Category Archives: 1940

Lillian Russell
Directed by Irving Cummings
Written by William Anthony McGuire
1940/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Fox Marquis Musicals DVD

[box] We all have a fear of the unknown. What one does with that fear will make all the difference in the world. — Lillian Russell [/box]

This is one of those biopics where the subject is perfect in every way.  A great performance or a better script might have saved it.

The story follows the life of Lillian Russell (Faye) starting with her childhood as Helen Leonard with a suffragette mother and kindly grandmother (Helen Westley)..  Before she makes the big time, reporter Alexander Moore (Henry Fonda) rescues Helen and grandma from a runaway horse.  They later make a pledge to treat the other one to dinner depending on who gets a job first.  But Alex is too shy to approach the now-Lillian when she becomes a star.  Lillian is idolized by all who know her including Diamond Jim Brady (Edward Arnold), who showers her with jewels,  and “The Famous J.L.” (Warren William). She marries humble composer Edward Solomon (Don Ameche), however.  With Una O’Connor as Lillian’s maid.

I’m not that fond of Alice Faye, unfortunately, and she is just about the whole show.  Those who enjoy her more might love this movie.  The supporting cast is certainly wonderful and there are a lot of old standards sung b y Faye.

Lillian Russell was nominated for an Academy Award for its Black-and-White Art Direction.

Alice Faye sings “Come Down Ma Evenin’ Star”

The Frightened Lady (AKA “The Case of the Frightened Lady”; “The Scarf Murder Mystery”)
Directed by George King
Written by Edward Dryhurst from a play by Edgar Wallace
1940/UK
George King Productions
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] “An intellectual is someone who has found something more interesting than sex.” ― Edgar Wallace[/box]

This is a minor but enjoyable English country house murder mystery.

Isla Crane, the title character, is secretary to Lady Lebanon.  She is becoming terrified of the mansion because she finds that her door is locked from the outside at night and she hears screams and things that go bump in the night.  Lady Lebanon wants Isla, a cousin to the family, to marry her pianist son Lord Lebanon (Marius Goring).  Neither party is interested in this marriage.  At a costume party, the chauffeur to the creepy frequent visitor to the mansion Dr.  Amersham is murdered with an Indian scarf.  As is usual with these things. many of the characters had a motive to see the driver out of the way. Two rather comic detectives from Scotland Yard are called in.

If you have 81 minutes on your hands and like this genre, this would be a pleasant way to spend the time.

Edison the Man
Directed by Clarence Brown
Written by Talbot Jenning, Bradbury Foote, Dore Schary and Hugo Butler
1940/USA
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
First viewing/Warner Archive DVD

[box] Thomas A. Edison: [after the latest attempt to find a filament that will work in the electric light] Well, we failed again. That’s the net result of nine thousand experiments.

Michael Simon: Too bad, Tom. We know the work you have done. We are as sorry as you are that you didn’t get results.

Thomas A. Edison: Results? Man, I got a lot of results. I know nine thousand things now that won’t work.[/box]

Biopics are hit and miss with me.  Spencer Tracy’s fine performance puts this film into the “hit” column.

The story is played in flashback as the 80-year-old Edison reflects on his life prior to an award ceremony.   We see his courtship, marriage and life as a family man but mostly the progression of his career as an inventor, with special emphasis on the invention of the incandescent electric light.  With Gene Lockhart and Charles Coburn as Edison’s patrons, Henry Travers as an older friend and Felix Bressart as one of Edison’s team of workers.

This is a nice, solid movie.  Any tendency toward the pedantic is negated by the humanity of Tracy’s portrayal.  Edison makes an impassioned speech advocating world harmony and science in the service of mankind at the end as befitted the time.

Hugo Butler and Dore Schary were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story for their work on this film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cQsI-pZnOE

Trailer

The Return of Frank James
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Sam Hellman
1940/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/ Amazon Instant Video

[box] Frank James: I can’t talk without thinking, not being a lawyer.[/box]

This was one Fritz Lang film I had never heard of.  There is little evidence of Lang’s signature touch but it is well-made and enjoyable.

The film is a sequel to 1939’s Jesse James and stars the same actors in the same roles as in that picture.  Aside from the character names, the plot appears to be more or less entirely fictional.  The real Frank James had nothing to do with the deaths of the Ford brothers.

Frank James (Henry Fonda) has retired to own a farm in the Ozarks under an assumed name.  Helping him are Clem (Jackie Cooper), the teenage son of a gang member who had been killed, and African-American Pinky (Earnest Whitman).  When Frank learns of Jesse’s murder he heads out to seek vengence on the Ford brothers.  He tells Clem to stay on the farm but cannot prevent the hotheaded boy from joining up with him.  To finance their search for the Fords, Frank and Clem rob a depot holding the payroll of the hated railroad company.  A watchman is killed by incoming fire during a gun battle with police so now Frank is on the run for more than one reason.

The hunt takes the men to Denver where the Fords are capitalizing on their fame by appearing in a melodrama about the death of Jesse James.  While in Denver, Frank starts spreading the story of his “death” in Mexico and gets much needed publicity from aspiring female reporter Eleanor Stone (Gene Tierney).  But after an exciting chase in which Frank kills Charlie Ford, Frank’s pursuit is cut short when Pinky is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and scheduled to hang.  With Donald Meek as the railroad owner, Henry Hull as a fiery newspaper editor who is Frank’s ally, and John Carradine reprising his role as the coward Robert Ford.

Henry Fonda is once again excellent as Frank James.  He makes the film. I got caught up in the story even though it seemed unrealistic even before I sought out the true history, Jackie Cooper certainly matured well.

Clip

The Invisible Man Returns
Directed by Joe May
Written by Joe May, Curt Siodmak, and Lester Cole based on characters by H.G. Wells
1940/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Helen Manson: Helen to Geoffrey as he removes his bandages and clothes to leave, “When will I see you”?[/box]

Vincent Price, with his mellifluous voice, makes a worthy successor to Claude Rains in the title role.  I thought this was almost as good as the original, though it lacked some of that film’s humor.

Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe (Price) is on death row having falsely been convicted for the murder of his brother.  When legitimate appeals fail to free him, Dr. Frank Griffin, scientist brother of the original “Invisible Man” gives him the serum which allows him to escape undetected. Griffin promises that he will be able to develop a antidote that will allow Radcliffe to return to normal before he goes insane.  Needless to say he fails and Radcliffe proceeds to go on a rampage against those he holds responsible for his brother’s death.  With Sir Cedric Hardwicke as a jealous and greedy mine owner and Nan Gray as Radcliffe’s lady love.

I think Vincent Price was born to play horror.  He can come off as a big ham in straight dramatic roles but his gaudy acting style perfectly suits genre films. This is a product of its time as part of Radcliffe’s insanity has very Hitler-esque overtones of megalomania.

Trailer

Tom Brown’s School Days
Directed by Robert Stevenson
Written by Walter Ferris et al based on the novel by Thomas Hughes
1940/UK
The Play’s the Thing Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] Dr. Thomas Arnold: A new boy is always important. He may be an influence for good or for evil.[/box]

This is along the lines of Goodbye Mr. Chips from a schoolboy’s perspective.  I liked it.

In the first half of the 19th Century, Dr. Thomas Arnold (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) takes over as Head Master at the prestigious Rugby public school determined to wipe out lying and bullying, apparently age-old traditions at the school.  Good-natured but stubborn Tom Brown unknowingly helps him to do it by fighting back against the brute Flashman.  With Freddie Bartholomew as Tom’s sometime friend.

It was nice to see Hardwicke play something other than a villain.  He really is a talented and subtle actor.  All the boys in the cast did themselves proud as well.  This is just a very well put together drama that kept my attention all the way through.

Clip

Virginia City
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Written by Robert Buckner
1940/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Kerry Bradford: [to Murrell] Don’t reach for that. Put ’em up! I thought that little Deringer of yours looked a little too well used for a sample, Mr. Murrell. In any case, I didn’t like your face. As a matter of fact, I still don’t.[/box]

Despite a couple of quibbles, I really liked this solid, action-packed Western.

It is the last months of the Civil War and the South is in desperate straits.  As the story starts, Kerry Bradford (Errol Flynn) is tunneling out of notorious Confederate Libby Prison.  He is stopped by prison commandant Vance Irby (Randolph Scott) who informs him that he watched the men work on the tunnel and let them sweat.  Bradford promises to pay him back one day.  Unbeknownst to Irby, the men tunnel out via an alternate route that night and set fire to the prison.

Simultaneously, Julia Hayne (Miriam Hopkins) arrives from Virginia City, Nevada to propose to Irby that he lead a mission to spirit Confederate gold out of the town, a Union stronghold.  The two take the plan to Jefferson Davis who endorses it.  Bradford, a Union intelligence officer, gets wind of the idea (but not its principals) and sets off for Virginia City.  Naturally, Julia is on the same stage coach and they fall in love.  Also on the stage coach is notorious Mexican bandit John Murrell (Humphrey Bogart, who should never EVER attempt a foreign accent!).

The stories of all these people intersect in Virginia City and on the long and arduous wagon train journey Irby leads East with the gold.  With Alan Hale and Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams as Bradford’s sidekicks, Frank McHugh as a comic insurance salesman, and Donald Dumbrille as a Union commander.

I thought Miriam Hopkins was utterly miscast as a saloon singer though she does better once she gets on the wagon train.  (As an aside, I had not realized she was quite so tiny until I saw the above picture.) Humphrey Bogart was even more totally wasted in this picture.  That aside, this is one of the better Westerns I have seen. Michael Curtiz has a flare for exciting action sequences and Errol Flynn, despite his out-of-place accent, is the perfect hero for this kind of thing.   I’m surprised Max Steiner was not nominated for an Oscar for his excellent score.

Clip – Miriam Hopkins sings “The Battle Cry of Freedom” .. and reunites with Errol Flynn