Three Daring Daughters (1948)

Three Daring Daughters is one of those films with a misleading title. There is nothing really daring about what the three daughters of a hard working mother who marries someone they do not approve of.

            A young girl named Tess (Jane Powell) graduates from a formal girl’s school. At graduation she is singing lead in the choir when she notices her mother Louise (Jeanette MacDonald) is not there. Latter Tess finds out Louise fainted due to over work. Tess and her sisters Ilka and Alix think the reason their mother is upset is because she is missing their father who she divorced. Louise lets her daughters think their father was a good man when he really just left them and made her bring up the girls alone.

            The doctor thinks Louise needs a vacation by herself. Louise does not want to go and leave her daughters behind. She then changes her mind knowing her girls will be fine. While their mother is away Tess, Ilka, and Alix track down their father’s boss Robert Nelson (Edward Arnold). Robert tells his secretary that Charles Morgan is their foreign correspondent and he is away in Africa. The girls tell Robert that the divorce was not permanent their mother wants their father home too.

            On the ship with Louise is the famous piano performer Jose Iturbi. At dinner a waiter brings a letter to Jose from a Mrs. Smith. He looks over and thinks Louise is Mrs. Smith. He likes what he sees. Latter in the night he finds Louise and talks to her. The next night he becomes jealous when Louise dances with the captain. Jose pleads with her to get off the ship when they come to Cuba to see his concert. She had not planned on getting off in Cuba but decides to go and see his concert. Jose plays like he has never played before. Louise was not too happy and too shocked to hear she inspired him. Louise and Jose get married on the ship.

            When they arrive back in New York City Louise wants to tell the girls about him before they meet him and has him go to a hotel. The girls tell their mother about their father coming home. Louise is upset and yells at them. She feels bad at yelling at the girls. They do not know why Louise is upset about their father coming back and they tell her they went to his boss. Louise goes to see Robert. She tells him that she never told her children the truth about Charles they would think she was lying about him the whole time she told them the truth now. While Louise is out Jose comes by the apartment. The girls know who he is but they are confused as to why he is there.

            Jose invites Louise and the girls to his performance that night. Ilka notices Jose and Louise looking at each other. She talks to her mother that night. Louise explains to Ilka that she was in love with Charlie when they were first married and that in time they will come to like Jose. Ilka gets upset and tells Tess and Alix. Tess says they will make life miserable for Jose so he will have to leave.

            Their plan works and soon Jose and Louise are thinking over their marriage. But with all happy Hollywood films in the 1940s Louise and Jose get back together and the girls come to accept him.

            Despite the misleading title Three Daring Daughters was cute. Jeanette MacDonald was great. I was so happy that she only had two singing number. I do not mind her singing I just like her as an actress more. It was odd seeing MacDonald playing a mother to three young girls, I cannot explain why it just was. Edward Arnold was perfect as the boss whose nerves and patience get a great work out. He had the look of a boss who could be cold but also has a big heart. Three Daring Daughters is not a film I would say you must see but if TCM ever airs it again give it a try.

 

Reno (1939)

“You just watch my smoke, Abe. I'm gonna make Reno the biggest little city in the world.”

            Reno is one of the over five hundred films that were made in Hollywood in 1939. With so many big time films made in this year the other hundreds of films that were made tend to go under the radar. Reno I only took notice of because Gail Patrick played a lead part and I am sure that if the cast was lesser known it would be completely forgotten.

            A woman named Mrs. Ryde is in a gambling house run by Bill Shear (Richard Dix). She finds the roulette wheel is being controlled electronically. Bill tries to blackmail her into keeping the control a secret. Unfortunately Mrs. Ryde called the police before Bill could speak to her. Bill is arrested and at the trial is his own lawyer. He calls himself as a character witness under his real name Bill Shayne. He tells the court about how he first came to Reno in 1905.

            When he came to Reno he went to see a lawyer named Augustus Welch. Bill meets Welch’s secretary Jessie (Patrick). He likes her and asks her to do some typing for him at night. Bill takes a case for a drunkard and wins. He takes Jessie out to celebrate and asks her to marry him. Eventually Bill begins to take mining cases to help the miners in the desert and becomes very successful.

            One day Jessie comes home and finds Bill speaking to another woman. He has taken her divorce case. Jessie is not happy with him for talking to another woman and taking a divorce case. In time the mines dry up and Bill no longer has any clients. The woman he helped with the divorce sent him one thousand dollars. Not long after this women begin to pour into Reno looking for divorces and gambling comes into town.

            Work takes Bill away from home and planned engagements. He does not even come home for their daughter’s birthday. Jessie goes looking for him. She finds Bill with one of his female clients at a restaurant. Jessie tells Bill that John, a client’s uncle she had been showing around town, will marry her if they get a divorce. At dinner in a different restaurant Bill punches John. Jessie leaves Bill and sells their house. Bill tells his friends he could not take his own medicine and that he should fight his divorce. Jessie’s lawyer tells Bill that she wants him to fight. On the day of the divorce hearing Bill is summoned to a meeting of lawyers. He has been disbarred. When Jessie leaves with John and their daughter she tells Bill he can see their daughter whenever he wants to. He replies that he does not want to see her she can have everything she wants with her mother and John.

            At the trial Bill and the court learn that Mrs. Ryde is Bill’s daughter. The case gets thrown out.

            Gail Patrick and Richard Dix were excellent together. Gail Patrick always played the other woman or the snotty woman the others never liked. She was a very good actress who does not get enough credit. Patrick was a very good leading lady. Dix was perfect in role. He too, I feel, is an actor who does not get enough credit. I like both Patrick and Dix in their other roles I have seen them in.

            Reno is a typical film story where someone finds success, gets everything they want, then loses it, and for some shady reason gets thrown in jail and then is let go at trial. Despite being a typical story Reno was very good. It was well made and perfectly acted by Gail Patrick and Richard Dix. Reno is hard to find it is not available on Youtube or DVD. I watched the film through TCM some time ago. Keep an eye if the channel airs it again. 

If This Be Sin (1949)

“We cause our own bad fortune.”

            If This Be Sin is a mixed bag of a film. It is first and foremost a drama a relationship drama where a wife cheats on her husband. That should be enough of a drama right there but then it turns into an even bigger drama when the husband’s daughter likes the same man her step-mother likes. It was done before to in Mildred Pierce but If This Be Sin does not end tragically.

            Lady Cathy Brooke (Myrna Loy) goes to see her husband Brian, a British barrister, in court in a much publicized and talked about trial. In the middle of giving a speech Brian stops, takes a drink, and cannot go further when he grabs his eyes and falls to the floor. Brian is brought home. Cathy does not allow anyone to see him even his own sister while the doctors look him over. The doctor tells Cathy she has to take Brian away for six months in order for him to get well he needs to be away from anything that will shock him.

            For six months Cathy and Brian live on the Italian island of Capri. Cathy’s duty twenty-four hours a day seven days a week is to take care of her husband. She felt trapped before in their marriage with him constantly working and now she feels even more trapped but this time she is enjoying her time with her husband. Their relationship feels renewed. Brian opens some letters and has Cathy read them. She begins to read a letter then stops. She tells Brian the letter contains something that would not be proper to read out loud. He convinces her to read the letter to him. Cathy reads the letter. Someone has written anonymously about her having an affair with Michael Barcleigh, one of Brian’s partners in the law firm. Brian is furious until Cathy tells him that his daughter Monica has been the one seeing him.

            Hearing the news Michael comes to Italy. Cathy goes out to the pier to meet him. She tells him he should not have come there was no need for him to. He had to come and see her and gives her a necklace. That night Cathy lets Monica know that Michael is in town and will be coming over. She needs Monica to pretend to be seeing Michael because that is what she told Brian. Monica says she hates the way Michael treats her life a child yet at the same time she is infatuated with him. The entire time Michael is in Capri he is with Monica. They become close.

            The family returns to London as soon as Brian is feeling well. Michael and Monica continue seeing each other and eventually become engaged. Brian is lead on to believe that Cathy was having an affair with Michael before Monica began seeing him and does not hide his anger in a speech at a party one night. Monica figures out that Michael had been seeing Cathy and the reason Cathy told her to pretend to be with him in Italy. For a while the two women do not talk.

            Eventually Cathy is forgiven and Monica and Michael get married. Before driving away on her honeymoon Cathy runs after Monica to say goodbye and Monica gets out of the car to do so.

            Myrna Loy was stunning in this film. Stunning is not a word I often use to describe her. She was always pretty or adorable but never really stunning. I think that had a lot to with Loy’s costumes in her films. The only films I think she ever looked great in were Manhattan Melodrama and Evelyn Prentice. In If This Be Sin Loy was dressed by the Italian designers Fontana Sisters. They made the costumes for Ava Gardner when she was in The Barefoot Contessa and her costumes were gorgeous. Loy’s costumes in this film looked perfect on her they were so beautiful. They were not glamorous they were plain and simple and because Loy was never flamboyant or over the top the costumes suited her personality and acting style. Loy’s acting was top notch as usual. There was a scene where she had to yell and be mad. That was something completely different for her, sure she would get mad or get emotional or upset in her earlier films but never like she did here. If it is possible I adore Myrna Loy more after seeing her in that scene.

            If This Be Sin was originally called The Case of Lady Brooke then it was called That Dangerous Age when it was released in Europe. The title was changed to If This Be Sin when it was released in the States. The US title does not fit the story line whatsoever, That Dangerous Age is more appropriate. Anyway, the story was alright I am not a fan of a mother and daughter liking the same man plot. The acting by the rest of the cast was decent they were not the greatest. I will only suggest watching If This Be Sin if you are a fan of Myrna Loy.