Linda Christian RIP, The Very, Very End of Harry Potter, A Giant Preview

Linda Christian RIP

I normally don’t write appreciations when someone of note dies. There are many more writers far more eloquent than I who can pen a noteworthy appreciation.

But I had to write something upon hearing of the death of Linda Christian at the age of 87 following a fight with colon cancer. Not a well known name, and perhaps best known as Tyrone Power’s second wife, Linda is also remembered as the first Bond Girl thanks to her role in the 1954 television adaptation of “Casino Royale” on “Climax!” with Barry Nelson as James Bond.

She’s also most appealing in her role as the kidnapped Mara in “Tarzan and the Mermaids” (1948), Johnny Weissmuller’s swan song as the Ape Man

But I always had a soft spot in my heart for Linda Christian, because she was so nice to my dad one evening.

Like so many young men of his generation, my dad joined the service upon his graduation from high school during the height of World War II. In my dad’s case that was 1944 when he joined the navy.

During a West Coast shore leave one night my dad went to the famed Hollywood Canteen. Unlike the famous Warner Bros. movie of the same name from 1944, there were no big stars on hand that night. My dad remembered there were several big bands playing that night but he could not remember who they were, which is odd because his memory for such details was generally pretty acute.

But he did remember being served coffee and donuts and having a nice conversation with an exceptionally pretty hostess at the Canteen. He always remembered how pleasant the conversation was and how welcoming she was to him.

My dad loved musicals and saw all of them. After the war he was sitting in the theater watching M-G-M’s “Holiday in Mexico” (1946) when he saw on screen in a small role the girl who waited on him at the Hollywood Canteen. It was Linda Christian. Later of course, she gained worldwide fame as Mrs. Tyrone Power.

I always hoped Linda Christian would make an appearance at a nostalgia convention in the Chicago area so I could tell her my dad’s memories of her and how he remembered how nice she was to him that night. It meant the world to him. It’s funny the impressions we can make on people when we’re not even aware of it.

I’m (Almost) Wild About Harry

I saw the final Harry Potter movie over the weekend and really enjoyed it, though I must admit to a bit of a let down. I wanted to walk out exhilarated with a capital “E” and instead walked out exhilarated with a small “e.”, mainly because of the film’s final, final scene.

Don’t worry, no spoilers are necessary. I’m not talking about the final scene anyway. But what happens afterwards.

The film’s final scene occurs backed by composer Alexandre Desplat’s treatment of John Williams’s original themes, which are given a really glorious, full-blooded orchestral treatment. The image then fades while the music still plays for another 10 seconds or so against a blank screen. That’s it. Very disappointed.

Here we are after 10 years and eight films and the saga ends with a blank screen? A blank screen? A nice end title card with “The End” in that famous Harry Potter font would be nice. Or even if the film ended on the final image would have been fine. But to have the music carry over from the final scene for 10-15 seconds on a blank screen just rubbed me the wrong way. Not enough to ruin the film, mind you, but it sure didn’t end with a bang. More like a blank screen whimper.

Maybe it really isn’t the end, and J.K. Rowling has more Harry Potter stories in mind. Maybe director David Yates wanted the blank screen so people could project their own feelings about the end of this series? But it seemed to me that this series of movies is so special that more was warranted than a blank screen. Just my two cents.

The Giant is Coming

I was very pleased to be asked by Nathanael Hood of Forgotten Classics of Yesterday to participate in his 50s Monster Mash blogathon running July 28-August 2. My contribution is Richard Cunha’s “Giant from the Unknown” (1958) about a giant resurrected Spanish conquistador. There’s a lot of fun to be had in this $55,000, 10-day quickie. My post will appear on July 28.

Hollywood Canteen

Wish fulfillment 1940s style is at its peak in “Hollywood Canteen” (1944). Movie stars are just regular folk, eager and helpful to entertain the soldiers at the Canteen, and it’s possible, just possible, that a Marine corporal could meet the movie star actress of his dreams and have her fall in love with him.

Writer-director Delmer Daves lays on the corn a little too thick here for my taste, but it’s not detrimental to the film. It must have pleased his bosses at Warner Bros. however, as the film is a love letter to the studio’s stars, and it became one of the highest grossing films of 1944.

Joan Leslie plays herself, or an idealized version of herself, who is the object of rapt adoration of Marine Corporal “Slim” Greene (Robert Hutton). Recovering from wounds, he is on leave in Hollywood and wants to see movie stars. A friendly short-order cook recommends the Hollywood Canteen, open only to servicemen, where he can see all the movie stars he wants.

The Canteen was a real place, founded by Bette Davis and John Garfield, where members of the armed forces could enjoy a meal, hear live bands and mingle with movie stars, all without costing them a penny. All the studios backed the idea, and many of Hollywood’s top stars could be found dancing with the troops, chatting with them about their girls back home, or serving coffee and donuts.

The movie “Hollywood Canteen” celebrates the place, but since this is a Warner Bros. movie, the stars Slim and his pal, Sgt. Nowland (Dane Clark) meet are mainly Warners stars. That’s too bad. Having stars from other studios sharing screen time would have made it a star gazers delight. We do get musical numbers from non-Warners stars The Andrews Sisters (Universal) and Roy Rogers and Trigger (Republic Pictures), but that’s about it. Oh, and Kitty Carlisle sings a reprise of “Sweet Dreams, Sweetheart” in the film, introduced by Joan Leslie earlier in the film.

I’ve often wondered why Rogers and the Andrews Sisters appeared in the film, but stars from other studios didn’t. I wonder if the Andrews Sisters performed so often at the Canteen that it was a natural they should be in the movie. Rogers sings the Cole Porter song “Don’t Fence Me In” which is later reprised by the Andrews Sisters. Republic must have been thrilled to have one of its stars appear in a Warner Bros. movie. I wonder what those negotiations were like?

There’s much to enjoy in the film, music-wise. Dennis Morgan and Joe E. Brown perform “You Can Always Tell A Yank”, a rousing number and Carmen Cavallaro and his band play “Voodoo Moon.” Jimmy Dorsey and his band play a few numbers as well. Classical violinist Joseph Szigeti does a duet with the “noted American violinist” Jack Benny, who is chagrined that Szigeti does not know “Love in Bloomioso.”

Warner Bros. stars are portrayed as pretty swell types. When it’s learned Slim has a crush on Joan Leslie, Bette Davis, John Garfield and Jane Wyman conspire a plan for her to give him a special kiss. Later, when Slim becomes the Millionth Man to enter the Canteen, he is practically given the key to the city, as well as the chance to have any actress in town as his date for the weekend. Naturally he chooses Joan Leslie. (I would have picked Rita Hayworth, but with my luck I would have been the Millionth and One Man).

I think the film would have worked much better if Joan Leslie played a fictional actress, and not herself. Dramatically it would have worked better. Here, it’s kind of odd and off-putting. Slim goes to Joan’s house to pick her up and he meets her parents. Dad is played by Jonathan Hale (Mr. Dithers in the Blondie movies). All moviegoers knew who Jonathan Hale was, so all pretense of this really being Joan Leslie is thrown out the window.

Hutton and Leslie do play well together – indeed they could not be more All-American – but I wish she had played a fictional, up-and-coming actress. After all, Janis Paige doesn’t play herself, but Angela, a studio messenger who catches the eye of Sgt. Nowland.

I always enjoy Golden Age movies set in Hollywood and we get to see the backlots of the studios, and “Hollywood Canteen” is no exception. Naturally Warner Bros. gets to show off their backlot, and its here we get to a musical number that stops the show dead in its track, a dreadful number called “Ballet in June” performed by Joan McCracken and company. We do get to meet dance director LeRoy Prinz, and I was amused to note that he somewhat resembles Busby Berkeley. Prinz routines were often the bane of Warners musicals (“Yankee Doodle Dandy” (1942) being the exception), and “Ballet in June” does nothing to dispel that notion.

Enough carping. There’s other good comedy on display here, notably Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet lampooning their sinister screen images. Their scene together is one of the highlights of the film.

As can be seen by the still above, we have, left to right, Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, John Garfield and Bette Davis signing autographs and visiting with the men. Was it like this every night? Probably not. I don’t doubt that many stars put in many hours at the Hollywood Canteen – and its East Coast counterpart the Stage Door Canteen, also the subject of a movie a year earlier – but this film posits that the place was crawling with stars every night of the year.

My dad served in the Navy in World War II and visited the Hollywood Canteen on leave one night. He didn’t remember the band that was performing there – odd, as his memory for such details was remarkable – and that night there were no stars there. He did remember getting served coffee and donuts by an exceptionally pretty girl there. After the war he went to the theater and saw “Holiday in Mexico” (1946), an M-G-M musical, and noticed one of the cast members. He remembered her as the girl who waited on him at the Canteen.

She turned out to be Linda Christian, probably best known today as the second Mrs. Tyrone Power. She had a short-lived acting career. I remember her fondly from the gloriously absurd “Tarzan and the Mermaids” (1948). It was Johnny Weissmuller’s last appearance as the Ape Man, and boasts a grand Dimitri Tiomkin score, beautiful on-location photography in Mexico and George Zucco as a high priest of a pagan cult. Co-starring in a movie where George Zucco plays a high priest trumps appearing in a Best Picture winner anytime, but that’s just my opinion.

Rating for “Hollywood Canteen”: Three stars.