Showing posts with label Mark Stevens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Stevens. Show all posts
In Majorca Joe Balfour (Mark Stevens of The Dark Corner) and his buddy Ernie (Robert Strauss of Here Come the Girls) hope that model Anne Traymore (Joanne Dru) will use her feminine charm to convince handsome young Manuel Montoya (Asher Dann) to let them use his boat to find some lost treasure of doubloons. They don't realize that Manuel only pretends to be a wealthy playboy and the boat is really owned by his employer, LeClerc (Jean-Pierre Kerien). A bigger problem is that Ernie may not really be the buddy that Joe thinks he is. September Storm is okay enough, but is much too leisurely-paced to build up much suspense, and is rather slipshod all told. Dru is odd casting. Supposedly this was shot in 3D, but you'd never know it. This was charming Dann's first movie; his other four credits were in television. Kerien made mostly French films.
Verdict: Not even three dimensions could save this. **.
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| Felicia Farr and Mark Stevens |
A man gets sick on a train and the conductor calls for a doctor (Wesley Addy), but it's all a robbery plot, which is revealed in the first few minutes of Time Table. Insurance investigator Charlie Norman (Mark Stevens of The Dark Corner) is assigned to the case, which means he has to cancel a trip to Mexico with his wife, Ruth (Marianne Stewart). Also mixed up in the plot are Frankie (Jack Klugman of I Could Go On Singing), Bobit (John Marley), and a femme fatale of sorts, Linda (Felicia Farr). Stevens doubles as both star and director and turns in workmanlike if uninspired performances, although Walter Scharf's [The Saxon Charm] music and Charles Van Enger's photography are effective. Stewart gives an especially memorable performance as Charlie's wife, and King Calder is likewise notable as an investigator for the railroad.The movie cries out for a longer running time and better character development but there's a fairly flavorful climax.
Verdict: Interesting if minor film noir. **1/2.
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| Olivia De Havilland as the troubled Virginia |
Virginia (Olivia de Havilland) is a troubled woman who has been committed to a psychiatric institution. Dr. Kik (Leo Genn) interviews her confused but loving husband, Robert (Mark Stevens), and tries to figure out what is responsible for Virginia's fragile mental state. Flashbacks show her life with Robert, as well as the earlier years before she met him. It's all rather psychologically dubious, but the film is generally well-acted and entertaining. Fellow patients in the institution, some of whom are crazier than others, include Beulah Bondi as a haughty old lady with delusions, Betsy Blair as the delicate Hester, as well as Lee Patrick, Celia Lovsky, Barbara Pepper, Minerva Urecal, Marie Blake (Blossom Rock), and others, most of whom just have bits. Mary Treen, Glenn Langan, and Ann Doran are on the staff; Helen Craig gives a terribly unsubtle performance as the evil Nurse Davis. Natalie Schafer is cast as Virginia's mother and Lora Lee Michel plays her as a child; both are quite good. While The Snake Pit is an uncertain mixture of sentiment and silly moments, and is a bit on the exploitative side, it does have some undeniably effective scenes, such as the poignant climax when Laura (Jan Clayton, who was Julie Jordan in the original Broadway production of Carousel) sings "Going Home" at the dance. Alfred Newman's score and Leo Tover's cinematography are also assets. Arthur Laurents, among others, worked on the screenplay and disavowed this in his memoirs. Seven years later, The Shrike was a somewhat grittier look at life inside a mental ward. Litvak also directed This Above All and many others.
Verdict: Hardly the final word on the subject but not without its merits. ***.