Virginia Mayo

  • Always Leave Them Laughing (1949)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2022) As someone with a higher-than-average interest in stand-up comedy and its backstage drama, I could appreciate the good hook in Always Leave Them Laughing’s premise—following a second-rate comedian with a propensity for stealing jokes and wives from other comedians on tour. Milton Berle stars, which is the kind of thing that will also appeal to those with an interest in American comedy history—while relatively forgotten today, Berle was sometimes touted as America’s foremost comedian around 1950 (check his reverential appearance in 1960’s Let’s Make Love) and the film clearly plays on that additional context for casting. It’s probably why the film can feel so free to lambaste its character as a bit of a hack, and play with the darkness behind the performer (or at least as much as it could in 1949—this isn’t a warts-and-all portrait at all, just a mild amount of backstage drama to go with the comic routines). Berle is in his element when on a stage, but perhaps not so much a good romantic lead whenever the lovely Virginia Mayo or Ruth Roman are on-screen. There are also a few pacing issues, and comparing Always Leave Them Laughing to later films truly digging into the comedy backstage can be disappointing. But at least you get the sight of Berle in his prime, captured on film for posterity.

  • She’s Working Her Way Through College (1952)

    She’s Working Her Way Through College (1952)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, November 2020) The 1950s were a little bit racier than most people are willing to give it credit for, and you could point at movies such as She’s Working Her Way Through College as an example. In many ways, it’s a bog-standard movie musical representative of the times, as it features a small-town college putting together a show and movie viewers seeing the bits and pieces of the musical through the rehearsal process. But it also features Virginia Mayo as a burlesque star going straight as a college student with literary ambitions. For post-1980 viewers, much of the film’s notoriety would come from seeing Ronald Reagan play an academic (!) who, in a drunken stupor (!!), ineffectually tries to punch another man he suspects of hobnobbing with his wife. Later on, we also have Reagan delivering a speech of tolerance in the face of a burlesque star in their midst, which will strike some as mildly tolerant and others as a bit hypocritical. Anyway—Mayo is great, the tone is amiable, the comedy has its moments and later presidential history has made the film a bit weightier than it used to be. Worth a look, frankly, if only for a combination of Mayo’s achievements and Reagan’s somewhat memorable role.

  • Captain Horatio Hornblower R. N. (1951)

    Captain Horatio Hornblower R. N. (1951)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, October 2020) It doesn’t necessarily fit to call Captain Horatio Hornblower a swashbuckler—while there are plenty of wonderful nautical adventures here, it’s a fairly rare example of a captain in the employ of the crown, battling pirates, Spaniards and the accursed French along the way. (It’s the “Royal Navy” in the title.) But despite the official sanctions, expect plenty of ship battles shot in great Technicolor. Gregory Peck makes for a compelling Hornblower, and the addition of Virginia Mayo as a romantic interest only adds to the interest of the casting. The minutia of life on the sea is not described too badly, whereas the complex political machinations of the Napoleonic wars are explained in easily understandable dialogue. (Particularly amusing is the moment where Hornblower is told that the Spaniards are now allied with the English, so it’s a good thing that they never had to fight one of those massive Spanish ships. Cue the “well, actually…”) Peck and the battle footage are, in themselves, worth the viewing—but the amount of adventure and rollicking drama of the film are enough to keep anyone invested in the result.