With Julia’s help, Michael gives Pearl a chance on the stage but she keeps messing up and never performs to his standards. He is constantly yelling at her and bringing her down. While rehearsing for a kissing scene sparks happen between them and they begin to fall in love… or at least have some kind feelings for each other. The scene they rehearsed for does not go too well. Michael is furious with her but Pearl lets him have it and leaves the company. Julia standing behind Pearl leaves as well.

            Julia’s agents give her a job in the movies. She is not thrilled about it but she takes it. Right from the moment she enters the set she is insulted by getting a pie in her face for the scene but the director does not tell her. Pearl is furious and trying to help her friend they accidentally walk through multiple sets including one with a lion. Pearl does not even realize she pushed a lion out of the way until the director tells her he will pay her one hundred dollars a week as an actress because of what she did with the lion.

            Pearl becomes a star with her serials “The Perils of Pauline.” Every week Pauline comes close to death in a new adventure. Pearl does all her own stunts falling off of airplanes, jumping from buildings, being captured by bad guys. Meanwhile, Michael and Timmy (one of the members of the acting company) have not had it easy. The company folded and they were jobless. Pearl gives Timmy a job in her serials. Michael was working as a sideshow announcer when Pearl finds him after so long. Michael still thinks he has a chance as a serious actor and is reluctant to go into the movies. He becomes Pearl’s love interest in her shows and Timmy is the villain.

            Michael falls in love with Pearl but after he becomes disillusioned with films and even Pearl he leaves her. Once again the two actors do not see each other for a long time. Michael is now a successful actor on Broadway. Silent serials went out of style leaving Pearl without a job so she moves to Paris where she is now a singer and dancer in a nightclub.

 Bill is not too sure about Annie at first. All she seems to be able to do is shoot she does not have any theatrics. Toby helps her out with some stunts and by the time the show is over Annie is a hit. Toby does not really like the idea of Annie being billed before him so Bill and Jeff come up with an idea that they can do a Battle of the Sexes act. Annie can see Toby does not like this but he says he does not care just as long as he can be with her.

            The two sharpshooters fall in love but keep it private and play up their “rivals” aspect of the show. Everyone even Bill and Jeff think Annie and Toby really are rivals. At a show in Annie’s home town, one of the locals goes to kill the Indian Sitting Bull by shooting him. Toby was in the chief’s teepee and got rid of the person before they got to Bull. Unfortunately the man’s gun went off right in front of Toby’s face temporarily blinding him in one eye.

            At the show that day Annie has the announcer say that Toby is going to shoot a quarter out of her hand. Toby is upset he says he will not do it since he has not told anyone he cannot see straight. All the men in the stands and in the show start to pester him about being a pansy so he shoots. He misses the quarter and hits Annie’s shooting hand. The whole company thinks Toby hit her on purpose because she was more popular than he was. Annie knows he did not mean it they love each other and she trusts him. Toby is fired from the show.

            Annie is heartbroken throughout the show’s trip through Europe. She wants to leave the show after it plays in New York. She misses Toby. Of course they get back together though and it is really cute how they get back together.

            Barbara Stanwyck was so perfect as Annie. To me she is always the tough cookie and perfect that way. I just cracked up that she was supposed to be from the back woods of Ohio and she had a Brooklyn accent. Never saw Preston Foster in a film before this. He kept driving me nuts he reminded me Brut Reynolds and I hate Burt Reynolds. Melvyn Douglas was not front and center and was not really a good character but I liked him I like him in any film he does.

            Annie Oakley is a good film and it is not very long at an hour and a half. Definitely suggest seeing it.

Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell get the opportunity to travel to London for a few months. While away a new priest named Reverend Arthur Nichols (Paul Henreid) comes to help their father at his church. He and Emily spend an awful lot of time together. They even fall in love a bit but there is no sharing of feelings between them. In time the three traveling Brontë siblings return home. The first time Arthur lays eyes on Charlotte he falls in love with her but she does not like him.

            Branwell has not been behaving himself and feels awful he wants to do something nice for Emily and Charlotte. He sells one of his paintings and sends his sisters to school in Brussels to further their education as well as to teach. Charlotte is loving the experience and she is falling in love with the married school master. Emily misses the moor and England. She repeatedly has dreams of Death on a horse where she cannot see his face. She dreams of Death while in Brussels and she finally sees his face and to her this means she does not have time left and must go home.

Both sisters return home. Charlotte begins to see Arthur loves her and begins to fall for him. Emily is upset because now she will never be with him. She pours all her feelings about Arthur and her lost love into Wuthering Heights. Charlotte finishes writing Jane Eyre and has it published along with Wuthering Heights. Both books are huge successes. Charlotte lives it up in London with all the attention on her. But yet again she finds herself returning home and this time it is because Emily is very sick.

 News cameraman and reporter see each other throughout the week. Bill begins to fall in love with Jane, he even tells her that he has been seriously thinking about her and that she is the only woman he has considered settling down with. Jane likes him as well but her father was a reporter she knows all about the long nights and the drinking he did to finish a story. She does not want that life and that is the reason why she is engaged to a banker down in Riverport, Mississippi named Hal Caldwell (Ralph Bellamy).

            Jane leaves California for Riverport. After a traumatic incident where one of his cameraman buddies dies, Bill realizes that he cannot let Jane get away so he goes after her. When he gets down to her she has a nice sized ring on her finger. Bill could not have gotten to Mississippi at a better time. The levee breaks and he and Jane sees this as a great thing to cover. They go to where the levee broke and they find that the stone used to build the levee breaks apart very easily. Bill gets the flood on camera as well as Hal breaking the stones together. Jane interviews several people. On their way back to town Bill is forced to give his footage of the levee to town officials but he keeps the footage and gives them blank film. He says that the public has the right to know the truth of what happened. Unfortunately the mayor of Riverport kills himself over Bill’s film getting out to the public. Jane gets mad at him and and now without doubts know she is supposed to be with Hal.

            Back in California, Jane goes to her office to resign so she can marry Hal and move with him to Riverport. As she walks out of her interview Jane is kidnapped by the gangster. Now Bill and Hal have to go look for her.

So now Steve is stuck with telling the truth for the whole day and Ralston and the others cruelly ask him personal questions that he has to honestly answer. Ralston even has him come on his private ship for a weekend with some important people. Gwen will be on the ship as well. Ralston continues to abuse Steve with the questions in front of the guest.

            Once on the ship the whole film goes all over the place and gets too silly.

            Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard were excellent despite a drawn out plot and really ridiculous moments. I will let it slid that Hope gets stripped of his clothes and has to put on a woman’s robe! There is not too much else I can say about the rest of the cast I did not really like their characters which I guess is the point.

            Edith Head once again designed the costumes for Paulette Goddard as she did for many of the actress’s other films.

 Nothing But the Truth has its moments where it is really funny and well done but most of the time I found it to be over the top and annoying. It was predictable mostly because Screwball comedy was on its way out and had been done so much previously. I do not mind the fact that I sat through it I am glad I sat through it, I am always happy to sit through a Paulette Goddard film because it seems a handful of her films are hard to find. I caught Nothing But the Truth on TCM when the station had Paulette Goddard as their actor of the day a few weeks ago and it is available on DVD through a Bob Hope collection called Thanks for the Memories. See the film if you can.

 The plan almost goes over without a problem… almost.

            The acting is so-so and stiff. I never saw Joan Collins in a film before I did not have any expectations set for her. Collins was not too bad but she is bad enough to cringe at times. Jack Hawkins as Khufu was not good he was stiff and looked amateur. The only person who had any acting ability was Sydney Chaplin as Nelifer’s lover. The oldest of Charlie Chaplin’s children had a successful stage career on Broadway so besides the fact that his father is one of the greatest actors ever Sydney Chaplin had legitimate acting abilities. 

            Howard Hawks the man known for his fantastic screwball comedies directed this film. This was a flop upon release (which is not that much of a shock) and after filming completed Hawks took a year off and it was the longest break between films he ever took.

            Land of the Pharaohs is considered a campy, cult film and I can see why. But I liked seeing all the ancient Egyptian sets and scenery actually filmed in the country. The score by Dimitri Tiomkin is enough to sit through the film it is incredible. Land of the Pharaohs is worth sitting through at least once and if you ever do do not take it seriously just have fun with it.

The next night Gay is invited to dinner with Linda, Morgan, and the backer. The dinner does not go over too well. The backer first says he will back the play but then recants and pulls out of the play. Gay does not know about the decision so Linda pulls the cast together and asks them to go without pay until money comes in from the play and they all do.

            After the play finishes Linda walks with Gay through Central Park to calm his nerves. They wait in the park until morning to read the play reviews in the morning paper. The reviews for Gay’s play are great they are filled with nothing but praise especially for the third act. Linda has come to love Gay for his small town boyishness and his sweetness. In the park she asks in so many ways for Gay to marry her. He is a bunch of nerves between the play and Linda being so nice to him. Gay and Linda marry and in the next three years Gay has written three more successful plays and all starring Linda.

    Gay is no longer the small town boy of the beginning of the film. He is now a drunk sophisticate who goes on binges when he is writing plays. He and Linda are still happily married living in a nice house outside of the city. At a party one night Gay meets a woman who tells him that she has the ability to draw out a powerful latent talent he has inside him. He is enthralled by this woman because she is appealing to his want to write a serious play. Linda does not like this woman but she is never cruel to her. Gay’s involvement with this woman begins to threaten his marriage with Linda.

Now for the pairing of Russell and Stewart may seem a bit odd and it is but somehow it works. I have noticed in the few films I have seen Russell in that she tends to dominate the other actors/characters. Maybe this is just my observation but I see her kind of domination as her standing out as a good actress. Her dominance is never overbearing it is just stand out. But in No Time For Comedy Russell was not dominant she played her role just right. There were many scenes that I feel if any other actress had been playing them they would have been over dramatic and not have been sympathetic and caring enough. Near the end Linda and the woman Gay has been with confront each other. Russell kept the character cool in this situation and by doing this she made the character more sympathetic. I find that I am more sympathetic towards a wronged character (mostly it is with female characters) if they can keep calm and much of that is left up to how the actress/actor plays their character. Also near the end Gay is just insulting her after she has told him how he feels about the woman he is always hanging around with and she does not lose it at all but she does not really take it either. I really gained a new admiration and respect for Rosalind Russell in this film. James Stewart I felt was really good here. I am a sucker for seeing actors step out of their comfort zone or playing a character people are not used to seeing. I liked seeing a mean, drunken Stewart who at the end realizes he has done something really stupid. Russell and Stewart were great together although I do have to say there really was no chemistry between them.

When she sobers up Dottie realizes that Goodwin is a very sensitive and caring man. The two spend some nice together alone in the pool house. The next morning Dottie is already to drop her smear campaign and write a nice article promoting Goodwin. But Goodwin says that he is not the marrying kind and blabs about how he had loved someone when he was overseas but she was a spy and had to be killed for what she knew. Dottie is furious over his leaving her. She has Goodwin’s story about the spy printed getting herself and the general into some major trouble.

            Alright, so Top Secret Affair started off well but once Dottie stopped being the shrewd business woman to a woman in love letting her emotions get the best of her the film just tanked. This film is just one of the reasons why I cannot stand many films during the late 1940s and 1950s. America was so wrapped up in Communism and being patriotic it is almost sickening. Now let me back myself up and say that I consider myself a patriotic American but sometimes patriotism can go too far and get out of hand. I see the whole McCarthy era as one gigantic embarrassment in American history and because I find the whole thing ridiculous it bothers me to sit through anything that has to do with the senator and his hearings. Once I saw the film was about an American general I knew I was heading into a little bit of trouble. At the beginning the film was fun and sexy and really enjoyable then once the whole trial with Goodwin being accused as a traitor gets going I found myself mad and bored and really did not pay too much attention. I think really what it comes down to for me when I watch a film I really do not want to see modern issues thrown into the fold… “Art for art’s sake” I guess could be my motto on films. I just do not really see good stories in political themed films or thrillers.

            Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas were so good together. I do not believe I have ever sat through a Kirk Douglas film before, I did not know what to expect from him but I found myself liking him he was perfect as a bull headed American general. Susan Hayward was fabulous. She always brought a tough side to her characters whether intentional or not and that toughness was perfect for this role.

            My favorite scene was when Dottie was drunk and she was standing on the high diving board above her pool. She is ranting and raving about something and he is totally not listening. He knows she is going to fall in the pool so as she is raving on and on he starts to take off his jacket, shoes, and socks to go get her when she does fall in. Of course she falls in and he gets up from his chair and waits a bit besides the pool before jumping in. Later in the pool house as Dottie sobers up she realizes she is in a bathing suit so she asks Goodwin how she got in it. He tells her she put it on but she had to put it on twice because the first time it was backwards. He also lets her know that they played a game called “Navy” she made up where he was the battleship and she was the torpedo. Those two scenes are the best part of the whole film.

            Top Secret Affair was originally intended to star Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart and followed the book more closely. By the time filming was to start Bogart was already dying from esophageal cancer and could barely speak so he backed out as well as Bacall who had to take care of him. When Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas were cast the script was rewritten to better suit the two actors. I can kind of see Bogart and Bacall playing the characters but then you have to think their version of the story was much different.

            Top Secret Affair starts off well but does not end well which is a big letdown especially because Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas were so great together and were doing wonderfully with the comedy. I wish Hayward and Douglas could have made another film together and one that did not have a weak ending. I will still give it a recommendation as a film to see since it does have its good points.

 Dr. Sloper decides to take Catherine to Europe for six months to get Morris off of her mind. If she still loves Morris in that time he will permit them to marry. Of course Catherine still loves him and she and her father leave their European trip early to get back home to New York. Once home and reunited with Morris, Catherine tells him that she wants to run away that night and marry him. Morris and Aunt Penniman had it planned that the two would marry the next day but Catherine cannot wait she wants to get married right away. She seems to make a mistake though by telling him that her father will disinherit her and she will not have the money she has been receiving from her mother’s death and what she will receive if the doctor dies. That night Catherine waits and waits for Morris to come with a carriage to take her away but he never comes and she does not hear from him for the next two years.

            Dr. Sloper is happy that Morris is gone. As he and his daughter talk about what has happened he reveals to her what he thinks of her. He tells Catherine she is a coward and plain, no man will ever love her, she has no backbone and the biggest blow that she is not like her mother at all. Catherine finally realizes her father does not love her at all he is ashamed of her. She gets a backbone and for the first time she tells her father to write her out of his will so she will have no money. He confesses he only meant he will disinherit her as a threat he never intended to leave her without money. Now she is very angry with him because she is still hurt from Morris leaving and he never would have left her had it been for her father.

            A few months later the doctor dies. Catherine never forgives her father for what he did and said to her that she does not even go to his side as he is dying. Not long after Morris comes back. Catherine has become a very bitter person and her bitterness comes out even more with Morris’s return.

            Will Catherine go back to the man she once loved or does she finally see Morris Townsend as her father saw him: a gold digger?

While I will agree with Monty that this is a must see film I do not think it is an essential Olivia de Havilland film. Sure she won the Academy Award but I just cannot see how she won. De Havilland is nothing short of a great actress in any film she is in but I did not see how her performance as Catherine Sloper was enough to give her an Oscar. First of all, I think I may just be sick and tired of seeing her in period films. The woman did so many damn period films!!! In the beginning there is a scene of Catherine getting dresses and putting her slip or something on and I just though “Olivia de Havilland by this time must have been a pro at putting 1800s style clothing on.” Second, I thought she looked TERRIBLE! Seriously she looked like Gollum from Lord of the Rings! That was distracting I could not get over how awful she looked. The costumes were not bad at all but her hair and her lack of makeup did nothing for her. I think it was more the hairstyles than anything because when de Havilland played Melanie Hamilton she barely had any makeup on and she looked great but her hair here did not frame her face well at all. I apologize if this makes me seem shallow and mean but I was distracted by these things.

Things go from bad to worse for Sandra. Julie kills herself out of insanity and Mark just sees her as a little experiment to which she slaps him for. Now Sandra has become more determined to find Jim and uncover why Mark is hiding him and what lies under his seemingly sinister demeanor.

            The ending to the film is not good. The whole thing runs so smoothly with excellent suspense and tension and then the last ten minutes are not good, I would not say it sucks or its garbage it just ruins the flow.

            I loved Barbara Stabwyck and Errol Flynn together. Everyone is so used to seeing Flynn as this debonair sword wielding good guy but he was so good as the sinister Mark Caldwell. From the moment he enters the film I loved him I thought his character was great. One reviewer on IMDB said that Flynn reminded them of characters George Sanders played and I have to agree and Flynn was so good at it. This role for him was so different and he got to play something different and it was great to see him stretch his acting talent. Barbara Stanwyck was so good. She was the tough chick that she loved to play who was also heroic and unafraid to uncover the truth. She leapt, climbed a fence and through an open roof window, and more. Stanwyck gives a great performance I enjoyed her very much.

            Whatever you do when/if you watch the film do not think of the characters as their real ages. Stanwyck was forty years old and Flynn was thirty-eight years old. Mark was supposed to be Jim’s uncle and therefore older than Stanwyck’s character. I assume this situation is part of the story but I feel quite sure it is because a lot of times in classic films they usually made their actors and actresses ages much younger than they were.

            I have never heard of the director Peter Godfrey before but I really liked his direction he did a fabulous job of creating tension and suspense through camera movements and angles. Godfrey created the tension by focusing and panning on details such as Sandra’s hand when she turned on the light in her room and following Mark as he goes to sit down next to Sandra. Some of the camera angles were fantastic. The cinematography was excellent as well. The score was perfectly composed by Franz Waxman who added a great deal more of tension to the film.

            Cry Wolf starts off great and runs smoothly until the end. But do not let the end keep you from seeing the film. There are many great suspenseful moments to keep you enthralled and Barbara Stanwyck and Errol Flynn are great together.

            Cry Wolf is available on DVD.