The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)

A washed up producer (Kirk Douglas) tries to get his former friends to make another picture to revive his career. The three, a director (Barry Sullivan), star (Lana Turner), and screenwriter (Dick Powell), recount their story of how they fell out with him.

Nominated for six academy awards and winning five, Hollywood is a sucker for stories about Hollywood, and apparently so am I. The three stories do not overlap much and illustrate the extent Douglas’ Jonathan is willing to go to further his interests. The now successful three must ask themselves if they can put their feelings aside to now help their former mentor. 

Gloria Grahame won an Oscar nine and a half minutes of a fair southern accent. It would be the shortest screen time for an acting Oscar at the time ... I'm happy to say. Leo G. Carroll has a brief role as a difficult director and Barbara Billingsley makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-her appearance five years before becoming June Cleaver.

Many of the characters are thinly-veiled versions of real contemporary people. I will out David O. Selznick as a primary inspiration for our main character, but you can read the details for yourself. Selznick even contacted a lawyer to see if there were grounds to sue.

The Bad and the Beautiful is expert storytelling. The performances are excellent (Douglas uses his “angry Kirk” voice only once), the script is tight, and the story compelling. The film came highly recommended and I came to it very late. I should have believed it. AMRU 4.5.

Sudden Fear (1952)

A stage actor (Jack Palance) is fired by the playwright (Joan Crawford) because she doesn’t think he is romantic enough, so he proves her wrong by winning her heart. And everyone lives happily ever after.

Pitch perfect casting of Palance as the homme fatale. Charismatic enough but definitely not the romantic lead type, he fits the character perfectly. Plus he nailed the performance as the menacing charmer. This is the role that launched his career. Gloria Grahame is his accomplice.

No longer the traditional Hollywood leading lady, Crawford fully embraces this mature lead part of her career. As executive producer, she was involved in all aspects of production, not dissimilar to her character. She wanted Clark Gable in the Palance role but was thankfully overruled.

Crawford’s Myra doesn’t seek help when she begins to fear for her life. This is a key point in order for the story to happen, and it’s handled reasonably well. The director also did a pretty fair job planting ideas into the audience’s head to build later tension. We are never sure how this will all play out until the very end.

A little overly dramatic in parts, but Sudden Fear has solid performances. It’s an interesting take on the genre and totally sticks the landing. AMRU 3.5.

Crossfire (1947)

A man is found murdered in his hotel room. He was seen the night before with a few servicemen in a bar. Police investigate, and focus on one soldier whose whereabouts are unknown.

The film stars three Roberts: Young, Ryan, and Mitchum. Young is the police chief investigating the crime, and Ryan and Mitchum are servicemen trying to ‘help’. Gloria Grahame had a small but important role as the dance hall girl who may be able to account for the married suspect’s whereabouts. Grahame’s private life was pretty bonkers.

Jacqueline White, who played the wife who just wanted her husband cleared and didn't care where he hid the salami, was charming in her limited role. She only appeared in twenty features and retired at 30 to domestic bliss. She turns 100 this month. A highlight was a character known only as ‘The Man’. He appears at Ginny’s (Grahame) apartment to find our poor suspect. We never figure out his story because he keeps changing it. It’s actually quite amusing. I want to know more about that character. I also want that coffee maker.

The story isn’t very complicated but the movie can be confusing because I had difficulty keeping the characters straight. Also, the IMDb trivia section called it “one of the most visually impressive film noirs ever made”. Please watch The Third Man (1949). I wouldn’t complain about Crossfire's cinematography. It was just middle of the road.

Crossfire (which features no crossfire, figurative or otherwise) was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture, but won nothing. It isn't much of a mystery. I was certain of the killer midway through the first act. And it got a little preachy, as some post war films do. But it scores on atmosphere and some delightfully quirky scenes. I was looking for a solid noir and this hit the spot. AMRU 3.5.

In a Lonely Place (1950)

Troubled but talented screenwriter Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is assigned to adapt a terrible novel for the screen. Hot coat check girl Mildred (Martha Stewart - No, not THAT Martha Stewart!) loves the book, so he invites her back to his place for her to describe the story to him. Or whatever else. He gets nowhere with the girl or the script so he sends her packing via taxi. When she turns up dead, Dix is the prime suspect. The only witness for his whereabouts is a hot neighbor (Gloria Grahame) who noticed him from her window. Love blooms.

So, rather than a who-done-it, we’ve got a did-he-do-it. We’re used to the old and decrepit Bogart playing the romantic lead, and he is no stranger to morally ambiguous characters, so this is right up his alley. But maybe a bit more morally ambiguous than we are used to. At the onset the audience and his alibi-then-lover are certain of his innocence but soon we both become unsure as his darker nature reveals itself. His relationship with too-young-for-him Graham rings true. Besides, she was about a year older than his real life wife.

Speaking of Graham, perhaps you recall me retelling of a certain friction between her and her second husband, director Nicholas Ray. Graham and Ray’s marriage was on the rocks while he was directing her here. You remember, dabbling with the step-son. That's a recipe for disaster.

Despite being the sole suspect for the murder, and Dixon’s violent tendencies which frequently get him into trouble, his friends all repeated say how much they love Dix. They love Dix so much! They'd never say no to Dix. Yea, sometimes I’m twelve.

In a Lonely Place is sometimes dark, sometimes amusing, and has great atmosphere. Don’t expect Bogart to be his regular hero character. He is far more real here. An excellent film-noir. AMRU 4.

“There's no sacrifice too great for a chance at immortality.”

The Big Heat (1953)

Detective Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) is a cop that doesn’t play by the rules. When investigating the suicide of a fellow cop, he is told to back off. Not Dave Bannion. Back off isn’t in his vocabulary.

Big fan of Fritz Lang. M (1931) and Metropolis (1927) are wonderful films. Always liked Glenn Ford, too. And Gloria Grahame is one of my favorite Marilyn Monroe knockoffs. IMdb and Rotten Tomatoes both give The Big Heat very high rating, and I am more than a little confused by this. The story itself is fine. Cop investigates, gets too nosey, is burned, then the story is revealed. Been done a million times, and sometimes not as well. But oh, but the acting, it’s brutal. The dialog seems like it was written as a group project in a film-noir 101 class, and the over the top score beats us over our heads with the message. It's pretty cheesy.

A young Lee Marvin played the heavy. Blink and you'll miss a very young Carolyn Jones (Morticia in The Addams Family). Here, she’s a blond. Marlon Brando’s sister is also here. But let’s talk about Gloria, shall we?

Longtime readers may remember Grahame from such hits as The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), and small parts in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and Song of the Thin Man (1947). Eventually I will see her in a Lonely Place (1950) and maybe never in Oklahoma! (1955). She got this job as the babydoll floozy because Marilyn was too expensive. She didn’t get along too well in Hollywood, perhaps bristling over the stream of shallow sexpot roles she was offered, and quality work dried up.

Her personal life wasn’t much better. Her marriage to second husband Nicholas Ray may have been doomed when he found her in bed with his thirteen year old son. But don’t get the wrong idea, she made an honest man of the younger Ray when he later became her fourth husband. She ended up doing a lot of stage and TV work then died young of cancer. Cancer is a bitch.

The Big Heat isn’t terrible, but I am mystified by its reputation. It is over stylized in a bad way, almost laughable. When Bannion is having a touching moment with his family I don’t need the score to smother me with sentiment. I get it. Never-the-less, I won’t punish it for high expectations. AMRU 3.

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

Trapeze artist Holly (Betty Hutton) has finally won the coveted center ring, but boss man boyfriend Brad (Charlton Heston) has sawdust in his veins, you see. To help the show he hires hotshot Sebastian (Cornel Wilde) and gives him the center ring. But he promised that to her! What, does he have sawdust in his veins?

Well, Sebastian (the Great) does his best to show off as well as take after Holly with a vein of another kind. Whatever will Holly do? After all, it's not like she has sawdust in her veins! Oh, yea, and then there's Buttons the Clown (James Stewart) who never takes his makeup off. What's up with that?

This movie had everything! A love triangle, the spectacle of the tawdriest show on earth, a behind the scenes look at how they set up the tents, a three hour run time! Everything short of elephant poop. What more could you ask for? What, don't you have sawdust in your veins?

The principle attraction for me was the fact that it won Best Picture over High Noon (AMRU 3.5) and I had to see how a circus movie could do such a thing. I have to guess that the controversy over the underlying theme of High Noon along with a popular fascination of the topic swayed the day. Calling it tedious is something of an understatement. It was just over two and a half hours, but many dull scenes could have been cut to bring it much closer to 2, if not under. It had one side story after another, with Gloria Grahame (actual hottie) and Dorothy Lamour (you know, from the Hope and Crosby movies) having smallish rolls. Plus there was this gangster sub-plot that seemed to go nowhere.

Anyhow, having said all that, it wasn't too bad of a movie. Clearly no High Noon, but still worth seeing. AMRU 3. Brew some coffee.