6 lesser known '50s dramas

We are all familiar with those great Fifties dramas, mentioned often here - from SUNSET BOULEVARD to SEPARATE TABLES or IMITATION OF LIFE, taking in those Kazans, Wylers, Douglas Sirks, Tennessee Williams adaptations etc. Here are 6 lesser known ones I like and are worth seeking out ...

NO SAD SONGS FOR ME – Margaret Sullavan’s last film in 1950 is curiously unregarded now, but is a nice little drama set in a mining town where she is the suburban wife who goes to the doctor and finds she has terminal cancer, which seems untreatable back then. She goes into denial but eventually comes to terms with it and plans her husband's and daughter’s future without her. Husband though is dependable Wendall Corey (dull as ever) - enter the young Viveca Lindfors as hubby’s new assistant and Margaret sees they are attracted to each other and she also gets on with Margaret's incessantly chattering daughter, young Natalie Wood. 
It’s a weepie then, but not in your face and the ending is rather nice. In accordance with films of this era she has a large comfy house and a black servant, husband and wife of course have separate beds. A curious choice for action director Rudolph Mate. Margaret Sullavan seems rather neglected now but was one of the great stars of her day, we like her a lot here, as per the label.



THE LUSTY MEN. Nick Ray’s 1952 drama about rodeos (produced by Jerry Wald, with authentic rodeo locations) has not been seen for a long time, I thought this was a Fox film, but its RKO Radio.  It may be one of Ray’s best films, with certainly among the best work of the three leads: Robert Mitchum is Jeff McCloud a rootless, broke rodeo star, Susan Hayward and Arthur Kennedy are the married couple who want a ranch. He teaches Kennedy how to become a rodeo champion, to the disquiet of Hayward, giving a solid, reined-in performance, as she and Mitchum fight their attraction. This is nicely downbeat – seeing Mitchum crossing a wind-strewn rodeo arena brings THE MISFITS to mind, particularly Montgomery Clift playing that other rootless rodeo rider. Also that sequence when Mitchum returns to his childhood home … Lee Garmes’ camerawork makes it all look authentic, and the final scenes are deeply affecting. This is one film that deserves rediscovery.

Mitchum tries to be a ranch hand (to be close to Louise - Hayward)  and passes on his rodeo fever on to Kennedy, whose success alienates his wife as he now hangs around with the rodeo crowd. Kennedy initially took up rodeo riding to make enough money for their ranch, but now has money to spend, drink, with hangers-on and the attention of bar-room floozies. The film creates an exciting atmosphere with wild horses, bucking broncos and leisure time spent carousing in the bars where a day's prize money could be lost in drinking and gambling, then there is the inevitable tragic ending ... It really is a nice companion piece to THE MISFITS, and both Hayward and Mitchum do some of their best work here. Perhaps it might have benefited from being in colour.

WILD IS THE WIND. Another good discovery is this long unseen George Cukor/Anna Magnani item from 1957. Magnani is magnetic as the sister from Italy brought to America to marry her late sister's husband, Anthony Quinn in very gruff mode here. Quinn's protege young Anthony Franciosa is the only one to show her affection as she struggles with life on their bleak ranch, which rapidly escalates to a doomed romance. I did not care for Magnani's over the top performance in the acclaimed ROSE TATTOO when I saw it a while ago, but I love her here, as reined in by Cukor. She has a wonderful scene at the outdoor party when she sings a lovely little song, and has a nice scene with young Dolores Hart too. There is also another great theme tune (by Johnny Mathis - Nina Simone and David Bowie did great later versions of it too) and, surprisingly for Cukor, the scenes of capturing wild horses is as forceful as Huston's in THE MISFITS. Anna is of course marvellous in Renoir's THE GOLDEN COACH, and its fascinating seeing her with Brando in THE FUGITIVE KIND, and in Visconti's BELLISSIMA. 

THIS IS MY LOVE, 1954 - Linda Darnell is Vida, the unmarried sister of the more vivacious Faith Domergue married to crippled ex-dancer Dan Duryea who is very jealous of his young attractive wife. Vida lives with the mismatched couple and works in their diner and is engaged (or stringing along) a very dull boyfriend, until one day his friend, Rick Jason, walks in and seems the answer to Vida’s dreams. He is merely leading her along however until he meets the vivacious Faith, thus setting in motion a tale of rage, murder and revenge, played out in lurid colours as the girls sling hash in the diner. 

'50s lurid melodramas don’t come much better than this, as directed by Stuart Heisler. Unlike the glossy melodramas of Minnelli or Sirk, this is a gritty, downbeat affair. Linda is as terrific here as she was in A LETTER TO 3 WIVES. 

A friend of mine, Jerry, loves it too, and his IMDB review is perfect:

As soon as Franz Waxman's lush score swelled up over the credits I knew this one would deliver - and I wasn't disappointed. Vida (Linda Darnell) is a "spinster" who slings hash in her Brother in Law's diner and is engaged to the world's most boring man. Into the diner wanders her fiancée's army buddy - foxy Rick Jason - a "gas station casanova", and when left alone together Rick comes on to her... she plays hard to get - so hard to get in fact that Rick turns to her married sister Evelyn (Faith Domergue) for comfort, and the stage is set for resentment, deceit, adultery, jealousy, sibling rivalry.. and murder. 

This one really deserves to be better known. I'm not sure whether the lurid greens and purples that dominate the colour scheme are symbolic of the jealousy and anger simmering below the surface, and mark out Stuart Heisler as an neglected auteur... or it was just a lousy print. Connie Russell sings the title tune with lyrics as Darnell and Jason go out dancing. Dan Duryea is a bitter cripple. and Darnell is absolutely heartbreaking here - never knew she had it in her. Its everything I wanted from Douglas Sirk or late period Minnelli and never got. Absolutely delicious from start to finish and highly recommended. 9/10

[Rick Jason was also back in the '50s diner milieu in the downbeat '57 Fox film of Steinbeck's THE WAYWARD BUS as the bus driver married to shrewish diner owner Joan Collins (which Linda has tested for and would have been ideal casting, but Fox discarded their old star in favour of the new English girl) and with down-on-her-luck stripper Jayne Mansfield also on board the bus].

Two 1954 mellers with those new Italian girls Sophia Loren and Silvana Mangano:

MAMBO is a film I had never heard of until recently, but its a fascinating puzzle. Its a Paramount film directed by Robert Rossen (an odd choice for him) but its also a Carlo Ponti-Dino De Laurentiis production set mainly in Venice and Rome with two Italian stars, Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman – if only it had been in color with that great scenery and Venetian masked balls and the colourful Katherine Dunham dance group, which Silvana joins. She looks terrific here and in the dance numbers (the mambo must have been big about then as Loren does a terrific one in her ‘working in the river in shorts’ film WOMAN OF THE RIVER). MAMBO’s convoluted plot features Shelley Winters (Mrs Gasssman at the time) in what is surely one of the first clearly implied lesbian roles as she has a major crush on Silvana. Michael Rennie completes the odd quartet. Silvana's numbers are available on YouTube, as is MAMBO in full.

WOMAN OF THE RIVER. I have now re-seen the 1954 WOMAN OF THE RIVER for the first time since I saw it as a kid, and I am amazed at the 19 year old Sophia here in 1954, a very busy year for her - as Nives the proud canning factory girl who falls for hunk Rik Battaglia she does a sensational mambo dance and is just wonderful - no wonder it was her calling card to international films. She also goes cane cutting in the Po river, and it ends in drama with her young child. Its a film for the Italian market and Pasolini had a hand in the script, but its certainly vivid 50+ years later.I loved this and Sophia when I saw it as a kid in Ireland. 

Plus a rom-com treat: 

BUT NOT FOR ME is a neglected gem from that great year 1959 and was a treat to catch recently. Its one of Clark Gable's last films [he had just done TEACHER'S PET with Doris Day, and would next go to Italy for IT STARTED IN NAPLES with Sophia Loren (30 years his junior, but its great fun) and then finally to that fatal MISFITS location]. Here he is guying his older image as the Broadway producer falling for his ambitions young secretary Carroll Baker who also wants to be an actress. Its a comedy set in the theatreland of the '50s and has some nice views of New York back then, particuarly as his car glides through Manhattan in the morning, as Ella sings that great theme song. Best of the cast though is Lilli Palmer enjoying her role as his ex-wife watching on the sidelines. Will she get him back at the end? It's nicely worked out and there is also Lee J Cobb in scenery-chewing mode as a drunken playright, and pretty Barry Coe as Carroll's boyfriend. A nice Perlberg-Seaton production from Paramount.

Fifties noir: This Is My Love = B-movie heaven

This was one of my first posts here, on a 1954 rarity, a superior B-movie I like a lot

THIS IS MY LOVE, 1954 - Linda Darnell is Vida, the unmarried sister of the more vivacious Faith Domergue married to crippled ex-dancer Dan Duryea who is very jealous of his young attractive wife. Vida lives with the mismatched couple and works in their diner and is engaged (or stringing along) a very dull boyfriend, until one day his friend, Rick Jason, walks in and seems the answer to Vida’s dreams. He is merely leading her along however until he meets the vivacious Faith, thus setting in motion a tale of rage, murder and revenge, played out in lurid colours as the girls sling hash in the diner. 

'50s lurid melodramas don’t come much better than this, as directed by Stuart Heisler. Unlike the glossy memodramas of Douglas Sirk, this is a gritty, downbeat affair. Linda Darnell is as terrific here as she was in A LETTER TO 3 WIVES. 
A friend of mine, Jerry, loves it too, and his IMDB review is perfect:
As soon as Franz Waxman's lush score swelled up over the credits I knew this one would deliver - and I wasn't disappointed. Vida (Linda Darnell) is a "spinster" who slings hash in her Brother in Law's diner and is engaged to the world's most boring man. Into the diner wanders her fiancée's army buddy - foxy Rick Jason - a "gas station casanova", and when left alone together Rick comes on to her... she plays hard to get - so hard to get in fact that Rick turns to her married sister Evelyn (Faith Domergue) for comfort, and the stage is set for resentment, deceit, adultery, jealousy, sibling rivalry.. and murder. 

This one really deserves to be better known. I'm not sure whether the lurid greens and purples that dominate the colour scheme are symbolic of the jealousy and anger simmering below the surface, and mark out Stuart Heisler as an neglected auteur... or it was just a lousy print. Connie Russell sings the title tune with lyrics as Darnell and Jason go out dancing. Dan Duryea is a bitter cripple. and Darnell is absolutely heartbreaking here - never knew she had it in her. Its everything I wanted from Douglas Sirk or late period Minnelli and never got. Absolutely delicious from start to finish and highly recommended. 9/10

[Rick Jason was back in the '50s diner milieu in the downbeat '57 Fox film of Steinbeck's THE WAYWARD BUS as the bus driver married to shrewish diner owner Joan Collins (which Linda has tested for and would have been ideal casting) and with down-on-her-luck stripper Jayne Mansfield also on board the bus]. 

A favourite '40s scene: A Letter to 3 Wives

I have written here before about A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (see Darnell, Mankiewicz labels), maybe my favourite Joseph L. Mankiewicz film, even more so than ALL ABOUT EVE, and an enduring 1940s classic (which Mank wrote and made in 1949, a year before EVE - winning Oscars both years for directing and writing, his 1950 NO WAY OUT is also a terrific discovery). 

A LETTER TO THREE WIVES is of course the story of the three society ladies, cut off from the telephone for the day as they are away on that boat on a school trip, each wondering which of their husbands has run off with town vamp Addie Ross, who has kindly sent them a letter just as they were leaving ... 
cue flashbacks on each marrage, done in Mank's best style as we savour all that dialogue and witty situations, and of course its that 1940s dreamworld personified, where they are all comfortably off with large, roomy houses, those big estate cars and domestic help for when entertaining - cue Thelma Ritter as Sadie in the maid's outfit.

So we have new girl Jeanne Crain back from the forces, and coping with small town society and the local country club - this is the least interesting story, but the main one is a doozy, as Lora Mae (Lnda Darnell) from the wrong side of town (dig the family house next to the rail-line where everything rattles when trains go by) sets her sights at local rich guy 
Porter Hollingsway (Paul Douglas) and marvel at how she reels him in, with that ladder in her stockings and holding out until that New Year's Eve when he gives in, and calls and asks her to marry him. Her mother Connie Gilchrist indeed cries "Bingo"! But she and Porter end up resenting each other, until Addie Ross comes along and chooses a husband ..

Thelma's Sadie

The scene I want to focus on is when the other wife, smart radio writer Ann Sothern, who earns more than her teacher husband Kirk Douglas, has a dinner party to which she invites her radio boss Mrs Manleigh (Florence Bates - as deliciously nasty as her Mrs Van Hopper in REBECCA), an ignorant, bossy snob, with her docile husband. Sadie - a friend of Lora Mae's mother - is hired to help, cue much amusement as Sadie announces dinner is ready, and Mrs Manleigh picks up on Lora Mae's chat with the hired help ..... Mankiewicz's script hones in on the power of radio - it would be television in a few years - and how people listen to it. Sadie has the radio on all the time, so Mrs Manleigh thinks she is being "saturated" and "penetrated" by the advertisements. Lora Mae dryly retorts that she has seen Sadie saturated quite a lot .... (Thelma Ritter scores here, as she does next year as Birdie in Mank's ALL ABOUT EVE.)

Then everything has to stop for Mrs Manleigh's radio show, which goes on and on, after she breaking the classical record which Addie had sent to Kirk, who finally sees red and lets Mrs Manleigh have it. Ann too has had enough and refuses to do Mrs Manleigh's edits until Monday.  She too worries on that day out, if is it her husband who has run off with mantrap Addie Ross. 
We never see Addie, but she is voiced by Celeste Holm.

Events are resolved as they all gather again at the country club, and Porter reveals that it was him who ran off with Addie, but changed his mind. Lora Mae can now divorce him and take him to the cleaners. "You big gorilla" she says as they now know they love each other ..... Bliss, sheer bliss .... Its a treat one can watch any time.  There was a later tv remake, but who would bother with that.

Rhapsodising about 1954, again

RHAPSODY, 1954. The opening titles tell us it’s the South of France. Wealthy Louis Calhern is arranging namecards for his lunch party, but then his daughter Louise (Elizabeth Taylor) enters and instead of being his hostess she is off to Zurich, driving in her open sports car, with her cases of all those Helen Rose outfits, a different one for each scene. Louise we soon see is a spoiled rich girl, used to getting her way and indulged by her indulgent father ….  She has her eyes of fiery Paul Bronte, master of the violin, but only if he studies hard enough to please teacher Michael Chekhov. Louise settles in to Celia Lovsky’s charming apartment and starts to get bored as Paul (Vittorio Gassman in one of his first American films) puts his music first and her second. She is left on the sidelines in her furs, white gloves and diamonds at the café as the other students, including predatory Barbara Bates, crowd around him. But diversion is at hand, as she gets to know the upstairs tenant, John Ericson, who becomes hopelessly devoted to her, putting his music at risk. 
He at least plays the piano – cue endless close-ups of them playing as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff swamp the soundtrack, and of course there is the obligatory montage of capital cities and concert posters as Bronte tours and becomes famous, while Louise marries John, who is now drinking heavily. Bronte comes back into her life as she decides to leave her husband while trying to convince him he can become a great player without her. 
We finally leave her (this thing seems to go on for hours) at the concert hall as Ericson can indeed play without her, as Bronte arrives to collect her. Which man does she choose?  This is a prime farrago, which I remember seeing as a kid, one of four Taylor did in 1954, overall I much prefer THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS but Liz is certainly at her early zenith as the camera lovingly lingers on her rapt expressions as her men play, and play and play …. High Class Trash, it has that MGM lush quality, directed by Charles Vidor (an old hand at this kind of thing – he began, but died, during the 1960 SONG WITHOUT END). 

There's no business like show-biz as Marlon's Napoleon 
drops in on Marilyn

1954 - my first year at the movies, aged 8. What a year that was, as I have mentioned before here - see label, 1954-1, JOHNNY GUITAR and A STAR IS BORN were the first films I saw, taken to by my parents, in small-town Ireland .... it was that great year for routine westerns, costumers and mini-epics, and several musicals. The big hitters of the year were of course ON THE WATERFRONT, Ava as THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA, Audrey as SABRINA, Grace as THE COUNTRY GIRL, REAR WINDOW, DIAL M FOR MURDER, while other popular hits included CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THEM!, EXECUTIVE SUITE, WOMAN’S WORLD, THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, CAINE MUTINY, THE GLENN MILLER STORY as James Stewart and June Allyson continued to be so very popular. Meanwhile, Kazan was shooting EAST OF EDEN .... the first of James Dean's three major releases for 1955 and 1956. 

The big foreign movies were THE SEVEN SAMURAI and LA STRADA, and Visconti's SENSO, and I just recently discovered Mizogushi's LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

I was soon lapping up other westerns (often with my father) like: THE COMMAND, DRUM BEAT, SITTING BULL, CATTLE QUEEN OF MONTANA, RIVER OF NO RETURN, BROKEN LANCE.

while other musicals we loved were: THE STUDENT PRINCE, CARMEN JONES, 7 BRIDES FOR 7 BROTHERS (well, I never liked that one much), THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS (where Marilyn was at her most peaches and cream, the blonde to Elizabeth Taylor's exotic darkness), WHITE CHRISTMAS, BRIGADOON, YOUNG AT HEART, ROSE MARIE.

The epics and peplums included THE EGYPTIAN and DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS (see below), THE SILVER CHALICE (Paul Newman's odd debut with young Natalie Wood, right, as a blonde who grows up to be Virginia Mayo, and Jack Palance mesmerising as Simon the Magician who thinks he can fly..below.),  
KING RICHARD AND THE CRUSADERS, SIGN OF THE PAGAN,  BLACK SHIELD OF FALWORTH, PRINCE VALIANT - cardboard castle time indeed, while Italy gave us ULYSSES, ATILLA and TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA, these two with that young Sophia Loren. I simply loved her WOMAN OF THE RIVER, but did not catch up with the delightful TOO BAD SHE'S BAD, her first with Marcello, until much later. De Sica's GOLD OF NAPLES with her and Silvana Mangano was a popular choice too, and still marvellous now. 

Other programmers we liked were Charlton Heston in THE NAKED JUNGLE (terrific with Eleanor Parker) and SECRET OF THE INCAS, plus TAZA SON OF COCHISE, VALLEY OF THE KINGS, and Rock's CAPTAIN LIGHTFOOT. 

Grace Kelly was very busy that year, not only those Hitchcock's but the dull COUNTRY GIRL and the programmer GREEN FIRE where she looked very tailored down on her South American plantation. La Taylor fitted in not only RHAPSODY and LAST TIME I SAW PARIS but also BEAU BRUMMELL and replaced Vivien Leigh in ELEPHANT WALK - once GIANT made her a superstar next year in 1955 she slowed down to barely one a year... her husband Michael Wilding was also toiling in Hollywood then, to less effect in TORCH SONG, THE GLASS SLIPPER, THE EGYPTIAN, THE SCARLET COAT .....  Shelley Winters was very busy, with 6 titles that year, while Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr, Susan Hayward etc were all churning them out. Brando had not only ON THE WATERFRONT but as Napoleon in the Fox costumer DESIREE, James Mason was not only Norman Maine in A STAR IS BORN but also the bad guy in PRINCE VALIANT and Nemo in 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.

The English studios were busy too:  with the hilarious BELLES OF ST TRINIANS and DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE (Dirk and Kay! - right with Kenneth More), dramas like THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, HELL BELOW ZERO, THE GOOD DIE YOUNG, and Glynis Johns and Dora Bryan as mermaids in the delicious MAD ABOUT MEN.

1954 discoveries of mine in recent years include MAMBO - a lurid melodrama where marrieds Shelley Winters and Vittorio Gassman are both keen on Silvana Mangano who dances up a storm; Rene Clement's KNAVE OF HEARTS (or MR RIPOIS) with Gerard Philipe on the loose in London, wooing lovely young Joan Greenwood among others - right; and Linda Darnell is the marvellous romantic melodrama THIS IS MY LOVE (see Linda label). 1954 we love you. Next major years: 1959/1960, 1962.

1956 double bill ...

A little seen musical and western ...

The big hitters of 1956 for me remain FRIENDLY PERSUASION (Cooper! young Tony Perkins! Pat Boone's song! Samantha the goose!), GIANT, THE SEARCHERS, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, WAR AND PEACE as well as those iconic BUS STOP, THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, BABY DOLL, RICHARD III etc, but despite my love of those musicals of the '50s I grew up with, I somehow always missed MEET ME IN LAS VEGAS, maybe the last of the MGM musicals in 1956 - there was of course LES GIRLS in 1957, a key movie for me, but it is somehow more a sophisticated comedy than an out and out musical, as Cukor puts Kay Kendall and the other 2 (Mitzi and Taina) through their paces, with that hoofer guy Kelly - LES GIRLS label.

MEET ME IS LAS VEGAS is a star-studded entertainment highlighting Las Vegas, that temple of gambling and nightclub acts at those big hotels, heavily featured here. It re-teams Cyd Charisse and Dan Dailey from 1955's ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, which I posted about a while ago, another favourite musical - though Cyd is teamed with Kelly in that one while Dailey and Dolores Gray steal the show. It was Dailey's finest hour since Fox's 1954 THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS.

Here though in LAS VEGAS Dailey is the rancher on his annual trip to Vegas to gamble ... there is something rather oafish about him and his insistance of holding a woman's hand while spinning those dice. One girl he grabs is ballerina Cyd who is annoyed to find that the patrons will be eating while she dances, as hotel manager Jim Backus has just advised her. Cyd leads a very sheltered life as supervised by her manager Paul Henried and her chaperone/companion. So initially she fights off farmer Dan but they do have this amazing chemistry that they win whenever they hold hands ... so they become a well-known Vegas couple at the casinos constantly winning ... there are music interludes too, as in Fox's THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, we are treated to lots of cabaret acts at the clubs: Lena Horne sings one number but the other one which was cut out (and is on the dvd) is a lot better: "You got looks". Frankie Laine sings up a storm too as the chorus girls go wild behind him, as choreograophed by Hermes Pan. We see lots of the famous names of the era too: there's Debbie Reynolds, and isn't that Pier Angeli? Frank Sinatra has a few more seconds playing the slot machines, and contract players like Jeff Richards and Elaine Stewart are in the audience, and Peter Lorre has a moment too.

One ritzy number is "I refuse to Rock and Roll" by Cara Williams, its a hoot and Cara tries to sink her claws into Dan to Cyd's aloof annoyance - Cyd also does some ballet, and that terrific "Frankie and Johnnie" number, as sung by Sammy Davis Jr. Cyd's tipsy ballerina also dances up a storm with the Vegas chorus girls, and young George Chakiris (after his chorus boy spots with Marilyn Monroe and Rosemary Clooney) and Betty Lynn are a pair of naive newly-weds.

We also head back to the ranch, an idealised version of chicken factory farming and happy animals, as presided over by Dans mother - none other than Agnes Moorehead, who comes to approve of Cyd. The hens in their cages lay eggs and the oil well even gushes! There is also another terrific Hermes Pan number "The Girl with the Yellar Shoes" .... back at the casinos manager Paul Henreid turns up to protect his protege, and then they lose their magic touch at the gambling tables ... will they still stay in love and continue with their plan of 6 months at the farm and 6 months for her careeer ? It is nicely resolved, and there is a lot to appreciate here, as directed by a Roy Rowland, produced by Joe Pasternak and script by FUNNY GIRL's Isobel Lennart.

DAKOTA INCIDENT is basically a western B-movie but with a touch of class - its our old favourite: a group of disparate people on a stagecoach all with their reasons for reaching Laramie heading through hostile Indian country. Sure enough the redskins attack, the coach is over-turned and our survivors are picked off one by one as they squabble among themselves as the water runs out in their hideout gulley. Dale Robertson is the outlaw left for dead, Linda Darnell the showgirl - in that vivid red dress - and Ward Bond is the pompous politician who thinks he can understand the Indians ... the first half sets up our characters with Linda in her element. Ward asks her if Dale is bothering her to which she retorts "No, but I think I bother him". There is a surprising conclusion as white man and redskin come together and of course our leading couple head off into the sunset. As directed by Lewis R Foster, it has that Republic Pictures look in spades, and was one of Linda's last leading roles. Dale was popular too then as a cowboy star, his SITTING BULL and GAMBLER FROM NATCHEZ were among the first westerns I saw, after that iconic JOHNNY GUITAR, the first film I saw when I was 8, as reported elsewhere here ...

We are Siamese if you please ...

ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM from 1946, directed by John Cromwell, is a rarity indeed - I have never seen it crop up anywhere here; we are of course familiar with the musical version, Fox's 1956 gaudy Scope and colour extravaganza from Oscar & Hammerstein's hit show, where Deborah Kerr as Mrs Anna and Yul Brynner as The King both excel.

As I like Irene Dunne, Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell (see labels) this is a treat indeed, if rather long - and a lot more realistic in its own way. Its a long time since I saw the musical but I don't think Tuptim goes up in flames in it ... This was the first version of the very well known story of the English governess who travelled to Siam to be teacher of the king’s many children. In this version she is called Anna Owens. The film is an opportunity for a strong performance by the likeable Irene Dunne, popular in many films since the 1930s (SHOWBOAT, THE AWFUL TRUTH, MY FAVOURITE WIFE and I must still see her in I REMEMBER MAMA from 1948, her last film of note). It also brought British actor Rex Harrison, to the American screen after his successful career in Britain (MAJOR BARBARA, BLITHE SPIRIT etc); he appeared in a number of films in Hollywood including THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR, THE FOXES OF HARROW and UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (reviewed here, see labels) before that scandal and his great era in the 50s (Kay Kendall label). Linda Darnell had emerged at 20th Century Fox as a star and appears as Tuptim; Lee J. Cobb was also beginning his career and Gale Sondegaard was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress for her performance as Lady Tiang. In fact, the film won Oscars for best set decoration and best black and white cinematography. Odd though now see westerners playing orientals (as per recent review of Katharine Hepburn in DRAGON SEED).



The film offers a portrait of an assured British woman who came to Siam with her young son in order to be an teacher and has to open her eyes to an alien culture. The King of Siam also wanted to open Siam to a broader world culture but was trapped in many of his traditions. Audiences are more familiar with this story from Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s musical – with many popular songs. In 1999 there was a further version, ANNA AND THE KING, with Jodie Foster playing Anna and Hong Kong actor, Chow Yung Fat as the king, but I wasn't interested enough to see it at the time. This original version is certainly fascinating now - Dunne is as pleasing as ever, and Harrison certainly matches Brynner in making the King an individual. Her son is killed in a fall from a horse here, but not if memory serves me right in the musical version.

The 1956 musical was one of my early childhood movie-going pleasures - we loved Debroah and those huge crinolines and all that exotic decor and of course Brynner as King - Dunne sports similar huge dresses here; and there is of course that colonial subtext of the wise woman from the West if not taming, then humanising the strange court of the oriental monarch with all his wives, children and those scheming courtiers ... "Whistle a happy tune" indeed!. Dunne like in my earlier posts on her and those other 30s ladies recently re-discovered (Margaret Sullavan, Norma Shearer, Loretta Young) continues to please - and the King suits the imperious often not very likeable Rex perfectly! Linda too is another under-rated '40s lady whom we now like a lot ...

Linda Darnell x 3

I did a piece here last year on Linda Darnell (see label) - that '40s beauty who was neglected for a long time, but - like Gene Tierney - is now recognised as one of the quintessential actresses and beauties of the era. Here are 3 of her major movies:

NO WAY OUT, one of Joseph L Mankiewicz's two 20th Century Fox films in 1950 (the other was some little trifle called ALL ABOUT EVE) is still a stunning drama; no wonder it is never revived or seen on television these days, it is a tough racist drama which does not pull its punches with all that racist language spewed out by Richard Widmark as the petty, mean hood who thinks black hospital doctor Sidney Poitier (one of his first roles) was responsible for his brother's death and he means vengance. Stephen McNally is the dependable head of the hospital and Linda is the down-on-her-luck girlfriend of Widmark's nasty hood - that roominghouse room they reside in looks all too real. Tensions escalate as the local racists gather for a fight, a scene illuminated with a flare gun; and it still shocks to see Poitier with the spit on his face from a bigot - Widmark gets more deranged and self-pitying as he launches his final attack on Poitier and then realises just what a hateful unloved mess he is .... Linda is admirable as she comes to her senses and realises where her loyalties lie. It is a good downbeat role for her after those 40s glamour roles in the likes of FOREVER AMBER and Preminger's FALLEN ANGEL. Prior to this the only NO WAY OUT I knew was the 80s Kevin Costner flick.

How can I convey how much I love A LETTER TO THREE WIVES - it is surely one of the most perfect 40s American movies showing that 40s dreamworld of plush suburbia where the women all have roomy comfortable homes, drive big estate cars and have domestic help (Themla Ritter!) when entertaining. It is just as good if not better than ALL ABOUT EVE (which really has the same format being about 3 women: Margo, Karen and Eve all with about equal screen time; it is though a more wittily acidic curdled cocktail of a movie). Each wife here represents a different type of the upwardly mobile post-WWII woman. Jeanne Crain is a pretty, stay-at-home type of modest background, grateful and anxious to fit in with the country club set. Ann Sothern is the married career girl both proud and worried that she makes more than her schoolteacher husband (young Kirk Douglas), as she writes for the radio soaps. Linda is the unrepentant social climber from the wrong side of town who plays the cards she’s dealt with masterfully, but can’t get over the golddigger persona she feels saddled with, as she lands the rich Paul Douglas who feels he has bought her.

Mankiewicz delights in pricking and celebrating the pride and pretensions of each woman, succeeding especially with Sothern and Darnell as they worry (when away on a day trip) over which of their husbands has run off with the town socialite Addie Ross who has thoughtfully had a note delivered to them advising that she is leaving town with one of their men! It remains visually expressive though of course the story would not work now in the modern world where people are never out of contact without their telephone! The first story with Jeanne Crain is the slightest, then there is the dinner party from hell with Florence Bates as the radio executive with much verbal wit with that amusing wordplay on Sadie the maid (Thelma) being saturated and penetrated by the radio ads - Gracias!; and then the story of how Linda's Lora Mae from the shack by the railroad (wait till the trains pass by..) snares her department store boss Porter Hollingsway (Douglas), she too can be a girl in a silver frame on a piano. The poor sap does not stand a chance as Lora Mae ladders her nylons to emphasise her legs and retorts "what I got don't need beads" when implored by her mother Connie Gilchrist to put on a necklace.

It climaxes nicely on New Year's Eve when Porter calls to capitulate and Lora Mae bitterly realises she has won, they do not find out they love each other until that nice moment at the end with her "you big gorilla"! This enduring classic (there was a rubbish television remake but who remembers that...or even saw it) and HOUSE OF STRANGERS made 1949 a terrific year for Mankiewicz (right), winning Oscars for writing and directing here, as he did again in 1950 with ALL ABOUT EVE, and also directing NO WAY OUT - just like a decade later Billy Wilder scored with SOME LIKE IT HOT followed by THE APARTMENT where he won his awards - as he lost out to BEN HUR the previous year). Mank of course is one of Hollywood's great writer-director-producers and he also romanced quite a few leading ladies: Darnell, Lana, Judy and so many others... as well as producing Joan Crawford movies and stuff like WOMAN OF THE YEAR where he made that remark that Tracy would cut Hepburn down to size ... I still have his FIVE FINGERS and PEOPLE WILL TALK to watch, and I always like seeing CLEOPATRA, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, THE HONEYPOT, THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA (which Linda was set to play, but then Ava was the bigger star).

I had been looking forward to Preston Sturges' UNFAITHFULLY YOURS from 1948 - I like Prestons's other films a lot: SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS, THE LADY EVE, THE PALM BEACH STORY are all classics, I even like those Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton comedies of his - so UNFAITHFULLY YOURS looked like it would be a treat. However I did not like it all, I found the humour laboured as famous conductor Rex Harrison suspects his lovely wife Daphne (Linda Darnell) of infidelity. While leading his orchestra in three different pieces, he elaborately daydreams various forms of revenge, each one accompanied by a classical music piece. First, in a complex and ingenious fantasy to Rossini's music, he murders Daphne and plots to frame and convict Anthony Windborn (Kurt Kreuger), his own suspected young private secretary, for the crime.

While performing the second number, by Wagner, he fantasizes about writing Daphne a large cheque, forgiving the young couple, and allowing his wife to run off with her young lover. And while conducting the third piece - a Tchaikovsky overture, he sees himself challenging Daphne and Tony to a fatal game of Russian roulette. While the plans work perfectly in his mind, he stumbles and bumbles his way through the preparations in real life in a very laboured scene. Finally, realizing how deliriously silly he's been, he embraces and kisses his loving wife, who's never been unfaithful, and has no idea that he has been plotting against her. Was this really funny in 1948? Did audiences lap it up? The scene where he fantasises about killing his wife with his razor just off camera is simply not amusing. Nice though to see that 40s high life, the furs and jewels for the women, the plush bathroom with the leather strap for sharpening an open razor ... but it is all very dated and just does not work now, even though Dudley Moore did a remake, which thankfully passed us by. Rex is as sharp as ever here but for me he did not come into his own until the '50s; Harrison though was the ideal actor for Mankiewicz, headlining 4 of his movies, including that waspish Caesar in CLEOPATRA.

Linda's great era was the 1940s of course - she still had some successes in the '50s, I like SATURDAY ISLAND or ISLAND OF DESIRE where she is on a desert island with young marine Tab Hunter (looking like a go-go dancer in his sawn off shorts), and as per review at Linda Darnell label, I love her 1954 melodrama THIS IS MY LOVE, also directed by Stuart Heisler [thanks to IMDb pals Melvelvit and Timshelboy for that one].

Linda would have been perfect as the diner owner in the Steinbeck THE WAYWARD BUS in 1957 but Fox gave it to their new import English Joan Collins! Linda alas died in a fire in 1965, aged only 41.

Linda and Mank's 40s films have that recognisable plush late '40s 20th Century Fox look, as does Negulesco's neat little '48 noir thriller ROADHOUSE where Widmark plays another deranged role opposite the very hard-boiled chanteuse Ida Lupino - more on that later, it cries out for a re-view.

"Hollywood Beauty" is a biography on Linda by Ronald L. Davis; the blurb reads: "In 1939, at the age of 15, Linda Darnell left her Texas home and ordinary world to live the Hollywood dream promised by fan magazines and studio publicity offices. She appeared in dozens of films and won international acclaim for BLOOD AND SAND, FOREVER AMBER, A LETTER TO 3 WIVES, and the original version of UNFAITHFULLY YOURS. Driven by her mother to become rich and famous but unable to cope with the real nature of Hollywood, Darnell soon was caught in a downward spiral of drinking, failed marriages, and exploitive relationships. By her early twenties she was an alcoholic, hardened by a life in which beautiful women were chattel. By the time of her death in a house fire aged 41, she was struggling for recognition in the industry that had once called her its "golden girl". Its one of Hollywood's sadder tales.