Monthly Archives: June 2014

The Strawberry Blonde 
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein from a play by James Hagan
1941/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video

[box] Biff Grimes: I’ve been around, they can say an awful lot of things about Biff Grimes, but not that he ever gave a cigarette to a girl.[/box]

This light romantic tale is a nostalgic look back at the Gay Nineties and its music.

As the story begins, Biff Grimes (James Cagney) is a struggling dentist desperate to drum up a few patients.  Suddenly he is called on to pull the tooth of one alderman Hugo Barnstead (Jack Carson) who double-crossed him in love and business ten years before.  As he is relishing this unexpected opportunity for revenge, he reflects on his life.

Hugo and Biff were both infatuated with lovely Virginia Brush (Rita Hayworth), The Strawberry Blonde.  Virginia is a flirtatious and proper maiden of the period.  Her friend Amy (Olivia De Havilland) is a nurse and self-proclaimed woman’s rights advocate who has a yen for Biff.  He, a traditional male, wouldn’t have her because of her forwardness even if he wasn’t  pining for Virginia.  On their double dates with Hugo and Virginia, Biff is inevitably left holding the bag.

On the day Biff is to go on a longed for date with Virginia, he finds out she has married Hugo. Amy helps him cover his shame and he marries her, evidently still not appreciating her properly.  When the couple next run into Hugo and Virginia, Hugo is rich and Virginia urges him to find Biff work.  Hugo complies by making him the front man for a construction business benefitting from city graft.  Needless to say, this does not work out well for Biff. When the couples are brought together again on the day of the tooth-pulling, Biff is at last able to put his life in perspective.   With Alan Hale as Biff’s reprobate father (??!), George Tobias as his friend, and a small bit by Una O’Connor as a maid.

For a very charming musical, the plot has a bit of bite.  If there had been an award for best costumes at the time, it would have deserved a nomination.  Olivia De Havilland is absolutely irresistible in this.

Heinz Roemheld was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Trailer

Buck Privates
Directed by Arthur Lubin
Written by Arthur T. Horman and John Grant
1941/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Slicker Smith: Throw your chest out! Go on! Throw your chest out!

Herbie Brown: I’m not through with it yet![/box]

I saw this to see The Andrews Sisters do their thing and they certainly did not disappoint! This is basically a film to promote patriotism and the first Peace Time Draft initiated in October 1940. The story, such as it is,  has Slicker Smith (Bud Abbott) and Herbie Brown (Lou Costello) mistakenly join the Army to the continual dismay of everybody at their boot camp.  There is a subplot about a couple of other draftees and their love triangle with one of the camp hostesses.  There is also much singing and dancing, particularly by The Andrews Sisters.  Shemp Howard plays a cook in one of Costello’s numbers.

This almost makes one want to run out and join up without waiting to be drafted.  The camp certainly looks like a kind of lark complete with lovely camp hostesses.  I wonder did they really exist?  Sounds kind of nasty but was completely innocent.  The girls serve coffee and flirt with the boys.

The Andrews Sisters sing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”, “Bounce Me Brother with a Solid Four”. “You’re a Lucky Fellow Mr. Smith”, and “(I’ll Be with You) In Apple Blossom Time”. One can see why they were such a hit in the era.  The movie went forward to gross over $4 million on a shoestring budget, providing the formula for many other Abbott and Costello movies to come.

Hugh Prince and Don Raye received an Academy Award nomination for their song “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B” and Charles Previn was nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Motion Picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qafnJ6mRbgk

The Andrews Sisters sing “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B”

Meet John Doe
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin based on a story by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.
1941/USA
Frank Capra Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] The Colonel: I don’t read no papers, and I don’t listen to radios either. I know the world’s been shaved by a drunken barber, and I don’t have to read it.[/box]

This was the last film Capra made before he joined the Army Signal Corps and the threat of war is never very far away in what may be the darkest of his comedies.

Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) is the advice columnist on a paper that is bought up by the mega-rich D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold).  She is fired and fires back by writing a fake letter by “John Doe” detailing his woes and stating that he will jump off the roof of City Hall on Christmas Eve.  The letter creates a great outpouring of sympathy and Ann gets her job back by threatening to reveal the letter as a fake to the rival paper.  She also sees a great series of stories leading up to the “suicide” and persuades her editor to find a man to impersonate John Doe.  The ideal candidate appears in the form of washed-up pitcher Long John Willoughby (Gary Cooper).

Despite many warnings from his friend and mentor the “Colonel” (Walter Brennan) against getting involved with “he-lots”, John signs up for the job with the promise that he will get his pitching arm fixed and hit the road before Christmas Eve.  He sticks around for love of Ann.  But things spiral out of control and John Doe becomes a national sensation after Ann writes him  a speech urging a return to community, love of neighbor, teamwork, etc.  A John Doe Club spontaneously springs up and D.B. Norton, who sees a potential for using the movement for political purposes, starts financing a nationwide organization.  Poor John finds he cannot extricate himself even after he learns that he has created a monster. With Spring Byington as Ann’s mother and James Gleason as her crusty editor.

The story is basically an allegory about the creation of a Fascist cult of personality, albeit with an unwitting personality.  With its themes of suicide, corruption of the media, and manipulation of the common man, it is not a ray of sunshine despite Capra’s comedic flourishes.  It is, however, very powerful largely due to the superb performance by Cooper. His rugged face is perfect for the part.  Stanwyck is also outstanding, as usual, and Edward Arnold made a subtle, yet effective villain.

This is an example of a movie that improved for me on repeat viewing.  The first time I saw it I  didn’t like it much.  This time it made me cry.

Meet John Doe was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9AXjEChjno

Trailer

‘Pimpernel’ Smith (AKA “Mister V”)
Directed by Leslie Howard
Written by Anatole de Grunwald, A.G. MacDonald, et al
1941/UK
British National Films
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video

[box] Professor Horatio Smith: May a dead man say a few words to you, General, for your enlightenment? You will never rule the world… because you are doomed. All of you who have demoralized and corrupted a nation are doomed. Tonight you will take the first step along a dark road from which there is no turning back. You will have to go on and on, from one madness to another, leaving behind you a wilderness of misery and hatred. And still, you will have to go on… because you will find no horizon… and see no dawn… until at last you are lost and destroyed. You are doomed, Captain of Murderers, and one day, sooner or later, you will remember my words.[/box]

After England declared war on Germany, Leslie Howard devoted almost all his time to the war effort.  This patriotic morale booster is part of that work, building on Howard’s identification with the Scarlet Pimpernel.  I enjoyed it.

The story takes place in the days before the Nazi invasion of Poland.  Mild-mannered Professor Horatio Smith (Howard) is leading a group of his archaeology students on an expedition to Germany to see if there are any traces of an early Aryan civilization.  At the same time, a mystery man is spiriting victims of Nazi oppression out of the country. The viewer is not left in doubt for long as to his identity.  Gestapo General von Graum (the wonderful Francis L. Sullivan) is on his trail.  The rest of the story is devoted to the chase and some clever escapades by this modern-day Pimpernel.

This is good fun with some nice suspense and a fine performance by Howard directing himself.  Worth seeing for lovers of this kind of thing, of which I am one.  I watched it streaming for free on Amazon Prime Instant video.  The complete film is also currently available by searching for the title on YouTube.

Clip – The “You are doomed” monologue

Hold That Ghost
Directed by Arthur Lubin
Written by Robert Lees, Fred Rinaldo, and John Grant
1941/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Ferdie: Oh a bed, that’s just what I need, a nice big bed to hide under.[/box]

OK, it’s official.  I find Lou Costello annoying.  This movie was slightly redeemed by the appearance of the Andrews Sisters.

Chuck (Abbott) and Ferdie (Costello) work at a gas station when they are not moonlighting as waiters at a night club.  One day, they are working in a gangster’s car when the gangster gets in to escape the police.  The gangster is killed in a shootout.  It turns out that his will left his fortune to whomever was with him when he died and the boys are his heirs. However, the gangster’s only known asset is a cabin.  No one knows where the loot is hidden.  The boys head out to the cabin with one of the gangsters and some hangers on. They soon find out that it is not only full of other gangsters treasure hunting but is haunted as well.  With Mischa Auer as a waiter, Joan Davis as a foil for Costello, Richard Carlson and Evelyn Ankers as the juvenile and ingenue, and Ted Lewis and His Band as nightclub entertainers.

I have a real problem with comedians whose acts are based on acting like infants.  This includes Costello and especially Jerry Lewis.  So I am not the right person to write this review.  Fans of the act have given this movie a very respectable IMDb user rating.  The only person in this movie that I found more dire than Costello was Ted (Is everybody happy?) Lewis.  Not a fan.

Trailer

Joe Dante on Hold That Ghost on Trailers from Hell (I just love watching trailers with commentary by filmmakers on Trailers from Hell – www.trailersfromhell.com)