Always Together

'Always Together' is a low-budget Warner Brothers drama with one of the cleverest gimmicks I've ever seen in any movie. That gimmick is probably the only reason why you'll want to see this film. Unfortunately, the gimmick is used in the service of a turgidly dull and unsympathetic plot line. If only this gimmick had been saved for a better movie!

The plot is simple, dull and implausible all at the same go. Jane and Don are impoverished newlyweds. Although they badly need funds, Jane is convinced that money is the root of all evil. A wealthy eccentric, dying from one of those convenient B-movie diseases, bequeaths a million smackeroonies to Jane. She accepts the aforementioned smackeroonies with unlikely reluctance, but without telling Don. Then the dying millionaire recovers, and he wants his money back.

The lead roles in this film are played by actors who never attained stardom, mainly because (how can I put this tactfully?) they stink. As the millionaire with the boomerang bankroll, Cecil Kellaway is a bit less twinkle-twee than usual. Ernest Truex (who usually annoys me) is impressive in a supporting role. A special dungeon in the deepest circle of Hell is reserved for Chester Clute, the most annoying actor in the entire history of Hollywood, who plays here a (much too long) brief role in the proceedings.

Oh, yeah: that gimmick. Like the character played by Mia Farrow in 'The Purple Rose of Cairo' (a much better movie than this one), Jane tries to forget her troubles by going to the movies. Conveniently, the actions of the characters she watches on screen at the matinees seem to parallel the situations which Jane is experiencing in her own life. Now here's the great part: the characters in these films-within-the-film are played by actual movie stars, instantly recognisable. Humphrey Bogart does a brief scene, weeping near a windowpane. Errol Flynn gets a look-in, as do Alexis Smith and Jack Carson. 'Always Together' is a Warners film, so it's not surprising that the actors in these films-within-the-film are all actors under contract to Warners: the impressive part is that they're all Warners STARS, rather than merely contract players. This reminds me of a running feature in the TV series 'M*A*S*H', which was produced by 20th Century-Fox: whenever the 'M*A*S*H' unit had a movie night, the movie was always (by some amazing coincidence) an old 20th Century-Fox film.

This sludge was written by Henry and Phoebe Ephron, a couple of hacks who were deservedly forgotten ... but who are now well-known again due to the recent prominence of their daughter Nora Ephron. I'll rate 'Always Together' 3 points out of 10, solely for the brief performances of the famous actors in the films-within-the-film.

The premise for ALWAYS TOGETHER isn't that bad provided you suspend disbelief, but the film just doesn't quite work for me--probably because the humor is occasionally a bit broad and the characters are seldom believable.

The film begins with a cranky old multi-millionaire (Cecil Kellaway, in one of his few acting misfires) on his deathbed. In a strange last request, he tells his lawyer to give $1,000,000 to Jane Barker (Joyce Reynolds)--even though he and Miss Barker have never met! This is not like IF I HAD A MILLION or the TV show "The Millionaire"--there is some reason he chose her, though this isn't revealed until the end of the film.

At first, Barker thinks the lawyer is either crazy or playing a trick on her. However, eventually she realizes it's true--she's now worth a million. However, her fiancé (Robert Hutton) is a very proud sort of person and she doesn't know if having the money will hurt their chances of getting married, so she keeps this to herself and they wed.

Shortly afterwords, Kellaway recovers and wants his million back. When the lawyer points out that Kellaway has several million more already, this does not deter the millionaire from doing some horrible scheming to get the lady to want to give the money back. For example, he deliberately makes sure the husband finds out about the money. Ultimately, the plan seems to work--as the money appears to be destroying this young marriage. Can the young couple sort everything out? Will the greedy old millionaire get his money? By the end, does anyone really still care?

As I said above, as the film progresses, the humor and characterizations become broader and less believable. Up until about halfway through the film, I liked ALWAYS TOGETHER a lot. By the latter portion, I almost turned it off but somehow stuck with it to the end (which, happily, did improve--thanks to the funny scene with the Judge and a nice plot twist). All in all, it's obvious that this B-movie did not spend a lot of effort on the plot and working on the actors' reactions (which occasionally seemed over the top). Hutton was completely uninteresting and Reynolds, though exceptionally beautiful, seemed a bit too kooky the be a real person. Watchable but occasionally tedious.

I was fully expecting this one to be the usual trite, mildly amusing romances that proliferated during this period. I would've been okay with that, except it wasn't - it was so much more. More original and way more than mildly amusing.

It dodged the first bullet of triteness when the love story was not between the millionaire and the girl, but between the girl and her (broke) boyfriend. Then, instead of the boy being affronted by the prospect of being supported by his wife's money (as in the hilarious movie clip shown at the beginning of this movie), he reacts in a perfectly sensible and realistic manner.

Beyond the freshness of the plot itself, it was genuinely funny, causing me to laugh uproariously several times. I don't want to ruin any of the gags; just keep in mind this is a satire of the usual rags-to-riches comedy, not dumb and dumber comedy. I found Always Together to be quite entertaining and fresh.

ALWAYS TOGETHER is a cute movie with a clever plot device, the conclusion never seems preordained. Robert Hutton is fine for the part of ne'er-do-well writer Donn Masters, tossing aside what one would think was the proper relationship between masculinity and money in a coupling. Joyce Reynolds has the eyes of star-crossed movie-goer Jane Barker, who comes by a huge sum goes through the film confabulating that incredible reality with the drama of the latest picture.

She gets the money from multi-millionaire Jonathan Turner, with Cecil Kellaway performing splendidly in that role. Having given it, through his attorney, Timothy J. Bull (Ernest Truex, Turner finds he's not going to die and sets about to go to great lengths to get his money back.

Without giving away the ending, it is very clever. The millionaire and his attorney are absorbed by the fantasy, while Jane and Donn confront their new reality.

There are gaps in the story, leaps of plausibility, but it is after all a movie, and a fun one at that. Remember, Joyce Reynolds had beautiful eyes, and the movie is about what Jane Barker sees and how she sees it.