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Ada (1961)
Despite a long-winded screenplay and some dated plot elements, the 1961 melodrama Ada is worth a look thanks to a trio of solid lead performances.
Dean Martin plays Bo Gillis, a folksy candidate for governor of Tennessee who prefers playing guitar to making speeches on the campaign trail. One night in the back room of a saloon, Bo meets Ada (Susan Hayward), a smart and savvy prostitute who enchants Bo to the point that he spends three weeks with her and then marries her.
Not long after their marriage, Bo is elected governor but things are not sunshine and roses for Bo and Ada as Bo finds himself nothing but a figure head in the governor's office while the state is actually being run by his sleazy campaign manager Sylvester (Wilfred Hyde White) who is also doing his best to manipulate Ada into the perfect First Lady but her ambitions turn out to stretch beyond First Lady. Not to mention the people from Ada's past who refuse to let her forget it.
Arthur Sheekman and William Driskill's screenplay, based on a novel by Wirt Williams does provide contemporary sensibility in a 60's movie heroine who actually ventures into politics, which in the 60's was strictly male territory, but the whole melodrama of a woman knowing her place and never forgetting where she comes from eventually wears this story down, making the hard to swallow finale on the floor of the Tennessee congress just interminable.
On the plus side, director Daniel Mann does pull strong performances from his cast, especially Hayward, who Mann directed in other films and it's clear he understood her strengths as an actress. Love that scene shortly after they move into the governor's mansion where Ada puts a bunch of snooty society matrons in their place when they start questioning her about her past, though I did find Ada's transformation into this political dynamo a little unbelivable. Dean Martin brought some meat to Bo and Wilfred Hyde White really grows into the villain of the piece here...I love greasy bad guys who do their dirt with a constant smile on their face and that's exactly what Sylvester was. The film has expensive trappings, but the story eventually wears the whole thing down.
Despite a long-winded screenplay and some dated plot elements, the 1961 melodrama Ada is worth a look thanks to a trio of solid lead performances.
Dean Martin plays Bo Gillis, a folksy candidate for governor of Tennessee who prefers playing guitar to making speeches on the campaign trail. One night in the back room of a saloon, Bo meets Ada (Susan Hayward), a smart and savvy prostitute who enchants Bo to the point that he spends three weeks with her and then marries her.
Not long after their marriage, Bo is elected governor but things are not sunshine and roses for Bo and Ada as Bo finds himself nothing but a figure head in the governor's office while the state is actually being run by his sleazy campaign manager Sylvester (Wilfred Hyde White) who is also doing his best to manipulate Ada into the perfect First Lady but her ambitions turn out to stretch beyond First Lady. Not to mention the people from Ada's past who refuse to let her forget it.
Arthur Sheekman and William Driskill's screenplay, based on a novel by Wirt Williams does provide contemporary sensibility in a 60's movie heroine who actually ventures into politics, which in the 60's was strictly male territory, but the whole melodrama of a woman knowing her place and never forgetting where she comes from eventually wears this story down, making the hard to swallow finale on the floor of the Tennessee congress just interminable.
On the plus side, director Daniel Mann does pull strong performances from his cast, especially Hayward, who Mann directed in other films and it's clear he understood her strengths as an actress. Love that scene shortly after they move into the governor's mansion where Ada puts a bunch of snooty society matrons in their place when they start questioning her about her past, though I did find Ada's transformation into this political dynamo a little unbelivable. Dean Martin brought some meat to Bo and Wilfred Hyde White really grows into the villain of the piece here...I love greasy bad guys who do their dirt with a constant smile on their face and that's exactly what Sylvester was. The film has expensive trappings, but the story eventually wears the whole thing down.