{"id":3790,"date":"2007-07-27T11:07:06","date_gmt":"2007-07-27T18:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3790"},"modified":"2021-01-17T13:10:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T20:10:41","slug":"beau-james-the-life-and-times-of-jimmy-walker-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3790","title":{"rendered":"Beau James: The Life and Times of Jimmy Walker (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;There&#8217;s his one true love &#8212; the cockeyed city of New York!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Poster-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-29882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Poster-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Poster-83x128.jpg 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nNew York&#8217;s flamboyant, song-writing mayor, Jimmy Walker (Bob Hope), has an open affair with a showgirl (Vera Miles) while dealing with charges of political corruption.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alexis Smith Films<\/li>\n<li>Biopics<\/li>\n<li>Bob Hope Films<\/li>\n<li>New York City<\/li>\n<li>Paul Douglas Films<\/li>\n<li>Political Corruption<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nAs Peary notes, this biopic of New York&#8217;s &#8220;dapper mayor&#8221; (who served in office from 1925 to 1936, until his resignation) is &#8220;brave in not overlooking Walker&#8217;s loveless marriage and infidelity or the corruption in his administration&#8221; &#8212; yet it ultimately doesn&#8217;t do justice to either issue. In one of his few non-comedic roles, Bob Hope looks &#8220;ill at ease&#8221; playing it straight, and is, as Peary notes, too &#8220;laid back&#8221;. Alexis Smith does a fine job playing Walker&#8217;s wife-in-name-only (as in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3288\"><em>Night and Day<\/em><\/a>, she&#8217;s once again cast as the ice-blonde &#8220;trophy wife&#8221; of a famous man), but her character isn&#8217;t on-screen enough for us to learn anything significant about her. Similarly, Vera Miles is stunning and winsome as Walker&#8217;s mistress, but adds up to little more than a cliche. While movie audiences in 1957 may have been curious to learn more (however fictionalized) about the infamous &#8220;Beau James&#8221;, most viewers today won&#8217;t have the faintest clue what all the fuss was about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alexis Smith as Walker&#8217;s long-suffering wife<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2-1024x662.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"414\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-50302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2-1024x662.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2-128x83.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2-768x497.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2-417x270.png 417w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/Beau-James-Smith2.png 1393w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. This one is only must-see for Bob Hope fans. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0050175\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvguide.com\/movies\/beau-james\/review\/102561\/\">TV Guide Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s his one true love &#8212; the cockeyed city of New York!&#8221; Synopsis: New York&#8217;s flamboyant, song-writing mayor, Jimmy Walker (Bob Hope), has an open affair with a showgirl (Vera Miles) while dealing with charges of political corruption. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Alexis Smith Films Biopics Bob Hope Films New York City Paul Douglas Films Political Corruption Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: As Peary notes, this biopic of New York&#8217;s &#8220;dapper mayor&#8221; (who served in office from 1925 to 1936,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3790\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63897,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions\/63897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}