His Majesty O'Keefe (1954)

Back in the late 1860s, there was a great demand for copra (the dried meat of coconuts) in order to obtain its oil. Small islands such as Yap in the South Pacific, were fought over by trading companies to get exclusive rights to these coconuts. In His Majesty O'Keefe (1954), Captain David O'Keefe gets caught in the copra fever and decides to defy the large trading companies of Germany and Spain and claim the island of Yap for his own mercenary ends. 

O'Keefe (Burt Lancaster) first comes to the island when he is washed ashore after a band of mutineers toss him off his own ship. He sees all those palm trees on Yap as his opportunity to make his fortune but the people of the island don't want to work. They see no need to. 

Herr Tetins (Andre Morell), the representative for a German trading company, has his office on the island and becomes good friends with O'Keefe. He warns him that there is no way to make the people work for copra, but O'Keefe finds a way. He obtains his own ship from Hong Kong and helps them quarry for Rai stones on the island Palau, over 200 miles away. Normally, the Yap natives traveled in outriggers to this island, quarried the stone, and then sailed back with many men dying along the way. O'Keefe makes it easier for them to quarry the stone and transports the men and their stones back to Yap in his ship. The people are grateful to him until he tells them that they must harvest copra because they are indebted to him now. His trickery enrages Boogulroo, one of the leaders of the island, who becomes a threat to him later on. 

His Majesty O'Keefe was released by Warner Brothers and was co-produced by Burt Lancaster who paid to have the picture filmed on the beautiful island of Fiji. It's an enjoyable "Boy's Own Adventure" style yarn complete with fistfights, island uprisings, and even the beautiful native girl (Joan Rice). The island scenes never become monotonous because O'Keefe keeps making trips back to Hong Kong, where his partner Mr. Tang (Philip Ahn) resides. Lancaster was known for his athleticism, and he certainly had it on display in this film, climbing up coconut trees or swinging from high ropes. 

Dimitri Tiomkin composed a fitting theme to the picture and a great supporting cast (including Benson Fong and Abraham Sofaer) make this an overall thoroughly enjoyable film, one with a good lesson about greed. 

Click here to read about the real captain David O'Keefe in this Smithsonian Magazine article from 2011.

From the Archives: The Pied Piper (1942)

Anne Baxter makes sure that Monty Woolley has his scarf wrapped around him before heading out in this original still from the classic Fox war drama The Pied Piper (1942). That's the talented Roddy McDowall standing next to Monty. 

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures 

Did You Know? Whatever Happened to Baby Jane was a Song

Did you know that Bette Davis cut a record in 1962? In a promotional move by Warner Brothers, Bette teamed up with singer Debbie Burton for the upbeat rock n' roll version of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" that was released shortly before the premiere of the titular film. This was not Ms. Davis' first recording but it certainly is her most memorable. 

The song made the charts, but Bette was not asked to do any follow up teenage songs. Indeed, the Frank DeVol tune is very likable and has a catchy rhythm that's hard to get out of your head. The lyrics, by screenwriter Lukas Heller, are also clever but it's Debbie Burton's husky voice and Bette's inimitable "sprechgesang" that really makes it memorable. Have a listen to the song on Youtube and notice how the edges of your mouth naturally curl up when Bette makes her entrance with "Here's what happened to Baby Jane....." Good stuff. 

If you want to follow up with another goodie, watch Bette perform this on The Andy Williams Show. 

The Shining Hour (1938)

MGM films are easily distinguished by their production values, which were top in the industry. If you turn the TV on midway through an MGM movie, you are likely to know it is an MGM movie just by the quality of the set design, the music, the costumes, the cinematography, and of course the "big name" actors. 

The Shining Hour had all of the above - except for a quality script. Unfortunately, this brought the whole film down to a Columbia "B" movie status. As entertaining as the film was, the plot seemed so absurd mid-way through that it turned into a comedy - at least for the two of us watching it. We had a grand laugh! But I doubt this was the intention of Keith Winter's original stage play. 

The story around The Shining Hour is a simple love triangle turned into a rectangle. Henry Linden (Melyn Douglas) comes from a socially prominent Wisconsin farming family. On a trip to New York City, he falls in love with dancer Olivia Riley (Joan Crawford) and asks her to marry him. Henry's brother David (Robert Young) reads about their engagement in the newspaper and flies to New York City hoping to stop the "impossible" marriage. He hadn't met Olivia yet, but he already knew she didn't belong in the Linden family. Hrumph! David questions her integrity so she slaps him in the face and marries Henry. 

When the newlyweds arrive at the grand Linden estate, they are greeted by David and his wife Judy (Margaret Sullavan) but not by Hannah (Fay Bainter), Henry and David's sister, because she, too, was against the "impossible" marriage. These Lindens are making a bad impression as wealthy country snobs. 

Judy takes to Olivia instantly and the two become fast friends and Olivia tries her best to become one of the proud Lindens.... in fact, she fits like a glove. Hannah begins to tolerate her and all seems to be going well until David suddenly has a change of heart and falls in love with Olivia! She tries to resist his charm but he continues to pursue her, even during the party when Henry and Olivia are celebrating the completion of their big new beautiful house. Judy suspects as much but Henry is blissfully unaware of any complications until Olivia begs him to take her away on a long honeymoon - that very night.

This seems to be the crutch of the problem with the Lindens. They greet one another during the day like they never slept together the night before. All of their romantic entanglements seem like they are being played out at a college campus and not one of them is really married. Throughout the second half of the film, Olivia repeatedly says she is "no good" and does not deserve the love of Henry since she never really loved him when she married him, however, it is Olivia that is making the only effort to being a loving spouse. Henry continually leaves her alone as though he were a travelling salesman... as a gentleman farmer what could he possibly be doing on a farm so late at night? David is even more aloof towards Judy. He wears dinner whites in the evening and riding clothes during the day so, unlike Henry, I doubt he works on the farm and yet he barely talks to Judy. 

Sadly, Hannah is the worst of the lot. Towards the end of the film, she goes into a jealous rage and burns Henry's new house down. Director Frank Borzage captures this scene well and we see Fay Bainter dressed in black, her hair all tussled, and laughing like a mad woman. The next scene, Henry and David still have ash on their face from putting out the fire and Hannah is back to being primly dressed and calmly serving them a cup of coffee. It is these abrupt transitions that no doubt led critic Bosley Crowther to calling the film "a hackneyed story of a definitely inferior grade."

The hackneyed transitions could have been fixed if the runtime was just a bit longer. The Shining Hour is only 76 minutes long and that seems much too short for such a dramatic script - even the Andy Hardy films ran over 80 minutes! Audiences thought little of the film as well and MGM ended up swallowing a loss of over $137,000. Joan Crawford had suggested the play as a property worth buying so Louis B. Mayer was probably cross with her. 

After reading this review you may be thinking "Is this film even worth watching?" and the answer to that is, yes, definitely! Joan Crawford and Melvyn Douglas are wonderful in the movie, it's a top-notch production (except for the preposterous story), the Cedric Gibbons sets are gorgeous, the setting is scenic, you'll get to see Joan Crawford dance, and the ending is amusing, so why not watch it? 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dig into that bird, Howard! Back in the day, Hollywood stars were required to pose for holiday images such as this, but I don't doubt that Howard Keel had such a turkey on his table for Thanksgiving.... a big man gotta eat! 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers! We hope you have a blessed day and are grateful to God for all the wonderful things in your life. 

Check it Out! The Kessler Twins

Last week, I read in the news that the Kessler twins passed away. In Germany, assisted suicide has been legalized since 2019, and Alice and Ellen Kessler, 89, chose this way to die together. They were an internationally renowned pair of entertainers and gained the spotlight stateside through their numerous appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s. 

Their death has relit the debate over assisted suicide in Germany, but instead of focusing on their chosen method of leaving this world, I want to highlight the talent of this incredible sister act. It has been a few years since I have watched their performances on The Ed Sullivan Show, so yesterday - thanks to the magic of Youtube - I was able to sit back and enjoy their beautiful dancing and singing through the clips shared by The Ed Sullivan Show Channel. 

The Kessler twins were best known as dancers but they were also blessed with lovely singing voices and they sang in harmony in almost all of their performances - in English, German, and Italian. After their appearances on The Red Skelton Hour and The Ed Sullivan Show, the leggy duo were featured on the cover of Life magazine in 1963, performed with Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Fred Astaire, and Harry Belafonte, and toured in nightclubs throughout America. 

Alice and Ellen Kessler represented West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision contest placing 8th with "Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh'n" and I was surprised to read that they had appeared in 12 different films in the 1950s and 1960s, usually in dancing roles. 

Like most identical twins, if you look at them long enough you can tell the slight difference between them, but once they got into a change of costume you had to begin the spot-the-difference game all over again. 

Below are videos from some of the appearances they have made on The Ed Sullivan Show. Check out their unique singing and dancing style - they were truly a one-of-a-kind (or should I say two-of-a-kind) duo! 

A November 24, 1968 performance of "I Say a Little Prayer". 

"Two by Two and Tea for Two" on April 24, 1966. Their skirts always tend to come off at the end of their programs... that's a carried over tradition from German nightclubs. 

"When in Rome"....do as the Romans do! Supposedly, they dance. This catchy number aired on October 16, 1966. 

"The Shadow of Your Smile" performed by the handsome Italian singer Sergio Franchi. We grew up with his LPs. This also aired on October 16, 1966. 

The always popular "Mas Que Nada" from April 19, 1970. 

Our New Website!

Over 12 years ago, my sister and I started Silverbanks Pictures, a hobby business of buying/selling original vintage movie photos that turned into a partnership and a storefront on eBay. For a long time we had hoped to have a website to go with this business and now we finally took the time to build one - and it uses our favorite platform Blogger!  

Our new site: https://www.silverbankspictures.com

eBay's storefront fees have been going up every year so our new website - Silverbanks Pictures (check it out!) - will feature lower prices since we no longer have to sneak those fees into the cost of the photos. We still accept offers on all images and hunt for special requests as well, so if you see something you like or don't see something you like, just send us an email. 

On the right column is a Subscribe button where you can get updates every time new photos are added to the site. 

As a special gift for Silver Scenes readers, type "SILVER-30" in the comment box on the order form and we will take an additional 30% off your order. 

With the holiday season approaching, consider giving the gift of a vintage movie still to the film lover in your life. They not only look great framed but they are investments that increase in value over time!