Let Yourself Go ... To Old Hollywood

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940): Lucille Ball pre-television

From my Facebook archives, May 7, 2015:

Dance, Girl, Dance. This 1940 RKO film was directed by Dorothy Arzner, making it one of very few Hollywood movies directed by women back in those days. (Unfortunately there aren't exactly a huge number these days.)

Maureen O'Hara stars but Lucille Ball really makes the movie. It's an enjoyable film, but without Lucy's performance would be a bit blah. So watch it to see Lucy in a great, early career role, as a scheming, ambitious burlesque dancer.

Lucy's pre-television career is oddly fascinating, given the mega-star she became later. I hadn't known anything about it until we learned (after watching the movie) that she had a non-speaking role in the fashion show at the end of Roberta. And that she was in a few other Fred and Ginger movies as well, though hard to recognize unless you're paying close attention. In Follow The Fleet she's almost recognizable, has a few lines, and appears in several scenes. So I found her right away there. In Roberta we found her on the 2nd viewing. But in Top Hat, even after knowing she was in it and had one line, I missed her on the 2nd viewing. We recently watched that for 3rd time and I finally spotted her.

The Lost Weekend (1945)

From my Facebook archives, May 2, 2015:

The Lost Weekend. Paramount. 1945. This Billy Wilder-directed film was certainly a change from our typical fare. It is a dark film that chronicles a few days in the life of a near-hopeless alcoholic.

Films with similar themes have been fairly common in recent decades, but this was apparently one of the first. Ray Milland was excellent, as he had to be--he *is* the film.

The score is on the over-dramatic side, and includes Twilight Zone-like sound effects from a theremin. Such sound effects later became strongly associated with science fiction stories so they seem odd in this very earthbound movie. An article I found suggested the score was a reaction to an initial screening, with a more jazzy soundtrack, where the audience laughed at many scenes. With the revised score, it is impossible to think there is any comedy hidden in this film.

The Lost Weekend is a very good film overall. Though it is a reminder of why I prefer lighter fare. Even with an optimistic, if uncertain, Hollywood ending, you don't come away from this film feeling uplifted.

Together Again (1944)

From my Facebook archives, April 30, 2015:

 

Together Again. Columbia, 1944. The title of this romantic comedy film refers to Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer being reunited for their third film. I imagine the first two must have been pretty good, though I haven't yet seen them. This one wouldn't merit a re-match by itself.

The film is funny at times, but it has a pervasive attitude that Irene Dunne's character is severely misguided by serving as a small-town mayor and living on her own, rather than finding a man--any man--marrying him and quitting her job. The film beats you over the head with it. As a result, Charles Coburn, whose character is particularly forceful about those attitudes, isn't very funny for once.

The soundtrack is also annoying, with musical effects that attempt to emphasize the comedy, but just distract from it. I've noticed similar soundtracks in other films of the mid-to-late '40s. It seems to have been an unfortunate trend. It's also too reminiscent of mediocre television sitcoms from the 1960s.

Despite all that I still liked this film a little better than Irene Dunne's earlier film Theodora Goes Wild, with which it is paired on a DVD and which I wrote about a few weeks ago. The young characters in this film, played by Mona Freeman and Jerome Courtland, are quite amusing.

 

Only Angels Have Wings (1939): Not enough Jean Arthur

From my Facebook archives, April 28, 2015:

I was reading a very good biography of Jean Arthur earlier this month, called "The Actress Nobody Knew". So it seemed an opportune time to see another Jean Arthur film. (Then again, isn't any time?) The one we had handy was Only Angels Have Wings, Columbia, 1939.

Cary Grant is her co-star, and Rita Hayworth makes a brief, early career appearance.

The major problem with this film is that there isn't nearly enough Jean Arthur in it. Her role is surprisingly small. This is a male-bonding film. It feels like a war film, though technically not set during wartime.

It was a modestly enjoyable film for what it was, though it was hard to swallow the premise of pilots taking extreme risks just to deliver mail.

And, alas, not enough Jean Arthur.

Private Buckaroo (1942): Helen Forrest and the Andrews Sisters

From my Facebook archives, April 25, 2015:

Discovering Fred Astaire a year-and-half ago has led me to discover several other amazing performers. Ginger Rogers, of course! But also Artie Shaw and his band. And through them, the wonderful singer Helen Forrest.

Trying to learn more about her, I found a clip of a captivating song, "You Made Me Love You", performed by Harry James and his band and sung by Helen. I could go on-and-on about that musical scene. But for now, it's relevant in that it is the opening for the 1942 Universal film "Private Buckaroo" and so inspired us to watch that film last week. It turned out we already owned a copy in an inexpensive set of 50 public domain musicals that we had bought last Christmas.

As wartime propaganda musical comedy extravaganzas, Private Buckaroo beats Stage Door Canteen, which I wrote about recently, hands down. Not only does it have Harry James' excellent big band and Helen Forrest (though not nearly enough of her), but it also features several performances by the Andrews Sisters. Of course, I'd heard some of their songs before and knew they were extremely popular in the '40s. But I'd never actually seen them perform. And it turns out they are very fun to watch, particularly Patty.

So watch this film for the musical performances, which are fortunately plentiful. With the comedy of Shemp Howard and Mary Wickes and Joe E. Lewis thrown in, the silly propaganda plot barely gets in the way at all.

 

Young Man of Manhattan (1930): Ginger Rogers' first movie

From my Facebook archives, April 22, 2015:

Last week we watched a Paramount film from 1930 that may well be the oldest movie I've yet seen in full (as I haven't yet gotten into silents). It was called Young Man of Manhattan and starred Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster.

For me, it is notable as it marked the on-screen debut of Ginger Rogers--who at age 18 was playing a rich 16-year old flapper with a Helen Kane/Betty Boop-like voice. It's actually a rather large role for a newcomer. She plays an important part in the plot, gets to sing a couple short songs (and this isn't even a musical), and has a line that apparently became a catch-phrase of that era: "Cigarette me, big boy!" It's a trip seeing her so early in her career, with a rather different appearance from when she became a huge star four years later, after about twenty more films.

This film itself is quite enjoyable, as a drama about the relationship between a talented, ambitious woman reporter (Colbert) and her insecure husband and colleague (Foster). These two were married in real life at the time.

Ginger is certainly fun to watch in this film, though I do think her character is meant to be somewhat annoying. She plays the one who gets 'in the way' of the happy marriage.

The sound quality of the print I have is not as good as films I've seen from 1933 on. I'm not sure if that's because this was so much earlier in sound movie history (3 years was a lot at that time) or because it was a lower budget film or because it needs some restoration work. But it was quite watchable fortunately.

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Stage Door Canteen (1943)

From my Facebook archives, April 19, 2015:

Continuing to get caught up on films we've seen over the last two weeks...

Stage Door Canteen. United Artists, 1943. This film, made in the middle of World War 2, is pure propaganda and morale boosting entertainment. Dozens of actors and musicians appear in cameos, with some performing more substantial bits. The majority were people I am not familiar with, but fortunately most were identified. The movie was fascinating to watch, but mainly for a couple of the musical performances (Benny Goodman, in particular) and as a cultural study of America at war.

Wife Versus Secretary (1936)

From my Facebook archives, April 18, 2015:

Despite the corny poster here and comedic title, Wife Versus Secretary (MGM, 1936) is an excellent dramatic film. Can you guess who between Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow played 'Wife' and who played 'Secretary'?

All the main performers are excellent, but for me, Jean Harlow particularly stood out. This surprised me as I haven't been a big fan of her before. She was good in the fabulous ensemble drama Dinner at Eight, but I wasn't impressed by her in Public Enemy. Here, she was fantastic and turned this film from good entertainment into a memorable and classic drama.

Jimmy Stewart had a significant supporting role as Harlow's grumpy boyfriend, but clearly was not yet considered a star as he is not given any significant billing.

Myrna Loy (as 'Wife' of course) is, as always, great fun to watch.

The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)

From my Facebook archives, April 14, 2015:

The Devil and Miss Jones. RKO, 1941.

Perhaps not so surprising, given that it stars Jean Arthur and Charles Coburn, this is an excellent comedy. These same two did the fabulous The More The Merrier (with Joel McCrea) a couple years later

The story here is actually very intriguing, concerning an ultra-wealthy capitalist going undercover to personally attempt to weed out labor agitators. He is the 'devil' of the title. But, played by Charles Coburn, he comes to sympathize with the concerns of the workers against the executives. These executives are ruthless in their attempts to quash any hint of labor organizing. This realistic touch added a lot to the film for me.

Jean Arthur is, as usual, lovably, amusingly charming in her role as Coburn's "mentor", while he poses as a new employee.

The ending is a bit abrupt and not very satisfying to me. But 98% of this film is fantastic.

Kitty Foyle (1940)

From my Facebook archives, April 4, 2015:

Kitty Foyle. RKO, 1940. This is the film Ginger Rogers won her Academy award for. I've put off seeing it longer than I should have, perhaps because it's a serious drama while I have been mainly focused on comedies and fun musicals.

We finally watched it last week and it's an excellent movie all-around. Ginger dominates the picture and of course is superb. Her two male leads are also very good--Dennis Morgan and James Craig--neither of whom I'd been familiar with before. I particularly liked Craig and the amusing scenes where he first meets and "dates" Ginger-as-Kitty Foyle, spending the evening playing cards in the cramped apartment she shares with two other women.

Ginger's scene where she describes her expectant child as her "candidate for the year 2000" is haunting.

The only issue I have with the film is that it could have been a bit longer. This is an "epic" storyline that takes place over a number of years and involves plenty of twists and turns. I wouldn't have minded it being spread out over a longer playing time than its actual 108 minutes. (Of course that's easy for me to say watching from comfort of my own home with flexibility to shut it off and pick up again the next night.)

This film, as with so many of Ginger's movies, deserves to be more widely remembered today.