The Wasp Woman (1959)

Frumpy Janice (pretty Susan Cabot), founder of a now floundering cosmetics company, learns that her company’s troubles are caused by the fact she is older now, and thus an uggo. As luck would have it, she is contacted by an eccentric man who claims he can reverse aging using a wasp royal jelly serum. What could possibly go wrong? Consider the film’s title.

Legendary director/producer Roger Corman recently passed and I was never a fan. I've watched ten of the 46 feature films he directed and I rated none particularly high. Over the years I’ve seldom resisted the urge to cast shade his way. While I never cared for his esthetic, I must acknowledge his importance to independent cinema. The Corman Film School trained and mentored an impressive number of people. His legacy includes the names James Cameron, Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola, and Joe Dante along with almost 500 producer credits.

Pretty Susan Cabot had a fair career in B movies, many with Corman. This would be her last. Later she had an affair with King Hussein of Jordan, producing a son who suffered from dwarfism. Hussein would leave her when he learned of her Jewish heritage. She would slowly become mentally unstable, possibly because she was taking her son’s growth hormones. He would bludgeon her to death in her sleep. She was 59. And you thought Susan Peter’s story was grim. 

The Wasp Woman suffers from its budget. Cabot was laughable in her wasp costume, and the action scenes were poorly shot. But there is some amusing dialog and the depiction of the pressure on a woman in charge to keep up appearances might even be a little progressive for the time. At barely an hour long, brevity is its virtue, but it earns another meh 3.0 score.

Random Harvest (1942)

A soldier (Ronald Colman) suffering from amnesia wanders away from an asylum just as Armistice is declared. On the verge of being discovered, he is assisted by a stage actress (Greer Garson) who for some reason takes a shine to him. Love blooms, but there are complications.

Neither Garson nor Colman had particularly long careers and I had only seen one film each. But they have been in some pretty noteworthy films, a couple on my watch list. Una O’Connor makes an appearance. This is the seventh film we’ve seen her in. Reginald Owen (A Christmas Carol) and Alan Napier (Batman) have brief appearances.

Pretty Susan Peters has a problematic role and I won’t go into detail. She had a sad, short life. Already a screen veteran, twenty year old Peters was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. Three years later a hunting accident would put her into a wheelchair and end her Hollywood career. One comeback was attempted but she would shortly pass, a victim of pneumonia, depression, and anorexia. She was 31.

I don’t believe this film would have been on my radar had it not been for a young woman on YouTube, who absolutely loves it. A pure romantic film and unapologetically sentimental, Random Harvest is squarely outside of my cinematic wheelhouse. And were I to pick nits, there are some story issues. Let's just say in a world that even vaguely resemble our real one, things would not play out anything like this.

Still, Random Harvest a well written, very well acted, and beautifully shot film. Call it fluff, but it’s expertly crafted fluff. AMRU 4.

The Broadway Melody (1929)

The Mahoney Sisters, Harriet and Queenie (Bessie Love and Anita Page), move to New York to take their chances on old Broadway. Love will bloom.

We are introduced to the sisters while they move into their new apartment and get partially undressed. Harriet, oddly called Hank, gushes to sister Queenie about how beautiful she is and how much she loves her, punctuating with kissing her square on the lips. I’m not sure what the filmmakers were trying to communicate outside of standard pre-code titillation.

This seems to be the spiritual godmother of the “young women trying to make it big on Broadway” trope that was so popular in the 1930’s. This prototype isn’t as interesting as some that came later. The musical numbers are a bit tedious and the melodrama is laid on a bit thick, but it does have one thing: a Best Picture Oscar.

Young Queenie succumbs to the advances of Jacques Warriner (totally not Jack Warner) to the dismay of big sis Hank, who knows he is only interested in one thing. More interesting is that Anita Page revealed much later in life that she left Hollywood because she refused sexual advances from studio big-wigs Irving Thalberg and Louie Mayer. Life imitates art?

Broadway Melody was a huge success and spawned three sequels, not to mention inspiring Warriner Brothers' five ‘Gold Diggers’ films. (Yes, I know the Gold Diggers films were actually a remake of a silent film, but I'm building a narrative here!) And despite this being the Best Picture progenitor of the genre, it stands as the lowest rated of the lot. Tedious and melodramatic at times, but despite its flaws, it's amusing enough. AMRU 2.5.

El Dorado (1966)

Bad guy Bart (Ed Asner) tries to hire gunfighter Cole (John Wayne) to assist in stealing the MacDonald clan’s water, but Cole decides to take sides with his good buddy J.P. (Robert Mitchum), the drunken sheriff of El Dorado. After arresting Black Bart, our heroes hold up in the town jail while Bart’s gang threatens to make trouble.

El Dorado bears more than a passing familiarity with Rio Bravo, both directed by Howard Hawks. He denied this was a remake, and the inciting incidents differ, but the situation is identical and there is a one to one correlation between the principal characters of the two films.

Lou Grant playing the heavy was quite strange, but the role suited him. A young James Caan played the Ricky Nelson character. Arthur Hunnicutt (playing the Walter Brennan character) was actually three years younger than Wayne. Love interest Charlene Holt was slightly closer to Wayne’s age than Angie Dickinson. Wayne was uncomfortable about the age gap in the earlier film.

The internal logic of traditional westerns can be pretty bonkers, this being a prime example. Bart is taken into custody because he is responsible for a non-lethal shooting, but the many other killings go completely unremarked. Our heroes must hide in the jail because it is too dangerous for them to venture out, even for food, until the story requires it. The grizzled Indian fighter uses a crossbow for stealth, but carries a bugle to announce the attack. And Cole uses his guns like Homer Simpson in that one episode.

El Dorado isn’t a terribly original film, and it doesn't help that it closely resembles a much better film. And it was something of a throwback at the time. Remember, this was contemporary to the Dollars trilogy. But that’s not to say it’s not enjoyable. It was box office success. Hawks and Wayne deliver, Chinese impression, aside. AMRU 3.5.

The Age of Consent (1932)

Serious youth Michael is frustrated by the flighty behavior of his best girl Betty, who appears to be receptive to the advances of the campus alpha-douche. Events have Michael in the arms, and other places, of young waitress Dora. Come morning they are discovered, and Paw goes for the preacher and shotgun.

Memorable for the amusing dialog lampooning promiscuous college attitudes Michael’s traditional values are in stark contrast to his college peer’s but with dad’s downright Victorian views. Michael knows he must do what’s right even if it dashes all of his life’s plans.

There are themes here, but don't go thinking this is a deep film. On the topic of promiscuity, I believe it is suggesting a "moderation in all things" approach. I don't believe a deeper investigation is warranted. Future pin-up girl Betty Grable has a blink-and-you'll-miss-her scene. I had blinked.

Age of Consent is a pretty clumsy early talkie, partially redeemed by the risque theme (Dora, the sexual aggressor, is a minor) and the somewhat amusing dialog:

“You know, you'd be much nicer if you'd loosen your morals.”
“I would be much more comfortable if you would loosen your grip.”

And at 63 minutes, it also has the virtue of brevity. But this gets us only so far. It's fairly dull film. AMRU 2.5.

Downhill (1927)

After taking the blame for an indiscretion he was innocent of, young Roddy’s (Ivor Novello) life heads in some sort of negative slope analogy.

Produced directly after the success of The Lodger, Alfred Hitchcock returned to his star, Ivor Novello. Unfortunately, Downhill wasn’t nearly as successful, and it shouldn’t come as surprise. All the mystery and intrigue of the previous film was replaced with “bad stuff happens to good guy”. No mystery, no suspense.

Metadata on IMDb implies gay coding with the Roddy character, but I don't see it. Novello himself was openly gay, but I sense this is commentary on Roddy not responding to Mabel's advances. I don't see that interpretation anywhere else.

Novello is an interesting character. A bona fide matinee idol at the time, the 35ish Novello believably played a high school boy. Ah, what acting talent, pancake makeup, and grainy film stock can do. He co-wrote the play on which the film is based, along with many other plays and songs. His film career would be fairly brief, but would continue to write. The Ivor Novello Awards are still presented for songwriting and composing.

Hitch wasn’t quite Hitch, not just yet. He played with elements of visual style uncommon of the day (some of which he would later criticize) but the film is a bit of a snoozer. Not a painful watch, but not a very compelling one either. AMRU 2.5.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

A boozy couple (Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) with a complicated relationship entertain a young couple (George Segal and Sandy Dennis) after hours. Mental games are played and secrets are revealed. Will love bloom? That’s not quite right. Everyone lived happily ever after? Let’s go with “It’s complicated”.

The film has only four credited actors, and all four were nominated for Academy Awards. Liz, believably playing a woman twenty years older than herself, won her second Oscar. Sex kitten roles, by design it seems, were in her rear view mirror at this point. Dennis also won as the ‘slim hipped’ young wife too drunk to understand what’s going on.

Taylor and Burton again made it difficult on set, refusing to start work until late, not working past 6, and taking extra long lunches. As they were in every scene, it’s a wonder the film was completed.

Quite engaging for a two plus hour film mostly of just people talking. Based on the Edward Albee play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? touches themes of expectations and reality. Both couples serve as foils for each other, and maybe a vision of the future for the younger. Much is going on and much is revealed over the course of the night. And, I expect, much more to be revealed on a second viewing. AMRU 4.