Flickers in Time

International House
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
Written by Francis Martin and Walter DeLeon
1933/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

[Peggy finds a litter of assorted kittens on her seat]
Peggy: I wonder what their parents were.
Professor Quail: Careless, my little dove cake, careless.

Another preposterous story allows Paramount to show off its stable of talent.

Professor Wong  is ready to show off and sell his new invention, “radioscope” – i.e., television.  People come from all over the world to the International House Hotel in Wu Hu (you can imagine the jokes), China to bid on the phenomenon.  The principal rivals are a Russian (Bela Lugosi) and young American Tommy Nash (Stuart Erwin).  Both of these have romantic troubles.  Professor Quail (W.C. Fields) drops in in his auto-gyro.  With Burns and Allen; Rudy Vallee; Sterling Holloway; Francis Pangborn; Cab Calloway; and Baby Rose Marie.

This is 68 minutes of fun.  But Cab Calloway’s “Reefer Man” number alone makes the film worth watching.  Baby Rose Marie belts out a perverse version of “My Bluebird’s Singing the Blues”.  I enjoyed myself.

This Day and Age
Directed by Cecil B. deMille
Written by Bartlett Cormack
1933/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations.
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through. – “Changes” by David Bowie

Cecil  B. DeMille makes even a crime story into an epic.

A high school holds a “Boy’s Day” in which the senior boys shadow city officials such as a District Attorney, a Chief of Police, a Judge, etc.  Simultaneously, a Jewish tailor is slain by Louis Garrett (Charles Bickford), the boss of a protection racket.  The boys try to get justice for their friend from the officials they are shadowing.  They learn the justice system is entirely corrupt.  So they organize the boys from all the high schools to apprehend Garrett for some vigilante justice.  Part of their scheme involves Gay Merrick’s (Judith Allen) agreement with her boyfriend (Richard Cromwell) to detain an enforcer who “likes his olives green”.  With John Carradine under the name John Peter Richmond in a small part as an Assistant Principal.

This is a strange movie to say the least.  The story and dialogue are somewhat naive.   But deMille directs the cast of thousands to great effect.  The “trial” at the end reminded me of the trial by the criminals in Fritz Lang’s M (1931), without the pathos of Peter Lorre. Very pre-Code.

I’m No Angel
Directed by Wesley Ruggles
Written by Mae West
1933/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Tira: Beulah, peel me a grape.

This has everything a Mae West movie should have, including a young Cary Grant.

Tira (West) is a sensation with her act in the sidehow of a circus.  She plays her many admirers like a fiddle.  Most of this involves the receipt of diamond bracelets and some sexual innuendos.  Finally, Tira is courted by Kirk Lawrence (Kent Taylor) and he asks her to marry him.  Problem is Kirk is already engaged.  Both the fiancee and friend Jack Clayton (Grant) try to persuade her to drop him.

Jack does succeed in breaking up the relationship but only because he falls in love with Tira himself.  When he hears damning information, he calls off their engagement.  This leads to a funny breach of promise trial.

The suggestive one-liners fly and West does some good musical numbers.  I’m especially fond of “They Call Me Sister Honky Tonk”.  I enjoyed this one a lot.

Design for Living
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Ben Hecht from a play by Noel Coward
1933/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Gilda Farrell: We’re going to concentrate on work – your work. My work doesn’t count. I think you boys have a great deal of talent; but, too much ego. You spend one day working and a whole month bragging. Gentlemen, there are going to be few changes. I’m going to jump up and down on your ego. I’m going to criticize your work with a baseball bat. I’m going to tell you every day how bad your stuff is until you get something good and if it’s good I’m going to tell you it’s rotten till you get something better. I’m going to be a mother of the arts. – – No sex.
George Curtis, Tom Chambers: No.
Gilda Farrell: It’s a gentlemen’s agreement.

Fortunately Gilda is no gentleman and Ernst Lubitsch takes his celebrated touch just about as far as it can go in this delightful, sophisticated comedy.

The setting is Paris, France.  As the story starts, Gilda Farrell (Miriam Hopkins) is drawing a caricature of two young men who are sleeping in their train seats.  These are George Curtis (Gary Cooper), a painter, and Tom Chambers (Fredric March), a playwright.  Gilda is a commercial artist who works for strait-laced Max Plunkett (Edward Everett Horton).  Both men start flirting with Gilda in French.  But soon enough it comes out that they are all Americans.

The two men share a flat in Paris.  Both fall in love with Gilda and she with them, but Gilda can’t decide who she likes most.  Finally, she decides they should remain platonic friends. She will move in and act as taskmaster and muse for the artistic endeavors of the men.

Before you know it George has a gallery show and Tom’s play is produced in London. When Tom has to travel to participate in the production, George is left alone with Gilda. Thereafter, all bets are off.

Turn about is fair play and the year after making the two-women-love-one man triangle in Trouble in Paradise (1932), Lubitsch pulled off an even more audacious two-men-love-one-woman triangle in this film. And all the parties remain so civilized!  The Ben Hecht screenplay sparkles as bright as the acting and direction. Very, very Pre-Code and highly recommended.

Murders in the Zoo
Directed by A. Edward Sutherland
Written by Phillip Wylie and Seton I Miller
1933/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Eric Gorman: [Said while sewing Taylor’s mouth shut] Mongolian Prince taught me this, Taylor. An ingenius device for the right occasion. You’ll never lie to a friend again, and you’ll never kiss another man’s wife.

If they had ditched the comic relief and the young lovers, this could have been an effective horror film.

Eric Gorman (Lionel Atwill) is a megalomaniac and is insanely jealous of his young wive Evelyn (Kathleen Burke “The Panther Woman”).  Worse he has a cruel, sadistic streak.  He and wife have just returned from a trip to the Orient where they collected animals for the zoo.  Despite Eric’s past horrific revenge on those who dare to come near her, Evelyn started a romance with Roger Hewitt (John Lodge) on the voyage home and has decided to leave Eric.  The body count mounts.

Simultaneously, we get the story of antivenin researcher Dr. Jack Woodward (Randolph Scott) and his fiance (Gail Patrick).  In addition, the zoo has hired Peter Yates (Charlie Ruggles) to publicize the new animals.  He attempts to do this despite the fact that he is plastered 100% of the time.

I don’t know why but Lionel Atwill always gives me the creeps.  He seems to relish performing these perverse characters just a little too much.  The horror parts are really solid.  The rest of the movie is the definition of mediocre.