DVR Catch Up

The last few weeks I have been watching and clearing out the movies stored on my DVR. Since I'm too lazy to devote a whole post to each one (plus, I just don't have that much to say about some of them), here's a quick list.

Fritz Lang's M - Considered by many one of the finest German films ever made, with good reason. Peter Lorre, in his first major role, is creepy and gross, in the best way. While the police chase this child murderer all over the city, the criminals band together (they're remarkably well organized) and end up catching him themselves. One of the best parts of the movie, I think, is the mock trial they hold. Lorre gives a long speech, pleading for his life and explaining that he just can't help himself. When he reaches the climax, screaming, "Wird nicht! Mußt! Wird nicht! Mußt!" I always get chills. (Translation: "Will not! Must!" although the subtitles say "Don't want to, but must!.") Check it out here.

And sweet dreams!

Third Finger, Left Hand - More or less your typical "boy meets girl, boy and girl hate each other due to wacky misunderstanding, boy and girl fall in love" comedy of the 40's. Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas are charming, as always.

Dr. Phibes Rises Again - Only my abiding love for Vincent Price got me through this. If the first movie, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, was a B movie (barely), this one was a Z. Plot holes big enough to drive a truck through, continuity errors galore, and just all around cheese. According to IMDB, a remake of Abominable is in development, to which I can only say: dear God, why?

The Emperor's Candlesticks - William Powell and Luise Rainer star as Polish and Russian secret agents, respectively. They are each tasked with smuggling documents to St. Petersberg and end up hiding them in a pair of candlesticks, each one having a secret compartment. There is some suspense as they chase each other across Europe, both trying to snatch the candlesticks from each other and eventually, of course, falling in love. Just when it looks darkest for them both, the czar of Russia pardons them and gives his blessing for them to get married. As often happens, with spies who fail their missions for personal reasons. Powell and Rainer are as usual: he's suave and charming, she's dainty and coquettish.

The Irish In Us - James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Frank McHugh play three brothers in a "typical" Irish family, with adorable Mary Gordon as their long-suffering mother. Olivia de Havilland also stars but is underutilized. Not much of a plot, and the love story leaves something to be desired, but it was kind of endearing just the same.

Big Hearted Herbert - A small B flick stuffed with character actors such as Guy Kibbee, Henry O'Neill and Aline MacMahon, this was a funny little movie. Herbert prides himself on being "regular folks," to the extent that when his daughter's fiance brings his upper crust family to dinner for the first time, Herbert huffs and puffs until they're thoroughly offended ("College men! Idlers! Loafers! Wasters! That's all colleges turn out nowadays!") . As payback, his wife Elizabeth and the children put on an exaggerated show of "regular folks" (read: country bumpkins) the next night when Herbert brings his biggest client home for dinner. In the end, of course, Herbert realizes the error of his blustering ways.

A Slight Case of Murder

If there's anything I love more than a good gangster flick, it's actors like Eddie G. spoofing their gangster image in comedies. At my dad's house today I popped this DVD in. "Oh," he said after a few minutes, "I've seen this before. It's a serious movie about a gangster trying to go straight."

"Um," I replied, "If you think it's a serious movie, you definitely haven't seen it before."

I thought it would make him laugh and I was right. Eddie is so cute and funny as Remy Marko, a gangster who sees the end of Prohibition coming and makes plans to go "strictly legitimate." His goofy sidekicks include some of my favorite character actors: Alan Jenkins, Edward Brophy, and Harold Huber.

I've seen other movies where a gangster character of Eddie's is determined to be "classy;" he even does it in Little Caesar, although there's not much to like about that character. However, I usually find it very touching that this guy wants to improve himself so much. He plays a very similiar role in The Little Giant and he makes it work really well there, too, but with less hilarity.

Ruth Donnelly is an absolute scream as Mrs. Marko, who's not too sure at first about this whole "going straight" deal but gets to like it in spite of herself. Watching her shift back and forth between society matron ("I can't imagine where our butler and steward have got to.") and the asides as her former gangster moll self ("Where are those mugs?") is a treat.

Afterwards Mr. Roberts was on TCM, so we watched that too. I love, love Cagney in this role, even though he is pure evil, because he's just so over the top crazy with it. And of course, one of the best final lines in movie history: "Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just threw your stinkin' palm tree overboard!"

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet

I'm skipping ahead of myself to talk about Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet. I love a bio pic if it's done well, and this one was. One of my litmus tests: after I see the movie, do I want to learn more about the person? Would I buy a biography of them, if one was available? In this case, the answer was yes. There were so many interesting bio pics back in the 30's and 40's: Marie Antoinette, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, and Queen Christina, to name just a few. (Yes, I realize these movies all took liberties with the facts.) And there are many more fascinating stories to be told; Hollywood, I'm looking in your direction. Why not find someone interesting and historically important, like Paul Ehrlich, and do a bio pic of them, rather than Mission Impossible 4 or a remake of a classic film that was fine in the first place, and yes I mean you, The Women. Ugh, let's not go there. I'm not even going to link it. The trailer commercials I'm seeing now make me grit my teeth.

Anyhow, back to the movie. I was really surprised that the film revealed the true subject of the bulk of Ehrlich's research: syphilis. After all, this is the Code age of Hollywood, (the film was released in 1940) when references to venereal disease were specifically forbidden (along with a bushel of other things). I can't imagine how this one got by Joe Breen, whose enforcement of the Code was "rigid and notorious." They do actually use the word "syphilis" (despite what IMDB would have you believe); there is in fact one amusing scene when Ehrlich, at a society dinner with a potential benefactress, is asked what he's working on, and he matter-of-factly says, "Syphilis." Everyone at the table stops cold and gasps; several reaction shots are shown. (His benefactress is not bothered at all, and does end up funding his research.)

While it's not stated outright that the men (and only men, although one female patient of another doctor is mentioned) Ehrlich treats caught the disease by sleeping around, it is hinted at in oblique ways; Ehrlich tells one patient he can "never get married," and the patient later kills himself.

However Warner Bros. got this one by the censors, I applaud them for doing so, because it is a film well worth seeing. The movie is also stuffed with character actor goodness, including appearances by Otto Kruger, Donald Crisp, Sig Ruman, Donald Meek, Henry O'Neill, Harry Davenport, and Montagu Love.

Dr. Clitterhouse, you ARE amazing!

Today I would like to speak of my current classic movie boyfriend, Edward G. Robinson. Between TCM's Eddie G. day on "Summer Under the Stars" and a DVD or two, it has been a regular Ed-fest around here.

Last night I watched The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse. Having watched Little Caesar on Sunday, it was naturally quite a contrast to see Robinson as a character who is intelligent, urbane, cultured, kindly, and has a gentle speaking voice. From what I've read about him, this seems like a role that would be fairly close to his real life (well, except for one thing, which I'm not going to specify because it would spoil the ending). It was a treat to see him in this role after all the "Meh, see?" squealing of LC. Although that also has its place, and I love him in those roles, too.

The movie had my attention from the start; I thought I understood the premise from the summary on my cable recording, but it took me awhile to be sure one way or the other. I love a movie that keeps me guessing like that, and has a few tricky turns on the way to the ending (one plot point in particular had me very surprised). To me, this is one of the most satisfying kinds of movie viewing experiences.

The roles of the gang members and police were filled by some familiar and well-loved character actors (Ward Bond, Allen Jenkins, Donald Crisp, Maxie Rosenbloom), which always adds more to a movie for me. As corny as it sounds, it's like running into old friends to see them listed in the opening credits. You know they're going to give a solid performance, no matter what the role. I enjoyed the interactions between the gang members and Dr. Clitterhouse; I found the respect they had for their "professor" rather touching.

The movie is being released on October 21 as part of the Warner Gangsters Collection, Vol. 4, and it's already on my Amazon wish list.

Next up on the discussion list: Confessions of a Nazi Spy.

They Met In Bombay

July was Roz Russell month on TCM, so I have a boatload of her movies saved on my DVR. Last week I watched They Met in Bombay, which starred Clark Gable in the kind of role I think he does best: the guy whom the girl thinks she hates but is really falling in love with, and he knows it. From almost any other actor, I think I might find that "yeah, baby, you know you love me" attitude annoying, but Gable pulls it off with a sideways glance and crooked grin that I love. Sort of like this, except imagine him looking down at a dame. (Can't get the image to upload, so just a link for now.)

He and Roz are competing jewel thieves who end up escaping from the law together, falling in love, and going straight. Much like the Gable/Harlow movie Hold Your Man, the beginning starts out all snazzy wisecracks and ends up kind of mushy. Roz's doe eyes couldn't have gotten any more limpid or starry, and she did lose a lot of the pizzaz that I usually love her for. I thought some interest was added to the "Gable becomes a hero" part of the story by including Roz in his adventures as a fake Winnipeg Grenadier escaping from the Japanese army; usually the women get left at home during these kinds of escapades.

Included in the cast was one of my favorite character actors, Jessie Ralph, as the raucous and tipsy Duchess of Beltravers. She is a scream in these kind of "fiesty matron" parts; she plays another duchess in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, which is another role of hers I like. My all time favorite, though, is Jessie as Aunt Katherine ("Nic-oh-las!") in After the Thin Man.

While this movie could easily fall into a "romantic caper" pigeonhole along with dozens of other movies, I would still recommend it.

On a totally unrelated note, IMDB has just informed me that they're remaking The Day The Earth Stood Still. (Keanu Reeves? Really?) Must they remake every classic movie just to jazz it up with CGI and rock music?

Canteen, get your canteen right here

Nothing like a nasty head cold to give you time to catch up on a movie or two. This week on TCM I happened to catch Hollywood Canteen, the movie I really wanted to see when I rented Stage Door Canteen from Netflix. I saw SDC last year, and looking at the cast on Netflix (Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Ray Bolger, and Ethel Merman, among others) I can't say I really remember any of them from the film. It kind of made a non-impression on me, probably in part because I was expecting it to be another movie entirely. But the main plot was three soldiers meet three girls, and I suspect the reason why all the famous faces didn't stick in my memory is because they had very little screen time.

HC, by comparison, was a treat. The cast includes almost all of the Warner Bros. stars, with the "notable exceptions" (says Robert Osbourne) of Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan (and, I note, James Cagney). Ann was offered the lead (played by Joan Leslie) but refused it, because she didn't want any part of a movie that would make a GI think he could come to the canteen and marry a movie star. I guess I see your point, Ann, but come on, do you really think many people would actually believe that? It's for the war effort! Well, Joan did a nice job, and I think she is a better match for Robert Hutton as Cpl. "Slim" Green. Joan has that girl-next-door quality, and Ann I would consider more of a siren, so in this case I think Joan works better in the role. (Although Ann can be quite a good ingenue, as evidenced by her performance in Angels With Dirty Faces. But I tend to think of her more like this.)

The story is based on the actual Hollywood Canteen, founded by Bette Davis, although I don't know if it was actually filmed on location. It was made during the war, so I guess it's possible. During the film John Garfield, another founder, gives a speech about the origins of the canteen, which you can read about at the link above.

(Side note: I was horrified to learn that something called the Hollywood Canteen was reopened in 2001, and "caters to some of Hollywood's biggest names including: Paris Hilton, Marilyn Manson, Keith Jardine, Vince Vaughn, and Lindsay Lohan to name a few." Oh, vomit. Where do I start? If you're going to call it a canteen, then it should be free for service members, like the original was. Oh, wait: Wikipedia tells me that a canteen doesn't necessarily refer to a military eating place, but is rather a type of food service location in which there is little or no table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school. Point taken. But still. There's a lot of history behind that name. That sound you hear is Bette Davis spinning in her grave.)

The list of movie stars who volunteered their time to the original canteen is lengthy and impressive. I doubt very much you would see many of today's "stars" (and I use that term loosely) doing anything like this. But maybe that's just cynical me.

(Somewhat related aside: I admire Kathy Griffin for going to Iraq with the USO to entertain the troops, and I love it when she uses that fact to shame loudmouths like Bill Maher who bust on her: "I recently got back from Iraq, when are you going?")

Anyhow, the movie. While the romance between Slim and Joan Leslie is rather hokey, it's still cute and not overplayed. The stars who appeared in the film seem very natural, and you see them not just performing (Andrews Sisters, etc.), but waiting tables (Jack Carson) and washing dishes (Paul Henreid). From the little I've read on the canteen, it seems they really did get out there and mingle with the troops quite a bit. (Another aside for a funny story: a soldier at the canteen bet his friend $5 he couldn't get a kiss from Bette Davis. Bette kissed the soldier when he asked and gave him $5 to pay the bet. Then she gave the other soldier $10 and said, "thanks for believing in my virtue." Heh.)

One of my favorite moments from the film is when Dane Cook, as Sgt. Nowland, is dancing with a woman and says to her, "Has anyone ever told you you look just like Joan Crawford?" The couple pans around as they dance..."By the way, I am Joan Crawford," Joan Crawford says. Another funny moment was the bit with Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.

[after unintentionally scaring away a marine sergeant]
Peter Lorre: [sadly] All I wanted to ask him is to join me in a cigarette!
Sydney Greenstreet: He didn't trust us, Peter.
Peter Lorre: No... and we are such gentle people!
Sydney Greenstreet: Are we? [bugs eyes out in menacing manner]

(<-- as close as I could get)











Peter Lorre: [Backs away, frightened]

Overall, this movie was a combination of several thing I love to see in a classic film: behind the scenes glimpses of Hollywood, a ton of stars and character actors, a morale boosting WWII movie, and a good portrayal of the times. I would definitely recommend this one.

Golllllllllllllld Diiiiiiiiiiiggerrrrrrrrrrr

That's what happens when you watch "Goldfinger" immediately following "Gold Diggers of 1937." You keep singing the GF theme, but with the word digger instead of finger (yes, I am insane).

It's been so long since I posted, I had no idea Blogger had merged with Google. Oops.

Anyhow, I had recorded Gold Diggers on DVR, so I watched that last night. I love Dick Powell and Joan Blondell together, and this movie had the added bonus of no Ruby Keeler (not that I hate her...but I don't like her a lot, either). After seeing this one, though, I can see why they stopped with 1937. The plot is boring (when a movie opens with a song about insurance salesman, you know you're in for a slow ride), and you wait waaaaay too long for the Busby Berkeley musical number, which, face it, is pretty much the main reason to watch a movie like this anyway. (Well, the first GD is pretty funny, what with Aline MacMahon ("Oh, Fanny!") and Guy Kibbee; plus, you get a musical number right off the bat, and a famous one, at that: "We're In The Money.") One bright spot was Victor Moore as JJ Hobart; he was a total hoot. He along with Glenda Farrell have just been added to my Find A Grave What A Character! virtual cemetery.

After that Dad and I were channel surfing, and we came across Goldfinger, about half way through, so we watched that until the end. I've seen it a bunch of times, but never all the way through at once. I think it's my favorite Bond movie by default; it's the one I've seen the most times. Plus, I like Goldfinger. He's evil, but he has style. ;)

Turner Classic Movies stole my idea!

Or, um, I inadvertantly stole theirs. I caught the end of Now, Voyager over the weekend (which I also just bought on DVD) and afterwards they had a brief biography of Guy Kibbee. I only caught the tail end of that as I was still flipping channels. I think it's a series TCM does, and I'm assuming it's called "What A Character" since that was the tag line they ended the piece with.

Anyhow, I have somehow tragically overlooked Guy when doing my little "Character Actors I Love" profiles (and TCM's name is much better, damn it) so he's up next, I have decided. I've really liked him since I first saw him in Laughing Sinners. Which is odd when you think about it, because he plays a somewhat sleazy traveling salesman in that film. I've seen him in other, much more sympathetic roles. But we'll talk more about that next time...

Movies are the best medicine

Nothing like being sick and missing almost a whole week of work to allow one to get caught up on their classic movie viewing. Thank God for Netflix, because I didn't have the energy to go out and rent movies.

Anyhow, my most recent movie was Lady for a Day, and oh, I loved this movie! First off, it was full of character-actory goodness: May Robson, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks, Walter Connolly, and Nat Pendleton. Bonanza!

The scene when Apple Annie is about to confess her true identity to Count Romero, and then the party guests finally arrive, including the mayor and governor...I cried at the look on her face. And I don't usually cry at movies. But I'm a little choked up just talking about it now. May was just wonderful. So touching when she sees her daughter again for the first time.

I was so rooting for Annie and the Judge to fall in love and get married...they were so cute together. The look on the Judge's face when he sees her as "Mrs. E. Worthington Manville" for the first time was just adorable. From what I could tell, Guy did his own trick pool shots. At least, I'm fairly sure he did. Very impressive. The one thing I would have changed was the casting of Walter Connolly as a Spanish count. Just...no. His nasal squeak of a voice and a "Spanish accent" are two things that should be kept as far apart as possible. He did not work at all in that part. He's better playing father to society girls or frustrated bosses, as we've discussed before.

Plus you have to love a movie with a character named "Dave the Dude." Heh.

Next up was The Damned Don't Cry!, one of the new Joan Crawford DVD releases. Joan's Warner Brothers films are on the edge of an era I don't like in her work. I much prefer her as a 30's shopgirl to the 40's hardened dames with rapidly thickening eyebrows. I'll go as far as Mildred Pierce, which I love, but that's about it. And the 60's scream films...no, we'll not speak of those.

Damned was all right. Joan's character makes an interesting transition from poor but hard-working mother to tough dress model/gangster's moll. Maybe a bit too quick of a transition. The men in film were no one I had ever really heard of before; definitely not the A-listers than Joan had been partnered with in the past. Kent Smith was good, but the rest didn't do much for me. I suppose Warners was trying to boost their careers by putting them in a Joan movie, but it doesn't seem to have done much, in my (albeit limited) opinion.

Next was a double feature of sorts: The Aviator and Hell's Angels. As you know, I'm not much for modern movies, but I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was good as Howard Hughes (he got that creepy, beetling brow stare down, all right) and Cate Blanchett was unbelievably great as Kate Hepburn. I'd give her another Oscar if I could. The special effects were quite nifty, and hey, look! Hawkeye plays a sleazy senator. Aviator qualifies as a classic movie in a "by association" way. It's about classic movie stars and making classic movies, so I'll allow it in. ;)

After seeing that, of course I was curious about the original Hell's Angels, so I gave that a look. Good drama, amazing flight scenes, and Jean Harlow in color was a treat. With natural eyebrows, too! That's not a look you saw often. I thought James Hall looked familiar, and I was right; he also played Jack Maitland in Millie. The character of Monte constantly got on my nerves, and I wanted to smack him, Roy's goodness kind of balanced him out.

We wound up with a encore presentation of an old favorite, Objective, Burma! I would follow Errol Flynn into the jungle in a heartbeat. Yum. Such a great WWII film. After seeing brave and handsomely sweaty Errol lead his troops through the steamy jungles of Burma, I was well enough to go back to work, and so I did.

Up for this weekend: the 1932 Little Women, Teacher's Pet (yay, Gable!), and Olive Thomas: The Flapper and Everybody's Sweetheart.

Dodge City

Errol Flynn slips into some buckskin for his first (I believe) western, Dodge City, along with a boatload of character actors: Alan Hale (with the biggest part in which I think I've ever seen him), Victor Jory (egad, it's Jonas Wilkerson, the evil overseer of Tara!), Guinn Williams (who appeared in yesterday's movie You'll Never Get Rich), Gloria Holden (it drove me mad trying to recognize her, and I couldn't, I had to look it up -- I saw her in Dracula's Daughter), Henry Travers (hi, Clarence!), and Frank McHugh, who I just adored in the Powell/Loy movie I Love You Again.

I think I prefer Errol when he's buckling swashes (or is it swashing buckles?), but I enjoyed him as a cowboy/cattle herder/reluctant yet effective sherriff, too. Olivia de Havilland is always beautiful and delightful as his love interest; as Robert Osbourne pointed out during the special feature, in most (if not all) of their movies together, their characters hate each at first, then end up falling madly in love. Usually when Errol insists upon it, but who could resist him, anyway?

I was never much for westerns, and I don't think this movie is going to make me run out and start renting them by the wagonload, but I did like it, mostly for the enjoyable performances by all the actors mentioned above. My grandfather was a big western fan, and he and my mom would go to the movies almost every week. I don't know why, they just never grew on me. I'll take a WWII movie for action and adventure over a western.

I have now officially seen all the movies in the Errol Flynn box set. Now I can rest up for the Garbo set coming out in September. ;)

Playing catch-up

So much for my resolve to update this blog every day, or at least several times a week. I’ve watched a boatload of movies since I last wrote, but I’ve been too lazy to sit down and actually write about them, preferring instead to continue stuffing my gaping maw with popcorn. Well, I have a list, so here goes.

Queen Christina -- Greta, for the love of little apples, stop mumbling. I had the volume on my TV turned way up, and still spent most of the movie thinking, "huh?" A good performance, though, and I liked the story so much I went out and bought a biography of Queen Christina, which is on top of my huge "books to read" pile. (I buy way faster than I could possibly read.) I had never seen John Gilbert in a movie before, and after awhile I could understand why he didn’t make it in talkies; his voice is just a little too high and nasal to be pleasing. All that heavy "Spanish" makeup didn’t help, either. Whether Louis B. Mayer purposely tinkered with the treble on the sound board to purposely ruin Gilbert’s career is a debate for another day.

Romance -- second movie on my Garbo hit parade. The video box made much of the fact that this was Gavin Gordon’s first and only film role! Which turned out to be not true; according to the IMDB, he appeared in 70 movies. Maybe that was his only starring role, which I would be more inclined to believe as his other roles include the likes of "Frisbie the Butler" and "Geoffrey Miles, Costume Director." Anyhow, it was a very nice little love story. Garbo is beautiful, of course. Gordon does much bugging of the eyes and flaring of the nostrils as an aspiring minister who can’t quite believe he’s fallen for this scandalous woman. A very sad and touching ending, without being too gooey.

Mata Hari -- last of the Garbos for now, and also good. Some of those outfits, though...skin tight glittery leggings attached to boots, worn under a dress/cape? Okay, I get that Hollywood is trying to glam it up, but come on. The hats were kind of cool, though. I had never seen Ramon Navarro, and I thought he was great. The scene at the end, after he’s been blinded, when they bring him to the prison to say goodbye to her but tell him it’s a hospital? Ah, so sad. And it’s always good to see Lionel Barrymore.

Strike Up the Band -- after all that gloom and failed romance I needed a peppy movie, and you can’t do better than Mickey and Judy. (And by the way, on the subject of Judy, every time I go to IMDB I'm always surprised again to see that she was only in 35 movies. Doesn't it seem like a lot more?) I own Babes in Arms and have wanted to see the sort-of sequel Babes on Broadway, but this was all TLA had, so it had to suffice. Your usual "let’s put on a show, kids!" movie, with the added bonus of June Preisser, cute little blond rival for Mickey’s affections and a nifty acrobat to boot. It’s such a typical Judy & Mickey musical that I can’t think of anything else distinctive to say about it.

The Adventures of Errol Flynn -- a documentary/biography of the man himself, part of the fabulous box set that was released recently. Comments from Flynn’s daughter Deirdre and Olivia de Havilland (who is beautiful as ever) lend it credibility that many print biographies of Flynn have lacked. Voiceover comments from Flynn himself, culled from radio interviews, are another good addition. I thought this was a very well done biography; the ones produced by TCM always are, in my experience.

In Name Only -- Carole Lombard plays not a screwball, but a widowed young mother who falls in love with "in name only" married Cary Grant in this great romance. Lombard and Grant go together quite well, and she more than proves she can handle drama as well as comedy. She has an earnestness about her that is really quite appealing. You’re totally rooting for them to overcome their obstacles, and when Carole cries that she can’t take it anymore, or Grant ties one on and catches pneumonia in the process, it’s what a good weepy story is all about. Charles Coburn as Grant’s father and Peggy Ann Garner (who played "young Jane" in Jane Eyre) as Carole’s daughter are so much "character actor" gravy.

Stella Dallas -- I caught this during TCM’s Mother Day extravaganza (which featured the mother of all mother movies, Mildred Pierce); I usually don’t stay with movies if I’ve missed the opening (I came in about 15 minutes into the movie) but Alan Hale carousing around caught my eye, and I was hooked from there. It was the first time I’d seen Barbara Stanwyck (a lot of firsts in my recent movies) and I thought she was amazing. I rented the movie from Netflix the next week to see the beginning and find out how Stella and Stephen (John Boles) ended up getting married, because I just didn’t get it. I had the feeling the actress playing Helen Morrison looked familiar, and found out during the end credits that I was right -- hi, Mrs. O’Hara! Now there is an underrated beauty, Barbara O’Neil.

There’s No Business Like Show Business -- which has no business being billed as a Marilyn Monroe movie (it’s part of one of her Diamond collections) because she didn’t show up until about an hour into it. Ethel Merman, though...wowza. I watched it with a friend and we ended up talking like her the rest of the day. And singing the song as we marched to the kitchen for more snacks. I love me some vaudeville, so I was happy.

Arsenic and Old Lace -- last week’s "Essential" on TCM; they rerun the Saturday show on Sunday nights at 6:00, so it’s becoming a tradition for my dad and I to watch it over Sunday dinner. I love Cary Grant (just started reading the Marc Eliot biography) and he is HI-larious in this movie. His multiple takes when he finds the first body in the window seat are too funny. Nobody does comedy like him. I was disappointed to read, in the biography, that this was one of Grant's least favorite performances. Jean Adair and Josephine Hull are just darling as the murderous aunts. Too bad they couldn’t actually get Boris Karloff.

Thank Your Lucky Stars -- I bought a used copy of this, never having seen it before, after seeing a clip of Jack Carson and Alan Hale doing a tap dance together. That was good enough for me; musical numbers by Errol Flynn and Bette Davis were also a big incentive. It wasn’t exactly what I expected; I didn’t anticipate so much of a back story involving Dinah Shore, Eddie Cantor (in a double role -- that’s a lot of Eddie) and a couple of unknown hopefuls. I was hoping we’d cut right to the musical numbers. When they finally did arrive, though, they were worth waiting for. Some of it is not so much singing as "talking to music" (Bette Davis; although she was a good sport to let herself get swung around in that dance step), and some numbers showcased previously unexpected talents (Errol Flynn, who can really sing and dance). Then again, some people were misused to the point of being unrecognizable. During one number, I pointed to the gingham-clad, gum-chomping, tap-dancing, curly-haired, scat-singing gal on the left. "Guess who that is," I said to my dad. He had no idea. "Olivia de Havilland," I said. I don’t think he believed me until he put on his glasses and double-checked for himself. Not the best use of Miss de H, but she seemed to be enjoying herself, and after all, it was for the war effort.

The Broadway Melody (1929) -- the first musical to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, I’d seen this before and rented it from Netflix again to see if I liked it enough to buy it, since I saw it at Borders when I bought Broadway Melody of 1940 (Astaire and Powell, that one was a no-brainer). The verdict: eh, I’ll rent it if I ever want to see it again. Bessie Love was cute if a little hyper, everyone else was okay. The dancing numbers were good, typical for the day. It's memorable if for no other reason than that the sisters are named Hank and Queenie.

Funny Girl -- I include this on the list not because I consider it a classic movie (my definition of "classic movie" stops around 1960 or so -- I’m referring to an era rather than a film’s endurance or popularity), but because it’s about someone I would consider a classic performer, Fanny Brice. Actually, it’s supposed to be about Fanny, but it’s really yet another movie that proves Barbara Streisand loves no one so much as herself. Not for one second did I get any feeling that I was seeing Fanny Brice up on the screen -- it was always Fanny heavily diluted by Barbara. And I’m not a big Babs fan in the first place, so you know I was watching the DVD player count down the minutes until the movie was over. I’ll be skipping the sequel, Funny Lady, thanks very much.

Character Actors I Love: Ted Healy

If I had to sum up Ted Healy in one sentence, it would be "more than just a Stooge." I don’t care for the Three Stooges at all (don’t email me), but I enjoy the work of their "founding father," Ted Healy. I’ve seen him in 3 movies: Reckless, Dancing Lady, and Bombshell.

Ted was born in Houston in 1896. His real name is a matter of dispute; various sources state it as Ernest Lee Nash, Charles Lee Nash, or Clarence Lee Nash. He gave up the life of a salesman in 1919 and went to work on vaudeville, changing his name to Ted Healy. He and his wife Betty (both his wives were named Betty, so I’m not sure which one it was) had an act called "Ted & Betty Healy: The Flapper and The Philosopher." That must have been interesting, to say the least. In 1923 he founded a stage act with two childhood friends, Moe and Shemp Howard (later joined by Larry Fine) and called it "Ted Healy and His Stooges." Thus a legend was born. Shemp left the act and was replaced by Moe’s brother Jerome, who shaved his head and was known as Curly. The Stooges parted ways with Ted in 1934 when they were offered a contract with Columbia Studios.

Ted and The Stooges were still an act, however, when I first saw him, in Dancing Lady. Ted plays Steve, the assistant to Patch Gallagher (Clark Gable), a Broadway producer. (The Stooges are stagehands who make minor appearances, mainly to tease Joan Crawford.) Steve is not just comic relief but a fairly well-rounded character, somewhat inept on his own but loyal to his boss. In Bombshell, he plays Jean Harlow’s drunken lout of a brother, but doesn’t show up until the second half of the film, just in time to stomp all over her plans to adopt a baby with his bad behavior. In Reckless he’s rather endearing as one of William Powell’s sidekicks, Smiley, another not-too-bright-but-loyal-pal-of-the-leading-man. At the racetrack with a stiff and proper English lady, he’s boorish but funny. I don’t think Ted ever could have been a leading man, but he’s still fun to watch, and gives a good performance. Ted also wrote five films: Nertsery Rhymes, Beer and Pretzels, Hello Pop!, Plane Nuts, and The Big Idea.

Sadly, Ted had a problem with alcohol, which was one of the factors in his split from the Stooges. His only child, John Jacob Nash, was born December 17, 1937, and Ted went out drinking that night to celebrate. He ended up in a bar fight, was found unconscious on the sidewalk, and died on December 21 from his injuries and kidney failure brought on by years of alcoholism. He’s buried in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.

I picked Ted as a CAIL mainly because of his performance in Dancing Lady, which is one of my all time favorite classic movies, ever. I can’t really explain why. It’s not a great epic like Gone With the Wind, or even a popular classic like The Women, two of my other favorites. Dancing Lady is the movie equivalent of comfort food to me; I’ll pop it in even when I’m not planning to sit down and watch it all the way through. It serves as background noise while I’m doing chores or cooking, something I can watch in bits and pieces just to unwind, or I’ll actually sit down for another complete viewing of an old favorite. It has quite a cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Winnie Lightner, Robert Benchley, Ted & The Stooges, May Robson, Nelson Eddy, Sterling Holloway (voice of Winnie the Pooh) and Fred Astaire, playing himself in his first movie role. It’s a musical, a backstage story, a comedy, a love story, a drama. The songs are hokey (example: "Let’s Go Bavarian," about the joys of German beer), and not ones anyone remembers fondly today, but I’ll catch myself humming them under my breath. I’ll stop here because I could (and plan to) do a whole separate entry about this movie, and I didn’t mean to get so far off the original topic. (It was Ted Healy, remember?)

Character Actors I Love: Charles Butterworth

Before my recent viewing of Love Me Tonight, I had only seen Charles Butterworth in one other movie: Forsaking All Others, in which he’s hilarious. The whole film (starring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, Billie Burke and Rosalind Russell) is so, so funny, and Butterworth as "Shep" (The IMDB has "Shemp" but trust me, they're wrong) has some of the best lines of all.

Eleanor: [commenting on bachelor parties] I wish I were a man.
Shep: Were, or had?

Sometimes it’s the way he says the lines, rather than the dialogue itself.

Shep: Look, a cow!
Jeff: Yes, Sheppy, a great big moo cow.

He’s so good at playing silly and witty at the same time. Shep’s not dumb, exactly, but definitely rather spacey. Everyone in this film is funny, but because of Butterworth’s delivery and demeanor, the character of Shep makes me laugh the most.

Forsaking All Others is filled with witty banter and amusing one-liners. I've seen the movie dozens of times, and it still makes me laugh every time.

Dill: I don’t need matches, I can start a fire by rubbing two Boy Scouts together!

(I don’t think you could get away with that today.)

Also, watching Eleanor and Shep "tango" is too cute. Butterworth often played the leading man’s daffy sidekick, in fact so well that script writers starting leaving blank chunks in the screenplays, so Butterworth would improvise and fill in with his own well-appreciated wit.

Butterworth graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in law, and also tried his hand at journalism before drifting into acting. He was best friends with Robert Benchley, and I have heard that Butterworth’s death in a car crash wasn’t an accident, but rather a suicide; he was despondent over Benchley’s death seven months before. Butterworth is buried in St. Joseph Valley Cemetery in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana.

Character Actors I Love: (Sir) C. Aubrey Smith

Three words: tall, craggy, and English. That would be Sir C. Aubrey Smith, character actor I love (and also an excellent cricket player). I first saw Sir Aubrey as Colonel MacFay in Another Thin Man, where his character is vaguely English, rather excitable, somewhat paranoid, and ends up murdered. Not his most distinguished role. Luckily, I’ve also seen him in Little Women (perfectly cast as James Laurence), Rebecca, China Seas, Bombshell, and most recently, Love Me Tonight. He sings a little in LMT, and has a lovely deep singing voice. Take a look at his picture and you’ll probably recognize him immediately, what with the bushy eyebrows and giant mustache and all. He almost always played military officers or English gentlemen, being very suitable for either type of role.

Biographical information is somewhat scarce; he was a champion cricket player, captian of the Hollywood Cricket Club, and was knighted in 1944. He died in 1949 and is buried in St. Lawrence Churchyard in England.

Rainy Saturday triple feature

It poured buckets today, so I decided all my errands could wait, and it was going to be a movie day. I'd just gotten one in the mail I bought on eBay, and have three new ones from Netflix. Let's see how many I plowed through today.

First up, Ziegfeld Follies, which I bought never having seen it before. Usually I like to see movies at least once before I buy them, but lately I will buy them if they have lots of stars I love. Then it's usually a good bet the purchase will be well worthwhile. ZF, however ... not so much. It has your usual MGM tag line: Greatest Production Since The Birth Of Motion Pictures! Heh. I love MGM taglines ... every movies is the greatest thing since sliced bread! Musical numbers are always major hits! Technicolor! Cinemascope! Stereophonic sound! More stars than there are in heaven! It's the movie of the year! And so on.

I was all excited to see William Powell back as Ziegfeld, until the movie actually started. Good news: he's just as sexy with silver hair. Bad news: he's playing Ziegfeld-in-Heaven, planning a new show from beyond the grave with "today's stars". Which means, whoever MGM wanted to showcase in 1946. Yeah, that ... wasn't a good idea. (Heaven is apparently furnished with set decorations from Anna Held's suite in The Great Ziegfeld.) Oh, I almost forgot to mention the dolls. You see, when Ziegfeld-in-Heaven reminisces about the Follies he made when he was, you know, actually alive, they recreate the acts with...claymation dolls. Ugly ones. I wish I was kidding. Which I guess makes Ziggy some kind of showbiz puppet master or something.

I was expecting a movie along the lines of The Great Ziegfeld and Ziegfeld Girl, both of which I love, and both of which have a healthy dose of plot to balance out the musical numbers. ZF, however, is all musical numbers, one right after the other, introduced with pages from a "storybook." Oh, wait, there were also a few comedy sketches. Fanny Brice -- cute and funny, her usual schtick. Keenan Wynn -- not so much funny, but he tried. Red Skelton -- funny for Red Skelton fans.

The musical numbers ... very strange and not what I consider MGM standards. Fred Astaire as a Chinese person? Um, no. Lucille Ball all in pink, cracking a whip at women dressed as slinky cats? I think not. The one high point was Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire in a number called "The Babbit and the Bromide," which was wonderfully danced and very cute, if somewhat repetitious in the lyrics.

I think this is one purchase that may eventually go back up for sale. Although maybe not, because I am somewhat vain about my classic movie collection, and I would like to see Gene and Fred's number again. We'll see.

Next on the program was Love Me Tonight, a newly released DVD I got from Netflix solely because it had Myrna Loy in it, and as a result of watching it, Maurice Chevalier is my new boyfriend. So charming, so adorable. I could listen to him sing all day. (Why is there not a soundtrack for this movie on Amazon?) Jeanette MacDonald I had only ever seen in clips, never in a whole movie, and I liked her a lot. C. Aubrey Smith and Charles Butterworth, two guys I love to see, who are now the next two in line for a Character Actors I Love profile. I thought the story was great (yes, it's your typical "royalty falls in love with a commoner in disguise" plot, but in this movie it seemed fresh and new) and it was beautifully shot and directed. This one may go on the Amazon wish list.

Lastly, Meet Me in St. Louis; oddly enough, I think this movie is the one about which I have the least to say. It was a Judy Garland musical, which usually means an automatic win, and that was the case here. Great performances, catchy tunes, you know the drill. Two of my favorite supporting actors, Marjorie Main and Harry Davenport (who will always be "Dr. Meade" to me). Leon Ames kept reminding me of Jerry Orbach. It's not my all time favorite Garland musical extravaganza (that would be For Me and My Gal) but I liked it. Liza's introduction was nice, but she looked very trembly.

Ah, it's always nice when you have an entire day to spend watching movies. At least to me it is.

Character Actors I Love: Walter Connolly

I’ve seen Walter Connolly in three movies: Too Hot to Handle, Libeled Lady, and It Happened One Night. In the last two out of those three, he was the overprotective millionaire father to a glamorous young debutante (Myrna Loy and Claudette Colbert, respectively). Like Jessie Ralph, there’s very little biographical information on him, other than the fact that he was born (and is buried) in Cincinnati, which automatically endears him to me for personal reasons. Also like Jessie, there’s a fairly big gap in his career (between 1915’s A Soldier’s Oath and 1930’s Many Happy Returns) for which I can find no explanation. However, he worked steadily from 1930 until the year before his death, making 47 out of his 49 movies in that decade.

Walter was a shortish, rotund man with a nasal, somewhat high-pitched voice. He puts it to good use as "Arthur ‘Gabby’ MacArthur," the Universal Newsreel chief (and Clark Gable’s boss) in Too Hot to Handle. He’s just as good at playing a frustrated, wacky boss as he is at millionaire fathers. He lets out a version of "d’oh!" that’s pretty funny when rascally Gable pulls another outrageous stunt. My favorite role is that of J.B. Allenbury from "Libeled Lady." He’s Myrna’s father who’s suing Spencer Tracy’s paper for libel. William Powell and Jean Harlow team up with Spence to try and trick Myrna into committing the act (stealing a husband) of which she’s been accused, so the story won’t be libelous after all. Walter’s comedic skills are at their best when he and Myrna take Powell trout fishing. When I see Walter’s name listed in the credits, I know the movie is going to have some good laughs.

Walter died in 1940 and is buried in St. Joseph’s New Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Character Actors I Love: Nat Pendleton

Nat Pendleton, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: The Thin Man, The Great Ziegfeld, Reckless, Manhattan Melodrama, Another Thin Man, and The Girl From Missouri.

Don’t let Nat’s bohunk physique and Brooklyn-accented characters fool you; he was a smart guy who accomplished more than most actors. Born in Davenport, Iowa, he graduated from Columbia University in 1916, where he was two-time Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association champion (1914-1915). He competed as a wrestler in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, losing only one match (on a controversial decision) and earning a silver medal. Afterwards, he went into pro-wrestling, and from there into acting. He also wrote a movie for himself, 1932’s Deception, in which he played a wrestler. He appeared in 112 movies between 1924 and 1947.

He came by one of his most famous roles, that of the strongman Sandow in The Great Ziegfeld, in an interesting manner. He’d played MacHardie in the Marx Brother movie Horse Feathers; that character was modeled after the real Eugene Sandow, and Nat’s performance was very impressive. When the time came to cast Ziegfeld, he won the part. Who among us will ever forget those magnificent biceps flexing in time to the music of Little Egypt. ;)

I first saw Nat as police Lt. John Guild in The Thin Man. Although he comes across as a little dim next to William Powell’s suave sleuthing, he gets in his share of wisecracks and lends his heroics to the case. He reprised the role in 1939’s Another Thin Man. Guild hero-worships Nick Charles and is constantly in awe of Nick’s detective abilities.

Another role of Nat’s I liked was that of Blossom, one of William Powell’s sidekicks (along with Ted Healy) in Reckless. Again, he plays a big oaf with a heart of gold; quite a bit dumber than Lt. Guild, but fun to watch nonetheless. When he takes a beating in a boxing match just to provide Powell with some backing money for Jean Harlow’s comeback show, you can’t help but love him. He may not be the brightest bulb on the tree, but he’s loyal and good-hearted, which counts for more.

Nat also appeared in six Dr. Kildare movies, and three Dr. Gillespie movies. His acting career seems to have ended in 1947, aside from one TV appearance in 1956, on "Schlitz Playhouse of Stars." Nat died in 1967 and is buried in Cypress View Mausoleum and Crematory. His Find-A-Grave biography was written by yours truly.

Painful to watch, for a variety of reasons

(Before I begin, I'll admit that many of the movie reviews that will be posted here have been previously posted on Amazon. I'm going to bring them over bit by bit.)

Reckless (1935)
starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Franchot Tone, May Robson, Nat Pendleton, Ted Healy.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

This picture seems especially designed to torture Jean Harlow, and to a lesser extent, her fans.

Her character Mona Leslie marries unstable alcoholic playboy Bob Harrsion (disturbingly well played by Franchot Tone -- he's like "The Lost Weekend" without the happy ending), whose "sadness goes so deep I couldn't make him happy," and he shoots himself in the head while Mona and her friend/manager Ned (William Powell) are in the next room.

Whoever had the idea to put Harlow in such a role shortly after the suicide by gunshot of her husband Paul Bern must have been extraordinarily cruel, or stupid, or both (David O. Selznick, I'm looking in your direction). Mona is left alone to struggle for custody of, then to raise, her son by Harrison; in real life, all of Jean's pregnancies were teminated at her mother's insistence.

In another kind of irony, Ned is secretly in love with Mona and proposes to her at the end of the movie; in real life, Harlow and Powell were lovers and she was desparate to marry him, but he strung her along until her death, unwilling to commit.

The musical numbers of the film inadvertantly become another harsh treatment of Harlow, as it become painfully obvious that she can neither sing (it's dubbed, and it's not even close to Harlow's real voice) nor dance (despite attempts at trick photography, the double is easy to spot), and to Jean's credit, she seems to know it, seeming very stiff and uncomfortable during these parts of the film.

I guess my knowledge of Harlow's life (via David Stenn's biography) made this movie seem so depressing to me; perhaps someone who's a fan of Harlow's but doesn't know much about her personally would enjoy it more. I doubt it, though; its only saving grace is some of the amusing banter between Ned and Mona's Granny (May Robson).

Characters Actors I Love: Eugene Pallette

I’ve seen Eugene Pallette in only two movies: My Man Godfrey and The Adventures of Robin Hood, but anyone who’s seen him act at all could never forget him. I hate to keep quoting IMDB all the time, but their description of him as a "gargantuan-bellied, frog-voiced character actor" is right on the money. If you’re familiar with child actors George "Foghorn" Winslow or Billy "Froggy" Laughlin, then imagine them as big grown men, and you’ll have the idea.

Eugene was born in Kansas to theatrical parents, and he started performing on stage as a child. He worked as a street car conductor before he began his career in films in 1913, appearing in 242 films between then and 1946. He appeared in two of D.W. Griffith’s films, The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance. Other well known films in which he performed include The Three Musketeers (1921), The Ten Commandments (1923), Huckleberry Finn, Topper, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

My favorite role of Eugene’s is that of Alexander Bullock in My Man Godfrey. Seemingly the only sane member of the family, he can only watch with Godfrey in amazement (making the occasional wisecrack) as his wife and daughters run around like maniacs. His best line: "All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people." Runner up: "Life in this family is one subpoena after another." His exchanges with Alice Brady, who plays his loopy wife, are priceless.

Eugene’s political views were, apparently, quite far to the right, and his "bomb paranoia" led him to purchase property in Oregon which he turned into a well-stocked compound, in case the Russians ever attacked. Clark Gable would visit him there sometimes to hunt and fish. He died in 1954 and is buried in Greenfield Cemetery in Grenola, Kansas.

Character Actors I Love: Jean Dixon

I’ve seen Jean Dixon in two movies: My Man Godfrey, and Sadie McKee. Both times I thoroughly enjoyed her dry sense of humor. For example, take this exchange from Godfrey, where she plays Molly, the Bullocks’ maid:

Godfrey: May I be frank?
Molly: Is that your name?
Godfrey: No, my name is Godfrey.
Molly: All right, be frank.

She has a more substantial role in Sadie McKee, playing Joan Crawford’s best friend Opal, who stands by Sadie through all her adventures. Opal is cynical but still a romantic. She’s not adverse to riding the coat tails of Sadie’s good fortune, but never comes across as greedy; her opportunism still has a good-natured innocence to it. Yes, she wangles a diamond bracelet out of Sadie’s tipsy fiancée while they’re out shopping, but you don’t get the impression that she’s only out for the money. If she can get something for herself, okay, but it’s not her primary motivation. Opal genuinely cares about Sadie. If I were a jilted girl alone in 1930s NYC, I’d want Opal for my pal.

Jean only appeared in 13 movies, usually as the wise cracking sidekick to the leading lady. However, her acting career had quite a start: her theater debut was on a Parisian stage with Sarah Bernhardt while a student at a French university. She returned to the US in 1921 and performed on Broadway before going to Hollywood in 1929. Jean’s last movie was in 1938; I don’t know any details about why she stopped making movies or what she did afterwards. She died in 1981 in New York City.