Time Capsules, Curiosities and Neo-Noir – Ann-Margret before carnal knowledge.

Kitten With A Whip (1964, Douglas Heyes) ***

“ Maybe it’s a mistake to feel sorry for kids like that … maybe it’s a mistake not to…”

Capitalizing on the upward trajectory of Ann-Margret’s career and the heat from being paired with Elvis in Warner’s Viva Las Vegas that spring, Universal released Kitten With A Whip in November of 1964. Giving A-M top billing for the first time, albeit surrounded by a crop of television stars. A-M stretches her acting chops to play juvenile femme fatal Jody Dvorak; whose personality vacillates between pathetic waif victim of society to sexual temptress and extortionist blackmailer. We don’t see this Ann-Margret again until Carnal Knowledge in 1971.

Kitten With A Whip opens with the same panic of a girl running away from something, we don’t know what, shades of Kiss Me Deadly. This time it’s Jody Dvorak running away from a reform school where she has stabbed a matron and escaped.  She winds up at the house of Dave Stratton played by John Forsythe, fresh from wrapping production on 157 episodes of Bachelor Father. In the main Forsythe plays the part as if he was still playing Uncle Bentley – Eisenhower Republican, sensitive to social issues (especially the plight of misunderstood juveniles), early 1960’s suburbanite (with traditional values; who uses a straight razor in 1964 anyway?) – who is estranged from his wife and contemplating running for the United States Senate.

Strattan lives in a mid-century California Ranch-style house with early American décor. His home is replete with the classic stereo-as-furniture, playing music left over from Harry Mancini’s soundtrack from Touch of Evil. Good Samaritan Dave believes a little hospitality and empathy and understanding talk can mollify any situation.

That is until Judy’s posse shows-up. A trio of well-clad delinquent’s led by Peter Brown (long a stalwart of television westerns of the day) as Ron the sadomasochist member well connected and educated member of the trio. Skip Ward stars as the volatile bad-guy and Diane Sayer as the drugged out girl in tow (she even wears a beauty mark). Diane Sayer, who once played the only bad date Wally Cleaver ever had. And for added measure we have Richard Anderson (who replaced Ray Collins as the copy playing Lt. Steve Drum in Perry Mason) as Dave’s best friend.

Be it an early 1960’s expression of film noir or an exploitation film (with the necessarily quotient of violence) Kitten With A Whip delivers as a first class B-Movie movie punch. Poorly reviewed in its day, Kitten With A Whip plays well as a guilty pleasure and look at the sociology of the 1960’s before psychedelia. After all the film is based on an original Fawcett paperback from 1959, we couldn’t expect any less.

Film noir fused with social realism in a woman’s prison. And it’s not pretty.

Caged (1950, Robert Cromwell) ***

Eleanor Parker (as Marie Allen) earned her first of three Oscar nominations playing a “young and innocent” inmate in this horror show of a woman’s prison. Billed as, “The Story of a Women's Prison Today!” Caged conforms to the muckraking mold of the urban and social realism Warner Bros. films of the 1930’s and is the flip side of The Big House. Hope Emerson dominates, both literally and figuratively (earning an Oscar nod as best supporting actress), as the sadistic matron towering over the inmates as a modern day gorgon exacting tribute payments while enjoying the protection of the state’s political machine. From a doe-eyed innocent Marie Allan turns into a hard case who has given-up any hope of returning to her old life (“From now on what’s in it for me is all that matters. For that forty bucks I heisted I certainly got myself an education”). As powerful as the Mervyn LeRoy pre-code classic I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (“How do you survive?” “I steal.”) Standout performances from Agnes Morehead, Jane Darwell, Jan Sterling, Lee Patrick and Gertrude Hoffman (in a bit role as Millie, an elderly "lifer" who warns Marie to go straight) make this a true noir classic.

Comfort Food/Guilty Pleasures -- Howard Hughes and the Blacklist

The Las Vegas Story (1952, Robert Stevenson) ***

     Hoagy Carmichael plays the piano player at the Last Chance Casino  (… not the best place in Las Vegas but far from the worst…”) narrating the opening of this gem of a B-movie from RKO before he settles in to the generic “Hoagy Carmichael” character – they guy who was always friends with the girl, but never gets her in the end. But Hoagy does sing and perform two of his songs, the pop standard “I Get Along Without You Very Well” and one of his comic masterpieces “The Monkey Song”. The Las Vegas Story is worth watching for this alone. The main players are Jane Russell as a femme with a dubious past, a talent for singing and hooking up with various men – her current husband, a delightfully prissy and despicable Vincent Price and Victor Mature (who never looked more zombie-like).  The pulp dialog is priceless -- “What a beautiful picture, moonlight, sagebrush and my wife with a stranger.”And the story behind the screenplay credits is one for Hollywood history books.  Produced by Howard Hughes, the original screenplay was written by Paul Jarrico, who was brought before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, refusing to testify. This not only brought an abrupt (albeit temporary) end to his rising career as a screenwriter but a battle for screen credit as well.  Hughes, an ardent anti-communist wanted Jarrico’s name taken off the production which prompted threats of a strike by writers guild, but they buckled to Hughes.  This is well covered in Victor Navasky’s definitive book about the blacklist, Naming Names. The cast also features Brad Dexter (the often forgotten member of The Magnificent Seven) and the wonderful bull dog faced character actor Jay C. Flippen. Wonderful second-unit location coverage of early fifties Las Vegas; it is interesting to note that the main action takes place in two fictitious casinos, The Last Chance and The Fabulous.  The logo and type treatment of the later is unmistakably like that of The (Fabulous) Flamingo.  Come to think of it the movie contains three of Howard Hughes passionate fixations (helicopters, casinos and Jane Russell’s breasts). 

Time Capsules: God and outer space – "The vast astronomic distances which are God's quarantine regulations."

Conquest of Space (1955, Byron Haskin) **1/2

Producer -- George Pal (tom thumb 1958, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, 1964)
Director -- Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds 1953, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, 1964)

Released in the thick of McCarthyism and the Cold War this was no alien as monsters science fiction thriller. This wasn’t a science fiction movie at all; it was a science fact mixed with a “give-me-that-old-time-religion” message. Much like its immediate predecessor Destination Moon this was sci-fi without monsters. It was a movie about travel in outer space and what happens to the brave souls who make the trip (with their God).

Opening v/o – “This is a story of tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, when men have built a station in space, constructed in the form of a great wheel, and set a thousand miles out from the Earth, fixed by gravity, and turning about the world every two hours, serving a double purpose: an observation post in the heavens, and a place where a spaceship can be assembled, and then launched to explore other planets, and the vast universe itself, in the last and greatest adventure of mankind, the plunge toward the...”

“The Wheel” is an international space station, but it is clear that the Americans are in charge and compose the crew with the exception of a token Russian (Ross Martin)as a scientist and a Japanese astronaut acting as an apologist for WWII (“Some years ago, my country chose to fight a terrible war …”) round out the international crew.

After completing the space ship the General and his crew learn they are going to Mars and not the Moon as originally planned. Despite Byron Haskin’s interest in science fact such a change in plans amounts to only a “hop, skip and jump” difference in distance. However the science fact part of the story has many of the personnel suffering from “space fatigue.” A select crew of five are picked to make the trip to Mars.

We now shift from the visual thrills of space exploration to a philosophical-cum-religious inquisition into the ethics of space travel: should Earth-born men really be venturing into the unknown, potentially “godless” universe? A debate as to what God wants when it comes to the limits of man’s wanderings – be they the four corners of the earth or can they extend beyond? Especially when it means saving man from the limitations of a planet Earth rapidly running out of “raw materials”.

Rather than running into Martians or other demonic aliens the crew deals with general leading the expedition who becomes a religious nut whose new views include that the Mars mission is an abomination, as it isn't mentioned in the New Testament (which the General keeps handy throughout the trip). This sets up the second half of the picture as a philosophical battle as to whether or not it is blasphemous for man to venture into outer space. And this dose of religion mixed with “space fatigue” cause the General to have a “nervous break down” now believing that man’s “exploration” really amounts to an “invasion” -- “God didn't want man jetting off to new planets.”

I’m reminded by the excellent science fiction and fantasy blog Moria how much religion George Pal pumped into his movies.

“Most of George Pal’s films had a strong religious undertow – Pal himself was a Catholic. In The War of the Worlds the ironic ending of the atheist H.G. Wells’s novel with the Martians being destroyed by the “smallest thing on God’s Earth” was transformed into a full-blown religious Passover with humanity praising the Almighty for their deliverance; while When Worlds Collide played the film’s Noah’s Ark allegory up for all it possibly could. Conquest of Space ends on a note of cautious optimism by again resorting to religion – the astronauts are stranded on Mars but on Christmas Day it begins to snow (amid ringing bells on the soundtrack) and plant life begins to sprout – “only God can make trees” one character notes – which provides the astronauts with their unexpected salvation.”

This heavy-handed use of religion (and Christianity in particular) is what makes this movie interesting as a time capsule.

Despite the presence of visible matte lines the effects are impressive and the use of Technicolor was a major asset when the audience was used to seeing science fiction movies in black and white. The visuals are particularly exciting when one remembers that in 1955 people were watching black and white television and many sci-fi movies of the day were also shot in black and white.

Consistent with movies of its day (and the pattern left by B-war movies) the crew is cast with notable faces from the genre, each playing their stereotypical role – talk about type casting.

Mickey Shaughnessy, (who at 35 is playing a man in his fifties with obliviously touched-up sideburns) as the tough as nails master sergeant described as being, “30 years in the army and still too brainless to obey an order” his character is a stowaway aboard the spaceship to bring” its captain his tooth brush”. Shaughnessary is practiced at playing his character for comic relief here his Irish brogue is less purposely convincing the more he speaks.

Ross Martin (The Wild, Wild West), Andre Fodor UN personnel. When we see his mother wish him a successful mission we know that he’s toast and will not be making the voyage home. We also have William Hopper (we know him best as Paul Drake in Perry Mason as Dr. George Fenton; the G-Man responsible for the trip and best of all, Eric Fleming (we know him from CBS-TV's long-running western "Rawhide" as the trail boss Gil Favor) as Captain. Here he plays son of the commander of the expedition General Merritt played by the venerable Walter Brooke.

Perhaps the best time capsule element is a movie that is being shown to the crew prior to departure with Rosemary Clooney singing “On the Deset Sand” (from an unidentified film).

At a time when American hegemony was a governmental hope (if not plan) Conquest In Space works hard to make every American believe that God is on our side.

The American Myth -- Broken homes, adultery, suicide and murder - - a pre-code extravaganza

  The Mind Reader (1933, Roy Del Ruth ) ***

            Warren William as a carnival con man who thrives as a fake swami, but his wife (Constance Cummings) wants him to make an honest living.  This is a wonderful pre-code tells the tale of a first class con-artist who works his way from a medicine show to that of a reader of fortunes and the future.  Here he meets and falls in love with the daughter of a rube (a country bumpkin) and marries her with hopes of continuing “the life” but finds it increasing difficult to provide the sleight-of-hand necessary for his craft and his marriage. Cagney, Bogart and Robinson eventually replaced Warren William, a big star for Warner Bros. at the time and an excellent actor at the box-office. But here he is at once convincing as Dr. Muro whose “magic crystal ball” seems to predict the most sordid outcomes for each of his clients as described by a newspaper clipping -- “Dr. Munro’s Magic crystal is relieving the depression, by making business brisk for divorce lawyers – his line of patients are long than the well known bread line – “ Here we have the outing of adultery and avarice; an interesting juxtaposition for Dr. Muro as we have come to know him.  Several things make this movie interesting not the least of which is a knockout performance by Mayo Methot (Bogart’s wife prior to Bacall) in an amazing three-minute suicide scene enhanced with Warner Bros. realism of the day as to make anyone cringe.  Directed by the dependable Roy DelRuth, who understood better than most the kind of gritty, tightly made urban crime melodramas that provided bread and butter to the brothers Warner during the depression.  Lot’s of fun and proof positive of the difference between the Circus and the sideshow.  Only better done by my favorite carnival movie Nightmare Alley staring Tyrone Power.

On the Dark Side -- Why I love film noir

From Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic a wonderful clip reel of the best of film noir in American Cinema. He calls it a "Mental Health Break". Enjoy!

Mental Health Break - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Comfort Food: When Heaven and Hell are both the same place or why we love “B” Movies.

Between Two Worlds (1944, Edward A. Blatt) ***

"The advantages of a misspent life."

When the the Warner Brothers first conceived their studio it they declared the following credo for the pictures made under their name: “Educate, Entertain and Enlighten”. Between Two Worlds serves all three objectives. As an entertainment it features a strong cast of Warner Bros. players; a world weary John Garfield (when wasn’t he?), an international refugee Paul Henreid (always his best character) and Sydney Greenstreet as the pious avatar (when wasn’t he?). The stellar cast includes Eleanor Parker (Chain Lightning 1950, An American Dream 1966), everyone’s favorite Santa Claus Edmund Gwenn (Miracle on 34th Street 1947), George Tobias and Isobel Elson as the epitome of opulent grand dame haughtiness who gets her due. As opportunity to educate, the moral of the story is that everyone eventually gets their just rewards. Justice only exists in the movies -- or at least what we think of as justice. And lastly the film continued to maintain awareness of the specter of Naziism and its countless victims. In Between Two Worlds we have a contrivance of interconnecting stories occurring on an ocean liner, destination unknown. In true Warner Bros. tradition we know who to root for throughout. The movie turns into a mystical fantasy as we realize that everything is happening after the death of the characters. The story takes place in a limbo or perdition where each character is sentenced to the heaven or hell that they have created in their lives. Movies like this are why we like B-movies. In my lexicon“B” movies include those movies with major stars that were made quickly for audience appeal and box office. They tended to be genre pictures and had smaller budgets all round than their “A” movie counterparts that were released as tent poles of the day -- The VIPs definitely fits into this niche.) Often they are heavy handed yet seductive and always easy to ‘get into’ – these movies exist in an alternate universe where their plots are believable and the stories make total sense, no matter how contrived their reality. All real movie lovers are suckers for movies like this.

Extra: John Garfield the most world weary of the Warner Bros. stable, active in liberal political and social causes, found himself embroiled in Communist scare of the late 1940s. Though he testified before Congress that he was never a Communist, his ability to get work declined. While separated from his wife (who has been reported to a member of the Communist Party), Garfield (at 39) succumbed to long-term heart problems, dying suddenly in the home of a woman friend. His funeral was mobbed by thousands of fans, in the largest funeral attendance for an actor since Rudolph Valentino. More John Garfield to come.

The American Myth/Our Story – Good clumsily triumphs over evil

And One Was Beautiful (1940, Robert B. Sinclair) *1/2

·      This hopes to be a tight B-movie with a “hard left” but it plays more like a predictable melodrama; despite a well executed beginning that set us up for the turn of the story. As a result And One Was Beautiful  fails to raise itself above its “C” grade script and waddles between a romantic comedy of manners, poking fun of the rich, and a heart wrenching melodrama of unrequited love and innocent bystanders. It may have been conceived as a movie to ignite Robert Cummings career beyond the supporting roles and character parts.  Unfortunately And One Was Beautiful was more of predictor of a secure future in forgettable supporting roles with the occasional exception (think Dial M For Murder). More often he played a version of his own stereotype; with the greatest success in The Carpetbaggers. Director Robert Sinclair didn’t hit his stride until television a decade late and Laraine Day fails to breakthrough opposite Bob as we’ve always loved him.  

The American Myth/Our Story -- How we see ourselves in the rearview mirror

 The Happy Years (1950, William A. Wellman) **
 This movie could easily be passed over as a well produced romantic vision of 1890s America’s eastern upper crust at boarding school and how they passed their time. What makes it interesting is that it was directed by “Wild Bill” Wellman; who is primarily known for no holes barred action and urban realism with films ranging from Wings, The Public Enemy, Wild Boys of the Road, Viva Villa!, The Ox-Bow Incident and Yellow Sky. More important this is the movie Wellman made immediately after Battleground -- the seminal WW2 movie of my father’s generation; the most gritty and realistic look at the war on film at the time (nominated for six Academy Awards including picture and director). Despite excellent direction and fine performances, everything about The Happy Years is expected and feels like it would have been better made with Mickey Rooney before the war.  And this isn’t a fault of the production or the actor's performances. The source material is known as the "Lawrenceville Stories" that were published in The New Yorker between 1900 -1910 making them a nostalgic look back when they were written).  Instead of Mickey we have the fresher faced Dean Stockwell who plays young John Humperkink "Dink" Stover, a legacy student at the venerable Lawrenceville Prep.  Stockwell as a child star played supporting sharing the screen with the likes of William Powell and Myrna Loy, Gregory Peck and Errol Flynn all before he was fifteen when he was the lead in The Boy With the Green Hair. He didn’t know it at the time but his career as a child star was about to run out of gas.   Darryl Hickman the older and the less remembered older brother of Dwayne (Dobie Gillis) also had his share of credits, but always in more of a supporting player despite his brilliant role in Leave Her To Heaven where he plays the most innocent of victims. The cast is rounded out with Leon Ames (a perennial father in movies Meet Me In St. Louis and From the Terrace to name two) and the Hitchcock favorite Leo G. Carroll as the schoolmaster. The Happy Years almost makes one believe that everyone lived this idealized life in this view of America’s past, suggesting that all American’s could aspire to be wealthy and have their sons attend an elite school one day. This is the stuff that American dreams are made of; especially during the years after the victory of WWII.

Curiosities & Time Capsules: Liz Taylor and Richard Burton face flight delays.

The V.I.P.’s (1963, Anthony Asquith) **

A slapped together potboiler of a B-movie, often turgid with a star-studded cast who provided box office gold for Warner Brothers and the soon to be, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Burton. The V.I.P.’s tells its story of intersecting characters during an endless fogged in night at a London airport, almost exclusively with interior studio shots and little second unit work or location shots.

The whole thing plays like an homage to the Warner Brothers’ extravaganzas of the 1930’s like Grand Hotel and Dinner At Eight. As a time capsule The VIP’s revives the notion that travel was once a romantic undertaking, especially among those of a certain class who were impeccably dressed and quaffed oblivious to those around them sweating the details. 

Hollywood legend has it that screenwriter Terence Rattigan once reminisced that his screenplay was inspired by Vivian Leigh’s difficulty telling Oliver that she was leaving him for Peter Finch.

Capitalizing on the gossip press generated by Elizabeth Taylor’s affair with Richard Burton during the filming of Cleopatra (released 31 July 1963), The V.I.P.’s was made during the failed epic’s lengthy post-production process (released 9/19/64). The hope was to capitalize on the heat of the scandal with a wide release of Liz and Dick feature while Cleopatra was exclusively playing in road show engagements (here in Los Angeles at The Egyptian Theater no less).

I won’t attempt to retell the saga of Elizabeth Taylor and her many husbands (count ‘em it’s either seven or eight depending on whether or not you count Richard Burton twice), scandals and pretty much manufactured life here. Let’s suffice it to say that after being widowed at age 27 she ran off with her best friends’ husband, married him for a while and then ran off to play the lead in the biggest movie of all time at that time (yes, bigger than Ben Hur, a little ditty called Cleopatra) and falls in love with her married costar (Richard Burton). All the while this international Passion play was being had advertised across all possible media venues of the day. Trust me, I lived through this phenomenon as a child (my mother was crazy for fresh gossip about the sensational sexpot Liz Taylor.

In The V.I.P.’s Elizabeth Taylor continues to push the envelope of sexual fury, building on her portrayal of Maggie in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof. The fireworks we see here with Burton are but a small preview of what is to come three years later in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolfe? Here she again leaving a husband (in this case Richard Burton); this time for an international playboy Louis Jourdan.

During this period in her career Elizabeth only made films with her ‘true love’ and latest husband, Richard Burton.  All were middling (The Sand Piper, The Taming of the Shrew, Dr. Faustus, The Comedians, Boom) with the exception the Mike Nichol’s directed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? (1966). 

But that’s a post for another day.

Also of interest: 

Margaret Rutherford wins her Oscar (no doubt to a three way tie of the women from Tom Jones competing in the Best Supporting Actress category) playing a stereotypical character opposite her real life husband Dennis Price.  And yet another sterling performance by the under appreciated Michael Hordern.

Orson Wells plays a “life imitating art” faux Alexander Korda styled movie mogul who too is forever being pursued by the IRS. Not particularly memorable but always nice to see. Maggie Smith makes something an American debut opposite Rod Taylor batting clean up in a terrific supporting role.