Susan Hayward in Stolen Hours 1963

With the upcoming debut of the Obscurity Factor screening series on Monday featuring The Opposite Sex, the 1956 remake of The Women (1939) I thought we'd take a look at another remake. This film is a remake of the Bette Davis tour de force Dark Victory, also from 1939.

There are a few changes to the details, but the story remains the same. The venue has changed from the North East to England, where Susan Hayward plays Laura Pember, a divorcee. The doctor (played by a beautiful Michael Craig) isn't a research physician, he's a London practitioner who tends to the wealthy. As their romance and marriage develops, Laura convinces him to go home to the seaside town where he was reared and take up the life his father lead - that of a country doctor. While this version doesn't have the fire of the original - you don't get as much of a sense of Laura Pember as a take-no-prisoners party girl as you do with Ms. Davis, it's still a 3 hankie tear jerker, and the ultimate nobility of Laura Pember is nicely portrayed. Look for Diane Baker, looking especially lovely as Ms. Pember's younger sister.

 

There hasn't been a DVD release of this film as of yet, though it is available on VHS with a few copies to be had on Amazon.com. I recently saw this on TCM, so it's occasionally aired on TV. While the entire film hasn't been uploaded to YouTube, there are some scenes to be seen. Above is one from early in the film, uploaded by LorreB. The poster above is available from MoviePosterShop.com.

Obscurity factor: 7 (not on DVD, available on VHS, occasionally aired on TCM, not on YouTube in full)

Joan Crawford in Della 1964

1964 was a good year for obscure films. Two of the films we've featured in the short history of this blog are from that year - The Visit and Where Love has Gone. Della started out life as the pilot episode of a series called Royal Bay about a town in northern California. Joan Crawford plays the daughter of the town's founder, an uncompromising woman who rules her home with an iron fist and exerts her influence over the town she owns so much of. The story finds a young lawyer attempting to get Della to sell a parcel of land to a government contractor who will bring lots of jobs to the town. He's invited to visit her home in the middle of the night and discovers her and her daughter living in a nocturnal world, sleeping during the day and going about their business during the night hours. He finds the daughter intriguing and is lured into their world with subsequent visits. The relationship eventually takes on tragic proportions.

The film, which is only 70 minutes long, was released as a feature - probably on a double bill, and was lost to obscurity until the late 1980's when it was released on video tape with misleading cover art, under the title Fatal Confinement, no doubt to capitalize on the success of Fatal Attraction. While not a high point in Ms. Crawford's career, she looks fantastic in it, and it does have some fun twists and turns. Also in the cast is Diane Baker in her second turn as Joan's daughter (Straitjacket) and her third time working with Ms. Crawford (The Best of Everything) and Paul Burke, who many of you will remember from his portrayal of Lyon Burke in Valley of the Dolls. You can find the second hand video tapes on Amazon.com, the DVD on iOffer.com and the full version has been uploaded to YouTube by annavissifan. The first installment is above.

Obscurity factor: 8 (practically unknown, available on video tape, at YouTube and on iOffer.com)