River Of No Return (1954)

Marilyn Monroe is sweet, smart, sassy, sexy, strong and sonorous in River Of No Return. Robert Mitchum and Tommy Rettig play the dad and boy entranced by Monroe's mellifluous moves. Despite two misogynistic scenes involving Monroe (one involves the finale) and the film's treatment of Indians, Otto Preminger has fashioned an exciting western and Monroe is the consummate actress in one of her best movies.

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Some Like It Remade

In the mid 1950s, Billy Wilder wanted to remake the 1935 French film Fanfare d'amour> but the screenplay of that film could not be found so Wilder and company procured the rights to remake the 1951 German remake of the French film titled Fanfaren der Liebe. In 1959, the American remake of the German remake of the French original was released and is recognized as one of the funniest and most perfect (despite its last line) movies of all time. In 1972 Sugar, the American musical remake of the American remake of the German remake of the French original, premiered on Broadway and ran for over a year before closing - thus ending the remake saga of Some Like It Hot.

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About Miss Shirley Booth

Streaming on Amazon Prime (and not available on DVD) is About Mrs. Leslie, a wonderfully romantic movie starring the actress with the biggest heart in Hollywood, Miss Shirley Booth. This film was the followup to her film debut Come Back little Sheba and demonstrates (again) how Miss Booth's luminescent talent can light up the screen - this time as a saucy nightclub singer (à la Belle Barth) whose life is transformed by a same time next year relationship. A host of well-recognized character actors do excellent work supporting the genteel Miss Booth and her rugged co-star Robert Ryan in this emotional tale of (un?) requited love.

• Philip Ober (Vivian Vance's husband and I Love Lucy guest star)
• Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton)
• Amanda Blake (Gunsmoke)
• Mabel Albertson (Jack's sister and the lady with the jewels in What's Up, Doc)
• Kasey Rogers (Louise Tate in Bewitched)
• Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen in TV's Superman)
• Maidie Norman and Harry Morgan post-dating their wonderful work in The Well

In this YouTube premiere, Miss Booth as Vivian Keeler sings Kiss the Boys Goodbye (lyrics by Frank Loesser) and I'm In The Mood For Love

If interested in downloading this out-of-print film,
email me for a link.

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September Affair (1950)

The first part of the 1950 romance September Affair amounts to a beautiful black and white travelogue of Italy as the story of two lovers who are mistakenly reported dead in a plane crash is established. It's an involving film from an adult script by Robert Thoeren (and an uncredited Ben Hecht) brought to life by pros Joan Fontaine, Joseph Cotten and an affecting Jessica Tandy (in a supporting role as a woman affected by the pair's deception). The score is beautiful (winning a Golden Globe for composer Victor Young) and the penultimate scene in which Fontaine (her character is a pianist) gives a concert in New York is movie magic at its finest.

Streams on Amazon Prime

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Don't Bother To Knock (1952)

The closest Marilyn Monroe ever came to appearing in film noir is the first movie in which her name appears above the title, the 1952 black and white thriller Don't Bother To Knock with noir favorite Richard Widmark and singer Anne Bancroft. Although not the brightest script, Monroe proves her acting chops as the baby sitter in hotel room 809; she is poignant, detached and bat-shit crazy. I've read that this movie is closest to the real Monroe (not the blonde bimbo) but there is no playacting here; Monroe is mesmerizing.

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Dial M For Murder (1954)

To call Dial M For Murder a crackingly, taut, suspense thriller still understates the feeling that you are on the edge of your seat throughout. Alfred Hitchcock has taken the uber successful 1948 Broadway thriller and filmed it with his eye for irony and angles. Grace Kelly gives one of her best performances as do her gentlemen callers Ray Milland, Robert Cummings, John Lawson and John Williams - the latter actor having worked with Hitchcock more than any other.

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A 1956 Music Video by Gower Champion!?

While perusing the public domain site archive.org, I happened upon Once Upon A Honeymoon a fifteen minute music video directed by Gower Champion. À la Michael Jackson's Thriller, this video is a complete story about recently married (m)ad man Ward Ellis who works too much so has never had a honeymoon; Virginia Gibson is a standout as his lovely wife and the premier vocalist of the video's song, A Castle in the Sky. A few solid character actors (Chick Chandler, Alan Mowbray and a small yet pivotal turn from Leo G. Carroll) round out the cast in this lost (and now found) infomercial from the 1950s.

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Oklahoma! (1955)

This may be musical theatre sacrilege but after seeing Oklahoma! for the first time, I type meh. Most of the recognizable Rodgers and Hammerstein songs are wonderful, the Agnes DeMille dances extraordinary and Fred Zinnemann's direction sterling but I just didn't believe the dated book (including the central Laurey/Curley/Jud triangle) so I found myself losing interest as the two and a half hours wore on...and on. Shirley Jones (especially good in her film debut despite it all), Charlotte Greenwood (especially good), Gordon MacRae (good), Rod Steiger(!?) and Gloria Grahame (miscast yet quirky enough to love) kept me watching but at the end I could've said no.

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Titanic (1953)

Titanic (1953) is dated drama but phenomenal spectacle - the iceberg hit is black and white, matter-of-fact and very well-done - with yet another captivating performance by Barbara Stanwyck. Clifton Webb, Thelma Ritter (as Molly Brown) and baby Robert Wagner with Audrey Dalton (the latter two playing Leonardo diCaprio and Kate Winslet, respectively) are enthusiastic and solid - ably aiding Stanwyck in tugging at our heartstrings. Director Jean Negulesco has fashioned a good old-fashioned yarn from history but then haven't all cinematic versions of this story been created from yarn?

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Auntie Mame (1958)

Auntie Mame is a fantabulous comedy about a young boy raised by his quirky aunt; there is no music in this one but the film flows like a musical. Rosalind Russell is at the top of her game recreating Auntie Mame (a role she played on Broadway) and the script (adapted from the play which itself was adapted from the Patrick Dennis novel) is top-notch! Director Morton DeCosta (born this day, 1914) has created a fine film that, like its titular character, never gets old.

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The Well (1951)

The Well is an uncompromising, racially charged drama that pits white against black amidst the investigation into the disappearance of a black female child. Although the idiocy of the white racist characters comes off the worst, the film does not pander by putting the black characters on a pedestal. Yes, this story has been done before (life imitated art a little over a decade ago) but The Well still never ceases to make me well up - with anger and with joy.

Click the poster to read more on The Well

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The Bad Seed (1956)

Thematically, The Bad Seed is the antithesis of an American film from the 50s as it asks us to ponder whether a blonde, white child with pigtails can commit murder? Quaint as the story is, there are a few unforeseen twists that keep everything moving along. The play from which this film was adapted is broad - characters, story, performances (Eileen Heckart, Patty McCormack and Nancy Kelly all Tony AND Oscar-nominated) and even an ending tagged on to the film because of the Production Code is broad - but for historical reasons, that's a good thing.

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Love Me Or Leave Me (1955)

Doris Day and James Cagney as torch singer Ruth Etting and her gangster husband are nothing short of electric in Love Me Or Leave Me, the artistically and commercially successful biography film from 1955. Cagney is pathetically empathetic in a role he's played before but it is Day who leaps out of her ingenue comfort zone and slinks her way to the heart of the woman. The musical numbers - covers of Etting's hits of the 20s along with the Oscar-nominated original I'll Never Stop Loving You - are bright and vivacious in a film that's fascinating from Day's first appearance accepting 10 cents for a dance to her final performance of the title tune.

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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Sassy Jane Russell and sweet Marilyn Monroe bring their many charms to this wonderful film of the Broadway musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Howard Hawks directs the lively, colorful, entertaining and tuneful tale about two showgirls looking for love (and money) into a frothy and uncomplicated soiree. Monroe's iconic Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, Russell's so-hot-they-needed-a-pool Ain't There Anyone Here For Love and the duet Two Little Girls From Little Rock show how neither woman has ever been better - and not many films have either.

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High Society (1956)

High Society is nothing more than Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly play acting the much better The Philadelphia Story. It's a musical but that is pushing it as the mostly trite Cole Porter tunes seem haphazardly thrown in. The saving grace is the swinging presence of maestro Louis Armstrong and his band, and the classy presence of maestra Celeste Holm who looks phenomenal and manages to create an actual character.

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...Stage Struck (1958)

Susan Strasberg gives a cringe-inducing performance of the likes rarely seen in the otherwise midly interesting theatrical rags-to-riches story, Stage Struck. Everything surrounding her performance might have made for a better picture had a different actress been cast as the central character (although I knew it was going to be bad when they handed her a pin wheel in Times Square during the credits). Henry Fonda, Christopher Plummer, Herbert Marshall and director Sidney Lumet try but not even the New York City photography belies Strasberg's left-field caricature of Katherine Hepburn or the age of this story - which I found out halfway through my viewing was Katherine Hepburn's 1933 vehicle, Morning Glory.

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...A Star is Born (1954)

A Star is Born is an absolutely perfect musical drama starring Judy Garland as an amalgam of Esther Blodgett, Vicki Lester and...um...Judy Garland. She, the music, the script,and James Mason are phenomenal. Take a look at the artistry (as directed by George Cukor) and see for yourself.

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Marty (1955)

Marty is a day in the life of two dogs that ain't such dogs as they think they are. Academy Award winner Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair are sweetly touching in this honest and romantic story of their search for love in spite of self-perceived limitations. Not to be too trite but, they don't make 'em like this anymore.

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...Carmen Jones (1954)

Oscar Hammerstein II took the music from Bizet's classic opera Carmen, added his own lyrics, rewrote the book (transporting the story to Louisiana in the 1950s) and came up with a pastiche called Carmen Jones. Otto Preminger filmed the musical redux with singer/actors Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge in the lead roles only to have them dubbed by two white singers with a more operatic range. All of this stitching is very present in the movie which feels listless, has less than memorable songs and, despite a sultry performance by the aforementioned Dandridge and a funky one by Pearl Bailey, ended up putting me to sleep.

...The I Love Lucy Movie (2007)

The I Love Lucy Movie is the recently discovered film consisting of three first-season episodes of the classic television series I Love Lucy, edited together into one story: The Benefit, Breaking the Lease and The Ballet. New scenes were filmed to keep continuity in this pot of gold for Lucy fans and anyone who relishes classic moments of entertainment. Only available on the complete series box set, The I Love Lucy Movie is well worth the $150 cost.