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Ray Milland: Films
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Milland aspired to be an actor from an early age. Breaking into films during the early days of 'talkies,' Milland's sonorous voice and command of language made him a natural in sound films, and soon his ambitions turned stateside. After arriving in Hollywood, he found small roles at Warner Bros. and MGM before signing with Paramount in 1933. The studio started Milland in some of its B pictures, such as Charlie Chan in London (1934; with Warner Oland) and Many Happy Returns (1934; with George Burns and Gracie Allen). Quickly, Milland's fortunes rose with starring roles in Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937) and Beau Geste (1939; with Gary Cooper).
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Filmed on location, Lisbon was the second directorial endeavor of actor Ray Milland. The story revolves around a Portugal-based American smuggler, Capt. Robert John Evans (Milland). Hired by attractive Sylvia Merrill (Maureen O'Hara), Evans agrees to sneak behind the Iron Curtain to locate Sylvia's husband Lloyd Merrill (Percy Marmont). It is understood that Evans is to bring Merrill back dead so that Sylvia can collect her husband's vast fortune, but the tables are turned on Sylvia and her wily co-conspirator, Aristide Mavros (Claude Rains). Put simply, the film is Casablanca and To Have and Have Not in reverse. Other participants in the film's various and sundry intrigues are Francis Lederer as the last-reel dispenser of justice, and Yvonne Furneaux as Rains' buxom mistress.
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In 1955 Milland directed his first film, A Man Alone (in which he ... starred) and proved that his increasingly original and iconoclastic style was a personal creation, not simply the result of eccentric interpretations of routine scripts. The five films he signed as director show the influence of personalities as diverse as Farrow, Russell Rouse and (particularly in his handling of Panic in Year Zero) Roger Corman, but all five are ultimately highly personal, subversive expressions of his unique vision. Panic in Year Zero and The Safecracker are marvelously tense, moody and imaginative; Hostile Witness and Lisbon are not as accomplished but are similarly intriguing.
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Milland plays Guy Carrell, a wealthy, middle-aged student of medicine in Nineteenth Century England. His family has a history of catalepsy, and Carrell’s fear of being buried alive is realized. But have no fear. Make that have fear! When he’s dug up by local body snatchers Mole and Sweeney (Corman regular Dick Miller and John Dierkes), about half the cast is killed off in the film’s final ten minutes! And a fine cast it is!
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Between directing stints Milland continued to take whatever acting jobs came his way. Two Corman quickies—The Premature Burial and The Man with the X-Ray Eyes—are fascinating, the latter providing Milland with the wittiest, most energetic role of his later career, but he appeared in a cavalcade of terrible films. One of the worst, the inexplicably popular Love Story, temporarily found a wide audience for Milland. One of the best of a bad lot is the surprisingly entertaining Frogs.
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Synopsis: Filmed on location, Lisbon was the second directorial endeavor of actor Ray Milland. The story revolves around a Portugal-based American smuggler, Capt. Robert John Evans (Milland). Hired by attractive Sylvia Merrill (Maureen O'Hara), Evans agrees to sneak behind the Iron Curtain to locateRead More
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