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:
Tom Moody (Adolphe Menjou), a fight promoter, is eager to make enough money to buy off his estranged wife and finally marry his mistress, Lorna Moon (Barbara Stanwyck). When Joe Bonaparte (William Holden) enters their lives, they think they have found their Golden Boy (1939), but there are problems. Besides being a talented fighter, Joe is a gifted violinist, and his father (Lee J. Cobb) strongly objects to Joe relinquishing his potential career as a musician for a life in the boxing ring - the the potential destruction of his hands. Perhaps it seems unusual to look at a 1939 film as part of the Banned and Blacklisted Blogathon, but this film featured a great deal of talent that was, in one way or another, affected by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC). We'll take this opportunity to look at both the film, and the experiences of those involved in it during the period of the blacklist, in this year, the 70th anniversary of the beginning of this evil campaign. My interest in the Blacklist really began in 1972, when Robert Vaughn (yes, THAT Robert Vaughn, the actor who appeared in The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and had a PhD in Communications from University of Southern California) published Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting. The book demonstrated that everyone involved in the process in Hollywood was victim - from those who supported the blacklist, to the actual victims. Dr. Vaughn's title was taken from a quote by Dalton Trumbo: "it will do no good to search for villains or heroes or saints or devils because there were none; there were only victims."
Barbara Stanwyck is, as always, excellent as Lorna Moon (interestingly, the play was purchased as a vehicle for Jean Arthur, with Frank Capra directing! (TCM article)). Ms. Stanwyck can take a scene, as she does when she is trying to convince Joe to continue fighting, and change her reaction on a dime. Though filmed under the code, Lorna remains unpunished, despite the fact that she is clearly having an affair with the married Tom.
Ms. Stanwyck was a staunch conservative - she objected to labor unions and only joined the Screen Actors' Guild when it became apparent that the new union would prevent her from working (A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel-True, 1907-1940). When the investigations of HUAC began, Stanwyck, like her husband Robert Taylor, became a member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Whether she herself named names is information that is not recorded - Mr. Taylor certainly made a name for himself when he testified before HUAC on October 22nd, 1947, and named names (Howard Da Silva and Karen Morley, specifically). But Ms. Stanwyck was involved with a group that was busily hunting for Communists within the Hollywood rank-and-file. So too was Adolphe Menjou a member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. His Tom Moody in our film is a rather banal man; it's hard to understand why Lorna would be interested in him, so it is easy to root for a relationship between Lorna and Joe. The day before Robert Taylor testified in front of the HUAC, Mr. Menjou testified. He fancied himself an expert on Communism, having read "over 150 books on the subject [of Russia]". He then accused John Cromwell of "acting an awful lot like a communist" (while acknowledging that he had no knowledge that Mr. Cromwell actually was a communist. He considered himself "a witch-hunter if the witches are Communists. . .a Red-baiter. I make no bones about it whatsoever. I would like to see them all back in Russia." Later, he would publicly attack many Hollywood liberals, including Katharine Heburn ("scratch a do-gooder, like Heburn, and they'll yell 'Pravda'."), infuriating Spencer Tracy and Ms. Hepburn who would only speak to Mr. Menjou onscreen when they filmed The State of the Union in 1948. (Katharine Hepburn: A Remarkable Woman by Anne Edwards)
William Holden is quite wonderful as Joe, a part for which John Garfield, Tyrone Power and Richard Carlson were all considered (AFI catalog). This was his first real picture, and he almost got ousted from the film - only thanks to Barbara Stanwyck's intervention and coaching did he remain in the role that would effectively begin his career. When we discussed their only other film together, Executive Suite, we provided a clip of Ms. Stanwyck's tribute to Mr. Holden at the 1977 Oscars. Though a participant in Hollywood Fights Back, a radio program hosted by the Committee on the First Amendment (the group protesting HUAC's activities), (J. Edgar Hoover Goes to the Movies: The FBI and the Origins of Hollywood's Cold War by John Sbardellati) Mr. Holden, unlike many of the other committee members (Marsha Hunt and Jane Wyatt among them) seems to have escaped unscathed from the morass of the blacklist. He even rejected vehement anti-Communist Hedda Hopper's advice when he appeared in The Bridge on the River Kwai, co-scripted by HUAC refugee Carl Foreman (Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism by Jennifer Frost). Again, it did not affect his career. Others in the cast were not as lucky. Lee J. Cobb (named by Larry Parks, himself a victim of the blacklist), and writer Clifford Odets (named by Leila Rogers, Ginger's mother) were blacklisted until they finally, in desperation, went before HUAC to name names (see this Study Guide from Lincoln Center, from a production of the play there). For more information on those affected by HUAC, visit this list.
Golden Boy had started as a Broadway play in 1937; many of those involved in that play were also targeted, including Mr. Cobb, Mr. Da Silva, Frances Farmer, Elia Kazan (who would become a symbol of the traitor when he named names to clear himself), Morris Carnovsky (named by Mr. Kazan) , Phoebe Brand (Mr. Carnovsky's wife; also named by Mr. Kazan), Luther Adler, and Roman Bohnen. Jules Garfield, who would take Hollywood by storm under the name John Garfield was also in the Broadway play. He dearly wanted to play Joe Bonaparte, but was unable to get the needed studio loan-out to play Joe. Mr. Garfield, too, was targeted by HUAC, probably causing the heart attack that claimed his life at age 39.
These individuals, colleagues in 1939, would become adversaries for no real reason; yet the hatred that the Blacklist generated still remains. In 2008, when Elia Kazan received a special Oscar, many in Hollywood either boycotted the award, or refused to applaud. (You can see the ceremony here). Was Mr. Kazan the only person who surrendered to HUAC? Are people like Lee J. Cobb and Clifford Odets evil because they caved into the pressure of not working in their chosen profession? And are we going to continue to punish the victims - because of their political beliefs, their race, creed, gender or sexual identity? That we can talk about the Blacklist in 2017 is a step in the right direction - let's keep the dialogue going, and remember it as a symbol of all the bias in our world.
We'll leave you of this scene featuring Ms. Stanwyck and Mr. Holden:
Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda team up for the first time in The Mad Miss Manton (1938), a delightful screwball comedy. Stanwyck is Melsa Manton, a wealthy society girl, and a member of the Park Avenue Pranksters, a group of nine young ladies with too much time on their hands, who inevitably end up getting into hot water. After a late night of partying, Melsa takes her little dog out for a walk. She spies an acquaintance, Ronnie Belden run from an empty building. Curious, Melsa wanders inside and finds a dead body. She races to a phone, calls the police, and returns to the house. But when Lieutenant Mike Brent (Sam Levene) arrives, the body has disappeared, and he's convinced that Melsa is having a joke at his expense. The next day, newpaper editor Peter Ames (Henry Fonda) prints an article condemning Melsa. Incensed, Melsa and her merry band decide that they will find the missing body and solve the mystery of the murder. This is a hysterical romp, it's delightful and enjoyable - a little candy confection of a movie. Instead male bonding movie, we have a dynamic young woman and her Scoobies. It's not great literature, but it is silly and funny and totally relaxing. Watching Stanwyck is a screwball heiress is great fun; nicest of all is that, while Melsa is a bit of flake, she's a SMART flake. She's brave, and she's always in control One realizes quickly that her lunacy is based on boredom - give her something to do, and she takes it on and runs with it.
Henry Fonda, in his first of three films with Stanwyck, was allegedly not thrilled with the part of Peter Ames. He particularly did not like the scene in which the Park Avenue Pranksters overpower him, and tie him to a bed. On loan from Walter Wanger, Fonda was furious during the shoot, and ignored everyone as much as possible (see this TCM article). Luckily, his dissatisfaction with the picture did not sour him on performing with Ms. Stanwyck, or we would not have the magnificent The Lady Eve! Regardless of his annoyance, Mr. Fonda turns in a good performance, in a role in which he is clearly a very second banana. Another performance that really stands out (not surprisingly) is that of Hattie McDaniel as Melsa's maid, Hilda. As is to be expected. her part is small, but she makes the most of what she has. According to Hattie: The Life of Hattie McDaniel by Carlton Jackson, some audience members had a problem with Hilda tossing a vase of water in Peter's face (on Melsa's orders). We personally, thought it was a hoot (she did use "distilled water") Ms. McDaniel can do with a raised eyebrow what other actors cannot do with their entire body. Her retorts to Melsa are brief and pointed (Melsa: "Miss Beverly is our guest.". Hilda: "I didn't ask her"), but there is an affection between the two that is undeniable.
The film opened at
Radio City Music Hall, which speaks to a film from which the studio
expected a great deal of interest. The costumes by Edward Stevenson are
quite lovely, especially considering that he is having to gown nine
girls in stunning clothing. Interestingly, in 1944, when Dick Powell walks past a movie marquee in Murder, My Sweet (1944), this is the film being shown.
The screenplay was based on an unpublished novel by Wilson Collison. The role of Melsa was also considered for Katharine Hepburn and Irene Dunne; Stanwyck took the part to fulfill requirements in her non-exclusive RKO contract (AFI catalog). She became ill during production, but despite her having to stay home for a week's recuperation, her director, Leigh Jason, said of her: "I've worked with perhaps eight or nine hundred actors and actresses. Barbara Stanwyck is the nicest."
We will leave you with the scene in which Peter and Melsa meet at the newspaper office, after his article comes out. Next time, more Stanwyck, but with another actor with whom she appeared in multiple films.
