Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House - 1948 - Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas

This is a film so souffle light that it practically floats off your tv and out the door - but is nonetheless a clever, artful look at life in the 40's. There are not a great many films of the time that attempt a contemporary look at a family, giving good time to both the children and the parents, and I applaud the film for that.
The older Blandings child (Betsy) is played by Connie Marshall, who was quite an up and coming thing herself. She had shot to fame in 'Sunday Dinner for a Soldier' and was best known for 'Dragonwyck',
Mother Wore Tights' and 'Daisy Kenyon' (starring that well known crackpot Joan Crawford). She has this interesting sad eyed mournful thing about her that works really well in this film juxtaposed with Cary Grant's extraordinary sense of the ridiculous.The scene between the two of them at the breakfast table about the Disintegration of Society is a complete cack.

image from www.aveleyman.com

A couple of other not-so-famous people in this film who became famous (or had famous kids) are:

Lex Barker (best known for Tarzan) also makes an appearance in this film. It seems to be fairly apparent that someone has him in mind for greater things. But look, honestly, I don't know how I feel about Lex Barker, given that I have read Cheryl Crane's autobiography. I don't think I am going to put a picture of him up here - it would be like putting Rolf Harris' picture up.

And - Jason Robards - father of the much more famous Jason Robards Jr. He plays Mr Retch - the Project Manager. One suspects, along with the interior designer Bunny Funkhauser, that he had a larger role in the early cuts of the film.

Oh, to be be a young man thinking he had a role in a Cary Grant film, only to find that he had been completely left on the cutting room floor - but for his name. Here's to Bunny Funkhauser.

Poor Bunny
image from:http://www.arts-stew.com/movies/mr-blandings-builds-his-dream-house/

The thing that makes this film so awesome is the standout comedic timing of its three stars. Watch it for that. Cary Grant and Myrna Loy are a comedy duo made in heaven, and Melvyn Douglas's wry observation of their many mishaps made me pretty much want to marry him on the spot as a teenager. Seriously, all credit to him - this was in the middle of a Cary Grant Film. One would assume there would be eyes on no one else by Grant.

They were wrong.

image from: http://immortalephemera.com/35267/melvyn-douglas

The other wacky thing that did not make the cut of the review - Melvyn Douglas has himself a famous granddaughter - Illeana Douglas.

image from: http://www.emmys.com/

Best known for her filmic and personal relationship with Martin Scorsese, Illeana has starred in such films as Cape Fear, New York Storie, To Die For, Ghost World & perhaps is best know for Grace of My Heart. She has spoken of growing up, and visiting her grandfather whilst his film friends were around, people like Myrna Loy and political figures like Gloria Steinem. What an extraordinary time that must have been.

Go check out this lovely lovely film. Even if to watch it again after not having seen it in years. It's worth it.

Hangover Square - 1945 - Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell & George Sanders

What an incredible movie. The only thing that bugs me about this film was that it took me such a long time to see it. Sure, it's a 100% bonfire-laden melodrama, but who doesn't love a melodrama?
I read the book by Patrick Hamilton in conjunction with watching this film, and I certainly think it worked for me. The book is set in the 1930's in London  and is reasonably different to the film. George has very little going for him at all in the novel - he is not a highly-skilled composer, just a drunkard who blacks out on a regular basis. Still, in conjunction, they inform and enhance each other.

Laird Cregar's performance is hypnotic. There is no doubt at all that he is a murderer, and yet you spend most of the film thinking 'You Poor Guy'. Watching this makes me want to go out and get every single one of his films and watch them back to back. I might end up overly tired and extremely grumpy but it would be worth it. He has more charisma in his little finger etc etc insert James Bond reference here.

Linda Darnell I find fascinating because she was only 22 years old. She came to Hollywood when she was about 14 - but they sent her back home again. She returned when she was 15, and they let her stay. She was playing Tyrone Power's wife by the time she was 16. Obviously since I am unable to draw on my own experience as a voluptuous teenager who was starring in Hollywood films at a very young age, I don't quite know what something like that must do to a person, but it's got to tarnish a person a bit, doesn't it?

Anyway. Watch the film. Check out the lighting, the score, the performances.
That Poor Guy.

The Major and the Minor - 1942 - Ginger Rogers and Ray Milland

This film is a DOOZY. The first time I saw it, I watched it without really knowing the plot so it just knocked me for six. It comes off as such an innocuous idea, but then Billy Wilder, genius that he is, keeps turning the screw and your eyes keep popping and yep - before too long you find yourself desperately longing that this fully grown woman masquerading as a twelve year old will somehow be able to prevent the Army Major she has fallen in love with from marrying his fiance - without things getting Icky.

http://www.listal.com/viewimage/170643h

Mr Kitty really had to cut this one down - I just kept raving on and on about it and in the end he had to throw my cup of tea in my face.
Not really.
Wacky stuff that didn't make the cut - Rita Johnson, who plays his nasty fiance Pamela - was a reasonably successful actress - never much more than the wife or the fiance (although she did star with Ray Milland in 'The Big Clock' of 1948 - quite a famous film noir) - but she made plenty of films none the less. Her career was cut short abruptly in 1948 when, of all things, a hairdryer fell on her head.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette

I mean, think about it - those things would have been pretty heavy. I wouldn't want to be hit over the head with one. It's sort of asking to be the murder method in a ' Murder She Wrote' episode. Was that one of the plots? I'm going to have to Google that. Didn't come up with anything except for a terrible website about how people have accidentally killed their pets. Don't Google that.

Back to Rita. She didn't die - but she was never the same. She had memory issues and pain issues and then apparently she took to the bottle. She died in 1965.

Another very famous person in this film that I did not get to talk about is Norma Varden. She plays Mrs Osbourne in the film (Robert Benchley's wife) - it's hard to imagine Norma Varden ever been younger than middle aged but there you go. She is the socialite who is almost strangled by Robert Walker in Hitchcock's 'Strangers on a Train', Lady Fetherington in 'Doctor Dolittle', on countless television specials AND Frau Schmidt from ' The Sound of Music'. Although it is a brief scene - she and Benchley work very nicely together. That scene in general is pretty awesome - with its entire school of Veronica Lake wannabees and the priceless line 'We use 'em for women'.

What did you think of this film?