SILVER LODE (1954)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 24 of 50)

When I saw this 1001 listing for an eighty-one minute, Allan Dwan directed, RKO Western featuring John Payne (Payne, not Wayne), I thought it was an interesting choice for inclusion in the 1001 book. The plot revolves around a man who has become well respected in his community only to have a U. S. Marshall come to town to arrest him for murder on his wedding day. Certainly one of the interesting aspects of Silver Lode is figuring out who is going to stand beside him and who is going to turn on him. The plot is simple, but it is a pretty good drama and has some interesting insights into human nature and how easy it is to develop a mob mentality. McCarthyism anyone?

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Dan Duryea. Winchester '73, Scarlett Street, Silver Lode...Dan Duryea really was gifted at playing a slimeball. When he comes to town posing as a U. S. Marshall, we know he's up to no good, but he somehow manages to snooker the town-at least for a little while. His is easily my favorite performance in the movie. 

I'd also like to give credit to two supporting character legacies playing Duryea's "deputies": Alan Hale Jr.(Later the Skipper on Gilligan's Island) and Harry Carey Jr. (whose movie career lasted over a half century). 

THE APARTMENT (1960)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 23 of 50)

After all these years and several viewings, The Apartment remains one of my favorite films. C. C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) works in a giant New York office where he sits at one of the endless rows of desk which would seem to be a good recipe for making any worker an anonymous drone. The only way to move up for C. C. is to lend out his apartment for the lecherous executives to have a place to take their girlfriends to. Women are pretty much playthings to these guys. The one guy who seems to really respect women and falls for the elevator operator played by Shirley MacLaine is C. C. himself. But C. C. does get a promotion, when he loans out his apartment to the big boss played by Fred MacMurray. But this ends up causing more problems than solving them.

I'm a big Billy Wilder fan and The Apartment has the winning dialogue I associate with his movies. Lemmon is also a very good everyman and I love when he tells a floozy that he is single and she says it must be sad to go home to an empty apartment every night. He wryly responds that he may be single, but that doesn't mean he has an empty apartment. 

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Ray Walston. I could give this to Fred MacMurray as Lemmon's unsympathetic boss, but I'm going with Walston who plays one of the execs who borrows C.C.'s apartment.Walston is brash and he and the other execs schedule their rendezvous at the apartment like they are scheduling business meetings. 

It's certainly not the most memorable role in the film, but Walston is so unflappable in his arrogance, that he comes across as funny and likable despite himself. I grew up watching Walston in the 60's as Uncle Martin in the more that likely dated show My Favorite Martian. But I certainly loved the show when I was four! I was surprised to see that Walston was never nominated for an Academy Award. I would think that his movie stealing 1958 roles in Damn Yankees! and South Pacific would have been good for at least one nod! Walston's later roles included Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Mr. Boothy the caretaker in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picket Fences and some pretty funny AT & T commercials.

SOME CAME RUNNING (1958)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 22 of 50)

The obvious similarities between Some Came Running and From Here to Eternity are that both films star Frank Sinatra and both are based on books by James Jones. They both have more than a few elements of soap opera in the story. But I do like Some Came Running, mostly because it seems to be so much a creature of its time. It's a story that wants to get deep into its plot of adultery, alcoholism and a little bit of teen rebellion thrown in, but due to the standards still in place at the time, the story can only go so far. I didn't mind that too much. I liked the teaming up of Sinatra and Dean Martin here and this is generally acknowledged as their best film together. The young Shirley MacLaine's sympathetic floozy also scores some points. The multi-layered plot doesn't tie up as many of the loose ends as I might have liked, but there you have it.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Arthur Kennedy. Five-time Oscar nominee (and never a winner) Kennedy was a reliable supporting actor during Hollywood's golden age, even scoring a Best Actor nomination in a lead role for Bright Victory, a film I saw many moons ago. But generally speaking, his roles were of the supporting variety. In Some Came Running, he plays the returning soldier's older brother who is the responsible one in the family, but has a load of problems of his own including: keeping up his banking business, maintaining his place in his community, dealing with a coming of age daughter and tolerating his really bitchy wife. When he becomes involved late in the film with his pretty secretary, I for one can't blame him. 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 21 of 50)

It has been many years since I've seen To Be or Not to Be, and after watching it again, I think it is rightly regarded as a classic. The story is about a company of Polish actors during the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. The plot is thick with intrigue, but most of all it's also a very funny film. The cast is headed by Jack Benny. Jack later became one of the biggest stars on television during the 50's, where he always made fun of his movie career. But he is great in the lead role and very funny. His delivery at times reminds me of Groucho Marx, who is about the only other person I could picture playing this role of the hammy actor. This is also the last role for Carole Lombard, who died in an airplane crash shortly after this movie was made. She was also great here and her death was a great loss to cinema. I also like the fact that this movie came out right in the middle of World War II. Something to be said for mocking Hitler when he was still a force to be reckoned with. Much credit should also be given to director Ernest Lubitsch and screenwriters Melchior Lengyel and Edwin Justus Mayer. 

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Sig Ruman. German born Ruman played a great comic foil in many films, including the classics A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Ninotchka and Stalag 17. In To Be or Not to Be, Sig is a Nazi that just can't seem to get his facts right and despite his best efforts always seems to be duped. A couple of his scenes with Benny are real classics. His Colonel Erhardt seems like it may have been used a model for the incompetent Colonel Klink in the 60's TV show Hogan's Heroes.