Western RoundUp: Showdown (1963)

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Laura Grieve

Western RoundUp: Showdown (1963)

Showdown (1963) is part of the new Audie Murphy Collection III from Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

Showdown Poster 1
Showdown starring Audie Murphy, Kathleen Crowley, and Charles Drake

I shared news of this summer’s Murphy Blu-ray releases here in July, and a few weeks ago I followed up with a review of Destry (1954) from Collection II.

Collection III features three films; in addition to Showdown, the movies are Hell Bent for Leather (1960) and Posse From Hell (1961). I really liked both those films and previously reviewed Hell Bent for Leather here in January 2022.

To my best knowledge, none of these films has been available in the U.S. on DVD or even VHS.

Audie Murphy III box set
Blu Ray Collection

As a big fan of Murphy’s Westerns, I’ve been quite curious about the new-to-me titles. Having just watched Showdown, I can report that in relative terms it’s one of his weaker films, though I still found enough worthwhile to recommend it.

As the story opens, bronco buster Chris Foster (Murphy) and his friend and coworker, Bert Pickett (Charles Drake), arrive in a small Western town to cash paychecks for the previous six months of work.

Bert gets drunk, and an ensuing saloon fight results in the two men being chained up. The town lacks a jail and instead men are chained to a pole in front of the marshal’s office, with iron collars around their necks.

Showdown Poster 4

Chris and Bert have the misfortune to be chained up alongside a killer, Lavalle (Harold J. Stone) and some of his henchmen, including Caslon (Skip Homeier) and Foray (L.Q. Jones). These are bad, bad men.

Lavalle’s men force Chris and Bert to help them break down the pole and escape, chains and all; Chris and Bert have little choice but to follow along.

During the escape Bert picks up some negotiable bonds in the express office; he figures the sheriff will think Lavalle took them and he can live a life of financial ease. Chris is horrified by Bert’s poor judgement, but that becomes the least of his worries when Lavalle learns about the bonds and demands that Bert cash them in another town. If Bert doesn’t return with the money, Chris will be killed.

Eventually Bert’s ex-girlfriend Estelle (Kathleen Crowley) also enters the picture, as circumstances lead her to try to make off with the bonds herself!

Showdown Poster 2

I found Showdown kind of a “mixed bag.” The film is quite grim and some aspects are visually unappealing. The heavy iron collars around numerous characters’ necks for a significant amount of screen time made me claustrophobic just looking at them! I winced right along with the characters when the collars are later hammered off.

The other weak link is the screenplay, written by Ric Hardman under the pseudonym Bronson Howitzer. While Murphy is appealing as always as the stalwart, honorable hero, we’re not provided much back story, and he’s the lone person in the film worth rooting for.

More nuanced supporting characters would have helped, along with sharper dialogue; some of the lines get quite florid, especially for Crowley.

On the plus side, director R.G. Springsteen moves things along briskly, with the film clocking in at just 79 minutes.

While I didn’t like looking at the “men in chains,” the film’s Alabama Hills scenery, shot outside Lone Pine, California, is majestic. A great deal of the film was shot around Lone Pine, a definite plus in my book.

When Murphy daringly rides his horse down a steep hill, it was filmed in a cliff area outside Lone Pine which is seen in films far less often than the Alabama Hills. I took a photo of the cliff area last year.

Cliff from Showdown outside Lone Pine

Charles Drake had costarred in one of Murphy’s very best Westerns, No Name on the Bullet (1959), which is also available on a Kino Lorber Blu-ray.

While Drake’s No Name on the Bullet character was admirable, a philosophical doctor who sparred with Murphy, his character here is much closer to the unstable man he played in Winchester ’73 (1950), which I reviewed here in 2019.

Bert makes a series of bad decisions, only partly redeeming himself late in the film which he tries to deter Chris from risking his life for him. I was left wondering how somewhat educated as a veterinarian could otherwise be so stupid — and why Chris put up with him for a couple of years!

Drake is solid as always in the role, but as written the character is rather exasperating.

Kathleen Crowley has long been familiar to me, having been the most frequent female guest star on my all-time favorite TV Western series, Maverick (1957-62). Over the years she appeared in a number of Western films, including The Silver Whip (1953), Westward Ho the Wagons! (1956), The Quiet Gun (1957), and The Phantom Stagecoach (1957).

Audie Murphy and Kathleen Crowley 1
Audie Murphy and Kathleen Crowley

Unfortunately Crowley’s character in this film is problematic, due to a combination of poor acting and writing. Estelle is initially a duplicitous character; when she later gives Murphy a sob story about her life it’s impossible to tell whether it’s the truth or an attempt at manipulation. That uncertainty about her true intentions continues almost to the end of the movie; as a result, we don’t really see character growth because we don’t know what’s real and what’s not.

While the overwrought writing didn’t help, an actress of more depth might possibly have brought more shadings to the character.

The supporting cast includes Strother Martin, Charles Horvath, Dabbs Greer, and Harry Lauter. Look carefully to spot early “B” Western star Bob Steele as a poker player.

The movie was shot in black and white by Ellis W. Carter. The Lone Pine vistas look absolutely majestic.

Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray print looks and sounds very good. The lone extras for this film are a newly mastered trailer as well as trailers for three additional Murphy films available from Kino Lorber.

Showdown blu ray

While Showdown might have been somewhat disappointing, I love Hell Bent for Leather, which has only improved on further acquaintance, and Posse From Hell has been an excellent new discovery. Given the fact that this set is the first time for all three films to be available in the United States, I recommend the collection for fans of Westerns and/or Audie Murphy.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

…

– 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.

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Silents are Golden: 12 French Silent Film Recommendations

Posted on October 19, 2023 by Lea Stans

Silents are Golden: 12 French Silent Film Recommendations

Thanks to pioneering inventors like the Lumière Brothers, who famously held the first public showing of motion pictures in Paris on December 28, 1895, France is often considered the birthplace of cinema. And beyond producing early cameras and projectors, France also contributed a great deal to the artistic side of cinema from the very beginning, inspiring filmmakers all over the world.

If you aren’t too familiar with early French films and are wondering where to start, here are a dozen eclectic recommendations ranging from whimsical short comedies to delicately-acted dramatic features.

12. The Merry Frolics of Satan (Les Quat’Cents Farces du diable, 1906)

The Merry Frolics of Satan (Les Quat'Cents Farces du diable, 1906)

Georges Méliès was one of the first filmmakers to recognize that film was wonderfully suited to telling imaginative, whimsical stories. Everyone’s familiar with the iconic A Trip to the Moon (1902), but another gem is The Merry Frolics of Satan, an adaptation of Faust. The charm of seeing our main characters sailing through the stars in a flying carriage pulled by a strange skeletal horse simply has to be experienced yourself.

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11. Max Takes a Bath (Max prend un bain, 1910)

Max Takes a Bath (Max prend un bain, 1910)

Years before the idea of a “movie star” would take hold in the 1910s, the dapperly-dressed comedian Max Linder was being recognized for his dozens of short, charming comedies, paving the way for all the comedians to follow him. Max Takes a Bath is readily available online and is a nice showcase for his subtle, situation-based humor with touches of absurdity.

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10. La Roue (The Wheel, 1923)

La Roue (The Wheel, 1923)

Abel Gance’s (very) lengthy drama follows the travails of Sisif, a railroad engineer and widower who adopts the orphaned baby girl Norma. He raises her along with his little son Elie in a cottage surrounded by a railyard. Norma blossoms into a lovely young woman, and to his own horror, Sisif finds himself growing obsessed with her–and the tragic twists don’t end there. A darkly psychological tale, La Roue is stuffed with innovative editing and haunting visuals that greatly influenced fellow filmmakers, including some astonishing lightning-fast montages.

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9. Ménilmontant (1926)

Ménilmontant (1926)

This exquisite, 40-minute piece of avant-garde by Dmitri Kirsanoff opens with a sudden, startling murder, and then follows two sisters as they try to start a new life in a poor neighborhood of Paris. One of the sisters falls for a charming young man, but in time she discovers he’s seduced her sister, too. Poetic and tragic, but nevertheless containing glimpses of hope, it features a wonderfully delicate performance by Kirsanoff’s wife Nadia that you won’t soon forget.

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8. Visages D’enfants (1926)

Visages D’enfants (1926)

Plenty of silent dramas did indeed have subtle, realistic storytelling, and few prove it better than this gem by Jacques Feydar  It was filmed in the Swiss village of Grimentz and starred the child actor Jean Forest, who Feydar had discovered in Montmartre, Paris. Telling the story of a boy whose beloved mother passes away and who soon finds himself at odds with his new stepmother and stepsister, it’s a poignant work with many wonderfully naturalistic touches.

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7. The Italian Straw Hat (1928)         

The Italian Straw Hat (1928)

On the day of his wedding, Fadinard’s horse eats a lady’s hat while she’s trysting with a lover behind a bush. Since going home hatless would surely wreck the lady’s reputation, the couple insist that Fadinard be responsible for finding an exact replacement–and fast. Rene Clair’s mildly risque farce adapts an 1850s play and sets it in 1895, and also imitates some of the early films from that Belle Epoque era.

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6. The Haunted House (1907)

The Haunted House (1907)

Often confused with several practically identical short films–the 1900s being a time when filmmakers copied each other shamelessly–Segundo de Chomón’s six-minute film features a house morphing into a face, a freaky crepe hair-bedecked demon, several odd-looking travelers and a brilliant stop motion sequence of a “ghostly” tea service. De Chomón worked in France for Pathé Frères and made a number of very Méliès-like films. Readily available online, The Haunted House’s surreal, anything-goes imagery is a particularly nice fit for Halloween.

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5. The Policemen’s Little Run (1907)

The Policemen’s Little Run (1907)

When Mack Sennett talked about being inspired by French comedies, he was certainly thinking of a film like The Policemen’s Little Run. Short and sweet, it shows an impish dog stealing a leg of mutton from a butcher shop and being pursued by an entire bungling police force. You might call it a blueprint for the Keystone Cops films from the 1910s. The scene of the dog and cops climbing a building–thanks to some clever trompe l’oeil–will bring a smile to any face, if you ask me.

4. Cœur fidèle (Faithful Heart, 1923)

Cœur fidèle (Faithful Heart, 1923)

A tragic love triangle drama set in the ports of Marseille, Cœur fidèle took a lot of inspiration from La Roue’s innovative camerawork and editing. The director Jean Epstein was also a film critic during the ‘20s and he clearly took a keen interest in cinema’s artistic side. His story of the abused servant Marie, pursued by the loutish Petit Paul while she secretly loves the dockworker Jean, is masterfully filmed and brimming with creativity.

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3. Ballet Mécanique (1924)

Ballet Mécanique (1924)

If you’re at all attracted to the avant-garde, you’ll enjoy this Dadaist film, the ancestor of countless experimental works that followed. A dizzying smorgasbord of montages, repeating shots, animation, dissolves, specials effects, and so on, it’s accompanied by a hyperactive soundtrack of bells, whistles, horns and pianos. Charlie Chaplin also shows up several times as a Cubist-style animation–the original title is technically Charlot présente le ballet mécanique.

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2. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

Not only is The Passion of Joan of Arc one of the greatest silent films, but it’s one of the greatest films ever made, period. Its daring art style and cinematography somehow floats free of typical time periods–it stands on its own as a work of art. Jeanne Falconetti’s performance does more than justice to the great French saint, making the film a deeply emotional and moving experience.

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1. Napoléon (1927)

No list of French silent film recommendations could be complete without mentioning Abel Gance’s masterpiece, one of the most ambitious and creative epics of the 1920s. The runtime is staggering–over five hours–but so are Gance’s achievements, from his fearless use of in-camera effects to his willingness to strap the camera to running horses and pendulums to create exciting shots. The famed “triptych” ending even experimented with the format of the screen itself. It was a film that was truly ahead of its time.

Varied as they are, these twelve recommendations are just scratching the surface of the many French silents you could watch. Take that as a happy challenge, and enjoy your future viewings!

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–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

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.

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Monsters and Matinees: It’s only a Horror Movie – unless it’s True

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Toni Ruberto

It’s only a Horror Movie – unless it’s True

Horror films can sometimes be too much even for the most fervent fan.

Maybe it’s a scene so gross that you close your eyes.

Or the minute you realize there’s a demon involved, and you change the channel (devil movies are a huge no for me).

Perhaps there’s a scene so terrifying that you turn on the lights like I do with The Haunting and that masterful moment when Julie Harris thinks a friend is next to her until she realizes that, no, that’s not a human. (If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about.)

That’s when we tell ourselves “It’s only a movie. … It’s only a movie” and that usually works.

But what if it’s not only a movie? What if it was real?

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was one of multiple films that drew on real killer Ed Gein as inspiration – in this case, for the character of Leatherface.

“What happened is true. Now the motion picture that’s just as real.”

– Texas Chainsaw Massacre

That was the tagline for Tobe Hooper’s groundbreaking 1979 film that drew some inspiration for its chainsaw-wielding maniac Leatherface from a real killer. The film was creepy enough on its own, then became much darker learning there was some smidgen of reality in it.

True-life murderers are a frequent theme of “based on a true story” horror films, as are hauntings and paranormal activities.

Take real paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who have become their own film franchise that started with the 2013 movie The Conjuring and continued with its direct sequels and then the Annabelle and Nun movies. In total, they have made more than $2 billion at the box office. And there’s more.

The Warrens also were called in for other cases that were the basis of earlier movies like The Amityville Horror. That film is a good place to start as we look at eight times real life became reel life in classic horror movies.

Actors James Brolin and Margot Kidder in a scene from The Amityville Horror. Notice the top windows of the house are lit to appear like “eyes” in this film based off a real haunting.

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Posters for The Amityville Horror show a Dutch Colonial house that is the same architecture of the real home that is the basis for this film. To illustrate that, the two distinctive half-curved windows under the gambrel roof are brightly lit to look like demonic eyes. The image has always haunted me.

Making the house feel alive was an integral part of this movie based on a haunting in Amityville, N.Y. where Ronald DeFeo Jr. shot and murdered six members of his family in 1974. Only 13 months later, the Lutz family bought the house despite knowing its history. At a friend’s request, they agreed to have the house blessed, but it didn’t quite work out as planned.

They left after only 28 days because of frightening experiences including a “greenish-black slime” with a mind of its own.

The film, directed by Stuart Rosenberg and starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder, was based on a book by Jay Anson. Although many of the scariest details were later debunked, the story has remained popular, becoming the basis for multiple books and movies, including a 2005 remake by Michael Bay. Plus, I still can’t look at a Dutch Colonial house without being creeped out.

Yes, even Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds had a basis in the reality of a bird attack in a seaside California town.

The Birds (1963)

In 1961, Alfred Hitchcock heard of an account in the Santa Cruz Sentinel of birds inexplicably attacking the small seaside town of Capitola in Santa Cruz County. It was reported that “hordes of seabirds were dive-bombing their homes, crashing into cars and spewing half-digested anchovies onto lawns.”

Hitch reached out to the paper for help in researching his next film which was based off the Daphne du Maurier novella “The Birds.” The final movie, set in a fictional seaside town in California, contained similar images as described at the time of bird attack, including crashing into homes and cars, terrorizing residents and even killing people.

It wasn’t until 2011 that researchers finally found an explanation for that long-ago California bird attack and a few other “animals acting strangely” incidents by linking them to poison from a toxic algae that resulted in disorientation and seizures, among other problems.

The title character of The Blob eats its way through a small town looking for more victims.

The Blob (1958)

I was blown away a few years back when my young niece, only 11 at the time, shared a YouTube video about how The Blob was based on a true story. “Inspired by” is a better description, but it’s still unsettling.

In the film, a gelatin-like substance from a meteorite absorbs people and grows large enough to engulf a diner while Steve McQueen and his teen buddies try to convince the adults of the danger.

Newspaper articles often inspired film writers.

The inspiration was a 1950 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Two Philadelphia police officers saw something fall from the sky and found a large mass about 6 feet in diameter that “gave off a purplish glow, almost a mist, that looked as though it contained crystals,” the paper reported. Unfortunately, it dissolved in about 25 minutes, leaving nothing for investigators to see. I still believe it happened.

The Exorcist (1973)

As a student at Georgetown University, William Peter Blatty read a Washington Post article with the headline Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip. It was about the real exorcism in 1949 of a boy who was seemingly possessed. Multiple priests were brought in with between 30 and 40 exorcisms reportedly performed.

This haunting image from The Exorcist captures the sense of horror that pervades this film.

The story inspired Blatty’s 1971 novel The Exorcist which he turned into the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film starring young Linda Blair as a teen possessed by a demon. Among the similarities between the reel/real stories were the use of the Ouija board, attacks on priests and all the vomiting.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope was inspired by the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder case. The film starred John Dall, left, James Stewart and Farley Granger.

Rope (1948)

This Alfred Hitchcock psychological thriller is usually discussed in terms of its technical achievement of appearing like it was filmed in one continuous take. It wasn’t, but it came close by using only four cuts with some nifty sleight-of-hand like a person walking in front of the camera to create the illusion.

But there’s something else that’s interesting about the film. It was based on the 1929 play Rope’s End by Patrick Hamilton that told of the Leopold-Loeb murder case, considered the first “trial of the century.” In 1924, two University of Chicago students murdered a teen under the belief that their “innate superiority” would help them pull off the perfect crime. It didn’t. They were caught and sentenced to 99 years in prison.

In the film, the murderers are played by Farley Granger and John Dall who kill a friend, put his body in a trunk in their apartment and then host a dinner party. Arrogant, aren’t they? Jimmy Stewart is their former professor and one of the party guests.

Anthony Perkins starred as Norman Bates in Psycho, one of multiple film characters that had similarities to real killer Ed Gein.

Psycho (1960) and

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

These two well-regarded, but quite different horror movies, both drew inspiration from notorious Wisconsin murderer Ed Gein – called the Butcher of Planfield – in the 1950s.

The convicted murderer also was a grave robber who – this gets gross – would take the bones and skins of corpses and create keepsakes including lampshades and a suit made from skin, like Leatherface’s mask in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Psycho was based off the 1959 novel by Robert Bloch who lived less than 50 miles from Gein. While Bloch didn’t mean for Bates – the reclusive young man who kept his mother’s mummified body in his house – to be a stand-in for Gein, the two had many similarities. Both were loners in rural areas who worshiped their mothers, wore women’s clothes and were murderers.

Gein was the inspiration for other film killers including Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.

Psycho spawned an ill-advised shot-for-shot 1998 remake by Gus Van Sant, along with three sequels, a TV movie and series (Bates Motel).

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

The poster for “The Town That Dread Sundown” touts the fact that the film is based off a true story.

This is another terrifying story based off a heinous true-life serial killer. For 10 weeks in 1946, a murderer dubbed “The Phantom of Texarkana” – a region at the Texas/Arkansas border – attacked eight people, killing five. He was never identified.

That led to the film’s poster proclamation that the killer “still lurks the streets of Texarkana, Ark.” City officials were among those not pleased with that tagline and threatened to sue if it wasn’t removed, but it remained on many posters.

The image of the killer’s face covered by a hood was disturbing and has since become a frequent film image. Among the mostly amateur cast were Ben Johnson and Dawn Welles (Gilligan’s Island). Ryan Murphy and Jason Blum produced a 2016 sequel.

Addendum

The fact that a film is based on a true story can draw viewers in, but also keep some away. I am, if you can’t already tell, in the latter category. (Give me a big-bug horror movie any day because I know that can’t happen. Right?)

You can tell me that I’m missing some good films and to get over it, but here’s the thing: Even writing about these movies is too much for me. I started this piece early one evening but once it got dark my anxiety started to rise. I could feel my heart beat faster as I typed about devils and demons. I freaked out so much I stopped writing, quickly left the room, turned on more lights and watched a piece of romantic fluff to shake the foreboding mood I was in.

I continued to write the next day during daylight hours and was fine. But as I finalized the story in late afternoon, the lights started to flicker. I could feel my heart again beat faster – and the lights kept flickering for a good 20 minutes. I’ve never been so happy to finish an article.

And that’s my true story about horror films.

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

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. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and now leads 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.

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Noir Nook: Stand By Your Man (or, The Smart Femme Saves The Day)

Posted on October 12, 2023 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Noir Nook: Stand By Your Man
(or, The Smart Femme Saves The Day)

Everybody knows about the femme fatale in film noir. You know, the dame who uses her wiles to get her way, often in the form of getting some hapless dude to either murder somebody, secure a stash of cash, or both.

I love these dames, but I also love another type of film noir femme: the one who is not only supportive of her significant other (or would-be significant other), but whose intelligence, courage, and determination ultimately save that other from a less-than-favorable outcome. This month’s Noir Nook takes a look at three of these indispensable dames . . .

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Phantom Lady (1944)

Phantom Lady Ella Raines and Alan Curtis
Phantom Lady, Ella Raines and Alan Curtis

Ella Raines stars in this feature, not as the Phantom Lady of the title, but as the dame who pulls out all the stops to find her. As Carol “Kansas” Richman, she’s the devoted and efficient secretary to engineer Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis), whose wife turns up dead, strangled with one of Scott’s neckties. Scott seemingly has an alibi; after an argument with his wife, he went to a bar to drown his troubles, and met a woman who was apparently there for the same reason. The woman eventually agreed to accompany Scott to a local stage show – on the condition that they don’t exchange names or addresses. When Scott explains his whereabouts to police, this “phantom lady,” can’t be found and not a single witness can be unearthed who will corroborate Scott’s story.

After a trial, Scott is convicted and sentenced to death; Carol alone is convinced of his innocence, certain that she can locate the mysterious woman who can exonerate her boss. “You need someone to help you who really wants to,” she tells Scott. “Someone who just won’t be beaten.” And she’s just the gal for the job. With the brains and confidence of a seasoned private dick, she gets to work, first shadowing the bartender who served Scott his drinks on the night of his wife’s murder, and demonstrating her mettle when the bartender turns the tables and confronts her in the street. Next, she flirts with Cliff Milburn (Elisha Cook, Jr.), a lecherous drummer from the stage show, accompanying him to his apartment in an attempt to gather information. And she doesn’t lose her head when Cliff suspects her motives and physically attacks her; instead, she fights him off and uses her wits to escape.

Determined to bolster Scott’s spirits, Carol frequently visits him in prison, but when he loses hope, descending into self-pity and even questioning his own alibi, Carol doesn’t coddle him. “Stop talking like that,” she snaps. “You can’t work for a man as long as I’ve worked for you and not know him pretty well. You couldn’t kill anybody.” Interestingly, Carol is motivated by her love for Scott – but he has no idea how she feels. Still, no matter what obstacles she encounters – and she runs into them with regularity – Carol never tires, never backs down, and never even considers that she might fail.

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The Dark Corner (1946)

The Dark Corner Lucille Ball and Mark Stevens
The Dark Corner, Lucille Ball and Mark Stevens

In this Henry Hathaway-directed feature, Lucille Ball is top-billed as Kathleen Stewart, who finds herself falling for her new boss, private investigator Bradford Galt. Unbeknownst to Kathleen, Brad served time in prison after being set up by his former partner, Tony Jardine (Kurt Krueger) – and when Jardine turns up dead, all signs point to Brad as the killer.

But Brad has Kathleen on his side. From their very first date, where Brad is being tailed by a mysterious man in a white suit (William Bendix), Kathleen proves that she has contributions that extend beyond typing and filing. When Brad asks her to follow White Suit, she’s on board without hesitation – but not before astutely informing Brad, “You’re stubborn and impulsive and you think you’re tough.” And later, when she finds Brad lying beside a dead body, she banks down her queasiness and gets to work cleaning up the crime scene.

No matter what happens, Kathleen’s faith in Brad never wavers – she’s supportive and encouraging, but she’s no pushover; as Brad’s despair turns into angry self-pity, Kathleen gives him a verbal slap, sarcastically telling him, “All right – we’ll just sit down and feel sorry for you. We’ll build a wailing wall.”  Ultimately, just as Brad thinks it’s curtains for him, it’s Kathleen who breaks things wide open, coming up with the key to identify the person who’s been framing him.

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The Second Woman (1950)

The Second Woman Robert Young and Betsy Drake
The Second Woman, Robert Young and Betsy Drake

Robert Young stars here as Jeff Cohalan, an architect who lives in a small California coastal town and whose beautiful fiancée died the night before their wedding. He seems charming enough, though, when he meets Ellen Foster (Betsy Drake) on a train bound for his hometown, where Ellen is visiting her aunt (and Jeff’s neighbor). Before you can say “Bob’s your uncle,” Ellen has stars in her eyes that are shining brightly in Jeff’s direction, but their potential idyll is disrupted by a series of incidents, from the poisoning of Jeff’s dog to the mysterious burning of his house. Is Jeff the unluckiest man on the planet? Or is something more sinister going on?

Like The Dark Corner’s Kathleen, Ellen isn’t dissuaded by the red flags that continuously crop up — she overlooks her aunt’s labelling of Jeff as “strange,” and ignores her warning to steer clear of him. She believes Jeff when he chases after a stranger hiding on his property, even though she never sees any trace of the man. And she dismisses Jeff’s declaration that Ellen isn’t safe with him. “Suppose I don’t want to be safe,” she responds.

Unlike many noir femmes, Ellen not only has a job, but a whole career – she a Certified Public Account and compiles actuarial tables for an accident insurance company: “What are the odds against a man fracturing his arm, that sort of thing,” she helpfully explains to one of the characters (and us). Jeff is the unexpected beneficiary of her expertise, as it’s Ellen who figures out that it would be highly unlikely for Jeff’s misfortunes to be mere accidents. And she uses her intelligence, skills, and unwavering loyalty to Jeff to find out exactly what’s going on – and who’s behind it.

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Do yourself a favor and check out these ladies who are resolved to help — and not hinder – the men in their lives. The fatal femmes will always be out there, but it’s good to have a dame on your side once in a while.

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

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:

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Silver Screen Standards: Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Posted on October 10, 2023 by Jennifer Garlen

Silver Screen Standards: Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)

Although it’s more Gothic mystery than true horror, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) fits right in for spooky movie season. With its ghosts and gruesome past, the decaying Southern mansion where the story takes place is a perfect setting for tales of terror, and in spite of its more worldly plot twists the film retains its haunted atmosphere throughout. Director Robert Aldrich meant the picture to serve as a second act to his previous successful pairing of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), but Crawford’s departure led to Davis’ good friend Olivia de Havilland stepping in to replace her. It’s certainly an unusual role for the elegant star, but she does a terrific job with it, joining a cast of true luminaries that includes Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Mary Astor, Cecil Kellaway, and a very young Bruce Dern. The talent pool in front of and behind the camera led to seven Oscar nominations for Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, including a nod for Moorehead as Best Supporting Actress, which proves this movie is more than a cult classic example of the “hagsploitation” genre that Aldrich helped to create. It mingles elements of earlier films like Gaslight (1944), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Baby Jane with the classic tropes of the female Gothic to craft a story that might not be very scary by our modern standards but is still provocative when it comes to the subjects of aging, grief, and long-kept secrets that fester in the dark.

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte Agnes Moorehead and Bette Davis
Velma (Agnes Moorehead) protects Charlotte (Bette Davis) from many threats, but nobody can stop the state from tearing down the old mansion.

Davis leads as the titular Charlotte, whose married lover John Mayhew (Bruce Dern) was violently dismembered in the summer house of Charlotte’s home many decades earlier. Haunted by visions of her dead beau and guilt about the circumstances of his demise, Charlotte has lived in the old mansion as a recluse ever since, with only her temperamental maid, Velma (Agnes Moorehead), for company. When the construction of a new bridge leads the state to claim eminent domain over her home, Charlotte invites her cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland) to return and help her, but Miriam has her own reasons for coming back to town after so many years away.

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte Bette Davis Gown
Charlotte descends the shadowy stairs in true Gothic fashion, with her long hair and white nightgown trailing.

Traditional Gothic stories, with their roots in 18th century British literature, tend to feature virginal young women as their heroines, stereotypically depicted fleeing along shadowy corridors in their long white nightgowns. Here we see that convention turned on its head with the introduction of the aged Charlotte as our heroine, still sporting her long girlish locks and youthful dresses but ravaged emotionally and physically by the years that have passed since her fateful discovery of her lover’s headless corpse. Although she can be volatile and even violent, Davis’ Charlotte is not interchangeable with Baby Jane Hudson; Charlotte, like Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, is a tragic figure, trapped in the past by betrayal she has never been able to process. She wanders the mansion at night, still hearing the ghostly music of a song her lover wrote for her, her heart still as tender and longing as it was the night John Mayhew died. There’s a softness to Charlotte that we don’t see in Baby Jane, and it’s important to her character because we have to see her vulnerability in order to appreciate the peril she faces from her enemies. Far from being a “crazy old lady” who is meant to frighten or elicit cruel laughter, Charlotte is a victim of compounded schemes and jealousies whose sanity hangs in the balance as a result.

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte Bette Davis and Olivia deHavilland
Charlotte and Cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland) share a fearful moment in the old mansion.

Complexity elevates each of the supporting characters, as well, from the pugnacious but fiercely loyal Velma to the dying Jewel Mayhew, played to great effect by Mary Astor in her last screen appearance. Joseph Cotten revels in the glib charm of the smalltown Southern doctor, while de Havilland deftly shifts between ladylike polish and seething resentment. Victor Buono only has a few scenes as Charlotte’s overbearing father, but he makes them count, and his domineering behavior helps us understand Charlotte’s difficult childhood as her father’s pet and possession. It’s Buono who most embodies the type of the Gothic villain, which leads both Charlotte and the viewer to certain conclusions (compare his character here to those played by Charles Laughton, Laird Cregar, and Sidney Greenstreet, all literal and figurative heavies). In lieu of a romantic hero or detective character we get Cecil Kellaway as the kindly but persistent insurance investigator, Harry Willis, who has come from England to pursue some lingering questions about the old Mayhew case. Willis, as an outsider, offers us exposition and uncovers information that other characters cannot, but he also directs our sympathy toward Charlotte, even when the strain of her situation causes her to lash out at him and others. A traditional Gothic thriller might see Harry Willis and Charlotte end the story with a wedding or a tight embrace, but again this tale eschews its genre conventions to provide an ambiguous ending more suited to the characters’ circumstances. These choices make Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte fascinating from start to finish, with plots and characters we think we know from their outlines but which then surprise us with their twists.

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte Mary Astor
Jewel Mayhew (Mary Astor) holds a letter containing a carefully kept secret about her husband’s death.

If you want to compare Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte with other Gothic classics, try Rebecca (1940), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Lodger (1944), Dragonwyck (1946), Bedlam (1946), The Spiral Staircase (1946), and The Woman in White (1948), or get really scary with The Haunting (1963). Bette Davis leaned into “hagsploitation” roles after the two Aldrich pictures with The Nanny (1965), Burnt Offerings (1976), The Watcher in the Woods (1980), and Wicked Stepmother (1989). Other examples of the genre – also known as “psycho-biddy” films or “Grande Dame Guignol” – include Lady in a Cage (1964) with Olivia de Havilland, Strait-Jacket (1964) and Berserk! (1967) with Joan Crawford, Die! Die! My Darling! (1967) with Tallulah Bankhead, and Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1972) with Shelley Winters.

…

— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub

Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.

Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.

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Classic Movie Travels October: Red Skelton

Posted on October 5, 2023 by Annette Bochenek

Classic Movie Travels October: Red Skelton

Red Skelton
Red Skelton

Richard Red Skelton was born on July 18, 1913, in Vincennes, Indiana. He was the fourth son born to Joseph and Ida Skelton. Skelton had three older brothers named Denny, Christopher, and Paul. Skelton’s father, a grocer and former Hagenbeck-Wallace circus clown, passed away two months prior to Skelton’s birth. 

Due to his father’s passing and his family’s poverty, Skelton began to work at a very young age. He sold newspapers and performed other odd jobs. While selling newspapers, Skelton became interested in an entertainment career. Comedian Ed Wynn visited Vincennes for a performance in 1923 when he encountered a young Skelton and inquired about which events were happening in town. Unwittingly, Skelton pitched Wynn’s own show to him. In response, Wynn purchased every newspaper in Skelton’s possession, affording Skelton enough money to purchase a ticket. Wynn took Skelton backstage and introduced him to the other entertainers, piquing Skelton’s interest in performance.

Skelton appeared in minstrel shows and on showboats in the Ohio and Missouri rivers, perfecting his comedic craft. He dropped out of school in his preteen years and worked in various stock companies, on the burlesque circuit, and with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus. With his mother’s blessing, Skelton left home and worked in traveling medicine shows and, later, vaudeville.

As the years went on, Skelton became a popular master of ceremonies at dance marathons. One of the winners, Edna Stillwell, would be Skelton’s first wife. Edna wrote some of his early comic material, negotiated a raise, and educated Skelton with textbooks until he received a high school equivalency degree.

Skelton and Edna traveled throughout the United States with their act, featuring new routines as well as their popular “Doughnut Dunkers” routine. In 1937, Skelton entertained President Franklin D. Roosevelt at a White House luncheon; after that performance, Skelton became the master of ceremonies for many of Roosevelt’s future birthday celebrations.

Red Skelton Radio
Red Skelton on the Radio

After a failed 1932 screen test, Skelton finally made his Hollywood film debut in Having Wonderful Time (1938). He could also be seen in two Vitaphone shorts: Seeing Red (1929) and The Broadway Buckaroo (1939). As for his MGM screen test, Skelton performed many of his other popular skits, including “Guzzler’s Gin” and impromptu performances of his “Imitation of Movie Heroes Dying.” His screen test was successful, leading to many MGM film roles, including Flight Command (1940), Dr. Kildare’s Wedding Day (1941), The People vs. Dr. Kildare (1941), Whistling in Dixie (1942), and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943).

Comedian Buster Keaton coached Skelton through his performance in I Dood It (1943), a remake of Keaton’s Spite Marriage (1929). Keaton was so impressed with Skelton that he asked MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer to create a small company for himself and Skelton in order to work on film projects, offering to forgo his salary if the films were not hits; Mayer declined the request.

Though working in films, Skelton’s interests were in radio and television. His MGM contract stipulated prior approval from the studio before any radio and guest appearances. He was able to renegotiate his contract to allow him to remain working in radio and on television. Skelton eventually became the sole studio contract player to have permission to also pursue television.

Ultimately, Skelton would go on the air with his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program after years of other radio performances. He developed an array of characters and personalities, including Clem Kadiddlehopper—based on one of Skelton’s former Vincennes neighbors—and Junior.

I Dood It Red Skelton MGM
I Dood It (1943) starring Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell

In 1943, Edna and Skelton divorced. She remained the manager of their funds, as Skelton had trouble managing his finances. Edna remained his financial advisor until 1952, receiving a weekly salary for the rest of her life for her efforts.

Skelton lost his married man’s deferment and was soon drafted into the army in 1944. His last Raleigh radio show aired in June of 1944 and his supporting stars—bandleader Ozzie Nelson and vocalist Harriet Hilliard—went on to their own radio show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

In 1945, Skelton married actress Georgia Maureen Davis. They had two children: Valentina and Richard.

Skelton served in the Special Services, performing 12 shows per day to troops in the U.S. and in Europe. He suffered from exhaustion and a nervous breakdown, also developing a stutter. While recovering, he devoted much of his time to entertaining a wounded soldier at the army hospital who was not expected to survive. Skelton’s stutter lessened and the soldier’s condition improved over time. By September 1945, Skelton was released from his army duties. 

After another return to radio, Skelton became particularly interested in the then-experimental medium of television. The Red Skelton Show premiered in 1951, allowing Skelton to craft many more characters for the small screen. His show closed with the words, “Good night and may God bless.” The show was initially broadcast on NBC and performed live. The show caused a strain on his physical health and in his marriage. NBC later agreed to have the show filmed in advance, though it caused issues with the show’s sponsor, Procter & Gamble. He eventually moved to CBS with the intent to only perform variety shows, soon making the transition to color television programs in 1955.

Tragically, Skelton’s son, Richard, was diagnosed with leukemia and given one year to live. Though Skelton continued to work in television, he ultimately took his family on a trip to see the world. The Skelton family had a private audience with Pope Pius XII in 1957. The trip was cut short after the family encountered an aggressive reporter in London. Skelton himself suffered from a cardiac-asthma attack in the same year, leading him to stay off the air for a month. Richard Skelton passed away 10 days before his 10th birthday on May 10, 1958. Skelton’s show was scheduled on the day of Richard’s interment. Skelton asked that guest performers be used instead. As a result, his friends in the industry—including Donald O’Connor, Vincent Price, and Sidney Miller—quickly organized The Friends of Red Skelton Variety Show, filmed to replace his usual television show for the week.

In 1960, Skelton purchased the old Charlie Chaplin Studios in order to use the location for videotape recording. CBS expanded his show to The Red Skelton Hour. One of the most famous moments of the show included Skelton performing a monologue explaining the Pledge of Allegiance, crediting his former Vincennes teacher with the original speech. CBS released the monologues as a single via Columbia Records, ultimately performing the monologue for President Nixon in the following year.

Red Skelton TV
Red Skelton on TV

Skelton’s program was cancelled by CBS in the early 1970s, leading Skelton to switch to NBC; however, his NBC program was also soon canceled. Afterwards, he returned to live performances and tours.

At this point, Skelton and Georgia had divorced in 1971. Sadly, Georgia committed suicide in 18th anniversary of Richard’s passing. Skelton put his work on hold as he mourned his former wife.

Skelton later married Lothian Toland, daughter of cinematographer Gregg Toland, in 1973. Skelton felt bitter about television networks due to the cancelations of this shows but he did make occasional guest appearances on other shows.

Behind the scenes, Skelton enjoyed painting for decades, inspired by a visit to a Chicago department store that had different paintings on display. His wife, Georgia, encouraged him to pursue painting, leading Skelton to have his initial public showing of his work in 1964. He typically painted pictures of clowns. In addition, he wrote stories and composed music.

Skelton passed away on September 17, 1997, in Rancho Mirage, California. He was 84 years old. Skelton was interred in the Skelton Family tomb alongside his son, Richard, and his second wife, Georgia, in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park—Glendale, California.

The Red Skelton Performing Arts Center was dedicated in 2006 at Vincennes University. It is located at 20 W. Red Skelton Blvd., Vincennes, Indiana. The performing arts center holds numerous displays and tributes to Skelton.

Red Skelton Center
The Red Skelton Performing Arts Center

In 2013, the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy opened its doors on what would have been Skelton’s centennial. The collection possesses many costumes, props, awards, and personal effects that belonged to Skelton. Per his wishes, he did not express interest in a Hollywood memorial, but to instead have his personal and professional artifacts displayed in his hometown. In addition, the museum holds a multipurpose classroom dubbed the “REDucation Room.” The museum is also located at 20 W. Red Skelton Blvd., Vincennes, Indiana.

Red Skelton make up case at Museum
Red’s Makeup Case

The town of Vincennes has held the Red Skelton Festival annually since 2005. Since Skelton considered himself a clown, the festival traditionally includes a clown parade.

Red Skelton Festival
The Red Skelton Festival

Across from the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy, visitors can spot Skelton’s birthplace. The home stands at 111 Lyndale St., Vincennes, Indiana, and is owned by Vincennes University. In 2017, the Indiana Historical Bureau dedicated a new historic marker to Skelton in front of the home.

Birthplace of Red Skelton Lyndale
Red Skelton’s Birthplace

Skelton is celebrated with a mural, located at 12 S. 3rd St., Vincennes, Indiana.

Red Skelton Mural
Red Skelton Mural

The Red Skelton Memorial Bridge links Illinois and Indiana on U.S. Route 50. Skelton attended the dedication in 1963.

Red Skelton Bridge
The Red Skelton Memorial Bridge

In 2022, Skelton was honored with a statue depicting him as a young boy, selling newspapers. Legend has it that he was selling papers outside of the Pantheon Theatre when vaudeville comedian Ed Wynn purchased his entire stack so that he could afford to come see Wynn’s show. The statue is located at 422 Main St., Vincennes, Indiana.

Red Skelton Boy
Red Skelton Statue in Vincennes, Indiana

During the 2023 Red Skelton Festival, the design for an eventual mural in Skelton’s honor was unveiled. Inspired by the “You Are the Star” mural in Hollywood, this mural features actors and actresses seated as audience members. They are being entertained by Wynn, who is depicted as exiting the stage and welcoming Skelton onstage.

Red Skelton Pantheon Theater Proposed
Proposed Red Skelton Mural

Skelton is honored with a bust at the Television Hall of Fame, located at 5220 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, California.

Red Skelton Bust
Red Skelton Bust at the Television Hall of Fame

Skelton resided at 444 E. Sonora Rd., Palm Springs, California, which stands today.

Skelton resided at 444 E. Sonora Rd., Palm Springs, California
444 E. Sonora Rd., Palm Springs, California

Skelton’s former horse ranch stands at 61489 Burnt Valley Rd., Anza, California.

Red Skelton’s former horse ranch stands at 61489 Burnt Valley Rd., Anza, California
61489 Burnt Valley Rd., Anza, California

Skelton’s estate at 37715 Thompson Rd., Rancho Mirage, California, also remains.

Skelton’s estate at 37715 Thompson Rd., Rancho Mirage, California
37715 Thompson Rd., Rancho Mirage, California

Skelton’s former Bel Air home stands at 801 Sarbonne Rd., Los Angeles, California.

Skelton’s former Bel Air home stands at 801 Sarbonne Rd., Los Angeles, California.
801 Sarbonne Rd., Los Angeles, California

Skelton is honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, celebrating his work in radio and television. His stars are located at 6763 Hollywood Blvd. and 6650 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, California, respectively.

Forest Lawn Memorial Park—Glendale is located at 1712 S. Glendale Ave., Glendale, California.

…

–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek pens our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. You can read all of Annette’s Classic Movie Travel articles here.

Annette Bochenek of Chicago, Illinois, is a PhD student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the Hometowns to Hollywood blog, in which she writes about her trips exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the “Hometowns to Hollywood” film series throughout the Chicago area. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies and is the president of TCM Backlot’s Chicago chapter. In addition to writing for Classic Movie Hub, she also writes for Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Chicago Art Deco SocietyMagazine.

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Western Roundup: The Lone Hand at McCrea Ranch

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Laura Grieve

The Lone Hand (1953) at McCrea Ranch

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful event at McCrea Ranch.

The ranch, located in Thousand Oaks, California, was the longtime home of Joel McCrea and his wife Frances Dee; I previously wrote about it and shared photos here in 2019 and again a few weeks ago.

McCrea Ranch
McCrea Ranch

This summer the ranch hosted a series of outdoor movie screenings which included The Lone Hand (1953). The Lone Hand is a Universal Pictures Western which starred McCrea, Barbara Hale (Perry Mason), and child actor Jimmy Hunt. It was directed by longtime Western “specialist” George Sherman.

Lone Hand Poster
The Lone Hand Poster

Tropical Storm Hilary was due to hit California the next day, but it was an absolutely beautiful evening when we gathered at the ranch to watch the movie. It was a real treat to have Jimmy Hunt on hand at the ranch for the screening!

McCrea Ranch Sunset
McCrea Ranch Sunset

Jimmy is now an 83-year-old great-grandfather. He first visited McCrea Ranch at the age of 12 and shared some very special memories with Joel’s grandson, Wyatt McCrea, and the audience before the movie.

McCrea Ranch docents Garth and Betsy listen in on a chat between Jimmy Hunt and Wyatt McCrea

Jimmy first appeared in films in 1947 and worked with Joel McCrea twice. Prior to The Lone Hand he appeared with Joel in Saddle Tramp (1950), which I wrote about in my very first Western RoundUp column back in 2018!

Jimmy Hunt
Jimmy Hunt

Jimmy was a very busy young actor, appearing in over 30 films between 1947 and 1953. His work ranged from bit parts to much larger roles in movies such as the film noir Pitfall (1948) and the classic sci-fi film Invaders From Mars (1953).

Jimmy had a very large, key role in The Lone Hand, including serving as narrator. While reminiscing about the film, Jimmy told us that of the many actors he worked with in his career, “My favorite person to act with was Joel McCrea.”

Lone Hand McCrea Hunt
Joel McCrea and Jimmy Hunt

Jimmy said Joel “treated me just like his son. He was so kind.” He would talk to Jimmy about whether Jimmy might like to own a ranch one day and even gave him licorice so he could pretend it was chewing tobacco, like the cowboy wranglers on the set used.

Jimmy said working with Joel McCrea was “one of the highlights of my acting career” and added “He was just a good man. There wasn’t a finer gentleman than Joel McCrea.”

Jimmy also had kind words for Barbara Hale, who becomes his stepmother in The Lone Hand, saying “She was a very nice lady.”

Jimmy shared that after his acting career he was a “typical teenager”; he later served in the military. He said “My life has been good. I got to do things most people don’t have the opportunity to do.”

Lone Hand Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale

As it happens, Jimmy eventually worked in the same field as my husband and when they chatted after the movie they learned they knew people in common, which was a fun, unexpected connection.

Jimmy has been long married and has three children, several grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Jimmy’s granddaughter, in fact, attended the event with him, which I thought was really special.

Wyatt and Jimmy McCrea
Wyatt McCrea and Jimmy Hunt

It had been over a dozen years since I last saw The Lone Hand, which was nicely projected on a large outdoor screen near the ranch’s visitor center. Since it had been so long since my last viewing I felt I was seeing it from a fresh perspective.

McCrea Ranch Visitor Center
McCrea Ranch Visitor Center

The story concerns widowed Zachary Hallock (McCrea), who settles with his son Joshua (Hunt) on a farm outside a small Western town.

Lone Hand McCrea Hunt 1
Joel McCrea and Jimmy Hunt

Soon thereafter Zachary marries lovely Sarah Jane (Hale), but soon both Sarah Jane and Joshua notice something amiss with Zachary’s behavior.

The Lone Hand Lobby Card 1
The Lone Hand Lobby Card

Sarah Jane and Joshua understandably come to believe that Zachary has gone bad, as he is involved with a gang of robbers, but there might be more to the situation than they realize…

Joel McCrea Barbara Hale
Barbara Hale and Joel McCrea

Sarah Jane and Joshua’s pain when they think the worst of Zachary is difficult to watch at times, making one wish the lack of communication didn’t go on for quite so long, but at the same time I enjoyed the movie considerably more this time around.

Lone Hand Hunt McCrea
Jimmy Hunt and Joel McCrea

I think seeing the film in a different context, knowing what to expect and being so much more familiar with the work of all involved, made it much more pleasurable. And the bottom line is that time spent with this cast is enjoyable no matter the story.

In addition to the fine trio of lead actors, the film has an excellent supporting cast, which includes familiar Western faces such as Charles Drake, Alex Nicol, James Arness, Roy Roberts, and Frank Ferguson.

Lone Hand McCrea Nicol Arness
Joel McCrea, Alex Nicol, James Arness

The movie’s beautiful Colorado locations, filmed in Technicolor by Maury Gertsman, are another big plus. The screenplay for this 80-minute film was by Joseph Hoffman, based on a story by Irving Ravetch.

Lone Hand 1
The Lone Hand

Having one of the film’s lead actors watching the movie with us, under the stars at McCrea Ranch, made this screening of The Lone Hand an especially memorable experience which I will long remember.

Shortly after the McCrea Ranch screening it was announced that Jimmy Hunt and Wyatt McCrea would reunite for another showing of The Lone Hand at the Lone Pine Film Festival on October 7, 2023. It’s a wonderful opportunity for anyone who’s able to attend!

The McCrea Ranch photographs accompanying this article are from the author’s personal collection.

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– 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.

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Silents are Golden: Silent Superstars: John Bunny and Flora Finch

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Lea Stans

Silents are Golden: Silent Superstars: John Bunny and Flora Finch

As a followup of sorts to my Vitagraph Studios piece, here’s a look at two of the company’s most popular stars, now considered icons of early 1910s screen comedy!

Still from A Cure for Pokeritis (1912).

It can be tempting to regard the silent era as a very well-defined unit of time, where all the films feature the cloche-hats-and-jazz era and where the existence of, say, a “nickelodeon era” is somewhat fuzzy and ill-defined. Just about everyone knows that the silent era was when Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd were the huge comedy stars, and they might also have heard of vague names like Rudolph Valentino and Louise Brooks.

But like any art form, silent film went through different stages, from primitive roots of little, one-shot films to the cinematographic perfection of the late 1920s. And the various genres within the “silent era” label evolved too, with various stars coming and going as the years went on. In fact, years before Chaplin started appearing in films, audiences were fans of other comedy stars–such as Vitagraph’s John Bunny and Flora Finch.

Bunny and Finch posing together
Bunny and Finch posing together.

The cheery, rotund Bunny, with a face that looked like it was fished out of a puddle, and the rail-thin, pointy-nosed Finch, were the sort of characters that made for a naturally funny-looking screen pairing. Vitagraph first teamed them up in 1910, and they would go on to appear in dozens of one-reel comedies together–about one a week over the course of five years.

Bunny
Bunny

Bunny was born in Brooklyn in 1863 and had English and Irish heritage. He began his busy stage career in the 1880s. After 25 years of appearing in everything from humble traveling shows to Shakespeare plays on Broadway, he began to notice how motion pictures were capturing audiences’ attention. More perceptive than many of his colleagues, he felt certain that cinema was going to be the next big thing and would likely cause “lean times” on the stage. Thus, in 1910 he decided to get into the motion picture game himself.

Initially he found it difficult to join a studio, thanks to his theatrical pedigree–the ramshackle studios of the time thought they couldn’t afford to pay him what he was worth. He was finally hired by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton of the Vitagraph company, although they also had concerns since most Vitagraph actors made $5 a day. Much to their surprise, Bunny agreed on a $40 a week salary, about a fifth of what he was making on the stage.

Finch
Finch

Flora Finch, born in 1867 in Surrey, England, also had a career on the stage. Her whole family worked in music halls and other forms of theater, and Finch herself eventually joined the Ben Greet Players, who specialized in traveling Shakespeare shows. She immigrated to the U.S. around 1908, the same year of her first film credit in the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company film The Helping Hand. She was in several Biograph shorts for the next year or so, including the short comedy Those Awful Hats (1909). Intended as a humorous way to tell ladies to remove their hats at the movie theater, Finch’s character insists on wearing a comically large hat and gets removed from the theater with a crane.

In 1910 Finch left Biograph and started working for Vitagraph, where she stood out with her bony, cartoonish look and ability to do both broad slapstick and sweeter, more emotional scenes. Her first pairing with Bunny was in The New Stenographer (1911), where she played the “very capable, but extremely homely” stenographer.

bunny and finch Still from The New Stenographer (1911).
Still from The New Stenographer (1911).

Bunny and Finch quickly made an impression on audiences and their one-reel films were soon in high demand. Exhibitors started referring to their films as “Bunnyfinches” and “Bunnygraphs.” While broad slapstick was becoming a trend in comedies thanks to busy companies like Keystone, Vitagraph specialized in genteel humor that usually revolved around domestic worries and marital disharmony. The acting style tended to be more natural, more adapted to the subtleties picked up by the camera.

bunny and finch A Lawrence, Kansas theater in 1912.
A Lawrence, Kansas theater in 1912.

Bunny and Finch’s films often had them playing husband and wife, with Bunny usually getting himself into mischief that he tries to conceal from his slightly uptight but not unloving spouse. Many of the films had simple, comical premises. In Bunny’s Birthday Surprise (1913), Finch wants to throw a surprise dinner party for her husband’s birthday. Unbeknownst to her, Bunny arrives home exhausted from his workday and puts on pajamas and heads to bed. When the guests arrive, she calls him to come downstairs and “he is seen in that garb by the scandalized guests when he turns on the electric lights.”

bunny and finch Theater ad for The Feudists (1913).
Theater ad for The Feudists (1913).

Other films were a bit more elaborate. In the two-reel Father’s Flirtation (1914), for example, the couple visit their daughter at college and Bunny meets a pretty widow who owns a boarding house. While he tries to call on her, his wife and daughter show up at the boarding house and he hides under a bed. He then steals a dress to disguise himself and ends up in a big chase. A Cure for Pokeritis (1912), where “Mrs. Sharpe” tries to end her husband’s poker addiction by staging a fake police raid, is probably the most well-known Bunnyfinch today–one of the small number that has survived.

bunny and finch Still from Father’s Flirtation (1913).
Still from Father’s Flirtation (1913).

Unfortunately, Bunny and Finch’s prolific partnership would only last a few years. Bunny’s health declined and he would pass away from Bright’s disease in 1915. Finch would continue acting in a series of “Flora films” by her own company, but they weren’t as successful, and she would mainly focus on doing smaller roles in feature films. Audiences were still fond of her, however, and when she was cast in the Valentino vehicle Monsieur Beaucaire (1924) director Sidney Olcott had to assure everyone that she had a weekly contract and wasn’t just an extra. Finch would pass away in 1940 at the age of 70 from blood poisoning, not long after making a brief appearance in the MGM feature The Women (1939).

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–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

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.

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Noir Nook: Must-See Marie

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Noir Nook: Must-See Marie

We need to talk about Marie Windsor.

She was gorgeous. Talented. Adept at playing dames from the deadly side of the tracks, but able to hold her own in comedy as well.

And she once held the title of Miss D. & R.G. Railroad.

But for my money, Windsor is most worth celebrating for her presence in the world of film noir, with memorable roles in several pictures from the era, including two of my all-time favorite, absolutely must-see noirs. But more of that in a bit . . .

Marie Windsor
Marie Windsor

Born Emily Marie Bertelson in December 1919, Windsor was a native of Marysvale, Utah, and was captivated by acting as a child, once recalling that, at the age of eight, she decided that she wanted to be “another Clara Bow.”

“No one in the family ever said, ‘Oh, don’t be silly’ or ‘You can’t,’” Windsor said. “If that’s what I wanted, they were going to help me.” And help they did; her parents’ support included driving her to a town 30 miles away for weekly dancing and drama lessons. After high school, she studied drama for two years at Brigham Young University, and after winning the aforementioned Miss D. & R.G. Railroad beauty contest, Windsor used her prize of 99 silver dollars to buy a set of luggage and make her way to Hollywood. Once there, she sought out famed actress Maria Ouspenskaya – memorable in such films as Dodsworth (1936) and Kings Row (1942) – who took her on as a student.

Windsor paid for her room and board by working as a cigarette girl at the popular Mocambo nightclub, a job that wound up leading to her first big break. One night at the club, she was assisting producer Arthur Hornblow with his coat when he asked her, “Are you working at this job because you want to be an actress?” Windsor replied that she was and Hornblow responded, “You don’t belong here.” He arranged for her to have an audition and a short time later, she made her big screen debut as “Miss Carrot” in the Frances Langford starrer, All American Co-ed (1941).

After bit parts in a series of pictures, Windsor moved to New York where she appeared on more than 300 radio shows and was seen on stage in plays like Follow the Girls, which attracted the attention of an MGM exec and led to a two-year contract with the studio. But despite appearing in 15 films alongside such luminaries as Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, and Frank Sinatra, Windsor failed to make a splash until 1948 when she entered the shadowy noir realm with Force of Evil, earning nearly unanimous praise for her performance as the predatory wife of a syndicate king. She would go on to appear in several more noirs, including the two that I love best: The Narrow Margin (1952) and The Killing (1956).

Marie Windsor in The Narrow Margin with Charles McGraw
Marie Windsor in The Narrow Margin with Charles McGraw

The Narrow Margin stars Charles McGraw as Det. Sgt. Walter Brown, a Los Angeles law officer who’s tasked with secretly escorting a mobster’s widow, Mrs. Frankie Neall, from Chicago to L.A. via train so that she can provide grand jury testimony about her late husband’s “payoff list.” The need for secrecy and the danger involved are made glaringly apparent early on, when Brown’s partner (Don Beddoe) is gunned down in Mrs. Neall’s apartment stairwell with a bullet that was intended for her.

Windsor plays Mrs. Neall and gives us a pretty significant peek at her persona from her first appearance. It comes when Brown and his partner arrive at Neall’s apartment to take her to the train. She’s smoking a cigarette and listening to music (which, judging by the reaction of the cop who’s been guarding her, must have been playing non-stop). When she’s introduced to her escorts, she blows smoke in Brown’s face and derisively inquires, “How’s Los Angeles? Sunburn wear off on the way out?”

And that’s just the first of many wisecracks and smart alecky jabs served up by Mrs. Neall. Once safely inside her train compartment, she’s needling Brown non-stop, from complaining about the meals (“The food stinks and so does your company!”) to vehemently urging him to accept the bribe he’s been offered to turn over the payoff list. “You’re a bigger idiot than I thought,” she tells him. “Wake up, Brown – this train’s headed straight for the cemetery. But there’s another one coming along. The gravy train. Let’s get on it.”

Sadly, for the viewer, Windsor’s character takes her leave about halfway through the film. While she’s still around, though, she steals every scene, more than holding her own with the gruff and growly Charles McGraw and spitting out her lines like they leave a bad taste behind. The release of the film was delayed for 18 months by RKO head Howard Hughes, but that didn’t stop critics from noticing Windsor’s standout performance – she was singled out by several reviewers, including one who praised her ”splendidly incisive” performance and said she “looked capable of halving a railroad spoke with her teeth.” He wasn’t wrong.

Marie Windsor in The Killing with Elisha Cook, Jr.
Marie Windsor in The Killing with Elisha Cook, Jr.

My other favorite Windsor film, The Killing (1956), tells the tale of a motley crew of regular Joes who unite to pull off a crafty racetrack payroll heist. The group is led by recently released ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) and includes a beat cop (Ted de Corsia), a bartender (Joe Sawyer), and a mousy racetrack cashier named George Peatty (Elisha Cook, Jr.). Despite the intricate and nearly foolproof scheme, it goes the way of many a well-laid plan and winds up in the crapper – but it’s a great ride while it hangs together.

As Sherry Peatty, Windsor is the wife of the aforementioned mousy cashier, and believe me when I tell you, she’s a real piece of work. She clearly married George solely because of the lofty promises he made to her: “Something about hitting it rich and having an apartment on Park Avenue and a different car for every day of the week,” Sherry reminds him. “Not that I really care about such things, understand, as long as I have a big, handsome, intelligent brute like you.”

Sporting a blonde wig that puts Phyllis Dietrichson’s coiffure to shame, Sherry is a fascinating character. She’s an unabashed gold-digger and a remorseless two-timer who wouldn’t think twice about double-crossing her hubby in favor of a younger, stronger, more handsome model (Vince Edwards). But she’s no fool. On more than one occasion, she not only demonstrates her intelligence, but also her ability to maintain grace under pressure and think on her feet. One of my favorite examples of this comes when she gets caught snooping around Johnny’s apartment as he meets with the men involved in the heist. Johnny knocks her unconscious and when she comes to, she first tries flirting with him and then she makes up a whopper about finding his address in her husband’s pocket and suspecting him of stepping out on her. And then, for good measure, she goes back to playing the coquette. Even Johnny has to admit that he’s impressed: “You’re a no-good, nosy little tramp. You’d sell out your own mother for a piece of fudge. But you’re smart along with it.”

No matter how many times I see Windsor’s performance in The Killing – and I’ve seen it so often I lost count long ago – I’m positively mesmerized. She gives a master class in bringing the femme fatale to life; whether she’s merely applying cold cream to remove her make-up or using her feminine wiles to extract secrets from George, you won’t be able to take you eyes off of her. Interestingly, Windsor got the role of Sherry after director Stanley Kubrick saw her performance in The Narrow Margin. “The minute he picked up the paperback that became The Killing, he told [his partner] that he wanted me for Sherry,” Windsor recalled. She would later count the film as one of her favorites.

I must say, she certainly had good taste.

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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

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:

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Silver Screen Standards: Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Posted on September 12, 2023 by Jennifer Garlen

Silver Screen Standards: Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944)

Humphrey Bogart might be the most iconic version of Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled detective, Philip Marlowe, but Dick Powell gives a surprisingly perfect take on the character in the 1944 noir classic, Murder, My Sweet, adapted from Chandler’s 1940 novel, Farewell, My Lovely. If you’ve only seen Powell as a hoofer in early musical hits like 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), and Footlight Parade (1933), it can be something of a shock to find him embodying a quintessential tough guy like Marlowe, but his success in the role allowed him to part ways with his musical comedy past and embrace darker, more dramatic parts in middle age, when youthful dancers no longer suited him. Powell gets ample support from the rest of the cast in this crackling noir caper, with Claire Trevor and Mike Mazurki in particularly fine form as two of the shady characters Marlowe encounters, but it’s Powell himself who really leads with his convincing take on the classic detective.

Murder Sweet Powell cops
The picture opens with a blinded Marlowe (Dick Powell) being questioned by the police about his involvement in a tangled web of crimes.

The mystery begins when Marlowe is hired by recently released convict Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki), who wants to track down his former girlfriend, Velma. Moose still loves Velma even though she stopped writing during his prison term, but a lot can happen in eight years, and Velma proves elusive. Meanwhile, Marlowe is also hired by Lindsay Marriott (Douglas Walton) to help retrieve a stolen jade necklace for Marriott’s married lady friend, Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor). When Marlowe and Marriott are jumped at the meeting spot, and Marriott ends up dead, Marlowe feels obligated to salvage his business reputation by tracking down the killer. His investigation lands him in trouble with the cops as he becomes entangled in the schemes of psychic swindler Jules Amthor (Otto Kruger), but Marlowe is also drawn in by Helen’s pretty stepdaughter, Ann (Anne Shirley), who hates Helen but is determined to protect her beloved father, Leuwen (Miles Mander).

Murder Sweet Trevor
Claire Trevor plays the sexy but unscrupulous Helen Grayle, who asks Marlowe to help her after Marriott is murdered.

Powell’s Marlowe has a scrappy, wry charm, though he’s rarely seen at his best in this story, which takes particular delight in abusing its protagonist. He suffers repeated blows to the head, falls into dark pools of unconsciousness, is attacked by Moose, gets kidnapped and drugged out of his mind for three days, and opens and closes the picture with damaged eyes wrapped in bandages. Even when he isn’t being roughed up he looks ragged, like a guy with a lot of miles behind him but not much to show for it. I’m especially struck by the scene with Marlowe in his undershirt, partly because we had so memorably seen Powell in the same state of undress back in his younger days in 42nd Street. In Murder, My Sweet, it looks like Powell has been wearing the same undershirt for the last eleven years; it’s stretched out and ill-fitting, but Marlowe isn’t going to waste money on new undershirts as long as the old ones hold together. Instead of a proper belt he wears a piece of cloth to hold up his pants, probably because it’s 1944 and there’s a war on, with a leather shortage leading to rationing, but also because even without a war Marlowe can’t afford the luxury of a new leather belt. Powell is a perpetually broke, middle-aged Marlowe who looks like it. When Helen makes love to him we know it’s phony, and so does he, because only a romantic kid like Ann could actually fall for a cash strapped, forty-something private eye whose personal codes – of honor, justice, or sheer contrariness – constantly land him in danger. These are the qualities that make Marlowe such a perfect noir hero, and Powell really digs into the character and makes us believe in him.

Murder Sweet drugs
Marlowe suffers frightening hallucinations after being kidnapped and drugged by a group of criminals.

Everything else about the picture supports that perfect noir mood. Director Edward Dmytryk treats us to reflections and shadows, looming blackness, and drug-fueled hallucinations. We see Moose, huge and menacing, reflected in Marlowe’s office window, and Helen smoking in the dark, a cloud of cigarette smoke rising in the moonlight above her head. They are all inhabitants of Dark City, the nighttime world of secrets, lies, and murder where Marlowe is a battered knight errant in search of a damsel in distress but just as likely to find a femme fatale. It’s fitting that he begins and ends the movie blinded, noir’s own figure of a certain kind of Justice, because Marlowe is always in the dark himself, groping for pieces of the truth while everybody lies to him. This theme reaches its peak in the delirious drug scene, with a helpless, panicked Marlowe running through imaginary doors like a Gothic heroine while the faces of his tormentors rise up before him. That feminization of a tough guy might seem strange, even contradictory, but it gets at the heart of noir by highlighting the powerlessness of the disenfranchised individual against a corrupt system that seeks to abuse, control, or destroy those who oppose it. Personally, I think that’s one of the main reasons I love classic noir, because I see myself in characters like Philip Marlowe just like I see myself in Gothic heroines like Jane Eyre. A film like Murder, My Sweet stays with the viewer, and remains relevant decade after decade, because so many of us can look at Dick Powell’s outsider hero and see ourselves reflected in his world-weary face.

Murder Sweet Powell Shirley
Still blind, Marlowe ends the picture with Ann Grayle (Ann Shirley) keeping him company instead of the cops.

If you’re eager to experience more of Dick Powell’s darker roles, try Cornered (1945), Johnny O’Clock (1947), and Pitfall (1948). For a lighter take on the Marlowe type, catch Powell as a reincarnated dog turned private detective in the weirdly delightful fantasy, You Never Can Tell (1951). Edward Dmytryk’s other noir films include Cornered (1947), Obsession (aka The Hidden Room, 1949), and Crossfire (1947). In addition to Bogart and Powell, other actors who have played Philip Marlowe are Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake (1947), George Montgomery in The Brasher Doubloon (1947), James Garner in Marlowe (1969), Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye (1973), and Robert Mitchum in Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978). Most recently, Liam Neeson took up the role for the 2022 film, Marlowe, but the movie garnered poor reviews and little success at the box office.

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— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub

Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.

Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.

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