Movie Review: My Six Loves (1963)

A family drama and romantic comedy, My Six Loves is a fluffy career-versus-family story with attempts at humour but lacking any edge or substance.

Janice Courtney (Debbie Reynolds) is a Broadway star who has just wrapped up her first Hollywood role. Extremely popular but very single, Janice wonders if she has made the right choice dedicating her life to her career and never getting married. Driven to exhaustion by her agent Marty Bliss (David Janssen), Janice is ordered to rest and retreats to her Connecticut country home for a few weeks of recuperation in the company of her loyal assistant Ethel (Eileen Heckart).

In the nearby woods, Janice stumbles on six kids and a dog living on their own after being abandoned by their parents. She takes them in and starts to care for them. She also meets local Reverend Jim Larkin (Cliff Robertson), and they start to fall in love. Janice is attracted to the life of domesticity and considers adopting the children, but then she is offered an opportunity of a lifetime to star in the latest play by celebrated playwright Kinsley Kross (Hans Conried).

The first feature film to be directed by stage legend Gower Champion, My Six Loves is a lame affair suffering from an outdated societal message and a feeble script (despite the involvement of four writers). Every moment of conflict is immediately resolved, every emotion is obvious, and all the characters are superficial. The laughs are often juvenile, sometime descending to the let's-all-run-around-the-bus-after-the-dog variety, targeting eight year olds.

As a pure family film aiming to entertain pre-teens My Six Loves may be relatively harmless, but the film sells an infantile solution to the serious debate about finding balance between professional fulfilment and family life. The choice offered to Janice is to give up her career entirely to adopt and look after six children she barely knows. That the domestic option comes with the love of a man of the church makes the premise more troublesome. The film avoids any astute discussion: Janice is presented with a forceful, often guilt-laden binary decision, and the film disintegrates under the weight of seeking a simplistic solution to a profoundly complex dilemma.

Debbie Reynolds does her best to capture some semblance of an internal conflict. She looks great and even gets to sing one song. The scruffy dog is adorable and emerges as the only other thing worth watching. The rest of the supporting cast members, including a too-serious Cliff Robertson and a too-glib David Janssen, are wooden, predictable and overtly theatrical. The children are saddled with an overdose of doe-eyed cutesiness and no depth.

My Six Loves has little to say, and even that comes out all wrong.

All Ace Black Movie Blog Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Debbie Reynolds

All movies starring Debbie Reynolds and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Three Little Words (1950)

Singin' In The Rain (1952)

The Gazebo (1959)

How The West Was Won (1962)

My Six Loves (1963)

The Bodyguard (1992, cameo as herself)

Heaven And Earth (1993)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: The Gazebo (1959)

A sharp dark comedy, The Gazebo nicely builds to a healthy dose of laughs in the story of a television executive dealing with an inconvenient blackmail problem.

Elliott Nash (Glenn Ford) produces crime dramas for live television. His harried life is that much more stressful because Elliott is also being blackmailed by a mysterious man who goes by the name of Shelby. Elliott is married to budding stage star Nell (Debbie Reynolds), and he does not want her to know that Shelby is in possession of compromising photos that can threaten their relationship. Elliott turns to his friend and lawyer Harlow Edison (Carl Reiner) for some advice, but Harlow has eyes for Nell and is of little help.

In addition to trying to convince Nell to sell their house to raise money, Elliott starts to nurture the idea of killing Shelby to get rid of the problem once and for all. Things get more complicated when Nell decides to buy a large gazebo for their backyard, and crusty construction crew chief Sam Thorpe (John McGiver) becomes an intermittent visitor around the house. But the gazebo's concrete foundation presents an opportunity, and Elliott's dabbling in a possible murder plot will also include the unlikely involvement of none other than Alfred Hitchcock.

An underrated and often forgotten gem, The Gazebo works its way to often hilarious levels of farce. Director George Marshall adopts a measured pace in the first 30 minutes to set up the premise, and then unleashes the laughs to good effect. The George Wells script (an adaptation of the Myra and Alec Coppel play) delivers a compact 100 minutes of fun, with likeable protagonists who are sympathetic despite all their foibles.

Good as the film is, there are some weaknesses, notably performances that are very much overly theatrical. While Debbie Reynolds almost manages to find the right tone, Glenn Ford is guilty of going over the top early and often. Ford is funny as the frantic everyman digging an ever deeper hole of trouble for himself. But he doesn't even attempt any level of circumspect nuance, instead going for the all-flappy all-the-time stance more appropriate for the stage than the screen. There are also a few issues with timing, some plot events happening at unlikely hours just to feed the laugh-o-meter.

But the film adds to the fun quotient by cleverly keeping many of its surprises hidden from view. The exact nature of the blackmail takes some time to become apparent, and the various bad guys who will get involved in the plot as Elliott's nightmare spirals out of control are not exactly who he thinks they are. Every time Elliott starts to think he's gaining a measure control, another twist sends him on a new frenzy of uncertainty. Ironically, the calmest presence is a plucky pigeon, saved by Elliott early in the film and intent on hanging around.

The Gazebo includes a loud-talking house maid, a wild shooting leading to a ridiculously funny and prolonged death scene, an inopportune rain storm, and hideous curtains that can conveniently serve to hide a crime. It's the worst possible combination of items and events to assemble a staid backyard gazebo, but a terrific recipe for madly enjoyable revelry.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Heaven And Earth (1993)

Oliver Stone's final chapter in his Vietnam trilogy is a letter of apology. Heaven And Earth pushes the war to the background, and delves into the perspective of the often forgotten rural villagers caught in the cross-fire and paying the highest price for a conflict between others.

Le Ly Hyslip (Hiep Thi Le) lives with her family of rice farmers in rural Vietnam. As a girl she witnesses the end of one conflict against the occupying French army, and as a young woman her life is again severely disrupted by a new conflict, this time a civil war with American involvement. Her father (Haing S. Ngor) struggles to hold the family together by emphasizing the need to respect the spirits of ancestors and  attachment to the land. Le Ly's more pragmatic mother (Joan Chen) keeps the home functioning and does her best to raise her children into adults.

The village is soon caught in the middle of the new conflict, and Le Ly's brothers join the Viet Cong. With the South Vietnamese army and their American advisors controlling the day but the Viet Cong dominant at night, Le Ly has to manufacture a two-faced existence, but the war eventually catches up with her. She is held prisoner, tortured, then raped. Having brought shame to her village she relocates to Saigon to work as a servant, but an ill-advised liaison with her married master results in a pregnancy and more shame. Le Ly eventually finds what appears to be a promising relationship with US Marine Steve Butler (Tommy Lee Jones), but the escape route out of the horrors of her own country carries its own harrowing challenges.

Based on Le Ly Hyslip's true life experiences, Heaven And Earth is not an easy film to appreciate. Stone's objective is to place the faceless victims of war at the centre of his story, and by definition the narrative lacks anything that resembles a traditionally defined arc or heroism. This is a slow-moving story of the agony imposed on simple rice farmers who have lived simple lives for generations. Le Ly struggles and survives with deep scars, and it is the scars that Stone is interested in, questioning through her story the value of any conflict that causes such ever lasting damage on an entire people.

Heaven And Earth runs for 140 minutes, and the pacing is slow, deliberate and descends into arduous. There are plenty of artistic shots of the countryside, sunrises and sunsets, temples, agricultural fields and farmers at work, Stone working hard to recreate a place where time is measured in growing seasons, and values are defined by generations of long-deceased ancestors who ploughed the fields so that their descendants can also derive life from the same fields. It's all very pretty, but Heaven and Earth at times becomes a cultural lesson at an art gallery rather than a movie.

The central performance by newcomer Hiep Thi Le is patchy. She does better in the earlier, Vietnam-set scenes, but mostly struggles against a weakening script when the drama relocates to the United States and shifts to interaction with Steve's family. If there was an intent to show the rise from the ashes of a self-confident business woman, it is bludgeoned by Stone focusing on a rapidly disintegrating home life. Tommy Lee Jones adds heft in a relatively small role, while Debbie Reynolds is underused as his mom.

Despite the weaknesses, Heaven And Earth occasionally climbs to some commanding emotional peaks. Once back in the United States, Le Ly and Steve need to confront their demons, the unwillingly oppressed and the clueless oppressor, both severely damaged, both nursing immense grief, and both with questionable reasons to continue living. Hiep and Jones shine in a draining face to face encounter where the horrid pain of the conflict oozes out in excruciating drips. Between Heaven And Earth is real life, corrupted into a living hell by senseless war.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Singin' In The Rain (1952)

A classic celebration of song, dance, and Hollywood history, Singin' In The Rain has an infectious positive energy, and a young, celebratory attitude. The film recalibrated musical genre expectations, respecting the old while creating the new with a burst of colour, energy and sheer bravado.

In the late 1920's, Hollywood is transitioning from silent to talking movies. Celebrated but studio-manufactured screen couple Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are the biggest stars of the silent era, and they face contrasting fortunes. Lockwood has the talent to continue his career, but Lamont's screechy voice is a deathblow to her future as a movie star. In the meantime, Lamont believes the studio hype that she and Lockwood have a real-life relationship; in reality, he is falling in love with young struggling actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds).

With the latest Lockwood and Lamont film release facing financial disaster unless it can be quickly turned into a talkie, Lockwood's sidekick Cosmo Brown (Donald O'Connor) comes up with the idea of having Selden provide the voice-over for Lamont. Lockwood builds on this and converts the film into an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza. But the jealousies between Lamont and Selden threaten to side-swipe all their careers.

The plot is funny, interesting and romantic, but it is just a side-show. Singin' In The Rain is a collection of terrific, innovative song and dance numbers, transitioning the Hollywood musical into a new era, and in many ways setting the stage for what would become the high-energy music video in decades to come.

Gene Kelly, who co-directed with Stanley Donen, injects larges doses of artistic creativity and innovative choreography. Kelly also projects a winning self-depreciating persona while infusing the dance numbers with unbridled joy and enthusiasm. He finds the perfect partners in the impossibly rubbery and quick-witted O'Connor, as well as the spunky and willing Reynolds.

Make 'Em Laugh, Singin' In The Rain, and Good Morning are just some of the classics re-imagined and revived in vivid colours and with creative props, Kelly, O'Connor and Reynolds attacking physically demanding numbers with conviction and a smile.

Late in the movie, Kelly inserts the long Broadway Melody Ballet scene, with Cyd Charisse putting her endless legs to excellent use, in a sequence which has nothing to do with the plot but that at the same summarizes everything about Singin' In The Rain: brash, modern, and vivacious.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: How The West Was Won (1962)

A well-intentioned flag-waving epic, How The West Was Won unfortunately falls flat. The film has all the narrative sophistication and character depth of an amateur high school play, with a script devoid of texture and intelligence. All the characters spout their lines convinced they are playing a part in the grand scheme of unfolding history, resulting in an endless succession of overly-dramatic, theatrical, wooden, and sometimes sadly comical scenes.

A series of sketches chronicling the history of America over about 60 years in the heart of the 1800's, How The West Was Won generally follows the adventures of the Prescott family. After tangling with bandits and being saved by mountain man Linus Rawlings (James Stewart), Ma and Pa Prescott are killed in a rafting accident making their way west. Their down-to-earth daughter Eve (Carroll Baker) marries Linus and establishes a homestead at the site where her parents died. The other daughter, free spirited singer/dancer Lily (Debbie Reynolds), continues west, joins a wagon trail to California, and marries compulsive gambler Cleve Van Halen (Gregory Peck). Lily and Cleve settle in San Francisco where they make and lose many fortunes.

The Civil War erupts, Eve's son Zeb (George Peppard) joins the Unionists and has a serendipitous encounter with General Grant. After the war Zeb stays in the army and attempts to keep the peace between the expanding rail companies and the native tribes whose land is being seized. Disillusioned, Zeb eventually becomes a Marshall, helping to bring law and order to the wild land, and eventually tangling with bandit Charlie Gant (Eli Wallach).

In How The West Was Won the good guys are all-good, the bad guys are all-bad, and good always triumphs over bad. The film presents a most naive, sugar-coated and earnest view of the old world. Despite the sophomoric storytelling, some reasonable highlights do emerge: the Civil War scenes are impressively staged and the unleashing of a buffalo stampede as a weapon against the rail companies is memorable. The stunt work during the final train heist also deserves recognition.

The all-star cast includes a few walk-on roles for the likes of John Wayne and Henry Fonda. Gregory Peck and James Stewart play their parts with little conviction and an ever-present smirk. Debbie Reynolds and George Peppard have the most prominent roles, and they are far from capable of holding the film together. John Ford, Henry Hathaway and George Marshall directed the various segments, preventing any coherent vision from permeating through the movie.

How The West Was Won fails to resonate, and has a ghastly ending that suddenly jumps to the present and trumpets American freeways, interchanges and concrete jungles as the most prominent signs of triumph. The times have indeed changed.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.