'60s trash classic: The Pleasure Seekers

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

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

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

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

VOTD

We have a pair of Trash Classics to look at this week - first a return visit to that Magnum Opus from 1967: VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and then one I have not seen before, the rare 1972 POPE JOAN ....

Anne Welles, a bright, brash young New England college grad leaves her Peyton Place-ish small town and heads for Broadway, where she hopes to find an exciting job and sophisticated men. During her misadventures in Manhattan and, later, Hollywood, she shares experiences with two other young hopefuls: Jennifer North, a statuesque, Monroe-ish actress who wants to be accepted as a human being, but is regarded as a sex object by all the men she meets, and Neely O'Hara, a talented young actress who's accused of using devious means by a great older star (Helen Lawson) to reach the top .....

This reviewer (TJBNYC - host of one of my favourite sites: Stirred, Straight Up, With a Twist) at IMDB in 2001 puts it so well:

This is it, kiddies, the Grande Dame of camp classics. The sheer ineptitude of everyone involved is staggering. Mark Robson directs without a trace of nuance or subtlety; Patty Duke and Susan Hayward come off as boozy drag queens; Sharon Tate and Barbara Parkins look and act as if they had taken one downer too many; Dory and Andre Previn's musical numbers are as funny as those in "The Operetta"--the "I Love Lucy" episode which parodied musical theater; Billy Travilla concocts some of the most glamorously god-awful gowns ever seen; and Kenneth (of Hairstyles by Kenneth, of course) must be personally responsible for the hole in the ozone layer, so lacquered, teased and towering are his creations. But, you know what? IT ALL WORKS. The source material--Jacqueline Susann's groundbreaking, scandalous novel--begs for sledgehammer direction, overripe acting and eyepopping fashions. Certainly, subtlety was not a hallmark of Jackie's work. If anything, VOTD should have been even MORE over-the-top. Due to restrictions of the time, the film is sadly devoid of such juicy plotlines as Jennifer's lesbian affair, Tony's preference for - ahem - rear-entry intercourse, and Neely walking in on Ted Casablanca's tryst with another man. What we have, instead, is an endlessly entertaining piece of cinematic trash that is nowhere near as racy as it would like us to believe; and that's part of its twisted charm. Because it fails on so many levels--as true art, as explicitly sexual titillation, or as a faithful adaptation of a popular book--it's downright inspiring that it comes together so brilliantly. VOTD's ultimate triumph is that, despite its incredible waste of talent, time and money, 30 years later, we're still watching.

We certainly enjoyed VALLEY OF THE DOLLS in 1967 - I actually loved the soundtrack, that title song by Dionne Warwick, lyrics and music by the then Previns (Andre and Dory), which we hear while Barbara Parkins as Anne wallows in the surf after too many dolls (pills). Those New England in the snow scenes are lovely too, reminding us of those Fox PEYTON PLACE sagas and their movies about '3 girls sharing an apartment and looking for love'. The standout here of course is Patty Duke snarling and braying as Neely O'Hara, wearing the wrong costume for her next number as she is bombed or wondering where everyone is as her understudy (got up to look like the young Streisand) successfully takes her place. Then there is Ted Casablanca and those hilarious scenes at the studio as poor Jennifer (Sharon Tate) is only valued for her body ...... this is all deliriously put together by old hand Robson, no-where better than the famous cat-fight between Helen Lawson and Neely. This must have proved the template for all those fights between Joan Collins and Linda Evans on DYNASTY ....

Susan (replacing Judy Garland) of course is in her element here as the "barracuda" stage legend and she has 4 great scenes, the initial one when Parkins goes to the theatre to get her signature on some documents (above) when Helen hears Neely sing and gets her fired from the show; "give me a fountain pen, not one of those lousy ball-points" Helen/Susan growls, in that red suit, and her line "I know all about run of the play conrtracts"! Later she sings that hilarious number "I'm going to plant my own tree", then there is the tussle with Neely (right) before her wig goes down the can: "listen, they drummed you out of hollywood so you come crawling back to Broadway, well Broadway doesn't go for booze and dope...", she then leaves without the wig: "I'll go out the way I came in", and her final scene when she admits Neely's talent but knows she will destroy herself .... Susan of course is heads and shoulders above the rest of the cast, though Sharon Tate again shows what a singular beauty she was.

The men all seem hand-picked for their dullness: Paul Burke, Tony Scotti and Martin Milner all play mere cardboard foils for the volcanic, tragically self-destructive females, while the gays of course are dismissed as fags. You haven't experienced the true tacky splendor of the '60s till you've slipped this baby in your machine ...
The gay boys over at Datalounge.com (gay gossip site) actually have threads about Helen Lawson, a bulletproof Broadway legend, inventing various tv specials she did and things that went wrong with them as Helen boozes and cusses and causes havoc. Too, too funny .... Susan gives it her all here, really her last major movie, and Patty as Neely is dynamite too, and then there is Lee Grant stupendous as ever .... Trash has hardly been better, from the Jacqueline Susann best-seller (Jackie plays a tv reporter here), up there with Rona Jaffe's THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, another great Fox movie trash classic; or THE OPPOSITE SEX or WOMAN'S WORLD or those Lana Turner classics .... or Susan's BACK STREET, or those  more luridly trashy HARLOW films and THE OSCAR and of course THE LOVE MACHINE from 1970, the acme of Trash  from another Susann blockbuster, as per reviews at Trash label.

The Look of 1959

I have been meaning to get around to 1959, for me one of the best movie years ever, and a key year for me, being 13 at the time - going to the movies and reading the movie magazines of the time, back in my small town in Ireland. 1959 was as important as THE great movie year 1939, and also 1960 and 1962, for me. The big hitters of the year are too well known to go over again - BEN HUR, SOME LIKE IT HOT, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, THE NUN'S STORY, ON THE BEACH, RIO BRAVO, IMITATION OF LIFE, etc .... I want instead to concentrate on "the look" of a few particular favourites: NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, A SUMMER PLACE .... also westerns like Cooper's THE HANGING TREE by Delmer Daves and THEY CAME TO CORDURA by Rossen, THESE THOUSAND HILLS where Lee Remick is so touching as the "saloon girl" and Loren has to choose soldier Tab Hunter or her rich protector George Sanders in Lumet's THAT KIND OF WOMAN, while Anthony Quinn woos her in THE BLACK ORCHID.



What I particularly like about NORTH BY NORTHWEST is that view it creates of America going about its business at railway stations, on trains, tourist attractions like Mount Rushmore, art galleries, hotels etc as our hapless George Kaplan (Grant) flees across country .... and of course that amazing house - a mid century modern dream - created for the film's climax when Cary drops down the matchbook to warn Eve Kendall that they (Mason and Landau) are on to her.



There is also of course the Frank Lloyd Wright style house in A SUMMER PLACE, Delmer Daves' enormous hit from the Sloane Wilson novel (I remember getting the paperback...) which cemented Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue as the teen favourites - Sandra was soon GIDGET, while Troy had that run of successful Daves sudsers like PARRISH, SUSAN SLADE, ROME ADVENTURE (LOVERS MUST LEARN) - more on those soon. For a while though, Troy with the blond hair and the red windcheater and the white shorts was almost as iconic as James Dean in his red jacket and jeans. Troy was also the nasty boyfriend who beats up Susan Kohner passing for white in IMITATION OF LIFE, Sirk's farewell and still the sudser to beat them all.


THE BEST OF EVERYTHING remains a delirious treat too (more on it at Joan Crawford, Jean Negulesco, 50s, Trash labels). Joan is specially billed "and Joan Crawford as Amanda Farrow", as we follow the 3 girls Hope Lange, Suzy Parker and Diane Baker - it should have been 4 as in Rona Jaffe's bestseller, but they made it 3 in keeping with Fox's other films, usually by Jean Negulesco, as here) so Martha Hyer is practically snipped out of the film. It has the look to perfection of offices in the late 50s - the look that MAD MEN aspires to now - where Joan/Amanda terrorises the typing pool and good girls worry about going too far (Baker), or falling for heels (Baker/Parker) or becoming a married man's mistress (Lange). I love that opening as the camera sweeps over Manhattan and all those girls going to work, as Hope emerges from the subway and the breeze blows up her little bolero jacket showing the lining underneath, as she fixes her hat while wearing her white gloves - which Eve Kendall of course wears as she dangles from Mount Rushmore in N BY NW...



In black and white too we have Lee Remick as the over-heated army wife in ANATOMY OF A MURDER, while Elizabeth Taylor has that white almost transparent bathing suit for her role as 'bait' in SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, and that nice summer dress for the climax as she screams out what happened to Sebastian last summer ... SUMMER was actually filmed in England, where the look was perfectly captured in films like I'M ALRIGHT JACK and ROOM AT THE TOP and Losey's BLIND DATE, and EXPRESSO BONGO, and thrillers like TIGER BAY and NORTHWEST FRONTIER, or THE JOURNEY and SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL.  Filmed in 1959 for 1960 release was Donen's comedy ONCE MORE WITH FEELING with Kay Kendall and Yul Brynner, Kay was dressed by Balmain in black and white costumes to reflect 1960 style but she died in September '59 three months after filming completed, before the film's release ...

Over in Europe though the new decade was limbering up with those seizing-the-moment films like Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS, Clement's PLEIN SOLEIL, Bolognini's LA NOTTE BRAVA, Mocky's LES DRAGUEURS, Chabrol's LES COUSINS, Franju's EYES WITHOUT A FACE, Dassin's LA LOI, the Russian BALLAD OF A SOLDIER and THE LETTER NOT SENT, Brazil's BLACK ORPHEUS, while Fellini and Antonioni were filming L'AVVENTURA and LA DOLCE VITA, while Hitch rushed out his cheapie PSYCHO ... but that's 1960!
Also, of course were those films set in the new suburbs sprouting up then: Fox's NO DOWN PAYMENT in 1957 with their roster of contract players (Jeffrey Hunter, Joanne Woodward etc) (Jeff Hunter label), and Richard Quine's 1960 saga of adultery in those new suburbs architect Kirk Douglas is building in STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET (Kim Novak label).

4 girls in town

FOUR GIRLS IN TOWN. I had totally forgotten this 1957 Universal-International item though I know I saw it at the time, it is perhaps, like AWAY ALL BOATS, the quintessential U-I flick. We have 4 girls arriving in Hollywood, all up for an important part in a new biblical epic.

They are: Julie Adams [with her fearsome mother Mabel Albertson], Italian go-getter Elsa Martinelli, from France Gia Scala [who has a secret husband and child] and from Austria Marianne Cook (or Koch – she was the mentally ill wife in Sirk’s INTERLUDE) who is recovering from losing her beloved in a car accident]. There is also one Rita Holloway, the studio's main star who is only ever seen from the rear and looks uncannily like Jayne Mansfield in THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT as she sways around the studio lot.



The girls are nicely depicted and the guys they meet include director George Nader (ideal for Julie), actor-on-the-make John Gavin, playboy Grant Williams [that INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN] and composer Sydney Chaplin. The very attractive Gia (who got the GUNS OF NAVARONE gig but later commited suicide) has the least role here. Julie is as attractive as ever and Elsa (right) is the most eye-catching, she really is the most under-rated of the Italian sirens.

It plays out nicely with a surprise ending and is SO ‘50s! The girls are not complete of course until they each have a new man, and the scene where they gleefully catch fish coming ashore to lay their eggs would horrify today's sensibilities. Written and directed by one Jack Sher.

Back to the delirious '50s: WOMAN'S WORLD

WOMAN'S WORLD. For me this 1954 Fox movie is the '50s in aspic. Its a fabulously entertaining variation on the '3 girls sharing an apartment and looking for love' genre that Fox and director Jean Negulesco did so well (HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, 3 COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING) - here the 3 girls are married and visiting New York - cue great views of 50s Manhattan - as Clifton Webb, the head of a motor company, has to choose a new general manager and the wives are being vetted too to see if they are suitable material for company events.



The 3 couples are out-of-towners Cornel Wilde and ditzy (or is she?) June Allyson, sophisticates on the point of divorcing Lauren Bacall and Fred McMurray, and ambitious Van Heflin and Arlene Dahl who will go to any lengths to get her man the position. The gals get to wear to some marvellous frocks, Allyson and Bacall play their usual personas so the unknown quantity here is Dahl who steals the film - particuarly when she enters in that green clinging sheath with a divine little fur-trimmed bolero which she knowingly removes as she puts the make on Clifton and lets him see how grateful she will be if Van is the man. June spills coffee on her cocktail dress so she can get to be alone with Clifton's all-wise sister Margalo Gilmore (who is advising him), while Bacall gets the measure of Dahl: "have a cookie, cookie"!

Finally, once the manager is announced (right man, wrong wife - but that is soon rectified) they can all eat dinner! Clifton is in his element here and even seems to be (can it be possible in '54) a coded gay as he is not married and seems devoted to his general managers. Whatever, its an absolute treat to see anytime, a nice contrast to that other '54 star-studded executive drama EXECUTIVE SUITE.



Its one of a dozen or so '50s movies I simply adore - not classics like EAST OF EDEN, SUNSET BOULEVARD, ALL ABOUT EVE or A STAR IS BORN, but simple splashy, star-studded entertainments where fabulous gals wear fabulous clothes and live the high life, or the most delirious costume epics [more on them at Glamour label]. As well as WOMAN'S WORLD, bring on THE OPPOSITE SEX, DESIGNING WOMAN, LES GIRLS, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, JUPITER'S DARLING, ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, QUENTIN DURWARD, MOONFLEET, THE PRODIGAL, THE EGYPTIAN ... i enjoyed all those as a kid, and still do now.
Next: People We Like: Clifton Webb, the films of Jean Negulesco.

The Pleasure Girls

THE PLEASURE GIRLS, 1965, no not THE PLEASURE SEEKERS (they were Ann-Margret, Pamela Tiffin and Carol Lynley in Spain) – these are 4 English girls sharing an apartment in Kensington in 1965 London and this long-unseen black and white little film by Gerry O’Hara nicely captures that.

The blurb on the dvd reads: "Illicit love. Passion. Brutality. Riotous Parties and Sudden Heartbreak all play their part in this frank story of five bachelor girls who seek fame and fortune amid the bright lights of London.
Each girl has her own code, her own problems. Each is faced with the dilemma of how to pay the price demanded for a measure of happiness in the glitter and glamour of London's smart set.
Told with realism, compassion and compelling candour this is a story up to the minute as this morning's headlines. The pitfalls that await young girls drawn to the metropolis are unblushingly revealed in a film that combines gripping entertainment with an honest appraisal of today's morality". Beat that!

It is more Sixties in aspic as I knew that area in the 60s and lots of apartments like the one here. Francesca Annis (after her stint as CLEOPATRA’s handmaiden) is the nice country girl new in London to study at model school as she joins three other girls and the guy who lives in the apartment downstairs. He Paddy (Tony Tanner) turns out to be a happy uncomplicated ordinary gay guy (this was 2 years before the law regarding homosexuality was changed in England) – and not even a photographer like Roland Curram in the same year’s DARLING! Francesca gets involved with lad about town Ian McShane, while Anneke Wills is the girl who cannot get a boyfriend; Rosemary Nichols is the one who gets pregnant by no-good Mark Eden, a compulsive gambler; and Suzanna Lee is Dee the nice upper-class girl who discovers she really loves her racketeer landlord boyfriend Klaus Kinski (relatively restrained here). It touches on slum landlords which was topical in London then, and nicely captures that era – and makes a nice contrast to DARLING which got all the awards and attention.



Annis [now one of our senior actresses, in series like CRANFORD] and Lee were going places then. O’Hara was on the fringes of the exploitation market [his MAROC 7 (already reviewed here, Cyd Charisse label) is quite lively too], this was produced by Compton Films who specialised in these kind of films and who also distributed Polanski’s British films REPULSION and CUL-DE-SAC as well as items like A STUDY IN TERROR and THE PENTHOUSE. In all, a nice addition to those London just about to swing 60s titles, like NOTHING BUT THE BEST and SMASHING TIME. It's best companion pieces would be Michael Winner's THE SYSTEM from 1964 and Clive Donner's HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH from 1967, both of which I will have to return to. These though are now interesting dvd releases.