"A Letter to Three Wives"
Unrated but PG in nature; 1949
No one has matched Joseph L. Mankiewicz's achievement of winning not just consecutive Oscars for directing but consecutive Oscars for screenwriting - for "A Letter to Three Wives" (1949) and "All About Eve" (1950).
His attention to literacy, wit and character depth did the trick.
The former is based on a magazine story about five wives, a quantity that shrunk to four in Mankiewicz's screenplay. He shaved and shaved and finally told Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck that if he took out any more, the essence of the four marriages and eight characters would be lost. Zanuck's solution: Lose one couple and restore the other three.
As three wives (Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell) embark on an afternoon boat trip with children they can hardly abandon, they receive a letter from the very much admired Addie Ross (in a voiceover by Celeste Holm) saying she has stolen one of their husbands (Jeffrey Lynn, Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas, respectively).
Through flashbacks the women review their marriages while anxiously waiting to return and find out who's missing.
Two points of especial interest in the DVD commentary by Christopher Mankiewicz (Joe's son) and biographers Kenneth Geist and Cheryl Lower:
Holm settled for the Addie voiceover but coveted Sothern's part; the filmmaker was flummoxed to learn many people misunderstood the outcome. The ending that's most obvious is the one he intended; it hadn't occurred to him that his writing of the climactic scene would lead some to an alternate interpretation.
"Leave Her to Heaven"
Unrated but PG-13 in nature; 1945
An extraordinary semi-film noir in that it was photographed in glorious Technicolor by cinematographer Leon Shamroy.
Jealous-possessive Gene Tierney wants no other distractions in the life of novelist-husband Cornel Wilde - not even his disabled kid brother Darryl Hickman.
On a DVD audio commentary that alternates between critic Richard Schickel and the now-adult Hickman, Schickel notes that the script is a rare example for its time of male victimization.
Hickman is surprisingly candid about how unhelpful director John M. Stahl was to him through most of the film and how Wilde told Stahl at the end of production that he wouldn't forget how (badly) he'd been treated.
Wilde was kind to him, Hickman recalls, but they were both regarded coldly by Tierney, who was at a career peak after "Laura."
"Behold a Pale Horse"
Unrated but PG in nature; 1964
There's nothing unusual about a film that flops and never does come into its own. It's not necessarily a question of quality but of being able to market a remote subject to an entertainment-seeking audience.
Fred Zinnemann was between masterpieces ("From Here to Eternity," "The Nun's Story," "A Man for All Seasons") when he carved an exquisite film that just about nobody responded to.
Gregory Peck acts a Spanish Loyalist guerrilla leader who has lived in exile in France for 20 years since the Spanish Civil War.
When Peck's mother becomes gravely ill in his hometown, she unwittingly becomes the bait to lure him into a trap set by obsessive police captain Anthony Quinn.
In audience terms, expectations are juxtaposed. Peck is a cold, unregenerate priest-hater. Omar Sharif is an idealized priest. Quinn prays fervently to win the long standoff.
Unpopularly, Zinnemann asked the audience to consider Peck and Quinn from unconventional, balanced perspectives. I still find it gripping, with a fine Maurice Jarre score.
"Return to Peyton Place"
Unrated but PG in nature; 1961
Of all the people involved with the blockbuster "Peyton Place" (1957), which received nine Oscar nominations, only two were involved with the sequel four years later, producer Jerry Wald and composer Franz Waxman.
The two Grace Metalious novels had been set in small-town New Hampshire. The first film was set in Maine, where much of it was filmed.
But by the time the sequel was being made with a whole different cast, Fox was embroiled in the runaway costs of producing "Cleopatra" and trimmed many corners. The central character's house had morphed from the one in Maine to a quite obviously different one on the Fox backlot.
Because DVD audio commentaries normally admire the work at hand to some degree, and usually quite a lot, it's interesting that author-historian Sylvia Stoddard makes no assessment whatsoever.
Allison MacKenzie (now played by Carol Lynley) finds a publisher (Jeff Chandler) for her tell-all book about Peyton Place. The town understandably is less enthusiastic about the book than she.
Several characters from the first do not appear in the sequel. It's all too obviously an attempt to cash in.
"Funny Girl"
rated G; 1968
and "Funny Lady"
rated PG; 1974
Available at least as a DVD double feature, Barbra Streisand's two portrayals of vaudevillian Fanny Brice point up some of the problems of misrepresenting reality in biopics.
"Funny Girl," retained most of the score of its Broadway musical stage parent, wrapping it around a comic fable of Fanny's ambition to be a famous singer-comedy actress. She falls hopelessly in love with dedicated gambler Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif), who is maritally unreliable.
It efficiently romanticizes, if out of all proportion, the bad judgment behind their affair and marriage.
The sequel brings Nick back for a couple of scenes so Fanny can ream him out for failing to inquire about their child. Excuse us, but there was more than one child, and considering the sequel doesn't let children intrude on Fanny's love lives, she's no one to talk.
She does have a contentious relationship with the egomaniacal producer-lyricist Billy Rose (James Caan), whom she marries.
Both films are highly unreliable historically, but Streisand delivers the goods every time she sings.
"Francis of Assisi"
Unrated but G in nature; 1961
The well-intentioned, long-hard-to-find "Francis of Assisi" has not stood well the test of time.
Its portrait of religiosity is superficial, and where real conflict arises, like a schism within the Franciscans, it's almost impossible to tell what's going on.
The saintly Francis of Assisi (Bradford Dillman) disgraces his family by abandoning military duty to respond to a strong calling. The Pope gives him permission to start his own order in absolute poverty, around which time good friend Clare (Dolores Hart, who soon entered a convent in real life) became a nun and received permission to found the Poor Clares.
In an especially thankless part, Stuart Whitman acts Count Paolo of Vandria, who resents his inability to sustain Clare's attention.
Michael Curtiz directed as if uninspired by the wooden script and determined to finish a contract with as little effort as possible.
"It Happened to Jane"
Unrated but G in nature; Rated PG
Released just after Jack Lemmon reached a career peak with "Some Like It Hot" and just before Doris Day reached hers with "Pillow Talk," "It Happened to Jane" proved to all involved that is isn't enough just to be nice.
When Day's Maine lobster business is threatened by cutbacks in railway transportation by heartless tycoon Ernie Kovacs, her longtime beau-attorney helps her step up a campaign to win public support and maybe a court case.
Pleasant and family-friendly, "It Happened to Jane" was received so tepidly that Columbia tried renaming it for the song "Twinkle and Shine," but that didn't work, either.
It's hard to work up much urgency over keeping lobsters alive until they're ready to be cooked, particularly with Day pretending they're pets.
