OVP: Pal Joey (1957)

Film: Pal Joey (1957)
Stars: Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Barbara Nichols
Director: George Sidney
Oscar History: 4 nominations (Best Art Direction, Film Editing, Costume, Sound)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

It wouldn't be a week devoted to the category of Best Sound at the Oscars without us having at least one musical, and that comes to us this Wednesday, as we tackle the 1957 film Pal Joey.  For those who are familiar with the original Broadway show (spoiler alert-I was not), the film takes a bit of a departure from the original, particularly with the lead character, turning him from an anti-hero into a more traditional stand-up guy, which makes sense considering in 1957 there were few matinee idols who could approach Frank Sinatra.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is basically a love triangle, and not with a lot of twists.  We have Joey, a womanizing singer who has dreams of opening up a club called "Chez Joey" that will be successful because they do it "his way," but he doesn't have the money to finance the club.  Just as he's starting to make something happen with romancing a beautiful chorus girl named Linda (Novak), an old flame of Joey's walks into the picture: Vera (Hayworth), who was once a showgirl but is now a society matron, a wealthy widow who doesn't want to admit her seedier past, but is also madly in love with Joey.  She starts financing Joey, but Joey can't get Linda off of his mind, so she gives him an ultimatum-pick Linda or Chez Joey.  After much hemming-and-hawing (and the mandatory stormy breakup scene), he goes after Linda & real love.

As you might already be able to tell, I didn't like Pal Joey.  For starters, the movie is too long, and frequently doesn't know what to do with its two female leads, which is a bummer because Kim Novak & Rita Hayworth are far more intriguing screen presences than Frank Sinatra, who always plays some version of Frank Sinatra.  Novak, just a year away from giving one of the truly great performances of the 1950's in Vertigo, plays her Linda as a bored showgirl, someone who has seen a guy like Joey a dozen times...and yet she falls for him pretty quickly.  Vera is the more intriguing character, but she's ancillary to the plot.  Despite Hayworth getting top billing (Sinatra graciously gave it to her since she'd gotten it on every film she'd made at Columbia for a decade), she's not important to the plot, and doesn't get the sort of wry moments that Hayworth was so good at nailing.

The film won four Oscar nominations, including of course for Best Sound, which was by far its most warranted citation.  Sinatra might not be breaking the mold as an actor here, but he was in the best years of his singing career, and is breathtaking crooning "The Lady is a Tramp" or "I didn't Know What Time It Was."  Musicals get de facto nominations for Sound specifically because of films like Pal Joey, which do a great job modulating and calibrating each number & scene to be perfectly balanced & bring forth the great serenading that's happening onscreen.

As for the rest, I'm less-impressed.  The sets are weirdly claustrophobic.  This isn't a bad thing, but for a film that has the budget & the star power to ensure that we don't feel like it's a staged play, it shows its Broadway roots in a way few musicals of the era did, and I thought that was at once creative and perplexing.  The costumes are fun, if here a bit repetitive-oh look, here's another shot of Hawyorth or Novak in an evening-length gown with a body that looks like a track at Daytona...there's no look in the film that feels classic even from two fashion staples.  And the editing...Pal Joey could have trimmed twenty minutes off and no one would have missed it (the film's biggest problem is it drags & repeats)-the musical numbers aren't impressive enough visually (even if they sound good) to warrant this based on those pieces alone.

The 8 Living Women (and 2 Men) Who Have Starred in an Alfred Hitchcock Movie

In the past month, while prepping for NaNoWriMo, I was thinking a lot about my relationship with classic film, and in particular how few links we still have to the Golden Age of Hollywood.  It feels like at this point it's more of a scrounge to find living actors from this era rather than the multitudes that were still alive even only twenty years ago, and in the process, I began to wonder how many of Alfred Hitchcock's leading ladies were still alive.

Focusing on Hitchcock in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations feels a bit seedy, considering that he had famously complicated relationships with his leading ladies, including allegedly sexually assaulting Tippi Hedren and exerting enormous control over women like Grace Kelly.  However, this isn't celebrating Hitch, but the women who made his films special, and specifically the eight leading ladies in his movies that are still with us.  Without further adieu (I'm imagining you're trying to guess in your head who they are anyway), here are the eight living women who have headlined an Alfred Hitchcock picture (listed chronologically by film):

Editor's Note: Since the publication of this Barbara Harris passed away on August 21, 2018.  I've maintained Ms. Harris's profile below, however.

Shirley MacLaine

Film: The Trouble with Harry (1955)

Age: 83 (Born April 24, 1934)

Career: This was actually MacLaine's screen debut, though she's not really known for her work with Hitchcock.  She'd get a Golden Globe nomination for Best Newcomer in the film, and would be an Oscar nominee three years later for Some Came Running (and soon a screen legend).

Doris Day

Film: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)

Age: 95 (Born April 3, 1922)

Career: Day was enjoying the "dramatic" period of her film career when she partnered with Hitchcock (an odd pairing in hindsight, though her iconic "Que Sera, Sera" would become a signature tune).  She'd be getting her sole Oscar nomination a few years later when she made Pillow Talk and kicked off the most successful period of her career.

Vera Miles

Film: The Wrong Man (1956)

Age: 88 (Born August 23, 1929)

Career: Miles is a strange case of an actress that made a lot of classic films in a brief period of time (she also starred in the John Ford classic The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), who is best remembered by modern audiences for her supporting work in Psycho.  She was originally intended to be Hitch's leading lady in Vertigo, but due to a pregnancy he had to replace her with...

Kim Novak

Film: Vertigo (1958)

Age: 84 (Born February 13, 1933)

Career: Novak's eternally known as Madeline in Vertigo, her most iconic role, but the reality is that the film was a turning point in her career, and not in the right direction.  Though considered today to be one of the greatest films ever made, Vertigo was a box office disappointment at the time, and Novak (coming off of hits like Picnic, Pal Joey, and Bell, Book, and Candle) watched her career dissipate after this, with her brief period as a leading woman soon over.

Eva Marie Saint

Film: North by Northwest (1959)

Age: 93 (Born July 4, 1924)

Career: Saint had made a name for herself at this point in her career playing downtrodden women in black-and-white dramas (winning an Oscar for On the Waterfront), so this was a very atypical movie for the actress, and one that sort of would signal the end of her short career as a leading woman.  Saint made surprisingly few pictures in her very long career, and would soon be playing third fiddle to Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor in The Sandpiper.

Tippi Hedren

Film: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964)

Age: 87 (Born January 19, 1930)

Career: Hedren has the distinction on this list of being the only woman to headline two Hitchcock films (while Miles starred in multiple Hitch projects, she only got top billing in one).  Hedren's career  was, well, bizarre after Hitchcock with her most notable film being the troubled production Roar, and she famously hated her filming experiences on Hitch's pictures, but it cannot be denied that these aren't an iconic legacy for her as an actress.

Julie Andrews

Film: Torn Curtain (1966)

Age: 82 (Born October 1, 1935)

Career: Andrews had just two years earlier made her screen debut, but at this point was a major leading lady in Hollywood, and was enjoying what would be the biggest period of success in her career with back-to-back mammoth hits that scored her Oscar nominations (and her one win).  Still, she's hardly what you'd consider an obvious choice to headline a Hitchcock picture considering her well-noted warm and kind characters.

Barbara Harris

Film: Family Plot (1976)

Age: 82 (Born July 25, 1935)

Career: Despite being a decade after Andrews, she's slightly older than the Torn Curtain star, and appeared in the lead of Hitch's last picture.  She was enjoying a peak moment in her career at this point, having just been a part of the classic Nahsville and would receive TWO Golden Globe nominations this year, for her work here as well as in Freaky Friday (she'd lose to Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born).

Initially I thought that I'd do a sequel with the leading men of Hitchcock's career, but unfortunately only two of Hitch's leading men are still with us, so let's also list them right now...

Sean Connery

Film: Marnie (1964)

Age: 87 (August 25, 1930)

Career: Connery at this point had found his most iconic role at this point in his career, James Bond, and would later this same year give his best 007 performance in Goldfinger.  Still, Connery's debonair charm and sex appeal seem like a natural fit for a Hitchcockian film, and I'm surprised he didn't end up starring with him again later in his career.

Bruce Dern

Film: Family Plot (1976)

Age: 81 (June 4, 1936)

Career: Dern is the youngest-living person to have headlined an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  At this point in his career he'd been a character actor for over a decade, and had actually appeared in a small part in Marnie, but was most well-known for his villainous work in The Cowboys opposite John Wayne.  Two years after this he'd win his first of two Academy Award nominations for Coming Home.

There you have it-the eight women (and two men) who are still with us who have headlined a Hitchcock picture.  Share your favorite memories of these women and which of these nine performances are your favorites?

Top 10 Favorite Femme Fatales

There is literally no film character trope I love more than the femme fatale.  Thankfully the "femme fatale" trope is not always literal as many of the women that are considered "femme fatales" don't exactly end up being the killers, just leading our heroes to dangerous situations, so I feel like I can do this list without having to worry too much about revealing spoilers.  As a way to kick off my vacation (I'm on vacation if you're reading this within a week of it being published!), I wanted to countdown my ten favorite femme fatales of cinema, in order (though not necessarily in order of best performance, but instead within the confines of this...you know what, just enjoy the list and provide your own, and recommendations of underrated femme fatales as I am always looking for recommendations!).

10. Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce

9. Kim Novak in Vertigo

8. Gloria Grahame in Crossfire

7. Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai

6. Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard

5. Rita Hayworth in Gilda

4. Jane Greer in Out of the Past

3. Faye Dunaway in Chinatown

2. Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity

1. Gene Tierney in Laura

OVP: Bell, Book, and Candle (1958)

Film: Bell, Book, and Candle (1958)
Stars: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lanchester
Director: Richard Quine
Oscar History: 2 nomination (Best Art Direction, Costume Design)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

It's hard to watch a film like Bell, Book, and Candle without thinking about the pop cultural landmarks that would bookend the film: Vertigo and Bewitched.  The film, which stars Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart, has to elicit memories of the former simply by virtue of borrowing its two stars, while the film clearly was an inspiration to Bewitched creator Sol Saks, who borrowed this particular picture's witch marries a mortal and then has her trying to live a normal life while surrounded by a bevy of crazy relatives.  Unfortunately for all of us, Bell, Book, and Candle never really achieves the genius of Vertigo nor the constant laughs that came from Bewitched, and as a result we end up with a middling movie surrounded by clearly a great concept.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows Shep Henderson (Stewart), a hapless man who lives (unknowingly) next door to two witches, Gillian (Novak) and her Aunt Queenie (Lanchester).  Gillian finds out that Shep is dating her old college rival, and as a result she casts a love spell on Shep, but after a while Gillian herself falls in love with him, but after Shep learns of her trickery he wants nothing to do with her.  Meanwhile, we have Gillian's brother Nicky (Lemmon, back when he was still doing relatively minor roles at the beginning of his career) trying to make a buck with a mortal but self-proclaimed witch expert Sidney (Kovacs).  As the film progresses, considering it's a romantic comedy, Shep and Gillian eventually fall in love, even though this means that she loses all of her powers.

The film's faults are pretty numerous, but I will counter that the supporting cast tries their best.  It's easy to see why the likes of Aunt Clara, Endora, and Uncle Arthur from Bewitched all came about as a result of such a cast, as you can't really go wrong with Jack Lemmon, Ernie Kovacs, and Hermione Gingold, who is at her loudest and most elaborate in the very broad role as Bianca de Pass, a powerful and groovy witch.  The film's best moments involve these supporting players, and you can see why Lemmon became a proper matinee idol soon after movies like Bell, Book, and Candle, as he was stealing the movies away from the likes of Jimmy Stewart.

The problem here, though, is that the script is too dry when it comes to the leads, and neither of them are particularly well-suited to saving it.  It was during this time that Stewart would start to be cast for roles that were unsuitable for his age (the wonderful Man Who Shot Liberty Valance would be another one, but there Stewart found a way to cope), and in fact he never would have the role of a solely romantic lead after this film as he felt he was too old for the part.  While I question this (I would have still bought him falling in love with someone like Greer Garson or Kate Hepburn), it does feel like him stepping once again into the cliche of a man who hasn't started life at fifty is a bit of a stretch.  It also hurts that Stewart has pretty much zilch chemistry with Novak, and they feel like such polar opposites it's impossible not to snicker at the idea that she'd fall for him.  This works in Vertigo because of the angles their characters are playing and the madness of Scottie Ferguson, but the reality is that under normal circumstances these two just don't match.

The film received a pair of Oscar nominations, and it's easy to see why one of them happened.  The movie's Art Direction citation seems appropriate as it relies heavily upon witches' decor and is meticulous in trying to call out the various personalities of the apartments.  I felt a bit like they were relying too heavily on cliches, especially in the apartments (Gillian's shop makes sense), but the movie at least has an attention to detail, even if the witch-y touches feel a tad uninspired.  The costume design is considerably better, in my opinion, though I'm shocked Oscar noticed it since it's relatively subtle.  Novak wears a series of black outfits, of course, giving into the witch-angle once more, but here it's such a glamorous variety of black dresses, hoods, and one particularly fetching backless gown (that would still feel fresh and jaw-dropping on a red carpet today) that you can see why Novak become such a star in terms of fashion after movies like this and Vertigo.

Those are my thoughts on this disappointing, but clearly intriguing movie.  What are yours?  Do you agree that the leads feel mismatched, or are you still pining for more pairings since it elicits memories of Vertigo?  Who is your favorite of the supporting cast members here?  And furthermore, who are your favorites on Bewitched?  Share your thoughts in the comments!