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The Gazebo (1960) MGM
Director: George Marshall
Screenplay:George Wells, Alec Coppel (story)
Cast: Glenn Ford (Elliott Nash), Debbie Reynolds, Carl Reiner,John McGiver, Martin Landau, 
Carl Reiner, Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds Offbeat comedy involving murder and a backyard gazebo that covers up the crime. The plot is somewhat mechanical but the stars are competent and pull it off.
Cry for Happy (1961) Columbia
Director: George Marshall
Screenplay: Irving Brecher from a novel by George Campbell
Cast: Glenn Ford (Andy Cyphers), Donald O'Connor, James Shigeta, Chet Douglas, Miiko Taka, Miyoshi Umeki, Michi Kobi, Tsuruko Kobayashi, 
Cinemascope and Eastmancolor and the able direction of George Marshall could not save this romantic comedy about four members of the naval photographic service on leave in Japan and the four geisha they meet.The less than hilarious content and its familiar contrivances engendered an agonizing tedium as audiences impatiently waited for the inevitable happy ending. Dispiriting was the world for it all.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse(1961) MGM
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Screenplay: Robert Ardrey,John Gay
Cast: Glenn Ford (Julio Desnoyers), Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb, Paul Henreid, Paul Lukas, Yvette Mimieux, Karlheinz Bohm,
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| Karlheinz Bohm, Lee J. Cobb, Glenn Ford |
Glossy,padded trash, losing all sense of reality in its telling of a family whose members fight in opposite sides during WWII in CinemaScope and Technicolor. Some of the cast overacts,the others seem there only for the money. Not even Ford could give life to his role.
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| Charles Boyer, Glenn Ford |
The Courtship of Eddie's Father(1963) MGM
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Screenplay: John Gay from a novel by Mark Toby
Cast: Glenn Ford (Tom Corbett), Ron Howard,Shirley Jones, Stella Stevens, Dina Merrill, Roberta Sherwood, Jerry Van Dyke, Cute family comedy with Howard trying to find a wife for widowed father GF. Well acted and breezy it had a good success with the audiences even if the critics did not find it of their taste.
Fate Is the Hunter(1964) 20th Century-Fox
Director: Ralph Nelson
Screenplay: Harold Medford from a book by Ernest K.Gann
Cast: Glenn Ford (Sam C.McBane), Rod Taylor, Nancy Kwan, Suzanne Pleshette, Jane Russell, Waly Cox, Nehemiah Persoff, Mark Stevens 
One-note drama of investigation into cause of controversial plane crash. A good cast works with a routine script and does as well as possible, but the interest sags. An unbilled Dorothy Malone appears in one key scene. |  |
Cimarron (1960) MGM
Director: Anthony Mann
Screenplay:Arnold Schulman from the novel by Edna Ferber
Cast: Glenn Ford (Yancey Cravat), Maria Schell, Anne Baxter, Arthur O'Connell, Russ Tamblyn, Mercedes McCambridge, Vic Morrow, Robert Keith, Harry Morgan, David Opatoshu, Aline MacMahon, Lili Dorvas Edna Ferber's chronicle of frontier life in Oklahoma between 1890 and 1915 becomes an indifferent sprawling soap opera with a few spectacular scenes in CinemaScope and Technicolor. The critics bashed the film and the public was tepid about it. GF was somehow miscast as the flamboyant hero, but gave a decent performance.
Pocketful of Miracles (1961) MGM
Director: Frank Capra
Screenplay:Hal Kantor& Harry Tugend based on a story by Damon Runyon
Cast: Glenn Ford ("Dave the Dude" Conway) Hope Lange, Bette Davis, Arthur O'Connell, Peter Falk, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton, Ann-Margret, Peter Mann, 
Frank Capra worked his magic again and reunited Bette Davis and Ford afterfifteen years in a remake of his 1933 film"Lady for a day". The film is dated hokum, but its fairy tale plot is so entertainingly told by so fine bunch of actors that audiences were willing to suspend disbelief and cheer for Apple Annie's cinderella-like story. GF is perfect as the bootlegger with a heart of gold. The film was, unfortunately the only bright spot in the early sixties in Ford's career. 
Experiment in Terror(1962) Columbia
Director: Blake Edwards
Screenplay: Mildred & Gordon Gordon from their novel "Operation Terror"
Cast: Glenn Ford (John "Rip" Ripley),Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers, Roy Poole, Ned Glass, Ross Martin, Anita Loo, Patricia Huston, 
Glenn Ford, Van Heflin Not satisfied with a straightforward 'war of attrition'plot, in which a pretty bank clerk is forced to embezzle $100,000 in order to stay alive, director Edwards gussied up the film with far too many arty,self-conscious,cutely angled shots for the picture's good. The end result was less an experiment in terror than an experiment in lily-gilding. GF as the FBI agent who help the girl and her sister(also threatened) and Remick and Powers as the two victims deliver the goods, despite the directorial pyrotechnics, helped by a solid supporting cast.
Love Is a Ball (1963) United Artists
Director: David Swift
Screenplay:David Swift from a book by Lindsay Hardy
Cast: Glenn Ford (John L. Davis),Hope Lange, Charles Boyer, Ricardo Montalban, Telly Savalas, Ruth McDevitt, Ulla Jacobsson,
Victor Manuel Mendoza, Glenn Ford, Underrated delightful comedy where Boyer makes a good living out, marrying off poor but titled young men to rich but untitled young ladies. Until the devil put his tail in and plans go all wrong. The entire cast is excellent and the fun is substained all along to the happy ending.
Advance to the Rear(1964) MGM
Director: George Marshall
Screenplay:William Bowers, Robert Carson
Cast: Glenn Ford (Captain Jared Heath), Melvyn Douglas, Stella Stevens, Jim Backus,Joan Blondell, Andrew Prine, Alan Hale jr.,
During the Civil War, Northern soldier rejects are sent to Western territory and the move intruigues the enemy. Stevens as a Reb spy and Bolondell as a saucy worldly woman add spice to this funny but predictable slapstick comedy.
Dear Heart(1964) Warner Bros
Director: Delbert Mann
Screenplay:Tad Mosel
Cast: Glenn Ford (Harry Mark), Geraldine Page, Angela Lansbury, Michael Anderson jr., Barbara Nichols, Charles Drake, Patricia Barry, Neva Patterson 
Geraldine Page, Glenn Ford Winning romance with gentlemanly traveling salesman Ford coming to New York City and meeting up with sweetly wacky postmistress Page whois in town for a convention.
Excellent characterizations with fine comic supporting players. A real gem,unfortunately not shown enough on TV. |
