Hienas do Pano Verde

I love this movie! Curtis plays it to the hilt. You see him scheming, you see him analyzing, you see him schmoozing & it all works. Leaving the slums behind & wanting a girl who's out of his league (but not her sister, who's clearly in love w/him), Mr. Cory creates a name for himself as the business-guy of a gambling house where said rich girl can cavort with him under wraps whilst still keeping up appearances. When Curtis sees the real deal with her, he lets her have it, but good! She deserves it. She actually makes HIM feel cheap when she's really the one who's worth nothing! See this for Mr. Curtis' snappy style & how great he looks in a suit! He's usually such a talker in his films. In this, you can SEE him thinking & it all works.

"Mister Cory" is a fast-moving and very engaging Cinemascope movie about a slick go-getter who cuts corners to get to the top. As played by Tony Curtis, Mister Cory - we never learn his Christian name - is charming and amusing, and the audience never dislikes him.

Mister Cory leaves his Chicago slum home and starts work as a busboy in a lake-side holiday resort for the very rich. Quickly he makes extra money by various games of chance. When he sees the elegant and beautiful Abigail Vollard (Martha Hyer) he decides he must have her, even though he is warned that she is a practised heart-breaker. Cory pretends to Abby that he is a rich guest at the resort, but his tactics come to nothing when a jealous colleague lets Abby know that Cory works in the kitchen. Cory leaves and becomes a small-time professional gambler. He teams up with Jeremiah Caldwell (Charles Bickford) who introduces him to big-league gambling. (N. B. "Mister Cory was made a few years before "The Hustler" which had the same premise.) They open up their own gambling house and invite Abby and her fiancé. Mister Cory and Abby re-start their liaison with dramatic consequences.

"Mister Cory" is an early Blake Edwards movie, and incorporates his usual fascination with the difference between appearance and reality. That difference is obvious with Cory but is much more real and important with Abby. This was one of the best parts Martha Hyer ever had, and she plays her role well, bringing out both the sexual hypocrisy and the smooth good manners of a well brought-up beauty from a privileged background. Hair stylist Joan St. Oegger and cinematographer Russell Metty made Martha Hyer very glamorous indeed, and the audience has no difficulty accepting that all men find Abby irresistible.

Other supporting players give good performances. Charles Bickford was always a strong screen presence and is so in "Mister Cory". Kathryn Grant is extremely likable as Abby's boisterous younger sister, and the remarkably handsome William Reynolds does well as Abby's rich and duped fiancé. Henry Daniell almost steals the movie playing the prim and snobbish resort manager.

The IMDb incorrectly credits the music to Henry Mancini. As Mancini himself carefully explained in his autobiography, it was the penny-pinching policy at Universal-International in the mid-fifties not to write new music for a movie, but instead to re-use music from previous Universal films. Mancini writes about "Mister Cory": "I didn't write the score for that picture, but as often happened when they needed music in a pop vein, I had been brought in for some source cues."

For some reason, "Mister Cory" is rarely screened today, even on television. An enhanced widescreen DVD would be very welcome.

UPDATE 2012: Mister Cory has now been released on DVD in Spain under the title "El Temible Mister Cory" Although in anamorphic widescreen, the picture quality is mediocre.

Too bad Mister Cory isn't given a first name; he deserved one...especially when expertly portrayed by Mr. Tony Curtis.

About the time this film was done, in 1957, Curtis was gaining rapid momentum in what would become a memorable career. "Mister Cory" was bookcased by excellent mid/latter Fifties' Curtis films such as "Trapeeze", "The Vikings", "The Defiant Ones", "The Sweet Smell of Success", "Kings Go Forth" and "Operation Petticoat." Each of these Curtis efforts received critical acclaim...particularly "The Defiant Ones," for which he won an Oscar nomination, and "Sweet Smell of Success", for which he should have been nominated.

"Mister Cory" rarely is listed among Curtis' major early efforts. It should be. It is a real "sleeper." The actor, and those around him here, lift the film multiple steps above its melodramatic flavor, into the realm of something quite riveting.

Curtis was 32 when "Mister Cory" was done, but his boyish good-looks and trim physique make him quite believeable as the story's young man just out of the Navy, seeking his future. However, if anyone believes Curtis became successful on the screen just for those elements need only to watch performances as this to learn otherwise.

Cory is a complex character study, with volatile undercurrents beneath his attractive, agreeable surface. Curtis expertly handles the various nuances of the role. He makes the viewer believe he IS the tough kid just out of Chicago, seeking to escape his seamy roots. First, in the verdant Wisconsin resort locale, and later as a manager/host for a glittering Lake Shore Drive gambling house catering to the wealthy and snobbish.

In reality, Curtis was a tough kid seeking to escape his Bronx roots. He certainly could identify with Cory. But merely identifying with a character isn't sufficient for a believeable screen performance. Curtis demonstrates that he brought much more to the table than attractiveness and a pleasing personality. "Mister Cory" is only one such example.

Joining Curtis in "Mister Cory" are a wealth of outstanding supporting people. Twenty-two year old Kathryn Grant, less an a year from marrying Bing Crosby, is the saucy, outdoorsy, girl-next-door Jen Vollard who makes little doubt of her interest in Cory. In the role, Grant is adorable. She favored marriage over a screen career, a choice unfortunate for viewers.

Martha Hyer likewise is effective as the lacquered, polished Abigail Vollard, Jen's sister. Like most males who come into contact with her, Cory is taken. Unlike others, he is not overwhelmed. Ultimately, he learns that her smooth veneer merely whitewashes over unattractive beneath-the-surface elements.

Veteran character actor Charles Bickford is excellent as the stolid Jeremiah Caldwell, Cory's friend/mentor. Russ Morgan also turned in a fine performance as Ruby Matrobe, the suggestively shady force behind the gambling house.

But, with Curtis and Grant, the film is stolen by British stage/screen veteran Henry Daniell.

As Mr. Earnshaw, Daniell initially is boss to Cory's busboy at the resort. Later, he is recruited by Cory to tend to customers' needs at Matrobe's establishment. It is Earnshaw's "air of snobbery" that is his most marketable quality to Cory. Daniell carries off the stuffy, Mr. Manners role with enjoyable aplomb. With an O Henry-like twist near the film's conclusion, Cory learns that stiff, protocol-spouting Earnshaw once was arrested...for bigamy.

The film's most thankless role is that of Abigail's long-time suiter, Alex Wyncott. He has spent much of his life eagerly, if a bit wearily, fending-off numerous would be-rivals for her. William Reynolds handles the role well, and deserves credit for undertaking it. Not only is Wyncott portrayed to be a rich man's apparently inept son, he verbally is accosted by Cory in witheringly demeaning fashion. Only near the the 92-minute film's conclusion is Wyncott finally allowed to demonstrate backbone: he shoots Cory in the arm. Curtis responds: "...I didn't think he had the guts."

Upon viewing "Mister Cory," those unfamiliar with the film might likewise reply, "Where has this been all this time?"

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Finally found a copy of it - a $5 download. Hadn't seen it in years so was fun to finally see it last evening. All of the major "players" are fabulous - Tony's hair is to die for - but I particularly enjoyed Henry Daniell as Tony's boss - and then employee - in what must have been one of his last roles. Kathryn Grant Crosby was almost too good to be true - but fun (and you can definitely see the resemblance to her daughter Mary). The dress/coat ensemble she wore to the opening of Cory's club was fabulous - classic '50s evening wear. I just read that the locale of the Wisconsin beach was really California , which was sort of a disappointment. But just today I crossed "South Sangamon Street" while doing errands. Martha Hyer's beauty precedes her - fun little fact: my mother was president of the Pi Beta Phi house at NU when Martha - and Patricia Neal - pledged. Ms. Hyer was a brunette/redhead in those days, from sorority pics I've seen. My mother recalled that she was indeed a beauty!

Unfortunately the DVD I just purchased from Amazon does NOT have this film as it was made to be in CinemaScope. It is on standard screen and loses so much of the intention the Director, Blake Edwards made it to be.

As for Tony Curtis he is very good in his role and I am looking forward to viewing the other 9 dvds I purchased in the same box set however I will wait to see how many more are in their original format. With today's big screen TVs I cannot understand while a movie has to be ruined by not allowing us to se it in its original format.