Douglas Sirk Movies
A box office smash and critical bust during his Hollywood career, director Douglas Sirk's artistic stature began to catch up with his popular success in the decades following his early retirement. Championed by auteurist critics and cineaste directors, Sirk's once-reviled melodramas evolved into an inspired blend of bathos and Brechtian distance, with the over the top histrionics of such films as Written on the Wind (1956) and Imitation of Life (1959) becoming deluxe tearjerking material as well as a mordant commentary on American values. Born Claus Detlev Sierck to Danish parents, Sirk headed to Germany in his teens to study drama and art history. Sirk forged a career as a successful theater director in Germany, staging works by such writers as Bertolt Brecht. After the Nazis came to power, Sirk shifted to film in 1934, directing stylishly assured melodramas, musicals, and star vehicles for UFA diva Zarah Leander. The left-wing director and his Jewish wife, however, left Germany in 1937, heading to the U.S. via several countries. Unknown in Hollywood, the newly renamed Sirk kicked around the studios for several years, finally receiving his first directorial assignment with the propaganda potboiler Hitler's Madmen (1943). Working for United Artists and Columbia throughout the 1940s, Sirk became a reliable journeyman, taking on projects from the Chekhov adaptation Summer Storm (1944) to the Lucille Ball crime drama Lured (1947) and a musical comedy Slightly French (1948). Sirk's taste for Baroque visuals served him well with the films noir Sleep, My Love (1948) and Shockproof (1949) (co-written by Sam Fuller).Signing a contract with Universal in 1950, Sirk tried to make the best of the "impossible stories" assigned him. Along with churning out such comedies and musicals as The Lady Pays Off (1951) and Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952), Sirk also dealt with new technology, directing a 3-D Western Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), starring contract player Rock Hudson as Taza, and a CinemaScope adventure yarn Sign of the Pagan (1954). Another 1954 release, however, transformed Sirk into a studio moneymaker and future auteur darling. Remaking the 1935 soaper (from a novel he deemed unreadable), Sirk staged Magnificent Obsession's patently absurd story of reformed playboy Rock Hudson's relationship with blind widow Jane Wyman in gaudy Technicolor, matching the tale's fevered emotionalism. A substantial hit, Magnificent Obsession made Hudson a star and began a successful collaboration between Sirk, Hudson, producer Ross Hunter, and cinematographer Russell Metty.
Although Sirk continued to produce films in other genres, including the glossy adventure story Captain Lightfoot (1955), the war drama Battle Hymn (1956) -- both starring Hudson -- and an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958), his subsequent reputation rested on four late-'50s melodramas. Re-teaming with Hudson, Wyman, Metty, and Hunter, Sirk's All That Heaven Allows (1955) crystallized his ability to lather up the crowd-pleasing romantic soap while caustically critiquing 1950s America. Set in a perfect town lit and styled for maximum artifice, the love story between Wyman's uptight middle class widow and Hudson's younger free spirit gardener becomes a study in contrasts between her imprisoning home and his rural aerie, her stifling friends and children and his relaxed comrades. Perhaps untouched by the visual suggestion that this couple could never really work, audiences loved it.
Described by one scholar as the "consummate" Sirk film, Written on the Wind (1956) featured Hudson, Robert Stack, Lauren Bacall, and Dorothy Malone in a tortured love quadrangle set against the spectacle of a declining oil dynasty. With a plot that included alcoholism, impotence, nymphomania, violent death, an ultra-theatrically lit family estate shot from odd angles, and such remarkable set pieces as Malone's fervid dance with Hudson's picture, Sirk powerfully evoked the corrupt desperation of the wealthy, despite the "happy" ending. A rare contemporary critical hit, Written on the Wind earned Malone the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Reuniting the trio of Hudson, Malone, and Stack, the even more downbeat The Tarnished Angels (1957) was, as Sirk put it, a thematic "study in failure." Adapted from William Faulkner's Pylon and shot in pristine black and white CinemaScope, the Depression-era story of reckless air show performers once again displayed Sirk's skill for melding story and form, with the monochrome matching the somber mood of hopelessness while the wide screen vistas underlined flying's dangerous allure for the eponymous aerialists.
Sirk's final Hollywood feature was another popular soap opera that also epitomized his cool yet garishly elegant visual style and sharp social conscience. In his version of Imitation of Life (1959), the obsession with surfaces that drives Lana Turner's star actress Lora to succeed at all costs and Susan Kohner's light-skinned black Sarah Jane to "pass" for white is brought to emotional life through florid interiors and a plethora of mirrors, windows, and polished objects. With Sandra Dee as Lora's neglected daughter and Juanita Moore as Lora's loyal servant and Sarah Jane's mother, Sirk created another quartet of contrasts (including Turner's occasionally hilarious star "acting" versus Moore and Kohner's naturalism) that illuminates the cost of American ambition and racism. As Sirk noted of the climactic funeral scene and teary reconciliation of mother and daughter(s), "Everything seems to be OK, but you well know it isn't." Regardless, Imitation of Life became Universal's biggest hit to that point, and Kohner and Moore received Oscar nominations for Supporting Actress.
Though he retired early due to health problems, Sirk lived long enough to see his once disdained melodramas attract ardent fans among film savants; a reconsideration enhanced by the first Sirk retrospectives in the early '70s and the publication of extensive interviews with the director, Sirk on Sirk, in 1972. By the time Sirk died in 1987, critic Andrew Sarris's prediction that "Time, if nothing else, will vindicate Douglas Sirk" had been fulfilled. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- 1995
- Add A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies to Queue Add A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies to top of Queue
In 1994, the British Film Institute commissioned a set of films to mark the centenary of the movies. They would trace the history of several national cinemas, and the BFI's choice for interpreting the history of American film fell to director Martin Scorsese, a longtime champion of film history and preservation. Scorsese's approach to his subject is director-centered, as he examines the tension inherent in the struggle of an artist wishing to make a personal statement against the collaborative nature of films and the commercial pressures of the Hollywood moviemaking factory. Segments of this series are devoted to the director as storyteller (examining narrative devices in the Western, gangster film, and musical), illusionist (technical tricks), smuggler (imbedding personal messages), and iconoclast (bucking the system to make films his own way). The series is replete with telling clips, not just snippets or shots, but entire scenes which illustrate Scorsese and co-director Michael Henry Wilson's points. Other filmmakers, including John Ford, Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles, are seen in archival footage or interviews created for the series, offering their own take on the art of filmmaking. Scorsese doesn't discriminate between filmmakers with glossy reputations and those who always worked on the fringe of public awareness. If anything, he goes out of his way to champion mavericks like Samuel Fuller whose "visceral cinema" never enjoyed box-office success or awards. Personal Journey was first shown on British TV, released in limited fashion to theaters in the United States, and shown here on TV as well. A tie-in book was published in 1997 by Miramax Books; it contains the entire script for the series, excellent black-and-white stills, and dialogue from some of the clips. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi
A Scandal in Paris is a liberal adaptation of the life story of Eugène François Vidocq, who was French prefect of police during the Napoleonic era. George Sanders stars as Vidocq, who spends most of the film as an aimless rogue willing to lie, cheat, and steal for his own comfort. The women who affect Vidocq's life include a saucy cabaret entertainer (Carole Landis) for whom Vidocq steals, and a good woman (Signe Hasso) for whom he straightens himself out. Fledgling director Douglas Sirk displayed his love of the Baroque (both in decor and characterizations) that would distinguish his later high-budget Universal soap operas. Most prints of A Scandal in Paris bear the film's alternate title, Thieves' Holiday. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Signe Hasso, (more)
- 1958
Douglas Sirk directed this doomed World War II love story, seen from the German side of the war, as filtered through a distinctly late-'50s Hollywood banality. The film is based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the author of the classic World War I anti-war novel All Quiet On the Western Front -- and who makes a cameo appearance in the film as an elderly schoolteacher. The film stars John Gavin as Ernst Graber, a young Nazi soldier home on leave during the height of World War II. While on leave, he falls in love and marries Elizabeth Kruze (Lilo Pulver). With bombs falling all around the young couple, they set up house with a kindly old woman. Then Elizabeth becomes pregnant. But before Ernst can grasp the reality of his becoming a father, he is sent back to the war -- to fight the brutal battle along the Russian front. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Gavin, Liselotte Pulver, (more)
- 1953
All I Desire an early exercise in Douglas Sirk Baroque, is set at the turn of the century. Long divorced from her husband Richard Carlson, itinerant actress Barbara Stanwyck returns to her home town to watch her daughter perform in a high school play. Stanwyck decides to turn over a new leaf and devote herself to the daughter she's never known. This she finds next to impossible, thanks to ugly small-town gossip attending her return. The film was obviously building up to an unhappy ending, but producer Ross Hunter intervened, tacking on an unbelievably upbeat denouement. This artistic outrage evidently didn't hurt Hunter's relationship with director Douglas Sirk, inasmuch as the two would continue to successfully collaborate in the future. All I Desire is based on a novel by Carol Brink. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Carlson, (more)
One of director Douglas Sirk's best and most successful romantic soapers of the 1950s, All That Heaven Allows is predicated on a May-December romance. The difference here is that the woman, attractive widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman), is considerably older than the man, handsome gardener-landscaper Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). Sirk builds up sympathy for Cary by showing how empty her life has been since her husband's death, even suggesting that the marriage itself was no picnic. Throwing conventionial behavior to the winds and facing social ostracism, Cary pursues her romance with Ron, who is unjustly perceived as a fortune-hunter by Cary's friends and family--especially her priggish son Ned (William Reynolds). Amusingly, Conrad Nagel was to have had a much larger part as Harvey, an elderly widower who carries a torch for Cary, but his role was trimmed down during previews when audiences disapproved of an implicit romance between a sixtyish man and a fortysomething woman! All That Heaven Allows was remade by unabashed Douglas Sirk admirer Rainer Werner Fassbinder as Ali--Fear Eats the Soul (1974), in which the age gap between hero and heroine was even wider. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, (more)
Battle Hymn was inspired by the true story of American minister Dean Hess, played here with rare sensitivity by Rock Hudson. A bomber pilot during World War II, Hess inadvertently releases a bomb which destroys a German orphanage. Tortured by guilt, Hess relocates in Korea after the war to offer his services as a missionary. Combining the best elements of Christianity and Eastern spiritualism, Hess establishes a large home for orphans. The preacher's efforts are threatened when the Korean "police action" breaks out in 1950. Battle Hymn was one of several collaborations between Rock Hudson and director Douglas Sirk--though Sirk felt that Robert Stack would have been better suited to the role of Rev. Hess. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Anna Kashfi, (more)
- 1955
Rock Hudson stars as Michael Martin, a naive and impetuous young would-be rebel in 1815 Ireland, who turns to robbery in his desire to support the cause against England. Now wanted by the British and forced into hiding, he crosses paths with the renowned rebel leader Captain Thunderbolt aka John Doherty (Jeff Morrow), who takes him under his wing. Impressed with Michael's bravery, Thunderbolt makes him his second-in-command, a job that becomes twice as difficult when Thunderbolt is wounded and must drop out of sight. Michael must replace him, not only as a rebel leader, but also in running the business that Doherty fronts as a cover, and in his household -- and that puts Michaal on a collision course with Doherty's equally impetuous, headstrong daughter Aga (Barbara Rush). Sparks fly between them, as the English draw ever closer in their pursuit of the rebels. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, (more)
- 1938
Lil Dagover, appointed Germany's "Actress of the State" in 1937, upholds her lofty title in the romantic melodrama Dreiklang. Dagover is cast as temptress Cornelia Contarini, who brings about the downfall of both an ageing widower named Albert von Moller (Paul Hartmann) and his son Albert (Rolf Moebius). The father's fate is particularly tragic, inasmuch as he is obliged to defend Cornelia's honor after it has been proven beyond doubt that she hardly has any honor left to defend. It is up to Albert to pick up the pieces, sacrificing his own happiness to remove Cornelia permanently from his life. Set during WW1, Dreiklang refresingly bypasses all opportunities to overpraise German militarism, as many films of this era were wont to do. The screenplay was written by Detlef Sierck, who later directed in Hollywood under the name of Douglas Sirk. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lil Dagover, Paul Hartmann, (more)
- 1965
In this comedy, an even-tempered fireman with a happily tepid life, finds his peaceful world disrupted when he becomes infatuated with the woman he saved from a burning building. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eugene Troobnick, Hermione Gingold, (more)
- 1952
Douglas Sirk directed this frothy musical comedy set in the 1920s starring Charles Coburn as Samuel Fulton, an elderly man with a multi-million dollar fortune. With no family of his own to whom he can leave his money, Fulton is pondering what to do with his estate. Years ago, he was in love with a woman named Harriet, whom he asked to marry. She turned him down and married another someone else, but he's still fond of her and considers leaving his millions to her family. However, Fulton decides to first give them a test. Posing as an eccentric and threadbare artist, he rents a room from Harriet (Lynn Bari) and her husband Charles (Larry Gates). He then arranges for an anonymous gift of $100,000 to be presented to them so that he can watch their reactions. Sadly, things don't go well; Harriet browbeats the rest of the family into moving into a mansion and tries to convince her daughter Millicent (Piper Laurie) to break up with her boyfriend, poor but good-hearted soda jerk Dan (Rock Hudson), in favor of a wealthier and more socially prominent man. Songs include "Tiger Rag," "When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along," "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," and "Gimme a Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh?" James Dean has a tiny part as a customer at the soda fountain; it was his first appearance onscreen. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Piper Laurie, Rock Hudson, (more)
- 1943
Hitler's Madman is based on an all-too-real wartime atrocity. John Carradine portrays Heydrich, the vicious SS officer put in charge of Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Heydrich is killed by the Czech underground, prompting the Nazis to plan a horrible retaliation. The Gestapo selects the Czech village of Lidice for annihilation: They kill all the male villagers, throw the women and children into concentration camps, and torch Lidice into nonexistence. The victims of Nazi tyranny become martyrs to the underground cause, ending the film on a note of triumph. Based on a narrative poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Hitler's Madman was produced by the "poverty row" PRC studio, but was sold to MGM and given a class-A presentation at choice theatres throughout the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patricia Morison, John Carradine, (more)
This glamorized remake of the 1934 film Imitation of Life bears only a passing resemblance to its source, the best-selling novel by Fannie Hurst. Originally, the heroine was a widowed mother who kept the wolf from the door by setting up a successful pancake business with her black housemaid. In the remake, Lana Turner stars as a would-be actress who is raising her daughter on her own. She chances to meet another single mother at the beach: African-American Juanita Moore. Moore goes to work as Turner's housekeeper, bringing her light-skinned daughter along. As Turner's stage career goes into high gear, Moore is saddled with the responsibility of raising both Turner's daughter and her own. Exposed to the advantages of the white world, Moore's grown-up daughter (Susan Kohner) passes for white, causing her mother a great deal of heartache. Meanwhile, Turner's grown daughter (Sandra Dee), neglected by her mother, seeks comfort in the arms of handsome photographer John Gavin. When Moore dies, her daughter realizes how selfish she's been; simultaneously, Turner awakens to the fact that she hasn't been much of a mother for her own daughter, whose romance has gone down the tubes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lana Turner, John Gavin, (more)
- 1957
Like many of his best works, filmmaker Douglas Sirk's Interlude is a remake of an earlier Universal soap opera. In this case, Sirk's source material is the 1939 Irene Dunne-Charles Boyer vehicle When Tomorrow Comes. Based on a story by (of all people) James M. Cain, the story concerns the romance between aspiring musician Helen Banning (June Allyson) and famed symphony conductor Tonio Fischer (Rossano Brazzi). Alas, Tonio is married, and his bibulous, vindictive wife (Marianne Cook) isn't about to give him a divorce. Meanwhile, stiff-necked American doctor Morley Dwyer (Keith Andes) waits patiently for his sweetheart Helen to come to her senses and return to his arms. Opulently location-filmed in Austria, Interlude was remade under the same title in 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- June Allyson, Rossano Brazzi, (more)
Lucille Ball is an American taxi-dancer living in London whose roommate has disappeared. The missing girl had left to answer a job offer in the "personal" column of the Times...just like several other women who've vanished without a trace. Scotland Yard detective George Zucco suggests that Ball answer the personals herself in hopes trapping the killer. She crosses the paths of several eccentrics, including deranged artist Boris Karloff, who for a brief time is the prime suspect. The actual culprit, a sex murderer, is the least likely and most helpful of Ball's contacts -- a fact that she learns almost too late. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Sanders, Lucille Ball, (more)
- 1954
This second film version of Lloyd C. Douglas' spiritual novel Magnificent Obsession is in its own way as successful as the first (filmed in 1935) in glossing over the plot holes and logic gaps in the original novel. Rock Hudson plays Bob Merrick, a reckless playboy who is indirectly responsible for the death of a kindly and much-beloved doctor. The dead man's wife, Helen Phillips (Jane Wyman), refuses to accept Bob's apologies. When Helen is accidentally blinded, Bob decides to "do right" by her anonymously, illustrating author Douglas's curious edict that the best sort of good deed is the one for which you're not rewarded. In record time, Bob becomes a brilliant physician, and it is he who performs the sight-restoring surgery on Helen. Rather than fade into the woodwork unheralded, Bob is at last forgiven by Helen, who has fallen in love with him during her sightless months without even knowing it. Luxuriously produced by Ross Hunter and directed con brio by Douglas Sirk, Magnificent Obsession was one of the most successful of Universal's big-budget "weepers" of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, (more)
- 1952
Despite its ebullient title and the presence of lightweight dancing star Dan Dailey, Meet Me at the Fair has a lot more meat on its bones than most musicals of the early 1950s. Dailey plays an early-1900s medicine show huckster who finds himself the reluctant guardian of orphanage escapee Chet Allen. As he grows fond of the boy, Dailey becomes determined to thwart the corrupt system that allows substandard orphan asylums to operate while political hacks get rich on government funding. Dailey wins the confidence (and love) of orphan committee member Diana Lynn, who helps to foil the machinations of crooked district attorney Hugh O'Brien. The darker aspects of Meet Me at the Fair are lightened by director Douglas Sirk's marvelous recreations of backstage life at the turn of the century. The film is also a special treat for fans of Scatman Crothers, who is never less than terrific as Dan Dailey's sidekick. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dan Dailey, Diana Lynn, (more)
- 1986
Director Christian Blackwood has brought forth more than 40 documentaries in 25 years, most of them specializing in artists' and filmmakers' work and/or biographies. This docudrama represents a new approach and melds the single-minded adoration of one fan, Paul Seiler, with film clips and archival interviews with Swedish Zarah Leander, an actress from the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. She was a haunting chanteuse whose distinctive voice and great beauty captivated many during the era of the Third Reich. She ultimately left Germany for Stockholm in 1943, in spite of Goebbels attempts to keep her working in the Nazi film industry. In this fictionalized drama, Paul watches a documentary about her on television while he intermittently spills out his emotions and history as one of her most ardent fans. Paul became friends with the star and attended her recording sessions, held her hand when she got bad reviews, corresponded with her on a regular basis, and personally questions her ethics in refusing to face up to Nazi atrocities. His psychology, her own personality, and their interaction make for an intriguing and unusual docudrama. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Zarah Leander, Margot Hielscher, (more)
- 1950
The trendy elegance of director Douglas Sirk's later big-budget soap operas is nowhere to be found in Sirk's Atomic-Age melodrama Mystery Submarine. MacDonald Carey stars as Brett Young, a U.S. undercover agent whose job it is to prevent atomic secrets from falling into the wrong hands. Marta Toren co-stars as Madeline Brenner, a woman of mystery who is seemingly in cahoots with enemy agents. The film's "maguffin" consists of the top-secret info stored within the brain cells of scientist Adolph Guernitz (Ludwig Donath). The titular mystery submarine figures into the film's climax, which takes place just off the coast of Mexico. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- MacDonald Carey, Märta Torén, (more)
- 1956
This emotional drama concerns a WWII medic who marries a German woman but leaves her in a jealous rage, taking their baby with him. They lose touch after she is arrested behind the Iron Curtain after the war. Eight years later, she sees him in a Chicago cafe, rushes across the street to see him, and is hit by a truck. He operates on her and saves her life, and they get back together. Eventually, the daughter accepts her mother, and the whole family is reunited. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Cornell Borchers, (more)
- 1952
Pity poor ex-GI Alvah Morrell (Tony Curtis). While on his honeymoon with perky Lee Kingshead (Piper Laurie), he comes down with a bad case of chicken pox. The moment he recovers, he's shipped overseas. And when Alvah returns home, he finds his house festooned with his wife's troublesome relatives -- and, per the film's title, there's no room for him. Complicating matters is Lee's supercilious mother (Spring Byington), who does her best to break up the marriage so that her daughter will be free to marry wealthy-but-dull Herman Strouple (Don DeFore). No Room for the Groom plays like an elongated 2-reel comedy, but the stars are attractive and Douglas Sirk's direction is subtle and inventive. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, (more)
- 1949
Beauty contest winner Patricia Knight's one bid for screen stardom was Columbia's Shockproof. Knight plays Jenny Wright, a convicted murderess paroled in the care of probation officer Griff Marat (Cornel Wilde). What begins as an aloof professional relationship eventually blossoms into romance. The fly in the ointment is shady Harry Wesson (John Baragrey), the gambler who inveigled Jenny into committing murder. The girl is torn between creature comforts offered her by Wesson and the promise of a clean life offered by Griff. This early Douglas Sirk effort contains a smattering of the stylistic touches which distinguished his later work.The screenplay was written by famed director Samuel Fuller, known for his gritty realism and hard-boiled style. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Patricia Knight, (more)
- 1954
Jeff Chandler may be the top-billed star of Sign of the Pagan, but the film belongs to Jack Palance, cast as no less than Attila the Hun. As Attila's hordes advance upon Rome, noble centurion Marcian (Chandler) mounts a counteroffensive. Alas, the Scourge of God cannot be stopped by weaponry or sheer brute strength. No, Attila can be halted in his tracks only by the hand of God Himself. Through a deft combination of historical fact and movie magic, this is precisely what happens. Ballerina Ludmilla Tcherina, her voice dubbed by an anonymous American actress, co-stars as Marcian's lady love, while Rita Gam is sublimely cast as Attila's long-suffering daughter. Also appearing as Attila's slave bride is Allison Hayes, some three years away from her starring turn in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Filmed on a more spectacular scale than one usually associates with Universal-International, Sign of the Pagan loses some of its scope when shown on television. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeff Chandler, Jack Palance, (more)
- 1948
This noir mystery thriller was produced by Mary Pickford and her husband Buddy Rogers, and directed by Douglas Sirk. Claudette Colbert stars as Alison Courtland, a wealthy New York socialite who awakens on a Boston-bound train with no memory of how she got there. A kindly older woman, Mrs. Tomlinson (Queenie Smith) helps Alison call her husband Richard (Don Ameche), who informs her that she disappeared after threatening his life. While traveling back to New York, Alison meets Bruce Elcott (Robert Cummings), who is immediately smitten with her. Upon her return, Richard urges Alison to consult a psychiatrist, Charles Vernay (George Coulouris), but the man's bizarre, abusive manner nearly drives Alison mad. Alison's condition, Vernay, and even the helpful Mrs. Tomlinson are all part of an elaborate scheme on the part of Richard and his mistress, Daphne (Hazel Brooks) to get drive Alison to suicide and collect her fortune. A concerned Bruce visits Vernay, who is really a photographer, and begins piecing the scheme together. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Robert Cummings, (more)
- 1949
Director Douglas Sirk's love of cinematic esoterica was kept in check in the musical comedy Slightly French. Dorothy Lamour stars as Mary O'Leary, a carnival entertainer who's discovered by enterprising director John Gayle (Don Ameche). The plot dictates that Gayle must pass off Mary as an elegant Parisian actress/singer. This slender plotline enables the film to toss off a number of satirical quips about show biz, and to display Lamour in a variety of exotic costumes. The best musical numbers occur during an extended film-within-a-film sequence. Slightly French is buoyed by its expert supporting cast, including Janis Carter, Willard Parker and Adele Jergens. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Don Ameche, (more)
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