The kingdom of Bergamo is celebrating the wedding of their Countess Angelina (Betty Grable) to Baron Mario (Cesar Romero), her childhood friend. The festivities are interrupted by gunshot - the Hungarians, Bergamo's longtime enemy are invading. Mario flees to join his regiment, while Angelina awaits the arrival of the Colonel (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) and his forces. When he arrives and is denied admittance to the Countess, the Colonel finds himself smitten with a portrait of an earlier Countess of Bergamo, Francesca (Betty Grable), That Lady in Ermine (1948). Initially directed by Ernst Lubitsch, this is a frothy little musical that is fun and enjoyable. It's a happy film; it's a bit silly, but it is fun and entertaining. It's a fairy tale for adults and doesn't try to be anything else. Based on an operetta titled Die Frau im Hermelin, Lubitsch had hoped to direct it since the studio acquired the rights in 1942. By the time he was able to put the film together, he was suffering from heart disease, and regrettably died during production. Direction was taken over by Otto Preminger (who reshot some scenes, and deleted others). Out of respect for Lubitsch (or so he claimed), Preminger refused to have his name placed on the picture (TCM article). Betty Grable is quite sweet as the Countesses Francesca and Angelina. As Francesca, she is a portrait come to life - and she is especially fun in that role. She gets to boss the other portraits around, and beam periodically at The Colonel (which is rather disconcerting for him!). Of course, she is also an excellent dancer, and her big number with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is quite energetic and exciting to watch (directed by Hermes Pan!). She also has a beautiful wardrobe designed by Renè Hubert - the full-length ermine coat that Francesca wears in the portrait was real ermine according to the Fox publicity department, and cost $28,000. (AFI catalog)
Douglas Fairbanks is captivating and charming as the Colonel. Though initially domineering, exposure to Francesca - and Angelina - make him loosen up a bit. Mr. Fairbanks portrays the Colonel as a man secure in his masculinity, and so you root for him to capture the love of the fair maiden. The dance cited above is exciting largely because of Mr. Fairbanks athletic style of dance -
as he leaps on and off tables, one is reminded of his father, Douglas Sr. Mr. Fairbanks' foil in the action is Cesar Romero, who doesn't really have a lot to work with. Mario is a wimp, and he is there if only to give the audience someone to root against. Born in New York City (and yes, Cesar Romero is his real name). He started his film career in 1933 - his second film had him as the greedy husband of the former Mrs. Wynant in The Thin Man (1934). Much of his career, however, was spent playing ethnic parts and in supporting roles - he was Indian in Wee Willie Winkie (1937), Italian in British Agent (1934), and Spanish in The Captain from Castile (1947) - but he had his share of leads, including Week-End in Havana (1941). During the second World War, he joined the Coast Guard, and saw action in the Mariana Islands. He began to transition to television in the 1950's and it was there that he found a new audience - notably with his audacious performance as The Joker in the Batman series. He was popular in the Hollywood community - frequently escorting single women like Barbara Stanwyck, Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman and Ginger Rogers to events. Mr. Romero never married; he died in 1994, at age 86, of a blood clot.
It's always a pleasure to see Walter Abel (playing the dual roles of Major Horvath and Benvenuto). He's delightful as a family man who rather likes his surly commander. Also present in very small parts are Reginald Gardiner (as Alberto, an inhabitant of one of the portraits), and Harry Davenport (as Luigi, the palace storyteller and matchmaker). When the film was first acquired, Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer were the intended leads. Later, Gene Tierney was considered for Francesca/Angelina and both Rex Harrison and Cornel Wilde were in the running for the Colonel. Not surprisingly, the PCA had some issues with the initial script; some minor tweaks to the ending solved this problems.
We were amazed to discover that Bosley Crowther of the New York Times actually enjoyed the film when he reviewed it. He called it "a glittering and mischievous romp, punctuated with nice music...." While not Lubitsch's best film, it's a lot of fun and certainly worth seeing (it was my favorite movie when I was tiny, and much to my parents' chagrin, in the age before VHS recorders, it was a movie I was always asking to view). We'll leave you with this trailer:
We aren't quite done with swashbucklers, as our film for this week is The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). Ronald Colman plays Major Rudolf Rassendyll, an English officer on a fishing trip to Ruritania, when he meets Colonel Zapt (C. Aubrey Smith) and Fritz von Tarlenheim (David Niven). Both are flabbergasted at Rassendyll's resemblance to King Rudolf V (also played by Colman); Rassendyll, it turns out, is descended from the Ruritania royalty on the wrong side of the blanket. The King is also amused at the resemblance, and invites Rassendyll to his palace for a night of conversation and drinking, at the end of which, the Rassendyll, Zapt and von Tarlenheim discover the King unconscious, his wine drugged by servants in the pay of his half-brother, Black Michael (Raymond Massey). With the King's coronation scheduled for that afternoon, Zapt convinces Rassendyll to step in for the King, for if King Rudolf doesn't show up, Michael will stage a coup to take over the goverment. Reluctantly, Rassendyll agrees, only to discover that Michael and his henchman Rupert of Hentzau (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) are all too quickly aware of the masquerade, and kidnap the King from his vacation palace. Add to the problems - Rassendyll has fallen head over heels in love with the Princess Flavia (Madeleine Carroll), Rudolf's betrothed.
With an absolutely magnificent cast, this is a film that is not be missed. Colman creates distinctive personalities in the characters of King Rudolf and Rassendyll (and given he has very little to work with when it come to the King - who we barely see - it is all the more exceptional). With his fantastic voice and his engaging personality, it is quite clear why Flavia would fall for him almost instantly, even when she thinks he is the King (who she dislikes).
His equal is Douglas Fairbanks, Jr as the arch-villain Rupert of Hentzau. Fairbanks gives him a sparkle that makes him attractive and treacherous at the same time. When the film was remade in 1952, James Mason took over the role; while Mason had the evil down perfectly, he just doesn't have the charm that Fairbanks does in the role. That little twinkle in his eyes, as he performs his nefarious deeds is the difference. Interestingly, Fairbanks badly wanted the lead role, and almost turned down the part of Rupert when that was offered instead. His father, Douglas Sr, is the one who talked him into doing it - he told him the character was "witty, irresistible, and as sly as Iago". That the part was "so actor-proof... that Rin Tin Tin could play the part and walk away with it!", we are inclined to disagree (in our opinions, Mason didn't walk away with it!). It's proof of the talent of Fairbanks, Jr. that he could make you look away from Colman on occasion. (This TCM article goes into more detail on the history of the film).
With actors like Mary Astor (as Michael's lover, Antoinette de Mauban), David Niven and Madeleine Carroll in the film, even the small parts are performed by experts. Niven, who had started in films in 1932, primarily in unbilled parts, was about to become a star. By 1939, he was the second lead in Wuthering Heights and starred (with Ginger Rogers) in Bachelor Mother. A versatile actor, noted for his wit (if you've never read his autobiography, The Moon's A Balloon, you owe yourself a treat - many stories of him and Errol Flynn and their bachelor pad are included), Niven was highly regarded in the Hollywood community; in his article for Niven's Star of the Month turn on TCM, Robert Osborne recalled being at an event where a group was laughing at someone's tales. Mr. Osborne surreptitiously wandered over, to discover Mr. Niven regaling the table with stories. Mr. Niven married twice - he was widowed when Primula Rollo died after falling down a flight of stairs during a game of hide and seek. Two years later, he wed Hjördis Tersmeden, and though they were together until his death in 1983 of ALS, it was allegedly not a happy marriage (Niven's close friends Roger Moore and Robert Wagner actively disliked her). Niven served in the British Army during the Second World War, returning home from America when war broke out. This hiatus had little effect on his career - he returned from military duty to make such excellent films as A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), and his Oscar-winning turn in Separate Tables (1958).
Madeleine Carroll is probably one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood history, but not only is she lovely, she is a strong, intelligent, and talented actress. You believe that Princess Flavia could lead a nation, thanks to Ms. Carroll's strength of character. After appearing in two Hitchcock films (his earliest "cool blonde") in Great Britain, Ms. Carroll came to America to appear in this film and The General Died at Dawn. The parts she was given were uneven in quality, and she left filmwork in 1949. She continued for a few years more in television (appearing, for example, in a Robert Montgomery Presents of "The Letter" in 1950). She also appeared on Broadway in Goodbye, My Fancy, in the role Joan Crawford would assume on screen). She also worked on film production aimed at promoting "better understanding among the peoples of the world". He efforts also helped to raise money for an orphanage housing children injured in France during World War II. She died in 1987, at age 81.
The film that we see today did change from the original concept. It seems there was a prologue and an epilogue that were filmed and never used. The film would have opened with the much older Rassendyll recounting the story of his adventures in Ruritania, now many years in the past. As the film ended, he would have learned of the death of Princess Flavia. Interestingly, this differs from the sequel written by Anthony Hope, entitled Rupert of Hentzau, in which Flavia become Queen after the deaths of King Rudolf and Rassendyll.
We'll close with the fencing scene from the end of the film. According to the AFI Catalog, David O. Selznick was not satisfied with the scenes originally filmed by John Cromwell and brought in W.S. Van Dyke to reshoot them. The fencing, as you will see, is excellent:
We see a suicide note. Charles Engle (John Qualen) has decided to end his life after his wife runs off with another man, taking with her $3,000 Engle embezzled from his employer. His boss, Mr. Hopper (George Watts), tells him he has until 6am to retrieve the money and return it. So, Charles goes out to jump in the river, but the police by the waterfront scare him into away from the pier and into The Pigeon Club. In his ennui, Charles throws what money he has around, raising a number of eyebrows, including those of an unusual trio. Bill O'Brien (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.), in some senses the narrator of the film, is a con man who hopes to make a bit of money off this new mark. Nina Barona (Rita Hayworth), is a would-be performer looking for someone to cast her in a stage play, or provide a few bucks til she finds a producer. Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell) is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who has just had a play fail miserably, and his girlfriend leave him; he would like to find an angel for his next play, and he thinks Charles is the answer. So begins Angels Over Broadway (1940). Angels Over Broadway shows great promise as it opens; it is witty and interesting. Even the double meaning of the title - the Broadway "angel" (or financier) being sought by all three of our characters, framed in comparison to the angelic deed that the three agree to perform in order to save Charles' life - shows imagination. By the end, however, the plot begins to implode, and we felt that the writers just didn't know how to end it. Some of the plots just seem to stop (Gene Gibbons, for example), and the ending given to Nina and Bill has an artificial feel to it. It's too bad, really, because there are some great characters that showed a lot of promise.
We particularly enjoyed Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.'s small time con man. He's properly smarmy, but is also attractive. Fairbanks is always a dynamic actor, and he tries hard to make his character realistic. But, there are problems even a talented actor can't overcome. For example, though he and Nina bicker, and he denies an attraction, he seems protective of her. But there is little chemistry between him and Rita Hayworth, and her character is really a riddle. Hayworth doesn't get to do very much, and her character's actions are contradictory. It doesn't feel like Nina has an awakening; the character does a complete about-face in her attitudes and actions, and its not clear why. But she is not given a lot to work with - the screenplay is much more interested in Fairbanks and in the always wonderful Thomas Mitchell.
Also given short shrift is John
Qualen, a great character actor with a sizeable part in screen time, but no real opportunity for character development. Qualen gives the appearance of sleepwalking through the film, and while in other films he is often portrayed as an everyman, he is rarely weak in his portrayals. Here, he is not so much nebbishy as he is a non-entity. Qualen had a lengthy career, working in films and television from 1931 to 1974.
Many of you will remember him as Vera Miles father in The Searchers or as the expectant father in Whipsaw. His career started on Broadway; he went to Hollywood to recreate his stage role in the screen version of Street Scene and became a favorite of director John Ford. Qualen appeared in Ford's films over a thirty year period. John Qualen died in 1987 (aged 87) having been married to his wife since 1924.
Ben Hecht was actually nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Angels Over Broadway (it lost to The Great McGinty), and it was well received critically. Audiences, however, did not warm up to the film. This TCM article goes into more depth on the film and on Rita Hayworth.
Having recently seen the film Raffles, we were amused when Gene steals a brooch, and his ex-girl friend announces "You're no Raffles". All in all, we were sorry that we didn't enjoy Angels Over Broadway more. It showed such promise! It might be worth a look, just for the beginning of the film, and to see Fairbanks in top form.
We'll leave you with a scene from early in the picture, as Bill begins his flirtation with Nina:
