If you missed our last event, you can check it out on YouTube. It was called “Growing Up Hollywood” in which author Alan Rode chatted with two children of Hollywood legends (understatement) — Victoria Riskin and William Wellman Jr. Here is it is, in all its glory… 🙂
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Stay tuned for more in this Discussion Series — which will include conversations about Vitagraph, Jayne Mansfield, Charles Boyer and more!
It’s time for another look at some Western
“Hidden Gems”!
These are relatively lesser-known yet entertaining movies that deserve a look from fans of the Western genre. I’ve found both of these films, which share a cavalry theme, worth multiple watches. Happily, they’re both available on DVD.
Ambush is a very good yet rather overlooked Robert Taylor Western. Taylor made better-known Westerns at his longtime studio, MGM, including the highly regarded Devil’s Doorway (1950) and Westward the Women (1951), but I also find Ambush to be quite enjoyable.
The screenplay by Marguerite Roberts is based on a novel by Luke Short, whose writing inspired a number of excellent movie Westerns. Indeed, three of the four titles in my column on “Noir-Tinged Westerns” were based on works by Short.
Arlene Dahl and John Hodiak in Ambush (1949)
Taylor, an avid outdoorsman off the screen, is completely at home as Ward Kinsman, a civilian Cavalry scout in Arizona Territory. He’s asked by the fort commandant (Leon Ames) to rescue a woman kidnapped by an Indian tribe headed by Diablito (Charles Stevens).
Kinsman is dubious about pulling off a successful rescue mission but encouraged to move forward due to his attraction to the missing woman’s beautiful sister, Ann (Arlene Dahl). Ann is being romanced by Capt. Ben Lorrison (John Hodiak) but is clearly more interested in Kinsman.
Robert Taylor and Alrene Dahl in Ambush (1949)
As with so many Westerns, this Cavalry film has familiar themes, but it’s the unique spins of the filmmakers which give it interest, and in this case, it’s a very polished production.
Viewer attention is
captured from the opening seconds, with Indian drums beating while Leo the Lion
roars in the traditional MGM opening. That’s followed by complete silence as
we’re shown the tragic aftermath of an Indian attack; we next see Indians
riding away as the movie title zooms onto the screen. It’s an exciting and
highly effective way to begin the movie.
Another plus is that the film has extensive location work in Arizona and New Mexico, filmed in black and white by Harold Lipstein; additional scenes were filmed at Southern California’s Corriganville movie ranch. There are moments that are clearly back projections cut into location scenes, but all in all, it’s a very good-looking movie.
Robert Taylor in Ambush (1949)
Taylor is tops as the rugged Kinsman, and John McIntire also deserves particular notice as a grizzled scout. McIntire was a real chameleon; it’s almost hard to believe the bearded, tough scout seen here is played by the same actor who was the quiet, elderly detective with vision problems in the previous year’s Scene of the Crime (1949).
I like Hodiak a great deal although his character here is admittedly mostly an annoying foil for Robert Taylor. Don Taylor and Jean Hagen add interest in a rather unusual subplot about an officer in love with a married, abused wife.
John Wayne‘s Batjac Productions produced a few films which didn’t star Wayne. The best — and best-known — of the non-Wayne Batjac films is Seven Men From Now (1956), starring Randolph Scott and directed by Budd Boetticher.
Escort West is another non-Wayne Batjac Production, released via United Artists, starring Victor Mature. Mature’s Romina Productions co-produced the film.
Victor Mature in Escort West (1958)
While Escort West isn’t a classic on the level of Seven Men From Now, it’s one of those “darn good Westerns” I so enjoy. It’s a relatively low-budget film, shot on Southern California locations, but it provides a solidly entertaining, fast-paced 75 minutes.
Mature is very likable as Ben Lassiter, a widowed Confederate veteran headed to Oregon Territory with his young daughter Abbey (Reba Waters) in 1865.
In Nevada, Ben rescues sisters Beth (Elaine Stewart) and Martha (Faith Domergue), along with an elderly black man, Nelson (Rex Ingram), who are all survivors of a wagon train ambush.
The film utilizes the classic Western theme of travelers banding together against dangerous outside forces, in this case, both Indians and renegade soldiers.
Victor Mature, Faith Domergue, Elaine Stewart, and Reba Waters in Escort West (1958)
Actor Leo Gordon, who plays a Cavalry trooper who is one of the villains, co-wrote the script with Fred Hartsook. I don’t consider the fact that their storyline is familiar to be negative; to the contrary, that’s what makes this film “Western movie comfort food.”
The film has a marvelous cast of familiar faces, with Ken Curtis of TV’s Gunsmoke joining Gordon as a villain; Harry Carey Jr. and Noah Beery Jr. are Cavalry soldiers on the side of the good guys.
Domergue, who was memorable as the villainess in the Audie Murphy Western The Duel at Silver Creek (1952), plays an emotionally disturbed woman, which seems to have been something of a specialty for the actress; she was especially memorable in 1951’s Where Danger Lives with Robert Mitchum.
Stewart, who would appear in Murphy and James Stewart‘s Night Passage (1957) a few years later, is appealing as the calmer, more dependable sister – though viewers should be forewarned she has noticeably odd, inconsistent eyebrow makeup. (What were they thinking?)
Victor Mature and Rex Ingram in Escort West (1958)
Rex Ingram is excellent in his scenes, lending the film considerable gravitas, and Waters is good as Mature’s brave young daughter. The supporting cast is rounded out by Slim Pickens, Roy Barcroft, William Ching, and John Hubbard.
Although the locations are familiar from dozens of low-budget Westerns, the movie is helped by the fact that numerous scenes were filmed outdoors; the movie also does a better than average job mixing in soundstage “exteriors.” The black and white CinemaScope cinematography was by William H. Clothier, who filmed Seven Men From Now and many other fine films, including Dragoon Wells Massacre (1957), which I recommended in my last column on Hidden Gems.
In short, Escort
West is an ordinary Western elevated by top filmmaking talent,
providing viewers with a very enjoyable experience.
Escort West is available on DVD from MGM.
For previous “Hidden Gems” recommendations, please visit Volume 1, posted here in January 2020, and Volume 2 from November 2020.
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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.
Over the years, Marilyn Monroe has become more icon than person. The Marilyn the world knows is mostly defined by two things: appearance and tragedy. She is seen as the ditzy, blonde bombshell who giggles as her skirt flies up or as the naïve orphan eaten alive by Hollywood. In reality, Marilyn Monroe was anything but ditzy or naïve. She had over 430 books when she passed away; many of them bore her personal notes in the margins. Her favorite book was Ulysses by James Joyce and one of her dreams was to get The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky made on screen with herself playing Grushenka. She continued self-educating her whole life and she even started her own production company. These facts are often lost in the myth, but behind the blonde bombshell persona was an intelligent woman whose intellectual side was an important part of her life.
Most people are aware that Marilyn Monroe’s childhood was anything but idyllic. So it comes as no surprise that Marilyn’s education was chaotic due to her unpredictable home life. Going from foster home, to her mother, to friends, to an orphanage, to her mother’s best friend meant that she changed schools at the drop of a hat. She struggled most with public speaking, as her traumatic upbringing had left her with an occasional stutter. Nonetheless, she showed a real flair for writing and contributed to the school paper. But after a few stable years in the same school, her education was cut short when she married at the age of sixteen. In those days, getting married meant that you became a full-time housewife, so Marilyn left school for good. Her lack of a diploma was a sore spot her entire life. Marilyn later admitted that she was bored out of her mind as a housewife. So it seemed like fate when she was discovered by a photographer while her husband was away for his work in the military.
The idea of a career as a model, and maybe more, lit a fire in her. As a child, she had dreamed of being just like her idol Jean Harlow. The head of her modeling agency later said: ‘She wanted to learn, wanted to be somebody, more than anybody I ever saw before in my life.’ An astute observation, as Marilyn soon left the modeling industry for Hollywood and subsequently divorced the husband who wanted her to remain a housewife. Marilyn had bigger plans.
Although she quickly received a contract at 20th Century Fox, they barely took notice of her. The ambitious Marilyn showed up at the studio regularly and talked to anyone who could teach her something: from cameramen to the lighting crew, to the make-up and wardrobe department. Her lack of roles only motivated her to learn as much as she could about her new career path. She started taking lessons at the Actor’s Laboratory, a popular place among playwrights, Broadway directors, and stage actors. This was her first introduction to acting as a serious craft and Marilyn was mesmerized. She became determined to be the best actress she could be, but this clashed with her own insecurities and what other people wanted from her. Marilyn had made some valuable connections, but most of them made no secret of their attraction to her. It was made clear that her sexuality was her biggest asset on her career path. Despite the superficial world she found herself in, Marilyn remained undeterred when it came to learning and challenging herself. She had a thirst for knowledge, which was an important part of her personality, despite not being stimulated by anyone around her. During this time, Marilyn was known to read Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Wolfe, often calling friends with a flair for literature with questions. The Actor’s Lab had ignited her love for the stage and she became fascinated by the idea of playing Grushenka in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Literature and plays were not her only interests: she was already looking into the teachings of Freud, something that would become more important later in her life. In 1950, not long before she became a star, she even enrolled in a literature night class at the University of California. But surrounding herself with teachers did not always work in her favor, especially when it came to acting. The more acting coaches told her what she did wrong, the more insecure she became. Marilyn was more of a natural in front of the camera than she gave herself credit for. Viewers noticed this quicker than the studio, as they bombarded the starlet with fan letters, despite the small roles she was playing.
20th
Century Fox could not deny her potential any longer and they gave her bigger
parts, which led to more press. Marilyn was disappointed to find out that most
articles focused on her physique, though one journalist for Collier’s did
mention that he saw books by Whitman, Rilke, Tolstoy,
Sandburg and Arthur Miller on her bookshelf, with bookmarkers and notes
sticking out of them.
Marilyn might not have
had a college education, but she did have one thing that most people at 20th
Century Fox did not have: street smarts. This saved her career when nude pictures
of her were discovered in 1952. The studio panicked and came up with a tried
and true method in the conventional 1950’s: deny, deny, deny. Instead, Marilyn
went rogue: she admitted to a journalist that it really was her in the pictures
and simply said that she had needed the money to pay for food and rent. She was
counting on the audience feeling empathy for her struggles and appreciation for
her honesty. Her instincts proved right, her honest admission caused a wave of
positive publicity and the studio exhaled a sigh of relief. By this time,
Marilyn was finally playing leading roles. While working on Niagara, director
Henry Hathaway called her ‘witty and bright’. While working on Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes co-star Jane Russell tried to get her involved in religion. Marilyn
reciprocated by giving her a book about Sigmund Freud. After she appeared on
the Jack Benny Show, the comedian raved about her natural talent for comedy.
Still, the people at 20th Century Fox
did not take their new star seriously. An example of their view on Marilyn is
the time when the publicity department arranged for poet Dame Edith Sitwell to
write an article about her. The idea was that their ‘opposite’ personalities
would be funny. Imagine their surprise when the pair got on extremely well and
spent most of the time discussing philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Marilyn and Edith
even kept in touch and dame Sitwell would later describe Marilyn as ‘quiet,
with great natural dignity and extremely intelligent.’ Still, in the midst of
becoming a world-renowned star, Marilyn was stuck on the same $1500 a week
salary at Fox. More importantly, she was sick of the ‘dumb blonde’ roles they
kept forcing on her. She knew this persona had gotten her this far, but she
also knew that she was capable of much more. So she took matters into her own
hands and decided to do what only a few actors had dared to do before her: she
started her own production company. It took over a year for the negotiations
with 20th Century Fox to succeed. But
Marilyn stood her ground and became the producer of her own movies.
In the meantime, Marilyn left Hollywood for New York. This hub of intellectuals, writers, and artists had always attracted her. She openly discussed her desire to finally be herself instead of ‘Marilyn Monroe’, who had become a character she had to play. One of her first moves was to become a member of the famous Actors Studio run by Lee Strasberg – a way for her to fine-tune her craft and become the serious and respected actress she so desperately wanted to be.
Strasberg was known
for championing Method Acting: an acting technique centered on actors using
their past and emotions while acting. Lee gave her private lessons and
encouraged her to see a psychoanalyst. From now
on, Marilyn would be encouraged to relive her traumatic childhood almost daily,
through Lee’s techniques and a succession of psychoanalysts
with connections to Freud. This would contribute to Marilyn’s infamous downward
spiral over the following years, in which she began taking a lot of prescribed
medication and drinking alcohol to cope. Still, her drive for perfection made
her completely devoted to Lee’s lessons and it was only after months of
training that she felt good enough to perform for his other students, who burst
into applause as soon as she was done. Despite her personal issues, she enjoyed
the culture in New York immensely. Marilyn was known to wander around the city,
going to bookstores, museums and the theatre without make-up on and in regular
clothes. In the New York social scene, she found friends who encouraged these
interests. At their dinner parties, she would shyly recite poetry by Yeats, which she knew by heart. Some of her new
friends were famed authors such as Carson McCullers and Truman Capote. The
latter would later say: ‘She was very bright. People would humor her, thinking
she was a dumb blonde; but Marilyn was very perceptive. She wasn’t fooled by
many people, and they thought they were fooling her all the time.’ It was
around this time that she started to write her own poetry, as well as paint
watercolors.
When the contract between her production company and 20th Century
Fox was approved, Time Magazine called her ‘a shrewd businesswoman’. For one of
the first projects she chose, The Prince and the Showgirl, she asked Laurence
Olivier to co-star and direct. Olivier was a respected Shakespearean actor, a
good fit for Marilyn’s desire to be taken seriously from now on. Unfortunately,
Olivier began filming by telling her: ‘All you have to do is be sexy, dear
Marilyn’. This did not go down well and their relationship did not recover. She
would find herself in a somewhat similar situation with her third husband,
playwright Arthur Miller, a few months later. He had promised to write a good
role for her in his screenplay The Misfits, in which she could finally show the
world her acting chops. Marilyn was devastated when she found the part of
‘Roslyn’ to be a caricature of her own personality. She felt that he had made a
mockery of her, but she had already committed to doing the film. Their
marriage, which was already in hot water, was over.
Resilient as always,
Marilyn pushed on after another personal blow. Despite constantly feeling
forced back into the ‘blonde bombshell’ persona, she remained focused on her
quest for knowledge and growth. She became involved in politics: Marilyn was a
founding member of the Hollywood branch of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear
Policy and she was elected as an alternate delegate to Connecticut’s Democratic
caucus, as she had lived in the state with Miller. She was not shy about her
political views. She was vocal in her support of the civil rights movement and
she wrote the editor of the New York Times about her thoughts on the candidates
for the new election. A dream came true for her when she befriended writer Carl
Sandburg, the biographer of her political hero Abraham Lincoln. Work was still
on her mind as well. She argued with 20th Century Fox about the
chaotic production of her next project Something’s Got To Give. Working with
Fox had become more stressful than ever and she was contemplating her own
projects again, such as a movie about her childhood icon Jean Harlow.
Unfortunately, she passed away before this could come to fruition. Much has
been said about Marilyn’s untimely death. Was it suicide, an accidental
overdose or something more sinister? We may never know, but according to those
closest to her, she remained bright, funny and eager to learn up until the end.
She never saw herself as a victim. Marilyn was a shrewd businesswoman, a
talented actress, a creative all-rounder and an intelligent autodidact. Maybe
it’s exactly because there were so many sides to her that she has become an
enigma people want to figure out. Marilyn was many things, but above all she
was unique. It was through her intelligence and ambition that she created
‘Marilyn Monroe’, an icon who continues to fascinate worldwide more than fifty
years after her death.
Arancha has been fascinated with Classic Hollywood and its stars for years. Her main area of expertise is the behind-the-scenes stories, though she’s pretty sure she could beat you at movie trivia night too. Her website, Classic Hollywood Central, is about everything Classic Hollywood, from actors’ life stories and movie facts to Classic Hollywood myths. You can follow her on Twitter at @ClassicHC.
There’s no one on the planet who knows more about the classic TV series Bewitched than talented writer Adam-Michael James. His deliciously comprehensive first book, The Bewitched Continuum, was an encyclopedic tome packed with everything you ever wanted to know about the series that ran from 1964 to 1972 including a detailed synopsis of all 254 episodes. A few years ago, James penned the novel I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin, his wished-for finale for the series (which didn’t get a proper sendoff when it was canceled in 1972). I was amazed at how perfectly James captured the voices of every character, and how his insane knowledge of every nuance of the series allowed him to create such a believable and authentic conclusion, albeit one that came with quite a few surprises. At the time, the writer thought he was finished with the characters, but Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery), Endora (Agnes Moorehead), and the rest of the lot had other ideas.
Now Adam-Michael James is back with Samantha’s Seventies, a new novel that takes Samantha and Darrin Stephens through that tumultuous decade. Picking up where his last book left off, James explores the different ways the mortals in Samantha’s world deal with the news that she’s a witch. It’s all great fun and full of fascinating adventures such as when two Aunt Claras emerge; Samantha trains her children, Tabitha and Adam, on the proper use of witchcraft; the witches explore their troubling attitudes towards mortals during a Bicentennial celebration that expands on the show’s themes of inclusion; and young Tabitha briefly hops into her 25-year-old self in a nod to her self-titled sequel from the late 70s. And finally, a surprise couple exchanges “I do’s” in a never-before-seen witch wedding.
I was excited to talk to James by phone from his home in Canada about his expert recreation of these beloved characters.
Danny Miller: This was such a fun book to read! At this point it seems like you know these characters so well that you’re channeling them.
Adam-Michael James rocking his 1970s look
Adam-Michael James: Or maybe like they’re channeling me. I wasn’t planning on doing this book but it just felt like they had more to say. They sort of sat me down and said, “You know what? We know you weren’t going to write another book but this is what we need you to do.”
It’s crazy how you manage to get every voice down so perfectly. It’s really fun to hear all the actors’ voices in my head: Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead, Marion Lorne, Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, all of them so perfectly recreated. And such an interesting premise to have so many people know about Samantha being a witch. I never thought much about the complexity of the mortals’ reaction to that.
Yeah, I had to deal with that because of the way I ended the previous book. That was really fun to explore, and there were some other ideas that I thought, “Oh, wouldn’t that be fun to do?” like the part of the book where Tabitha briefly becomes a 25-year-old which is a reference to the Tabitha TV series and then tells her mother, “I had this strange dream! I was working at a TV station and I had this yellow car, it all seemed so real.”
The mortals’ reaction to finding out Samantha is a witch was not what I would have expected. I don’t want to give big plot points away but I’ll just say I loved Gladys Kravitz’s reaction to the news. Throughout the series, Gladys was obviously one of the biggest thorns in Samantha’s side in terms of keeping her witchcraft under wraps, so her reaction here is so fun and fulfilling.
Alice Pearce as Gladys Kravitz
I wanted to get into her motivation of why she was such a pain for so many years. If you look at Gladys’s actions throughout the series, she just wants to know that she’s not crazy since people were always telling her that. So once people find out, I thought it would be better if she was more mellow about it than some of the others.
There’s a kind of feminist throughline there. How many times in history have people told women that they were crazy because of what they said they knew? I think it’s fantastic that Gladys is the one who is the most accepting. She just didn’t want to be lied to and she was tired of people telling her that she was nuts.
Right, because she always knew that something was going on.
I’m just realizing now that the whole time I was reading your book I was picturing Alice Pearce [the first actress who played Gladys on the series] as Gladys Kravitz and not Sandra Gould [the actress who took over for Gladys after Pearce’s death at the age of 48]. Which also brings me to the two Darrins. I know we talked about it last time that you had Dick Sargent in your mind when you wrote your last book because you saw it as a continuation of the series, but I have to admit the whole time I was reading this book, I could only see Dick York.
Two Darrins: Dick York and Dick Sargent
It’s funny how polarizing the Dick York-Dick Sargent recast is even after more than 50 years! I was still imagining Dick Sargent but it’s fine by me if you recast it back to Dick York!
I think it’s because how Darrin acts in this book. Even though Dick York’s Darrin was more of a pain in the ass about Samantha’s witchcraft, I always felt that he was more loving to her.
I can see that. I remember Elizabeth Montgomery saying that she thought Darrin was mellowing out about the witchcraft over the years anyway, regardless of who played him. That’s what I went with, that Darrin was having his own journey and that, in a way, everyone in his world finding out about Samantha’s witchcraft was kind of liberating for him because didn’t have to keep his guard up as much and it even makes him learn some things about himself. I think he eventually came to terms with the psychological and physical implications of what he was asking when he wanted his wife and kids to deny that part of themselves. That was even addressed on the series. I’m sure you remember the episode in which Samantha got this disease that was because she was repressing her witchcraft.
Yes. I was very impressed by how deep you go into the actual physiology of witchcraft and how it affects people who are only half-witches, etc. You could get a PhD in witch biology at this point! How the heck did you come up with all that stuff that sounds so legit?
“Dr. Bombay! Emergency! Come right away!”
(Laughs.) Well, I made a lot of it up, but there were bits and pieces throughout the series where they got into the science of it, especially in the later seasons. Like a sentence here and there, especially when Dr. Bombay was on. I loved exploring that with the kids since they are basically a combination of two different species. I was interested in exploring what made them different but also how they were similar to mortals. That’s an overarching theme in the book, that we are all much more alike than we are different.
And it’s hard not to apply your themes to some of the situations we’re facing in this country today. I mean, on the one hand, you had Darrin not accepting his wife for who she was, which always evokes issues present for the LGBTQ community, but on the other hand, you have the top echelon of witches basically acting like white supremacists, thinking they are vastly superior to mortals. Such a fascinating dichotomy. And you deal with race issues head on here as well, with the character of Lisa who we saw back in the day in one of the more hard-hitting episodes on the show when she and young Tabitha explore racial prejudice.
I think the show did a lot of ground-breaking things with inclusivity long before other shows dared to tackle that on television.
I also loved the complexities surrounding Samantha’s estrangement with her friend Louise Tate after Louise finds out she‘s a witch. Again, so unexpected and interesting. I don’t want to give it away, we’ll just encourage people to read the book!
Yeah, that just came to me. I wanted to have one character that would have major problems with Samantha and her decisions, and I knew I didn’t want it to be Gladys Kravitz.
I also appreciated you making Abner and Gladys Kravitz explicitly Jewish even though I don’t think that was ever mentioned on the show.
Part of my attempts at inclusivity.
Which also reminds me of Uncle Arthur — you touched on him being an LGBTQ character very briefly in your last book, I was so happy you brought it out even more here, with some surprising twists involving other beloved characters!
Samantha and Uncle Arthur (Paul Lynde)
If you look at television in the 1970s, especially the late 70s, these issues were beginning to be addressed, even though to a large degree sexual orientation was still treated as a joke. I really wanted to explore that and show more of Uncle Arthur’s personal life, it just seemed like the natural thing to do.
And that certainly fits with our memories of Paul Lynde in real life.
I always think about Elizabeth Montgomery when I write my books since she was so instrumental in infusing the show with these elements of representation. I want to create things that I think she would be happy with if she were still around. I want to honor her legacy. I hope that she would be pleased with the books.
Oh, there’s no question in my mind that Elizabeth Montgomery would love your books. It’s so interesting to me that she’s been gone now for 26 years and yet she’s still so loved by fans, even ones who weren’t born when she died. Such a special woman.
For sure. I grew up with such a love for Elizabeth Montgomery. When I was 14, I wrote her a very dorky fan letter about some TV movie she was in, Second Sight: A Love Story, in which played a blind woman. A few months later I got an autographed picture back from her in which she referenced something I had written in my letter and even included a little paw print from the guide dog I mentioned that was in the movie. I always thought, how cool is it that this major star took the time to answer this fan letter from a kid in such a personal way. And when I attended the annual Bewitched Fan Fare event for the first time in 2014, I heard story after story like that. It just made me love her even more.
Well, here’s hoping that no matter what your plans are, the characters will come to you at some point and demand that you escort them through the 1980s. I think we need to see Samantha and the gang grappling with the Reagan years.
I love a good list. And some of my favorite
lists have to do with film noir.
I’m always fascinated by the favorite noirs of other fans of this era – they vary so widely. But, then again, my own favorites vary as well, depending on the day. Some of my lists of top noirs will contain those famous features like Double Indemnity (1944) and Out of the Past (1947). Others will focus on more obscure features – Somewhere in the Night (1946) and The Crooked Way (1949) come to mind. And then there are those that, for whatever reason, I simply adore. Some of these may be lesser-known (and even lesser-quality), and they may not appear on every (or any?) top 10 noir list that you’ll come across, but if you check ’em out, you’re guaranteed a noirish good time!
There are many noirs with memorable lines, but for my money, Born to Kill has some of the best. In one scene, after finding out that Sam Wild (Tierney) has committed a double murder, his best pal Marty (Elisha Cook Jr.) tells him, “You can’t just go around killing people whenever the notion strikes you. It’s not feasible.” And another great line comes later in the film, courtesy of private detective Albert Arnett (Walter Slezak): “As you grow older, you’ll discover that life is very much like coffee. The aroma is always better than the actuality.”
…..
The Locket (1946)
What’s
it about?
Laraine Day stars as a sociopathic kleptomaniac with deep-seated issues dating back to a single incident from her childhood.
What do I love most?:
You may know Laraine Day best from her nice-girl roles like the nurse in the Dr. Kildare series, or in such films as Journey for Margaret(1942), Mr. Lucky (1943), or My Dear Secretary (1948), but she shows us a completely different side in The Locket. When we first meet her as Nancy Fuller, she appears to be a pleasant, well-adjusted, perfectly conventional soon-to-be-bride. As the movie’s minutes tick by, though, we learn that she’s not only a thief and a liar, but a murderer, to boot.
A housewife’s (Lizabeth Scott) desire to keep up with the Joneses leads to murder.
What do I love most?:
Scott’s character in Too Late for Tears isn’t simply greedy or up to no good. She
possesses an innate intelligence that allows her to stay one step ahead of
every situation she encounters; you can’t help but admire her smarts. It’s for
this reason that she very nearly gets away with her crimes.
A femme fatale of the highest order (Jean
Gillie) masters the art of the double- and triple-cross in an effort to be the
sole owner of a cache of cash.
What do I love most?:
There never was a fatal femme like Jean Gillie’s
Margot Shelby. Beautiful, avaricious, shrewd, and deadly, she would stop at
absolutely nothing, and betray absolutely anybody, in order to achieve her
means. Even on her deathbed, she refuses to give up or give in.
…..
Wicked Woman (1953)
Richard Egan and Beverly Michaels in Wicked Woman (1953)
What’s it about?:
A sexy female drifter (Beverly Michaels) sashays into a small town and causes havoc in the lives of an alcoholic bar owner, her hunky husband, and a whiny but wily boardinghouse resident.
What do I love most?:
I’ve never seen the star of this film in any
other movie, but I don’t need to. As the wicked woman of the title, she is,
quite simply, everything. Michaels may not be the greatest actress in the
world, but there’s no denying that she steals every scene she’s in. You can’t
take your eyes off of her.
After a family tragedy, the life of a wife and mother (Joan Crawford) transforms from dissatisfied rags to dangerous riches.
What do I love most?:
In Damned,
Crawford once again gives us an unforgettable female character. Ethel Whitehead
starts out as a browbeaten stay-at-home mom, but her son’s untimely death inspires
her metamorphosis into a strong and fearless woman. Every step she takes leads
her into a better situation, with greater risks but far more superior returns –
until, of course, her luck runs out.
Edmond O’Brien is a cynical cop whose desires for
a wife, children, and a traditional home life drive him to murder.
What do I love most?:
I love this one for all of the stuff that’s going on. Crooked, murderous cop. His devoted partner. The budding relationship between the crooked cop’s girlfriend and his devoted partner. The crazy shootout scene at a public swimming pool. The witness to the cop’s murder. The fate of the witness to the cop’s murder. The out-of-nowhere pistol-whipping in a restaurant. And the perfect noir ending.
A love triangle turns deadly in a vaudeville circuit act, between a sharpshooter (Erich von Stroheim), an assistant in his act (Dan Duryea), and the assistant’s duplicitous wife (Mary Beth Hughes).
What do I love most?:
Mary Beth Hughes has to have one of the sweetest faces and most unthreatening auras in Hollywood; before this film, I’d only seen her in I Accuse My Parents, where she played the unwitting girlfriend of a low-level hood. It’s a pleasant shock to see that her innocent countenance in this film masks a sociopathic and rather nasty personality that uses and discards men in the blink of an eye.
A bored husband and father falls for a nightclub singer (Ann Sheridan) and will go to any lengths to have her.
What do I love most?:
The plot of Nora
Prentiss, the manner in which it unfurls, and the way it ends, is one of
noir’s most unique. You won’t find any cynical detectives, no flashbacks, or
even a true femme fatale, but what you will find is yourself riveted by the
proceedings.
Steve Brodie and Audrey Long play a newlywed couple expecting their first child, who find themselves on the run from the police and a vengeful mob leader (Raymond Burr).
What do I love most?:
If you only know
Raymond Burr as TV’s Perry Mason or Ironside, you’re in for a revelation.
His Walt Radak is a callous, vengeful gangster with a sadistic streak that you
won’t soon forget.
What are some of the noirs that you adore? And why?
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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Jean Harlow passed away tragically during the filming of Saratoga, at the age of 26, from kidney failure. Clark Gable served as a pallbearer at her funeral.
Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in Wife vs Secretary
My Favorite of their films together? Boy, that’s a tough one, but I would have to say Wife vs Secretary. What are yours?
I knew I wanted to write about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers for this month’s column, but with ten movies to choose from the hard part was deciding which one I particularly wanted to watch again. Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936) are the most obvious choices, but I settled instead on The Gay Divorcee (1934), the second of the pair’s pictures following their debut team up in Flying Down to Rio (1933). I’d like to say that I had very carefully considered reasons for going with The Gay Divorcee, like its importance as the film that settled Astaire and Rogers into a proper partnership, or its distinction as the first film awarded the Oscar for Best Original Song for “The Continental,” but I picked it simply because Erik Rhodes’ scene-stealing performance as Tonetti always makes me laugh. There’s a wealth of wacky supporting character action going on in The Gay Divorcee, and it’s just a delightfully silly picture from start to finish.
Although their characters argue constantly, Astaire and Rogers work in perfect harmony during their dance numbers, as they do during the extended sequence for “The Continental”.
The plot comes from Gay Divorce, the 1932 Cole Porter Broadway hit in which Astaire also starred. Astaire plays American dancer Guy Holden, who falls in love at first sight with fellow American Mimi (Rogers) when he spots her in a London train station. Mimi, however, rebuffs his advances, mainly because she’s already in a jam thanks to her marriage to an absent geologist who only turns up when he wants her money. Mimi enlists her dotty Aunt Hortense (Alice Brady) to help her secure a divorce, so Hortense acquires the legal services of her former flame, Egbert Fitzgerald (Edward Everett Horton), who also happens to be Guy’s roommate and pal. Miscommunication then causes Mimi to think that Guy is the professional co-respondent Egbert has hired to bring about the divorce, much to the frustration of the actual co-respondent, the surprisingly domestic Tonetti (Erik Rhodes).
Guy is ever eager, but Mimi constantly puts the brakes on their romance, especially when she thinks Guy is the hired co-respondent for her imaginary affair.
Fred and Ginger’s characters in their films tend to be
variations on a theme; his pursuits and her refusals keep the action going
around the big musical numbers but also raise some questions about men who
won’t take no for an answer. Guy is an especially dogged stalker who drives
around London searching for Mimi after she declines to give him her name and
number; there’s even a car chase sequence that ends with him trapping her
vehicle and forcing her to interact with him. Instead of having to sing the
“Sprayed Mace Blues” as a result, Guy gets Mimi’s attention, but their romantic
troubles are far from over. The fractious dialogue between the two provides
contrast to the swoony romance of their dances, where they float together over
the floor as Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” swells the score. Ginger wears some
especially lovely gowns designed by Walter Plunkett during the dance sequences,
and all of these elements being established in The Gay Divorcee provide
a formula for the many Fred and Ginger pictures that follow. They’re not
indistinguishable, but they don’t tend to stray too far afield from a format
that repeatedly brought success for the stars and their films.
I enjoy all of the performers in the film, but it’s Erik Rhodes who always makes me laugh with his antics as the hired co-respondent, Tonetti. He first played the role in Gay Divorce on Broadway.
Of course, Fred and Ginger aren’t the only actors in their movies, and for me, it’s the supporting cast that really makes this one memorable. Erik Rhodes goes over the top as Tonetti, a flamboyant Italian who romances would-be divorcees but has very strict rules of engagement. His motto is “Your wife is safe with Tonetti. He prefers spaghetti!” The ubiquitous Edward Everett Horton acts as Astaire’s sidekick and has his own weird, reluctant romance with Alice Brady, which gives both Horton and Brady some truly funny moments. You’ll think of them whenever you hear someone say “peanuts.” Brady’s Aunt Hortense is just a few corpses shy of matching the Brewster sisters for cheerful insanity, but she fits right in with Tonetti, Egbert, and Eric Blore’s equally wacky waiter. The icing on this cast of characters cake is Betty Grable as the specialty dancer for the “Let’s Knock Knees” number, still years away from real stardom but delightfully energetic and adorable. These characters exist in a world where massive, elaborate dance sequences with dozens of outrageously costumed performers appear by magic, so we’re not surprised if the inhabitants of such a frothy wonderland are a bit mad. Guy and Mimi only appear sane by contrast; they are, after all, a man who falls in love with a woman he just met and a woman who was impulsive enough to marry a man she barely knew.
Betty Grable knocks knees with a smitten Edward Everett Horton in the “Let’s Knock Knees” number, but sadly it’s Grable’s only appearance in the picture.
As iconic as Astaire and Rogers are together, it’s useful to see and appreciate them apart. Astaire made musicals with a number of other partners, but I particularly like him with Judy Garland in Easter Parade(1948) and with Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon (1953). Some of my favorite Ginger Rogers solo outings are Bachelor Mother (1939), Kitty Foyle (1940), and the really perversely funny Billy Wilder comedy, The Major and the Minor (1942). The dramatic turn in Kitty Foyle is a huge departure from the musical comedies and won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. For a double bill of Fred and Ginger, I’d follow The Gay Divorcee with Top Hat (1935), which also reunites them with director Mark Sandrich and costars Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, and Eric Blore. Sadly, Alice Brady died in 1939 of cancer when she was only 46, but she left behind other memorable performances in My Man Godfrey (1936) and In Old Chicago (1938). Both roles earned her Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress, but she won for the latter film.
And — stay tuned right here on the CMH blog, because in a few days we’ll be announcing our next Screen Classics Discussion Video Series Event with University Press of Kentucky and co-host Aurora from Once Upon a Screen, in which author Christina Rice will be discussing the book! This time it will be a live Facebook Chat, so you’ll be able to comment and ask questions!
In the meantime, please don’t forget to check out our first video of the Series, in which author Alan Rode chats with Victoria Riskin and William Wellman Jr. about growing up in Hollywood. We’ve embedded it down below for you as well.
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In order to qualify to win this book via this contest giveaway, you must complete the below entry task by Saturday, June 5 at 6PM EST. Winners will be chosen via random drawings.
We will announce our four lucky winners on Twitter @ClassicMovieHub on Sunday, June 6, around 9PM EST. And, please note that you don’t have to have a Twitter account to enter; just see below for the details.
To recap, there will be FOUR WINNERS, chosen by random, all to be announced on June 6.
Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
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And now on to the contest!
ENTRY TASK (2-parts) to be completed by Saturday, June 5, 2021 at 6PM EST
1) Answer the below question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog post
2)ThenTWEET (not DM) the following message*: Just entered to win the “Mean…Moody…Magnificent!: Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend” #BookGiveaway courtesy of @KentuckyPress & @ClassicMovieHub – #EnterToWin here: http://www.classicmoviehub.com/blog/mean-moody-magnificent-jane-russell-and-the-marketing-of-a-hollywood-legend-book-giveaway-may/
THE QUESTION: What is your favorite Jane Russell film and why? And, if you’re unfamiliar with her work, why do you want to win this book?
*If you do not have a Twitter account, you can still enter the contest by simply answering the above question via the comment section at the bottom of this blog — BUT PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU ADD THIS VERBIAGE TO YOUR ANSWER: I do not have a Twitter account, so I am posting here to enter but cannot tweet the message.
NOTE: if for any reason you encounter a problem commenting here on this blog, please feel free to tweet or DM us, or send an email to clas…@gmail.com and we will be happy to create the entry for you.
ALSO: Please allow us 48 hours to approve your comments. Sorry about that, but we are being overwhelmed with spam, and must sort through 100s of comments…
Jane Russell in The Outlaw
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If you missed the premiere of our Screen Classics Discussion video event, you can catch it here on YouTube:
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About the Book: By the early 1950s, Jane Russell (1921–2011) should have been forgotten. Her career was launched on what is arguably the most notorious advertising campaign in cinema history, which invited filmgoers to see Howard Hughes’s The Outlaw (1943) and to “tussle with Russell.” Throughout the 1940s, she was nicknamed the “motionless picture actress” and had only three films in theaters. With such a slow, inauspicious start, most aspiring actresses would have given up or faded away. Instead, Russell carved out a place for herself in Hollywood and became a memorable and enduring star. Christina Rice offers the first biography of the actress and activist perhaps most well-known for her role in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). She worked with some of Hollywood’s most talented directors―including Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, Nicholas Ray, and Josef von Sternberg―and held her own alongside costars such as Marilyn Monroe, Robert Mitchum, Clark Gable, Vincent Price, and Bob Hope. She also learned how to fight back against Howard Hughes, her boss for more than thirty-five years, and his marketing campaigns that exploited her physical appearance. This stunning first biography offers a fresh perspective on a star whose legacy endures not simply because she forged a notable film career, but also because she effectively used her celebrity to benefit others.
Modern Sci-fi owes a Debt to ‘Day of the Triffids’
In a continuing
quest to enjoy as many classic movie monsters as possible, it was time to
revisit The Day of the Triffids.
Seeing it with fresh eyes after so long brought a sense of Déjà vu in the most unexpected way. There, in Day of the Triffids, was one of my favorite sequences from The Walking Dead, plus a similar scene from the 2002 horror film 28 Days Later. Both had a man waking up in a hospital room to find a world where people have inexplicably turned into a some version of a zombie. Each man wanders empty, decimated streets looking for people and for answers. Chaos ensues, society disintegrates.
This still is one of the better looks at the triffid as one attacks Janette Scott in The Day of the Triffids.
Watching a similar early scene in Triffids was an immediate reminder of those other two well-known sequences. Both 28 Days Later screenwriter Alex Garland and The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman have acknowledged being inspired by Day of the Triffids and it’s easy to see why.
It’s a chilling narrative with haunting imagery that works as well in those modern instances as when it appeared in author John Wyndham’s 1951 sci-fi book The Day of the Triffids, and the 1962 movie adaptation.
Howard Keel walks the empty streets looking or answers in The Day of the Triffids, a scene reminiscent of modern post-apocalyptic films.
And there was more. As Triffids continued, it was filled with images that have become standard since its 1962 release in such post-apocalyptic and zombie films as The Last Man on Earth/I Am Legend, The Omega Man, Dawn of the Dead, Zombieland, The Happening – the list is endless.
While it wasn’t the first film for these tropes and many of the later films are better, it’s a thrill to see the far-reaching influence of this B-movie in modern film and television.
What’s a triffid?
The Triffidus celestus – was invented by Wyndham in his novel as a flower that rapidly grows taller than a human and is aggressive, venomous and carnivorous with a stinger that could lash out 10 feet with enough venom to kill a human on contact.
And it was mobile. Yes, be prepared to be chased by a flower.
A look at the triffids in smaller form.
Wyndham was the pen
name of John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon who mixed and matched those names to
create other pseudonyms in his career. For an idea on his sci-fi street cred,
he also wrote the novel Micwich Cukoos (1957), the basis for the film Village
of the Damned.
It starts with a
light show
A meteor shower in
the skies above Earth entertains with a glorious light show and bright bursts
of blue, orange and green. It’s also spreading white spores that look like
harmless fireflies.
A spectacular meteor shower has unexpected consequences in The Day of the Triffids.
A voice on the
radio – which becomes its own character providing
both drama and information – can’t get enough of the “thrilling once-in-a
lifetime spectacle that must be seen,” urging people to get out to see the
“spectacular display of fireworks.”
Navy officer Bill Mason (Howard Keel) can’t see it because he’s in a London hospital with bandages over his eyes after an operation. In the scene that was inspiration for the two famous sequences in 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead (for starters), Bill awakens the next morning to – nothing. He knows something is off and stumbles out of bed to call for help. No one answers. Ripping off his bandages, he’s puzzled by the deserted hospital littered with overturned tables, chairs and food trays.
Howard Keel plays a Navy officer who wakes up in a hospital after a disaster in The Day of the Triffids. Versions of this scene were in 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead.
In an odd sequence used as a quick explainer, his doctor appears and asks Bill to give him an eye test where the doctor proclaims his optic nerves are gone from the glare of the meteorite shower. “You’re probably one of the few people left in London who can still see this morning,” Doc tells Bill. “I don’t envy you. I don’t think I’d care to see the things you are going to see.” He was right.
Bill walks the empty streets searching for anything. Slowly, we see others. Just one at first, then another and another. Their arms are outstretched, their walking is staggered. They are blind, like most of the world we learn, and are wandering aimlessly. A few are waiting in a train station, falling over luggage and chairs, reaching out for help. Bill picks up a man who has fallen, then realizes it’s futile – there are too many in need. “It all suddenly went dark,” someone says. In a highly effective scene, a train crashes and people tumble out of doors and windows, screaming and falling on each other. There is more horror in this film beyond the triffids.
Among the crowd is young
Susan (Janina Faye) who was hiding in a luggage car. Bill rescues her from the crowd,
and they head to his ship where they learn how bad things thanks to the radio.
(“Everyone is blind!”…. “Stay where you are!” … “Don’t go outside!”)
Howard Keel and Janina Faye learn from a ship radio just how bad things are in the world in The Day of the Triffids.
But mass blindness isn’t the only crisis facing the world as thousands of triffids are on the move killing people with their stinger. They move at the pace of a person leisurely walking with an odd “lurching effect” like they are dragging themselves along. But like zombies, they somehow reach their prey.
Bill and Susan travel from England to France and Spain by car, boat and at one point, an adorable horse-drawn cart. They meet other survivors – with and without sight – including a large group at a French chateau, a band of convicts, a man and his pregnant wife and plenty of triffids as they try to reach a naval base that is serving as a rescue point. And there, in a sentence, is the plot of many modern post-apocalyptic and zombie movies, just substitute your creature or virus for the triffids.
An ill-tempered scientist (played by Kieron Moore) and his wife (Janette Scott) cut apart a triffid to see what makes it tick.
The story splits its time between Bill and little Susan’s journey and that of a couple doing scientific research on a tiny island. Working in a claustrophobic lighthouse are Tom (Kieron Moore), an ill-tempered but brilliant scientist, and his wife Karen (Janette Scott) who try to solve the mystery of the triffids while under attack by them.
More than killer flowers
It’s been easy to get wrapped up in the near silliness of killer flowers and underestimate The Day of the Triffids. It could have simply been a movie with a monster, but Wyndham adds depth by having the world affected by blindness. It’s a secondary layer of horror as millions are left vulnerable with only a few able to save the world. It’s hard not to think of what will happen to the people who are left crawling on the ground with outreached arms toward a destination they’ll never reach.
The looks on their faces says it all: A blind stewardess and pilot face the truth in “The Day of the Triffids.”
Billl and Susan
listen to the somber May Day calls on the radio. There’s a passenger cruise
ship sailing aimlessly and a blind flight crew pleading for an emergency
landing as it runs out of fuel. “Tower, please talk us down,” they ask
repeatedly, but no one answers.
In those moments, The Day of the Triffids is filled with a grave hopelessness that goes beyond B-movie status. No wonder it still resonates today – even if it is about killer flowers.
Other adaptations
Radio: The Day of the Triffids
was adapted in three radio dramas in 1957, 1968 and 2001.
Television: The BBC produced the story in 1981 and 2009. The 2009 miniseries had an interesting cast of Dougray Scott, Eddie Izzard, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Brian Cox and Jason Priestley.
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.
Four Fantastic Days of Films, Interviews, Special Presentations and More!
Well, what can I say, except that, year after year, I look soooo forward to attending the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival. And, although times have changed over the past year (understatement), I have to give big kudos to TCM for not missing a beat here, as they put together yet another great virtual film festival! So, thank you TCM, for allowing us all to attend the 12th Annual TCM Film Festival virtually! Classic film fans everywhere are grateful!
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The Festival runs Thursday, May 6 – Sunday, May 9, on both the TCM network and, for the first time, HBO Max. It kicks off with a 60th-Anniversary Screening of West Side Story with Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and Russ Tamblyn giving exclusive interviews, and continues with four days of movies, interviews, presentations, and more. All-in-all, there will be over 100 films and events to enjoy!
You can find the full schedule here: TCM: features new interviews, special presentations, archival content, and clips from past TCM Classic Film Festivals. HBO Max (streaming): features exclusive new interviews with actors and filmmakers, special presentations by notable film experts, rarely seen archival content, and a wide selection of classic movies curated by TCM.
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