Gary Dennis’ New York City Movie Place

If tawdry could be measured as an explosive, these pictures would be able to destroy the planet a few times over.

1) Imitation of Life (1959)

This is a remake of an earlier picture that starred Claudette Colbert but now it gets the Douglas Sirk treatment. Coney Island, 1947, war widow and actress Lora Meredith (Lana Turner) meets up with a homeless African American single mother Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore). Both woman have daughters close to the same age and both are lonely and broke. Annie offers, in exchange for place to sleep, her services as a housekeeper. The two women become close, taking care of each other. As Lora’s career takes off, bringing a huge amount of fame and fortune, Annie goes right along taking care of Lora. Annie’s daughter is very light skinned and passes for white, something that she wants to be even though this breaks Annie’s heart. Ultimately the daughter denies her mother. If you have not seen this picture, be prepared. Susan Kohner is marvelous as the daughter who breaks her mother’s heart. Lora’s neglected daughter is played by the forever young Sandra Dee. So what we have here is one daughter neglected and one mother cast out. A lesson in what it means to care and take care of someone is learned but is it too late?

2)All The Fine Young Cannibals

Chad Bixby (Robert Wagner) is a horn player with a pregnant girlfriend. The girlfriend, Salome (Natalie Wood), although in love with Chad, sees no future with a broke musician. Being the eldest of a large group of siblings, the pregnant Salome does what any southern girl would do in this situation – she decides to head north. On the train north Salome runs in to Tony McDowall (George Hamilton) on his way back to Yale. Tony’s got a buck. Over the course of this train ride, Tony and Salome become an item and eventually get married. And what should happen next? Tony and Salome have a baby. Tony’s catty sister Catherine (Susan Kohner) smells something fishy. Since these people are from the same town (although different sides of the tracks) Catherine knows that Salome had something going on with Chad.

Chad is now a big famous horn player in New York. He is headlining at a swanky nightclub. He is also shacked up with the blueiest blues singer ever Ruby Jones (Pearl Bailey). I’ll give you one guess what nightclub performer the (catty like I said) Catherine takes her brother and his wife to see. The Chad role was originally supposed to be played by Chet Baker but he had gotten himself arrested in Italy for heroin possession and thus was a guest of the Italian government for a while. This is the first picture that husband and wife Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood made together.

All That Heaven Allows This picture made me feel sorry for Ronald Reagan. Jane Wyman dumped him and he was inconsolable. I do not blame him. This is the picture of older woman / younger man relations and how external forces can tear a love affair apart. Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott, a widowed upper middle class woman with two grown children. Her children have moved on leaving her pretty much alone in a large house somewhere in the out lying suburbs in practically rural Connecticut. Stood up for a lunch date Cary invites Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), a down to earth landscaper with a free wheeling outlook on life. The two hit it off, his friends accept her, hers do not accept him. Especially her children. They want her to marry a nice dull man older than her. How much does Heaven allow a woman in love? Find out, it is trip you won’t forget. Wait until you see Jane in the red dress and you too might feel sorry for Ronnie.

Peyton Place This picture is so good that I have to put it on this list. I have a posting on it. Read it and you might have to see Peyton Place too.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 12:07 am and is filed under Top Ten Lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.