Carleton Carpenter and Jan Sterling.
Sky Full of Moon (1952) July 10 @9:00AM (ET): This one's kind of cute, telling the story of an innocent cowboy who finds himself suddenly rich in Las Vegas, with Jan Sterling, as a gold digger who is interested in him. Directed by Norman Foster, the story peters out near the end, though Carpenter is likable, and the setting in the less glamorous side of LV is interesting. Sterling doesn't pull any punches in crafting her tough as leather character and the late beauty, Elaine Stewart, as well as good character actors Keenan Wynn, Douglas Dumbrille are on hand to fleece the cowboy. Sheb Woolley appears as a balladeer and Rex Bell plays himself in this B movie, part of which I think was filmed in Vegas. You can see the trailer here.
Lynn, do you know anything about the above movie in terms of Las Vegas history?
Fearless Fagan (1952) July 10 @10:30AM (ET) was directed by Stanley Donen when he was trying to get a foothold in the movies independently of Gene Kelly. The premise of this movie sounds like a rejected Francis the Talking Mule script, but with songs by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, maybe Donen, Leigh and the enjoyable Carpenter make something out of the story of "When a circus clown is drafted, he tries to sneak his pet lion into the service." Janet Leigh and the ubiquitous Keenan Wynn are in the supporting cast. Despite this, people seem to be genuinely fond of this movie, based on the comments on the TCMb.
Carleton Carpenter and friend rough-housing.
You can see clips from Fearless Fagan here.
Can't get enough of a guy who seems to be the spiritual son of The Tin Man and The Scarecrow? Here's a site, called Cinema Misfits that has a two part podcast interview with the veteran actor, Carleton Carpenter, with selected portions of his singing voice. He sounds like a very nice guy, choosing desert island flicks, his memories of Flo Ziegfeld, Beulah Bondi, Louis de Rochemont, his love of character actors such as Louis Jean Heydt, singing Abba Dabba Honeymoon, his own songwriting and others. The Vermont-born actor recalls his first film that was set in New Hampshire, the groundbreaking racial drama, Lost Boundaries (1949), about a real life doctor who overcame "the color line" by keeping his own race to himself. Carpenter, btw, loathed himself on film, and drank a half a bottle of vodka to ease the agony of the sight of himself on screen after a first encounter with his own disturbing image. You can see this good film, based on fact, beginning here.
They discuss it briefly on that podcast, but Carpenter was also a prolific novelist, writing seven mysteries, which include one called Dead Head, (set in the theater), Only Her Hairdresser Knew, Cat Got Your Tongue, and Games Murderers Play. I haven't had a chance to read them but according to one reviewer, they are fun for "the bitchy humor than the plots which often were too convoluted to follow. Carpenter also wrote for Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen magazines in the 1980s. He also wrote a musical with a friend, called "Dear Boy," a musical based on Oliver Twist, which they hoped to have Cyril Ritchard star in as Fagin.
