Design for Living (1933)

“It's true we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman.”

            Design for Living is the sexiest, raunchiest, and funniest pre-code I have seen. From the moment the three main characters appear on screen you are made to laugh.

            Gilda Farrell (Miriam Hopkins) is put in the same compartment on a train for Paris as two men who are sound asleep when she walks in. As they sleep she draws their faces with their funny expressions. She sits down, puts her feet besides one of their legs and his hand brushes her leg and falls asleep herself. When the men wake up they see Gilda sleeping across from them. They wake her up and thinking she is French they speak the language but when she says an American saying they get all excited and introduce themselves. George Curtis (Gary Cooper) is a painter and Tom Chambers (Fredric March) is a playwright.

            Both George and Tom are having a rough time with their work they do not have enough inspiration. They are both incredibly attracted to Gilda and she is attracted to them. One night she comes over to their apartment, the two men vie for her attention by following her around when she looks at their works. Gilda tells them that she loves them both and cannot choose one over the other. She decides on a gentleman’s agreement where she will live with them and be a critic for their work but there is to be no sex.

            Tom is the first to see his work take off with Gilda help. She walks into the hotel room of a stage producer and just hands him Tom’s play. The producer likes the play and signs Tom on to stage the play in London for a month. While away Tom gets a note from Gilda telling him their agreement has been broken. Almost a year later Tom returns to Paris. George is not a successful portrait artist and has been living with Gilda in a nice apartment. When Tom sees Gilda for the first time George is away for a few days. She realizes how much she has missed Tom. George comes back a day earlier, at first he is more than happy to see Tom but then he notices that he former best friend has spent the night.

            Gilda runs away from their situation and marries another man she has known for a long time. All three eventually realize they miss each other. Gilda especially misses her old lifestyle she cannot stand having to be the welcoming housewife expecting to entertain for hours on end for her husband’s boring clients.

            George and Tom swoop in as Gilda’s knights in shining armor and rescue her from her dull life.

            If you know anything about pre-code films just by summary you know Design for Living is from that era. The story comes from a play by Noel Coward (and that is about it the film is completely different from the play) with dialogue written by my favorite screenwriter Ben Hecht. Never before this film or even after has there been anything written or directed or acted like it. The film is so quick, so risqué, and so full of innuendo that if you are a modern viewer not used to seeing films like this your head will spin and if you have seen these kinds of films you will be left smiling and pleasantly surprised. Directors today can learn a great deal when watching an Ernst Lubitsch film: all the sexuality is shown to a certain extent but is mostly implied making the whole moment or situation that much sexier and risqué. We see a look or a touch that gives all the explanation in the world as to what is going to happen next. Hecht’s dialogue is just amazing it is so loaded with innuendo, sarcasm, and wit. His dialogue brings the film right to the edge of being an all out screwball comedy but stops just before that edge, the film is still funny despite this if anything that closeness keeps the film from being too silly.

                        Gilda has to be the ultimate pre-code female character she was in charge and immoral and free spirited. This type of woman would be shunned and severely punished only two years later when the Code was enforced. I love how Gilda has the power over George and Tom she is the epitome of a temptress and the best thing about that is she knows it and uses it on both men. Miriam Hopkins played Gilda to perfection no one could have played the character better. She starred in several Lubitsch films which I now cannot wait to watch. Gary Cooper was wonderfully funny and so adorable. Fredric March was good but it looked like he was a little uncomfortable playing comedy it looked like he was holding back. But when he was beside Cooper March was funny especially at the end when they rescue Gilda.

            My favorite scene in the film is probably the most sexual.  My favorite part is when Tom and Gilda are alone together when he comes back from London. He sees his old typewriter that he told her to keep for him when he comes back. She is sitting on the bed while he is at a small table she tells him it does not ring anymore. She plays with it and rings. Tom comes over to her, she stands up, he presses his body against her and says “does it ring?” You need to see the scene to truly know how incredible I thought that moment was nothing like that has been done since even in our modern films. I thought it was so sexy and the looks on their faces just added to the sexiness. You definitely know what they did after that.

            Design for Living is probably the ultimate pre-code film. It is as racy looking at it today than it must have been back in 1933. As I said nothing like this film has been done since and if it ever is people will be in complete shock. Design for Living is pre-code and Ernst Lubitsch their best.

 

Topper (1937)

“Oh, George, I can see right through you.”
“Say, that's funny. I can see through you, too.”
“George, look. You know something George? I think we're dead.”
“I think you're right. Funny; I don't feel any different.” 

           

            I have heard of Topper before and from the title I never really thought anything of it. Well that comes down to me never having read a description of the film all I knew was that Cary Grant was in it and that after finding out Constance Bennett was in it I definitely had to find it. The first time I actually read the description was when I went to play the film on my DVR. The plot sounded alright but from the moment Grant and Bennett came on the screen I was so hooked and laughing hysterically.

            Grant and Bennett play George and Marion Kerby. Their life is one constant party full of drinking and dancing only sleeping when the sun comes up. They head into the city to meet their friend Topper (Roland Young) the next morning at the bank they are stockholders in. The Kerbys do not even bother sleeping until the small hours of the morning after a wild night of drinking and at that they sleep in their car. In the meeting George does not even pay attention to what is going on he sits there and draws. Marion walks herself right into Topper’s office and plops down on his couch to sleep. Topper is not too happy because he is worried what that would look like.

            On the way home George is driving way too fast. George takes a curve too fast and they crash into a tree. Marion and George get up and sit on a log. She tells him he took the curve too fast and they argue a bit before they realize they can see through each other and they see their bodies in the wreck. Realizing they are dead they wonder if they are going to heaven. Marion points out that they never really did any good deeds in their lives nor did they ever do anything bad.

            Some time later Topper buys the Kerby’s newly fixed car. His stuffy wife Clara (Billie Burke) is not too happy about him buying something so dangerous and so flashy. All Clara worries about is their reputation in high society but after the Kerby’s death Topper thinks about how he has not lived his life to the fullest like they did even though they were a little too carefree. Topper takes the car for a drive. He sees that the car is a bit too much for him to handle. At one point he rounds the same corner the Kerby’s crashed at but he manages to keep the car and himself intact. When he gets out of the car he hears voices. George and Marion decide to take Topper on as their good deed and appear in physical form to him (they only appear when necessary so they do not waste too much of their ectoplasm).

            As the saying goes no good deed goes unpunished and boy does Topper get punished enough! The couple has their best intentions in mind but their best intentions get Topper into a world of trouble. They get the poor man into a drunken brawl and witnesses say they saw Marion as the woman who was with him. Clara is horrified thinking that her husband has been making a fool of himself and running around with another woman. All the trouble Topper gets into is because of Marion!

            Constance Bennett and Cary Grant were hysterical together. They were so good playing the breezy couple who only help their friend. Cary Grant was not in the film all the much, as you can see by the poster Constance Bennett was top billed so she was in it more. Before this I had never seen Bennett in a film. I loved her she was fantastic. She had a good sense of humor. I just loved how she drove Topper crazy and how carefree she was. I read that Bennett was a little aggressive with her acting and you can see that in a couple of her scenes. My favorite scene with Grant and Bennett was when they are at a hotel where Topper has taken off to. They create so much chaos at the hotel by knocking into things and people when they are invisible. They start a riot in the dining room and they run into a corner and she says that this is the best fight they ever got into and “What do you say we make out?” (It was only a little peck no making out like we think today) haha. Roland Young played a very good straight man who only wants to have some fun in his stuffy life. Billie Burke was not as flighty as she usually is in her films; in the end she is likeable.

            The special effect of the Kerbys disappearing was very well done. The best effect was when George and Marion are supposed to be invisibly taking Topper out of their apartment building after they get him drunk. I was dying from laughing when the elevator boy in their apartment building told Topper he thought the Kerbys were crazy so Marion paces back and forth all angry about it and when the boy comes back she slaps him in the face haha. George drives the car invisibly and makes another car crash.

            Topper is such a cute supernatural comedy. I did not stop laughing through the whole film. Everyone was so perfect in their parts and the situations they got into were not overdone they were just the right amount of silly and funny. 

The Red Shoes (1948)

“What do you want out of life?”

“I want to dance.”

            Ever since I saw Black Swan all I read was how it was like the 1947 film The Red Shoes. Then not too long ago I was watching something where Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese said how much The Red Shoes inspired and influenced them. So hearing so much about this film I had to see it. I think from hearing so much about how great it is the film fell flat for me.

            Boris Lermontov is the producer of a successful ballet company. His show comes to London and two young people are overcome and taken with his work: Victoria Page who is a dancer and Julian Craster an aspiring composer and conductor. Lermontov meets Victoria at a party. Her aunt talks about her nonstop but Lermontov is not impressed and does not even want to see her. He speaks and meets her by accident. Sometime later Victoria goes to Covent Garden to audition for the company. She stands to the side along with four other hopeful girls. She is off to the side for a while until one day Lermontov chooses her and another girl to join the company in Paris.

            At the same time Lermontov invites Julian as an assistant. The producer asks him to take what another composer has already written for the production of a play called The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Anderson.

            In Paris the lead ballerina leaves after she announced her upcoming marriage. The company travels to the French Riviera. When they arrive Lermontov announces that Victoria will be the lead in The Red Shoes that is to open in three weeks time. Opening night arrives: Victoria is in the lead in a major production and Julian is to conduct his first piece. The production, Victoria, and Julian are a hit.

            Victoria becomes a famous dancer under Lermontov in several of his productions. During these productions Victoria and Julian have fallen in love. Lermontov does not like this new romance to the point where he seems outrageously jealous. He tells them choose between dancing and writing music and each other. The young couple picks each other and goes back to London where they are married.

            Victoria dances and practices all the time while in London. Julian composes an opera and cites his new wife as his main inspiration. All the while Lermontov wants her back, he will not do a production without of The Red Shoes without Victoria. She does eventually come back to the company for a run of the ballet but Julian follows her. Now Lermontov and Julian pull her to either dance or go home. Lermontov used her love of dancing and Julian pleads for their love for each other.

            The descriptions of the film I have read make it out to be like Black Swan where the girl is obsessed with dancing and she has to choose if she loves her husband or dancing more. It sounds like an annoying melodrama to me. The whole choosing a love for dancing over the love of her husband does not come until like the last fifteen-twenty minutes of the film. The whole time we know that Victoria loves to dance but she not completely overtaken with it like Natalie Portman was.

            I just could not get into The Red Shoes whatsoever. I think from hearing how good it was and how incredible the cinematography was I hyped it up way too much. I cannot even say that I had a lot of expectations for the film all I wanted for it was to be interesting and it just was not. So many parts I felt dragged there was nothing that really grabbed my attention. All this said I am glad that I sat through The Red Shoes since it was a very popular film when it was released and so many film buffs have seen it. I am not saying that The Red Shoes is a terrible film it was very well made and the acting was alright I just did not find it to be that great.

 

Tight Spot (1955)

Tight Spot is labeled as a Film Noir. Now when I think of Film Noir I think of a dark and broody cop and a sexy looking lady in a jam or two timing him. Ginger Rogers is definitely not the first person I would even think of being in a noir (although she was flawless in Black Widow which is one of my all time favorite noirs) and she in no way a good “femme fatale” in this film… actually she cannot even be considered a femme fatale she is tough but not a woman a man is willing to go to their end for.

            The New York PD is trying to convict a gangster for several charges and the only way they can is to get witnesses to come forward. Unfortunately all the witnesses so far have ended up dead. Police detective Lloyd Hallett (Edward G. Robinson) has one more witness that could come forward if coaxed the right way. His witness is Sherry Conley (Rogers) who has been in prison for some time for being connected to the gangster.

            Hallett has Sherry brought to a hotel where she is comfortable and she can eat whatever she wants. He has another detective named Vince Striker look after her. Vince thinks that Sherry should not be kept comfortable since she has been in jail for a crime but after a while they get to talking and he begins to like her. For the few days that Sherry is in the hotel she goes back and forth whether she will testify she does not want to be killed.

            Somehow the gangster and his men have found out where the police have been keeping Sherry. One night they come to try to kill her, she gets shot in the arm and the warden in charge of watching over her is mortally wounded. Sherry puts her foot down over testify she saw firsthand what the gangster will go through to keep her away from the court.

            As the audience we see that the gangster has someone on the inside with the police.

            The story was decent but the cast was not right at all. Ginger Rogers is a great actress I adore the woman to no end but she was just not right for the role. She could play a good tough girl she always played her characters with some attitude. This is weird but her hair was so distracting!! It was flat and in an awful style that made her look so much older. I did like when Vince was driving her to the hotel room and she sees some new dresses in the window and she gets all excited because she has not seen any new kind of clothing in a long time. Edward G. Robinson was just playing the type of characters he always played: the hardboiled cop with a bit of a soft spot. He has never made an impression on me in the films I have seen him in. Brian Keith I have never seen before and did not care for him at all.

            Tight Spot is not a good film. I did not mind the direction, lighting, and story but the actors were just totally not right and I feel ruined the film. I also feel like the running time was too long there were certain parts that just dragged like the scenes where Vince gets Sherry to talk about her past and her association with the gangster. I especially did not like the fact that they made Sherry fall for Vince that was a load of bull and unneeded romantic fluff. Ginger Rogers’ last line was hysterical when it was not supposed to be which made the film worse for me. Only sit through Tight Spot if you are a Ginger Rogers completist but other than that skip it completely. 

The Barbarian (1933)

When Myrna Loy first began her career she was continually cast as the exotic, vamp luring men to their edge of their sanity. By the early 1930s MGM let Loy tone down her vamp image but she was still playing women with some kind of exotic image and she was still luring them away from their sanity. If she was not being alluring she was being a brat who just wanted things for herself (Emma, Vanity Fair, Men in White for example). It was not until really Manhattan Melodrama and The Thin Man that Loy finally got out the selfish women and vamp roles. The Barbarian does not have Loy exactly playing the exotic nor is she intentionally alluring but she followed and humiliated by an obsessive Egyptian prince disguised as a tour guide.

            Jamil (Ramon Novarro) is without a doubt a lady’s man. He is the best tour guide in Egypt with a specialization in helping out the female tourist. In the beginning of the film he is saying goodbye to two women. He tells each one of them that they will always be in his heart and he will always love them. Jamil even has a small bag full of the jewelry each woman he has been with have given him to remember them by.

            A new train has just arrived and right away Jamil notices a stunning British woman depart from it. She is Diana Standing (Loy) who has come to see her finance Gerald with her uncle and companion. Jamil goes up to the party to help them with their luggage but they dismiss him. In ensure he sees Diana again he takes her dog when her uncle is not looking.

            Later on as Jamil planned Diana cannot find her dog. Just in time he comes to the rescue with the dog in his hand. He lets her know that he is the best guide in Egypt and he would love to be hers and she accepts. Gerald finds Jamil a nuisance the guide never leaves he and Diana alone he is always right there or trying to get her alone without him.

            An acquaintance of Jamil’s, named Pascha, who has a lot of money arranged for Gerald to be taken away on business which would leave Diana behind. Jamil knows what Pascha is up to and blackmails the man into letting Diana alone. Now Jamil has his chance to truly be alone with the woman he so greatly admires. He watches Diana as she sleeps dropping flower petals on her face. She wakes up in a fuss she does not want him in her room she does not want anyone getting the wrong idea. Before Jamil leaves her room he kisses her and Diana does not resist. She more upset that she did not resist than with the fact that she kissed him.

            Diana fires Jamil and wants to leave immediately to be with Gerald. In the desert Diana gets the surprise of her life when she sees Jamil. He tells her that he threatened the other guide at knife point to leave. Furious she does not want to finish the trip to Gerald she wants to go back to Cairo. But Jamil has other plans for her, he tells the men to take the rest of the caravan back to the capital he wants to take her across the desert back to his tribe.

            Jamil kidnaps Diana and Gerald and her uncle put out a manhunt for his death. While in the desert Jamil humiliates Diana he makes her walk beside his horse in the hot sun for hours and will not let her drink water before he and his horse have had some. The following day they arrive at his tribe. He asks her to marry him and she accepts. You know she has something planned when she accepts his proposal she is not doing so because she wants to. During the ceremony she embarrasses him by saying no and runs out. Before she can get out he whips her but then tells his men to take her back to her people in Cairo.

            In the end Diana cannot resist Jamil and she runs away with him. As they sail down the Nile Diana tells Jamil that her mother was Egyptian. Before they runaway we can see that Diana is not exactly happy. Her mother-in-law is a total control freak trying to fix her Juliet cap the way she wants it not how Diana wants it and she will not listen that Diana does not want roses as her bouquet she wants gardenias. Her companion, Powers knows she is not happy and when Jamil comes back for her Powers trips the guards from going after them.

            I loved the fact that it is such a pre-code film it is racy and actually disturbing. Myrna Loy is barely dressed for several of the scenes especially the ones where Jamil is stalking her in her room. She almost has a wardrobe malfunction when the strap to her slip falls off her shoulder. One of Loy’s most well known scenes is the one where she has a bath with flowers all around her, of course she was wearing a flesh tone suit but you can barely see it (in her autobiography Loy writes that the crew were getting overzealous with pushing the petals towards her and when she looked up they were all people she knew in Culver City where she lived. She said they were just trying to protect a local girl’s modesty). Ramon Novarro is disturbing as Jamil, the man is like a Peeping Tom. A reviewer on IMDB brought up an excellent point: in the end Diana is “only… happy with the man who has humiliated, beaten, abused [and] raped her.” That scene where Diana and Jamil are alone in the desert at night is unsettling; he kisses her then the screen fades to black, when the characters are shown again Diana is crying and holding her dress tightly around her.

            Myrna Loy is fantastic (she was only part “exotic” since her character’s mother was Egyptian). Even broken down and beaten she looked beautiful. This is one of my favorite roles she played she was just so good. For the one thousandth time I will say just by looking at her face you know what is going on in her character’s mind. When Jamil kisses her and she does not resist but she is angry you can see it on her face before she even says anything. Another really great example is when she whips Jamil in the desert when he finds her and the caravan. She said that she is going to treat him like a slave and she takes his whip and whips him. No words could have explained her anger better than her face. This was my first Ramon Novarro film. I thought he was great. I can see why he was considered one of the greatest lovers of the screen he was so smooth and so outrageously charming. Loy writes her book that actresses dreamed of doing a film with Valentino or Novarro in the twenties and she was happy she got to work with him.

            The supporting cast of C. Aubrey Smith as the uncle, Reginald Denny as Gerald (in case you cannot quite place him he was Frank Crawley in Rebecca), and Louise Closser Hale as Powers was perfect. Hale was so funny she had some of the sharpest and funniest scenes and lines in the whole film. Keep an eye out for famous movie gossip columnist Hedda Harper as the American tourist at the beginning.  

            Anita Loos wrote some of the screenplay and the dialogue. Whenever I think of Loos I always think of her as the writer of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. If you have ever read any of her work you can hear her touch of wit and biting dialogue and the words of women’s sexual freedom during this time.

            Even though the plot of The Barbarian is so unbelievable I did enjoy the film. It is an amazingly well made romantic pre-code fantasy film that allows you to just escape for a while. 

Designing Woman (1957)

“Liquor, I've found, makes me very smart sometimes.” 

I did not know what I was getting into when I watched Designing Woman with Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall. Before I watched the film I did not even know what the plot was about, I figured it had to involve something with designing fashion and that the leads had to overcome their differences for them to love each other. All I really knew for sure was that I had to see it for Peck and Bacall since I love them both.

            The film is told as a flashback by several of the characters. Mike Hagen (Peck) and Marilla Brown (Bacall) meet while they are both working/vacationing in California. They met the night before after a big boxing match. Mike has no idea what he did that night all he knows is that he met a woman and that he has a screaming hangover. When he goes outside by the pool he sees the woman he had met. They sit down and she fills in his gaps of the night before: they had met and he was so drunk that he needed help writing an article for the newspaper he works so she helped him and he wanted to pay her seven hundred dollars. Mike still does want to pay her but she does not accept. After that day they spend all their spare time together and they decide to marry.

            Like all fairy tale times and stories the honeymoon does not last long after they return home. Mike wants them to live in his bachelor apartment but it is very small and very very messy. In that mess Marilla happens to find a torn up picture of a very pretty woman. She tells Mike that he can spend the night at her place and when he sees her place he cannot believe how big it is, he can clearly see that Marilla is very successful with her fashion designing. He has been hoping to show her the city and introduce her to people but then her friends spring a surprise for her and he sees that she already knows a lot of people. As the weeks roll on they come to find their lifestyles clash tremendously especially when Mike’s poker night is on the same night that Marilla has all outlandish theater friends over. The night does not go over well at all.

            To make matter incredibly worse between the new couple Mike’s ex-girlfriend and the one in the torn up picture is in the play Marilla is making the costumes for. For a while Marilla has her suspicions about this actress named Lori Shannon she feels she has seen the actress around before but cannot place her. Then one day at rehearsals Marilla finally puts two and two together and leaves right away. The day before Mike had lied about not knowing Lori and now she is ready to lay into her husband pretty thick. But before things are said and blow up Mike has to head out of town for a few weeks for his paper. He has been writing how racketeering in boxing and one of the heads of the racketeers is after him over his stories. This situation cannot have come at a worse time for him because now Marilla thinks he is off to stay with Lori.

            Things get crazy and out of hand but in the end Mike and Marilla are still together and love each other very much.

            Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall were fabulous. All I had seen Peck in up to this point was dramas I loved seeing him all flustered and silly. Mike never seemed like he was very comfortable with Marilla or being taken out of his element and Peck played that wonderfully he looked as if he really was uncomfortable around Bacall and out of his element. Lauren Bacall was fantastic with her comedy. She was so deadpan and spot on in some scenes you cannot help but fall to pieces laughing. Sometimes she was a little too much but mostly she was enjoyable. I loved all her clothes she looked great in all her outfits. These two actors were really night and day when it came to their styles of acting but they worked incredibly well together. Their parts were originally intended for Grace Kelly and James Stewart but Grace Kelly backed out once she became engaged to Prince Rainier. I could not in a million years see those two pulling this film off like Bacall and Peck did. Kelly was too stiff with her acting and Stewart would have just been terrible he would have played the character too dumb. Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall just went full force into their characters with excellence.

            My favorite parts of the film are when Mike goes out with Lori to tell her he’s married and when Mike takes Marilla to a boxing match and when he goes to one of her fashion shows. The scene when Mike goes out with Lori was hysterical. They go out to this Italian place that they always go to and he gets a plate of ravioli. Upon hearing his news Lori calmly almost out of nowhere tips the plate of ravioli onto Mike’s lap. He does not freak out he just as calmly takes what she gave him. She looks as if nothing ever happened (it is hard to explain the funniness of the scene unless you see it; it is so deadpan and wonderful). The two other scenes just show how different Mike and Marilla are: Marilla freaks out at the sight of so much blood she screams and runs out of the match and Mike feels like he has walked into hell when he sees the models modeling clothing and so many women gawking at the clothes.

            I loved how the story was told through flashbacks and narration. The movie Down to You was made in the same way and I love that movie whenever I watch it I think that way of telling the story is brilliant. Maybe the writers for Down to You got the idea from Designing Woman? I think the narration added to the chaos of the characters and the silliness of the story.

            Designing Woman was a very fun and amusing romantic comedy. As I was watching this it made me wish that more comedies were made like this where the main characters are real people with a real problem. The whole situation was not blown completely out of proportion to the point where it was unbearable to watch Lauren Bacall, Gregory Peck, and the entire cast played everything perfectly. I had a fun time watching Designing Woman and seeing just how versatile Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall were with their acting. I especially enjoyed seeing them in color. 

Belle Starr (1941)

“Stealin' what's yours ain't stealin'.”

            Gene Tierney is one of my favorite classic actresses. Not only was she outrageously gorgeous she was incredibly talented. I have watched a lot of her films and up until Belle Starr I had yet to see her in a bad film where her acting was horrendous. But that the entire blame for this film being bad cannot be placed upon Tierney it was not a good film in general.

            The story takes place after the Civil War. Since her father was killed by Yankees and her brother was fighting Belle (Tierney) ran her family home herself along with her mammy. Her brother Ed comes home as well as his friend Maj. Thomas Crail (Dana Andrews) who fought for the north. Thomas likes Belle and she likes him but she cannot forgive the Yankees for what they did to her father.

            In town she sees Thomas has put up a notice for the capture of a bandit named Sam Starr (Randolph Scott). Belle sticks up for him saying that he is protecting Missouri from Yankees and carpetbaggers who are undesirable to the south. A man sitting by hears this, he is one of the men in Sam Starr’s gang and he relays what Belle has said to the leader. That night Sam comes to Belle and Ed’s house while Thomas is there. He and his gang tie up Thomas but before they can get away from the chase by the soldiers Sam is shot. Belle takes him into the house to take care of him. When Thomas finds out he has to bring Ed to jail and burn their house down.

            Along with one of the men Belle gets her brother and Sam out of jail. She has had enough of the Yankees and the carpetbaggers so she joins with Sam to keep them out. As time goes on they marry and there is a manhunt and reward out for them. Belle does not care about what they do just as long as she feels she is doing something right for her state and the south. Ed comes to try to talk some sense into her. He gets through to her even though she does not want to hear it. On his way back to town he is shot by two men who did not know that Ed was Belle’s sister. Belle takes Ed’s words to heart now that he is gone.

            Sam wants to hold a raid on the town when he finds out the governor is coming. Belle’s mammy finds out that the notice is fake and that the town’s people are planning to capture Sam. She warns Belle and Belle tries to warn Sam but he will not listen. He goes into town anyway and she tries to stop him.

            So the plot is not too bad if the lead had been acted by someone else and the Technicolor was not so god awful it would not have been bad. As I said I adore Gene Tierney she was a great actress but in Belle Starr she was twenty-one and just really starting out. She overacted so horribly to the point where it was embarrassing to watch sometimes. The Technicolor did not help any with the look and feel of the film. Tierney’s close up were ghastly they made her look like she had way too much cover-up on her face giving her an orange tint. The copy that I saw looked like it was not restored so that could possibly be the problem but still it looked terrible.

            Dana Andrews and Randolph Scott were not bad they were the only good actors in the whole film. Andrews did look pretty ridiculous though with his mustache and did not look good in a Civil War uniform at all.

            Belle Starr felt like it wanted to be a shorter version of Gone with the Wind: they had a tough chick who wanted to get back at the Yankees for ruining her way of life, the girl was very pretty, and two men were in love with her and neither was good for her. The film falls flat in so many ways it is not worth watching unless you are a big Gene Tierney fan.