My Rodgers & Hammerstein Dilemma

I've something of a love-hate relationship with Rodgers and Hammerstein - mostly love, of course. Who couldn't love their melodies?

But...

Case in point: Walter Lang's lavish widescreen version of the team's popular but problematic stage hit, airing Wednesday, November 26th at 10:45 p.m. (est). As is true with most of R&H's shows, the glorious songs are the point here. But are we really expected to forget the deadly dull stretches and arch dialogue that invariably come in between?

Some people do. Most people.

For the record, composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein collaborated on one original screen musical ("State Fair"), one musical conceived directly for television ("Cinderella") and nine stage musicals, six of which have been filmed. The shows that never made it to the big screen are "Allegro," "Me and Juliet" and "Pipe Dream."

The two "State Fair" films (1945 and 1962), "Carousel" (1956), "The King and I" and "The Sound of Music" (1965), for example, were all produced by 20th Century-Fox, while the films of "Oklahoma!" (1955) and "South Pacific" (1958) were produced independently by Rodgers and Hammerstein's own Magna Corporation but released by Fox. (They are now both owned by the Samuel Goldwyn Company.)

Only "Flower Drum Song" (1961) was made by another studio, Universal, and for me, it's the most durable of the Rodgers and Hammerstein films.

Hands-down.

The fact is, as grand as they may seem on the surface, just about every one of the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals comes with a nagging sense of déjà vu. This is something that's particularly evident on film because of the camera's relentless knack for picking up every flaw.

I call it The Rodgers & Hammerstein Formula.

"Oklahoma!" successfully introduced this formula, something that Rodgers and Hammerstein would slavishly rework and rehash for the rest of their careers together - namely, the confrontation between an innocent but headstrong young heroine (gingham-clad Laurie in the case of "Oklahoma!") and an incorrigibly sexist guy (cowboy Curly in the same piece). This basic theme would resurface between lovelorn Julie Jordan and petty criminal Billy Bigelow in "Carousel," between hayseed Nellie Forbush and shady Emil De Becque in "South Pacific" and between the title characters in "The King and I."

Even the modern, jazzy "Flower Drum Song" was affected by this by-the-numbers plotting, pairing sweet Mei Li with swinging Sammy Fong.
If "The King and I," based on a true story, seems slightly more progressive than the team's musicals that preceded it, it's because at least its heroine, Anna Leonowens, is drawn as a mature, intelligent woman who's as savvy as the King and knows it. She doesn't take any guff from him; she doesn't back down. The battle of the sexes - something on which Rodgers and Hammerstein commented with some regularity - is much more evenly executed in "The King and I."

The show was a huge family success, both on stage and film.

So, it's little wonder that, toward the end of their united careers, when they were in need of a hit, the team did something shameless:

They ripped off "The King and I."

"The Sound of Music" may be based on a true story of its own, but it is a virtual clone of "The King and I," what with its story line about a man with a lot of children and the feisty woman who invades his household as the children's teacher. Along the way, she teaches the man something, too.

The similarities are striking, down to the heroine-sings-with-the-kids novelty numbers - "Getting To Know You" in "The King and I" and "Do-Re-Mi" in "The Sound of Music." Oddly enough, "The Sound of Music," a show not considered top-notch Rodgers and Hammerstein when it opened on Broadway, has managed to surpass its inspiration in terms of popularity.

Just as the use of children in "The King and I" revitalized Rodgers and Hammerstein's schtick, the addition of nuns and Nazis in "The Sound of Music" somehow made their formula even more irresistible to the public.

This formula, of course, doesn't stop with their plotting or characters. If their heroes and heroines are interchange-able from show to show, so are the big dramatic numbers - the songs with a message, if you will - that are always belted across by a secondary older female character.

In "Carousel," this big inspirational number is "You'll Never Walk Alone"; in "South Pacific," it's "Bali Hai"; in "The King and I," it's "Something Wonderful"; in "Flower Drum Song," it's "Love Look Away"; and in "The Sound of Music," it's "Climb E'vry Mountain." Not to diminish any of these songs - they're all genuinely beautiful, after all - but there's something gnawingly familiar in the way that they are all utilized.

Still, the assembly line quality of these songs is much less offensive than Rodgers and Hammerstein's penchant for always finding new ways to slip a wildly sexist song - one that denigrates women - into their shows.

At least, "The King and I" avoided this.
We all know about "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" in "South Pacific," but in the same show, Nellie Forbush also gets to sing about what a silly little "Cockeyed Optimist" she is. It's a shrewd conceit about Rodgers and Hammerstein shows - having women sing sexist things about themselves.

In "Flower Drum Song," for example, just about every condescending female stereotype is dragged out for Linda Low's "I Enjoy Being a Girl." In "Oklahoma!" Ado Annie sings that she's just "A Girl Who Can't Say No." During the big wedding scene in "The Sound of Music," the nun chorus does a reprise of "Maria": "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" How?

You marry her off, of course.

Even worse is Julie Jordan's "What's the Use of Wondrin'?" in "Carousel," in which all you women out there are advised to put up with grief and abuse because "he's your man and you love him so."

The topper, however, came in a song that was added to the 1962 remake of "State Fair" for musical veteran Alice Faye (making a comeback) to sing to her screen daughter, Pamela Tiffin. It's called "Never Say No." *

Here's how it goes:

"Never say "no' to a man
Simply avoid saying "yes' to him
That leaves the ultimate guess to him
Darling, don't ever say 'no'!"

(* - Rodgers wrote this one on his own after Hammerstein died.)

How's that for a musical invitation to date rape? (The makers of the constantly tourning stage version of "State Fair" have wisely elected to pass on this particular song for its current incarnation.)

There were never any equivalent songs for Rodgers and Hammerstein's male characters to address questionable things about themselves.

With the exception of "The Sound of Music," all of Rodgers and Hammerstein's stage musicals have been filmed with some fidelity to the originals (although "Carousel" and "The King and I" both had numbers deleted after their previews). In the case of "The Sound of Music," however, scenarist Ernest Lehman ("West Side Story") revamped the material with the active cooperation of Richard Rodgers. (Hammerstein was deceased by the time the 1965 Oscar-winner was made.)
The changes that Lehman made didn't improve "The Sound of Music"; they only Disney-fied it. While the stage play had a certain rumpled maturity about it, the movie is all sun and sugar. (Christopher Plummer has called it "The Sound of Mucous.") Rodgers, for example, was encouraged to drop three of the less showy stage songs and replace them with new two ones, for which he wrote the music and lyrics - and both of which proved to be wildly mediocre.

Actually, "There's No Way To Stop It," one of the original songs to be eliminated from the film, is excellent and "How Can Love Survive" is the one (the only) truly adult song in the original score.

And the sturdy "An Ordinary Couple" is a far, far better song than the one that replaced it, the terminally inane "Something Good." Julie Andrews has noted how she and Plummer had a difficult time with "Something Good." "We kept getting the giggles," she reminisced.

One can understand why. The song is unsingable.

(Artwork: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein on the dustjacket of "The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia by Thomas S. Hischak; Nancy Kwan and company in the "Grant Avenue" number from "Flower Drum Song," the refreshing oddity in R&H's canon, and the poster art for "The King and I" and its companion film, "The Sound of Music")

Broadway Flops on Film

Very few plays make it onto film these days, and even fewer stage musicals.

But there was a time when the studios depended seriously on Broadway as a source for its prestige productions. (There's been a curious flipflop in the past two decades with the B movie - action films and action comedies - now being given the lavish adornments once reserved for message/Oscar films exclusively.) Hollywood had such an unquenchable need to film plays that even stage productions that were flops and folded quickly (but were not necessarily bad) quickly became movies.

To name a few...

"Little Murders"

Written by the popular acerbic cartoonist Jules Feiffer, the very dark "Little Murders" opened at the Booth Theater on April 18th, 1967, playing a total of seven performances. The play starred singer Barbara Cook (in a decidedly non-singing role) and Elliott Gould, just before he hit Hollywood with William Friedkin's "The Night They Raided Minsky's" and Paul Mazursky's "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice."

Feiffer comically chronicled what happens when a gung-ho all-American girl brings an inarguably unAmerican guy (a self-described "apathist" who photographs dog excrement for a living) home to meet her family - an oblivious mother, a father embarrassed by his name (it's Carroll) and a brother who wants to be a woman, played by Ruth White, John Randolph and David Steinberg, respectively. Exacerbating the tension are such modern travials as power outages, a garbage strike and serial murders.

Heyward Hale Broun, Phil Leeds and Dick Schaal rounded out the cast, under the direction of George Sherman.

A subsequent 1969 staging at the Circle in the Square also starred Gould and Steinberg, along with Linda Lavin, Vincent Gardenia and Donald Sutherland in the role of a hippie cleric.

Gould, of course, recreated his role for the 1971 film, which was gamely directed by Alan Arkin who also assumed the role of the quickly uncoiling detective investigating the murders. The wonderful Marcia Rodd (and exactly what happened to her?) is a standout in the Cook role of Patsy; Elizabeth Wilson and an encoring Gardenia play her parents and Jon Korkes her brother, and Sutherland was back on board as the minister.



"The Seven Descents of Myrtle"/"Last of the Mobile Hotshots"


Tennessee Williams' "The Seven Descents of Myrtle" had a tryout at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia and opened March 27th, 1968 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, with a cast consisting of Estelle Parsons, Harry Gaurdino and Brian Bedford, under the direction of José Quintero.

OK, here goes: Williams' play is about Lot (Bedford), a tubercular, impotent transvestite who has taken a wife named Myrtle (Parsons) who, in turn, is a prostitute and former showgirl, the sole survivor of the Five Memphis Hot Shots. Myrtle lives to nurse Lot back to health but Lot cares only about stealing the family property from his multiracial half-brother, Chicken (Guardino).

Naturally, Chicken is attracted to Myrtle.

"The Seven Descents of Myrtle" closed after 29 performances.

Sidney Lumet directed the 1970 film version, which was retitled "Last of the Mobile Hotshots" and was one of the few prestige films of that era to be rated X by the MPAA. Lynn Redgrave starred as Myrtle, James Coburn as Lot (renamed Jeb actually for the film), and Robert Hooks as Chicken.

The film was made in New Orleans and St. Francisville, Louisiana, but forget the scenery. All that counted here was the idea of James Coburn playing a transvestite.

"A Loss of Roses"/"The Stripper"

William Inge's "A Loss of Roses," which opened December 7th, 1959, at the Eugene O'Neill Theater and closed after 25 performances, remains Warren Beatty's only Broadway appearance. His co-stars were dancer Carol Haney (in a decidedly undancing performance), Betty Field, Robert Webber, James O'Rear, Margaret Braidwood and Michael J. Pollard who, of course, would appear with Beatty in Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde."

Daniel Mann directed.

Its plot revolves around Lila (Haney), a sensitive, aging showgirl for a series of shows staged by a Madame Olga. When her boyfriend, Rick (Beatty), steals the show's boxoffice receipts, Lila is fired and opts to change her life. But then Rick returns.
For the 1963 film, directed by Franklin J. Schafner, Joanne Woodward and Richard Beymer play Lila and Rick, with Webber and Pollard recreating their stage roles. The rest of the cast includes Claire Trevor, Carol Lynley, Louis Nye and ... Gypsy Rose Lee as Madam Olga.
"Silent Night, Lonely Night"
The estimable Robert Anderson (who penned "Tea and Sympathy" and "I Never Sang for My Father") wrote this lovely play about two lonely people - played by Henry Fonda and Barbara Bel Geddes - who have a chance meeting as a cozy New England inn during the Christmas holiday.

Each one is there for personal, troubling reasons.

The play, directed by Peter Glenville and co-starring Lois Nettleton, Bill Berger, Peter De Vise and Eda Hainemann, opened at the Morosco Theater on December 28th, 1959 and was snapped up immediately by Universal which then let the project linger for ten years.

The film version of "Silent Night, Lonely Night," directed by Daniel Petrie, was not made for theaters, but for TV. Nevertheless, it's an excellent movie, intimate and involving. Lloyd Bridges (outstanding) and Shirley Jones (an Emmy nominee) took over the Fonda-Bel Geddes roles, Carrie Snodgress played the Nettleton part and Lynn Carlin and Cloris Leachman showed up in roles created for the film by adapter John Vlahos, who wisely retained most of Anderson's script. Its dialogue is nearly verbetim.
"My Sweet Charlie"

David Westheimer's play "My Sweet Charlie" - a study in race relations - opened in tryout at the Forrest Theatre in Philadelphia on November 8th, 1966 before moving to New York's Longacre Theater onn December 6th, 1966, where it closed after 31 performances.

The actor Howard Da Silva ("They Live By Night," "The Great Gatsby," "The Blue Dahlia," "The Lost Weekend" and "1776" among many other films) directed a cast that included Louis Gossett, Jr. in the title role, Bonnie Bedelia, John Randolph and Sarah Cunningham.

Gossett's Charlie Roberts is a black New York lawyer accused - falsely - of murder in a small Texas town. He finds a vacant house where he hides out and this is where he meets Marlene (Bedelia), an artless, uneducated young woman who has been shunned by her father for being pregnant.

They become allies and unlikely friends.

The 1971 TV film version, also produced by Universal, was adapted by the then-hot team of William Link and Richard Levinson and directed by the great Lamont Johnson on location in Port Bolivar, Texas.

"My Sweet Charlie" was hugely popular as a film, thanks in large part to the affecting lead performances of Al Freeman, Jr. and Patty Duke. Ford Rainey took over the Randolph role.



(Artwork: Flyer art for the off-Broadway production of "Little Murders" and Marcia Rodd and Elliott Gould in the film version; Playbill for "The Seven Descents of Myrtle" and the poster for its movie version, "Last of the Mobile Hotshots"; Playbill for "A Loss of Roses" and the poster art for its film version, retitled "The Stripper"; Playbill for "Silent Night, Lonely Night" and the dustjacket for the VHS of the movie version, and the flyer for the Philadelphia tryout of "My Sweet Charlie" and the dustjacket for the video of the film)

cinema obscura: Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson's "Song of the South" (1946)

Movies are demonized for the most facile reasons and Disney's "Song of the South," directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson, has been treated as the studio's bastard child far too long.

There's nothing wrong with it, at least not in terms of sociology and race. Nevertheless, it remains perhaps the only Disney title that has never been hyped to death as a DVD studio "treasure." This is one film that has never been out of the nfamous Disney "vault."

To say that it's been ostracized or suppressed or that it has become Disney's pariah is putting it mildly.

What's weird is that Busby Berkeley's genuinely offensive "Babes on Broadway" (1942), replete with Mickey and Judy in blackface for their jaw-dropping "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" finale, is an MGM favorite and a Turner Classics staple, screened (way too often as far as I'm concerned) with nary a complaint.

For the record, "Song of the South" - half-live action, half-animation - is about how Uncle Remus (played by James Baskett) uses his tales of Brer Rabbit to help a little boy (Bobby Driscoll) handle his parents' separation and his new life on a plantation. Remus' tales include "The Briar Patch," "The Tar Baby" and "Brer Rabbit's Laughing Place," which come alive in sparkling, charming animation - and a great deal of wit.

As critic Sam Adams has pointed out in Philadelphia's City Papter in 2007, "rumors circulated in 1996 and again last year that the movie might finally be committed to disc, but after publicly hemming and hawing over a period of months, Disney announced there were no plans to release 'Song of the South' in any form."

I have only one word for such behavior: Cowards!

Release it already, preferrably with someone credible, say Whoopi Goldberg, asking (as she did for Warners' racially-based cartoons) exactly what all the fuss is about.

Or how about Oprah?

Cinema Obscura is a recurring feature of The Passionate Moviegoer, devoted to those films that have been largely forgotten. Suggestions welcome.

(Artwork: Brer Rabbit is captured by Brer Fox and Brer Bear in Disney's punished-forever "Song of the South")

pesky question: "The Birds Redux"

Yeah, but who will be playing Suzanne Pleshette?

The remake of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" that Dave Kehr referred to on his blog several months ago is still active - unfortunately.

Yes, friends, Hollywood is still creatively bankrupt. Apparently, no one can think up original ideas anymore. And it's been asked before but here goes: If Hollywood is so bent on doing remakes, why doesn't it pursue older films that don't fully work, rather than those movies that do?
And why does the place always tackle the classics?

Anyway, checking out its status on IMDb, I learned that Naomi Watts is still the only star on board (in the Tippi Hedren role, natch) and that Martin Campbell is the latest director attached to it. Nothing on who will be playing the Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette and Jessica Tandy roles, although I'm sure it doen't matter, given that the computer-generated avians will probably be the focus, getting preferential treatment.

But what caught my attention is that no fewer than six - count 'em - six writers are working on it. Six. The original needed only Evan Hunter. Six writers working on an adaptation of Daphne De Maurier's short story.

Why on earth would such miminalist material need six writers? Any one out there have any theories?

And wanna bet that De Maurier's short story will be barely recognizable?

Note in Passing: The original Hitchcock film airs on Turner Classics at 2 p.m. (est) on Sunday (October 26th).

(Artwork: The attack begins, Pleshette and Hendren in the original version of "The Birds," and Hedren in the throes of an attack)

façade: Inger Stevens

Inger Stevens' star - and sweet face - twinkled brightly but briefly from the late 1950s to 1970 when she died at age 36, reportedly a suicide.

She was one of those curious stars whose troubled personal life contrasted sharply with her public persona, which was probably best defined by her role as a plucky Swedish governess opposite William Windom (and the invaluable Cathleen Nesbitt) on the popular TV series, "The Farmer's Daughter," a sitcom with a realistic edge.

Stevens made her film debut in 1957 in the very small Bing Crosby vehicle, "Man on Fire," directed by Ranald MacDougall. She had just turned 20 when she was cast and 22 when it was released, immediately following it with an eclectic collection of titles - Andrew L. Stone's "Cry Terror!" (1958), with James Mason; Anthony Quinn's "The Buccaneer" (1958), with Charlton Heston; MacDougall's "The World, the Flesh and the Devil" (1959) with Harry Belafonte and Mel Ferrer, and an Emmy-nominated role opposite Peter Falk in David Friedkin's "The Price of Tomatoes" (1962), a playlet on Dick Powell's anthology series.

During this period, Stevens reportedly had doomed affairs with most of her leading men, including Crosby, Mason and Quinn.

After interrupting her screen work to do "The Farmer's Daughter," Stevens returned to films in, among others, Gene Kelly's "A Guide for the Married Man" (1967), John Guillermin's "House of Cards" (1968) and, opposite Quinn, in Daniel Mann's "A Dream of Kings" (1969), finally a role worthy of her talents. But it was too little to late.

In less than a year, the ultimately enigmatic Inger Stevens was dead - as much a tragic missed opportunity as another Hollywood casualty.

Fourteen years is too brief a career.

(Artwork: Inger Stevens in 1963)

cinema obscura: Gene Kelly's "Gigot" (1962)

The simplistic, deceptively disarming "Gigot," from 20th Century-Fox in 1962, is a film that seemingly cannot be seen any place these days except on the Fox Movie Channel. To the best of my knowledge, it has never been released on home entertainment in any format.

I say "deceptively disarming" because the near-silent film was shot on location in Paris in widescreen (by the estimable French cinematographer, Jean Bourgoin) and premiered at the cavernous Radio City Music Hall - a small, yet large, film, so to speak.

Two incredible talents joined forces for the occasion - star Jackie Gleason, who provided the idea for John Patrick's screenplay, and Gene Kelly, who did the directorial duties.

Gleason plays a mute Parisian hobo named Gigot who becomes involved with a little street gamine, named Nicole (the charming Diane Gardner), the daughter of a prostitute (Katherine Kath). The entire supporting cast is French.

Nicole is the one denizen of Paris who doesn't mistreat Gigot. The shots of the tiny Gardner scampering around the massive Gleason, hugging his legs, and of Gigot attending his own funeral make for a serie of indelible, sentimental images.

It would be easy to classify "Gigot" as Chaplin-esque, but it is actually a hybrid of Jacques Tati and Gleason's own Poor Soul creation.

Gleason also composed the film's music score, which is given a distinct, tinkly French reading by orchestrator Michel Magne.

BTW, Kelly's filmography as a film director is scant but eclectic and fascinating. He, of course, is best known for having co-directed the musical "On the Town" (1949) and its pseudo-sequel, "It's Always Fair Weather" (1955) with Stanley Donen. But he also helmed a handful of songless films - the France-based "The Happy Road"/" La Route joyeuse" (1957), in which he also starred; "Tunnel of Love" (1958), with Doris Day and Richard Widmark; "Gigot" (1962); the Walter Matthau-Robert Morse farce, "A Guide for the Married Man" (1967) and "The Cheyenne Social Club" (1970), a comic Western starring Henry Fonda, James Stewart and Shirley Jones. His one big solo-filmed musical was Barbra Streisand's "Hello, Dolly" (1969).

He also took to the stage to direct the original 1958 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Flower Drum Song," recruiting Carol Haney to do the choreography and her husband, Larry Blyden, to star (as Sammy Fong). The 1961 film version was directed by Henry Koster and choreographed by Hermes Pan.

Note in Passing: William H. Macy took on the role of Gigot for Steven Schachter's 2004 TV remake, "The Wool Cap."

Cinema Obscura is a recurring feature of The Passionate Moviegoer, devoted to those films that have been largely forgotten. Suggestions welcome.

(Artwork: Director Gene Kelly, scouting locations for "Gigot" in Paris and kicking up his heels with his star, Jackie Gleason)

Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" (1959)

Disney's most sumptuous "Sleeping Beauty," directed by Clyde Geronimi - summarily/hastily underrated and dismissed when it was first released in 1959 - is back (well, on disc, at least) in all its Super Technirama 70 glory.

With its magnificent villainess, Maleficent (voiced by the inimitable Eleanor Audley), and songs set to lilting Tchaikovsky melodies, it remains one of my very favorite Disney animations, if not my all-time favorite.




Check out the astute comments on Disney's new "Sleeping Beauty" discs by Dave Kehr in his DVD column in The New York Times.
(Artwork: Widescreen images from "Sleeping Beauty")

Lost TV Musicals

One of the neglected sources of enterainment and musical-comedy history is that curious sub-genre of the film musical - the musical made for televison, usually as a special.

Mary Martin's recorded TV version of "Peter Pan"(which originally aired on NBC's "Producer's Showcase" on December 8, 1960, under the direction by Vincent J. Donehue) is inarguably the best-known of this limited species and, thanks to the ever-resouceful Michael Arick, was restored several years ago and made available on DVD.

Martin also did two live early color versions of "Pan" - aired March 7, 1955 and January 9, 1956.

Mounted for Broadway by Jerome Robbins, it originally had only a few incidental songs by Moose Charlap and Carolyn Leigh, but was later expanded with added songs by Jule Styne and the team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
Also once available on VHS was director Delbert Mann's musical version of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town," which aired on "Producer's Showcase" on September 19, 1955, and starred Frank Sinatra as the stage manager and Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint (in their singing debuts) as the young love interests, George Gibbs and Emily Webb.

The score by James Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn included the haunting title song and the popular "Love and Marriage."

And bootleg versions of Rosalind Russell and Leonard Bernstein's musical, "Wonderful Town," based on Russell's "My Sister Eileen" and co-directed by Herbert Ross and Mel Ferber, have been occasionally available. It originally aired on November 30, 1958.

At least these three titles are still remembered, especially by Broadway afficionados, but there are several more - more than you'd expect. Anyway, listed in no particular order and all waiting to be re-discovered on DVD, the assortment includes:


 "Damn Yankees!": The fabulous Lee Remick, who always wanted to be a musical-comedy star, got her chance in the role of Lola in director Kirk Browning's TV version of the Richard Adler-Jerry Ross musical, televised on NBC's General Electric Theatre on April 7, 1967. The superb cast also included Phil Silvers as Mr. Applegate, Broadway's Jerry Lanning as Joe Hardy, Linda Lavin as the reporter Gloria Thorpe, Jim Backus as Benny, Ray Middleton as Joe Boyd and Fran Allison (of "Kookla, Fran and Ollie") as his wife Meg. Unlike the excellent 1958 Warner film version by George Abbott and Stanley Donen, this version kept the Ross-Adler score intact, reinstating "Near to You," "The Game" and "A Man Doesn’t Know."


 "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's ... Superman!": Back in 1966, Harold Prince joined forces with "Bonnie and Clyde" scribes Robert Benton and David Newman for an ambitious musical version of the "Superman" comic, with songs by by "Bye, Bye Birdie's" Charles Strouse and Lee Adams. It was an exhilarating show but it lasted at the Alvin Theatre for only 129 performances.

Nine years later, for some bizarre reason, ABC-TV decided to resurrect the material for an abbreviated 90-minute adaptation, which it then promptly abandoned. It was televised only once - and in an 11:30 p.m. time slot - and then disappeared. The cast included David Wilson as the title character/Clark Kent, Lesley Ann Warren as Lois Lane, Kenneth Mars as columnist Max Mencken (Jack Cassidy on stage), Loretta Swit as reporter Sydney Carlton (Linda Lavin on stage), and David Wayne, a hoot as the villain, mad scientist Dr. Abner Sedgwick.

(Note: Benton and Newman also collaborated on the 1978 Richard Donner "Superman" movie with Mario Puzo, an uncredited Tom Mankiewicz and Newman's wife, Leslie.)


 "Applause": Larry Hagman stepped in for Len Carious for the filmed TV version of Lauren Bacall's Tony Award winning musical version of "All About Eve." It was shot during the production’s London run, with most of the West End cast, and televised on March 15, 1973.

Penny Fuller and Robert Mandan joined the cast, recreating their original Broadway roles. Also starring Harvey Evans, Sarah Marshall, Rod McLennan and Debbie Bowen.


 "The Fantasticks": The legendary Tom Jones-Harvey Schmidt musical, directed by David Greene and Fielder Cook. Starring John Davidson, Susan Watson, Ricardo Montalban, Bert Lahr and Stanley Holloway. Broadcast date: October 18, 1964 (Hallmark Hall of Fame).

(Note: "The Fantasticks" would, of course, be eventually filmed by Michael Ritchie for United Artists - and deconstructed mercilessly (i.e., heavily edited) by Francis Ford Coppola. Funny how Coppola adds extra footage to his own films and subtracts it from the work of other directors. Hopefully, one day, MGM Home Entertainment will distrubute Ritchie's original version.)


 "I Do! I Do!": Another musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, based on the Jan De Hartog two-character play, "The Four Poster," which takes place entirely in the bedroom of a couple married for 50 years. Lee Remick and Hal Linden played the roles essayed by Mary Martin and Robert Preston on stage. Directed by Gower Champion, who originally wanted to do it as a film with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Included in the score: "My Cup Runneth Over with Love." Broadcast date: 1982.

 "Dames at Sea": The campy off-Broadway musical, filmed with Ann-Margret, Anne Meara, Ann Miller, Havey Evans and Fred Gwynne. Broadcast date: December, 1971.

 "Meet Me in St.Louis": The estimable George Schafer directed - now get this - Jane Powell, Tab Hunter, Jeanne Crain, Myrna Loy, Lois Nettleton, Ed Wynn, Reta Shaw, Walter Pidgeon and Patty Duke, as Tootie, in this version of the enduring Vincente Minnelli-Judy Garland original film musical. Broadcast date: April 26, 1959.

 "Kiss Me, Kate": Shot several times for TV - in 1958 by George Schafer with most of the original Broadway cast (Alfred Drake, Patricia Morrison and Julie Wilson), and ten years later, in 1968, by Paul Bogart with then-husband-and wife team, Robert Goulet and Carol Lawrence, and Jessica Walter, Michael Callan, Jules Munchin and Marty Ingels. Broadcast date of the 1968 version: March 25.

 "Carousel": With Robert Goulet (again) as Billy Bigelow and then-newcomer Mary Grover as Julie Jordan. Broadcast date: May 7, 1967.

 "Brigadoon": Yet another with Goulet, who starred under the director of Fielder Cook with Sally Anne Howes, Peter Falk and Marlyn Mason. Broadcast date: October 15, 1966.

 "Annie Get Your Gun": Mary Martin played Annie Oakley to John Raitt's Frank Butler in Vincent J. Donehue's televersion of the Irving Berlin musical. Broadcast date: October 28, 1957.

 "Evening Primrose": An original Stephen Sodheim musical, written especially for TV by playwright James Goldman from a short story by James Collier. Anthony Perkins starred opposite Charmian Carr (of "The Sound of Music") as a poet who lives clandestinely in a department story. (It was filmed at Stern Brothers Department Store on West 23rd Street by director Paul Bogart.) Broadcast date: November 16, 1966.

And, finally, getting back to "Peter Pan," there was yet another version - shown on December 12, 1976 and starring Mia Farrow as Peter and Danny Kaye as Captain Hook. It had a new score by by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse.

(Artwork: Publicity shot of the TV cast - John Davidson, Susan Watson, Ricardo Montalban, Bert Lahr and Stanley Holloway - of "The Fantasticks," and Ann-Margret in "Dames at Sea")

cinema obscura: René Clement's "Le Passager de la Pluie"/"Rider on the Rain" (1969)

The Charles Bronson film, "Rider on the Rain," is hardly remembered these days. But even less known is its original French version, "Le Passager de la Pluie."

Say what?

When director René Clement and Bronson got together in 1969 to film a disturbing thriller about rape, they elected to film each scene twice -- first in French (with Bronson speaking French) and then in English. The film is "Le Passager de la Pluie"/"Rider on the Rain." Both versions were released in the United states - the French version in New York and the English-language version, well, everywhere else.

Today, only the English language version prevails. The French is even difficult to find in France. So why doesn't some resourceful DVD genius put out a two-disc version of the film with both languages represented?

Certainly René Clement - who also directed "Forbidden Games" and "Plein Soleil" ("Purple Noon"), among other French-language classics - deserves it.

BTW, the script was written by Sebastien Japrisot, one of the great French mystery writers.

Cinema Obscura is a recurring feature of The Passionate Moviegoer, devoted to those films that have been largely forgotten. Suggestions welcome.

(Artwork: Posters for the respective French and American releases of "Le Passager de la Pluie"/"Rider on the Rain," distributed in America by AVCO-Embassy)

cinema obscura: Sidney Lumet's "Child's Play" (1972) and John Mackenzie's "Unman, Wittering and Zigo" (1971)

Effectively buried by the Chucky franchise, Sidney Lumet's "Child's Play" was the second film produced by stage hand David Merrick under his contract with Paramount Pictures. (His first was Robert Redford's "The Great Gatsby.") Merrick, who also produced the Robert Marasco play that starred Pat Hingle, Fritz Weaver and Ken Howard, had recruited Marlon Brando, James Mason and Beau Bridges, respectively, to play the lead roles.



Brando, his career at a low point (remember, this was prior to his "Godfather" comeback), balked when he realized Mason had more lines and bolted the production. Merrick, true to form, sued Brando, bringing in Robert Preston, then enjoying a post-"Music Man" career revival, to take over the role. Preston also starred in "Junior Bonner" for Sam Peckinpah the same year.


Marasco's play, adapted here by Leon Prochnik, is a tingly to-do set at an all-boys Catholic boarding school where two teachers - one, played by Preston, popular with the boys, and the other, played by Mason, despised by them - are engaged in a nasty feud that seems to have brought out the darker side of the school in unsettling ways. Suddenly, violence overtakes the student body. Caught between the two teachers - and caught up in the rampant sadism overtaking the school - is its new gym instructor (Bridges), a former student there.

This is by no means a great film - it is clearly second-tier Lumet - but the filmmaker effectively creates a creepy ambience and Mason, Bridges and particularly Preston do wonders with their roles. All in all, it works as an unnerving provocation. Its bizarre disappearance from the movie landscape is hardly deserved.

Working as a companion film to Lumet's movie - and working more successfully in general - is John Mackenzie's "Unman, Wittering and Zigo," made a year earlier, also by Paramount, and also based on a play (by Gilles Cooper) and also set in a boys' school where mayhem reigns.

David Hemmings plays a new teacher who comes to suspect that the man he replaced was murdered by the students, with escalating paranoia and mistrust taking over.

Mackenzie, who would go on to direct "The Last Good Friday," "The Honorary Consul" and "The Fourth Protocol," oversees everything with a chilly precision that Hitchcock would appreciate. Mackenzie takes familiar material and reinvents the form with a disconcerting jump-cut style that effectively keeps us on edge and with luscious and scenic cinematography.

The film's unusual title, incidentally, refers to the last three names on Hemmings' daily role call. Of course, the Zigo of the title could be a left-handed trubute to French filmmaker Jean Vigo who directed the grand-daddy of all malevolent boys-school thrillers - "Zero for Conduct"/"Le Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collège"(1933).



Cinema Obscura is a recurring feature of The Passionate Moviegoer, devoted to those films that have been largely forgotten. Suggestions welcome.

(Artwork: Poster art from Paramount's "Child's Play" and "Unman, Wittering and Zigo"; still shot of Robert Preston in "Child's Play")

Who Is Sarah Palin?

OK, here's a new parlor game, inspired by the recent debate between the vice presidential nominees and the various "folkisms" (is that even a word?) and the ubiquitous winks that Republican nominee Sarah Palin affected for the occasion:

Which movie character best represents Governor Palin?...

Tracy Flick
in
Alexander Payne's
"Election" (1999)

Suzanne Stone Maretto
in
Gus Van Sant's
"To Die For" (1995)
"Lonesome" Rhodes
in
Elia Kazan's
"A Face in the Crowd" (1957) Raymond Shaw
in
John Frankenheimer's
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)

Marge Gunderson
in
The Coen Brothers'
"Fargo" (1996)







Suggestions? Complaints? Feel free to disagree, participate or comment.

(Artwork: Sarah and her would-be interpretors - Reese, Nicole, Andy, Laurence and Francis)

turner this month - bravo!

Note: This is a regular monthly feature, highlighting, well, the highlights on Turner Classics' schedule. Why? Simple. Because Turner Classics remains a veritible college education in film.>


Star of the Month (every Monday):
Carole Lombard

Life Magazine (10/17/1938):
"Carole Lombard - A loud cheer for the screwball girl!"









October 12th:
A Tribute to Paul Newman




Movies have been less interesting these days, in part because the current presidential election has been so fascinatingly surreal and disturbingly entertaining - and also because the new movies, filing in and out of theaters through a revolving door, have been hugely forgettable.

Thank God for Turner which kicks off the month with - yes, yet again - Alfred Hitchcock's "Veritgo" (1958) at 3:30 p.m. (est) on Thursday, October 2nd.

Watching "Vertigo" on Turner has becomesomething of a monthly routine. But, hey, I'm not complaining. It beats anything in theaters these days and I'd gladly get lost in Jimmy Stewart's heady paranoia and Kim Novak's duplicity at least once a day, every day.

Ah, escapism. It's a nice distraction from the distractions being played out by Sarah Palin during this election year.

Turner's programers must have been prescient, preternaturally so, about the election, given that most of its October schedule is dominated by such reassuring TCM staples as George Seaton's "The Country Girl," airing 8 a.m. (est) on Thursday, the 2nd; Raoul Walsh's "White Heat" (1949) and Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil" (1958), both being shown on Saturday, October 4th, at 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. (est), respectively (with "Touch of Evil" getting an encore showing on October 23rd).

These ae then followed by a string of goodies on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 7th and 8th , starting at 10 a.m. (est) with Billy Wilder's "Ace in a Hole" (also showing on October 28th), followed by Alan J. Pakula's "The Sterile Cuckoo," Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt," Welles' "The Trial," Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly" (with repeats at 10 a.m., est, on October 25th), Mike Nichols' "The Graduate" and Arthur Penn's "Bonnie and Clyde."

Yes, reassuring.

So much for appetizers. Here's a look at what jumps out at me on Turner this month:

5 October: Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The King and I" (1956) airs at 2 p.m. (est). If "The King and I," based on a true story, seems slightly more progressive than the team's musicals that preceded it, it's because at least its heroine, Anna Leonowens, is drawn as a mature, intelligent woman who's as savvy as the show's "hero" - the king - and she knows it. She doesn't take any guff from him; she doesn't back down. The battle of the sexes - something on which Rodgers and Hammerstein commented with some regularity - is much more evenly executed in "The King and I."

The show was a huge family success, both on stage and film. So, it's little wonder that, toward the end of their united careers, when they were in need of a hit, the team did something shameless - they ripped off "The King and I" with a little item called "The Sound of Music.

Also: Walter Lang's original "Cheaper by the Dozen" (1950) with the ace team of Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy (much better than Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt in the unwatchable remake), and "Annie" (1982), handsomely filmed by John Huston (and much, much better than the watered-down TV version by Rob Marshall, Neal Meron and Craig Zadan). Keep an eye this time on Carol Burnett, advised by Huston to play Miss Hannigan as if she were perpetually "soused."

6 October: Carole Lombard in films made between 1934-37 -"Twentieth Century," "Hands Across the Table," "Nothing Sacred," "Lady by Choice" and "Gay Bride."

Also: Godard directs Bardot, Palance and Piccoli in the sublime "Contempt" (1963); The movie-star-who-never-was, hunky Hugh O'Brian, has a rare romantic lead role in "Come Fly with Me" (1963), Henry Levin's stewardess movie with Lois Nettleton, Pamela Tiffin and Dolores Hart, and Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal fall in love for real in King Vidor's "The Fountainhead" (1949).

8 October: Katharine Hepburn in arguably her best role and best performance in George Stevens' incisive study of a young woman with pretentions, "Alice Adams" (1935). Fred MacMurray co-stars.

9 October: Tune in for Albert Lamorisse's endearing French short, "The Red Balloon" (1956) and then stick around for George Cukor's "My Fair Lady" (1964) and a selection of Jacques Tati shorts - "Jour de Fete" (1949), "Mr Hulot's Holiday" (1953), "My Uncle" (1956) and "Playtime" (1973).

10 October: Steve McQueen soars in Lee H. Katzin's "Le Mans" (1971), which gets a replay on October 26th, and Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke recreate their stage roles in Arthur Penn's film of "The Miracle Worker" (1962). Also two with Yvette Mimieux, both directed by Henry Levin - the lovely "Light in the Piazza" (1962), in which Mimieux is outstanding, and the very strange "Where the Boys Are" (1960), a teen romp with a vicious gang rape smack-dab in the middle.

12 October: Get an early start with early morning screenings of Douglas Sirk's "Imitation of Life" (1959) and Fred Zinnemann's "The Member of the Wedding" (1952), followed by a day devoted to the late Paul Newman...
* * *
Celebrating Paul Newman

Turner canceled its entire 24-hour schedule for October 12th, replacing it with a well-deserved tribute to the late Paul Newman, with a collection that features his iconic performance in Stuart Rosenberg's "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) and his breakthrough role in Robert Wise's "Somebody up There Likes Me" (1956). Also included are the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, "Torn Curtain" (1966), Otto Preminger's epic, "Exodus" (1960) and the gripping Martin Ritt drama "Hud" (1963), as well as Newman’s directorial debut "Rachel, Rachel" (1968), starring Woodward.

The following is the complete schedule for TCM’s tribute for the beloved Oscar®-winner (all times est, natch):

6 a.m. "The Rack" (1956) – Paul Newman plays a Korean War veteran who has been brainwashed and is now on trial for treason in this taut Arnold Laven drama based on a Rod Serling teleplay. Walter Pidgeon and Wendell Corey co-star.

8 a.m. "Until They Sail" (1957) – This drama, directed by Wise, tells the story of four sisters each struggling to find love and happiness in New Zealand during World War II. Newman plays a Marine captain who falls for one of the sisters, a widow played by Jean Simmons. This film marks Newman’s emergence as a matinee idol.

10 a.m. "Torn Curtain" (1966) – An American scientist pretends to be a defector in order to get some vital information in this Alfred Hitchcock thriller co-starring Julie Andrews. Newman’s fight scene in a small farmhouse is a brilliant but disturbing Hitchcock set piece.

12:15 p.m. "Exodus" (1960) – Preminger directed this epic adaptation of Leon Uris’ history of the Palestinian war. Newman plays an Israeli resistance leader, while Eva Marie Saint co-stars as an army nurse. Ernest Gold won an Oscar for his memorable score.

3:45 p.m. "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1962) – Newman and co-star Geraldine Page reprised their Broadway roles for Richard Brooks' adaptation of the Tennessee Williams drama. In it, Newman, as a scam artist, returns to his hometown with aging movie queen Page in tow. For my money, this is the best Tennessee Williams adaptation ever, in which Newman played Chance Wayne to Geraldine Page's Alexandra Del Lago. What marvelous names! Ed Begley won an Oscar for his performance as the town boss.

6 p.m. "Hud" (1963) – This modern western by Ritt, based on a book by Larry McMurtry, features impeccable performances by Newman and Oscar winners Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas. Newman plays a restless youth who destroys nearly everything he touches. Also earning an Oscar for this drama was cinematographer James Wong Howe.

8 p.m. "Somebody up There Likes Me" (1956) – This Wise-directed biography of boxer Rocky Graziano traces his rise from the streets of New York to packed arena. Pier Angeli co-stars.

10 p.m. "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) – Newman gives a powerful and endearing performance as a member of a prison chain gang in Stuart Rosenberg's drama laced with ample doses of anti-establishment humor. Co-star George Kennedy took home an Oscar for his performance, while Strother Martin nearly steals the film as the warden.

12:15 a.m. "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958) – Tennessee Williams’ classic drama comes to the screen with an outstanding cast - Newman and Elizabeth Taylor - under the direction of Brooks. The story involves a rich Southern family of greedy vultures hovering around while their patriarch, played by Burl Ives, prepares to die.

2:15 a.m. "Rachel, Rachel" (1968) – Newman, in his debut behind the camera, directs Woodward in this sensitive drama about a spinster trying to come out of her shell.

4 a.m. "The Outrage" (1964) – Newman stars as a Mexican bandit accused of rape in this Ritt adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s "Rashomon." Edward G. Robinson, Claire Bloom, Laurence Harvey and William Shatner co-star.

* * *

13 October: More Lombard - The peerless William Powell teams with Carole in Gregory La Cava's "My Man Godfrey" (1936). Don't miss it. Also,"No Man of Her Own" (1932), "Fool for Scandal" (1939) and "Swing High, Swing Low" (1939).

14 October: John Huston rings in again, this time abetted by Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Eli Wallach, Thelma Ritter and Estelle Winwood. The film is the unmissable "The Misfits" (1961). Later: Huston's "The Night of the Iguana" (1964) and "Moulin Rouge" (1952), and the ever-underrated Sal Mineo in Don Weis' "The Gene Krupa Story" (1959).

15 October: Four with Ginger - for me, the most versatile film actress ever. The films are Mark Sandrich's "Shall We Dance," George Stevens' "Vivacous Lady" and La Cava's "Stage Door" (all 1937) and Sandrich's "Carefree" (1938).

16 October: Sandra Dee goes surfing with Moondoggie and the great Kahuna in Paul Wendkos' "Gidget" (1959); the incorrigible Hayley Mills and June Harding meet their match in Rosalind Russell in Ida Lupino's "The Trouble with Angles" (1966), and Tippi Walker and Merrie Spaeth torment Peter Sellers in George Roy Hill's "The World of Henry Orient" (1964) - three terrific films for teens.

Also: Angela Lansbury (who also appears in "Henry Orient") in Robert Stevenson's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971), and Geroge Cukor's "Gaslight" (1944), starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman and ... Lansbury.

18 October: Delectable Tiffany Bolling in Richard L. Bare's deliciously low "Wicked, Wicked" (1973). And J. Lee Thompson had his greatest directorial triumph with with the Oscar-nominated "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), starring David Niven, Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn.

19 October: The music is by Cole Porter. Stanely Donen directed. Fred Astaire (posing as Richard Avedon), Audrey Hepburn and the estimable (but highly resistable) Kay Thompson star. And yet Paramount's faux-MGM musical, "Funny Face" (1957), remains a dud. You decided. Feel free to disagree.

20 October: Lombard in "The Eagle and the Hawk" and "Brief Moment" (both 1933), "Virtue" and "No More Orchids" (1932) and "The Racketeer" (1929).

Plus, Geroge Franju's singularly creepy "Eyes Without a Face" (1960). Watch it - but not alone.

21 October: Two neglected but very fine Sherman Bros. musicals, "Tom Sawyer" (1973) and Huckleberry Finn" (1974).

22 October: A nifty double-bill - Hitchcock's "Suspicion" (1941) and Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942).

24 October: Cliff Robertson goes berserk and throws a typewriter at poor Joan Crawford in Robert Aldrich's highly watchable "Autume Leaves" (1956) and Steve McQueen impregnates Natalie Wood in Robert Mulligan's tartly sweet "Love with a Proper Stranger" (1964).

25 October: Late-night shivers with Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls" (1962). Later, catch Aldrich's 'Kiss Me Deadly" (1955), with reliable Ralph Meeker and a young Cloris Leachman. For fun, catch Jay Sandrich's delightful screwball comedy, "Seems Like Old Times" (1980), with Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase and Charles Grodin all in top comedic form.
Also Robert Mulligan’s companionable film version of the Garson Kanin play, “The Rat Race,” starring Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds, both in fine form, and Jack Oakie, a surprisingly effective Don Rickles (as a sleaze) and, in a rare film appearance, the wonderful Kay Medford (the original Mrs. Peterson, Albert's mother, in the stage version of "Bye, Bye Birdie"). Aspects of Kanin’s story are reminiscent of Wilder’s “The Apartment” (two lost souls holed up in an apartment) and, in fact, both films were released at approximately the same time – but "The Rat Race" was invariably overshadowed by the Lemmon-MacLaine Oscar-winner. Nevertheless, "The Apartment" doesn't have that driven, pounding, one-of-a-kind Elmer Bernstein score.

Four years later, Curtis and Reynolds would reteam for Vincinte Minnelli's sly "Goodbye, Charlie." The original play, incidentally, directed by Daniel Mann, starred Betty Field, Barry Nelson and Ray Walston.

And then settle in for some good thrills with Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom" (1960), William Castle's "Strait-Jacket" (1964), Leonard Kastle's "The Honeymoon Killers" (1970) and Castle's "Homicidal" (1961).
26 October: A stay-in-for-the-day triple bill - Stanely Donen's "Indiscreet" (1958), Alexander Mackendrick's "Sweet Smell of Success" (1957) and Hitchcock's "The Birds" (1963).

27 October: Lombard - "To Be or Not to Ber" (1942), "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (1941), "Vigil in the Night" (1940) and "In Name Only" (1939).

Anthony Mann's smooth "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954) with Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson, and Sinatra and Doris in Gordon Douglas's "Young at Heart" (also '54). Plus two set in Gay Paree - Minnelli's "An American in Paris" (1951) and Quine's "Paris When it Sizzles" (1964).

27 October: Joseph Anthony directs Shirley Booth in Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker" (1958) - the non-musical "Hello, Dolly" - and Peter Glenville showcases Geraldine Page in Tennessee Williams' "Summer and Smoke" (1961).

After watching Natalie Wood and Dick Shawn romp in Arthur Hiller's
"Penelope" (1966), settle in for a Billy Wilder marathon of "Sunset Boulevard" (1950), "Ace in the Hole" (1951), "Sabrina" (1954), "Witness for the Prosecution" (1957) and "Some Like It Hot" (1959).

29 October: Hitchcock's "Notorious" (1946) with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.

30 October: Two by William Castle - Mr. Sardonicus" (1961) and "The Tingler" (1959).

31 October: The month ends with a good one - Tod Browning's "The Devil Doll" (1936) with a great Lionel Barrymore performance. Also, David Greene's difficult-to-see "The Shuttered Room" (1966) with Gig Young and Carol Lynley and Oliver Reed, who were an item at the time.

(Artwork: Hitchcock's "Veritgo" and the way to watch it - at home, all cozy and safe; Lombard and Newman - Together at Last; poster art for "The King and I" and "Annie"; Paul Newman and Geraldine Page in an arty publicity shot for Richard Brooks' "Sweet Bird of Youth"; Sandra Dee with Arthur O'Connell and Mary LaRoche in "Gidget"; Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen in "Love with the Proper Stranger"; Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds in "The Rat Race"; Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in "Indiscreet"; Wood and Dick Shawn in "Penelope," and Doris Day and Frank Sinatra in "Young at Heart")