East Side, West Side *** (1949, James Mason, Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Ava Gardner, Gale Sondergaard, Cyd Charisse, William Frawley, Nancy Davis) – Classic Movie Review 5172

MGM’s glossy, operatic 1949 soap-opera movie tale of lust and revenge East Side, West Side is totally saved by its marvellous star cast of James Mason, Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin and Ava Gardner. 

Despite its considerable film noir promise, Marcia Davenport’s 1947 novel about a New York high society couple does not make a very riveting basis for director Mervyn LeRoy’s glossy, operatic 1949 soap-opera movie tale of lust and revenge, East Side, West Side.

However, the American melodrama crime film East Side, West Side is totally saved by its marvellous star cast of James Mason, Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin and Ava Gardner, and its equally marvellous star supporting cast of Gale Sondergaard, Cyd Charisse, William Frawley, Nancy Davis, William Conrad, Raymond Greenleaf, Douglas Kennedy, Beverly Michaels, Lisa Golm and Tom Powers.

In the story scripted by Isobel Lennart, when vain businessman Brandon Bourne (Mason) resumes his philandering with the lovely young Isabel Lorrison (Gardner), his lovely neglected socialite wife Jessie (Stanwyck) seeks solace in the World War Two war veteran arms of Mark Dwyer (Heflin), back from a mission in Italy.

In spite of the film’s deficiencies, the cast got the punters flocking into the cinemas for MGM back in 1949, with the movie grossing $2,540,000 worldwide on a $1,754,000 cost. And no wonder with this dazzling star quartet, who just sizzle.

American character actor Roger Moore (1900–1999) appears, uncredited, as a reporter. Also in the cast are Charles McAvoy, Frank Meredith, Stanley Orr, Paula Raymond, Vito Scotti, Harry Strang and Frank Wilcox.

East Side, West Side is directed by Mervyn LeRoy, runs 108 minutes, is made and  released by MGM, is written by Isobel Lennart, based on Marcia Davenport’s novel, is shot in black and white by Charles Rosher, is produced by Voldemar Vetluguin, is scored by Miklos Rozsa and is designed by Randall Duell.

Isobel Lennart was a member of the Communist Party (1939-44) and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. In the hall of infamy, she became a ‘friendly witness’, naming 21 people as former party members.

Gale Sondergaard, on the other hand, was married to director Herbert Biberman and supported him when he was accused of communism and named as one of the Hollywood Ten in the early 1950s. After she was blacklisted with her husband in 1948, director Mervyn LeRoy, who had given her her first break in Anthony Adverse, cast her in East Side, West Side in a supporting role as Barbara Stanwyck’s mother to test industry reaction. She didn’t appear in another major Hollywood film for 28 years. The couple sold their Hollywood home soon after completing Salt of the Earth (1954) and moved to New York where Sondergaard could work on stage.

Stanwyck and Gardner share a single scene in the film. They died five days apart, Stanwyck on 20 January 1990 and Gardner on 25 January.

Mason and Gardner re-convened for Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951).

The credited cast are Barbara Stanwyck as Jessie Bourne, James Mason as Brandon Bourne, Van Heflin as Mark Dwyer, Ava Gardner as Isabel Lorrison, Cyd Charisse as Rosa Senta, Nancy Davis as Helen Lee, Gale Sondergaard as Nora Kernan, William Conrad as Lt. Jacobi, Raymond Greenleaf as Horace Elcott Howland, Douglas Kennedy as Alec Dawning, Beverly Michaels as Felice Backett, William Frawley as Bill the Bartender, Lisa Golm as Josephine, and Tom Powers as Owen Lee.

American B-movie actress and cheesecake model Beverly Michaels.

Beverly Michaels (December 29, 1927 – June 9, 2007) arrived in Hollywood in 1948 at 21, found modelling work and landed a contract to MGM Studios, making her first screen appearance in East Side, West Side. Her short career includes the 1951 film noir Pickup, The Girl on the Bridge (1951), No Holds Barred, the film noir Wicked Woman (1954), the 1955 noir film Crashout, and Hammer Films’ Women without Men (1956).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5172

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