People Will Talk: Not What You’d Expect from 1951

People Will Talk (1952 NR) is a movie with an unexpected take on pregnancy.  My impression of 1950’s movies and TV is that pregnancy and sex was not even spoken of.

In The Quiet Man (1952 NR) wife Maureen O-Hara desperately seeks advice from her priest, yet speaks in native Gaelic, and the audience must guess she is asking why her new husband John Wayne doesn’t sleep in bed with her.

In TV’s I Love Lucy (1951-1957), Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are married, yet sleep in separate beds.

In our movie, Cary Grant plays compassionate, if unconventional, Dr. Praetorius. Isn’t he dreamy?

His patient, Deborah (Jeanne Crain), is distressed to find she is pregnant out of wedlock.

The surprising thing to me, with my impression of the 1950’s, is the vocabulary they use.  Pregnant!  Not married!  A whole discussion about telling her father!

The good doctor saves the girl from shame by marrying her.  He works it so she doesn’t know that is what he is doing.  What a nice doctor!

The bulk of the movie is about the mysterious friend the doctor has (Finlay Currie) and the jealous colleague (Hume Cronyn) who tries to ruin the doctor.  An uneven film, but Cary Grant is always fun to watch.

The Girls Who Went Away, by Ann Fessler (2006), is a well researched book that tells the true story of how unwed pregnancy was handled in the 1950’s-1970’s.  Most often, girls who found themselves pregnant and not married were sent to out-of-town relatives or even a sort of group home to wait until they could give up their newborn babies for adoption.  Secrecy and shame often accompanied these girls.  Read this powerful book.

Even though Lucy and Ricky sleep in separate beds, Lucy still gets pregnant.  Share their joy in this clip!

Hitchcock for a New Generation: Jack Reacher

Alfred Hitchcock directed suspense-filled films, such as Rear Window (1954 ) and Psycho (1960).  He relied on unusual camera angles, a race against the clock, and a creative soundtrack to build suspense.

Actor Cary Grant on the set of 1959’s North By Northwest with director Alfred Hitchcock

Christopher McQuarrie directed Jack Reacher (2012), a suspenseful film about the race to find the real killer before the real killer finds the good guys (Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike).

Director Christopher McQuarrie with star Tom Cruise on the set of Jack Reacher

Watch these two directors at work here.  Listen for the music, watch the camera angles, feel the urgency.

Jack Reacher

North by Northwest

Fun movies!

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Shirley Temple: Two Films You Must See

Shirley Temple is a rare example of a child star who also has quality teen roles and a successful adult life away from film.  Here are my favorite films of hers, from her childhood and teen years.

The Little Princess (1939) stars ten-year-old Shirley Temple as Sara, the daughter of a wealthy British officer who leaves her at a girls boarding school while he goes off to fight the Second Boer War in 1899. The strict school mistress is more impressed with Sara’s wealth than her pleasant personality.  Sara is generous and friends with everyone, even the servant girl.

During Sara’s lavish birthday party, the school mistress receives word that her father is missing in action and his wealth has been confiscated.  Immediately Sara is forced to return all the gifts, give all her possessions to the other students to help pay for her room and board, and is sent to sleep in the cold attic and live as a servant.  (Start at 4:38)

Watch her amazing acting ability as the days go by and she grows tired and hungry.  Her spirit crumbles and she yearns to take that apple from the dresser of the snobby girl who enjoys seeing her suffer.  Her only friend is the other servant girl, and the Indian servant from the neighboring home.

Shirley Temple is an accomplished dancer and singer, and in this movie she shows her ballet talent in a dream sequence in which she is a little princess, hence the title.

Sara does not believe her father is dead, and wanders around the veteran’s hospital looking for anyone who knows her father.  These scenes at the hospital show the excellence in directing by Walter Lang.  Watch and admire how he shows the pride and pain in these British soldiers, the honor and reverence towards visiting Queen Victoria, and the frantic search as time is running out.  And when the school mistress realizes she will have to answer for how she treated Sara, her final scene is simple and perfect.

In The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) Shirley Temple plays teenager Susan.  In reality, Shirley was 19 and married!  But this comedy is still funny after all these years, and we get to see gorgeous Shirley Temple acting as the straight man against frantic love-interest Cary Grant and serious big sister Myrna Loy.

Susan is clearly too young for Richard (Cary Grant), but a psychologist convinces Richard to play along with her fantasy until it fades.  Watch Richard and Susan at the high school basketball game.

Now Richard has decided to play along, and even adapts some teen clothing styles and lingo.  Susan is delighted!  Her big sister Margaret, not really.

Eventually Susan realizes that she likes high school boys, and Richard realizes he loves Margaret, and all is well.  Fun movie!  Talented actress!

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Arsenic and Old Lace: A Creepy Old Comedy That Still is Hillarious

Here is a good bet for spooky fun – Arsenic and Old Lace (1944, not rated).  Directed by Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), the entire movie takes place on Halloween night when reluctant groom Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) stops by home to say goodby to his sweet old spinster aunts before going on his honeymoon with girl-next-door Elaine Harper (Priscilla Lane).

The problem is Mortimer’s black-sheep brother Jonathan (Raymond Massey) comes home the same evening to hide out from the police while he heals from plastic surgery. Boris Karloff, who played many monsters in 1930’s films, played the role on stage, and was wanted for the film version.  As a tribute, every person who meets Jonathan comments that he looks like someone in the horror movies, which further enrages him towards his surgeon (Peter Lorre), who has been in his fair share of horror films himself.

There is also the crazy brother (John Alexander), who thinks he is Theodore Roosevelt and possibly has resorted to murder.

This is a comedy, but spooky in the right ways.  The use of shadows increases the feeling of impending dread without unnecessary gore.

Will Mortimer find a solution to Teddy’s insane behavior?  Will he survive a night with Jonathon and his doctor? Will his aunts hold another funeral? Will he remember that Elaine is waiting for him?

Give this old movie a try, with it’s older style of acting and stylized lighting, and you will have a fun evening!

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