A Precode Look at WWI

Heroes for Sale is nearly unrelenting in the intensity of pain that the character of Tom Holmes (Richard Barthelmess) goes through.  A soldier in the first World War, who is severely wounded in an enemy action, he ends up addicted to morphine when his German doctor can only relieve his pain rather than remove the shrapnel in his body. He returns to America to find that his fellow soldier George (Grant Mitchell) has been given awards for bravery for leading the action in which Tom was injured, while George hid in a foxhole, paralyzed with fear.  George attempts to help his friend, as much out of fear of being revealed as anything else, until Tom's addiction becomes known, at which point Tom is fired from his bank job and put into a rehabilitation center.

Cured of his drug problem, Tom starts over, marries (Loretta Young as Ruth), becomes successful, only to have everything taken away from him yet again.  He loses his job, his wife, his son and finally ends up one of the depression homeless, primarily because he refuses to live upon the pain of his fellow man.

William Wellman never lets up in this story. Just when you think Tom will make it, something else happens to him.  Richard Barthelmess is wonderful as Tom. We felt for him at every moment.  He had had a remarkable career in silents, which continued into the 1930's, finally petering out (unfortunately) in the 1940's.  We had previously seen him in Only Angels Have Wings, and looked forward to seeing him in a lead role; he was not a disappointment. 

Unlike the previously discussed Midnight Mary,  Loretta Young plays an innocent girl in Heroes for Sale, someone who loves her husband and son with her whole heart.  Young is quite good in what is really a small part.

Besides Barthelmess, though, the other actor of real interest is Aline MacMahon as Mary Dennis.  Of particular note is a scene during which she realizes that Tom has feelings for Ruth. Watch her face - Aline MacMahon will break your heart.

Ms. MacMahon began her career in 1931, and continued working until 1975.  She had started on Broadway, appearing in The Madras House in 1921 - she would continue to work on the New York stage until 1975.  She spent her film career in supporting roles, like Trixie Lorraine in Gold Diggers of 1933 and Mrs. Murray in The Search.  Married once (from 1928 until her husband's death in 1975), she retired in after completing For the Use of the Hall.  She died in 1991, aged 92.  

Here's a scene with the always wonderful Aline MacMahon and Richard Barthelmess:



Next week, we conclude this particular precode set with Wild Boys of the Road.

Meeting "Midnight Mary"

The discussion for today will focus on Midnight Mary.  We were all fascinated to see Loretta Young play a prostitute/gun moll. One is NOT used to her playing anything but the sweet innocent. However, she was excellent in this, a tribute to her abilities as an actress.  Though Midnight Mary IS a traditional woman's picture, it is also a condemnation of the Great Depression, and the conditions that women faced as a result. Mary Martin ends up in reform school, primarily because she is an orphan and has no one to defend her (when it is her friend who is stealing).  When she returns to the community, she is unable to find work, and ultimately turns to prostitution just to pay for food.  We noticed that there are real similarities to the situation facing Myra in Waterloo Bridge (we were discussing the the 1931 version - because it fit our "precode" focus, but this certainly applies to the the 1940 version as well).

Quite a bit of our discussion was about Ricardo Cortez, this time playing Leo, the mobster (who is a really awful human being). He is, of course, so very different in this than his role in Torch Singer.  We found an interesting comparison to Franchot Tone's Tom, who is our hero in the film.  Though he marries another woman after Mary rejects him, we felt that Tone made the character a lot stronger than we would have expected.  We also liked Mary's relationship with him.  Her desire to protect him from her past was lovely; we also felt that he was well aware of her past, and that it made no difference to him.

Here's a scene, featuring Loretta Young and Ricardo Cortez:



Next posting will be about another very interesting William Wellman film: Heroes for Sale.

Ruth Survives the San Francisco Earthquake

San Francisco was not the first movie to show the devastating effects of the San Francisco earthquake. In fact, Ruth Chatterton's Jenny in this week's Frisco Jenny also made it out of the wreckage. However, unlike the latter movie, the earthquake begins this movie, setting up a chain of events that drive our heroine to unwed motherhood and prostitution.  Of all the movies we've seen so far, this one had the most traditional "code" feeling. Jenny may become wealthy as a madam, but she had no happiness, and justice is served in the end (I won't reveal the ending). 

Our discussion focused on comparison to a few other movies we had seen in the past. First, we considered Female, also starring Ruth Chatterton. While that too results in a rather traditional ending, the character does not get her "just desserts" (if you will), and she is going to live happily, in spite of her rather unfettered lifestyle.  We also ended up looking at the earthquake scene again, and then comparing it to the earthquake scene in San Francisco.  We were fascinated that, in the latter, the earthquake is shown almost entirely in close up. A broken wagon wheel here, some falling bricks there, a face looking up - all seen almost exclusively from Blackie Norton (Clark Gable's) perspective, making for a very personal, very emotional set of scenes.  Frisco Jenny avoids close-ups, and Jenny is almost entirely removed from the action once she sees her father killed by falling debris.  Thus, the earthquake here IS the actor. Wellman combines stock footage with studio shots to show the destruction of the City from quake and fire.  It works beautifully, but is less a city of people than the latter film will be. When we return to Jenny, it is at least seven months later, and Jenny has concerns other than rebuilding the City. (Too bad she didn't run into Jeannette MacDonald in her distress. Imagine how much happier her life would have been!!)

Here is a trailer:



Next week, we venture on to precode Loretta Young!  Join us then.

Stanwyck Sings too!

Perhaps we should call The Purchase Price Torch Singer II, since Barbara Stanwyck also plays a torch singer of spotty reputation and also does her own singing (though to far less beneficial effect than Ms. Colbert in Torch Singer. One understands why Ms. Stanwyck was later dubbed in Ball of Fire!  We have a trailer below, with her singing included.) Stanwyck's Joan Gordon wants to marry; however her lover Eddie Fields (Lyle Talbot) quickly informs us and reminds her that he is already married. She has a possibility - a young man of wealth named Don Leslie (Hardie Albright), who dumps her because his father has discovered her relationship with Fields. She leaves town - mainly to get away from Eddie. Then, she changes places with a hotel maid to travel to North Dakota as the mail order pride of Jim Gibson, played by George Brent.

We've liked George Brent in pretty much everything we've seen him in, but not this one. His Jim is a creep. His near-rape attempt of his stranger bride on their first night together we found revolting, and his assumption that molesting her immediately was his right as a "husband" doubled our dislike of Jim.  I can't speak for my fellow movie watchers here, but I know I found Eddie a lot more attractive (and wife or no wife, I would have gone off with him. He's a much nicer man, and cared more about Joan's well-being than Jim ever does).

The other creep in the movie was Bull McDowell (played by David Landau), who offers to advance Jim money IF Joan will act with a house maid (with benefits, of course). We also found the rather odd man who stands around barking rather disturbing (we couldn't figure out WHY he was barking!)

Stanwyck, who is good in everything, is wonderful in this, and the movie is worth seeing just for her. There is no question about Joan's character. We see her return a house key to Eddie, as she goes off to marry. But she attempts to be a good wife (in all but the physical sense) to Jim, as she tries to win him over. She is good to her neighbors, and smart and strong. We loved the scene where she goes off to assist a woman newly delivered of an infant; alone, and  still too weak to care for her newborn and young daughter, Joan steps in, cooks, cleans and gets the family back on an even keel. At that point, I dare anyone to NOT be in love with Joan.

 As promised, here is a trailer with Stanwyck singing:

Tune in next time for Frisco Jenny.

Other Men's Women

 After Bill (Grant Withers) succeeds in ducking his marriage to Marie (Joan Blondell), his pal Jack (Regis Toomey) offers to put him up. Jack's wife, Lily (Mary Astor) has no objections, but as time goes on, Bill and Lily start to have feelings for one another.

Other Men's Women is rather an odd movie. The consensus of our group was that it didn't quite know what it wanted to be: a romance for the women, or an action-adventure movie for the men. It did have both elements, with the love story between Grant Withers and Mary Astor playing out within the context of railroad men.  Mary Astor's character, Lily, disappears for most of the end of the movie, and one wonders why she would leave her now-blind husband even with the danger of a ensuing flood.

We did enjoy this early James Cagney appearance. His characterization of Eddie was a delight - from his first appearance atop a railroad car to the scene where he meets his girl friend at a fancy club in work clothes - then proceeds to strip down to the tux he had donned underneath.  Add to that a little dance step of joy, and you can't help but smile at the man who will launch to "overnight" success as Tom Powers in only two months. He was an amazing dancer; it's a shame he didn't get to do more of it, but it does make what we have even more to be appreciated.

The juxtaposition of the beginning and ending scenes, both set in the same cafe, really gave you a good look at the development of Grant Wither's Bill White.  A nice advantage of seeing these on DVD is the ability to go back and compare the two scenes. 

Here's a brief scene with Mary Astor and Grant Withers:


Next week, on to The Purchase Price.

Buster Crabbe goes PreCode

Search for Beauty is the final entry in the Pre-Code Hollywood DVD set, and what a hoot. Buster Crabbe (of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers fame) plays an Olympic swimmer who becomes an editor for a health magazine, only to discover the owners are interested in a sex magazine. One interesting point is that the movie opens at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, showing Crabbe's character, Don Jackson, winning the gold medal in the 400 meter swim meet - the event for which Crabbe actually won his gold medal. His best girl is played by Ida Lupino (appearing as a platinum blonde!). Both are hired by the magazine to give it credibility, while the publishers fill the rag with salacious pictures and stories.

There is lots of innuendo here; there are also male and female swimmers in showers; beauties in bathing suits and tight training outfits; ladies dancing on table tops in lingerie.  In this musical number, you can get a glimpse of some of the milder aspects of the movie:


But parts of the movie are even a bit racier:  there are also naked male bottoms. Early in the film, we venture into the locker room at the Olympics, to witness several young men running to showers bare bottomed. 

We found the combination of Buster Crabbe, as our upright hero, and Robert Armstrong, as our loose-moraled publisher (his character, Larry Williams, just got out of jail as a result of selling non-existent oil wells) amusing. And, of course, it is never hard to have James Gleason in a movie, even when his character is not quite on the right side of the moral.

Finally, do watch to see the scene in which Ida Lupino listens to two female writers relating the sensational stories they have written for the magazine. These two look like they should be teaching Latin, not writing salacious stories!

Next week, we start Forbidden Hollywood, 3

PreCode Meets Broadway

This week, we watched Murder at the Vanities (or, as the title card had it Earl Carroll's Murder at the Vanities). The jacket of the dvd said it broke every rule of the code. We agree. We had young ladies in costumes that barely covered anything (and what WAS covered was so sheer as to appear transparent) 

Vanities star Eric Lander (played by Danish actor Carl Brisson) announces his intention to marry his costar Ann Ware (Kitty Carlisle), much to the annoyance of wannabe lover Rita Ross (Gertrude Michael). We soon learn that Rita is a vindictive sneak; she has stolen papers and photos from Eric's flat that implicate his mother in a murder.  Soon afterwards, the private detective (Gail Patrick, finally getting to play a non-bitch) Eric has hired to recover the stolen papers is found murdered.

We were taken by the suggestiveness of the whole piece. The previously mentioned almost-nudity; the fact that we are being asked to sympathize with a murderer (I won't say more than that. You will have to watch the movie); the producer (Jack Oakie) who is obviously sleeping with one of the cast members; the police detective (Victor McLaglan) who so clearly is setting up a night TO sleep with another young lady. And then there is the number in which black and white dancers all dance and sing together to the music of the Duke Ellington orchestra. When we consider that Shirley Temple got flack for holding Bill Robinson's hand a few years later, we were stunned.  Oh, and then there is the musical number about marijuana:

Was this a great movie? Nope, but it was funny - and worth seeing. You'll be surprised!

Claudette Sings!

Last evening's precode movie was Torch Singer (1933), with Claudette Colbert as an unwed mother who is forced to surrender her baby for adoption when she unable to find a means of support for the little girl.  Sally (or Mimi, her career name) becomes a "loose" woman by reputation. However, IS she? We see her flirting, but never see any evidence that her reputation is more than rumor to support her employer's contention that torch singers must suffer for their art.  Suffer she does though, unable to find her little girl, she turns to drink. We (the viewers in NYC) had a lot of affection for her, and felt that her reputation was hype.


We were fascinated to learn that Ms. Colbert did her own singing.  She has two songs, a children's lullaby and her character's signature song "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love". Ms. Colbert has an interesting (though not exceptional) voice - it dark and rather throaty, but she certainly can carry a tune, and she SURELY sounds like a torch singer.  

The two men in her life, played by Ricardo Cortez (as Tony) and David Manners (as Michael, the father of the her baby) are surprisingly sympathetic. Both good, supportive men, who care for her and want the best for her. We are inclined to dislike Michael at first, but when he tells his side of the story, he becomes easier to like. It was interesting, we felt, that the men WERE shown in such a positive light. We expected one or the other to be the villain of the piece. If there was a villain, it was the women (Michael's aunt) who refuses to help the destitute Sally.

We were especially pleased to see the interactions between Sally and the nun who runs the hospital where Sally gives birth. There is no condemnation here - only support. And Mother Angelica is, as we learn later in the film, a woman of deep principle.

Again, we highly recommend this movie for those of you interested in pre-code movies, or in Claudette Colbert. She is just glorious!

PreCode Cary Grant

Last week, we saw Cary Grant in a small roll.  This week, we watched Hot Saturday, a 1932 film in which Cary Grant took second billing to star Nancy Carroll. Ms. Carroll plays Ruth Brock, a small-town bank clerk, who likes to have fun (the weekly Hot Saturday), but is basically a "good girl".  She is being wooed by several young men, including local man-about-town Romer Sheffield (Cary Grant).  He is open in his unwillingness to ever marry, but finds her attractive, and tells her so. She, on the other hand, is looking for marriage, and while she likes Romer, is unwilling to compromise her principles for a fling.  In order to see her again, Romer invites Ruth's date (Connie - played by Edward Woods, known for his turn as James Cagney's brother in Public Enemy) to his home for a party. Connie accepts, but is infuriated by Romer's attentions to Ruth, and further angered when Ruth rebuffs his forceful attempts at lovemaking.  The next day, he and his new date, Eva (Lillian Bond), insinuate that Romer and Ruth are lovers - gossip that spreads through the town like wildfire.

We were very intrigued by the "racy bits" in this movie - and there were several. Ruth forceably removing the bloomers  that her younger sister (Annie) steals from Ruth's drawer right from sister Annie's body; Ruth, awakening, stark naked, after being drenched in a storm (and her undergarments clearly displayed on a line, just in case we were unsure that she was totally undressed); the fairly frank discussions between Romer (and we loved his name. It is pronounced ROAMER) and Ruth about marriage vs. involvement; Connie's physical attack on Ruth (complete with the "you owe me this" routine).  Small-town American life is displayed as provincial and bigoted - telephone conversations escalate the rumors concerning Ruth's night with Romer, til it is clear she is a "loose woman". An precursor to the 1960's Peyton Place?

This is Cary Grant's sixth film, and the first in which he appears with best friend Randolph Scott; they only have a brief scene together.  Of course, even at this early stage of his career, Grant is just wonderful. His Romer is appealing, yet it is understandable why Ruth resists him. Unlike Connie, he is a gentleman, taking her rejection with calmly. 

Nancy Carroll is also appealing as Ruth - she is NOT a tease. She is quite open with all of her dates about her goals. But the opportunity for a Hot Saturday is just too much for some of them to reject. Here's a clip which gives you a taste of the pre-code nature of the film:

Precode Continues

Tonight's movie was Merrily We Go to Hell.  Frederic March seems to almost be in preparation for his future role in A Star is Born, playing a drunken reporter, who marries wealthy, loving, and innocent Sylvia Sidney.  Our initial reaction was - why on earth would a lovely woman like Joan (Sylvia Sidney) be attracted to this drunken fool. He forgets who she is five minutes after meeting her; then shows up hours late for their first date. At their engagement party, he shows up late, and so drunk he has passed out in a cab.

It's not clear if the film considers Jerry an alcoholic or not. He seems quite able to stop drinking any time he wants to (the usual claim of drunks); there is also a certain luridness in his drinking. Yes, he is amusing, but not in the Nick Charles (The Thin Man) way. He humor is vague and silly. He forgets what he says after he says it. We find out later that he is drinking to forget a past girlfriend; when he meets her again, he again begins drinking (having given it up for his now-wife Joan). Finally, his drunkenness and infidelity drive his wife to drink.

As a brief aside, we have here an early film of Cary Grant, playing a friend of Jerry's and date of Joan's.  I believe he also has a one second bit (we only see his back) as an actor in a play (it WAS his voice). Interesting to see Cary Grant not the romantic lead. It won't last for very long.  

Here's a scene with March and Sidney:

Without giving away the ending, there is no joy here; no real redemption. Will our couple stay together? Will the drinking resume? And what about that last line. Just who is Joan talking about when she mentions "my baby".  It does give one pause.