Titanic, 1953

Fanscination with The Titanic rolls ever onward - in its centenary year. We will soon have a new 4-part series written by Lord Julian Fellows (DOWNTON ABBEY), and of course whatever one thinks of James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster, the second half after the iceberg hits is stunningly well done as one really feels the ocean invading and sinking the ship ... so it was interesting to catch Jean Negulesco's 1953 version. Winner of three Academy Awards, the 1953 TITANIC holds up well, even on a much smaller budget - as does the 1958 A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, with Kenneth More, perhaps the best all-round version of events without silly stories at the forefront.

Fascination with the fate of the huge and opulent liner is as strong as ever, especially since improved technology has led to more breathtaking visits to the ship's resting spot on the floor of the Atlantic where state-of-the-art robots with cameras explore the crumbling interiors of the still eerily majestic but rapidly decaying wreck.



20th Century's contribution to the story hold the interest with Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck heading the cast as an ill-matched couple; she is in fact leaving him and returning to America with their children as he joins the ship at the last minute to reason with her. Webb and Stanwyck bring their expertise to this soap opera story and it remains very affecting. Add in young Robert Wagner, more like a 50s teenager than a 1912 one, and Thelma Ritter as the famous Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Brian Aherne as the captain and the stage is set for some dramatics. Negulesco keeps it going nicely and it has that early 50s 20th Century Fox look in spades.

The tempestuous exchanges between Webb and Stanwyck are strongly and believably acted, and then we have the sinking of the vessel - not as graphically done as in the later versions, but suitably stiff upper lip to the end. Interesting to compare these versions this anniversary year, we shall be hearing more about them.

"The Throb of Manhattan"

ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, 1955, may well be my very favourite musical (after A STAR IS BORN and THE BANDWAGON of course) - it and those sophisticated musicals from 1957 [LES GIRLS, FUNNY FACE, SILK STOCKINGS, THE PYJAMA GAME, bits of PAL JOEY] are my perennial favourites, ever since I saw them as a child at Sunday afternoon matinees - BRIGADOON was another but it it not quite in that league, but I prefer them to the over-hyped SINGING IN THE RAIN or AN AMERICAN IN PARIS both of which show Kelly at his most grating (of course, as per Musicals label, I also love ON THE TOWN, MY SISTER EILEEN, KISS ME KATE, SWINGTIME, GYPSY, LES DEMOISELLES DE ROCHEFORT among others...)

Good to see that ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER is being revived by the London National Film Theatre in their season on MGM musicals - it cries out to be seen on widescreen, using as it does, multiple images when our 3 wartime buddies reflect on their lives now. It seems to have been a troubled shoot, co-directors Kelly and Stanley Donen fell out, Kelly and Charisse don't have any number together, she has one marvellous dance number "Baby You Knock Me Out" at the gym (where, as Pauline Kael put it, "Cyd Charisse is benumbed until she unhinges those legs") wearing that terrific Helen Rose ensemble, and Gene has the very inventive roller-skate number and of course when the 3 guys dance with the dustbin lids, so it is all very innovative, just as original musicals were dying, it was mainly films of Broadway shows after this.

It is the perfect mid-century story of 3 wartime buddies meeting up 10 years later in 1955 and realising that they don't like each other much now, and indeed Kelly and Dailey don't much like themselves either. Gene is mixing with hoods and managing a dumb boxer, while Dan Dailey has risen to "Executive Vice-President" level in advertising and is sick of the advertising game as he lets rip in his terrific solo number "Advertising-wise". Cyd Charisse is the television researcher who stumbles across the 3 wartime buddies and realises their reunion is ideal for her television show "Midnight with Madeline" for "The Throb of Manhattan" spot where saccharine stories are featured. This is the early days of live television and the movie is a splendid satire on those artificial tv hostesses like Madeline and her diva tantrums. Dolores Gray is stupendous here, and has one of the best numbers ever "Thanks a lot but no thanks" which is a delirious treat with that ritzy gown and that killer line:"I've got a man who's Clifton Webb and Marlon Brando combined"!. Then hood Jay C Flippen and his goons invade the studio where the live broadcast is being made, as they are after Gene who has thrown the fight once he realised his boxer has been bribed to lose it. Cyd gets the hoods to confess on live air, Madeline has a hit show, the 3 buddies realise they are still friends after all. It's a perfect conclusion as Cyd joins Gene and the the guys back at the bar where they vowed to meet up 10 years previously.



Choreographer Michael Kidd is ideal as the family man, Dailey has one of his best roles (apart from his father in THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS), Cyd and Gene sparkle as they spar with each other, and Dolores steals the show. What's not to love? It is a dark, sometimes bitter take on ON THE TOWN a decade later as the 3 buddies meet again - by 1955 though Sinatra had gone on to solo projects and was "difficult" and Jules Munchin was not a name enough. Produced of course by Arthur Freed, with songs by Andre Previn, script by Comden and Green; perfect entertainment then, but see the widescreen version, not panned and scanned! The DVD includes a fascinating 'Making-Of' chronicling the fallout between Kelly and Donen, and several out-takes including a terrific inventive (that word again) deleted number between Kelly and Charisse "Love is Nothing But a Racket" which has been unseen for far too long, and Michael Kidd's solo spot with some kids, but Gene did not want that included, after his number with kids in AN AMERICAN IN PARIS! Essential stuff then.

I met Gene at a recording of an interview of his for the BBC in 1975 - Donen of course went on to direct several of my enduing favourites: those Audrey Hepburn films like TWO FOR THE ROAD and CHARADE, Kendall in ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, Peck and Sophia ideal in ARABESQUE, and the marvellous BEDAZZLED with Pete and Dud and Eleanor Bron in 1967. We won't mention STAIRCASE or LUCKY LADY!

People We Like: Clifton Webb

Clifton Webb [1998-1966] was a phenomenon. A famous dancer in the ‘20s, he became a leading man in the ‘40s and ‘50s when audiences loved his acerbic waspish persona. He led several box-office hits, was friends with all the in-crowd (the Oliviers, Coward, the Bogarts, the Lufts as per all those photographs) while remaining, in that conservative era, a “confirmed bachelor” who famously lived with his mother, Maybelle.



In his twenties he was a professional ballroom dancer and appeared on the stage and in silent movies (which came in useful later in his 1953 comedy DREAMBOAT). His theatre career is fascinating too. LAURA in 1944 was his first big success as the effete Waldo Lydecker in Preminger’s hit thriller, a movie that endures and remains fascinating anytime. Then there was his vain snob Elliott Templeton in THE RAZOR’S EDGE in ’46 – both of which won his Oscar nominations. Then there was Mr Belvedere, his fastidious, finicky, fussy, abrasive and condescending baby sitter in SITTING PRETTY, ’48. I saw that at a Sunday matinee as a kid in the ‘50s, its one we need to see again, there were several more MR BELVEDERE films.







Other popular hits saw him as fathers with large families in the likes of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN and BELLES ON THEIR TOES. DREAMBOAT saw his as the ex-silent star, now a sedate college professor, whose old silent movies are revived on tv, with Anne Francis and Jeffrey Hunter as his daughter and her beau. Negulesco cast him opposte Stanwyck on that 1953 version of TITANTIC, where he does the noble thing. Young Robert Wagner, whom he seems to have mentored, was the juvenile lead. He was also Sousa in MARCHING ALONG.



The 1950s saw those successes THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, ’54 though I do not care for his role in this – he is perfect though as Ernest Gifford, the motor magnate in WOMAN’S WORLD, also for Negulesco, in ’54 (see separate post below). THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS was a success in 1956, where he masterminds this plot to fool the Nazis, and was followed by another successful Negulesco film, my childhood favourite BOY ON A DOLPHIN, as Victor Parmalee the avid art collecter who wants the statue that Greek diver Sophia Loren finds. He and Loren play nicely together, and the film, a programmer really, still plays nicely today – this is the one that introduced Loren to international audiences, emerging from the Aegean in that wet dress …



THE REMARKABLE MR PENNYPACKER and HOLIDAY FOR LOVERS (on vacation with wife Jane Wyman and daughters Jill St John and Carol Lynley) followed in ’59, pleasant holiday fare really. His last film was SATAN NEVER SLEEPS in 1962, which I have not seen, where he and William Holden are priests in China, for Leo McCarey. Clifton lived with his mother until her death aged 91, six years before his own death in ’66. He remained a star to the end and is always eminently watchable now.

Jean Negulesco

Off on the Titanic, 1953: Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner, Thelma Ritter...
and those MILLIONAIRE gals!

Jean Negulesco – a director whose life [which spanned the 20th century] is more interesting than any film! Born in Romania in 1900 he died in Marbella, Spain aged 93, in 1993 and was a director of note in the 1940s and 1950s, providing us with some interesting ‘40s noirs and those polished star-studded entertainments of the ‘50s. (Right, Negulesco with Sophia Loren and her stand-in Scilla Gabel, in 1957 on BOY ON A DOLPHIN, one of the first movies set in Greece - I love that little Greek travelogue at the start .... Greece was so undiscovered then!).

It reads like something devised by Hemingway, or as colorful as Hawks or Huston: He left home at 12, washed dishes in Paris, and worked in a field hospital on the Western Front in World War I. Then he returned to Paris and his art studies becoming an accomplished painter.

In the ‘20s he travelled across the United States, financing himself by selling his paintings and then he arrived in Hollywood and was soon at work in the movie industry as a sketch artist and technical advisor. He worked up to assistant director on movies like CAPTAIN BLOOD and signed a contract with Warners in 1940. His first feature was THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS in ’44 with Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Negulesco's experience as an artist had provided him with a keen eye for effective shots and the ability to set a scene to create atmosphere. His HUMORESQUE was another vivid hit (a triumph of style over content) with great roles for Joan Crawford (one of her greatest) and John Garfield. He also directed Jane Wyman’s award-winning role in JOHNNY BELINDA, 1948.



He then became a contract director at 20th Century Fox – ROADHOUSE is a terrific little noir, which I first saw at a Sunday matinee sometime in the '50s and it remained a key movie for me, Ida Lupino is terrific as the hard-boiled chanteuse who is hired by the deranged Jefty (Widmark) to sing at his roadhouse, but once she falls for Cornel Wilde, it gets very tense indeed. He directed THE MUDLARK in England, and then that early TITANIC in ’53 with Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner and Thelma Ritter. He then reinvented himself as the director for glossy entertainments, mainly Fox’s “3 girls sharing an apartment and looking for love” movies.



Like Rex Harrison with Mankiewicz, Clifton Webb was the ideal actor for Negulesco. He leads the cast in THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, a massive hit in 1954 – but before that was HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, one of the first CinemaScope movies and a super hit cementing Marilyn Monroe as the new Fox star, and she proves a delightful comedienne here - MM in that red swimsuit was my first introduction to her. Then of course WOMAN’S WORLD in ’54, with Webb again leading a terrific cast [see next item]. I didn’t care for DADDY LONG LEGS, but simply love BOY ON A DOLPHIN, one of my key 1957 movies, where Sophia Loren dazzles as Phadrea – her scenes with Clifton as Mr Parmalee, the millionaire who wants the statue show them both to good effect. I first saw this when I was 12... a lot more on these are at MM, Loren, Bacall, 1957 labels..




A big hit in 1959 was THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, also written about here previously, as labels, with those 3 girls (originally 4 - Martha Hyer was almost snipped out) in the '50s Manhattan publishing world, with Joan Crawford "as Amanda Farrow" terrorising the typists in the typing pool. I love those moments with Hope Lange and Suzy Parker and those CinemaScope images....its a lush soaper on the level of IMITATION OF LIFE or A SUMMER PLACE.


His later films are best forgotten; he had moved to Spain in the '60s, to paint and collect art. THE PLEASURE SEEKERS (Ann-Margret, Pamea Tiffin, Carol Lynley and a reappearance by Gene Tierney) was his last interesting film in '64. Right: Carol Lynley & Gardner McKay. Other credits include JESSICA, A CERTAIN SMILE, COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS, THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR - the Lana Turner/Burton one.

His biography “Things I did and things I think I did” in ’84 should be an interesting read - and I have just ordered it!

Back to the delirious '50s: WOMAN'S WORLD

WOMAN'S WORLD. For me this 1954 Fox movie is the '50s in aspic. Its a fabulously entertaining variation on the '3 girls sharing an apartment and looking for love' genre that Fox and director Jean Negulesco did so well (HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, 3 COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING) - here the 3 girls are married and visiting New York - cue great views of 50s Manhattan - as Clifton Webb, the head of a motor company, has to choose a new general manager and the wives are being vetted too to see if they are suitable material for company events.



The 3 couples are out-of-towners Cornel Wilde and ditzy (or is she?) June Allyson, sophisticates on the point of divorcing Lauren Bacall and Fred McMurray, and ambitious Van Heflin and Arlene Dahl who will go to any lengths to get her man the position. The gals get to wear to some marvellous frocks, Allyson and Bacall play their usual personas so the unknown quantity here is Dahl who steals the film - particuarly when she enters in that green clinging sheath with a divine little fur-trimmed bolero which she knowingly removes as she puts the make on Clifton and lets him see how grateful she will be if Van is the man. June spills coffee on her cocktail dress so she can get to be alone with Clifton's all-wise sister Margalo Gilmore (who is advising him), while Bacall gets the measure of Dahl: "have a cookie, cookie"!

Finally, once the manager is announced (right man, wrong wife - but that is soon rectified) they can all eat dinner! Clifton is in his element here and even seems to be (can it be possible in '54) a coded gay as he is not married and seems devoted to his general managers. Whatever, its an absolute treat to see anytime, a nice contrast to that other '54 star-studded executive drama EXECUTIVE SUITE.



Its one of a dozen or so '50s movies I simply adore - not classics like EAST OF EDEN, SUNSET BOULEVARD, ALL ABOUT EVE or A STAR IS BORN, but simple splashy, star-studded entertainments where fabulous gals wear fabulous clothes and live the high life, or the most delirious costume epics [more on them at Glamour label]. As well as WOMAN'S WORLD, bring on THE OPPOSITE SEX, DESIGNING WOMAN, LES GIRLS, THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE, HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE, THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, JUPITER'S DARLING, ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER, QUENTIN DURWARD, MOONFLEET, THE PRODIGAL, THE EGYPTIAN ... i enjoyed all those as a kid, and still do now.
Next: People We Like: Clifton Webb, the films of Jean Negulesco.

Fantasy 1957 double bill: Boy On A Dolphin / Les Girls

One more look at 1957: A fantasy double bill of Fox's BOY ON A DOLPHIN and MGM's LES GIRLS...

BOY ON A DOLPHIN - a routine Fox programmer of interest now for introducting Sophia Loren to international audiences, and being one of the first American films shot in Greece - begins charmingly with a little travelogue on some Greek islands, which must have been a first for audiences of the time, including Rhodes where I was last year so its interesting seeing footage of it back in 1957. DOLPHIN though is set in Hydra another Greek island I visisted back in the '70s. Sophia is Phaedra who dives for sponges (its actually starlet Scilla Gabel who is Loren's stand-in here) and finds the statue of, yes, the boy on the dolphin. I was about 12 when I first saw this and was entranced with this new funny attractive Italian girl. (She had also appeared first in Kramer's ponderous THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION but no one liked that one! - and went on to do Hathaway's sahara western LEGEND OF THE LOST with John Wayne, which we also liked a lot, before her stint in American films. She is 23 here and already a star in Italy with films like TOO BAD SHE'S BAD and WOMAN OF THE RIVER in 1954 which I also liked a lot then. Sophia in that wet dress emerging from the Aegean was a sensation at the time - she and Brigitte Bardot were the two new European sensations of the '50s.



Phaedra goes to Athens (one could walk on the Acropolis then) where she soon finds rich collector Clifton Webb - who is terrific with Loren here - and Alan Ladd the good guy. The usual intrigue follows as Webb wants the statue for himself and Ladd wants to save it for the national as Loren is torn in two ... there's lots of local colour and its all nicely resolved. Amusing too seeing how they make Ladd seem the same height as Loren, with lots of clever posings on different levels ...

Cukor’s LES GIRLS in 1957, Kay Kendall's only film made in Hollywood, is a charming film showing Cukor’s fascination with theatre and artifice in this Rashamon-style telling of the same events told by different people. Kay - England's brightest and most glamorous comedienne, another Carole Lombard according to the critics - commits grand larceny on a large scale walking off with the picture, though Mitzi Gaynor and and the Finnish Taina Elg are also effective. It may be the last Gene Kelly musical and he does seem rather lack lustre here. However, Cukor’s direction, Orry-Kelly’s costumes, Cole Porter’s score and the terrific sets, including their Paris flat, are all standouts. Seeing it now on HD widescreen television those costumes positively leap out at one and it all looks dazzling. Kay again shows her ability to wear clothes and has a lot of fun in the court-room scenes as her Lady Sybil Wren defends her memoirs (Cukor regular Henry Daniell is the judge). She also has a hilarious drunk scene in Elg's version of the same events.

When she went to America to make this, her friend Gladys Cooper lent her her dog, a corgi named June, for company and there are some nice photos of Kay and June. There is a quick shot in the film of Lady Sybil (Kay) at her home between court appearances with a corgi dog next to her on the sofa – this of course has to be Gladys’ June.


Porter's score is actually rather lack lustre but the 3 girls are fun, for me Kelly works best playing a heel, and its all just timeless perfect entertainment! Kay made two more films, with directors, who like Cukor, knew how to showcase her haughty glamorous comic talent: Minnelli's THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE in 1958 capturing the high comedy style of the Harrisons (she had married Rex Harrison in '57) and Stanley Donen's ONCE MORE WITH FEELING in '59, released in 1960 after her death.