Category Archives: 1935

Ambrose’s Secretary: It must be hard to lose your mother-in-law.

Ambrose Wolfinger: Yes it is, very hard. It’s almost impossible.

No trapeze here.  A day in the life of Ambrose Wolfinger (W.C. Fields) begins with two singing burglars in his basement.  We then follow the henpecked family man on his adventures in jail, at work, driving a car, and at a wrestling match.  All ends well, as usual.  With Kathleen Howard, Grady Sutton, and Vera Lewis as Ambrose’s obnoxious wife, brother-in-law, and mother-in-law and Mary Brian as his loving daughter.

The saving grace of this movie comes near the end when Fields actually stands up to his family and even punches his horrible brother-in-law!  Otherwise, watch the clip.  If you think Fields fiddling with his socks and putting off his encounter with the burglars is amusing, the rest of the film will be even funnier.  As for me, after the first minute of the clip, I am just waiting for him to get on with it already.

Clip – opening

Doctor Gogol: [despairingly] I, a poor peasant, have conquered science! Why can’t I conquer love?

Brilliant surgeon Dr. Gogol (Peter Lorre) has become obsessed with love for grand guignol actress Yvonne Orlac (Frances Drake).  Her husband is great concert pianist Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive).  When Steven’s hands are mangled in a train wreck, Gogol attaches the hands of an executed knife-throwing murderer.  Maddened by Yvonne’s continuing rejection of him, Gogol then conceives an insane plan to get Stephen out of the way.

When this movie works, it works very well.  Peter Lorre is always interesting in this and sometimes simply brilliant.  The climactic scenes are unforgettable.  There is also some excellent expressionist camera work by Gregg Tolland.  The problem is, once again, that the film is bogged down by unnecessary comic relief by Ted Healy (ex of Ted Healy and his Stooges) as a reporter and May Beatty as the doctor’s drunken housekeeper.  Despite its flaws, this is well worth seeing just for Lorre’s performance in this, his U.S. screen debut.

Trailer

Knitting woman (tricoteuse): [the guillotine strikes once more] I lost a stitch. Cursed Aristocrats!

This is a fairly faithful adaptation of the Dickens novel.  The evil Marquis St. Evremonde (Basil Rathbone) denounced Dr. Manette and had him imprisoned without trial in the Bastille for 18 years.  Manette is finally freed through the efforts the seditious De Farges and is reunited with his daughter Lucie.  Lucie and Manette travel by ship to England and meet Charles Darnay on the journey.  Darnay is the free-thinking nephew of the Marquis who has arranged that he be framed and arrested for treason upon arrival.  Darnay is a acquited through the efforts of barrister Stryver and his associate, the dissolute but clever Sidney Carton.  Carton and Darnay both fall in love with Lucie, while Lucie’s heart belongs to Darnay whom she marries.  A few years later after the French Revolution, Darnay is in danger of the guillotine due to his aristocratic ancestry and the ills done by the Marquis to a number of poor people.

1935 was quite the year for big-budget literary adaptations and this is a fine one.  It is rescued from an excess of sentiment (also present in the novel) by the fantastic performance of Ronald Colman as Sidney Carton.  His eyes are wonderfully expressive and he delivers his dialogue with just the right touch of irony.  Among the supporting players, I particularly like Basil Rathbone as the supercilious Marquis and Edna May Oliver as Lucie’s maid, Miss Pross.  Oliver has a really touching and funny scene near the end in which she the interests of her mistress.  MGM spared no expense on the settings or costumes.  Recommended.

Re-release trailer