Movies with Alabama Connections: Odds Against Tomorrow

Released in 1959, Odds Against Tomorrow is often cited as one of the last entries of

film noir's classic period that began in the late 1930's. Harry Belafonte, Ed Begley,
Jr. and Robert Ryan star in this dark and gritty piece about a small town bank
robbery. Shelley Winters and Gloria Grahame are also in the cast. 

In addition to that great cast and a tight story, the film has a couple of other pluses.
There's a side conflict between Ryan's racist character and Belafonte that adds
even more tension as the plot unfolds. Odds also has a wonderful musical score
written by pianist John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet. In addition to band mates
Percy Heath [bass], Milt Jackson [vibraphone], and Connie Kay [drums], the
orchestration includes the fabulous Bill Evans on piano and Jim Hall on guitar.

The MJQ released a soundtrack album the same year.

This film has a possible Alabama connection and another certain one. The novel
that started it all by William P. McGovern was first published in 1957. I've
explored McGivern's supposed Mobile connections in a blog post. 

The other Alabama connection appears about midway through the movie. Robert
Ryan goes into a bar for a drink, and a soldier and his girl are horsing around. Ryan
takes offense and the final result is a fight in which the soldier ends up on the floor.
The soldier is played by none other than Wayne Rogers. 

He was born in Birmingham on April 7, 1933. After graduating from Princeton and a
stint in the Navy, Rogers began appearing in small roles in Hollywood. His debut was
auspicious, although credited only as a main character's "tennis opponent" in the
Alfred Hitchcock classic 1951 Strangers on a Train. His IMDB credits show a gap until
1959, when he made appearances on the TV soap opera Search for Tomorrow and
as that guy in the bar in Odds. In the 1960's he had numerous roles in TV shows
ranging from Have Gun Will Travel to Gunsmoke and Honey West. He even appeared
with fellow Alabama native Jim Nabors on Gomer Pyle USMC. 

Of course, Rogers went on to great fame in the popular M*A*S*H TV show where 
he was a regular for three seasons 1972-1975. He continued acting in
films and TV movies and shows until 2003. In one of those roles he played Alabama
native and attorney Morris Dees in the 1996 film Ghosts of Mississippi. 

Rogers died on New Year's Eve 2015.

Here are the three leads: Harry Belafonte, Ed Begley, Sr., and Robert Ryan

Robert Ryan and Wayne Rogers are about to mix it up in the bar scene.

Movies with Alabama Connections: The Revolt of Mamie Stover

One of two films Jane Russell made in 1956 was The Revolt of Mamie Stover, which has an Alabama connection. Let's investigate.

In 1941 Leesburg Mississippi, native Mamie is working as a prostitute in San Francisco. Authorities tell her to leave the city, so she boards a freighter for Honolulu. The only other passenger is Jim Blair [Richard Egan], a writer. They fall in love, but part ways when the ship docks and Jim's sweetheart meets him. Mamie goes to work at The Bungalow, a dance hall, quickly becoming the star attraction. She and Jim renew their relationship until the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Jim joins the army. Meanwhile, Mamie begins buying up real estate from residents returning to the mainland and gets rich selling it to the military. She and Jim meet again, but things don't work out, and as the film ends Mamie is returning to Mississippi.

Marilyn Monroe was first choice to play Mamie Stover, but that didn't work out. She was in the midst of contract negotiations with the studio, 20th Century Fox, at the time and turning down many properties offered to her as a bargaining ploy. I enjoyed the film with Russell, but would have really like to see Monroe in the role. 

Russell handled the hard-bitten aspects of her role pretty well. Mamie tells her story of origins in abject poverty to Blair right away, and as we learn that drives her behavior. She wants to get rich, go back to Leesburg and lord it over all the people who looked down on her and her family. She does get rich, but loses Blair in the end. Apparently, if we go by the ending, she gives it all away before returning to her roots. 

The film is based on the 1951 novel of the same name by William Bradford Huie, born in Hartselle on November 13, 1910. Over his long career Huie wrote numerous novels, non-fiction books and short stories and articles for magazines. Among his best-known works of non-fiction is The Execution of Private Slovik about the only American soldier executed for desertion during the Second World War. By the time he died on November 20, 1986, he had been living back in Alabama for several decades. He is buried in Hartselle, where the public library was renamed in his honor.

Huie served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and his experiences influenced three of his novels. The first was Mamie Stover, followed by The Americanization of Emily in 1959 and then Hotel Mamie Stover in 1963. Americanization was filmed in 1964 with Julie Andrews and James Garner. All three novels have the same narrator.

Some changes were made in the first novel's story on its way to the screen. Mamie left Mississippi for Hollywood to become and actress, but ends up as a prostitute there before leaving for Hawaii. The location was probably changed to San Francisco because the screen version dropped Huie's criticisms of Hollywood. One thing unchanged is Mamie's relentless pursuit of war profiteering. Her poverty-stricken childhood in Mississippi left her with only one desire--to make money. 

Agnes Moorehead [almost unrecognizable as a bleached blonde!] plays Bertha Parchman, the crusty owner of The Bungalow. I've written about her 1973 visit to Birmingham here. 

Jonathan Yardley, long time book critic for The Washington Post, published an appreciation of Huie and his Mamie Stover novel in 2006. 

Sydney Boehm [1908-1990] was a screenwriter and producer whose career in Hollywood began in 1944 and extended until 1967. 

I think we can conclude Jane looks fabulous in the film, although she does spend most of it with red hair as "Flaming Mamie". 

Money comes between the lovers literally and figuratively. 

This paperback edition from Signet was published in 1964.

This first hardback edition had a somewhat less exciting cover than the paperback.

This inscription appears in my copy of the first edition. 

William Bradford Huie [1910-1986]

Movies with Alabama Connections: Rebel in Town

This post is another in a long running series on this blog that examines films with some sort of connection to Alabama. Up this time is a 1956 western, Rebel in Town, starring John Payne and Ruth Roman. Also in the cast are J. Carrol Naish, Ben Johnson and John Smith.  

Payne plays John Willoughby, a Union veteran now living in the small western town Kittreck Wells with his wife Nora (Ruth Roman) and young son Petey. The local marshal asks for John's help in tracking down a band of Confederate veterans who are responsible for a robbery in a nearby town. Since he has a grudge against all rebels, John agrees to go despite pleas from Nora to stay. 

The robbers, a father and his four sons, are actually camped near Kittreck Wells and running low on water. Patriarch Bedloe Mason sends Wesley, Gray and Frank into town and remains behind with Cain. Nora and Petey are in town for his birthday party, and Petey remains outside while his mother goes inside one of the buildings to help prepare. Petey dislikes Confederates as much as his father, and has a cap pistol he fires at the trio while their backs are turned. Wesley whirls around, pulling his gun and shooting the boy before he realizes what has happened. 

Naturally the trio head quickly back to camp, where events escalate even further. Gray feels Wesley should return to town and face the consequences; everyone else disagrees. When he takes off for town to see if Petey is actually dead, Wesley follows him, stabs him in the back, ties him to his horse and sends what he assumes is a dead body on its way. When he returns to camp he claims Gray is determined to head into town, and will meet them in another location in three days. 

After Petey's funeral a posse heads out to find the killer, but they refuse to take the distraught Willoughby. He sets out on his own and soon finds Gray on the horse. He takes the young man home, and he and Nora begin to nurse him back to health. They slowly learn the story of his involvement in the gang, and an eyewitness claims Gray killed Petey. Mason has finally learned the truth himself and rides into town with his other sons just as vigilantes seize Gray to hang him. Wesley's guilt is soon known to all, and as he tries to escape John arrives to fight with and then kill him.  

More comments are below some of the photos. 

The film was released on July 30, 1956, and is 78 minutes long. Blogger Randy Johnson commented on this film in a January 2, 2012 post. 

Many southerners left their devastated homeland after the Civil War and headed west to join a general westward migration also underway. One spot was Texas, which had a population of just 200,000 in 1850 and 1,600,000 by 1880. Others headed south, especially to Mexico and Brazil. 

Danny Arnold had a long entertainment career as comedian, actor, writer, director and producer of successful television show like Barney Miller, That Girl and Bewitched. He was born in New York City and spent much of his life in Hollywood. This film was the next-to-last directed by Alfred L. Werker, who doesn't seem to have had any Southern U. S. connections either. 

Gray, Wesley and Frank Mason ride into town just looking for water. Gray was played by Ben Cooper; see below for more info on his career. John Smith played Wesley; he acted in many films and on television including lead roles in Cimarron City and Laramie. Ben Johnson worked as a stunt man, rodeo champion and actor in numerous films and TV shows that were mostly westerns. He won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show.   

By the time this film was released, Roman had been acting in Hollywood for a decade and her career in film and television would continue until 1982. Payne starred in a number of crime thrillers, westerns and more and the television series The Restless Gun. He was the male lead in one of my favorite movies, the original Miracle on 34th Street.  

As the Mason family sits around their campfire after Petey's death and funeral, patriarch Bedloe Mason reminisces about the fine parlor they once had in their house [back in Alabama] and how he raised his sons to be gentlemen even if they weren't high society. Then he acknowledges all the death and destruction of the war...

J. Carol Naish was also a veteran actor with eventually more than 200 credits in his long film and television career. He received two nominations for best supporting actor Academy Awards. 

"I haven't been around here very long, I'm from Alabama", Gray says to Willoughby after he brings him home. Petey's father found him unconscious & tied to a horse after brother Wesley stabbed him. The actor playing Gray was Ben Cooper, who appeared in a number of film and television westerns 

"Our patient's from Alabama, Nora" John tells Nora. "I know", she replies. A few moments later in the conversation Payne notes that Alabama is a long way off, and the patient agrees.

Gray Mason is the youngest of the sons, & the one who wanted to return to town to see if Petey had been killed. He is thus the "rebel in town". He served as a Lieutenant in Murphy's Alabama battalion, as identified by the sheriff who thinks he may be one of the bandits that recently robbed the bank in White Springs.

Murphy's battalion was a real Confederate cavalry unit in the Civil War; three Alabama men named Mason were part of it. 

At the end of the film Gray is led away to face the consequences of his family's robbing ways. He tells the little girl Elizabeth who saw Petey shot that "I come from a long way from here, Liz, a place called Alabama". 

Movies with Alabama Connections: The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead is a 1949 film based on a 1943 novel of that name by Ayn Rand. The story follows Howard Roark, a young genius architect who cannot find a job because he refuses to design buildings that would compromise his modernist vision. You can watch the film or read the 753-page novel or both if you wish to get further details. My interest is limited to the Alabama connection. 

Socialite and newspaper columnist Dominique Francon and architect-turned manual-laborer Howard Roark meet in a marble quarry in Connecticut. No, really. She has Roark brought to her bedroom to discuss replacing the white marble hearth she has defaced so it would need repair. 

Francon and Roark engage in a long conversation in which Roark describes the geology of marble and the different kinds. Talking about the hearth, he says, “This is pure white marble. You should be very careful Mrs. Francon to accept nothing but a stone of the same quality. This is Alabama marble. Very high grade and very hard to find.” 

Since Rand also wrote the film's screenplay, I presume some version of this conversation appears in the novel. By the time of its publication, white marble from Sylacauga had acquired an international reputation. A physician, Edward Gantt, had noticed deposits in 1814 as he came through what is now the Sylacauga area with Andrew Jackson's army. He returned in 1834, bought land and established a quarry. The Alabama industry has grown from that beginning.

Italian sculptor Giuseppe Moretti discovered the marble when he came to Alabama to create his famous iron Vulcan statue. He set up a studio in Sylacauga and began sculpting in the white Sylacauga stone. Over the decades the marble has been used in numerous public buildings, such as the Lincoln Memorial and U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., and various banks, city halls, U.S. post offices, etc, around the country.  

Patricia Neal as Francon and Gary Cooper as Roark begin their discussion of marble.

Roark leaves the old pieces of  Alabama marble stacked for removal.

The new hearth pieces--presumably also Alabama marble--await installation.

A marble quarry near Sylacauga in 1935

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

A marble finishing operation on Sylacauga in the 1930's 

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Birmingham Photos of the Day (73): Stay Hungry

In the summer of 1975 a group of bodybuilders including Arnold Schwarzenegger descended on Birmingham. Their mission? To appear in Stay Hungry, a film directed by Bob Rafelson with a script by Charles Gaines based on his 1972 novel. Gaines's family had moved to the city in the early 1950's when he was ten. He later earned a bachelor's degree at Birmingham-Southern. Stay Hungry was his first novel and set in the city's bodybuilding culture. You can read details of the plot here. 

The film's two leads are played by Jeff Bridges and Sally Field, who would return to Alabama in a few years to film Norma Rae in Opelika. Several other notable actors and individuals appear in the large cast. Included are two Alabama natives, R.G. Armstrong [Pleasant Grove] and Fannie Flagg [Birmingham]. Musician and actor Scatman Crothers would later appear in The Shining, Stanley kubirck's film of the Stephen King novel. Beginning in 1984 Robert Englund became famous as Freddy Kreuger in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. Roger Mosely is probably best known as the helicopter pilot T.C. in the original Magnum, P.I. television series. Joanna Cassidy has acted in numerous films, including 1982's Blade Runner as one of the replicants. Richard Gilliland has had a long career in film and television. So has Ed Begley, Jr.; one of his best known roles is probably a surgeon in the wonderful St. Elsewhere series [1982-1988].

Notables also appear uncredited. Bodybuilders Robby Robinson, Ken Waller & Ed Corney, one of Schwarzenegger's training partners make appearances. Janelle Kirtley was a Birmingham native, world champion water skier, and Sally Field's ski trainer for the film.

The photos below were taken in Birmingham during the filming of Stay Hungry. Many more can be seen here.

Bodybuilder lifting a man over his head 

Photo by Edouard Bruchac for the Birmingham News 

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

Arnold and another bodybuilder in a gym

Photo by Charles Nesbitt for the Birmingham News 

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

Arnold and two other men at the gym

Photo by Charles Nesbitt for the Birmingham News

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

Bodybuilders running past Boutwell Auditorium

Photo by Ed Jones for the Birmingham News 

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

Bodybuilders running through what was then known as Woodrow Wilson Park, now Linn Park

Photo by Ed Jones for the Birmingham News

Source: Alabama Mosaic

Bodybuilders atop a bus on June 27, 1975

Photo by Edouard Bruchac for the Birmingham News 

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

Arnold during an interview at the Guest House Motor Inn

Photo by Charles Nesbitt for the Birmingham News 

Source: Alabama Mosaic 

Yes, Arnold plays the fiddle in this film

Source: Apocalypse Later film blog, which has an excellent review

Yes, like many of the rest of us, Sally Field and Jeff Bridges were once really this young.

Source: AllPosters 

Johnny Mack Brown & "A Lady of Chance" (5)

This post is the fifth and final part of a look at A Lady of Chance, the 1928 silent film starring Johnny Mack Brown and Norma Shearer. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here and part four is here.

My comments on the film are at the end of this post. 

Once the police arrive and take Gwen and Brad into custody, Dolly confesses everything and begs forgiveness. 

Steve doesn't want to give her up, but Dolly says he needs a "nice girl."

The police are ready to break up the love birds and take "Angel Face" to jail. 

Dolly and Steve share a final kiss. 

Some time later Dolly is brought into a meeting room in the prison. 

Dolly is suddenly hopeful. Not only will she be freed, but Steve still loves her. 

So this tale of the big city con woman and the Alabama small businessman ends happily!

Brown in his football days at UA

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

A comic book series featuring Brown appeared in nine issues from October 1950 until September 1952.

Source: ComicBookPlus

I really enjoyed watching A Lady of Chance; the film showed up on Turner Classic Movies a few months ago. I've seen a number of silent films over the years, so watching this one was nothing unusual. Shearer and Brown were both excellent in their roles, although Shearer was obviously the more experienced actor. Brown's inexperience worked fine for the earnest, humble character he played. I haven't seen many of Shearer's films, but she is a delight to watch in this one. The film has both humor and genuine emotion and despite its flaws an interesting story. 

Watching silent films and other older movies set in the period they were made allows us to enter another world--the past. Although fictionalized, the films are time capsules of the minutia of daily life at the time--cars and other transportation, clothing, furniture, the way people related to each other. We get to peer inside businesses and dentist offices, operating rooms, and people's homes. The experience brings plenty of visual delights and exciting stories if we leave behind our modern film expectations of rapid action, lots of special effects, and color. Silent films had all those things, but not in the quantity of today's movies.

Historical dramas from these early periods of commercial film can also be fascinating to watch. We can see another era's views of historical figures and events made for a popular audience. That's something we could only get from fiction and poetry before the movies came along.

A good place to start on the silents is the Movies Silently blog. And TCM is a constant source of riches on both silent and "classic" movies and even the shorts that filled out programs at early movie houses. 

The End