Showing posts with label MGM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MGM. Show all posts

Thursday, June 23, 2022

'Edge of Doom' is a fascinating look at the psychological effects of poverty

Edge of Doom (1950)
Starring: Farley Granger, Dana Andrews, Paul Stewart, Robert Keith, Joan Evans, Mala Powers, Howard Vermilyea, Houseley Stevenson, and Adele Jergens
Director: Mark Robson
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When his devoutly religious, beloved mother dies, Martin (Granger) snaps under the pressure of living life in poverty and murders an elderly priest (Vermilyea) he blames for much of his misery. As he spirals deeper into despair and madness, Martin becomes obsessed with getting enough money to provide his mother with the elaborate funeral he feels she deserves.

Farley Granger in "Edge of Doom"

"Edge of Doom" had the potential to be one of the bleakest, most depressing, and emotionally impactful films ever made. It takes place almost entirely at night, which is an embodiment of the everpresent gloom in the impoverished inner-city neighborhood in which the story unfolds. The central character is one of the working poor who, despite living an honest life and working hard can't get ahead. There is no way to not feel empathy for him, because circumstances have literally been against him his whole life. The film gets even darker, because those in his life who could possibly stop his downward spiral are either self-interested criminals, trying to keep their own heads above water, or so distracted and/or burned out by the unending cycle misery and social and economic struggles of the neighborhood that they are blind to Martin's meltdown and that they have the ability to stop it.

The villains in this picture aren't any of the characters (although Paul Stewart, in an excellently performed supporting role, comes close to filling that slot)... no, the villains here are Fate, Luck, and perhaps Society. It's rare that a film that a film successfully manages to have ephemeral concepts as the primarily antagonists in a story, but "Edge of Doom" pulls it off. Mostly. Some terrible decisions are made, which I get into below.

The set design, camerawork, and lighting are excellent and all work together to emphasize the unescapable gloom that permeates the neighborhood and infects everybody. Most of the performances are likewise fitting for the characters and situations, with the way the characters are written and how the actors portray them . Even the main police detectives who initially seem to be one-dimensional, dimwitted bully-boys that populated many films of the 1930s and 1940s, end up being portrayed with some nuance, both due to the story and to actors portraying them. 

Although Farley Granger does not get top billing, he is the undisputed star of the film. His character is central to almost everything that happens in the picture, and he has more screen time than any other actor. He also delivers a star-caliber performance, even if he goes a little over the top on a couple of occasions. He's not as good here as he is in "Strangers on a Train" (which he would star in the following year), but it's close.

With all the praise I'm heaping on "Edge of Doom", why is it only getting a Six-Star rating? Well, because someone, somewhere, made the absolutely awful decision to tell the story in flashback, bookending the main story with a sequence featuring Dana Andrews trying to convince a young priest to not quit the parish, because, despite the harsh nature of life there, he has a chance to make a difference if he just sticks with it. This sappy framing sequence not only undermines the dark tone of the story, but it removes any tension that surrounds Andrews' character as the main story unfolds, since we already know how his part in it ends. 

Dana Andrews and Farley Granger in "Edge of Doom" (1950)

The cheesy narration that the flashback structure provides an excuse for, further undermines the tone of the film and brings to the fore what might otherwise have been a preachy under-current. The message that poverty breaks those trapped in in and those who try to get them out of it is delivered clearly enough through the story without the narrator beating us over the head with it. It also undermines Andrews character, since he does seem like a devout, humble and empathetic priest and not a holier-than-thou, preachy one--which is what the voice-over narration borders on. And this is a real shame, because Andrews does a good job with the character otherwise.My dislike of the framing sequence and related narration can't be overstated, and it caused me to knock at least a Star off my rating.

Despite the terrible decision to tell the dark and tragic story of "Edge of Doom" in a flashback sandwiched by a hokey priestly pep talk, I think this is a film that's well worth watching. Farley Granger and Dana Andrews are both very good, and their performances are enhanced by equally remarkable performances from the supporting cast. As mentioned above, Paul Stewart is particularly impressive as Martin's sleazy neighbor. Adele Jergens, as Stewart's wife play a much smaller part, but she is equally remarkable. Both these characters are obviously bad people, but they are portrayed with deftness and nuance by the actors to the point where the viewers can actually find them somewhat sympathetic.

If you are an Amazon Prime subscriber, "Edge of Doom" is, as of this writing, one of the films you can watch for free. Click here to check it out.


Tuesday, November 24, 2020

'Guilty Hands' turns mystery tropes upside down

Guilty Hands (1931)
Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Kay Francis, Madge Evans, Alan Mowbray, William Blakewell, and C. Aubrey Smith
Director: W.S. Van Dyke and Lionel Barrymore
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Richard Grant (Barrymore), a former district attorney now in private law practice, conceives and commits the perfect murder to protect his naïve daughter (Evans) from a long-time client who is a sociopathic monster (Mowbray). 


"Guilty Hands" is one of those films that turns the standard tropes of detective stories upside down. Not only do we know who committed the murder and why, but the authority figure directing the investigation is also the murderer and all he's doing is shoring up the idea that his staged suicide WAS suicide and that there is no other explanation that his victim killed himself.

The tension in the plot arises from the viewers wanting Grant to get away with his crime, because the man he murdered was a piece of garbage that needed to be taken out, but also from the knowledge that Grant is a killer and he shouldn't be allowed to get away with it. There's also the minor mystery as to how Grant managed to make it appear as if he was in his rooms even as he was committing murder... a question that the one character who suspects the truth--the victim's long-time lover Marjorie (Kay Francis)--sets out to answer, even as Grant is convincing everyone, including the police, that his version of events is the only possible explanation. The stakes are upped when Marjorie finds the evidence she is looking for, but will it be enough to overcome Grant's expertly staged "suicide" and the high regard he is held in? (There are a couple other twists that keep the tension growing as the film unfolds--and the ultimate conclusion remains in doubt until, literally, the film's final moment.)

From the mysterious, somewhat disorienting opening shot and dialogue through the dramatic climax "Guilty Hands" moves along at such a rapid clip that it's 69-minute runtime feels much shorter; there isn't a second wasted on things that don't either establish characters and/or drive the narrative forward. Although this is without question Lionel Barrymore and Kay Francis's movie--they have the best scenes and lines, and when they're playing off each other, they give us the film's most dramatic moments--but the rest of the cast is also perfect in their parts. 

Madge Evans, as the young lady who is about to make the biggest mistake of her life, is so charming and likable; and Alan Mowbray, as the truly awful man who uses and disposes of women as casually as he does paper napkins, is so smarmy and downright obnoxious both give such excellent performances that the audience accepts Grant's notion that some murders are not only morally justifiable but necessary. Evans and Mowbray may not be the stars, but they provide the fuel for Barrymore and Francis's explosive performances and thus are every bit as important to the film's overall greatness. (Francis also has a scene with Mowbray that is among one of the film's highlights, where Francis and Mowbray act out a scene that solidifies just how vile a character the soon-to-be murder victim is.)

Alan Mowbray and Kay Francis in "Guilty Hands"

With all the praise I'm heaping on the actors and the story of this film, why is it only getting a Seven of Ten? Because for all the excellence here, there are some really baffling displays of technical incompetence d craftsmanship so inept that amateurs might have been embarrassed to have the work be seen by the public.

First, there are several instances of sloppy editing that causes minor continuity errors (like characters repeating the same actions twice in row), and moments of actors standing still and waiting for someone to shout "Actions!" or starting to relax after "Cut!" has been exclaimed. Second, and far worse, is the laughably bad sound design. I realize sound was new, but the frequently recurring sounds of thunder in this film sound like something you might expect to hear in a community theatre, but which is completely laughable in a film featuring major stars that was made by a major studio. In fact, the thunder in this film is so bad that it couldn't have sound more phony if it was done on purpose. It would have completely undermined the second half of the movie if not for the excellent performances and tight script.

"Guilty Hands" is one of five films in the "Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 10" collection, and it is almost worth the price by itself.

Friday, July 12, 2019

'Alum and Eve' brings chaos to the hospital

Alum and Eve (1932)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, and James Morton
Director: George Marshall
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Thelma (Todd) tries to lie her way out of a speeding ticket by telling the highway patrol officer (Morton) that she was rushing her sick friend (Pitts) to see a doctor. When the officer kindly offers to help by giving a police escort, a of events are set into motion that throws an entire hospital into chaos.


"Alum and Eve" has a set-up that we've seen in other Pitts/Todd/Kelly comedies--the ladies are out driving and trouble ensues (like in "The Old Bull" and "Beauty and the Bus")--but this one takes a crazier and darker turn than an in any of the shorts in this series I've seen so far. This is one of those films where I can't go into to many details without ruining the viewing experience, but I think that if Hal Roach had hired H.P. Lovecraft to write a comedy starring Pitts & Todd, it would have turned out something like what we have here: What starts as a simple lie swiftly descends into a hilarious chaotic madness and doom!

Although I count this one among the best Pitts/Todd teamings I've watched so far (which is about half of the ones they made together), its flaws are pretty big. Primarily, there are a couple slapstick scenes go on for too long. First, there's a bit  where the ZaSu Pitts character is being manhandled by James Morton's highway patrol officer in an effort to get her into the hospital, but Pitts is replaced by a poorly concealed body-double which all but ruins the scene. This is followed almost immediately with a sequence involving the three stars, two orderlies, and a nurse, all tangled up in a gurney; it starts out mildly amusing, but becomes boring and dumb as it drags on. Both of these are within the first five minutes of this 18-minute film... which left with with low expectations for what was to follow.

"Alum and Eve" gets much, much better, however. Once the characters are either causing mayhem in the hospital examining rooms, or our two heroines are trying to escape before ZaSu is either subjected to some unpleasant and unnecessary medical procedures or Thelma is hauled off to jail for lying to a police officer, this is one funny movie. While I was particularly appreciated the insane, dark humor at play here, I am also very fond of a gag where Thelma Todd scampering around in her slip (since she, once again, manages to lose her clothes) brings about a medical miracle.


As for the the performances by the various actors in the film--everyone is great in their parts. This is another one where Todd and Pitts get to play to their strengths as performers, and every member of their supporting cast is perfect in their roles. The chemistry between Pitts and Todd on-screen also makes it perfectly believable that not only would ZaSu continue to play along with Todd's increasingly outlandish stories as to why she needs to have medical treatment, but that Todd will also make every effort to extract her friend from the situation she's gotten her into.

This is one of 17 short films that ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd made together, and they've all been collected into a single DVD set. It's one of the reasons you should pick it up, especially if you've enjoyed more famous Hal Roach productions, such as the short films starring Laurel & Hardy or Harold Lloyd.


Trivia: The Alum of the title (and a major part of the action during the final third of the film), is a compound that was used to cauterize cuts, because it causes skin to tighten. (I looked it up, so I thought I'd share this tidbit.) I've no idea if it still used medically today, but it apparently is still used in home-made preserves and pickling.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

'War Mamas' is mildly amusing

War Mamas (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Guinn Williams, Alan Lane, Stuart Holmes, and Charles Judel
Director: Marshall Neilan
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A pair of WWI nurses (Pitts and Todd) take a wrong turn and end up behind the German lines together with their prank-playing US Army boyfriends (Alan Lane and Guinn Williams). After being sheltered by a sympathetic French noblewoman, the girls concoct a plan to get safely back to friendly territory.



"War Mamas" is a war-time comedy that is full of jokes and gags that were probably well-worn even in 1931. If you loved "Hogan's Heroes", you're bound to get a kick out of this film, even though the timeframe is WW1 rather than WW2: The German officers are the same loud, self-important dimwits, and the Americans are the same plucky tricksters who run circles around them.

Although it might not have you laughing out loud, I think at the very least everyone will watch "War Mamas" with a smile on their faces. There's never a dull moment, and while none of the gags are innovative, they're all well-executed. The cast all do a great job in their parts, but everyone is pretty much also playing roles they've done numerous times before... and will play again in future productions from Hal Roach and other studios, big and small. The highlights of the film is the bit where Thelma Todd is standing between two bellowing Germans, a German officer is trying to seduce ZaSu Pitts,  is the strip poker game our heroines play with the German officers.


"War Mamas" is one of 17 short films that co-starred Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts. They are available in the Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection, 1931 - 1933.



Thursday, May 9, 2019

'The Pajama Party' was a bust

The Pajama Party (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, Eddie Dunn, Elizabeth Forrester, Donald Novis, and Charlie Hall
Directors: Marshall Neilan and Hal Roach
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

ZaSu and Thelma (Pitts and Todd) attend a decadent party after its hostess (Forrester) runs their car off the road and into a lake. Things go from strange to miserable when it turns out their boyfriends (Dunn and Novis) have been hired to provide musical entertainment, and the guys think they are being two-timed.


"The Pajama Party" runs 20 minutes, but it feels longer. Few of the jokes are funny, none of the gags come off quite right, and rather than feeling amused, you're probably going to feel embarrassed on behalf of ZaSu Pitts and Thelma Todd as they try to fit in among the childish, spoiled high society people they have been forced to spend time with. Further, while usually films of this type usually see the snobbish upper-crust get deflated, we don't even really get to enjoy that here.

The high points of the film (such as they are) involve Pitts and Todd interacting with the maids charged with cleaning them up after their water-logged traffic mishap, with Todd responding to the non-English speaking maid in Pig Latin being a cute bit. Charlie Hall is also amusing as he stumbles his way through the party as a drunk attracted to ZaSu... but Hall is only a bright spot because everything else is so weak.

"The Pajama Party" is one of 17 short films included in the two DVD set Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection 1931 - 1933, and I hope it's the low point of those films. The commentary by Richard M. Roberts paints a picture of a troubled production, helmed by a director/producer whose personal and professional life was falling apart, and who was fired before the film was fully completed, so that could explain part of why this is such a weak effort. Even allowing for that, I am starting to fear that Hal Roach made a big mistake when he took Todd away from Charley Chases' production unit to have her anchor a series of her own. Her films with Chase were spectacular, and so far none of the Pitts/Todd series have been as good.


Thursday, January 31, 2019

'Whispering Whoopee' is lots of fun

Whispering Whoopee (1930)
Starring: Charlie Chase, Dolores Brinkman, Anita Garvin, Thelma Todd, Eddie Dunn, Carl Stockdale, Dale Henderson, and Tennen Holz
Director: James Horne
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Charley (Chase) hires three escorts (Brinkman, Garvin, and Todd) to service three members of the Rockaway Chamber of Commerce (Henderson, Holz, and Stockdale) to help him close a land sale. After it initially seems his plan is doomed to failure, the party gets wilder than Charley anticipated.


"Whispering Whoopee" is a straight-forward comedy with a simple plot and mostly straight-forward, simple jokes, but every one of those jokes lands perfectly, and every cast member is great in their parts. The picture was written and filmed on a very tight schedule, as it was conceived in order to keep cast and crew working, and the Hal Roach Studio's release schedule on track, when bad weather delayed filming of the many outdoor scenes in the golfing-based comedy "All Teed Up". Given the circumstances under which it was created and filmed, it's really impressive how perfect everything seems. The pinnacle of the film is a scene where all the characters are spraying each other with seltzer water, and there's a bit in there that makes fun of synchronized swimming/ice dancing that underscores the simplicity of the movie's humor but also that the exactness in its delivery makes it exceptional. 

While Charley Chase is the lead in the film, it is also very much an ensemble comedy. Each actor gets to do their own bits, or a bit with a partner. Among Chase's co-stars, Dolores Brinkman gets some of the best lines, and she shows herself to have plenty of screen presence and comedic timing. It's a shame that she never managed to propel her acting career above the level of bit parts, because, based on what I see her, she had plenty of talent. She also plays the role in this film that I would assume would have been filled by Todd if this film had not been inserted into the production schedule the way it was; Todd is seen in fewer shots than other cast members, and of the ladies in the film she has has the fewest lines; I assume she may have been going to other sets even while working on "Making Whoopee".

Getting back to Brinkman for a moment: As things would turn out, her role in "Making Whoopee" would be her final screen appearance. Interestingly, Chase's co-star in "One of the Smiths", Peggy Howard, was also a pretty actress who never "made it", and who's last credit was in a Charley Chase film. I wonder if I will find this to be pattern as I watch more of Chase's films from the early 1930s. Together with Hal Roach, Chase was in the process of turning Thelma Todd into a hugely popular comedienne... perhaps they were trying to capture that same magic with another actress? This seems like a reasonable idea to me, since, mere months after this film was made, Todd would be headlining her own series of comedic shorts. Perhaps Chase and Roach were perhaps looking ahead to fill Todd's role in the line-up of performers working with Chase? Perhaps they were looking for someone to team with Todd in the series of films that Roach was already considering--films starring the "Female Laurel & Hardy"?


I confess that I have neither the historical knowledge, nor the drive to do the research, to elevate anything in the previous paragraph past the level of speculation. Over the next few months, however, as I watch more Charley Chase and Thelma Todd films, as well as a smattering of Laurel & Hardy and other Hal Roach productions, and do my usual superficial research into the actors appearing in them, maybe I'll find something to either prove or disprove the speculation above.

All that is tangential to "Whispering Whoopee", which is a hilarious comedy that makes it easy to see why Charley Chase was second only in popularity to Laurel & Hardy when it came to Hal Roach's galaxy of stars. It's a shame that he and his work is mostly forgotten, but it's also easy to see why: His films are more rooted in the culture of the time within which they were made than the Laurel & Hardy pictures were. Comedies driven by Chase were focused more around social situations, while those with Stan Laurel's brain behind them were more about the human condition, so the latter have stood the test of time better. Nonetheless, a 90-year-old Charley Chase film is more finely crafted and funnier than many modern comedies, and I'll take a quickie production like "Whispering Whoopee" over almost any modern sit-com I've sampled in recent years.

"Whispering Whoopee" is one of 17 short films starring Charlie Chase that are included in the two DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: The Talkies 1930 - 1931. Many of them also feature or co-star Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, and other popular Roach regulars.


Thursday, January 24, 2019

A Forgotten King of Comedy (and a Queen)

During the early 1920s, comedian Harry Langdon was a star on the magnitude of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. As sound films became the Thing, bad project choices and worse business decisions had put his career on a disastrously downward trajectory.  In 1929, he joined the Hal Roach studios with a contract to star in and supervise a series of short films.

The video embedded below is reportedly the first time Langdon's voice was heard by movie-viewing audiences. This untitled short film made to announce Roach's new star to MGM's marketing department (which distributed Roach's pictures). In addition to Langdon, the film (which is really nothing more than a skit) also features Thelma Todd and Eddie Dunn.



According to comedian Joe Libby, this short film was made to announce Roach's newest star to the marketing department of MGM, which distributed Roach's productions. I had assumed was some form of preview or trailer that Roach made to be shown in theaters featuring his short films, but now I am wondering what the reaction of the salespeople was. To me, this skit should have been about half as long as it is, and even then it might have seemed to drag. I have a sense that it was ad-libbed, and the fact that you can hear Todd laughing off camera at one point may bear this out, and perhaps it was funnier if you were there at the time. Still, if this was my introduction to the "all-new, all-talking Harry Langdon", and it was my job to make his work product commercial successes, I would be wondering how I would go about doing that. And if I were to go what is in this skit alone, I am not surprised by Harry Langdon, despite being a massive star at one point, is all but forgotten today.

Langdon's employment with Hal Roach lasted eight films, none of which were, according to film historians and other commentators, very successful, commercially or as entertainment. I read that they got better as Langdon and the Roach team--specifically many of the same talents who were part of Charley Chase's unit--got used to each other, so I chose to hunt down and watch the last one made before he was shown the door. (Since Thelma Todd co-starred in it, it was also perfect review fodder during this, The Year of the Hot Toddy.)




The King (1930)
Starring: Harry Langdon, Thelma Todd, and Dorothy Granger
Directors: James W. Horne and Charles Rogers
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

When the frivolous-minded and childish King (Langdon) is seduced by his advisor's slutty wife (Granger), the Queen (Todd) takes extreme measures to stop the extra-marital shenanigans before they fully start. Naturally, her plan backfires spectacularly.

   Thelma Todd in costume (but definitely not in character) while filming "The King" 
"The King" leads me to believe that either Harry Langdon's short films for Hal Roach have an undeservedly bad reputation, or his final film for Hal Roach is a masterpiece when compared to the rest. It's not perfect, but there's never a dull moment. Even the several gags that don't quite work are not dragged out to the point where they become tedious, which is more than I can say for many comedies that I've watched.

That said, one thing that really stood out about this picture is that it didn't seem to have what I think of as the "Hal Roach Style." There's a certain similarity between the way stories unfold and the way the actors perform in the Laurel & Hardy-led shorts, the Charley Chase-led shorts, and the Thelma Todd-led shorts I've watched that isn't present here. This is probably a result of Langdon having his own style and working habits that didn't fit the "Hal Roach Style", and this may been why Langdon's films didn't go over well with audiences back then, why Roach cancelled Langdon's contract, and why these films are held in such low regard today: Harry Langdon was a square peg that Hal Roach tried--and failed--to fit into a round hole.

Maybe, Hal Roach pulled the plug on Harry Langdon's films too soon, because some of the funniest bits in the film are a melding of the Roach Style with the general feel of the rest of "The King." One of these scenes--both of which take place in the royal bedchamber--may be the first time that Thelma Todd got to show how adept she was at doing physical comedy while still managing to remain poised. During the time this film was made, Todd was being allowed to fully spread her wings as a comedienne for the first time. She had already held her own in films shared with Charley Chase, and here she shows that she could shine just as brightly along side the very different performance style of Harry Langdon. If Langdon's other Roach films are as bad as I've been led to believe, maybe this one shows that he was finally figuring out how to work with Roach's other talents. Or maybe the others he did weren't as bad as is claimed; I will have to seek out and watch one or two of them to see for myself.

But--back to "The King". Aside from the fast pace and the non-stop wackiness, this is also one of those comedies that adults and children can enjoy equally but walk away with different impressions of the story and the characters.

For adults, Harry Langdon's impish character is both funny and infuriating, and even while we're laughing at his antics, most adult viewers will be able to understand why the Queen is so agitated. I've seen her referred to as shrewish, but that's not how she comes across to me. I get the sense that she's fed up with her husband's crap and is trying to keep him from embarrassing her, himself, and the high position he occupies. Little kids, on the other hand, will most certainly identify with the King and view the Queen as the parent getting in the way of his fun.

"The King" is not a perfect film, but it's full of laughs and never dull. If you like off-the-wall comedies, I think you'll enjoy this one. I really recommend you check it out if you've heard some of those blanket statements about how awful Harry Langdon talkies are. And to make it easy, I am providing you with the opportunity to watch it right here via YouTube. (As of this writing, none of Langdon's films for Hal Roach are available on DVD.)

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Keaton and Todd are absolute greatness in 'Speak Easily'

Speak Easily (1932)
Starring: Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, Thelma Todd, Ruth Selwyn, Sydney Toler, and Henry Arnetta
Director: Edward Sedgewick
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A bookish professor (Keaton) gets news that he has inherited $700,000, and he decides it's time to live his life to its fullest. While on his way to New York, he encounters a struggling theatre troupe with more heart than talent. He become smitten with Pansy, the lead dancer (Selwyn), and he decides to be their financial backer for a Broadway show.


"Speak Easily" is a very uneven comedy that is dragged down by long stretches of unfunny or repetitive gags separated by some excellent bits. It's got a solid and talented cast that deserved better than the material they have to work with.

For example, poor Buster Keaton is the star of the film, but he still has very little do. He is more frequently than not relegated to the role of straight man to Jimmy Durante, and most of the bits he has of his own are dragged out past the point of being funny. As for Durante, he, too has to struggle with routines that drag on; there's a bit involving luggage that starts out amusing and grows tiresome and annoying by the time the film finally moves on.

The one performer in the film who gets to appear in all the films best scenes is Thelma Todd, and it's in these scenes were Keaton gets to shine his brightest, too. Todd shows up in the second act, and she is the closest thing this genial story has to a villain. Her character, Elanor, is a burlesque dancer who is willing to do almost anything to get a part in a Broadway play, from stripping down to her underwear at the slightest suggestion--which immediately convinces Durante's character, James, that she has what it takes to be in the show--to setting up Keaton's Professor Post to be blackmailed for sexual indiscretions. Unfortunately, the good professor is simply too oblivious to even realize that Elanor is trying to seduce him, and her big scheme backfires when her efforts end up with both of them so blindingly drunk the couldn't be "indiscreet" if they wanted to.

This drunken scene, and its aftermath, with Keaton and Todd features a hilarious mix of spoken and physical humor and it is the highlight of the movie. In fact, the story-thread that starts with Elanor showing up in the Professor's office, through her attempts to seduce him and blackmail him, through the steps that James takes to extract him from any possibility of scandal, is so sharp and so well-done that it feels like it belongs in a much better movie. These scenes show that it wasn't that the famed silent movie star Keaton was getting old and had lost his edge (as some claimed at the time... and perhaps even today); it was that he didn't have anything good to work with. With quality material, and partner that can give as well as she got--which he had in Todd in these scenes they did together--Keaton could still deliver the physical humor that had made him famous, as well as deliver spoken jokes with perfect timing and the driest of dry wit.


While Keaton also has a few great moments toward the end of the film--during a Broadway opening  that's bound to be a disaster unless some miracle happens--the scenes he shares with Todd really are the film's high point. It's really a shame that the rest of the cast is stuck with mostly sub-par material,. because there are several instances where they show that they are all quite talented. Nowhere is this more clear that the scene where Professor Post decides to bring the troupe to Broadway. The performance they put on is such a wretched display of hammish acting, lousy singing, and bad choreography that leaves viewers in awe at how bad it is... which is proof that we are watching performers of the highest caliber. It takes a lot of skill, and even more practice and rehearsal, to be as bad as they are in that scene.

It's at once heart-breaking and touching that Professor Post is so smitten with the troupe's leading later that he can't see how bad Pansy and her fellow performers are... and it also gives Jimmy Durante's character a likable dimension to what otherwise comes across as a fairly wretched human being: James truly believes that he and his troupe could be the next big thing if only they could get a break. When the Professor offers to fund their show, James isn't motivated by greed, but rather by the excitement of making his (and his fellow actors) dreams come true and to get them the recognition he believes they so richly deserve. At no point does James's faith in his troupe waver, even when the experienced Broadway director that Professor Post hires (played by Sydney Toler, who is best known as Charlie Chan) accurately and truthfully describes the level of talent the performers have. As annoying as I find Durante as an actor, I really liked his character of James... and I really wished he'd been given  better material to work with.

(Of course, here I am laying blame on the scriptwriters and the director for the movie being  mostly weak when maybe I should be giving credit to Buster Keaton and Thelma Todd for making the scenes they have together so sparklingly brilliant. After all, they are the common denominator for the movie's best parts... and their hilarious scenes together are plenty reward for sticking around through the rest of the film.


One odd bit of trivia: When she appeared in this film, Thelma Todd was co-starring in her own series of comedy short films with ZaSu Pitts that was being produced by Hal Roach and released through MGM. One of these was titled "Sneak Easily", released in December of 1932 (and I actually posted a review of it last week). "Speak Easily" was released in August of that same year. That these titles are so similar can't be an accident--especially since the title of the short film makes little sense given its subject matter--but I can't figure out what the reason for it would be. Anyone out there have a thought about it?

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Thelma is a Bombshell for the Defense

Sneak Easily (1932)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, James C. Morton, Bobby Burns, and Billy Gilbert
Director: Gus Meins
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Attorney Thelma Tood (Todd) is defending a mad scientist (Burns) who has been accused of murdering is wife when juror ZaSu (Pitts) accidentally swallows a piece of evidence--which just happens to be a sample of the time-released high explosive of the madman's creation. Will ZaSu develop a case of terminal indigestion, or will the Thelma and the rest of the officers of the court find a way to save her before it's too late?


When I read a logline for this film--"Juror Zasu accidentally swallows a piece of evidence which just happens to be a time bomb."--it moved to the top of the list of things to watch. However, while amusing, this outing for these great comediennes is deeply flawed in several ways, almost all of them originating with the script.

The problems start almost immediately. Three minutes in, I felt like I had missed the beginning of the film, because so many questions are raised by the way Thelma Todd's attorney character is introduced. She is clearly an inexperienced attorney trying to inflate her image, but why? And how did she end up defending the mad scientist? Perhaps her apparent inexperience with court procedures is an indication that she isn't an attorney at all but is some sort of fraud? The sense of having missed out on a chunk of the story only deepened when an exchange between ZaSu makes comments to Thelma that not only establishes that they are closely acquainted but that they may even be roommates like they are in other entries in the series; how could ZaSu be on the jury in a murder trial if she has close ties to the defense attorney? It makes sense if Thelma is some sort of fraud and somehow managed to get ZaSu on the jury as a "ringer"... but, again, that means there's a chunk of story missing. I don't mind joining a story in progress when it comes to short films like these, but I do mind when it feels like I came in late.

Another problem is a bizarre repeat of footage during a high-speed driving sequence when ZaSu is being rushed to hopeful salvation in an ambulence. I thought maybe the DVD had skipped, but, no. For whatever reason, the filmmakers decided to insert the same few seconds of external footage of cars on a road twice in the same sequence, with only a short scene of the actors mugging it up in the ambulance in between. It's unncessarily distracting and looks sloppy and cheap. If it was done for comedy, I'm missing the joke.

Despite the flawed beginning, once ZaSu swallows the trial evidence, the film is utterly hilarious and top-notch. While Todd doesn't get to show off her flair for physical comedy, Pitts gets to do plenty of pratfalls. In fact, it many ways, Todd serves as the eye of a storm of craziness, as she is the only actor who isn't hamming it up... at least not until the explosive prelude to the film's twist ending.
"Sneak Easily" is one of 17 short films included on the two-DVD set containing



Saturday, December 29, 2018

'The Adventures of Tartu' are thrilling!

The Adventures of Tartu (1943)
Starring: Robert Donat, Valerie Hobson, Walter Rilla, Glynis Johns, Phyllis Morris, and Martin Miller
Director: Harold S. Bucquet
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A British army officer and bomb expert (Donat), who happens to be a chemical engineer who is also fluent in German and Romanian, is recruited by military intelligence for a mission in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Here, is is to pose as Jan Tartu, a Romanian Nazi and chemist, infiltrate a plant where the Germans are making next-generation chemical weapons, and destroy it. Naturally, things go sideways with the mission, and while "Tartu" is improvising his way back on course, things go from urgent to dire: The Nazis aren't weeks or months away from launching a chemical weapons attack on Britain, but mere days!


"The Adventures of Tartu" is a tightly plotted and excellently executed spy thriller. There is literally not a moment of time wasted in the film, with every second spent deftly establishing characters and their relationships, or advancing and/or complicating the plot and the story. And what complications! I can't comment too much on them without spoiling them, but the way the predictable romance between leads Donat and Hobson intersects with the expected elements of a spy movie, as well as a couple of the plot complications, is wonderful and a great source of tension and suspense as the third act opens.

The already great script is brought to brilliant life by excellent, nuanced performances all around; even deeply vile characters like the lead Nazi in the film, played by William Rilla show glimpses of humanity. Every cast member is top-notch here.

Robert Donat is especially impressive since he essentially plays two different characters--Terence Stevensen of the British Army, an officer and a gentleman who loves his mother and visits her on weekends; and Jan Tartu of the Romanian Iron Guard who is a vain and self-centered womanizer. One could even say he plays a third character, since at two different points in the movie, he adopts a persona that's harder-edged than either Stevensen or Tartu, when he first has to show Nazi commanders and then resistance fighters that he "has what it takes" to be trusted by them. While I found Donat charming and lots of fun to watch in the only other film I recall seeing him in ("The 39 Steps", which happens to be another spy thriller), here I found him downright brilliant.

The final elements that makes this film a great joy to watch is the cinematography and the great sets, especially when it comes to the Nazi munitions plan and the secret weapons lab built inside a mountain. (And, boy, can those Movie Nazis build secret bases. Even James Bond villains can't match their ability to build massive and spacious underground labs!

"The Adventures of Tartu" is one of the 50 movies included in the "shovelware" set Fabulous Forties... and it's the original, superior British edit of the film. The American version is available for Streaming via Amazon Prime (and free for members); several scenes that are present just for character building are cut or shortened in the American version. I'm providing Amazon links to both below, but I want to stress that the one included in the Fabulous Forties collection is the superior film AND the digital transfer was made from a better print than the one available via Amazon Prime. (I've already posted reviews of other films included in the set. Click here to see them. and maybe decide if the set is worth your hard-earned dollars.)

While both versions of "The Adventures of Tartu" are worthwhile, and watching both is an interesting exercise, the Nine of Ten Stars rating at the top of this review is for the British version of the film; the American edit drops down to a Seven of Ten. It's still a good movie, but it's not as good.as the original cut.

Sunday, December 23, 2018

'Thundering Tenors' sees a party ruined

Thundering Tenors (1931)
Starring: Charley Chase, Lena Malena, Lillian Elliot, Dorothy Granger, Elizabeth Forrester, and Edward Dillon
Director: James W. Horne
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

A socially inept radio star (Chase) causes chaos while trying to fit in at a high society dinner party hosted by his girlfriend's parents (Dillon and Elliot)


"Thundering Tenors" gets off to a slow start, but when it kicks into gear about five minutes in, it speeds ever-quicker down a path of growing craziness. The film is at its funniest and wildest when Chase gets into a running fight and wrestling match with a doctor played by Lena Malena in one of the biggest roles of her short career. She is called after Chase gets a fishbone stuck in his throat and the party's host calls for a doctor who lives nearby to come to his aid. The doctor, though, is a chiropractor who tries to use spinal and neck adjustments to get the bone loose, Chase doesn't appreciate her application of "medicine" and the hilarious fight mentioned above breaks out. (Interestingly, another Hal Roach-produced short released later the same year featured a similarly comic chiropractor--the inaugural teaming of Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, "Let's Do Things". Either the screenwriter involved with both, H.M. Walker, found chiropractors and their "adjustments" funny, or chiropractic quackery was a common target of pop cultural mockery.)

The actors are all perfect in their parts, with Charley Chase being particularly charming and funny, with Lena Malena being hilariously physical in her fight with him. Unfortunately, those performances are undermined by inexplicable and unnecessary sound effects that someone must have thought were funny (like musical notes underscoring pratfalls, or the sound of tearing cloth as Chase undresses for "treatment" by the doctor); they don't ruin the movie, but they do make it less enjoyable. Another curious element of the film is that, despite the title, the presence of a band, and the fact that Chase is playing a supposedly famous singer, there isn't really a musical number in the film.


"Thundering Tenors" is one of 17 short films included in the two DVD set Charley Chase at Hal Roach: 1930 - 1931. It promises to be the first installment in a comprehensive collection of Chase's talkies.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

The first outing of a legendary comedy team

Let's Do Things (1931)
Starring: ZaSu Pitts, Thelma Todd, George Byron, Jerry Mandy, Mary Kornman, Maurice Black, Charlie Hall, and Dorothy Granger
Director: Hal Roach
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Thelma and ZaSu (Todd and Pitts) go on a double-date with ZaSu's deadbeat boyfriend (Byron) and his boorish doctor friend from Boston (Mandy). The night goes from bad to worse when Thelma initiates a scheme to bring it to an early end, and ZaSu accidentally gets drunk on the doctor's homemade "medicine."


"Let's Do Things" was originally produced to be part of "The Boyfriends" series of comedy shorts, but it must have been immediately apparent to everyone involved that there was something special about the teaming of Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts, because this instead became the launch of a new series centered on them.

Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts are a working women who are friends and roommates away from the job. In an example of deft writing, their relationship is established with a few lines, even as their characters are delineated: They moved to the Big City with the idea of finding jobs that would lead them to snare wealthy and influential boyfriends. Todd is the more ambitious, organized, and clear-eyed of the two, while Pitts is a naive romantic who stumbles her way through life, both literally and metaphorically.

The characters that Pitts and Todd portray in this film (and the entire series) are obvious from their types... Pitts, a veteran comedienne who got her start in silent pictures, is the gawky, befuddled. socially inept of the pair; while Todd, a beauty contest winner turned actress, is the attractive, sharp-witted one. However, in an atypical move--and one that takes full advantage of both actresses talents, Todd isn't just the "straight man" for Pitts to play off, but is just as likely to be delivering jokes and otherwise clowning it as Pitts is. In fact, some of the funniest physical comedy in the film involves Todd getting the world's worst chiropractic adjustment, and her being tossed around the dance floor like a ragdoll... before turning the proverbial tables on her dance partner and sending him flying.

As funny and well-written the material performed by Pitts and Todd is, the humor is augmented by the fact that the boyfriend characters are not bland cyphers (as often seems to be the case in films from this period) but are instead almost as complete characters as Thelma and ZaSu which makes the gags even funnier. It also doesn't hurt that both are played by veteran comedians, George Byron and Jerry Mandy.


"Let's Do Things" is included in a two-DVD set that contains all the short films that Pitts and Todd made together. If they're all as much fun as this one, it's going to be great pleasure watching and reviewing them.

Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Lions and Bulls and Woman Drivers, oh my!

The Old Bull (1932)
Starring: Thelma Todd, ZaSu Pitts, and Otto Fries
Director: George Marshall
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Thelma (Todd) is helping her friend ZaSu (Pitts) learn how to drive on a country back road. After ZaSu crashes into a barn, the ladies are stranded in farm country when the angry farmer (Fries) refuses to let them have their car back until they pay for the damage. When the news reports that a lion has escaped from a nearby circus, Thelma cooks up a plan to retrieve the car.


From 1931 through 1933, Thelma Todd and ZaSu Pitts co-starred in 17 short films from the same production company that brought us the team of Laurel & Hardy. In fact, Todd & Pitts are very much like a female version of Laurel & Hardy, with Todd being the "brains" and Pitts being the " simple, clumsy one"... although there is none of the abuse and venom between the two ladies that so often creeps into the interactions between the two gentlemen.

"The Old Bull" was the ninth film in the series, and it goes straight into the comedy with the barest of introductions of the two main characters, because I assume the filmmakers felt that viewers were familiar with Todd and Pitts's respective characters at this point. Even for viewers who weren't, once Pitts' foot gets twisted and stuck on the gas pedal, sending the car accelerating out of control, it's crystal clear who's who in the comedic line-up.

And for the whole 19-minute run-time of the film, Todd excels as a "straight man" to Pitts' goofiness and pratfalls (although Todd also gets the opportunity to do some gags of her own). The bits revolving around animals--primarily the duck that torments ZaSu on and off, and the lion that you know would eventually show up to make Thelma's stage hoax a reality--are top-notch, and they will have you laughing out loud more than once. Pitts and Todd both have perfect comedic timing, and they play well off each other.

Unfortunately, they are let down by the director and the script. The car crash sequence--where the ladies are zooming around a barnyard in the out-of-control car thanks to ZaSu's stuck foot--goes on too long. Individual moments in the sequence are hilarious, but the spans between them are each many seconds too long, making something that only lasts about a minute and half feel much longer. The sequence would have been stronger if we'd been spared some of the rear projection scenes of the ladies flailing in the car (although maybe 1932 audiences had a different reaction than a viewer in 2018 who is used to car chases and crashes enhanced with digital effects). As for the script, the film just sort of stops. While I can see the ending is a resolution of sorts, it still felt lacking, and I was left wanting more.

"The Old Bull" is one of the 17 film contained in the two DVD set Thelma Todd & ZaSu Pitts: The Hal Roach Collection 1931-1932. I will eventually review each film in the set here at Shades of Gray. (I started in the middle, because I accidentally put Disc Two in the DVD player and was too lazy to get up and change it.)

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Great adaptation of 'The Tell-Tale Heart'

The Tell-Tale Heart (1941)
Starring: Joseph Schildkraut and Roman Bohnen
Director: Jules Dassin
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A young man (Schildkraut) murders his abusive employer, but is then himself driven insane by his own guilty conscience.


This 1941 short film is a superb adaptation of the famous Poe short story. It is not only faithful to the mechanical elements of the plot, but the director manages to convey the psychological horror aspect of the original story more effectively than most others who have taken a stab at bringing the tale to film. The biggest change is that this adaptation alters the relationship between the characters from the story, but it results in Schildkraut's character being more sympathetic and results in a stronger movie.

Much of the film's success can be credited to the performances of Joseph Schildkraut, as the tormented protagonist of the story, and Roman Bohnen, as the abusive, eventual murder victim. However, an even bigger part of its success can be credited to the sound design. The sound of titular "tell-tale heart" ends up permeating every aspect of the film's final few minutes, even the soundtrack music. It's a great example of how close attention to sound can build suspense and horror as effectively as camera angles and lighting. (And this film benefits from excellent cinematography as well.)

The murder scene is perhaps the film's only real weakness. The killing basically happens off-screen, and, while artfully done, I think the director might be leaving just a little too much to our imagination. I think he was trying to avoid over-used B-movie cliches like shadows on the wall and such, but the murder just didn't seem to have the same intensity as the scenes that led up to it, nor those that followed. It is almost like a lull just past the film's halfway point.

This 1941 version of "The Tell-Tale Heart" is included as a bonus feature on the "Shadow of the Thin Man" DVD along with a vintage cartoon. The combination lets you stage an old-time movie experience, with two shorts before the main feature. (This is the case with most of the "Thin Man" DVDs... the extras on the discs are almost as fun as the main features. They are excellent added value if you pick up the Thin Man boxed set. Which I recommend that you do if you like classic comedies and mysteries.)



Friday, February 4, 2011

'Jailhouse Rock' shows Elvis capable of more than swiveling his hips

Jailhouse Rock (1957)
Starring: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, and Vaughn Taylor
Director: Richard Thorpe
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A violent young man (Presley) is sent to prison for manslaughter. Therem his cellmate (Shaughnessy) teaches him to play the guitar and sets him on a path that, with the help of a beautiful music promoter (Tyler) will put him on a path to fame and fortune. But will the corruption of the entertainment industry--with its collection of crooks more sinister than any prison ever held--and the soul-blinding light of stardom save him or ruin him?


"Jailhouse Rock" is a neat little rags-to-riches-to-ruin-to-redemption story that remains surprisingly fresh and entertaining to this day. Although the plot offers few surprises and the characters are about as stock as they can be, the acting performances are solid and the film moves along at a fast clip, with well-staged scenes and great editing. Presley fans can enjoy the further treat of some excellent performances by "The King", with the title song, perhaps being the single greatest Elvis recording ever, being enhanced by a great presentation.

While the plot offers no surprises, Elvis Presley does. If you've tried to sit through some of Elvis' pictures from the 1960s, you will find yourself wondering what happened to the talent he displays here. Presley shows a range in this film that I've never seen in other of his cinematic vehicles, managing to even make some eye-rollingly corny moments in the film bearable and even infuses some of the more dramatic scenes with real power.

Even if you're not much of a fan of Elvis Presley, this is film worth checking out. It's an interesting look at what might have been, if he had put more energy into developing his skills as an actor, and if he and his management had taken more care in choosing the film projects he got involved with.



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Big revenge becomes small stuff

The Devil-Doll (aka "The Witch of Timbucktoo") (1936)
Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Rafaela Ottiano, and Frank Lawton
Director: Tod Browning
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Honest banker Paul Lavond (Barrymore) is sentenced to life in the hellish prison of Devil's Island after his business associates frame him for a robbery and murder they committed. However, after 17 years, he escapes with a mad scientist who was working on a method to reduce humans to a height of mere inches (all for the good of humanity, of course). The scientist may have been mad, but his methods worked--they not only reduced humans to doll-sizes, but they make them controllable via mental telepathy. Consumed with hatred for those who framed him, and a wish to restore the wealth that was denied him to his now-grown daughter (O'Sullivan), he takes the scientist's methods to Paris and embarks on a bizarre campaign of terror and vengeance.


"The Devil-Doll" is a film with an exceedingly goofy concept at its core, but the cast is so spectacular and the effects so well done--they hold up in most instances even today--that it really doesn't matter. Barrymore and every other actor in the film give such straight performances that telepathically controlled, tiny assassins seem perfectly reasonable. (The one exception is Ottiano, who plays the widower of the inventor of the "dollification" process... and since she's even nuttier than her husband, it's okay for her to be waaaay over the top.)

This is a film that's well-shot, well-acted, and that holds up well nearly 75 years years after its release.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Peter Lorre lends a hand in the name of 'Mad Love'

Mad Love (aka "The Hands of Orlac") (1935)
Starring: Frances Drake, Peter Lorre, and Colin Clive
Director: Karl Freund
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Dr. Gogol (Lorre), a brilliant but mentally unstable surgeon (Lorre) becomes obsessed with the beautiful actress Yvonne Orlac (Drake)--obsessed to the point where he has a wax statue of her installed in his music room. When Yvonne's husband's (Clive) hands are crushed in an accident, Orlac saves them using a revolutionary surgery technique to save them... but then turns to the task of driving Orloc insane, so he can claim Yvonne as his own.


"Mad Love" is a slightly muddled movie with a confused plot (made more-so by the obnoxious comic relief character of an American newspaper reporter (played by Ted Healey). However, the film is well-acted and filmed on impressively lit sets--Gogol's large, empty house/clinic becomes a great metaphor for his his hollow soul, as shadows play throughout it--and its mixture of romance and horror is bound to entertain lovers of early horror movies. The climactic scenes are particularly chilling, as the depths of Gogol's psychopathy becomes crystal clear.

(It may even serve as part of the lineup for a Bad Movie Nite, although it's by no means a bad movie. Some of the more melodramatic elements may tickle the fancy of certain kinds of movie lovers, especially Dr. Gogol's disguise at one point in the film. It's one of those rare cinematic moments that's both scary and hilarious.)

Although not necessarily considered one of the "founding" films of the horror genre, it is certainly the first "transplanted hands take on a life of their own" movies. I can think of at least three others I've seen over the years with very similar plots. (And I think there's a fourth one lurking in my Review Pile.)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Weird terror in small packages

Attack of the Puppet People
(aka "Six Inches Tall" and "The Amazing Puppet People")(1958)

Starring: John Hoyt, June Kenney and John Agar
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Mr. Franz (Hoyt), a demented puppeteer turned dollmaker invents a machine that will shrink living beings to the size of dolls. He uses it on anyone he likes who appears to be exiting his life and keeps them in his workship. When his secretary (Kenney) prepares to leave his employ to marry a likeable traveling salesman (Agar), the couple become his latest victims.


As the title of "Atack of the Puppet People" implies, the main storyline of this film involves a small group of shrunken men and women attempting to escape their captor, and, hopefully, return to their full size. It's an engaging movie--assuming you can buy into the whole "puppeteer shrinking people with mad science wonder-tech" aspect of the story--that is fast-paced and well-acted. Unfortunately, the script isn't quite up to snuff, and it features a number of plot threads that don't go anywhere and an ending that not only just sort of peters out but which leaves the fates of the majority of the puppet people a mystery.

(Even more annoying, for me at least, was that we never got to see the Jekyll/Hyde marionnette in action after all the talk that revolved around it. The scene with the tiny John Agar trashing the marionette was pretty cool, but I still would have liked to see the supposed transforming puppet actually tranform.)


Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Miss Marple takes to the stage
in 'Murder Most Foul'

Murder Most Foul (1965)
Starring: Margaret Rutherford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell, and Stringer Davis
Director: George Pollock
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Miss Marple (Rutherford) goes undercover as an actress in a third-rate theatre company to prove a man innocent of murder while catching the real killer by solving a mystery with origins more than 15 years in the past.


"Murder Most Foul" is a fine little murder mystery/comedy that was loosely adapted from Agatha Christie's novel "Mrs. McGinty is Dead". Once again, Margaret Rutherford gives a fantastic performance as the feisty, never-takes-no-for-an-answer Miss Marple. The comedy of the film gets even more pointed when the hammy director of the theatre company (played with great flair by Ron Moody, who is the only actor in the film who manages to be as flamboyant and fun to watch as star Rutherford) casts her as a lady detective in a murder play, so Miss Marple, the amateur detective, is called upon to play an amateur detective while pretending to be an actress.

"Murder Most Foul" is a fun, lighthearted mystery movie featuring a cast with a level of talent that doesn't seem to exist anymore. (The way Ron Moody manages to mix diffused menace with a completely casual attitude, or the way he can deliver a line that shows how his character changes his mood in mid-sentence is a display of craft that we simply don't see in movies anymore.)


Sunday, December 20, 2009

Miss Marple is out to sea in 'Murder Ahoy!'

Murder Ahoy (1964)
Starring: Margaret Rutherford, Lionel Jeffries, Stringer Davis, Charles Tingwell, and Nicholas Parsons
Director: George Pollock
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

On the very day Miss Marple (Rutherford) is appointed to the Board of Trustees of a charity that runs a sailing ship where juvenile delinquients are rehabilitated, one of the other boardmembers is murdered. Miss Marple goes onboard the ship to investigate, and more murders follow as she uncovers a tangle of crime on the high seas that Blackbeard would have envied.


"Murder Ahoy" features Agatha Christie's Miss Marple character, but the film isn't based on any of Christie's books. In fact, like so many screen adaptations of literary characters, Miss Marple as she appears here is quite different than the Miss Marple of Christie's novels and short stories. (I think the only similarity is that they're both old spinsters who enjoy knitting. I can't ever imagine the Miss Marple in the books spending the night in jail, or dueling a killer with sabres as she does in this film, but both events fit perfectly with Miss Marple as played by Rutherford, who is more mischevious than prim.)

Although the story and actions of the various criminals and killers don't make a whole lot of sense, and the police are either stupider or lazier than suspension of disbelief can allow for, the film's leads give such fun performances that it hardly matters. Rutherford gives a great performance, but she is ably supported by Lionel Jeffries (as a twitchy ship's captain who is driven up the wall by Miss Marple's nosiness), Charles Tingwell (as a frustrated police inspector who shares the captain's pain), and Stringer Davis (who plays an elderly friend of Miss Marple who becomes her partner in detection and police-annoying). There's also a hilarious running gag with the doctor who is called to inspect the corpses (Parsons) always needing to run off to deliver a baby.("It's always life and death with him," comments a character after one of the doctor's speedy departures.)

There's also some marvelous soundtrack music by Ron Goodman's marverlous score--particularly the bouncy main theme--also plays a large part in making this movie as enjoyable as it is.

While may not have a whole lot to do with Agatha Christie's original Miss Marple character (or anything Christie actually wrote), this is a fun little comedy/mystery film that's worth checking out.