Monthly Archives: March 2022

The Purchase Price
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Robert Lord from a story by Arthur Stringer
1932/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Emily: Gee, with a hundred dollars, maybe I could get myself a husband right here in town.
Joan Gordon, aka Francine La Rue: Of course, you could!
Emily: And then I’d sort of, eh, have a chance to, try the goods before I bought it!
Joan Gordon, aka Francine La Rue: Emily…

Barbara Stanwyck displays great range in this collaboration with William Wellman, who got an excellent performance from the often one-note George Brent as well.

Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) is a torch singer at one of the swankiest clubs in New York.  She is sick of the fast life including her relationship with gangster boyfriend Eddie Fields (Lyle Talbot).  Eddie is determined to keep her.  So she runs away to Montreal and sings under the assumed name Francine La Rue.  It doesn’t take Eddie long to find her.

Joan is ready to move on immediately.  Her maid announces she is leaving to marry a wheat farmer she has met only through a marriage broker.  She sent Joan’s picture to the broker instead of her own.  So Joan, on a whim, offers the maid $100 to take her place.

She is greeted by soon-to-be husband Jim Gilson at the train station.  Jim is painfully shy and awkward and to top it off has a bad cold.  He takes Joan to the farm. When he suddenly grabs her and kisses her on what should be their wedding night, Joan instinctively pulls away and that will be the end of their intimacy for several months.  Can Joan win her man over?

It’s no surprise that Stanwyck was excellent in this film. George Brent kind of surprised me with his sensitive performance. Wellman captures many beautiful scenes on the farm. I like this kind of story where men and women have to learn to know each other and highly recommend this film.

Barbara Stanwyck sings

The Miracle Woman
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Jo Swerling based on a play by Robert Riskin and John Meehan
1931/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/My collection

John Carson: Are you a teetotaler?
Florence: No, not annoyingly so.

This false prophet picture is another solid pairing of Frank Capra and Barbara Stanwyck.

Florence “Faith” Fallon (Stanwyck) is the daughter of a devout and holy preacher. His parish gave him the boot in favor of a younger man. He can’t even give his farewell sermon before dying of a broken heart. Florence loses her faith and thinks of believers as hypocrites.  She delivers a fierce farewell sermon.

Con man Bob Hornsby (Sam Hardy) approaches Barbara and tells her she can get back at the hypocrites by fleecing them and Barbara becomes a miracle worker and revivalist.  The entire operation is based on lies and playacting and is thoroughly corrupt.  Bob somehow figures he has an ownership interest in Florence and is very jealous.  She refuses to give him a tumble.

One night she chances to meet blind aviator John Carson (David Manners).  They begin seeing each other.  Can true love reform Florence?

This is an enjoyable movie and Mme. Stanwyck acts her heart out.  Not a must-see but one of the better pre-Code movies she made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1xrg6aWjBI

Clip – Stanwyck lets loose in the opening sequence.

Illicit
Directed by Archie Mayo
Written by Edith Fitzgerald, Robert Riskin, and Harvey F. Thew
1931/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/My collection

Anne Vincent Ives: Nearly every girl I know, Mr. Ives, is either unhappily married or happily divorced, and I’ve simply come to the conclusion that marriage is disastrous to love. There’s so much about it that’s all wrong – the awful possession that people exert over each other, the intimacy, and the duties. I don’t know… but love can’t stand the strain, that’s all.

This movie can be criticized on several grounds, but Barbara Stanwyck’s performance isn’t one of them.

Dick Ives (James Rennie) and Ann Vincent (Stanwyck) are upper class New Yorkers who run with the fast crowd.  They are in madly in love with each other and, though they don’t live together, go away on lots of weekend get aways.  Ann thinks marriage would only kill the spontaneity and fun they currently enjoy.  She eventually talks Dick into going along with her, though he hates the hiding they must do.

Finally James’ father talks them in to marrying. All the things that Barbara feared happen and then they flirt with disaster and old flames played by Ricardo Cortez and Natalie Moorehead.  Can this marriage be saved?  With Joan Blondell as a friend.

Stanwyck is by far the best actor in this movie.  Though this is not a comedy, she exudes a charm and pep in the early love scenes that provide an early glimpse of her talents as a comedienne.  Other than that, the movie just seemed to plod along while not really being long enough to earn its rushed ending.

clip

Shopworn
Directed by Nick Grinde
Written by Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin; story by Sarah Y. Mason
1932/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Crackle

Kitty Lane (after David’s minders offer her money to drop him): If that’s being rich, I’m glad I’m cheap, and I’m gonna stay cheap! Because no matter how cheap I am, I’m not for sale!

Barbara Stanwyck once again makes trite material quite watchable.

Kitty Lane (Stanwyck) works as a waitress in her small town.  All the boys are after her but she gives them the cold shoulder.  One day, medical student David Livingston (Regis Toomey) comes in for a bite to eat.  He is immediately smitten and they fall in love and become engaged. David’s mother is livid and plots with a local judgeto rid her son of this “common” match. Her first move is to take a bogus health trip to Europe with David by her side.  David agrees to this on the condition that Kitty will come along.  So the snobs conspire to break off the affair another way.

Poor Kitty ends up in a reformatory for wayward girls.  Then she becomes a big Broadway star.

This is a short movie and enjoyable for those moments when Stanwyck unleashes her fire.  She’s on screen most of the time and plays the part with a certain sweetness I had not seen until this point in my journey.  The story is predictable but the production and acting are pretty good.

Forbidden
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Jo Swerling from a story by Frank Capra
1932/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Crackle streaming

Lulu: I know what I’m saying! You’re poison to me! Poison! I’m sorry I ever met you! But, I’m not old! You’re not the only man in the world! I don’t have to stop living! Not for you! Not for anybody!

Barbara Stanwyck plays a martyr to love.  Adolphe Menjou plays her long-time lover. Surprisingly, this melodrama works despite the bad casting and treacle.

Lula (Stanwyck) is a “plain” (!) small town spinster librarian.  Her heart is full of romance, though, and she takes her life savings to go on a vacation.  Havana seems a very romantic place and she books a cruise that will take her there.  She must have had a full savings account because when she gets on the boat she is dressed to the nines and looks gorgeous.

Things don’t go well for the first two days on board when Lula finds she must dine all alone.  After she flees the second dinner in shame, she returns to her room only to find a tuxedoed man passed out drunk on her bed.  This is Bob (Adolphe Menjou).  Despite this unfortunate introduction, Bob and Lula flirt and when he sobers up, he asks her to dine with him.  They fall madly in love.  Lula is giddy with it.  When they get home Lula takes a job with a city newspaper as a reference librarian.

Holland, a reporter at the newspaper, is sweet on Lula.  They frequently exchange flirty banter but she refuses to go out with him.  Instead, she is keeping an apartment and making dinners for Bob.  On one memorable night, the couple are about to share a meal when Holland calls with a proposal for Lula.  She asks Bob what she should do.  He reveals he has no right to advise her because he gave her a fake name and is married to an invalid he can never divorce.  Lula who expected the evening to be a celebration of the baby she is carrying, throws him out.

A couple of years go by.  Lula is a homebody raising Bob’s child alone.  Finally the lovers meet by chance and reconcile.  Bob is the District Attorney and has ambitions for the mayor’s job.  The two decide the best thing to do is for Bob and his wife to adopt the girl, without informing the wife in advance.  Lula will be her governess.  What could possibly go wrong?  Lula again chews Bob out but takes him back.  Holland, who is still after Lula, has become city editor.  He has a deep dislike for Bob, the politician, and tries to dig up some scandal that will derail his election campaign for Governor.  The melodrama builds until the unbelievable conclusion.

This tearjerker was pretty darned good once you suspend your disbelief that anyone would think of Stanwyck as plain.  The other problem, which I forgot once I got into the story, is the fact that Menjou was probably born looking sixty and seems an unlikely romantic lead.  It was particularly nice to see Bellamy in something other than a rebound financee role. This is definitely pre-Code, what with adultery, illegitimacy, etc.  I like the feisty, outspoken Stanwyck and thought she should have dumped Bob permanently after he revealed his marriage.  But then they would not have been able to milk the noble suffering of Lula.

Photo montage

Ten Cents a Dance
Directed by Lionel Barrymore
Written by Jo Swerling and Dorothy Howell; inspired by a song by Rogers and Hart
1931/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Barbara O’Neill: She’s got to keep the place hot enough to avoid bankruptcy and cold enough to avoid raids.

Lionel  Barrymore’s directorial debut was this pretty good melodrama with Barbara Stanwyck in fine form.

Barbara Stanwyck is a taxi dancer that hates her job and most men. It does pay the bills, however.  She has a secret boyfriend named Eddie (Monroe Owsley) to whom she is devoted. She has also attracted the attention of millionaire Bradley Carlton (Ricardo Cortez). He obliges when she asks him if he has a job for Eddie, whom she refers to as a friend.

After they secretly marry, Barbara quits her job and attempts to make ends meet as a housewife.  However, Eddie reveals himself to be an irresponsible loser and Barbara is back on the dance floor.  Carlton does not stop pursuing Barbara.

I enjoyed this one. Stanwyck and Cortez have good chemistry and the story, if hackneyed, moves right along and sustains interest. This was the first movie Lionel Barrymore directed and I think he did a good job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUniuD-jsY

Doris Day sings “Ten Cents a Dance” in Love Me or Leave Me (1955), a biopic about Ruth Etting, who first made the song a hit

Mexicali Rose
Directed by Erle C. Kenton
Written by Norman Houston and Gladys Lehman
1929/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

”No gold-digging for me; I take diamonds! We may be off the gold standard someday.” – Mae West

Barbara Stanwyck is the best thing about this early talkie potboiler and that’s not saying much.

Happy Manning (Sam Hardy) runs a saloon/gambling hall on the Mexican side of the border. He is generous and beloved by his customers. He dotes on his ward, who is a big U.S. high school football star.

He is married to the much younger Mexicali Rose (Stanwyck). Rose is a huge flirt and Happy finds out about an affair she had while he was away on business.  He throws her out with enough money to get, and stay, on the other side of the border. Unfortunately, that leaves her within striking range of his ward.

Stanwyck is good at being a bad girl. She doesn’t exactly have the chance to shine in this low-budget 60-minute B movie though.

Collection of fun clips

The Locked Door
Directed by George Fitzmaurice
Written by C. Gardner Sullivan from a play by Channing Pollock
1929/US
Feature Productions
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Ann Carter: You won’t gain anything by keeping me here!
Frank Devereaux: Oh, I like you in a temper. I want to hold you close, knowing you don’t want to be held.

Continuing my Barbara Stanwyck pre-Code retrospective with a rewatch of this creaky early talkie, which contains her first starring role.

I’ll point you at my original review for the plot summary.  Couldn’t find much media at that time.  Here’s a couple of photos that illustrate the high melodrama of the piece.

This is not a good movie but Stanwyck is pretty good in it.  She has a couple of scenes where she lets loose with her fire and reveals a glimpse of things to come.

Clip

Night Nurse
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Oliver H.P. Garrett and Charles Kenyon from a novel by Grace Perkins
1930/US
Warner Brothers
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Maloney: Take my tip and stay away from interns. They’re like cancer… the disease is known but not the cure.

Pre-code classic with the perfect cast and lots of snappy dialogue.

As the movie starts, Lora Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) is applying for a nurse training program at a local hospital.  The director of nursing is an old bat who rejects Lora for her origins and lack of high school diploma.  But a kindly old doctor recommends her and she is immediately accepted.  In training with Lora is Maloney (Joan Blondell).  The two become roommates and have adventures, many involving undressing or dressing.  One that doesn’t has the two nurses treating bootlegger Mortie’s bullet wound on the quiet.  Mortie starts his campaign to win Lora.

The first jobs Maloney and Lora get after graduating is shifts at the house of a wealthy alcoholic mother of two.  Mom’s life is one round of drunken parties after another.  She has taken up with hunky but sinister “chauffeur” Nick (Clark Gable).  In the meantime, the little girls are slowly dying of starvation.  Lora fights like the dickens to get them out of the control of their scheming doctor (Ralf Harolde).

This Pre-Code classic is great fun what with all the disrobing, fisticuffs, and straighttalking (“you mother!”). It  combines two of my favorite things – a feisty Barbara Stanwyck and a great pre-code vibe. Add in Blondell and Gable and you’re in essential territory.  Highly recommended.

Night Nurse was the last film in which Clark Gable played the bad guy.