Movie review - "Vendetta" (1950) **

 One of Howard Hughes' most notorious projects, with plenty of hiring and firings, a number of directors (among them Max Ophuls, Stewart Heisler and Preston Sturges, though the film is solely credited to Mel Ferrer), a Hughes starlet in the lead (Faith Domergue), a Hughes leading man featured (no one remembered them because they didn't have big breasts and/or become famous but there were a few, George Dolenz is here). There is plenty of narration.

Domergue is a Corsican determined to avenge the murder of her father and... that's about it. This is a dull slog. It stumbles long, with lousy photography and amateurish acting. Some familiar faces are competent, like Nigel Bruce and Hilary Brooke, but too much lies on the inadequate shoulders of Domergue, Dolenz and Donald Buka. 

Remarkably unsexy - there's not even Hughes-esque low cut gowns. It just stumbles on, then stops. Other Hughes films are a lot more interesting.

Book review - "Preston Sturges: The Last Years of Hollywood's First Writer Director" by Nick Smedley and Tom Sturges

 Sturges' career is very well covered via some solid biographies but this adds a fresh take in focusing on his last decade - the one after his Fox stint, when he made just the one film but was constantly trying to get up projects and failing, before dying relatively young.

Smedley tries to put a positive spin on this era, emphasizing how Sturges found true love with his last wife, never gave up, was always coming up with new ideas. And I'm sure Sturges when on form was marvellous company.

But he does not come across well in this superbly researched, illuminating book. He couldn't stop drinking, he loved his wife but cheated on her and ignored her, he was a lousy father (he didn't see his wife or kids for the last few years of his life), he kept spending money (once the third highest paid person in the country he managed to blow it all via idiotic decisions when all he had to do was buy real estate), he was hard to collaborate with, he whinged, he was fired from some projects and my sympathy was with the producers.

We did miss out artistically from a lack of Sturges projects - Smedley makes a case for the greatness of The Millionairess and I liked his gangster comedy idea - but some sound like terrible ideas.

Famous faces and names pop in and out -Sturges was mates with Orson Welles, he was always trying to work with Alec Guinness and Robert Donat, Errol Flynn almost starred in The French They Are a Funny Race (not sure how Errol would've gone but it would've been better than Flynn's Herbert Wilcox movies).

I think Sturges' problem was that he went from rags to riches so many times in his career, was such a successful gambler, that kept thinking his luck would turn around. And maybe it would have if he's managed to save some money and stay off the booze.

Movie review - "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948) **

 Some critics adore this one. I didn't like it. Rex Harrison is ideal as the jealous conductor who fantasizes about killing his wife. The dialogue is witty. I like Linda Darnell. The support cast is very good.

But I hated the story. Killing his wife because he thinks on thing grounds she's having an affair... I don't find that funny. Or watching three fantasy sequences. Or seeing him try to do it. I don't like him, I hate him.

That's just me, I know. I'm not surprised to see this flopped. It's mean. Darnell is nice. He's a fool. I mean, if he fantasised about killing the lover and the lover was a bully or something...

My "hot take": Sturges actually lost it after Miracle of Morgan's Creek. After that he went downhill, not when he left Paramount.

Movie review - "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock" (1947) **1/2

 It didn't need to cost as much money as it did and the pacing is off. It needed to be tightened and brighter. But once I got used to old Harold Lloyd I didn't mind this. There's pleasant anarchy with him getting drunk for the first time, and buying a circus and winding up on a ledge with a lion among other things.

It just could've been tighter. Oh and the romance is bad. The girl is like the sixth version of another girl or something. Is that romantic?

Movie review - "Hail the Conquering Hero" (1944) **

 Wasn't wild about this. It was polished and everything and I know it's supposed to be a classic it just didn't do it for me. I think the story should be high satire but Sturges keeps pulling punches. And the justification feels strained. Eddie Bracken's goal is wholesome - to make his mother proud - but his mother doesn't need him to do it to feel proud. Ella Raines - very very miscast and unconvincing, Paramount were right to want to drop her - doesn't need him to be brave to love Bracken. The soldiers led by William Demarest go to very unconvincing lengths to sustain the lie. The townsfolk are naive but not evil. The baddies in the election aren't that bad.

Censorship and wartime sensitivity holds this back. There's not even classic sentimentality like, I dont know, visiting a veterans hospital or something. The various soldiers helping Demarest are varying in quality.

Maybe this could have worked with more sex. Bracken wants to "kiss" a girl who only dates heroes so the guys make up a story, then he's caught in a big drama and the girl's dad would threaten to shoot him otherwise. Demarest would've been better as a villain.

There's no sense of the small town feel that was so great in Miracle of Morgan's Creek.

Movie review - "The Palm Beach Story" (1942) ****

 Bright comedy, very well done, with a lot of emphasis on female desire and desirability. Claudette Colbert's good looks get her given money by one tycoon and proposed to by another tycoon and gets frree train tickets from eccentric rich men but she can't resist struggling inventor Joel McCrea even though his idea is a little silly.

Mary Astor is also full of lust. Rudy Vallee's brother, the millionaire, is pure.

The cast are extremely likeable - Vallee must be the most engaging richest man in the world in the movies. The Ale and Quayle Club bring enjoyable anarchy.

Maybe four stars is generous. It's just very well done all the way through. Funny final gag.

Movie review - "Sullivan's Travels" (1941) ***** (warning: spoilers) (re-watching)

 This classic lives up to its reputation. Great, simple idea, still relevant. Sturges pokes affectionate fun of everyone - studio moguls, pretentious directors.

My one gripe -it did repeat a lot with Sullivan trying to get away then being stopped. That happened several times.

But the romance with Veronica Lake is wonderful - sexy, believable, genuine. I really felt these two fell in love. McCrea spits out his lines with elan - I imagine Henry Fonda was an original choice but McCrea is fine, as he often was (he never let the side down, McCrea). 

The support cast are stunning, from the butlers and studio execs to the 13 year old driver who picks up Sullivan, the old lady who lusts after him (few directors of Hollywood from this time emphasised female lust as much as Sturges), the prisoners. 

The last act is incredible filmmaking - the bleak prison, the justice system, the abuse, the humanity found in the black church people letting in prisoners and the joy from cartoons.

Movie review - "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944) (warning: spoilers) ****

Sturges takes on small town Americana with a lot more affection that he's given credit for. William Demarest is crusty but loves his girls who have grown up smart and independent. Well, smart-ish.

Betty Hutton is wonderful as the sassy Trudy who gets drunk and impregnated by an unknown soldier. Diana Lynn is hilarious as her boogie-woogie playing wisecracking sister. Eddie Bracken's nerdiness is fun - he's an unsexy Sturges nerd, like Rudy Vallee in The Palm Beach Story. 

Pace drops around the two thirds mark but picks up. The ending is a deux ex machina but perhaps the greatest in cinematic history.

Movie review - "The Great Moment" (1944) ***

 The odd one out in Preston Sturges' Paramount directing career because it is a serious drama, albeit with comedy moments. It was cut about by the studio so auterists have been forgiving of it more than actually liked it.

I didn't mind it. It is very much of its time and genre, the medical biopic that Warners especially seemed to specialise in. Yet it is still very Sturge - an inventor worried about being ripped off. There is the Sturges stock company (William Demarest, etc), the Sturges slapstick (laughing gas), the hard edged Sturges (politics from the medical union, former partners claiming he's ripped them off), Sturges interests (worried about money, an inventor, a marriage under strain), Sturges sentimentality (deciding to give up money to help a crippled girl not feel pain... this is well done).

Maybe the bits showing what happened to McCrea weren't needed. I have read the original script. The problem with the film the way its structured is it tells this mini story about McCrea leaving the farm and trying to get recognition, then cut to wife Betty Field telling a story about how he died, then going back to the invention. Maybe they just should have shown that bit. The version I watched was 78 minutes.

It has studio benefits: handsome, production design, rich array of character actors. I wasn't wild about Betty Field - she veers from giddy little thing to whining wife to patient wife. It's not much of a part maybe. 

Joel McCrea is fine in the lead. He would soon give up non Westerns to purely be in the saddle. There's no Sturges sexiness which might have jazzed things up.

It's interesting, smart. I don't think a full success but I preferred it to Christmas in July.

Movie review - "The Lady Eve" (1941) ****

 Perhaps this is a little over rated.There's not a lot of farce. It's mostly a sexy romance with conwoman Babara Stanwyck trying to get millionaire Henry Fonda and falling for him, then getting revenge when he discovers the truth.

I expected more to be done with Charles Coburn - he should have turned against Stanwyck or something.

But as a star vehicle this is first rate. The two leads seem to be having the time of their lives and there is genuine erotic charge. Maybe because Stanwyck has clearly been around and is active in her pursuit.

With the wrong stars though this would sink.

Movie review - "Christmas in July" (1940) **1/2

 Not as impressive as The Great McGinty - the problem is the basic story. Dick Powell is a gormless idiot who is clearly a gambling addict, constantly entering competitions. He thinks he's a chance to win a coffee slogan ("it's in the bunk"), and is tricked into believing he's successful. He acts like a complete idiot, running around and blowing all the money on expensive gifts for his girlfriend, mother and whole neighbourhood (including a crippled girl getting a doll which did get to me, I admit).

It's stressful to watch because Powell is an idiot, with no apparent talent - the sort of Gary Cooper part who would be the hero in a Frank Capra movie. He blows all his money without checkign which is dumb rather than funny and I just found it stressful.

The pace is fast and the cast strong especially the support cast. Ellen Drew is sweet as Powell's girlfriend.

Movie review - "The Great McGinty" (1940) **** (re-watching)

 Cynicism ages marvellously and Preston Sturges' debut holds up really well. It wasn't one of my favourites with its second tier cast but watching it years later after Trump and fatherhood it moved me more than ever.

The handling is wonderfully confident for a first timer but that's one of the benefits of the studio system - beautiful photography, fast editing, solid players.

The joy though is the script. Its matter of fact acceptance of corruption, use of sex (Donlevy shakes down what is clearly a brothel and is asked "why don't you go up and get your fortune read", when he discusses an arranged marriage he glances at the legs of a woman who asks "what's that got to do with it"), and the way it tackles serious issues: slum lords, child labour. It's also very moving at the end when Donlevy has to give up the women and children he's come to love. The woman does have a heart of gold but I loved her swimming skilfully in the waters and getting Donlevy to marry her without mentioning her children.

Terrific.

The odd career of Veronica Lake

I don't think anyone had better luck than Veronica Lake when starting out. Her first decent part was a choice, showy support role in a big hit, I Wanted Wings - a military romantic drama released just as America was gearing up for a war.

She followed this with great parts in five fantastic films:
* Sullivan's Travels - a classic Preston Sturges comedy;
* This Gun for Hire - an exciting thriller which teamed her with Alan Ladd;
* The Glass Key - another top thriller with Ladd;
* I Married a Witch - delightful Rene Clair comedy with Lake at her sexiest as a witch;
* So Proudly We Hail - gripping war story with a very flashy part for Lake as a Bataan nurse.

Lake made a notable contribution to all five films - being effective, her limitations protected.

Then the tide turned. She cut her hair, lost a baby, developed a bad reputation, and was in a series of duds:
* The Hour Before Dawn
* Bring on the Girls
* Hold That Blonde
* Out of This World

Things turned around a little with Miss Susie Slagle's, The Blue Dahlia and Ramrod. But then it was back to crap:
* Saigon
* The Sainted Sisters
* Isn't it Romantic?

Then she left Paramount, and could never recover her previous position.

What happened? Was it inevitable?

Well, Lake wasn't a very good actor - she had to be carefully used. She couldn't survive bad material (unlike, say, Alan Ladd).

You could say "Paramount shouldn't have put her in comedies" - but she'd had success in Sullivan's Travels and I Married a Witch.

Most of the films she appeared in during the second half of her Paramount career were simply ineptly made - they helped killed the careers of Eddie Bracken, Joan Caulfield and Diana Lynn as much as Lake.

It's a shame she wasn't teamed with Ladd more - she could've easily slipped into say OSS (as she did on radio) or Wild Harvest or Calcutta. (She may have refused these parts, to be fair - it's just a pity since Ladd was rarely as effective with another girl.)

There was also a curious reluctant to use her as an out and out vamp. Lake looked like a bad girl but rarely played one - there was always some excuse or redemption for her behaviour. Sometimes this made the film more interesting (eg The Blue Dahlia) but often it weakened the drama - several of her films would've been better had Lake played a flat out villain eg The Sainted Sisters. Also she would've seemed a natural for film noir as a femme fetale, but she didn't - noirs, yes, but as good girls.

Maybe it was simply karma. But it's as hard a slog to get through Lake's last films at Paramount as it is a pleasure to get through her first.

So anyway a Lake top ten

1) I Wanted Wings
2) This Gun for Hire
3) Sullivan's Travels
4) The Glass Key
5) I Married a Witch
6) So Proudly We Hail
7) The Blue Dahlia
8) Ramrod
9) Miss Susie Slagle's
10) Saigon (not very good but at least with Ladd)

Movie review - "Easy Living" (1937) ***1/2

Although Sturges didn't direct this film his fingerprints are all over it (he wrote the script) - shenanigans amongst the rich, rapid rise to fame, pratfalls and slapstick, a great array of character actors. Full of joyous coincidences and a light but effective plot - a fur coat falls on Jean Arthur, everyone thinks she's Edward Arnold's mistress, she falls for his son (Ray Milland). Arthur is very likeable - all the cast are. I didn't buy the stock market crashing and rising so easily - didn't feel real. I know that might have been the point but it felt shallow. Bright fun and it doesn't go for too long either.

Movie review – “The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend” (1949) ***

Preston Sturges last film for a Hollywood studio was a deliberate attempt at making a box office hit: Daryl Zanuck gave him technicolour, Betty Grable at her box office peak, and a handsome budget. The resulting film lost money and isn’t particularly well remembered today.

It starts marvellously, with Grable in bright, animated form and very sexy as a saloon singer with a hot temper and quick to shoot her cheating boyfriend (Cesar Romero). She accidentally shoots a judge in the backside and hot tails it to a small town where she and her mate are mistaken for school teachers and she sets her cap at a rich miner (Rudy Vallee). So far so fun – a terrific set up, the action is bright and breezy, and Sturges can’t get enough scenes of Grable changing in and out of clothes.

 

But then it runs into trouble – Cesar Romero comes back, but instead of having him as a false love interest he’s the real love interest – which is troublesome since you know he and Grable have problems that will never reconcile (the ending makes a gag along these lines but it means the ending has hollow emotion). You keep expecting him to reform a la the Great McGinty but it doesn’t happen. 

 

Also there are these two over acting character actors as trouble some brothers, whose supposed death prompts the villain to want to hang Romeo and Vallee – but if he thinks his sons are dead that doesn’t make him that villainous, you feel sorry for the guy. So it lacks a real hero and villain, and heart (which the best Sturges films all had) – and the fact they impersonate school teachers isn’t really paid off. There’s a sort of funny teaching scene, and a sheriff checks if she’s a fugitive… but that’s about it. So it’s a real shame. Still, lots of racy dialogue and good energy.

Movie review – “The Great McGinty” (1940) ***1/2

Preston Sturges became the patron saint of all writers who wished to direct by making such an impressive splash with this film. It still holds up today, as cynical tales where everyone is out for themselves tend to do. The girl who plays his wife isn’t that good looking but does her best and I loved the moment where they’re discussing marriage, he glances at her legs and she says “what’s that got to do with it?”

 

Brian Donlevy is lively and good value as the down at heel bum who becomes mayor (although if he was so clever how did he get so poor?) - his scuzzy persona and not-handsome-enough-for-traditional-leading-man looks work well. Akim Tamiroff is terrific fun as his boss and there is, as would become usual for Sturges, a rich gallery of supporting characters. 

 

Genuine pathos which works too - McGinty feeling ashamed because his step kids get in fights over him, McGinty talking about going to work when he was young (all the better because this is done wittily), and most of all the finale, with McGinty having been arrested but being allowed to escape... presumably the censor didn't mind this because he is parted forever from the women and children he loves.

Book review – “Mitchell Leisen: Hollywood Director” by David Chierichetti

Before reading this book I knew Leisen best as a director who inspired two top screenwriters to go into directing: Preston Sturges, Billy Wilder. Not due to Leisen’s kindness, but because they weren’t happy with what he did to their scripts. This is a little unfair since Leisen did a good job – I think he just didn’t do the job that Sturges and Wilder envisioned. But for many years Leisen was a top Hollywood stylist, who flourished at sophisticated Paramount. Words like “stylist” and “sophisticated” are often used as code for gay – well, Leisen was gay, but he was also stylish and sophisticated.

 

He started as a designer, and must have been a very good one – he worked for Cecil B de Mille – before going into directing. He later made some films at MGM where you would have thought he would have thrived, but he clashed. His career went into decline with the demise of the studio system and the loss of his team – things also seem to have gone a little haywire in his private life (a lover killed himself, he became an increasingly dirty old man). He would up directing television, losing a lot of his money and a leg, then denying not very well remembered in 1972 – although this book is an excellent tribute to him, full of terrific interviews.

 

 Lots of interesting bits and pieces: Fred MacMurray, star of numerous Leisen films, refused to give him a gig on My Three Sons because of the director’s lecherous reputation and MacMurray's concern for the welfare of the young boys in the cast; Leisen was forced to make a bunch of films with MacDonald Carey, who Paramount were trying to build into a star; Leisen clashed with Richard Maibaum several times, and had an unhappy experience on the Alan Ladd film, Captain Carey USA; he directed the last film made at RKO, The Girl Most Likely. Well worth reading if you’re interested in the director’s films, or the history of Paramount during the Golden Years.

Radio review – Lux – “Strictly Dishonorable” (1952) *

I’ve never read or seen Preston Sturges’ hit play – the one that launched his career – but I bet it’s balls were cut off by this MGM adaptation. A subsequent perusal of its synopsis after listening to this proved me correct. MGM turned this into crappy pro-virgin fluff about an opera singer who offends a hopeless student and has to fight off a scandal involving a dopey fan. No real funny lines or situations, and bad playing from Fernando Lamas (replacing Enzio Pinza, whose film career was killed off by the failure of this and Mr Imporium) and Janet Leigh, neither known for comedy.

Radio review - Lux - "I'll Be Yours" (1950) ***

Silly but fun version of a Deanna Durbin musical, which was a remake of a Margaret Sullivan vehicle written by Preston Sturges. When listening to this I thought Norman Krasna must have had a hand in the script since it felt similar to many Krasna scripts: a variation on the Cinderella story, use of mistaken identity, a dreamy female heroine, rich person saves the day. But no - although regular Krasna collaborator Bob Cummings is on hand to play the rather thankless part of the principled lawyer helped by the girl (Ann Blyth steps in for Deanna Durbin); Cummings would have been better value playing the rich old guy. William Bendix reprises his film role as Blyth/Durbin's good hearted friend.

(NB on the edition of this I heard, there's an interview with an older Bob Cummings who talks about how he was the godson of Orville Wright. He sounds like he has one foot in the grave but still has all his marbles.)

Radio review – SGP – “The Great McGinty” (1945) **1/2

Preston Sturges’ directorial debut was/is highly regarded, and it certainly launched a brilliant career, but although clearly the work of a man of great talent, it did kind of take on stuff that Capra had already done (i.e. patsy enters politics at whim of rich man and discovers conscience). Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff and Ruth Hussey all give strong performances and the dialogue is a delight.