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Here's a few pages from Issues 48 and 49 (Summer & Winter 2003) to give you a flavour of the magazine. You might have to be patient with your computer (depending on your circumstances), while the images are downloading, but it's worth the wait!
HONORARY MEMBERS
DINAH SHERIDAN – DORA
BRYAN – DEBBIE REYNOLDS – ROBERT OSBORNE JOHN McCALLUM – GOOGIE WITHERS – PEGGY CUMMINS – JOHNNY GRANT
Well, it’s almost Christmas again – I just don’t know WHERE this year has gone – each one seems to go more quickly than the last!! I know this issue is not as large as usual, but I so wanted to get MVM 49 out to everyone BEFORE the festive season was upon us. I will make up for it with the Spring magazine, a special 50th ‘bumper’ issue! I can hardly believe it myself, that we have got up to number fifty already! Also, I have another important date to put in your diary – MVM’s annual gathering in 2004 will be on Saturday, May 8, at the CAA, 20 Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London – as usual. The door will open promptly at 2pm – so PLEASE do not arrive too early, for I have to set the hall out, as there is another function there in the morning which does not finish until 1pm. Admission will be the same as always, £2 per person, inclusive of raffle ticket for any of the numerous prizes on offer! I look forward to seeing some familiar faces on the day – plus some new ones – all being well – and I hope to have one or more special guests in attendance too – fingers crossed! I was saddened by the recent loss of the talented British leading lady of stage and screen, Patricia Burke, at the age of 86. The daughter of singer Tom Burke and the fine character actress Marie Burke, she was actually born in Milan. Primarily a straight actress, Patricia excelled in musicals – and is probably best remembered for two of her more notable films, ‘The Lisbon Story’(1946) with David Farrar and Richard Tauber and ‘While I Live’(1947) – with its haunting theme tune ‘The Dream Of Olwen’. However, I caught up with a black & white British ‘second feature’ ‘The Impersonator’(1961) not long ago and it starred the American John Crawford and a rather stiff British leading lady, Jane Griffiths – who looked quite ill-at-ease throughout. The film was stolen from both leads by Patricia Burke as a chirpy café owner – who was unfortunately murdered by a creepy prowler in this most atmospheric, fog-bound village mystery. By then in her early forties, Miss Burke outshone everyone with her natural performance – and I well recommend a viewing should this little film be re-shown – no doubt in the wee small hours as usual! Incidentally, Patricia was the voice of Mrs Clitheroe on the popular long-running Jimmy Clitheroe radio series ‘The Clitheroe Kid’ – which I loved as a child. When Jimmy’s show came to television, our own MVM ‘honorary’ Mollie Sugden, played Jimmy’s long suffering mother to perfection. I still laugh to myself when I hear the husky-voiced Jimmy getting his sister’s b-b-babbling boyfriend D-D-Danny (“ooh ‘eck!”) into various scrapes! Happy memories for me. It is a pity the talented Patricia Burke didn’t make more films, but I’m pleased to learn that she did have quite a long, prolific and very successful stage career, however. She will be missed.
Thanks to MVM member Robert Rosterman I have been able to enjoy another new biography in the ‘Hollywood Legend Series’ from the University Press Of Mississippi (USA) entitled ‘Van Johnson – MGM’s Golden Boy’ by Ronald L.Davis. This neat & tidy smallish book (250 pages) told me lots of things I didn’t know about Van with a couple of eyebrow raisers and a nice sprinkling of photographs, plus bibliography and full list of his many films. Van comes over as quite a complex personality, but is a natural entertainer, loving the recognition. Today, at 87, Van has not been in the best of health lately, but I do recommend this book – the first full-length biography of this durable, popular Hollywood star from the ‘golden age’ of MGM and beyond – and the front cover features a wonderful, boyish-faced Van smiling – at the peak of his career and popularity. He did have lots to smile about too, starring opposite some of Hollywood’s loveliest leading ladies of the day – Irene Dunne, June Allyson, Donna Reed, Lucille Bremer, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Gloria DeHaven, Esther Williams, Pat Kirkwood, Jane Wyman, Cyd Charisse, Greer Garson, Katharine Hepburn, etc……the list is endless!
As always, I am
sorry to have to report the deaths of several more names from the world of stage
and screen, namely: Hollywood ‘tough guy’ supporting actor Lyle Bettger
(88) – pictured below; 1950s American starlet Julie Parrish (63); Briti
Apparently in May this year, Bing Crosby’s 100th birthday was commemorated by a ‘Bing Bash’ on the campus of his ‘Alma Mater’, Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, USA. Of the 320 pre-registered attendees for this centennial celebration, at least a dozen came from the UK, proving the loyalty of British admirers of the legendary, evergreen Mr Crosby. I hope a good time was had by all! Also, judging by the photographs in the Autumn issue of ‘Classic Images’ newspaper, everyone had a fun time at the annual ‘Golden Boot’ pre-awards party in Studio City, California, with many names from the past in attendance – not ALL being involved in the western genre. Grace Bradley Boyd (widow of Hopalong Cassidy star William Boyd), Herb Jeffries, House Peters Jnr, Peggy Stewart, Paramount producer A.C Lyles, John Hart, Anne Jeffreys (always looking SO glamorous), Mr & Mrs Ben Cooper, Mr & Mrs Mickey Rooney, Mr & Mrs Fayard Nicholas, Mrs Gene Autry, Tommy Farrell, Alan Young, Marsha Hunt, Elke Sommer, Morgan Woodward – and the ‘Sons Of The Pioneers’ – to name but a few. The proceeds from the‘Golden Boot’ celebrations (a charitable event) always go to help the Motion Picture & Television Fund in Woodland Hills, California – a most worthy cause. Anyway, that’s enough from me for now, let’s get on with the show! But before I go, I’ll leave you with this: “If at first you don’t succeed….lower your standards!!” Happy reading everyone! Chris
‘SUNDAY DINNER FOR A SOLDIER’ By Frederick Harding
1944’s ‘Sunday Dinner For A Soldier’, though a simple enough story in itself, is more than just the toothsome trifle that the title might imply. It is one of those charming family movies, so prevalent in the early 1940s, which I personally remember with great affection. I can recall it being shown on UK TV a long time ago, but I never expected to have the opportunity of seeing it on the big screen again. However, in the autumn of 1985, Gerald Kaufman MP was invited by the NFT to select a season of some half dozen movies as a launch for his book ‘My Life In The Silver Screen’. It was an agreeable surprise to find ‘Sunday Dinner..’ as one of his choices.
A down-at-heel family living in a ramshackle houseboat in Florida want to invite a soldier – any soldier – home to Sunday dinner as their own small but earnest contribution to the war effort. It seems to be the in-thing – and if the more prosperous downtown folk can do it, cannot they do likewise? Doubts quite naturally arise. Are they taking on more than they can manage? Will the family’s slender budget really stand it? What would be the best way to go about it? How would they feel if, having extended their invitation, they found themselves unable to honour it? And could they count on the soldier turning up anyway? We need to keep in mind that for them, this is no trivial event, no simple act of charity. They
The family consists of obstinate old Grandfather (Charles Winninger) and his four orphaned grandchildren – Tessa (Anne Baxter), who is really the boss; Mary (delightful little Connie Marshall who we were later to see ‘introduced’ in the much maligned, though much loved by this writer – ‘Sentimental Journey’); and two small brothers Jeep (Bobby Driscoll) and Michael (Billy Cummings). Grandfather, who has never quite mastered the art of manipulating money, almost ruins things from the start. Rather than have Tessa appear in her accustomed dungarees, he buys her a new dress for the occasion and thereby bids fair to wreck her finely-balanced budget. Then little Mary takes a fright from the thought that her pet hen might become a target for the table. Other domestic crises follow thick and fast, not least among them being the question of whether the curtains will stand another soak without finally succumbing to the suds! After a disaster-dogged week of preparations, they are finally ready to welcome their Sunday visitor. Then comes the moment all had dreaded; the unknown soldier fails to show. With expectations high, the children have taken their stand at the bus-stop and undismayed by early disappointment, they doggedly maintain their vigil in the confident belief that he must surely come. But will he ever? The answer is almost certainly ‘no’, since you know what they don’t know. Because of some discourtesy on the part of Grandfather, the lady at the town’s administrative centre has surreptitiously withdrawn the family’s ‘soldier to dinner’ card. Later, when she is filled with remorse at what she has done, she tries to retrieve it, but by then all leave has been cancelled and no more soldiers are available.
At first, the waiting just adds to the fun, but as the day wears on, the children’s spirits begin to sink. Will cruel fate conspire to set their efforts all at naught? Will no bright angel happen by to intervene on their behalf? Are they really going to have to accept the inevitable? Buses come and buses go, but not one of them manages to produce the longed-for soldier. Enthusiasm gradually ebbs away and doubt turns finally to real despair, whilst the audience are made to suffer every anguished moment. Heartbreak time arrives at last – and the children are on the verge of giving up. But Hollywood, ever fond of creating such a situation, always has a master plan ready for resolving it. With one wave of its magic wand – and precisely at the moment when all hope seems gone, an unsuspecting soldier who has particular reasons for being in town just happens to wander down into their isolated neck of the woods. The children unceremoniously fall upon him, convinced that this is he – and protestations prove useless as they bundle him triumphantly homeward. Puzzled at first by their reference to ‘dinner’, he at length divines the truth – and decides to play along like the nice guy he eventually turns out to be. Needless to say he’s at home in a trice in the warm and welcoming company of Tessa and Gramps, the children smother him with genuine affection – and if you can’t see a peaches-and-cream romance coming on, then you’ve never been to the pictures! By the time he has finished his stay and returned to base, he has taken back with him the love of Tessa and the fond embrace of a whole adopted family.
How does an unassuming little piece like this tug so mightily at the heartstrings? Partly because of the homely and heart-warming way in which it is presented. Lloyd Bacon’s skilled and sensitive direction sets the tone; the children are quite enchanting; the teaming of Anne Baxter and John Hodiak as the romantic leads couldn’t be bettered (they would marry in real life not long afterwards); Charles Winninger is just right as whiskery old Grandfather; and the supporting players, among them Anne Revere, Chill Wills and Jane Darwell, add immeasurably to the enjoyment. There can be no doubt, too, that the intention was to present a back-garden view of American life, showing its people as amiable, easy-going, peace-loving folk united against the common enemy – and all this is adequately conveyed. Most critics on both sides of the Atlantic (the distinguished James Agee being a notable exception) found the film engaging enough at the time – and Richard Winnington went on to say that he thought it the best propaganda piece that had been put out in the then current year.
Perhaps, however, the key factor is that, like so many of the quieter, largely unsung – and now mostly neglected movies of Hollywood’s golden age, it is really a fairy tale in which we yearn to believe. Propaganda or not, it is one of the many examples of the era where we see people being kind to each other, showing concern for each other – and having consideration for each other. We know of course that real life only too often isn’t like that; it wasn’t any more so then than it is now, though how nice it would be if it were. Yet one treasures these gentle images of yesteryear. Some might say that ‘golden-aged’ Hollywood had a lot to answer for; but it beguiled us, it charmed us, it uplifted us – and in movies like ‘Sunday Dinner For A Soldier’ it made an appeal to all that was best in us – and that, surely, was a very great deal to be thankful for.
© Movie Memories Magazine 2004
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character actor David Lodge (82); controversial, talented director
Elia Kazan (94); lovely, dark-haired Irish-born leading lady of the 50s,
Constance Smith (75) (see opposite page) who after several films here, went
on to Hollywood success before retiring in the 60s. She was the first wife
(briefly) of actor/director/writer Bryan Forbes; multi-talented Hollywood
musical star Donald O’Connor (78) – see pages 26-28; Argentinian-born
actress of the 1930s stage and screen Renee Gadd (97); handsome Rand
Brooks (84) forever remembered as Scarlett O’Hara’s first husband in ‘Gone
With The Wind’; British supporting actresses Zena Walker (69) and
Constance Chapman (91); former American child actor, David Holt (76)
once touted as Paramount’s answer to Shirley Temple; shifty-eyed leading
character actor Jack Elam (86) – almost always in villainous roles;
Hollywood leading lady of the 1950s and 60s, Janice Rule (71);
tragically, two members from the same family have passed away close together –
the amiable, good-humoured John Ritter (54) and former ‘B’ leading lady
Dorothy Fay Ritter (88) – the younger son and widow of the famous western
star Tex Ritter; stern-faced American actress Louise Platt (88) best
recalled for her role as the pregnant Mrs Mallory in the classic 1939 western
‘Stagecoach’ (see pages 15-16); Hollywood supporting actress Fay Helm
(94); British star actor, mainly on the stage, Denis Quilley (75); the
lovely model-turned-actress Jinx Falkenburg (84) – pictured below in the
early 1940s; British leading lady of the 40s, Patricia Burke (86);
Hollywood child actor in silent films True Boardman (93) - who later
became a screenwriter; darkly mysterious Edana Romney (84) who appeared
in three British films of the 40s, ‘Corridor Of Mirrors’(1948) being the third,
opposite Eric Portman – and last but by no means least, the bubbly blonde
Hollywood leading lady – Penny Singleton (95) – star of no less than
twenty eight ‘Blondie’ films in this popular series of second features from
1938
to 1950, co-starring the gormless Arthur Lake as the hapless ‘Dagwood Bumstead’!
All the above will be sadly missed.
see
their soldier as royalty. They want their dinner to be extra-special. This, in
their experience, will be a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. Their ‘help our
fighting men’ gesture may not be a war-winner, but for this humble and
hard-pressed family, it is absolutely the best they are able to come up with.
