Wonderland Burlesque's Let's All Go To The Movies: It's In His Kiss - Part XIII

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Let's All Go To The Movies: 

It's In His Kiss

Part XIII

It's in his kiss.

Isn't that where it all begins?

A caress of the lips. A deep longing. Sharing a single breath?

On the silver screen such a kiss can be captured forever, frozen in time.

Or so these films would have us believe.

So, let's kiss and tell and spill the beans on these everlasting smacks, smooches, and snogs.

Yes, things can get pretty heated.

Chapstick exists for a reason, you know!

Grab a seat on the aisle.

Popcorn at the ready.

Pucker up and roll film!

- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque

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Handcuffs or Kisses

(1921)

Orphan Lois Walton is treated unkindly by her aunt, who has her placed in a reformatory. She and the other inmates are badly abused but are afraid to complain, and she remains silent after a riot is subdued. Arousing the sympathy of Peter Madison, a lawyer who conducts an investigation, she is quickly paroled. Placed in a doctor's home, she is frightened by his sexual advances and runs away. Refusing Madison's offer of refuge in his apartment, she becomes social secretary to Miss Dell, operator of a gambling house, who tries to force her into a marriage with wealthy young Leo Carstairs. However,  she is saved by Madison, who claims her as his own wife.

This silent drama film directed by George Archainbaud and stars Elaine Hammerstein, Julia Swayne Gordon, and Dorothy Chappell.

This was future Hollywood star Ronald Colman's first film in America.

This film is presumed lost.

Elaine Hammerstein

Elaine Hammerstein was the daughter of Jean Allison Hammerstein and opera producer Arthur Hammerstein. She was the granddaughter of Oscar Hammerstein I and the cousin of Oscar Hammerstein II. She later became the stepdaughter of fellow actress Dorothy Dalton when her father married Dalton in 1924. (Elaine Hammerstein was one year younger than Dalton.) She appeared in 44 movies from 1915 until 1926. Among her film credits are The Girl From Nowhere (1921), The Drums of Jeopardy (1923), Reckless Youth (1922), Broadway Gold (1923), and The Midnight Express (1924), opposite William Haines. With the latter film, the studio tried to promote Hammerstein and Haines as a couple, even though Haines was an actively gay man. She married and retired from film in June of 1926. In August of 1948, while returning from a trip to the Mexican border town of Tijuana, Hammerstein, her husband, and three friends were traveling at high speed up a curving hillside road when they struck an oncoming car. The six occupants of the Mexican vehicle all survived with minor injuries, but Hammerstein and her companions were all killed when their vehicle tumbled down the side of the hill.

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Stolen Kisses

(1929)

A crotchety old coot wants his son and daughter-in-law to have kids so he can have grandchildren, but so far they haven't done so. In a somewhat ham-handed attempt to bring them closer together so they'll be in the mood to give him the grandchildren he so desperately wants, he winds up bringing them to the point where they're considering divorcing. The old codger decides to change his tactics in order to achieve his goal.

This American sound/part-talkie pre-code comedy was directed by Ray Enright and stars May McAvoy, Claude Gillingwater, Hallam Cooley, Edna Murphy and Reed Howes.

In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system.

This film is presumed lost.

Mary McAvoy

May McAvoy was an American actress who worked mainly during the silent-film era. After appearing in more than three dozen films, she co-starred with Ramón Novarro and Francis X. Bushman in director Fred Niblo's 1925 production of Ben-Hur released by MGM. She also portrayed Lady Windermere in Ernst Lubitsch's Lady Windermere's Fan (1925). In addition to playing the role of Mary Dale in The Jazz Singer (1927), McAvoy coached Al Jolson as he made his film debut. For years, a rumor circulated that McAvoy retired from the screen at the transition to sound films because of a lisp or speech impediment. In truth, she married the treasurer of United Artists in 1929, a banker who asked her not to work, so she retired from film.

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The Kissing Bandit 

(1948)

Ricardo, the milquetoast son of a Mexican bandit, would rather lead a quiet life in Boston. However, his family has other ideas and want him to follow in his father's footsteps and become The Kissing Bandit.

This American comedy musical Western was directed by László Benedek and stars Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson, and J. Carrol Naish. It also features cameos by Ricardo Montalbán, Ann Miller and Cyd Charisse.

Frank Sinatra did not want to make this movie, feeling that he was not right for the part. But the studio, anxious to build him up as a leading man, forced him to be in it. He stated later that he never watched the film, since he was embarrassed by the whole thing. Kathryn Grayson likewise disliked the film, saying that it was her least favorite of all her films. In later years, Don Rickles would often zing Sinatra about it; e.g., "Frank, I saw 'The Kissing Bandit.' It's over." On an episode of the radio show, Light Up Time, Sinatra referred to himself as "star of The Kissing Bandit, the script of which somebody should have put a match to."

 

Dance Of Fury, danced by Ann Miller, Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse and choreographed by Robert Alton, is considered by some to be one of the greatest dance sequences ever.

It was reviewed unfavorably in Picturegoer: "The progress of romance is uninspired and very dull. The one worthwhile performance comes from J. Carrol Naish as The Kissing Bandit's henchman."

The film was a financial disaster, earning $969,000 in the US and Canada and $412,000 overseas, resulting in a loss to MGM of $2,643,000. This made it one of the least successful musicals in MGM history.

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Kiss Kiss - Bang Bang

(1966)

Kirk Warren, a former spy, is to be executed because he tried to steal a million dollars. But he is saved by Colonel Smithson because Sir Wilcox has prepared a mission for him. Warren has to steal a secret formula in Switzerland and try to expose the real identity of Mr. X. Kirk leaves London and Alina, his girl, together with three clumsy friends to accomplish his not so secret mission. But Kirk's great love is always a million dollars and not a secret formula.

This Italian Eurospy comedy was directed by Duccio Tessari and stars Giuliano Gemma, Nieves Navarro, George Martin, and Daniele Vargas.

The film was shot in Rome and London. The film was made at behest of Giuliano Gemma wanting to take on a genre different from the usual spaghetti westerns he made throughout the decade, while the Eurospy sub-genre was popular at the time. Most of the cast and crew, including director Duccio Tessari, were frequent collaborators on such westerns, especially the Ringo films.

Film critic Pauline Kael named her second book after this film. She called the title "perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of movies".

You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.

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Stolen Kisses

(1968)

Antoine is being discharged from military service. The father of his sweetheart Christine secures Antoine a job as a security guard, which he promptly loses. Stumbling into a position assisting a private detective, Antoine falls for his employers' seductive wife, Fabienne, and finds that he must choose between the older woman and Christine.

This French romantic comedy-drama was directed by François Truffaut and stars Jean-Pierre Léaud, Delphine Seyrig, and Claude Jade.

This film continues the story of writer-directed François Truffaut's alter-ego, Antoine Doinel, whom Truffaut had previously depicted in The 400 Blows (1959) and the short film Antoine and Colette (1962). It is followed by the last two films in the series, Bed & Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979)

The New York Times critic Vincent Canby wrote: "With what can only be described as cinematic grace, Truffaut's point of view slips in and out of Antoine so that something that on the surface looks like a conventional movie eventually becomes as fully and carefully populated as a Balzac novel. There is not a silly or superfluous incident, character, or camera angle in the movie. Truffaut is the star of the film, always in control, whether the movie is ranging into the area of slapstick, lyrical romance or touching lightly on De Gaulle's France (a student demonstration on the TV screen). His love of old movies is reflected in plot devices (overheard conversations), incidental action (two children walking out of the shoe store wearing Laurel and Hardy masks), and in the score, which takes Charles Trenet's 1943 song Que reste-t-il de nos amours (known in an English-language version as I Wish You Love) and turns it into a joyous motif."

This was the first New Wave film (then, ten years old) to receive a prestigious award; the yearly critics award, the Prix Louis Delluc. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

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And that's all for now, folks!

Tune in next time...

Same place, same channel.

Stolen Kisses - Movie Trailer

(1968)

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