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    Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties
    Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties
    Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties
    Ebook523 pages6 hours

    Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties

    By John Howard Reid

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    John Howard Reid has written 3 books dealing specifically with American movies of the 1940s. The other two are titled "Memorable Films of the Forties" and "Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s". However, I consider this book to be the best. Admittedly, I'm a little prejudiced because I contributed a few items myself such as additional comments on that colorful Maria Montez vehicle, "White Savage", on the Tyrone Power lend-lease to "A Yank in the R.A.F.", on the Bing Crosby song-fest, "Top o' the Morning", on the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn partnership in "State of the Union", on the mediocre Charlie Chan, "The Shanghai Chest", on Fritz Lang's must-see thriller, "Secret Beyond the Door", on Fred Astaire's "Second Chorus", on Michael Curtiz's wonderful, absolutely delightful Rosalind Russell vehicle, "Roughly Speaking", on that clasic film noir, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and the truly nightmarish Tyrone Power "Nightmare Alley", on the Anatole Litvak-Henry Fonda "The Long Night", and on what is possibly the best movie of the whole decade, namely "Letter from an Unknown Woman". I also have some remarks on that Marilyn Monroe early venture in "Ladies of the Chorus", on Bette Davis' "Beyond the Forest" and Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers"; plus five or six lesser titles such as Humphrey Bogart's "The Big Shot" and Val Lewton's "The Leopard Man". While my contributions are comparatively few, the real meat of the book lies in the extensive cast and camera credits plus the background information and reviews provided on each of the 150 or so titles covered in the book's 260 pages. For easy reference, the movies are alphabetically arranged from "The Admiral Was a Lady" and "The Adventures of Mark Twain" through to "You Were Never Lovelier". One of the most enjoyable of the many highlights you'll find in all John Howard Reid's books are the exclusive comments often provided by the stars and the directors themselves. Reid didn't waste his time in Hollywood. On "You Were Never Lovelier", for instance, he provides brief comments by both Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire. Like other books in this series, "Hollywood Gold" provides a great deal of information on movies that are currently available as DVD releases. "The Chase", for example, can be found in $2 bargain bins all over the place, yet Reid quotes no less than three respected critics who hold extremely high opinions not only of its cinematic value but of its superior entertainment qualities. Admittedly, with a cult director like Arthur Ripley at the helm and a cast that includes Michele Morgan and Peter Lorre, it would be hard to go wrong. Even for $2! Of course, there's no need for Reid to direct our attention to movies like "The Ghost of Frankenstein", "Humoresque", "The Killers", "Letter from an Unknown Woman", "Nightmare Alley", "The Paradine Case", "Passage to Marseilles", "The Postman Always Rings Twice", "The Scarlet Claw", "Second Chorus", "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", "Tales of Manhattan", "The Thin Man Goes Home", "13 Rue Madeleine", "We're Not Married" and "Where the Sidewalk Ends", as we've already added these DVDs to our collections. But, on the other hand, it's nice to find out a great deal more about these movies and also be able to easily identify players and find out background and release details without having to trawl through online sites that not only take their toll in time and frustration, but often leave the information seeker empty-handed. Although the book is subtitled, "Films of the Forties and Fifties", Reid's accent is definitely on the 40's. But I'm not complaining about that. I'm an avid "forties" fan too.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Howard Reid
    Release dateApr 19, 2011
    ISBN9781458138934
    Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties
    Author

    John Howard Reid

    Author of over 100 full-length books, of which around 60 are currently in print, John Howard Reid is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Merryll Manning series of mystery novels, anthologies of original poetry and short stories, translations from Spanish and Ancient Greek, and especially books of film criticism and movie history. Currently chief judge for three of America's leading literary contests, Reid has also written the textbook, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests".

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      Book preview

      Hollywood Gold - John Howard Reid

      HOLLYWOOD GOLD:

      Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties

      John Howard Reid

      ****

      Published by:

      John Howard Reid at Smashwords

      Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid

      ****

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      ****

      Original text copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.

      Enquiries: johnreid@mail.qango.com

      ****

      HOLLYWOOD CLASSICS 9

      2011

      Other Books in the Hollywood Classics series:

      1. New Light on Movie Bests

      2. B Movies, Bad Movies, Good Movies

      3. Award-Winning Films of the 1930s

      4. Movie Westerns: Hollywood Films the Wild, Wild West

      5. Memorable Films of the Forties

      6. Popular Pictures of the Hollywood 1940s

      7. Your Colossal Main Feature Plus Full Support Program

      8. Hollywood’s Miracles of Entertainment

      9. Hollywood Gold: Famous Films of the Forties & Fifties

      10. Hollywood B Movies: A Treasury of Spills, Chills & Thrills

      11. Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics

      12. These Great Movies Won No Hollywood Awards

      13. Movie Mystery & Suspense

      14. America’s Best, Britain’s Finest

      15. Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic

      16. Hollywood Movie Musicals

      17. Hollywood Classics Index Books 1-16

      18. More Movie Musicals

      19. Success in the Cinema

      20. Best Western Movies

      21. Great Cinema Detectives

      22. Great Hollywood Westerns

      23. Science-Fiction & Fantasy Cinema

      24. Hollywood’s Classic Comedies

      25. Hollywood Classics Title Index to All Movies Reviewed in Books 1-24

      --

      Additional Movie Books by John Howard Reid

      CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ’Scope

      CinemaScope Two: 20th Century-Fox

      CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge

      Mystery, Suspense, Film Noir and Detective Movies on DVD: A Guide to the Best in Cinema Thrills

      British Movie Entertainments on VHS and DVD

      WESTERNS: A Guide to the Best (and Worst) Western Movies on DVD

      Musicals on DVD

      Silent Films & Early Talkies on DVD

      --

      Table of Contents

      A

      Admiral Was a Lady (1950)

      Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)

      Arms and the Woman (see Mr Winkle Goes to War)

      B

      Bachelor Girls (see Bachelor’s Daughters)

      Bachelor’s Daughters (1946)

      Bad Sister (see White Unicorn)

      Beautiful But Dangerous (see She Couldn’t Say No)

      Betrayed (see When Strangers Marry)

      Between Two Women (1944)

      Between Two Worlds (1944)

      Bewitched (1945)

      Beyond the Forest (1949)

      B.F.’s Daughter (1948)

      Big Hangover (1950)

      Big Jack (1949)

      Big Punch (1948)

      Big Shot (1942)

      Brimstone (1949)

      C

      the Chase (1946)

      Chicago Deadline (1949)

      China Sky (1945)

      Code of the West (1947)

      Crossroads (1942)

      D

      Daisy Kenyon (1947)

      Deputy Marshal (1949)

      Don’t Bother To Knock (1952)

      F

      the Fugitive (see Night of the Fire)

      Fury at Furnace Creek (1948)

      G

      Gentleman Misbehaves (1946)

      Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

      H

      Heavenly Body (1944)

      High Fury (see White Cradle Inn)

      Honeymoon Lodge (1943)

      Hour of Glory (see Small Back Room)

      Humoresque (1946)

      I

      I’ll Sell My Life (1941)

      I Married a Nazi (see Man I Married)

      In Old California (1942)

      It’s Turned Out Nice Again (see Turned Out Nice Again)

      J

      Janie (1944)

      Janie Gets Married (1946)

      Joan of Paris (1942)

      K

      the Killers (1946)

      King of Dodge City (1941)

      Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1941)

      L

      Ladies of the Chorus (1949)

      Ladies in Retirement (1941)

      Lady Is Willing (1942)

      Lady Luck (1946)

      Lamp Still Burns (1943)

      Last Command (1955)

      Leopard Man (1943)

      Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)

      Long Night (1947)

      Look Who’s Laughing (1941)

      Lydia (1941)

      M

      Magic Town (1947)

      Main Street to Broadway (1953)

      Make Haste To Live (1954)

      Malaya (1949)

      Man About Town (1939)

      Man from Montreal (1939)

      Man I Married (1940)

      Man of the Moment (1955)

      Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944)

      Married But Single (see This Thing Called Love)

      Mr Winkle Goes to War (1944)

      Mr Wise Guy (1942)

      Moon Over Las Vegas (1944)

      N

      Nazi Agent (1942)

      Niagara (1953)

      Nice Girl (1941)

      Nightmare Alley (1947)

      O

      Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942)

      One Foot in Heaven (1941)

      On the Night of the Fire (1940)

      Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)

      P

      Paid in Full (1950)

      Paradine Case (1947)

      Passage to Marseille (1944)

      Perfect Strangers (1950)

      Phantom from Space (1953)

      Polly Fulton (see B.F.’s Daughter)

      Possessed (1947)

      Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

      R

      Red Badge of Courage (1951)

      Ride ’Em Cowboy (1941)

      Rope of Sand (1949)

      Roughly Speaking (1945)

      S

      Sainted Sisters (1948)

      Salute to Courage (see Nazi Agent)

      Saxon Charm (1948)

      Scarlet Claw (1944)

      Sea Wolf (1941)

      Searching Wind (1946)

      Second Chorus (1940)

      Secret Beyond the Door (1948)

      Secret Mission (1942)

      Shanghai Chest (1948)

      Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw (see Scarlet Claw)

      She Couldn’t Say No (1953)

      the Sky’s the Limit (1943)

      Small Back Room (1949)

      Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

      Some Call It Murder (see I’ll Sell My Life)

      So Proudly We Hail (1943)

      Spirit of St Louis (1957)

      Stagecoach to Monterey (1944)

      Stars Look Down (1941)

      State of the Union (1948)

      Suspense (1946)

      T

      Tales of Manhattan (1942)

      Tell It to the Judge (1949)

      Teresa (1951)

      They Knew Mr Knight (1946)

      Thin Man Goes Home (1944)

      13 Rue Madeleine (1947)

      This Thing Called Love (1941)

      Those Endearing Young Charms (1945)

      Timberjack (1955)

      Timbuktu (1959)

      Tomorrow Is Forever (1945)

      Too Dangerous to Love (see Perfect Strangers)

      Top o’ the Morning (1949)

      Touch of Evil (1958)

      Trial (1955)

      Turned Out Nice Again (1941)

      Turning Point (1952)

      Tuttles of Tahiti (1942)

      Twilight in the Sierras (1950)

      Two Sisters from Boston (1946)

      U

      Unconquered (1947)

      Under My Skin (1950)

      V

      Valley of Decision (1945)

      Valley of the Kings (1954)

      Variety Girl (1947)

      Vigilantes Return (1947)

      W

      Well Groomed Bride (1946)

      We’re Not Married (1952)

      West of Zanzibar (1954)

      Westward the Women (1951)

      We Were Dancing (1942)

      We Were Strangers (1949)

      When Strangers Marry (1944)

      Where Danger Lives (1950)

      Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

      White Captive (see White Savage)

      White Cliffs of Dover (1944)

      White Cradle Inn (1948)

      White Heat (1949)

      White Savage (1943)

      White Unicorn (1948)

      Whole Truth (1958)

      World and His Wife (see State of the Union)

      Wyoming Outlaw (1939)

      Y

      a Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)

      Yellow Balloon (1953)

      You Came Along (1945)

      You’ll Never Get Rich (1941)

      Young Dr Kildare (1938)

      Young Mr Pitt (1942)

      You’re in the Army Now (1941)

      You’re Telling Me (1942)

      You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

      --

      the Admiral Was a Lady

      Edmond O’Brien (Jimmy Stevens), Wanda Hendrix (Jean Madison), Rudy Vallee (Pettigrew), Johnny Sands (Eddie), Steve Brodie (Mike), Richard Erdman (Ollie), Hillary Brooke (Mrs Pettigrew), Richard Lane (the fight promoter), Garry Owen (the private eye), Fred Essler (the store-keeper).

      Director: ALBERT S. ROGELL. Original screenplay: Sidney Salkow, John O’Dea. Photography: Stanley Cortez. Film editor: William Ziegler. Art director: Van Nest Polglase. Set decorator: Robert Priestley. Wardrobe: Elmer Ellsworth. Make-up: Abe Habermann. Music director: Edward J. Kay. Songs: Everything That’s Wonderful and Once Over Lightly by Al Stewart and Earl Rose. Production manager: Herman E. Webber. Assistant director: James Paisley. Sound recording: John Carter. Western Electric Sound System. Executive producers: Albert S. Rogell, Jack M. Warner. Producer: Albert S. Rogell. Co-producer: Edward Lewis.

      Copyright 4 August 1950 by Roxbury Productions, Inc. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Palace: 12 October 1950. U.S. release: 4 August 1950. U.K. release: 9 April 1951. Australian release: 13 July 1951. Running times: 87 minutes (USA), 80 minutes (UK), 65 minutes (Aust).

      SYNOPSIS: An extremely diminutive but aggressively meddling young woman innocently tries to wreck the lives of four ex-combat servicemen.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: By independent standards this movie has good production values, including smart sets and lustrous photography, smooth direction and silky film editing. The cast is very capable too. The trouble is the script. Although it offers some promising ideas, it tends to fall between two stools: Too talky but insufficiently witty for a comedy of manners; too clumsy and insufficiently fast-paced for slapstick, though it does have a couple of frantic episodes. The most effective episode has O’Brien slowly beaten up in a prize ring in which Rogell and O’Brien successfully bring off an extremely difficult balancing act. It’s funny but it’s horrifying. All our sympathy is with O’Brien, but we can’t help laughing at him. This sequence alone makes The Admiral Was a Lady worth watching.

      If O’Brien seems over-boorish in the early stages of the film, put up with him. His character develops. Unfortunately the other players are stuck with more pasteboard figures. Wanda Hendrix is doubly unfortunate. Not only is she an unsympathetic, over-talkative, meddling little fool, but she stays stupid for the whole film. Her devotion to the mysterious Henry seems ill-balanced. The other players have little to do, including Rudy Vallee. We keep waiting for him to come back, but when he does, he doesn’t fulfill our expectations.

      OTHER VIEWS: Saddled with a script that obviously thinks it’s much funnier than it actually is, The Admiral Was a Lady offers moderate entertainment at best. Rudy Vallee is wasted in a thankless role. Of course it would all be improved a good deal by cutting. I wonder what the U.K. and Australian prints are like?

      — G.A.

      Agreeable minor comedy with a quite substantial idea. Ex-Wave Hendrix discovers that a group of veterans, headed by O’Brien have found an elaborate way of living without working. The scenes where they bounce between the labor exchange, the bank, and the dealer with the loud speaker truck that is their transport, are quite inventive and funny. The final revelation of the insecurity that all this carefree stuff covers gives the action a bite. Cast and presentation are good, without being remarkable.

      — B.P.

      There are two songs, entitled Everything That’s Wonderful and Once Over Lightly, that are quite pleasant. I agree with everything that Mr Pattison says about this film, though he might have mentioned some of the caressingly beautiful close-ups of Miss Hendrix achieved by photographer Stanley Cortez. Also, it came as a considerable shock when looking up this film to notice it was made in 1950 as I would have thought it was contemporary 1946 or at the latest, 1947. Instead it was made in 1950, when the social situation it so pungently describes no longer existed — that’s one way of taking the bite out of its message! What a low-down, typically Hollywood box-office pandering trick!

      — C.F.

      ROGELL, ALBERT S.: Producer and director, born Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 21 August 1901; camera man; cutter; titler; author. Has been associated with First National, Universal, FBO and Tiffany. Went to Hollywood, 1917, as assistant to George Loane Tucker, producer of The Miracle Man. In 1925 joined Universal for two years, directed 16 pictures; then to First National and directed Shepherd of the Hills, Aloha, Mamba, Tiffany Tip Off.

      Pictures include: Magnificent Rogue, Earl Carroll Sketchbook, Heaven Only Knows, Song of India, Northwest Stampede, Admiral Was a Lady, Shadow of Fear.

      TV: Ford Theatre, 20th Century Hour, Broken Arrow, etc.

      --

      the Adventures of Mark Twain

      Fredric March (Samuel Clemens), Alexis Smith (Olivia Langdon), Donald Crisp (J. B. Pond), Alan Hale (Steve Gills), C. Aubrey Smith (Oxford chancellor), John Carradine (Bret Harte), William Henry (Charles Langdon), Robert Barrat (Horace E. Bixby), Walter Hampden (Jervis Langdon), Joyce Reynolds (Clara Clemens), Whitford Kane (Joe Goodwin), Percy Kilbride (Billings), Nana Bryant (Mrs Langdon), Dickie Jones (Sam Clemens at age 15), Kay Johnson (Jane Clemens), Jackie Brown (Sam Clemens at age 12), Eugene Holland (Huck Finn), Michael Miller (Tom Sawyer), Joseph Crehan (promoter), Cliff Saum (prospector), Harry Tyler (assistant editor), Roland Drew (editor), Douglas Wood (William Dean Howells), Willie Best (George), Burr Caruth (Oliver W. Holmes), Harry Hilliard (John G. Whittier), Brandon Hurst (Ralph W. Emerson), Davison Clark (Henry W. Longfellow), Monte Blue (captain), Paul Newlan (boss deck hand), Ernest Whitman (stoker), Emmett Smith (repeater), Pat O’Malley (captain’s mate), Chester Conklin (judge), George Lessey (Henry H. Rogers), Dorothy Vaughan (Kate Leary), Gloria Ann Crawford (Susie as a child), Lynne Baggett (Susie), Carol Joyce Coombs (Clara as a child), Charlene Salerno (Jean as a child), Joyce Tucker (Jean), Charles Waldron (Dr Quintard), Paul Scardon (Rudyard Kipling), Russell Gleason (Orion Clemens), Thurston Hall (politician), Creighton Hale (man with mule), Leo White (barber), Stuart Holmes (man), Francis Pierlot (inventor), Frank Wilcox (Judge Clemens), Joan Winfield, Leah Baird (women), and Dennis Donnelly, Hooper Atchley, Victor Kilian, Harry Woods, Willie Fung, Frank Reicher, John Skins Miller.

      Director: IRVING RAPPER. Screenplay: Alan LeMay. Additional dialogue: Harry Chandlee. Adapted by Alan LeMay and Harold M. Sherman from biographical material based on works owned or controlled by the Mark Twain Company and from the stage play Mark Twain by Harold M. Sherman. Photography: Sol Polito. Film editor: Ralph Dawson. Art director: John Hughes. Set decorator: Fred MacLean. Costumes: Orry-Kelly. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Technical advisors: Dwight Franklin (character designer) and Dick Lemen (Mississippi River sequences). Montages: Don Siegel, James Leicester. Special effects directed by Lawrence Butler, photographed by Edwin Linden. Music composed by Max Steiner, arranged by Bernard Kaun, directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Dialogue director: Herschel Daugherty. Sound recording: Robert B. Lee. RCA Sound System. Associate producer: Julius Evans. Producer: Jesse L. Lasky.

      Copyright 13 May 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Hollywood: 3 May 1944. U.S. release: 6 May 1944. Australian release: 10 January 1946 (sic). 11, 928 feet. 132 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: The life and careers of Samuel Langhorne Clemens from his birth in Florida, Mo., on 30 November 1835 to his death in Elmira, N.Y., on 21 April 1910.

      NOTES: Nominated for prestigious Hollywood awards for Art Direction (black and white) (lost to Gaslight); Music Scoring of a Drama or Comedy (lost to Steiner’s own Since You Went Away); Special Effects for which oddly neither Butler nor Linden were nominated. Instead the nominees were Paul Detlefsen and John Crouse for the photography, Nathan Levinson for the sound. (Lost to Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo).

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.

      COMMENT: Produced on a remarkably lavish scale, this long film traces Twain’s career from his birth in 1835 to his death in 1910. This is not the usual reverent, inaccurate Hollywood hodgepodge. The lively, witty script deals first with Twain's boyhood in the Mississippi of Tom Sawyer. The 12-year-old Clemens is well played by Jackie Brown. After glimpsing Twain as an apprentice printer to his brother Orion (played by Russell Gleason), we are plunged into an exciting section dealing with Twain's experiences as a river pilot, based on Life on the Mississippi. After this, Twain turns to prospecting with Alan Hale and we are introduced to the celebrated jumping frog. I always imagined this incident would defy screen adaptation, but the writers and the director have not only succeeded in doing the impossible, they have turned it into sparkling entertainment. Later, Twain goes on lecture tours and, as they are presented in this film, it is not difficult to imagine why Twain was so popular. He was the Bob Hope of his era — save that he wrote his own material and his jokes are still so fresh they have present-day audiences convulsed with laughter. Of course, a great deal of the film's success is due to the splendid playing of Fredric March and the very able supporting cast. The sets are most impressive, ranging from the plush gambling saloon of the Queen of Dixie to an accurate reproduction of the Great Hall at Sydney University, and the number of extras is phenomenal. Max Steiner's music score is very effective, particularly in the riverboat-in-the-fog sequence where it is quite out of character with the composer's usual approach — and all the better for the innovation! The fine photography is the work of Sol Polito.

      --

      the Bachelor’s Daughters

      Gail Russell (Eileen), Claire Trevor (Cynthia), Ann Dvorak (Terry), Adolphe Menjou (Moody), Billie Burke (Molly), Jane Wyatt (Marta), Eugene List (Schuyler Johnson), Damian O’Flynn (Miller), John Whitney (Bruce Farrington), Russell Hicks (Dillon), Earle Hodgins (Dr Johnson), Madge Crane (Mrs Johnson), Bill Kennedy (Stapp), Richard Hageman (Johnson), Igor Diega (dancer), Clayton Moore (Bill Cotter), Henry Hull (seafarer), Syd Saylor (real estate agent).

      Director: ANDREW L. STONE. Original screenplay: Andrew L. Stone. Additional dialogue: Frederick Jackson. Photography: Theodor Sparkuhl. Film editor: Duncan Mansfield. Song, Where’s My Heart (Dvorak) by Fred Spielman (music), Kermit Goell (lyrics). Twilight Song by Jack Lawrence, Irving Drutman. Music director: Heinz Roemheld. Music conducted by David Chudnow. Art director: Rudi Feld. Wardrobe supervisor: Maria O. Donovan. Costumes for Gail Russell designed by Sophie. Costumes for the other principal players supplied by Saks 5th Avenue. Pianos supplied by Steinway. Production manager: Bernard McEveety. Assistant director: Aaron Rosenberg. Assistant to producer: Don McElwaine. Sound technician: Max Hutchinson. Western Electric Sound System. Producer: Andrew L. Stone.

      Copyright 6 September 1946 by Andrew Stone Enterprises. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Gotham: 5 October 1946. U.S. release: 6 September 1946. No general U.K. release date. Australian release: 27 March 1947. 8,150 feet. 90 minutes.

      U.K. release title: BACHELOR GIRLS.

      NOTES: Sparkuhl’s last film before retirement.

      SYNOPSIS: In this variant on Three Blind Mice, four girls decide to trap rich husbands by renting a luxury house on Long Island.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Suitable for all.

      COMMENT: After an appealingly disarming trick opening, this film settles down along more conventional How To Marry a Millionaire lines with the added bonus of not only an extra girl and suitor, plus a pop and mother as well. True, Billie Burke tends to over-act in her usual style as the ex-movie star mother, but Menjou is an absolute howl as the dapper but stingy floorwalker whom the girls inveigle into helping out. Music lovers will enjoy the presence of Eugene List (an odd-looking guy certainly, but he can handle dialogue with surprising assurance), a well-known concert pianist in his day, though his selections are none too well recorded. Still, this is his only movie.

      Gail Russell looks winning in the top spot, whilst Miss Trevor does confidently by what we may term the Lauren Bacall role. Other players are likewise excellent. And isn’t that Henry Hull as the yacht owner?

      Writer/director Stone keeps the film pacing along merrily, with major assistance from Sparkuhl’s bright photography and Feld’s attractive sets. An independent film-maker, Stone nearly always managed to give his films remarkably glossy production values — often by shooting on real locations. This one is no exception.

      OTHER VIEWS: A versatile film-maker, Stone was adept at both drama and comedy. Here we find him in pre-Fun on a Weekend mode. This movie starts off in grand style with a snip of Billie Burke from The Education of Elizabeth (1920). Though the pace slows down a mite in the obligatory exposition scene, sparks fly once Menjou really gets into bombastic, cost-cutting stride. Beautifully photographed and charmingly costumed, Gail Russell makes an expressive lead.

      — G.A.

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      Between Two Women

      Van Johnson (Dr Red Adams), Lionel Barrymore (Dr Leonard Gillespie), Marilyn Maxwell (Ruth Edley), Gloria DeHaven (Edna), Keenan Wynn (Tobey), Keye Luke (Dr Lee Wong How), Alma Kruger (Molly Byrd), Tom Trout (Eddie Smith), Walter Kingsford (Dr Edwin Carew), Marie Blake (Sallie), Nell Craig (Nurse Parker), Shirley Patterson (Nurse Thorsen), Edna Holland (Nurse Morgan), Ralph Brooke (Dr Norman), Lorraine Miller (Marion), Eddie Acuff (orderly), Leon Ames (dissatisfied patient), Henry O’Neill (Goff), Fred Toones (orderly).

      Director: WILLIS GOLDBECK. Screenplay: Harry Ruskin. Based on the characters created by Max Brand (pseudonym of Frederick Faust). Photography: Harold Rosson. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Edward Carfagno. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis and Ralph S. Hurst. Film editor: Adrienne Fazan. Music score: David Snell. Dance direction: Jeanette Bate. Costume design: Irene. Associate costume designer: Marion Herwood Keyes. Assistant director: Alfred Raboch. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Producer: Carey Wilson. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

      Copyright 19 December 1944 by Loew’s Inc. U.S. release: March 1945. U.K. release: 21 May 1945. New York opening at Loew’s Criterion: 28 March 1945. Australian release: 2 August 1945. 7,265 feet. 80 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Wealthy debutante sets her cap at up-and-coming doctor.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: The 14th and second-last of M-G-M’s Dr Kildare series. In this one, Dr Johnson cures Miss DeHaven of neuresthenic self-starvation, but unfortunately he also attends upon the hospital’s switchboard operator, Marie Blake. While Miss DeHaven is pleasantly photogenic, Miss Blake is considerably less so. Still, Miss DeHaven sings I’m In the Mood For Love and Marilyn Maxwell agreeably makes up the other woman of the title. Dr Barrymore hams up his hokey dialogue with his usual skill and has us almost believing in him a quarter of the time. As for the direction of this drivel, the most that could be said is that it maintains the barest minimum of competence.

      Incidentally, this is the 15th of the 16-picture Kildare series. It’s also number 14 of the 15 M-G-M entries. See Young Dr Kildare in this book for a complete rundown of the entire series.

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      Between Two Worlds

      John Garfield (Tom Prior), Paul Henreid (Henry Berger), Sydney Greenstreet (Thompson, examiner), Eleanor Parker (Ann Berger), Edmund Gwenn (Scrubby, the steward), George Tobias (Pete Musick), George Coulouris (Lingley), Faye Emerson (Maxine), Sara Allgood (Mrs Midget), Dennis King (Reverend William Duke), Isobel Elsom (Mrs Cliveden-Banks), Gilbert Emery (Cliveden-Banks), Lester Matthews (despatcher), Pat O’Moore (clerk).

      Director: EDWARD A. BLATT. Screenplay: Daniel Fuchs. Based on the 1923 stage play Outward Bound by Sutton Vane. Photography: Carl Guthrie. Film editor: Rudi Fehr. Music composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and directed by Leo F. Forbstein. Art director: Hugh Reticker. Dialogue director: Frederick de Cordova. Set decorations: Jack McConaghy. Assistant director: Elmer Decker. Gowns: Leah Rhodes. Make-up: Perc Westmore. Sound recording: Clare A. Riggs. Producer: Mark Hellinger.

      Copyright 20 May 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 20 May 1944. New York opening at the Strand: 5 May 1944. Australian release: 6 December 1945. 10,255 feet. 114 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Several people are killed in a London air raid as they are going to a ship taking them to safety. The ship becomes their transport to heaven or hell. Aboard are Tom Prior, a derelict newsman, Maxine, a faded showgirl, Cliveden-Banks and his society snob wife, American merchant seaman Pete Musick, and Reverend William Duke. Also among them are Mrs Midget, a meek little housekeeper, and Lingley, the arrogant head of Lingley, Ltd. Austrian pianist Henry and his wife Ann almost miss the ship. Scrubby, the ship’s steward, tells them that they alone know they are dead.

      NOTES: Outward Bound was originally filmed under that title in 1930. It starred Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Helen Chandler and Alison Skipworth and was directed by Robert Milton from an adaptation by J. Grubb Alexander.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for younger children.

      COMMENT: Poor old Edward A. Blatt is here saddled with yet another of Warner’s ambitious yet dated remakes, with the cast struggling against impossible lines and corny situations. The sets are impressive. The opening reel with its fluid camerawork and fast-paced film editing gets the film off to a good start and Paul Henreid cast in a Casablanca-type role holds considerable promise, none of which is realised once the script leads into the original Outward Bound material.

      OTHER VIEWS: In attempting to bring Vane’s spirit world up to date, Daniel Fuchs has merely obscured its persuasive simplicity with topical references and dialogue that is either pompous or pedestrian. The cast is left pretty much at loose ends by Edward Blatt’s direction and the revised material at hand.

      — Newsweek.

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      Bewitched

      Phyllis Thaxter (Joan Alris Ellis), Edmund Gwenn (Dr Bergson), Henry H. Daniels, Jr (Bob Arnold), Addison Richards (John Ellis), Francis Pierlot (Dr George Wilton), Sharon McManus (little girl in zoo), Gladys Blake (Glenda), Will Wright (Mr Herkheimer), Horace [Stephen] McNally (Eric Russell), Oscar O’Shea (Captain O’Malley), Minor Watson (Governor), Virginia Brissac (Governor’s wife), Audrey Totter’s voice (Karen).

      Written for the screen and directed by ARCH OBOLER from his radio play Alter Ego. Photography: Charles Salerno. Film editor: Harry Komer. Music score: Bronislau Kaper. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons and Malcolm Brown. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis and Mac Alper. Assistant director: Julian Silberstein. Sound: Douglas Shearer. Associate producer: Herbert Moulton. Producer: Jerry Bresler. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

      Copyright 19 June 1945 by Loew’s Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at Loew’s Criterion: 16 August 1945. Australian release: 13 June 1946. 7 reels. 5,944 feet. 66 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: A girl has a dual personality — one of them homicidal.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for children.

      COMMENT: The first film directed by radio producer and dramatist Arch Oboler. Occasionally, visuals are used to help the story, but mostly you can close your eyes and follow it perfectly. As a girl with split personality, Phyllis Thaxter is very inadequate. The rest of the cast is competent, but nothing more. However, the story moves at a reasonable pace and offers passable entertainment.

      OTHER VIEWS: Radio writer and sometime film-maker Arch Oboler here wheels in a sort of Two Faces of Eve of the mid-forties. There is some attempt to delineate the problems of the girl who does not comprehend her personality split and Horace/Steve McNally makes a go of a minor part, but the little dignity the rather grim production has worked up collapses in the finale where fatherly analyst-witchdoctor Edmund Gwenn saves the heroine from the hot seat by sorting out the inner selves in double exposure. All this is ticked out with dialogue of the standard of That’s what I want — SIGNIFICANT PAUSE — to be safe!

      Interesting as one of the movie psychology cycle, but little more.

      — B.P.

      --

      Beyond the Forest

      Bette Davis (Rosa Moline), Joseph Cotten (Dr Lewis Moline), David Brian (Neil Latimer), Ruth Roman (Carol), Minor Watson (Moose), Dona Drake (Jenny), Regis Toomey (Sorren), Sara Selby (Mildred), Mary Servoss (Mrs Wetch), Frances Charles (Miss Elliott), and Harry Tyler, Ralph Littlefield, Creighton Hale, Joel Allen, Ann Doran.

      Director: KING VIDOR. Screenplay: Lenore Coffee. Based on the 1948 novel by Stuart Engstrand. Photography: Robert Burks. Film editor: Rudi Fehr. Music score: Max Steiner. Music orchestrations: Murray Cutter. Art director: Robert Haas. Set decorations: William Kuehl. Special effects directed by William McGann and photographed by Edwin DuPar. Camera operator: Bill Schurr. Production manager: Eric Stacey. Assistant director: Al Alleborn. Script supervisor: Rita Michaels. Hair styles: Ruby Felker. Make-up supervisor: Perc Westmore. Make-up man: Al Greenway. Grip: Harold Noyes. Costumes: Edith Head. Gaffer: Charles Bannon. Still photographs: Eugene Richee. Sound recording: Charles Lang. Producer: Henry Blanke.

      Copyright 18 November 1949 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. U.S. release: 22 October 1949. New York opening at the Strand: 21 October 1949. Australian release: 27 April 1951. 8,640 feet. 96 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Girl’s dull husband (he’s the doctor in a small town) does not help her greedy disposition.

      NOTES: Davis’ last film as a contract star for Warner Bros.

      Steiner was nominated for an Academy Award for his score in the Drama/Comedy category, losing to Aaron Copland’s The Heiress.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Unsuitable for children.

      COMMENT: There is much to enjoy in this high-blown melodrama despite its wild implausibility and Miss Davis's incredible theatrics in what is virtually a cruel and incisive self-parody. To see Miss Davis as a sultry femme fatale requires a considerable suspension of belief which her garish make-up and ripe mannerisms do nothing to lessen. Still, Miss Davis, for all her faults, is infinitely preferable to Joseph Cotten whose screen personality here is even more woebegone and tiresomely philosophic than usual. The support cast is better: Ruth Roman makes good capital out of her couple of brief appearances, Minor Watson has an unusually meaty role and Dona Drake registers strongly as a slatternly maid. The script has some bizarre touches which Vidor directs with style and relish, particularly the off-beat, storybook-style opening and the elaborate crane shot at the conclusion. Max Steiner's music score consists almost entirely of variations on Fred Fisher's Chicago and is quite effective. The photography, especially the location work, is superb. Production values are lavish.

      OTHER VIEWS: Davis told Arkadin in Britain's Sight and Sound magazine in 1965 that Beyond the Forest was a terrible movie:

      It didn't have to be; primarily it was terrible because I was too old for the part. I mean, I don't think you can believe for a moment that, if I, as Rosa Moline, was so determined to get to Chicago, I wouldn't just have upped and gone years ago. I told them they should have put Virginia Mayo in the part — she would have been great. It was all a great pity, because the book is very good and could have made a marvellous movie. The husband, for instance, is supposed to look like Eugene Pallette and be an absolute monster. So what do they do? They cast Joseph Cotten, who is so attractive and kind — why should any wife want to get away from him?

      Director King Vidor (who had just finished The Fountainhead with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal) sought to shoot the exteriors in a locale similar to Wisconsin. Location man Kenneth Cox was dispatched to the Pacific North-west to hunt for location sites that would pass for Wisconsin. Twenty-six hundred miles and eight days later he returned to the studio with photographs and ideas about how the film should be shot. He had visited some forty towns and lakes as far north as Eugene, Oregon. Later Vidor, a studio cameraman, and Cox left for Lake Tahoe, where, by touring the lake in a motorboat, they finally found the perfect hunting lodge, the property of Mrs John Drum.

      We picked for the town of Loyalton a hamlet about seventy miles from Tahoe for the town scenes, Cox told Lowell E. Redelings in a 24 October interview in The Hollywood Citizen News.

      — John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.

      --

      B.F.’s Daughter

      Barbara Stanwyck (Polly Fulton), Charles Coburn (B.F. Fulton), Van Heflin (Thomas W. Brett), Richard Hart (Robert S. Tasmin III), Keenan Wynn (Martin Delwyn Ainsley), Margaret Lindsay (Apples Sandler), Spring Byington (Gladys Fulton), Marshall Thompson (sailor), Barbara Laage (Eugenia Taris), Thomas E. Breen (Major Isaac Riley), Fred Nurney (Jan), Edwin Cooper (General Waldron), Tom Fadden (Holmquist), Davison Clark (doorman), Anne O’Neal (receptionist), Hal K. Dawson (Frederick X. Gibson), Laura Treadwell (Emily Lovelace), Bill Harbach (co-pilot), David Newell (captain), Mary Jo Ellis, Lisa Kirby, Josette Deegan (girls), Florence Wix, Major Sam Harris (wedding guests), Pierre Watkin (Joe Stewart), Mickey Martin, Gene Coogan, Jack Stenlino, Joe Recht (soldiers), Addison Richards.

      Director: ROBERT Z. LEONARD. Screenplay: Luther Davis. Based on the 1946 novel by John P. Marquand. Photography: Joseph Ruttenberg. Camera operator: Herbert Fischer. Art directors: Cedric Gibbons, Daniel B. Cathcart. Set decorations: Edwin B. Willis, Jack D. Moore. Film editor: George White. Music composed by Bronislau Kaper and directed by Charles Previn. Special effects: Warren Newcombe. Montage: Peter Ballbusch. Production manager: Edward Woehler. Assistant director: Bert Glazer. Script supervisor: Tess Primock. Hair styles: Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up: Jack Dawn. Costumes: Irene. Grip: Leo Monlon. Still photos: Eddie Hubbell. Sound: Douglas Shearer, Charles E. Wallace. Producer: Edwin H. Knopf.

      An M-G-M Picture, copyright 13 February 1948 by Loew’s Inc. U.S. release: April 1948. U.K. release: 24 January 1949. New York opening at Loew’s State: 24 March 1948. Australian release: 1 July 1948. 10,046 feet. 111 minutes.

      U.K. release title: POLLY FULTON.

      SYNOPSIS: Tycoon’s daughter seeks to dominate her husband.

      NOTES: Irene was nominated for an Academy Award for Black & White Costume Design, losing to Roger Furse’s Hamlet.

      The full 111-minute version was released only in Australia. Elsewhere the movie was cut by three or four minutes. Needless to say, the full-length movie has never been aired, not even by Australian TV. In fact it was shortened to a mere 73 minutes when last broadcast in the 1970s.

      VIEWER’S GUIDE: Okay for all.

      COMMENT: Even in its 73-minute version, this is a very mediocre offering. The idea of the impecunious husband treating his rich father-in-law like dirt is a nice turnabout, but as scripted, played and directed here, it is no more effective than a damp squib. The film has been made with M-G-M's customary surface gloss but this serves only to point up the more the superficiality of the situations and the stock motivations of the characters.

      Richard Hart goes through his part like a sleepwalker while Margaret Lindsay seems determined to melt into the background so that none of her fans will notice her. The only interesting feature of the film is the appearance of Barbara

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