Monthly Archives: December 2021

Anna Christie
Directed by Clarence Brown
Written by Frances Marion from a play by Eugene O’Neill
1930/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

Anna Christie: Gimme a whisky, ginger ale on the side, and don’t be stingy, baby! (Garbo’s first spoken words on screen)

Garbo showed she was a star for all times in this, her first talkie.

Anna Christie (Greta Garbo) has been knocked around hard in her short life and washes up drunk and sick on New York’s waterfront where she is taken in by her father (George F. Marion), whom she has not seen since she was a child. He had thought he was protecting her by sending her to live on a Mid-West farm.  In fact, she ran away and made her living on the streets while telling dad she was working as a nurse.

Living with her father on his coal barge is good for the jaded Anna.  The sea air restores her health and a modicum of optimism.   When she rescues an Irish sailor (Charles Bickford), they fall in love. It is then that her past as a prostitute comes back to haunt her.

This was Garbo’s first speaking role and I thought she did well despite the somewhat stage-bound dialogue. My favorite performance, though, was that of Marie Dressler as the father’s boozy pal. Dated but enjoyable.

Anna Christie was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Cinematography.

The Divorcee
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Written by John Meehan from a novel by Ursula Parrott
1930/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Theodore ‘Ted’ Martin: I’d like to make love to you till you scream for help.

Glittering MGM production could only have been made prior to 1934.

As the film begins, the New York in-crowd is partying at a country house.  Ted Martin (Chester Morris) asks career girl Jerry Bernard (Norma Shearer) to marry him and she accepts.  This delivers a crushing blow to Paul (Conrad Nagle) who gets roaring drunk and has an accident which leaves his passenger Dorothy disfigured. He marries her out of pity. Another disappointed potential suitor is Don (Robert Montgomery), Ted’s best friend.

Ted and Jerry have been married for three years when she discovers he has had a brief affair with another woman.  She confronts him and he excuses his behavior by saying “it didn’t mean a thing”. This rightly infuriates her.  She decides what’s good for the gander is good for the goose and has a one night stand with Don.  When she tells Ted she has balanced their accounts, he divorces her.

Jerry then becomes a real party girl.  Later, she begins an affair with Paul.  But when she realizes what she is doing to Dorothy she breaks up with him and heads to Paris in search of Ted.

This is really one hell of a movie!  I’m not a big fan of Shearer but she sure could wear clothes and her gowns are fabulous as is the art deco decor.  The film as a whole is a fine example of Hollywood glamor and sharp screenwriting.

Norma Shearer won the Best Actress Oscar.  The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.

The Devil to Pay!
Directed by George Fitzmaurice
Written by Frederick Lonsdale and Benjamin Glazer
1930/US
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Lord Leland: Now… now you’re blaming me for bringing you into the world!
Willie Hale: Heh, heh, I should be extremely mortified for your sake if I had to blame anyone else.

This is a pleasant romantic comedy made more pleasant by the dulcet tones of Ronald Colman.

The story begins in Africa where wastrel rogue Willie Hale (Colman) is auctioning off his house and possessions, which his father Lord Leland paid for, to pay his passage back to England.  Lord Leland is not too keen on accepting him back to the household but paternal love prevails and he is allowed to stay.  Willie then meets Dorothy Hope (Loretta Young), an heiress who is a friend of his sister and engaged to marry a Russian aristocrat. Their attraction is immediate.  But Colman has also met with ex-flame Mary (Myrna Loy), a sexy actress who would welcome a rekindling of their affair.

If you’ve seen many rom-coms of the era, you will have a pretty good idea where this is going.  There are the requisite number of misunderstandings before the requisite happy ending.

I enjoyed this for the stars and the witty script.  Loretta Young was only 17 when she made this film.  Colman was 38.

Clip – Colman negotiates for an Asta lookalike

Street Angel
Directed by Frank Borzage
Philip Klein and Henry Robert Symonds from a play by Monkton Hoffe
1928/US
Fox Film Corporation
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (free)

Title Card: Everywhere… in every town, in every street… we pass, unknowingly, human souls made great by love and adversity.

Another beautiful romance from Frank Borzage and company.

The story takes place in Naples, Italy. Angela (Janet Gaynor) has grown up tough on the streets but hides a beautiful soul within.  She desperately needs money to buy medicine for her dying mother.  Her only quick route to this is crime.  So she attempts to sell her body and when she is unsuccessful she turns to attempted theft.  She is apprehended and sentenced to a year in jail.  She escapes and is hidden by a traveling circus.

There she meets poverty-stricken painter Gino (Charles Farrell).  They start out as painter and model but soon are madly in love.  Gino needs to move to Naples to seek a better lot in life.  Angela accompanies him despite the danger she will be picked up by the police and the fact that Gino knows nothing of her past.

In Naples, things start looking up when Charles sells Angela’s portrait (looking like the Madonna) and receives a major commission to paint a mural.  Can their love survive Angela’s rearrest?

This one didn’t make me cry like Seventh Heaven but it is certainly worth watching even if only for the visuals.  The acting is great too and makes the story line go down quite easily.

Janet Gaynor won the first Best Actress Oscar for her performances in this, Seventh Heaven (1927) and Sunrise: A Story of Two Humans (1927).  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

The Iron Mask
Directed by Allan Dwan
Written by Douglas Fairbanks (uncredited) from novels by Alexandre Dumas
1929/US
Elton Corporation/United Artists
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Porthos: Come on! There is greater adventure beyond.

Douglas Fairbanks’ final silent movie is a solid adventure with the customary Fairbanskian wit and flair.

The story begins during the reign of Louis XIII of France.  He is anxiously awaiting the birth of what he hopes will be a son and heir.  He gets a son, two in fact.  No one is aware of the birth of the twin except Constance, D’Artagnan’s (Fairbanks) lady love and lady in wait to the Queen, the Queen herself and the dastardly Cardinal Richelieu and De Rochefort. The latter plot to silence the ladies and take control of the second twin in hopes of destabilizing France.

D’Artagnanan and his bosom buddies the three musketeers serve the King with utmost loyalty.  Constance is killed and her dying words are “the other one”.  This puzzles him for quite some time.

Eventually Louis the XIII dies and the elder of the twins takes the throne as Louis the XIV. That is when De Rochefort trots out the younger, meaner, twin.  The real King is sent to a riverside castle where he is made to live in a dungeon wearing an iron mask that disguises his identity.  He finds a way to reach out to the musketeers and much swashbuckling ensues.

Fairbanks was already 46 when he made this but he could still swash a mean buckle.  The antics of the musketeers kept me engaged the entire time.  The music on the Amazon version did not do the film any favors in my opinion.  Much of it was modern sounding. The film is in the public domain and many versions are available for free on YouTube.

7th Heaven
Directed by Frank Borzage
Written by Benjamin Glazer from a play by Austin Strong
1927/US
Fox Film Corporation
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube (free)

Chico: Not bad, eh? I work in the sewer – but I live near the stars!

Once in a great while, I find a new-to-me film that moves me to tears. This was one of those occasions.

The setting is Paris in the weeks before the outbreak of WWI.  Chico (Charles Farrell) works in the city sewers.  He is a happy-go-lucky guy who thinks of himself as a “very remarkable fellow”.  He is mad at God for not granting his prayers for promotion to a street washer position.

On day, Chico spots Diane (Janet Gaynor) who is being viciously beaten by her alcoholic sister.  He rescues her.  Shortly thereafter, a cleric gives him several religious medals and an appointment as street washer.  To keep his job, Chico must have a wife.  So he reluctantly invites Diane to live with him just until the police come to check on his marital status.  They will live in a seventh story walk-up garret apartment.  It’s not much but Chico thinks of it as heaven because of the view and Diane agrees completely.

We follow the development of the couple’s relationship.  At the last minute, Chico is called up by the Army to go to the front lines of WWI.  Will the couple reunite?

This plot might sound like a corny melodrama but I wept for most of the last half hour and thoroughly enjoyed it.  There is plenty of comedy in the first half to balance out the tears.  The direction and production are first-rate with lots of atmospheric lighting.  I love these actors.  Highly recommended.

Frank Borzage won the first and only Oscar for Best Director, Dramatic Picture.  Janet Gaynor won for Best Actress for her performances in this, Street Angel, and Sunrise.  Benjamin Glazer won for Best Writing, Adaptation.  The film was nominated for Best Picture, Production and for Best Art Direction.

Clip –  Do you think the makers of “The Artist” saw this movie?

Theme song with photo montage from the movie