Daily Archives: August 1, 2016

During the filming in Spain of the Biblical epic Solomon and Sheba, one of the scenes was a strenuous, swashbuckling swordfight between 44 year-old actor Tyrone Power and co-star George Sanders . Power suffered a fatal heart attack and died on the way to the hospital.

Producer Michael Todd (the third husband of Elizabeth Taylor) and co-developer of the Todd A-O sound system, was killed in a plane crash near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Taylor went on to ‘steal’ married actor Eddie Fisher (Todd’s best friend) away from Debbie Reynolds.

A small-time gangster named Johnny Stompanato, Lana Turner’s lover, was fatally stabbed with a butcher knife by Turner’s 14 year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane during an incident of abuse in their home in Beverly Hills. During the inquest (filmed for TV), Turner nearly collapsed on the stand during dramatic testimony. The killing was declared a justifiable homicide of self-defense by the coroner’s jury.

21 year-old Jack Nicholson made his screen debut in producer Roger Corman’s low-budget juvenile delinquent drama The Cry Baby Killer.

Elvis Presley was inducted into the Army.  14-year-old Bobby Fischer won the United States Chess Championship.  Pizza Hut was founded.  President Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law.  U.S. Marines were ordered into Lebanon at the request of President Chamoun.  The first U.S. earth satellite went into orbit.

A Death in the Family by James Agee won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.  Look Homeward, Angel by Ketti Frings won for Drama.  “Volare” by Domenico Modugno spent ten weeks atop the Billboard charts.  Charles de Gaulle was Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.

The European Economic Community (Common Market) became effective.  Egypt and Syria merged into United Arab Republic. Khrushchev became premier of Soviet Union.  Gen. Charles de Gaulle became French premier, remaining in power until 1969. Rebel troops under Che Guevara invaded Santa Clara, Cuba. Cuban President Fulgencio Batista resigned two days later.  Godtfred Kirk Christiansen filed a patent for the iconic plastic Lego brick.

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I have previously reviewed , , and  on this site.  The films I will select from are here.

Photo montage from the Oscar winners

Photo montage of nominees in the major categories

Old Yeller
Directed by Robert Stevenson
Written by Fred Gipson and William Tunberg from Gipson’s book
1957/USA
Walt Disney Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Katie Coates: If that don’t beat all. I never saw such a dog.

Travis Coates: And you won’t never see another one like him.[/box]

This childhood favorite held up very well.

The Coates family lives on a farm on the Texas frontier.  As the story begins, Pa Coates (Fess Parker) goes off to sell some cattle and earn the first cash money the family will have seen since the Civil War.   Wife Katie (Dorothy McGuire) and two sons Travis (Tommy Kirk), around 12, and Arliss, maybe five, will be left alone for at least three months.  Travis is to be the man of the family.  He asks for a horse as a reward but his father tells him what he needs is a good dog.

Soon enough, a big yellow dog shows up.  He gets on Travis’s bad side initially but Arliss adores and he is soon adopted.  The dog proves to be the best friend the family ever had, helping them out of one scrape after another.  With Chuck Conners as the stray’s owner.

I read the book as a child, before I ever saw the movie, and the ending made me cry and cry.  The movie is both moving and exciting and the performances are all first-rate.  The stand-out, of course, is the multi-talented canine.  It’s a coming of age story as well as a dog movie.  Recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnhojq63-Bs

Clip

Love in the Afternoon
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Bill Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
1957/USA
Billy Wilder Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Frank Flannagan: I think people should always behave as though they were between planes.[/box]

When the “May” in a May-December romance is Audrey Hepburn and Billy Wilder is at the helm, a movie is bound to have its charms.

The city is Paris, where Private Detective Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier) does a booming business ferreting out infidelity.  He tries to keep his sordid cases away from his daughter, Ariane (Hepburn), but she is fascinated.  Chavasse’s latest case involves a dalliance between Frank Flannigan (Gary Cooper), a notorious womanizing millionaire, and a married woman.  Ariane sees Flannigan’s picture and is smitten.  Then she overhears the woman’s husband plotting to kill him and decides to come to his rescue.

Ariane interrupts the tryst and poses as the woman in question while the real thing escapes.  Flannigan begins to romance the cello student.  She defends herself by regaling him with tales of her other lovers, all borrowed from her father’s files.

Hepburn is as beautiful and charming as ever in this.  The script is witty and the whole thing goes down easily.  Coop just looks very tired to me unfortunately.  It probably would have worked better with Cary Grant or William Holden.

Trailer

The D.I.
Directed by Jack Webb
Written by James Lee Barrett
1957/USA
Mark VII Ltd
First viewing/YouTube rental

[box] TSgt Moore: [shouting] If your brains were made of dynamite you couldn’t blow your nose![/box]

Who knew boot camp could be so much fun?  For the witnesses that is …

Gunnery Sgt. Jim Moore (Jack Webb) is a tough-as-nails Marine Drill Instructor whose job is to change boys to men.  He does this with rigid discipline and intimidation.  Privately, he smiles at the hapless recruits.  All except one of them, Private Owens.  Owens has potential but constantly screws up and malingers, hoping to get discharged.  Moore refuses to give up or let up on him.  Moore’s superior is sick of hearing about the private’s latest misconduct and threatens to discharge him if he is not whipped into shape in three days.

In the meantime, Moore, whose life has been the Marines, starts a relationship with a lady who doesn’t put up with much guff herself.

This movie is really more or less a series of episodes and a chance to bask in Webb’s fantastic performance and the rapid-fire one-liners. I don’t think of myself as enjoying watching people browbeat each other but I was smiling the entire time.  Totally enjoyable and recommended.

Montage of fun, fun clips