It All Came True

 (1940)
Directed by Lewis Seiler
Written by Michael Fessler, Lawrence Kimble
Starring Ann Sheridan, Jeffrey Lynn, Humphrey Bogart, ZaSu Pitts, Una O'Connor, Felix Bressart, Jessy Bussley
IMDB Entry

Humphrey Bogart has a long road to stardom. Warner Brothers didn't know what to do with him, thinking of James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson for lead gangster roles. Bogart was usually secondary and not the star. But one film on his rise to becoming a star was a forgotten comedy called It All Came True.

It's starts with a boarding house run by Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor) and Nora Taylor (Jessie Busley). We meet the boarders, including Miss Flint (ZaSu Pitts), who can't walk down the street without thinking men are harassing her* and the Great Boldini (Felix Bressart), a down-on-his-heels magician. The calm of the boarding house is upset when Mrs. Ryan's daughter Sarah Jane (Ann Sheridan), returns after pursuing a career as a singer. Sarah Jane was close to Mrs. Taylor's son Tommy (Jeffrey Lynn), and aspiring songwriter.

Tommy is working for nightclub owner and gangster Chips Maguire (Humphrey Bogart). When Maguire murders a squealer, he forces Tommy to take him to stay at the boarding house because the gun that committed the murder is registered to him.  He hides in his room, calling himself Grasselli, but slowly gets drawn in to the community. Sarah Jane recognizes him at once, but helps to keep his secret.

Even though Bogart was third billed, he stands out throughout the film. He downplays the menace most of the time. 

I hadn't seen much of Ann Sheridan before, and she's good as the hard-boiled dame who can see what's up. ZaSu Pitts has been a favorite actress of mine and this is one of her best comedy role, especially in a scene where Sheridan discourages her from going to the police about Maguire. Other notables in the cast include Una O'Connor from Bride of Frankenstein, who plays the comic Irish woman to perfection, and Felix Bressart -- from The Shop Around the Corner -- who is delightful as the incompetent magician.

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*Don't worry.  They aren't.

Murder at the Vanities

 

(1934)
Directed by Mitchel Leisen
Written by Carey Wilson, Joseph Gollomb, Earl Carroll
Starring Jack Oakie, Carl Brisson, Kitty Carlisle, Victor McLaglen, Duke Ellington, Gertrude Michael, Gail Patrick
IMDB Entry

During the early days of the 20th century, the Broadway musical slowly evolved. One aspect was the  musical revues of the teens and twenties. The Ziegfeld Follies is probably the best known these days, but another series of them was Earl Carroll's Vanities. While Ziegfeld strived to be high class, Carroll didn't  care about that. In 1933, he tried with a book musical and the result was filmed as Murder at the Vanities.

Jack Ellery (Jack Oakie) is the producer of one of Carroll's shows, starring the couple of Eric Lander (Carl Brisson) and Ann Ware (Kitty Carlisle). The two of them plan to mary after the show, but Rita Ross (Gertrude Michael) is jealous, having been with Eric some time before and still believing he loves her. There are various attempts on Ann's life, and when a woman private investigator (Gail Patrick) is found dead on the catwalk, Ellery calls in a cop, Bill Murdock (Victor McLaughlin) to keep from getting worse. Of course, things get worse, and Rita ends up dead.

The murder mystery is pretty routine.* but the musical elements are delightful.

First of all, this movie introduced the song "Cocktails for Two," first as a duet, then as a full production number. I knew the song primarily through Spike Jones's version, one of the funniest songs ever performed. I kept expecting to hear the sound effects that made it so memorable.

And one sign that this is a pre-code film is a short number called "Sweet Marijuana."  In her memoirs, Kitty Carlisle said she had no idea what marijuana was at the time, thinking it a musical instrument. It also wasn't illegal until a few years later.

The third element was the production number "Ebony Rhapsody," which starts out as a classic version of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody. But slowly, Duke Ellington and members of his band and group of Black dancers replace the original and turn it into jazz. It's a nice use of the song. The ending, though, is a bit problematic as someone pretends to shoot all the Black people down with a machine gun.

As for the leads, I've always liked Jack Oakie for his breezy charm. He's only known these days for his role as fake Mussolini in The Great Dictator, but also shows up in the underrated Million Dollar Legs. Victor McLaughlin earned an Oscar the next year for his dramatic turn in The Informer, and becomeon of John Ford's stock company,

I mostly remember Kitty Carlisle for her appearances as a panelist on game shows, but she did star with the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera. Other names of note in the cast include Gail Patrick,** Charles (Ming the Merciless) Middleton, and Donald Meek***

Carroll's Vanities were always a bit more risque than Ziegfeld's Follies. Many of the chorus in the movie had appeared on Broadway, and did appear nearly nude in the film. Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan, and Alan Ladd has roles in the chorus.

Director Mitchell Leisen started out a set designer, but moved to directing in the 1930s and was known for his keen eye for composition.

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*Indeed, it only works because it is contrived so that the person who can clear up everything is always ignored when they try to alert people.

**Later the producer of Perry Mason.

***His name described his character. He shows up as the whiskey drummer in Stagecoach.

Under Capricorn

 

(1949)
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Written by James Bridie, Hume Cronyn from novels by Helen Simpson (novel) and John Colton and Margaret Linden (play)
Starring Joseph Cotten, Ingrid Bergman, Michael Wilding, Margaret Leighton, Cecil Parker
IMDB Entry

I've been a fan of Alfred Hitchcock for years and have seen nearly all of his films. But even Hitchcock had his stinkers. Jamaica Inn  is what usually comes to mind, and it certainly deserves the "honor." But I have found the Under Capricorn is also pretty bad, just in different ways.

In 19th Century Australia, the new governor, Sir Richard (Cecil Parker) arrives with his cousin Charles Adare (Michael Wilding).  Adare is approached by Sam Flusky (Joseph Cotten) to help with a shady land deal. He goes to a dinner at Flusky's house, which is only attended by other men, their wives unavailable due to flimsy excuses. When Sam's wife, Henrietta (Ingrid Bergman) joins, Adare realizes he knew her when they were children. Henrietta is now an alcoholic and embarasses herself in front of the guests. Sam asks for Adare to stay to help cheer up his wife.

She begins to feel better, but is sabotaged by the housekeeper Milly (Margaret Leighton), who wants to keep Henrietta helpless (supplying her with whiskey) so that she can be gotten rid of for Milly to marry Sam. When Milly spots Adare and Henriette kissing in a moment of weakness,* she has the ammunition she needs to destroy them. But Henrietta holds a deep secret.

The main problem with the film is that it's all talk and little else. It's written more like a soap opera than the tightly plotted films that made Hitchcock famous. The characters are stiff and generally uninteresting.  The obvious source of potential conflict -- Henrietta choosing between Sam and Adare -- is just sloughed off.  Milly has her moments as the scheming villain, but it also devolves into telling, not showing. There is an opportunity for suspense near the end, but, oddly, Hitchcock drains all the suspense out of it.

The film doesn't reach the level of badness of Jamaica Inn, but ultimately is too long, too melodramatic, and completely lacking in the set pieces that make movies pop. It might have been better with a director more attuned to the soap opera elements, but it a disappointment from the man billed "The Master of Suspense."

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*Featured on the poster, which gives the impression that it's a story of forbidden love between Adare and Henrietta.

The Horse's Mouth

 

(1958)
Directed by Ronald Neame
Written by Alec Guinness from a novel by Joyce Carey
Starring  Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Renée Houston, Mike Morgan, Robert Coote, Veronica Turleigh. Michael Gough, Ernest Theisinger
IMDB Entry

Most people these days remember Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi or Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai and categorize him as one of the British dramatic actors. But Guinness was a gifted comic actor, too, and The Horse's Mouth shows this off.

Guiness plays Gully Jimson an artist with a strong ego and utter disregard for what others think about him. We first see him leaving prison for harassing one of his sponsors, Mr. Hickson (Ernest Theisinger). He is met by Nosey Barbon (Mike Morgan), who idolizes him and wants to be his protege. Jimson tells him to leave him alone. He continues his campaign against Hickson for buying his art from his ex-wife for a very low price. Lady Beeder (Veronica Turleigh) contacts him for a commission, and after seeing a blank wall, he insists on painting his masterpiece "The Raising of Lazarus" on it. When the Beeders leave for six weeks on vacation, he sneaks into his house and begins to paint. A second artist, Abel Bisson (Michael Gough) catches wind of the plan, and uses the house for a major sculpture, which leads to some slapstick disaster.

The movie is most a character study of Jimson. He is crude, egotistical, devious,and selfish. Speaking in a raspy voice, he tries to dominate anyone who gets in his way. Guinness is superb in the role, making the character likeable despite his flaws. Guiness also wrote the screenplay, and got an Oscar nomination for it.

The other characters are adjuncts to Guiness. Kay Walsh stands out as the woman who admires him despite all is flaws. Renée Houston is his ex-wife, who can  be just as devious as Jimson. Ernest "Dr. Pretorius" Thesiger and Michael Gough (Alfred in the Burton Batman) are familiar faces.

The music soundtrack was all taken from a single source, Prokofiev's "The Lieutenant Kijé Suite." It's up there as one of the most familiar pieces of classical music that most people can't name:  the "Troika" portion of it has become a popular Christmas piece, though it's only used once in the film.

Homicide Hlls (Mord mit Assicht) (TV)

(2006-2022)
Created by Marie Reiners
Starring Caroline Peters, Bjarne Madel, Meike Droste, Petra Kleinert
IMDB Entry

One of the great things about the Internet and TubiTV is the ability to find TV shows from all over that the standard streaming services don't carry. I happened to stumble upon Homicide Hills, a charming German police series.

Sophie Haas (Caroline Peters) is a chief of detectives in Cologne who is sent to be the head of the police in Hengasch, a small town in the Eifel mountains.* It's a small force, with Dietmar Schaffer (Bjarne Madel) and Barbel Schmied (Meike Drost) the only other cops. Thing rarely happen in Hengasch, but when Haas arrives, there are murders galore. Dietmar's wife Heike (Petra Kleinert) is a nosy type who gets involved with the police business.

Caroline Peters** is great as Haas. She is very expressive and her expression is a source of the show's humor. Bjarn Madel is amusing as the slightly clueless deputy who is overwhelmed by his busybody wife. Meike Drost is the more serious of the two officers. All have quirks to make the show so watchable.

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*Hengasch in German sounds like "hanging butt." 

**The name sound English, but she was born in and lives in Germany.

The Beautiful Blonde from Bashville Bend

 

(1949)
Directed by Preston Sturges
Written by Preston Sturges from a story by Earl Felton
Starring Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, Olga San Juan, Porter Hall, Hugh Herbert, El Brendel, Margaret Hamilton, Sterling Holloway
IMDB Entry

A few years ago, I did a series of posts on Preston Sturges and stopped after covering his major films. Sturges's career fell apart in the late forties, and I wondered if any of his work was worth considering. So I'm starting with a film from 1949 and his last film from his Hollywood years, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend.

It begins with a short scene about a grandfather teaching his granddaughter how to shoot. Years later, the girl, Winnifred "Freddy" Jones (Betty Grable) is a saloon singer with a boyfriend Blackie Jobero (Cesar Romero). When she catching him romancing another woman, she shoots -- hitting Judge O'Toole (Porter Hall) in the butt. He vows to put her in jail, so, with her friend Conchita (Olga San Juan) she jumps on a train with a stolen ticket to Bashful Bend. She is mistaken for the new schoolteacher and takes up the job, attracting the eye of Charles Hingleman (Rudy Vallee). But Blackie tracks her down and there's a price on her head, leading to complications.

The movie misses the wild bawdiness that was a part of Sturges's stock in trade. The Hayes Office loosened up on its censorship during World War II, but it was back in place by 1949. There are hints of it, but nothing like his earlier films.

The film is also hurt by the lack of Sturges's stock company. There are plenty of great character actors in it, but they are not as wild and revolutionary as things were at his peak. The ending was an extended gunfight scene that just goes on too long.

Still, there are some funny scenes. The judge being ministered to by the town doctor is very amusing, as are several of the bits in the schoolroom.

There are some very good actors in the film. Betty Grable is just fine as a character that seems to be highly influenced by the story of Annie Oakley.* Cesar Romero makes a good cad, but one who isn't really all that bad, if having a bit of a wandering eye.

There is a whole host of memorable character actors.  Porter Hall is best known today as Mr. Sawyer in Miracle on 34th Street. Margaret (Wicked Witch ) Hamilton, Hugh Herbert (well known enough to be charactured in Looney Tunes occasionally), and El Brendel (famous for his Swedish characterization) all appear.  

Most notable is Sterling Holloway, best known for being the voice of Winnie the Pooh and other characters with Disney and also a busy actor in television, where his squeaky voice made him memorable. I remember him well playing a couple of mad scientists in The Adventures of Superman.

The movie flopped. Sturges already had a dicey reputation in Hollywood and no one was willing to hire him. Time had passed his type of comedy by, and he was discarded by the studios, directing only one more film (in France) after this.

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*She later played the role in Annie Get Your Gun when Judy Garland was removed from the part.

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

 

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett from a play by Alfred Savoir
Starring Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven
IMDB Entry

Billy Wilder is one of the giants of film, one of the first writer-directors.* He often collaborated, first with Charles Brackett and later with I.A.L. Diamond. Bluebeard's Eighth Wife was the first of his collaborations with Brackett and an odd take on a romantic comedy.

Michael Brandon (Gary Cooper) is an American millionaire who insists on getting his way. He shows this in a store, where he insists on buying just the top of a set of pajamas. The store won't budge until a passing woman named Nicole (Claudette Colbert) offers to buy the bottoms. All is settled and they go their separate ways. Brandon later insists on getting a different room in his hotel because of his insomnia and when shown it, the previous resident, the Marquis de Loiselle (Edward Everett Horton) is in the bed despite being evicted from non-payment. Brando sees that de Loiselle is wearing the pajama bottoms that Nicole has bought and learns she is his daughter. He decides he wants to marry her. Nicole already has a platonic relationship  with Albert De Regnier (David Niven) who turns out to work for Brandon. Brandon romances Nicole and it blows hot and cold until she finally falls in love with  him.

There are a couple of snags. The Marquis is a small-time con artist and sees this as a way to pay off his debts. But the bigger snag is that Brandon has been married. Seven times before. A couple of his exes have died, but most divorced him. Nicole is appalled and refuses to go through with the marriage, but her father insists she does so he's not arrested.  Brandon offers a prenup** that will pay Nicole $100,000 -- twice what his other wives are getting -- if they divorce. Nicole marries Brandon, but keeps her distance from her husband.

The movie is a tug of war as the two spouses fall in and out of love.

The movie was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and has his trademark touch and hints of sex that push the Production Code without actually crossing the line.  There are many good touches and jokes.

Gary Cooper is a fine actor, but really not a romantic leading man. In his best work, any romance is secondary and it just doesn't seem right to be at center stage, though he makes a good effort. Claudette Colbert does have a knack for this sort of film and is fun to watch. Edward Everett Horton is also cast in a different type of role than usual, but he's not really convincing as a con man.

The film was a disappointment at the box office, possibly because Cooper was miscast. Still, Wilder and Brackett were a wildly successful pairing, with thirteen films together and two Oscars.

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*The great Preston Sturges preceded him as a writer-director in Hollywood, though Wilder had co-directed a film before coming to America.

**It's not called that in the movie, but it has the same effect.

The Bigamist

 

(1953)
Directed by Ida Lupino
Written by Collier Young, Lawrence B. Marcus, Lou Schor
Starring Edmond O'Brien, Ida Lupino, Joan Fontaine,  Edmund Gwenn
IMDB Entry

During the studio days, women were rarely allowed to direct. One of those who bucked the prejudice and who made several films was Ida Lupino. Lupino is best known today for her starring role opposite Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra, the film that made Bogart Bogart. But she liked the idea of being in charge of a film and thought directing was more interesting than acting. Eventually, she formed her own production company so she could do that and one of her better films was The Bigamist.

Harry and Eve Graham (Edmond O'Brien and Joan Fontaine) wish to adopt a child and apply to Mr. Jordan  (Edmund Gwenn) at an agency. Jordon investigates to see if they are truly fit parents. The Grahams run a business with branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Harry often spends time in LA when Eve stays home. Jordan, who gets some odd vibes from Harry, goes to Los Angeles and tracks him down to an apartment. While talking outside, a baby cries. Jordon follows and finds that Harry has a son and is also married to Phyllis Martin (Ida Lupino).

Harry explains what happened. Lonely and bored in LA, he takes a bus tour of the stars' homes, where he meets Phyllis. They start to date and when she becomes pregnant, he marries her. His plan was to adopt a child with Eve and then divorce her, but Jordan will have nothing to do with it.

Edmond O'Brien plays the part very sympathetically. He is a decent man and want to do the right thing, but things spiral out of his control. Ida Lupino also makes Phyllis very sympathetically. She doesn't know that Harry is married, of course, but tries to do the right thing herself, refusing to trap Harry into marriage. Joan Fontaine is also strong as Eve, who dives into the business -- neglecting Harry -- when she learns she can't have children.

Edmund Gwenn is, of course, great. I've yet to find him in a bad movie, and he is representative of the law and of society, who understands Harry's behavior, even though he disapproves of it strongly.*

The film was produced by the Filmakers  Inc. Lupino formed it with her then-husband Collier Young,*  a special project to allow her to overcome  sexism and direct and produce her own films. They produced a dozen of them, with Lupino directing five.***

Lupino continued to direct and act as time went by, moving to television as movie gigs became hard to get. In The Bigamist, she became the only woman to director during the studio system years to direct herself. 

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*One minor joke is that, while touring the houses of the stars, the driver shows Edmund Gwenn's house and mentions his role in Miracle on 34th Street. It looks like the tour showed actual houses of stars of the time.

**Young later produced Ironside and Wild Wild West. 

***She also wrote and acted in some of them.

Perfect Murders (Crimes Perfait) (TV)

 

(2017-2023)
Starring Isabel Gélinas, Arthur Mazet, et al.
IMDB Entry

My local library offers Hoopla as a service to patrons where you can borrow books and video on your library card. That was how I stumbled upon Perfect Murders*, an interesting addition to the detective genre.

Its structure is similar to Columbo: we first see the meticulously planned murder take place. The police are called in to investigate. Like Columbo, the detective latches onto the clues until they prove what happens, but one twist is that the motive is not revealed until the end. The police are often quite blunt as to who they suspect, but they have to add up the clues.

Another twist is that there are multiple detectives. I have trouble keeping them straight, partly because the show is a French/Belgium co-production and they are all unfamiliar.** They are all nicely drawn, smart detectives, with interesting outside lives. The one that stood out best for me was Agnès Gélinas (Isabel Gélinas) and Thibaud (Arthur Mazet). Agnès refuses to used computers or cell phones, and has two husbands. Thibaud is more straitlaced and a bit nonplussed by her attitudes, but she is a crackerjack detective.

This doesn't give short shrift to the other detectives, all of whom have their own quirks, but the multiple detectives do make it hard to keep them straight.

The plots are cleverly done and the motives, once revealed, are cleverly constructed. 

Read my novel, The Cadaver Princess, a tale of body snatchers in early Victorian London.

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*The French title translates to "Perfect Crimes," so I think they decided to jazz it up for English speaking audiences.  Of course, the crime is usually a murder, but not always.

**The show is in French with subtitles.

Green for Danger

(1946)
Directed by Sidney Gilliat
Written by Sidney Gilliat, Claud Gurney from a novel by Christianna Brand
Starring Alastair Sim, Trevor Howard, Sally Gray, Rosamund John, Judy Campbell
IMDB Entry

Alastair Sim achieved filme immortality for his definitive version of Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. But, of course, he didn't come out of nowhere and his first lead film role was in the mystery Green for Danger.

It's during the Blitz and England is being plagued by attacks by the V-1* jets. After one attack, the local postman is badly injured. While they operate on him, he dies. One of the nurses, Sister Bates (Judy Campbell) claims he was murdered and immediately after, she is stabbed to death. Inspector Cockrill (Sim) investigates and decides that the postman was also murdered.  The suspects are all those in the operating room, including Dr. Barnes (Trevor Howard) who doesn't like how Cockrill is handling the investigation. The murderer is eventually revealed, but with a surprising twist.

Overall, a decent British cozy mystery. I'm dubious about the timeline, but the motive is interesting. Sim plays Cockrill as a major wiseass who rubs everyone the wrong way in getting to the bottom of things he is a softer version of the pre-ghosts Ebeneezer Scrooge. Trevor Howard was the epitome of the stiff-upper-lip Englishman, often playing military officers. Sally Gray play Nurse Linley, who is used as bait to trap the killer.

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*Called "doodlebugs" by the Brits. They were a pulse jet that made a buzzing sound as they flew overhead. If you heard the buzz, you were safe, but when it stopped, it meant the V-1, out of fuel, would fall and destroy. It caused more damage than the rocket-powered V-2 because it would fall onto the surface, while a V-2 would bury itself and dampen the explosion.

Chuck Rothman's novel, "The Cadaver Princess," is available from Amazing Stories Selects.

The Return of Doctor X

 

(1939)
Directed by Vincent Sherman
Written by Lee Katz, based on a story by William J. Makin
Starring Wayne Morris, Dennis Morgan, John Litel, Lya Lys, Humphrey Bogart, Rosemary Lane
IMDB Entry

Humphrey Bogart took a long path to reach stardom.  He started in very small (and bland) parts in films, then acted on Broadway* and would have probably stayed there until he gained notice playing gangster Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest. Warner Brothers bought the film rights and wanted Edward G. Robinson, who was already under contract, for the part. Leslie Howard, the lead and who, importantly, owned the film rights, insisted Bogart play the role.  He was a sensation.

But Warner Brothers didn't know what to do with him, They already had Robinson and James Cagney to play gangsters, so Bogart got a lot of supporting roles. And, in one case, they put him into a horror film:  The Return of Doctor X.

Reporter Walter Garrett (Wayne Morris) gains a plum interview with movie star Angela Merrova (Lya Lys(, but when he arrives, he finds her dead. When the police arrive, though, she is gone and she shows up later, perfectly fine and ready to sue. Garrett is fired and goes to his friend Dr. Mike Rhodes (Dennis Morgan) to try to figure out what happened.  They talk to Dr. Flegg (John Littel), who pooh poohs the idea that Merrova was dead at all, while his assistant Dr. Marshall Quesne (Humphrey Bogart) looks on and acts very suspicious.  Eventually Flegg spills the beans:  Quesne is really the infamous Dr. Maurice Xavier, alias "Doctor X," who was believed dead after his experiments developing an artificial blood failed. Flegg has brought him to life, but he needs a specific rare blood type to stay that way. And Garrett's girlfriend, Joan Vance (Rosemary Lane) just happens to have it.

The movie is not going to scare anyone these days, and probably didn't do it back when it was released. Quesne is too obviously the villain, despite an attempt to try to make Flegg seem that way. Garrett is  a wisecracking reporter of the era with having any gravitas in the role.  Bogart is sinister, but really doesn't show a lot of menace.

The film is a sequel to Doctor X, but that film came out seven years previously and they have little connection other than the title. Also, they were both produced at Warner Brother/First National, a studio not know for any emphasis on horror like Universal was, so it's surprising they decided to film in.

Bogart hated the movie, by the way. He felt at the time that Warner Brothers never gave him roles with any meat in them. 

Of note is a small role for Huntz Hall of the Bowery Boys. Hall had signed with Warners as one of the Dead End Kids and this was one of his few roles of the era outside of the various "tough kid" series that made up his career.

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*Legend has it that, in his early stage days, he was the first to speak the immortal line, "Anyone for tennis?"

Hell's Heroes

 

(1929)
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Tom Reed, C. Garner Sullivan, from a short story by Peter B. Kyne
Starring Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler, Fritzi Ridgeway
IMDB Entry

I  have a set definition about Christmas films: they have to be about Christmas. They can't just have a slight mention of the holiday that doesn't impact the plot.* One list of Christmas films mentioned Hell's Heroes. It is not a Christmas film, but it is a terrific but overlooked movie.

Four men enter the Western town of New Jerusalem, planning to rob the bank. They kill a teller in the robbery, and one of their group is also killed. The other three flee into the desert. The next day, they discover their horses have run off, but they do know of a water hole and head for it. When they get there, the find it has been dynamited and is dry. They also discover a wagon with a pregnant woman (Fritzi Ridgeway) inside. She gives birth, then dies, but names the three men -- Bob Sangster (Charles Bickford), Tom "Barbwire" Gibbons (Raymond Hatton), and Wild Bill Kearney (Fred Kohler) -- as godfathers and charges them to bring them to her husband.

The problem is, the husband was the man they killed in the robbery, and returning to New Jerusalem would have them arrested and probably hanged. 

Bob is all for abandoning the baby, but Tom and Bill agree to take him back to New Jerusalem. Bill is a religious man and has been wounded in the robbery and sits, unable to continue, urging the other to go to the town. Tom eventually goes off to die into the desert to have Bob finish the mission. He uses a desperate stratagem to save the baby, and reaches the town on Christmas, and dies as he brings the infant to the church.

The movie is an adaptation of the story, "Three Godfathers," which was remade as a vehicle for John Wayne in 1948**. The story here is bleaker, coming close to futility, but avoids that by the fact that they succeed in saving the infant.

I do find the technology remarkable. The talkies started only two years before, and recording equipment was big and bulky. Yet the movie was shot entirely on location. Scenes in the desert -- most of the movie -- were shot in the Mohave,  The town of Bodie, California was the location for New Jerusalem.  

Many of the shots stretched the limits of film production. I was particularly impressed by a scene where the three men were walking across the desert, the camera dollying back as they walked toward it. And there was no sign of tracks for the dolly in the sand.

Filming was brutal for the actors. Temperatures reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit and it got so hot in the enclosed camera that the cameraman fainted.

Actor Charles Bickford had come over from Broadway and does a great job portraying Bob Sangster, showing his change from a killer willing to let a baby die to a man who dies to save the baby. This movie came at the beginning of a career that lasted well into the 1960s.

William Wyler was one of Hollywood's most successful directors, helming classics like Dead End, The Letter, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, and Funny Girl.

There is a certain amount of symbolism with the three wise men and the baby, but it is only superficial and no more Christmasy than Three Men and a Baby.

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*A local comic book shop talked about the concept of a "red sky crossover," where the characters in one book will say, "Wow.  The sky is red!" because of events in the crossover, and then go ahead as though it doesn't mean anything. This is often the case with movies that mention Christmas in passing, but it doesn't make much difference to the story.

**There were two earlier versions of the story, too.

R.I.P. John Varley

John Varley, author of groundbreaking science fiction, died on December 10.

Varley burst upon the scene in the late 70s with a series of stories that were breathtaking in their imagination. He won Hugo and Nebula awards with the stories “The Persistence of Vision,” “The Pusher” and “Press Enter []” and put forth an amazing body of work, with stories like “In the Hall of the Martian Kings” (a favorite of mine), “Air Raid,” “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank,” and “Options.” Most were set in his “Eight Worlds” future history, where humans were scattered all over the solar system after aliens destroyed Earth.

His novels included Millennium, the Ophiuchi Hotline, and the Gaen Trilogy: Titan, Wizard, and Demon.

He was a major influence in my writing life. Indeed, if it wasn’t for him, I would have a writing life. After finishing Titan, I started writing seriously, cranking out two stories a month to start and continuing to keep writing every day. I had dreamed about being an SF writer, but that book caused me to do something about it.

I have no idea why. But I do know I owe him much.

RIP

Our Man in Havana

 (1959)
Directed by Carol Reed
Written by Graham Greene
Starring Alec Guiness, Noel Coward, Maureen O'Hara, Burl Ives, Jo Morrow, Ernie Kovacs
IMDB Entry

Spies are the subject of countless films. Some are serious, some play it for laughs. Our Man in Havana tries to do both.

Jim Wormold (Alec Guinness) is an expatriate Englishman who sells vacuum cleaners in pre-Castro Cuba. He is approached by Hawthorn (Noel Coward) to spy for the UK.  Wormold is reluctant, but he is not making much money and needs to finance his daughter Milly (Jo Morrow), who is an avid horsewoman and insists on joining an expensive country club to stable the animal there. Wormold consults with his friend Dr. Hasselbacher (Burl Ives) who advises him to take up the offer and to make up a network of spies and concoct secrets. He succeeds too well, sending reports to London about his network along with plans for a new secret weapon (which looks suspiciously like a vacuum cleaner). London decides he needs more staff and sends Beatrice Severn (Maureen O'Hara) to be his secretary. Meanwhile, Captain Segura (Ernie Kovacs) of the Havana police takes a shine to Milly and wants to marry her.

Things get complicated from there. And when someone dies on a mission to find the weapon, it stops being a game.

The movie starts out as a satire of spycraft and bureaucracy, but turns very serious partway through, and returns to its original mood at the end.

People often forget how good Guinness was with comedy. He has a droll, laid-back style -- something like Bill Murray -- and is excellent here. But the real comic star is Noel Coward, who is wonderful as the spy recruiting him, delivering even the most innocuous of lines in a naturally amusing manner. Jo Morrow was the one American actor* in the cast and makes no attempt to sound English; I was amused at a line of dialog that explains her American accent. Maureen O'Hara has little to do and plays the straight woman and love interest.

I do find Ernie Kovacs to be disappointing. Not because he performs badly: Kovacs was a comic genius but this is just a straight role of the corrupt cop. Why they cast him, I don't know, since he was not written to handle his strength. Kovacs form of humor was years before its time, though, and didn't translate well to a narrative film.

The film had scenes shot in Havana. Castro had taken power (though hadn't announced he was a communist), and allowed it because it showed the corruption of the previous Batista regime.

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*Maureen O'Hara was originally Irish. I saw her live on stage many years ago in a performance of Cheaper by the Dozen.

The Mask of Dimetrios

 

(1948)
Directed by Jean Negulesco
Written by Frank Gruber from a novel by Eric Ambler
Starring Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Kurt Katch, Steven Geray
IMDB Entry

Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are the 1940s great teaming. From The Maltese Falcon onward, they could be depended upon to play ne'er-do-wells and criminals.  The Mask of Demetrios is another excellent pairing.

Cornelius Leyden (Peter Lorre) is a mystery writer visiting Istanbul when a local police officer, Colonel Haki (Kurt Katch) tells him about a body recently retrieved from the sea. The body is identified as Dimitrios Makropoulos and Haki talks about the man's criminal exploits and invites Leyden to see the corpse. Intrigued, Leyden goes to track down Demetrios's history, talking to Irana Preveze (Faye Emerson), who recounts her affair with him, where he manipulated her for his own ends as an assassin.

Leyden travels to Sofia to find out more, and finds himself sharing a compartment with Mr. Peters (Sydney Greenstreet), a genial traveling companion. But later, Leyden discovers Peters ransacking his hotel room. Leyden wants something from Dimitrios and, at first thinks Leyden knows him. Eventually, the two join forces, Leyden for the story, Peters for money Dimitrios owes him.

They learn about another of Demetrios's schemes to steal secret plans, which leads to the suicide of the man who Demetrios ropes into the scheme. Eventually, they discover Demetrios faked his death* and that he's just as dangerous as ever.

This is Greenstreet at his best -- jovial, cheerful, and with a touch of the sinister. Lorre is also great as the meek but curious author. Steven Geray is memorable as the man caught in Demetrios's machinations. Zachary Scott, in his first film role, is great playing the charming snake.

The movie reminded me a bit of The Usual Suspects. Demetrios is no Keyser Soze, but is a tamer version of the same type of amoral character.

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*Viewers might expect this. 

Crook's Tour

 

(1940)
Directed by John Baxter
Written by Barbara K. Emery, Max Kester, John Watt
Starring Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Greta Gynt
IMDB Entry\

I wouldn't exactly call Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as comedy team. More like comic relief. They appeared in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes as a couple of silly British tourists obsessed with cricket scores over anything else. They were so effective there that the appeared in several films playing the same characters. Crook's Tour is one of these.

Charters (Basil Radford) and Caldicott (Naunton Wayne) are traveling in the the middle east. Eventually, the end up in Baghdad and are mistaken for spies. La Palermo (Greta Gynt), a cafe singer, hands them a record with secret information. When the real spies show up, they go after the two. After some miraculous good luck, they discover the secret and that La Palermo is a double agent for the British. 

The movie never rises above silliness. The spy plot is contrived and the way they get mistaken for the real agents makes little sense for a secret organization. Still, Charters and Caldicott are often funny and, if the jokes are telegraphed, well, it's all par for the course.  

Some of the funnier moments are when they encounter an Arab sheik and discover not only does he speak English, but went to the same UK school as the two.  But, though the sequence is amusing, it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot; everything in it is of no consequence.  Another good scene (with plot implications), is their reaction when a fellow Briton (supposedly) does not follow cricket, as though they can't conceive of the idea.

This was originally a series of radio plays.

They Drive by Night

 

(1938)
Directed by Arthur B. Woods
Written by Paul Gangelin, Derek Twist, screenplay by James Curtis from his novel.
Starring Emlyn Williams, Anna Konstam, Ernest Thesiger
IMDB Entry

No, this isn't the buddy film starring Humphrey Bogart and George Raft, but rather a British film from a couple of years earlier.

They Drive by Night was what one of what was termed a "quota quickies." In order to support the UK film industry, the government passed laws to require a certain amount of films to be made in the UK, with a mostly UK cast and a UK screenwriter. The result were often cheaply made films. many of which never made it across the pond.

In this, Shorty Mathews (Emlyn Williams) has just been released from prison. When he goes to see and old girlfriend of his, he finds her murdered in her rooming house.  Fearing he will be arrested, he leaves London on a bus and gets involve working as a lorry driver.  But after meeting another old girlfriend, Molly O'Neill (Anna Konstam), he decides to return to London to find the killer.  Meanwhile, Walter Hoover (Ernest Thesiger) believes in his innocence. 

The acting is serviceable, and Williams is good as a man falsely accused. There are the hints of Hitchcock, most notably in The Thirty-Nine Steps, but clearly this is not in the same class. It's also not up to the Bogart and Raft American film.

The most familiar name in the cast is Ernest Theisinger, who played Dr. Pretorius in The Bride of Frankenstein. He actually seems to be younger that he appeared there. Fans of Doctor Who might spot William Hartnell as a bus conductor who takes pity on Shorty.

While the film is far from a classic, it's still a nice bit of entertainment.

Murder!

 

(1930)
Directed by Alfred Hithcock
Written by Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville, Edward Chapman, from a book by Clemence Dare and Helen Simpson
Starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring
IMDB Entry

I'm a big fan of Hitchcock and seen most of his films. Some of his earlier ones are interesting not just for their story, but as a way to see how he developed as a director. Murder! was his third sound film and shows how he was feeling his way as a director.

Diana Baring (Norah Baring) is a member of a theater company, and is found sitting by the body of another actress, Edna Druce, killed by a fireplace poker* lying at the floor. dazed and not knowing what had happened. She is tried for the murder. When the jury deliberates, Sir John Menier (Herberg Marshall) is reluctant to declare  her guilty, but is finally persuaded to condemn her.  Menier, the manager of a theatrical troupe, regrets his change of mind and, while Diana is waiting for the noose, decides to meet her, and feels it unlikely she killed Edna. He starts to investigate, to find evidence of the real murderer.

The story is more a traditional whodunnit than an exercise in suspense. Menier searches out the clues, with some dead ends, until he finds the culprit, but, unusually for this type of film, the killer does not immediately confess when confronted with the evidence.

There also is little suspense, though Hitchcock shows how to do it as he juxtaposes Diana in her cell with the noose that awaits her.**

The acting is serviceable, though very much of its time. 

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*Fireplace pokers are the third leading cause of death in old movies, after guns and strangulation.

**And a noose figures in the final resolution.

Murder by Decree

 

(1979)
Directed by Bob Clark
Screenplay by John Hopkins
Starring Christopher Plummer, James Mason, David Hemmings, Frank Finlay, Anthony Quayle, Donald Sutherland, Genevieve Bujold, John Gielgud
IMDB Entry

Bob Clark directed one genuine movie classic:  A Christmas Story. But before that, he was trying to find his place in Hollywood and he went to a perennial movie character: Sherlock Holmes. The result was Murder by Decree.

We meet Holmes (Christopher Plummer) and Watson (James Mason), who are called in by the police (a tad reluctantly) to solve the Whitechapel murders (i.e., the  Jack the Ripper case). Several prostitutes have been killed and Holmes senses something in it that more than just a madman. The fact that the police have destroyed evidence makes it seem fishy. The key to the case is Annie Crook (Genevieve Bujold) who is very difficult to track down, though Holmes finds her in a mental institution.

The murders turn out to be a plot that has reaches into the highest part of British government.

This has been common grounds for mysteries linking Holmes to the Ripper and some have speculated that one of the princes might actually have been the killer. 

I did find the ending just too much exposition, and, really, there is no reason to murder the victims.* But the cast is stacked with some of the top British actors of the time and it's fun to watch them work. Genevieve Bujold is especially good as Annie, who was caught up in the machinations and driven to madness.

Milestone: This is my 900th post.

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*(highlight to reveal) One of the victims has had a baby from a royal prince, but it wouldn't be the first time someone on the throne had illegitimate children, and it would at most be an embarrassment, not a threat.

The Tattooed Stranger

(1950)
Directed by Edward Montagne
Written by Phillip H. Reisman, Jr.
Starring John Miles, Patricia Barry, Walter Kinsella, Frank Tweddell
IMDB Entry

Once again, I am fighting to keep the definition of "film noir" to be used for any black and white movie to with a crime in it. It's a losing battle, of course, but I'll still point it out. The Tattooed Stranger, though listed as "film noir," is something else entirely: a police procedural.

The film, set in New York City, opens with the discovery of a dead woman in a car, her face destroyed by a shotgun blast. Detective Corrigan (Walter Kinsella), a veteran of the force, is assigned the case, and with a new partner, Tobin (John Miles), a rookie who has a college degree. Corrigan is at first dismissive of the book learning but after they investigate the scene, he quickly begins to see how the book learning can be useful. The victim has no identification; the only mark is a tattoo on her arm. 

There is also some odd-looking grass on her shoes. Tobin goes to a botanist, Dr. Mahan (Patricia Barry) and is mildly surprised that she is a woman. They track down the grass, but it's something not native to New York. 

During the victim's autopsy, someone breaks into the lab and obliterates the tattoo. He is killed running from the police, but the police are convinced he was hired to do it. Tobin and Corrigan visit tattoo parlors to find someone who recognizes it. One does and gives them a name.  He is murdered soon after as the killer covers his tracks.

The movie shows the details of a police investigation and that is where the drama lies. It's not the first police procedural:  He Walked by Night and The Naked City had already shown the genre, but they were in a semi-documentary format. This one doesn't pretend to be a true story, but it's good in the way it shows the painstaking work of investigating a crime.

The film shot many of its outdoor scenes in New York city, so it's interesting to see the landmarks back in the day.

The actors don't really stand out -- their performances are workmanlike but not otherwise notable.  It doesn't help that any personal conflict is resolved quickly: Corrigan accepts Tobin after a few minutes, and though Tobin is surprised that Dr. Mahan is a woman, there is no problem with that. Jack Lord has a few lines as one of the cops.

Scene of the Crime

 

(1949)
Directed by Roy Roland
Written by Charles Schnee (screenplay), John Bartlow Martin (short story)
Starring Van Johnson, Gloria DeHaven, Arleen Dahl, John McIntire, Tom Drake, Norman Lloyd, Jerome Cowan
IMDB Entry

Back in the 30s and 40s, movie studios had personalities. Paramount concentrated on lives of the upper class, while Warner Brothers concentrated on the poor and desperate.  MGM was somewhere in between, usually with classy dramas and musicals. But in the 40s, film noir was selling and MGM decided to try working on that. The result was Scene of the Crime.

Mike Conover (Van Johnson) is a cop and when another cop is murdered, he takes over the case, and when it's found he has $1000 in cash on him, the question arises that the dead cop was dirty. Conover doesn't believe it and with two other detectives, the veteran Fred Piper (John McIntire) and the rookie C.C. Gordon (Tom Drake), he goes into the dark underside of crime.

Conover's investigation leads to Lili (Gloria DeHaven), a lounge singer who is the girlfriend of one of the suspects. His bulldog determination to solve the case does not sit well with his wife Gloria (Arlene Dahl), who gets frustrated at the way the investigation cuts into their time together.

For Van Johnson, this was a deliberate casting against type. He was usually the star of comedies and musicals and this was a more dramatic role. It doesn't work well. He just doesn't have the gravitas to make the role work. It also doesn't help that the dialog tries too hard to be Chandleresque. Only Chandler knew how to do that without sounding silly.

Gloria DeHaven also was playing a different type of role as previously. She had also played in comedies and musicals, but that is good in developing the character who seems sweet -- at first.  I also liked the subplot of Gloria's frustration with her husband always being called away, and that she understands when he tells her he's been meeting with Lili.

Several familiar faces appear among the cast.  Norman Lloyd was a busy actor, producer, and director, still doing roles after he turned 100. He's best known as Dr. Auschlander in St. Elsewhere, but was is a couple of Hitchcock classics.*  Leon Ames is best known as the father in Meet Me In St. Louis. The name Jerome Cowan probably doesn't ring a bell, but played the District Attorney in Miracle on 34th Street.

Chuck Rothman's novel, The Cadaver Princess, is available from chuckrothman.com/the-cadaver-princess

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*Hanging from the Statue of Liberty in Saboteur.

Made for Each Other

(1939)
Directed by John Cromwell
Written by Jo Swerling (screenplay), Rose Franken (story)
Starring James Stewart, Carole Lombard, Charles Coburn, Lucille Watson
IMDB Entry

It's funny, but I don't really think of James Stewart as a romantic lead. Sure, he's had parts that included romance, but I don't think I can recall many where romance came to the fore. Made for Each Other is one.

John Mason (James Stewart) is a rising young attorney in New York, working for judge Doolittle (Charles Coburn) and engaged to her daughter. But one day he meets Jane (Carole Lombard) on a business trip to Boston and returns with the two of them married. He sets up with Jane in an apartment with his mother (Lucille Watson), who is somewhat difficult and demanding. Jane stays at home while John works, but because he decided not to marry Doolittle's daughter, he is no longer the golden boy of the office. Doolittle forces him to skip his honeymoon and doesn't give him his due*. Jane and John have a baby, but Doolittle cuts his salary due to the Depression. The baby catches pneumonia and things become desperate.

It's a well written story. Jo Swerling was a busy screenwriter, with movies like Platinum Blonde, Pennies from Heaven, The Pride of the Yankees, Lifeboat, and Guys and Dolls on  his resume. The funny thing is that the inciting incident -- John and Jane marrying after only knowing each other for one day -- isn't really all that important. While it's referred to, the movie would not change much if they knew each other for months. 

The key sequence has to do with finding a serum to cure the baby's pneumonia and the difficulty of getting it to New York, leading to an ending that seems a bit too glib.

Stewart plays his usual role, and Lombard is fine as his loving wife. Charles Coburn plays his usual curmudgeonly part. Two standouts are Lucille Watson, who plays the mother like a modern-day Karen, putting a lot of pressure on the couple, and  Louise Beavers, who is excellent as Lily, Jane's cook and maid.** 

Beavers is uncredited, but charming throughout. She was a busy actress, usually play servants because that was the only roles that could be given to Black women at the time. She was one of the first Black actresses to play the lead in a sitcom.***

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*There's a lot of George Bailey in the role, where John is put-upon and doesn't get his due. 

**It is interesting that the couple, despite their money problems, can have a servant, though Lily does forego a salary for awhile.

***The  show was Beulah, about a housekeeper. Several actresses took over the title role, including Hattie McDaniel and Ethel Waters, and such names as Butterfly McQueen, Dooley Wilson, and Leslie Uggams in other roles.

Murder is My Beat

 (1955)
Directed by Edgar R. Ulmer
Written by Aubrey Wiseberg (screenplay & story), Martin Field (story)
Starring Paul Langdon, Barbara Payton, Robert Shayne, Tracey Roberts.
IMDB Entry

Film noir has become a catchall term for any movie from the 50s shot in black and white where a crime was central. I find that overly broad, and a movie like Murder is My Beat, though given that description is more anti-noir, though it clearly wants you to think it is.

The movie starts with Police Captain Bert Rawley (Robert Shayne) finding one of his squad, Ray Patrick (Paul Langton) holed up in a hotel room.  Langton explains how he got there, and we see a long flashback.

It starts with a murder. A man is found, his head and hands in a fire, burned beyond recognition. He's identified as Frank Deane and is the boyfriend of singer Eden Lane (Barbara Payton), who has left town. Patrick goes after her and finds her in a small mountain cabin.  She admits to killing Deane; the two spend the night* and Patrick begins to sympathize with her. After she's convicted, he takes her to prison and she spots Deane in a train station.  They jump off the train to investigate.

Flashback over, Patrick begs Rawley to help him to solve the case.  He agrees.

The story is nicely constructed. It is obvious to the modern viewer that the corpse was not Deane, but the identity is a decent twist and the killer is a surprise.

The acting is serviceable. Langton was a busy TV actor during the 60s. Shayne is known for his role of Inspector Henderson in The Adventures of Superman. 

Payton had a sadder career, with alcohol and drug problems, and a messy romantic life. This was her last credited role.

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*Chastely, of course. The Hayes Office still ruled, especially in low-budget films like this one.

The Woman in White

 

(1948)
Directed by Peter Godfrey
Written by Stephen Morehouse Avery, from the novel by Wilkie Collins
Starring Alexis Smith, Sydney Greenstreet, Eleanor Parker, Gig Young, Agnes Morehead, John Emery, John Abbott
IMDB Entry

The Woman in White is one of my favorite novels, a tale of suspense and thrills that is surprisingly modern. It is not surprise that it was made into various movies.

The movie starts out following the book. Walter Hartright (Gig Young) is an artist hired to teach Laura Fairley (Eleanor Parker) at their mansion in Limmeridge House. On the way there, he runs into a mysterious woman wearing white (Eleanor Parker again), who vanished. Hartright is astounded by how much Laura resembles the woman he met on the road. He meets the others of the household, the hypochondriac Frederick, Laura's father (John Abbott); Marian Halcombe, Laura's cousin (Alexis Smith); and their guest, the affable and sinister Count Fosco (Sydney Greenstreet). Later we learn of the dastardly Sir Percival Glyde (John Emery), who is in league with Fosco to marry Laura and gain access to her fortune.

The book is difficult to adapt to the screen. You think at first that it will concentrate on Laura and Walter, but Walter vanishes for half of it, and the narrative focuses on Marian, who ferrets out what Fosco and Glyde are up to and takes action to stop it. Walter finally shows up when things have gone too far, but  she is the one who bails them out.

The movie makes massive changes to the story once the situation is set up. Marian's role is downplayed, the central issue -- the threat posed to Glyde by the woman in white -- is left out, There's also a bit of silliness behind Fosco's plans, and the ending completely contradicts the ending of the novel, giving it a Hollywood ending that is a bit ridiculous. Some of these changes are more logical than in the book, but they come across as too convenient.

Sydney Greenstreet is wonderful as Count Fosco; I wouldn't be surprised if the movie was made as a showcase for him. Alexis Smith is not appropriate to play Marian, since one major point of the book is that she is an unattractive woman.* On the other hand, John Abbott is excellent as Laura's father, a weak man so afraid of straining his nerves that he does nothing.

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*Every dramatization of the story ignores this.

Midnight

(1939)
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett
Starring Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore, Mary Astor, Francis Lederer
IMDB Entry

Many consider 1939 as the pinnacle year for Hollywood. You had films like Gone with the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, Ninotchka,  Goodbye Mr. Chips, Wuthering Heights, and, of course, The Wizard of Oz. Other great films just got lost in the shuffle, and one of these was Midnight.

Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) wakes up in Paris in a train compartment with no money and wearing only an evening gown. She meets a cab driver Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche) to help her look for work as a singer. With no luck, he lets her stay in his apartment as he completes his shift. But Eve sneaks out and ends up at a concert. When it's discovered she had no invitation, she tries to escape, but is roped into a bridge game with Helene Flammarion (Mary Astor), Jacques Picot (Francis Lederer), and Marcel Renard (Rex O'Malley). She introduces herself as the wife of Hungarian Baron Czerny and stays to keep from being found out.  She loses and when being asked to pay up, she finds money in her once-empty purse. Picot insists on escorting her to her hotel. She tries to bluff and names the Ritz at random and can't shake Picot's attention.

But when she gets to the hotel, she discovers that she indeed has a suite there.  She manages to shake off Picot. The next morning, clothes are delivered. Eve is baffled until Georges Flammarion (John Barrymore) shows up. He explains he knew she wasn't a Baroness, and has been fixing things up for her: putting money in her purse, making the hotel reservation, sending over the clothes and a car. It is not what you might think: Flammarion wants her as a decoy. Picot is a ladies man, and has been seducing Helene Flammarion.  He wants Eve to entice him away from her.

Meanwhile, Tibor goes searching, recruiting the taxi drivers of Paris to look for Eve.

The story is nicely constructed.  Given the constraints of the Hayes Code at the time, it is interesting to see the suggestions of sex in the setup.* The situations do work and the humor doesn't fall flat.

Claudette Colbert is fine in the role ** and Don Ameche shows leading man charm. John Barrymore "the Great Profile" is an avuncular figure, much like his brother Lionel's kindly character in You Can't Take it with You. Of course, Mary Astor reminds you a bit of her role in The Maltese Falcon, but here she is much blander. 

Future gossip queen Hedda Hopper has a small role as the woman running the concert Eve crashes and I was delighted to spot Monty Wooley (The Man Who Came to Dinner) in a small role as a judge.

Wilder was unhappy with some of the changes made by director Mitchell Leisen and pushed to move from screenwriting to directing, with superb results. Leisen was relatively active in film, specializing in romantic comedies.

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*Even further, when Eve wakes up in the hotel room in the morning, she is obviously supposed to be naked (she has no clothes but her cocktail dress), but she remains under blankets to appease the censors. This also may be the orientation of screenwriter Billy Wilder, who grew up in Vienna.

**I can note that her legendary obsession of favoring her left profile can be seen throughout the film. Most everything shows that side of her face more prominently and, while there are a few angles where you get to see her full-faced, absolutely nothing is shot to focus on her right profile. Oddly, most versions of the movie's poster shows it; one would assume she could do nothing about it (or it's just her left side flipped).