Movie review - "Interrupted Melody" (1955) ***1/2

 Decent biopic which has terrific source material - Aussie girl seeks to become opera singer, falls for doctor, they argue over career versus marriage, she gets polio, makes a comeback singing to troops.

Eleanor Parker is a little dull just playing ordinary but comes alive in opera scenes and when she emotes in wheelchairs and considers suicide. Roger Moore is okay as the brother - probably needed to be more of an atagonist. Glenn Ford is strong - has something to play. Cecil Kellaway as dad.

Aussie touches are limited - opening scenes up until around 10 minutes, and with Lawrence/Parker singing 'Waltzing Matilda' to Aussie troops. 

Richard Burton shag list

 I’ve been listening to the TCM podcast on the making of Cleopatra (1963) where there’s the claim Richard Burton, up to the making of that film, slept with all of his leading ladies except Julie Andrews. As I’m currently watching Cleopatra and it’s four hours long (it has some great stuff in it) I thought I would fact check this. 

Unless specified it’s a movie...

* Last Days of Dolwyn - mostly male cast
* Waterfront (1950) - with Susan Shaw... yes they would’ve done it, she was wild
* The Woman with No Name (1950) - can’t imagine anything happened with no nonsense Phyllis Calvert but second female lead Helen Cherry was married to boozer Trevor Howard and might have liked a crack at Burton
* The Lady’s Not for Burning (1950) - Broadway play with Pamela Brown... yeah I reckon that happened
* Legend of Lovers (1951) - Broadway play with Dorothy McGuire... I doubt this one but you never know
* Green Grow the Rushes (1951) with Honor Blackman - honestly couldn’t say
* My Cousin Rachel (1952) with Olivia de Havilland... maybe, she could be a little minxy (had a hot fling with John Huston).. maybe something happened with Audrey Dalton who was also in it
* The Robe (1953) - Jean Simmons was in this and she was prone to flings with co stars even when married (she was with Stewart Granger at this time) so yeah I reckon that happened
* The Desert Rats (1953) - all male cast but both Burton and Robert Newton were notorious drinkers so anything is possible
* Prince of Players (1955) with Maggie McNamara - a possibility
* Rains of Ranchipur (1955) with Lana Turner - this would’ve happened 
* Alexander the Great (1956) with Clair Bloom, who he did have an affair with
* Sea Wife (1957) with Joan Collins... what do you reckon? Of course they did
* Bitter Victory (1957) with Ruth Roman... maybe
* Time Remembered (1957) - Broadway show - he did have affair with Susan Strasberg
* Look Back in Anger (1959) - he definitely had an affair with Claire Bloom
* Ice Palace (1960) - with Carolyn Jones, Martha Hyer, Shirley Knight... he would’ve had one of those

* The Bramble Bush (1960) - with Angie Dickinson... yeah I reckon that happened
* Camelot with Julie Andrews - didn’t happen

Movie review - "Two Girls on Broadway" (1940) ***

 Lana Turner didn't do a lot of musicals but early in her career MGM put her in this. She does some dancing and quite well - that MGM factory brought her up to speed. George Murphy is a smooth partner for her though not quite good looking enough for the storyline, which has Turner and Blondell as sisters, Blondell and Murphy are engaged, and Turner and Murphy get hot for each other.

It's complicated by the fact some Broadway producers want Turner and Murphy not Blondell.  Turner is also pursued by rich, much married Kent Taylor and a gossip columnist who knows Blundell hangs around.

It's cheerful, slick and unprententious. Turner combines that great beuaity with down-home small town girl style - I think that's why she was so popular. Murphy isn't up to her in looks but he's talented and to be fair prior to Gene Kelly who could've played the role.

Movie review - "Green Dolphin Street" (1947) ***

 Who the hell was Richard Hart? Some sappy faced dude who MGM obviously thought had the Right Stuff and shoved in some big movies before turfing him. Here he pretty much has the lead, mooned over by sisters Lana Turner and Donna Reed, as they adventure from Guernsey to New Zealand.

Too much time is spent on Hart's character who is weak and dim. Did MGM have no one else suitable that was cheaper (Turner's fee would've been a lot)? I suppose Peter Lawford - Hart gives off Lawford vibes. Someone like John Hodiak would've been better. I think Louis B Mayer's star spotting talent was less sure after the war. (Mind you he still promoted Mario Lanza, so...)

Van Heflin is probably not hot enough to play the swashbuckling moody dude but he livens up his scenes.  He's got the best part - he's in love with Turner, he's on the run, he gets along with Maoris. Hart is so dumb he signs a letter of proposal to the wrong woman (Reed not Turner).(This is contrived - really he needed to have knocked her up to make this hold but I guess the censor wouldn't allow it.)

This has Gainsborugh Melodrama vibes with its four heroes - I can imagine Margret Lockwood as Turner, Phyllis Calvert as Reed, Stewart Granger as Hart, James Mason as Van Heflin.

Turner is good in a solid part. She's in love with Hart, which is a stretch but that's not her fault, and she's got stuff to do - move to New Zealand, get stuck in an earthquake, run a timber business.

This is a good solid historical melodrama with nuns, sisters, black sheep, drunks, family secrets, earthquakes and native uprisings. Director Victor Saville as a fondness for scenes of people emoting in the shadows.

The film loses its bearings towards the end admittedly. It just throws away the Heflin Turner story (he just leaves when he needed to perish gloriously or something) and can't reconcile the Turner-Hart story - I think she finds out about the letter too late and he needs to redeem himself.

Still, I thought this was better than its reputation.

Movie review - "By Love Possessed" (1961) **

One of those adaptations of sexy best sellers you had in the 50s and 60s. The ingredients are there for some pulpy fun - there's adultery, prostitutes, fraud, suicide, a rape allegation - but the film doesn't click.

Some people feel perfectly cast - Lana Turner (though her character doesn't have much to do, which is probably why she asked for so many changes) and George Hamilton (horny spoilt brat).  Susan Kohner is fine. These feel like they belong in this movie.

But this isn't John Sturges' sort of material. Nor is it Walter Mirisch's - it needed a Ross Hunter. Or Delmer Daves in his Troy Donahue mode.

It isn't sufficiently glamorous - not enough attention has been paid to clothes. The central character is actually Effrem Zimbalist Jnr who is bland - torn men can be interesting as shown by Gregory Peck but Zimbalist doesn't have It. Jason Robarts feels under utilised. Ditto Barbara Bel Geddes.

It's like they tried to make a decent film out of this, couldn't do it, but didn't compensate by going full melodrama. There's no vision behind it, even just a simple Ross Hunter "rich beautiful people suffering" vision.

Movie review - "Weekend at the Waldorf" (1945) **

 MGM remake Grand Hotel just for the hell of it using a lesser number of stars - Ginger Rogers, Walter Pigeon, Lana Turner, Van Johnson, Edward Arnold.

Pidgeon isn't convincing as a tired war corresponent, the Clark Gable-ish part. Edward Arnold is more at home as a dodgy businessman. Ginger Rogers isn't convincing as a movie star though Van Johnson suits the aw gee dying GI.

Thinking about it the film casts its stars wrong. Turner should've been the movie star - she was younger than Rogers but she would've suited playing a lonely movie star; Rogers was a star of course but her persona is too perky. She would've been fine playing a poor girl who works as a secretary and is lured into becoming Arnold's mistress. (This story line would've been better incidentally if Ames had played Arnold's part, someone slimmer and more attractive). Johnson would've better better as the journo and Walter Pidgeon better as the ill soldier. THey would've had to adjust for the character's ages.

As it is it's annoying. I didn't enjoy the fake romance of Pidgeon and Rogers, it was a drag, or the romance between Johnson and Turner. Like many MGM films there's a subplot about someone giving up wealth for Americana - Turner faced with being a Park Avenue mistress versus Johnson's outdoor cookin' hometown. Actually the Rogers-Pidgeon romance is about that too - give up your freedom for marriage.

I'll admit - if you are a massive Pidgeon and Rogers fan you'll enjoy this more than I did. I found Pidgeon charmless, and Rogers trying too hard. Turner was trying her best but she's no fun.

People pop up in support like Leon Ames, Xavier Cugat and Robert Benchley. This was MGM at its peak I guess... in a few years it would lose money, panic, appoint Dore Schary, and it would unravel. I didn't really like this movie that much though. Songs and colour would have helped.

There is some fun reflecting on the rumours about Johnson and Pidgeon and wondering if they went cruising, while Turner shagged whoever and Rogers espoused anti Communism. Keenan Wynn, who gave up his wife to Johnson to avoid scandal, is in it.

Movie review - "Homecoming" (1948) **1/2

 Dore Schary hits MGM with a  very worthy, painfully liberal look at a Man at War, who is Greedy for Money and Ambitious and Won't Help the Nice Doctor Who Looks After the Poor but when in Europe falls for a nurse Whose Husband Died in China and Whose Child Died and who is a Good Person and he becomes a Good Person even though before the war he was a doctor and...

Oh, look, it's handsomely done. Made with care.  It's got stars. Clark Gable, looking old and tired. Lana Turner, who is excellent, even if they keep saying her character's name again. and again and again (we get it "snapshot" is a cute name, we get it).

Anne Baxter is the wife - I assume they wanted Turner for that part but the switch works. John Hodiak is the noble doctor.

Some scenes threaten to be good old trashy fun. -Turner and Gable so for a swim (he's probably too old for this to be fun even if she isn't), Gladys Cooper was Baxter's mother warning her daughter that hubby will root the wife. It doesn't go there though the essential dramatic situation is "will Gable hook up with Turner".

At the end it's kind of touching that Gable confesses all although you laugh when you see Baxter's face of relief that Turner is dead (died off screen... a waste of a good scene).

Hodiak's part feels very underwritten. I kept waiting for him to sleep with Baxter, or die, or turn up in the war, or be played by an elder actor (like why didn't he swap parts with Ray Collins).

Look not a bad movie. Just overly decent.

Movie review - "Honky Tonk" (1941) **1/2

 This starts off as a comic Western with Clark Gable as a conman out West. It offers him up shirtless in the opening scene (and a shirtless Chill Wills too if you're in ot that sort of thing. He romances good girl Lana Turner, daughter of shonky Frank Morgan who is a fake judge, despute the gum chewing appeal of his ex Claire Trevor, with Albert Dekker (he of auto erotic asphyixiation fame) as a baddie.

This is all bright and fun. Gable is terrific in a tailor made part and Turner is lovely and natural (I think she had a natural ability but later in life she got worse when she tried to act). But as the story goes on it becomes all MGM-y i.e. it's about crushing people's spirit and turning them into dull sober mother lovers. Turner traps Gable into marriage which is fun, then he becomes rich and it gets all serious and soapy about Gable becoming rich through underhanded means, and Morgan getting all moral and shot, and Turner losing a baby and plot plot plot.

It lives up at the end when Gable kicks Dekker's arse. Gable and Turner have great chemistry both so attractive. Chill Wills is an amiable sidekick.

I just MGM didn't suck all the fun out of their films.

Movie review - "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1941) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 MGM slums it with some horror, though it gives Spencer Tracy the chance to do his stuff and its set in their backlot Britain which it loved. Two macho types were behind it - John Lee Mahin and Victor Fleming.

This film is mostly for fans of the stars (and director) and the story... and also students of acting. It's interesting how Tracy challenges the role. Underplays as Jekyll. Kind of as Hyde but he still has silly make up on which is disconcerting. I didn't think it worked.

Great intensity in the scenes where Hyde torments Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner.  Like they are full on sadistic scenes I think Fleming got off on them. Also both actresses are clearly into Tracy as Jekyll - again Fleming seems into this. Bergman and Turner both look stunning. Bergman really gets into flirting with good Tracy and being scared of bad Tracy, it's a very good performance. Turner is also strong.

Beautifully shot. Ian Hunter is the dull guy who is there to shoot Jekyll dead.  Donald Crisp and C Aubrey Smith are stock British types.

Quite confronting. Bergman is raped and then strangled. Turne is attacked. (Though doesn't die.)

The film didn't quite work for me but it is interesting.

Movie review - "Johnny Eager" (1941) ***1/2

 Robert Taylor was a better actor playing more ruthless characters. He's ideal here as a gambling boss who pretends to be a taxi dirver. He falls for Lana Turner.

MGM weren't natural makers of gangster films but they could do them well especially when as here John Lee Mahin worked on the cscript.

Taylor and Turner are very good value, have tremendous chemistry. Turner is impressive - sexy, a rich girl, daughter of prosecutor Edward Arnold (quite a cynical portrait of him, he admits to being corrupt if it'll get rid of Taylor). She's clearly hot for Taylor and he's got for her. She's gorgeous. My opinion of Turner is really going up lately. Mind you I think Marvyn le Roy lets her down in that crucial scene where she kills someone for Taylor - that could've been better.

Van Heflin is Taylor's boozy, literate best friend. These characters are writer's conceits - so many are boozy and they like to think they are wise. Heflin's good in the role. though. Like a lot of gangster films the story is as much a love affair between two men as a man and a woman.

Patricia Dane, who didn't have a huge career, has a decent turn as Taylor's flooze, while Glenda Farrell is showy as an ex of Taylor's who begs for help. Robert Sterling is dull as the nice guy who loves Turner.

Neat black and white photography. It wobbles a little in the last third as they try to redeem Taylor.

Movie review - "Ziegield Girl" (1941) ****

 Fantastic example of MGM at its peak. A three girl movies where the girls are played by iconic stars each in a specifically defined role - Lana Turner as a shabby poor girl (elevator operator) who can't resist the money, Judy Garland as a super talented girl who isn't as hot as the others but is the one made for showbiz, Hedy Lamarr as the refugee.

Turner and Lamarr have controlling partners - James Stewart (adding affability and star power) as a truck driving boyfriend,  and Lamarr with her sooky violinst husband Philip Dorn. Garland isn't given a girlfriend but an actor dad whose career she helps.

Lamar's subplot looks promising when sleazty singer Tony Martin goes after her but then his wife somes along and asks for her to back off and she does and gets back with violinist Dorn. This plot needed a little more kick and for Lamar to interact with the girls. There's not enough girl interacting.

But Turner's is a lot of fun as she embraces booze, rich men (Ian Hunter, then they get sleazier - one of them is Dan Dailey), and Stewart becoomes a bootlegger. It's basically implied Turner becomes a hooker, she has a lovely final scene with Stewart then goes to see a show, and basically dies which is grand OTT wonderful MGM crap as are the production numbers.

Female writers so the women are depicted sympathetically, even the cuckolded wife, and gold digger Eve Arden, and the men are unreliable (even Stewart winds up going to prison before bouncing back). Jackei Cooper is cutely bumbling as Turner's brother - kept waiting for her to hook up with Garland but didn't happen. Paul Kelly is nicely ruthless as a stage manager and Edward Everett Horton is part of the Ziegfield organisation - two recogniseable types.

Lots of fun. Turner's film more than Garland's too which is part of its charm.

Lana Turner Top Ten

 I haven't seen that many of her films TBH but here goes

1. Postman Always Rings Twice - Turner clearly gets this gal, driven by libido, low trash - ut's terrific work

2. Peyton Place - I remember her being dreadful in this part... I'll have to rewatch it... but she provides a solid centre

3.Green Dolphin Street - Turner steps into a part that Katherine Hepburn was going to play and does well in this surprisingly enjoyable historical melodrama

4. Love Finds Andy Hardy - a very flashy part, beautiful and sexually aggressive... poor Polly!

5. The Bad and the Beautiful - Turner channels Diana Barrymore and does a very good job

6. Imitation of Life - I've got notes she was dreadful and maybe she was but it so perfectlt cast

7. The Three Musketeers - Milday's not a hard part but Turner has the beauty and charisma to make it sing

8. Johnny Eager - great value as a good girl with a taste for being bad

9. Honky Tonk - teams well with Gable in a film that turns a little too soapy but is fun

10. Ziegfield Girl -Judy Garland has the talent but Turner's got the best role, becoming famous and hitting the bottle and being all tragic

Movie review - "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) ****

 Louis B Mayer didn't like noir but MGM did it proud. It has some gloss, sure, but there was the element of the trailer park about Lana Turner and that's well used here. She's beautiful, needy and trady - some great moments where she's honest, wanting more. John Garfield is solid, feels working class and dumb. Cecil Kellaway is tubby, bemused and dumb - surely he must expect people to kill him for his wife.

This is more faithful to the book than I'd be led to believe. It's got the other woman (Audrey Trotter), the DA, the dodgy lawyer (Hume Cronyn steals the show) the dodgy investigator, the attempt at murder that doesn't work, the one that does.

A marvel how it gets around the censor and still alludes to pre marital sex and suicide attempts. It runs almost two hours so has an epic sweep of emotion - you really go on a journey with Garfield and Turner: lust, greed, love, regret, fear, melachony, depression, acceptance.

Leon Ames' DA is annoying.

Book review - "Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life" by Sam Staggs

 One of Staggs' growing library of works on camp classics (which doesn't mean the films can't be good). This melodrama - race, sex, singing - is beloved by cultists, with its Douglas Sirk direction and Lana Turner recovering from the family stabbing.

The structure was slightly odd -I would've preferred a more straight up chronological approach. And it felt padded in places - I don't mind a long book but a lot of it felt like stretching. There's some original scholarship, but not that much.

I did appreciate profiles of people like Ross Hunter, Douglas Sirk, John Gavin, Troy Donahue, etc.

Movie review - "Return to Peyton Place" (1961) *

The original novel and film made so much money it would have been rude to not attempt a sequel - both novel two and film two were shoddy pieces  of work. 

I don't blame Grace Metalious for cranking out a book after a few drinks - Jerry Wald could have taken more love and care with the movie. He didn't have John Michael Hayes to do the script this time which presumably hurt.

The film suffers badly compared to the original, which had some great secrets (Lana Turner's pregnancy), romance (Turner and the teacher), archetypal characters (Terry Moore's trashy girl, the rich man's son Barry Coe). and memorable scandal moments (the rape of Hope Lange and her killing of her step father).

This has a few decent ideas - the book based on the events in the first film set a cat among the pigeons; Alison (played here by Carol Lynley) has an affair with her editor, a married man (Jeff Chandler); Mary Astor is a snob mother who hates the new wife (Luciana Paluzzi) of her son (Brett Halsey). But it wasn't enough - it needed a murder or natural disaster or something. Why not do something big between Lynley and Chandler's wife, like the wife tries to kill Lynley? Why doesn't Astor try to kill Paluzzi or vice versa? Why do they pull their punches?

The film misses a trick by not featuring Lloyd Nolan's doctor character, Terry Moore's tramp, the old rich man, or Russ Tamblyn's soldier. (I guess Brett Halsey's character is a version of this.)

The cast isn't up to the original. Carol Lynley's blank expression and dead eyes made me long for... well, not Diane Varsi's blank expression and dead eyes, but I did wish Tuesday Weld had played her part. Weld is in it but is wasted in the part of Selina, who doesn't really do anything except start a romance with a skiing instructor who kind of tries to rape her... and then, awfully, he comes back at the end and declares his love for Selina. Urgh! He's a rapist. I mean, a lot of women who are abused go on to marry abusive men but... that shouldn't be a positive and it's an issue not explored.

Lana Turner didn't return and you can't blame her because there's nothing for that character to do. Eleanor Parker tries but has nowhere to go - Turner clashed with her daughter, fell in love, revealed a secret... Parker just worries about her daughter going out with a married man which is entirely understandable... and that's about it.

It's too skewed towards men - Parker gets up in court (an obscenity hearing for the book) and says her husband was right, Weld comes to see her horrible rapey ski instructor is a good guy, Lynley listens to Jeff Chandler when it comes to writing a book, Astor is put in her place by her useless son Brett Halsey standing up.

Astor easily has the best part, as a smothering other bitch, but even she doesn't have many places to go. Chandler is perfectly cast in this sort of thing, and there's camp fun with him lecturing Lynley about Max Perkins, and them falling asleep in his New York office and a black manservant coming in and opening the curtains the next day. But that's about it.

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.

How I Would Have Fixed Forever Amber

It's a terrible movie. Depressing. Amber bangs her head against a brick wall for the whole time chasing a guy who is never in to her. He dumps her to go overseas, has little interest in their kid, scolds her for seeing another guy (false scene because Amber isn't engaged, the guy lies).

It's disastrously undercast. Linda Darnell can be superb but she's all wrong as Amber. Otto Preminger wanted Lana Turner. I guess. Personally I think they should have gone for Maureen O'Hara who at least was a natural red head. The men are dreadful. Cornel Wilde is a shocker - stiff and self righteous and he only gets one sword fight to redeem himself. They should have tried Douglas Fairbanks Jnr. George Sanders is good as is Jessica Tandy. Richard Greene is so anonymous. So is Glenn Langan. All these men look alike. John Russell is okay but the role is a dream. Zanuck was not great on casting.

The big problem is the script.I know the censor was hot on them, but what they came up with doesn't work. It feels like a classic case of talented people writing down to their ability.

Compare it with Gone with the Wind. You've got Scarlett who wants Ashley who is interested in Scarlett but marries Melanie because he knows she's better for him. Rhett loves Scarlett - her spunk, her style, her beauty - and is so perfect for her, but she refuses to see it. Melanie likes Scarlett because she's brave.

Wind is better than Amber for the following reasons
a) the dramatic lines are cleaner - Scarlett is spoilt and selfish, she gets everything she wants and wants Ashley. She's also brave. Amber is born poor to horribly strict people and suffers injustice so you automatically feel sorry for her and dislike all the tsk tsking.
b) Rhett is dashing and good and driven by love for Scarlett. Bruce is dashing and treats Amber horribly - like a villain. He impregnates her, leaves her, scolds her for causing a duel which isn't his fault and is rewarded.Rhett dashing and good.
c) in Wind Ashley is weak, Melanie good. There is no equivalent in Amber. Really Bruce is the Ashley - someone not worthy of Amber's love. But no one is - there's no male character like Rhett for us to rely on to go "oh amber pay attention to that guy". They set up this friend of Bruce's played by Richard Greene who should have played that role but they don't. (Michael Rennie performed a similar role in The Wicked Lady).
d) in Wind Scarlett earns respect by constantly having trouble thrown at her. She's got a Civil War, husbands keep dying, she helps Melanie escape the burning of Atlanta, she shoots a Yankee soldier who seems to have rape on his mind, makes sure the baby gets born for Ashley, helps Tara get back on its feet financially.  Now Amber actually does a bit of that - she helps nurse Bruce from the plague, runs through the fire. But she rarely does it for other people. Her goal is to get a title to marry Bruce which is dumb because Bruce never seems to want to marry her.
e) There is a good reason for Scarlett and Rhett not to be together - her love for Ashley and later on the psychological damage done by the war and the loss of their child. Here the reason is that Bruce simply doesn't like Amber.

There were either two ways to go:
1) make Amber a goodie
2) make her a baddy

(1) Could have worked but you would have had to soften it a lot. A good example is the 1945 film Kitty with Paulette Goddard - she plays a pickpocket in love with Ray Milland but he doesn't love her. He wants to use her to get into the foreign office though so he has a reason to be in her orbit.

You could have made Amber completely sympathetic. Make every other woman a bitch.

(2) Could also have worked. May have made it easier to get past the censors. Have Amber empathetic but ruthless. You could have had more sex that way. She would have to suffer. Possibly die. She didn't die in the novel - you could end her on a downer. It happens anyway.

I do think you would have had to flesh out two support parts:

a) a man who loves Amber all through the film. Doesn't have to be a huge part - just keep cutting back to him. Someone who the audience can see who should be with her. I'd make the Earl of Almsbury this. 

b) a woman to be a counterpoint to Amber. If she's good she should be a real bitch. If she's bad she should be pure but still love Amber. The woman who loves Bruce could be good for this.

I think either way you'd have to make Bruce bad. James Mason, originally offered the part, would have been perfect. Ditto Stewart Granger. Bruce is the villain of the piece. He's simply irredeemable.

Amber should want to raise their son to get him back. Amber should do everything for their son - money, title, safety, etc That's extremely sympathetic.

I think the easiest way would have been to go the (2) option. Make her "bad". But make clear she's driven by love and in love with a no good guy.

Bruce should have suffered at the end. I would use the character of Jemima, Amber's step daughter - make her a friend. Make her the "good" counterpoint to Amber.

I think that would have worked.

Book review - "Last Man Standing" by Roger Moore

Moore tries to ape his pal David Niven with a second book of memoirs, a collection of stories about famous people he has known. But its a disappointing read - he doesn't have Niven's eye or knack for a good story. You'd think he would but he doesn't.

There are some funny stories, mostly about drunken British stage actors (I love how all Brit actors seemed to know each other and they all seemed to guest star on The Saint) - Robert Newton etc. There's some tales from Rape of the Sabine Women and Lana Turner teaching him how to kiss.  Tony Curtis livens up things.

But surely Moore had more stories in his arsenal. Far too many stories pop up in other people's memoirs, such as Tom Mankiewicz on the set of The Comancheroes. And I didn't like how he didn't mention his second wife by name at all.

Book review - "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson" By Robert Hofler (2005)

Entertaining, gossipy look at the life, loves and career of legendary agent Henry Willson, best known for discovering Rock Hudson and a bunch of similar pretty boy actors - Guy Madison, Rory Calhoun, Race Gentry,  Chad Everett, John Saxon, John Gavin, George Nader, Robert Wagner, Tab Hunter, Troy Donahue. He also had some female clients - Natalie Wood, Lana Turner, Rhonda Fleming - but he was best known for the boys, some of whom Willson slept with.

He got a reputation as a major Hollywood predator, which hurt him in the long run - actors associated with him would deny the association, he struggled to get new talent. Eventually Hudson dropped him as his agent in 1966 and Willson's career never recovered. He lost all his money (he was a prodigious spender), had poor health (he was an alcoholic) and died broke and alone (he seems to have never had a long term romantic relationship).

The book focuses heavily on Hudson, who was Willson's great achievement - and the agent could lay claim to Hudson being his achievement, he really championed him, and he became the biggest star in the country. There are also long entries on Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun, both of whom apparently Willson slept with, and who represented the twin desires of Willson.

Being gossip heavy the book emphasises the personal life - at times it seems Willson mostly went out seducing men and partying and Hudson just had sex. Occasionally I felt the book was a little unfair to Hudson, who was an engaging, likeable presence on screen - he had warmth which made him a bigger star than many of his contemporaries (eg Jeff Chandler) - whereas this book makes it seem like he slept his way to the top. (He had an affair with Ed Muhl of Universal!!!)

Also it can be a depressing and wearying book - all that predatory sex, straight men allowing themselves to be used for their career, alcohol addiction. It's not always a fun and breezy read.

Still, Willson had a definite place in Hollywood history and deserved a book.

Movie review - "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) **** (warning: spoilers)

Citizen Kane done MGM style as we look back at the life of a film producer (Kirk Douglas) through three people closest to him - a director (Barry Sullivan), star (Lana Turner), writer (Dick Powell). This is Dore Schary's MGM at it's best - a clever, smart film, with some handsome gloss, strong performances. I'm assuming a lot of credit goes to producer John Houseman, a man with a first class list of credits... including Citizen Kane.

Actually now I think about it there's several more similarities to Kane - an old haunted house with a broken down drunk girl living inside, the story of a Great Man, etc.

There's some key differences - we only have three flashbacks instead of five, which means that we get into the stories more; the subject of the film is alive at the beginning, not dead, which means there are more stakes in them establishing a relationship; the tone isn't as bleak.

Kirk Douglas is a bastard but not a complete bastard - yes he does some rough things but never that terrible: he develops a project with Sullivan and gets in another director; he falls for Turner but goes off with a floozy (Elaine Stewart); he pretends he didn't know Powell's wife (Gloria Grahame) was having an affair with a star (Gilbert Roland) when he did. I mean none of those are mortal sins, really... Well, says I anyway.

And as kindly mogul Walter Pigeon points out all the main characters got stuff out of their association with him: Douglas helped launch Sullivan as a director, made Turner a star, and helped Powell become one of the leading writers in Hollywood.

Each story has something interesting about it. Sullivan isn't that exciting an actor, but I loved how the filmmakers borrowed the real-life story of Val Lewton and Cat People. Turner is genuinely good as the hot mess of an actor who thinks she loves Douglas only to have him drive her away - it's one of her best ever parts.  The Powell-Grahame relationship is genuinely interesting - he's this pipe smoking smug racist historian (okay I'm reading the racism into it but an old southern professor with a black maid... I don't think it's too much of a leap) with a trashy wife who gets very excited about the prospect of going Hollywood.

Gilbert Roland's character is a bit too much of a cliche - Latin lover. It's beautifully shot and scored, very well written. Vincente Minnelli does a strong job as director.