Movie review - "Easy Living" (1949) **1/2

An odd one in the Victor Mature filmography - until you consider that in the late 40s he was developing a nice little reputation as an actor (My Darling Clementine, Kiss of Death) and this project was greenlit by Dore Schary at RKO (though it wasn't made til Howard Hughes til over).

It's got Schary worthiness, being a look at the life of a football player (Mature). He's a star but he lives beyond this means

The screenwriter, Charles Schnee, has actually done a good job (Schary liked Schnee, promoted him to producer at MGM) - characters are well sketched, have depth, and sympathy. There's a big fat strand of sexism through the film (a key plot point involves Mature being overlooked for a coaching position because his wife isn't "reliable) but even Scott is allowed to have her moment in the sun - she points out their life has traditionally been about worshipping Mature, she wants a career.

Some subplots feel hampered by censorship - a model who slept around kills herself, a woman tells Scott she wants to seduce Mature then kind of vanishes, Ball and Mature really should sleep together, it's unsure if Scott sleeps with her client. Because much of it is adult and frank and well done - Jacques Tourneur was a good director.

Lloyd Nolan is effective as a coach. Lizabeth Scott feels vaguely miscast but gives a good performance - you could say the same for Lucille Ball. Mature isn't quite believable as a footballer but is at least a physical type. Sonny Tufts was a real surprise - he's very relaxed and strong as Mature's friend. There's a black player on the team, Jim Backus turns up as a doctor.

There's a scene where Mature and Scott go to a nightclub and hear a person sing a torch song called "Easy Living"which feels tacked on.

It's a really odd sort of movie - bits of it are very good I found it engrossing. It doesn't quite pull it off, you can see why it lost money, and there's a terrible finale when Mature slaps Scott twice and "forgives" her (for the crime of having ambition). But treats the trevails of footballers sensitively and it's no joke.

Movie review - "Miss Susie Slagle's" (1946) ***

An unexpected delight - the cinematic output of Sonny Tufts doesn't have the best reputation but this was produced by John Houseman, who has many fine films on his resume. It's a loving, sweet depiction of some doctor students in 1910... kind of like Doctor in the House... though really they may as well updated it (there's always something creepy about watching medical period pieces because characters are constantly falling sick from things that will be routinely repaired down the track).

Tufts was very winning as the awkward, shy student - it plays to his strengths (seems like a nice guy, gangly, not too demanding a role, a little bit of romance, some doctoring, no big words). The real surprise for me was Joan Caulfield, who is bright and pretty and great fun as a gal who decides to marry Tufts straight away.

Veronica Lake is in it too - top billed but in not a very big part and she's not very good as a nurse who falls for a doctor student who dies. She never seems comfortable.

There's other doctors too - Billy de Wolfe does comic stuff, and there's some other guy. The men are kind of bland. I got confused who they were - the star power is B list. Ray Collins and George Colouris, old Mercury cronies of Houseman, props up the support.

Lilian Gish plays Miss Susie who runs the boarding house. She's a bit creepy actually - not very good, not that warm, IMHO anyway. I couldn't help laughing at her initiating men - I couldn't help imagining her sneaking into the boys room after dark for some special services. I know that's low hanging fruit but you try watching that scene and not thinking of it, either.

But it's sweet. Director John Berry does a good job in his first feature.

Movie review - "Bring on the Girls" (1945) **

You don't get a more sure fire musical concept than a millionaire who wants to pretend to be a normal person - Norman Krasna used it countless times, and this was a remake of a French movie, The Man who Seeks the Truth.

Eddie Bracken isn't terribly believable as a millionaire though you can buy him as someone who is worried people only love him for his money. He enlists in the navy and his family insist he's accompanied by Sonny Tufts.

Tufts' name became a joke in later years but he has an amiable, easy going presence and a surprising amount of talent - he plays a musical instrument, and sings a number on a piano and does a good job - it's not cringe inducing at all.

The problem is with his character. I think the writers made a mistake turning his character so dumb - he thinks that the girl Bracken is wooing is good girl Marjorie Reynolds instead of who is actually is, gold digger Veronica Lake. Then later on he blabs to Bracken's family about what's happened, and then he tries to pinch Lake off Bracken, which isn't very nice.

The movie was Lake's first in a number of months as she got over the death of her child and end of her marriage. After the debacle of The Hour Before Dawn she's been carefully protected - not given too much action, not having to carry a movie, being cast in a role which is the variation of the one she played in I Wanted Wings - to wit, a gold digging night club cigarette girl (though Lake doesn't sing). Her character supposedly ripped off Tufts back in the day and to be honest the film would've been better off had she remained a threat - but then it turns out, gee, she only ripped off Tufts because she thought he was married and wanted to send money back to his kid (the real villain was some band leader we never see).

So the movie lacks a baddie. It also lacks decent conflict. Bracken falls for Lake who knows he is rich all along (why the deception then?) and wants his money. But she's not really bad, she's only bad because she was mistaken by Tufts - something that could be cleared up by a quick chat (as it is they drag it out until the end of the film before she believes it). Why didn't they have Bracken fall in love with a girl who loves him because she is poor and wouldn't like him being rich?

They have Marjorie Reynolds, who is rich but likes to sing, which is kind of interesting, but they barely give her any scenes. You think she's going to romance Tufts but she doesn't; she's not mates with Lake, which would have given the film some emotional pull; she doesn't get many song numbers; she meets Bracken and they fall in love very unconvincingly. You never really see why Reynolds would like Bracken and vice versa other than they're both rich which might be true to real life but isn't dramatically interesting.

The movie also lacks star power. There are four star roles - Bracken, Lake, Tufts and Reynolds - but no one is an A lister. No Bob Hope, or Betty Hutton, or Bing Crosby or Dorothy Lamour. Lake could be fantastic but also wooden and musicals weren't her natural milieu. Bracken needed stronger material. Reynolds simply wasn't a star.

But the real problem here is the script. The plot kicks off with a deception but that's never used because Lake knows Bracken is rich. Reynolds worries about people loving her for her money too but we never see anyone after her. There's no friendship between Bracken and Tufts and Lake and Reynolds. There's no sense of fun. No complications. They throw in another deception with Bracken pretending to be deaf but that isn't followed up either.

There is technicolor and some decent numbers. It's bright and colourful. But the "book" fails and as a result so does the movie.

Movie review - "So Proudly We Hail" (1943) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Hollywood movies traditionally like to celebrate victories but for a period there in World War Two they were about defeat, because that's all America suffered during it's early days: Bataan, Cry Havoc, Wake Island, Corregidor. This is a very good movie, stylishly made, expertly created for the female audience: it has great roles for three female stars, who are three different archetypes (sensible Claudette Colbert, sassy and flirty Paulette Goddard, bitter Veronica Lake); it introduces two new hunks (both having their opening scenes with their shirts off and both who who had tragic lives off screen, interestingly enough - George Reeves and Sonny Tufts); it tells the story of war from the female point of view, deals with female-leaning struggles (e.g., a mother loses a son, career vs marriage, wanting to heal vs wanting to kill Japanese).

Colbert does her idealised nurse thing very well - sensible, always shot in one profile, not panicking as the Japanese come on in and her fellow nurses lose it. Goddard is enormous fun as a flirty nurse, keen to wear her negligee to keep up morale, with several men on the go, falling for Tufts (whose limitations work here as he plays a lummox) - she feels real, and works very well with the other actors. Lake isn't the greatest actor in the world (her break down scene shows her limitations) but its a marvellous part, she has that charisma and a terrific suicide bombing last scene (even if it is half way though the film).

It's an impressive script by Alan Scott which starts off with a bang (a plane load of nurse survivors arrive in Melbourne Australia, and are met by a British sounding officer - Colbert is traumatised), and juggles its several plots expertly; ditto the changes in tone (romance, comedy, flirting, seriousness, war action). The war experience thought female eyes - they're active, important, vital. No wonder if was a big hit.

Movie review - "Blaze of Noon" (1947) **

A movie full of legends, in their own way - directed by Aussie John Farrow, co-written by Spig Wead (the paraplegic former naval aviator whose life was immortalised by John Ford), from a novel by Ernest Gann (perhaps the most famous aeroplane author of all time), a cast including William Holden, Sonny Tufts, Anne Baxter and Sterling Hayden. Imagine the stories around the commissary during lunchtime.

Holden, Tufts, Hayden and Johnny someone are brothers who go from barnstorming in the 1920s to an airmail service. Much story time is taken up with Holden's pursuit of Anne Baxter, which leads to inevitable "why are you never home" scenes. Because it's a John Farrow film there's a likeable priest, who encourages Anne Baxter to marry William Holden.

It's not terribly interesting drama, very much overshadowed by Only Angels Have Wings - Baxter feels neglected, various brothers crash, terrible risks are taken. You'd think four brothers would be enough for drama but they add William Bendix as another flier (why not make him one of the brothers?). William Holden is okay but probably not experienced enough in a role seemingly meant for Alan Ladd. Hayden does okay as a tough guy who falls for Baxter and Sonny Tufts gets to play a big drunk scene after one of his brothers dies and doesn't do too badly.

Radio review – Lux – “Miss Susie Slagles” (1946) **1/2

Grey’s Anatomy 1910-style – set in a boarding house for medial students, there’s the son of a famous man who finds his own two feet, a bit of romance, an imposing doctor mentor figure, a convenient outbreak of disease at the end. The period setting makes it a bit different at least and there’s William Holden (taking over from Sonny Tufts) and Joan Caulfield in the cast. No Veronica Lake.

Radio review – Lux – “So Proudly We Hail” (1943) *** (warning: spoilers)

Sure, it’s a bit hokey and melodramatic, but this came out not long after the actual events happened, when there were veterans of Corregidor and Bataan still suffering and dying in POW camps. There’s an Aussie connection, too: some nurses arrive in Melbourne, having just escaped from Corregidor – we go into flashbacks courtesy of Paulette Goddard to find out why Claudette Colbert had a nervous breakdown. It’s her romance with a fella, of course – played by George Reeves in the film, but by some other guy here. Sonny Tufts reprises his film role as a loveable lunk, Kansas – but the best performance is actually from Veronica Lake. She plays a nurse who hates the Japs because the killed her fiancée at Pearl Harbour and is determined to knock off some POWs; she has a great hysterical breakdown and death scene, where she kills herself to take out some Jap soldiers so her friends can get away. This really gave me fresh appreciation for Lake’s talents.

As an aside, this film falls into two war sub-genres: the nurse picture, and the American defeat film. The latter were a group of movies made during the early days of America’s entry into World War Two, because the only true stories they could make were about defeats: Bataan, Wake Island, Corregidor, this; later on was They Were Expendable. (Was there ever a time when Hollywood made so many films about US defeats?). Nurse pictures have been made on and off over the years (although the British seem to have more enthusiasm for them than the Americans).

Movie review – “Cat Women of the Moon” (1954) **

Famously bad 50s sci fi, using a plot that was too commonly found in that decade: an intrepid bunch of explorers (in this case, astronauts to the moon) discover an all-female society who pant over the hunky newcomers. (Other examples include World Without End and Queen of Outer Space.) At least this one varies the formula a little by having a woman (Marie Windsor) among the explorers. It’s also got a strong cast for this kind of thing – along with Windsor there’s Victor Jory and Sonny Tufts. Okay it’s not exactly Oscar time, but at least they’re well known.

Some wonderful camp moments – a ridiculous looking giant spider; the layout of the rocket; the splendid cat women themselves, with their history and manipulation of men (“you’re too smart for me baby,” says one astronaut. “I like ‘em stupid”); the cat women dance; astronauts bringing cigarettes and a gun when they go walking on the moon... and both turn out to be useful. 

Incredibly sexist – the cat women want to move back to Earth in order to take over the world with the help of the women there, but one of their number ruins it by falling in love with an astronaut (you can’t have power and love you see).
You know something? There is a possible sequel in what would happen on earth had the women been successful in their mission, overthrowing the patriarchy.

On the technical side of things, this is full of more scientific errors than you'd care to think. It's not particularly well directed, although some suspense is created by delaying the appearance of the cat women. Sonny Tufts is ostensibly the hero but the real he man is Victor Jory who gets the girl (Windsor only likes Tufts because she's brainwashed) and is the one man who doesn't fall for the cat women's act. I liked the character stuff of the astronaut who wanted to make a quick buck and was determined to accumulate as many souvenirs as he could. Good, silly fun.