Movie review - "The Dark Corner" (1946) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Some pleasures. Photography. Noir atmosphere. Clifton Webb. Too close to Laura. Mark Stevens trying to be Dana Andrews. Lucille Ball full of life though miscast. William Bendix fun.

Movie review - "Mister Scoutmaster" (1953) **

 Clifton Webb starts the movie giving money to scouts and married and his wife wants to adopt a kid, so already this film is less fun. They should have made this film about Belvedere hating kids and being forced to run the scouts, but instead he volunteers and the kids are a little energetic that's it.

There's a decent subplot about a lonely kid from a crap family - played by that kid who was in Gentemen Prefer Blondes. That works.

But they don't lean into the fun of Clifton Webb doing it. Anyone a little gruff could've played the role. 

Louis Jourdan Top Ten

 In honour of his birthday

1. Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) - the perfect cad. I still think about this film.

2. Octopussy (1983) - never regarded as a top level Bond villain but I thought he was good.

3. Gigi (1958) - so dodgy. Yet a good performance.

4. The Paradine Case (1948) - Hitchcock wanted Robert Newton but I thought Jourdan was fine.

5. Dangerous Exile (1958) a very fanatical hero for a swashbuckler

6. Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) - The American public didn't like heroic Jourdan but liked him in roles like this.

7. The Best of Everything (1959) - career girl stuff, he works well as one of an ensemble.

8. Julie (1956) - a great abusive spouse

9. Fear No Evil (1969) - I've got a memory of this being good. Vague. But it's there.

10. Man in the Iron Mask (1977) - effective as D'artagnan.

Movie review - "Titanic" (1953) ****

Daryl Zanuck was attracted to this via its ability to use CinemaScope and the talents of Clifton Webb, who plays one of the several millionaires on the Titanic. The writers (Charles Brackett and his old Billy Wilder era collaborators Richard Breen and Walter Reisch) have given him a decent plot - he's trying to retrieve wife Barbara Stanwyck.

There's a role for other Zanuck favourites, like Robert Wagner as a young college boy (who's allowed to be heroic but still survive by cutting a rope and falling in the water), and Thelma Ritter as Molly Brown.

It's fun to see a scene where Wagner is trying to get information out of Stanwyck about the latter's daughter Audrey Dalton knowing that in real life Wagner and Stanwyck were getting it on. (She does seem very lively in the scene, as does he - it's a shame they didn't work together more). Later on she reveals to Webb she slept with some young guy on the beach, who impregnated her... this could've been a Wagner type!

Wagner is quite sweet - he sings a number and does a jig. Audrey Dalton is good as the stuck up daughter of Webb and Stanwyck. The subplot about Richard Basehart's drunken priest is a little dull. Thelma Ritter is fun as Molly Brown. Brian Ahern offers some star power as Captain Smith, ditto Edmund Purdom as Lightoller.

The last half hour is terrific with some wonderful moments like Webb's son, rejected by Webb previously, giving up his seat to go and die with his father.

I think this was a solid success rather than a big hit - because of its cost, I wonder if Fox made a profit on it - but it's one of the finest movies Webb made at Fox, not to mention Brackett.

Movie review - "The Remarkable Mr Pennypacker" (1959) **

 Example of the Buddy Alder regime at Fox: contract stars, contract support, contract talent, glossy photography and CinemaScope, underwhelming box office, popular source material (hit play). It was produced by Charles Brackett, directed by Henry Levin and written by Walter Reisch - all of whom teamed far more successfully on Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

The star was Clifton Webb. He'd played a family man a few times, including Cheaper by the Dozen which I think they aped here and also Holiday for Lovers which was also directed by Levin and had Jill St John (that may have been shot afterwards I'm not sure). Dorothy McGuire is Webb's wife. Neither seem that engaged by the material. I didn't buy Webb fathering all those kids. Burgess Meredith played the part on Broadway - maybe that worked.

Jill St John and Ron Ely are ingenues. Webb's kids include David Nelson, Ray Stricklyn and Joan Freeman.

It's all so nice. McGuire is a bit shocked that Webb had another family but gets over it. So do the kids. So do everyone. There's no second wife alive (she's dead) which would have given the piece some kick. I couldn't tell any of the kids apart - Jill St John wanted to get married, David Nelson hung around. There was some squabbling.

It didn't work. Looks great. Beautiful photography and sets. It's in the 1890s - for me a period that never comes alive. Too much art department or something.

Henry Levin once wrote this interesting account of working with Clifton Webb - it's here.

Movie review - "Woman's World" (1954) **

This is what happens when you try to re-do A Letter to Three Wives or All About Eve without Joseph L Mankiewicz. This has a good, solid set up - the position of general manager of a big car corporation is up for grabs, and company head Clifton Webb (wasted), invites three leading managers from around the country to check out them and their wives.

You expect a show of ruthless climbing and great one liners - and having a large bunch of characters doesn't matter in the right hands, as shown by say Dinner at Eight. But this doesn't work.

The main reason is it's so soft. The first couple out of the blocks are June Allyson and Cornel Wilde - just decent folks from the midwest. She's a bit clutzy and worries about her kids - this was during Allyson's "perfect wife" period. She occasionally embarrasses them with a bit of klutzy-ness but he doesn't really want the job.

More promising are Lauren Bacall and Fred MacMurray. He wants the job but he's a workaholic and she doesn't want him to have the job. She gives him a job-or-me ultimatum and they're both nice basically so you know he's not going to get it.

Then there's Van Heflin and Arlene Dahl. They both want it - she really wants it - she tries to seduce Webb which is promising. But it was all a trap by Webb so get Heflin to dump Dahl and then give Heflin the job. Which is typical misogynistic Fox stuff.

Everyone's so nice. You want (or at least I want) everyone to be stabbing each other in the back. Even Dahl isn't much of a villain. I get they wanted some nice people but they needed at least three unsympathetic characters. There's not enough jokes for it to work as a comedy - maybe if it had songs...?

Elliot Reid, that wet drip from Gentleman Prefer Blondes, turns up as Webb's nephew and you hope he's going to be a lecherous idiot but he does nothing. Webb kind of plays a Santa Claus.

It's a shame because it's fun to see these stars - even if some are a little B list - in a CinemaScope corporate setting.

Movie review - "Island in the Sun" (1957) ***

Darryl Zanuck's first independent production doesn't hold much critical cache - everyone takes pot shots at it, I think because it deals with race in 1957. Sure, absolutely, but it still deals with them, and this was a gutsy film to make at the time.

It was shot in the West Indies and looks amazing - beaches, carnivals, markets, colonial houses, parties. The cast is mostly B list but solid - Joan Collins, John Williams, Michael Rennie, John Justin, Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Fontaine, Stephen Boyd. I'm surprised Clifton Webb isn't in this.

Dandrige looks sensational but doesn't have much of a character to play - her plot needed a twist (black girl and white guy... I guess the fact the two of them have a happy ending was novel enough). Collins and Boyd have sex, he loves her she might be black but then she's not (Diana Wynard is good as mum)... that felt a bit hollow. I like James Mason killing Rennie - that was good. And there's decent scenes with John Williams as the cop hounding him.

I also didn't mind the Joan Fontaine and Belafonte romance. Very G-rated, absolutely, but she's clearly hot for him and he's been given tremendous status.

It does work dramatically, which later Zanuck films based on best-sellers like The Sun Also Rises and The Roots of Heaven didn't.

Script review - "Laura" (1944) by Jay Drantler, Ring Lardner Jnr, Betty Reinhardt, Samuel Hoffstein

A happy accident because many of the people involved in this tried to repeat the success and could never quite do it. There was a strong source novel, true, but a lot of work was done on the script - this version for instance that I read was full of "additional scenes" and "replacement pages".

The script has three aces - the character of Waldo Lydecker (brilliantly scripted and later realised by Clifton Webb - better than Laird Cregar would have been because he was more spartan, severe), the fact that Mark the detective falls for dead Laura (the character is more interesting on the page than Dana Andrews could realise), and the fact that Laura is still alive.

It's a very well thought out mystery, with Waldo, Shelby and Ann being key suspects with Diane Redfern being the joker in the pack.

Interesting psychologically too - Waldo seemingly gay (or impotent?) obsessed with Laura, Laura liking them dumb and hot (Vincent Price probably gave the wrong impression), Laura a proto feminist who wants to work. All the improvements/new pages improve things - though the detective is quite casual about interrogating suspects in front of each other! (Does make for better drama).

Book review - "Laird Cregar: A Hollywood Tragedy" (2018) by Gregory William Mank

A fine biography of the cult star Cregar, who I first heard about when Bill Collins presented Hangover Square on TV. I was surprised I'd never heard of him - a horror star, who died young - because the Cregar cult isn't that huge. I think maybe people have less affection for 20th Century Fox horror movies than say Universal ones. Also he didn't make that many movies.

Mank sketches Cregar's short but eventful life well. He came from a distinguished Philadelphia family - several family members were renowned for their cricket skills, at a time when cricket was big in that part of the country. Cregar was the youngest of several brothers and always a bit different, a bit of a show off - he ran away from home early, later joined the merchant marine, and tried to break into acting. Acting seems to have been the one big passion of his life... he tried to make a go of it in New York but did better in California where he worked at the famed Pasadena Playhouse.

Cregar was there a few years, and it was a struggle but when things happened to him they happened fast. His big break was playing Oscar Wilde in a play... it showed off Cregar's gifts perfectly (wit, charisma, size, intelligence) and he was signed to a contract by 20th Century Fox who promptly put him in a series of top character roles.

Actors like Cregar could whinge about the studio system but if they had smart bosses and the right sort of studio they would thrive - they'd get to play all sorts of roles, get PR and build up. Cregar quickly established himself as one of the key character names in the business, stealing his first proper film, Hudson's Bay. He offered some superb villainous turns in I Wake up Screaming, Joan of Paris and This Gun for Hire - the most analogous actors would be Vincent Price and George Sanders and Sydney Greenstreet.

Like those actors Cregar made it to leads - in his case in The Lodger and Hangover Square. But he wasn't happy - while actors like Price and Sanders got to play the odd romantic lead (eg Price in Laura) Cregar was stuck in fatty roles like Greenstreet. He whinged and whined and would diet to play romantic roles... leading to a fatal heart attack.

Even though Cregar was upset at losing out on some roles (Laura to Clifton Webb, Dragonwyck to Price) I think Cregar would've continued to remain in high demand for his entire life, like Greenstreet, Price, Lorre and Sanders (Fox was planning Les Miserables for him when he died). He was just so castable, so charismatic - he could liven up any sort of small role. i could see him headlining a TV show, and being used by Roger Corman, and doing stage appearances.

The book is (perhaps inevitably) sketchy on Cregar's love life - he had a publicised straight romance with a few women, which seem to have been underpinned by genuine romantic feeling, but it's generally recognised he was gay. There's some allusion to a specific boyfriend but we never find out who he is.

Cregar dserved a good book and he got one.

Book review – “Memo from Darryl F Zanuck”

Not as enjoyable as other memo books for Selznick and Warner Bros, this is nevertheless interesting enough. It’s clear that Zanuck was a fine script editor (his thoughts on story are first rate – John Ford and Joe Mankiewicz never worked on better scripts than the ones they did for Zanuck), gutsy (backing Gentlemen’s Agreement, Wilson, Pinky), derivative in his creative ideas (he was always remaking stories and pinching ideas fom previous movies), constantly sniping at Jack Warner (his old boss), owner of a healthy ego (like Selznick he is always invoking is track record and claiming to accurately predict failures), polite to great talent, smart. 

It lacks a little fire - maybe Zanuck wasn't as good on paper, maybe the records aren't as strong... or the book is too short. Still, very entertaining.

Movie review – “Holiday for Lovers” (1959) **

Three Coins in the Fountain launched a series of 20th Century Fox travelogue films – Cinemascope, romance, contract stars, romance. This is one of the dullest: Clifton Webb did play a few father roles during his career but seems bored and unconvincing as a father whose daughter (Jill St John, bad) goes off to South America. When she sends back some worrying postcards he takes the wife (Jane Wyman, wasted and looking even more bored) and daughter (Carole Lynley, even worse than St John) to investigate.

 

Some un-interesting adventures result – Lynley is pawed after by a bunch of American soldiers on a base and is pursed by a sergeant (tubby, uncharming Gary Crosby); St John seems to have having it off with an artist with a taste for nudes (oh those Latins! Paul Henreid plays the role), but is actually keen on the son. But it’s alright she comes to her senses and dumps the good looking South American but Lynley marries the nice American boy.

 

It is interesting to see glimpses of South America at the time (it looks very clean) – there are bullfights and dancing expeditions – but little charm or point.

Radio review – Lux – “Mr Belvedere Goes to College” (1949) **

Clifton Webb is good as always as Belvedere but they struggled putting him in a fresh fish out of water situation – Belvedere fits in too well at college. They try by making him a freshman and have to go through different rituals and rule but it just doesn’t have the satisfaction of watching him get one up on snobby townsfolk and bratty kids. The romantic subplot involves a girl student who is actually a widowed mother – Colleen Gray plays the girl and Robert Stack is the guy.

Radio review – Lux – “Sitting Pretty” (1949) ***1/2

The mistake in the 80s sitcom version of Mr Belvedere was the lead actor was too cuddly for all his superior affectations – Clifton Webb’s Belvedere, however, works marvellously because he has a genuine edge of nastiness. The idea of a superman, snobby but extremely capable, who can whip kids into shape remains immensely appealing and Webb's performance remains a delight. Robert Young and Maureen O'Hara do the best they can in more conventional roles - Young has to play a pompous git who assumes Belvedere is getting it on with his wife in order to give this some extra story.

Radio review – TGA – “Blithe Spirit” (1947) ****

The film version of this was made with a British cast, but here’s a chance to hear the Broadway cast recreate their roles, except for Peggy Wood, who played Ruth and wasn’t available (she was replaced by Kathleen Cornell – but that’s not too distracting since Ruth, the living wife, is the dullest part). Clifton Webb is terrific in the lead and Mildred Natwick great as Madame Arcadi; Leonora Corbett is ideal too as Elvira. Delightfully played.

Radio review – Lux – “The Man Who Came to Dinner” (1950) ***

For a role based on a specific person, Alexander Woolcott, a lot of different stars have enjoyed playing the part of Sheridan Whiteside: Monte Woolley, Orson Welles, Woolcott himself, Fred Allen and here Clifton Webb. There’s not much of a leap from Whiteside to Waldo Lydecker so it's no surprise that Webb does very well. An enjoyable version of a classic play, which hits all the right notes. Lucille Ball takes over the thankless role of Sheridan's secretary - she would have surely been better off playing the Gertrude Lawrence character. (Or, you know something? Lucille Ball could have made a decent Sheridan Whiteside too.)

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

Strong version of the famous murder mystery with Gene Tierney reprising her screen role and Victor Mature stepping in for Dana Andrews – he’s more passionate (histrionic maybe) than Andrews but effective, and the Cliffton Webb replacement isn’t bad.

Radio review - Lux – “Laura” (1945) ***1/2

Very strong mystery with many great characters – the enigmatic Laura, the tough cop who falls for her dead "image", the magnificent Waldo, the gigolo fiancée – and twists – the revelation that the girl isn’t dead, the finale with Waldo on the radio. Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Vincent Price all reprise their excellent film performances but unfortunately not Clifton Webb. They replace him with some random actor (Otto someone) – surely they could have gotten someone like Laird Cregar or Sydney Greenstreet? Still, this is excellent entertainment.

Movie review - Ladd #36 - "Boy on a Dolphin" (1957) **

Twenty years before Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep, 20th Century Fox had Sophia Loren emerge from the water in a wet shirt and seemingly no bra... and in CinemaScope. It's the highlight of a by-the-numbers treasure hunting scenery piece. For all Loren's beauty and voluptuous figure, her performance is irriating - a lot of hyperactive yelling (in Hollywood of the 1950s most Continental leading ladies had to yell a lot) - though to be fair it was her first Hollywood movie.

According to Alan Ladd's biographer, Ladd was annoyed at the attention paid by the director to Loren, giving her close ups, etc - but honestly Ladd is not in good form here, with energy in some scenes but lethargy in others. He does provide some fun when you watch scenes between Ladd and Loren and you know he's on a box or she's in a ditch. 

Clifton Webb can always be relied on to be a smooth villain and there are some pleasing location footage of Greece (once Daryl F Zanuck left Fox, studio president Spyros Skouras indulged in this liking for Greek material more eg this, The 300 Spartans, It Happened In Athens, the hiring of Peter Levathes). Apart from that, the film lacks excitement, which wouldn't have been too hard to fix - just get someone trying to kill Ladd or have accidents with his equipment and stuff.

Movie review - "The Dark Corner" (1946) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Not one of the better known film noirs despite ticking many boxes: a tormented hero, tough dialogue, superb photography, seedy underbelly, a plot involving sex/murder/double-cross, etc. Maybe this is because one of the stars is Lucille Ball - slightly odd then and even odder now; she's fine but it is a little weird to see her in a noir (Ida Lupino was originally cast and she would've been better). 

The film's reputation also may have been hurt by coming across at times as a son of Laura - like that film it was made by 20th Century Fox, has Clifton Webb as a snob driven to murder by passion, has painting of a woman central to the plot, and a rugged tough detective her (played by Mark Stevens, a poor man's Dana Andrews). 

The film has some striking visual flourishes and a decent plot with two good twists, but its dragged out a bit too long - it needed to have 20 minutes cut out of it, or else be re-structured or something.