Horror / Suspense Crime . . .
FRIGHT Films

A PICTORIAL GALEXY and Generality - Writings of the LIFE - TIMES and FILM CAREER of Deborah Kerr | Filmography 1940 - 1950s NOTES and FACTS | Filmography 1960 - 1980s NOTES and FACTS | Biographies | JUNGLE Films | News and Gossip in BLOOM | Addle an Addict and Baffle a Buff | Vintage - CINEMA - Classics | COMEDY and ROMANCE Films | Gallery of PHOTOS | COSTUME Films | HIGH and SOCIAL DRAMA Films | CRIME and HORROR Films | RELIGIOUS and MUSICAL Films | Emotion Pictures | OBITUARIES | Legacy of a L A D Y - End of a Legend

EYE OF THE DEVIL
Even less than meets the eye.

From the novel "The Day of the Arrow" by: Philip Loraine
DIR J. Lee Thompson
PROD John Calley, Martin Ransohoff
MGM - B/W. 1967 - STARS Deborah Kerr + David Niven
with Donald Pleasence, Edward Mulhare, Dame Flora Robson, Sir Emlyn Williams

Some eminently talented people are used to slight avail in this Anglo-French production, a haunted-chateau teaser with a cast headed by Deborah Kerr and David Niven. As a wealthy vineyard owner, the latter gets himself hopelessly involved with his peasants in some black-magic rituals in order to restore the health of his grapes. To bring his vines back to condition, he has to allow himself to be destroyed by a silver arrow shot through the heart, which is enough to mystify anybody, and it mystifies Miss Kerr, in the role of his wife, who is well rid of the whole mob.

THE NAKED EDGE
A weak swan song

A suspense thriller based loosely on Max Ehrlich's novel, "First Train to Babylon" - the city referred to in the book was Babylon, Long Island, but the picture's producers changed the scene to Great Britain.

A United Artists Release B/W 1961 - STARS Gary Cooper + Deborah Kerr
with Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, Hermione Gingold, Peter Cushing and Michael Wilding

Gary Cooper's final motion picture is a sad disappointment, a suspense contrivance pegged on the old theme of a lovely wife suddenly suspecting her enigmatic-behaving spouse of evil - in this case robbery and murder. It is the handsome, intrepid Deborah Kerr, as the jittery heroine, who really has the meaty role in this exercise, filmed in England with a squandered cast that includes Eric Portman, Michael Wilding, Hermione Gingold, Diane Cilento, Wilfred Lawson and Joyce Carey. Yes, what a round-up! But the tension is of the plainest, manufactured sort and the story itself is as full of holes as a piece of cheese. Coop at least can be remembered for many better things.

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" The Chalk Garden "
Here's a study for you . . . mixed-up Emotions !

Now, let's see what we can do with this. A little of the setting for THE CHALK GARDEN is Mrs. St. Maugham's garden, situated on the chalk cliffs near Dover, great care in cultivating it with chemicals before it can produce vegatation - okay, we'll leave that to Deborah Kerr. And now there is Mrs. St. Maughm who has hired still another governess to guide her undiscipined granddaughter, Laurel. Laurel is determined to drive Ms. Madrigal away as she did all the others - well guess again - Deborah will deal with this problem along with still a few others. Adapted from Enid Bagnold's London - Broadway stage success, it is by this, and many other standards, turned into a literate and absorbing motion picture. The film has touches of mystery and has the benefit of fine characterization brought out magnificently by the wonderful young Hayley Mills as the disturbed Laurel - I've never seen her better . Deborah Kerr is ideally adapted to the sympathetic governess, Ms Madrigal, who carries an aura of mystery into the St. Maugham household. Hayley and Deborah complement each other beautifully and dominate the film with superb performances. Must give mention of Dame Edith Evans as Mrs. St. Maugham who brings authority to her part as the stately grandmother.
Other fine performances by Sir John Mills, Felix Aylmer and Elizabeth Sellers must not be overlooked. This 1964 Universal production is a truly penetrating motion picture. Only the most cynical will fail to be moved by " The Chalk Garden. "

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COSMOPOLITAN: March 1961
On Location with Jon Whitcomb

The Ladylike Sexpot

Between dips in the bathtub, Deborah Kerr candidly comments on her leading men, guilt feelings, complexion care, and the delicate art of playing love scenes in the sand.

The bathroom had a certain elegance, as did the two ladies occupying it. The strawberry blonde lay in the tub, soaping her knees. She was frowning. Her visitor, an older woman wearing diamonds and a black lace evening gown, walked over to a dressing table and stared at herself in the mirror.
"I'll sit down somewhere, and we'll talk," she said. The girl in the tub said, "I don't feel like talking." Black Lace glanced at her sharply. "I don't remember the exact words," she remarked, "but a psychiatrist once told me that if you have the fear of talking, it has something to do with the fear of giving - sexually, I mean . . . . Has George been giving?"
Splashes from the tub drowned out the answer. "If you're ready to blame yourself," Black Lace went on, "I know exactly what's wrong with you. It's very true, you know, it's not always the wife's fault if the husband strays. Some single men stray."
A man's voice said "Cut!" whereupon Miss Hermione Gingold adjusted her black lace and strolled out of the bathroom for a cigarette. Wardrobe women assisted Miss Deborah Kerr from the tub, and wrapped her in big towels to dry her for the next take.

Miss Kerr's costar is Gary Cooper, an actor usually seen in costumes suitable for wear around sagebrush and horses. For his role as an American businessman in London, he wears a dozen lounge and sport suits tailored on Saville Row, a departure which may cause suspense among Western fans. The story begins with a murder trial at Old Bailey, where Miss Kerr watches her husband, Cooper, testify against a business associate. The man is convicted. Then a number of incidents happen which convince Miss Kerr that she may be killed next. Suspicion points to her husband. With mounting terror, she tries to find out what sort of man she is married to.

I asked Deborah how she maintained her flawless complexion.
"Thank you, but I don't bathe in goats' milk or anything extraordinary. I'm a soap-and-water girl. I can't get make-up off my face with anything less. I have a pet soap, and the same people make a very good cleansing lotion I use afterward. Make-up tends to make one break out in spots and bumps. I don't have too much trouble with my skin, but anybody who uses screen make-up all her life finds pores becoming enlarged." She frowned. "Mine are, a little."
"This movie is in black and white," she went on, "so I wear a darker make-up base and considerably more emphasis on the eyes. If I wore this for a color film, I'd look like a giant panda."

"How do you go about learning lines?" I asked. "It's always been easy for me, thank heaven. Mostly, I do it by just reading the script over and over. I do it alone, unless it's a very long speech; then I like to have someone hear it. Someone who's quite extraordinary is Bob Mitchum. He can take a page, run his eyes down it - like this - and he knows it. He mustr have a photographic memory.
And it's not true that Gary Cooper is a man of few words. In this film, he has a great deal to say, and says it rather well. I admire his unusual stamina in this business, and I'm delighted to be in a picture with him at last. He was a childhood here of mine."
"Who's your favorite leading man?"
She smiled. "I've been so lucky. I've had them all. Oh dear - that sounds terrible! But I think I've gotten around to everybody except James Stewart and Marlon Brando."
"I came over from England to act, but it turned out all I had to do was to be high-minded, long-suffering, white-gloved, and decorative." This period ended with the job she did as a passionate siren in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. Her love scenes in the surf with Burt Lancaster displayed a new and unfamiliar Deborah Kerr with undreamed-of emotional capacities. That film earned her one of her six best-actress Oscar nominations.

Deborah on self-control:"I'm sure it would do me no good to lose my temper. It would put me out of commission for days."




Deborah Kerr comes to a very old house as a governess, and finds out the fact that the house is haunted by some evil spirit, and struggles to protect two angelic children from the influence exerted by this evil spirit.
I can certainly say this is a really good and entertaining horror movie made during the 1960s. Besides, Deborah Kerr is more beautiful here in this black and white movie than in color films at that time.
Additionally saying, this is Pamela Franklin's debut movie, and she is quite impressive here.

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S p e n c e r
TRACY
 
by ROMANO  TOZZI
 
PYRAMID ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE MOVIES
 
As "buddy" to Clark Gable or lover to Katharine Hepburn, wheather playing engaging rogues or baffled fathers, Spencer Tracy conveyed a rugged warmth and believability few actors could match or even approach. Romano Tozzi's perceptive, profusely illustrated book covers Tracy's personal life and film career, examining the over eighty movies that kept him a major star for nearly four decades. 

" As Tracy grew older, finding suitable properties for him was not an easy task. His selection of Edward, My son ( 1949 ) must be put down as a major career blunder. He seemed distinctly out of place in this turgid drama, adapted from a recent British stage play by Robert Morley and Noel Langley. Morley, a character actor of note, had also scored a hit on the London stage in the leading role. MGM produced the film in England. George Cukor directed, and a predominantly British cast supported Tracy.
Edward, My Son, covering a twenty-year period, is the story of Arnold Boult  (Tracy), who loves his only child obsessively and is determined to give the boy every advantage. To achieve this goal, he ruins the life of several people. His rise in the business world is accomplished through arson and the suicide of two associates. He takes a mistress and his wife becomes a hopeless alcoholic. Eventually, the beloved son turns out to be a wastrel who meets a bad end. Finally, Boult is sent to prison for his past misdeeds.
Donald Ogden Stewart's script made Tract a Canadian, so the actor did not have to simulate a British accent. Otherwise, the picture is generally faithful to the original. In neither play nor movie did the character of Edward ever appear. The film was made in the summer of 1948, but release was held up for almost a year. In the interim, Morley had triumphantly recreated his role on Broadway. The film and Tracy's performance suffered in comparison. Tracy received his worst set of notices since Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. only  Deborah Kerr survived the debacle. In fact, Miss Kerr's portrayal of the unfortunate wife won an Academy Award nomination. Leueen MacGrath, later Mrs. George S. Kaufman, who had played the mistress role with Morley on the stage, repeated the part in the film version.
Tracy had been seen in Adam's Rib, the only film he made in 1949. With this picture, Tracy and George Cukor more than made up for any ground lost on Edward, My Son. Adam's Rib is not only one of the best Tracy-Hepburn pictures, but possibly the best 'battle-of-the-sexes' film comedy ever made. Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon contributed a fresh, original, adult screenplay, ideally suited to the stars' talents and years ahead of its time. Cukor directed with wit and style, and the brilliant stage comedienne Judy Holliday gave a devastating comic performance that proved to be her stepping stone to stardom."
(  this was only in part from the above book by Romano Tozzi )

 
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TM Photo from the Hugh Miles0Hutchinsen/Hiller Collection c2003 All Rights Retained Hereto

The pairing of SPENCER TRACY and KATHERINE HEPBURN was a high spot and produced six films of varying quality. But Spencer had gone to Broadway, flopped badly, and ended the decade with two more clinkers, one of which was stolen right from under him - the only time that happened in his entire career. The film was "EDWARD,MY SON," and the thief who pulled off the impossible was Deborah Kerr.

1949 Academy Awards
Nominees and History

Other Best Actress nominees were Jeanne Crain (with her sole career nomination) as light-skinned black nurse Pinky/Patricia Johnson (co-star Ethel Waters' grand-daughter) trying to pass for white in Pinky (with three nominations and no wins), Susan Hayward (with her second nomination) as unmarried mother Eloise Winters in director Mark Robinson's My Foolish Heart (with two nominations and no wins), Deborah Kerr (with her first of six unsuccessful career nominations) as evelyn Boult in director George Cukor's Edward My Son (the film's sole nomination), and loretta Young (with her second an final career nomination) as French nun Sister Margaret who raises funds to build a children's hospital in New England in director Henry Koster's Come to the Stable (with seven nominations and no wins).