THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE

 

The British/American co-production THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE (1959), has an impressive pedigree both in front of and behind the camera. This no-nonsense adventure thriller co-stars two of the screen's greatest "manly" actors, Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. For Cooper, WRECK marked his next to last film. THE NAKED EDGE (1961) was his last but production on WRECK was halted several times due to Cooper's ill health. For Heston, WRECK was one of two films he made in 1959, the other being BEN-HUR.

The source material is the novel of the same name by British adventure scribe Hammond Innes with a screenplay by Eric Ambler, the king of realistic spy thrillers. And director Michael Anderson (who could make good films and very bad ones), here does a very good job of orchestrating the narrative. Anderson's other credits include THE DAM BUSTERS (1955), the Best Picture of the Year Oscar winner AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) (which earned Anderson a Best Director nomination), OPERATION CROSSBOW (1965), THE QUILLER MEMORANUDM (1966), DOC SAVAGE: THE MAN OF BRONZE (1975), LOGAN'S RUN (1976) and the JAWS ripoff, ORCA (1977).

WRECK is the story of two men, Captain Gideon Patch (Cooper) and salvager John Sands (Heston), thrown together under extraordinary circumstances. The first act finds Sands boarding what appears to be a deserted ship, the Mary Deare. He finds only Patch onboard and it's clear that the man is hiding a secret about the damaged vessel. Patch eventually runs the ship aground on some reefs in the English Channel and asks Sands to remain quiet about the affair until after an official inquiry can be held.

The second act is centered on the inquiry, which does not go well for Patch. His opponents in the courtroom include the owners of the Mary Deare, their insurance company and a ruthless first mate, Higgins (Richard Harris).

A race against time takes up the third act as Patch and Sands try to get to the wrecked ship and reveal the truth before the Mary Deare can be sunk, taking it's secrets to the bottom of the sea. 

WRECK is helped tremendously by some first rate model work, great water tank action sequences and tense underwater scenes. Cooper is tight lipped and stoic throughout while Heston plays second fiddle without going over the top. 

WRECK was originally planned to be an Alfred Hitchcock production. The plan was for Hitchcock to direct with Cooper starring. Hitchcock and screenwriter Ernest Lehman worked on the script for weeks but couldn't solve the problem of such a large chunk of the action taking place in a courtroom. The men eventually abandoned the project and began working on what became NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959).

It's fun to speculate on what a Hitchcock and Lehman version of WRECK would have looked like but alas, that must ever remain in the realm of unwrought things. As it is, the version of WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE that we do have is a first rate adventure film.

Recommended.

THE SPANISH MAIN

 

Now this, my friends, THIS is Technicolor! As the lobby card pictured above so proudly proclaims, THE SPANISH MAIN (1945) was shot not just in Technicolor, but in "Glorious" Technicolor. The Technicolor cinematography (hats off to George Barnes who received an Oscar nomination for his work) in SPANISH is light years better than the Technicolor displayed in UNHOLY WIFE (which I recently reviewed on this blog).

Produced at RKO, SPANISH MAIN was the studio's first all-Technicolor film since BECKY SHARP (1935). It's a lush and lavish swashbuckling adventure film starring Paul Henreid and Maureen O'Hara, the woman for whom Technicolor cinematography seems to have been invented. The close-ups of the drop-dead gorgeous O'Hara are simply breathtaking, alive and shining with a rich vibrancy that is better than real life.

The narrative is pretty routine stuff. Henreid is Laurent van Horn, a Dutch sailor who butts heads with the corrupt governor of Cartagena Don Juan Alvarado (Walter Slezak). Laurent escapes with three companions only to return five years later under the guise of the notorious pirate, The Barracuda (his ship bears the same name).

The Barracuda intercepts a Spanish vessel bound for Cartagena carrying Francisca Alvarado (O'Hara), the daughter of the viceroy of Mexico and the bride to be of Don Juan.

The Barracuda takes Francisca as his own wife, is challenged by his old flame Anne Bonny (Binnie Barnes) and meets treachery from his second in command Mario Da Bilar (John Emery). Veteran tough guy Barton MacLane is almost unrecognizable under a wig and pirate garb as Captain Black, another foe that The Barracuda must eliminate. 

There's tons of sword fighting and ship to ship combat all of which is well staged and handsomely mounted by director Frank Borzage with the stirring score by Hanns Eisler adding immensely to the action. The miniatures and sets are quite good by 1945 standards and it's obvious that RKO spared no expense to bring this rousing adventure to the screen. 

Walter Slezak practically steals the show as the buffoonish villain Don Juan Alvarado. He's a vainglorious lout who poses no real physical threat, preferring to have his underlings do all of his dirty work. At times it seems Slezak is somehow preparing for his turn more than twenty years later as the villain The Clock King on television's BATMAN.

Screenwriters George Worthing Yates and Herman J. Mankiewicz know better than to reinvent the wheel and their script rings all the notes of a standard pirate swashbuckler. Nothing new or original here but who cares? Feast your eyes on the saturated Technicolor palette and the ravishing Maureen O'Hara.

 A good time is guaranteed.

THE UNHOLY WIFE

I have a coupe of unprovable theories about why THE UNHOLY WIFE (1957) looks and sounds as bad as it does. Although shot by ace cinematographer Lucien Ballard (who photographed a lot of great movies including Stanley Kubrick's THE KILLING (1956) and Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH (1969), UNHOLY has a washed out look and dialogue that was clearly looped during post-production. These two factors serve as minor distractions in what is otherwise a fairly decent little film noir which really should have been produced in black and white.

When UNHOLY went into production at RKO in 1957 that studio was in the process of getting out of the movie production business. In fact, what was left of the RKO studios was eventually sold to Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz, who transformed it into their own studio/production company, Desilu. But someone in the head office made the decision to shoot UNHOLY in Technicolor and here's where my two theories come into play. 

One, the studio had a bunch of unused Technicolor film stock on hand and the producers decided that rather than incur any additional expenses, they'd simply use what was available. I think it's possible that the film stock was well past it's "sell by" date and as a result, the colors turned out slightly blurry, with noticeable blackness around the frames. Nothing is sharp and well defined and Lucien Ballard was too good a DP not to deliver first rate work.

My second theory is that the decision was made to shoot in color only to find that there was no color film available. Perhaps some hapless production assistant was dispatched to the corner drug store to purchase as much color film stock as could be had and said stock was more suitable for home movies than major Hollywood productions. Because that's what UNHOLY looks like at times, someone's semi-well lit home movies. If someone reading this can either prove or disprove these theories I'd love to hear from you. As I said it's not a deal breaker because the film is certainly worth your time, just be aware that the overall production looks like it was made on the cheap and the quick.

British sex symbol (dubbed the British Marilyn Monroe) Diana Dors stars as Phyllis Hochen, a femme fatale who commits cold blooded murder and frames her wine making husband Paul (Rod Steiger in a somewhat subdued, at least for Steiger, performance). Phyllis has the hots for rodeo cowboy San Sanders (Tom Tryon) and plans to run away with the tall, dark and handsome stud after securing the conviction of Paul. But the web of lies spun by Phyllis becomes increasingly entangled and she ends up being convicted for a murder which she really didn't commit. It's all terribly ironic and it's classic noir material.

The supporting cast includes Arthur (MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS) Franz, Beulah (IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE) Bondi, and noir icon Marie (NARROW MARGIN) Windsor in a small part. Look quick or you'll miss Hal (THE ANDY GRIFIFTH SHOW) Smith in one scene as a doctor. 

 Director John Farrow does yeoman like work here but he made better noirs in his career including THE BIG CLOCK (1948), WHERE DANGER LIVES (1950), and HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951). 

UNHOLY WIFE was a financial flop, a factor which led to the end of Dors short lived American filmmaking career. She soon returned to her native Great Britain where she enjoyed a long career in films and on television.

 

A DANGEROUS PROFESSION

Wikipedia says that A DANGEROUS PROFESSION (1949) is a film noir.

I disagree.

In my opinion, this RKO production is an overly convoluted yet thoroughly routine crime drama made worth watching primarily for the cast.

George Raft, who made three other films at RKO after WWII (JOHNNY ANGEL (1945), NOCTURNE (1946) and RACE STREET (1948)), stars as ex LAPD detective turned bail bondsman Vince Kane. He's partners with Joe Farley (Pat O'Brien) and the two do a very good business.

When two bit hoodlum Claude Brackett (Bill Williams), gets arrested, Kane discovers that he's married to his old flame, Lucy (the oh-so-beautiful Ella Raines). Brackett was involved in a years-old robbery case and is wanted by police detective Nick Ferrone (Jim Backus), for the murder of a cop.

Kane takes a considerable amount of bail money from two separate parties to bail Brackett but when Brackett disappears, Kane is forced to play detective once again and find his missing client.

Kane's quest leads him into a complicated web of crime, intrigue and murder. Is he really trying to solve the case out of a sense of duty or to win back his old flame?

The film climaxes with a shoot-out and fight staged close to L.A.'s legendary Bronson Caverns in which a couple of stunt men really earn their pay.

Everything is tied up in a neat package at film's end and Kane and Lucy are reunited at last.

A DANGEROUS PROFESSION was directed by Ted Tetzlaff who directed the far superior noir thriller THE WINDOW (1949). Raft and O'Brien are old pros who seem to be on automatic. Raft is especially stiff while it's interesting to see perennial good guy O'Brien play a character with a touch of larceny in his heart. The gorgeous Ella Raines also appeared in such better noirs as PHANTOM LADY (1944), BRUTE FORCE (1947) and IMPACT (1949). 

The real surprise here is the appearance of Backus as both narrator and police detective. Of course, this was years before he did the Mr. Magoo cartoons and starred in IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (1963) and television's GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. He's actually surprisingly good. 

 Light years away from greatness, A DANGEROUS PROFESSION is an okay time waster to enjoy on a brutally hot late summer afternoon.

 

THE WEAK AND THE WICKED

 

With a title like THE WEAK AND THE WICKED, I expected something entirely different from what I ultimately got when I sat down to watch this film this afternoon. This 1954 British women-in-prison picture looks like it should contain lots of pulpy, trashy material, you know, like the majority of women-in-prison pictures deliver (and why I bother to watch such films in the first place.) 

Instead, director J. Lee Thompson orchestrates a straight forward drama in which tawdry thrills (despite the title and one-sheet pictured above) are not to be found. WEAK opens with the trial, conviction and imprisonment of young Jean Raymond (Glynis Johns), who is sent to prison for a twelve-month sentence for fraud. She's actually innocent of the crime, a victim of a neat frame-up, but nonetheless, she has a stretch to do in a British penitentiary.

It's there she meets and befriends the brassy blonde Betty Brown (Diana Dors). The two become fast friends and are eventually transferred to an "open" prison (more like a college campus), to serve their final months. Here, the prisoners are given meaningful work to do and live in dorm like facilities. It's all very progressive and forward thinking. But Jean and Betty are tested near the end of the film with a taste of freedom that momentarily goes awry.

The narrative switches attention from Jean and Betty several times throughout the film as we see illuminating vignettes about a shoplifter, a mother convicted of infanticide and an older woman convicted of blackmail. They're interesting little stories that provide additional characterization but ultimately contribute little to the overall story.

Nothing much really happens in THE WEAK AND THE WICKED. Jean is ultimately released into the arms of her lover while Betty (jilted by her beau), remains behind to serve out the remainder of her sentence.

Much is made of the presence of Diana Dors, the British Marilyn Monroe of the '50s. But with her platinum blonde hair and Spock like eyebrows, Dors looks more freakish than alluring. She does prove herself to be a capable actress however, holding her own against the more seasoned Johns.

THE WEAK AND THE WICKED is a sincere film that offers a semi-documentary look inside British women's prisons. It's not bad but it's no CAGED HEAT.

THIS LAND IS MINE

Produced at RKO in 1943, a year before Allied forces invaded Normandy and began the liberation of Europe from Nazi Germany, Jean Renoir's THIS LAND IS MINE is a stirring call to action, imploring all free men and women in every country under oppression, to stand up and fight for freedom.

Set somewhere in German occupied Europe, THIS LAND focuses on one Albert Lory (Charles Laughton), a mother dominated school teacher, secretly in love with one of his co-workers, the beautiful Louise (Maureen O'Hara). Trouble is, Albert is a coward through and through, afraid of expressing his real feelings, terrified of Allied bombings, too scared to join the underground and strike a blow against the occupiers. But Louise's brother, Paul (Kent Smith), who works at the local railyard, is an active saboteur, doing all he can to disrupt the supply lines.

Louise is in love with George Lambert (George Sanders), the superintendent of the rail depot. He's sold out to the Nazis, going along to get along with Major Erich von Keller (Walter Slezak). But Paul is ratted out and hunted down (in a brilliantly filmed sequence) among the rail cars. Stricken with guilt over his friends' death, George commits suicide and seconds later, Albert finds the body and stands accused of murder.

The third act is a bravura courtroom sequence in which Albert butts heads with the prosecutor (George Coulouris) by defending himself and finally standing up to his oppressors. He confesses his love to Louise and is finally ready to die as a redeemed hero.

THIS LAND IS MINE is propaganda of the highest order but director Renoir treats everything with the utmost sobriety and seriousness. He's aided by a first rate cast headlined by the luminous O'Hara and Laughton, playing a sympathetic character instead of a villain. 

Other points of interest include Major von Keller's artificial arm, an injury he sustained in WWI. It directly recalls Lionel Atwill's turn as Inspector Krogh in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939). The art direction in THIS LAND was under the guidance of Eugene Lourie who went on to direct such genre touchstones as BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953), COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958), GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959), GORGO (1961) and CRACK IN THE WORLD (1965). Kent Smith appeared in Jacques Tourneur's horror masterpiece CAT PEOPLE (1942) while Laughton was unforgettable as Dr. Moreau in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932). Magpie Una O'Connor appeared in two of director James Whale's gothic horrors at Universal, INVISIBLE MAN (1933) and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935). And George Sanders (one of my all time favorite actors), would later star in the terrific British SF film, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) and became one of three actors to play Mr. Freeze on televisions' BATMAN.

Handsomely mounted and laced with stirring speeches about freedom and liberty, THIS LAND OF MINE is a first rate piece of wartime filmmaking. It directly addressed the situation in occupied Europe and offered a bracing dash of hope for everyone then suffering under the yoke of tyranny.

Recommended.

 

SLEAZE '73

I recently purchased this magazine on eBay. It's yet another piece to add to my growing collection of vintage men's adventure magazines (or MAMs). I've got about two hundred different issues in my collection so far, one which I've built over the last several years. I don't buy them as often as I used to but every once in a while, I get an itch that only one of these mags can scratch.

Case in point, MEN for May 1973. I was at the end of my junior year in high school the month this magazine was originally published. I certainly didn't buy it at the time as I wasn't buying any of this type of material back then. I probably saw it on the stands at 7-11 or some other convenience store but I avoided that material for fear that one, the guy behind the counter probably wouldn't sell it to me and two, it just looked sleazy as hell.

And sleazy it is. That's a huge part of the appeal for me now all these many years later. By May of 1973, MEN was clearly making the transition from focusing on articles and artwork with the occasional, fully clothed pin-up photos to an almost 100% skin mag. You can see it in the cluttered art direction on the cover. Four different images and more than a half dozen blurbs make it hard to determine exactly what this magazine was selling. One of the articles, about "Mate-Swap" Cities, actually names Austin, TX, as one of the top cities for "swingers" in 1973.

MEN wasn't an out and out skin mag yet but clearly the powers that were at Magazine Management Company (which also handled the Marvel Comics black and white magazines of the era), saw that featuring photos, (even grainy black-and-white pics printed on cheap paper) of near naked young women was more profitable (and cheaper to produce) than paying writers and artists to crank out outlandish "true" stories of crime, adventure and war.

Even though I passed on issues of MEN and their like minded brethren publications, I was eager to reach the point where I could purchase an issue of a honest-to-Hefner real skin mag, something that had class and critical cachet. I'm speaking of course, of the legendary PLAYBOY magazine. Oh sure, I'd seen issues here and there. My older brother had copies stashed in the bath towel compartment in our bathroom, some barber shops had them around for customers to peruse and some neighborhood kid always had a prized (and possibly purloined) copy to show around.

But I had never actually gone into a 7-11 or other convenience store and purchased a copy for myself. Again, I was afraid that the sale would be turned down and I wanted to spare myself the embarrassment of not being to able to buy an issue of PLAYBOY.  All of that changed in November of 1973.

Even though I wouldn't turn 18 until March of 1974, I could pass as being of age and I decided that if I acted with confidence and self-assurance, I could probably pull off buying the latest issue.

And that's just what I did one fine day.

Here's the issue I purchased: