Category Archives: 1937

Love Is News
Directed by Tay Garnett
Written by Harry Tugend and Jack Yellen; story by William R. Lipman and Frederick Stephani
1937/US
Twentieth Century Fox
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Steve Leyton: Mike, ever had a woman make a fool out of you?
Mike Allegretti: Sure!
Steve Leyton: What happened?
Mike Allegretti: Four boys and one girl.

When the leading lady’s character gets on your nerves, it’s hard to love a romcom.

In another newspaper movie from the ‘30s, Tyrone Power plays Stephen Leyton an ace reporter that is constantly at odds with his irascible boss Martin J. Cavanan (Don Ameche). Power has plenty of attitude and gives as good as he gets. He is fired and rehired several times throughout the movie.

Loretta Young plays Tony Gateson, a “tin can” heiress who breaks up with phony count Andre de Guyon (George Sanders) and returns to New York. Every newspaper in town wants the story, Steve gets it by pretending he is with Loretta’s police escort. Tony gets back at him by announcing they are engaged. Suddenly Steve is mobbed by hordes of men trying to sell him something as well as the media. Through the course of the movie, Tony plays several dirty tricks on him including a false accusation that lands him in jail. You only get one guess who Tony winds up with. With Dudley Digges as Tony’s uncle, Slim Summerville as a small town Judge, Stepin Fetchit as a luxury car demonstrator, and Elisha Cook Jr. hilarious as a reporter.

Loretta Young’s character got on my nerves. She is downright mean and spiteful for at least 3/4 of the movie. This prevents the film from being a favorite though she certainly looks gorgeous and her acting isn’t bad. Her gowns, as usual, are beautiful and she wears them well.  This was Power’s first major film role and he does well. I love Don Ameche and he is funny here.

Tyrone Power plays a drinking game with rival reporter Walter Catlett

The Hurricane
Directed by John Ford
Written by Dudley Nichols and Oliver H.P. Garrett from a novel by Charles Nordoff and James Norman Hall
1937/US
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

DeLaage: My dear doctor, I’m ready to give my wife and my friends anything I own in the world except my sense of honor and duty.
Dr. Kersaint: A sense of honor in the South Seas is about as useful and often as silly as a silk hat in a hurricane.

The best part of this solid John Ford entry is the hurricane. Second best is the stellar cast.

The story takes place in French Polynesia.  Terangi (Jon Hall) is the most well-loved man on his island. He has an idyllic romance with Marama (Dorothy Lamour) which leads to their marriage early in the film.

Jon is first mate on a clipper that sails between the islands. On shore leave in Tahiti, he breaks the jaw of white man who hit him first and was ejecting Polynesians from a saloon. This lands him in jail for a six month term. Due to his many escape attempts he is separated from Dorothy and the daughter he has never seen for eight years. Finally he makes an escape good only to have to fight a killer hurricane. With Raymond Massey as the inflexible governor of the island, Mary Astor as his compassionate wife, John Carradine as a sadistic jailer, Thomas Mitchell as a sympathetic doctor, and C. Aubrey Smith as a saintly priest.

Always good to catch up on my unseen John Ford filmography.  This has a fabulous cast and I enjoyed it greatly.

The film won the Oscar for Best Sound, Recording.  It was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Mitchell) and Best Music, Score.

Night Must Fall
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by John Van Druten from a play by Emlyn Williams
1937/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Olivia Grayne: Well, here we all are perfectly ordinary English people. We woke up this morning thinking, hmmm, here’s another day. We got up, looked at the weather, talked… Here we all are still talking and… all the time…all the time there may be something lying in the woods, hidden under a bush… with two feet showing, perhaps a high heel catching the sunlight with a bird perched on the end of it, and the other, the other stockinged foot with blood that’s dried on the stocking… and somewhere, somewhere there’s a man walking about and talking just like us, and he got up in the morning, and he looked at the world… and he killed her.

This well-acted atmospheric thriller goes directly on to my Best New to Me Films of 2022 list.

Olivia Grayne (Rosalind Russell) is sexually repressed and penniless, but smart.  She lives with her wealthy aunt Mrs. Bramson (Dame May Whitty) who treats her the same way she does all her servants – badly.  One of the servants is engaged to Danny (Robert Montgomery), who works at the local inn.  She asks the old lady to speak to him in an effort to speed up the wedding day.

On the same day the quiet of the English countryside is disturbed by the discovery of a decapitated female murder victim on Mrs. Bramson’s property.

Danny arrives and promptly charms the socks off Mrs. Bramson with his Irish charm and good looks.  He becomes her companion and confidante.  Olivia can’t put her finger on it but knows there is something “off” about him.  She says he seems to be acting all the time.  On the other hand, his animal magnetism is drawing her in.  I’ll stop here except to say the suspense just builds and builds.

Robert Montgomery is a favorite of mine and this has got to be one of his finest performances.  Pre-code he always plays the charming young man who doesn’t get the girl but looks swell in a tuxedo.  This, on the other hand, is quite a nuanced performance requiring him to be charming, humble, and very creepy all at the same time.  Russell and Whitty are fantastic.  Highly recommended.

Covid-19 is real.  Soon most people will know someone who has been hurt by the disease.  My sister-in-law Terri, who is also one of my best friends, has been in the hospital with pneumonia for 9 days.  Her son Bo, my nephew, was hospitalized yesterday.  I hope and pray both will be fine with few or no lingering consequences.  Needless to say, if you knew my family, it has been a non-stop drama fest.  Yesterday Terri checked out of hospital against medical advice with no prescriptions, no supplemental oxygen, no aftercare instructions.

I’m just fine.  They are in Las Vegas.  I am in Southern California.  My husband and I have really never left Lockdown.

For comfort viewing yesterday, I rewatched Leo McCarey’s The Awful Truth (1937) for the umpteenth time.  I have reviewed the film previously here.The stars, dialogue, directing, and production continue to sparkle.  It remains supremely enjoyable. For some reason, I focused on Ralph Bellamy this time. He is pretty wonderful.

Fire Over England
Directed by William K. Howard
Written by Clemence Dane and Sergei Nolbandov based on a novel by A.E.W. Mason
1937/UK
London Film Productions
First viewing

[box] Vivien Leigh remembers: “I was making Fire Over England then, and Larry was in it too. Flora Robson was playing Queen Elizabeth. It was in that film that Larry and I met, too. I wonder whether-if the film was shown again-you would see it in our faces, the confrontation with our destiny. I don’t think I have ever lived quite as intensely ever since. I don’t remember sleeping, ever; only every precious moment that we spent together.”[/box]

Flora Robson just might be my favorite Elizabeth I ever.  She, and a chance to see Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh at the height of their physical beauty, made this a fairly enjoyable experience.

It is 1588 and relations between Spain and England are at the breaking point.  English pirates regularly plunder Spanish treasure ships and Spain is said to be building an armada for an attack on the island.  The Spanish capture English pirate Sir Richard Ingolby who is sailing with his son Michael (Laurence Olivier).  Michael manages to escape and takes refuge with a Spanish nobleman and his daughter but the father is hauled away and burned by the Inquisition.

Michael is left with a burning hatred for the Spanish.  Despite the protests of his lady love (Vivien Leigh), when he returns to England he takes on a dangerous spy mission to Spain to uncover the names of the traitors that are plotting to assassinate the Queen.  With Raymond Massey as Philip II of Spain,  Leslie Banks as a loyal English courtier, and an almost unrecognizable James Mason in one of his very first roles as a traitor.

This average costume drama comes alive every time Flora Robson is on screen.  Fortunately, this is fairly frequently.  I loved the scene when Elizabeth takes her wig off and looks at her aging face in a mirror.  Otherwise, things proceed just about how one would expect.

Trailer