DREAMBOAT

US, 1952, 83 minutes, Black and white.
Clifton Webb, Ginger Rogers, Anne Francis, Jeffrey Hunter, Elsa Lanchester, Fred Clark, Ray Collins.
Directed by Claude Binyon.

Dreamboat is one of several star vehicles for Clifton Webb in the early '50s. A dancer and entertainer, he made a film comeback in the '40s with Laura and The Razor's Edge. With his comic role as Mr. Belvedere in Sitting Pretty, he made a number of sequels and some funny comedies for almost ten years. This is a satire on television and the re-running of silent films. It also takes a poke at commercials. Webb is, as ever, his sardonic self. Ginger Rogers enjoys herself as a silent star. Anne Francis is prim as Webb's daughter and Elsa Lanchester has a comic role as an infatuated college head. There are some humorous re-enactments of silent films - especially Webb trying to organise a fight, watching himself in his old film and following his actions. There is an in-joke at the end with the premiere of Webb's own Sitting Pretty.

1. An entertaining comedy vehicle of the '50s? Clifton Webb and his comic style? The sardonic, serious comic?

2. Production style, black and white photography? The shooting of old style silent films? The parody of television commercials? The Mid-West?, New York, Hollywood?

3. The rivalry between movies and television in the '40s and '50s? The tradition of the n7ovies,,,the television seen as an interloper? The re-running of old movies, the rebirth of old stars' careers? Commercials? The contrast with education? Themes of snobbery? Ivory tower education as out of touch? Entertainment reaching mass audiences? The point of view of the film about the movies?

4. The self-satire of the cinema: the parody of Zorro, the World War One ace and the heroine, the bar-room brawl - and the hero following it for his own brawl, the French Revolution - and the changing of the captions for contemporary advertising? The enjoyment of films? Presentation of stereotypes? Exaggerated heroes and heroines? Stars and glamour, idols? Feminine swooning? The name Dreamboat?

5. The background of the university, the nickname of Ironheart? Professor Sayer and his reading of Hamlet's Soliloquy? His acidic style? Clifton Webb's persona? The way he had brought up his daughter? Love for her mother? The infatuation with Gloria and Hollywood? The clashes with Sam Leavitt? His going to New York? Legal attitudes? His high-handed attitudes towards Leavitt? Succumbing to Gloria’s singing and her story of poverty? Pretending that he had not been taken in? The confrontations with Leavitt? The bar-room brawl? The court case and his defence of himself? The infatuation of Dr. Coffey? His final decision to go to Hollywood?

6. Carol and her prim attitudes, the student showing her up in front of the television set? Her disgust with her father? Her being considered the museum type? The infatuation with Bill, going to his room, dancing, changing her attitude?

7. Gloria and her style? On the television show? Her self-promotion? The background of the making of the films and Sayer's career as Bruce Blair? The song in the nightclub, her pretence, scheming and its failing? The court case and her losing it? The final talk in the bar? The happy ending?

8. Leavitt as the big producer, advertising, big talk, scheming and manipulating?

9. Dr. Coffey and her infatuation with Bruce Blair? The finale?

10. The incidental characters: the waitress and her watching the television set, the husband and wife in the bar and the fight, the students at the university, the judge in court - and his eating popcorn during the film?

11. The humour of the clash between cinema and television? The role of entertainment? The American tradition?