Bing Crosby Tends to Dr. Cook's Garden

Bing Crosby as Dr. Leonard Cook.

Leonard Cook is a kindly small-town physician who has delivered most of the residents of Greenfield. Approaching age 70, he still makes house calls, works long hours, and is always willing to help raise funds for the community. There's just one problem: Dr. Cook may be a murderer.

Made in 1971, Dr. Cook's Garden stars Bing Crosby in his final leading role. Sporting gray hair and a beard, Crosby delivers a nuanced performance that's different from anything else he's done.

Even though the film's premise is established in its opening scenes, the actor's sincerity keeps one guessing about whether Dr. Cook could be killing selected patients. His best scene has the good doctor offering plausible, though far-fetched, explanations about why he stores so much poison and places the letter "R" on certain patients' cards ("R means rest or repeat," he insists, when asks if it means "remove").

Frank Converse and Blythe Danner.

Frank Converse co-stars as Jim Tennyson, a young medical intern who returns to Greenfield after a five-year absence. Jim, who lost his parents as a boy, views Leonard Cook as a surrogate father. But the loving reunion starts to slowly sour when Jim notices all the "nice people seem to live to a ripe old age and the mean ones seem to die off." There almost seems to be a correlation with Dr. Cook's garden in which certain plants are removed to provide a healthier environment for the rest. Could that be what Leonard Cook is doing in Greenfield?

Burl Ives and Keir Dullea.

The teleplay for Dr. Cook's Garden was based on a Broadway play of the same title by Ira Levin. The stage version ran for just eight performances in 1967. It starred Burl Ives as Dr. Cook (I imagine he was excellent) and Keir Dullea as Jim. Ira Levin is probably best known for his novels Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, with the latter's idyllic town somewhat reminiscent of Greenfield.

Dr. Cook's Garden appeared on ABC's Movie of the Week during what I consider to be the Golden Age of made-for-TV films. It's a clever, well-acted movie, but don't take my word for it. In Stephen King's Danse Macabre, his 1981 analysis of horror in literature, film, and television, the famed author wrote about Ira Levin's works: "Less known is a modest but chillingly effective made-for-TV movie called Dr. Cook's Garden, starring Bing Crosby in a wonderfully adroit performance."

Well said, Steve.

Bunny Lake Is Missing...or is she?

Unable to find a teacher at The Little People’s Garden school, Annie Lake (Carol Lynley) asks the cook to watch over her four-year daughter Bunny. Annie explains that Bunny’s in the “First Day” room awaiting her teacher. Annie, an American recently moved to London, then rushes to her new home to meet the movers.

Olivier as Inspector Newhouse.

When Annie returns to the school, she can’t find Bunny—and no one remembers the little girl. After Annie and her brother Steven (Keir Dulla) search the grounds to no avail, they contact the police. Inspector Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) follows the routine protocol for finding missing children—but he soon realizes nothing is routine about the case. Most distressingly, he learns that, except for Annie and Steven, no one has seen Bunny. All of Bunny’s belongings are missing. There are no photographs of her. There is no proof that the little girl actually exists.

Lynley and Keir Dullea as Steven.

Director Otto Preminger’s last great film surprisingly recalls his first classic, Laura. Both films begin as conventional crime dramas dealing with kidnapping or murder. But an unexpected plot twist takes each film in a different direction. In Laura, the twist hits quickly and unexpectedly. In Bunny Lake Is Missing, it unravels slowly throughout the film. Watch the movie carefully (it warrants a second viewing after you know the plot) and you’ll see that really there’s no twist at all. Granted, Preminger is selective about what he shows the viewer, but he still plays fair.

Noel Coward and companion as a

too-friendly neighbor.

Much of the film’s effect can be attributed to the unusual suspects in Bunny’s alleged kidnapping or murder. There’s the creepy neighbor (Noel Coward), a middle-aged lecher who hits on Annie as she frets over her missing child. There’s the old lady in the apartment over the school who tapes children describing their nightmares. And finally, there are Annie and Steven, whose extremely close relationship seems more like a married couple than sister and brother.

Carol Lynley gaves a carefully nuanced performance, making us believe that she could be psychologically unbalanced or just distraught over the fate of her daughter. Keir Dullea brings a nice ambiguity to the brother, making it unclear whether he’s defending his sister or setting her up. That leaves it to Olivier to ground the film in normalcy and he does a fine job by making Inspector Newhouse a workman-like professional willing to consider all possibilities.

As with most Preminger films, the production values are flawless. Paul Glass’s evocative music score seamlessly transitions from playful to disturbing. And Saul Bass contributes another memorable title sequence with a hand tearing away black paper to reveal the film’s credits pieces by piece.

Was there a better title designer than Saul Bass?

I first saw Bunny Lake Is Missing on TV with my sister. Neither of us had heard of it and we were mesmerized from start to finish. I have subsequently watched it with my wife, nephews, and friends. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t find it intriguing, which makes me wonder why it’s never acquired a better reputation.

Underrated Performer of the Month: Keir Dullea

Keir Dullea will probably be best remembered as "that one guy" from Stanley Kubrick's 1968 opus, 2001: A Space Odyssey. But the Cleveland born actor is a versatile performer, and his mark on the world of cinema far surpasses his psychological torment at the metaphorical hands of the malfunctioning computer, the HAL 9000.

Two of Dullea's strongest (and most popular) performances are in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) and Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974). In both movies, which have each achieved cult status, Dullea displays a remarkable ability to add depth to already complex characters. His boyish good looks are augmented by a playful smirk, but underneath that grin lies quiet aggression. As Steven in Bunny Lake, the brother to a woman who believes her daughter is missing (while police question whether or not the child even exists), Dullea generates warmth and sympathy. He is kind and protective, and that underlying strength is a welcome relief when the protagonist, Ann (Carol Lynley), seems to be breaking down. But this same style of performance has the opposite effect in Black Christmas. Dullea plays Peter, who spends a great deal of the movie upset over his girlfriend's decision to abort their unborn child. In this case, he is frightening, and it's not surprising that Jess (Olivia Hussey) would want him to stay away from her. It is amazing that Dullea developed such elaborate characters that contrast so distinctly, and it is difficult to imagine another actor in either role.

Dullea received recognition for his second film, Frank Perry's David and Lisa (1962), playing a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder befriending a woman (Janet Margolin) with dissociative identity disorder. The following year, Dullea won Best Actor at the San Francisco International Film Festival for David and Lisa. He also won a Golden Globe for New Star of the Year (Actor), along with three other men nominated, Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif for Lawrence of Arabia and Terence Stamp for Billy Budd. (That particular Golden Globe category, for Actor and Actress, was retired in 1983.)

Dullea has made numerous appearances on television shows and made-for-TV movies, guest starring on the police drama Naked City (in 1961 and 1963, as two different characters), the long-running Western, Bonanza, and the Angela Lansbury mystery series, Murder, She Wrote, in 1989. The actor also appears frequently on stage, where he has stated that he prefers to work. In 1969, he starred in Leonard Gershe's successful Broadway production, Butterflies Are Free. He also appeared as Brick in a 1974 production (and revision) of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. In 1983, he and his wife, Susie Fuller, co-founded the Theatre Artists Workshop of Westport, Inc.

Later in his career, Dullea had a significant role in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd (2006) and appeared in Law & Order (twice, like in Naked City), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the pilot episode of the ABC mystery/comedy Castle. In 2010, Dullea received much praise for his performance as Tom Garrison in the Off-Broadway revival of Robert Anderson's I Never Sang for My Father.

31 Days of Halloween: 'Tis the Season to be Frightened in Bob Clark's Black Christmas

‘Twas the night before the holiday break, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for the weirdo scaling the wall, crawling into the attic, murdering a sorority sister, and taking the body back up into the attic to rock in a rocking chair. Yeah, aside from that, everything is fine.

Bob Clark’s classic 1974 slasher, Black Christmas, follows a sorority house preparing for the upcoming holiday season. Jess (Olivia Hussey) has recently learned that she is pregnant with her boyfriend’s child. Her boyfriend, Peter (Keir Dullea), is clearly upset over her decision to have an abortion. But her shady and possibly unstable boyfriend is only the beginning of her problems. One of the sorority sisters has gone missing, and the girls are continually receiving strange phone calls from someone with an eerie voice. And guess from where the calls are originating?

Canadian filmmaker Clark, who also helmed the popular teen comedy, Porky’s (1982), and the yuletide favorite, A Christmas Story (1983), directs a film with style and wickedly dark humor. He keeps the murderous stranger hidden throughout most of the film, and it’s even difficult to decipher the character’s gender, especially when the voice on the phone is so vague (on at least one occasion sounding almost like two people). As the phone calls continue, the caller becomes increasingly more agitated and threatening. Clark heightens the terror by simply having the phone ring. The director's bits of comic relief -- including a goofy cop working the front desk at the police station -- are welcome within an otherwise intense movie.

One way in which Clark retains suspense is presenting the killer’s point-of-view (POV). In French filmmaker Françoise Truffaut's book on Alfred Hitchcock, the British auteur essentially defined "suspense" by contrasting it with "surprise." His example was a bomb suddenly exploding (surprise) vs. the audience fully aware of a ticking bomb during an entire scene before the explosion (suspense). In Black Christmas, Clark uses Hitch's approach to suspense, by showing the audience the killer entering the sorority house almost as soon as the film begins. Throughout the movie, the viewers are repeatedly provided with the killer's POV. Not only does the audience now see the irony in the sisters locking the doors for safety, but it has an exceptionally good reason to be frightened.

Clark even takes the killer's POV one step further. He doesn't just visualize the killer's perspective, but literally has the camera become the eyes of the killer. The audience can even see the killer's hands while ascending toward the attic and pushing open the window. The majority of the stranger's transgressions are presented in this manner. This almost forces the audience to identify with the killer, but also makes viewers feel helpless, having no control over the actions. Four years after Black Christmas, John Carpenter incorporated a similar technique in Halloween, making it immensely popular in horror films.

Hussey is sensational in the lead role with a strong, mature performance, and Dullea is appropriately disturbing as Peter. Margot Kidder (pre-Lois Lane) is surprisingly charming as the rather obnoxious, bad-mouthed Barb, and Andrea Martin (who would become a member of the Canadian sketch comedy show, SCTV, two years later) is equally good as one of the sorority sisters, Phyl. John Saxon rounds out the cast as a local detective. Edmond O’Brien, who starred in a number of films, including D.O.A. (1950) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), was originally cast in the role that Saxon eventually played but had to drop out due to deteriorating health. He died the same year.

Black Christmas also played in theatres under the title, Silent Night, Evil Night, and was broadcast on television as Stranger in the House.

Glen Morgan and James Wong of The X-Files fame directed a remake in 2006. Interestingly, their version provided a back story for the killer in the attic. Clark’s characterization of the mysterious slasher (and ultimately his film) proved much creepier and more memorable, but Morgan and Wong still managed to churn out some frights with an enjoyable flick. Original cast member Martin appeared in the remake as the housemother.