natalie wood collection

Bombers B-52 (1957) - is a pleasant enough Air Force propaganda piece, with appropriate thanks to this branch of our country’s military service in the closing credits; it also includes all the requisite elements for a CinemaScope production – impressive widescreen shots of the titled aircraft taking off, landing and an in-flight refueling, and even some impressive aerial shots of North Africa (including the Pyramids) – but its story and the dramatic elements that hold it together are fairly rote and not particularly compelling. Here we have a 19 year-old Natalie Wood, playing the daughter of Karl Malden and Marsha Hunt, being courted by 40 year-old Efrem Zimbalist Jr.; of course, Malden’s character isn’t too keen about it while, surprisingly, Hunt’s doesn’t seem to care. The fact that Malden plays a career master sergeant mechanic that doesn’t trust nor respect flyboy Zimbalist Jr. (per their history during the Korean War six years earlier), who’s now his commanding officer, is a regularly recycled plot point as well. Then again, this one’s message was meant to convey the value of the B-52 to our nation’s security to the audience of its time (during the Cold War) whereas other superior dramas (Strategic Air Command (1955) and, later, A Gathering of Eagles (1963)) were focused on the U.S.A.F.’s leadership challenges. Directed by Gordon Douglas, its screenplay was written by Irving Wallace from the novel by Sam Rolfe (The Naked Spur (1953)). Movie fans will recognize Dick Elliott, Juanita Moore (don’t blink or you’ll miss her), and Stuart Whitman among the uncredited actors in the cast.

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Cash McCall (1960) - Cameron Hawley’s novel about the politics inherent in corporate boardrooms became the essential business drama Executive Suite (1954). With that film’s Oscar nominated cinematographer (George J. Folsey) and supporting actress (Nina Foch) as well as Dean Jagger and character actor Edgar Stehli, this one was made into a comedy featuring James Garner (in the title role) and Natalie Wood; it was adapted by Lenore J. Coffee (Four Daughters (1938)) and Marion Hargrove, and directed by Joseph Pevney. The story has enough misdirection (and at least one dead end) in it to keep it interesting, even if (at times) it gets somewhat confusing; but Garner’s charm and Wood’s natural beauty makes it eminently watchable. The cast also includes E.G. Marshall, Henry Jones, Otto Kruger, Roland Winters and Edward Platt as key players in the various dealings by McCall, an elusive character whose reputation is not unlike Wall Street (1987)’s Gordon Gekko. McCall wants to buy Grant Austen’s (Jagger) plastics company, in part because Austen’s daughter is Lory (Wood), a woman with whom he has an unrequited past. Jones (whose boss is Platt) plays McCall’s associate, Marshall his lawyer and Kruger his banker; Winters and Foch (her boss is Stehli) are the foe and foil that add conflict to the initially smooth transaction and romance.

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Splendor in the Grass (1961)

Gypsy (1962) - the title makes one think that this movie is about stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, when it’s really about her pushy backstage mother Rose Hovick, played by Rosalind Russell (even though it was Ethel Merman who made the part famous on Broadway). In fact, the DVD is included in Warner Home Video’s Natalie Wood Collection, further confusing the matter. It’s Wood that plays the title role, as Rose’s youngest daughter Louise, who grows up in the shadow of her singing and dancing older sister June (played by Morgan Brittany, her film debut, and Ann Jillian), who went on to become actress June Havoc. Russell and eventually Wood are equal to their parts as is Karl Malden as Herbie Sommers, a stage director that falls in love with Rose and becomes the manager-agent of her ever growing child stars on the vaudeville circuit. Herbie finally loses his patience with Rose when he finally realizes that her ambition has become exploitation as she convinces poor Louise to be the star of a burlesque show, where she’s transformed into the renowned stripper. This musical drama, which was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and adapted by Leonard Spigelgass (Mystery Street (1950)) from Lee’s memoir and the play by Arthur Laurents, features two renditions of the song "Let Me Entertain You", "Everything’s Coming Up Roses" and many others. Its Color Cinematography and Costume Design as well as its Score received Academy Award nominations. Harvey Korman appears uncredited as Miss Lee’s agent.

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Sex and the Single Girl (1964) - taking the title of Helen Gurley Brown’s book and casting Natalie Wood to play the author, Warner Bros. must have had a readymade hit on its hands at the time, especially with Tony Curtis to play her opposite. Unfortunately, it doesn’t translate very well today; it comes off as a silly sex farce with dated male-female relationships and inside jokes about the magazine business (and its frugality?). Its plot bears no resemblance to the author’s best selling semi-autobiographical book, which helped to mark the beginnings of the sexual revolution. Directed by Richard Quine, its screenplay was written by Joseph Heller and David R. Schwartz from a story by Joseph Hoffman. Curtis plays Bob Weston, the editor that’s responsible for transforming a once staid family periodical into a trashy scandal rag to the delight of its legacy owner, played by Edward Everett Horton (whose face can’t hide the ravages of a lifetime spent smoking cigarettes). After accusing Brown (Wood) of being a virgin in their magazine, Weston decides to find out whether she is indeed a hypocrite. Using his neighbor’s name and decade long marital situation as his own, Weston woos psychologist Brown; her book advises single girls (such as herself) to pursue affairs with married men. This leads to the obvious, in the end. Did I mention that Weston’s neighbors are played by Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall? Both must have been embarrassed to appear in this comedy; he runs a hosiery business, which causes her (formerly one of his models) to be jealous of similarly leggy women. But wait, there’s also Mel Ferrer as a psychiatrist that’s (naturally) attracted to his co-worker Brown; Stubby Kaye, Otto Kruger, and even Count Basie also appear as do lesser knowns Fran Jeffries and Larry Storch. Perhaps because of the success of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), the studio decided to throw in the out-of-place madcap car chase which consumes this movie’s final 20 minutes.

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Inside Daisy Clover (1965) - although Natalie Wood (even at 27 years of age) was uniquely qualified to play the title role of a 15 year old child actress – in this rags-to-riches story of a boardwalk ‘street teen’ wannabe singer that becomes America’s valentine (the screen’s latest Orphan Annie) – this drama is a pretty superficial look at Hollywood stereotypes. Directed by Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)), the shallow story by Gavin Lambert (Sons and Lovers (1960)) with its cut-out characters lacks credence. Academy Award nominated screenwriter Ruth Gordon returned to the screen after a more than 20 year absence to pick up her first of two Supporting Actress Oscar nominations as Wood’s eccentric yet clueless mother; the film’s Color Art Direction-Set Decoration and Costume Design were also nominated. None of the actors seem very committed to their parts and at least 30 minutes could be trimmed from the movie for all the empty scenes given its characters for contemplative moments that aren’t adequately illustrated. As insiders, the director and writer seem to have forgotten that their audience might not be able to fill in the blanks by imagining the rest, or they assumed too much. Robert Redford plays an Errol Flynn-like narcissistic sex symbol of his day, Christopher Plummer plays producer Raymond Swan; Roddy McDowall is his most professional assistant. As Swan’s wife Melora, Katharine Bard plays a rather ill-defined role, perhaps she was the silent screen version of Miss Clover. Harold Gould appears briefly as a cop on the pier from which Daisy was whisked to stardom.

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