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She was great in The Poseidon Adventure, performing to pay her travel fare. Loved her:
http://www.iann.net/movies/poseidon_adventure/cast/carol_lynley.htm
When she was promoting the film, I remember some contemporary talk show host, possibly Merv Griffin, praising her singing voice, referring to "The Morning After" single that was deservedly in high rotation on the radio; everyone was hearing the Maureen McGovern song every day at that point. It was part of the national consciousness, and disc jockeys announced it as "The Song from The Poseidon Adventure."
Lynley explained that that was someone else singing, and added something like "Her voice is much better than mine." And the interviewer said, "Well, you're much prettier than she is," as if some hasty consolation were needed.
Not that this is a Carol Lynley comment, but I'm crazy about the Renée Armand vocal on the LLL CD, to which Lynley lip-synced in the film. I always wanted that, and it was a thrill to get it.
Apparently, Lynley's costume in TPA was a copy of what Renée Armand actually wore to her recording session. Long-time Irwin Allen designer Paul Zastupnevich saw Armand wearing it, and that was it. But I'm struggling to find again where I got that tidbit from.
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I liked her work. She always seemed to play dippy characters, slightly spacey. I have no idea if she was really like that, but even on some semi-serious stuff, she came off that way (See both of her appearances on "The Immortal").
RIP Ms. Lynley
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Posted: |
Sep 6, 2019 - 12:07 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Although Walt Disney bought the rights to the novel THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Conrad Richter in June 1953, a month after its publication, he did not plan to put it into production until 1957. In the film, a young white man (James MacArthur) who spent his whole life raised by Native Americans is sent to live with his birth family and must learn to fit in with people he was taught to hate. The ending of the film was changed from the book.
THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST was James MacArthur's second film. Disney signed him after seeing his first film, THE YOUNG STRANGER. MacArthur, the adopted son of Helen Hayes and Charles MacArthur, was a student at Harvard at the time, and his contract stated that he would work only during the summer break from school. The picture marked Carol Lynley's screen debut. Lynley played indentured servant, “Shenandoe Hastings,” a teenager whose mother, father and little sister were scalped. Disney signed Lynley, who had been an actress and model since age ten, after seeing her picture on the cover of Life, but she agreed only to a one-year contract.
Carol Lynley and James MacArthur in THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST
Location shooting was done at Massengale Point, TN and along the Tennessee River, about twenty miles from Chattanooga. The Rowland V. Lee Ranch in the San Fernando Valley of CA was used for the Indian village, and the "Piney Woods Mountain" scenes were shot at the Rainbow Angling Club in Azusa, CA. Disney himself came to the Tennessee location for three days.
Iron Eyes Cody, who played the role of "Blackfish" and acted as technical adviser, designed and made over thirty-five costumes for the film with his wife, Yewas Parker. In addition, Cody was said to have translated the Delaware dialogue and helped the cast speak the language. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the actors playing Delawares "speak in the language of the Hurons, to which linguistic group they belonged." The Penomsquat Indians in Oldtown, ME made a twenty-foot war canoe for the film, which was to go to Disneyland following production.
Variety in its review, commented, "Like most Disney productions, it is pastoral in quality, almost fable-like in its gentle approach to some basically bitter situations." The Hollywood Reporter noted, "Volumes of fan mail praising authenticity have convinced [Disney] that meticulous research has given his studio tremendous prestige in educational circles and this is of real commercial advantage."
Herschel Daugherty directed the 1958 film. Paul J. Smith’s score has not had a release. THE LIGHT IN THE FOREST grossed $5.7 million at the box office. The film was telecast in two parts on 12 November and 19 November 1961 as "True Son" and "True Son's Revenge" on “Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.”
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I can't get that terribly direct moment from Poseidon out of mind, where Red Buttons has to spell it out to Nonnie. Don't know about you, but obits are starting to grate something chronic.
You mean the thing with her brother? Yeah, but if he didn't snap her out of it, she was going to blow her only chance at survival. And Buttons was truly great in that scene.
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Encore pic from S4 "Man From UNCLE" episode.
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Kind of a proto hippie chick.
Wore her hair in bangs, straight down, little coiffed.
Rip CL
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2019 - 12:54 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Twentieth Century-Fox bought the rights to Ronald Alexander's play HOLIDAY FOR LOVERS as a vehicle for Clifton Webb. Although the play was set in European tourist spots, the studio decided to change the film's setting to South America. In the film, when his oldest daughter “Meg” (Jill St. John) decides to stay in in São Paulo for six more weeks while on a school tour, to take a course from famed architect “Eduardo Barroso” (Paul Henreid), her father “Robert Dean” (Clifton Webb) decides to take the rest of the family there for vacation to find out why.
A December 1958 Hollywood Reporter news item announced that Diane Varsi was to play the part of "Meg," but she refused the role and soon after retired from the film business and moved to Vermont. Varsi's last film before leaving Hollywood was COMPULSION. Diane Baker then was announced as Varsi's replacement, but Jill St. John ultimately was cast. Gene Tierney was originally to play the role of wife "Mary Dean," but was forced to withdraw because of illness. The studio then started negotiations with Joan Fontaine, but when those collapsed, Jane Wyman was signed for the role, her first in three years. Carol Lynley played the Deans’ wise-cracking, jive-talking younger daughter “Betsy.”
Clifton Webb, Carol Lynley, and Jane Wyman in HOLIDAY FOR LOVERS
Backgrounds were shot in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil. Location filming was done at the Los Angeles International Airport, the Lockheed Airport and Clover Field, all in Los Angeles. The Variety review commented that the "superimposed scenes of the actors against the backgrounds" were not convincing. Henry Levin directed the 1959 comedy. Leigh Harline provided the unreleased score, which was conducted by Alfred Newman. The film grossed $3.1 million at the box office.
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Dimooch working overtime!
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2019 - 12:20 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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At first blush, it’s hard not to think that 1959’s HOUND-DOG MAN has something to do with Elvis Presley. And perhaps it did for executives at 20th Century Fox. Presley’s July 1956 version of the song, “Hound Dog” (first recorded in 1952 by 25-year-old African-American rhythm and blues singer Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton) took the world by storm. Later in 1956, Presley’s first film, the western LOVE ME TENDER, was released by 20th Century Fox, but he had made all his subsequent films for Paramount and MGM. So, when it came time to find a vehicle to introduce singer Fabian to film audiences, was it just a coincidence that Fox chose to adapt a 1949 novel named “Hound Dog Man,” a period piece set in rural America?
In the film, a farm boy (Dennis Holmes) and his dog go hunting with his teenage brother (Fabian) and an older friend (Stuart Whitman) in 1912. While following along a river, the three come upon fresh-faced “Dony Waller” (Carol Lynley), the daughter of eccentric dreamer “Fiddling Tom Waller” (Royal Dano), and her friend, “Dave Wilson” (L.Q. Jones), who is intent on taming a wild bronco.
HOUND-DOG MAN marked the screen debut of pop singer and teen idol Fabian, who had a hit recording of the film's title song (a bucolic tune that sounds nothing like Presley’s “Hound Dog”). In his autobiography, director Don Siegel stated that he was opposed to having Fabian sing in the film, but was overruled by producer Jerry Wald. The title song had words and music by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. The film’s score, by Cyril J. Mockridge, has not had a release.
And as a final connection to Elvis, the working title of this film was “Wild in the Country.” Twentieth Century-Fox later used that title for a 1961 Elvis Presley film.
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Posted: |
Sep 7, 2019 - 12:56 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In the 1961 sequel RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE, Carol Lynley starred as "Allison MacKenzie," the role that had been played by Diane Varsi in the original 1957 film. In the sequel, the residents of Peyton Place, New Hampshire, are not happy when its most famous denizen, Allison Mackenzie, writes a shocking novel detailing the sinful secrets of the town. Allison also falls in love with her publisher, “Lewis Jackman” (Jeff Chandler), an older married man.
Another up and coming actress, Tuesday Weld, played “Selena Cross.” At the time the film went into production, Weld was a light blonde, but because blondes Carol Lynley and Eleanor Parker were playing mother and daughter, Weld's hair had to be darkened so that she would be distinguishable from the other two actresses. This, despite the fact that she was taking on the role originated in the first film by the very blonde Hope Lange.
Jeff Chandler and Carol Lynley in RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE
Key characters in the original, Doctor Matthew Swain, Betty Anderson, Leslie Harrington and Norman Page all appear in the sequel novel but were completely left out of the film. Rosemary Clooney, who sings the film’s theme song "The Wonderful Season of Love", was married to the film's director, José Ferrer, at the time the movie was made. Franz Waxman’s score for the film was released by Varese Sarabande in 2006.
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In the 1961 western THE LAST SUNSET, Kirk Douglas played “Brendan O'Malley,” who is wanted for the murder of the brother-in-law of lawman "Dana Stribling” (Rock Hudson). O'Malley is working for "John Breckenridge" (Joseph Cotton), a whisky-sodden cattleman readying his herd for a drive across the border to the Texas town of Crazy Horse. O'Malley has been trying unsuccessfully to resume an affair he had 16 years before with Breckenridge's wife, "Belle" (Dorothy Malone). Instead, after Breckenridge is killed, Belle and Dana fall in love, while O'Malley is pursued by Belle's teenaged daughter, “Missy” (Carol Lynley).
Dorothy Malone and Carol Lynley in THE LAST SUNSET
Director Robert Aldrich later called the filming "an extremely unpleasant experience", and claimed that the script needed more work, but added that he thought screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was "two thousand percent right" to involve himself in other projects at the expense of this one, as he was just coming off the blacklist after more than ten years, and needed to re-assert himself in the Hollywood community. Ernest Gold scored the film, but the score has not seen a release.
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William Inge's play A Loss of Roses opened at the Eugene O'Neill Theater in New York on November 28, 1959. The play is a tale set in a Depression both economic and emotional. "Lila Green," a tent show actress who’s traveling troupe has folded, finds refuge with old friends in a small town. "Helen Baird," a respectable widowed nurse and former neighbor, looks on her with motherly affection, and son "Kenny" has fond memories of the “Aunt Lila” who used to babysit him. But Kenny is now a full grown man, full of flirtation and eager admiration, and fragile Lila, dealing with the latest in a long line of abusive men, is sorely tempted by Kenny’s sincerity and youthful ardor.
When producer Jerry Wald (PEYTON PLACE) decided to bring Inge's play to the screen, he originally considered Marilyn Monroe for the role of Lila, the washed-up showgirl. However, upon Monroe's death, she was replaced by Joanne Woodward. The ironic opening sequence (undoubtedly rewritten after Miss Monroe's death) has the bleached blonde title character, upon her arrival in Hollywood, being mistaken for Jayne Mansfield by a tourist. Natalie Wood was announced for the film (then called "Celebration"), as a re-teaming with her WEST SIDE STORY co-star Richard Beymer (who played Kenny Baird). Presumably, she would have played a beefed up version of the supporting role that eventually went to Carol Lynley. And Eleanor Parker was announced for the role of "Helen" that eventually went to Claire Trevor. The film had various working titles ("Woman of Summer"; "A Woman In July"), and was ultimately released as THE STRIPPER.
Carol Lynley’s part was shot, but later taken out of the film. A 19 tember 1962 Daily Variety item explained that her role, “Miriam Caswell,” Kenny’s virginal girl-next-door, had not been in Inge’s play, and did not turn out to be “right for the picture.” Daily Variety also suggested the removal of Miriam Caswell allowed filmmakers to help reduce the length of the film from three hours to a 95-minute running time. However, Lynley’s performance was partially reinstated prior to theatrical release, as indicated by the 24 April 1963 Daily Variety review, which lamented that her talents were “wasted in a thankless role.”
Carol Lynley in THE STRIPPER
Franklin J. Schaffner made his feature film directorial debut with the 1963 film. THE STRIPPER marked the final film for producer Jerry Wald, who suffered a fatal heart attack on 13 July 1962, while the picture was still in production. Franklin J. Schaffner took on Wald’s production duties after his death. The film featured the first collaboration between Schaffner and composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose score was released by Film Score Monthly in 2001.
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In the 1963 comedy UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE, Dean Jones reprised a role he had played on stage, the only member of the original cast to appear in the film. The stage production opened November 16, 1960 at Henry Miller's Theatre in New York and ran for 173 performances. In the film, Jones played “David,” the boyfriend of “Robin” (Carol Lynley). The two live together platonically to discover whether they are psychologically compatible. Robin takes an apartment recently vacated by “Dr. Irene Wilson” (Edie Adams), her instructor in marriage counseling. Her new landlord is “Hogan” (Jack Lemmon), an unabashed, incorrigible Casanova.
Carol Lynley and Dean Jones in UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE
In order to help his friend Edie Adams out financially, after the sudden death of her husband (Ernie Kovacs) left her debt-ridden, star/co-producer Jack Lemmon not only insisted upon hiring her for this film, but further insisted that her part be expanded considerably from the original stage play to give her more work.
The film was directed by David Swift and scored by Frank DeVol. When the film’s first round of advertisements were released, Jack Lemmon objected to their “debatable taste.”
As a result, new copy was created for both newspaper and television ads. The racy subject matter of the film was also addressed in a 13 October 1963 Los Angeles Times article by Philip K. Scheuer titled “The Movies and Sex: How Far, Hollywood?” Scheuer described the theme of UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE as “decidedly unsavory” and Lemmon’s character as “a completely unprincipled lecher and Peeping Tom.” Following mixed reviews, a 28 November 1963 Los Angeles Times item, also by Scheuer, noted that, despite American audiences’ purported “anti-sex-in-films attitudes,” a recent poll of moviegoers found they were generally more interested in seeing UNDER THE YUM YUM TREE than other current releases.
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