Claudette Goes Mad

As Ellen Ewing (Claudette Colbert) is about to take her wedding vows to David McLean (Robert Ryan), a stranger accuses her of already being married to another man, Lucian Randall (Dave Barbour), a charge which Ellen denies.  Ellen and David attempt to disprove the charges, but a succession of people claim to have been a part of the so-called wedding.  Our film this time is The Secret Fury (1950).

This is a fun film, primarily because of the performances of Ms. Colbert and Mr. Ryan.  Though the script has more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese, it does have a decent mystery story, and you will be hard pressed to identify the villain until the very end.  Regardless, it is a lesser work of Ms. Colbert.

Despite that, she is very good as a woman being driven slowly mad for no apparent reason.  A gifted pianist, with a substantial inheritance from her father, Ellen seems rock solid. However, as more and more strangers contradict her beliefs, her mind deteriorates and she ends up institutionalized, giving Ms. Colbert the opportunity to play a character who has completely lost her place in the world. Ms. Colbert was interested in the part because Mel Ferrer was directing (TCM article).

One of the major attractions of this film is Robert Ryan, who gets to play a good guy.  David never loses faith in Ellen, despite the evidence piling up against her. He keeps digging to get at the truth. Mr. Ryan makes David a warm and engaging character. He's funny, he's loyal, and he is clearly in love with Ellen.

Also in the cast is Jane Cowl as Ellen's Aunt Clara. We're never quite sure of Aunt Clara. Like many of the other characters, she suspects that Ellen is either lying or has gone insane. Ms. Cowl manages to keep Aunt Clara ambiguous.  Likewise, Paul Kelly as DA Eric Lowell also questions Ellen's mental status and becomes suspect to the audience.  This, of course, keeps the audience guessing through the whole film. 

This was the film debuts for both Philip Ober (playing Ellen's lawyer Gregory Kent) and his then-wife Vivian Vance (playing Leah, the hotel maid) (AFI Catalog). Ms. Vance is quite interesting as the cagey maid.  The marriage to Mr. Ober would end nine years later; Ms. Vance would go on to play Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy. One more actor to watch out for is Jose Ferrer in a cameo appearance.

As I've mentioned before, I'm always on the lookout for women playing physicians in films. We have one here - Elisabeth Risdon as Dr. Twining, Ellen's psychiatrist.  Dr. Twining is a competent physician and a kind person. As is often the case in these films, there is no questioning by the patient or their family of the presence of a female physician.

Bosley Crowther was unimpressed with the film in his New York Times review, puzzling as to why "a respectable cast...descends to such cheap and lurid twaddle."  While we would not quite call the film twaddle, we should note that it doesn't seem to be particularly film noir (it was advertised as such on the film channel), and the script IS inferior to the talents of the cast.  But we do recommend it to see Mr. Ryan and Ms. Colbert together.  We'll leave you with a scene from the film:

Jimmy is a Bootlegger

The First World War has ended. Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney) returns to New York City to find all the jobs gone - taken by the men who remained home during the war. As The Roaring Twenties (1939) begin, Eddie falls into a new career - bootlegging - and enters into the world of organized crime.

Let's start by admitting that, no matter who else we discuss in this space, this is James Cagney's movie. Period. When he is on the screen, it's him you are watching. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Bogart fan, but this is one where Cagney shines. His Eddie Bartlett is a man of depth. We watch him change because of the circumstances of his life; we don't like most of those changes, but because it is Mr. Cagney playing him, we understand them. Director Raoul Walsh encouraged Mr. Cagney to improvise a bit, which adds to his impact (including a scene where he punches out two men with one throw!)  (TCM article).  From beginning to end, James Cagney is the linchpin of the film. 

 

Humphrey Bogart (George Hally) also provides a fascinating character - he's a monster from the moment we see him. Unlike Eddie, he seems to have no reason for doing the things he does. He enjoys inflicting pain and death. There are no shades to George's character - he is a murderer who we would like to forget (and do, when he disappears immediately after the war). What Mr. Bogart brings to the role is someone you can genuinely hate - Bogart is not afraid to make George horrific, with no attempts to gain the audience's sympathy.

A great deal of our conversation centered on Jean Sherman (Priscilla Lane). I, for one, find her hard to like or sympathize with. From the start, we discover she is a liar (she'd misled Eddie into thinking she was a woman in her twenties, when she is actually a high school student). She's self-centered, caring only for her career, and very willing to use Eddie to get ahead. She's well aware that he loves her. She tells him she doesn't love him, yet she takes expensive gifts from him, while she carries on a relationship with Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn). Because she is played by Ms. Lane, who is an engaging actress, you want to like her, but Jean is a passive person, who floats from man to man.  One wonders why all these men are smitten with her; it is perhaps because they are that we get distracted from the reality of Jean - that she is a thoughtless woman who likes Eddie because of what she can get from him.  Perhaps the character needed a firmer hand in the writing; as written, she's not a person that one can countenance.

Gladys George, however, is perfect as Panama Smith. She was not the first choice for the part - it was originally intended for Ann Sheridan; Lee Patrick and Glenda Farrell had also been cast at various points  (The Films of James Cagney by Homer Dickens). It is hard to imagine any of them playing the character. Panama's love for Eddie is selfless - she is truthful with him, even when he doesn't want to hear it (especially about Jean). With her husky voice, it's easy to accept her as a "tuneless canary" (the name given to her by a minor character); she also is the epitome of the tough broad after which she was patterned - Texas Guinan. 

Also worth noting is the performance of Frank McHugh (Danny Green). A gentle man who gets pulled into bootlegging  through his friendship with Eddie, he's too kind for the business and eventually pays the price. Mr. McHugh gives him a simplicity and sympathy that makes him believable.  Jeffrey Lynn (Lloyd Hart), on the other hand, has the thankless task of being "the other man." Like Jean, Lloyd works with Eddie, while protesting his distaste for the business. It's not a great part because the character is very underwritten.

New York reporter Mark Hellinger wrote the 1938 story The World Moves On, on which the film is based.  He was writing about real people that he had encountered (AFI catalog). Mr. Hellinger also served as a producer on the film.

The New York Times review by Frank S. Nugent was not enthusiastic, however he praised both Mr. Cagney and Ms. George (who "breathed poignance into the stock role of the night club hostess") for their work. Given that it was released in 1939 (and had stiff competition), no Oscar nominations were given, but Mr. Cagney won the National Board of Review for Best Actor.  On a side note, Carol Burnett did her own take on the story as "The Boring Twenties." As always, Ms. Burnett (as Panama Smith) is hysterical. 

This is an engaging film; if you are an admirer of Mr. Cagney or Ms. George, it is an essential. It was also one of my father's favorite films. We'll leave you with a trailer to introduce you to the action:

Robert Meets a Ghost

When the ancestral home of the de Canterville's is sequestered for use by the U.S. Army, the heiress, Lady Jessica de Canterville (Margaret O'Brien) meets an American decendent of the family Cuffy Williams (Robert Young). They also meet the resident ghost, Sir Simon de Canterville (Charles Laughton) who was condemned to walk the halls of the house until a descendant performs an act of bravery. Could Cuffy be the one to free The Canterville Ghost (1944)?

As part of the 10th Anniversary celebration for the Classic Movie Blog Association, we're featuring film-related anniversaries. Now 75 years old, The Canterville Ghost is also part of the memorials for the Second World War and D-Day (it was released in August, just two months after the invasion).

Let's begin by mentioning that the screenplay, adapted from an Oscar Wilde short story of the same name, has only marginal similarity to its inspiration. This is very much a World War II tale - there is no need for a descendant to perform an act of bravery for Sir Simon in Wilde's version. For one thing, Sir Simon's crime in Wilde's story is far more deserving of his horrible fate - in an unjustified fit of jealousy, he murders his innocent wife. In the film version, Sir Simon runs away from an opponent in a duel - even Sir Simon's adversary thinks his punishment horrific. Because the victim of his crime in the Wilde novella was a woman, Sir Simon must be saved by a woman: "you must weep for me for my sins, because I have no tears, and pray with me for my soul, because I have no faith, and then, if you have always been sweet, and good, and gentle, the Angel of Death will have mercy on me." (The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde). The idea of courage under fire was deemed more meaningful in the midst of the war.

As we saw in Journey for Margaret (1942), the chemistry between Margaret O'Brien and Robert Young is outstanding. He's also faced with the unenviable task of playing a coward as his country (and the viewers of the film) face an horrific war. It cannot have been easy to play a man who begins the film running from danger, but Mr. Young takes on the task. He makes Cuffy even more the hero, because the audience is aware that he is truly afraid. (Mr. Young remained in Hollywood during World War II. He participated in war bond rallies and worked with the local civil defense.)

Equally enjoyable are the scenes between Charles Laughton and Ms. O'Brien. He was "enchanted" by Ms. O'Brien (TCM article) and their affection shows. It's been said that Mr. Laughton wanted children, however his wife, Elsa Lanchester, was either not willing or unable to have children (she admitted to at least two abortions). Mr. Laughton was allegedly quite receptive to interactions with youngsters - in fact, his only work as a director, The Night of the Hunter (1955), focused on two children. 

We were especially takien with the dancing sequence in which a young soldier asks Lady Jessica to dance. As the child is unfamiliar with swing dancing,  the soldier does all the steps for her. Ms. O'Brien really gets into the routine - even when she is unable to do something, she turns control over to her partner. It's a lot of fun to watch.

The film also demonstrates the skills of a number of excellent character performers: Una O'Connor (Mrs. Umney) is good as Lady Jessica's nanny. William Gargan (Sargent Benson) has just the right amount of military demeanor for a man who has literally just seen a ghost. Peter Lawford (Anthony de Canterville) dons a blonde wig that we suspect he stole from June Allyson to play Sir Simon's brother. Reginald Owen (Lord Canterville) is autocratic as a man who values courage over the life of his son.

The film was originally to be directed by Norman McLeod, but Charles Laughton was concerned with Mr. McLeod prior experiences with broad comedy (he was the director on two Marx Brothers and one W.C. Fields films), and requested that he be replaced. Jules Dassin stepped in, and he and Mr. Laughton got on swimmingly. As this was one of Mr. Dassin's earliest feature films, Mr. Laughton provided advice in private, which the director found helpful.

There have been numerous adaptions of  The Canterville Ghost. An early television broadcast (September 1949) starred Wendy Barrie and Edward Ashley. The following year, Robert Montgomery Presents Your Lucky Strike Theatre (November 1950) had a version with Cecil Parker and Margaret O'Brien. In April of 1951, the Du Mont network aired a show with Lois Hall and Reginald Sheffield. May 1953 saw  Ziv TV show the story with John Qualen and Connie Marshall. It was made into a musical in November of 1966 - again on television - with  Michael Redgrave, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Peter Noone (of Herman's Hermits fame), John Gielgud and Andrea Marcovicci were in a 1986 television film, and Patrick Steward and Neve Campbell tackled the parts in 1996. (AFI catalog). A Film Comment article from 2018 calls this version "the strangest one of all," but we agree with them that it is "definitely charming." Here's a trailer:


This post is part of The Anniversary Blogathon hosted by The Classic Movie Blog Association - celebrating it's 10th Year. Happy anniversary, fellow members! Please visit the website to read the other posts that are part of this celebration.

Mommy Kay

In 1938's My Bill, Kay Francis plays Mary Colbrook, the widowed mother of four children.  3 of her little darlings are rude, selfish, graspy creeps.  But then there is Bill (played by Dickie Moore), who for some unexplained reason calls his mother "Sweetheart", and who is the only sensible member of this family. Though Kay was left some money on her husband's death, she has wasted every cent of it providing the selfish bunch with piano lessons and new dresses.  Now, she's broke. So the obnoxious 3 leave her (after she squanders more money on cabs and flowers); Bill remains, begins a paper route, and takes on the job of "Man of the Family" to support his mother.

I think it would be fair to call this an odd movie. It's based on a play (from 1928), but really the biggest problem is the character of Mary.  By the end, we get a lot more back-story (which does make her story more interesting), but she is such a scatterbrain that one wonders how she has survived as long as she has. Bill, however, is a stand-up young man, and Dickie Moore plays him with verve. Bonita Granville, Anita Louise and Bobby Jordan as the other three nightmarish offspring bring obnoxious to new heights. And Elizabeth Risdon as Aunt Caroline confirms they are from the correct gene pool.

This film came out the same year that Kay got labeled "Box Office Poison" (along with Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich); it's obvious it was less her and more some of the parts she was being given.  She does the best she can, but in a sense, this IS Dickie Moore's movie.  And he kinda runs with it.