Whistle Stop (1946)

“Don't let the coat fool you, Molly. A mink can cover a lot of things.”

            In classic films it was basically a rule that the starring actor and actress had to be together when the fade out came. The characters the actor and actress play once loved each other but another man came between them and then they hated each other so the girl went away. The girl comes back and a battle ensues between the former jilted men to get the girl back in their lives. They will do whatever it takes to achieve their desires. Also usually one of the guys is poor and the other is loaded. But in the end the girl loves the poorer guy the one she had loved most dearly all those years before.  I just described the entire story of the 1946 film Whistle Stop but let me go into a little more detail.

            A young woman named Mary (Ava Gardner) steps off of a train. She has returned to her small hometown from Chicago after many years of being away. She goes back to her house where a woman named Molly is living with her family. Mary has given up her job and wants to sell the house to make some money. Mary asks Molly about her son Kenny (George) and how he has been.

            Kenny is at a barber shop. He has been there all night gambling. The guys at the table rile him up discussing what Mary has been up to in Chicago and how he waits for her. When Kenny finally goes home his mother tells him that Mary is back. He goes to her room upstairs. They hug but he gets jealous when he sees her mink coat and gold cigarette case. Mary points out a photograph of Kenny’s current girlfriend. He holds it and looks at it for a second. She kisses him and he drops the frame. 

            At dinner that night flowers from Lew Lentz (Tom Conway) are delivered to the house. Kenny is gets mad. The tension between him and Mary is thick. Despite the tension they go into town together to Lew’s bar. The story flashes back to a few years before. Mary and Kenny had been in Lew’s bar when she got mad at him for being out all night gambling. She wanted him to go to Chicago with him but he did not want to go. Lew came down to Mary and asked her if she would like to go to a party with him that night. Kenny got jealous and started a fight with Lew. Mary stormed out of the bar and left for Chicago that night.

            Kenny’s friend Gitlo (Victor MacLaglen) works for Lew as a bartender. He tells Kenny that Lew puts his money on a train heading to Detroit. Kenny’s father works at the train station but sometimes has his son take over because of his bad back. Gitlo wants to get rid of Lew at the station when he goes there with his money.

            Mary and Kenny go a fair together. Kenny plays a shooting game. As he reloads Lew comes out of a building. Kenny has the gun pointed at Lew. Gitlo stops him before anything can happen. Gitlo had planned to use the fair as a distraction since no one would be paying attention to where he or Lew had gone. His plan does not go as he had hoped. Mary drove Kenny to the station knowing that he was going to do something to Lew. She kisses Kenny and finds a gun in his pocket. She is furious with him and yells at him with tears in her eyes to get out of the car.

            Sometime later Kenny goes into Lew’s bar a little drunk. Lew hits Kenny but Mary steps in before anything really bad can happen and yells at Lew to stop. In his office, Lew wants Gitlo to talk to Kenny about becoming civil. On the day of Kenny’s sister’s wedding, Gitlo drives him to Lew’s office. When they open the door a dead man is lying on the floor with Gitlo’s gun. Someone turns the alarm on as the two men are still in the office and the police come right away. Gitlo speeds away with the police giving chase. The police shoot the car and get Kenny in the arm. Gitlo gets himself and an injured Kenny on a train heading to Detroit. Kenny is upset with his friend for getting him into trouble.

            Mary goes around town looking for Kenny. She tells his mother that the police know Kenny did not do anything and that if he can be found and is brought into the police his name will be cleared.

            Gitlo gets Kenny to a friend’s roadhouse. He told his friend that he would be back and to watch Kenny while he was gone. Gitlo goes back to town and back to Kenny’s house. Mary sees him standing in the rain. He tells her that Kenny is alright and where she can find him. Gitlo goes to Lew’s place above the bar. He plans on killing the man. Lew manages to shoot Gitlo first but not fatally. Gitlo gets up, grabs Lew, and chokes him to death all before he dies.

            In Detroit, Kenny wants to get back to Mary. Mary has is at the door waiting to take him home.

            Whistle Stop was not a great film but it was not terrible. The story was alright and the acting was so-so. I just really liked seeing Ava Gardner in an early leading role. Before Whistle Stop and a film before this she had just been an extra in several MGM films and was loaned out to other studios. You can see she still had a lot to learn but she was still great. She was so gorgeous. George Raft and Tom Conway were good as well. I thought it was funny that two years later Tom Conway and Ava Gardner would star together in One Touch of Venus. Watch Whistle Stop just to see Ava Gardner.

The Night of the Iguana (1964)

“I'm panicking!”

“I know that.”

 “A man can die of panic!”

“Not when he enjoys it as much as you do, Dr. Shannon.”

            I like how hot weather creates tension in films. Usually the characters are all on edge ready to rip each other’s throats from being miserably hot frustrated. Heat always makes me nervous and anxious when I watch a film set in a hot climate because I absolutely hate the heat. In the winter you can layer clothes and take those layers off when you get warm but in the summer time you cannot walk around in public buck naked! The topical, blazing hot weather in The Night of the Iguana creates a fascinating amount of tension and makes the characters perfectly crazy and on edge.

            Re. Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton) was once a priest. One day during a sermon he snapped and yelled at the parishioners to leave. Now he is working as a tour guide for a company down in Mexico. Shannon’s latest group is a bunch of old ladies and one young adventurous girl named Charlotte. Charlotte has a mad, obsessive crush on Shannon. He tries to push her away but she keeps coming back to him. Her chaperone Ms. Fellowes is a control freak and goes out of her mind when Charlotte is not near her. Ms. Fellowes threatens to call Charlotte’s father who is a big judge in Texas if Shannon goes near the girl again. One night Charlotte goes into Shannon’s room. When Ms. Fellowes finds Charlotte is not her bed she has a huge blow up and goes to Shannon’s room where the girl is.

            Ms. Fellowes sends a telegram to Charlotte’s father and has his reply sent to the new hotel they are going to. Shannon takes over driving the bus. Instead of going to the nice air conditioned hotel where the telegram will be sent he takes the ladies to the hotel of an old friend. The man who used to run the hotel has died and his wife Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardner) has taken over. Maxine obliges Shannon and lets him and his group stay even though the hotel is usually closed in August.

            After everyone has settled in, a woman named Hannah (Deborah Kerr) and her grandfather come walking up the steep driveway. Hannah’s grandfather is ninety-seven years old and they have walked and hitched their way all over Mexico. She explains that he recites poetry and she paints and that is how they earn their money. Maxine is not happy that woman and the old man cannot pay for their stay. Hannah tells Maxine that she is at her mercy for whatever needs to be done.

            Charlotte once again sneaks into Shannon’s room. He has a meltdown, his nerves are completely shot. She talks insanely and obsessively about how she wants to run away with him and get married. After their blow up Charlotte runs down to the beach and gets drunk. The bus driver is a young man. He finds Charlotte and tries to fight some locals to get them to leave her alone. Charlotte drunkenly falls in love with the bus driver and no longer has feelings for Shannon.

            Shannon gets fired from the tour company. The bus driver and Charlotte manage to get the piece of the engine from the bus from Shannon that he had removed. When the ladies leave Shannon tells Hannah that he is going on a long swim to China, meaning he plans on killing himself by swimming until he is exhausted. Maxine’s men manage to get to Shannon and bring him to land before anything serious happens. They tie him to a hammock. He is terribly mean to Maxine about how she had wanted to sleep with other men besides her husband when they were married and knows about her trips down to the beach at night. She runs away down to the beach. Shannon and Hannah are left alone to talk. She tells him that once she had to fight off her own demon and did it through sheer determination and will power.

            Maxine comes back from the beach. Hannah has cut Shannon loose from the hammock. The grandfather comes out and proclaims he has finished his poem he had been working on for twenty-years. He has Hannah write it down. When he is done the old man dies in wheelchair.

            Since her grandfather is now dead Hannah has no need to be in Mexico anymore and has no more need to travel. Shannon wants to go with her but she tells him that it would be a bad idea for them to travel together. Maxine wants to leave the hotel. She tells Shannon and Hannah she is willing to give them a part in the hotel if they run it for her. Hannah still wants to leave and does. Shannon tells Maxine that he is staying with her.

            I loved Ava Gardner, Richard Burton, and Deborah Kerr in this film. Ava Gardner was wonderful from the moment she came on the screen. She put on this great southern accent and had the best bad ass attitude. She spoke what is now one of my all time favorite lines from a film: Ms. Fellowes is pissed off that Shannon had Maxine cancel the call she had put into Texas. She calls Maxine his paramour and Maxine replies “Miss Fellowes, honey, if paramour means what I think it does you're gambling with your front teeth.” Just the way Gardner said that was perfection. She had an attitude but it was not a full on attitude. You can see the annoyance Maxine had for this woman boiling under the surface. Gardner, forty-six and a lot hard partying and living showing on her face and body, was still stunningly gorgeous. I have seen a lot of her films and her performance here is one of her best. Tennessee Williams, who wrote the play, said that Gardner’s portrayal of Maxine was exactly how he had envisioned the character.

            Deborah Kerr was good. Usually she plays a polite English lady in dramas and here her character was a bit flighty and scattered. I enjoyed seeing a lighter side to her. Fun fact: Kerr and Gardner starred together in The Hucksters in 1947. Gardner had just made The Killers which was a huge success for her so MGM stuck her in a film with Clark Gable. The Hucksters, I believe, was Kerr’s first leading role in America. Kerr’s and Gardner’s scenes together were awesome. Their scenes were the tough, jealous woman and the sweet, innocent woman who just wanted to help out a bit. They were also a bit comical.

            Richard Burton for once did not drive me up a wall in a film. Of course he overacted and hammed up some of his scenes but for the most part he kept the character pretty under control. I liked all his scenes with Ava Gardner they looked good together.

            John Huston is such a great director. He worked with Ava Gardner before and the two of them got along very well. He always got fantastic performances from her. His close ups of the characters got you into their tensions and anxieties.

            The Night of the Iguana is a very good film. The direction and acting were brilliant. The story was alright and I think if there had been lesser actors playing the characters and a lesser director the story and the characters could have been too overwhelming. The Night of the Iguana is definitely worth watching especially for Ava Gardner’s performance

The Little Hut (1957)

“He trusts me too much. I think that’s his problem.”

            I always hate the questions what would you do if you were ever stranded on a desert island or what would be the one thing you would take with you on a desert island. They drive me nuts and in a way the thought makes me nervous. I do not even want to hypothetically think about being stranded on a desert. I am ass white and very anti-wilderness. I would burn and starve to death. Give me New York City or any city or civilization and I am fine! So obviously the perfect film for me to watch was The Little Hut where the three main characters get stranded on an island for almost two months.

            The film begins with an older couple visiting searching for an office in a large municipal building in London. They get to an office and ask to see their son Henry Brittingham-Bret (David Niven). They have returned from Australia after being away for some time. They ask Henry if he is still with his girlfriend Susan. Henry says no that she is now married to someone else and is Lady Susan Ashlow (Ava Gardner) now. He tells them he does not see her anymore nor write to her. Not a second after he tells his parents this and that he is busy for tea and dinner than Susan herself comes through the door as if she and Henry are still together. Susan shares that she sees more of Henry than she does her own husband.

            The following day Susan meets her husband Philip (Stewart Granger) at the airport. He has just come back from being away for a few weeks. She kisses him and he pulls away because there are photographers all around. Susan manages to convince Philip to take their yacht down to Rio where he has to be for work. She wants it to be just the two of them alone for a few weeks. He agrees to go after Susan’s pleading and insistence. Susan invited Henry and his parents over for dinner. After dinner she shows some videos of her and Henry doing things together. Some scenes show them kissing each other! Philip does not say a negative thing he likes the videos. On the way Henry’s mother says that Susan is using him to get Philip’s attention. That night while getting ready for bed Susan puts on a new nightgown and tries to talk to Philip but he just continues to do work in bed and not does not even pay attention to her.

            Susa had hoped to go on the yacht alone but Philip had other ideas. He invites a whole slew of guests. Even on the yacht Philip never gives Susan attention. She decides to phone Henry’s room in the early morning to go out on the deck. The cruise goes well until a huge tropical storm comes about. Philip kept telling Susan that the storm was nothing to worry about. Soon Henry, Susan, Philip, and Philip’s dog Nelson manage to get onto a lifeboat.

            The day after the storm all three castaways come to an island. Philip and Susan take to the island rather quickly seeing it as an adventure and a good time. Philip builds all kinds of contraptions and even a big hut for him and Susan and a little hut for Henry. Now Susan does not have to share Philip with anyone. Henry has a hard time keeping his feelings for Susan at bay. The more he sees Susan and Philip together the more annoyed and sad he feels. Henry’s feelings soon come to a head and lets Susan know that he is going to tell Philip about them. He suggests a “lend/lease” deal where both he and Philip get to share Susan. She does not like the idea at all and says she will not back him up. Henry pulls Philip aside and begins to talk to him. Susan claims she is going to do laundry at a spring but she hides behind some bushes. Philip thinks for some time Henry is talking about Nelson that he needs someone to stay with him in the little hut. When Henry tells Philip that he and Susan had an affair for two years Philip goes into a bit of shock. When she comes back Susan back Henry up because Philip says that she was incapable of having an affair and also because he did not kill Henry on the spot. That night at dinner Philip announces that since he is a ship captain that he can perform marriages and should be able to grant divorces. He lets Susan bring the divorce. She gives witness that her husband was not always around. The divorce is granted leaving Henry to be with Susan.

            All Susan can say once Philip goes to the little hit is “poor Philip”. Nelson will not let Henry into the big hut not matter how Henry tries to get him out. The next day at breakfast Susan and Philip flirt and hold hands like little kids. This makes Henry very anxious and uncomfortable.

            A man who looks like an island native comes to their camp. He shoots at Philip and Henry. When Susan comes out of the big hut the native stares at her and takes her towards the hut after he tied Henry and Philip up. Susan fell over as the native was walking towards her. He says he is sorry in English. The “native” was the cook on the yacht. He tells Susan he saw her on the other side of the island when she was swimming and he needed to satisfy his desires. Susan finds it funny and a good way to tease both her husband and friend.

            Off in the distance they hear cannon fire. A ship is out in the ocean not far from the island. After almost two months of being on the island all are saved and brought back to London.

            In the end the Ashlows stay together.

            I must gush about how incredibly fantastic Ava Gardner was. She was adorable and light and sweet. Gardner’s acting was great I think this is one of her best acted films I have seen. I liked seeing her desired but not desired because she was gorgeous but because a man truly loved her. She was not a femme fatale or the goddess of love. David Niven and Stewart Granger were alright they were good together and with Gardner.

            The Little Hut was a good film. I loved seeing Ava Gardner dressed in beautiful Dior gowns and being sweet. The story was good I actually did not mind seeing married couple in some strife or a woman falling for her friend. It was different and not typical. The story is based off a play with the film adaptation written by Nancy Mitford. Mitford was a British author. Her stories are usually witty and the characters unsure of themselves and very British. The Little Hut is enjoyable from the acting down to the story. I wish this was available on DVD. Unfortunately it is not even available to view on Youtube. Keep an eye out for it on TCM.