Paradise Alley

Silent superstar Corinne Griffith plays a supporting role in this her last film appearance. After a handful of flops in talkies, Griffith retired from the screen in the early 30s. She returns in a smallish role in this effecting story about the people in a slum neighborhood.

Hugo Haas stars as a stranger who moves into the rundown neighborhood but sees more than bickering neighbors and delinquent kids. I was completely amazed at how this quirky little film grew as it went along and the story unfolded, making it a very nice film experience.

Griffith would have been mid-60s (filmed in 1958 but not released til 1962) but she looks decades younger. Odd casting has her married to Billy Gilbert (same age as Griffith). Their daughter (Carol Morris) was early 20s but playing a 16-year-old. In a "Romeo and Juliet" theme, she loves the boy next door, but Gilbert & Griffith are always fighting with his parents (Margaret Hamilton and Tom Fadden). They live in a "condemned" area in LA called Paradise Lane which is full of tenements, balconies, alleyways, etc. Into the neighborhood comes a mysterious stranger (Haas) who settles in and becomes friends with an old-time movie cameraman (Chester Conklin) who worked for D.W. Griffith. The kids and the adult neighbors are always fighting and making noise, so Haas and Conklin dream up this idea of making a movie and using the neighbors as actors. Haas theorizes that by having the people ACT as caring and loving humans they will BECOME what they are not. Sounds nutty but you get caught up in it, and the story takes a few twists that are pleasant surprises.

Among the other denizens are Don Sullivan as the boy, Jesslyn Fax as a battleaxe, Pat Goldin as Conklin's assistant, Almira Sessions as the landlady, Cyril Delevanti as the grandfather, William Schallert, and a bunch of very old-looking teenagers. Then there's Marie Windsor as a "show girl" in a nightclub.

Griffith has a short scene where she practices for the film using silent film gestures, but she admits that while she HAD been in show biz, she had been in burlesque, not silent movies. Griffith gets no special billing. A poster for the film lists Morris, Haas, Windsor, Griffith, Gilbert. The film itself lists Morris, Windsor, Griffith, Gilbert then supporting cast, and finally a "Written, Produced and Directed" credit for Haas and "who also appears as Mr. Agnus." Morris had a small career in films before and after being crowned Miss Universe in 1956. She's actually quite good. But most people will seek out this film to catch a glimpse of Corinne Griffith.

Though it has been many years since I saw this on TV, it has stuck in my mind.

There is a sweetness -- and I don't mean saccharineness -- about "Paradise Alley" that is missing in movies today. It is about people, people full of flaws and foibles, but who learn to be better people.

Carol Morris, to name one, was such a beautiful young woman that, even at the tender age at which I first saw this and saw her, I fell head over heels in love.

Marie Windsor was a widely talented actress, who could play the nastiest villain or the strongest heroine with equal ease.

Corinne Griffith performed mostly in silent films, and in only four talkies. Interestingly, she was in two movies titled "Lilies of the Field." She was, in movies I saw, glowingly, hauntingly lovely.

William Schallert, Billy Gilbert, Margaret Hamilton, and Chester Conklin were just a few more of this excellent cast, all of whom can and will hold a willing audience in thrall.

Finally, there is the master of this production, Hugo Haas himself. Frankly, I always found him to be just about perfect in every role he played, usually relatively minor ones. But as the big boss, despite an apparently small budget, he was extraordinary.

"Paradise Alley," this one, not the Stallone film of the same name, should bring a lump to your throat, perhaps a tear to your eye, and definitely a feeling that, by golly, this is a pretty good world after all. Or at least can be.

I highly recommend "Paradise Alley" and wish for more recognition for Hugo Haas.

Added 17 September 2016: By great good fortune, I have found "Paradise Alley" on YouTube! Rewatching it, after all these years, I see it is as good as I remembered, and in some ways even better.

Carol Morris, for example, looks and acts like the teenager she is supposed to be. She is so incredibly lovely, just exactly the girl you would want for your daughter or sister or, if you are young enough, your sweetheart. She is just adorable.

I am moved anew at this latest viewing. I do seriously and strongly recommend "Paradise Alley."

Added 29 August 2017: The great, the wonderful Carol Morris herself saw and liked this review, and even had the grace to write me! My life could end now. I am fulfilled. She is still and even more one of my motion picture heroes.

A social commentary on people being neighborly. Hugo Haas is a former director who notices how people in his neighborhood are mean to one another. He proposes to shoot a movie (fake, of course), and the whole neighborhood comes together to be discovered. Billy Gilbert and Margaret Hamilton have wonderful scenes together, and Marie Windsor is a hoot as a would be glamour girl. William Schallert has a prominent role towards the end of the film. If you like this movie, then by all means watch "What's So Bad About Feeling Good?".