The Man I Love

source: The Man I Love

The Man I Love_720p(480P)

Every cliche in the book plus an excessive number of stories might make this a laughable movie by more realistic standards of today -- there's even a rip off of the "Here's looking at you kid" line from Cassablanca. Still, the cast is good in this fast paced film, as Ida Lupino provides the solid center of the movie. Everyone talks tough, smokes too much, drinks too much and likes the blues. What could be more sophisticated than that?

What would this picture have been like had Robert Alda and Bruce Bennett switched parts? That would've placed Alda where he really "seemed to belong": at the keyboard, playing the music of George Gershwin. And Bennett was such a dependable actor that he could've easily brought off the role of club owner Nicky Toresca without a hitch. Alda made such an indelible impression two years earlier in "Rhapsody in Blue," that when one thinks of George G., Robert A. comes to mind. Thus, is seemed rather strange to see Alda as non-musician and Bennett as talented but tortured piano player San Thomas. Nor did it help having the Gershwin title song played frequently on the sound track. I kept wishing Alda would somehow again emerge as the famed composer-pianist. Talk about someone being too well cast in a part; like Hurt Hatfield as Dorian Gray, everything after these "signature roles" becomes unconvincing. Personally, I like Robert Alda very much, and regret that he didn't get better films. As for this Walsh opus, everyone seems to agree Lupino emerges the victor amongst some very messy relationships and ensuing tacky actions.

... with soundies being, basically, the music videos of the 1940s. The film has a warning for audiences with the first line. A couple of late night semi inebriated celebrants are trying to get into a nightclub but find it is locked. A guy working on the marquee outside tells them - to paraphrase - "Don't go in there! Those people are crazy!" The noise inside is a late night jam session for crazy people only, led by lounge singer Petey Brown (Ida Lupino). This whole scene is just a set up for Petey saying she is going to California to visit her family, all who have issues, and the issues extend to the neighbors. Among the issues is a post-war baby boom, a cheating wife, a WWII veteran hospitalized with PTSD, Petey's brother looking for a way to make quick easy dough, and a young woman who does not want to leave the house (this is more like a problem commonly seen today). Involved with some of these issues is slippery nightclub owner, Nicky Toresca (Robert Alda), from whom Petey gets a job as a lounge singer on her extended visit. A big portion of the film actually has something to do with the title - While on the west coast Petey meets a washed-up jazz musician, San Thomas (Bruce Bennett???), who is washed up exactly because he is still in love with his ex-wife, being dumped has sapped his creativity and drive, and he has taken to being a seaman on commercial lines to support himself. For some reason this emotionally and geographically unavailable person is the man of Petey's dreams. Meanwhile her boss Toresca is trying to have an affair with her and about half a dozen other women. Complications and hepcat dialogue I could barely decipher ensue. To judge this thing on its narrative structure would be a mistake. It meanders incoherently from scene to scene and the plot seems to be held together with spit and bailing wire. But that atmosphere, those jazz musical numbers and jam sessions, that post-war boom and the women with fashions that look like something you would wear on a dare with wide shoulder pads and covered in furs with hats to match. It is like stepping into a time machine. I'd recommend this one, but as for the plot, don't ask questions just go with it.

This atmospheric drama is Warners film making at near its best. Part family drama, part nightclub story with many touches of noir thrown in this is a fine example of what could be termed a factory film from Hollywood's golden age. That is meant to be a compliment, by having all the necessary components on salary...actors, directors and technicians the studios were able to turn out fine entertainments like this consistently. As far as this particular picture goes it contains what might be Ida Lupino's best performance she's saucy, funny but still able to do the heavy lifting dramatics that the role requires at times. Plus she looks sensational, her clothes are amazing she wears them with great style and dig the forties slang they sling around. Also quite good is Robert Alda as a sleazy nightclub owner and Dolores Moran as an incredibly beautiful but very foolish tramp across the hall. The film's only real weak spot is Bruce Bennett a handsome but bland leading man who is miscast as a man of mystery that Ida finds irresistible, that's the problem he is very easily resistible. If the part had been cast with an actor with a more charismatic presence like Kirk Douglas or Robert Mitchum it would have made the picture even stronger. This was the inspiration for Scorsese's New York, New York and while the story differs it's easy to see his influences with the atmosphere here. A fine film overall anchored by great work from one of the best and most undervalued of actresses Ida Lupino.

Even though Ida doesn't do her own singing (Peg La Centra does that), the emotion and feeling she puts into the song "The Man I Love" is worth the price of admission. She also does a great version of "Why Was I Born?" later in the film. She plays Petey Brown, a beautiful jazz singer who is set to pay her family in California a long over due visit - she wants to forget about "him" - "he was a pill" she wisecracks. There is plenty going on at home to make her forget and she instantly becomes a "Miss Fixit" to her broken family. For a start there is her sister Sally (Andrea King) trying to keep everything together for her husband Roy (John Ridgely) who is in hospital recovering from the psychological effects of the War. Her younger sister Ginny (beautiful Martha Vickers) would rather sit at home in a housecoat and look after the twins of the troubled couple across the hall. Neighbour Johnny thinks everything is okay, but his wife, Gloria, spends a lot of time nightclubbing with "girlfriends" and needs furs and pretty clothes to match her lifestyle. Johnny is happy to work double shifts until he hurts his hand. Petey's brother, Joey, is trying to make easy money running messages for a local racketeer, Nicky Toresca (Robert Alda). With all the plot complications it is to Ida Lupino's magnificence as an actress that she is able to be the core and focus of the story - I also have never seen her look more beautiful. She gives a gritty and gutsy performance as the "been around" Petey. She soon comes across Nicky (who has been making Sally's life difficult with his forceful ways) - she gets a job as a singer at his club, but he has no luck with her either as she soon becomes entangled with disillusioned pianist San Thomas (Bruce Bennett). When man hungry Gloria (Dolores Moran) is accidentally killed, Joey, who was escorting her home, comes to his senses, as does Johnny, who comes to the club after Nicky's blood. The film ends when songbird Petey walks through the fog on her way to another town "maybe Chicago...New York". Three other beautiful actresses got a chance to shine as well. Andrea King was one of the most beautiful and enigmatic of the 1940s starlets. Big things were predicted for her but she unwittingly fell foul of Bette Davis and from then on it was the beginning of the end, plus a few bad career choices. Even though Dolores Moran didn't set the movie world on fire she was a popular pinup girl with the soldiers. Mostly in uncredited parts, "The Man I Love" may well have given her, her meatiest role to date. Martha Vickers was another eye catching starlet who had her most attention getting role as Lauren Bacall's fainting sister in "The Big Sleep" - she was a popular pinup as well. Highly Recommended.

My favorite of the movie was the "bitch-slappin'" scene where she is on the staircase knocking some sense into neighbor Johnny's head. What a hoot and what a total surprise! And right in front of her wanna-be gangster boyfriend, Nicky! I cheered and clapped myself silly. Fine film,lots of plot twists and turns. San, the piano player, was a dour disappointment. Too stiff and unemotional for me. Looked a lot like Charleston Heston, too. Ida Lupino's gowns were simply divine and she looked simply fine in them. Great costuming for the whole cast. The neighbor's wife, Gloria, was hilarious with her anti-Mom comments that were decidedly politically incorrect. All in all, great fun.

This movie made me uncomfortable at times, guessing at what effect was intended that seems to be misfiring laughably time and time again. Embarrassed for the artists basically. It gets into some very high maudlin stuff what with those cloying, belabored but actually interesting shots of the twin babies on xmas eve yet. Some of the stuff that comes out of peoples' mouths, oy! For example, Mom counsels son, who has just gotten into a fight cause another kid taunted him saying his father was "in the loony bin". She whips out a framed photo of Dad in uniform and says to the kid "Does this look like someone who's been in the loony bin!?" My favorite moment in terms of wow what were they thinking was "Petey"s arrival at sis' house when hunky neighbor Johnny shows up. "Petey" cruises him like the most brazen hussy on well, I don't know what street the male female and she male hookers hang out on in Long Beach, but "Petey" seemed as though she'd be right at home there, only she's at her sister's house and is sort of pumping and gyrating in excitement right in front of the guy's wife too! Not that THAT lipsticked platinum blonde could care! And that "Petey"? Why, she can't even give it a rest. Despite Johnny's blushing, she picks up on this vibe again later in the scene with an aside , "What kind of VITAMINS do you take?" Priceless! Ido Lupino was very good and all but very in sych with the weird unsettling aspects of this production. Details, including details of the big picture here, make this film worthwhile though. The singular ending, for one thing. It feels very confusing but very truthful in a strange way. maybe. The piano playing is nice actually but when "Petey" talks about San's rough road in life it makes him out to be like Charlie Parker or something when he's really more of a Lee Liberace type, which I don't mean as any insult but then again maybe his flowery way of playing was ahead of its time in the 40s and the 50s was when that "General Hospital" sound came to the fore, I mean the music is way better than the piano on General Hospital though. Anyway, I really did like the corny piano playing it's very good. Some of those lyrics by Ira Gershwin make you wish they were songs without words sometimes though. It does add to the campiness of this adventure though. Oh one other thing. There is a dropped storyline somewhere in this picture. The young girl aptly named "Virginia" who never wants to go out, the one Nicky if he had any taste would be after first but he doesn't even notice her, remember? Well, she goes out with this guy at one point on a double date sort to go see "Petey" sing and . . . then she sort of recedes, nothing happens to her, she's a loose end, if not a loose woman. Maybe it was originally that she and "Petey" find happiness together, Sappho style? It would work!

source: The Man I Love