A Summer Place 1959
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Films of the 1950's
“As for you Troy Donahue, I know what you wanna do!”
If you are Familiar with the ‘Notebook this is a must see this is the godfather of period thwarted teenage love ,but when they made this when it was actually based in its time, the dawning of the golden age of Camelot in American which ended abruptly with bye bye birdy and the assignation of JFK in 1963..
After 2o years of absence Ken Jorgenson (Richard Egan) comes back to Pine Island a Wealthy ,Exclusive Isolated community of the coast of Maine where he worked as a lifeguard as a teenager,Now A Millionaire he brings his family to the mansion belonging to the Hunters who’s servants quarters he used to sleep in . Now a Holiday House as the Hunters have lost their fortune Bart Hunter a chronic alcoholic ( Arthur Kennedy) is indignant at the prospect of having the former help Lord it over him, however when he arrives that is the very least of his troubles, and Old Flame between Ken and Barts Wife Sylvia (Dorothy McGuire) is rekindled and the Children of both Ken and Bart
Johnny (Troy Donahue) and Molly (Sandra Dee) fall madly in love, all Goes belly after Johnny and Molly spend the night washed overboard from a dingy alone on and island, when Molly’s Mother played Mercilessly by (Constance Ford) a morally bankrupt hypocrite , demands Molly have a Medical Examination by a doctor to see if her “Virginity” is in tact.After the examination Molly Runs away and Johnny threatens to kill Molly’s Mother because of whats shes made her daughter go through, its then revealed that Johnny’s Mother is Having an affair with Ken Molly’s dad.
The children are separated by the Lawyers the hatred for their family but Johnny and Molly Still Try to write to Each over despite that happens hoping upon hoping they will meet again someday.
This Film had Risque Dialogue and Subject matter for 1959 including infidelity, divorce and premarital sex , and you still feel for the who you consider to be the good people in this case the adulterous married lovers, and despise the morally superior and upper Middle Class for their greed and their selfishness .
The only things people will remember (if anything at all) about this film if the popular theme by Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind) and a little song from grease called ‘Look at me Im Sandra Dee” The Film may seem like a soap in all its 1959 CinemaScope glory , but it still has the desired affect,you do feel for Johnny and Molly and what terrible consequences brought the two together
and you hope against hope nothing will pull them asunder
Tags: Alcoholism, Based off Novel, Divorce, Forbidden Love, Infidelity, Lost Love, Love for Children, Love Triangle, Marriage, Max Steiner
Mildred Pierce 1945
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1940's
Mink Clad Murder
Mommie Knows Best…..
In time middle of the night in a beach house on the upper side of town shots ring out, The Dead Man crys out……..Mildred!……and falls to the floor its seems an open and shut case,,,,but what really happened?
Mildred Pierce (Joan Crawford Strange Cargo)a housewife spoils her daughters Especially the eldest while husband Bert looks over the fence for some afternoon delight while his buddy Wally Fay(Jack Carson’A Star is Born) trys to get is paddle in(In Vain) . They soon divorce, leaving Mildred to raise the girls on her own. Elder postwar class driven daughter (Biatch)Veda (Anne BlythThe Great Carouso) goads her mother about their lack of money and in response Mildred proposes opening a small restaurant. one thing leads to another,and she becomes incredibly successful and even love seems to be around the corner, but money soons starts to by love in the manner of clothes, education, and payoffs all of which leads to the beginning of the film in classic noir style .Also in the cast a wonderfull sardonic Eve Arden (Grease) is the wise cracking sidekick to joan crawford to give humor to this black film.
Its only that sort of mother loving that Joan Crawford can deliver…….
What Price a Mothers Love ?
Tags: Alcoholism, Based off Novel, Divorce, Gun, james m cain, Joan Crawford, Love for Children, Love Triangle, Marriage, Max Steiner, Mother Daughter Relationship, Murder, Noir, Rise and Fall, Self Made Woman, Self Sacrifice
The Woman in White 1947
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1940's
Credited as the First Real Mystery Novel and the inspiration for the writing style of Bram Stoker’s ”Dracula” The Woman in White is an Elaborate adaptation of Wilkie Collins’ 1800s novel Directed by peter Godfrey (”The Two Mrs Carrolls”, Hotel Berlin”)
Down and out drawing instructor Walter Hartwright ( Gig Young who won an oscar for ”they shoot horses dont they” 1969)
Walking up the driveway to his new house of residence , runs into a Pale panic stricken woman with dark circles under her eyes dressed entirely in White(Eleanor Parker) she Begs for his protection upon hearing someone coming she dissapers, Hartwright soon encounters a Count Fosco (Sydney Greenstreet’ Casablanca/ Maltese Falcon), a guest at the house looking for a woman whom he says has escaped a mental institution and seeks to bring her care,Hartwright denies seeing her and enters the house , The next morning he meets one of the two girls he is in charge of teaching only to see she is the very vision of the trouble woman he had meet on the drive the night before , a woman named Laura Fairlie , he soon falls for her but unknown to him she is already engaged to be married to a morally bankrupt character named Sir Percival Glyde (John Emery). Marion Holcombe the other girl Hartwright teaches (a gorgeous Alexis Smith who is in the closet in real life and seems to be visually offended by Gigs Advances) comes together with Hartwright to help Laura escape from a destructive marriage,all this time while the mysterious woman in white who roams the gardens at night also seems to have a strong interest in the future of Laura Fairlie.
Hartwright must find what the dark connection is that ties Laura and Fosco and ‘The Woman In White” together.
Its got some weird Gothic appeal and some great suspense , as well as sporting a pre Nancy drew character in Marion.
Although its been adapted before and since to film and tv notably in 1982 with Costumes by Edith Head in her last work on screen and in 1997 as well as a musical version by Andrew Lloyd Webber
this is the definitive version..
filmed in 1946, but Shelved strangely until 1948 ,It sports a score by Max Steiner (Gone With the Wind) and remains an benchmark of Gothic Horror.Eleanor Parker plays a Duel role that seems to for-run her Multiple personality character in Lizzy 1957 ten years later,Sydney Greenstreet , Usually ‘partnered’ with Peter Lorre holds his own here playing his usual sinister ”beadie eyed” self and has one of the most humorous unintentional punchlines in cinema history ”I can’t possibly be Evil,,, Im.. too fat!” and a Mostly Silent but Important role played by Anges Moorehead (Samantha’s mum in Bewitched)
As a story its well put together with twists filmed in lucious black and white , it still holds your attention
Tags: Based off Novel, Gothic, Madness, Max Steiner, Mysterious Death, Mystery, Victorian Era
All This And Heaven Too 1940
Posted by spheer2002 | Filed under Film, Films of the 1940's
Warning…. will empty a tissue box really quickly
This fits into the Mary poppins /sound of Music gene of Nanny comes into home and brings happiness to family with two exceptions, No singing and ends in a grisly Murder/ Based of a true event
a governess in 19th Century France, who lands a position working for Theo, Duc De Praslin (Charles Boyer) and his family. The childern adore the new, governess, but Boyer’s psycho bitch wife, the Duchesse (Barbara O’Neil), is resentful of the intrusion into the family. The new addition to the family works her magic on everyone but the Duchesse. Theo and Henriette, predictably, begin to fall in love, which further complicates things, sending the crazy wife into even more rages of insanity. All of this builds momentum until a climactic crime of passion takes a life.
its been forgotten but is really a good story, It shouldnt be remade but it is was it could win a swag of oscar
Tags: Accusation, Forbidden Love, Love for Children, Madness, Max Steiner, Nanny, Self Sacrifice, Trial
