Movie review - "Seven Keys to Baldpate" (1947) **1/2

 Philip Terry popped up in a few movies but is probably best remembered as Mr Joan Crawford (for a time). He's not overly charismatic, though he's not bad - I guess I was hoping for, I don't know, Tom Conway or something.

It's an RKO B which means it looks schmick. Lew Landers directs with competence - it's a dark deserted house, mystery guests. Jacqueline White is a competent leading gal, Eduardo  Cianelli a competent threat.

This started well but as it went on it got tired, Terry's lack of energy started to tell. The whole thing felt tired and rote. A really keen director and cast could've made something more of this.

Still, looks good.

Book review - "Seven Keys to Baldpate" By Earl Derr Biggers

The novel which was later adapted by George Cohan into a popular play, filmed many times. It is very heavy going - not as good as the play - a very hard slog. It's got kind of the same characters and story but the pace is leaden and it's dull.

My top 10 random RKO films

In honour of Richard Jewell's book on RKO I thought I'd do a top ten of my favourite random RKO movies-  not the classics, thank you very much, just films I was interested in from The RKO Story and late night TV:
1) His Kind of Woman (1951) - bizarre Farrow/Mitchum/Russell noir which starts out noir and becomes slapstick comedy
2) Seven Keys to Baldpate (three versions) - RKO just kept remaking this
3) Action in Arabia (1943) - exotic WW2 on the backlot stuff with George Sanders as an action hero
4) Five Came Back (1939) - perhaps John Farrow's best ever "B"
5) At Sword's Point (1951) - really fun swashbuckler
6) Riff Raff (1947) - fun late night TV fare with Pat O'Brien pretending to be Bogart or Alan Ladd
7) Bedlam (1946) - perhaps the least well known of the Val Lewtons but I love it
8) Seven Days Leave (1943) - random fact: Victor Mature in a musical was box office gold in the 40s
9) The Falcon series - not as well remembered as the Saint but as fun
10) Dangerous Mission (1954) - pine trees, cable cars and action

Movie review - "House of the Long Shadows" (1983) **

In the 50s, 60s or even 70s, a cast of Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine would have been a dream. By 1983 though everyone was getting on except Lee - Cushing, Price and Carradine seem half dead. Still it's great to see them all together - and with Richard Todd thrown in for free.

The actual star of the movie is Desi Arnaz Jnr giving a very TV performance (there is such a thing - see this movie if you don't believe me) as the writer who accepts a bet for $20,000 that he can't write a novel overnight. He goes to Baldpate Inn - and by now film buffs will recognise this is a version of the much filmed Seven Keys to Baldpate.

It's not a terribly faithful version - it does start off that way but then becomes about four old codgers and Arnaz hanging around, wondering about a deep dark secret in the past. There's a crazy old kid locked in an attic, a squabbling married couple turns up at the end (mainly for the girl to get changed into her underwear at then get killed), a few gory murders to perk things up. Julie Peasgood is terrible as the main girl.

It begins strongly, wobbles about a third of the way in and never recovers. The ending feels hollow.

Movie review - "Seven Keys to Baldpate" (1935) **

RKO cranked out several versions of the George Cohan play, no doubt attracted to its limited sets and opportunities to use character actors. Some notable names pop up in this - Walter Brennan and Henry Travers - and they are the best thing about it. Gene Raymond doesn't have the chops as a star to carry this movie, but he's not helped by a slugging pace.

This isn't terrible, the story does ensure it moves along and there are a few spooky bits (I would have loved for them to be more), and some of the cast really get into it. But it is too dull.

Radio – TGA#32 – “Seven Keys to Baldpate” (1946) **1/2

Walter Pigeon is dreadful in this adaptation of the famous George M Cohan farce – stiff, dull, in a role that should be played with at least some verve, even if the character is passive a lot of the time. But I think part of the reason the Cohan play was so successful is that it is actor proof – there’s so much “business” going on, with Pigeon’s writer character being continually visited by other people who have keys: a hermit, local reporter, police sheriff, professor, gangster, etc. I have a soft spot for this play, with it’s bright construction and post-modernism (Pigeon is a trashy writer trying to come up with a novel in 24 hours and keeps meeting people who act like one of his trashy novels). Good fun – despite the awful lead performance. Martha Scott co-stars.

Play review – “Seven Keys to Baldpate” by George M Cohan (warning: spoilers)

A play I always wanted to read simply because RKO made so many versions of it (and it was available for one two dollars). What was the appeal? Well, it’s got a decent central idea, one location, a bunch of decent roles, and a twist ending. A novelist makes a bet he can write an entirely novel in twenty four hours at Baldplate Inn, for which he is given what is meant to be the only key. The Inn is a summer resort at winter time – was Steven King inspired by this for The Shining? As the title indicates there are six other keys, each one owned by a different person – a hermit, female reporter, gangster, corrupt mayor, etc. The macguffin is a safe full of cash relating to a corrupt railway transaction.

The writer character is a little irritating and he gets the drop on the others a bit too easily, but it’s very fast paced and the sheer number of characters alone mean that something is always happening. The twist ending surely must have inspired the Michael Douglas starrer, The Game – it’s very similar, from the reveal that everyone is an actor to the main guy still falling in love with the girl.