Come Back, Little Sheba / 1952 (TCM Presents)

TCM's Star of the Month is Burt Lancaster. Mark this movie down as the FIRST Lancaster movie I've ever seen.

First things first, he was WAY too young for the role! I knew that even before I looked into the background of the movie. And probably what made him seem all the more young for the role was the fact that Shirley Booth (whom you'll probably know from the hit television show Hazel) was the right age. So immediately, putting them together, you'd find it difficult to think Lancaster and Booth are married and have been for twenty years?! But it gets even weirder as the movie progresses believe me!

If you've ever seen "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" I felt like this movie had that kind of vibe and feel to it. Both were originally stage plays that became such hits on Broadway the only thing left to do was film it. I say they were similar because in both Virgina Woolf and Little Sheba, they have four very dynamic characters who individually are a bit unhinged, but when they are thrown together they're downright insane!

I got that insane vibe right away from Lola (Shirley Booth) whereas Doc/'Daddy' (Burt Lancaster) was a bit aloof and frigid with his wife. This is understandable since it's revealed pretty early on that they got married young because she got pregnant by him. But the marriage quickly turned sour when she lost the baby but not until after they quickly got married. For whatever reason they never divorced. Probably because he felt sorry for her? Anyway, she becomes unhinged during their marriage, not so much from losing the baby, but from the loss of her dog that up and disappeared one day. Every morning she'd wake up and expect the dog to come back home. Guess what he dogs name is? Yep, you guessed it, Sheba. WTF?! Here I'm looking for Little Sheba to be one of the main characters names and turns out it's the name of some dog.

But upon deeper reflection I came up with something. What if Lola transferred the loss of her child into the dog disappearing and that's why she is so hung up on the dog? It's her way of staying attached to the baby. The only reason why someone like Doc married someone like her in the first play. Now, she claims she was very beautiful when she was first dating Doc. We find this and other little stories about how they met and how he courted her through what she shares with a young female lodger named Marie. She is the catalyst that moves the story along.

See, Doc takes one look at this young pretty thing and instantly is attracted to her. She is pretty and a bit flighty with men. One man in particular. A guy by the name of Turk (she calls him Turkey every once in a while). Now Turk is this rugged, blonde headed, handsome kind of guy who has a deep and powerful sexual desire. At the moment he desires Marie. Lola, the weirdo that she is, seems to "get off" on watching those two love birds go at it. She even reveals to her husband that she's watched them being intimate with each other. Of course, at that time, pre-marital sex was a no-no so we're to believe she meant kissing and such when she says she watched them together. Doc on the other hand is VERY jealous of Turk and wants Marie to break up with him. He doesn't necessarily voice his opinions for fear his secret desire to have her for himself will be discovered.

Here's how the rest of the story plays out. Turns out almost half the town are alcoholics. You should have seen the AA meeting! Packed house! And a separate cake for each member to commemorate how long they've been sober. Doc was just one year. That quickly got thrown out the window though when he suspects Marie is having sex with Turk. He drinks and drinks plenty. Goes out on a bender leaving his cooky wife to worry. He comes home only to accuse his wife of knowing what goes on in that bedroom they rent out from time to time and actually condoning it. Basically accuses her of being a "madame"! Anyway, after trying to kill her he collapses and is put in a "mental" facility where he remains for a while to detox. In that time Marie finds ANOTHER man, marries him, and leaves. Doc comes home and begs forgiveness from his wife. And promises that as long as she stays with him he'll be a better husband. The End.

Yep, that's about it. A pretty crappy ending really. But when you think about how plays were written back then it's just about what I expected. No fuss no muss. Their lives go on. And most importantly she moves on from expecting Little Sheba to come back home. You'll have to see the movie to discover how we know she moves on. I'm not about to spoil the WHOLE movie.

This is Shirley Booth's debut into the film world and after seeing her performance it's no wonder she was nominated and won the Academy for Leading Lady in this movie. Unfortunately, unlike other leading beauties of that era, she was not able to make a go of being a movie actress which is how she became Hazel. A role she owned and enjoyed playing.

Rear Window (1954) (Movie Review)

Title: Rear Window

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriter(s): John Michael Hayes

Producer: Alfred Hitchcock

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

In Theaters: August 1^st, 1954

Run Time: 112 minutes

Color: Technicolor

Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter & Raymond Burr

Genre(s): mystery/romance/thriller

Storyline: Professional photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend Lisa Freemont and his visiting nurse Stella to investigate.


Movie Trailer:


My Review: This time I traveled to another borough to see this movie. I went to BAM! and it was a gorgeous theater, on the outside. The actual theater was small and intimate but I actually prefer it that way because you feel that much closer to the screen without sitting in the first few rows (which I also prefer to do).

This movie is a part of a series of Grace Kelly movies BAM! is showing from July 13^th – July 26^th. Of the movies they have elected to show this one is the only one they showed over a 6 day span. To me, that speaks volumes.

Hitchcock loved his blondes, Grace Kelly especially. She starred in several of his movies, including Dial M for Murder and To Catch a Thief. The latter is being shown (and I will be attending) at BAM! as well this coming week.

For this movie however, I feel like Stella, played by Thelma Ritter stole the movie. She has the best one liners and delivers them with such grace and style it’s hard not to easily understand the generation she hales from and agree with her. She is a walking, talking, fortune cookie, or as L.B. Jeffrey’s points out, Readers Digest.

While some might watch this movie and be fearful of their neighbors and probably more attentive as to their surroundings, I feel the opposite. The whole atmosphere of seeing so many different worlds just by gazing out your window. How was L.B. supposed to know a murder would be taking place?

As usual in most of his films, Hitchcock makes a cameo appearance in the movie. If you don’t want to know where, skip this paragraph now, but if you do, read on. The piano player who owns the studio apartment across the way from L.B.’s window, at one point, has a visitor. At first the man’s back is facing the camera but if you know Hitchcock you know more than just the silhouette of his face. Once he turns you can see it is indeed him. I imagine he is a prospective manager or record producer who is visiting the single bachelor to hear him play a piece he has been struggling throughout the movie to finish.

I won’t spoil the movie’s ending but I will point out the way in which the camera angles are used in this movie. Hitchcock was one of the first directors to experiment with camera movements and placement more than anyone else. There is no angle used today that Hitchcock hadn’t tried in one of his movies at least once. This movie is no exception.

Until Hitchcock came along I imagine there was no clear definition for the word suspense. Hence why he is the master of it.

My Rating: A

TCM Presents...Dial M for Murder (1954)

Title: Dial M for Murder

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Screenwriter(s): Frederick Knott

Producer: Alfred Hitchcock

Distributor: Warner Bros.

In Theaters: May 29th, 1954

Run Time: 105 minutes

Color: Warner Color

Starring: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings & John Williams

Genre(s): crime/mystery/thriller

Storyline: In London, wealthy Margot Mary Wendice had a brief love affair with the American writer Mark Halliday while her husband and professional tennis player Tony Wendice was on a tennis tour. Tony quits playing to dedicate to his wife and finds a regular job. She decides to give him a second chance for their marriage. When Mark arrives from America to visit the couple, Margot tells him that she had destroyed all his letters but one that was stolen. Subsequently she was blackmailed, but she had never retrieved the stolen letter. Tony arrives home, claims that he needs to work and asks Margot to go with Mark to the theater. Meanwhile Tony calls Captain Lesgate (aka Charles Alexander Swann who studied with him at college) and blackmails him to murder his wife, so that he can inherit her fortune. But there is no perfect crime, and things do not work as planned. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Movie Trailer:


My Review: I never have nor do I believe I ever will, see an Alfred Hitchcock movie I don’t like. He truly is the master of suspense. Many try to copy him, all have failed. To try and enter his mind to find out why and how he does what he does is impossible. His ability to draw his audience into this world he creates for us with such simplicity of character and dialogue and story is brilliance. There is too much flash and graphics today that the true art of movie making is gone. Hitchcock knew how to draw out the best in his actors so much so that their surrounds were often inconsequential until you saw what he wanted you to see.

This movie was probably one of Hitchcock’s least favorites. If not for his having Grace Kelly in this movie, whom he adored, as much for her blonde hair as for her acting ability. Why was it his least favorite? Well, because Warner Bros. insisted he film the entire movie in 3-D. Back in the early 1950’s 3-D cameras were huge and not easily moveable. I’m sure this would have annoyed Hitchcock who just about pioneered the idea of moving around a camera in ways no one ever thought possible. He would have had very little say-so on how a scene would be or could be filmed. And honestly, I still don’t see the appeal of a 3-D movie with real people. Simply because I would never want to own a 3-D television so the only time I would see it as such would be if I saw it in the movie theater. Every time I see this movie and remember it was filmed in 3-D it does answer a lot of visual questions. You wonder why certain scenes were filmed on that angle? For the purpose of 3-D. But then you find yourself looking for all the instances where a person or an object would have that 3-D affect and I can never remember them all. Only the one shown on the movie poster actually.

Aside from the 3-D aspect, which you will never see unless they remaster and rerelease the movie as it was intended to be seen, it was a great story as told. The idea that a man should want to kill his wife in order to inherit her money is not a new one. It’s been gone over countless times in books, movies, and television shows. Hardly ever does the husband get away with it. Yet, the arrogance of a man shows through in spades when the idea enters their minds and they try it anyway. In this movie Ray Milland is the has been tennis pro who is living off his wife’s money. Back then, a man living off his wife, I thought, was not something to be ashamed of? I thought it wasn’t until much later that men developed pride and a spine and wanted to make their own money and way in the world? Maybe I’m wrong. In any case, the idea of how he could murder his wife and not get caught enters his mind. First there must be blackmail since he himself would not be killing her. There must be an alibi. And there must be a perfect time and place to commit what seems to be the perfect murder. He thinks he’s got everything working for him. No matter what hitches should come up, like his wife’s lover, whom he knows about, dropping in for a visit,  he is more than able to role with the punches. Even coming up with a plan B when his original plan of killing his wife doesn’t happen. You see, if she is convicted of murder, then being her husband, he would become sole heir of her estate. But I’m giving too much away already.

All I ask is you try and solve the murder before the chief inspector reveals it all in the end. I promise you, it’s not an easy case to crack. How does the chief inspector figure out that the wife is innocent and that in fact the husband is the guilty party? It’s all in the details…

My Rating: A

TCM Presents...The Two Mrs. Carrolls

 



Title: The Two Mrs. Carrolls

Director: Peter Godfrey

Screenwriter(s): Thomas Job & Martin Vale

Producer: Jack L. Warner & Mark Hellinger

Distributor: Warner Bros.

In Theaters: March 4th, 1947

Run Time: 99 minutes

Color: B&W

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, & Nigel Bruce

Genre(s): crime/drama/film-noir/thriller

Storyline: Struggling artist Geoffrey Carroll meets Sally whilst on holiday in the country. A romance develops but he doesn’t tell her he’s already married. Suffering from mental illness, Geoffrey returns home where he paints an impression of his wife as the angel of death and then promptly poisons her. He marries Sally but after a while he finds a strange urge to paint her as the angel of death too and history seems about to repeat itself. Written by Col Needham

Movie Trailer:

My Review: According to Robert Osbourne this is one of the Bogart movies that many critics felt he over acted. I would disagree. The man was portraying a mentally ill person, bordering on schizophrenia in my opinion. Back during this time period when there were no green screens, the actors relied on their ability to make a facial expression worth a thousand words. So many actors from the 30’s-70’s were experts at moving the story along through the expression on their face. Humphrey Bogart simply over exercised his facial muscles in, what he probably assumed, was the only way to let the audience know he was insane. For me, it worked brilliantly.

Ms. Stanwyck was superb in the scene when she discovers her husband whom she loves deeply is poisoning her in the same fashion that he poisoned his first wife. The first Mrs. Carroll. I appreciate Barbara Stanwyck’s performance in this movie because it further emphasizes what I knew about her all along. She’s a damn good actress. Her voice, for me, is the most distinct feature about her. I could close my eyes and recognize her voice instantly. It’s very deep and sultry and commands to be heard. In her library of movies this is a good addition to showcase how broad an actor she was.

There are a few minor players surrounding the two main characters as well. Alexis Smith for instance who plays the woman who Bogart has chosen to be his third wife after he’s gotten rid of his current wife of course. What amazes me is that no other person around him sees just how crazy he really is but her and she still is willing to love him and live with him. It just goes to show that women see what they want to see and when it comes to love they are blind to what’s right in front of their face.

His daughter, for me, is the most vital part of this movie. Without her the audience can easily forget just how human he is. True he is crazy, but when it comes to his daughter he is attentive, loving, and caring. She also is the only woman in his life who knows and understands his work as a painter better than even he knows it. She is supposed to be no older than 12 yet she speaks like that of a 40 year old woman. There is nothing she is afraid of. I believe she secretly knew her father was slowly killing her mother. That scene where he’s about to administer what will be the final and lethal dose to his first wife and his daughter says to him, “I will follow you anywhere and do anything you want me to do because I know what you’re doing is in my best interest.” I’m paraphrasing of course. It was her way of letting him know that she understands and will love him always no matter what he does or who he kills, even if it is her biological mother. That girl is the anomaly in the whole movie yet without her there would be no story.

If you’ve never seen Humphrey Bogart or if you’ve only seen him in a role of the cool guy, this is a great movie to see. It will open your eyes to just how great an actor he is, being able to play a role that no one would have ever imagined he’d be able to play.

My Rating: A