Good and Awful...

They Were Sisters is a story of three sisters Lucy (Phyllis Calvert), Vera (Ann Crawford), and Charlotte (Dulcie Gray) who marry into three different lifestyles. Lucy and her husband are devoted and support one another in every aspect. They want children, lost the only one they had but after seventeen years they are still in love. Vera's husband is aware that she does not love him, she told him so before they were married. He thought he could change her mind but despite his affection and their daughter, Vera's string of suitors still come around until she finally falls for one of them. Charlotte married Geoffrey (James Mason) impetuously. Thinking he loved her, he was really after her money and a position with her father's business. For seventeen years he has mentally abused her, driven her to drink and eventually causes all three of their children to despise him. This is the marriage the story revolves around.
James Mason plays his part spectacularly. You cannot help but hate him and what he does to the pitiful looking Dulcie Gray. Phyllis Calvert is the other main lead and I find that Elizabeth Shue has a striking resemblance to her. I really enjoyed the movie mainly because Geoffrey is such a despicable husband and father and he eventually gets his comeuppance.


In Blonde Fever restauranteur Peter Donay (Philip Dorn), is happily married to the pleasant but plain Delilah (Mary Astor). Approaching "that certain age", Donay finds himself lusting after a waitress Sally Murfin (Gloria Grahame). Sally, though young, knows how to play games. First she comes off shy and coy but really turns on the charm when Donay wins the $40,000 lottery. Meanwhile, Delilah, with little help from the inexperienced but indignant Freddie (Marshall Thompson), Sally's fiance, plots to ruin any relationship that may come about between her husband and Sally. First she tries to convince Sally that the restaurant is doing poorly, but then Donay wins the lottery. Then she hires Freddie as a waiter and even offers up the apartment over the garage as a place for Freddie and Sally to live once they're married. Neither trick works. So, Delilah concedes to a divorce but she still has one trick up her sleeve- no divorce unless she gets the $40,000. Peter, though upset about it, wants to prove to Delilah that Sally is not marrying him for his money so he gives her the check. That same evening Peter realizes how foolish he is being and how much he loves his wife. How will he rectify the situation? Thankfully he has a smart wife who does it for him.
This movie wasn't awful per se. It ran very quickly and didn't require much thinking, proving to be a perfect escape film on a B level. Imagine, Mary Astor in a B movie! I just took a strong dislike to Gloria Grahame's character. Her baby voice and attempts at being seductive were more annoying than alluring. However, the film plot was clever, proving Delilah not only to be the bigger person but the smarter one of the relationship as well.

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Summer Under the Stars: Red Skelton

Good and Awful...

Double Indemnity, the epitome of the film noir. The standard in which we hold up any film noir to. The plot is a good one and well played out. There is a building of suspense in the murder scene as well as afterwards when Barton Keyes denies any foul play but then starts to suspect and build a case agaimst Phyllis Dietrichson. Though Walter Neff is supposed to be a tough guy, and though he has committed a terrible crime, you can't help but feel sorry for him. Especially as his friendship with Lola Dietrichson unfolds and elements of Phyllis Dietrichson's are laid out in the open. There is a heavy feeling of Neff's predictment, after the murder and throughout the rest of the film. I found that I was trying to figure out if there was a possibility for him to escape and start anew. There was, he could have completely washed his hands of the crime, laid the blame at Nino and Phyllis' feet but he underneath the hardboiled front, Neff has a heart and sacrifices his freedom for yet another woman, Lola Dietrichson. Barbara Stanwyk plays the perfect jaded wife. First a victim and then the selfish, greedy monster she secretly is underneath it all.

Simply put, The Lady from Shanghai was hard to follow. It had moments of cinematic forward thinking with elaborate backgrounds and metaphoric dialogue but the story, though a good one, fell flat. I was confused throughout most of the film and annoyed with Rita Hayworth's soft-spokeness, Orson Welles broken Irish dialect and Glenn Anders attempts at acting (seriously, he was scary and not in a good way). Again, the story was a good one and had it been played out without so much focus on the main character, Michael O'Hara, his inner demons and his relationship with Elsa Bannister in backgrounds that were more distracting than their own back story, this could have been a very successful film. Also, Orson Welles does not play his character well. This man is supposed to be a seasoned sailor, a man of many worlds, a street scholar and yet he is so easily suckered into Grisby's plan with no real concern for the holes in it such as the typed confession. Orson Welles feels more suspicion for Elsa Bannister's feelings for him which she clearly puts out into the open, than he does for getting involved in what's supposed to be a faked and confessed murder with a man who is clearly a nutbag. It just doesn't make sense.

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The Lawless (1950) A newspaper editor takes on the cause of oppressed migrant workers.Cast: MacDonald Carey, Gail Russell, John Sands, Lee Patrick Dir: Joseph Losey

Good and Awful...

My Reputation was a real tear-jerker. There were two scenes so well performed by Barbara Stanwyk, I have to consider putting her on my favorite actresses list, at least up to the 1940's. Jessica Drummond was a woman content with her safe life until her husband passed away leaving her with two tweener boys who are soon off to boarding school, an overbearing mother (Lucile Watson is about the same here as she was in The Women), and good friend and some really crappy friends. She finally breaks after too many lonely meals and a couple of unwanted advances from her friend's husband. When she confesses to her good friend how hard it is to be home alone, the emotion is palpable, it's no hard task to put yourself in her shoes and grieve with her. And then again, when she has to explain to her sons that she hasn't forgotten their father by finding new love, I found I was on the edge of my seat hoping they understood that she needed this new man in her life. That new man is Major Landis (George Brent) who plays a bit of an jerk at first- apparently grabbing women and smashing your face into theirs is a popular form of passion in the 1940's. If she likes it, all the better, if not, time to put on the asshat show. Very good movie.

Simply put, The Petrified Forest was poorly written for screen adaptation. I felt like I was sitting in an uncomfortable seat in a theatre somewhere watching this unfold on stage. Though Alan Squier (Leslie Howard) delivers his lines well, you can't help but wonder why Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart) or his goonies don't make him shut him up. They're in an Arizona desert for corn's sake! Duke Mantee is on the verge of being caught and killed for his crimes. He simply wants time to rest, think, and plan but here is Alan Squier waxing romantic, wanting Duke Mantee to kill him so he can give over his life insurance to a girl he met hours ago. Why? Because he thinks she has potential. Gabrielle Maple (Bette Davis- quite possibly in one of her worst performances) doesn't have potential. All she has is a desire to leave the Arizona desert and reunite in France with her mother and maybe paint, maybe carry on a few love affairs. So, why martyr yourself, Alan? The best performance was given by Humphrey Bogart who managed to look quite desperate and put out about the deal he reluctantly makes with Leslie Howard. Despite some really poetic lines about life and love, the movie was hokey and boring to watch. I did not enjoy it at all.