The Savage Innocents (1960)

This is not a family film. This is not a movie you would see on a date-night or enjoy with friends. This is a movie you would most likely watch by yourself when you are in the mood for a docudrama ...or if you just happened to catch it late at night on television. I can't imagine sitting in a theater enjoying it; unless you are a couple who walked into a dark theater to neck and stayed to watch the film through. 

The narrow potential audience of The Savage Innocents made it a risk for producer Maleno Malenotti so, to cut his chances of having a complete box-office failure on his hands, he decided to put a Hollywood "name" on the marquee - Anthony Quinn. This as an unfortunate move because the film is about "the savage innocents" - Eskimos. It is about their social and living habits: how they hunt, how they build, how they mate, dance, eat, fight, feel and their viewpoints on birth and death. This is quite fascinating and, if The Savage Innocents was an Omnimax presentation, it would be a memorable documentary....but the Eskimo himself is what would make this film special, not a white man playing the part of an Eskimo. Especially not a tall, Italian-American such as Quinn. The Eskimos were indeed a savage but innocent race of people and innocence cannot be feigned. Anthony Quinn couldn't pull it off and, unfortunately, that one flaw turns what would be an otherwise enjoyable docudrama into an pretentious Hollywood production. 

The cinematography in The Savage Innocents is magnificent. It was filmed on location in northern Canada and Greenland and the second unit film crew captured the striking raw beauty of the arctic territory in sweeping wide vista shots, filmed in Super Technirama 70. Angelo Francesco Lavagnino's music is lovely, too, but these aspects were not enough to save the picture. 

Stateside, The Savage Innocents froze at the box-office. Director Nicholas Ray (Rebel without a Cause, Johnny Guitar) co-scripted the film which featured a simple story but one that allowed him to stamp with his personal touches. Ray loved movies that dealt with social issues and this film certainly had issues. 

The story follows the life of Inuk (Anthony Quinn), a lonely Eskimo who is anxious for a mate. Male Eskimos generally would accept any woman as a wife, but Inuk finds favor with Imina. Before he has a chance to pay her mother Hiko (Anna May Wong) for her hand in marriage, another man, Kiddok, weds her. Hiko offers her other daughter Asiak (Yoko Tani) to Inuk but he is enraged and decides to persue Kiddok to get his woman back. He takes Asiak and her mother with him on the journey so that he can trade them for Imina when he finds Kiddok, but by the time he reaches Kiddok he realizes he wants Asiak for his wife after all. 

Inuk, Asiak, and her mother, then journey on, continually following the nearest source of food to hunt and building igloos along the way. At nights, Inuk and Asiak "laugh" together (have sex) and in the day Inuk hunts. 

Inuk's hunting is another reason this film found disapproval among some critics and its audience. The film, an Italian-French-Anglo co-production, did not flinch from showing the plight of animals at the hands of Eskimos. Before the credits even roll, a polar bear is shown happily swimming in the water when a spear is thrown off-camera and it suddenly dies. This production cannot claim that "animals were not harmed in the making of his film". It is indeed savage. 

For Eskimos, however, hunting was - and is - their only means of survival and, as the narrator exclaims in one scene, "[they accept] without bitterness Nature's eternal tragedy: that the flesh must perish so that the flesh might live." They sacrifice their old and injured and sick to the animals of the land so that the animals may live and one day be food for others. This is what becomes of Hiko, who willingly waits to become food for a hungry polar bear. 

When they stop at a white man's settlement, Inuk offers his wife to a missionary in a gesture of kindness, but the white man is shocked by this and Inuk accidently kills him in their ensuing argument. According to Eskimo law, Inku committed no crime but in the law of the white man, he is a murderer. After Inuk leaves to return to his land, two troopers (Carlo Giustini and Peter O'Toole) are sent to pursue him and bring him back to "civilization" for execution. 

This finale of the lawmen chasing the criminal throughout the Arctic added excitement to the film, but once again, it featured some visually disturbing scenes that could have been omitted. The Wild North (1953), featuring a similar plot set in Canada, is a better film.

As one of the troopers, Peter O'Toole gave a memorable performance in his first screen role. If his distinguished English voice sounds different than usual, it is because he was dubbed by an Italian who was attempting a gruff American accent. He plays a determined law-enforcer but his notion of what is right and wrong is tested when Inuk saves his life. 

The Savage Innocents is one of those films that could have been something wonderful but falls short. Real Eskimos should have been cast in the leads and the animal slayings need not have been shown on camera. Nanook of the North (1922) and MGM's Eskimo (1933) featured unknown Inuit actors in the lead roles and both were profitable at the theaters so, in spite of Bob Dylan's praise of "The Mighty Quinn", his presence in this film was unnecessary. 

The Savage Innocents is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and also by streaming via Amazon Prime.

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

"The game is afoot!" 

It is the summer of 1887 and Sherlock Holmes is lamenting the lack of any decent crime that might stimulate his brilliant mind. "There are no great crimes anymore, Watson! The criminal class has lost all enterprise and originality." In his morning mail, he receives a telegram asking for his help in locating six missing midgets from a circus, which he promptly dismisses. It is not until a cabby brings a bedraggled-looking woman to the doorstep of 221B Baker Street that Sherlock turns away from his seven-per-cent solution of cocaine to take interest in a case that will become one of his rare failures and ultimately be written down in Dr. Watson's private memoirs of the great detective. 

Gabrielle Valladon is the mysterious woman who arrives on his doorstep one evening. She was rescued from the river after someone attempted to drown her and has a minor lapse of memory. Watson suggests she stay the night and by morning she is recovered and accounts to Holmes her predicament. It seems that her husband, a mining engineer by the name of Emile, has disappeared. For the past year, she has been writing to and receiving letters from an address that she has just discovered is an empty building. 

This intrigues the private detective enough to warrant a visit to the building. Together with Mrs. Valladon and his faithful companion Dr. Watson, Holmes discovers some baffling clues at the site...namely, an old woman in a wheelchair who collects the mail and a cage of canaries. These insignificant but intriguing findings only hint at the adventure ahead for the trio, a case that will lead them into the heart of Scotland and to an encounter with Queen Victoria herself! 

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a marvelous film by director Billy Wilder. It captures all of the excitement of Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories and yet it is an entirely new adventure penned by Wilder himself and screenwriter A.L. Diamond, who also produced the film. The story incorporates all of the elements one would hope to find in a Sherlock Holmes film adaptation, plus some added surprises...such as midgets and the Loch Ness monster.

Our titular hero is played by Robert Stephens (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) who does an excellent job of portraying the arrogant yet highly appealing detective. Stephens played an amateur detective in an episode of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes one year later, but never returned to don the deerstalker again which is a shame since he plays Holmes so well. 

Colin Blakely costars as the loyal Dr. Watson. His characterization of Watson differs from any of the actors who played Watson before (Nigel Bruce, Howard Marion-Crawford, Nigel Stock, etc.). Blakely's Watson is impetuous and slightly comical and he often gets frustrated that Sherlock does not confide in him as much as he would like. The relationship between Holmes and Watson in this film reminds me of Danger Mouse and his faithful friend Penfold in the Danger Mouse series. Poor Penfold was often left in the dark about the cases they were working on, too. 

The lovely but mysterious Mrs. Valladon is played by French actress Genevieve Page. Holmes is quoted by Watson as having said that "women are never to be entirely trusted, not the best of them", an observation based on previous experiences. Yet he trusts Mrs. Valladon - and once again regrets it. 

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes also includes the characters of Mrs. Hudson (played by the inimitable character actress Irene Handl) and Sherlock's brother Mycroft, played by Christopher Lee. Years later, Lee himself would star as Sherlock in a series of television films.

Billy Wilder had a tendency to stretch out his productions till they were overly long and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is no exception. The film features a sequence at the Royal Ballet in London where Holmes meets a Russian prima-donna who wants to marry him so that she can have "brilliant babies". It probably was meant to amuse and address Watson's feelings towards Holmes and their living arrangement, but the entire sequence was unnecessary and bore no relation to the mystery that Holmes eventually embarks on. The scene could have been cut entirely and replaced with a bit of dialogue referring to the incident instead. 

However, aside from this minor flaw, the film is excellent in so many ways. Miklos Rozsa composed a beautiful score for the picture which was based on a 1953 concerto of his that Billy Wilder favored - Violin Concerto Opus. 24. Tony Iglis' art direction is simply stunning, the costumes (by Julie Harris) are wonderful, and the cinematography by Christopher Challis (The Small Back Room, Arabesque) is lovely, as is the color tone of the entire film, which was shot in Cinemascope. Billy Wilder rarely made films in color so this is a treat for him and for the audience and one that he should have indulged in decades earlier. 

Irene Dubrovna in "Cat People" (1942)

The Classic Movie Blog Association is hosting the Blogathon and the Beast blog event this week. This theme gives us bloggers a chance to write about a film character who has a beast within themselves. 

All of us have a sleeping beast within who, hopefully, never awakens in our lifetime. As the old saying goes, "Let sleeping dogs lie." I always had the notion that my sleeping dog was the Beast of Jealousy which, thankfully, has never had cause to open its eyes. 

Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) in Cat People (1942) was not so fortunate. She had what I believe was the Beast of Jealousy within her and, one afternoon, an unexpected encounter at the zoo began a chain of events that caused this sleeping dog (or rather, cat) to wake. 

Irena was a sketch artist for a fashion design company. She had an apartment that was a short walk away from the New York City Zoo, and she enjoyed spending her afternoons there sketching the animals...namely, the resident panther. 

One day at the zoo, she meets Oliver (Kent Smith), a marine engineer, and within a few hours, they become romantic friends. 

Unlike most of us who are unaware of our inner beasts, Irena knows very well what hidden danger may be inside her. She tells Oliver a story about a certain group of evil people from the village in Serbia where she came from. They were known as "cat people" and were, supposedly, pushed back from her village by King John quite a long time ago. However, Irena always feared she may have been an ancestor of these people, and her suspicion is later confirmed when, on her and Oliver's wedding night, a mysterious woman greets her as one of the "cat people".

The cat people destroy the ones they love. Like real felines, they are averse to strong displays of affection, especially if it creates an unwanted bond of dependency. Irena believes that if she were to kiss Oliver, she would have to kill him, and so months pass with their marriage unconsummated. Meanwhile, Oliver grows more and more apart from Irena and her obsession with this belief in "old folklore". He turns to Alice, a longtime friend and coworker, for advice and, later, for comfort. 

This arouses Irena's feelings of her "inner cat" even more and one evening she follows Alice home. She begins by walking a good distance behind Alice but shortly she takes on the physical appearance of a cat - a panther - and actually stalks Alice like prey. 

"There is, in some cases, a psychic need to loose evil upon the world. And we all of us carry within us a desire for death. You fear the panther; yet you are drawn to him again and again. Could you not turn to him as an instrument of death?"

Larry Talbot in The Wolf Man (1941) went into a mental fog when he transformed into the wolf and he was afraid he would harm someone unknowingly while he was a wolf. Irena's transformation is quite different. She seems to be well aware of whom she is stalking and attacking as a panther. 

Irena is quite a shy and gentle woman by nature and dreads having a duel-personality, especially one that is an animal. She willingly agrees to undergo psychiatric treatment to be cured of this belief, but at the same time seems to take pleasure in her predicament and clings to it. Typical feline complexity. 

In one eerie scene, she follows Alice to the indoor pool of her apartment complex at night and prowls and growls in the shadows around the pool. After Alice screams and others come into the pool room, Irena transforms back into her human self and innocently remarks "I'm sorry I disturbed you, Alice. I missed you and Oliver. I thought you might know where he is." Clearly, she was enjoying herself. 

Irena's cat personality may not have been entirely a beast of jealousy but this emotion was a strong trigger for it to come forth into the physical realm. Thank goodness the evil nature we sometimes suppress, be it ever so small, does not take the physical form of an animal. Although... dating back to ancient times, people's inner personalities were referenced in relation to animals. In Western and Chinese astrology, human character traits are linked with animal counterparts. And all of us, at some time or another, refer to others as animals.... "He's like a timid mouse"... "She's like a frightened rabbit". But how strange it would be to see these animal natures take form! 

Irena had no control over her unusual situation. Whether she wanted to be a cat or not, she became one. She was just an innocent victim of presumably an ancient gypsy curse in her village. Sadly, her husband Oliver thought her fear of being transformed into a cat was only a problem of her mind...an issue he later got bored with when it made him unhappy. At one point, Irena was willing to cast aside her fears and superstitions and concentrate on being a good wife to Oliver, but by that time it was too late. Oliver now loved Alice and Irene was then more than willing to unleash her inner beast....knowing very well it meant her death. 

The Hour of 13 (1952)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios always had a flair for making period films, especially those with a Victorian setting.....and they made quite a number of them, too. Being quite a savvy production company, they also discovered that a good script is worth repeating. Hence, many of the Victorian-era thrillers that the studio made in the 1930s and 1940s were later remade. One such film was The Mystery of Mr. X (1935) which they remade in 1952 under the title The Hour of 13. 

Robert Montgomery starred in the original film as dapper gentleman thief Nicholas Revel. A killer known as "Mr. X" is on the loose in London targeting police constables. By a strange coincidence, his latest killing occurred the same night and in the same location as one of Revel's latest robberies. In order to clear his name, Revel decides to play an amateur detective and track down the fiend himself, all the while dodging the suspicious eye of Police Commissioner Sir Herbert Frensham (Henry Stephenson). 

The Mystery of Mr. X was based on the novel "X vs Rex", written by Philip MacDonald (The List of Adrian Messenger). Howard Emmett Rogers worked it into a quick and thrilling script and MGM had another winning Robert Montgomery picture in the theaters. 

What works once can work again, hence, seventeen years later, producer Hayes Goetz blew the dust off the script and hired screenwriter Leon Gordon to rework it into a vehicle for MGM's young star, Peter Lawford. What resulted was a charming gaslit London mystery that holds up quite well for its age. 

This time, Nicholas Revel is tracking down the killer known as The Terror. The police - primarily Inspector Connor (Roland Culver), believe that if they find the thief who stole Lady Elmbridge's emerald, they find the Terror. Since Revel stole the emerald, he wants the real Terror caught before they fence him in for a series of murders he did not commit. 

The Hour of 13 was made at the MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, England and, while there are not many location scenes, the film sets are excellent and perfectly evoke that Jack-the-Ripper setting of old London. 

Peter Lawford is not my idea of a gentleman thief (Stewart Granger would have been excellent in this part) but he is surprisingly good. In fact, it would have been nice to see him in a series of Nicholas Revel mysteries. Playing his leading lady is English actress Dawn Addams who had a long career with MGM and an even longer career working in television. Also in the cast is Michael Hordern as Sir Henry Frensham, Derek Bond, Leslie Dwyer, and Colin Gordon. 

The Hour of 13 is available on DVD via Warner Archives.

Riverboat (1959-1961)

On September 13, 1959, an entertaining new television series called "Riverboat" set sail on the small screen, taking viewers on a journey into the American frontier of the mid to late 1840s. This one-hour show, produced by Revue/Universal, aired on NBC on Sunday nights.

Week after week, little kiddies and their western-loving parents followed the characters and crew aboard The Enterprise as they traveled up and down the Mississippi and Ohio rivers ferrying passengers to their destinations. 

Darren McGavin starred as Captain Grey Holden, a kindly but rugged seaman who owned the 100-foot-long sternwheeler known as The Enterprise. Unlike Star Trek's Enterprise, this vessel wasn't boldly going where no man had gone before...but many of its passengers were seeking out a new life in new lands. In fact, the focus of the series was on the passengers who changed from week to week (as passengers on a ship are apt to do). This clever premise allowed for great flexibility in storylines and for the inclusion of guest stars, which the series had plenty of. Jeanne Crain, Eddie Albert, Russell Johnson, Mona Freeman, Vincent Price, Cliff Robertson, Vera Miles, Anne Baxter, Debra Paget, Richard Carlson, and George Kennedy all booked passage on the boat during its two-season run. 

In addition to its great cast, Riverboat had a marvelous theme song penned by Elmer Bernstein. Bernstein must have loved this theme quite a bit because he reworked most of its closing segment into The Magnificent Seven, made the following year. 

The Enterprise was often churning the muddy waters of the Mississippi, but in later episodes, it tended to steer westward on the Missouri which gave the writers an opportunity to include more tried-and-true western scenarios involving Indian attacks and settlers. 

Some critics called the series "Wagon Train on water" since the steamboat, though a central element, served as little more than a backdrop to the different characters and storylines that were introduced each week. While all of these were entertaining, they left little room for developing the series regulars, which included a young Burt Reynolds as pilot Ben Frazer, Dick Wessel as engineer Carney, and William D. Gordon as crewman Joe Travis. In the episode "The Face of Courage", Joe gets killed in an Indian attack and is written off the series (quite unusual for the time) and, in that same episode, Jack Lambert and little Michael McGreevey join the cast. 

Darren McGavin was always good at interacting with children, so the addition of Michael McGreevey as cabin boy Chip lent Captain Holden a more fatherly image...plus it gave the younger viewers a character they could relate with. Later in the series Burt Reynolds left and Noah Berry Jr. came aboard as Captain Bill Blake, a new co-owner.  

Riverboat was a well-written series overall and had some engrossing episodes, many of which involved the lady loves of the Captain, who cut quite a dashing figure. He had won The Enterprise in a poker game but he was very proud of the vessel and of his position as captain. Most of the episodes had him defending his passengers from river ruffians and dangerous criminals. 

Riverboat chugged along throughout its first season run with good ratings even though it had some formidable competition against Maverick on ABC and Lassie and The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS. Eventually, the series ran aground when it was moved to Monday night and Riverboat's producer Boris Kaplan decided to make Captain Holden more hard-nosed in the second season. 

FAVORITE EPISODES 

The Unwilling (Season 1, Episode 5)

Eddie Albert guest-stars in this episode as Dan Simpson, a merchant eager to open up a general store in the West, but a gang of river pirates are set on stealing his merchandise. Debra Paget also stars. 

The Boy from Pittsburgh (Season 1, Episode 11)

A stowaway overhears a plot to sabotage the engine room of the Enterprise but no one believes him since he lied before one too many times. Mona Freeman and Tommy Nolan star. 

Strange Request (Season 1, Episode 13)

An actress - Jan Sterling - charters the Enterprise to head to an abandoned trading post where she retrieves a boy being held by river pirates. 

Three Graves (Season 1, Episode 26)

The captain and his crew encounter a bubonic plague epidemic at one of the towns that they dock in. Beverly Garland stars as a woman doctor trying to help the residents. 

To read more about Riverboat and the making of the show, check out the book Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series by S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler. 

Rewind Review: Those Were the Days ( 1940 )

William Holden displays the good ol' Siwash spirit of horseplay in Paramount Pictures minor wisp of nostalgia Those Were the Days set in the fictional college of Siwash at the turn of the century. 

After getting himself in a scrape that ought to land him six months in jail ( the film proves that collegians were wild hooligans even in 1904 ), Petey Simmons ( Holden ) ardently woos the judge's daughter in order to win favor with her pop ( Vaughn Glaser ) when it comes time for the sentence to be ruled. The hapless youth finds his weasel of a plan backfires when he falls in love with the sparkling lass, played by Bonita Granville. 

Squeaky-voiced Ezra Stone, famous for portraying Henry Aldrich on radio and later directing The Addams Family series, provided ample support to Holden and his hi-jinks. Also cast were Judith Barrett, William Frawley, Richard Denning, and Alan Ladd in a flash one-line part. Those Were the Days aka Good Ol' Siwash was based on the popular Siwash stories written by Knox College alum George Helgeson Fitch.

To promote the film, Paramount's publicity team strapped Jeanne Cagney and William Henry in a 1902 runabout and set them off puttering to a gala hosted by the Los Angeles Horseless Carriage Club.

William Holden started his career at Paramount where he was one of the members of the studio's "Golden Circle" of young players in 1938, along with Susan Hayward, Betty Field, Robert Preston, Patricia Morison, Ellen Drew, Louise Campbell, William Henry, and Evelyn Keyes. Columbia Pictures borrowed Holden for Golden Boy and then returned him to Paramount a star. 

Those Were the Days gave Holden his first star billing and a chance to demonstrate that winsome charisma that would soon launch him to stardom. Alas, that's about all it did. Unlike the splendid A Yank at Oxford ( MGM, 1938 ), the film failed to capture a love for the college nor sympathetic support for its hero. Theodore Reed's direction was sluggish from the start and the script could have used a greater dose of humor and wit. Today, Those Were the Days is forgotten along with good ol' Siwash University. 

This post was originally published on Silver Scenes in July 2014. 

Derby Day ( 1952 )

May is known in the sporting world as Derby season and taking place this evening is one of the most popular derby races in America, the 149th Kentucky Derby. If you are like most classic film fans, you will probably be enjoying a good horse-racing film tonight to tie in with the Derby. It may be The Story of Seabiscuit, Riding High or National Velvet ( check out our post Horse Racing Films of the 1940s and 1950s for other titles )....but if you want a treat that is slightly different than your usual Hollywood fare, look no further, for we have a title for you: Derby Day ( 1952 ).

Derby Day is a marvelous British ensemble drama starring Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding and a host of popular British actors from the era. The story focuses on four different groups of people, all of whom are attending the famous Derby Day race at Epson Downs. Unlike some ensemble pieces that keep all of the stories separate, Derby Day has the different groups interact with one another at the race, which is rather nice to see. 

First, there is Google Withers who is in a right good pickle. She was carrying on an affair with her lodger ( John McCallum ) when her husband returned from work early and caught them together. McCallum gives him a kick and the poor bloke takes a nasty tumble backwards down the stairs. They quickly hide his body and then McCallum heads to Epsom Downs to contact a man whom he knows can "fix it" so that he can escape from England before the police catch him. 

Michael Wilding is attending the race to make some sketches for a newspaper, but he really has another reason for wanting to go. The taxi he is traveling in happens to break down on the road there and he is kindly offered a lift by Lady Forbes and her brother-in-law ( Anna Neagle and Edwin Styles ). They eventually find that their lives are intertwined more than they had realized. 

Peter Graves plays Gerald Berkeley, a hammy film star, who is attending the race because he was "won" in raffle. The old woman who won a Day-with-a-Film-Star sprained her ankle and so her young and pretty French maid, Suzanne Cloutier, is taking her place....much to the delight of Mr. Berkeley. 

Lastly, Gordon Harker and Gladys Henson play a taxi-cab driver and his wife who have talked about attending Derby Day in person for the past 40 years but never had an opportunity until today. 

Each of these characters is well-developed and their happenings at the race are highly entertaining. It could have been written in such a way that Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding's characters took center stage and the other stories were not as enjoyable, but instead, they are equally engrossing. Every three or four minutes the focus changes between the characters so you never tire of any of the couple's dramas.

Derby Day was the last of six films that Neagle and Wilding were paired in, a pair that critic Godfrey Winn deemed "the greatest in British films". All of their pictures were produced and directed by Neagle's husband Herbert Wilcox, who also had his own highly successful Herbert Wilcox Productions company. 

Most horse-racing films give you a look at the jockeys, horses, and all of the drama behind the scenes, but Derby Day doesn't cover any of that. It is unique because it is all about the people, the atmosphere of the Derby Day race at Epsom, and the general feeling of excitement of attending a race like that in person. 

So if you are not attending the 149th Kentucky Derby this evening and want to savor the excitement of a day at the races ( even one spent looking at the tele ), then give Derby Day a try. It is available via streaming online or on DVD from Network Distributing. 

Note: In the U.S., Derby Day was released under the title Four Against Fate.

Edge of Eternity ( 1959 )

Savage suspense spans the granite gorge! 

So heralds the poster for Edge of Eternity, a taut mystery thriller set in the midst of a decaying mining town in Arizona in the late 1950s. 

The opening scene plays out like an episode of the television series Perry Mason: An elderly businessman parks his car at the very edge of the Grand Canyon. He brings out a pair of binoculars and, just as he is beginning to look through them at something below, a large burly younger man jumps from behind the rocks and attacks him. The two wrestle, but it is the younger man who topples off the cliff to his death. 

Later, Deputy Sheriff Les Martin (Cornel Wilde) receives a phone call from Eli, the watchman of a closed-down gold mine. The businessman is in his office, sputtering something incoherently. Les is on his way to the mine when he witnesses a speeding driver and takes off in pursuit of it. The driver is Janice Kendon (Victoria Shaw), the daughter of the mine's owner. He writes her a ticket, but in the time he spent doing so, the businessman is murdered! This begins a strange series of killings, all committed in very different ways. The community leaders want action and Les and his boss, Sheriff Edwards (Edgar Buchanan), find themselves under increasing pressure to solve the crimes.

Edge of Eternity is not a well-known title, even among Cornel Wilde fans, yet it is an engrossing little thriller and deserves to be more frequently aired on television. The story seems like a plot from a 1970s made-for-TV mystery, but thankfully it was given a much better treatment here by director Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry). 

This Columbia Pictures release was filmed in Eastmancolor in Arizona with the vast panoramic landscape of the Grand Canyon providing a parched yet picturesque backdrop to Knut Swenson and Richard Collins' noir-style screenplay, which keeps you guessing to the very end who the killer may be. 

Red herrings abound in the form of suspicious glances and double-entendre dialogue from supposedly trustworthy characters; the number one suspects being Janice's brother Bob Kendon (Rian Garrick) and Sheriff Edwards himself, admirably played by Edgar Buchanan. 

Buchanan played in a wide array of films in a career that spanned nearly 35 years. Most of his characters were lovable rascals with a streak of mischief in them, a role epitomized in Uncle Joe in the long-running Petticoat Junction series. He was also a familiar face in Westerns, one of the most famous being Shane (1953), where he played homesteader Fred Lewis. Yet, Buchanan was much more capable an actor than his Uncle Joe character would have you believe. 

Sheriff Edwards appears to be such a likable guy. Les is indebted to him for giving him a second chance after a botched murder investigation wrecked his career as a policeman. He not only trusts him but sees Edwards as a father figure, a man he can lean on for support and advice, both personally and professionally. Edwards is just an all-around likable fellow. But gosh, he says so many little things that get you wondering whether Les' trust in him is not misplaced. Credit for his character being so ambiguous could go to the screenwriters but I believe Buchanan's portrayal of Sheriff Edwards is what really makes this work. 

Reliable Cornel Wilde also gives a good performance. For years he starred in swashbucklers and other period films, always playing a hero with clean morals. In Edge of Eternity, he plays a knight-in-shining-armor as well, but one of the laid-back modest variety, garbed in the uniform of a kindly deputy. Les takes a fancy to the rich and reckless Janice and, not surprisingly, he quickly wins her heart. In the climactic finale, he risks his life for her fighting with the killer in a cable car suspended high atop the Grand Canyon. This nail-biting scene is what Edge of Eternity is best known for and it is an excellent cap-off to a fine mystery thriller. 

Also in the cast are Alexander Lockwood as Janice's father, Mickey Shaughnessy as a bartender, Tom Fadden, and Jack Elam in a brief role. 

Edge of Eternity is available on DVD as part of Columbia Classic's Movies on Demand series and is also available in a stunningly restored Blu-Ray edition from Twilight Time. 

This review is our contribution to the Shades of Shane Blogathon being hosted by Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy. Be sure to visit her blog to check out other film reviews featuring actors who starred in the classic western Shane. 

Rewind Review: Me and the Colonel ( 1958 )

"In life, there are always two possibilities...."

It is quite common to find a film that begins terrifically, loses a bit of its appeal midway through and then flounders at the end. But it is rare to find a film that begins slowly and then gets better and better until it reaches its climax. This is because screenwriters desire to "hook" their audience within ten minutes through a compelling script. Me and the Colonel is one of those rare films that fall into the latter category of having a slow beginning. Yet, one cannot say that it does not feature a compelling script. Quite the contrary; Me and the Colonel is wonderful entertainment.

Danny Kaye stars as Jacobowsky, a Polish Jew who flees from town to town throughout France trying to avoid the Nazis - as this takes place at the beginning of WWII. He is a clever and extremely resourceful man, a practical survivor. He uses people and situations to help provide him with the tools and opportunities to make his escapes. It is during his attempt to flee Paris that he meets Colonel Prokoszny ( Curt Jurgens ), a proud and stubborn Polish officer, and his aide Szabuniewicz ( Akim Tamiroff ). 

Jacobowsky is reluctant to use the colonel in his escape plan since he is unapologetically anti-semitic and extremely unhelpful. However, as the colonel is Jacobowsky's only chance, he uses him to drive the car that will take them to southern France and to safety in Spain. Their flight from the Nazis is immediately complicated when the colonel "goes the wrong direction" and heads north into German-occupied territory to rescue his mistress Suzanne ( Nicole Maurey ). The colonel has a penchant for getting them into trouble and it is left to Jacobowsky to continually use his inherent wiles to rescue them from one scrape after another along their journey.  It is through Jacobowsky and the colonel's ordeal together that they manage to form a bond of friendship that transcends their differences. 

"You have one of the finest minds of the 12th-century"

Danny Kaye was a marvelous actor. His skill at drama was often hidden behind the humorous masks of the characters he played. Me and the Colonel leans more towards drama than comedy and Kaye does not play Jacobosky for laughs. The publicity department at Columbia Studios attempted to warn Danny Kaye fans who were expecting zany comedy and tongue twisters that "Kaye pulls a switch". It was an uncharacteristic role which he played with impressive ease....and won a Golden Globe for his endeavor.

Jacobowsky has such a beautiful soul and it is so appealing to watch him unfold the various layers of his character throughout the film. Suzanne recognizes what a rare individual Jacobowsky is and is lovingly drawn to him. He - and the audience - are left to wonder whether she feels a romantic attachment to him or simply honors him for his noble character. 

I have always been amazed at how well Danny Kaye was able to play the romantic. Perhaps it is because we expect him to be the clown that his moments of displaying genuine warmth are all the more touching. Me and the Colonel features one of the sweetest love scenes he ever did. Tucked away in a French palace during a thunderstorm, he confesses his love to Suzanne and the predicament he feels he is in due to his loyalty to the Colonel. Not revealing what she feels, she simply asks him if he would like to dance and there, on the beautiful marble floor of the palace, they waltz. 

                           

"More and more I like this Jacobowsky"

Me and the Colonel was nominated for Best Motion Picture at the 1959 Golden Globes and at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. It was based on a play by Franz Werfel ( "The Song of Bernadette" ) and S.N Behrman ( "The Pirate" ) that played for 417 performances on Broadway in 1944 with Louis Calhern, Annabella, Oskar Karlweis and Edward Bromberg as the four intrepid escapees. 

It is a light-hearted but thought-provoking drama generously sprinkled with humorous dialogue. Touches of espionage and the serious undertone of its setting make it reminiscent of Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not To Be ( 1942 ) and Howard Hawks' I Was a Male War Bride ( 1949 ). 

                           

Curt Jurgens, who almost always gives a top-notch performance, overdid it in this role and his performance of Prokoszny borders on buffoonery. Yet, he redeems himself at the end of the film and we catch a glimpse of a more tender-natured colonel. Prokoszny is stiff-necked and ego-maniacal but nonetheless endearing. Jacobowsky is willing to give up his life for this man and understandably so. He is courageous and fiercely loyal. The colonel's aide shows equal loyalty to him, as does Suzanne, even though she knows very well that he had affairs with women in every city he stopped at.

"In the cathedral of my heart, a candle will always burn for you!"

The lovely French actress, Nicole Maurey, is always a delight to watch. She is perhaps best known for appearing opposite Bing Crosby in the post-war drama Little Boy Lost ( 1953 ) and for her part in The Day of the Triffids ( 1963 ) where she was once again fleeing France for the Spanish border. 

Me and the Colonel features beautiful location filming throughout France and a great supporting cast which includes Alexander Scourby, Françoise Rosay and the marvelous Martita Hunt in a brief part as a nun who aids our heroes in their escape. 

This post ( originally posted in 2019 ) is our contribution to The Danny Kaye Blogathon being hosted by Poppity Talks Classic Films. Danny Kaye is known for his comedic work but this film showcases his skill as a dramatic actor as well and so it is well worth spotlighting in a celebration of Danny Kaye's life. We hope you enjoyed it! To read more reviews of Danny Kaye films be sure to check out the blogathon here. 

The Family Way ( 1966 )

The Family Way is one of those films that you have probably heard a lot about but never bothered to watch, thinking it to be just a routine British drama. But it is not routine. And it is worth watching. The plot may sound simple, certainly not something one would build a film around, and yet it is deceptively rich. This is because the characters are so well created and so very well performed. 

Playwright Bill Naughton's tale focuses on a working-class family in England. Arthur Fitton ( Hywel Bennett ) has just married his childhood sweetheart Jenny ( Hayley Mills ) and they are both looking forward to taking their honeymoon in Majorca. Unfortunately, the travel agent absconds with their money and they find themselves starting their marriage in the upstairs room of Arthur's parents' house...where the walls are "paper thin". Arthur is a sensitive young man and he finds it difficult to make love in a house where one can hear every whisper. So he sits and listens to Beethoven while Jenny patiently waits for him to come to bed. Their marriage remains unconsummated several weeks later and Arthur and Jenny begin to feel frustrated - for different reasons. Jenny feels she may not appeal to Arthur and Arthur thinks something must be wrong with himself. Their struggle with arousing sexual urgings generates much of the humor of the story but it also stirs up revelations from Arthur's parents about their own marriage which leads into the real heart of the story. 

John Mills and Marjorie Rhodes give stellar performances in the role of Arthur's parents, Ezra and Lucy. The Frittons are an everyday family from Yorkshire with Papa Fritton going off to work each morning leaving his wife to tend to the washing and cooking. Arthur works, too, but, unlike his father, he does not spend his free time in pubs drinking with his friends. He is a loner who would rather spend time at home reading and listening to his records. This clash in personalities has made Arthur feel distant from his father and closer to his mother. 

The Frittons have another son, Arthur's younger brother Geoffrey ( Murray Head in a non-singing role ). Geoffrey is not like his father either but this does not seem to bother Ezra much, perhaps because he is not the eldest. Ezra wants Arthur to be a man and his quiet interests make him worry that Lucy's gentle upbringing of the lad has made him queer. 

Surprisingly, when Jenny's parents come to the Fritton's house for a private talk "about Arthur", we discover that Ezra's friendship in his youth with an old pal named Billy may have looked strange to outsiders as well. After all, how many newlywed men take along their best friend on their honeymoon?

Lucy's recollections of her unorthodox first days of marriage bring up memories best forgotten. This old friend, Billy, who "suddenly left" one day without a word may have meant more to Ezra and Lucy than both are willing to admit. 

Ezra's final line "He looked just like Billy" ( speaking of Arthur as he was leaving ) makes one wonder whether Arthur even was Ezra's son at all, and not Billy's. Naughton's script gives the audience only vague hints about the Frittons' past, which lends the story a richness that would have been spoilt had all been revealed. 

The Family Way began as a television play ( titled Honeymoon Postponed ) by Bill Naughton for ABC's Armchair Theatre in 1961. Naughton later adapted it into a theatrical play that premiered in 1963 with Bernard Miles in the role of Ezra Fitton. John Mills happened to catch this performance and was so enthralled with the part that he went backstage hoping to discuss purchasing the film rights as a vehicle for him and his daughter. He was told that the Boulting brothers and an American had already purchased the rights. Roy Boulting had hoped to make the film with Peter Sellars in the lead but after the project was put on hold for several years, he contacted John Mills, who was tickled pink and considered it to be "the best part I've had since Hobson's Choice". 

Indeed, it was. Mills gave a wonderful performance of a lower working-class father whose thoughts and ways are quite different from his more sensitive son. Marjorie Rhodes deserves equal credit for a powerfully understated performance. Also excellent are the two young leads. Hayley Mills, whose acting always standouts, looks especially lovely in this film. Perhaps it was the glow of a young woman in love captured on film ( Mills was having a romance with The Family Way's director Ray Boulting at the time ). 

Hywel Bennett was relatively new to film but had experience in theater. The success of The Family Way led to a contract with British Lion films and two more pictures opposite Hayley Mills ( Twisted Nerve and Endless Night ). Roger Ebert called Bennett "one of England's best young actors" in 1969. Today, he is best known for his role as James Shelley in the popular sitcom Shelley ( 1979-1984 ) and for his voiceover work for the British Rail television adverts of the 1980s. Also in the cast are Liz Fraser, Avril Angers, John Comer, and Barry Foster. 

In addition to its empathetic script and fine performances, The Family Way is noted for its soundtrack, particularly its theme song by Paul McCartney. It is George Martin who really deserves credit for creating the score, having just a 15-second piano piece from Paul to work with. He turned a simple tune into a beautiful and subtle score. 

You can watch The Family Way for free on Tubi ( via Roku or online at tubitv.com ) or on DVD. 

Take a Girl Like You ( 1970 )

If you were to look for a summary of Take a Girl Like You, you would probably find a plot description labeling it as a sex comedy because it is....well...about sex. But oddly enough, it does not fit into that genre at all. There are hardly any bedroom scenes ( certainly nothing graphic ) and not much comedy either. It is more of a drama that talks about sex and virginity. Not my usual cup of tea.... and yet, I found it quite appealing. 

Hayley Mills is one of the main reasons this film came off as enjoyable. Another actress may not have been able to convincingly play a virgin with morals. That is what Take a Girl Like You is really about: morals regarding pre-marital sex. 

Hayley Mills stars as Jenny Bunn, a new schoolteacher in town. She meets Patrick, an art teacher ( Oliver Reed ), whom she is attracted to even though she knows that he likes to "play the field". When he invites her to his apartment one evening ( and not to look at his sketches ), she surprises him by telling him she is a virgin and intends to stay that way until she marries. Patrick wants to bed her and so he goes on with a lot of debates about how "nobody cares about that" anymore and such. Jenny obviously cares and - if Patrick cared for her - would respect her views, but this isn't a film about respect. It is just about Patrick trying to have "it" with Jenny.

There is not much in the plot worth building a script around. Even the fluff surrounding this basic plot ( which includes her landlord trying to run for a labor party ) does not have much substance...and yet, the film was still entertaining. 

Perhaps it was the location scenery. Take a Girl Like You was shot in and around Middlesex in southeast England and we get a glimpse of an average working town of the late 1960s. 

Or perhaps it was the music. The peppy opening theme was sung by The Foundations who were one of the biggest British soul bands of the era. The music for the picture was scored by Stanley Myers who, in spite of the unfamiliarity of his name to most people, penned quite a bit of film and television music from the 1950s-1980s. 

It certainly had nothing to do with Oliver Reed being in the film. He was never my idea of a leading man and a more handsome and engaging fellow, such as Michael Caine, would have made this story much more entertaining. Noel Harrison's presence in the film helps quite a bit. The rest of the supporting cast was made up of familiar British character actors: John Bird, Sheila Hancock, Penelope Keith, and Aimi MacDonald. 

Take a Girl Like You was based on the 1960 Kingsley Amis novel of the same name. Director Jonathan Miller thought that "it was probably one of Amis' best novels but there were a lot of things to be said against filming it." Indeed, Miller felt like he had lost control of the filming as it progressed and it ultimately turned into a critical and commercial flop. 

That is not surprising. It is not the kind of film you would watch with your family or even your spouse. In fact, I cannot picture dating couples attending the film in 1970 and walking out of the theater with smiles on their faces...and yet, if you watch it by yourself, it keeps you entertained. In fact, I may just watch the film again this week. 

Take a Girl Like You is available for streaming on Tubi or, if you want to hear some insightful commentaries, on Blu-ray DVD. 

The Yellow Rolls-Royce ( 1964 )

Rex Harrison, Shirley MacLaine, and Ingrid Bergman head up the all-star cast of The Yellow Rolls-Royce, a colorful anthology film of three stories linked together by a sparkling 1931 Rolls-Royce Phantom II. 

The opening segment shows the first owner of the beautiful Rolls, the Marquess of Frinton ( Rex Harrison ) purchasing the car as an anniversary present for his wife ( Jeanne Moreau ) who, unbeknownst to Lord Frinton, is engaging in an affair with his attaché John Fane ( Edmund Purdom ). When he spies them together in the Rolls...back it goes to the dealer!

Years later, the Rolls turns up in a showroom in Italy where it catches the fancy of Mae Jenkins ( Shirley MacLaine ), the "fidanzata" of big-time mobster Paolo Maltese ( George C. Scott ). He is giving his lady-love the grand tour of Italy but, when he is called back to America to "settle a score with O'Leary", she ends up having a grand time herself with the amoral photographer Stefano ( Alain Delon ). 

Lastly, the Rolls becomes a transport bus for mercenary soldiers in Yugoslavia when the snooty but socially prominent Mrs. Millett ( Ingrid Bergman ) decides to aid a rebel ( Omar Shariff ) in his fight against the Nazis. 

The Yellow Rolls-Royce was one of only a few anthology films to be released in the 1960s. This was a style of storytelling more frequently seen in British and American films of the 1940s and 1950s ( e.g. Encore, Tales of Manhattan ). These kinds of films are entertaining when all three segments are equally engaging but when one segment is boring it tends to pull the entire film down. In The Yellow Rolls-Royce, the last segment featuring Mrs. Millet is the weakest, even though it is the only segment that hints that the Rolls could be of more use than just a cozy love nest. 

Terrance Rattigan's script tries to include a little adventure and romance in each segment but it ends up leaning heavily on the side of romantic drama. This is just as well as all the leading actors were well-equipped to handle romantic drama. Rex Harrison gives an especially good performance as the jilted husband in the first story. 

The film features beautiful costumes and cinematography by Jack Hildyard ( The Bridge on the River Kwai ) with location filming in England, Italy, and Austria...which was standing in for Yugoslavia. But the most entertaining aspect of watching The Yellow Rolls-Royce is spotting all of the supporting players which included Art Carney, Joyce Grenfell ( affecting a Southern accent ), Wally Cox, Roland Culver, Isa Miranda, Moira Lister, and Michael Hordern. 

Riz Ortolani's musical score is also delightful and includes the catchy "Forget Domani" theme which was performed onscreen by his wife actress Katyna Ranieri and later made popular by Frank Sinatra. Ortolani had a huge success with his song "More" from the pseudo-documentary Mondo Cane released two years earlier. 

The Yellow Rolls-Royce received mixed reviews from critics but was a great hit at the box-office, becoming one of the top ten films of the year. MGM later released a 10-minute promotional short titled "The Car that Became a Star" which gave audiences a glimpse of the grand vehicle on the set of the film. 

The film is currently available on DVD and by streaming through Amazon Prime.