Category: classic movie impressions

Summer of Angela: Death on the Nile (1978) Without spoilers

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Movie Impresssions, Summer of Angela13 Comments

Angela Lansbury once said in an interview that one of the more exciting moments of her career was working with Bette Davis in Death on the Nile (1978).

That’s the movie I watched this week for my Summer of Angela feature.

The movie is full of A-list movie stars: Angela, Bette, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Mia Farrow, and, of course, Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot.

I’m not a fan of Ustinov as Poirot since David Suchet plays the part so brilliantly, and I can’t see anyone else as Poirot, but the movie is still okay overall. I only added it to my watch list because Angela is in it. I had fun watching her be absolutely over the top as an eccentric romance writer and Maggie Smith be an overall jerk throughout, which is a role that she seemed to always play well.

Mia Farrow was …er…creepy as always.

Let’s talk about the plot a little for those who aren’t familiar with this one from either the book by Agatha Christie or the movie.

The online description:

“On a luxurious cruise on the Nile River, a wealthy heiress, Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles), is murdered. Fortunately, among the passengers are famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) and his trusted companion, Colonel Race (David Niven), who immediately begin their investigation. But just as Poirot identifies a motley collection of would-be murderers, several of the suspects also meet their demise, which only deepens the mystery of the killer’s identity.”

Angela portrays an eccentric romance writer named Salome Otterbourne who based a character in one of her books on Linnet. She and Linnet confront each other on the boat and Linnet tells Salome she’s going to sue her for libel. Just about everyone on the boat seems to have an issue with Linnet, which makes me wonder how they all ended up on the boat together. Planned or just coincidence, I don’t know, but they all seem to know each other and Linnet is angry with just about everyone and they are angry with her.

Salome is on the boat with her daughter Rosalie who is embarrassed by her mother’s behavior.

Angela’s character isn’t in the movie as much as other characters, but when she is, she certainly fills the screen with her crazy personality and outfits.

She makes all kinds of semi-suggestive comments about possible couples or what people need to do to feel more relaxed. Some of the characters refer to her books as “lurid.”

At one point, she and her daughter talk about whether or not Poirot would know her from her books. Rosalie says, “Somehow, I don’t think Monsieur Poirot is a very keen reader of romantic novels, Mother.”

Mrs. Otterbourne responds: “Well, of course he is! All Frenchmen are. They’re not afraid of good, strong sex!”

She is such an obnoxious character that after the murder occurs David Niven’s character comments to Poirot: “What a perfectly dreadful woman. Why doesn’t somebody shoot her, I wonder?

Poirot responds, “Perhaps one day, the subscribers of the lending libraries will club together and hire an assassin.”

The film was shot on location in Egypt so many of the experiences the characters had were actually had by the actors and actresses. I think some of the reactions that were filmed when they were climbing on the donkeys and camels were totally adlibbed because they were so authentic and funny.

According to TCM, makers of the film were trying to cash in on the success of the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express, also based on an Agatha Christie book. That cast was also star-studded with Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, and Anthony Perkins.

Unfortunately, while Murder on the Orient Express brought in $27.6 million, this movie only grossed $14.5 million in the U.S. and Canada. Despite the lackluster success at the time it was released, many Christie fans see it as one of the better adaptations of the book — at least according to the many comments about it that I read online.

One thing that might have made the movie less of a success was the filming locations.

TCM.com stated this in an article about the movie: “Despite the exotic locale, split between Egypt and London, filming conditions for the movie were less than ideal. Filmed on a little boat called The Carnock, the actors took a speedboat back and forth each day from their hotel in Aswan down river to the shooting location. The Carnock was also apparently too small for all the actors to have their own dressing rooms. One unpleasant incident involved Bette Davis, Olivia Hussey and some Eastern chant records Hussey liked to play early in the morning. After Davis asked Hussey not to play her music, it was reported that the actresses did not speak to each other again while aboard The Carnock. If tensions weren’t high enough, the temperature climbed well above 100 degrees everyday and filming often was halted at noon.”

What Angela said about the movie:

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, Angela remembers what a delight it was to work with Bette Davis.

“She was a very fascinating woman,” Angela told Studio Canal. “I got to know her quite well on that occasion. She had been a great, great Warner Brothers star and I had been a fan of hers as a child. She was a great deal older than me and I remembered her and all her great roles.”

Angela remembered Bette as being a “special and unique” actress.

“Unique looking and sounding and I was delighted to meet her and work with her.”

Angela also reflected on working with Ustinov who was her ex-brother-in-law.

“My role was such an interesting, farcical character anyways and there was so much comedy involved,” she said. “David Niven and Peter Ustinov and myself and my husband and I, we were all great friends and knew each other from other times.”

As for the conditions, Angela confirmed that they were not very nice at times.

“We were billeted in a hotel in the middle of the Nile,” she said. “To get to it, we had to get on a boat, having to cross water. We all lived in this luxury hotel in the middle of the Nile in Egypt and that was a special and wonderful experience I would say. I mean you couldn’t have been more comfortable. Swimming pools, wonderful food, everything  you could possibly want and then we would get 4 or maybe 3 in the morning because of the heat at the time in Egypt. We had to do the shooting before noon. Otherwise, it would be too hot. So, we were dealing with that and also an old riverboat we were working on which was trundling its way down the Nile, pulled by little boats and sometimes under its own steam.”

The boat made so much noise, though, that it was often tugged along by the little boats, she said.

The only dressing room in the bottom of the boat in a four-bed cabin.

“It was a bed up and a bed down, so the fittings had to take place between the two beds,” Angela said. “I remember that Bette would lie down on one bunk and Maggie Smith was on the other and I was on the third. We would take turns being fitted in the ‘well’, in the middle. It was one of those extraordinary circumstances where we forced to not be the stars we were supposed to be.”

The costumes in this movie were amazing and were designed by Anthony Powell, who won an Oscar for his work on the film (the film’s only award). Angela had nothing but praise for him.

“My costumes on that film I thought were absolutely extraordinary and quite original and marvelous,” she said. “They were built in New York City by my friend Barbara Matera and he worked with her and we all worked together and we came up with this extraordinary look but Anthony was at the root of it all.”

I have to agree that her costumes were dazzling and something else. Not sure I’d ever wear them, but they fit her character for sure.

You can see the full interview here:

My thoughts:

I watched this one in pieces because it comes in at a whopping 2 hours and 20 minutes!! I didn’t remember it being that long when I first watched it with my husband, but, thinking back, I seem to remember we watched one half one night and the other half the next night.

While I did enjoy the movie, and watching Angela’s antics when she was on screen, the movie was really too long for my taste. I know they needed to take us down some twists and turns to keep us guessing but two and a half hours? Gah!

Also, what always gets me about these movies is how a bunch of people can die (the number of deaths in this one was excessive if you ask me and I’d like to read the book to see if Agatha wrote that many deaths) and at the end everyone just shrugs it off. I won’t give it away but there was one death in particular that just got waved off as no big deal at the end with the characters smiling and walking away arm in arm. So bizarre and left me wondering if the person they said killed that person wasn’t actually someone else.

In addition to Angela’s performance, I loved the witty and sarcastic banter between Maggie Smith and Bette Davis’ characters.

Maggie’s character, Miss Bowers, was supposed to be Bette’s nurse and companion. Bette portrayed Marie Van Schuyler, a socialite. Maggie was horrible to Bette’s character, though! It was sort of crazy but also hilarious. They had some of the best exchanges.

“Mrs. Van Schuyler: Come on, Bowers, time to go. This place is beginning to resemble a mortuary.

Miss Bowers: Thank God you’ll be in one yourself before too long, you bloody old fossil!

***

Mrs. Van Schuyler: Shut up, Bowers. Just because you’ve got a grudge against her, or rather her father, no need to be uncivil.

Miss Bowers: *Grudge*? Melhuish Ridgeway ruined my family!

Mrs. Van Schuyler: Well, you should be grateful. If he hadn’t, you would have missed out on the pleasure of working for me.

Miss Bowers: I could kill her on that score alone!

***

Mrs. Van Schuyler: How would a little trip down the Nile suit you?

Miss Bowers: There is nothing I would dislike more. There are two things in the world I can’t abide: it’s heat and heathens.

Mrs. Van Schuyler: Good. Then we’ll go. Bowers, pack.

Miss Bowers was definitely not a respectful employee, but I think that Mrs. Van Schuyler liked that.

One other observation: This movie seems to feature a lot of scenes of rich people sitting around in drawing rooms, all dressed up with nowhere to go. I’m very confused why they got all dressed up to sit around every night together and then just go to bed. Didn’t any of them own clothes that weren’t fancy? Of course, I’m teasing here because I really did love the outfits for the women. The dresses were all so eye-catching.

Trivia or Facts About the movie:

According to producer Richard Goodwin, Bette Davis brought her own make-up, mirrors, and lights to Egypt. (source IMdB)

Peter Ustinov was David Niven’s personal attendant during World War II. Ustinov was a private and Niven was a Lt. Colonel (various sources)

Location shooting in Egypt consisted of four weeks on the riverboat “S.S. Karnak” and three weeks filming in places such as Luxor, Cairo, Aswan, and Abu Simbel. (various sources)

Ustinov portrayed Poirot five more times. (various sources)

Albert Finney was initially asked to reprise his role as Poirot from Murder on the Orient Express (1974). However, he had found the make-up he had to wear for the first movie very uncomfortable in the hot interior of the train, and on realizing that he would have to undergo the same experience, this time in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), he declined the role. (source IMdB)

Angela Lansbury had never seen the finished film until she attended a 40th Anniversary screening on November 9, 2018.   (source IMdB)

Dancer Wayne Sleep, relatively unknown at the time, choreographed the tango scene. He reported in 2018, “I was being paid an hourly rate, which was great as nobody turned up to the rehearsal and I had to go and find David Niven and persuade him to come.” (source IMdB)

Producer John Brabourne said no telephones were available while on-location in Egypt. They had to communicate by telex. . (source IMdB)

Agatha Christie was inspired to write the source novel in 1937, during an Egyptian vacation. The hotel scenes were shot at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, where Christie stayed. The hotel’s front had to be “redressed” to appear more 1930s, and the furniture on the hotel’s terrace was replaced with custom period-authentic pieces.  (source IMdB)

Notable quotes:

  • Jacqueline De Bellefort: Simon was mine and he loved me, then *she* came along and… sometimes, I just want to put this gun right against her head, and ever so gently, pull the trigger. When I hear that sound more and more…
  • Hercule Poirot: I know how you feel. We all feel like that at times. However, I must warn you, mademoiselle: Do not allow evil into your heart, it will make a home there.
  • Jacqueline De Bellefort: If love can’t live there, evil will do just as well.
  • Hercule Poirot: How sad, mademoiselle.

***

Mrs. Van Schuyler: [Remarking on Linnet’s pearls] Oh, they’re beautiful!

Linnet Ridgeway: Thank you.

Mrs. Van Schuyler: And extraordinary, if you know how they’re made. A tiny piece of grit finds it’s way into an oyster, which then becomes a pearl of great price, hanging ’round the neck, of a pretty girl like you.

Linnet Ridgeway: I never thought of it that way.

Mrs. Van Schuyler: Well, you should. the oyster nearly dies!

***

  • Jim Ferguson (to Rosalie): Karl Marx said that religion was the opium of the people. For your mother, it’s obviously sex.

***

Miss Bowers: I think a shot of morphia will meet the case. I’ve always found it very effective when Mrs Van Schuyler is carrying on.

***

Mrs Otterbourne: I suppose that uncouth young man will appear now and attempt to seduce you. Well, don’t let him succeed without at least the show of a struggle. Remember, the chase is very important.

Rosalie Otterbourne: Oh, mother!

Mrs Otterbourne: I tell you that I, Salome Otterbourne, have succeeded where frail men have faltered. I am a finer sleuth than even the great Hercule Porridge.

Have you seen this one? What did you think?

Here is what is left of my Summer of Angela:

August 1 – The Court Jester

August 8 – The Picture of Dorian Gray

August 15 – A Life At Stake

August 22 – All Fall Down

August 29 – Something for Everyone

If you want to read about some of the other movies I watched you can find them here:

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

The Manchurian Candidate

National Velvet

The Pirates of Penzance

Gaslight

Please Murder Me

Additional resources:

TCM.com

https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16698/death-on-the-nile/#articles-reviews?articleId=87814

Interview with Angela about the movie:

https://youtu.be/6vmY6_WMbeU?si=zZIs2jq3mVZGofZi

IMdB listing: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077413/trivia/

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Summer of Angela: The Pirates of Penzance (1983)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Movie Impresssions, Summer of Angela16 Comments

This summer I am watching Angela Lansbury movies for the Summer of Angela. Up this week we have The Pirates of Penzance, which is a bit of a switch up from my original list. You can read more about that below, but first just a quick note —  Last week, Cat from Cat’s Wire watched Gaslight and talked about it on her blog. You can read her thoughts here. She compared the British and American movie versions and a German televised version of the original play, and I think the post is so much fun!

And now on to this week’s movie, which I switched around from my original plan. I was going to watch the TV movie, The Shell Seekers, but instead, I thought that I would watch one of Angela’s Broadway/musical performances for fun — The Pirates of Penzance with her and Kevin Kline. The movie is a reproduction of the Joseph Papp’s Broadway production.

I will tell you upfront that halfway through the movie, I had to check that I wasn’t having a fever dream. I also realized I’m very old and my ears are in even worse condition than I thought because I had no idea what was being said in any of the songs. I even tried close captioning but because I watched it for free on YouTube, it didn’t work so well.

I also couldn’t figure out what was happening most of the time.  Still, I pushed forward and ended up enjoying it in places and being utterly baffled in other places.

A description from Google:

“Frederic (Rex Smith), who has spent his formative years as a junior pirate, plans to mark his 21st birthday by breaking free from the Pirate King (Kevin Kline) and beginning his courtship of Mabel (Linda Ronstadt). But because he was born on Feb. 29, a date that only arrives every fourth year, Frederic isn’t technically 21 — and the Pirate King is still his master. Unless something gives, Frederic will soon be on a collision course with the Pirate King’s new nemesis: Mabel’s father.”

 The movie starts with the people in town coming out of church, seeing the pirate ship off shore, and locking up all their doors.

Then we are on the pirate ship with Frederic and the Pirate King and the rest of the crew celebrating Frederic’s birthday. It is after all the singing that Frederic announces that now that he is 21 he can leave the ship and his service with the Pirate King.

This is when Ruth (Angela), Frederic’s nursemaid, tells him that all those years ago when his father wanted him to apprentice with a pilot and she heard “pirate” instead.

Frederic has a strong sense of duty, which is why he stayed with the pirates and committed crimes with them all those years. But now that he is no longer bound to them, he vows that when he leaves the ship, he will fight against the pirate and the criminal acts he and his crew try to commit.

“Individually, I love you all, with affection unspeakable. But collectively, I look upon you with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation.”

Frederic sees pirates as scum but if they are going to be actual pirates, he does wish they would attack people stronger than them instead of pretending they just don’t want to hurt anyone. Instead, they just don’t want to get beaten. There is also a whole song about how they won’t attack anyone who says they are an “orphan” because they are also orphans.

This word said in a British accent becomes important later in the movie when there is a whole hilarious debate about if they are saying “orphan” or “often.”

Anyhow, Ruth wants to leave with Frederic and marry him, but Frederic isn’t so sure about it. He’s never really met other women and wants to know if Ruth is attractive. The pirate and crew assure him that she is, simply because they would like to get rid of her too.

Frederic agrees to take Ruth with him but discovers, when he sees a group of women frolicking together near a small pond, that she is not actually attractive and is instead just old.

He sends Ruth away and approaches the women, who turn out to be sisters, and asks which one of them would like to marry him.

Yeah….this musical is weird.

What follows is a song where he hits an incredible note and does a little impression of Elvis.

A lot of silliness follows all this including the singing of the famous song “I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General.” That was a lot of fun. I always wondered what the song came from. The speed which the nonsense for this song is spit out is insane.

Fun is the key word for this movie. The songs are fun – though I still don’t know what they were saying in half of them. Wait. I’ve mentioned it like ten times now that I didn’t know what they were saying half the time, didn’t I? Okay, I’ll stop doing that.

Also, I did finally look up the lyrics so I could follow along. They didn’t make much more sense that way, but, hey, at least I knew what was being said.

I should note that I did read that a lot of this musical is satire and making fun of some elements of British society during the time the original comedic opera was written in 1879, which is why it seems ridiculous at times.

One thing I can say after seeing this is that Angela was so talented — it seems like there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do — acting, singing, dancing, producing, writing… wow. I’m still trying to figure out if she actually hit the high note in the one song but if she did…wow again!

I am a huge fan of some musicals — Fiddler on the Roof, Singing in the Rain, South Pacific, etc., but this one? I didn’t know what to make of it at first, and from what I am reading, that is a bit of the point of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals.

Their musicals are, I guess, nonsensical at times, and that’s what makes them fun. After reading more about the musical/movie, I understood it more, watched parts again, and liked it more than I did with my first run through.

At first, I decided I’d never watch the movie or musical again, but it grew on me on the second time around — especially Kevin Kline and his unbuttoned shirt. I mean.. his musical and acting talent.

Rex Smith (who I’d never heard of before) was amazing. The pipes on him. WOW.

The resolution on this video is not great but the singing….sheesh!



I had to look him up to see if he had been in anything else and apparently, besides his stage work, he’s most well-known for starring in a show called Street Hawke in the 1980s as well as for being a popular singer in the late 70s with his song You Take My Breath Away.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Linda Ronsdadt. I really don’t think I had a clue she sang this amazingly. I don’t know a lot about her at all so her voice totally shocked me! I thought she was just a pop singer . . . I feel embarassed I didn’t realize her range.

The Pirates of Penzance was released on Pay TV at the same time it was released in the theater, which made it a flop at the box office because theater owners boycotted it as a form of protest. Boy, if the theater owners from back then could only see what’s going on these days with movie releases!

Because of the boycott, the film ended up making less than a $1 million total during it’s entire time in the theaters.

It also received mix reviews from critics, but over the years it has become a type  of cult classic among musical theater fans.

Those who have seen it over the years, especially when they were young, hold a special place in their heart for it.

Cat Smith of Film Obsessive had this to say about Angela replacing Estelle Parsons, who was in the original Broadway production:

“The movie version of the Papp production came out in 1983. It’s pretty much the same experience as the stage. The biggest differences are some superfluous cuts to the score and the upgrading of the character Ruth. No offense to Estelle Parsons (we love her), but let’s face it—Angela Lansbury would be an upgrade of pretty much anyone.”

Of when Ruth and the Pirate King return to find Frederic she writes: “Apparently, once officially rejected by Frederic, Ruth went back to the pirates who not only welcomed her, they got her a fabulous makeover to boot. Not going to lie, my boyfriend and I have this head canon in which the Pirate King and Ruth wind up together since he knows better than to be prejudiced against a hot older woman. They do their best to frump her up for Act 1 but let’s face it—Queen Angela. Need I say more?”

(Aside: I had considered watching Angela in Sweeney Todd for this movie-watching event, but — wince — that really isn’t my type of movie/Broadway musical. Maybe I’ll watch it at some point, though.)

In past posts I have shared with Angela thought of the movie she was in, but….I couldn’t find any interviews with her about this one so I don’t have that. I do, however, have some trivia/facts.

Trivia or facts:

  • Kevin Kline won the 1981 Tony Award (New York City) for Best Actor in a Musical for “The Pirates of Penzance” Broadway 1981 to 1982 production and re-created his role in this cinema movie. It was Kline’s second Tony Award after having won one for “On the Twentieth Century”. Kline also starred in the precursor New York Central Park stage production and that park production’s subsequent made-for-television movie, The Pirates of Penzance (1980).
  • Linda Ronstadt loved the musical so much when she read about it that she played the part of Mable first in Central Park and then on Broadway for $400 a week. She then played it in the movie. It was her only movie role. She was nominated for a Tony when she played it on Broadway.
  • In Act II, there is an extra song (“My Eyes Are Fully Open”) that is not originally from “The Pirates of Penzance.” It’s a modified version of a song from Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan‘s “Ruddigore”. The inclusion of this song required Kevin Kline, Dame Angela Lansbury, and Rex Smith to sing one of most dizzyingly rapid songs in the entire Gilbert and Sullivan catalogue. (source IMdB)
  • The source Broadway stage production was preceded by a 1980 Joseph Papp production of “Pirates of Penzance”, which was part of a “Shakespeare in the Park” series of free plays in New York City’s Central Park, which had the same cast of principals as the movie and the Broadway stage production (except for Ruth). (source IMdB)
  • Writer and Director Wilford Leach, with this movie, knew what kind of movie he wanted to make. Leach wanted to create an “illusion of reality” which actually was “reality askew”. Leach, according to the January-February 1983 edition of Coming Attractions Magazine, “tried to delineate a colorful and comic world that is always true to its own logic.” (source IMdB)

Have you seen this version of the musical or the musical itself anywhere?

Cat from Cat’s Wire shared her thoughts about the movie here.

Up next in my movie watching journey, I have switched things up again and have replaced the Murder She Wrote two-part movie with Please, Murder Me from 1951, starring Angela with Raymond Burr.

The rest of the list remains the same:

July 25 – The Mirror Cracked

August 1 – The Court Jester

August 8 The Picture of Dorian Gray

August 15 – A Life At Stake

August 22 – All Fall Down

August 29 – Something for Everyone

Additional resources:

The Pirates of Penzance: For Some Ridiculous Reason…

https://filmobsessive.com/film/film-analysis/film-genres/comedy-films/the-pirates-of-penzance-for-some-ridiculous-reason/

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirates_of_Penzance_(film)

IBdB trivia: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086112/trivia/

Summer of Angela: Gaslight (1944)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Movie Impresssions, Summer of Angela15 Comments

This summer I am watching Angela Lansbury movies for the Summer of Angela.

This week I watched Gaslight (1944), which was Angela’s first movie and also her first nomination for an Academy Award. I think I stated before that she won the Oscar, but she didn’t. Whoops!

She was 18 years old when she portrayed Nancy, the odd, boisterous and flirty housemaid of Ingrid Bergman’s character.

After I watched it, I knew this movie was going to be hard for me to write about without giving tons of spoilers and without expressing my strong desire for one particular character to die, or at least suffer greatly by the end of the film, but I am going to try not to in case any of you who haven’t watched it want to watch it later.

Ahem.

Sorry for being so blunt about wanting a character to die or suffer, but…. it is true.

This movie is about a woman who is made to believe she is insane.

That’s pretty much the description. Here is a little more from Google, though: “After the death of her famous opera-singing aunt, Paula (Ingrid Bergman) is sent to study in Italy to become a great opera singer as well. While there, she falls in love with the charming Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). The two return to London, and Paula begins to notice strange goings-on: missing pictures, strange footsteps in the night and gaslights that dim without being touched. As she fights to retain her sanity, her new husband’s intentions come into question.”

It stars Ingrid Bergman as Paula Alquist, Charles Boyer as Gregory Anton, Angela Lansbury as Nancy Oliver, and Joseph Cotten as Brian Cameron. 

When I asked my 80-year-old mom if she wanted to watch the movie with me this week, she said, “No! Oh no!” and looked horrified.

That didn’t make me feel excited to watch it until she explained it wasn’t a bad movie, just somewhat dark and creepy. I told her that her response reminded me of how she might react if I asked her if she wanted to watch The Birds with me. The Birds is my mom’s least favorite movie.

When I was a child, she once came rushing into the house from mowing the lawn.

“The birds!” she cried waving her arms over her head, brushing at her hair. “The birds! They were swooping! Swooping down at me like in that movie! Swarming me! The Birds!! The Biiiiirds!”

Needless to say, that was not a movie I ever watched with her and won’t ask her to watch again.

Anyhow, Gaslight is based on a UK version of the movie, which was based on a play called Gas Light (two words). As far as I know, the American version is considered the better version since it was nominated for seven Oscars, winning two, including one for best actress for Ingrid.

Joseph Cotten portrays a police inspector, whose interest in an decade-old murder case is piqued when he sees a woman who looks like the victim. It turns out the woman is the niece of the murdered woman.

Cameron wants to know more about what is going on and why the niece never leaves the house, or if she does it is for a very short time and never without her husband. He finally gets his chance when Paula stands up to the controlling Gregory and tells him she wants to leave the house for an event they were invited to by a woman she knew as a child.

Throughout the movie her husband has been accusing her of stealing or moving things, suggesting she doesn’t remember when she does the these things and hinting, more than once, that she might be insane. Even at the event she finally is able to go to he accuses her of stealing his watch, which leads her to having a near mental breakdown in public.

As the movie goes on, we begin to wonder who is actually crazy, but we do know that her husband seems pretty horrid and abusive. We also know that one reason Paula thinks she is crazy is because she notices the brightness of the gaslights decreasing and increasing throughout the evening, something no one else in the house seems to notice.

I don’t want to give too much away, but this movie did have me on edge throughout the entirety. I felt such anxiety for Ingrid’s character and a lot of anger toward her husband, though I wasn’t sure what was really going on.

Angela’s character was evil and selfish. That’s the only way I know how to describe her. She definitely was brilliant in her role because she made me so uncomfortable. If I could describe her even more succinctly, I would say “what a trashy little tart.”

What Angela said about the movie:

Angela was 17 when she auditioned for the movie.

“As far as I was concerned, I was very consciousness at the age,” Angela said in an interview with the SAG-AFRTA Foundation. “So I went about learning my lines and listening to George Cukor direction and he directed the test . . .I did it with an actor called Hugh Marlow who played the part of Charles Boyer’s role (for the test) and we did a very extensive test.  I’m glad we did. Cukor took great care because I think he really wanted me although the first decision was that I wouldn’t play it, you know, I was too young. But I signed a contract anyhow because Albie Mayer saw my test when he came back from a trip back east to see his horses … and he saw my test and said ‘sign that girl.’”

Angela said she had a lot of interaction with L.B. Mayer, who ran Metro-Golden-Mayer (MGM) studios and that she was very fond of him. Not only did he sign her but also her mother and wanted to sign her twin brothers, but they decided not to let the twin sign. Instead, they later became writers for the movie and television industry.

After being nominated for Oscars for both Gaslight (1944) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Angela says she was never considered a starlet, always an actress. That made her job a little easier.

Angela said that she was glad in many ways that she didn’t win the Oscars she was nominated for because in her view many people who win Oscars second guess what their next steps will be. They often overthink what roles they need to take next because they are always thinking about being as good as an Oscar winning role, she said. She thinks that for her she didn’t have that pressure. She just went with whatever she wanted to do next, though she was a little disappointed that MGM didn’t have anything lined up for her so she could use the momentum of the success from her first two movies.

She went on with laughter in the interview saying that she was nominated for her first two movies and “it all went downhill from there.”

Angela was  nominated again, however, for The Manchurian Candidate in 1963 where she played the role of a mother to an actor who was only three years younger than her. She told the interviewer that she felt the fact she was given roles where she was playing older women showed her that she was always a character actor.

In a 2000 interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, Angela recalled how the audition for Gaslight really came about.

“Well, I was introduced to the studio, which was MGM, by a young man who was being considered for the role of Dorian Gray. His name was Michael Dyne. And he arranged that the casting director would see me, this young English girl, who at that time was – I think I was 17. And I went to the studio with my mother and was interviewed for the part of Sibyl Vane in “Dorian Gray.” And the head of casting, a man called Billy Grady, came into the room while I was sitting there. He said, sort of whispered in the ear of Mr. Ballerino, the man I was seeing, you know, you should suggest that this young lady meets George Cukor, who’s trying to cast the role of the maid in “Gaslight.” And so right then and there, I was whipped off to meet George Cukor. And so, well, the rest, as they say, is history.”

The interviewer asked Angela if she was aware of some of the darker elements of the film, or was she a little naïve because she was so young at the time.

“I can’t honestly say, except by my on-set demeanor,” she responded. “I think my on-set demeanor was a very, very careful, covered, rather shy attitude about what I was doing. And when I say that, I don’t mean that I was aware of that, but I know from my own uncertainty about my personal – you see; I’ve always been a very private person. When it comes to the work, I’m on solid ground. When it comes to the – Angela Lansbury the young woman, I was on very uncertain ground.”

She continued: “So, I had to marry those two rather carefully. And that’s why, as I say, I always felt that I had to, shall we say, tread rather warily from a personal point of view. Just listen and hear and do what I was told and asked to do. I could discuss it, but I – in most instances, I was pretty quick to pick up directorial indications from somebody like George Cukor because he was extremely clear and funny and helpful. And what he said I understood. So you could say I was fortunate in that I could understand what he wanted and then deliver it. This is what I do, and this is what I always maintained throughout my career – was that I had that ability to take direction and also to understand what the – what was required of the character.”

Angela turned 18 on the set and had this to say about that time: “Oh, it was required that there was a social worker with me until my 18th birthday, which I celebrated on the set of “Gaslight,” actually. And I always remember it because Ingrid and Charles and George Cukor were so wonderfully kind. And Ingrid gave me lovely bottles of Strategy, which was a lovely, smelly cologne, which – I’d never had anything as lovely as that – and powder, you know, sort of talcum powder and things that, you know, set. I always remember that. It’s interesting, the things you do remember.”

This part made me laugh so I had to include it: “And we celebrated. And I was able to take a cigarette out of a packet in my purse and smoke it, which I hadn’t been able to let on, that I had been smoking from the time I was, really, about 14 years old. I say that without any sense of pride at all. And I stopped smoking 30 years ago. But nevertheless – I don’t know if you remember, but I do smoke a rather long Cigarettello in the movie. And that was part of the business in the movie of “Gaslight.” But they only let me puff it. And I wasn’t allowed to inhale, as Mr. Clinton would say.”

As Mr. Clinton might say. Wahahaha! I remember that interview with him. He didn’t inhale and he didn’t have sexual relations with that woman…well, we all know how that second one went.

Anyhow,

You can read and listen to the full interview with Angela here https://www.npr.org/2022/05/27/1101435407/angela-lansbury-looks-back-on-her-great-performances-on-stage-and-screen

 It was fascinating to me.

A bit of trivia or facts:

  • According to TCM.com: “MGM head Louis B. Mayer, determined to eliminate the competition for what was expected to be one of the studio’s biggest hits of the year, ordered all prints of the 1939 British version purchased and destroyed. Prints, however, did survive, and the film turned up again in the 1950s, often under the title of the original 1938 stage production, Angel Street.”
  • MGM tried to sue Jack Benny in the 50s because he presented a spoof of the movie called Autolight. Benny played Charles Boyer’s character and Barbara Stanwyck performed as Bergman. The comedians lawyers argued the skit was in the realm of parody and therefore not a copyright violation and the suit was dropped.
  • Ingrid Bergman was filming The Bells of St. Mary’s when she won her Oscar for Gaslight. The star of the film, Bing Crosby, and the director, Leo McCarey, had previously won Oscars. In her acceptance speech Ingrid quipped: “I am particularly glad to get the Oscar this time because I’m working on a picture at the moment with Mr. Crosby and Mr. McCarey and I’m afraid if I went on the set tomorrow without an award, neither of them would speak to me.”
  • From TCM: “In the big confrontation scene between the chambermaid and the lady of the house, Lansbury was required to light a cigarette in defiance of her mistress’s orders. But because she was only 17, the social worker and teacher assigned to her would not allow her to smoke until she was a year older. When her 18th birthday arrived, Bergman and the cast threw her a party on the set, and the scene was done shortly after.”
  • Director George Cukor suggested that Ingrid Bergman study the patients at a mental hospital to learn about nervous breakdowns. She did, focusing on one woman in particular, whose habits and physical quirks became part of the character. (source IMdB)
  • The first time Ingrid Bergman encountered Charles Boyer was the day they shot the scene where they meet at a train station and kiss passionately. Boyer was the same height as Bergman, and in order for him to seem taller, he had to stand on a box, which she kept inadvertently kicking as she ran into the scene. Boyer also wore shoes and boots with two-inch heels throughout the movie. (source IMdB)
  • Charles Boyer‘s wife, Pat Paterson, was pregnant with what would be the couple’s only child. Boyer and Paterson had been trying to have a baby for many years, and Boyer was exceptionally nervous while making Gaslight. He rushed between takes to call and check on his wife’s health as the expected birth date grew nearer. The baby was expected to come after Boyer had finished working on this movie, but he arrived early. Boyer broke down in tears when he was notified, and he informed the rest of the cast and crew of his son’s birth. Production was halted for the day and the cast and crew opened up bottles of champagne to celebrate the birth. (source IMdB)
  • Angela had been working at Bullocks Department Store in L.A. before getting the part in Gaslight. When she told her boss that she was leaving, he offered to match the pay at her new job, expecting it to be in the region of her Bullocks salary of the equivalent of twenty-seven dollars a week. He was shocked to find out she’d be earning $500 a week. (source IMdB)

Cat from Cat’s Wire also watched the movie this week and you can read her thoughts here. She compared the British and American movie versions and a German televised version of the original play. I absolutely loved how she compared these three!

Here is my full schedule of movies I am watching for the Summer of Angela:

Blue Hawaii

The Manchurian Candidate

National Velvet

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

July 11 –  The Shell Seekers

July 18 – Murder She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle

July 25 – The Mirror Cracked

August 1 – The Court Jester

August 8 The Picture of Dorian Gray

August 15 – A Life At Stake

August 22 – All Fall Down

August 29 – Something for Everyone

Additional resources:

Angela Lansbury Looks Back on Her Great Performances on Stage and Screen:

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/27/1101435407/angela-lansbury-looks-back-on-her-great-performances-on-stage-and-screen

Gaslight Review: The Hollywood Reporter: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/gaslight-review-1944-movie-999932/

From TCM: https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/166/gaslight#articles-reviews?articleId=29976

The Essentials (Gaslight): https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/166/gaslight#articles-reviews?articleId=89327

In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood, Gaslight: https://crystalkalyana.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/gaslight-1944/

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Springtime in Paris: How To Steal A Million

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, everyday musings, Movie Impresssions11 Comments

For the months of April and May, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are watching movies set in Paris and rambling about them on our blog.

This week we watched How to Steal A Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole.

I actually think I watched this movie or part of it at some point over the last 20-some years but I couldn’t remember most of it, other than a few scenes.

The movie is about a con-man, Charles Bonnett (Hugh Griffith), who sells fake recreations of famous artist that he has painted. It isn’t something his daughter approves of so when he loans out a fake  “Cellini” Venus statue to a museum in Paris she is horrified and panicked. Her father assures her that because the item is only being loaned out and not purchased, no one will inspect it and actually find out it is a fake. Unfortunately, Charles signs a loan agreement with the museum without reading it and later learns it includes an inspection clause.

On the same night the statuette goes on display, a burglar named Simon Dermott (O’Toole), breaks into their house to try to steal Charle’s recreation of a Van Gogh painting.

Terrified, Nicole sneaks downstairs and grabs a collector gun off the wall to confront whoever is in the house. After some bantering back and forth, and knowing calling the police would lead to an investigation of all her father’s paintings, Nicole agrees to let him go. When she lays the gun down, though, it fires and grazes Simon’s arm.

This leads to an entertaining exchange where he makes her drive him home using his car and then she discovers she has no way to get home. He calls her a taxi, but not before he asks her to wipe his fingerprints off the painting he tried to steal so he won’t get caught.

She asks him what else she should do for him. Did he want to kiss her goodnight?

He lets her know that he’d rather like to do that and the bold fellow kisses her passionately right there by the taxi.

Nicole is, of course, a bit enamored with him, especially after that kiss, which is clear when she later tells  her father about what happened.

After she and Charles find out about the inspector who will come to look at the statuette at the museum so it can be insured for a million dollars, she worries that the inspection of the item — which her look alike grandmother posed for by the way — will lead to all of her father’s work being exposed as fakes and send him to jail. She tracks Simon down and asks him to help her steal the statuette, even though it is under very heavy security at the museum.

Much jocularity ensues.

Yes, I did just write that sentence.

But, a lot of fun does unfold at this point and the viewer already knows a bit about Simon and that he isn’t what  he seems but now we want to know what else we, and Nicole, will find out. As if things couldn’t get any crazier, we also have an American dealer Davis Leland (Eli Wallach) who is trying to buy the statuette and wants to marry Nicole.

I won’t provide any other spoilers in case you haven’t seen this one and want to.

This one was a fun one for me. Lots of funny, quirky moments and beautiful views of Paris. Of course, these actors were all supposed to be in Paris but sounded British, other than Audrey.

Audrey has never been my favorite actress but I enjoyed her more in this one than I thought I would.  I thought Peter O’Toole was a delight all around. He was…sigh….dreamy. Those impulsive kisses…whew!

I loved the ins and outs of the movie, the misdirection, etc.

Toward the beginning of the movie, Nicole is reading Hitchcock Magazine which made me wonder if she’d ever been in one of his films. After a quick search online, I learned that the answer is no. However, in her Oscar-winning performance as the princess in the 1953 movie Roman Holiday, Audrey is in bed reading a book about Hitchcock.

My husband says he never wanted Audrey in his movies because he liked actresses with talent. Ouch. It’s clear my husband is not an Audrey fan. He added that Hitchcock had a “type” and Audrey wasn’t it. Most of the actresses in his movies were blond. There you go.

There were rumors when the movie was made that Peter and Audrey had an affair during the filming but those were later squashed by the pair who said while that wasn’t true, it was true they became close friends after the movie.

Some trivia about the movie that I read about during my research:

After Nicole dresses up as a cleaning lady at one point in the movie, Simon Dermott says, “That does it. For one thing, it gives Givenchy a night off.” Hubert de Givenchy was Audrey Hepburn’s costume designer.

When Peter O’Toole first sets off the museum alarm, he says, “Ring out, wild bells.” This is the title of a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson published in 1850, which was part of his work entitled “In Memoriam”. It was an elegy to his sister’s fiancé, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at the age of 22.

The film was directed by William Wyler.

Have you ever seen this movie? What did you think of it?
If you wrote a blog post about it or choose to do so later, you can link up below anytime from today until May.

To read Erin’s thoughts on the movie, visit her blog here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2025/04/10/springtime-in-paris-how-to-steal-a-million/

Up next in our Springtime in Paris movie feature is Paris Blues, which you can find for free on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm8bCTSPD6U

Following that we will have:

Hugo (April 24)

The Intouchables (May 1)

Charade Group Zoom on May 4 – this is where you can all join us for a watch party! (writing about it May 8).

If you’re wondering where to find the movies streaming, for anyone who is participating in the event on where you can find the movies streaming:

Hugo: Amazon, Fandango at Home, Pluto TV, AppleTV

The Intouchables (warning that this is an R movie due to language): DisneyPlus, Amazon, Fandango, Plex, YouTubeTV, Google Play, AppleTV, and Hulu

Charade (pretty much everywhere): Crackle, Tubi, Plex, Amazon, AppleTV, GooglePlay, YouTube, YouTubeTV, The Roku Channel, Fubo.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

Classic Movie Impressions: That Touch of Mink

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Movie Impresssions7 Comments

I needed something to distract me from every day life last week so I watched That Touch of Mink with Doris Day and Cary Grant. I am very certain I’ve watched either all or part of this movie before but it has been years so I didn’t remember much about it.

This is quite a modern movie for 1962.

Cary Grant is a no nonsense, yet still kind and understanding, businessman and Doris Day is a young woman from a small town living in a big city and trying to find a job.

This movie was meant to be a comedy, so I tried not to be too uptight about how Cary Grant was essentially trying to get into Doris Day’s pants without actually committing to a relationship for the entire movie.

I have to say that I didn’t really like Cary for most of this movie and my husband said it is probably because of the fact Cary really didn’t want to make the movie, according to articles he has read about it. While I didn’t find articles online specifically saying he didn’t like the film, I did find information that Doris Day wrote in her autobiography that Cary was polite and professional on set but that there was really no “give and take” between them.

First a little summary:

This movie takes place in 1962 starts with Doris Day walking down the street and getting splashed by a car that Cary’s character (Philip Shayne) is riding in. He feels bad but he can’t stop because he is on his way to a very important meeting. We find out later that Doris’s character (Cathy Timberlake) is looking for a job and Philip is a shrewd but also generous businessman with a friend, Roger, (played by Gig Young) who is a bit of a leach. Philip does actually feel awful about splashing Cathy and tells Roger he’d love to find the woman and apologize.

Luckily they are looking out the office window not long afterward and see Cathy walking into a diner across the street.

He orders Roger to take her some money to apologize. Roger is hoping the woman will want to tell Phillip off. He’s sick of Phillip getting all the women despite his flippant attitude. Cathy does want to tell Phillip off so Roger takes her to Phillip immediately.

Unfortunately for Roger, Cathy falls for Phillip immediately. Phillip sees this as a chance to sweep another woman off her feet by taking her on trips around the world.

He starts to do just that and Cathy wants him to like her so she goes along with him — flying to Baltimore for a speech he’s giving, then to Philadelphia for a quick dinner. One night he even takes  her to a New York Yankees game, into the dugout where we meet the real Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra.

Soon though, Phillip wants her to go on vacation with him to Bermuda and she’s not sure if she means he wants her to stay in the same room with him or if they will have separate rooms. He definitely wants her to stay in the room with him, which causes her to breakout in a full body rash and skuttles his plans.

She’s a good girl from Sandusky, Ohio after all. Girls from Sandusky don’t go running off with men on vacation and sleep with them unless they have a ring on their finger and have said “I do” to marriage vows.

Cathy returns home disappointed in herself because she didn’t sleep with Phillip but also fairly annoyed at him for thinking she would after they’ve known each other for only a short time.

She wants to break out of her boring girl mold, though, and decides to try again — telling Phillip she’ll go with him again to Bermuda and she will give him what he wants. She doesn’t say exactly that but the viewer gets her drift.

Sadly, things don’t work out this time either but you will have to watch the movie to find out why.

The movie is a series of miscommunications, silly tropes, and goofy interactions. One of those miscommunications is between Roger and his therapist. Roger is sharing the story about Cathy and Phillip but the therapist walks out of the room and only hears part of the story, leading him to believe that Roger is becoming involved with another man, which I thought was a very progressive (for lack of a better word) joke for the early 1960s. That joke carries on throughout the movie with Roger continually trying to update the therapist on Phillip and Cathy but the therapist instead believing that Phillip has been trying to woo Roger instead.

I found it interesting that this movie was one of the last ones where Cary was a leading man.

It was his 69th movie and he was in his 50s. An article on TCM.com states that he must have known his time for playing leading men was waning.

“He made one more picture in which he was the dashing leading man, Charade (1963), opposite Audrey Hepburn,” the article reads. “After that, he appeared as a grizzled old beachcomber in Father Goose (1964), then as a British gentleman who plays Cupid for the young romantic leads in Walk Don’t Run (1966), his last film before retiring from the screen.

The article goes on: “Doris Day’s string of box office hits continued though with somewhat diminishing returns over the next six years in ten more films. After With Six You Get Eggroll (1968), the actress retired from the big screen. Her hit TV sitcom, The Doris Day Show, ran from 1968 to 1973, changing formats and storylines almost very season.”

As for my feelings on the film, I liked it overall but didn’t like the message that women should just go sleep with men they are not married to. The end of the movie would have feminists of today growling in anger but it was most likely what made most every day movie goers happy at the time.

I couldn’t figure out while I watched it if Cary was bored during the movie or if it was how he was playing Phillip Shayne. Maybe he wanted Phillip to have no real personality beyond seeming bored and like he expected women to fall in bed with him. The man didn’t even seem excited by the prospect of sex. He just seemed to expect that it would happen, and he would move on to the next woman.

Years ago, I was reading about Cary and his use of LSD as an attempt to help him with his depression and other mental issues. Many psychiatrists at the time prescribed LSD as part of psychological therapy. It wasn’t yet a recreational drug.

Both Gig Young and Cary used the therapy and as I researched for this film I read that Gig sadly killed his 31-year-old wife and then himself in 1978 when  he was 64. I wonder how much the drug affected his brain at the time and left him worse off than he had been. He was also an alcoholic, though, so that most likely played an even larger role than the LSD. Either way it is sad.

 I also sometimes wonder if the drug was why Cary seemed so blasé and uninterested in his movies during this particular time period.

I don’t think this is a movie I would watch again but it was a fun escape.

I should also  mention the other star of the movie: The Automat.

The Automat was an automatic-type diner where restaurant goers could go in and choose what they wanted by pushing a button on what looked like post office boxes and then could open a door and the food would be slid to them through the tiny hole. I had never seen anything like it before this movie. Cathy’s friend Connie worked at one and delivered the food. That’s where Cathy would go to talk to her. It seemed like a very busy job since Connie and only one or two other co-workers would have to slide the food into the little box for the people to retrieve.

Have you ever seen this movie? What did you think of it?

Winter of Fairbanks Jr.: The Sun Never Sets (1939)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, everyday musings, Movie Impresssions, Winter of Fairbanks Jr.5 Comments

This winter I watched Douglas Fairbanks Jr. movies for fun.

This week for the last movie of the series,  I watched The Sun Never Sets (1939) starring Douglas, Basil Rathbone, Barbara O’Neil and Virginia Fields.

It was directed by Rowland Lee.

Before I launch into my feelings about the movie, here is the plot, without spoilers, copied from Google:

Two British brothers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Basil Rathbone) squelch a radio-made dictator on the Gold Coast of Africa.

Oh. Well, that wasn’t much of a description.

A little more for you: This movie is about a brother (Douglas) who doesn’t want to go into the miliary like the rest of his family but is shamed into it by his grandfather who says what an honor it is to fight for the empire and by his brother who says there is no greater love than to leave ones family to fight for the empire.

Even his fiancé (Virginia Fields) begins to feel like her future brother and sister-in-law’s love is enviable because their relationship was strengthened during their time together on the Gold Coast.

So poor John Randolph (Douglas) is broken down and signs up for the military to take his brother, Clive Randolph’s (Basil Rathbone) place in Africa, which Clive’s wife hated. Once John agrees to capitulate and follow in the footsteps of all his family members, risking himself for the Empire, Clive is then called up for a secret mission and also has to return to the Golf Coast. He tells his wife she can’t come because she’s pregnant but she loves him and is determined to be with him.

Her pregnancy becomes a source of stress for poor ole Clive who must choose between being there for his wife when she gets sick from walking in the rain (because everyone knows that walking in the rain automatically means you get sick) and capturing a bad guy who wants to (I kid you not) take over the world.

For me this is a British propaganda movie similar to the American propaganda movies that actors like Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart were in around World War II.

My overall view on the movie: It is about restoring ones reputation for the sake of the Empire when you choose to help your family instead of completing your mission for the British Army and furthering their take over of African nations.

The movie does touch on the difficulties of serving one’s country while also being there for their family but by the end we are reminded how important it is for a British man to have a reputation as a fine soldier even more so than having a reputation as a weak man who cares about his pregnant wife.

There is forgiveness between the brothers for the failings of one brother that cost Clive being able to capture a criminal and that was nice. Not sure if the forgiveness had been there if he had failed yet again though.

 “Failing the empire twice?! My God, John! Once I can understand but twice! You’ll have to work as a dirty businessman and get rich and stand on the heads of poor people in another way now!”

One review online said this movie was more focused on family relationships than anything else and I suppose that is true. But it was also wrapped up in making sure the men were loyal to the Empire, the King, etc. while also having a family.

I was absolutely baffled by the one part where a brother chooses to bring the other brother back from a mission because his wife is dying and then the first brother is ostracized by the sister-in-law he saves. Apparently, she’d rather be dead than go back to England with a husband shamed for failing his military assignment. Just … what?!

So, this movie really wasn’t my favorite of those I have watched as part of the Fairbanks Jr. marathon, though I didn’t hate it as much as I hated Gunga Din. This movie still made sure to remind us that the British were all-knowing and that the natives of the land wouldn’t have survived without them (har. Har.) but at least refrained from calling them all savages like they did in Gunga Din.

There are a couple of movies of Douglas’s that I wish I had chosen instead of this one but I’ve seen Rathbone in Sherlock Holmes movies so figured it wouldn’t hurt to see him in something else. He is a very good actor so saying I don’t like this movie is not a slight on him or any of the actors. They did a nice job. I just didn’t enjoy the movie overall. It was somewhat like an infomercial for British military recruitment.

The author of Basilrathbone.net enjoyed the movie and was able to overlook the flaws.

“While I can point out several flaws with the film, the fine performances by the cast brought the characters to life, making them very real. I really cared about what happened to the characters and I was so caught up in the drama, that I hardly noticed or cared that the plot was rather contrived. Rathbone and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. have some great scenes together.”

This was essentially a military recruitment film, though, the writer admits.

“Universal had high hopes for this story of the British Colonial Service. In 1939, when this film was made, the British civil services administered to more than 500 million people over territory that covered 13 million square miles all over the world.”

Time Magazine did not like the film at all based on this review:

“Only slightly more agonizing than young Mr. Fairbanks’ throes in putting this subversive two & two together is the sight of middle-aged Mr. Rathbone, as a sort of Imperial Rover Boy, lashing about the jungle in bush jacket and shorts, caught barekneed between Love & Duty.” —Time magazine, June 19, 1939

Ouch.

They weren’t alone in their dislike of the film based on the reviews posted on this article on Basilrathbone.net.

By the way, I enjoyed reading the article about this movie on this site. There is a ton of information about Basil and his other movies there as well so I will be exploring it more.

This ends my Douglas Fairbanks Jr. marathon. If you want to read my impressions of the other movies I watched you can find them here:

https://lisahoweler.com/movie-reviews-impressions/

Up next in April, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching movies set in Paris. We will be announcing our movie list at a later date. Stay tuned!

Winter of Fairbanks Jr.: The Rise of Catherine The Great (1934)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Movie Impresssions4 Comments

This winter I am watching movies starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

This week I watched The Rise of Catherine The Great from 1934. The movie was also just called Catherine The Great at one point.

I watched it on YouTube and the reproduction of it wasn’t really very good at some points.

This movie, which takes place in 1745, was not a happy one for sure. I mean how could it be when it was about Catherine The Great Empress of all of Russia.

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was definitely not a nice man in this movie. He portrayed  Peter III or Duke Peter, who Catherine the Great historically overthrew to become queen. This movie, like most history books, portrays Peter III as a bad guy, but in the 1990s questions about him really being that bad were raised, especially considering he attempted to make peace with many countries Russia was once at war with.

From what I have learned about royals over the years and during this marathon, many are degenerates who thrive on doing what they want no matter who it hurts, sleeping around, and having power, fame, and riches. This movie further sealed that opinion for me as I felt like I couldn’t sympathize with any of the characters.

They were all simply awful or broken people.

In this movie we are given the popular idea that Peter is the bad guy, and Catherine is the poor misunderstood young queen who feels she has to take over the kingdom after repeatedly being rejected by a mentally ill Peter. Peter  has mistresses and loves to flaunt them in front of his wife and anyone else who will listen.

At the beginning of the movie we have a young German princess named Princess Sophie Auguste Frederika (portrayed by Elisabeth Bergner), arriving at the castle as the woman who will marry Grand Duke Peter, at the order of Peter’s aunt, Empress Elizabeth (Flora Robson).

Flora Robson as Empress Elizabeth

The Grand Duke throws a fit about marrying her because he doesn’t want to be told what to do. The Empress wants him to marry her so the family line will continue since she didn’t have any children herself, or even a husband. Instead, she has many lovers.

Princess Frederika, soon to be Catherine (a name given to her by Empress Elizabeth who doesn’t like the name Frederika) is crushed by the Duke’s rejections and tries to flee the palace but gets lost and ends up telling who she thinks is a guard about her displeasure at being rejected by the Duke.

She says she has loved the Duke for years since she was told about him when she was a child. The man is, of course, actually the Duke and her saying she has loved him for years, even though they never met, impresses him and he decides to marry her.

Right before the wedding, though, a servant suggests that the future queen simply said she wanted to love him and not to have power over Russia, Peter’s heart hardens again, and he spends their wedding night with a mistress. What a catch. Har. Har.

Having mistresses and lovers one isn’t married to isn’t unusual in the family since his aunt has had many lovers over the years. In fact, when she demands Peter marry Catherine  she says if he won’t marry and father an heir then she will have to have a child. He laughs and asks which lover she’s going to make “an honest man.”

This movie shows Catherine doing all she can possibly do to win the love of Peter, even pretending she has many lovers after they are married to attempt to make him jealous, but later telling him she really had none. He apologizes for all the lovers he’s had, they fall into each other’s arms, and the camera pans away to an empty bed being prepared by the footman.

Hubba. Hubba.

This is a movie where there are all kinds of innuendo and hints toward what people are doing in their bedrooms.

It’s like, “Tell me you’re talking about sex the whole time without telling me you’re talking about sex.”

At one point Peter asks Catherine what she and her lover did together and she says they went for walks and then curled up in front of a fire to read together.

“Then what?” Peter asks.

Catherine giggles and says, “Well, eventually one does get bored of reading.”

At this point she’s making it all up, but it infuriates Peter. It’s fine for him to have lovers, but not for his wife to have them and make him look less of a man, I guess.

The acting in this movie was really well done.

Flora Robson’s portrayal of the self-focused, master manipulator Empress Elizabeth was chilling and unnerving. I’m not sure how this queen really was in real life but how she is portrayed here is absolutely psychotic.

Bergner, as Catherine was the perfect mix of sweet, broken, and conniving. I was never sure what was real and what wasn’t about her.

Douglas pulled off his role as Peter brilliantly and I honestly think it was one of his better performances of the movies I watched so far.

This movie was banned in Germany when it was released because the director Paul Czinner and Bergner, who was also his wife, had Jewish backgrounds.

This ban prompted a discussion in the House of Parliament in Britain during which it was asked, “Is it to be understood that no British film in which there is a Jewish actor or actress will be permitted to be shown in Germany in future?”

I’m going to guess the answer to that was an emphatic yes.

Reminds me of things happening these days.

According to TCM, this movie was unfortunately released the same year a much more famous movie —  Josef von Sternberg’s The Scarlet Empress — was released.

“Consequently, Catherine has become somewhat lost to film history,” the article on TCM.com states.

Marlene Deitrich was in The Scarlet Empress, a very dazzling movie, so her performance pushed Bergner’s out of the limelight, but article writer Jeremy Arnold says Bergner’s performance was still very good.

I think I may have to find this The Scarlet Empress and check it out to compare the two.’

The Rise of Catherine the Great was adapted from a 1912 play, The Czarina, by Lajos Biro and Melchior Lengyel. 

Douglas was 24 and virtually unknown when he landed the part.

“Now I would have a chance to show Hollywood’s producers what I could do with a real character-lead,” he later said in an autobiography. “No longer would I have to play nice young light comedies or listen to offers to ape my father’s swashbuckling fantasies.”

Although he would try his hand at swashbuckling fantasies later as we saw with The Exile and Sinbad the Sailor.

Douglas almost didn’t get the part, though. He had double pneumonia and had been forced to drop out of another movie before being offered the part. He was determined to be in the movie, even though his doctor warned he could develop tuberculosis if he took the part instead of resting.

Arnold writes in his article: “Fairbanks later wrote that the real Peter III “was stubby with a puffy, pockmarked face” and “I looked nothing at all like [him]. I wanted to create a real character in the part, but [director Paul] Czinner and Korda insisted our story was essentially romantic.” Camera tests followed with Fairbanks donning a wig, satin suits and knee britches, and wearing white makeup, lipstick and even beauty marks. “Had I not been so in love with my part and delighted with my good fortune in landing it, I might have been more stubborn, but I was afraid I would be paid off and replaced…. When Korda saw the tests, he said I looked all right, though ‘far too young and pretty.'” Fairbanks grew a mustache to counter this effect. “The result,” he wrote, “was inauthentic but apparently satisfactory.’”

There was plenty of praise for Douglas’s performance too.

“His definition of the fuming Peter is one of the best he has ever done,” Variety wrote in their review. “His appearance does much to help the authors mold the character away from repugnant and to make Catherine’s devotion to him reasonable.”

This was an interesting bit of trivia from the TCM article:  Sir Gerald du Maurier, father of novelist Daphne du Maurier and a giant on the British stage, had a small part in the movie.

Douglas was reportedly so thrilled to have a chance to work with du Maurier that when he found out that the man had only been given a small dressing room he removed his name tag off his door and switched it with du Maurier’s so he would have one of the larger rooms. Du Maurier never found out and he and Douglas remained good friends until the man passed.

Have you ever seen this one? What did you think of it?

Next week I’ll be writing about my last Douglas movie for the winter as we move toward Spring: The Sun Never Sets. I have no idea what to expect from this one which I could only find on an obscure website.

Winter of Fairbanks: Sinbad the Sailor. Not even my crush on Fairbanks Jr. could get me through this one.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Movie Impresssions, Winter of Fairbanks Jr.5 Comments

This week for Winter of Fairbanks Jr. I watched Sinbad the Sailor.

Oh my, readers.

I watched this one with a face you make after you’ve taken gross tasting medicine.

Not even my crush on Fairbanks Jr. could get me through this one.

What was I even thinking? I really should have read up on it more or watched a preview first.

Cheesy? Check.

Sort of disrespectful to other cultures? Check.

Horrid, garish colors and really bad makeup jobs complete with darkened skin and dark eyeliner? Check.

A red-haired Irish woman who is supposed to be a Middle Eastern princess? Check.

There were so many yikes with this one, I just couldn’t wait for it to end. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be in the adventure or slapstick comedy genre. I found myself singing “It’s Sinbad the Sailor man” to the tune of Popeye’s theme song throughout much of it.

We’re supposed to believe this American man wearing blue eye shadow and dark eyeliner is a Muslim from Baghdad? Oh be still my horrified heart.

There is nothing like hearing a thick Irish accent say, “I am Shireen, Princess of Baghdad” to really emerse you into a movie about a middle-eastern folklore hero. *facepalm*

That darkened skin? They apparently got bored of using it about 15 minutes in because everyone miraculously appeared white again for a scene or two. No idea what that was about because a few scenes later they were dark again. I think there might have been only two or three actors in this movie who were actually not white. Anthony Quinn was one of them but not even he was middle-eastern since he was born in Mexico.

*I just want to add a clarification here (that wasn’t in here when I originally posted this): I do not mean to imply that the people making this movie or starring in it were racist at all. I just mean that it jarred me out of the story to have them be so clearly pale, American, and Irish, or with horrible makeup. I don’t think any ill-will was meant toward any culture. It was common in the early days of movies just to want to make something fun and not really think about how they might be slighting cultures. I am not excusing that but I also don’t think that movie makers set out to be offensive.

Another thing that always puzzles me about these old movies — couples meeting each other one day and already kissing each other that same day.

What was with that anyhow?

I’ve done my share of ranting about the movie so far so how about a little plot for you as presented by an article on TCM.com:

“Surrounded by friends, charming storyteller and adventurer Sinbad (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) regales his audience with a tale of his derring-do in exotic lands. In this particular adventure, his ocean journey with sidekick Abbu (George Tobias) pauses in the remote Daibul where nefarious auctioneers commandeer his ship. A bidding war erupts between rightful owner Sinbad and the feisty Shireen (Maureen O’Hara), resolved only through a bit of Sinbadian sleight of hand.”

“Meanwhile the powerful Emir (Anthony Quinn) notices Sinbad’s attentions towards the headstrong Shireen, who saves the sailor’s life before being captured by the Emir. This time salvation arrives in the form of Eastern sailor Melik (Walter Slezak) who enlists the couple’s aid in tracking down the elusive treasure of Deryabar, located beneath the palace of Alexander the Great. Loyalties and vows shift as the trio races to the treasure with the furious Emir hot on their heels.”

The film was shot in Technicolor so it is way out there with crazy colors from the paint on the ship to Maureen’s gaudy dresses.

TCM says Douglas was “famously ignored by his father as a child” but still wanted to make the movie in honor of his father’s swashbuckling movies. It was the first movie that Douglas Jr. made after returning from voluntarily serving in the United States Navy during World War II.

The writer of the article on TCM, Nathaniel Thompson, did have an “obsession” (as I’m sure many did) with what he called Maureen’s “exquisitely endowed bosom.”

He wrote, “which she was wisely but discreetly at pains to exploit and which I, ever an untiring student of such anatomical addenda, discreetly admired.”

Writing in his autobiography, A Hell of A War, Fairbanks wrote that he knew no one in a lead in the movie was Arab at all.

“After all, I was not exactly a typical Arab any more than Walter Slezak was even remotely (with his taped-up blue eyes) Oriental.”

 And I guess none of them really saw a problem with that. Sigh.

Anyhow…if you want to watch this movie simply to see how much you can cringe in 1 hr and 57 min (I felt like this movie would never end and fast forwarded a couple of times to get there), I would recommend it.

Holy eyeliner, Batman!
Have you been playing with your mother’s curtains again, Douglas? Don’t lie…

I am hoping my next choice, The Rise of Catherine The Great (1934), is a bit better. It is streaming for free on YouTube. At least in the United States.

After that I am watching  The Sun Never Sets (1939). It is available for free on PBS and I also found it here: https://archive.org/details/sun.-never.-sets.-1939

You can find my impressions of previous movies in the series, as well as other classic movies here: https://lisahoweler.com/movie-reviews-impressions/

Classic movie impressions: The Stranger (1946)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, everyday musings, Movie Impresssions9 Comments

A few weeks ago, my husband suggested we watch an Orson Welles movie. Since I’ve liked other movies by and starring Orson, I agreed to it.

The Stranger was released in 1946 and tells the story of a war crimes investigator who tracks a high-ranking Nazi fugitive to a small Connecticut town.

Welles both directed and co-wrote the film but was uncredited for the writing, which was most likely part of the many concessions he made for the opportunity to direct it. This is a movie that some call his most conventional. It’s also one he wasn’t as fond of because so many changes were made to the final cut without his consultation.

The movie stars Welles, Edward G. Robinson, and Loretta Young.

The creepy undertone throughout the entire movie left me always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Nazi fugitive, Franz Kindler (Welles), has done his best to assimilate into American society. He’s even about to marry the daughter of a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Edward G. Robinson, playing war crimes investigator Mr. Wilson, follows one of the recently released followers of Kindler to the town, hoping he’ll lead him to Kindler. The man suddenly disappears though, and Wilson is certain he’s been murdered by Kindler, but still doesn’t know who Kindler actually is. Only that he is somewhere in the town.

We the viewer, know all along what happened to the man and who made it  It happens about 15 minutes into the movie, but Robinson has to spend much of the movie trying to figure it out and once he does figure it out, he spends the rest of the movie trying to make Kindler admit who he really is. The only thing Robinson’s character really knows when he comes to the town is that Kindler had an almost unhealth obsession with old clocks.

It’s a fantastic, stressful game of cat and mouse that had me literally biting my nails part of the time.

The music of the movie is very interesting – mixing in a creepy violin-based humming, with happier melodies to try to show the contrast between an innocent, happy world being infiltrated by pure evil.

It always amazes me how quickly movies were made back then. Filming for this movie took place from September to November of 1945 and was released July 2, 1946.

Originally the film was going to be directed by John Husten, but he entered the military and Welles begged producer Sam Spiegel (also called S.P. Eagle at the time) to let him direct the film. Spiegel agreed as long as Welles agreed to several concessions and to be let go as director if he stepped out of those perimeters. Welles would still have to continue on as the lead actor, even if he was let go as director, however.  

Welles agreed. He needed the job if he wanted to continue in Hollywood. Five years earlier Welles had been essentially backlisted with the release of Citizen Kane, which won 9 Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Movie, and Best Actor for Welles. This should have made Welles a sought-after director and actor. Citizen Kane was based on the life of one of the most powerful men in the world at the time — William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper publisher and owner — though and Hearst wasn’t happy. In fact, he was furious. He made life very difficult for Welles and anyone else associated with the making of the movie, which is now considered the greatest movie all time thanks to its innovative filmmaking techniques, complex story, and influential impact on cinema history.

“In September 1945 Welles and his wife Rita Hayworth signed a guarantee that Welles would owe International Pictures any of his earnings, from any source, above $50,000 a year if he did not meet his contractual obligations,” an article on Wikipedia states. “He also agreed to defer to the studio in any creative dispute.”

This became a challenge when Editor Ernest J. Nims was given the power to cut any material he considered extraneous from the script before shooting began.

“He was the great supercutter,” Welles said, “who believed that nothing should be in a movie that did not advance the story. And since most of the good stuff in my movies doesn’t advance the story at all, you can imagine what a nemesis he was to me.”

Reading about all the cuts that were made from the script, and the final product helps me to understand why this movie feels so choppy at times. It feels like elements that would have helped to explain some of the plot better are missing.

What is really missing is building up Welles’ character and helping the viewer get to know who he is. As I read online, I found out that there were scenes removed from the beginning of the movie that would have given us more character development for Welles’ character.

I feel like Nims really overdid things and should probably be ashamed of chopping up Welles’ work.

I also thought that it was interesting that Welles wanted a female actress to portray the investigator.

“I thought it would be much more interesting to have a spinster lady on the heels of this Nazi,” Welles said. 

Welles would later say in interviews that nothing of The Stranger was his in the end. Biographer Frank Brady disagrees, “Welles has said, since the making of The Stranger—which he completed one day before schedule and under budget—that nothing in the film was his, this despite the fact that the unmistakable Wellesian moods, shadows, acute angles, and depth-of-focus shots are pervasive. Within the film is a second film, another Wellesian touch, consisting of snatches of documentary footage showing Nazi atrocities.”

One unique aspect of The Stranger is that it was the first commercial film to use documentary footage from the Nazi concentration camps.

Welles viewed Nazi Concentration Camps (1945), a film used as evidence in the Nuremberg Trials in early May 1945 as a correspondent and discussion moderator at the United Nations Conference on International Organization

One thing I didn’t remember until reading about it this week was that in the 1940s, many in the world simply couldn’t accept that the concentration camps were real.

Welles wrote about the footage in a column for the New York Post:

“No, you must not miss the newsreels. They make a point this week no man can miss: The war has strewn the world with corpses, none of them very nice to look at. The thought of death is never pretty but the newsreels testify to the fact of quite another sort of death, quite another level of decay. This is a putrefaction of the soul, a perfect spiritual garbage. For some years now we have been calling it Fascism. The stench is unendurable.”

Though the studio did not think The Stranger would be a success, it actually was and right out of the gate too. It cost $1 million to make and earned $2.25 million in U.S. rentals in its first six months. Fifteen months later had grossed $3.2 million.

I very much enjoyed the film, but I do wish that Kindler’s German accent would have come back as soon as his cover was blown. Having him keep the American accent he’s been using to keep his cover, even when under pressure, seemed unrealistic to me.

Despite that small issue, Welles is so deliciously evil in this. His excuses for his crimes against humanity were presented with a lecherous smile that sent shivers down my spine. The tension throughout the film is extreme. I never knew when Kindler would finally snap and reveal himself or worse — kill someone to keep his identity secret.

I found this one on YouTube for free, but it is also streaming in better quality on several streaming sites, including Amazon Prime.

Have you ever watched this one? What did you think?