David Niven is TCM's Star of the Month- October 2015

Let's delve into bits of trivia about TCM's Star of the Month for October 2015 - David Niven.

October 12, 1939 - Ed Sullivan for The Pittsburgh Press is thoroughly charmed by the young actor from Scotland. Recounts some of Niven's fascinating past, as many reporters  would enjoy doing throughout the actor's life.

July 10, 1944 - The Milwaukee Journal recalls an earlier interview with Niven, a liaison officer, in Normandy just before the invasion. Of the troops near a shattered French village in the background, the actor says, "It doesn't look too different from a Hollywood set...," then he moved toward the battle front.

Jan 9, 1955 -  TV producer Niven states that, "The laugh track is the single greatest affront to public intelligence I know of, and it will never be foisted on any audience of a show I have some say about."


Feb 2, 1955 - Niven explains why his Four Star Playhouse company is run by only three stars - Niven, Charles Boyer and Dick Powell.

June 30, 1963 - The Gadsden Times tells the story of Niven pulling out his cutoff shirttails during an interview in Italy and deems him "filmdom's most unpredictable actor." The article goes on to tell Niven's life story.

Jan 27, 1972  - The Associated Press gives a rave review of Niven's autobiography The Moon's a Balloon, praising it for giving equal time to non-Hollywood aspects of his life.

August 11, 1975 - Niven returns to the big screen after a 7 year absence. His first Disney film breaks the sabbatical - No Deposit, No Return. Says the actor, "I wouldn't work at all, except that I need a bit of scratch to support my style of living - it's ridiculous to have two houses."

August 22, 1982 -  Impressionist Rich Little is called in to finish David Niven's voiceover work for Trail of the Pink Panther, because of  "trouble Niven has been having with his voice."

July 29, 1983 - David Niven gives the thumbs up sign before dying.

January 1, 1984 -  Thomas Hutchinson’s book NIVEN'S HOLLYWOOD is released to the public. In the book, the author quotes David Niven, Jr.,

“As a father he [David Niven] showed no favoritism and was always there whenever we needed him. He never insisted we be ‘the best’ only to do ‘our best.’ He instilled in us the value of family unity, the importance of loyalty, humility and honesty. He loved us very much and I only hope we gave him as much love and pleasure as he gave us.”


Further Resources

• Please Don't Eat the Daisies - a review.

W.C. Fields in You're Telling Me (1934)

If the Katharine Hepburn film Alice Adams were seen from the father's perspective, the film might be this one -You're Telling Me (1934).

Films like this (about a poor young lady who dates a wealthy man) showcase the ingenue and the male juvenile as star-crossed mates. The young man usually has stuffy, intolerant, wealthy parents. The young lady often has a pragmatic mother and an eccentric father who invents quirky things. You'll see this kind of story in Alice Adams, Hot Saturday and You Can't Take It With You (except in the latter, the young lady's mother is just as loopy as the dad).

The story usually centers around the young people, but this time, with W. C. Fields in the lead, the story is all about dad.You're Telling Me is a remake of a W.C. Fields silent film from 1926 called So's Your Old Man. He wants to sell an invention to make more money so that his daughter will be acceptable to her prospective mother-in-law. He fails. Distraught, on the train home he meets a woman (Adrienne Ames) who cheers him. The lady happens to be a princess, but Fields doesn't know it.

Conveniently, the town gossips are also on the train and spread salacious rumors about the man, further ruining his daughter's chances. When the princess visits the man's family, she elevates their social status immediately. Will the family finally have everything they want?

Joan Marsh as the daughter presents a surprisingly upbeat and refreshingly confident character. Usually the daughter in this kind of tale is maudlin and full of self-pity about not fitting in with her perspective in-laws. You get the feeling she would enjoy eloping.

The critics praised the film, particularly Fields. Literary Digest critic says , "The new picture [You're Telling Me] offers a full-length portrait of [W.C.Fields'] talents and, on that score alone, it would be worth attention."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (October 6, 1934) critic says,

"There is a growing suspicion that the loitering Mr. Chaplin will have a quite a time of it winning back the title of cinema's No. 1 funny man.The title, you know, has long since passed to the bulbous-nosed W.C. Fields, and if there has been any doubt about his claim to that distinction, You're Telling Me once and for all removes that doubt.
...
"It is this magic touch, this ability to merge a suggestion of pathos with his brilliant humor, that leads to the conclusion that Mr. Fields is not only an inspired comedian but also a fine actor....If you don't like  You're Telling Me, then there's absolutely no hope for you."

Fields triumphs here and is charming. You're Telling Me is a recommended film for those who enjoy one-liners, star-crossed lovers, and silent film-style physical comedy.

Jack Lemmon in The Notorious Landlady (1962)

Scotland Yard suspects a landlady of being a female Bluebeard. They ask her tenant to become an informant. Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon star in this morbid comedy, The Notorious Landlady (1962).

Though a comedy onscreen, there was drama behind the scenes. Neither of the two leads seem to have enjoyed making the film.  According to Lemmon: A Biography by Don Widener, Lemmon said that the plot of this film,

 "...had so many twists and turns I couldn't follow it. A couple of years ago it came on television and I sat though it again and still couldn't get a handle on it. I delivered lines in that picture with absolute conviction- and I haven't the faintest idea to this day what they meant." 

Further, his father, John Lemmon was ill with cancer. The elder Lemmon visited his son on location in Carmel and was given a small nonspeaking part. See the two above with Novak and her mother on location in a picture for the Associated Press.

Novak also seems disenchanted with the film.

In a 2014 interview with The Telegraph, Kim Novak says,

" I pour all I have into my work. That’s who I am. I give everything I’ve got when I’m doing something that means something to me."

Although the actress is credited with designing her own wardrobe for The Notorious Landlady, this input into the film was not enough. Whenever Novak cannot put her own ideas into the story, the film means less to her; the star feels as if she's wasting her life. The star reveals in the interview that it was  movies like The Notorious Landlady which encouraged her walk away from films.

"Forgettable, salacious films like Boys’ Night Out and The Notorious Landlady became her bread and butter and Novak withdrew from acting. 'I might’ve stayed around and said, ‘I’m going to find a good vehicle for myself.’ But I’m not that kind of person. I’m all about expressing myself [although] I don’t really care what happens after I do. So when they suddenly started finding only sex-symbol roles, rather than say, ‘I’m going to fight for something,’ I left. I just walked away.'"

Novak has not bothered with a film since 1991's Liebestraum,

" a film by the director Mike Figgis,[where Novak] found, once again, another director reluctant to discuss and engage in the process with her. “I said, ‘Ah, same old Hollywood. I don’t need this.’"

The confusion and disenchantment off screen must have effected performance. The critics were out for blood with this one.

LIFE Magazine (July 20, 1962) gives a short summary of the film, calling it "Grade B Hitchock" and giving all praise to Lemmon as the only one who saves the film from complete disaster. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times says basically the same thing.

The Notorious Landlady has an interesting and weird theme for a comedy; you can call it a Gothic comedy.  You can watch it for the (non-musical) performance by Fred Astaire as Lemmon's boss. Recommended for Jack Lemmon fans.

What did you think of The Notorious Landlady?

Toast of the Town 4

Let's take a look around the web for classic movie talk, resources and blog posts.

• Journeys in Classic Film discusses the "three little girls in blue" movie called The Best of Everything with Joan Crawford in a small role.

• A remake of My Cousin Rachel is in talks. Rachel Weisz will play the Olivia DeHavilland role.

• Google News Archive is where yours truly retrieves lots of information for these classic movie reviews. Also Google Books.

• From earlier this month, Will McKinley discusses the changes at TCM. Don't worry, no commercials will be cut into their films.

• McKinley also gives a lovely tribute to Dickie Moore.

• In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood hosted a Lauren Bacall Blogathon this month. Check out all the entries.

• The See You in the Fall Blogathon has some delightful, autumn-themed entries. It's hosted by Movie Movie Blog Blog.

 

• Discover the Hollywood Home Tour series on Silver Scenes Blog. Backstories of who purchased what home during the classic movie era.

Since we're on a Cliff Robertson kick...

Via

Yours truly has been on a Cliff Robertson kick. You start to notice a pattern over the course of some of his performances.

Robertson onscreen brings an atmosphere of risk. You are both drawn to him and cautious with him. He is both magnetic and dangerous. He's like a tightly-coiled spring that is ready to pop, a panther lying in wait for its prey.

There is bottled tension in many of his performances that seems best released in films like Autumn Leaves, where he's playing a man who could be insane. This is why he is perfect in Gidget (1960), playing the older man who, in the mind of Sandra Dee's sheltered surfer girl, represents something unsafe, something outside of her suburban bubble.

His tensions are unleashed in The Big Show, where scene after scene finds him growling at his brother who wants more control over the family circus.

Even when he's playing a preacher who is kind to orphans in the light comedy My Six Loves, you're waiting for the clergyman to confess some haunting secret.

His estate's official website says that his unreleased autobiography will come out soon, but that announcement is from 2012. I'd really like to read it.  I'd like to know the person behind the screen. There is something pent up in this man that I cannot describe. Can't wait for the book.



Do you enjoy Cliff Robertson performances? Comment below; let me know.

The Big Show (1961) w/ Cliff Robertson and Esther Williams

This remake of House of Strangers and Broken Lance follows the favorite son of a circus owner (Nehemiah Persoff). Cliff Robertson is the leading man who must handle his envious siblings as they battle for power under the tyrannical hand of their father in The Big Show (1961).

Esther Williams without a pool?

Esther Williams is on hand as Cliff Robertson's love interest. Despite her star billing, she is rarely on screen. The New York Times noticed this, calling it " the briefest role of her career."
 
Co-star Robert Vaughn, who plays Robertson's brother, sheds light on why that is in  his autobiography, A Fortunate Life.

"My first motion picture in a foreign location was The Big Show.... Filming would take place in Germany. In the strange ways of Hollywood thinking, the picture still had no 'star....' [Twentieth Century Fox Studios] spinning through its corporate Rolodex, was looking for a star that qualified at a ten-grand-a-week salary.
"The lucky star who met those requirements was everyone's all-time swimming beauty/star favorite, Esther Williams. But since there was no role in the script for her, she was simply written in as Cliff's girlfriend."

 Hollywood Today correspondent, Erskine Johnson recalls this in an interview during the filming in Munich,

"'I'm a spectator in this film, honey,' Esther explained in a way that explained she was playing a featured and not a starring role in her first movie in three years. 'I'm playing a rich American girl in Europe who falls in love  with a daring young man on the flying trapeze.'
...
Robertson "flips over Esther even if she is wearing furs and not a bathing suit."

The swimming star does wear a bathing suit in one brief scene when her character is on vacation. You expect there to be an extended shot of expert aquatic choreography, as you do in an Esther Williams film.

However, the star was an independent contractor now, having been unceremoniously released from her extravagant home studio, MGM, years before. So The Big Show acknowledges her swimming fame with one quick dip in a pool, then we're off to another scene.

Fun On Location

Though Esther doesn't get much screen time, Robert Vaughn does. The actor who plays a gunslinger in The Magnificent Seven here plays Cliff Robertson's chief antagonist, a brother who cannot stand the father's favoritism. There are any number of intense scenes of hostility between them. However, off screen the actors got along well. Vaughn discusses the fun they had on location in Germany.

Being near each other all day,

"...allowed Cliff, Esther, and me to get to know each other very well over many jars and meals  at Munich brauhäuser."

"Our star, the very witty, vivacious Esther, was in top physical condition and could drink a Volga boatman under the table, and she proceeded to do that with her costars, Cliff and me. Cliff usually retired first; I hung in there, but just barely."

Vaughn was smitten with the million dollar mermaid. However, the actress...

"...was at that time seeing Fernando Lamas, whom she later married, so there was no room for hanky-panky between the kid from Minneapolis and the world's aquatic love goddess. However, the thought did cross my drink-sodden libido more than once. Boy, would the guys back at North High School wish they had taken up movie acting for a living."

An Acrobat's Story

The stars may have had fun, but one of the technical advisers - an acrobat named Lee Stath- discusses a different experience in his book, She Flies Through the Air.

"Part of my job [on The Big Show] was, I don't know, technical director? I'm not sure. We all had impressive titles, though our contribution might be small. In one of the scenes, the girl flyer was to be shown in a close up, standing on the board with the trapeze in hand, preparing to swing off for her trick.

...
"No flyer would hold the bar snug against their chest....It was all wrong. One must lean out, stretch away from the board, and be at arm's length. I was quick to step in and point out this grievous error. I took the proper position, arching my back and leaning far out. 'Like this. See?' 'Silence!" cried the ogre [Director James Clark]. 'You...what's your name?'
...
" 'Listen, Mr. Catcher, I'm making this film for millions of enthralled patrons and [I don't care] if a few of you circus clowns snicker. Now get off my set.' I managed to keep a low profile until they finished the film. Yet I was sorry to see the end of that profitable fantasy. I never worked so long, did so little, and got paid so much. I lost a lot of my envy and wonder for the film industry through that experience." 

The DRAMA FEELS REAL

The acrobatics may not be accurate, but the drama feels real.

The New York Times critic enjoyed parts of the film. The "dank, Gothic melodrama (a trial and a murderous climactic fight)" isn't the critic's cup of tea. However, he praises its "unmistakably authentic look," and its "excellently staged sawdust numbers (the polar bear act is fascinating)."

Because you have fewer familiar faces,  because you are on location with actual circus tents and the real streets of Munich, this drama feels real. It feels as if you're eavesdropping on family squabbles.

The light love story here and there are a refreshing diversion, then its back to the grind. This is a show about a family where no one wants to join a different circus unless they have to do so. They really want more power over their careers.

The audience feels trapped and claustrophobic right along with the characters. This might be why the critic doesn't like the melodrama - it's inescapable. But that's great for the audience because you carry the same feeling as some of the family members - you want out. You begin to empathize with them.



The Big Show is fascinating for its location shots of Europe, which still had vestiges of the war just outside the set. (Robert Vaughn mentions touring these places in his autobiography.) It's a movie wrought with conflict. It's a film of family members bickering and people desperate to be top man. It's intense.

Have You Seen THE BIG SHOW? What did you think of it?


Further Resources

• We've been on a Cliff Robertson kick of late. Read Autumn Leaves,and My Six Loves with Debbie Reynolds. 

•  Also The Big Show is the first movie I screened on a  smart phone.

My Six Loves (1963) w/ Debbie Reynolds

An actress vacations in Connecticut, but finds more then rest awaiting her there.

As we've mentioned in our review of I Love Melvin, Debbie Reynolds is often cast as someone in the entertainment world. Sometimes she's a character on the periphery of show business, such as a low-wage model who ditches her career for marriage in It Started with a Kiss. At other times, she's the cream of show biz society, as in The Gazebo, where she's so wealthy and famous she's being blackmailed.

My Six Loves (1963) sees the  Reynolds character as an actress who everyone loves. We start with a shot of a telegram which the actress reads in a voice over. It outlines her busy schedule.

The film then continues under the credits with shots of New York's swankiest spots, including Sardi's. And we are introduced to Reynolds in the flesh in the latest outrageous fashions - a poufy, dusty rose hat on her head resembling an out-sized shower cap. She's a famous actress exhausted by her own success who must retire temporarily to the countryside for a much-deserved rest.

Enter 6 abandoned children (and 1 dog) living in the woods who the unmarried, childless star wishes to comfort. Enter Cliff Robertson as the local clergyman and potential love interest. You can see where the story is heading.

Actor, choreographer and Broadway "doctor" Gower Champion directs this, his first of only two feature films. He had directed televisions shows and commercials, but his best direction was onstage. He was yet to direct Broadway hits Hello Dolly! and 42 Street. John Anthony Gilvey's, well-researched and detailed book, Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical, is the best biography I've seen on this talent. And -bonus- the book is approved by Champion's wife, choreographer and legend Marge Champion.

Watch for Eileen Heckart (The Bad Seed) as Reynolds' assistant, sounding board and comic foil. Hans Conried is on hand as a hilariously condescending, cravat-wearing playwright. Alice Ghostley and Darlene Tompkins are a hoot as the recalcitrant housekeeper and her obnoxious daughter Ava, respectively.

There is nothing deep here. It's meant to be charming and appeal to the entire family while giving you the glamour of Debbie Reynolds. A more engaging sitcom movie -complete with mother and father figure, multiple children, a hairy dog, the strain of family on a career- is Please Don't Eat the Daisies with Doris Day and David Niven. However, My Six Loves will do for a rainy afternoon if you love its main stars.


Have you seen My Six Loves? What did you think?

Torch Song (1953) w/Joan Crawford

A lonely Broadway star must come to grips with her need for power and love. Her new pianist might  just be the person to help her.

Joan Crawford stars  in Torch Song  (1953) as the power hungry Broadway performer who drives away everyone with her tantrums and sarcasm. In walks Michael Wilding as her new pianist who happens to be blind from complications of the war. He is the only person who is not afraid to give as good as he gets. Since so many others have cowered in her presence, Crawford learns to respect his refreshing candor. She also, in true MGM fashion, falls in love with the man.

Crawford and MGM

Life Magazine compares old MGM Joan with new MGM Joan.

Crawford was a big  MGM star in the 1920s and 1930s, known for her dancing and carefree glamour. Switching to Warner Brothers Studios in the 1940s, she was just in time for the great film dramas of the war years which would emerge from that studio. It was at Warners that the film star would win the Academy Award for her performance in the taut drama Mildred Pierce.

Released from her Warner Brothers contract, Crawford became an independent performer. She returned to her original studio in the 1950s for Torch Song. Not only was Torch Song her first film in color and the first time she had danced onscreen in decades, this was her reunion film with MGM.  A lot was riding on the success of this movie. There was a great deal of anticipation and angst. 

The build up was intense. LIFE Magazine compared the old MGM Joan with the new MGM Joan and found her winning.

The film received a positive review from The New York Times which describes Joan Crawford as lovely. Its one beef is that the plot is recycled from dozens you may have seen before - a tough woman needs love to soften her.

The plot was not the only thing recycled. Crawford was given the castoff recording of India Arie's dubbing for the song "Two-Face Woman," which was originally intended for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon.  

It's clear that the first number, the number that introduces Crawford, is the exact recording of "You're All the World to Me" that Fred Astaire uses in the famous dancing-on-the-ceiling routine years earlier in Royal Wedding (1951).  The days of the big MGM musical were almost gone and Crawford was getting the dregs of this genre.

Torch Song would be Crawford's last film for MGM.

Charles Walters. Dancer. Director.

Charles Walters is a Broadway dancer known for directing and choreographing many of MGM's biggest stars. His terpsichorean talents would come in handy as he directed big musicals at the studio, including Good News and Easter Parade. You will occasionally see him in front of the camera as an uncredited dance partner for the biggest names in Hollywood. Torch Song is a case in point.

According to the author of Just Making Movies: Company Directors on the Studio System, Ronald L. Davis, Joan Crawford personally asked Charles Walters to direct the film.

 "The phone rang one night, and it was Joan Crawford. She said, 'I have  a script, and you're the only one that can direct it. Could I bring a bottle of champagne and the script and a bite to eat and read it to you?' Well, I couldn't say no to Joan Crawford.

"Torch Song was Crawford's first film in color, and it was the first time she had danced in twenty-five years on the screen. I said, 'We're not going to tease, we're going to open with a number right off.'"

After rehearsing with Walters, Crawford felt most comfortable with the director as her dance partner instead of someone else. Thus, you'll see the film's director tripping the light fantastic in the first scene with Crawford.  

What did you think of Torch Song?

Toast of the Town 3

Let's take a look around for classic movie information on the web.

• The film Fiddler on the Roof with Topol was originally a Broadway play. There is a revival coming, starting December 20, 2015. Read more about Fiddler on Broadway here.

•  Clothes on Film discusses Doris Day's outfits in PILLOW TALK.

•  This interview has been around for a while, but we have only just screened it this week. It's Carol Burnett in an interview with George Stroumboulopoulos . The actress-comedian discusses her career.

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will have a remake soon. Bryan Singer will direct.

• I ran across a 2009 interview with former host of AMC, Bob Dorian. It was a classic film channel at the time. He  compares his style with that of Robert Osborne of TCM.

• The Classic Movie Blog Association's awards have come and gone. Here at Java's Journey, the Classic Movie Blog Tips series was nominated for Best Classic Movie Series. No wins. View the winners here.

•  Here's an old interview with Turner Classic Movie host Robert Osborne about his residence - The Osborne.

If the Law Applied to Classic Movie Characters...

 

Bringing Up Baby: Busted

It's a Wonderful Life: Busted

The Pirate

The Wizard of Oz: Busted

The Pirate (1948) w/ Judy Garland [A CMBA Nominated-Post]

An actor pretends to be a pirate to slake a woman's thirst for adventure. Then the real pirate makes his presence known.

Gene Kelly is Serafin, the traveling performer who comes to a tiny town on a Caribbean island. He instantly likes a random woman named Manuela (Judy Garland). Serafin discovers her interest in travel,  an interest which she excitedly associates with the dread pirate Macoco.

Serafin pretends to be Macoco to woo the woman. Complications ensue as Manuela's fiance (Walter Slezak), the mayor, seeks to rid his town of this thieving vagabond. To complicate matters further, the real Macoco is in town.

BROADWAY PEDIGREE

Many films are remakes of popular Broadway plays. The Pirate is no exception. According to the Internet Broadway Database, this comedy ran for 177 performances, starting on November 25, 1942 at the Martin Beck Theatre. It starred famed husband and wife team Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

The filmed version is somewhat similar, only the rough edges were smoothed over for the production code. In the play, Manuela is already married. Running off with a pirate under those circumstances wouldn't get past the film censors. In the film, Manuela is engaged to a much older and cruder man, meaning Serafin thinks he is saving her from a fate worse than death before it's too late. Somehow, this was more palatable to the decency league.

According to Hugh Fordin (author of MGM's Greatest Musicals: Arthur Freed Unit), Joseph Than and Anita Loos were hired to adapt the screenplay. They came up with reversing the central idea. Instead of the actor playing a pirate, the pirate should play an actor. Producer Arthur Freed found this unacceptable as the pirate wouldn't be convincing as an actor. He instead hired husband-and-wife writing team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich to finish the adaptation.

Cole Porter was called in to turn the straight play into a musical for the film. He served up such hits as "Be a Clown" and "Mack the Black." According to Billboard Magazine, songs for the film were rushed out for purchase on albums in the spring before the movie was released in the summer of 1948. They were quite popular fare.

JUDY GARLAND'S COSTUMES

American ex-patriot in Paris, Tom Keogh, designed Judy Garland's wardrobe; costumier Madame Barbara Karinska executed the designs.The Parisian influences in Garland's garments are throughout the film, which is perfect for her character of Manuela.

Manuela dreams of visiting the city of lights. She practically squeals when she discovers her trousseau is made "by Maison Worth - the choicest house in Paris." It's anachronistic as the movie is set about 30 years before that fashion house was created. However, the idea is there, that Manuela cannot get off the island and go to France, but France would met her in her clothes.
  
According to Fordin, Keogh created a replica of a Worth gown for Judy costing $3,462.23.  Keogh doesn't say which gown it is, but one guesses it could be the chocolate satin dress with intricate beading and multiple petticoats and a veil that Manuela chooses to wear during her "funeral march" through the streets. She plans to sacrifice herself (with great excitement and anticipation) to the dread pirate Macoco in order to save her town from his wrath.

Keogh mentions the wedding gown as well, which cost $3,313.12. It is "a white satin wedding dress, with handmade antique lace from France and embroidered with a thousand pearls," says the designer.

Even before Manuela receives her trousseau, the designer gives her a hint of Paris. Manuela's first costume is a copy of a 19th century Charles Philipon painting of a Parisian hat maker in a red plaid tam-o-shanter, yellow print dress with puffed sleeves, crucifix and black apron.

Judy Garland dressed as Charles Philipon's painting of the hat maker

(Read the story of how Java's Journey discovered this painting/costume connection here: At Last! The Artist Who Inspired Judy Garland's First Costume in The Pirate.)

There is no explanation in the film as to why Manuela wears a copy of the hatmaker's outfit; it's just an extravagant reference to 19th century Paris.

The excess doesn't end there. All embroidery for each of the female costumes was done by hand; each female wears yards of skirts. According to Fordin, $141,595.30  of the $3 million dollar budget was spent on wardrobe alone.

THE PIRATE IS A FLOP?

You have Broadway pedigree, witty songs by Cole Porter, the acting talents and fame of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, you have glorious Technicolor, an amazing MGM musical and detailed costumes. What's not to love? Why do people call it a flop?


The problem is not poor content. Part of the problem is overproduction. According to Fordin, the budget for The Pirate was about $3,000,000; they overspent by more than half a million.

Had they stayed around their original budget, they might have broken even, but with the half million more, the filmmakers gave themselves quite the hurdle to surmount to make a profit.

About the film, director Vincente Minnelli stated, "I was very pleased [with] the way the film turned out. Judy gave one of her best performances and the Cole Porter songs were excellent. Unfortunately, the merchandising on the film was bad, and it failed to go over when it was released."

They made millions of dollars at a time when the average movie ticket was $0.36. Unfortunately, the filmmakers had given themselves too much of a hole to dig out of with this production. It just wasn't enough.


Even though the filmmakers  didn't see a return on the investment at the time, the inestimable talent, the attention to detail, the fine performances are what make The Pirate  a  film worth watching.

Have you seen The Pirate? What did you think of it?
------
Update 09/2016
This post is nominated for the 2016 Classic Movie Blog Association Awards for BEST FILM REVIEW (MUSICAL OR COMEDY).

George Washington Slept Here (1942) w/Jack Benny

In this farce, an urban couple buys a farmhouse reputed to have housed a former U.S. president.

In George Washington Slept Here (1942), an antiques collector (Ann Sheridan) convinces her husband (Jack Benny) that they need a famous, dilapidated New England farmhouse in their lives. The husband is skeptical. The wife busily sets up house, while everything threatens to make the husband suffer - weak floors that he falls through, rude neighbors, livestock in the house.

Based on a Play with Mixed Reviews

Kaufman and Hart

The farcical George Washington Slept Here started as a Broadway play written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart in 1940. The pair had written many plays together, including, You Can't Take it With You and The Man Who Came to Dinner - successful plays that became hit films.

From those plays and films, audiences had come to expect something erudite, witty and unexpectedly probing. In this comedy about a farmhouse, audiences received exactly what the story seemed to be - a comedy about a farmhouse. Nothing deeper.

"The wellsprings of creativity had obviously run dry with George Washington Slept Here," says the author of Moss Hart: A Prince of the Theatre, Jared Brown. "Every other play written by Kaufman and Hart had been adventurous, an attempt to explore new territory.
...

"George Washington Slept Here, on the other hand, was little more than formulaic, warmed-over material...." 

This would be the final Kaufman and Hart collaboration.

Popular as a Film

Though George Washington Slept Here is not the most lauded play, it fared decently in public opinion as a film.
The leading lady of the film, Ann Sheridan, thinks the narrative is a stinker too, but she had fun. From The Women of Warner Brothers by Daniel Bubbeo, Ann Sheridan says,

"If the script's bad, I can put up with that. I won't like it and I may beef, but I've got to have fun working with the people on the set. I don't like dissension at all.... Everybody should get in there and pull their load as far as I'm concerned. I could fight with the front office, but I never wanted to do that either. I didn't beef about George Washington Slept Here because it was Jack Benny."

The magazines praised comedian Jack Benny's performance. One rag in particular.

Life Magazine dubbed the comedy a "highly amusing farce"  where "Jack Benny proves again that he can forget his mugging and play a straight comedy role successfully." The magazine named the film its movie of the week in November 30, 1942.

Bosley Crowther, The New York Times critic, is uncharacteristically generous with the compliments. He can usually tear apart a light comedy for its shallowness. But here he seems to appreciate the film for what it is, "purely machine-made comedy. But laughs pop out of it quite generously."

Though George Washington Slept Here has a history of promises unfulfilled as a play, in its film form, it is a lightweight comedy meant to showcase Jack Benny's legendary double takes and one-liners.

 

Have you seen George Washington Slept Here? What did you think?

Autumn Leaves (1956) w/ Joan Crawford

A May-December marriage turns horrific when a husband's past haunts his new bride. Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson star in Autumn Leaves (1956).

Millicent Weatherby (Crawford) is a self-employed typist of a certain age who rarely socializes. During an evening out alone, she runs into a young man named Burt (Robertson) who charms her.  After a few dates, they marry. The lovebirds are happy until a woman claiming to be Burt's first wife arrives and says the man is a dangerous psychopath.

Millie begins to see signs of mania in her new husband and must figure out her next move.

Joan Crawford and the first couples therapy session

Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone

Joan Crawford is known for many films, including her movies about psychosis that threatens to ruin a character's romance.

In later years, Crawford would go for campy, psychodrama films like Strait-Jacket (1964). These movies often take an unintentionally comic, and therefore calloused, look at those suffering from a mental disorder and what it does to a home.

However,  in Autumn Leaves, the issue is treated with care and solemnity. Burt is a war veteran who might have sustained complicated trauma in service. It's questionable whether their marriage can withstand the therapy he needs. 


Crawford was not only interested in how psychotherapy can help the home onscreen, she seems to have dabbled in it off screen as well.

During the early 20th century, therapy was seen as something shameful. However, in 1937, Crawford and her husband, actor Franchot Tone, committed to the first recorded instance of couples therapy with psychodrama founder J.L. Moreno.

The psychotherapist's son, Jonathan Moreno, shares the story in an October 9, 2014 article for Psychology Today Magazine.

Mixing psychology and a background in training actors, Moreno sought to help the couple, according to his son.

"Aware of the psychiatrist Moreno through his work with Tone’s mother and his reputation in the New York theater crowd..., the unhappy Joan and Franchot asked for J.L.’s help. Together the couple dramatized their conflicts on the psychodrama stage, one of which was the fact that Tone was not considered handsome enough to be leading man material in the movies, while the camera loved Crawford’s memorable features."

The two act out their frustrations with the therapist in ways often compared to an acting class with Stanislavsky.  Unfortunately, the method didn't seem to help for long. The couple would break up two years later.

The screenwriter was blacklisted

The screenplay for Autumn Leaves is written by actress and author Jean Rouverol.  During the days of hard penalties and blacklisting of anyone in the U.S. with Communist sympathies, the writer fled with her children and her husband, writer Hugo Butler, to Mexico.

From Mexico, the pair released screenplays to Hollywood with the help of friends, under other names. In the case of Autumn Leaves, writer Jack Jevne used his name as a front.

Rouverol would later return to the U.S. and write for television, including an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" with Michael Landon.

Dusting off an old pop tune

Nat "King" Cole

The title song of the film was written by Joseph Kosma in 1947 in French, "Les Feuilles Mortes," 
"The Dead Leaves." It's a song about remembering and yearning for a lost love.

(Watch Yves Montand sing "Les Feuilles Mortes" in the film Parigi è Sempre Parigi (1951))

By the early 1950s, its popularity reached the United States, where it enjoyed success mostly as instrumental music.

In 1955, songwriter Johnny Mercer added English lyrics, giving the song another round of popularity. The English lyrics more specifically draw on the analogy of changing seasons. The singer recalls lost summer kisses while surrounded by autumn leaves, dreading being alone during winter.

Legendary singer Nat Cole dusts off  "Autumn Leaves" and sings it as the title song for this film.

(Watch  Nat "King" Cole sing "Autumn Leaves" on his eponymous television show in 1957.)

The song somewhat matches Joan Crawford's character. As a young lady, she has lost boyfriends while taking care of her ailing father. As an adult,  she has lost touch with humanity. As a married woman, she's losing her husband. The tune is appropriately maudlin.

Have you seen Autumn Leaves? What did you think of it?

Bye, Bye Birdie (1963) w/ Dick Van Dyke

The manager of a popular singer chooses a young fan to kiss the star for publicity, wreaking havoc on the girl's small town.

Bye, Bye Birdie is satire of American rock stars and the mania that surrounds them. It also features the life of the manager - Albert Peterson (Dick Van Dyke)- who delays marrying his assistant Rose (Janet Leigh) until he's a success.

Ann-Margret plays the rock star's fan in this, her third film. Bye, Bye Birdie would turn into a big vehicle for the actress. According to Dick Van Dyke's autobiography, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business, the cast had no idea that Ann-Margret's part would be expanded. It was only at the premiere that they saw extra shots of the young lady with a new song before the credits and after the story ends.  Janet Leigh -who had been a major star for much longer and who is billed first- was livid.

Van Dyke claims a c'est la vie approach to it all. His youthful co-star was at the right place at the right time... and she hustled like crazy. Van Dyke carries the same sanguine view of his own career.

When he showed up to audition for the Broadway version of Bye, Bye Birdie some years before, he was incredulous then, as he is to this day, that he was chosen. It seemed a random choice.

"My audition took place in a dimly lit, empty theater off Broadway, somewhere in the Forties.... There were only a few people there, including [choreographer Gower Champion], a handsome, serious man. ... Gower and his producers sat at a table in front. I stayed in the back until I heard my name, then took my place on the stage. There was one light shining down and a piano player on the side.

"After answering a few questions, I sang 'Till There Was You' from The Music Man and then 'Once in Love with Amy' with a little soft-shoe that I knew. When I finished, Gower came onstage and said, 'You've got the part.' Just like that. He gave me the job. Right on the spot.
....
"'But I...I can't really dance.'
"'Don't worry about that,' he said. 'I saw what you can do. That's what we'll build on'"

And a star was born.

He played the part of Albert Peterson on Broadway for a year and a day. During that time, Gower Champion made sure Van Dyke had something to do in the first act, namely, the song "Put On a Happy Face," which would become the actor's signature song.

Van Dyke caught the eye of show business moguls in the West and left the show to pursue television. He would star in his eponymous sitcom with Mary Tyler Moore, written by Carl Reiner and funded by Peter Lawford, which would become a classic.

During a summer break, he (and Broadway cast mate Paul Lynde) was tapped to recreate his Bye, Bye Birdie stage role for film.

And a star was born to the movies.


The next year, 1964, Van Dyke would play in an ensemble cast with Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine in What a Way to Go!  1964 would also bring his iconic role as Bert the chimney sweep opposite Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins.

Although his first film didn't turn out as he had imagined, Van Dyke is grateful for a long career and several iconic roles.

What is your favorite Dick Van Dyke film?

The Women (1939) w/ Norma Shearer

It's the story of relationships among females, the story of a home broken by the pains of infidelity, the story of one woman's struggle to heal her wounds.

And it's a comedy. A tragi-comedy.

Starring Norma Shearer as a "wronged woman" named Mary, The Women (1939) uses Mary's journey towards divorce as a through line of solemnity. It then veers off occasionally to take a gander at her friends and their problems, which are shown in a comic vein. But we never stray too far from Mary and "the other woman" Crystal (Joan Crawford).

One Gender

There is a  well-known gimmick which  keeps this film on the tip of everyone's tongue today. It is the fact that, despite the script revolving around the men in the characters' lives, there are no male actors present in the movie.

Other movies have featured only one gender, or mostly one gender, and the fact is explained away in the plot. For example, it is a war film where males go off to fight and we follow their story. Or a wild West film where mail order brides make their way on a wagon train.

But unlike those other films where the other gender is miles away, in The Women, males are in the building, but are placed exclusively off-stage (just behind that closed door or just in the next room), as it does in the Clare Booth Luce play on which the film is based. This is rare.

Without this one-gendered shtick, the film could very well have been just another soap opera. (This is my argument against its remake, The Opposite Sex.)

Comedy

Despite its through line of  Mary and her broken heart, we dabble here and there with supporting players who give us comic bits. Rosalind Russell plays a petty woman whose ridiculous hats are only outdone by her outrageous attachment to gossip (laid out with Russell's machine gun delivery of lines). A favorite comic female is The Countess (Mary Boland) who is lively in spite of the fact that her husband pushed her over a precipice. ("I slid halfway down the mountain before I realized that Gustav didn't love me.") She doesn't choose men of character; the Countess is in love with love. Paulette Goddard gives an unapologetically saucy turn as a woman who takes your leftovers.

They are a messy bunch. And Mary's mother Mrs. Morehead (Lucille Watson) uses her cultured tones to say just that. When asked why Mrs. Morehead is spraying a bottle of perfume after the women leave, Mrs. Morehead claims that she is "fumigating." The film gives you silliness and condemns it all at once.

The comedy starts from the title credits. Each starring actress' name and face is shown after an accompanying animal with related musical cues, giving you an idea of each characters' personality.

Norma Shearer's face is accompanied by a glorious run on the harp after the image of a doe at peace. Joan Crawford's man-eater is represented as a carnivorous big cat, a leopard. Then Joan's face is introduced with a vampy, trumpet.

Careers

Norma Shearer was on her way out of show business; it would be another three years before the actress and widow of Irving Thalberg would retire from film. But this is a great film on which to end a career.

Joan Crawford still had a few decades of performance to go, including her Academy Award-winning performance in Mildred Peirce (1945).  Crawford would die shortly after retiring in the 1970s.  Hollywood was no longer the place that she knew.  ("You may have it," Crawford says with a wave of her hand in an interview on The David Frost Show.)

That rapid tongue  of Rosalind Russell would deliver classic lines the next year in an enduring favorite with Cary Grant, His Girl Friday.

Mary Boland was still to use her comic expertise as Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1940) with Laurence Olivier.

Crawford, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine were all onscreen dance partners with Fred Astaire.


I recommend The Women if you wish to laugh or cry. 

What do you think of this film?

Further Resources

• Review of a remake of The Women called The Opposite Sex w/ June Allyson in the Norma Shearer role.

• See the Joan Crawford interview from 1970 on The David Frost Show.
• July 17, 1939 edition of LIFE Magazine takes a peek at The Women.

Under the Big Top

In old circus films, someone is often dramatically injured or killed. 

I didn't realize this until taking the nephews to the circus. As I sat there, holding some sticky confection in a clown cup for the little ones, watching highly disciplined acrobats twirl, a feeling came over me. It was a feeling of absolute calm.

Why was I surprised by calm? Because, despite having been to the circus several times without incident, it dawned on me that classic Hollywood trained me to expect catastrophe and sudden death.

In classic, live-action circus films
(1) the big top goes flying away in a big storm, or
(2) supportive beams that were working well a minute ago suddenly come crashing down, or
(3) someone malicious wants to put the circus out of business and starts killing people, or
(4) suddenly a big cat mauls its trainer.

These, or other horrifying incidents, occur in a number of circus stories that old Hollywood would release back then.

Think about it.

The Big Show with Cliff Robertson - death by fall, death by animal.

Berserk with Joan Crawford - multiple and mysterious gruesome deaths
 
The Greatest Show on Earth with Charlton Heston -  near death experiences, crashes, run-ins with the law.



Even in the light-hearted, circus musical Jumbo,  Jimmy Durante almost kicks the bucket when the pillars come tumbling down in the rain.


Do you know of a classic circus movie without near-death or catastrophe? Let me know in the comments.

 Further Resources

• Actor and classic film buff, Steve Hayes has a fun story about sitting behind Gloria Grahame during a showing of The Greatest Show on Earth. View his story by clicking here. Strong language warning

Toast of the Town 2

Let's take a look around the web for classic movie talk, resources and blog posts.

• Another Old Movie Blog has a lovely tribute to actor Martin Milner ("Route 66" and "Adam-12") who died this week.

•  The William Wellman Blogthon is in full swing. Check it out at Now Voyaging.

• Lucille Ball's life will take another turn at the movies. This time Cate Blanchett will play the redhead from "I Love Lucy."
•  Read these reviews of previous Lucy biopics. Lucy and Desi: Before the Laughter (1991). Lucy, A Woman Wronged (2003).

• The New York Times critic says the 2003 film, Lucy, a Woman Wronged "illustrates the pitfall underlying American culture's narcissistic obsession with childhood icons: in the surfeit of show business biographies, it takes a very big star to hold viewers' attention. Yet the bigger the star, the harder it is to get the movie biography right. "

• Yours truly joined the TCMParty on Twitter for two consecutive movies. All you do is a watch a film that is playing on Turner Classic Movies along with hundreds of other people and make observations on your Twitter feed with the hashtag #TCMParty. It's a thrill to participate and make new friends. I don't have TCM on TV, so I simply popped in the DVD at the appointed time. Go to the TCMParty tumblr page for details. (They are not affiliated with TCM, by the way. They are fans.)

•  In a twist of the story, Vintage Cameo shares the plot of Singin' in the Rain from the perspective of the villain - Lina Lamont. It reminds me of all the twisted fairy tales I enjoyed as a child - like the wolf's point of view of the 3 Little Pigs. 

• Daddy Long Legs is a popular Fred Astaire film and novel. Now it's a play, a musical at the Davenport Theatre, Off-Broadway. Opens this month.

See the other Toast of the Town posts by clicking here.

Good Neighbor Sam (1964) w/Jack Lemmon

 

After World War II, suburban developments saw a massive boom. Affordable single family houses were built efficiently and welcomed returning veterans and others to a place far from the roaring crowd in the city.

The reputation for suburbia was one of tranquility and peace. Hollywood enjoyed disturbing this idyllic world in the movies, not unlike a child stomping on your sand castle or your brother ripping off the heads of your dolls.

A story would present what seems to be a pleasant family, then it would reveal a secret, or tempt a suburbanite to break the law or marriage vows, or bring in an untrustworthy character to stir the plot. When it's played with gravitas, we here at Java's Journey call that a "Suburban Drama" (which we've discussed before). When a suburban story line is played for laughs, it's usually a "Sit-Com Movie."

Sit-Com movies are reminiscent of the lightweight, suburban situation comedies that would air on television in the mid-to late 20th century. The plot often involves a father who works outside of suburbia, a mother who stays home, children who learn important life lessons and a pet. Then something changes the normal routine.

Good Neighbor Sam (1964) is a sit-com movie starring Jack Lemmon as Sam. Sam is a married suburban man who helps his wife's friend and new neighbor Janet (Romy Schneider) by pretending to be her husband when her relatives make an unannounced visit.

Janet could become an heiress if relatives believe she is married until the will goes through. Complications arise when Janet's estranged and not-yet-divorced husband (Mike Connors) shows up.

Also, Sam is known for being a family man with no moral failings. This trait recently earned him a promotion at work and the favor of a wealthy client. Should his employers discover his tricks with the neighbor, Sam might lose his job.

Good Neighbor Sam is a wacky film that's a bit heavy-handed with the comedy. It shines in subtler moments with Dorothy Provine (as Sam's understanding wife Minerva), who pauses ever so slightly when Janet introduces Sam as her own husband. Minerva then regains her composure and goes with the scene.

The film has it's funny moments, as well, with Edward G. Robinson as the wealthy client who could cost Sam his job.

Good Neighbor Sam is recommended if you are a Jack Lemmon fan or Edward G. Robinson follower or a Romy Schneider completist (i.e.you feel compelled to watch all of her films), or if you enjoy 1960s sit-com movies.

Further Resources

• Read about The Restless Years with Sandra Dee and The Reckless Moment with Joan Bennett. Both are Suburban Dramas

• Visit Java's Glossary