Category Archives: 1950

Stage Fright
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by Whitfield Cook; adapted by Alma Reville from a novel by Selwyn Jepson
1950/USA
Warner Bros.
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

 Eve Gill: I’m afraid the murderer might come here madam. Might get into the dressing room. Might even murder me madam. I’m surprised you’re not a bit afraid yourself.

This is not one of Hitchcock’s more memorable films but second-tier Hitchcock is still enjoyable.  The inclusion of my beloved Alistair Sim kicks it up a notch.

Eve Gill (Jane Wyman) is studying acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.  She is sweet on fellow student Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd), who is having an affair with married stage star Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich).  One day Cooper arrives with a bloody dress and tells Eve he witnessed Charlotte murder hr husband.  The police are now after him.  Eve helps him dispose of the dress and takes him to hide with her father (Alistair Sim).

Eve decides to investigate to prove Charlotte’s innocence by posing as a dresser substituting for her regular.  While doing so, she gets to know the Scotland Yard investigator on the case, Mr. Ordinary Smith (Michael Wilding).  Eve’s affections gradually start to shift.  With Sybill Thorndyke as Eve’s mother, Kay Walsh as Charlotte’s regular dresser. and Patricia Hitchcock as a student.

This film depends on an unusual gimmick that I shall not reveal.  Your mileage may vary as to its effectiveness.  My husband groaned but it didn’t bother me much.  The performances are all very good and I find Sim and Wilding really appealing in anything.  Dietrich’s rendition of “The Laziest Gal in Town” is the icing on the cake.  Worth seeing.

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Wagon Master
Directed by John Ford
Written by Frank S. Nugent and Patrick Ford
1950/USA
Argosy Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] [repeated line] Uncle Shiloh Clegg: You boys ever draw on anybody?
Travis Blue: No, sir. Just snakes.[/box]

This is on Ford’s lighter side with lots of singing and frontier humor.  It’s entertaining.

In one of the first pre-credit scenes I have seen, the story begins with the Clegg gang robbing a bank and shooting a teller in cold blood.  They make a get away and, after the credits roll, Travis (Ben Johnson) and Sandy (Harry Carey Jr.) ride into town with a number of horses they are looking to trade.  After pulling a practical joke on the marshall with a particularly wild horse, they are approached by Mormon elders who need both some horses and help with guiding their wagon train to the San Juan Valley where they will prepare the way for further Mormon settlement.  The leader of the party is the volatile but jocular Elder Wiggs (Ward Bond).  Sandy and Travis initially refuse.  Then Sandy gets a look at a certain red-headed Mormon lass and changes his mind.  The money is good so Travis accepts as well.

Before the wagon train has got very far, they stumble upon a medicine show whose cast is living on its own magic elixer, having run out of water in the desert.  Elder Wiggs looks at the meeting as providential and the show accompanies the wagon train west.  Among the cast is the lovely Denver (JoAnne Dru).  Travis takes a liking to her and now has even more reason to stick around.

Before long the wagon train itself is running very short of water.  Right after it reaches the river that saves it, the Cleggs arrive, guns at the ready.  The Mormons reluctantly help the gang under duress.  But when one of the boys tries to rape a Navajo (apparently, given her tears), Elder Wiggs has him whipped.  After that, the Cleggs become even more troublesome.  With Alan Mowbray as a quack doctor, Jane Darwell as a settler, and James Arness as one of the Clegg boys.

This film is Ford in his homespun mode.  Generally, I find him not to have a flair for comedy but here the humor works pretty well.  All is backed by assorted songs from The Sons of the Pioneers. Bond has one of his most prominent roles here and he is very likable in it.  It’s all on the light side despite the presence of the evil Cleggs.  I enjoyed it.

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The Men
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Written by Carl Foreman
1950/USA
Stanley Kramer Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Ellen: You weren’t quite so logical a few years ago when we needed some boys to ground and get killed or paralyzed.[/box]

Marlon Brando begins his film career with the same passion that would characterize his later work.

Ken (Brando) was paralyzed in the war and has laid in a veteran’s hospital for the last year, mostly feeling sorry for himself.  Before his wound he was engaged to Ellen (Teresa Wright).  Now he refuses to see her.  Ellen approaches Ken’s doctor, Dr. Brock (Everett Sloane). Brock decides to use a bit of tough love on Ken.  He cuts off his drugs and lets Ellen see him.  Initially, Ken is stubborn and resentful but eventually a spark of hope ignites and he begins working on his rehabilitation.  He is helped by his fellow patients, principally Norm (Jack Webb), who have a a more positive attitude and refuse to let Ken wallow in self-pity.

Ken is never much of a realist and wants to believe that somehow his paralysis can be reversed.  This doesn’t pan out but he gets it enough together to take a chance on marriage to Ellen.  This doesn’t even make it through the wedding night due to the large chip on Ken’s shoulder and Ellen’s uncertainty.  He storms out, gets into a bar fight and returns to the hospital, only to find that it is not enthusiastic about taking him back.

This movie is all about Marlon Brando and he is a force of nature as he would continue to be for some time to come.  I always forget just how good looking he was as a young man. The  other performances are first-rate and Zinnemann tells a moving story.

The Men was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2lRdkNGDcY

Bonus clip – Brando screentest 1947

Les Enfants Terribles
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Jean Cocteau based on his novel
1950/France
Melville Productions
First viewing/Hulu

[box] Narrator: A great mystery was made clear: Elisabeth hadn’t married him for his money nor his elegance or charm. She married him for his death.[/box]

If you like enigmatic, dreamlike movies, you will probably love this one.  I don’t and didn’t.

We will use the term “plot” loosely.  Elisabeth (Nicole Stephane) and Paul (Edouarde Dermithe) are brother and sister.  They live in a big house with their mother, who is bed-ridden and appears to be terminally ill.  They are both androgynous in appearance and look very much alike.  The brother and sister bicker constantly.  They also play some sort of secret game of their own invention that I never did really understand.

One day, Paul is hit in the chest by a snowball thrown by his bullying classmate Dargelos (Renée Cosima) and faints.  His other friend Gerard tells the headmaster that the snowball contained a rock.  Paul, who evidently has some sort of crush on Dargelos, denies this.  Soon after, Paul is discovered to have a heart condition and is forbidden to return to school.  Elisabeth now plays nursemaid to both her mother and her brother and complains about it the whole time.

Eventually, Elisabeth goes to work as a model.  She is befriended by co-worker Agathe (also played by Renée Cosima).  She brings Agathe home with her.  Paul resents this.  But sooner or later his friend Gerard is living with them as well..  The mother dies.  Elisabeth marries a wealthy American who dies before the can have their honeymoon.  The story devolves into sort of a weird homoerotic and incestuous love quadrangle.  Paul sleepwalks a lot.  It doesn’t end well.

The images are quite beautiful.  The imagery is evocative.  For someone with the correct sensibilities, I imagine the film would be really meaningul.  It was not for me.

Trailer

Broken Arrow
Directed by Delmer Daves
Written by “Michael Blankfort” (front for Albert Maltz) based on the novel “Blood Brother” by Elliott Arnold
1950/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Cochise: To talk of peace is not hard. To live it is very hard.[/box]

This film reminded me a lot of Dances with Wolves (1990).   But I liked it far more.

This is a fictionalized story featuring historical characters and is narrated in flashback by Tom Jeffords (James Stewart).  As the film begins, Jeffords is an ex-Indian Scout who is prospecting for gold in Apache Territory.  One day he happens upon a young brave who has been badly wounded in battle and is dying of thirst.  Despite the fact that the boy feebly tries to attack him with a knife, Jeffords nurses him back to health.  When he is barely strong enough, the boy says he must return home since his mother must be worried about him.  This makes a strong impression on Jeffords, who concludes that Apaches are people too.  When a war party arrives, the boy defends his friend and protector and the other braves leave Jeffords alone.  When some whites arrive they tie Jeffords up while they are slaughtering them.

General Howard calls Jeffords to the nearby fort and asks him help in making peace overtures to the Apaches.  He studies their language and ways.  When he is ready, he heads out alone.  He doesn’t get a great reception but finally is able to meet Apache leader Cochise (Jeff Chandler).  Something in both of the men makes them trust each other.  On the same visit Jeffords also meets Sonseeahray (Debra Paget), a maiden who is undergoing the coming of age ritual.  It is love at first sight.

Jeffords and Cochise agree that Jeffords will bring back General Howard, provided he trusts him to keep his word.  Jeffords is now pretty unpopular with the white settlers and is even accused of being a spy for the Indians.  Howard saves him from a lynching and, with his sincere Christian outlook of racial tolerance, pursuades Jeffords to broker a peace.

Jeffords and Howard are successful and Jeffords marries Sonseeahray.  The peace is severely tested by renegades on both sides.  With Will Geer as one of the most bigoted white men.

This is an entertaining movie.  I liked the fact that there were good and bad people of both races, unlike in Dances with Wolves, in which Kevin Kostner is the only white who is not absolutely despicable.  In fact, Stewart’s character is no saint either.  The film kept my attention throughout and moves at a good pace.  I always like to see the Southwest in color.

Broken Arrow was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of:  Best Supporting Actor (Chandler); Best Writing, Screenplay; and Best Cinematography, Color.

Trailer

Father of the Bride
Directed by Vincente Minnelli
Written by Francis Goodrich and Albert Hackett from a novel by Edward Streeter
1950/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Stanley T. Banks: No one paid any attention to the orchestra. Ellie could have saved that 85 bucks![/box]

This fun look at some things that never change features Spencer Tracy at his best and Elizabeth Taylor perhaps at her most beautiful.

Stanley Banks (Tracy) sits among the detritus of his daughter’s wedding and looks back at all the drama leading up to it.  It all seems very funny to us in the audience.  We weren’t there.

Stanley and Ellie (Joan Bennett) Banks have three children – sons Ben and Tommy (Russ Tamblyn) and daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor).  Kay is definitely a daddy’s girl.  She calls him “Pops” and he calls her “Kitten”.  Then one day Kay begins to look especially glowing and dreamy eyed.  Yes, she is in love.  She announces that she will marry beau Buckley, date unknown.  One of the views of this paragon is that people should marry young and their patents should help them get started.

This sends Stanley into a tizzy and soon he’s made the unflappable Ellie pretty nervous herself.  But when they meet Buckley he turns out to be a steady 26-year-old with a bank account and his own business.

Kay professes to want a small, simple wedding at home.  Ellie, who married Stanley at City Hall, wants a orange blossoms and bridal gown church wedding. Stanley reluctantly agrees.  After that everything is a whirlwind of shopping sprees, exploding guest lists, snooty caterers, and tearful breakups.  It’s a comedy so everyone survives the ordeal.

I waited to see this for way too long despite seeing clips from it numerous times.  Spencer Tracy is perfect as the harassed title character.  I’m sure that everyone who has been through this will identify.

The premiere took place just six weeks after the 18-year-old Taylor’s wedding to Nicky Hilton for which MGM supplied a one-off Edith Head wedding gown.  Obviously, it was a publicity coup.  Evidently she liked weddings a lot.  She had seven more of them.

Father of the Bride was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Tracy), and Best Writing, Screenplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc1-pj6_pog

Trailer

Summer Stock
Directed by Charles Walters
Written by George Wells and Sy Gomberg; story by Gomberg
1950/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Jane Falbury: You really love this, don’t you?

Joe D. Ross: What? Show business? There’s nothing else in the world.[/box]

After many years, Judy Garland is right back where she started in a “let’s put on a show in a barn” musical.  The lackluster plot is made up for by some great dancing and Judy’s “Get Happy” number.

Jane Fallberry’s (Garland) farm has fallen on hard times.  Her hired hands have quit because they need to get paid.  To round out Jane’s troubles she is worried about sister Abigail (Gloria De Haven) who has dropped out of art school to do who knows what.  Jane resorts to asking the bossy father (Ray Collins) of long-term boyfriend Orville Wingait (Eddie Bracken) for a tractor.  He obliges in hopes of putting more pressure on the couple to set a wedding date.

In the midst of this, Abigail shows up with boyfriend Joe Ross (Gene Kelly) in tow. Distressingly, she brings the entire company of Joe’s musical play with them.  They have lost their rehearsal space and need the barn to prepare for and stage an out-of-town preview.  Abigail is to star and Jane can’t bear to disappoint her so she reluctantly agrees to the plan on the condition that the cast and crew help her out on the farm.

These people are inexperienced farmhands to say the least and stage manager Herb Blake (Phil Silvers) is a positive walking disaster.  Things become further complicated as Jane finds herself falling for Phil.  Then Abigail becomes a total prima donna and walks out of the show.  Three guesses as to what happens next.  With Hans Conreid as the musical’s leading man.

This is utterly predictable and most of the songs aren’t too memorable.  Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler’s old standard “Get Happy” is the exception and Garland’s performance here reminded me very much of the kind of thing daughter Liza would do years later.  Kelly has some nice numbers.  I especially liked the one where he kind of riffed with a newspaper.

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Three Came Home
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Written by Nunnally Johnson from a book by Agnes Newton Keith
1950/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] [first lines] Agnes Newton Keith: Six-degrees north of the Equator, in the heart of the East Indies, lies Sandakan, the tiny capital of British North Borneo. In Sandakan in 1941, there were 15 thousand Asiatics, 79 Europeans, and 1 American. I was the American. [/box]

Claudette Colbert is always great as this type of woman surviving against enormous odds.

Harry Keith (Patrick Knowles) works as a government official in British Borneo, accompanied by his wife Agnes (Colbert) and their adorable four-year-old son. Agnes previously published a book about life in Borneo which took a sympathetic view of Asians. When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, the European residents of Borneo spend most of their time preparing for invasion.  It comes quickly enough.

After a few weeks of unpredictable treatment by the Japanese on the island.  The Europeans are ordered to prepare to be transported to another location.  Before they are, Agnes is ordered to present herself to the commanding officer for the local theater, Colonel Suga (Sessue Hayakawa).  It turns out he admired her book and wants a copy with her autograph.  We also find out he was educated in the U.S. and has small children at home in Japan.

Agnes’s pleasant chat with Suga does her no good whatsoever.  The women and men are first put in separate and adjacent camps.  They can make highly dangerous attempts to meet but mostly spend their time worrying, starving, and suffering from malaria.

Then things get worse after they are again moved.  They must survive years of separation, malnutrition and hard labor.  We see the women eating garbage, which they regard as a lucky treat. Agnes is attacked in the dark by a Japanese soldier with rape on his mind.  She uses another meeting with Suga to complain.  This backfires on her in a big way when Suga is no longer around.  The title gives away the ending.

I tend to like POW stories and this was no exception.  It is very well done and Colbert is outstanding.

The complete film is also currently available on YouTube.

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