Category Archives: 1954

Champagne Safari
Directed by Jackson Leighter
Written by Lawrence Klingman
USA/1954
Jackson Leighter Associates
First viewing/Amazon Prime

[box] As far as I know it bombed. I never made a cent out of it but at one time I did have a print of it which I thought might interest Yasmin (her daughter) when she was old enough to understand it. I suppose I still have it around….somewhere….” — Rita Hayworth, 1973[/box]

Prince Aly Khan, the son of the Aga Khan, and his then wife Rita Hayworth invited her American friends Jackson and Lola Leighter to accompany their party on a trip through the Middle East and Africa.  The trip was about two years after their marriage and was planned as a second honeymoon.  At the end of the trip, Hayworth returned to America alone and despite some later attempts at reconciliation the marriage was over.

Leighter photographed the trip.  The film has the feeling of a home movie, with snippets of Hayworth posing for the camera.  The sights include the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and African Ishmaelis paying tribute to Aly, whose father was regarded “almost as a god”, in Kenya and Tanganyika.  Aly and the Leighters continued on to an animal safari but Hayworth went to pack her belongings.  Hayworth and the Leighters reunited for the ocean voyage back to the U.S.

This is an amateurish movie but might be of interest to Hayworth fans or for its glimpses of the last gasps of colonial Africa (the Mau-Mau rebellion had already begun in Kenya.)

Clip

The Vanishing Prairie
Directed by James Algar
Written by James Algar, Winston Hibler, and Ted Sears
1954/USA
Walt Disney Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] “Trees were so rare in that country, and they had to make such a hard fight to grow, that we used to feel anxious about them, and visit them as if they were persons.”
― Willa Cather, My Ántonia[/box]

This is what a nature documentary looked like in the 1950’s.

The film starts out with a cartoon view of the American prairie.  Then the narrator creates a picture of what a party of early settlers would have seen as it crossed the wild prairie on the way to Oregon.  After the introduction, the film focuses on various prairie birds and animals, often creating little anthropomorphic stories to go with their behavior.

I enjoyed this for what it was.  There seemed to be more focus on birds than there was in Disney’s The Living Desert and I especially liked that part.  The movie spent a lot of time with prairie dogs who are, of course, super cute and easy to create drama and comedy around.

The Vanishing Prairie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Feature.

Clip – opening

Brigadoon
Directed by Vicente Minnelli
Written by Alan Jay Lerner
1954/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] All the music of life seems to be/ Like a bell that is ringing for me/ And from the way that I feel/ When that bell starts to peal/ I would swear I was falling/ I could swear I was falling/ It’s almost like being in love. – “Almost Like Being in Love”, lyrics by Alan J. Lerner [/box]

This has some nice songs and Minnelli does well with Cinemascope but it didn’t grab me.

Americans Tommy Albright (Gene Kelly) and Jeff Douglas (Van Johnson) have come to Scotland to hunt grouse.  One day, they stumble across a strange village that doesn’t appear on the map.  It is a wedding day and villagers are preparing for festivities.  Tommy is immediately taken by Fiona Campbell (Cyd Charisse) the beautiful older sister of the bride.

It develops that the village is under a protective spell that means it reappears only once every hundred years.  The villagers are not aware of the passage of time, nor do they age. If any villager leaves town the village will disappear entirely.  A young man who is jealous of the wedding threatens to do just that.  As the day comes to an end, Tommy is faced with deciding whether he wants to stay with Fiona or return to modern New York.

Again, this has good music and some lovely balletic dancing.   It lacks pacing or a compelling story, though, and I found it quite forgettable.  The Scottish accents leave a lot to be desired.

Brigadoon was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color, and Best Sound, Recording.

French Cancan (1954)
Directed by Jean Renoir
Written by Jean Renoir and Andre-Paul Antoine
1954/France/Italy
Franco London Films/Jolly Film
Repeat viewing/My DVD collection

[box] Henri Danglard: You know why it breaks my heart to see you go? They can smash the place to pieces for all I care! But the profession’s losing a good trouper. I thought you were one of us. If not, get out! Line up for the quadrille, girls.[/box]

Jean Renoir finally returns to a liberated France to capture all the color and gaiety of Belle Epoque Paris in this fictionalized look at the birth of the Moulin Rouge and the Cancan.

Henri Danglard’s (Jean Gavin) nightclub is doing a lackluster business despite the attraction of Lola ‘La Belle Abbesse’ (Maria Felix), a fiery Spanish beauty who belly-dances and sings for the crowd.  Henri and Lola are having an affair.  One night they decide to go slumming in Montmarte.  There Henri finds that people are still dancing the cancan.  He dreams of opening a place where the bourgeoise could enjoy moderately priced luxuries and beautiful, untarnished girls.

He also notices a young laundress dancing at the cafe, who appears to have the requisite talent.  Her name is Nini (Françoise Arnoul).  Danglard dances with her, sparking the jealousy that will consume Lola for the rest of the film.  He asks Nini to try out for a show.  She assumes this offer will include a visit to the casting couch so moves quickly to lose her virginity to her baker sweetheart Paolo.  But Danglard treats her only with gentlemanly courtesy,

The rest of the movie follows the Danglard’s money woes in builiding the Moulin Rouge and the training of the dancers.  Eventually, Danglard and Nini begin an affair leading to typical love dramas with Lola, Paulo, and a Russian Prince who has taken a fancy to Nini.  But the plot is very secondary to several musical numbers and the spendid dancing.

After a long exile, Renoir returned to his beloved Paris in a mood to recreate her most glamorous days.  He also masters his father’s ways with the faces and figures of beautiful women.  He found the perfect rosy Renoir subject in Arnoul.  Gabin lost little of his sex appeal as he aged.  This is all handled in such a way that it might very well appeal to musical comedy naysayers.  Recommended.

Clip – Edith Piaf

The Belles of St. Trinian’s
Directed by Frank Launder
Written by Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat and Frank Valentine inspired by the original drawings of the Girls and Staff of St. Trinian’s by Ronald Searle
1954/UK
London Film Productions/British Lion Film Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

Arabella: Monica Drew wasn’t expelled when she burnt down the gymnasium.
Miss Fritton: The gymnasium was insured! The sports pavilion was not.

If you are ready for some non-stop mayhem from some cheeky schoolgirls and their equally delinquent teachers, this movie may be right up your alley. Alistair Sim is outstanding in a dual role as Miss Fritton, the headmistress and her twin bookie brother  Clarence.

An Arab prince decides to send Fatima, one of his many daughters, abroad for a Western education.  St. Trinian’s is considered ideal as it is located near the prince’s prize racehorses.

Fatima arrives at a time when chronic mismanagement and pilferage have caused a squadron of debtors to start breathing down the neck of Miss Fritton, who of course promptly confiscates Fatima’s pocket money to buy groceries.  The school has a long history of stymying the Board of Education and the police now plant a mole in the form of Sgt. Ruby Gates (Joyce Grenfell) who is posing as a hockey coach.  She is practically apoplectic with horror at the goings the entire time.

A visit from Clarence alerts Miss Fritton to the money to be made from backing the winner in an upcoming horse race.  Clarence has a horse in the race and is desperate that Arab Boy, the prince’s horse, not win. Miss Fritton sends out spies who discover that Arab Boy is virtually unbeatable. They gather their money for a large bet.  Another subset of girls has its money on Clarence’s horse.  Every underhanded trick in the book is played to fix the race as the custody of the horse changes several times.

Racing aside, the story is stuffed to the gills with gags featuring the misdeeds of the motley crew of students and their teacher co-cospirators. With George Cole as Flash Harry, a bookie and fence, and Hermoinie Baddley as one of the teachers.

The comedy is very broad indeed.  That’s not usually my favorite but there are so many gags and the comics are such pros that the smiles kept coming.

Montage of stills with theme music