Showing posts with label Charles Vidor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charles Vidor. Show all posts
Evelyn Keyes was one of those innumerable Hollywood starlets who managed to have a few major roles in minor pictures, and small parts in big movies such as Gone With the Wind. When these "also-rans" write their memoirs they fill the pages with notes on the important people they knew and worked with, and do what they can to convince everyone that their life was fabulous even though Hollywood rejected them [or they rejected Hollywood, which sounds better]. Generally these books are about settling scores and perhaps there's a little of that in Scarlet O'Hara's Younger Sister, but what sets the book apart is that Keyes can write. This is not an "as told to" book where everything is interpreted by somebody else, but Keyes' story in her own generally well-chosen and witty words; it reads like a good novel where you're anxious to see what happens to our heroine next. The book is frank -- Keyes makes no bones that she slept with and married powerful men in the industry [directors Charles Vidor and John Huston, among others] -- although she claims it was a daddy fixation. The book, full of amusing anecdotes, explores the sleazy underbelly of Hollywood and the crappy way that women, instantly disposable, were treated by most males in the industry. The most interesting passages deal with Keyes' several-years affair with Mike Todd, which almost led to the altar [except he met Liz Taylor], and her marriage to nutty chauvinist bandleader Artie Shaw, whose punctilious behavior would have driven anyone crazy. [Keyes was still technically married to Shaw when this book was published. When he died several years after their 1985 divorce, Keyes successfully sued for half of his estate, but she herself was gone only a couple of years later.] If you're looking for behind-the-scenes stories of the movies Keyes appeared in, look elsewhere; she doesn't even have that much to say about The Killer that Stalked New York, in which she gave an excellent performance. Keyes also gave notable performances in The Face Behind the Mask and Ladies in Retirement.
Verdict: Absorbing life of a Hollywood insider. ***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.