Watchingwell
Curated classic films
February
In this, the month of Valentine sentiment, thoughts turn to movie romances. Oh, I know I could have reminded you of Ilsa and Rick, Rhett and Scarlett, Robin and Maid Marian, Ma and Pa Kettle, and all the best-known romantic couples in filmdom, but instead I recommend to you to some of my favorite screen romances. Each of my choices have some characteristic that elevates them, in my opinion, above others in the genre.
Starting with one of my all-time favorites from 1935, Hands Across the Table, starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, and co-starring Ralph Bellamy, in what was to become his specialty, the perpetually losing suitor. Lombard and MacMurray have real screen chemistry, -- they made three more pictures together. This film exhibits why Lombard was such a big deal in her short career (she died when her plane went down as she was returning from a war bond rally at the age of 33). The camera loves her and her voice is a combination of sensitive and hard-boiled. She plays a manicurist who is determined to marry a rich man. She mistakes MacMurray for an heir to a fortune, but it turns out he needs to marry for money. Circumstances put them together for a week in her one-bedroom apartment (although there is an illogical access to the roof, where they spend some very romantic evenings looking at the stars). This is directed by Mitchell Leisen, who never really achieved the recognition of some of the other well-known directors of the Golden Age, but whose work exhibits a consistency of visual elegance, due to his training and experience in set and costume design.
In Love Affair, also from 1939, Irene Dunne is paired with Charles Boyer, who, in my opinion, was the epitome of romance. His deep, French-accented voice pronouncing the ingredients in a Caesar salad were enough to make women swoon. They play two independent people who fall in love and give themselves six months to get their lives in order before they marry. Directed by Leo McCarey, who also directed the remake in 1954 with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. As much as I love Cary Grant, the original is better.
To give you another example of the romantic charms of Charles Boyer: in Back Street, from 1941, an adaptation of the Fanny Hurst novel, Chuck plays a man so irresistible that although he is married, a woman, played by Margaret Sullavan, is willing to spend her entire adult life waiting for the occasional tryst that he can fit into his other life. Now that’s real love. Or is it? Sacrifice that is so one-sided would be a subject for a Dr. Phil program today, but in 1931, when the novel was published, society had the view that women’s sacrifice was expected and ennobling. This version of the novel (there were three) is blessed with sensitive direction from Robert Stevenson, excellent supporting cast, and performances by Sullavan and Boyer that give the characters credibility and poignancy. A three-hanky picture.
Something a bit more lighthearted from 1941, but deliciously watchable, is Come Live with Me, starring James Stewart and Hedy Lamarr and costarring Ian Hunter. The breathtaking Ms. Lamarr is a refugee from the war in Europe and she is desperate not to be deported as her visa is soon to expire. Her influential boyfriend, played by Hunter, is trying to fix it all, but things are moving too slowly. Enter Stewart, a financially desperate writer, who agrees to accept a sort of salary to marry Hedy (strictly business). We all know what will happen, but it is a fun trip with Stewart finding success as a writer and challenging boyfriend, Hunter, with suspicious government investigators added to the mix. Clarence Brown direction makes it easy to watch them interact.
Of all the love stories of the Golden Era, Random Harvest would probably get the most votes for favorite from people who know classic films. From 1942, we have another adaptation of a popular novel, this one by James Hilton. Mervyn Leroy directs two of the most beautifully spoken voices in the English language, Ronald Colman and Greer Garson, as two lovers separated for years by the usually cheesiest of plot devices – amnesia. I say, usually, because in this case, it is done in a subdued and intelligent manner. It offers an underlying proposition that if people are meant for each other, they will find each other in this or another life. I defy you not to shed a tear in the last scene.
Without Love from 1945 is not one of the best known of
the Katherine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy body of work. It is not really a comedy and it is not the
usual kind of romance, but the two stars exhibit their well-known chemistry,
nonetheless. Tracy is a tunnel-visioned
scientist doing war work. Hepburn is
letting him use her Washington home, while she departs to the country – only she
doesn’t, because she offers to help him with his experiments. After a while, they think they are both at a
point in their lives where they would be happy with a marriage of convenience –
hence the title. It is a kind of
backwards love story, starting as friends, but ending just like the regular
kind of couple, with regular kinds of problems, arguments and jealousy.
Directed by Harold S. Bucquet, with good supporting performances by Lucille
Ball and Keenan Wynn.
Of all the films with Cary Grant with all the different leading ladies I have enjoyed, I must choose Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious from 1946 as the most truly romantic. There is no comedy here, no lighthearted Cary. In a restrained performance, he finally expresses his love for costar, Ingrid Bergman, at the very end, in some of the most intimate moments you'll ever see in a Hitchcock film. But as this is a Hitchcock film, there is also a great deal of suspense and tension between the two stars and also between Bergman and supporting star, Claude Rains, as Grant, the government agent, uses Bergman to uncover ex-Nazis in South America.
Speaking of movies that have been remade a lot, A Star is Born is too often thought of as the story of the journey to stardom, but it is really a love story. Personally, I like the 1954 version with the iconic performances by Judy Garland and James Mason. The desperation of the romance when one of the partners is on the way up and the other is on the opposite path is heartbreaking, until at last sacrifice is all that remains. These two actors are at their best in this doomed love, directed by George Cukor and ably supported by Charles Bickford and Tommy Noonan.
From 1958, the first pairing of Paul Newman and his soon-to-be wife, Joanne Woodward, in The Long Hot Summer is exciting in itself, but in addition, they spend most of the film insulting each other, which always indicates true love will be revealed in the last scene. Adding to the background tension is Woodward’s brother, played by Anthony Franciosa, and his overtly sexy wife, played by Lee Remick, a domineering father, played by Orson Welles, and his lady friend, Angela Lansbury. Directed by Martin Ritt, who directed Paul Newman in five films in all.
The next Newman/Ritt collaboration was Paris Blues in 1961, the most February-themed story in that it is appropriate for both Valentine’s Day and Black History Month. It demonstrates once again the eternal question of following one’s muse or following one’s heart. Americans, Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll, have come to Paris to soak in the cultural scene, and meet musicians, Newman and Sidney Poitier, at a jazz club. The two couples fall believably in love. But these are serious musicians and find the Paris jazz scene difficult to leave, particularly, Poitier, who feels liberated from the segregated culture in the U.S., though Carroll thinks he should join her back home in the civil rights movement. Wonderful performances by the four stars, wonderful music by Duke Ellington, and a cameo appearance by Louis Armstrong.
And for my favorite love story, probably because I first saw it at a most impressionable young age – Fanny. Yes, another story of lovers separated by choices one makes and regrets. This is taken from the third of the Marcel Pagnol Marseilles trilogy. Leslie Caron plays Fanny in this 1961 version, Horst Buchholz plays the love of her life, Marius, who longs to go to sea. Charles Boyer, in a knockout performance, plays his father, and Maurice Chevalier is the older suitor, Panisse. Directed by Joshua Logan with a haunting score by Harold Rome.
