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Two Torrid Redheads

William Hare | Seattle, Washington | 02/24/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Slightly Scarlet" was released in 1956. This was a period when the film industry had been rocked on its heels by what Hollywood insiders referred to sarcastically as that "little black box" that we call television.



Since this was the period before color television or wide screens the idea was to exploit the advantage that the film medium had by supplying viewers with what television lacked. They sought to motivate television viewers out of their living room easy chairs and back into theaters by providing luscious color and wide screen entertainment.



The trailer for "Slightly Scarlet" revealed the marketing strategy of producer Benedict Bogeaus. To use the quote that football coach Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns used to describe the impact of his superstar fullback Jim Brown in the days before both of them reached the Hall of Fame in their respective categories, "If you've got a cannon you shoot it."



What was revealed in the trailer was the emphasis on the two female stars. They were referred to as "the two most beautiful redheads" in films. There could be little doubt that the torrid redheads starring in "Slightly Scarlet" deserved the accolade. The only injustice was that the other two redhead beauties of the period, Susan Hayward and Maureen O'Hara, were left out of the equation, but because they were not in the film the omission was therefore understandable.



Rhonda Fleming, who had been discovered in her teens by Henry Willson, who would as an agent guide the careers of Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter and Guy Madison, and who was then casting director for David O. Selznick, made an eye catching debut playing a psychopath with nymphomaniacal tendencies who also likes to physically hurt men in the great Alfred Hitchcock hit, "Spellbound."



So impressive was Fleming's beauty that on one occasion a director and his cinematographer tried diligently on one occasion to photograph her at every conceivable angle to see if they could make her look bad in at least one shot. They were impressed to discover that they could not. Fleming's natural beauty prevailed in every instance.



Fleming in "Slightly Scarlet" plays an executive secretary to a man seeking to reform a city riddled with gangland corruption. Fleming's life becomes complicated when her sister gets out of jail and moves in with her.



The devastating Arlene Dahl, one of the few women who could hold her own against Fleming, the actress who was called "The queen of Technicolor" for good reason, is cast as Fleming's sister. She is both a nymphomaniac and a kleptomaniac, so Fleming is naturally kept busy looking after her.



John Payne, after having a falling out with mob boss Ted de Corsia, seeks help from Fleming and quickly falls in love with her. Dahl complicates things by making a move of her own.



Dahl does such a job of investing her part with gusto, performing in a manner reminiscent of Carol Baker in "Baby Doll," that Leonard Maltin in his review of "Slightly Scarlet" credits the Minnesota born beauty with "stealing the film."



Director Allan Dwan, a veteran of films who began in the silents after a stint as an assistant football coach at his alma mater, Notre Dame, knew about the "twin cannons" he had to shoot in this film, the devastating beauty of two torrid redheads. Considering it was the fifties with the Breen Office very much a factor, the film is daring in the manner that Fleming and Dahl are portrayed as well as attired.



Dwan wisely opts for colorful cinema over realism in a film moving in that direction. For instance, when Fleming springs Dahl from jail the sister who has just been released is attired in the manner of a rich man's wife ready to go shopping on Rodeo Drive."