February 2021 Round-Up
TOTAL FILMS SEEN IN FEBRUARY: 35
(see the film posters at the bottom of the post, arranged in watching order)
NEW-TO-ME: 33
REWATCHES: 2
SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN: 2
MOST WATCHED ACTOR: Sterling Hayden (9 in total)
This month I watched a total of 35 films, so I'm well on my way to set a new yearly record íf I'm going to keep up this tempo (in January I also watched 35 films). In addition I had time to write three blog posts. I had a week off (had set a week aside a while back in the hope I could go on a holiday to The Netherlands for my mum's birthday, but alas!) and spent some more time blogging and watching films.
In celebration of Valentine's Day I listed My 10 Favourite Classic Romance Films and I also watched some more romantic films (I've put them together in a list somewhere below).
One of my 2021 movie goals (see here) is to watch more silent films. I hope to see at least one silent a month and this February I watched A Lady of Chance with Norma Shearer, listed among the romantic films.
I watched two films on the big screen at the Filmoteca, both rewatches and the only ones of this month: Johnny Guitar and Marnie.
I watched 6 films starring Lana Turner, because I wanted to celebrate the centennial of her birthday on the 8th of February. This made her my most watched actress of the month and I also wrote a post about her (Centennial Lana Turner).
Johnny Guitar made me want to see more Sterling Hayden films which made him my most watched actor of the month with 9 films in total! He is so damn good looking and has such a commanding screen presence that I don't mind his shortcomings in acting so much. I'm getting used to his wooden line delivery and I have to say there were a couple of better performances this month. I also dedicated a post to him (here).
Actors/actresses of whom I've seen more than one film this month: Jane Wyman (3), Viveca Lindfors (3), Joan Crawford (2), Ann Dvorak (2), Donna Reed (2), Claude Rains (2), Ronald Reagan (2), Rossano Brazzi (2) and Katharine Hepburn (2).
I will conclude this post with the randomly chosen films.
Breaking the 35 watched films down in decades:
1910s - 0
1920s - 1
1930s - 7
1940s - 10
1950s - 16
1960s - 1
I watched a remarkable high amount of 1950s films, for a large part thanks to Sterling Hayden. Since watching more 1950s films is also one of my 2021 film goals, I was happy to see the total amount of watched 1950s films increase.
Let's have a look at the films now! (This is going to be a loooong post with lots of photos because I couldn't choose and I also made lots of screenshots and gifs!)
Johnny Guitar (with Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge and Scott Brady) and Marnie (with Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren and Diane Baker) are the only two films seen on the big screen this month but what a joy!
Seeing Johnny Guitar in a 35 mm print made me enjoy it much more than the first time I saw it. At the time I found it just a bizarre western with over-the-top performances (especially from Mercedes McCambridge), stilted dialogue, and an unconvincing romance with little chemistry between Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden (I noticed some chemistry this time, though they're a weird couple for sure). Mind you, it's still over the top with little room for subtlety, even the colours are eye-popping (notably Crawford's wardrobe and lipstick). It's camp of the highest order. Yet there's also something really beautiful about this highly stylised production. The scene with Crawford playing the piano in a snow-white gown, with the orange rocky background, and then the posse entering the room in their dark funeral attire, positioning themselves in a perfect triangular formation, is almost a work of art. People have analysed this film and talk about subtexts of McCarthyism and homosexuality. No matter what you read into it, the narrative is compelling and has the familiar themes of revenge, jealousy, passion and love. This melodrama just happens to be in a western setting and the hero and villain happen to be women. Watch out for a rare and memorable female shootout at the end of the film! By the way, Sterling Hayden looks sooooo good! The glorious cinematography is by Harry Stradling Sr. and the great music score by Victor Young. (Oh ... how convenient was it for Joan to find clothes hanging in the mine! Did she hang the laundry there herself? Both my sister and I were wondering.)
The viewing of Marnie on the big screen in a fairly packed viewing room (50% capacity) was also a memorable experience but there were some external circumstances which made this less enjoyable than Johnny Guitar. There were a lot of young people attending and normally it makes me happy to notice that the younger generation also appreciates classic Hollywood. But I had a girl sitting one chair away from me eating a bag of potatoe chips and making a noise all the time, and my sister had a couple of love birds in front of her who clearly had other things in mind and were just plain annoying. They weren't allowed to sit right next to one another so fortunately they left.*) Because of these distracting factors there were numerous times I wasn't paying full attention. Luckily I had seen this film before and could remember most of it. A bit of an underrated Hitchcock this is, leaning on the strong performance of Tippi Hedren who's great in her apathetic moments. When I saw this for the first time in my younger days, I really liked Marnie's romance with Sean Connery, but I've grown more sensitive to man's sexist behaviour towards women and obviously the marital rape scene didn't sit well with me. Still, Sean's character Mark can also be very kind and caring towards Marnie. The ending sent a chill down my spine again, I still find it eerie, and fortunately everything comes together without leaving any loose ends. Louise Latham gives a great performance as Marnie's mother and Diane Baker is memorable as Mark's sister-in-law (and reminds me of Audrey Hepburn). Last but not least, Bernard Herrmann's haunting score! Fantastic to hear it in the theater, one of his best scores in my opinion.
*) Normally the conduct of the younger audience is exemplary and I believe most of them are genuine classic film lovers. There's even a special program Aula de Cinema (which Marnie is not part of, by the way) where the youngsters are mostly students and presumably interested in classic film. But I can imagine that with the current restrictions due to Covid some bored young people, who normally don't go to the Filmoteca, just want to go out before the evening curfew locks them in their homes again and tickets for the Filmoteca are cheap, only 4 euros. Still, Hitchcock does appeal to a modern audience so I believe that the majority is genuinely interested. My sister and I were just sitting in the wrong row.
I saw the following Lana Turner films, here listed in watching order:
Two Girls on Broadway (with Joan Blondell and George Murphy)
A Life of Her Own (with Ray Milland, Ann Dvorak, Barry Sullivan, Jean Hagen and Tom Ewell)
Marriage Is a Private Affair (with James Craig and John Hodiak)
They Won't Forget (with Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Edward Norris and Otto Kruger)
We Who Are Young (with John Shelton and Gene Lockhart)
Ziegfeld Girl (with James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Ian Hunter)
Of the Lana Turner films I liked They Won't Forget, A Life of Her Own and Ziegfeld Girl best.
They Won't Forget was Lana's film debut in which she has a small part as the murder victim. She leaves an impression right away and after the film got nicknamed The Sweater Girl (because of the scene where she walks down the street wearing a tight sweater). Other than Turner's role, this is a compelling watch, apparently based on the real-life case of Leo Frank. It takes a look at the role the media and ambitious politicians play in creating an explosive atmosphere where a crazy angry mob takes matters into their own hands. Unfortunately Claude Rains gives an unbalanced performance as the district attorney. Too bad his courtroom scenes are so unrestrained and over the top. Otto Kruger's performance is rather subdued in comparison. Elisha Cook Jr., in an early role, overacts and is pretty awful. I think Gloria Dickson turns in the best performance as the wife of the indicted school teacher, she impresses in the scene where she gives an impassioned speech about the injustice of it all.
A Life of Her Own I also watched for Turner. And I was happy to see Ann Dvorak in a dramatic role which she pulled off splendidly. In fact, she was the best thing this film has to offer, even though she's in it for just a little while. Turner gives a pretty good performance too and suits the role well of a model climbing her way to the top. This is a solid drama — despite being too long — and has the benefit of a good ensemble cast (the already mentioned Dvorak, Ray Milland, Tom Ewell, Louis Calhern, Barry Sullivan and Jean Hagen). I especially enjoyed Ewell's performance. Sullivan also has his moment, in his final conversation with Turner where he's being cold and mean towards her.
Ziegfeld Girl is way too long but I enjoyed most of it. Turner is the star of the show and this was apparently her big break into Hollywood stardom. Her character is the most tragic one, not handling her sudden fame and wealth very well and resorting to drinking. I read that the producers wanted to kill her off but the preview audience wouldn't have any of it so they left the ending ambiguous. The scenes with Turner and Jimmy Stewart are my fave bits of this film, especially the last scene with a sick Turner in bed. They have great chemistry and I wouldn't have minded if this movie had just been about them. Hedy Lamarr looks stunning again, I love her accent, but she has very little to do. Judy Garland gets to sing some songs but they are mostly forgettable. This is apparently a sequel to The Great Ziegfeld, which I still need to see, but since it has a runtime of 2 hours and 56 minutes it won't be any time soon.
We Who Are Young is a pretty decent film about the financial struggles of newlyweds Lana Turner and John Shelton in times of the Depression. Lana is sweet and young and plays a likeable character. I liked her performance and she has good chemistry with Shelton. The original screenplay was written by Dalton Trumbo and he gives the main character a left-wing view on the labour force. The film's message gets a bit preachy (no man has ever achieved anything just by himself, he always had help from other people around him) and gravitates towards sentimentality. Though this film lacks a certain edge, it's still enjoyable. By the way, for someone pregnant with twins Turner had a remarkable flat belly.
Marriage Is a Private Affair and Two Girls on Broadway were the least enjoyable of the Turner films.
Marriage Is a Private Affair just dragged on and on. I enjoyed this melodrama to some extent but in the end I just wanted it to be finished. It was waaaaayyy toooo long! Lana Turner looks beautiful at times (though she also wears her hair in the 1940s victory roll style, which I don't really like) but I found her child-like voice a bit annoying here. I liked John Hodiak, will definitely check out more of his films. This drama is totally forgettable, with Keenan Wynn making a short appearance at the end of the film and providing some comic relief.
Normally I would have seen Two Girls on Broadway for Joan Blondell because I like her more than Lana. But I selected it for Lana because of the centennial of her birth. Blondell was in the 1930s a popular leading actress in many Warner Brothers films but here for MGM she is relegated to a supporting role and plays second fiddle to Lana Turner. Yet it's clear who has the better acting chops. The only time I felt something during this film was during the emotional scenes with Blondell (here Blondell's character is also playing second fiddle to Turner's). The musical numbers were pretty boring (even though it was a nice surprise to see Turner dance) and the story itself is not very exciting or original. I wasn't impressed with Turner, to be honest. She is sweet and pretty, but I think Blondell looks more beautiful here. Her face has character. I also didn't care much for George Murphy, though he is not a bad dancer. I was surprised to read he had received an honorary Oscar and had pursued a political career later in life.
Continuing with the Sterling Hayden films, 9 films in total. They are, in watching order:
Johnny Guitar (with Joan Crawford, Mercedes McCambridge and Scott Brady)
The Star (with Bette Davis and Natalie Wood)
The Eternal Sea (with Alexis Smith and Dean Jagger)
Flaming Feather (with Barbara Rush, Forrest Tucker and Arleen Whelan)
Terror in a Texas Town (with Carol Kelly)
Kansas Pacific (with Eve Miller and Barton MacLane)
Journey Into Light (with Viveca Lindfors and Thomas Mitchell)
So Big (with Jane Wyman, Nancy Olson, Steve Forrest and Richard Beymer)
Arrow In The Dust (with Coleen Gray)
I've already discussed Johnny Guitar earlier with the two Filmoteca viewings.
I had high hopes for Terror in a Texas Town after seeing so many good ratings on Letterboxd and fortunately wasn't disappointed with this unusual western noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis (from Gun Crazy). It proved to be my highest rated Hayden film this month together with Johnny Guitar. It's also one of the better performances of his career. The opening scene where he is walking down the street with a big harpoon slung over his shoulder to meet his opponent for a 'shootout' is terrific. He portrays a gentle and peaceful character — a Swedish whaler (with a not so convincing Swedish accent) — and does this well. I thought he was particularly good in the scene where he hears about his father's death. He comes across as Amish-like at first but as the film progresses it's clear he's not to be messed with and it's inevitable he resorts to violence. I love the scene between Hayden and the female lead Carol Kelly in the bar. Hayden asks her why she stays with a man like Johnny Crale, the film's villain, well played by Nedrick Young. The answer she gives Hayden sounds tragic (I loved Kelly's performance): "I stay with him because I'm what I am. I stay with him because no other man would have me. I stay with him because as low as I am I can turn around and see him and remember there's somebody lower." Very good cinematography by Ray Rennahan. So many beautiful shots and great close-ups. Written by Dalton Trumbo.
The Star and The Eternal Sea are also good Hayden films.
I think I've never seen Sterling Hayden play such a likeable and gentle character as in The Star. I liked his calm manner and the way he tenderly looked at Bette Davis. His performance wasn't as stiff and wooden as it can be and he looks awfully good and dreamy. I would have loved to see him play such a gentle character in another movie with another leading lady who's a better match for him. He and Bette make an odd couple, not just because of the age difference (which is actually only 8 years), and reportedly they didn't get along. Bette is good but at times overacts, notably in the scene with her sister and brother-in-law. Her best and most memorable moment is the one where she takes her Oscar on a drunken drive tour. The scene where she watches the rushes of her screentest is powerful too. The romantic score composed by Victor Young reminded me of the one he wrote for My Foolish Heart. Also with Natalie Wood as Bette's daughter, who has a scene on the boat with Hayden and Davis warning her not to fall off. It was a bit eerie knowing how the actress would meet her untimely death in real life. It's also notable how close Hayden's character in this film comes to his real life. Hayden became a movie star accidentally while his true love was sailing and boats.
The Eternal Sea is a biopic of Vice Admiral John Madison Hoskins who loses his leg in an explosion aboard the USS Princeton, an aircraft carrier active during WWII. He refuses retirement and becomes the first commanding officer of the new Princeton. Hayden plays Hoskins and Alexis Smith is his wife. I liked them as a couple, a significant improvement on his pairing with Bette Davis in The Star. This is an enjoyable film, with a lot of war stock footage, and Hayden, who is on screen a lot, gives a solid performance. And he looks soooo good again!
So Big, Arrow In The Dust and Flaming Feather were all fairly entertaining.
So Big is a remake of the 1930s version with Barbara Stanwyck, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Edna Ferber novel. I wasn't too fond of the Stanwyck version (despite having Stanwyck, Bette Davis and George Brent in the leading cast), and though this version was enjoyable, I think the story just doesn't really grab me. I like Jane Wyman but more in her early spunky years and not so much in her 1950s (tear-jerking) films. Though Hayden may not be right for the part and his performance is not the best, he's still the best thing this film has to offer. He looks good and his presence kept me thoroughly engaged and entertained. Then his character dies and we still have 50 minutes to go and I almost lost interest. Steve Forrest (I just found out he's Dana Andrews' younger brother!) is very bland as Wyman's son, I didn't care about his character at all. Wyman, looking natural without makeup, gives a solid performance, but I was most impressed with young Richard Beymer playing young Roelf. Adequate support by Nancy Olson in the Davis role and Martha Hyer. Directed by Robert Wise.
Arrow In The Dust is an action-filled western about a cavalry deserter replacing his dead cousin's command over a wagon train moving to the next army base. It started out pretty dull but became increasingly watchable and entertaining (despite too many fights between the cavalry and thousands of faceless Indians). Sterling Hayden is wooden again (I had to think of his quote "I could jump into some jackass Western for three weeks and then be free for three months to do what I wanted"), but I liked seeing him with his leading lady from The Killing, Coleen Gray, they make a good pair. And sorry ... but I have to say it again ... Hayden looks good, this time in cavalry blue!
Flaming Feather is an entertaining but not very exciting western. Actually, I didn't really care that this was standard fare because it has Handsome Hayden. The identity of the Sidewinder was pretty obvious from the start. Barbara Rush plays Hayden's love interest but doesn't have much to do. She looks beautiful this young, though. I love the cinematography by Ray Rennahan, he makes good use of the wonderful locations with the reddish rock formations. (Rennahan was the technicolor associate for Gone With the Wind.)
The two least enjoyable of the Hayden films were Journey Into Light and Kansas Pacific.
The story premise of Journey Into Light about a minister abandoning his profession and faith after his wife's suicide and ultimately finding love with a blind woman and regaining his faith is appealing. Yet this film never gets really exciting or dramatic and clearly suffers from a very wooden performance by Hayden, his line readings were pretty bad. I didn't find him that believable as a minister either. The one thing you can say in his benefit is that he looked good again. And despite his failing acting skills he always manages to command the screen with his presence. Fine support by Thomas Mitchell and I liked Viveca Lindfors as Hayden's love interest.
Kansas Pacific was nothing special and could have used more Sterling. The obligatory romance is dull and Eve Miller whom I've only seen opposite of Kirk Douglas in The Big Trees is an uninteresting leading lady. It was nice to see Barton MacLane as Miller's father playing such a likeable role and being a bit older here. With okay action scenes.
So far the Hayden films! It's been a real pleasure!
Furthermore I watched 8 romantic films:
The End of the Affair (with Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills and Peter Cushing)
Summertime (with Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi and Isa Miranda)
Interlude (with June Allyson and Rossano Brazzi)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die (with John Gavin, Liselotte Pulver, Don DeFore and Keenan Wynn)
Night Unto Night (with Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, Broderick Crawford and Rosemary DeCamp)
A Lady of Chance (with Norma Shearer, Lowell Sherman, Gwen Lee and Johnny Mack Brown)
Little Man, What Now? (with Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery and Alan Hale)
Without Love (with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn)
The End of the Affair, Summertime, A Time to Love and a Time to Die, Without Love and Little Man, What Now? are all good films and I enjoyed them thoroughly.
I didn't know anything about the story of The End of the Affair beforehand. Of course, like the title suggests, this film is about an affair, an extra-marital one. I was surprised how quickly the viewer gets plunged into this affair right at the start of the film. I liked the religion aspect and how the story developed and how the POV changed from Van Johnson to Deborah Kerr. Kerr is terrific and photographs beautifully. Peter Cushing and John Mills are great as well. Though Johnson is not on the same level, his performance is not bad and he has even some good scenes. The music is at times overbearing but the cinematography by Wilkie Cooper is top-notch throughout the film, at times noirish with sharp contrast between light and dark. I also loved the location shots.
Summertime is David Lean's love letter to Venice and for someone who's never been there this film (shot in its entirety on location) was such a treat and really transported me to that magical place and let me wander its streets and canals. And boy ... was I in good company! Katharine Hepburn was absolutely great and in her lonely and sad moments she broke my heart. Rossano Brazzi is handsome in a slick kind of way and the manner in which he wooed Hepburn was pretty smooth. I liked the little boy Gaetano Autiero and was glad he was Hepburn's friend. Great cinematography by Jack Hildyard who made a couple of films with David Lean, winning an Oscar for Best Cinematography for The Bridge on the River Kwai. Also beautiful music composed by Alessandro Cicognini. And I want to live in Pensione Fiorini with that gorgeous terrace!
A Time to Love and a Time to Die is a well-made romantic war drama, with the focus on the love story between a German soldier coming home on furlough and the daughter of his family's physician. This film makes one ponder the absurdity of war again. It was unusual to see the German side of the war depicted in a Hollywood film but one realises that no matter what side you're on soldiers basically endured the same plight. I love Liselotte Pulver (I've seen a great many German films in my youth, the so-called Heimat films, and have always enjoyed Pulver) and she really brightens up the screen with her sparkling personality. I also love her character and can't blame John Gavin falling for her. The photography is beautiful, courtesy of Russell Metty, mostly in bleak colours which is not common for a Douglas Sirk picture. Also with Erich Maria Remarque as the professor (he wrote the novel on which this film is based). A compelling watch with a grim ending.
I had Little Man, What Now? on my watchlist for some time and decided to watch it because it has a love story at its center. This is typical Frank Borzage fare with its lyricism, romanticism and poetry. A young couple tries to make ends meet during the Depression as the man loses his job and seeks other employment. Borzage focuses on the couple's love for one another rather than the social problems. Despite the seriousness of their circumstances, the film is endowed with a positivity and an almost fairytale-like quality with good fairies Alan Hale and Christian Rub aiding the couple with their kindness. I also found the story element of the employer Kleinholz — who only hires bachelor men so one of them can marry his unattractive daughter — to be something out of a fairytale. Margaret Sullavan is really lovely and I was pleasantly surprised with Douglass Montgomery's naturalness on screen. Especially the scene where he tells Sullavan the story about his employer and the spinster daughter is very well acted. The ending might be too saccharine but I loved it and the baby is supercute.
Without Love is a very enjoyable romantic comedy about scientist Spencer Tracy unexpectedly finding himself accepted as caretaker of Katharine Hepburn's house. They marry out of convenience, both done with love. There is not much to the plot but the chemistry between the leads is amazing. I adored their scenes together. Hepburn's character is very likeable and I like her vulnerability. I really loved her performance and she also delivers some great fast-talking lines (e.g. the proposal). The side story with the great and feisty Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn is fun too. Also, Dizzy is one of the cutest dogs I've ever seen!
Night Unto Night and A Lady of Chance were enjoyable but flawed and Interlude was the worst of these eight romantic films.
The romantic melodrama Night Unto Night is hampered by the limited range of Ronald Reagan's dramatic acting skills. He's much better at light comedy. Still, I enjoyed most of this, especially the moody gothic atmosphere and the beautiful photography by J. Peverell Marley. I watched this for Viveca Lindfors and she's very pretty here. Her acting abilities surpass those of Reagan and it's actually a shame she didn't have a more capable leading man. It would have made the dramatic story so much more effective. I was surprised how epilepsy is treated like a deadly disease and it was a bit shocking that Reagan wanted to commit suicide because of it (his epileptic spells weren't even that bad yet). Nice support by Broderick Crawford and Rosemary DeCamp and I loved the playful interactions between everyone and Josephine, the maid (Lillian Yarbo). Fine dramatic score by Franz Waxman.
A Lady of Chance is the only silent film I watched this month. It's Norma Shearer's last silent film. Though I had hoped to love it more, this lightweight comedy was still really enjoyable. Shearer is captivating as the little golddigger who marries Johnny Mack Brown for his money only to find out that he isn't rich at all. I like her performance despite some overacting bits and she looks radiant. I loved Lowell Sherman and Gwen Lee as the other con artists but Johnny Mack Brown didn't impress me much.
I watched Interlude because I wanted to watch more romance films and I had just seen Summertime with Rossano Brazzi and thought I'd watch another Brazzi film to see if I would like him any better. This Douglas Sirk melodrama suffers from a weak leading actress (whereas Summertime benefits from a great performance by Katharine Hepburn). I generally like June Allyson but I thought her character and performance were pretty bland here. (What's up with her wearing only white dresses all the time?!) I didn't care much for her character and never rooted for her to find happiness with one of her two suitors. After visiting Venice in Summertime this was another tourist tour for me, now to Munich, Bavaria and Salzburg with a visit to Mozart's birth house where Brazzi plays Mozart's piano for Allyson. I find Brazzi — here married again and falling for the heroine — just a tad too slick, though I have to admit he's handsome and I found him believable as a conductor. The best moment of the film is the final scene with Brazzi's wife escaping from her bedroom and wandering like a ghost to the lake to drown herself. Allyson runs after her and saves her. Both women are dressed in white and in the half darkness it looked a bit eerie and visually it was beautiful. It's the only time in the film that I liked Allyson wearing white. Love the Technicolor and the luscious sets.
Coming to the last part of this post, the randomly picked films, here listed in watching order, 11 films in total:
I Sell Anything (with Pat O'Brien, Ann Dvorak, Claire Dodd and Roscoe Karns)
Caught (with James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes and Robert Ryan)
Danger on the Air (with Nan Grey and Donald Woods)
The Last Outpost (with Cary Grant, Gertrude Michael and Claude Rains)
Kid Nightingale (with John Payne and Jane Wyman)
Run for Cover (with James Cagney, Viveca Lindfors and John Derek)
An Angel from Texas (with Eddie Albert, Rosemary Lane, Wayne Morris, Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan)
Calling Dr. Gillespie (with Lionel Barrymore, Philip Dorn and Donna Reed)
The Get-Away (with Robert Sterling, Charles Winninger, Donna Reed and Dan Dailey)
Female on the Beach (with Joan Crawford, Jeff Chandler, Jan Sterling and Charles Drake)
Non-Stop New York (with Anna Lee and John Loder)
Run for Cover was by far the best of these random films. In fact, together with Johnny Guitar, Marnie and Terror in a Texas Town it was my highest rated film of the month. I had chosen it because I was looking for another film with Viveca Lindfors after having seen Journey Into Light with Sterling Hayden, and someone on Letterboxd had just watched Run for Cover and praised it. It has Jimmy Cagney in the lead and Nicholas Ray in the director's chair so I figured watching this was a risk worth taking. And I loved it! Cagney is very good and I love his character, a righteous and brave hero. I particularly liked his romance with Lindfors, it was very sweet. Still, I would have liked it better if Lindfors' character had been more independent and feisty, but nevertheless I enjoyed this immensely. Great cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp.
Caught is also a good film. I wanted to watch this for last Noirvember but discovered it wasn't a noir so saved it for a later date. Well, it is a drama with traces of noir, and photography-wise it's very noirish. Lee Garmes treats us to gorgeous shots (he's the DP of Nightmare Alley among others). This started pretty slowly, it didn't pick up speed until Barbara Bel Geddes meets James Mason. I really enjoyed their story. Bel Geddes can be a bit whiny but I enjoyed most of her performance. The story doesn't surprise much but I loved Mason's character (he's very kind and likeable) and also of his colleague doctor Frank Ferguson. The Franzi guy (Curt Bois) was totally annoying, though.
Kid Nightingale, Female on the Beach and Non-Stop New York were also really enjoyable.
I admit the B-film Kid Nightingale with a short runtime under an hour is very silly but I had fun with it nonetheless. I actually had to laugh every time John Payne bursts into song. Jane Wyman is very cute as his love interest. I didn't know Payne could sing for real but I looked it up online, and yes, he was a singer indeed and sounded pretty good. Don't think Wyman did her own singing but she had a sweet duet with Payne. This film is light and fluffy and I actually liked the foolish story premise of a handsome singing boxer who appealed to a female audience.
Female on the Beach is delicious camp. Not among Joan Crawford's best by a long shot but entertaining throughout. I don't care for Jeff Chandler at all, though, I don't see his appeal. I prefer Charles Drake, really like him. Stand-out here is the gorgeous beach apartment (can I live there, please?) and some fine photography by Charles Lang. Also with some great lines! (Drummond Hall: "How do you like your coffee?" Lynn Markham: "Alone!")
Non-Stop New York was the last film I watched this month. I stumbled upon this fairly unknown British film by accident and saw some good ratings on Letterboxd so decided to watch it. It was really enjoyable and reminded me of the early Hitchcock films with the typical British humour, although it's not nearly as good. The plot is somewhat unbelievable and some of the characters are rather annoying (the musical prodigy and his aunt). Too bad Anna Lee and John Loder's romance wasn't better developed (I love the romance stories in The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes) because they make a nice pair. The most fun to be had is from its setting, namely the transatlantic clipper aircraft travelling from London to New York in 18 hours! It looks very cool with cabins, a restaurant and observation decks. The deck is totally weird considering the fact it's an aircraft. (Apparently these luxury flying boats were existent in the 1930s.) Anyhow, the ending is pretty ridiculous. When the plane is rendered uncontrollable without a pilot at the steering wheel and the cockpit door locked, Loder asks whether there is another entrance to the cockpit. Sure, but you have to go via the roof of the plane. Like it's the most natural thing in the world Loder undertakes this difficult task and sure enough manages to slide into the cockpit and opens the door from the inside. What?!
I Sell Anything, An Angel from Texas, Calling Dr. Gillespie and The Get-Away were still entertaining but had their shortcomings.
I Sell Anything has Pat O'Brien in the lead as a fast-talking auctioneer who resorts to scheming. I found the beginning of the film very slow, with too much focus on the auction proceedings and O'Brien just being very loud, but when Ann Dvorak first appeared I became more interested. She was the reason I watched this in the first place and she was also the main reason for me to like this. Too bad she didn't have more screen time. The same goes for Claire Dodd who looks lovely. It was nice to see Roscoe Karns again.
I wanted to watch a comedy with Ronald Reagan after having seen him in the drama Night Unto Night and chose An Angel from Texas with a short runtime. Nothing special but enjoyable and a bit silly. It's fast-paced and full of energy with a lot of fast talking. The players are the new Warner Bros kids who also played in Brother Rat. Eddie Albert and Rosemary Lane take the lead and are pretty dull and actually Lane has no business being the leading lady when we have feisty Jane Wyman. Wyman is in fact the best thing of this film. She played these sassy roles in the beginning of her career and I love it. Ronald Reagan, here playing her husband, and Wayne Morris give good support as the scoundrels. Highly incredible that the bad show in which Albert and Lane are starring could be such a success.
One of my 2021 movie goals is seeing the entire Dr. Gillespie series, 6 films in total. This is the first entry. I have enjoyed the Dr. Kildare series but with Laraine Day gone and Lew Ayres taken off the series because of his conscientious objector status during WWII, it left Lionel Barrymore to continue as the grumpy Dr. Gillespie. Philip Dorn takes Ayres' place but he lacks in charisma and there's no chemistry between him and Barrymore whatsoever. Too bad because the interplay between the doctors is what makes the Kildare series work so well. The story premise is also a bit different from the Kildare series as it goes into crime territory, dealing with a homicidal mental case. I actually watched this for Donna Reed but she has little to do. I liked the suspense, enhanced by some fine photography by Ray June. Yet it all stays rather meek and Barrymore also disappears from time to time. Very small speaking part for a young Ava Gardner.
I watched The Get-Away for Donna Reed. Later I read it's a remake of Public Hero No. 1 with Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore and Chester Morris, which I have seen but don't remember much of. I thought I recognised the garage with the moving floor from somewhere. Robert Sterling is not a strong leading man, Chester Morris makes a more believable G-man. Though Joseph Calleia in the original is a stronger villain than Dan Dailey, Dailey gives a good performance and it's a far cry from his later musical roles for which he is remembered. Still, casting aside I thought it was well made, and although I found Donna Reed at first a bit annoying, I liked her more as the film progressed. I went back to the original afterwards to rewatch some scenes and The Get-Away looks like a scene-for-scene remake.
Coming to the least enjoyable of the random films, Danger on the Air and The Last Outpost.
Danger on the Air is an unremarkable B-mystery programmer. The story wasn't very exciting but I did enjoy the chemistry between the leads Donald Woods and Nan Grey. Also with William Lundigan but the most notable thing for me was seeing Tom Kennedy from the Torchy Blane series making a short appearance as the doorman of the victim's apartment.
As if Cary Grant wearing a moustache isn't bad enough, The Last Outpost was pretty dreadful. It was my lowest rated film of the month. The only plus was Gertrude Michael, she looked beautiful, and she was the reason in the first place for me to seek out this film. Unfortunately Claude Rains couldn't save this film either. (Have to admit I was terribly sleepy while watching this in bed and kept dozing off, but I don't think this film would have deserved my undivided attention anyway.)
The End!
So, that's another round-up! In March I'm planning to watch aviation films and hopefully I'll find the time to do an extra post (on aviation films). See you all next time!
PHOTOS/GIFS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*Johnny Guitar (1954) with Sterling Hayden and Joan Crawford;
*Johnny Guitar (1954) with Sterling Hayden; (gif by me)
*Johnny Guitar (1954) with Sterling Hayden;
*Johnny Guitar (1954) with Frank Ferguson, Mercedes McCambridge and Ward Bond;
*Johnny Guitar (1954) with Joan Crawford;
*Marnie (1964) with Tippi Hedren;
*Marnie (1964) with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren;
*Marnie (1964) with Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren;
*They Won’t Forget (1937) with Lana Turner and Linda Perry;
*They Won’t Forget (1937) with Gloria Dickson and Edward Norris;
*They Won’t Forget (1937), behind the scenes with Lana Turner;
*A Life of Her Own (1950) with Lana Turner and Ann Dvorak; (2 photos)
*Ziegfeld Girl (1941), behind the scenes with Judy Garland, Lana Turner and James Stewart;
*Ziegfeld Girl (1941) with Lana Turner, James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Charles Winninger and Philip Dorn; (gif by me, taken from a clip on YouTube)
*Ziegfeld Girl (1941) with Lana Turner, James Stewart, Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr and Tony Martin; (gif by me, taken from a clip on YouTube)
*Ziegfeld Girl (1941) with Lana Turner, Hedy Lamarr and Tony Martin; (gif by me, taken from a clip on YouTube)
*We Who Are Young (1940) with Lana Turner and John Shelton;
*Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944) with Lana Turner, John Hodiak and James Craig;
*Two Girls on Broadway (1940) with Lana Turner, Joan Blondell and George Murphy;
*Sterling Hayden, Most Watched Actor of the Month;
*Terror in a Texas Town (1958) with Sterling Hayden; (gif by me)
*Terror in a Texas Town (1958) with Sterling Hayden; (screenshot by me)
*Terror in a Texas Town (1958) with Sterling Hayden and Carol Kelly; (screenshot by me)
*The Star (1952) with Bette Davis and Sterling Hayden; (screenshot by me)
*The Star (1952) with Bette Davis and Sterling Hayden; (2 photos)
*The Eternal Sea (1955) with Sterling Hayden and Alexis Smith;
*The Eternal Sea (1955) with Sterling Hayden; (2 screenshots by me)
*So Big (1953) with Sterling Hayden and Jane Wyman; (2 photos)
*Arrow In The Dust (1954) with Sterling Hayden and Coleen Gray;
*Flaming Feather (1952) with Sterling Hayden, Barbara Rush and Forrest Tucker;
*Flaming Feather (1952) with Sterling Hayden, Barbara Rush, Arleen Whelan, Victor Jory and Richard Arlen;
*Flaming Feather (1952) with Sterling Hayden, Barbara Rush and Victor Jory;
*Journey Into Light (1951) with Sterling Hayden;
*Journey Into Light (1951) with Sterling Hayden and Viveca Lindfors;
*Kansas Pacific (1953) with Sterling Hayden and Eve Miller;
*The End of the Affair (1955) with Deborah Kerr; (screenshot by me)
*The End of the Affair (1955) with Deborah Kerr and Van Johnson;
*The End of the Affair (1955) with Deborah Kerr and Peter Cushing;
*Summertime (1955) with Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi; (3 screenshots by me)
*A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) with Liselotte Pulver; (screenshot by me)
*A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) with Liselotte Pulver and John Gavin; (screenshot by me)
*A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) with Liselotte Pulver; (screenshot by me)
*Little Man, What Now? (1934) with Margaret Sullavan and Douglass Montgomery;
*Without Love (1945) with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn;
*Without Love (1945) with Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn;
*Night Unto Night (1949) with Ronald Reagan and Viveca Lindfors;
*Night Unto Night (1949) with Viveca Lindfors; (screenshot by me)
*A Lady of Chance (1928) with Norma Shearer; (screenshot by me)
*A Lady of Chance (1928) with Norma Shearer and Johnny Mack Brown;
*A Lady of Chance (1928) with Norma Shearer;
*Interlude (1957) with June Allyson and Rossano Brazzi; (screenshot by me)
*Run for Cover (1955) with James Cagney and Viveca Lindfors; (3 screenshots by me)
*Caught (1949) with Barbara Bel Geddes and Robert Ryan;
*Caught (1949) with Barbara Bel Geddes and James Mason;
*Caught (1949) with Barbara Bel Geddes;
*Kid Nightingale (1939) with John Payne and Jane Wyman;
*Kid Nightingale (1939) with Jane Wyman; (screenshot by me)
*Female on the Beach (1955) with Joan Crawford, Jeff Chandler and Charles Drake;
*Female on the Beach (1955), behind the scenes with Joan Crawford and Jeff Chandler;
*Female on the Beach (1955), behind the scenes with Joan Crawford, Jeff Chandler and director Joseph Pevney;
*Non-Stop New York (1937), film poster;
*Non-Stop New York (1937) with Anna Lee and John Loder;
*I Sell Anything (1934) with Pat O'Brien and Ann Dvorak;
*I Sell Anything (1934) with Pat O'Brien, Ann Dvorak, Claire Dodd and Roscoe Karns;
*An Angel from Texas (1940) with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman;
*An Angel from Texas (1940) with Eddie Albert and Rosemary Lane;
*Calling Dr. Gillespie (1942) with Donna Reed and Philip Dorn;
*The Get-Away (1941) with Donna Reed and Robert Sterling;
*Danger on the Air (1938) with Donald Woods and Nan Grey;
*The Last Outpost (1935) with Cary Grant and Gertrude Michael.
