For the Defense
Directed by James Cromwell
Written by Oliver H.P. Garrett and Charles Furthman
1930/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

William Foster: [Addressing the jury on summation] Gentlemen, I’m not going to give you the usual baloney.

Lackluster filmmaking. But with Kay Francis and William Powell it is irresistible.

Powell plays a famous defense attorney who has a reputation for getting his clients off by fair means or foul. Francis is his lover. He showers her with expensive diamonds.

Francis loves Powell but chooses for some bizarre reason to accept the marriage proposal of another.

Kay is driving her drunken fiancé when she crashes into another car and kills the driver. The rest of the film is a courtroom drama.

This is a 75 minute film with a lot going on so there is little character development. There is also that clunky staging and pacing common to early talkies. But the stars certainly do twinkle. Criterion Channel is currently featuring a Kay Francis collection and it contains several films I haven’t seen.

Reaching for the Moon
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Written by Edmund Goulding and Elsie Janis based on a story with music by Irving Berlin
1930/US
Feature Productions (A Joseph M. Schenck production)
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Fandor

Roger: There’s a vast difference, sir, between the art of making money and the art of making… a lady.

A peppy but routine Pre-Code romcom enlivened by its cast and luscious art deco settings and costumes.

A devil-may-care aviatrix (Bebe Daniels) bets her buddies that she can get the attention of a dashing financier (Douglas Fairbanks). When she does, he pursues her on her sea voyage across the Atlantic. At first, the whole thing is a big joke to Bebe. With Edward Everett Horton as Fairbanks’ butler, Claud Allister as a British twit, and Bing Crosby, in his first solo performance on film, singing “When the Folks High Up Do the Mean Low-Down”.

I had mixed feelings about Fairbanks’ truly manic performance. He leaped about enough for a couple of swashbucklers. However, I found Bebe Daniels totally captivating. I never knew why she got top billing in “42nd Street” and now I do. It’s too bad she married and moved to England before her career solidified. However, the real reason to watch this movie is to see William Cameron Menzies art deco set designs. They are absolutely gorgeous. I need Fairbanks’ bed! The costumes are good too.

Up the River
Directed by John Ford
Written by Maurine Dallas Watkins
1930/US
Fox Film Corporation
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

May: [May and June, twin sisters singing part of “The Prisoner’s Song” on the hayride wagon] ‘I’ll be carried to the new jail tomorrow, Leaving my poor darling alone, With the cold prison bars all around me, And my head on a pillow of stone…

Humphrey Bogart shines as a romantic lead in his first feature film.

Implausible but fun Fox prison comedy. I was about to explain the plot but it’s pretty complicated and really doesn’t make much sense. Suffice it to say that this prison is quite comfortable in many aspects. Spencer Tracy is a cocky career criminal/convict and Humphrey Bogart (looking very young and handsome) is an upper crust prisoner who falls in love with one of women convicts.

This movie manages to have choral singing, a talent show, a baseball game, a hay ride, and a romance all wrapped up in a prison story. It should have been a mess but I thought it worked in spite of itself.

This is the only movie in which Bogart and Tracy co-starred.  Both were making their feature film debuts.

The man could certainly act!

Seven Days Leave
Directed by Richard Wallace
Written by John Farrow and Dan Totheroh from a play by J.M. Barrie
1930/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.” ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Never Never Land meets WWI in this sentimental story of mother love.

The story is set in WWI London.  Sarah Ann Dowey (Beryl Mercer is a humble widowed charwoman who is getting up in years.  She begins the story searching for a way to make a contribution to the war effort.  The only solution the Ministry of War can agree to is her offer to be charwoman at the Ministry.  She is very sociable and chats with her co-workers for a cup of tea and a good gossip at the local pub.  All her friends have sons in the war.  So she sets about creating one for herself.  She finds a newspaper article about a man named K. Dowey, who is in the prestigious Black Guard,  and his exploits in the war.  She has a vivid imagination and talks about him as if he was real.

Cut to Pvt. Kenneth Dowey (Gary Cooper in a Kilt!) in the trenches.  Dowey is a Canadian orphan who volunteered to serve in the British Army but became disillusioned by the endless war and deplorable conditions.  He is a known trouble maker. He has recently been wounded and is eligible for seven days leave. The brass give him this although they it expect to end badly and even doubt that he will return.

Dowey heads to London where he checks in to the YMCA.  Miraculously, a clergyman knows about Mrs. Dowey and steers Kenneth toward her house.  He initially goes there to chew her out but gradually melts under the outpouring of love by the old widow.  He reciprocates by showing her the high tone side of London.  I’ll stop here.

This is a unique movie.  You have to have the mindset to imagine this is a happy and sad fairy tale.  If you can, you will accept the Beryl Mercers extravagant performance as a slightly daft old lady with a good heart.  She is excellent at conveying this. It’s been awhile since I’ve see Cooper in a comic role.  I’m in awe of his straight-faced humorous delivery.  All in all, I enjoyed this movie.  Recommended but be aware that it is very sentimental and becomes melodramatic toward the end.

Tribute to Gary Cooper narrated by his Daughter

Dixiana
Directed by Luther Reed
Written by Luther Reed and Anne Caldwell
1930/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Peewee: Madame, do you know the cigar game?

Unless you are a fan of mediocre melodramatic operettas, the only reason to see this is the comic relief provided by Wheeler and Woolsey.

The story takes place in the antebellum South, mostly in New Orleans.  Dixiana (Bebe Daniels) is the star of a “circus” (looks more like some kind of musical review).  She loves Carl Van Horn (Everett Marshall), a Southern gentleman.  He brings her home to meet his parents and her mother will not have a circus performer in the family.  In the meantime, evil casino owner Royal Montague (Ralf Harolde) schemes to make her his own.

Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey are performers in the show and are always around when something is going on with Dixiana.  Dorothy Lee shows up late in the proceedings to do her obligatory song and dance with Wheeler.  Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson does a tap dance in the show.  It was his first film appearance.

If this had not had Wheeler and Woolsey, I would not have watched it.  They were enough to provide some entertainment.  Otherwise this is just mediocre.  The songs, other than the Wheeler and Lee number aren’t catchy and are sung in overblown operatic voices.

The Virtuous Sin

Directed by George Cukor and Louis J. Glasier
Written by Martin Brown and Louise Long from a play by Lajos Zilahy
1930/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb Page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“We seem to be unable to resist overstating every aspect of ourselves: how long we are on the planet for, how much it matters what we achieve, how rare and unfair are our professional failures, how rife with misunderstandings are our relationships, how deep are our sorrows. Melodrama is individually always the order of the day.” ― Alain de Botton, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion

Well, everyone has to start somewhere, Mr. Cukor.  Pity it had to be this overwrought melodrama.

The story takes place in Russia at the time of the country’s entry into World War I. Lt. Victor Sabin (Kenneth McKenna) is a genius medical researcher on the brink of great discoveries. Marya (Kay Francis) admires him greatly. He is in love with her and asks her to marry him. She agrees to a marriage in name only and will assist him in his research. The two are genuinely filled with love – the problem is that hers is platonic.

At precisely the wrong time, Victor gets called up to duty in the Russian Army. He does not want to do this and delays his arrival to post several times. General Gregori Platoff (Walter Huston) is severely displeased and demotes him to janitorial duties. Then Victor talks back and he is court martialed and sentenced to death.

Marya goes to his post to try to rescue him. The only person with authority to call off the execution is the General. He patronizes the local brothel so Marya gets a job there with the intention of seducing him.  This works better than she expected.  What will he do when he finds out he has been duped?  What will Marya do when his passion overcomes her?

I never thought Walter Huston could give a bad performance but he manages it here.  In fact, all the actors go over the top.  The overwrought dialogue doesn’t help.  Francis does rock her rather weird Russian attire, so there’s that.  Very missable, though it did hold my interest for its hour and twenty minutes run time.

Clip

Shadow of the Law (AKA The Quarry)
Directed by Louis J. Gasnier
Written by John Farrow from a play by Max Martin and Jack A. Moroso
1930/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Detective Lt. Mike Kearney: Next time you want to get the truth from a woman, don’t send money – send a cop.

The always debonaire William Powell is the best thing about this creaky wrong man mystery. Pity he didn’t have better material.

John Nelson (Powell) is a wealthy man-about-town. He escorts a neighbor, Ethel Barry (Natalie Moorhead) to her apartment after a night out. When the two get there, an angry man is waiting.  Nelson intervenes to defend Ethel and in the scuffle the man is knocked out of the window.  Ethel disappears, taking Nelson’s self defense claim with her, and he is tried, convicted and sentenced to jail.  Nelson spends the rest of the movie trying to clear his name.

Well. this one was a dud.  I’ll always take a chance on William Powell, however.