Zero Hour! (1957)

Because a former war pilot (Dana Andrews) can’t get past a raid he led that went wrong, his wife leaves him. Despite being terrified to fly, he buys a ticket on her flight. When the pilot and co-pilot become incapacitated with serious food poisoning, our hero has to step up and land the plane.

Sound familiar? This is exactly the plot of Airplane! (1980), and that’s exactly why I watched it. Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers essentially remade Zero Hour! but with jokes. If you are as familiar with the classic ZAZ comedy as I am, you will spot every setup to every joke. I had to see it.

Pretty Linda Darnell plays Dana’s estranged wife. She seemed very familiar but I haven’t seen anything she was in. She would die in a house fire at age 41. Elroy ‘Crazylegs’ Hirsch, the just-retired star wide receiver for the NFL Rams, plays the sickened pilot. Gruff Sterling Hayden plays the gruff Captain Treleaven.

Despite its reputation as a forgettable aviation drama, Zero Hour! isn’t that bad. Perhaps not great but better than its reputation. Rotten Tomatoes gives it some disrespect. And if you have seen Airplane!, you by and large have already seen Zero Hour! But give it a watch anyhow. ASMR 3.5.

While the City Sleeps (1956)

Pretty women are being murdered and the new head of a newspaper (Vincent Price) uses the story to fuel a competition to select the new Editor in Chief. Dana Andrews’ Ed Mobley isn’t interested.

The three competitors are George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, and James Craig. Sanders plays the high class charmer rather than the magnificent cad he is so adept at. Some may know Mitchell as a fantastic character actor with a knack of appearing in some great films, including Stagecoach, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), It’s a Wonderful Life, and Gone With the Wind. Craig also appeared in films. His character has an inside track on the position.

Ida Lupino is something of a free agent, offering assistance to Sanders but for her own reasons. John Drew Barrymore is our villain, more famous as John’s son and Drew’s dad, although apparently not much of one. Silent film star Mae Marsh makes an appearance. She has a ton of screen credits.

Typical of Fritz Lang, there’s a whole lot going on here. Hero Dana is dealing with his relationship with pretty Nancy while schooling the police and reporters on how to investigate a crime. The murders sometimes seem to be of secondary importance.

While the City Sleeps is a pretty good crime drama. While lacking in mystery, it’s an interesting watch from start to finish. It should be noted that not a whole lot of action seems to happen while the city is sleeping. AMRU 3.5.

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

Obsessed with putting the pinch on a big time hood, Detective Mark Dixon (Dana Andrews) sometimes steps over the line. When investigating the murder of a whale, he accidentally bumps off the suspect. He covers up his mistake and becomes infatuated with a witness (Gene Tierney).

Based on the novel Cry Night and not the Shel Silverstein poem, we are treated to a dangerously unstable protagonist. Demoted for shaking down suspects, he seethes with anger and daddy issues. Tierney’s Morgan is the sweet girl with a taste for bad men. Both starred in 1944’s Laura and their characters share some similarities.

Gary Merrill is our decongestant-addicted mister big. He played a very different character this same year in All About Eve. There he got his comeuppance when he decided to marry Bette Davis. In real life, that is. What was he thinking? Smooth, smart, and ruthless, he makes for an excellent villain. Karl Malden is the straight-laced detective, but let’s talk about screenwriter Ben Hecht.

Hecht has writing credits on 135 films (according to IMDb) ranging from Hitchcock to horror, Marx Brothers to Gone With the Wind. He had his hands on so many films, so many great films (and some stinkers too) that he deserves his own keyword. I’ll need to find a bio of him someplace. His characters are rich and the dialog rings true. He has two academy awards and four other nominations.

With attitude and atmosphere, Where the Sidewalk Ends is an excellent film. Again, well written background characters leave an impact. The diner owner almost deserves a film of her own. Not often recognized in the top of the genre, it deserves to be in the conversation. It is better than some that are. AMRU 4.

“Look at ya! You're all bunged up like a barrelhouse vag!”

Ball of Fire (1941)

Nightclub singer Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) must hide out until the heat is off her gangster boyfriend (Dana Andrews). She stumbles upon a group of professors (NNNNNERRRRRDSSSSS!!) working on an encyclopedia, and they want her help studying modern slang. The cops would never think to look for her there. Will love bloom?

Much of the story makes no sense but it doesn’t matter. It is just a framework for the fish out of water to fall in love with the head nerd … I mean professor (Gary Cooper). The seven other professors are modeled after the seven dwarfs, presumably with Stanwyck as Snow White and Cooper as the prince. Billy Wilder wrote the story prior to the release of the Disney movie and in one shot a marquee can be seen showing the Disney flick.

Because the plot revolves around our nerds … I mean professors trying to learn modern slang, the dialog is chuck full of exaggerated or completely made up terms, sounding silly or awkward. This is to heighten the sense of the other fish being out of the other water. Unfortunately our two leads didn’t show much on-screen chemistry. Maybe because their characters were from such different universes or maybe because Cooper acts with all the panache of an uncooked potato. Plus, the 40ish never-been-kissed Cooper looked old enough to be 34ish year old Stanwyck’s dad.

Some prolific character actors make up the the seven dwarfs, most notably S.Z. Sakall from Casablanca and most recently Christmas in Connecticut. Also here is the prolific Charles Lane, whose career spanned from the early 30’s until the mid 90’s. If ever you needed a grumpy lawyer, he was your man. His docket is even longer than Ian Wolf’s, whom I detailed recently. Between the two they appeared in almost 700 movies and TV shows, with only a half dozen titles in common, maybe because they played similar character types.

I wanted to like this film a bit more but I simply didn’t buy either character actually falling for the other. There were funny parts and Stanwyck was as charming as ever, but I have yet to see Cooper in something I liked. That said, mom would have enjoyed it. AMRU 3.

Curse of the Demon (1957)

Dana Andrews said prunes ... oh, nevermind.

Shortly after Columbia released Night of the Demon in the UK, they released it as "Curse of the Demon" in the US. But could they leave well enough alone? Noooooo. They had to edit it. Somewhere along the way I got the impression that the American version was hacked up, shortened, edited for content, and tinkered with. I have no clue where I got that impression. But it was wrong.

We Americans are funny with Christianity. Some in the fold see threats everywhere, especially in Hollywood. I suppose I put one and one together and presumed that the edited version purified matters for our tender eyes and ears. The day after I watched Night I watched Curse. I noticed a couple scenes were shortened, conversations abbreviated, and one scene missing. But the film, for the most part, was intact.

The twelve deleted minutes were simply an attempt to tighten up a few scenes. I saw no hint of editing for content. If given my druthers, I would absolutely choose the original. The movie did not need shortening, but the harm was minimal.

Oh, and the reason for the name change? Studio execs didn't want to confuse it with Night of the Iguana. Not sure if they meant the story that was published nine years earlier or the movie that was released seven years later. Had this been the full version, I'd have given it a higher rating, but it isn't, so AMRU 3.

"You could learn a lot from children. They believe in things in the dark, although we tell them it's not so. Maybe we've been fooling them."

Night of the Demon (1957)

"Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes, and passing them used lots of skills."

Tenth movie referenced in the song Science Fiction/Double Feature. Eight down, three to go. Has it really been nine months since my last?

On my first attempt to decipher that line I concluded that runes rimes with prunes and skill rimes with thrill from the following stanza and that's it. But on closer inspection ... well, let's say this may be the cleverest line of the song.

Dana is Doctor John Holden, no-nonsense American scientist. He flies to England to take part in a paranormal psychology conference that is investigating satanic cult leader, Julian Karswell. Dr. Holden doesn't believe in such nonsense and intends on exposing Karswell as a fraud.

Holden learns that his colleague Professor Harrington is dead, but he has a hot young niece (Peggy Cummins), which is just as good. Maybe better, nudge nudge, wink wink. Anyhoo, The Amazing Karswell tries to convince Holden to stop the investigation and that he has real power (which seem to be competing agendas), but Sensible Holden won't have any of it.

Well, Holden does some poking around, Karswell does a little hokus pokus, and it seems our hero has three days to live. Karswell slips a paper with ancient runes on it to the good doctor and that will cause a demon to appear and go munch munch. How ever will he ever escape?

I was prepared to be annoyed with the movie. I've had a relative tell me once that all religions other than Christianity were devil worship and I saw this movie moving the same direction. Ancient, pre-christian gods became Christian demons. But it spent no time worrying about such matters. Instead it spun a great tale. The story, the acting, the script, everything was done well. No draggy parts, no weak ending, no fatal flaws. Except maybe for the demon. The original idea was to not show it and leave it's reality up to the audience. Then they decided that maybe being eaten by a giant muppet would be better. So it goes.

Still, it's an excellent film. AMRU 4.5.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Veterans returning from World War II faced difficulties adjusting back to normal life. Huh. All this time I thought only 'nam vets had that problem.

This story documents three returning vets, a crippled young sailor unsure how his handicap will be received by his family and girlfriend, an older flier who seems to not have many skills apart from bombing, and an older Sargent who barely recognizes his own kids. The three meet when they share a transport plane home.

Homer Parrish is a sailor who's hands were burned off in a fire during WWII while doing a training exercise. He was played by Harold Russell, who's hands were burned off in a fire during WWII while doing a training exercise. Funny how life imitates art ... or is the other way around? Despite not being able to act, Russell won two awards for the same role.

Homer has two hooks for hands and gets very upset when everyone looks at him funny. Cathy O'Donnell, his equal as an actor, plays girlfriend Wilma. Hoagy Carmichael plays his uncle Butch. Homer copes by getting blind, stinking drunk.

Dana Andrews is officer war hero Fred Derry. He was a big shot in the war but now learns he has no marketable skills on the outside. To make matters worse, the hoochie mama wife of his (Virginia Mayo, who went on to marry Cody Jarrett) doesn't see the point in being married to a war hero if she can't parade him around town every night of the week. Ah, trouble in paradise. Derry copes by getting blind, stinking drunk and making passes at girls much to young for him.

Fredric March is Sargent Al Stephenson, banker. He returns to the bank to learn that his new job is to deny loans to servicemen. He has two children, the forgettable Rob and the hot Peggy (Teresa Wright). His wife is played by Myrna Loy, who earned the nickname The Perfect Wife because of this role. In real life Myrna was married and divorced four times and never had children. Myrna had top billing because she was considered the greatest female actor of all time. Al copes by getting blind, stinking drunk.

This movie reminds me a little of Cavalcade (1933) in that the subject matter touched a nerve with the audience. But unlike Cavalcade, The Best Years of Our Lives stands up to the test of time. The acting was better, the script was better, the subject matter was better, it was all around better storytelling. Seldom in old movies do you see an unflinching treatment with something like a disabled veteran. Russell's handicap was in no way glossed over.

Also touched on is the controversy of using atomic weapons and conspiracy theories about the war. They had the luxury to touch on these topics as the movie was over two hours 45 in length. For scheduling reasons I had to watch it in two separate segments a day apart, but the movie never dragged. In addition to Best Picture, it also won the academy award for best actor, supporting actor, director, editing, music, and writing. It was also nominated for best sound. I give it an AMRU of 3.5.

Laura (1944)

Several weeks ago I picked up Laura and watched about two thirds of it before it failed. I tried cleaning it without success. It wasn't due yet, but I took it back to the library hoping they could quickly run it through their cleaning machine. There was a hold on it, so instead they checked it in. The library itself had placed the hold for the purpose of maintenance. I went out of my way to select a different copy to request. Several weeks later, it arrived. I'm certain it was the exact same copy. Not flawless, but I watched it uninterrupted, with my youngest son.

Laura (Gene Tierney) is dead. Murdered in her own apartment. Dana Andrews is Detective Mark McPherson. He first interviews fussy newspaper writer Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) and learns a little about Laura. The two then visit Laura's would-be fiancee, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price) who is staying with Laura's aunt (nudge nudge, wink wink). Waldo does not like Shelby.

Through the investigation we learn that Laura was a singular individual. Beautiful, charming, talented, kind, she had it all. We wonder who could want to kill her while we learn that each suspect has a possible motive. Then, the story twists, making us reevaluate all we have learned.

Wittier than expected dialog, great acting, and a top notch story, it's hard to find fault with Laura. Webb's Waldo in particular has some great lines:

"I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom."
"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention."
"It's lavish, but I call it home."
"I should be sincerely sorry to see my neighbor's children devoured by wolves."

Price, too has some great ones:

"I don't know a lot about anything, but I know a little about practically everything."
"I can afford a blemish on my character, but not on my clothes."

The Providence Library will be showing Laura later in the month and had this disk failed, that's where I would have been. In fact, I may still. Laura was awesome. AMRU 4.5.

Gene Tierney was hot.