Tag Archives: Hollywood

Café Metropole
Directed by Edward H. Griffith
Written by Jacques Deval from an original story by Gregory Ratoff
1937/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing

[box] Monsieur Victor Lobard: That’s the trouble with a flawless plan! There’s always a flaw in it![/box]

Russian raconteur Monsieur Victor (Adolphe Menjou) owns a nightclub in Paris and is deeply in debt.  He gambles the last francs he can get his hands on at baccarat and wins big.  Unfortunately, the loser is American Alexander Brown (Tyrone Power) who writes a bad check before declaring himself penniless.  Victor blackmails Alexander into masquerading as a Russian prince and wooing American heiress Laura Ridgeway (Loretta Young).  Despite Alexis’s terrible Russian accent, Laura is immediately smitten. With Charles Winniger as Laura’s father, Helen Westley as her aunt, and Gregory Ratoff as a waiter.

I enjoyed this comedy, chiefly for its script and the performances by Menjou and various character actors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Qz0gnA9rY

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in a scene deleted from the film (lost for 60 years)

Maytime
Directed  by Robert Z. Leonard
Written by Noel Langley based on an operetta by Rida Johnson Young
1937/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing

Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart
Though our paths may sever
To life’s last faint ember
Will you remember?
Springtime, lovetime, May
Springtime, lovetime, May — Lyric by Rida Johnson Young

I enjoyed 1937’s beautiful and romantic Jeanette Mac Donald/Nelson Eddy entry.

As the story opens elderly reclusive Miss Morrison (Mac Donald) is visiting a May Day celebration.  There she meets a young couple who are quarreling because the girl wants to pursue a career as an opera singer in New York while the boy wants her to stay home and marry.  Comforting the girl, Miss Morrison decides to break her silence about her own story.

Segue to Paris decades earlier, when Miss Morrison, then Marcia Mornay, was a budding prima donna.  Marcia dazzles Emperor Napoleon with her singing at a ball and her manager, Nicolai Nazaroff (John Barrymore), manages to convince an eminent composer to write an opera especially for her.  In gratitude, Marcia accepts Nazaroff’s proposal of marriage.  That same night, unable to sleep, Marcia takes a carriage ride through Paris. The carriage has an accident.  While she is waiting for another ride, she goes into a café where Paul Allison (Nelson Eddy) is singing.  Paul is a struggling voice student.  He falls in love with Marcia at first sight.

Marcia feebly tries to fend Paul off but when they go to a May Day festival they confess their love.  Marcia, however, feels obligated to Nazaroff and marries him.  I will stop my summary here but suffice it to say that this operetta has a rather operatic ending.

Jeanette MacDonald demonstrates her range as an actress in this film.  She is unrecognizable but very touching in her performance as old Miss Morrison.  I kept looking to see if it was really her.  Impressive.  Her voice is also at its height.  This is also a very beautiful film to look at.  The old-fashioned look of Belle-Epoque Paris is gorgeous.

John Barrymore is a bit of a let-down and I have some problems with the “choose love over career” message but overall I can recommend this film.

Per the IMDb, the producers filmed MacDonald and Eddy in Act II of Puccini’s Tosca.  The footage is apparently lost.  I would give anything to see this.  Obviously, however, the plot line of Tosca stabbing Scarpia wouldn’t have worked well in Maytime!   The fake “Czarita” opera love scene was substituted.

Maytime was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Sound, Recording and Best Music, Score.

The Prince and the Pauper
Directed by William Keighley
Written by Laird Doyle based on the novel by Mark Twain
1937/USA
First National Pictures/Warner Bros
Repeat viewing

[box] Prince Edward Tudor: Soldier of fortune. Strange profession.

Miles Hendon: Well, of the three of them for a gentleman without means I think it’s the most amusing. Cheating at cards means associating with dull people. Preaching the gospel means wearing one of those funny hats.[/box]

Despite its stellar cast, this dress rehearsal for The Adventures of Robin Hood goes on too long.

In an alternative reality, Henry VIII of England is on his death bed.  Edward, the spoiled Prince of Wales, enjoys playing with Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey and terrorizing the servants.  One day, he takes a walk in the palace grounds and discovers urchin Tom Canty being beaten by the guards.  He takes a liking to the lad and brings him inside.  They notice their uncanny resemblance to each other and, on a lark, switch clothes.  Edward goes out in Tom’s rags to fetch his dog and is nabbed by the guard who promptly eject him.

Edward is rescued from another beating at the hands of Tom’s father (Barton MacLane) by intrepid soldier of fortune Miles Hendon (Errol Flynn) and the two become friends. Meanwhile, Henry VIII dies with the imposter still in the castle.  Evil Earl of Hertford (Claude Rains) discovers the boy’s identity.  He uses the situation to get himself named High Protector, something that never would have been allowed by the real Edward who hates him, and sets out to eliminate the true King.  Can the boys be restored to their stations before Tom is crowned King?  With the Mauch Twins as Tom and Edward and Alan Hale as the Captain of the Guard.

This movie does not have nearly enough Errol Flynn, who does not appear until midway through the story.  The screen lights up when either he or Rains is on it then reverts to torpor during the many long scenes with the twins.  The coronation scene is particularly tedious.  The twins are actually not so bad — it is their material that could use some work. The film does boast a fine score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold and lavish art direction by Robert M. Haas.

Trailer

San Quentin
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Written by Peter Miller, Humphrey Cobb et al
1937/USA
First National Pictures/Warner Bros.
First viewing

[box] Tagline: Out Of The “Pen” . . . Into The Jaws Of Death ! . . .[/box]

Humphrey Bogart rescues this clichéd prison drama.

Lt. Druggin (Barton Keyes) rules the San Quentin prison yard with an iron hand, sending elderly deaf men to solitary just because they can’t hear his orders.  The prison board doesn’t like his methods, so they hire ex-Army trainer Capt. Stephen Jameson (Pat O’Brien) to restore order and win the hearts of the men.  Meanwhile, Jameson falls in love with May (Ann Sheridan), then discovers hardened convict ‘Red’ Kennedy (Humphrey Bogart) is her younger brother.  Jameson takes an interest in Red and he is sent on the coveted road gang duty.  The men resent the special treatment but Red resents Jameson’s involvement with his sister even more.

I thought this was over-earnest but Humphrey Bogart is always good.  The ending is an eye-roller.  It didn’t help that the DVD commentary was one of those blow-by-blow descriptions of what we can see for ourselves.

Re-release Trailer

Double Wedding
Directed by Richard Thorpe
Written by Jo Swerling based on a play by Ferenc Molnar
1937/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing

[box] Charles Lodge: Women don’t like noble, self-sacrificing men. Women are not civilized like we are. They like bloodshed. They like forceful men, like me.[/box]

I had never heard of this movie before, so it came as a delightful suprise.

Margit Agnew (Myrna Loy) is naturally bossy and has taken over her sister Irene’s life since their mother died.  Their mother selected milquetoast Waldo Beaver (John Beal) for Irene’s fiance and for four years he has been living with Margit and Irene without marrying.  Irene dreams of being an actress and she and Waldo have been working with some-time film director and bohemian painter Charles Lodge (William Powell).  Margit finds out and confronts Lodge but he does not scare easily.  Irene has become infatuated with Lodge and he uses the prospect of a marriage to see more of Margit.  With Jessie-Ralph as Margit’s free-thinking older friend and Edgar Kennedy as a bar owner.

I thought this was hilarious.  I laughed out loud many times at the dialogue and antics of the characters.  I especially enjoyed John Beal’s deadpan comedy turn. Oddly, he was a dramatic actor and I can’t find much more of him to watch.  Of course, Powell and Loy are fantastic. There’s some slapstick but mostly this relies on pure wit.  It’s in the screwball comedy vein but not too frenetic.  I don’t want to spoil more by going on but I really felt like I had discovered a gem.  Recommended.

Clip