Classic Movie Hub Blog

Western RoundUp: Rancho Notorious (1952)

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Laura Grieve

**Western RoundUp: Rancho Notorious (1952)**

Rancho Notorious (1952) Movie Poster — *Rancho Notorious* (1952) Movie Poster

Over the past few months I’ve written about catching up with a trio of Barbara Stanwyck‘s ’50s Westerns, most recently The Furies (1950), which I covered in my column in early January.

This month I’ve caught up with another new-to-me ’50s Western featuring a notable actress, Marlene Dietrich. The movie is Rancho Notorious (1952), which was just released on a beautiful Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

Rancho Notorious was an RKO film directed by Fritz Lang, filmed in Technicolor by Hal Mohr.

It features an interesting mix of actors in the cast including Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer.

Rancho Notorious (1952) Arthur Kennedy, Marlene Dietrich and Mel Ferrer — Arthur Kennedy, Marlene Dietrich, and Mel Ferrer

As the film begins, cowboy Vern Haskell (Kennedy) is romancing his sweetheart Beth (Gloria Henry), who will be his bride is a little over a week.

Shortly after Vern leaves to return to his job Beth is cruelly assaulted and killed in a robbery of her father’s store. Vern makes it his mission to find the man who murdered his love. The only clue he has is the word “Chuck-a-Luck,” which was the dying utterance of the killer’s ill-fated partner (John Doucette).

The winding trail eventually leads Vern to the Chuck-a-Luck ranch owned by Altar Keane (Dietrich). The ranch serves as a hideout for robbers, including Altar’s longtime boyfriend Frenchy (Ferrer). Altar gets a 10% cut for providing sanctuary and not asking questions.

Rancho Notorious (1952) Mel Ferrer, Marlene Dietrich and Arthur Kennedy — Ferrer, Dietrich, and Kennedy

Vern believes Beth’s killer is at the ranch… but which man is it? One evening Altar wears a brooch which had been his gift to Beth, and Vern realizes she may hold the answer he’s looking for…

Like The Furies, Rancho Notorious called to mind the later Johnny Guitar (1954), though I think in this case the comparison is even more apt. Like Vienna in the later movie, Dietrich’s Altar presides as queen over a bunch of rowdy men at a “palace” she owns in the middle of nowhere.

Instead of the “Johnny Guitar” theme song sung by Peggy Lee, in this film we have the “Legend of Chuck-a-Luck,” sung by a different Lee, Bill – no relation to Peggy. Bill Lee’s impressive screen dubbing credits included Matt Mattox in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), John Kerr in South Pacific (1958), Rod Taylor in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), and Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music (1965).

I was particularly amused to see Frank Ferguson as one of the crooks hiding at Altar’s ranch, dressed all in black and looking rather as he did in Johnny Guitar two years later.

While Rancho Notorious lacks Johnny Guitar‘s notable location filming in Sedona – it seems to have been filmed on a backlot ranch, with perhaps some shooting at Iverson Ranch – it does share having some fake, almost surreal exteriors. It’s also interesting to note that despite the film’s vivid colors, this is quite a dark story.

The movie also features a curious throwback to Dietrich’s earlier Western, Destry Rides Again (1939), in which she played a character named Frenchy; the unusual name appears again here, but this time used by Ferrer’s character.

The same year Rancho Notorious was released Kennedy would play a morally ambiguous character in one of my all-time favorite Westerns, Bend of the River (1952), which I wrote about here in my very first column back in 2018. Here his Vern is equally troubled yet more admirable, and I really appreciated his character’s journey, from lighthearted romantic to bitter avenger to a spent man who completes his mission and, as the movie ends, must now face what to do with the rest of his life.

Some reviewers have complained Kennedy seems awkward romancing Dietrich late in the movie, but I think that was deliberate, and entirely the point – Vern didn’t love Altar as he did Beth, but was pursuing her to gain information. His discomfort as well as the falsity of his attraction comes through loud and clear. Kennedy is quite good throughout as the vengeful cowboy. As an aside, a couple times the thought crossed my mind that this was a part which also would have suited Van Heflin.

Dietrich’s Altar is a woman who’s essentially had an empty life, save perhaps her relationship with Frenchy, and she’s just facing up to that fact near movie’s end. One of the most vivid scenes is of a somewhat raunchy saloon “race,” told in flashback, but while the character is ostensibly having a great time, the sequence struck me as very sad, illustrating Altar’s lack of self-respect or restraint.

Ferrer’s Frenchy is something of an anti-hero: He’s clearly a bad guy, yet he is devoted to Altar and, compared to some of the creeps who hang out at Chuck-a-Luck, he seems almost noble. The relationship which develops between Frenchy and Vern is one of the more interesting aspects of the movie — one good, one bad, seemingly in competition for Altar, but ultimately they have each other’s back. And by movie’s end, Vern has gone to such a dark place that perhaps there’s no longer a great deal of difference between the two men.

Gloria Henry is onscreen only briefly, early in the film, yet her shadow hangs over the rest of the film, rather as Coleen Gray does as John Wayne‘s lost love in Red River (1948). Henry was in a number of “B” Westerns during her film career, including a couple with Gene Autry. She was best known for starring in TV’s Dennis the Menace (1959-63). Henry passed away fairly recently, in April 2021.

Rancho Notorious (1952) Arthur Kennedy and Gloria Henry — Arthur Kennedy and Gloria Henry

Rancho Notorious has a huge cast, with a remarkable assemblage of great character “faces” playing roles of various sizes, including George Reeves, Jack Elam, William Frawley, Harry Woods, Lane Chandler, Fuzzy Knight, I. Stanford Jolley, Dan Seymour, Russell Johnson, Kermit Maynard, Pierce Lyden, Harry Lauter, Dick Elliott, Lloyd Gough, and Emory Parnell. It’s great fun for a Western fan to mentally name each actor in turn as he appears on screen.

All in all, I found Rancho Notorious a very worthwhile 89 minutes. I’d go so far as to say it’s essential ’50s Western viewing, which should be seen alongside Anthony Mann‘s The Furies and Nicholas Ray‘s Johnny Guitar for an appreciation of notable women’s Western roles in what might be called the “stylized Western melodrama” subgenre.

Rancho Notorious (1952) Blu-ray DVD — Rancho Notorious (1952) on Blu-ray

The Warner Archive Blu-ray is a lovely print which online sources say is a new 4K master from the original nitrate Technicolor negative. The soundtrack is strong and clear. The disc contains optional English subtitles, but there are no extras.

I recommend both the film and this Blu-ray release.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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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 anthony mann, Arthur Kennedy, barbara stanwyck, bend of the river, christopher plummer, coleen gray, Dan Seymour, Destry Rides Again, Dick Elliott, Emory Parnell, Frank Ferguson, Fritz Lang, Fuzzy Knight, Gene Autry, george reeves, Gloria Henry, Hal Mor, Harry Lauter, Harry Woods, I. Stanford Jolley, Iverson Movie Ranch, jack elam, John Doucette, John Kerr, john wayne, johnny guitar, Kermit Maynard, lane chandler, lloyd gough, Marlene Dietrich, Matt Mattox, Mel Ferrer, nicholas ray, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Peggy Lee, Pierce Lyden, Rancho Notorious, red river, rod taylor, russell johnson, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, South Pacific, The Furies, the sound of music, western, western movies, Western Roundup, westerns, William Frawley | 11 Comments

Exclusive Excerpt from “The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic”

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Annmarie Gatti

Exclusive Excerpt from “The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic”

A Big Thank You to author Tom Santopietro for hand-picking this excerpt for us to share with you from his latest book “The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic”.

the way we were the making of a romantic classic book by tom santopiertro

What Laurents’s screenplay smartly does is to take its time in showing exactly how Hubbell begins to fall for Katie. Audiences know that with these two big stars front and center a love story will inevitably ensue, but they don’t know how and when it’s going to occur. Hubbell does not immediately tumble to Katie’s inner beauty, but instead, he is first intrigued by her at the moment of her greatest humiliation: the rally for peace at which she wins over the crowd until pranksters wave signs behind her that collectively read “Any peace by Katie’s piece.” Katie’s angry knee jerk response is to brand the students fascists, but as the crowd laughs, Hubbell does not join in. Pollack, in fact, felt that Hubbell was “disturbed when she is humiliated.” Hubbell is responding to her intensity and passion, and he silently appraises her – interested but non-committal. Said Barbra: “I liked that scene. I felt like I used to feel a lot, an outcast, people laughing at me. It felt natural.”

It’s a beautifully acted scene which plants the seeds for Hubbell’s growing interest in Katie. At the same time, the two characters seem to live at an overwhelming distance from each other, she with the masses, he with the detached elite who stand aside and observe. Indeed, the way Pollack shoots the peace rally further enhances their dissimilarities on a subliminal level: Katie is the speaker, dominant in the frame, while Hubbell, as spectator, stands lower in the frame, distanced from the speaker’s stage. Opposites in every way, Katie and Hubbell have still not held a direct conversation, a situation changed by the film’s cut to the restaurant where Katie works as a waitress. As Hubbell and gang enter, Katie, in a nice bit of sharp Laurents dialogue that keeps any sentimentality at bay, mutters to ever faithful boyfriend Frankie (James Woods) “Look who’s here – America the beautiful.”

Intrigued by Katie, Hubbell tries without success to make her laugh while he orders hamburgers and cokes:

Katie:“Onions?”

Hubbell: “In the Coke.”

For his troubles Hubbell receives nothing but a sour look from Katie. They continue to verbally spar:

Hubbell: “We weren’t making fun of you”-

Katie: “You make fun of everyone.”

The rhythm between Streisand and Redford, their different styles and pace of speech as actors, all work to heighten the characters’ differences, even while establishing the glimmer of attraction. Streisand thrusts, Redford effortlessly parries, both actors slipping into the rat-a-tat-tat rhythm of the dialogue with ease. Said Pollack: “You couldn’t do much improvisation here- the scenes were carefully written- one beat led to another. It was all headed in a very certain direction.” James Woods watched both stars carefully, saying of Redford: “He’s such a great film actor. Bob slid into that character very well, and make no mistake, he may not have wanted to rehearse as much as Barbra, but he worked very hard on his approach.”

Audiences have sensed that underneath her surface disdain, Katie has remained fascinated with Hubbell, and when the film cuts to a nighttime scene in the library, she openly and repeatedly glances at him, even as loyal Frankie McVeigh sits right next to her. (The first part of the scripted scene was cut, a loss because of its delineation of character: when Hubbell temporarily left his seat, Katie slid over to steal a look at his notebook, one filled with drawings and the nicely prescient words: “And in the end, would it be worth it?”). Katie simply can’t help but stare at Hubbell, and it’s no wonder: as romantic music plays on the soundtrack, thanks to the lighting by Stradling, Redford’s Hubbell actually seems to glow. Staring at his pencil and oblivious to Katie, his thoughts are a million miles away, while Katie’s are all but palpable.

The scene is granted extra texture by the presence of James Woods’s Frankie, an outcast who jealously watches Katie eye Hubbell. Woods’s presence in the scene was not planned, but was cleverly engineered by Woods himself: “I was thinking about how I could be a part of the scene and realized I could be a part of it by being an obstacle. So- I said to Sydney: ‘I have a great idea.’ Sydney instantly said: ‘You’re not a part of the scene. We don’t need you in there with the two biggest stars in the world.’ Then I said to Barbra: ‘Let’s talk about acting for a minute- the library scene.’ Barbra looked at me and kept her reply short: ‘The scene is with Bob and me.’ I kept going- I told her ‘But isn’t it more interesting if Frankie is there in the library, looking at Katie while she’s looking at Hubbell. Now the scene wouldn’t be so simple- it’s more interesting.’ Barbra took a beat, thought about it, and then said: ‘Sydney- the kid is in the scene!’” Such chutzpah came readily to the Utah born Woods, who in 1970 had snagged a part in the award winning Broadway play Borstal Boy by pretending he was British.

Woods appreciated Pollack’s openness to change: “He was open to last minute improvisation. The great directors are because they know you can often get things you wouldn’t otherwise. Yes, I was happy to have more screen time, but I wasn’t hogging the camera- it was furthering my character as well as Barbra’s. Having me in the library added to Katie’s emotional confusion about Hubbell. She’s so committed to politics yet infatuated with Hubbell even while she has this dorky but devoted boyfriend. It makes audiences wonder ‘What’s she going to do?’”

Thanks to his own unbridled ambition, James Woods was in the scene, side by side with superstars Streisand and Redford and a presence to be noticed. Said Woods of the experience of filming with the two stars: “I loved working with both of them. They were so open to discussion. Barbra was great. We talked and she said ‘Are you afraid of me?’ I said: ‘No. I can act- it’s every man for himself.’ She wasn’t offended- she really laughed.

“Redford was terrific as well. He would sometimes come by my trailer, which was, needless to say, a lot smaller than his! We’d talk about acting- at that point I wanted to be a stage actor. I had just won a Theatre World Award, but he’s such a great film actor I knew I could learn from him. I proudly call myself a character actor, so it’s interesting to me that I think Bob and Brad Pitt, two classically handsome leading men, are at their best when they are being character actors.

“Having him stop by was a terrific opportunity to talk to this big star. Redford was and is a great underactor- he conveys so much with so little. I was, at that point, an overactor. He talked about how to convey emotion on film. If you look in a mirror and your eyes change focus as you start thinking about a problem, you should think the thought, don’t act it. You see the eyes change.

“I learned from him and even though I was a complete unknown, both Barbra and Bob were good to me. It’s actually hard to explain the level of stardom they held at that time because it just doesn’t exist today. They were larger than life stars. The public’s fascination with them was extraordinary. That very short sequence at the beginning of the film where Hubbell throws the javelin? Women were standing around all day just to get a glimpse of him!”

Hope you enjoyed this excerpt!

And don’t forget to check out our interview with author Tom Santopietro about the book here.

–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Books, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged Barbra Streisand, james wood, robert redford, The Way we Were, the way we were the making of a romantic classic, thomas santopierto | 1 Comment

Remembering Ted Donaldson

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Annmarie Gatti

Remembering Classic Movie Child Star, Ted Donaldson

I am so sad to report that Ted Donaldson passed away a few days ago, on March 1st. I typically don’t publish blog posts when someone passes, but this time I felt I must — as I had the honor of meeting and interviewing Ted a few years ago, and it is something that I will never forget. He was such a charming gentleman, and it was such a pleasure to be able to sit down and chat with him, and hear so many wonderful stories.

Here is a wonderful Hollywood Reporter article that was published yesterday, chronicling Ted’s career through Broadway, radio and film, including his big screen debut in Once Upon a Time with Cary Grant and, of course, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

As mentioned in the Hollywood Reporter article, Ted’s friends, Thomas and Heidi Bruno, have set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for Ted’s burial expenses, as Ted passed with very little cash and few possessions. I am sure that any donation, no matter how small, would be greatly appreciated by Thomas and Heidi — as they would like to provide Ted with a proper burial in Hollywood Forever Cemetery near many of his co-stars.

You can visit the Ted Donaldson Go Fund Me Page by clicking on this image

Again, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with Ted. That was indeed a special moment for me.

Lastly, if you’d like to see my video interview with Ted, here is a link to it on YouTube.

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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Child Stars, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged Ted Donaldson | 2 Comments

The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic – Exclusive Interview with Author Tom Santopietro

Posted on February 26, 2023 by Annmarie Gatti

“The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic”
Exclusive Interview with author Tom Santopietro

I am happy to say that a new book about the film, The Way We Were was released in January — AND I am even happier to say that author Tom Santopietro has honored CMH with an exclusive interview about it!

Hard to believe, but the film was released 50 years ago, in Oct 1973. Wow. So, what better way to celebrate, than with The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic, a book that tells the story behind the film — the challenges, disputes and creative passions of those involved — complete with location anecdotes and first-hand accounts.

A big Thank You to Tom Santopietro for taking the time to do this interview!

CMH: Why did you decide to write a book about The Way We Were?

Tom Santopietro:I started thinking about The Way We Were as the subject of a possible book when I happened to hear two women quoting the entire last scene of the film by heart, re-enacting Barbra Streisand’s Katie Morosky murmuring “Hubbell, your girl is lovely” to the aging but still golden Robert Redford. This behavior wasn’t just liking the film- this was quasi-obsession. When I then happened to catch a re-run of “Sex and the City” where the four best friends decide that the entire world is divided into “Katie girls” and others, followed by Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw re-enacting The Way We Were’s finale in front of the Plaza Hotel, I was intrigued. Hooked. Why does this decidedly flawed film carry such romantic heft? After all, if the best movies form parts of our world views and shape our dreams, what did this hyper fandom for a fifty year old film say about the way we are today?

My first book, The Importance of Being Barbra, was published seventeen years ago and I thought it would be interesting to look at Barbra again, through the lens of what is arguably her most popular film. As I started to research the history of the film, my “possibly writing” became a definite “yes”; accelerating the decision was realizing that by writing about The Way We Were I was actually, if unconsciously completing my trilogy of books centering on films that people don’t just like, but actually obsess over: The Godfather Effect– drama, The Sound of Music Story–https://amzn.to/3IYPJRC musical, and now The Way We Were- romance.

CMH: Did you interview Barbra Streisand? Any others?

Tom Santopietro: I had a number of great interviews for the book – Lois Chiles, lyricist Alan Bergman- still going strong at age 97. James Woods – it was his first movie and he told me great stories about his interactions with both Barbra and Redford. He liked both of them a great deal.

The most fascinating interview was my written exchange with Barbra. I thought a long time about what questions to ask – I didn’t want this to be ‘Did you like Robert Redford”… I submitted them in writing and weeks later I received a lengthy email response to each question – a paragraph long answer to every question. The film is very important to her, she possessed total recall of the events, and it gave me a real sense of who she is – every word matters to her. No wonder she has been one of Sondheim’s foremost interpreters – she’s the embodiment of his dictum: “God is in the details.”

The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic -- Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand — Redford and Streisand (Hubbell and Katie)

CMH: What most surprised you in your research?

Tom Santopietro: I spent several days at the Library of Congress reading through screenwriter Arthur Laurents’s papers, including a scorching eight page memo to producer Ray Stark that he wrote after seeing a rough cut – a memo in which he enumerated the film’s perceived flaws, flaws which he felt – and I’m translating politely here – were so egregious that they made him feel sick. Eleven different screenwriters had a hand in the script – no wonder Laurents was perpetually angry. His own life had inspired several key incidents in the screenplay and his life was now being re-written by eleven other people.

I was also intrigued by the fact that in the early going this now iconic film’s success was far from assured; as one studio executive only half kiddingly said to director Sydney Pollack: “Barbra Streisand doesn’t sing and she plays a communist — are you trying to kill me?!” The fact that no one expected a romantic classic made its now half century of success all the more intriguing. The film had received decidedly mixed reviews upon its initial release, although the stars were highly praised, and Streisand received an Academy Award nomination. (She lost to Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class, and when was the last time anyone decided that they just had to watch A Touch of Class again…)

CMH: Why does the film have such a romantic pull that we’re still talking about it 50 years later?

Tom Santopietro: I think that there are four reasons for the film’s extraordinary 50 year hold on audiences around the world:

Star chemistry in spades. Redford and Streisand at their early 70s peak, looking great and throwing off sparks together, proving that opposites really do attract. Everything about them reads as a contrast – looks, acting styles, manner of speech – and it all blends beautifully.
Ill fated love affairs are universal. Like Katie and Hubbell, everyone in the viewing audience has loved the wrong person at one time. Or at several times. Everyone has loved passionately if not wisely. As film historian Jeanine Basinger put it: “Yes- everyone really has loved the wrong person at one point or another. Except for maybe 10 people- and who wants to know them…”
The uber romantic score by the then unknown Marvin Hamlisch, who composed the title song on spec, in hopes of scoring the entire movie. His reward? Two Oscars.
That killer ending in front of the Plaza Hotel. For the three people over 50 in the United States who haven’t seen the film, I won’t describe it- except to say that even critics who didn’t like the film fell for the ending – it’s an all time keeper.
It seems like critics had a hard time acknowledging the appeal of The Way We Were and other films like it. Why is that?

I think the best answer to that came from Robert Redford himself: “Critics had trouble with The Way We Were because they won’t own up to their own emotions. They figure that it’s got to be off center or bold before they can accept it… Intellectually you know Katie and Hubbell shouldn’t be together, but on a gut level you want them to make it because you like them and because they like each other. That’s a fair emotion.”

CMH: Why wasn’t there a sequel?

As audiences clamored to know if Katie and Hubbell would ever get back together, the clamor for a sequel grew in volume. Talks were held. Screenplays were written. So what happened?

Well, to find that out you have to read the book. Besides, I have my own idea for a sequel!

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Thanks again to Tom Santopietro for this fascinating book and interview.

About Tom Santopietro: Tom Santopietro is the author of eight books: The Way We Were: The Making of a Romantic Classic, Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters, Barbara Cook: Then and Now, the bestselling The Sound of Music Story, The Godfather Effect: Changing Hollywood, America, and Me, Sinatra in Hollywood, Considering Doris Day (New York Times Sunday Book Review Editor’s Choice) and The Importance of Being Barbra. A frequent media commentator and interviewer, he lectures on classic films, and over the past thirty years has managed more than two dozen Broadway shows.

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–Annmarie Gatti for Classic Movie Hub

Posted in Books, Interviews, Posts by Annmarie Gatti | Tagged Barbra Streisand, robert redford, The Way we Were, the way we were the making of a romantic classic, thomas santopiertro | 8 Comments

Film Noir Review: Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Danilo Castro

“Russian Roulette’s a very different amusement which I can only wish your father had played continuously before he had you!”

Preston Sturges’ career ran in conjunction with classic film noir. Both made their presence known in the early 1940s, and would go on to dominate the decade with their blend of acid-tongued banter and confusing stories. The big difference, of course, was tone. While film noir shined a light on human nature’s dark side, Sturges comedies like The Lady Eve (1941) and The Palm Beach Story (1942) were charming and upbeat. It would be difficult to imagine tones that were further apart, and yet, they crashed, spectacularly, into one another with Unfaithfully Yours (1948).

Sturges had actually penned the script for Unfaithfully Yours in 1932, but struggled to get it financed and eventually shelved it for more accessible material. By the late 40s, though, bleak stories were all the rage, and he saw an opportunity to make a full-fledged parody of the film noir while maintaining the absurdity of his original vision.

Unfaithfully Yours poster — The film’s original lobby poster.

Unfaithfully Yours, for the uninitiated, is about a symphony conductor named Sir Alfred de Carter (Rex Harrison). He has it all: fame, fortune, and a doting wife named Daphne (Linda Darnell). Or so he thinks. Through a series of misunderstandings, Alfred comes to suspect that Daphne may be having an affair with his assistant, Anthony (Kurt Krueger). His paranoia reaches a fever pitch the night of an important concert, and he spends most of it contemplating the different ways he can confront Daphne. The film then plays out these different ways to disastrous effect.

The first scenario is the darkest, and arguably the best. Alfred returns home, masterminds a plan, then proceeds to slash his wife’s throat with a straight razor and frame his assistant for the murder. There’s a perverse glee in watching every single aspect of the plan go accordingly, and Sturges knows it too. He hits each beat as though we were watching a hero achieve a worthwhile goal, and the incongruity of the execution with the actions depicted make it just as shocking now as it was seven decades ago. The shock is elevated further when you consider that the film presents these actions as reality. The whole scenario is edited as though it occurs after the concert, therefore making the viewer think Alfred really did get away with murder.

Linda Darnell and Rex Harrison, Unfaithfully Yours — Alfred (Rex Harrison) ponders his next move…

The dissolve back to the concert is both reassuring and structurally limiting. We’re shown that Alfred is still conducting and no such murder has taken place, which means there’s still time for him to change his mind. It also means the element of surprise has been removed. Part of what makes the first scenario such a mind-boggler is the aforementioned leap of faith the viewer had to take in believing it was legit. Once the gambit of a multiple choice outcome is introduced, “Unfaithfully Yours” settles into a safer, albeit entertaining groove.

The other scenarios are similarly macabre, though they take on more of the broad comedy appeal that Sturges is known for. The second one sees Alfred confront Daphne and Anthony by challenging them to a game of Russian Roulette. He proudly goes first, and promptly shoots himself in the head. The third one is longer and packed with more laughs, with Alfred looking for a recorder to fabricate his wife’s “last words.” The seemingly easy task becomes a tall order, as Alfred falls over, breaks furniture, and pesters phone operators in an attempt to be covert. What scenario does Alfred ultimately choose in the end? In an effort to draw more eyes to the film, that is the one thing I won’t spoil.

The slapstick is top of the line, which anyone familiar with Sturges can attest to. The dialogue is sharp as Alfred’s straight razor, with so many puns, references, and double meanings baked in that a single viewing won’t do them justice. A private detective crosses paths with Alfred at one point, and his musical fandom results in gems like “You handle Handel like nobody handles Handel. And your Delius – delirious!”

Linda Darnell and Rex Harrison, Unfaithfully Yours, sense a shift in behavior — Daphne (Linda Darnell) sense a shift in behavior.

Of course, the manipulation that Unfaithfully Yours attempts would fail were it not for the talent of the cast. Rex Harrison is refinement personified in so many of his famous roles, but here, he drops the niceties and delivers a blisteringly funny performance. He does some absolutely heinous things in the film, as was previously stated, and yet, we feel for him and the predicament that he’s imagined for himself. A less charismatic actor would have crumbled. The supporting cast has less to do, but Rudy Vallee, Edgar Kennedy and Barbara Lawrence all serve as credible foils. Linda Darnell is given a particularly tricky assignment here, as she has to convince the audience she could be a saint and an adulterer at the same time. She nails it in every scenario, proving she had more range than she was often given the chance to explore.

Unfaithfully Yours was released to positive reviews and nonexistent box office in 1948. The subject matter was always going to be a tough sell, but the timing could not have been worse due to the personal life of its star. Harrison was reportedly having an affair with actress Carole Landis at the time, and her suicide was believed by many to be a result of his refusing to get a divorce. Harrison discovered Landis’ body, which made the notion of him as a snickering wife killer a little too grim for the general public. The failure of Unfaithfully Yours also signaled the end of Sturges’ career; he made only one more film in Hollywood before retreating to Europe.

Unfaithfully Yours Alfred’s entourage fawn over his seemingly perfect romance — Alfred’s entourage fawn over his seemingly perfect romance.

While not as famous as, say, Sullivan’s Travels (1941), Unfaithfully Yours has become something of a cult favorite among Sturges fans. It’s a deep cut, but those who have seen it can attest to its bold narrative shifts and how forward-thinking it was in terms of noir comedy. Quentin Tarantino has cited it as one of his favorite films, and given his penchant for genre fusion, I can’t think of a better endorsement.

TRIVIA: Carole Landis was briefly considered for the role of Daphne. Her volatile relationship with Harrison led Sturges to go with Linda Darnell instead.

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You can find all of Danilo’s Film Noir Review articles here.

Danilo Castro is the managing editor of NOIR CITY Magazine and a Contributing Writer for Classic Movie Hub. You can follow Danilo on Twitter @DaniloSCastro.

Posted in Film Noir Review, Films, Posts by Danilo Castro | Tagged Linda Darnell, rex harrison, Unfaithfully Yours | 1 Comment

Silents are Golden: A Closer Look At – Our Hospitality (1923)

Posted on February 16, 2023 by Lea Stans

**Silents are Golden: A Closer Look At – Our Hospitality (1923)**

Buster Keaton on horse Our Hospitality (1923) — Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton’s classic feature The General (1926) has been rightfully hailed as a masterpiece, with its intelligent gags and exquisitely-rendered Civil War setting. Its authentic look has often been compared to Matthew Brady photographs. Keaton’s confident use of period settings can probably be traced back to his 1923 film Our Hospitality. Set in the early 19th century American south, it also had plenty of authentic period charm and is one of his most admired features today.

Keaton’s first foray into historical periods technically began with his first feature, Three Ages (1923). Inspired by the four interweaving storylines in D.W. Griffith’s epic Intolerance (1916), he told three tales set in the Stone Age, Roman Age, and modern day. The Stone Age and Roman periods were played more for laughs, however. Keaton’s followup Our Hospitality would be an opportunity to prove himself not just as a comedian, but as a mature, skilled filmmaker.

Francis X. Bushman Jr., Jack Duffy, Joe Roberts, Buster Keaton, Craig Ward, and Natalie Talmadge in Our Hospitality (1923) — Francis X. Bushman Jr., Jack Duffy, Joe Roberts, Buster Keaton, Craig Ward, and Natalie Talmadge in *Our Hospitality* (1923)

Keaton and his team based the story of Our Hospitality on the famous feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. The original working title was Headin’ South, and the plot revolved around two families (christened the Canfields and the McKays) who had been feuding for generations. Keaton played Willie McKay, whose father dies after a shootout with rival James Canfield while Willie is still a baby. Wanting her son to grow up free of the bitter feud, Willie’s mother raises him in New York. Once Willie comes of age, however, he learns that he’s inherited his father’s southern estate.

While traveling by train to claim the estate, Willie meets the attractive southern belle Virginia (Natalie Talmadge). Unbeknownst to him, she’s a member of the Canfield clan. When they arrive at their destination Virginia’s greeted by her father and brothers. Willie asks one of the brothers for directions to the estate, alerting him to the fact that he’s a McKay. The estate turns out to be a rundown wreck, and Willie’s invited to dinner by Virginia–both of them have no idea that the Canfield men are now determined to kill him. While at her house Willie finally realizes his life is in danger. When he overhears the father telling his sons that southern hospitality prevents them from shooting a guest in their home, Willie quickly invites himself to spend the night. His subsequent attempts at escape result in a game of cat-and-mouse.

Keaton on a bench with Francis X. Bushman Jr. and Craig Ward

The decision to set Our Hospitality in the 1830s was based on the primitive train recreated for a key early sequence. Once Keaton and his team decided to have Willie travel by rail, they started researching the earliest trains and came up with the rickety, eccentric-looking 1830 Stephenson Rocket. Although it was an English train it was very funny looking, and they used available drawings to make a full-size, five-car replica. Another early invention replicated for the film was a “dandy horse,” a wooden bicycle propelled by foot instead of pedals, which Willie gravely coasts around town.

The making of Our Hospitality was very much a family affair. Buster’s wife Natalie (they had been married two years) agreed to play Virginia, and they decided to have their baby Joseph appear in a scene as the infant Willie McKay. Buster’s father Joe would play the engineer of the Stephenson Rocket, and close family friend “Big Joe” Roberts was brought on board to play the Canfield patriarch. The Canfield sons were played by stage star Craig Ward and Ralph Bushman, the son of 1910s screen idol Francis X. Bushman. Many scenes would be shot in Truckee, a mountain town in the Tahoe National Forest, where the cast and crew spent their off time playing baseball or fishing in the Truckee River.

a picnic on set Our Hospitality (1923) — a picnic on set

They clearly had fun with the sequence where Willie travels by train, draping its little tracks over rocks and tree trunks and showing how it moves so slow that Willie’s loyal dog can trot along easily underneath it. The spectacular waterfall scene was filmed at Keaton’s studio, where the thundering fall was constructed over the pool he once used for his short Hard Luck (1921). Some shots also showed a surprisingly convincing miniature landscape.

Keaton hangs on a limb in the waterfall scene in Our Hospitality (1923) — Keaton hangs on a limb in the waterfall scene

Keaton was no stranger to risking life and limb in the service of filmmaking, and had some harrowing experiences while making Our Hospitality. While filming the highlight of the waterfall scene, where Willie catches Virginia (rather, a lifelike dummy of Virginia) as she’s about to go over the falls, hewas dangling upside down and was hit with the roaring water right in the face. He had to be taken to the doctor to drain out his sinuses and ear canals. But most dangerous of all was the sequence leading up to the waterfall, where Willie falls into a rushing river (the Truckee River). Three men held onto the end of a sixty-foot wire attached to Keaton as he clung to a log drifting through the rapids. Suddenly the wire broke and Keaton was swept away, crashing into boulders and fighting to keep his head above the foam. Finally he managed to grab a dangling branch and hauled himself onto the bank, exhausted. When his crew found him his first question was, “Did Nat see it?”

Midway through filming, Big Joe Roberts suffered a stroke. A doctor discovered he had late-onset neurosyphilis, contracted decades earlier, and had only a short time to live. Keaton kept filming while Joe spent some time resting, but was concerned enough for his friend to consider shelving the picture. However, Joe insisted on returning to the Keaton studio to finish his scenes, a professional to the end. After attending a preview of the finished film, Joe had a second stroke at home and passed away. He was 52 years old, and had deliveredsome of Our Hospitality’s most touching dramatic scenes.

Big Joe Roberts as Joseph Canfield in Our Hospitality (1923) — Big Joe Roberts as Joseph Canfield

Our Hospitality was widely praised by critics and audiences alike, and did very well at the box office, grossing even more than Keaton’s anticipated Three Ages. It was declared one of the funniest pictures ever made and admired for its thrilling stunt work. Today, the opinion of this lovingly-shot period piece remains unchanged. It’s a favorite of many Keaton fans, and is certainly one of the greatest classics of silent comedy.

Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge in Our Hospitality (1923) — Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge

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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 Buster Keaton, Craig Ward, d.w. griffith, Francis X. Bushman Jr., Hard Luck, Intolerance, Jack Duffy, Joe Roberts, Natalie Talmadge, Our Hospitality, the general, Three Ages | 4 Comments

Silver Screen Standards: The “Rough Magic” of Forbidden Planet (1956)

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Jennifer Garlen

Silver Screen Standards: The “Rough Magic” of Forbidden Planet (1956)

The Tempest has always been my favorite Shakespeare play, so my love for the science fiction classic, Forbidden Planet (1956), shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows how much this iconic film owes to the Bard’s romantic tale of island castaways, magic, and romance. In spite of its futuristic trappings and CinemaScope imagery, Forbidden Planet remains, at its heart, a very old-fashioned story, from its depictions of patriarchy and gender to its vision of a spaceship crew. Those traits don’t make for very compelling speculative fiction, especially for a modern viewer of progressive sci-fi like the current crop of Star Trek shows, but they do help to bind Forbidden Planet to its Shakespearean source. The Tempest is really the story of Prospero, a powerful man facing the consequences of his past actions and his changing status as both ruler and father. In Forbidden Planet, Prospero is reimagined as Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), but the psychological and moral concerns of the protagonist remain the same.

Forbidden Planet (1956) Walter Pidgeon and Robby the robot — As Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) reimagines Prospero, so Robby the Robot serves as a science fiction version of the bound spirit, Ariel.

Morbius doesn’t actually appear until the movie is well underway, but, he’s the central figure of the story, even if the spaceship crew don’t know whom they’re about to encounter when they arrive at Altair IV. The crew, led by Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen), have come looking for a group of colonists who settled on the planet almost twenty years earlier, but only Dr. Morbius and his daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis), are still alive. Everyone else perished in attacks by a powerful, mysterious creature, who once again rampages after Adams and his men land on the planet. As Morbius repeatedly warns Adams to depart, the Commander and his officers begin to suspect that Morbius himself might be responsible for the deadly, invisible being.

Forbidden Planet (1956) Walter Pidgeon and Anne Francis — Like Prospero, Morbius has a daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis), who has grown up isolated from all other human beings.

We might be tempted to view Leslie Nielsen’s handsome young officer as the hero of this story, but, like Prince Ferdinand in The Tempest, Commander Adams is just here to get the girl and deprive the aging father of the total devotion he has previously enjoyed from his only child. Both Prospero and Morbius have to adjust to the idea that their little girls have grown up. In both cases, their total isolation means too many daddy-daughter dances and not nearly enough opportunity for each of them to build other relationships. Prospero’s daughter, Miranda, has known only the monstrous Caliban as a playmate, while Altaira has made do with the company of Robby the Robot, who functionally resembles Prospero’s spirit servant, Ariel, but still lacks the necessary parts to be a potential mate. It’s little wonder that both young women delight in the arrival of a ship full of actual men. “O brave new world, that has such people in it!” Miranda exclaims, while Altaira promptly begins a frank assessment of the physical charms of the trio of men she first meets. They’re both primed to fall for the first handsome guy who shows up, and Commander Adams doesn’t have to demonstrate much personality or skill at romance to win Altaira’s heart.

Forbidden Planet (1956) Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis — Ripe for romance, Altaira quickly falls for the charms of the handsome Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen).

Morbius, however, is a far more complex character, a man accustomed to absolute obedience and authority in his castaway kingdom, where he hasn’t had to consider the moral implications of his own choices. After the deaths of the other Bellerophon colonists, Morbius has had no one to challenge his rule or his motives. He considers himself a good man, a benevolent ruler and father, and a singularly qualified controller of the powerful alien technology of the long extinct Krell. Morbius is a man of science, not magic, but Prospero’s magic and Morbius’ science are interchangeable as powers too great for any imperfect man to wield without danger to himself and others. Shakespeare didn’t have Freudian psychology to articulate the idea of the id, but both Prospero and Morbius harbor destructive darkness in their remote idylls; Morbius’ shadow monster is a bigger, scarier, more relentless version of the laughable but still scheming Caliban, a “thing of darkness” that Prospero acknowledges as belonging to him near the play’s end. As Prospero abjures his “rough magic,” so Morbius must recognize and reject his “evil self” in order to be reintegrated into humanity, whether literally or symbolically. Prospero, having already paid a price for his obsession by losing his title and home, voluntarily relinquishes his power as his final act, destroying his staff and books so that others cannot be tempted by them. Morbius must pay a steeper cost for his hubris in order to save Altaira, but the final destruction of Altair IV accomplishes the same end as Prospero’s drowning of his book. Neither man is a god, and both have seen enough to recognize their acquired power as more dangerous than benign. Morbius, of course, has many cinematic and literary brethren among the ranks of overreaching scientists, but his deep connection to Prospero reminds us how old and often repeated this story is, even as each new generation fails to heed it.

Forbidden Planet (1956) Walter Pidgeon — Morbius finds that his power has come at a terrible cost; like Prospero, he must destroy the source of his superhuman abilities.

If you enjoy the marriage of Shakespeare and science fiction demonstrated in Forbidden Planet, be sure to check out other classic movies with strong Shakespearean roots, including Strange Illusion (1945), A Double Life (1947), Joe MacBeth (1955), and, of course, West Side Story (1961). Maurice Evans, Richard Burton, and Roddy McDowall starred in a film adaptation of The Tempest in 1960, and Sir John Gielgud played Prospero in a 1991 version called Prospero’s Books. For a delightful comedy treatment of Forbidden Planet and The Tempest, track down a recording of the 1983 jukebox musical Return to the Forbidden Planet. It’s delightfully silly and well worth it if you’re ever lucky enough to be able to catch a live performance.

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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 a double life, Anne Francis, Forbidden Planet, Joe MacBeth, Leslie Nielsen, Maurice Evans, richard burton, Roddy McDowall, Sci-Fi Movies, science-fiction, shakespeare, Strange Illusion, The Tempest, walter pidgeon, west side story | Leave a comment

Monsters and Matinees: Like big-bug films? Try these she-bug B-movies

Posted on February 11, 2023 by Toni Ruberto

Classic horror fans are forever grateful to the 1950s, a decade that birthed one of the greatest of all film genres: the big-bug movie.

Multitudes of giant ants, spiders, grasshoppers, shrews and scorpions all treated moviegoers to oversized terrors. Toward the end of the decade, there was a tweak to this formula when the big bug came in the body of a man/bug in the great 1958 film The Fly.

While The Fly deservedly remains in high regard today, there were other films that explored the idea of a human turned killer bug that aren’t as well remembered. These were true B-movies with very low budgets, very fast production schedules and a feminine touch.

In Roger Corman’s The Wasp Woman (1959), a businesswoman goes to extremes to save her beauty empire. In Universal’s The Leech Woman (1960), a depressed wife yearns for her youth to win back her cruel husband’s love. The Snake Woman (1961) was born because snake venom was injected into her pregnant mother. The poor lass who became The Reptile (1966) was the product of a curse, courtesy of Hammer films.

While the age-old search for the fountain of youth is a theme in two of these films, it’s not the driving force in all four. It is, however, the unmistakable theme of The Leech Woman, and it is somberly put into words for viewers in a soliloquy spoken by a 152-year-old character during a secret tribal ceremony:

“For a man, old age has rewards. If he is wise his gray hairs bring dignity and he’s treated with honor and respect. But for the aged woman, there is nothing. At best, she’s pitied. More often her lot is of contempt and neglect. What woman lives who is past the prime of life that would not give her remaining years to reclaim even a few moments of joy and happiness and know the worship of men.”

June (Coleen Gray) listens as Malla (Estelle Hemsley) explains her tribe’s secret to regaining youthful beauty in *The Leech Woman.* Soon, both women will look much different.

That’s heavy for viewers who sat down to watch a monster movie and there are a few other moments of unexpected depth in the script by David Duncan, who had a nice run writing the screenplays for such genre films as The Black Scorpion, Monster on the Campus, The Time Machine and Fantastic Voyage. I went into The Leech Woman expecting schlock – which I got – but I also left thinking about how society continues to put an unfair emphasis on youth and beauty even today.

Middle-aged June Talbot (played by Coleen Gray) is in a loveless marriage to her cruel husband Dr. Paul Talbot (Phillip Terry). He’s 10 years younger and takes delight in ripping her apart. The more he does, the more she drinks and falls into depression.

While he’s disgusted by his wife (he’s a super mean guy), he’s also researching ways to stop the aging process for his own fame and fortune. He seeks old women for his experiments and finds the perfect one in Malla (played by Estelle Helmsley) who arrives looking like a “mummy” and tells fantastic stories of a potion and secret ceremony that can slow death and – with ingredients found only in her homeland – reverse aging.

She convinces Dr. Talbot to fund her trip to her Nando tribe in Africa where she’ll share the potion that can return her youth for one night before she dies. The doctor sees dollar signs and convinces his wife that he suddenly loves her again. Poor June is overjoyed, but her lying husband only wants to experiment on her. Joining them in Africa is a handsome jungle guide who comes in handy later.

June (Coleen Gray), left, tells the newly youthful Malla (Kim Hamilton) the name of man she has chosen to be sacrificed so she can regain her youth. Hint: That’s June’s cruel husband Paul (Phillip Terry) standing between the two women in *The Leech Woman*.

Now we know what happens to outsiders who watch a secret ceremony – they will be killed to preserve the secret. But Malla isn’t heartless as you can tell by that poignant speech she delivers and she offers June the chance to undergo the same process and experience her youthful beauty one more time.

In a wonderful twist, the magic elixir needs a man to be sacrificed and Malla tells June to pick one guy – any guy. Yes, we’re all thinking of the same guy to be sacrificed, aren’t we?

The transformations for Malla and June are breathtaking. It’s joyful watching them as they see their younger faces in a mirror. Sadly, the effect is only temporary and while Malla is at peace with that, June wants more time.

That feeling grows after she spends a few romantic hours with the handsome jungle guide – enough time for the potion to wear off. The enticing lure of youth turns beautiful June into a murderous beast. Au revoir handsome jungle guide.

June (Coleen Gray) finds happiness where she can during her short bursts of youth in *The Leech Woman.* Will Grant Williams be her next victim?

June returns to the states posing as her beautiful young niece, leaving a trail of dead men along the way. When she falls for the handsome fiancé (Grant Williams, The Incredible Shrinking Man) of her husband’s nurse (Gloria Talbott, I Married A Monster From Outer Space), she has difficulty fending off her killer urges.

Because so much of the film built up to getting to Africa and back, the end comes much too fast and we don’t get enough of the monster (something these four films have in common). But there’s plenty of scary stuff in Africa, including some of my strange phobias like man-eating lions, killer crocodiles, suffocating quicksand and other gruesome ways to die.

In 1995, Corman would produce a very different – and much sexier – remake of The Leech Woman for his Roger Corman Presents TV series.

Let’s look at the other three films.

The Wasp Woman

Janice Starlin (played by Susan Cabot) is a successful businesswoman whose company bears her name and likeness. For 16 years, her face has been the sole image of her beauty empire, Janice Starlin Enterprises, propelling it into a multimillion-dollar corporation.

She is smart, savvy and attractive. She’s also soft-spoken yet firm when it comes to her company as we see in a board meeting called to learn why her namesake business has lost 14 ½ percent in the last quarter. Only one will tell her truth: profits have plummeted since she retreated into the background, switching to an unfamiliar model in the company’s advertisements. Loyal customers don’t know or trust this new, younger person.

Why did the formerly confident Starlin back away from the public? “Not even Janice Starlin can remain a glamour girl forever,” she says.

But she still needs to save her company and will do so at any cost, even if it means becoming the title monster in Roger Corman’s The Wasp Woman.

With impeccable timing, Dr. Eric Zinthrop (Michael Mark), a chemist fired from a bee farm for experimenting on wasps, is waiting in the reception room.

“I don’t have much time,” she tells him.

“It is I who give you the time … 10, maybe 15 years I give you,” he tells her in a halting accent.

Susan Cabot plays a businesswoman will stop at nothing to save her company – including injecting herself with an extract from a queen wasp’s royal jelly in *The Wasp Woman*.

His anti-aging experiments have had limited success with enzymes from the royal jelly of a queen wasp. When he injects two rabbits who turn into babies, Janice practically yells “Sold!”

The doctor’s proposal: Help him complete his research and the component can be added to Janice Starlin cosmetics if he gets full credit.

Her demand: She will be the guinea pig for the human trials so she can save her company – and herself.

There will be secrecy over what he’s doing, her employees will start skulking about for answers and Janice will be so impatient that she injects herself without the doctor’s knowledge. She’ll get great results – her secretary tells her she looks 22 – but the side effects are disastrous, even tragic. As they get worse, the doctor can’t help because he’s conveniently been hit by a car and has lost his memory.

From there, we remember the words from earlier in the film when the company chemist tells Janice not to mess around with the dangerous queen wasp, a lethal and carnivorous insect that stings, paralyzes and slowly devours its victims. Janice does the typical queen wasp one better: She may have the oversized head and furry claws of an insect, but otherwise sports a killer fashion vibe with her high heels and stylish outfit.

The Snake Woman

This film suffers the most from a low budget. At times, it does pull you in with talk of a curse, terrified villagers, mysterious deaths and a voodoo doll but it’s too dark to see much. (This is an early film from Sidney J. Furie who directed a varied slate of films including The Ipcress File, The Entity, The Boys in Company C.)

It’s 1890 Northumberland and a doctor has been injecting his wife for years with snake venom to cure her insanity. About to give birth, she’s screaming for him to stop the injections, but he won’t listen. (Another doctor with delusions of grandeur.)

The wife dies after the baby is born ice cold and without eyelids – just like a reptile. The midwife/local witch is shouting about the “devil’s offspring” and rallies a torch-wielding mob to kill the baby. The little one is temporarily hidden, but the mob kills dad and the child disappears. Fast forward 20 years when the village is terrorized by deadly snake attacks blamed on the curse of the serpent child.

A chance encounter on the moors introduces a Scotland Yard inspector (John McCarthy) to a mysterious young woman (Susan Travers) who likes snakes in *The Snake Woman*.

A respected villager contacts his friend at Scotland Yard who sends a smug young investigator (John McCarthy) to find a scientific reason for the attacks. On the moors while playing a snake charmer’s flute, he meets a lovely young lady (Susan Travers) in a tattered dress named Atheris (the name for bush vipers). He’s smitten, she’s oddly protective of lethal snakes. This relationship clearly has no future.

Unlike the other films here, we are never treated to the image of a “snake woman.” There are snakes, there is a woman but there isn’t the snake woman of the title. However, there is a moment where we see that a “snake” has shed its skin – what it leaves behind doesn’t look like any snake we’ve ever seen. That image alone is worth watching this brief 68-minute film.

The Reptile

It’s a curse, not vanity, that turns a pretty young woman into the killer title character of Hammer’s The Reptile.

Hammer fans will relax into the studio’s familiar washed-out color, gloomy 19^th century setting and a small town in the British countryside with mysterious deaths. The “Black Death” has come to Cornwall where bodies are found with black faces and white lips. It’s so commonplace that at a burial, someone asks, “Who is it this time?”

Harry Spalding (played by Ray Barrett) and his wife, Valerie (Jennifer Daniel), arrive after the unexplained death of his otherwise healthy brother. Townsfolk aren’t happy and even the friendly barkeep Tom (Michael Rippers) warns them off about moving into a quaint cottage owned by Charles. (“He died there,” the barkeep says.)

The title character in *The Reptile* tries to take a bite out of a visitor.

The cottage is across the moors from a large estate owned by Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman) where strange happenings are occurring.

The Reptile moves at a leisurely pace, stringing us along with mysterious characters and lurking figures. (Love the atmospheric shots of a servant who is shown in shadow except for a light around his eyes!). It will be a while before we meet the stern doctor’s sad daughter, Anna (Jacqueline Pierce), and even longer before we see the title creature for far too little time. There is an underground cavern with bubbling sulfur springs, but even that is too little, too late.

One lesson I learned from watching these four films is that if you make a movie about women who become killer bugs, go for it. Make them strong and powerful and give us more – even if the she-bug is in high heels and jewelry.

If you want to learn more about big-bug movies of the 1950s, read my previous column for Classic Movie Hub and Monsters & Matinees, “All Bug-Eyed Over Big-Bug Movies.

– 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 gloria talbott, Grant Williams, roger corman, susan cabot, Susan Travers, The Fly, the leech woman, The Reptile, The Snake Woman, The Wasp Woman | Leave a comment

Noir Nook: 75th Anniversary Noir – 2023 Edition

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Noir Nook: 75th Anniversary Noir – 2023 Edition

We’ve invested in a new wall calendar around these parts, and you know what that means – time for a look at some great films noirs that are celebrating their 75th anniversary this year! I know that 1947 gets a lot of love when it comes to noir, but I’m here to tell you that 1948 is no slouch in the shadowy classics department.

This month’s Noir Nook takes a look at four of my favorite noirs released 75 years ago. Let me know what you think of them!

Raw Deal (1948)

Dennis O’Keefe stars as Joe Sullivan, a convict who has been cooling his heels in the hoosegow for five years for a crime that was committed by his underworld boss, Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr, in a decidedly un-Perry Mason-like role). During his prison stint, Joe is visited by his caseworker, Ann Martin (Marsha Hunt); despite her sage advice to await his parole, Joe breaks out of prison with the help of his loyal girlfriend, Pat Regan (Claire Trevor). Joe’s plans to collect a $50,000 payoff from Rick and flee the country are waylaid when he abducts Ann from her home and an underling of Rick’s tries to kill him. And things are complicated even further by the growing feelings between Joe and Ann.

Favorite quote: “Chiseling little doll face. What is she to you that I’m not? She’s got her hooks into you good. She’s wormed her way into you so that you don’t know what you’re saying, where you’re going.”
– Pat Regan

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)

Set in London, this feature centers on Bill Saunders (Burt Lancaster), a luckless former prisoner of war who accidentally kills a bartender with a single punch. Fleeing from the authorities, he hides out in the apartment of Jane Wharton (Joan Fontaine), and a relationship develops between the two, fostered by their mutual loneliness and alienation. Jane exerts a positive influence on Bill, but the upward spiral of his life is stymied with the entrance of Harry Carter (Robert Newton), who witnessed the killing in the pub and is looking to convert his knowledge into a hefty payday.

Trivia tidbit: The film was helmed by Norman Foster, who started his career as an actor in pre-Codes like Skyscraper Souls (1932), Rafter Romance (1933), and State Fair (1933). His first directorial credit was in I Cover Chinatown (1936), in which he also starred.

Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)

This film, based on a radio play, tells the tension-filled story of Leona Stevenson (Barbara Stanwyck), a self-absorbed heiress whose heart condition keeps her confined to her bed, where she communicates with the world via telephone. When, one evening, she overhears two men plotting a murder, she desperately endeavors to intervene, but through a series of phone calls, she not only learns that her husband, Henry (Burt Lancaster), is involved in the scheme, but that she is the intended victim.

Favorite quote: “You can’t live on dreams forever. Waiting only weakens you and your dream. My motto is: ‘If you want something, get it now!’”
– Henry Stephenson

Pitfall (1948)

Dick Powell stars as Johnny Forbes, an insurance agent and family man who is bored with his mundane existence and gets more than he bargained for when he’s tasked with retrieving stolen merchandise from an attractive model, Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott). When he allows himself to engage in a brief affair with Mona, he discovers that he’s part of a deadly quadrangle that includes Mona’s imprisoned boyfriend (Byron Barr) and a psychotic insurance investigator (Raymond Burr), who wants Mona all to himself.

Trivia tidbit: Pitfall was based on a novel by Jay Dratler, who wrote or contributed to the screenplays for numerous noirs, including Laura (1944), The Dark Corner (1946), Call Northside 777 (1948), and Impact (1949).

What are some of your favorite films from 75 years ago?

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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 barbara stanwyck, burt lancaster, byron barr, Call Northside 777, claire trevor, dennis o'keefe, Dick Powell, famous noir quotes, film noir, Henry Stephenson, I Cover Chinatown, Impact, joan fontaine, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Laura, lizabeth scott, Marsha Hunt, Noir, Noir Nook, Noir Trivia, Norman Foster, Pitfall (1948), Rafter Romance, Raw Deal (1948), Raymond Burr, Robert Newton, Skyscraper Souls, Sorry Wrong Number, state fair, The Dark Corner | 2 Comments

Western RoundUp: Lone Pine Film Locations

Posted on January 27, 2023 by Laura Grieve

Lone Pine Film Locations

This month the Western RoundUp column will pay a return visit to Lone Pine, California, to look at some interesting Western movie locations.

The present-day photos seen in this column were mostly taken when I was in town last fall for the 32nd Lone Pine Film Festival. My husband and I visited numerous movie locations that week, both on our own and as part of festival tour groups.

The Alabama Hills National Scenic Area sign at Lone Pine California — The Alabama Hills National Scenic Area sign at Lone Pine

The Round-Up (1920), starring Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and directed by George Melford, is believed to be the first feature-length film shot in the Lone Pine area.

This year we took a tour of a new-to-us area along the Owens River, where The Round-Up filmed a number of scenes. What’s amazing is that some of the same wooden fences seen in the movie are still standing, over a century later.

Here’s a screen shot of actress Mabel Scott provided by our guide, Greg Parker:

Mabel Scott in The Round-Up (1920) — Mabel Scott in *The Round-Up* (1920)

And here’s the exact same fence today:

Lone Pine Fence The Round-Up (1920) — The fence as it stands today

A cabin seen in the film was right here:

Lone Pine cabin location The Round-Up (1920) — Location of where the cabin once stood

Here’s the cabin as it looked in the movie, again thanks to Greg’s screen shot booklet:

The Round-Up (1920) — *The Round-Up* (1920)

The remains of a decayed wooden bridge which was seen in numerous films including The Round-Up, The Man From Utah (1934) starring John Wayne, and The Nevadan (1950) starring Randolph Scott:

Owens River Bridge
Owens River Bridge

Here’s how it looked in a shot from The Man From Utah:

Owens River Bridge from The Man from Utah (1934) — Owens River Bridge featured in *The Man from Utah* (1934)

The Round-Up also stars Wallace Beery and features Buster Keaton in a small role as an Indian, Sagebrush Charlie. Last year Kit Parker Films released The Round-Up on Blu-ray, with the print from the Library of Congress 35mm archival master.

John Wayne often worked in Lone Pine while making “B” Westerns in the ’30s. The New Frontier (1935) was one such film:

John Wayne in The New Frontier (1935) — John Wayne in *The New Frontier* (1935)

The above scene was filmed on a dry lake bed very close to the other locations seen above. Additional movies which filmed scenes on the lake bed include Army Girl (1938), Three Faces West (1940), and the Hopalong Cassidy film Secret of the Wastelands (1941).

Here’s how the lake bed looks today:

Lone Pine lake bed film location — The lake bed location today

Here’s another screen shot, this time seen as William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd rode through the area in Secret of the Wastelands:

Hopalong Cassidy in Secrets of the Wasteland (1941) — Hopalong Cassidy in *Secret of the Wasteland*s (1941)

And as it looked facing that direction last fall:

Speaking of Hopalong Cassidy, one of the famous rocks in the Alabama Hills is “Hoppy Rock,” which takes its name from the Hopalong Cassidy film Silent Conflict (1948). Here it is as seen in the movie:

Hopalong Cassidy in Silent Conflict (1948) — Hopalong Cassidy in *Silent Conflict* (1948)

And Hoppy Rock photographed from that side today, accompanied by a shot from another angle:

Hoppy Rock
Hoppy Rock

Some of the other “named” rocks in the Alabama Hills include Gary Cooper Rock and Gene Autry Rock.

I wrote about one of the locations for the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher film The Tall T (1957) here in 2021. This time around we’ll look at Anchor Ranch in Lone Pine, where some of the movie’s opening scenes were filmed.

Lone Pine Anchor Ranch entrance sign — Sign for Anchor Ranch

Early in the film Scott’s character visits a friend’s ranch. Here’s a shot with a barn in the background:

Randolph Scott in The Tall T (1957) — Randolph Scott in *The Tall T* (1957)

Here’s the barn again, still standing today:

Lone Pine The Tall T (1957) barn — The barn still stands today

Scott’s character, Pat Brennan, leans on an iron fence at one point:

Randolph Scott The Tall T (1957) fence — Scott leaning on an iron fence in *The Tall T* (1957)

Amazingly the fence pole still exists today as well, albeit now on the ground; my husband (at left) and some other members of the tour picked it up for a photo:

Lone Pine Anchor Ranch The Tall T (1957) fence today — Remnants of the fence today

An incredible number of Westerns were filmed in the areas around Lone Pine; look for more location shots here in the future!

For additional Western RoundUp columns on Lone Pine film locations, please visit my past articles from 2021 and 2018. There are even more Lone Pine locations pictured in my articles on the films Hop-a-Long Cassidy (1935) and The Violent Men (1955).

Beyond Lone Pine, additional movie location photos may be seen in my articles on Kanab, Moab, Corriganville, and Iverson Movie Ranch.

The photographs of the Alabama Hills and most of the screen shots accompanying this article are from the author’s personal collection.

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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub