Monthly Archives: April 2016

Rock Around the Clock
Directed by Fred F. Sears
Written by Robert E. Kent and James B. Gordon
1956/USA
Clover Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] If it’s illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail! — Kurt Cobain [/box]

I wouldn’t recommend this for the plot or dialogue but I had a lot of fun with the music and dancing.

Steve Hollis (Johnny Johnston) has been managing dance bands.  This particular band has been fired again from its latest gig.  Steve explains that people don’t like to dance any more – they prefer to listen.  The band fires him before he has a chance to quit and Steve and the bass player head back to New York where he has an uneasy relationship with a female booking agent.  They stop overnight on the way in a small town.  Everybody there is heading to a big dance.  Steve wants to see what all the commotion is about and is introduced to Bill Haley and His Comets and rock and roll music.  Steve sees this as the future of music and arranges to manage the band and the brother-sister act they have leading the dancing.  He falls for the sister half of the act.

In New York, the booking agent, who lusts after Steve, conspires to ruin him and his act. Finally, Steve looks up real life DJ (“Mr. Rock’n’Roll) Alan Freed who owes him a favor. They put together a review with the Comets, another white rock group, and The Platters, who sing Doo-Wop.  Everyone lives happily ever after.

Bill Haley has never been a big favorite of mine but he made me tap my feet along with the beat here.  The Platters are also great.  It’s completely predictable but enjoyable if you share my affection for the music.

Clip

The Great Man
Directed by Jose Ferrer
Written by Al Morgan and Jose Ferrer from Morgan’s novel
1956/USA
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Ginny: Feet of clay, huh?

Joe Harris: Right up to the knees, at least.[/box]

Jose Ferrer does his stuff as both actor and director in this quality look behind the surface of a popular radio personality.

Joe Harris (Ferrer) works as a reporter for a radio network.  The network’s biggest star, Herb Fuller, is suddenly killed in an auto accident.  Double-dealing executive Sid Moore (Keenan Wynn) assigns Joe to put together an hour-long memorial program in his honor.  Although he is warned that few that knew the man will have anything good to say, Joe sets out to capture the memories of Fuller’s associates and fans on tape.  Moore has Joe sign a contract directly with him in exchange for his promise that Joe will take over Fuller’s radio program.

In fact, all but one of people Joe interviews disliked Fuller and have pretty dreadful tales to tell about him.  Nevertheless, a talented engineer is able to edit and put together bits of the tape in eulogistic fashion.  When Joe’s last illusion is shattered, he has a decision to make. With Dean Jagger as the head of the network, Julie London as Fuller’s protegee and ex-mistress, Ed Wynn as the man who gave Fuller his first break and Jim Backus as a staffer.

I had no idea what to expect and liked this very much.  The acting is exceptional.  My favorite performance was by Ed Wynn as a religious small-town radio station owner.  His son is fantastic as well – so evil.  This has some of the flavor of Citizen Kane without that movie’s grandeur.  It has a nifty little last-minute double twist to cap it off.  Recommended and currently available on YouTube.

Fuller was supposedly based on Arthur Godfrey.  I remember him a little from my youth. He sounded like such a nice man!

Fire Maidens of Outer Space
Directed by Cy Roth
Written by Cy Roth
1956/UK
Criterion Films
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Hestia: I’ll go with my beloved to earth but I shall return! [/box]

This movie is bad in almost every possible way.  I had a lot of fun watching it.

A joint British-American expedition (Plan 13) launches for a three-week journey to the 13th moon of Jupiter, evidently the only body in the solar system capable of sustaining life.  And how!  It comes complete with oxygen, trees, beautiful female humans, and a “Creature”. We discover that the lost continent of Atlantis evacuated to this location.  The girls are dressed in Atlantan garb which happens to resemble that worn in the “Late Minoan” period.  All the men have died out except for one old man.  He looks at the astronauts with a greedy eye.  The girls start doing some fancy footwork and drinks are being drugged …

One ludicrous episode follows another in this hilariously bad movie.  The only complaint I had is that the YouTube print was so dark that I could barely discern the Creature. Judging from the still, perhaps this was a problem in the original as well.

Trailer

The Teahouse of the August Moon
Directed by Daniel Mann
Written by John Patrick from his play and a book by Vern J. Sneider
1956/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Sakini: She say she can’t be equal, Boss, until she has everything Lotus Blossom have.

Captain Fisby: What Lotus Blossom has, the government doesn’t issue![/box]

I was actually dreading watching Marlon Brando in Yellow Face.  Instead, I was charmed and entertained.  Go figure.

The movie takes place on Okinawa during the American Occupation of Japan.  Sakini (Brando) is the Okinawan interpreter for the fusty Col. Wainwright Purdy (Paul Ford), a man whose main activity seems to be posting signs banning fraternization between officers and GI’s.  Purdy is aiming for a promotion to General, all for the benefit of his wife of course.

Purdy is impressed to be getting an intelligence officer assigned to his unit, which is in charge of the Democratization of Okinawa.  Unfortunately for him, he gets Capt. Fisby (Glenn Ford), who has been moved from one assignment to the next for incompetence. He sends Fisby to the village of Tobiki to spread democracy and build the locals a school house.  Tobiki is Sakini’s native village and he accompanies Fisby.

The amount of mischief Sakini gets up to is astounding.  His greatest triumph is probably getting a geisha, Lotus Blossom (Machiko Kyô), for the unwilling Fisby.  Then the villagers demand a tea house instead of a school and things go downhill from there.  Within a few weeks, Fisby has gone native.  Col. Wainwright sends a psychiatrist Capt. McLean (Eddie Albert) to investigate.  McClean succumbs to the charms of the villagers even faster than Fisby did.  Clearly, the U.S. is set to lose this particular battle with the Japanese.  With Harry Morgan as the Colonel’s sergeant.

I really enjoyed this comedy of culture shock and Americanization run riot.  I don’t know that I’ve seen Brando do comedy before.  He is actually warm, funny, and the best thing about a movie full of other good performances.  Plus we get the great Machiko Kyô showing her versatility in an over-the-top farcical role.  Give it a try if you dare.

Trailer

Good-bye, My Lady
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Albert Sidney Fleischman from a novel by James H. Street
1956/USA
Batjac Productions
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Walden Grover: That’s a lot of money.

Skeeter Jackson: That’s a lot of dog.[/box]

This story of a boy and his dog came as a very pleasant surprise.

Skeeter Jackson (Brandon De Wilde) and his Uncle Jesse Jackson (Walter Brennan) live in a cabin near a swamp.  They live very simply.  Skeeter goes to school but Uncle Jesse is illiterate.  Skeeter is an orphan and storekeeper Cash Evans (Phil Harris) paid to keep him out of the orphanage.  Skeeter doesn’t trust Cash much but Uncle Jesse has a bickeringly friendly relationship with him.

Skeeter has been hearing an unearthly laughter coming out of the swamp.  Uncle and son track it down and it turns out to be a little dog they cannot catch.  The dog doesn’t bark. It only emits a strange yodel, runs like the wind, and cries real tears.  Cash goes to the swamp with his hunting dogs determined to capture the animal.  She is much too fast for his dogs.  Finally, Skeeter lures her in with kindness and food.  Thereafter, this is Skeeter’s dog, which he names Lady.

The rest of the movie is taken up mostly with Skeeter’s efforts to train the animal as a bird dog, a task at which she proves to be enormously talented.  Lady becomes famous far and wide and people begin visiting the cabin.  What will happen when research proves Lady to come from an ancient race of African hunting dog?  With Sidney Poitier as an educated neighbor and Louise Beavers as his mother.

I was half expecting something really corny but liked this movie a whole lot. The simple backwoods story is very well written and the acting is just wonderful.  I had no idea Phil Harris could act and Brennan and Poitier are, of course, outstanding.  There are no real surprises here but a ton of warmth and humor.  Recommended for the whole family.

Trailer

The Benny Goodman Story
Directed by Valentine Davies
Written by Valentine Davies
1956/USA
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

Alice Hammond: I can’t remember when I’ve been so moved.
Benny Goodman: That wasn’t me – that was Mozart.

The pacing of this fictionalized biopic is not too good but the music is glorious.

As a boy, Benny Goodman (Steve Allen) is the youngest and so receives the least coveted instrument.  It is a clarinet.  He proves to be a prodigy and his teacher dreams of a classical career.  His practice piece is Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.  His family needs money so he gets a job in a dance band.  Once he hears jazz, he is in love.  High-society beauty Alice Hammond (Donna Reed) frequently accompanies her jazz-lover brother to Benny’s gigs.  She initially has nothing but disdain for popular music.  But when Benny plays the Mozart Concerto at a soiree at the Hammond family manse she begins to fall in love.

Movie is in color but the best stills are in black-and-white

The story takes us through the ups and downs of Benny’s career and the couple’s protracted romance.  It culminates when Goodman’s orchestra plays at Carnegie Hall with other jazz greats.  With Sammy Davis Sr. as Fletcher Henderson and Harry James and Gene Krupa as themselves.

I love swing music and Benny Goodman and enjoyed listening to the many selections included in this movie.  The story just kind of meandered on and on without many high points.  The acting is not bad though.  Steve Allen does quite well in a performance as restrained as Goodman was.

Warning from Space (Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru)
Directed by Kôji Shima
Written by Hideo Iguni from a novel by Gentaro Nakajima; English dialogue by Jay Cipes and Edward Palmer
1956/Japan
Daiei Studios
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say ‘I want to see the manager.’ — William S. Burroughs [/box]

I should have heeded the warning.

Aliens shaped like stars covered in cheap fabric hold a pow wow on Planet Paira.  Number 1 is chosen for a mission to Earth to contact Dr. Kamura.  Sightings of flying saucers begin to increase.  Unforunately, the terror of seeing the motionless alien causes panic among the Earthlings.  So Alien Number 1 returns to Praia where it is transformed into the likeness of a tap-dancing night-club singer.  Alien Number 1 reportedly does a number of very suspicious things before finally making contact with Kamura.  When she does, Paira delivers its message.  A runaway planet from another galaxy is due to enter the shared orbit of Earth and Paira and will wipe out both planets unless it can be stopped.  Paira wants the nuclear nations to cooperate to detonate atom bombs sufficient to alter Earth’s orbit (????).  The only other possibility is an untested explosive formula that some bad guys are after.

After I saw pictures of the aliens, I had high hopes for this movie.  Unfortunately, the smiles come only in the first five minutes.  After that, very little happens.  I watched a dubbed version but have no reason to believe subtitles would help in the least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kC68EY6NvU

Clips

Tea and Sympathy
Directed by Vicente Minnelli
Written by Robert Anderson based on the play by Robert Anderson
1956/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/YouTube

Tom Lee: I’m always falling in love with the wrong people.
Laura Reynolds: Who isn’t?

This holds up remarkably well for a film that has dated in so many ways.

Bill Reynolds (Leif Erikson) and his wife Karen (Deborah Kerr) are the house parents of a boarding house at an upscale boys school.  Bill is also a coach and spends most of his time outdoors participating in various activities with the boys.  Tom Lee is a sensitive eighteen year old who lives in the house.  He spends his time apart from the others, listening to music and thinking.  He also has agreed to play a female part in the school play.  The final straw comes when, instead of going to a racous beach party, with his fellows he is caught on another part of the beach chatting with the faculty wives and demonstrating the proper technique for sewing on a button.  Thereafter he becomes known as “Sister Boy” and is mercilessly hazed by the other boys.

Despite his prowess at tennis, Tom is a grievous disappointment to his father and Coach Reynolds.  He is forced to drop out from the play and his roommate, at the insistence of his father, announces he is moving in with another boy the next year.  Laura feels a lot of sympathy for Tom, who reminds her of her late first husband.  She tries to stand up for him but is shouted down by her uncommunicative husband.  Things take a turn for the worse when Tom decides to try to prove himself with the local “bad girl.”

Now we can have movies about the love that dare not speak it’s name but in the 50’s the whole thing had to be approached very gingerly.  It is enough that Tom is “different”.  The filmmakers also found it necessary to tack on a moralistic coda emphasizing the “wrongness” of the resolution of the problem. Nevertheless, the movie remains quite moving and watchable, thanks to the sensitive performances of all concerned.  Recommended.

X the Unknown
Directed by Leslie Norman
Written by Jimmy Sangster
1956/UK
Exclusive Films/Hammer Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. Adam Royston: It’s a particle of mud. But by virtue of its atomic structure it emits radiation. That’s all it is. Just mud. How do you kill mud?[/box]

Here is another scary science-fiction film from the early days of Hammer Films.  So far these are really working well for me.

A British army unit is receiving training in the use of geiger counters.  One of the men is taking his time and gets a reading where no isotopes have been planted.  Suddenly the earth swallows him up.  A comrade nearby receives radiation burns.  Mysteriously, no radiation is found in the area thereafter.

The authorities seek an explanation at an atomic research facility.  There they meet with renegade scientist Dr. Adam Royston (Dean Jagger) who has been conducting some unauthorized experiments involving cobalt.  He agrees to investigate and is soon joined by a detective (Leo McKern) from the Atomic Energy Commission.

A series of horrific deaths ensue accompanied by mysterious break-ins into locations containing radioactive materials, such as the lab and a hospital.  No explanation is forthcoming until Royston comes up with a complicate theory involving the evolution of intelligence at the earth’s core.  After that it is a race to the end as the deaths continue and the deadly substance grows and becomes visible.  With Anthony Newley as one of the soldiers.

I liked this one a lot.  It is impressive how creepy something can be without much in the way of special effects, a monster, or blood.  I don’t think Dean Jagger ever gave a bad performance and he has just the right air of sober thoughtfulness here.  Recommended to sci-fi fans.

Trailer