Summer re-views: favourite Sabrina moments

We can always sit down and look at SABRINA one more time - its a perennial Billy Wilder favourite, so 1954 and with that perfect black and white Paramount look. Audrey looks entrancing here, after her ROMAN HOLIDAY. Bogie is fine, maybe a bit too old, while breezy Holden (romancing Audrey at the time, before she chose Mel Ferrer) is just right too. Here are a few favourite moments: 

Audrey up in that tree at the start as the wealthy Larrabees party; her return from Paris all tres-Givenchy; that delicious moment at the party when worried Mrs Larrabee tries to put the family chauffeur's daughter in her place by asking her to come up to the house sometime to cook something delicious for them to show what she has learned in Paris - I love the way Audrey/Sabrina says "Oh, I've learned a lot" ... as she dances off in that dress with Holden, who is engaged to country club girl Martha Hyer who "does not want to spend the first twelve hours of her marriage on a plane, sitting up" - maybe a bit risque for 1954, but another example of the Wilder wit. Then there is Audrey is that little black dress posed against that New York skyline .... as older brother Linus woos Sabrina to ensure the merger with Holden and Hyer goes through. John Williams, Nancy Culp etc are sterling support and it all looks a treat. We love Sabrina's Paris apartment window looking out at Sacre Coeur, as "La Vie En Rose" plays in the background ....

RIP continued ...

Martha Hyer (1924-2014), aged 89, Martha from Forth Worth, Texas, was a fixture in '50s Hollywood, her usual persona was the chic, country club princess who does not get the guy at the end, which she perfected in SABRINA, HOUSEBOAT, MISTER CORY and others. She was also a tough dame out west (I have her NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY with Clint Walker from 1966 to see this week). She also scored in Minnelli's SOME CAME RUNNING as Sinatra's love interest, for which she was nominated as Best Supporting Actress. Martha married producer Hal B Wallis in 1966 until his death in '86. She was also effective in THE CHASE, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, THE CARPETBAGGERS and many others - like Vera Miles, Ruth Roman, Dorothy Malone or Viriginia Mayo she was a top rank second-tier star. 

Mona Freeman (1926-2014), aged 87. Mona was an attractive ingenue in lots of films, including THE HEIRESS, FLESH AND FURY, BATTLE CRY and lots of television. 

Barbara Murray. Stylish English actress Barbara Murray, died on May 20, aged 84. A Rank Organisation girl in the 1950s, she was a student of their famous Charm School, and had several good roles before moving into television. She was Dirk Bogarde's love interest in the 1957 CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM, and she was also in DOCTOR IN DISTRESS, and other films she appeared in were PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, BOYS IN BROWN, Bette Davis's ANOTHER MAN'S POISON, MEET MR LUCIFER, DOCTOR AT LARGE, and THE PUNCH AND JUDY MAN in 1962. 

On television she scored in THE PLANE MAKERS and its follow-up THE POWER GAME from 1965-69, as the wife of tycoon Patrick Wymark, as well as various series like UP POMPEII (as Ammonia), THE PALLISERS, and Peter Davison's DR WHO. She retired to Spain after some theatre work. 

Rik Mayall (1958-2014) aged 56. Prolific actor, writer, comedian, alternative comedy and  "post-punk" star of THE YOUNG ONES, THE NEW STATESMAN, BOTTOM, BLACKADDER and films like DROP DEAD FRED and GUEST HOUSE PARADISO. A brilliantly funny comedian with a unique stage presence he died far too young. He and Ade Edmondson began at The Comedy Store, and was soon part of the COMIC STRIP gang with their hilarious send-ups of Enid Blyton and the like.  

Kevin Elyot. (1951 - June 2014) aged 62. British playwright and screenwriter. His most notable works include the play MY NIGHT WITH REG and the tele-film CLAPHAM JUNCTION, a highly controversial work which at least re-united several of the cast of MAURICE: James Wilby, Rupert Graves and Pheobe Nicholls. 
I saw MY NIGHT WITH REG on the stage, its a fascinating tragi-comedy about the affects of the Aids crisis on a group of friends. It was filmed by the BBC. Elyot also did that BBC adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's CHRISTOPHER AND HIS KIND, with DR WHO Matt Smith as the Isherwood figure here (review at gay interest label). There is apparantly a new production of MY NIGHT WITH REG opening in London this summer, which Elyot was working on. 

1966: The Chase, Hurry Sundown, Harper ...

Here's 3 big dramas from that terrific year 1966 - see previous posts below. I didn't see either THE CHASE or HURRY SUNDOWN (filmed in 1966, released here early 1967) at the time, but remember liking HARPER or THE MOVING TARGET as it was called here, with Paul Newman as Ross McDonald's laconic private eye, with 4 terrific dames in tow (Bacall, Janet Leigh, Julie Harris, Shelley Winters). First though, Penn's riveting THE CHASE, a Sam Spiegel production for Columbia, scripted by Lillian Hellman from Horton Foote's story - add in a powerhouse cast and a John Barry score and watch sparks fly ...

The moral foundation of a small Texas town is torn apart in this explosive drama about power and greed. Sheriff Calder isn't the only person chasing Bubber Reeves when he escapes from prison. Oil and cattle baron Val Rogers wants Bubber out of the way to cover up the love affair between his son Jake and Bubber's wife Anna. THE CHASE is on. When bigotry and booze propel the townsfolk into a vigilante mob, Calder's wife tries to convince her husband that he doesn't have to bring Bubber in alive. But the sheriff is fighting for justice and he won't be stopped until the shattering climax. No one escapes untouched in acclaimed director Arthur Penn's action-packed drama. 

That about sums it up .... the stunning cast here comprises Brando in one of his better '60s roles (he was back in the deep south the next year in Huston's REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, in a totally different role and milieu... as we will discover in due course), with Angie Dickinson terrific as ever as his wife. Brando has another great scene where he is beaten up (as in ONE EYED JACKS); the town bullies are a venal mob fuelled by booze and their dissatisfied wives - Martha Hyer is terrific as a drunk, and Janice Rule scores too. Miriam Hopkins has some good moments as Bubber's mother, E.G. Marshall is the local Mr Big with Robert Duvall an employee. At the centre of the film though are a terrific trio: young Robert Redford as blighted golden boy Bubber, Jane Fonda in one of her better roles as his wife, having a long romance with Jake, - James Fox, surprisingly effective in this milieu, after his roles in THE SERVANT and KING RAT (see below). 

The core of the film is the meeting of this trio at the local junkyard before the mob turn up .... the drunken violence that escalates is brilliantly depicted by Penn - who of course went on to BONNIE & CLYDE next. I don't know why I didn't see this at the time, I would have enjoyed it a lot, with that cast - but its certainly worth seeing now. For a 1966 film it also prefigures those political assassinations in 1968 - as one just knows what is going to happen as Bubber is being brought in. The portrayal of small-town bigotry, duplicity, jealousy, betrayal, and infidelity is well-done, with great scope and colour, and the spectacular junkyard climax is a chilling finale.... the ironic aftermath shows the Sheriff and his wife leaving town, which is certainly a circle of hell as depicted here.  THE CHASE aims for significance and I think achieves it, a key mid-'60s American film, whereas HURRY SUNDOWN falls flat on its face, a hilariously awful cartoon ...

Jane Fonda was back down south in Otto Preminger's production HURRY SUNDOWN, which is a prime slice of southern trash now. This is a much reviled film and finally seeing it one can see why .... as in THE CHASE the 'n' word is used a lot (as of course was 'fag' in those movies like THE LOVE MACHINE). This though is a lurid potboiler with all the usual Preminger finesse, which Horton Foote also had a hand in writing. Otto is a curious case, after his '40s classics like LAURA and his "interesting" '50s films like CARMEN JONES he seemed to hit his peak for me with ANATOMY OF A MURDER and ADVISE AND CONSENT (review at gay interest label) (I missed and never cared for EXODUS) while THE CARDINAL was more tedious histrionics (but at least had Romy Schneider) .... I still have one of his last and reputed worst SKIDOO to see, some rainy day, or snowy night by the fire ...

The dramatics on show here play like a demented comedy now as we watch Alfie and Barbarella and her blonde angel with Bonnie Parker ... Michael Caine is the hissable cartoon villain and Jane Fonda is wasted as his wife, apart from that scene with the saxaphone! are the rich folk, while John Philip Law in dungarees and Faye Dunaway in her first main role are the dirt poor relatives on that plot of land which Caine just has to get for the evil company who wants it and the neighbouring plot by poor but honest black folk Robert Hooks and his soon-to-expire mother, Beah Richards, who was Fonda's Mammy. Sassy Diahann Carroll is soon on their side as unscrupulous Caine will stop at nothing, not even that Southern accent of his!
This is comedy drama with broad brushstrokes as the whites are depicted as venal and corrupt and bigoted, and the blacks are all noble salts of the earth .... Burgess Meredith chews scenery as a corrupt judge with Jim Backus on the side of the good folk, while George Kennedy is the sleazy local chief of police, fond of getting down with the coloured folks, and Madeleine Sherwood reprises her Sisterwoman from CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF. Fonda finally comes to her senses and leaves her snivelling husband who has one more ace up his sleeve in flooding the land .... while Law and Dunaway share their passion on his return from combat overseas - this is all supposed to be 1945 but hardly looks it. HURRY SUNDOWN is a delicious piece of southern fried trash then - one should ask friends around and serve appropriate food and drink and howl along with it .... particularly when Caine is in full panto villain mode ...

HARPER: Lew Harper, a cool private investigator, is hired by a wealthy California matron to locate her kidnapped husband. Jack Smight's 1966 thriller is still a nifty piece of cinema catching Newman in his prime - remember how he retrieves yesterday's coffee grounds from the trashcan to make some more coffee, as the credits unroll?. This time the in-joke is that it is Lauren Bacall as the rich dame who hires him to solve the case (she played the daughter of General Sherwood who hires Bogart in THE BIG SLEEP), Janet Leigh is effective as his ex-wife frying those eggs, Shelley Winters is the ex-child movie star "who got fat", and best of all, Julie Harris as the junkie jazz singer singing that song "Living Alone", words by Dory and music by Andre Previn (they also did "You're Gonna Hear From Me" from that year's INSIDE DAISY CLOVER (Natalie Wood label), another Warner biggie then. 

Add in Robert Wagner, Rober Webber, Strother Martin and sizzling young Pamela Tiffin and the scene is set for a tightly-plotted detective scenario. Smight of course went on to the delicious NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY (Remick label). Newman is in his prime here after HUD and went on to LADY L with Loren, and COOL HAND LUKE, and of course had done TORN CURTAIN with Julie Andrews for Hitch ...the one Hitch movie I had no interest in seeing. Good to see him here with marvellous Julie Harris (see Harris label), he had tested for EAST OF EDEN, as per those tests with James Dean. Nice also to see Jacqueline De Wit again (the fearsome Mona Plash in ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Rock Hudson label).
HARPER is still a terrific movie with a great cast in their prime, even for non-Newman devotees like me, and catches that mid-'60s vibe nicely (where Americans were growing Beatle haircuts and dancing the frug) like the next year's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT. Photographed by Conrad Hall with a cool score by Johnny Mandel.

Next 60s: SHIP OF FOOLS, THE COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG, and more Deep South shenanigans with REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, TOYS IN THE ATTIC and SUMMER AND SMOKE, and Lumet's THE SEAGULL and THE DEADLY AFFAIR - '60s dramas at their best then.

Summer re-runs: Epic or what !

Some thoughts on re-seeing QUO VADIS again yersterday, and also catching up with a 1959 biblical I had not seen: THE BIG FISHERMAN.

In the 50s Hollywood companies set up massive productions in Europe and brought last casts and crews to Italy and Spain. The cheaper European facilities and labour as well as tax breaks allowed for the release of once frozen capital that Hollywood companies had amassed in Europe.

QUO VADIS of course set the ball rolling in 1951, Mervyn LeRoy's spectacular is still an enjoyable treat now and its success at the time provided the impetus for a spate of costume epics. There is a world of difference between the Hollywood epic and the Italian peplum - the latter are made cheaply and the American ones are shot on a grand scale with a seemingly endless budget.

Elizabeth Taylor in Quo Vadis ?

In the USA Fox gave us THE EGYPTIAN, MGM THE PRODIGAL, Warners THE LAND OF THE PHAROAHS and Cecil delivered his TEN COMMANDMENTS for Paramount... and of course THE SILVER CHALICE and SIGN OF THE PAGAN - us '50s kids loved these. Then came those European-made ones like HELEN OF TROY, ALEXANDER THE GREAT (both keeping those British thespians like Stanley Baker, Harry Andrews, Peter Cushing busy), THE VIKINGS, SOLOMON AND SHEBA (more work for Harry and Finlay) and of course BEN-HUR - and then SPARATACUS and CLEOPATRA. Samuel Bronston too set up production in Spain with EL CID, KING OF KINGS, 55 DAYS AT PEKING and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. These were set up by selling distribution rights throughout the world. His CIRCUS WORLD in 1964 was rather a flop and though its marvellous watching FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE now with its great sets (that fortress fort in the German forests!) and cast (Guinness, Mason, Plummer etc with Loren and Boyd, Sharif, Quayle et al) it did not perform that well at the time ... the next year's GENGHIS KHAN seemed rather tatty by comparison and sounded the death knell of the epic. George Steven's THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD while very visual and impressive, was rather out of touch in 1965 and had its risible moments (John Wayne!).  But by then it was a new era, the Swinging 60s were taking off, a new generation wanted a new kind of film entertainment, and the genre simply needed a rest - which it got until the dawn of the CGI era and GLADIATOR when epics did not seem 'real' any more.

Fleisher's BARABBAS from 1961 for DeLaurentiis is a good one to catch now too, with another great cast (Mangano, Quinn, Palance, Gassman etc) and some great set-pieces like that real eclipse of the sun. A stunning soundtrack too by Mario Nascimbene. All the great epics though have great soundtracks: would BEN-HUR be as good without the grandeur of that Miklos Rozsa score which perfectly accompanies the quieter scenes as well as the epic ones? and I loved that Alex North score for CLEOPATRA, that was a well-played soundtrack album. On the peplum front the likes of Steve Reeves, Belinda Lee and others went from film to film, as directors like Sergio Leone (the very inventive THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES) and Mario Bava learned their craft; see Epics label for my recent post on peplums like ATTILA, ULYSSES, APHRODITE etc.

Marina Berti

Back though to QUO VADIS - Peter Ustinov as Nero is surely the most scenery-chewing over-the-top performance ever?  But as I said in that recent post on De Mille's 1932 SIGN OF THE CROSS (Epics label) (where Charles Laughton is another very perverse Nero) the Christians are so holier than thou. Deborah Kerr is the pious Christian maiden whom hero Robert Taylor falls for - this one too has some good scenes in the arena and that cast of thousands ... the usual suspects are present: Finlay Currie, Felix Aylmer, Nora Swinbourne. Rosalie Crutchley is her usual compelling self too. AND the young Elizabeth Taylor was visiting the set and played one of the Christians in the arena - that great site PEPLUM found this photograph (above) of her on set. Also there was the 16 year old Sophia Loren (and her mother) somewhere among the slave girls - her first movie work; a decade later she would be headlining her own epics.  Leo Genn is good too and his love interest is the delightful slave girl played by the very attractive Marina Berti (left) (1924-2002) - she also pops up silently in BEN-HUR as Ben's ladyfriend (right) in the Roman scene (presumably to assert Ben's heterosexuality among all that Messala and Quintus Arrius male bonding..).

That 1959 biblical I had missed: THE BIG FISHERMAN, was totally turgid, seemed endless at two and a half hours, shot without closeups so it all seems to be happening in the middle distance - and it is a California biblical, so it does not have the look and feel of those Italian ones. An interesting cast is wasted too, though good to see Susan Kohner as our lead, disguised as a boy for a lot of the time, but John Saxon is unrecognisable under his costume, Howard Keel has nothing to play with, and the pairing of Herbert Lom and Martha Hyer (as Herod and his wife) (below) is interesting, but she too has too little to do. 
The best scene features the wind that suddenly arises and blows away their decadent party after the beheading of John the Baptist. But by the time Beulah Bondi is raised from the dead one is begging for the tepid melodramatics to finish .... but it was one I wanted to see, liking biblicals and peplums as I do. Its major point of interest is that it was directed by the great Frank Borzage, one of cinema's earlier visionaries with that poetic eye (THREE COMRADES, STRANGE CARGO, THE MORTAL STORM - which impressed me so much the first time I saw it on television decades ago). I will always enjoy a good epic or sword-and-sandal peplum, and can happily re-see my favourites anytime .... its what we grew up on in the '50s. If I had to choose one it would be the always-stupendous and majestic EL CID with its great visionary direction by Anthony Mann and those wonderful sets and cast and .... and again that great score...

I have to mention that guiltiest of pleasures: Cecil's 1949 SAMSON AND DELILAH, when Hedy as Delilah leads Victor in chains as Samson into the temple of Dagon and places him between the pillars ... how they laugh, but then the pillar moves .... George Sanders is sublime as he raises his goblet to toast Delilah as it all comes crashing down.  

 
The giant idol weighted 17 tons and was supported on lintels resting on plaster columns that were narrowed at the base and sent the whole structure, idol and all, toppling when pushed apart. Its almost as good as the pagan idol in THE PRODIGAL, 1955, where Lana (left) in that almost-there outfit is the high priestess guarding the flames ... in that one Edmund Purdom wrestles with a stuffed vulture, perhaps in hommage to Victor with the stuffed lion ... and as we mentioned before 1954's THE SILVER CHALICE is wonderful now, we were very impressed by Jack Palance here as the magician who thinks he can fly ....

Tony on the upside ...

MISTER CORY. I remember seeing this in 1957 as we young lads all saw Tony Curtis films then. This must have been the one (apart from TRAPEZE) which got him into more serious fare with the likes of Lancaster and Douglas, like SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS. He is another ambitious young guy on the make here, with all that Universal-International gloss, as directed and co-scripted by Blake Edwards. Cory gets a busboy job at a swanky lakeside resort and sets his cap at Martha Hyer, perfecting her country club girl persona. Her younger sister is Kathryn Grant, who has an agenda of her own, and shows once again she was one of the nicer ingénues of the time (before giving it up to marry some crooner). Cory rises and opens his own gambling casino, but finds that while Martha romances him she has no intention of marrying beneath her. Whats great about this now is seeing two old timers having roles to sink their teeth into: Charles Bickford as the (as suggested elsewhere, possibly gay) gambling man taking the young kid under his wing, and Henry Daniell as the very snobbish manager of the resort whom Cory recruits to manage his own joint. Henry rises to the occasion splendidly.



Sidney Falco in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and that killer lead in Wilder's perennial SOME LIKE IT HOT (only the best comedy ever written) are direct follow-ons from the ambitious young Mister Cory, cementing Tony's great decade. Another good Blake Edwards one, which I remember liking a lot then but never seen since, is 1958's comedy THE PERFECT FURLOUGH - with his wife Janet Leigh. He is another shyster army guy on the make here - it was called STRICTLY FOR PLEASURE here in the UK, Furlough being a word we do not use here.