Jupiter's Darling, 1955

"Esther Williams stars as the beautiful woman whose love saves Rome in this whimsical musical delight. The year is 216 BC and almost all of the known world has fallen to the mighty Hannibal of Carthage (Howard Keel). In a bold and daring move, Hannibal has crossed the Alps with his army of men and elephants and is prepared for his final assault on Rome. As the new Roman dictator Fabius Maximus (George Sanders) frets about what to do, his fiancée the spirited and wilful Amytis (Esther) decides to visit the legendary barbarian general herself. Captured and accused of being a spy, she is brought before the formidable Hannibal who orders her to be executed. Amytis’s plea to “spare Rome” intrigues Hannibal and, inevitably, he falls under her spell. Now the might general must decide which he covets more: the conquest of Rome or the heart of the woman he loves. “A spectacular musical” JUPITER’S DARLING is sure to win you over."

This is my original review in 2010:

JUPITER'S DARLING. Another '56 musical
/ peplum  the only Esther Williams movie I saw in the cinema, its her last musical too [directed by George Sidney]. Set in Ancient Rome Esther is promised to emperor George Sanders (who is dominated by his mother Norma Varden! above); 
enter Howard Keel as a splendid Hannibal - he is as good here as in his other musicals like KISS ME KATE, KISMET or CALAMITY JANE. Marge and Gower Champion are terrific too and do a great number with painted elephants (real ones, not CGI). Esther does a bit of swimming (with moving statues, right) and saves Hannibal's life - he can't swim! This cheerful farrago would be a great double bill with MGM's other ridiculous costumer THE PRODIGAL where Lana is the pagan priestess and Edmund Purdom that prodigal son, great MGM production values though you have to laugh when Edmund wrestles with the stuffed vulture and Lana has some ritzy barely-there outfits before being stoned by the mob ...

I am now taking a week or so off, as moving house, going up in the world, in a new apartment block, 10 floors up - great views, especially at night!. We will return with more reviews, including a modern noir double bill: Fritz Lang's HUMAN DESIRE with MAN TRAP, Lester's hilarious and very gay THE RITZ from 1976, the original SHOWBOAT from 1936, and KILL YOUR DARLINGS .... 

RIP Esther

One of my Sunday matinee treats as a kid in Ireland was a 1955 musical: JUPITER'S DARLING which is still a delirious treat now. It was the last of the Esther Williams swimming spectaculars, directed by veteran George Sidney, and I love it. I have not seen much of her other ones, but they looked terrrific blown up for THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT. Esther (1921-2013) lived to be 91 and was the swimming star of the '40s and early '50s, as Fanny Brice said: "Wet, she was a star"!. JUPITER'S DARLING is great fun with those elephants, Marge & Gower Champion, Howard Keel as a terrific Hannibal (its sent in Ancient Rome), George Sanders as the emperor who wants to marry Esther, but who is afraid of his bossy mother Norma Varden! Then there is prissy Richard Haydn (from SITTING PRETTY)  - Esther swims of course. Highly recommended. Its a good peplum too.

 
Esther's book THE MILLION DOLLAR MERMAID (title of one of her films) is an enjoyable read, particularly on how she bagged Fernando Lamas from Lana Turner (Esther's dressing room was next to Lana's on the MGM lot and she heard Fernando and Lana making out, seemed he was so good at it she decided she wanted him too .... they later married and he wanted her to keep her children at a different house! She also - untruly now it seems - outed Jeff Chandler as a cross-dresser with a penchant for polka dots! But she was a successful businesswoman and seemed to have a ritzy life. One of her later dramatic roles RAW WIND IN EDEN - the one with Jeff - is fairly amusing now. 

A mixed bag ...

KITTEN WITH A WHIP - A delicious 1964 farrago with the then rising Ann-Margret who is the sole reason to see this one. She is the wild teen running away from reform school who takes up residence in nice but dull guy John Forsythe's suburban home while his wife is out of town. Instead of calling the police the very wooden Forsythe tries to help her! Life with Ann is a rollercoaster as her mood swings drive Forsyth (a long way before DYNASTY) around the bend as he tries to get rid of her before family and neighbours find out. Ann then invites her teen hood friends to the party, including Skip Ward (the bus driver from NIGHT OF THE IGUANA) and then they all go slumming to Tijuana over the Mexican border... as they all cheat and double-cross each other to a fitting finale. Its certainly one to laugh at, now has anyone got a copy of Ann's THE SWINGER or BUS RILEY IS BACK IN TOWN?

TROOPER HOOK - I really liked this 1957 western when I saw it as a kid so nice to see it again 50 years later. I like Barbara Stanwyck's other '50s westerns too (CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA, THE MAVERICK QUEEN, THE FURIES, 40 GUNS), this is a nice black and white one made the year after THE SEARCHERS and is also about a woman being rescued from living with the indians - here though its a mature woman with her son by the Apache chief Nanchez (Rudolfo Acosta). Joel McCrea is the Trooper Hook of the title who has the task of taking Cora and her son back to her husband as they travel though Indian territory on a stagecoach which also has Senorita Susan Kohner, cowboy Earl Hollimann, and the splendidly venal Edward Andrews on board). Stanwyck is very compelling as Cora and plays it mainly silent as she re-adjusts to civilisation. Nanchez is also in pursuit as he wants his son. John Dehner is the husband who wants his wife back but not her half-breed child ... its tense and nicely resolved and its one of Stanwyck's better '50s films, all wrapped up in 80 minutes and there is even a Tex Ritter theme song!

RAW WIND IN EDEN - Another delicious farrago from 1957 this sudser has playgirl Esther Williams (though she seems rather mature...) and Carlos Thompson crashing their plane in a remote Italian island where mystery man Jeff Chandler lives with the locals including Helen of Troy herself Rosanna Podesta. Esther and Carlos move into their shack and its a mystery how Esther has a never ending supply of clean clothes and makeup. She and Jeff eventually get together and it all gets rather steamy. Esther's career was practically over by this time (she made one more little regarded melodrama) but Jeff had a good run in the '50s squiring those ladies like Loretta Young (BECAUSE OF YOU), Lana Turner (THE LADY TAKES A FLYER), June Allyson (STRANGER IN MY ARMS), Kim Novak (JEANNE EAGELS) and Susan Hayward (THUNDER IN THE SUN) as well as adventures like SIGN OF THE PAGAN, MAN IN THE SHADOW, 10 SECONDS TO HELL and YANKEE PASHA. He died in 1961 after complications following an operation... Esther later wrote in her autobiography that Jeff was a cross-dresser with a penchant for polka-dot dresses, but it seems it was not true.

THE SPANISH GARDENER - 50+ years later this is still a compelling drama, from a A J Cronin bestseller, and is a nice look at the Costa Brava in the '50s as stuffy minor diplomat Michael Hordern and his neglected son Jon Whiteley (the little boy in MOONFLEET) arrive, following the father's divorce. Dirk Bogarde is the gardener hired by the father who soon forms a bond with the lonely boy who has no friends as he and the father move around a lot. The father though soon grows jealous of the friendship between gardener and boy - is he jealous of his son or of the gardener? Hordern excels as the buttoned-up repressed man unable to express his feelings. Things take a melodramatic turn as the father forbids his son to continue associating with Jose, the gardener, and the servant (Cyril Cusack) engineers a theft for which Jose is blamed. Soon Jose is on the run with Nicholas (Whiteley) seeking him out and the father now humbled and sorry for his actions in pursuit as it is all nicely resolved. Director Philip Leacock made some interesting movies before moving into television.

NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY - Jack Smight's 1968 black comedy was a treat back then and is still so now, as serial killer Rod Steiger dons different disguises to con his way into the homes of lonely middle aged women ... it of course boils down to his mother complex! Rod runs a theate so has access to lots of disguises as we see him in turn as an Irish priest, a Polish plumber, in drag as a woman scared to go leave a bar, and hilariously as a camp hairdresser! George Segal is Mo Brummell, the harrassed Jewish detective on the case - plagued by his very Jewish mother Eileen Heckart who is great fun here. Lee Remick is the girl who may provide a clue and she is charming here making something special of the standard girl role. Just one quibble: wouldn't the mother fixated killer go after Segal's mother rather than his girlfriend? It's got a nice late '60s feel .... below, right: Steiger in drag with another victim...

PARANOIA, or A QUIET PLACE TO KILL - a friend into those Italian giallo thrillers lent me this Umberto Lenzi thriller from 1970 and its a whole lot of fun as the melodramatic plot twists and turns as racing driver Carroll Baker crashes her car on the circuit and ends up slightly wounded in hospital. During her period of recovery, she accepts to stay at her ex-husband (Jean Sorel) and his new wife's mansion. Two attractive women and one handsome guy in one house can only result in extended sequences of sexual intrigue, double-crossing and conspiracies to murder, particularly when the precocious daughter of the second wife arrives with a plot of her own. Baker and Sorel excelled as this kind of thing and Carroll frequently disrobes to add to the sexual tensions. It all rises to a crescendo and a final twist that leaves one dazed !

More '50s pleasures...

SERENADE. Mario Lanza films were jolly affairs as I remember [like THE SEVEN HILLS OF ROME], but SERENADE in 1956, seen again recently on TCM UK, is a very enjoyable, dark, twisted tale, from a James M Cain novel, with that rich deep Warnercolor and as directed by Anthony Mann (having a break from westerns) has some great scope compositions. Mario here is the factory worker on his tractor who is discovered by Joan Fontaine as Kendall Hale. Kendall is a society dame/rich bitch who, aided by her campy sidekick Vincent Price, picks up and then destroys her proteges, her current one being hunky young boxer Vince Edwards. Mario is soon in Kendall's clutches and on his way to being an opera star, but he spectacularly falls apart once Kendall discards him - in a scene as intense as Judy Garland's in A STAR IS BORN - so he ends up in Mexico ... enter Sarita Montiel (who became Mrs Mann) who is very attractive here, and gets Mario back to singing. The stage is set for a showdown between the women when they return to New York and it all ends in pure melodrama. Joan has a lot of fun with the role [though she dismisses it in 1 line in her autobiography] and does that quizzical look and raised eyebrow to perfection as Mario serenades us with "Nessun Dorma"; she also wears a divine mink cape for going to the opera.

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. 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.

THE OPPOSITE SEX. A 1956 musical remake of THE WOMEN? Yes and it works quite well and is very enjoyable on its own level. Allyson again is the Mary Haines figure this time, with Joan Collins stepping into Crawford's shoes as Crystal Allen - but best of all is the divine Dolores Gray as Sylvia. A great cast of 50s gals is assembled for this lavish MGM treat: Agnes Moorehead having fun as the Countess, Joan Blondell, Ann Sheridan, Ann Miller (who sadly does not sing or dance), Carolyn Jones, Charlotte Greenwood and Alice Pearce (ON THE TOWN's Lucy Schmeeler) as the gossip-spreading "Jungle Red" saleslady. There are musical interludes and the men are included this time, Leslie Nielson as the straying husband, and Jeff Richards as that Buck Winston. Its all very colorful and the gals wear a great array of 50s fashions. Whats not to like? Broadway star Dolores Gray only made a handful of films at MGM but she is sensational here, as she is in ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, KISMET and tipping the plate of ravioli into Greg Peck's lap in DESIGNING WOMAN, another great Minnelli from '57.

JUPITER'S DARLING. Another '56 musical - the only Esther Williams movie I saw in the cinema, its her last musical too [directed by George Sidney]. Set in Ancient Rome Esther is promised to emperor George Sanders (who is dominated by his mother Norma Varden!); enter Howard Keel as a splendid Hannibal, Marge and Gower Champion are terrific too and do a great number with painted elephants (real ones, not CGI). Esther does a bit of swimming and saves Hannibal's life - he can't swim! This cheerful farrago would be a great double bill with MGM's other ridiculous costumer THE PRODIGAL where Lana is the pagan priestess and Edmund Purdom that prodigal son, great MGM production values though you have to laugh when Edmund wrestles with the stuffed vulture and Lana faces the mob... young Taina Elg is also at hand, before she became one of those fabulous LES GIRLS.

BELL BOOK AND CANDLE. A pleasure to see again yesterday. John Van Druten's play [the Harrisons - Rex and Lilli - had done it on the stage] is nicely transferred to screen in '58 by Richard Quine, with his muse of the time, Kim Novak at her zenith here as the witch who cannot fall in love - enter James Stewart. Its a lovely look at New York in the 50s, Stewart and Novak are teamed again after Hitch's VERTIGO. The great supporting cast includes Jack Lemmon (just before SOME LIKE IT HOT) as her warlock brother, Ernie Kovacs as the writer on the lookout for witches, and Hermione Gingold as head witch, aided by Elsa Lanchester, plus Janice Rule as Stewart's girlfriend. Pyewacket the cat is super too.

Amusingly, this has now been seen in a gay context. Druten it seems was gay, and the coven of witches with their hidden culture and their own nightclub (presided over by la Gingold) could be read as coded for the secret life of gays in '50s New York. "They are all around us" Lemmon happily tells the bewildered Kovacs ... It was also Stewart's last as a romantic lead [he is 50 here], he really slipped into character parts with his next, the still terrific ANATOMY OF A MURDER + those father parts. [Nice to see him and Novak re-united handing out an award on one of those 80s Oscar shows].

NO DOWN PAYMENT. This 1957 rarity was a treat when discovered recently. Set in the boom of suburbia as couples move to the new estates, it focuses on several couples - new arrivals Jeffrey Hunter and Patricia Owens, nice Barbara Rush and Pat Hingle, flaky Joanne Woodward and brooding Cameron Mitchell, and desperate Tony Randall and Sheree North. Martin Ritt orchestrates the dramas nicely and its a splendid period piece with that good team of Fox contract players.