Richard Todd Owns "The Hasty Heart"

As World War II comes to an end in Burma in 1945, Lachlan McLachlan (Richard Todd), a Scottish corporal, steps on a land mine. Amazingly, except for the loss of one kidney, his injuries appear to be superficial. The reality, though, is that McLachlan's other kidney is "defective" and that he will die from renal failure in a few weeks. Knowing that the Scotsman has no family nor close friends, the field hospital's commander decides not to tell McLachlan about his impending death. Instead, he places the young man in a ward so he can "be content" during his final days.

Patricia Neal and Richard Todd.

The ward's compassionate nurse, Sister Margaret (Patricia Neal), and the other five patients know the truth. They try to befriend McLachlan--whom they quickly nickname Lachie--but their attempts are rebuffed. The hot-headed, self-sufficient Lachie doesn't make friends freely by his own admission. His first act in the ward is to move his bed away from the other patients. He meets each attempt at civil conversation with a curt, guarded reply. Fortunately, Sister Margaret doesn't give up easily and she eventually finds a way to reach the stubborn Scotsman.

Based on John Patrick's 1945 stage play, The Hasty Heart is a heart-lifting tale rather than a sad one. Patrick wisely avoids a death scene and its aftermath because, after all, that's not the point of his drama. It's a story about love and friendship and knowing that, however briefly we may cherish one another, it's worthwhile to let them into one's heart. (The film's title is derived from a Scottish proverb that states: "Sorrow is born in the hasty heart.") The film's biggest challenge is its premise. The decision not to tell Lachie his fate is questionable at best. Doesn't a soldier deserve to know if he's dying and be given the choice to make his own decisions during what little time remains?

Director Vincent Sherman makes no attempt to hide the film's stage origins. Most of the scenes take place in the ward's tent or in the area around it. His focus is clearly on the script and the performances. Fortunately, the performers are up to the increased scrutiny.

Ronald Reagan and Todd.

Richard Todd gives a brilliant performance as the proud Scot who gradually opens up and then overflows with the joy of friendship and perhaps even love. Richard Basehart, one of my favorite actors, created the role on Broadway and I'm sure he was very good. Gordon Jackson (Hudson on Upstairs, Downstairs) was considered for the film and, again, I think he would have done it justice. But frankly, I can't imagine anyone being better than Richard Todd, who rightfully earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor (losing to Broderick Crawford in All the King's Men). It's hard to pick Todd's best scene as Lachie. While his marriage proposal is wonderfully awkward, my choice is probably the scene where the other patients celebrate his birthday--an event that the solitary Lachie has forgotten.

The rest of the cast gives effective supporting performances (though both Patricia Neal and Ronald Reagan are billed above Todd). However, it's clearly Todd's picture and your feelings toward the film will likely hinge on whether you embrace his portrayal of Lachie.

Patrick's play has been adapted several times for television. The most notable productions appeared in 1958 and 1983. The former version appeared on the Dupont Show of the Month starring Don Murray as Lachie and Barbara Bel Geddes as Sister Margaret. The 1983 made-for-television film featured Gregory Harrison and Cheryl Ladd in these roles. Perry King earned a Golden Globe nomination for the Ronald Reagan character.

The Friday Night Late Movie: Mario Bava Takes Hercules to Hell and Back

Most film buffs remember Mario Bava for his Italian horror films of the 1960s and 1970s--especially Black Sunday, his chilling black and white masterpiece about a vengeful witch. However, he spent much of his career photographing films for other directors. After completing a couple of movies without credit, he directed his first film, Black Sunday, in 1960...at the age of 46. Its immediate success resulted in a busy decade for Bava, starting with his next film Hercules in the Haunted World (1961).

Bava was not new to the sword-and-sandal genre. He was the cinematographer on producer Joseph E. Levine's worldwide smash Hercules (1958) starring Steve Reeves. He had also worked on the sequel, Hercules Unchained, and Jacques Tourneur's The Giant of Marathon (both of which featured Reeves). With his first solo Hercules film, Bava was saddled with a much smaller budget. In lieu of Reeves, the title role went to British bodybuilder Reg Park, who also played the muscular Greek hero in the same year's Hercules and the Captive Women. Bava hit the jackpot, though, when Christopher Lee signed on to play the villainous Lico.

Deianira doesn't remember Hercules.

The film opens with Hercules returning from a quest to learn that his beloved princess, Deianira, has lost her memory. It can only be restored with the Stone of Forgetfulness--and that's bad news because said stone is located in Hades. Undaunted, Hercules, his skirt-chasing friend Thesus, and the buffoon Telemachus head to an island of darkness to retrieve a golden apple that will open the gates of Hades. Fire-dripping trees initially prevent Herc from getting the apple, but he uses a giant stone to break off one of the branches, get the apple, and make his way to Hades with Thesus. (Telemachus is left to guard the apple, which frankly worried me at the time.)

Surprisingly, Hercules has few difficulties navigating his way through Hades to retrieve the Stone of Forgetfulness (which is actually a crystal). He does appear to lose Thesus along the way when his friend falls into a sea of lava. However, Thesus is rescued by the lovely Persephone--with whom he falls instantly in love. She and Thesus rejoin Herc and Telemachus (who did a fine job guarding the apple after all!) and the four return to save Deianira. Alas, their troubles have just begun. The evil Lico (Lee) wants to sacrifice Deianira and an angry Pluto wants to get back Persephone, who turns out to be his favorite daughter.

One of Bava's night scenes; he was also cinematographer.

While the plot is serviceable, style trumps substance in Hercules in the Haunted World. Bava's nighttime landscapes are bathed in blue and purple with dark drifting leaves, spider webs, and whistling winds. When Hercules sails to the island of the golden apple, a red sky is swallowed up by black as he approaches the land of darkness. Bava "paints" Hades in vibrant shades of orange, red, blue, and green. The viewer can only agree when Thesus observes: "I didn't think Hades would be anything like this." However, the visual highlight in Hercules in the Haunted World occurs when Herc--trying to save Deianira from Lico--battles a horde of flying gray corpses against a dark blue nightscape.

It's difficult to fully assess the qualities of Bava's film. The print I saw was eight minutes shorter than the running time listed in some sources. The cast is mostly dubbed, even Christopher Lee in at least one version. And many prints, including the one I saw, cropped the widescreen image into a TV-friendly ratio. Fortunately for Bava purists, there is at least one DVD containing digitally remastered widescreen versions of both the Italian and English-language releases.

Incidentally, while Reg Park never became a film star, he gained much fame in the world of bodybuilding. He won three Mr. Universe titles, once as an amateur and twice as a pro. In the biography Arnold Schwarzenegger by Colleen A. Sexton, Arnold is quoted as saying: "That's what I wanted to be, ultimately: big. Reg Park was the epitome of that dream, the biggest, most powerful person in bodybuilding."

Sapphire & Steel

"Cult classic" is one of those film and television terms applied too frequently and too easily. I use it sparingly and, in regard to British science fiction television, the only shows I've labelled as cult classics are Doctor Who, Blake's 7, and UFO. After recently watching Sapphire & Steel for the first time, I feel compelled to add it to that prestigious group. Original, perplexing, and disturbing--it's difficult to describe this often-fascinating 1979-82 series about time traveling agents played by Joanna Lumley (Sapphire) and David McCallum (Steel).

In the opening credits, a booming voice proclaims that "all irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension." And since "transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life," medium atomic weights must be used--such as sapphire and steel. I found that explanation more than a little perplexing since I didn't even know the definition of  "transuranic" (it describes elements with an atomic weight higher than 92).

Joanna Lumley as Sapphire.

That said, it's easy enough to pick up the premise: An undefined higher intelligence sends agents like Sapphire and Steel to repair irregularities in time. As Steel explains it, time is a "corridor of fabric" and there are creatures moving along that corridor trying to find a hole in the fabric. Series creator P.J. Hammond originally intended to call the series The Time Menders, which sums up the concept nicely.

Steel wearing a tux.

The title characters share some obvious similarities with John Steed and Emma Peel from The Avengers. That's all the more interesting because Joanna Lumley co-starred as Purdey opposite Patrick Macnee in The New Avengers in 1977-78. Like Steed, Steel appears to be the senior partner and often tells Sapphire what to do. He dresses formally (even wearing a tuxedo in Assignment #2) and, of course, his name differs from "Steed" by just one letter. As in The Avengers, the nature of the personal relationship between the two characters is vague. Sapphire and Steel seem concerned about each other's well being and even share a kiss on the cheek, but--like most things in Sapphire & Steel--the audience has to draw its own conclusions.

Sapphire's eyes glow blue when she
uses some of her powers.

Both agents have powers that are revealed during the course of the series. They can communicate with each other telepathically. Sapphire has the ability to turn back time for a short duration. She can also conduct a "spot analysis" on a person through touch (among the data collected is an individual's life span). Unlike Steel, she knows the history of human civilization. Sapphire interacts well with humans. In contrast, Steel is cold--both literally and figuratively. He can lower his body temperature to absolute zero and destroy ghosts. However, he often shows little compassion toward humans, even the ones he is trying to help. And in one assignment, he makes a "deal" with an evil entity, in which he sentences an innocent human to a hellish future.

The always-smiling Lead.

As the series progresses, we learn there are 125 "operators" in addition to Sapphire and Steel, although the twelve transuranic elements cannot be assigned where there is life (but you knew that from the opening, right?). Although we hear about Copper and Jet, the only other operator to appear on Sapphire & Steel is Lead (Val Pringle), a big jovial black man who can create force fields. Silver (David Collings), who can melt metals with his hands, also appears in several episodes. Although Silver is listed with other operators in the opening credits, his status is defined as a "specialist" in Assignment #6, which appears to be a lower level than operator.

Sapphire & Steel originally aired 25-minute episodes twice weekly on Britain's ITV network. During the series' run, the two agents completed six assignments, each ranging from four to eight episodes for a total of 34 half-hours. The episodes are often slowly paced, which works both to the show's advantage and disadvantage. There's an almost deliberate rhythm to some of them, which allows the atmosphere to build effectively. However, other episodes seem to drag, often containing little exposition to advance the plot.

Assignment #2's atmospheric shadows.

Saddled with a small budget, the show was typically filmed on a stage representing a single setting (e.g., an isolated coastal house for Assignment #1, an abandoned train station for Assignment #2). In lieu of expensive special effects, the show's directors skilfully employed atmospheric lighting and imaginative camerawork to maintain a permeating sense of dread. In Assignment #2, the episode's "creeping darkness" is created solely with lighting effects that make it look like a wave of black has swallowed up everything in a room. Although there is minimal background music, songs and rhymes are used extensively in some of the assignments. In Assignment #1, old nursery rhymes are the "trigger" that allow a creature to invade a 250-year-old house.

Since its demise in 1982, Sapphire & Steel has resurfaced in novelizations and in a 2004 radio drama series starring David Warner and Susannah Harker. Both Lumley and McCallum went on to greater successes; she found stardom as the flamboyant Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous, while McCallum became audience favorite Ducky Mallard on the hit U.S. series NCIS. Sapphire & Steel creator P.J. Hammond has written scripts for numerous TV shows, including the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.

Sapphire & Steel: The Complete Series is available from the Shout! Factory, which provided a review copy to the Cafe.

James Garner Faces a Fake Future in "36 Hours"

James Garner as Major Pike.

On the eve of the Normandy invasion, American intelligence officer Major Jefferson Pike gets thunked on the head during a clandestine rendezvous with a spy. He awakes in an Allied military hospital five years later. When Pike (James Garner) reveals that he can't remember the last five years, his doctor (Rod Taylor) explains that Pike has suffered sporadic bouts of amnesia due to trauma. Trying to recapture his lost memories, Pike learns that the Allies won the war, Harry Wallace is president, and he's married to his nurse Anna (Eva Marie Saint).

Rod Taylor as Gerber.

What Pike doesn't know--that the audience does--is that it's still 1944 and he's the victim of an elaborate German scheme to get him to reveal the Allies' invasion plans. German psychiatrist Major Gerber, the mastermind behind the deception, seems to have thought of every detail. His team has added gray to Pike's hair, rehearsed the "performers" who will interact with the American, and even created a fake 1949 newspaper. Yet, for all his cleverness, Gerber has his own problems: If he fails to learn of the plans from Pike in 36 hours, the SS will take over, resort to torture to gain the information, and likely execute Gerber. As an SS agent confides to Gerber: "You have staked more than your reputation on it. Much more."

Though inspired by a Roald Dahl short story called Beware of the Dog, the plot to 36 Hours (1965) no doubt sounds familiar to fans of Bruce Geller's Mission: Impossible TV series (I've often wondered if it served as Geller's inspiration). And, as with that TV show, part of the fun is waiting for Pike to discover a flaw in the deception--if indeed there is one. The ticking clock, another device often used in Mission: Impossible, adds a further element of suspense.

Yet, as with the best suspense films (think Hitchcock), it's the well-developed characters that cause the audience to fully invest in the proceedings. Gerber, who was raised in America, is a psychiatrist interested in the results of his "experiment" only in a scientific way. He doesn't care about the intelligence information; he simply wants to test his research on his most complex human subject to date. His ultimate goal is a surprisingly admirable one: To use his "therapy" to help soldiers recover from psychological trauma.

Eva Marie Saint and Garner.

Likewise, Otto Schack (an excellent Werner Peters), the SS agent, sees Gerber's experiment as a means to an end. He wants to harvest the invasion information from Pike's mind, but his principal interest is furthering his career. He scoffs at Gerber's methods initially. However, when they begin to show results, he quickly takes credit for their success--even as he reminds Gerber that any blame for failure will still reside with the psychiatrist.

Finally, there's Anna Hedler, who poses as Pike's nurse and wife even though she hates herself for participating in the deception. Her motive is simple: survival. After years of abuse in concentration camps, she admits that she's willing to do anything to escape the horrors of her existence. Yet, unlike Gerber and Schack, she has a moral compass and sees Pike as a fellow victim.

The misleading poster has a 007 look.

An excellent cast brings all these characters to life and James Garner holds his own as the disoriented Pike who senses that something isn't right. The standout, though, is Eva Marie Saint, who gives one of her best performances as Anna. In one scene, she sways the audience from accepting Anna an accomplice to viewing her as a victim. When a frustrated Pike demands: "Can't you cry?", she responds flatly: "I've used up all my tears."

Yet, if it's the strong performances that make 36 Hours an exceptional suspense film, it's the ingenious plot that makes it memorable. I'm surprised it's not a better known film, though an uptick in recent television viewings may raise its profile among classic movie fans. Interestingly, William Castle's 1968 science fiction flick Project X borrowed the premise of using a recreated environment to gain access to repressed memories. I'm sure it's nowhere nearly as good as 36 Hours, but having not seen it for 50 years, I'd love to watch it again.

This review is part of the MGM Blogathon hosted by Silver Scenes. Click here to view all the great blogathon entries.

Classic Movies About Circuses

The allure of the big top setting has long since faded, but for four decades starting in the 1930s, it was an ideal place to find high-wire dramatics, ferocious beasts, incognito killers, and perhaps a troupe of vampires. Laughs, too, as evidenced by the number of comedies set against a circus backdrop. W.C. Fields played a ringmaster in You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939), the Marx Brothers saved one from bankruptcy in At the Circus (1939), and even Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis got into the act with Three Ring Circus (1954).

James Stewart in clown make-up.

Movie murderers have also exhibited a special fondness for circuses, as evidenced in Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936), Circus of Horrors (1960), Psycho Circus (1967), Berserk (1968), and the vengeance-minded bloodsuckers in Vampire Circus (1971). On a more dramatic level, James Stewart played a murder suspect hiding out as a mild-mannered clown in Cecil DeMille’s 1952 extravaganza The Greatest Show on Earth. This multi-character melodrama garnered a Best Picture Oscar and tallied record box office figures for Paramount. The film’s successful behind-the-scenes formula was more or less copied in Trapeze (1956), The Big Circus (1959), The Big Show (1961), and Circus World (1964).

The life of the world’s greatest circus showman was chronicled in 1934’s The Mighty Barnum and 1986’s Barnum, with Wallace Beery and Burt Lancaster in the title roles, respectively.

Serious European directors have used the circus for symbolic purposes, as in Ingmar Bergman’s Sawdust and Tinsel (1953), Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954), and Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987).

Doris Day and friend in Billy Rose's Jumbo.

Four Disney pictures have taken place at least partially under the big top:  Dumbo (1941), Toby Tyler (1960), A Tiger Walks (1964), and The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964). Lady in the Dark (1944) had a musical dream sequence set in a circus, while Rodgers and Hart’s Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962) revolved around a circus owned by Doris Day. The circus in 1961’s Gorgo featured a dinosaur as its main attraction. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a baby with a mad mother in hot pursuit.

The following representative list of classic movies about circuses excludes those films set in fairs and carnivals:

He Who Gets Slapped (1924)

The Circus (1928)

Dangerous Curves (1929)

Freaks (aka Nature’s Mistakes) (1932)

Rain or Shine (1930)

Polly of the Circus (1932)

The Big Cage (1933)

The Mighty Barnum (1934)

Circus Clown (1934)

Charlie Chan at the Circus (1936)

At the Circus (1939)

You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939)

Chad Hanna (1940)

Dumbo (1941)

Road Show (1941)

Sunny (1941)

The Wagons Roll at Night (1941)

The Dark Tower (1943)

Lady in the Dark (1944)  (dream sequence)

Dual Alibi (1947)

Caged Fury (1948)

The Fat Man (1951)

Encore (1952)  (segment)

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

Sawdust and Tinsel (aka The Naked Night) (1953)

Man on a Tightrope (1953)

Three Ring Circus (aka Jerrico, the Wonder Clown) (1954)

La Strada (aka The Road) (1954)

Carnival Story (1954)

Ring of Fear (1954)

Trapeze (1956)

Invitation to the Dance (1957) (segment)

Merry Andrew (1958)

The Big Circus (1959)

The Flying Fontaines (1959)

Circus of Horrors (1960)

Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With a Circus (1960)

The Big Show (1961)

Gorgo (1961)

Hippodrome (1961)

Bimbo the Great (1961)

Billy Rose’s Jumbo (aka Jumbo) (1962)

The Main Attraction (1962)

Circus World (aka The Magnificent Showman) (1964)

A Tiger Walks (1964)

The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)

Rings Around the World (1967)

Psycho Circus (aka Circus of Fear) (1967)

Berserk  (1968)

Vampire Circus (1971)

The Clowns (1971)

Parade (1974)

Punch and Jody (1974 TVM)

The Last Circus Show (aka The Balloon Vendor) (1974)

The Great Wallendas (1978 TVM)

When the Circus Comes to Town (1981 TVM)

Side Show (1981 TVM)

Octopussy (1983)

Barnum (1986 TVM)

Wings of Desire (aka Der Himmel über Berlin) (1987)

Big Top Pee Wee (1988)

Shadows and Fog (1992)

Freaked (1993)

When Night Is Falling (1995)

Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book:  Mowgli and Baloo (aka Jungle Book Two) (1997)

P.T. Barnum (1999 TVM)

Reprinted with the authors' permission from the Encyclopedia of Film Themes, Settings and Series.

Seven Things to Know About Errol Flynn

1. According to Errol's autobiography My Wicked, Wicked Ways, he once worked on a ranch where he castrated sheep--with his teeth.

2. It has been rumored that Errol was a descendant of Fletcher Christian of Mutiny of the Bounty fame. Errol played Christian in his film debut in the low-budget In the Wake of the Bounty. Actually, he was not related to Fletcher Christian, but his mother was an ancestor of Midshipman Young, who was Christian's chief aide.

Flynn's character was also shown "alive"
in a flashback.

3. Flynn played a corpse in The Case of the Curious Bride, a 1935 Perry Mason B-movie starring Warren William as the crime-solving attorney. The film was the first teaming of Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz--they made Captain Blood that same year. As for portraying a dead body, Flynn once wrote: "Some people claim it was my best role."

4. In 1953, he tried to produce and star in The Story of William Tell, to be directed by famed cinematographer Jack Cardiff. However, Flynn's Italian backers ran into financial difficulties and the production folded after several weeks. Supposedly, there is 15-30 minutes of finished footage...somewhere. You can read more about Errol's unfinished film by clicking here.

5. Some people claim his bestselling autobiography was penned by a ghost writer. I don't believe it. Earlier in his career, he wrote the autobiographical Beam Ends (about a voyage from Australia to New Guinea) and a novel called Showdown. He also wrote the screenplay to The Adventures of Captain Fabian (though I don't recall the resulting film being very good).

6. Errol met his second wife, Nora Eddington, during his infamous trial for statutory rape. The nineteen-year-old Eddington worked behind the cigar counter at the courthouse where the trial took place.

7. Errol Flynn as a musical star? He sang "Lily of Laguna" in Let's Make Up (aka Lilacs in the Spring), a 1954 British musical starring Anna Neagle. He also sang "That's What You Jolly Well Get" in the Warner Bros. all-star, Hollywood Canteen fund-raiser Thank Your Lucky Stars (see photo on right).

Classic Movies About Boarding Schools

Boarding schools have provided atmospheric settings for a wide variety of films‑sentimental tales of dedicated teachers, satanic thrillers, mischievous comedies, and student revolutions. Jean Vigo’s 1933 surrealistic classic Zero for Conduct blended revolution with comedy in the story of mistreated students who rebel against a regimented boarding school run by a midget principal. British director Lindsay Anderson expanded on the same premise in his 1968 film If..., in which defiant Malcolm McDowell and fellow students gun down the school’s faculty on Speech Day (or is this massacre merely imagined by McDowell’s character?). The girls known as The Belles of St. Trinian’s (1951) were rebellious too, but never mounted a revolt since they pretty much ran the school anyway.

Convent and church-run schools have been especially prone to attracting mischief-making students, as evidenced by The Trouble With Angels with Hayley Mills and Goodbye, Children. Dedicated teachers molded mischievous youths into mature students of life in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 and 1969) and Dead Poets Society. In contrast, schoolmaster David Hemming’s students threatened to murder him‑-like they did his predecessor‑in Unman, Wittering and Zigo. Clint Eastwood found himself in a worse situation as a virile male hiding out in a girls’ school populated by lonely, jealous females in The Beguiled.

Pamela Franklin (shown at right) entered a girl’s boarding school to investigate her sister’s suicide in the 1973 TV-movie Satan’s School for Girls.  Despite its title, it turned out to be a nicer place than the demonic school run by a witches coven in Dario Argento’s stylish Suspiria.

Many films such as Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist have been partially set in boarding schools. Below is a representative list of pre-1990 movies set in boarding schools.

Maedchun in Uniform (1931)

Zero for Conduct (aka Zero de Conduite) (1933)

Girls’ Dormitory (1936)

Housemaster (1938)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Tom Brown’s School Days (aka Adventures at Rugby) (1940)

The Happy Years (1950)

The Browning Version (1951)

Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951)

Her Twelve Men (1954)

The Belles of St. Trinians (1954)

Les Diaboliques (aka Diabolique; The Fiends) (1955)

Tea and Sympathy (1956)

The Ladies’ Man (1961)

13 Frightened Girls (1963)

The Trouble With Angels (1966)

If... (1968)

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)

The House That Screamed (aka The Boarding School) (1969)

Walk a Crooked Path (1969)

The Beguiled (1971)

Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971)

Child’s Play (1972)

Satan’s School for Girls (1973 TVM)

Our Time (aka Death of Her Innocence) (1974)

Suspiria (1976)

Boarding School (aka The Passion Flower Hotel) (1977)

Deadly Lessons (1983 TVM)

Goodbye, Children (aka Au Revoir, Les Enfants) (1988)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Reprinted with the authors' permission from the Encyclopedia of Film Themes, Settings and Series.

We Describe the Movie...You Name It!

This is our 6th edition of our most popular quiz. The rules are easy: Name each film below based on our vague description. Be sure to include the question number with your response. Please don't answer all the questions so others can play, too. There is one film that is the single best answer to each description.

1. An ambitious young man finds love with the woman of his dreams. Too bad his ex-girlfriend is pregnant.

2. A man wins a valuable prize--that's promptly stolen by his no-good brother.

3. Some Earthlings apparently descended from grasshopper-like aliens.

4. A man gets called a "kitty cat." As if that's not bad enough, he gets his nose cut.

5. A submarine fends off an attack from a giant octopus. Repeat: giant octopus.

6. Man cheats to win toy train race by buttering his competitor's tracks.

7. People from the future send a cyborg back in time to change the future. By the way, this movie was made in the 1960s!

8. Poison is placed in the wrong kind of drinking vessel. Hilarity ensues.

9. Amnesiac names himself after an airplane and a beverage.

10. In the opening scene, a man arrives at a country house he knows from a dream. In the closing scene, a man arrives at a country house he knows from a dream.

11. He becomes a track star for her. She become a biker chick for him. It's a rock'n'roll version of "The Gift of the Magi."

12. His companions are aghast when they learn he designs toy airplanes. That's right, toy airplanes!

13. Like in a Mission: Impossible episode, a captured intelligence officer during World War II is led to believe he has recovered from amnesia and the war is over.

14. The scheme is not to steal the gold, but to make it radioactive.

15. Man meets woman of his dreams at a traveling carnival. They fall in love...and become criminals.

NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies

In regard to showing theatrical films, the television landscape has changed mightily over the last 50 years. Back in 1960, there was no streaming video, no DVRs, and no DVDs. Either you saw a theatrical film when it was released, caught it at a revival house, or waited for years for it to pop up on your local TV station. Indeed, most stations were still showing vintage films from the 1930s and 1940s. That changed when NBC ushered in Saturday Night at the Movies on September 23, 1961.

NBC's concept was to broadcast a "world television premiere" of a major motion picture each week. It focused on "recent" post-1950 films, many of which were in color (which was still a big deal since most programming was in black and white). NBC wasn't the first network to launch a movie series, but it was the one that worked. Its debut offering, 1953's How to Marry a Millionaire, garnered strong ratings and Saturday Night at the Movies became a staple on NBC's schedule for the next 16 years. That first year featured The Day the Earth Stood Still, Garden of Evil, People Will Talk, The Black Rose, It Happens Every Spring, and 25 other motion pictures.

The films ran in a two-hour time slot from 9:00 to 11:00, though occasionally longer films (e.g., There's No Business Like Show Business) shifted the local news by fifteen to thirty minutes. If a movie ended early, then NBC would often show a "making of" featurette about an upcoming movie to fill out the time slot.

There was no letter-boxing back then, so wide-screen films were adapted for the smaller television screen ratio using a technique called "pan and scan." Thus, if there were two people talking on opposite sides of the screen, only one of them would be shown when the movie appeared on television. Sometimes, creative framing caused insurmountable problems. I once watched a pan-and-scan version of American Graffiti in which it looked like two noses were having a conversation.

The network also edited movies for time and objectionable content.The latter was not a major concern with the films of the 1950s, but became more prevalent as movies expanded the boundaries of censorship. Sometimes, it was just easier not to show a "racy movie" like Otto Preminger's The Moon Is Blue--which didn't premiere on network TV until 1973--twenty years after its theatrical release.

Kiss of the Vampire before re-editing.

However, some films were so heavily edited that new footage had to be shot to fill out the running time. One example was the excellent 1963 Hammer film Kiss of the Vampire. The film's plot was altered extensively through editing and additional scenes were filmed with other actors. Fortunately, the altered film was retitled Kiss of Evil--which has helped horror film enthusiasts distinguish it from the original Kiss of the Vampire.

The success of Saturday Night at the Movies prompted CBS and ABC to add movie nights. That scheduling tactic became so popular that, during the 1968-69 season, a network movie aired in prime time on each day of the week: NBC showed movies on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday; ABC did on Sunday and Wednesday; and CBS did on Thursday and Friday.

Clu Gulager and Lee Marvin as The Killers.

The increase in movie nights, the desire to show current films, and rising costs led to the development of made-for-TV movies. These inexpensive films didn't feature big screen stars and frequently doubled as pilots for new TV series (which saved additional money!). The 1964 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Killers, starring Lee Marvin and Ronald Reagan, was made for Saturday Night at the Movies. However, NBC determined that it was too violent and so The Killers was released theatrically. Therefore, most TV historians consider See How They Run to be the first made-for-TV movie. It starred John Forsyte and Senta Berger in a tale about killers pursuing three orphans who unknowingly possess valuable evidence against a cartel.

By the mid-1970s, spurred by the popularity of ABC's Movie of the Week, telefilms began to outnumber theatrical films shown on network TV. A decade later, cable channels and videotape distributors overtook the television networks as the first option for a post-theatrical movie release. The network's familiar "world premiere" claim was modified to "broadcast television premiere." It was the beginning of the end, although the networks still had sporadic successes. When NBC showed Gone With the Wind in 1976, it became the most-watched broadcast in U.S. television history at that time.

Gene Autry is Back in the Saddle Again

Classic TV Western fans can rejoice that Timeless Media has released all five seasons of The Gene Autry Show in a deluxe boxed set. A shrewd businessman, Autry saw the potential of television in 1950 and launched his TV series while still making his popular "B" Westerns for theatrical release. The half-hour series ran on CBS from 1950-1955. Its popularity led Autry's Flying A Pictures to produce other TV series, such as The Adventures of Champion, Annie Oakley, and Buffalo Bill, Jr.

The Gene Autry Show follows the same formula as his big screen Westerns. Gene sings a song or two, sometimes accompanying himself on guitar. He and his bumbling, but likable, sidekick Pat (Pat Buttram) work to maintain law and order--whether it's investigating gold shipment robberies ("The Doodle Bug"), helping out a pair of orphans ("Danger! Warning"), or investigating a murder ("The Sharpshooter").

Pat Buttram as Gene's sidekick.

Gene and Pat don't always play the same characters. For example, Gene might portray a ranch hand or a marshal. In most episodes, he and Pat play partners; in other episodes, though, their characters don't know each other. Likewise, some episodes features a contemporary setting (e.g. the sheriff drives a car in "Head for Texas") and others are set in the Old West. (By the way, if Pat Buttram's voice sounds familiar, then you probably remember him--less the beard--as Mr. Haney on Green Acres.)

Gene serenading Champion.

The other regular cast member in The Gene Autry Show is Champion the "Wonder Horse." Autry rode three horses named Champion throughout his film and television career (there were also "special" Champions used in live appearances). The original Champion made his film debut in 1935 in the film Melody Trail. Autry's second horse, typically known as Champion Jr., appeared in Gene's films from 1940-50. Finally, a third Champion (sometimes referred to as "Television Champion") joined the cowboy star for The Gene Autry Show. A handsome sorrel-colored horse with a whitish mane and tail, he later starred in The Adventures of Champion. Occasionally, the TV series also featured the equine guest star, Little Champ, who was actually a trick pony.

From a technical standpoint, the 91 episodes in The Gene Autry Show boxed set look impressive. The prints, restored from Autry's personal archives, are devoid of the numerous scratches and excessive fading found in most 1950s TV series. As with many older black and white films, the dark shades lose a little definition. The set includes the two color episodes from the first season--"The Raiders" and "Double Barreled Vengeance"--that were produced as part of a CBS experiment with color television. Additionally, all 13 episodes in the shorter final season appear in color.

Young Lee Van Cleef as a baddie.

There are numerous bonus features on the discs, ranging from Gene Autry film trailers to photos from Autry's 1953 British tour to a Melody Ranch radio show. And, while the casual TV fan won't spot a lot of familiar guest stars, there are still appearances from Chill Wills, Alan Hale Jr., Lee Van Cleef, and even Clayton Moore (though not as The Lone Ranger). Best of all, there's a bonus disc featuring two episodes each of other Flying A Pictures' TV shows: The Range Rider, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Jr., and--of course--The Adventures of Champion. As stated in a disclaimer at the start of this disc, the quality of these prints is variable. For example, Annie Oakley looks near-pristine, while The Adventures of Champion is visually washed out.

Gene Autry fans--who have been waiting for the definitive, complete TV series boxed set--will no doubt treasure this collection. Now, if someone would just produce a similar boxed set of The Roy Rogers Show (1951-57), then Western fans could cherish the complete small-screen exploits of the two cowboys who--along with The Lone Ranger--pioneered the genre on television.

You can more learn about Gene Autry by visiting the excellent web site GeneAutry.com. Timeless Media provided the Cafe with a review copy of The Gene Autry Show boxed set.

1949--The Year in Film

In 1949, NATO was established, a postage stamp costs three cents, the first Emmy Awards were handed out, George Orwell's 1984 was published, and the first 45 RPM record was sold in the U.S. But as Harry Truman started  his second term as President, what was happening in the motion picture industry in 1949? Here are some highlights:

1. The Best Picture was All the King's Men, with Broderick Crawford winning Best Actor for his performance as Willie Stark. Olivia de Havilland won Best Actress for The Heiress.

2. The top-grossing film at the box office was Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah. It made $11,500,000, which would equate to $122,872,000 in 2013. That's a big moneymaker by today's standards, but don't forget that the U.S. population was a lot smaller in 1949 and there were less movie theaters, too. That makes Mr. DeMille's feat all the more impressive.

3. The top box office attractions were: Bob Hope; Bing Crosby; and Abbott & Costello. Incidentally, Bob and Bing weren't in a Road movie in 1949 (their last one had been 1947's Road to Rio).

4. After supporting roles in The Egg and I (1947), Ma and Pa Kettle got their own movie--appropriately-titled Ma and Pa Kettle. It was the first of a nine-film series with a new installment appearing every year through 1957. Majorie Main played Ma in all of them and Percy Kilbride co-starred in the first seven. He retired from acting after suffering an injury in an automobile accident.

5. Future stars that were born in 1949 include Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Bridges, Pam Grier, and Sissy Spacek. Film greats who passed away that year included Frank Morgan, Victor Fleming, and Wallace Beery.

Paul Robeson.

6. At the Paris Peace Conference, actor-singer Paul Robeson gave a speech in which he allegedly said that it was "unthinkable" for blacks to fight in a potential war against the Soviet Union. According to a 2011 article in the Smithsonian Magazine, an inaccurate transcript was released by the Associated Press and "historians would later discover that Robeson had been misquoted, but the damage had been almost instantly done." The House Un-American Activities Committee subpenoed baseball player Jackie Robinson, who testified that Robeson's comments, "if accurately reported, were silly."

7. Television became more prevalent, grew in popularity, and started to pose a threat to the film industry. The Sears & Roebuck catalog included television sets for the first time. RCA made great strides toward development of color TV (its color TV technology would become the U.S. industry standard in 1953). The Lone Ranger TV series made its debut on ABC and went on to become the fledgling network's first legitimate hit.

Alec Guinness in one of his eight
roles in Kind Hearts and Coronets.

8. Britain's Ealing Studios--which became known for its low-key, quirky comedies--released three classics:  Whiskey Galore (aka Tight Little Island); Passport to Pimlico; and Kind Hearts and Coronets.

9. Vittorio De Sica's Italian neo-realism masterpiece, The Bicycle Thief, was released in the U.S. and given an honorary Oscar. By 1952, it was voted the greatest film ever made in Sight & Sound magazine's first poll among film professionals.

10. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in their last film together: The Barkleys of Broadway.

CMBA Blogathon: The People That Inspired My Love of Classic Films

Have you ever asked a classic film fan how they became an admirer of classic cinema? Many of them can't provide a definitive answer--like so many things in life, their love of classic films just evolved over time. For others, though, the answer might be one life-altering film experience. Or, it could be a silver screen star that ignited their passion for classic movies. For me, it was all about my family and friends.

If there was such a thing as a gene for classic film fans, I would have inherited it from my parents. Mom and Dad grew up in a small West Virginia town during the Great Depression. There was no local cinema, so movies were a rare experience (in fact, I don't remember my mother ever mentioning watching a movie in her youth). Somewhere along the way, my father became a fan of Lon Chaney, Sr. and Jean Harlow. He used to regale me with plots of his favorite movies (like an occasional bedtime story). One plot I remember vividly had Chaney as a fugitive who straps his arms to his side and poses as an armless knife-thrower in a circus. Dad couldn't remember the name of the movie, but, boy, did I never forget that plot! (Years later, I learned the movie was The Unknown, directed by Tod Browning.)

As a young man, prior to the outbreak of World War II, Dad worked briefly as an usher in a Loews Theater in Detroit. That was pretty much our family's experience in the entertainment industry until the 1970s. Then, the U.S. entered World War II and my parents' lives changed forever. By the time I was born in the late 1950s, local television stations were showing movies from the 1930s and 1940s. A few years later, NBC ushered in network-broadcasted films with its Saturday Night at the Movies.

My parents had their favorite performers, but none were held in higher esteem than Errol Flynn and Bing Crosby. Whenever one of their movies was on television, it was a special family event. In the days prior to cable, we would frequently fidget with the rooftop antenna trying to pick up a faraway station showing Errol in The Adventures of Robin Hood or Bing in The Bells of St. Mary's. There were others favorites, too, such as Marilyn Monroe, Ronald Colman, and (perhaps more for Mom) Paul Newman.

My siblings, both older than me, also helped shape my love of classic cinema. When he was in college, my brother sent me a copy of Leonard Maltin's TV Movies (it has undergone a number of title changes since the '60s). I wore that book out, perusing capsule reviews of movies I'd seen and noting ones I wanted to see.

My sister and I gradually convinced our parents to let us stay up late on the weekend to watch movies. Shock Theater was a Saturday night staple in our house and that's where I first saw the Universal horror classics as well as early Hammer films, George Pal's War of the Worlds, and other science fiction and horror flicks. When my sister got her driver's license, the two of us often spent Saturday afternoon at a local cinema. (If required for R-rated films, she'd be my "adult guardian"). When she was older, she spent two summers working in a movie theater, which meant I got to watch movies for free! Most of my favorite 1970s films (e.g., The Day of the Jackal, The Andromeda Strain) were ones I saw with my sister.

College expanded my classic film horizons by exposing me to foreign-language cinema and more silent-era films. I took courses in early-sound movies, horror and science fiction films, Fritz Lang, Jean Renoir, the French cinema, and, yes, one called "Sex in the Cinema." Although I had some wonderful professors, I also benefited from friends, who not only attended the movies with me but also enrolled in the courses. One young woman in my American Film Culture class became my future wife! (We had actually met briefly as juniors, but love blossomed during our senior year.) Her film essay for that class was on Laura--it's a marvelous piece that I should post on the Cafe one of these days. I have seen more films with my wife than with anyone else and it's amazing how often we agree on whether we liked a movie.

I could pretty much take you on a journey of my life and describe all the various people who have shaped my love of classic films. In some cases, I may have "converted" them into classic movie buffs. In other instances, they may have changed my perceptions of filmmakers and performers. (For example, I always liked Deborah Kerr, but became a huge fan after we had a "Deborah Kerr Film Festival" when one of my nephews visited).

No, there's not one film that sparked my interest in classic movies. Instead, there are dozens of people who have kept my passion for classic cinema alive with their love of Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Alfred Hitchcock, Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney, Paul Newman, Hammer Films, Jean Renoir, Hayley Mills, David Niven, Bruce Lee, Powell & Pressberger, Vincent Price, Akira Kurosawa, Bing Crosby, 007, Laurence Olivier, Walt Disney, and many, many others.


This post of part of the Classic Movie Blog Association's Film Passion 101 Blogathon. Click here for the full blogathon schedule and for links to other members' posts.