Lists: Those Trash Classics ....

We have been here before - call them what you will: Bad Movies We Love, Guilty Pleasures, Trash or Utter Trash ... those delirious melodramas and just plain bad movies that are so enjoyable - most of the great ladies did some: Lana and Susan and Joan and Bette specialised in them later in their careers, while other great ladies like Olivia and sister Joan dipped their toes in the muddy waters too. 

I have covered them in more detail in my earlier reviews - click on Trash-A label to read on ...http://osullivan60.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/trash-favourites.html

Right now, I list them:

• PORTRAIT IN BLACK - Lana's crowning epic, from 1960 (whereas IMITATION OF LIFE is a cult classic)
• LOVE HAS MANY FACES - Lana does Acapulco, with Ruth Roman and those beach boy bums in speedos in 1966
• WHERE LOVE HAS GONE - Susan and Bette go head to head in this 1964 stinker 
• I THANK A FOOL - Susan and Finch should have been a great team but not in this weird meller shot in Ireland ...
• ADA - Susan in fighting form
  
• BACK STREET - the best of the Susan's ?, 1961
• STOLEN HOURS - love Susan's British remake of Bette' DARK VICTORY, in 1963
• SERENADE - Fontaine is stupendous in this Mario Lansz sudser, 1956
• ISLAND IN THE SUN - Joan 'romances' Harry Belafonte ... 1957
• LADY IN A CAGE - sister Olivia is trapped
• THE SINGING NUN - Debbie's worst in 1966, a travesty of the real Nun's Story
• A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME - Shelley chomps the scenery. 1964.
• SYLVIA - a Carroll Baker epic, its delirious, its delovely 
• SINCERELY YOURS - Liberace's sickly starrer, with Dot Malone and Joanne Dru competing for him ... a 1956 howler.
• MAMBO - a 1954 discovery, torrid saga with Silvana Mangano and Shelley Winters, in Italy.
• FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN - the perfect 1957 Universal-International meller, as is:
  
• THE FEMALE ANIMAL - thats Hedy Lamarr in 1957 with Jan Sterling, splendid as ever.
• GO NAKED IN THE WORLD - Gina ! 1960.
• THE CHAPMAN REPORT - Shelley, Glynis, Claire, young Jane Fonda ... we love Cukor's starry drama, The Higher Trash.
• THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER - Jane Russell ! with Agnes Moorehead as the madam, 1956.
• A GIRL NAMED TAMIKO - one of Laurence Harvey's worst 
• WALK ON THE WILD SIDE - ditto, but with Stanwyck, Capucine, Fonda, Baxter ...
• THE LOVE MACHINE - a scream with gay David Hemmings and Dyan Cannon both wanting John Philip Law
• THE CROWDED SKY - best of the airline disasters?, 1960
• DORIAN GRAY - Helmut ! in 1970s London 
• GOODBYE GEMINI - one of the terrible British flicks of the era, 1970 - as was:
• MY LOVER, MY SON - why Romy. why did you make this terrible film?
• 10.30 PM SUMMER - fake arty 1966 Eurofare, but it does have Melina, Romy and Peter Finch
  
• POPE JOAN - Liv may have been great in those Bergman films but made some stinkers in English, none worse than this in 1972.
• Glenda made some stinkers too, none worse than THE INCREDIBLE SARAH in 1976, where she flounces around as Bernhardt in a Readers Digest travesty. Its a scream. 
• BLUEBEARD - Edward Dmytryk helmed some Trash Classic favourites like THE CARPETBAGGERS, WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, WHERE LOVE HAS GONE, but came a cropper here, aided by Burton's worst performance, in 1972
• THE SQUEEZE - rather good Brit gangster flick, from 1977, with down on their luck Boyd, Hemmings, Carol White ...  BRANNIGAN (John Wayne) and HENNESSEY (Rod Steiger and wasted Lee Remick) were amusing mid-70s British thrillers too ...

We don't bother with the insultingly bad, like THE OSCAR or HARLOW ..... then there are the Troy Donahue and Ann-Margret clunkers, and you know how we love those Bette and Joans: TORCH SONG, HARRIET CRAIG, FEMALE ON THE BEACH, QUEEN BEE, AUTUMN LEAVES, THE STORY OF ESTHER COSTELLO, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, BERSERK! or two Bettes in DEAD RINGER.

Bus Riley's Back In Town

Let's dust off a "Guilty Pleasure" and have another look at the late Michael Parks (RIP label) debut in 1965 ... its deliriously entertaining and was a great suporting feature then. Here is what I wrote a few years ago:

We are in familiar territory as BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN begins in 1965: a greyhound bus pulls in and a marine in white gets out and looks around his old town - its Bus Riley back after 3 years in the navy and trying to settle back into small town life and look for a suitable job.
It is familiar William Inge territory but this is William Inge-lite without all the heavy drama of PICNIC, ALL FALL DOWN, SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS, THE STRIPPER etc - Bus (Michael Parks) is a good-natured chap who does not think too deeply about things and is soon happy back with lovable mother (Jocelyn Brando), adoring younger sister (Kim Darby), sniping older sister (Mimsy Farmer) and local girl Janet Margolin who has to move in with them and who is so obviously the girl for Bus. There is also a very William Inge spinster teacher who gets the vapours at the sight of Bus in his underwear and comes down with a migraine at the thought of a man in the house, so she soon departs.
There is also that mortician acquaintance who can fix Bus up with a job - but, as he places his hand on Bus's knee and thigh, tells Bus how lonely he is and wants Bus to move in with him and his mother (Hitchcock's BIRDS expert and BILLY LIAR's grandmother) Ethel Griffies. Bus sighs wearily and instead settles for being a door to door salesman and is soon a hit with those lonely housewives (cue Alice Pearce as a rather dotty one). Then there is Laurel - Ann-Margret of course top-billed here and the posters are all about her, as Bus's old girlfriend who has married money while he was away and drives around town in her swish car looking for him. He resists her at first but she soon has him in her pool as her husband is away a lot and she wants Bus back big time.

Its a pleasant time waster catching the mid-'60s in transition and a rather nice view of small town American life. Laurel gets her just deserts as Bus realises she would never have married him as he was not rich enough and once he is told what a great car mechanic he was by a satisfied client his destiny beckons. Nicely directed by Harvey Hart it is one of Michael Park's better outings; like Christopher Jones he was tagged with the 'new James Dean' label but the mannerisms are kept in check here - he went on to be the naked Adam in Huston's BIBLE in '66 and 67's THE HAPPENING with a young Faye Dunaway, who was obviously going places too...
Parks was later terrific and suitably scuzzy in Tarantino's KILL BILL epics. 

Bad Movies We Love

Here is a Trash Classic indeed. Rebello and Marguilies' 1995 tome on those bad movies we love, with a foreword by Sharon Stone, who gets a whole chapter to herself. The usual suspects though are here in force: Lana, Susan, Joan (Crawford), Bette and all those delirious movies of theirs.

Browsing it again makes one want to dig out QUEEN BEE (Joan - ["wearing the kind of gown a female impersonator would choose"]: "Any man's my man if I want it that way" or: "You look sweet - even in those tacky old clothes"); or Lana's PORTRAIT IN BLACK or LOVE HAS MANY FACES - perennial favourites of ours. Others like THE CHAPMAN REPORT, THE  BEST OF EVERYTHING, SERENADE, PARRISH and those Troy Donahue spectaculars get their due (I will have to look out for PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND, which sounds a hoot).

Pity they did not include Suzanne Pleshette's opus A RAGE TO LIVE, or THE SUBTERRANEANS or THE SOUND AND THE FURY or Lee Remick's SANCTUARY or Jean Simmons' HILDA CRANE or Jane Russell's THE REVOLT OF MAMIE STOVER or Shelley's A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME or Debbie's THE SINGING NUN.... maybe in a new edition, and with a foreword by Joan Collins please? At least JOHNNY GUITAR gets it due - a delicious piece on its gay subtext, as does TORCH SONG, AUTUMN LEAVES, FEMALE ON THE BEACH, Bette's THE STAR and DEAD RINGER and Lucille's MAME, plus the pure trash of THE OSCAR and THE LOVE MACHINE and ... those 'disasters' get trashed again too: those AIRPORTs, THE CASSANDRA CROSSING, EARTHQUAKE etc. too easy to make fun of those! 

Lets' savour a few comments on the usually-respected THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (the 1968 one, natch): "Its not the money" business tycoon Steve McQueen drawls soulfully "Its me and the System" - that 60s phrase explains why the ineffably cool McQueen - who plays polo, drives a Rolls, pilots his own glider plane and dune buggy, and lives in a killer Boston mansion - masterminds multi-million dollar bank robberies on the side.... Everything's so terribly, laughably with-it in Norman Jewison's chi-chi epic - that you could bliss out with glee from all the faux hip dialogue, multiple-screen images ... Dunaway, all teeth and legs, and blissfully unaware of how disasterously dated she is going to look in those Theodora Van Runkle costumes, sets a trap to catch a thief, McQueen, whom she just knows is the mastermind".

Lots more here too on bad girls we love like Gina Lollobrigida in GO NAKED IN THE WORLD, Taylor and Burton get roasted for THE SANDPIPER and THE VIPs and Liz' THE DRIVER'S SEAT and X, Y AND ZEE (one I have been meaning to return to...). Carroll Baker gets her due (SYLVIA, THE CARPETBAGGERS, HARLOW) as does Natalie Wood (MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR), Ann-Margret ("THE SWINGER might just be the all-time tackeiest major studio  movie") and so many more .... its well worth seeking out for Trash devotees.   

Above: Bette, Susan and director Edward Dmytryk who after his early successes (THE YOUNG LIONS, RAINTREE COUNTY) hit the Trash trail with a vengance: WHERE LOVE HAS GONE, THE CARPETBAGGERS, BLUEBEARD ...

Summer views: A Streetcar Named Desire, 1984

I have just watched the 1984 versison of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE with Ann-Margret and Treat Williams, which I imagined would be Tennessee-lite, but was very involving and emotional, with great art-direction and that late 1940s look. Is it a quality production of the play, is Ann a creditable Blanche?

I have liked Ann in several items lately (like THE TWO MRS GRENVILLES and her 1966 THE PLEASURE SEEKERS, as per label here) and she seems to be ticking all the boxes here, even if too shrill at the start but by the second half she is terrific. No one could ever be as good as Vivien Leigh but Ann has a creditable stab, with all those lines we know: about the Tarntula Arms, and "I don't want realism, I want magic", "deliberate cruelty is unforgiveable" and of course "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" for that great climax. Beverely D'Angelo is good too as Stella.

Stanley though is Treat Williams who seems to have bulked up and looks sexy enough. He plays him as an infantile brute. Treat was fun in THE RITZ and in HAIR and great in PRINCE OF THE CITY (and still looks good now), (Treat label), but Brando he ain't. 

Looking at it again it seems a very cruel work, as Blanche is stripped of everything and Kowalski gets away with raping her, as she is carried off to the looneybin.

It is also well directed by John Erman (who has done a lot of 'gay interest' items: AN EARLY FROST, Anne again in OUR SONS and THE TWO MRS GRENVILLES, Lee Remick's THE LETTER, THIS YEAR'S BLONDE, THE LAST BEST YEAR, Midler's STELLA etc), with Travilla dressing Ann, Sydney Guilaroff doing her hair, and Marvin Hamlish doing that rather good score.

I'd love to have seen Faye Dunaway and Jon Voight, or Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. Any other famous Blanches? The only one I saw on the stage was Claire Bloom's in London in 1974. (Claire Bloom label). Gillian Anderson is just about to open in a new production here in London. One has to feel a bit sorry for Jessica Tandy - the original Blanche with Brando in Kazan's first 1947 production, but the part became so associated with Vivien Leigh after the movie and her playing it in London.

Ann is certainly the most voluptuous Blanche - she knows her effect on men, maybe that is all she has left, as she is - as she says - all played out. The reason she makes the journey to New Orleans is because she has burned all her bridges after losing the family home and her reputation with her erratic behavior and poor judgment.  "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at -- Elysian Fields!" Desire and Cemeteries were actual streetcar lines in New Orleans and Elysian Fields is a street in the French Quarter (where Stella and Stanley live), but Williams used them as a metaphor. 

She strives to start anew but she can't escape her past nor her illness. Still, she refuses to see herself as she is but instead creates the illusion of what ought to be, and like an actress playing a role, shes very theatrical and selects her wardrobe with tremendous care. But it's a front. People with mental illness who try to pass themselves off as "normal" eventually begin to crack under the pressure. That's what happens to Blanche. She starts out seemingly normal, but eventually the facade wears off. She is now at a dead end (Elysian Fields). Elysian Fields in mythology is the land of the dead, ruled by Hades.
Ann still looks marvellous now in her 70s, in new series of RAY DONOVAN (right).

Next: more hot summer night movies: SUMMERTIME, 1995, and THE GREENGAGE SUMMER, 1961, and my favourite scene from A LETTER TO THREE WIVES ....

Lush life

THE TWO MRS GRENVILLES. If only all tele-movies were as lush and as plush as this 1987 offering, from Dominic Dunne’s story, directed by John Erman.

Family image matters more than anything to the Grenvilles, even when the son is shot dead by his former chorus girl wife, whom his mother despises. 

A Classy Trash Classic then, up there with the best of Susan and Lana ...

Ann-Margret is sensational as usual as Ann, the showgirl who foolishly did not divorce her first husband, as she falls for navy officer Stephen Collins, working that 1980s look perfectly; he though is one of the wealthy Grenville family and Ann wants some of that luxury. She initially loves her husband and confronts his mother, Claudette Colbert, who of course is horrified by their match, but image is everything to the Grenvilles. This will be tested to the full as the marriage falls apart, he discovers they are not even legally married, as a prowler prowls the estate and he gives her a rifle to protect herself that stormy night. He of course get shot and there is a sensational court case. Will Ann get off, will his mother pull enough strings to ensure the family name is not ruined. How will Ann live afterwards as she is forced to give up her son, and travel the world, rich and bored and drinking a lot, picking up eager bar stewards? (hey, I dare say some people could get used to that...).

The two women confront each other in several juicy scenes, with Ann giving as good as she gets. Colbert is mesmerising in this her final screen performance as the fearsome matriarch. Add in Elizabeth Ashley, Sam Wanamaker (who tries to destroy Ann in court), marvellous Margaret Courtenay who reads the cards and sees what is in store, and, maybe best of all, Sian Phillips as a simply perfect Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. Now if they had  made a telemovie about her with Sian …. 

Ann of course looks sensational in the period clothes and furs and delivers another nuanced performance, matching veteran Colbert all the way. I have just had to order her 1984 A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE where apparantly she is a very good Blanche, with Treat Williams as Stanley - this could be a treat indeed, I will be filing a report in due course. See Ann-Margret label for reviews of KITTEN WITH A WHIP, THE SWINGER, BYE BYE BIRDIE, ONCE A THIEF and THE PLEASURE SEEKERS which we loved recently. We will have to catch her great roles in CARNAL KNOWLEDGE and, TOMMY again, and she was fun too in JOSEPH ANDREWS and RETURN OF THE SOLDIER, and was great as the prejudiced mother in OUR SONS opposite Julie Andrews. Ann was always sensational. Oh, I have her 1966 MADE IN PARIS to watch too - more camp glamour then. 

'60s trash classic: The Pleasure Seekers

No, not THE PLEASURE GIRLS - thats a 1965 British  drama of (3 or is it 4?) dippy girls sharing an apartment in Kensington, London and dipping their toes into the Swinging City, along with the gay guy downstairs - see 1965 label for more on that! This is THE PLEASURE SEEKERS: Three American lovelies room together in Madrid and all manage to get themselves into seemingly unhappy relationships with fellows, and is basically a re-boot of THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN by the same same director - Jean Negulesco - of his 1954 classic set in Rome. Now its Madrid and slightly more risque (well, as you could be for 1964 - though it was 1965 when it played in London, the last time I saw it, when 19, so its a pleasant memory - its now another great Spanish dvd with a good Scope transfer and bright, vivid colours that jump out at you).

TAKE THREE GIRLS - that was the later BBC series circa late 60s, early 70s about another 3 girls  - and show their amorous adventures in a glamorous city. It was the 20th Century Fox formula from as far back as LADIES IN LOVE in 1936 (Loretta Young label), and popular in the fifties with those girls in Rome, those women in WOMAN'S WORLD, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, and of course HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE - all by Negulesco. Universal gave us FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN in 1957, another delirious treat now. Then there was Mark Robson's over-the-top VALLEY OF THE DOLLS! (Trash label). MGM tried the formula too with their 3 air hostesses in COME FLY WITH ME in 1963 (which had the odd sight of Sister Dolores Hart teaming up with PEEPING TOM Carl Boehm!). One of those girls was delightful Pamela Tiffin - whom we enjoyed ever since Billy Wilder's ONE TWO THREE, and here she is again in Madrid, along with sensible Carol Lynley and stupendous Ann-Margret. Its a travelogue of Madrid too then as we whiz around art galleries and check out some art, like those Velasquez and El Greco items at the Prado. Other pleasures are those outfits: Carol's pink suit with the red pvc handbag, or Ann in that yellow skirt, shoes and bag combo ...

Negulesco throws in an old timer or two as well - Gene Tierney, that 40s beauty (LAURA, LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN etc) and reliable Brian Keith. The three American honeys prowl for lovers in Madrid, getting entangled with Tony Franciosa (a bit too mature for this nonsense after his 50s roles) and hunky Gardner McKay,   Like THE BEST OF EVERYTHING the girls have to learn some lessons, but what with all the glamour and hunkiness on show here this is certainly a gay interest title as well as a Trash Classic, up there with those Lana and Susan epics. Ditzy Pamela Tiffin has a cult following too, as does Carol Lynley (once the poor man's Sandra Dee). The early '60s vibe is deliciously caught too, with all that bossa nova, tinkly lounge music, all-girl apartments, as Ann-Margret in her prime stirs up a storm, singing and flamenco dancing, particularly in that slinky pink dress with that mane of hair - up there with her THE SWINGER and KITTEN WITH A WHIP! More on Ann at label ... and those Negulesco classics too at Negulesco label!  Its a shock to realise this Guilty Pleasure is 50 years old!

Be sure to click on to '3/4 girls' label to bring up kitsch classics like FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN, THE PLEASURE GIRLS, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, WOMAN'S WORLD, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING etc.

The Stripper

A discussion with the very knowledgeable Daryl (who is also a good friend) over at IMDB on the plays of William Inge led me to watching 1963's THE STRIPPER again. This had a chequered history: it was originally titled A LOSS OF ROSES and is the play that gave Warren Beatty his start on Broadway. 20th Century Fox were going to film it as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe, who would surely have been ideal as its bruised heroine, rather like her Roslyn Taber in THE MISFITS, in another moody black and white drama, though MM would have been perhaps too pretty for this down on her luck showgirl, who could also be seen as Cherie from BUS STOP ten years later?

Lila Green is an insecure and aging showgirl for Madame Olga's stage shows. When her boyfriend, Rick, runs off with the shows money, Madame Olga and Ronny let Lila go. Lila goes to stay with her old neighbours, Helen Bard and her teenage son, Kenny. Lila decides to go out and get a regular job and try and live a normal life. All seem well until, Lila and Kenny stop fighting their attraction for one another.

Joanne Woodward (who was it who titled her "the duchess of downbeat"?) inherited the project after Monroe's death, it was the last Jerry Wald production before he died, and it went through several title changes: A WOMAN OF SUMMER, and - as per the "Films & Filming" cover - A WOMAN IN JULY. They must have groaned when it was changed to THE STRIPPER - as if it were some Mamie Van Doren title ....

William Inge of course was one of America's leading dramatists, along with Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. Williams and Carson McCullers (I reviewed her REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE recently, see below, Brando label) created that Deep South American Gothic world, whereas Inge was the playwright of the Midwest - his dramas set mainly in Kansas or Oklahoma included COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA (one to re-see), PICNIC, BUS STOP and THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, another must re-see soon. He scripted ALL FALL DOWN, a favourite of mine from 1962, and SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS - both with Beatty - and BUS RILEY IS BACK IN TOWN (review at Ann-Margret label) in 1965. He committed suicide in 1973. 

THE STRIPPER is an involving drama, with all the usual Inge ingredients: small town tedium, wistful dreamers, misunderstood young men, over-protective mothers, the local vamp, the good girl ... Woodward as ever captures the innocent essence of Lila and Richard Beymer, while no Beatty, is adequate (He was the young boy in De Sica's 1954 INDESCRETION, see Montgomery Clift label, and had starred in WEST SIDE STORY and HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN among others). Claire Trevor is again terrific as his mother - not the gorgon one would have imagined, and Carol Lynley is rather wasted. Interesting to see Gypsy Rose Lee (of GYPSY) - right, with Beymer - as Madame Olga, one of her few movie roles (she is also in SCREAMING MIMI, (Anita Ekberg label) that terrific '50s noir.  The neonlike black and white photography is terrific, theres a Jerry Goldsmith score, Franklin Schaffner directs from Meade Roberts script. It builts to the climax when the disillusioned Lila strips for the baying crowd while those balloons pop, while she sings (badly) "Somethings Gotta Give" (ironically the title of Monroe's uncompleted 1962 film), while Lila finally realises what she needs is to stop being emotionally immature. Robert Webber is good too as the sleazeball boyfriend.

Woodward was one of Fox's main contract players (starting out in the mid-'50s like contemporaries Lee Remick, Shirley McLaine and the grown-up Natalie Wood), in films like NO DOWN PAYMENT,. THE SOUND AND THE FURY (see Woodward label), and her Oscar-winning role in THE THREE FACES OF EVE which I have not seen as it was unobtainable here for a long time. We will be seeing it before too long though ... she and husband Paul Newman did several films together, I particuarly liked THE LONG HOT SUMMER, RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS, PARIS BLUES and he directed her in several interesting films like RACHEL, RACHEL in 1968. She was touching too as Tom Hanks' mother in PHILADELPHIA. I really must also have another look at Tennessee's THE FUGITIVE KIND from 1960 with her, Brando and Magnani - a powerhouse trio or what!

Newman scored with HUD in '63, Joanne's THE STRIPPER is equally good. 

Some more information from Daryl:

"THE STRIPPER actually started shooting on the Fox lot while MM was shooting SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE. Joanne Woodward and Franklin Schaffner had decided on the platinum hair, and one day, she was walking across the lot when Woodward ran into Monroe. Woodward said she was embarrassed because she didn't want Marilyn to think that she was making fun of her. Marilyn did look at the hair, and asked Woodward what she was working on. Woodward said, oh, it's the William Inge piece. Marilyn then said, oh, i was supposed to do it, but i thought the part was too much like Cherie. Monroe then said, i'm sure you'll do a terrific job. And Woodward said she was relieved, because she didn't want Marilyn to think she was making fun of her."

More on the London 1976 production of BUS STOP, right, which I saw, at Lee Remick label - she was Cherie with Keir Dullea as the annoying cowboy, perfect casting then.

More early '60s dramas soon: TOYS IN THE ATTIC, A COLD WIND IN AUGUST, ALL FALL DOWN and THE CHAPMAN REPORT again with SUMMER AND SMOKE, A RAGE TO LIVE and others.

Separate tables for return of the soldier

SEPARATE TABLES. The only version available of the 1983 tv production of Rattigan's SEPARATE TABLES was a video-cassette edition on Amazon, so I had to have it - this meant finally connecting up my old vhs-dvd recorder (not used since 2006) to the new flat wide HD tv & Blu-ray combo, but it works, so I can now play cassette tapes again. Like many others I ditched most of them when I went over to dvd (charity shops don't want them now...) but kept some rarities I shall be gettting back to (like Lee Remick hosting a Marilyn Monroe tribute, Bette Davis's AFI Lifetime Achievement award, Joni Mitchell's video collection "Come In From The Cold", a Pet Shop Boys concert, and others), but here finally is that SEPARATE TABLES, which was only shown once here.

Its a terrific cast and looks great in colour and seems to be the full version of the Rattigan play, set at that quaint retirement hotel in Bournemouth, with those lonely souls at their separate tables, including the horse-racing mad spinster, and the retired headteacher (obviously secretly gay) whose star pupil keeps not turning up). The well-loved 1958 film by Delbert Mann of course dovetailed the two separate acts into one narrative with 4 main leads (Niven and Kerr as the bogus major and repressed spinster; its producer Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth as the journalist and his ex-wife who turns up).
The actual play is two separate acts with one pair of leads playing all four main parts in the two stories, with the other characters turning up as usual. Here we have Alan Bates and Julie Christie - in their fourth outing together - and how ideal they are. Julie aims for that Margaret Leighton brittleness as Mrs Shankland (Leighton originated the part), and its hard to make her look dowdy as downtrodden Sybil, with that fearsome mother Mrs Railton Bell. Irene Worth here plays her as a suburban monster of a bully, in her tweeds and twinsets, a different take on Gladys Cooper's glittering malice in the '58 film. But the climax is just as satisfying as Sybil finally defies her mother ....

Interestingly, there is a lot more of Miss Cooper, the hotel manager, as satisfyingly played by Claire Bloom - Wendy Hiller's role was much smaller in the film (though it won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar). Claire excels here, but we expect nothing less from her. Liz Smith is ideal too as Miss Meacham, and Brian Deacon (from THE TRIPLE ECHO) is the young husband, there is more of him too defying Mrs Railton Bell, which I do not remember from the film (as played by Rod Taylor).  Schlesinger is the ideal director for this, and Rattigan's play is a nice plea for tolerance for those who are "different" - it is now understood that his original text had the major pestering men in the cinema, not women - which would seem more logial, but of course that was a no-no back in the '50s. I saw Rattigan doing an interesting Q&A lecture at the BFI, back in the early '70s, a very dapper man - and I passed his house on the seafront at Brighton in Sussex, only last week, when on a return visit there .... it has a blue plaque on it commemorating his living there.So pleased to get a definitive record of this great play, which does not get revived too much these days.

 

 The 1958 film ...

RETURN OF THE SOLDIER. Bates and Christie's third outing, this 1982 drama  is a surprisingly enjoyable very satisfying film too from that great era of the 70s and 80s when costume dramas with great casts were a regular on film and tv - maybe thats why this one passed me by at the time (perhaps I said "oh another Alan Bates, Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson film...") at the time of THE FORSYTH SAGA, WOMEN IN LOVE, THE VIRGIN & THE GYPSY, THE GO-BETWEEN, tv's COUNTRY MATTERS series etc - this is from a novel by Rebecca West and scripted by Hugh Whitemore, ideally directed by Alan Bridges (who also did the similar period THE HIRELING - see review below, Sarah Miles, Costume Dramas labels) and the very highly regarded THE SHOOTING PARTY, with Mason and Gielgud, which I will be returning to. 

Bates is the shell-shocked army man who loses about 20 years of his memory and has no recollection of being married to Christie, a petulant spoiled beauty here and lady of the manor. Glenda Jackson turns up with news of the injured Major and she turns out to be his great love from his past and he wants to get back with her. She though is lower class and now married to Frank Finlay and I loved their ideal little house. Ann-Margret is surprisingly effective and fits in nicely as the cousin who also resides at the big house, and the cast includes Jeremy Kemp and Ian Holm. 

The First World War milieu is perfectly realised. I liked it a lot, Christie shines in a different role for her as the demanding, haughty bitch; Glenda is perfect as usual as the simple housewife and underplays nicely here. Like Ken Russell's THE RAINBOW or Miles' THE PRIEST OF LOVE (reviews at costume drama label), it is a nice discovery now, and keeps one guessing until the end. The great house looks familiar too, perhaps I visited it once, or was that Polesden Lacey another similar grand National Trust property.

'50s classics? Bus Stop or The Vikings ...

Afternoon tv had the little-seen now BUS STOP followed by THE VIKINGS - two '50s classics - one is practically unwatchable now, the other is a tv staple here and remains a film I can immerse myself in anytime and like watching it now as it certainly ticks all the boxes I require from a costume movie/epic: great cast, story, direction, music ....  (I still have that BUS STOP magazine, left, and some stills from the film).

THE VIKINGS has it in spades. It has been a favourite ever since I saw Tony and Janet doing their love scene, a photo of which was in a childhood film annual I had to have. Toss in Kirk and Borgnine doing what they do best and a great supporting cast: Alexander Knox as Father Godwin, James Donald, Maxine Audley as the queen who is Eric's mother, Eileen Way as Kitalla the witch (below) who saves Eric/Tony from the crabs and the rockpool ..... that last seige of the castle is stirring stuff too, and we like seeing Frank Thring again as Ayella get his comeuppance as he too falls into the wolfpit ...
the Norwegian locations are terrific as lensed by ace Jack Cardiff, compelmented by Mario Niscembene's stirring score and Orson Welles' narration at the start on the scourge of the Vikings. That final battle between the viking brothers Curtis and Douglas on the castle ramparts with the sea crashing below them remains brilliant stuff too, as Janet's Welsh princess Morgana tells Einar (Douglas) that Eric is his brother .... and Ragnar jumping into the wolfpit with his sword in his hand. Richard Fleishcher orchestrates it all perfectly.

Then at the end Eric and Morgana are reunited as Eric says "prepare a funeral for a viking" as the boat sets sail and is set on fire ..... also amusing is English comedy actress "silly moo" Dandy Nichols as Bridget, Morgana's handmaiden. Janet though seems to be wearing one of those pointy '50s bras under her Welsh outfits. I love that moment too when Tony rips her bodice showing that shapely back, so she can row the boat as they escape ..... ok, its a movie I love. It remains a gold-plated Hollywood classic of the '50s.

Much more problematic is Joshua Logan's BUS STOP.  Back in that pre-video age BUS STOP was a golden grail for Monroe obsessives (I was one too then) as it simply was not available or being screened anywhere for a long time. Finally it came out on video ..... even now I could not watch it except on fast-forward. It is just painfully dated and I cannot stand the obnoxious dim cowboy, perfectly played by Don Murray, nor the cloying folkiness of Arthur O'Connell's character, Virgil, his mentor.

This of course is pure William Inge but (like that schoolteacher played by Rosalind Russell in the film of Inge's PICNIC, also heavy-handedly helmed by Joshua Logan) it just jars and annoys now. 

The novelty with BUS STOP was Marilyn "acting" here as Cherie after her stint in New York and at the Actors' Studio. The sequence where she badly sings "That old black magic" while changing her spotlight to red as Murray whoops in delight is still an iconic Monroe moment, but a lot of it is painful to endure now. Eileen Heckart and Betty Field and Hope Lange are fine in their roles, but the play itself is the problem, which is probably why it is seldom revived now. The only other production I have seen is the one Lee Remick and Keir Dullea did in London in 1976 - 37 years ago! - above (Remick label). 

More Inge: I now have THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS to re-see and review before too long, and Joanne Woodward in THE STRIPPER, that 1963 film of his play "A Loss of Roses", it was also known as "Woman of Summer" for a while, Joanne Woodward is hardly the type to play a stripper (right) and Richard Beymer is no Warren Beatty (who originated the part on stage), but we will see .... I quite liked Inge's script though for BUS RILEY IS BACK IN TOWN in 1965, a compendium of Inge cliches (Ann- Margret label).

The '80s - 1: Those mini-series

Its rather jolly to settle down on a wet afternoon with an '80s mini-series, full of glitz and artificial glamour, those hairstyles and costumes, ageing stars camping it up, clunky wooden dialogue, "exotic" locations and a cliff-hanger every 10 minutes in time for the commercial break. Some of these series were very successful in their time and in endless repeats: THE THORN BIRDS, RICH MAN POOR MAN etc. as well as those DYNASTY and DALLAS serials. We would not have looked at them much at the time, being sniffy about such popular entertainment (ok I confess to enjoying my weekly dose of DYNASTY!) - but they are fun now. Here's some of the more exotically lurid Trash-with-a-Capital-T ones:

HAREM - a 1986 farrago as follows:  Jessica, a young British girl, goes off to Arabia with her father to be with her fiancé when he's called there suddenly on diplomatic duty. On a tourist journey she's kidnapped by what appears to be a Beduion tribe and sold into the harem of the Sultan. The man that took her captive is not actually a Beduion but an Oxford educated revolutionary who traded Jessica for the release of his friends from the Sultan's prison. As her fiancé struggles to free her from the harem he inadvertently hires the very man who put her there to get her out. Meanwhile, Jessica is fending of the Sultan's advances and coming to know a new way of life. Romance, political intrigue, and the jealousies of the harem all threaten Jessica's narrow view of the world. If she escapes will she actually be able to return to life in Victorian England?

This is all deliriously entertaining. Nancy Travis, our Victorian heroine Jessica, is  a Barbie Doll to the life, with that sculptured poodle 80s hairstyle and nothing seems to phase or change her, whether fending off kidnappers, getting used to life in the harem, or joining the revolutionaries! Laugh out loud as she is put into a sack and tossed from the castle into the sea ... as she swims free.The fun here is the rather good cast: Sarah Miles is a treat as Lady Ashley, being wickedly camp and maybe sending the whole thing up, and Ava Gardner in one of her last roles is the Sultan's discarded first wife who will brook no replacement - Cheri Lunghi is another harem girl who takes a shine to our heroine and ends up drinking a fatal cup of coffee Ava had prepared for Jessica (Cheri later starred in coffee commericals here!).
Omar Sharif goes through the motions as the Sultan (Ava was his mother in MAYERLING!), Julian Sands is the stuffy fiance and the young Art Malik is the rebel who initially kidnaps Jessica but then saves her .... the ending is sheer kitsch as he rides out of the desert to carry her off - I imagine its pure Vilma Banky or Agnes Ayres being taken off by Valentino in those 20's silents. It is supposed to be set in the Ottoman Empire, but the locations are all over the place from desert scenes to moorish and moroccan interiors. A feast of fun then as directed by William Hale. Its quite an expensive production with large cast of soldiers, revolutionaries, harem girls, whirling dervishes, the stuffy British expats etc.

QUEENIE, a 1987 series is even more delirious:  A half-caste beauty emigrates from India to Great Britain, pursues fame and fortune at the cost of personal happiness, and becomes a Hollywood movie star while suppressing the truth of her heritage. This is based on the true story of Merle Oberon, that rather forgotten '30s star - Anne Boleyn in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII, THESE THREE, the unfinished I CLAUDIUS, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, etc. Merle always claimed she was from Tasmania, but it seems she was Eurasian. It is one of the great success stories - she married mogul Alexander Korda who starred her in his films, and later became a great society hostess. The tele-movie by Larry Peerce trowels it on - Sarah Miles again is Lady Sybil here, Kirk Douglas is David Konig the Korda surrogate, Mia Sara is Queenie our Merle to be (called Dawn Avalon here) and best of all Claire Bloom is her Indian mother, whom Queenie passes off as her maid!  

Merle Oberon

I suppose in that pre-internet age it was not too difficult to cover up one's past .... the cast also includes Joss Ackland, Martin Balsam, Joel Gray, with a score by George Delarue. In all a treat for those who love a weepie melodramatic love story, with a box of chocolates by their side. Based on Michael Korda's book about his aunt it has lavish sets and costumes and is hilariously amusing. Sarah Miles and Joss Ackland also did the equally stupendous WHITE MISCHIEF in Africa that year (Trash label).

MALIBU - here is a lulu from 1983, I have only just got the disk, but will file a report in a day or two. Its got everyone: Kim Novak, Chad Everett, Troy Donahue, James Coburn, George Hamilton as William Atherton and Susan Dey move to the Malibu colony from the mid-west. Should be a lot of fun!

THE TWO MRS GRENVILLES, another 1987 lurid melodrama: Ann, a former chorus girl marries above herself into a rich society family, but her mother-in-law regards her with great suspicion and disdain from the start. When Ann shoots her husband dead, claiming she thought he was a prowler, the older Mrs. Grenville decides to back the woman she despises, to protect the family image.  
This is another delicious treat now with Ann-Margret sensational as usual, and sterling support from Claudette Colbert as the family matriarch who despises Ann, but does what she has to, to maintain the family image. Ann suffers in diamonds and furs as she tries to clear her name and sinks into a sea of booze, losing her son on the way, But did she intend to kill her wealthy husband (Stephen Collins) when he intends to divorce her?   The  1930s period detail is a lot of fun, as is the wonderful Sian Phillips doing a turn as the Duchess of Windsor!  It is a very opulent series, directed by John Erman, and it certainly ramps up the melodrama, from a novel by Dominic Dunne. Anne-Margret of course is terrific as the chorus girl who marries above her station, while Claudette coming out of retirement, delivers one last great role.

LORD MOUNTBATTEN: THE LAST VICEROY is another one, from 1986, again opulently set in India during the last days of the British Raj, with intriguing casting of Ian Richardson as Nehru, Nicol Williamson as Mountbatten and Janet Suzman as his wife Edwina - great actors all and they certainly deliver. Of course there is a lot more to the Mountbatten story than his role in the partition of India, but this is intriguing enough for now and its interesting seeing quality actors dressing up pretending to be historical figures in this kind of tosh and presumably earning big pay-cheques.