OUT OF THE BLUE: Blu-ray (Eagle-Lion, 1947) ClassicFlix
Screwball comedy was already well on its way out, if not, in fact, quite
dead, by the time Leigh Jason’s Out of the Blue (1947) hit movie
screens. Its premise, that a nebbish hubby,
thinking his slinky, but otherwise boozy interior decorator has croaked in his
living room, dumps her body on a neighbor’s patio, just to get even, and, of
course, leading to all sorts of odd, though only occasionally amusing,
vignettes about ‘possible’ marital infidelity, is borderline grotesque. The
cast, featuring George Brent, Ann Dvorak and Carol Landis try to make us
chuckle at a situation fraught with macabre possibilities. But in the end, its
Jason’s direction, and, a rather meandering screenplay by Vera Caspary, Walter
Bullock and Edward Eliscu that tanks the exercise long before its scant 84
minutes have evaporated into thin air. The picture drags – pointlessly and tediously
– with only one or two respites that seem to suggest a better comedy is about
to emerge. It never does! Out of the Blue is a movie so out of touch
with what was then considered ‘mainstream’ cinema tastes, is it any wonder it
has remained happily buried from public view these many years since? The picture was produced for the short-lived
Eagle-Lion (1947-51) – an offshoot of the Brit-based J. Arthur Rank Organization,
perceived as a viable apparatus to market U.K. product to American audiences.
Interestingly, it was run by Arthur B. Krim, later to prove the dynamo behind
United Artists’ second renaissance; but presently, involved in marketing
British movies and reissues for David O. Selznick, in addition to supervising a
spate of decidedly B-grade homegrown movies already in the hopper.
Out of the Blue – only the 5th movie to be produced by Eagle-Lion,
is about par for the course of what the company was capable of achieving. Interestingly,
the first year’s spate of projects, made with an $8 million investment from Bank
of America lost $2.2 million in 1947. Whoops! Krim would later infer the
company’s losses could be attributed to paying too much money for second-tier ‘stars’
who could not hold up their end of the bargain. But actually, it is bad movies in general that
eventually wrecked the company – despite Krim valiant instituting of a policy
to elevate the product, and, briefly succeed with 5 sizable hits in 1949. These
barely kept Eagle-Lion afloat: T-Men, Raw Deal, Canon City, He Walked By
Night and The Noose Hangs High. Mounting debts eventually forced Krim
to shutter the studio in 1948. From here, the company lumbered along as a
distribution apparatus only; Krim, walking away in ’49 and Eagle-Lion merging with
Film Classics one year later. Krim’s ascendance to UA’s leadership in 1951 effectively
absorbed the distribution deal with Rank, and, Eagle-Lion was wiped out; its
studio facilities sold to Ziv Television Programs in 1954.
It’s really hard to appreciate a movie like Out of the Blue – its
plot, so utterly bizarre, its characters, tragically cartoonish and never engaging;
the whole affair trudging along at a snail’s pace that seems to transform 84
minutes into an epic of ennui. Honestly, I kept looking at my time counter to
see how much more there was; it’s that awful. The plot, such as it is, begins
in earnest when the alcoholic maven of design, Olive Jensen (Dvorak) arrives at
the apartment of married man, Arthur Earthleigh (Brent). It’s not a ‘cute meet’
– per say, the henpecked Art picked up by Olive at a bar. Art’s wife, Mae
(Virginia Mayo) is out of town for the weekend – so, who’s to know? Alas, Olive
is more interested in Art’s brandy than Art. Ordering her to leave, Olive
instead sneaks into the guest room and passes out. In the morning, Art
discovers – not only has Olive spent the night, but she has also completely
redecorated the room. How he managed to sleep through that – not seeing Olive
come and go with various accoutrements to make all of these formidable
alterations to his abode, not to mention, how she managed any of it being
stoned out of her gourd, is left to supposition. Hmmm…I thought it was Olive,
not Art who was drunk! Frantic to get her out of his apartment, Art
accidentally knocks Olive to the floor. It’s hardly a brutal fall. But Art now
thinks he has murdered the girl. Whoops!
Fearful of the repercussions – Mae’s the jealous type – and the scandal
(can’t have the inference of foul play…oh, no!) Art compounds his idiocy by
carrying Olive to the terrace of his neighbor, David Galleo (Turhan Bey), a
swinging bachelor with a wily German Shepherd, whom Art has been feuding with
for some time. Personally, I think it’s just sour grapes on Art’s part. David
has the life he would wish for: endless parties and a parade of playmates who
come and go at – and for – his pleasure. Ah me, the bachelor’s life! So, let
David worry about this corpse. What a scandal! Only, when Dave and his gal/pal,
Deborah Tyler (Virginia Mayo), who is hoping to breed her dog with Dave’s, find
Olive very much alive, they deduce what Art has done, and conspire, along with the
newly resurrected and perpetually-to-remain inebriated Olive, on an even more
diabolical revenge. In a darkly perverse manner, much later to be echoed and
lampooned in Ted Kocheff’s Weekend at Bernie’s (1989), Deb and Dave move
Olive’s ‘body’ about, leading to all sorts of ‘shocking’ discoveries by Art,
and a deliberate blackmail attempt to get him to drop pursuing a court order that
would have forced Dave to get rid of his dog. Presumably, to add more friction to
the fuel, a subplot involves a real serial killer stalking the Village, with
two elderly amateur detectives, Miss Spring (Elizabeth Patterson) and Miss
Ritchie (Julia Dean) believing Olive is his victim. Add to this, Art’s jealous
wife and…well…you can see where all of this is going long before the end of the
picture.
Terribly – oddly – unprepossessing, having been co-authored by Vera
Caspary – of Laura (1944) fame, Out of the Blue is a fairly
straight-forward, and occasionally low brow affair with an atypical laissez
faire slant on Olive’s raging alcoholism. Ann Dvorak comes off quaintly silly
with a modicum of charm at the outset, but then wears out her welcome almost
immediately and thereafter is just a real pain in parts south of the equator.
She does the whole ‘boozy broad’ thing extremely well – but, it remains a
one-note wonder at best and grows tiresome long before the final fade out. The
rest of the cast’s indifference to the chronic peril of Olive’s health is
fairly insulting, their insidious plying of her with strong drink to keep her unconscious
so that they can use her body like a decaying rag doll, is morbid rather than
funny. The screenplay is not bereft of wit – in spots. But if this is Greenwich
Village, it is quite positively the swankiest sect in the five boroughs.
Everyone in Edward C. Jewell’s art directed facsimile lives in 5th
Ave.-esque penthouse apartments, gleaming, posh and moneyed to the hilt. Worse,
director, Leigh Jason is doing his utmost to make 84-minute drag on…and on…and
on, to the point of…what was the point? George Brent dithers as the befuddled Egbert
of the piece, while Virginia Mayo and Turhan Bey have a modicum of
conspiratorial chemistry to recommend them. As the spinsterish Miss Marple
class, Patterson and Dean are foppish foils, poking their noses into
everything, while Charles Smith – as the amiable elevator operator – has a few
riotous bits of business to sell. In the
end, none of it adds up, however. Instead, Out of the Blue seems, as its
title suggests, to have suddenly materialized from beyond the stratosphere of
good taste as though the gods and goddesses of screwball are gearing up for one
last hurrah with this tired ole chestnut. Alas, the comedy is sour and the
direction bland.
ClassicFlix Blu of Out of the Blue is watchable but suffers from
chronic age-related artifacts. Overall image clarity varies from impressive to
somewhat milky with variances in contrast that greatly weaken black levels, and
soften, otherwise accurately represented grain. ClassicFlix have a reputation
for taking their time on film remastering. But on this occasion a bit time and
effort would have greatly benefited. This image never quite snaps together as
it should. The DTS 2.0 is basically clean, with only one or two fleeting
instances of audible muffle. We have been afforded no extra features here – not
even an audio commentary. Personally, I do not count trailers among ‘extras’ –
although there are 5 presented here – forcibly played before the feature.
Bottom line: seeking a ribald sex comedy with screwball elements? Seek it elsewhere.
While the casting is good, the movie is not, and, the transfer is bare bones
and passable at best. Regrets.
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
1.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
0
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