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Friday, November 3, 2017

JULIE (1956)

After brilliantly playing the suspense/terror card for Alfred Hitchcock in THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH/’56, Doris Day hit replay for husband Martin Melcher in his producing debut on this OTT thriller.*  ‘Suspense That Never Lets Up,’ per Ad Copy & trailer, from indie writer/director Andrew Stone, creating an instant problem since the film opens at such a fever pitch, he leaves himself no place to go but ludicrous, piling one terror trope after another on tormented Day.   You see, it’s her insanely possessive Husband Number Two, piano-playing psychopath Louis Jourdan, embracing the role. He’s already killed hubby Number One, making it look like suicide; and when Day learns the truth, she’s instantly next up.  Yikes!  And nothing, not even old pal Barry Sullivan, homicide cop Frank Lovejoy or passage as ‘air hostess’ on a pilotless Douglas DC-6 passenger plane, will keep this murdering creep away.  (Guess who winds up piloting that plane.) Stone, along with co-producer/editor wife Virginia, had a talent for big suspense on small budgets, but his blunt approach to characterization & interaction comes off as ridiculously over-scaled, especially with Day’s constant voice-over explanations of plot & motivation. Things improve once he drops the narration in the last act. But by then Doris is about to board her flight-of-doom, and things go a little nuts. Fun, but nuts.

DOUBLE-BILL/ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: There's a similar ending in AIRPORT 1975/’74, the one with Karen Black taking the controls. But note how much better F/X tech work is here. Typical of the shoddy production standards @ ‘70s Universal under ‘Last Hollywood Mogul’ Lew Wasserman, especially with a hack like Jack Smight megging.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Day's husband, Martin Melcher, must have been some piece of work. Signing her up for most of her lousy late films without telling her (including her relatively successful, but painful tv series) while losing much of her fortune thru bad investments.

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