Have You Ever Seen

It's another doubleheader in episode #735, this time with 2 unrelated '50s classics. First up, I talk about the offbeat John Huston comedy Beat The Devil. The screenplay he wrote with Truman Capote is very quotable, even though its characters and daffy plot parody serious caper flicks like Huston's The Maltese Falcon. Humphrey Bogart has been a regular on Have You Ever Seen over the years, but this is the first episode ever for Jennifer Jones or Gina Lollobrigida. Jenny is quirky, cute and quite a talented liar while Gina is...well, staggeringly gorgeous. Then I veer from the fun of that one to spend about 17 minutes on Lee J. Cobb and Jane Wyatt in The Man Who Cheated Himself. Felix Feist's noir is about a cop who breaks the law to cover for his murdering mistress. Jane Wyatt is yet another classic actress we'd never covered before. So spend this final Monday of April hearing about a loopy comedy and an intense crime flick.
Well, Actually: "coupe" IS pronounced "coo-pay" in French AND in what's known as "British English". Also, the other movie that will be reviewed on Friday will in fact be the Gene Autry western South Of The Border.
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Inside Man is a clever heist film with the twist staring you in the face from the beginning. It's also the first Spike Lee or Jodie Foster film to be reviewed on Have You Ever Seen in quite some time. Foster and Denzel Washington's scenes together are fantastic. The 2 of them, plus Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor deliver. Ironically, though, for a film with such intensity for 2 straight hours, the actors are generally calm. Well, Denzel is showboating, but he's Denzel. You can't reign in that charisma machine. So for my 734th episode, settle in to hear about a snappy caper film as I monologue about Spike Lee's biggest hit, Inside Man.
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It's a short one for episode #733 of Have You Ever Seen, as I discuss Anthony Mann's biopic about the best-selling bandleader from the '30s & '40s. Smash hits Moonlight Serenade & In The Mood are Glenn Miller's 2 most-recognizable songs, tunes you'll know the minute you hear them. This is a straight-ahead "based on real people" movie (including his loving wife, Helen), but Mann, who often worked with James Stewart in this era, was an underrated director. And while Jimmy has OFTEN come up on this podcast, this is a first for June Allyson...and we also have a memorable cameo by the great trumpeter Louis Armstrong. So, honestly, take a listen to my sentimental review of the sentimental Glenn Miller Story.
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I've got another multi-movie episode here in the 732nd edition of Have You Ever Seen. Jacques Tourneur directs Out Of The Past and Robert Siodmak is at the helm of The Spiral Staircase, even if it feels at times like one directed the other. Yet they both do a very good job with these films noir, including killing off many of their characters. Rhonda Fleming is in both, but in Past you've got Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas & Jane Greer, who gives one of the better performances in the history of femmes fatale. In Staircase, Dorothy McGuire, George Brent and Ethel Barrymore have centre stage...and they all deliver too. The first flick has a VERY complex plot, while the second is a straight-forward "a killer is on the loose" whodunit. So lend me 50 minutes of your time as I scoop out the innards of Out Of The Past and The Spiral Staircase.
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W.C. Fields makes his debut on Have You Even Seen in this 731st episode where I talked about 3 of his classic laugh-fests: International House, It's A Gift and The Bank Dick. George Burns & Gracie Allen turn up in International House and Una Merkel plays Fields' daughter in It's A Gift, so we've got 4 AFI Old-Timey Actors in one super-show. First up, you get the "Grand Hotel of comedy", where the gags are quite risqué (even considering it was made before the production code), followed by the funniest one in this three-pack: It's A Gift. Fields is REALLY in textbook mumbling, drunken form in The Bank Dick, with its all-over-the-place plot and random gags. So to bring this Easter Weekend home, cue up my one-man-show about the House, the Gift and the Dick, as W.C. does his thing as only he could.
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