101 Forgotten Films

by Brian Mills

Overview

Somewhere in the labyrinth of our memories are films that we have seen and cannot forget but frustratingly may never see again because they have mysteriously vanished from the public domain. They may be hidden away in a film studio's vault, buried beneath the floorboards of a filmmaker's home, imprisoned by some ancient legality, refused release at a director's whim or simply not optioned by a distributor.

This book brings back to life 101 films that are entombed in a cinema cemetery and in so doing unearths a film noir masterpiece, a French classic, a Mastroianni feature comparable to Cinema Paradiso, a pioneering Independent film of the fifties, a Joan Crawford headliner, an amazing Nicholas Ray experimental feature, Italian comedies by Nichetti and lost gems by Widerberg, Hitchcock, Lang, Ford, Lubitsch, Litvak, Dmytryk, Kazan, Cacoyannis, Boetticher, Zinnemann, Ray, Huston and many more luminaries of the silver screen.

No film is guaranteed a general release whether screened at Sundance or Cannes and though critics may acclaim them, audiences applaud them, too many disappear into oblivion. This book pays homage to those lost films that deserve to be exhibited beyond the screen of our mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781842433904
Publisher:	Oldcastle Books
Publication date:	11/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

By Brian Mills
Brian Mills is a film reviewer, movie therapist and author of Movie Star Memorabilia - A Collector's Guide. He has appeared on The Richard & Judy Show.

Read an Excerpt

101 Forgotten Films

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By Brian Mills

Oldcastle Books

Copyright © 2008 Brian Mills
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84243-390-4

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CHAPTER 1

PRECIOUS GEMS

Among films that have disappeared are some that have defied conventional cinema and become cult classics, pushing the boundaries beyond normality. It may be that they have shown an actor in a different light, used narration in a new way, employed a way of storytelling that makes one question what one is being presented with, celebrated the magical visionary art of cinema through film, or examined the dictates of the star system and its effect upon us.

Letty Lynton 1932

Directed by: Clarence Brown

Written by: John Meehan. Marie Belloc Lowndes (novel).

Cast: Joan Crawford (Letty Lynton), Robert Montgomery (Hale Darrow), Nils Asther (Emile Renaul), Lewis Stone (District Attorney Haney), May Robson (Mrs Lynton), Louise Closser Hale (Miranda), Emma Dunn (Mrs Darrow), Walter Walker (Mr Darrow), William Pawley (Hennessey).

Story: Letty Lynton (Crawford) is a New York socialite who is disgusted with her philandering ways and in particular with her Latin lover Emile Renaul (Asther). She sails for New York and onboard meets a wealthy businessman Hale Darrow (Montgomery). They fall in love. 'I'd black your boots for the rest of my life!' she tells him, but he doesn't know of her past and she doesn't know that Emile is following her. There is a poignant scene, which captures Letty's loneliness: all passengers receive Christmas telegrams from loved ones at home, except Letty. Jerry, seeing her sadness, pretends that he didn't get one either. Arriving in New York they are swamped by the press, eager to report their engagement, but Emile is among the crowd, hoping to rekindle Letty's love for him and take her back to South America. She manages to avoid any confrontation with Emile, but he turns up at her mother's house and threatens to show her love letters to him to the press and to Jerry if she doesn't agree to see him at his hotel that evening. An argument ensues at the hotel resulting in Emile accidentally drinking a poisoned drink intended for Letty.

What the millions who have not seen this film are sadly missing is the remarkable performance by Joan Crawford. The scene where she betrays her true feelings of hatred toward Emile are seen first in close up as she listens to him singing in the next room: guilt, anger, loathing, fear and confusion are all expressed in that one moment. Letty's verbal outburst follows like a volcanic eruption as she stares at her dying lover, each uttered word falling on her victim like molten lava. 'Yes, I did it! I meant it for myself ... I'm glad I did it! You dirty, filthy, greedy mongrel! I'm glad I did it! If I hang for it, I'm glad I did it!'

RARITY VALUE: 5/5

Theatrically released in 1932, Letty Lynton caused a nationwide fashion craze for the ruffled-shoulder organdie dress worn by Crawford, which sold 50,000 copies at Macy's New York store alone. The film is a showcase for designer Adrian's dresses. In January 1936 a court decision ruled that MGM violated copyright laws by too closely following the script of Edward Sheldon's play Dishonoured Lady, which was based on a girl named Madeleine Smith who lived in Glasgow and was brought to trial upon an indictment for twice attempting to poison her lover, and then for actually poisoning him. She was acquitted. MGM claimed unsuccessfully that they had based their screenplay on the novel Letty Lynton by Marie Belloc Lowndes.

The film was banned in England on grounds that it 'justified homicide without penalty'. In the film, Letty is saved from execution by an alibi from a man who claims she spent the night in question with him. Due to the 1936 court ruling against MGM, public exhibition or showing of the film on television is strictly prohibited. Only poor bootleg copies remain that do nothing to enhance the film.

Joan Crawford: Born Lucille LeSueur in San Antonio, Texas, in 1908. Debuted in Miss MGM in 1925. Won an Oscar for Mildred Pierce. Wanting to be a dancer since she was a child, despite an accident that severely injured her foot, she persisted in pursuing her dream and eventually entered a dance contest and won. She said: 'I knew I was born with talent, though I didn't know exactly what it was.' She learned every dance step she could. She went to Chicago and got a job doing a song and dance act in an out-of-town café. Two weeks later and Joan was in the chorus line at a club in Detroit. She subsequently appeared in the revue Innocent Eyes in New York and then in The Passing Show of 1924. Eight months later and she was spotted by a talent scout and asked to do a screen test for MGM. She started working for MGM thinking that they had employed her for her dancing, but they wanted her as an actress. Her first screen part was as a chorus girl covered in snow in Pretty Ladies. MGM wanted to change her name and held a competition in the magazine Photoplay to get the name that was, of course, Joan Crawford, a name which she always hated, saying that it sounded like 'Crowfish'. But it was important to Joan to make a name for herself as a film star to prove to her friends and family back home, who didn't believe in her, that she had talent. In 1928 she played in Our Dancing Daughters and had a lucky break when she was seen coming out of a cake and dancing on a table. Suddenly she was a star and was given a raise of 500 dollars a week. Joan wanted to be a real actress and would hang around the set watching Greta Garbo work whenever she could. She finally pestered Louis B Mayer for more dramatic roles. She was with MGM for 17 years. During those years she became one of the ten top movie stars. But it was at Warner Brothers that she gained the dramatic role that would win her an Academy Award. The film was Mildred Pierce and it told of a housewife who becomes a successful businesswoman only to find herself suspected of murdering her second husband. Joan was also Oscar nominated for Best Actress for her roles in Possessed and Sudden Fear.

Larceny Inc. 1942

Directed by: Lloyd Bacon

Written by: Laura Perelman. SJ Perelman.

Cast: Edward G Robinson (J Chalmers 'Pressure' Maxwell), Jane Wyman (Denny Costello), Broderick Crawford (Jug Martin), Jack Carson (Jeff Randolph), Anthony Quinn (Leo Dexter), Edward Brophy (Weepy Davis), Harry Davenport (Homer Bigelow), John Qualen (Sam Bacharach), Barbara Jo Allen (Mademoiselle Gloria), Grant Mitchell (Mr Aspinwall), Jackie Gleason (Hobart), Andrew Tombes (Oscar Englehart), Joe Downing (Smitty), George Meeker (Mr Jackson), Fortunio Bonanova (Anton Copoulos).

Story: Released from prison, Pressure Maxwell (Robinson) and Jug Martin (Crawford) are greeted by Denny Costello (Wyman). Pressure promises Denny that he will go straight, but when he has a bank loan turned down to open a dog track, he resorts to trusted methods to get the money. He gets a sidekick Weepy (Edward Brophy) to case the cellar of a luggage store next door to a bank. Buying the store from its owner, Pressure sets about getting stock from luggage salesman Jeff Randolph (Jack Carson) and then immediately gets Jug to start drilling in the basement. Meanwhile the store has to keep open to give the impression that business is as normal. Pressure has no idea of selling etiquette and prices everything the same, taking umbrage when customers expect purchased goods to be wrapped. Chaos continues when Jug drills through a water pipe. A contingency of neighbours led by Sam Bacharach (John Qualen) asks Pressure to get the contractor to repair the street. Denny learns that Jug is digging into the bank and complains to Pressure. Once the street is fixed, the store is closed for alterations. Aspinwall (Grant Mitchell), the banker, offers to buy the store for $12,000, but Pressure wants more. Jug thinks he has hit oil but it is only a fuel tank. They catch a man, Smitty (Joe Downing), attempting to rob their store and Pressure in desperation gives him a bag. Neighbours bring gifts to Pressure, while, in prison, Smitty tells Leo (Anthony Quinn) about the bank job. At the re-opening they make $535 profit in one day. Pressure tells Denny that he likes the honest business, but then Leo comes in and orders them to rob the bank. And from then on things only get worse and consequently even funnier.

The screenplay is based on the stage play Night Before Christmas written by Laura and SJ Perelman and a lot of the craziness of Perelman's lines remain in the film. He was one of Hollywood's funniest writers and of course wrote the Marx Brothers' comedies, Monkey Business and Horse Feathers, as well as one of Hollywood's most brilliant romantic comedies One Night With Venus. Edward G Robinson excels as Pressure Maxwell, managing to portray his typecast gangster self in a hilarious scenario. His anti-salesman-like behaviour is a joy to behold and is side-bustingly funny.

RARITY VALUE: 4/5

Can sometimes be seen on television channels but still unreleased on DVD or VHS.

Edward G Robinson: Born Emanuel Goldenberg on 12 December 1893 in Bucharest, Romania. He arrived in the USA at the age of ten, when his parents moved into New York's East Side. He attended City College with plans to become either a rabbi or a lawyer, but abandoned both aspirations to become an actor. He was awarded a scholarship at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began to work in stock under his new name of Robinson. Later came Broadway and then his film debut in the silent film The Bright Shawl in 1923. But it was the advent of sound that really gave him his breakthrough and allowed his voice to reverberate in our memories with the character of gangster Rico Bandello in 1931's Little Caesar. Other memorable roles followed including that of insurance investigator Keyes in Wilder's classic film noir Double Indemnity in 1944, which made use of a now-famous plot device: throughout the film, Fred MacMurray's character Walter Neff is constantly lighting Keyes' cigars for him; at the end, as he is dying, Keyes returns the favour, lighting Neff's cigarette. 'You know why you couldn't figure this one out Keyes? I was too close to you, right across the desk from you.' 'Closer than that,' replies Keyes. It is spoken in this rich familiar voice that so many have impersonated, a voice that Robinson cultivated by his habitual smoking of cigars. He had a passion for collecting things, whether cigar bands or art paintings, and this reflected an actor who was a connoisseur of life.

See:Sammy Going South.

Appointment With Danger 1951

Directed by: Lewis Allen

Written by: Richard L Breen. Warren Duff.

Cast: Alan Ladd (Al Goddard), Phyllis Calvert (Sister Augustine), Paul Stewart (Earl Boettiger), Jan Sterling (Dodie), Jack Webb (Joe Regas), Stacey Harris (Paul Ferrer), Harry Morgan (George Soderquist), David Wolfe (David Goodman), Dan Riss (Maury Ahearn), Geraldine Wall (Mother Ambrose), George J Lewis (Leo Cronin), Paul Lees (Gene Gunner).

Story: Al Goddard (Ladd) is a special investigator for the US post office who is called in to investigate the murder of a postal inspector. He questions the only witness to the crime, a nun, Sister Augustine (Calvert). She has seen two men drag a body onto a street and is able to recognise one of the men from a mugshot. Goddard hears that the motive for the killing has to do with a planned one-million-dollar mail truck robbery, which will involve three hoodlums and the mail truck driver. Managing to infiltrate the gang by bribery, he schemes to foil the criminals. Discovering Goddard's true identity, the gang take him and the nun prisoners, which leads to a climactic shoot-out in a dismal industrial district.

At first viewing this seems like a mediocre film noir but on closer inspection it is disturbingly gripping, which is mainly due to casting Jack Webb as one of the villains. Webb, who was later to gain fame as Joe Friday in the successful TV series Dragnet, is viciously and convincingly vile. His partner in Dragnet, Harry Morgan, is his accomplice in Appointment With Danger. There is a telling sequence when Goddard is playing Joe Regas (Webb) at squash and uses the ball as a weapon to floor him.

RARITY RATING: 4/5

Some bootleg DVD copies of questionable quality can be obtained via the Internet.

Alan Ladd: Laddie, as he was nicknamed, appeared in 95 films from Tom Brown of Culver in 1932 to The Carpetbaggers in 1964. He won a Golden Globe Award in 1954 for World Favourite Male Actor. Rose immediately to stardom when he was cast to play Philip Raven, a professional killer in This Gun For Hire. He set the pattern for the smooth-talking, handsome killer with a sartorial sense of elegance. Seven movies were made teaming him with Veronica Lake, a screen partnership that worked successfully in The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia. But it was in 1953 that Laddie got the role that epitomised him as the hero in George Stevens' archetypal western Shane. The film was based on Jack Schaefer's novel and told the story of a retired gunslinger, Shane, who drifts into a homestead where the family is being terrorised by a cattleman and his hired gun. In motion picture history Shane earned itself the critical laurel of being one of the greatest westerns of all time. The voice of an actor is paramount to his success and Laddie had the most distinctive voice of them all, as witnessed in an early bit part in the film Citizen Kane when he played a reporter whose voice can be heard from out of a group of shadowy figures. Despite his success, Laddie never believed the hype of the media or even his fans, and until the day he died maintained that he had the face of an ageing choirboy and the build of an undernourished featherweight.

See:The Great Gatsby.

Blast of Silence 1961

Directed by: Allen Baron

Written by: Allen Baron. Waldo Salt (wrote narration).

Cast: Allen Baron (Frankie Bono), Molly McCarthy (Lorrie), Larry Tucker (Big Ralph), Peter Clume (Troiano), Danny Meehan (Peter), Dean Sheldon (Nightclub Singer), Charles Creasap (Contact Man), Bill DePrato (Sailor), Erich Kollmar (Bellhop).

Story: Frankie 'Baby Boy' Bono, born into pain. Frankie Bono, out of Cleveland and into murder. Frankie is a loner but he likes it that way. He is a professional killer with hatred in his heart, a gun in his pocket and a contract to eliminate a Manhattan mobster named Troiano. He needs a gun with a silencer and calls on Big Ralph to supply it but it will take a day to get it so he has time to kill and that he can do – it is Christmas and he remembers other Christmases, at the orphanage, always wishing for something. Suddenly he meets an old friend and his sister, Lorrie, a girl he once loved, and is persuaded to attend their Christmas party. For a moment he forgets who he is and begins to enjoy himself, dancing with Lorrie and even accepting the challenge of a peanut- pushing-with-your-nose contest, which he wins. Next day he accepts Lorrie's invitation for dinner and then suddenly he gets angry when she starts asking too many questions. Everything seems to go wrong and Lorrie asks him to leave. December 26, another day. Troiano is back and so is Frankie, shadowing him as he watches him enter a brownstone building to meet a woman. He is beginning to hate Troiano as much as he hated his old man. He follows him to a nightclub called The Village Gate and is surprised to see Big Ralph there too. When Ralph realises whom Frankie is planning to hit, he wants more money. Ralph is now a problem and Frankie follows him home and kills him. The man who has hired Frankie to kill Troiano is not interested in his excuses for killing Ralph and when Frankie tells him that he no longer wants to do the job, he is told that he is in serious trouble. Next day Frankie meets another contact, a guy named Bonaface, and picks up the gun. He waits for Troiano to leave his apartment before he checks it out. The time is getting closer for the killing. It will be his last one. One more to die and then he will be alone. He gets to thinking about Lorrie, her voice reverberating in his head, 'What you need is a girl so that you don't have to be alone'. Frankie visits her again. It is early and she is surprised to see him. He tells her that she is right; he needs a girl. 'What I'm saying is that I need you.' But Lorrie isn't alone; her boyfriend appears from the bathroom. Frankie has got it all wrong ... again. Angrily he leaves. Focus, he must focus. A killer who doesn't kill, gets killed. When Troiano returns to his apartment, Frankie is waiting for him, five shots and he's dead. Job done. Exit via the fire escape and then just one more contact to pick up the money. He is taken out to a pier. It is blowing a hurricane. Bad moment. There are hoodlums waiting for him, another bad moment. Frankie realises that he is the payoff. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Gunshots. Pain. Falling into an abyss. Out of Cleveland into death. Alone. Silence.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from 101 Forgotten Films by Brian Mills. Copyright © 2008 Brian Mills. Excerpted by permission of Oldcastle Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents

Contents

Title Page,
Introduction,
Precious Gems,
The 1920s,
The 1930s,
The 1940s,
The 1950s,
The 1960s,
The 1970s,
The 1980s,
The 1990s,
Please Release Me,
Acknowledgements,
Copyright,