Just watched the 1959 remake of "The 39 Steps" and couldn't help but notice that the frisky old biddy Nellie Lumsden is the British equivalent of Mrs. Winston from "Secret of the Incas."
Nellie openly flirts with Kenneth More in front of her husband, but unlike Mr. Winston the hubby of Nellie actively encouraged her getting laid!
The internet is for lonely people. People should live. Charlton Heston
Oh my God, Os! Even I think Glenda Farrell is a much sexier catch than Brenda deBanzie. Great actress, but whenever I see her I think of her line in The Entertainer: "I was the ugliest kid you ever saw!" "Ugly" may be too strong a word but she was not the least bit attractive. No wonder Kenneth More ignored her, more or less (to give his book a plug).
As to the hubby, Grandon Rhodes played Mr. Winston as an oblivious wimp but one gets the impression he'd turn violent if he discovered the Mrs. prowling for some Steele -- not going after Harry (he's not that much of a man), but slapping the wife around and possibly tossing her out a window -- whereas Reginald Beckwith was too short and mousey and too easily intimidated to ever be a threat to anyone, including, maybe especially, his domineering wife. One also has the impression that he was not merely disappointing in the bedroom department, but would happily allow someone to take his place in that quarter just to get some domestic peace.
Goodness gracious. With all the sex talk on this site of late it's beginning to sound as though the film's locale should have been called Macho Pinchyu.
Nice to have you back hob and Os.
It took me half an hour last night to locate my dvd of THE 39 STEPS amongst the thousands I have, but the hunt was worth it because I really enjoyed seeing this movie again after so many years.
Os - now that you have brought it up, and by the way, there are a helluva lot more than 39 steps to Machu Picchu, believe me, I think there is some foundation in your comparison to the Winston's of SOTI, and the Lumsden's from T39S. Good call, mate.
hob - I am amused that you consider Brenda de Banzie even more repulsive than Glenda Farrell! Speaking from experience, and having encountered more than my fair share of Nellie Lumsden's, they are alright as One Night Stands but I wouldn't be able to stand five weeks with Nellie, as the truck driver Percy Baker (Sid James) did.
In my opinion, Nellie's husband looks, and acts, like a creepy pervert, especially when he leers at Kenneth More "Anything for a friend of Percy Baker's because ... Percy did a lot for me!"
That sort of thing is just a bit too weird for my liking, a husband actually gloating over the fact that his wife was being serviced by a lorry driver for five weeks! I just bet he was listening to the grunting and groaning as he hid behind the door, don't you hob?
The British Lumsden's make the American Winston's from SECRET OF THE INCAS look like a normal married couple (and maybe perhaps they were - 1950's America had an undercurrent of debauched sexual activity).
The fact that Nellie calls her husband nothing more than "Lumsden" and tells total strangers that "Poor old Lumsden's long past caring about .... that sort of thing!" proves that its anything but a conventional 1950's marriage.
Regarding Brenda de Banzie, hob, I found her quite physically desirable in that pale blue dressing gown, but the main drawback is that she and her hubby are far too eccentric and weird to be around for any length of time. If Reginald Beckwith wasn't breathing heavy behind the door I would certainly have spent the night with Brenda (if she wore that dressing gown).
http://www.secretoftheincas.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE
I have to ask, James, when you finally located your copy of The 39 Steps, was it filed under T?
I confess (a phrase given in honor of the indirect Hitchcockian overtones of this thread, quite apart from the various less savory definitions, which seem increasingly applicable herein, of the words "hitch" and "cock") that I have not seen the '59 version of 39 for many years, though I too have the DVD misfiled somewhere in the basement. So I have no real recollection of Miss de B's blue nightgown, although I do have some faint recall of her husband's weird leeringness. But then Reggie B. did sometimes portray repressed pervs and the like. So yes, I could on general principles quite well imagine him listening from behind the door. Which in itself would be enough to put me off the wife, even if she looked like a 20-something Joan Collins.
However, since we're getting so grotty hereabouts I was trying to come up with a cinematic-inspired pun using the name "Lumsden" coupled with the word "hair", as in the kind found on certain intimate portions of the human anatomy, but decided to quit while I'm ahead [sic] and not delve further into the pubic domain.
Most of my dvds are in alphabetical order, hob, but some have sections of their own, like De Niro (complete), Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, etc. I have a whole bookcase on John Wayne (books and movies, likewise Heston (every single Heston film, plus many tv movies and 60 books on Chuck), and smaller sections on Christopher Lee, etc.
I eventually found THE 39 STEPS with 6 other Kenneth More movies in another room from the main collection. I will have to get it sorted out soon so everything is easily accessible!
Reginald Beckwith is one of the those actors I cannot abide watching. Get out your copy of THE 39 STEPS and study his expressions in his scene with Brenda and More. Talk about over-the-top hamming it up!
Brenda de Banzie was only 44 when she made the Hitchcock remake in 1959, and Beckwith was 51 - yet they seem much older, somehow.
The same with Glenda Farrell and Grandon Rhodes in SECRET OF THE INCAS, both aged 50 but they look, and act, far more mature than that, or is it just my imagination?
http://www.secretoftheincas.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE
There are sixty books on Chuck?! Wow! I take it not all are biographies in the usual sense. Did you see my thread on the auction of his effects in Los Angeles? Unfortunately, it's going on today, Tuesday, March 22.
My DVDs have never been organized properly since we moved into our house four years ago. It often takes me hours before I stumble upon a sought-after title. Basically it's a question of enough shelving for storage. I have my organizational plans mentally laid out but nothing in which to physically keep them yet. But someday.... However, our respective quantities sound similar!
I never minded Reginald Beckwith but he was always an odd duck to me. I was most amused by his appearance in Scott of the Antarctic (1948), as "Birdie" Bowers, who pops his head into Scott's office and says he's "26 today, sir." A 40-year-old as a 26-year-old, very convincing. My chief memory of him, and I believe the first film I saw him in, is The Day the Earth Caught Fire, and he was inoffensive there as the meek Fleet Street barkeep. His small roles in Genevieve and what I believe was his final film, Thunderball, in which he was almost an afterthought, also stick in my mind. But no, he was never one of my favorites.
Had SOTI not been an American film I could well see RB as a meek tourist losing his wife to Harry Steele. I do completely agree with you, however -- he and Brenda de Banzie, as well as Grandon Rhodes and Glenda Farrell, do seem older than their years. But I think this was common when we look back to the 1950s, 1940s and before -- people aged sooner than they seem to today. A woman even in her late 30s was often deemed middle-aged and almost frumpy, and many men as well, though our sex was partially salvaged by sexist attitudes in and out of the film industry, a double-standard that kept many leading men -- but not dumpy characters sorts like Grandon -- busy into their 50s or 60s playing opposite women young enough to be their daughters.
I just saw Glenda in the 1942 film The Talk of the Town, with Ronald Colman and Cary Grant, and at 38 she easily looked 45. Of course, I never found her attractive even when she was younger, but she aged terribly (earlier and to bad effect), more so than many of her contemporaries. Brenda de Banzie too, but she never had even Glenda's looks as a young woman.
There are not 60 books solely on Heston, hob, I have put other books that contain much Heston material in that bookcase as well. De Mille biograhies, books on Epic and religious movies, Heston movie tie-ins, books on TOUCH OF EVIL and other movies, and brochures signed by Chuck.
The Heston auction looks very interesting, but sad to say no memorabilia from SECRET OF THE INCAS, which I would have made a serious bid for. Some of Heston's Shakespeare books are extremely rare, they were even written about in the British press because of their rarity, so I will be watching out for how much they eventually sell for.
I disagree with you on Glenda Farrell, hob. I have loads of her early movies and she looks a little cracker in those! She died of lung cancer and claimed to have never smoked, yet there are dozens of photos of her smoking available to view on the internet. You are correct about her aging very badly, she looks a lot older than 50 in SECRET OF THE INCAS.
Just as a matter of interest, hob, which actresses do you find really attractive?
And who doesn't "float your boat" (apart from Glenda Farrell and Brenda de Banzie)?
http://www.secretoftheincas.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE
No, I hadn't seen anything from SOTI listed in the auction, not too surprising, perhaps, given the fact that he didn't even mention the film in his autobiography. I did see a couple of Dong Kingman paintings, one used in 55 Days at Peking, that might have interested me but I just didn't want to get involved in the process.
I know you like GF's looks but I've never seen her as all that pretty. As to which actresses I find attractive, and which I don't, I could scarcely begin to try to come up with a list. I'm not even sure who I could pick as a favorite. But I'll think about it. My mind will need some prodding!
hob, there actually WAS something connected to SECRET OF THE INCAS in the auction, but had I seen it in time I still wouldn't have paid $350 for it in any case!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHARLTON-HESTONS-COPY-signed-by-ADOLF-ZUKOR-1ST-with-photo-/361512734654?hash=item542bd68fbe
As for ladies on the Silver Screen who do it for you, yes, the list is probably going to be enormous. I'll give you a quick list off the top of my head of the ladies who I physically admire-
Marilyn Monroe in NIAGARA and BUS STOP (but not in THE MISFITS)
Cathy Downes and Linda Darnell in MY DARLING CLEMENTINE
Ava Gardner in almost anything
Senta Berger in MAJOR DUNDEE
Gina Lollobrigida in TRAPEZE
Kim Novak in VERTIGO
Nicole Maurey in SECRET OF THE INCAS and THE CONSTANT HUSBAND
Eleanor Parker in VALLEY OF THE KINGS and THE NAKED JUNGLE
Sophia Loren in BOY ON A DOLPHIN
Elizabeth Taylor in WHOSE AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
(She reminds me of my first wife in this film, in every way!)
I'll stop there until I have thought of some more, but the ladies who don't do it for me are Bardot and Cardinale (and Thelma Ritter).
http://www.secretoftheincas.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE
That bit of memorabilia is on eBay? But if it was in the auction either someone bought it and has turned around to try to profit from it, or the family is dumping unsold stuff onto the general market.
I'd like to know what did sell and for how much.
Okay, a few random actresses for starters....
Ava Gardner in The Killers (1946), The Bribe (1949) and The Barefoot Contessa (1954).
Rhonda Fleming in Inferno (1953), Queen of Babylon (1954) and Yankee Pasha (1954).
Joan Collins in Land of the Pharaohs (1955), Seven Thieves (1960) and The Bitch (1978).
Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief (1955).
Gina Lollabrigida in Solomon and Sheba (1959).
Raquel Welch in Fathom (1967).
Marilyn Monroe n The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Niagara (1953).
Sally Forrest in Son of Sinbad (1955).
Debra Paget in Princess of the Nile (1954) and The Indian Tomb (1959).
Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960).
Victoria Vetri in When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970).
Eleanor Parker in The Naked Jungle (1954).
Gene Tierney in Son of Fury (1942), Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and The Razor's Edge (1946).
Rosenda Monteros in The Magnificent Seven (1960), Tiara Tahiti (1962) and She (1965).
Hedy Lamarr in A Lady Without Passport (1950).
Olga Georges-Picot in The Day of the Jackal (1973).
Jean Harlow in Hell's Angels (1930).
I think that's enough lasciviousness for one day on this site.... 👙
Yes, it looks like they bought the book and photo from the auction and put it on ebay straight away hob. Some fan!
I am in total agreement with you regarding Gene Tierney in SON OF FURY (1942), LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN (1945) and THE RAZOR'S EDGE (1946). A real fiery beauty.
I forgot Hedy Lamar in SAMSON AND DELILAH, and Jean Harlow in RED DUST in my previous list. The scene when Harlow bathes in the tub with Gable ogling her was recreated twenty years later in SECRET OF THE INCAS, with Heston ogling Nicole Maurey in the Inca bath.
I think Joan Collins was far more beautiful in QUEST FOR LOVE than the films you cite, she looked at her peak in QFL.
This morning before going to work I got up real early to watch Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming in BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH, even though I already own it, but its called OUT OF THE PAST on my film noir boxset. Jane Greer really does it for me, she could shoot me and run off with all my money any day, so long as she wears that fur coat while she's doing it! Rhonda Fleming does nothing for me, for some reason I cannot quite fathom.
How about Jane Fonda in BARBARELLA and CAT BALLOU, hob?
http://www.secretoftheincas.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE
Is Out of the Past called by the book's title, Build My Gallows High, in Britain, James? Never heard that. Out of the Past is its original title. In the so-so 1984 remake Against All Odds, Jane Greer plays the mother of her character in the 1947 film.
Greer was attractive but never quite grabbed me, though Out of the Past is where she looks best. Rhonda doesn't look so great in that one but then she always looked best in color. To me she's one of the sexiest stars ever.
I never saw Quest for Love so may try to track that one down to see what all the Collinisian lure was about. She also looked pretty good in an early role, a weak 1953 comedy called Our Girl Friday (known in the US by the slightly inane title The Adventures of Sadie).
Jane Fonda was beautiful but I didn't find her seen to her greatest advantage even in things like Barbarella. Her best for me were Spirits of the Dead and On Golden Pond. Nice dress in that climactic railroad car scene in Cat Ballou, however.
BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH has always been shown in the UK with the original book title, hob, and was even released on video in the 1980's with that title. I much prefer it to the American title OUT OF THE PAST. I have never seen AGAINST ALL ODDS, bit I am certainly going to watch it now that you have told me its a remake of BMGH.
QUEST FOR LOVE is really good, and I'm not just saying that because Sam Kydd plays a taxi driver in it.
There are two Rhonda Fleming movies that I would love to see, but they have never been on television over here, hob, SERPENT OF THE NILE and THE CROWDED SKY. Rhonda as Cleopatra sounds interesting, sounds like one of those So Bad Its Good turkeys that I seem to be drawn to. A bad film that I liked her in was BULLWHIP; also another Jerry Hopper-Charlton Heston movie PONY EXPRESS.
http://www.secretoftheincas.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSPcAyCgwE
I've always been fascinated by the different titles used in British and American versions of the same film, James. Leslie Halliwell in his books used to have lists of title changes both ways. It's also interesting to see such title changes (they don't happen much anymore) for what they said about American vs. British audiences in the 30s, 40s and 50s. US titles (either original or altered UK titles) tended to be more sensational, more action-sounding, while UK titles tended to be more staid and subdued.
One odd exception that always gave me a laugh in view of later developments is the 1956 Dan Dailey film Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956). For some unfathomable reason, MGM's UK distributor chose to retitle this movie in Britain as...Viva Las Vegas!. This title seems so out of place for mid-50s Britain that I can't imagine why they made the change. Of course, the problem arose eight years later, when Elvis Presley made a film with that title, and more, it was the title tune. So the Elvis film became the owner of Viva! while the Dailey movie was rechristened in the UK under its original title.
Some changes were made for reasons of familiarity. For instance, the three Quatermass movies (Xperiment, 2, and the Pit) were all retitled in the US, because no one in America had any idea who Professor Quatermass was, for the obvious reason that the BBC television plays were never seen here. Hence their American titles: The Creeping Unknown, Enemy From Space, Five Million Years to Earth. But as with most such films, all have long since reverted to their original British titles for home video and modern television showings. Another such retitling was The Trollenberg Terror, one of my favorites, known here as The Crawling Eye.
Normally I prefer original titles, though a few retitles have been better than the originals.
Don't expect Against All Odds to be too close to Out of the Past/Build My Gallows High. It's not bad, but the plot links aren't great. Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward and Richard Widmark star in it.
I've seen both Serpent of the Nile and The Crowded Sky. Rhonda actually looks quite lovely in the former (with black wig), which was a Columbia B picture shot on leftover sets from Salome, with William Lundigan and Raymond Burr. Passably okay dumb fun. But you'll be happy to know that The Crowded Sky has long been available here from the Warner Archives line -- one of the first batch they released seven years ago. It's a low-rent version of The High and the Mighty and has some laughably fake flying effects, but like Serpent it's fun in its dumb way (and with one or two unexpected plot events), with a rather lovely musical score. Plus a decent cast also including Dana Andrews, John Kerr, Anne Francis, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Joe Mantell. I'm sure you could get it with no problem, but if you do have a problem I'd be happy to get and send a copy for you.
Pony Express has been shown all over the place here lately, on our Encore Western Channel. I've had plenty of opportunities to refresh my memory of it! Of course the silly part is that Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody never met, and in real life Cody was about 14 when the action of the film (with a 30-year-old Chuck) takes place! (Hickock was about 23, played by 34-year-old Forrest Tucker, future Trollenberg Terror star.)