FRAMED (1947) – Directed by Richard Wallace, starring Glenn Ford, Janis Carter & Edgar Buchanan

Glenn Ford receives solo billing in this film noir.

First discovered in a speeding truck going out of control one cannot help if this is a metaphor for what is going to happen to him. After all, the title FRAMED implies someone getting into hot water.

Ford plays Mike Lambert, a down-on-his-luck mining engineer looking for a job but finding a whole lot of trouble instead.

In true film noir fashion the trouble involves a woman. It also involves a certain stylized quality to the production: hard-boiled dialogue, sensational plot twists, a seductive and deceitful femme fatale—and murder. All the ingredients that endear these films to us, right?

Accordingly, because we just know there are going to be lots of juicy parts ahead, we can forgive an initial rather extended bit of exposition between Janis Carter and Barry Sullivan while Ford sleeps off a drunk. His drinking to excess has been fueled by his recent bad luck, which includes the humiliation of being bailed out of jail by a woman. (His mind-set, not mine!)

The performances really help this film. Particularly the chemistry between Ford and co-star Edgar Buchanan, which, as in all their pairings right up to CADE’S COUNTY in the seventies, lights up the screen. In fact, Buchanan’s Jeff Cunningham is the most colourful character in the film. Janis Carter is a bit wooden and never quite matches Ford onscreen, despite her cool blonde beauty.

There is an obvious GILDA influence here, in fact the advertising for FRAMED stated Ford was ‘the man who tamed Gilda’. Unfortunately Carter was no Rita Hayworth, as posterity has proven.

An interesting plot twist sees Janis Carter betray Barry Sullivan in favour of Glenn. This occurs precisely at the point where it appears they are about to do Glenn in. The story then kicks into high gear, with Ford racing against the clock to clear his friend, Buchanan, who has been indicted for Sullivan’s murder. (It is Buchanan who has been ‘framed’, not Ford). The shift in story allows Ford to take over the film with an appropriately intense performance.

FRAMED rates as an entertaining film with a reliable, textured, though perhaps ultimately uninspired performance by Glenn Ford. Uninspired because it was so soon after GILDA. Was he perhaps thinking, ‘I sure miss Rita?’

See it anyway. After all, you can never go wrong with a Glenn Ford movie—at least not until we come to some real stinkers (fortunately a long way off yet).

THE MATING OF MILLIE (1948) – Directed by Henry Levin, starring Glenn Ford & Evelyn Keyes

The opening score of this film indicates a romantic comedy is to follow. It’s a nice change of pace after the angst of FRAMED.

Ford plays Doug Andrews, a bus driver at the beginning of the film, who has just drawn another complaint from a dissatisfied customer. ‘Patience and politeness’ is the company slogan at his bus line. He’d better watch out…

The luscious Evelyn Keyes plays the title character, Miss Mildred McGonigle, Assistant Personnel Director of a Los Angeles employment firm. She seems dedicated to remaining a spinster. Her primness is evidenced by her tightly wound hair bun (all her female underlings have long, flowing hair—obviously an indication of their being man-hungry!) It doesn’t take much to figure out that Ford’s happy-go-lucky bus driver and prim and proper and secretly lonely Miss McGonigle are going to light fires together.

And that’s the fun of this movie, the anticipation. The scene where they first meet on Ford’s crowded bus is charming. Were the role of Doug Andrews not so flat-out American, Cary Grant could’ve played it with his usual aplomb. All this to say that Glenn Ford’s oft-overlooked skill as a light comedian attests to his range and appeal as a leading man.

The plot focuses on Keyes’ attempts to find a husband so that she can adopt an orphaned little boy who has been her neighbour. The child is played by Jimmy Hunt, who went on to appear in the classic sci-fi film INVADERS FROM MARS, made a few years later when he was at the pinnacle of his ‘gosh/gee!’ years. Millie McGonigle’s love for this little boy and desire to adopt him forces her to confront her fears about dating, providing much of the film’s charm and humour.

Ultimately light comedy depends on the chemistry and appeal of the two stars, and Ford and Keyes make a good on-screen couple.

After the cynical turns Ford gave us in GILDA and FRAMED, it is delightful to see him play the young turk again. If nothing else, THE MATING OF MILLIE is an opportunity for Glenn Ford to avoid type-casting. As is to be expected from this consummate professional, he succeeds.

MILLIE really takes off when Ford and Keyes have their first date. Their mutual nervousness plays beautifully as the lovely Ms. Keyes lets down her hair and offers to ‘slip into something more comfortable’. Ford discovers Millie’s diary while she is in her bedroom trying to make up her mind what to wear and displays some nice comic touches as he first resists the temptation to open the diary (to see what she has written about him) then succumbs to his ego-driven curiosity, only to find the book full of blank pages. Here occurs the most interesting moment of the film as Ford breaks the ‘fourth wall’ and looks directly at the camera, saying ‘nothing ever happens to her!’

As a counterpoint to Ford’s diary business Keyes is seen trying on one attractive outfit after another, only to emerge from her bedroom a few minutes later dressed exactly as before!

This crucial scene segues into a pact of friendship when Ford agrees to help Millie find a husband—even though we know who the husband is going to turn out to be!

There are other amusing scenes. The ‘hello Mr. Galloway’ scene in the back of the taxi is priceless!

Genuine wit abounds in THE MATING OF MILLIE. Great lines, like ‘I never kiss single women, they’re too easy to get married’, are charming in light of the sleaziness of today’s ‘romantic comedies’ where no one thinks twice about bedding multiple partners.

Keyes’ dilemma when she finds herself falling in love with Ford—and resisting—is something to behold and another testament to the film’s keen wit.

But it is Ford’s affability that concerns us most in the retrospective of a truly great film career. His charming performance is a worthy entry to the Ford canon. As Glenn Ford continued to mature as an artist, THE MATING OF MILLE proved another sure step in the process.

By the way, the film has a very sexy ending. Oh, the wonders of subtlety, imagination and innuendo!

THE RETURN OF OCTOBER (1948) – Directed by Joseph H. Lewis, starring Glenn Ford, Terry Moore, James Gleason & Dame May Whitty

THE RETURN OF OCTOBER starts with a bang. Terry Ramsey (Ms. Moore) is in the midst of a sanity trial for believing a race horse is actually her reincarnated uncle! In this quirky comedy, beautifully shot in colour, the fast pace is established early.

In their first scene together, Terry Moore, who was all of about twenty when this film was made, proves quite feisty as she befuddles Ford’s academic Professor Bentley Bassett, Jr.

Columbia Studios, Glenn’s regular employer, seemed to like pairing Glenn with petite female co-stars. Not overly tall, Ms. Moore, like Evelyn Keyes in THE MATING OF MILLIE, barely comes up to Glenn’s chin.

Ford plays an uptight doctor of philosophy who is analytical to a fault. The fiery Terry Moore seems his opposite and watching them come together as she opens him up to the humanity of emotions over intellect contains much of the film’s charm.

Moore is a bundle of effervescent energy. Glenn is required to look uptight and perplexed by her behaviour.

Once the love story is in gear, a trial to prove Ms. Moore insane by her disinherited relatives provides the film’s dramatic urgency. The main piece of condemnatory evidence against Moore’s sanity is a research paper written by Ford himself, outlining her odd behaviour. Of course he regrets publishing the paper as his feelings transcend his ambition. While the plot device is contrived it works in this context mainly because of the combined charisma of Ford and Moore.

Quite honestly, THE RETURN OF OCTOBER is Terry Moore’s picture. Ford is almost relegated to supporting status. However this may have been a shrewd move on the part of Columbia Chief Harry Cohn, who may have thought it wise to continue grooming his new star as a well-rounded leading man, as appealing to women in romantic comedies such as this one, as to men in tough film noirs or Westerns.

While not as memorable as many Ford films, THE RETURN OF OCTOBER does nothing to diminish his status as a sincere and likeable performer.

In the film’s climax, the court room scene, after the flashback explaining how we have arrived in court, Ford replaces Moore’s lawyer and enjoys a series of bravura scenes where he dominates the proceedings. He shines in this sequence, which is among the best in the charming picture.

GLENN FORD RETROSPECTIVE PART ONE LINKS:
INTRODUCTION
FILMS OF THE 1930s
FILMS OF 1940
FILMS OF 1941
FILMS OF 1942-43

GLENN FORD RETROSPECTIVE PART TWO LINKS:
INTRODUCTION & A STOLEN LIFE
FILMS OF 1946
FILMS OF 1947-48
FILMS OF 1948-49
FILMS OF 1949
FILMS OF 1950

Jon Ted Wynne