CineMaven wrote:In The TCM March 2014 Schedule Thread, ...“Youngblood Hawke” will be on TCM this Thursday afternoon. I wouldn’t label it a “BAD-MOVIE-YOU-LOVE.” I think it’s a hoot...in a good way. And there’s lots of good stuff in there which was discussed almost three years ago
here. I put this in the glossy, though black 'n white, category of "THE BEST OF EVERYTHING" where we see a person's adventure here in the big bad city trying to make a success of it. I like how TCM’s description says Franciscus
'exercises a powerful spell over every woman he meets.' If you check it out, you’ll be the judge of that. They certainly gave him interesting actresses to work with. ( Genevieve Page and Suzanne Pleshette. ) I always thought he was a sincere actor. (
...Yeah, and a cutie pie. )
Well, a hoot or a bad movie i love--I missed the first half hour of
The Thomas Wolfe Story Youngblood Hawke but the parts I saw made me laugh harder than I have in months. What a delight. I haven't seen so many
toupees older but eager actors chomp and gulp down the scenery in one flick in quite some time. What fun it was to see this parade of tonsorial prostheses (I bet the hairdressing budget for the men must have rivaled the costume budget for the dames for this movie)--and I am not even mentioning
Hayden Rorke &
John Dehner's hairpieces:
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Don Porter pulled out all the stops as the materialistic literary agent, especially in the scene when he ran riot in the publisher's office, leaving it a shambles and his author quivering with embarrassment. He made Swifty Lazar look like an ascetic monk by comparison to Porter's showboating greed.
~~
John Emery always sounds as though he is auditioning for the part of Mephistopheles in a Little Theater production of Doctor Faustus, and he didn't disappoint here. I love the way he literally caresses his lines with his silvery ham's tongue, milking every nano-second of screen time for all its worth. When he says "there are so many women in the world, it's frightening" you know that the erstwhile Mr. Tallulah Bankhead knows what he is talking about.
~~
Lee Bowman, managing to be both icy and oily simultaneously, how much he ached to
be Youngblood Hawke! Those who can, write. Those who can't, seethe and publish potboilers.
My favorite line, spoken by that master of understatement,
Berry Kroeger, as he introduces the hero reading from the appropriately named "Alms for Oblivion":
"We reject subtlety, we have a great play here!!"
Kroeger, as far as I (and the actor himself) was concerned, was a great, unrecognized star, particularly when he played the Sorcerer who changed men into pigs for Circe in
The Lost Continent of Atlantis, made in the same year as this epic.
Above: The estimable
Berry Kroeger, in his mind's eye, if not in
Youngblood Hawke (1964).
CineMaven wrote:The photo of Franciscus and Pleshette with the NYC skyline in the background was filmed on the Promenade over in Brooklyn Heights. ( He’s told an apartment there would cost $65.00 a month. ) Brooklyn Heights is one of Brooklyn’s toniest neighborhoods. Now...fifty years later, you couldn’t get a closet there for $65 bucks.
Oh, I loved his Brooklyn garret, one flight up from Susan Pleshette's "hovel." His apt. and the Greenwich Village studio where Joan Crawford "suffered ' in
Daisy Kenyon (1947) are two of my favorite humble homes, NYC style. Of course, the cozy image of Youngblood's aerie below--complete with compliant if permanently peevish mistress--also reminded me of the set design in the Al Pacino-Keanu Reeves bromance between Satan and his son, in
The Devil's Advocate (1997)--now that was a Bad Movie I Loved (sort of).
Above: The grand piano, skylight, and clothesline make the living room complete in Youngblood Hawke's den of creativity.
A few questions still nibble away at me about this movie:
a.) Did
Mildred Dunnock sign a contract in her own anemic blood at some point that said she was only to play disappointed women? (See
Youngblood Hawke, Butterfield 8, Peyton Place, Death of a Salesman).
b.) Do you really think that
Eva Gabor knew that she was in a movie and not at a party that just happened to be on a movie set?
c.) Did
Genevieve Page speak English phonetically, or did she understand every other word? It makes for some unique line readings, that is for sure.
d.) Does anyone else melt when they see that dimple in James Franciscus' right cheek?
(You're right, CineMaven, he's a cutie)
e.) Did
Jack Warner have some dark secret to hold against
Delmer Daves to make him keep filming this kind of movie at the end of his career? (See everything from
A Summer Place on in his ouevre).
f.) Couldn't anyone find
Suzanne Pleshette a worthwhile role for her to play in a movie? EVER?
Two very good things about YH:
1.)
Mary Astor looked great in her beautiful duds and (under)acted rings around everyone.
2.) New York City never looked more beautiful in the black and white location shots until Woody Allen's
Manhattan years later!