It’s a year After the Thin Man (1936) investigation, and Nora (Myrna Loy) and Nick Charles (William Powell) return to their San Francisco home on New Year’s Eve, To Nick’s dismays a command visit by Nora’s aunt, Katherine Forrest (Jessie Ralph) awaits them. It seems that Nora’s cousin Selma Landis (Elissa Landi) has been abandoned by her husband Robert (Alan Marshal), and Selma is frantic.
If this film doesn't quite have the magic of the original film, it's pretty darn close (and if you'd not seen the first one, you wouldn't care there was something better). Mr. Powell and Mr. Loy remain in top form, and Mr. Powell is given another character to bounce off - this time in the person of Jessie Ralph's domineering Aunt Katherine. Every time she calls him NICHO-LAAS, you fall down laughing.
What begins as a simple case of marital neglect becomes a series of murders, with Selma Landis as the key suspect. It's hard to sympathize with Selma - she's a doormat. Her husband is a boor, he's a serial philanderer, and she knows that he only married her for her money. When she begins begging him to return to her, one cringes. Selma has no gumption - she crawls to her husband and cowers from her aunt. Even her relationship with Nora - who really cares for her cousin - is that of a supplicant. It doesn't help that Ms. Landi really overacts the part.
That David Graham (James Stewart) would be passionately in love with Selma seems a stretch. The only time she seems to have rebelled against anyone is when she jilted David for Robert. But Mr. Stewart, who was starting to get lead parts (Born to Dance (1936) was released just before this film) is excellent in a very complex part. According to Ms. Loy's biography, he was thrilled to be in the movie, and ran around the set telling everyone "There ought to be a law against any man who doesn't marry Myrna Loy!" (Myrna Loy: The Only Good Girl in Hollywood by Emily W. Leider). They had already appeared in the same film (though with no on-screen time) in Wife vs. Secretary that same year.
This was the first big role for Dorothy McNulty (Polly Byrnes), who would change her name to Penny Singleton in 1938 (AFI Catalog) and go on to fame in the Blondie series - all 28 films of it. She's good in the part - Polly's a tough woman, and serves as an interesting counterpoint to Selma the wimp. In the long run, I think we ended up liking Polly a lot more (even if she is a conniver!)
Other supporting actors provide interesting performances. Joseph Calleia (Dancer) is properly menacing as the nightclub owner who is using Robert Landis for his own purposes. A short scene with Fingers (Harry Taylor), another of Nick's buddies, is very amusing. And finally, there is Sam Levene (Lieutenant Abrams), who takes on the part of the harried police officer. Mr. Levene is excellent, and he and Mr. Powell have the rapport that is necessary to make the relationship between the detective and the investigator work.
Asta gets a bigger part in this movie - he has a "wife" who is flirting with another dog, much to Asta's disgust. It's a cute bit, and was probably added because of the popularity of the animal from the prior film.
When Ms. Loy saw that she and Mr. Powell were being advertised as a screen team, she decided that receiving half the salary Mr. Powell was getting was not enough. So, she stood her ground and held out for an equal salary to Mr. Powell - and Louis B. Mayer gave it to her! (TCM article). And, if only for this film, Ms. Loy does seem to know how to knit.
The opening of the film makes of a big point of the fact that Nick and Nora are arriving in San Francisco on the Sunset Limited, a train that ran from New Orleans to San Francisco. Since, at the end of the first movie, the Charles' were on the train to San Francisco (and it is just after Christmas in that film), we know that the action in After the Thin Man is likely one year after the first movie.
The New York Timesreview by Frank S. Nugent was positive calling it "one of the most urbane comedies of the season". And indeed it is. We'll leave you with the trailer:
On his return cruise to England, Francis, Lord Kelton (Frank Morgan) finds a woman asleep in his stateroom. Mrs. Fay Cheyney (Joan Crawford) has mistaken his cabin for hers. As she leaves, she meets Arthur, Lord Dilling (Robert Montgomery). Both men are intrigued with the attractive Mrs. Cheyney, and spend the trip vyng for her attentions. We turn our attentions this week to The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937)
It's hard to go wrong when you have the stellar cast of lead and character actors present in this movie. Joan Crawford is convincing, though she plays Fay with more seriousness than did Ms. Shearer in the 1929 version. Ms. Shearer very much had her tongue firmly in her cheek, whereas Ms. Crawford makes Fay more conflicted. The addition of a fairly nasty gang (Sara Haden (Anna), Melville Cooper (William), & Leonard Carey (Ames)) makes the stakes in this version a lot higher. Myrna Loy had originally been cast as Fay (TCM article), but Mrs. Crawford was so adamant in her refusal to play the lead in Parnell (she'd sworn off costume parts after The Gorgeous Hussy) that MGM decided to switch the actresses.
William Powell is splendid as Charles. Though his part is relatively small, he makes good use of the screen time provided. We speculated on the benefits of casting him as Lord Dilling - his chemistry with Ms. Crawford is better, and he has the charm and gravitas that we found a bit lacking in Robert Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery is not bad, he just doesn't have the savoir faire of either Mr. Rathbone or Mr. Powell. In comparison to these two gentlemen, Mr. Montgomery comes across as a touch callow. It's been said that Mr. Montgomery and Ms. Crawford were not particularly fond of one another, (Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography by Lawrence J. Quirk & William Schoell) which might be part of the problem. Truth to tell, had we not seen Mr. Rathbone, we might not have given Mr. Montgomery lower marks.
Frank Morgan is a vast improvement over Herbert Bunston. Now Lord Kelton, he is no where near as boring and pedantic as the original. He's a tad naive (just WHY is Fay in his room, wearing nothing but her undergarments??) and he is clearly older and less dashing than Lord Dilling. But, he's no buffoon, and one could see Fay agreeing to marry him. He's rather a nice man, he's quite wealthy, and he is clearly head over heels about her.
Nigel Bruce (Willie) is cast in a role in which he, like his friend Kelton, is somewhat innocent (he really doesn't know that Cousin John (Ralph Forbes) is NOT his wife Joan's (Colleen Clare) blood relation), but he's also a decent and not silly man. He doesn't do the fubsy Englishman that we are used to in his appearances as Dr. Watson; he is a too trusting soul, but a good friend with a sense of humor.
We also enjoyed Jessie Ralph as the Duchess of Ebley. This version gives the Duchess a bit of a past, which makes her even more attractive (and makes Fay's reluctance to rob her even more pointed). A Broadway actress with experience in silent films, she was 63 when she made her sound film debut in Child of Manhattan (1933). She had 50 sound film credits to her name (including such gems as Enchanted April (1935), David Copperfield (1935), and After the Thin Man (1936). Married once (and together until his death), she was forced to retire in 1941 after diabetes complications resulted in the amputation of her leg. She died three years later, age 73, of a heart attack. A few new scenes are added to the film - the opening scene with Lord Kelton, a late scene with Mr. Powell (obviously inserted to satisfy the Hays Office), and fund-raising auction scene, with little dolls of our lead character auctioned for charity. Here's a photo of Mr. Montgomery with the Crawford doll. We thought the dolls were absolutely adorable, and wondered if the actors got to keep them. The New York Timesreview by Frank Nugent was not exactly glowing, though he did express admiration for William Powell saying that "Mr. Powell is equally fascinating, either side of the pale." Following the release of this version, the Lux Radio Theatre aired a version with Miriam Hopkins, Walter Pidgeon, and Adolph Menjou in May of 1942. In 1953, Broadway Television Theatre broadcast an adaptation with Vicki Cummings in the lead (AFI catalog).
Each film has its own merits, and we liked both of them for different reasons. We always enjoy seeing William Powell; we liked the rapport between Shearer and Rathbone. With the changes in film technology between 1929 and 1937, the movies are different enough that it is entertaining to see them both. We'll leave you with a scene from the film:
My fascination with in women in medicine extends to way nurses are portrayed in classic cinema. So, this week, our group watched the 1939 film Four Girls in White. The film follows four young women who enter a three year nursing program, each for her own reasons: Gertie Robbins (Una Merkel) wants a job which will give her three (or more) meals a day; Mary Forbes (Mary Howard) wants to be a district nurse so she can better support her small daughter; Patricia Page (Ann Rutherford) is there because her sister, Norma (Florence Rice) has entered the program. And Norma? Norma's decided the hospital is the route to a rich husband. This is an interesting film, which combines humor, drama, engaging characters, and a good script. It's a story which provides a (somewhat glorified) view of nursing education, as well as a nice bunch of stories - some romantic, some comic, some tragic. But it really is never boring and is often surprising. It does a excellent job introducing us to our lead character - realizing she and her sister will be late for their school orientation, Norma puts in a phony call for an ambulance, then begs a ride to the school from the answering physician, Stephen Melford (Alan Marshal). No fool, Dr. Melford quickly figures out their ruse and exacts a punishment (he could, of course, turn her and her sister into the police, but that's never discussed). Norma, of course, is smitten, primarily because he is a young, handsome, and unmarried physician. We were especially impressed with Alan Marshall's portrayal of Dr.
Melford. The movie presents him as another physician of the Hollywood hero mode: a doctor who wants to work in the hospital at lower pay because there he treats people
who truly need him, takes ambulance
duty because a colleague needed assistance, and is a
researcher trying to better mankind It could be a tricky role,
because Melford is so innately "good", but Marshall gives him a sense of humor;
Melford's discussions with Norma concerning his career choices are
sincere without being saccharine. At one point, according to this AFI Catalog article, Gene Raymond was set for the role. We think Marshall was a much better choice.
An engaging actor, Marshall appeared in 24 films between 1936 and 1959 (he died in 1961, at the age of 51). An Australian citizen, he was unable to join the US Military during World War II, and acquiesced to his wife's request that he not attempt to return to Australia to enlist (quite frankly, it would have been very dangerous just to travel TO Australia). Instead, he did numerous bond tours, receiving the The United States Treasury Award for his work. By 1944, he pulled back from film work - he had always disliked Hollywood, and his film work and bond tours had exhausted him. He would return to films and to television in the 1950s, and worked steadily - often with friends like Vincent Price (in The House on Haunted Hill). For more information on Mr. Marshall, visit thiswebpage that is dedicated to him. He also worked onstage - his final role was in play of Sextette, starring Mae West. He was appearing in Chicago in that play(along with his son, Kit), when he suffered a heart attack. We liked Florence Rice in the role of Norma. This TCM article
is rather critical of her (as well as Ann Harding - who has nothing to do with this movie. We like Ann
Harding), but we feel unfairly so. One isn't supposed to really LIKE
Norma - she's an opportunist, and the
audience is never clear if her interest in Melford is because he is a
doctor, with a potential for wealth, or because she really has a regard
for him. Rice is not afraid to play her as selfish and a bit
unpleasant. Her only saving grace is her loving relationship with her
sister (it seems evident that the girls are alone in the world. No other family is mentioned) - that is what gives one hope that her character will eventually
grow up. We were intrigued with the use of a statue of Florence Nightingale in
the story. It serves as a barometer for Norma's growth as a person - she complains to it when her selfishness is the most egregious; it also signals her reform later in the film. It's an interesting way to heroize the character of The Nurse. Ms. Rice had a decent career, mostly in second leads. She was still working fairly steadily when she retired in 1943. She married her third husband, Fred Butler in 1946, a marriage that would last until her death in 1974.
One character in the film is a bit of a mystery. Mary Forbes, who has been forced to put her child into a foster home (on a farm), while she completes the three year nursing program in the city. Though it is never stated outright, there are hints that Mary is an unwed mother. She never mentions a husband, never says she is widowed, but she is clearly the sole support of the child. And the character is, as is often the case for unwed mothers during the "Code" period, punished for her "sins". It's an interesting plot point, that we suspect would have been evident to the contemporary audience. A number of interesting character actors appear in the film, notably Jessie Ralph as the nursing instructor, Miss Tobias, Sara Haden as Miss Bennett, Kent Taylor as millionaire Robert Maitland, and Buddy Ebsen as orderly Express. The relationship between Ebsen and Una Merkel provide most of the humor to the film (some of it on the silly side). We will leave you with this clip from the film. As fans of the Cherry Ames books, we found the film an enjoyable look at the start of a career.
