Supernatural comedy is one of my favorite movie genres
any time of year, but I’m especially drawn to it once the first Halloween
decorations start to materialize. After a recent viewing of The Ghost and
Mrs. Muir (1947), I remembered that its leading man, Rex Harrison, also
experiences a haunting from the other side of the veil in the 1945 adaptation
of Noël Coward’s hit play, Blithe Spirit. In addition to Harrison,
director David Lean’s British film version boasts a quintessential performance
from one of my favorite character actresses, Margaret Rutherford, and visual
effects that won the Oscar in 1947. While it’s neither a perfect movie nor a
completely faithful adaptation of the play, Blithe Spirit offers plenty
of fun if you’re in the right mood to appreciate its dark comedy and unlikable
characters.
Kay Hammond is ghostly in green as the spectral Elvira.
Harrison plays author Charles Condomine, a widower who
seems happy enough with his second wife, Ruth (Constance Cummings), until he
decides to research a new book by inviting a medium to give a séance in his
home. Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) accidentally conjures the spirit of
Charles’ first wife, Elvira (Kay Hammond), who initially charms Charles with
her amusing conversation but upsets the territorial Ruth. Marital bliss among
the living is soon shattered, and Elvira’s interference makes matters even
worse. When Madame Arcati returns to perform an exorcism, Charles discovers
that getting rid of either of his wives is a lot more trouble than he expected.
Ruth (Constance Cummings) feels that three is definitely a crowd when Elvira comes between her and Charles (Rex Harrison).
If you’re looking for truly sympathetic characters
here you won’t find them, although I rather like the goofy and free-spirited
Madame Arcati, especially as she’s played by Rutherford. Hers is the plum role
of the piece, which Rutherford originated in 1941 on the London stage. In later
versions Madame Arcati has been played by great performers like Mildred
Natwick, Angela Lansbury, and Judi Dench, but Rutherford has a unique physical
energy that gives her version a lot of appeal. Charles and both of his wives
are shallow, selfish creatures, witty at best but never wise, which ensures
that we don’t much care what happens to them. The film ending, which I won’t
spoil, is markedly different from the original play and infuriated Coward with
its alterations, but I think the movie ending has a better sense of poetic
justice. Some of the elements that remain faithful to Coward’s original haven’t
aged well, including persistent misogyny passed off as comedy and some racist
dialogue no actor would want to repeat today.
Margaret Rutherford steals her scenes as Madame Arcati, a role she originated in the stage production.
What still works to great effect is the presentation
of the ghostly Elvira, whom Kay Hammond invests with fey gaiety. The
Technicolor cinematography allows her to appear an otherworldly shade of green
from head to toe, and unseen breezes blow her clothing in the stillness of the
house. Her red lips and nails stand out against her eerie green skin, making
her look even stranger. Stage productions of the play have represented Elvira’s
ghostly nature in different ways, but the film’s method makes her absolutely
mesmerizing to behold. The film is able to include scenes where Elvira is
invisible but active, and these are also delightful. Because Elvira can only be
seen by Charles, scenes alternate between showing both of them and showing only
what other characters would see. These are especially amusing when Elvira takes
the wheel on a country drive, so that it looks like Charles is riding in a
self-driving car. Most ghost comedies use these tricks to varying degrees, but
it’s always a pleasure to see them so well done in movies that predate CGI
effects by many decades.
The invisible Elvira convinces Madame Arcati of her presence.
Most classic movie fans already know to look for Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963), My Fair Lady (1964), and Doctor Doolittle (1967), and Margaret Rutherford is best remembered today for her role as Miss Marple in films like Murder, She Said (1961), Murder at the Gallop (1963), and Murder Most Foul (1964). David Lean won Academy Awards for his direction of The Bridge on the River Kwai (1958) and Lawrence of Arabia (1963), but if you want another comedy I’m particularly fond of Hobson’s Choice (1954). Like Rutherford, Kay Hammond originated her role in Blithe Spirit, and she was primarily a stage actress. Constance Cummings also spent most of her career on the stage, but you’ll find her dealing with more mysterious business in The Mind Reader (1933) and Haunted Honeymoon (1940). I haven’t seen the 2020 film adaptation of Blithe Spirit that stars Judi Dench as Madame Arcati, but it only has a 27% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so be forewarned if you decide to see it for yourself.
When Flying Things Sting in Real Life, 1970s Bee Films Come to the Rescue
They were cute little honey bees – just one or two fluttering
around the walkway by my back stairs. Not an unexpected sight on a warm summer
day and, knowing the importance of the pollinators, I left them alone.
I should have looked closer.
A few weeks later there was a swarm – OK, maybe just 6 flying creatures around the same spot – that had me running away like a scared toddler. Texting a photo to a bee expert, it turns out my cute bees were yellow jackets – AKA wasps – and they had been building a home. Not good.
Could this have been the yellow jacket that viciously attacked me? I fear so.
Here’s the thing about yellow jackets: They don’t let go. They are aggressive little buggers that don’t usually lose their stinger like a bee, so they can keep zapping you like one did when it latched on to my foot.
When the attack was over, it hurt – and not only that night, but the next day. When the pain subsided, it turned into an uncomfortable itch.
Whining to myself for days about how my “attack” by one
yellow jacket could cause such pain, I realized I was lucky that I wasn’t stung
by two of them.
Or attacked by a swarm.
Worse yet, what if they were the dreaded African killer
bees?
This could all happen – I’ve seen the movies.
To feel better about my yellow jacket attack, I watched some
classic movies about “flying things that sting” to see just how much worse it
could have been.
I started with the giant wasp in Monster from Green Hell(1957) which sounded like a great idea but it wasn’t. The title creature in this lower-than-B-movie film had great potential but was underused.
Instead, we were subjected to long scenes of guys walking and walking on an expedition through Africa. The running time was only 71 minutes, but it felt like three hours. The nondescript white leaders who made the natives carry their gear were so ineffectual that when they finally met the giant wasp, nature had to save them.
I could have kept on a supersize route with the giant honey bee in the fantastic Mysterious Island(1961), but that bee had every right to be angry at the trespassing young lovers. Besides, it didn’t sting them, just built a honeycomb around them. They eventually escaped, so no harm, no foul.
Clearly, I would need to watch the dreaded African killer bees to get some closure.
Posters for three of the killer bee movies from the 1970s.
First, the real story
Often referred to as killer bees, the truth behind the Africanized honey bee started with the type of researcher found in many sci-fi movies: the altruistic scientist trying to do good before things go bad. The hybrid bee was introduced in 1956 in Brazil (hence the link to Brazil in these films) to help produce more honey, especially in hotter climates. When about 26 swarms reportedly escaped, it led to all sorts of doomsday-type scenarios and the misleading moniker of “killer bees.”
From the real world into the reel world, killer bees joined the “nature gone wrong” and environmental disaster movie trend of the 1970s in such films asKiller Bees, Savage Bees (and its sequel Terror Out of the Skies), The Bees and Irwin Allen’s all-star epic The Swarm.
The films do have some basis in reality. The insects will go
after noise, so stop screaming. They will swarm victims and aggressively chase
them at great distances (just like the yellow jacket that nabbed me). And whatever
you do, don’t jump in the water thinking you’ll escape – they will keep
attacking and you will drown.
Katharine Ross and Michael Caine are terrified to see a swarm of killer bees is ready to attack the quaint town of Marysville in The Swarm.
In the movies, the insects have an uncanny ability to arrive
in town around a big event like the Rose Bowl Parade in The Bees, Mardi
Gras in Savage Bees and a flower festival in The Swarm.
Swarms of bees often will overtake the skies as ominous
black clouds. Victims may die by the shear mass of bees covering their body (always
an effective sight) or their extra-lethal venom could kill with as little as
three bee stings. This is where we must add a reality check: the venom in Africanized
bees is no more potent than in other honey bees, but where’s the movie fun in
that?
Here’s a quick look at a few of the films.
Gloria Swanson has a unique relationship with bees at her vineyard in Killer Bees.
Killer Bees (1974)
I’m starting here, but this film is not like the others. The bees traveled with the Van Bohlen family from Europe to California decades earlier and have a psychic bond to the matriarch. This “queen of the hive” is played by legendary film actress Gloria Swanson who is referred to as “Madame” by everyone including her family. Edward Albert is the prodigal son who returns home with his fiancée (Kate Jackson) who insists on meeting them despite warnings that they are “European” and reclusive, with their own rules and laws. She should talk to the townsfolk who stay clear of the Van Bohlen family and don’t become involved even when, say, a stranger passing through is killed after his car is engulfed by bees.
It’s one strange family and it’s funny to watch the men who are clearly afraid of Madam who can send a bee to sit on your face with a simple furrow of her brow. A heads-up that Killer Bees, an ABC movie of the week, is clearly a film of the era right down to that frustrating ‘70s ending.
Savage Bees (1976)
Premiering as an NBC movie of the week, Savage Bees was released the year after Jaws and that’s obvious in the plot. A dangerous element (killer bees) is threatening a town at the most inopportune time (Mardi Gras) and officials refused to call off festivities and lose tourist dollars.
A small-town sheriff (Ben Johnson), bereft at finding his dog dead, takes the animal into New Orleans to have an autopsy done. An assistant medical examiner (Michael Parks) discovers the dog’s stomach is filled with bees. The poor dog isn’t the only one: There are two crew members off a boat from Brazil and a child also dead from stings. (This film did not adhere to the cinematic idea that you never kill dogs and children.) Our assistant M.E. calls in a friend from Tulane University (“special guest star” Gretchen Corbett) to help. She has her own set of insect expert friends including Horst Bucholz who has created a newfangled suit that looks like it’s made from cheap aluminum foil.
Gretchen Corbett is trapped in a Volkswagen Beetle by killer bees in Savage Bees.
Bees will arrive, people will scream and make themselves targets and attempts to quell the attacks will fail. It leads to an odd, yet strangely interesting denouement of a bee-covered Volkswagen Beetle slowly driven to the Louisiana Superdome as a last hope. As strange as that sounds, the sequence builds tension, even if it is undercut by the overwrought sobbing inside the Beetle.
Its sequel, Terror Out of the Skies (78) features two bee experts played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Tovah Feldshuh and a pilot (Dan Haggerty) who face the vengeance of the savage bees.
The Bees(1978)
To call The Bees uneven is an understatement. We open in a genetic research station in Brazil where a desperate father and his young son try to steal honey bees to make honey and money for the family. Of course, they stumble into the wrong place and are attacked by a nasty swarm that gets loose. In retribution, an angry mob descends on the facility to kill the “devil bees,” and well, you know who wins that battle.
Cut to the United States, where a dashing John Saxon is addressing a group of important men about the development of hybrid bees that create more honey yet are less aggressive. In a scene recalling Roger Corman’s 1959 film The Wasp Woman (The Bees was financed by Corman’s New World Picture), one business is interested but not for charitable reasons. A cosmetic company wants to create money-making beauty treatments from the queen bee’s “royal jelly” and will go to extremes – including hiring hit men – to get it.
In a terrifying scene from The Bees, John Saxon and Angel Tompkins awaken to find themselves surrounded by killer bees.
The man they hire to sneak bees into the United States via a “bee belt” around his waist is stung to death on a flight to California. Welcome to the U.S., killer bees.
Leading the charge to save the world are Saxon plus a wheelchair-bound scientist called Uncle Ziggy (played by an elderly John Carradine) who talks to the bees, and his lovely and smart niece (Angel Tompkins).
There is an incredibly effective scene – perhaps one of the best in all the bee films – with the bees are covering every surface of a bedroom quickly shared by Saxon and the niece. It becomes even more horrifying as the bees cover the couple as they try to get out of the room.
Unfortunately, things go off the deep end when Saxon, channeling Uncle Ziggy, starts talking to the bees and then communicates their message to the United Nations that humans need to share the world – or else. I can’t help thinking that ultimatum was meant to be the plot of a sequel that was never made.
The Swarm (1978)
Film folklore has it that the release of The Bees was
delayed a few months (money may have exchanged hands) so The Swarm could
hit the big screen first with its all-star cast that includes five Oscar
winners.
In short: bees attack a military installation in Texas right
before the big flower show in a nearby small town, but the insects have their
stingers set for a much bigger quarry in Houston and beyond.
Now I’m not going to sugar coat The Swarm. With a big budget, a major studio behind it and A-list stars, there was a lot expected from this film that was a follow-up to Irwin Allen’s blockbuster disaster films The Poseidon Adventureand The Towering Inferno. Instead, it was universally maligned by critics and was a box-office failure.
Olivia de Havilland looks out in horror as bees attack her school in Irwin Allen’s The Swarm.
The main problem – outside of bad dialogue – is that The Swarm is overly long. It has three distinct segments – an attack on the military base, an attack on the town and the surge on greater Texas and perhaps the world – that each could have stood as their own film. I watched the original 116-minute release (not the 155-minute home video version), and at least 25% of the film could have been trimmed without losing anything.
The film opens with music by Jerry Goldsmith resembling buzzing bees lending a nice tension as the military arrives at a Texas bunker to discover soldiers mysteriously dead. There’s also a doctor (Katharine Ross) who saved six others and a stranger with a shaky reason for being at the base. That’s Michael Caine as a world-renowned etymologist who has been predicting – and preparing for – a bee invasion. The military guys (led by Richard Widmark as the general) and Bradford Dillon (as a major) won’t believe him despite the fact that helicopters are downed by swarms and people die while they bicker.
By the time the warning comes over the loudspeaker, it’s too late for the school in The Swarm.
As the nearby town of Marysville is preparing for its annual flower festival (bee swarms and flowers – what could go wrong?), a husband and wife are engulfed by bees and killed when picnicking with their young son who escapes. While these bees cover their victims from head to toe, they don’t leave any marks, but if you survive, you will hallucinate giant bees.
To add a human element is the odd golden years triangle of the
school principal played by Olivia de Havilland, the bowtie wearing town mayor/pharmacist
(Fred MacMurray) and a retired newcomer (Ben Johnson). It’s sweet, but kind of sad,
too.
Meanwhile, the military and scientists continue to shout over who gets to kill the bees and how. But nothing helps for long, even the highly destructive military alternatives that are far more dangerous to people and the planet than bees. (Those bees are laughing at the guys with flame throwers who burn down buildings and leave the bees unscathed.)
We know they’ll figure something out, but it takes so long to get there. Still, watching bees cover people like a blanket, swarm military officers and blow up a nuclear reactor did the trick for me. The next time I get stung by a single yellow jacket, I’ll think of those scenes from The Swarm and remember how lucky I was with my one sting.
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 writer
and board member of the Classic
Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo
chapter of TCM Backlot and led 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.
Therese Ann Rutherford was born on November 2, 1917, in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her parents were John and Lucille
Rutherford. Her mother was a silent film actress, while her father was an
operatic tenor. When Rutherford was an infant, her family relocated to San
Francisco, California, and soon separated. Rutherford’s mother took Ann and her
sister, Laurette, to Los Angeles, California.
As a child, Rutherford enjoyed stopping by radio studios to
listen to voice actors during their performances. She indulged in this routine
when she roller-skated home from middle school. Rutherford eventually applied
for work at KFAC radio station with a faux acting history and soon secured a
role in a radio drama. As the years went on, she attended Los Angeles High
School.
By 1935, Rutherford began her film career, starring in Waterfront Lady (1935) for Mascot
Pictures. She was also a regular in Western films at Republic (formerly Mascot
Pictures) and soon left for a contract at MGM Studios. There, she appeared in A Christmas Carol (1938) and Pride and Prejudice (1940).
Reginald Owen and Ann Rutherford, A Christmas Carol (1938)
Rutherford was loaned out to Selznick International Pictures
to appear as Careen O’Hara, Scarlett’s sister, in Gone with the Wind (1939).
Between 1937 and 1942, Rutherford appeared as Polly Benedict
in MGM’s popular Andy Hardy series, starring Mickey Rooney. This role secured
her screen popularity among moviegoing audiences. She also starred alongside
Red Skelton in the mystery comedies Whistling
in the Dark (1941), Whistling in
Dixie (1942), and Whistling in
Brooklyn (1943).
Ann Rutherford, Mickey Rooney and Virginia Grey, The Hardys Ride High
Throughout the 1940s, Rutherford left MGM and worked with a
wide range of studios, appearing in Orchestra
Wives (1942) and The Secret Life of
Walter Mitty (1947).
In 1942, Rutherford married David May II, grandson of the
May Company department stores founder. They had one child—Gloria May—and
divorced in 1953. In 1953, she married William Dozier, creator of the Batman television series. They remained
together until his passing in 1991.
By 1950, she retired from films altogether. Though Rooney
wanted her to return as Polly Benedict in the final Andy Hardy film, she
nonetheless did not appear in it.
In 1952, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
In her later years, she made several television appearances
and returned to MGM in 1972 to appear in They
Online Kill Their Maters (1972)—a film shot on the former Andy Hardy set.
Rutherford also replaced actress Penny Singleton on radio as the title
character in the Blondie series.
In the 1990s, Rutherford was offered the role of the older
Rose in Titanic (1997) but turned it
down, with the role eventually going to Gloria Stuart.
Rutherford made personal appearances at events and locations
tied to the legacy of Gone with the Wind.
She passed away on June 11, 2012, in her Beverly Hills,
California, home due to heart ailments. Rutherford was cremated and her ashes
were given to her daughter, who has since passed in 2013. The whereabouts of
her final resting place is not known to the public.
In 1930, Rutherford lived at 624 ½ S. Westmoreland Ave., Los
Angeles, California. This home has since been razed.
In 1940, she resided at 6129 6th St., Los
Angeles, California. This home remains.
6129 6th St., Los Angeles
Rutherford lived at 826 Greenway Dr., Beverly Hills,
California. The home stands.
826 Greenway Dr., Beverly Hills
Rutherford also has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
honoring her work in motion pictures and television. Her stars are located at
6834 and 6331 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, California, respectively.
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.
Recently
a longtime Twitter pal sought recommendations for traditional Westerns for her
11-year-old daughter to try.
An enjoyable discussion with several people ensued, and I
got to thinking that if I fleshed out my thoughts it would make a nice Western
RoundUp topic.
I’m thus expanding the short list I gave her with
additional thoughts, and I’ve also tweaked my list slightly to include only
films which have been released on DVD or Blu-ray. I wanted the films on this
list to be as accessible to families as possible, and I thus swapped out my
initial recommendation of Joel McCrea’s hard-to-find Saddle Tramp (1950)
for Cattle Drive (1951).
It was only after I compiled a short list that I realized
over half of the titles are John Wayne films, but what can I say?! Wayne was
our greatest Western star, who made many crowd-pleasing films appropriate for
all ages.
I’ve written about all of these favorite films here in
various contexts over the last half-dozen years, but it’s been quite a while
since I discussed some of them, and this is the first time I’ve compiled the
titles into a list specifically with appeal for young viewers in mind.
Along with providing a thumbnail description, my comments
here are focused on why the films might be especially likely to be enjoyed by
children.
…..
Tall in the Saddle (Edwin L. Marin, 1944)
John Wayne, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Ella Raines, Ward Bond, and Cast
This lesser-known John Wayne film is included simply
because it’s fun. The land dispute plotline isn’t particularly
notable, but the movie features fiery Ella Raines as a woman who can’t decide
whether to shoot or kiss Wayne — or maybe both! They have great chemistry. The
script, cowritten by Wayne’s friend and costar Paul Fix, has some excellent
dialogue which is occasionally “laugh out loud” funny. Our kids loved
this one, which at times seems to presage Burt Kennedy’s comedic James Garner
Western Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969). The latter film,
incidentally, is also a good option for children.
…..
Angel and the Badman (James
Edward Grant, 1947)
John Wayne and Gail Russell
I include this title as it was one of my own childhood favorites. It’s a much quieter film than Tall in the Saddle, but I’ve always found this story about a gunslinger taken in by a Quaker family to be extremely compelling; in fact, it’s one of my all-time favorite films. John Wayne’s lovely romance with Gail Russell takes place against the background of her entire family warmly caring for him despite his being a stranger; we see their kindness work wonders not only on Wayne but on an ornery neighbor (Tom Powers). The film provides a good lesson in that regard, yet it never comes off as preachy. There are occasional outbursts of action punctuating the peaceful story which may help maintain younger viewers’ attention.
…..
Rio Grande (John Ford, 1950)
Claude Jarman Jr. and John Wayne
This classic “Cavalry Trilogy” film features John Wayne as a Civil War veteran heading a remote Rio Grande outpost. His life is turned upside-down with the arrival of his young son Jeff (Claude Jarman Jr.), a new recruit, and his long-estranged wife (Maureen O’Hara). Jeff makes friends with fellow troopers Travis (Ben Johnson) and Sandy (Harry Carey Jr.); it’s great to point out to kids that all three young men are doing all of their own “Roman riding” stuntwork! The thrilling climax, the successful rescue of a large group of children captured by Indians, is sure to be enjoyed by kids, especially as a child, Margaret Mary (Karolyn Grimes), plays a pivotal role.
…..
Cattle Drive (Kurt Neumann, 1951)
Dean Stockwell and Joel McCrea
A couple years ago I devoted an entire column review to this film, another of my childhood favorites which helped make me the Western fan I am today. It was also one of the first films in which I saw lifelong favorite Joel McCrea. McCrea plays a cowpoke on a cattle drive who rescues wealthy and rude young Chester (Dean Stockwell) when he’s inadvertently left behind in the desert after his train makes a water stop. Chester gains a nickname, Chet, as he also learns good manners and acquires a work ethic as he matures while serving as a cowhand until he can be reunited with his widowed father (Leon Ames).
…..
Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)
Arthur Kennedy and James Stewart
I initially considered recommending Anthony Mann’s excellent Winchester ’73 (1950), which like Bend of the River stars James Stewart, but I ultimately chose my first and favorite Mann-Stewart film, which I’ve always considered “movie comfort food.” Although Bend of the River has moments as dark and bitter as its predecessor, I think Bend of the River is more accessible to younger viewers; the overall tone is more that of a family film, telling the story of pioneers traveling to settle in Oregon. Scenes with young Rock Hudson kindly carrying a young calf across his saddle seem straight out of a Disney film! There’s lots of excitement including a great escape out of a frontier town, with horses jumping onto a paddlewheeler as they flee.
…..
Hondo (John Farrow, 1953)
John Wayne and Lee Aaker
Hondo is based on a Louis L’Amour story and was written for the screen by James Edward Grant, who also wrote and directed Angel and the Badman. John Wayne plays the title role, an army dispatch rider who’s lost his horse and stumbles across an isolated ranch which is the home of Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page) and her young son Johnny (Lee Aaker). Hondo tries to get Angie and Johnny to leave the ranch with him for an army outpost, as there’s unrest among local Indians, but Angie insists her husband (Leo Gordon) will return soon… I’ll leave off with the plot description there and let unfamiliar viewers discover this wonderful film for themselves. Hondo develops a marvelous relationship with six-year-old Johnny — which includes an unusual method of teaching Johnny to swim!
…..
Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
Ricky Nelson, John Wayne, and Dean Martin
I commented in the Twitter chat with my friend that while Rio Bravo is very long, at two hours and 21 minutes, “the best recommendation I can give it…is it was my most impatient child’s favorite movie when he was young.” (And probably still is!) This movie was so beloved by my children that they all agreed to name our dog Chance, after John Wayne’s Sheriff John T. Chance. Wayne’s sheriff, aided by a small number of friends (Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, Ricky Nelson, and Angie Dickinson), must fend off a murderous gang who want to break Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) out of jail. The camaraderie among Wayne and his pals is simply wonderful, and Nelson’s young gunslinger may add to appeal for teen viewers. Indeed, he plays a key role in the most exciting shootout in the movie!
…..
Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
James Best, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, and Randolph Scott
I chose Ride Lonesome as the final title on this list as I think it’s simply a perfect Western, and at just 73 minutes it’s unlikely to lose young viewers’ attention. As the movie introduces young viewers to the classic Western trope of a group of disparate travelers who must unite to battle a dangerous outside force, wonderful humor is balanced with poignance and plenty of action. The great script was written by Burt Kennedy, director of the previously mentioned Support Your Local Sheriff! Costar James Coburn is so good that star Randolph Scott suggested that Kennedy write some additional dialogue to give Coburn more screen time. The moment where his pal, also wonderfully played by Pernell Roberts, tells Coburn he’s going to be his partner on a future ranch “’cause I like you” is both funny and touching. This one is a must-see.
Please feel free to add recommendations in the comments!
…
– 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.
Film noir
movies may be, generally speaking, set in urban American cities, but many of
its inhabitants hail from the other side of the world. This month’s Noir Nook
takes a look at the lives and careers of three noir dames who bring a bit of
international flair to the shadowy proceedings of noir.
Ida Lupino in Ladies in Retirement
A star on the
silver screen and a pioneering director behind the camera, Ida Lupino was a
native of London, born on February 4th (most sources agree that her birth year
was 1918, but a few say she was born as early as 1914). She had quite the
entertainment pedigree; her father was a dance hall performer, her mother was
once touted as the fastest tap dancer alive, her paternal great-grandfather was
a singer and acrobatic ballet dancer, her great uncles were stage headliners,
and her cousin was popular comedy actor Lupino Lane. Ida joined their ranks at
an early age – her grandfather taught her to sing, compose music, and recite
Shakespeare, and when she was seven, she wrote, produced, and starred in her
first school play. A few years later, she made her professional stage debut at
London’s Tom Thumb Theatre, where she enacted segments from the latest musical
comedies.
At the age of
13, Lupino enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and she got her first
big break when she was featured as the ingenue in Her First Affaire
(1932), helmed by American director Allan Dwan. Interestingly, Ida’s mother had
originally tested for the part, but she was accompanied to the test by her
daughter and Dwan wanted Ida instead. “I said, ‘What about her – can she act?’”
Dwan recalled years later. “’She was Ida Lupino. And she was great.’” After
appearances in several more movies, Ida attracted the attention of Hollywood
and she made her American film debut in a pre-Code romantic comedy called Search
for Beauty (1934).
In the 1940s
and 1950s, Ida would star in nearly 10 noirs (or noir-adjacent features),
including a period noir, Ladies in Retirement (1941), with her
then-husband Louis Hayward, and a western noir, Lust for Gold (1949),
starring Glenn Ford. Some of her other noirs are among my personal favorites
from the era – Road House (1948) and Private Hell 36 (1954); in
both, she deftly playing a hard-boiled nightclub singer.
Nina Foch in My Name is Julia Ross
Nina Consuelo
Maud Fock was born in Leyden, Holland, on April 20, 1924; her parents were
Dutch symphony conductor and composer Dirk Fock, and American silent screen
actress Consuelo Flowerton, who served as the famous “Poster Girl” during World
War I. When Nina was two, her parents divorced, and she moved to New York with
her mother. In her teens, after an extensive education in the arts, she thought
she’d become either a painter or a pianist: “I was a failure in both
professions at the age of 16,” she later said, “so I decided to try acting.”
Although she
enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Nina found that landing her
first acting job was easier said than done. Each time she applied for a part,
she was turned down because she had no experience. But one day, she got wise,
finally telling a producer that she’d had a featured role in a production
called Life Is Like That. “It was a big lie. I made up the name on the
spot,” she said. The producer believed her and gave Nina her first job, in
summer stock. The following year (after
changing the ‘k’ in her last name to an ‘h’ – “For obvious reasons,” she said),
she made her big screen debut in The Return of the Vampire (1943),
starring Bela Lugosi.
Nina’s noir
output encompassed four first-rate features opposite such stars as Dick Powell,
William Holden, and Glenn Ford; she was shown to her best advantage in My
Name is Julia Ross (1945), where she starred in the title role of a
secretary who is kidnapped by a wealthy matron and her psychopathic son.
Signe Hasso in House on 92nd Street
Signe Hasso
Of the three
dames featured in this month’s Nook, Signe Hasso may be the least recognizable
to most readers – but she deserves an introduction. A native of Stockholm,
Sweden, she was born Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson on August 15, 1915, the
eldest of three children. Her businessman father died when she was four,
leaving the family destitute. For a time, the family made ends meet by taking
in boarders, but they were later forced to move to a six-floor walk-up in a
housing project. “One room for five people,” Signe recalled. “Four families
shared an outside toilet. We were so poor you couldn’t believe it.”
When Signe was
12, her luck changed. A classmate appearing in a production of the Royal
Dramatic Theater became ill and suggested that the company look for a
replacement in the Larsson household. Signe – who had her sights set on
becoming a doctor – wasn’t interested, but her mother flipped a coin and Signe
was selected to go. “I threw myself on the rug,” Signe said, “and drummed my
heels and screamed that my sister should be in the play, not I.” She only
relented when her mother gave her an orange. “We never had treats like that. So
I went to the theater – with the orange in my pocket.” Signe was an overnight
hit, and after appearing in numerous productions over the next several years,
she debuted on the big screen in the 1933 feature Tystnadens Hus. She
would go on to marry theater director Harry Hasso, keeping his last name after
their 1940 divorce. (Her name, incidentally, was pronounced SEEN-yah HAH-so,
but she once joked, “You can pronounce it any old way – it means ‘Bless you’ in
Swedish.”) The same year of her divorce, Signe signed a contract with RKO, but after
two years without a film, she moved on to MGM. Her first American film was Journey
for Margaret (1942), starring Robert Young and Margaret O’Brien.
Signe’s
introduction to film noir came in The House on 92nd Street (1945), a
based-on-a-true-story feature where she starred as a Nazi spy. Her other noirs
were Johnny Angel (1945), opposite George Raft; Strange Triangle
(1946), where she was a standout as an unemotional femme fatale; and one of her
best-known films, A Double Life (1947), starring Ronald Colman.
Got a hankering for some fine noir performances? You can’t go wrong with the films featuring this trio of international femmes. Treat yourself!
…
– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
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:
Hollywood’s crowning achievement is its greatest enigma
Here’s some exciting news for The Wizard of Oz fans (and who isn’t :))
Coming Soon! Mysteries of Oz: 85 Questions Answered is a new documentary from AMS Pictures that explores the magic, music, and myths surrounding the making of The Wizard of Oz in celebration of its 85th Anniversary. This fast-paced 3-part documentary series takes you over the rainbow and down the yellow brick road to answer 85 fascinating questions about the iconic film, revealing newly discovered truths, debunking age-old myths, and dispelling misconceptions about the motion picture that the Library of Congress calls the most-watched movie ever.
The series dives deep into the enchanting world of Oz with expert and insider interviews, rare images capturing moments both on and off the set, and behind-the-scenes footage offering a fresh perspective on the beloved classic. Each episode explores the lore and legacy of The Wizard of Oz, shedding light on casting choices, special effects, and the film’s cultural impact and enduring popularity. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or a newcomer to Oz, this series entertains, educates, and enchants, uncovering the untold stories and fascinating details that have made The Wizard of Oz a timeless masterpiece.
Here’s a quick trailer for your viewing pleasure 🙂
Currently in production, Mysteries of Oz: 85 Questions Answered is slated to be released in late 2024.
The women may not have worn bikinis and the men might not have gone around shirtless, but Edwardians enjoyed a sunny day at the beach just as much as we do today. By the 1910s the best beaches abounded with beautiful resorts, and seaside amusement parks like Coney Island enticed people to spend their free time by the water. Role models like the swimmer Annette Kellerman made swimming increasingly popular for fitness, and soon lighter (but still quite modest) bathing suits were becoming more common.
Naturally, all of this meant that some of our earliest silent comedies would find plenty of trendy material at the beach, whether they focused on water-centric gags, mishaps with goofy swimwear, or flocks of playful Bathing Beauties. Here’s just a few of the many Edwardian comedy shorts set “beside the seaside, by the beautiful sea!”
…..
8. By the Sad Sea Waves (1917)
By the Sad Sea Waves (1917)
Filmed around the time his popular “Lonesome
Luke” series of 1916-17 was coming to a close, By the Sad Sea Waves features one of Harold Lloyd’s earliest
appearances sporting his iconic round glasses. Lloyd plays a beachhound who
sees all the girls fawning over a lifeguard and decides he should impersonate
one himself. Naturally he’s thrown for a loop when an unfortunate swimmer is in
need of saving. Much of this goofy short involves characters running around the
beach in old-timey striped bathing suits, throttling each other, flirting with
pretty girls and falling into the ocean. It’s a bit of fast-paced slapstick
silliness that just might make your day.
7. Hearts and Flowers (1919)
Hearts and Flowers (1919)
This two-reel Sennett is an excellent go-to if
you want to see his famous Bathing Beauties in their heyday. Ford Sterling,
Phylis Haver and Louise Fazenda are the stars, with Ford playing a vain
orchestra leader who goes after pretty Phylis while daffy flower girl Fazenda
longs for him from afar. Soon everyone heads to the seashore, where Phylis
sports a chic bathing suit and joins a group of cheeky Bathing Beauties playing
sports on the beach. It’s a great example of how the Beauties were used in
these comedies, where they were like a gang of mischievous sprites frequently
laughing at the main characters’ blundering.
6. By the Sea (1915)
By the Sea (1915)
One of Chaplin’s simplest Essanay shorts
merely shows him wandering around a seaside resort. His hat, held on with a
string to withstand the sea breezes, gets tangled up with another fellow’s hat
that’s similarly fastened. They soon lose patience with each other and a battle
ensues. Peacemaking efforts in the form of getting ice cream cones lead to
another brawl when they can’t decide who gets the honor of paying. Simple
indeed, but well-paced with clean, sunny cinematography.
5. Miss Fatty’s Seaside Lovers (1915)
Miss Fatty’s Seaside Lovers (1915)
During his time at Keystone audiences always
got a kick out of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in drag, so the studio decided to
really amp up the laughs and have him play the noticeably burly daughter of a
“mothball magnate.” They arrive at a resort where three flirts immediately
start vying for the “buxom heiress.” The action soon moves to the beach, with
Arbuckle wearing a loud striped bathing suit with striped bloomers and a
parasol. It’s all good, silly fun, and Arbuckle seems to be having a ball.
4. Neptune’s Naughty Daughter (1917)
Neptune’s Naughty Daughter (1917)
With a waddling walk and hair piled high on
top of her head, Alice Howell was a popular slapstick comedienne who looked
like an early prototype of Lucille Ball. In Neptune’s
Naughty Daughter she plays the underappreciated daughter of a boorish
fisherman. She tries to make friends on the beach but gets rejected, but then
she meets a young sailor and they fall for each other. Unfortunately the
menacing Captain Brawn also wants to win her affections, and she gets kidnapped
and taken to his ship. It’s a quick-moving short with some wonderfully cartoony
gags.
3. The Water Nymph (1912)
The Water Nymph (1912)
This little split-reeler, one of the Keystone
Film Company’s very first releases, is credited with kicking off a certain
famous trend in silent comedies. It starred Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett as
Mabel’s love interest and Ford Sterling as Mack’s father. When everyone heads
to the beach the young couple decide it would be really funny to have Mabel
“vamp” the father, who evidently hasn’t met her yet–a prank which works a
little too well. The real excuse to
work a beach into the plot, of course, was to show Normand in a one-piece black
bathing suit (with matching tights) performing several diving tricks. Legend
has it that the popularity of this short gave Sennett the seed of the idea for
his famous Bathing Beauties.
2. Coney Island (1917)
Coney Island (1917)
After Arbuckle left Keystone he started his
own company, Comique…and hired the legendary Buster Keaton as one of his
supporting players. The wonderful Coney
Island, filmed on location, is one of the many gems the two appeared in
together. The “one thing leads to another” plot shows Buster, Arbuckle, and the
wiry Al St. John vying for Alice Mann’s affections. It’s hard to resist the
sight of Al and Buster weaving their way along the “Witching Waves” or Roscoe
and Alice barreling down the “Shoot the Chutes”–and of course, Roscoe includes
a few funny scenes where he has to don a woman’s bathing suit.
1. The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)
Douglas Fairbanks and Bessie Love in The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)
Too bizarre not to include on this list, The Mystery of the Leaping Fish is a
two-reel Sherlock Holmes spoof that relies heavily on the trivia about Holmes
using a “seven percent solution” to focus his mind. Yes, this is a zany
Edwardian short revolving around…narcotics hijinks, starring Douglas Fairbanks
as “Coke Ennyday,” a brilliant cocaine-addled detective (he can never seem to
quite make eye contact with the camera). He investigates an opium smuggling
ring who hides the substance in inflatable beach toys called “Leaping Fish.”
It’s certainly a short that must be seen to be believed…or so the saying goes.
Did I mention it was directed by none other than Tod Browning of Dracula (1931) fame?
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.
You can spend your life trying to meet the high expectations of your parents or following in the family business that is often at the expense of your own dreams.
As tough as that is for humans, think about the difficulties for monster kids like Dracula’s son and Frankenstein’s daughter. In the film world, they’re held up to the iconic characters and movies that came before them. That’s a steep uphill climb.
You most likely know films like Son of Frankenstein(1939) with Boris Karloff andDracula’s Daughter (1936) that was so well-regarded it has an entire book written about it. But I’m here to talk about four other films that may not be as well known, nor as impressive, but they give it their all. (Two from Hammer are much better than expected.) Their lineage is traced to Dracula, Frankenstein, Jack the Ripper and Dr. Jekyll.
Lon Chaney Jr. and Louise Allbritton share a tender moment in Son of Dracula.
This was the third Universal film in the Dracula series, following the timeless original and Dracula’s Daughter. Son of Dracula has solid pedigree with Lon Chaney Jr. (though he was billed without the Jr. for this film) in the title role, Robert Siodmak (The Killers) as director and a story by his brother Curt Siodmak (The Wolf Man).
Count Dracula, going by the name of Alucard to fool everyone, travels to New Orleans on the invitation of lovely young Katherine Caldwell (played by Louise Allbritton), one of two daughters of an elderly plantation owner. (The other is Claire played by Evelyn Ankers of The Wolf Man.) Katherine, who has an interest in the occult, became mesmerized by The Count on a visit to Budapest, but we won’t know the full reason for that until a “wow” moment late in the film. The Count (I’m going to call him that instead of Dracula/Alucard) also has his own reasons for leaving his home country for this new land of America.
Within hours of The Count’s arrival, Katherine’s father is found dead in his room with two strange little marks on his neck. They draw the interest of family friend Dr. Brewster (Frank Craven) although he doesn’t know what to make of them. He was equally puzzled earlier when he saw a luggage tag for Count Alucard and realized it spelled Dracula backward. That’s because Dracula is not a name known in the United States – yet.
A personality change in Katherine, especially her obsession with The Count, is a growing concern to those closest to her, including long-time fiancée Frank (Robert Paige). Yes, we have a human/vampire love triangle.
Son of Dracula looks like a Universal film – moody black and white cinematography with shadows, for starters. Chaney is a handsome, yet stoic Count. There’s none of the mysterious other worldliness of Bela Lugosi, nor should we expect there to be.
The first half of the film is slow moving, then it suddenly picks up the pace. There will be a quickie wedding, an innocent will descend into near madness and there will be a lesson in Vampires 101 for the American newbies.
The story finally reveals character motivations, too, making my head spin in a good way. Now we know what’s going on with Katherine and why The Count left his homeland giving us something to think about – and care about.
In the end … Nothing will compare to the original 1931 film and that shouldn’t be surprising. Still, there are nifty scenes like a coffin rising out of the water and the shock when Dr. Brewster finds Katherine in her bedroom that is as jolting as nearly anything I’ve seen in a horror film. I also loved the unexpected hero of the film and was emotionally touched by the end which I did not anticipate.
Dracula story stand-in … Professor Lazlo (J. Edward Bromberg) plays the Dr. Van Helsing-type who is called in to explain everything.
Special note: Don’t confuse this Son of Dracula
with the 1974 film of the same name. The later movie is a musical starring
Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson and a host of other rockers. The plot is about Count
Downe (Nilsson), the son of Count Dracula who has been murdered. Merlin (Starr)
and Baron Frankenstein (Freddie Jones) want to groom him to take over for dad,
but the younger count has fallen in love and wants to be mortal. Directed by
Freddie Francis
Sandra Knight, left, is hiding the bad effects of an experiment from Donald Murphy in Frankenstein’s Daughter. (Courtesy of The Film Detective)
Frankenstein’s Daughter (1956)
If we’re talking in terms of blood ties, Frankenstein’s
Daughter is a misleading title. The two
– yes two – young women in the film who are the subjects of experiments gone wrong
are not related to the infamous Dr. Frankenstein. But there is a Frankenstein
grandchild in the mix, so we do have family ties. (I know the question you are
asking: Why isn’t it called Frankenstein’s Grandchild? I don’t know.)
Dr. Carter Morton (played by Felix Locher) lives
in a lovely house with his teen niece Trudy (played by Sandra Knight, the
future Mrs. Jack Nicholson). Along with his assistant Oliver (Donald Murphy),
the doctor conducts altruistic experiments to stop disease in the home’s handy
first-floor laboratory. Meanwhile, Trudy hangs with her cute boyfriend Johnny
(John Ashley) and their friends Dave (Harold Lloyd Jr.) and Suzie (former
Playmate Sally Todd).
Unfortunately, Dr. Morton’s well-meaning formula comes with a side effect of brief disfigurement. At first, it’s minor things like buck teeth and bushy eyebrows, before it devolves into full facial distortions and body contortions. It gets ugly fast, but the experiments go on because a surprise Frankenstein heir wants to restore the family name by completing granddad’s work.
“They were geniuses!” you’ll hear the heir exclaim (no
spoilers here on who it is).
Meanwhile, the white-picket fence California community is living in fear of a monster in a negligee. One newspaper headline screams “Woman monster menaces city!”
That doesn’t stop crazy teens from having a pool party with a live band.
In the end … The film is from director Richard E. Cunha, known for his quickie low-budget films that were labeled his “six-day wonders.” It never rises about that ultra-low budget, but it entertains by playing more like a 1950s teen hot rod film with kissing, cars and dancing.
Frankenstein story stand-in… The pitiful but devoted gardener Elsu (Wolfe Barzell) has a long history with the family, and is our Fritz/Igor character.
The doe-eyed but deadly Anna (Angharad Rees) is helped by the kindly Dr. Pritchard (played by Eric Porter) in Hands of the Ripper.
Hands of the Ripper (1971)
The title reads like a slasher film – which it is – but it really should have “daughter” in the title since it is about the daughter of Jack the Ripper. Bonus: It’s from Hammer and comes not only with the studio’s patented Victorian ambiance, but the unexpected element of the Ripper communicating from beyond the grave.
Anna (played by Angharad Rees) was only 2 when she watched her father – the Jack the Ripper – kill her mother. Now 17, Anna is living with a phony medium who uses her to fake communication with dead relatives of grieving families. She’s very good at faking it – or is she? Nope, that’s dear old dead dad talking her into being like him. She just needs a childhood memory from that tragic night, something as simple as the flames of a fireplace, to be triggered into killing.
That sounds like I gave a lot away, but I didn’t because this film puts everything out there right away. There’s no guessing what’s going on or who is doing what. We know right away about the voice, the triggers and what it all does to Anna. Yet it doesn’t lessen the shock value.
Anna is taken in by this film’s version of the well-meaning but ill-advised doctor, Dr. Pritchard (played by Eric Porter). He’s studying Freud and thinks by psychoanalyzing Anna that he can get in the mind of a killer, save her and make history at that same time. That can’t go well.
In the end … This is vintage Hammer with the ornate Victorian setting of the grand house, the uniquely colored blood, plenty of bodices and the dramatic music with two settings (romantic and dramatic). The supernatural twist of the dead Ripper communicating with his daughter is excellent and adds a unique element to the many other Jack the Ripper films.
Ripper story stand-in … None needed because we’ve got the real deal in dad, AKA Jack the Ripper.
Ralph Bates, left, and Martine Beswick in a publicity photo for Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde.
Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
In this Hammer film, handsome young Dr. Jekyll (Ralph Bates) is researching an antivirus to save the world, but it’s been slow going with years of study to come. When a colleague mentions Jekyll will be dead before he succeeds (nice friend), he switches gears to create an anti-aging formula that will give him more time. The magic ingredient, he believes, will be female hormones.
He harvests female organs from cadavers until that supply runs out and he’s forced to kill to continue his experiments. (One of Jekyll’s multiple wars with himself is whether sacrificing a few to save the many is the right moral choice.) Jekyll succeeds in his experiments, but at the cost of creating a murderous alter ego, as happened in Robert Louis Stevenson’s original 1903 novel. This time instead of Mr. Hyde, it’s a Mrs. Hyde who is as lethal as she is beautiful. (She’s played by the sensual Martine Beswick.)
In the end … This film benefits from that interesting twist of having Hyde be a woman. It creates an ongoing tug-of-war between Jekyll and Hyde about sexual identities and the classic battle of good vs. evil. We also get a new take on the Jack the Ripper story which adds another element.
Dr. Jekyll story stand-in …. Jekyll’s friend Professor Robertson takes on the role of Hastie Lanyon, the friend from the novel. Instead of a fiancée, Jekyll develops feelings for his new upstairs neighbor Susan Spencer (Susan Broderick).
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 writer
and board member of the Classic
Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo
chapter of TCM Backlot and led 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.
The mingling of film noir and melodrama can yield strange but beautiful fruit, as it does most memorably in 1945’s Leave Her to Heaven, adapted by Jo Swerling from the 1944 novel by Ben Ames Williams and directed by John M. Stahl. Gene Tierney, always exquisite and usually cast in more sympathetic roles, transforms her radiance into a death ray as the obsessive anti-heroine Ellen Berent, whose love destroys the objects of her adoration and everyone else around them. The film features an outstanding cast, including Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Ray Collins, and Darryl Hickman, but the picture belongs heart and soul to Tierney and her mesmerizing performance, which brought the star her only Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. If you want a noir film that plunges deep into the psyche of its central femme fatale, then Leave Her to Heaven is a perfect choice, as hypnotically luminous and seductive as Ellen herself.
When she first meets Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde), Ellen (Gene Tierney) is entranced by his resemblance to her dead father.
We aren’t introduced to Tierney’s character right
away, a move that builds our curiosity while also warning us that this love
story won’t go well for its participants. Instead, we start at the end, with
writer Richard Harland (Cornel Wilde) returning home to his lakeside cabin
after a stretch in prison. His friend and lawyer, Glen Robie (Ray Collins),
then unfolds the tragic tale for us, taking us back to the first meeting of
Ellen and Richard on a train some years before. Ellen, still grieving the death
of her beloved father, quickly attaches herself to Richard and breaks off her
engagement with the ambitious lawyer Russell Quinton (Vincent Price). Richard hurries
into marriage to a woman he barely knows, but he seems happy, and he forms
bonds with Ellen’s mother (Mary Philips) and adopted sister Ruth (Jeanne
Crain). Richard hopes that Ellen will also love his younger brother, Danny
(Darryl Hickman), a sweet teen struggling to recover from polio, but he
eventually learns that Ellen’s heart only has room for one, and she will permit
nothing to come between her and the one she loves.
Having lured Danny (Darryl Hickman) out to the middle of the lake, Ellen waits for his strength to fail.
Tierney’s beauty, enhanced by Technicolor
cinematography, provides a perfect mask for the corruption that lurks beneath
Ellen’s superficial sweetness. She is a femme fatale of grand, classical
proportions, a fact suggested by the film’s title, which comes from a line in Hamlet,
although Ellen might have more in common with Lady Macbeth than Queen Gertrude.
Not content, however, with Shakespearean scale, the story imagines Ellen at a
mythological level. There’s a reason we often refer to a seductive female
character as a siren – a role sometimes conveyed by presenting the femme
fatale as a singer – but the connection can also be made through the
siren’s association with water. The classical siren of myth tempts men with her
beautiful voice and appearance, but beneath the surface lurks a monster bent on
destruction. It’s no accident that Ellen’s most iconic and terrible scene
presents her on the water, luring the unsuspecting Danny to his doom by
encouraging him to swim beyond his endurance. The film underscores the
importance of that central moment by opening and closing on the same lake,
where we first see Richard returning home and then, finally, see the resolution
of all the grief he has endured.
The early happiness of their marriage collapses under the weight of Ellen’s obsession and its consequences for Richard.
While many dangerous female characters in film noir
are presented as sirens of one kind or another, Ellen is also as much a victim
of obsession as she is its source. Her first idol was her own father, and she
is initially drawn to Richard because of his resemblance to the late Mr.
Berent. Early on, her mother offers a kindly – and tragically erroneous –
assessment by saying, “There’s nothing wrong with Ellen. It’s just that she
loves too much.” Ellen’s love is not cast widely and thus softened; instead,
she loves one object only and to excess. The attitudes of her mother and
adopted sister make it clear that Ellen has never loved either of them. Her
father absorbed all of the intense radiation of her devotion, perhaps leading
to his own destruction. When Richard becomes her new obsession, she wants to be
everything to him because he has become everything to her. There is no room in
her world for her family, for Danny, or even for the baby she conceives and
then abhors as a competitor for Richard’s love. Her actions are shocking and
terrible, but she seems unable to consider other people as human beings at all,
only as obstacles that threaten to come between her and her beloved. She is
quite literally willing to die to keep Richard focused on her alone. Ellen’s
role as a victim of her own obsessive nature brings us back to the
Shakespearean advice of the title; we must leave her to heaven to judge because
her madness puts her beyond the scope of mortal justice.
Ellen will stop at nothing to keep Richard all to herself, even viewing their unborn child as a rival for his affection.
Obsessive women are the subjects of several iconic films, including Fatal Attraction (1987) and Misery (1990), but obsessive men are far more common. For more classic movies on the subject see Rebecca (1940), The Letter (1940), and Possessed (1947). Gene Tierney and Vincent Price both appear in Laura (1944), which is also about obsession, and in the Gothic supernatural tale, Dragonwyck (1946), which I love for its cast and spooky atmosphere. Cornel Wilde also stars in Road House (1947), The Big Combo (1955), and The Naked Prey (1965), the last of which Wilde directed, as well. Darryl Hickman, who started out as a child star, had a long career that included roles in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), The Tingler (1959), and Network (1976). He died on May 22, 2024, at the age of 92.
Wini
Shaw was born Winifred Lei Momi on February 25, 1907, in San Francisco,
California, to James Edmonds Shaw and Esther Pua Kinamu Stephenson. She was of
Hawaiian and Irish descent, and the youngest of thirteen children.
Shaw began her time in the entertainment
industry as part of her parents’ vaudeville act in 1915 during the San
Francisco World’s Fair. The family had a hula act in which Shaw danced as a
child. Once the act disbanded, Shaw pursued an independent career.
At 17, Shaw married Leo Cummins and had
three children: Elizabeth, James, and John. They divorced in 1933.
Shaw performed in revues and as part of
the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931.
Additionally, she worked on radio as well as various short-lived Broadway plays
and musicals.
Later, Shaw performed in several Warner
Brothers musical films, for which she is best known. During this period, Shaw
introduced “Lullaby of Broadway” in Gold
Diggers of 1935 (1935). Her only commercial recording would be with Dick
Jurgens and his Orchestra, which included “Lullaby of Broadway” and “I’m Goin’
Shoppin’ with You” from the film. Shaw also introduced “The Lady in Red” in In Caliente (1935).
By 1939, she left the film industry. During
the World War II years, she toured service camps and Red Cross clubs as part of
the USO alongside Jack Benny and Larry Adler.
Shaw performed on Broadway and in
nightclubs before ultimately retiring in 1955. According to her family, Shaw
married three more times, with her final husband being box office manager
William “Bill” Joseph O’Malley. When Shaw suffered a stroke from which she did
not fully recover, O’Malley remained devoted to her and assisted her throughout
this time.
Shaw passed away on May 2, 1982, in New
York. Shaw was buried at Calvary Cemetery in New York. Her epitaph credits her
performances of “Lullaby of Broadway” and “The Lady in Red,” in addition to the
phrase, “I will sing to my God a new song.” She was 75 years old.
In
1910, Shaw and her family resided at 210 N. Hoyt St., Portland, Oregon. The
home no longer stands. In 1930, she resided at 111-26 177th St., Jamaica, New
York, which stands.
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.
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