Golden Age of Hollywood Book Club discussion

Your favorite 'little known' treasure? Something that you and maybe only the director's closest acquaintances ever saw?

Ooooh, that is a good question. I will have to think about it. There are so many little known films that somehow obtained cult status and then they are no longer little known......Gun Crazy....Detour.....Plan 9 from Outer Space......all of them come to mind

There is one film that probably shouldn't be "little known", starring the wonderful William Powell and Ginger Rogers.....Star of Midnight. The dialogue and setting reminds one of The Thin Man series, also with Powell.......lots of drinking, smoking, fantastic clothes and witty reparteé.

I can name a little-known Powell/Loy. 'Double Wedding' co- starring Shirley Temple. A real hoot. Loy is a small-town municipal judge; her bobby-sox kid sis fakes a romance with bohemian/bum Powell to make her campus beau jealous; Powell falls for Loy but must convince her to come down off her ivory tower.

That sounds more like the classic, 'Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer' with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy, which Shirley Temple was in. She wasn't in Double Wedding, I don't believe, as she would have been 9.

Oh aye, I likely mixed the two plots together. You'll have to take a look somewhere for a proper summary. Ouuuff!

Anyway what is likely my #1 favorite 'sleeper' is "Inside Moves" taken from Todd Walton's novel and starring John Savage. It frankly depicts disabled individuals, all 'regulars' at a local bar. His co-star (later one of the doctors in St. Elsewhere) turns in a bravura performance as a young man who has trained himself to play basketball at a professional level despite his artificial leg. Anyway the whole thing is just superb; low-budget; raw; and hope-inspiring. Also gets my vote as the best basketball movie ever, bar none.

I looked it up, and it does sound interesting. I also noticed that Harold Russell was in it. Russell was a non-professional actor, who won an Oscar for 'Best Years of Our Lives.'

And Russell deserved the Oscar.......his performance was touching, especially when he showed his girlfriend how he had to remove his prosthetics before going to bed and how helpless he became without his arms. Very moving.

This might be a 'sleeper' now but I don't know where else in our discussions I can call it out for attention. It might be 'under-appreciated' these days but it was once a mega-famous and critically-acclaimed film.

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I admire the 'simple' style of the wife in this story; how she demurely wears her hair up; has no jewelry; no makeup. And how how this married couple too, are obsessed with their sunglasses. It really speaks to the Eastern-European locale of the tale.

I'm startled as well, to learn that two of the three actors in this tale had no practically prior acting experience. Whew!

This could very well be my favorite foreign movie ever; I'm not sure.

I don't think this is a 'sleeper', but I don't think it's as well known, considering the actors involved. 'They Might Be Giants' is an all-time favorite. George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward are great as is the supporting cast. Perhaps it's the ending that befuddles people, but I always watch it when I can.

I remember it. Yep --fun angle on Holmes.

Another offbeat take on it, is with Larry Hagman. Roger Moore did one too, as did Charlton Heston.

There have been many who have tried to portray Sherlock Holmes, many with little success. Personally, I believe that Jeremy Brett was the best. George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward added a new and entertaining element though.

I have to stick with the early Rathbone pictures......I thought he looked exactly like I imagined Holmes looked. Unfortunately, that series started going downhill after the first few films and Nigel Bruce played Dr. Watson as a buffoon and not at all how he was portrayed in the stories.

I am a big fan of The Best Years of Our Lives and The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer. Too bad Shirley couldn't pull a Liz or Natalie and make it as an adult. That film showed that she had the potential.

I vote for Jeremy Brett as well. Maybe we need a Holmes thread for this.

Another sleeper: 'Nunzio' ('78 or so? not sure of year). Anyway this is a sweet little Italian family drama set in Queens NY. It's not a downer; though there are scenes which can make you squirm in sympathetic pain/mortification and some scenes will pull tears from you. It's uplifting overall; and leaves you with a good feeling. 'Slice of life' movie.

Premise: Nunzio is a mentally-challenged young man who works as a bicycle delivery boy for a local supermarket. His reading level is comic-book only. Louts and rowdies in the neighborhood make sport of him, play pranks on him. Nunzio's favorite comic-book is the mighty Superman; he daydreams of achieving amazing feats like his idol. He himself is of very short-stature, though solidly built; however he never gets any chance to succeed at anything. His mother worries what will eventually happen to him. He has never kissed a girl; usually tongue-tied with strangers; has no savings; no car; no prospects; no future.

Highly recommended if you want a feel-good-movie made with heart and honesty. No special FX or fancy tricks. In this one, it's just cameras and acting. The mother in the story is played by the director's own mom!

Sounds like it could be worth watching if obtainable.

die-hard action film fans are probably the only ones who know this rousing arctic romp:


DEATH HUNT

Brutal, tough flick set in Alberta Territory or somewhere like that. Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson, what more could you ask for?

There's also the great Ed Lauter, Carl Weathers, Scott Hylands in a bi-plane, and Andrew Stevens. All bruisers. Angie Dickinson too.

One of the best chase movies ever. And based on actual events.

I am no action film fan but I have actually seen this film and agree that it was exciting.

A very fun, neglected, oddly-conceived western which sticks in the mind long afterwards is Louis L'amour's "A Man Called Noon".

Features the always-reliable Richard Crenna in the lead. His 'Puck'-like sidekick (you can't tell if he's a good guy or a bad guy) is none other than the dashing and rakish Stephen Boyd. Leading female is some lush Italian beauty like Luciana Palluzzi or someone like that; and the villain is (last you'd ever guess) a bearded Farley Granger who was doing European films at the time. This flick is a Spanish-Italian production, I recall.

I designate it an 'oddball' film because it has wonderful spaghetti-western photography combined with a 'film noir'-ish story premise, and last but not least, there's also an element of espionage. Absurd! Ridiculous! But it works.

It may be the only western-noir-spy yarn ever made. {Not 100% sure because the Italian movie industry has a lot more strange products than most of us realize}.

Fun little time-waster for a rainy afternoon.

I'm not familiar with that one, Feliks but it sure sounds like a spaghetti-western. Off the wall but always great photography.

One of the great sleepers is the noir classic Narrow Margin, 1952, directed by Richard Fleisher and starring the superb Marie Windsor and the under-rated Charles McGraw. The studio didn't think much of it, considering it a "B" film and it didn't get much hype when released but the public loved it. The industry suddenly realized that they had a hit on their hands and it received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay. And there is an unexpected twist in the end which might take you by surprise since it is not telegraphed or at least I didn't see it coming. Great little film.

Charles McGraw and Lawrence Tierney always seem to hover in the same zone for me. Recall Tierney in 'Born to Kill'. Burr.

It sure was fun seeing McGraw finally get a well-deserved comeuppance at the hands of Kirk Douglas in 'Spartacus'

Tierney was a bad boy in real life as well as on film, or so I have read.

Charles McGraw had a face that limited him to either tough cops or tough crooks. It's odd that someone like Charles Bronson, who had the very same type of face, could play about anyone, even a love interest but McGraw never got that chance.

Bronson said by co-star James Garner, " 'always goshdarn grumpy about somethin' ..."

I don't know what to make of the diff betwixt he and McGraw except that McGraw's career was spent more under the studio heyday and Bronson's career extended past the changeover.

You are probably right.....the studio typecast him and put him in every film that called for a tough guy. He didn't have much say as to his roles.

Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld in 'Pretty Poison'. Wow what a film. Was there ever a more precocious waif than Tuesday Weld? She makes Sue Lyon, or Melanie Griffith, both look like they're carved from a block of hemlock wood. (Sry Spencer!)

Charles Laughton
Starred in underrated and under-watched movie from the 40s, "The Suspect" - such Hitchcockian suspense a lot of people think Hitchcock directed it.
"Night of the Hunter", directed by Laughton - great performances by Robert Mitchum and silent film great Lillian Gish. It was remade in the early '90s with Richard Chamberlain in the Mitchum role - he was pretty effective.

Thanks, Barbara, for the tip. Might look into this one.

Night of the Hunter (1955) is one great film and the only one ever directed by Laughton. The author of the book, Davis Grubb, on which the film is based is from my hometown

The scene with Shelley Winters floating dead under the water with her hair streaming upward is very artistic and beautiful (even though she is dead!) Mitchum is evil personified and it is one of his best performances.....reminds me of his character in Cape Fear (1962). And of course Lillian Gish is wonderful.

Well, there's another one to look for. ☺. Thanks, Jill.

Jill wrote: "And of course Lillian Gish is wonderful. "

Gish was hilarious in a little movie from the '80s, her next to last movie. It was called "Sweet Liberty" - a funny idea, but only so-so execution, about a professor (writers/director Alan Alda) who writes a nonfiction historical work about a little known chapter of the Revolutionary War that gets optioned by the movies. Gish plays Alda's dotty mom. Inspired casting.

I don't think of Night of the Hunter as a "sleeper." I'd say anyone with any real film knowledge has seen it more than once.

Barbara wrote: "Charles Laughton
Starred in underrated and under-watched movie from the 40s, "The Suspect" - such Hitchcockian suspense a lot of people think Hitchcock directed it.
"Night of the Hunter", directe..."

'The Suspect' is by Robert Siodmak, an escapee from Nazi-Germany who debuted in 1929 with the remarkable 'People on Sunday'. If you think of silent German cinema in terms of Fritz Lang/Murnau/expressionism, you'd be in for a huge surprise. From the mid 20s onwards there was a movement, 'New Objectivity', that resulted (among many others) in 'People on Sunday', a semi-documetary film about what ordinary folk do on their only day off. It's marvellous and very lyrical. Besides Siodmark, some of the people involved behind the camera were Fred Zinnemann, Billy Wilder and Edgar Ulmer, aka an entire generation of future Noir.
Siodmark directed a few more good ones before leaving Germany via France. It took him a while to get past B-feature status in Hollywood, but from the mid-forties onwards he directed a great series of Noirs in the US - The Suspect, The Killer, The Spiral Staircase, The Dark Mirror, Criss Cross, Cry of the City, and a few others. He's definitely worth checking out.

Sounds good to me. Thanks for the suggestions.

Most the films listed here are dramas, which brings me to one of my favorite favorite actresses, Eleanor Parker. She started in primarily dramas, because, my understanding is, she felt that was what true acting was. However, having watched her in comedies is what made me TRULY appreciate her as an actress. I think that TRUE comedy, timing and wit (not just poop jokes or sound effects), takes talent.

Here is where the sleeper part comes in, most people have watched her in Caged, Scaramouche, The Man with the Golden Arm, etc.

However, please watch these little known comedies: The Voice of the Turtle, A Millionaire for Christy, and Never Say Goodbye. They are so well done and IMO little known treasures.

Parker is a fine actress, but I haven't seen her in much comedy. Will have to remember those suggestionx. Thanks.

I have trouble thinking about Eleanor Parker in a comedy......only because I have seen her in the dramas that you mentioned.

One of the most popular films which starred fairly little-known actors which became a huge hit and is still watched time and time again is Dirty Dancing (1987). Everything about it is wonderful, IMO, and even some of the dialogue has slipped into our language....."Nobody puts Baby in the corner" and "I dropped the watermelon". Great, great music and dancing, it came as a total surprise to the producers that it gained such tremendous popularity. I can't even count the number of times I have seen it.

He Walked By Night (1948)........here is a film that got good reviews when released, wasn't expected to make a big splash and didn't have any big stars, so I guess we can call it a sleeper. This film is a study in stark black and white and the storm drain finale is superb. The cinematography by Robert Alton is probably the major reason that this film is well respected, although Richard Basehart certainly contributes to its reputation.

Basehart found his best role as the icy man on a mission. He was a rather strange looking actor to begin with which added to his menace. The rest of the cast are throw-aways, only background for Basehart's character. This is not to say that they do an inferior job but the viewer's interest is concentrated on Basehart and his skewed personality. The film tends to move rather slowly at times but it all ends with one of the greatest chases in film history.....through the storm drains of Los Angeles with the already mentioned Alton touch. And it pre-dated a similar chase through the drains in The Third Man (1949).

This is a small film that is worth watching. It is a primer for the appreciation of black and white cinematography

Hmm, I may have to watch that one, Jill. Thanks for the mention.

It is the perfect film for the art of black and white film. I am a fan of Robert Alton and think I have mentioned his cinematography skills on some other topics.

Are those ridiculous "so bad they are good" films considered sleepers? They were horrible when first released but somehow they were re-evaluated, became cult-like, and are still being shown. We could fill pages with those movies and since we don't have a "cult film" topic, do they go here?

The Village of the Damned (1960). Here is a real sleeper and I apologize for writing so much about it......but seeing the title, people might steer away from it.

This classic low budget, black and white film is right up there with the best of the sci-fi/horror movies of the time. It appears that it was shot on a very low budget, thus no special effects beyond the superimposed glowing eyes of the children and the burning house at the end (not much of an effect). But it became a real moneymaker and a cult developed around it. They went on to make a sequel which doesn't live up to the original.

The cast, though limited, is quite good. The ever sophisticated, urbane, George Sanders as the scientist; Barbara Shelley from Hammer films as his wife; and little Martin Stephens as David, putative offspring of Shelley and Sanders. This kid is evil personified and does a bang-up job for such a youngster.

The story involves the village of Midwich and the birth of 12 children fathered in a very strange way that is never totally explained, who are intellectual giants with one purpose.....take over the world. Should they be destroyed or studied?....that's the problem facing Sanders and the government. Sanders comes to the inevitable conclusion and because they can read his thoughts, he must think of a brick wall in an attempt to mask his intent. The ending, although not surprising is still effective.

This film is a keeper and is recommended to all those who like their films straight to the point without all the special effects and computer generated action. It's minimal with maximum punch.

Hmm, I must admit this kind of movie doesn't really appeal to me, but I might give it a look since you so highly recommend it.

Even though it is kinda' science fiction, it has a lot more going for it. Good acting, good story, and makes you think a bit. People started talking about it when it was released because it wasn't exactly what it appeared and it has become a cult classic. You might like it, Betsy. It is based on the book The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham which was quite popular.

Great film.

I'm glad you agree, Spencer. I don't know why it caught my attention but I am happy that it did.