Tag Archives: Hollywood

Another Thin Man
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
Written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett based on an original story by Dashiell Hammett
1939/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing; Netflix rental

[box] Nora Charles: How did you find me here?

Nick Charles: I saw a great group of men standing around a table. I knew there was only one woman in the world who could attract men like that. A woman with a lot of money.[/box]

The third installment in the “Thin Man” series had me grinning from beginning to end.

An embezzler (Sheldon Leonard) has threatened Col. MacFay (C. Aubrey Smith) with murder.  MacFay calls on retired detective Nick Charles (William Powell) to protect him. Charles is married to MacFay’s deceased partner’s daughter Nora (Myrna Loy).  The Charleses go out to MacFay’s Long Island estate with their baby and Asta in tow.  MacFay is rather swiftly murdered, Nick is the next recipient of threats, and the couple go into high gear on the investigation.  With Virginia Gray as MacFay’s daughter, Ruth Hussey as a nanny, and Otto Kruger as the  D.A.

A new baby does nothing to cramp Nick and Nora’s style or curb their drinking.  The murder mystery solution comes out of nowhere but getting there is enormous fun.  I especially liked Otto Kruger as the DA who accuses first and asks questions later.  I enjoyed this nearly as much as The Thin Man.

Trailer

The Old Maid
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Written by Casey Robinson based on the stage play by Zoe Akins and the novel by Edith Wharton
1939/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Charlotte Lovell: Oh, but you needn’t pity me. Because she’s really mine. If she considers me an old maid, it’s because I’ve deliberately made myself one in her eyes. I’ve done it from the beginning so she wouldn’t have the least suspicion. I’ve practised everything I’ve ever had to say to her, if it was important, so that I’d sound like an old maid aunt talking. Not her mother.[/box]

It’s not a bad movie but this tear-jerker did not particularly move me.

During the Civil War, Delia Lovell (Miriam Hopkins) is about to marry society luminary Jim Ralston.  As she is getting ready for the wedding, she learns that beau Clem Spender (George Brent) has returned from a two-year absence.  She is breaking a promise to marry him and her cousin Charlotte (Bette Davis) offers to break the news.  Unbeknownst to Delia, Charlotte is carrying a torch for Clem and after the wedding the two get together, apparently for one night of passion, before Clem goes off to war.

Segue to several years later and Charlotte is keeping a foundling home.  Her favorite foundling is named Clementine.  Charlotte is now engaged to Joe Ralston, Jim’s brother. The Ralston family keeps begging Charlotte to give up the home and sends Delia to persuade her to do so.  Charlotte adamantly refuses and Joe gives in.  But on the day of the wedding, in an apparent fit of insanity, Charlotte admits to Delia that Clementine is her daughter and Delia quickly guesses that the father was Clem, who was killed in the war. Delia is jealous and says she will tell Joe.  She does go to Joe and convinces him to call off the wedding, not because of the illegitimacy but because she claims Charlotte is too ill to marry.

After Delia is widowed, she invites Charlotte and Clementine to live with her.  The rest of the plot covers the sad saga as Clementine starts calling Delia mother and disrespecting her strict old maid Aunt Charlotte.  With Donald Crisp as a kindly doctor.

This is a well-made film and the acting is good, although I think Hopkins should have stuck with comedies.  My main problem with the film was the ending, which requires Delia to make a complete turnaround totally out of step with her previously established character.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfAtKFYy9EU

Trailer

Midnight
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett based on a story by Edwin Justis Mayer and Franz Schulz
1939/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Eve Peabody: Listen. Back in New York, whenever I managed to crash a party full of luscious big-hearted millionaires, there was always sure to be some snub-faced kid in the orchestra playing traps. And so at four in the morning, when the wise girls were skipping off to Connecticut to marry those millionaires, I’d be with him in some nightspot learning tricks on the kettledrum. And he always had a nose like yours.[/box]

A sterling cast and the Wilder-Brackett script makes this light-hearted romp a treat.

Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) arrives in Paris having lost her last sou in Monte Carlo. She bargains with taxi driver Tibor Czerny (Don Ameche) to take her around to look for jobs.  They quickly fall in love and Eve, who is scouting for a rich husband, flees.  She ends up crashing a society soiree posing as the “Baroness Czerny”.  She is spotted by Georges Flammarion (John Barrymore) whose wife Helene (Mary Astor) is having an affair with a young man. Flammarion pays Eve to lure the wealthy man away from Helene. The scheme is furthered during a weekend in the country.

In the meantime, Tibor has hired his cab driver cronies to scour Paris for Eve.  Just as Eve is about to be found out, Tibor shows up at the country house as the Baron Czerny and saves the day.  Or does he?   With Hedda Hopper as a society lady and Monte Wooley as a judge.

This may be Don Ameche’s best performance as a young man.  The witty dialogue suits him much better than his good guy roles in the Power-Faye films.  Everyone else is clicking on all cylinders – even poor John Barrymore who was actually on his last legs. According to the trivia, he was assisted by his wife and reading from cue cards by this time.  You wouldn’t have known.  The film makers also managed to expertly disguise Astor’s pregnancy.

According to IMDb, Leisen’s constant requests for re-writes on this picture sparked Wilder to campaign to direct his own scripts in self-defense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXvfPzBfoDM

Clip – at the hat shop – Colbert and Astor

A Christmas Carol
Directed by Edwin R. Marin
Written by Hugo Butler from a novel by Charles Dickens
1938/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing

[box] “Bah,” said Scrooge, “Humbug.” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol[/box]

Dickens’ classic Christmas story gets the MGM treatment.

Skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge (Reginald Owen) thinks Christmas is for fools until he is visited by his deceased partner’s ghost (Leo G. Carroll) and the Spirits of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come.  With Gene Lockhart as Bob Crachit.

This festive adaptation takes most of the scares, pathos, and interest out of the original.  I thought Reginald Owens’ Scrooge was converted much too easily.  I’m afraid I am an Alastair Sim purist when it comes to A Christmas Carol.

The DVD I received contained some interesting extras – “Jackie Cooper’s Christmas Party”  (1931), a kind of Christmas card from MGM with lots of its stars; Judy Garland singing “Silent Night” (1937); and “Peace on Earth” (1939), an anti-war Technicolor cartoon in which Grandpa Squirrel explains to the youngsters what “men” were and how they destroyed themselves.

Trailer

The Dawn Patrol
Directed by Edmund Goulding
Written by Seton I. Miller and Dan Totheroh from a story by John Monk Saunders
1938/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing

[box] Lt. ‘Scotty’ Scott: It’s a funny war.

Phipps: [sadly] No, not awfully.[/box]

I really enjoyed the acting in this all-male war film.

In 1915 France, Major Brand (Basil Rathbone) commands a unit of the Royal Fighting Corps.  He loses pilots on every mission and these are replaced by increasingly green recruits.  Flying aces Courtney (Errol Flynn) and Scott (David Niven) buck the odds and spend their evenings drinking and engaging in devil-may-care banter.  The mood darkens when Brand is promoted for a successful daring raid by Courtney.  Courtney then takes over the heavy task of executing the orders from the High Command straining relations with his former comrades.  With Donald Crisp as an aide-de-camp.

The story didn’t particularly stand out for me but I thought all the leads were fantastic.  It was nice to see Basil Rathbone without a sword in his hand.  The film makes a good contrast from the many heroic RAF WWII dramas that would come just a couple of years later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX_VLmyytXs

Trailer