1958 - INDISCREET, a polished production of a very slight story

This should have been an entertaining romantic comedy.  The leads were Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.  The producer/director was Stanley Donen a man of taste and style.  The writer was Norman Krasna an old pro at this romantic comedy stuff.  The cinematographer was F.A. Young who was usually associated with David Lean's super epics, it looks very pretty in technicolor.  The end result of all this effort is a very mild film with lots and lots of talk.

Bergman plays what else, a world famous actress who enters into an affair with rich banker Cary Grant who is apparently married. The film's contrived plot hangs on the premise that Grant actually isn't married but is pretending to be married to avoid having to get married, well something like that.  

 

This film was made under the Cary Grant, Stanley Donen production company Grandon.  It was the first of their three films which included The Grass is Greener and Charade.  The idea seemed to be to film sophisticated and very glossy entertainments of "the privileged class enjoying their privileges" as they liked to say.

For all the good looking clothes and impressive London locations the film just doesn't really come off with it's dumb premise.  Grant and Bergman make a good looking couple but they don't really have any genuinely witty dialog to work with.  They are supported by English character actors Cecil Parker and Phyllis Calvert who are much better at delivering Krasna's lame dialog and frankly when they are off screen they are really missed.  I guess if you are a fan of classic Hollywood stars like Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman the film is sort of enertaining.

The running time is an overlong 100 minutes.   

1963 - CHARADE, excellent romantic thriller

This is an excellent and very entertaining comedy thriller made by Hollywood professionals at the peak of their abilities.  It starred Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn and who ever had the inspired idea to team them up as a romantic couple should have gotten a big bonus.  Here are two stars who really deliver the goods.  Cary Grant had done enough Hitchcock films so he knew how to balance the comedic and suspense elements in this story.  Audrey Hepburn was no slouch either.  She had also performed in romantic comedies and dramas with great success.  These two performers were very experienced actors when it came to making films and they really knew how to deliver the romantic couple goods.

 

The director Stanley Donen had worked at MGM during it's peak period when they were producing stylish musicals.  Donen along with Gene Kelly had created an impressive body of work with films like On The Town, Singing In The Rain and the underrated It's Always Fair Weather.  On his own he directed Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and Funny Face.   As the musical genre wrapped up Donen focused on sophisticated comedies and in this case romantic thrillers.  Charade was one of his best films.

  

A big part of Charade's success is the screenplay by Peter Stone and Marc Behm which balanced the comedy, romance and suspense elements.  The cinematographer Charles Lang was one of Hollywood's top cameraman who had worked with John Sturges, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. With this kind of talent Charade could hardly miss.  It was a critical and commercial hit. 

 

The running time is 113 minutes.  

1953 - GIVE A GIRL A BREAK, a forgotten MGM musical

One of the masters of the Hollywood musical Stanley Donen directed this basically forgotten musical.  There were apparently a lot of behind the scenes production issues and the generous budget MGM allowed for the film didn't really translate to any kind of commercial success.

The film was loaded with talent in front and behind the camera.  Donen had co-directed Singing in the Rain and On The Town with Gene Kelly, Bob Fosse was in the cast an excellent dancer at this point in his career.  Marge and Gower Champion were a talented dance team.  Debbie Reynolds was certainly a very hard working performer in the traditional sense of the movie business.

Behind the scenes was the cameraman William C. Mellor frequently associated with George Stevens so he was no slouch when it came to photographing films.  Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin wrote a decent score for the most part.

 

But the problem seems to be the screenplay written by Albert Hackett and  Frances Goodrich.  They were top writers but for some reason they sure didn't bring their "A" game to this film.  The very simple story is about 3 aspiring dancers hoping to land the lead in a Broadway musical is just a pack of cliches.  The story is so thin it's amazing they were actually able to get an 84 minute movie out of it.

 

The dancers, Debbie Reynolds and Marge Champion were very good no wimping out in a Stanley Donen musical that's for sure.  Then there is the very strange story of the third lead dancer Helen Wood.  She is certainly as talented as the other two but for some reason her career in Hollywood never really turned off and eventually she returned to NYC and ended up in porno films of all things.  In fact she appears in Deep Throat as a performer called Dolly Sharp.  

 

What's let to enjoy in this film are the musical numbers themselves.  The film may be a next to nothing confection but there is a high degree of performing skill particularly in the sequences with Bob
Fosse and Debbie Reynolds performing together.  It's kind of amusing to see Fosse playing a clueless hayseed from Montana who knows nothing about dating a woman.  This certainly contrasts with his later life where he was a notorious womanizer.

1954 - SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, a high point for the MGM musical

An acknowledged classic MGM musical.  This film is unusual in that it is an original musical with original music and choreography created especially for this film.

MGM had so little faith in this film that they cut the budget which accounts for some of the phony sets the actors perform against.  It turned out to be when of their biggest box office hits of that year beating out their overblown turkey Brigadoon.

The film was very well directed by Stanley Donen with the dances and musical numbers staged by Michael Kidd.  The dance numbers particularly the barn raising number are extremely well done.

A superior Hollywood musical during the 1950's.

102 minutes, written by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley. 

1949 - ON THE TOWN, the famous MGM musical.

This was a ground breaking musical.  Gene Kelly had been pushing MGM to expand the boundaries of the musical and actually got the studio to agree to 2 weeks of filming in New York City.

On The Town was adapted from a Broadway musical featuring a Leonard Bernstein score.  In this film version the score barely survived with only 4 songs remaining.  The Jerome Robbins choreography was replaced by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's work,  well that's Hollywood.

Frankly the film was kind of an ordeal to sit through.  On The Town is about 10 minutes too long and has one dance number too many for my taste.  The on location photography, what there is of it was kind of nice.  But overall the film seems very silly, today's film scene has not been kind to old musicals particularly musicals with a lot of dancing in them.

 

98 minutes,  screenplay by Adolph Green and Betty Comden.

1957 - KISS THEM FOR ME, another film saved by Cary Grant

You would think a film about 3 Navy fliers on leave in San Francisco during World War II would be be a can't miss.  The film was directed by Stanley Donen, written by Julius Epstein a veteran screenwriter and starred Cary Grant.  This should at the very least be an entertaining comedy.  However Kiss Them For Me is a very disappointing film.  It's not a bad film or a good film just a mediocre one.  As usual only Cary Grant's charm and professionalism can hold this thing together.

Cary Grant's costar is that 50's idea of a female desire, Jayne Mansfield.  A woman with  a ridiculous hour glass figure and little girl personality.  She makes Marilyn Monroe look like Meryl Streep.   Mansfield does her dirty little girl thing throughout the film but mercifully she actually has a rather small part considering she has co-starring billing with Cary Grant in the credits.  Grant's real co-star is the legendary 50's model Suzy Parker.

Parker was a top magazine cover model, one of the first of the "super models."  She probably would have been at home in an Alfred Hitchcock film  if Hitchcock liked cool brunette's instead of cool blondes.  Parker can actually hold her own with Cary Grant even though his approach to seducing her seems mostly to ply her with some drink called a "stinger." A gross cocktail that is a mix of creme de mente and cognac.

Probably the most pathetic thing about this film are the occasional attempts to actually get serious about the plight of the returning war weary veteran.  I understand this is a comedy but the small parts of serious drama stuck in this film really seem out of place.  Cary Grant is always fun to watch in a film, but he really did his best work with good directors like Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, George Cukor and occasionally Stanley Donen.

105 minutes.

1957 - FUNNY FACE, 50's musical with a lot of style probably too much style.

Fred Astaire is the fashion photographer based on Richard Avedon.  Audrey Hepburn is the intellectual book seller who Astaire discovers and turns into a top fashion model.  The songs are by George and Ira Gershwin, Stanley Donen directed and the film was shot in Vista Vision so it looks great.

However MGM was the studio of origin for this musical but ended up selling the whole package to Paramount, apparently they had little faith in the film

Astaire is almost 60 years old but still has a lot of grace when he dances.  Hepburn was not a trained dancer but had studied ballet and appeared in some stage musicals so she was able to fake it pretty well.  The film also stars Kay Thompson who was a vocal coach and arranger for MGM during it's musical hey day.  Kay Thompson was a big deal at MGM since she was involved in a lot of their musicals and probably was as influential behind the scenes as a Vincent Minnelli, Roger Edens or Arthur Freed.

Funny Face has a lot of good things about it, but like almost every musical from the 1950's it's always one to many songs and one to many dance numbers.  Stanley Donen's skill as a director keeps it watchable but it finally wears out it's welcome about halfway through the film

103 minutes, written by Leonard Gershe.

1957 - THE PAJAMA GAME, good adaptation of a Broadway musical I guess.

Film director Stanley Donen and stage director George Abbott teamed up to film this Broadway show with most of the original cast (the exception being Doris Day, you gotta have a star you know) recreating their original roles.  They also chose not to open up the play too much in order to preserve it's spontaneity. 

Doris Day is pretty good in this film, she actually seems like she could be a union rep in a blue collar factory.  John Raitt (Bonnie's dad) has a fine voice and is a good co-star for Doris Day.  The rest of the cast looks like factory workers so when they dance and sing it's a lot of fun to see them perform.

I think the problem with The Pajama Game is the musical genre itself, it just seems very stupid these days.   Musicals and particularity film musicals run a very fine line between suspension of reality and just plain dumbness.  The whole idea of people breaking out into song in the middle of a story is just well rather ridiculous.  Also, time has not been very kind to some of these shows,  1950's and early 1960's musicals have a very definite structure, a major singing story line and a secondary singing comic relief story line.  Both stories finally merge together into a grand finale where everyone gets together at the end and sings and sings and sings.  About as predictable as the sunrise.

Still, the songs are pretty good.  The dancing is good and with a director like Stanley Donen you can be sure the film will be put together with a lot of taste and style. 

101 minutes.

1978 - MOVIE MOVIE too much good taste

Another well made film that bombed with the general public. The idea here was to spoof 1930's movie genres, a black and white fight film and a Busby Berkley musical. The film was written by Larry Gelbert a funny guy, and directed by Stanley Donen, a classy guy.

 

George C. Scott stars in both of the double features and it has a cast of very talented veteran and at the time new actors and talent. The production design is perfect the black and white and color photography very good. Michael Kidd the choreographer did a good job recreating the 1930's musical numbers. The film was just too well made for it's own good.

 

If you were going to make fun of old Hollywood movies in 1978, you would probably need to really go way over the top with the poor humor and taste. This was the approach Mel Brooks got away with when he made Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
 

But in the end maybe recreating and spoofing old movies is self defeating. Even Mel Brooks finally ran out of ideas by the time he made Robin Hood: Men In Tights. Stanley Donen's problem was that he had too much taste and style too lower himself to Mel Brook's level of humor.

 105 minutes.

1975 - LUCKY LADY, somebody forgot to clean the camera lens

20th Century Fox's big Christmas release for 1975.  How did Stanley Donen the director get mixed up in this mess?  His last couple of films had been disappointments but was he that desperate for work?

  A comedy/adventure tale about rum runners along the Mexican and Southern California coast, it had three big stars and a big budget. Geoffrey Unsworth the director of photography had photographed 2001: A Space Odyssey. What was the thinking behind having him shoot the film through a hazy filter to approximate the look of the 1920's?  The actors seem blurry and out of focus throughout the film. The viewer can hardly see the expensive art deco sets through all the fog.

 

   
Was Liza Minnelli  the right person to cast as a sexy tough girl cabaret singer that two men are in love with? The idea to have her play a Jean Harlow type means someone thought she was as sexy as Harlow.  Did anyone actually look at a picture of Jean Harlow and think Minnelli looks like Harlow?  Minnelli acts looks like she's on some kind of controlled substance through out the film.  Apparently the director Stanley Donen didn't have the guts to tell Minnelli that her performance stunk.
 

Burt Reynolds always wanted to be Cary Grant or Clark Gable but whenever he tried to do light comedy he always came off as a pathetic wimp.  Reynolds the big star of 1970's redneck car chase movies was way out of his element in Lucky Lady. The studio apparently paid Gene Hackman a lot of money to be in this thing. Hackman's the Spencer Tracy best friend role in this movie. He brings an intensity more suited to a Eugene O'Neill tragedy but at least he turns in a decent performance.  

  
The real behind the scenes evildoers of this movie were the writers, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. They had been associates of George Lucas before anyone figured out Lucas maybe had a little less  talent then Hollywood thought. They co-wrote American Graffiti, so the thinking must have been to get two contemporary writers to update a 1930's type of film.   However no one must have actually read the script before they gave the green light to make this film.   Had 20th Century fox had a magical crystal ball they would have found out that Huyck and Katz would go on to write the worst of the Indiana Jones films and  the notorious Howard the Duck.

Apparently the filmmakers shot three different endings for the movie because they couldn't figure out how to end it.

The running time is 118 minutes.

1966 - ARABESQUE the remake of CHARADE

During the 60's every actor had to make a spy flick, this is Gregory Peck's attempt. Greg's a college professor hired by a shifty Arab type played by an English actor of course.  Greg' has to decode a cipher of some kind which has some secret stuff on it..  The Arab is evil because he has a hawk for a pet that flies around the house attacking servants he is upset with. Sophia Loren an Italian of course plays a hot Arab beauty who may or may not be helping Peck solve the mystery of the cipher.  No one was going to cast an actual middle eastern actor to play opposite Caucasian Peck.

The director is the highly stylish and talented Stanley Donen who moved from 50's musicals to sophisticated love stories and thrillers in the 60's after the musical form had played itself out. Donen had made Charade with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn a few years earlier, and had done a pretty good job at making a Hitchcock type of light thriller. Probably hoping to hit pay dirt again, Donen reworked Charade as Arabesque, keeping the same basic "who can I trust" situation as he used in the first film. The problem for Donen was the realization that the script was pretty bad.

Gregory Peck was a professional, but he really wasn't known for his light comedy touch.   Sophia Loren is a great beauty but she wears some of the strangest outfits ever inflicted on an actress.

 To compensate for these problems, Donen and his cinematographer Christopher Callis, photographed the film with as many nutty camera angles as they could think of. There are shots underneath tables, through glass, under the water, fuzzy, distorted, you name it.   It's fun for a while but soon the realization sets in that there is nothing going on in the movie.

The movie is a harmless time killer assembled by professionals who tried to spin straw into gold and got pyrite instead.

Written by Julian Mitchell, Stanley Price and Peter Stone (under the alias of Pierre Marton).  The running time is 105 minutes.