Irene Dunne is an unusual Hollywood icon in that much like Joel McCrea she led a life in Hollywood that was most noteworthy for it's lack of negative publicity. This is particularly applicable because of Ms. Dunne's remarkable ability to do comedy in a very realistic style. Though she is remembered for other reasons as well, a beautiful singing voice for one which was demonstrated in her turn as a Magnolia in "Show Boat" and in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers starrer, "Roberta," her series of four films in the Screwball Comedy genre that she made in the late 30's probably identify her more than any other film work.
I have decide to list my personal favorites in a mixed order combining her various humorous films, her singing roles and finally her roles where drama was emphasized. Starting first we have the comedies, with the generally considered best of the bunch.
THE AWFUL TRUTH - 1937
I've always had trouble keeping this story separated from her 1940 film "My Favorite Wife." Cary Grant was her co-star in both these films and they also worked together in one of her serious films, "A Night to Remember." She revealed in later life that Cary Grant complemented her on occasion after they had worked together by telling her she always had perfect timing when doing comedy and smelled better than any one else he had worked with. She really liked this fun comment.
In the Awful Truth Grant and Dunne are getting a divorce with the settlement trying to determine the actual visiting time each will have with their dog, Mr Smith. This role was performed by the same clever dog or dogs who appeared as Asta in the "Thin Man" films. Other matrimonial problems have set in as well including suspicions of joint infidelity. It is all resolved in the end with a closing scene very reminiscent of the close to "My Favorite Wife," separate bedrooms but with proximity. Ralph Bellamy is around in his usual clever portrayal of a clueless man, in this case an Oklahoma cattleman who still lives with this mother. Dunne has a duet with the latter to "Home on the Range," which is world class funny. She includes some excellent whistling in this rendition. She also plays a very broad bimbo type to the astonished members of a wealthy family while pretending to be Grant's rather unpredictable country girl sister. The film ends up being one helluvalot of fun.
MY FAVORITE WIFE - 1940
This film and the "The Awful Truth" are almost like pairs of the same subject with but with a different cut. Dunne plays Grant's wife who supposedly drowned at sea several years ago. In fact she hadn't drowned but rather had spent those years on a South Pacific Island with a scientific type played by a very athletic looking Randolph Scott. Confusion results when Grant has remarried having had Dunne declared legally dead. His new wife is the always reliable, Gail Patrick, largely noted for playing slightly unpleasant or poisonous women. Grant has one of his great double takes when he thinks he's spotted the presumed dead Dunne while he is getting into an elevator. Things move along with eventually, like in "The Awful Truth," the two of them in separate rooms in a mountain cabin. Grant's room is the attic and he has a classic line of "Merry Christmas," at the end which I will leave for you to discover when watching the film.
THEODORA GOES WILD - 1936
I had never seen this film until recently. It features Dunne again playing this time as a member of a small town women's literary group. This small town is in Vermont and is the home of what in those days was considered typically bigoted small town women, very sanctimonious and down on any sense of indecency particularly in literature. At the beginning of the picture they are having a meeting discussion of a current licentious best seller written by what has to be a depraved woman. It's called "The Sinner." Dunne has a reason to go to New York and there she meets with the novels publisher and the firms book cover artist, Melvin Douglas. At this point we viewers learn that she is actually the books author writing under an assumed name. The going wild part is a result of her getting high at a nightclub as the publisher's guest. The club features strip tease dancers. Dunne manages to lose her dress in the ladies room, something having spilled on it, which is grabbed by a stripper who is in mid routine doing her number when the police raid the club. This results in Dunne's arrest by the police who presume she is the stripper trying to escape. Now if that isn't a plot to work with, I don't know what is. Eventually everything works out. Her nemesis, male lead, is Melvyn Douglas .
LOVE AFFAIR - 1939
Dunne in another role as a small town girl, this time the mayor of a small town, probably in Vermont again. She is the mayor because an ancestor of her's more or less was the driving force in the town a few years back. A bad incident takes place during a terrific thunder, lightning and rain storm when the tall metal statue of the town's founder is struck by lightning resulting in the decapitation of her ancestor's statue's head. Dunne has to head to New York to get the sculptor to reattach the head. The latter is delightfully played by Charles Boyer. All kinds of events happen to Dunne in New York and almost result in her being impeached from her job as mayor for corrupt behavior. In the end, Boyer who has fallen in love with her, is called to her home town to reattach the head which again was struck by a terrific lightning bolt. He had attached the head very loosely hoping for just such an incident, the beheading of the statue once again, which would give him the opportunity to romance Dunne.
Those four films provide a nice quartet of fun pictures that are easily classified as screwball comedies. Dunne made them in a four year period and not at a young age. She was born in 1898 so these were all in either her late 30's or early 40's. She made her first film in 1930 when she was already in her 30's.
Dunne's initial goal in life was to be a performer with Opera. She auditioned at an early age, but did not successfully complete the audition. Through out her film career she was called on to sing. Most people will associate her with music environments most particularly in the film "Show Boat."
SHOW BOAT - 1936
This film was made the same year as "Theodora Goes Wild." It was very well received by film goers. Her singing was lovely in the romantic numbers most particularly in "Make Believe," which she sang in duet with Alan Jones. She also sang "After The Ball," in a stage hall scene and one very humorous number which would be verboten today because it was done in blackface. This film also included such stalwarts as Paul Robeson doing "Old Man River," and the delightful "I still suits me," which he sang in a duet with Hattie McDaniel. "Can't Help Loving that man" was sung by Helen Morgan who duplicated her stage role.
ROBERTA - 1935
Though Dunne really had the lead role in this film it is basically viewed as a Rogers and Astaire, musical. Dunne had three vocal numbers. Perhaps the most memorable of these was "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," which she sang at a dinner get together at a Russian based nightclub with members of the exiled Russians community who were living in Paris at this time. She sang it to Randolph Scott who she had had a memorable argument with earlier and which continued and ended during this nightclub scene. She also had a delightful vocal on "Lovely To Look At," wearing a white gown and white fur as she descended a staircase. She sang this to Scott as well which ended up being a reunion of their love. Astaire and Rogers danced to this song after a segue from "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" with Ginger wearing a skin tight long dress that looked like it had been sown on her. Ginger is also to be remembered for her affecting Russian accented English which was particularly obvious during her singing, most notably in "Won't Dance."
There are many other resources available featuring and starring Irene Dunne. Two more serious films would include the following.
I REMEMBER MAMA - 1948
This was a serious though tender role for Ms. Dunne. She plays a Scandinavian woman in San Francisco before the turn of the century. She had the accent down pat and played the role with her usual reserved style without the added humor. Oscar Homolka and Philip Dorn were co-stars. Despite her age, she was over 50 at the time, she had to have makeup applied to appear the age she represented.
PENNY SERENADE - 1941
This can be classified as a three or four hankie film. Dunne's co-star again was Cary Grant. Penny Serenade is the story of a young woman marrying a man who is by trade is a newspaper man. They meet in New York and after a short romance are married and move to northern California where he is editor and publisher of a small community paper. Unfortunately they are not able to have children and so they end up deciding to adopt. They have wanted a little boy but the lady at the Orphan Asylum, manages to talk them into taking a perfect little girl baby. The Orphan Asylum manager is perfectly played by Beulah Bondi in a very uncharacteristic role for her. Eventually, tragedy occurs and the little girl dies when she is around nine or ten. this totally unhinges Grant in particular and leads to the loss of communication between the two. Near the end, they receive another call from Bondi who lets them know that another baby is available for them if they want it, It's a really nice story. Edgar Buchanan is particularly noteworthy as the man who operates the newspapers printing press. He has a classic scene where he shows Dunne how to diaper her new baby.
There are a number other riches from Irene Dunne's film career. Just to note a few:
BACK STREET - 1932
TOGETHER AGAIN - 1944
ANNA & THE KING OF SIAM - 1936 (with Rex Harrison)
WHEN TOMORROW COMES - 1939
CIMARRON -1931 (A very dated, static film that co-starred Richard Dix)
WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER - 1944
LIFE WITH FATHER - 1947 (with William Powell)
In my search through the internet archives of information I tried to find a picture or two of Irene Dunne in a swimming suit. Much to my surprise there are none, and I can't recall any film where she wears a shorts or a short skirt. In Cimarron she looked heavier, but I'm guessing it might have been in the late 19th and early 20th century clothes she wore for her role. Somehow, even when playing off character, she came across as a lady with class.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
King Solomon's Mine and Lady in the Lake
Actually, these two films have no direct connection except through me. They are both films based on books. In the case of Solomon's mine, I had recently bought a selection of nicely bound and produced hard cover books that I found offered for $1.00 at my local branch of the Los Angeles County Library system. I only selected books I had never read which included Haggard's novel written in 1885.
In the case of Chandler's Lady in the Lake I saw the last 20 or 25 minutes of it on the tube and became confused as to what had happened. Consequently, I bought the book from my favorite book store, Powell's Books of Portland, Oregon and read it as well.
After I had read both of these books I re-watched video's of the two films. What interested me most is that neither film was much like the story they were based on. I'll discuss them separately.
KING SOLOMON'S MINE - 1950
In H. Ryder Haggard's original novel the story covered the trip of a party of three Englishmen and a native South African to an mysterious and unknown land in the heart of Africa where supposedly, Solomon had stored his treasure in a cavern. The men were led by a man named Allan Quatermain who was a well known African hunter in his early 50's. Their objective was to find the brother of one of the Quatermain's two companions. With much hazardous journeying they crossed through jungles and then a terrible desert to eventually climb a couple of peaks remarkably named the Sheba's Two Breasts which had snow at their summits. From there they descended and crossed a into a lush valley along an ancient road that led to a village or Krall.
At this point they learned that a Black African man who had joined their party was of royal blood. A tremendous battle between thousands of native men ensued where in their claimant to the throne's forces conduct a ferocious battle with the troops of his cousin who had usurped the throne. After this venture they were led to the cavern and discovered the huge fortune of mostly diamonds but also of gold and ivory that had been accumulated by Solomon. There through treachery they were trapped in the cavern but fortunately managed to find a way out along the course of a river that exited the cavern on the slopes of the mountain the cave was located in.
In 1950 a rousing beautifully shot color film was made of this story. This is generally acknowledged to be the best of the films made of Haggard's adventure novel. I remembered very little of the film except for the tall Watusi man who played the true king but most of all beautiful Deborah Kerr sitting next to a thundering waterfall looking as beautiful as she could look. The party included Quatermain, a handsome Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson playing the brother of the missing man and Kerr as a replacement for the novels third man. I discovered later that the waterfall that Kerr was sitting next to was the famous Murchinson Fall that exits Lake Victoria.
Again there was a desert, though the peaks known as the two breasts were not involved. And eventually the party arrived at the Krall where the usurper to the throne lived. Again there is a battle but in this case just the usurper and the rightful king fight, and of course the latter wins by throwing a spear into the body of his opponent. They are led to the mine and because of treachery are locked in its depths, but they find the river and manage to swim out to safety.
I must admit to enjoying the film version of the story more than that of the book. Haggard, was largely influenced by the Zulu war which had occurred in that part of South Africa a few years earlier in 1879. The people he described were related to the Zulu's and had the same military practices as those used by the Zulu people during their war with the English. These people were entirely fictional. The actual Watusi people used in the film were different in stature from the Zulu's who were a tall and muscular. The Watusi tended to be tall and slim
The Zulu War was an important part of the British experience in Southern Africa. Three major battles were fought, and the Zulu's armed just with spears won all three of them but with a terrible loss of life. There is a history of this war that came out in the 1965 which covers it in great detail. If you like history you may like this book, "The Washing of the Spears." It was written by Donald R. Morris who had a long career in the United State Navy and in intelligence operations. The books title of washing of the spears is meant their being blooded after use in a battle.
THE LADY IN THE LAKE - 1947
This story was one of Raymond Chandler's most well liked. In involved four murders three of which being committed by one person. The fourth was a subsequent murder of the protagonist of the first three murders. It involves Chandler's hard boiled detective, Philip Marlowe, being hired to locate the wife of an important publisher of crime novels. The story takes Marlowe up to a lake in the San Bernardino mountains where the Publisher has a mountain home. In checking out what might have happened there a body is discovered under a pier in the lake. This body turns out to the wife of a handyman who works at the site.
The wife Marlowe is searching for, Crystal Kingsley apparently ran off with a guy who has been courting her, a kind of low life womanizer named Chris Lavery. Marlowe visits him and is accosted by the police when a neighbor of the womanizer spots him hanging around. The local police don't much like private eyes such as Marlowe.
Later Chandler visits the womanizer's home again and discovers the owner of the rented house coming down the stairs with a gun in her hand which she says she found on the stairs. She's there because he's behind in his rent. Later Marlowe discovers the guy slumped dead in his shower from bullet wounds.
The case seems to be getting more and more involved in that Marlowe discovers that the wife of the doctor who lived across the street died a few months back of mysterious causes. No autopsy was ever done on her body. That's murder number three. Finally Marlowe comes back again and he meets the person who has done all three crimes. There, while they are talking he is sapped from behind. When he wakes up he finds that person dead and laying on the floor next to him.
Marlowe reviews the case and explains who did what and who they were. I'm not going to reveal it here, you'll either have to read the book or see the film.
When the film was made starring Robert Montgomery as Marlowe they used a different technique. In it the only time you saw Marlowe was when he was in front of or looking in a mirror. At all other times people talking to him in the film address the camera. This includes the couple of times he gets knocked out.
The story was changed so that emphasis was placed on other roles. Audrey Totter had the lead role and she played a person with very little action in the book, the secretary of the man who hired Marlowe, publisher Derace Kingsley. In the film she hires Marlowe without telling her boss. Initially Totter plays the role pretty smoothly, but eventually she seems to come over so broadly that you tend to laugh at her outbursts and become over her performance. Much better, at least to me, was Jayne Meadows who played the landlord of the murdered guy. Her performance was more in keeping with that of book.
If you have a choice, read this book and don't bother with the movie. Go the other route with King Solomon's Mines. The book ends up killing more native African people than you would think was possible. Besides, Deborah Kerr looks particularly young and beautiful in the trek after Solomon's riches. One other thought. Stewart Granger as Quatermain is far more concerned about the welfare of the native animals than the Quatermain of the book. The latter leads a shooting of several elephants just to secure their tusks, something the Quatermain of the film would never approve of.
Through the years Philip Marlowe was played by several different actors, most particularly by Humphrey Bogart who also played Sam Spade the other most famous private eye of this type. Dick Powell played Marlowe in one film, George Montgomery in another, and Elliot Gould had the role several years later. In addition James Garner and Robert Mitchum took a crack at the character. In some respects, Philip Marlowe is the closest modern day challenger to Sherlock Holmes.
In the case of Chandler's Lady in the Lake I saw the last 20 or 25 minutes of it on the tube and became confused as to what had happened. Consequently, I bought the book from my favorite book store, Powell's Books of Portland, Oregon and read it as well.
After I had read both of these books I re-watched video's of the two films. What interested me most is that neither film was much like the story they were based on. I'll discuss them separately.
KING SOLOMON'S MINE - 1950
In H. Ryder Haggard's original novel the story covered the trip of a party of three Englishmen and a native South African to an mysterious and unknown land in the heart of Africa where supposedly, Solomon had stored his treasure in a cavern. The men were led by a man named Allan Quatermain who was a well known African hunter in his early 50's. Their objective was to find the brother of one of the Quatermain's two companions. With much hazardous journeying they crossed through jungles and then a terrible desert to eventually climb a couple of peaks remarkably named the Sheba's Two Breasts which had snow at their summits. From there they descended and crossed a into a lush valley along an ancient road that led to a village or Krall.
At this point they learned that a Black African man who had joined their party was of royal blood. A tremendous battle between thousands of native men ensued where in their claimant to the throne's forces conduct a ferocious battle with the troops of his cousin who had usurped the throne. After this venture they were led to the cavern and discovered the huge fortune of mostly diamonds but also of gold and ivory that had been accumulated by Solomon. There through treachery they were trapped in the cavern but fortunately managed to find a way out along the course of a river that exited the cavern on the slopes of the mountain the cave was located in.
In 1950 a rousing beautifully shot color film was made of this story. This is generally acknowledged to be the best of the films made of Haggard's adventure novel. I remembered very little of the film except for the tall Watusi man who played the true king but most of all beautiful Deborah Kerr sitting next to a thundering waterfall looking as beautiful as she could look. The party included Quatermain, a handsome Stewart Granger, Richard Carlson playing the brother of the missing man and Kerr as a replacement for the novels third man. I discovered later that the waterfall that Kerr was sitting next to was the famous Murchinson Fall that exits Lake Victoria.
Again there was a desert, though the peaks known as the two breasts were not involved. And eventually the party arrived at the Krall where the usurper to the throne lived. Again there is a battle but in this case just the usurper and the rightful king fight, and of course the latter wins by throwing a spear into the body of his opponent. They are led to the mine and because of treachery are locked in its depths, but they find the river and manage to swim out to safety.
I must admit to enjoying the film version of the story more than that of the book. Haggard, was largely influenced by the Zulu war which had occurred in that part of South Africa a few years earlier in 1879. The people he described were related to the Zulu's and had the same military practices as those used by the Zulu people during their war with the English. These people were entirely fictional. The actual Watusi people used in the film were different in stature from the Zulu's who were a tall and muscular. The Watusi tended to be tall and slim
The Zulu War was an important part of the British experience in Southern Africa. Three major battles were fought, and the Zulu's armed just with spears won all three of them but with a terrible loss of life. There is a history of this war that came out in the 1965 which covers it in great detail. If you like history you may like this book, "The Washing of the Spears." It was written by Donald R. Morris who had a long career in the United State Navy and in intelligence operations. The books title of washing of the spears is meant their being blooded after use in a battle.
THE LADY IN THE LAKE - 1947
This story was one of Raymond Chandler's most well liked. In involved four murders three of which being committed by one person. The fourth was a subsequent murder of the protagonist of the first three murders. It involves Chandler's hard boiled detective, Philip Marlowe, being hired to locate the wife of an important publisher of crime novels. The story takes Marlowe up to a lake in the San Bernardino mountains where the Publisher has a mountain home. In checking out what might have happened there a body is discovered under a pier in the lake. This body turns out to the wife of a handyman who works at the site.
The wife Marlowe is searching for, Crystal Kingsley apparently ran off with a guy who has been courting her, a kind of low life womanizer named Chris Lavery. Marlowe visits him and is accosted by the police when a neighbor of the womanizer spots him hanging around. The local police don't much like private eyes such as Marlowe.
Later Chandler visits the womanizer's home again and discovers the owner of the rented house coming down the stairs with a gun in her hand which she says she found on the stairs. She's there because he's behind in his rent. Later Marlowe discovers the guy slumped dead in his shower from bullet wounds.
The case seems to be getting more and more involved in that Marlowe discovers that the wife of the doctor who lived across the street died a few months back of mysterious causes. No autopsy was ever done on her body. That's murder number three. Finally Marlowe comes back again and he meets the person who has done all three crimes. There, while they are talking he is sapped from behind. When he wakes up he finds that person dead and laying on the floor next to him.
Marlowe reviews the case and explains who did what and who they were. I'm not going to reveal it here, you'll either have to read the book or see the film.
When the film was made starring Robert Montgomery as Marlowe they used a different technique. In it the only time you saw Marlowe was when he was in front of or looking in a mirror. At all other times people talking to him in the film address the camera. This includes the couple of times he gets knocked out.
The story was changed so that emphasis was placed on other roles. Audrey Totter had the lead role and she played a person with very little action in the book, the secretary of the man who hired Marlowe, publisher Derace Kingsley. In the film she hires Marlowe without telling her boss. Initially Totter plays the role pretty smoothly, but eventually she seems to come over so broadly that you tend to laugh at her outbursts and become over her performance. Much better, at least to me, was Jayne Meadows who played the landlord of the murdered guy. Her performance was more in keeping with that of book.
If you have a choice, read this book and don't bother with the movie. Go the other route with King Solomon's Mines. The book ends up killing more native African people than you would think was possible. Besides, Deborah Kerr looks particularly young and beautiful in the trek after Solomon's riches. One other thought. Stewart Granger as Quatermain is far more concerned about the welfare of the native animals than the Quatermain of the book. The latter leads a shooting of several elephants just to secure their tusks, something the Quatermain of the film would never approve of.
Through the years Philip Marlowe was played by several different actors, most particularly by Humphrey Bogart who also played Sam Spade the other most famous private eye of this type. Dick Powell played Marlowe in one film, George Montgomery in another, and Elliot Gould had the role several years later. In addition James Garner and Robert Mitchum took a crack at the character. In some respects, Philip Marlowe is the closest modern day challenger to Sherlock Holmes.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Supporting Players
Back in the early days of talking pictures, those of the 30's, 40's and 50's supporting players were an important part of each picture. Supporting players were people that you might recognize but would be unlikely to remember their names. To a great extent they would be type cast. Particular directors or produceers would request certain people whenever they had a role of a certain type. However, this wasn't always true. Preston Sturges for example tended to use people outside their normally expected role. A really good example is Jack Norton who was noted through nearly 100 separate films for playing drunks. When Norton played a drunk there was no question as to what his problem was. A good example is the W.C. Fields film "The Bank Dick" where Norton playing a movie film director is completely pie eyed and stumbling along held up by two filming assistants. When Sturges used Norton in "Hail the Conquering Hero" he had him cast as a band director leading a marching band. Norton didn't have any screen credit for this role, and not everyone recognized him which would not have been the case if he had played his typical drunk. Incidentally his screen role title in The Bank Dick was A Pismo Clam.
Things have changed in recent years. The film "An Education," a well received film from 20o9, is an interesting example. It starred Casey Mulligan in the lead role along with Peter Sarsgaard, and Olivia Williams. There were several lead supporting players. Far down the list was Emma Thompson, who has played leads and directed and produced films very successfully for several years. Her work is widely known, but here she was a lower supporting player playing the role of an English girls school principal, with just three short scenes. Even more remarkable was Sally Hawkins who has played lead roles in several films including the recent fun film "Poppy." Her role consisted of about four lines of dialogue with not more than 25 words.
In the earlier days this just didn't happen. A lead actor might not play a supporing role of any type until they reached thesenior or near-senior age backet. Supporting roles were for extras, standins and the like. A real good example of this paradox is the well known but mostly under-appreciated Fanklin Pangborn. Pangborn played in nearly 100 films in his nearly 50 year film career. In most of these he is easily recognized as a rather prissy clerk at a counter or the like. He sported a very skinny moustache and looked about what he portrayed. A slightly different take on his role was in the Bing Crosby short film "Blues In the Night" which was released in 1933. Bing's singing by then was greatly appreciated. During this period he made six films for Matt Sennett that mainly consisted of shallow roles but lots of singing. Arguably the best of these was "Blues In the Night.' In this one Pangborn oddly enough played a film director in his prissy style. He drove a big contervible, perhaps a Deusenberg or some othe vehicle of that class. Twice he manages to fall into or be pushed into a swimming pool where several persons are gathered around. Among them was Toby Wing the very delectable teenager, she was 17 at the time, who most people remember only as Dick Powell's companion in the "Young and Helathy" number for the film "42nd street." Toby has no lines in this film which was typical of her fate. But she was easily remembered for sexy appearance in the 42nd Street number.
Things have changed in recent years. The film "An Education," a well received film from 20o9, is an interesting example. It starred Casey Mulligan in the lead role along with Peter Sarsgaard, and Olivia Williams. There were several lead supporting players. Far down the list was Emma Thompson, who has played leads and directed and produced films very successfully for several years. Her work is widely known, but here she was a lower supporting player playing the role of an English girls school principal, with just three short scenes. Even more remarkable was Sally Hawkins who has played lead roles in several films including the recent fun film "Poppy." Her role consisted of about four lines of dialogue with not more than 25 words.
In the earlier days this just didn't happen. A lead actor might not play a supporing role of any type until they reached thesenior or near-senior age backet. Supporting roles were for extras, standins and the like. A real good example of this paradox is the well known but mostly under-appreciated Fanklin Pangborn. Pangborn played in nearly 100 films in his nearly 50 year film career. In most of these he is easily recognized as a rather prissy clerk at a counter or the like. He sported a very skinny moustache and looked about what he portrayed. A slightly different take on his role was in the Bing Crosby short film "Blues In the Night" which was released in 1933. Bing's singing by then was greatly appreciated. During this period he made six films for Matt Sennett that mainly consisted of shallow roles but lots of singing. Arguably the best of these was "Blues In the Night.' In this one Pangborn oddly enough played a film director in his prissy style. He drove a big contervible, perhaps a Deusenberg or some othe vehicle of that class. Twice he manages to fall into or be pushed into a swimming pool where several persons are gathered around. Among them was Toby Wing the very delectable teenager, she was 17 at the time, who most people remember only as Dick Powell's companion in the "Young and Helathy" number for the film "42nd street." Toby has no lines in this film which was typical of her fate. But she was easily remembered for sexy appearance in the 42nd Street number.
An oddity of the "Blues in the Night" film is something that normally would happen on camera result in thescene having to be re-shot. Bing is talking to the films female lead Babe Kane near the pool. As they are talking you can see in the distant background a young woman running full out. She disappears in back of a car. You see her next at the swimming pool and you then recognize that it was the peroxide blond Wing.
Toby did have a line in one of Cary Grant's earlier but not particularly popular pictures. Grant plays a Parisian specialist at making women beautiful in face and figure. It's a very shallow role. Toby is one of the women who comes to him for help. She has a couple of lines of dialogue and takes off her dress and stands in her undergarments. Her beauty and lovely figure made her career advance as much as it did. Incidently in this role she is called Consuelo of Claghorne. Grant, the Parisian beauty expert is Dr. Maurice Lamar.
Pangborn made films forever. Some of his memorable roles were in Preston Sturgess films including "Hail the Conquering Hero" which we discussed above relative to Jack Norton, Pangborn played the organizer and director of the welcoming program for Eddie Bracken's faux hero. This is the same segment where Norton is scene as one of the band leaders.
Here is a short list of films where Pangborn plays in his typical humorous style. All of these are highly rated humor films. You can't go wrong if you make a point of viewing some of them: Sullivan's Travels - 1941, the most highly rated of Preston Sturgis films. The Bank Dick - 1940, where Pangborn plays a bank examiner whose last name is surprisingly,"Snoopington." My Man Godfrey - 1936, a classic screwball comedy starring the real experts in that type of role, William Powell and Carole Lombard. Palm Beach Story - 1942, another Preston Sturges classic starring Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert, which also includes Jack Norton playing a member of the Ale and Quale club. Flying Down to Rio - 1933, the first pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Mr. Deeds Goes to town - 1936, with Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. There are a number more where Pangborn contributes his particular expertese, but if you sample some of these you will get acquainted with the Franklin Pangborn style.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Screwball Comedies #2
I was very pleased with my first set of screwball comedies. The films I selected from the classic period of the middle to late 30's and early 40's were very representative of the genre. One problem did develop, however, with one of the films "The Devil and Miss Jones" which turns out is not available in any video format, so that those interested could not check out the film. Consequently, to make up for that problem and present a second list of almost identically excellent examples of screwball comedy efforts, I am preparing a new set of five plus one that are representative of the Screwball comedy era. To make up for the inability to view "The Devil and Miss Jones" we will offer another film featuring Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn.
One thing to remember if you are planning on preparing your own list of Screwball favorites are the following ingredients; wealth (particularly of a parent/father), humor and funny situations that are though unlikely still are possible, and further getting persons who really know that genre. In the latter interest several names immediately come to mind; Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur, Cary Grant, Frederick March and Joel McCrea.
THE MORE THE MERRIER - 1942
World War II was well on it's way In the USA by this time. The war brought with it not over fighting over seas in Europe and the South Pacific, but a rapid growth in the governments ability to address the war. Men were going into the military in droves so that the day to day work of government ended in women getting government jobs that just hadn't been available in the past. One such woman was Jean Arthur who was a secretary in some government department.
To contribute to the war effort and the shortage of living space for those who had come to Washington to help out, she had decided to sublet her apartment and take in a boarder, who would pay half the rent. She of course counted on a female to join her.
Instead of the expected female co-renter she got Charles Coburn a $1.00 a year man as a joint tenant. $1.00 men were wealthy semi-retired professional men who offered their services and expertise to the government for a flat fee of one buck. Coburn was a self-proclaimed millionaire whose slogan was "Damn the torpedo's, Full speed ahead," a proclamation he had learned from Spanish War fame Admiral Farragut.
A couple of days later while Arthur was at work, Coburn got the idea that since there were two beds in his half of the apartment he could take on an additional boarder. This he did in the name of a military man carrying a large aircraft propeller, Joel McCrea. Both he and McCrea struggled to keep this information secret from Arthur, but of course this wasn't possible.
The film deals with this problem and many other interesting ones common to those times. Coburn suggest that there are six women to every man in Washington. Arthur has a fiance, a rather conservative gentleman in middle government management who wears an ill fitting toupee. Coburn likes both of his roommates and sees a great potential for love to find it's way. It does in a way that is not normally depicted in the fashion here. Arthur and McCrea to avoid scandal have to get married even though supposedly she is to marry her fiance, Mr. Pendergast. McCrea is going to Africa, because of the Allied invasion of French colonies in that continent which occurred later that same year.
Arthur received an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Two episodes stand out in particular. In the first of these she and McCrea are walking together late at night. he has brought her home from dinner with Mr. Pendergast while Coburn has enticed that gentleman into in depth evaluation of how to cut costs. As they stroll along and pass lovers kissing each other they gradually get better acquainted. The smouldering subtle love making is something really fun to watch. McCrea is smooth as silk and Arthur is just unable to resist his advances and in fact starts to really want them. The second really funny sequence is when they have to get married to avoid a scandal. After the ceremony in some southern state that doesn't require a waiting period, she continues to weep and sob over her sad state of affairs, married to the wrong man who is leaving immediately in the morning on his secret mission to Africa. It's heartbreakingly funny watching her in her frustration.
TRADE WINDS - 1937
This picture is most memorable because for the first time Joan Bennett forgo her usual blond hair and died her's black as part of a necessity for this role. It changed her image in more ways then one changing her from a light hearted blond, somewhat memorable in the Jean Harlow sense, into a real femme fatale. She was compared to Hedy Lamarr in her new look.
I actually reviewed this film back in the original Mensa Classic Films publication. I had it listed as one of four films that I referred to as fast paced, films with fast action, fast dialogue, etc. The most famous of the films of this narrower genre was "His Girl Friday" where Rosaline Russell and Cary Grant did at each other with rapid dialog talking over each other.
Bennett starts the film as a blond, but in an incident in San Francisco she thinks she killed a man who had womanized her younger sister who committed suicide as a result. Bennett has a gun and we along with her believe she killed the bad dude.
She flees San Francisco including driving her car into the Bay where she escapes by swimming under a wharf and eventually climbing out of the water leaving the police and everyone else to believe she had drowned. She gets to Honolulu, changes her name, has her dyed and assumes a new identify. Somehow she seems to think she muck around the Asian area without being caught.
Frederick March plays Sam Wye a private Eye who formerly was a member of the San Francisco Police Department. He is a world class romancer and a bit of a heal to boot. The SFPD have only one super detective in the department and that man is on a special assignment in Europe. The chief, the excellent Thomas Mitchell, decides there is only one solution, get Wye and put him on the trail.
Two other members of the all star class need to be defined. These are Ann Southern who plays Wye's secretary, who is a sharp but easily duped female by the wiley Wye. In addition there is the always reliable dim wit, Ralph Bellamy, playing a not too bright member of the department but who the chief thinks might be able to control Wye in some of his worst excesses of womanizing and drinking.
The films director had shot a lot of footage the previous year in the Far East and put this to use as a back drop for the players to work in. Through it all Sam keeps on Bennett's trail following it to Hawaii, Japan, China and eventually on a boat heading for Singapore. Where ever he stops he plays a Chopin composition that Bennett is known to like and play nicely. While playing this in the boat's lounge he hears someone coming in behind him. He encourages the person to come in and they start an idle conversation mostly about the piece while his back is still turned. Eventually he turns around and is provided with a dream vision, Bennett, and instantly his whole attitude changes from his form of professionalism to infatuation with Bennett.
The rest of the film is concerned with Wye now trying to hide Bennett from the authorities. Eventually it leads too islands off the coast which may be the Maldives. There he and Bennett are finally caught by the detective who had been in Europe but had been put on the case because of Wye's peculiar behavior. Through twist, and though wounded from a gun shot, Wye takes credit for the capture and brings Bennett back to San Francisco. All is resolve when Wye manages to prove that Bennett never fired the fatal shot. The end finds the two together and very much in love.
There are a huge selection of very funny lines in the film. March continually makes fun of Bellamy and sends him on wild goose chases. He also introduces him to Southern and calls her Doctor Livingston a play on the Stanley and Livingston story. Throughout the film Bellamy refers to her as Dr. Livingston, which she accepts graciously.
NOTHING SACRED - 1937
This film has more shear amusement in it than any other of the Screwball Comedies. It probably ranks second to only "The Lady Eve" among films of the genre. Most important to that recommendation is the wonderful performance of Carole Lombard. She uses a vast collection of subtle entertaining expressions as she goes through her role. This was the probably her most memorable performance in comedy films though many might prefer "My Man Godfrey" which co-starred William Powell another genius of the comedy mode without being a comedian and perhaps "To Be Or Not To Be." In the latter she played a Polish actress with great humorous overtones against Jack Benny's ham Hamlet actor.
Nothing Sacred is the story of a young lady who has contacted a dreaded cancerous health problem from radium poisoning. To be frank about it she is about to die. Frederick March, playing in his usual comfortable style is a newspaper reporter who has just failed in a major assignment which you will have to see to appreciate. He learns about the young lady's condition, she's known as Hazel Flagg in the film, and goes up to Vermont where she lives in a small town to interview her. The film then proceeds to make fun of Vermont types and their very conservative attitude toward making talk. March sees Lombard, and like with Bennett in the film discussed above, decides he is in love with her. He brings her to New York and the paper pays for her housing, clothing and all other needs while publicizing and making a big issue out of her anticipated death.
These items are all nicely done. Probably the hit of the film is when she and March attend a big event for her at a big nightclub in New York. At this event she gradually gets loaded drinking champagne and eventually passes out and has to be carried home by March. It is after this event that we learn her radium poisoning didn't really happen and was a mistake by the screwy doctor she had in Vermont. The latter is funnily played by Charlie Winninger.
The result of this is an attempt by Winninger and Lombard for her to commit a phony suicide in New York harbor after leaving a suicide note. This is also a very funny episode with March rushing up at the last minute to try and stop her suicide and in the process actually knocking her into the water.
What follows is a wild scene back at the hotel where she is staying with he socking her and she socking him and generally resulting in total chaos between the two of them and people coming in and out of the room. Things all straighten out and the two of them manage to stay together long enough to get married.
THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. - 1940
This screwball comedy is not as well known and popular as some of the others we have talked about. But there is no question that it is a screwball comedy since James Cagney refers to Bette Davis during the film as a screwball. Davis is rather a screwball in that she just recently met, four days to be exact, Jack Carson who plays an obnoxious band leader and who is quite obviously really in love with himself. As is to be expected in screwball comedies, Bette Davis is fabulously rich due to her father, Eugene Pallette having hit oil big in Texas a few years earlier. Think of it in terms of today's dollars when we note that he claims a fortune of $30,000,000. That would be close to a billion in today's financial situation.
In the story Davis is so anxious to marry Carson that they are willing to fly to Las Vegas where the can tie the know almost immediately. Remember this is actually just four days after meeting him. In the process Pallette discovers this and is bound and determined to stop the marriage. Then entering the picture is James Cagney who owns a plane and is the flying business usually in the form of merchandise. He charges by the pound. Somehow through a lot of shenanigans that the films writers concoct he is put in contact with Pallette by phone. Cagney promises to deliver Davis in Amarillo which is approximately midway between Hollywood and Chicago where Pallette lives. Cagney is behind on the loan payments relative to his plane and is about to have it foreclosed because of a sum of approximately 1,050 dollars that he owes. He quotes Pallette a price based on $10.00 a pound for Davis's weight which he estimates as 115 pounds.
All kinds of funny incidents happen. Davis tries to jump out of the plane in a parachute when she finds out Cagney's arrangement. Fortunately Cagney manages to stop her having noted she had put on the parachute upside down. The plane suffers mechanical problems and Cagney has to make an emergency landing in the desert. An amusing incident here is Davis in trying to run away falls into a cactus plant acquiring a large number of painful cactus spines in her fanny which Cagney has to remove by placing her across his lap and removing them one by one while she lays there howling.
There are far to many funnies to enunciate all of them. An old ghost town is nearby whose only occupant is Harry Davenport an old time miner. Eventually there is a cave in at the mine and Davis believes she and Cagney are trapped in there. He leads her on with tales of woe, etc., no food, no one knows they are trapped there, etc.. Finally she overcoming her dislike of him kisses him and to her surprise discovers he has mustard on his lips and had been secretly eating a sandwich while pretending they were going to starve to death.
There is confusing as to whether the ghost town is in Nevada or California. There is an attempt to perform a marriage there and the question is the Justice of the Peace who is going to do it licensed in the correct stare. Ultimately, everything turns out okay since Cagney and Davis really understand that they have fallen in love. At the end Cagney is talking to her father by phone and settles his bill. He says she weighs 118. In the background you can here her yelling 110. Another, bit of humor is focused on Cagney's imitation of coyote howls to scare Davis into responding to his advances.
The Awful Truth - 1937 (and) My Favorite Wife - 1940
These two films were cut from the same cookie cutter. Each of them star Cary Grant as a husband and Irene Dunne as his witty wife. The two film endings provide a similarity as well. In the "The Awful Truth" the two have decided on a divorce as the only way to solve their recurring marital problems which to sum up include who has the dog and for how long. The dog is Asta a co-star of the Thin Man series.
As in "Trade Winds" Ralph Bellamy provides the humorous elements, and he really is funny. In this case he is a wealthy cattleman from Oklahoma. He sings "Home on the Range," dances a rollicking Tango and other Latin and jitterbug steps and has a suspicious mother who doesn't find much favor in Dunne.
Cary Grant observes this largely unlikely courtship with obvious displeasure, and is obnoxious in his observations and opposition to it. Overall Grant does not come across as a person you feel a lot of sympathy for.
Eventually things come to a head the funniest part of which is Dunne posing as her own sister, dressed rather raffishly and displaying a great deal of uncultivated speech and actions. The film ends in the mountain cabin of her aunt where the two of them, Grant and Dunne find themselves together again and apparently ready to return to their original marriage vows.
In "My Favorite Wife Grant and Dunne were married, but she was on a ship that went down at sea and apparently is dead. Grant has the marriage legally dissolved and marries Gail Patrick who plays his new wife in her patented bitchy style.
On the day of the new marriage Dunne shows up again at home. She apparently has been living on a island hoping to eventually being rescued. She hurries over to the hotel where Grant and his knew wife are staying. Grant does one of his great double takes when he accidentally spots her as he is entering an elevator.
Things seem like they are going to resolve themselves easily until Grant finds out that Dunne was not alone on the island, but rather she was there with Randolph Scott who was part of the scientific expedition to that area out in the western Pacific. Grant is not taken with Scott who is quick witted, handsome, athletic, etc. Distracted by his suspicion Grant accidentally falls into the hotel swimming pool while completely clothed.
The continual series of confrontation between Grant, Scott, and Patrick take their toll. Only Dunne seems to be able maintain her equilibrium during this period. Eventually, as is true with almost all Screwball comedies things work out. In the end Grant and Dunne are in another mountain cabin. There are not back married yet so he is sleeping in an attic room and she is in a nearby bedroom. During the night he keeps wandering in in his pajamas and she continues to tell him they have to wait until his new divorce is final before they can renew conjugal relations. Finally, she tells him after he has come into her room for the umpteenth time, Not until Christmas." All this time she has wanted to renew their relationship but can't manage to do it. But when Grant comes back to the room a few minutes later and dressed in a Santa Claus suit he found in the attic and greets here, "With Merry Christmas.," she gives into her desires and the film ends with them apparently going to spend the night together in the same bed.
One thing to remember if you are planning on preparing your own list of Screwball favorites are the following ingredients; wealth (particularly of a parent/father), humor and funny situations that are though unlikely still are possible, and further getting persons who really know that genre. In the latter interest several names immediately come to mind; Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur, Cary Grant, Frederick March and Joel McCrea.
THE MORE THE MERRIER - 1942
World War II was well on it's way In the USA by this time. The war brought with it not over fighting over seas in Europe and the South Pacific, but a rapid growth in the governments ability to address the war. Men were going into the military in droves so that the day to day work of government ended in women getting government jobs that just hadn't been available in the past. One such woman was Jean Arthur who was a secretary in some government department.
To contribute to the war effort and the shortage of living space for those who had come to Washington to help out, she had decided to sublet her apartment and take in a boarder, who would pay half the rent. She of course counted on a female to join her.
Instead of the expected female co-renter she got Charles Coburn a $1.00 a year man as a joint tenant. $1.00 men were wealthy semi-retired professional men who offered their services and expertise to the government for a flat fee of one buck. Coburn was a self-proclaimed millionaire whose slogan was "Damn the torpedo's, Full speed ahead," a proclamation he had learned from Spanish War fame Admiral Farragut.
A couple of days later while Arthur was at work, Coburn got the idea that since there were two beds in his half of the apartment he could take on an additional boarder. This he did in the name of a military man carrying a large aircraft propeller, Joel McCrea. Both he and McCrea struggled to keep this information secret from Arthur, but of course this wasn't possible.
The film deals with this problem and many other interesting ones common to those times. Coburn suggest that there are six women to every man in Washington. Arthur has a fiance, a rather conservative gentleman in middle government management who wears an ill fitting toupee. Coburn likes both of his roommates and sees a great potential for love to find it's way. It does in a way that is not normally depicted in the fashion here. Arthur and McCrea to avoid scandal have to get married even though supposedly she is to marry her fiance, Mr. Pendergast. McCrea is going to Africa, because of the Allied invasion of French colonies in that continent which occurred later that same year.
Arthur received an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Two episodes stand out in particular. In the first of these she and McCrea are walking together late at night. he has brought her home from dinner with Mr. Pendergast while Coburn has enticed that gentleman into in depth evaluation of how to cut costs. As they stroll along and pass lovers kissing each other they gradually get better acquainted. The smouldering subtle love making is something really fun to watch. McCrea is smooth as silk and Arthur is just unable to resist his advances and in fact starts to really want them. The second really funny sequence is when they have to get married to avoid a scandal. After the ceremony in some southern state that doesn't require a waiting period, she continues to weep and sob over her sad state of affairs, married to the wrong man who is leaving immediately in the morning on his secret mission to Africa. It's heartbreakingly funny watching her in her frustration.
TRADE WINDS - 1937
This picture is most memorable because for the first time Joan Bennett forgo her usual blond hair and died her's black as part of a necessity for this role. It changed her image in more ways then one changing her from a light hearted blond, somewhat memorable in the Jean Harlow sense, into a real femme fatale. She was compared to Hedy Lamarr in her new look.
I actually reviewed this film back in the original Mensa Classic Films publication. I had it listed as one of four films that I referred to as fast paced, films with fast action, fast dialogue, etc. The most famous of the films of this narrower genre was "His Girl Friday" where Rosaline Russell and Cary Grant did at each other with rapid dialog talking over each other.
Bennett starts the film as a blond, but in an incident in San Francisco she thinks she killed a man who had womanized her younger sister who committed suicide as a result. Bennett has a gun and we along with her believe she killed the bad dude.
She flees San Francisco including driving her car into the Bay where she escapes by swimming under a wharf and eventually climbing out of the water leaving the police and everyone else to believe she had drowned. She gets to Honolulu, changes her name, has her dyed and assumes a new identify. Somehow she seems to think she muck around the Asian area without being caught.
Frederick March plays Sam Wye a private Eye who formerly was a member of the San Francisco Police Department. He is a world class romancer and a bit of a heal to boot. The SFPD have only one super detective in the department and that man is on a special assignment in Europe. The chief, the excellent Thomas Mitchell, decides there is only one solution, get Wye and put him on the trail.
Two other members of the all star class need to be defined. These are Ann Southern who plays Wye's secretary, who is a sharp but easily duped female by the wiley Wye. In addition there is the always reliable dim wit, Ralph Bellamy, playing a not too bright member of the department but who the chief thinks might be able to control Wye in some of his worst excesses of womanizing and drinking.
The films director had shot a lot of footage the previous year in the Far East and put this to use as a back drop for the players to work in. Through it all Sam keeps on Bennett's trail following it to Hawaii, Japan, China and eventually on a boat heading for Singapore. Where ever he stops he plays a Chopin composition that Bennett is known to like and play nicely. While playing this in the boat's lounge he hears someone coming in behind him. He encourages the person to come in and they start an idle conversation mostly about the piece while his back is still turned. Eventually he turns around and is provided with a dream vision, Bennett, and instantly his whole attitude changes from his form of professionalism to infatuation with Bennett.
The rest of the film is concerned with Wye now trying to hide Bennett from the authorities. Eventually it leads too islands off the coast which may be the Maldives. There he and Bennett are finally caught by the detective who had been in Europe but had been put on the case because of Wye's peculiar behavior. Through twist, and though wounded from a gun shot, Wye takes credit for the capture and brings Bennett back to San Francisco. All is resolve when Wye manages to prove that Bennett never fired the fatal shot. The end finds the two together and very much in love.
There are a huge selection of very funny lines in the film. March continually makes fun of Bellamy and sends him on wild goose chases. He also introduces him to Southern and calls her Doctor Livingston a play on the Stanley and Livingston story. Throughout the film Bellamy refers to her as Dr. Livingston, which she accepts graciously.
NOTHING SACRED - 1937
This film has more shear amusement in it than any other of the Screwball Comedies. It probably ranks second to only "The Lady Eve" among films of the genre. Most important to that recommendation is the wonderful performance of Carole Lombard. She uses a vast collection of subtle entertaining expressions as she goes through her role. This was the probably her most memorable performance in comedy films though many might prefer "My Man Godfrey" which co-starred William Powell another genius of the comedy mode without being a comedian and perhaps "To Be Or Not To Be." In the latter she played a Polish actress with great humorous overtones against Jack Benny's ham Hamlet actor.
Nothing Sacred is the story of a young lady who has contacted a dreaded cancerous health problem from radium poisoning. To be frank about it she is about to die. Frederick March, playing in his usual comfortable style is a newspaper reporter who has just failed in a major assignment which you will have to see to appreciate. He learns about the young lady's condition, she's known as Hazel Flagg in the film, and goes up to Vermont where she lives in a small town to interview her. The film then proceeds to make fun of Vermont types and their very conservative attitude toward making talk. March sees Lombard, and like with Bennett in the film discussed above, decides he is in love with her. He brings her to New York and the paper pays for her housing, clothing and all other needs while publicizing and making a big issue out of her anticipated death.
These items are all nicely done. Probably the hit of the film is when she and March attend a big event for her at a big nightclub in New York. At this event she gradually gets loaded drinking champagne and eventually passes out and has to be carried home by March. It is after this event that we learn her radium poisoning didn't really happen and was a mistake by the screwy doctor she had in Vermont. The latter is funnily played by Charlie Winninger.
The result of this is an attempt by Winninger and Lombard for her to commit a phony suicide in New York harbor after leaving a suicide note. This is also a very funny episode with March rushing up at the last minute to try and stop her suicide and in the process actually knocking her into the water.
What follows is a wild scene back at the hotel where she is staying with he socking her and she socking him and generally resulting in total chaos between the two of them and people coming in and out of the room. Things all straighten out and the two of them manage to stay together long enough to get married.
THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. - 1940
This screwball comedy is not as well known and popular as some of the others we have talked about. But there is no question that it is a screwball comedy since James Cagney refers to Bette Davis during the film as a screwball. Davis is rather a screwball in that she just recently met, four days to be exact, Jack Carson who plays an obnoxious band leader and who is quite obviously really in love with himself. As is to be expected in screwball comedies, Bette Davis is fabulously rich due to her father, Eugene Pallette having hit oil big in Texas a few years earlier. Think of it in terms of today's dollars when we note that he claims a fortune of $30,000,000. That would be close to a billion in today's financial situation.
In the story Davis is so anxious to marry Carson that they are willing to fly to Las Vegas where the can tie the know almost immediately. Remember this is actually just four days after meeting him. In the process Pallette discovers this and is bound and determined to stop the marriage. Then entering the picture is James Cagney who owns a plane and is the flying business usually in the form of merchandise. He charges by the pound. Somehow through a lot of shenanigans that the films writers concoct he is put in contact with Pallette by phone. Cagney promises to deliver Davis in Amarillo which is approximately midway between Hollywood and Chicago where Pallette lives. Cagney is behind on the loan payments relative to his plane and is about to have it foreclosed because of a sum of approximately 1,050 dollars that he owes. He quotes Pallette a price based on $10.00 a pound for Davis's weight which he estimates as 115 pounds.
All kinds of funny incidents happen. Davis tries to jump out of the plane in a parachute when she finds out Cagney's arrangement. Fortunately Cagney manages to stop her having noted she had put on the parachute upside down. The plane suffers mechanical problems and Cagney has to make an emergency landing in the desert. An amusing incident here is Davis in trying to run away falls into a cactus plant acquiring a large number of painful cactus spines in her fanny which Cagney has to remove by placing her across his lap and removing them one by one while she lays there howling.
There are far to many funnies to enunciate all of them. An old ghost town is nearby whose only occupant is Harry Davenport an old time miner. Eventually there is a cave in at the mine and Davis believes she and Cagney are trapped in there. He leads her on with tales of woe, etc., no food, no one knows they are trapped there, etc.. Finally she overcoming her dislike of him kisses him and to her surprise discovers he has mustard on his lips and had been secretly eating a sandwich while pretending they were going to starve to death.
There is confusing as to whether the ghost town is in Nevada or California. There is an attempt to perform a marriage there and the question is the Justice of the Peace who is going to do it licensed in the correct stare. Ultimately, everything turns out okay since Cagney and Davis really understand that they have fallen in love. At the end Cagney is talking to her father by phone and settles his bill. He says she weighs 118. In the background you can here her yelling 110. Another, bit of humor is focused on Cagney's imitation of coyote howls to scare Davis into responding to his advances.
The Awful Truth - 1937 (and) My Favorite Wife - 1940
These two films were cut from the same cookie cutter. Each of them star Cary Grant as a husband and Irene Dunne as his witty wife. The two film endings provide a similarity as well. In the "The Awful Truth" the two have decided on a divorce as the only way to solve their recurring marital problems which to sum up include who has the dog and for how long. The dog is Asta a co-star of the Thin Man series.
As in "Trade Winds" Ralph Bellamy provides the humorous elements, and he really is funny. In this case he is a wealthy cattleman from Oklahoma. He sings "Home on the Range," dances a rollicking Tango and other Latin and jitterbug steps and has a suspicious mother who doesn't find much favor in Dunne.
Cary Grant observes this largely unlikely courtship with obvious displeasure, and is obnoxious in his observations and opposition to it. Overall Grant does not come across as a person you feel a lot of sympathy for.
Eventually things come to a head the funniest part of which is Dunne posing as her own sister, dressed rather raffishly and displaying a great deal of uncultivated speech and actions. The film ends in the mountain cabin of her aunt where the two of them, Grant and Dunne find themselves together again and apparently ready to return to their original marriage vows.
In "My Favorite Wife Grant and Dunne were married, but she was on a ship that went down at sea and apparently is dead. Grant has the marriage legally dissolved and marries Gail Patrick who plays his new wife in her patented bitchy style.
On the day of the new marriage Dunne shows up again at home. She apparently has been living on a island hoping to eventually being rescued. She hurries over to the hotel where Grant and his knew wife are staying. Grant does one of his great double takes when he accidentally spots her as he is entering an elevator.
Things seem like they are going to resolve themselves easily until Grant finds out that Dunne was not alone on the island, but rather she was there with Randolph Scott who was part of the scientific expedition to that area out in the western Pacific. Grant is not taken with Scott who is quick witted, handsome, athletic, etc. Distracted by his suspicion Grant accidentally falls into the hotel swimming pool while completely clothed.
The continual series of confrontation between Grant, Scott, and Patrick take their toll. Only Dunne seems to be able maintain her equilibrium during this period. Eventually, as is true with almost all Screwball comedies things work out. In the end Grant and Dunne are in another mountain cabin. There are not back married yet so he is sleeping in an attic room and she is in a nearby bedroom. During the night he keeps wandering in in his pajamas and she continues to tell him they have to wait until his new divorce is final before they can renew conjugal relations. Finally, she tells him after he has come into her room for the umpteenth time, Not until Christmas." All this time she has wanted to renew their relationship but can't manage to do it. But when Grant comes back to the room a few minutes later and dressed in a Santa Claus suit he found in the attic and greets here, "With Merry Christmas.," she gives into her desires and the film ends with them apparently going to spend the night together in the same bed.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
India in Films
Two recent films set in the India of modern times aroused my curiosity as to some of the film milestones dealing with the subcontinent. The two recent films were "Eat, Pray, Love," starring Julia Roberts and "Outsource" which deals with the modern American problem of providing jobs to people in other nations who can perfrom the work far cheaper than comparable American labor. I liked both films equally, though the latter is much more observant of present day situations. The Julia Roberts film is actually an abstract addressing of a problem which occurs far more often than is usually realized, that of trying to find out who and what we are when we reach middle age and are for some reason are un-satisfied with our life. And one other modern film to consider is one of the so-called Bollywood Films. There is a very entertaining one out called "Bride and Prejudice," that includes some big production numbers and some original songs including "The Cobra Dance," and "What's Life, Without Wife." Both of these are uproaringly entertaining and feature performances by some of the Indian equivalents of the Bennett sisters including the remarkably beautiful green eyed Ashirya Rai.
However this is to be more of a review of what India has meant at various times during the filming of life in that country. The earliest films in my memory were those of the 1930's which examined life in India in what were essentially escapist films. These largely dealt with experiences with the RAJ and the British citizens who had come to India to help rule that vast and complex society. These were largely war films involving the British soldiers with renegade members of Indian society mostly those in the Northwest or what was then called the Indian Frontier. This area was largely in the Kashmir that area of India that in recent history was divided between India and Pakistan and not to successfully.
There are several pictures in this genre including "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" among others. In one Shirley Temple managed to play a role in bringing cooperation between the rebellious natives under the rulership of Cesar Romero, a hard to picture role assignment. Of the the several RAJ films made of this period one alone stands out, "Gunga Din."
STAYING ON (1980)
However this is to be more of a review of what India has meant at various times during the filming of life in that country. The earliest films in my memory were those of the 1930's which examined life in India in what were essentially escapist films. These largely dealt with experiences with the RAJ and the British citizens who had come to India to help rule that vast and complex society. These were largely war films involving the British soldiers with renegade members of Indian society mostly those in the Northwest or what was then called the Indian Frontier. This area was largely in the Kashmir that area of India that in recent history was divided between India and Pakistan and not to successfully.
There are several pictures in this genre including "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" among others. In one Shirley Temple managed to play a role in bringing cooperation between the rebellious natives under the rulership of Cesar Romero, a hard to picture role assignment. Of the the several RAJ films made of this period one alone stands out, "Gunga Din."
GUNGA DIN (1939)
Gunga Din was a film that use a poem of Rudyard Kipling to create an original story. It dealt with rebellious elements in the northwest frontier. The films Indian landscape was largely re-created using California's Owens Valley. The savage jagged Sierra Nevada range in this area capped by the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mt. Whitney, serves well as a mock Himalayans even though this range is half as tall. The Alabama Hills at the base of the range and the flat areas of the Owen's valley serve equally well as the imagined landscape in India.
The film's three male lead stars, Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Victor McGlaughlin provide a viril set of leads. Joan Fontaine, in love with Douglas, is the sole female performer of note in the film. The two villans, Edwardo Cianelli, as the leader of the rebellious group of fanatics and Abner Biberman as his main lieutenant are equally effective, in particular Cianelli, whose proclamation of "The Error of False Pride," provided a chilling initiation of torture to captured Brits. San Jaffre in the role of Gunga Din provides the glue to hold the whole thing together. It's a wonderful adventure story, with beautiful natural scenery, thuggery at it's worst, gallant horsemanship, elephants, and great battle scenes at both big and small combat level all add to the enjoyment of the film. There is enough humor to add to the pleasure and the nice ending where a faux Rudyard Kipling quotes the poem Gunga Din is a touching scene. This is really one of the great adventure films to come out of the thirties.
THE RIVER (1951)
This is a truly beautiful film directed by Jean Renoir and based on a story put together by he and Rumer Godden. The story has autobiographical touches based on Godden's life in India when a teen. Financing was arranged by a man who had never produced a film before and who would never produce one again. While the financing and other matters of importance were taken care of Renoir started to shoot one year earlier. This effort mostly concerned the river, The Ganges in this case, and the people who lived and worked in the areas on the rivers shores.
The story is concerned with the life of three young, i.e. teen age girls. The first of these is Harriet who is the oldest of four sibling sisters, two of which are twins, and a single brother Bogie. Harriet was played by Patricia Walters in her first and only film role. Somehow Renoir had seen her and thought she would be perfrect having lived in India all of her short life, she being only 14 at the time. The second girl, Valerie, is two or three years older. She's a 17 year old and more sophisticated than Harriet. She was played by the experienced actress, Adrienne Corri, who had flaming red hair. Corri played one of the victims of the vicious boys in "Clockwork Orange" film. The third girl was an Anglo-Indian by the name of Rahda who plays Melani. The's a particularly beautiful girl and is a little more sophisticated than the other two but also more conflicted because of her Anglo-Indian ancestry. Her father was a Brit, played by the familiar Arthur Shields. Her mother was a deceased woman of Indian ancestry. It should also be noted that the beautiful Nora Swinburn plays Harriet's mother.
The story is centered on these three girls and their relationship to each other. An American G.I. has an important impact on their lives, in that all three decide they love him. The soldier, played by Thomas E. Breen, is handicapped bu the loss of a leg which occurred during the recently ended World War II. The three girls friendship is based on particular relationships. Harriet's father runs the Indian Hemp factory for Valerie's father. Melani is a next door neighbor of Harriet's and actually a niece of the American war veteran.
The story plays out beautifully and all the relationships are resolved. There is also a tragedy in the film which I won't discuss here. The American finally decides to leave and tells Melani I can't stand living anywhere where I am constantly reminded of my handicap. She replies very intuitively from her own status as a bi-cultural person, "Where will you find a county of one-legged men."
This film is highly recommended for it's beautiful color, it was considered the finest color film production up to that time. Most memorable is an abstract segment of the movie dealing with Melani. In keeping with Indian tradition she has been betroved to a man she doesn't hardly know while being deeply in love with another. In the film within a film segment she is beautifully dressed and brought forward to meet her husband to be. Her eyes are covered and when the covering is removed she sees before her the man she really loves. Then suddenly a metamorphosis takes place and she is re-costumed in beautiful traditional Indian style and the young man turns into a replication of the Indian God Krishna. Melani proceeds to dance for him a really beautiful very stylized dance. It is a memorable moment.
JEWEL IN THE CROWN (1984)
Jewel in the Crown is a very special film in the group that we are discussing since it was originally a twelve hour presentation on the magnificent PBS Masterpiece Theatre program. It covers a period from shortly before the World War II conflict into the partition of India into the two separate states Pakistan and India. It closely delves into the relationships of the native people of India and the colonial people who rule the country.
The Jewel in the Crown represents India as a part of the British Empire which is represented by the crown. Peggy Ashcroft in her role as Barbie Batchelor in the film explains this near the films beginning.
The film covers several different stories the most important of which is that of a young English woman who lives with her Aunt in India. She's a Brit. with out pretence relative to her relationship with Indian people. She happens to meet and eventually fall in love with a native Indian, Hari Cumar played by the very handsome Art Malik. This is a doomed relationship because of the prevailing class concious bigotry of the British living in India at the time. The worst of these is Tim Piggot Smith playing a British official and Army Officer Captain Ronald Merrick who is not from the wealthy or aristocratic class. For various reasons he particularly takes his bigotry out on Malik. Malik as Hari Cumar has a different background having been educated England in the British University system. He was accepted there, changed the spelling of his name to anglicize it, played cricket, etc. He was financed by his uncle who when he suffered financial reverses had to stop helping Malik's education forcing the latter to return to India.
This is just one of the stories developed in the series. There is a portion on the fighting of the Japanese in Burma. A portion devoted to Brit's living in the hilly area of Kashmir and their lifestyle and their relationship to the native Indians. The relationship of the titled and wealthy Indians with the poor who mainly live in the country. The relationship between the Hindus and Moslems and in particular the killings that resulted when the two groups have to migrate from the where they previously lived to the new area where people of the same religion were congretated.
There is sexuality and exploitation, homosexuality and depravation and all the reality of real life. Jewel in the Crown is a product of the finest period of Masterpiece theatre productions most memorably "I Hadrian," "To Serve Them All My Days," "Brideshead Revisited" and a whole series of other outstanding long programs.
STAYING ON (1980)
It should be noted that a follow up film was made several years later called "Staying On." It starred Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson as a British couple who did not leave India when the exodus of Brits occured after the separation of the country into two different states. Their relationship to each other and to the newly enfranchised Indians is noteworthy. It was also the first time the two leads had worked together on a film since their acclaimed World War II effort "Brief Encounter." The latter is covered in an excellent review by Des Kennelly, the former editor of Classic Films, in the first edition of that publication back in 1981.
PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984)
Chronoligically this film was produced shortly after Jewel in the Crown. It's setting is some twenty years earlier. It starts with a journey to India by Peggy Ashcroft as Mrs. Moore, the mother of a British legal professional, Nigel Havers, who is stationed in India. Accompanying Ms. Ashcroft is the Australian actress Judy Davis in the role Adele Quested, Haver's fiance.
Things are complicated in that most of the British are so caste oriented as to be unable to accept Indians in any form as being culturally equal. Havers is one of these, his mother and fiance it turns out are not. A conflict develops but at a very low key. An Indian lawyer Aziz, Victor Bannajee, meets Mrs Ashcroft and because of her acceptance of all becomes friends with her. Their friendship ends up in Davis being drawn into the relationship as well.
Shortly before the halfway point of the film Bannerjee, as host, takes Ashcroft and Davis to visit the Marabar Hills to see a large group of caves there. His planning includes riding on an elephant and a picnic lunch. Somehow, in the visit to the caves Davis undergoes a peculiar set of fears which result in her running from the cave and stumbling and falling while running down the hill to the area below the caves. This results in Bannerjee being charged with attempted rape. Davis, in her distress, is not able to address the issue at all. At the Court Trial over Bannerje's guilt, Davis when finally brought in to testify says she has no memory of the incident and cannot describe what really happened. This results in the freeing of Bannerje.
The film includes such stalworts as Alec Guinness playing a sort of Indian mystic Godbole, and Art Malik playing a beligerant Indian attorney defending Bannerjee. You may remember Malik from Jewel in the Crown playing the unfortuante Hari Kumar, or more recently having a role in the new Upstairs Downstairs series.
Not everything is rectified. The conclusion includes the death by natural causes of Peggy Ashcroft on board an English ship returning to England, and the denunciation of Davis by the inbedded British government population. "Bitch," one angry English matron calls her. Bannerjee, greatly angered by Davis's turning on him or so it seems to him and anger with James Fox playing an English educator, Mr. Fielding for an incident that never happened, has withdrawn from public life and broods about how he was treated unfairly. The final minutes are devoted to James Fox who was one British colonial who was realistic about the Indian people, informing him the Davis is living in England alone. Bannerjee writes her a letter and we see her reading it looking as enigmatic as Davis can easily manage to do.
BRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2004)
In the last few years a whole new set of pictures have come out about India and it's peoples. Most memorable are "Outsourced," and "Eat, Pray, Love," which stars Julia Roberts. However, I would also like to comment on a new type of film about India, the so-called Bollywood films. These are usually big colorful films with lots of activity, music and color. The one that comes most to mind is, "BRIDE AND PREJUDICE,' which translate the Jane Austen novel into a Indian film. Darcy is played by a rich American and the bride is Indian. It has a couple of really neat musical numbers, one of which called "The Cobra Dance" done by one of the sisters called Bakshi in this film. The second is a play on words called, "What's Life Without Wife" in which the sisters discuss the importance of being a wife. Ashiyara Rai is the principal Indian player in this delightful colorful film.
OUT SOURCED (2006)
This really fun film without a cast of well known performers familiar to American audiences deals with that most singular problem, of replacing American employees with much less expensive employees from developing countries. I have experienced this on many occasions. The most entertaining of these was an outsource to Salvador in Central America. The contact was very willing to answer questions about his work and El Salvador. In the movie the outsourcer is a Seattle company that markets a bunch of novelty items. One such example is the large cheese hats worn by Green bay Packer fans.
Todd Anderson, a mid-level manager at a Seattle company selling novelty items is told by his boss, Dave that the work he supervises, a phone bank of order takers, is going to be outsourced to India and that he, Todd, has been selected to go to India to setup the new department and train the Indian phone answering people. This meeting between Todd, Josh Hamilton, and Dave, Matt Smith, is the introduction to a very funny film discussing a modern day problem, Out Sourcing. Todd's response is "no way." However, when he learns his job has disappeared and there won't be any work remaining for him in Seattle he reluctantly agrees to go. From the time of his arrival his experiences in India are real eye openers. For example, the man who is supposed to meet him holds up a sign that says "Toad" resulting in Todd missing his Indian contact. Later the man his new Indian Assistant, Purobit, played by Asif Barna finally connects with him.
It does not take long for Todd and the film viewers to realize how different life is in India including the differences in acceptable behavior. Early on, when addressing the group of some twenty people who have been hired and he is teaching them American ways, one of the new hires tells him, "That maybe he needs to spend some time learning Indian Ways."
It does not take long for both Todd and Purobit to realize that one lady in particular is smarter and more comprehending than the others. Over time the American supervisor tends to rely more and more on her, the lovely Asha played by Ayesha Dharkar. Many strange things happen in India. One most memorable incident involves a shipment of theirs which ends up being sent to another city of the same name. He has to retrieve it and she is asked to accompany him because of her knowledge of both languages. It involves a train trip followed by a boat trip. Unfortuately, the boat has problems on the way back and they are forced to spend the night in the city. The hotel has only one room left, the Bridal Suite. the consequences of this incident is that the two of them get much better acquainted.
Eventually the boss in Dave arrives in India to check on the call center. He is given a demonstration of how well they are doing and in a special incident sees what the number one girl, Asha. can do handling a difficult order. There is a second reason whyhe has come to India. The the company has decided to move the outsourcing site to China and that Todd will have to go there next. The latter manages to convince Dave that the demonstration of how well they are doing in India is really the result of the assistant manager. Purobit is easily talked into going to China wants he realizes it means a raise which will enable him to afford to marry the girl he has been engaged to. Asha and Todd have one last time together. She has explained to him that her parents have already arranged a marriage for her and that she is just waiting for her fiance to have enough money to pay for a wedding. In a clever ending she demonstrates to him that she indeed can do anything.
EAT, PRAY, LOVE (2010)
I would be the first to admit that Julia Roberts has never done much for me. Of all her films the only one I really liked was "Notting Hill," with Hugh Grant. EAT PRAY LOVE is essentially her film. It takes place in New York, Rome, India and Bali. the Eat Pray Love segments are Rome, India, and Bali in that order. The New York part is the setup for what follows, why she makes this particular journey. She is Liz Gilbert, early middle aged, 40, and unhappily married. The unhappiness is centered in she and her husband not having much in common or enough love to sustain their relationship. She is a well off successful author. She finally makes the decision of traveling to help over come her malaise.
In Italy, principally in Rome and Naples, she meets a mixed group of people and finds out that she really enjoys doing things with them. They enjoy life, food and their well being. She eats like it is going out of style. In her journey to Naples she goes with the principal girl from her group of friends, Tuva Novotny. They are at a Neapolitan pizza parlor, where I guess pizza was invented, and her friend says I can't eat this I am getting to fat and my friend will see it and be turned off. Roberts notes, you are developing a muffin top on your tummy. You needen't worry, when he wants you take your clothes off your companion will be so entranced that he will never notice it.
From Rome she travels to India where she plans to develop a sense of peace and calm. She is in a group, mostly non-Indians who work on contemplation and prayer. Some times you are given a special assignment, of complete silence. While there she meets Richard Harris, Richard of Texas in this film, who talks to her and gradually reveals his own problems. The two of them grow better together. Gradually she feels the rest and relaxation and escape from cares that she feels she needs.
Years before she had visited Bali and met with a man of great peace and calm on that small island. Bali is a part of Indonesia, but unlike the rest of Indonesia it's basic religion is Hindu. Eventually, she meets a man from a Latin American Country, Felipe played by Javier Barden, who is there with his daughter. He has an import/export business and operates out of Bali. He also owns a yacht and over time the two of them become better acquainted. She, however, has brainwashed herself to be careful of any entanglements and at first tries to avoid their reltaionship. Eventually, she overcomes her fears and they pair off as a couple.
Strangely enough this picture has received an extremely large number of negative votes from person's who regularly use the IMDB. I tried to decide why this is so and read a number of the letters. I couldn't find a set pattern but it seemed to me it had to be an organized protest of some sort. My initial assumption was that it was from 100% Christians that objected to the Hindu teachings. No other film except one that I have looked up on IMDB has ever shown such an overwhelming low ball attempt. I would like to know what causes it.
That's enough pictures about India. They cover a period of over 75 years of film making. There are many others, of course, "The Rains Came," with Myrna Loy, Tyrone Power and George Brent immediatly comes to mind and is certainly a memorable film from the early period of the 1930's.
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