Continuing on in this monthly discussion, here comes another actor I never expected to see as a director: Paul Henreid. Thats right folks, the same man who made smoking two cigarettes at the same time in Now, Voyager (1942) look cool and who was freedom fighter Victor Lazlo in Casablanca (1942) actually went behind the camera 6 times and directed and acted in some very unique pieces, and yet again I havent gotten a chance to see either of them (again once summer rolls around Id better track these down and watch them) so Im going to explain them a little bit. The first film Paul got to direct (as well as star in) was a 1952 film called For Men Only. The plot involves the study of fraternity hazing that gets out of hand on a college campus, so yeah sounds like a precursor to all those famous college films that would appear in the Modern Movie Era. Next came A Womans Devotion from 1956, which involves artist Trevor Stevenson (Ralph Meeker), an emotionally scarred World War II veteran, is on honeymoon in Acapulco with his bride Stella (Janice Rule). Shortly after their arrival, two women are murdered. The audience is presented with clues pointing to Trevors guilt or innocence depending upon ones point-of-view. Guess how that turns out. Two years later in 1958, Henreid directed (but didnt star in) a film titled Live Fast, Die Young. Two sisters, Kim Winters (Mary Murphy) and Jill Winters (Norma Eberhardt) run away for their home and school, escape to the city, and become criminals and jewelry thieves. Has gained a cult following over the years, but it didnt do really well when it came out and was one of Henreids lesser efforts as a director. Another film that was released in 1958 that Henried directed was Girls on the Loose, which involved an all-female gang of thieves falling out after pulling off a $200,000 payroll robbery. Again like the former one, it didnt do well when it came out, and Paul Henried focused on directing television episodes once the 1960s rolled around. Then in 1964, Henried directed his friend Bette Davis in the cult classic Dead Ringer (sometimes mistakenly called a remake of A Stolen Life from 1946, which also had Bette Davis playing twin sisters). At the funeral of her husband Frank, wealthy widow Margaret DeLorca (Bette Davis), meets up with her twin sister, downcast Edith Phillips (also played by Davis), from whom she has been estranged for 18 years. The two return to DeLorcas opulent mansion, where the two argue about their falling out over Margarets marriage to DeLorca, who originally courted Edith but had an affair with Margaret. Margaret had told Frank she was pregnant and forced him into marriage. However, Edith finds out from Margarets chauffeur (George Chandler) that Margaret was never pregnant, and becomes resentful. This film has some great cinematography (in fact this was the final film of cinematographer Ernest Haller) and camera angles due to what Henried wanted to show in this film, so everyone considers this to be Henrieds best directorial effort (but again some people didnt like the film so Im not going to hold a grudge against those who dislike it). Finally in 1964 Paul Henried directed his last film Ballad in Blue, starring Ray Charles. In a way it almost reminds me of Clint Eastwoods film Bird (1988) but its an entirely different film due to its plot and characters. Paul would appear in Operation Crossbow (1965), his last film as an actor (in Classic Movie Era terms) and later directed a whole bunch of television episodes up until his passing in 1992. Henried was a very interesting choice to be found on this list because, again, I didnt expect to see him go behind the camera and direct some films that were all met with mixed reception and box office revenue (well maybe except for Dead Ringer). I personally find it fascinating to find actors I know from movies going behind the camera and try their hands at directing, and in the case of Paul Henried, he seemed to know what he wanted to do in his career and actaully churned out some fascinating artifacts for all us film buffs to discover. Tune in tomorrow where Ill post two more actors that youd never expect to see behind the camera and made a film(s) during their careers in the Classic Movie Era.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 00:31:55 +0000
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