MISTER CORY
US, 1957, 92 minutes, Colour.
Tony Curtis, Martha Hyer, Kathryn Grant, Charles Bickford, Henry Daniell.
Directed by Blake Edwards.
One of the earliest films directed by writer Blake Edwards. It was to be the beginning of a long and successful career as writer and director. There were some dramas and comedies in the early sixties, for example Days Of Wine And Roses. The Great Race and other comedies predominated in the late sixties. Edwards wrote and directed The Pink Panther as well as all the sequels with Peter Sellers. He was still making comedies in the late seventies-early eighties with Ten and S.O.B.
Tony Curtis worked for Edwards in this film, The Perfect Furlough, Operation Petticoat and The Great Race. The film marks the beginning of Tony Curtis's career as a more serious actor, for example Sweet Smell Of Success, Spartacus, The Outsider. There are good performances from Charles Bickford and Kathryn Grant. Veteran actor Henry Daniell has a very good role towards the end of his career. The story is reminiscent of later stories, for example American Gigolo. The characters and the interactions are reminiscent of later television soap opera serials like Dallas. The film is well done in its way, crisply written and quite well acted. It still remains very enjoyable and interesting.
1. The entertainment value of this kind of American story? America as the land of opportunity? from poverty to riches? The possibilities of career and future in the United States? for good, for bad? Learning from experience? The conventional material of television soap operas? the treatment raising the level of the film?
2. Blake Edwards as writer and director? The early finesse of his films in a long career? The strengths of the performances, the quality or the dialogue, the witty one-liners? Colour, Cinemascope, the musical score?
3. The American world? class in society, quality, snobbery, inverted snobbery, the push to the top, people using one another, relationships, surface morality?
4. Tony Curtis's interpretation of Mr Cory? The quality of his acting? An American type, credible? his Chicago origins and his later return there and visit with Abby? How much had he changed through his experience? How much still the same? The American slum boy makes good? A traditional American type?
5. The portrait of Cory - going to his job at the country club, his aim, the discussion with Earnshaw and the later clashes, playing cards with the other boys, their hostility and his defiance, the golfing sequence, insinuating himself into society, the birthday party and Abby, listening to Alea's and Abby's conversation, going to the house, fixing the boat, the meeting with Jenny? The irony of his being caught by Abby and her reaction?
6. Cory as an exploiter, pragmatic? Jenny seeing through him yet supporting him? Playing cards with Jeremiah? The effect of his being caught out and the moving upwards?
7. Las Vegas and Reno, the new encounter with Jeremiah. the proposal, Jeremiah explaining his limitations, their work as partners, professional gamblers? How well drawn the character of Jeremiah ? as professional gambler, old man, ulcers and milk, working in partnership, the clash about Abby and Alex? Abby as heroine - the arrogant and elegant American blonde? Her relationship with Alex and not consenting to marry him? Her push, her snobbery? Infatuation with Cory and her indecision? Clashes, the drive from the station and her
reckless driving? Her discovery of the truth and reaction? Class attitudes? The contrast with her parents and their more genial approach? The engagement to Alex and the visit to the club? The orchids sent to Chicago? Her infatuation with Cory, the liaison and visiting him? The visit to the slum street? His proposal and her not being willing to marry? The clash, the violence with Alex's shooting? Her being the object of jealousy? Her finally marrying Alex? the prospect of their future?
8. Jenny and the contrast with Abby? A nice young girl, fresh, blunt? Her directness and its humour? Aiding Cory? Continued friendship on his return to Chicago? The ending? a future for them?
9. Alex and his long friendship with Abby, the proposal, his disappointment, the engagement, his gambling, recklessness, his father and the possibility of a raid on the club, the appeal to Cory and the rejection, his shooting him? A credible character?
10. The transition to Chicago? Cory's intuitions about the gambling house and its elegance, the irony of his hiring Earnshaw, the clientele that he attracted, the gang boss and the partnership, the potential for the raid at the end? Cory's decision to leave the house? for the sake of Abby, for a future?
11. The credibility of the melodramatics? the clash with Alex, the shooting and its repercussions? The clash with Jeremiah? The boss and his planning to cover up with the police?
12. Cory and his future? would he go straight? (as did so many of America's financial tycoons? the shady origins and the change to respectability?) The future with Jenny, with Earnshaw? and Earnshaw's help during the shooting, his relenting and the joke about bigamy?
13. Entertainment at the popular level and the presentation of typical American types, the pros and cons, a story of the fulfilment of American dreams?
