Modern Screen (Feb-Dec 1959)

by florence epstein BLUE DENIM Carol Lynley Brandon de Wilde teenage drama MacDonald Carey Marsha Hunt Warren Berlinger ■ When a nice teenage girl meets a nice teenage boy they usually go steady, but it is devoutly to be wished that the girl doesn't get pregnant. This is putting very bluntly a problem that Blue Denim explores with the greatest taste and sensitivity. Carol Lynley, daughter of a college professor who is lost in the memory of his dead wife, and Brandon de Wilde, son of a flighty but lovable mother (Marsha Hunt) and a stern, ex-Major of a father ( MacDonald Carey), are the kids whose first experience with romance leads very close to disaster. Why does a good girl get into trouble? How much blame rests with the parents? (In this case Brandon's parents are too busy marrying off their daughter to sit down and talk to him.) These are a couple of the questions dramatically — and suspensefully — presented. Warren Berlinger, as Brandon's show-off buddy, adds vitality and flavor to the film. — 20th-Fox. PILLOW TALK Doris Day Rock Hudson sophisticated comedy Jj"lv RfLnd,a" a Thelma Ritter Nick Adams ■ Doris Day — sleek in high-fashion clothes and a career girl's apartment — has everything, except a husband and a private phone. She doesn't want a husband, but she needs the phone to speak to her clients (she's an interior decorator). Sharing her party line is the biggest wolf in New York, songwriter Rock Hudson. Any illusions Doris ever had about men he's destroyed forever. Standing by (with the aid of a psychoanalyst) is thricemarried Tony Randall who wants to restore Doris' illusions. He wants to be married four times; he can afford it. Tony is Rock's best friend. Rock wants to be Doris' best friend. The only way he can try his line (wolf) on her is by assuming a phony accent (Western), a false name and a bashful personality. When the line works he's really in trouble. The dialogue's bright and clever; Thelma Ritter (as Doris' part-time maid) adds her usual hilarity — it's all great fun. — Technicolor, tJ-I. A PRIVATE'S AFFAIR Sal Mineo Gary Crosby basic traininq — for war9 . JL.BarIly Coe " ' Christine Carere Terry Moore ■ Think of it. All in one army camp in New Jersey are jazzman Sal Mineo, playboy Gary Crosby and college grad Barry Coe. Also Robert Denver who has a tape recorder on which he records commands. (Naturally, when the platoon commander commands, everybody thinks it's the tape recorder and winds up on K.P.) But our three heroes also record a song which Jim Backus, TV's greatest emcee, hears. Backus plans to put them on his all-soldier show. This makes their girlfriends very proud. The girls are Christine Carere (Sal's next-door neighbor who, Sal thinks, is too intellectual) ; Terry Moore (Barry's childhood friend who, Sal thinks, has 'class') and Barbara Eden (a WAC sergeant who knows how to keep Crosby in line). Everything would be hunky-dory if Barry didn't go and get himself married to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Jessie Royce Landis). You see, he is in the post hospital with laryngitis and is mistaken for a little girl's dying father. Jessie has decided to marry the man so that she can keep the little girl in the States — otherwise she would be sent to an orphanage in the Netherlands. Barry's asleep during the ceremony but when he wakes up he's so upset he loses his voice again. Before that TV show gets on the air, and Barry gets his freedom, and Jessie gets custody of the girl and true love gets a chance to flower {Continued on page 14) Carol Lynley, as the good girl, is in trouble and frightened. Brandon de Wilde, as the good boy, would like to help, but he's weak and frightened too. His friend, tough, wise-cracking Warren Berlinger, thinks he has the solution to the problem..