Book review - " Mean...Moody...Magnificent! Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend" by Christina Rice

 I'm glad someone did a biography of Russell, she deserved it - someone who as Rice points out is an icon despite appearing in not that many films. This isn't as much fun as Russells batshit memoirs with its Christian sacrifices but is thorough. There was lots I didn't know particularly in the later years.

Marilyn Monroe Top Ten

 Not many films but anyway

1) Some Like It Hot (1959) - easy choice, so perfect... imagine Mitzi Gaynr in this. No thanks.

2) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - again, easy choice - shame she was never reteamed with Russell.

3) How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) - glorious fun. Steals movie. 

4) Bus Stop (1956) - I recall Don Murray being creepy and Marilyn being great.

5) All About Eve (1951) - one scene but a great one.

6) The Misfits (1961) - flawed, but marvelous

7) Niagara (1953) - she's probably miscast but it's a good movie.

8) There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) - hokey story but those song and dance numbers!

9) The Seven Year Itch (1955) - icon.

10) Don't Bother to Knock (1952) - haven't seen this in ages just throwing it in there.

Movie review - "His Kind of Woman" (1951) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Legendary nutty film noir turned comedy which starts out as a Bob Mitchum-Jane Russell movie then becomes a comedy farce headed by Vincent Price. Slangy dialogue, Tim Holt looking puffy as an agent who winds up dead, Charles McGraw as another agent, Raymond Burr a gangster, a creepy torturing doctor, reshoots. Fascinating.

Movie review - "Macao" (1952) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Put this on again just for fun. Mitchum and Russell were a great team - tall, sexy, arrogant, sly - and it's a shame they only made two films together. This is fun in the backlot third world with the two coming up against Brad Dexter and William Bendix as an undercover agent. Makes a strong bill with His Kind of Woman. Russell is really attractive. I know that's taken as a given but it's worth saying again!

Book review - "Seduction" by Karina Longworth

I got into Longworth's work via her excellent "You Must Remember This" podcast - a really fresh way of looking at old Hollywood. In particular recommend her episodes on Raquel Welch and Charles Manson. The standard has dropped off a little in recent months, I think because her focus has been on this book.

Another look at Howard Hughes, you might ask? There's a lot of them. The fresh take here is that Longworth looks at him from the female point of view - his first wife, Billie Dove, Jean Harlow and the many that came afterwards - Ava Gardner, Linda Darnell, Jean Peters, Katherine Hepburn, Faith Domergue.

The material at the beginning and end of the book - the start and end of Hughes' life - is solid, though not exceptional. Where it gets exceptional is looking at the women - not so much the first wife (I get the impression Longworth didn't care much about her) but Billie Dove onwards. In particular there are some superb pieces on the acting and persona of Jane Russell, Jean Peters (the first decent writing I've read on Peters), and Terry Moore (ditto).

Well researched. Engrossing. Made me want to revisit many of the films. Terry Moore and Peters should be better known as actors among film buffs - their work was really varied.

Movie review - "Foxfire" (1955) **

Jane Russell and Jeff Chandler should make a better team than they do - both big, bold, vaguely unrealistic screen types - but they underwhelm in this film. To be fair, it's a poor film though you can see what Universal were going for. It's a "woman's picture" with society girl Jane Russell marrying tough mining engineer Chandler and finding it a bit challenging.

Problem is the film doesn't exploit that basic situation - we don't really get much of a sense where Russell came from (cf Elizabeth Taylor's character in Giant got set up scenes establishing her world). Russell feels a bit miscast too - she so obviously belongs in a rough tough world you're not surprised by her triumph.

The film badly lacks a villain and threats to the relationship. There is dusky maiden Mara Corday and drunken idiot Dan Duryea but neither are a real threat. Chandler is so obviously more charismatic than drunken Duryea the film is weakened - the film needed to make this character a sophisticate and cast George Nader or someone.

The plot about finding a mine is so tired and unexciting - no decent flood or cave in. It's mostly Chandler being a proud aresehole - that's where they get the drama from. I didn't want this couple to make it. I really didn't like this film at all.

Script review - "Macao" by Stanley Rubin and Bernard Schoenfeld

I read a published edition of this script - it was an odd choice to publish considering its reputation isn't super high, and the writers aren't famous. Like the film, the script is an unpretentious programmer about a bunch of Americans running around Macao - like most Hollywood films in the orient at the time, there's few local speaking parts (some Chinese bit parts and the local Portuguese head of police.

It's easy to imagine Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in their roles; it's a shame Russell isn't given more to do (she almost could've been cut out of the film). I liked the character of the villain who was trapped in Macao - it made him unexpectedly sympathetic. Although I think it was a mistake to get him to want to leave, and all that stuff about the diamond was confusing. Decent twist with the reveal of the salesman being a detective but I was hoping for another one, like his boss being with the baddies as well.

Not bad, not sensational. There are better film scripts that haven't been published but hey why not...?

Movie review - "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) ****

It terms of sheer fun, female bonding and high spirits this musical remains hard to beat - Jane Russell became famous for her chest, so assiduously promoted by Howard Hughes, but when she died everyone was posting clips from this film on Facebook, not The Outlaw. She's perfectly teamed with Marilyn Monroe as the gold digging Lorelei Lee. Russell's out for sex, Marilyn's out for diamonds, both care deeply for each other. Is it the best female friendship depicted in a movie? I can't think of a better one. (I probably will the minute I post this.)

It's full of terrific numbers - "Two Girls from Little Rock", "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend". It feels very much like a filmed Broadway show - I haven't seen the original production, but much of the plot just smells of Broadway - most of the action takes place on an ocean liner and in Paris, the thrust of the actual plot concerns a missing tiara, there's very musical "bits" like the two girls being down and out at a Parisian cafe and talks on a shipboard galley at night.

The biggest debit is Elliot Reid's Malone. Tom Noonan's nerdy millionaire is fine - he's actually perfectly cast - but was there no one in Hollywood better than Reid to play Russell's love interest? The part doesn't involve singing or dancing or even that much acting - all you have to do is be handsome and virile, and Reid is hilariously inept. It doesn't really matter because the crux of the film is Monroe and Russell - it's just weird casting from Howard Hawks, that's all.

There's moments of pure high camp, such as Russell singing "Is There Anyone Here for Love" while men prance around in skin coloured short-shorts. (What was Hawks thinking?) "Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend" is done very well, both by Monroe and Russell. I love the gendarmes clapping along to Russell in the courtroom.

One thing I noticed on a recent viewing was that Lorelei really is quite mercenary. I mean, I get she was outwardly meant to be but at the end always thought that she would settle down and take good care of Noonan. But although she's engaged she's barely five seconds on the ship when she's seeking out other men, and trying to get diamonds off Charles Coburn. What's she planning on doing to get those diamonds? She's going to put out, isn't she? So surely even after she's married she's going to be susceptible to the lure of diamonds in exchange for favours?

Book review - "Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Pictures" by Richard Jewell (2016)

Superb follow up to Jewell's earlier book on RKO, A Titan is Born, which went up until the end of the regime of George Schaefer. This one starts off with his replacement, Charles Koerner, probably best remembered today as the man who butchered The Magnificent Ambersons and refused to release It's All True - which is true - but he also succeeded in completely turning the studio around and making it profitable, ushering in it's greatest period. Koerner's regime was short - he died of leukemia in 1946 - but he deserves to be remembered for his non-Welles achievements, which were considerable (and not devoid of artistic aspiration).

Once Koerner died, RKO fell into a bit of a limbo until Dore Schary became head of production. He's a controversial figure, Schary - clearly talented, made some great pictures, but also a headline grabbing liberal (he had nothing to do with commissioning Crossfire for instance but took a lot of the credit), who stood up for commie creatives but only to a degree and still helped enforce the blacklist, who made many films that lost money but who wouldn't take a pay cut. His record at the studio actually isn't very good but he had a great "out" for two reasons: he clashed with Howard Hughes, and Hughes wouldn't let him do a film (Battleground) that became a big hit over at MGM.

Howard Hughes was really the final act for RKO - there were other regimes but he's the one who wrecked it. Indecisive, arrogant, egotistical, impossible to work with, he ground the studio into the ground. It could have survived, there were plenty of good people around, solid facilities and distribution, but Hughes mortally wounded it. I've got to say, I have fondness for some of his moves - His Kind of Woman especially - and part of me loves how he ran a studio into the ground, but it must have been awful for those who worked there at the time.

This is an excellent book - brilliantly researched, well written, accessible. It's full of lessons that are relevant today - the importance of experience and executive stability, the recognition that everyone will make mistakes but the key is not to make too many of them while still taking risks. When this and Titan are published in the one volume it will be the definitive account.

Book review - "Hawks on Hawks" ed Joseph McBride

Do people still care about Howard Hawks any more? Once upon a time he was right up there on the auteur tree, along with John Ford and Hitchcock. He never quite enjoyed the high brow acclaim of either of those but was always respected - his films perhaps enjoyed more for sheer enjoyment's sake.

This is a highly entertaining collection of interviews with the great man where he reminisces about the films and espouses his philosophy. Some of it feels like typical exaggeration - everything was his idea, he takes credit for a lot of the writing, stock Hollywood stuff - but other feels fresh and true: the importance of getting bad scenes over and done with quickly, how to cast someone interesting and different, freshness in writing, the necessary of a good story.

He slags off Rio Lobo and Jennifer O'Neill (says she got too big for her boots), has some interesting things to say about discovering Lauren Bacall, chats a lot about the movie he hoped to make in the 70s with Starsky and Hutch, wonders (as everyone does) why Paul Prentiss didn't become a big star, doesn't mention The Thing, is candid-ish about his less successful pics (The Land of the Pharoahs, Redline 5000), loves Wayne, Grant, Cagney and Bogart. It's a shame Hawks never wrote a memoir but this is great to have anyway - we're lucky to have it.

Movie review - "His Kind of Woman" (1951) **** (warning: spoilers)

A real delight - there's no other film quite like it. Two thirds or so consists of familiar third world noir, with Bob Mitchum in laconic hunky form as a drifter who agrees to go missing to help a gangster into the country. When we first meet Mitch he's a bit of a loser, hanging out in dingy dives and getting smacked around, but once he sees Jane Russell on the plane to the resort he perks up and when he arrives he's super smart. (Even helping a drippy kid on his honeymoon win some money so he can have sex with his wife a la Casablanca - if Mitch is so smart how did he get so broke?)

Mitchum and Russell were one of the great scream teams and it's a shame they couldn't have worked more often; they have terrific chemistry, especially when he's rubbing lotion into her back. She looks wonderful, all legs and swimsuits and slinky gowns, singing songs and exchanging banter.

The supporting characters at the resort are a strong bunch - Raymond Burr is as always a strong villain, Jim Backus is enigmatic as a guest, Tim Holt turns up as a government cop (Holt was always popping up in classics - he's not bad here, although not a very convincing drunk), John Mylong as a creepy author, Charles McGraw as a tough guy.

Most of all there is Vincent Price, who initially appears as Russell's false love interest (no real threat because Mitchum and Russell are so into each other), but then for the last third becomes the film's hero when this movie is turned totally on its head and becomes a glorious tongue in cheek romp: Mitchum keeps getting knocked out, Russell disappears, and Prince hams it up wonderfully.

This is probably overlong (two hours is pushing it) - Backus should either have been used more or cut out, I didn't particularly care for the newlyweds. But a real romp and proof that Howard Hughes' meddling sometimes made his films more fun. Lots of lovely touches like Mitchum ironing money.

Movie review - "Macao" (1952) ***

Not a great movie, not even then, but cherishable today because they don't make 'em like this anymore. And Jane Russell rarely had a better partner than Bob Mitchum, all sleepy eyed sexuality perfectly matching her Amazonian physique, and they have some enjoyable bantering dialogue to match.

They both wind up in Macao, quite seedily depicted here. Russell is looking for work and winds up as a singer in a nightclub (of course - she sings "One for My Baby and One for the Road"); Mitchum is travelling through  and takes a shine to her, and is mistaken for a copper. Brad Dexter the baddy can't leave the city without being arrested which makes him unexpectedly sympathetic. Gloria Graham is wasted as his moll, William Bendix is great fun as a travelling salesman/investigator as is Thomas Gomez as a local.

There's some great shots of side streets and slinky bars and a plot that's a bit confusing; Mitchum is too passive and occasionally it's too silly. But it's fun, and I really wish Mitchum and Russell had made more movies together.

Movie review - "Underwater" (1955) **

A famously expensive money loser from RKO which made me scratch my head as to how it could have cost so much money. Location shooting maybe, and water - but it may as well have been done in the studio. Old Paramount/Universal south sea movies have better production value; a boat on an ocean pretty much looks like a boat on an ocean.

The dim plot has married couple (why have them married?) Richard Egan and Jane Russell go diving for treasure with their old friend Gilbert Roland and a girl than Roland meets who has a boat, Lori Nelson - plus some random priest. You keep expecting there to be some twist - someone of these to die, or turn traitor, or have a love triangle... but nothing. Everyone kind of gets along.

I expected to at least have plenty of shots of Jane Russell in revealing costumes and plunging cleavage, but she doesn't do much, just wrestles with a Mexican accent. You get more cleavage from Richard Egan, who looks like her strolled off the set of a peplum, and walks around in his shorts a lot, as does Gilbert Roland. Nelson doesn't even get into a bikini that much.

There are some racist villains - some dopey Mexican shark hunters who are like the bandits in The Treasure of Sierra Madre - who are no real threat (get this: the finale ends when the baddies are just paid off instead of being overcome). The goody goody priest feels like something from out of Mara Maru, the underwater footage looks murky and dull, the plot is unexciting. Lovers and Luggers did this much better over twenty years before.

Movie review - "The Las Vegas Story" (1952) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Howard Hughes reunites Jane Russell and Vincent Price from His Kind of Woman in another tale involving love and mystery in a slightly exotic location but instead of Robert Mitchum there's Victor Mature. The story fairly shamelessly rips off Casablanca - Russell returns to down after some time away with her new husband (Price), enters a nightclub where the pianist knows her (Hoagy Carmichael) and plays a theme song ('I Get Along Without You Very Well') which meant something for her and her ex (Victor Mature).

There are differences - instead of doing something interesting like running a casino or nightclub, Mature is  a Vegas cop, which sounds interesting, but Mature doesn't do anything like bust heads or gangsters, he spends a lot of time stopping under age kids getting married. Price isn't a freedom fighter but a compulsive gambler. There's no political undercurrents, just people after money.

This is a frustrating film. It's got a lot of strong elements: Vegas, cops, crooks, Jane Russell, lounges, gambling, desert, location shooting. Russell is always fun, the songs are good, the support cast impresses, there's a terrific climax in a deserted airport out in the desert with the wind blowing hard and Mature trying not to get killed as he rescues Russell. But there's a lot of weak bits too - Russell and Mature (who I would have thought made a good team) have no chemistry, Mature looks bored, Price is set up as his major character and disappears for the last third (this is unforgivable - he's not even a real baddie). There are some odd bits which smack of Howard Hughes interference (I could be wrong), like Mature bringing Russell along with him as he deals with some under-age elopers; Carmichael singing a long song and the camera cutting back to Russell listening, smiling and nodding her head.

It's a bit of a mess - I enjoyed most of it, particularly the first third and the ending; it's certainly a bit of a curio. Never reaches the giddy heights of His Kind of Woman though.

Movie review – “The French Line” (1954) **

Norman Krasna’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the credits for thus musical, to plot to which is more than a little reminiscent of his original story and screenplay, The Richest Girl in the World – which was made by RKO, the same studio as this. As in that film, the heroine (here Jane Russell) is incredibly rich and worried about men only wanting her for money and is dumped in the opening real by her fiancee (Craig Stevens) who has fallen in love with someone else. So she decides to pretend to be an employee of hers to find true love, despite the fact that said employee already has a husband. And when said employee hooks up with her husband it has repercussions for the main girl.

Another film ripped off is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: the action mostly takes place in a cross Atlantic cruise, Russell falls for a guy who’s been paid to trail an heiress (Gilbert Roland), Russell does a number with a female friend, it ends in Paris.

When the plot isn’t being derivative it’s just plain confusing, with Russell pretending to be one person, and Gilbert Roland looking after another person and thinking she’s another. The script misses the point of the best deception comedies – the impersonation is meant to lead to fun and games, hijinks, which doesn’t here. It gets complicated in a silly way. For instance, instead of just having Russell impersonate her good friend they have her impersonate an employee of her good friend – so you have this surplus character (the friend) and Rssell has no connection with the girl she’s impersonating.

Jane Russell is game, and performs in a few low cut outfits, but badly lacks someone decent to play against. Roland is a lousy romantic lead - he looks like a pimp and is far too old. Arthur Hunnicutt's Texan minder is incredibly annoying.

The credits read "Howard Hughes presents". Presumably his influence is to blame for all the pro-Texas lines of dialogue (Russell is a Texan), and large number of models and chorus girls who populate the film. (Someone once said that Hughes bought RKO to run it like a brothel - you'd believe it from this.)

Movie review – “Run for the Sun” (1956) **

Disappointing version of The Most Dangerous Game, despite being in colour, with a decent budget and strong cast. It takes a while to get going, as we follow journo Jane Greer down to Mexico where she's tracking down missing Hemingway-style author Richard Widmark. Greer isn't very sympathetic - she's upset when a lay Mexican won't carry her luggage and gives a Mexican who can't speak English very well an elaborate drink order in English. She falls in love with Widmark and can't bring herself to tell her Secret; we get a bit of boring character stuff from Widmark who explains he's bitter because his wife had an affair with his best friend. (Did they have to pump up this part to attract Widmark or something?) Anyway, Widmark offers to fly Greer to Mexico City but he gets lost and the plane crashes in a jungle where they are rescued by Trevor Howard and Peter Van Eyck. They wind up on the run from them.

Now hints are dropped that Howard is into hunting humans - he has lots of guns, and a pack of wild dogs. But they don't ever say he does - he's motivated to chase Widmark and Greer because Widmark recognises him as a Lord Haw Haw like traitor during the war (van Eyck is his brother in law). Which kind of robs the whole story of its point - about humans being game, and the former hunter learning a lesson. It just makes it a standard chase film.

Some of the chase is interesting, as is the location work. At times I wished Widmark and Howard had swapped roles but both are okay. Greer is a bit of a debit - her character isn't very smart, and there's not much chemistry with her and Widmark (at least Fay Wray got progressively nuder in the 1932 film).

The ending bit has a rip off of Rogue Male with Widmark managing to outsmart Howard while being cornered using an item handed by Howard through the door (in this case a bullet - it's a clever bit of business but co-scripter Dudley Nichols used it before in his version of the tale, Man Hunt.)

Watchable - but why didn't they use stuff from the original story? (The director was Roy Boulting, then going through the international phase of his career - he was okay with suspense not so crash hot with action.)

(NB The executive producer was Bob Waterfield - Jane Russell's football playing husband. He and Russell had a four picture deal with United Artists at the time.)

Radio review – SDP – “The Paleface” (1949) **

Bob Hope and Jane Russell are good fun in this version of their popular Western comedy, although you miss the visual of Hope and Russell with guns. Again, Hope ad-libs a fair bit.

Movie review - "The Tall Men" (1955) ***

Clark Gable's post WW2 MGM films were a highly variable bunch - the studio never seemed to know how to cast him - but his career received a boost with some actioners he made over at Fox, notably this and Soldier of Fortune.
It helps that he has one of his best female co stars in Jane Russell, a real guy's woman who is totally at home with the King.

Clark and Cameron Mitchell are former Quanrtill's Raiders who've turned to crime after the Civil War; they rob Robert Ryan who then turns around and offers to go into partnership with them on a massive cattle drive - an intriguing beginning to a Western.

The script makes two major mistakes - the cattle drive doesn't actually start until about an hour into the film (the running time is almost two hours) and after setting up Ryan and Mitchell as these intriguing characters they don't really need them - it's especially galling with Ryan, since the conflict is so inherent, but he spends most of the film just kind of hanging around Jane Russell as a false love interest rival. He redeems himself at the end by trying to kill Gable, then saying how much he admires Gable despite having just tried to kill him (very much shades of the Anthony Mann Westerns here), and you go "that's an interesting character and situation - why didn't you use that throughout the film?"

But it's still entertaining - the visuals are strong, with striking images set in the snow in the first act, and spectacular cattle footage; Russell takes a bath and two swims, just to remind everyone why she's really in the film (she also sings a few numbers); several Mexican characters are depicted very sympathetically, a sign of the changing times, though they still simply follow orders from Gable.

Book review - "Clark Gable" by Warren Harris

Everyone seems to like Clark Gable, movie star. Even those who didn't think he could act (which I think he could, he learned his trade on stage, its just he was encouraged to stay within his star persona and was burnt when stepping outside it, eg Parnell) recognise he had potent charisma. 

A real man's man, he fitted in perfectly in the macho 30s (depression era toughness) after the cashed up metrosexuality of the 1920s. While I think he would have fitted in at any studio (its easy to imagine him particularly at Warnes), he blossomed at MGM - that studio had few potent male stars when he came along but an abundance of female talent, enabling him to come up the ranks with protection (he soon outsripped them). MGM also knew how to handle talent - at least while Leo B Mayer was there. He suited being the King of Hollywood - you can imagine if there'd been some Sept 11-type tribute when he was around, he would have been the most appropriate figurehead. (Occasionally this happens - Harrison Ford had it for a while, maybe Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Tom Hanks: real blue chip stars).

Gable the person doesn't seem to be as admirable. He gets our sympathy at first - dead mother, mostly absent affectionless father, growing up a bit wild. Once he decided to become an actor he persued it with determination - he fairly whored himself around and was very much a gigolo, marrying two elder women mostly for what they could do for him, paying for his appearance to change. He isn't very likeable around this stage - a classic gold digger. 

Harris mentions the rumour that Gable got George Cukor fired from GWTW because he knew Gable once serviced William Haines - I don't think Gable had enough pull to get Cukor fired (he may have sulked enough to make the decision easy for Cukor), but I believe the servicing rumour, on this evidence Gable was capable of it.

Harris argues Gable's personality didn't even really become fixed until he was told what to do by Howard Strickling - hunt, fish, etc - but he liked that role he had to play, and played it for the rest of his life. His affection for Carole Lombard seems to have been genuine (he was unfaithful to her but never seriously which in Hollywood is pretty good; when she says he wasn't a great lay, Harris is careful to point out it wasn't a dig at the size of his equipment, but just his poor technique - after not having to try for so long, I guess he didn't pick up many new tricks). 

He had decent war service (trained as a gunner he ended up making films, like most Hollywood types - but he actually went on missions, he could have been killed). He was one of those alcoholics people seem loathe to call alcoholics, but honestly reading this it seems no doubt - drinking like a fish his whole life - so when people say The Misfits killed him, I think it just brought forward the inevitable maybe a few months. 

His standing became shakier after WW2 - MGM's handling of him became less sure, though they tried; he was older, less romantic, though the industry was geared for major stars (he turned down Home from the Hill towards the end of his life and was considering Diamond Head when he died, both big hits, so I think he would have remained a star through the 60s - Spencer Tracey did). His last marriage seems to have been very happy.

This is a decent bio, which covers the main affairs (Jean Harlow and Grace Kelly yes, Lana Turner no - very surprising - maybe he was too nice a guy), his illegitimate daughter with Loretta Young; no footnotes, though, which is annoying. I was surprised what made money - Homecoming did, Command Decision and Across the Missouri didn't. Not the definitive work but still pretty good.

Movie review - "The Outlaw" (1943) **1/2

Bizarre Western famous for the censorship battle Howard Hughes fought over Jane Russell's cleavage. Russell's role actually very much fourth in importance in the film, most of which concerns Walter Huston and Thomas Mitchell squabbling over Jack Beutel. The film is laced with homosexual innuendo: the way the characters react to each other heavily implies it. The plot revolves around Huston's horse and the relationship between the three, with Russell being the wildcard.

Mitchell and Huston are professional, Beutel is pretty, Russell inexperienced but snarls and looks terrific - OK this is hindsight but she seems to have it whereas Buteul doesn't. Surprise ending, which builds to the death of Billy the Kid... only the amiable Doc Holliday dies and Billy rides off into the sunset. After an interesting beginning the film starts to slump and then is sporadically interesting: Hughes uses "wacky" music every time something funny happens. The last bit of the film throws in some Indians who we never see - production values aren't that high, apart from Jane Russell.