Another of the movies that was new to me when I saw it pop up in the FXM schedule was Hilda Crane. It's got its next airing tomorrow, Aug. 25, at 6:00 AM, so I sat down to watch it and do a review on it here.
Jean Simmons plays Hilda Crane, who at the start of the movie is returning to her home town of Winona, one of those small towns with a liberal arts college that dot the landscape of Hollywood movies during the studio era. (The University of Nevada in Reno was used for the college scenes but the movie doesn't otherwise mention where Winona is.) Hilda had spent some time in New York, where she wasn't much of a success, having been married and divorced twice and losing her job because she didn't have what it takes. So now she's coming home to mother (Judith Evelyn).
Not long after getting home, Hilda gets a letter from Russell Burns (Guy Madison). The two had been friends before Hilda went off to college. Both of their fathers died relatively young, and while the Cranes are modestly comfortable, the Burnses are the town's wealthiest family, thanks to Russell's mother (Evelyn Varden) having worked her ass off to get to this point. Russell is not big in the construction business in town, although you wonder how big the business could possibly be considering the size of the town.
In that letter was a marriage proposal from Russell to Hilda. However, Mrs. Burns absolutely doesn't want Russell getting married to Hilda. Or, frankly, to anybody. Mrs. Burns is convinced that the only possible reason a woman could be interested in her son is because he's got money now, and she's trying, she thinks, to prevent Russell from making a bad decision. Hilda, for her part, wasn't certain she wanted to marry Russell. She's made a mess of her life and knows that she isn't exactly a good girl. She also thinks about one of her old college professors, Jacques de Lisle (Jean-Pierre Aumont). Jacques is working on a novel which if it were successful would certainly pay more than being a backwater liberal arts professor, even though all the students seem to love him. He knows Hilda has been to New York, and wants the excitement.
Eventually, Mrs. Burns henpecks the Cranes so much that Hilda decides she's going to get married to Russell just to spite nasty Mrs. Burns. Mrs. Burns says not to do this to her because she's got a bad heart, and starts play-acting the put-upon dying mother. Except that it turns out she really does have a bad heart that even her doctor didn't know about, and she drops dead on the day Hilda and Russell get married.
The ghost of Mrs. Burns hangs over Hilda and Russell's relationship, and Hilda responds by becoming one of those heavy day-drinkers that populated 1950s potboilers, the sort who would use the word "tight" to describe the fact that they've gotten drunk. That's bad enough, but then Prof. de Lisle returns from New York with his book having been somewhat of a success.
Hilda Crane is a silly little potboiler, and frankly a minor one in the cycle of potboilers. Simmons is the one big star (by Hollywood standards) here, and she's not really right for the Crane role, or any potboiler if you ask me. Guy Madison is bland, and when I see Aumont romancing Simmons, I can't help but think of Mahogany 20 years later and an older Aumont going after Diana Ross. Evelyn Varden, however, is a hoot, tremendously overacting the guilt-tripping mother from hell. It's too bad her character has to die halfway through the movie.
If you want some unmemorable unintentional comedy, Hilda Crane isn't a bad choice for that. If you want a quality movie, look elsewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment