Audrey Cotter was born on February 8, 1922, in New York, New
York, as the youngest of four children (two girls and two boys). Her parents
were Reverend Francis James Meadows Cotter and Ida Miller Taylor, who worked as
Episcopal missionaries in Wuchang, Hubei, China. While she spent her early
years in China, the family returned to the United States.
There, she attended the Barrington School for Girls in Great
Barrington, Massachusetts. After her high school years, Cotter expressed an
interest in performing and sang in the Broadway musical Top Banana. She regularly appeared on The Bob and Ray Show on television. She would also take on the
stage name of Audrey Meadows by this point.
Ultimately, her claim to fame would be playing Alice Kramden
on The Jackie Gleason Show after Pert
Kelton, who originated the role, was forced to leave the show due to the
blacklist. By far, the biggest success of The
Jackie Gleason Show was its “Honeymooners” sketches.
Interestingly, the part of Alice was a role that Meadows
wanted very much; however, she was initially dismissed because she was deemed
too pretty to play Alice. In response, she arranged for an “ugly” photo shoot
and changed her look drastically, resubmitting photos of herself to Gleason.
Gleason was interested and ultimately baffled that this was the same gorgeous
actress who had previously auditioned for him. As a result, the part became hers.
Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows, The Honeymooners
Eventually, The
Honeymooners became its own half-hour situation comedy on CBS. Even after a
hiatus, Meadows would return to the role when Gleason produced Honeymooners specials during the 1970s. She
also reprised the role on The Steve Allen
Show, as Allen was her brother-in-law; Allen was married to her sister,
Jayne Meadows. Additionally, she appeared as Alice on The Jack Benny Program during a parody sketch.
During the course of The
Honeymooners’ run, Meadows was married to Randolph Rouse, a real-estate
businessman. They were married in 1956 and divorced in 1958. In 1961, she
married Robert F. Six, who was president of Continental Airlines, in Honolulu,
Hawaii. They were married until his passing in 1986.
In addition to her work in entertainment, Meadows was
director of the First National Bank of Denver for 11 years and was the first
woman to secure the distinction. She was also an advisory director of
Continental Airlines from 1961 to 1981, working in marketing programs that
dealt with flight attendant and customer service agent uniform designs, in
addition to aircraft interior design, and the designs of Continental’s airport
lounges.
Of the core Honeymooners
cast members from the classic 39 episodes, Meadows was the only one to earn
residuals from the show when it began airing in syndication. Her brother,
Edward, was a lawyer and added a clause to her contract calling for her to be
paid if the shows were ever rebroadcast, leading her to earn millions over the
years.
Audrey Meadows, Take Her She’s Mine, 1963, (c) 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved.
Beyond The Honeymooners, Meadows made guest appearances on other shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents; The Red Skelton Show; and Murder, She Wrote. She also voiced a character named Bea Simmons, girlfriend to Grampa Simpson, on an episode of The Simpsons. Additionally,Meadows published a memoir in 1994, entitled Love, Alice: My Life as a Honeymooner.
Meadows smoked and developed lung cancer in 1995. She was
given one year to live and declined all but palliative treatments. She passed
away on February 3, 1996, in Los Angeles, California. She is at rest at Holy
Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California, next to her second husband. She was
73 years old.
Today, there are some places of relevance tied to Meadows’
life. Her family’s 1930s home at 70 Barnes St., Providence, Rhode Island,
stands today.
70 Barnes St., Providence, Rhode Island
In 1948, she resided at 615 Hauser St., Los Angeles,
California, which also remains.
615 Hauser St., Los Angeles
She also had a property at 50 E. 72nd St., New
York, New York. This building still exists.
50 E. 72nd St., New York City
In 1962, she lived at 1009 Park Ave., New York, New York,
which stands.
1009 Park Ave., New York City
Her 1973 home at 350 Trousdale Pl., Beverly Hills,
California, has since been razed.
Finally, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
honoring her work in television. It is located at 6100 Hollywood Blvd., Los
Angeles, California.
Annette Bochenek, Ph.D., is a film historian, professor, and avid scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the “Hometowns to Hollywood” blog, in which she profiles her trips to the hometowns of classic Hollywood stars. She has also been featured on the popular classic film-oriented television network, Turner Classic Movies. A regular columnist for Classic Movie Hub, her articles have appeared in TCM Backlot, Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, The Dark Pages Film Noir Newsletter, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.
In 2022 and 2023 I shared reviews of short “B” Westerns I watched while traveling. Once again my portable DVD player and “B” Western discs accompanied me on this year’s summer vacation, the only difference being that this year, instead of a road trip, I went on an Alaskan cruise!
The movies were perfect short viewing for down time,
especially on a foggy sea day without any scenery to be enjoyed.
All four of these films were released by Lippert Pictures; one of them, Outlaw Women, was originally produced by Howco, while the other three were original Lippert productions. All four movies are readily available thanks to DVD sets from VCI Entertainment.
…..
Deputy Marshal (William Berke,
1949)
The first film I watched during my trip, Deputy
Marshal, was also the one I liked best. Jon Hall, known for his adventure
films opposite Maria Montez earlier in the decade, plays the title role, Deputy
Marshal Ed Garry.
Garry witnesses the shooting of a railroad employee, Harley
Masters (Wheaton Chambers), and is entrusted by Masters with a secret map.
Everyone wants the map, including baddie Joel Benton (longtime “B”
Western hero Dick Foran) and his henchman, Eli (Joe Sawyer).
This 60-minute film, cowritten by Charles Heckelmann and
director William Berke, is somewhat confusing yet provides genial company. I
wasn’t quite clear how Ed switched his romantic interest so quickly from Claire
Benton (Julie Bishop) to Janet Masters (Frances Langford), but maybe I missed
something!
Joe Sawyer, Dick Foran, and Jon Hall in Deputy Marshal
Hall has a pleasant voice and demeanor as the deputy, and
it’s fun to note that leading lady Langford was actually Hall’s wife for many
years, from 1938 to 1955. Langford singing a couple of tunes adds to the
movie’s appeal.
Russell Hayden, Frances Langford, and Jon Hall in Deputy Marshal
The deep cast of familiar faces is another plus, with the
cast including Russell Hayden, Clem Bevans, Mary Gordon, and Forrest Taylor.
The movie was shot in black and white by Carl Bergner. Like a couple other films on this list, much of the location filming was done at the Iverson Movie Ranch. There’s much more about Iverson in a column I wrote here in 2022.
…..
Colorado Ranger (Thomas Carr, 1950)
Colorado Ranger is one of a series
of six films shot simultaneously starring Jimmy Ellison, Russell Hayden, and
Betty Adams, later known as Julia or Julie Adams.
I wrote about another film in the series, Crooked River (1950), here in 2022. As I shared then, Julie Adams wrote in her memoir that it was both challenging and educational to have to remember which of the six characters she was playing at any given moment! The productions saved money by shooting scenes for each film in a particular location before moving on to the next stop.
Shamrock Clark (Ellison) and his pals Lucky (Hayden) and
the Colonel (Raymond Hatton) are on the trail of outlaws harassing
homesteaders. One such homesteader, Ann (Adams), eventually comes to think the
men are outlaws themselves and locks them in her cellar.
More confusion abounds when Ann babysits her nephew and
Shamrock, who’s attracted to the young woman, mistakenly thinks she’s married.
The chief charm of this brisk 59-minute Western is its cast
of appealing leads. Ellison and Hayden were familiar to Westerns fans as
Hopalong Cassidy sidekicks, and it’s great fun to watch the young Adams, who
occasionally has a bit of her native Southern accent slip out.
The movie was written by Ron Ormand and Maurice Tombragel, based on a story by E.B. Mann. It was filmed in black and white by Ernest Miller, with Iverson Ranch one again appearing onscreen. I highly recommend visiting the Iverson Movie Ranch site to learn more about the filming of the half-dozen films with this cast and crew, which were shot in just five weeks!
…..
Three Desperate Men (Sam
Newfield, 1951)
Three Desperate Men, written by Orville
Hampton, was the only real disappointment from this quartet of films. I’ll
insert a spoiler alert here, as I’m necessarily going to
reveal the entire plot in order to explain my dissatisfaction.
I’m a big fan of this movie’s leads, Preston Foster and
Virginia Grey, and I’ve also enjoyed Jim Davis (later of TV’s Dallas)
in many a Western, but this story went so far sideways it left me sputtering
with disappointment. Indeed, a book on the Lippert films, written by Mark
Thomas McGee, quotes a contemporary reviewer: “The film’s weakness lies in
scripting.” The reviewer was correct.
As the movie begins, deputies Tom Denton (Foster) and his
brother Fred (Davis) are law-abiding citizens working for Marshal Pete Coleman
(Monte Blue) in Texas.
Jim Davis, Preston Foster, Virgnia Grey, and Ross Latimer in Three Desperate Men
When the Dentons learn their youngest brother Matt (Ross
Latimer, also known as Kim Spalding), has been arrested and framed for murder
in California, they leave their mother (Margaret Seddon) and Fred’s sweetheart
Laura (Grey) behind in Texas to go rescue Matt.
The Dentons succeed in saving Matt from being railroaded
into a hangman’s noose, but things go from bad to worse. A guard is killed as
they escape, and Ed Larkin (Rory Mallinson) frames them for numerous crimes.
The Dentons initially commit a robbery just to get by, but
before long they end up pursuing a life of crime. Laura, dismayed by Tom’s
behavior, breaks off their engagement and leaves town. As the movie concludes,
the brothers are killed or arrested when committing yet another robbery.
Preston Foster and Virginia Grey in Three Desperate Men
For some reason I believed the story would depict the
brothers bringing justice to bad guy Larkin and reclaiming their lives as
honorable marshals. I didn’t realize they were going to turn into stone-cold
villains themselves, and I have to say the final scene with bodies strewn
across a street left me in open-mouthed disbelief.
Perhaps if the film were better scripted and followed a
clearer trajectory from marshals to bank robbers I would have been more
accepting of the outcome, but this is one I’ll skip rewatching.
The movie was filmed in black and white by Jack Greenhalgh
– and yes, it was filmed at Iverson Ranch!
…..
Outlaw Women (Sam Newfield and
Ron Ormond, 1952)
Outlaw Women, on the other hand, was
an entertaining 75 minutes from the very same writer as Three Desperate
Men, Orville Hampton.
The movie has some overtones of the later Woman
They Almost Lynched (1953) and Johnny Guitar (1954);
it’s not in the same league as those “woman power” films, but I liked
it.
Outlaw Women, shot in Cinecolor by
Ellis Carter and and Harry Neumann, was also the lone color film among the four
films I watched on my trip. It’s interesting to note that the reason there were
two directors and two cinematographers on this movie was that it was made at
breakneck pace by two units working simultaneously!
Marie Windsor was later quoted by Western film historian
Mike Fitzgerald as saying it was an “exciting picture,” though she
was “annoyed” by special privileges accorded supporting actress
Jacqueline Fontaine.
Windsor is as fun as always as saloon owner “Iron
Mae” McLeod. She also runs the town of Las Mujeres (“the
women”), where women do indeed run the place. The saloon bouncer is even a
woman, played by Maria Hart. The aforementioned Fontaine plays one of Iron
Mae’s “girls,” Ellen Larabee.
Marie Windsor
Gambler Woody Callaway (Richard Rober) and Dr. Bob Ridgeway
(Allan Dixon) arrive in Las Mujeres, and are soon romancing Iron Mae and pretty
Beth Larabee (Carla Balenda) – who had forced the good doctor to come to Las
Mujeres at the point of a gun!
There’s doings with bad guys, not to mention a catfight,
and it all manages to be an enjoyable watch. Veterans like Tom Tyler, Jackie
Coogan, and Lyle Talbot plus up the cast.
Carla Balenda and Jacqueline Fontaine in Outlaw Women
A couple interesting Outlaw Women cast
notes: Leading man Richard Rober tragically died in a car accident in May 1952,
just a month after the movie’s release.
Actress Carla Balenda, on the other hand, lived until age
98, passing away in the spring of 2024. She was long married to publisher
William Rutter of The Rutter Group, a name well known to those in the legal
profession.
Finally, for those who might have missed it when first published, I’d like to point readers to my 2023 column with a photograph of Marie Windsor’s final resting place in Marysvale, Utah. It was a privilege to visit.
…
– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
“When the movies were young,” as the saying
went, filmmakers’ heads were swimming with possibilities. Motion pictures
cameras could take footage anywhere a tripod could rest, so why not take
advantage of it? Outside the usual confines of the stage, anything was
possible: immense battle scenes, staged floods and fires, sweeping landscape
shots, breathtaking horseback riding stunts…at long last, the sky was truly the
limit.
Thomas H. Ince
One such visionary filmmaker was Thomas H.
Ince, a former stock company actor. After breaking into film acting at the
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company in NYC, by 1910 he was working as a
coordinator at Carl Laemmle’s nearby IMP Company and quickly proved himself
capable of directing. Soon Ince was thinking bigger than the ramshackle east
coast studios, where the stages tended to be open air and at the mercy of wind,
rain and winter cold. Reportedly he was also concerned about the battles
between the monopolizing Motion Picture Patents Company trust and independent
companies like IMP. Heading to the west coast just might be a prudent move.
In September 1911 Ince met with Adam Kessel
and Charles Baumann of the New York Motion Picture Company, who had recently
opened a studio called Bison in a hilly neighborhood of Los Angeles (the same
location would soon be reused for the famed Keystone studio). Bison specialized
in making westerns, and Ince loved westerns. Playing it cool as he talked to
the two executives, to his pleasant surprise he managed to cut a deal to make
films on the west coast for $150 a week.
Ince arrived in the Edendale district Los
Angeles with his wife Elinor, his lead actress Ethel Grandin, a cameraman and a
property man. He was dismayed to find the studio consisted of a small house and
a barn, with hardly enough space for the western epics he’d been imagining. He
soon scouted out a more favorable location: 460 acres of land by Sunset
Boulevard and the Pacific Coast highway, where rolling desert hills overlooked
the ocean.
Getting to work on western dramas with titles
like The Deserter (1912) and War on the Plains (1912), Ince was soon
bringing in enough cash to lease even more open land: a full 18,000 acres owned
by the Miller Brothers, who had a 100,000 acre ranch and their own Wild West
show. Ince could finally bring his visions to life–and not just epic films, but
his vision of having a sprawling, one-stop shop kind of studio with its own
dressing rooms, indoor and outdoor sets, prop buildings, corrals, film printing
laboratories, cafeterias, carpentry shops, offices, film vaults–everything a
studio could need all in one handy location. It was an ambitious idea at the
time. The Millers–who were happy to lend their Wild West performers to Ince’s
productions–dubbed the complex Inceville.
A panoramic shot of Inceville
Life at busy Inceville had adventure, romance,
and a bit of surrealism. At the time, the Wild West Ince sought to capture
onscreen was still very much alive and well. The Millers’ performers consisted
of hundreds of real-life cowboys and cowgirls and a Sioux tribe who set up
their own teepee village on the property. Cattle and bison herds and 600 horses
grazed the rolling hills. The studio was alway swarming with cowboys, who
considered themselves superior to the “lowly” actors, with more heading in from
ranches in Wyoming and Montana regularly to earn some quick cash. The streets
were lined with an eclectic assortment of buildings representing Puritan
settlements, Scottish cottages, European villages, modern mansions, frontier
towns–a bit of everything a director could need. Actors who traveled out from
Los Angeles–taking a succession of streetcars to Santa Monica and then
horse-drawn wagons that carried them past the broad Pacific beaches and up the
road to remote Inceville–probably felt they were entering a different world.
William S. Hart at work
A number of stars like John Gilbert got their
starts as extras at Inceville, and it also boasted such talents as Louise
Glaum, an early “vamp,” William S. Hart, the silent era’s biggest cowboy star.
Key directors such as John Ford and his brother Francis, William Desmond
Taylor, Frank Borzage and Henry King all worked for Ince. As for Ince himself,
he was passionately involved in his many productions, writing and tweaking
scenarios, writing dialogue for the actors (not the norm in that era),
suggesting locations and camera angles to cameramen, and discussing tints and
toning with editors. He would also accept feedback, making improvements such as
building cabins for his actors when they complained about snakes and insects
getting into tents they used as dressing rooms.
Still from War on the Plains (1912)
Thanks to his hands-on approach Ince was happy
to claim the lion’s share of credit, famously opening his films with titles
proclaiming: “Thomas H. Ince presents a Thomas H. Ince productions, supervised
by Thomas H. Ince…” etc. The producer’s mania became a well-known joke to the
rest of Hollywood. Buster Keaton’s short The
Playhouse (1921), where the straight-faced comedian played all the roles in
a stage show, took a jab at Ince in a scene where an audience member marvels:
“This fellow Keaton seems to be the whole show.”
The studio had its share of hardships,
experiencing wildfires in 1915 and 1923, a cutting room fire in 1916,
landslides in 1916 and 1917–the latter claiming the lives of three employees
when their scaffolding collapsed. But Inceville’s films managed to be
profoundly influential, having a sweeping authenticity thanks to its
rough-and-ready actors and natural locations.
As it turned out, Inceville’s heyday was
relatively brief. Ince would form the Triangle Motion Picture Company with Mack
Sennett and D.W. Griffith in 1916, moving his main base of operations to Culver
City. In time he went back to operating his own studio, building a Mount
Vernon-like administration building dubbed “The Mansion” which still stands
today. William S. Hart continued to film at the old Inceville locations, but by
the early 1920s it was largely abandoned, turning into a real-life ghost town.
The structures that were left would burn in a 1923 wildfire–only a church set
remained.
Glimpses of old Inceville
In 1924 Thomas H. Ince himself also suffered
an unfortunate end. A dinner he had aboard William Randolph Hearst’s yacht the Oneida aggravated his peptic ulcers and
angina, which had been lingering problems for him since the 1910s. Despite
medical care, the resulting heart attack claimed his life. While his time as a
filmmaker and producer had been brief–only 14 years–Ince was undeniably a key
figure in early cinema. And the romance of long-gone Inceville, with its
rolling hills and rough cowboys, lingers on in his early surviving films.
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
Rhonda Fleming
was known as “The Queen of Technicolor.” As such, she’s not necessarily the
first femme who comes to mind when you’re talking noir. With her titian locks,
she was a standout in films like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
(1949), Tropic Zone (1953), and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
(1957), but she also lent her talents to the dark side of the screen, with
roles in five features from the noir era. This month’s Noir Nook shines the
spotlight on the life of Rhonda Fleming and her memorable contributions to those
shadowy films.
Born in 1923,
the actress with the flaming red hair entered the world as Marilyn Louise Louis
in Hollywood, California, the second of two daughters born to an insurance broker
and his musical comedy actress wife. Marilyn was a bit of a tomboy as a child
and loved sports as she got older; she was the captain of both the basketball
and volleyball teams at Beverly Hills High School, and competed in sandlot
baseball and bowling. She also harbored dreams of becoming a singer of light
opera and took lessons for 10 years.
In 1943, Marilyn
signed a six-month contract with 20th Century-Fox under the name of Marilyn
Lane, making her big screen debut as a dance-hall girl in a John Wayne feature
called In Old Oklahoma. Fox didn’t do much with her, but a chance
meeting with Henry Willson, David O. Selznick’s talent scout, led to bigger and
better things. After a luncheon date with Selznick, the young actress was
signed to a seven-year contract without a screen test, and her name was changed
to Rhonda Fleming. “It was a Cinderella story, but those things could happen in
those days,” Fleming recalled years later.
After small parts in Since You Went Away (1944) and When Strangers Marry (1944), Fleming was introduced by Selznick to director Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her as a mental patient in Spellbound (1945), starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. Her small but showy role was singled out by famed columnist Hedda Hopper. “That was the biggest thrill I had during those first few years,” Fleming said. Her next few pictures were a mixture of first-rate offerings like The Spiral Staircase (1946) and more mediocre fare, including Adventure Island, an actioner with Rory Calhoun. But her career took a turn in 1947 when she stepped into the shadows of film noir.
…..
Out of the Past (1947)
Rhonda Fleming, Out of the Past
Considered by many to be the quintessential noir, Out of the Past tells the often-complicated story of Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), a former private dick turned filling station owner, who finds himself plunged into his previous life after a chance encounter. Fleming was in only two scenes, but she made an impact as Meta Carson, who works with mobster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) in an effort to set Jeff up for murder.
…..
Cry Danger (1951)
Rhonda Fleming and Dick Powell, Cry Danger
This feature stars Dick Powell as Rocky Malloy, who has been recently released from prison after serving a five-year stretch for a murder and robbery that he didn’t commit. Fleming co-stars as Nancy Morgan, the wife of the man who was framed along with Rocky. Nancy appears to be a dutiful spouse, but it doesn’t take long before she’s making eyes at Rocky and discouraging his efforts to free her husband. Not so dutiful, after all.
…..
The Killer Is Loose (1956)
Rhonda Fleming and Joseph Cotten, The Killer Is Loose
Here, Fleming plays Lila Wagner, the wife of a police detective (Joseph Cotten) who, years earlier, accidentally shot and killed the innocent-bystander spouse of bank robber Leon Poole (Wendell Corey). The film’s action kicks off when Poole escapes from prison and heads for the Wagner home, determined to exact his tit-for-tat revenge by murdering Lila.
…..
Slightly Scarlet (1956)
Rhonda Fleming and Arlene Dahl, Slightly Scarlet
This rare color noir stars Fleming and Arlene Dahl as red-headed sisters June and Dorothy. June is the upstanding, level-headed sibling, while Dorothy is a kleptomaniac who’s no stranger to spending time behind bars. Between trying to keep tabs on her troubled sister, and supporting her politician fiancé (Kent Taylor), June finds herself involved with a ruthless (but handsome) hood, played by John Payne.
…..
While the City Sleeps (1956)
Ida Lupino, Sally Forrest, Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, While the City
Set in the world of a multi-media conglomerate, this film serves up a star-packed cast that includes Ida Lupino, Dana Andrews, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, George Sanders, and Howard Duff. The plot centers on the efforts of the conglomerate’s employees to land the head job at the company after the owner’s death; the coveted position will be given to the first man (or woman) who can solve the case of the “Lipstick Killer” that is plaguing the area. Fleming plays the ex-Vegas showgirl wife of the company’s current owner (Price) – and the mistress of one of the competitors for the job of head honcho, photo service editor Harry Kritzer (James Craig).
…..
Away
from the big screen, Fleming was married six times – the first was at the
tender age of 16 and her fifth (and longest-lasting) was to millionaire
theater-chain magnate Ted Mann, who owned (and renamed) the former Grauman’s
Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Career-wise, Fleming used her training as a
singer in several venues, including a stint at Las Vegas’s Tropicana Hotel, a
tour with musician Skitch Henderson, and a one-woman concert at the Hollywood
Bowl. She was also seen in a number of productions on the small screen, from Wagon
Train to Kung Fu; her final acting appearance, after an 11-year
absence. was in the 1991 television drama called Waiting for the Wind.
In that feature, she played the world-weary wife of a farmer dying of cancer –
Fleming later said that it was her younger sister’s death from cancer that had
prompted her to take the role. She also established the Rhonda Fleming Mann Resource
Center for Women with Cancer at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, and
worked for many years with such humanitarian causes as Childhelp USA, City of
Hope, and the Olive Crest Treatment Centers for Abused Children.
Fleming died in 2020 at the age of 97. Of her appearances in her film noir features, she said in a 2012 interview with film historian Rhett Bartlett: “I loved playing those parts. They were naughty gals, and I was such a sweet little nice girl!”
…
– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages. If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
Supernatural comedy is one of my favorite movie genres
any time of year, but I’m especially drawn to it once the first Halloween
decorations start to materialize. After a recent viewing of The Ghost and
Mrs. Muir (1947), I remembered that its leading man, Rex Harrison, also
experiences a haunting from the other side of the veil in the 1945 adaptation
of Noël Coward’s hit play, Blithe Spirit. In addition to Harrison,
director David Lean’s British film version boasts a quintessential performance
from one of my favorite character actresses, Margaret Rutherford, and visual
effects that won the Oscar in 1947. While it’s neither a perfect movie nor a
completely faithful adaptation of the play, Blithe Spirit offers plenty
of fun if you’re in the right mood to appreciate its dark comedy and unlikable
characters.
Kay Hammond is ghostly in green as the spectral Elvira.
Harrison plays author Charles Condomine, a widower who
seems happy enough with his second wife, Ruth (Constance Cummings), until he
decides to research a new book by inviting a medium to give a séance in his
home. Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) accidentally conjures the spirit of
Charles’ first wife, Elvira (Kay Hammond), who initially charms Charles with
her amusing conversation but upsets the territorial Ruth. Marital bliss among
the living is soon shattered, and Elvira’s interference makes matters even
worse. When Madame Arcati returns to perform an exorcism, Charles discovers
that getting rid of either of his wives is a lot more trouble than he expected.
Ruth (Constance Cummings) feels that three is definitely a crowd when Elvira comes between her and Charles (Rex Harrison).
If you’re looking for truly sympathetic characters
here you won’t find them, although I rather like the goofy and free-spirited
Madame Arcati, especially as she’s played by Rutherford. Hers is the plum role
of the piece, which Rutherford originated in 1941 on the London stage. In later
versions Madame Arcati has been played by great performers like Mildred
Natwick, Angela Lansbury, and Judi Dench, but Rutherford has a unique physical
energy that gives her version a lot of appeal. Charles and both of his wives
are shallow, selfish creatures, witty at best but never wise, which ensures
that we don’t much care what happens to them. The film ending, which I won’t
spoil, is markedly different from the original play and infuriated Coward with
its alterations, but I think the movie ending has a better sense of poetic
justice. Some of the elements that remain faithful to Coward’s original haven’t
aged well, including persistent misogyny passed off as comedy and some racist
dialogue no actor would want to repeat today.
Margaret Rutherford steals her scenes as Madame Arcati, a role she originated in the stage production.
What still works to great effect is the presentation
of the ghostly Elvira, whom Kay Hammond invests with fey gaiety. The
Technicolor cinematography allows her to appear an otherworldly shade of green
from head to toe, and unseen breezes blow her clothing in the stillness of the
house. Her red lips and nails stand out against her eerie green skin, making
her look even stranger. Stage productions of the play have represented Elvira’s
ghostly nature in different ways, but the film’s method makes her absolutely
mesmerizing to behold. The film is able to include scenes where Elvira is
invisible but active, and these are also delightful. Because Elvira can only be
seen by Charles, scenes alternate between showing both of them and showing only
what other characters would see. These are especially amusing when Elvira takes
the wheel on a country drive, so that it looks like Charles is riding in a
self-driving car. Most ghost comedies use these tricks to varying degrees, but
it’s always a pleasure to see them so well done in movies that predate CGI
effects by many decades.
The invisible Elvira convinces Madame Arcati of her presence.
Most classic movie fans already know to look for Rex Harrison in Cleopatra (1963), My Fair Lady (1964), and Doctor Doolittle (1967), and Margaret Rutherford is best remembered today for her role as Miss Marple in films like Murder, She Said (1961), Murder at the Gallop (1963), and Murder Most Foul (1964). David Lean won Academy Awards for his direction of The Bridge on the River Kwai (1958) and Lawrence of Arabia (1963), but if you want another comedy I’m particularly fond of Hobson’s Choice (1954). Like Rutherford, Kay Hammond originated her role in Blithe Spirit, and she was primarily a stage actress. Constance Cummings also spent most of her career on the stage, but you’ll find her dealing with more mysterious business in The Mind Reader (1933) and Haunted Honeymoon (1940). I haven’t seen the 2020 film adaptation of Blithe Spirit that stars Judi Dench as Madame Arcati, but it only has a 27% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so be forewarned if you decide to see it for yourself.
When Flying Things Sting in Real Life, 1970s Bee Films Come to the Rescue
They were cute little honey bees – just one or two fluttering
around the walkway by my back stairs. Not an unexpected sight on a warm summer
day and, knowing the importance of the pollinators, I left them alone.
I should have looked closer.
A few weeks later there was a swarm – OK, maybe just 6 flying creatures around the same spot – that had me running away like a scared toddler. Texting a photo to a bee expert, it turns out my cute bees were yellow jackets – AKA wasps – and they had been building a home. Not good.
Could this have been the yellow jacket that viciously attacked me? I fear so.
Here’s the thing about yellow jackets: They don’t let go. They are aggressive little buggers that don’t usually lose their stinger like a bee, so they can keep zapping you like one did when it latched on to my foot.
When the attack was over, it hurt – and not only that night, but the next day. When the pain subsided, it turned into an uncomfortable itch.
Whining to myself for days about how my “attack” by one
yellow jacket could cause such pain, I realized I was lucky that I wasn’t stung
by two of them.
Or attacked by a swarm.
Worse yet, what if they were the dreaded African killer
bees?
This could all happen – I’ve seen the movies.
To feel better about my yellow jacket attack, I watched some
classic movies about “flying things that sting” to see just how much worse it
could have been.
I started with the giant wasp in Monster from Green Hell(1957) which sounded like a great idea but it wasn’t. The title creature in this lower-than-B-movie film had great potential but was underused.
Instead, we were subjected to long scenes of guys walking and walking on an expedition through Africa. The running time was only 71 minutes, but it felt like three hours. The nondescript white leaders who made the natives carry their gear were so ineffectual that when they finally met the giant wasp, nature had to save them.
I could have kept on a supersize route with the giant honey bee in the fantastic Mysterious Island(1961), but that bee had every right to be angry at the trespassing young lovers. Besides, it didn’t sting them, just built a honeycomb around them. They eventually escaped, so no harm, no foul.
Clearly, I would need to watch the dreaded African killer bees to get some closure.
Posters for three of the killer bee movies from the 1970s.
First, the real story
Often referred to as killer bees, the truth behind the Africanized honey bee started with the type of researcher found in many sci-fi movies: the altruistic scientist trying to do good before things go bad. The hybrid bee was introduced in 1956 in Brazil (hence the link to Brazil in these films) to help produce more honey, especially in hotter climates. When about 26 swarms reportedly escaped, it led to all sorts of doomsday-type scenarios and the misleading moniker of “killer bees.”
From the real world into the reel world, killer bees joined the “nature gone wrong” and environmental disaster movie trend of the 1970s in such films asKiller Bees, Savage Bees (and its sequel Terror Out of the Skies), The Bees and Irwin Allen’s all-star epic The Swarm.
The films do have some basis in reality. The insects will go
after noise, so stop screaming. They will swarm victims and aggressively chase
them at great distances (just like the yellow jacket that nabbed me). And whatever
you do, don’t jump in the water thinking you’ll escape – they will keep
attacking and you will drown.
Katharine Ross and Michael Caine are terrified to see a swarm of killer bees is ready to attack the quaint town of Marysville in The Swarm.
In the movies, the insects have an uncanny ability to arrive
in town around a big event like the Rose Bowl Parade in The Bees, Mardi
Gras in Savage Bees and a flower festival in The Swarm.
Swarms of bees often will overtake the skies as ominous
black clouds. Victims may die by the shear mass of bees covering their body (always
an effective sight) or their extra-lethal venom could kill with as little as
three bee stings. This is where we must add a reality check: the venom in Africanized
bees is no more potent than in other honey bees, but where’s the movie fun in
that?
Here’s a quick look at a few of the films.
Gloria Swanson has a unique relationship with bees at her vineyard in Killer Bees.
Killer Bees (1974)
I’m starting here, but this film is not like the others. The bees traveled with the Van Bohlen family from Europe to California decades earlier and have a psychic bond to the matriarch. This “queen of the hive” is played by legendary film actress Gloria Swanson who is referred to as “Madame” by everyone including her family. Edward Albert is the prodigal son who returns home with his fiancée (Kate Jackson) who insists on meeting them despite warnings that they are “European” and reclusive, with their own rules and laws. She should talk to the townsfolk who stay clear of the Van Bohlen family and don’t become involved even when, say, a stranger passing through is killed after his car is engulfed by bees.
It’s one strange family and it’s funny to watch the men who are clearly afraid of Madam who can send a bee to sit on your face with a simple furrow of her brow. A heads-up that Killer Bees, an ABC movie of the week, is clearly a film of the era right down to that frustrating ‘70s ending.
Savage Bees (1976)
Premiering as an NBC movie of the week, Savage Bees was released the year after Jaws and that’s obvious in the plot. A dangerous element (killer bees) is threatening a town at the most inopportune time (Mardi Gras) and officials refused to call off festivities and lose tourist dollars.
A small-town sheriff (Ben Johnson), bereft at finding his dog dead, takes the animal into New Orleans to have an autopsy done. An assistant medical examiner (Michael Parks) discovers the dog’s stomach is filled with bees. The poor dog isn’t the only one: There are two crew members off a boat from Brazil and a child also dead from stings. (This film did not adhere to the cinematic idea that you never kill dogs and children.) Our assistant M.E. calls in a friend from Tulane University (“special guest star” Gretchen Corbett) to help. She has her own set of insect expert friends including Horst Bucholz who has created a newfangled suit that looks like it’s made from cheap aluminum foil.
Gretchen Corbett is trapped in a Volkswagen Beetle by killer bees in Savage Bees.
Bees will arrive, people will scream and make themselves targets and attempts to quell the attacks will fail. It leads to an odd, yet strangely interesting denouement of a bee-covered Volkswagen Beetle slowly driven to the Louisiana Superdome as a last hope. As strange as that sounds, the sequence builds tension, even if it is undercut by the overwrought sobbing inside the Beetle.
Its sequel, Terror Out of the Skies (78) features two bee experts played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Tovah Feldshuh and a pilot (Dan Haggerty) who face the vengeance of the savage bees.
The Bees(1978)
To call The Bees uneven is an understatement. We open in a genetic research station in Brazil where a desperate father and his young son try to steal honey bees to make honey and money for the family. Of course, they stumble into the wrong place and are attacked by a nasty swarm that gets loose. In retribution, an angry mob descends on the facility to kill the “devil bees,” and well, you know who wins that battle.
Cut to the United States, where a dashing John Saxon is addressing a group of important men about the development of hybrid bees that create more honey yet are less aggressive. In a scene recalling Roger Corman’s 1959 film The Wasp Woman (The Bees was financed by Corman’s New World Picture), one business is interested but not for charitable reasons. A cosmetic company wants to create money-making beauty treatments from the queen bee’s “royal jelly” and will go to extremes – including hiring hit men – to get it.
In a terrifying scene from The Bees, John Saxon and Angel Tompkins awaken to find themselves surrounded by killer bees.
The man they hire to sneak bees into the United States via a “bee belt” around his waist is stung to death on a flight to California. Welcome to the U.S., killer bees.
Leading the charge to save the world are Saxon plus a wheelchair-bound scientist called Uncle Ziggy (played by an elderly John Carradine) who talks to the bees, and his lovely and smart niece (Angel Tompkins).
There is an incredibly effective scene – perhaps one of the best in all the bee films – with the bees are covering every surface of a bedroom quickly shared by Saxon and the niece. It becomes even more horrifying as the bees cover the couple as they try to get out of the room.
Unfortunately, things go off the deep end when Saxon, channeling Uncle Ziggy, starts talking to the bees and then communicates their message to the United Nations that humans need to share the world – or else. I can’t help thinking that ultimatum was meant to be the plot of a sequel that was never made.
The Swarm (1978)
Film folklore has it that the release of The Bees was
delayed a few months (money may have exchanged hands) so The Swarm could
hit the big screen first with its all-star cast that includes five Oscar
winners.
In short: bees attack a military installation in Texas right
before the big flower show in a nearby small town, but the insects have their
stingers set for a much bigger quarry in Houston and beyond.
Now I’m not going to sugar coat The Swarm. With a big budget, a major studio behind it and A-list stars, there was a lot expected from this film that was a follow-up to Irwin Allen’s blockbuster disaster films The Poseidon Adventureand The Towering Inferno. Instead, it was universally maligned by critics and was a box-office failure.
Olivia de Havilland looks out in horror as bees attack her school in Irwin Allen’s The Swarm.
The main problem – outside of bad dialogue – is that The Swarm is overly long. It has three distinct segments – an attack on the military base, an attack on the town and the surge on greater Texas and perhaps the world – that each could have stood as their own film. I watched the original 116-minute release (not the 155-minute home video version), and at least 25% of the film could have been trimmed without losing anything.
The film opens with music by Jerry Goldsmith resembling buzzing bees lending a nice tension as the military arrives at a Texas bunker to discover soldiers mysteriously dead. There’s also a doctor (Katharine Ross) who saved six others and a stranger with a shaky reason for being at the base. That’s Michael Caine as a world-renowned etymologist who has been predicting – and preparing for – a bee invasion. The military guys (led by Richard Widmark as the general) and Bradford Dillon (as a major) won’t believe him despite the fact that helicopters are downed by swarms and people die while they bicker.
By the time the warning comes over the loudspeaker, it’s too late for the school in The Swarm.
As the nearby town of Marysville is preparing for its annual flower festival (bee swarms and flowers – what could go wrong?), a husband and wife are engulfed by bees and killed when picnicking with their young son who escapes. While these bees cover their victims from head to toe, they don’t leave any marks, but if you survive, you will hallucinate giant bees.
To add a human element is the odd golden years triangle of the
school principal played by Olivia de Havilland, the bowtie wearing town mayor/pharmacist
(Fred MacMurray) and a retired newcomer (Ben Johnson). It’s sweet, but kind of sad,
too.
Meanwhile, the military and scientists continue to shout over who gets to kill the bees and how. But nothing helps for long, even the highly destructive military alternatives that are far more dangerous to people and the planet than bees. (Those bees are laughing at the guys with flame throwers who burn down buildings and leave the bees unscathed.)
We know they’ll figure something out, but it takes so long to get there. Still, watching bees cover people like a blanket, swarm military officers and blow up a nuclear reactor did the trick for me. The next time I get stung by a single yellow jacket, I’ll think of those scenes from The Swarm and remember how lucky I was with my one sting.
Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at
The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a writer
and board member of the Classic
Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo
chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs.
She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the
spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can
find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto.
Therese Ann Rutherford was born on November 2, 1917, in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Her parents were John and Lucille
Rutherford. Her mother was a silent film actress, while her father was an
operatic tenor. When Rutherford was an infant, her family relocated to San
Francisco, California, and soon separated. Rutherford’s mother took Ann and her
sister, Laurette, to Los Angeles, California.
As a child, Rutherford enjoyed stopping by radio studios to
listen to voice actors during their performances. She indulged in this routine
when she roller-skated home from middle school. Rutherford eventually applied
for work at KFAC radio station with a faux acting history and soon secured a
role in a radio drama. As the years went on, she attended Los Angeles High
School.
By 1935, Rutherford began her film career, starring in Waterfront Lady (1935) for Mascot
Pictures. She was also a regular in Western films at Republic (formerly Mascot
Pictures) and soon left for a contract at MGM Studios. There, she appeared in A Christmas Carol (1938) and Pride and Prejudice (1940).
Reginald Owen and Ann Rutherford, A Christmas Carol (1938)
Rutherford was loaned out to Selznick International Pictures
to appear as Careen O’Hara, Scarlett’s sister, in Gone with the Wind (1939).
Between 1937 and 1942, Rutherford appeared as Polly Benedict
in MGM’s popular Andy Hardy series, starring Mickey Rooney. This role secured
her screen popularity among moviegoing audiences. She also starred alongside
Red Skelton in the mystery comedies Whistling
in the Dark (1941), Whistling in
Dixie (1942), and Whistling in
Brooklyn (1943).
Ann Rutherford, Mickey Rooney and Virginia Grey, The Hardys Ride High
Throughout the 1940s, Rutherford left MGM and worked with a
wide range of studios, appearing in Orchestra
Wives (1942) and The Secret Life of
Walter Mitty (1947).
In 1942, Rutherford married David May II, grandson of the
May Company department stores founder. They had one child—Gloria May—and
divorced in 1953. In 1953, she married William Dozier, creator of the Batman television series. They remained
together until his passing in 1991.
By 1950, she retired from films altogether. Though Rooney
wanted her to return as Polly Benedict in the final Andy Hardy film, she
nonetheless did not appear in it.
In 1952, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen.
In her later years, she made several television appearances
and returned to MGM in 1972 to appear in They
Online Kill Their Maters (1972)—a film shot on the former Andy Hardy set.
Rutherford also replaced actress Penny Singleton on radio as the title
character in the Blondie series.
In the 1990s, Rutherford was offered the role of the older
Rose in Titanic (1997) but turned it
down, with the role eventually going to Gloria Stuart.
Rutherford made personal appearances at events and locations
tied to the legacy of Gone with the Wind.
She passed away on June 11, 2012, in her Beverly Hills,
California, home due to heart ailments. Rutherford was cremated and her ashes
were given to her daughter, who has since passed in 2013. The whereabouts of
her final resting place is not known to the public.
In 1930, Rutherford lived at 624 ½ S. Westmoreland Ave., Los
Angeles, California. This home has since been razed.
In 1940, she resided at 6129 6th St., Los
Angeles, California. This home remains.
6129 6th St., Los Angeles
Rutherford lived at 826 Greenway Dr., Beverly Hills,
California. The home stands.
826 Greenway Dr., Beverly Hills
Rutherford also has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
honoring her work in motion pictures and television. Her stars are located at
6834 and 6331 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, California, respectively.
Annette Bochenek, Ph.D., is a film historian, professor, and avid scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the “Hometowns to Hollywood” blog, in which she profiles her trips to the hometowns of classic Hollywood stars. She has also been featured on the popular classic film-oriented television network, Turner Classic Movies. A regular columnist for Classic Movie Hub, her articles have appeared in TCM Backlot, Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, The Dark Pages Film Noir Newsletter, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.
Recently
a longtime Twitter pal sought recommendations for traditional Westerns for her
11-year-old daughter to try.
An enjoyable discussion with several people ensued, and I
got to thinking that if I fleshed out my thoughts it would make a nice Western
RoundUp topic.
I’m thus expanding the short list I gave her with
additional thoughts, and I’ve also tweaked my list slightly to include only
films which have been released on DVD or Blu-ray. I wanted the films on this
list to be as accessible to families as possible, and I thus swapped out my
initial recommendation of Joel McCrea’s hard-to-find Saddle Tramp (1950)
for Cattle Drive (1951).
It was only after I compiled a short list that I realized
over half of the titles are John Wayne films, but what can I say?! Wayne was
our greatest Western star, who made many crowd-pleasing films appropriate for
all ages.
I’ve written about all of these favorite films here in
various contexts over the last half-dozen years, but it’s been quite a while
since I discussed some of them, and this is the first time I’ve compiled the
titles into a list specifically with appeal for young viewers in mind.
Along with providing a thumbnail description, my comments
here are focused on why the films might be especially likely to be enjoyed by
children.
…..
Tall in the Saddle (Edwin L. Marin, 1944)
John Wayne, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Ella Raines, Ward Bond, and Cast
This lesser-known John Wayne film is included simply
because it’s fun. The land dispute plotline isn’t particularly
notable, but the movie features fiery Ella Raines as a woman who can’t decide
whether to shoot or kiss Wayne — or maybe both! They have great chemistry. The
script, cowritten by Wayne’s friend and costar Paul Fix, has some excellent
dialogue which is occasionally “laugh out loud” funny. Our kids loved
this one, which at times seems to presage Burt Kennedy’s comedic James Garner
Western Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969). The latter film,
incidentally, is also a good option for children.
…..
Angel and the Badman (James
Edward Grant, 1947)
John Wayne and Gail Russell
I include this title as it was one of my own childhood favorites. It’s a much quieter film than Tall in the Saddle, but I’ve always found this story about a gunslinger taken in by a Quaker family to be extremely compelling; in fact, it’s one of my all-time favorite films. John Wayne’s lovely romance with Gail Russell takes place against the background of her entire family warmly caring for him despite his being a stranger; we see their kindness work wonders not only on Wayne but on an ornery neighbor (Tom Powers). The film provides a good lesson in that regard, yet it never comes off as preachy. There are occasional outbursts of action punctuating the peaceful story which may help maintain younger viewers’ attention.
…..
Rio Grande (John Ford, 1950)
Claude Jarman Jr. and John Wayne
This classic “Cavalry Trilogy” film features John Wayne as a Civil War veteran heading a remote Rio Grande outpost. His life is turned upside-down with the arrival of his young son Jeff (Claude Jarman Jr.), a new recruit, and his long-estranged wife (Maureen O’Hara). Jeff makes friends with fellow troopers Travis (Ben Johnson) and Sandy (Harry Carey Jr.); it’s great to point out to kids that all three young men are doing all of their own “Roman riding” stuntwork! The thrilling climax, the successful rescue of a large group of children captured by Indians, is sure to be enjoyed by kids, especially as a child, Margaret Mary (Karolyn Grimes), plays a pivotal role.
…..
Cattle Drive (Kurt Neumann, 1951)
Dean Stockwell and Joel McCrea
A couple years ago I devoted an entire column review to this film, another of my childhood favorites which helped make me the Western fan I am today. It was also one of the first films in which I saw lifelong favorite Joel McCrea. McCrea plays a cowpoke on a cattle drive who rescues wealthy and rude young Chester (Dean Stockwell) when he’s inadvertently left behind in the desert after his train makes a water stop. Chester gains a nickname, Chet, as he also learns good manners and acquires a work ethic as he matures while serving as a cowhand until he can be reunited with his widowed father (Leon Ames).
…..
Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)
Arthur Kennedy and James Stewart
I initially considered recommending Anthony Mann’s excellent Winchester ’73 (1950), which like Bend of the River stars James Stewart, but I ultimately chose my first and favorite Mann-Stewart film, which I’ve always considered “movie comfort food.” Although Bend of the River has moments as dark and bitter as its predecessor, I think Bend of the River is more accessible to younger viewers; the overall tone is more that of a family film, telling the story of pioneers traveling to settle in Oregon. Scenes with young Rock Hudson kindly carrying a young calf across his saddle seem straight out of a Disney film! There’s lots of excitement including a great escape out of a frontier town, with horses jumping onto a paddlewheeler as they flee.
…..
Hondo (John Farrow, 1953)
John Wayne and Lee Aaker
Hondo is based on a Louis L’Amour story and was written for the screen by James Edward Grant, who also wrote and directed Angel and the Badman. John Wayne plays the title role, an army dispatch rider who’s lost his horse and stumbles across an isolated ranch which is the home of Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page) and her young son Johnny (Lee Aaker). Hondo tries to get Angie and Johnny to leave the ranch with him for an army outpost, as there’s unrest among local Indians, but Angie insists her husband (Leo Gordon) will return soon… I’ll leave off with the plot description there and let unfamiliar viewers discover this wonderful film for themselves. Hondo develops a marvelous relationship with six-year-old Johnny — which includes an unusual method of teaching Johnny to swim!
…..
Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)
Ricky Nelson, John Wayne, and Dean Martin
I commented in the Twitter chat with my friend that while Rio Bravo is very long, at two hours and 21 minutes, “the best recommendation I can give it…is it was my most impatient child’s favorite movie when he was young.” (And probably still is!) This movie was so beloved by my children that they all agreed to name our dog Chance, after John Wayne’s Sheriff John T. Chance. Wayne’s sheriff, aided by a small number of friends (Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, Ricky Nelson, and Angie Dickinson), must fend off a murderous gang who want to break Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) out of jail. The camaraderie among Wayne and his pals is simply wonderful, and Nelson’s young gunslinger may add to appeal for teen viewers. Indeed, he plays a key role in the most exciting shootout in the movie!
…..
Ride Lonesome (Budd Boetticher, 1959)
James Best, Karen Steele, Pernell Roberts, and Randolph Scott
I chose Ride Lonesome as the final title on this list as I think it’s simply a perfect Western, and at just 73 minutes it’s unlikely to lose young viewers’ attention. As the movie introduces young viewers to the classic Western trope of a group of disparate travelers who must unite to battle a dangerous outside force, wonderful humor is balanced with poignance and plenty of action. The great script was written by Burt Kennedy, director of the previously mentioned Support Your Local Sheriff! Costar James Coburn is so good that star Randolph Scott suggested that Kennedy write some additional dialogue to give Coburn more screen time. The moment where his pal, also wonderfully played by Pernell Roberts, tells Coburn he’s going to be his partner on a future ranch “’cause I like you” is both funny and touching. This one is a must-see.
Please feel free to add recommendations in the comments!
…
– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
Film noir
movies may be, generally speaking, set in urban American cities, but many of
its inhabitants hail from the other side of the world. This month’s Noir Nook
takes a look at the lives and careers of three noir dames who bring a bit of
international flair to the shadowy proceedings of noir.
Ida Lupino in Ladies in Retirement
A star on the
silver screen and a pioneering director behind the camera, Ida Lupino was a
native of London, born on February 4th (most sources agree that her birth year
was 1918, but a few say she was born as early as 1914). She had quite the
entertainment pedigree; her father was a dance hall performer, her mother was
once touted as the fastest tap dancer alive, her paternal great-grandfather was
a singer and acrobatic ballet dancer, her great uncles were stage headliners,
and her cousin was popular comedy actor Lupino Lane. Ida joined their ranks at
an early age – her grandfather taught her to sing, compose music, and recite
Shakespeare, and when she was seven, she wrote, produced, and starred in her
first school play. A few years later, she made her professional stage debut at
London’s Tom Thumb Theatre, where she enacted segments from the latest musical
comedies.
At the age of
13, Lupino enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and she got her first
big break when she was featured as the ingenue in Her First Affaire
(1932), helmed by American director Allan Dwan. Interestingly, Ida’s mother had
originally tested for the part, but she was accompanied to the test by her
daughter and Dwan wanted Ida instead. “I said, ‘What about her – can she act?’”
Dwan recalled years later. “’She was Ida Lupino. And she was great.’” After
appearances in several more movies, Ida attracted the attention of Hollywood
and she made her American film debut in a pre-Code romantic comedy called Search
for Beauty (1934).
In the 1940s
and 1950s, Ida would star in nearly 10 noirs (or noir-adjacent features),
including a period noir, Ladies in Retirement (1941), with her
then-husband Louis Hayward, and a western noir, Lust for Gold (1949),
starring Glenn Ford. Some of her other noirs are among my personal favorites
from the era – Road House (1948) and Private Hell 36 (1954); in
both, she deftly playing a hard-boiled nightclub singer.
Nina Foch in My Name is Julia Ross
Nina Consuelo
Maud Fock was born in Leyden, Holland, on April 20, 1924; her parents were
Dutch symphony conductor and composer Dirk Fock, and American silent screen
actress Consuelo Flowerton, who served as the famous “Poster Girl” during World
War I. When Nina was two, her parents divorced, and she moved to New York with
her mother. In her teens, after an extensive education in the arts, she thought
she’d become either a painter or a pianist: “I was a failure in both
professions at the age of 16,” she later said, “so I decided to try acting.”
Although she
enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Nina found that landing her
first acting job was easier said than done. Each time she applied for a part,
she was turned down because she had no experience. But one day, she got wise,
finally telling a producer that she’d had a featured role in a production
called Life Is Like That. “It was a big lie. I made up the name on the
spot,” she said. The producer believed her and gave Nina her first job, in
summer stock. The following year (after
changing the ‘k’ in her last name to an ‘h’ – “For obvious reasons,” she said),
she made her big screen debut in The Return of the Vampire (1943),
starring Bela Lugosi.
Nina’s noir
output encompassed four first-rate features opposite such stars as Dick Powell,
William Holden, and Glenn Ford; she was shown to her best advantage in My
Name is Julia Ross (1945), where she starred in the title role of a
secretary who is kidnapped by a wealthy matron and her psychopathic son.
Signe Hasso in House on 92nd Street
Signe Hasso
Of the three
dames featured in this month’s Nook, Signe Hasso may be the least recognizable
to most readers – but she deserves an introduction. A native of Stockholm,
Sweden, she was born Signe Eleonora Cecilia Larsson on August 15, 1915, the
eldest of three children. Her businessman father died when she was four,
leaving the family destitute. For a time, the family made ends meet by taking
in boarders, but they were later forced to move to a six-floor walk-up in a
housing project. “One room for five people,” Signe recalled. “Four families
shared an outside toilet. We were so poor you couldn’t believe it.”
When Signe was
12, her luck changed. A classmate appearing in a production of the Royal
Dramatic Theater became ill and suggested that the company look for a
replacement in the Larsson household. Signe – who had her sights set on
becoming a doctor – wasn’t interested, but her mother flipped a coin and Signe
was selected to go. “I threw myself on the rug,” Signe said, “and drummed my
heels and screamed that my sister should be in the play, not I.” She only
relented when her mother gave her an orange. “We never had treats like that. So
I went to the theater – with the orange in my pocket.” Signe was an overnight
hit, and after appearing in numerous productions over the next several years,
she debuted on the big screen in the 1933 feature Tystnadens Hus. She
would go on to marry theater director Harry Hasso, keeping his last name after
their 1940 divorce. (Her name, incidentally, was pronounced SEEN-yah HAH-so,
but she once joked, “You can pronounce it any old way – it means ‘Bless you’ in
Swedish.”) The same year of her divorce, Signe signed a contract with RKO, but after
two years without a film, she moved on to MGM. Her first American film was Journey
for Margaret (1942), starring Robert Young and Margaret O’Brien.
Signe’s
introduction to film noir came in The House on 92nd Street (1945), a
based-on-a-true-story feature where she starred as a Nazi spy. Her other noirs
were Johnny Angel (1945), opposite George Raft; Strange Triangle
(1946), where she was a standout as an unemotional femme fatale; and one of her
best-known films, A Double Life (1947), starring Ronald Colman.
Got a hankering for some fine noir performances? You can’t go wrong with the films featuring this trio of international femmes. Treat yourself!
…
– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages. If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
Hollywood’s crowning achievement is its greatest enigma
Here’s some exciting news for The Wizard of Oz fans (and who isn’t :))
Coming Soon! Mysteries of Oz: 85 Questions Answered is a new documentary from AMS Pictures that explores the magic, music, and myths surrounding the making of The Wizard of Oz in celebration of its 85th Anniversary. This fast-paced 3-part documentary series takes you over the rainbow and down the yellow brick road to answer 85 fascinating questions about the iconic film, revealing newly discovered truths, debunking age-old myths, and dispelling misconceptions about the motion picture that the Library of Congress calls the most-watched movie ever.
The series dives deep into the enchanting world of Oz with expert and insider interviews, rare images capturing moments both on and off the set, and behind-the-scenes footage offering a fresh perspective on the beloved classic. Each episode explores the lore and legacy of The Wizard of Oz, shedding light on casting choices, special effects, and the film’s cultural impact and enduring popularity. Whether you’re a lifelong fan or a newcomer to Oz, this series entertains, educates, and enchants, uncovering the untold stories and fascinating details that have made The Wizard of Oz a timeless masterpiece.
Here’s a quick trailer for your viewing pleasure 🙂
Currently in production, Mysteries of Oz: 85 Questions Answered is slated to be released in late 2024.
