Daily Archives: April 18, 2013

Kiss and Make-up (1934)

Posted on April 18, 2013 | 2 comments

Kiss and Make-upKiss and Make-up Poster
Directed by Harlan Thompson
1934/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing

 

Tagline: …a racy romance of a famous beauty doctor

Cary Grant plays Dr. Maurice Lamar, a Parisian plastic surgeon and beauty expert in high demand.  His efficient secretary Anne (Helen Mack) is in love with him.  His “masterpiece” is Eve Caron (Genevieve Tobin), though her husband Marcel (Edward Everett Horton) does not approve of the changes the doctor has wrought and divorces her.  Maurice marries Eve but is perfection all it is cracked up to be?

Kiss and Make-up 1

This movie was released just before the Production Code began to be enforced and you can sure tell by the double entendres and the amount of cheesecake on offer. In case there was any doubt, the first scene has the good doctor asking Toby Wing to disrobe and she is down to her scanties in a flash. The film also served as a showcase for the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1934 so there are multiple parts for the lovely starlets as the doctor’s assistants or patients.

The plot is slender and unremarkable. Good for something light or to see Cary Grant sing and look young and handsome. The art deco sets are also very nice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx6vPYfRO9k

Clip – Cary Grant sings “Love Divided by Two”

 

 

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The World Moves On (1934)

Posted on April 18, 2013 | 2 comments

The World Moves OnThe_World_Moves_On_1934_poster
Directed by John Ford
1934/USA
Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

 

 

This film follows the fortunes of the Girard family and its cotton and textile businesses from 1825 through 1934, similar to the premise of Fox’s 1933 Best Picture Oscar winner Cavalcade.  The story starts in New Orleans with the reading of the will of the firm’s founder.  The will enjoins his three sons to establish branches in New Orleans, Paris, and Berlin and forms a partnership between the family and Henry Warburton.  Oldest son Richard (Franchot Tone) is named executor. Warburton’s wife (Madeleine Carroll) and Richard are quietly and chastely in love but they are soon parted when Warburton leaves for Manchester to start a textile mill there.

The film then segues to 1914 and a wedding between cousins in the French and German branches of the family.  Richard Girard (Tone, again) and Mary Warburton (Carroll) attend the wedding.  Mary is engaged to one of the German cousins but Richard and Mary feel that they have met before and begin to yearn for one another.  Richard is heartbroken that Mary is engaged to another and enlists in the French Foreign Legion when World War I breaks out.  The war naturally divides the family but brings Mary and Richard together.  We follow the fate of the family through the stock market crash of 1929 and on into 1934.  When the family holds its last meeting some suggest that another war is in the cards.  This is followed by footage of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo and their armies.

Mary and Richard in 1825

Mary and Richard in 1825

The film is competently made and very watchable.  It suffers from being all over the place.  It’s not quite a romance and not quite a war movie.  Madeleine Carroll is positively radiant in this film and turns in an excellent performance.  Franchot Tone not so much. The film makers also chose to include some unfortunate and unnecessary “comic relief” by Stepin Fetchit during the WWI section.

I got excited about the fantastic combat footage and then realized it looked familiar. It turns out 7 minutes of war footage from Raymond Bernard’s Wooden Crosses, one of my Top 10 for 1932, was included in this film.  This was the first film to be granted the production seal of approval under new guidelines set forth by the Production Code Administration Office and the Motion Picture Producers and Directors of America.  It received Certificate No. 1.

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