Name the Movie Game (9 February Edition)

Hi, everyone! As always, here's a quick recap of the rules:

1. You may ask up to five yes or no questions a day. Each guess does count as one question.

2. Please number each question or each guess to make it easier to respond to them.

3. The player who is the first to guess the movie correctly will be the one to make the selection for the following week’s Name the Movie Game.

4. The game will end on Saturday night if the movie is not guessed.

I will answer questions until 11 p.m. tonight (and starting again tomorrow if we're still playing). I'm thinking of a classic movie made in the 1930s. Let the game begin!

Love Stories: Designing Woman (1957)

Designing Woman (1957). Romantic/comedy. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Cast: Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck.

After a night of drinking, sports writer Mike Hagen, cannot remember writing his assignment until fashion designer Marilla comes over to his apartment to inform him that they wrote the story together. He suggests that they take a trip to California. While there, they decide to marry and when they return to New York, they move into Marilla's beautiful East Side apartment. Back at the newspaper office, editor Hammerstein warns Mike that crooked boxing promoter Martin J. Daylor is threatening Mike's life because of the articles he has written about Daylor. In one of the funnest scenes in the movie, Mike is having dinner with his ex-girlfriend to break off their relationship. She dumps a plate of pasta in his lap, after which Marilla walks in as she is running out. After dinner, Mike and Marilla return to their apartment, where they walk into a surprise wedding shower.

After a couple of weeks, they fall into a comfortable routine, keeping their professional worlds apart. Then one night, Marilla, wanting to spend more time with her husband, attends a boxing match with Mike, where she finds herself overwhelmed by it all. The following week, Mike and his friends meet at their apartment for the guys' weekly poker game. In another room, Marilla holds a rehearsal for Zachary's musical, for which she has been chosen to design the costumes. The evening turns into a disaster.

Marilla becomes suspicious of Mike's ex-girlfriend when he tries to hide from her their former relationship. Complicating their relationship even further is Mike's relationship with the crooked boxing promoter Martin Daylor. Mike's life is in real danger, but he hides that from her too. What happens next is a series of misadventures.

I have a huge soft spot for fluffy romance films. Bacall and Peck have great chemistry as newlyweds who have several differences to work out. Bacall is funny and stylish in her beautiful gowns and Peck is funny as a rough around the edges sports writer.
Designing Woman (1957) movie trailer.

This Week's Poll: Who is Your Favorite Movie Robot?

They come in all sizes, from imposing, lumbering giants to pint-sized wheeled models. Sometimes, they can speak a variety of languages fluently, but other times they can only make beeping sounds or no noise at all. They're adept at fixing things and destroying things. Once in awhile, one goes bad--but typically they function as loyal companions. Yes, we are talking about robots of the silver screen!

This week’s poll asks you to select your favorite robot from among the ones listed below. Note that cyborgs and androids have been omitted from this poll (sorry, RoboCop and Terminator!).

Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Silent Running) – These three little service drones prove invaluable to an astronaut-botanist (Bruce Dern) after he hijacks a spaceship carrying a living forest. The drones not only conduct maintenance on the ship, but they also perform surgery on Dern’s injured leg, tend to the forest, and play poker with their human companion.

R2D2 and C3PO (Star Wars movies) – They need no introduction after compiling more screen time than any other robots in motion picture history. Plus, they’ve starred in video games, been molded into popular play-action figures, and been transformed into kiddie Halloween costumes!

Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still) – Eight feet tall and made of an impenetrable alien metallic substance, Gort was the movies’ first robot superstar. He doesn’t say a word, but was the recipient of a classic line of dialogue: “Klaatu barada nikto” (roughly translated, it means that Klaatu was killed and needs to be revived…and, by the way, please don’t destroy the Earth). Definitely the tall silent type.

Robby the Robot (Forbidden Planet) – Slightly shorter than Gort and much more talkative, Robby also starred in the cult sci fi film The Invisible Boy (1957). But he’s most famous for Forbidden Planet, in which his character was inspired by the sprite Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Dr. Morbius programmed Robby so that the robot could not harm humans.

The Iron Giant (The Iron Giant) – This huge robot falls from the sky and crashes off the coast of Maine, where it befriends a nine-year-old boy. Very friendly, but can turn destructive when it thinks its friends have been harmed. The Iron Giant is capable of repairing itself.

Number 5 (Short Circuit) – No. 5 is a Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport (SAINT) robot developed for military purposes. After a lightning bolt causes a power surge that brings No. 5 to life, it befriends a young woman and takes the name of Johnny Five. It also appeared in a sequel creatively called Short Circuit 2.

Those are your choices for this week. Please leave comments if you feel there were serious robot omissions. But also don’t forget to cast your vote in the poll on the green sidebar.

Trivia Time Part 23

I've been asked: "Paul, how and where do the questions for Trivia Time come from?" Not from any books or trivia games...just from my "sick twisted little" TV and film mind. With the Super Bowl this past weekend, some of the questions MAY have something to do with football films.

Who Am I? I'm known as screenwriter, but I've done some (if you call it that) acting. Please excuse me, I have to go feed the Alien. Who Am I?

#1. What was the film that Who Am I was in?
#2. Was there another director/screenwriter in the film? Who?
#3. Brain Buster # 1. In the film Number One, who was Number One? What team did he play for? What was his position?
#4. Brain Buster #2. What famous football player did Burt Lancaster play? In what film?
#5. Brain Buster #3. This film's screenplay came about because the LAPD kept flying over this screenwriter's North Hollywood home at night. What's the film? Who's the screenwriter?
#6.Brain Buster #4. Name the female co-star of the film.
#7.Brain Buster # 5.The productors used this composer's symphony in the film Alien.with out Jerry Goldsmiths knowledge. Who is he and what symphony did they use?
#8.Brain Buster #6. Who was the male co-star in most of the James Stewart/Anthony Mann films?
#9 Most of the Stewart / Mann films were made at Universal. Name three that were not and studios where they were made.
#10. Brain Buster #8. James Stewart & Henry Fonda made two Westerns together. Name the films in order and the director of the second film.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EDNA MAY!

Part 1

Today is Edna Green's 78th birthday. Who is Edna Green? These days she is a great-grandmother who lives in Arizona, but there was a time many years ago when she was known as Edna May Wonacott and she was in the movies.

Edna May was nine years old and living with her family in Santa Rosa, California, when she caught the eye of director Alfred Hitchcock while he was in town preparing to make Shadow of a Doubt (1943). The director cast her in the role of Ann Newton, younger sister of the protagonist, Charlie Newton (Teresa Wright) and niece of the villain, Charles Oakley (Joseph Cotten). Edna May made quite a splash in the part and appeared in small roles in other films over the next few years. I recently caught up with her and we talked about the fascinating events of her childhood.

That Alfred Hitchcock happened upon Edna May and cast her in Shadow of a Doubt is a minor legend, but an imprecise one. In some versions of the story, Joseph Cotten was with the director when they met. Edna clearly recalls the circumstances of that fortuitous day when she and two cousins were on their way home from a shopping excursion:

"I was discovered in Santa Rosa, standing on a street corner waiting for a bus. Alfred Hitchcock and producer Jack Skirball were standing at the same corner looking over the town."

That particular corner bus stop, in front of a Karl's shoe store, had a view of several prominent downtown locations including the courthouse, a circular green and the bank (Photo above left shows Hitchcock on that corner). Hitchcock and Skirball were looking and talking and jotting down notes on a clipboard. Edna May watched them and was curious. She edged away from her cousins to be closer to Hitchcock and Skirball so she could find out what was going on. The two men noticed her observing them and began to look her over.

"My older cousin made me move away from them and next to her, and the two men kept looking at me and finally walked over to us and introduced themselves and said they were making a movie in town and wanted to know if I wanted to be in it." They asked for her address and said they would be out to talk to her parents that afternoon.

Edna May ran all the way home to tell her mother that she was going to be in a movie. Her mother, well aware of her daughter's vivid imagination, thought she'd made it up until the cousins arrived and confirmed her story.

The next day, Edna May and her mother were on the night train to Los Angeles where she would make her screen test. The following morning, they taxied from the Glendale depot to Universal Studios, where they were met at the gate and escorted to the audition. Edna May was given a script for the phone scene, the first appearance of Ann Newton in Shadow of a Doubt. Hitchcock directed her, basically instructing her on the reactions and expressions he was after. Edna May wasn't nervous and suffered no stage fright. She just followed Hitchcock's direction and aced the screen test. She said she didn't have to be coaxed into taking the part, adding: "What nine year old wouldn't want to be in a movie?"

The story goes - and it's true - that Edna May had no experience as a performer up to that point, not even in school plays or church pageants.

"I didn't have any acting experience and no interest in ever doing such a thing..."

While at Universal, Edna May and her mother ate in the commissary and were entranced as they watched actors and actresses in costume eating lunch. Edna remembers meeting Abbott and Costello, Deanna Durbin and Shemp Howard of Three Stooges fame that day. In fact, she and her mother were offered an all-expenses-paid weekend in Hollywood, including a chauffer-driven car to take them anywhere they'd like to go. Edna May wanted more than anything to visit the Disney studios, but her mother, unsettled at being away from home and on her own for the first time, didn't want to stay - and they were on the train headed back to Santa Rosa that night.

Though she was a novice, Edna May didn't receive any special training for her performance. She gives credit to the director: "I had no coaching for the part and just took direction from Alfred Hitchcock."

She worked well with him and had no trouble understanding what he wanted from her. She felt it was the same for the other actors in the cast (Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge, Hume Cronyn, Macdonald Carey, Wallace Ford). She recalls Hitchcock as a very quiet man who kept to himself much of the time (she often saw him reading comic books on the set).

Ann Newton was a unique character, a confident, self-possessed little girl who loved books and didn't hesitate to speak up. She was an observant child, the only family member who took a dubious view of Uncle Charlie early on. I wondered if Edna May had been like Ann Newton as a child. In some ways, she doesn't think so ("I didn't like reading and would rather be outside riding my bike or playing."). On the other hand, she noted that she was "a very confident kid and never doubted I could do anything I wanted to do." And she was observant; it was her curiosity about Hitchcock and Skirball on that street corner that set her Hollywood adventure in motion.

Edna remembers filming Shadow of a Doubt fondly: "The cast and crew were just like one big happy family. No one was treated any differently than anyone else. I had no favorites on the set other than the fact that I was madly in love with Joseph Cotten and melted every time he talked to me. Everybody knew this and I got kidded a lot!"

Her crush on the handsome and chivalrous Mr. Cotten didn't get in the way of her performance, though. Hitchcock's instructions to Edna May regarding her scenes with Cotten were: "It doesn't matter how nice he is to you, always be suspicious of him and question why he's doing what he's doing."

Ann's skepticism of him surfaces the moment Uncle Charlie hands her the ill-chosen teddy bear gift (above left) and Edna May screws up her face and gives him a withering sidelong glance.

Shadow of a Doubt's exterior scenes were shot on location in Santa Rosa, which was unusual for the time. The interiors were shot in Hollywood on a soundstage.

When the time came to travel to Hollywood again, Edna May's mother and brother accompanied her. Her dad, who was a Santa Rosa grocer, stayed home and minded the store. It was her brother who helped her memorize her lines.

(Part 2 posts on Wed., Feb. 10, and tells of Edna May's friendship with young Pat Hitchcock, dinner with the Hitchcocks, a contract with Jack Skirball, mementos of Shadow of a Doubt, being a local celebrity, The Bells of St. Mary's and more details of her time in Hollywood.)

TCM's 31 Days of Oscar® Film Festival is Back for Its 16th Year

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will go full circle with its annual 31 Days of Oscar® festival this month. The 2010 edition of the month-long event will feature 360 Academy Award®-nominated and winning movies. The month’s schedule is designed so that each movie is linked to the next movie in the lineup through a shared actor or actress (remember the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game?).

31 Days of Oscar began last Monday with Kevin Bacon and James Coco in Only When I Laugh (1981). Coco and Harry Andrews were then be featured in The Man of La Mancha (1972), followed by Andrews in 55 Days at Peking (1963). The festivities will continue linking from movie to movie, one star at a time, throughout the month. The final movie in the festival, Diner (1982), starring Bacon, will bring the entire month full circle.

TCM's Robert Osborne, who is also the official biographer of the Academy Awards and the Academy’s red carpet greeter, will host 31 Days of Oscar, which will mark its 16th year on TCM. The 2010 edition will feature 22 films making their debut on TCM, including Gladiator (2000), Titanic (1997), A Room with a View (1985), Julia (1977), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Call Me Madam (1953), Kiss of Death (1947), Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938) and One Hour with You (1932).

Click here for the complete schedule. This year, you can also follow host Robert Osborne as he tweets about the movies on Twitter.

Kimble Meets Mrs. Gerard in a Classic Episode of The Fugitive

Generally regarded as one of the best—if not the best—TV series of the 1960s, The Fugitive set a high standard for well-crafted, exceptionally well-performed drama. Although there are many outstanding episodes, my favorite remains the two-part “Landscape with Running Figures” from season 3—or, as it’s better known among fans, the one with Richard Kimble and Mrs. Gerard on the bus.

The opening gets off to a fast start when a co-worker at a 24-hour diner informs Kimble (David Janssen) that the police have been asking questions about him. It turns out that a weary Kimble signed his time card with his real name. With the authorities already alerted, Kimble knows the dragnet will tighten quickly.

Meanwhile, police lieutenant Philip Gerard (Barry Morse)—Kimble’s “relentless pursuer”—has already arrived in town…with his wife Marie (Barbara Rush). When a fellow officer asks what the Gerards were doing, Philip replies: “Nothing special—just a vacation.”

It soon becomes apparent, though, that it was more than “just a vacation.” It was an attempt to repair a marriage weakened by Philip’s obsession with bringing Kimble to justice. In their hotel room, Philip explains that this time is different, that he could really capture Kimble. Marie, brushing her hair compulsively in the mirror, initially feigns interest and then remarks: “Life without Kimble…what a pretty dream that used to be.”

The subplots of Kimble’s escape and the Gerards’ marriage difficulties eventually intersect, taking the story in an unexpected direction. Although the two-parter’s length makes the proceedings more episodic than usual, there are some superb scenes.

One of the best has a hiding Kimble watching as Gerard tries to bribe a little boy into revealing the fugitive’s whereabouts. Seeing the kid looking at a chocolate bar in a vending machine, Gerard borrows a dime from a uniformed officer, puts it in the machine, and selects the desired candy. Kimble, who is literally locked in the adjacent room, can do nothing. But when Gerard pulls the knobs on the vending machine, nothing happens. The money slot has been jammed. Without the bribe, Kimble’s hiding place remains a child’s secret and Gerard’s frustration only mounts.

While much of the episode focuses on Kimble and Marie, it also fleshes out the character of Gerard. Most of Gerard’s appearances in the series serve little purpose beyond moving the plot forward. It’s a credit to Barry Morse that he lets the guarded Gerard occasionally flash the humanity hidden underneath his hardened resolve. In “Landscape with Running Figures,” though, Gerard’s relationship with his wife provides the means to openly explore the nature—and the limits—of the detective’s need to capture Kimble.

Barbara Rush gives a richly-textured performance as Marie, often content to let her expressions voice her emotions. In one of her strongest scenes, Marie calls Philip to tell him about an accident. His immediate response is to think it’s “some kind of test” to see if he would choose her over Kimble. Finally realizing something is wrong, Philip asks if she is okay. Marie, her face filled with disappointment and anger, states flatly: “It’s a little late to ask that.”

One of the strengths of The Fugitive was always Janssen’s and the writers’ willingness to let other performers take the spotlight. It’s not that Janssen doesn’t have the opportunity to shine in “Landscape with Running Figures”—he has several outstanding scenes—but this particular episode is really more about the Gerards. And, in the closing scenes, Marie and Philip Gerard each reveal, in different and surprising ways, how much they still care about one another. It’s a fitting end to one of the best episodes of The Fugitive.

Name the Movie Game (2 February Edition)

It's time for the Name the Movie Game. I'll be your host tonight. Here are the rules once again:

1. You may ask up to five yes or no questions a day. Each guess does count as one question.

2. Please number each question or each guess so as not to confuse anyone, especially me.

3. The player who is the first to guess the movie correctly will be the one to make the selection for the following week’s Name the Movie Game.

4. The game will end on Saturday night if the movie is not guessed.

I'm thinking of a movie made in the 1950s. Have fun, or at least pretend to.

Love Stories: Small-Town Secrets Abound in Peyton Place

The saga of the Harrington, MacKenzie, and Anderson families began airing twice weekly on ABC in 1964 and prime-time was never the same. Peyton Place was an instant hit—one of the first “water cooler” shows—with both weekly installments finishing in the Top 10 most-watched TV series for 1964-65. ABC expanded the show to three airings per week in 1965. That decision, along with the departure of key cast members, resulted in a steady ratings decline. Still, Peyton Place lasted for five seasons, introducing controversial subjects to network television, and paving the way for later prime time soaps such as Dallas, Dynasty, and Knots Landing.

The series was loosely based on Grace Metalious’s controversial 1956 bestseller about a small New England town filled with secrets. The author, then 32, took criticism for her frank approach to typically taboo subjects. There were also New Hampshire residents who claimed Metalious’s characters were thinly-disguised versions of real people. In any event, the book was a huge hit and producer Jerry Wald brought it to the big screen in 1957. Lana Turner starred as Constance MacKenzie and Diane Varsi played her illegitimate daughter Allison. Hope Lange took over as Allison in 1961’s Return to Peyton Place, which was also based on a Metalious novel.

In adapting Peyton Place for television, producer Paul Monash made several key changes. He updated the setting from the 1940s to the 1960s. Rodney Harrington’s classmate Norman became his brother. School principal Michael Rossi became a physician. And Allison’s real father, who was dead in the novel, was in prison for the murder of his wife.

The first season of Peyton Place holds up remarkably well today, thanks in large part to an exceptional ensemble cast and strong scripts built around believable characters. The plots are woven around two romances: Michael Rossi’s pursuit of single-mother Constance MacKenzie and the unexpected love that blossoms between bookish Allison MacKenize and the popular, wealthy Rodney Harrington. The latter relationship means bad news for Betty Anderson, Rodney’s former girlfriend who learns that she’s pregnant with Rod’s baby. Even worse, Betty’s father, George, is an alcoholic manic-depressive and her long-suffering mother briefly considers an affair with Rod’s father, Leslie, who runs Peyton Mills.

If it sounds like a soap opera, it is…but it’s also surprisingly gripping drama. In one of the best subplots, Kent Smith plays an aging physician trying to force the newly-arrived Rossi out of town. When he realizes he made a wrong diagnosis on a patient—and that Rossi was right—he apologizes to the younger man…even at the risk of ending his own career. It’s a beautifully written scene, handed with emotional subtlety.

The big cast includes a former Oscar winner (Dorothy Malone as Constance), veteran TV performers (Ed Nelson as Rossi) and several young stars-in-the making. Mia Farrow hits all the right notes as the sensitive Allison, who is wise beyond her years. Ryan O’Neal is charming, but restrained, as Rodney. And Barbara Parkins, whose film career didn’t match her co-stars, makes Betty a sympathetic bad girl (well, she does trick Rod into marriage).

The New England setting, with its lighthouses and snow-covered buildings, gives the series a picture postcard look. It’s a shame that Grace Metalious, who hated the movie version, never got to see the TV series. She died at the age of 39, just months before the first airing.

Love Stories: Marlene Dietrich Sizzles as Clive Brook's Former Flame Aboard the Shanghai Express

Jealousy, betrayal, obsession, passion…and this was only the fourth of the seven films Josef von Sternberg made with Marlene Dietrich. The title of their last film together: The Devil Is a Woman—coincidence? Ah, but this is not a review of the strange co-dependent relationship between director and actress. Instead, let's focus on the slightly less complicated romance between a fallen woman and a stiff-upper-lip Englishman.

As civil war is raging in China, a British surgeon, Captain Donald Harvey (Clive Brook) boards a train traveling from Peking to Shanghai, in order to reach the governor general, for whom he must perform brain surgery. Though the voyage could be perilous, his friends somehow envy him, as it is revealed that the notorious courtesan Shanghai Lily (Dietrich) is on board. Being a proper English gentleman, he’s never heard of her.

As chance would have it, onboard he meets a former lover, Magdalen, whom he hasn’t seen in five years. Things didn’t end well. She played games and tried to measure his love, and he was a jealous man who could only take so much before he left her. In the process of catching up, Magdalen informs Doc (as she affectionately calls him) that she has a new life and name. When asked if she’s married, a black-veiled Dietrich utters the classic line: "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." Um, awkward moment. Yet, it is obvious that they both still have feelings for one another—both good and bad.

Later, Doc learns from Reverend Carmichael (Lawrence Grant), who is troubled beyond measure about prostitutes traveling on the train, that Shanghai Lily had made one of his patients go insane and that there were countless others who’d had their lives ruined by her. I suppose at this moment Doc felt pretty foolish for carrying around a watch with her picture in it.

Meanwhile, there’s still a civil war going on in China. As such, government soldiers search the train and arrest the aide of Henry Chang (Warner Oland—yes, Charlie Chan!), a Eurasian merchant who is also a secret rebel leader. Angered by these actions, Chang sends a coded telegram to his rebels to attack the train at midnight. After securing the train, Chang takes Doc hostage so he can use him in exchange for his aide. He also offers to take Lily to his palace, but she declines, saying she’s out of the business. An eavesdropping Doc hears them, barges in and knocks Chang to the ground. This angers the rebel, but because he needs Doc alive, he does nothing and decides to take out his anger by raping Hui Fei (Anna May Wong), a friend and fellow prostitute of Lily’s.

Once his aide is released, Chang decides to exact revenge on Doc for his insolence by blinding the doctor. In order to save Doc’s eyesight, Lily offers to become Chang’s courtesan—just when she thought she was out, they pull her back in. Oblivious as ever, Doc’s old jealousies are ignited when he learns Lily is to stay with Chang. Fortunately, before this can happen, a revenge-seeking Hui Fei stabs Chang to death. However, this does not lessen the anger and resentment that Doc has toward Lily, whom he believes is still a no-good whore. Oddly enough, it is Reverend Carmichael who gets Lily to admit what she did out of love for Doc. Yet, she asks Carmichael not to reveal her secret, as she feels that without faith there is no love. Upon their arrival in Shanghai, Lily offers Doc a replacement watch and he gives into his love. In one of the more classic closing images in film, von Sternberg tightly moves in on the couple as they embrace and kiss on the station platform.

Nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Cinematography [winner]), this was the Titanic of its time, with a box office record $3.7 million. Suffice to say, this was the biggest hit of Dietrich’s career as one of Hollywood’s leading ladies.

Dietrich and Brook have amazing chemistry. He fits the reserved Englishman type and she just sizzles as a worldly seductress. The furs, veils, ostrich feathers, and an array of dazzling costumes enable Dietrich to fully absorb the role of the vamp. In addition, with the aid of von Sternberg, Dietrich is able to reveal the softer, more vulnerable side to Lily as well. This is perhaps one of her top performances.

Fans of the Charlie Chan films will be shocked to see Warner Oland playing such a sinister character. It is not always easy to play against type, but Oland does a nice job conveying the menacing nature of Chang. In addition, Anna May Wong is also a delight to watch.

A classic love story about overcoming jealousy and having faith in, well, love.

This Cafe special was written by Kim Wilson. You can read more of Kim's reviews at her blog 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Underrated Performer Of The Week: Richard Loo

This week's performer, Richard Loo, is one of the most familiar Asian actors in American film history. IMDb lists 163 film and TV credits for him from 1932 to 1981.

Richard was a Chinese-American born on Maui, Hawaii on October 1, 1903. He spent his youth in Hawaii and as a teenager moved to California. He went to the University of California and wanted to start a business career, but the 1929 crash forced him to change his plans.

His first film was as an uncredited bandit in the 1931 film War Correspondent. His second credited role was Captain Li in Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yin. Richard worked throughout the 1930s in many uncredited roles in films such as: Shadow of Chinatown, After The Thin Man, The Good Earth, Lost Horizon, Thank You Mr. Moto, Too Hot To Handle, Island of Lost Men, Lady of The Tropics, and They Met In Bombay.

With the coming of World War II, Richard became, for many Americans, the face of the Japanese enemy. Many of the roles were stereotyped, such as a the spy, the flyer, the submarine officer, or the interrogator.
Four of my favorites are from this period. First, there is 1944's The Keys Of The Kingdom directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck (Peck's second film and my personal favorite), Thomas Mitchell, and Vincent Price. Richard plays the small but important role of a Chinese Officer, Lt. Shon (nice to see him as a good guy).

My second favorite is in 1944's The Purple Heart directed by Lewis Milestone and staring Dana Andrews. Richard plays General Ito Mitsubi, the main interrogator. Richard is excellent in this role, which is pivotal to the whole film.

Third is 1945's God Is My Co-Pilot with Dennis Morgan, and Alan Hale. Richard plays the top Japanese ace, Tokyo Joe, an English-speaking wise guy who learned to fly in Glendale CA.

And finally, there's the 1945 film First Yank in Tokyo as Richard as Colonel Hideko Okanura.

1951 brought Richard a chance to finally play an American in Sam Fuller's Korean War film The Steel Helmet. Richard plays the role of the war weary Sgt. Tanaka. This part is considered by many film historians as a breakthrough role for Asian American actors, and Richard nails it.

Richard worked in films and TV throughout the 1950's and into the 1980s. His films include. Hell and High Water, Destination Gobi, Soldier Of Fortune, The Quiet American, Battle Hymn, and The Sand Pebbles.  Bond fans may remember him as Hai Fat in The Man With The Golden Gun.

His TV work includes: Wagon Train, Perry Mason, Burke's Law, The Outer Limits (Li-Chin Sung in "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" episode), the first broadcast episode of I Spy ("So Long, Patrick Henry"), The Man From U.N.C.L E. Bonanza, My Three Sons, It Takes A Thief, Ironside, Hawaii Five-O, and seven episodes of Kung Fu as Master Sun. His last acting role was on The Incredible Hulk in 1981 as Kam Chong.

He continued to work doing Toyota commericals into 1982. Richard died on November 20, 1983 of a cerebal hemorrhage

This Week's Poll: Who Are Your Favorite Secret Agents on TV from the 1960s?

After this past week's Dr. No discussion, I thought it'd be fun to focus the weekly poll on secret agents that appeared in television series. The richest era for TV spies was the 1960s when Bond's popularity exploded and the U.S. & the Soviet Union were embroiled in the Cold War. It was surprisingly difficult to narrow the voting field down to a manageable size. Part of the problem is that some TV shows featured protagonists who did as much detective work as actual espionage. In many cases, I had to make a judgment call...so The Avengers made the list and The Champions and The Saint didn't. I'm ready to take the heat for omitting No. 6 from The Prisoner. That said, any fan of that classic series knows it's about far more than spying. Without further ado, here are your candidates:

John Drake (Patrick McGoohan) from Secret Agent (aka Danger Man) - Cynical, cool under pressure, and resourceful, Drake was the prototypical British spy in the 1960s. He rarely used a gun, preferring to live by his wits instead. Surprisingly athletic...he pole vaults over a high obstacle in one episode.

Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum) from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - An early example of glasnost, Solo and Kuryakin were a secret agent odd couple: Solo was laid-back, smooth, and had a roving eye for the ladies; Kuryakin was more intense and intellectual (he played chess!). He also got more fan mail from female viewers (well, David McCallum did).

Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) and Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon) from Get Smart - Would you believe that Smart was the top agent for CONTROL, an international counter-espionage agency trying to avert KAOS? Smart typically got the job done--often with more than a little help from the reliable, intelligent Agent 99. Of course, Smart could also completely botch a mission, as when he was supposed a guard a scientist who is assassinated as Smart stands beside him talking on the phone!

James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) from The Wild Wild West - Proving that secret agents could thrive in the Western genre, James T. West battled villains such as the nefarious Dr. Loveless when he wasn't romancing his female co-stars. His partner Artemus was a master of disguises, which turned out to be an essential skill.

John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) from The Avengers - Steed was the unflappable English gentleman who typically appeared in bowler and cane. Mrs. Peel was his brainy, athletic partner who sported jump suits and dispatched villains with her martial arts prowess.

David March from Blue Light - For a single season, Robert Goulet starred as an American traitor working for the Nazis during World War II.  But wait...he's really an American spy! It was based on the William Holden film The Counterfeit Traitor. "Blue Light" was March's code name.

Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) from I Spy - Robinson is an international tennis player and Scott is his trainer--but really that's just a cover for their undercover work as spies. Still, you gotta think these two are the best athletes of the secret agents in this group.

Those are your candidates! Please cast your vote in the green sidebar. (Note: If you were one of the two people who voted prior to 9:00 pm CST on Sunday, please vote again!)

Trivia Time Part 22

Next week, and for one week only, Trivia Time will start on Monday instead of its normal Sunday. This the last week for all "Free Passes".

Who Am I? #1. Elia Kazan called me one of the three best actors in America. Of course, Kazan being Kazan, he never said who the other two were. Who Am I?

Who Am I? #2. I'm a director who has done it all: screwball, film noir, war, action/adventure, Westerns, and musicals. Many of my films are classics, but I only have one film on the AFI Top 100 films of all time. Who am I?

#1. What is "Who Am I's" film on the AFI Top 100?
#2. What young Broadway star was offered the part of Velvet Brown in 1939 for National Velvet?
#3. Name at least two "famous" directors who did episodes of Mr. Novak.
#4. Who played the title role in the ABC series Longsteet? What was he?
#5. Brain Buster #1.Where did the series take place?
#6. Brain Buster # 2. The play and film of Toys in the Attic were a"comeback" vehicle for which two actresses?
#7. Brain Buster#3. Richard Loo played three different roles on three episodes of what TV series?
#8. Who Played "Jerry" in the 1943 The Falcon Strikes Back?
#9. What do Bad Day At Black Rock and Honey West have in common?
#10. Brain Buster # 4. Jack Soo was in both the Broadway and film versions of Flower Drum Song. Did he play the same part in each version?
#11. Brain Buster #5 In what films did John Wayne "buy the farm'"?

A Month of Mysteries: Warren Williams as Philo Vance in "The Dragon Murder Case"

This snappy 1934 B-movie mystery represents the most successful attempt to bring S.S. Van Dine's erudite sleuth, Philo Vance, to the screen. Van Dine (a pseudonym for Willard Huntington Wright) introduced Vance to mystery readers in 1926 with The Benson Murder Case. Over the next 13 years, Van Dine published twelve highly successful Vance novels.

These intriguing-plotted mysteries became sought-after movie properties in spite of some significant obvious liabilities. These drawbacks included Van Dine's tendency to expound excessively on artistic or scientific subjects related peripherally to the mysteries. He also wrote the novels in first person, casting himself as Vance's companion/lawyer, a literary device borrowed from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. However, whereas Conan Doyle had Dr. Watson occasionally play an active role in Holmes' investigations, Van Dine (the writer) used Van Dine (the character) simply to narrate the proceedings.

Yet, the biggest problem with adapting these best-selling mysteries was Philo Vance himself. The wealthy, amateur criminologist was an aloof intellectual and could be downright cold when questioning suspects. He also lived by his own moral code--to the point of rearranging poison-filled glasses to trick a murderer into killing himself. Many filmmakers deemed such a detective too unlikeable for the screen. Therefore, most of the movie Vances were rich and intelligent, but also charming and debonair. The best-known screen Vance was the always-likeable William Powell, who played the sleuth four times with his best effort being The Kennel Murder Case (1933). Powell was a fine performer, but his film detective was not the Philo Vance admired by Van Dine's readers.

Enter Warren William, who debuted as Philo Vance in 1934's The Dragon Murder Case, an adaptation of the seventh Vance novel published the previous year. William projected the perfect note of acidity as Vance. He handled his white gloves and cane with aplomb, while talking down to everyone in sight. He also benefited from a tight adaptation of one of Van Dine's more baffling crimes.

The film's plot follows the book closely, although it adds a restaging of the murder and deletes an incident in which a boulder conveniently crushes the guilty party. As in the novel, the identity of the killer is fairly obvious. The puzzle lies in how the murder was accomplished.

The crime takes place at a country estate in upper New York where wealthy playboy Sanford Montague disappears after a night-time dive into a natural lake called the Dragon Pool. When Montague fails to turn up after a day, the police drain the pool and discover claw marks on the sandy bottom. Later, Vance discovers Montague's dead body in a "glacial pot-hole" on another part of the estate. The victim's mangled body is covered with large claw marks--as if he had been ripped open by a dragon.

Although shot entirely on a stage, The Dragon Murder Case utilizes its atmospheric sets effectively. The mysterious pool looks eerie, with its lighted areas contrasting with the dark, murky waters. The only other principal set, the living room of the country mansion, is filled with exotic aquariums, including one suspended from the ceiling. (The aquariums naturally afford Vance the opportunity of showing off his knowledge on breeding tropical fish.)

The performers playing the suspects have little to do. They exist principally to provide verbal targets for William's Vance. However, Eugene Pallette gives one of his most restrained performances as Sergeant Heath (he played the role with William Powell, too). Etienne Girardot steals several scenes as coroner Dr. Doremus, who gripes constantly at having his meals interrupted by inconvenient dead bodies.

Still, the film belongs to Warren William and he makes it a delight for viewers who have actually read the Van Dine novels. Sadly, William's only other portrayal of Vance was in the 1939 comedy-mystery The Gracie Allen Murder Case. It's too bad he didn't get a crack at the best of the books: The Greene Murder Case (filmed with Powell) and The Bishop Murder Case (with Basil Rathbone).

Neither the Vance films nor the novels achieved the classic status of fellow sleuths such as Jane Marple, Peter Wimsey, and Philip Marlowe. The last Vance film appeared in 1947. Several attempts to create reader interest with paperback editions of the novels failed. Despite such setbacks, Philo Vance has maintained a few loyal mystery fans who admire cynical, detached, and morally questionable detectives.