Curtain Call

Barbara Read has written the worst play in the history of American theater. Producer Donald MacBride and his director, Alan Mowbray, decide to produce it to sabotage their star Helen Vinson, and keep her from leaving them.

This variation on Kaufman & Hart's THE BUTTER AND EGG MAN is kept afloat largely by MacBride's over-the-top performance, although there are some good moments for Mowbray as he tries to romance Miss Read into letting him rewrite her script. Kudos also to Leona Maricle as MacBride's secretary, who carries out MacBride's senseless orders, from buying the worst script in the slush pile to renting a horse at 8 in the morning with a disdainful aplomb. With Frank Faylen and Tom Kennedy.

Stage director Alan Mowbray (Don) and producer Donald MacBride (Jeff) need a bad play to use as bargaining power for their star attraction actress Helen Vinson (Charlotte). Vinson contractually owes them one more play before she can defect to a rival producer. The plan is for this final play to be so bad that she pleads with Mowbray and MacBride not to do it. They will concede and give her a better play on the understanding that she signs for a further five years with them. The awful play that they choose is written by a young dreadful actress Barbara Read (Helen). However, things don't go to plan as Vinson loves the play.

This is an enjoyable comedy set in the world of the theatre and it zips along nicely. There are funny lines by all concerned, although I found Donald MacBride slightly irritating and sometimes a little harsh with his language. I like comedy that stems from bad performances and we get an amusing scene at the play rehearsal with the lead man storming off as the play is so atrocious. I once wrote a play. It was brilliant. Still is.

Helen Vinson was married to English tennis legend Fred Perry who went on to design a load of shirts. She plays her part well but the film just loses itself at the end. What is the outcome? I assume that as the play is a success everything is hunky dory and the team sticks together while Read slips away to marry her uninteresting boyfriend from back home. After all, even though she has written a follow-up to "The End of Everything", Mowbray completely re-wrote her play for the eventual performance. She can't write plays so it's back home to study domestic science. I think?

Helen vinson is "charlotte", the star, playing a star, in this sixty three minute shortie from rko pictures. She's been a complete pain, so the producer (donald macbride) and director (alan mowbray) give her a script that they think is just awful. Helen (barbara read) is the playwright, and when the producers try to make changes, charlotte convinces helen to stop them from making any changes, per her contract. It's all okay. The only character we root for is helen. Everyone else is evil and scheming. And when we get to the end, we're not really sure what lesson we learned. Donald macbride was always yelling at people in the marx brothers films. Directed by frank woodruff. Story by howard green. Read died young at 45 by suicide. Married four times. The irony of read, playing a writer who writes a play about suicide.

This version of "Curtain Call" (the title has been used frequently) is a lot of fun, with a superb cast of remarkably talented performers. Strangely, few of the stars are household names, but they have all the ability in the world. The three female leads are also extremely attractive, both in their physical appearances and their personalities. "Curtain Call" has a cute story, and it's very well done. It's an odd type of script, in my opinion, for Dalton Trumbo to be connected to, but he must have had a good original story. "Curtain Call" is well worth seeing more than once just for the interplay of the characters.

I wondered if Mel Brooks saw this film and got the idea for Producers, The (1968) from it. Both movies involve producers looking for the worst possible play - in this case for revenge, not for money. Helen Vinson is under contract to do one more play for Donald MacBride, but then plans to sign with another producer. So he and director Alan Mowbray decide to get her a bad play, and the one which naive would-be playwright Barbara Read has just sent them fits the bill. The problem is that Vinson adores the play and thinks it is a work of art. The movie bogs down a bit as Mowbray tries to get Read's permission to make changes in her play, and I didn't think much of the romance between Read and John Archer. Nonetheless, there's enough cute comedy throughout to enjoy, although the ending is a bit predictable.