Showing posts with label Charles Lamont. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Lamont. Show all posts
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| Mari Blanchard and Lou Costello |
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS (1953). Director: Charles Lamont.
"He looks worse standing up than he does lying down" -- Allura, referring to Lou
Orville (Lou Costello), a handyman at an orphanage, winds up at a missile base and is mistaken for a professor of aeronautical science, although janitor Lester (Bud Abbott) isn't fooled. The bumbling pair look around Dr. Wilson's (Robert Paige) rocket ship and accidentally take off, landing near New Orleans during Mardi Gras where they think the celebrants are Martians. Two ex-cons rob a bank and stowaway on the ship, hoping Orville and Lester, whom they think are Martians, will take them back to their planet and away from the law. This time the rocket ship winds up on Venus, where the man-hating Queen Allura (Mari Blanchard of Twice-Told Tales) makes Orville her king to please her man-hungry subjects. There's a giant dog, but otherwise a dearth of special effects, except for when the rocket is flying through the Lincoln Tunnel and making the Statue of Liberty dodge and duck. One Venusian vehicle seems to have been borrowed from Forbidden Planet but that movie was made three years later! After the queen puts a curse on Lou, who dares to be attracted to other women, his kiss turns one young lovely into a wrinkled old crone! Martha Hyer is Dr. Wilson's secretary and girlfriend, Jean Willes is one of the queen's entourage, and while Anita Ekberg of Screaming Mimi should certainly stand out even in a crowd of moonlighting beauty queens, her presence in the picture as a guard isn't immediately evident. Abbott and Costello Go to Mars may come off like a spoof of such space-babe movies as Queen of Outer Space, which also takes place on Venus, but it actually pre-dates all of them [the first, Cat-Women of the Moon, was released the same year]. Were A & C starting a trend instead of following one, as they did with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein? Whatever the case, this is not in the league of that movie, but it does have its amusing moments and the cast has fun. There's too much of those ex-cons, however, and the boys never do wind up on Mars.
Verdict: Amiable nonsense. **1/2.
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| Arthur Vinton and Chick Chandler |
Reporter Jim Baldwin (Chick Chandler) is covering a trial where the evidence is strictly circumstantial, and is appalled when the defendant is not only convicted but given the death penalty. Baldwin feels that in cases wherein the evidence is all circumstantial, the defendant should be given a life sentence instead. Meanwhile Fred Stevens (Arthur Vinton), although having an affair with a certain married lady, asks Shirley (Adrienne Grey) to marry him, but she turns him down, accepting Jim's proposal instead. Jim decides to use this awkward situation to prove that circumstantial cases are unreliable, and gets Fred to go along with his scheme. They will fake an argument over Shirley in front of others, and then Fred will disappear after Jim makes it look like he murdered him. Fred is to come out of hiding at the last minute -- the trouble is that somebody else really murders him! Now Jim is in a pretty pickle. Circumstantial Evidence worked much better when the same plot more or less was used in the far superior Beyond a Reasonable Doubt twenty years later. Chandler [Lost Continent], more of a light comedian than a dramatic type, is okay but tends to overact at times.
Verdict: Predictable, trite, and tedious. *1/2.
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| Abel, Allbritton, Paige and Barrymore all cut up |
FIRED WIFE (1943). Director: Charles Lamont.
"You're so wonderfully repetitious."
In this largely forgettable and desperately frenetic farce, Hank Dunne (Robert Paige) has married career woman Tahitha (Louise Allbritton), who is keeping the marriage secret from her boss, Chris (Walter Abel). Besides the fact that Tahitha has to work on her honeymoon, and that Hank wants her to quit her job, another complication is Hank's friend and associate, radio hostess Eve (Diana Barrymore), who is carrying a torch for him. Hardly any cliche is left unturned in the mediocre screenplay, although the performers are certainly game; Allbritton and Paige are fine, Barrymore adds some zest in her lively portrayal of difficult Eve, and although Walter Abel gives a very good performance, as usual, his character is too loathsome to be funny -- the film's best moment comes when he finally gets his comeuppance. Walter Catlett [It Started with Eve] gives perhaps the funniest performance as Judge Allen, the bemused Justice of the Peace, and Rex Ingram [Anna Lucasta] is also notable as Hank's major domo, Charles. There are a few sporadic chuckles in the movie so it's not a complete waste of time. Paige also starred in Flying G-Men.
Verdict: With pictures like these no wonder Barrymore got disillusioned with Hollywood. **1/2.