TopBilled

Zimmer, Kim

DISHONORED LADY (1947)

COPPER CANYON (1950)

Jane Wyman

Richard Todd

Have you seen these classic films: 2981. 2982. 2983. 2984. 2985. 2986. 2987. 2988. 2989. 2990.

A recent thread covered TCM's airing of this film:

Today's neglected film is from 1951. It has aired once on TCM. Some people look at Betty Grable’s career at Fox and think her popularity started to wane in 1950…that she was mainly a star of the 1940s who became less relevant in the postwar years. Well, it’s true she didn’t transition to television. And it is also true that some of the vehicles Fox put her into during the early 1950s could have been better. But Miss Grable was still turning out hits for her home studio, and on one occasion, she was loaned out to Columbia. When she made MEET ME AFTER THE SHOW, she was enjoying box office success with WABASH AVENUE. She still had HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE ahead of her. So she was not by any stretch of the imagination someone on the downswing. Where I think she loses a bit of her mojo at this time is when she is given scripts that seem overly formulaic. However, even the most standard plots feature her considerable charms and talents. And those gorgeous legs. MEET ME AFTER THE SHOW was written and directed by Dick Sale, and while sluggish in a few spots, it still has enough oomph to sustain its 87-minute running time. It’s presented in Technicolor with the expected musical numbers and flourishes associated with a Grable picture. The production relies in large part on an exaggerated comic premise. It all begins when Grable’s character separates from a manipulative Broadway producer husband (Macdonald Carey). Their union has hit a few snags, and she relocates from New York to Florida to reinvent herself. Part of this involves amnesia, which is a convenient excuse to do outrageous things that would ordinarily be out of character. Made just as television was gaining traction with audiences, I would say this is a movie sitcom with music. Though not all the story elements come off convincingly, Miss Grable is nonetheless served well by the outstanding dance routines that enliven the proceedings…including gyrations with a muscular hunk. Mr. Sale’s production is a slight adaptation of an earlier hit at 20th Century Fox called HE MARRIED HIS WIFE (1940). In addition to the entertaining song-and-dance segments, there is dependable acting from the men supporting Grable in this endeavor: Mr. Carey and costar Eddie Albert. Of course people tend to remember Mac Carey for SHADOW OF A DOUBT or Days of Our Lives…but he was bonafide movie star, and I consider him a most underrated performer. He has a knack for delivering lines in a way that makes a man both a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Carey gets the chance to sing to Grable during a scene on a boat, which is a bonus. He would go on to collaborate with Dick Sale in three more films…LET’S MAKE IT LEGAL with Claudette Colbert; MY WIFE’S BEST FRIEND with Anne Baxter and MALAGA with Maureen O’Hara. Meet me after this review, and I can recommend more Mac Carey movies.

two thousand five hundred sixty-eighth category Somewhere in a European forest THE LADY VANISHES (1938) THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) HITLER’S MADMAN (1943)

Campbell, Bruce -- played by Dirk Bogarde in CAMPBELL'S KINGDOM (1957)

THE TAMARIND SEED (1974)

HAWAII (1966)

Xavier, Michael

THE LOVES OF CARMEN (1948)

AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD (1952)

THE WINDOW (1949) Next: TREASURE ISLAND (1950) two with Bobby Driscoll

CHARLIE'S ANGELS (2000)

John Wayne

PLYMOUTH ADVENTURE (1952)

Essential: PRACTICALLY YOURS (1944) TopBilled: PRACTICALLY YOURS was the fifth of seven collaborations for Claudette Colbert and frequent leading man Fred MacMurray. It was the last one they made together at Paramount; subsequent pairings were at Universal. Perhaps more importantly, this was Miss Colbert’s final film at Paramount Pictures, where she’d been under contract since 1929 and had appeared in 35 motion pictures…a long and successful run. Not only did Colbert make 35 films at Paramount during a 15-year period, she appeared in ten loan outs. She averaged three films per year, nearly all of them hits. When she left Paramount in 1945, she freelanced at Universal, RKO, MGM and 20th Century Fox. She never played supporting roles in any of these productions. She didn’t have children, so without maternity leaves and without any breaks during the war years, she remained a busy and influential Hollywood star for several decades. Because PRACTICALLY YOURS is Colbert’s swan song at her home studio, it’s a film worth examining. Contemporary critic James Agee was a huge fan of this unusual wartime love story. Like THE BRIDE CAME HOME, it’s somewhat experimental. Not only are the leads older than the standard twenty-somethings we might find in this type of situation, scenes contain absurd humor that is meant to keep us on our toes. Indeed, much of it seems designed to have us consider the absurdity of war and how people soldier on at home and abroad during times of international uncertainty. It’s a subversive tale wrapped up in a wholesome Colbert-MacMurray package. Particularly cheeky is the sardonic view that romance has gone to the dogs. Colbert’s character is mistaken for the canine companion of a heroic pilot (MacMurray). Their names are similar, and he calls out her name while crashing into a Japanese ship. Everyone back home thinks he’s dead at first. When he turns out to be very much alive a short time later, he is reunited with his beloved Peggy who functions as a stand-in for his beloved Piggy. It’s absurd, right? Even a name like Piggy for a dog is absurd. Meanwhile, there is another fellow at the company where Colbert works who is called Beagell (Gil Lamb). Obviously, the name is a play on the word beagle. Colbert becomes “engaged” to that mutt, when she and MacMurray don’t seem to hit it off and she needs a convenient out. Colbert underplays her role with a cool detachment. She and MacMurray have been thrown together by happenstance and a series of coincidences. A lovely sequence in which they provide comfort to a recent war widow (Rosemary DeCamp) in a time of grief, underscores how real the relationship can be if they work as a unit, not apart at cross-purposes. MacMurray is a bit more subdued than usual. However, he is still playing another testosterone-fueled jerk, the kind of role that Paramount often assigned to him. His character reflects the male chauvinism of the era. He’s most effective, though, when he is allowed to be tender with his pooch Piggy, which is later repeated with Peggy. I’m a fan of the character actors that appear in so many of these classic Paramount pictures. Here we have Cecil Kellaway as the benevolent employer, who offers our two main characters a place to stay while dealing with a media blitz and tremendous public attention. Robert Benchley is also on hand as a relative of Kellaway’s. He has a very nice bedtime exchange with MacMurray about what it means to return stateside and be so highly esteemed by others. Most wartime flicks are meant to help the audience appreciate the efforts of men who have been fighting overseas. Decades before Vietnam, this story subverts the standard trope of war hero worship. What we have is the use of romantic comedy elements in a sly anti-war film. Like Preston Sturges’ HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, Mitch Leisen’s PRACTICALLY YOURS makes a mockery of the veterans’ homecoming. *** Jlewis: This one (again, Mitchell Leisen directing for Paramount) references the war in 1944, unlike our previous title, and opens with some impressive airplane shots over a Japanese dominated Pacific. Fred MacMurray plays Lt. S.G. Daniel Bellamy who records an I-think-I-am-dying-message to his beloved Peggy… \or is she “Piggie” or “Porky”?…whom he wishes to walk through Central Park one more time and kiss her on the nose. Those hearing it think this is a girlfriend but she is actually a dog! When he is thought to be another casualty of the war, his recording surprises and moves one on-again and off-again acquaintance of his, Peggy Martin ( Claudette Colbert). The name sounds slightly muffled but everybody assumes the name applies to her and she dutifully tells an eager radio audience (his death being more publicized than usual by the press) just how moved she is. Lo and behold…he is discovered alive and safe after the entire nation initially assumes he is dead. He realizes the confusion but is impressed that Peggy and his former typewriter company boss Marvin Meglin are there to greet him back home with so much admiration and affection. I always liked Cecil Kellaway who covers Marvin, he being the great South African character actor in so many classics including THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS and GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER. Isabel Randolph plays his low-key wife with much of this set in their plush mansion where our two leads are residing. Then Daniel is reunited with his beloved pooch and has to try not disappointing anybody. He even cons the dog into responding to a different name. When the human Peggy starts discussing a possible marriage with him, he has to remind himself that they are supposed to be “in love,” but she soon discovers the truth when overhearing a private conversation of his. Despite obvious disappointment, she keeps her chin up and decides to go along with him and fool the public for a while until the whole situation blows over. Yet can these two almost strangers potentially become a romantic pair? It is a delightful premise, if slightly far-fetched. Add to this the whole scenario of Daniel being a celebrity covered in the newsreels (Paramount Newsreel gets its usual in-house promotion here as it does in the later, more famous, SUNSET BLVD.), getting recognized often in the streets, interviewed frequently by those needing fodder for their magazine spreads (Mikhail Rasumny has a brief comic role here getting the couple to finally kiss each other) and having to please fans like the wife of another soldier overseas (Rosemary DeCamp) by pretending he knew him personally. This latter plot-point brings wartime realism to our story since the unseen husband discussed is one who does NOT come back. Although this is an easy going, soft humor comedy of the lighter variety, there is the occasional slapstick scene like the dog causing havoc on a subway. There is also an impressive supporting cast here, some of whom will be familiar faces to those of us fans of vintage film short comedies of the 1930s-50s golden age, including Robert Benchley (very popular in MGM and Paramount one-reelers, although equally famous in a variety of media) as the slightly bumbling Judge Oscar sharing the Meglin spacious residence and Jane Frazee (Warner’s Joe McDoakes series) in a smaller role. Although he made only a couple memorable short-subjects (including a short-lived series for RKO later, but more familiar in his many bit parts in Disney live-action features), Gil Lamb is the rather sleezy Albert Beagell (pronounced “beagle” to emphasize our canine influenced storyline) who is infatuated with Peggy and a rival for her affections. Then there is Tom Powers who had an interesting connection with co-star Fred MacMurray: here he is Commander Harry Harpe and, in the previously filmed DOUBLE INDEMNITY, he was the murdered victim of both Fred and Barbara Stanwyck’s characters. I did rather enjoy this for its vintage appeal, but must admit it is probably the weakest of our four Colbert-MacMurray affairs. It seems like the writers couldn’t make up their minds whether this is a funny rom-com or a more serious commentary on romantic pairings being jump-started by the great stress and uncertainty of war. The subsequent THE CLOCK with Judy Garland and Robert Walker is a much better example of this particular theme in my opinion. Both leads give pretty good performances but my overall vibe is that neither were quite as enthusiastic doing this one as the other three.

No, he wasn't. Check this thread for the entire list of honorees:

HOME BEFORE DARK (1958)

WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT? (1965)...BANANAS (1971)...STARDUST MEMORIES (1980) Next: Sidney Poitier & Bill Cosby

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945)

Ustinov, Peter