Hard, Fast and Beautiful.

Review #2189: Hard, Fast and Beautiful.

Cast: 

Claire Trevor (Millie Farley), Sally Forrest (Florence Farley), Carleton G. Young (Fletcher Locke), Robert Clarke (Gordon McKay), Kenneth Patterson (Will Farley), Marcella Cisney (Miss Martin), and Joseph Kearns (J.R. Carpenter) Directed by Ida Lupino (#799 - The Hitch-Hiker, #1651 - Never Fear, #1811 - Not Wanted, #1991 - Outrage)

Review: 

"“I’m mad, they say. I am temperamental and dizzy and disagreeable. Well, let them talk. Only one person can hurt me. Her name is Ida Lupino."

You have to understand that Ida Lupino had to work hard to get her films made with as little as trouble as possible as one could do when doing films that were done in production with Collier Young and the distribution that came with this film in RKO. The movie was based on a novel by John R. Tunis (often considered a pioneer in the modern version of the sports story). Some sources have said the source material was his novel American Girl, a 1930 novel. Tunis apparently cited Helen Wills when it came to his fictionalization for a story considering unflattering in what happened to be the only novel that he wrote to be published for adults, as most of his works were quite popular in the kid's market (this idea of it being based on Wills seems curious, as she was described as quite focused on the court at large, which resulted in eight wins at Wimbledon, among other things). However, other sources contend that the story "Mother of a Champion" was an inspiration for the film. The screenplay was written by Martha Wilkerson, who actually was better known as a disc jockey (named "GI Jill") on GI Jive, a radio program that was aired during World War II. This was her only film screenplay, although she did write for a handful of television programs. Eleanor Tennant, cited often as the first female player to turn professional (until 1968, it was more of a thing for people to stay as amateurs because that is where the titles such as Wimbledon were played with), was cited as a technical advisor for the film.

As her fourth film as a director, it certainly has its own edge in looking upon the clash of sincerity and ambition that strikes a bit different from her previous movies about an unwed mother, polio, and rape victim. There are elements here that make one think they are watching a noir that her previous films have done in their own interesting ways when it comes to talking about her intent to do movies with "poor bewildered people" because of what we people are. In this case, we have a bewildered mother that tries to live vicariously through their daughter to get a life better than the one she felt was denied to her. It's the general story one can see in other people's lives when it comes to domineering parents among impressionable youths. Trevor (an Academy Award winning actress for Key Largo [1948], remember) is the ideal presence in domineering obsession that we can wince at with such truthful edge. Her craven pursuits are a human one that isn't just a goofy villain, particularly when sharing scenes with Patterson and his calm patience for such brazen ambition. Forrest appeared in a Lupino film for the third and final time (having appeared in Not Wanted and Never Fear), which also happened to be just before she transitioned to also doing TV roles. She does pretty well here in needing to find one's path beyond obedience to their elders and finding someone (or something) to spend time for themselves. It goes okay in that pairing of Forrest and Clarke is the kind of stuff that is vanilla but totally ideal in being a threat to someone like Trevor when it comes to being the key sphere in one's life. The tennis action is cut pretty well to what one would think would need to be present that is a pretty neat capsule for how it looked in some way for the time made. The ending is, well, take one guess in what happens with a dilemma involving a growing woman having to make her own decision. I do like the closing sequence where a woman sits alone in a vacant stadium, left to ponder the hollowness of the choices made to get to where they are sitting now. As a whole, it is a decent film that belongs squarely with the kind of human interest that Lupino liked to do in her films that will work for its 78 minutes for those who know what they are getting into with her as a filmmaker and as a curiosity as a tennis film.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Not Wanted.

Review #1811: Not Wanted.

Cast: 

Sally Forrest (Sally Kelton), Keefe Brasselle (Drew Baxter), Leo Penn (Steve Ryan), Dorothy Adams (Mrs. Aggie Kelton), Wheaton Chambers (Mr. Kelton), Rita Lupino (Joan), Audrey Farr (Nancy), Carole Donne (Jane), and Ruth Clifford (Mrs. Elizabeth Stone) Directed by Elmer Clifton and Ida Lupino (#799 - The Hitch-Hiker and #1651 - Never Fear)

Review: 

"I love being called Mother. I would never shout orders at anyone. I hate women who order men around, professionally or personally. I wouldn’t dare do that with my old man…and I don’t do it with guys on the set. I say, ‘Darlings, Mother has a problem. I’d love to do this. Can you do it? It sounds kooky but I want to do it.’ And they do it.”

If you remember correctly, Ida Lupino really wanted to a writer more than an actress. Of course, being a member of the Lupino family meant that there was some expectation placed on her to act. She did have a steady line of work within the industry, but she chafed at some of its trappings (most notably with Warner Bros, which she left in 1947), and she once described a Hollywood career as a perishable commodity. Not many folks can be referred to as the “English Jean Harlow" alongside her own nicknames for herself (once jokingly proposing that she went from being the "poor man's Bette Davis" to being the "poor man's Don Siegel"). She gained an interest in directing from seeing how it was done while on suspension from Warner Bros and felt it seemed more interesting than time spent on a set acting. In 1948, she would form "The Filmmakers Inc" alongside her husband producer/writer Collier Young and Malvin Wald. Hired to do the film for the year of 1949 was Elmer Clifton, who was known for his low-budget work within Westerns and exploitation films in a career that spanned both silent and sound. However, he suffered a heart attack on the third day of filming. Lupino would step in to direct the film, although she elected to not take directorial effort. She had also co-written the screenplay with Paul Jarrico (who in turn had co-written the story with Malvin Wald) and she also co-produced the film with Anson Bond, and one of the first credits on the film is "Ida Lupino presents" (as for Clifton, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on October 15). At any rate, Lupino's film would do fine for itself enough to keep her on the forefront of making cheap productions under "The Filmmakers Inc.", which lasted until 1955. She would make just one further feature film as director after that while keeping busy as a television director alongside TV acting. She was credited by numerous colleagues for her patience and knowledge when it came to filmmaking and conferring with others on technique. This involved shooting on location or re-using sets or casting unknowns (such as her doctor in one film) or even product placement to help keep production afloat.

Apparently, there is also a version of the film that was done by exploitation filmmakers that liked to insert "educational" footage into films in order to slip by the Production Code (with one version called "The Wrong Rut"), and it is here where one would see inserted footage of an actual cesarian delivery. Of course, the real film doesn't even mention the word "pregnant", and its sequence in a hospital is particularly interesting for the way it depicts an operation through the eyes of our lead. You might recognize Forrest and Brasselle, since they would each star in Lupino's next film in Never Fear (1950), and Forrest also starred in Lupino's 1951 film Hard, Fast and Beautiful. I think that film is just a tad better than this film, likely because the framing device utilized here (i.e. telling most of the film as a flashback) works a bit better in other imitators of the pulpy noir. Of course, Lupino has her sights set on telling an interesting story involving the plight of a child born out of wedlock and the distinct differences seen when one is talking about it for the mother as opposed to the father. No matter how we view the personality of the flighty lead, one can still emphasize with the anguish felt on screen when it comes to facing a hard decision when it comes to a new child. The social consciousness that Lupino shows here is something that still relates well to our day and age because of the struggles that still come with double standards and human nature. Forrest handles this well through the tender direction by delivering a character with the right sense of passion that comes with someone thrusted into hard realities. Brasselle plays the tender side of life, someone who has been around the corner a couple of times and isn't weary about what they saw; this works fine for him, who is mostly played against Forrest for scenes like seeing model trains or a running climax. Penn plays the aloof part of the main triangle with the right sense of timing needed that comes and goes on his own terms (one has to admire the way the film depicts Forrest and Penn being swaying to each other with the simple act of throwing a cigarette away). Adams and Chambers show up for a time as the parental foils for a brief time. As a whole, the movie works fairly well in pressing a social issue without becoming just a sensationalist work or something that can be tied down to easy resolutions. As a debut feature, it is a worthy one to look into just where Lupino would go with filmmaking that dared to engage in social relevance with efficiency and durability that makes it one to recommend without question.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: The Eternal Breasts.

Never Fear.

Review #1651: Never Fear.

Cast:
Sally Forrest (Carol Williams), Keefe Brasselle (Guy Richards), Hugh O'Brian (Len Randall), Eve Miller (Phyllis Townsend), Lawrence Dobkin (Dr. Middleton), Rita Lupino (Josie), Herb Butterfield (Walter Williams), Kevin O'Morrison (Red Dawson), Stanley Waxman (Dr. Taylor), Jerry Hausner (Mr. Brownlee), and John Franco (Carlos) Directed by Ida Lupino (#799 - The Hitch-Hiker)

Review:
When it comes to social message movies and the folks who directed them, one name that should come up with reverence is Ida Lupino. It is interesting to note her as a director considering her road to getting there from her first turn as an actress. She was the daughter of a comedian and an actress in an English family known for their theatrical roots. She was encouraged to act from a young age, and she would study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She would make her first venture into film in 1931 at the age of 13 and enter the stage three years after that; she would eventually be cast into lead roles while calling herself "the poor man's Bette Davis." Her arguments with Warner Bros over the quality of roles they favored for her lead to numerous suspensions that she used to observe the process of filming and editing films. Although she would do dozens of roles over the years, what she really wanted to do was take her creativity and use it to direct her own films, having found acting to be a "torturous profession", and she felt that directing was the more interesting work. Inspired, she would form with her husband Collier Young an independent company to produce and direct low-budget works called The Filmmakers. In 1949, she had her first chance to direct with Not Wanted, as Elmer Clifton had a heart attack during filming, with Lupino (who co-wrote and co-produced the feature) deciding to not take credit for the controversial film (involving the topic of unwanted pregnancy). Counting Not Wanted, Lupino directed eight films in the span of seventeen years (with her last film in The Trouble with Angels (1966) being the only one done after The Filmmakers closed up shop in 1955). Lupino, who once joked that her quality as a director was as a "poor man's Don Siegel" (although one of her influences was Roberto Rossellini), would persist in directing and acting in three decades (most notably The Twilight Zone, being the only person to direct an episode alongside star in an episode each) until retirement in 1978. Her films generally dealt with difficult subject matter that were not generally covered within mainstream material of the time, such as bigamy or rape, but she also directed film noir (being un-credited for On Dangerous Ground (1952) while also doing The Hitch-Hiker the following year). This film is also known as The Young Lovers, although it did not help when it came to audience appeal, since this was not a major success. Lupino co-wrote the film with Young, and they also each served as producer for the film, which was distributed by Eagle-Lion Films.

This certainly was a personal film for her, as Lupino had been diagnosed with polio in 1934. Although she would eventually recover without losing the ability to walk, it reinforced her desire to focus on her abilities on an intellectual level without such focus on physicality. In this case, Lupino is making a feature that feels like a documentary at times with its shots of recovery for folks with polio at the Kabat-Kaiser Institute in Santa Monica, whether that means shots of treatment or shots of swimming or even square-dancing (in wheelchairs); ultimately, it is the tale of someone finding their place again in life and not dealing with it alone and become wrapped with self-pity. At the time, polio was a fairly prevalent health crisis across the world; two years after the release of the film, over 3,000 people alone would die of the disease in the United States, with the first safe vaccine for the disease coming out in 1955 by Jonas Salk (efforts to eradicate it worldwide have persisted since the 1980s). This was the second of three films that Forrest had done with Lupino (she made her formal debut in acting with Not Wanted). She does well with a tough role, because one has to convey an isolated tone without seeming too closed off in their arc for 82 minutes. She shows that degree of fear one would have if in that scenario without overplaying her hand. Brasselle matches her on the other side of life with polio - the person closest to her in adjustment, whether that involves trying to sell houses while waiting for someone to get better, or persisting in trying to get his girl on her feet. He does okay with that, seeming more suited for the cheesy number in the beginning or one scene spent with Miller involving regrets and an embrace. This was the first feature role for O'Brian, a former Marine who got into show business after being asked to take part in rehearsals for a play (directed by Lupino) after the lead failed to show that led to an agent wanting to sign him. He probably gives off the best performance, one with confidence and peace of mind for what needs to occur in perspective that never seems like someone doing it on one take. Miller has that fine little sequence with Brasselle as stated, while Dobkin rounds out the general focus decently enough. If it seems a bit off-kilter in its face of adversity in terms of physical and psychological trouble without being wrapped in too much inevitability. It is a closed-in type of movie, where one experiences the pain of the main character that ranges from closed-off despair to lingering doubt that makes its "you are there" segments work handily for what it needs. For me, it seems similiar to another film that would come out later in the year of 1950 with The Men, which dealt with a paralyzed veteran having to adjust with the loss of his legs while at a hospital that goes through a bout of isolation and self-pity. It isn't about what you assume is going to happen as it a film about what you feel about what is going to happen, where that doubt about one's health could apply beyond polio, particularly in recent years where isolation seems more rampant than ever when dealing with (or hearing about) illness. In that sense, Lupino has managed to make a fairly well-made feature that seems quite prescient, and when it comes to key female directors, Ida Lupino makes for a good start in terms of pressing the issue of perspective.

Next Time: Going across the pond with Muriel Box and Street Corner (1953).

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.