THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 32 of 50)

Before there was Altman's The Player, there was Vincent Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful. It's the story of ruthless movie producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) who runs over many bodies to get to the top, including a starlet (Lana Turner), a director (Barry Sullivan) and a writer (Dick Powell). Even within the limits of what you could show in 1952 Hollywood, the movie digs up a lot of dirt and shows enough manipulation and bad behavior to be a strong Hollywood self-examination. Plus, Kirk is fun to watch and it's really his movie much more than it is the top-billed Turner.

Censorship alert! There is an important scene in the film where the audience needs to see the desperate starlet played by Lana Turner throw herself at Jonathan Shields. We have to establish in that scene that she is an alcoholic and a slut. And we see her do it! It's not coyly implied, it's clear what she is doing. I'm not sure how the censors let that one pass, even if it is an important plot point. There is also a scene when Shields is on the phone and asks the ladies man actor if he'd like to squire a southern belle. After the unheard response on the other end, Shields say, "No, I said SQUIRE." It's not too hard to guess what word the actor thought he said.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Barry Sullivan. The Bad and the Beautiful is generally regarded as Sullivan's best movie role, playing the director friend of Jonathan Shields who gets left out in the cold by him. Sullivan did occasionally have a staring role, such as the film noir The Gangster. In later years, I remember him as a doctor in Earthquake. But Sullivan really belongs in the character actor Hall of Fame for his many TV roles. And I mean many! From the 50's until the end of the 70's, Sullivan credits include virtually every TV show on the networks during that time. I guess whenever a role came along for a dignified, middle-aged doctor or lawyer role came along, I guess producers would shout out, "Let's get Barry Sullivan!" One of his last roles was in an episode of The Love Boat, the defacto retirement home for many Hollywood careers.

FORCE OF EVIL (1948)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 31 of 50)

Force of Evil is a movie that grew in prominence years after it was released due to the admiration of certain critics as well as Martin Scorcese (Of course, Martin Scorcese!). It involves a lawyer played by John Garfiled mixed up in the numbers racket with various gangster types. He begins to grow a conscience partly based on his guilt about getting his brother involved with criminals and partly because of his growing affection for his brother's young secretary. One thing the movie really emphasizes is that it isn't just some bad apples that are spoiling the barrel, but the entire structure of the barrel itself that may be the problem. It's an interesting role for Garfield, as none of the other movies I've seen him in would he have been a likely candidate to get a law degree. This is a compact, worthwhile film, though I'm pretty easy when it comes to recommending film noirs.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to…Paul Fix. I probably should have given this to Thomas Gomez, who really is the conscience of the film as Garfield's brother (above), a man of character that remains true to his beliefs at great risk to his well-being. But I'm going with Paul Fix, who plays an unsympathetic crook name Bill Fico in Force of Evil. Fix's long career included 336 IMDB credits. He was a staple of Westerns, and an associate and mentor of John Wayne. He also had such varied roles as the Judge in To Kill a Mockingbird and as the ship's doctor in the pilot episode of Star Trek! He is probably best know (at least to me) as Micah the sheriff on the classic TV western, The Rifleman.

SPELLBOUND (1945)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 30 of 50)

Spellbound is a movie that has its moments, but doesn't go down as one of my favorite Hitchcock films. The story of an amnesiac who might have committed a murder isn't bad, but the resolutions coming from his dreams aren't particularly convincing. I don't think if I dreamed about three seven of clubs playing cards that it would logically add up to me thinking about the ritzy Twenty-One Club, but I could be wrong. The highlight of the film has to be the elaborate Salvador Dali backdrops to the patient's dreams. It's also interesting to see Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman teamed up, but as I said, there are better Hitchcock films out there.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Leo G. Carroll. A Hitchcock regular, Leo always seemed to pop up as an urbane professional in such films such as Rebecca, North by Northwest and as the head psychiatrist in Spellbound. An exception to this type of casting I saw recently was Carroll as the houseboy Joseph in Wuthering Heights. 

Carroll later went on to play Cosmo Topper in the television series Topper and was the head of the spy agency in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He also served as a verse in the song Science Fiction Double Feature from The Rocky Horror Picture Show...I know Leo G. Carroll was over a barrel when Tarantula took to the hills...

SERGEANT YORK (1941)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 29 of 50)

Sergeant York was the right movie at the right time for 1941 American and became the biggest box-office hit of that year. Unabashedly sentimental, but charming in its simplicity, the story of contentious objector turned World War I hero Alvin York may seem too corny for some, but I rather liked this almost too good to be true tale. Gary Cooper does a fine job as York, even if he was much older than the character he was playing. 

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Walter Brennan. Brennan was probably the premeire supporting actor of his generation. Probably the only reason he didn't win an Academy Award as the pastor in Sergeant York is because he had already won the award three times! Director Howard Hawks also used Brennan in his later classic films To Have and Have Not, Red River and Rio Bravo.

Other notable supporting players include: George Tobias (later Abner Kravitz in Bewitched), June Lockhart (later the hot mom on Lost in Space), Joan Leslie (Cooper's lovely romantic interest), Ward Bond (later as Bert the Cop in It's a Wonderful Life),  Howard Da Silva (later Ben Franklin in 1776), Noah Beery Jr. (later as Pappy in The Rockford Files) and we have yet another...

...appearance by Dickie Moore!
In one of those strange coincidences that seem to happen when you are going through some of those films I have seen two movies in a row by former Little Rascal Dickie Moore after not seeing him in anything since I watched The Little Rascals so many years ago! Dickie plays Alvin York's younger brother this go round.

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