Denise Darcel R.I.P.

Denise Darcel (1924-2012) who has died aged 87 was a voluptuous actress and singer who appeared in several films in the early 50s. She was one of several Continental imports whom Hollywood vainly hoped would equal the impact of the Garbos and Bergmans - others included Viveca Lindfors, Corinne Calvet, Micheline Presle, and those American-Italian sisters Pier Angeli and Marisa Pavan - perhaps only the likes of Lilli Palmer and Alida Valli and the later Romy Schneider and Claudia Cardinale really built their reputations as international stars following that raft of Italians like Mangano, Lollobridgida, Loren and Vitti; while Anita Ekberg cornered the sexbomb market!



Denise didn't make too many movies but was a well-known cabaret personality and singer in the 50s, perhaps her best movie was Aldrich's VERA CRUZ with Cooper (above) and Lancaster in '54. Her last film was a 20th Century Fox potboiler SEVEN WOMEN FROM HELL, circa 1961 where she was one of the 7 women (others were Patricia Owens and Yvonne Craig) escaping in the jungle from Japanese captors during WWII - Cesar Romero and John Kerr also popped up in this enjoyable farrago. Denise's torn blouse was prominently on display. It was an interesting career with spells as singer, cabaret artist and some enjoyable films.

The Crowded Sky

Back to 1960 when flying must have been more of a pleasure than it is now when we have to deal with crowded airports, tight security checks, airports which are really shopping malls, and all that is before one got on the plane where then there seemed to be more civility not to mention more legroom and bigger seats! This was a popular era for "doomed flight" scenarios as more people took to the skies, if they were crowded in 1960 imagine what they are like now (I live not far from Gatwick airport with its 800 flights a day - thankfully I don't hear them, but the plane lights look nice at night...).

So, we had '59's JET STORM with Stanley Baker as the pilot with a mad bomber (Richard Attenborough) on board, SOS PACIFIC where a rackety seaplane has to crash land near a nuclear test area, can they stop the test in time?, the ropey JET ACROSS THE ATLANTIC, and my favourite the 1956 BACK FROM ETERNITY where a jet (containing Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Rod Steiger) crashes in the jungle near a tribe of head-hunters - again, can they get away before the natives attack? Topping all these was THE CROWDED SKY and of course 1954's THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY which was far too ponderous when I finally saw it a while back, and of course 1963's COME FLY WITH ME with its 3 hostesses looking for romance is also a nostalgic treat.

Like the others THE CROWDED SKY has if not quite an-star cast, a raft of B-players. Here we have Dana Andrews as pilot of the airliner flying west from Washington to LA, while Efrem Zembalist Jr is the navy pilot flying from San Diego to Washington, with young sailor Troy Donahue on board. Both planes are on a collision course as they should be flying at different altitudes as is normal with flights on these routes. The wooden performances and variable special effects simply add to its kitsch factor; some audiences can't help laughing at it, but nevertheless enjoying themselves at the same time. It would all be so much better done now, the actual collision is obviously done with models, but it set the template for those AIRPORT movies that followed in the 70s, AIRPORT 75 being particularly choice (and of course featuring Dana and Efrem again but this time as pilots in reverse, with Dana flying his small plane into Efrem's jet, leaving stewardess Karen Black to fly the plane until Charlton Heston drops in). Of course AIRPLANE in 1980 sent the whole genre sky high!

On THE CROWDED SKY we get little snippets of the passenger's stories: characters rarely develop in films like this, and most are little more than stereotyped sketches: glamour girl Jean Willes chasing old beau Keenan Wynn (who does not recognise her), the man with the dying wife, Patsy Kelly as a showbiz agent, the couple too shy to speak to each other etc. Stewardess Anne Francis is romancing co-pilot John Kerr (as dull and uninteresting as ever here) who is at loggerheads with pilot Dana. We get several flashbacks to Efrem's failed marriage to calculating Rhonda Fleming (top billed female but with only a couple of scenes).

Tension builds slowly as Jospeh Pevney directs and it all looks good in that Warner colour. A perfect time capsule of its time then, and amusing to see again now. What a wonderful experience flying used to be; beyond slick obvious entertainment, THE CROWDED SKY has the added dimension of evoking nostalgia for a vanished way of travel. Now for the PAN AM series!

My Voyage to Italy - Martin Scorsese

The perfect documentary for me is Martin Scorsese's MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, I missed this whenever it played on television - did it ever play here in the UK? - but at least the dvd is now avalable. Scorsese of course as an Italian-American is the ideal guide through Italian cinema, he grew up watching these films and they have inluenced his work. It is a given that he would have loved Fellini's I VITELLONI (which I raved about here a while back), it is a major influence on his MEAN STREETS.

This four hour documentary charts the landmark films and directors of the post-war era, including Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rosselini and Michelangelo Antonioni, good to see the usually neglected Rossellini given his due here. Given Marty's wealth of knowledge and infectious passion, just watching this DVD is like attending the best film class. He knows what he’s talking about and gives precise, eloquent descriptions of each movie, using his years of experience in front of a screen as well as behind the camera. Most of all this is 246 minutes of one of the great US directors imparting his passion about some of the most important films of the 20th century. It makes one want to go back to the movies and experience them all over again, particularly Visconti's great SENSO, De Sica's UMBERTO D, and those Fellini and Antonioni masterworks. I VITELLONI for instance remains a timeless pleasure and makes me want to see those other early Fellini films.



If you care about the medium, then it is an essential purchase. Scorsese introduces various segments and through judicious use of clips and an informed, eloquent voiceover takes us on a journey of the following films:

• Paisà (1946))
• Rome, Open City (1945)
• Stromboli (1950)
• Europa ’51 (1952)
• Shoeshine (1946)
• Bicycle Thieves (1948)
• Umberto D (1952)
• The Gold of Naples (1954)
• Ossessione (1943)
• La Terra trema (1950)
• Senso (1954)
• I Vitelloni (1953)
• La Dolce Vita (1960)
• Voyage to Italy (1954)
• L’avventura (1960)
• L’eclisse (1962)
• 8½ (1963)

His focus of course is on classic Italian cinema, but a broader view would encompass the sword-and-sandal peplum films popular in the late 50s/early 60s (like GIANT OF MARATHON, Leone's rather good THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES, THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII and the Steve Reeves spectaculars, APHRODITE, MESSALINA (see Belinda Lee label), and the giallo thrillers by the likes of Mario Bava and Dario Argento (Jean Sorel label), as well as the popular Loren-Mastroianni films and the delicious comedy films of Monica Vitti, Alberto Sordi et al (BOCCACCIO 70, LE BAMBOLE, LE FATE etc); and those films from the works of Alberto Moravia (TIME OF INDIFFERENCE (Claudia Cardinale label), TWO WOMEN), Georgio Bassani (THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINI'S) and those intriguing novels by Natalia Ginzburg (DEAR MICHAEL (CARO MICHELE), FAMIGLIA etc). Other strands of Italian cinema I liked are those Lina Wertmuller films like SEVEN BEAUTIES, the Taviani's PADRE PADRONE and new comedies like LOOSE CANNONS (review at Italian label), and the lesser known films by Alberto Lattuada (THE TEMPEST, DOLCI IGNANNI), Mauro Bolognini (GRAN BOLLITO, METELLO), Monicelli etc; Visconti's 1952 BELLISSIMA and 1965 operatic melodrama SANDRA (VAGHE STELLE D'ORSA) being my recent re-dioscoveries. I will have to comment separately on the polarising works of Bertolucci and Pasolini!

I have written about these in more detail at Italian, De Sica, Antonioni, Fellini labels ....plus at labels for Loren, Vitti, Valli, Cardinale, Magnani, Mangano, Mastroianni. We sure love those Italians!

Boccaccio 70

BOCCACCIO 70. That other great Italian compendium, produced by Carlo Ponti in 1962 – which was sold at the time on the starpower of the 3 actresses and directors: Anita Ekberg in the Fellini sketch (as the giant billboard advertisement which comes to life, stalking Peppino De Phillipo; Romy Schneider is a delightful tease in the lush Visconti episode making her cheating husband Thomas Milian pay for her favours, Romy dressed (and undressed) in Chanel stakes her claim to being a prestige actress here (as in Welles’ THE TRIAL, same year) and Sophia Loren in the amusing De Sica segment as the weekly prize in a fairground raffle - I had forgotten how hilariously funny this tale is as Vittorio piles on the local colour as the locals go gaga for Sophia, then the bull spies her red blouse so it has to come off, as the local hunk comes to her rescue, then the weedy cleric wins the raffle ticket! It is always amusing seeing Sophia acting as one of the common people and De Sica ramps up the laughs, just like that Naples segment in YESTERDAY TODAY & TOMORROW.
The 3 ladies deliver what is expected of them, but there was a fourth segment, by Mario Monicelli, which was cut at the time but is now restored in the dvd release. This is an amusing little tale too of a young newly-married couple wanting to find time to be alone together (like that crowded scene at the swimming pool) but continually being thwarted in that new Italian economic boom of the early 60s. Finally, they they get their own apartment but he has work nights and comes home to go to bed as she heads off to work on the bus. The couple are the attractive Marisa Solinas and Germano Gilioli and it still looks marvellously fresh and amusing. But why is it ’70 if it was made in ’62?

Showpeople (12) - those glamour shots

It must have been hard work looking so good: Anita Ekberg, Belinda Lee [photographed by her husband Cornel Lucas], Dirk Bogarde, Kay Kendall (on the set of my favourite QUENTIN DURWARD).

Ooh that Ekberg

Those big-bosomed blondes of the '50s were all the rage by the middle of the decade, Jayne Mansfield was fun in THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT and WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? - probably her best two and then there was Mamie Van Doren - but for me the most mysterious and attractive was that Swedish import Anita Ekberg who certainly got a lot of attention and movie roles in the '50s and '60s as Fellini showcased her in both LA DOLCE VITA and BOCCACCIO 7O. She was married for some years to British actor Anthony Steel. She also lit up WAR AND PEACE in '56, some Martin and Lewis films and lots of programmers like these here:



SCREAMING MIMI, 1958 - Exotic dancer Yolanda Lang sees a man get shot moments after he tries to knife her in a shower, so she goes to a psychiatrist for therapy. He falls in love with her and takes over her life, although she continues dancing at a nightclub. The club's tough owner is none other than Gypsy Rose Lee who also dances and sings and entertains young cuties - “I didn’t realise it was tea (slang for dope apparantly) for two” says Phil Carey, who is trying to solve the mystery of the maniac who is stabbing these dancers. Each victim had purchased a sculpture of a woman called the Screaming Mimi… is Yolanda the next in line or does she know more in her troubled mind? Then there is her dog who protects her … I saw this when I was about 12 and it certainly made an impression, so it has been fascinating to catch up with it again.

From the opening showing the amazon Anita emerging from the sea and taking a shower as the maniac with the knife kills her dog and then attacks her, and that amazing dance of hers which we get to see twice, it certainly holds the attention. Gypsy Rose Lee also does a shimmy and sings “Put The Blame of Mame”. It is 77 minutes of ‘50s noir showing that dark underworld of nightclubs and lonely rooms. Yolanda wanders through it totally distracted with only that great dane for comfort… Phil Carey becomes obsessed with her, as is the doctor from the sanitarium who thinks he is controlling her.

It is really an early version of those Italian giallo lurid thrillers which came to fore in the 60s and 70s. Here Anita Ekberg is the show and she does not disappoint, with that mane of hair and her dance [its on YouTube]. If you like pulpy noir, psycho-killers and hot exotic dancers this Columbia B-movie is one not to miss, and as my friend Melvelvit says in his IMDB review, it could have influenced PSYCHO as “the Hitchcock also has a surprise ending concerning the star and a shower stabbing”, and was also shot in black and white with that pulp B-movie look!

More desert exotica in ZARAK a ’56 release by Warwick Films who seem to be an English company released through Columbia – they often featured Victor Mature and/or Anita Ekberg (SAFARI, INTERPOL, THE BANDIT OF ZHOBE etc). We get both here along with Michael Wilding (with Eunice Gayson as his wife), Bonar Colleano and old reliables like Finlay Currie. – there is also a young Patrick McGoohan. It is set on the North West Frontier between India and Afghanistan, with much crossing back and forth, as Mature is Zarah Khan who becomes a notorious outlaw after being flogged for falling for his despot father’s latest wife, Anita – who does not have much to do but looks sensational as she does a few dances, and of course with that obligatory ruby in her navel (see top). We get all the usual uprising against the British Raj with Wilding as the very correct officer and he and Zarak grow to appreciate each other before the final conflict. There are also a few more floggings. The same team of executive producer Albert Broccoli, writer Richard Maibaum and director Terence Young would provide the first Bond adventure DR NO a few years hence, also with Gayson as the first lady to hear that “Bond, James Bond” reply.



BACK FROM ETERNITY - a good 1956 entry in the "doomed flight" movies, its the one where the plane crash-lands in the jungle where head-hunters are. Can they fix the plane and get out in time as they are picked off one by one? I saw this as a kid and it was quite scary actually, so it certainly made an impression. It's a John Farrow film and his second film on the same story. The motley cast here include Robert Ryan and Anita as a shady lady down on her luck but of course she looks stunning. Rod Steiger has one of his early roles as the criminal being taken back to be tried, Keith Andes and Phyllis Kirk make up the crew and the other passengers include Beulah Bondi. Anita gets a few good moments before the exciting climax, as Steiger predictably goes into over-drive.

Blonde Crazy ?

London's National Film Theatre is running a season on cinema blondes. Since you ask, its GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES / RED DUST / I'M NO ANGEL / BECKY SHARP (Miriam Hopkins as the first Technicolor blonde?) / TO BE OR NOT TO BE / I MARRIED A WITCH / CASQUE D'OR / IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU / YIELD TO THE NIGHT / WILD STRAWBERRIES / MARNIE / IMITATION OF LIFE / LE MEPRIS / BELLE DE JOUR / GLORIA and BASIC INSTINCT.

Intriguing enough, but no room for Jean Seberg, Kim Novak, Janet Leigh, Carroll Baker in her 60s sexbomb period, Belinda Lee [England's other blonde siren], Jayne in THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT or art-house goddess Monica as MODESTY BLAISE or her hilarious role in LE FATE or THE '50s siren Anita Ekberg or that other great exotic, Ursula Andress? Then there's the more 'everyday' blondes like Joanne Woodward, Carol Lynley, Tuesday Weld, Doris Day and ..... those other iconic Hitchock blondes as exemplified by Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Madeleine Carroll and the glacial Ann Todd.

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