Part 90: 1935
MOVIES:
It Happened One Night (winner)
The Thin Man
Imitation of Life (hidden gem)
The Gay Divorcee
Here Comes the Navy
Cleopatra
Flirtation Walk
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
Viva Villa!
The House of Rothschild
One Night of Love
The White Parade
It Happened One Night
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas, Alan Hale, Arthur Hoyt, Blanche Friderici, Charles C. Wilson
Oscar Wins: Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), Best Writing (Adaptation), Best Director, Best Picture
Other Nominations: No other nominations.
The first film to win “The Big Five” (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Writing) at the Academy Awards wasn’t a drama. It wasn’t an epic. It wasn’t a war film, a biopic, a sports movie, or an adventure. It was a tiny little rom-com put out by Columbia Pictures at the start of 1934.
Directed by Frank Capra, It Happened One Night was quite the unexpected success. First off, it was near impossible to get a good cast. Claudette Colbert was far from the first, or the second, or the third choice for the female lead. She only agreed to join if they doubled her salary and wrapped filming in time for her to go on her winter ski trip. As for Clark Gable, he was contracted with MGM at the time but was essentially “banished” to Columbia (a lesser production studio) for having the nerve to ask for more money. Supposedly Gable’s first words on set were “let’s get this over with.” Colbert echoed his feelings when the movie wrapped, telling a friend “I just finished the worst picture in the world.”
Today, It Happened One Night is almost universally acknowledged as the GOAT when it comes to rom-coms. It set the bar in so many ways, still haunting all the romantic road trips, all the unlikely courtships, all the bickering, smitten couples that have come after. Its “Big Five” record wouldn’t be matched for more than 40 years, when One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) became the second film to win all five major awards. If you find yourself gravitating towards the enemies-to-lovers trope, the road trip trope, or any story that involves great bickering and banter, you have this film to thank.
The story follows Ellie Andrews (Colbert), whose father (Walter Connolly) disapproves of her wedding to “King” Westley (Jameson Thomas). “He’s a fake,” her father says, but he’s also a means to her freedom.
Intending to reconnect with Westley, Ellie escapes her father’s yacht and works her way to New York by bus. However, as is the case with many road trip comedies, there are complications…one of those complications is Peter Warne (Gable), a newspaper reporter who just lost his job. Ellie’s family is famous, and once Peter realizes who she is, he offers her a deal: He’ll help her get to New York if she gives him an exclusive on the story.
Along the way, the two have a series of mishaps…but they never fail to entertain! There’s a great scene where Ellie teaches Peter how to hitchhike and another when the bus they’re on breaks out into song. In due course, Ellie soon forgets why she married Westley and Peter begins to overlook Ellie’s brattish tendencies. This letting down of the walls, so to speak, opens the door for romance in all the best ways possible.
And that’s the rhythm of It Happened One Night…a dance of folly and banter. The back-and-forth between Ellie and Peter is lust. It’s spicy and sexy and full of inuendo. And they each hold their own quite well. The banter is never mocking – it’s a seesaw, not a slingshot…and that’s what makes it so utterly enjoyable.
In a movie that has a cast of basically two people, the writing has to shine – and the writing here still feels fresh and fun more than 90 years later. For example, there’s a great part when Peter is schooling Ellie on how to dunk a donut into her coffee. Her dunks are slow and steady, but his are quick and speedy. You can’t let the donut get soggy, after all! These conversations about everyday minutiae have almost a Seinfeld feel to them. It’s not hard to imagine Peter saying something like, “Oh, you’re a soggy dunker!” ala Jerry or George.
There’s another great scene where Peter shows Ellie how men get undressed. It’s perfectly choreographed and extremely Seinfeld-y, showing the correct order clothes must come off. It’s easily one of the best scenes in the film, and one what would have certainly been nixed if It Happened One Night came out just six months later.
Released in the beginning of 1934, It Happened One Night is one of the final films not affected by the Hays Code, which went into full force in July of the same year. Had this movie come out in the summer instead, it would probably have been a very different movie, with the code most likely putting the kibosh on the entire idea of an unmarried man and woman spending several nights together, sometimes in the same hotel room. The same goes for Shapely (Roscoe Karns), the fast-talking bus rider with lines like, “Shapley’s the name and that’s how I like ‘em!” or “When a cold mama gets hot, boy, she sizzles!”
One of the main reasons It Happened One Night is still so good is that it’s simple…and it does simple really well. It’s like a great chocolate chip cookie. Sure, the ingredients are easy…but making sure all those pieces come together in just the right way – that’s the hard part.
It Happened One Night has had an immeasurable effect on the romantic comedy genre, which has paid homage to and spoofed this classic countless times. Whenever a character uses their sex appeal to stop a passing car, whenever a sheet is used to separate a bedroom, whenever life on the road provides a life-altering experience, whenever a bride changes her mind at the last minute, and whenever two enemies fall in love, It Happened One Night is among the influences. Even today, it remains both a mirror and a measuring stick – not only for all subsequent romantic comedies, but also for all lovers who have come after Peter and Ellie and dream of a similar union of bodies, wits and fates.
The Thin Man
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Starring: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall, Henry Wadsworth, William Henry, Harold Huber, Cesar Romero, Natalie Moorhead, Edward Brophy, Edward Ellis, Skippy the Dog, Cyril Thornton
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actor (William Powell), Best Writing (Adaptation), Best Director, Best Picture
As the owner of a wire fox terrier, the question I’m most often asked is, “is that an Asta dog?” While I first knew the infamous Asta from The Awful Truth, most people know him from The Thin Man, a murder mystery in which the murder and the mystery are insignificant compared to the banter and the drinking.
“The important thing is the rhythm,” Nick Charles (William Powell) says, cocktail shaker in hand. “You always have rhythm in your shaking. Now, a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time. A Bronx, to two-step time. But a dry martini you always shake to waltz time.”
A few minutes later, he’s joined by his wife Nora (Myrna Loy) and their wire fox terrier. She asks him how much he’s had to drink, and he says he’s on his sixth martini. As she downs her first, she orders five more, just to keep up.
Witty, sophisticated, and pleasantly pickled, Nick and Nora would sleuth their way through a total of six Thin Man films. Together they subverted the classic detective film and presented a fun, modern version of marriage as an association of equals. They were also cinema’s most glamorous dipsomaniacs, a reminder of a bygone era when charm, taste, and good humor went hand-in-hand with copious amounts of alcohol.
But, no matter how much they consumed, Nick and Nora were never inebriated. The drinks are the lubricant for dialogue of elegant wit and wicked timing. After Nick and Nora face down an armed intruder in their apartment one night, they read about it in the morning papers. “I was shot twice in the Tribune,” Nick observes. “I read you were shot five times in the tabloids,” says Nora. “It’s not true,” he replies. “He didn’t come anywhere near my tabloids.”
For all intents and purposes, The Thin Man is a murder mystery set during the Christmas season…and it technically does provide clues, suspects, and a solution to a series of murders, but the main plot of the movie is just watching Nick and Nora verbally dance with each other, with elegant people in luxury hotel penthouses and no hint of the Depression anywhere in sight. It’s actually less of a detective story and more of a comedy set against a backdrop of murder.
The story itself is so preposterous that no reasonable viewer can follow it, and the movie makes little effort to require that it be followed. Nick often just stands in the middle of something with a drink in his hand, nodding as if he understands everything being said. When a reporter asks what he knows about the murder case, Nick replies, “It’s putting me way behind in my drinking.”
Nick Charles is a former police detective of considerable fame who has retired in order to “manage” (spend) his wife’s inheritance money. He has little desire to return to crime-solving, but after an acquaintance is murdered, he finds himself back in the heat of it, much to Nora’s delight. Together with their dog, Asta (Skippy), Nick and Nora work to put the clues together, revealing the murderer in a grandiose dinner scene at the end of the film.
One of the movie’s charms is the playfulness with which Nick and Nora treat each other. Ever bantering and flirtatious, Nick and Nora are unsaddled by the typical responsibilities and concerns inherent to movie marriages: there are no children, infidelities, financial constraints, or domestic troubles of any kind. They remain unshakeable in their playful adoration of one another, with their primary concerns centered around their dog and maintaining their party lifestyle.
Most of that is thanks to Powell and Loy’s actual off-screen friendship. The two would make 16 movies together and have an easy-going chemistry that radiates off of them. Their banter seems both true and natural, showing us a couple that are both lovers and friends.
In addition to the witty dialogue, The Thin Man also contains quite a bit of physical comedy, mostly centered around Asta the dog. In true terrier fashion, this pup steals the show. His reaction shots and behavior are often so funny that it distracts us from the details of the case unfolding in the dialogue. Skippy’s performance as Asta in The Thin Man helped popularize wire fox terriers for the next several decades. Skippy became so popular that he was earning $200 a week, more than his trainer! In fact, so many people called him Asta after seeing him in The Thin Man that his name was eventually changed to Asta. He’d continue staring in a few other popular films, including The Awful Truth and Bringing Up Baby.
At the end of the day, The Thin Man isn’t about murder or mystery...t’s about having fun. For audiences in the middle of the Depression, The Thin Man – like the musicals of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – was pure escapism. Beautiful people in expensive surroundings make small talk all day long, without a care in the world, and murder is nothing but an amusing diversion.
Imitation of Life
Director: John M. Stahl
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Rochelle Hudson, Ned Sparks, Louise Beavers, Fredi Washington, Dorothy Black, Juanita Quigley, Marilyn Knowlden, Alan Hale, Henry Armetta, Wyndham Standing, Jane Withers
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Assistant Director (Scott Beal), Best Sound Recording, Best Picture
After the death of her husband, Beatrice Pullman (Claudette Colbert) is struggling to make ends meet. The once stay-at-home mother has now found herself head of the household, having to not only manage her husband’s maple syrup business, but a feisty toddler as well.
One morning, Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers) knocks on her door, confusing addresses for a place she wanted to work as a domestic. Seeing the chaos inside Beatrice’s house, she swoops in and helps out. The women take an instant liking to each other, and Delilah offers to stay and help, but Beatrice doesn’t have the funds to pay her. Delilah says don’t worry – if Beatrice will agree to house and feed Delilah and her young daughter, Peola, she will work for free. Beatrice agrees.
The next morning, Delilah wakes the house with her famous pancake recipe. Suddenly a lightbulb goes off in Beatrice’s head. What goes better with pancakes than maple syrup? She heads down to the Atlantic City boardwalk and puts the pieces in motion to open a pancake restaurant. Delilah will work as the head chef, selling both her famous pancakes and Beatrice’s syrup on the side.
How Delilah feels about it doesn’t really factor into the equation – but she does exactly what’s expected of her and goes along with it. In no time, Delilah’s hot cakes sell like, well, hot cakes…and the two women hit it big. When an opportunity arises to expand the business with a packaging deal, Delilah’s big, hammy face lights up the billboards across the city on her very own pre-packaged pancake mix.
If only their personal lives were that easy.
Though Beatrice’s daughter Jessie (Rochelle Hudson) and Delilah’s daughter Peola (Fredi Washington) grew up together, Peola has a far harder time accepting her life. With skin so light she could pass as white, Peola’s desire to assume her perceived “whiteness” grows stronger by the day.
Obviously, this breaks Delilah’s heart. Mother and daughter can’t agree on anything. Where Delilah sees subservience as her life’s duty, Peola sees privilege and acceptance just inches from her grasp. She even goes so far as to drop out of college and get a job at a cigar shop where she can pretend to be white and “normal”.
Though Delilah was also instrumental in Beatrice’s success, lending her recipe – and her likeness – to the brand, Delilah still occupies a windowless servant’s quarters in Beatrice’s swanky new home. But Delilah sees no problem with it or, more to the point, thinks the “problem” of race is out of her hands (more on that in a minute). Delilah’s willingness to be whatever Beatrice wants her to be is an understandable affront to her daughter, and Peola can’t quite understand how Delilah can tell her to be proud of her heritage yet not show any Black pride herself.
What makes things even more complicated is that Delilah believes God made folks black and white for a reason and that it’s nobody’s place to question that decision. The film treats Delilah as if she was ignorant of the reasons why she suffers, even proclaiming at one point, “I don’t know where the blame lies”. In one scene, the two women – now wealthier than I ever thought you could be selling pancakes – relax after a party celebrating their success…a party Delilah was not allowed to attend, by the way. As they chit chat and bond as girlfriends tend to do, Delilah still takes it upon herself to rub Beatrice’s feet. Though Beatrice tells her time and again that she doesn’t have to do that, Delilah insists. Later that night, Beatrice walks upstairs, Delilah walks downstairs. Though Beatrice almost always treats her like an equal, even giving her a 20% stake in the business, Delilah doesn’t know how to have that kind of friendship with Beatrice. When Beatrice offers to help Delilah get a place of her own, Delilah’s offended – after all, she’s Beatrice’s maid and cook and that’s all she wants to do. It’s a sad, somber realization.
As for Beatrice, her side story is much less interesting. She entertains a romance with an older man, then has to deal with her daughter Jessie developing feelings for him as well. It’s all very Mildred Pierce.
I will say, I did like how Imitation of Life showcased a deep, lasting friendship and business partnership between a white and a black woman, even affording the black character almost as much screen time as the white one…not bad for 1934. Society’s color barrier certainly constricts their actions and habits within the story’s framework – and the film doesn’t shrink from pointing out the injustices – but it never interferes with their friendship, which is both natural and touching.
But most of all, Imitation of Life offers us a lovely story about friendship and motherhood. It proves that people, regardless of skin color or stature, can bond over the shared experiences of raising children, dealing with loss, and eating pancakes.
The Gay Divorcee
Director: Mark Sandrich
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore, William Austin, Charles Coleman, Lillian Miles, Betty Grable
Oscar Wins: Best Music (Song) ("The Continental")
Other Nominations: Best Music (Scoring), Best Sound Recording, Best Art Direction, Best Picture
The Gay Divorcee was a Fred and Ginger movie made before Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were “Fred and Ginger”. It was the first film they made as romantic leads, and it cemented their incredible screen partnership that saw them dance together in ten movies throughout their careers.
Like most of their movie musicals, the plot of The Gay Divorcee is totally ludicrous. Essentially Mimi (Rogers) is in London seeking a divorce, where Guy (Astaire), a dancer, helps her when her skirt gets stuck in her travel trunk. Inevitably, he rips her dress and offers her his coat to help cover her up…but the damage is already done. She finds him incredibly annoying.
But Guy is oblivious and eats up any opportunity to talk to her, even trying to hunt her down in a city of millions of people with the song, “Needle in a Haystack”. Eventually he legit just crashes into her when his car rear-ends her at a traffic light. Once she notices that it’s Guy, she drives off, trying to outrun him…but he follows her, blocking her in when she approaches a dead-end road in the middle of the woods. Remember the days when you could stalk a girl who was openly trying to hide from you and it was considered charming? Ahh, the golden age of Hollywood…
The two continue to dance in and out of each other’s life (both literally and figuratively) until their first dance number together, set to Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”. It’s the closest this movie could get to something steamy and romantic, with the Hays Code taking all the naughty fun out of the script and choreography. Yet Ginger Rogers still ends the scene with her toes flexed, her back arched and a cigarette in her mouth. Clearly that finish got through the code sensors just fine.
By the time the film gets to the nearly 20-minute performance of “The Continental”, Fred and Ginger seem like two grains of rice in a boiling pot. With tons of characters coming and going and no integration of storylines, the film ends with a Busbey Burkley-like production number that involves a cast of hundreds moving in and out of buildings, dancing up and down streets, and swirling through revolving doors. Cool in theory but doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the movie.
The Gay Divorcee came out about three months after the Hays Code became enforced in 1934, and it’s easy to tell. While there are still a few innuendos that slip through the cracks, a lot of the steamy stuff has been toned down with little to no romance in sight.
That’s mostly because Mimi is so freaking unpleasant. She seems constantly in a bad mood, which makes sense for a character seeking divorce, not so much for someone in a light-hearted comedy in which she is literally supposed to be a gay divorcee. Her vivaciousness is gone and all we’re left with is a woman who seems to lack free will and must be effortlessly won and seduced. She does no seduction on her own and, in fact, spends most of the movie trying to lose Guy rather than win him over.
We also don’t really know WHY Mimi even wants a divorce – and why she’s willing to take some pretty risqué steps to get one. And since the plot of this movie is already so convoluted, it just comes off like an absence of character development and adds yet another tick under her unlikeable qualities.
Guy really isn’t that much better. Because Mimi can’t be shown to be complicit in her own seduction due to the fact that she’s technically still married (until her husband grants her that damn divorce, that is), Guy has to do all the work, chasing after Mimi in a desperate attempt to win any affection at all.
The Gay Divorcee was based on the Broadway show called The Gay Divorce, but the censors were worried that it would indicate that the process of divorce could be a happy, jubilant one. Instead, it was mandated that the movie add that extra “e” as a way to say that getting a divorce may not be fun, but you could certainly have a lot of fun doing it! I just wish it actually looked like they both were having fun!
Here Comes the Navy
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Starring: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Gloria Stuart, Frank McHugh, Dorothy Tree, Willard Robertson, Eddie Acuff, George Irving, Sam McDaniel, Fred "Snowflake" Toones, Niles Welch, Leo White, Howard Hickman, Chuck Hamilton, Eddy Chandler, Joseph Crehan, Ida Darling, Edward Earle, Maude Eburne, Robert Emmett
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Picture
I think we can all guess what kind of movie we’re gonna get when the main characters are named Chesty, Biff and Droopy…
With a little bit humor and a little bit romance, Here Comes the Navy was certainly a recruitment booster for the Naval forces. Starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien in the first of their many films together, Here Comes the Navy put a humorous twist on recruitment, telling the story of a man who enlists not because he’s proud of his country, but because he wants to punch someone in the face.
Boastful and stubborn, “Chesty” (Cagney) may salute the flag, but he doesn’t respect it, or those in uniform, or any form of order or discipline. In other words, he’s the perfect prodigal hero. While hanging out with his construction worker friends, Chesty picks a fight with Chief Petty Officer “Biff” Martin (O’Brien) and the two men almost get into a fist fight then and there.
Later, Biff sees Chesty at a dance with his girl, Gladys (Dorothy Tree). To get back at him, Biff picks a fight with him, knocks him out and stealing Gladys. Chesty is so angry, he decides to enlist in the Navy to get back at Biff…however; no one told him about the 90-day training period, nor the fact that it’s highly unlikely he’ll even be assigned to Biff’s ship: The U.S.S. Arizona.
But Chesty O’Connor is Irish and – therefore – stubborn. While in basic training, he meets Droopy (Frank McHugh) and the two become fast friends. And, wouldn’t you know it, when training is over, they’re both assigned to the U.S.S. Arizona!
One day while swabbing the deck, Chesty sees a pretty girl come on board to visit Biff. Thinking she’s Biff’s girl, he goes out of his way to woo her and steal her affections. But he gets more than he bargained for. Not only does he actually fall in love with Dorothy (Gloria Stewart), he quickly learns that she is not Biff’s girlfriend, but his sister.
The rest of the film follows the continuing conflict between Chesty and Biff, Chesty’s efforts to get out of the Navy so he can be with Dorothy, and her desire to see Chesty excel in the military. Along the way, Chesty does everything against protocol. He gets court-marshalled for going AWOL; he rejects the Navy, Biff’s offer of peace, Droopy’s friendship, and Dorothy’s love. He even rejects the Navy Cross Medal, which is awarded to him for risking his life to put out a fire in a gun room. His fellow sailors shun him and he is eventually transferred to the airship of the US Naval Air Service, The U.S.S. Macon.
But every bad boy gets his saving grace. This is the 1930s after all! When the Macon, a giant blimp, tries to dock, Biff gets caught on a guide rope and is hoisted up into the air. Disobeying orders once again, Chesty puts his own life at risk to save him, eventually parachuting them both to the ground where Dorothy is waiting to fawn over them both. Because of his bravery, Chesty is transferred back to the regular Navy with a new promotion from the President of the United States: Boatswain of the Arizona – a position that outranks Biff’s. Now Biff reports to Chesty.
And just like that, everything is right with the world. Chesty and Dorothy reconnect and get married, though he and Biff almost come to blows at the wedding – but it’s funny because they’re brothers now!
All in all, Here Comes the Navy is a good time. Sure, there are some icky moments. James Cagney does sport blackface. But all things considered, this is one of the more enjoyable recruitment-era comedies. It was also produced with the full cooperation of the US Navy, so it’s not surprising that it feels like a recruiting film. The sailors are all happy to do their part (with skeptical Chesty risking his life twice) and the commanding officers are all tough but fair. Military propaganda at its best.
Here Comes the Navy is also a bit of a time capsule, showcasing not one – but two – doomed vessels. The U.S.S. Arizona, which was where a majority of the movie was filmed, would be sunk just seven years later during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And the large Macon blimp would be destroyed in a crash the following year.
Though Here Comes the Navy hasn’t quite found its way to any top 10 lists of best military movies, or best movies about the Navy, or even best James Cagney films, I still had a lot of fun watching it. FUN FACT! Gloria Stewart, who played Dorothy, would also find a spot on another cursed ship: the Titanic. You can see her 60 years later as old Rose in James Cameron’s epic film.
Cleopatra
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Henry Wilcoxon, Joseph Schildkraut, Ian Keith, Gertrude Michael, C. Aubrey Smith, Irving Pichel, Arthur Hole, Edwin Maxwell, Ian MacIaren, Eleanor Phelps, Leonard Mudie, Grace Durkin, Ferinand Gottschalk, Claudia Dell, Harry Beresford, Jayne Regan, William Farnum, Lionel Barrymore, Florence Roberts, Richard Alexander, Celia Ryland, William V. Mong, Robert Warwick, George Walsh, Jack Rutherford, Kenneth Gibson, Wedgewood Nowell, Bruce Warren, Robert Seiter, Edgar Dearing
Oscar Wins: Best Cinematography
Other Nominations: Best Sound Recording, Best Film Editing, Best Assistant Director (Cullen Tate), Best Picture
Claudette Colbert had quite the year in 1934. Not only did she score a Best Actress win for her performance in It Happened One Night, but three of her films that year were nominated for Best Picture: Imitation of Life, It Happened One Night, and Cleopatra, a sexy, swanky, art-deco-esque epic directed by the king of “bigger is better”: Cecil B. DeMille.
While It Happened One Night would become historic in its own right – being the first film ever to win all five big Oscar awards – Cleopatra cemented Colbert as an icon of the industry, showcasing plenty of flesh, humor and drama. The film sparkles with the luster and showmanship of Hollywood’s golden age, with most of DeMille’s budget being spent on sets and costumes…or lack thereof. Colbert’s sexy, skimpy outfits oozed sex appeal in her portrayal of the infamous Queen of Egypt and one of history’s most enigmatic figures.
The 1934 version of Cleopatra is essentially the Reader’s Digest version of the insanely long 1965 version, starring Elizabeth Taylor. Cleopatra (Colbert), authoritative, imperious, and clad in the best-looking eyebrows I’ve ever seen (what eyebrow technology did they have in 48BC?!), is fighting for control of Egypt against her brother.
While he intends to sign a pact with Rome and Julius Caesar (Warren William) for peaceful entry into the Roman Empire, Cleopatra uses her feminine wiles to beguile Caesar instead and, wouldn’t you know it, men are men no matter the time and place!
This leads to unrest back in Rome, as discontented politicians begin to sprout false rumors that Caesar has grown soft under the bosom of a foreign queen.
But, as we all know, that doesn’t last long. Caesar is eventually stabbed to death by every member of the Roman Senate, forcing Cleopatra to return to Egypt where she takes an interest in famed woman-hater Marc Antony (Henry Wilcoxon) instead. The pair fall into a quick romance, which begins on Cleopatra’s pleasure barge.
This boat (which is something like those tents in Harry Potter where the interior makes NO SENSE when you look at the exterior) is filled with all manner of scantily clad ladies and dancers inside. Some are even dressed in skin tight leopard skin and are encouraged to engage in literal cat fights for everyone’s entertainment. All the while, Cleopatra reclines on a silk-covered bed, flashing her big, doe eyes at Marc Antony. No wonder the randy man finds himself going all-in on Egypt.
From here, it’s your average Romeo and Juliet story. Marc Antony is obsessed with Cleopatra, but mistakenly believes that she’s betrayed him – so he decides to kill himself rather than be taken prisoner by her. Upon learning of his death, Cleopatra forces a deadly snake to bite her, and she too succumbs to tragic fate.
Although this was not the first film to portray the famous queen, DeMille’s Cleopatra is one of the better ones. Elizabeth Taylor may remain the definitive actress to play the part, but Claudette Colbert surely is the sexiest, with her dark, sultry features and skimpy costumes a far cry from the more formidable Taylor. Colbert’s smart and sexually confident Cleopatra is a fast-talking dame who wouldn’t be out of place sipping a cocktail at some Egyptian speakeasy.
This version, which is also a quarter of the runtime of the Elizabeth Taylor epic, might lack depth, but it does a good job of tapping into the well-known story points and offers amazing costumes and set designs for us to admire along the way. And really, what more could you ask for from a movie about Egyptian history? It knows why its audience is here. It sets up the politics quickly, introduces everyone with little fanfare, then sets about showcasing the production in a way that’s both entertaining and engaging. True cinematic spectacle at its best.
Flirtation Walk
Director: Frank Borzage
Starring: Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Pat O'Brien, Ross Alexander, John Arledge, John Eldredge, Henry O'Neill, Guinn Williams, Frederick Burton, John Darrow, Glen Boles
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Sound Recording, Best Picture
Soldier Dick “Canary” Dorcy (Dick Powell) is new to army life…and he’s certainly making the most of his enlistment. He’s been stationed in Hawaii, where he gets to hang out on the beach and go to luaus; he has a wonderful friend and mentor in Sgt. Scrapper Thornhill (Pat O’Brien); and, since it’s 1934, he doesn’t have to worry about going to war for another seven years. His nickname comes from the fact that he loves to whistle and sing. Seems life is just easy, breezy, lemon squeezy for ol’ Dick Dorcy!
But things get slightly more complicated when Dick falls for the General’s daughter.
Kit Fitts (Ruby Keeler) is a sassy little lass who’s scouring her father’s regiment for a husband. Her father (Henry O’Neill) is none too amused about his daughter having a romance with just any enlisted man. He would prefer his daughter to wed his aide, Lt. Biddle (John Eldredge), but Kit falls hard for the crooning canary instead.
Dick is told to stay away from Kit, but nothing can stop true love! He makes a plan to run off with her, but not before Scrapper confesses to Kit that Dick is about to throw everything away to be with her. Not wanting to get him in trouble, Kit pretends that she never felt anything for Dick, a move that encourages Dick to apply for admission to West Point in order to prove that he’s indeed worth marrying.
Bidding adieu to Hawaii, Dick heads to the mainland, where he actually does quite well at West Point. He’s even put in charge of producing, writing, and directing West Point’s annual theatrical production…because of course! But when General Fitts arrives to serve as superintendent, life for Dick gets slightly more complicated – especially with Kit and Lt. Biddle in tow.
Flirtation Walk is a mediocre but forgettable movie. The performances aren’t interesting, the music is forgettable and nothing about the story or the songs make much of an impression. Those who are into military history might get a kick out of the fact that it was filmed on location at West Point but, for the vast majority of us, this is just one more forgettable musical romance.
Honestly the most interesting part of Flirtation Walk was that, like most musicals, it didn’t even attempt to be realistic when it came to Dick’s theatrical productions. It was HUGE…like, clearly West Point has a Hollywood-level production budget.
Other than that, I was hard-pressed to find much of anything redeeming about Flirtation Walk. It was clearly meant to capitalize on the popularity of its leads, who would go on to star in several more films together. Weirdly this “musical” didn’t even offer one song until half-way through the movie…but by that point, the damage had already been done. The second half may have a somewhat more redeeming quality, but it’s not even worth trudging through the muck to get there.
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
Director: Sidney Franklin
Starring: Norma Shearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, Katharine Alexander, Ralph Forbes, Marion Clayton, Ian Wolfe, Ferdinand Munier, Una O'Connor, Leo G. Carroll, Vernon Downing, Neville Clark, Matthew Smith, Robert Carlton, Allan Conrad, Peter Hobbes
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Actress (Norma Shearer), Best Picture
Elizabeth Barrett (Norma Shearer) has been stuck on her couch for the past six years. Barely interested in leaving her room, let alone going outside, Elizabeth is a homebound invalid who finds solstice in writing secret poetry and letters to fellow poet and romantic, Robert Browning (Fredric March).
Her large family – two sisters and six brothers – all dote on her, but there’s an ugly center to the household: the tyrannical father, Edward (Charles Laughton). Manipulative, domineering and utterly ruthless, Edward has forbidden his children from marrying, flirting, or even leaving the house, seeing their affection for others as a betrayal of their love for him.
Elizabeth’s flirtatious letters with Robert come to a head when he suddenly shows up on her doorstep, demanding to see her. As their relationship blossoms, Elizabeth is trapped between her fondness for the kind, well-endowed Browning and the lustful wrath of her father.
In movies like this, it only stands to reason that a man as wicked as Edward would also be fueled by an incestuous love for his daughter. While the Hays code toned it down quite a bit, there are still some scenes that speak to Edward’s obsession with the female relatives that surround him. For example, when Elizabeth’s cousin, Bella (Marion Clayton) comes to shower Edward with affection by sitting on his lap, he indulges in it before immediately jumping out of his chair to prevent her from noticing his sudden arousal.
Laughton, as expected, gives an incredible performance here, brilliantly lacing self-importance with hurtful remarks. He often puts himself and God together as equals in his phrasings and knows just how and when to undermine the self-confidence of his children, setting out to ruin any happiness that they may seek to discover outside the home.
When Elizabeth’s sister, Henrietta (Maureen O’Sullivan) finds love with a young man and asks her father to go be with him, he demonizes her, making her swear on her late mother’s Bible never to see or communicate with him again. “Is it nothing to you that I shall hate you for this to the end of my life?” she asks. Edward, cold and calculating, stares her dead in the eyes. “Less than nothing,” he replies.
Although Henrietta attempts to explain to her father that she wants a love like he and her mother shared, Edward later explains to Elizabeth in secret that sexual love has ruled over him his entire life…even insinuating that his wife was raped by him to produce almost all of their children. He also explains that Elizabeth is his favorite child because she was the only one conceived when love was mutual between him and her mother. Calling Dr. Phil!
Though this running storyline with Edward is highly disturbing, it’s needed to bring at least some drama into this otherwise pretty basic literary romance. The final twist is a good one, allowing us – for just the briefest moment – to peak beneath Edward’s cruelty, almost empathizing with what he’s lost and his now complete inability to love things for what they are. Then the film reverses it at the last moment, again revealing how cruelty is twisted up within him, unable to let go.
Viva Villa!
Director: Jack Conway
Starring: Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo, Fay Wray, Donald Cook, Stuart Erwin, Henry B. Walthall, Joseph Schildkraut, Katherine DeMille, George E. Stone, Phillip Cooper, David Durand, Frank Puglia, Ralph Bushman, Adrian Rosley, Henry Armetta
Oscar Wins: Best Assistant Director (John Waters)
Other Nominations: Best Writing (Adaptation), Best Sound Recording, Best Picture
There’s a scene in John Ford’s film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, where a newspaper man says, “This is the west, sir, and when legend becomes fact, print the legend.” It seems the screenwriters of Viva Villa! also took that advice.
Viva Villa! presents a highly fictionalized version of the life of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Though not historically accurate, it’s still a somewhat entertaining film, presenting – in its own way – the truth about what it means to be oppressed and when it’s time to rise up against it.
After seeing his father murdered by a wealthy landowner, young Pancho Villa (Phillip Cooper) kills that landowner and flees into the night.
Decades pass and now the adult Pancho Villa (Wallace Beery) has become a bandit, taking on the powerful thugs of Mexico with his amigo, Don Felipe (Donald Cook) and Don’s sister, Teresa (Fay Wray), who also happens to be quite the looker, at least according to Villa.
As much as Villa may want it, there’s to be no romance between himself and Teresa for several reasons. First off, Villa is married – though exactly to how many women is a subject for debate. Secondly, Teresa has already been warned not to interact with Villa by American reporter, Jonny Sykes (Stuart Erwin), who warns her not to wave at him because that will queue him to make his move.
There’s also the little problem of the Mexican Revolution, which has occupied quite a bit of Villa’s time. Passionate about wanting to improve the life of his fellow Mexican hermanos, Villa and his merry band of misfits work to overthrow the Mexican dictator and MAKE MEXICO GREAT AGAIN.
As a general, Villa’s leadership style is…weird. He usually just crashes into a room and orders people to “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” He has the subtlety of an ox but is humble at his own accomplishments (save when it comes to getting women to marry him). This inspires loyalty…and ruthlessness. Villa’s rough edges are softened by his laughable comedic timing. We may find his antics funny, but they also cause him to be pushed out of both the revolution and Mexico itself.
Everything comes to a head when Villa hears of the assassination of one of his friends back home. Now it’s up to Pancho Villa to restore the revolution and punish those who murdered his friend – all at the risk of losing it all.
In reading the synopsis – or even just looking at the poster of the movie – it would shock no one that Viva Villa! is widely inaccurate from a historical perspective. Villa, for example, was never President of Mexico, as the movie claimed. And several of the actions taken against him were most likely political rather than personal.
But it doesn’t seem like Viva Villa! was as interested in telling the true story as it was in telling a fun one. The real events surrounding Pancho Villa had just happened in 1923 – a mere nine years before this movie premiered – so everyone knew the truth at the time. Instead, Viva Villa! embraces its legendary hero, even claiming that the film is “…fiction woven out of truth and inspired by a love of the half-legendary Pancho and the glamourous country he served” at the beginning of the film.
Pancho Villa became a legend in his own time…and this movie is very much a part of that time. It was the highest grossing film of 1934 yet is hardly even mentioned in cinematic conversations today. Why?
It seems Viva Villa! promised the audiences of the time a certain degree of hope. After the social upheaval caused by the beginning of the Great Depression, the idea of a dictatorship in the US wasn’t far from the realm of possibility. Americans saw people like Pancho as a kind of righteous leader who would take no prisoners…who would unselfishly save his country from the land-grubbing, money-having jackals, all while keeping the crowds entertained to boot. I think even the real General Villa wouldn’t object to that legacy – however accurate it may be.
The House of Rothschild
Director: Alfred L. Werker, Maude T. Howell
Starring: George Arliss, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, Robert Young, C. Aubrey Smith, Arthur Byron, Helen Westley, Reginald Owen, Florence Arliss, Alan Mowbray, Holmes Herbert, Paul Harvey, Ivan Simpson, Noel Madison, Murray Kinnell, Oscar Apfel, Lumsden Hare, Brandon Hurst, Gilbert Emery, C. Montague Shaw
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Picture
When you’re watching every movie ever nominated for Best Picture, some are bound to just exit your brain…gone to the winds of time, never to be remembered…or thought about…or considered. The House of Rothschild is one of those movies.
The plot of this film, and the characters that prevent it from ever going anywhere, are about as exciting as you might expect from a movie about banking. The man at the center is Nathan Rothschild (George Arliss) a London banker. His father, on his deathbed, instructs Nathan and his four brothers to leave their Jewish ghetto and become bankers in the capitals of Europe, including London, Paris, Vienna, Naples, and Frankfurt. Since all the brothers trust each other, they can extend each other lines of credit across international boundaries without the risk of transporting gold across borders. All in all, not a bad idea.
This hegemony works to their great advantage as the Napoleonic Wars rage on, giving the allies a bankroll that helps unite them. When the war is finally finished, though, antisemitism rears its ugly head again. No longer requiring the Rothschild’s capital, the chancellor of Prussia (Boris Karloff) (a country that may or may not include modern Germany) eagerly seeks to remind the Jews of their place, money be damned.
Meanwhile, anti-Jewish riots are breaking out all over Prussia. Nathan, ever the Hebrew Hammer, extracts a treaty from the greedy Prussian leaders, granting the Jews rights, freedoms and dignity long denied to them. And when his friend and financial partner the Duke of Wellington (C. Aubrey Smith) wins the Battle of Waterloo, Nathan is not only officially saved, but he becomes the richest man in the world and is titled a baron.
As a little Jewish Robin Hood, Nathan isn’t always the most honest banker (is there such a thing?), but his actions always seem to fall under his own brand of ethics, one that believes in a greater good and peaceful world. He (and the film) is also keenly aware of the power of money, especially in the hands of those society has deemed unworthy. “Money is the only weapon the Jew has to defend himself with,” says Nathan’s father.
Today, The House of Rothschild can be viewed as different things to different people: a warning against the impending Nazi threat; a piece of feel-good Jewish propaganda; a plea for racial coexistence; or just a slow, lackluster biography of one of the richest men to ever live. And, though I found this movie incredibly dull and boring and slow and annoying and dumb, I can see the hidden message that war is costly and destructive – whether it’s Napoleon’s rampage or the battle between the gentiles and the Jews.
Unfortunately, the film’s pleas for tolerance went unheard across the world as harassment continued in Germany and, well, I think you know the rest.
One Night of Love
Director: Victor Schertzinger
Starring: Grace Moore, Tullio Carminati, Lyle Talbot, Mona Barrie, Jessie Ralph, Luis Alberni, Andres de Segurola, Nydia Westman
Oscar Wins: Best Music (Scoring), Best Sound Recording
Other Nominations: Best Actress (Grace Moore), Best Film Editing, Best Director, Best Picture
In his hit, “New York, New York”, Sinatra famously said that “…if you can make it there [New York], you can make it anywhere.” Apparently that wasn’t quite true for little Mary Barrett (Grace Moore), a talented singer who can’t seem to cut it in the Big Apple so, instead, moves to Italy.
As a budding opera star, the move makes sense. New York is chock full of hip jazz cats anyway – no place for a classically trained soprano.
While singing in a café, Mary is spotted by the famous vocal teacher, Giulio Monteverdi (Tullio Carminati), who is mesmerized by her voice, but only agrees to take her on if their relationship remains strictly business-like. No romance on the horizon for this guy.
Giulio also demands complete control over all aspects of Mary’s life, insisting she live in his house and follow his strict routines. While this seems to be productive at first, she eventually tires of his apparent lack of feeling for her. A girl’s got needs!
After encountering a former protégé of Giulio named Lally (Mona Barrie), Mary learns that Lally once tried to be romantic with Giulio but was rejected. This past history of literally nothing happening renders Mary jealous – and she quits opera.
Chasing Mary all over town opens up something in Giulio…or maybe it’s the fact that he’s still a man – and men always want what they can’t have. Suddenly, the rule book is thrown out the window and Giulio expresses his love for Mary. The film ends with Mary overcoming her stage fright, winning her man, and offering two triumphant performances in Carmen and Madame Butterfly. It’s all very My Fair Lady.
Like many films of the 30s, nothing about One Night of Love is really that memorable. The most enjoyable parts are the musical numbers, and even those are kinda blah. There is a cute moment early on when Mary’s neighbors emerge from their apartments playing a variety of instruments to accompany her in a spirited rendition of Sempre Libera…but that’s pretty much the highlight.
The plot, as you might expect, is unconvincing and predictable…and the sexual politics of the film have aged pretty poorly. Giulio may be a demanding perfectionist, but his treatment of Mary is pretty nasty. He shouts, he calls her names, he grabs her by the throat, pushes her around, even resorting to stabbing her with a hatpin to prove she hasn’t lost her voice. And through it all, Mary just tolerates it…it seems nothing can sway her devotion to her singing master. She may as well have served him his slippers on a silver platter.
Ultimately, I think One Night of Love is just one night of movie watching I won’t get back. Even the title doesn’t make sense – there wasn’t any nights of love at all! It’s also another on a list of movies that’s pretty hard to find – and maybe it should stay that way.
The White Parade
Director: Irving Cummings
Starring: Loretta Young, John Boles, Dorothy Wilson, Muriel Kirkland, Astrid Allwyn, Frank Conroy, Jane Darwell, Sara Haden, Joyce Compton, June Gittelson, Polly Ann Young, Noel Francis, Shirley Palmer
Oscar Wins: No wins.
Other Nominations: Best Sound Recording, Best Picture
LOST TO THE AGES.
Unfortunately, this is one of a handful of films that is impossible to find. If I ever make it to the UCLA archives, I’ll be sure to check it out and let you know how it is!
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