Sporting Blood

Comcast description of movie: Racetrack yarn with Clark Gable as a gambler who saves a horse from mistreatment.

My description of movie: The life and times of a horse named Tommy Boy. Clark Gable shows up half way through.

I was a little wary of watching this movie during the first couple minutes, because it has animals in it and I know the studios did not treat them well back then, and thus today we have the disclaimer "no animals were harmed..." (dear God, 20th Century Fox, you rode a blindfolded horse off a cliff to its death?).

In the first 10 minutes, Tommy Boy's mother Southern Queen falls down in the mud while trotting back to the stable, and you can see, briefly, that she appears to be tied down by her back leg as she thrashes in the puddle and stuggles to get up. Sadly, her leg is broken, and she has to be shot right there on the spot, leaving our hero, Tommy Boy, an newborn foal without a mother.

The owner of the horse farm, Jim Rellence, (scenes are actually filmed in Kentucky) where Tommy is raised loves him very much, but he eventually has to sell him because he needs the money. The new owner (whose name escapes me) ends up selling Tommy to a spolied rich woman (Marie Prevost) and her husband (Hallam Cooley), who obviously know nothing about taking care of a horse.

"I don't want him anymore. Just shoot him!" (Sadly, an actual quote.)

After Tommy loses a race, they lose interest and sell Tommy to a crooked gambler, Tip Scanlon (Lew Cody) who runs the horse into the ground with doping and too much racing. Before he's killed over a bad bet, he gives the horse to his girlfriend Ruby (Madge Evans) who decides to rehabiliate Tommy, and herself and ends up reforming slightly crooked gambler Rid Riddell (Clark Gable) in the process.

It's one of those feel-good animal movies, and apparently based on a true story of a horse named Sporting Blood and his owner, gangster Arnold Rothstein, who brought us the 1919 Black Sox scandal, so I suppose doping a racehorse and fixing a race should come as no surprise.

Best part of the credits: Tommy Boy played "By Himself." Nothing like starring in the movie of your own inspirational life story. ;)


Cute picture, although this is not actually Tommy Boy.



Confessions of a (Mediocre) Nazi Spy

So, onward to Confessions of a Nazi Spy. This was one of the first anti-Nazi films, and I'm hearing various things about whether it was a hit or a flop at the time. I was kind of disappointed that Robinson didn't show up until the second half of the film, but the rabid Germans were enough to hold my interest until then. When I saw George Sanders in the credits, I assumed he would be playing some suave British agent, with that great purring voice of his. Turns out he was one of the lead Nazis, with a "high and tight" haircut and fairly good German accent. In his first scene he's giving a speech to some fellow Nazis and almost frothing at the mouth. As the camera moved in tighter on his face, I kept thinking, "That looks a little like George Sanders. But it can't be. Is it? No, it can't be." It was more difficult than I would have expected to recognize him with the haircut and accent.

As for the Nazi spies...well, let's say it was no surprise they got caught (in the real life case, FBI historian John Fox pointed out, only 3 of the 18 conspirators were caught; in the film they convict about 6, and 2-3 get kidnapped back to Germany by the Gestapo to a fate, we are to assume, worse than death). They all follow the same pattern: first, hysterical denial and demands to be let go. The German consulate will protest this!

Once they realize the jig is up, they all start singing like canaries. If the spy in question happens to be confronted by his menacing colleagues, there are more hysterics along the lines of, "Oh, please, don't send me back to Germany. I can't go back to Germany!" Five minutes ago you were singing the praises of the Fatherland, and now you don't want to go back?

The spy who begins the story gets his job by writing to a German newspaper and volunteering his services. You heard me. All through the movie, he keeps asking George Sanders how much he's going to get paid. No wonder you were the first domino to fall, Schneider. I'm sure a lot of the gratification for audiences came not only with the bad guys getting caught, but getting caught because they were so monumentally stupid.

Robinson is fine as FBI agent Renard; his part is less substanstial than I would have expected, but he does a good job as an FBI agent who gets all the spies to spill their guts. One loose end the movie left was the fate of Schlager/George Sanders. He's not caught or tried, it seems, but we never really see him escape, either. He just disappears about 2/3 of the way through the film and is never mentioned again. Overall, though, it was a pretty good WWII movie, and I would recommend it.

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.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Yesterday I watched the 1934 movie "The Barretts of Wimpole Street," with Norma Shearer, Charles Laughton, and Frederic March. Today it is chilly, and pouring rain. On the surface, these two facts may seem unrelated. To me, however, the nasty weather makes me envy Norma Shearer, who got to play most of this role reclining on a beautiful chaise lounge in front of a toasty fire with Flush, the adorable cocker spaniel, curled up in her lap. Right now, that sounds like heaven. (I can't find a picture of Norma in the role, but her lovely chaise lounge looked something like this, only more old-fashioned, with the buttons set deep in the upholstery).

I liked the movie quite a lot. Norma was very good as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and looked just gorgeous in those long curls. I thought Maureen O'Sullivan was too shrill as her sister Henrietta. I understand Henrietta's thwarted love affair and conflicts with their father were to lend drama to the story, but O'Sullivan gave it too much drama, in the scenery eating style you often see in old movies. When she shrieks at her father, "Is it nothing to you that I shall hate you for this to the end of my life?" and he answers, "Less than nothing," I was actually a little bit on his side. And her crying jag as she clings to his knees...dear, please get up and show some dignity. For all our sakes. I found O'Sullivan delightful as a "modern" girl, Dorothy, in "The Thin Man." There, her energy works well with the character. Here, in this period drama, she seems out of place.

It has been said that the scenes between Elizabeth and her father were toned down to lessen the suggestion of his incestous feelings for her. Charles Laughton famously replied, "They can't censor the gleam in my eye," and he was so right. It's rather subtly done at first; you don't get the idea right from the start that he's panting after his own daughter. He just seems like a big old control freak, who dominates over all his children. As the movie progresses, more and more hints come out that Elizabeth is his favorite child, in both (relatively) good ways and really, really bad ways. He's a master at manipulating her (and the rest of his children) with guilt trips.

Then there is the scene near the end, right before she runs away to marry Browning, where her father grabs her and goes on and on about how the family will move away to the country and Elizabeth will be his confidant and his comfort and...okay, now it's extremely icky. Sneaking out of the house with only the clothes on her back and her dog suddenly seems like a great idea. And she does. In a final touch of evil, Laughton orders one of Elizabeth's brothers to find her dog, take it to the vet, and have it destroyed. Henrietta triumphantly informs her father that Elizabeth has taken the dog with her.

Frederic March as Robert Browning...eh, March has never really done anything for me. He was good in "Anna Karenina," and "Susan and God," but I never see a movie listing and think to myself, "oooh, Frederic March, yay!" You don't actually see Browning much in the movie, so March made his usual non-impression on me.

Overall, I would recommend this movie, and was disappointed to learn that it's not out on DVD yet. In my world, it would be released as a Norma Shearer boxset with the following other movies (I'm only choosing ones that have not already been released on DVD):

Idiot's Delight (seeing Clark Gable perform "Puttin' on the Ritz" should be on every classic movie lover's list)
Strange Interlude
Romeo and Juliet
Riptide
Private Lives

Two of Norma's movies have recently been released on DVD as part of the Forbidden Hollywood, Vol. 2 collection: "The Divorcee" and "A Free Soul."

Boys Town

I usually don't cry at movies. Sure, I'm moved by them, and tears will often come to my eyes. I can count on one hand the number of movies that have actually turned on the waterworks. Today I saw another one: Boys Town, the 1938 classic with Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. Oh, man. When Mickey started bawling after Pee-Wee was run over by the car...the tears began to fall. Actually, every time Mickey started bawling, I shed a few sympathy tears myself. Way to act, kiddo.

The story in and of itself is great, not in small part because it's true. Boys Town (now known as Girls and Boys Town) is still in operation today. The real Father Flanagan is buried in the school chapel. A very moving story. This DVD is going on the Amazon wish list, for sure.