It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

I have put off blogging about Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) for my Christmas edition of CRAZYFILMGUY for many years now for one simple reason. I cry every time I watch the film. I had never even heard of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE until college when my film criticism professor and screenwriter Peter Krikes (who wrote I think the best of the early STAR TREK movies called STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME) showed the movie to our film class before Christmas break back in 1985. Upon viewing the now classic film, I discovered 1) I am extremely sentimental and 2) I developed a crush on actress Donna Reed who plays James Stewart's wife Mary. Nowadays, you can't turn on the television around the holidays (in fact it's on tonight on NBC) and not stumble across IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.  But until that pivotal moment in college, I had no clue that such a heart-warming film existed. It turns out this year is the 75th anniversary of the release of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. I've got a box of tissue right next to me.  Let's do this! 

Yet, as beloved as IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is today, it was not appreciated when it was released back in 1946 which is incredible. It was a box office flop.  How can that be? The title is uplifting. It's a holiday film.  It stars All American movie stars James Stewart and Donna Reed.  It has a lovable angel in it. But dig a little deeper into IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and the film's story and the time the film came out is darker than you would imagine. World War II had just ended. Although jubilant, the U.S. had a hangover from a war that killed millions. A film about a man who teeters on the brink of suicide, leaving his wife and young kids behind when he believes he's lost everything was a bit too bleak for audiences a year after the war ended. But like the main character George Bailey, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would be saved and rediscovered by later generations who found deeper meaning and laughs in this black and white holiday movie. 

An Italian immigrant from Sicily who came to America with his family in 1903, Writer/Director Frank Capra was at the top of his game between 1934 to 1941 creating classic films like IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) with James Stewart and Jean Arthur; and MEET JOHN DOE (1941) with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.  But World War II would put a break on the careers of both Frank Capra and James Stewart's.   Both men would become involved in the war effort.  Stewart would fly bombing missions over Europe, forever altering his life and view of the world.  Capra would continue filmmaking but for the U.S. Government, making propaganda films during the war. When World War II ended, Capra and Stewart would reunite for their first project since the war with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.

With a screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra and some additional scenes by Jo Swerling based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern and directed by Frank Capra, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE opens on Christmas Eve with the sleepy, snowy New England town of Bedford Falls praying for a man named George Bailey. The Celestial Beings above hear their prayers and request Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers) an angel, second class to help George. They begin by having Clarence study young George Bailey (Bobbie Anderson) in two pivotal moments of his youth. First, in 1919, George saves his younger brother Harry Bailey (Georgie Nokes) from drowning in an icy pond. Later, young George prevents his pharmacist boss Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner) from accidentally dispensing poison to a customer. We flash forward to adventurous, young adult George Bailey (James Stewart) in 1928 about to travel around the world before returning to finish college.  On his final night before leaving, George joins his younger adult brother Harry (Todd Karns) at Harry's high school graduation party where he runs into childhood friends Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), Violet Bick (Gloria Grahame) the sexiest girl in Bedford Falls, and Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) who has secretly loved George since they were kids. George and Mary dance the Charleston, fall into a swimming pool underneath the dance floor, and later walk home together but their romance and George's trip are cut short when George's father Peter Bailey (Samuel S. Hinds) has a stroke that night and dies. 

George delays his Around the World trip to help settle the affairs of his father and Uncle Billy's (Thomas Mitchell) Bailey Brothers Building & Loan bank that they own.  The richest and meanest man in Bedford Falls Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore) wants to liquidate the Building & Loan but the Board of Directors votes to keep it open but only if George manages it.  George cancels his trip around the world and finishing college, letting Harry go to college first.  But when Harry returns after graduating to trade places with George, he's secretly married to Ruth Dakin (Virginia Patton) and her father has a job lined up for Harry. George is stuck in Bedford Falls. George's mother Mrs. Bailey (Beulah Bondi) tells George Mary is back in town from college. George is in a bad mood but wanders around town eventually ending up in front of Mary's house. After initially fighting, George realizes he's in love with Mary.  George and Mary get married.

George and Mary prepare to leave on an extensive honeymoon when they notice a crowd of people heading for the Building & Loan. There's been a run on the Building & Loan as Potter's bank has called its loan.   The citizens of Bedford Falls want their money. George and Mary use the two thousand dollars put away for their honeymoon to keep the bank open until closing time at six o'clock. The Building & Loan has survived. George is relieved but realizes Mary has disappeared. George's policeman friend Bert (Ward Bond) and taxi cab buddy Ernie (Frank Faylen) bring George over to the dilapidated old Granville house Mary has spruced up and renamed for one night the Waldorf to celebrate their honeymoon. George and Mary move into that old house, start a family and open Bailey Park, a community of affordable homes for residents to compete against Potter's slums. Potter tries to buy out George but George holds firm to his principles. Christmas Eve arrives. A big party is set for the Bailey house that night to celebrate the return of George's brother Harry who has just received the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism during World War II.

The absent-minded Uncle Billy goes to make a deposit of eight thousand dollars at Potter's Bank but accidentally loses it (placing the envelope with the money in Potter's newspaper as Billy razzes Potter). George and Uncle Billy retrace his steps but the money is gone. The Building & Loan will be ruined. George goes to Potter for help but Potter just laughs at him. At his wit's end, George drives to a bridge, prepared to jump into the river to commit suicide when Clarence the Angel jumps into the river first.  George rescues Clarence.  As they dry off in the tollhouse keeper's shack, George wishes he'd never been born. With that wish, Clarence shows George what life would be like without him. Bedford Falls would become the dark and dangerous Pottersville. Mr. Gower would go to jail for poisoning a customer and become a drunk when released. George's brother Harry would drown because George wasn't there to save him. George's wife Mary would become an old maid and never be married. Clarence shows George that one man, one life can touch so many others. George wants to live again and Clarence returns George to his life as snow falls again in Bedford Falls.  George races home to see his family and discovers all of Bedford Falls has turned out to help George with his financial situation.

I have to give credit to my wife for pointing out to me that IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE has deep connections to Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Now George Bailey is no Ebeneezer Scrooge but George does become distraught and cranky to his family on Christmas Eve after Uncle Billy loses the bank deposit. Henry Potter is the Scrooge character, showing not an ounce of humanity as he seeks profit over the welfare of the citizens of Bedford Falls. Instead of Christmas ghosts, George's Guardian Angel (and director Capra) take George to a Christmas Past or Future (depending on how you look at it) where a George Bailey doesn't exist, revealing a dismal outcome for everyone George cares about. Bedford Falls never looked so eerie and ghostly (thanks to cinematographers Joseph Biroc and Joseph Walker and music by Dimtri Tiomkin). The black and white photography makes the Norman Rockwell like Bedford Falls (or Potterville in the George Bailey-less world) look positively Dickens like from the white snow falling on the black and white town to George and Clarence visiting a windy, sinister cemetery to view Harry's grave. 

As uplifting as the finale of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is, I always came away at the end of the film with the feeling that mean, old Mr. Potter (and his Lurch like silent bodyguard played by Frank Hagney) still won.  Potter never gives back the money and he's never caught. Not that he needs it but he's eight thousand dollars richer. But upon my recent viewing, I realize that George will be the richest man in Bedford Falls, both figuratively with the love and generosity of his family and friends and realistically, with the financial support of childhood friend and wealthy industrialist Sam Wainwright who wires George twenty-five thousand dollars. Sam could steer any of his businesses to open accounts at George's Building & Loan. Potter may have momentarily shaken George to his core but the Bedford Falls community will rise together to ultimately put Henry Potter out of business. At least, that's how I imagine it once the film ends.

There are plenty of good Christmas themed films that came out around the same time as IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE like Leo McCarey's THE BELLS OF ST. MARY (1945) and Henry Koster's THE BISHOP'S WIFE (1947) but what makes IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE memorable and enduring are the little things like the pet raven named Jimmy that Uncle Billy keeps at the Building & Loan or the railing knob that George keeps pulling off and putting back when he goes upstairs in his house. There's George's friends Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver whose names will become synonymous with two muppets named Bert and Ernie on Jim Henson's television show for children called SEASAME STREET (1969). There's Uncle Billy who ties a string around his finger so he doesn't forget things (it still doesn't help). Or the sound of a bell ringing which means "an angel just got their wings." There's George and Mary singing "Buffalo Girls Won't You Come Out Tonight" and a jitterbug dance contest that winds up with the dancers all falling Busby Berkley style into a pool that opens up underneath the dance floor. There's Sam Wainwright and his signature donkey noise and gesture that always reminds us who he is. There's George's daughter Zuzu's (Karolyn Grimes) flower petals. None of these are vital to the plot of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but they are little flourishes that make the film more personal and stay with us long after the movie is over.

Before World War II broke out, James aka Jimmy Stewart was just coming into his own as both a romantic and comedic lead in films like George Marshall's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) with Marlene Dietrich and George Cukor's THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Stewart would put his career on pause to join the war effort, becoming a distinguished bomber pilot in Europe during World War II. But Stewart would return a changed man, even contemplating retirement from acting. Unbeknownst to his friends and family, the horrors of bombing innocent civilians in France and Germany and witnessing the death of up to 130 comrades during bombing missions left Stewart with what we now call PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome). IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would be Stewart's first post-war film. As George Bailey, Stewart shows off his familiar comedic and romantic skills but he reveals to us a new, dramatic intensity borne from his war experiences. Faced with eight thousand dollars missing from his bank, the possibility of arrest and jail time, and the disgrace he and his family would face, Stewart's George Bailey goes from pathetically begging his nemesis Potter to save him to emotional desperation and the real act of suicide. Stewart would continue to display his new found dramatic chops in films ranging from Alfred Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW (1954) and VERTIGO (1958), Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955), Otto Preminger's ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959), and John Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962). 

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would be the only pairing of James Stewart with Donna Reed. I would have loved more films with the two of them as a romantic couple but how lucky we are to have at least one.  My crush on Donna Reed might have something to do in that she looks like another film crush of mine Olivia De Havilland (THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD). Doe eyes, round cheeks, brunette. Reed was just becoming a leading lady when she landed the plum role of Mary Hatch in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Mary is the All-American girl next door but she has a small town sexiness about her. When George steps on her robe on the way home from the dance, Mary darts into some bushes, naked.  Capra and Stewart have some fun with that scene. Mary's a resourceful woman, coming up with the idea to use their honeymoon money to save the Building & Loan. Later, it's Mary who goes around town asking for help for George and calls Sam Wainwright to rescue George from financial ruin. Reed would move on from her squeaky-clean roles, playing a prostitute and winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Fred Zinneman's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) and as the Native American Sacajawea in THE FAR HORIZONS (1955) with Fred MacMurray as Meriwether Lewis and Charleton Heston as William Clark. 

Capra found the perfect romantic leads for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but his best casting were the supporting roles. Lionel Barrymore (YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU) as the Scrooge like Mr. Potter, the meanest man in Bedford Falls is the perfect villain opposite Stewart's Everyman George Bailey. Ebeneezer Scrooge would grow to love people but Capra never lets Henry F. Potter ever become sympathetic.  Barrymore's Potter has a lump of coal for a heart. Henry Travers as Clarence Oddbody, the second-class angel trying to earn his wings is inspired casting.  With his slight Irish accent and grandfatherly demeanor, Travers' Clarence is the perfect foil and companion to help George learn to love life again. Travers retired from film a few years after IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but check out this great character actor in other classics like Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA (1941) and Alfred Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1942). Lastly, the hardest working supporting actor in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s Thomas Mitchell plays George's forgetful Uncle Billy. Besides George, Billy Bailey may be the saddest character in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. He probably only kept his job because of his brother Peter and then George. But Billy loves animals (he has a pet crow and squirrel) and he has a big heart. 1939 would be Mitchell's finest year, appearing in John Ford's STAGECOACH, Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, Howard Hawks' ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, and Victor Fleming's GONE WITH THE WIND. 

Capra rounds out the cast of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE with some familiar as well as fresh faces. Ward Bond as Bert the Cop and Frank Faylen as Ernie the cabbie would become universally loved as George's loyal Beford Falls friends. Bond had been appearing in small roles in films like Howard Hawks BRINGING UP BABY (1938) and John Huston's THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) but would really make his mark after WONDERFUL LIFE in John Ford westerns like FORT APACHE (1948) and THE SEARCHERS (1956). Frank Faylen I'm not as familiar with but he proved to be a fine supporting actor appearing in Billy Wilder's THE LOST WEEKEND (1945). For Gloria Grahame who plays Violet Bick, the supposed bad girl of Bedford Falls, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would kick start her career. Grahame would become the femme fatale in film noir classics like Nicholas Ray's IN A LONELY PLACE (1952) with Humphrey Bogart and Fritz Lang's THE BIG HEAT (1956). Look for the Little Rascal "Alfalfa" aka young adult Carl Switzer as Mary Hatch's date Freddie Othello at the graduation party who opens up the swimming pool underneath the dance floor to get back at George Bailey stealing his gal. Grandma Walton Ellen Corby has an uncredited appearance as Ms. Davis, one of George's customers. And Sheldon Leonard as Nick the bartender at Martini's would play tough cops and tough guys in films like Howard Hawks TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) and Joseph Mankiewicz's GUYS AND DOLLS (1955) before becoming a successful TV producer of comedies like GOMER PYLE USMC (1964) and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW (1960).

Some wonderful last IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE trivia. Most films in the 30s and 40s used city streets located on the backlot of studios like Warner Bros or Universal. But the town of Bedford Falls and its city blocks looked so authentic to me I always imagined Capra filmed on location somewhere in upstate New York. It turns out Capra had a real three block set (covering four acres) built on RKOs Encino Ranch in southern California. Main Street was 300 yards long and the set had 75 stores and buildings. If they filmed in southern California (during a heatwave in June of 1946 no less), how did they make the snow looks so real and not melt? Before IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, film snow was accomplished with cornflakes painted white.  Director Capra needed lots of snow, snow that would crunch when characters walked on it and leave tire tracks. Capra turned to RKO special effects head Russell Shearman who devised a mixture of Foamite (found in fire extinguishers) along with soap, sugar, and water that could be sprayed out of cannisters and have that gentle, soft falling effect. The snow is a major character in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. There is a colorized version of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but I have fought off the urge to watch it.  I would think color would change the tone of the film especially when George and Clarence revisit if George had never been born. 

Frank Capra's pet project IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, the first and only project he made under his Liberty Films banner, would fade from the public's mind after 1946 and seem just a footnote in James Stewart's career.  But with the advent of television and television stations needing product to show, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was rediscovered. Its copyright had not been renewed and the film fell into public domain allowing anyone to broadcast it for free. Suddenly, a new generation got to know and fall in love with George Bailey and Bedford Falls and the true spirit of people helping people.  

I have made it through this blog without crying although I have fought off a tear every now and then. Yes, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE has its dark moments but they are woven carefully within this magical, slice of small town America version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL.  How audiences back in 1946 couldn't embrace this film after nearly a decade of war is beyond me. If you or I ever become as desperate and disillusioned as George Bailey, just remember these words from his guardian angel Clarence who now has earned his wings. "Remember no man is a failure who has friends!" Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone!

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

After the tepid MOONRAKER (1979), I think I wanted less Roger Moore as James Bond than more Roger Moore. Moore was beginning to show his age as were the Bond filmmakers.  They seemed to be running out of ideas. MOONRAKER was a retread of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) only in outer space.  The next 007 film to follow would be FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981) which for me is the end of the Roger Moore era.  Moore would make two more films after FOR YOUR EYES ONLY with the catchy title but boring OCTOPUSSY (1983) and his final appearance in the violent and awful A VIEW TO A KILL (1985) which wastes a good Duran Duran theme song. In my humble opinion, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY is Moore's last good Bond film which may be giving it more praise than it deserves.

Number 12 in the Bond series, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY is a return to the original Bond films with the British and the Russians racing against one another to find a missing device that can control a fleet of English nuclear submarines and its missiles. The film has some great locations, bringing Bond back to some ski action and stunts in the Dolomites region of Italy.  Greece is also used extensively including an amazing Greek monastery (in which the actual monks protested the filming by placing bed sheets over the monastery to disrupt production) sitting precariously atop rocky spires. Tired of aging European cinema icons of yesteryear playing the main villains (German Curt Jurgens in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and Frenchman Michael Lonsdale in MOONRAKER), FOR YOUR EYES ONLY goes with a handsome yet boring villain (with a fantastic goatee) in English actor Julian Glover (INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE) playing a sinister Greek smuggler working for the Russians. 

The main Bond girl French actress Carole Bouquet (THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE) is pretty but underwhelming (although she's grown on me with each viewing). The filmmakers throw a curveball with a second Bond girl casting Lynn Holly-Johnson, an actress and ice skater (see ICE CASTLES) trying to shed her wholesome image by portraying a sexually insatiable Olympic ice skating hopeful.  Singer Sheena Easton delivers with the slow but catchy theme song of the same name For Your Eyes Only. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY feels like it should be an earlier Bond film with Sean Connery but here it is nineteen years after the debut of DR. NO (1962).

With a screenplay by Bond veteran Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson (based on two James Bond short stories by Ian Fleming For Your Eyes Only and Riscio) and directed by former Bond 2nd Unit  Director and film editor John Glen (more about Glen later), FOR YOUR EYES ONLY begins with an interesting, unorthodox opening sequence.  After visiting the grave of his deceased wife Teresa (killed in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE), James Bond (Roger Moore) is picked up by helicopter for urgent business. But the helicopter is hijacked by a wheelchair bound, bald, cat-loving SPECTRE baddie (representing the various incarnations of Ernst Stavros Blofeld) who controls the copter by remote control. Bond manages to disrupt the takeover and dispatches the villain. Off the coast of Albania, a seemingly typical Maltese fishing trawler the St. Georges hides inside a secret British intelligence operation that houses ATAC, a sophisticated device that communicates to Britain's nuclear submarines. The trawler strikes a mine and sinks.  Immediately, British intelligence and Russia's KGB led by General Gogol (Bond veteran Walter Gotell) race to recover the top secret machine. 

Off the coast of Greece on the island of Corfu, Melina Havelock (French actress/model Carole Bouquet) visits her parents including her ocean archaeologist father Professor Havelock (Jack Hedley) who besides excavating an underwater Greek temple, works for the British government to locate the sunken fishing vessel and the ATAC encryption machine.  Melina barely escapes with her life as her father Havelock and mother are gunned down by Cuban hitman Hector Gonzalez (Stefan Kalipha). The British Minister of Defense (Geoffrey Keen) sends Bond to Spain to interrogate Gonzalez. Bond sneaks into Gonzalez's villa where he spies a man with glasses paying off Gonzalez for the hit. Before Bond can capture the hitman, Gonzalez is shot with a crossbow arrow by the revenge minded Melina. Bond and Melina escape through the olive groves in Melina's clunky Citroen 2CV evading would be killers. 

Back in London, Bond meets with Q (Desmond Llewelyn) at his gadget laboratory. Q uses the Identigraph to help Bond determine that the man with the glasses was Belgian Emile Locque (Michael Gothard) he saw at the Spanish villa. Locque's last known location is Cortina, Italy.  Bond flies to Cortina where he's introduced by his Italian contact Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno) to the mysterious Greek smuggler Aristotle Kristatos (Julian Glover) who's watching his Olympic protege ice skater Bibi Dahl (Lynn Holly-Johnson) train. Kristatos believes Greek shipping magnate and pistachio munching Milos "the Dove" Columbo (Topol) may be trying to salvage the ATAC. Bond is pursued by killers Claus (Charles Dance) and Erich Kriegler (John Wyman) who chase Bond through various winter Olympic courses including the bobsled run on skis and motorcycles. Bond evades his attackers. When he returns to his Italian contact Luigi Ferrara (John Moreno), he finds Ferrara dead, garroted, with a white dove pin attached to his jacket.

On the trail of Columbo, Bond returns to Corfu where Melina is continuing her father's work. Bond seduces Columbo's mistress the Countess Lisl (Cassandra Harris) only to see her killed by Locque and Claus on the beach. Columbo and his men spring from the water in scuba suits and save Bond. Columbo reveals Kristatos is a double agent, working for the Russians. After Bond and Columbo raid one of Kristatos's heroin factories looking for the smuggler, Bond and Melina use her father's mini-sub Neptune to explore the St. Georges wreck and grab the ATAC. But when Bond and Melina return to their boat, Kristatos awaits to snatch the ATAC from them. Kristatos drags Bond and Melina behind his yacht over reefs and hungry sharks before the two manage to escape.  Kristatos sets up the exchange with Gogol for the ATAC at St. Cyril's, a Greek monastery atop soaring needle like rocks. Bond, Melina, Columbo, and his men begin a final assault on the monastery to stop Kristatos and keep the encryption machine out of the Russians hands.

Director John Glen who started out in the Bond universe as a 2nd Unit Director for ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and promoted to editor on THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and MOONRAKER has initially been my fall guy for the decline of the James Bond series. But upon further review of Glen's first effort with FOR YOUR EYES ONLY after many years, Glen's appreciation for the character and franchise is to be commended. After having Bond up in space in MOONRAKER, Glen had stated he wanted to bring Bond back to earth for his next film. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY is a throwback to the older classic Bond movies. After the disappointment of MOONRAKER, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was a jolt of fresh air to my teenage eyes, taking me back to the good old Bond films like DR. NO and GOLDFINGER (1964).

Glen pays homage to the first Bond film he worked on in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE by having Bond place flowers on his wife's grave (played by Diana Rigg in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE) to begin FOR YOUR EYES ONLY and then tussle with a crippled but still maniacal Blofeld like villain (Blofeld killed Bond's wife but broke his neck at the finale of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE). Glen reminds us there are demons in Bond's past that he can never completely be rid of. 

One thing that stuck with me when I saw FOR YOUR EYES ONLY in high school were the set pieces. They are excellent and never completely topped in Moore's remaining Bond films or the two Timothy Dalton Bond films that Glen also directed. The car chase in the hills and small towns of Spain (actually Corfu, Greece) with Bond and Melina is both exciting and humorous (courtesy of famed stunt driver Remy Julien). The ski chase sequences in Cortina, Italy are breathtaking and well photographed (courtesy of famed ski cameraman Willy Bogner) with Bond chased by motorcycles with studded tires while skiing off chalet roofs, tables,  and even down a bobsled run. The assault on Kristatos's heroin factory reminds me of Bond's invasion of a gypsy camp in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963) and capped off by a beautiful, cinematic explosion on the dock.

Greek villain Kristatos's sadistically dragging the bound Bond and Melina through the Mediterranean waters is a scene borrowed from Ian Fleming's novel Live and Let Die complete with sharks nipping at our hero and heroine. Finally, the assault on the towering monastery in Meteora, Greece showcases some exciting rock climbing (and falling) by Bond stuntman Rick Sylvester (who skied of a cliff and parachuted to safety as Bond at the beginning of 1977's THE SPY WHO LOVED ME). 

Family has always been an important part of the Bond franchise. Producer Albert Broccoli, his wife Barbara, and son-in-law Michael G. Wilson (who co-wrote FOR YOUR EYES ONLY) have managed the series since 1962 (Broccoli's producing partner Harry Saltzman departed after THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN).  Crew like director John Glen or production designer Peter Lamont both started out as editor and art director previously and moved up through the Bond films to more prestigious positions.  Interestingly, in the FOR YOUR EYES ONLY plot, Bond and the people he encounters unite to become a sort of family.

Bond himself, we learn from SKYFALL (2012) is an orphan. Melina loses her parents early in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, killed by the hitman Gonzalez. Olympic hopeful Bibi Dahl doesn't seem to have any parents, just a stern ice skating coach Brink (Jill Bennett) and her wealthy but sinister patron Kristatos who may have slightly lascivious reasons for supporting Bibi. Columbo becomes a father figure to Bond after rescuing him from Lochte and Claus and setting him straight about Kristatos. Bond, Melina, Bibi, and Columbo are misfits who join together as a unit (or family) to stop Kristatos who has hurt each of them in some profound way. 

It's only fitting that since part of FOR YOUR EYES ONLY takes place in Greece, there be some references to Greek mythology and the ancient Greeks.  Melina Havelock's choice of weapon to extract revenge on hitman Gonzalez is a crossbow.  The image of Melina with a crossbow hearkens to the Greek goddess Diana who was the patroness of hunters and was often painted with a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder. There's a nice underwater sequence where Melina oversees her father's men excavating a submerged Greek temple (it's a set but still a tribute to the ancient structures still found all around Greece). The finale takes place high in the clouds (the soaring monastery) where in Greek mythology, the Gods and Goddesses lived and played. The only reference the filmmakers got wrong was the name of Melina's underwater submarine Neptune.  Neptune is the Roman name for Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea.

Today's James Bond films have Oscar winning actors left and right (Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Christophe Waltz, and Remi Malek to name a few) but back in 1981, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY'S cast was an eclectic group.  As the pistachio popping Columbo, Israeli actor Topol was more famous as Tevye in Norman Jewison's FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1971) but EYES ONLY would introduce him to a new generation of filmgoers.  Lynn-Holly Johnson who plays Bibi Dahl was better known as an ice skater then as an actress. Her only two credits before EYES ONLY were ICE CASTLES (1978) with Robby Benson and the Disney suspense film THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS (1980) with Bette Davis. But Johnson brings a spark to FOR YOUR EYES ONLY with her bubbly personality. In a sign of the times, Bond has to fight Bibi off as he feels he's too old for the teenage Olympic hopeful, a harbinger that Moore was beginning to feel too old for some of his leading ladies. 

As in previous Bond films, the filmmakers went the route of models and international beauty pageant queens casting French actress/model Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock. Bouquet was more famous as the face for Chanel perfumes but after FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, Bouquet has had a long acting career appearing in mostly French films.  When I first saw EYES ONLY, Bouquet didn't seem like the typical Bond girl but repeated viewings have won me over to Bouquet and her famously luxurious long hair. Cassandra Harris who plays Bond's brief one night stand Countess Lisl has an interesting connection to the Bond franchise.  At the time she appeared in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, she was married to Pierce Brosnan who would one day take over the role of James Bond beginning with GOLDENEYE (1995). Sadly, Harris passed away while married to Brosnan from cancer in 1991. Both Julian Glover who plays the sinisterly suave Aristotle Kristatos and Charles Dance (in his first film role and no dialogue) as the killer Claus in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY would appear later in their careers in the HBO megahit GAME OF THRONES (2011 - 2019). Dance as Tywin Lannister and Glover as Grand Master Pycelle.

A few final FOR YOUR EYES ONLY tidbits.  This would be the first film that the great Bernard Lee (THE THIRD MAN) who played Bond's superior M did not appear in.  Lee was too ill for filming and would pass away in 1981 when FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was released.  Lee appeared in the first 11 Bond films. Singer Sheena Easton is the first and only performer to sing the Bond theme song and appear in Maurice Binder's opening credit sequence. James Bond films always had sexy posters but FOR YOUR EYES ONLY'S poster may have been the most provocative yet. The poster featured the backside of a long legged woman in the foreground and Roger Moore as Bond facing the unknown woman framed between her legs. A crossbow hangs from her side, implying it might be Carole Bouquet (it's not. It was New York model Joyce Bartle) and sticking with the Greek goddess Diana motif. Some groups protested the  sexy poster and adjustments were made on some posters. 

Director John Glen may have resurrected the classic Bond themes and action in FOR YOUR EYES ONLY but that momentum would not carry over in Moore's last two Bond films as Moore had become too old for the role in my opinion. But give Moore credit for carrying the torch from Sean Connery and giving us four good Bond films out of the seven he would appear in. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was a memorable film for CrazyFilmGuy when I saw it in the summer of 1981. Little did I know that the Bond franchise was about to take some bumps and bruises for the next 14 years as Roger Moore would eventually retire from the role and producers Albert Broccoli and his wife Barbara Broccoli would have to find new actors to play the most recognizable character in film history -- James Bond. 

The Haunting (1963)

When I was a kid, I liked stories about things that went bump in the night i.e. ghost stories.  I wanted to believe that when a human being died, they might return to their loved ones from the after world to either haunt or watch over them.  I had an English relative I visited in Kent, England after college.  Aunt Margaret swore that ghosts were real. She told me she had seen both her deceased neighbor and her dead cat buried in her garden both come back from beyond the grave to visit her.  She believed that where ghosts are often reported (castles, towers, abbeys), some terrible act of violence occurred. Her theory was that violent act became like a photographic imprint at that location, replaying their demise and anguish repeatedly all over Great Britain for those people with the knack to see it.  But like UFOs, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster, proof of supernatural apparitions have been hard to come by. 

My love of ghost stories in my youth did not carry over to films.  I prefer vampires and werewolves to wraiths and phantasms.  There have been some ghost themed films that I have enjoyed. Peter Medak's THE CHANGELING (1981) had some scary moments including a deceased child's possessed wheel chair. Tobe Hooper's POLTERGEIST (1982) produced by Steven Spielberg was probably one of the most fun, ghostly thrill rides of recent memory.  I have a fondness for movies about mortals falling in love with a ghost in films like Joseph Mankiewicz's THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1948) or Jerry Zucker's aptly titled GHOST (1990) with the spirit of Patrick Swayze trying to protect his human lover Demi Moore.  Cable television has developed a cottage industry of paranormal detectives and ghost whisperers who try to convince us that spirits from beyond the grave do exist and talk to us.  Moviegoers still like to be frightened by dark presences in recent film like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY (2007) and James Wan's THE CONJURING (2013) with both films spawning multiple sequels. 

Two artistic films in the early 1960s, both made by quality directors, revitalized the ghost and haunted house genre.  Both were filmed in England, perhaps the birthplace of ghost and haunted tales (like the ones my Aunt Margaret told me). Recently, I saw THE INNOCENTS (1961) directed by Jack Clayton (a cinematographer turned director) and based on the Henry James story The Turn of the Screw starring Deborah Kerr as a governess to two young children in a seemingly haunted mansion. But THE HAUNTING (1963) directed by Robert Wise (better know for musicals like WEST SIDE STORY and THE SOUND OF MUSIC) I had not seen yet.  Wise, who started as an editor working on Orson Welles CITIZEN KANE (1941) began his directing career with psychological horror films for producer Val Lewton in the 1940s including THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE (1944) and THE BODY SNATCHER (1945) with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.   THE HAUNTING is well known for Wise's mastery with using sound, editing, and innovative camerawork to invoke suspense and horror without showing the audience much. 

Based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, adapted for the screen by Nelson Gidding, and directed by Wise, THE HAUNTING tells the haunted house story of Hill House, an estate built in New England 90 years earlier in the 19th Century surrounded by scandal, insanity, suicide, and mysterious deaths.  The original builder and owner Hugh Crain hated people. Crain's first and second wives both died of strange circumstances (a carriage accident outside the estate for Wife # 1 and a fall down some stairs for Wife # 2).  The last owner, a woman who had cared for Crain's daughter Abigail, hanged herself.  Hill House was inherited by Mrs. Sanderson (Fay Compton) who allows Dr. John Markway (Richard Johnson) to investigate its supernatural tendencies and possibly disprove Hill House's bad reputation. Markway plans to bring several assistants to aid with his research but most drop out when they learn its Hill House they'll be studying. Only three join Markway for his ghost hunt: Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris), a fragile young woman who has had a previous poltergeist encounter; Theodora aka Theo (Claire Bloom) who's gifted with ESP (extra sensory perception); and Luke Sanderson (Russ Tamblyn), Mrs. Sanderson's nephew and possible heir to the massive Hill House property. 

Eleanor arrives first to the massive estate, having to deal with Hill House's creepy caretakers Mr. Dudley (Valentine Dyall) and Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley). Theodora shows up next followed by Dr. Markway and Luke. Eleanor and Theo share a room the first night and hear loud banging at the end of the hall and a sudden drop in temperature in their room. The next morning, Luke shows the group a message written in chalk on the house's wall: 'Help Eleanor, come home." The team take a tour of the eccentric Hill House, discovering sculptures and busts and cherubs as well as quirky doorways all over the expansive house. They visit the library with its dangerously rickety iron spiral staircase leading to the top balcony where Hill House's previous owner hung herself. Eleanor feels the house speaking to her. Markway's concerned she may be headed for a mental breakdown.

Markway discovers a cold spot in the middle of the house, "the heart of Hill House." Another night arrives and the haunted house turns up the terror. Eleanor hears a man mumbling, a woman laughing, and a baby crying outside their room.  Eleanor's terrified and believes Theo's squeezing her hand for comfort in the dark.  But when she awakens, Eleanor finds Theodore asleep on a couch across from her.  Who was squeezing her hand so tightly? Markway shows Eleanor a harp that he's heard playing by itself. Eleanor becomes more and more unsettled. Markway tries to comfort her and they have a brief moment but the harp intervenes with a twang.

Dr. Markway's wife Grace Markway (Lois Maxwell) shows up, adding an uneasy dynamic to the team. She's arrived to protect her husband's reputation, warning him a reporter is snooping around about his investigation. Grace does not approve of his scientific studies nor does she believe in ghosts. The only place to put Grace up is the nursery but it's locked. But when the group returns inside, the nursery door is wide open. Grace takes the room. The rest of the team move into the parlor to sleep. The loud banging begins again. Markway shuts the parlor door but the door expands inward as Hill House grows malevolent toward the ghost hunters.  Eleanor fears the spirits want her. The team goes to the nursery to check on Grace but she's vanished. Eleanor flees to the library, climbing the treacherous staircase. The last night at Hill House, on the anniversary of the death of Crain's first wife, will come to a head with one of the group meeting an unfortunate demise. 

THE HAUNTING is a psychological horror film but one of its strengths is the depth of character of the four paranormal investigators. Dr. Markway is the father figure, nurturing and protective of the three younger members. But the film suggests that all is not perfect with the good doctor. He tells Mrs. Sanderson his wife Grace disapproves of his interest in the supernatural.  This comment reveals itself literally when Grace shows up at Hill House on the last night, pleading for Markway to give up his ghost hunt.  Grace also shows disdain for the two young female assistants that are working with her husband.  Has Dr. Markway strayed from his wife with previous female assistants? Markway and Eleanor almost had a romantic moment when Eleanor was at her most vulnerable. The haunted house will unexpectedly play a part in strengthening the Markway's marriage when Grace goes missing on the team's final night in the house. 

The fragile Eleanor is the key character in THE HAUNTING.  Despondent and guilt stricken after the recent death of her mother, Markway's invitation to join his team gives her a new purpose, a chance to escape her oppressive sister in Boston.  But her delicate mental state will be taken advantage of as Hill House preys upon her psyche.  At times, she feels the house wants her to leave and other times that the spirits want her to join them. We hear Eleanor's psychological state thru inner monologues she has with herself. Because of Eleanor's unbalanced nature, director Wise makes us question whether the things Eleanor is hearing, seeing, and feeling are real ghostly phenomena or all in her head. Eleanor will become more unstable as the film proceeds to its terrifying conclusion.

Maybe I would have figured it out but the Turner Classic Movie hosts Dave Krager and horror film author David J. Skal pointed it out for me that the character of Theodora in THE HAUNTING is one of the first fully developed lesbian characters in film history.  The best dresser of the group (think London Mod), Theo is confident and a little aggressive around  Eleanor.  She promises to protect her fellow "sister" and later refers to Eleanor as her "new companion" as they hunt for ghosts but with her ESP, Theo also pokes and prods at Eleanor's state of mind at times, leading Eleanor to call Theo one of "nature's mistakes."  Theodora and Eleanor share a bed for protection from the unseen supernatural forces but does Theo have an alterior motive?  THE HAUNTING only suggests. Luke Sanderson is the comic relief of THE HAUNTING.  He doesn't believe in ghosts.  He just wants to make sure his possible future investment/inheritance can shed its bad reputation.  But by the film's conclusion, Luke has been converted, suggesting the best thing is for Hill House "to be burned down...and the ground sowed with salt." 

THE HAUNTING is psychological horror at its finest. Robert Wise began his directing career with psychological horror films for producer Val Lewton in the 1940s.  Lewton's films suggested horrific possibilities but never really showed anything outright, leaving it to the moviegoer's mind if they saw something or not. Filmmakers today would show much more and audiences would expect it. With psychological horror, we wonder if the images and sounds are really happening or made up in a character's head.  Eleanor played by Julie Harris in THE HAUNTING is that character.  Eleanor's already a mess with her personal life. The events that happen to her in Hill House could be caused by actual ghosts or it could be all happening in her unstable mind.  What's unusual is Dr. Markway, Theodora, and Luke all encounter unexplained supernatural phenomena.  They are more stable than Eleanor. But Wise leaves it a little more ambiguous with Eleanor.   Is she really connecting with the spirits or is it just her overworked imagination?

Director Wise pays homage to both Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles in THE HAUNTING. A scene with Julie Harris driving to Hill House is shot similarly to Janet Leigh's drive to the Bates Motel in Hitchcock's PSYCHO (1960). Composer Humphrey Searle's score even turns Bernard Herrmann PSYCHO like with screeching violins briefly on Harris's drive, an ominous introduction for her to Hill House. Hill House is a character itself in THE HAUNTING like the Bates's Victorian house in PSYCHO or Charles Foster Kane's mysterious Xanadu compound in CITIZEN KANE. It's large, imposing, and foreboding. Wise's shots of the exterior of Hill House's were done with infrared film to give it a more sinister quality with white clouds behind it.  Wise and cinematographer Davis Boulton also shoot interesting low angle close ups of the actors during the parlor haunting sequence that reminded me of Welles low angle shots in CITIZEN KANE and Hitchcock's low angle close ups during the house siege in THE BIRDS (1963). In all those films, the ceilings are visible, giving an impression of claustrophobia. Lastly, like CITIZEN KANE and PSYCHO, Wise chose to film THE HAUNTING in black and white, possibly a homage to his black and white Val Lewton horror films as well. 

THE HAUNTING is the first film I can recall to create the blueprint that would be passed on to future ghost hunting teams in television and movies.  In THE HAUNTING, we have Markway the scientist, Theodora the mind reader, Eleanor who may be able to commune with spirits, and Luke the skeptic.  THE HAUNTING will pave the way for future ghost hunting teams from Hanna and Barbera's classic Saturday cartoon series SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? (Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma as the ghost sleuths) to Ivan Reitman's GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) with Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson to most recently THE CONJURING about real life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.  

Wise's THE HAUNTING would be remade in 1999 directed by cinematographer turned director Jan De Bont with a stellar cast including Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Owen Wilson but by all accounts, it does not live up to the original.  In 2018 a ten episode horror series for Netflix called THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE based on Jackson's novel expands her ghost story focusing on a modern day Crain Family. Russ Tamblyn who plays Luke in the original has a cameo in this series.

A strong actress was needed for the role of Eleanor and the filmmakers wisely cast Julie Harris, a titan on the theater stage (Harris won five Tony Awards) to play the psychologically distressed young woman.  Harris displays a rollercoaster of emotions in the film as she battles not only Hill House's other worldly forces but her fellow researchers perceptions of her. Besides THE HAUNTING, Harris's most famous film role would be as James Dean's girlfriend Abra in Elia Kazan's EAST OF EDEN (1955) based on the John Steinbeck novel. Not to be outdone is Claire Bloom who plays the bohemian and ESP gifted Theodora. I had forgotten what a beautiful and talented actress Bloom was in the late 50s and 60s. Bloom can be found in some excellent films like Laurence Oliver's RICHARD III (1955), Richard Brooks' THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV (1958), Tony Richardson's LOOK BACK IN ANGER (1959) and Martin Ritt's THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1965) the last two films Bloom co-starring with her former lover Richard Burton.

Richard Johnson who plays anthropologist Dr. John Markway is the one actor in THE HAUNTING I was not familiar with. With his eloquent diction, good looks, and scholarly/scientific curiosity, Johnson's Markway is the archetype for future film ghost hunters. Johnson would go on to appear in Jack Clayton's THE PUMPKIN EATER (1964) with Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch; the historical epic KHARTOUM (1966) with Charleton Heston and Laurence Olivier; and later play another doctor in the Italian horror cult classic ZOMBIE (1979). Russ Tamblyn who plays Luke Sanderson, possible heir to Hill House, had worked with Robert Wise in WEST SIDE STORY (1961) as Riff, leader of the Jets gang.  I much prefer Tamblyn in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) and as Luke in THE HAUNTING where Tamblyn displays his boyish charm.  Tamblyn's Luke brings some lightness to the dark story but it's also his transformation from cynic to believer that brings a chill to the film.  And for those of you who thought actress Lois Maxwell only played Miss Moneypenny in the JAMES BOND films, Maxwell shows us a more dramatic side as Markway's wife Grace, who's arrival at Hill House plays a pivotal role in THE HAUNTING'S third act. 

Robert Wise may be one of the more acclaimed directors you've never heard of.  He was not idolized by French critics like Alfred Hitchcock or Howard Hawks.  He wasn't secretive like Stanley Kubrick or distant like Woody Allen. Wise was well respected by Hollywood and made quality films, tipping his toes in every genre. Besides exploring psychological horror in THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE and THE HAUNTING, Wise directed the western BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948) with Robert Mitchum; the boxing film noir THE SET-UP (1949) with Robert Ryan; the science fiction classic THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) and later THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) based on Michael Crichton's novel; two of the best musicals ever put on film in WEST SIDE STORY (co-directed with Jerome Robbins) and THE SOUND OF MUSIC; the war film THE DESERT RATS (1953) with Richard Burton and James Mason; the historical epic  THE SAND PEBBLES (1966) with Steve McQueen; and even a disaster film I saw as a teenager THE HINDENBURG (1975) with George C. Scott based on the actual event.

A few final HAUNTING trivia tidbits.  The actual building used for Hill House was not a set but the Ettington Park Hotel located in Warwickshire, England (birthplace of William Shakespeare). Some of the cast and crew even stayed in the spooky looking hotel during filming.  Director Wise and cinematographer Davis Boulton shot most of THE HAUNTING with various wide angle lenses to give the film an eerie quality and make the house seem larger .  They even used a special 30mm anamorphic wide-angle lens that Panavision hadn't perfected yet because Wise liked the distorted quality the lens provided.  Wise uses it in several scenes that give the audience a jolt as if ghosts are rushing down the hallway or at characters. 

For today's audiences, THE HAUNTING might not seem like such a big deal.  We expect big special effects and gore in the modern horror film.  But THE HAUNTING is a big deal.  It is artistically well crafted with a successful director and top notch actors. It takes itself seriously but in a good way.  THE HAUNTING just wants to haunt you for a couple of hours.  And it will. 

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

This month's film SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) is a film that seemed to be calling out to CrazyFilmGuy to be reviewed.  Every time I would flip through Turner Classic Movie's TV Guide with my remote to see what they were showing for a given week, SEVEN BRIDES would always seem to be one of the films on their schedule.  Its title was intriguing, leading me to ponder, "How could a family have seven boys?" But then I remembered I went to a Jesuit university where I met students that came from families that had nine, eleven, and even sixteen siblings.  Then, I read TCM's brief synopsis of the film.  SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS is set in Oregon in 1850.  I'm from Oregon. The last made in Oregon film I had watched many years ago Anthony Mann's BEND IN THE RIVER (1950) had some great Oregon scenery including Mount Hood and the Columbia River.  Could SEVEN BRIDES top BEND IN THE RIVER with its Oregon locales?

The answer to that question is an emphatic no. Although SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS is set in Oregon, the MGM musical directed by Stanley Donen (SINGING IN THE RAIN) was filmed on the studio backlot in Culver City, California with painted backdrops used instead of actual locations. Director Donen wanted to film in Oregon but MGM had another big musical in production at the same time, Vincent Minnelli's BRIDGADOON (1954) with Gene Kelly and Van Johnson so Donen's budget was scaled back. SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS was little brother to big brother BRIGADOON which was supposed to be MGM's big musical event that year.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the box office.  SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS turned out to be more popular and made more money than BRIGADOON, the Broadway musical about a legendary and mysterious Scottish town that appears once a century.

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS is not based on a hit musical like BRIGADOON but rather on a story called The Sobbin Women by Stephen Vincent Benet. With a screenplay by husband and wife team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich along with Dorothy Kingsley and directed by Stanley Donen, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS takes place in the Oregon Territory in 1850. The Paul Bunyonesque backwoodsman Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) arrives in town from his forest home twelve miles away with two goals: to trade for goods with the locals and to find himself a wife. None of the local women catch his eye until he spies a plucky, beautiful young woman Milly (Jane Powell) chopping wood for her boss Mr. Bixby (Russell Simpson) and then serving food at the local tavern to a group of men. In a whirlwind (just a few hours) courtship, Adam asks Milly to marry him. Adam visits the Reverend Elcott (Ian Wolfe) to ask his permission to wed Milly who has been raised by Elcott and his wife. Elcott gives his permission and Adam and Milly are wed. Adam whisks his new bride back to his forest cabin. 

Upon arriving at his cabin, Milly discovers Adam left out one small detail.  He lives with his six equally handsome, rambunctious brothers. Besides Adam, there's Benjamin (Jeff Richards), Caleb (Matt Mattox), Daniel (Marc Platt), Ephraim (Jacques d'Amboise), Frank aka Frankincense (Tommy Rall), and Gideon (Russ Tamblyn). Like their big brother, they all have red hair and red beards. The brothers are out of control and nearly ruin Adam and Milly's wedding night. Milly's not happy she's been misled but she soon makes the best of the situation, making the brothers shower and shave and say their prayers.  Milly can't understand why all these good looking young men have no girlfriends.  When Milly goes into town, the brothers all join her. The brothers are mesmerized by all the young ladies milling about in town but the brothers have no manners. They end up getting into fights with the town's male suitors, forcing them to return home. 

Milly instructs the younger brothers how to be refined, polite, and gentlemanly. And she teaches them how to dance. Adam, Milly, and the brothers return to town for a dance and barn raising.  Milly's girlfriends leave their hometown dates and come to see Milly including Dorcas Gaylen (Julie Newmeyer later Newmar), Alice Elcott (Nancy Kilgas), Sarah Kline (Betty Carr), Liza (Virginia Gibson), Ruth Jepson (Ruta Kilmonis), and Martha (Norma Doggett). In SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS best sequence, the Pontipee brothers have a dance off with the six local ladies versus their suitors. Later, the Pontipee brothers compete in a barn raising contest against three other teams. But the local men take advantage of the Pontipees new polite ways, dropping boards on them until Adam snaps and chews out his siblings for not pushing back. A huge brawl ensues, bringing down the barn and causing the Pontipees to be kicked out of town.

Winter arrives. The Pontipee brothers are dejected and lovesick especially Gideon who misses Alice. Benjamin plans to leave, tired of snow and loneliness. Adam gives his brothers a pep talk, encouraging them to return to town and grab their sweethearts. The brothers take Adam up on his suggestion and kidnap their girls. They flee thru Echo Pass, chased by their suitors.  The girls scream, bringing down an avalanche that cuts off the Pontipee's from the town until Spring. Milly is furious with Adam for encouraging the boys behavior. Adam storms off to a higher mountain cabin to sulk. Milly sends the brothers to live in the barn for their actions.  She becomes the den mother to the young women who begin to go stir crazy and man crazy all cooped up. Milly reveals she's pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. Gideon hikes up to Adam's secluded cabin to tell him he's a father. Gideon scolds Adam for leaving Milly and tells him to become a better husband and father. Spring arrives. Echo Pass reopens.  Adam wants to return the six young women back into town but both his brothers and the women protest. The townspeople including Reverend Elcott creep near the homestead to take back their women.  But the sound of a baby crying will cause great confusion and make the Pontipee Boys, their girlfriends, and the fathers of the girls to make a quick, comic decision that makes everyone (including the audience) happy. 

The film might be called SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS but some of the plot owes to SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES (1937) with Milly as the Snow White character and the Pontipee brothers as the lovable miners. Milly becomes a mother figure to the Pontipees who have had no maternal upbringing since they were babies. Milly tames the rowdy brothers, forcing them to shower and shave and learn good manners. She teaches them to say their prayers before every meal and how to dance with a member of the opposite sex.  And when Milly goes into town, the brothers join her, ready to try out their new skills on the town's local ladies. 

What's surprising is that Adam (Howard Keel) the oldest brother who woos Milly in whirlwind record time is no Prince Charming. In fact, he's not very sympathetic or heroic even though he's the oldest, the big brother his siblings look up to. He basically tricks Milly into marrying him so she can take care of his wild younger brothers. He may ooze confidence but like his younger brothers, Adam is a novice to the intricacies of a relationship. When Milly has their baby, Adam is the absent father, his pride hurt by Millie scolding him for his part in persuading the brothers to kidnap their future brides (Adam's retelling of the Greek philosopher Plutarch's "the Abduction of the Sabine Women" which he comically pronounces "Sobbin Women" probably not the best example to use). Adam shirks his man of the cabin duties, hiding from his responsibilities. Adam will finally come around but not until the very last reel.

If there's a real hero in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, it's dance choreographer Michael Kidd (THE BAND WAGON). The dance sequences in SEVEN BRIDES literally leap off the screen, innovative and modern, like audiences had never seen before. The barn dance (which took three weeks to rehearse) is exhilarating with its ensemble dancing and kinetic energy. Kidd incorporates axes and chopping wood as a type of dance when the brothers sing Lonesome Polecat. And the barn raising contest is choreography of a different nature, a combination of stunts and fighting that still plays like a dance number. Throw in director Stanley Donen's expert direction of the dance sequences and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and a score by Gene de Paul.

How do you distinguish multiple brothers and brides in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS? With vivid colors of course.  As the animal kingdom can attest to, color can also be an aphrodisiac to attract a mate of the opposite sex. Each Pontipee brother wears a different brightly colored shirt in both the barn dance number and whenever they're opposite their prospective brides to help them stand out.  The brides also wear a dazzling palette of colors to distinguish each girl from one another.  The town men are dressed in drab grays so they don't clash with the Pontipees. The Pontipees are all given red hair and/or beards to help the woodsmen stand out from the local boyfriends. For the record, the seven brothers and seven brides that connect are Adam and Milly, Benjamin and Dorcas, Caleb and Ruth, Daniel and Liza, Ephraim and Martha, Frank and Sarah, and Gideon and Alice. 

Howard Keel looks like a giant mountain man as Adam Pontipee next to Jane Powell's Milly in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS and no wonder.  Keel was 6 feet 4 inches tall.  Keel was a singer, a baritone, who had a good run of starring roles in musicals in the 1950s including SHOW BOAT (1951) with Ava Gardner and KISS ME KATE (1953) a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. It's reported that SEVEN BRIDES was Keel's favorite musical.  Co-star Jane Powell also had success in musicals in the 40s and 50s with films like A DATE WITH JUDY (1948) and ROYAL WEDDING (1951) with Fred Astaire also directed by Stanley Donen. But Powell would outgrow her girl next door image and move on to television and theater later on.

As for the brothers and brides, they include a former professional baseball player, many professional dancers including ballet dancers, and a dancer/actress who would later play the Catwoman on television.  Jeff Richards who plays Benjamin Pontipee made it to the triple A level of baseball before turning to acting. Chosen for his good looks and not his dancing, Richards was relegated to the background in some of the dance sequences. Matt Mattox, Marc Platt, Tommy Rall, and Jacques d'Amboise were professional dancers and perform the majority of the dancing in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. The one brother who went on to a long career in film and television was the youngest - Russ Tamblyn who plays Gideon. Tamblyn wasn't a dancer but had gymnastic training that's put to use in the barn dance sequence. Tamblyn would appear in Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins WEST SIDE STORY (1961) and later have a rebirth on David Lynch's surreal TV mystery TWIN PEAKS (1990-91 and reboot in 2017) as hippie psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jacoby.

All of the brides were professional dancers and many performed on Broadway. All but one of the actresses had their singing voices dubbed by someone else (not uncommon in film musicals).Virginia Gibson who plays Liza and marries Ephraim does her own singing on June Bride with the others dubbed. Nancy Kilgas who plays Alice Elcott (daughter to Reverend Elcott) and marries Gideon is one of the most striking brides. The blonde Kilgas would also appear and dance in the film version of OKLAHOMA! (1955). Then, there's dancer/actress Julie Newmeyer who plays the bride Dorcas and marries Benjamin. Newmeyer is better known to audiences now as Julie Newmar and would go on to fame playing the feline villainess the Catwoman opposite Adam West's Batman on TV's BATMAN (1966-67) and still provides her voice for the animated BATMAN videos. 

Some final SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS tidbits. SEVEN BRIDES was shot in widescreen CinemaScope but MGM was worried that not all movie theaters would be able to screen CinemaScope so SEVEN BRIDES was also filmed in a normal film ratio. The normal version cost more to shoot than the widescreen version but was never shown until MGM put it on the SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS 2004 DVD release. Although SEVEN BRIDES takes place in Oregon, no footage was shot there (the few live action sequences were shot in Idaho).  However, both Jane Powell who plays Milly and Jeff Richards who plays Benjamin were born in Portland, Oregon. It's common now for a film to be turned into a musical but SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS was an early example of this. Two television series would be based on SEVEN BRIDES. ABC's HERE COME THE BRIDES (1968-70)  starring Joan Blondell and David Soul and later CBS's SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1982-83) with MCGYVER'S Richard Dean Anderson and a young River Phoenix. 

In a way, the fact that SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS wasn't filmed on location in Oregon and outside I think worked in its favor. There's something surreally naturalistic about the mountain and forest backdrops. We concentrate more on the characters than the setting.  WEST SIDE STORY would show audiences what it was like to see dancers in an outdoor, urban setting.  BRIGADOON with its distinctive Scottish locale would have been served better to have been filmed in Scotland. SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS doesn't have one memorable song that audiences have sung over and over for generations  but it has plenty of catchy tunes like Bless Your Beautiful Hide; Wonderful, Wonderful Day; Sobbin Women, and Spring, Spring, Spring that will have you humming for a few days after viewing.  Isn't that what you want from a musical like SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS?

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Gunga Din (1939)

One of my favorite joys in life is to find out the origin of a word.  The Romans gave us words like "ovation", "circus", and of course "Casearean (or C-section)" named after Julius Caesar. But it was the second film in the Indiana Jones series INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984) that taught me the history behind the word "thug." Whenever I heard the word "thug", I thought of a heavy set, muscular, violent person. It turns out "thug" is derived from a murderous cult in India from the 1800s known as "Thuggee", a fraternity of ritual stranglers who worshipped the goddess Kali Ma also known as the Dark Mother. After using Nazis as the bad guys in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), director Steven Spielberg and executive producer George Lucas needed new, different villains for TEMPLE OF DOOM.  Screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz (who wrote George Lucas's 1973 AMERICAN GRAFFITI) from a story idea by Lucas turned to the Thuggees for INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM.

It turns out that INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM wasn't the first time the Thuggee cult had appeared as villains on the silver screen. Back in 1939, considered one of the greatest years for movies of all time with films like Victor Fleming's GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ, Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, William Wyler's WUTHERING HEIGHTS, and John Ford's STAGECOACH among that year's releases, George Stevens GUNGA DIN, a rollicking adventure set in 19th Century India based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling had the British army fighting off the Thuggees. But the Thuggees are not the only connection between GUNGA DIN and TEMPLE OF DOOM.  The TEMPLE OF DOOM filmmakers pay homage to GUNGA DIN with some of TEMPLE OF DOOM'S plot as well as scenes that are inspired by sequences in GUNGA DIN.

Conventional wisdom would have had audiences expecting that the second Indiana Jones film to stay in the World War II realm and have the Imperial Japanese army as the heavies following the Nazis in the first film. But INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM takes place two years before RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.  The film begins in a Shanghai nightclub (appropriately named the Club Obi Wan) in 1935. Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones (Harrison Ford) trades in his fedora and bullwhip for a white dinner jacket and red carnation. Director Steven Spielberg trades in his bravura action set pieces for a Busby Berkley dance number as nightclub entertainer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) belts out Cole Porter's Anything Goes (which will be the theme of this over the top sequel to the hugely popular and successful RAIDERS OFTHE LOST ARK). But looks are deceiving. Indy is here to make a deal with Chinese gangster Lao Che (Roy Chiao). Indy offers him the ashes of First Dynasty Chinese emperor Nurhachi and Lao provides Indy with an exquisite diamond. But Lao slips Indy some poison in his champagne.  Lao wants both treasures in exchange for the antidote. Chaos ensues as Indy uses Willie as a distraction to try and grab the antidote and the diamond. Indy manages to snare the antidote courtesy of Willie as they jump out of the nightclub's window to a waiting car driven by Indy's pint sized associate, a young orphan boy named Short Round (THE GOONIES Ke Huy Quan).

Indy, Willie, and Short Round flee Shanghai in a cargo plane (which happens to be owned by Lao Che). The pilots bail out leaving the three pilotless over the Himalayas. Indy inflates a large raft and the three jump out before the plane crashes, plunging down snowy slopes and churning river rapids before coming to a rest in the Indian village of Mayapore. They're greeted by a local shaman (D.R. Nanayakkara) who tells Indy that an evil has befallen the village. Their sacred stone has been stolen from its shrine and all the children have vanished. The elder believes dark forces at the nearby Pankot Palace are responsible. Providing elephants for transportation and handlers, Indiana, Willie, and Short Round reach Pankot Palace where they're greeted by Chattar Lal (Roshan Seth), Prime Minister to the Maharaja of Pankot. He invites the trio to a lavish dinner hosted by the young Maharaja (Raj Singh) with guests including British Army Indian Captain Philip Blumburtt (Philip Stone), visiting on a routine palace inspection. Indy brings up the rumors of a Thuggee cult revival but the Prime Minister and the Maharaja bristle at the suggestion.

After dinner, Indy and Willie flirt in their adjacent rooms but before they can consummate their evening, a Thuggee assassin emerges from a mural and tries to strangle Indy.  After dispatching the killer, Indy discovers a secret passage in Willie's room. Indy and Short Round maneuver past a chamber teeming with thousands of beetles, centipedes, and other crawling insects before becoming trapped in a collapsing room, about to be crushed by giant spikes before Willie rescues them. The trio continue through subterranean caverns until they reach a rocky perch.  Below them, a Thuggee ceremony commences at the Temple of Doom with high priest Mola Ram (Amrish Puri) and his cult performing a human sacrifice to their goddess Kali. Ram removes the beating heart from the victim before he's vanquished by fire in a pit to appease Kali. Thuggee priests place three glowing Sankara stones (including the village's stone) in the Kali statue's eye sockets. When the Thuggees leave, Indy goes to retrieve the stones only to discover in a level below, the stolen children forced into slave labor, digging for the last two Sankara stones in mines below the palace. If the Thuggees possess all five stones, it could provide the cult with supernatural powers. Willie and Short Round are caught by the Thuggees along with Indy. Mola Ram forces Indy to drink "the blood of Kali", bringing on the "black sleep", turning Indy against his friends.

The Thuggees prepare to sacrifice Willie next, placing her in a cage and lowering her into the pit to be consumed by fire. Short Round escapes from his forced labor chains. He grabs a torch and burns Indy, snapping him out of his trance. Indy and Short Round fight off some Thuggees and rescue Willie.  Indy grabs the three Sankara stones then sets out to free the children from their captors, tussling with a large Thuggee foreman (Pat Roach). Indy, Willie, and Short Round climb into an empty mine car where they're chased in a rollercoaster thrill ride by Thuggee henchmen before a final showdown with Mola Ram and his worshippers on a precarious rope bridge high above a chasm with a crocodile infested river below. Will Indy, Willie,and Short Round prevail and return the Sankara stone back to the nearby village along with its lost children?  That's why they call it a cliffhanger...literally!

Although INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM begins in pre-World War II Shanghai, once Indy, Willie, and Short Round arrive at the Indian village and then Pankot Palace, it's as if they've been transported back into 19th century India, prime GUNGA DIN territory.  We never see any modern conveniences like a telephone or an automobile after the plane crash. CrazyFilmGuy will explore the similarities between the two films after the GUNGA DIN review but a temples, elephants, a British Officer on a routine inspection of the region, and a rope bridge hint that TEMPLE OF DOOM has its roots in the classic GUNGA DIN. 

When Willie Scott looks at the camera and sings Anything Goes (in Mandarin no less) to kick off INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, she isn't kidding.  Compared to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (which was about as exciting as a film could be), TEMPLE OF DOOM is an onslaught of sight, sound, and virtually non-stop action. Spielberg and Lucas take this film up a level with a brawl during a dance number, a harrowing escape from a plane about to crash, a chase in mine cars through underground tunnels, and a tense finale on a rope bridge.  TEMPLE OF DOOM is a darker film than RAIDERS with human sacrifice and child slavery woven into its plot.  The banquet scene at Pankot Palace was not for the squeamish with eyeball soup, slithery eels, and monkey brains for dessert.  TEMPLE OF DOOM was so intense that it brought on a new ratings code known as PG-13 after its release. When I saw TEMPLE OF DOOM for the second time at a college screening, the sound was so loud, I was wincing along with cheering. It was an assault on the senses.

This second chapter of the INDIANA JONES series provides audiences with several new incarnations of Indiana Jones played by Harrison Ford that we didn't see in RAIDERS. There's the James Bond like Indy at the beginning of the film with a white dinner jacket and red carnation, sipping champagne (laced with poison) as he deals with gangster Lao Che.  We've never seen Indiana Jones so urbane before.  Then, there's the dark side of Indiana Jones when he's forced to drink Thuggee blood by Mola Ram. He strikes Short Round and assists in the near fiery demise of Willie. Short Round snaps Indy from the Thuggee's evil spell with a torch burn to his mid-section. There's the physical Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford is much buffer looking in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and Spielberg shows that off with a few scenes of Ford shirtless. Indy may be a professor of antiquities but he's been working out in between classes. Indy will need that physicality whether he's fighting a behemoth guard in the mines below Pankot Palace or hanging on for dear life from the rope bridge. 

Finally, there's the paternal side of Indiana Jones in his interaction with his 11 year old sidekick Short Round (Ke Huy Quan), a Chinese orphan Indy caught picking his pocket in Shanghai. Indy and Short Round have a touching father/son relationship throughout the picture. They may bicker and try to cheat one another while playing cards. Indy will scold Short Round for triggering booby traps but when they embrace after Short Round snaps Indy from his Thuggee trance, the love on both their faces is magical. In his second outing as the intrepid adventurer in TEMPLE OF DOOM, Harrison Ford has complete control of his Indiana Jones character displaying a more comic side to the archaeologist. Indy also displays characteristics of a super hero, rescuing a legion of Indian children enslaved by the Thuggees.

Most fans would agree the weakest part of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM is Willie Scott, the American cabaret entertainer played by Kate Capshaw (BLACK RAIN). It's not Capshaw's fault.  Willie Scott is the one poorly written character in the film.  She's constantly whining, complaining, and shrieking and that's only the first third of the film. If Willie could have been a little tougher like Katherine Hepburn or Lauren Bacall and less like a diva, she would have been a perfect romantic interest and foil for Indy. Instead, Willie makes us long for Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Give Capshaw credit.  She does manage to bring some empathy and humor to Willie in a few scenes. And TEMPLE OF DOOM director Spielberg and Capshaw would fall in love during the making of the film and become married (they're still a happy couple today in 2021). 

Some final thoughts on INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. Spielberg is one of the few directors who makes the most of his movie sets. He lovingly shoots every inch of the Thuggee Temple of Doom set with its enormous statue of Kali and throng of worshippers (shot and lit hellishly by director of photography Douglas Slocombe). Besides the Temple of Doom set, production designer Elliott Scott's collapsing room with spikes and skulls galore screams to be an amusement park ride. The Club Obi Wan from the beginning of TEMPLE OF DOOM is a nice nod to George Lucas's STAR WARS character, the Jedi Knight Obi Wan Kenobi. Look for a quick cameo by Dan Ackroyd (THE BLUES BROTHERS) as Weber, a British civil servant who helps Indy make his escape from Shanghai. TEMPLE OF DOOM takes the audience to some exotic locations like Sri Lanka and the Chinese island of Macau. Spielberg has a couple of nice big wide shots of Indy, Willie, and Short Round riding elephants through the Sri Lankan landscape that pay homage to Spielberg's idol director David Lean (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA). INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM has the luxury of filming it's India scenes in nearby Sri Lanka, a luxury the makers of GUNGA DIN did not have. 

Back in 1939, director George Stevens and his film crew chose an area northeast of Los Angeles called Lone Pine, California to stand in for the rugged mountains of India to make GUNGA DIN based on a poem by famed English author Rudyard Kipling. With a screenplay by Joel Sayre and Fred Guiol from a story by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (who wrote THE FRONT PAGE), GUNGA DIN would compete with THE WIZARD OF OZ (made in the same year) as the first great adventure film.  GUNGA DIN would mix adventure, romance, and action sequences, all set in an exotic, dangerous location.  This recipe would inspire countless films in the future including INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. 

GUNGA DIN takes place in 1880 with a British regiment on routine patrol in northern India returning to their British Army post at Muri. They encounter a group of nomads and allow them to follow them. That night, while sleeping, the nomads ambush the regiment, strangling the soldiers.  The nomads are actually the feared Thuggees, a lethal Indian murder cult thought to be extinct.  At another British outpost at Tantrapur near the Khyber Pass, the Thuggees cut the telegraph wires, cutting off contact to Muri. In Muri, Colonel Weed (Montagu Love) does not like these recent ominous incidents.  A patrol vanishing and communication to the next nearest town cut off. Weed orders the recall of his three best soldiers from leave: Sergeant Archibald "Archie" Cutter (Cary Grant), Sergeant MacChesney (Victor McLaglen), and Sergeant Thomas Ballantine (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr). Instead of enjoying rest and relaxation, the three men are found fighting a Scottish Regiment after Cutter was sold a phony treasure map by one of the Scots.

Weed sends Cutter, MacChesney, and Ballantine to investigate Tantrapur along with 25 British Indian Army troops and their camp workers including water carrier Gunga Din (Sam Jaffe) who dreams of becoming a British soldier and serving the Queen. When they reach their destination, they find the outpost desolate, the wires cut, uneaten dinners still on tables. The Thuggees are hiding on the rooftops. Cutter stumbles across a group of Thuggees hiding in a room including Chota (Abner Biberman), the leader.  A battle ensues and the three Royal Engineers use dynamite and grit to escape. They return to Col. Weed and Major Mitchell (Lumsden Hare) with an axe from the enemy, proof to Weed that the Thuggee cult has returned. Weed prepares to send them back to finish the job but Cutter and MacChesney discover that Ballantine has requested a discharge so that he can marry his fiancee Emmy Stebbins (Joan Fontaine) and go into her father's tea business.

Emmy throws an engagement party that night.  Cutter and MacChesney spike the punch bowl, causing Ballantine's replacement Sergeant Bertie Higginbotham (Robert Coote) to become sick.  MacChesney tricks Ballantine into temporarily reenlisting due to Higginbotham's illness.  Cutter catches Gunga Din practicing military maneuvers . He likes Din's initiative and allows him to keep a bugle the bhisti (water carrier) found. The Army led by MacChesney, Cutter, and Ballantine return to Tantrapur but the Thuggees have fled.  Gunga Din tells Cutter about a temple in the mountains made of gold.  Cutter proposes a trip to check out the temple which gets him thrown into the brig by MacChesney.  Din helps Cutter escape with the aid of MacChesney's elephant Annie.  Cutter and Gunga Din flee through the pass and cross a wobbly rope bridge over a canyon until they come across the temple. But before they can enter, a procession of Thuggees led by their Guru (Eduardo Ciannelli) file into the temple to pay homage to a menacing statue of Kali and swear in new Thuggee recruits.

Cutter gives himself up to the Thuggees, a diversion to allow Gunga Din to escape and warn MacChesney about Cutter's predicament. Cutter is taken up to a tower where he's tortured. MacChesney, Ballantine, and Gunga Din return to rescue Cutter but the Thuggees capture them. They're thrown in a cell with Cutter who's incensed that they didn't bring the entire army with them. The Guru plans on luring the regiment to be slaughtered. MacChesney pretends to share a map from Ballantine's pocket to the Guru with the troop's movements.  Instead, they grab the Guru and take him to the temple's roof.  As the English Army and the Scottish Regiment begin to move through a narrow pass where the Thuggees are waiting to attack, Gunga Din climbs to the top of the temple's golden dome and blows a bugle to warn the Brits and Scots. Gunga Din is fatally shot but his warning aids the English as they rally to defeat the Thuggees and rescue Cutter, MacChesney, and Ballantine.

Let's look at the comparisons between INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and GUNGA DIN. It all starts with each film's opening sequence.  Both films utilize a large man banging a gong to kick off the film.  GUNGA DIN has an enormous contingent of British officers in India.  TEMPLE OF DOOM utilizes the lone British Captain Blumburtt at the banquet scene but the Brits do come to Indy's aid at the finale, led by Blumburtt, as riflemen pick off Thuggees at the cliff's edge.  Elephants play a part in both films.  Sgt. MacChesney has a funny scene with his personal elephant Annie when she won't take some medicine. Elephants take Indy, Willie, and Short Round to Pankot Palace and provide comic relief as one elephant playfully pokes Willie at the campfire. 

Temples and the goddess Kali Ma play a pivotal role in TEMPLE OF DOOM and GUNGA DIN.  Indy discovers the Temple of Doom underneath Pankot Palace and has a front row seat to the Thuggee's performing a human sacrifice, even ripping the beating heart out of a poor victim.  Archie Cutter and Gunga Din find the legendary golden temple only to watch the Thuggees parade in and pay homage to Kali in a sinister ceremony.  Both Indiana Jones and Archie Cutter are tortured by the Thuggees at their respective temples.  

The most visual connection between TEMPLE OF DOOM and GUNGA DIN is the rickety rope bridge stretched over a gaping chasm.  In GUNGA DIN, it's the gateway to the golden temple but the rope bridge is cut at the end, sending some Thuggees to their demise. Spielberg makes the rope bridge the final set piece in TEMPLE OF DOOM, going all in with Indy cutting the bridge and then hanging on to battle Mola Ram as they cling to the bridge pressed against the cliffside.  The Thuggees as the main villains are the key connection between INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and  GUNGA DIN. In TEMPLE OF DOOM, they're diabolical enough to force hundreds of children into slave labor.  In GUNGA DIN, the Thuggee Guru sacrifices his own life to inspire his followers to storm the roof and kill Cutter, MacChesney, and Ballantine. The Thuggee's evil knows no bounds.

The last similarity between INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM and GUNGA DIN is a surprising one.  It would seem only Indiana Jones is interested in relics and treasures, "Fortune and glory", as he tells Short Round but GUNGA DIN has a surprising link to Indy in Sgt. Archibald Cutter (Cary Grant). Cutter's not an archaeologist but an amateur soldier of fortune, seeking artifacts and treasures for his own personal gain.  We first meet Cutter at the start of GUNGA DIN fighting a Scottish brigade almost single handedly after he was sold a fake treasure map by one of the Scots. That should have been enough to steer Cutter away from "fortune and glory" but then Gunga Din tells Cutter about a temple in the mountains, covered in gold.  It's Cutter's lust for gold and emeralds that nearly causes death to him and his best friends. I wasn't expecting that treasure hunting connection between TEMPLE OF DOOM and GUNGA DIN.

In a way, Cutter, MacChesney, and Ballantine are like three musketeers in GUNGA DIN.  They are the best of friends, bound to one another by duty and honor in an inhospitable land. Like the musketeers, they work as a team whether fighting for Cutter's honor when he's sold a fake treasure map or rescuing one another from cutthroat adversaries.  When Ballantine threatens to leave their fraternity for a woman and civilian life, MacChesney and Cutter sabotage his engagement and future for the sake of their friendship.  The three men are almost child-like in their love for each other wrapped in male bonding.

GUNGA DIN has romance and adventure but it's the amount of  humor and comic sequences in the film that's most surprising.  Yet it shouldn't be.  Director George Stevens cut his teeth in comedy working at Hal Roach Studios in the silent era, writing gags and serving as cameraman for those comedy titans Laurel and Hardy.  In GUNGA DIN, MacChesney showing his elephant how to take her medicine aka "elephant elixir" or MacChesney and Cutter trying to spike the punch at Ballantine's engagement party but not have their superiors drink it showcases Stevens comic sensibilities. Stevens would direct classics from all genres during his illustrious career including musicals (1936's SWING TIME), comedies (1942's WOMAN OF THE YEAR), Westerns (1953's SHANE), and sweeping dramas (1956's GIANT). 

Stevens also shows flair for staging fight sequences.  In a homage to his famous silent film era father Douglas Fairbanks (THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, THE MARK OF ZORRO), his son Douglas Fairbanks, Jr who plays Sgt. Ballantine has a nifty choreographed fight scene early in the film with some acrobatics and flair that his father would be proud of. Fairbanks, Jr also has the most romantic part in the film, a part you would expect that Cary Grant would have played.  But film legend has it that Cary Grant was originally set to play Ballantine but requested (or maybe demanded) to play the Archie Cutter role which Douglas Fairbanks, Jr was going to play.  Cutter is definitely the more complex, juicier role of the two. But they're both great roles and Grant and Fairbanks, Jr are fantastic.  Rounding out the threesome is Victor McLaglen as Sgt. MacChesney, sort of the big brother/father figure of the trio. A favorite of director John Ford, McLaglen played soldiers in all theaters of conflict in films like John Ford's THE LOST PATROL (1934) or Ford's FORT APACHE (1948).

The finale of GUNGA DIN seems a little anti-climactic with neither MacChesney, Cutter, or Ballantine actually saving the day.  It's the neglected Gunga Din who bravely sacrifices his life to alert the India British Army of the trap set for them.  That's the point of Rudyard Kipling's poem.  The narrator of the poem proclaims "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din," because the white soldiers treated Din poorly before he saved their lives while giving up his own.  In GUNGA DIN, the first choice to play the Din character was Indian born actor Sabu but he was unavailable (Sabu would play Mowgli in the 1942 screen version of Kipling's THE JUNGLE BOOK).  Instead, Jewish Russian-American actor Sam Jaffee played Gunga Din (with the assistance of dark make-up).  Unlike the poem, the treatment by the British soldiers toward Gunga Din is softened in GUNGA DIN and Cutter and Din are like partners in the film. Din breaks Cutter out of jail and leads Cutter to the golden temple. 

Like THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (1980), the second chapter of George Lucas's STAR WARS trilogy, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM is a darker film than RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and like EMPIRE, was not as well received when it was initially released.  But over time, I think TEMPLE OF DOOM stands up well as does THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, separating itself from RAIDERS as a stand alone sequel.  But where RAIDERS owes its roots to the Saturday morning serials of the 30s and 40s, TEMPLE OF DOOM borrows from GUNGA DIN, a film classic that introduced film audiences to the diabolical Thuggee cult (which the word "thug" is derived from) and was one of the first great adventure action films at the time, paving the way for INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM forty five years later.