Ann-Margret Soars to Stardom in Bye Bye Birdie

                Harkening back to an innocent, Baby Boomer-style Americana prior to upheavals shortly to come, 1963’s Bye Bye Birdie from Columbia Pictures offers a lively musical/comedy entertainment that wins an audience over with plenty of upbeat numbers inventively choregraphed by Oona White, a fun, good-natured tone upheld throughout the whimsical story’s unfolding by veteran director George Sidney and via the star-making, dedicated performance of the gifted, alluring and magnetic Ann-Margret, whom Sidney wisely centers many key musical segments around, including the iconic opening and closing retentions of the title song created for the movie. Based on the hit 1960 Broadway success, with book by Michael Stewart, lyrics by Lee Adams and music by Charles Strouse, the Irving Brecher screenplay adroitly transfers the material involving the title figure, Conrad Birdie, an Elvis-inspired teen idol, his induction into the Army and the frenzy it causes among his followers, while Sidney sets up tunes such as “The Telephone Hour,” “Honestly Sincere” and “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” with ingratiating style and humor. With a game, energetic cast lead by Dick Van Dyke recreating his Tony-winning role and a buoyant, playful scoring by Johnny Green that is in perfect sync with Sidney’s high-spirited helming, Bye Bye Birdie offers viewers a nostalgic opportunity to spend 111 minutes looking back at a more carefree cinematic era.

By 1963 George Sidney had solidified his position among the top film directors of the musical/comedy ilk, finding great success at the outset of his career in the 1940s via his rich association with MGM with hits such as Anchors Aweigh, the 1946 Judy Garland vehicle The Harvey Girls, huge early 1950’s Technicolor smashes Annie Get Your Gun and Showboat, Kiss Me Kate and, post-MGM, continuing his box-office hits at Columbia with 1956’s The Eddy Dunchin Story and the following year’s screen adaptation of Pal Joey, with an ideally cast Frank Sinatra. Helming the all-star 1960 Pepe, meant to be a smash follow-up for the beloved comedian Cantinflas after his triumph in the Oscar winning blockbuster Around the World in Eighty Days, set Sidney back when the film met with a tepid critical and box office reception. However, Sidney appeared invigorated by the choice Birdie assignment, bringing flair and distinction to the carefully crafted musical sequences, and showcasing Ann-Margret to ensure she’s seen to best advantage in the excitingly mounted songs. Although some of the comic material falls flat and there are romantic complications that wear thin, Sidney keeps the action apace enough to ensure the movie doesn’t grow tiresome and, with nearly every number an enlivening winner, helps place Birdie among the better stage-to-film musicals of the period. Following this return to form, Sidney would reteam with Ann-Margret for another big hit, Viva Las Vegas, and a not-so-big hit, The Swinger, before concluding his fruitful career with 1967’s Half a Sixpence.

As Kim MacAfee, the sweet sixteen Sweet Apple, Ohio resident chosen to bestow “One Last Kiss” on Conrad before his Army departure, Ann-Margret justifies the trust Sidney places in her, exhibiting a sense of confidence, talent and love of performing that is overwhelming to watch. The vibrant star takes what could be a standard ingenue role and adds startling charisma and sensuality to the part which, along with her high-powered singing and dancing abilities, allows audiences to become enthralled by her presence, specifically in the famous opening and closing moments wherein, against a dark blue background, as Kim Ann-Margret first laments the drafting of Birdie, then seductively bids him adieu in an exuberant, mischievous fare-thee-well fashion. During these bookends, Ann-Margret performs directly to the camera with such an all-out verve for performing and emotional resonance she places the movie on another level, lingering in memory enough to later inspire a great Mad Men episode based on her unusual impact in these sequences. She also thrives in the showpiece “Livin’” number, dancing with a vigor and abandon that are eye-catching, while also displaying slyness and energy in her opening solo, “How Lovely to Be a Woman,” then bringing a more subtle skill to her plaintive trilling of “One Boy.” After her enormous breakthrough in Birdie, Ann-Margret would banter and generate electric chemistry with her most famous costar, Elvis Presley, in Viva Las Vegas, then proceed throughout the 1960s with a hit-and-miss filmography, gaining a high point via 1965’s The Cincinnati Kid as a flirty vixen opposite Steve McQueen, before reinventing herself as a dramatic star of depth and perception with Oscar-nominated work in 1971’s Carnal Knowledge, then carefully balancing her career afterwards with high voltage appearances on stage and screen (including another Oscar nom, mixing flagrancy and a touching vulnerability in 1975’s wild rock opera Tommy) with moving performances in fare such as television’s Who Will Love My Children?, in the process amassing four Golden Globes to go with her “Best Newcomer of 1962” Globe and, after six nominations, finally winning an Emmy for a 2010 episode of Law & Order: SVU.

For Dick Van Dyke, riding high at the time on television via his self-titled show, with Birdie he launched his feature film career in fitting fashion, bringing his Broadway role of hack songwriter/would be chemist Albert Peterson to the screen with the light, good-natured, boyish charm and agility that made him so easy for audiences to identify with. His earnestness is nicely matched by Janet Leigh as his Girl Friday and fiancée, Rosie. Leigh was at a career high after her legendary performance in Psycho, followed by ace work in another all-time classic, The Manchurian Candidate. Although she may not be an ideal stand-in for Chita Rivera’s acclaimed stage interpretation of Rosie, Leigh’s gifts as an instinctive screen actor, honed since her 1947 debut in MGM’s The Romance of Rosy Ridge, lends a fresh presence to the part, as the star enacts Rosie with focus and energy. She and Van Dyke work very well together, both in narrative scenes and their two numbers together, possibly the best-known standard, “Put on a Happy Face,” and their final scene, singing and dancing to Albert’s ode to his ladylove, “Rosie.” Post-Birdie, Van Dyke soon followed with his biggest screen success in Mary Poppins, then continued to thrive on film and television, while Leigh would pare back her film output as she raised a family, with Harper, The Fog and a nice, touching cameo opposite daughter Jamie Lee Curtis in 1998’s Halloween: H20 representing some of her best later-career work.

Chief among the supporting players, Paul Lynde, a hit in the Broadway production, gains some of the film’s biggest guffaws as Kim’s acerbic father, who is unnerved by the event of Conrad Birdie in Sweet Apple. Lynde’s great comic timing and colorful playing in Birdie helped set him up for a strong list of credits in film and television for the rest of the decade and beyond, including standout work on Bewitched, then major stardom as the center of Hollywood Squares, while Mary LaRoche does a nice job emulating the perfect Donna Reed-type housewife as Kim’s also-concerned mother. Maureen Stapleton is prominent as Albert’s possessive mom, getting her best moment dueting with Lynde on the amusing “Kids.” True teen idol Bobby Rydell, sporting an amazing pompadour and toothy grin, matches up well with Ann-Margret as Hugo, Kim’s boyfriend jealous of Birdie’s connection to Kim, and demonstrates the strong vocal prowess that made him such a hit on records during the early-mid 1960s during the “Livin’” number.  As the title character, Jesse Pearson captures Birdie’s egocentric nature and brings a playful liveliness to his big “Honesty Sincere” showcase and while singing his portion of “Livin’.” Playing themselves, John Daly (from What’s My Line?) and Ed Sullivan (who is paid tribute to in song) add to the merriment and help firmly set the movie’s early 1960’s sense of time-and-place.

With an April 1963 opening, Bye Bye Birdie went on to set a box office record at the Radio City Music Hall and placed in the top ten hits of the year with $6,000,000 in rentals (according to Variety). The film garnered some mixed reviews but propelled Ann-Margret, who graced the cover of Life magazine shortly before the release of Birdie, to major stardom. During awards season, both the movie and Ann-Margret would gain Golden Globe nominations in the Musical/Comedy category, while the Oscars would nominate Birdie for Best Scoring- Adaptation or Treatment (Johnny Green) and Best Sound (Charles Rice). The soundtrack also met with success, rising to #2 for two weeks on the Billboard album chart. Physical media releases, television showings, several songs becoming standards with pop cultural references in shows such as the aforementioned Mad Men, The Simpsons and Friends, and Ann-Margret’s iconic opening and closing of the film have allowed Birdie to remain among the most beloved musicals of its era, while gaining additional fans with each new generation. Those looking for a diverting, satirical musical/comedy featuring a remarkable star-making performance should ignore the title and welcome a watch of this high-flying Birdie.

Cary Grant Stylishly Treks North By Northwest in a Classic Hitchcock Romp

 

Constituting one of the most perfectly-packaged entertainments of its era, MGM’s sleek 1959 production of Northwest by Northwest provides filmgoers avid for an enthralling night at the movies the ideal venue to forgo reality and dive into a thrilling adventure guided by the masterful hand of Alfred Hitchcock. Armed with a Grade-A cast and top talent in every department, including a typically rousing score, artful editing and ace cinematography by regular Hitchcock collaborators Bernard Herrmann, George Tomasini and Robert Burks, respectfully, and a terrific original screenplay by Ernest Lehman that could serve as a blueprint for all mistaken-identity storylines featuring a charismatic hero haplessly caught in a web of intrigue and in the arms of a mysterious could-be femme fatale. Mixing a host of intoxicating elements together with great wit and clarity, Hitchcock concocts one of his classiest and most enduring capers with his exhilarating trip North by Northwest.

Nearing the end of a decade wherein he witnessed a peak period of creativeness and popularity, both in films and on television with the event of Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1955, the prodigiously talented director was surely looking for a viable commercial property to end the 1950s on a high note, after his previous, possible most personal work, Vertigo, brought in decent returns but failed to meet with the public enthusiasm granted other recent Hitchcock offerings such as Rear Window and To Catch a Thief. Lehman’s escapade-laden scenario, featuring aspects of comedy, romance and suspense, with memorably-drawn characters, both of noble and disreputable inclinations, gave Hitchcock ample material to work up some of his most lasting imagery onscreen, while also taking care of his famous cameo appearance more swiftly than, but as amusingly as in any other of his films. The film’s other wealth of assets exciting, including superlatively staged set pieces, specifically the famous crop duster sequence and imperiling Mount Rushmore finale, allows a top-of-his-game Hitchcock to display all of his formidable skills, once again proving his fully warranted “Master of Suspense” title in the process.

Cary Grant slips into the role of Roger Thornhill, the beleaguered advertising executive unwittingly drawn into the central plot surrounding the enigmatic “George Kaplan,” with apparently effortless class and charm. Grant, at the peak of his abilities and star charisma after over twenty years as a top male draw in such classic films as The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday and three previous Hitchcock outings, confidently depicts Roger’s mounting confusion and desperate attempts to avoid run-ins with said crop duster and other adversaries with the skill of a screen veteran who knows how to make his character’s every move come across as persuasive and relatable to audiences. In one of his best moments, Grant deftly maneuvers through a sequence wherein a drunken Roger deals with an out-of-control car, then the police, with a perfect blend of comic deftness and believability, not once making the bit come across as hokey. Judiciously utilizing his acute acting skill, Grant makes Roger a simultaneously cool and affable hero one is drawn to from the first frame to last, allowing a viewer to except all the improbable circumstances he becomes embroiled in, while enjoying every minute of watching how Thornhill/Grant will attempt to escape from his latest dangerous obstacle.

Northwest represented a change-of-pace for lovely, talented Eva Marie Saint, playing the alluring Eve Kendall, who seductively meets Roger on a train and quickly trysts with him, before plot entanglements reveal deeper motives on Eve’s part. Starting in television and on the stage in the late 1940s Saint, in a manner apropos to her surname, established herself as a moralistic, dramatic heroine of rare persuasion in films with her Oscar-winning debut in 1954’s On the Waterfront, and continued in this vein via Raintree County and riveting work in A Hatful of Rain. Hitchcock, deploying Saint as his latest enticing blonde, allows the star a chance to add glamour and some morally ambiguous shadings to allow Eve to attract a viewer’s interest from her first run-in with Roger as strangers on a train, a meeting that works out as stimulatingly as in an earlier Hitchcock classic. Saint appears to be relishing playing opposite Grant, especially in their romantic moments, including some clever, suggestive banter, while also using her strong dramatic gifts to later vividly show the turmoil Eve feels entrapped in as plot complications thicken and Eve is caught up with Grant between Mount Rushmore and a hard place. Saint would remain a foremost leading lady in films throughout the 1960s, starring in top offerings such as Exodus, Grand Prix and The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, while carefully balancing a fruitful career with alternate roles as wife and mother, then continue to work in films and one television, gaining an Emmy in the process. North would join Waterfront as one of the bona fide seminal works in her filmography, with Saint honoring these and other quality films on her resume by serving as an unofficial ambassador for classic movies, appearing in the L.A. area frequently to offer wonderful interviews to rapt audiences, wherein she discussed her involvement with specific films being screened, and her fascinating career in general.

As Roger’s chief North adversary, Phillip Vandamm, James Mason imbues the role with a calm, disarming self-satisfaction that marks him a perfect dastardly counterpoint to Grant’s smooth playing in heroic mode. Mason was having a fine run in the 1950s, scoring with portrayals of difficult, morose men facing serious conflicts, specifically as a Norman Maine and Captain Nemo for the ages in his incredible 1954 one-two punch of A Star is Born and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and in possibly the decade’s most surprising and harrowing suburban drama, Bigger Than Life, playing a teacher and family man who gets hooked on cortisone and goes berserk. Playing an outright villain in North, Mason is clearly in his element and appears to be having a lot of fun in the part, taunting Thornhill with a relaxed dexterity that indicates Vandamm is so assured a rogue that any explanation Roger offers Philip concerning who he is will be simply dismissed. With Mason’s firm grasp of the role, one believes Philip will gain his objectives by any means necessary, however macabre they may be, not minding and even enjoying it if a murder or two comes into play. Post-North, Mason would close out the decade with the vastly enjoyable sci-fi smash Journey to the Center of the Earth, then find later-career success in character parts, specifically with his wonderful work as Humbert Humbert in Lolita and Oscar nominations for Georgy Girl and The Verdict.

Jessie Royce Landis, returning to Hitchcock and Grant with aplomb after her success in Thief, steals several moments with her florid portrayal of Roger’s non-nonsense, wry mother, Clara. With her sly retorts and exasperation at her son’s seemingly far-fetched but true claims someone is trying to kill him, Landis’ and her killer comic timing prove North highlights during her brief appearances, making one wish for a follow-up film featuring Roger going South by Southwest with mother in tow. Martin Landau, in one of his key early roles, utilizes an icy blue-eyed gaze to great effect as Leonard, Vandamm’s ultra-loyal key henchman, artfully suggesting just how deep Leonard’s affection for his boss might go, during a period wherein the Production Code frowned on any hint of homosexuality on screen. Hitchcock regular Leo G. Carroll once again lends his urbane presence as a contact aiding Roger as he tries to figure out which way is up as he traverses throughout the film’s title. In other roles, Les Tremayne and his rich vocal tones are perfectly cast as the auctioneer perplexed by Roger’s unusual bidding technique, Josephine Hutchinson makes a strong, eerie impression early on as the duplicitous “Mrs. Townsend” and several other familiar character actors, including Edward Binns, Philip Ober, Edeward Platt, Maudie Prickett and Adam Williams also rate notice in small roles.

Upon its release in July of 1959, North by Northwest indeed proved to be quintessential summertime fare for patrons eager to take in Hitchcock’s latest tension-addled adventure, but one blessed with a light touch. At the box-office, the movie earned a hefty $5,250,000 in initial rentals (according to Variety), placing it among the top ten hits of the year. Critically the film also found favor, with many praising it as one of Hitchcock’s most ingenious and entertaining offerings, helping North to place on both The New York Times and the National Board of Review lists of the year’s top ten movies, while Hitchcock and Lehman also were mentioned by the Director’s and Writer’s Guild branches, respectively. At the Oscars, North would garner Lehman one of the more deserved nominations for Best Original Screenplay, along with nods for Best Art Direction and Tomasini’s editing, with Grant, alas, once again being overlook for one of his most indelible performances and Hitchcock also missing out on a warranted place among the top five. Time has only increased the appraisal of and public adoration for the film, with North growing a strong fanbase via television showings and various physical media releases, including a new 4K release featuring a pristine print of the movie. Those interested in seeing one of Hitchcock’s liveliest diversions featuring Grant at his suave best will find an irresistible venture awaits them with a journey North by Northwest.

And a fond farewell to Richard Chamberlain, who passed away March 29^th at age 90. Although the handsome, skillful and serene actor built a nice big screen filmography over the course of his esteemed career, including Petulia, The Three (and Four) Musketeers, The Towering Inferno (in a nice against-type turn as a villain) and The Last Wave, it was in television that Chamberlain sealed his superstardom, first during his 1961-66 run as heartthrob Dr. Kildare, with his fame carrying over to a top ten hit on the Billboard charts via his rendition of the show’s theme song, then a huge career boost in the 1980s as the “King of the Mini-Series” with the invent of Shõgun and an even bigger blockbuster, 1983's The Thorn Birds, both of which brough him Golden Globe awards and Emmy nominations. Chamberlain would continue in films and t.v., ending his television endeavors on a high note in 2017 via David Lynch’s Twin Peaks update. With his 2003 autobiography, Chamberlain also came out, in doing so exhibiting the same class, charm and intelligence that were integral aspects of his signature roles. Rest in peace to a fine talent, Richard Chamberlain.