July 1 Farley Granger

Happy Birthday Leslie Caron, Farley Granger, Olivia DeHaviland, Charles Laughton, Sydney Pollack, William Wyler and James M. Cain.

TCM had a mini celebration of Farley Granger films. I watched Behave Yourself! After the opening credit’s the characters are introduced, not the actors. A picture of the actor by category. The first credit is of “The Lovers”, Farley Granger and Shelley Winters. It is their second anniversary, which Farley forgot. He goes to a phone booth and calls to see if he needs to pick anything up “milk, butter, gin”. The next booth has a dog on leash tied to the handle. Farley gives the dog part of his sandwich. Shelley states she is wearing his gift “the neckline might be you know sort a kind of low”. Farley replies “You’ve got the furniture for it baby”. As he leaves to purchase her gift the dog whines, and Farley gives the dog another piece of sandwich. The dog pulls against the knot and loosens and goes after Farley.

After a display is broken at an accessory store caused by the dog, Farley is walking home, talking aloud the conversation he is going to have with his wife and mother-in-law about not having a present, people pass by him giving him strange looks. When he gets to his door his wife sees no gift and is disappointed. She then sees the dog, who picked up the card he had filled out at the store and she thinks the dog is the gift. Unbeknownst to them, the dog is involved with some unseemly characters.

The next day Farley sees an ad in the paper for the dog. He can’t get the dog away from the wife and goes to explain the situation. Before Farley gets there the man is killed and hidden so he dealing with another man who tells him that it is not the right dog, without seeing it. Farley left his card and the police find that card on the body. When he gets home that night the police come and take him to the police station, forcibly. At the station the chief stated the death fit the MO of someone else and Farley was released. The next day the paper had the same ad with a different address. He takes the dog to that address. When gets there the man he met the day before was dead in the bath. He runs. When he gets home at 2AM the dog is already there.

The next day Farley goes to the police and explains what happens they are not interested. There is another ad in the paper and Farley convinces the police to go to that address. There are two more dead bodies. Farley thinks it is tied to the dog and is worried about his wife. Shelley is walking the dog and he wants to go to a certain spot. One day at that spot a man hands her a bag in exchange for her package. She tries to give the bag back but he leaves. The man takes the package to Sheldon Leonard and it is a butcher package full of bones. Shelley meanwhile has a bag of money, counterfeit money. They take the bag to the police. Farley takes the dog to a kennel/pet shop and destroys the check tag. Shelley missing the dog, which she thinks ran away, puts an ad in the paper. The pet shop owner brings the dog back.

First arrives Sheldon Leonard and the bag man. The bag man did not know the money was counterfeit. He pulls a gun on Sheldon who also pulls a gun. They end up shooting each other and fall dead in the living room. Farley calls the police. A few minutes later they hear a knock on the door and thinking it is the police open the door. It is the other criminals. Farley having enough fights one of the men. They hear the sirens and the other man then is talked out the non fire escape window and is injured. All the fallen men are worth at least $5000 each. The last scene the dog is a prized member of the household, the mother-in-law is moved out and Shelley is wearing a mink stole (with the price tag still attached) at the breakfast table.