4 1950s ladies: June, Jane, Joan, Dorothy

Those 1950s leading ladies were certainly kept busy in that very busy decade: not only Marilyn and Liz Taylor (4 films in 1954 before she did GIANT in 1955), Grace (also 4 in 1954) and Audrey, Janet, Kim, Ava, Susan Hayward, Deborah Kerr, Jean Simmons, Julie Harris, Doris and Debbie, Sandra Dee and Carol Lynley and those exciting new girls: Lee Remick, Shirley McLaine, Joanne Woodward, Eva Marie Saint, Natalie Wood, Carroll Baker (a serious actress then) and Jean Seberg.
Bardot. Loren, La Lollo, Mangano, Anita Ekberg, Leslie Caron burst forth from Europe, while Claire Bloom,  Kay Kendall, Glynis Johns and Joan Collins emerged from England (where Yvonne Mitchell, Sylvia Syms, Virginia McKenna, Diana Dors and more were leading players), Then there's that second tier including Angela Lansbury (still in supporting parts in the '50s), Vera Miles, Martha Hyer, Shelley Winters, Gloria Graham, Ruth Roman, Cyd Charisse, Mitzi Gaynor, Dorothy Malone, Jane Russell, Virginia Mayo, Ann Blyth, Jan Sterling, Rhonda Fleming, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, Jayne Mansfield ... and the arrival of Stella Stevens, Angie Dickinson, Hope Lange, while starlets Pier Angeli, Gia Scala, Inger Stevens, Kathryn Grant, Tuesday Weld, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker got their breaks (or not) ... while the 1940s and 1930s stars were gainfully employed too: Ingrid Bergman back, bigger than ever, Bacall, Baxter, O'Hara. Vivien Leigh, Rita and Lana, sisters Olivia and Joan, plus 'oldies' Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck. European actresses like Anna Magnani and Simone Signoret delivered Oscar-winning performances. (This is turning into an issue of "Who's Who in Hollywood" - have I forgot anyone?).

Here are 4 more: June Allyson, Jane Wyman, Dorothy McGuire and Joan Collins ...

Remembering the great female stars of the 1950s one usually overlooks June Allyson (1917-2006), but there she was, busy throughout the decade, usually cast as devoted wives (THE GLENN MILLER STORY, THE STRATTON STORY, STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND all with James Stewart), and usually wearing those buttoned up blouses and white gloves .... she was popular in the late 1940s with her sweet smile, husky voice and sunny disposition, the ideal girl next door, with films like LITTLE WOMEN, WORDS AND MUSIC and GOOD NEWS (that "Varsity Drag" number!). Critic David Shipman is rather caustic about her in his "The Great Movie Stars" tome). She did several remakes: MY MAN GODFREY and our favourite here, THE OPPOSITE SEX in 1956, that musical remake of the 1939 camp classic THE WOMEN) - THE OPPOSITE SEX is almost as camp as a great raft of 1950s gals wear fabulous frocks and June leads the cast, laying into Joan Collins as mantrap Crystal Allen - thats a bitchslap above. She is also in a rather good Sirk: INTERLUDE set in Germany, 1957, and a Ross Hunter: STRANGER IN MY ARMS in 1959 See Allyson label. She was also in the all-star EXECUTIVE SUITE in 1954 when she also did our other favourite: Negulesco's marvellous WOMAN'S WORLD where she is another ditzy housewife ... June later went into television and was married to Dick Powell.

Jane Wyman (1917-2007) was also very popular in the 1950s, particularly after Sirk's MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION in 1954 and ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS in 1955. (Review at Wyman label). She began in the early 1930s and her 111 credit on IMDB include JOHNNY BELINDA (for which she won Best Actress Oscar in 1948), Hitch's STAGE FRIGHT in 1950, THE GLASS MENAGERIE, LUCY GALLANT, Aunt Polly in POLLYANNA.and later coasted as devoted wives in HOLIDAY FOR LOVERS and BON VOYAGE. She later had a long stint in FALCON CREST and of course the obligatory MURDER, SHE WROTE. She had of course been married to Ronald Reagan in the 1940s.

Dorothy McGuire (196-2001) always seemed the perfect wife and mother, in films like Wyler's FRIENDLY PERSUASION, a fond memory from 1956, particlarly her scenes with Coop and Samantha the goose, Disney's OLD YELLER, the superior sudser A SUMMER PLACE in 1959 (see review at McGuire label), and the less superior SUSAN SLADE. Then there's the fun SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON and the enrosssing William Inge drama THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, also 1960. Her other popular films included CLAUDIA, Kazan's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN in 1945, THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE, THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT, THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN,  In 1965 she played the greatest mother of all, in George Stevens' THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. She had also done a lot of theatre and later television including RICH MAN POOR MAN. 

IMDB says: "A genuine model of sincerity, practicality and dignity in most of the roles she inhabited, actress Dorothy McGuire offered Tinseltown more talent than it probably knew what to do with." 

What can one say about Joan Collins? the great survivor, still visible now in her 80s. After her British movies like THE GOOD DIE YOUNG (1954) and TURN THE KEY SOFTLY, she relocated to Hollywood - we love her evil Nellifer with the ruby in her navel in Hawks' LAND OF THE PHAROAHS in '55 (right), and her Crystal (as bitchy as Joan Crawford in the original) in THE OPPOSITE SEX for MGM (left, in that amusing 'tropical' number), before her stint at 20th Century Fox: improbably out west in THE BRAVADOS, THE VIRGIN QUEEN (that was Bette Davis), ISLAND IN THE SUN, THE WAYWARD BUS, a funny vamp in RALLY ROUND THE FLAG BOYS, a stripper in SEVEN THIEVES etc Television rescued her from the likes of KINGDOM OF THE ANTS in the 1980s as we tuned in to her Alexis Colby every week in DYNASTY - London's gay nightclub Heaven used to show her catfights with Krystle, like that fight in the lily pond, on a loop, as we danced. Her tell-alls have been amusing too, particularly on the likes of Warren Beatty and her other lovers.

The early '60s of course brought in that new lot: the emergence of Jane Fonda, Ann-Margret, Suzanne Pleshette, ditzy Pamela Tiffin; the British new girls led by Julie Christie, Susannah York, Sarah Miles, Rita Tushingham, Samantha Eggar, Jane Asher, Jane Merrow; plus the Europeans emerging from the arthouse to the local Odeon: Moreau, Vitti, Cardinale, Romy Schneider, Anouk Aimee, Ingrid Thulin, Mercouri, sisters Deneuve and Dorleac, Elke Sommer & Senta Berger, then mid-decade the arrival of Julie Andrews, Faye Dunaway and the Redgrave girls and, er, Raquel Welch ... while the late '60s saw Maggie and Glenda, Barbra and Liza ready to sweep the '70s ...

Vacation time: Holiday for Lovers / Bon Voyage!

HOLIDAY FOR LOVERS. Like Disney’s BON VOYAGE (below) this 1959 20^th Century Fox family comedy  (which I remember seeing as a child) starts out fun but soon gets tedious and one ends up begging for it to stop as it seems far too over-long and we lose patience with most of the characters. Jane Wyman coasts in both films, as the understanding wife and mother, but gets nothing much to do. Here, father is Clifton Webb, a consulting psychologist in Boston, whose older daughter Meg (Jill St John) a promising sculptor if you please, goes to Sao Paulo in Brazil to study with famous architect, Paul Henreid. She seems to be getting involved so parents and other daughter Carol Lynley are soon South America bound – cue endless airplane interiors, and lots of location shooting as our cast stand in front of lots of back projections of Sao Paulo, as it is obvious they never left the back-lot. Jill indeed seems smitten with the suave Henreid, but it turns out to be his boorish, beatnik son (Nico Minardos) she is romantically involved with, while Carol inexplicably falls for army fellow Gary Crosby. After trekking around Sao Paulo endlessly, the family head off to Rio and we see some of the carnival (maybe the same one used for the film BLACK ORPHEUS, also that year), and if that wasn’t enough local colour (all that’s missing is Carmen Miranda!), then it is off to Lima in Peru for a bull-fight. Then everything stops for a flamenco number or two from Jose Greco and the misunderstandings get sorted out, as we wind up in Trinidad – don’t ask! Directed by Fox reliable Henry Levin; at least Clifton gets to do a few South American dance steps. Fascinating though to luxuriate in air travel as it was over 50 years ago, and Sao Paulo certainly looks great, if not as teeming as it is these days. We like Clifton Webb a lot here at The Projector - see label, and Jane was certainly engrossing in that Sirk classic ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. she was third choice here after Gene Tierney and then Joan Fontaine both had to drop out due to health reasons (or maybe they realised they really had nothing much to do here) - it would have been nice though to have seen Gene's LAURA re-teamed with her Waldo Lydecker! while Joan could raise those eyebrows and be more acerbic than bland Jane. 

BON VOYAGE!, 1962. Comic adventure awaits the Williard family from Terre Haute, Indiana, when Harry packs up the wife and kids and sets sail on a long-awaited “dream” vacation to romantic France. However, their trip includes some unforeseen adventures: his wife Katie is pursued by a Hungarian admirer, his daughter Amy meets a brash young playboy, and Harry himself gets hopelessly lost on a tour of the Paris sewer system (he is a plumbing contractor)! Join the Williards for a hilarious, whirlwind trip they’ll never forget!

So says the blurb, but this is Disney corn which at 132 minutes is way overlong, with terrible pacing from Disney hack James Neilson, but it looks like they really went to France on a transatlantic liner which takes up most of the first half of the film. Fred McMurray and Jane Wyman coast on autopilot, Deborah Walley (wasn’t she a GIDGET?) is a pallid daughter, while Disney kids Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran reprise their usual roles. Its all an over-long travelogue around Paris – Francoise Prevost has a good moment as the coded  working girl who tries to pick up Fred, and then his son; Ivan Desny pursues Jane, Michael Callan gets to dance a bit and finally Jessie Royce Landis has some fun as his overbearing snooty society mother (above), while British Richard Wattis also pops up, as it all finishes up on the Riviera. 

Movies I Love: All That Heaven Allows

ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS is probably my favourite Douglas Sirk movie, this 1955 melodrama is just as good if not better than IMITATION OF LIFE or WRITTEN ON THE WIND, camp classics both. I also like Sirk's INTERLUDE with June Allyson, reviewed a while back here (Allyson label), and his 1958 A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE. ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS though is the perfect commentary/critique on small town America in the affluent '50s. I somehow find his MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION a little too schmalzy, and THE TARNISHED ANGELS (also with Hudson and Malone) has not been seen in years.

Here, Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson are re-united - she is Cary, the recent widow (we sense her husband was older) at a loose end, with her son and daughter away most of the time; he is the gardener fixing her garden, the son of the old gardener. She offers him lunch, they talk - he seems impossibly good-looking and attentive. They slowly get to know each other ... her friend Sara (Agnes Moorehead) warns Cary about small-town gossip, in particular Mona Plash (Jacqueline DeWit), stalking the town in her fur coat, and being the terror of the country club. Rock takes Jane to his secret place - the old mill outside town which he has plans to do up and move into, and he even repairs that broken Wedgewood coffee pot.

Then it is time to introduce him to the children - the jealous incredulous son, furious that his father's trophy and picture have been put in storage (and as the daughter says, resentful that his mother is still attractive to other men), and the know-it-all daughter (Gloria Talbot). There is that interesting exchage of dialogue between them where the daughter comments on the old Egyptian custom of burying the widow with the deceased's other possessions and saying that does not happen any more. "well, perhaps not in Egypt" says Cary dryly. Then, at the country club all hell breaks loose when an old admirer taunts Cary about her new young man, the snooty locals look down on the gardener who trims their trees and Mona is in her element as a fight breaks out: "Why, Cary, isn't one man enough for you?" - Ron (Rock) has also taken Cary away to meet his more down to earth friends who overcome her resistance to the idea of her marrying Ron. She changes her mind though after all the disapproval, but soon find it was a pointless sacrifice as her headaches get worse, but her doctor can find nothing wrong and urges her to do what is right for her - it turns out the son has plans to spend a year abroad and the daughter is marrying, so poor Cary is left with the new television she did not want - the comfort of every lonely housewife and widow. There is of course the old family friend who wants to marry her, but makes it clear it is for companionship. Will fate intervene and bring the lovers together again, will Ron recover from that fall?



It is a perfect realisation of small town middle-class America; the women going to meet the train in the snow, the station wagons and estate cars, large roomy comfy houses (as in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES, another Movie I Love soon), and of course the mill and the snow falling, and the deer looking in the window. Delirious! Wyman isn't a particularly compelling actress, but (like Allyson) she kept busy through the '50s, and she is just right here as the hesitant Cary. Sirk also directed some interesting costumers: CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT with Hudson, in Ireland in 1954, and SIGN OF THE PAGAN with Jack Palance as Attila and Jeff Chandler as a Roman centurion - its one of the better costumers of its era.