Around the Blogosphere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...

...Coming from Kino Lorber on July 9th, THE COUNTRY GIRL (1954), along with THE ROSE TATTOO (1955) and COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA (1952). And "coming soon" from Kino Lorber is a Western I'm completely unfamiliar with, THE LONELY MAN (1957), starring Jack Palance, Anthony Perkins, and Lee Van Cleef.

...Film Masters will be bringing Roy Rogers in UNDER WESTERN STARS (1938) to DVD. Toby has the info at 50 Westerns From the 50s. I'm also intrigued by the upcoming KENTUCKY RIFLE (1955).

...Speaking of Film Masters, Toby has just reviewed their release of BOMBS OVER BURMA (1942) at The Hannibal 8. I reviewed this release, which stars Anna May Wong, in April.

...A third DOWNTON ABBEY movie is in the works!

...Dick Dinman and the Warner Archive Collection's George Feltenstein discuss the new Western releases 3 GODFATHERS (1948) and DEVIL'S DOORWAY (1950) on DVD Classics Corner on the Air.

...Earlier this year I rewatched GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. (2005) for the first time in many years. George Clooney is going to star in a Broadway adaptation next year, switching from his Fred Friendly role in the movie to playing Edward R. Murrow.

...At JazzWax Marc Myers interviews Jon Burlingame about his new book DREAMSVILLE: HENRY MANCINI, PETER GUNN, AND MUSIC FOR TV NOIR.

...Lacey Chabert, one of the Hallmark Christmas movie queens, will be starring with Kristoffer Polaha in THE CHRISTMAS QUEST (2024) for Hallmark this year...and it's also just been announced that she will star in the Netflix Christmas film HOT FROSTY (2024).

...In other Hallmark news, Sarah Drew will star in a Christmas mystery series, MISTLETOE MURDERS (2024). I like the concept!

...Coming to Hallmark Channel next year: A new series, THE CHICKEN SISTERS, starring Lea Thompson (BACK TO THE FUTURE), Schuyler Fisk (daughter of Sissy Spacek and Jack Fish), and Wendie Malick.

...Recent reviews I've enjoyed include Glenn Erickson on DEVIL'S DOORWAY (1950) and SUBMARINE COMMAND (1952) at Trailers From Hell...Jessica Pickens on FOOTLIGHT SERENADE (1942) at Comet Over Hollywood...Kristina on THE AMAZING MR. X (1948) and THE STORY OF MOLLY X (1949) at Speakeasy...and Colin on HUMAN DESIRE (1954) at Riding the High Country.

...Coming to the Academy Museum in July: A touring retrospective on Powell and Pressburger.

...For baseball fans, especially Dodger fans: I'm currently enjoying the brand-new THE LAST OF HIS KIND: CLAYTON KERSHAW AND THE BURDEN OF GREATNESS by Andy McCullough.

...Continuing the baseball theme, I just bought the new book BASEBALL: THE MOVIE by Noah Gittell.

...Yesterday I attended a very nice memorial service at USC for the greatly appreciated cinema archives librarian Ned Comstock. I previously shared a tribute to Comstock by Leonard Maltin. Mr. Maltin was in attendance at the service, along with other film historians including Alan Rode, Jon Burlingame, James Curtis, and Dick Bann.

...Notable Passings: British Actor Bernard Hill has died at 79...TV producer Bruce Lansbury, brother of Angela Lansbury, has passed on at 87...Stuntwoman Jeannie Epper has died at 83...Actress Gloria Stroock, the sister of Geraldine Brooks, has died at 99. She was Rock Hudson's secretary on MCMILLAN AND WIFE and was married to writer-producer Leonard Stern...Actress Barbra Fuller has passed away at 102...Dabney Coleman (WAR GAMES, YOU'VE GOT MAIL) has passed away at 92.

...For additional recent links of interest to classic film fans, please visit my May 4th column.

Tweet

Tonight's Movie: Tokyo Joe (1949)

Last weekend at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival I saw a pair of Humphrey Bogart films. I revisited DEAD RECKONING (1947), which I first saw at the 2016 Noir City Hollywood Festival, and I also saw THE ENFORCER (1951) for the very first time. A review of the latter film will be forthcoming.

My enjoyment of both these movies caused me to contemplate that there are still a significant number of Bogart films released in the late '40s and '50s which I've never seen.

By coincidence, I noticed that Bogart's film TOKYO JOE (1949) was playing on Turner Classic Movies Monday evening, and that motivated me to get out my Blu-ray set of Bogart's Columbia films released by Powerhouse Indicator; the set includes TOKYO JOE.

Bogart plays Joe Barrett, a U.S. Army veteran who returns to his former home, Tokyo, a couple years after the end of the war.

Joe discovers his former nightclub is still standing, but he's not allowed to reopen it under Occupation rules. He'll need a going business if he wants to stay in Japan more than a couple of months, and staying becomes very important indeed when he learns that his former wife Trina (Florence Marly) didn't die during the war as he'd believed.

Trina is now married to a very nice lawyer (Alexander Knox) and is raising a young daughter named Anya (Lora Lee Michel), but despite that Joe hopes to win her back, especially when he learns the truth about Anya's parentage.

Baron Kimura (Sessue Hayakawa) offers Joe the opportunity to go into business flying freight -- but what exactly is Kimura shipping, and what will the opportunity to remain in Japan cost Joe?

While TOKYO JOE isn't a great film, it proved to be an entertaining 88 minutes. It's somewhat derivative, including overtones of CASABLANCA (1942), but I thought it rated a solid, watchable 2-1/2 to 3 stars thanks to a good cast.

The script by Bertram Millhauser and Cyril Hume, adapted by Walter Doniger from a story by Steve Fisher, is predictable at times, but it also has some very nicely played moments of adult understanding between not only the three leads but among Bogart and various members of the U.S. military, particularly Colonel Dahlgren (Rhys Williams).

I appreciated that, other than Baron Kimura, the characters weren't portrayed in black and white, but shades of gray; all are sympathetic, including Joe's old friend from prewar days, Ito (Teru Shimada). Even the colonel (Williams) we're initially set up to find annoying turns out to be a savvy man who handles a difficult criminal situation with aplomb.

Bogart and Knox are both very good; I especially enjoyed Knox as Trina's unflappable, supportive husband. It takes a good actor and character to persuade the audience that Trina might be better off staying right where she is, rather than ending up with Bogart's Joe.

Bogart's interplay with his employee pilots, played by Gordon Jones and Jerome Courtland, is also particularly enjoyable, with nice touches of humor.

I wasn't familiar with Marly, who at times seems to be channeling Rhonda Fleming or Marta Toren, but she's fine, if not particularly memorable.

Lora Lee Michel is cute as the little girl who unexpectedly ends up at the center of the action late in the movie. I was reminded after watching this that Michel had a particularly tragic life, which was sad to read after enjoying her in this. Hers is one of those "child actor" stories with an unhappy outcome.

There are familiar faces such as Hugh Beaumont and Whit Bissell in small roles as military officers. Also in the cast are Hideo Mori, Kyoko Kamo, and Charles Meredith.

TOKYO JOE was directed by Stuart Heisler and filmed in black and white by Charles Lawton Jr.

The impressive extras on the Region B Powerhouse Indicator Blu-ray disc include a commentary track by Nora Fiore (aka "The Nitrate Diva"); a 34-minute featurette on the film with Bertrand Tavernier; a 15-minute featurette on Sessue Hayakawa; 11 minutes of second unit photography shot for the film in Tokyo; a 1944 documentary, THE NEGRO SOLDIER; and more.

In the U.S. TOKYO JOE was released on DVD in the 2014 Humphrey Bogart: The Columbia Pictures Collection, which was part of the late, lamented TCM Vault series. It was also released as a single-title DVD and on VHS.

I'm looking forward to watching more films in the Blu-ray set, and I've also ordered a Twilight Time DVD of THE LEFT HAND OF GOD (1955) so that I can cross more Bogart films off my viewing list.

Tweet

Tonight's Movie: Border Incident (1949) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival

I saw five films for the first time at last weekend's Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival, along with revisiting half a dozen films.

It's a fun coincidence that I also saw five "new" films last year, and just like last year, I enjoyed four of the five films. The only movie at this year's fest which didn't appeal to me was ACROSS THE BRIDGE (1957); more on that film later.

I had read about BORDER INCIDENT (1949) over the years in books such as Max Alvarez's THE CRIME FILMS OF ANTHONY MANN, but while I'm a Mann admirer, I honestly had kind of avoided seeing it, as the plot sounded pretty brutal.

That said, when the title appeared on the festival schedule I decided I should try it; I enjoy Ricardo Montalban, and I also wanted to see another of the films directed by Anthony Mann and filmed by John Alton.

The movie was also of interest to me as it's set against the backdrop of the Bracero Program, which formerly allowed Mexican citizens to legally work in U.S. agriculture. I wrote a paper on that topic in college, and it's pretty rare one sees the subject turn up in a movie!

As it turned out, I thought BORDER INCIDENT was quite good, though it was indeed harrowing, with terrifying sequences which could inspire nightmares. It was quite worthwhile, if not the kind of "movie comfort viewing" one would want to revisit on a regular basis!

The story concerns American agent Jack Bearnes (George Murphy) and his Mexican counterpart, Pablo Rodriguez (Montalban), who are investigating the exploitation and deaths of illegal Mexican workers in the United States.

Pablo poses as a man who resorts to illegal immigration when he's unable to get work in the Bracero Program, which puts him in contact with some very bad people (headed by Howard Da Silva and Charles McGraw).

I'll leave off with the plot description there, but suffice it to say that the film is both gripping and rather disturbing. There was a sequence I couldn't watch, but I can say that the sound design alone, involving a large tractor, was remarkable.

The pounding score by Andre Previn, who was all of 20 years old when he worked on the film, added to the tension.

The screenplay of this 94-minute film was written by John C. Higgins, based on a story he wrote with George Zuckerman. Needless to say, the story still resonates today, particularly here in Southern California, where much of the story takes place.

Murphy and Montalban are both excellent as men who experience horrific moments in the service of their respective countries. McGraw, in particular, essays a very particular kind of evil which won't soon be forgotten.

The deep supporting cast includes dancer-actor James Mitchell as a young Mexican who befriends Pablo, and I'm always glad to see John Ridgely, here playing a U.S. agent.

Also in the cast are Arnold Moss, Alfonso Bedoya, Teresa Celli, Arthur Hunnicutt, Sig Ruman, Nedrick Young, and Jack Lambert. This was one of three films I saw at the festival which featured Lambert in a supporting role.

BORDER INCIDENT is available on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection. It was previously released on DVD in the Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 3, and it was later rereleased on DVD by the Warner Archive Collection.

For more on this film, please visit essays by my friends Theresa, guest posting at Once Upon a Screen, and the late, great Paddy at Caftan Woman.

Tweet

The 2024 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review

I had another wonderful "weekend in the dark" at the annual Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs!

The festival opened on Thursday evening, May 9th, running through Sunday, May 12th. As always, it takes place at the Palm Springs Cultural Center's Camelot Theatre.

A dozen films were screened between Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon; most were shown in a digital format, while ESCAPE IN THE FOG (1945) was shown in 35mm. Prior to the festival, the festival's producer and host Alan K. Rode discussed the increasing difficulty of obtaining 35mm prints with the Palm Springs Post and Variety.

As Rode stated in interviews, the important thing, regardless of format, is seeing the movies theatrically, shown on a big screen with an enthusiastic crowd. And I certainly found that to be the case last weekend. It was a wonderful experience watching a mix of old favorites and new-to-me films with the large crowds gathered at the Camelot.

Rode is seen below with his Film Noir Foundation colleague Eddie Muller, who joined Rode introducing films over the course of the weekend.

The opening night movie was BODY AND SOUL (1947), a very good John Garfield movie I'd never seen before. The evening's special guest for a post-film conversation was writer-actor Jim Beaver, seen below with Alan Rode.

The beautiful BODY AND SOUL poster seen here is from the collection of Brian Light. His posters were on display throughout the weekend.

Three of the films shown on Friday were also new to me: The Sherlock Holmes film THE SCARLET CLAW (1944), Anthony Mann's BORDER INCIDENT (1949), and ACROSS THE BRIDGE (1957) starring Rod Steiger.

There was one more film I'd never seen before shown on Sunday, and THE ENFORCER (1951) proved to be a huge favorite for me. It's a procedural with Humphrey Bogart as a district attorney going after the mob, and I thought it was terrific. Look for reviews of these films here in the coming days.

Six of the eleven films I saw over the weekend I'd seen before; I especially loved revisiting NO MAN OF HER OWN (1950) and CRIME WAVE (1954), a pair of absolutely marvelous movies I highly recommend.

I also enjoyed seeing DEAD RECKONING (1946), WOMAN IN HIDING (1950), DAY OF THE OUTLAW (1959), and ESCAPE IN THE FOG (1945) again, especially the brisk, engaging "B" mystery ESCAPE IN THE FOG featuring Nina Foch in the lead.  The only film we missed was SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943), in order to beat weekend traffic home from Palm Springs.

Here's a photo of Eddie Muller introducing WOMAN IN HIDING:

The Sunday afternoon showing of ESCAPE IN THE FOG was preceded by an interview with film historian-screenwriter Kirk Ellis on the movie's director, Budd Boetticher. Ellis, who incidentally cowrote the new TV miniseries JOHN ADAMS (2024), wrote a very good book on Boetticher's RIDE LONESOME which I reviewed last year at Classic Movie Hub.

Former child actor turned TV writer (THE WALTONS) Michael McGreevey was the special guest at the Saturday evening showing of DAY OF THE OUTLAW, which he appeared in when he was ten. We heard him speak a few years ago at the Lone Pine Film Festival and enjoyed hearing his stories at this fest as well.

I was particularly tickled by McGreevey's comment that all of the movie "bad guys" he worked with over the years were "the nicest people"; he mentioned that Jack Lambert, so scary in DAY OF THE OUTLAW, was "the sweetest man."

Author Luis Reyes, who was scheduled to be interviewed after BORDER INCIDENT, was a last-minute cancellation due to illness; I was very sorry to hear that and hope all is going well for him.

Along with reviews of new-to-me films, I'll have a post on this year's "drive-by" visits to classic film stars' Palm Springs homes. As always, I'll be adding links for all of this year's coverage below so that all of my 2024 festival coverage may be easily found in one place.

Additional festival post: Border Incident (1949) at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival. [More reviews coming soon!]

Previously: The 2024 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival Schedule.

Coverage of previous Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festivals: The 2015 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review; The 2017 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review; The 2018 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review; The 2019 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review; The 2021 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review; The 2022 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review; The 2023 Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Review.

Tweet

Quick Preview of TCM in June

Here's a brief preview of what's coming to Turner Classic Movies in June!

I'm delighted that the June Star of the Month programming will feature "Fox Stars." Tuesday evenings will focus on movies with actors such as Shirley Temple, Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, John Payne, Linda Darnell, Tyrone Power, and more.

The June Noir Alley films will be TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY (1951), NEVER OPEN THAT DOOR (1952) paired with IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE (1952), CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (1948), THE LOCKET (1946), and NO QUESTIONS ASKED (1951).

NEVER OPEN THAT DOOR and IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE are TCM premieres. I enjoyed NEVER OPEN THAT DOOR at the recent Noir City Hollywood Festival and plan to review it here when the upcoming Flicker Alley Blu-ray is released.

The TCM Spotlight will focus on Great Film Composers. Additional June programming themes will include the 80th anniversary of D-Day, including the TCM premieres of EYE OF THE NEEDLE (1981) and CODE NAME: EMERALD (1985), as well as baseball, the 1960s, suspense, Allied Artists, and films with the word "sweet" in the title.

And of course, Father's Day will be celebrated with a lineup including LIFE WITH FATHER (1947) and FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1950). Additional films that day will include a favorite of mine, DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS (1939).

Also of note in June, TCM Imports will feature classic-era Mexican remakes of a pair of RKO films. EL CASADO CASA QUIERE (1950) is a remake of TOO MANY COOKS (1931), while LOS QUE VOLVIERON (1947) remakes FIVE CAME BACK (1939).

There's also an evening with all three TOPPER films and another evening featuring silent William S. Hart Westerns.

Filmmakers receiving multifilm tributes in June will include Rosalind Russell, John Ford, Daniel Day-Lewis, Ronald Neame, Anatole Litvak, Ray Milland, Nicholas Ray, James Stewart,Van Johnson, Dorothy McGuire, Nicole Kidman, Peter Lorre, and a memorial tribute to Louis Gossett Jr.

June isn't very far away, and I'll have more detailed information on the schedule posted here around the end of May.

In the meantime, Sessue Hayakawa is the May Star of the Month.

Tweet

Around the Blogosphere This Week...

...will not appear this weekend due to my attendance at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival.

My overview of the festival schedule may be read here.  I'll have plenty of coverage when I return, along with additional coverage of the recent TCM Classic Film Festival.

Around the Blogosphere This Week will return on Saturday, May 18th.

For recent links of interest to classic film fans, please see my May 4th roundup.

Tweet

Tonight's Movie: The Black Pirate (1926) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Last year Kino Lorber released a wonderful two-film Blu-ray set of silent Douglas Fairbanks (Sr.) swashbucklers in their Cohen Film Collection line.

The one-disc set consists of ROBIN HOOD (1922) paired with THE BLACK PIRATE (1926).

The set arrived in October right around the time I was attending the Lone Pine Film Festival, and as occasionally happens, it kept moving further down the review stack as I reviewed in "last in, first out" fashion.

I wanted to be certain to finally start catching up with this disc before leaving town to cover my next film festival this week! I decided to start with the less familiar story, THE BLACK PIRATE (1926), and I'm happy to say I really enjoyed it.

The opening narrative card promises "A page from The History and Lives of the most Bloodthirsty PIRATES who ever infested THE SOUTHERN SEAS," and they certainly are that! I confess I was a bit taken aback by just how violent it was, as the pirates tie up prisoners, then blow them all up along with their ship.  

The Duke of Arnaldo (Fairbanks) manages to escape and carries his dying father to a small island; after his father passes, the duke -- now the lone survivor of the attack -- pledges to avenge his death.

Fate smiles on the Duke when the Pirate Captain (Anders Randolf) and crew members land on the island to bury some of their loot. The Duke decides to infiltrate the crew, posing as a pirate himself.

He succeeds, but matters grow dicey after he single-handedly captures a ship whose passengers include lovely Isobel (Billie Dove). The Duke has to think fast to find a way to save her virtue and prevent another mass killing, as well as eventually defeat the entire crew.  Will he succeed?

This was an exciting, well-paced 96 minutes. (Incidentally, IMDb incorrectly has the time as 88 minutes.) Fairbanks wrote the story, ensuring a perfect showcase for his abilities, and he's seen at his athletic best; the scene where he slides down a sail as he slices it with his knife is truly spectacular.

Incidentally, as has been noted elsewhere, Gene Kelly's costume in the Pirate Ballet in THE PIRATE (1948) seems to emulates Fairbanks' pirate outfit.

Fairbanks pairs well with Dove, who initially seems to be the fainting type but who proves her mettle helping to save the Duke near the movie's climax. Curiously, it's said to be Fairbanks' then-wife, Mary Pickford, standing in for Dove to kiss him at movie's end.

Fairbanks and Pickford are well supported by Donald Crisp as a sympathetic one-armed pirate, MacTavish, and Charles Belcher as a nobleman the Duke recruits to bring aid from the governor.

An essay written a few years ago by Jeffrey Vance for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival indicates that while some filming, including the climax, took place on Catalina Island, most of the exteriors were filmed at the Pickford-Fairbanks Studios.

The movie, which was directed by Albert Parker, was filmed by Henry Sharp in two-strip Technicolor, which is an added pleasure. For the Blu-ray a 35mm color negative was mastered in HD.

Vance also comments that the filmmakers' goal had been subdued colors, "to make a pirate picture that would seem to spectators as something that had been down in the cellars for 300 years." They certainly succeeded, as the film has a unique, distinctive two-strip look -- it's quite different in appearance, for example, from the bright oranges and greens of the two-strip FOLLOW THRU (1930) a few years later.

The film is presented with a recording conducted by Robert Israel of the film's original 1926 score by Mortimer Wilson.

The disc includes a vintage audio commentary by the late, revered historian Rudy Behlmer; 18 minutes of outtakes with commentary by Behlmer; and 29 minutes of additional outtakes. I'm looking forward to delving into those!

I also look forward to watching ROBIN HOOD soon, and in the meantime THE BLACK PIRATE is very much recommended.

Tweet

Tonight's Movie: 3 Godfathers (1948) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

3 GODFATHERS (1948), directed by John Ford, was released this spring on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

I first saw this film at the 2016 Lone Pine Film Festival, and while I liked it well enough, I wrote at the time that despite my love for Ford and the cast, I didn't anticipate rewatching it anytime soon, as the heart-tugging story was "rather exhausting."

I initially thought I might pass on reviewing the new Blu-ray disc and wait a while longer to see the film again...and then I read reviews, such as one by Toby Roan saying "...you need this Blu-ray. Buy a Blu-ray player and a new TV if you have to." He was echoed by Robert Harris of the Home Theater Forum who said "Everyone needs a copy."

And so I thus belatedly decided I really needed to see it for myself!

And indeed, I found the print truly spectacular. When I participated in a critics' Zoom session with the Warner Archive's George Feltenstein a few days ago, he commented that he couldn't imagine a 4K release of this film looking any better than the Blu-ray, and while I have limited exposure to the 4K format, I believe he's right. The beautiful print, in and of itself, made revisiting the film completely worthwhile.

3 GODFATHERS is a regular part of the Christmas movie rotation on Turner Classic Movies, and many viewers who've seen it there -- or seen one of the earlier film versions of the story -- will be familiar with the plot.

Three bank robbers (John Wayne, Pedro Armendariz, and Harry Carey Jr.) on the run from a posse (including Ward Bond, Hank Worden, and Ben Johnson) flee into the desert.

The men stumble across a woman (Mildred Natwick) about to give birth, and after Pedro (Armendariz) delivers the baby, she names it after all three men, appointing them her son's godfathers.

The weak mother passes away, but the men promise to save her baby boy, and what ensues is how they live out their promise to do that, regardless of personal cost.

As I noted in 2016, some of the film's casting and editing choices are odd; Natwick was too old to play the mother, and the film's 106 minutes could have easily been compressed with more streamlined -- and less confusing -- storytelling.

Those criticisms aside, this is a wonderful visit with the Ford Stock Company, also including Jane Darwell, Mae Marsh, Jack Pennick, Guy Kibbee, and Francis Ford.

The Technicolor photography of Winton C. Hoch has never looked better than it does now, from the first moving shots paying tribute to Harry Carey Sr. to the close-ups of the baby near movie's end. I can only echo the review quotes above and urge readers that they need this Blu-ray!

As added inducement to acquire a copy, a very welcome extra on this disc is the 1936 version of THREE GODFATHERS (1936), which is from a 4K scan of the "best preservation elements." This movie was previously released by the Warner Archive Collection in a two-film DVD set with an older version of the story, William Wyler's HELL'S HEROES (1929).

Although I reviewed (and liked) HELL'S HEROES, I've never gotten around to seeing the '36 version, which incidentally Leonard Maltin introduced at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival! (He just published an article on the '36 version and quotes Jeanine Basinger as telling him "It's better than the Ford.") I expect to finally catch up with it and review it here at a future date.

The disc also includes trailers for both the 1936 and 1948 versions.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

Tweet

Tonight's Movie: You Never Can Tell (1951) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

The quirky, inventive, and very charming fantasy YOU NEVER CAN TELL (1951) has just been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

This film was a delightful surprise when I first discovered it in 2011. At that time it wasn't available for home viewing in any format; a couple years later it had a DVD release, and now, over a decade since the DVD came out, it's happily out on a lovely Blu-ray. I hope this new release will lead to this relatively unsung little gem finding a wider audience.

King, a German shepherd, is left millions by his late owner, to be managed by the owner's former secretary Ellen (the always-luminous Peggy Dow). Ellen is due to inherit the estate after King's eventual passing.

Ellen is courted by Perry Collins (Charles Drake), who claims to have worked with King in the army during the war. Perry initially seems amiable enough but proves to have ulterior motives. He proposes to Ellen, then murders King so that Ellen will have the money. Ellen, unfortunately, is blamed for King's death.

King comes back to earth in human form as Rex Shepard (Dick Powell), private investigator, who's determined to clear Ellen's name and hang his murder on Perry. "Rex" is aided by his confidential secretary Goldie (Joyce Holden), who was formerly Golden Harvest, a thoroughbred racehorse.

The plot is completely nuts -- I'm not sure to this day I entirely "get" the concept of "humanimals" -- but it's also completely fun. This is a movie which bears watching closely for delightful little throwaway bits of humor with glances, reactions, and costuming, along with the more obvious creative bits, such as Rex and Goldie snacking on their preferred treats of kibble and grass.

Everyone in the cast is a delight, with Powell combining his '40s P.I. character type with the charm he demonstrated in an earlier comedic fantasy, Rene Clair's IT HAPPENED TOMORROW (1944). It's wonderful watching him with the warm and lovely Dow, who graced too few movies in her brief '50s career before retiring for a long, happy marriage and motherhood.

The unsung charmer of this film is Holden as Golden Harvest; she feels completely original as the former racehorse who takes time out from the investigation to root for her granddaughter at the racetrack. Holden is so good that it's surprising to me her screen career was relatively brief, with film and TV credits from 1950 to 1958.

As I wrote in my original 2011 review, the credited director was Lou Breslow, who wrote the very good screenplay with David Chandler, but Holden said in an interview that the real director was Powell, who conferred on every shot with Breslow and came up with "the ideas, the set-ups, the little innuendos." She said Powell was "brilliant," also noting his generosity in "letting" her steal some of their scenes.

The black and white photography was by Maury Gertsman. It looks very good on Kino Lorber's Blu-ray, which is from a new HD master from a 2K scan of the 35mm fine grain. The brief "heavenly" sequence still looks odd due to the way it was shot but it's now much easier to see than on the print I saw years ago.

Disc extras consist of a commentary track by Michael Schlesinger and Darlene Ramirez, plus a gallery of trailers for seven other films available from Kino Lorber.

YOU NEVER CAN TELL should please viewers of all ages. Recommended.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

Tweet