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    CinemaScope Four: M-G-M MOVIES Light Up the Screen
    CinemaScope Four: M-G-M MOVIES Light Up the Screen
    CinemaScope Four: M-G-M MOVIES Light Up the Screen
    Ebook367 pages4 hours

    CinemaScope Four: M-G-M MOVIES Light Up the Screen

    By John Howard Reid

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    M-G-M (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) was generally regarded as Hollywood's number one movie studio. Easily the world's largest and most glamorous, the studio, under the leadership of Louis B. Mayer, often boasted that it had "more stars than there are in heaven" under contract. This was true. By the mid-1950s, however, the movie industry found itself under serious threat from television. Hollywood's answer, spearheaded by Mayer's ally, Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox, was to invest in large-screen systems that would make the home TV screen seem puny and second-rate. Fox's CinemaScope system, initiated by "The Robe", was a huge success. M-G-M quickly followed suit. This book examines 110 of the wide-screen movies (most of them identified as CinemaScope) that M-G-M produced and/or released. Titles include Bad Day at Black Rock, Brigadoon, Designing Woman, Far From the Madding Crowd, Gigi, Guys and Dolls, King of Kings, Lust for Life, Moonfleet, The Reluctant Debutante, Rose Marie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Silk Stockings, The Swan, Viva Las Vegas; as well as Ben-Hur, High Society and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Howard Reid
    Release dateMay 28, 2011
    ISBN9781458102379
    CinemaScope Four: M-G-M MOVIES Light Up the Screen
    Author

    John Howard Reid

    Author of over 100 full-length books, of which around 60 are currently in print, John Howard Reid is the award-winning, bestselling author of the Merryll Manning series of mystery novels, anthologies of original poetry and short stories, translations from Spanish and Ancient Greek, and especially books of film criticism and movie history. Currently chief judge for three of America's leading literary contests, Reid has also written the textbook, "Write Ways To Win Writing Contests".

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      Book preview

      CinemaScope Four - John Howard Reid

      CinemaScope Four:

      M-G-M MOVIES

      Light Up the Screen

      John Howard Reid

      ****

      Published by:

      John Howard Reid at Smashwords

      Copyright (c) 2011 by John Howard Reid

      ****

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

      ****

      Original text copyright 2011 by John Howard Reid. All rights reserved.

      Enquiries: johnreid@mail.qango.com

      ****

      THE CINEMASCOPE SERIES No. 4

      2011

      --

      Books in the CinemaScope Series:

      1. CinemaScope One: Stupendous in ’Scope

      2. CinemaScope Two: 20th Century-Fox

      3. CinemaScope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge

      4. CinemaScope Four: M-G-M Movies Light Up the Screen

      Table of Contents

      A

      Action of the Tiger (1957)

      Ada (1961)

      Advance to the Rear (1964)

      Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)

      Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)

      All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)

      the Angry Hills (1959)

      Around the World Under the Sea (1966)

      Ask Any Girl (1959)

      B

      Bachelor in Paradise (1961)

      Bad Day at Black Rock (1954)

      the Badlanders (1958)

      the Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957)

      the Beat Generation (1959)

      Bedevilled (1955)

      Bells Are Ringing (1960)

      Ben-Hur (1959)

      Ben-Hur (1925)

      Bhowani Junction (1956)

      the Big Operator (1959)

      Boys’ Night Out (1962)

      Brewster McCloud (1970)

      Brigadoon (1954)

      C

      Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

      a Chorus Line (1985)

      Cimarron (1960)

      the Cobweb (1955)

      Company of Cowards [see Advance to the Rear (1964)]

      D

      Designing Woman (1957)

      Diane (1955)

      Doctor, You’ve Got To Be Kidding (1967)

      Don’t Go Near the Water (1957)

      Don’t Make Waves (1967)

      F

      Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)

      Follow the Boys (1963)

      G

      the Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)

      Gigi (1958)

      Greed in the Sun (1965)

      Green Fire (1954)

      Green Mansions (1959)

      Gun Glory (1957)

      Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)

      Guys and Dolls (1955)

      H

      Heaven’s Gate (1980)

      Hercules (1957)

      High Society (1956)

      Hit the Deck (1955)

      Home from the Hill (1960)

      the Hook (1962)

      I

      I Accuse! (1959)

      Ice Station Zebra (1968)

      Imitation General (1958)

      Impossible Years (1968)

      It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)

      J

      Jack of Diamonds (1967)

      Jupiter’s Darling (1955)

      K

      Key Witness (1960)

      Khartoum (1966)

      King of Kings (1961)

      the King’s Thief (1955)

      Kissin’ Cousins (1964)

      L

      the Last Hunt (1956)

      Legend of the Lost (1957)

      Les Girls (1957)

      the Living Idol (1957)

      Love in Las Vegas [see Viva Las Vegas (1963)]

      Lust for Life (1956)

      M

      the Maltese Bippy (1969)

      Many Rivers To Cross (1955)

      Merry Andrew (1958)

      Merry Wives of Windsor Overture (1953)

      Millionaire Droopy (1956)

      Moonfleet (1955)

      N

      Never So Few (1959)

      Night of the Quarter Moon (1959)

      O

      One, Two, Three (1961)

      P

      Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)

      the Prize (1963)

      the Prodigal (1955)

      Q

      Quentin Durward [see Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)]

      R

      Raintree County (1957)

      Reluctant Debutante (1958)

      Rose Marie (1953)

      S

      Sandokan the Great (1964)

      the Sandpiper (1956)

      the Scarlet Coat (1955)

      Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

      Seven Hills of Rome (1958)

      She (1965)

      Silk Stockings (1957)

      the Slave [see Son of Spartacus (1963)]

      Sleeping Beauty (1959)

      Some Came Running (1959)

      Son of a Gunfighter (1965)

      Son of Cleopatra (1965)

      Son of Spartacus (1963)

      the Subterraneans (1960)

      the Swan (1956)

      Switzerland (1955)

      Swordsman of Siena (1962)

      T

      the Tarnished Angels (1957)

      the Tartars (1961)

      Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957)

      Tea and Sympathy (1956)

      the Tender Trap (1955)

      10,000 Bedrooms (1957)

      This Rebel Age [see the Beat Generation (1959)]

      Torpedo Run (1958)

      2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

      V

      the Venetian Affair (1966)

      the Vintage (1957)

      Viva Las Vegas (1963)

      W

      Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968)

      the Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)

      the Wonders of Aladdin (1961)

      M-G-M’s CinemaScope Movies List 1: Feature Films

      M-G-M’s CinemaScope Movies List 2: Cartoons

      --

      "George Addison and G.A." are pen names for John Howard Reid, who (with the full approval of the editors) submitted film reviews to two ostensibly rival weekly newspapers (they were actually owned by the same firm) through the 1950s and 1960s.

      --

      Action of the Tiger (1957)

      Van Johnson (Carlson), Martine Carol (Tracy), Herbert Lom (Trifon), Gustavo Rojo (Henri), Anthony Dawson (security officer), Anna Gerber (Mara), Yvonne Warren (Katina), Helen Haye (the countess), Sean Connery (Mike), Pepe Nieto (Kol Stendho), Norman MacOwan (Trifon’s father), Helen Goss (farmer’s wife), Richard Williams (Abdyll).

      Director: TERENCE YOUNG. Screenplay: Robert Carson. Based on the 1955 novel by James Wellard. Photographed in Technicolor and CinemaScope by Desmond Dickinson. Film editor: Frank Clarke. Art director: Scott MacGregor. Music: Humphrey Searle. Sound recording: Sash Fisher. Producer: Kenneth Harper.

      Copyright 1957 by Loew’s Inc. A Claridge Film Production, released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at Loew’s neighborhood cinemas as the lower half of a double bill with Jailhouse Rock: 19 November 1957. U.S. release: August 1957. U.K. release: 22 September 1957. Australian release: 21 November 1957. Running times: 97 minutes (Australia), 93 minutes (U.K.), 91 minutes (U.S.A.).

      SYNOPSIS: Hero enlists Albanian bandits to help rescue the heroine’s dad from a Communist jail.

      COMMENT: Very attractive location photography distinguishes this somewhat slackly acted and none too briskly directed adventure yarn. In fact, the movie rates as somewhat disappointing, considering the talents involved. Both the screenplay and the movie itself really needed even sharper editing than that given the 91-minute American version. Van Johnson himself put up half the money to make the film, but I very much doubt of he received any dividends. [Not at present officially available on DVD, although there are poor quality non-’Scope copies floating around on VHS].

      --

      Ada (1961)

      Susan Hayward (Ada), Dean Martin (Bo Gillis), Wilfrid Hyde-White (Sylvester Marin), Ralph Meeker (Colonel Yancey), Martin Balsam (Steve Jackson), Frank Maxwell (Ronnie Hallerton), Connie Sawyer (Alice Sweet), Larry Gates (Joe Adams), Charles Watts (Al Winslow), Robert S. Simon (Warren Natfield), Mary Treen (club woman), Ford Rainey (speaker), Gene Roth (oath minister).

      Director: DANIEL MANN. Screenplay: Arthur Sheekman, William Driskill. Based on the 1959 novel by Wirt Williams. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Joseph Ruttenberg. Art directors: George W. Davis and Edward Carfagno. Film editor: Ralph E. Winters. Costumes designed by Helen Rose. Music conducted by Robert Armbruster. Assistant director: Al Jennings. Sound recording: Franklin Milton. Producer: Lawrence Weingarten. An Avon Production.

      Copyright 1961. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 25 August 1961. U.K. release: floating from October 1961. Australian release: October 1961. 9,730 feet; 108 minutes. [The Warner Archive plan a DVD release in 2012].

      SYNOPSIS: While campaigning for the governorship of a southern state, Bo Gillis, a folksy politician, falls in love with and marries, Ada, a reformed prostitute, whose dubious background alarms both Bo’s press agent, Steve Jackson, and his political advisor, Sylvester Marin.

      COMMENT: Despite its name cast, this movie seems to be totally forgotten today. True, it’s a curate’s egg of a picture, and not one that’s likely to send Dean’s fans into raptures. He sings a snatch of a song right at the beginning and that’s it as far as Dino’s harmonizing is concerned. His performance is great, but halfway through he drops out of the action for quite a spell while Susan Hayward takes control.

      And what a naïve perspective the scriptwriters have of legislature procedure as Susan is sworn in as lieutenant-governor! And director Daniel Man’s relentless use of Hayward close-ups (even in tracking shots) doesn’t help either.

      Nonetheless, Wilfrid Hyde-White has a field day. Admittedly, his dialogue is the sharpest and most interesting in the picture. Maybe he brought his own writer along to the set. Maybe he wrote it himself. In a lesser role, Ralph Meeker’s fascinating performance as a slimy police chief also deserves watching.

      As said above, Ruttenberg’s superb cinematography is often wasted on ineffective close-ups, but CinemaScope does come to the fore in some of the location set-ups in what certainly look like real government buildings and legislative chambers. These scenes, plus the cab trip and our first exposure to the executive office, give the film much-needed dramatic effectiveness plus an engrossingly taut political atmosphere. What a shame, it’s so often undermined!

      --

      Advance to the Rear (1964)

      Glenn Ford (Captain Jared Heath), Stella Stevens (Martha Lou), Melvyn Douglas (Colonel Claude Brackenby), Jim Backus (General Willoughby), Joan Blondell (Jenny), Andrew Prine (Private Owen Selous), Jesse Pearson (Corporal Silas Geary), Alan Hale (Sergeant Beauregard Davis), James Griffith (Hugo Zattig), Whit Bissell (Captain Queeg), Michael Pate (Thin Elk), Yvonne Craig (Ora), Chuck Roberson (Monk), Bill Troy (Fulton), Frank Mitchell (Belmont), J. Lewis Smith (Slasher O’Toole), Preston Foster (General Bateman), Harlan Warde (Major Hayward), Allen Pinson (Private Long), Sugar Geise (Mamie), Linda Jones (Junie), Britta Ekman (Greta), Paul Langton (Major Forsythe), Charles Horvath (Jones), Mary LeBow (Mary), Joe Brooks (Bannerman), Richard Adams (courier), Eddie Quillan (Smitty), Paul Smith, Barnaby Hale (lieutenants), Harvey Stephens (General Dunlap), Robert Carson (Colonel Holbert), Janos Phohaska (flag pole sitter), Clegg Hoyt, John Day (loafers), Towyna Thomas (Law and Order League), Sailor Vincent (deckhand), Bob Anderson (steamer captain), Gregg Palmer (gambler), Kathryn Hart, Ann Blake (League ladies), Peter Ford (townsman), Ken Wales (lieutenant aide).

      Directed by GEORGE MARSHALL. Screenplay by Samuel A. Peeples and William Bowers. Story by Jack Schaefer. Suggested by the 1956 Saturday Evening Post story Company of Cowards by William Chamberlain. Music by Randy Sparks, played and sung by the New Christy Minstrels, adapted and conducted by Hugo Montenegro. Director of photography: Milton Krasner. Photographed in Panavision. Art direction: George W. Davis and Eddie Imazu. Set decoration: Henry Grace, Budd S. Friend. Special visual effects: J. McMillan Johnson. Film editor: Archie Marshek. Assistant director: William McGarry. Hair styles by Sydney Guilaroff. Make-up supervision: William Tuttle. Recording supervisor: Franklin Milton. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A Ted Richmond Production.

      Additional credits: Camera operator: Alfred Lebovitz. Assistant camera operators: Paul Koons, Owen Marsh. Assistant film editor: Leonard Lieberman. Songs: Company of Cowards, This Ol’ Riverboat, Today, Whistlin’ Dixie, Anything Love Can Buy, Ladies, Company Q Whistle March, Way Down in Arkansas, Brackenby’s Music Box, Charleston Town by Randy Sparks, all played and sung by New Christy Minstrels. Script supervisor: Cleo Anton. Men’s wardrobe: Frank Beetson, Lee Plunkett, Luster Bayless. Women’s wardrobe: Sylvia Posner. Make-up artists: Lynn Reynolds, Terry Miles, Ed Butterworth. Hairdresser: Agnes Flanagan. Gaffer: Wesley Shanks. Head grip: Hank Forrester. Property master: Dick Neblett. Wrangler ramrod: Dick Webb. Dialogue director: Harold Clifton. 2nd assistant director: George Marshall Jr. 3rd assistant director: Jack Barry. Sound boom operator: A. Murray Jarvis. Sound recording: Walter Goss. Sound mixer: Paul Kamp. Westrex Sound System.

      Copyright 31 December 1963 by Ted Richmond Productions. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening as the top half of a double bill with Mail Order Bride: 10 June 1964. U.S. release: 15 April 1964. U.K. release: 11 January 1965. 97 minutes. [The Warner Archive plan a DVD for 2012].

      U.K. release title: COMPANY OF COWARDS (cut to 86 minutes).

      Spoiler Alert! COMPLETE SYNOPSIS: During the Civil War a Union Army general officer has a comfortable encampment and a pleasant agreement with the enemy: every morning his company fires at them, they fire back, and no one gets hurt. When finally he is ordered to attack, his horse bolts and charges to the rear with the infantry following. As punishment for his apparent cowardice, he is put in charge of a company of misfits and sent west to Indian Territory. Through an error, the fact that his unit is replacing one that is protecting Union gold has been overlooked. The men journey westward by riverboat and are joined by a group of camp followers led by Easy Jenny and including Martha Lou Williams, a Confederate spy. A romance develops between Martha Lou and Captain Jared Heath, though he perceives her devious purpose. Her efforts to obtain information, while retaining her virtue, produce a result in which the misfits lose their horses, their pants, and the Union gold to a group of renegades. Undertaking a countercharge in their long underwear, they then lose their weapons, but using their eccentric talents to defend themselves, they save the gold by building and using a catapult.

      NOTES: Jack Schaefer expanded Chamberlain’s short story into a novel Company of Cowards which was published in 1957. The property was acquired by producer Charles Schnee as a vehicle for Hugh O’Brian. M-G-M inherited the package and announced on 11 April 1957 that Rod Serling would write the screenplay. He didn’t!

      COMMENT: Good entertainment (70%). The cast was appealing — who could resist Stella Stevens and Melvyn Douglas? Glenn Ford was at his most amiable and the support cast including Australia’s Michael Pate (was his voice dubbed?) as a villainous Red Indian, was delightful (did you spot Eddie Quillan in an uncredited though sizable bit as a Confederate corporal?); we also liked Alan Hale’s easy-going impression of a conscience-stricken sergeant and James Griffith’s glumly philosophical man-who-has-his-price. However, Joan Blondell’s admirers will be disappointed by the smallness of her part. The script is amusing enough — it has some lively situations and witty dialogue. George Marshall’s direction is capable and there is a jocund music score which cleverly adds to the humor of almost every scene.

      --

      Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960)

      Eddie Hodges (Huckleberry Finn), Archie Moore (Jim), Tony Randall (the king), Patty McCormack (Joanna Wilks), Neville Brand (Pap Finn), Mickey Shaughnessy (the duke), Judy Canova (sheriff’s wife), Andy Devine (Carmody), Sherry Jackson (Mary Jane Wilks), Buster Keaton (lion tamer), Finlay Currie (Captain Sellers), Parley Baer (Grangerford man), Josephine Hutchinson (Widow Douglas), John Carradine, Dean Stanton (slave catchers), Dolores Hawkins (river boat singer), Sterling Holloway (barber), Minerva Urecal (Miss Watson), Royal Dano (sheriff), Sam McDaniel (servant).

      Director: MICHAEL CURTIZ. Screenplay: James Lee. Based on the 1884 novel by Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Ted McCord. Film editor: Frederic Steinkamp. Art directors: George W. Davis and McClure Capps. Music: Jerome Moross. Songs: Burton Lane, Alan Jay Lerner. Producer: Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.

      Copyright 1960. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at Loew’s: 3 August 1960. U.S. release: May 1960. U.K. release: 14 August 1960. Australian release: 24 December 1960. 9,612 feet; 106 minutes. [Warner Archive plan a DVD for 2012].

      SYNOPSIS: Hannibal, Missouri, 1840s. Daredevil youngster runs away from home.

      COMMENT: Taking a leaf out of his father’s book, producer Samuel Goldywn, Jr., has spared no expense in bringing Huckleberry so artistically and excitingly to the big screen. Odd that this version has slipped into obscurity, because it’s undoubtedly the best of the batch. Not only is the familiar story given fresh life by a first-rate cast, but Curtiz and McCord have imbued the movie with exactly the right atmosphere. A great music score and superb art direction help too. Who could forget such scenes as the deserted river-boat, tilted at a crazy angle, lapped in the green slime of the swamp, its lantern swinging horribly in the room of death; or that on board the steamer as Finlay Currie expounds in his beautifully resonant voice the splendor and treachery of the Missisippi?

      --

      Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955)

      Robert Taylor (Quentin Durward), Kay Kendall (Isabelle), Robert Morley (Louis XI), Alec Clunes (Burgundy), Marius Goring (de Creville), Wilfrid Hyde White (Master Oliver), Ernest Thesiger (Lord Crawford), Harcourt Williams (bishop of Liege), Duncan Lamont (de la Marck), Laya Raki (Gypsy dancer), George Cole (Hayraddin), Eric Pohlmann (gluckmeister), Michael Goodliffe (Count de Dunois), John Carson (Duke of Orleans), Nicholas Hannen (Cardinal Balue), Frank Tickle (Petit-Andre), Moultrie Kelsall (Lord Malcolm), Billy Shine (Trois-Eschelles).

      Director: RICHARD THORPE. Screenplay: Robert Ardrey. Adapted by George Froeschel from the 1823 novel by Sir Walter Scott. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by Christopher Challis. Film editor: Ernest Walter. Art director: Alfred Junge. Costumes designed by Elizabeth Haffenden. Music: Bronislau Kaper. Sound recording supervisor: A.W. Watkins. Producer: Pandro S. Berman.

      Copyright 1955 by Loew’s Inc. An M-G-M picture. U.S. release: 21 October 1955. New York opening at the Mayfair: 23 November 1955. U.K. release: 26 March 1956. Australian release: 11 April 1956. Sydney opening at the St James. 9,011 feet. 100 minutes.

      U.S. and Australian release title: QUENTIN DURWARD.

      SYNOPSIS: Refusing to marry her aged suitor, a duke’s ward flees to the king.

      NOTES: M-G-M embarked on a movie version of Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe in 1952. (This marked the first time any Scott novel had been filmed since way back in 1923). Its enormous box-office success prompted Quentin Durward. Both these films were directed by super-fast, economy-conscious Richard Thorpe, who also turned his hand to M-G-M’s first CinemaScope production, Knights of the Round Table (1953). These three movies all share two other features— they were all lensed in England and all starred Robert Taylor.

      COMMENT: Knighthood is indeed in full flower in this handsomely produced, energetically directed adaptation of Sir Walter Scott’s classic novel of a Scottish swordsman’s adventures at the French court. Mind you, Robert Taylor is certainly no Scot, but he plays the role with such dash and finesse, it really doesn’t matter that his accent is all wrong for the part. And he’s helped out by a truly wonderful support cast, including the lovely, high-spirited yet suitably vulnerable Kay Kendall in an ideal role, and Robert Morley perfectly at home as the crafty king.

      Except for one unfortunate scene (the rape of the monastery), director Richard Thorpe and screenwriter Robert Ardrey keep a nice balance between adventure and comedy. With the exception of this one scene, the film maintains the right flavor of derring-do and then comes to a really fine action climax in a blazing bell-tower, which really knocked us blasé critics right out of our seats. The sets and color ’Scope photography are most attractive. Whatever, you do, don’t bother to see this movie in a non-’Scope print. An excellent ’Scope DVD is available from Warner Archive.

      --

      All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)

      Robert Wagner (Chad Bixby), Natalie Wood (Salome), Susan Kohner (Catherine), George Hamilton (Tony), Pearl Bailey (Ruby), Jack Mullaney (Tinker), Onslow Stevens (Joshua Davis), Virginia Gregg (Mrs Davis), Anne Seymour (Mrs Bixby), Addison Richards (McDowell), Mabel Albertson (wife), Louise Beavers (Rose).

      Director: MICHAEL ANDERSON. Screenplay: Robert Thom, suggested by the 1957 novel, The Bixby Girls, by Rosamond Marshall. Photographed in Eastman Color and CinemaScope by William H. Daniels. Film editor: John McSweeney. Art directors: George W. Davis and Edward Carfagno. Costumes designed by Helen Rose. Producer: Pandro S. Berman. Assistant director: Al Jennings. An Avon Production.

      Copyright 1960. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Criterion: 22 September 1960. U.K. release: May 1960 (sic). Australian release: 29 August 1960. 10,990 feet; 122 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Physically and mentally scarred by the cruelty of his clergyman father, Chad Bixby turns to Salome, the hard-working daughter of poor and puritanical Joshua Davis; but she rejects him and flees to New York, where she marries a playboy student.

      COMMENT: Even a few songs from Pearl Bailey and a few snatches of hot trumpet-playing cannot save this hoke. All four principals are both uninspired and unconvincing. The plot is a tired amalgam of trite clichés, and director Anderson (who has slipped a long, long way from his peak with Around the World in 80 Days) seems as utterly bored with the absurdly melodramatic proceedings as we are. Ludicrous, preposterous and utterly ridiculous, this movie is every bit as boring as its catchpenny title suggests. I’m glad to say that no DVD is available at present, but beware if it does hit the stores in the future.

      --

      the Angry Hills (1959)

      Robert Mitchum (Mike Morrison), Elisabeth Mueller (Lisa), Stanley Baker (Konrad Heisler), Gia Scala (Eletheria), Theodore Bikel (Tassos), Sebastian Cabot (Chesney), Peter Illing (Leonides), Leslie Phillips (Ray Taylor), Sir Donald Wolfit (Dr Stergiou), Marius Goring (Colonel Oberg), Jackie Lane (Maria), Kieron Moore (Andreas).

      Director: ROBERT ALDRICH. Screenplay: A.I. Bezzerides. Based on the 1955 novel by Leon Uris. Photographed in CinemaScope by Stephen Dade. Film editor: Peter Tanner. Art director: Ken Adam. Music: Richard Bennett. Producer: Raymond Stross.

      Copyright 1959 by Raymond Stross Productions. Released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. New York opening at neighborhoods: 15 July 1959. U.K. release: 8 March 1959. Australian release: 4 June 1959. 9,461 feet; 105 minutes.

      SYNOPSIS: Wounded by a Nazi collaborator, a war correspondent in 1941 Athens, flees to the hills.

      COMMENT: This confused and muddled tale of espionage in war-torn Greece, is the result, Aldrich claims, of savage cutting and mutilating by producer Stross after shooting had been completed. This would certainly explain the totally inept concluding sequences, but not the general slackness and lack of suspense throughout the last hour or so of a rather rambling yarn. (Even an attempt to tighten the movie still further has worked no magic. The print under review runs 97 minutes).

      Some of the acting is best described as hesitant. Aldrich states in a rather roundabout way (he blames himself rather than the actor) that Mitchum was totally uncooperative, although it is really only in the last third of the movie that Mitchum suddenly decides to stop taking direction. Up to that point, he is quite acceptable. Perhaps he simply lost confidence in the script. Indeed, until the sudden introduction of Elizabeth Mueller, the screenplay is one of Bezzerides’ best. The plot deploys some memorable characters and out-of-the rut dialogue. I particularly enjoyed Marius Goring’s brilliant portrait of a punctilious, hypochondriacal German major who dreams of a little man as big as his thumb.

      The first half of the movie is all directed in an appropriately bravura style. A swinging light in a museum sequence, heralds a really breath-catching chase scene. The interrogation sequence with Baker running his finger along the map, the night raid and the execution episodes are also prime examples of Aldrich’s masterly directorial flair.

      No DVD version is available as we go to press.

      --

      Around the World Under the Sea (1966)

      Lloyd Bridges (Dr Doug Standish), Shirley Eaton (Dr Maggie Hanford), Brian Kelly (Dr Craig Mosby), David McCallum (Dr Phil Volker), Keenan Wynn (Hank

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