Nasa Springer (Clara Bow) is the latest in a family of passionate individuals. Her grandfather, Silas Jennings (Fred Kohler) indulged in an extramarital affair on the wagon train west; her mother Ruth (Estelle Taylor) fell passionately in love with the Native American Ronasa (Weldon Heyburn). Nasa is prone to wild outbursts and fits of temper, and the only one who seems to understand her is her best friend, the half-Native American Moonglow (Gilbert Rowland). Nasa tries to be accommodating to her father Pete (Willard Robertson), but when he decides to announce her engagement to HIS pick for her spouse, Nasa impulsively elopes with ne'er-do-wellLawrence Crosby (Monroe Owsley), causing a serious rift with her father. Based on a novel by Tiffany Thayer (who Ben Hecht called "a fellow pornographer"), Call Her Savage (1932) is about as pre-code as you can get. We've got adultery, attempted rape, venereal disease, prostitution, drug abuse, alcoholism, homosexuality, and various states of undress (my colleague's review at Pre-code.com will give you a bit more information and images!). With all that included, it's rather frightening to realize that the producers took things OUT of the film that were just really too extreme even for a pre-code film (The article at the AFI Catalog goes into a great deal of detail outlining some of the scenes in the book that didn't make the movie.) As portrayed by Clara Bow (the film was developed for her, according to this TCM article), Nasa is a bit of a wildcat, and the scenes where Nasa throws a temper-tantrum tend to be over-the-top. However, when Ms. Bow is quiet, as in a scene where she sits on the floor beside her mother, or when she is trying to decide how to get money to support her child, her genuineness is quite touching. An experienced silent actress, Ms. Bow still relies on some of those tricks to get her point across. At the same time, her skills as an actress enable her to do more with just her eyes then most actors can do with their whole bodies.
Clara Bow's life was not easy. Her father abandoned her and her mother when Clara was very young. Her mother was mentally ill and at one point threatening her daughter with a knife as Clara lay in bed. It seemed that Hollywood might change all that, as Clara became more and more successful - nicknamed the "It Girl" because whatever "It" was, she had It (TCM article), she appeared in the first picture to win an Academy Award (Wings), and made the transition to talkies. But, the betrayal of her former secretary, who laundered much of Ms. Bow's dirty laundry in public during a court case, as well as her anxieties regarding her performances in sound films, caused her to retire. She'd recently married cowboy star Rex Bell; they would have two children and settle on a ranch in Nevada. Clara, however, became increasingly reclusive and uncommunicative; when Bell decided to run government office, Clara attempted to kill herself. Clara was briefly hospitalized for her disorders; though she and Bell never divorced, she ended up living alone in a bungalow on their property. Ms. Bow died of a heart attack at age 65, in 1965. (See also this article from The Guardian in 2016)
Thelma Todd as Sunny De Lane is not well served here. She
has very little to do except be petulant and nasty. As Larry Crosby's
lover, she spends most of her time taunting Larry and insulting Nasa. An
actress of some skill, especially in comedic roles, Call Her Savage is really a waste of her time. It was good to again see Monroe Owsley, who we've encountered in a number of pre-code film - usually as the villain. And he certainly is playing that character here. Larry Crosby is a reprehensible human being, who takes joy out of humiliating people. His mad scene is well done, and a later encounter with Nasa is full of venom. It's rather hard though to understand why Nasa is so taken with him - he's rather despicable. But, given Nasa's predilection for doing whatever her father DOESN'T want her to do, marrying Larry is perfectly in character.
We also wish there had been a bit more of Gilbert Roland. An attractive man, he is even more admirable in this film for his willingness to tolerate Nasa's fits of pique. Mr. Roland would go on to a successful career in film and television, working until his retirement in 1994. Though he has an equally small role in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), he uses what he has to memorable effect. He's also wonderful opposite Barbara Stanwyck in The Furies (1950).
The New York Times, in its review of November of 1932, was not terrifically impressed with the picture. The reviewer complements Mr. Owsley and Mr. Rowland, but felt Ms. Bow overdid it a tad. We'll leave you with a scene from later in the film, where Nasa gives in to her frustrations. Our suggestion - watch the quiet moments:
As I've mentioned before in this blog, I have a personal fondness for films about women doctors, so I was very pleased that the film my group selected for this week is Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933). Kay Francis is Mary Stevens. We meet her as she and her best friend, Don Andrews (Lyle Talbot) conclude their internships and open an office together,with Mary's devoted friend - and nurse Glenda (Glenda Farrell) in tow. It's rough going at first - Mary, as a woman, finds it hard to recruit patients. But, just as things start to improve, Don decides that he'll be better off married to Lois Rising (Thelma Todd), the daughter of a powerful politician. And, while Mary now has a thriving practice, she loves Don and he is now, seemingly, out of reach. The pre-code elements in this film are fairly simple: Don and Mary have an adulterous relationship, and Mary has a baby out of wedlock. There's even a brief hint at abortion (Mary refuses to "do something" about her pregnancy, since she'd recently advised a patient to "go through with the thing" and now she is "going to live up to [her] own advice!" My fellow blogger at Pre-code.com also provides a nice overview of the film (though be warned - there are spoilers). But Mary's integrity as a physician and as a human being are never in question. She is a good, dedicated doctor, who just happens to fall in love with a very wrong man.
We loved Kay Francis as Mary Stevens. Sure, she's got nicer clothing than any struggling physician should have. Regardless, she presents a picture of a woman who is competent and who KNOWS she is competent. Despite her love for Don, she won't brook medical sloppiness, and when she realizes that his drinking is destroying his ability as a doctor, she breaks all ties with him. Lyle Talbot also does a good job in portraying someone with real ethical issues. Talbot has the ability to switch from likeable to reprehensible with very little effort, a real asset with Don. And he needs to do it in such a way that the audience will root for him when Mary and he meet years later. We talked about Mr. Talbot at length in our review of A Lost Lady. He is equally good here, but in a very different part.
Poor Glenda Farrell gets very little to do here, except be supportive to Kay. She is seldom out of her nurse's uniform, and doesn't even have a last name. But she makes the most with what she is given, making Nurse Glenda memorable. With 116 film and television credits, Glenda Farrell's career extended from an uncredited role in 1928 to 1970. She excelled at comedy, and could do zany and/or dumb characters with her eyes closed. Frequently paired with Joan Blondell (they would do 9 films together), Ms. Farrell really broke out when she first appeared as intrepid reporter Torchy Blane in Smart Blonde (1937). She would play the part 6 more times Lola Lane played Torchy once in 1938's Torchy Blane in Panama when Warner Brothers decided they wanted a new Torchy - it didn't work out, and Ms. Farrell appeared again in the role. Jane Wyman would conclude the film series with Torchy Blane...Playing with Dynamite (1939) when Ms. Farrell left Warners to head back to New York and Broadway. Between 1929 and 1970, Ms. Farrell appeared in 12 Broadway plays, including Forty Carats (her part went to Binnie Barnes in the film version), as well as appearances in many television shows. While appearing in the Broadway play Separate Rooms (1941), Ms. Farrell met Dr. Henry Ross (he was treating her sprained ankle at the time). They married, and were together until her death of lung cancer in 1971.
Another actress with a minuscule part is Thelma Todd, who only has a few scenes as Don Andrews' wife Lois. We see her briefly prior to their marriage, then again when Lois' father forbids her from divorcing him. Todd had started her career in silent films, but talkies gave her the opportunity to show off her comedic talents, often teamed with ZaSu Pitts in a series of short films about two hapless women (patterned after Laurel and Hardy) named Thelma and ZaSu (surprise!). But Todd is perhaps known because of her mysterious death at age 29; she was found in her car, dead, in what the coroner called a suicide from carbon monoxide poisoning. The truth behind her death has been debated for decades. Did she die at her own hand, or was she the victim of a murder? In 2012, William Donati published The Life and Death of Thelma Todd, which revisited the investigation.
Two major incidents happen towards the end of the film that bear some mention. Dr. Stevens is called in to treat a child with infantile paralysis. She needs a serum. Really? Infantile paralysis - or polio - was not treatable in the 1930s, and the only "serum" currently available are the polio vaccines, discovered by Jonas Salk and by Albert Sabin in the 1950s. The other incident revolves around Mary's depression at the end of the film. As Don tries to bring her back to herself, it is her career that he uses as a motivator, not their pending marriage. That, combined with a final scene that is described in this TCM article are, for me, the most interesting aspects of this film on the role of women in medicine.
This New York Times review points out the excellent work of Una O'Connor in her small part as the mother of two sick children. All in all, it's a positive review, and we agree and highly recommend it. We leave you with a trailer.
Next week, we'll look at another Kay Francis film in which she portrays a doctor.
One of the more unusual things about The Hot Heiress (1931) is the opening - a sweet little ditty sung by a bunch of construction workers entitled "Nobody Loves a Riveter But His Mother." The opening makes you think that the movie is a musical; though it has a few songs, it really isn't. It's a sweet albeit rather tame pre-code movie about our titular heiress' love for an ordinary working guy, who happens to be a riveter. The film stars Ben Lyon as Hap Harrigan, our working stiff and Ona Munson as Juliette "Julie" Hunter, the heiress. It also features Walter Pidgeon as Clay, the man Julie's parents (Homes Herbert and Nella Walker) actually want her to marry. And in a very small part, Thelma Todd as Lola, one of Julie's friends. The plot is rather simple - Hap sees Julie sleeping in the morning while he is working (he's up high, and can see into the open window. A little pre-code deshabille in the scene!). Distracted, he misses a rivet as it is tossed to him; it lands on the floor of Julie's bedroom, starting a fire. Hap and pal Tom Dugan (Bill Dugan) climb in to put out the fire, and Julie immediately falls for her hero. The only problem? Her family, who wants her to marry longtime friend, Clay.
Much is made in the film of the class differences between Julie and
Hap. Even their vocabulary is different, with Hap, Tom and Margie very
oriented to slang, whereas Julie and Clay speak far more precisely.
This speech difference is emphasized in the scenes in which Hap, Tom and
Margie visit Julie's family home for a weekend outing. It can be a bit
disconcerting to the modern ear, but it clearly establishes the differences in the societies, and points out the snobbishness of the "upper" classes. This is not a film that is sympathetic towards the rich. Julie is the exception because she treats everyone equally. In fact, it often seems that she is trying to escape the burdens of her family's wealth - she is not interested in the life they have mapped out for her.
The songs in the film were written by Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. As the film didn't do particularly well, the duo was not eager to continue in the film industry, negotiated an end to their contract, and headed back to Broadway, where they would write such notable musicals as Pal Joey, Jumbo, and Babes in Arms (all of which would eventually be made into films). This TCM article goes into more detail on their departure from Hollywood. And while this is perhaps not their best work, we enjoyed the song "Nobody but You" in particular. The YouTube video below features the first scene with the song. You also get nice views of our two couples: Juliette and Hap, and Tom and Margie:
It was quite enjoyable to see Walter Pidgeon in a supporting role, as well as a role in which he is rather a heel. Though never stated, it sometimes seemed that Clay might only be interested in Julie for her money. He associates with the right circles, and nothing is ever said, but could his family have lost their fortune in the Depression? Regardless, Clay doesn't seem to love her; the marriage is one that he just assumes will happen. Her rejection seems more of an inconvenience to him than anything else. At first glance, we did not recognize Ona Munson as the actress who would go on to play Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind. She's lovely here - cute and pert, with a sweet singing voice. Munson had a respectable career, appearing in 20 films and three television episodes between 1928 and 1953, and 8 Broadway plays, beginning in 1919. Her life, however, was a complicated one. She married three times, but was also rumored to have had affairs with Dorothy Arzner, Marlene Dietrich. and Alla Nazimova. This brief article from Film Comment provides more detail. She committed suicide at age 51, after a long illness.
Inez Courtney who played Margie, was perhaps our favorite character. Margie is someone who, despite her lower class upbringing, fits in anywhere. Julie's affection for her is transparent, and, when she is a guest at the Hunter home, it is Margie who has all the male guest crowded around her, and they all obviously are enjoying her visit. Courtney also started our on Broadway - she played Babe in the original staging of Good News, among other things. Between 1930 and 1940, she made 58 film appearances. At the end of her contract, however, she decided to retire and move to Rome with her husband, an Italian nobleman. (She opted to not use her title of Marchessa) She died in 1975, aged 67, in Neptune, New Jersey. Nella
Walker, who plays Julie's mother, seemed to have been playing mothers and society matrons from the time she was young. From 1929 to 1954, she appeared in 117 films, primarily in supporting parts. Included in her list of excellent films is Stella Dallas, in which she was the future mother-in-law of Laurel Dallas; and In Name Only, as Cary Grant's mother. Her final film would have her playing the mother to Humphrey Bogart and William
Holden in Sabrina (she was 13 older than her senior "son", Bogart). At the end of the filming of Sabrina, she decided to retire She died in 1971 We'll leave you with a trailer from the film. As you can see, the noise created by construction has not changed very much in 85 years. And for New York City people like us, the vision of a construction site right next to our bedroom window is nothing new either:
