El genio en la televisión

Imagine the surprise when the faculty and students of a small college discover that a prim and proper English professor was in fact a silent screen star. It's discovered when Clifton Webb's old co-star, Ginger Rogers is hosting a program showing some of their old films. The man she calls her Dreamboat.

I suppose it's hard to imagine for today's audience a television in its infancy. But in 1952 it still was and a good way to fill up a lot of programming time was to broadcast old films. Even the silent ones. In my youth WOR TV in New York City was an RKO station and had the entire RKO library available to it. In the infant days of that station their programming was mostly old films as I remember.

Anyway Clifton Webb is quite content to be out of the Hollywood scene and he's quite annoyed that his past has been resurrected. He and daughter Anne Francis have law suit on their minds.

It's a dated story, but the script is quite good with some nice witty lines for Webb and Rogers to toss back and forth at each other. Among the supporting cast, the biggest kudos should go to Elsa Lanchester the prim and proper college president who discovers she's got a genuine sex object on her faculty and wants to do something about it.

This delightful spoof is pure joy, elevated by a spanking story (by John D. Weaver) deft direction and scripting (by Claude Binon) and cracking cast (headed by Clifton Webb and Ginger Rogers).

What's great is that this comedy doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is: an amusing trifle with nifty observations about the film, television and radio industries.

One of our favorites, it's also to date (2004) not available on vhs, dvd, or shown on tv. Production Studio Twentieth Century Fox must know something we don't.

Clifton Webb at his most stuff-shirtish is the life of this takeoff on swashbucklers and television commercials. Even today these eerily seem to foreshadow the commercials still shown (only usually in color.) with their pointless animations and annoying voices uttering gross exaggerations.

Ginger Rogers, here without Fred Astaire, proves herself quite a good farceuse as Webb's nemesis, Anne Francis is good as Webb's daughter and Jeffrey Hunter, some years before playing Jesus in "King of Kings" (also known humorously as "I was a Teenage Jesus" because of his youthful looks, even if he was close to the right age) played opposite Miss Francis.

Other reliable character players included Elsa Lanchester, Fred Clark and Ray Collins.

The film was brilliantly directed by Claude Binyon from his own sharp script based on a story by John D. Weaver.

By the title, I was expecting a slice of romantic nonsense from Hollywood's younger crowd. Instead, the movie's a sharply written, cleverly mounted satire of the early days of television. In short, the film turned out to be an unexpected sleeper. Now ordinarily, Webb's snooty epicene characters don't appeal to me. Here, however, he plays it fairly straight as a college professor with a past he's trying to live down. The trouble is his ridiculous old silent films keep turning up on program-starved TV, much to the haughty prof's embarrassment.

Credit the quality to writer-director Binyon who sometimes showed flashes of brilliance in what appears an otherwise checkered career. And here I thought Frank Tashlin was the first moviemaker to mine TV's rich lode of absurdity. I love it when the professor turns channels randomly in the courtroom, and each channel is programming something ridiculous, including his old movies. It's hilarious. It's also hard to know how much things have changed since then, especially with the commercials.

The rest of the storyline is entertaining but nothing special. I enjoyed seeing a very young Ann Francis who makes a surprisingly good nubile academic. Too bad, however, there's not more of the delicious Elsa Lanchester. Her amorous moves on Webb amount to one of ditzy pairings of the decade. Then there's that clever tie-in at the end, helping make this 90-minutes of obscure, unexpected delight. Too bad the movie wasn't served by a more appropriate title.

Former silent film star Gloria Marlowe (Ginger Rogers) is hosting a show on TV that features her old movies. This causes problems for her former costar, Thornton Sayre (Clifton Webb), now a respected college professor. Sayre, who was known as Bruce Blair during his acting days, sets out with his bookish daughter (Anne Francis) to stop the movies from being shown.

What a treat this is. One of those movies you never hear about but is just great fun. Clifton Webb is terrific, throwing out one pithy line after another. I'm kind of surprised Ginger did this part, given that it dates her in a way most actresses of the time wouldn't want any part of. Actually, it makes her seem older than her real age. Props to her for not caring. You sure as heck wouldn't have caught Joan Crawford admitting to being 40 -- even when she was 60! She looks amazing, though, and is very funny. It's one of her best post-1940s comedic roles. Anne Francis is cute as a button and holds her own quite well. Supporting cast includes a wonderful Elsa Lanchester and an early role for Jeffrey Hunter. The fake silent movies are hilarious. It's especially funny seeing Webb channel Douglas Fairbanks in one of his action scenes. It's an underrated gem of a comedy that provides some smart commentary on celebrity and satire on television ("The phenomenon of television -- it encourages people who dwell under the same roof to ignore each other completely"). Definitely a movie you should check out if you get the chance, especially if you're a fan of Clifton Webb or Ginger Rogers.