Flickers in Time

Hot Saturday
Directed by William A. Seiter
Written by Seton I. Miller from a novel by Harvey Fergusson
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Ruth Brock: Immoral women shouldn’t work in banks, you know. They might corrupt the young dollar bills.

Fun movie with a stellar cast and a wonderful unexpected ending.

All the boys are after bank clerk Ruth Brock (Nancy Carroll).  She is playing the field.  She agrees to go to a Saturday dance out by a lake with one of the tellers.  Hunky millionaire Romer Sheffield (Cary Grant) stops by the bank one day, is immediately attracted to Ruth and lays it on heavy with the compliments.  He hears of the trip to Willow Springs and offers to treat all the young people to a party at his mansion with real liquor and everything. Ruth is still not buying what he’s selling.  Everybody goes out to the dance, a traditional part of which is a romantic boat ride.  Ruth’s date, already frustrated by her attention to Romer, insists on some petting.  Ruth runs away to Romer’s house.  She stays up talking with him until late and then his chauffeur takes her home at 2 a.m.

A particularly mean girl of her acquaintance and her date spread the news of Ruth’s late arrival home.  Before the local gossip mill is through playing “Telephone” she has spent the night with Romer.

When Ruth returns home she finds straight-arrow childhood sweetheart Bill Fadden (Randolph Scott) in her kitchen.  They talk over old times.  They spend the next day together and it ends with an accepted marriage proposal.  On Monday, Ruth is fired from her job at the bank for immorality.  Bill has gone off for a week to do a geological survey. Ruth’s mother (Jane Darwell) is outraged at her indiscretion.  Nancy runs away in the pouring rain to Bill’s encampment.  I will go no further except to say that the ending is great and was totally unexpected by me.

This one simply screams Pre-Code.  Grant and Scott so young and beautiful.  I really enjoyed it.  Perfect short fun romance.

The Virtuous Sin

Directed by George Cukor and Louis J. Glasier
Written by Martin Brown and Louise Long from a play by Lajos Zilahy
1930/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb Page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“We seem to be unable to resist overstating every aspect of ourselves: how long we are on the planet for, how much it matters what we achieve, how rare and unfair are our professional failures, how rife with misunderstandings are our relationships, how deep are our sorrows. Melodrama is individually always the order of the day.” ― Alain de Botton, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion

Well, everyone has to start somewhere, Mr. Cukor.  Pity it had to be this overwrought melodrama.

The story takes place in Russia at the time of the country’s entry into World War I. Lt. Victor Sabin (Kenneth McKenna) is a genius medical researcher on the brink of great discoveries. Marya (Kay Francis) admires him greatly. He is in love with her and asks her to marry him. She agrees to a marriage in name only and will assist him in his research. The two are genuinely filled with love – the problem is that hers is platonic.

At precisely the wrong time, Victor gets called up to duty in the Russian Army. He does not want to do this and delays his arrival to post several times. General Gregori Platoff (Walter Huston) is severely displeased and demotes him to janitorial duties. Then Victor talks back and he is court martialed and sentenced to death.

Marya goes to his post to try to rescue him. The only person with authority to call off the execution is the General. He patronizes the local brothel so Marya gets a job there with the intention of seducing him.  This works better than she expected.  What will he do when he finds out he has been duped?  What will Marya do when his passion overcomes her?

I never thought Walter Huston could give a bad performance but he manages it here.  In fact, all the actors go over the top.  The overwrought dialogue doesn’t help.  Francis does rock her rather weird Russian attire, so there’s that.  Very missable, though it did hold my interest for its hour and twenty minutes run time.

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Million Dollar Legs
Directed by Edward Cline
Written by Henry Myers and Nick Barrows from a story by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Opening Title Card: Klopstokia… a far away country – – Chief Exports… Goats and Nuts – – Chief Imports … Goats and Nuts – – Chief Inhabitants … Goats and Nuts

Paramount brought its leading comics together for this hour-long laughfest.

Klopstokia is a tiny bankrupt country who principal products and inhabitants are goats and nuts.  These days it is more bankrupt than usual.  Brush salesman Migg Tweeny (Jack Oakie) comes to town.  Angela (all the girls in Klopstokia are named Angela) and Migg immediately fall madly in love.  Angela (Susan Fleming) is the daughter of the President (W.C. Fields), who rules on the basis of his ability to win at arm wrestling with his Cabinet.

Klopstokia is full of unheralded athletes and Migg gets the bright idea of asking his company to pay a prize to each athlete that wins a medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.  Rebellious Members of Cabinet send spy Mata Machree (Lyda Roberti), the most irresistable woman in the world, with the team.  The idea is that she will seduce each in turn and destroy morale.

The plot, of course, is a device to hang a constant stream of sight gags and jokes.  These are silly but genuinely funny.  I had a smile on my face throughout.  Recommended.

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The Devil Is Driving
Directed by Benjamin Stoloff
Written by P.J. Wolfson, Allen Rivkin, and Louis Weitzenkorn from an orginal story by Frank Mitchell Dazey
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

All art is theft. — David Shields

Drama about the auto theft racket is too short to really develop characters or the story.

‘Beef’ Evans (James Gleason) is a family man who has an adorable little son.  He also is the manager of a bizarre auto theft racket, in which luxury cars are stolen then given a nice new paint job on the sixth floor of an eight-story building which also contains a parking garage and a speakeasy.  The nominal boss of the operation is Jenkins (Alan Dineheart) but the real brains and unquestioned leader is a very weird deaf mute.

Beef takes pity on his friend ‘Gabby’ Denton (Edmund Lowe) and gives him a job in the auto shop.  He does not reveal the criminal activity of the business.  Time marches on and Gabby is sweet talking Jenkins’s girlfriend ‘Silver’ (Wynne Gibson) who reciprocates. Jenkins is very jealous.  Beef’s son is hit by a car but survives.  Beef tries to find the culprits and is killed for it.  The rest of the movie is devoted to Gabby and Silver’s search for the killer.

This is certainly not a must see and has the flaws common to movies of this length in this era.  But I like Gleason and Lowe a lot and was entertained.

Tribute to character actor James Gleason

The Cheat
Directed by George Abbott
Harry Hervey from a silent film script by Hector Turbull
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

“If you must play, decide upon three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stake, and the quitting time.” – Chinese proverb

This solid melodrama features a rare film performance by Tallulah Bankhead with good acting all around.

Elsa Carlyle (Bankhead) is a compulsive gambler who is very in love with her husband Jeffrey (Harvey Stephens).  Hubby is a wheeler dealer in the business world.  He has a few projects pending and has asked Elsa to rein in her spending for a while.  This proves to be impossible for Elsa.  She loses $5,000 at the tables and offers her creditor a double or nothing bet on picking the high card from a deck.  She now owes him $10,000.  It as if the universe is trying to tell her something but she doesn’t listen.

She meets oriental art collector Hardy Livingston and he comes on to her strong.  The creditor starts pressing for his money.  Elsa steals the money from the charitable club of which she is treasurer.  But before paying of her debt, she invests the money in a “sure thing”.  Elsa is now $20,000 in debt.  The club doesn’t find out right away.

Hardy continues to make advances.  He talks her into wearing a very expensive jeweled Siamese costume to a party.  Finally, he offers to give her $10,000 if she will give him what he wants – and we all know what that is.  Will Elsa be able to break her losing streak?  I will stop here.  With Charles Middleton (Ming the Magnificent) as a defense attorney.

I really enjoyed this one, mainly for the acting.  It’s a strange story, originally made as a silent in 1915 by Cecil B. DeMille.  In the former film, the art collector part was played by Sessue Hayakawa and was an Burmese ivory trader.  I’m glad this one changed the race of the cad. Bankhead looks really beautiful. The film is currently available on YouTube for free.

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An American Tragedy
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Samuel Hoffenstein from the novel by Theodore Dreiser
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust. – John Webster

This is a case where the remake vastly surpasses the original.

If you have seen A Place in the Sun (1951), you will be familiar with the basic plot of this film.  Clyde Griffiths (Phillips Holmes) has been brought up in poverty by his parents who are missionaries.  He was a passenger in a car that hit and run, leaving a little girl dead. He flees taking many odd jobs until he applies for one with his wealthy uncle in Lycergus, New York. He becomes foreman of a shop of all female piece workers.

This is where he runs into Roberta Alden.  Although the company has a strict policy prohibiting relationships between management and labor, Phillips pursues Roberta.  She is a good girl but falls in love with him and he finally seduces her.

About this time, he meets Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee) an eligible high-society heiress. Clyde begins to move in high-class social circles.  He abruptly stops seeing Roberta. She waits a few weeks to inform him she is pregnant.  Phillips contemplates taking drastic action. The movie ends as a courtroom drama.

Sylvia Sidney, who plays the Shelley Winters part, is the best thing about this picture.  She is beautiful, charming, and pathetic when need be.  The relationship between Phillips Holmes and Frances Dee, who plays the Elizabeth Taylor part, is totally lacking in heat or chemistry.  You would not know von Sternberg directed this without reading the credits.  A curiosity.

Ladies’ Man
Directed by Lothar Mendes
Written by Herman J. Mankiewicz from a novel by Rupert Hughes
1931/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

‘The bigtime for you is just around the corner.’ They told me that first in 1952 – boy, it’s been a long corner. If I don’t hit the bigtime in the next 25 or 30 years, I’m gonna pack in the music business and become a full-time gigolo.– Ronnie Hawkins

Paramount could also be a glamor studio and this film shows off its stars.  Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote the snappy screenplay.

Jamie Darricott  (William Powell) is a man-about-town.  He finances his lavish lifestyle by romancing wealthy ladies who return the favor by giving him expensive jewelry originally given to them by their husbands.  Currently, Jamie is having an affair with the wife (Olive Tell) of a workaholic banker, who has little time for her.  Their daughter Rachel (Carole Lombard) is also crazy about Jamie and he takes up with her as well.  Rachel is extremely jealous and has marriage on the mind.

When Jamie meets Norma Page (Kay Francis) by chance at a party, everything changes. He rapidly falls in love with her.  In the meantime, the banker has found out about his wife’s affair.  How will Jamie extricate himself from his situation so he can marry Norma?  I was not expecting that ending!

This movie is only 70 minutes long, not nearly enough time to give it any time to really develop the characters.  But the gowns are to die for and the actors are all in their prime.  I enjoyed it.

Tribute to Kay Francis

The Cocoanuts
Directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santly
Written by Morrie Riskind from a stage play by George S. Kaufman
1929/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Criterion Channel

Hammer: Hello? Yes? Ice water in 318? Is that so? Where’d you get it? Oh, you want some.

The boys were still learning the ropes of the movie business but their film debut is one of my favorite of their films.

Mr. Hammer (Groucho Marx) is the owner of a hotel that is going down the drain fast.  amison (Zeppo Marx) helps him manage it..  Things look up with the arrival of the wealthy Mrs. Potter (Margaret Dumont) and her daughter Polly (Mary Eaton).  Polly is in love with hotel clerk Bob Adams (Oscar Shaw), an aspiring architect.  Mrs. Potter objects strongly to the match and wants Polly to marry Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring).  But unbeknownst to all Harvey is a conman who is scheming with equally bad Penelope Martin (Kay Francis) to steal Mrs. Potter’s $100,000 diamond necklace.

Hammer’s idea to save his hotel is to auction off swamp land for development.  Either that or to seduce Mrs. Potter.

Then Chico and Harpo arrive and create chaos everywhere they go.  All this is interrupted at random times with love duets and chorus numbers.

I laughed out loud several times, mostly during Groucho’s encounters with Margaret Dumont. How I love that woman! One of the great straight “men” of all times. This movie is heavy on the musical comedy. The songs aren’t too memorable.  I always enjoy Chico and Harpo’s performances on piano and harp and this movie has some dandies. The chorus girls are also unintentionally amusing – where did they ever find them and how did they improve so noticeably in just a few years? The Monkey Doodle Do number must be seen to be believed.  Recommended.

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The Criterion Channel is showing a series of films in its Pre-Code Paramount Collection in March.  These will probably be the next films I will cover.  The list is here.

Our Modern Maidens
Directed by Jack Conway
Written by Josephine Lovett, Marian Ainslee, and Ruth Cummings
1929/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Billie Brown: All together, children… what are *our* thoughts on leaving school?
The Girls: Men! Men! Men! Men! MEN!

Jazz age love quadrangle could have been better if someone had asked Joan Crawford to rein her performance in a little.

Billie Brown (Crawford) is the daughter of an immensely wealthy man.  As the film begins, she becomes engaged to Gil Jordan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.)., an ambitious diplomat.  They decide to keep the engagement secret.

Billie runs into hunky tycoon Glenn Abbott (Rod La Roque) on a train and decides to invite him to a huge house party she is hosting.  She wants to use her feminine wiles to get Glenn to use his influence to get Gil an assignment in Paris.  The party is wild, to say the least, complete with entertainment including imitations of famous actors by Gil and a bizarre interpretive dance by Billie.

Billie has invited her beautiful romance-novel-reading friend Kentucky (Anita Page) to live with her for the summer.  Kentucky falls madly in love with Gil and he doesn’t exactly object to her attentions.  In the meantime, Billie is going out with Glenn and he falls in love with her.  When her engagement to Gil is revealed, he is furious.  The bride, the groom, and the best friend are all miserable on the wedding day.

Joan Crawford is not a great favorite of mine and she was much too much in this movie.  She prances around like a flirtatious and precocious child.  Her dance solo must be seen to be believed.  Everybody else was good and the film has MGM glamor written all over it.

This was Crawford’s last silent movie.  She met Douglas Fairbanks Jr making this film and their real life wedding was highly publicized to promote the picture.