Confidentially Connie

The dated "Confidentially Connie" represents the era when people viewed meat as one of the healthiest foods, and also portrays a nuclear family (husband's the breadwinner, wife stays home and cooks). I think that the movie wants to see itself as a satire on the desire for success at any cost, but it comes across as a "Leave It to Beaver"-style story. True, the price war was funny, but now that we know that red meat causes heart disease and colon cancer (from which the carnivorous John Wayne probably would have died had he not smoked himself to death).

Basically, it's a hokey movie. And personally, having been to Texas but never Maine, I can say that I'd never trade Maine for Texas.

PS: Hayden Rorke, who played Simmonds, is best known as Dr. Bellows on "I Dream of Jeannie".

I don't care for the leads but I am a fan of each of the supporting cast. I figured they would at least have a few good scenes. Not at all.

It is the same tired whine about teachers wanting more money. The twist is Janet Leigh is obsessed with meat to the point of it being vulgar. Personally, I think she was sublimating.

I almost always watch a film to the end but I had to turn this one off halfway through.

According to IMDB, "Confidentially Connie" lost a ton of money for MGM and I can understand why...the story was just plain strange. Not so much bad as weird and hard to imagine WHY they'd do a story like this! Apparently, some of the IMDB reviewers REALLY hated it. All I know is that it was a pleasant and weird time-passer.

The film begins back East. Joe Bedloe (Van Johnson) is a professor at a small college where they seem to pay their faculty very, very little...so little that his wife Connie (Janet Leigh) has to make a lot of cutbacks. One cutback is meat...something they've learned to do without. But when Joe's dad, Opie (Louis Calhern) visits, he's shocked...and worried because Connie is pregnant and he KNOWS women need lots and lots of meat when they are pregnant! So, he conspires with Connie and the local butcher to provide meat at half price. But when the other professors families learn that the Bedloes are getting a great deal on meat, Opie is forced to pay for EVERYONE'S discount meat...otherwise Joe will find out about his father's interfering. To me, however, I just thought Joe was a jerk and should have been grateful for the help.

Was there some sort of meat crisis of 1953?? I was very confused by the film and its notion that many folks couldn't afford meat back in the day. Regardless, the idea of Opie giving his daughter-in-law his meat is a strange notion in a film. Not bad...just odd overall...mostly because the cast did a nice job with the thin material they were given.

Connie has a problem. She wants meat. There is some suggestion that her craving is pregnancy related, but her meat obsession seems well engrained. A local butcher describes her as "knowing the price of every cut." This is not new for her, Connie is "meat people," the sort who might name their first born Chuck or Patty. Janet Leigh, the gorgeous movie star, tempts her guests with a tray full of steaks. Don't think anyone will disagree, this is a weird film.

The whole meat crazy town explodes with a meat price war with angry mobs, meat investment schemes, and political intrigue. One Meatville citizen refers to their freezer full of meat a "our own little Fort Knox."

Connie's craving erupts early when she gives up smoking (oh no!) to buy 4 lamb chops. Should she be trading one vice for another? She looks up all dreamy-eyed at the table and says with her wide eyes "Why you know how I feel about ... meat." When Paw presents her with a sirloin strip, Connie admits she rates meat above jewels, minks, or money.

The old professor delays news of his decision on the big promotion so that he can enjoy the meat laden dinners at the homes of brown-nosing job candidates. Then, he accurately predicts the beef stew for dinner that night. Our couple moves into the lead on the job opening by serving a superior cut of meat.

Turns out Connie's husband, Joe, comes from a ranch, a successful producer of what my uncle called meat-on-the-hoof. After Paw says, "Thar aint nothin better than meat," Connie weakens at the thought and halfway collapses against the door frame as if she were leaving a smitten lover. All she can think of is meat. Paw wakes up from a ridiculous dream and comes to the obvious conclusion, "That girl has got to have meat." I'd say this Connie is the most meat obsessed starlet I've ever seen.

This is very possibly the worst movie I ever watched. But my wife and I sat through it, remarking later that it was as riveting as a slow-motion train wreck. This movie is so bad, we wondered how it was ever put on film. From initial premise to final scene, everything about this movie is the pits.

The premise of the movie is that the faculty at a small Maine college (symbolizing small colleges, in general) is so underpaid that putting red meat of any kind on the table is an extreme luxury, and a real budget-buster. On the other hand, they have money to eat plenty of fish and pay for loads of vitamins. The economics of this film also permit sacrificing cigarettes in order to eat lamb chops. In 1950 how much did cigarettes cost - 20 cents a pack? Whew, that seems like a lot of foregone smoking!

The meddlesome parent of a newlywed couple is hardly an original idea for comedy, but here it never generates a smile. The young couple are portrayed by Janet Leigh and Van Johnson. After his initial appearance, Van Johnson portrays his character as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, in the deepest of tragedies. Meanwhile, Louis Calhern, Johnson's "Pop" up from Texas, is hamming it up as a wealthy cattleman. Janet Leigh, somewhere in between, seems to think she is June Cleaver before giving birth to Wally. The director never seems to have any of them pulling in the same direction at the same time, consequently the boat just goes 'round and 'round and eventually capsizes.

The preoccupation with meat makes for one of the most bizarre plots ever made into a picture by a Hollywood studio. It was so freaky that I admit to never paying attention to whether the lines, themselves, if delivered by other actors under the direction of another director might have been funny. Let me think... NAAAAH, No Way! But, if you are a movie junkie and want to see a historically bad film - and I don't mean cheesy, like some B sci-fi flick - check this one out. You'll be puzzled hours after you watched it - "Just what hit me?"