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.

Tonight on TCM!
Watch Kirk Douglas! They're showing Spartacus...

TCM Tuesdays in September: Kirk Douglas: The Devil's Disciple (1959)

At the onset of the American Revolution, the British Army, who are trying to make their way to New England, decide to hang anyone suspected of being a rebel. Their most recent victim is Tim Dudgeon who Reverend Anthony Anderson (Burt Lancaster), his pastor, tries to save. Unfortunately, he arrives too late to tell the British that Dudgeon is innocent. Anderson then tries to take the body but is informed that Dudgeon must hang as a reminder to the rebels. Anderson is adamant and almost arrested himself until some noted townspeople vouch for him. Later that night, Anderson is visited by Dick Dudgeon (Kirk Douglas), Dudgeon’s oldest son and the black sheep of the family. He has daringly stolen his father’s body from under the British Army’s nose and delivers it to Anderson. Despite Dudgeon's open rejection of Christianity, he asks Anderson to give his father a proper burial.

Later, when the British find the grave, they assume Anderson stole the body and set out to arrest him.  Anderson, who urged Dudgeon to come to his home so they could speak about the danger he is in, has been called away. Dudgeon’s mother is suspected of being on her deathbed and Anderson must be by her side. Dudgeon is left alone with Anderson’s wife Judith (Janette Scott), who is openly hateful of him. Thinking him a selfish adventurer, she must nonetheless entertain him so she does not upset her husband. When the British come for the arrest, Dudgeon pretends to be Anderson, much to his and Judith’s bewilderment. He warns Judith privately that she must not try and save him for her husband would be put to death either way.

Judith goes to inform her husband of what has taken place, urging him to save Dudgeon. When he runs off, she mistakenly thinks he does so to save himself. While Anderson tries to gather forces, he comes across true rebels and joins them in conquering the troops stationed in a nearby town. Judith races off to the prison and devotes herself to Dudgeon. While Dudgeon is on trial, Anderson receives an important missive stating that the relief troops the British so desperately need are not available. He takes this message to General Burgoyne (Lawrence Olivier), who is at the trial of Dudgeon and uses the information to save Dudgeon’s life.

Though it did not get great reviews on it’s release and is not really historically correct, I found The Devil’s Disciple mildly entertaining. Douglas is fabulous in the film (the man knew how to play a charming rogue), and Lancaster livens up his boring part in the battle scene, but it’s Olivier (third billed) that steals the show. Elegant, disillusioned, highly intelligent and quite cynical, he is the perfect, if a bit ironic, mouthpiece to deliver Bernard Shaw's cutting barbs about the British's shortcomings. There is also an ingenious and slightly quirky use of puppets to assist in the narration of the story that's very interesting.

Trivia:
Apparently Sir Laurence Olivier was willing to be third billed as he was trying to get funding to put on his screen version of Macbeth. Unfortunately, during this filming, Vivien Leigh was having a mental breakdown. Later, Olivier would state that this affected his performance immensely, ironic since he acted beautifully, due to his worry over her. It’s also rumored that he was bitter over the fact that Lancaster and Douglas’ production companies were able to get funding to film a British playwright’s work, while he was not.

Though Lancaster’s production company helped land the Shaw play, their history of going over-budget meant that the huge color extravaganza, typical of films from that era, was vetoed. Yet, the puppets got in! Also, Lancaster, though top billed, was relegated to playing the part of the pious Anderson because Douglas was riding high off his recent film successes. This was the third film out of seven that they did together.


Tonight on TCM!
Another Tuesday full of Douglas! I'm gonna watch Paths Of Glory and Lust For Life!

TCM Tuesdays in September: Kirk Douglas: A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Leaving on a day outing on the river with a charity organization for orphaned children, three suburban housewives receive a note from Addie Ross (narrated by Celeste Holm), a friend whom each wife consistently measures herself against. Addie states she has run off with one of their husbands but does not give a name. As the day wears on, each woman thinks back on her marriage, coming up with likely reasons as to why her husband is probably the one. Deborah (Jeanne Crain) a former farm girl, captured her husband Brad’s (Jeffrey Lynn) attention during the war by looking quite smart in her war uniform. Unfortunately, she feels she doesn’t measure up in her civvies compared to the more sophisticated Addie who used to date Brad before the war. Rita (Ann Sothern) thinks that perhaps her career as a radio writer has led her to neglect her husband George (Kirk Douglas) a high school teacher. George admits after a strained dinner party with Rita’s bosses that she is no longer the independent woman he fell in love with. Instead, she has been led by fear to depend on a job that he has no respect for- feeling it’s ruining society as a whole. Rita also forgot his birthday with the planning of this party and is disappointed to find that Addie sent over the perfect gift, which George loves. Lora Mae (Linda Darnell) a girl from the wrong side of the tracks recalls her courtship with department store magnate Porter Hollingsway (Paul Douglas). Using all her tricks to get him to marry her, knowing that he would definitely prefer Addie who he finds class personified, Lora Mae manages to snag Porter in order to become more respectable.
Each wife is faced with the challenge of going home to see if their husband is the lucky man.

Linking three stories of three marriages in three separate social classes with impressive sound effects and ingenious flashbacks, Joseph L. Mankiewicz successfully weaves a most interesting story, that will capture your interest from beginning to end.
Douglas plays a smaller but no less powerful role as George, a teacher who’s very interested in gaining and giving knowledge but severely disappointed in how radio is destroying the English language. The scene between him and Rita’s boss, Mrs. Manleigh (Florence Bates) is fantastic. All in all, each actor in the film played their part wonderfully, especially the wise-cracking and lovable Thelma Ritter in her third film. If you haven’t had a chance to see this film, do! It’s highly entertaining!

Hey!
Did you know that Florence Bates graduated with a mathmatics degree, went on to pass the bar and become a lawyer, quit that to be a mother, then operated her parent's antique business, then became a bilingual radio commentator used to foster good relations between the US and Mexico, then married a wealthy oil tycoon, then opened a bakery when they lost all their money, and then worked the stage until she was introduced Hitchcock and finally settled on a career as a screen actress? What a life!

Tonight on TCM! Kirk Douglas!
Young Man With a Horn (1950) ...good!
Ace In the Hole (1951) ...can't wait!
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) ...good!
The Big Sky (1952)
The Big Trees (1952) ...can't wait!

The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

Is Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) a jerk? Sure! Has he done some pretty terrible things to his friends? Of course! Is he really just a bad person? Uh...hard to say.

Sure Jonathan sacrificed a talented and powerful friendship to get a step up in the production business and get his own studio. But what he did to Fred (Barry Sullivan) turned in Fred's favor- he became a successful director, sought out by all studios and given the freedom to choose what he would direct after years of sub par projects being thrown his way.

Sure Jonathan sacrificed the chance at true love with a devoted woman like Georgia (Lana Turner) who would have given up her entire career, one Jonathan helped build, just to be with him. Instead he turned her away and she became the famous actress she is now, making money for another studio having quit Jonathan's.

Sure Jonathan sacrificed a wonderful collaboration and friendship with author cum screenplay writer James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) by getting him to concentrate more on his screenplays than his wife, Rosemary (Gloria Grahame) who easily gives in to outside forces. James Lee finally got that second novel written with Jonathan's help.
So, when Jonathan Shield's studio is down and out, when he is in need of the three most important people whose lives have forever been changed by his actions, will his most faithful employee Harry Pebbel (Walter Pidgeon) be able to convince them to work with Jonathan again?

 Alternating between being a complete heel and vulnerable prankster, Douglas's Johnathan Shields is just as easy to hate as he is to love. Douglas reminds me much of James Cagney, having this ability to be wicked and fearsome, but also funny and endearing.
This movie packs a powerful punch and is definitely a must see. Lana Turner, Dick Powell and Gloria Grahame play wonderful supporting roles.

Tonight and well into Wednesday on TCM!
Kirk Douglas!!

TCM Tuesdays in September: Kirk Douglas

Who photoshopped the dimple??

Kirk Douglas is an actor that I have come to strongly admire since I started this blog. A versatile artist who's ability to play a cuckholded husband to hero of the screen, Douglas has yet to disappoint me. He is one of the few actors whose very presence onscreen commands attention.

I am happy that TCM will be recognizing his career this month. In association with that, each Tuesday I will review a movie I have seen him in or will see him in- unfortunately, the list below are the very few I have seen in his long list of films. Thankfully, TCM will rectify that this month!

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946)
Out of the Past (1947)
Mourning Becomes Electra (1947)
Young Man with a Horn (1950)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
The Devil's Disciple (1959)
Seven Days in May (1964)
In Harm's Way (1965)
Oscar (1991)
Greedy (1994)

Kirk Douglas website

A little trivia:


Lauren Bacall, a former classmate with Douglas at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, helped him get his first big break in Hollywood by recommending him for The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.


Lonely Are the Brave, is Douglas' favorite of his performances.


Douglas made seven films over the decades with Burt Lancaster, prompting some (me included) to believe the two were collaborators behind the scenes. Not so. However both went on to produce and direct as well as act. Both were also independent players, breaking outside the studio mold.


Douglas was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his work in Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful and Lust for Life.  Though he did not win an Oscar for his individual work, he eventually received an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for "50 years as a moral and creative force in the motion picture community". He also received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1991.

She Married Her Boss (1935)

Best moment in the entire film at 6:15.

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

When the Lynnfield Bugle, a small Connecticut newspaper, runs a serial of Caroline Adams' risqué novel, The Sinner, editor Jed Waterbury (Thomas Mitchell) receives many complaints from the prudish women in town. Among them are leading citizens, Mary and Elsie Lynn (Elisabeth Risdon and Margaret McWade), whose niece Theodora (Irene Dunne) is horrified to learn that the Bugle is running them, as she happens to be the secret author of the scandalous novel.

She rushes into New York under the guise of visiting neighbor Rebecca Perry’s (Spring Byington) daughter (who is secretly married and pregnant to a man her mother doesn’t approve of and staying with Theodora’s wicked Uncle John). She frets to her publisher about the serial and is overheard by the illustrator of her book, Dubarry (Melvyn Douglas) an infernal busy body. When Dubarry learns of Theodora’s small town existence, he comes for a visit much to the Lynn’s exasperation and Rebecca Perry’s glee. His goal is to convince Theodora to free herself from her Puritanical existence and really live. Theodora promptly falls in love with him and after scandalizing the hometown gossips, proclaims her love for him. Unfortunately, Dubarry is already unhappily married and though he longs for a divorce, he comes from a politically prominent family. With roles reversed, Theodora sets out to “free” Dubarry.

Unfortunately, most likely given the times and attitudes towards women, she doesn’t do it with the grace and slyness of Dubarry. Instead, Theodora goes wild…or more aptly, batshit crazy. Gone are the small town gingham gowns and innocent, inexperienced charms. Bring on the fur and feathers, the scandalous flirting and sophisticated cocktail parties. Theodora is set on getting her Dubarry even at the risk of her own reputation and the reputation of her suffering aunts back at home. She becomes what everyone assumes Caroline Addams is like.

A very entertaining film and one that propelled Melvyn Douglas into witty, leading-man roles, Theodora Goes Wild has wit and charm if you can get past how silly Irene Dunne must become to get her man. Ironically, Dunne didn’t want to do the film at all. "I'd never done a comedy before," she later recalled. "I'd done serious parts like Back Street, and there was this little flipperty small town dummy, and I just didn't like her at all." So, instead, Dunne took off for a two-month European vacation, hoping the Columbia would come up with something better. However, by 1936, everybody from Barbara Stanwyck to Joan Crawford to Bette Davis were involved with the screwball comedy phase. So Dunne jumped right in. They chose an unlikely director as well. Richard Boleslawski up to that time was a director of dramatic film, however, according to Douglas (also known for his dramtic roles on Broadway) he also had his wild side. Dunne was supposed to make an entrance appearing excited, Boleslawski unsatisfied with her reactions, had a crew member fire blanks from a pistol just below Dunne's backside. Needless to say, he finally got the reaction he desired.


Sidenote:
The dialogue from this film is re-used in the film Bedtime Story (1941), in which Fredric March portrays a playwright and Loretta Young his actress wife. All the dialogue in Fredric March's new "play" is actually from the screenplay of the Theodora Goes Wild. It's virtually word for word, with only the heroine's name changed. In Bedtime Story, the actors playing the onstage scene are not meant to be in a comedy. What is borrowed is the confrontation over the gardener between Theodora, her aunt, and the local club ladies. Also, in an early scene, Fredric March has an inspiration for the last line of his play - something about nobody in the town ever calling the heroine "baby" before - an idea that figures in Theodora Goes Wild as well. - IMDb

Tonight on TCM! Love this movie!! It's full of memorable moments and one-liners.

Better Off Dead (1985) A teenager deals with a hilarious assortment of personal crises.
Cast: John Cusack, David Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Demian Slade Dir: Savage Steve

The Two Sides of Gene(us)

Gene Hackman is one of few contemporary actors I really, really enjoy watching, especially when he is being his particular brand of funny or quirky. I recently watched two of his earlier films, The French Connection and I Never Sang for My Father. Two very different films where he displays two very different types of characters.

In The French Connection, Gene plays Jimmy Doyle, a hardened narcotics cop with a penchant for drinking and bigotry, whose whole life is his work. While out for a drink with his buddy and fellow cop, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), Doyle notices an odd assortment of people sitting together, some of which are known mobsters involved with narcotics. Following a hunch, Doyle and Russo decide to tail the couple that were spending a lot of money at the bar. What they find is a small cell of criminal activity that will lead to a huge heroin bust once they connect all the dots. Seeking support from their superior proves hard as Doyle has had "hunches" before that cost the life of another cop. After saddling Doyle and Russo with Federal Agent Mulderig (Bill Hickman) who openly dislikes and blames Doyle for another officer's death, they follow the clues that lead to their "French Connection".

Full of gritty and graphic scenes, The French Connection is quite a realistic thriller that ends, in my opinion, quite poorly. However, Gene's character, though committed to his job of getting drugs off the street, has the methods and attitude that are on the same level or worse than the scum he arrests. It's Gene at his best worst. His ability to make you hate him outshines even the evil deeds of the men he is chasing.

Then there is Gene in I Never Sang for My Father, a riveting film about a son struggling for his father's affection. This movie also featured an elderly but no less powerful Melvyn Douglas playing the father. The movie opens with a thought provoking message about how death ends a life but does not end a relationship. Told in retrospect, Gene Garrison (Hackman) recalls the days leading up to and immediately after his mother's death. In short order we learn the complex relationship he has with his parents, especially his father, and how that has affected him as a man. Douglas plays his part superbly as the father who has accomplished great things only to be forgotten in his old age by most and now is truly dependent upon his son to take care of him. However, Gene wants his father to depend on him out of love, not fear. Love he has been trying to earn all his life. He yearns to get away to California and marry the woman he loves, and to start a new life. Though he cannot leave his father in the hands of the state and though he offers his father to come to California with him, his father remains stubborn and indignant. He believes he has earned the right to stay where he pleases and to have his son care for him.

This is a truly wonderful film that tells two sides of a complex situation. Though Douglas is magnificent in the film and draws the viewers pity through his elderly weakness and confusion, his performance is complimented by Gene's ability to deflect his father's barbs, to soothe his indignation. His ability to portray a man struggling to love his father more than pity him is driven home by honest emotion and fantastically delivered dialogue.

Tonight on TCM! I suggest Dreams (1990) to anyone who may not know this wonderful director's work.

TCM SPOTLIGHT: AKIRA KUROSAWA'S 100TH BIRTHDAY

Ninotchka (1939)

Only the royal suite at the grandest hotel in Paris has a safe large enough for the jewels of the Grand Duchess Swana. So the three Russians who have come to sell the jewels settle into the suite until a higher ranking official is dispatched to find out what is delaying the sale. She is Ninotchka, a no nonsense woman who fascinates Count Leon who had been the faithful retainer of the Grand Duchess. The Grand Duchess will give up all claim to the jewels if Ninotchka will fly away from the count. But can one count on a count? -TCM

Ninotchka was a good film though I preferred Garbo as the stern-faced Communist to the simpering love goddess she displays in most of her films. I have noticed a trend when it comes to Garbo's acting, similar traits that I associate with Katharine Hepburn when it comes to annoying gestures. Garbo throws her head back a lot as she mews a complaint, and wrinkles her nose as she shakes her head in disagreement over something silly, and rolls her eyes when in ecstasy or extreme pain. Gestures that made her the famouse actress she was however redundant, but it makes me wonder if anyone else viewing her movies at the time thought the same thing I did, can't she give us something fresh?
Despite having misgivings about performing in a comedy, Garbo, who was a bigger draw in Europe than the US and needed to be revamped due to the war and dwindling sales. So, with the help of Lubitsch, Ninotchka was a film built around one single, legendary slogan- "Garbo laughs!" A tagline that came about before the screenplay had even been written.
Though Garbo laughs, it's the dialogue that will draw you in. Lubitsch, famous for his sly wit and subtle sexual humor does not fail with Ninotchka. Check out some of the quotes below. It helped much that Melvyn Douglas was delivering most of it.

Prologue: This picture takes place in Paris in those wonderful days when a siren was a brunette and not an alarm - and if a Frenchman turned out the light it was not on account of an air raid!

Swana: It's really a wretched morning, wretched. I can't get myself right. I wanted to look mellow and I look brittle. My face doesn't compose well - it's all highlights. How can I dim myself down, Leon? Suggest something. Oh, I'm so bored with this face. I wish I had someone else's face. Who's face would you have if you had your choice? Oh well, I guess one gets the face one deserves.
Leon: There's one marvelous advantage to your conversation, Swana. However many questions you ask, you never expect an answer.

Ninotchka: We don't have men like you in my country.
Leon: Thank you.
Ninotchka: That is why I believe in the future of my country.

Leon: Do you like me just a little bit?
Ninotchka: Your general appearance is not distasteful.

Ninotchka: Why do you want to carry my bags?
Porter: That is my business.
Ninotchka: That's no business. That's social injustice.
Porter: That depends on the tip.

Ninotchka: The last mass trials were a great success. There are going to be fewer but better Russians.

Leon: A Russian! I love Russians! Comrade, I've been fascinated by your five-year plan for the last fifteen years.

Ninotchka: What have you done for mankind?
Leon: Not so much for mankind... for womankind, my record isn't quite so bleak.

Ninotchka: Let's form our own party.
Leon: Right. Lovers of the world, unite!

Leon: I'll picket your whole country! I'll boycott you! No more vodka! No more caviar! No more Tchaikovsky! No more borscht!

Anna: Oh, that Burganoff. You never know if he's on his way to the washroom or the secret police.

Ninotchka: I should hate to see our country endangered by my underwear.

Comissar Razinin: This anonymous report was sent to me. They're dragging the good name of our country through every cafe and nightclub. Here: How can the Bolshevik cause gain respect among the Muslims if your three representatives Bujlianoff, Iranoff and Kopalski get so drunk that they throw a carpet out of their hotel window and complain to the management that it didn't fly?

Iranoff: We can say whatever we want. We can shout! We can complain! Look: THE SERVICE IN THIS HOTEL IS TERRIBLE! See? Nobody comes, nobody pays any attention! That's freedom.
Buljanoff: That's bad management.

Ninotchka: Must you flirt?
Leon: Well, I don't have to, but I find it natural.
Ninotchka: Suppress it.

Leon: A radio's a little box that you buy on the installment plan, and before you tune it in, they tell you there's a new model out.

Leon: Pardon me, are you an explorer?
Ninotchka: No. I'm looking for the Eiffel Tower.
Leon: Good heavens, is that thing lost again? Oh, are you interested in a view?
Ninotchka: I'm interested in the Eiffel Tower from a technical standpoint.
Leon: Technical? No, no, I'm afraid I couldn't be of much help from that angle. You see, a Parisian only goes to the tower in moments of despair to jump off.
Ninotchka: How long does it take a man to land?
Leon: Now isn't that too bad? The last time I jumped, I forgot to time it.

Leon: What kind of a girl are you, anyway?
Ninotchka: Just what you see. A tiny cog in the great wheel of evolution.
Leon: You're the most adorable cog I've ever seen.

Russian Visa Official: To an unseen caller: "Hello! Comrade Kasabian? No, I am sorry. He hasn't been with us for six months. He was called back to Russia and was investigated. You can get further details from his widow."

And the best quote of all! Though Adrian was costumier to many great MGM screen legends, Garbo was the clotheshorse, the inspiration. In fact, when she left MGM, so did he. "It was because of Garbo that I left MGM. In her last picture they wanted to make her a sweater girl, a real American type. I said, 'When the glamour ends for Garbo, it also ends for me. She has created a type. If you destroy that illusion, you destroy her.' When Garbo walked out of the studio, glamour went with her, and so did I."

So when I heard this line, I thought it was hilarious!

Ninotchka [Looking at a hat in a shop]: How can such a civilization survive which permits their women to put things like that on their heads?

Although Greta Garbo's famous hat in the film was made by her regular costumier Adrian, it awas actually based on a sketch by Garbo herself.


Tonight on TCM! Sweet!
Notorious (1946)A U.S. agent recruits a German expatriate to infiltrate a Nazi spy ring in Brazil. Cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Two-Faced Woman (1941)

In this romantic comedy, ski instructor Karen Borg (Greta Garbo) meets Larry Blake (Melvyn Douglas) who is instantly smitten. After a minor skiing accident leaves them stranded together, they fall in love and immediately marry. Unfortunately, they lead very different lives and despite Larry promising to leave the magazine business and New York for a quieter life, he is soon sucked back in by his partner O.O. Miller (Roland Young). Karin refuses to go to New York with Larry and he leaves without her, promising faithfully to return within a week. After receiving several telegrams announcing delays, Karin contacts Miss Ellis (Ruth Gordon), Larry’s secretary, and tells her that she is secretly coming to New York.
Made over with a newer, more glamorous wardrobe, Karin tells Miss Ellis that she is going to the theater where a new play that Larry is backing is being rehearsed. Hiding in the back of the theater, Karin eavesdrops on the flirtatious conversation between Larry and his former girlfriend, playwright Griselda Vaughn (Constance Bennett). Hurt that Larry has seemingly forgotten her, Karin determines to go back home immediately, but as she and Miss Ellis, who has just arrived at the theater, they are seen by Miller. Because Karin does not want Larry to know that she has been to New York, Miss Ellis tells Miller that the woman he has seen is not Karin, but her twin sister Katherine. Karin convinces and charms Miller into accepting the twin story and he invites her out to dinner. Knowing Larry’s favorite nightclub Karin sees an opportunity to win Larry back through her deception. She will vamp it up so much so that Larry will be turned off by her kind and want to return to his “real” wife.
Larry, upon meeting “Katherine”, is suspicious, even though she drinks, smokes and dances, none of which Karin does. Karin plays the part of a blatant gold digger who uses men for her own pleasure and advancement to perfection. However, this does not stop Larry from sneaking off to telephone the ski lodge and learn that Karin has left for New York (a move made to appease the censors). Though he now knows who “Katherine” really is, Larry let’s her continue to make a fool of herself going so far as to take a train back to the ski lodge to tell Karin he wants a divorce. This is when the movie goes a little wonky. Larry goes back to Karin and they spend the night together. In the morning, Larry confesses that he has met Katharine and thinks he could be happy with both her and Karin. When Larry pretends not to believe her story of being both sisters, Karin tells him she and Katharine are through with him. This is followed up by a funny ski scene where Larry chases after Karin but ends up in a frozen pond.

Though I have not seen the other two films that Garbo and Douglas did together, I recall that in the documentary I watched on Garbo, Greta Garbo: The Temptress and the Clown, it was said that the type of character Garbo was playing in Two-Faced Woman made her look a like a fool. Having seen Garbo in such dramatic pieces as The Mysterious Lady (1928), Anna Karénina (1935), and Camille (1937), I can see how some may not have taken to her lighter side and I would concur that this film should not have been the film she ended her career with, but I liked her playing at being a vamp who doesn't really know how to be a vamp unless buckets of champagne are involved. I have read that Garbo had a lot of anxiety about this film, was worried about aging, and that some of the scenes had to be re-shot because Constance Bennett was stealing the scenes. Despite this, I admire that Garbo was able to poke a bit of fun at herself and got the feeling that if she didn't let go and just have fun with the part, she at least acted professionally and did a good job of being a bit foolish.
It was a treat to finally see a young Ruth Gordon in action. As for Roland Young, though I like him, I have to wonder if he's ever played a character that isn't a bit of a bumbling old fool?
Overall, I liked the film until the ending, I think things could have been just as easily cleared up in New York. By dragging a confession out of Karin, Larry comes off as a cad. He's the one who left in the first place, he's the one who broke his promises, so it seems foolish to me that Karin should be punished.

Sidenote:

William Powell was considered for the part of Larry Blake. Though I do like Melvyn Douglas, it would have been nice to see Powell and Garbo together. I'm biased, I know.

Tonight on TCM!

East Of Eden (1955) Two brothers compete for their father's approval and a woman's love. Cast: Julie Harris, James Dean, Raymond Massey, Burl Ives Dir: Elia Kazan