Monthly Archives: May 2022

The Mask of Fu Manchu
Directed by Charles Brabin and Charles Vidor
Written by Irene Kuhn, Edgar Allan Wolfe, and John Willard from a story by Sax Rohmer
1932/US
Cosmopolitan Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Fu Manchu: [Pointing to blonde female captive] Would you have maidens like this for your wives?
Horde of Asians: Yeah!
[Roars in approval, some waving swords]
Fu Manchu: Then conquer and breed! Kill the white man and take his women!

If you can overlook the yellow face, racial stereotyping, and sinister Chinese trope, this movie is just a ton of camp fun which I cannot recommend highly enough to those interested in that kind of thing.

Dr. Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) has long been hell-bent on discovering the tomb of Genghis Kahn.  The tomb contains the great warrior’s death mask and scimitar which will allow the evil genius to rule the world!  Fu lives in elaborate, almost fantasy, Chinese luxury and is assisted by his sadistic nymphomaniac daughter Fah Lo See (Myrna Loy).

The British Secret Service is on to Fu’s plan and sends an archeological expedition with strict instructions to discover the tomb first and deliver the mask and scimitar to Britain. The team discovers the tomb easily.  But Fu and his many spies are ever ready to capture team members and deliver them up for torture by Fu.  With Lewis Stone as a Secret Service man, Lawrence Grant as the head of the archeological team, Karen Morley as his daughter who is engaged to Charles Starret the youngest member of the team, and Jean Hersholt as a kindly German professor.

This is full of creepy torture, juicy dialogue, and an unforgettable performance by Myrna Loy.  The setting and costumes are lavish.  It’s a horror movie of sorts but the tone reminds me more of a Flash Gordon flick.

This was Loy’s last of several roles as an Oriental femme fatale.  Next year she would become Norah Charles.

The Invisible Man
Directed by James Whale
Written by R. C. Sherriff from the novel by H.G. Wells
1933/US
Universal Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Farmer: Excuse me, sir. There’s breathing in my barn.

James Whale again shows his deft hand at mixing wit with violence and doing justice to both.

Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) works for Dr. Cranley (Henry Travers) in a research lab.  He works in secret on something to do with food preservation advances.  Actually, he is playing with fire by developing an invisibility drug.  Unfortunately, he tests the drug out on himself without having discovered an antidote.

The invisible Griffin makes a run for a country pub where he hopes he can continue his work in private.  But the landlady (Una O’Connor) walks in on him partically clad.  Her screams continue for the remainder of the film.  Something in his drug is making him both invisible and insane.  He leaves the pub and has fun using his new found powers for evil.

Eventually, he decides he needs a visible assistant for his research and coerces his colleague and rival in love Dr. Arthur Kemp to fill that role.  Griffin hates Kemp for his interest in Flora Cranley (Gloria Stuart).  I’ll end here.

Claude Rains makes an unforgettable US film debut as the title character with his resonant voice.  I could live without Una O’Connors hysterics but what would these movies be without them? Recommended.

Tugboat Annie
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Zelda Sears and Eve Greene from stories by Norman Reiley Raine
1933/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Alexander ‘Alec’ Brennan: Mother! Are you all right? Did he strike you?
Annie Brennan: No! Your father has never struck me. Except in self-defense.

Marie Dressler shines as the titular tugboat captain and Wallace Beery adds to the fun as her ne’erd-do-well husband.

Annie Brennan (Dressler) struggles mightily to keep her tugboat business afloat.  Her drunken husband Terry (Beery)  keeps making mistakes that turn business away.  They have a son Alec (Frankie Darro) who says he wants to drop out of school and work on the tug.  Annie won’t have that.  She has big plans for the boy.

Alec grows up to be Robert Young.  He makes his mother proud when he becomes the youngest person to captain a luxury liner.  Alec is engaged to Pat (Maureen O’Sullivan).  He keeps urging his mother to dump his father but she refuses and the two become estranged.  It will take a disaster to reunite them.

I like the stars and enjoyed the movie.  Dressler has so much heart it’s hard not to fall in love with her.

Bombshell (AKA Blonde Bombshell)
Directed by Victor Fleming
Written by John Lee Mahin and Jules Furthman from a play by Caroline Francke and Mack Crane
1933/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Lola Burns: “Stone-Age Stuff!” “Mad with Desire!” “Lovers’ Brawl!” Is that the way you prove you just more than care for me? Treating me like a strip act in a burlesque show! A glamorous Bombshell, eh? A glorified chump, that’s what I’ve been! Well, I’m through do you understand? With the business, with everybody! You can get another “It Girl,” a “But Girl” or a “How, When and Where Girl.” I’m clearing out – and you can all stay here in this half-paid-for car barn and get somebody else to pull the apple cart! I’m going where ladies and gentlemen hang their hats and get some peace and quiet… and if any of you try to interfere with me – I’ll complain to the authorities!

I don’t associate Victor Fleming with screwball comedies but he did very well with this one. Jean Harlow had developed into quite a comedienne by this point.

Lola Burns (Harlow)  is a movie star and a sex symbol despite herself.  ‘Space’ Hanlon (Lee Tracy) is her fast-talking wisecracking publicity man. Poor Lola is supporting her family and a raft of hangers on and is being driven crazy in the process. Lee is always on hand to defeat her wishes and keep her on the job and her name in the headlines.

Among the projects Space defeats is Lola’s plan to adopt a baby and a couple of different romances.  With Frank Morgan as her drunken father, Ted Healy as her loser brother, Una Merkel as her assistant, Louise Beavers as her maid, and Franchot Tone as one of her suitors.

I found this frenetic but very entertaining.  The script is quite funny with the dialogue running at a mile a minute.  Harlow and Tracy make good antagonists.  The story was based on the life of Clara Bow but it bears some resemblance to Harlow’s own life. Recommended.

Strangers May Kiss
Directed by George Fitzmaurice
Written by Ursula Parrot from her novel
1931/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 8

Steve: There will always be a bottle of champagne, burning in the window.

This is one of several very similar and better films in which Norma Shearer defies convention in the name of love or revenge.

The setting is New York City among the upper classes.  Lizbeth Corbin (Shearer) is madly in love with adventurer journalist Alan (Neil Hamilton). They aren’t in a hurry to get married.  Her family wants her to marry Steve (Robert Mongomery), a debonaire friend of the family and long time buddy to Lizbeth.  He proposes every time he sees her but is always rebuffed.

Then work takes Neil to Mexico, Norma accompanies him, and her love deepens. It is only then that Neil reveals the existence of a wife in Paris. Furthermore, he will be going to South America for a few years and is not taking Norma.  She is devastated as he was her first love.

Lizbeth, goes to Europe and becomes a “loose woman”. Steve searches for her all over the continent and finally meets up with her in Spain.  He is still willing to marry her despite her debauchery.  Finally Neil writes telling her he has got divorced and she should come to Paris and marry him. Will she let him break her heart again? Will she come to her senses and realize what a catch Robert is? I will not spoil it for you.

In my opinion this is the worst of the Norma Shearer “free spirit” movies I have seen.  The plot really doesn’t ring true and Shearer employs her girlish flirtatious giggle too frequently for my taste. She does handle the tragic parts well.  On the other hand, Montgomery is devastatingly suave and handsome at this age.  How could she resist him?

Dinner at Eight
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz from a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber
1933/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Dan Packard: Remember what I told you last week?
Kitty Packard: I don’t remember what you told me a minute ago.

George Cukor and a team of talented screenwriters made this tragi-comedy with an all-star MGM cast a total delight.

Mrs. Jordan (Billie Burke), wife of ailing shipping magnate Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore.) plans a formal dinner in honor of English aristocrats but nothing works out as planned. It’s the Depression and everybody has a secret, usually financial.

The guest list includes: Larry Renault (John Barrymore), a washed-up alcoholic movie star who is carrying on an affair with the Jordans’ young daughter Paula (Madge Evans); Kitty (Jean Harlow) and Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) a married couple that can’t stand each other; Carlotta Vance, a broke aging Broadway star; Dr. Wayne Talbot, who has been carrying on with Kitty Packard, and his long-suffering wife Lucy (Karen Morley); and, at the last minute, Mrs. Jordan’s cousin and her husband.  Plenty happens before the dinner, which we never see.  With Lee Tracy as Larry’s agent and Jean Hersholt as a Broadway producer.

I just love this one! All the actors, including both the Barrymores, do themselves proud but my very favorite part is the battles between Jean Harlow and husband Wallace Beery. Harlow had really developed her comedy chops by this time.  And of course Marie Dressler, my namesake, is a delight.  The screenplay is endlessly quotable.  Highly Recommended.