Classic Film Review: The Velvet Touch (1948)

The Velvet Touch stars Rosalind Russell as Valerie Stanton, a Broadway star who wants to break from her long-term partnership with director Gordon Dunning (Leon Ames) because she wants to star in a serious play and she's also fallen in love with Michael Morrell (Leo Genn). Dunning is unwilling to let her go and she accidentally kills him when he threatens to make up lies to tell Morrell to split them up. A flashback sequence shows how they got to that point and then the police investigation starts up. The primary suspect is the woman who truly loved Dunning, Marian Webster (Claire Trevor). She found the body and picked up the murder weapon but she's in a catatonic state. What will happen when she comes round?

I thought this was an excellent film. There were a few shaky moments acting-wise but Leon Ames played the villain to perfection, giving Valerie every reason to attack him in the opening scene. The moments that follow that, as Valerie makes her way back to her dressing room in a daze are exceptional. Russell plays that entire sequence perfectly and really, from then on, she's completely absorbing. She battles with her guilt and her fear but ultimately uses her acting skills to good effect to keep the truth under wraps. However, she may have underestimated Captain Danbury (Sydney Greenstreet), an affable police detective who adores the theatre and investigates the case.

There are some brilliant scenes that have stayed with me. The hospital confrontation between Valerie and Marian - and Valerie's subsequent breakdown in Captain Danbury's office - is tense, with Claire Trevor giving a very good performance throughout the film but especially in this scene. Really, though, this film is Russell's alone and she makes good use of it. The final sequence of her opening night in Hedda Gabler builds to a climax where you're unsure what the outcome will be. Ultimately, I think the ending worked but the alternate scenario would have been equally as good.

Highly recommended. It's a psychological thriller that leaves you wondering when Valerie will finally break - because break she must.

Classic Film Revew: Flight For Freedom (1943)

A highly-fictionalised account of the life of aviator Amelia Earhart, Flight for Freedom trades on the long-discredited theory that Earhart was doing a job for the US Government when she died. Released at the height of WWII, it is full of propaganda and has an agenda that threatens to sink the film on many occasions. If the story hadn't framed itself as a 'true story' and tethered itself to Earhart's memory then it wouldn't have been so bad but, as it was, it comes across as sheer propaganda. However, that's not to say the film didn't have some merits.

It stars Rosalind Russell as Tonie Carter (the fictional version of Earhart), Fred MacMurray as fellow pilot Randy Britton and Herbert Marshall as Carter's flight instructor and potential husband Paul Turner. Early in the film, Carter has an altercation with Britton that leads to romance but he's a sexist hotshot who flies off on his next mission and she doesn't hear from him for two years. When he returns, his renewed arrogance leads Carter to throw her efforts into creating flying records. Finally, after agreeing to marry Paul, she is encouraged by the US Government to do one more flight to enable them to take pictures of some Japanese islands and finds Rnady Britton as her navigator.

The love triangle provides some tension throughout the film but, really, it feels like an unnecessary distraction from the very valid achievements of the Earhart-based heroine. On occasion, it seems to fall back into the 'woman unable to do anything without men' mindset when, in actual fact, she's more accomplished than most of the men she comes into contact with. The romance with Britton feels laboured on MacMurray's part, but this may be because we see Carter's reactions more. However, there was one moment where Britton is on the phone to Carter at a pivotal moment in her career and the camera focuses only on him until the conversation is over: considering what this moment was leading up to I thought it detracted from the importance of Carter and related her once again to the men in her life.

All criticisms aside, Rosalind Russell's performance is as excellent as ever. Even with a story that falters, she portrays Carter with her trademark subtlety and there is an undercurrent of fear regarding her acceptance that runs through the first half of the film. There is one excellent scene towards the end of the film between Russell and MacMurray where they talk about their relationship and, for me, that scene was the best of them all because it was so raw and honest. Equally worth a mention is Eduardo Ciannelli as Johnny Salvini, the owner of a bar pilots frequent. His scenes are quite amusing, giving lulls in what is actually quite a heavy film.

This is undoubtedly propaganda - and the representation of a Japanese spy is ridiculous - but seen in the context of the period that's understandable. If they hadn't linked this story to Earhart then I would've enjoyed it more but Russell's performance was enough to make it partly enjoyable.

Classic Film Review: Sister Kenny (1946)

Sister Kenny is a biopic of the life of Sister Elizabeth Kenny, an Australian bush nurse who discovers an effective treatment for infant paralysis following polio. Sister Kenny (Rosalind Russell) has on her side the pleasant Doctor McDonnell (Alexander Knox) but faces the wrath much of the medical establishment - they don't want to accept her 'dangerous' theories and she spends her entire life trying to fight it. This costs her many things, not least her relationship with Kevin Connors (Dean Jagger).

Of course, this is fictionalised biography and so dramatises certain parts of Kenny's story. However, the bulk of it remains true to the honour of this incredibly persistent woman and it is compelling because of the underlying truth. One aspect that is contentious is the fact that it features no Australian actors but, on balance, it was better to have none that to ruin the film with bad attempts at accents. As it is, the story stands by itself. The backdrop isn't as important as the woman herself.

Rosalind Russell was nominated for an Oscar for this performance (and won a Golden Globe) and there is no doubt she deserved it. She was 29 at the time of filming but progressed through forty years on screen and it wasn't just a question of good lighting, costumes and make-up. She was phenomenal, every movement perfectly suited to both the character and the character's time of life. She became Elizabeth Kenny and that's not always easy, especially when the person you're portraying is still alive. This film succeeds on a dramatic level and perhaps that's the only level that really matters but it's also a sympathetic portrayal. In the end, it doesn't matter if some of it's fiction because it remains true to the woman.

There are a couple of stand-out scenes. When Elizabeth attends her first case and treats the paralysis with hot rags before trying to get the girl's legs moving again the tension in the scene is high. Elizabeth doesn't have the answers, doesn't really know what's going to happen and is fraught with worry whilst trying to keep a lid on it in front of her patients. A wonderful few minutes from Russell. Secondly, the break between Elizabeth and Kevin is subtly acted by Russell and Jagger and doesn't descend into melodrama. Finally, there is the moment when Elizabeth walks into a lecture theatre full of students to confront her biggest antagonist. I won't ruin it but it's really the best scene of the film.

I didn't expect too much from Sister Kenny but I was happily proved wrong. This is an outstanding performance by Rosalind Russell and the sense I get as I'm going along this journey through classic films is that she's going to end up high on my favourite actresses list.

Wherein Rosalind Russell Helps My PhD

I now at least have a valid reason for all those classic films I watch. One of them drew a connection for me over the weekend that I'd completely missed in my PhD research and gave me another hypothetical lead for for the cause of a character's disability.

Now, the disability strand of my thesis is only one chapter long but, really, I like to think it's the most important. That's possibly because it's the one I'm working on currently but we'll deal with that notion when I start on the next chapter. Anyway, in it I hypothesise about the rather vague descriptions of the disabilities of two Edmund Yates characters. It's all conjecture but the possibilities of hereditary problems throw up a few interesting angles for the chapter.

In a much-needed break from work I watched the first half of Sister Kenny, a 1940s biopic about an Australian nurse who found an effective treatment for infant paralysis brought on by polio (a review of the film will follow in a few days). A light pinged on in my brain. Although it should've, polio hadn't made it onto my original list of wacky and obscure diseases that could cause disability and yet the symptoms and results could match the character's very neatly. Polio was apparently identified in 1840 so it was recognisable - but not treatable - at the time Yates was writing.

So there we are. I've got a legitimate reason for indulging in one of my favourite pastimes. And if that indulgence includes Rosalind Russell who am I to argue?

Classic Film Review: The Trouble With Angels (1966)

The Trouble With Angels stars Hayley Mills and June Harding as Mary and Rachel, two girls sent to a convent school who aim to drive the nuns round the twist with their pranks. Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) heads a collection of individual nuns with their own little quirks, two of whom are no strangers to viewers of nun films - Portia Nelson as Sister Elizabeth (recognisable as Sister Berthe in The Sound of Music (1965) and the fabulous Mary Wickes as Sister Clarissa (known to many as Sister Mary Lazarus in the two Sister Act films). It's no exaggeration to say that I knew I was going to enjoy this film as soon as I saw Wickes in the cast but she was more than matched in performance by the rest of the actors.

Mary is full of 'scathingly brilliant' ideas which Rachel goes along with. Through the course of the film they set someone's head in plaster, give tours of the nuns' private rooms, have the fire brigade called out by accident when they're smoking in the cellars and, my personal favourite, replace the nuns' sugar with bubble bath which is one of the funniest scenes of the film. But, as time goes on, Mary's brash nature is assailed by seeing the truth about how the nuns live and, after being given another chance by Mother Superior, she turns things around most unexpectedly. Perhaps the best thing about Mary's evolution is that it isn't sudden. She still performs pranks as she's coming to her realisation but there are a couple of quiet moments that are all the more poignant for being rare.

Rosalind Russell is, of course, outstanding as Mother Superior. She makes a work of art out of twitching as lemon juice is accidentally squirted in her face and the film is peppered with her expressions and comments about the behaviour of the two girls. The rest of the cast is equally as enjoyable and, for film obsessives, there is a brief appearance by Gypsy Rose Lee as Mrs Phipps (Russell played Lee's mother in the retelling of her life four years earlier).

This isn't a film with pretensions to be anything but a family comedy and, as such, is highly entertaining.

Classic Film Review: Picnic (1955)

The premise of Picnic seemed quite exciting: a drifter comes to a small town on the day of the Labor Day picnic and causes trouble for the citizens. Starring William Holden as the drifter, Hal Carter, and Kim Novak as the girl he bewitches, Madge Owens, this one would appear to be on solid ground. However, it didn't grip me. When you're noticing how bad the camera-work and editing of a film is then it's probably a good bet that the film wasn't up to much. Incidentally, the editing of this one was noticeably bad.

Holden lacked conviction as Hal, I thought. In addition, Hal was supposed to be college mates with Alan Benson (Cliff Robertson) but despite Robertson only being five years younger than Holden, the gap was accentuated by Robertson's youthful looks in comparison to Holden's rugged exterior. I just didn't buy them as old college friends and that was the beginning of my issues with this film. As hard as I try, I can't bring myself to like Kim Novak in any role an Madge Owens didn't buck the trend. The problem with any love narrative taking place over just a day means that people have to fall in love quickly and realistically. That didn't happen for me and the much-lauded dancing scene between Holden and Novak left me cold. I couldn't believe them as a couple at all.

This isn't to say that the film was devoid of good points. Rosalind Russell played Rosemary, a schoolteacher who's desperate for her boyfriend, Howard (Arthur O'Connell), to marry her. Their subplot, for me, was far preferable to the mainline storyline. Rosemary's breakdown throughout the day as she gets drunk, dances with Hal and then pushes Howard to marry her was exquisitely acted by Russell. The late-night scene when Howard drives her home and she literally begs him to marry her was heartbreaking and was certainly Russell at her best. Another excellent performance came from Susan Strasberg as Millie Owens, Madge's younger sister. Far more believable than Novak, Strasberg played Millie as the tomboyish sibling who wants to be pretty like her sister perfectly. Credit to Novak here, the love-hate sisterly relationship worked well.

My main issue with this film seems to be that secondary characters were more memorable than the leads. While the leads indulged in a flirtation that lacked chemistry from my perspective, the other characters actually struggled with their lives being touched by this stranger. Perhaps Holden and Novak were miscast, I'm not sure. Nevertheless, this one didn't live up to the hype for me. It's probably personal preference, though, as I've read some rave reviews praising Holden and Novak's chemistry!