Thunder on the Hill
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Written by Oscar Saul and Andrew Salt from a play by Charlotte Hastings
1951/US
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Criterion Channel

A really good detective never gets married. — Raymond Chandler

This is a well-made melodrama and mystery but the story didn’t quite work for me.

Sister Mary Bonaventure (Claudette Colbert) is a nursing sister at a hospital in the English country side. She joined the convent to assuage some not very well explained guilt with regard to the suicide of her sister. She is a very competent and well-respected nurse. One of the lay nurses hates her for always being right.

As the story begins the hospital is overloaded with refugees from a major flood. Among them are Valerie Carns (Ann Blyth) and her jailers. Valerie is on the way to Norwich to be executed for murdering her brother. She is very bitter.

Sister Mary softens her up and begins to be convinced Valerie is innocent as she has claimed all along. She begins investigating despite many orders not to interfere. In my opinion, the identity of the real culprit is evident way too early in the story. With Gladys Cooper as the Mother Superior.

First you have to get over Colbert’s casting as a nun. She is quite good though, unlike Blyth who overdoes it. The dialogue also is overblown. It kept my interest though and has some good noirish cinematography by William H. Daniels.

The Secret of Convict Lake

Directed by Michael Gordon
Written by Oscar Saul and Victor Trivas
1951/US
Twentieth Century Fox
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Johnny Greer: Get up.
Granny: I can’t. I’m a poor old woman lying in a bed of pain reading my bible, you blood thirsty weasel.

This pretty good noirish Western is included in the Criterion Channel’s Snow Western collection for December.

Jim Canfield (Glenn Ford) and a number of hardened criminals escape from a Nevada jail in the dead of winter. They make the very arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada mountains into California and lose several of their number in the process. The self-appointed leader of the party is Johnny Greer (Zachary Scott) is a real snake. He believes Jim knows where $40,000 is and will do anything to get it.

The men spy a farming village. A scouting party discovers that the place is solely occupied by women. Their men have gone off to join the posse that is trailing these convicts. (What kind of men leave their women, babies, and elderly alone in the middle of nowhere?). The women are armed however and allow the men to stay far away from the houses in a barn.

It turns out that Jim is actually an innocent man who is out to murder the man who framed him. He falls in love with Marcia Stoddard (Gene Tierney) who is actually engaged to the Rudy Schaeffer, the man in question. Rachel (Ann Dvorak), Rudy’s sister, is one of the women in the town and has a pretty low opinion of Marcia. With Ethel Barrymore as the wise old leader of the women.

The film is heavy on sexual menace and attempted rape, not a favorite subject of mine. But there’s some good action, including fist fights, gun fights and a fire. I think Zachary Scott makes one of the best villains of the 40’s and 50’s and he does not disappoint here. Could be worth a watch.

You Never Can Tell
Directed by Lou Breslow
Written by Lou Breslow and David Chandler
1951/US
Universal International Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Rex Shepherd: Oh Goldie, these are humans we’re dealing with. You can’t tell them the truth and expect them to believe it.

This is a pretty good family comedy but I wouldn’t call it screwball

King is the prized German Shepherd of an eccentric millionaire. The millionaire’s will leaves his estate to the dog with his secretary Ellen (Peggy Dow) as executor. When the dog dies the remainder is to go to Ellen.

Perry Collins (Charles Drake) soon comes to call and tells Ellen he was King’s handler when he was an army dog. One thing leads to another and soon Ellen and Perry are engaged. Shortly thereafter, King is poisoned and dies.

When King goes to animal heaven he asks the gatekeeper permission to return to earth to avenge his murder. His request is granted and he is reincarnated as Rex Shepherd, private eye (Dick Powell). He is accompanied on his mission by a race horse turned sassy friend (Joyce Holden). The rest of the film is devoted to the investigation.

I’m a Dick Powell fan and it was fun to watch him portray a man with doglike characteristics. It’s a pleasant movie.

Rhubarb
Directed by Arthur Lubin
Written by Dorothy Davenport and Francis M. Cockrell from the novel by H. Allen Smith
1951/US
Perlberg-Seaton Productions
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Eric Yeager: [to Rhubarb] Now listen ya lug, you’re in the chips now, the blue chips. So stop acting like a goon squad. This is an okay dame. She doesn’t want a nickel of your dough.
[to Polly] Stroke him very gently on his head.

If you are looking for a screwball comedy look elsewhere.  A reviewer even called this a screwball/noir!  What it is is an OK family comedy with a cute feline protagonist and a little bit of romance

Eric Yeager (Ray Milland) is press agent for a perennially losing Brooklyn baseball team. He is engaged to Polly Sickles (Jan Sterling), daughter of the team’s coach (William Frawley).

The eccentric owner of the team is Thaddeus J. Banner (Gene Lockhart). He discovers a feral cat that steals golf balls and immediately orders that the cat be caught. He names the tom “Rhubarb”. Eric is nominated his caretaker.

Banner dies and leaves the team to Rhubarb, who tames down nicely. Eric is named the cat’s guardian. The team begins winning and press and public attribute this to its new mascot. Now a slighted heiress and a bunch of bookmakers put a price on poor Rhubarb’s head.

This held my interest.  It’s quite OK for what it is.  Orangey, the cat that played Rhubarb, may be better known as “Cat” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Funniest joke is when Paul Douglas appears out of nowhere to admire Rhubarb’s many offspring which he calls “a litter from three wives”.

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Encore
Directed by Harold French, Pat Jackson, and Anthony Pelisser
Written by Eric Ambler, T.E.B. Clarke, and Arthur Macrae from stories by W. Somerset Maugham
UK/1951
Two Cities Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Doctor: That nonsense about Englishwomen being icebergs is a mere fallacy made up by the French.

I’m coming to the tail end of my 1951 viewing.  I was so pleased to still have this good film to cap off the year with.

Encore is an anthology of three of Somerset Maugham’s short stories, each with a different director and writer.  The first two are in a comic vein.  “The Ant and the Grasshopper” is about a wastrel’s (Nigel Patrick) series of successful con jobs to get money from his stuffy elder bother. My favorite, “Winter Cruise”, is about a prim shopkeeper (Kay Walsh) who drives everybody on board crazy with her incessant chatter.  On the return voyage, she is the only passenger and the crew decides that only a shipboard romance will shut her up.  The final story is a drama incongruously called “Gigolo and Gigolette”.  A high-wire artist (Glynis Johns) and her husband have struck it rich with a very dangerous act in which she dives into a flaming pool of water only five feet deep.  The story explores what happens when she suddenly loses her nerve.

An unrecognizable Kay Walsh

I thought all the stories were clever and well-acted.  I laughed out loud more than a couple of times at the one with Kay Walsh.  My husband liked the movie very much too.  Recommended.

Royal Wedding
Directed by Stanley Donen
Written by Alan Jay Lerner
1951/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] How could I ever close the door/ And be the same as I was before?/ Darling, no, no I can’t anymore/ It’s too late now — lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner[/box]

This has a couple of Fred Astaire’s most famous dance numbers and a couple of good songs.  The story sort of lets the whole thing down.

The brother and sister team of Tom (Astaire) and Ellen (Jane Powell) Bowen are just closing their hit Broadway show.  They get an offer to perform in London while the town is abuzz with the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth with Prince Philip.  Ellen is quite the flirt and has about a dozen guys on a string.  This all changes when she meets playboy Lord John Brindale on their Atlantic crossing.

Tom tries to be a strict task master but Ellen wants to spend all her time with John.  He meets cute with Anne Ashmond (Sarah Churchill) on the street and their relationship picks up when she tries out for the show.  She turns out to be engaged to an American she hasn’t heard from in awhile.  With Keenan Wynne in a dual role as the Bowen’s American manager and his own English twin brother.

This is the one with Astaire’s iconic dancing with a coatrack and dancing on the ceiling numbers.  It also has a couple of standards by Burton Lane and Allen Jay Lerner. Unfortunately, the parts in between the numbers is so much dead weight.  The John-Ellen relationship has zero conflict and Sara Churchill is so bland I just couldn’t care less about the Tom-Anne romance.  Keenan Wynne makes a pretty pathetic upper-crust Englishman.

Judy Garland had been slated for the role of Ellen but was fired from the film for “personal problems”.  Her contract with MGM ened shortly thereafter.

Royal Wedding was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song for “Too Late Now.”

Clip – “How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I’ve Been a Liar All My Life” – longest song title in Hollywood history

Bonus track: Judy Garland singing “Too Late Now” on her TV show

When Worlds Collide
Directed by Rudolph Maté
Written by Sydney Boehm from a novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip wylie
1951/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Banner hanging over the Space Ark camp: Waste anything except TIME. Time is our shortest material.[/box]

I was looking forward to this for the special effects.  Unfortunately I did not find them convincing even for the period.

As the film opens, a group of scientists has made a terrifying discovery.  Within a year, the planet Zyra will come so close to the earth as to cause massive destruction.  Two weeks later a star will actually impact, obliterating the few survivors on earth.  Playboy David Randall (Richard Derr) is selected to take the astronomers’ top secret data to a university where a mainframe computer will be used confirm the findings.  The findings are confirmed.  The scientists conduct a special briefing for the UN but are not believed.

The scientists start fund raising for a Space Ark that will take forty hand-picked humans to Zyra to establish a space colony,  They get the final funding from an evil industrialist in a wheelchair.  Head scientist Dr. Hendron resists his demands to select the passengers.

Work begins on the Space Ark.  David Randall morphs from errand boy to critical employee/rocket ship pilot.  He has caught the eye of Dr. Hendron’s daughter Joyce (Barbara Rush) and she starts to reassess her engagement to square M.D. Tony Drake. Will the mission to Zyra survive the chaos that breaks out as disappointed prospective passengers arm themselves to storm the Ark?

I thought the use of miniatures and matte paintings was excruciatingly obvious in this one. The effects were more of a distraction than an asset as far as I was concerned.  I think maybe the same effects would have worked far better in black and white.  The story and acting don’t have much to recommend them.  The film ends with dawn on the planet Zyra.  I think there was an interesting movie to be made starting there.

When Worlds Collide won the Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects.  It was nominated for Best Cinematography, Color.

Trailer

Angels in the Outfield
Directed by Clarence Brown
Written by Dorothy Kingsley and George Wells; story by Richard Conlin
1951/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Aloysius X. ‘Guffy’ McGovern: Dogs have fleas, managers have reporters.[/box]

This started out really promisingly.

“Guffy” McGovern (Paul Douglas) is the manager of the Pittsburg Pirates. He swears a blue streak, is inclined to fisticuffs, and regularly gets thrown out of games.  The Priates are having a losing season.  The local paper sends out its household hints columnist Jennifer Page (Janet Leigh) out to get the “women’s angle” on the team.  She concludes the players are disheartened by the tongue lashings they receive from their manager.

Then a miracle happens.  Guffy is visited by an angel whom he can hear but not see.  The angel promises heavenly assistance if Guffy can learn to control his temper.

Then the cute little orphans and nuns show up.  One of the girls, Bridget, can see angels standing behind each of the players.  This hits the press and causes quite a stir.  Guffy’s angel has told him that they played together and his curiosity takes him out to the orphanage to see if he Bridget can tell him who the angel was.

Guffy, Jennifer, and Bridget all become really chummy.  In the meantime, Guffy’s archenemy (Keenan Wynne), a sports announcer, tries to get Guffy banned from the game due to insanity.  There is a hearing.  If you don’t know everything that happens in the last act of this movie, you have not been paying attention.  With Spring Byington and Ellen Corby as nuns, Lewis Stone as the baseball commissioner, and Donald Crisp in a cameo as a priest.  We also hear from Bing Crosby and Harry Ruby, playing themselves, on the subject of angels.

This is crisply written and pretty amusing at points.  Halfway in I began thinking I had seen the movie before.  I had.  It was called “Miracle on 34th Street.” All the best stuff in this one seemed much fresher in that film.  You could definitely find worse ways to spend your time, however.

Trailer

Death of a Salesman
Directed by Laslo Benedek
Written by Stanley Roberts from the play by Arthur Miller
1951/USA
Stanley Kramer Productions
First viewing/YouTube

This is a great and devastating story and Fredric March is great in it.

Willie Loman (March) is 63 years old and nearing the end of his 30-year career as a traveling salesman. He has read and absorbed the Dale Carnegie course but finds he no longer wins friends and influences people, if he ever did.  The voices from his past are becoming more real and insistent and he appears to be one bad decision away from suicide.  The hallucinations are so bad he is almost unable to drive a car.  Willie’s incredibly loyal and supportive wife Linda (Mildred Dunnock) is very worried.

Matters all come to head when Willie’s older son Biff (Kevin McCarthy) comes home for a visit.  Biff was a football player and father and son formed a kind of mutual admiration society when Biff was a high school football star.  Since then, Biff has become a drifter and a great disappointment to his father.  Almost anything they say to one another is the beginning of an argument.  To make matters worse, Biff’s playboy younger brother Happy decides to room with Biff at home during this visit.  Happy is a natural peacemaker but has little success with Biff and his father and has somehow gotten on the wrong side of his mother.

All the members of this family suffer from one delusion or another.  As the story progresses, Willie’s illusions are destroyed one by one.  Biff’s are stripped away as well.  The tragic ending is tempered slightly by a glimmer of hope that Biff may be able to escape his father’s fate.

This play hits me where I live and it always leaves me exhausted.  The number of lies these people tell themselves is staggering but not more so than the sadness of the reality they cover.  Fredric March’s performance as Willie Loman may be the one he was born for and absolutely should be seen.  The last few times I looked for this film I could not find it.  If you have any interest, you can catch it right now on YouTube.  Highly recommended.

Death of a Salesman received Academy Award nominations in the categories of Best Actor (March); Best Supporting Actor (McCarthy); Best Supporting Actress (Dunnock); Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

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