Showing posts with label Charles Coburn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Coburn. Show all posts
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| Allyson and Chandler at the sideshow |
A STRANGER IN MY ARMS (1959). Director: Helmut Kautner.
Korean war widow Christina Beasley (June Allyson) and her mother-in-law Virgilnie (Mary Astor) are both mourning the death of son and husband, Donald (Peter Graves). The women, especially Virgilnie, are hoping that Major Pike Yarnell (Jeff Chander) will use his influence to get Donald a posthumous Medal of Honor, even though it's given in only the most extreme of circumstances. At first Pike doesn't even want to come to a ceremony for the man who was his navigator, but his attraction to widow Christina gets the better of him. As Pike and Chris find themselves increasingly drawn to one another, Chris must face the reality of her marriage, and Virgilnie must confront the even more difficult reality of her relationship with her son, as well as what happened on the life raft that Pike and Donald shared in the days before Donald's death (shown in flashback). A Stranger in My Arms certainly sets up an intriguing situation, but it's still rather dull, and as a romance it misfires because the leads have no chemistry. Not only is the sexless Allyson a mismatch for the virile Chandler, but she's so short next to him that there are times you get the strange sensation that Pike is pitching woo to a circus midget [not that there's anything wrong with that]! Allyson and Chandler offer competent performances, but nothing more than that, leaving the acting honors to Mary Astor, who has an especially good scene reacting to a note left for her by her son. As Donald's bimbo sister, Sandra Dee seems like a moron. Charles Coburn plays Donald's wealthy grandfather, who thinks he can buy anything, even a medal; he's fine but appears too briefly. Conrad Nagel is suitably low-key as Astor's put-upon husband and Graves is adequate but unimpressive in the flashbacks on the life raft. Kautner did a few American films and then went back to Germany.
Verdict: Intriguing situations of which the most is not made. **1/2.
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| Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne |
"You're a big shot in the office, and a non-entity at home!"
After making Love Affair in 1939, Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer were "together again" five years later in this slightly screwball comedy. Anne Crandell (Dunne) has been mayor of a small town in Vermont ever since the death of her husband and lives with her father-in-law, Jonathan (Charles Coburn) and neurotic stepdaughter Diana (Mona Freeman of Angel Face). Jonathan wants Anne to have more of a life, to forget his son [oddly] and her attachment to him and to the town they were happy in. When her late husband's statue is beheaded by a bolt of lightning, Jonathan sees this as a sign, but Anne only travels to Manhattan to meet with a prominent sculptor named George Corday (Boyer). After misadventures, including being mistaken for a stripper in a nightclub raid, Anne returns home convinced that George is not the right man for the job. But George follows Anne home and is determined to win her, if only he can get her to unbend ... Together Again basically gets by on the charm and abilities of its leads. A luminescent Dunne offers one of her best comic portrayals and is in absolutely top form throughout, Boyer is sauve and smooth as ever, and Coburn a delight as usual. Unfortunately, the material is second-rate, although there are a few amusing moments. Carl "Alfafa" Switzer has a funny cameo as an elevator boy, and Jerome Courtland [Sunny Side of the Street] scores as a young man who is dating the difficult Diana and often wishes that he weren't. Vidor also directed Rhapsody and many others.
Verdict: Great leads who need stronger material. **1/2.