This week’s mystery movie has been the 1952 picture “Jeux Interdits” (“Forbidden Games,”) based on the novel by Francois Boyer.  It was adapted by Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost and director Rene Clement, with Georges Poujouly and Brigitte Fossey. The score is by Narciso Yepes.

Boyer began the project as a screenplay, but as the work languished, he transformed it into a novel. The book was translated into English as “The Secret Games” (New York Times book review by Charles Poor here, behind paywall). The novel was also reviewed in the New York Times by Katherine Anne Porter (also behind a paywall). The movie opened in New York in December 1952 and was reviewed in the New York Times on Dec. 14, 1952, by Naomi Barry (review also behind the paywall).

The movie received an Honorary Foreign Language Film Award at the 1953 Academy Awards.

“Forbidden Games” was not shown in Los Angeles until March 1954 at the UClan in Westwood, receiving a review by Philip K. Scheuer in the Los Angeles Times.  Scheuer wrote: “”Forbidden Games” is one of those rare motion pictures that seem, by a miracle of unseen presence, to be caught happening.”

The Criterion Collection DVD is out of print,  but the disc is available in two Criterion box sets: “Essential Art House, Volume III”; and  the 50-DVD “Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films.”

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1944 Warner Bros. picture “The Doughgirls,” starring Ann Sheridan, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Irene Manning, Charlie Ruggles, Eve Arden and a large supporting cast of Warners players.  The screenplay was by James V. Kern and Sam Hellman, with additional dialogue by Wilkie Mahoney, adapted from the play by Joseph Fields. The film was photographed by Ernest Haller, with art direction by Hugh Reticker and set decorations by Clarence Steensen. The film was produced by Mark Hellinger and directed by James V. Kern.

The film is available on DVD from Warner Archive for $18.59.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1928 MGM silent picture “West of Zanzibar,” with Lon Chaney, Lionel Barrymore, Mary Nolan, Warner Baxter, Jacqueline Gadsdon, Roscoe Ward, Kalla Pasha and Curtis Nero. It was directed by Tod Browning.

The film was adapted by Elliot Clawson from the play “Kongo,”  by Chester De Vonde and Kilbourn Gordon, which received 135 performances on Broadway.

The play starred Walter Huston in the Lon Chaney role as a man named Flint, “a bearded and towering white man who rules black natives with an iron hand” and is “paralyzed from the waist down and accordingly bound to a wheelchair (or else committed to the even more glamorous expedient of dragging himself across the stage),” according to the New York Times review of the play (March 31, 1926). Huston returned to the role in 1932 for the MGM film “Kongo,” with Lupe Velez Virginia Bruce and Conrad Nagel.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Chaney performed his own stunt in which he tumbled over a railing and fell 18 feet during a fight with Lionel Barrymore that left his character paralyzed at the waist.

Los Angeles Times film critic Whitney Williams said (Oct. 14. 1928):

The action is atmospheric to the extent of becoming, at times, gruesome, and a certain aspect of horror marks the scenes in which the things-of-the-jungle-that-crawl are pictured. Those who favor an element of weirdness, a suggestion of the grotesque, in their entertainment, will thoroughly enjoy “West of Zanzibar.” Even those audiences who prefer straight modern day settings will find a note of the unusual to satisfy their palates.

Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times wrote (Dec. 31, 1928):

It is a well concocted narrative and Mr. Chaney gives one of his most able and effective portrayals as he drags himself through scene after scene without using his legs. He descends from his sleeping quarters by means of a knotted rope, and in a curiously expert fashion succeeds time and again in climbing into a wheel chair by merely the use of his strong arms.

“West of Zanzibar” is available from Warner Archive for $15.19.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1934 MGM picture “Sadie McKee,” with Joan Crawford, Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone, Edward Arnold and Esther Ralston. The movie was produced by Lawrence Weingarten from a screenplay by John Meehan, adapted from a story by Vina Delmar. It was directed by Clarence Brown with songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. Photography was by Oliver T. Marsh and the film was edited by Hugh Wynn, and gowns by Adrian.

Mordaunt Hall wrote in the New York Times (May 19, 1934): “Miss Crawford assuredly does well by her part, but even so the incidents in which she appears often are hardly edifying. It is in fact an exasperating type of motion picture.”

The movie’s theme song, “All I Do Is Dream of You,” is a torch song that was used in “Singin’ in the Rain” under much different circumstances.

“Sadie McKee” is available on DVD in volume 2 of The Joan Crawford Collection.

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This week’s mystery production has been the TV series “Johnny Staccato,” starring John Cassavetes, which aired 27 episodes on NBC in the 1959-1960 season. The mystery episode was “Fly Baby, Fly,” featuring Cassavetes,  Gena Rowlands (his wife), Howard Freeman, Dort Clark, Nesdon Booth, Ingrid Goude, Jan Brooks, Mike Steele and Dennis Sallas. It was directed by Robert B. Sinclair, written by Philip S. Goodman, with music by Elmer Bernstein and photography by Ray Cory. The series was produced by Everett Chambers and the executive producer was William Frye.

Other episodes feature such familiar faces famous character actors as Ted de Corsia, Elisha Cook Jr., Lloyd Corrigan and, according to IMDB, Snub Pollard.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times (Sept. 10, 1959), Cecil Smith said Johnny Staccato “is almost a carbon copy of  of Peter Gunn. The jazz blares, the liquor flows, the girls wait breathlessly for the slightest gesture of affection from Johnny Staccato.” Smith called Cassavetes “one of the best actors in television” and praised the show’s “great jazz music scored by Elmer Bernstein and played by such marvels as Red Norvo, Barney Kessel, Shelley Mann, etc.” (Note: Smith also disliked “Tightrope,” but praised Mike Connors.)

The TV series was made about the same time that Cassavetes was directing “Shadows,” which began as an improvised acting exercise and grew into a film shot over 12 weeks in New York.

Cassavetes told Charles Champlin (Aug. 27, 1984): “When I started making films, that was exactly what I wanted to do, make Frank Capra pictures. But I’ve never been able to make anything except these crazy, tough pictures. It’s not intentional. You just are what you are.”

“Johnny Staccato” is available on DVD from Amazon and random episodes are on DailyMotion.com.

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