Summer re-runs: Its Always Fair Weather, 1955

Its that time of the year again, when we dig out old favourites for another enjoyable view. 1955's ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER is a film I love, I first saw it at a Sunday matinee when a kid in Ireland, and it has stayed with me. It seems curiously under-cherished in the pantheon of great musicals, being over-shadowed by Gene Kelly's bigger hits. BRIGADOON in 1954 is a bit dismal apart from a few great moments, but this, Gene's next one in 1955, with co-director Stanley Donen ticks all the boxes for me. 

It was originally intended as a sequel to 1949's ON THE TOWN, but that was jettisoned when Sinatra (who was on a roll then and didn't need to be second banana to Gene any more) declined, so Kelly and Donen decided to make it a dance-oriented musical and hired Dan Dailey and choreographer Michael Kidd to substitute for Frank and Frank Munshin. Made during a period of austerity at MGM, it obviously lacks the gloss of some other musicals but that works in its favour for the gritty story of street life in New York as the 3 returning sailors meet up again after 10 years and find they have nothing in common as it satirises the world of advertising and manipulative television shows - enter Madeline with her "Throb of Manhattan" sobfest. The dance routines are witty and energetic - Kelly on rollerskates, and the dustbin lids number - Gene had perfected his amiable heel routine, Dailey (fresh from THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS) is great as the advertising man, Cyd Charisse has some great moments too, particularly that dance routine in the gym (as Pauline Kael said: "Cyd Charisse is benumbed until she unhinges those legs") and stealing the show is the great Dolores Gray as Madeline. That number "Thanks A Lot But No Thanks" is a knockout, as is that dress, and I love that line "I've got a man who's Clifton Webb and Marlon Brando combined"! Jay C. Flippen is ideal too as the gangster who wants Gene's protege to lose the fight, thus causing mayhem in the studio as Madeline's saccharine show about the three G.I.'s reunion goes wrong. 

Kelly and Donen though found they could no longer work together, so this was their last movie in tandem, The CinemaScope format is perfectly used here, and Andre Previn's score is perhaps his best ever. It is all a mordantly funny, witty investigation of friendship as the three wartime buddies find their relationship has not survived the peace. It is surely one of Hollywood's most personal works dressed up as a witty musical. More on it at labels.  Here is what I wrote back in 2011:

It is the perfect mid-century story of 3 wartime buddies meeting up 10 years later in 1955 and realising that they don't like each other much now, and indeed Kelly and Dailey don't much like themselves either. Gene is mixing with hoods and managing a dumb boxer, while Dan Dailey has risen to "Executive Vice-President" level in advertising and is sick of the advertising game as he lets rip in his terrific solo number "Advertising-wise". Cyd Charisse is the television researcher who stumbles across them and realises their reunion is ideal for her television show "Midnight with Madeline" for "The Throb of Manhattan" spot where saccharine stories are featured. This is the early days of live television and the movie is a splendid satire on those artificial tv hostesses like Madeline and her diva tantrums. Cyd gets the hoods to confess on live air, Madeline has a hit show, the 3 buddies realise they are still friends after all. It's a perfect conclusion as Cyd joins Gene and the the guys back at the bar where they vowed to meet up 10 years previously.

Cyd and Gene sparkle as they spar with each other, and Dolores steals the show. What's not to love? It is a dark, sometimes bitter take on ON THE TOWN a decade later as the 3 buddies meet again -  Produced of course by Arthur Freed, with songs by Andre Previn, script by Comden and Green; perfect entertainment. The DVD includes a fascinating 'Making-Of' chronicling the fallout between Kelly and Donen, and several out-takes including a terrific inventive (that word again) deleted number between Kelly and Charisse "Love is Nothing But a Racket" which has been unseen for far too long, and Michael Kidd's solo spot with some kids, but Gene did not want that included, after his number with kids in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS! Essential stuff then.

I met Gene at a recording of a Parkinson interview for the BBC in 1975 - Donen of course went on to direct several of my enduing favourites: those Audrey Hepburn films like TWO FOR THE ROAD and CHARADE, Kendall in ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, Peck and Sophia ideal in ARABESQUE, and the marvellous BEDAZZLED with Pete and Dud and Eleanor Bron in 1967. We won't mention STAIRCASE or LUCKY LADY!  Gene of course after this went on to do another favourite of mine: Cukor's LES GIRLS in 1957 - as per label. 

The Opposite Sex, again

A story of love, revenge and Jungle Red nail polish.

In 1936 the public flocked to see the stage play of Clare Boothe Luce’s THE WOMEN. In 1939 MGM turned it into a huge film hit starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell and seemingly every other female star on the lot. Then in 1956 the studio remade it, adding songs, men (the previous versions featured only women) and glorious colour and Scope to THE WOMEN. Re-christened THE OPPOSITE SEX it entertained audiences all over again with the deliciously catty tale of elegant wives who “substitute fashion for passion and the analyst’s couch for the double bed”. The star-packed cast in headed by June Allyson.  She plays Kay (called Mary Haines in the Norma Shearer original) a perfect wife and mother who discovers her husband has been having a fling with mantrap showgirl – the glamorous and malicious Crystal Allen (Joan Collins – a good substitute for the original Joan [Crawford]). To win him back, she must learn to use her claws without ruining her manicure. So Dolores Gray. Joan Blondell, Agnes Moorehead, Ann Sheridan and Ann Miller teach her the fine arts of gossip, innuendo and backstabbing. Its witty, wicked fun!

It looks good too – all those ‘50s gals in those ritzy ‘50s outfits – Dolores in particular as catty Sylvia wears some stunning creations – dig that green number !  Allyson by contrast look rather wan and badly hair-styled (unlike in say WOMAN’S WORD in ‘54). La Collins (maybe the only cast member still alive and in our face at 82 – she is on this week’s Graham Norton Show here) get to wear some flash outfits too, and has an amusing music number set in the tropics, with lots of bananas. Helen Rose dressed them all. There’s also Carolyn Jones, Charlotte Greenwood and Alice Pearce as the Jungle Red saleslady spreading all that gossip. Agnes Moorehead is a blast as the Contessa Kay meets on the train to Reno for her divorce.

The plot is nicely twisted too, its Sylvia who takes up with and bankrolls Buck Winston (not the Contessa as in the original) and the climax at the nightclub is nicely worked out. Kay is a retired band singer (cue a few musical numbers by husky Allyson) and her husband a theatre producer, employing those showgirls like Crystal who is manipulating him nicely until Kay fights back …. The bitchslap above is a posed shot – its done differently in the film. Dolores Gray of course steals every scene, one can hardly take one’s eyes off her – like her other appearances in ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, KISMET and DESIGNING WOMAN. 

THE OPPOSITE SEX, directed by David Miller, remains a lot of fun - it may be  Trash Classic but its a terrific one - I have seen it lots of times since I was a kid, and lots on it here. I was given a free copy of the 2008 latest remake of Luce's original, but could not be bothered to check how bad it was. 

Kismet, 1955

MGM's 1955 musical by Vincente Minnelli is actually rather wonderful, I hadn't realised - I enjoyed it enormously early today, and I have the dvd filed away too. Its lush, opulent, MGM at its best and Minnelli's wonderful eye for colour and movement are well to the fore here - unlike his previous one, the moribund BRIGADOON which only comes to life intermittently. 
Howard Keel is terrific here, as he was in KISS ME KATE, CALAMITY JANE, and as Hannibal in that other favourite of mine JUPITER'S DARLING, while stupendous Dolores Gray matches him .... 

The fifties were an odd decade for Vincente, starting with those enormous hits AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and my personal favourite THE BANDWAGON in 1953 (see label).  His '53 comedy with Lucy and Desi THE LONG LONG TRAILER is an enduring childhood memory, but THE COBWEB is dreary, after KISMET came TEA AND SYMPATHY in 1956 and the wonderful DESIGNING WOMAN, a 1957 favourite where Peck, Bacall and Dolores Gray are all bliss - and Jack Cole too - Cole does the choreography in KISMET with his usual pizazz and chorus boys.   

Minnelli was big again in 1958: the Oscar-winning GIGI, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE (Kay, Rex and Angela =  certified bliss) and SOME CAME RUNNING - could he have been busier? followed by his string of melodramas; HOME FROM THE HILL, TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN, FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE and the tedious GOODBYE CHARLIE - his 1970 ON A CLEAR DAY is a mixed pleasure, Barbra as Daisy Gamble annoys, apart from the Beaton Regency flashbacks in Brighton, while Montand' s accent is as impenetrable as it was in LETS MAKE LOVE a decade earlier. 

I now though have a Minnelli rarity lined up to see sometime soon: that 1976 oddity and his last film A MATTER OF TIME with Liza and Ingrid Bergman, its meant to be so terrible it was never released, we will soon see why ... more on Minnelli and his films at label. 

Some Minnelli's for Easter ....

We have been enjoying some prime 1950s Minnelli films: musicals, dramas, comedies ..... THE BANDWAGON remains our favourite musical - see separate label. We recently covered TEA AND SYMPATHY, and also reviewed TWO WEEKS IN ANOTHER TOWN a while back, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE and DESIGNING WOMAN are particular favourites, very stylish entertainments which find Minnelli in his element, as per previous posts on them - check all at Minnelli label. I may have to go back to SOME CAME RUNNING and GIGI again (we did not care forthe 1955 THE COBWEB at all though) ..... and those other dramas like HOME FROM THE HILL (1960) ..... I actually like 1954's BRIGADOON, that studio-bound Scottish highlands musical, a childhood favourite, though it has its very obvious limitations - but Minnelli makes the most of the glittering New York interlude. For today, its BELLS ARE RINGING and KISMET, and back to the DESIGNING DEBUTANTE.

The get-up in New York's get-up-and-go comes from the switchboard operators of 'Susanswerphone'. Need a wakeup call? Your appointments? Encouragement from 'Mom'? A racetrack bet? It all comes from that dutiful nerve - or naive - centre that keeps enterprises enterprising and maybe wedding bells ringing.

Judy Holliday reprises her Tony-winning Broadway role of irrepressible switchboard girl Ella in a jubilant adaptation that marked her final movie and the final teaming of movie-musical titans Arthur Freed and Vincente Minnelli. Dean Martin co-stars as a struggling playwright in for a surprise when he learns 'Mom's' identity. The sparkling Jule Styne/Betty Comden/Adolph Green score includes Holliday's heartfelt "The Party's Over" and the Martin/Holliday duet "Just In Time". You've dialled the right numer, musical fans!

So goes the nice blurb for this 1960 Minnelli musical, it starts with nice Scope views of New York (rather like THE BEST OF EVERYTHING or BUT NOT FOR ME) as we look in on that telephone service. Telephones play an important role (as in PILLOW TALK where Rock and Doris have to share a line, and of course that telephone service in SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY which relays messages to its users...).

BELLS ARE RINGING is a pleasant view but lacks the pizazz of THE PAJAMA GAME or FUNNY FACE or MY SISTER EILEEN or KISS ME KATE or ..... It is marvellous seeing Judy Holliday one more time, sadly in her final film, she is the whole show here as the telephone operator who meddles in the affairs of clients, with nice support from Dino, Jean Stapleton and Frank Gorshin doing a Brando. Minnelli seems rather subdued here but creates some nice colour schemes and decors, but the subplot about racketeers seems tedious. The score is conducted by Andre Previn. Holliday also sings up a storm when she tells us she is "going back to be me, at the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Company". Judy Holliday died aged 43 in 1965, but was marvellous in her movies ever since ADAM'S RIB in 1949.

Much more brash is Vincente's 1955 KISMET, a gaudy Arabian Nights fantasia, with that score adapted from Borodin, which thankfully provides good roles for Howard Keel and Dolores Gray - while Ann Blyth scores as Keel's daughter and Vic Damone as the Caliph. The convoluted plot features begger/poet Hajj (Keel) wanting a better life for his daughter, meanwhile she and the Caliph meet and fall in love, then Dolores Gray comes as as Lalume and she and Hajj end up together ..... the nice score includes "Stranger in Paradise", "This is my beloved", "Baubles, Bangles and Beads", "Night of my Night" and "Not Since Nineveh" as the wicked Wazir wants the Caliph to marry one of his choices, while the bandit chief is looking for his long lost son who turns ou to be the Wazir, who promptly has his father killed. This is all delirious fun as the various strands come together and the Wazir gets his just deserts. Minnelli makes it all look great too. Dolores Gray shines too as she does in her other MGM mid-50s movies (Dolores Gray label). We also liked Blyth in THE STUDENT PRINCE, 1954 and of course her immortal Veda in MILDRED PIERCE! 

The supporting cast has a nice bevy of old-timers with Monty Wooley, Sebastian Cabot, Jack Elam, Jay C Flippen and Mike Mazurki, This was another Sunday afternoon matinee favourite when I was young, and would b e a delicious double bill with the 1956 JUPITER'S DARLING another MGM extravaganza, with Esther Williams in her last musical, with Keel as Hannibal, with all those elephants ....

THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, 1958, is all about Kay Kendall's Balmain wardrobe: Kay in champagne coloured Balmain chiffon and feathers, or that red suit with matching hat for her first scene, Rex looks bemused by it all and their apartment is a joy too - with those lovely green lamps and sofas, and yellow and red furnishings all very Minnelli. Angela Lansbury plays another bitch mother who wants that chinless wonder for her own deb daughter, while Americans Sandra Dee and John Saxon are the young couple. There is a lot more on this at the various Minnelli/Kendall labels. 

DESIGNING WOMAN is delicious fun too and so very 1957, another childhood favourite. Greg and Bacall are perfectly matched here and the plot is a joy. 

Sunday treats

What a busy day - "The Sunday Times" has "100 Soundtracks to Love" - fascinating, but does not include my favourite five: BLOW-UP, UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME, AMERICAN GIGOLO, CLEOPATRA or THE LION IN WINTER  (Kate Hepburn, below).... 

The Times also has a hilariously awful interview with Aretha Franklin (to plug her new album, see Aretha label) where it is obvious Aretha does want to to be there or do the interview .... this is compulsive stuff for Aretha fans here in England, as we do not get enough of her over here now.

Then there was that equally fascinating interview with Maggie Smith yesterday, as per post below, and now that Sophia Loren's book is out, there are some - yes, that word again - fascinating reviews plus a new interview she granted in Geneva to Chrissy Iley of The Sunday Telegraph .... 

Then we looked at THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT 3, recorded from yesterday, with some choice moments like Dolores Gray doing our favourite from IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER: "Thanks a lot, but no thanks" (where she has a man "who's Clifton Webb and Marlon Brando combined") - and the juxtaposition of Joan Crawford in that lurid outfit and "tropical makeup" miming to India Adams' vocal for "Two Faced Woman" in TORCH SONG - which Cyd Charisse (those legs!) had also done for THE BANDWAGON, but that number was cut from the film. Both were in 1953 - at least Joan got to immortalise it, but Cyd's is nifty too. See them both here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LMUJtcID5c

Top female singers of the last 50 years ...

My 1969 BBC ticket for "The Dusty Show"

There is a lively debate going on at the Datalounge.com gossip site, which I have been contributing to, on the Top 5 female singers of the last 50 years, so those established before then (such as Peggy Lee, Ella, Judy, Lena, Sarah, Billie, Doris etc) are excluded ....

Leading the pack, with my assistance, are these ten: 

Barbra (if only for those first early albums in the early '60s showing how different and stunning she was) and then the stage and screen FUNNY GIRL / Aretha (if only for those great Atlantic years) / Joni (that classic sequence of '70s albums) / Dusty Springfield / Annie Lennox (those great Eurythmics tracks and videos, that solo album DIVA which I practically wore out / Whitney / Dionne / Karen Carpenter / Nina Simone / Donna Summer - and I have been trying to big up Joan Armatrading, but the Americans don't seem to know her ...

Honorable mention: Etta James / Janis Joplin / Laura Nyro / Sade / Carole King (if only for TAPESTRY, another album that became part of one's life) / Carly Simon / Petula Clark / Cleo Laine / Nancy Wilson / Shirley Bassey / Diana Ross / Tina Turner / Roberta Flack / Mary J Blige / Tracy Chapman / Amy Winehouse / Janis Ian / Patsy Cline / Bobbie Gentry, and I would have to add: German diva Billie Ray Martin, Regina Belle, and disco gals like Kelis,  Ultra Nate, Adeva, Rosie Gaines, Joyce Sims, Erikah Badu, Angie Stone, Shara Nelson and Janet Jackson (again if only for THE VELVET ROPE, and those terrific remixes, all the way back to "What have you done for me lately").  Some like Janis or Amy Winehouse only lasted a few years, but their legacy is huge. Sade is an interesting case - not much output, an album and tour once every decade, but we still like and play her a lot, and again, what a style icon. I love how she performs PARADISE slinking around the stage in that electrifying tour dvd.

Funny how today's girls like Beyonce, J-Lo, even Madonna are not seen as great singers - despite some great songs and video moments. I personally don't care for Tina Turner, Whitney. Bassey or Diana Ross much myself, but they have to be included in the mix.  There just does not seem to be a comparable list of male singers ... 

Oops, a few more I like and used to play a lot: K D Lang, Linda Ronstadt, Kiri Te Kanawa, Alicia Keys, Gladys Knight ..... and of course recently there was no getting away from Adele or the reclusive Emile Sande (is there any programme she has not been on?) - this could go on and on.

'50s glamour ..... a summer re-visit

Greg is going to get some ravioli!

Kay Kendall again leads the pack on those '50s glamour gals - in LES GIRLS and THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, plus Greg Peck & Dolores Gray in the hilarious restaruant scene in DESIGNING WOMAN - more Minnelli glamour - and those delirious ladies in THE OPPOSITE SEX, that MGM 1956 remake of 1939's THE WOMEN with added glamour, colour and music; 
plus Arlene Dahl vamping Clifton Webb in Negulesco's WOMAN'S WORLD and Joan terrorising the typing pool in THE BEST OF EVERYTHING. More on these and their stars at labels .... Of course glamour was also being supplied by the likes of Audrey and Grace, Elizabeth and Marilyn, Kim and Janet, Lee, Sophia, Brigitte, Ava and Susan, Jean and Deborah and others .... Jean Negulesco (see label) did his bit in promoting '50s glamour with all those movies like HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, WOMAN'S WORLD and others ...

Gene Kelly - 100 !

They couldn't get 100 candles on the cake

We are taking a moment to celebrate that Gene Kelly would be 100 this year - and of course any excuse to print another still from one of our favourite movies LES GIRLS from 1957. There's Taina, Kay and Mitzi with Gene above.

I have to confess I don't actually care for SINGING IN THE RAIN or AN AMERICAN IN PARIS that much any more, BRIGADOON is so-so, but I absolutely love every frame of 1955's ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER and LES GIRLS, Gene's last musical in '57 and that one is really about the Girls and not him. Of course he also directed Barbra in HELLO DOLLY which we like a lot more now than we did back in 1969 .... and then there's his terrific '40s films like ON THE TOWN (Gene always looked great in a sailor suit...) and his amazing physicality in THE PIRATE, no longer so under-rated.   So, a quick celebration of Gene then .... he may have been, by several accounts, a hard task-master to work with - but what remains is what is up there on the screen. 

I got close to Gene back in 1975 when he was recording a Michael Parkinson TV show for the BBC at the Mayfair Hotel here in London, which was a great show, and Gene signed my copy of that then new biography of him by Clive Hirshhorn, and was very pleasant. Left: another delirious number from THE PIRATE.
See labels for more on Gene and those movies

Gene, Dan, Michael and fantabulous Dolores Gray - Its Always Fair Weather, where's Cyd?

Back to the cinema for a Minnelli double-bill, plus ...

I posted before about London's National Film Theatre (run by the British Film Institute) running their current retrospective on Vincente Minnelli, showing all his films *. So it was up to the South Bank yesterday for 2 of my favourites: THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE and DESIGNING WOMAN - both of which have been blogged about here before (see labels). I just want to say how marvellous it was seeing them on the big screen again, I can always pop the dvds on of course, but it was just splendid sitting in front of a Cinemascope screen again with an audience of like-minded devotees, including my IMDB pal Jerry (who gave me Fellini's 8 1/2 as a gift, a movie I had been meaning to get back to as only saw it once back in those 60s days - I gave him that new documentary THE LOOK on Charlotte Rampling).

To recap, Kay was marvellous in DEBUTANTE with that perfect Balmain wardrobe - wearing that boa  (maribou ?), Rex seemed in good mood here and Angela also was having a good time. Sandra Dee seems a little wan here, I liked her more at the time in her other films. And again Vincente creates a marvellous space for them with that great apartment with the red and yellow chairs and cushions (I wore a yellow tee-shirt, as it was a favourite Minnelli colour), and also that ideal shade of green for those other armchairs and lamp. It was all actually filmed in Paris (the interiors at any rate) in early 1958 in just 7 weeks (in between the New York and London runs of Rex's hit MY FAIR LADY) - Vincente had just finished GIGI there, and would go on to SOME CAME RUNNING next in that great year of his 1958.

DEBUTANTE was a popular stage play at the time by William Douglas Home who adapted for the screen. It originally featured Celia Johnson and Wilfrid Hyde-White as the parents, and one can just picture them in the roles, with the young Anna Massey as the reluctant deb (Massey died last year, RIP label). It was glammed up and nicely changed when the Harrisons came on board, making Kendall the second wife (as she would have been too young to be the deb's mother) and making the daughter raised in America, to suit the teen stars Dee and Saxon. It nicely captures that era, where the rich came down for breakfast with everything - all those scrambed eggs etc - set out in silver salvers for them. How did the ladies wear those long gloves which they are forever putting on and taking off ? The audience applauded at the end .... This and Cukor's LES GIRLS remain Kay's greatest roles, and she had one more in 1959 in Donen's ONCE MORE WITH FEELING (more on these at Kendall label).

DESIGNING WOMAN is also bliss to see again now, where Peck and Bacall are prefectly teamed as Mike and Marilla and it remains the height of 1957 chic (along with FUNNY FACE and LES GIRLS), and Dolores Gray scores too, as per my previous posts on it. Again, great compositions and those '50s interiors.

This afternoon I am settling down with another perennial I can watch anytime (and have to whenever it is screened)  Powell & Pressburger's BLACK NARCISSUS from 1947: which may well be the most distinctive and vivid of all British melodramas: those sets for the convent in the Himalayas, Jack Cardiff's marvellous images and colour schemes - the great cast in this intense, exquisite drama which captures the steamy repression in Rumer Godden's novel. The tensions among the nuns prompt all manner of emotions in Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr at 26) and Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) when the agent Mr Dean (David Farrar in those short shorts) comes to call - add in Sabu wearing the heady perfume of the title, Jean Simmons as Kanchi and the Ayah and the other nuns including Flora Robson ... and of course that marvelous climax at the bell tower and those luscious '40s Technicolor flashbacks to Ireland. I also love that ending with the final meeting between Sr Clodagh and Mr Dean as the convent is swallowed up by the mountain clouds and the rain begins to fall on those giant leaves .... all created in the studio. it was one of the first movies I recorded on the then new vhs video I got in late 1979. It is now practically my favourite film of all, up there with BLOW-UP and L'AVVENTURA etc !

Kay & Lauren at the theatre, 1959

* 6 Degrees of ... : Just to show how everything is linked: I began watching a Dirk Bogarde movie before I went up the NFT for the Kendall, Bacall films with the Rampling dvd for Jerry, and I was reading Gavin Lambert's novel INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (see post on the Natalie Wood film below) which I rescued from the garage recently. I have often said that I consider Dirk Bogarde and Lauren Bacall to be the man and woman who knew practically everybody (one could also make a case for Christopher Plummer and Angela Lansbury, they certainly worked with everybody!): Kay Kendall was one of Dirk's best friends in the '50s, he evidently knew Bacall as well - she visited him the day before he died in 1999 - and Bacall knew Kendall as well, as per the photographs I posted here, at Showpeople label (there is another of them with Vivien Leigh & Noel Coward); there is also a photograph in one of Dirk's books of Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner visiting the Bogarde residence in the South of France, and Charlotte Rampling became another his his best friends in his later years, after their co-starring in THE DAMNED and THE NIGHT PORTER.

To see and review this week: Bogarde with Ava Gardner and Timothy Dalton in a 1975 rarity PERMISSION TO KILL, which I somehow missed at the time, its hardly been seen since, maybe with good reason ...