Charlie's Home Invasion

Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) has just arrived at his winter home in New York City - the mansion of multi-millionaire Michael J. O'Connor (Charles Ruggles), who is currently in Virginia at his winter home. Mr. McKeever, it seems, has been inhabiting the O'Connor home for several winters now, all unknown to the home's owner. When McKeever happens upon Jim Bullock (Don DeFore), a homeless vet, he invites Jim to stay at the house as well. But things get out of control when Trudy O'Connor (Gale Storm) arrives at the house, and Jim invites his buddies Whitey Temple (Alan Hale, Jr.) and Hank (Edward Ryan, Jr) and their wives (and a baby) to stay at the O'Connor home. It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947).

Victor Moore and Charles Ruggles walk away with this movie as the opposing force and the immovable object, with the dynamic of servant and master completely reversed. The two men bicker and argue throughout the film, but the audience watches as O'Connor grows to like McKeever, despite his laissez-faire attitude towards life and work. 

Victor Moore's Broadway career began in 1906 - he would ultimately appear in 23 Broadway productions, through 1957 (when he appeared as the Starkeeper in Carousel). His film career began in 1915, and continued until 1955. He's probably best remembered as Fred Astaire's pal, Pop in Swing Time (1936) and as the husband being forced to separate from his wife of 50 years in Make Way for Tomorrow (1937). The Victor Moore Bus Terminal in Queens was named for him - he'd funded construction on a bus station there to help local performers get into Manhattan more quickly.  Mr. Moore died in 1962 at the age of 86. 

Frank Capra had originally planned to direct the film, but he eventually passed on it, and the director role was passed onto Roy Del Ruth. Gale Storm found working with Mr. Del Ruth to be somewhat of a problem, as he refused to allow her to sing, even though she was a trained singer (TCM article). Regardless of the lack of her real singing voice, she's enjoyable as Trudy, a plucky young woman who is willing to leave her luxurious life style and take on a job in a music store. Ms. Storm is best remembered today for her television series, My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show (originally called Oh, Susanna). Later in her career, she would guest star in an episode of The Love Boat, which likely took some of its inspiration from The Gale Storm Show.

Like Gale Storm, Don DeFore (Jim Bullock) is remembered today primarily for his television work - specifically Hazel, in which he played the harried husband. This is one of the few film lead roles he got the opportunity to play, and he's earnest as the young veteran intent on making a better life for himself and his colleagues. His scenes with Ms. Storm are very nice; they make an appealing couple.

Ann Harding (Mary O'Connor), as always, is excellent as the rejected wife who is trying to reconnect with her husband. She'd not been appearing in a lot of movies by this point in her career (mostly appearing in one or a two film a year), but she makes the most of her limited screen time in this film.

Some extra footage was shot in New York City, which adds a verisimilitude to the film (AFI Catalog). We noticed that the house (which you can see is located on the corner of 79th Street and 5th Avenue) looks very much like the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (which was originally the home of Andrew Carnegie). The location of the O’Connor home is currently the site of the Ukrainian Institute of America (and was the home of Harry F. Sinclair).

The New York Times review by Bosley Crowther was positive - most of his praise centered on Victor Moore.  The story was aired on the Lux Radio Theatre in May 1947 with Mr. Moore, Mr. DeFore, and Mr. Ruggles reprizing their roles.

With Christmas coming, this is a delightful film that deserves to be included in the season's festivities.  We'll leave you with Victor Moore arriving at his winter home. However you celebrate, have a safe, healthy and happy holiday season!

Joan Gets Married

Stood up again by her philandering boyfriend, Sheridan "Sherry" Warren (Robert Montgomery), Marcia Townsend (Joan Crawford) resolves to never see him again. He convinces her to give him another chance, but it turns out to be another another night of Sherry's dalliances, and Marcia leaves. Realizing Sherry is about to lose her, he proposes, and against her own, and her grandmother Fanny Townsend (Edna May Oliver)'s better judgement, Marcia agrees to marry him. But Sherry is no more committed to monogamy than he was before the marriage, so Marcia decides it's time for No More Ladies (1935)

The positives of this film are the excellent cast - Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Franchot Tone, Edna May Oliver, Gail Patrick, Charlie Ruggles, Reginald Denny, and Joan Burfield aka Joan Fontaine (in her screen debut). The negative is it's an awful script. Based on a 1934 Broadway play, which starred Ruth Weston, Lucile Watson, and Melvyn Douglas, the film is long and ultimately boring. (Ms. Weston and Ms. Watson were originally supposed to reprise their roles in the film (AFI catalog)).

One major problem is the character of Sherry Warren. Sure, Mr. Montgomery is extremely attractive but Sherry is a womanizer, and everyone knows it. He's already broken up one marriage, he uses and dumps women regularly, so what Marcia could possibly see in him is never really clear. She's got the equally attractive Jim Salston (Franchot Tone) pursuing her, so why settle for a man who is never going to be a husband? Tis a mystery.

The actor that stands out in the film is Edna May Oliver. She gets the best lines and as always, has the most fantastic delivery. Born in 1883, Ms. Oliver was already on Broadway by 1916. By 1932, she had appeared in 11 musicals and dramas, including the original Show Boat (1927) in which she played Parthy Hawks. Her film career began in 1923; she would appear in 48 films, including A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) (for which she was nominated as Best Supporting Actress), David Copperfield (1935), and 3 films as amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers. Quite frankly, she always managed to steal the film, even though her parts were usually supporting roles. She died at age 59 in 1942.

We always enjoy seeing Gail Patrick (Theresa German), but she's wasted in this film. She, however, was grateful for the part - she'd been suggested by Ms. Crawford, who looked after her on the set, having her own makeup man work with Ms. Patrick. (TCM article). Why Ms. Patrick is asked to sing and play the ukulele, is beyond our ken. She's a lovely woman and an excellent actress, but she can't sing (and her repertoire seems inappropriate for this society party).

Franchot Tone and Joan Crawford had already appeared in three of their seven films together, and were married the year this film was released. They only have a couple of scenes together, but even with that little screen time, they seem like a better match than Marcia and Sherry. Their marriage would last until 1939, but their (eventual) friendship lasted til the end of Mr. Tone's life, with Ms. Crawford caring for him when he was dying of lung cancer. 

Charlie Ruggles as Sherry's continually drunken friend Edgar Holden is amusing in the beginning, but the character begins to wear thin after a few scenes. And with the exception of one scene towards the middle of the film (when Edgar is someplace he's not supposed to be), it's a mystery why he is even there. The scriptwriter keeps trying to find ways of incorporating him into the action. All it does is slow the film down further. Arthur Treacher appears briefly as Lord Knowleton - whose unintelligible English accent is shown twice - then he speaks perfectly normally. The question again is why?

Since this is an MGM picture, we also have the benefit of outstanding set direction by Cedric Gibbons, and lovely costumes by Adrian. But it's not enough. The New York Times review by Andre Sennwald is dismissive "Out of the labors of the brigade of writers who tinkered with the screen play, there remain a sprinkling of nifties which make for moments of hilarity in an expanse of tedium and fake sophistication."  Sadly, we agree. So, unless you are a complete-ist for one the actors involved, this is one to pass on. Below is a clip from the beginning of the film.

George is in Cleveland

Author Kenneth Bixby (George Brent) is on a book tour with his secretary (and almost fiance) Ann Rogers (Ann Sheridan). Upon his arrival in Cleveland for a book signing, he receives flowers and a mysterious note from "Miriam," the fictional character in his latest book. The sender of the flowers turns out to be Ken's college girlfriend, Julie Wilson (Osa Massen), who's still fixated on him even though she is married to Harvey Wilson (Charles Ruggles). Our film this week is Honeymoon for Three (1941)

With a script based on a relatively successful Broadway play, and an excellent cast, you would think Honeymoon for Three would be a good film. Unfortunately, you would be wrong. The script slides deeper and deeper into silliness, and after awhile, the audience just doesn't care any longer (and starts to look at their collective watches).

It doesn't help that George Brent is miscast as the lothario Kenneth Bixby. Mr. Brent is just to stable to be convincing as a ne'er-do-well.  And why on earth he would respond to a flibbertigibbet like Julie Wilson is beyond comprehension, especially when he has an attractive, intelligent woman like Ann Rogers sitting next to him.

We don't get to see enough of Ann Sheridan. Initially, there is a pleasant rapport between her and Mr. Brent (who would become her husband shortly after the filming ended. The marriage only lasted for a year). (TCM article)  Ann is a calm breath of air next to the overblown Julie, and we DO get too much of Osa Massen. She's a delusional whirligig, with a mania that is just too much to take in. The viewer needs to understand why Bixby would even tolerate her, and the audience just can't.

Jane Wyman, as Julie's almost sister-in-law, Elizabeth Clochessy is also wasted. Ms. Wyman was still playing small roles in 1941 - her real breakthrough as Orry Baxter (for which she was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar) in The Yearling wouldn't come for another five years. All she allowed to do in this film is dither, and look adoringly at her fiance Arthur Westlake (William T. Orr), who really isn't worth all that much adoration.

Lee Patrick is equally ill-served as Mrs. Pettijohn, an idiotic woman with a penchance for naming her children after authors (Booth Tarkington Pettijohn???). The character provides a somewhat deus-ex-machina ending to the proceedings, but Ms. Patrick deserves better.

We did like Charles Ruggles who is the only part of the comedy to underplay his role. You feel sorry for Harvey - his wife is insane, and his brother is a bore - and Mr. Ruggles makes you rather like Harvey. Who can blame him for wanting to get Julie off his hands?  Charles (or Charlie) Ruggles started his career on Broadway (in the 1914 production of Help Wanted), and was working in silent films by the following year. He easily made the transition to sound, often in those early years playing the romantic lead.  As time progressed, he moved to character parts, including Egbert Flout in Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), Major Applegate in Bringing Up Baby (1938), and Grandfather Charles McKendrick in The Parent Trap (1961).  A generation grew up with his voice - he was Aesop in the various Rocky and Bullwinkle shows. He worked frequently in both radio and television, while continuing to appear in films and on Broadway.  He married his second wife (his first marriage only lasted two years) in 1942; they remained together until his death from cancer, age 70, in 1970.

Originally slated to have starred Olivia de Havilland and Fred MacMurray (AFI Catalog), the film was based on the play Goodbye Again, which opened on Broadway in 1932, starring Osgood Perkins (Anthony Perkins father) as Kenneth - and with a very young James Stewart as The Chauffeur (in his second Broadway role).  In 1933, it was made into a film, with Warren William and Joan Blondell. In 1943, and 1956 (with Donald Cook, Patricia Barry, and Tom Poston), the play was again produced on Broadway. 

While critic Bosley Crowther is never a fan of Mr. Brent (his loss, quite frankly), we have to agree with him in his New York Times review Mr. Brent is just all wrong for this one. Then again, no one would have had a great deal of success with this tangled web of a script. Here's a trailer from the film.

Introducing...Cary!

We return to the land of the pre-code with This is the Night (1932). We are introduced to Gerald Gray (Roland Young), a wealthy man-about-town who is having an affair with Claire Mathewson (Thelma Todd), seemingly under the nose of her athlete husband, Stephen (Cary Grant).  When Stephen returns suddenly, and finds his wife with Gray and packing, the pair fabricate an excuse for the trip Claire is obviously planning - Claire will be accompanying Gray and his wife to Venice.  Stephen decides this will be a perfect interlude with his wife, and an opportunity to meet Mrs. Gray.  The very unmarried Gerald must find a wife, and fast.  He hires Germaine (Lili Damita) - a young innocent who needs a job, and manages to convince Gray and his best friend Bunny West (Charlie Ruggles) that she is a woman of the world.  Will Stephen be convinced that Germaine is Gray's wife, or will he decide she is a better choice for himself than Claire?

Had this not been the first film of Cary Grant, it is likely it would have been forgotten long ago.  It's pretty silly, in a number of ways.  In fact, Grant himself loathed the film and the character of Stephen, who he considered to be a nitwit.  Following the premiere of the film, he was afraid he would be typed as the cuckolded husband for the rest of his career.  He got quite drunk, and decided to leave film entirely.  However, several of his friends, including Orry-Kelly, persuaded him to stick it out.  (Thank heavens).  He would make a total of seven films in 1932, including Blonde Venus (starring Marlene Dietrich), Hot Saturday (with Nancy Carroll), and The Devil and the Deep (with Charles Laughton).  The following year, he launched into the role of the male lead - a position he would never relinquish in his 34 year film career - in Mae West's She Done Him Wrong.   For more on Grant and the film's background, see this TCM article.

It's also somewhat hard to envision the slight, balding, nebishy Roland Young as the love interest of not one, but two, women.  Can one really imagine preferring him to Cary Grant? It is a stretch, but the films asks us to do so (without, I might add, much success).  Young was far better used in movies such as Topper, Ruggles of Red Gap and especially Give Me Your Heart, where he played a successful suitor, but of a more age and temperament appropriate woman.  Young was already 45 when the film was released, and frankly looks older.  His career began on the London stage, continued into silent and talking films, the Broadway stage, and into television.  In fact, his last appearances were in 1953 - the year he died - on the television show The Doctor and in the film That Man from Tangier.  A gifted actor, This is the Night just does not show him to advantage. 

Lili Damita is fine as Germaine, but it's difficult to understand her attraction to Gerald, given that there is no real romance between them. Even the ending of the film has them staring into each others eyes, nary a kiss to be seen.  She began her career in France, and came to America as sound burst on the scene.  Her career was not especially long, and she is best remembered now for her seven year marriage to her much more renowned second husband, Errol Flynn (she was previously married to Michael Curtiz).  She made her last film in 1938.  Her only child, Sean Flynn disappeared in Cambodia in 1970, where he was working as a photojournalist.  Damita spent several years trying to locate him, sadly to no avail.  For more information on her, visit this New York Times obituary.

With all the hanky-panky in the film, it's no wonder the Hays Office complained about it.  Never mind the blatant affair between Gray and Claire. The continuing motif of Claire losing her dress in public is quite risque (And given the dresses Claire almost has on, it's apparent there is nothing much under them).  The entry from the AFI catalog goes into more detail on Paramount's issues with the film's content.

The film was based on a Broadway play, Naughty Cinderella, which ran from November of 1925 to February of 1926. The part of Gray was played by English actor Henry Kendall, who also appeared in a number of films, including Hitchcock's Rich and Strange.  The play was also made into a silent film, Good and Naughty, with Pola Negri as Germaine and Tom Moore as Gray.  We can't really recommend the film especially, but it is fun to see Cary Grant begin his illustrious career (after all, even Shakespeare had clunkers!)

A small treat: Robert Osborne introducing the film during a month-long tribute to Mr. Grant.
 

Bette Talks to Herself

Two times the Bette Davis equals two times the passion in 1946's A Stolen Life.  The inimitable Ms. Davis plays sisters Katherine and Patricia Bosworth, twins who are identical in appearance, if not in temperment.  We meet would-be artist Kate, on her way to an island off the Massachusetts coast.  Having missed her connection, Kate asks for a lift from Bill Emerson (Glenn Ford).  She is immediately attracted to Bill, a solitary man who loves the quiet island, and who has no real ambitions to live any other life but the one he already has.  They seem an ideal pair until Pat Bosworth enters the picture.  Once Pat realizes that Bill is attracted to Kate, she goes after him with a vengeance.  The result, Bill marries Pat, leaving Kate bereft.

We were all VERY impressed with Bette Davis in this dual role.  She plays the two characters so that the sisters are subtly different.  Patricia is perhaps more the Davis we are used to in films like Jezebel and The Letter - assertive, domineering, in-charge; Kate is more retiring and inward, more like the character Davis played in Now Voyager.  It's easy to tell the sisters apart when they are separated, but Davis is able to make them different as they converse with one another.  She never seems to lose focus of who she is portraying.  And while the costuming by Orry-Kelly gives us slight clues, those differences are also subtle, letting Davis do the work through her acting.

While Glenn Ford is very good as Bill, he does come across as a bit of a twit.  It's clear that his attraction to Patricia is purely sexual. He states that he likes Kate, but that there was never a spark between them like there is between him and Pat.  Yet, it's clear that Pat is his total opposite - where he is unambitious and wants a simple, country life, she is all about the city and excitement.  Why Pat would want to do more than have a brief fling with him is a big question here.  It's clear that she is gone off with her sister's beaus before.  Does she want to marry Bill only because it is clear that Kate is finally in love? One wonders if Pat is interested in keeping her sister uninvolved (and therefore, closer to her) than in stealing her sister's great love.  By marrying Bill, we know that Kate will never involved herself with him again leaving the sisters' relationship status quo.

The only character that is wasted in the film is Dane Clark as the artist Karnock.  At first, it seems he might be the person who will make Kate forget Bill, but he is so eminently disagreeable, that it's hard to warm to him.  Only in one scene, where he encounters Kate posing as Pat, are we allowed to find him even the slightest bit likeable. Unfortunately, the character never goes anywhere, and we were left wondering what the film would have been like if he had actually become involved with Pat. 

On the other hand, Charles Ruggles gives a well-rounded performance as Kate and Pat's guardian, Freddie Linley.  Though he says very little, his understanding of the sisters is obvious.  He affection for Kate is also apparent.  In the end, we discover he really is the only one who truly "knows" them.  A quick nod also to Walter Brennan doing what he does best - being irascible; no one really does it better!

Bette Davis was a producer on the film, as is discussed in this TCM Article, and she had say in the casting. Dennis Morgan was originally considered for the part of Bill, but Davis would not have him in the part.  The studio then suggested Robert Alda, and while she accepted Alda, she really wanted Glenn Ford.  However, Jack Warner didn't want to pay the money for a loan-out from Columbia, until Davis was able to show him a screen test of Ford in the part.  The film is actually a remake of a 1939 German film, starring Elisabeth Bergner (perhaps best known in the US for her role as Rosalind in the 1936 As You Like It). 

Though A Stolen Life was not really admired by The New York TImes when it was released, we think it is a movie that has aged remarkably well.  In this age of digital special effects, you will be amazed at what was possible in a 1940's film.  You will totally believe that the twins are talking with one another.  To give you a taste of what's in store, here is Bette talking to Bette: