Moviecut—Dreamboat

source: Dreamboat

Dreamboat

I really appreciate Clifton Webb as an actor and I have recently been watching his movies that I have not seen before. It is such a shame that there aren't more movies that he was in, but he was busy in the theater as well. This was a humorous and fun movie and I would definitely like to see it again! There is such a charm with these older movies that just don't seem to exist much in this day and age. I would highly recommend this to others!

A small college town finds out that esteemed literature professor is not another than a silent screen star whose films appeared on the big screen 20 years before. Clifton Webb is a natural for the part and he is joined by Ginger Rogers, his leading lady in those films, whose career has been restored with the advent of television and the old films showing on that medium. With a conservative college Board of Trustees, Webb faces the ax, unless the film showing stops so he goes with his brilliant daughter, Ann Francis, to New York to gain an injunction to stop the film. Elsa Lanchester steals the scenes she is in by being a head trustee with a doctorate who pours on the lust for Webb both in her office and a New York hotel. Francis finds there is more to life than academics when she falls for agent Jeff Hunter, who works for head honcho Fred Clark. This is a non-stop riot of a film.

Very witty script. I had no idea that this movie existed. Was flipping through the TV channels and settled on AMC, a channel that no longer runs black and white social comedies from the 30's through '50s. I was delighted and surprised to find this Clifton Webb jewel. As a mother of two younger children (one ten months) it is difficult to find movies and TV shows that entertain both children and adults. This one fit the bill. Ginger Rogers is incredibly well cast as the woman who is all for business and Webb is quite the comic.

Clifton Webb at his most stuff-shirtish is the life of this takeoff on swashbucklers and television commercials. Even today these eerily seem to foreshadow the commercials still shown (only usually in color.) with their pointless animations and annoying voices uttering gross exaggerations. Ginger Rogers, here without Fred Astaire, proves herself quite a good farceuse as Webb's nemesis, Anne Francis is good as Webb's daughter and Jeffrey Hunter, some years before playing Jesus in "King of Kings" (also known humorously as "I was a Teenage Jesus" because of his youthful looks, even if he was close to the right age) played opposite Miss Francis. Other reliable character players included Elsa Lanchester, Fred Clark and Ray Collins. The film was brilliantly directed by Claude Binyon from his own sharp script based on a story by John D. Weaver.

When it first appeared, Dreamboat hit the mark with Sid Caesar-like precision. The old old movies were still floating around the smaller channels, and it was not unusual to find the TV screen filled with the histrionics of Valentino, Pola Negri, among others. Today, their existing work can be found, occasionally on TCM. Dreamboat was an absolute 'hoot' in its initial release, and Webb and Rogers were every bit as wacked-out funny as Caesar and Coca in a TV sketch about silent movies. Today, Deamboat may seem a little obscure, perhaps, but its broad and zany humor will still be there. One hopes that someone somewhere decides it is time to produce that elusive DVD release of this film (which includes an adorable Anne Francis, one of those underrated stars who deserves special attention).

Clifton Webb is in top form here as a college professor who starred in old silent films. His past resurfaces when the old movies are shown on TV and he becomes the "Dreamboat." This is a deftly amusing film in which Hollywood is poking fun at the silliness of its arch-rival of the 1950s, TV. It also pokes fun at its own early days of silent melodrama. The film is an enjoyable experience overall, but especially delicious is Webb as the prim professor who is also the soap-opera film star of old Hollywood.

This delightful spoof is pure joy, elevated by a spanking story (by John D. Weaver) deft direction and scripting (by Claude Binon) and cracking cast (headed by Clifton Webb and Ginger Rogers). What's great is that this comedy doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is: an amusing trifle with nifty observations about the film, television and radio industries. One of our favorites, it's also to date (2004) not available on vhs, dvd, or shown on tv. Production Studio Twentieth Century Fox must know something we don't.