Never Give a Sucker an Even Break Directed by Edward Cline
Written by John T. Neville and Prescott Chaplin; original story by “Otis Criblecoblis” (W.C. Fields)
1941/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] His Niece: [Last Lines] My Uncle Bill. But I still love him.[/box]
I don’t know why I continue to watch these things and I don’t have it in me to say a bad word against Fields’s last hurrah.
The Great Man (Fields as himself) has a loving niece (Gloria Jean) who is a singer trying to break into the movies. Fields shops a fantastical script to a movie studio executive (Franklin Pangborn) with a part for her in it. We see the script played out. It’s centerpiece has Fields falling from the veranda (!) of an airplane into a hidden land populated by a mother (Margaret Dumont) and her daughter, who has been raised in the absence of men.
Poor Fields looks tired and ill in this one. He’s still game though.
This was the last movie to star Fields; his remaining film work had him in supporting roles or cameos, as his health began to decline.
Here Comes Mr. Jordan Directed by Alexander Hall
Written by Sidney Buichman and Seton I. Miller from the play “Heaven Can Wait” by Harry Seagall
1941/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Messenger 7013: I have an idea, Mr. Jordan, couldn’t we have him reborn?
Joe Pendleton: Nothing doing; I’m not gonna go through *that* again![/box]
This fantasy lacks a little in the internal logic department but is a fun film with nice performances by Robert Montgomery and Claude Rains.
Joe Pendleton (Montgomery) is a professional boxer who is looking at a fight that will give him a chance at the championship. While flying his plane to the venue in New York, it crashes. Messenger 7013 (Edward Everett Horton) plucks his soul from his body before the plane hits ground and takes him to a part of the after life that is administered by Mr. Jordan. Problem is Joe was not meant to die in the crash or, indeed, for the next 50 years. Unfortunately Joe’s trainer (James Gleason) cremates the body before Joe’s soul can be restored to it. Mr. Jordan scrambles to find Joe a new body. Joe is pretty fussy as his old one was :”in the pink”. Finally the two settle on the body of young millionaire Bruce Farnsworth who is about to be murdered by his wife and private secretary.
We see Joe’s body and hear his speech pattern but others see and hear Farnsworth. Joe retains the memories of his former life and immediately starts training as he has been told by Jordan that he is destined to be champion. He also becomes attracted to the pretty blonde daughter (Evelyn Keyes) of a bond salesman the real Farnsworth used as the fall guy in a fraud case and gets her father out of jail. But the championship cannot be Joe’s before a number of comic complications set in.
One doesn’t expect realism from a picture like this one but every time I thought I had figured out the “rules” of the after life they seemed to change on me. It didn’t mar my enjoyment of the film. This is a lot of fun and I thought both Montgomery and Rains were terrific. Here Comes Mr. Jordan won Academy Awards for Best Original Story and and Best Screenplay. It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Montgomery), Best Supporting Actor (Gleason), and Best Black-and-White Cinematography.
The story was remade in 1978 as Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty as Joe and James Mason as Mr. Jordan. The 1943 classic Heaven Can Wait directed by Ernst Lubitsch is a different story, dealing more with the netherworld than Jordan’s domain.
The Brothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (“Todake no kyodai”) Directed by Yasujirô Ozu Written by Yasujirô Ozu and Tadao Ikeda 1941/Japan Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Streaming on Hulu Plus
Watching Fantasia (1940) I understood we could never win the war. “These people seem to like complications”, I thought to myself. — Yasujirô Ozu
War seems very far away in Ozu’s 1941 film that presages his treatment of similar themes in Tokyo Story.
The story begins on Mrs. Toda’s 61st birthday. We learn that the 61st birthday begins a new “cycle” in Japanese tradition – the person begins again in this year. Mr. Toda is 69 years old. All the many sons and daughters come to the party. Most of the children are married. Grown son Shojiro and daughter Setsuko still live at home, though Setsuko is soon to be married. Shojiro is by far the least filial of the children, having to be coaxed out of his room to sit for the family portrait. The Toda’s are a wealthy and happy family.
.Mrs.Toda’s “new beginning” takes place before the day is out. Her husband is struck with chest pains that very evening. He is dead by morning. After his death, it is discovered that he was the guarantor on a large loan to a bankrupt company. The house and all its contents will need to be sold to pay the debt. All that is left is an uninhabitable country villa. Setsuko’s fiance bows out immediately. Shojiro decides to leave for China to work in one of his father’s companies.
Mrs. Toda and Setsuko start be shuttled from one of the married children’s families to another. They are not really welcomed anywhere. The ladies of these houses, even blood daughters, find the soft-spoken Mrs. Toda a major inconvenience/embarrassment. The two homeless ladies are miserable. A solution to their problem comes from the most unlikely quarter.
Although this story is set firmly in the context of Japanese culture (class issues prevent Setsuko from working), the problems it addresses are universal. Having one’s relatives move in is challenging whatever the time and place and starting a new life is not easy. Ozu makes the story so real and understated that it is very moving. Needless to say, the composition of the frames is exquisite.
If it were not for the son’s work in China, there would no hint that this was filmed in the midst of the Great Pacific War.
The complete film is currently available on YouTube.
Johnny Eager Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by James Edward Grant and John Lee Mahin
1941/USA
Loew’s/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Warner Archive DVD
John ‘Johnny’ Eager: Oh, now don’t turn ordinary on me. I get tired of ordinary dames. And I don’t want to get tired of you.
Something about the title of this early film noir told me I might love this movie. I was so right.
Spoiler alert: The plot is full of great twists and turns and it will not be possible to do any kind of synopsis without revealing at least some of them. If you think you might see this and such things matter to you, I would recommend going in cold as I did.
We meet our (anti-) hero Johnny Eager (Robert Taylor) as he is getting out of a cab he is driving and reporting to his parole officer. During his amiable chat with the officer, two sociology students show up and sit in. The parole officer describes Johnny as the ideal ex-con. Later, one of the students comments about how handsome he is and the other, Lisbeth (Lana Turner) says that he looks as if he might beat a woman if she crossed him. This actually seems to be a selling point for poor Lisbeth.
After meeting with his parole officer, Johnny heads directly to the vaguely shady dog-racing track he wants to open and changes into a $500 suit. It soon becomes evident that Johnny runs an illegal gambling racket on top of that and is not averse to ruthlessly neutralizing anyone who crosses him. One night he is visiting a gambling club to give some associates a talking to and runs into Lisbeth, who has been left holding the bag for a date who owes the owner plenty. At once, he knows he must have her. He offers to take her home and after some steamy talk in the car finds himself facing her stepfather Special Prosecutor John Benson Farrell (Edward Arnold), his arch nemesis.
Clever Johnny figures out a way to put Lisbeth, who adores him, and Farrell in his pocket for good. Unfortunately, the method he selects drives Lisbeth straight into a nervous breakdown, sickens his only friend, alcoholic cynic Jeff Hartnett (Van Heflin), and seals his own doom.
Where to start? Robert Taylor finally proved that he could be much more than just a pretty face. He is great both as the star parolee and has the hard and heartless Johnny. Lana Turner spells “dangerous” from the first moment she is on the screen and also gradually reveals hidden depths. And Van Heflin, early in his career, delivered a touching performance as a man stuck by loyalty in a situation he cannot stomach and drinking through his pain. The script is fantastic. Just as you think you know where the story is going it takes you somewhere else entirely. Highly recommended.
This viewing convinced me I am overdue for Noir Month II, which I intend to begin on July 1.
Van Heflin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Johnny Eager.
Suspicion Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Written by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison and Alma Reville based on the novel Before the Fact by Frances Iles 1941/USA RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Isobel Sedbusk: Imagine a substance in daily use everywhere. Anyone can lay his hands on it, and within a minute after taking, the victim’s beautifully out of the way. Mind you, it’s undetectable after death.
Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth: Is whatever it is, painful?[/box]
There’s something about this Hitchcock thriller that doesn’t quite work for me but it’s still worth seeing.
“Plain”, sheltered Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) meets dashing playboy Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) on a train and falls hard. It’s not too long before Johnnie admits his love and they are married, much to the chagrin of Lina’s father. Turns out he had a point as Johnnie is irresponsible, a big spender and gambler, and adverse to gainful employment. He keeps hoping that Lina’s parents will bail them out but nothing doing.
Lina starts catching Johnnie in lies and he withholds vital information about their finances from her. She begins suspecting him of all kinds of things. He hatches a get-rich-quick real estate scheme to be financed by his friend Binky (Nigel Bruce). Then Binky winds up dead and Lina’s paranoia about her own safety escalates to an unbearable level. With Dame May Whitty as Lina’s mother and Cedric Hardwicke as her father.
The source material calls for Lina’s suspicions to come true. But there was no way that could happen with Cary Grant in the lead and the writers were unable to find a satisfying way out of that dilemma. The suspense is somewhat lacking as well. Joan Fontaine did quite well as an English woman without putting on a phony accent. I’m guessing that one of the reasons for her Oscar win was that she was snubbed for Rebecca the previous year, however. My favorite performance in the movie comes from Nigel Bruce as the jolly Binky.
Joan Fontaine won the Oscar for Best Actress for this part. Suspicion was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Music, Score (Franz Waxman).
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.
The Wolf Man Directed by George Waggner
Written by Curt Siodmak
1941/USA
Universal Pictures
Repeat viewing /Amazon Instant Video
#153 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Jenny Williams: Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.
Larry Talbot: [after hearing it twice already] You know that one too ah? [/box]
If only they could have found another actor to play the Wolf Man ….
The story takes place in an English village where everyone speaks with a different accent. Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.), the younger son of Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains), has been away from home for 18 years. During that time, he seems to have developed total amnesia about his ancestral manse and its environs. Once there he takes to repairing his father’s telescope and spies on lovely Gwen Corliffe (Evelyn Ankers). He immediately chats her up using lines that would make me flee in the opposite direction in fear of a stalker. Gwen, on the other hand, agrees to go walking with him on a foggy night despite the fact that she is engaged to another man.
The couple winds up at the camp of gypsy fortune teller Bela (Bela Lugosi) and his mother (?) Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya). It is autumn, there is a full moon, and the wolfbane is blooming. Bela turns into a wolf and attacks their companion Jenny. (Question: Why is it that Bela’s alter ego has four legs while the Wolf Man walks upright on two?) Larry goes to rescue her and is bitten by the wolf, dooming him to a similar existence. The rest of the story follows Larry’s tortured journey as The Wolf Man, unable to convince anyone he is the mysterious murderer lurking around the village. With Ralph Bellamy as a constable and Warren William as .the family doctor.
I’ve always found this not quite a classic of the Universal horror genre due to the performance of poor Lon Chaney Jr. who just seems to be a fish out of water. His plodding sincerity seems the polar opposite of anything one could expect from a son of Claude Rains. The rest of the cast, particularly Maria Ouspenskaya, are fine and the special effects and make up are not bad.
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.
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.
Love Crazy Directed by Jack Conway
Written by David Hertz, Charles Lederer, and William Ludwig
1941/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Steve: She’s married now – got a husband.
Susan Ireland: Yeah? Whose husband has she got?[/box]
William Powell gets plenty of opportunity to show off his physical comedy skills in the tenth of his pairings with Myrna Loy.
Things start going wrong on Steve (Powell) and Susan (Loy) Ireland’s fourth anniversary. Steve is heading up to their apartment with roses when he is stuck on the elevator with Isobel, an old flame, (Gail Patrick) who is eager to renew the acquaintance. Then just as the couple is getting ready for a romantic dinner Susan’s annoying mother shows up and sprains her ankle. Susan has to go pick up her aunt and Steve is stuck with his mother-in-law. He escapes to have a drink with Isobel and mother-in-law sets the suspicions in motion leading to Susan suing for divorce and taking up with an archery champion (Jack Carson.
The only way out seems to be for Steve to fake insanity to delay the procedings. Unfortunately, his ruse proves to be all too convincing and he ends up in an asylum. The laughs keep coming as Steve continues to do everything in his power to win Susan back.
This has more slapstick comedy and less snappy dialogue than most Powell/Loy movies. Fortunately, Powell is a pro at both. The film marks the only time Powell appeared on screen without his mustache – near the end of the film when he appears as Steve’s “sister” in drag.
I’ve been a classic movie fan for many years. My original mission was to see as many movies as I could get my hands on for every year from 1929 to 1970. I have completed that mission.
I then carried on with my chronological journey and and stopped midway through 1978. You can find my reviews of 1934-1978 films and “Top 10” lists for the 1929-1936 and 1944-77 films I saw here. For the past several months I have circled back to view the pre-Code films that were never reviewed here.
I’m a retired Foreign Service Officer living in Indio, California. When I’m not watching movies, I’m probably traveling, watching birds, knitting, or reading.
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