Bette is Madame Sin

Here's a delicious doozy for a dull winter afternoon. Bette Davis as MADAME SIN, a 1972 release, originally meant as a pilot for a tv series, but released in cinemas here in Europe. Another unintentional comic Trash Classic! 

Bette Davis is Madame Sin, a sinister-looking, totally evil, half-Chinese woman who indulges in endless machinations. Ensconced in a Scottish castle that is packed with an array of spy gadgetry, she runs afoul with counter spy, American CIA agent Anthony Lawrence (Robert Wagner), who is out to counter her plots for control of a Polaris submarine.

The budget ran to a helicopter and renting a castle in Scotland - Robert Wagner, a friend of Bette's, co-stars and co-produces, some British stalwarts are lined up: Denholm Elliot, Gordon Jackson, Dudley Sutton, Roy Kinnear ... what, no Harry Andrews? but it all looks rather cheap and second rate capturing that seedy London of the early 70s. 

Bette though has a whale of a time chomping out her lines in that Eurasian get up - is she channelling Ona Munson as Madam Gin Sling in THE SHANGHAI GESTURE or maybe Gale Sondergaard in her own THE LETTER, or even Death (in that black cape) in THE SEVENTH SEAL? She needed to do something to liven it up, Wagner looks good here in his early 40s, and there is an unexpected ending. Director David Greene did some interesting 60s films but is on auto-pilot here. Perhaps for Bette addicts only?

This was the year she appeared before us at the London BFI  (right) and brought the house down - as I have reported before - Bette, NFT labels, so it must have been after she filmed this. 

Blondes: Platinum or Strawberry ? Both !

PLATINUM BLONDE, this is an early talkie - 1931 - someone on IMDB said it was maybe the first romcom? The platinum blonde is Jean Harlow who is playing a rich dame, and she seems rather subdued from her usual brassy roles (as in DINNER AT EIGHT or RED DUST) and the other two leads are the marvellous young Loretta Young (whom I like a lot in her '30s films like MIDNIGHT MARY, LADIES IN LOVE etc, as per label) and the male lead is one Robert Williams, whom I had never heard of. Understandable, as he died (of peritonitis) that year, 1931, aged 34. This was in fact his last (of 6 films) and he is a rivetting presence here, and surely would have been a bigger star. It is an early Frank Capra picture too and its a real treat now. Its a must-see for several reasons. Jean Harlow is unusually cast as a straight society high-brow. Although the role could easily be played as a caricature, she brings to it appealing depth and vulnerability. 
Loretta Young is radiant. And Robert Williams delivers an eccentric modern day performance.

Williams is Stew Smith, a reporter who falls suddenly in love with rich socialite (Harlow) but soon gets bored with the rich life and wants to be back being a reporter again with Gallagher (that's Loretta) who really loves him all along and of course they end up happily together. Its a nice  snappy depression-era satire on the rich idle folk too. (Harlow of course died in 1937, aged 26 - while Loretta continued to 2000, aged 87.)

THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE (or LA BLONDE FRAMBOISE as the French DVD has it) was a pleasant memory from seeing it on television once, nice to finally get it on dvd, its one I will be returning to, more than once. Its an utterly charming comedy from 1941, by Raoul Walsh (script by Julius  J Epstein) with delightful turns from James Cagney, Olivia De Havilland, Rita Hayworth and Jack Carson, and it captures that 'gay nineties' perfectly. 

Biff Grimes is pugnacious but likable young man during the Gay 90's living with his ne'er-do-well father, noted for their scrappy personalities and quick tempers. Like every other young man in town, Biff has a crush on gorgeous and flirtatious 'strawberry blonde' Virginia Brush, who gets catcalls every time she walks past the all-male clientèle of the neighborhood barber shop. Biff is joined in his admiration by his friends, Nick Pappalis, an immigrant Greek barber, and Hugo Barnsfeld, an unscrupulously ambitious young man who doesn't let anything stand in the way of what he wants, including Virginia. Utilizing both fair means and foul Hugo sweeps Vrginia off her feet and frames Biff as the fall guy in a political graft schemee. However, every dog has his day, and eight years later Biff stands poised to take his revenge.

Cagney, in a change of pace, is the young dentist, always outwitted by pushy Carson, both fall for Virigina, the local beauty (Hayworth), but Carson wins her and they are both dis-satisfield. Olivia has a field day as the feisty feminist Amy and she and Cagney are the perfect pair, as Jimmy gets his revenge on bully boy Carson, who has a sore tooth. Alan Hale and Una O'Connor are dependable support. 

The BFI are showing it as part of their Olivia De Havilland retrospective in July, to celebrate her 100th birthday (I saw her there in person in 1972, as per label) and they say: "De Havilland shines as the free-thinking modern gal who falls for Cagney's brawling dreamer. He still yearns after Rita's flirtacious 'strawberry blonde' but its Olivia's Amy who will steal your heart in this romance that packs in comedy and drama.' The perfect 1940s Warner Bros package then. 

Bette and Dirk / Dirk and Bette

People We Like, continued. Dirk Bogarde (the man who knew everyone) didn't get to meet Bette Davis until late in both their careers and lives, but I remember seeing them in some tribute show in the 1980s.  

Here they are with Dickie (Lord Attenborough) too - I met him and his wife the time we were all queueing for Dirk's first personal appearance/Q&A at the London BFI in 1970, and Bette was a wow there in person in 1972  (above right), as we have reported before here, Bette, NFT labels.

Stills of the day: The Heiress, 1949

Wyler's THE HEIRESS remains one of the great movies of the 1940s, with a trio of perfect roles for Olivia De Havilland, Ralph Richardson and Montgomery Clift, as per my previous post on it - Clift, Richardson labels. It was great seeing Olivia up close (in a lovely multi-colour chiffon outfit) when she gave a lecture/discussion/Q&A at the London BFI NFT back in 1972 (left) - she will be 100 this summer! 

Astor matinees and Plaza nights

The cinemas of our youth ! Yes, some of them are still there. Growing up in a small town in Ireland we had 2 cinemas - and they were certainly kept busy in the 1950s and early 60s - television did not become widely available in Ireland until early 60s. 

The Astor was a big barn of a place, near the town's council estate (it has since been carved into a three-screen multiplex and still going) with just a raised area for the expensive seats - whereas The Plaza, at the more select end of town, was a much cosier place with a perfect upstairs balcony with its own sweet kiosk. It was somehow 'posher' going to The Plaza. Of course us kids began in the cheap seats and as we got older graduated the middle area, and finally to the Balcony ! Both cinemas ran movies for 2 nights, changing programmes 3 times a week, a mix of new, old, double features or a 'full supporting programme' of cartoons, newsreels, shorts and trailers - so one certainly got one's value. They certainly served the town's 3,000 inhabitants then. 

They followed the UK release system, with the Astor showing MGM and Warner Bros, and Columbia, while the Plaza was the home of 20th Century Fox, Paramount and United Artists. Both houses shared Universal-International and British Rank Organisation movies while the Astor also fitted in other British releases from British Lion and Anglo-Amalgamated - like those CARRY ON's. We also got  a smattering of European releases - I first saw Alain Delon in FAIBLES FEMMES at the Plaza, and PLEIN SOLEIL at the Astor, plus Sophia Loren in WOMAN OF THE RIVER, those SISSI films with Romy Schneider, Romy and Lilli Palmer in FIREWORKS and MADCHEN IN UNIFORM, and I remember THE 400 BLOWS at the Astor. 

I should mention (again) my movie-going began in 1954, aged 8, when I was taken by my parents, and graduated to being allowed to go on my own in 1957 - there were no worries about child safety in that more innocent time! Before that my father would take me to all those westerns and John Wayne or Bing Crosby (he liked Bing) movies, or dramas like TRAPEZE, while my mother and aunts took me to musicals and comedies - My mother liked Judy Garland so it must have been her who took me to A STAR IS BORN and a revival of MEET ME IN ST LOUIS - and we went to I COULD GO ON SINGING in 1963. It was a treat to sit at The Astor watching THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME with Gina and Quinn - or Sunday matinees there seeing revivals of BRIGADOON, ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER or costume movies/actioners like MOONFLEET, HELEN OF TROY, ALEXANDER THE GREAT or QUENTIN DURWARD. We were also stunned by EAST OF EDEN, (I could just remember James Dean's death and all the fuss and magazines about him) - loving Dean and Julie Harris (little knowing that one day I would see her on the stage, write to her and she would reply to me). And then the rise of Elvis - particularly liking LOVING YOU, a Plaza favourite - as we got into all that 50s music;. and later those 50s dramas like SEPARATE TABLES or our favourite Susan Hayward in I WANT TO LIVE!  We loved SOUTH PACIFIC and FUNNY FACE at the Plaza, while the Astor had those Warner dramas and musicals like CALAMITY JANE and all those MGM favourites ...

One could in fact go to the movies there almost every night to a different show - and lots did - or as I did go both nights to movies like Loren's IT STARTED IN NAPLES and THE MILLIONAIRESS. A roadhouse epic like BEN HUR or EL CID would run for a week - with intermission and programme, and we would return to them more than once. We loved THE VIKINGS and THE BIG COUNTRY at the Plaza, plus THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and I vividly remember being stunned by seeing PSYCHO and SOME LIKE IT HOT there for the first time (Ireland did not follow the Certificate system - kids were able to see everything - but anything too risque was pruned to remove anything too salacious - that was Catholic Ireland for you! 

Plaza nights were marvellous watching all those 20th Century Fox items in Cinemascope - and I made some friends there too ... By the time I was 16 it was marvellous watching Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick in DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES at the Astor ..... little did I know that within a decade or so I would be meeting and talking to lot of my favourites like Lee and Dirk, or seeing Bette and others (NFT label) discussing their careers on stage - as it was nearly time to leave small town Ireland and move to the  Big City, which I did in April 1964, when 18, and just in time for the Swinging Sixties - but that will be a different story ...
Going back to the cinema there when on holiday in the late 60s was different - everyone now had televisions, the Plaza had closed (apart from special events and yes they did Bingo on Sunday nights) but the Astor solidered on and still does now. 

1970: Fire and rain

Many thanks to Colin for sending me this treat: the very readable FIRE AND RAIN, or to give it its full title: FIRE AND RAIN, THE BEATLES, SIMON & GARFUNKEL, JAMES TAYLOR, C S N Y AND THE LOST STORY OF 1970. Its a fascinating 2011 tome by David Browne chronicling that fascinating year in music (and movies and popular culture) 1970 as he focuses on the inter-twined fortunes of these musicians and their latest opuses. Other characters like Joni Mitchell flit in and out too ... 

These iconic acts of the '60s are at last wrapping up major new releases. The Beatles assemble one more time to put the final touches to LET IT BE. Crosy Stills Nash and Young finish their highly anticipated DEJA VU. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel finally complete their masterpiece BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER. (Paul referred to the title track as his "Yesterday"). Meanwhile on the sidelines, a shy upstart singer-songwriter named James Taylor is trying to write one more song to finalize an album called SWEET BABY JAMES. Over the course of the next twelve months, the lives of these remarkable musicians  - and the world around them - will change irrevocably. 

Acclaimed journalist David Browne sets the stories of those rock legends - and legends-to-be - against an increasingly chaotic backdrop of end-of-the-'60s events that sent the world spinning throughout that tumultuous year. The first book on the musical, political and cultural changes of 1970 FIRE AND RAIN tells the story of four landmark albums, the intertwining personal ties ties between the legendary artists who made them, and the ways in which their songs and journeys mirrored the end of one era and the start of another. Browne avoids sentimentality and nostalgia, aiming instead at a fresh look at the bands and their milieu. Some of the period details are almost astonishingly apt. says the blurb.  Below: Joni's album art for the CSNY album:

I was 24 then and in the thick of it all. 1970 was quite a year for me too - all that music, those movies still around like FELLINI SATYRICON and ZABRISKIE POINT. There were lots of Trash movies too, like Helmut's DORIAN GRAY. I was sharing a large flat with two friends in South London - here I am on the balcony leading down to the garden, plus some other shots from that year ..... My best friend Stan and I left the flat that summer to travel in Europe - my first trip to Paris, we walked all over the city and yes, slept under the bridges, then the train south and into Spain .... on return to London I rejoined my hippie friends (whom I saw The Doors & Jefferson Airplane with in 1968) in their rambling apartment until I left and found my own place for 1971. 

So it goes. 1970 was also the year I was at the British Film Institute cinema, the NFT, a lot, meeting and seeing and talking to Lee Remick and Dirk Bogarde among others, and standing next to Leonard Whiting in the gents urinal! plus seeing The Burtons and Joseph Losey on stage at the "Sunday Times" Cinema City Exhibition. I had also discovered Joni Mitchell by then, we liked her first two albums, and then saw her at her Royal Festival Hall concert later that year, from where I was sitting I could see the hippie princess waiting in the wings to go on - that was a fantastic evening too of course, little did I know I would be talking to her two years later when I met her purely by chance in the Kings Road (as per Joni label).

This book though captures it all - I loved the James Taylor album, and its follow-up MUD SLIDE SLIM, I was not really into CYNY but loved Young's voice and solo albums. We also had the Simon & Garfunkel and Beatles albums of course - this was the time When Albums Ruled The World! This of course was before the internet and social media, when the music spoke for itself. This is a fascinating rock book as Browne unearths a wealth of new material on performers one thought one knew more than enough about, for instance fascinating reading again on the mutual antagonism between Simon and Garfunkel. The Rolling Stones though do not get a look-in here. Left: Joni and James recording backup vocals on Carole King's TAPESTRY. 

Bette Davis eyes

So, 1,500 posts clocked up, and I still have a few more to do ... now some Bette Davis highlights.

1930s: After her stunning performance in OF HUMAN BONDAGE in 1934, she won Oscars for DANGEROUS in 1935 (never seen that!) and JEZEBEL in 1938, the first of three stunning ones with William Wyler - THE LETTER in 1940 and THE LITTLE FOXES in '41. She also scored in the 30s in THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX and DARK VICTORY. MARKED WOMAN was a terrific one too ...

1940s: She reigned supreme in those classy "women's pictures" (the men were away at war) like NOW VOYAGER, THE GREAT LIE and OLD ACQUAINTANCE, and finished the '40s with that delirious Trash Classic BEYOND THE FOREST, her last at Warners ... "What a dump" indeed! She was often "a vixen in furs" (DECEPTION) or else noble and self-sacrificing (OLD ACQUAINTANCE) or sometimes both as in her first pair of twins in A STOLEN LIFE. 

1950s: began well with the timeless ALL ABOUT EVE, I also like the melodramatics of THE STAR in '53 and THE VIRGIN QUEEN in '55, WEDDING BREAKFAST (THE CATERED AFFAIR) in '56. By 1959 she was playing another great queen - Catherine The Great - in a cameo in JOHN PAUL JONES, as well as a cameo with Alec Guinness in THE SCAPEGOAT.

1960s - Her fortunes, like Joan Crawford's, revived in the 1960s with the success of BABY JANE, but I prefer the outrageous DEAD RINGER where she plays twin sisters Margaret and Edie, or the delirious Trash of WHERE LOVE HAS GONE .... she was also fun wearing that eyepatch in THE ANNIVERSARY in 1968.

1970s/1980s: After the dreadful BUNNY O'HARE and lots of TV, Bette was back in big pictures doing that delightful double act with Maggie Smith in DEATH ON THE NILE. She continued into the 1980s despite health problems, and scored a late quality role, with Lillian Gish in THE WHALES OF AUGUST in 1987. Bette died in France in 1989, aged 81. She always said her tombstone would read "She did it the hard way".  .... Her great (and not so) roles continue to fascinate us. It was great seeing her take the stage at the BFI in 1972, as I have reported here before.  See Bette label for more ... 

Marilyn at the BFI ...

Marilyn Monroe finally gets a retrospective season in June at London's BFI Southbank cinema - viewing her, accordng to the programme notes, from a feminist slant, with practically all of her major films, including those interesting early ones CLASH BY NIGHT, MONKEY BUSINESS, DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK and the delicious WE'RE NOT MARRIED and from NIAGARA onwards. 
It shows what a sparking comedienne and singer she was as well as dramatic actress ....SOME LIKE IT HOT plays a few times too on Sky this week, I shall of course be loving it all over again. (Jack and Tony really should have shared Best Actor Oscar in 1959 - sorry, Charlton). 

Now, do I need to see THE MISFITS again on the big screen, its only getting an extended run of 34 screenings - yes, it might be nice, for old times sake - it was a movie I was obsessed about (like I was with James Dean's) and go to all the time, back in that pre-video/dvd/blu-ray age.  Lots more Marilyn of course at label. 

Sophia: Talking Pictures

BBC television here continues with their weekly series "Talking Pictures" 40-minute or so programmes where they show old interviews from their archives featuring various stars, followed by a film or two of the star in question. I have written about these before - the Dirk Bogarde one was particularly interesting with lots of interviews I had not seen before, and the Bette Davis and James Mason ones featured extracts from their National Film Theatre appearances in the '70s which had me in the audience, recorded over 40 years ago, I had not seen the recordings and had no idea I was in them. - as per NFT label.

This week's slot featured Paul Newman, with Robert Mitchum coming up next - but last Saturday it was Sophia Loren - particularly interesting after her making a splash at Cannes, see post below, Loren label - with that new film directed by her son, which led to lots of coverage in the papers of 79 year old Loren, 80 in September, as is Brigitte Bardot.

These interviews too were fascinating, dating back from 1958 - and including 1960s, 1979 (when I saw her in London), '80s and '90s, and I had not seen any of them before, showing the star's progress through the following decades, showing her poise and steely reserve when deflecting awkward questions, with that marvellous voice and humour. It included newsreel footage too, of her charity work, and that other Cannes Festival in 1962 where Sophia, Alain and Romy were the stars on show, below and as per other photos here. We now need to see her new film in London, with perhaps another Loren spectacular appearance. Come on, BFI!

EL CID followed, and this time I saw most of it with the sound off. It is after all one of my favourite films which I grew up with, and have seen many times, and have that special issue dvd with Scorsese's appreciation. Watching it without the sound or that great score, it played out like a great silent film - the images and emotions coming off the screen covering the story perfectly, with Heston as magisterial as ever and Sophia matching him and being his equal, and Anthony Mann's great visuals.