Friday, February 24, 2017

This is All Very "Gallant" of Me!

Back in the late-'80s and early-'90s, one could turn on basic cable TV and see classic movies on several stations, not just TCM or AMC.  A&E would show them, as would TNT, USA and others. It was back in the early 1990s that I first watched today's featured movie, Lucy Gallant (1955), enjoyed it (for one special reason in particular, which I'll get to) and then never. saw. it. again! The movie just seemed to dive into a cinematic black hole from which I could never again retrieve it!

This was remedied recently when TCM - during a day-long salute to Jane Wyman, decided to unearth it once more. As you can guess, I was ecstatic after a twenty-five year blackout to finally get to revisit it again! It's not that it's some incredibly great movie... since when has that ever mattered around here?! We latch on to unintentional badness with glee. (By the way, at no point does Wyman wear this outfit, nor the hat, nor walk any dog...!)

What we really longed to see again was an aspect that draws us, like a moth to a flame, to this and several other movies (from The Women, 1939, to Back Street, 1961, to The Adventurers, 1970 to Mahogany, 1975.) Lucy Gallant features a climactic fashion show, with a passel of designs by Edith Head!

Few films who truck out this time-honored tradition will fail to win me over on some level or another. The more pretentiously the clothing is presented, the better! Amusing narration is key, too, in most cases and this movie scores a bit of a hit in that department, too, which I'll mention when we get there.

Our story begins in a fictional oil boom town called New City, Texas, where rancher Charlton Heston is carving out a living in the cattle business. One rainy night, he is helping the local train station operator with an issue and happens to look up into the window of one of the passenger cars.

Here, he spots Miss Jane Wyman and is instantly attracted (!) to her. Not that Miss W. couldn't sometimes pour on the charm and the glitz, but - seriously? - this particular glimpse of her is what set his heart afire right off the bat? Methinks he may have been spending too much time amongst his bovine pals on the ranch...

He decides to enter the train car and speak to Wyman in person. The car is loaded with obnoxious men and a screaming baby (with this, I could truly identify, having recently flown home through the Orlando airport with screeching Disney-drenched ankle-biters on all sides of me!) Heston tells her that with a trestle washed out up ahead, the train may be a long while and that she ought to come with him into town and get a room someplace.

He loads her into his pickup truck (carrying her at one point to avoid all the mud and gunk that's every- where.) She's burdened down with a downright ridiculous assortment of white suitcases and a large hatbox, but at least has the foresight to bring along some white rubber galoshes that will protect her feet from the onslaught of filth.

The hotel is teeming with people, completely overbooked and with no rooms available at all. The best they can do for Wyman is let her rest in the lobby, though it's bristling with all sorts of loud celebrants, drunkards and so on. A kindly black maintenance man Joel Fluellen assists her with her luggage.

Heston, having dropped Wyman off in the lobby, takes another look and sees that she is being heavily accosted by a local yahoo who's had a bit too much to drink. He comes over and breaks up the fun with Wyman drily remarking that the guy had wanted to celebrate his "gusher" with her. Ha!
With that, he tells her he knows of a place that likely has a room she can use and a bed to lie down in. Wary as she is, the hotel lobby is annoying enough that she risks it and joins him on a muddy trek down the "street" to the house he's referring to. The home belongs to crusty Thelma Ritter, who comes out onto the porch in a bit of a tizzy.

Ritter can't understand why Heston bothered to ring the doorbell at that hour. Come to find out, this is actually where HE lives and he's opted to let the hoity-toity Wyman spend the night in his bed while he bunks on the couch downstairs. She's so exhausted by this point that she barely puts up any argument with the gesture.

The following morning, Wyman sets out to the still mud-soaked town in (as one does...) a neatly tailored suit with a fur-trimmed hat and a matching purse made entirely of lined fur! Yet, she's still sporting her li'l plastic booties, much to the befuddlement of the locals. Ritter introduces her to a neighbor woman and her daughter (recent oil heiresses themselves), shown below, who marvel at the clothing and accessories that Wyman is wearing.
Next, we find that Ritter's husband Wallace Ford has struck oil himself! He rambunc- tiously ripsnorts around, happy to be part of the never-ending boom that this once-sleepy Texas town is experiencing.

Wyman comes upon an abandoned makeshift storefront as well as the friendly black man Fluellen again, who'd been pitching in there previously. She gets a sudden brainstorm and decides to sell every lick of her fancy clothing and accessories, including the white suitcases, to the newly-rich local ladies, turning the storefront into a fashion outlet.

Having sold out everything, she counts up her earnings ($2,500.00) and gives impromptu assistant Fluellen (whose name in the movie is "Summertime!") his fair share.  We soon find that her back-breaking assortment of clothing-filled luggage was actually intended to be her wedding trousseau.

She heads over to the bank after Heston has dropped in on her once again. He's surprised to hear that she's not leaving New City, nor depositing her stack of cash. She wants to borrow even more money and set up an actual store. Now that she's had a taste of just how hungry for quality merchandise the ladies of the town are, she intends to capitalize on it and make a name for herself.

The local banker William Demarest can hardly believe his ears when Wyman outlines her plan, but he's also powerless to deny her reasoning and initial success. Ever industrious, she even grabs hold of the man painting Demarest's offices and coerces him into changing the color of the walls!

She has her eye on a particular location, one that happens to already be occupied by a popular watering hole, The Red Derrick. It's owner, Claire Trevor, really isn't interested in selling it, but seeing that not only is Demarest behind Wyman's plan, but also that Wyman intends to play fair by offering Trevor 5% of all profits, she relents and sells the place. Before you know it, the building is being renovated into Gallant's ladies store!
Heston stops in during the remodeling and manages to spirit Wyman away from all the hubbub for lunch out on his ranch. Clearly still smitten with her, she remains detached to a degree, not ready to turn her back on this daunting but delicious new enterprise of hers.

Now, with so many of the residents well-to-do and with her store a rousing hit, Wyman is part of the newly-formed social elite and, though he doesn't have the money, so is Heston. Wyman heads to his place to drag him to a party, but he's not in the mood. He's going to allow drilling on his land and wants Wyman to settle down and marry him.
Despite her feelings for him, Wyman just cannot abandon her new career. She was jilted on the big day of her wedding by a fiance when her father's ques- tionable business practices led to a scandal. She's now out to prove herself and come out from under that upsetting legacy. (The characters' divergent worlds are made clear in this shot, with her cotton candy pink gown resting against a rugged mantel with hunting dog statuary and a rifle hanging above!)

After Wyman won't capitulate to his overtures of wedded bliss, Heston ties one on with Ford and some of the other boys, spending the night at Trevor's new digs. It's clear that the one-time bar owner (a brothel in the source novella!) has her own set of feelings for Heston, but he's pretty hung up on Wyman. (The lobby card below depicts the riveting scene of three actors standing on set between takes, perhaps thinking about the blocking...)
WWII breaks out and Heston joins up with the U.S. Army. Wyman (now matured and minus the slightly longer hair she once possessed - I absolutely HATE this style on her by the way...) now lives in an elegantly-appointed apartment and fixes up glitzy gift boxes for her faraway paramour.

Eventually she adopts the camellia as her signature motif and begins incor- porating it into her newest logo, decorating the boxes with them and, if one pays attention to detail, even starts wearing versions of them in and on her clothing! Heston doesn't get any guff from his fellow G.I.s when these frou-frou boxes arrive. They're all happy to share the contents! (And this is the sole bit of beefcake we ever see in the movie.)
Once the war is over, Heston returns to New City still in uniform and is amazed to see the neon sign of Gallant's dominating the block. He heads over to Ford and Ritter's place where a party is in full swing. Ritter pretends to be derisive of him for being a big shot war hero, but it's only to cover her inner tenderness towards him.

She reintroduces him to the local neighbor girl whose parents had earlier struck it rich. (The girl, played by Gloria Talbott, had earlier this same year portrayed Wyman's selfish, self-indulgent daughter in All That Heaven Allows, 1955, so this virtual walk-on role was quite a come-down in such short time!)

Finally, he is reunited with Wyman, whose been swimming in the pool and quickly dons a pink cover-up. They initially spar (this couple always seems to quarrel more than they canoodle) over something or other, but later he follows her home and they drop all their anger and begin to make out!
In just the time it takes for her to slip out of her damp swimsuit and into a satin robe, things have already begun to cool again, though. He is still hell-bent on marrying her and asking her to give up her dream of a major store just as she is on the cusp of opening another location, the biggest and best yet!

He storms out, then the next day she begins to think about the fight they've had and heads to his ranch. Only, just as she arrives, he's struck oil! Now he'll be wealthy beyond belief and he celebrates by guzzling booze out of a bottle. She pulls up to talk to him and instead gets an earful about how he believes she heard about his oil strike and thinks she can glom onto him to finance her new store! With this, she disgustedly tells him she hopes he enjoys his oil and tears off.

Things are about to head south for her, though. As she pulls into town, it becomes clear that Gallant's has caught fire and burnt! Fluellen has managed to rescue some of the company books, but otherwise the place is dead in the water. She tells Ritter that she still wants to proceed with the new location, but now lacks the collateral of the present store.
Heston, realizing (for once) what a jerk he's been to Wyman, instructs Demarest to put up his own money for her new store, then he leaves town on a whirlwind world tour that includes sightseeing, marriage to a hot model, drinking, gambling, divorce from the hot model and then back again! Meanwhile, Wyman is shown looking up at the sparkling new logo of her latest store (and sports a coat and glove combination that is highly representative of what Edith Head was dressing ladies in at that time. And why not, Head was the designer of the clothing in this film!)
Ever reliable Trevor picks Heston up at the airport. Since there is always a party going on in this town, Trevor brings him to the latest one. There he finds Wyman more duded out than ever, with an escort on her arm, and just on the eve of unleashing the newest version of Gallant's onto the public. A huge debut is scheduled for the following morning.
Wyman is, once again, handed some devastating news, though. While all the salesgirls are buffing and polishing the place, and the always-reliable Fluellen is dressed up and ready to let the public enter, Wyman holds a directors meeting and is informed that her escort from the prior night, her assistant Tom Helmore, is ousting her from her position as head of the company and taking over himself!
Now, she's forced to put on a happy face and head downstairs for the gala opening of a company that won't even be hers any more by the time the event is over... But what an event. The (real life!) governor of Texas at the time, Allan Shivers, is there to commemorate the televised occasion. Hilariously, though, the audience for this big deal seems awfully teensy... maybe it was a very stringently managed guest list!

Anyway, the fashion show gets underway and Wyman steps forward to introduce the special guest comment- ator, Miss Edith Head! (No matter how many times I see this - or, really, most any Head public appearance - I always marvel at the unusual way she stands. Her hips swivel a certain way and her legs dart out in a very individual manner.)

But the really odd thing is that Head appears as herself, a clothing designer, introducing clothes that she - in the movie - didn't design, but which - in real life - she did! Not to mention the fact that she's appearing as herself in this movie, but she designed all the clothes for the movie... but we're not supposed to be reminded this blatantly that we're watching a movie... Right?!  (LOL  "Tell yourself... it's only a movie!") Jesus...

Anyway, the clothes are so distinctively in her style for the most part. They are trotted out on a rotating, circular stage with the sleek models using a variety of props to suggest the outfits' usage. I love listening to Head describe the fabrics and colors of these allegedly international fashions.

The movie ends with Wyman at a crossroads with her company on the line and Heston standing in back at the fashion show with perhaps a helping hand. But at what price? The way the scenario is ultimately resolved is not likely to leave a good taste in contemporary viewers' mouths, but consider the year this was made: 1954.

This story, adapted from a novella called "The Life of Lucy Gallant," drew its inspiration from some degree of real life people and events. In particular, one Carrie Marcus who, with her husband Al Neiman and others, created the famous Neiman-Marcus department store chain in Dallas, Texas. The original store was even destroyed in a fire (like Gallant's) and the chain later incorporated luxurious weekly fashion shows on site.

Miss Wyman began playing dancers, chorus girls and other bit parts way back in 1932, earning bigger and better roles as the decade began to come to a close. During the 1940s, she came to star in some important films such as The Lost Weekend (1945), The Yearling (1946, earning an Oscar nom but the award going to Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own) and especially Johnny Belinda (1948), which did her a Best Actress Oscar. Another nomination came with The Blue Veil (1951), but Vivien Leigh won that year for A Streetcar Named Desire.

She'd amasses a resume of surprisingly varied sorts of roles, but in the mid-'50s became known for a series of melodramatic movies such as Magnificent Obsession (1954, earning her a final Oscar nomination, the award of which went to Grace Kelly in The Country Girl), All That Heaven Allows (1955) - both of which costarred Rock Hudson - then Lucy Gallant and Miracle in the Rain (1956), thereafter segueing more into TV with an occasional Disney movie like Pollyanna (1960) or Bon Voyage! (1962.)

The 1980s brought her as much widespread attention as she'd received in her hey day, for not only was her ex-husband (wed from 1940-1948) Ronald Reagan elected President of the United States, but she held the leading role on a hit prime-time soap called Falcon Crest. She portrayed the stylish, but steely, vineyard matriarch Angela Channing who rode heard over her family (while disciplined Wyman reportedly ran heard over some of the cast!) After nearly a decade on that series, she made on final acting gig (on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) in 1993 before retiring. In 2007, complications from arthritis and diabetes claimed her at age ninety.
As one might guess from his second-billing here, Heston was not yet the cinematic powerhouse he would soon become during the '60s and '70s. Having held his own against several established stars in The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), he had already begun to play the sort of larger than life roles he'd later be famous for such as President Andrew Jackson in The President's Lady (1953.)

He had just done a role fairly similar to this one in 1954's The Naked Jungle as a spoiled, chauvinistic plantation owner at odds with his mail-order bride Eleanor Parker and later admitted that he'd been a tad too surly in Lucy Gallant. He was already at work on his next role (one that would become legendary for him) of Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956.) His biggest triumph, however, came as the title character in the Oscar-winning Best Picture Ben-Hur (1959), for which he also took home the golden statuette.

Many historical epics and disaster movies followed as he grew more and more bankable (and, to many, more and more granite-jawed!) Ironically, he would also find himself headlining a 1980s prime-time soap of his own, The Colbys, though it wasn't a fraction as popular or long-lasting as Wyman's Falcon Crest. Heston died in 2008 at the age of eighty-four from pneumonia.

Trevor was a highly-valued character actress, often playing rough-edged dames or ladies in distress of some sort. Having begun acting in movies in the early-1930s, she scored an Oscar nomination for Dead End (1937) - which went to Alice Brady for In Old Chicago, then won one later for 1948's Key Largo. Just before Lucy Gallant, she'd earned a third and final nomination for The High and the Mighty (1954), though that one went to Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront.

Trevor retired in the mid-'60s, concentrating on theatre near her home, but after her husband's passing did work a bit more in the 1980s. When she died in 2000 at the age of ninety from respiratory failure, the University of California-Irvine renamed their school of the arts in her honor, for she and her husband had donated $10 million to its development.

Ritter, an indis- pensable supporting player, didn't even start acting until she was in her mid-forties (with an uncredited bit in Miracle on 34th Street, 1947), but soon became a busy, sought-after performer. Ritter never took home an Oscar despite being nominated six times. I won't list all the winners, but her nominated roles came for All About Eve (1950), The Mating Season (1951), With a Song in My Heart (1952), Pickup on South Street (1953, in a role that Trevor would later essay in the remake The Cape Town Affair, 1967), Pillow Talk (1959) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962.) A heart attack claimed her in 1969 at the age of sixty-seven.

Her husband in the film, Ford, was a successful Broadway actor who made the jump to films in the 1930s and was the leading actor in the bizarre Freaks (1932.) He kept very busy in movies until working alongside Henry Fonda on the TV series The Deputy in 1959. His final role was as Ole Pa in the searing A Patch of Blue (1965), the after which he passed away of a heart attack at age sixty-eight.

Demarest is yet another busy, familiar face lending support to this film. His screen career kicked off in 1927 and he remained an active performer, often in crotchety, cranky sorts of roles. He was Oscar-nominated for 1946's The Jolson Story, but lost to Harold Russell in The Best Years of Our Lives. His greatest chance at becoming a household name, however, came in 1965 when he replaced William Frawley on My Three Sons as the cantankerous, but loving, Uncle Charlie through the series' demise in 1972. He worked a little bit more through 1978 before passing away from pneumonia and prostate cancer in 1983 at age ninety-one.

Hellmore worked in bit parts from the late-1920s on, later essaying businessman roles in various comedies or potentially shady romantic types. Fans of Vertigo (1958) will instantly recognize him as Gavin Elster, the old pal of James Stewart's who kicks off all the mystery of the story. He retired in 1972, but lived on until 1995 when he passed of natural causes at age ninety-one.

Talbott worked as a child actress before becoming very busy as a young lady in the 1950s. This was only one of the films she had in release in 1955 alone, the others being Crashout, All That Heaven Allows and We're No Angels along with no less than a dozen appearances on TV! She worked steadily, eventually segueing into sci-fi and horror movies, until 1966 when she retired. She lived until the year 2000 when kidney failure claimed her at age sixty-nine.

As one might expect from the era, Fluellen began his career playing waiters, bartenders and other such parts (including more than a few natives) from the late-1930s on. As the '50s continued, he found opportunities for parts in such films as Friendly Persuasion (1956), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958). The Decks Ran Red (1959) and Porgy and Bess (1959.) He also appeared in Raisin in the Sun (1961), Roustabout (1964) and The Chase (1966) among other films and much TV, always striving for better roles for himself and his peers. He retired from a lengthy, busy career in 1986, but died by his own hand in 1990 at age eighty-two.

Lucy Gallant is directed capably enough by Robert Parrish, but this movie screams out for the more garish, florid style of Douglas Sirk, who'd done Wyman's earlier hits Magnificent Obsession and All that Heaven Allows. The passion is never quite heated beyond a light simmer and it remains, for the most part, a rather "buttoned-up" sort of occasion.



  
  

  
In this poster, something symbolically (and literally!) seems to be coming between them!
The original photo used for the above artwork may reveal that they were closer together in the portrait, then had their lower halves spread apart slightly to make room for the oil well (the gusher!) I think Heston's legs and Wyman's rear end are bent back further?

This movie fell into some marketing difficulty. After all, Lucy Gallant doesn't really tell us anything. So in some places the publicity photos were taped over with a new name for the film "Oil Town!" (See left.) The poor gents who headed into the theater to see a rugged oil-boom movie and instead were faced with Wyman and her fashion frills...

Foreign promotion was even more misleading at times. NOTHING about this lobby card (for a later re-release) apart from the inset still photo has a thing to do with Lucy Gallant...

This card has depictions of the stars that scarcely resemble them! I'm not sure who Wyman looks like in this drawing, but Heston resembles humpy Steve Cochran more than anyone, the dark hair and eyebrows not helping at all.

I love the artwork in this final foreign release poster, but note how the billing has been changed with Heston on top and figuring in the center while Wyman is relegated to far smaller typeface! (But even here, Heston looks more like George Peppard than himself...!)

If you ever get the chance to see this, you should do so. It could have been a better movie, but it does entertain in spite of itself and has an array of great character actors and a parade of interesting sets and clothes. It was a great relief to finally get to revel in it once again after such a long spate of it being locked away somewhere.

16 comments:

petercox97 said...

God, I love that TV Guide Cover with Wyman and the always fabulous Ana Alicia who played the unstable, but devastatingly beautiful Melissa. I used to think that the nighttime soap opera vixen I was most like is Fallon Carrington as played with such panache by Pamela Sue Martin. However, if I'm really honest and I try to be, I'm most like Melissa Agretti Cumson. I've had my share of dangerous liaisons that sent me right over the edge and forced me to retaliate with all manner of arcane weaponry.

If I had a dvd of all of Angela Channing's precision lobbed zingers from Falcon Crest, I could die a happy man.

Unknown said...

I don't like either one of these hairdos on Jane Wyman? Couldn't they have done better? The first one is just that boring Dianne Feinstein Planet of the Apes hairdo, and the second is that hyper curly wiglike style that Joan Crawford was wearing in that murder on the beach movie a few weeks back. Ugh. They lower the fashions quite a bit. I guess it must have been in style at the time, but did anyone ever wear it well?

This looks like a movie I'd be willing to watch at least once for the interior designs and the fashion, but despite that cast, just reading about this it doesn't sound very "sexy" at all.

Roberta Steve said...

Poseidon, one of filmdom's great mysteries is how Jane Wyman became the star of a series of romantic movies in the 1950s. First, that hair!!! Was there ever a more unflattering style ever sported by a leading woman? Jane was not exactly an ingenue and needed some oomph to be believable as a desired woman. And she certainly wasn't a stylish gamine like Audrey Hepburn who could pull off a waifish coiffure. She wasn't even a clothes horse with a fabulous figure or legs to show off.

Watching her in this movie and in the two Douglass Sirk movies with Rock Hudson it's cringe worthy to hear the supporting characters describe her beauty. When my nieces watch these movies with me they are incredulous! My 10 year old niece thought she was Heston's mother!

I am a sucker for movies with fashion shows as well. As fanciful as the designer gowns appear, there's rarely anything that outclasses what the lead actress is dressed in. Unfortunately Jane looks like a seamstress here, not someone who's selling soigne gowns in her own store.

Thanks for another delightful profile of yet another sappy 1950s woman's picture. The poster with "the gusher" is priceless.

angelman66 said...

OMG Poseidon, can you believe I have never seen this one? Now, with your epic essay and exhaustive photo coverage here, I am enraptured...and dying to see it. I LOVE All That Heaven Allows (which I own) and Magnificent Obsession, but Lucy Gallant has Thelma Ritter, Claire Trever AND the hunky Chuck Heston (politics aside, that man was HOT and one of the all-time-great movie stars!) ?? WOW! I am there.
-Chris

joel65913 said...

Hi Poseidon,

I LOVE this movie all the way up to the last two minutes and then it makes me see bright red. I know it’s because of the change in women’s place in the world but I always have to suppress the urge to throw something at the screen!

How can any true old movie lover ever hate or even dislike a film that gives you both Claire Trevor AND Thelma Ritter, eventually all glammed up, in the same film? They even share a brief moment!! The short answer is they can’t despite the fact that Heston’s character is, and there’s no other way to put it succinctly, an asshole.

The sets are incredibly lush once everyone strikes dough and the clothes are fabulous in their peak 50’s Edith Head way. That fashion show is a highlight but the governor’s appearance leading into it is painful in his discomfort. Edith Head is Edith Head, it’s as if she was dipped in that look at an early age and never deviated a faction.

Speaking of being locked into a look I’ll never understand what Jane Wyman was thinking when she adopted that banged cropped do of her later period. A pretty woman, as opposed to a devastating beauty, during her Warners years she changed colors and styles frequently usually looking quite fetching with upsweeps and snoods and ANY one of those looked better on her than this longstanding choice which only made her look matronly.

She and Heston share little chemistry, though some of that I think is due to his indifference to the role and wanting to get to The Ten Commandments, which would hurt the story if theirs wasn’t meant to be a contentious relationship.

A small side note: glad you made reference to The President’s Lady, I love that film-it’s my favorite performance from Susan Hayward, allowing her to shade her tough persona with much of her innate warmth plus she and Heston pair extremely well and he’s a natural for Andrew Jackson.

Anyway back to this film, I never assumed The Red Derrick was a just a saloon-I thought it was pretty clear that Claire Trevor was a madam in the way 50’s film showed these things…loose women loitering about, Trevor’s garish dress style and the way the townspeople looked when the joint was mentioned.

Aside from the wondrous duo of Thelma and Claire the film is blessed with a terrific supporting cast, I particularly enjoy the crusty William Demarest-love his initial scene in his bank where all the surrounding walls and furnishings match his suit!

I also remember this running all the time back in the day but I’ve had better luck through the years catching it several times and always being rapturous while watching again up until those last few minutes but it never stops me from going back to the well again!!

http://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/ said...

Hi Poseidon, Yes, I used to catch this on cable back in the day, too...and haven't seen it since!

Regarding hairdos or in this case, hair-don'ts! It seems like the big 3 golden era stars still working regularly in the '50s had short, cropped, unflattering dos: Wyman, Crawford, and Stanwyck. In Plain Jane's case, it seems as if she was paying homage to Mamie Eisenhower with hers!

As for Charlton Heston, yes he was one hunk of man. Unfortunately, he always played a series of surly, sneering, wooden, dour, chauvinistic, jerks! Aside from the right wing politics, I've never heard anybody say anything bad about him...was this his idea of playing an anti-hero in the era of Brando, Mitchum, etc.? If it was, Chuck was way off the mark!

Cheers on Oscar Day!
Rick

Scooter said...

Wish I had caught this on TCM. It's right up my alley.

Gingerguy said...

Boy this was a humdinger. I also remember when a lot of channels did "old movies" now it seems that they are relegated to TCM, and a really crazy channel called Movies!movies!movies! (I am probably getting that name wrong but it's channel 1250 on my cable box). I Howled at the outfit in the poster. I also live for movies that have fashion show segments, so simply must see this one at some point. It looks lush, like the one in "Backstreet". Two of my favorites are "The Adventurers" which has two fashion shows, and "Made In Paris" (if you ever check that one out wait for the outfit titled "Danger, Darling" I scream with laughter every time).
Jane is a bit simian looking in that rail car window. I don't get the bangs or fringe on her, but maybe everybody had a branded look and that was hers? "Stage Fright" has a sly moment when Marlene Dietrich tells her that the dress she is wearing is worth 10,000 dollars it helps her so much in the looks department.
Wait! those clothes are supposed to be 1940's!!!??? they are so clearly not of that period, which is also very similar to "Backstreet". Agreed that this film seems very Douglas Sirk.
I completely remember Gloria Talbott as her daughter in "Heaven" she was a smart-alec college girl with glasses.
LOL on the oil derrick between their legs. Just a little phallic.
I enjoyed reading this so much and will definitely find this movie somewhere. Thelma Ritter to boot!

Poseidon3 said...

Holy Spumoli, I didn't mean to let so much time lapse before I responded to you all, my angels...! I'm happy that so many people enjoyed this post as this is a fairly obscure movie (as many of mine are here!)

Petercox, I was recently telling a friend of mine that I didn't fully appreciate Jane Wyman on "Falcon Crest" at the time. I was a youth and was more into the dramas of Susan Sullivan and Ana Alicia (and the swimsuits of Lorenzo Lamas!) But, yes, those zesty comebacks and insults are a true joy to me now!

Dave, ROTFL about the "Planet of the Apes" hairdo!! (And Dianne!) I'm quite old fashioned that, in general, I don't like short hair on women. Granted, after a certain point, they shouldn't wear it LONG either, but I just always seem to prefer more and almost never a clamped-on helmet like Jane had so often in her 1950s career. For one thing, her face is too flat and broad to pull it off. I included that sepia-toned one of her with curls piled up on purpose to show that she could look a lot better with some volume! This isn't a sexy movie, but it has it's fun points.

Roberta, again, ROTFL at the descriptions of Jane's looks and the fact that your nieces determined her to be Chuck's MOM! And I'm with you... If I owned the greatest dept store in Texas then I would wear some of the greatest clothes! LOL Not look like a clerk... Glad you enjoyed the hooty "gusher" poster.

Angelman (Chris), I hope you don't have to wait as long as I did to see this one again! I do think you would lap it up. And fellow readers, Angelman66 has a blog of his own that covers a lot of the same types of fun people and projects as this one (without the looonnnnggg babblings that I do!) if you want to check it out!! :-)

Joel, I so agree about the hideously stiff governor, someone who was supposed to be giving colorful and inspiring public speeches - Ha! He was a very popular governor, however, and reigned for a long while. We've covered the Wyman look and I couldn't agree more with your assessment. I swear when she wears her hair all cropped in and pairs it with that pink pool coverup it's just the worst, and that's when Heston comes home from the war and sees her again and can't wait to get his hands on her! LOL Thanks, as always, for your remarks and extra info.

Rick, that's hilarious about Jane aping Mamie Eisenhower. But it's apt! It's strange about Heston, how he gradually became a top star while so often being so terse, surly, stern, granite-faced, whatever you want to call it! I think for whatever reason his tall, deep-voiced, rugged manliness just spoke to moviegoers at that time. Tastes shift and maybe today we balk at some of his characters, but people really seemed to like it then. I always say I love Charlton Heston movies more than I love Charlton Heston because they always seemed to include great costars, great settings, big budgets, eye-catching action/disaster sequences and, of course, not a little camp, too! I'm STILL waiting to see "Counterpoint" for the first time. It's been one of my Holy Grail flicks. Maybe someday.

Scooter, I hope they run this again so that you can see it!!

Gingerguy, I totally forgot that "The Adventurers" has TWO fashion shows!! I was recalling the disco one, but the Roman one slipped my mind. You know what that means... I have to watch it again! Ha! I have seen "Made in Paris" but it's been too long ago to recall much other than Ann-Margaret having a lot of hair and - for some reason - not letting Chad Everett catch her! Jane Wyman "simian" looking!!! LOLOLOL Kim Hunter needed to watch it or Chuck would have called in his old pal Jane for TPOA.

Thanks, all!!

rigs-in-gear said...

This is a fun movie that shares a lot of plot elements with the 1961 Susan Hayward flick Back Street. Lucy Gallant's story was supposedly inspired by the life of Carrie Marcus, who with her husband, Al Neiman, founded Neiman Marcus, which burned down at one time as well.

BrianB said...

If you like movie fashion shows you should check out "The French Line" with Jane Russell, Gilbert Rowland, Mary McCarthy and Arthur Hunicutt. It's been a while since I've seen it but as I remember, it's the old Texas Oil Heiress who wants to find a husband who wants her just for her and not her money trope. Mary McCarthy plays her childhood friend from Texas who has become a top fashion designer. Gilbert Rowland plays the male lead who is trying to win Janes heart but he's kind of creepy if you ask me, with his black shoe polish hair dye. Arthur Hunicutt is watching out for Jane's best interests but spends most of the movie screaming and yelling his lines.

They all end up in Paris for the big fashion show where Jane performs with guns blazing. She wears this black cape with sliver spangles and when she opens it up it's lined with crystals and she's wearing the tightest, skimpiest corset ever! Truly eye popping!

The house models travel from New York to Paris and during one watching of the movie this tall blonde with short hair caught my eye. I spoke to a friend about it and we confirmed it was indeed Kim Novak in a non speaking role!

I "art directed" a couple Gene Marshall doll conventions in the early 2000s and for one of them called Lone Star Soiree, the convention doll wore the white satin gown with red & white cape shown in the Lucy Gallant vistAvision movie card. They also produced the costume Claire Trevor wears in the movie card where she's behind the wheel of the car with Charles Heston. You can just see her dyed fox cuff. They sent my drawings with seam placements to China to have it produced so I had a bad VHS copy of the movie to look at the fashions for the drawings. I remember freeze framing the tape and trying to figure out how the garments were made. The movie has never been released on DVD and I believe even VHS which is partly why so few have seen it.

Gov Shivers seems like such an unlikely name for someone in leadership!

Edith was a hoot in the movie. Her biography, "Edith Head's Hollywood" is a fun read with lots of her drawings and studio photos. I have an article about her I saved from Vanity Fair and what was memorable was the row of bangs pinned to head forms in her closet, each longer in length that she would wear progressively through the month. I remember her appearances on Art Linkletter's House Party and she would talk about the stars and their costumes.

BrianB

Poseidon3 said...

BrianB, I've never seen "The French Line" (it seems as if it is NEVER aired on television!) Thanks for the heads up. It sounds like it is right up my alley. I recall reading about how at least one of Jane's costumes in it caused a scandal at the time. I have that Edith Head book and find her very fascinating as a person. Peculiar and distinctive and so driven to succeed, while also remaining sort of folksy! "Lucy Gallant" needs to be on DVD....! Where else can you see Jason Colby and Angela Channing together? LOL

BrianB said...

It's so funny about Jane Russell, apparently she was very religious but she looked like the fallen nun in The French Line production numbers!

I never watched The Colbys so I don't know what Jason's character was like but I hope he had a major set of nuts to keep up with Angela! I looked and Lucy Gallant is in the Bad Movies We Love book! There must be some kind of story about why it's not available on DVD.

BrianB

Poseidon3 said...

The Jane Russell role that I have trouble reconciling with her Christian experience is when she played the sleazy, tawdry mother of a rape victim in "The Born Losers." It's a scream....!

JAMES BYRNE said...

I actually enjoy watching Heston at his surliest, if you don't like him in this then avoid ARROWHEAD at all costs. Heston and Ronald Reagan were good friends, Ronnie married Jane Wyman and Nancy Davis in real life, but Heston married both of them within the space of two months in 1955. Heston and Nancy starred in the TV thriller BAILOUT AT 43,000 FEET in Oct, and late December LUCY GALLANT was released with Chuck and Jane arguing through the film while both strike it rich.

2 Sticks of Butter said...

Wyman was a serviceable actress and she was wonderful in JOHNNY BELINDA. But she lacked sex appeal as a leading lady. Far too starchy and prim to get one’s blood boiling.