Daily Archives: May 14, 2016

A Kiss Before Dying
Directed by Gerd Oswald
Written by Lawrence Roman from a novel by Ira Levin
1956/USA
Crown Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Bud Corliss: Haven’t you heard? Love conquers all.[/box]

This movie is OK but not nearly as good as I remember the novel being.

Bud Corliss (Robert Wagner) is a 25-year-old college student.  He has been dating Dori Kingship (Joanne Woodward), the daughter of a mining tycoon.  They have kept the relationship secret from her very controlling father.  Now she is pregnant.  She breaks the news to Bud, who is not pleased to say the least.  He had been looking forward to marrying the mining fortune and knows that Dori will be thrown out of the family if her father learns of her indiscretion.  Dori doesn’t care about the money or anything really except Bud.  He puts off their wedding in hopes “there will be some change”.  There is none and he starts making other plans.

It is not fair to go further into the plot which relies on a couple of surprises. With Mary Astor as Bud’s mother and George Macready as Dori’s father.

I don’t think much of Robert Wagner as an actor but I must say he is perfect for his character.  Joanne Woodward is always great.  I felt like a fool because I kept looking at her thinking “that looks exactly like Joanne Woodward”!  Then of course it was, I thought she was going to show up in a different part. There’s a lot of Hitchcockian touches and jump cuts in this.  To me it illustrated what a difference the finesse of a master’s hand made in Hitchcock’s films.  They came off as slightly clunky in this one.

Trailer

The Spanish Gardener
Directed by Philip Leacock
Written by Lesley Storm and John Bryan from a novel by A.J. Cronin
1956/UK
The Rank Organization
First viewing/Amazon Prime

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Marcus Tullius Cicero

This psychological drama sounded like it might be right up my street.  Unfortunately, a child actor is in the lead and when that performance didn’t work it took the film with it.

Harrington Brande (Michael Hornden) is a British diplomat with a list of grievances against the world.  His wife left him and he isn’t advancing in the foreign service at the rate he thinks he deserves.  Once you get to know him, you understand exactly why.  He is rigid, self-important and cold.  He has more or less taken his young son hostage.  He refuses to send Nicholas to school and doesn’t let him do much of anything else on grounds that the boy is “delicate”.

After Brande is again passed over for promotion, he and Nicholas are sent from Madrid to a Spanish port town to take over from the man who got the job.  Brande is full of resentment, made worse by the popularity of his predecessor.  Nicholas, however, is rescued by a warm relationship with Juan (Dirk Bogarde), a young gardener he adores. Brande’s jealousy almost destroys them all.  With Cyril Cusak as a butler.

I have a fairly high tolerance for child actors but this one really missed the boat.  He is artificially sweet and twee.  The other acting is fine.  The script is OK.  And I was so looking forward to another Bogarde movie!  He is good but miscast as what should be a hearty Spanish pelota hero.

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