Tag Archives: Jane Wyman

1962 Films, Comedy, Deborah Walley, Disney, Fred MacMurray, James Neilson, Jane Wyman, Jessie Royce Landis, Kevin Corcoran, Michael Callan, Tommy Kirk

Bon Voyage!-1962

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Bon Voyage! -1962

Director James Neilsen

Starring Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman

Scott’s Film Review #1,508

Reviewed January 8, 2026

Grade: B

James Neilson, known for directing both film and television and well-versed in the Walt Disney vibe, having worked throughout the 1960s on the television series Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, provides fans of European travel with a feast of locale riches.

He offers Bon Voyage! (1962), an entertaining family adventure that multi-generations can enjoy.

Paris is the primary setting with the Eeifel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and Notre Dame prominently featured. Still, London, the French Riviera, and snippets of New York City are also featured.

Watching the film decades after 1962 is a pure delight, seeing how outfits, people, and landmarks have changed over the years.

This is the obvious highlight for me, though the dynamic between the Willards is fun in a lighthearted way, seesawing between comedy and sentimentality.

At times, the comedy is more bafoonish than laugh-out-loud, and the sequences more plot-driven than believable.

Nonetheless, the chemistry between the actors is prominent, and the story is wholesome and predictable, culminating in a feel-good experience.

After twenty years of marriage, Terre Haute, Indiana, plumber Harry Willard (Fred MacMurray) finally makes good on his promise to take his wife, Katie, played by Jane Wyman (ex-wife of United States President Ronald Reagan), on a luxurious cruise to Europe.

Hardly a honeymoon; they are accompanied by their brood: nineteen-year-old son, Elliott (Tommy Kirk), eighteen-year-old daughter, Amy (Deborah Walley), and eleven-year-old son, Skipper (Kevin Corcoran).

From the moment the group arrives at the dock by taxi cab, the bumbling Harry nearly loses the passports, and an unending series of mishaps ensues, including Amy’s romantic entanglement with handsome, wealthy Nick (Michael Callan), a sewer adventure, and a passionate Hungarian man pursuing Katie.

The film experiences highs and lows throughout.

Is Nick meant to be a disliked character? He’s actually my favorite character, except maybe for Harry, and is written quite daringly for the early 1960s, with him fervently questioning marriage and other institutions.

He ultimately disregards his wealth and decides to relocate to New York to forge a career without his family’s wealth or expectations, much to his mother, the contessa’s (Jessie Royce Landis), chagrin.

However, I could have done with more than one scene from the fabulous Landis, best known for Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief (1955) and North by Northwest (1959), in which she also plays interesting mothers.

Though she steals her lone scene as she drips with jewels, a gorgeous dress, and struts around her lavish party, exclaiming ‘dahling’ whenever she can, we never get enough of her fabulous antics.

Still, Nick seems to be the only character with a solid set of balls who stands against societal expectations. His tense scenes with Harry about life and love are the only times the film’s writing is daring.

The rest of the writing is relatively safe and tepid.

Amy comes across as a bit wishy-washy about sex and marriage, and after prancing along the beach in a tacky outfit, she seems more of a nitwit than a serious character.

Maybe she and Nick don’t belong together after all?

Elliott, while cute in his pursuit of young women and attempts to impress them with unfounded wealth, his act grows tiresome by the film’s conclusion.

The most palpable couple is Harry and Katie, whose tender love shines through as an inspiration to other characters. The chemistry between MacMurray and Wyman is strong, showcasing them as reliable and stalwarts of true love.

Bon Voyage! (1962) is a kindhearted film, marginally recommended mainly for the locales. It’s mostly a safe affair, save for one character, and pales in comparison to more weighty films to come during the 1960s.

Oscar Nominations: Best Costume Design (Color), Best Sound

1950 Films, Alastair Sim, Alfred Hitchcock, British, Film noir, Jane Wyman, Kay Walsh, Lionel Jeffries, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Pat Hitchcock, Richard Todd, Thriller

Stage Fright-1950

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Stage Fright-1950

Director Alfred Hitchcock

Starring Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding

Scott’s Review #1,160

Reviewed July 9, 2021

Grade: A-

Stage Fright (1950) is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock before his American invasion.

The film feels like a hybrid British/American project with the leading lady, Jane Wyman, being American, but otherwise, it is set in London with many British actors.

Hitchcock mixes plenty of film noir influences with the typical thrills and suspense, creating an excellent film that flies under the radar compared to his other films.

Wyman is cast as an attractive aspiring actress who works on her craft by going undercover to solve a mystery. The film has elements of Nancy Drew, and it’s fun to watch Wyman, who would become Mrs. Ronald Reagan before he entered politics and later became President of the United States.

She reportedly divorced him because she had little interest in entering the political spectrum by association.

The action gets off to a compelling start with two characters driving in a car in apparent peril. Hitchcock loved driving scenes like these. It is learned that the police think actor Jonathan Cooper (Richard Todd) is a murderer, and now they’re on his tail.

He seeks shelter with his ex-girlfriend Eve (Wyman), who drives him to hide with her father, Commodore Gill (Alastair Sim).

He explains that it was his lover, the famous and snobbish actress Charlotte Inwood (Marlene Dietrich), who killed the victim (not coincidentally, her husband). Convinced that Jonathan is innocent, Eve plays detective and assumes multiple disguises, slowly developing feelings for Detective Inspector Wilfred O. Smith (Michael Wilding).

Once embroiled in a web of deception, she realizes that Shakespeare was right and that all the world is a stage.

Wyman is the Hitchcock brunette as opposed to his later fascination with the blonde bombshell. Therefore, her role is more sedate and astute than the sex appeal that would come with Hitchcock’s later characters.

Eve closely resembles Charlie, the character Teresa Wright played in 1943’s Shadow of a Doubt. They are both astute and investigative, with a mystery to unravel. Interestingly, they both fall for detectives.

All the glasses! Hitchcock’s fetish for women wearing glasses is on full display, especially with the character of Nellie, a cockney opportunist played by Kay Walsh. Look closely, and one can spot several minor or background ladies sporting spectacles, and even Eve dons a pair as a disguise.

The director’s daughter, Pat Hitchcock, plays a small role as she would in Strangers on a Train (1951) and Psycho (1960).

Speaking of Strangers on a Train, there are similarities to mention.

Both involve a tit-for-tat exchange in which one character requests another kill someone for a payoff or other motivation.

Marlene Dietrich is as sexy as ever in Charlotte’s pivotal role. She is also self-centered, self-absorbed, and thoughtless. She constantly mispronounces Eve’s fictitious name and barely notices that she is covering for her regular maid/dresser.

But is she evil and capable of killing her husband?

Stage Fright has a thrilling finale. In the climax, the audience finally finds out who has been telling the truth, who has been lying, and what explanations are revealed. There is a pursuit, an attempted killing, and a shocking death by way of a falling safety curtain in the theater, naturally.

What one would expect from a Hitchcock final act.

The focus on theatrical stage actors is a nice topic and adds to the existing drama, as the implications of playing various roles are prominent. So is the prominence early on of the Big Ben landmark in London and other location trimmings.

Stage Fright (1950) doesn’t get the love saved for other Hitchcock masterpieces, and that’s a shame because the film is excellent.

1945 Films, Billy Wilder, Drama, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Ray Milland

The Lost Weekend-1945

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The Lost Weekend-1945

Director Billy Wilder

Starring Ray Milland, Jane Wyman

Scott’s Review #856

Reviewed January 10, 2019

Grade: A

Billy Wilder, considered one of the most influential directors of the Hollywood Golden Age of cinema (the 1940s), created a masterpiece that tackles a storyline about social issues that has never been explored.

The Lost Weekend (1945) tells a tale of alcoholism and the desperation and degradation of a person with an addiction. Wilder bravely goes where no film had dared to go with astounding results.

The film was awarded several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.

Don Birnam (Ray Milland) plays a New York writer left alone for one hot summer weekend. His brother Wick (Philip Terry) and girlfriend Helen (Jane Wyman) are aware of Don’s drinking problem but leave for the weekend anyway when Don goes on a bender.

He spends each subsequent day desperate for liquor and in need of cash to purchase it. He resorts to theft and selling personal items out of desperation and the need for booze.

The story features flashbacks of past events, such as when he first met Helen and an embarrassing attempt to meet her parents for lunch.

The film is adapted from Charles R. Jackson’s 1944 novel of the same name. Although it is a dark story that can be categorized as a downer, the film does not paint a glamorous picture of the pains an alcoholic experiences or the lengths he will go to out of desperation.

Before The Lost Weekend was made, drunkard characters in the film were primarily portrayed as either bumbling or as comic relief, so this character study is a welcome departure from tradition.

Milland is perfectly cast and effectively relays the troubled and desperate Don. Handsome, well-dressed, and professional, he is not the stereotypical image of a drunk. Dressed in a suit and tie by all measures, he does not fit the bill of a desperate man but slowly begins his descent and spirals out of control.

This makes Wilder’s message more potent as he shows that alcoholism can afflict anyone, even professional, intelligent men. Milland, who resembles actor Jimmy Stewart, is supposed to be liked by the audience, eliciting a rooting factor even when he mistreats Helen. We want him to face his problems and recover.

Many glimpses of Manhattan are shown, and exterior shots are used plentifully. Wilder shoots the scenes as largely bleak and lonely, which aligns with the film’s overall feel.

Third Avenue looks desolate and isolated as we watch a desperate Don wander around and attempt to sell his typewriter for booze money. He is grief-stricken when he realizes that it is Yom Kippur weekend and the pawnshops are closed.

The camera remains firmly fixed on Milland, showcasing a range of powerful emotions throughout the film.

The Lost Weekend (1945) was a groundbreaking film at its release. It is a serious and detailed tale of the life and times of an alcoholic. With a superb acting performance by Milland, Wilder can darkly and frighteningly portray the world of a person with an addiction.

Decades later, the film is still mentioned as inspirational to other filmmakers who are creating works about alcohol abuse.

Oscar Nominations: 3 wins– Best Motion Picture, Best Director-Billy Wilder (won), Best Actor-Ray Milland (won), Best Screenplay (won), Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Film Editing

1955 Films, Agnes Moorehead, Douglas Sirk, Drama, Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Romantic Drama

All That Heaven Allows-1955

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All That Heaven Allows-1955

Director Douglas Sirk

Starring Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman

Scott’s Review #159

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Reviewed August 26, 2014

Grade: B+

All That Heaven Allows (1955) is a perfect-looking film. Director Douglas Sirk famously dressed his films in a contemporary, stylish fashion. As evidenced by the story in this film, his movies traditionally contain a social aspect.

Affluent socialite Cary falls in love with handsome young gardener Ron, and they face discrimination in a town where status is everything and gossip is rampant.

I love the chemistry between Jane Wyman (Cary) and Rock Hudson (Ron). The small town in New England is so perfect looking- sets, cinematography, that it fits the subject matter perfectly- most of the townspeople live these seemingly perfect lives and look down on anyone with a different outlook or way of living.

There is a feeling oozing from these people that contrasts perfectly with Ron’s open-mindedness and freedom and the conflict Cary faces.

On the one hand, she is passionate about Ron and wants to live with him; on the other, she is unsure if she wants to give up a comfortable, affluent life with perks like a social club and a beautiful house.

The chemistry between the leads is really what makes this film unique.

All That Heaven Allows (1955) influenced one of my favorite films, the masterpiece Far from Heaven (2002), which substituted the age factor for race.