A brace of '60s war movies

SINK THE BISMARCK! A very satisfying English war movie from 1960 showing how the Admiralty chased and sank the German battleship “Bismarck” in the battle of the North Atlantic. Directed by Lewis Gilbert it features just about every British character actor from those war films. Kenneth More stars as the strict captain of operations, ably assisted by Dana Wynter (who died this year) who looks terrific in those navy outfits. Also on board are Michael Hordern, Laurence Naismith, Geoffrey Keen, Maurice Denham, Michael Goodliffe and John Stride as More’s son who is missing in action. On the Bismarck “good German” Carl Mohner is over-ruled by the increasingly unhinged captain Karl Stepanek. Clever use is made of stock footage and models in the studio tank but we are mainly at Admiralty headquarters and the growing relationship between More and Wynter is nicely under-stated. Based on true events it all seems very real and keeps the interest.



OPERATION CROSSBOW. Another war movie, perhaps the last of the genre (until those big hitters like WHERE EAGLES DARE and THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN), ably put together by producer Carlo Ponti and helmed by Michael Anderson, well used to handling large international casts. This is an expensive MGM production from 1965 and was a popular movie at the time - I remember being 19 and new to London and travelling on the underground to the big ABC cinema at Bishops Bridge Road near Paddington to see it on a Bank Holiday Monday - and it still gets screened a lot.
The first half shows how the Germans (led by Paul Henreid and German air ace Hanna Reisch) built their flying bombs and V2 rockets to rain destruction on London, as again, all the English war movie actors sit and deliberate: Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Richard Todd, Sylvia Syms, John Fraser, Richard Wattis etc. as agents are recruited to parachute into occupied Holland and pose as engineers for what would seem to be suicide missions to penetrate the underground bomb-making factories where the Germans are mass-producing bombs. We then get the central segment where the producer’s wife Sophia Loren walks in demonstrating 60s star quality (with no concession to 40s hair or clothes styles) as the estranged wife of one of the engineers, who is now being impersonated by George Peppard. Hotelier and agent Lilli Palmer is very determined the mission should not be put in jeopardy as Loren is kept prisoner at the hotel, as other agent Tom Courtenay is arrested for murder. Anthony Quayle is the double agent who knows Courtenay is an agent impersonating a dead man as he tries in vain to crack Courtenay and gain the truth. The very determined Lilli makes sure Loren does not spoil the mission as the story moves to the underground bomb factory and boys-own heroics take over, as Peppard and Jeremy Kemp sabotage the factory as the bombers approach to blitz it. Stirring stuff then, ably put together (the Germans all speak German) and a war movie perennial. An enjoyable (!) brace of '60s war movies then! My mother was in London during the blitz and we used to enjoy hearing all those stories of life during wartime.....

Dana Wynter R.I.P. / Arthur Laurents

I have been meaning to write about the lovely Dana Wynter [1931-2011] so was really sad to to hear she has now passed away at almost 80. Dana has been on my radar quite a bit lately, as SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL and SINK THE BISMARCK! have been screened regularly here lately on TCM UK and Film4 channels (UK), also D DAY SIXTH OF JUNE and of course INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and she plays nicely against type as the dipso rich girl in IN LOVE AND WAR. I have not been able to see SOMETHING OF VALUE though since I was a kid.

One of her first (silent) roles was as a fashion model parading in different outfits in the English drama IT STARTED IN PARADISE in '52, which also had the up and coming Kay Kendall. She is very sympathetic (and stylish in that naval uniform) as the only female in SINK THE BISMARCK!, 61, a nice foil to Kenneth More.



Dana was married to that Hollywood lawyer Greg Bautzer, and seems to have retired to Ireland, and she had a lengthy career in television as well. She may not have been a major star but, during that era of the '50s and '60s she was a lovely leading lady (along with the second-tier likes of Dorothy Malone, Martha Hyer, Vera Miles, Barbara Rush etc). There is that wonderful moment in Siegel's classic INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS when we realise she has changed and is now one of "them"... R.I.P. indeed. Here is my recent review of IN LOVE AND WAR:

IN LOVE AND WAR – back to 20th Century Fox and another of these Jerry Wald productions featuring their contract players (like ‘57’s NO DOWN PAYMENT). This 1958 one has regulars Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter [their 4th together?] and Bradford Dillman as the three marines having a last night of freedom in San Francisco before shipping overseas the next morning. We are told it is 1944 but what is on the screen is pure American ‘50s (just like KISS THEM FOR ME or THAT KIND OF WOMAN there seems to be no effort to get the period look right). Rich boy Dillman heads home to his disapproving father and “rich tramp” girlfriend Dana Wynter who drinks a lot – but nice nurse France Nuyen (who is from Honolulu!) is just around the corner. Hunter heads to his warm family and pregnant girlfriend Hope Lange, while Wagner has to have a few drinks before meeting his working class folks including the new stepfather he does not get on with. They all meet up at the hotel suite Wagner has reserved, but newly-weds Hunter and Lange have no place to stay … and Sheree North pops in as Wagner’s girl. Wagner’s drunken scenes through soon get rather tiresome. The second section shows us the boys in war and we wonder who will return home and who will not ... solidly directed by Philip Dunne, screenplay by Edward Anhalt, with a poignant climax.

also: R.I.P Arthur Laurents [1918-2011] - the venerable screenwriter and director also passed away aged 92, after being in the news lately over a new proposed production of GYPSY (for which he worte the book) to star Barbra Streisand, depending on which version one read either Laurents or composer Stephen Sondheim nixed the idea. Laurents also of course wrote the book for WEST SIDE STORY and the short-lived ANYONE CAN WHISTLE, screenplays for BONJOUR TRISTESSE, ANASTASIA, SUMMERTIME, Hitch's ROPE (he and Farley Granger were an item for some time), he also wrote THE WAY WE WERE and THE TURNING POINT among others, and left a very candid memoir. The best story I read was that Streisand rang him recently and he told her to call him back as he was about to have his breakfast. She did! (her first big break at 19 was in his show I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE where she was the sensational Miss Marmelstein). Certainly a legend in his own time then... even if not the most popular!

Showpeople (9): annual movie trade fair time again

Oscar fever weekend arrives as the latest award ceremony gets underway. I do not anticipate too many, if any, surprises - Jeff Bridges will hardly win 2 years in a row (that hasn't happened since Tracy or Hanks) and after losing to Bridges last year it is certainly Firth's turn this time. A piece on morning television this a.m. was all gush about the glitz and glamour - it was a fashion showbiz event to them, they had no interest in the movies - but then that was hardly aimed at the movie buff crowd!

But when did it all become about the red carpet and the dresses and the jewels and the parties and the exposure - probably since it started really but only now with all the television rolling exposure and our new celebrity culture it is a whole new ballgame. Back in the '50s though we only had reports and photos of the (much smaller) ceremony in the fan magazines and annuals as a record of the event. Here are a few:Top: Dana Wynter, Angela Lansbury and Joan Collins performing a skit "We're glad we are not nominated" at the 1958 shindig. The '58 winners: GIGI producer Arthur Freed, Burl Ives, Susan Hayward, David Niven, Ingrid Bergman (presenting) and Maurice Chevalier (besg supporting actress Wendy Hiller presumably didn't attend); on to the 1962 awards and a glamorous Joan Crawford graciously shares the limelight with winner Gregory Peck and presenters Sophia Loren and Max Schell (1961's winners). Joan accepted the award for the absent Anne Bancroft, thus putting Bette Davis's nose out of joint! and a page of pictures from the 1957 show [click picture twice to enlarge]. Nowdays though one is hard pushed to remember who won a year or two ago!

Showpeople (7): when we were young ....

A 1920s Keystone Cops and Bathing Beauties scene?

Look again ... (click twice to enlarge) - a re-creation from I'd say 1958 with a roundup of young players .... can you spot:

Debbie Reynolds, Shirley McLaine, Marge Champion, Sheree North, Kim Novak, Lee Remick, Dana Wynter, Joan Collins?

and the guys: Nick Adams, Don Murray, Tommy Sands, Fess Parker, Gower Champion, Buddy Ebsen, James Garner, Paul Newman and Rock Hudson ?

(Rock is showing his girlie side between Sheree and Kim). They forgot to include Hope Lange, Sandra Dee and Nat Wood !

Some other choice '50s movies

Before moving on from the ‘50s here are some other recent viewing pleasures, some ramping up the camp factor:

NO SAD SONGS FOR ME – Margaret Sullavan’s last film in 1950 is curiously unregarded now, but is a nice little drama set in a mining town where she is the suburban wife who goes to the doctor and finds she has terminal cancer, which seems untreatable back then. She goes into denial but eventually comes to terms with it and plans her husband's and daughter’s future without her. Husband though is dependable Wendall Corey (dull as ever) as the engineer - enter the young Viveca Lindfors as hubby’s new assistant and Margaret sees they are attracted to each other and she also gets on with the incessantly chattering daughter, young Natalie Wood. It’s a weepie then, but not in your face and the ending is rather nice. In accordance with films of this era she has a large comfy house and a black servant, husband and wife of course have separate beds. A curious choice for action director Rudolph Mate.

THE ACTRESS – another low key film, from 1953, and directed by George Cukor. This should be much better know but seems to have been thrown away by MGM who reduced its running time. Its based on the memoirs of actress Ruth Gordon about when she was young and becoming fascinated by the theatre. It’s a nice picture of small town life with Jean Simmons in one of her key roles. She is perfectly enchanting here. Spencer Tracy for once is quite bearable as the father and Teresa Wright is mother. Anthony Perkins has his first role as a young admirer, and it of course encapsulates Cukor fascination with theatre and role playing.

THE STAR – another low key black and white 1953 item from Warner Bros, with Bette Davis startlingly effective as the star in decline and hitting the bottle: “Come on Oscar, let you and me get drunk”, as she handles the humiliations piled on her with the sale of her effects, looking for work, having to deal with grasping relatives and – the indignity! – having to work in a department store where she is recognised by customers. Bette flounces through it but its rather at the start of her dumpy period. Apparantly the star they had in mind was a kind of Joan Crawford shallow star. Sterling Hayden is the man who could rescue her and young Natalie Wood again plays daughter. A fascinating oddity now.

TORCH SONG – Joan herself stars in this ’53 ”musical” which I never saw until last year, and its certainly up there with the other camp classics. Its deliriously designed in lurid colours (particularly her blackface number “Two Faced Woman” with orange wig) and I like her yellow dressing gown matching her bedroom décor, and that party with only men in attendance. Joan is the Helen Lawson-like dragon Broadway star who drives everyone away, except her new pianist, Michael Wilding, but then he is blind (yes, really). Romance eventually triumphs but not before Joan has a field day chomping the scenery and supporting cast. Gig Young plays her beau but drops out half way through. There is one hilarious scene where as she exits the theatre she is swamped by children demanding her autograph! Charles Walters directs at full tilt and even dances with Joan in her opening number, as the chorus boy who keeps getting it wrong, spoiling Joan’s line.

A Crawford double bill: FEMALE ON THE BEACH / AUTUMN LEAVES. FEMALE in ’55 has Joan as the wealthy but lonely woman moving into a new beachside apartment, where the previous wealthy but lonely female owner [Judith Evelyn] died in mysterious circumstances. Enter Jeff Chandler as the idle beachboy who attemps to move in on Joan. [He: “How do you like your coffee?”, she: “Alone”]. There are also 2 seedy neighbours who it seems are pimping young men to lonely wealthy women, these are deliciously played by Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer. They try to introduce Joan to muscle-guy Ed Fury when she does not rise to Jeff’s bait. Jan Sterling scores as the realtor who keeps hanging around. It all ends in delirious melodrama as helmed by Joseph Pevney, an old hand at this kind of tosh: can Joan trust Jeff or are his motives too dubious?

AUTUMN LEAVES is the Robert Aldrich melodrama from ’56 where Joan is the lonely typist in a modest apartment who becomes entangled with younger Cliff Robertson. They marry but she begins to fear his irrational moods. Enter Vera Miles as his ex-wife and Lorne Greene as his overbearing father. Joan has a great scene as she confronts their deceit, and then Cliff goes loony and throws the typewriter at her. Joan wonders if he still loves her, as she has him committed for mental treatment. Will he still need her when he is cured? Joan as ever emotes while her face resembles an Aztec mask.

THE STORY OF MANKIND – Producer Irwin Allen’s 1957 “all star” telling of a heavenly court [a long way from A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH], presided over by Cedric Hardwicke, deciding the fate of mankind as the human race is on the brink of the atomic age. Does mankind deserve to survive? This long-unseen tosh, with intercut stock footage, was just a vague memory but its enormous fun now, as the highlights of mankind are unspooled: Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, John Carradine as a Pharoah, Peter Lorre as Nero, Groucho Marx buying Manhattan from the Indians, Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc, young Dennis Hopper as Napoleon with Marie Windsor as Josephine, Marie Wilson as Marie Antoinette merrily quipping that the peasants should eat cake, Agnes Moorehead as a splendid Elizabeth I, need I go on? Best of all is Vincent Price as the devil while Ronald Coleman (what possessed him?) is the voice of reason representing mankind. Its trash, its delirious, its delovely.

THE FEMALE ANIMAL – another Hedy Lamarr, in fact her last film in 1957, and a very lost film until a friend acquired a copy recently. It’s a very Albert Zugsmith (schlockmeister supreme) production, and would in fact make a great double feature with FEMALE ON THE BEACH, with which it has certain similiarities. Here Hedy is the ageing movie goddess who picks up with studio bit player George Nader, very wooden, and she installs him in her beach house, but George also meets her daughter Jane Powell – rather old for the part, but everyone’s career is in decline here – who drinks a lot. Add in Jan Sterling again, as a rival actress and has-been cougar in a ratty wig and mink coat, always with a young gigolo in tow, who has some amusing lines and would like to get George for herself. Its mercifully quite short at 80 minutes but each one packs a punch. I am saving a second look at it for a nice rainy day.

THE MONTE CARLO STORY – it was a real treat to find this recently as it was just a dim memory of seeing it when about 12. This Italian Titanus co-production is of note only for the teaming of Marlene Dietrich and Vittorio De Sica in 1957, and yes those Monte Carlo locations. They are both con artists and gamblers and both are looking for a good catch but fall for each other. When they realise they are both poor they set their cap at rich Americans Arthur O’Connell as Homer Hinckley and Natalie Trundy as his daughter (who is though far too young for Vittorio). The backdrops are lovely, the Riviera in the ‘50s, Marlene sings and is dressed by Jean Louis, Vittorio is a joy as ever. Hard to believe that director Dino Risi had a hand in the silly script.

Unseen since I saw it 50 years ago as a child, it was fascinating to see Michael Anderson's SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (1959) again recently, a muddled IRA story set in Ireland in the 20s it featured James Cagney in one of his last ferocious roles as a misguided IRA supporter, Don Murray as the young lead and Dana Wynter, lovely as usual, as the romantic interest. Glynis Johns has a good role and it features, inevitably, young Richard Harris, with splendid cameos by Dame Sybil Thorndike and Michael Redgrave.

Finally, one we like a lot, and back to Joan Crawford: Jean Negulesco’s THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, from the hit Rona Jaffe novel and another of those Fox 3-girls-sharing-an-apartment-looking-for-love movies. The three are Hope Lange, Diane Baker and model Suzy Parker; it should have been 4 as in the book but Martha Hyer’s role was practically snipped out in the editing to reduce it to 3, with of course Joan Crawford billed “as Amanda Farrow” – the terror of the typing pool. It’s a fascinating look now at office life in the 50s and has great views of Manhattan back then, and of course that great theme tune. Stephen Boyd is Lange’s romantic interest and there are some nice moments of them walking along. There is a lovely moment at the start as Lange exits from the subway and the breeze blows up her little jacket showing the nice pattern on the lining. The drama comes from Lange aspiring to Crawford’s role, Baker getting pregnant and Parker falling for a theatre director (Louis Jourdan) and not being able to handle rejection. It all plays out perfectly and is one of the great enduring soaps of the year along with A SUMMER PLACE and IMITATION OF LIFE. And now for the ‘60s.