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Life with Father (1947)
Father is Exasperating but Lovable
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It seems to happen every so often that an era develops a sudden affection for an earlier time that is distant enough to be portrayed in totally affectionate terms. In the Forties and early Fifties it was the Turn of the Century, roughly from 1880 to 1915. Many movies were made like "I Remember Mama" and "Meet Me In St. Louis" that portrayed what was by then seen as a less complicated and more innocent era in a nostalgic light. "Life With Father" was one of the most popular of these, the third biggest-grossing film of 1947, nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Actor for William Powell.
The screenplay was based on the hugely successful play by Lindsay and Crouse which ran on Broadway for seven years from 1939 to 1947, setting a longevity record for a non-musical, a record which still stands today. It was based on the humorous autobiographical novel by Clarence Day Jr. About life with his own domineering father in 1880s New York. The senior Day was the head of a prestigious Wall Street stock brokerage, a Governor of the New York Stock Exchange, a well-connected banker, railroad company director and member of many important clubs and societies. In other words, he was a formidable man of his day and William Powell plays him with all the self-esteem and arrogance he could possess but with a soft side that keeps him lovable to his family. He's demanding and tyrannical, but not as insufferable as Sherwood Whitehead in "The Man Who Came To Dinner". It's important to note that every time he declares "I won't allow it!", he always gives in at the end and it's really his wife, Vinnie, who runs things within the family. And if there's any serious trouble at home, he'll leave his office to deal with it,
The film has always been looked upon as a sweet and funny comedy, but lately has come in for some serious misunderstanding. Many people see Clarence Day Sr. (Powell) as abrasive, tyrannical, patriarchal and rude with no redeeming qualities at all. This eliminates the comic and lovable qualities of the character and renders the whole film pointless. Firstly, this is a comedy and Day Sr. Has been purposely blown up for its humorous effect, exaggerated into an almost cartoonish character, a long-standing fictional device. He, in all his self-absorbed pomposity, is funny every time he steps into a scene just by virtue of being who he is.
Secondly, they miss the fact that this is a satire on the old role of the paterfamilias, a role which was already going out of fashion in the late nineteenth century and that Day Sr. Is trying to inhabit a role that is out of date. The paterfamilias, or male head of the family, was in fact a powerful and formidable character in history. He ran the home and family as an absolute monarch and was the sole judge and jury in everything that pertained to family life. In the ancient era he could condemn any family member to death and decide whether to keep or abandon a new child. Though these parts were abandoned, throughout most of the intervening time he was the only source of income, determined his sons careers and it was to him a prospective suitor asked to marry a daughter. Even as late as the Victorian Era, many of these men were aloof, mostly kept to themselves and only occasionally interacted with his children. Powell knows this character well and portrays him as a kind and loving man somewhat trapped in society's expectations of the way he is supposed to act.
The humor of the film is all based on the fact that even by the 1880s these old concepts of men, women and family were crumbling as a new era dawned. Day Sr. Trying to be like the fathers of old has become funny but his obvious love for his wife and family and the respect they show him, redeems him by showing an inner person who is more reasonable and affectionate. Clarence Day Jr. Was a vocal advocate for women's suffrage and drew satirical cartoons for suffrage publications in the 1910s. He wanted to show how outmoded this character had become and how much better things were after a few more decades had intervened. Much of the episodic plot is focused around the fact that Clarence Sr., son of freethinkers, has never been baptized. Vinnie is sincerely scandalized by this and fears it will keep him out of Heaven. Clarence Sr. Is rather calm and almost proud of the fact as he's not worried about the trappings of religion. Though played entirely for humor, this conflict illustrates one of the fundamental clashes in Christian thought between those who accepted the notion that people needed the church and its priests to intercede for them with God and those who felt each individual had a direct relationship with God and Church was mostly a social organization. This was one of the issues of the Protestant Reformation.
William Powell gives one of his best performances as a warm family man trying to run his family as a business and failing every time. He's wonderfully introduced in domestic morning scenes noting all his demands and particular preferences so that we know him before we even see him. A newly hired Irish maid is amazed to see his four sons are all redheads, a true fact about Day's actual family. Jimmy Lydon (Henry Aldrich for Paramount) is the oldest son, Clarence Jr. (thus playing the book's author) and is instantly taken by a visitor from Ohio, Mary Skinner (Elizabeth Taylor). Taylor had been made a star by "National Velvet" just three years earlier. Here she is visiting from Ohio with Cousin Cora Zasu Pitts) and is portrayed as a sweet, innocent girl from Ohio wearing soft pastels and straw hats. This was her last time as an ingenue. Just a year later she would be a sophisticated young woman in "A Date With Judy." Martin Milner, later of television's "Route 66" and "Adam-12" is second brother John, who accidentally causes all kinds of trouble. Irene Dunne is great in the important role of Vinnie. She's a bit rattle-headed, something Dunne didn't like about the character. She wisely compensated for this by dialing back this aspect so she didn't turn into Billie Burke and emphasized Vinnie's warmth and affection for her family.
Cat Ballou (1965)
I"t's a hanging day in Wolf City, Wyoming.."
"Cat Ballou" was the big surprise hit of 1965. Made as a comic western by Columbia Pictures and expected to do okay at the box office, it became one of the biggest films of the year (#7 box office), mostly due to good word of mouth. The big attraction was tough guy Lee Marvin in an outrageously funny performance, but it was also that the entire cast was excellent in this truly funny film.
It opens with the unexpected surprise of Nat king Cole and Stubby Kaye as period musicians Professor Sam the Shade and The Sunshine Kid, singing about the hanging of Cat Ballou which is about to occur. Because of the way they bow and nod their heads to each other during their sung introduction, it's never been quite clear which name belongs to which singer. I remember there being a gasp and spontaneous clapping from the audience as beloved singer Cole had just died four months before. Cole was commuting to the Colorado location from his show in Reno, and the other actors thought he looked thin and coughed frequently, but attributed it to the strain of his work. Even Cole had no knowledge of his true condition yet. Billed also as "Shouters" they serve as a Greek chorus, appearing periodically to comment on the action. There's something a bit magical about them. Sometimes they possess knowledge of the future, as when Catherine Ballou (Jane Fonda) arrives in town. Other times they pop up in the most unlikely places such as in the middle of nowhere on the way to Hole-in-the-Wall.
The typical mid 60s clever opening begins pre-credits with a surprise from the usually staid Columbia Torch Lady. The credits themselves are presented as colorful pages in a program in old fashioned script. Producer Harold Hecht is mentioned twice. An important man in Hollywood. He had been extremely nervous at Lee Marvin's performance, thinking it was going to ruin the film and constantly running to director Elliot Silverstein who had to calm him down. Silverstein, on his part. Said in interviews that no matter what he said to him, famously cantankerous Lee Marvin knew the way he wanted to play the part and would just do it his way. He was right, of course. As a comedy, his drunken character of Kid Shelleen had to be an over the top mess. Played realistically like Dean Martin in the serious western, "Rio Lobo" the film would have been sunk.
Up to this time Marvin had been a regular player on television and film, mostly in western and crime dramas, strictly a tough guy, often the villain. "Cat Ballou" made him into an international superstar and boosted his salary from $30,000 a picture (which he got here) to a million a picture by the end of the decade. He won the BAFTA, Golden Globe, the German Golden Bear Award and finally. The Best Actor Oscar. This was controversial. As he was up against names like Olivier, Burton, Steiger and Oscar Werner in serious films like "Othello" and "Ship of Fools". But that was great, as the Academy has always had a deserved reputation for snootiness concerning comedy not being worthy of mention and a feeling that only heavy fare was worth notice.
The film boosted Jane Fonda's career as well. She was mostly known for light comedies like "Period of Adjustment" and "Sunday In New York", but after this was a major star. She's the lead character and very important to the balance of the film. She plays it totally straight, propping up the central seriousness of the plot. Surrounded by comic characters, the whole film would have lost its way if she was funny, too (though she does have some fun later in a private railroad car as "Trixie"). Even Marvin is not a total buffoon and he also handles playing the villain, gun-for- hire Tim Strawn. Fonda is perfect at first as the ingenue schoolteacher, all fresh and clean and just out of school. But when Sheriff Cardigan (Jay C. Flippen) tries to brush her off with a "Don't you worry your pretty head about it", she lets him know she isn't going to take it.
The two stars are ably helped by Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickman as Cat's companions who are somewhat bumbling and not really the heroic type but who stick by her nonetheless. Hickman was familiar to audiences from his years playing Dobie Gillis on television. Especially good was Tom Nardini as Jackson Two-Bears, a young Native American. He's affable and sympathetic and always has something funny to say. The film takes on his being a Native American directly when he dances with Catherine at the local square dance. Though none of the townspeople mind, the sheriff's men make a big deal about it and a (comic) fight ensues. Reginald Denny had been acting in films since 1920 and later, television. He's hilarious as the pompous Sir Harry Percival.
"Cat Ballou" was filmed at Buckskin Joe's Frontier Town in south-central Colorado, also used for "True Grit" and "The Cowboys". The Greenhorn mountains make a beautiful backdrop and they filmed when the aspens were golden. Director Silverstein kept it at a taut 97 minutes which quickly moves from one moment to the next. There are many funny scenes, from Marvin singing Happy Birthday at an inappropriate moment to Sheleen and his horse leaning against a building, apparently both drunk, now an Internet meme.
EXTRA NOTE: Reginald Denny had a second career as one of the pioneers of drone technology. He was the first to sign a contract with the U. S. Army to make "Radioplanes" (as they were called then). His factory in Los Angeles made over 15.000 during World War II and was often visited by photographers as part of promoting the war effort. There they often chose a personable young worker for their photos, named Norma Jean Mortensen. This brought her to the attention of studio people in Hollywood who signed her and renamed her Marilyn Monroe.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
Godfrey Is a Good Man To Have Around
"My Man Godfrey", one of the great classics of the thirties is one of those special movies "of historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions" preserved in the National Film Registry, one of AFI's 100 Funniest Films Ever (#44), one of those rare films to have a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Director and all four acting categories (in the first year of Supporting Actor/Actress) but won none. The Academy at the time considered comedies a lesser form of filmmaking and usually went for serious dramas or historical or literary adaptations. The script is witty, the acting excellent in every role and the direction by Gregory La Cava typically keeps everything moving briskly. From the clever neon sign credits you are literally plunged right into the thick of things at the city dump's Hooverville where a black-gowned Cordelia Bullock (Gail Patrick) approaches Godfrey (William Powell). She offers him $5.00 (over $100 today) to be her "forgotten man" at the charity scavenger hunt, setting up all the future events. Cordelia ends up in an ash heap, but her younger sister, Irene (Carole Lombard) ends up with Godfrey after showing some sensitivity saying, "It's kind of sordid" (to use people as objects in a game).
Made by Universal just as owner Carl Lamele was being forced to sell the sinking studio, it became a major hit that helped the studio keep going. New studio head Charles Rogers gave it to director Gregory La Cava who was at his peak in the mid thirties with films like "The Affairs of Cellini" and "Stage Door." His background in animation and with Mack Sennett gave him an understanding of how comedy worked. He also worked well with actors, allowing them great leeway in interpretation and like contemporary director Leo McCarey, was open to plot changes during the shooting of the film. Cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff, a favorite of Lombard, made it one of the most beautiful black and white films ever. Lombard's favorite designer, Travis Benton, head of costume design at Paramount, made all the glamorous costumes worn by the women. This was not coincidental.
This is a prime example of a screwball comedy like "It Happened One Night", "Twentieth Century" (also with Lombard) or "The Awful Truth" It was mostly popular in the thirties and early forties until the war made it seem out of place because it's mostly a type of farce. The form inhabits almost a fantasy world where everything is exaggerated and not quite like reality, full of rapid dialogue, outlandish situations and often different social classes intermingling with comic results. One never questions the outlandish setups because the results are so funny. In addition, by not taking place in "normal reality," screwball comedies could be very edgy and seem to make light of things like marriage and fidelity in a way that a drama would never be allowed by the censors of the day.
Most all thirties comedies were set in a wealthy milieu, as the public during the Depression knew how troubled life could be and enjoyed a temporary escape from it. In this case as in almost all these comedies, the wealthy family (the Bullock's) are revealed as a bunch of nitwits and eccentrics with no knowledge of everyday life, especially during the Depression. The characters are fairly standard: an airheaded mother, the airhead mother's protege (a hanger-on with pretensions of artistic talent), a sweet daughter, a snobby daughter or son and a down to earth businessman father. The rich were shown to be out of touch and zany because it made for lots of comic possibilities. It also hinted at the dark side of wealth, that could lead to many people living in their own fantasy worlds, entertaining outlandish ideas. This dark side is also hinted at comically with mother Angelica Bullock's morning hangovers and visions of pixies. In a society given to parties and frivolity, alcohol was a common pitfall. The Bullock's are the epitome of the screwball comedy family. When Godfrey learns that a new butler quits almost daily, he asks Molly, the family maid, "Is the family so exacting?" and she answers, "No, they're that nutty."
Within this tradition "My Man Godfrey" is the kind of fantasy where a magical character, in this case William Powell's Godfrey, comes on the scene to set things right in a family that is highly dysfunctional. The crowded scene in the hotel ballroom with a typically frazzled Mr. Guthrie (Franklin Pangborn) overseeing the scavenged items is equally priceless, peaking with an exasperated Godfrey calling the crowd a collection of nitwits to their faces, This scene introduces the rest of the family and sets up the rest of the film, where Godfrey accepts employment from Irene Bullock as the family's butler.
William Powell and Carole Lombard work wonderfully well together, he being the unwilling subject of her romantic interest. Powell had insisted on her for the part as a condition of his accepting the role, something La Cava absolutely wanted. They had been married until three years prior and he said their romance had been a lot like that in the film. They had found out that they were simply incompatible personalities and split amicably, remaining friends. Lombard worked very hard on creating the right way to portray Irene and does so, making her sympathetic, which is not as easy as it sounds (and should have won the award over Luise Ranier's "phone call" in "The Great Ziegfeld") Gail Patrick has her most memorable role as the snobby, cynical, "bad" sister, Cordelia, who is not just mean but potentially lethal. Her artist-protege, Carlo, eats much and produces little but does a mean ape impersonation and is played by character actor Mischa Auer. Alice Brady is in the "Billie Burke role" playing it not quite as airheaded as Burke might but equally clueless. Uniquely gruff-voiced Eugene Pallette is wonderful as the exasperated father. In the end things are set straight: Father Bullock learns some humility; cruel daughter Cornelia sees how wicked she has been and repents; Carlo, the leech, (M is kicked out; and ditsy mother Angelica (Aice Brady), well, she's really too old to change, but was always harmless anyway. But that brings us to Irene and that's where I do have a little trouble with the film. She has apparently used the family's wealth to remain a spoiled ten year old child, and that is how she acts throughout the film. Sure, it's funny, but I expected her to grow, to show some maturity or judgment after knowing Godfrey, but she doesn't change at all. At least she's a good soul. The film's ending scene is a bit overly idealistic as well, but it does tie things up neatly.
Shane (1953)
One of the Greats
"Shane" is one of the greatest Westerns and has held that assessment since it first came out in 1953. It's near the top of most lists along with films like "The Searchers" and "High Noon". This is because everyone involved in it was at the top of their game and believed in the picture. Paramount gave it an enormous (for a Western) 1.5 million dollar budget and assigned its top people to the project. Director George Stevens, one of the greats of the classic era, was one of those versatile directors like Howard Hawks who could handle any genre. On the surface, a director known for thirties comedies and films like "Alice Adams", Katharine Hepburn's breakthrough film and "Swing Time" the greatest of the Astaire/Rogers musicals would not seem to be the guy to direct a Western, but he had the skill and did it superbly.
The writers of the screenplay and the book it was based on were both steeped in the genre and both wrote major Western novels. The original novel by Jack Schaefer was an expansion of his three-part serialized story, "Rider From Nowhere", published in Argosy magazine in the summer of 1946, which contained all of the essential characters and plot elements. It stood out from the beginning for its serious tone and language in what was basically a pulp magazine. Schaefer wrote over a dozen Western novels including "Monte Walsh". A. B. Guthrie wrote the screenplay and was brought in just for the film. He was not normally a screenwriter but a well-known Western novelist who was known for "The Big Sky" and the Pulitzer Prize winning, "The Way West". Guthrie's novels were usually set in the Montana-Wyoming area and he lived on a ranch in Teton County, Montana.
Alan Ladd was at the peak of his career at this time. He had spent many frustrating years in Hollywood until his agent and future wife Sue Carol got him a contract and his breakout role in "This Gun for Hire" (1942). He had to fight against the industry's ideal of the tall, dark leading man as he was relatively short (5'7") and blond. For this reason he was paired in seven films with the 5'2" Veronica Lake, with whom he also had great chemistry. He became a major star playing tough guys in noir and action films, aided by his deep and resonant voice and ability to play troubled characters. He brings strength, mystery and a kind side to Shane, a man with an unknown past that seems to have included being a gunfighter. He's the man with no name - we never learn if he's using his given name - one of the archetypes of Westerns and hero tales in general.
Jean Arthur had been one of the queens of screwball comedy, so she seems an unlikely choice for a Western, but Stevens had directed her in two films and liked her. Though very subdued compared to her early performances, she's warm and tender as Marian Starrett, a more complex character than the usual pioneer mother as she is obviously very attracted to Shane but also totally devoted to her husband and child. At one point she tells her son, "He's a fine man. Yes, I like him too, Joey" with all the nuance that the boy can't pick up but the audience can. This was her last film role. Van Heflin is Joe Starrett, husband and father and the man who sees good in Shane and allows him to stay with the family on their homestead. He played every type of role in the 1940s and after and is convincing as the kind of man who would bring his family to settle in 1880s Wyoming Territory. Fans may notice that once again he has to see his cinematic wife dance with another man as he did in 1949's "Madame Bovary", only this time under more pleasant circumstances. Their son, Joey is the teller of the story in the novel and contrary to the usual movie, here is a central character who develops a hero-worshiping relationship with Shane. This is a big part to entrust to a ten-year-old child, but Brandon deWilde came through with wonderful reactions and sincerely spoken lines, especially his famous last words. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his work (it was an honor being put in with the adults but I'd have preferred them giving one of those small statuettes they formerly awarded child actors without competition). Jack Palance had just gotten his big break in the previous year's "Sudden Fear" and cemented his villainous image in "Shane". He's frightening as gunslinger Jack Wilson in his black hat as he slowly saunters into town and when he first enters the bar, even the dog gets up and leaves. He doesn't overplay it either, being menacingly quiet much of the time and seems to find killing a game. He too was nominated as Best Supporting Actor. In a smaller role, Western stalwart Ben Johnson adds to the film as a bad guy with a change of heart.
The story is set during the historic Range War known as the Johnson County War, a setting for several other films. It's the frequently told conflict between farmer settlers and cattle barons and the issue was fences and water. (Historically this was the opposite of the usual in places from Ancient Rome to Medieval Europe where wealthy landowners increased the size of their holdings by enclosing public land with fences while here it was the farmers putting up fences, legally according to the Homestead Acts). This was a regional "war" going on in Montana and Wyoming with a mix of organized rustling gangs, wealthy and politically connected ranchers and European settlers who the ranchers didn't mind being included with the rustlers when they began hiring gunslingers. It's too long to go into here but eventually it even included President Benjamin Harrison sending in the cavalry to rescue gunmen who were trapped on the ranches by a posse of over 200 men sent by the State Legislature. The scope was narrowed, of course, because they wanted to make a dramatic film, not a documentary. Though the film takes the side of the homesteaders, who after all, were following the law and not hiring gunmen, it does give big rancher Morgan Riker a chance to explain the ranchers' side, "We built the range".
A big part of the film is its magnificent location, and the cinematography by Lloyd Griggs, which was the only winner among the film's six Academy Award nominations. It was the year of "From Here To Eternity" which won 8 of the 13 categories and was more Academy-friendly in the early 50s when Westerns were considered a lesser type of film). The jagged Tetons give the film a mythical aspect and they are almost always present in the background. They are as important here as John Ford's Monument Valley. It's a setting for gods and heroes, not mortal men. Finally there's the wonderful score by Victor Young, one of his best known and most beautiful. Titled "The Call of the Faraway Hills" it's in the earlier folk-based style of western music before "The Big Country" (1958) and "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) established Aaron Copeland-styled music as the sound of the film Western. It is open and beautiful and seems to flow all around you. It in fact, plays almost throughout the film at an almost unheard level, only asserting itself when necessary. The music absolutely soars during the tree stump scene and becomes a menacing, brassy and pounding march when Shane goes to town for the final showdown. For Marian he inserted a sweet Polish dance tune originally titled "La Varsovienne" and in 19th century America "Put Your Little Foot", representing feminine warmth and domesticity.
There is so much going on in this film and so many nice touches. It's Joey who first sees Shane approaching while he is about to shoot a deer (we do not know yet that his rifle isn't loaded and so are tense about it). Shane is shown to be a heroic, almost magical hero by the deer being "saved" by running away when it hears him approaching. The camera then shows Shane from Joey's perspective in one of its most famous shots, looking up at a larger than life figure against a vast blue sky. When Shane begins to teach Joey how to handle a gun and shoot, he shows amazing dexterity with it, signaling as did his reaction to hearing Joey cock his rifle earlier, that he has far more familiarity and skill with it than even the average cowboy. Later in the scene he notes, "A gun is just a tool. A gun is as good as the man using it, Marian. No better or no worse than any tool, an ax, a shovel, anything. Remember that." This is the only peek we get at his possible gunfighter past. It's brought up again when Ryan tells him, "Gunfighter, your time is over." To which Shane answers, "What about yours? The difference is I know it." Shane is different from the homesteaders and can't settle down with them. Within the film he feels that "There's no living with a killing" But beyond that, as a mythic hero he's done. He came where help was needed and now he must move on.
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Better than its stodgy reputation
Hollywood had a history of making bloated, boring extravaganzas in the past and this could have been just one more, but this time everything worked well enough. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture, though the competition included many other good pictures including four other MGM films among the ten nominees, that any of them deserved to win. William Powell starred in two of the other nominees, "Libeled Lady" and "My Man Godfrey". It was enormously successful with the public. Its three hour running time drags here and there and the dramatic scenes never equal the showpieces, but it still works overall. Because it was about Florenz Ziegfeld, a man who took living large to new extremes, it simply had to be a big and lavish film. Criticisms of the film being too long and the numbers too over-the-top seem to miss this point. Criticisms of it not telling the true story of Ziegfeld are off the mark as well. At this time and for decades after, Hollywood biopics were tributes to people whose accomplishments had earned them public esteem. The move to tell-alls that tended to relish whatever flaws the subject had came decades later and are actually fairly recent. It's just something you accept from pictures of this vintage. It was directed by Robert Z. Leonard, who had directed many of the MacDonald-Eddy musicals.
The cast is one of the film's greatest assets. William Powell is in one of his best roles here, his natural warmth and charm energizing the entire production and carrying the film which was no mean feat. Luise Rainer's Anna Held is charming, vulnerable and sympathetic. Old pro Frank Morgan is fine as Ziegfeld's competitor and friend Jack Billings, the one imaginary character among the principals. Myrna Loy wisely chose just to be her charming self as Ziegfeld's second wife, Billie Burke instead of imitating Burke's unique mannerisms. Burke was going to play herself in the original conception of the film at Universal, but when MGM took it over (it was too expensive for Universal) they wanted a better known star. Besides, Ziegfeld met Miss Burke when she was 26 and by this time she was 51, while Myrna Loy was 30. Still, Loy underplays Burke and never shows any of her bubbly effervescence. Nat Pendleton, the former Olympic medal-winning wrestler, plays Sandow and would later play lieutenant Guild in two of the Thin Man pictures. Reginald Owen, as usual is the perfect English butler and Herman Bing makes the most as Ziegfeld's eternally flustered costumer. Part of the MGM takeover included loaning Powell to Universal for their upcoming film, "My Man Godfrey", so we got two great William Powell films out of the deal.
The script is what you would expect of a Thirties film, with many saccharine moments, but it never overdoes it too much, not even in the famous "telephone scene". For a Hollywood biopic is actually stays fairly close to many events in Ziegfeld's life, and certainly to his extravagant spirit. His father really did found a music conservatory in Chicago, and he really did get his start with strongman Sandow at the 1896 Chicago World's Fair. He did find Anna Held in London and did promote her in New York with shameless publicity stunts. His ceaseless womanizing was sanitized for the film but he did have a long affair with Follies star Lillian Lorraine, an erratic, irresponsible woman thinly disguised here as Audrey Dane (played by Virginia Bruce). It was actually Anna Held who suggested doing a follies show similar to the Folies Bergere in Paris, somehow not realizing she was putting a kid in a candy store. He did marry Billie Burke who had sold the rights to make the film in order to pay off his larger-than-life debts. His habit of giving extravagant gifts and sending telegrams to people who were nearby are well documented. The script had a few nice touches that could almost go unnoticed: men, like those from the barber shop incident mispronounce his name as Mr. "Ziegfield" (a common error) when he presents them with tickets, but those who actually know him call him Ziegfeld.
The musical numbers were wisely kept to just a few, preventing the film from becoming a vaudeville show. The two main numbers, the extraordinary "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" and the "Midnight Frolic" on the roof of the New Amsterdam are back to back, seeming to overstuff the film's middle, but were separated by an intermission in theaters. The only misstep was cutting Fanny Brice off just as she begins her signature song, "My Man". What were they thinking? I'd have much rather had that number in instead of the dog and pony show that occurs later in the film. I suspect they filmed the entire song but decided to cut it for a shorter running time. The film rightfully won the best Dance Direction Oscar for the Pretty Girl production, one of the most famous musical scenes in thirties film, with its elaborate costumes (with the huge budget, designer Adrian went all out) and staging and its mix of Dvorak, Liszt, Johann Strauss, Mascagni and Gershwin. The gradually revealing spiral "wedding cake" was 70 feet tall, culminating with actress Virginia Bruce at its pinnacle. For the record, though Dennis Morgan is the singer in this number, he was dubbed by Alan Jones. The question is why, because Morgan had a fine tenor voice. I have seen it written (without corroboration) that MGM had an old recording of Jones singing the song and decided to use it, but that still begs the question. If you want to give it a try, set some time aside and enjoy this great epic musical of the Thirties. Trivia fact: One of the Ziegfeld girls in the film was played by Patricia Ryan, the future Pat Nixon.
The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)
Decades later, still one of the best westerns
The Sons of Katie Elder" has held up well over the decades and is now considered, if not one of the great Westerns, still a solid a Western classic. Though it has a typical Hollywood plot for a film of its kind, it was based on the actual story of the Marlowe brothers of Clearwater, Texas, from a book by Glenn Shirley. Of course a huge amount was changed but there remained many points of similarity in the film's later action-packed scenes. Paramount had bought the rights in the early 50's, planning to make it with Alan Ladd who had just appeared in "Shane". In typical studio fashion, things fell through and it sat on the shelf until Hal Wallace decided to produce it in the 60's.
He chose dependable director Henry Hathaway, who had directed a variety of genres that included heroic action ("Lives of a Bengal Lancer"), gangster films ("Johnny Apollo"), Noir ("Call Northside 777") and historical fantasy ("Prince Valiant"). He had directed a young John Wayne in "The Shepherd of the Hills "(1941) and more recently in "North To Alaska" (1960) and "How the West Was Won" (1962). Though mostly a straightforward director without personal themes or stylistic flourishes, he was known for his good visual sense, which is noteworthy in this film's settings. Though Clearwater is in the far northeast of Texas which is green and much like the South, the Western was so connected with the desert West in the mind of the public, that he filmed it mostly in the Mexican state of Durango with the Chupaderos Mountains in the background. Wayne ended up shooting six films there. The film is full of nice visuals, one of the best being the golden lighting in the scene inside the barn late in the film.
Did Hathaway have 1959's #1 box office film "Rio Bravo" in his mind when he made this film? As it was one of the most successful Westerns of recent years, it's very likely that both he and the studio did. There are many similarities beginning with the casting of Wayne and Martin, who had starred in the earlier film. There was also a character of "the Kid", in the former film Rickey Nelson and here Michael Anderson Jr. There's also in both, a woman who likes Wayne, moreso in the earlier film. Both films have a long build up before an action-filled, explosive ending. So there are, at least, superficial similarities. But the films differ in style and content.
"Rio Bravo" took place mainly indoors and became almost a comedy with the conversations and goings on among the principal actors. There's not much action until the very end. Much of it happened at night and there's very little of the outdoors in it. All of this bothered some die hard Western fans who wanted more action, though the public loved it. "The Sons of Katie Elder" takes place mostly outdoors and is basically a standard Western blown up to an epic scale. Its action gets going earlier, lasts longer and is more frequent. Both films are long. "Rio Bravo" clocks in at 140 minutes and "Katie Elder" at 122. Director Howard Hawks somehow kept "Rio Bravo" so tense that it seems to fly by, while some complain that "Katie Elder's" first half seems slow.
It doesn't feel that way to me, but I don't demand constant action from a film, even a Western. To me the rides through the vast countryside and the antics between the Elder brothers add to the film and develop the characters enough that you feel you know them somewhat. It's a big Western and needs time to build itself up to a satisfactory climax. The four principal actors work together well. Of course there's the issue that no one would ever take these four for brothers, especially with Wayne at 57 and Michael Anderson at 22 but looking like a teen. But you just accept it. John Wayne is John Elder, the authority figure here in every way and you never question him or his motives. Martin isn't the troubled alcoholic he was in "Rio Bravo" and doesn't get to show his acting skill as much, but he does get a great comic bit auctioning off his glass eye in a saloon.
Earl Holliman, a frequent presence in Westerns, plays the more conventional, hardware-store owning brother and is almost a secondary character. Michael Anderson is Bud Elder, the youngest, who would rather follow big brother John but has been sent away to college instead. He seems a bit hyper at times, but then he's at the age where everything seems a big deal. He's likable and humorous in the role. These are the kinds of brothers who indulge in horseplay and friendly fistfights. Wayne, who was just recovering from having a lung and two ribs removed, still insisted on doing his own stunts and the river scene almost sent him to the hospital.
The supporting characters are good but not exceptional. James Gregory is the big villain, Morgan Hastings, who is greedy and will kill people to get what he wants. He owns the local gun shop but hires "Curley" (George Kennedy) to protect him from the Elders. Gregory as Hastings is a bit bland for a villain in a Western. Kennedy is helped by his size and deep voice but his part is underwritten. He's only on screen now and then but at least he gets a great comeuppance from Wayne when he's caught bullying Mr. Hyselman, the undertaker, who had been talking to John Elder. His final scene is unexpectedly underwhelming.
A young Dennis Hopper seems a bit old for his role as Hastings' son and has little screen time but is important to the plot later on. Paul Fix is perfect as the wise old sheriff and if his new deputy, Ben (Jeremy Slate), seems awfully hot headed, that's the way he's written. Fans of classic films will note some great old character actors here and there. Percy Helton, known mostly by his high, foggy voice, gets a nice bit as Mr. Peevey, the local grocer. John Qualen, frequently a Scandinavian character in films since the thirties, here gets a good scene talking sense to deputy sheriff Ben. And Rhys Williams from "How Green Was My Valley" drops by to hire the Elders to drive horses north. Martha Hyer comes off best among the supporting players. I remember her mostly playing wealthy women, and here is more down to earth and real. She has what was the Angie Dickinson role in "Rio Bravo", but greatly pared down. Dickinson was a member of the primary cast and had love scenes with Wayne. By now Wayne believed he was too old for love scenes, so she's just on screen here and there, though a possibility of a romance is hinted at.
The film also has a great score by Elmer Bernstein, with one of the most famous Western themes, written in the Coplandesque style he used for "The Magnificent Seven". It gets a full hearing during the horse-driving scene. "The Sons of Katie Elder " delivers a great evening's entertainment.
Libeled Lady (1936)
Four stars are having a great time and so will you
MGM went all out for "Libeled lady", casting four of their top stars to carry this comedy, and created a major hit film in its day that has stood the test of time. It was directed by Jack Conway, a director to whom the studio entrusted many of its major, big-star films. Conway, whose greatest success was "A Tale of Two Cities " (1935), turned out many fine films but did not have any noticeable stylistic flourishes or themes that would make him a subject of auteur theories. He was more of a quiet professional whose films were turned out within budget and on time (or, as Myrna Loy said in her biography, "At breakneck speed").
Though this is basically a romantic comedy,the set-up is as preposterous as any of the screwball comedies. In this case newspaper editor Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy) makes his fiancee Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow) marry former reporter and now the newspaper's libel-case fixer, Bill Chandler (William Powell). Haggerty asks him to create a compromising situation with playgirl-heiress Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) so she can't win her five million dollar libel suit against the paper. The marriage is to be temporary and unconsummated.
Harlow complains but goes along, as she is in love with Tracy despite his seeming unwillingness to marry. The craziness of the screwball comedy setups is one of the things that helped them work. By creating a situation that was ridiculous and extremely unlikely, the films were not depicting normal reality, but were thrust into a virtual fantasy world. This allowed them to make light of marriage and divorce and to be full of sexual double entendres that would never have occurred in films depicting the lives of ordinary people in real situations. This was the era of the Hays Code and even after the film was okayed, Joseph Breen still complained about the film reflecting unfavorably on "the sanctity of the home".
The stars appear to be having a lot of fun making the film. Tracy has to search high and low for the whereabouts of Powell, including Sidney, Singapore and Shanghai, but it's the office boy who finally tells him to find him at the Grand Plaza Hotel. From the very first moment on screen, Powell has that whimsical way of his that looks like he's already had a couple cocktails. He maintains this demeanor throughout and it's he who is the real center of the film. It's one of the three roles for which he was nominated as Best Actor by the Academy. His classic scene fly-fishing for trout is one of the best bits in thirties comedies. It was actually shot outdoors in the Sierra foothills, something rare in comedies of the period.
Myrna Loy had only recently graduated from being typecast as exotics with names like Roma, Yasmani, Nubi or the evil daughter of Fu Manchu, and was finding a real career in light comedy. Here she's wonderfully insightful and droll. After Tracy gives a long-winded speech about saving the newspaper staff by ending her suit, she says, "You write the editorials, don't you." She suspects Powell of being a golddigger from the very beginning and doesn't warm to him for a long time. She was one of the most beautiful of thirties actresses and in this film is a total knockout in glamorous outfits, especially aboard ship in the Transatlantic Crossing scenes.
Harlow, like Loy, had also been cast as another type of exotic, a blonde bombshell, before finding her way out with her wonderful comic timing and delivery in "Dinner at Eight" (1933). Here she first appears almost as she did in that film, in her white French Provincial boudoir, in a bed with white satin sheets wearing a fluffy nightgown. She's wildly funny, being outraged by the machinations of Tracy, hostile to Powell except when the hotel staff is watching, and delightfully sweet and warm to him when she finds out he respects her. In fact, this film is so clever that for a while it seems like Powell might end up with either woman. They were both good at reacting with facial expressions while others talked. Watch Loy at dinner while Powell and Connolly talk fishing and Harlow telegraphing the exact moment when her feelings change for Powell.
Tracy gets the short end of the stick here. He's almost a villain and at best gets to be a gruff straight-man. This he did well, of course and it went with the persona he was developing on screen. Still, it leaves him little to do but yell at everyone. Walter Connolly plays Loy's father in a gruff but mostly amiable way. He had played Claudette Colbert's father in "It Happened One Night" two years earlier. E. E. Clive, a stalwart actor for depicting various Englishmen, often butlers, has a nice bit as a fishing instructor.
Powell and Harlow had just become a serious couple at this time and were planning to marry. She had wanted the role of Connie. But the public had already responded enthusiastically to Powell and Loy since "The Thin Man" and wanted this to be another picture with them as a couple. It's just very tragic that Harlow died the very next year. Tracy was attracted to Loy and famously set up a table in the MGM commissary with an "I hate Hornblow" sign, referring to her husband at the time, producer Arthur Hornblow. The film moves along quickly and very smoothly, never seeming raucous or frenzied. Most of the humor, of course, is in the dialogue, though Powell gets to do some physical comedy. With four up and coming stars, MGM gave the film its full gloss with opulent sets and lots of extras for scenes like the charity fundraiser. All in all it's a really pleasant film and it's wonderful seeing these four stars act together.
Rio Bravo (1959)
Hawks' great western of the late 50s
Rio Bravo" makes every list of Best Westerns ever made, and was one of the biggest box office films of 1959. Some fans of Westerns are more critical of it, finding it slow going with its relatively long sequences without action in what is usually an action genre. It also has more comic moments than most Westerns and is also missing the big sky, outdoor presence of the West that ties most Westerns together. This was not the result of the budget. Hawks could afford a second unit, but keeping the film in town and largely in the jail and hotel, enhances the trapped, claustrophobic situation of the characters. Also, as a 50s Western, it doesn't have the dirty, more violent realism that changed the genre in the 1970's with films like "The Wild Bunch". I can understand why some don't like it, since in some ways "Rio Bravo", though ostensibly a Western, is a character driven film in which the central action is really the redemption of its characters. But they're missing out on a great film.
Note that each of the "fallen" characters goes by a nickname which sets them apart from the others. Dean Martin's "Dude" is an alcoholic almost at his end. Ricky Nelson's "Colorado" has turned down assisting Wayne's Sheriff John T. Chance, resulting in his boss being shot and killed. Angie Dickinson's "Feathers" is suspected of being a card shark and is the subject of a wanted handbill. A lot goes on beneath the surface as each character rises to the occasion. Even Walter Brennan's "Stumpy", an old codger, proves he can be handy in a pinch.
This is the work of great director Howard Hawks, who seemingly could direct any type of film with stunning results, whether screwball comedy ("Bringing Up Baby"), film noir ("The Big Sleep"), war ("The Dawn Patrol"), musicals ("Gentlemen Prefer Blondes"), science fiction ('The Thing From Another World") and Westerns ("Red River", which also starred Wayne). As a flight instructor in France in World War I, he was deeply impressed by the spirit of men in close quarters in a situation where death was very likely and that fact kept them in the right frame of mind to do what they had to do. This became the theme of several of his films, notably "The Dawn Patrol" (the 1930 original} and "Only Angels Have Wings" and of course, "Rio Bravo". The emphasis is on the tense situation and how the people deal with it more than the action that finally resolves it. The final key Hawks element is a strong, independent woman, able to hold her own with the guys, the only kind of woman his strong lead could be attracted to.
The cast comes through remarkably in this picture. John Wayne hadn't made a Western since "The Searchers" in 1954 and his attempts to diversify his roles were not that successful. This film not only marked his return to the genre, but was the beginning of a whole new series of Westerns well into the 70s. He immediately becomes the central presence of the film just by being there. In one way it's not his story. He doesn't change in the course of the film while everyone else does. He provides the steady authority and belief that justice must prevail. Dean Martin was an incredibly unlikely choice. His last film with Jerry Lewis had been in 1956 and he had been trying to make his own film career. But a Western seemed out of his range. Despite that he's wonderful and believable here as Dude. Hawks famously told him not to try to play a cowboy," just play a drunk", and he came through with a performance no one knew was possible from him.
Rickey Nelson? This might have been Warner Brothers trying to broaden the audience, but he does fit the role of Colorado. Nelson was at the top of his career in 1958-59 with one double-sided Top 10 hit after another and certainly had fans. But his acting experience was limited to his family TV show. Hawks and his screenwriters handled this by working him into the plot gradually. For a good half of the film he is an observer from the outside who sees things more clearly than those more involved and offers good insights. He's the one who explains the meaning of "EL Deguello", ("The Cutthroat"), the song the bar band plays at the request of head bad guy Nathan Burdette. It was the tune that Santa Ana had played at the Alamo. Note also that the hotel is "The Alamo Hotel". He also explains why Wayne and Martin will be in jeopardy if they hand over their prisoner, Joe. Walter Brennan plays his stock ornery old man as the comic relief and he's really a necessary part of the film. Of course a little of Brennan could go a long way, and Hawks wisely keeps him only in the jail scenes until the end.
After years of small parts on television shows, Angie Dickinson was still unknown at this point but Hawks took a chance on her. She was a bigger risk than Nelson since her role was larger, and by virtue of being the only woman in the top cast, more important. She was helped by adopting a cool attitude and by her deep voice. In many ways she echoed Lauren Bacall in Hawks' "The Big Sleep" and "To Have and Have Not" and some of her lines closely mimic Bacall's. (Screenwriter Jules Furthman had worked on both films and co-writer Leigh Bracket had worked on "The Big Sleep"). She's a remarkably independent and self-assured woman adrift in the old west after the death of her husband, but Dickinson is believable. Wayne was uncomfortable about the romantic angle, feeling the age difference was too much, but Dickinson seemed older than she was and it seems real enough.
The two hour and twenty minute film seems to go on as if it was a ninety-minute film, absorbing your attention so much that you never feel it's dragging. Looking back on it there's really no scene that seems extraneous. Possible pitfalls with the actors are avoided. The situations never seem too unreal. The score works well. Dimitri Tiomkin wrote a relatively quiet score that serves the film's moods without standing out too much. The exception is "El Deguello", which as the theme of doom (it meant there would be no quarter given), had to be dramatic. Tiomkin wrote his own version of the piece, making it more foreboding than the actual tune. Tiomkin's score here is the opposite of the elaborate, tuneful score he wrote for Wayne in "The Alamo" (1960).
Tiomkin also wrote songs sung in the film by Martin, Nelson and Brennan. This was and still is controversial for some, who considered it unnecessary and just a plug-in by the studio. The songs are quietly, naturally sung and are not irrelevant to the film. The songs play an important part in creating as relaxed a feeling as possible before the film shifts into its high intensity finale. When times go bad, all Sheriff John T. Chance has to assist him are a drunk, a cripple, a woman and a kid. In "Rio Bravo", that's good enough.
Jewel Robbery (1932)
Delightful Pre-Code film. "Drugged cigarettes, anyone?"
There are many reasons to watch "Jewel Robbery", a Pre-Code film starring William Powell and Kay Francis. Before Myrna Loy, Kay Francis was the actress frequently teamed with Powell, beginning at Paramount and continuing when they both moved to Warner Brothers, who made this film. This is one of the later of the seven films they appeared in together and they worked together really well, obviously enjoying each other's company. It's also a way to see Kay Francis, who was a major star in the early 30s. This era of still early talkies has been eclipsed by films of the later part of that decade along with the forties and other major actresses like Ruth Chatterton and Constance Bennett have fallen into relative obscurity. No one is even currently streaming "What Price Hollywood". Even Norma Shearer and Miriam Hopkins are mostly known only to film buffs anymore. It's also a very Pre-Code film in that we must root for a woman whose great loves are jewels and taking on new lovers, hardly 21st century values.
The world depicted here is similar to that of many Lubitsch films, an Old World. Aristocratic society where members were sophisticated enough to look the other way at affairs and dalliances, where wit, charm and elegance are great virtues. The stories were told with sensitivity that often combined the serious and the playful, suggesting much more that the films of the era could actually show. The director here was William Dieterle, a protege of Max Reinhardt brought over from Germany by Warner Brothers. He doesn't have a specific "touch" like Lubitsch, but "Jewel Robbery" seems like a European film far more than the kinds of American set films Warners was known for. It was adapted from a recent play by Hungarian author Ladislas Fodor and is set in Vienna. The script is pure Viennese fantasy, similar to a bedroom farce and the audience is not meant to take anything too seriously.
Kay Francis is Baroness Teri von Hohrenfels, a beautiful young woman married to a dull but wealthy older man, played by Henry Kolker, who was sixty. She relieves her boredom with her husband with casual affairs. She is currently carrying on an affair with Paul, a cabinet minister but is growing bored with him, especially when he says he wants to marry her. She loves excitement and jewels and is introduced taking a bubble bath attended by multiple maids and hairdressers. She has a fabulous wardrobe, a must in any Kay Francis film, as she was known as a fashion icon and looked particularly spectacular in those slinky thirties evening gowns. She and her close friend and confidante Marianne set off to go shopping on the fashionable Rimgstrasse, particularly Hollander's Jewelry Store where Teri has her eye on a 28 carat diamond ring. The two absolutely define frivolity.
Eventually, as the title indicates, a jewel robbery does occur and the robber is the suave, elegant man the Baroness considers to be the incarnation of her dream lover. But he's also robbing her, her friends and the jewelry shop where they are having a private showing (in full evening dress, of course, as is the robber! Even the robber's gang is dressed to the nines). The robber (I don't think he ever gave his name) bows to the Baroness and is well-mannered to the point of courtliness. He even puts on a record to create a soothing atmosphere so everyone will be relaxed as they are robbed, though if angered, as he is with the belligerent Paul, he can turn tough and pull out a gun. Powell, of course, was known for being able to play elegant characters as well as detectives like Philo Vance. It's clear from the beginning that there is a strong attraction between Baroness Teri and the robber, and everything that follows proceeds from that. The supporting cast is equally good with Helen Vinson delightful as the Baroness' confidante, Spencer Charters as bumbling night watchman Lenz, and Alan Mowbray as a serious police detective and not a butler for once.
What ensues includes a very casual attitude about sex and infidelity with witty dialogue full of double entendres. The robber even offers everyone some marijuana to lighten them up during the heist. It's referred to as a "drugged cigarette" and offered in an elegant cigarette case, but we know what it is. At first it's offered to jewelry shop owner Hollander, then to night watchman Lenz and later to the police detectives. Some take it and it must be incredibly potent because it reduces them to giddy laughter and silliness after the first puff. You won't believe what is going on before your eyes in an old black-and-white 1930's film considering how straight-laced film became not long after. I don't know if it played outside the big cities, but it sure would have shocked small town America.
One of the things I love about early thirties films is that you are really getting a look at an earlier era unlike later films of the decade which seem more familiar culturally. Sometimes older men still wear frock coats; in this film men still wear monocles! It all seems so far away. This made me think that many people in today's world won't quite "get" the Baroness and might be quite hostile to her when it's important to the film to find her sympathetic. To modern eyes she may seem too elite, spoiled, frivolous, vain and self-absorbed and even air-headed. All she seems to care about is jewels and romantic adventures. But in earlier times and within her class she would have been perceived as quite charming. This is all an upper class woman was expected to be. She was not supposed to be political, class conscious or anything but beautiful, delightful and ornamental. This attitude was getting old even by the thirties, but this kind of script has its roots in the much older comedies of the Ancien Regime.
Aristocratic women tended to be either devoutly religious or given to frivolity, parties and little indiscretions. Aristocratic marriages were always arranged, often for reasons of property or even affairs of state and the higher you were the less say you had. Since spouses didn't really know each other they were hardly expected to be faithful and true as long as they kept up appearances and had heirs. It's also true that robbers were nothing like the elegant William Powell is here. They did not wear white ties to their robberies and were not so well-spoken. The whole thing is a fantasy, almost a fairy tale and is delightful as such. At 68 minutes, it just flies by. Just sit back and enjoy.
The April Fools (1969)
Film is just okay, but what a party scene!
"The April Fools" was intended to be a major film but failed with both critics and at the box office. The failure is due to a complete lack of chemistry between stars Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve whose screen romance, the center of the film, never takes off. I realize that some people do accept the romance and that for them it is a fine film, but I can only be honest about my own opinion, which is not quite as positive. I can only give my honest opinion in these reviews but if you can accept the romance you will probably love the film. It does contain many other qualities that make it still worth seeing, if for nothing else, a marvelous look at the go-go 60s as has rarely been seen on film. The first half of the film is a feast for the eyes.
"The April Fools" opens with a party in Peter Lawford's totally Pop Art apartment in one of New York's fanciest buildings. The youth counterculture has been done frequently on the screen, but there was more going on than that. There was, among certain segments of the adult generation, another movement going on. These were the people who started the sexual revolution, which began when the Woodstock generation was still in grade school. They were playboys, swingers and trendy adults, hip in a way different than their children would be. Even if they weren't part of that, they were part of a whole society caught up in the color and pizzaz of the party that was the 60s. The crowd in Lawford's apartment are mostly well to do and since it was the 60s, were determined to have fun. This party is to die for, one of the most outrageously colorful parties on film. It takes place in a trendy New York art scene and everyone is dressed to the nines. Pink feathered hoods, gold and silver lame dresses, geometrics, psychedelic prints, ornate jewelry, large and elaborate hairdos, Pop Art everywhere and all the colors are bright. Nothing outrageous is particularly happening, it's not wild and out of control, but it's the adult version of the late 60s for sure. There's a funny moment involving Susan Barrett singing "I Say a Little Prayer".
The next scene is the Safari Club, a parody of The Playboy Club and other gentlemen's venues. Live animals, go-go dancers, and just wait till you see how to summon a waitress. This is followed by a dance club with strobe lights and a resident fire eater with Hollywood's idea of rock music playing, another colorful, over the top hangout. The last stop in this part of the film is in a gigantic Tudor Revival inhabited by Charles Boyer and Myrna Loy who play Andre and Grace Greenlaw, an older couple, still very much in love. This mansion must be seen to be believed, with enormous rooms, gardens and even a bowling alley. Inside the decor looks very 1930s, the era of the two older star's early careers. Deneuve says, "I feel like I've stepped into the past". This part of the film is almost fantasy and seems to hint that the Greenlaws are almost magical beings, living in a place out of normal time and space. Loy gives advice through astrology and tarot cards - both of which she discounts saying, "Of course there's nothing to it" - and it's here that Deneuve and Lemmon realize that they are not only right for each other but that destiny is playing a hand. That would be wonderful if you could believe it, but I've never been able to. They scarcely relate to each other and seem to belong in different movies. Lemmon plays his usual everyman, unhip, a bit clueless, awkward and befuddled, a fish out of water no matter where he is, but under it all a nice and honest guy. But here he overdoes it. His Howard Brubaker seems too much an ordinary office worker, low on the hierarchy, and not all that competent. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who just got promoted to Head of Investments in a big Wall Street firm, which is how the story begins.
Many say Deneuve is wooden, but I don't think she is. The script simply doesn't give her much to say or do. She seems sweet and nice, but that's all. Her Catheriine Gunther is a wealthy, sophisticated and fashionable French woman who I simply can't imagine would see anything in Lemmon. Marvin Hamlisch's music gives all the appropriate romantic signals, but when they happen on cue, I can't believe it. The second half of the film leaves the ornate locales of the earlier scenes and with no great scenery we're left with a love story that seems empty. Shirley MacLaine was originally to have the role but had to leave it because of her commitment to film "Sweet Charity". She had worked well with Lemmon in two films and had her own quirkiness that complemented his. With her as the love interest the film might have stood a chance.
There are many good actors in the supporting roles. Peter Lawford is Deneuve's swinging husband, Ted Gunther, who introduces himself to every woman with "Can I get you a drink?" and can wink his eye like no one else. Yet when he thinks he's losing her, his feelings seem sincere. This was one of his best performances. Sally Kellerman is perfect as Brubaker's wife in Darien, Connecticut who basically uses him as a bank to afford her hobby as a serial interior decorator. She's full of pop psychology and has little interest in her husband beyond his ability to supply new houses to decorate. Jack Warden and Harvey Korman are businessmen who are there who provide comic relief. Among the guests at the party are Les and Leslie Hopkins, a "sensitive" couple; Leslie is played by Melinda Dillon, who played Jillian, the mother who loses her child to an abduction in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
The movie is worth seeing for the party scene alone and the entire first half is a tour of colorful and unusual places. The Tudor Revival is The Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, now part of a public park owned by the city which has been used for a large number of films. If you can believe in the love between the two leads you'll like the second half as well, but though I've tried, I've never been able to.
Rendezvous (1935)
Decent William Powell espionage film
This 1935 MGM film finds William Powell in what was becoming a well-suited role for him, a man involved in mystery and danger and in this case espionage as well. Though it plays more like a mystery, Rendezvous is the story of a U. S. War Department cryptologist based on the life and career of Herbert O. Yardley. Like Yardley, Powell's Lieutenant Bill Gordon has written a book on creating and breaking codes. His book was written under a pen name but when he confides his identity to junior league girl Joel Carter he suddenly finds himself behind a desk in the War Department's code room instead of on his way to the front as he had intended. It's 1917, the height of the War and Washington is crawling with German spies. Their object is to trick the U. S. into thinking shipping lanes are safe then torpedoing troop ships. You see, they have broken the Allies code but no one has broken the German's code. Powell must not only break their code but also trick their agent, the beautiful Olivia Karloff, (Binnie Barnes) into revealing the whereabouts of their espionage group.
That setup is almost perfect, especially with Powell coming off his successful run of Philo Vance detective films. However the gigantic success of "The Thin Man" the year before combined some comic elements into a traditional detective/mystery film and they attempted to do this again. This time, however, it did not go as well. They intentionally did not cast Myrna Loy in the part Because Louis B. Mayer didn't want her thinking she was indispensable and cast newcomer Rosalind Russell instead. That was not in itself a problem, the problem was in the script, not Russell, who would prove her worth in later films. Her character is intended to be a comic element to create situations for Powell's Bill Gordon to get out of. It works the first few times but soon wears thin. Her character was drawn much too broadly for a serious espionage thriller and she is so clueless and airheaded that she might as well have been played by Billie Burke. Her capers and very presence get exasperating after a while and one starts hoping she actually won't pop up in a scene, though in fact she appears more frequently as the film progresses.
By the end of the film you can't help but wonder what Bill Gordon sees in her, though in movies of this era, once people fall in love that's all there is to it. You can't question it. You can question Bill Gordon's wanting to go to the Front. I guess this is just supposed to be patriotism, but he's supposed to be a former news correspondent and a man of his intelligence should know he was of much more value breaking codes and saving lives than shooting a couple Germans in person. Besides, as a correspondent he should have also known about the stalemated trench warfare where troops were dying from exposure and disease and had few chances to shoot anyone.
Still, if you can ignore the attempts at comedy, this is a good little espionage film and had they filmed it in a totally serious vein it could have been a minor classic. The supporting cast is excellent and includes William Brennan as a British Intelligence Officer and Cesar Romero as a Russian Attache. Most notable is Binnie Barnes as Olivia Karloff, looking fatally gorgeous in every scene and playing her part of a femme fatale to perfection. Usually she played comic characters, so this side of her was a real surprise and I wish they had cast her in these kinds of parts more often. For a mystery there are few actual surprises but as a thriller it's taut and suspenseful. Definitely worth watching.
The Reivers (1969)
The Steve McQueen family film that nobody knows
"The Reivers" is a film that has fallen through the cracks for several reasons despite its being a well-made film by an acclaimed director with an excellent cast that included Steve McQueen, a wonderful John Williams score and a faithful script adapted from William Faulkner's last novel. Even McQueen fans don't seem to know the film exists. The title also works against the film, since hardly anyone knows what a reiver is. It's just an antiquated word for thief. (Even spell-check wants me to write "river"). It is a great family film but it also contains mature content that some might find objectionable, at least for children. It's a film from 1969, when movies were trying out new subject matter that was previously not doable. Set in rural Mississippi in 1905, it's focus is Lucius Priest (Mitch Vogel) whose four day journey with his friend and family's hired hand, Boon Hogganbeck (Steve McQueen) takes him out of a quiet home life and into a wider world that challenges his sense of order and tests his virtue.
Lucius is the only son of the county's wealthiest family and in this era he would have led a sheltered life and been taught a highly idealized view of society and proper behavior within it. Boon thinks it's time for Lucius to cut loose and experience the rowdy side of life. This includes lying and stealing his grandfather's car to begin the journey, both of which are foreign to young Lucius. The trip takes them, and Boon's friend Ned, to Memphis, where Boon and Lucius stay at the bordello where Boon's girlfriend, Miss Corrie, works. It then leads to gambling and horse racing and lessons learned in the end. In most ways it's similar to a traditional family film, but, as you see, with unexpected elements. I will add that although he stays at the bordello, Lucius doesn't do anything but eat and sleep there; it's a coming of age story, but not that kind of coming of age story.
The film is still a light, rambunctious comedy and its big star is Steve McQueen, not exactly who you'd first think of for a comic role. But he's absolutely great in it, displaying a new side to his acting ability. Boon is a rather slow-witted character in Faulkner, but McQueen improves upon this for the film by playing him as a happy-go-lucky, irresponsible fellow, He simply wants to visit his girlfriend and feels that at eleven, it's time for Lucius to see the world and experience a bit of the wild side of life. Boone isn't terribly bright but he's not truly slow.
Casting McQueen was, in the end, a problem, though not because of his acting. This was McQueen at his height, straight out of "The Sand Pebbles", "The Thomas Crown Affair" and "Bullitt". He had an established base of mostly male action movie fans who seemed to be totally disinterested in seeing him in a non-action role. Audiences are strange that way; some actors are accepted in a wide variety of roles, while audiences like to see other actors re-playing the same kind of character over and over. McQueen's fans were more like the second type. They didn't go to "The Reivers" and it did not pick up enough of a family audience to offset that. In those days that was the end of a film. It simply vanished. Fortunately films picked up a new life in videotape, discs and now streaming, so it has been able to pick up new fans over time.
Director Mark Rydell filmed it in Carrollton, Mississippi, not far south of Faulkner's Lafayette County, Mississippi (the Yoknapatawpha Co. Of his novels and stories). It opens with a montage of Americana that recalls Mark Twain with its bucolic summertime fishing and boys skinny dipping in the old swimming hole. Faulkner's books went deeply into the intricacies of the complex customs and inter-relations of the races in the South, and this being 1905, the N-word crops up a few times, and Rydell did not shy away from this historical fact. On the other hand, Boon's best friend Ned is black, and Rupert Crosse was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. One of the most noble and trustworthy characters in the story is Uncle Possum, played by Juano Hernandez (who in 1950 played jazzman Art Hazzard in "Young Man With a Horn").
Everyone in the film fits their roles perfectly from the mostly stern and taciturn "Boss" (the grandfather and family patriarch played by Will Geer) to the owner of the bordello Miss Reba (Ruth White) and her hired manager, the slightly sleazy Mr. Binford (Michael Constantine). Sharon Farrell is sweet but also has depth as Boon's girlfriend Miss Corrie, and Diane Ladd appears in a brief early role as Phoebe, one of the other "girls". Mitch Vogel is really good as Lucius, and makes Lucius a character in whom we really see the temptations and conflicts he undergoes as well as the pure joy of youth. He went on to play Jamie Cartwright in "Bonanza".
Then there's the car that is the other center of the film, a yellow "Winton Flyer". This car was made especially for the film as there never was an actual Winton Flyer, and McQueen ended up buying the car because he liked it so much. There really was a Winton Motor Carriage Co. In Cleveland during the timeframe of the film and they made prestige vehicles. A touring car in 1905 sold for $2,500.00 (over $70,000 now) and both brothers, Reginald and Alfred Vanderbilt, owned one. The movie car looks pretty much like their Winton Model K. This would have been quite a sight anywhere in 1905, still very early for automobiles.
The film also boasts a superlative score by John Williams, one of the best Americana scores ever. This was one of his early scores and before this he had been doing completely different kinds of scores for films like ""How To Steal a Million", "Not with My Wife You Don't" and "A Guide For the Married Man". Here he got into an entirely different sound world, somewhat influenced by Elmer Bernstein, but with pure Williams touches like a sudden waltz-theme and a sweet, airy love theme for Corrie. It's full of his multi-layered orchestration and he manages to transition from a symphony orchestra string section to a harmonica and guitar duet without blinking an eye. The music opening the film totally creates a feeling of 19th century rural America. Rydell liked William's music so much that he hired him for "The Cowboys", "The Long Goodbye" and "Cinderella Liberty". George Lucas said in an interview that it was the score for "The Reivers" that impressed him so much that Williams was his first choice for "Star Wars".
San Francisco (1936)
A real triumph for Gable, MacDonald and MGM
There's a historical note at the end of the opening credits of "San Francisco" stating the fact that the San Francisco earthquake occurred at 5:13 A. M. on April 18, 1906. This seems to be letting the audience know that the studio did indeed, know when the event actually happened and that for the sake of the film it had to happen at a time when everyone would not be sleeping. This is necessary artistic license. It then immediately cuts to a wild New Year's Eve, 1905 on the Barbary coast, a big scene, wonderfully realized with carriages and streetcars, wine flowing from Lotta's fountain and a fire at a local hotel where two children are rescued. This leads directly to a cavernous gambling hall and drinking establishment. Named Paradise. MGM spent over a million dollars on this picture and they let you know it with this opening scene. It ends with a recreation of the earthquake and its aftermath that set new standards of special effects for its day, and I'm sure that a lot of moviegoers were there just to witness this scene from the word of mouth about it. It's not that it didn't still look like a movie set, but that it was a staggering accomplishment for 1936. Anyone used to current effects needs to keep that in mind.
The studio assembled a great cast and production team for the film. It was directed by the always dependable W. S. Van Dyke, who had directed the first two Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy films. He was known as "one take Woody" not because he was slapdash, but because his experience as a film editor gave him the ability to know just what he wanted from a shot without needing superfluous footage. The screenplay was given to Anita Loos, Hollywood's first female screenwriter, who later wrote "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". No expense was spared for sets, costumes or extras.
They assigned their two currently hottest actors to it. Jeanette MacDonald had been big since the early 30s at Paramount but had become even more popular after 'Naughty Marietta" and "Rose-Marie" with Nelson Eddy. Gable likewise, had become a leading man in the early 30s, primarily paired with Joan Crawford, then Jean Harlow. Then 1934's "It Happened One Night" with Claudette Colbert had made him Hollywood's biggest male star. It's a tribute to both of them that they seem to really be attracted to each other, because they really didn't get along off screen. MacDonald generally got along well with everyone, but had problems with Gable and Maurice Chevalier, both of whom had reputations as womanizers. In fact, Gable had not wanted to do this picture but Louis B. Mayer made him after Mayer had to pay off another one of his objects of affection. Their screen relationship curiously mirrors their actual one of a respectable woman and a man who didn't think there was such a creature.
Spencer Tracy is Father Tim Mullin, childhood friend of Gable's Blackie Norton, who we first encounter in a boxing ring fighting Blackie. The studio must have included this scene not only to show that Father. Mullin was not an overly saintly fellow, but also to feature Gable shirtless after the big hullabaloo caused by his taking his shirt off in "It Happened One Night". This was a breakout role for Tracy who up to now had been mostly playing tough guys and crooks, and it opened a new world of parts for him. He had been specifically requested for the role by MacDonald. It's a secondary role, but he appears throughout the film and has some good scenes acting as the film's conscience.
The rest of the cast is full of the kind of wonderful character actors you find in classic films. Jack Holt, usually in westerns, does his best with the difficult role of the film's heavy, Jack Burley, the bad guy who has to have enough of something to rival the hero for the woman's affections. In his case it's mostly wealth and position and a chance at an operatic career. Broadway great Jessie Ralph plays his mother in one of her most memorable appearances, assuring MacDonald's Mary Blake that the Burleys are not too aristocratic for her and that Nob Hill society is not really as proper as they let on.
In lesser roles, two older European actors stand out. Al Shean is Professor Hansen, who plays the piano and conducts the band at the Paradise. He's very endearing as the conservatory trained musician who first appreciates Mary Blake's talent. (He was also the Uncle of the Marx Brothers and wrote much of their early material). William Ricciardi is perfect as the maestro, Signor Baldini, the conductor of the Tivoli Opera House who affirms that Mary's talent is beyond the ordinary. Learned, he even quotes a famous line from Plautus to Blackie in the original Latin, to which Blackie says, "Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth". (It's "The greatest of talents often lie buried out of sight").
The song "San Francisco" is introduced by Jeanette in a rehearsal scene and appears several more times: at the Paradise, at Blackie's campaign rally in a park, and at a big competition called the "Chicken Ball". This became one of her most iconic songs, and she really delivers it. As also happened in "Rose-Marie", she also gets to sing several arias, some abridged, in a fully staged scene, this time in Gounod's "Faust". Jeanette sang in some operas after her film career and sang Marguerite in Chicago, Cincinnati and Philadelphia. Another standout is when she sings "Sempre Libera" from Verdi's "La Traviata" in a recital. Not only is the aria a real showpiece for a soprano, but it also reflects her feelings at that moment, having to choose between love and a life of wealth and gaiety. If the dress looks familiar, MGM reused it in "The Wizard of Oz" as the dress of the Good Witch Glinda. There's also a nice moment in church, singing "The Holy City" with a boys choir. However the rest of Jeanette's songs are, for me, one of the weaker parts of the film, and I'm a fan. It's not her, but the songs are rather lackluster and not memorable. There are any number of wonderful turn-of-the-century songs that would have worked very well and also been more recognizable for the audience, which would have been much more diverse than those of her operetta films.
"San Francisco" did gigantic business and was one of the two top grossing films of the year along with MGM's "The Great Ziegfeld", so they bet well on what the movie audiences wanted to see. The film is still well known and has remained available for decades and can be enjoyed by all, though a little knowledge of the era will help.
Lo imposible (2012)
A realsitic and remarkably involving film.
I decided to watch "The Impossible" largely to see Naomi Watts' performance, for which she was nominated as Best Actress by the Motion Picture Academy, Screen Actors' Guild, Golden Globes and numerous critics groups. I realized that with the subject matter being the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia this would be a serious film. Still, I wasn't quite ready for a film of such intensity and one that drew me into a state of absolute and total involvement. It's rare to find a film with this much power and for me it was quite an experience.
Not only is the entire cast excellent but the director made the right choices throughout. Most directors would have gone for spectacle, focusing on the massive devastation caused by the waves using lots of CGI to create a monumental scene of destruction. This would usually take place after a great deal of setting up numerous characters in a superficial way and the depiction of the wave would be the real reason to see the film.. In other words, a typical disaster movie with a lot of uninvolving crowd scenes. Instead, director J. A. Bayona focuses on a single family consisting of the parents and three boys and stays almost entirely with them throughout.
The family is introduced on the plane and at the resort without a great deal of fuss and avoids cinema cliches. They have a few issues but fortunately they are not presented as wildly dysfunctional or involved in family drama. They're just a family. The film is not about a dysfunctional family finding each other's value in a crisis but rather about simple survival. After the scene is set the tsunami occurs. The event unfolds suddenly, violently and so realistically that you might think you are seeing the real thing. (I've seen a long documentary using many videos taken during the event by those involved in it and the film captures much of what it looked like). The family gets split up and for a long spell it's mostly the mother, Maria (Naomi Watts) and oldest son Lucas (Tom Holland) who looks about twelve.
I can't say enough good things about both of them. This must have been a very difficult thing to film, and acting in such circumstances, with multiple takes and all, must have been an ordeal for the actors. Not only are they good, they're totally convincing in their absolute alarm and total concern for each other. With camera closeups, underwater photography and incredibly good sound, you feel you are really there and not just watching a movie. Amid the motion and chaos there are tender moments as well as harrowing ones and since it is based on a true story there's no sure sense of who will or will not survive. Naomi Watts deserved her many nominations for simply being able to survive the physical circumstances of playing her role but she also deserved it for doing it so realistically and well.
Here I must note what an actor Tom Holland is. He's now very popular as the new Spiderman and though I've seen the Marvel Avengers films, much of his screen time is CGI bouncing about and uttering quips. I wondered if there was actually anything to him. He is absolutely convincing in this film, a real find. He has an unexpected depth of feeling and can communicate a great deal with a single look. Just watch his face as he sees his mother, his usual caretaker, seriously injured, half naked and dazed in the water. It is the true face of panic at a world turned upside down. And he's this good throughout the entire film. Usually a kid like this will be in the film to elicit audience sympathy for a few harrowing moments. But here, he becomes the film's central character for a considerable time. It seems almost mad for a director to let a kid carry this much of a serious film but Holland manages to pull it off.
That is almost the entire first half of the film. After that, the film centers on the father, Henry (Ewan McGregor) trying to find his family. This is also very well done as he wanders from one place to another. It's not quite as powerful as the first part, but the first part is like practically nothing else I've ever seen, where the second half feels more like a movie. The secondary actors have very small roles with the notable exception of a gentle, almost wistful, cameo with one of the boys by Geraldine Chaplin. The director stays focused on the family members but has a nice technique of having the camera suddenly rise up from a close scene to pan the larger scene of chaos in which they are but a small part. This is all presented in a matter of fact way. Injuries and blood look very real and can induce squeamishness, but of course this is not a gore fest, and the realistic injuries only drive home the great suffering caused by the tsunami and the serious predicament of the characters. Some people have said the score gets a little too loud or manipulative at times and at times I did notice it but overall it's effective and nothing to really quibble about in a film this good.
There has also been some complaining about the family being English rather than Thai or Spanish (the actual family is from Spain and the mother, Maria Belon, helped with the screenplay). This is not the case of a 1930s film where white Americans play Asian or other ethnic roles. Though basically an independent film, it was very expensive to realistically create the wave and a whole region in a state of destruction. Most indie films can be made for under ten million dollars. The budget for this film was 45 million, a gigantic amount for a small studio film by a Spanish director. To get the financing needed you have to have bankable internationally-known actors and there simply weren't any Spanish or Thai actors with a big enough international following. This is not a case of simply using English or American actors out of habit or unconcern for authenticity.
The film was shot mostly in Thailand and in fact parts were shot in the actual location of Phang Nga and the rebuilt Orchid Beach Hotel where the family stayed and at the actual hospital shown in the film. Some of the survivors shown in the film, both Thai and European, were people who had actually survived the tsunami. Director Bayona went to great lengths to make the film as real as possible. The film did extraordinarily well. Playing a more or less indie-circuit release in the U. S. it grossed 19 million, a decent amount for a film without a wide release in over a thousand theaters. But internationally it did much better, grossing 180 million (including U. S.). I do think it could have had a better title. "The Impossible" sounds like it could be about practically anything and doesn't convey any image to the public. If I saw the title in the paper or online I might have thought it was about magic or something like that.
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
Gene Tierney is a dark character in this glorious Technicolor film.
Leave Her To Heaven" was one of the biggest films of the 1940s and in fact was the biggest film of the entire decade for 29th Century Fox. It is acclaimed as one of the most beautiful uses of Technicolor in film and generally praised by critics from the very beginning. In fact, its reputation has grown over the years. Nevertheless I was not able to find anyone streaming it but gladly bought a Blu-ray copy. Still, it's odd that such a well-regarded film is so hard to find. Over time this can even diminish the reputation of the film as its very existence begins to fade in the minds of the public.
The screenplay was adapted from a novel by popular author Ben Ames Williams, who was well known for his frequent short stories in the Saturday Evening Post, which were often set in Maine. Zanuck bought the rights at a steep price before the novel was actually published. It was essentially just a romantic melodrama, the very point that critics hostile to the film liked to point out. Its plot could have been turned into a so-so B-movie. But Zanuck wanted to make something special of it and assigned his best people to the project with a budget to match. Director John M. Stahl is not a name that easily comes to mind. Much of his career was spent in the silent era and his career was as much as a producer as a director. Many of his films were routine studio releases but he had a real flair for melodrama, directing "Back Street", "Imitation of Life " and "Magnificent Obsession". It's telling that director Douglas Sirk remade two of these films in the 50s. Stahl was just the man for the job.
The screenplay by Jo Swerling ( "Lifeboat", "It's a Wonderful Life") defies categorization, though most call it a film noir in color. In fact there's a great deal of debate about whether this is truly a noir and whether Ellen Berent is a femme fatale. I'd say yes to both but don't even want to go in that direction because these debates are largely arguments about definitions. These terms are not set in stone, and even when the French were elucidating their views about the genre they were unsure whether to include the crime films of the thirties or whether such films had to occur in a lower class demimonde. "Leave Her To Heaven" contains elements of noir mixed with other genres. Ellen may not force Richard into a life of crime, but she's certainly deadly to anyone who shares Richard's affections.
The film is also known as a showcase for Gene Tierney, whose career had skyrocketed the year before after "Laura". Tierney's remarkable beauty was perfect for Technicolor and the film set her in a wealthy milieu where she could wear a succession of fashionable 1940s outfits. The problem with actresses renowned for their beauty, especially at this time, is that it tended to be seen as their only quality, obscuring their acting ability. Ellen was a major change from Laura, a sweet and sympathetic character and Tierney took a chance in playing one of the most wicked women in all of film. In a role that could have been histrionic in the wrong hands, she only gradually and subtly reveals the full extent of her character's evil. Even early on, when she seems an ideal person, she telegraph's that there's something wrong, something off kilter. Though this is in the script, it's Tierney's delivery that makes it real, from "But you came, didn't you" to "I'll never let you go, never, never, never". She positively glows when being callous and cruel to her former suitor, Russell (Vincent Price), and lets the mask slip when talking with polio patient Danny's doctor/
This paragraph discusses a major plot point . Please don't read it if you have not yet seen the film. Ellen is a complex character. She wants to be the perfectly loving wife and seems just that, but demands the absolute and sole devotion of the one she loves. Her mother, well-played by Mary Phillips, famously says, "There's nothing wrong with Ellen. She just loves too much", but there's more to it than that. On the surface even her complaints seem perfectly normal. After all, what newlywed would really want a teenage brother living with them, much less in the next room? Somehow Richard is blind to this, I suppose out of familial love. But despite this seeming reasonable demeanor, there's something else in Ellen, something that will go to any extreme to keep Richard entirely to herself. She's not a sociopath in the way of a serial killer, but she will kill if she must in order to keep Richard's full attention. In the film's most famous scene in the lake, it's clear from the way she looks at Danny and from what she says, that everything is premeditated. But note that once Danny is in the water she puts on those large sunglasses that completely cover her eyes and does not take them off until he has drowned. The glasses almost make her look blind, as if her everyday persona is gone and she has been taken over by an implacable force while the deed is done. When it's over, she removes them and she is Ellen again.
It's truly her film. Everything revolves around her. Cornel Wilde's role is rather thankless. He is just a nice normal guy and never changes the way that the male lead in a typical noir falls from grace. Jeanne Crain is very pleasant as little sister Ruth, but doesn't have much to do until the final third of the film. Recognizable character actor Ray Collins came out of Orson Welles' players and has a lot of screen time as lawyer friend Glen Robie and even sets up the story as a flashback. Darryl Hickman is an ideal All-American boy as the teenage Danny.
The incredible cinematography won the Academy award for Leon Shamroy, who is tied with Charles Lang for the most Oscar nominations with fourteen. Shamroy won four in total. The film is organized into parts by locale, beginning on a train lounge car that is Art Deco heaven. This is followed by Rancho San Jacinto, a guest ranch straight out of a 1945 Sunset Magazine spread; humble on the outside, it's stunning within. A brief stop in Warm Springs, Georgia is followed by a rustic but well designed lodgelike cabin on a lake. Bar Harbor, Maine is a formal Colonial with Early American Windsor chairs and floral chintz sofas. The final courtroom scenes are set in a vast space dominated by a circular window. Throughout, many of the settings are pale shades of green with the ranch and cabin mostly wood shades. I have no idea how this film lost the Art Decoration Oscar to "Frenchman's Creek".
Pillow Talk (1959)
Day and Hudson absolutely sparkle in "Pillow Talk"
"Pillow Talk" was a very big film, taking in nine times its budget and not only reviving the careers of Doris Day and Rock Hudson, but reviving the romantic comedy genre. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that it's 1959, with the country about to enter an era of great change. Because of the film's vintage, not every element will play well today, but it is an accurate portrayal of the mores and assumptions of its time. This film, with its daring use of split screen and snappy screenplay (which won an Oscar), pushed the envelope so much that it really had people talking. We will never be able to experience it as the mildly shocking film it was to audiences then, but it helps to think beforehand on how regimented society was in 1959. For example, the censors did not like the name "Pillow Talk " and wanted it changed to "Any Way the Wind Blows".
There was no way the studio and auteur producer Ross Hunter was going to stand for that. This film evaded the production code whenever it could, especially with its famous split screen scenes that appeared to show Day and Hudson in bed or bathing together. These were worked out perfectly with Days and Hudson's walls designed to match almost perfectly in wall color, paintings, tile and shower curtains. It's not, as some people think about Day's character preserving her virginity, but rather a film about womanizer Hudson deceiving Day as a joke that eventually gives him a deserved comeuppance. The film opens with a closeup of Day's leg, then pans out to her sitting on a bed in a slip. This was a new Doris Day, as everyone noticed. In earlier films she was often the girl next door in unflattering clothes and a tomboy in two musicals with Gordon MacRae and "Calamity Jane,
Set in a sophisticated milieu in New York City, Day wears a succession of dazzling outfits by Hollywood designer Jean Louis with jewelry to match, appropriate to her character. As usual she plays an independent and successful career woman making it in a man's world, an important element in most of her films. This was after a series of box office disappointments that had the studios wondering if her career was winding down. Suddenly people were saying, "Have you seen Doris Day?" No one knew Day could look this glamorous and she immediately became an international superstar, #1 at the box office year after year. After a big start in the late 1940s through early fifties peaking with "Giant", Hudson's career had declined to supporting roles in action pictures. He had never made a comedy and wasn't sure he could. With his great speaking voice and delivery, he was perfect with Day and possessed comic timing. The lush production with its vivid late fifties colors shows everything off to its best advantage. Day's apartment is awash with color and her eyes never looked so blue. Though as a interior designer it's unlikely that Jan (Day) could have afforded the jewelry and furs she wears in every scene, romantic comedies like this exist in a kind of hyper-reality where you just don't question things like that. Day, a noted animal rights activist, regretted the furs in retrospect, but this was long before she took up that cause.
The supporting players are all excellent, especially Tony Randall as the also-ran suitor, a role formerly played by Gig Young in two of Days' earlier films. The mellow Young sometimes seemed the better choice for her in their films together, but here Randall is possessed by a neurotic intensity that makes him much funnier and absolutely out of the running. He was a necessary element in these films, providing zany comedy which the two stars, both playing it straight, couldn't. Thelma Ritter is always good, but here is given a role as an alcoholic that isn't very funny to me in retrospect. At the time an alcoholic was a stock comic character, so make of it what you will. She delivers some wonderfully insightful lines in her familiar deadpan. Nick Adams has a funny bit driving Day home at the behest of his mother. He was just about to become known to a wide audience when his TV show, "The Rebel" would debut that fall.
The script won an Academy Award and it sparkles with witty lines like Randall's saying, "Jan, you couldn't. How could you fall in love with a TOURIST?" Later on there is a then hilarious now ironic conversation between Hudson and Day in a restaurant. The script easily overcomes its greatest weakness, its wildly unlikely premise that well-off New Yorkers in 1959 would have to share a party line (to its credit it does include a scene to make it at least somewhat plausible). If you see any of the Day-Hudson films, this is the one.
Scarface (1932)
The third great foundational gangster film.
"Scarface" was the third of the big three gangster films that together created the foundations of the whole genre. 1931 saw Edward G. Robinson's "Little Caesar" and James Cagney's "The Public Enemy", two memorable films with two star-making performances. Both were the subject of articles aimed at persuading people from seeing the pictures, but both were gigantic box office hits. Howard Hughes wanted to follow "The Front Page", a cynical and dark film about journalism with another hit and decided to make a gangster film even though the Hays Office and others in the business told him not to. Hughes was an independent producer and wealthy enough to do what he wanted and went ahead anyway. The primary writer was one of Hollywood's best, Ben Hecht, who had written the original play and the screenplay for "The Front Page". Four other writers were eventually used to add dialogue or write or co-write new scenes, including W. R. Burnett, who had written the novel "Little Caesar".
To direct the picture, Hughes chose Howard Hawks. Hawks would go on to become one of Hollywood's greatest and most versatile directors but at this time had mainly directed romantic comedies and most recently, the WWI flyers' film, "The Dawn Patrol". He was unsure about doing a gangster film but Hughes promised he'd drop the lawsuit he had filed against him claiming that"The Dawn Patrol" had plagiarized "Hell's Angels". It hadn't, but fighting it would have been costly. Hawks came through with a very fluid camera for the period and many small touches like the famous series of "X's" that indicate someone is going to die. (Scorsese included it in "Goodfellas" as an homage to "Scarface"). To describe their use would give away too much.
The film was rather overtly based on Al Capone, which brought two of his "boys" to visit Hecht, who assured them that the character was an amalgam of many gangsters and the use of "Scarface", Capone's actual nickname, was just to boost ticket sales. Capone claimed he'd gotten the scars fighting in France in WWI, but he was never there. He got them in 1917 in a fight at a Coney Island restaurant/bar where he was a bouncer after making crude remarks about a woman there whose honor was defended by her boyfriend (he was just 18 then). Names are only slightly changed, the overall story arc follows Capone's closely and many of the killings parallel actual ones including the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre.
The plum role went to Paul Muni, who regenerated his movie career with this role. He had returned to Broadway for a while after being dissatisfied with his Paramount films, even though he'd been nominated for Best Actor for "Seven Faces". His Tony Camonte is blunt, aggressive and amazingly crude, but he gives him a certain naive charm that keeps him from being entirely hateful, especially when he's trying to charm a woman. When he shows off his new apartment to Poppy, his boss' mistress, she says, "Kind of gaudy, isn't it?" He answers "I knew you'd like it."
He first appears as only a shadow, slipping silently into a restaurant where South Side boss Big Louis Castillo is telling his friends how content he is: nice house, nice wife and a "relationship" with North Side boss O'Hara that keeps everything running smoothly. But Tony has been hired to kill him. As he approaches he whistles the sextet from "Lucia di Lammermoor" (a nice Hawks touch - In the opera it's sung by Eduardo, who has come to kill someone). Tony thinks big, wants everything for himself and stops at nothing to get his way, basically killing his way to the top. He doesn't follow orders, either.
Muni is almost the whole show, but he's ably assisted by Ann Dvorak and George Raft as his sister and his number two man. Both came out of this film with movie careers. Dvorak plays Francesca "Ceska"' Camonte, Tony's little sister. She's eighteen and wants to spread her wings, go out with guys, have some fun and be independent. She looks great in styles that were still mostly twenties and gives the character a lot of spunk. Tony makes it clear that he doesn't want her seeing any men. George Raft had had actual gang connections in his youth as a friend of Bugsy Siegel and driver for Owney Madden. He knew how to act like a dapper hood and came up with a coin tossing bit that became a thing in gangster films. He's often more of a presence than a character. The screenplay simply doesn't give him enough lines or things to do besides hang with Tony. He does get some nice scenes with Ceska, wisely putting her off when she flirts with him. He also shows a warm side when he begins to like her.
Karen Morley as Poppy is onscreen as much as Dvorak, though she didn't get as big a film career out of it. She's crime boss Johnny Lovo's girlfriend, who despises the crude Tony at first but eventually lets him light her cigarette in an important scene. The rest are frequently-seen character actors of the day. Most notable is Vince Barnett as Tony's inept secretary who has trouble taking messages because he can't write. He's there for comic relief, though sometimes his scenes go on a bit long. Also in the cast is Boris Karloff as one of the leaders of the North side gang
The movie is ultra violent compared to its predecessors. This is mostly due to the addition of machine guns to the mix as well as numerous explosions. There are several gun battles as well as a chase scene that still seems harrowing even after all that has come afterward. Of course it was still filmed in 1931 so murders take place offscreen or with shadows cast on walls. There was no need for stage blood. Curiously, this was the era when Hollywood studios used real bullets in the guns in all three great gangster films; they were cheaper than blanks. Unlike the other two, the film begins in violence and the pace is unrelenting afterward. There's a bit of background for the audience in the form of a Managing Editor telling his writer there's going to be a gang war, but that's it.
There's one clunky bit that virtually stops the movie in the middle. In it, the big newspaper publisher and a room full of judges, politicians and the like discuss the terrible times and how the local and Federal government need to step up and do something. It includes a speech that reiterates the disclaimer, similar to others in the genre, decrying the glorification of gangsters and the need for law and order. They are obviously window dressing for the censors and really, the gangsters were being glorified merely by being the subject of these films. The scene was not even shot by Hawks. Still, Howard Hughes was genuinely alarmed about the rise of criminal gangs and really wanted the government to do more about it.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Glorious California in 1963 and when the plane flies through the billboard, it's real.
There can never be a true remake of this classic comedy. A few have tried claiming they were "inspired by" but have failed anyway. Stanley Kramer's epic "Comedy to end all comedies" had an amazing cast of comic actors old and (at that time) new which could never be recreated. It is a snapshot of a particular moment in time when comedians stretching back to the borscht belt and vaudeville met up with a new generation of comics working in clubs and on television. In fact many who had had small careers in films had found a much larger audience in the relatively new medium of TV. It may not be the funniest film ever made - that is every person's own opinion - but it is funny and succeeds in the impossible task of keeping up an atmosphere of comic mayhem for over its 2 ½ hour running time. Enormously popular in its day (it was the third highest grossing film of 1963) it has become a greatly beloved classic even now, over sixty years later. There is even a Criterion Collection edition.
It was written by British screenwriter William Rose, who had written the Alec Guiness comedy, "The Ladykillers". It was written originally as a madcap chase through Scotland. He sent an outline to director Stanley Kramer. I'd love to know why, because Kramer was a director of big, serious films with important social messages like "The Defiant Ones" (racism), "On the Beach" (atomic war), "Inherit the Wind" (freedom of speech) and "Judgment at Nuremberg" (the aftermath of World War II). He would seem like the worst possible choice to pitch a comedy to, but maybe the word was out that Kramer was interested in making a comedy, perhaps to not be typecast. Once things got going, the production, much like the film itself, took on a momentum of its own and soon practically every comedian in town was calling Kramer asking to be in it.
There are so many great actors in roles big, small and in cameos that it would take up too much space to name them all; there are plenty of online tributes to the cast and the locations that are worth checking out. It was great to see some of the older cast members like Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman and Milton Berle go out with a big film that would be remembered. Actors in smaller roles often put in hilarious performances doing their usual schtick. Paul Ford as the bumbling Colonel Wilberforce had been the bumbling Colonel Hall on the Phil Silvers Show. Jim Backus as rich alcoholic Tyler Fitzgerald (it adds an extra laugh to know he was the well-known spokesman for Western Airlines whose tagline was "It's the only way to fly"); and Don Knotts in his nervous man routine. British comedian Terry-Thomas, with an exaggerated British accent and almost Gilbert and Sullivan patter-song delivery, got roles in major pictures for years afterwards. Some faces, like Sid Caesar, Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Buddy Hackett and Jesse White ( later TV's Maytag repair man) were mostly known from television exposure, which is probably missed by newer viewers. One would have wanted to see the cameo actors a little longer and some were underused (Stan Freberg, Edward Everett Horton) but the movie was originally over three hours before being cut down a bit for theaters. The Three Stooges are only on for a few seconds and don't actually do anything but stand there but I can attest that they got a huge laugh from the audience just for being there.
All of the principals were at their best. Even when they didn't have a line, just watching their faces, especially Sid Caesar's, is hilarious. But it was Jonathan Winters in his first film role who is most remembered. His eight minutes of total mayhem in Ray & Irwin's Garage is one of the great comic scenes in any movie. Again I can attest that in its first run in late '63 the audience was in a state of total sustained pandemonium almost literally rolling in the aisles as this scene played out. I've never again experienced an audience in such a complete state of hysteria.
There's great support from the entire production team. Ernest Gold provided one of the great comic scores of all time, a mad carousel-out-of-control theme that creates the right mood during legendary animator Saul Bass's creative title sequence. Despite its assertive character the music doesn't try to dominate the film but drops in now and then to enliven a driving scene that would look dull if silent or to accent brief moments of pandemonium. It's a madcap score that fits a film that is virtually a live action cartoon. The film was beautifully shot in Super Panavision 70, which simulated a Cinerama effect without the "seams" created by the old three-camera process. And the scenery is spectacular with the Southern California desert, coastal towns and aerial footage. The editing, sound effects people and numerous stuntmen were all major contributors to the film's success.
Not everyone liked it and this is still true. Some people today may have trouble with the attitudes of the time period. A number of the critics of the day dismissed it as too dumb for words. But many critics of that era and before were very high-toned and felt only films of great intellectual depth were worth seeing. Bergman, yes, but not something like this. It took until the early 80's for film critics to loosen up a bit and admit they could like many types of genre films. Others found it too long and too slapstick and dependent on old stock characters like the mother-in-law from Hell. These accusations are true in their way but this was meant to be gargantuan and its excess is part of its nature. Also, a film made with a big budget had to be pitched to a large general audience and so it needed to have lots of broad humor and not be a witty comedy of manners or something like that. Besides, it's kind of an homage to the whole history of film comedy and actually uses a lot of classic silent comedy bits. All in all the film knows exactly what it is doing, building on its momentum to its conclusion with Kramer expertly weaving the multiple strands of the plot together. And it's still a Stanley Kramer film containing a deep, cynical observation that totally nice, everyday people can go entirely insane over money as can the entire culture. The movie ends with a nod to Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels", illustrating the universality and value of laughter on the simplest level with the oldest joke in the world.
EXTRA NOTE: A few major comics wanted to be in the film but couldn't for one reason or another. Bob Hope's studio wouldn't lend him out even for a cameo. Lucille Ball was too tied up with her TV show being taped for the coming season. Red Skelton's manager wanted him to be paid the same as the primary cast even for a cameo. Stan Laurel sent regrets but said he had sworn never to appear in a film again after Oliver Hardy's death and could not break his word.
White Heat (1949)
Cagney's on fire in White Heat
James Cagney and director Raoul Walsh teamed up for another gangster movie at Warner Brothers, ten years after "The Roaring Twenties". That film had been a nostalgic look at the decade it portrayed as well as a crime film and was relatively lush and leisurely compared to the trio of films that had begun the genre, "Little Caesar", "The Public Enemy" and "Scarface". Cagney, like any lead actor, did not want to be stereotyped in a particular type of role, and had sworn off gangster parts. At first he didn't want to do another gangster role and Jack Warner, who didn't like him, did not want him back. But the writers and director wanted only him for the role and all involved finally agreed..
"White Heat" is only a distant cousin to the gangster films of the past. A decade's worth of changes had gone by, a decade that had included the Second World War and technological developments in film making and in nearly every aspect of life. This film is set in contemporary times, not the Prohibition Era. It's not about the rise of a gang kingpin or gang wars over control of city territory. It begins with a train robbery, more like a cowboy movie than a gangster film. And that's what Cody Jarrett's gang most resembles, a roving gang of outlaws ready to do whatever job comes their way. They're also purely robbers or bandits, not involved in any kind of illegal trade.
Right from the beginning we learn that Cody Jarrett is cold and ruthless, killing on the slightest provocation, and ready to abandon injured associates. There's something crazy about him that sets him off even from his own gang members, all of whom fear him. That's the basis of his power - he's so unstable, you never know what he will do if you anger him. The rest of the setup is soon revealed back home, where Cody's gang hides out and where we find, both Cody's wife and mother live. His wife, Verna, played by the beautiful Virginia Mayo, adds a feeling of noir to the film that is unexpected. She's already seen giving looks to number two man, Big Ed, and is faithful to whoever seems on top at the moment. She's beautifully played as a moll with social pretensions, imagining "living big" and hobnobbing with countesses. She's as rotten as the rest of them and the relationship with Cody is none too sweet; just watch how he reacts when she tells him Ma went out to get strawberries for him.
Cody's love is all reserved for Ma (Margaret Wycherly). Mothers of hoods were portrayed as sweet, unconditionally loving immigrant women in the earlier gangster films, but this mother is one tough cookie. If she were a man, she'd probably have her own gang. As it is, she's the real brains of the outfit. She advises Cody on strategy, evades police pursuits and praises Cody's cleverness for thinking up a way to not take the rap for the train job. It's her gang as much as his. "Ma" recalls Ma Barker, and that's who she resembles as an inner part of the gang.
On his part, Cody worships her in an intense, obsessive way. He also gets severe headaches that send him into a sort of fugue state that only Ma can get him out of. The movie doesn't delve deeply into this, but offers some clues, noting that his seizures began as he faked headaches in order to get attention from his mother, then they became real. Treasury Agent Philip Evans (John Archer) notes, "His mother's been the prop that's held him up.. He's got a fierce, psychopathic devotion for her". It's a unique situation in a gangster film and adds an extra layer of complexity to Cody's makeup.
Evans decides to send Agent Hank Fallon, posing as convict Vic Pardo, to get close to Cody and find out who "The Trader" is. The Trader exchanges hot, stolen bills for fresh ones on the European black market and also has a hand in planning the heists. This adds more suspense as there are a number of tense moments when Fallon risks being exposed. There's also a lot of showing off the new technology of the time, technology that looks quaint now but must have wowed the audience in 1949; imaging being able to track the location of a moving car with absolute precision. Cody and the gang had no idea what they were up against.
Everyone involved is absolutely excellent. Raoul Walsh was known for keeping movies straightforward and direct, and he does that here, with not a moment of the nearly two hour film dragging. An example is when Cody starts to tell his gang the story of the Trojan Horse; the camera cuts away long before he's finished because the director knew everyone knew how it went. Virginia Mayo, who was often used only decoratively, showed she could really create a devious character and could shift emotions and facial expressions in a second. Edmund O'Brian also has a plumb role here as the man who has to work his way into the confidence of a paranoid.
But of course there's Cagney. It's his film and he's a bundle of explosive energy that keeps the whole thing moving. He had the knack, in some way that great actors have, of doing something between themselves and the camera that can't be pinpointed. Another actor could have the same lines and not do what he did with them. Even in the quieter scenes he has an almost frightening intensity. You know that at any moment he could go totally crazy and explode into some kind of violence. The film has two of his most memorable scenes, scenes so famous that they are known outside the context of the film itself.
"White Heat " caused a great deal of controversy in its day. Cody Jarrett struck a nerve as a kind of primordial force on the loose. Similarly in society, with the war over, the times were changing and no one knew just what might happen in the approaching 1950s. The universe of the film itself was unrelenting and unforgiving. It's telling that the one truly humane moment in the film, when the hood Cottonvalletti gives the injured gang member Zuckie a pack of cigarettes, it's that act of kindness that sets off everyone's demise. By the time the film's finale arrives it has nowhere to go but to blow itself up.
The Hucksters (1947)
Gable, Kerr and Gardner make this almost forgotten film one to watch.
"The Hucksters" was an important film for MGM in 1947 and became one of the five biggest box office films of that year. Despite this and a cast that included Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr and Ava Gardner, it is relatively forgotten today. It was important because Clark Gable, Hollywood's biggest star before the war, needed to reestablish his position and the film that was meant to do that had failed. That film was the misnamed "Adventure" with Greer Garson, MGM's top female star at the time, and was promoted with the catch phrase, "Gable's back and Garson's got him". The two stars had no chemistry together and it might have been better to put Gable in a real adventure film rather than a tepid romance.
"The Hucksters" was also the film in which Louis B. Mayer introduced his recently signed actress, Deborah Kerr to American audiences in an MGM film made in Hollywood. She had made "Vacation From Marriage" for a short-lived joint venture between MGM and Alexander Korda in Britain. Though many had seen her in "Black Narcissus', that was not the mass audience and her previous films were shown primarily in Britain. She was, ironically, signed largely to replace Garson, who was now in her forties. The film also introduced Ava Gardner, an up and coming actress who was virtually unknown. It was given to dependable director Jack Conway, who had directed Gable before in "Boom Town" and "Honky Tonk" and had directed "A Tale of Two Cities" among many other hits.
The film was based on two sources. The major one was the novel of the same name by Frederic Wakeman, which satirized the advertising industry. The novel was also generally racy and in fact caused problems for the studio in adapting it. This was the era of "Forever Amber", when novelists were pushing the envelope as much as possible. Still, Gable read the book and said he wouldn't appear in the film if it was true to the plot and if Gable thought that, you can imagine what the proper Mr. Mayer thought. Adjustments were made that rendered the story suitable to all involved. One example: in the novel, Kay Dorrance's husband, the General, isn't deceased.
The second source was a series of articles in "The Saturday Evening Post" that exposed the stranglehold on the entertainment industry posed by the talent agency MCA. This informs the Hollywood section of the film and the actual MCA building is shown as the headquarters of Talent Inc. This part of the film is treated rather lightly, focusing on a deal to hire out of date burlesque comic Buddy Hare while outfoxing super agent Dave Lash. The highlights here are the fine characterizations of the comic by Keenan Wynn and the agent by Edward Arnold.
Though the film aimed to be entertaining rather than muckraking, it keeps a fairly serious tone throughout and is darker than I had remembered it being. It aims itself at the absolute tyranny that a large account can hold over a business, and the tyrant is played wonderfully well by Sydney Greenstreet in his most loathsome and bullying manner. As Evan Llewellyn Evans he's demanding, condescending and loves seeing people quake before him. It's one of Greenstreet's best performances. Gable works for an advertising agency run by Mr. Kimberly, played as frightened out of his wits by Adolph Menjou. Menjou, an old pro, knew just how to balance this character between elation when things go well to total dismay when anything even slightly threatens. There's a nice performance by Gloria Holden in the small role of his wife in a scene when he comes home drunk.
The romantic part of the film finds Gable drifting away from nightclub singer Jean Ogilve (Ava Gardner) while becoming increasingly attracted to a widow with two children, Kay Dorrance (Deborah Kerr). Gardner is absolutely charming here and it's no wonder audiences noticed her. Her singing is dubbed (by Eileen Wilson) as it was on screen in "Show Boat" (by Annette Warren), Gardner had a good singing voice - as she showed in "The Killers" and on the "Show Boat" soundtrack LP and I'm always perplexed by voice dubbing when the actor could actually sing. A real performance by Gardner would have enhanced the film so much more.
Deborah Kerr was about to become a major international star for the next two decades, creating strong characterizations in all of her films. Here she establishes the role she was generally known for, a very ladylike but approachable, even romantic Englishwoman. That was not all she could do, as she showed in films like "From Here To Eternity" and "Separate Tables" but it was most often what she was called to do. In an interview she was asked about this and replied that it must be a quality inside that just came out because she was mostly being herself. In any case audiences loved her for it and here she was able to be a lady with certain standards but still believably romantic in scenes with Gable. Both Kerr and Gardner were nervous about playing opposite a superstar like Gable but his natural courtesy and kindness relaxed them
As for Gable, he does a wonderful job here, certainly one of his best postwar performances. This is a variation of his lovable rogue character, one not so roguish as simply self confident and willing to take chances. He's the kind of guy who when looking for a job buys a $35 tie when he has only $50 in his pocket and who's willing to tell a big tycoon to his face that his idea is no good. At a certain part of the film involving a stay at an inn, the script causes him to be much more unconscious of how things might look than I found truly believable for his character. This guy is really on the ball about everything and not the type to be so oblivious. The ending seems almost a bit too idealistic to me, but is saved by being true to the character that Gable has been, up to this point.
The film also offers a final look at an era that was suddenly about to end. This is America still in the Forties, but with vast changes about to arrive. The music is Big Band, people travel by railroad and most of all, the advertising here only involves radio. Television was breathing down Hollywood's neck but they hadn't realized it yet. The year before "The Hucksters" was made 7,000 television sets were sold, the year after. 172,000 and in 1950, five million.
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
The Movie That Coined the Phrase
Almost a decade after foundational gangster films like "Little Caesar", "The Public Enemy" and "Scarface" , "The Roaring Twenties" returned to the Prohibition Era with a glossier, more leisurely take on the times. At 106 minutes, it had enough time to introduce and develop more characters and served as a nostalgic look at that wild decade. The title actually was the first time the phrase "Roaring Twenties" had been used. In its own day it was usually called "The Jazz Age". The new name stuck and was the title of a popular early 60's TV show when the next wave of 1920's nostalgia hit.
In fact, the censors of the time objected to the making of the film as they didn't want a depraved time (as they saw it) glamorized. Warner Brothers went ahead and made it anyway, but they were careful to accommodate whatever else the Hays people wanted. This included that gangsters were never to be shown owning machine guns (though they did sneak a few in one of the film's many montages). There was also a preamble, written by uncredited associate producer and noted writer Mark Hellinger, who wrote the short story, "The World Moves On", on which the screenplay was based. Originally working on Broadway and in New York newspapers, his preamble noted that "the characters are composites of people I knew" who included Dutch Schultz and Legs Diamond. He also noted nostalgically that "This film is a memory and I am grateful for it.
Raoul Walsh had lately been directing vehicles for Mae West, Jack Benny and Burns & Allen but this film would set him on a new course that would include "They Drive by Night", "High Sierra" and "Action In the North Atlantic". A first rate writing team included future producer Jerry Wald and Hellinger all of whom would work on future films with Walsh. The film is notable for its montages which occur throughout to give the audience the historical background in which it was set. It includes World War I through Prohibition, the Stock Market Crash and 1939 in Europe. These are narrated by John Deering and are complex and brilliantly made compositions mixing stock and newsreel footage with Warner's movie clips (including one from "The Public Enemy"). They were made by future director Don Siegal ("Dirty Harry")
This is the third and last film with both Cagney and Bogart. It's Cagney's film, but Bogart has a substantial role. Here Cagney is tough and aggressive but is essentially a decent guy who doesn't mind being a little corrupt when his old employer won't rehire him. In fact the film goes out of its way to point out how the returning soldiers were "forgotten" and takes a very anti-Prohibition tone. Bogart is the heavy and from the very beginning we learn how ruthless and amoral he is, even seeming to enjoy killing. It's his voice; there seems to be no mercy in it. Bogart had been neglected by Warner Brothers, even after "The Petrified Forest", which only served to typecast him as a thug in a series of run of the mill pictures. They even put him in the hillbilly wrestling picture, "Swing Your Lady". This was his first A-picture in a while.
The setup is curiously like that of "Three On a Match", a 1932 Warner brothers-First National picture in which Bogart had a role. The third of the men is Lloyd Hart, played by Jeffrey Lynn, a young soldier in the same foxhole as Cagney's Eddie and Bogart's George. He's the good citizen of the three and had been in law school before the Army. He's ten years younger than them and looks it, so he easily carries off the good boy persona. He's not too good though, and ends up as the lawyer/accountant of the bootlegging operation until it's clear Eddie is in too deep.
Both Eddie and Lloyd fall for the same girl, a sweet Priscilla Lane as Jean Sherman. She came out of the "Four Girls" series and would get her best known role in "Arsenic and Old Lace". She had come from Fred Waring's band and actually sings her songs, a rare thing. Gladys George gets her most memorable role as the speakeasy manager and singer Panama Smith. The character is modeled after Texas Guinan, another old acquaintance of Hellinger, a flamboyant actress and speakeasy owner who greeted her customers with, "Hello, suckers!". Panama greets her customers at one point with, "Hello, chumps!" She deeply loves Eddie and knows she's the woman for him, just as she knows Jean and Lloyd belong together. She gets one of the great lines in film history at the end.
"The Roaring Twenties" alternates scenes of glamorous speakeasy nightclubs with scenes of gangsters, balancing the two so the film becomes a big 20's nostalgia piece as well as a gangster film. It set off a whole 20's craze. It also used advanced filmmaking technology that gives it more of a smooth look and good sound. This is where it differs greatly from the three seminal gangster films of 1931-32. They are shorter, relatively primitive looking and focus only on a few characters. This, however, is what gives them their power. "The Roaring Twenties" is a more fleshed-out film and very well made, but it does lack the punch of those earlier films. It's still highly recommended..
EXTRA NOTE: A curious coincidence. When Cagney first hears Priscilla Lane sing, he says, "She sounds like Nora Bayes," Nora Bayes was a very popular singer from 1900 into the early 1920's. She was instrumental in popularizing the song, "Over There", which became one of her biggest selling recordings. The song, of course, was written by George M. Cohan, who James Cagney would play in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942). Nora Bayes would be played by Frances Langford.
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957)
Kerr and Mitchum are memorable in their first film together.
"Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" was a considerable box office success in its day, directed by the legendary John Huston and starring popular A-list stars, Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum . Yet it has fallen into semi-obscurity, a fate it doesn't deserve. Of course it's been over sixty years since it was released in 1957. But I think the real problem for potential viewers is that with Kerr playing a nun, the film would be moralistic and preachy or saccharine and overly sweet, something too much a product of its decade. I'm glad to say it is neither of these. Kerr and Mitchum play real people in a series of tense and desperate situations which they handle as best they can while working out their own relationship with each other.
Huston directed many great films in his long career, the most popular of which was "The African Queen" (1951) with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, and its shadow looms over this film and unfortunately diminishes it in some eyes. You simply can't escape the fact that the setup is much the same in both films. A woman with a position in a religious organization and a scruffy, down to earth man must make it through a dangerous situation in a far flung tropical locale during a major war. That Huston might, in a sense, want to revisit this theme is understandable as well as the fact that the earlier film is one of the great classics in movie history.
But "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" is not some kind of shallow copy, but a strong film in its own right, largely due to its two stars. Plot similarities may exist in a general sense, but you see this film for Kerr and Mitchum, whose chemistry led them to be co-starred in three more films. Here Mitchum is at his tannest and most rugged, especially with a beard and permanently disheveled clothes after washing up on the shore of this small Pacific island in a rubber lifeboat. Kerr is at her most pale and fair even more so than usual in a white nun's habit. Her costume means she must do all her acting with her vocal intonation and facial expressions, certainly one of the reasons she received a Best Actress nomination for this role. Despite these limitations she makes Sister Angela a fully realized character, shy and introverted (though less so than as Sibyl in 1958's "Separate Tables") yet down to earth enough to tell jokes and brave enough to offer to turn herself in to the Japanese in order to save him. On his part, Mitchum shows a softer, more complex side than was usual in his action films, particularly when he finds himself falling for Sister Angela.
Here the film introduces a certain amount of tension and possibility by revealing that she has not taken her final vows. This makes a world of difference because until she did, she could simply announce that she had decided that the calling wasn't for her and leave, free and clear. This opens the film up to the possibility that they could become a married couple which creates a whole different feeling than if she was already vowed. And all this personal sorting takes place on an island sometimes occupied by Japanese soldiers who would possibly shoot them on sight. With the Japanese at a distance this becomes a film with only two characters, but any more would seem unnecessary and superfluous.
The cinematography is in beautiful Technicolor in totally realistic tones and was done by Oswald Morris, one of the best in Hollywood history. It was filmed in CinemaScope, probably because widescreen had grown beyond epics and musicals and was expected by now on any major film. Though not especially necessary here, it does show off the beautiful tropical location (actually Trinidad). The score, by French classical composer Georges Auric, is used sparingly but effectively at dramatic moments. Based on a novel, the setting's time was changed from the dark days of 1942 after Corregidor to the more optimistic time of 1944 when the Allies were on the offensive, a big plus for the film's overall tone. Curiously, at no time does Sister Angela ever say, "Heaven knows, Mr. Allison", which I was expecting at some point. It's a wonderfully acted film definitely worth watching.
The Public Enemy (1931)
One of the foundational gangster films
One of the founding films of the gangster genre, "The Public Enemy" is still a vibrant film and watchable today despite its being an early talkie. It still has a somewhat primitive look, but that only adds to its feeling of authenticity. Director William Wellman's camera is remarkably fluid for 1931 and you never get the feeling that you're sitting in a theater watching a stage play. Wellman made some comedies and the original "A Star Is Born", but was mostly at home in action and adventure pictures, which made him the right man for this film.
Wellman's biggest contribution was casting Cagney as Tom Powers, which gave the picture its energy and made a major star of the actor. Originally Cagney was to play Matt Doyle, Powers' pal and the nicer hood with Edward Woods playing Tom. But after the first takes (and some say seeing Cagney in " Doorway To Hell") he had them switch roles. This switch, by the way, causes some confusion over the 1909 childhood scenes which had already been shot with the original casting in mind with the personalities opposite what they should be. It was a low budget film and reshooting was out of the question.
I wish I could see it as the audiences of the day did as a picture made with a bunch of essentially unknown actors. Cagney and Blondell were fairly fresh from Broadway and not too many people saw their first film, "Sinners' Holiday". Jean Harlow had had her first major role in "Hell's Angels" just a year before, but the World War I fighter pilot film focused on its two male leads. Even Edward Woods and Donald Cook (Tom's older brother Mike) were new to pictures. However, at least now we get to see the entire picture, which had enough pieces cut out to meet the moral standards of various cities (including New York) to make much of it episodic and reportedly even incomprehensible.
It's Cagney's movie, of course, and his Tom Powers is a very believable character. Cagney had a powerful, elemental presence. Tom is a not too bright young tough who still has some nice qualities, at least when he's around his mother or Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow). He's got a quick temper, acts on emotions rather than thinking things out, and makes plenty of mistakes. But he's not the psychotic Cody Jarrett of "White Heat" and seems to have had an entirely sexless courtship of Gwen. He's happy playing the big man with a new car and fancy clothes, but a disappointed child when he realizes, "I ain't so tough". There's a hilarious scene when he's being fitted by a tailor that would have never been allowed after the Hays Code.
Jean Harlow is good looking and sympathetic, perhaps a bit too naive as a good girl who accepts car rides from unknown young men. She's thankfully not cast as a moll and her innate sweetness comes out in a role that doesn't last nearly long enough. Joan Blondell is in the film, but she's just Matt's girlfriend and has little to do. Murray Kinnell is excellent as a Fagin-type to the boyhood Tom and Matt and has a memorable moment when they see him again after many years.
Leslie Fenton (who soon married Ann Dvorak) is only on briefly as boss Nails Nathan, but makes up for it in the wardrobe department who wears a tweed topcoat, suit and vest with a white ascot and jeweled stickpin, boutonniere, pocket square, gloves and a wide brimmed hat - a dandy among hoods who even owns a horse. Donald Cook as Tom's good boy older brother Mike stands out oddly for his stiff, over the top acting. He seems to be in a silent film with all his facial grimaces though his background was Broadway and this was only his second film. Perhaps these mannerisms worked from a stage with a live audience.
Then there is the famous scene, often excerpted, of Cagney shoving a grapefruit in Mae Clark's face. Like any scene that has become one of the most famous scenes in movie history there are many stories of its origin and many people connected with the film have claimed to have originated the idea. It will never be known for sure, but many sources believe the story that it was Clark and Cagney who decided to do it just to shock the crew as a joke, but Wellman liked it and kept it in the picture. The picture is too short to depict just what the trouble is between Tom and Clark's Kitty, but it seems Tom is just bored with her.
For a gangster film, "The Public Enemy" is as much a character study as a crime film. It's violent, but most of that takes place offscreen because of the time period. There is no big scene like the gangsters' banquet in "Little Caesar". Tom never climbs that high. This is the world of small time hoods in a working class neighborhood. There are some nice little montages and mini-scenes depicting city life and the last night before Prohibition goes into effect. This is Chicago, full of Central and Eastern Europeans, so the alcohol of choice was beer. The cinematography of Dev Jennings is ahead of its day for its clarity. Music is used sparingly but unlike many early talkies it actually has music and cleverly uses "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles". It's not operatic like "Little Caesar", but its ending is just as absolutely unforgettable.
Perfect Strangers (1945)
What happens when a married couple outgrow each other?
"Vacation From Marriage" ("Perfect Strangers" in Britain) is a real hidden gem, a charming British film featuring an up and coming Debirah Kerr in her seventh film and Robert Donat, already a major star. The film was the first of what was to be a series of films made in joint venture between Alexander Korda and MGM, creating an MGM British unit. That it was the only film they produced is not totally surprising with two important and strong-willed men like Korda and Mayer involved. Original director Wesley Ruggles left the production when he couldn't get along with Korda's constant interference and Korda ended the deal when he couldn't take Mayer's.
Fortunately none of this affected the principal actors, both of whom turn in wonderful performances as Robert and Cathy Wilson, a married couple deadened by the routines of their lives. It's shocking when we first see Kerr, who looks positively frumpy and worn down. Donat is not much better, an ineffectual man looking old before his time. Both have settled for lives of quiet desperation in the English fashion, a monotonous daily slog that at least offers some financial security with Robert's job as an accountant. They lack confidence and Robert cannot act in the way he thinks he should in situations aptly conveyed with a voiceover of his inner thoughts. A two week holiday at a seaside resort is all they have to look forward to each year and even that has become a rather humdrum affair.
The war will suddenly intervene in their lives, separating them, challenging them and eventually remaking them into entirely different people, confident and able to take charge. Two and a half years later each realizes that they cannot go back to their old, gray lives or their colorless spouses. What happens when you've simply outgrown your other half? In a small but crucial scene as Robert prepares to leave for the navy, the two actors manage to establish that there is a deep and abiding love between these two. This is important because it causes us to root for them getting back together despite all the travails and misunderstandings that arise to keep them apart. And you need that because this film takes its slow time reuniting them, seeming to enjoy keeping the audience frustrated when it's clear these two belong together. In fact I wouldn't have minded had it gone on longer, as it ends a bit too easily.
It's the acting by all involved that really makes this film. Donat could convey a great deal simply through posture and facial expressions that makes his transformation into a man of the world believable. He already looks years younger after his navy haircut and the shaving of his old fashioned mustache, but he remains hapless, only gradually finding himself. Kerr. As well goes from mousy housewife to a self-possessed woman taking charge of her unit. There's a moment in a club after they meet again, looking fit in their uniforms, when they almost kiss and Kerr is torn about it, conveying everything with just two blinks of her eyes. It's no wonder that this film caused Mayer to say, "This woman is a star", and immediately brought her to Hollywood.
They are supported by a fine group of players. Especially good is Glynis Johns as Dizzy Clayton, a self-assured, hip young woman who acts as Kerr's teacher and even succeeds in getting her to wear lipstick. It's great to see her early in her career since she's now known primarily for playing Mrs. Banks, the suffragette mother in "Mary Poppins". Both Cathy and Robert have believable flirtations that could become serious. Kerr with Richard, Dizzy's cousin, and Donat with a nurse, Elena. Roland Culver and Ann Todd play these characters believably.
This is a fine, barely postwar film that is sweet without overdoing it and serious enough that we never completely take things for granted. It is humorous without being a comedy and dramatic without getting melodramatic. What happens when two people outgrow each other? Watch this film for one possibility.
Little Caesar (1931)
The gangster film that jump-started the genre.
"Little Caesar is an absolute powerhouse of a movie, fully deserving of its cult status. Although it lacks the shocking carnage of future gangster films and in fact, almost any scenes of an action variety, it is riveting in its portrayal of small town hood Caesar Enrico Bandello climbing the mob ladder in the big city. Rico is, of course, Edward G. Robinson in, not only his most famous performance, but one of the most famous screen characterizations on film. Robinson had had stage experience playing hoods, and had tried out for the role of Otero, but producer Hal Wallace knew he had the man to play Rico himself. He struts and preens, he's cocky and aggressive, he's crude and gauche and you can't take your eyes off him the entire time. His fall seems to be a fall of Shakespearean proportions.
But there's more to it even than Robinson's incredible performance. He's the energy of the film but he has a terrific screenplay to work with. A great deal happens in its remarkably fast eighty minutes. The pacing and editing is very brisk, moving swiftly from small town to big city in the first three minutes and from episode to episode after that. This is partly due to its being an early sound film that required this kind of approach. But it adds to the overall tension of the film by not having superfluous chase scenes or extra scenes of character development. Here that is not needed.
Though it was not the first gangster film, it created many of the tropes of the new genre. It is set entirely within the world of the mob, showing the audience the customs and ways of a practically feudal society. It's chilling when Rico takes control of his first gang with assent indicated by the silence of "the Boys'. It's brutal when Rico tells his pal Joe (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), who objects to robbing the nightclub where he is a professional dancer, "THIS (the mob) is the joint you're working for." Even more so, is when a young gang member tries to run and knows he's already a dead man. He runs home to his mother who offers him dinner and a reminiscence of him dressed in white and singing in the church choir. Many of the types of characters, new here, would become standard in future crime films.
There is the big mob banquet at the Sicilian-named Palermo Club, with its banner proclaiming "Friendship/Loyalty" and a crude bunch of attendees who have to be shouted at to "Cut the Chatter". Rico is the guest of honor, and except for the gangsters, it could be a Rotary Club event. Rico, it seems, is just pursuing respectability and the American Dream. But that does not stop Irish Police Inspector Sgt. Flaherty from walking in on the proceedings and deliberately deflating Rico's big moment with a bit of pertinent information. It's a tense face-off between the leaders of two hostile tribes. The sergeant is played totally seriously - he's not a funny Irish beat cop - and though he isn't given much screen time, he's always out there somewhere closing in.
When Rico finally makes it to a personal visit to "Big Boy" (Sidney Blackmer), the head of the whole racket, based on a corrupt Chicago mayor, he's very crude in his attempts to complement the boss' home and shows his lower class origins. But even Big Boy shows his own crass nature when he has to tell Rico how much he paid for a painting of a king (Louis XV) in his coronation robes. The beginning of this scene is briefly shot through the flaming fireplace, giving the scene the look of the anteroom of Hell.
Though violence usually happens offscreen, by the standards of the thirties "Little Caesar" was an action film. But the film is also a character study with Rico as its nexus. It builds by piling one element upon another. There's Rico and the mob, Rico and Sgt. Flaherty, Rico and Big Boy (who Rico fantasizes replacing). There's also much tension created by Rico and Joe, and Rico and Otero. What exactly Rico's relationship with Joe and Otero is has been the subject of much speculation. Male bonding takes many forms and can be very intense without any conscious sexual element. But that Rico feels intensely about both men is clear and that Otero reciprocates in a more fervent way than Joe is also clear. To a 1930 audience, I think such a subtext would have been unthinkable in the sense that most would not have even considered it; though it's also true that the author of the source novel complained about it. Rico always defends Joe, is very solicitous toward Joe and has what seems to be a paternal fondness for him. Joe is friendly, but his whole trajectory is to get free from the mob. From the beginning, when Joe thought going to the city would be good because, "There's money in the big town. And the women", Rico corrects him that women aren't worth any time or interest. In their final heart-to-heart in Rico's elaborate Art Deco digs, it all comes to a head. He's disappointed in Joe, who has gone soft, in his eyes a major sin. He tells him this dancing career "isn't my idea of a man's game...And I kinda took pride in you, Joe, now you're getting to be a sissy."
Rico and Otero have another intense relationship. At first Otero is a minor figure in Sam Vettori's gang until he notes to everyone as Rico notices a flaw in Sam's plans., "See, smart guy, Rico". He moves forward as Joe disappears. Suddenly he's Rico's constant companion, and admiring in a way that seems almost worshipful. The two together become the focus of a whole section of the film. In a scene in Rico's bedroom, Rico brags about all the power he has as Otero looks on with incredible intensity, at one point getting halfway onto the bed with Rico, who grabs the lapel of his jacket. Again, as Rico dons his new tuxedo for his visit to Big Boy, it's Otero looking on as if he's adoring an icon. They are always together and even seem to be living together. When Joe visits, Otero seems visibly jealous, perhaps fearing the return of a prodigal son. Whatever you make of it, the two relationships add much tension to the film.
Then there's Joe and Olga. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Could be bland in later films, but here comes across vibrantly as a young fellow who got involved with the wrong people and wants out. Olga is nicely played by Glenda Farrell in what for her is a big role. She is not just a love interest, but also represents the respectable world. This is nowhere clearer than on the night of the New Year's Eve caper when Joe drops into her apartment and it's very cozy and homey with a small Christmas tree in a corner.. From the beginning she has been trying to get Joe to leave the gang but he can only answer, "You can't go back on the gang". In the end it's below a large billboard of Joe and Olga in their new show, "Tipsy Topsy Turvy" and the line, "Laughing. Singing. Dancing. Success." that Rico, a failure, meets his end.
The film is primitive compared to even a decade later, much less now, and some of the acting is stagey and there are even two title cards, a remnant of the silents. But there isn't any of the static nature of many early talkies; this film moves along. The cinematography is beautiful, the sets appropriate and lavish at times and there are a good many extras when they are needed. It was a solid production and Mervyn Leroy directed it well. Get through the technical limitations and you'll see a great film.