kingrat wrote:Night Into Morning (1951). After a fire kills his family, a college professor sinks into alcoholism. John Hodiak, Nancy Davis. D: Fletcher Markle.
A Life of Her Own (1950). A small-town girl climbs to the top of the modeling business man by man. Lana Turner, Tom Ewell, Louis Calhern. D: George Cukor. This has the reputation of being one of Cukor's lesser efforts, but it has its moments. The film opens with one of Bronislau Kaper's most haunting melodies, and the first half hour features Ann Dvorak in a memorable supporting role.
The salute concludes with three early films where Ray Milland has only small roles: The Man Who Played God (1932), with George Arliss and Bette Davis; Strangers May Kiss (1931), with Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery; and Just a Gigolo (1931), with William Haines, C. Aubrey Smith , and Lilian Bond.
Night Into Morning (1951) may sound like a retread of
The Lost Weekend, but
Milland's performance was impressive to me, though maybe I was just a sap the first time I saw this story. If you've ever known anyone who has had to deal with an incomprehensible tragedy, (and who hasn't?), this little-known movie has moments that hint at stark realism, even if the ending, sounding a small note of hope, may not seem dramatically logical.
A Life of Her Own (1950) is one of
Cukor's least favorite of all his movies, according to interviews with the director, though
Dvorak's bitter, washed-up model haunts the film and I spent most of the movie wishing that she was the central character.
Milland and
Turner seem to have zilch chemistry that I could discern, though the
Kaper score, which the composer re-used the following year for
Invitation (1951), became a jazz standard, thanks to musicians like John Coltrane. There are a couple of fine scenes other than those with the dazzling talent of
Ann Dvorak, with a surprisingly likable
Tom Ewell (whose inherent oiliness is usually creepy to me) as a director of a model agency. Of course, no one ever mentions that the beautifully groomed
Turner was about a foot shorter and a decade older than a photographic model would be--even back then. It also doesn't help that the actress had to appear in the fashions of that day. The duds were designed by
Helen Rose, (whose work
Cukor actively loathed), and they tended to make the petite leading lady look like a cross between a walking toadstool and lampshade. However, there are a couple of scenes in this movie that make me smile. Don't miss the one with the couple in the New York cocktail lounge of one's dreams--
until the ventriloquist shows up! That is when the movie teeters on the brink of becoming suitable material for our Bad Movies We Love thread.
I'm really interested in the last three movies,
The Man Who Played God (1932),
Strangers May Kiss (1931), and
Just a Gigolo (1931), since I've never seen them in their entirety. Thanks for the heads up on this lineup, King.
!
I see this movie once in a while for kicks and its defiantly belongs in the Bad Movies that We Love thread. 
