Mark Twain, Anton Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill: July 1944 was a month of literary giants.
Bathing Beauty
release: July
dir: George Sidney
pr: Jack Cummings
scr: Dorothy Kingsley & Allen Boretz and Frank Waldman, story by Kenneth Earl & M.M. Musselman and Curtis Kenyon, adaptation by Joseph Schrank
cin: Harry Stradling, Sr.
Chicanery leads Red Skelton to enroll in a girls’ college where his wife Esther Williams is an instructor. No cross-dressing shenanigans here, here Skelton takes advantage of the fine print, or lack thereof, to be the only male student on campus, and of course, hilarity ensues. Musical numbers aplenty, and among all the pasted-together canteen revues and barely-there song stagings that found themselves up for Academy Awards, this Technicolor wonder, with its roaming camera completing a perfect 360-degree take to best capture organist Ethel Smith’s nimble digits as she accompanies percussioning beauties, its inspired physical comedy gags that lead into actual plot points and demonstrations of agility to be used in subsequent numbers, and its finale that sets swimming sensation Williams both underwater and amidst flames…got nothing. No nod even for its music, despite the many nominees in those categories. And listen, I’m not saying it’s on par with Meet Me in St. Louis or Cover Girl, but gosh, it certainly deserved better than nothing!
The Hairy Ape
release: July 2
nominations: Best Score (Michel Michelet / Edward Paul)
dir: Alfred Santell
pr: Jules Levey
scr: Robert Hardy Andrews and Decla Dunning, from the play by Eugene O'Neill
cin: Lucien N. Andriot
The stoker of a freighter becomes obsessed with a socialite passenger after she insults him. The version I saw looked worse for wear - YouTube, obviously transferred from VHS, very difficult to see sometimes. Perhaps that’s why I didn’t click with it. However. The way the story plays out isn’t very interesting, either, and it feels like the ending’s a cop-out - for that matter, the ways they reference the War and the danger of being on water and why a socialite had to book such arrangements also feel weird. Then you research and find out the source play is from 1922 and is a much angrier howl about class and capitalism, all of which this movie sands down. Why'd they even bother?
The Story of Dr. Wassell
release: July 4
nominations: Best Special Effects (Farciot Edouart / Gordon Jennings / George Dutton)
dir/pr: Cecil B. DeMille
scr: Alan LeMay and Charles Bennett, from a story by James Hilton and Commander Corydon M. Wassell USN (MC)
cin: Victor Milner / William E. Snyder
Arkansan missionary doctor becomes a hero thanks to his refusal to abandon his wounded in the Dutch East Indies. Well, it looks great, it sounds great, and there's a harrowing sequence in the hospital as the fire of War rains down upon it. But I feel it's one of DeMille's lesser efforts: usually, he's great at populating his spectacles with interesting characters, but here the only memorable person is the Javanese nurse "Tremartini", and that's definitely not because she's a good character. Strangely both sweaty and unengaged.
The Mummy's Ghost
release: July 7
dir: Reginald LeBorg
pr: Ben Pivar
scr: Griffin Jay & Henry Sucher & Brenda Weisberg, story by Griffin Jay and Henry Sucher
cin: William A. Sickner
The mummy Kharis is back, and this time the soul of his beloved is slowly possessing a local Egyptian girl, who becomes an object of lust for his own high priest. Talk about complications! Pretty silly, though breezy. The best compliment I can give: it pulls no punches, writing itself into a corner with that finale and deciding, yeah, sometimes you don't get out of the corner, you drown in the swamp. Ballsy, I liked it.
Summer Storm
release: July 14
nominations: Best Score (Karl Hajos)
dir: Douglas Sirk
pr: Seymour Nebenzal
scr: Rowland Leigh, additional dialogue by Robert Thoeren, adaptation by Douglas Sirk (as Michael O'Hara), from the novel The Shooting Party by Anton Chekhov
cin: Archie Stout
A pair of aristocrats lust after the tempestuous daughter of a woodcutter, chaos ensues. One of the better discoveries of this year. George Sanders is terrific: in a career full of arch, sinister character roles, here he gets to play a sophisticate undone by passions that do not match his own expectations of his ideals for himself or his class. Edward Everett Horton is his awful friend, deliciously wicked. Linda Darnell forever changed her image with her performance as a woman who is unapologetic about what she wants and how she gets it. Sets, scores, costumes, all top-notch.
The Adventures of Mark Twain
release: July 22
nominations: Best Score (Max Steiner), Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Black-and-White (John Hughes / Fred M. MacLean), Best Special Effects (Paul Detlefsen / John Crouse / Nathan Levinson)
dir: Irving Rapper
pr: Jesse L. Lasky
scr: Alan Le May, additional dialogue by Harry Chandlee, adaptation by Alan Le May and Harold M. Sherman, from the play Mark Twain by Harold M. Sherman
cin: Sol Polito
One of those biopics that supposes that every great story an author ever wrote was based on personal experience. Fredric March is terrific, though inconsistent with the accent and cursed with layers of disorienting makeup. Great Max Steiner score.
Step Lively
release: July 26
nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Black-and-White (Albert S. D'Agostino / Carroll Clark / Darrell Silvera / Claude E Carpenter)
dir: Tim Whelan
pr: Robert Harline
scr: Warren Duff and Peter Milne, from the play Room Service by John Murray and Allen Boretz
cin: Robert De Grasse
Musical remake of Room Service, and I gotta say, they get away with it! Frank Sinatra is the young playwright looking to get paid for his work, while George Murphy is the theatrical producer (Groucho in the original) trying to find a backer so he can pay for...everything. Sinatra's still in his "gee-whiz" phase of roles/performances. Donald McBride was a better fit than Adolphe Menjou for the villain part, but the rest is pretty good!
Wing and a Prayer, The Story of Carrier X
release: July 28
nominations: Best Original Screenplay
dir: Henry Hathaway
pr: William A. Bacher / Walter Morosco
scr: Jerome Cady
cin: Glen MacWilliams
Finally! The truth of supposed US inaction immediately following Pearl Harbor can be told! We weren't constantly getting our asses whipped by the Japanese Navy, we were slowly building a trap at Midway, with only Carrier X patrolling the waters, carrying out a ruse that fooled the enemy into thinking our fleet was not only larger than it was, but its mission was completely different than they supposed! Allegedly, it's true enough, I guess, so we get a tale of strength and patience, cooler heads like Don Ameche knowing that it is best to wait to strike a blow...and, as we know, cooler heads prevailed. I didn't care for it, felt more like a defensive lecture than a movie. "Original screenplay" was apparently adapted from a book that the studio couldn't get the rights to; they had to settle years later.
Secret Command
release: July 30
nominations: Best Special Effects (David Allen / Ray Cory / Robert Wright / Russell Malmgren / Harry Kusnick)
dir: A. Edward "Eddie" Sutherland
pr: Phil L. Ryan
scr: Roy Chanslor, from "The Saboteurs" by John Hawkins and Ward Hawkins
cin: Franz Planer
Guy reluctantly gets his estranged brother a job at the local shipyard - unaware that said brother is a government agent rooting out German saboteurs among the workers! Tight thriller with brutal action scenes - one villain is slowly drowned, another is bludgeoned by the leading lady - that underline the necessity of constant vigilance at home! Cast of character actors makes the grit feel real.
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