B-movie heaven (1)

Away from the arthouse and the blockbusters and the current releases and interesting revivals, we also like an enjoyable B-movie, either something trashy or so bad its good or just one of those interesting movies from that late-'50s/early-'60s era, where cheap production values and/or an interesting cast make for a fascinating view. Here are a few recent ones, from a session of swops with IMDB pal Jerry ast week ...

BLUEBEARD'S 10 HONEYMOONS, 1960 - The Bluebeard story has also been fascinating and has fascinated the movies. Chaplin's MONSIEUR VERDOUX in 1947 may be the best. I reviewed the 1963 French version, LANDRU by Chabrol, a while back (French label), where he polishes off a mixed bag of French ladies including Danielle Darrieux, Juliette Mayniel and Michele Morgan. His stove at his lonely house in the woods, where he always bought a single ticket for the ladies, was working overtime! So it is in this 1960 British version, ploddingly directed by W. Lee Wilder (a brother of Billy Wilder!). This is deliciously downbeat as George Sanders is ideally cast as the penny-pinching murderer who is obsessed over worthless and faithless chanteause Corinne Calvet, whose career was also on the slide here.

A bevy of British B girls also head out to that lonely house in the woods ... Jean Kent, Maxine Audley, Patricia Roc, Greta Gynt .... George is suitably sardonic throughout, and like the Chabrol, it ends in a prefunctory guillotine scene. Both are immensely superior to the dreadful Richard Burton version from 1972, review at Burton label. I really must do an "appreciation" on George soon, I like so many of his movies from classics to '50s costume dramas and some good '60s ones too; whether sparring with Susan Hayward or Anne Baxter, toying with Sophia or Gina, or being condesending to Tony Hancock or Peter Sellers or in drag in Huston's THE KREMLIN LETTER (one to review), George is perfection, and not only as Addison de Witt!

SHE WALKS BY NIGHT - A rather good expolitation movie about a real-life call girl murder that rocked Germany in the '50s the way the Profumo affair did Britain almost a decade later. There was also a German version THE GIRL ROSEMARIE with Nadja Tiller which was more of a commentary on the booming German industrial scene of the time - this version by Rudolph Jugert (?) sticks to the routine story of the call girl, Rosemarie Nitbritt - her rise and fall. Rather like the English BITTER HARVEST in 1963 (also Trash label) it shows the emptiness at the heart of the heroine's existance. The reason for watching this though is another terrific performance by Belinda Lee, that Rank Organisation starlet of British movies, who became a peplum goddess in Europe (APHRODITE, MESSALINA etc) before her untimely death in a car crash in 1961. (See Belinda label for more appreciations on her).

This rather forlorn memorial (right, click to enlarge) is her final resting place in a cemetry in Rome (left) - appropriate as she was part of the Italian La Dolce Vita crowd of the time, late 50s/early-'60s. It is a vivid performance by Belinda, rather in Anita Ekberg mode here with that mane of hair; Belinda also excelled in that recent re-discovery of mine THE LONG NIGHT OF '43, a stunning Italian drama by Vancini. SHE WALKS BY NIGHT has that deliciously sleazy late '50s look in spades as Rosemarie rises from walking the streets (below) to good time girl but who can she really trust .... we do not see her final visitor, but it is someone she knows ...

LOOK IN ANY WINDOW - I really liked this one, with a good role for Ruth Roman, looking great here in 1961. Ruth was a '50s gal*, (perhaps a 'B' Susan Hayward?) at home in routine westerns and jungle fare like TANGANYIKA - some good main roles were in Hitch's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN and with Burton in Ray's BITTER VICTORY. Here she is the bored dissatisfied wife of a heavy drinking salesman, and their sulky teenage son is pop star Paul Anka. The title refers to Paul's habit of being a peeping tom, scaring the neighbours in his mask as he spies on them. It is all really a variation on that 1957 drama NO DOWN PAYMENT (Jeff Hunter label), showing suburban living with pool parties, and bored couples with various problems, not least infidelity. Paul gets it on with nice Gigi Perreau next door, whose parents are on the point of separating. Father is Jack Cassidy, slimy as ever, as mother gets involved with nice widower George Dolenz (fathers of 2 future pop stars: David Cassidy, and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees). The police are on the case though and closing in on the peeping tom as things get out of hand at the annual pool party.

Ruth is excellent here, in a selection of numbers for lounging by the pool while drinking a lot - I like her too in the 1966 Lana Turner classic LOVE HAS MANY FACES, as that ritzy dame in Acapulco paying for her pleasures ... Anka though is the drawback here - he does not radiate much personality, Elvis and Pat Boone got better films, and Fabian and Ricky Nelson had more going for them in the looks department .... but he kind of suits the role of the lonely troubled teen. It all tries to be hip and shocking (cue sax and bongo drums, and lots of drinking) like others of the era like A COLD WIND IN AUGUST, SOMETHING WILD or LADY IN A CAGE. Director is one William Alland.

(* Ruth's rivals included Virginia Mayo, Yvonne de Carlo, Dorothy Malone, Rhonda Fleming, Arlene Dahl, Linda Darnell)

ENCHANTED ISLAND - back to the South Seas for this turgid 1958 adventure, from Herman Melville if you please, his "Typee".  The selling point here is the poster: "He dared to love a cannibal princess". My friend Jerry loved that! The flick though does not live up to it, directed by Allan Dwan on an off day,  mind you he is lumbered with a too-old Dana Andrews and Jane Powell (yes, that Jane Powell, who began the '50s with Fred Astaire in ROYAL WEDDING, and went on to SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, and was fun in the 1948  A DATE WITH JUDY before ending her movie career with this and that delicious trash classic THE FEMALE ANIMAL in 1957 (Jane Powell label). Jane is made up to look south seas island maiden but does not have too much to do and the cannibal angle is played down for too long as Dana and his pal leave their ship and settle among the natives .... Matinee or drive-in audiences must have got restless. I certainly did ....

KINGS OF THE SUN - not a B-movie as such, it must have cost quite a bit, but this laughable saga has been out of sight for far too long. When I first arrived in London (11 April 1964) aged 18, the first thing I saw at the London railway station was a poster for KINGS OF THE SUN, then on general release. Who I wonder at the Mirisch Corporation thought that this mini-epic about the Mayans (one of the most mysterious civilisations ever) and their conflict with Native Americans would make an interesting movie? It features some of the best-known non-actors of the time, as George Chakiris and Shirley Anne Field remain expressionless throughout, even as King George witnesses a human sacrifice at the beginning - perhaps the Mayans did not express any emotions?. It looks good in Scope and Colour with those odd custumes but the story is banal in the extreme as our good Mayans flee from the bad ones across the gulf of Mexico and set upon building a new village and a (rather small) pyramid. Enter Yul Brynner perfecting his noble savage act as the leader of the natives whom the Mayans kidnap and keep for human sacrifice to ensure they have a good harvest. Mayan girl Shirley Anne – seemingly the only female among the Mayans – and Yul develop feelings for each other. Will the human sacrifice go ahead? Will the bad Mayans turn up? Will the native Americans defend the village? This is all resolved to Elmer Bernstein’s generic western score – the final battle-scene is rather a mish-mash. This was surprisingly directed by old action hand J. Lee Thompson but I imagine he was having an off day here …. A fascinating oddity to see now though, Richard Basehart as the sacrificing priest wears an amusing hairstyle ...

Next B-movies to include: FLESH & FURY (an early Tony Curtis), TIGHT SPOT, 99 RIVER STREET, THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK, THE PHENIX CITY STORY, VERBOTEN ...

'40s kitsch with Jade and Judy, not to mention Carmen !

DRAGON SEED, 1944: Sometimes its hard to get one's head around the fact that in the last desperate years of World War II while dreadful things were happening in Europe and the Far East, Hollywood was still turning out those dream factory products like MRS MINIVER, RANDOM HARVEST, MEET ME IN ST LOUIS and this piece of oriental make-believe, made in 1944. (The MINIVER film though was designed to showcase the plucky Brits and gets Americans involved, like Anna Neagle's I LIVE IN GROSVENOR SQUARE). It must have seemed a good idea at the time to get Katharine Hepburn to play Chinese - after all, Edward G. Robinson and Loretta Young did in THE HATCHET MAN in '32; along here with that cast including Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead, Akim Tamiroff and Turhan Bey. Kate is Jade, a pre-feminist Chinese woman who struggles with her family for survival when the Japanese invade. Presumably audiences of the time did not mind that other races were played by well-known actors. The film made while atrocities against the Chinese were being carried out reflects the American thinking at the time, as depicted through the keen expert eyes novelist Pearl S. Buck, author of THE GOOD EARTH. It also reflects what was available to Hollywood film-makers at that desperate moment. Given the time and the circumstances, the movie does quite an adequate job. Hepburn's name on theater marquees also ensured that many more people would see the film than otherwise (like Bette Davis in WATCH ON THE RHINE). Hollywood was of course also courting the South American audience, as their films were not available in wartorn Europe, with all those Carmen Miranda films set DOWN ARGENTINE WAY...

The plot here is: Ling Tang and his family live on his prosperous farm in rural Southern China and have not yet felt the impact of the Japanese invasion in the North. Tang's two oldest sons, Lao Ta Tan and Lao Er Tan are married and hard working while youngest son Lao San Tan remains a free spirit. Er's wife Jade is also willfully unconventional and desires to exercises her literacy skills by reading books, a most unfeminine practice in 1930's China. Tang's only daughter is married to Wu Lien, a city merchant who profits from selling Japanese goods. When the dreaded invasion reaches their village, the family is scattered as the sons join the resistance while Wu Lien survives by collaborating with the enemy.Hepburn, thankfully, is less mannered and less on display than usual - her idea of being Chinese amuses now - and as a wartime drama it holds the attention. An interesting curiosity now then.

The later 40s shows the dream factory in full force with those favourites like A LETTER TO 3 WIVES, ROADHOUSE, THE HEIRESS etc and now A DATE WITH JUDY in 1948. Another 40s dreamworld where the middle-classes have roomy comfy homes and domestic help - yes its a coloured maid here, as Jane Powell as the perky teen Judy sings at the local high school, is friends with Carol - Elizabeth Taylor, the local rich girl, and worries about her parents' marriage as it seems father (Wallace Beery) is having an affair with a woman at his office. She though is Carmen Miranda who is teaching him how to rhumba to Xaviar Cugat's music at his wedding anniversary! Carmen is a bit subdued here but adds some sparkle, Jane Powell trills some songs like "Its a Most Unusual Day"; young Robert Stack is the new guy in town working in the drugstore whom both girls have their eyes on. 16 year old Elizabeth Taylor is marvellous here, patenting her future roles as the nice rich girl with some steel when it comes to getting her man. A Joe Pasternak production directed by Richard Thorpe, it is a pleasing discovery now. Perfect late 40s entertainment, particularly when Wallace Beery shows off his rhumba skills and the girls get their beaus, and of course with Leon Ames as another paterfamilias who learns the importance of his family. And of course teens then were just younger versions of their parents until the '50s when teenagers were suddenly invented and got their own culture as rock'n'roll arrived!

Bad Movies We Love (1): Lana, Hedy & Genghis!

Lana Turner certainly had a career resurgence in the late '50s with the success of PEYTON PLACE and then IMITATION OF LIFE after her sensational court case in '58 - then in 1960 Ross Hunter cast her in his glossy thriller PORTRAIT IN BLACK which was also quite a hit - but maybe for all the wrong reasons! Like his MIDNIGHT LACE with Doris Day the same year PORTRAIT is a daft thriller, more comic than thrilling in fact. Lana - again gowned and furred by Jean Louis - is the rich unsatisfied wife of wealthy cripple Lloyd Nolan who can give her everything but sex. They live in luxury in San Francisco. We are told right away that Lana and Lloyd's doctor Anthony Quinn are having a clandestine affair but the only way they can be together if is the doctor gives the husband a lethal injection ...

Sandra Dee and John Saxon are teamed again, as the invalid's daughter and her beau. Anna May Wong (her last role) is the sinister housekeeper, Richard Basehart is Nolan's business partner, Ray Walston the annoying chauffeur, and Virginia Grey the office secretary, who may know two much. The guilty lovers seem to have got away with their crime, but then a note arrives - someobody knows what they did. Will they be exposed or blackmailed? The red herrings pile up as Lana suffers in style. But it all hilariously over the top. They have to commit another murder which requires Lana to follow Quinn in a separate car as they dispose of the body - but Lana cannot drive! A hilarious sequence ensues ... until we get to the final twist - do not read on if you have not seen it yet: it is Lana herself who is sending the blackmail messages to keep the increasingly guilty doctor tied to her as he has been trying to get away. Then Sandra finds out and is in danger too ... delicious fun then - particularly when in a double pack dvd with Lana's 1966 sudser MADAME X ! Or, as they say over at IMDB: "Adultery, murder, blackmail, and Lana Turner, what more could one ask of a Ross Hunter production? Perhaps a good script, but that would spoil the fun. "Portrait in Black" will have lovers of camp in stitches at dialog that makes daytime soaps seem Shakespearean...Lana is the ultimate drama queen, and she is in peak form" as she suffers and emotes in different gowns and jewels in each scene. Directed by Michael Gordon. It is very 1960, I remember it's release well, being about 14.

THE FEMALE ANIMAL – From the lush Ross Hunter productions to bargain basement schlockmeiser supreme Albert Zugsmith for Hedy Lamarr's last film in 1957, this is another delirious melodrama which would in fact make a great double feature with Joan Crawford's FEMALE ON THE BEACH, with which it has certain similiarities - the beefcake there is Jeff Chandler. Here Hedy is the ageing movie goddess who picks up studio bit player George Nader, very wooden, and she installs him in her beach house, but George also meets her daughter Jane Powell – rather old for the part, but everyone’s career is in decline here – who drinks a lot. Add in Jan Sterling, as a rival actress and has-been cougar in a ratty wig and mink coat, always with a young gigolo in tow, who has some amusing lines and would like to get George for herself. Its mercifully quite short at 80 minutes but each one packs a punch. I am saving a second look at it for a nice rainy day. Director is one Harry Keller.

GENGHIS KHAN arrived at the end of the great epic era in 1965, and seemed rather tatty by comparison, but I like it a lot now. Here we find Stephen Boyd as the villain Jamuga to Omar Sharif’s mongol chief. One thing about Boyd, when playing evil he attacks it head-on with relish! Omar seems a bit too drippy to be a Mongol warlord. Francoise Dorleac is the very 60s love interest and hilarity is provided by James Mason and Robert Morley as Chinese warlords! Its certainly an epic to savour for all the wrong reasons, as the likes of Yvonne Mitchell, Telly Savalas and Eli Wallach pop up now and then and its fun to see Michael Hordern mugging as usual. Young actors of the time like Don Borisenko and Kenneth Cope are also present and Henry Levin keeps it moving. It is any better than John Wayne's THE CONQUEROR? probably not, but certainly as much fun.