FILMS MAIN

The Films of Julie London

1960s

The 3rd Voice        The George Raft Story       The Helicopter Spies

 The 3rd Voice

1960. Twentieth Century-Fox. 79 mins. Not available on VHS or DVD.   IMDb page.

 

Click here to see 34 screen caps of Julie from the "For the Love of Opera Gloves" site.

 

Click to see film shots.

Click  to see
movie posters, daybill,
and lobby cards.

 

Hubert Cornfield - Screenwriter, Producer, Director

Maury Dexter - Producer
Charles Williams - Book Author ("All the Way")
Ernest Haller - Cinematographer
John A. Bushelman - Editor
Johnny Mandel - Score

Cast:
Edmond O'Brien - The Voice
Julie London - Corey Scott
Laraine Day - Marian Forbes
Olga San Juan - Blonde Prostitute
George Eldredge - Judge Kendall
Tom Hernandez - Desk Clerk
Abel Franco - Police Inspector
Edward Colmans - Carreras
Tom Daly - Tourist at Bar
Ralph Brooks - Harris Chapman
Lucille Curtis - Mrs. Kendall

PLOT: Hubert Cornfield wrote, directed, and co-produced this standard suspense story about two people who commit both murder and fraud -- out of revenge on the one hand and materialistic gain on the other. Marian Forbes (Laraine Day) has been having an affair with her boss and when he drops her for another woman she sees green -- jealousy and greed take over. She convinces an acquaintance (Edmond O'Brien) to murder her former lover and then impersonate him just long enough to get their hands on a large sum of money. Everything comes off as she plans, but then as the two cover up their crime, the danger of being discovered looms larger at every turn.  Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

 

New York Times review by A.H. Weiler (March 7, 1960)

The idea of murder for revenge and profit, long a staple of the screen's suspense makers, is used to good advantage in "The Third Voice," which was exposed at the Victoria Theatre on Saturday. But Hubert Cornfield, who wrote the script and directed, as well as a small but largely effective cast have managed to keep this excursion into crime properly taut, complex and eerily fascinating for only about three-quarters of the way.

A dénouement that seems telegraphed and contrived and some situations that are overly garrulous and static keep "The Third Voice" from reaching a high pitch of excitement.

Mr. Cornfield, who also co-produced "The Third Voice" with Maury Dexter, must be credited, however, with endowing his story with as intricate a blueprint as has reached the screen in a long spell. If neither his murder nor his plot is perfect, it must be stated that he makes it an absorbing one up to that climax.

A viewer is made aware at the outset that the anonymous gent in the hotel room in a quiet Mexican coastal resort is up to no good as he rehearses the mannerisms of another man. Slowly but specifically it is made clear that the party in question is to be scientifically eliminated through the carefully laid plans of his secretary and former mistress, whom he has jilted.

Our meticulous connivers carry out their sordid scheme on schedule. The vengeful lady leaves for Seattle, her partner remains in Mexico to finish up the macabre maneuver that will net them $250,000 of their tough and selfish but affluent victim's hoard. The masquerader is given several scares and it appears that the timetable will not be upset, until the implausible climactic happen-stance illustrates once again that murder must out under Hollywood's Production Code.

Although it is never fully explained how Edmund O'Brien, merely known here as "The Voice," first became involved with Laraine Day, the mastermind behind the murder, he contributes an excellent job to the somber proceedings. Practically never off screen, his impersonation runs the gamut from conscience-stricken conspirator to greedy schemer who plans to make off with the entire boodle of the man he helps to kill.

Miss Day's contribution to "The Third Voice," while comparatively brief by comparison with Mr. O'Brien's stint, is, nevertheless, properly cool, efficient and ruthless. Since all the rules of organized reviewers forbid the revelation of what Julie London has to offer, suffice it to say that she is highly decorative and desirable in eye-catching decolletage as a lady with whom Mr. O'Brien becomes inextricably involved.

Although they all prove, once again, that murder does not pay, their efforts in "The Third Voice" do make it worth about 75 cents on the dollar.

The George Raft Story

1961. Allied Artists. 106 mins. Not available on VHS or DVD.   IMDb page.

 

Click to see film shots
and an insert.

 

Ben Schwalb - Producer
Joseph Newman - Director
Crane Wilbur, Daniel Mainwaring - Screenwriters

Carl Guthrie - Cinematographer

George White - Editor

Dave Milton - Art Director
Alex Romero - Choreography
Jeff Alexander - Score
Norman Pringle - Makeup
Ralph Butler - Sound
Roger J. Weinberg, Norah Sharpe - Costume Designers

Cast:
Ray Danton - George Raft
Jayne Mansfield - Lisa Lang
Julie London - Sheila Patton
Barrie Chase - June
Barbara Nichols - Texas Guinan
Neville Brand - Al Capone
Frank Gorshin - Moxie Cusack
Margo Moore - Ruth Harris
Brad Dexter - Benny Siegel
Robert Strauss - Frenchie
Herschel Bernardi - Sam
Argentina Brunetti - Mrs. Raft

PLOT: This is an interesting biography of the actor known for his gangster roles in films, and though Ray Danton plays the part of George Raft without looking like him in the least, he is still convincing in his mannerisms. Without getting into any in-depth plumbing of the actor's life, the story begins with the young Raft making his way in New York as a dancer and rubbing shoulders with underworld figures. Then he goes to Hollywood where he eventually finds fame in the film Scarface and gets typecast as a gangster. Tiring of this persona but unable to do very much about it, Raft's career starts to decline for quite a awhile before his success in Some Like It Hot. Along the way, his relationships with five different women are pictured in the briefest fashion. Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

 

New York Times review by unknown author   (March 22, 1962)

Nice guy, George Raft, according to "The George Raft Story." Misunderstood, too, claims this blithely glossy little biographical drama, which headed an Allied Artists double bill on the circuits yesterday. Bracketed with a dismally fascinating number called "Look in Any Window," the Raft picture co-stars Ray Danton, as the actor, and Jayne Mansfield.

The criminal associations of Mr. Raft, before his tough, patent-leather personality made him famous in films, are known facts. Not long ago, the actor himself, who may be as nice a guy as they come, candidly filled in a brass-tacks account to a national magazine. So much for the record—his own.

As for this picture, here is the tale of a young man from Hell's Kitchen, who energetically latches on to a crime syndicate and lands in pictures pretty much unscathed and with the best wishes of the mob. "Some things you just wouldn't do," reminds his former boss. Okay.

Slickly, patly, with Mr. Danton amiably to the fore, the story establishes his early dancing talent in some random night-club scenes, casually pulling in Julie London, as a smitten singer: Barbara Nichols, as a raucous Texas Guinan, and Margo Moore, as a nice cigarette girl protected by the hero. Miss Mansfield appears later, briefly, as a spoiled movie queen, wiggling around like a high-school Mae West.

One jazzed-up but interesting sequence shows Mr. Danton's natty re-creation of his prototype's famed coin-tossing death scene from "Scarface." In the film's most amusing and indicative scene, a friendly Al Capone (Neville Brand) tells him he liked the picture and blasts "the Hays Office for bumping me off."

The actual intricacies of Hollywood competition are given short shrift indeed, although Mr. Raft's star is seen dimming from careless wastefulness and "high living." One sequence shows Mr. Danton—or Raft—briefly managing a casino in Havana, before being signed for a "comeback" in "Some Like It Hot."

But the over-all tone of the film, stressed by the good performance of Herschel Bernardi, as the hero's warmhearted agent, is the loyalty and generosity of Mr. Danton, through thick, thin and career, to his former buddies in crime. Including, we might add, the subsequently murdered "Bugsy" Siegel. "A nice guy," insists Mr. Danton, and who knows?

The Helicopter Spies

1968. MGM. 90 mins. Not available on VHS or DVD.   IMDb page.

 

Click to see movie poster

and photo.

 

Anthony Spinner - Producer
Boris Sagal - Director
Dean Hargrove - Screenwriter

Fred J. Koenekamp - Cinematographer

Joseph Dervin, John B. Rogers - Editors

 

Cast:

Robert Vaughn - Napoleon Solo

David McCallum, Jr. -  Ilya Kuryakin

Carol Lynley - Annie

Bradford Dillman - Luther Sebastian
John Carradine - Greek mystic
Julie London - Laura Sebastian
Leo G. Carroll - Mr. Waverly
Lola Albright - Azalea

PLOT: Helicopter Spies is a Man From UNCLE "feature film"--actually spliced together from a two-part adventure from the UNCLE TV series, then shown theatrically overseas. The Men from UNCLE, as always, are Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn), Ilya Kuryakin (David McCallum) and Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll). This time they're dispatched to a faraway fortress in the deserts of Iran, where dwells megalomaniac Luther Sebastian (Bradford Dillman). Under the guise of the serene head of a religious cult, Sebastian has developed a nuclear prism, designed to zero in "death rays" upon unsuspecting aircraft. Helicopter Spies was originally telecast as "The Prince of Darkness Affair" on October 2 and 9, 1967. Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

1959     1960s     Films Main