Italian Rarities: Vitti, Mangano, Sordi x 2 + Bette Davis !

IL DISCO VOLANTE (THE FLYING SAUCER) Sometimes one has to go back and take another look at something one had dismissed out of hand - thanks to my IMDB pal Jorge's rave review for this 1964 Italian comedy, presumably made for the domestic market - I had never heard of it despite my passion for Monica Vitti and Silvana Mangano - until I got a copy (from another IMDB pal Jerry) last year. It is a throwaway farce with Italy's great comic star Alberto Sordi in several roles. The lunatic plot features a flying saucer which lands in a peasant community in Italy and the havoc it causes. I can see that its attraction now is the cheesy special effects: the saucer, the plastic outfits of the Martians - and the great comic turns it affords Sordi; as the local priest, the lover out in the car with a comic Vitti, the local police commander, and a rather camp nobleman. Mangano is also drolly funny as the peasant woman with a flock of children .... It is a Dino De Laurentiis production, directed by Tinto Brass.
Here is what Jorge says about it: Working with an acidic script by Rodolfo Sonego, Brass takes joyful stabs at the big triumvirate – Church, Family, State –, employs, at first, faux documentary techniques, and then goes full Commedia all’italiana, with some brilliantly funny vignettes, and with a cast to die for (Sordi in four roles, including a gay count very interested in the male aliens, and beauties Silvana Mangano, Monica Vitti and Elonora Rossi Drago in screamingly funny roles). One of film’s absolute highlights are Gianni Polidori’s designs for the saucer, and for the aliens’ costumes, including this sexy one for the female invader (with Sordi taking a peek at her attributes):

it is genuinely (and mordantly) funny. Silvana Mangano as a peasant woman with a handful of small children to take care and no husband to provide (and thinking how to have some profit with the male alien she just kidnapped!), or Monica Vitti maliciously insinuating herself into Sordi (as the police chief) whilst she crochets, are some of the many funny moments. In short: the Martians wish they had landed elsewhere because those Italians won't make their life (and their invasion) easy!

THE SCIENTIFIC CARDPLAYER (LO SCOPONE SCIENTIFICO). An Italian oddity from 1972, featuring 2 Americans and 2 Italian stars, in a so-so comedy about card-playing, directed by Luigi Comencini. Each year a rich old lady – Bette Davis, for it is she – arrives in a small Italian town with her companion Joseph Cotton (on autopilot here) to play cards with local poor couple Peppino and Antonia (Alberto Sordi and Silvana Mangano). Each year the couple dream of winning but the old lady always outwits them. This year though things are different – the poor couple are on a winning streak and keep winning, but the rich old lady will not give up and wants to keep on playing, even when supposedly at death's door, doubling up the bet each time. Peppino and Antonia will be ruined if they lose …. It is amusing and keeps the attention, as the whole village gets involved, along with their 5 children. Davis though dubbed is still very Bette – it is in Italian with English subtitles and the there is a neat play-off at the end. Interesting to see Davis and Cotton together again twenty years plus after BEYOND THE FOREST! Sordi and Mangano shine in two well-developed roles, he of course was terrific in those early Fellini's like I VITELLONI and THE WHITE SHIEK, and those comedies like TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA with the young Loren, or NERO'S LOST WEEKEND or LA FATE (also reviewed, Italian label), among so many others.
1972 was a busy year for Bette in Europe - she also made MADAME SIN in England and did that lecture/Q&A session at London's National Film Theatre, which I attended - as per my report to Davis label.

R.I.P: Jimmy Sangster

Jimmy Sangster [1927-2011] was a scriptwriter who helped put Hammer Films firmly on the '50s movie map. He became one of the driving, creative forces behind the legendary Hammer Studios, scripting many of their successes. In 1957 he wrote the sceenplay for THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN their first horror film shot in colour, followed by DRACULA and in 1959 THE MUMMY all starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, with good production values. My particular favourite was THE BRIDES OF DRACULA in 1960 - as per my previous post here, see Horror label.

Sangster said in an interview that he was given a free hand with the scripts - the only restriction was, regarding the FRANKENSTEIN movies, they could not use the bolts in the head, as those were copyrighted. Of course the films got worse as the series went on. He had a break from the Gothic with thrillers like A TASTE OF FEAR and THE NANNY for which they imported Bette Davis and some good English players: Jill Bennett, Wendy Craig, James Villiers. Sangster also produced and scripted the madly camp over the top film of a hit play THE ANNIVERSARY again teaming Davis with most of the cast of the play, including Sheila Hancock. I saw the original production of the play which had Mona Washbourne as the tyrant mother, Bette certainly made it her own, with that eyepatch!

He directed later Hammers like LUST FOR A VAMPIRE and THE HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN. But by then audiences had tired of their cheap and cheerful production values. Terence Fisher usually directed those early popular Hammer titles. Sangster also wrote novels, and was married to that very lovely individual actress Mary Peach. His many years in the business are indicative of the talent of a prolific and much-respected screenwriter whose films continue to be enjoyed to this day.

Showpeople: when Joan met Greg, Sophia and Max; and when Margaret met Harry ...

My 400th post! So here is another look at that great photo of the 1962 Oscar winners, with as was the custom, the previous year's winners, plus a great Margaret Sullavan anecdote, which I have to thank my pal Daryl for!



I wrote a while back about Loren and Peck presenting each other with Oscars - here again is that great shot of Joan Crawford graciously sharing their limelight! You have to hand it to Joan! No wonder Bette was left seething with rage in the wings!



The 1961 winners (Maximilian Schell and Loren) as was the custom presented the 1962 best actor and actress awards. Bette was nominated for WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? but Joan (who hadnn't been nominated for their little film) had volunteered to accept the best actress award on behalf of any nominee who could not be present. Peck got his from Sophia and Max announced that Anne Bancroft had won as best actress, but Anne was not there so Joan swept past Bette (they were both backstage) and (as legend has it, said "excuse me, I have an Oscar to collect") graciously accepted the award on Anne's behalf and she (looking terrific by the way) got to pose with the other winners! [that is Max next to Joan - looking like her hot date for the night]. So there was Bette empty-handed while Joan posed clutching an Oscar (so what if it was not hers) with Greg and Sophia and Schell basking in the publicity! Things were even less cordial between Joan and Bette after that !



And the Margaret Sullavan story? Margaret was one of the great stars of the '30s and '40s (as noted previously, at label). When she made NO SAD SONGS FOR ME at Columbia in 1950 (which turned out to be her last film), there is the story that she had a meeting with the head of the studio, the notoriously vulgar Harry Cohn. Cohn was supposed to have said to her, "Willie Wyler tells me you're really hot in bed," whereupon she stood up and walked to the door. But before she left, she reportedly said, "I don't believe Willie would have told you that, because he's a gentleman... but incidentally, I am!")



I am now taking a break for a week or so, as have family visitors staying so I expect to show them lots of London and various famous gardens! Back soon.

People We Like: Mary Astor

One of the pleasures of watching old movies is catching up with a Mary Astor performance one had missed – as recently with A STRANGER IN MY ARMS and RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE, or re-visiting a favourite like THE MALTESE FALCON or THE GREAT LIE.



Mary (1906-1987) began in the silents, doing two films with John Barrymore (with whom she had an affair) and then she successfully graduated to talkies with roles opposite Gable in RED DUST in ’32 (Grace Kelly played it in the ’53 remake) where she is tremendous as the wife falling for the hunter, other roles included DODSWORTH. In 1941 she won the best supporting actress award for THE GREAT LIE, and also starred in Huston’s MALTESE FALCON as the duplicitous Brigid O'Shaughnessy . Other hits included MIDNIGHT and THE PALM BEACH STORY. Soon though she was relegated to playing those saintly mothers in MEET ME IN ST LOUIS in ’44 and in the ’49 version of LITTLE WOMEN. I have already written about how wonderful the 1947 DESERT FURY is, that delirious noir in blazing colour, as per Mary Astor label, where she is Fritzi the casino owner and the mother of Lizabeth Scott.







The ‘50s saw a tougher series of mothers – Robert Wagner’s in A KISS BEFORE DYING, and Sandra Dee’s in A STRANGER IN MY ARMS where she is the queen bee determined everyone shall obey her. Then there was the chilling Robert Carter in RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE in 1961. 1964 provided a return match with Bette in the small but pivotal role of Jewel Mayhew in HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, her final role. Mary had a racy private life and kept a diary which featured in a sensational court case. Her two books “My Story” and “A Life in Film” were best-sellers in which she discussed her various marriages, lovers and screen work.



THE GREAT LIE - A superior ‘40s soap, as directed by Edmund Goulding. Bette’s Maggie and Mary’s Sandra Kovac are in love with the same man George Brent. Sandra is a talented but temperamental concert pianist. The convoluted plot sees Brent and Astor getting married but it is invalid as her previous divorce is not final, they separate and he marries Davis, and then goes missing when his plane goes down on a secret mission. Meanwhile, Sandra discovers she is pregnant but cannot let a baby get in the way of her career, so rich girl Bette convinces her to have the baby which she will then have so the infant can inherit Brent’s wealth. Some delicious scenes then follow with the women holed up out in the desert awaiting the birth, as Bette strides around in her jodhpurs and Sandra demands steaks and cigarettes …. THEN, Brent is found and comes back and thinks the baby is his and Bette's. Sandra soon decides she wants Brent back and the baby too and is determined to tell him the truth, so Bette invites her to stay … as the truth comes out. To add to the delirium there is also Hattie McDaniel looking after them down on the plantation. It remains a favourite Bette Davis film and Astor’s Sandra is a tremendous performance full of variety. Bette plays "nice" here while Astor is the bitch. Terrific stuff.







A STRANGER IN MY ARMS – a rather unknown Ross Hunter production from 1959, this widescreen black and white melodrama teams June Allyson and Jeff Chandler, with Hunter regular Sandra Dee (my crush at the time, in my early teens) but the real star here is Mary Astor firing on all cylinders as the queen bee who dominates them all. June is the widow of a supposed war hero living with his dominating mother (Astor) who is seeking the highest military award for her late son whom she ruthlessly dominated and kept close to her. Chandler is the air force pilot who knows how her son really died as the family (Charles Coburn is also involved) try to bend him to their will so he will falsify the truth – we get flashbacks to him and the son (Peter Graves) surviving at sea on their raft. Allyson had only been married to the son for all of 6 weeks but now Astor (who really hates her) steamrolls her every attempt at independence. Naturally June and Jeff are attracted, Astor will not stand for it, as daughter Sandra tries to help the lovers who finally manage to stand up to Mary in a rather good climax. Directed by one Helmut Kautner (a German, but no Sirk), its all rather turgid but fun, Allyson’s last of the ‘50s and she is her usual self here with those buttoned-up blouses, peter pan collars, gloves and little hats. This though is Mary Astor’s show all the way.



RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE – Jose Ferrer’s 1961 film for 20th Century Fox (his wife Rosemary Clooney sings the theme song over the nice credits depicting New England in all its seasonal glory) would seem a follow-up to the sensational PEYTON PLACE of 1957 – but the original seems to be set back in the 40s and this is a very early 60s looking movie. New cast all round too: Carol Lynley is Allyson who writes the sensational book, Tuesday Weld is now Selina Cross and Eleanor Parker steps in to Lana Turner’s shoes as Constance. We spend a lot of time though in New York as Alison meets her publisher (Jeff Chandler, again) and is groomed for literary stardom. Back in Peyton Place the real star of the show is Mary Astor (again) as Roberta Carter, whose son Brett Halsey is returning home – but he turns up with his new wife Rafaella (Luciana Paluzzi) but he is too spineless to stand up to his domineering mother so the stage is set for melodramatics. Then the book is published and Roberta is outraged and tries to get it removed from the library, bringing in conflict with Constance’s husband Mike Rossi, the school head. Meanwhile Selina gets involved with the new ski instructor … It is all movie-making by numbers but Fox did this kind of stuff well, and Astor again has the plum role. There must have been some changes though: in the trailer on the disk we see the bedroom of Halsey and Paluzzi going up in flames but this is not in the movie where we do not see Paluzzi after her ski accident, as the film climaxes at the town hall where Roberta is trying to get the book banned. All very odd – but a good trashy wallow nonetheless, with that nice early 60s cast.

"Bette and Joan" in London

We are back in 1962 on the set of Robert Aldrich's new film WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? where Bette Davis and Joan Crawford sink their differences and work on this low-budget movie which they hope will get them back on top .... Their legendary feud is now the subject of a new play just opening in London, titled - yes - BETTE AND JOAN, we will have to see if it is worth checking out. It's presumably based on that deliciously trashy read "Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud" ... it must be daunting stepping into such well known shoes!

Greta Scacchi and Anita Dobson (Angie from hit tv show EASTENDERS) play the ageing stars and should at least have the look right. They were on television yesterday discussing it and seem to be having a lot of fun with it. Below: Greta lets rip as Bette as Baby Jane - and the real thing!

Bad Movies We Love (2): More Lana, Susan, Bette, Joan F - and music music music!

LOVE HAS MANY FACES – I simply had to revisit this deliriously exotic artefact from 1965 and currently my favourite Lana Turner epic. The best thing about it actually is the theme song sung by Nancy Wilson. Lana, looking glazed throughout, is dressed by Edith Head (though that’s no recommendation anymore after the other period films like A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME she dressed in atrocious early 60s styles) and plays a wealthy playgirl in Acapulco married to ex-beach boy gigolo Cliff Robertson. They drink a lot as the police find the body of another beach boy who it seems Lana knew. Hugh O’Brian in skimpy speedos lingers while waiting to get off with Lana, as he trains his room-mate, another bottle blonde beach boy, in how to be a gigolo. Enter Ruth Roman [right, with O'Brian], a dame who knows the score and is willing to pay for her pleasures, with her pal Virginia Grey. Stephanie Powers is the young innocent trying to find what happened to the dead beachboy, and she and Cliff are drawn together. They all go off to a bullfight [below] and ….. but no, I cannot describe how this delirious farrago ends. Its certainly one to cherish though, as directed by Alexander Singer who also did A COLD WIND IN AUGUST and PSYCHE 59 (both to be reviewed here). Ruth is terrific, I must see more of her ...WHERE LOVE HAS GONE - this 1964 sudser has re-surfaced! A famous clunker at the time and seemingly based on the Lana Turner scandal, here we have Susan Hayward as the famous sculptress whose wayward daughter Joey Heatherton kills her lover and is put on trial. Dominating the show is Bette Davis as Hayward's mother, an imperial dowager who (as the Newsweek review at the time said "sits in the ugliest chair in Hollywood and lowers her teacup and pronounces "Somewhere along the line the world has lost all its standards and all its taste"). Embassy and Paramount are obviously cashing in on the Lana scandal - scripted by John Michael Hayes and directed by Edward Dmytryk (the team who brought us the compulsive trash of THE CARPETBAGGERS) this is gloriously over the top stuff. Michael Connors is the colourless leading man, Jane Greer is in the background, Susan though isn't firing on all cylinders - perhaps the presence of Bette hindered her (Hayward has just re-made one of Davis's 30s hits DARK VICTORY, as STOLEN HOURS - another movie I love!) Bette went on to entertain us in DEAD RINGER and HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE, of which more later.

Above: Hayward and Davis with director Edward Dmytryk.

SERENADE. Mario Lanza films were jolly affairs as I remember [like THE SEVEN HILLS OF ROME], but SERENADE in 1956, seen again recently on TCM UK, is a very enjoyable, dark, twisted tale, from a James M Cain novel, with that rich deep Warnercolor and as directed by Anthony Mann (having a break from westerns) has some great scope compositions. Mario here is the factory worker on his tractor who is discovered by Joan Fontaine as Kendall Hale. Kendall is a society dame/rich bitch who, aided by her campy sidekick Vincent Price, picks up and then destroys her proteges, her current one being hunky young boxer Vince Edwards. Mario is soon in Kendall's clutches and on his way to being an opera star, but he spectacularly falls apart once Kendall discards him - in a scene as intense as Judy Garland's in A STAR IS BORN - so he ends up in Mexico ... enter Sarita Montiel (who became Mrs Mann) who is very attractive here, and gets Mario back to singing. The stage is set for a showdown between the women when they return to New York and it all ends in pure melodrama. Joan has a lot of fun with the role [though she dismisses it in 1 line in her autobiography] and does that quizzical look and raised eyebrow to perfection as Mario serenades us with "Nessun Dorma".

SINCERELY YOURS, 1955 – This is one of those movies I know I saw as a child but could remember nothing much about, as it had never surfaced since, so it was beyond amusing to finally get to see it again. It of course is Liberace’s one starring role as the concert pianist with an apartment to die for overlooking Central Park and he finally gets to play Carnegie Hall, only to find – it is too kitsch for words – that he has suddenly gone deaf! He lives cosseted by his devoted manager William Demarest and his devoted secretary Joanne Dru who of course secretly loves him. Then there is the ritzy socialite Dorothy Malone he is engaged to … but now his world falls apart – but he has that pair of binoculars and he begins to spy on people in the park: the mother (Lurene Tuttle) who is not smart enough to meet her snobby daughter’s in-laws, or the little crippled boy longing to play ball with the other kids. Lee of course intervenes to make things turn out right for them [nobody seems to have realised that spying on a little boy could be considered pervy back then, or that it was questionable to invade people’s privacy], and then he finally has a little operation and can hear again. Lee’s fans must have lapped this up back then, it is kitsch beyond endurance but the cast give it their all, particularly Malone and Dru. Studio hack supreme Gordon Douglas keeps it all together and as an actor Liberace is a great piano-player as we are treated to miles of footage of him tinkling the ivories.

Next round-up to include WRITTEN ON THE WIND, A SUMMER PLACE and those Troy Donahue and Fabian classics...

1934 cigarette cards - a selection .....

Double click images to enlarge...