intricate gowns. In 1910, she gained notoriety for appearing in a show called The Girl with the Whooping Cough which was deemed “salacious” by New York City mayor William Jay Gaynor and was shut down due to its suggestive themes.

valeska suratt the girl with the whooping cough — The Girl with the Whooping Cough

In the same year, she partnered with Fletcher Norton for another duo act. She and Norton married in 1911 and remained together for eight weeks before divorcing.

Suratt self-proclaimed herself as “Vaudeville’s Greatest Star” but was more known for the high-fashion clothing she wore onstage. For this reason, she was nicknamed “Empress of Fashions.” Moreover, she is purported to be one of the models for Gibson Girl sketches.

In 1915, she turned to film roles, signing with Fox. She was portrayed as a vamp, cast as a seductive character in her film roles. Her first film appearance occurred in The Soul of Broadway (1915), in which she reportedly wore more than 150 gowns. In 1916, she traveled internationally to France for the purpose of buying costumes and motion picture equipment; to Great Britain as a special representative of William Fox; and to Monte Carlo to select motion picture locations. Altogether, she performed in 11 silent films during her film career. Today, all of them are considered lost films.

In 1920, her career waned due to vaudeville’s decline and the vamp image no longer being popular among moviegoers. To complicate matters, she and scholar Mirza Ahmad Sohrab sued Cecil B. DeMille for purportedly stealing the scenario for The King of Kings (1927) from them. The case was ultimately settled without publicity and Suratt was unofficially blacklisted following the lawsuit.

In the 1930s, Suratt was living in a cheap New York City hotel, nearly destitute. Novelist Fannie Hurst discovered her situation and organized a benefit for her, raising $2000. Soon after receiving the funds, Suratt spent the funds while gambling and was penniless again.

Suratt tried to restore her career and funds by selling her life story to newspapers, but one reporter who read the manuscript noted that Suratt was writing about herself as the mother of God. Suratt’s career was never revived in any capacity.

Suratt died in a nursing home in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1962. She was a member of the Bahai faith and her ashes were interred at Highland Lawn Cemetery in Terre Haute, Indiana. She was 80 years old.

Today, few places of relevance to Suratt remain. In 1910, she resided at 47 E. 44^th St., New York, New York. This location no longer remains.

However, her 1925 home at 306 W. 76^th, New York, New York, remains.

In addition, in 1931, she lived at 240 W. 98^th St., New York, New York, which also stands.

For 60 years, Suratt’s grave was unmarked. A local fundraising campaign led to the grave finally being marked in 2022. In addition, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett declared June 28 Valeska Suratt Day in Terre Haute during a proclamation. Presently, this is the most significant tribute to Suratt.

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–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek pens our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. You can read all of Annette’s Classic Movie Travel articles here.

Annette Bochenek of Chicago, Illinois, is a PhD student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the Hometowns to Hollywood blog, in which she writes about her trips exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the “Hometowns to Hollywood” film series throughout the Chicago area. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies and is the president of TCM Backlot’s Chicago chapter. In addition to writing for Classic Movie Hub, she also writes for Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Chicago Art Deco SocietyMagazine.

Posted in Classic Movie Travels, Posts by Annette Bochenek | Tagged jealousy, the girl with the whooping cough, valeska suratt | Leave a comment

Western RoundUp: Lone Pine Film Festival 2024

Posted on October 30, 2024 by Laura Grieve

Lone Pine Film Festival 2024

I had an amazing time again this year at the annual Lone Pine Film Festival held in Lone Pine, California.

This was the 34th festival, of which I’ve attended around 10. As has become our habit in recent years, we arrived in town a day ahead of the four-day event so my husband could prepare for his volunteer work guiding three horseback movie location tours.

Lone Pine, as I’ve written about here many times, was a filming location in hundreds of Westerns. The festival focuses mainly, though not exclusively, on movies shot in the Lone Pine area, and it includes numerous movie location tours along with screenings and discussions.

Below is a plaque in the Alabama Hills outside town, located at the intersection of Whitney Portal Road and Movie Road. It commemorates the extensive filming which has taken place here and was dedicated by Roy Rogers in 1990.

The festival got underway on Thursday, October 10th, with its annual opening night barbecue in the parking lot of Lone Pine’s Museum of Western Film History.

Festival guests seen at the barbecue included actor Bruce Boxleitner; Joel McCrea’s grandson Wyatt and his wife Lisa; and stuntman Diamond Farnsworth, son of actor-stuntman Richard Farnsworth:

Bruce Boxleitner; Joel McCrea's grandson Wyatt and his wife Lisa; and stuntman Diamond Farnsworth, son of actor-stuntman Richard Farnsworth — Bruce Boxleitner, Wyatt and Lisa McCrea, and Diamond Farnsworth

Another opening night shot of film historians Scott Eyman with his wife, Lynn Kalber; Alan K. Rode; and Michael Blake.

Additional guests at this year’s festival included Patrick Wayne, Robert Carradine, Darby Hinton, Rory Flynn (daughter of Errol), Cheryl Rogers Barnett (daughter of Roy Rogers and stepdaughter of Dale Evans), Sandra Slepski (niece of actor Tom Tyler), and Jay Dee Witney (son of director William Witney).

The very congenial Rory Flynn is seen here with Rob Word before a screening of her father’s Rocky Mountain (1950) on Friday evening.

After the barbecue it was off to the Lone Pine High School auditorium for the opening night movie, a 75th anniversary screening of John Ford’s classic She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), starring John Wayne.

Prior to the movie moderator Rob Word interviewed Wayne’s son Patrick and Michael Blake. Blake, the son of actor Larry Blake and a renowned movie makeup artist in his own right, is also a film historian whose latest book is The Cavalry Trilogy: John Ford, John Wayne, and the Making of Three Classic Westerns. One of that trio, of course, is She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

This year, in addition to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, I enjoyed watching two episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel filmed in Lone Pine – “The Outlaw” and “The Bride” – along with a 28-minute short, The Prospector (1998), and four feature films, Rip Roarin’ Buckaroo (1936), The Arizona Ranger (1948), Cattle Empire (1958), and Trail of Robin Hood (1950).

Below, filmmakers Owen Renfroe and Jeremy Arnold with moderator C. Courtney Joyner after the screening of their very enjoyable short silent movie The Prospector, which was filmed entirely in the Alabama Hills:

Rip Roarin’ Buckaroo was accompanied by an interview of Tyler’s niece, Sandra Slepski, by Henry C. Parke; Tyler had lived with her family in his last years and she knew him well. Tyler also had supporting roles in two other films seen over the weekend, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Trail of Robin Hood.

Sandra Slepski interviewed by Henry C. Parke — Sandra Slepski and Henry C. Parke

Cattle Empire included Steve Latshaw interviewing Wyatt McCrea about the movie’s star, his grandfather Joel McCrea. It’s always a great pleasure to hear Wyatt’s remembrances of his grandfather.

In what Latshaw later told me was a “pinch me” moment, he interviewed Cheryl Rogers Barnett, Jay Dee Witney, and Republic Pictures expert Bart Romans at the Trail of Robin Hood screening. Barnett and Witney were both on the film’s set as young children, and Barnett even had a bit role with a line of dialogue asking costar Jack Holt for his autograph.

Steve Latshaw interviewed Cheryl Rogers Barnett, Jay Dee Witney, and Republic Pictures expert Bart Romans — Bart Romans, Cheryl Rogers Barnett, Jay Dee Witney, and Steve Latshaw

Trail of Robin Hood is a charming Western Christmas film which I wrote about here back in 2018. The movie is greatly loved by many, including director Quentin Tarantino; I find his love for this innocent movie a bit ironic given the types of movies he makes! In fact, when Tarantino filmed Django Unchained (2012) in Lone Pine he even used Trail of Robin Hood director William Witney’s clapperboard, which is on display in the museum:

I also had the pleasure of hearing Michael Curtiz biographer Alan K. Rode interviewed by Henry C. Parke regarding Curtiz’s The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), which filmed in Lone Pine and starred Errol Flynn.

One of my favorite experiences during the festival was an evening at Cuffe Ranch, which I’d never visited in previous trips to Lone Pine. George Montgomery filmed the Zane Grey tale Riders of the Purple Sage (1941) there, and a “waterfall” was created at the ranch in the location seen here.

What was a bit mind-blowing was that a water hose and plaster of Paris used by the production company are still in place on this rock over 80 years later! The hose is held here by Lone Pine tour guide coordinator Greg Parker.

Speaking of George Montgomery, he was also a talented artist, and his sculpture of Randolph Scott is one of my favorite things in the Museum of Western Film History. The chance to spend considerable time exploring the exhibits and memorabilia in the museum is another wonderful aspect of the festival.

Randolph Scott sculpture by George Montgomery

Of course, it wouldn’t be the Lone Pine Film Festival without going on at least a couple of movie location tours! In addition to exploring the Alabama Hills with friends, we took two official festival tours this year, Don Kelsen’s Have Gun, Will Travel tour and Dennis Liff’s Nevada (1944) tour.

Below, a group can be seen investigating where Robert Mitchum filmed Nevada early in his career, on his way to movie stardom:

Here’s a beautiful Sunday morning shot of festival guests Jeremy Arnold, Diamond Farnsworth, and Wyatt McCrea, with Lone Pine Peak and Mount Whitney in the background. Mt. Whitney, seen in the deep background to the right of center, is the highest point in the contiguous United States.

Finally, a favorite photo of this author with some of the great people I was privileged to spend time with in Lone Pine this year, Alan K. Rode, Scott Eyman, and Bruce Boxleitner.

Alan K. Rode, Scott Eyman, Laura Grieve, and Bruce Boxleitner

I’ve covered the festival and Lone Pine locations here numerous times over the years, and I invite anyone interested in Lone Pine’s history – or planning a trip! – to visit the past Western RoundUp columns linked below.

Lone Pine movie locations: 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Lone Pine Film Festival: 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023.

For more information, please visit the Museum of Western Film History and Lone Pine Film Festival websites.

As can be seen from all of the above, the Lone Pine Film Festival is absolutely packed with many wonderful movie-related experiences, and I hope to see more of my readers there in 2025!

The photographs accompanying this article are from the author’s personal collection.

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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.

Posted in Posts by Laura Grieve, Western RoundUp | Tagged Alan K Rode, bart romans, bruce boxleitner, c courtney joyner, cheryl rogers barnett, diamond farnsworth, henry c parke, Jay Dee Witney, jeremy arnold, Lone Pine, Lone Pine Film Festival, lynn kalber, michael blake, owen renfroe, patrick wayne, rob word, rory flynn, sandra slepski, Scott Eyman, steve latshaw, Wyatt McCrea | 10 Comments

Noir Nook: Noir’s Scariest Characters

Posted on October 27, 2024 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Noir Nook: Noir’s Scariest Characters

October is a month for ghosts and goblins, bats and jack-o’-lanterns, black cats and skeletons. Not necessarily the characteristics that come to mind when one thinks of film noir.

But there’s one thing that’s common to both October and noir – scary characters.

In the spirit of the month, I’m taking a look at four of my favorite scary folks from the classic film noir era – men and women who embody the concept of “looking out for number one.” They have no arc, as they possess no redeeming qualities; it’s their sociopathic self-absorption, their mercenary self-indulgence, and their unyielding sense of self-preservation that makes them so darn scary.

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Mr. Brown (Richard Conte) in The Big Combo (1955)

Scary Characters, Richard Conte, The Big Combo — Richard Conte, The Big Combo

The Big Combo stars Cornel Wilde as police lieutenant Richard Diamond, who has a single-minded determination to bring to justice a mobster by the name of Mr. Brown. He also happens to be obsessed with Mr. Brown’s troubled girlfriend (played by Wilde’s real-life wife, Jean Wallace).

Mr. Brown is one of the most ruthless dudes you’ll ever want (or don’t want) to encounter – we see him methodically arranging the elimination of anyone possessing information that might lead to his downfall, and that includes his right-hand man (Brian Donlevy) and his two devoted underlings, Mingo (Earl Holliman) and Fante (Lee Van Cleef). They’re all completely disposable. And Mr. Brown has even less regard for Lt. Diamond; in a typical demonstration, he has his minions abduct Brown, then proceeds to torture him by blasting music in his ear and pouring hair tonic down his throat. He’s not a nice guy.

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Margot Shelby (Jean Gillie) in Decoy (1946)

Scary Characters, Jean Gillie, Decoy — Jean Gillie, Decoy

The plot of Decoy is one of noir’s most unique: convicted criminal Frankie Olins (Robert Armstrong) is sentenced to death for knocking off an armored car and making off with a cool $400,000. He refuses to divulge where he’s hidden the money, but his devoted (and I use the word loosely) lover, Margot, has a plan – to team up with a local doctor, arrange for Frankie to be resuscitated after his execution . . . and then get her hands on that money.

Margot is a classic femme fatale; she’s an expert at employing her wiles to get her way. She applies a combination of sweet talk, promises of favors (you know the kind), and hard-boiled street smarts to ensnare and juggle three men at the same time: Frankie; his henchman, Jim Vincent (Edward Norris); and the hapless doctor (Herbert Rudley), using each of them and then, like Mr. Brown, discarding of them when they’ve served their purpose. She even manages to wrap the local detective (Sheldon Leonard) around her finger – no male is safe with her around.

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Charlie Oakley (Joseph Cotten) in Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Scary Characters, Joseph Cotten, Shadow Of A Doubt — Joseph Cotten, Shadow Of A Doubt

Young Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) is bored with her humdrum life in picturesque Santa Rosa, California, but she’s delighted when her family gets a visit from her beloved uncle, after whom she was named. Unfortunately, before long, Young Charlie’s jubilance turns to dread as she begins to suspect that her uncle is the “Merry Widow” serial killer being sought by police.

Uncle Charlie is charming, affable, sophisticated – everything admirable to a young girl. But it doesn’t take long for us to see that there’s something very wrong with Uncle Charlie; there are numerous clues, like when he roughly grabs his niece after she discovers a newspaper article he’s tried to hide, or when he starts talking about wealthy widows, calling them “horrible, faded, fat, greedy women.” It soon becomes apparent that Uncle Charlie views the entire world with contempt – and his namesake is no different.

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Vera (Ann Savage) in Detour (1945)

Scary Characters, Ann Savage, Detour — Ann Savage, Detour

Tom Neal stars as Al Roberts, a piano player who gets more than he bargained for when he hitchhikes from New York to California to join his singer-girlfriend. First, Roberts catches a ride with a well-heeled gambler, Charles Haskell (Edmund MacDonald), but when the man winds up dead, Al panics, leaves Haskell on the side of the road, and takes his car. And when Al picks up a hitchhiker of his own – Vera – things really kick into high gear.

Unlike Margot, Vera isn’t your typical femme fatale. When we first meet her, she’s dusty from travel, with an unkempt hairdo and a simple pencil skirt and blouse, and she falls asleep soon after she and Al get back on the road. But when she wakes up, she’s got fire in her eyes and accusations on her lips. She knows Al’s car belongs to Charles Haskell and she suspects that Al “kissed him with a wrench.” From that moment on, Vera is in charge; she doesn’t utilize feminine charms, but aggression and threats, forcing Al into a series of actions that he’s too afraid to challenge. And we don’t blame him. Vera is one scary dame.

Who are some of your scariest noir characters? Leave a comment and let me know!

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages.
If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:

Posted in Noir Nook, Posts by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry | Tagged Ann Savage, decoy, detour, jean gillie, joseph cotten, richard conte, shadow of a doubt, the big combo | 5 Comments

Silents Are Golden: A Closer Look At “London After Midnight” (1927)

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Lea Stans

A Closer Look At “London After Midnight” (1927)

It’s probably the most famous, most sought-after lost silent film of all time: London After Midnight (1927), starring the screen legend Lon Chaney and directed by the macabre-minded Tod Browning. Despite constant attempts to track it down, it remains stubbornly elusive–in spite of the classic film community’s annual April Fool’s Day gags claiming, “It’s resurfaced at last!”

But even though no footage currently exists, you might be surprised to know that the original 1927 continuity script survives in full–giving us a shot-by-shot view of precisely what the film is like. When we examine this script along with surviving stills and reviews, we find that London After Midnight was perhaps less of a horror film and more of a convoluted murder mystery drama. Still, it remains tantalizing to imagine the Gothic atmosphere and imagery that we might never get to experience.

lon chaney london after midnight — Lon Chaney

Nicknamed the “Edgar Allan Poe” of classic cinema, Tod Browning was certainly the right fit for this ghoulish story. A veteran of carnivals and circuses, he started performing in films in the mid-1910s and soon became a director. Specializing in crime films and mystery stories, he had a deep interest in the macabre and enjoyed revolving his plots around “freakish” characters. Happily, the multi-talented Lon Chaney had both the acting and the makeup skills to bring such twisted characters to life, and he would make a number of classic dramas with Browning.

After the release of The Unknown (1927), Browning worked with scenario writer Waldemar Young to craft an original murder mystery story revolving around vampires. The cast would include Chaney, the beautiful Marceline Day (who would soon costar with Buster Keaton in 1929’s The Cameraman), the dignified Henry B. Walthall, clean-cut Conrad Nagel and slapstick comedienne Polly Moran. It was filmed at MGM Studios and Culver City for the approximate cost of $152,000.00.

Apparently, a lot of creativity went into the spooky atmosphere. Scenes in and around the Balfour mansion included owls and armadillos–much like Browning would use in Dracula (1931)–as well as bats. Chaney’s eye-popping makeup was achieved by holding back his eyelids with wires fitted around his eye sockets. The mouthpiece he wore with its signature sharp teeth was painfully uncomfortable and he only kept it in a few minutes at a time. His character’s long-ish hair, beaver hat, and lantern-carrying evidently made such an impression that similar-looking “crypt keeper” costumes are common around Halloween today.

Lon Chaney and Edna Tichenor (Bat Girl), London After Midnight — Lon Chaney (Man in the Beaver Hat) and Edna Tichenor (Bat Girl)

So, what was the plot of London After Midnight?A rough summary: Roger Balfour is found dead in his London mansion of a gunshot wound, and Inspector Burke of Scotland Yard investigates the death and declares it a suicide. But Sir James Hamlin, the executor of Balfour’s estate who lives next door, says the man wasn’t suicidal. Hamlin takes in Balfour’s teenaged daughter Lucille, who grows up to be a lovely young woman.

The Balfour house sits abandoned for five years and then two strange renters move in: the freakish “Man in the Beaver Hat,” and his ghoul-like companion the “Bat Girl.” Hamlin suspects the two were involved in Balfour’s death and brings Inspector Burke back on the case. Soon creepy events start happening: Balfour’s body disappears from its tomb, the maid is frightened by the Man in the Beaver Hat, Burke sees a ghoulish figure trying to enter his room and wounds it with a gunshot, and the undead Balfour himself is somehow spotted inside the mansion.

Burke believes hypnosis can make murder suspects relive past events, and tries putting the suspects into a trance. Then Lucy is kidnapped and whisked off to the spooky mansion. Burke sends Hamlin to the house and the mysterious Man in the Beaver Hat puts him into a trance. This turn of events actually winds up solving the mystery of Balfour’s death–and we learn just who the spooky tenants are, too.

lon chaney, london after midnight closeup

This doesn’t cover all the details of the confusing plot, which was frequently criticized at the time. In their review, the New Yorker wrote: “…It strives too hard to create effect. Mr. Browning can create pictorial terrors and Lon Chaney can get himself up in a completely repulsive manner, but both their efforts are wasted when the story makes no sense.” Variety wrote similarly: “Young, Browning and Chaney have made a good combination in the past but the story on which this production is based is not of the quality that results in broken house records.” However, not all the reviews were lukewarm. The Film Daily’s review just might make your longing for this film to turn up even stronger: “If [sensitive patrons] don’t get the creeps from flashes of grimy bats swooping around, cobweb-bedecked mystery chambers and the grotesque inhabitants of the haunted house, then they’ve passed the third degree.”

London After Midnight was clearly part of the “eerie mansion” mystery movie trend of the 1920s, other examples being The Bat (1926), The Gorilla (1927) and The Cat and the Canary (1927). These types of films abound with murder mysteries and mansions haunted by ghouls. Interestingly enough, in the U.S. silent films supernatural explanations were never involved. Maybe this served to keep from offending religious groups, or maybe “actual” ghosts were deemed too scary.

London After Midnight’s box office is thought to be over $1,000,000–not bad for its budget. And then it seemed to drop out of sight. One print was known to have existed in the MGM vaults until 1965. The last people who viewed it were likely historians David Bradley and William K. Everson, who watched it in the early 1950s (they said that much of the film revolved around Burke’s detective scenes and Polly Moran’s comic relief). Sadly, in August of 1965 the storage vault caught on fire, completely annihilating the print and many others.

But in spite of that abrupt end the memory of this strange Browning film stayed alive, mainly through the efforts of Forrest J. Ackerman, the editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland. Ackerman featured stills from London After Midnight in several issues, helping it to achieve the status of the Holy Grail of Lost Silents ever since. In more recent years, books on silent horror have covered the film and Turner Classic Movies featured a reconstructed version using the existing continuity and surviving stills. And fans and historians continue to hold onto hope that in the not-too-distant future, footage of Chaney in that startling makeup will somehow, someday make it back to the big screen.

the monsters comic book, London After Midnight

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–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.

Posted in Posts by Lea Stans, Silents are Golden | Tagged edna tichenor, Lon Chaney, London After Midnight, Tod Browning | Leave a comment

Silver Screen Standards: House on Haunted Hill (1959)

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Jennifer Garlen

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

I fell in love with the wacky low-budget horror films of the 1950s and 60s as a kid, when public domain chillers aired late at night and I secretly stayed up to watch them on the tiny black-and-white TV in my room. I didn’t pay much attention to the filmmakers behind them then, but by the time Matinee (1993) hit theaters I was in college and knew enough to recognize a tribute to horror king William Castle, who never met a gimmick he didn’t like. House on Haunted Hill (1959) is probably the most famous and widely available of Castle’s horror pictures, and it’s a great favorite at my house, especially around Halloween. What could be more fun than Vincent Price and Elisha Cook, Jr. in a spooky house full of possible ghosts and at least one very real murderer? It’s not particularly scary by modern horror standards, but House on Haunted Hill has all the charm of an old school haunted house ride, with jump scares, skeletons, bleeding ceilings, and lots of macabre humor.

House on Haunted Hill, Vincent Price and Carol Ohmart — Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) is unhappily married to Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), who returns his hatred in equal measure.

Vincent Price takes the lead as wealthy Frederick Loren, who invites a select group of guests to spend the night at a supposedly haunted house. Although his wife, Annabelle (Carol Ohmart), dislikes Frederick’s plans, the rest of the party agree to attend because Frederick promises to pay each of them $10,000 if they stay until morning. The owner of the house, Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook, Jr.), warns the others that the ghosts are eager to add to their number, and soon enough strange happenings set everyone on edge, especially young Nora Manning (Carolyn Craig). When Annabelle is found hanged in the middle of the night, the guests realize that a murderer must be hiding among them.

House on Haunted Hill, Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook, Jr.), Ruth (Julie Mitchum), Nora (Carolyn Craig), and Lance (Richard Long) — Watson Pritchard (Elisha Cook, Jr.) tours the house with Ruth (Julie Mitchum), Nora (Carolyn Craig), and Lance (Richard Long).

House on Haunted Hill boasts a surprisingly good cast for a low-budget horror movie, with Price in fine form as the sardonic party host. Carol Ohmart radiates ice cold beauty and malice as Annabelle; she and Price have some delightfully scathing scenes together early in the picture, and it’s great fun to see how much they loathe one another as they trade pet names and barbed remarks. Elisha Cook, Jr. cracks up brilliantly as the traumatized Watson, who serves as the keeper of the house’s gruesome history and a true believer in its supernatural residents. Julie Mitchum, sister of the more famous Robert, drinks her way through a series of scotches as Ruth Bridges, while Alan Marshal frequently opines about hysteria as the psychiatrist David Trent. There’s a budding romance between Carolyn Craig’s Nora and Lance, a dashing pilot played by Richard Long, although their all-American normalcy is threatened by the weird things that keep happening to an increasingly terrified Nora. While Castle even credits the skeleton for playing itself, I have to give props to silent film veteran Leona Anderson, here making her final screen appearance as the aptly named Mrs. Slydes. She has no lines, but she sure can make an entrance.

House on Haunted Hill, Leona Anderson — Mrs. Slydes (Leona Anderson) might be the scariest thing in the whole movie.

The solid cast and Castle’s trademark gimmicks breathe new life into the familiar “old dark house” genre that springs from classic Gothic tales of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In its original theatrical run, Castle rigged “Emergo” effects that flew a skeleton over the audience at key moments (feel free to have a friend throw a plastic skeleton over the couch if you need to recreate this effect at home). House on Haunted Hill continues the tradition of films like The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Old Dark House (1932), The Ghost Walks (1934), and many others that depict a group of people spending the night in a spooky mansion, although the crowning achievement of the genre would come a few years later with The Haunting (1963). Without spoiling too much of the plot, I’ll point out that House on Haunted Hill is also an example of a type of Gothic first mastered by the novelist Ann Radcliffe, in which the appearance of the supernatural is eventually explained to the reader/audience. Radcliffe’s 1794 novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho, is still a great read if you want to dive deep into the genre’s history.For the original old dark house in Gothic fiction, you have to go even farther back to Horace Walpole’s 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto, which involves such spectacular supernatural events that I wish William Castle had made a film adaptation of it. Walpole and Castle would have been a match made in spooky Gothic heaven, and Vincent Price could even have played the villain.

A menacing skeleton confronts Annabelle ICarol Ohmart) in the basement — A menacing skeleton confronts Annabelle in the basement.

Castle actually directed his own version of The Old Dark House in 1963, but of his other films I especially enjoy The Tingler (1959), which also stars Vincent Price, and 13 Ghosts (1960), just because it’s bonkers. If you want even more, try Mr. Sardonicus (1961) and Strait-Jacket (1964). Several of Castle’s pictures have been remade, but I much prefer the originals, even if the 1999 House on Haunted Hill features Geoffrey Rush looking a lot like Vincent Price. If you love campy classic horror but haven’t yet seen it, I absolutely recommend tracking down Matinee, in which John Goodman plays the showman inspired by William Castle.

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— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub

Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.

Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.

Posted in Posts by Jennifer Garlen, Silver Screen Standards | Tagged carol ohmart, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr, house on haunted hill, Julie Mitchum, leona anderson, Richard Long, vincent price | Leave a comment

Monsters and Matinees: 8 horror films turning 80

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Toni Ruberto

Monsters and Matinees: 8 horror films turning 80

Turning 80 is a big deal for anyone – or anything for that matter and that includes movies.

We’ve lost thousands of films through the decades and never for a good reason. Some because they were shot on highly combustible nitrate film, others from neglect, because of old age or even because they were thrown out.

That’s reason to celebrate when we are able to watch films old enough to have their own AARP card. Movies from 1944 turned 80 in 2024 and we shouldn’t take it for granted that we can still watch them today. Yes, some may look their age, but then there’s a restored gem like the atmospheric ghost story The Uninvited that looks as beautiful as it did 80 years ago (at least in my eyes).

Eight of the horror films that turned 80 in 2024.

Among other horror films turning the Big 8-0 are two Mummy films released within months of each other, a fun Universal monster mash-up and a well regarded take on Jack the Ripper. You’ll notice the names of Chaney, Carradine and Zucco show up multiple times.

Here’s a quick look at just eight films from 1944. All deserve their own story, and all deserve to be watched. Have fun.

Cry of the Werewolf

Nina Foch was only 20 at the time she made this film about a young woman plagued by a curse. It deserves high marks stylistically and for spinning a good old-fashioned monster yarn. It makes great use of the creature being a woman, especially in a closeup that shows female legs in high heels that become the feet of an animal as her human shadow turns into a beast.

The film opens like we’re listening to a ghost story around a campfire but we’re inside the LaTour Museum in New Orleans where our tour guide is weaving tales about “werewolfism, vampirism and voodoism.” One story is of the former mistress of the house, Marie LaTour, thought to be a werewolf who disappeared after killing her husband. Young Celeste LaTour is their daughter who was raised by gypsys and finally learns about her “matriarchal inheritance” (i.e. curse) that is her destiny.

Destiny yes, but it also keeps poor Celeste from the man she loves, and we can’t help but empathize with her even as she wants his fiancée to suffer, like she is. “Since I am forbidden to love him, so shall you be. You will learn to live as I must live – apart – beyond the reach of men and mortals.” Yes, the movie is fun that way.

The Curse of the Cat People

This “sequel” to Cat People has three of the same characters and producer Val Lewton, yet it’s often said that the two films don’t have much in common. I disagree. It picks up the story of Oliver (Kent Smith) and Alice (Jane Randolph), carries the same dreamlike beauty of the original and has the specter of the late Irena (Simone Simon) hanging over the film.

Now married, Oliver and Alice have a 6-year-old daughter named Amy (Ann Carter), a sweet, withdrawn child who would rather play with butterflies than her school mates, and loses herself in a world of imaginary friends. Amy is a “sensitive” girl, which worries Oliver who sees similarities with Irena whose belief that cats were her friends led to her tragic death. He blames himself and won’t let the same thing happen to his daughter.

Amy is gifted a ring from a strange old actress named Julia (Julia Dean) and, believing it to be a wishing ring, asks for a friend and Irena appears. We don’t know if Irena is really there, but there is a peaceful feeling to these scenes with Irena often appearing in rays of light like an angel. Darkness comes at Julia’s garish Victorian home, especially when her stern daughter Barbara (Elizabeth Russell) appears covered in shadows. Here’s the rub: Julia believes her daughter died at age 6 – yes, the same age as Amy – and calls Barbara an imposter. Questions like how the child died and what it has to do with Amy are never answered, but this subplot does add a sense of danger for young Amy.

“Curse of the Cat People” is an intriguing psychological thriller that asks what is real, what is imagined and what is supernatural. It’s up to viewers to decide and I always believe the supernatural choice.

House of Frankenstein

Three monsters – and four favorite actors – all in in one film! Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange), Dracula (John Carradine) and the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) are linked together by the nefarious Dr. Gustav Niemann (Boris Karloff) who continues the work of Victor Frankenstein after he breaks out of prison and seeks revenge.

To do that, he uses other people who tend to suffer tragic outcomes like Professor Lampini (George Zucco) whose traveling Chamber of Horrors includes Dracula’s skeleton with dirt from Transylvania and a stake in the heart. (Hmm, what happens if you remove the stake?). There’s the sad hunchback Daniel (J. Carrol Naish) who he promises to cure. And finally, the saddest of the sad, poor Lawrence Talbot (Chaney), our wolfman. Each character has something Niemann wants in his quest to resurrect Frankenstein’s monster who he has found in an icy grave. (See the 1943 film, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man for how that happened.)

Throw in some pathos as our heartbreaking werewolf and hunchback both fall in love with the same woman, a young gypsy dancer played by Elena Dervugo who later would star in Marcus Welby, M.D. Bonus: There’s a return to Frankenstein’s castle with angry villagers.

The Lodger

This taut thriller is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film of the same name, that was based off the 1913 novel by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes about Jack the Ripper. The story focuses on a landlady who fears her new boarder could be the man behind the Whitechaple murders.

It has a great cast starting with Laird Creager as the title character. The actor’s naturally imposing stature – he stood 6′ 3″ and weighed more than 300 pounds – would seem to take away the mystery of whether he is or isn’t the Ripper, but Creager does well in keeping us guessing. Merle Oberon plays Kitty, the landlord’s niece who is a music hall performer. (Shame on her – we know how Jack the Ripper feels about women who show their body!). George Sanders is the elegant inspector on the case who, of course, will fall for Kitty.

The Lodger is one of multiple films in this list that benefits from great cinematography. Lucien Ballard (whose later work included The Wild Bunch), gave the movie a noirish look that added to the tension-filled drama. Ballard and Oberon married after meeting on this film and would go on to make four more films together.

Lon Chaney Jr. returns as Kharis the mummy who searches
for his princess in The Mummy’s Ghost.

The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse

The Universal Mummy films began in 1932 with the Boris Karloff classic and spawned multiple sequels in the 1940s. The sequels all carry on the story of Imhotep who was cruelly mummified alive after attempting to resuscitate his beloved Princess Anck-es-en-Amo. He will spend eternity searching for her if he must. Each subsequent film starts with yet another discovery of the mummy, his search for his princess, and a race between scholars and devoted Egyptian high priests to find him for their own reasons.

The plots are really that simple. Sometimes the names change – Imhotep becomes Kharis and the princess is Ananka – but the story remains formulaic, easy to digest and quick to move (each film is only about an hour long).

The Mummy’s Ghost is set in Mapleton, Mass. where the events of the 1942 film The Mummy’s Tomb took place, leaving the town in terror. Professor Norman (Frank Reicher) is sharing the background of the mummy with his students (and the film viewers so we know what’s going on), which of course they don’t believe. Tom, one of his students, visits his girlfriend Amina who is of Egyptian descent and goes into an almost trance-like state at talk of Egypt or the mummy. Hmm, wonder where Ananka’s soul has been reincarnated? Lon Chaney Jr. returns as Kharis for the second time, John Carradine is Yousef Bey and George Zucco is High Priest Andoheb.

The Mummy’s Curse comes 25 years later and is “set” again in Mapleton. If it feels more like Louisiana to you, it’s OK. That’s what French accents, talk of bayous and a character named Cajun Joe will do. An engineering company is trying to drain the swamp that was the setting of the end scene in The Mummy’s Ghost. Terrified workers believe the mummy and his princess haunt the area, leaving bodies in their wake. When bodies do start to appear, it confirms their worst fears. What sets this film apart from the others is an unsettling and effective sequence involving the resurrection of Anaka (Virginia Christine) who rises from underground and stumbles while her body jerks to life. It’s an exceptional performance that was ahead of its time (see the TV series The Walking Dead). An interesting note about the exotic looking Virginia Christine: she is best remembered for her role as Mrs. Olson in a series of Folgers coffee commercials.

The Uninvited

The Uninvited is the most unexpected of ghost stories, one with grace and beauty along with chills. Though there are scary moments, it haunts me most with its gorgeous score that uses the song Stella by Starlight to great effect and the moody, atmospheric cinematography by Charles Lang.

The plot is a brilliant mix of ghost story, mystery and romance. Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey are siblings who buy an house on a seaside cliff in Cornwall that they will learn comes with an inhabitant or two. Unusual sounds and sobbing will be heard, there is a strange draft on the stairs, and other odd things happen. The new owners meet some of this with fascination and wonder, but even so, they know what it means when pets won’t go in certain areas of a house.

But it’s not until young Stella (Gail Russell) visits and her strong connection to the house plays out that the film takes some terrifying turns. Her grandfather (Donald Crisp) will finally share why he wants her to stay away. There will be a séance, a ghostly possession and a sanatorium.

I never tired of watching The Uninvited. It hasn’t aged for me since the first time I saw it and looks stunning on the restored Criterion Blu-ray release. I suggest putting it on and curling up on the couch with the lights off. Then be prepared to want to watch it again.

George Zucco, background, works his voodoo magic to try and bring the wife of a doctor (Bela Lugosi) back to life.

Voodoo Man

Bela Lugosi gives a surprisingly touching performance as a doctor trying to bring his beloved wife back from the dead – although death in her case looks like she’s sleeping with her eyes open. (She’s been dead for 22 years, yet barely looks 22.) But Lugosi isn’t the Voodoo Man of the title: That would be George Zucco as filling station owner Nicholas who dons a black cape and speaks gibberish as he attempts to draw the life essence out of young women and into the doctor’s wife.

He gets his test subjects by pointing unsuspecting innocents asking for directions toward the doctor’s house where they’ll hit a “detour” and be kidnapped. Three times he’s tried, but it hasn’t worked, so the women, all in flowing long dresses, are kept in a catatonic state in strange phone booth-like rooms to await the next try. Up next is Betty (Wanda McKay) who is on her way to her best friend’s wedding. Before reaching the staged detour, she comes upon a man who has run out of gas. Surprise – he’s the groom. (You never know who you’ll meet on lonely country roads.) Mr. Clueless doesn’t help her from being kidnapped but now that there’s a witness to her disappearance, a search is set in motion that will lead to the truth. Whether our bereft doctor will get his cherished wife back in time is part of the film’s climatic tension. (I’m rooting for him.)

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and now leads the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto.

Posted in Horror, Monsters and Matinees, Posts by Toni Ruberto | Tagged Bela Lugosi, Cry of the Werewolf, Curse of the Cat People, House of Frankenstein, Laird Creager, lon chaney jr, Simone Simon, The Lodger, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Uninvited, Voodoo Man | 1 Comment

Classic Movie Travels: Audrey Meadows

Posted on October 3, 2024 by Annette Bochenek

Audrey Meadows

Audrey Cotter was born on February 8, 1922, in New York, New York, as the youngest of four children (two girls and two boys). Her parents were Reverend Francis James Meadows Cotter and Ida Miller Taylor, who worked as Episcopal missionaries in Wuchang, Hubei, China. While she spent her early years in China, the family returned to the United States.

There, she attended the Barrington School for Girls in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. After her high school years, Cotter expressed an interest in performing and sang in the Broadway musical Top Banana. She regularly appeared on The Bob and Ray Show on television. She would also take on the stage name of Audrey Meadows by this point.

Ultimately, her claim to fame would be playing Alice Kramden on The Jackie Gleason Show after Pert Kelton, who originated the role, was forced to leave the show due to the blacklist. By far, the biggest success of The Jackie Gleason Show was its “Honeymooners” sketches.

Interestingly, the part of Alice was a role that Meadows wanted very much; however, she was initially dismissed because she was deemed too pretty to play Alice. In response, she arranged for an “ugly” photo shoot and changed her look drastically, resubmitting photos of herself to Gleason. Gleason was interested and ultimately baffled that this was the same gorgeous actress who had previously auditioned for him. As a result, the part became hers.

Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows, The Honeymooners

Eventually, The Honeymooners became its own half-hour situation comedy on CBS. Even after a hiatus, Meadows would return to the role when Gleason produced Honeymooners specials during the 1970s. She also reprised the role on The Steve Allen Show, as Allen was her brother-in-law; Allen was married to her sister, Jayne Meadows. Additionally, she appeared as Alice on The Jack Benny Program during a parody sketch.

During the course of The Honeymooners’ run, Meadows was married to Randolph Rouse, a real-estate businessman. They were married in 1956 and divorced in 1958. In 1961, she married Robert F. Six, who was president of Continental Airlines, in Honolulu, Hawaii. They were married until his passing in 1986.

In addition to her work in entertainment, Meadows was director of the First National Bank of Denver for 11 years and was the first woman to secure the distinction. She was also an advisory director of Continental Airlines from 1961 to 1981, working in marketing programs that dealt with flight attendant and customer service agent uniform designs, in addition to aircraft interior design, and the designs of Continental’s airport lounges.

Of the core Honeymooners cast members from the classic 39 episodes, Meadows was the only one to earn residuals from the show when it began airing in syndication. Her brother, Edward, was a lawyer and added a clause to her contract calling for her to be paid if the shows were ever rebroadcast, leading her to earn millions over the years.

Take Her She's Mine, Audrey Meadows, 1963, (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. — Audrey Meadows, Take Her She’s Mine, 1963, (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved.

Beyond The Honeymooners, Meadows made guest appearances on other shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Red Skelton Show; and Murder, She Wrote. She also voiced a character named Bea Simmons, girlfriend to Grampa Simpson, on an episode of The Simpsons. Additionally,Meadows published a memoir in 1994, entitled Love, Alice: My Life as a Honeymooner.

Meadows smoked and developed lung cancer in 1995. She was given one year to live and declined all but palliative treatments. She passed away on February 3, 1996, in Los Angeles, California. She is at rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, next to her second husband. She was 73 years old.

Today, there are some places of relevance tied to Meadows’ life. Her family’s 1930s home at 70 Barnes St., Providence, Rhode Island, stands today.

In 1948, she resided at 615 Hauser St., Los Angeles, California, which also remains.

She also had a property at 50 E. 72^nd St., New York, New York. This building still exists.

In 1962, she lived at 1009 Park Ave., New York, New York, which stands.

Her 1973 home at 350 Trousdale Pl., Beverly Hills, California, has since been razed.

Finally, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame honoring her work in television. It is located at 6100 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, California.

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–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek pens our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. You can read all of Annette’s Classic Movie Travel articles here.

Posted in Classic Movie Travels, Posts by Annette Bochenek | Tagged audrey meadows, The Honeymooners | 1 Comment

Western RoundUp: “B” Movie Sampler – Vol.3

Posted on September 29, 2024 by Laura Grieve

“B” Movie Western Sampler

It’s time for my annual “B” Western sampler!

In 2022 and 2023 I shared reviews of short “B” Westerns I watched while traveling. Once again my portable DVD player and “B” Western discs accompanied me on this year’s summer vacation, the only difference being that this year, instead of a road trip, I went on an Alaskan cruise!

The movies were perfect short viewing for down time, especially on a foggy sea day without any scenery to be enjoyed.

All four of these films were released by Lippert Pictures; one of them, Outlaw Women, was originally produced by Howco, while the other three were original Lippert productions. All four movies are readily available thanks to DVD sets from VCI Entertainment.

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Deputy Marshal (William Berke, 1949)

The first film I watched during my trip, Deputy Marshal, was also the one I liked best. Jon Hall, known for his adventure films opposite Maria Montez earlier in the decade, plays the title role, Deputy Marshal Ed Garry.

Garry witnesses the shooting of a railroad employee, Harley Masters (Wheaton Chambers), and is entrusted by Masters with a secret map. Everyone wants the map, including baddie Joel Benton (longtime “B” Western hero Dick Foran) and his henchman, Eli (Joe Sawyer).

This 60-minute film, cowritten by Charles Heckelmann and director William Berke, is somewhat confusing yet provides genial company. I wasn’t quite clear how Ed switched his romantic interest so quickly from Claire Benton (Julie Bishop) to Janet Masters (Frances Langford), but maybe I missed something!

Deputy Marshal, Joe Sawyer, Dick Foran, Jon Hall — Joe Sawyer, Dick Foran, and Jon Hall in Deputy Marshal

Hall has a pleasant voice and demeanor as the deputy, and it’s fun to note that leading lady Langford was actually Hall’s wife for many years, from 1938 to 1955. Langford singing a couple of tunes adds to the movie’s appeal.

Deputy Marshal, Russell Hayden, Frances Langford, Jon Hall — Russell Hayden, Frances Langford, and Jon Hall in Deputy Marshal

The deep cast of familiar faces is another plus, with the cast including Russell Hayden, Clem Bevans, Mary Gordon, and Forrest Taylor.

The movie was shot in black and white by Carl Bergner. Like a couple other films on this list, much of the location filming was done at the Iverson Movie Ranch. There’s much more about Iverson in a column I wrote here in 2022.

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Colorado Ranger (Thomas Carr, 1950)

Colorado Ranger is one of a series of six films shot simultaneously starring Jimmy Ellison, Russell Hayden, and Betty Adams, later known as Julia or Julie Adams.

I wrote about another film in the series, Crooked River (1950), here in 2022. As I shared then, Julie Adams wrote in her memoir that it was both challenging and educational to have to remember which of the six characters she was playing at any given moment! The productions saved money by shooting scenes for each film in a particular location before moving on to the next stop.

Shamrock Clark (Ellison) and his pals Lucky (Hayden) and the Colonel (Raymond Hatton) are on the trail of outlaws harassing homesteaders. One such homesteader, Ann (Adams), eventually comes to think the men are outlaws themselves and locks them in her cellar.

More confusion abounds when Ann babysits her nephew and Shamrock, who’s attracted to the young woman, mistakenly thinks she’s married.

The chief charm of this brisk 59-minute Western is its cast of appealing leads. Ellison and Hayden were familiar to Westerns fans as Hopalong Cassidy sidekicks, and it’s great fun to watch the young Adams, who occasionally has a bit of her native Southern accent slip out.

The movie was written by Ron Ormand and Maurice Tombragel, based on a story by E.B. Mann. It was filmed in black and white by Ernest Miller, with Iverson Ranch one again appearing onscreen. I highly recommend visiting the Iverson Movie Ranch site to learn more about the filming of the half-dozen films with this cast and crew, which were shot in just five weeks!

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Three Desperate Men (Sam Newfield, 1951)

Three Desperate Men, written by Orville Hampton, was the only real disappointment from this quartet of films. I’ll insert a spoiler alert here, as I’m necessarily going to reveal the entire plot in order to explain my dissatisfaction.

I’m a big fan of this movie’s leads, Preston Foster and Virginia Grey, and I’ve also enjoyed Jim Davis (later of TV’s Dallas) in many a Western, but this story went so far sideways it left me sputtering with disappointment. Indeed, a book on the Lippert films, written by Mark Thomas McGee, quotes a contemporary reviewer: “The film’s weakness lies in scripting.” The reviewer was correct.

As the movie begins, deputies Tom Denton (Foster) and his brother Fred (Davis) are law-abiding citizens working for Marshal Pete Coleman (Monte Blue) in Texas.

Three Desperate Men, Jim Davis, Preston Foster, Virgnia Grey, Ross Latimer — Jim Davis, Preston Foster, Virgnia Grey, and Ross Latimer in Three Desperate Men

When the Dentons learn their youngest brother Matt (Ross Latimer, also known as Kim Spalding), has been arrested and framed for murder in California, they leave their mother (Margaret Seddon) and Fred’s sweetheart Laura (Grey) behind in Texas to go rescue Matt.

The Dentons succeed in saving Matt from being railroaded into a hangman’s noose, but things go from bad to worse. A guard is killed as they escape, and Ed Larkin (Rory Mallinson) frames them for numerous crimes.

The Dentons initially commit a robbery just to get by, but before long they end up pursuing a life of crime. Laura, dismayed by Tom’s behavior, breaks off their engagement and leaves town. As the movie concludes, the brothers are killed or arrested when committing yet another robbery.

Three Desperate Men, Preston Foster and Virginia Grey — Preston Foster and Virginia Grey in Three Desperate Men

For some reason I believed the story would depict the brothers bringing justice to bad guy Larkin and reclaiming their lives as honorable marshals. I didn’t realize they were going to turn into stone-cold villains themselves, and I have to say the final scene with bodies strewn across a street left me in open-mouthed disbelief.

Perhaps if the film were better scripted and followed a clearer trajectory from marshals to bank robbers I would have been more accepting of the outcome, but this is one I’ll skip rewatching.

The movie was filmed in black and white by Jack Greenhalgh – and yes, it was filmed at Iverson Ranch!

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Outlaw Women (Sam Newfield and Ron Ormond, 1952)

Outlaw Women, on the other hand, was an entertaining 75 minutes from the very same writer as Three Desperate Men, Orville Hampton.

The movie has some overtones of the later Woman They Almost Lynched (1953) and Johnny Guitar (1954); it’s not in the same league as those “woman power” films, but I liked it.

Outlaw Women, shot in Cinecolor by Ellis Carter and and Harry Neumann, was also the lone color film among the four films I watched on my trip. It’s interesting to note that the reason there were two directors and two cinematographers on this movie was that it was made at breakneck pace by two units working simultaneously!

Marie Windsor was later quoted by Western film historian Mike Fitzgerald as saying it was an “exciting picture,” though she was “annoyed” by special privileges accorded supporting actress Jacqueline Fontaine.

Windsor is as fun as always as saloon owner “Iron Mae” McLeod. She also runs the town of Las Mujeres (“the women”), where women do indeed run the place. The saloon bouncer is even a woman, played by Maria Hart. The aforementioned Fontaine plays one of Iron Mae’s “girls,” Ellen Larabee.

Outlaw Women, Marie Windsor — Marie Windsor

Gambler Woody Callaway (Richard Rober) and Dr. Bob Ridgeway (Allan Dixon) arrive in Las Mujeres, and are soon romancing Iron Mae and pretty Beth Larabee (Carla Balenda) – who had forced the good doctor to come to Las Mujeres at the point of a gun!

There’s doings with bad guys, not to mention a catfight, and it all manages to be an enjoyable watch. Veterans like Tom Tyler, Jackie Coogan, and Lyle Talbot plus up the cast.

Outlaw Women, Carla Balenda, Jacqueline Fontaine — Carla Balenda and Jacqueline Fontaine in Outlaw Women

A couple interesting Outlaw Women cast notes: Leading man Richard Rober tragically died in a car accident in May 1952, just a month after the movie’s release.

Actress Carla Balenda, on the other hand, lived until age 98, passing away in the spring of 2024. She was long married to publisher William Rutter of The Rutter Group, a name well known to those in the legal profession.

Finally, for those who might have missed it when first published, I’d like to point readers to my 2023 column with a photograph of Marie Windsor’s final resting place in Marysvale, Utah. It was a privilege to visit.

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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Films, Posts by Laura Grieve, Western RoundUp | Tagged carla balnda, colorado ranger, deputy marshal, dick foran, frances langford, Jackie Coogan, jacqueline fontaine, Jim Davis, Jimmy Ellison, joe sawyer, jon hall, Julie Adams, Marie Windsor, outlaw women, preston foster, richard rober, russ latimer, Russell Hayden, sam newfield, thomas carr, three desperate men, Virginia Grey, william berke | Leave a comment

Silents are Golden: The Wild Frontier of “Inceville”

Posted on September 24, 2024 by Lea Stans

The Wild Frontier of “Inceville”

“When the movies were young,” as the saying went, filmmakers’ heads were swimming with possibilities. Motion pictures cameras could take footage anywhere a tripod could rest, so why not take advantage of it? Outside the usual confines of the stage, anything was possible: immense battle scenes, staged floods and fires, sweeping landscape shots, breathtaking horseback riding stunts…at long last, the sky was truly the limit.

One such visionary filmmaker was Thomas H. Ince, a former stock company actor. After breaking into film acting at the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in NYC, by 1910 he was working as a coordinator at Carl Laemmle’s nearby IMP Company and quickly proved himself capable of directing. Soon Ince was thinking bigger than the ramshackle east coast studios, where the stages tended to be open air and at the mercy of wind, rain and winter cold. Reportedly he was also concerned about the battles between the monopolizing Motion Picture Patents Company trust and independent companies like IMP. Heading to the west coast just might be a prudent move.

In September 1911 Ince met with Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann of the New York Motion Picture Company, who had recently opened a studio called Bison in a hilly neighborhood of Los Angeles (the same location would soon be reused for the famed Keystone studio). Bison specialized in making westerns, and Ince loved westerns. Playing it cool as he talked to the two executives, to his pleasant surprise he managed to cut a deal to make films on the west coast for $150 a week.

The original Bison Studios site (image credit- Silent Locations)

Ince arrived in the Edendale district Los Angeles with his wife Elinor, his lead actress Ethel Grandin, a cameraman and a property man. He was dismayed to find the studio consisted of a small house and a barn, with hardly enough space for the western epics he’d been imagining. He soon scouted out a more favorable location: 460 acres of land by Sunset Boulevard and the Pacific Coast highway, where rolling desert hills overlooked the ocean.

Getting to work on western dramas with titles like The Deserter (1912) and War on the Plains (1912), Ince was soon bringing in enough cash to lease even more open land: a full 18,000 acres owned by the Miller Brothers, who had a 100,000 acre ranch and their own Wild West show. Ince could finally bring his visions to life–and not just epic films, but his vision of having a sprawling, one-stop shop kind of studio with its own dressing rooms, indoor and outdoor sets, prop buildings, corrals, film printing laboratories, cafeterias, carpentry shops, offices, film vaults–everything a studio could need all in one handy location. It was an ambitious idea at the time. The Millers–who were happy to lend their Wild West performers to Ince’s productions–dubbed the complex Inceville.

Life at busy Inceville had adventure, romance, and a bit of surrealism. At the time, the Wild West Ince sought to capture onscreen was still very much alive and well. The Millers’ performers consisted of hundreds of real-life cowboys and cowgirls and a Sioux tribe who set up their own teepee village on the property. Cattle and bison herds and 600 horses grazed the rolling hills. The studio was alway swarming with cowboys, who considered themselves superior to the “lowly” actors, with more heading in from ranches in Wyoming and Montana regularly to earn some quick cash. The streets were lined with an eclectic assortment of buildings representing Puritan settlements, Scottish cottages, European villages, modern mansions, frontier towns–a bit of everything a director could need. Actors who traveled out from Los Angeles–taking a succession of streetcars to Santa Monica and then horse-drawn wagons that carried them past the broad Pacific beaches and up the road to remote Inceville–probably felt they were entering a different world.

A number of stars like John Gilbert got their starts as extras at Inceville, and it also boasted such talents as Louise Glaum, an early “vamp,” William S. Hart, the silent era’s biggest cowboy star. Key directors such as John Ford and his brother Francis, William Desmond Taylor, Frank Borzage and Henry King all worked for Ince. As for Ince himself, he was passionately involved in his many productions, writing and tweaking scenarios, writing dialogue for the actors (not the norm in that era), suggesting locations and camera angles to cameramen, and discussing tints and toning with editors. He would also accept feedback, making improvements such as building cabins for his actors when they complained about snakes and insects getting into tents they used as dressing rooms.

Still from War on the Plains (1912) — Still from *War on the Plains* (1912)

Thanks to his hands-on approach Ince was happy to claim the lion’s share of credit, famously opening his films with titles proclaiming: “Thomas H. Ince presents a Thomas H. Ince productions, supervised by Thomas H. Ince…” etc. The producer’s mania became a well-known joke to the rest of Hollywood. Buster Keaton’s short The Playhouse (1921), where the straight-faced comedian played all the roles in a stage show, took a jab at Ince in a scene where an audience member marvels: “This fellow Keaton seems to be the whole show.”

The studio had its share of hardships, experiencing wildfires in 1915 and 1923, a cutting room fire in 1916, landslides in 1916 and 1917–the latter claiming the lives of three employees when their scaffolding collapsed. But Inceville’s films managed to be profoundly influential, having a sweeping authenticity thanks to its rough-and-ready actors and natural locations.

As it turned out, Inceville’s heyday was relatively brief. Ince would form the Triangle Motion Picture Company with Mack Sennett and D.W. Griffith in 1916, moving his main base of operations to Culver City. In time he went back to operating his own studio, building a Mount Vernon-like administration building dubbed “The Mansion” which still stands today. William S. Hart continued to film at the old Inceville locations, but by the early 1920s it was largely abandoned, turning into a real-life ghost town. The structures that were left would burn in a 1923 wildfire–only a church set remained.

In 1924 Thomas H. Ince himself also suffered an unfortunate end. A dinner he had aboard William Randolph Hearst’s yacht the Oneida aggravated his peptic ulcers and angina, which had been lingering problems for him since the 1910s. Despite medical care, the resulting heart attack claimed his life. While his time as a filmmaker and producer had been brief–only 14 years–Ince was undeniably a key figure in early cinema. And the romance of long-gone Inceville, with its rolling hills and rough cowboys, lingers on in his early surviving films.

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–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

Posted in Posts by Lea Stans, Silents are Golden | Tagged inceville, thomas h. ince, war on the plains 1912, william s hart | 2 Comments

Noir Nook: Uncommon Ladies of Noir: Rhonda Fleming

Posted on September 19, 2024 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Uncommon Ladies of Noir: Rhonda Fleming

Rhonda Fleming was known as “The Queen of Technicolor.” As such, she’s not necessarily the first femme who comes to mind when you’re talking noir. With her titian locks, she was a standout in films like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949), Tropic Zone (1953), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), but she also lent her talents to the dark side of the screen, with roles in five features from the noir era. This month’s Noir Nook shines the spotlight on the life of Rhonda Fleming and her memorable contributions to those shadowy films.

Born in 1923, the actress with the flaming red hair entered the world as Marilyn Louise Louis in Hollywood, California, the second of two daughters born to an insurance broker and his musical comedy actress wife. Marilyn was a bit of a tomboy as a child and loved sports as she got older; she was the captain of both the basketball and volleyball teams at Beverly Hills High School, and competed in sandlot baseball and bowling. She also harbored dreams of becoming a singer of light opera and took lessons for 10 years.

In 1943, Marilyn signed a six-month contract with 20th Century-Fox under the name of Marilyn Lane, making her big screen debut as a dance-hall girl in a John Wayne feature called In Old Oklahoma. Fox didn’t do much with her, but a chance meeting with Henry Willson, David O. Selznick’s talent scout, led to bigger and better things. After a luncheon date with Selznick, the young actress was signed to a seven-year contract without a screen test, and her name was changed to Rhonda Fleming. “It was a Cinderella story, but those things could happen in those days,” Fleming recalled years later.

After small parts in Since You Went Away (1944) and When Strangers Marry (1944), Fleming was introduced by Selznick to director Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her as a mental patient in Spellbound (1945), starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. Her small but showy role was singled out by famed columnist Hedda Hopper. “That was the biggest thrill I had during those first few years,” Fleming said. Her next few pictures were a mixture of first-rate offerings like The Spiral Staircase (1946) and more mediocre fare, including Adventure Island, an actioner with Rory Calhoun. But her career took a turn in 1947 when she stepped into the shadows of film noir.

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Out of the Past (1947)

Considered by many to be the quintessential noir, Out of the Past tells the often-complicated story of Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), a former private dick turned filling station owner, who finds himself plunged into his previous life after a chance encounter. Fleming was in only two scenes, but she made an impact as Meta Carson, who works with mobster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) in an effort to set Jeff up for murder.

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Cry Danger (1951)

Rhonda Fleming, Dick Powell, Cry Danger — Rhonda Fleming and Dick Powell, Cry Danger

This feature stars Dick Powell as Rocky Malloy, who has been recently released from prison after serving a five-year stretch for a murder and robbery that he didn’t commit. Fleming co-stars as Nancy Morgan, the wife of the man who was framed along with Rocky. Nancy appears to be a dutiful spouse, but it doesn’t take long before she’s making eyes at Rocky and discouraging his efforts to free her husband. Not so dutiful, after all.

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The Killer Is Loose (1956)

Rhonda Fleming and Joseph Cotten, The Killer Is Loose

Here, Fleming plays Lila Wagner, the wife of a police detective (Joseph Cotten) who, years earlier, accidentally shot and killed the innocent-bystander spouse of bank robber Leon Poole (Wendell Corey). The film’s action kicks off when Poole escapes from prison and heads for the Wagner home, determined to exact his tit-for-tat revenge by murdering Lila.

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Slightly Scarlet (1956)

Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl Slightly Scarlet — Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl, Slightly Scarlet

This rare color noir stars Fleming and Arlene Dahl as red-headed sisters June and Dorothy. June is the upstanding, level-headed sibling, while Dorothy is a kleptomaniac who’s no stranger to spending time behind bars. Between trying to keep tabs on her troubled sister, and supporting her politician fiancé (Kent Taylor), June finds herself involved with a ruthless (but handsome) hood, played by John Payne.

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While the City Sleeps (1956)

Ida Lupino, Sally Forrest, Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, While the City Sleeps — Ida Lupino, Sally Forrest, Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, While the City

Set in the world of a multi-media conglomerate, this film serves up a star-packed cast that includes Ida Lupino, Dana Andrews, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, George Sanders, and Howard Duff. The plot centers on the efforts of the conglomerate’s employees to land the head job at the company after the owner’s death; the coveted position will be given to the first man (or woman) who can solve the case of the “Lipstick Killer” that is plaguing the area. Fleming plays the ex-Vegas showgirl wife of the company’s current owner (Price) – and the mistress of one of the competitors for the job of head honcho, photo service editor Harry Kritzer (James Craig).

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Away from the big screen, Fleming was married six times – the first was at the tender age of 16 and her fifth (and longest-lasting) was to millionaire theater-chain magnate Ted Mann, who owned (and renamed) the former Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Career-wise, Fleming used her training as a singer in several venues, including a stint at Las Vegas’s Tropicana Hotel, a tour with musician Skitch Henderson, and a one-woman concert at the Hollywood Bowl. She was also seen in a number of productions on the small screen, from Wagon Train to Kung Fu; her final acting appearance, after an 11-year absence. was in the 1991 television drama called Waiting for the Wind. In that feature, she played the world-weary wife of a farmer dying of cancer – Fleming later said that it was her younger sister’s death from cancer that had prompted her to take the role. She also established the Rhonda Fleming Mann Resource Center for Women with Cancer at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, and worked for many years with such humanitarian causes as Childhelp USA, City of Hope, and the Olive Crest Treatment Centers for Abused Children.

Fleming died in 2020 at the age of 97. Of her appearances in her film noir features, she said in a 2012 interview with film historian Rhett Bartlett: “I loved playing those parts. They were naughty gals, and I was such a sweet little nice girl!”

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.