Stills of the day

Irene Dunne and Cary in THE AWFUL TRUTH, 1937 - I just love them, they also did MY FAVOURTE WIFE and PENNY SERENADE, as per Cary & Irene labels. 

Thanks to Colin for this shot of Antonioni and Vitti during THE RED DESERT in 1964. We love Monica as a blonde but she looks great here too ..... Richard Harris at his most monotonous disliked working with them and walked off the picture. No loss. Lots more at Antonioni, Vitti labels ....

We always like another look at THE BIRDS here, I like this particular scene, where socialite Melanie Daniels meets Mitch's mother for the first time in the cafe, after that gull swoops down to peck her ... See Hitch, Rod & Tippi labels for lots more.

The previous year, 1962, Jessica Tandy had played another controlling mother in HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN, driving son Richard Beymer away and her husband, Arthur Kennedy, to suicide - to get away from her. We will be re-viewing that again soon. 

Summer re-views, briefly

WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED. Gilliam Armstrong's 2014 documentary on Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly, which we have mentioned here a few times before (Costumes label). The documentary, based on Orry's lush memoir which I enjoyed a lot, has taken its time appearing here, in fact in has not yet, but I got the Australian (Region 4) dvd, which plays perfectly on multichannel players. 

Its a fanciful conceit, with an actor playing Orry, who seems to be rowing a boat a lot of the time, but then we get all the clips: Orry's costumes for CASABLANCA, GYPSY and his three Oscar-winners: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, LES GIRLS (where Kay, Mitzi and Taina look divine in his creations), and of course Marilyn's still daring costumes for SOME LIKE IT HOT. Orry continued up to 1964, so we get Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury talking about his costumes for their 1963 IN THE COOL OF THE DAY - one I have never seen and can't get now, so thanks for the clips. 

Bette Davis also reigns supreme here, with those costumes Orry did for JEZEBEL, MR SKEFFINGTON, NOW VOYAGER, THE LETTER etc. 

Other talking heads include the notorious Scotty Bowers, and it rehashes all the Cary Grant and Randy Scott gossip and pictures. In fact, Orry gets sidelined for a while while the documentary focuses on Cary, who "roomed" with Orry when they were both young and starting out. But then legendary tightwad Cary always needed someone to pay the rent, hence all those years sharing houses with Randolph .... between their many marriages.

JANE EYRE - the Franco Zeffirelli 1996 version. There have been a lot of Janes around, the 1944 one with Orson and Joan Fontaine is still the one to beat for me, with delicious roles for Agnes Moorehead and Henry Daniell - but this Zeffirelli one is a nicely paced (if rather hurried at the end) version, with Charlotte Gainsbourg a suitably very plain Jane indeed (unlike Janes Joan Fontaine or Susannah York)  but William Hurt (so ideal in films like BODY HEAT or KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN) all wrong here and hardly making any impression, 

It is all grimly Victorian and Franco as usual ramps up the supporting players: a very severe Geraldine Chaplin and Amanda Root (PERSUASION) at the Lowood Orphanage; Fiona Shaw as Aunt Reed, Billie Whitelaw as Grace Poole, Joan Plowright as Mrs Fairfax, Samuel West, and two sadder appearances: Richard Warwick (whom I knew slightly) silent here in his last role as the manservant, the year before he died (he also pops up in Zeffirelli's ROMEO AND JULIET and HAMLET); and poor Maria Schneider as the madwoman in the attic ..... a worthwhile but low-key JANE then.  

JOE MACBETH, 1955. This re-view goes way back to the Fifties, as I first saw this when I was a kid in Ireland, but it made a vivid impression - though I would not have the got Shakespeare part then. It is a modern gangster version of MACBETH, by Ken Hughes, almost impossible to see now, (so thanks Jerry.) Paul Douglas is impressive as usual, and one of our Projector favourites, Ruth Roman, is as ever terrific as Lady M. Its a British production, so supporting cast includes Bonar Colleano, Gregoire Aslan and Sid James. I was pleased to see it again, and to get it on a flash drive. Its more entertaining than that dreadful recent Michael Fassbender version which nearly drove me screaming from the practically empty multiplex ...

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS. For real horror you can hardly beat Leonard Kastle's 1969 chiller, which I first saw as a supporting feature back then. My pal Stan and I were both gobsmacked by it, I can't even remember what the main feature was. 
I had not seen it since then but it lingered in the memory. so its good to see it again now on dvd.  Seems this could have been Scorsese's first feature,but he was replaced. It is a bleak tale of a murderous rampage by two seedy killers: the obese nurse and her scuzzy boyfriend (Tony Lo Bianco) as they plot to fleece lonely widows whom he romances and lets them think he is going to marry them, while she, posing as his sister, tags along in the background. Once seen, it is not easily forgotten. The film is made by the marvellous Shirley Stoler (1929-1999) as the malevolent Martha - she also pops up in KLUTE and is terrifying again as that Nazi concentration camp commandant in SEVEN BEAUTIES in 1975 .... (whom prisoner Giancarlo Giannini has to romance in order to survive - we raved about it, at Italian label). Her 40+ credits also include THE DEER HUNTER.  
It is not violent by today's torture porn standards, but once seen it is not easily forgotten as we enter than downbeat world of cheap motels and diners. It is Kastle's only credit. 

Something for the weekend: Marlene & Von Sternberg

Just a couple of stills to remind ourselves how marvellous those Von Sternberg films like BLOND VENUS, THE SCARLET EMPRESS, MOROCCO etc were and they still look mysterious, glamorous and amazing now - thanks to Marlene (particularly emerging from that gorilla skin, does 1930s cinema get better?). John Lodge looks the business too ... then there is the delirious THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN .... must see that again soon, and then back to Garbo and all her classics.

Still Notorious after all these years ...

NOTORIOUS, Alfred Hitchcock's 1946 classic, does not look or feel like it is 70 years old.

This is surely the high-point of Hitch's 1940s output. Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman are both are their zenith, and Claude Rains is again superalative too, and lets not forget Madam Konstantin as his creepy mother, and Louis Calhern splendid as usual. 

This is a twisted romance with a vengance as Ingrid's Alicia Hubermann joins spies in Rio to spy on those Nazis - what is in those bottles in the wine cellear. Alicia is set up to meet a former friend of her father's who was smitten with her and still is now. They meet, with the connivance of agent Cary Grant who loves Alicia but does not trust or love her enough to keep her from marrying Rains, to enable her to spy on him and his colleagues ..... the moment Rains discovers the truth and goes to his mother to help him is marvellous cinema as is the moment when Alicia realises she is being poisoned by them. Cary thinks she is drunk when she is unwell at their last meeting - before, finally, he goes to the house to rescue her, leaving Claude and his mother at the mercy of those Germans ..... Its a simple plot but marvellously executed, script by Ben Hecht, like that great zoom shot of the camera on a boom descending to the close-up of the key in Alicia's fist. I like that balcony scene too and the great long kissing sequence between the lovers, and their early meeting when Grant first meets Alicia who is drinking heavily, before she redeems herself for her father's crimes, by flying down to Rio with those American agents ..... We almost sympathise with the villain who it seems loves Alicia more than Grant does. 

Its a certified Hitchcock classic and the best of his 3 with Bergman in the 1940s. SPELLBOUND has its moments but is not quite as good, and I am one of the few who quite like a lot of UNDER CAPRICORN in 1949, not least for Jack Cardiff's photography, and I now like the 1950 STAGE FRIGHT a lot, even if minor Hitchcock - great cast of British players and Marlene plus that fake flashback ... before his great run of 1950s movies. 

Orry-Kelly - he's back ...

A hefty 420 page tome landed on my coffee table yesterday - Orry-Kelly's memoirs from 50 years ago - in a glamorous book crammed with photos and Orry's true story of his youth in Australia and move to New York in 1932 when he took up with another aspiring young man: Archie Leach from Bristol. They moved in together as they pursued their respective careers. The penny-pinching Archie of course became Cary Grant (who later moved in with Randolph Scott to save rent money ...) - we get Orry's take on all that, as he of course became one of the leading dress designers in Hollywood: the book's full title is: WOMEN I'VE DRESSED - THE FABULOUS LIFE AND TIMES OF A LEGENDARY HOLLYWOOD DESIGNER.

Reading the rave review in the weekend papers I felt this had to be a con, a fake concocted by some hack - but its the real thing. Orry's 50 year old memoir was found in a pillowcase by his great-niece in her laundry room, and its been given the full gloss treatment by reputable publishers Allen & Unwin, and is well worth the price for the photos alone.  

Orry (1897-1964) was a costume designer per excellence (he was chief costume designer at Warner Bros from 1932 to 1944) and won an Oscar three times (AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, LES GIRLS, SOME LIKE IT HOT); he dressed Hollywood's leading ladies including Bette Davis in all her great movies (JEZEBEL, DARK VICTORY, NOW VOYAGER etc), Ingrid Bergman in CASABLANCA, he was great friends with Fanny Brice, Kay Francis and Roz Russell, he liked Olivia  but clashed with her sister Joan, loved working with Kay Kendall and has some delicious stories on making LES GIRLS, a particular favourite of ours here - see label - and also clashed with Marilyn Monroe when designing those incredible dresse for her on SOME LIKE IT HOT, where he also dressed Jack and Tony in those 1920s costumes .... he also did THE CHAPMAN REPORT, SWEET  BIRD OF YOUTH, GYPSY, AUNTIE MAME and so many more.

He did several Billy Wilder films and when he died of liver cancer in 1964 pall bearers at his funeral included Cary, Tony Curtis, Wilder and Cukor. 

He had quite a wild time when young in Sydney - he was 17 when he moved there -  and we get it all in detail, before his move to the States. Its page 160 before he arrives in Hollywood .... and became one of the great designers, on a par with Adrian, Irene Sharaff, Edith Head, Travis Banton, Jean Louis ... he often worked on as many as 60 films a year. We get some Garbo stories, and he used to dine with Cukor, Cole Porter, and the Hollywood elite. He did have a problem with alcohol in his later years ... but comes across as as a happy, likeable guy - widely perceived to be gay, but he kept that under wraps here - well, it was written over 50 years ago (and Cary was still alive). So, highly recommended .... there will hardly be a more glamorous book this year.  

It is also going to be a film: WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED, directed by fellow Australian Gillian Armstrong, who writes the foreword here. That should be fascinating too. 

1930s boys

Cary and Randolph with Irene Dunne in MY FAVOURITE WIFE - 1940 actually - but Cary and Randy seemed to hang out a lot in the 1930s - as per previous posts on them. Interesting how Randolph has no visible "bulge" in that swimwear, presumably everything was strapped down ...

Grant & Stewart -v- Cooper & Gable ...

Cary Grant and James Stewart now seem the most popular and timeless of the classic male stars – maybe each having done 4 films with Hitchcock, which are always on show somewhere, helps? (NOTORIOUS, REAR WINDOW, VERTIGO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST are certainly timeless classics). Whereas Clark Gable and Gary Cooper seem not as popular now and did not leave any late classics for us to mull over –well, apart from the elegaic THE MISFITS for Gable …

Both Grant and Stewart also had runs of popular films in the second half of the Fiftes; Grant squiring the likes of Kelly, Kerr, Bergman, Loren and continuing into the Sixties with the tailormade hit CHARADE, before bowing out in 1966; whereas Stewart also had that good run of Anthony Mann westerns and popular hits like THE GLENN MILLER STORY and ANATOMY OF A MURDER, he too continued into the Sixties playing bumbling fathers in Fox comedies and still busy in westerns.

Gable and Cooper though had gone by the dawn of the Sixties – Gable dying at 59 in 1960, and Cooper aged 60 in 1961. Like Spencer Tracy they seem to have aged rapidly, perhaps after years of hard living. Their later films, while entertaining and popular enough at the time, do not get much exposure these days ... 

Wyler’s FRIENDLY PERSUASION may be Coop’s last big hit, in 1956, we like it a lot and he is perfect in it.. He followed this with LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON which - despite Audrey Hepburn -  was a lesser-seen Wilder (which did not work for me at all), then a Jerry Wald literary adaptation (from O’Hara) for Fox: TEN NORTH FREDERICK, and two tough westerns: Mann’s MAN OF THE WEST and Daves’ THE HANGING TREE, in Rossen’s turgid THEY CAME TO CORDURA in 1959 he and Rita Hayworth are both touching – two beauties ravaged by time (what a difference 20 years makes), and he finished with two Michael Anderson thrillers made in England: he is effective in THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE with Heston, but ill-at-ease as the murder suspect (as if he would kill Deborah Kerr!) in the weak THE NAKED EDGE in 1961.

Gable after some routine westerns scored with Doris Day in TEACHER’S PET, and guyed his older image in the delightful BUT NOT FOR ME with Lilli Palmer and Carroll Baker in 1959, and was then off to romance Sophia Loren (30 years younger than him) in the popular IT STARTED IN NAPLES (left) before returning to the States for the tough shoot of THE MISFITS for Huston. Did all the delays and doing those stunts with the horses bring on his early demise? He certainly looked sadly aged here.

Perhaps if they – Coop and Gable – had the longevity of Grant and Stewart we may have seen more from them and maybe some more classics – not from Hitchcock though, by the Sixties he was using younger actors: Rod Taylor, Connery, Newman. 

Perhaps the Grant and Stewart personas with their constant sense of humour (even in serious roles)  fitted in better with suit-and-tie mid-century America, and those Hitchcocks certainly helped, Gable and Coop seemed more at home at war or out west. Gable used to finish at 5.00pm every day regardless and seemed happy doing mainly routine fare, cast with the likes of Lana Turner, Jane Russell or Ava Gardner. At least his later films got him Doris Day, Sophia Loren and Marilyn Monroe, and of course he had those constant revivals of GONE WITH THE WIND to keep his brand alive. 

Its a penny serenade in 1941

George Stevens' PENNY SERENADE from 1941 is one Cary Grant-Irene Dunne film I had not seen before, I love them in THE AWFUL TRUTH in 1937 and quite liked them (with Cary's pal Randolph Scott) in MY FAVOURITE WIFE in 1940, but this 1941 I never somehow got around to and it did have a sort of mawkish reputation .... so here it is, and I am rather amazed by it.

As Julie prepares to leave her husband Roger, she begins to play through a stack of recordings, which reminds her of events in their marriage. One is the song that was playing when she and Roger first met in a music store. Other songs remind her of their courtship, their marriage, their desire for a child, and the joys and sorrows that they have shared. A flood of memories comes back as she ponders their present problems and how they arose ....

Grant is a surprise here with his family man role, quite different from the sophisticated characters he usually played, and has a great scene when the judge is going to take their child back because of his lack of income. Irene Dunne is natural and warm and often quietly funny as she is in many of those movies of hers that we like, like Margaret Sullavan she should be a lot better appreciated now - they never play a false note. George Stevens, as in GIANT and others, creates marvellous moments as we follow our leads through the ups and downs of family life and the sadness which is part of the whole damn thing, as she has a miscarriage.due to an earthquake (well-staged) when they are in Japan - and one knows something awful is going to happen to their adopted girl at that Christmas play, which teeters on the edge of mawkish sentimentality. It is a bittersweet story dealing with infant death and possible divorce, and how some couples just have to have children to be complete, and the ending seems quite far-fetched but I suppose believeable for that Forties audience. Edgar Buchanan and Beulah Bondi provide solid support. 

Something camp for the weekend 2: glamour photos

Some luridly colorful star photos: (I couldn't figure where else to put them). Bette, Susan, Gina, Anita, Kay Kendall, plus Tab, Guy, Charles Farrell, young Gary Cooper, and Cary and Randy at lunch. ... glamour in spades!

Fun with Doris & Irene + Rock, Cary, Randolph, Clint

I had not seen SEND ME NO FLOWERS since its release in 1964 when I was a teenager, but it remained a pleasant memory, particularly of daffy Doris accidentally locked out of her house in her nightie and fluffy slippers, as oblivious husband Rock Hudson showers with earplugs in .... I thought LOVER COME BACK in 1961 was the best of their comedies, particularly when Edie Adams was around (more on her soon, in LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER), but SEND ME NO FLOWERS, Rock and Doris's third and final comedy, is blissfully funny, well scripted by Julius Epstein (from a play) and directed by Doris regular Norman Jewison. Its conjures up a perfect suburban world of lawns and country clubs, sexy paper boys and gossiping milkmen, as our married couple (no kids to spoil the scenario...) have misunderstandings and fall out with all the cliches perfectly in place.

Rock is a hypochondriac forever taking pills and potions, he overhears his doctor (splendid Edward Andrews) talking about another patient who has not long to live and Rock thinks doc is talking about him .... amusement follows as he and neighbour Tony Randall (whose family are conveniently away) plan his funeral and good old Rock wants to find another suitable husband for Doris, so we get amusing scenes of the 2 men eyeing up other suitable men, and sleeping in the same bed - and then they discover Clint Walker, even more perfect than Rock. Clint has some fun here away from his usual western surroundings. Doris meanwhile thinks Rock is having an affair ...

Paul Lynde is bliss as usual as the unctious undertaker where Rock wants to buy 3 plots, for himself, Doris and her new husband ... Doris of course misunderstands and all the usual complications follow until the blissful ending. Poignant moments too as Rock has lines like she will be sorry when he is in his bed of pain at some future date ....

 I did a piece on Doris last December (Day label) as the London BFI was doing a tribute to her, but only 12 of her films (back in 1980 they showed 30 of hers!) - they only showed PILLOW TALK of her later comedies. The early to mid 60s was Doris's great period and she was a top box office attraction, with these with Hudson, the 2 with James Garner, Cary Grant etc.
(I love THE THRILL OF IT ALL but never want to see MOVE OVER DARLING, that re-heated remake of Marilyn's aborted SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE from 1962 which itself was a reheated version of Irene Dunne's 1940 MY FAVOURITE WIFE ..... with Cary and Randolph Scott. (Doris's 2 with Rod Taylor were not quite in the same league, and I shall be seeing CAPRICE with, er, Richard Harris in 1966 before too long - it is though a Frank Tashlin comedy). 

As fate would have it MY FAVOURITE WIFE is being screened again tomorrow morning, so I can catch it again then, and needn't dig out the dvd. I simply adored Dunne when I discovered her a few years ago, THE AWFUL TRUTH remains sublime, up there with the best of the 30s Screwballs, and MY FAVOURITE WIFE is more of the same. (Above, how do those swim trunks conceal any sign of male bulge?)

Irene is blissfully funny and glamorous here, its the one where the wife comes back after years missing and pronouced dead only to find her husband has just re-married. 
Garson Kanin handles the material perfectly and Cary Grant and Randolph are ideal as the husband and the man Irene was shipwrecked with for all those years .... Cary and Randy were of course still buddies, if not housemates, in 1940 and they all play perfectly together. Gail Patrick has a few moments as the latest wife... An ideal double bill then - it would have been interesting to have seen what Marilyn and Cukor would have made of it (fantasy poster, right) but the the 1962 fragments that remain are spell-binding.  Instead, Michael Gordon helmed MOVE OVER DARLING! 

Hitchcock blonde

When I was a kid in the mid-50s TO CATCH A THIEF seemed the height of glamour, no movie stars were more perfect that Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, and this Hitchcock movie was the ultimate with those South of France locations - and so it remains now. Not a major Hitchcock of course, he is rather tongue in cheek here, the film remains a fabulous entertainment, with quite a few Hitch touches he would explore further: someone dangles from a rooftop (VERTIGO), Grant again pulls someone up from a perilous drop (NORTH BY NORTHWEST), and has a rooftop struggle - oops, thats Donen's CHARADE, perhaps the best Hitch movie not made by Hitch and the perfect hommage to TO CATCH A THIEF.  Hitch provides (courtesy of scriptwriter John Michael Hayes) witty, racy dialogue and has a lot of fun with Jessie Royce Landis, splendid as Grace's mother (this is the one where she stubs out the cigarette into a fried egg, Hitch didn't like eggs ...). She seems more or less the same age as Cary but its her daughter (Grace was 26) who is his romantic lead (Audrey and Sophia were also much younger in theirs' with Cary). Landis also played Grace's mother in THE SWAN, another good role for her - and then Cary's mother in N BY NW ! - a very Hitchcock joke.
 

TO CATCH A THIEF must have dazzled audiences in 1955, with those South of France locations, Cary's perfect hilltop home where he serves that new concoction Quiche Lorraine to an appreciative John Williams, the insurance man protecting those jewels which retired burglar The Cat is determined to nab. Cary really is the retired burgler who has to stop the impersonator incriminating him in these jewel robberies. Cue lots of to-ing and fro-ing (odd to see Grace driving on those roads where she had that fatal accident in 1982...) and lots of dressing up, particuarly for that fancy dress ball at the climax. Grace wears that stunning gold ensemble for that; she is dressed by Edith Head here and has some dazzling outfits: that ice blue dress for her first encounter with Grant, and the stunning white dress for the fireworks scene. Hitch is obviously in his element here as he circles the pair, gettting closer and closer, as the fireworks explode and Kelly taunts Grant about her necklace, or maybe her other attributes as encased in that show-stopping dress. Its a stunning scene, surely reprised in the 1968 THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR for that chess-playing scene ...

This is surely Kelly's best role (even more than REAR WINDOW or HIGH SOCIETY) and Hitch showcases her perfectly.  He continued with his blondes of course, transforming Kim Novak and Eva Marie Saint and Janet, until Tippi came along ....

Stylish entertainment doesnt get much better than this, and never goes out of date. We love too Grace's final comment: "So this is where you live, mother will love it up here".

Hitchcock is certainly on a roll now, the new film HITCHCOCK has opened to middling reviews - ok it is a pedestrian work of fiction, but one has to see it - and the classics are on show all over again: THE BIRDS was on again last night, VERTIGO is on tonight, SABOTEUR and TOPAZ also scheduled, as in REAR WINDOW. We watch them over and over .... see Hitchcock label for reports on these and MARNIE and "Sight & Sound"'s last year new list with VERTIGO as the new number one ...
For the record: my Top 10 Hitchs: THE BIRDS, PSYCHO, NORTH BY NORTHWEST, VERTIGO, REAR WINDOW, NOTORIOUS, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, ROPE, THE 39 STEPS, REBECCA. and I quite like STAGE FRIGHT and UNDER CAPRICORN, the early RICH AND STRANGE, and that final FAMILY PLOT.