Drôle de meurtre

Let's get this straight right from the start: "Remains To Be Seen" is neither a cinematic masterpiece nor a standout comedy, even by the standards of its time. The storyline is rather thin, too, plus the movie tries to be a comedy and a mystery thriller simultaneously, a combination that rarely works.

Still, I like it a great deal. Why? As a light comedy, it's certainly entertaining and even a sourpuss will get at least some laughs out of it. Then, it's the setting, New York City in the early 1950s, a fancy apartment building on Park Avenue. I admit I've always been sold on 1940s and 1950s culture (including movies), the architecture, the automobiles, jazz music and even the way people used to dress back then. Americans in those days may have been a bunch of commie-baiting, racist, chauvinist bigots (I'm not saying they were, but they've certainly been amply characterized as such), but they sure had style, much more so than today (but that goes for popular culture in most Western countries, including Germany).

Anyway, what makes this movie really worth watching is the chemistry between the two main characters, played by June Allyson and Van Johnson. They gas each other practically the moment they meet, a fully credible romance one simply has to find enchanting. They're a wonderful match, two wholesome and outstandingly likeable people who seem to have been made for each other.

Other plusses for "Remains To Be Seen" are a host of great character actors like Louis Calhern, Barry Kelley and Angela Lansbury and, last but not least, an all-too-brief appearance by the magnificent Dorothy Dandridge, playing herself in a spirited, swinging and highly sophisticated rendition of that wonderful song "Taking A Chance On Love". Plenty of good swing music in that movie in general.

All the more reason to watch "Remains To Be Seen", which I caught on German Television late at night (and videotaped on that occasion). I'll keep it forever, that's for sure.

For years I've been wishing and hoping to see Dorothy Dandridge in "Remains to be Seen" on DVD. I've only seen a short clip of Dorothy's stunning night club number and it is a visual knock out! Lena Horne's movie appearances were largely confined to such cameo scenes which could easily be extracted for southern audiences whose only acceptable image of a black woman was an grinning eye popping big black mammy in a head rag serving "Miss Charlotte". Still Ruby Dandridge (Dorothy's "Mommie Dearest") made a good point when she quipped, "It's better to play a maid than BE a maid." Maybe daughter Dorothy used the same logic years later when she decided to PLAY a slave in "Tomango"...or maybe it was a simple choice "to work or not to work" since DD was offered no leading roles after "Carmen". There was just no decent work for a beautiful colored girl in Hollywood in those days and things haven't really changed that much. Halle Berry, Dorothy Dandridge reincarnated, still faces and fights racism and typecasting at the myth factory. Why doesn't MGM release this dud solely for avid Dandrige fans like me who would gobble it up? I also look forward to seeing a restored "Tomango" and "Porgy and Bess" on DVD. Other Dandridge movies that have not been released on DVD include "Blues for a Junkman"(TV)/"Murder Men"(European version w/nude scenes)" "The Decks Ran Red" "Bright Road" "Four Shall Die" "Malaga" and "Marco Polo".

This is an ingenious criminal comedy with great show numbers sprinkled into it - the main highlight being a grandiose performance by Dorothy Dandridge at a night club, which by the way is the funniest scene in the film, as there is a tremendous amount of confusion here which mainly afflicts the waiters, while June Allyson and Van Johnson just have their first great evening together. There is an impressing amount of very original scenes here, and the dialogue is virtuoso crossfire all the way - I don't think I have ever seen June Allyson in more splendid form, and yet she was always better than most. Here she even sings, while Van Johnson desperately shows off as a drummer. The crime business here is also quite a confusion, as the great mystery unfolds of a man already dead being stabbed, and it is never quite clearly explained why - it must seem a bit weird for someone to stab an already dead body and difficult to find a reason for it. By all means, he appears to have been an abominable person, June Allyson is his heiress and hates him for it even after his death, while the news of his death is the best news she ever got, while she considers the inheritance the worst. It's June Allyson's film more than any of the others, although Angela Lansbury also plays an awesome character, but she is the one who most remains to be seen. It's a gloriously witty dark comedy of very much hilarious fun, and it is strange that it hasn't been much appreciated and observed and paid more attention to for its remarkable originality.