Category Archives: 1940

Gaslight
Directed by Thorold Dickinson
Written by A.R. Rawlinson and Bridget Boland from the play by Patrick Hamilton
1940/UK
British National Films
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Instant Video

[box] Song at Cadbury Music Hall: It’s very aggravating when your love isn’t true…[/box]

I’m very glad I finally caught up with the original version of 1944’s Gaslight.  I loved it.

Paul Mallen (Anton Walbrook) and his wife Bella (Diana Wynyard) move into a long-disused mansion where a woman was brutally murdered 20 years before.  They also buy the empty house next door but Paul has refused all offers to lease it.  It soon becomes clear that the marriage is not a happy one.  Paul constantly berates his wife for forgetting things, losing things, and making things up and threatens her with commitment to an asylum.  He generally makes her life completely miserable.  In the meantime, retired detective Rough is sure he has seen Paul before as Harry Bauer. the chief suspect in the murder of his aunt for her rubies, which were never found.  He spends the rest of the story attempting to find evidence to support his suspicion before Bella slips into insanity for real. With Robert Newton as Bella’s cousin.

I generally love Anton Walbrook and he is great here.  In stark contrast to the suave, oily Charles Boyer, he portrays Paul from the start as the dispenser of the most vile emotional and verbal abuse.  I rapidly grew to hate this man but could not deny his fascinating but demented charm.  This version is also blessedly free of the romantic sub-plot but compensates by having a delightful turn by the cagey old Rough as Bella’s guardian angel. Diana Wynyard is suitably fragile and Cathleen Cordell as the flirtatious parlor maid Nancy is quite effective.  The film is taut and suspenseful right through.  I wouldn’t want to have to choose between this one and the Bergman version.  Very highly recommended.

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Under Texas Skies
Directed by George Sherman
Written by Anthony Coldeway and Betty Burbridge based on characters created by William Colt McDonald
1940/USA
Republic Pictures
First viewing/Streaming on Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] Tagline: A RAIDER-BUSTIN’ Buckeroo in a ROARIN’ ROUND-UP OF BLAZIN’ Action![/box]

I have not been religious in watching all the “B” Westerns available to me but this one was highly rated (7.8/10 on IMDb) and I had the time so I gave it a try.  It was quite OK but nothing special.

The Civil War causes the government to pull troops out of the frontier, leaving the ranchers without protection. Sheriff Brooke is looking for men to take their place and varmint Tom Blackton manages to get himself and part of his gang deputized.  The other members of the gang proceed to terrorize the county.  When Tuscon Smith finds them out, Blackton frames him for the murder of the sheriff.  Stony Brooke (Robert Livingston) arrives in town and starts to hunt down his old friend Tuscon who has escaped from jail.  Soon enough, he discovers the true culprit and, with the aid of feckless Lullaby Jones and Tuscon, hunts him down.

This is sort of a prequel to the Three Musketeers series in that the boys are not yet a team at the start.  It also marked the return of Robert Livingston, who had been replaced by John Wayne for several films, as Stony.  The story has all the elements that would appeal to its target audience.  Unfortunately, this includes some fairly lame comic relief by Lullaby who continues to specialize in ventriloquism.

Although no attention is called to it, these guys appear to be time travelers.  In the last episode I watched they were driving pickup trucks.

The Great McGinty
Written and Directed by Preston Sturges
1940/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Skeeters: If it wasn’t for graft, you’d get a very low type of people in politics. Men without ambition. Jellyfish.

Catherine: Especially since you can’t rob the people anyway.

.Skeeters: Sure. How was that?

Catherine: What you rob, you spend, and what you spend goes back to the people. So, where’s the robbery? I read that in one of my father’s books.

Skeeters: That book should be in every home.[/box]

In his first effort as a writer-director, Preston Sturges shows all the elements of comedic brilliance that have endeared him to his fans to this day.

From exile in a banana republic, Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) tells the story of his rise from a bum to governor of a great state and subsequent fall due to “one crazy minute” of honesty.

Ward-heeler Skeeters (William Demerest) finds McGinty in a soup line and offers him $2 to vote for a mayoral candidate.  McGinty is so good at this kind of thing that he does it 37 times.  This brings him to the attention of the local Boss (Akim Tamiroff), who admires McGinty’s pugnacious spirit and makes him a collector for his protection racket.  He rapidly rises to alderman and proves good enough at dispensing graft that the Boss decides to make him the “reform” candidate for mayor.  Unfortunately for himself, the Boss thinks McGinty needs to marry to attract women voters and Dan’s adoring secretary (Muriel Angelus) is quickly chosen as the token bride.

But six months into the marriage, McGinty unexpectedly falls in love with his wife and her children and when he is elected governor, she inspires him to do “one crazy thing” against his better judgement.  With the Sturges stock company at their eccentric best.

What genius does it take to be able mix biting satire with some of the most over-the-top slapstick like Sturges can?  At his best, he has me grinning for minutes at a time when I am not laughing out loud.  This was a great start to a short but inspired directing career.

This has got it all.  It might just be Tamiroff’s best performance.  His many slug-fests with Donlevy are a highlight of the movie.  But the actors in the smallest parts, even those without dialogue, consistently make me smile.  It is a shame Angelus retired so early.  She is excellent here.

Sturges won the Academy Award for his Original Screenplay.

Clip – Tamiroff tries to get Donlevy to take the plunge

The Mark of Zorro
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Written by John Taintor Foote et al from a story by Johnston McCulley
1940/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Special Edition DVD

[box] Inez Quintero: Oh, Diego, when may we expect you and our dear little Lolita in Madrid?

Don Diego Vega: Not for some time I’m afraid. We’re going to follow the customs of California.

Inez Quintero: What do you mean?

Don Diego Vega: Well, we’re going to marry and raise fat children and watch our vineyards grow.[/box]

I thought this was everything a Zorro film should be.  It was a joy to see Basil Rathbone take up his sword again.

Don Diego Vega (Tyrone Power)is known in old Madrid as the “California Cockerel”, a master at fencing, womanizing, and carousing.  He is abruptly called home by his father, the alcalde (mayor) of Los Angeles (Montague Love).  When he arrives, he finds his kindly father has been deposed by the cruel and greedy Don Luis Quintero and power-behind-the-throne Capt. Esteban Pasquale (Rathbone), who have been abusing the peons with high taxes and brutal punishment for non-compliance.

Don Diego immediately determines to set things right.  His father is a strong believer in law and order, so Diego adopts the disguise of masked avenger Zorro.  His aim is to scare the cowardly Quintero to resigning and returning to Spain.  At the same time, in everyday life, he adopts the persona of an effeminate fop, much to the disgust of his father and former teacher Friar Felipe (Eugene Pallette).

Diego takes a two-pronged approach.  As Zorro, he becomes a Robin Hood, robbing the tax collections and returning them to the people and threatening to kill Quintero if he does not resign.  As the fop, he worms his way into the affections of Quintero’s wife Inez (Gale Sondergaard) promising to present her at court (and more) if she will return to Spain. Finally, Esteban comes up with the idea of marrying Diego and the Quintero’s daughter Lolita (the very young Linda Darnell) to forge an alliance between the government and the caballeros.  This Diego enthusiastically embraces as he has become enamored with the gorgeous Lolita in real life.

Naturally, Zorro must triumph.  Fortunately, this does not occur before a really splendid sword fight between Power and Rathbone.

I thought this was enormous fun.  My husband joined me half way through and loved it too. I had not known Power was so agile.  He does very well as a dancer and as a swordsman. Of course, it was hard to take my eyes off of Rathbone during the sword fight.

Alfred Newman was nominated for an Oscar for his rousing Original Score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoNvIavMsc4

Trailer (in color)

Pride and Prejudice
Directed by Robert Z. Leonard
Written by Aldous Huxley and Jane Murfin based on the novel by Jane Austin
1940/USA
Loew’s
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Mr. Darcy: You must allow me to tell you how much I admire and love you.[/box]

I have several quibbles with the adaptation with of one of my all-time favorite novels but, setting that aside, I found this a polished and enjoyable production.

Mr. (Edmund Gwenn) and Mrs. Bennett (Mary Boland) have five marriageable daughter sand no dowries in sight.  Mrs. Bennett is an annoying flibberty-gibbet whose match-making efforts are actually counter-productive.  The two eldest girls, Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan) and Elizabeth (Greer Garson) are appealing beauties but the three youngest take after their mother as “the silliest girls in England”.

Things start looking up when a wealthy bachelor, Mr. Bingley, rents a neighboring estate with an even wealthier friend, Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier), in tow.  Bingley and Jane hit it off immediately but Elizabeth takes an instantaneous dislike to the proud and reserved Darcy.  You are guaranteed a wedding or two at the end of all of Austen’s novels.  How she gets there is the delight.  With Ann Rutherford as the wayward Lydia, Melville Cooper as Mr. Collins, and Edna May Oliver as Darcy’s battleax aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

I find the novel endlessly re-readable and have watched most of the adaptations and it seems I have all of the plot and most of the dialogue memorized by now.  Some of the liberties taken with the story threw me for a loop.  The unctuous Mr. Collins has been transformed from a clergyman to a librarian, I suppose in deference to the Hayes Code. But the worst is the final transformation of Lady Catherine into a gruff but secret ally of Elizabeth!  The writers also manage to invent beaus for all the girls by the end, including the bookish and socially clueless Mary.

That said, Garson is one of the most charming of all Elizabeths and Olivier shines as the sophisticated Darcy only a year after he convinced us as the untamed Heathcliff.  The supporting cast is quite wonderful.  On balance, Austin lovers should check it out.

Cedric Gibbons won an Oscar for his Black-and-White Art Direction.

Clip – Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth Bennet

The Westerner
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Jo Swerling and Nevin Busch from the story by Stuart N. Lake
1940/USA
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Judge Roy W. Bean: Mr. Harden, it’s my duty to inform you that the larceny of an equine is a capital offense punishable by death, but you can rest assured that in this court a horse thief always gets a fair trial before he’s hung.[/box]

I enjoyed this rather off-beat Western, chiefly due to its Oscar-winning performance by Walter Brennan.  Wyler’s direction and Gregg Toland’s lighting didn’t hurt either.

Roy Bean (Brennan) is a saloon keeper and self-appointed hanging judge with a worship of British beauty Lily Langtry, to whom his bar is a shrine.  His other allegiance is to the cattlemen of his part of Texas who are in a brutal range war with homesteaders in the area.  One day, stranger Cole Harden (Gary Cooper) is hauled in for riding a stolen horse. Though Cole claims he bought the nag, the “jury” is soon deliberating over a few drinks. Cole’s fortune changes when he begins admiring all the photos of Langtry and telling tales of how he met her and has a lock of her hair.  Bean immediately decides to delay execution so Harden can send away for the tresses.  Immediately thereafter, the man who sold Harden the horse is caught.

Bean and Harden form a bond over their mutual admiration of the actress but their ways part when Harden falls for a homesteader’s daughter and is sickened by the persecution of the farmers.  The rest of the story is devoted to Harden’s efforts to get real justice for these people.  With Fred Stone as a homesteader and Dana Andrews in a tiny role for one of his very first screen appearances

Brennan has as much, or more, screen time as Cooper.  This is classic Brennan, complete with all his tics, but is a joy to watch.  Somehow he manages to keep the character both endearing and despicable at the same time.  It’s a good looking film, too, with a wonderful score by Dmitri Tiomkin.  Recommended.

Walter Brennan won his third and final Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work on The Westerner.  The film was also nominated in the categories of Best Original Story and Best Black-and-White Art Direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sfFFNF2-iM

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