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TCM Presents Double Indemnity (or, Another Plug for Watching Films on the Big Screen)

August 5, 2015, 9:39 pm
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On July 19, 2015, I screened Double Indemnity at a local theater with a couple of relatives. (If you'd like to see when other offerings from TCM Presents will show at your local cinema, click here: Classic Series.)

Double Indemnity follows Barbara Stanwyck as a housewife named Phyllis with an itch to kill her husband for his accident insurance money. The only problem is he hasn't got any. Enter Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray), an insurance salesman who gets a little too friendly with the clients, especially the female clients. Can she convince Walter to help her murder her husband for big dough, double the dough?

Mother mentioned that about 20 years later, MacMurray and Stanwyck each went on to have a popular TV show career -his in "My Three Sons" and hers in "Big Valley."Despite the murderous nature (or perhaps because of the need to bring levity into the story), there are any number of one-liners.The audience saved its biggest laughs for Edward G. Robinson's  no-nonsense, but loveable portrayal of Neff's boss, who practically smells fraud and deception.


It's a great film, often described as noir-ish with its lights and shadows, its Venetian blinds and its femme fatale who's up to no good.

On the big screen, you feel as if you can step right into Phyllis' house, especially when the characters' backs are to the camera and the camera dollies with them as they walk to the door. You feel as if you're walking with them. There is something to be said for watching an old film at the cinema. The perfectly-tailored lines of Neff's serviceable wool coat... you think you can almost smell Phyllis' perfume... and the kiss that was nothing on TV seems far too intimate when their heads are 30-feet high. You miss so much when it's not shown in the cinema.

When you watch a film at home on TV, on your computer, or on your mobile device, you're missing something crucial - envelopment in the story unlike anything else.

At home, usually the lights are on, you have many distractions, including the cat wanting you to fix its dinner, or there are family obligations, or the neighbor is at the door finally returning your power tools, or you're using the movie as background noise while you do something else, like scour the internet for Cary Grant's autobiography.

However, at most movie theaters, you sit in a darkened room in a bucket seat, facing forward. There's nothing to do but watch the screen (and mindlessly eat overpriced popcorn as you watch).

And before that, you had to put on your shoes, go out the door and travel to a building that does nothing but show movies. It's an event, an increasingly expensive event. You're going to pay attention in ways that perhaps you wouldn't somewhere else.

This is just a recommendation: if you have the chance to see an old film on the big screen and it doesn't break the budget, do it. I have seriously considered setting up a projector and having a regular movie night on the side of a barn, or something. The quality would be lousy, but I'll get to see some of the more obscure films as I wish, as they were meant to be seen - large and enveloping.

Did you see Double Indemnity on the big screen?  Did you enjoy it?
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With a Song in My Heart

August 6, 2015, 9:57 pm
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I recently visited a college for business purposes. On the walls were plaques displaying various campus sororities and fraternities. I must have had West Side Story on the brain.

Out of the vast number of Greek societies listed, I zeroed in on the two plaques displaying the Sharks and the Jets. I had to take pictures.



Suddenly, I found myself smiling and involuntarily singing some of Stephen Sondheim's lyrics from the movie (even though the lyricist claims to be embarrassed by them): "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way."

Suddenly, I needed to break into Jerome Robbins' finger snaps and pirouettes. (You'll be happy to know that I composed myself before that happened.) But I'd have to say that this unexpected reminder of one of the great films of Hollywood, really brightened my day.

Do classic movies ever interrupt your life when they are the farthest thing from your mind? Isn't it fun when that happens?
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I Love Melvin (1953) w/ Debbie Reynolds

August 23, 2015, 2:45 pm
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via


I Love Melvin (1953) is a light-hearted romp about a young lady, Judy LeRoy (Debbie Reynolds), who plays a small part on Broadway. However, she dreams of becoming a movie star in Hollywood. Judy notes in one scene – quite breathlessly, she’s almost panting- that being featured on the cover of a magazine will catapult her career into the movies.

Enter Melvin Hoover (Donald O’Connor), a photographer’s assistant for Look Magazine who is enamored with Judy and promises she will be featured on the cover. The remainder of the film follows a bumbling guy with little influence trying desperately to accomplish such a feat.


Reynolds’ own film stardom was on the ascent at this time, just like that of her character in I Love Melvin.  She had a handful of movie titles under her belt by this point, but she was yet to earn the Academy Award nomination for her performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). Here, however, Reynolds is billed after O’Connor, since he had been a star for well over a decade by the time of the release of Melvin.

O’Connor churned out a number of films as a teen idol for Universal Studios in the early 1940s, some of which were released piecemeal after he joined the armed forces during World War II. He returned with his career intact. But it would take a few years before he would star in the MGM film for which many people know both him and Debbie Reynolds today – Singin’ in the Rain (1952).  

I Love Melvin and Singin' in the Rain


The puppy love narrative takes over in Melvin -They are so cute!- and you forget that this is a backstage story not dissimilar to the previous Reynolds-O'Connor film - Singin’ in the Rain (1952). It's simply presented as a light comedy, instead of a more dramatic piece.

In fact, MGM cashes in on the popularity and some of the elements of the previous film.

  • The original I Love Melvin trailer sells Reynolds and O’Connor as “The Singin’ in the Rain kids.” 
  • In Singin’ in the Rain, Reynolds plays Kathy Selden -a newcomer to Hollywood who succeeds in show business. In I Love Melvin, Reynolds plays a wackier and more modern version of a character with similar aspirations, who - it is inferred- may leave for Hollywood soon. Judy Leroy is almost a proto-Kathy.
  • Melvin features a virtuoso number for O’Connor called,“I Want to Wander,”  where Melvin dances with various props in a photographer's studio. It hearkens back to a similarly wacky, signature piece for the star in Singin’ in the Rain called “Make ‘Em Laugh”, which involves props from various sets at a movie studio.

Debbie Reynolds' previous triumph sets up her character as a Hollywood insider. In Melvin, the movie-going audience must now accept her as a relatable, girl-next-door. How to bridge the gap?

Apart from the actress' own down-to-earth spunk, the answer in Melvin is to make her relatable by presenting her glamour as a figment of the imagination.


The credit sequence shows Reynolds in a stage costume writing the words “I Love Melvin ” in lipstick on a mirror. So far, she's still presented as the show business "It" girl.


After the credits, we see cast and crew milling around camera cranes and prepping for the entrance of a movie star - Judy Leroy. They segue into a production number with candelabras placed on a giant staircase. The number features Miss Leroy in shimmering jewels with a chorus of men in tuxedos and capes, singing, “A Lady Loves.” So far, Reynolds is still shown as a movie insider, like Kathy Selden.

The director yells, "cut"and we follow Judy around as everyone on the set congratulates her.  Suddenly, someone screams her name, and Judy wakes up. It is all a dream. The real Judy is not a star, she’s a young lady who lives with her parents, who needs her mother to wake her up for work.



Presenting Judy's sophisticated manner, dress and career as a dream is an ingenious way that MGM eases its audience out of Debbie Reynolds as Kathy Selden, the movie starlet, and into Debbie Reynolds as a character that could be your neighbor. She's almost parodying the world of her previous role.

Judy is just a kid strolling around in Central Park.
Now the movie proper begins and we are left with the girl-next-door – Judy Schneider who has changed her surname to Leroy – a very Hollywood-ian thing to do. Reynolds plays an outsider who wants in.


A Movie About Movies


Melvin is a movie about movies, though it’s not often viewed in that vein since the film is set in New York City (with lovely location shots). Plus, the bulk of the film remains on the first leg of Judy Leroy's journey - getting on the cover of a magazine. Next stop: Hollywood. But we never see the second leg of the journey, except in her dreams. Silver screen stardom is just beyond Judy's reach.

Judy is on Broadway, but in a ludicrous way where no one will know her – curled up as a football in a ballet, surrounded by young men dressed in football jerseys who kick her back and throw her around. She walks out of the show with a limp; Judy is a “nobody” in New York.

When Melvin takes Judy on a date to the movies, she has no interest in canoodling, she stares enraptured at the actors on the screen. She's seated in New York, but her heart belongs to California.

Ah, Hollywood! Go West, young lady!

In Judy’s dreams she is not wearing a pigskin. No!  Instead, Judy is bejeweled, gowned and faces the camera for a close up. Everyone will know Judy Leroy – the biggest star.

In her dreams, Judy is not surrounded by young, pimply, football jocks.  Nay! In her dreams, she dances languidly with tuxedo-ed men. MEN, I tell you! Her first dream scene ends with a significantly older man (Bob Taylor, playing himself) who  holds her hands and speaks sweet nothings to her. In another dream, Judy dances with several men in Fred Astaire masks and several other men in Gene Kelly masks. The Hollywood obsession is real.

Judy in real life lives with her parents, but in her dreams she is an independent, sophisticated adult. And La-La Land provides this platform for her.


Debbie Reynolds Plays the Face of Show Business

Debbie Reynolds in The Gazebo-- via

MGM had a winning formula for many of Debbie Reynolds' films. Reynolds often plays someone smitten with show business.


Later, in the same year of the release of I Love Melvin, the perky actress is seen again in a show business role, playing in an ensemble cast opposite Bob Fosse in Give a Girl a Break (1953). She meets Russ Tamblyn backstage at her rehearsal in Hit the Deck (1955). Frank Sinatra gives her a pointer or two about how to sell a song to an audience in The Tender Trap (1955).

Even when she steps outside of show business as a dental secretary to a lecherous boss in This Happy Feeling (1958), she quickly runs away into the employ of an actor (Curt Jurgens), becoming his girl Friday. In The Gazebo (1959) with Glenn Ford,  Reynolds plays a Broadway performer who is so successful her husband is being extorted for money to keep career-crushing pictures of his wife from reaching the public.

By the next decade, Reynolds plays a seedier version of the show business person – a jaded taxi dancer, someone who dances with one man at a time for pay, in The Rat Race (1960) with Tony Curtis. Curtis plays the wide-eyed, show-biz-crazy, male version of an ingénue in that film.

Reynolds says in her autobiography, Debbie: My Life,
"The Rat Race was going to be a departure for me. I had to play a young girl who has been in New York for five years trying to break into show business. To keep from starving, she models at whatever she can get daytimes, and at night works in a dance hall.”

In terms of style, yes, it's gritty and therefore a departure from her usually upbeat fare. But, The Rat Race is quite consistent with her wonderful oeuvre of movies about show business.

Even in the Wild West period film, How The West Was Won (1962), MGM couldn't resist giving Reynolds the part of a pioneer woman who seeks "fine things," which ends up being a career as a performer on a riverboat with as many petticoats as a woman could want.

Conclusion


Debbie Reynolds has the talent to portray the everywoman who struggles for something more.  Her characters' struggles were sometimes placed in films about show business, a prime example of this is in I Love Melvin .

At any rate, this film should have been called I Love Judy, because it’s less about Judy’s love for Melvin and more about Melvin’s intense, yet pathetic, attempts to bring to fruition Judy’s quixotic dreams. Perhaps I Love Melvin should have been titled I Love Hollywood, since the film is a mash note to show business in the same vein as A Star is Born or Singin’ in the Rain.

I highly recommend this light comedy for a rainy day.

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An Experiment

September 5, 2015, 6:16 pm
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Inspiration for your classic movie blog can come from anywhere. (See 100 Classic Movie Blog Post Ideas for more inspiration.)

A new tactic for Java's Journey comes from a combination of ideas from Casey Neistat (a film maker and daily vlogger) and Brooks Palmer (a decluttering expert).

Neistat challenged himself to create a mini film every day, just to see what happens. Except for one attempt at a marathon about films from the 1940s, I've shied away from daily blogging about classic movies. Afraid of it.

Then I happened upon this Brooks Palmer article where the author challenges our clutter by asking us to let go of the appearance of perfection. Java's Journey doesn't appear perfect by a long shot. I make grammatical errors and typos all the time. But still I am afraid of daily blogging. Scared of the anxiety that comes when you think you've run out of something to say. Afraid that maybe other bloggers are correct and the quality will suffer (or suffer further).

I am still anxious, but I will attempt it anyway.

For the next month, I will publish a classic movie blog post 6 days per week (Sundays excluded). This experiment begins Monday September 7, 2015 and ends Wednesday October 7, 2015.

What's the most angst-driven thing you've done on your classic movie blog?
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Thoughts on Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw and Producer Gabriel Pascal

September 7, 2015, 5:03 am
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George Bernard Shaw and Gabriel Pascal (Source)

George Bernard Shaw, award-winning playwright, author of Pygmalion (the basis for My Fair Lady) loved wordplay and likened it to a sword fight.

In an article in The Malvern Festival Book, August 1931, Shaw says, 
“My plays do not consist of occasional remarks to illustrate pictures, but of verbal fencing matches between protagonists and antagonists, whose thrusts and ripostes, parries and passados, follow one another much more closely than thunder follows lightning. The first rule of their producers is that there must never be a moment of silence from the rise of the curtain to the fall.” 

With these witty, dialogue-heavy stories came a problem – filmmakers did not believe that drawing room plays –even popular ones like Shaw’s- would translate well on a film- a medium that begs for action.

Says Valerie Pascal in The Disciple and His Devil, 

“ [My husband, film producer Gabriel Pascal,] was told that Shaw’s name had been box-office poison ever since the miserable flop of his two filmed plays; that he was too highbrow for the public; that his plays, with a minimum of action and a maximum of dialogue, were unsuitable for films without major changes; and that Pygmalion was the deadliest play of all since it did not have enough action for a two-reel short, and worse, it did not have a happy ending. As a matter of fact, it had no ending at all; it left the audience and Eliza Doolittle in the air. ”

However, Pascal was undaunted and given to visions of grandeur. He was confident that he could succeed where other filmmakers had failed. 

Pascal would create a Pygmalion that bended slightly to the realm of film - with exterior shots, montages, moving to various locations; he would cast a newcomer-to-film and make a star of her - Wendy Hiller; he would charm the film’s author and get what he needed for the film, including keeping film star Leslie Howard in the mix, despite Shaw's claim that a "matinee idol" would diminish the film. Pygmalion  would become a hit and a classic, which spurred on more Shavian play-to-film productions.

According to Mrs. Pascal,  Shaw - who was never known to blandish compliments on anyone, least of all a man in the film industry- said, 

“Until he [Pascal] descended on me out of the clouds, I found nobody who wanted to do anything with my plays on the screen but mutilate them…. The man is a genius: that is all I have to say about him.”

High praise indeed.


Further Resources
Discover more about Pygmalion and My Fair Lady by clicking here.

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Show Business Writers Discuss Work

September 8, 2015, 2:00 am
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In a sense, classic movie bloggers are show business writers on the periphery. We observe and are drawn to the goings-on of the movie world, like moths to the flame.

And then there are the writers on the inside of entertainment - the playwrights and screenwriters. They get the ball rolling, expressing what they want to say through an orchestra of actors, crew members and distribution centers, finally reaching the rest of us (hopefully with what they wanted to express still intact).

Let's get inspired by playwrights and screenwriters and their observations of show business.
Leonard Bernstein, Adolph Green, Betty Comden and Jerome Robbins in 1944,  making changes for“On the Town.”


Neil Simon
"I don't like writing for comedians. I like writing for actors. The best comedians are the best actors."

"You're a witness. You're always standing around watching what's happening, scribbling in your book what other people do. You have to get in the middle of it. You have to take sides. Make a contribution to the fight. Any fight. The one you believe in."

"In a sense, everything you write is autobiographical because it is going through your brain, so it comes out like litmus paper, it always catches some of who you are."

Betty Comden
"There is something about the creative process... which is that you can't talk about it. You try to think of anecdotes about it, and you try to explain, but you're never really saying what happened... it's a sort of happy accident."

"As members of the Freed unit, we had a very unusual experience for writers in Hollywood. The unit had a reputation for being very respectful of all its various talents, particularly the writers, and it was true. No other writer was ever put on one of our pictures, and no one was ever brought in to rewrite anything. Never. Which was very unusual. "

Joseph Mankiewicz
"Every screenwriter worthy of the name has already directed his film when he has written his script."

"I felt the urge to direct because I couldn't stomach what was being done with what I wrote."

Adolph Green
 "As a main ingredient to the show, it has to have truth, represent truth, or else it won't last."

"We've managed to keep a spirit of fun, I guess, of urban satire and finding new and odd interesting angles to the ways of life to put on the stage."
Herman Mankiewicz
[In a telegram to Ben Hecht urging him to come to Hollywood to write movies]:
"Will you accept 300 per week to work for Paramount? All expenses paid. 300 is peanuts. Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around."

Ben Hecht
"Not only was the plot [in movies] the same, but the characters in it never varied. The characters must always be good or bad (and never human) in order not to confuse the plot of Virtue Triumphing. This denouement could be best achieved by stereotypes a fraction removed from those in the comic strips."

"For many years Hollywood held this double lure for me, tremendous sums of money for work that required no more effort than a game of pinochle. Of the 60 movies I wrote, more than half were written in two weeks or less. I received from each script, whether written in two weeks or [never more than] eight weeks, from $50,000 to $150,000. I worked also by the week. My salary ran from $5000 a week up. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1949 paid me $10,000 a week. David O. Selznick once paid me $3500 a day."

Orson Welles


"We live in a snake pit here... I hate it but I just don't allow myself to face the fact that I hold it in contempt because it keeps on turning out to be the only place to go."

"I know that in theory the word is secondary in cinema, but the secret of my work is that everything is based on the word. I always begin with the dialogue. And I do not understand how one dares to write action before dialogue. I must begin with what the characters say. I must know what they say before seeing them do what they do."
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To Sir, With Love (1967) W/ Sidney Poitier

September 9, 2015, 2:00 am
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It's "Back to School" time. What could be better than a story about the classroom?To Sir, With Love (1967) fits the bill.

Caring Teacher- Rude Students Plot


A resolute teacher (Sidney Poitier) turns a rebellious class into winners. You've seen this plot before in films such as Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, The Ron Clark Story, Sister Act 2. The list goes on.

Usually, the students perform abysmally in academics. The teacher discovers it is a discipline problem, teaches them self-control, and they earn high scores at the end or they win the big contest.

To Sir does something slightly different. The emphasis is not on scholastic achievement. After days of frustration, the teacher realizes that the seniors believe academics are irrelevant to their lives. The turning point is a scene where the Poitier character tosses school books into the garbage bin and says, "these are of no use to you." He then teaches them decorum, self-respect and how to apply for jobs. They must now refer to him as, "Sir."

I doubt seriously if the scene with the garbage bin would happen in the current era of film-making. Every student in a movie is expected to attend a university these days. This might be the reason most of the more recent films showcase younger students -people who are less set in their ways and have  more time to correct scholastic mistakes.

The film is based on the memoirs of a teacher - E.R. Braithwaite- who said in an interview with the BBC,

 "Whatever was in the film, happened, but by the time the film makers got through with it, it took on a different kind of patina....I had to remind [writer/director/producer] James Clavell on more than one occasion that my book was autobiographical, not a novel." 
(source) 

Authors of source material for a film commonly hold these observations when filmmakers embellish true stories.


Still, there is nothing fake about the number of charming and emotional scenes between the caring teacher and his increasingly respectful students. I recently watched this film again with a group; there wasn't a dry eye in the place at the end. Yes, Poitier will have you in tears.

A Pop Song and a First in Hollywood History

The film sparked a popular song based on the title and performed by recording artist Lulu, who plays a student in the film. It's set in London during the epic '60s Mod fashion craze, so look for beehive hairdos and go-go boots.

By this time, Poitier had already taken home the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Lilies of the Field (1963). The popular actor commanded a million-dollar-per-picture salary. Due to budget constraints, To Sir, With Love could not afford Poitier's usual paycheck. The actor accepted what turns out to be the first net gross deal in Hollywood, according to Indiewire. Poitier received a share of each ticket sold (as opposed to merely a share of the profits, which had been done before). The film was an unexpected hit and Poitier made far more than his usual salary from the deal.

I recommend To Sir, With Love if you are a Poitier fan and/or you enjoy films that champion educators. 


Further Resources
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Good Neighbor Sam (1964) w/Jack Lemmon

September 10, 2015, 4:17 am
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After World War II, suburban developments saw a massive boom. Affordable single family houses were built efficiently and welcomed returning veterans and others to a place far from the roaring crowd in the city.

The reputation for suburbia was one of tranquility and peace. Hollywood enjoyed disturbing this idyllic world in the movies, not unlike a child stomping on your sand castle or your brother ripping off the heads of your dolls.

A story would present what seems to be a pleasant family, then it would reveal a secret, or tempt a suburbanite to break the law or marriage vows, or bring in an untrustworthy character to stir the plot. When it's played with gravitas, we here at Java's Journey call that a "Suburban Drama" (which we've discussed before). When a suburban story line is played for laughs, it's usually a "Sit-Com Movie."

Sit-Com movies are reminiscent of the lightweight, suburban situation comedies that would air on television in the mid-to late 20th century. The plot often involves a father who works outside of suburbia, a mother who stays home, children who learn important life lessons and a pet. Then something changes the normal routine.


Good Neighbor Sam (1964) is a sit-com movie starring Jack Lemmon as Sam. Sam is a married suburban man who helps his wife's friend and new neighbor Janet (Romy Schneider) by pretending to be her husband when her relatives make an unannounced visit.

Janet could become an heiress if relatives believe she is married until the will goes through. Complications arise when Janet's estranged and not-yet-divorced husband (Mike Connors) shows up.

Also, Sam is known for being a family man with no moral failings. This trait recently earned him a promotion at work and the favor of a wealthy client. Should his employers discover his tricks with the neighbor, Sam might lose his job.

Good Neighbor Sam is a wacky film that's a bit heavy-handed with the comedy. It shines in subtler moments with Dorothy Provine (as Sam's understanding wife Minerva), who pauses ever so slightly when Janet introduces Sam as her own husband. Minerva then regains her composure and goes with the scene.

The film has it's funny moments, as well, with Edward G. Robinson as the wealthy client who could cost Sam his job.

Good Neighbor Sam is recommended if you are a Jack Lemmon fan or Edward G. Robinson follower or a Romy Schneider completist (i.e.you feel compelled to watch all of her films), or if you enjoy 1960s sit-com movies.

Further Resources

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Toast of the Town 2

September 11, 2015, 2:00 am
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Let's take a look around the web for classic movie talk, resources and blog posts.



  • The New York Times critic says the 2003 film, Lucy, a Woman Wronged"illustrates the pitfall underlying American culture's narcissistic obsession with childhood icons: in the surfeit of show business biographies, it takes a very big star to hold viewers' attention. Yet the bigger the star, the harder it is to get the movie biography right. "


  • Yours truly joined the TCMParty on Twitter for two consecutive movies. All you do is a watch a film that is playing on Turner Classic Movies along with hundreds of other people and make observations on your Twitter feed with the hashtag #TCMParty. It's a thrill to participate and make new friends. I don't have TCM on TV, so I simply popped in the DVD at the appointed time. Go to the TCMParty tumblr page for details. (They are not affiliated with TCM, by the way. They are fans.)


    See the other Toast of the Town posts by clicking here.

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    Under the Big Top

    September 12, 2015, 12:00 am
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    In old circus films, someone is often dramatically injured or killed. 

    I didn't realize this until taking the nephews to the circus. As I sat there, holding some sticky confection in a clown cup for the little ones, watching highly disciplined acrobats twirl, a feeling came over me. It was a feeling of absolute calm.

    Why was I surprised by calm? Because, despite having been to the circus several times without incident, it dawned on me that classic Hollywood trained me to expect catastrophe and sudden death.

    In classic, live-action circus films
    (1) the big top goes flying away in a big storm, or
    (2) supportive beams that were working well a minute ago suddenly come crashing down, or
    (3) someone malicious wants to put the circus out of business and starts killing people, or
    (4) suddenly a big cat mauls its trainer.

    These, or other horrifying incidents, occur in a number of circus stories that old Hollywood would release back then.

    Think about it.

    The Big Show with Cliff Robertson - death by fall, death by animal.

    Berserk with Joan Crawford - multiple and mysterious gruesome deaths
     
    The Greatest Show on Earth with Charlton Heston -  near death experiences, crashes, run-ins with the law.  (Actor and classic film buff, Steve Hayes has a fun story about sitting behind Gloria Grahame during a showing of this film. View his story by clicking here. Strong language warning)



    Even in the light-hearted, circus musical Jumbo,  Jimmy Durante almost kicks the bucket when the pillars come tumbling down in the rain.


    Do you know of a classic circus movie without near-death or catastrophe? Let me know in the comments.

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    The Women (1939) w/ Norma Shearer

    September 14, 2015, 4:34 am
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    It's the story of relationships among females, the story of a home broken by the pains of infidelity, the story of one woman's struggle to heal her wounds.

    And it's a comedy. A tragi-comedy.

    Starring Norma Shearer as a "wronged woman" named Mary, The Women (1939) uses Mary's journey towards divorce as a through line of solemnity. It then veers off occasionally to take a gander at her friends and their problems, which are shown in a comic vein. But we never stray too far from Mary and "the other woman" Crystal (Joan Crawford).

    One Gender


    There is a  well-known gimmick which  keeps this film on the tip of everyone's tongue today. It is the fact that, despite the script revolving around the men in the characters' lives, there are no male actors present in the movie.

    Other movies have featured only one gender, or mostly one gender, and the fact is explained away in the plot. For example, it is a war film where males go off to fight and we follow their story. Or a wild West film where mail order brides make their way on a wagon train.

    But unlike those other films where the other gender is miles away, in The Women, males are in the building, but are placed exclusively off-stage (just behind that closed door or just in the next room), as it does in the Clare Booth Luce play on which the film is based. This is rare.

    Without this one-gendered shtick, the film could very well have been just another soap opera. (This is my argument against its remake, The Opposite Sex.)

    Comedy


    Despite its through line of  Mary and her broken heart, we dabble here and there with supporting players who give us comic bits. Rosalind Russell plays a petty woman whose ridiculous hats are only outdone by her outrageous attachment to gossip (laid out with Russell's machine gun delivery of lines). A favorite comic female is The Countess (Mary Boland) who is lively in spite of the fact that her husband pushed her over a precipice. ("I slid halfway down the mountain before I realized that Gustav didn't love me.") She doesn't choose men of character; the Countess is in love with love. Paulette Goddard gives an unapologetically saucy turn as a woman who takes your leftovers.

    They are a messy bunch. And Mary's mother Mrs. Morehead (Lucille Watson) uses her cultured tones to say just that. When asked why Mrs. Morehead is spraying a bottle of perfume after the women leave, Mrs. Morehead claims that she is "fumigating." The film gives you silliness and condemns it all at once.


    The comedy starts from the title credits. Each starring actress' name and face is shown after an accompanying animal with related musical cues, giving you an idea of each characters' personality.

    Norma Shearer's face is accompanied by a glorious run on the harp after the image of a doe at peace. Joan Crawford's man-eater is represented as a carnivorous big cat, a leopard. Then Joan's face is introduced with a vampy, trumpet.

    Careers


    Norma Shearer was on her way out of show business; it would be another three years before the actress and widow of Irving Thalberg would retire from film. But this is a great film on which to end a career.

    Joan Crawford still had a few decades of performance to go, including her Academy Award-winning performance in Mildred Peirce (1945).  Crawford would die shortly after retiring in the 1970s.  Hollywood was no longer the place that she knew.  ("You may have it," Crawford says with a wave of her hand in an interview on The David Frost Show.)

    That rapid tongue  of Rosalind Russell would deliver classic lines the next year in an enduring favorite with Cary Grant, His Girl Friday.

    Mary Boland was still to use her comic expertise as Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1940) with Laurence Olivier.

    Crawford, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine were all onscreen dance partners with Fred Astaire.


    I recommend The Women if you wish to laugh or cry. 

    What do you think of this film?

    Further Resources

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    Bye, Bye Birdie (1963) w/ Dick Van Dyke

    September 15, 2015, 2:35 pm
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    The manager of a popular singer chooses a young fan to kiss the star for publicity, wreaking havoc on the girl's small town.

    Bye, Bye Birdie is satire of American rock stars and the mania that surrounds them. It also features the life of the manager - Albert Peterson (Dick Van Dyke)- who delays marrying his assistant Rose (Janet Leigh) until he's a success.

    Ann-Margret plays the rock star's fan in this, her third film. Bye, Bye Birdie would turn into a big vehicle for the actress. According to Dick Van Dyke's autobiography, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business, the cast had no idea that Ann-Margret's part would be expanded. It was only at the premiere that they saw extra shots of the young lady with a new song before the credits and after the story ends. Janet Leigh -who had been a major star for much longer and who is billed first- was livid.

    Van Dyke claims a c'est la vie approach to it all. His youthful co-star was at the right place at the right time... and she hustled like crazy. Van Dyke carries the same sanguine view of his own career.

    When he showed up to audition for the Broadway version of Bye, Bye Birdie some years before, he was incredulous then, as he is to this day, that he was chosen. It seemed a random choice.

    "My audition took place in a dimly lit, empty theater off Broadway, somewhere in the Forties.... There were only a few people there, including [choreographer Gower Champion], a handsome, serious man. ... Gower and his producers sat at a table in front. I stayed in the back until I heard my name, then took my place on the stage. There was one light shining down and a piano player on the side.

    "After answering a few questions, I sang 'Till There Was You' from The Music Man and then 'Once in Love with Amy' with a little soft-shoe that I knew. When I finished, Gower came onstage and said, 'You've got the part.' Just like that. He gave me the job. Right on the spot.
    ....
    "'But I...I can't really dance.'
    "'Don't worry about that,' he said. 'I saw what you can do. That's what we'll build on'"

    And a star was born.

    He played the part of Albert Peterson on Broadway for a year and a day. During that time, Gower Champion made sure Van Dyke had something to do in the first act, namely, the song "Put On a Happy Face," which would become the actor's signature song.

    Van Dyke caught the eye of show business moguls in the West and left the show to pursue television. He would star in his eponymous sitcom with Mary Tyler Moore, written by Carl Reiner and funded byPeter Lawford, which would become a classic.

    During a summer break, he (and Broadway cast mate Paul Lynde) was tapped to recreate his Bye, Bye Birdie stage role for film.

    And a star was born to the movies.


    The next year, 1964, Van Dyke would play in an ensemble cast with Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine in What a Way to Go!  1964 would also bring his iconic role as Bert the chimney sweep opposite Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins.

    Although his first film didn't turn out as he had imagined, Van Dyke is grateful for a long career and several iconic roles.

    What is your favorite Dick Van Dyke film?


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    Autumn Leaves (1956) w/ Joan Crawford

    September 16, 2015, 4:04 am
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    A May-December marriage turns horrific when a husband's past haunts his new bride. Joan Crawford and Cliff Robertson star in Autumn Leaves (1956).

    Millicent Weatherby (Crawford) is a self-employed typist of a certain age who rarely socializes. During an evening out alone, she runs into a young man named Burt (Robertson) who charms her.  After a few dates, they marry. The lovebirds are happy until a woman claiming to be Burt's first wife arrives and says the man is a dangerous psychopath.

    Millie begins to see signs of mania in her new husband and must figure out her next move.


    Joan Crawford and the first couples therapy session


    Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone
    Joan Crawford is known for many films, including her movies about psychosis that threatens to ruin a character's romance.

    In later years, Crawford would go for campy, psychodrama films like Strait-Jacket (1964). These movies often take an unintentionally comic, and therefore calloused, look at those suffering from a mental disorder and what it does to a home.

    However,  in Autumn Leaves, the issue is treated with care and solemnity. Burt is a war veteran who might have sustained complicated trauma in service. It's questionable whether their marriage can withstand the therapy he needs. 


    Crawford was not only interested in how psychotherapy can help the home onscreen, she seems to have dabbled in it off screen as well.

    During the early 20th century, therapy was seen as something shameful. However, in 1937, Crawford and her husband, actor Franchot Tone, committed to the first recorded instance of couples therapy with psychodrama founder J.L. Moreno.

    The psychotherapist's son, Jonathan Moreno, shares the story in an October 9, 2014 article for Psychology Today Magazine.

    Mixing psychology and a background in training actors, Moreno sought to help the couple, according to his son.

    "Aware of the psychiatrist Moreno through his work with Tone’s mother and his reputation in the New York theater crowd..., the unhappy Joan and Franchot asked for J.L.’s help. Together the couple dramatized their conflicts on the psychodrama stage, one of which was the fact that Tone was not considered handsome enough to be leading man material in the movies, while the camera loved Crawford’s memorable features."

    The two act out their frustrations with the therapist in ways often compared to an acting class with Stanislavsky.  Unfortunately, the method didn't seem to help for long. The couple would break up two years later.


    The screenwriter was blacklisted



    The screenplay for Autumn Leaves is written by actress and author Jean Rouverol.  During the days of hard penalties and blacklisting of anyone in the U.S. with Communist sympathies, the writer fled with her children and her husband, writer Hugo Butler, to Mexico.

    From Mexico, the pair released screenplays to Hollywood with the help of friends, under other names. In the case of Autumn Leaves, writer Jack Jevne used his name as a front.

    Rouverol would later return to the U.S. and write for television, including an episode of "Little House on the Prairie" with Michael Landon.


    Dusting off an old pop tune


    Nat "King" Cole

    The title song of the film was written by Joseph Kosma in 1947 in French, "Les Feuilles Mortes," 
    "The Dead Leaves." It's a song about remembering and yearning for a lost love.

    (Watch Yves Montand sing "Les Feuilles Mortes" in the film Parigi è Sempre Parigi (1951))

    By the early 1950s, its popularity reached the United States, where it enjoyed success mostly as instrumental music.

    In 1955, songwriter Johnny Mercer added English lyrics, giving the song another round of popularity. The English lyrics more specifically draw on the analogy of changing seasons. The singer recalls lost summer kisses while surrounded by autumn leaves, dreading being alone during winter.

    Legendary singer Nat Cole dusts off  "Autumn Leaves" and sings it as the title song for this film.

    (Watch  Nat "King" Cole sing "Autumn Leaves" on his eponymous television show in 1957.)

    The song somewhat matches Joan Crawford's character. As a young lady, she has lost boyfriends while taking care of her ailing father. As an adult,  she has lost touch with humanity. As a married woman, she's losing her husband. The tune is appropriately maudlin.

    Have you seen Autumn Leaves? What did you think of it?
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    George Washington Slept Here (1942) w/Jack Benny

    September 17, 2015, 2:00 am
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    In this farce, an urban couple buys a farmhouse reputed to have housed a former U.S. president.

    In George Washington Slept Here(1942), an antiques collector (Ann Sheridan) convinces her husband (Jack Benny) that they need a famous, dilapidated New England farmhouse in their lives. The husband is skeptical. The wife busily sets up house, while everything threatens to make the husband suffer - weak floors that he falls through, rude neighbors, livestock in the house.


    Based on a Play with Mixed Reviews

    Kaufman and Hart

    The farcical George Washington Slept Here started as a Broadway play written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart in 1940. The pair had written many plays together, including, You Can't Take it With You andThe Man Who Came to Dinner - successful plays that became hit films.

    From those plays and films, audiences had come to expect something erudite, witty and unexpectedly probing. In this comedy about a farmhouse, audiences received exactly what the story seemed to be - a comedy about a farmhouse. Nothing deeper.

    "The wellsprings of creativity had obviously run dry with George Washington Slept Here," says the author of Moss Hart: A Prince of the Theatre, Jared Brown."Every other play written by Kaufman and Hart had been adventurous, an attempt to explore new territory.
    ...
    "George Washington Slept Here, on the other hand, was little more than formulaic, warmed-over material...." 

    This would be the final Kaufman and Hart collaboration.


    Popular as a Film




    Though George Washington Slept Here is not the most lauded play, it fared decently in public opinion as a film.
    The leading lady of the film, Ann Sheridan, thinks the narrative is a stinker too, but she had fun. From The Women of Warner Brothers by Daniel Bubbeo, Ann Sheridan says,

    "If the script's bad, I can put up with that. I won't like it and I may beef, but I've got to have fun working with the people on the set. I don't like dissension at all.... Everybody should get in there and pull their load as far as I'm concerned. I could fight with the front office, but I never wanted to do that either. I didn't beef about George Washington Slept Here because it was Jack Benny."

    The magazines praised comedian Jack Benny's performance. One rag in particular.
    Life Magazinedubbed the comedy a "highly amusing farce"  where "Jack Benny proves again that he can forget his mugging and play a straight comedy role successfully." The magazine named the film its movie of the week in November 30, 1942.

    Bosley Crowther,The New York Times critic, is uncharacteristically generous with the compliments. He can usually tear apart a light comedy for its shallowness. But here he seems to appreciate the film for what it is,"purely machine-made comedy. But laughs pop out of it quite generously."


    Though George Washington Slept Here has a history of promises unfulfilled as a play, in its film form, it is a lightweight comedy meant to showcase Jack Benny's legendary double takes and one-liners.
     
    Have you seen George Washington Slept Here? What did you think?
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    The Pirate (1948) w/ Judy Garland

    September 18, 2015, 5:22 am
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    An actor pretends to be a pirate to slake a woman's thirst for adventure. Then the real pirate makes his presence known.

    Gene Kelly is Serafin, the traveling performer who comes to a tiny town on a Caribbean island. He instantly likes a random woman named Manuela (Judy Garland). Serafin discovers her interest in travel,  an interest which she excitedly associates with the dread pirate Macoco.

    Serafin pretends to be Macoco to woo the woman. Complications ensue as Manuela's fiance (Walter Slezak), the mayor, seeks to rid his town of this thieving vagabond. To complicate matters further, the real Macoco is in town.


    BROADWAY PEDIGREE



    Many films are remakes of popular Broadway plays. The Pirate is no exception. According to the Internet Broadway Database, this comedy ran for 177 performances, starting on November 25, 1942 at the Martin Beck Theatre. It starred famed husband and wife team Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

    The filmed version is somewhat similar, only the rough edges were smoothed over for the production code. In the play, Manuela is already married. Running off with a pirate under those circumstances wouldn't get past the film censors. In the film, Manuela is engaged to a much older and cruder man, meaning Serafin thinks he is saving her from a fate worse than death before it's too late. Somehow, this was more palatable to the decency league.

    According to Hugh Fordin (author of MGM's Greatest Musicals: Arthur Freed Unit), Joseph Than and Anita Loos were hired to adapt the screenplay. They came up with reversing the central idea. Instead of the actor playing a pirate, the pirate should play an actor. Producer Arthur Freed found this unacceptable as the pirate wouldn't be convincing as an actor. He instead hired husband-and-wife writing team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich to finish the adaptation.

    Cole Porter was called in to turn the straight play into a musical for the film. He served up such hits as "Be a Clown" and "Mack the Black." According to Billboard Magazine, songs for the film were rushed out for purchase on albums in the spring before the movie was released in the summer of 1948. They were quite popular fare.


    JUDY GARLAND'S COSTUMES


    American ex-patriot in Paris, Tom Keogh, designed Judy Garland's wardrobe; costumier Madame Barbara Karinska executed the designs.The Parisian influnces in Garland's garments is throughout the film, which is perfect for her character of Manuela.

    Manuela dreams of visiting the city of lights. She practically squeals when she discovers her trousseau is made "by Maison Worth - the choicest house in Paris."It's anachronistic as the movie is set about 30 years before that fashion house was created. However, the idea is there, that Manuela cannot get off the island and go to France, but France would met her in her clothes.
      
    According to Fordin, Keogh created a replica of a Worth gown for Judy costing $3,462.23.  Keogh doesn't say which gown it is, but one guesses it could be the chocolate satin dress with intricate beading and multiple petticoats and a veil that Manuela chooses to wear during her "funeral march" through the streets. She plans to sacrifice herself (with great excitement and anticipation) to the dread pirate Macoco in order to save her town from his wrath.


    Keogh mentions the wedding gown as well, which cost $3,313.12. It is "a white satin wedding dress, with handmade antique lace from France and embroidered with a thousand pearls," says the designer.




    Even before Manuela receives her trousseau, the designer gives her a hint of Paris. Manuela's first costume is a copy of a 19th century Charles Philipon painting of a Parisian hat maker in a red plaid tam-o-shanter, yellow print dress with puffed sleeves, crucifix and black apron.


    Judy Garland dressed as Charles Philipon's painting of the hat maker

    (Read the story of how Java's Journey discovered this painting/costume connection here: At Last! The Artist Who Inspired Judy Garland's First Costume in The Pirate.)

    There is no explanation in the film as to why Manuela wears a copy of the hatmaker's outfit; it's just an extravagant reference to 19th century Paris.

    The excess doesn't end there. All embroidery for each of the female costumes was done by hand; each female wears yards of skirts. According to Fordin, $141,595.30  of the $3 million dollar budget was spent on wardrobe alone.


    THE PIRATE IS A FLOP?

    You have Broadway pedigree, witty songs by Cole Porter, the acting talents and fame of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, you have glorious Technicolor, an amazing MGM musical and detailed costumes. What's not to love? Why do people call it a flop?


    The problem is not poor content. Part of the problem is overproduction. According to Fordin, the budget for The Pirate was about $3,000,000; they overspent by more than half a million.

    Had they stayed around their original budget, they might have broken even, but with the half million more, the filmmakers gave themselves quite the hurdle to surmount to make a profit.

    About the film, director Vincente Minnelli stated, "I was very pleased [with] the way the film turned out. Judy gave one of her best performances and the Cole Porter songs were excellent. Unfortunately, the merchandising on the film was bad, and it failed to go over when it was released."

    They made millions of dollars at a time when the average movie ticket was $0.36. Unfortunately, the filmmakers had given themselves too much of a hole to dig out of with this production. It just wasn't enough.


    Even though the filmmakers  didn't see a return on the investment at the time, the inestimable talent, the attention to detail, the fine performances are what make The Pirate  a  film worth watching.

    Have you seen The Pirate? What did you think of it?
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    If the Law Applied to Classic Movie Characters...

    September 19, 2015, 10:20 am
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    Bringing Up Baby: Busted





    It's a Wonderful Life: Busted



    The Pirate


    The Wizard of Oz: Busted

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    Toast of the Town 3

    September 21, 2015, 3:04 pm
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    Let's take a look around for classic movie information on the web.





    • The filmFiddler on the Roofwith Topol was originally a Broadway play. There is a revival coming, starting December 20, 2015. Read more about Fiddler on Broadway here.



      •  This interview has been around for a while, but we have only just screened it this week. It's Carol Burnett in an interview with George Stroumboulopoulos . The actress-comedian discusses her career.





          • The Classic Movie Blog Association's awards have come and gone. Here at Java's Journey, the Classic Movie Blog Tips series was nominated for Best Classic Movie Series. No wins. View the winners here.

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            Torch Song (1953) w/Joan Crawford

            September 22, 2015, 8:09 pm
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            A lonely Broadway star must come to grips with her need for power and love. Her new pianist might  just be the person to help her.

            Joan Crawford stars  in Torch Song  (1953) as the power hungry Broadway performer who drives away everyone with her tantrums and sarcasm. In walks Michael Wilding as her new pianist who happens to be blind from complications of the war. He is the only person who is not afraid to give as good as he gets. Since so many others have cowered in her presence, Crawford learns to respect his refreshing candor. She also, in true MGM fashion, falls in love with the man.


            Crawford and MGM

            Life Magazine compares old MGM Joan with new MGM Joan.

            Crawford was a big  MGM star in the 1920s and 1930s, known for her dancing and carefree glamour. Switching to Warner Brothers Studios in the 1940s, she was just in time for the great film dramas of the war years which would emerge from that studio. It was at Warners that the film star would win the Academy Award for her performance in the taut drama Mildred Pierce.

            Released from her Warner Brothers contract, Crawford became an independent performer. She returned to her original studio in the 1950s for Torch Song. Not only was Torch Songher first film in color and the first time she had danced onscreen in decades, this was her reunion film with MGM.  A lot was riding on the success of this movie. There was a great deal of anticipation and angst. 

            The build up was intense. LIFE Magazine compared the old MGM Joan with the new MGM Joan and found her winning.


            The film received a positive review from The New York Times which describes Joan Crawford as lovely. Its one beef is that the plot is recycled from dozens you may have seen before - a tough woman needs love to soften her.

            The plot was not the only thing recycled. Crawford was given the castoff recording of India Arie's dubbing for the song "Two-Face Woman," which was originally intended for Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon.  

            It's clear that the first number, the number that introduces Crawford, is the exact recording of "You're All the World to Me" that Fred Astaire uses in the famous dancing-on-the-ceiling routine years earlier inRoyal Wedding (1951).  The days of the big MGM musical were almost gone and Crawford was getting the dregs of this genre.

            Torch Song would be Crawford's last film for MGM.

            Charles Walters. Dancer. Director.


            Charles Walters is a Broadway dancer known for directing and choreographing many of MGM's biggest stars. His terpsichorean talents would come in handy as he directed big musicals at the studio, includingGood Newsand Easter Parade. You will occasionally see him in front of the camera as an uncredited dance partner for the biggest names in Hollywood. Torch Song is a case in point.

            According to the author of Just Making Movies: Company Directors on the Studio System, Ronald L. Davis, Joan Crawford personally asked Charles Walters to direct the film.

             "The phone rang one night, and it was Joan Crawford. She said, 'I have  a script, and you're the only one that can direct it. Could I bring a bottle of champagne and the script and a bite to eat and read it to you?' Well, I couldn't say no to Joan Crawford.

            "Torch Song was Crawford's first film in color, and it was the first time she had danced in twenty-five years on the screen. I said, 'We're not going to tease, we're going to open with a number right off.'"

            After rehearsing with Walters, Crawford felt most comfortable with the director as her dance partner instead of someone else. Thus, you'll see the film's director tripping the light fantastic in the first scene with Crawford.  




            What did you think of Torch Song?
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            My Six Loves (1963) w/ Debbie Reynolds

            September 23, 2015, 2:00 am
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            An actress vacations in Connecticut, but finds more then rest awaiting her there.

            As we've mentioned in our review of I Love Melvin, Debbie Reynolds is often cast as someone in the entertainment world. Sometimes she's a character on the periphery of show business, such as a low-wage model who ditches her career for marriage in It Started with a Kiss. At other times, she's the cream of show biz society, as in The Gazebo, where she's so wealthy and famous she's being blackmailed.

            My Six Loves (1963) sees the  Reynolds character as an actress who everyone loves. We start with a shot of a telegram which the actress reads in a voice over. It outlines her busy schedule.

            The film then continues under the credits with shots of New York's swankiest spots, including Sardi's. And we are introduced to Reynolds in the flesh in the latest outrageous fashions - a poufy, dusty rose hat on her head resembling an out-sized shower cap. She's a famous actress exhausted by her own success who must retire temporarily to the countryside for a much-deserved rest.

            Enter 6 abandoned children (and 1 dog) living in the woods who the unmarried, childless star wishes to comfort. Enter Cliff Robertson as the local clergyman and potential love interest. You can see where the story is heading.

            Actor, choreographer and Broadway "doctor"Gower Champion directs this, his first of only two feature films. He had directed televisions shows and commercials, but his best direction was onstage. He was yet to direct Broadway hits Hello Dolly!and 42 Street. John Anthony Gilvey's, well-researched and detailed book, Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious American Musical, is the best biography I've seen on this talent. And -bonus- the book is approved by Champion's wife, choreographer and legend Marge Champion.

            Watch for Eileen Heckart (The Bad Seed) as Reynolds' assistant, sounding board and comic foil. Hans Conried is on hand as a hilariously condescending, cravat-wearing playwright. Alice Ghostley and Darlene Tompkins are a hoot as the recalcitrant housekeeper and her obnoxious daughter Ava, respectively.

            There is nothing deep here. It's meant to be charming and appeal to the entire family while giving you the glamour of Debbie Reynolds. A more engaging sitcom movie-complete with mother and father figure, multiple children, a hairy dog, the strain of family on a career- is Please Don't Eat the Daisies with Doris Day and David Niven. However, My Six Loves will do for a rainy afternoon if you love its main stars.


            Have you seen My Six Loves? What did you think?
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            The Big Show (1961) w/ Cliff Robertson and Esther Williams

            September 24, 2015, 4:28 am
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            This remake of House of Strangersand Broken Lance follows the favorite son of a circus owner (Nehemiah Persoff). Cliff Robertson is the leading man who must handle his envious siblings as they battle for power under the tyrannical hand of their father in The Big Show (1961).

            Williams and Robertson in THE BIG SHOW

            Esther Williams without a pool?


            Esther Williams is on hand as Cliff Robertson's love interest. Despite her star billing, she is rarely on screen. The New York Times noticed this, calling it " the briefest role of her career."
             
            Co-star Robert Vaughn, who plays Robertson's brother, sheds light on why that is in  his autobiography, A Fortunate Life.
            "My first motion picture in a foreign location was The Big Show.... Filming would take place in Germany. In the strange ways of Hollywood thinking, the picture still had no 'star....' [Twentieth Century Fox Studios] spinning through its corporate Rolodex, was looking for a star that qualified at a ten-grand-a-week salary.
            "The lucky star who met those requirements was everyone's all-time swimming beauty/star favorite, Esther Williams. But since there was no role in the script for her, she was simply written in as Cliff's girlfriend."

             Hollywood Today correspondent, Erskine Johnson recalls this in an interview during the filming in Munich,
            "'I'm a spectator in this film, honey,' Esther explained in a way that explained she was playing a featured and not a starring role in her first movie in three years. 'I'm playing a rich American girl in Europe who falls in love  with a daring young man on the flying trapeze.'
            ...
            Robertson "flips over Esther even if she is wearing furs and not a bathing suit."

            The swimming star does wear a bathing suit in one brief scene when her character is on vacation. You expect there to be an extended shot of expert aquatic choreography, as you do in an Esther Williams film.

            However, the star was an independent contractor now, having been unceremoniously released from her extravagant home studio, MGM, years before. So The Big Show acknowledges her swimming fame with one quick dip in a pool, then we're off to another scene.


            Fun On Location

            Though Esther doesn't get much screen time, Robert Vaughn does. The actor who plays a gunslinger in The Magnificent Seven here plays Cliff Robertson's chief antagonist, a brother who cannot stand the father's favoritism. There are any number of intense scenes of hostility between them. However, off screen the actors got along well. Vaughn discusses the fun they had on location in Germany.

            Being near each other all day,
            "...allowed Cliff, Esther, and me to get to know each other very well over many jars and meals  at Munich brauhäuser."

            "Our star, the very witty, vivacious Esther, was in top physical condition and could drink a Volga boatman under the table, and she proceeded to do that with her costars, Cliff and me. Cliff usually retired first; I hung in there, but just barely."

            Vaughn was smitten with the million dollar mermaid. However, the actress...
            "...was at that time seeing Fernando Lamas, whom she later married, so there was no room for hanky-panky between the kid from Minneapolis and the world's aquatic love goddess. However, the thought did cross my drink-sodden libido more than once. Boy, would the guys back at North High School wish they had taken up movie acting for a living."


            An Acrobat's Story


            The stars may have had fun, but one of the technical advisers - an acrobat named Lee Stath- discusses a different experience in his book, She Flies Through the Air.

            "Part of my job [on The Big Show] was, I don't know, technical director? I'm not sure. We all had impressive titles, though our contribution might be small. In one of the scenes, the girl flyer was to be shown in a close up, standing on the board with the trapeze in hand, preparing to swing off for her trick.
            ...
            "No flyer would hold the bar snug against their chest....It was all wrong. One must lean out, stretch away from the board, and be at arm's length. I was quick to step in and point out this grievous error. I took the proper position, arching my back and leaning far out. 'Like this. See?''Silence!" cried the ogre [Director James Clark]. 'You...what's your name?'
            ...
            "'Listen, Mr. Catcher, I'm making this film for millions of enthralled patrons and [I don't care] if a few of you circus clowns snicker. Now get off my set.' I managed to keep a low profile until they finished the film. Yet I was sorry to see the end of that profitable fantasy. I never worked so long, did so little, and got paid so much. I lost a lot of my envy and wonder for the film industry through that experience." 

            The DRAMA FEELS REAL

            The acrobatics may not be accurate, but the drama feels real.

            The New York Times critic enjoyed parts of the film. The "dank, Gothic melodrama (a trial and a murderous climactic fight)" isn't the critic's cup of tea. However, he praises its "unmistakably authentic look," and its "excellently staged sawdust numbers (the polar bear act is fascinating)."

            Because you have fewer familiar faces,  because you are on location with actual circus tents and the real streets of Munich, this drama feels real. It feels as if you're eavesdropping on family squabbles.

            The light love story here and there are a refreshing diversion, then its back to the grind. This is a show about a family where no one wants to join a different circus unless they have to do so. They really want more power over their careers.

            The audience feels trapped and claustrophobic right along with the characters. This might be why the critic doesn't like the melodrama - it's inescapable. But that's great for the audience because you carry the same feeling as some of the family members - you want out. You begin to empathize with them.



            The Big Show is fascinating for its location shots of Europe, which still had vestiges of the war just outside the set. (Robert Vaughn mentions touring these places in his autobiography.) It's a movie wrought with conflict. It's a film of family members bickering and people desperate to be top man. It's intense.

            Have You Seen THE BIG SHOW? What did you think of it?


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