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.

Czarina Tallulah - or Catherine was Great !

Back to the 1940s for a delirious treat: Tallulah Bankhead as Catherine The Great in a 1945 Ernest Lubitsch comedy! - so expect a dash of sly and subversive naughtiness, which is a perfect fit for Bankhead. There’s just something in her personality that’s so suited to the genre, but this might be the only comedic film she ever made. There is the heavy hand of Otto Preminger though as director, though the ill Lubitsch produced it.

A ROYAL SCANDAL is amusing, silly, and fun, with Bankhead at her best. It may though be a tad too talky, we have to wait almost 15 minutes for Tallulah to appear. We know her best now for her dramataics in Hitch's LIFEBOAT in 1944, and that silly 60s shocker: FANATIC or DIE DIE MY DARLING - I have not seen any of her earlier '30s ones like that one with Cooper and Laughton (THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP). She is perfectly marvellous as Catherine The Great - witty, and making the most of those lines and her suggestive looks at that rather dim solider who becomes her latest fancy as she dresses him up in finery to the chagrin of his fiance, Anne Baxter. Anne and the Empress have a deliciously funny scene too, and Charles Coburn is on hand as Catherine's wily fox of a chancellor. Then there is Vincent Price being very camp as the French Ambassador ... I also like those other Lubitch items like Garbo in NINOTCHKA, Lombard in TO BE OR NOT TO BE, her last in 1942, and Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (Margaret Sullavan label), classics all.

Tallulah of course was one of the legends of the theatre and one can see why here.  Her television apperances are also amusing and those stories about her are legend. I particularly like the one where a groggy houseguest is woken by the butler proferring a large vodka, Tallulah sweeps by and says "Better drink it dahling, there won't be any more served until after breakfast."

The leading man though is one William Eythe, new to me, and its saddening reading about him. He died aged 38 in 1957 of acute hepatitis.  He was the type of leading man 20th Century Fox liked, good-looking in that Tyrone Power/John Payne way ... he had several leading roles at the time, but as he was known to be gay, his career fizzled out.  He looks good here crammed into those hussar uniforms.

We have of course to compare Tallulah's empress with those other Catherines: most notably Dietrich in Von Sternberg's THE SCARLET EMPRESS, one of my particular top 10 favourites, from 1934. Here she is with John Lodge - love those outfits!

Bette Davis also played Catherine in the last 5 minutes of that rather turgid 1959 costume drama JOHN PAUL JONES, and Viveca Lindfors made a splendid empress in THE TEMPEST in 1958, that Silvana Mangano-Dino De Laurentiis mini-epic I like a lot.  Tallulah though is something else ....(Jeanne Moreau though was dreadful in the dreadfully unfunny comedy GREAT CATHERINE with O'Toole, in '68).

and Viveca ...

Bette as Catherine

Next 40s treat: Negulesco's ROADHOUSE that delicious noir with Ida Lupino.

Showpeople: when Joan met Greg, Sophia and Max; and when Margaret met Harry ...

My 400th post! So here is another look at that great photo of the 1962 Oscar winners, with as was the custom, the previous year's winners, plus a great Margaret Sullavan anecdote, which I have to thank my pal Daryl for!

I wrote a while back about Loren and Peck presenting each other with Oscars - here again is that great shot of Joan Crawford graciously sharing their limelight! You have to hand it to Joan! No wonder Bette was left seething with rage in the wings!

The 1961 winners (Maximilian Schell and Loren) as was the custom presented the 1962 best actor and actress awards. Bette was nominated for WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? but Joan (who hadnn't been nominated for their little film) had volunteered to accept the best actress award on behalf of any nominee who could not be present. Peck got his from Sophia and Max announced that Anne Bancroft had won as best actress, but Anne was not there so Joan swept past Bette (they were both backstage) and (as legend has it, said "excuse me, I have an Oscar to collect") graciously accepted the award on Anne's behalf and she (looking terrific by the way) got to pose with the other winners! [that is Max next to Joan - looking like her hot date for the night]. So there was Bette empty-handed while Joan posed clutching an Oscar (so what if it was not hers) with Greg and Sophia and Schell basking in the publicity! Things were even less cordial between Joan and Bette after that !

And the Margaret Sullavan story? Margaret was one of the great stars of the '30s and '40s (as noted previously, at label). When she made NO SAD SONGS FOR ME at Columbia in 1950 (which turned out to be her last film), there is the story that she had a meeting with the head of the studio, the notoriously vulgar Harry Cohn. Cohn was supposed to have said to her, "Willie Wyler tells me you're really hot in bed," whereupon she stood up and walked to the door. But before she left, she reportedly said, "I don't believe Willie would have told you that, because he's a gentleman... but incidentally, I am!")

I am now taking a break for a week or so, as have family visitors staying so I expect to show them lots of London and various famous gardens! Back soon.

1940: Margaret Sullavan and The Shop Around The Corner

Here is a treat for Christmas - a new release of the 1940 Ernest Lubitsch classic THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER from the London British Film Institute. This much loved film (and a prime early romcom) makes a nice change from the perennial IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. It is though, I fear, safe to say that of the 1930s stars I have been commenting on here, that it's star Margaret Sullavan is the least known today to the general public.

As the BFI blurb puts it: "Set in a lovingly evoked pre-war Budapest in the run-up to Christmas, Lubitsch's wondrous THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER displays his fabled 'touch' at its lightest. The film focuses on the various obstacles – including their own pride, prejudice and anxieties about unemployment – blocking the path to happiness for Alfred Kralik (Stewart) and Klara Novak (Sullavan). Sales assistants at the emporium owned by the irascibly paternal Mr Matuschek (Morgan), the pair are so distracted by professional rivalry and dreams of a better life that they're yet to realise they’ve started courting one another in an anonymous correspondence by mail.

Superb performances, lustrous camerawork and Samson Raphaelson's deft script – which miraculously mines comedy from an otherwise serious, often deeply moving account of loneliness, insecurity and the fear of seeming 'ordinary' – contribute to Hollywood’s most exquisitely romantic depiction of an old Europe about to vanish forever. Perfect seasonal fare." I couldn't put it better myself!

Sullavan [1909-1960] did not make that many films, 22 in all, being primarily a Broadway actress. Her story is told in her daughter Brooke Hayward's book HAYWIRE (which was filmed with Lee Remick as Sullavan]. Though from a wealthy background her personal life was dogged with increasing deafness and mental problems, causing her accidental overdose in 1960 (two years before Monroe's similar ending). She had already worked with James Stewart in THE SHOPWORN ANGEL in 1938, the year she also starred in THREE COMRADES for Frank Borzage which is "one of the most memorable films of the 1930s" (Daryl Chin's comment om IMDb), from the Remarque story and scripted by F Scott Fitzgerald which with Borzage's romanticism makes for a very moving classic.

1940 was probably her peak year (like it also was for James Stewart - not only the 2 with Sullavan but also with Hepburn and Grant in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, for which he won the Academy Award) as she and Stewart were also teamed in the terrific Frank Borzage film THE MORTAL STORM about the rise of Nazis in Germany, with her and Stewart escaping over the border on skis at the thrilling climax. I had never seen Sullavan before but saw this film on afternoon television when I was in my twenties and it was just one of those films that, even on television, makes a tremendous impresson on one so one never forgets it. Nice to have it on disk now [along with Borzage's equally great MAN'S CASTLE from '34 with Tracy and Loretta Young]. One could say the same about THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER - later romcoms like YOU'VE GOT MAIL shamelessly plagarised it.

Sullavan had several tempestuous relationships - a two month marriage to Henry Fonda, followed by marriages to director William Wyler and agent Leland Heyward, plus a fourth marriage. She and James Stewart were also close but politically poles apart.....

Margaret Sullavan's last film was NO SAD SONGS FOR ME in 1950, which it was a pleasure to catch up with a while ago (thanks to a friend in New York). Here she plays an ordinary suburban wife who finds out she has terminal cancer and it is about how she comes to terms with it and ensures her husband (Wendall Corey - dull as ever) and daughter (young Natalie Wood) will be looked after, after she has gone, by new girl Viveca Lindfors. It is a superior weepie.

It is though good to see THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER back in circulation and Sullavan's reputation can only grow. It was also remade by MGM in '47 as IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME as a vehicle for Judy Garland.

Some other choice '50s movies

Before moving on from the ‘50s here are some other recent viewing pleasures, some ramping up the camp factor:

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) as the engineer - 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 the 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.

THE ACTRESS – another low key film, from 1953, and directed by George Cukor. This should be much better know but seems to have been thrown away by MGM who reduced its running time. Its based on the memoirs of actress Ruth Gordon about when she was young and becoming fascinated by the theatre. It’s a nice picture of small town life with Jean Simmons in one of her key roles. She is perfectly enchanting here. Spencer Tracy for once is quite bearable as the father and Teresa Wright is mother. Anthony Perkins has his first role as a young admirer, and it of course encapsulates Cukor fascination with theatre and role playing.

THE STAR – another low key black and white 1953 item from Warner Bros, with Bette Davis startlingly effective as the star in decline and hitting the bottle: “Come on Oscar, let you and me get drunk”, as she handles the humiliations piled on her with the sale of her effects, looking for work, having to deal with grasping relatives and – the indignity! – having to work in a department store where she is recognised by customers. Bette flounces through it but its rather at the start of her dumpy period. Apparantly the star they had in mind was a kind of Joan Crawford shallow star. Sterling Hayden is the man who could rescue her and young Natalie Wood again plays daughter. A fascinating oddity now.

TORCH SONG – Joan herself stars in this ’53 ”musical” which I never saw until last year, and its certainly up there with the other camp classics. Its deliriously designed in lurid colours (particularly her blackface number “Two Faced Woman” with orange wig) and I like her yellow dressing gown matching her bedroom décor, and that party with only men in attendance. Joan is the Helen Lawson-like dragon Broadway star who drives everyone away, except her new pianist, Michael Wilding, but then he is blind (yes, really). Romance eventually triumphs but not before Joan has a field day chomping the scenery and supporting cast. Gig Young plays her beau but drops out half way through. There is one hilarious scene where as she exits the theatre she is swamped by children demanding her autograph! Charles Walters directs at full tilt and even dances with Joan in her opening number, as the chorus boy who keeps getting it wrong, spoiling Joan’s line.

A Crawford double bill: FEMALE ON THE BEACH / AUTUMN LEAVES. FEMALE in ’55 has Joan as the wealthy but lonely woman moving into a new beachside apartment, where the previous wealthy but lonely female owner [Judith Evelyn] died in mysterious circumstances. Enter Jeff Chandler as the idle beachboy who attemps to move in on Joan. [He: “How do you like your coffee?”, she: “Alone”]. There are also 2 seedy neighbours who it seems are pimping young men to lonely wealthy women, these are deliciously played by Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer. They try to introduce Joan to muscle-guy Ed Fury when she does not rise to Jeff’s bait. Jan Sterling scores as the realtor who keeps hanging around. It all ends in delirious melodrama as helmed by Joseph Pevney, an old hand at this kind of tosh: can Joan trust Jeff or are his motives too dubious?

AUTUMN LEAVES is the Robert Aldrich melodrama from ’56 where Joan is the lonely typist in a modest apartment who becomes entangled with younger Cliff Robertson. They marry but she begins to fear his irrational moods. Enter Vera Miles as his ex-wife and Lorne Greene as his overbearing father. Joan has a great scene as she confronts their deceit, and then Cliff goes loony and throws the typewriter at her. Joan wonders if he still loves her, as she has him committed for mental treatment. Will he still need her when he is cured? Joan as ever emotes while her face resembles an Aztec mask.

THE STORY OF MANKIND – Producer Irwin Allen’s 1957 “all star” telling of a heavenly court [a long way from A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH], presided over by Cedric Hardwicke, deciding the fate of mankind as the human race is on the brink of the atomic age. Does mankind deserve to survive? This long-unseen tosh, with intercut stock footage, was just a vague memory but its enormous fun now, as the highlights of mankind are unspooled: Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, John Carradine as a Pharoah, Peter Lorre as Nero, Groucho Marx buying Manhattan from the Indians, Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc, young Dennis Hopper as Napoleon with Marie Windsor as Josephine, Marie Wilson as Marie Antoinette merrily quipping that the peasants should eat cake, Agnes Moorehead as a splendid Elizabeth I, need I go on? Best of all is Vincent Price as the devil while Ronald Coleman (what possessed him?) is the voice of reason representing mankind. Its trash, its delirious, its delovely.

THE FEMALE ANIMAL – another Hedy Lamarr, in fact her last film in 1957, and a very lost film until a friend acquired a copy recently. It’s a very Albert Zugsmith (schlockmeister supreme) production, and would in fact make a great double feature with FEMALE ON THE BEACH, with which it has certain similiarities. Here Hedy is the ageing movie goddess who picks up with 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 again, 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.

THE MONTE CARLO STORY – it was a real treat to find this recently as it was just a dim memory of seeing it when about 12. This Italian Titanus co-production is of note only for the teaming of Marlene Dietrich and Vittorio De Sica in 1957, and yes those Monte Carlo locations. They are both con artists and gamblers and both are looking for a good catch but fall for each other. When they realise they are both poor they set their cap at rich Americans Arthur O’Connell as Homer Hinckley and Natalie Trundy as his daughter (who is though far too young for Vittorio). The backdrops are lovely, the Riviera in the ‘50s, Marlene sings and is dressed by Jean Louis, Vittorio is a joy as ever. Hard to believe that director Dino Risi had a hand in the silly script.

Unseen since I saw it 50 years ago as a child, it was fascinating to see Michael Anderson's SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (1959) again recently, a muddled IRA story set in Ireland in the 20s it featured James Cagney in one of his last ferocious roles as a misguided IRA supporter, Don Murray as the young lead and Dana Wynter, lovely as usual, as the romantic interest. Glynis Johns has a good role and it features, inevitably, young Richard Harris, with splendid cameos by Dame Sybil Thorndike and Michael Redgrave.

Finally, one we like a lot, and back to Joan Crawford: Jean Negulesco’s THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, from the hit Rona Jaffe novel and another of those Fox 3-girls-sharing-an-apartment-looking-for-love movies. The three are Hope Lange, Diane Baker and model Suzy Parker; it should have been 4 as in the book but Martha Hyer’s role was practically snipped out in the editing to reduce it to 3, with of course Joan Crawford billed “as Amanda Farrow” – the terror of the typing pool. It’s a fascinating look now at office life in the 50s and has great views of Manhattan back then, and of course that great theme tune. Stephen Boyd is Lange’s romantic interest and there are some nice moments of them walking along. There is a lovely moment at the start as Lange exits from the subway and the breeze blows up her little jacket showing the nice pattern on the lining. The drama comes from Lange aspiring to Crawford’s role, Baker getting pregnant and Parker falling for a theatre director (Louis Jourdan) and not being able to handle rejection. It all plays out perfectly and is one of the great enduring soaps of the year along with A SUMMER PLACE and IMITATION OF LIFE. And now for the ‘60s.