The King's Thief - 1955

The King’s Thief(1955) is a colorful swashbuckler movie, entertaining and continuing in the vein of last week’s discussion of The Golden Horde (1951) as another Saturday matinee adventure story.  The King’s Thief might be easier for us to relate to simply because it is less foreign and exotic.  We don’t really know how the Mongol tribes of Genghis Khan’s gang spoke or interacted with each other, and our uncomfortable ignorance is what makes us guess it’s all pretty phoney.  But The King’s Thief is set in the restored reign of England’s Charles II, which, being that much closer in time to our own, we stand on firmer ground when it comes to accepting Walter Plunkett’s elaborate costumes, the crisp speech, the elegant salons, and the grimy prison as coin of the realm, so to speak.

Both films are quite short, just over an hour, which lends a fast-paced adventure.  No over-burdened Cecile B. DeMille epics here, just grab your sword, tell the story, and get out.  It's filmed in CinemaScope, and looks well in this process.

Ann Blyth is reunited with Edmund Purdom, who starred with her in her previous film, The Student Prince (1954), which we discussed here.  He infamously lip-synched to tenor Mario Lanza in that film, but here Mr. Purdom happily climbs out from the shadow of that star and shines on his own.  He is quite capable, quite handsome in his Van Dyke beard, and seems to be a worthy successor to Errol Flynn.  His career never reached those heights, however.

His best buddy in this movie, Roger Moore, would climb to greater heights, and Mr. Moore is one of the pleasures of this film.  It’s a small role, but he demonstrates the dashing presence that will one day lead him to fame as James Bond.

Two Hollywood greats liven things up considerably, even if this little movie might not seem much in their careers: David Niven, who plays the villain, and George Sanders, so delightfully foppish as King Charles II (he had played this role as well in Forever Amber (1947).

I love Mr. Sanders’ teasing, “Brr-r-rampton!” when he spies a small black notebook Niven has dropped, thinking it is a bachelor’s “little black book.”  “Some tasty names, I’ll wager?”

That little notebook is the real star of the show.  Niven is the king’s trusted advisor, a nobleman who has, unknown to the king, skimmed off quite a bit of spoils from the recent English Civil War.  I confess, my own interest in this historical time period is because the ultimate losers of the war – those stuffy, self-righteous, stubborn Puritans—came to settle my neck of the woods in the 1630s and 1640s.  Had they remained in power in England, the settlement, governance, and culture of New England might have been rather different.

We might not be so stuffy, self-righteous, and stubborn.  (Bah-ha-ha-ha.)  No, we probably would be.  It’s the climate. 

David Niven, in the aftermath of the restoration of Charles II, that hedonistic, “Merry Monarch,” has taken to discrediting noblemen who fought on the king’s behalf, accusing them of treason, putting them on trial and hanging them, and then skimming a good part of their fortunes for himself.  Boo!  Hiss!

Ann Blyth plays the daughter of one such discredited nobleman, who has lived in exile in France.  Now that the war is done, she’s eager to return to England, but is shocked and heartbroken when her father’s friend comes to tell her the news that David Niven has put her father to death.  Though told she must never return to England now, nevertheless, Ann is a feisty gentlewoman.  She’s heading back to find out what happened to her father, and confront this David Niven fellow.

The black book, mentioned above, has the names of other noblemen on Niven’s blacklist, as well as an accounting of all their fortunes and land he hopes to take.  Edmund Purdom, one of the soldiers of the king who, after the war, was not paid for his services, has become a highwayman.  He robs Niven, and takes the book, not really knowing what it is, but he soon learns that it is worth far more than the all the jewels he’s taken so far.

That book will change hands a lot in a lusty game of keep-away that involves elegant gambling salons, fast chases on horseback through the MGM backlot, assumed identities, subterfuge, sword fighting, and not a little flirting.

A few favorite scenes:  Ann makes another one of those walking down a grand staircase entrances, so effective for establishing credibility in society, making a statement, and building suspense.  And it's just pretty.  Ooh!  Ahhh!

Edmund Purdom escorting her home at night by walking beside her sedan chair, which is carried by stone-faced servants.

John Dehner as Niven’s captain of the guard.  He gets thrown out of a coach, and roundly tricked by Ann in a cute scene where she, being taken into custody, fakes heart trouble.  She has set up a plan where Dehner must take her to an apothecary shop, that happens to be run by the son-in-law and daughter of her faithful servant played by Tudor Owen.  His daughter, played by Queenie Leonard, refuses to let Dehner into the room where they are putting Ann to lie down during her "illness", “Please sir, I’ll have to remove her bodice,” she admonishes him.  Then, door closed, she allows Ann and her father to tie her up, and reminds them to gag her so it will look like Ann had no help in her escape.

By the way, favorite go-to man Ian Wolfe is among the familiar faces.

Ann and Purdom are a handsome pair, but there is little lovemaking when the plot is a constant chase for escape.  Ann wants to use the book as evidence against Niven, but Mr. Purdom wants to sell the information.

There are swordfights, and when Purdom and Moore are imprisoned, Ann is forced by Niven to visit them to get information on the whereabouts of their gang.  If she does not agree work for Niven as a double agent, he will ship her off in indentured servitude to the New World.  “A grim and so far unsuccessful effort to populate the colonies.”  America, ewww!  Who wants to go there?  She’d probably end up in Massachusetts, currently overrun with those stuffy, self-righteous, and stubborn sore loser Puritans, scrubbing floors for a humorless magistrate until, a few decades hence, she is hanged for a witch.

Instead, in a brave attempt to avoid all that, she slips Purdom a stiletto to pick the lock on his iron chains.  There is a painstaking and nail-biting escape from the prison.

The final hat trick is using Niven’s own coach, which Purdom had previously stolen, to gain entrance to the castle where the crown jewels are kept.  Purdom and Ann, pretending to be relatives of Niven’s, are allowed a private tour to see the crown jewels, which Purdom will attempt to steal and ransom back to the king, thereby demanding an audience with him so they can rat on David Niven.

But…ZOUNDS!  The king arrives unexpectedly just as Edmund Purdom is pummeling a Beefeater over the crown jewels!  Ann is desperately trying to stall Sir Isaac Newton in the next room by pretending to know more about astronomy than he does!  How will it end?!!

Our pal Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it “…one of the most thorough banalities of the year.”

I think it deserves better, as a fun and rollicking adventure, a sumptuous costume drama with a lot to look at, not the least of which lovely Ann Blyth in her period clothes.  I would suggest the movie could have been made more memorable by a scene with her singing at a pianoforte.  No such luck.  The King's Thief has been shown on TCM, and is available on DVD.

Ann would sing in her next movie, her last movie musical, Kismet (1955), which we covered here.

By the end of 1955, Ann would be expecting her second child, a baby daughter born in December.  In October, Modern Screen, gushing over the news of her latest pregnancy, ran a rather long article recounting the major events of her life: her career start in radio as a child, her terrible spine injury as a teen, the loss of her mother, and a look back at her dating years that must have been with a certain degree of self-serving nostalgia for a magazine that must now satisfy itself with the less juicy news of her steady marriage and respectable motherhood.

Since her marriage, her babies, and her 30^thbirthday only a few years away, Ann’s place in the hearts of the movie-going public may not have changed, but the magazines, after having rabidly pursued her since her teen years, were beginning to turn their voracious attention to younger, single stars where there was a greater opportunity for them to write about scandal.  It was attention Ann apparently was happy to do without.

Speaking of the period when she was being tagged, her soft voice takes on an edge of firmness.  “This is a phase of your life—even if you’re in pictures—that’s quite private and special.  Not that you’re unwilling to share a certain amount, but only so much.”

Come back next Thursday when we discuss Ann’s teen years as a Hollywood actress during World War II, during years that were personally challenging, heartbreaking, anxious, and uplifting.  She made friends she kept for life, and films that would live forever.

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Modern Screen, October 1955, article by Ida Zeitlin.

The New York Times, August 13, 1955, review by Bosley Crowther, p. 7.
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 THANK YOU....to the following folks whose aid in gathering material for this series has been invaluable:  EBH; Kevin Deany of Kevin's Movie Corner; Gerry Szymski of Westmont Movie Classics, Westmont, Illinois; and Ivan G. Shreve, Jr. of Thrilling Days of Yesteryear.  And thanks to all those who signed on as backers to my recent Kickstarter campaign.  The effort failed to raise the funding needed, but I'll always remember your kind support.

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TRIVIA QUESTION:  I've recently been contacted by someone who wants to know if the piano player in Dillinger (1945-see post here) is the boogie-woogie artist Albert Ammons. Please leave comment or drop me a line if you know.

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 HELP!!!!!!!!!!

Now that I've got your attention: I'm still on the lookout for a movie called Katie Did It (1951) for this year-long series on the career of Ann Blyth.  It seems to be a rare one.  Please contact me on this blog or at my email: JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com if you know where I can lay my hands on this film.  Am willing to buy or trade, or wash windows in exchange.  Maybe not the windows part.  But you know what I mean.

Also, if anybody has any of Ann's TV appearances, there's a few I'm missing from Switch, The Dick Powell Show, the Dennis Day Show (TV), the DuPont Show with June Allyson, This is Your Life, Lux Video Theatre.  Also any video clips of her Oscar appearances.  Release the hounds.  And let me know, please. 

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A new collection of essays, some old, some new, from this blog titled Movies in Our Time: Hollywood Mimics and Mirrors the 20th Century is now out in eBook, and in paperback here.

I’ll provide a free copy, either paperback or eBook or both if you wish, to bloggers in exchange for an honest review.  Just email me at JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com with your preference of format, your email address, and an address to mail the paperback (if that’s your preference).  Thanks.

I Can Get it For You Wholesale - 1951

“I Can Get It For You Wholesale” (1951) provides stellar performances, crackling dialogue, and a smattering of New York City shooting locations to set us right down in the vibrant pace of post-war business. What it does not give us, or at least some of us, is a satisfactory ending. That, of course, will depend entirely upon your point of view, but for my money, the leads play their roles so well that I believe them. Most of their time together is spent at variance. To tack on a reconciliation and promise of future happiness together seems nice—for other people. For them, it is the only unnatural aspect to this terrific movie.

We celebrate Labor Day today, just as we did last year, in New York’s 7th Avenue “Garment District” as it was when most of the clothing we wore in the US was actually made here.

The leads are Susan Hayward and Dan Dailey. Mr. Dailey, who we noted when we last discussed him here in “It’s Always Fair Weather” (1955), was a performer, often a song-and-dance man in musicals, who achieved greater depth in his acting than fellow, more famous, song-and-dance-men. As a dramatic actor, he is a natural, as he is here in the role of a charming, fast-talking salesman for a dress manufacturer.

Note plaid drapes.   It disappoints me not to find a matching plaid couch in the scene.

He has favors in every pocket, a ready smile, and a joke appropriate to any kind of well-heeled buyer, from the genteel and savvy Vicki Cummings who plays Hermione, to the smarmy Harry von Zell, who likes to finger the female models in the dresses.

Dailey is more than hail-fellow-well-met, however. We see he has his serious and sensitive side, particularly when it comes to Susan Hayward.

We first meet Miss Hayward as one of those models, or mannequins, that Harry von Zell likes to paw when he examines the merchandise. Susan Hayward is splendid in this movie, playing a woman with ambition, intelligence, shrewdness, and often with very little heart. She is quite commanding in her role, and assumes the mantle of a strong woman without ever appearing as if she is posturing, as we sometimes see in films of this era. It’s a perfect fit.

Hayward has been studying design on the side, and wants to open up her own dress manufacturing company with Sam Jaffe, who plays a production manager in the firm. He is really more a glorified tailor, walking about with a long pair of shears protruding from the side pocket of his apron like a sabre, and a measuring tape always draped around his neck. He is there to work, and probably works harder than anyone.

What they need to open up their own business is a crackerjack salesman, and that’s where Dan Dailey comes in. He’s been chasing Hayward on every return from his road trips, and she takes advantage of this to make her sales pitch.

He joins the team, and they begin a curious relationship. He is taken aback by her blunt avarice and unladylike drive to get ahead, and yet he is also attracted by it, or by something about her. I’m not sure what. In an interesting scene that seems to symbolize their partnership, she taunts him for being afraid to take a chance on starting a new business. She tucks a bill into his breast pocket to pay for their cab, part challenge and part insult. When, in his own attempt at a power play, he kisses her, he pulls back and reaches for his handkerchief from that pocket to wipe her lipstick off his mouth—but pulls out the bill instead. He looks at it, smirks, and wipes her lipstick off his mouth with her money.

Their business is the backdrop to their relationship. He wants a personal relationship, to the point of asking her to marry him more than once; she wants only a business partnership. In business, she has experienced firsthand the disadvantage to women when men assume a business relationship should be personal.

“I’ve fought my way out of cabs, bars and hotel rooms, but I’ve learned this business. It took a strong stomach, but I learned it.”

Even Dan Dailey, who joins forces with her in a huge leap of faith to conquer the garment industry, imparts this double standard when she takes Harry von Zell out for drinks. Dailey barges in on them, this man who has just scored a date for von Zell like a pimp, belts von Zell for cozying up to his lady partner.

Hayward retorts, “Don’t you take your buyers out, wine them and dine them, and amuse them?”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

“Because I’m a man and you’re supposed to be a lady.”

Mr. Dailey isn’t the only one appalled by her nerve. Miss Hayward’s mother, played by Mary Philips, with whom she appears to have a cool relationship, offers, “You’re a throwback to an Irish bandit in the hills of Kilarney.”

This just because Hayward will get the money to put up for her share of the business by duping out her sister of her inheritance from their father’s insurance policy. All in a day’s work.

Hayward is really a pleasure to watch because her acting is so intense and yet so natural. She is at times an unlikable character, but we understand who and why she is what she is, and though her personality is strong, the only time she appears histrionic is when she’s obviously faking it to hatch a plot. Her only tender relationship appears to be with Sam Jaffe.

Jaffe, a likeable, gentle character, is unfortunately given short shrift in the film because he is subordinate to his two younger, more dynamic partners. However, since he is middle-aged, with all his life working in the cutting room for other bosses, it must have required extreme courage to leave a comfortable position and start over, with two young hotheads as partners, and risk everything. I’d like to know more about him, and see his own worries expressed, but he is allowed only to be a mild-mannered fairy godfather to Dailey and Hayward.

That handsome matinee idol, Charles Lane plays the boss of the company, and he and his two partners, like Jaffe, immigrants to this country who worked their way up in the “rag trade”, warn the trio not to quit, not to be so foolish as to think they can start their own company. For every successful business, they are told, a dozen fail.

Lane tells Jaffe, “You want to take your wife to Jones Beach? Take my Buick!”

His partner offer, “Take my Cadillac!”

His other partner chimes in, “Take my wife!”

In the end, they generously give them a month’s severance and their best wishes. There is as much camaraderie in the garment district as competition.

We hear nothing of unions in the movie, though like “Middle of the Night” (1959) which we covered last Labor Day, we do see a lot of the cutting rooms and workers in different departments, the diverse army that makes up a company. The receptionist, who is the boss’s daughter just out of business college. The office boy, played by adenoidal Marvin Kaplan, whose comical deadpan whine brings gossip and complaints.

There are the models and the sewers, and the executives who do not barricade themselves in inner corner offices, but are always on the floor, vests unbuttoned, pencil behind the ear, and barking a hundred reminders. We know Charles Lane is a hands-on boss because he has an ulcer. Just as we saw in “Middle of the Night”, this movie is really about the workplace as another kind of home, where we have purpose, achievement, a sense of belonging, a taste of competition. There is energy and a sense of urgency. Nobody is just waiting around for it to be Friday.

But counteracting that, and not always in a good way, this movie is a kind of fable—not about labor, but about boy meets girl. And then girl meets George Sanders.

In one of the more lush and elegant scenes away from the cluttered workroom of bolts of cloth and patterns, and steam hanging over all from the mangles pressing the dress pieces, is the annual buyers ball. A ballroom where a lot of formally dressed extras got work that day, and the huge windows along the wall show the city skyline in the twilight. George Sanders is on the dais, and delivers a speech saluting the heritage of the garment district on 7th Avenue. Somewhere in the room, Bess Flowers enjoys the evening. Big surprise.

I wonder if she finished her fruit cup before Mr. Sanders began his speech.

The on again/off again relationship between Mr. Dailey and Miss Hayward hits an iceberg in the form of one the screen’s most elegant cads. Except George Sanders is not really a cad here. He’s more direct and honest than Hayward is, and just as sure of what he wants. He lures Susan Hayward with the promise of letting her design gowns for his firm—she wants to break away from the $10.95 dress line—and it is made clear to us that he enjoys many relationships with strong, business-minded women in exchange for helping them in business. Not marrying them.

Which is fine for Susan Hayward, because she regards marriage as a trap and seems well suited to George Sander’s arrangement.

Which is why the ending (careening into spoiler here, close your eyes), seems to fall so flat with Dailey and Hayward making up one more time for what we are assured with be permanent. They will likely marry because they are both in love with each other and Susan has discovered that a promising career cannot match the fulfillment of True Love.

Fine, for another characters, but not these. Hayward is so riveting in her performance we have no reason not to believe her when we see her greatest happiness coming from her business success and not from cuddling with Dan Dailey. She is willing to destroy their business just to get out of her contract so she can work with Sanders.

For his part, Dailey is genuine in his agony about being in love, against his better judgment, with Hayward, who is so hard and determined to shut him out romantically. When he finally becomes so disgusted with her that he’d rather scuttle their business than take whatever crumbs she may throw their way from her new partnership with Sanders—we have no reason to believe he’ll ever want her back as a business partner or anything else.

He swallows, upset, choked up with anger when she returns to the work room where he and Jaffe are tabulating how deeply in debt they’re going to be. We don’t know if he’s going to yell, cry, or kill her with his bare hands.

We expect anything but for her to look contrite at this stage.

The two leads have done such a good job convincing us of their opposing feelings and motives, that it seems a jolt at the end to find the traditional love-conquers-all ending tacked on in the last few minutes.  Forsaking ambition for the love of a good man is not something she ever indicates to us she wants.

Other incidentals: Some great outdoor location shots in the city and Central Park.

Some topical references to Dailey’s expense account being as large as the budget for the Marshall Plan.

Instead of selling “like hotcakes” a dress is said to be selling “like uranium”.

Hayward’s savvy appraisal of a gown, “The only place a woman can wear a gown like that is in a perfume ad.”

Another observation by a model, “The men like it, but the women know you can’t sit down in it.”

George Sanders remarks on a particularly provocative gown, “I thought it had a certain flare.”

Hayward replies, “But it wouldn’t on a hanger. The model brought her flare with her.”

We are accustomed to seeing much smoking in classic films, but it cracked me up to see a model smoking while being pinned into a dress by Susan Hayward.

Have a look here at Farran Nehme’s swell post on "I Can Get it For You Wholesale" from a few months ago over at Self-Styled Siren.

And Happy Labor Day.