What I’ve Caught Up With, October 2024 Part 1:
Film: Dead Ringer (1964)
Bette Davis gets to try her hand at a dual role, playing estranged twin sisters. Frank Delorca dies, and his wife Maggie (Davis) and her sister Edith (also Davis) show up at the funeral after a 20-year estrangement. It turns out that Edith loved Frank first and Maggie stole him away, marrying him not for love but for his tremendous fortune. Edith, feeling that she has wasted her life in this respect, decides to take revenge by killing her sister and taking her place. It’s easier said than done, though, because looking like her identical twin is one thing, but figuring out her habits is quite another. Peter Lawford plays Maggie’s roguish boyfriend, and Karl Malden handles one of his better roles as a police detective who was involved with Edith and starts to piece things together.
Film: Evil Under the Sun (1982)
The Peter Ustinov/Hercule Poirot movies are fun because they fit a very specific pattern of narrative. We gather a bunch of people in the same place, someone who is disliked by everyone gets bumped off at the end of the first half of the film, and the second half consists of our hero Poirot (Ustinov) interrogating everyone and putting together how the crime was committed. It's impossible to figure out how the crimes were committed because the clues are tiny and we often see them in passing, and frequently, the things that seal the deal for us aren’t given until the reveal. Honestly, these films are all about the massive cast list and the exotic locations. In this case, we get a tropical island, the murder of a stage actress (Diana Rigg), and a cast that includes Roddy McDowell, James Mason, Maggie Smith, and Jane Birkin.
Film: Death on the Nile (1978)
I’m not sure why I watched these in reverse order, but I did. This is the traditional Agatha Christie-based film, with a cast of thousands all potential suspects in a murder in an exotic location. A wealthy socialite is murdered, and everyone has their own reason to make the attempt, from revenge to a desire for her prized pearls. As always, the murder is unsolvable for the audience, but we’re here for the cast—Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, Olivia Hussey, David Niven, Mia Farrow, Jack Warden and a wildly oversexed Angela Lansbury make up most of the cast of both victims (since there are a few) and suspects. The drawing room conclusion is fun, but frustrating because there’s no way you’re getting there without spoilers.
Film: Appointment with Death (1988)
Peter Ustinov played Hercule Poirot in six films, and Appointment with Death is the final, and probably the least of them. Once again we get exotic locales and a star-studded cast list. This time, a vicious, conniving mother (Piper Laurie) forces the family lawyer (David Soul) to destroy the will of her late husband, which would have given his children their freedom. Naturally, she’s going to be our target, and just as naturally, everyone has a motive. This time, our cast of potential murders include Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, and Hayley Mills. It’s fine, but hardly required viewing, and as expected, too many clues are hidden from the audience to allow the audience to solve things before the conclusion.
Film: Too Late for Tears (1949)
Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) and her husband Alan (Arthur Kennedy) are driving at night when a satchel of cash—nearly $1 million in 1949 dollars—is tossed into their back seat. Now the guy who the payoff was intended for wants the money back and Alan wants to turn it in to the police. Jane, though, wants the money for herself, and convinces criminal Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) to help her bump off her husband to keep the cash. The problem is Alan’s sister Kathy (Kristine Miller), who certainly isn’t going to take the sudden disappearance of her brother lightly. And what about Jane’s past and dead first husband? This is a dandy noir with a fun plot. Husky-voiced Lizabeth Scott is a fine femme fatale, and Dan Duryea made a career out of playing wise guys just a little too clever for their own good.
I haven't seen any of these, but I'm always here for Bette Davis. That is the one that intrigues me the most.
ReplyDeleteIt's a lot of fun. Too Late for Tears is worth tracking down as well.
DeleteWhile it is not terrible Appointment with Death is the least of the Ustinov Poirot’s. As you say it’s fine but missing a certain snap the others have, though Sir Peter is as entertaining as ever. He’s my favorite interpreter of the fussy Belgium of any I have seen.
ReplyDeleteDeath on the Nile is too cluttered to really land and hampered by a pretty but colorless romantic pair. Simon McCorkindale is certainly attractive but hardly someone worth the crazy obsessiveness Mia Farrow pursues him with. The value in the film aside from Ustinov is the three legends competing to steal the spotlight from each other. Bette Davis and Maggie Smith are hysterically vicious tearing into each other. But I think Angela Lansbury’s completely over the top, playing to the back of the house across the street performance takes the cake. She’s certainly having a fun time and jolts the movie to life whenever she appears.
But my favorite of these three by far is Evil Under the Sun which really has only one weakness. The absolutely odious girl playing the put upon daughter! She’s a grindingly sour note in an otherwise delightful soufflé. The clothes are jaw-droppingly gorgeous, the barbs come thick and fast, the Dames Maggie and Diana are divine “old sparring partners”, the rest of the cast all play their parts just right (I’ve never enjoyed Sylvia Miles so much) and the mystery once revealed makes sense with the clues all there for the sharp-eyed viewer. Not always the case with Agatha Christie stories.
Dead Ringer is no masterpiece but for this point in her career a better than passable entry in Bette’s filmography. It is a good example of why she was able to swing back out of the horror cycle and Joan Crawford wasn’t. Either she was more selective of what she accepted or was luckier in what was offered. With Joan it was a steady diet of tawdry scare flicks whereas Bette found projects with some variety. I’m sure this was marketed to the Baby Jane crowd but it’s more crime story than horror or mystery and Bette is distinctly different as the two women.
I’m glad you were not able to catch up with Too Late for Tears until now. For several decades it was considered lost (crazy for a studio release from the 40’s with so many recognizable names attached) until a public domain copy was found in deplorable condition. That’s what I saw the first time I watched it, and it was a trial, washed out and chopped up almost to the point of not making sense. When some quality prints were discovered (in France I believe) Eddie Muller spearheaded a restoration. When I watched that version it was beautifully crisp and a much more gripping whole. While it's not in the same class as Out of the Past nor Double Indemnity it is a full-on noir with two of the staples of the genre, Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea who along with Arthur Kennedy make the film a pleasure for fans of the genre. Lizabeth Scott in particular makes a meal of her shamelessly black-hearted character, so much so that it seems odd to discover that she hated the film and the role. It doesn't show in her work.
I am genuinely pleased that you mentioned Out of the Past here, because I think that's one of the finest prototypes of a noir out there along with The Maltese Falcon. Natually, I'm a fan of Double Indemnity as well, thanks to the presence of the glorious Babs. Lizabeth Scott makes a dandy femme fatale, though--she belongs in the upper tier of women to play that kind of role. And, of course, Dan Duryea made a career out of this kind of weasel role.
DeleteI think Ustinov is probably the best film Poirot, but I would probably hand the "best" Poirot to David Suchet, who has made a career of the part. I would agree that of this trio of films, Evil Under the Sun is easily the most entertaining. They're all formula, of course, but the cast for that one is pretty great top to bottom (minus the girl, as you say).
Dead Ringer has a surprisingly fun cast. Karl Malden always surprises me with just how good he can be in that sort of everyman role. He has no pretense, and it works really well for him.