Dream DVDs 2009 (Part 2)
Rich in Love (1993) - All-star cast bildungsroman from director Bruce Beresford. There’s no reason for this recent film not to be on DVD. Touching story of a teenage girl (Kathryn Erbe) trying to hold her family together after her mother (Jill Clayburgh) leaves, severing all contact with the family, and her ambivalently pregnant older sister (Suzy Amis) and new brother-in-law (Kyle MacLachlan) hit town. Albert Finney is larger than life (as always) as the flaky father. A small, but touching movie, having little plot, focusing instead on tenuous relationships between characters. Piper Laurie, Alfre Woodard, and Ethan Hawke costar.
The Competition (1980) - Romantic drama about a young adult piano competition, in which the winner is guaranteed a successful launch into a concert career. Richard Dreyfuss, in one of his least mannered performances, plays a struggling pianist in his last year of eligibility who’s willing to risk security for a last shot at the big time. Amy Irving (note to actresses-if you want to continue your career in Hollywood, don’t divorce the most powerful director in the world) plays a young prodigy who might upset his chances. Strong support from Lee Remick (in the performance of her career) as Irving’s coach and the great character actor Sam Wanamaker, as the competition’s hard-nosed conductor; their sparring scenes provide a lively subplot to the more serious main plot. The final confrontation between the two leads after the winner is announced is one of the great character-driven climaxes in recent memory.
One Way Passage (1932) - Elegiac story (won Oscar for Best Original Story) of a condemned man (William Powell) falling in love with a dying woman (Kay Francis) on an ocean voyage. Instead of being dismal and heavy-handed, the film is pleasantly touching, mostly because Powell plays the role with the suave insouciance that later became his trademark. Nicely directed by Tay Garnett, with great use of music. Remade as ’Til We Meet Again with Merle Oberon and George Brent in the leads. I can’t bring myself to watch the later version. Oberon had none of Francis’s softness, and George Brent none of Powell’s charm.
The Hard Way (1943) - Ida Lupino gives a knockout performance that won the New York Film Critics Circle Best Actress award but was totally overlooked by the Academy Awards, the Oscar that year going to the tepid performance of Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette. There’s nothing tepid about Ida Lupino. Here, she plays a young woman from a small Rust Belt town who pimps out her talented sister (Joan Leslie) to a popular vaudevillian (Jack Carson), as he passes through town. Carson’s partner, played by Carson’s frequent costar Dennis Morgan, sees through Lupino’s machinations but is unable to prevent the sisters from enacting a Star Is Born-like plot, where Leslie’s success seems to drain Carson of his. The success goes to Leslie’s head, and she becomes a nymphomaniacal party girl, fighting Lupino for the love of Morgan.
Susan Slept Here (1954) - Charming, if over-the-top, fantasy of an aging bachelor screenwriter (Dick Powell) receiving a juvenile delinquent (Debbie Reynolds) for Christmas. Alright, so Debbie’s the most clean cut J.D. imaginable. And Dick Powell (50) is far beyond 35 years old, as stated in the script, and his romancing a teenager borders on the creepy. And cartoon director Frank Tashlin hadn’t yet learned to work with live-action material. It’s still a lovely little story. Alvy Moore and Glenda Farrell provide strong comic sidekicks, and Anne Francis is captivating, as always, as Powell’s overprivileged girlfriend.
Romanoff and Juliet (1961) - Peter Ustinov wrote, directed, and starred in this adaptation of his bizarre stage play, a version of Romeo & Juliet set against the Cold War. Ustinov, wisely, makes the film a more conventional comedy. Set in a small European country somewhere between Marshovia and Ruritania, the film tells the story of the children of the ambassadors from the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. (Sandra Dee and John Gavin) falling in love. The ruling General of the country (Ustinov) acting as a cross between the Friar and the Fairy Godmother tries to arrange for the two star-crossed lovers to get together. The frothy romance keeps this film from becoming too dated, like much political satire. Often (unfairly) compared with The Mouse that Roared, this film holds up much better. Note: Gavin, here the son of the Soviet ambassador, later became the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in real life.
The Competition (1980) - Romantic drama about a young adult piano competition, in which the winner is guaranteed a successful launch into a concert career. Richard Dreyfuss, in one of his least mannered performances, plays a struggling pianist in his last year of eligibility who’s willing to risk security for a last shot at the big time. Amy Irving (note to actresses-if you want to continue your career in Hollywood, don’t divorce the most powerful director in the world) plays a young prodigy who might upset his chances. Strong support from Lee Remick (in the performance of her career) as Irving’s coach and the great character actor Sam Wanamaker, as the competition’s hard-nosed conductor; their sparring scenes provide a lively subplot to the more serious main plot. The final confrontation between the two leads after the winner is announced is one of the great character-driven climaxes in recent memory.
One Way Passage (1932) - Elegiac story (won Oscar for Best Original Story) of a condemned man (William Powell) falling in love with a dying woman (Kay Francis) on an ocean voyage. Instead of being dismal and heavy-handed, the film is pleasantly touching, mostly because Powell plays the role with the suave insouciance that later became his trademark. Nicely directed by Tay Garnett, with great use of music. Remade as ’Til We Meet Again with Merle Oberon and George Brent in the leads. I can’t bring myself to watch the later version. Oberon had none of Francis’s softness, and George Brent none of Powell’s charm.
The Hard Way (1943) - Ida Lupino gives a knockout performance that won the New York Film Critics Circle Best Actress award but was totally overlooked by the Academy Awards, the Oscar that year going to the tepid performance of Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette. There’s nothing tepid about Ida Lupino. Here, she plays a young woman from a small Rust Belt town who pimps out her talented sister (Joan Leslie) to a popular vaudevillian (Jack Carson), as he passes through town. Carson’s partner, played by Carson’s frequent costar Dennis Morgan, sees through Lupino’s machinations but is unable to prevent the sisters from enacting a Star Is Born-like plot, where Leslie’s success seems to drain Carson of his. The success goes to Leslie’s head, and she becomes a nymphomaniacal party girl, fighting Lupino for the love of Morgan.
Susan Slept Here (1954) - Charming, if over-the-top, fantasy of an aging bachelor screenwriter (Dick Powell) receiving a juvenile delinquent (Debbie Reynolds) for Christmas. Alright, so Debbie’s the most clean cut J.D. imaginable. And Dick Powell (50) is far beyond 35 years old, as stated in the script, and his romancing a teenager borders on the creepy. And cartoon director Frank Tashlin hadn’t yet learned to work with live-action material. It’s still a lovely little story. Alvy Moore and Glenda Farrell provide strong comic sidekicks, and Anne Francis is captivating, as always, as Powell’s overprivileged girlfriend.
Romanoff and Juliet (1961) - Peter Ustinov wrote, directed, and starred in this adaptation of his bizarre stage play, a version of Romeo & Juliet set against the Cold War. Ustinov, wisely, makes the film a more conventional comedy. Set in a small European country somewhere between Marshovia and Ruritania, the film tells the story of the children of the ambassadors from the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. (Sandra Dee and John Gavin) falling in love. The ruling General of the country (Ustinov) acting as a cross between the Friar and the Fairy Godmother tries to arrange for the two star-crossed lovers to get together. The frothy romance keeps this film from becoming too dated, like much political satire. Often (unfairly) compared with The Mouse that Roared, this film holds up much better. Note: Gavin, here the son of the Soviet ambassador, later became the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in real life.