Movie review - "Roadhouse" (1948) *** (re-watching)

 I was in the mood for this - some low rent melodrama with Ida Lupino in a Joan Crawford role hooking up with Cornel Wilde despite Richard Widmark. Everyone is young and hot Lupino wears a swimsuit and sings off key. Celeste Holm impresses though her character should've done more. Wilde teaches Lupino how to bowl.

Movie review - "Strange Intruder" (1956) **

 Based on an Australian novel (by Helen Fowler) which was about a returning POW - this one updates it to the Korean War. It confirms Edmund Purdom was too bland to be a star.  He's given a meaty role as a traumatised POW to seeks out the wife and kid of his dead mate. The role is completely beyond Purdom's abilities.

The tension comes from Purdom promising to kill his mate's kids because the mate's wife has been unfaithful. That's terrifyying , but it works if Purdom is a psycho - and he is a psycho and we need to think he's going to kill the kids.

The movie should have been told from Ida Lupino's point of view, so we play the mystery of this guy and have her fall in love with him and investigate what happened. But it's told from Purdom's point of view and we never really feel he's going to kill the kids.

Purdom is embarassingly bad. Jacques Bergerac isn't much better as Lupino's new squeeze. Lupino watches on, no doubt aware she should have played Purdom's role. They could've made the POWs some nurses in Korea. 

Book review - "Junior Bonner: The Making of a Classic with Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah in the Summer of 1971" by Jeb Rosebrook

 Memoir by Rosebrook who wrote the script for Junior Bonner. The story of the making of this film actually isn't super interesting despite the involvement of drama magnets Steve McQueen and Sam Peckinpah - there was no recutting, no massive bust ups, it was so Major Dundee or coke riddled Convoy. McQueen liked the script, Peckinpah liked doing something non violent. Peckinpah did some mild (by his stands) bullying, firing people who didn't deserve it, McQueen was basically the boss, but people generally behaved.

Still it is an interesting book because of the director and star and also characters like Ida Lupino (whose role was intended for Susan Hayward who wanted to do it but they all got drunk and forgot to offer it to her and she got annoyed), Robert Preston (who as usual everyone loved), Barbara Leigh (an engaging unpretentious model who just had affairs with everyone from Elvis to McQueen to James Aubrey) and rodeo riders. Also the book acts as a memoir for Rosebrook's career which wasn't amazing but was entirely decent. He wrote a script for James Coburn, who sounds like a gentleman, and did a lot of TV. Rosebrook was a producer so has an engaging appreciation of below the line workers which a lot of writers don't.

Movie review - "Junior Bonner" (1972) **`1/2

 Part of that weird early 70s enthusiasm for rodeo movies, this is arguably the best known, starring Steve McQueen and directed by Sam Peckinpah, although it didn't make much money.

McQueen is very cool and good. Peckinpah's direction is understated. The acting is fine. Robert Preston is flashy dad, Ida Lupino is harder mum, Barbara Leigh is the hot girl (that's about it). Joe Don Baker is excellent as McQueen's realestate brother. Ben Johnson is in it as some rodeo guy.

The movie  would've been more exciting with McQueen as a gunslinger. Sorry, it's nice Peckinpah wanted to change pace, but the film is boring.

Aussies will like how McQueen buys Preston a ticket to Australia (Preston's dream destination).

Book review - "Raoul Walsh" by Marilyn Ann Moss (2011)

 Surprising in a way it took so long for someone to do a decent bio on Walsh, but then he's been overshadowed by figures such as Ford and Hawks. This is a good book - it's hefty but then Walsh had a hefty career (I mean, he learned from DW Griffith and was in Birth of a Nation).

On a personal level he wasn't that fascinating - lost the eye, an actor, a tall tale teller, some dud marriages, a tendency to sue for the love of causing mischief, was into horses, politically conservative, earned a lot of money but never seemed to have enough.

His great period was at Warner Bros of course - all those great movies with Errol Flynn and Bogart. A shame he never worked with Flynn again after Silver City. Last movie was with Troy Donahue - actually Walsh worked a lot with teen idols.

Entertaining read.

 

Movie review - "Yours for the Asking" (1936) **1/2

George Raft is unexpectedly cheerful and animated in this surprisingly bright comedy directed by Alexander Hall. Raft could be hit or miss and this is comedy but he seems to  be having a good time. It's not a bad idea for a movie -Raft is running a casino and goes into partnership with socialite Dolores Costello, who owns a mansion but has no money. His cronies worries he's going soft and will be hurt by Costello so they hire conwoman Ida Lupino to pretend to be a lady of society to seduce and dump raft.

Costello - Mrs John Barrymore for a time - is very pretty and sweet but Lupino steals the show, having enormous fun as a conwoman. She was very young when she made this but Lupino always seems older than her years so this doesn't have the ick factor.

The film could have used some villains in the third act and isn't exactly hilarious - more unexpectedly entertaining. I'm surprised Paramount never remade this with Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra or someone.

Movie review - "Escape Me Never" (1947) ** (re-viewing)

An odd movie. The story is actually solid I think the treatment was badly handled and miscast. Everyone wears too much lederhosen.

Ida Lupino feels all wrong - too modern. Errol Flynn needed a moustache. I buy him as a selfish bohemian but not a composer. It needed more music. Eleanor Parker is stunning. Maybe if she and Lupino had swapped roles it could have been more effective. Gig Young's part needed to be bigger.

The basic love triangle of this is fine - Lupino loves Flynn who loves Parker who backs off when he realises she's loved by his brother Gig Young. But it goes all over the shop. Gets more silly as it goes on.

Warner Bros lost the ability to make this sort of melodrama. Maybe Edmund Goulding could have made it work.

Movie review - "The Trouble With Angels" (1966) ***

Feminist film studies tend to focus on Ida Lupino's early features - I think critics prefer to study noir rather than comedies - but this is interesting and fun, and very female focused: the original writer was female (a Peggy from Mad Men type), the bulk of the cast are female, women drive the action.

It's about antics of two friends at a convent school over a number of years: Hayley Mills and June Harding. There's a series of adventures - they get busted smoking, pull pranks, fight and support, and gradually come to see the nuns are alright. It was a good choice for Mills who smokes and mucks up but is basically good. I didn't quite buy she'd take vows at the end... the character just seemed to have too much life. But I figured it's something a directionless kid with lousy male role models might do.

The film is sympathetic to nuns lives in its way - the rituals, the death of a nun. It's quite sensitive.

Jim Hutton makes a cameo (he totally suits the world of this sort of movie), and Camilla Sparv plays a nun. They should turn this into a TV series.

TV review - "Thriller" episode "La Strega" (1961) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

I only watched this because Ursula Andress was in it - it was her one sizeable role in Hollywood prior to being cast in Dr No. She's striking and charismatic as ever as a woman who is accused of being a witch, and thrown in a river... she winds up at the house of a painter (Alejandro Rey), with a witch (Jeanette Nolan) nearby.

This is a very "foreign" episode - the leads are non Americans and everyone is playing a European. Ramon Navarro pops up in it. Andress really suits costume horror pictures - it's a shame she didn't do more. Nolan is a superb witch.

It was directed by Ida Lupino who does a good job. The ending - with Andress buried alive - is a real jolt. I'd never seen an episode of Thriller before and it's a really good show.

George Raft Top Ten

1) Scarface (1932) - clearly a limited performer but with a fantastic "look" and he was given a fabulous bit of "business" in flicking the coin.
2) Souls at Sea (1937) - Raft outshines Gary Cooper, what do you know - a very good part and perhaps Raft was right to have it rewritten. Spawn of the North was a kind of follow up.
3) Bolero (1934) - enjoyable melodrama with Raft as a dancer who falls for his partner Carole Lombard; Pre-Code sexy, with Ravel's "Bolero", and an unexpectedly moving ending.
4) Each Dawn I Die (1939) - perhaps Raft's best performance, electrically charismatic and he steals a film from Jimmy Cagney.
5) Manpower (1941) - rollicking melodrama with Raft rising in the company of Edward G Robinson and Marlene Dietrich.
6) They Drive By Night (1941) - great tough truck driving saga with Raft good opposite Bogart and Ida Lupino.
7) Night After Night (1932) - best remembered for Mae West's debut and she's great but Raft is good too in his star debut, in .a fun movie.
8) The Bowery (1933) - Raft on the Bowery with Wallace Beery - an irritatingly racist movie but entertaining.
9) Mr Ace (1946) - surprisingly feminist melodrama with Raft romancing congresswoman Sylvia Sidney.
10) Some Like It Hot (1959) - Raft only has a small role but is a fine villain and makes you wish he'd done more support parts in decent movies.

Book review - "Louis Hayward: Beyond the Iron Mask, a Collected Memoir" by Mary Ann Anderson (2015)

Disappointingly short book on Hayward, a quasi-well known star of the 30s through to 50s whose career, while not legendary, was very interesting, and deserved better treatment.

Hayward was born in South Africa and educated in England; he wanted to act and his good looks and charm saw him get work on the English stage. He was a protege and lover of Noel Coward, who cast Hayward in one of his plays, Point Valaine. He got work in British films of the early 30s but found more success over in Hollywood, starting with a juicy part in Anthony Adverse. He was the first cinematic incantation of The Saint and was a favourite of producer Edward Small who cast Hayward in The Man in the Iron Mask. This kicked off a career for the actor as a swashbuckler star - he suited period films, and could act; while he only made a few top rank swashbucklers (Son of Monte Cristo), they kept him steadily employed in the 40s and 50s.

Hayward's career was interrupted by war service - and it was impressive service, risking life and limb as head of the photography unit at the Battle of Tarawa.  He never recovered his earlier momentum - maybe he wouldn't have even if he hadn't joined the army, who knows, but at least when he came out he had the odd good part (eg And Then There Were None) and was lucky to get regular work in low budget swashbucklers.

Despite the fling with Coward, Hayward had a number of marriages to women, notably Ida Lupino. His career went into gentle decline - there seemed to be plenty of TV and stage work, and the odd film (such as in Chuka with Rod Taylor) before his cigarette habit killed him.

The book isn't a bad rough overview of Hayward's life and there are some good photos but I kept wanting more - more about his films, acting style, personal life, working with Edward Small, etc.  There's not enough.

Movie review - "While the City Sleeps" (1956) **1/2

One of the best movies made at RKO during the 1950s - no great acclaim admittedly - and one of the final American works from Fritz Lang. It's pulpy noir time as several reporters compete with each other over finding a serial killer.

Lang's direction still had energy and he benefits from a terrific cast, most of whom do their acting with a cigarette and/or drink: Dana Andrews (playing an alcoholic - ironic since in real life Dana was a famous boozer), Ida Lupino, Vincent Price, Thomas Mitchell, Rhonda Fleming, James Craig, George Sanders. Everyone is in good form and mean the office politics side of this is genuinely interesting, with all the back-biting and manipulation and lack of ethics.

Less interesting is the serial killer stuff - John Drew Barrymore is really bad as the leather jacket wearing "momma's boy" who blames it all on momma. There's some awful scenes like where Dana Andrews taunts the killer and uses his bland virginal girlfriend (Sally Forrest) as bait. The romance between Andrews and Forrest is poor - you wish he'd go off with Lupino again. And what's with that ending where Forrest just recites the fate of all the characters?

It's silly but there is a great cast and sense of doom. I enjoyed it.

Movie review – “The Big Knife” (1955) *** (warning: spoilers)

This starts wonderfully with a great Saul Bass credits sequence that consists of Jack Palance sitting in the dark and freaking out, and the first scene between Palance and Ida Lupino is very good. 

I bought Palance as a Hollywood star (well he kind of was, wasn’t he – and it’s specified here he was in lots of boxing films etc) and Lupino is excellent as his wife (hard exterior, soft interior – someone who’s been around the block a bit). Rod Steiger’s methody performance as the studio head might have its fans – it certainly can’t be ignored, full of ticks and melodrama. 

 

Wendell Corey is better value as a ruthless studio hatchet man, but the story becomes less believable as it goes on – studios are mean, but I didn’t buy they would consider murder to save a star’s name. Also this might have worked better if set twenty years before – by 1955 studio power was clearly on the slide. I did buy that a movie star killed himself – it’s all about crossing the line of personal principles, and Palance does that.

 

Shelley Winters does her normal Shelley Winters thing as a trashy woman and I hated the ending with the noble Hollywood writer threatening to tell the story. Directed by Robert Aldrich from the play by Clifford Odets (Aldrich helmed a few plays during his career, notably this, Attack and The Killing of St George), it’s got a lot of Aldrich intensity and shouting.

Movie review – “Road House” (1948) ***

Ida Lupino wasn’t a star for everyone’s taste, mine included, but if you’re a fan you’ll love this little small town drama – it’s kind of film noir but not really. She plays a singer who arrives in a small town bar/bowling alley and is lusted after owner Richard Widmark (another giggling villain although his villainy isn’t obvious straight away) and his best friend, manager Cornel Wilde (in the sort of part normally played by Victor Mature).

The plot has Wilde and Lupino fall in love (some implied pre marital sex) despite Celeste Holm pining over Wilde – and Widmark thinking that Lupino is his. The last act depends on us buying Widmark is so jealous that he frames Wilde for a crime and torments the couple. 

There’s lots of Lupino: she gets to be sultry, sing some famous tunes, wear a swim suit and evening dresses, have men paw over her, be charismatic. Great atmosphere – did the US really have road houses that combined bowling alleys and nightclubs? It sounds weird.

Radio review – Suspense – “Fugue in C Minor” (1944) ***1/2

Vincent Price and Ida Lupino in a first-rate edition of the show about a woman who marries a widower whose kids are convinced their dead mum is in the organ. That’s a pretty way out idea, and gives this real kick, even if it’s a shame the finale isn’t sufficiently horrific.

Radio review – Lux – “The Star” (1954) **1/2

This was a follow up vehicle for Bette Davis in the wake of her All About Eve success – she played another aging, temperamental star, albeit one whose career is in worse shape than Margot Channing’s. She’s in complete denial, desperate for a comeback part – she tries to borrow money off her sponging rellies and her ex husband, now a star, and finds true love from a stalker. Whoops, I mean honest mechanic who was a fan and so bails her out of gaol when she’s put in for a DD conviction. That’s just one not-very-realistic account of Hollywood stardom here – another is the screenwriter who comes along at the end and pitches to the star the idea of making a film about a fading star who doesn’t realise she’s fading. Post-modernism 50s style. But it does get points for a rather unflinching look at it’s lead character (based on Joan Crawford apparently – although surely Davis was an inspiration too). Bette Davis doesn’t repeat her role here – Ida Lupino steps in adequately (appropriate since Warners kept her as a Bette Davis back up).

Radio review – Lux – “The Razor’s Edge” (1948) ****

Enjoyable version of the novel, with Ida Lupino in excellent form in Gene Tierney’s old role as the selfish-but-for-sympathetic-reasons Isabelle. Mark Stevens, a somewhat undistinguished second-tier name during the late 40s, doesn’t make much of the part of Larry – it is a really difficult part to play, someone who’s genuinely good, but Tyrone Power managed to pull it off (he was so well cast, a good looking, nice guy who was going through something of a crisis after the war); Stevens doesn’t quite get there. I don’t know who replaced Anne Baxter and Clifton Webb in this version but they do very good jobs (sometimes the weakness of these Lux adaptations was not having decent support cast but it’s not the case here).

Book review – “Errol Flynn Slept Here” by Robert Matzen and Michael Mazzone

Why a book about Errol Flynn’s house? Well, when you think about it, why not – it’s going to give as good an insight into his personality as anything. Because Errol lived at Mullholland Drive for longer than anywhere else in his life; he designed the place himself, he went through some of the best times of his life – and some of the worst. Massive parties, police arriving to inform him of the rape allegations, the trial, making his best and worst films, increasing addiction to alcohol and drugs, an unhappy second marriage, legal fights with Lili, flings with Ida Lupino, carousing with mates... It all happened at Mullholland.

 

Errol designed Mullholland as his dream house, so we see all aspects to the man: it was high up on a mountain, had great view and lots of privacy, featured a study to write, a swimming pool and tennis court to play sport, a separate hut for cockfights and gambling and who-knows-what-else (okay, we know – orgies), a guest bathroom for visiting ladies… with a two-way mirror (observed behind the bar – room for a mate to sit in, too), another two-way mirror in the ceiling of the guest bedroom (viewable from the attic), an escape stairway from his bedroom (why would you need that from your own house?), no specific front door. Clearly a man who loved a good time (parties, sex), and had a strong kinky streak, but who also liked peace and quiet.

 

You can say Errol got a raw deal a lot of the time (the rape charges, financial persecution from Lili, bad publicity over Objective Burma) – but honestly he brought a lot of it on himself. He was a nasty drunk, he lacked the discipline to write even though it gave him such great joy, Warners gave him chances at other types of roles (screwball comedies, mysteries, melodramas) but the public didn’t like him then as much as the action stuff, he became unprofessional on set, he wasted lots of his money, even when up for statutory rape he continued to see underage girls, he kept getting in brawls. A lot of the time I kept muttering, "Errol, you idiot!" But people can't change their natures, I guess - if he hadn't been such a charming rogue, he wouldn't have been Errol Flynn. I will only add that just because a man attracts women easily, doesn't mean he can't be a rapist.

 

I found the rest of the book, about the other people who lived there, surprisingly interesting. It helped that the final owner was Ricky Nelson, teen heart throb and actor – I didn’t realise the poor guy was so shy or had such a bad divorce; his sons played a lot of music there, leading to their band, Nelson. The one before him was Sturt Hamblen, very different from both, although in showbusiness: he wrote songs like “This Ole House’. He was a Christian, clean living, and a big family man. When he moved in he had to remove truckloads of empty vodka bottles from where they'd been thrown by Errol and his mates.

 

I really enjoyed this book. Plenty of interesting facts, and gorgeous, fascinating photos. I particularly liked the snaps of various parties: Errol talking with Ida Lupino (I didn’t know they had an affair), Nora at dinner, Gary Cooper and Raoul Walsh watching a fencing match, etc. Definitely worth getting if you're an Errol Flynn (or Ricky Nelson) fan.

Radio review – Lux – “Now Voyager” (1943) ***

If you needed proof of the differing abilities of Ida Lupino and Bette Davis check out this version of the famous woman’s film, which has Lupino in the lead. The basic story is still good – it’s different she doesn’t wind up with the guy at the end, but the child. (It’s very possible to do a gay reading of this film, with it’s repressed spinster heroine, forbidden love, oppressive mother figure.) Paul Henreid repeats his film role and is a bit bland to be honest – but then he tended to be bland on screen as well. Claude Rains’ absence is felt in the role of the shrink; for some reason, Warners made a couple of shrinks-are-good films around this time, such as Kings Row. Shrinks are often good in women’s films, I guess.

Radio review – SGP –“High Sierra” (1942) **

A half hour running time mean there’s no club foot girl subplot and the robbery plot is truncated but Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino are on hand reprising their film roles. Bogart is of course terrific, in one of the roles that turned him around, but Lupino is very good too, as a tough-cookie-who’s-sensitive type (her speciality, really).