Fun out west with Anne, Jeff, Rory, Randolph & Angela

I have not seen the 1942 western THE SPOILERS - but it should be fun, with John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich and Randolph Scott heading this western set in Alaska in those gold-rush days. It was remade though in 1955, with a more 50s cast: Jeff Chandler, Anne Baxter and Rory Calhoun, with some grizzled veterans like Wallace Ford and John McIntyre. 

Like Wayne's 1960 comedy western by Henry Hathaway NORTH TO ALASKA we are back in those muddy streets of Nome, Alaska, where everyone is looking for gold or trying to get their hands on others' claims. 

Anne is vamping in high style, and some eye-popping costumes, as saloon owner Cherry Malotte, the guys are merely adequate around her scheming minx, Cue lots of fighting in the mud, and much amusement as Jeff and Rory demolish the saloon bar during their extended fight at the climax. She seems to be having as much fun as she does in her next, Cecil's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Below: the 1942 trio.

A lot of Randolph Scott's westerns are being aired here just now too, usually those lean Budd Boetticher revenge dramas with Randolph as a man alone seeking those who did him wrong, as in BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, COMMANCE STATION, THE TALL T, SIX MEN FROM NOW etc 
One I had not seen before is A LAWLESS STREET from 1955 - usual story, he is the weary Sheriff of a lawless town, who wants to hand in his badge. The interest in this run of the mill one is that Angela L|ansbury plays his ex-wife who returns to town as a singer and dancer and does a rather risque musical number. Rest assured Randolph and Angela ride off in a wagon once he has dished out justice to the lawbreakers .... a pleasant timewaster then, as indeed is THE SPOILERS, I imagine Marlene and Wayne would be fun too, with Randy too of course. 

Summer re-views, briefly

WOMEN HE'S UNDRESSED. Gilliam Armstrong's 2014 documentary on Hollywood costume designer Orry-Kelly, which we have mentioned here a few times before (Costumes label). The documentary, based on Orry's lush memoir which I enjoyed a lot, has taken its time appearing here, in fact in has not yet, but I got the Australian (Region 4) dvd, which plays perfectly on multichannel players. 

Its a fanciful conceit, with an actor playing Orry, who seems to be rowing a boat a lot of the time, but then we get all the clips: Orry's costumes for CASABLANCA, GYPSY and his three Oscar-winners: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, LES GIRLS (where Kay, Mitzi and Taina look divine in his creations), and of course Marilyn's still daring costumes for SOME LIKE IT HOT. Orry continued up to 1964, so we get Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury talking about his costumes for their 1963 IN THE COOL OF THE DAY - one I have never seen and can't get now, so thanks for the clips. 

Bette Davis also reigns supreme here, with those costumes Orry did for JEZEBEL, MR SKEFFINGTON, NOW VOYAGER, THE LETTER etc. 

Other talking heads include the notorious Scotty Bowers, and it rehashes all the Cary Grant and Randy Scott gossip and pictures. In fact, Orry gets sidelined for a while while the documentary focuses on Cary, who "roomed" with Orry when they were both young and starting out. But then legendary tightwad Cary always needed someone to pay the rent, hence all those years sharing houses with Randolph .... between their many marriages.

JANE EYRE - the Franco Zeffirelli 1996 version. There have been a lot of Janes around, the 1944 one with Orson and Joan Fontaine is still the one to beat for me, with delicious roles for Agnes Moorehead and Henry Daniell - but this Zeffirelli one is a nicely paced (if rather hurried at the end) version, with Charlotte Gainsbourg a suitably very plain Jane indeed (unlike Janes Joan Fontaine or Susannah York)  but William Hurt (so ideal in films like BODY HEAT or KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN) all wrong here and hardly making any impression, 

It is all grimly Victorian and Franco as usual ramps up the supporting players: a very severe Geraldine Chaplin and Amanda Root (PERSUASION) at the Lowood Orphanage; Fiona Shaw as Aunt Reed, Billie Whitelaw as Grace Poole, Joan Plowright as Mrs Fairfax, Samuel West, and two sadder appearances: Richard Warwick (whom I knew slightly) silent here in his last role as the manservant, the year before he died (he also pops up in Zeffirelli's ROMEO AND JULIET and HAMLET); and poor Maria Schneider as the madwoman in the attic ..... a worthwhile but low-key JANE then.  

JOE MACBETH, 1955. This re-view goes way back to the Fifties, as I first saw this when I was a kid in Ireland, but it made a vivid impression - though I would not have the got Shakespeare part then. It is a modern gangster version of MACBETH, by Ken Hughes, almost impossible to see now, (so thanks Jerry.) Paul Douglas is impressive as usual, and one of our Projector favourites, Ruth Roman, is as ever terrific as Lady M. Its a British production, so supporting cast includes Bonar Colleano, Gregoire Aslan and Sid James. I was pleased to see it again, and to get it on a flash drive. Its more entertaining than that dreadful recent Michael Fassbender version which nearly drove me screaming from the practically empty multiplex ...

THE HONEYMOON KILLERS. For real horror you can hardly beat Leonard Kastle's 1969 chiller, which I first saw as a supporting feature back then. My pal Stan and I were both gobsmacked by it, I can't even remember what the main feature was. 
I had not seen it since then but it lingered in the memory. so its good to see it again now on dvd.  Seems this could have been Scorsese's first feature,but he was replaced. It is a bleak tale of a murderous rampage by two seedy killers: the obese nurse and her scuzzy boyfriend (Tony Lo Bianco) as they plot to fleece lonely widows whom he romances and lets them think he is going to marry them, while she, posing as his sister, tags along in the background. Once seen, it is not easily forgotten. The film is made by the marvellous Shirley Stoler (1929-1999) as the malevolent Martha - she also pops up in KLUTE and is terrifying again as that Nazi concentration camp commandant in SEVEN BEAUTIES in 1975 .... (whom prisoner Giancarlo Giannini has to romance in order to survive - we raved about it, at Italian label). Her 40+ credits also include THE DEER HUNTER.  
It is not violent by today's torture porn standards, but once seen it is not easily forgotten as we enter than downbeat world of cheap motels and diners. It is Kastle's only credit. 

1930s boys

Cary and Randolph with Irene Dunne in MY FAVOURITE WIFE - 1940 actually - but Cary and Randy seemed to hang out a lot in the 1930s - as per previous posts on them. Interesting how Randolph has no visible "bulge" in that swimwear, presumably everything was strapped down ...

McCabe & Mrs Miller,1971, again

Staying with westerns, a blissful another look at Robert Altman's McCABE & MRS MILLER, that dreamy but very realistic western from 1971, it is still unlike any other western - maybe only the comic John Wayne NORTH TO ALASKA in 1960 conveys the same idea of what living in a gold rush frontier town would be really like - and that was played for laughs. 

Few laughs here in this bleak Pacific Northwest mining town as winter sets in .... Altman's regulars are present and correct and Leonard Cohen's songs like "Travelling Lady" and "Sisters of Mercy" add an extra layer of lament and regret, as does Vilmos Zsigmond's photography. Keith Carradine is the young cowboy who does not last long here, and Shelley Duvall is the widowed wife who has to turn to prostitution, working for Mrs Miller - the laconic madam played by Julie Chrstie. Warren Beatty is John McCabe the gambler and businessman who thinks he can make it big in this bleak western community, with its half built church. He goes into business with the enterprising Mrs Miller who knows how to run a decent brothel and keep the girls clean and in order. Soon they have a thriving business as the miners settle in for the long winter, but their whorehouse/tavern attracts big business who want to take over the mining interests of the town and buy out McCabe, but on their terms, and then when he refuses, their gunmen are let loose, as the snow blankets everything and Mrs Miller is taking opium to blank out her bleak life ...

It is not a traditional western but is one to cherish and return to, and maybe Altman's most accessible film after MASH or NASHVILLE where his overlapping dialogue fits in perfectly here, and it remains a key Seventies movie. It is a study of place and character rather than a typical western - no redskins attacking forts or stagecoaches in Monument Valley here! but the bleak and grubby west as it must have been as the miners, the women and the gold-diggers made the best of it. Beatty and Christie are in their element and have a lot of fun creating these characters of the two-bit gambler and realistic madam as they and Altman subvert the Western genre as the wind howls through the trees and the snow and rain endlessly fall ... 

Now for 2 other top westerns: Clint Walker in YELLOWSTONE KELLY, 1959 and Budd Boetticher's 1960 classic COMANCHE STATION where Randolph Scott as Jefferson Cody (a perfect Western name) searches for his missing wife, abducted by Comanches ...

Something camp for the weekend 2: glamour photos

Some luridly colorful star photos: (I couldn't figure where else to put them). Bette, Susan, Gina, Anita, Kay Kendall, plus Tab, Guy, Charles Farrell, young Gary Cooper, and Cary and Randy at lunch. ... glamour in spades!

Out west with Clint - no, not that one, the other one ...

Before Eastwood there was another Clint - Clint Walker, star of CHEYENNE tv series. We did not see those tv westerns in Ireland at the time, but luckily Clint has been preserved in a few late '50s westerns: FORT DOBBS, YELLOWSTONE KELLY and GOLD OF THE 7 SAINTS ... let's have a look at them (and I have just ordered his 1966 NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY with Martha Hyer).

 

First though some context: that late '50s period was that great time for westerns - not only on tv, but at the movies: 1956 - THE SEARCHERS; 1957 - 3.10 TO YUMA, GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL, NIGHT PASSAGE; 1958 - MAN OF THE WEST, THE BIG COUNTRY, COWBOY, THE LAW AND JAKE WADE; 1959 - RIO BRAVO, THE HANGING TREE, WARLOCK, THESE THOUSAND HILLS; 1960 - THE UNFORGIVEN, NORTH TO ALASKA, 1961 - Brando's ONE EYED JACKS; 1962 - HOW THE WEST WAS WON, etc. after of course those great early '50s westerns like HIGH NOON, SHANE, JOHNNY GUITAR (the first movie I saw, aged 8 - as per other reports here), DRUMBEAT, WHITE FEATHER etc, and of course Ford with Wayne, James Stewart with Anthony Mann, Randolph Scott and Budd Boetticher - see Western label for more on these. Now lets mix in Clint, who while no Wayne or Cooper has an agreeable Western presence, like Randolph Scott, or Dale Robertson or Guy Madison, and whose films while programmers are not without interest:

FORT DOBBS, 1958 – A pleasing, tense if minor western from that great era for oaters. I remember this as a kid, but didn’t get to see it then. Directed by the ever reliable Gordon Douglas (studio hack supreme) it casts man of few words Clint Walker as a wanted man on the run who stops to assist lone Virginia Mayo and cute kid Richard Eyer, as the Commanches attack their homestead. She thinks he killed her husband so tensions mount as they cross Indian territory – then Brian Keith and his guns turn up! The surprise here is that this is in black and white, when even routine westerns were in colour, but the monochrome is surprisingly effective. Walker removes his shirt to display that impressive physique, Eyer is as good as he was in FRIENDLY PERSUASION, but Mayo impresses the most – shorn of her usual glamour she delivers a compelling portrayal, particularly when she wakes and realises she is naked under her blanket and her wet clothes are drying (there's more than a few nods to RIVER OF NO RETURN here). The Indians of course are just faceless savages … its nicely worked out, there is no overt romance as such between the leads, its one western that delivers. I liked it almost as much as SEVEN MEN FROM NOW!

YELLOWSTONE KELLY - a discovery from 1959. I would have loved this as a kid - but its terrific now too. Like FORT DOBBS its also scripted by Burt Kennedy and captures the wide open spaces, and men in the wilderness, in vivid colour. The blurb says:

"Big man, big land, big adventure. Western fans get all three in YELLOWSTONE KELLY, a strife-torn saga of American soldiers and Sioux warriors in the days after Little Big Horn. Clint stars as a trapper and US military scout drawn into the conflict when he saves the life of a beautiful Arapaho girl (Andra Martin) held captive by the Sioux. She runs off, Kelly gives her shelter and all hell-for-leather breaks loose on the plains. Rich Technicolor photography provides the stunning backdrop for brawling, hoof-pounding frontier action delivered by two genre greats: director Gordon Douglas and screenwriter Burt Kennedy."

That ignores the other sub-plot featuring Ed Byrnes as the young guy who latches on to mainly silent Walker on the riverboat (its almost a pick-up scene), where he has been selling his pelts, and turning down an army request to join their side. Kelly declines to take Ed along with him, but the kid proves useful in a fight. Kelly survives on his mountain territory by keeping peace with the Indians but this will be no longer possible. Ed complete with his "Kookie" quiff joins Yellowstone at his mountain cabin out in the wildneress (but can neither cook nor make coffee) where the boys bunk down at night .... then the wounded Indian maiden joins them - she wants to rejoin her own people so works on Ed to get him to let her go .... Then the Indians, led by wicked Ray Danton attack - while the U.S, Cavalry are also heading into a trap. This is all nicely worked out in 90 minutes and is a terrific treat now.   Another IMDB comment says:

"Arguably the movie's most interesting feature is the way the relationship between Kelly (Walker) and Anse (Byrnes) is handled. Now, if the masterly muscular Kelly is added, on one hand, to the submissive pretty-boy Anse, on the other, the sum is two iconic stereotypes of the gay community. Of course, production could have plunked a hat on Byrnes like everyone else and lessened his looks. But that would have outraged fans of the teen idol whose trademark had become a comb. So, the visual earmarks remain. At the same time, the screenplay puts this suggestive two-some into a wilderness cabin for the winter, where the big-hair half does womanly duties like cooking and cleaning, while the macho trapper brings home the bacon. So, together you've got an unmistakable situation for perceptive 50's audiences that putting a woman into the mix doesn't erase. Plus, these visual hints are compounded with the homoerotic bed scene. My point is that toying with this taboo could not have been lost on the filmmakers, causing me, at least, to wonder what their reasoning was. After all, the Western is about the most macho of all movie genres".
(For UK viewers, YELLOWSTONE KELLY is screened by BBC2 on Saturday 21 September, 8.40 am.)

GOLD OF THE SEVEN SAINTS is the most amusing of the three - another black and white 'Warnerscope' western, but its almost a comedy. Clint's sidekick here is a young Roger Moore with a grating Irish accent which quickly becomes tiresome. The boys have struck gold and after Moore foolishly giving a nugget for a horse in town, they are followed by several types after the gold, as they hole up out in the desert, and at Mexican Robert Middleton's hacienda ..... here Leticia Roman (the only female in the cast) gets to scrub Client in those large tubs, while Roger looks on longingly - though whether at Clint or Leticia remains open to question. Neat ending too with our two guys heading off together, they have lost the gold, but they can get some more, and they seem happy together. Clint refers to Roger as his partner, and admits to Chill Wills that after 3 years together they get on very well ....

Poseidon-3 (of that terrific blog POSEIDON'S UNDERWORD) says of it, over at IMDB:

Rog & Clint scrub up 
while Letitia holds the soap

"the movie is rife with homoerotic images and subtext ...The pair have a sort of Batman and Robin dynamic ... The one major drawback to the film is its lack of color. The striking scenery and Walker's polar blue eyes deserved to be shot in vivid Technicolor. This was director Douglas' third time at bat with Walker, so he knew the value of Walker's treasure chest. Did Walker realize his own appeal and understand the way he was being presented? His gentle, "aw shucks" personality in interviews would suggest not. Thank God, however, that he exists on celluloid for later generations to appreciate."

Clint was 6' 6" with that massive 48" chest, which he regularly displayed. His man of few words persona is a western icon akin to that other Clint's. He also had a fun role in Rock & Doris's SEND ME NO FLOWERS, and other dramatic roles in movies like Sinatra's NONE BUT THE BRAVE and THE DIRTY DOZEN. He was also a captain in DeMille's THE 10 COMMANDMENTS - we will have to look for him next time we see it! In his mid-80s now, more on Clint at www.clintwalker.com. 

Fun with Doris & Irene + Rock, Cary, Randolph, Clint

I had not seen SEND ME NO FLOWERS since its release in 1964 when I was a teenager, but it remained a pleasant memory, particularly of daffy Doris accidentally locked out of her house in her nightie and fluffy slippers, as oblivious husband Rock Hudson showers with earplugs in .... I thought LOVER COME BACK in 1961 was the best of their comedies, particularly when Edie Adams was around (more on her soon, in LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER), but SEND ME NO FLOWERS, Rock and Doris's third and final comedy, is blissfully funny, well scripted by Julius Epstein (from a play) and directed by Doris regular Norman Jewison. Its conjures up a perfect suburban world of lawns and country clubs, sexy paper boys and gossiping milkmen, as our married couple (no kids to spoil the scenario...) have misunderstandings and fall out with all the cliches perfectly in place.

Rock is a hypochondriac forever taking pills and potions, he overhears his doctor (splendid Edward Andrews) talking about another patient who has not long to live and Rock thinks doc is talking about him .... amusement follows as he and neighbour Tony Randall (whose family are conveniently away) plan his funeral and good old Rock wants to find another suitable husband for Doris, so we get amusing scenes of the 2 men eyeing up other suitable men, and sleeping in the same bed - and then they discover Clint Walker, even more perfect than Rock. Clint has some fun here away from his usual western surroundings. Doris meanwhile thinks Rock is having an affair ...

Paul Lynde is bliss as usual as the unctious undertaker where Rock wants to buy 3 plots, for himself, Doris and her new husband ... Doris of course misunderstands and all the usual complications follow until the blissful ending. Poignant moments too as Rock has lines like she will be sorry when he is in his bed of pain at some future date ....

 I did a piece on Doris last December (Day label) as the London BFI was doing a tribute to her, but only 12 of her films (back in 1980 they showed 30 of hers!) - they only showed PILLOW TALK of her later comedies. The early to mid 60s was Doris's great period and she was a top box office attraction, with these with Hudson, the 2 with James Garner, Cary Grant etc.
(I love THE THRILL OF IT ALL but never want to see MOVE OVER DARLING, that re-heated remake of Marilyn's aborted SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE from 1962 which itself was a reheated version of Irene Dunne's 1940 MY FAVOURITE WIFE ..... with Cary and Randolph Scott. (Doris's 2 with Rod Taylor were not quite in the same league, and I shall be seeing CAPRICE with, er, Richard Harris in 1966 before too long - it is though a Frank Tashlin comedy). 

As fate would have it MY FAVOURITE WIFE is being screened again tomorrow morning, so I can catch it again then, and needn't dig out the dvd. I simply adored Dunne when I discovered her a few years ago, THE AWFUL TRUTH remains sublime, up there with the best of the 30s Screwballs, and MY FAVOURITE WIFE is more of the same. (Above, how do those swim trunks conceal any sign of male bulge?)

Irene is blissfully funny and glamorous here, its the one where the wife comes back after years missing and pronouced dead only to find her husband has just re-married. 
Garson Kanin handles the material perfectly and Cary Grant and Randolph are ideal as the husband and the man Irene was shipwrecked with for all those years .... Cary and Randy were of course still buddies, if not housemates, in 1940 and they all play perfectly together. Gail Patrick has a few moments as the latest wife... An ideal double bill then - it would have been interesting to have seen what Marilyn and Cukor would have made of it (fantasy poster, right) but the the 1962 fragments that remain are spell-binding.  Instead, Michael Gordon helmed MOVE OVER DARLING! 

Treats: a western, a Bette Davis classic and Antonioni

Quite a good few days: another look at a superior western, plus one of Bette's 60's grand guignols and that last Antonioni masterwork ....

Movies one becomes obsessed by: at different times I was obsessed about EAST OF EDEN, and then about THE MISFITS, and BLOW-UP and KLUTE, and then the 1954 A STAR IS BORN and 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY etc - and those favourite Hitchcocks, Michael Powells, Wilders, Mankiewiczs, Hawks etc. When I was 30 in 1975 I became as obsessed about Antonioni's THE PASSENGER as I did about his Monica Vitti films and BLOW-UP (ZABRISKIE POINT not so much), THE PASSENGER has another screening today on our Film4 channel as part of its Jack Nicholson season. I was dazzled by THE PASSENGER then in 1975 and, as per The Passenger label, had a full page analysis of it published in a film magazine of the time, the very good FILMS ILLUSTRATED which gave readers a page each issue to talk about a film - quite good in that pre-internet age (whereas now we can write to our heart's content about whatever it is we want to...). The tone of the article makes me wince a bit now, but hey - it was 1975! (the full text is at the Antonioni label). Then the next year I became obsessed about TAXI DRIVER and OBSESSION and ....

My 1976 review,  see Passenger label

 
Back to THE PASSENGER: Antonioni's melancholy and languid existential anti-thriller becomes hypnotic as we watch and identify with Jack Nicholson as a soul-sick television reporter on assignment in North Africa who decides to assume the identify of the dead man in the hotel room next door and sees where it leads him, too late he realises he is now a gun runner ...  as we travel from Africa to Germany, London and Gaudi's Barcelona ... there is a stunning climax and that nice little coda. It remains a key '70s movie for me but was probably overshadowed by Nicholson's mega-hits of the time like CHINATOWN and CUCKOO'S NEST ... Jack in that check shirt and green combat trousers in that riveting African section at the start still looks as iconic as Hemmings in the white jeans in BLOW-UP (and after the cluttered muddy look of a modern film like MAGIC MIKE the clean sharp clear photography here is an absolute dream). I must play the Nicholson commentary on the dvd ...

I had not seen Robert Aldrich's HUSH ... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE since its release in 1965, when Bette was back on a roll after BABY JANE (which I did not like at all really) and DEAD RINGER which I liked a lot in 1964 where she played the 2 sisters nice Edie and nasty Margaret (that one deserves a whole review of its own, soon then ...). Joan Crawford quit this gothic melodrama conceived to capitalise on the success of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE, leaving the road clear for Bette to romp away with the show and she duly had a field day, and even managed to be quite moving at times. 

I remember critics like Kenneth Tynan being impressed with her work here, as the ageing Southern Belle whose life has been blighted by people thinking she had decapitated her married lover (a young Bruce Dern) 40 years earlier.  Bette's friend and co-star Olivia De Havilland sashayed into Crawford's role as scheming cousin Miriam and Olivia is in fact ideally cast here, while Agnes Moorehead's nutty housekeeper makes even Davis look as though she is underplaying. The icing on the cake is a final appearance for Bette's old co-star from THE GREAT LIE Mary Astor who has a couple of scenes, much older here of course, as the ideally named Jewel Mayhew who holds the secret as to what really happened all those years ago. Its unexpectedly gory for its era with some loopy hallucinations, but Bette is mesmerising here and achieves real pathos by the end. Just try looking away, even though it goes on far too long ...I reported before on seeing Olivia up close at the National Film Theatre in 1972 (at NFT label), marvellous that she is still here in her 90s, along with sister Joan ...

Back out west with another look at SEVEN MEN FROM NOW, the first of those westerns laconic star Randolph Scott make with director Budd Boetticher. This 1956 one was written by Burt Kennedy, who took up directing too and was produced for John Wayne's Batjac company. Wayne was meant to start in it but it seems got held up on THE SEARCHERS. 

Ex-sheriff Ben Stride tracks the seven men who held up a Wells Fargo office and killed his wife. Stride is tormented by the fact that his own failure to keep his job was the cause of his wife's working in the express office and thus he is partly responsible for her death. Stride encounters a married couple heading west for California and helps them. Along the way they are joined by two n'er-do-wells, Masters and Clete, who know that Stride is after the express-office robbers. They plan to let Stride lead them to the bandits, then make away with the loot themselves. But they aren't the only ones carrying a secret. 

This is a perfect little western, barely 80 minutes long with 3 great performances. Apart from Scott being his usual man of few words there is the young Lee Marvin coming into his prime, perfecting that persona that would serve him well in the '60s, and the very affecting Gail Russell is the lovely leading lady. Gail was a real charmer and is usually referred to in tragic terms. She died aged 36 from alcohol problems, alone in her Hollywood apartment. Like Linda Darnell it is one of the sadder Hollywood stories. She had been married though to Guy Madison for 5 years and was a friend of Wayne's with whom she made 2 films. 

Here she is the wife of the farmer heading west in their covered wagon whom Scott helps and travels with, before it all arrives at a satisfying conclusion. Scott and Russell have some nicely understated scenes together, before Marvin goes off like a firework. I like this one a lot, and must watch out for more of these Scott westerns (like COMMANCHE STATION, THE TALL T, BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE, RIDE LONESOME etc)  and anything featuring Gail Russell. The young Stuart Whitman is here too.