TCM Tuesdays in September: Kirk Douglas: Top Secret Affair (1957)

Upset that Melville "Ironpants" Goodwin (Kirk Douglas), a highly decorated Army major general, has been appointed the chairman of the Joint Atomic International Commission over her candidate, Dorothy Peale (Susan Hayward) who owns and operates News World magazine, sets out to ruin his reputation. Inviting him to her estate for a long weekend under the guise of doing a positive profile of America's hero, she uses hidden tape recorders, trick questions, and secret cameras to catch Melville in any compromising situations. Soon Peale realizes that he's as intelligent as he is athletic, out-maneuvering her at every turn. Knowing him to be quite the ladies man, she decides to use her charms as a last ditch effort.

She takes Melville for an evening out and in the process of trying to get him intoxicated, becomes quite so herself. Already suspecting she is up to no good, the last straw for Melville is when Peale forces him to sing in a night club. Having earlier shared with her his love for the song "The Caissons Go Rolling Along" and how it inspired him to join the Army, he reluctantly but patriotically sings the song.
Leaving Peale at the club, he goes back to her home to pack while a nervous Colonel Gooch (Jim Backus), the public information officer, tries to get a hold of their superior. However, Peale shows up, still tipsy and demands that Melville join her by the pool. While sharing intimate details of her life, she falls off the high dive into the pool, needing to be rescued. The obvious chemistry between the two is acted upon and Peale completely changes her tune. The next day she decides to nix the ridiculing story, much to her most reliable employee Bentley's (Paul Stewart) dismay. Peale decides she is going to marry Melville and perhaps even help him get elected for President. But Melville has no plans to continue the relationship. He quite efficiently let's Peale down while revealing top secret information about a past love affair he had with a French spy named Yvette that he eventually executed.

Feeling rejected, Peale goes back to her original plan with the added bonus of the top secret information. Titling the article "Blabbermouth Goodwin", she manages to add in a few photos that are out of context and make Melville look like a fool. Before the story hits the streets however, Melville is back, realizing he truly loves Peale and asks her to marry him. When the story hits Melville comes under fire by the senate and is hauled in for a hearing. Rudely questioned Senator Burdick (Roland Winters) Melville has a hard time explaining the photos that were taken and due to the top secret information, cannot defend himself about the Yvette.  Peale, feeling ashamed about what she has done, admits that the article is filled with exaggerations and lies but she cannot deny that Melville told her about Yvette.
In desperation, before he took the stand, Melville sends Colonel Gooch to see the President, hoping he will do him the favor of declassifying the information. The President takes it a step further and comes to the hearing. With the spy case declassified, Melville testifies that the Army knew that Yvette was a spy. Instead of letting him break the affair, he was ordered to feed her false information in advance of an important counterattack and eventually needed to execute her. Back on track, Melville can now deal with Peale. Will he ever be able to forgive her?

This is my last post for the Kirk Douglas Tuesdays. I have to thank TCM for putting him in the spotlight this month and showing me what a talented powerhouse he is. Though Top Secret Affair is a pretty typical story, both Hayward and Douglas infused it with their unique charm. Douglas was especially endearing when he sang "The Caissons Go Rolling Along". He was able to express his patriotism as a high ranking officer who knows he is being mocked but bravely sings on. And though this is mostly a comedy, the senate hearing portion of the film is quite dramatic and Douglas plays the part of the victim beautifully.
If you have not seen much of Kirk Douglas' work, I would highly suggest it. I can pretty much guarantee that you will not be disappointed in what he has to offer.

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Watch Kirk Douglas! They're showing Spartacus...

Table Talk!

Carole Lombard and Clark Gable

Frank Sinatra and Walter Pidgeon

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner

Leslie Howard, Gary Cooper and Charles Farrell

Helen Hayes, Claudette Colbert and Ruth Gordon

Fay Wray and Cary Grant

George and Gracie Burns with Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan

Susan Hayward and Ingrid Bergman

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Merchant Ivory- who knew I was such a fan? I have seen all but one in the line-up tonight!

The Remains of the Day (1993)

 Howards End (1992)

A Room With a View (1985)
Maurice (1987)

Vintage Ads

Ronald Reagan for Jeris and "handsomer" hair. 

Susan Hayward for Max Factor.

John Wayne for Budweiser and throwing "middle-management" out the window. 

Shirley Temple for flour and all its sweet rewards. 

Spencer Tracy for the not-so-lucky Lucky Strike. Shout!

Tippi Hedren for Gleem and brushing less.

Orson Welles and daughter Rebecca for alcoholism closing the generation gap with Jim Beam.  

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Cary Grant! Bringing Up Baby is a must see!

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

As writer Harry Street (Gregory Peck) lays gravely wounded from an African hunting accident he feverishly reflects on what he perceives as his failures at love and writing. Through his delirium he recalls his one true love Cynthia Green (Ava Gardner) who he lost by his obsession for roaming the world in search of stories for his novels. Though she is dead Cynthia continues to haunt Street's thoughts. In spite of one successful novel after another, Street feels he has compromised his talent to ensure the success of his books, making him a failure in his eyes. His neglected wife Helen (Susan Hayward) tends to his wounds, listens to his ranting, endures his talk of lost loves, and tries to restore in him the will to fight his illness until help arrives. Her devotion to him makes him finally realize that he is not a failure. With his realization of a chance for love and happiness with Helen, he regains his will to live. – Review from IMDb

Producer Darryl Zanuck and screenwriter Casey Robinson were huge Hemingway fans. Though most Hemingway adaptations failed onscreen, they were determined to create the ultimate expression Hemingway's work and life with this screenplay. Taking the short story of Kilimanjaro, they also borrowed from Hemingway’s other (often autobiographical) novels to flesh out the character of Harry Street. The end result was reportedly not much to Hemingway’s liking. He reportedly told friend Ava Gardner the only things he liked about it were her and the hyena.


Though the storyline is pretty routine by today’s standards, it stands out as a thought provoking piece namely about waste. Waste of what little time we have reflecting or harping on things we cannot change and waste of potential we don’t live up to fully either out of laziness or fear. Gardner is wonderful in this film and was rightly propelled into stardom because of it.

Oscar trivia:

Gregory Peck was nominated five times in his career for Best Actor for his roles in The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Gentleman's Agreement, Twelve O'Clock High,  and To Kill a Mockingbird. He won the Best Actor Award for Mockingbird.

Ava Gardner was nomonated only once in her career for Best Actress for her role in Mogambo.

Susan Hayward was noninated five times in her career and won only one Best Actress Award. She was nominated for her roles in Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman, My Foolish Heart, With a Song in My Heart, I'll Cry Tomorrow, and won for her role in I Want to Live!.

Director Henry King was actually one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was nominated twice in his career for Best Director for The Song of Bernadette and Wilson.

The Honey Pot (1967)

Inspired by a performance of his favorite play, "Volpone," Cecil Fox (Rex Harrison) devises an intricate plan to trick three of his former mistresses into believing he is dying. Fox hires William McFly (Cliff Robertson), a man of many trades including being a sometime actor to act as his secretary. Though the women have vast fortunes of their own, Fox depends on their greediness to bring them running. There is Merle McGill (Edie Adams), a Hollywood sex symbol; Princess Dominique (Capucine), who once took a cruise on Fox's yacht; and Lone Star Crockett (Susan Hayward), a Texas hypochondriac who travels with her nurse Sarah (Maggie Smith).

As Fox and McFly act out their charade, Lone Star states to the other women that she is the only one entitled to the inheritance since she is Fox's common-law wife. Later that night as Sarah and William go out for drinks where Sarah tells of her daily routine of walking Lone Star at 3:00 AM to give her more sleeping pills to get through the night, William then excuses himself to make a phone call and Sarah, tired from her travels slips off to sleep for about an hour. When Lone Star is found dead later that morning from an overdose, Sarah immediately suspects William. Her suspicions are confirmed when she finds the roll of quarters missing from Lone Star’s bag in William’s room.
She confronts William with her findings and he promptly locks her in her room demanding she keep her mouth shut about the whole situation. Fearing that William will now kill Fox, she uses the dumbwaiter that connects her room to his to pull herself up and warn him. Fox both praises her intellect and her stupidity, leaving Sarah slightly confused but relieved that she has forewarned Fox.

But did she warn the right man? Who really murdered Lone Star and why?
The Honey Pot starts out as a light comedy and as you settle in to see if the greedy women will get their comeuppance, you slowly begin to realize the movie is taking a dark turn. The Honey Pot is a very intelligent screenplay that really makes you use your noodle. Quite good.

 
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Breathless (1960) A small-time hood hides out from the cops with his American girlfriend. Cast: Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Liliane David, Daniel Boulanger Dir: Jean-Luc Godard

The Strange Woman (1946)

Jenny Hager (Hedy Lamarr), is a difficult girl, with a high opinion of herself. Living in Bangor, Maine with her drunken father, Jenny plans to catch herself a rich man. It helps that Jenny possesses great beauty. Something that Isaiah Poster (Gene Lockhart) and his son Ephraim (Louis Hayward) have not missed. Jenny exploits Isaiah’s attraction to her, eventually marrying him while behind his back she leads Ephraim on, carefully making sure that he falls in love with her so that he will do her bidding.
To the outside world of Jenny is a devout woman, caring and compassionate. She ensures this by offering to donate money to the church, caring for her husband’s sick employees, and saving the life of the town prostitute. When Isaiah falls ill, Jenny devotedly cares for him thinking he will die soon. When he does not, she convinces Ephraim to kill his father so they can be together. But Jenny already has he eyes set on someone else and has no intention of marrying Ephraim. She wants, John Evered (George Sanders), Isaiah's foreman and her friend Meg's (Hillary Brook) fiancé.
When Isaiah decides to visit his holdings up in the woods he insists that Ephraim accompany him on the canoe trip, even though Ephraim is terrified of the water. After Ephraim accidentally upsets the canoe and Isaiah drowns, Jenny forbids him to enter the house and drives him to drink. Taking over the management of Isaiah’s properties, Jenny promotes John to a job in town. When John hears rumors of a drunken Ephraim telling people that Jenny is evil, he questions Ephraim and then suggests that Jenny confront Ephraim to prove her innocence. When John and Jenny arrive at Ephraim's cabin, however, he has hanged himself. Jenny scares away their horses, and she and John are forced to stay all night together in the cabin. Soon Jenny and John are married. The marriage is happy, although Jenny discovers that she is unable to have children. When a revivalist preacher comes to town, proclaiming that an evil woman cannot reproduce, Jenny believes that he can see into her soul and tells John that Ephraim's stories about her were true. This is too much for John, and he leaves her. The next morning Jenny finds him in the country with Meg. Although John has told Meg that he intends to return to Jenny because he loves her, Jenny tries to run them over in a jealous fit and is thrown over a cliff to her death.

Jenny Hager is a strange woman indeed, I could not distinguish whether or not she did good deeds because she wanted to be a good person or because it was all a part of her plan to become rich. There are times Jenny is truly horrible but then she makes up for it by doing things that would not necessarily aid her cause. You feel a bit sorry for her when she does find true love John because you know it's doomed to fail (post code morality in full effect), but not too sorry, she did steal him from her friend Meg who had always been kind and helpful to her.

This is the second film I have seen with Hedy Lamarr. She really was quite beautiful and has the best set of eyebrows I've seen yet in classic cinema (you may think that's strange so I should do a blog on stars and their eyebrows to set you straight on what I mean). George Sanders does not portray his usual cad role and so was not as effective in this film as he would be in others. He is a kind and caring individual, very foreign to the Sanders I know and love. Overall the film was mildly entertaining.

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Paper Moon (1973)
A fraudulent bible salesman reluctantly adopts a tough little girl who could be his daughter.
Cast: Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman Dir: Peter Bogdanovich (I love this film!)

Suit up! Summer is almost here!

Jean Arthur

Gene Tierney

Susan Hayward

Rita Hayworth

Kim Novak

Norma Shearer

Randolph Scott and Cary Grant

Lucille Ball

Loretta Young

Joan Blondell

Jean Harlow

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Joan Crawford

Jane Wyman

Grace Kelly

Betty Grable

Greta Garbo

Donna Reed

George Brent

Deborah Kerr

Claudette Colbert

Carole Lombard

Ava Gardner

Burt Lancaster


Ann Sheridan

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Woody Allen!