Alva's dreams of a New Orleans life

 THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED (1966)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Southern melodramas are always heated, and the hot, steamy weather certainly amplifies the rise in temperature of complex relationships. I always think of such textures in film adaptations of "The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof" and "Baby Doll," the latter having raised the ire of the Catholic Legion of Decency. It is no accident that Tennessee Williams wrote both of these terrifically steamy and insightful plays. "This Property is Condemned" is an unusual oddity, as it is on the surface a Tennessee Williams story (based on a one-act play) yet the meatier parts of character development slowly erode rather than enhance. Not to say there isn't enough to like and admire about "This Property is Condemned" yet it actually feels like a one-act play and in a movie, well, you need more than one act.

The setting is Dodson, Mississippi in the 1930's where a young girl walks on the railroad tracks, the precocious Willie Starr (Mary Badham) singing "Wish Me a Rainbow," reminiscing about her older sister, Alva (Natalie Wood). As we flashback to her residence, a boarding house adjacent to the railroad tracks, we keep hearing men chanting the name "Alva" while Willie tries to fend them off. Legate (Robert Redford) arrives in this small town by train, and he has money to pay for a room but nobody knows him or his business. It turns out Legate is in town to lay off railroad workers thanks to severe cutbacks...it is the Depression era after all. Meanwhile, Alva is wanted and kissed by every man, she is the highlight of this boarding house run by her mother, Hazel "Mama" Starr (Kate Reid). Alva has plenty of men groping her and wanting to dance with her but it is Legate's initial resistance that confounds her.

As the story progresses, "This Property is Condemned" holds one's interest and Sydney Pollack directs with ease and a measure of romanticism without shying away from the economic difficulties of the time period. Natalie Wood is purely electric as Alva, emanating the sassiness and sex appeal of a woman whose sole purpose is to make men feel welcome at the boarding house (the play made it very clear she was a prostitute yet watching this movie, she is more like everyone's favorite dance partner). She sees a future beyond the guys who clamor for her attention - she wants to go to New Orleans yet her mother will not allow her to go free. Alva's future almost seems certain when she falls in love with Legate. Once the story shifts to New Orleans, Alva's past with one man she married on a whim, or on a dare, comes back to haunt her and her future with Legate becomes uncertain. This would not seem such an odd way for a Tennessee Williams story to conclude except it feels like a kick in the teeth - the mother returns to retrieve Alva and we hear from Willie in a flashforward about Alva's fate. As written by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Coe and Edith Sommer, the film suddenly devolves into a hasty resolution that feels like a cheat. Considering it is based on a 25 minute one act play that centered only on Willie and a kid named Tom, this film is overstuffed with too many characters justifying itself as more Williams-centric than the Williams play itself. Ironically, it still resembles a one-act play either way.

"This Property is Condemned" is often spirited, sometimes brassy in tone, and deeply evocative of a time and place in history. It is fun seeing actors like Charles Bronson and Robert Blake, two of Alva's beaus, playing hard-working railroad workers who know they will lose their jobs (excepting Bronson to a certain degree, both actors are in their early prime here before being typecast as tough guys). Natalie Wood has the uncanny ability of making us believe she cares and adores all these men, even if she doesn't seem to have much chemistry with them. I can't say if this film works better than "Inside Daisy Clover" in terms of a long-standing relationship, which also starred Redford, yet I am not sure if Redford is really Alva's type (which may be precisely the point). A far too abrupt ending almost ruins the film but I still give it a pass for what works 6/10 of the way. Tennessee Williams hated it. 

The Man Who Saw too Much

 X: THE MAN WITH THE X RAY EYES (1963)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the LORD has made them both" (Proverbs 20:12; ESV)

Ray Milland excels at playing cold-hearted, remote, indifferent men who look at life in a clinical rather than emotional manner. That is why he would be the perfect actor to play a scientist who has developed a chemical formula that allows him to see with X-ray vision. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Milland is so good at playing such aloof men, it is difficult to build much sympathy for the lead character.

Milland is Dr. Xavier (clever name considering the film's title), the scientist who can see beyond or thru anything, including walls and pages of his fellow doctor's notes. While out on the town with Dr. Diane Fairfax (Diana Van der Vlis), he does the twist and can see people without their clothes on! Oh, my! After the doctor's research into this scientific breakthrough falls through, Xavier tries to prove his case by claiming that another doctor's diagnosis of a little girl is wrong. In a scene that is one of many unbelievable moments, Xavier cuts the doctor's hand with a scalpel in the operating room and proceeds to save the girl - the scene never has a payoff so we don't know if Xavier saved a life versus the other's possible misdiagnosis. Then Xavier is confronted by another sympathetic doctor who tries to calm him down with a sedative, and Xavier accidentally pushes him out the window and to his death!

That is not all. Xavier doesn't stay hiding from the police; instead he works for a devious carnival manager (a terrifically greedy Don Rickles) and the magical act consists of Xavier wearing only a blindfold while reading scribbled pieces of paper from patrons. He can see through his eyelids now, and the more drops he puts in his eyes, the worse the condition gets. Xavier takes it even further at a Las Vegas casino where he wins without much effort because, you know, he can see through the playing cards.

Ray Milland's Xavier keeps us at a distance and it is hard to work much sympathy for a man who has little to no interior emotional life - he never seems to enjoy his abilities and keeps making it worse for himself despite headaches and developing the blackest eyes you can imagine. Xavier has no interest in romancing the willing Dr. Diane - he just has a perverted side because he enjoys seeing women naked. His intentions with the x-ray eyes are never made clear and an ending during a religious service could have led to him, gee I don't know, thinking that he saw God. Well, it seems like it but then...oh, I will not give it away. Director Roger Corman never exploits this novel idea far enough and never builds the character beyond being just some average scientist without a care in the world. The solarized special effects serving as Xavier's point-of-view only serve to further distance us.  

Living with a crime

SCARLET STREET (1945)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

 
"Scarlet Street" is one of the strangest noir tales ever told on screen, primarily because it seems rooted in almost something farcical. Here is the story of a modest cashier who makes a conniving woman believe that he is a world-famous painter. This could be a comedy but under the hands of German director Fritz Lang ("Metropolis"), it takes on the existential - showing that one person's actions can result in a hopeless situation.

Edward G. Robinson plays Chris, a sullen cashier working for an anonymous bank company. His one joy in life is to paint, a habit not taken seriously by a single character in the film. One night, after hastily leaving a celebration in his honor, Chris sees a woman in the street robbed by some guy. The victim is Kitty (Joan Bennett), a purely electrifying doll, funny yet devious with a devilish smile. The thief gets away yet Chris is mesmerized by Kitty, taking her out for a drink (initially coffee, as always with a noir protagonist). He asks to meet her again, and his love for painting makes Kitty suspect he is a renown painter with lots of money to spare. Kitty thus uses Chris, and we discover the thief from earlier is actually her boyfriend, Johnny (Dan Duryea), whom she passes off as her cousin. Chris sees Johnny as an intrusion but nevertheless, he falls hopelessly in love. He is so in love that he steals
money from his bank so he can rent her a luxurious Greenwich Village apartment!

Chris also sees the apartment as a studio where he can paint, away from the constant squabbling of his unhappy wife, Millie (it is more spacious than the bathroom he uses in his apartment). But Kitty has other plans - she sees Chris's paintings as an avenue for success and profit, and so does the
irascible, persistent Johnny. Therein lie the twists.

"Scarlet Street" has lots of comical scenes, mostly provided by Bennett who performs enough double takes and lascivious stares to make her the almost cartoonish version of Joan Crawford. All her scenes with Robinson are set in bedrooms or closed-in restaurants, and they are all perfectly flawless, exuding
both humor and tension. Bennett also makes Kitty ambiguous - we are never sure what to make of her, and her sensuousness and supposed sensitivity reinforce her two-sided nature. She is out to make a buck anyway she can, but is she as amoral as Johnny, who goes so far as to sell Chris's paintings himself?

Robinson is at his most restrained and sympathetic, even when his actions become questionable, we know he will do anything for the love of his life. Counterbalancing between being blindsided and naive, his final act of love resulting in tragic consequences is a marvel to witness - his pained gestures
show a man slowly coming apart at the seams. This is an extraordinary performance, almost as good as his similarly repressed protagonist in "Woman in the Window."

Fritz Lang, who previously directed "Woman in the Window," does wonders with the film showing just about every single facet of noir - smoking, shadows in the night, wrongful murders, accusations, double twists, and an unseen electrocution. "Scarlet Street" is a terrific film, brimming with humor and
horror in balanced doses. Most significant is Lang's inevitable ending reinforcing the hopelessness of Chris's situation. Though the ending initially had problems with the censors, it is justified and shows a degree of punishment - living with a crime is often more punishing than actual punishment from the
law.

Making her world a happy place

 CURLY TOP (1935)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Watching the delightfully sunny smile and pouty mannerisms of curly Shirley Temple is always a treat, including her singing and dancing to her heart's content. Underneath the formulaic notions of a predictable love story between a millionaire composer and a young orphan woman (not Temple), there is nothing more in "Curly Top" than the adorable presence of a young girl who wants to make the world, her world, a happy place.

Temple plays a 7-year-old orphan girl, Elizabeth, living in a rather dank orphanage known as Lakeside. Elizabeth's older sister, Mary (Rochelle Hudson) does a lot of the cooking and cleaning of this place. Elizabeth has a habit of getting herself in trouble - like too much singing and dancing during group meals, and wanting to make sure the pony doesn't get pneumonia for standing in the rain. So Elizabeth brings the pony to an adjoining bed! When the trustees do their regular inspection of the orphanage, a certain Mr. Edward Morgan (a dapper as always John Boles) turns out to be one of the trustees - he has recently inherited some wealth. Thanks to the newspaper article making this claim, Lakeside's rigid superintendent, Mrs. Higgins (Rafaela Ottiano), hopes he will double his donations. Morgan is struck by Elizabeth and her mimicry of one of the other trustees. He finds her to be such a winsome young girl that he decides to adopt her (though he lies and says that there is another benefactor). Bright Elizabeth makes it clear that if she is adopted, her older sister must come along as well.

"Curly Top" is not exactly a stirring cinematic venture (based on a 1912 novel named "Daddy-Long-Legs" that is uncredited, though I see more of a similarity with "Annie") and it's clear that the love between Mary and Edward will come to fruition despite a young Navy sailor getting in the mix. No, this movie is all Shirley Temple (in one scene, Boles imagines her as the figure of every one of his historical paintings) and she sings various songs including "Animal Crackers in My Soup" and "When I Grow Up" that seem to occupy more than a third of the film's 74 minute running time. This is not a complaint, just a fact because Temple is memorable in every scene and the songs are spirited and memorable as well.

A curious thing happens in "Curly Top." In one scene, Temple recites her own poems to Boles and we get the impression she is not just speaking to him but to us as well - her eyeline shifts and she looks straight at the audience for a lengthy time (not to mention breaking the fourth wall in the last scene). No wonder Miss Temple was America's darling - she loved us too. 

Surviving 67 Torturous Minutes

 REEFER MADNESS (1936)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Yes, I know it has become a cult classic and something of a midnight show staple. I also know the title itself is still used in today's jargon when it comes to the war on drugs. For myself, there are two camps of bad movies: good/bad movies and boring bad movies. "Reefer Madness" falls in the latter category because, unlike say Dwain Esper's "Maniac" from 1934, this movie takes itself seriously but there is not a shred of unintentional humor. A big baby of a bore, if you ask me.

The movie begins in a classroom where the high-school principal talks at a PTA meeting about the deadly effects of marihuana. We see high-school students (who are more likely college-age) succumbing to the drug by attending a dull party at some house where everyone goes for a puff of deadly Mary Jane. This means that we are privy to scenes where a person stares into space like a zombie. We also see how a stressed-out individual combats his condition by smoking more and more Mary Jane and asking for the piano to be played faster and faster! Sometimes, the drug leads to sex (this is probable). There is also a shooting, an innocent pedestrian is run over, dozens of badly edited scenes, mumbling instead of clear dialogue, and so on. I can't imagine anyone taking this propaganda seriously because they would have to be awake to endure it. I nodded off several times.

The moral of this wasteful propaganda piece is that weed leads to violence, reckless driving and suicide. I am sure people still believe that today (or have we not heard of pot therapy groups). All I want is a T-shirt that reads: "I survived the 67 torturous minutes of 'Reefer Madness'."

Not exactly Illicit

 THE SECRET BRIDE (1934)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Despite a quick pace for a drama with a few thrills thrown in, the title for this film is all wrong. Anyone expecting a serious drama with Barbara Stanwyck as a recently married woman and the issues with marriage (not unlike her earlier pre-Code "Illicit") will be a mite disappointed. 

"The Secret Bride" involves Stanwyck trying to keep her marriage to an assistant attorney general (Warren William) secret due to a troubling crime with her father. You see her father is Governor and a bank deposit of ten grand not to mention an alleged suicide and possible bribery...well, it may lead to the filing of Articles of impeachment against the governor! The attorney general's office finds that an incriminating letter found in a safe was typed in the governor's very own computer. Alas, another murder occurs and a saucy secretary, Glenda Farrell, may be implicated. Glenda is played by Hazel Normandie who is the brightest spurt of energy in the whole film.  

The screenplay is hogwash though the actors are hardly banal - it is just them uttering banalities. Nothing in the murder investigation yields much in the way of surprise. Warren William seems ready to burst through the screen with force yet he never gets there as the savvy hubby. Barbara Stanwyck does just fine with her role yet it is the couple I was more interested in than the mediocre plot. You kinda wish there was a rewrite and that Stanwyck and William were given more to do than to be used as pawns in a story we've seen a million times before.

Jane stay with me in jungle

 TARZAN ESCAPES (1936)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The Lord of the Apes has dominated the silver screen for so long that it is easy to forget how good the Johnny Weissmuller flicks were. The Olympic swim athlete giving that Tarzan yell and swinging on vines as he summons the wild animals of Africa still gives me goosebumps. "Tarzan Escapes" is fairly solid and terrific fun with the usual brand of British white villains and African tribal members being pushed around while looking for the legendary Lord of the Apes and sweet Jane herself. 

Jane's cousins, Rita and her brother Eric (Benita Hume and William Henry), are standing to receive an inheritance and they need Jane to come back to England to sign it. The cousins procure help from the reluctant white hunter with a black heart Captain Fry (John Buckler) to lead them to Jane in the deep dangerous jungle where rumors persist of a white gorilla. It is actually Tarzan, who is no white gorilla, and he is happily living with Jane (Maureen O'Sullivan) in a tree-top hideaway with actual running water and a makeshift elevator platform with suspension ropes operated by an elephant! Why would anyone want to give up on this natural paradise for stuffy British mansions? 

"Tarzan Escapes" is lively and very well-paced with the all too typical white hunter who has a murderous bent and want to exhibit Tarzan for his own pleasure. This Fry is deliciously evil and charming, and thinks nothing of shooting tigers and tribal members. Weissmuller is a convincing enough monosyllabic hero who understands and conveys hurt when Jane considers leaving. Maureen O'Sullivan has a startling beauty that makes me wonder who styles her hair and makeup in the thick of the jungle, but never mind. Herbert Mundin is a welcome addition as the naive Rawlins who marvels at Tarzan and sight of the elephants doing Tarzan's bidding. And who can forget more comic relief given by Cheetah!

"Tarzan Escapes" was initially far too violent for test audiences and was reshot in its current releasable form. There is nothing here to scare anyone other than wild animals cavorting with Tarzan, and a sizable mortality count (probably too many deaths from high cliffs could give one pause). The violence overall is fairly mute. A sensual scene between Tarzan and Jane and a flower, as Jane lays on the ground with Tarzan casting a shadow over her, is breathtaking. And it is delicious fun to see Tarzan swinging around the jungle, sometimes with the help of rear-screen projection. An entertaining adventure movie.