Watchingwell   

             Curated classic films

Speaking of… Love

     My nomination for the best love story of the classic film era is an adaption of a great novel so it has a head start.  But as we know, Hollywood doesn’t have an unblemished track record in this area, so it could also be a handicap.  Anyway, my choice is Wuthering Heights from 1939.  It fulfills my requirements, totally arbitrary, of what does and does not constitute a great love story.  It is not about a love that is made poignant by suffering and separation due to contrived accidents of Fate, or the blindness of one of the individuals that is only lifted at the last moment of the film.  This lets out Random Harvest, Gone with the Wind, Romeo and Juliet (in all its forms), The Shop Around the Corner, and the one that YOU are thinking about.

     Yes, WH has suffering and separation, but the love story is not defined by this – it actually serves to underline the resilience of the bond between Cathy and Heathcliff. The pair are never out of love, even when absent from each other, even when married to others, while, at the same time they seem to accept that they cannot be together.  All right, it is a fine line I draw, but it’s my party.  The fact is that the inescapable-love-as-obsession story by Emily Bronte was pretty well realized by the screenplay by Ben Hecht and the direction of William Wyler.  But a large part of the credit must go to Laurence Olivier who really ‘got’ Heathcliff, and sold us the tortured soul who was incapable of separating from Cathy’s even when realizing the shallow character of hers.  It took me years to look at Merle Oberon’s performance objectively, after my aunt had poisoned my child’s mind with her criticism of her “cat-like” looks and bad acting. Actually, she does a credible job with a difficult role.  My aunt, whose opinion of Oberon did not prevent her from loving the film, thought Vivien Leigh would have been better in the part.  So, reportedly, did Olivier. But I disagree.  I think I even disagreed when I was a child.  Leigh was too delicate.  Cathy needed to be robust, a child of the moors, a tomboy, who rode horses and scrambled up the rocky outgrowths of Penistone Crag. So, Oberon did OK, except for a little too much emoting in the moments before she dies.  Oh – spoiler alert, I guess.  And, in her most important scene, IMO, in the kitchen with her maid/confidante, when she admits how she is hopelessly bonded to Heathcliff, and suddenly, framed by lightning, declares, “Ellen, sometimes I think I am Heathcliff”, she understands this revelation has to balance all the behavior that otherwise would make her unlikable.  And, although the words are Emily Bronte’s, they are probably the most eloquent expression of love you see on American film before the modern era.  Second to this would be the speech Heathcliff pronounces over the newly-dead Cathy begging her to  haunt him, “only never leave me alone in this abyss”. 

     Speaking of Laurence Olivier, and women novelists who were adapted into decent movies, I must give a nod to the 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice, directed by  

Robert Z. Leonard, with Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet and Olivier as Mr. Darcy.  I have never seen a bad film of P&P, come to think of it, and although Garson seems a little more mature than some of the other Elizabeths, it works in a different kind of way, because no matter who pronounces the words, they are good words. This is a satisfying romance where the audience knows before the two protagonists that they will end up together, and it is sooo lovely to hear Olivier and Garson speak English.

     Speaking of director, William Wyler, you’ve got to give him credit for recognizing the screen magic that Audrey Hepburn would produce in her first starring role as the errant princess in the 1953 film, Roman Holiday, written by Ian MacLellan Hunter, fronting for the blacklisted, Dalton Trumbo. With Gregory Peck who plays the reporter who tries to capitalize on his luck in finding her and ends up falling in love, as audiences did.  And she falls for him as they spend one glorious day and night in Rome before she tears herself away from him and returns to her important princess duties.  Who doesn’t cry at that ending?

     Breaking away from women novelists, but back to Ben Hecht, who, let’s face it, was a great and prolific American writer, we turn to one of my faves of all categories, Notorious, from 1946, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring Ingrid Bergman as a woman who is recruited by the American government to spy on Nazis in South America and Cary Grant as her ‘handler’ who gets emotionally involved and then feels guilty, so he feigns detachment and then feels guilty for that.  Cary Grant plays a more stoical version of his usual self, made even more so by the naturalistic Bergman.  There is great chemistry between them and tension, as only Hitchcock knows how to provide.  The ending, with its revolving shot of their whispered embrace is made more explicit by the touch of realism that Bergman brought to every role.

     Speaking of William Wyler again, a powerful love story is enclosed in the multi-layered The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) between Dana Andrews and Teresa Wright.  The screen play by Robert E. Sherwood from the novel by MacKinlay Kantor is about America’s post-war adjustment, but it is contained in several story lines. The love story of Frederic March and Myrna Loy is poignantly expressed to their daughter, Wright, as they oppose her  relationship with Andrews who is married, unhappily, to Virginia Mayo.  But by the touching wedding ceremony they all attend at the end, we know that true love has won out. Tears are required here also.

    Speaking of Dana Andrews, he becomes obsessively in love with a murder victim in Laura, the 1944 film noir directed by Otto Preminger.  Based on the novel by Vera Caspary, the screen play by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Betty Reinhardt  (with an uncredited Ring Lardner, Jr). displays just the right tone of cynical and witty dialogue. Of course, Laura Hunt, played by Gene Tierney isn’t really dead.  But by the time she shows up in the film, Andrews is already on the verge of losing his professional judgment.  This tension is balanced by Tierney’s calm influence, which, in the end, is no match for obsession.  She falls under his spell. Yes, it is a murder mystery.   But it is a love story, too.

     I have posted a clip and written before about the 1943 film The More the Merrier, directed by George Stevens so I need to remind everyone again what a good love story Joel McCrea and Jean Arthur make of this comedy.  In this case, the comedy takes the edge off the emotional content, so it can’t be a great love story.(My rules.)  But a comedy is useful to take the edge off the shocking (for 1943) theme of an unmarried couple forced to cohabitate by unusual circumstances and fall in love as a result.  A similar (and also shocking for 1934) route to love was taken

by Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in another successful comedy/ romance, It Happened One Night, directed by Frank Capra. This theme is a handy way to speed along the slow process of really getting to know someone, especially someone who initially doesn’t interest you.

     Speaking of which, this is precisely what happens in the 1945 film, Without Love, directed by Harold S. Bucquet and starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in one of their less-famous vehicles. Written by Donald Ogden Stewart and based on the play by Philip Barry (Philadelphia Story, Holiday), the ‘marriage of convenience’ between the two stars is a tender story of how fragile people who want to be emotionally safe are enticed into trying again.  There is a great supporting performance by Lucille Ball that livens up the drama.

     Speaking of a marriage of convenience, this is the plot device in a charming romance from 1944, Come Live with

Me, starring James Stewart and Hedy Lamarr and directed by Clarence Brown. In a seemingly timeless theme, Hedy is an immigrant facing deportation, but in those days, you could stay if you were married to a citizen for love and not for avoiding deportation.  So, when Hedy meets struggling writer, James Stewart, she proposes a strictly business arrangement, offering to help him financially, which she can do with the help of her wealthy, but married boyfriend.  However, the lovely Lamarr gives a convincing performance of a sophisticated woman who comes to appreciate the honest relationship with Stewart more than she had anticipated.

Love and chocolate to you.

Watchingwell   

             Curated classic films

Guilty Pleasures

Movies that are so bad, they’re good

     A few days ago, I was intrigued by a cheesy film title that was appearing on TV that night.  I watched and laughed, imagining what they would be saying on Mystery Science Theater 3000, the cult program where the characters hilariously commented on really bad movies, at the various points of a sad script and careless inconsistencies. This led me to think about other films that I have never before admitted to watching that perhaps other people have viewed in secret. Maybe you’ve never watched them because they sound terrible. Don’t be ashamed!  Nothing makes you aware of the components of professional filmmaking like watching one that seems to lack them.  And sometimes watching a laughably bad film is a fun social activity.  In this season of nominations, these are my selections for the non-excellence awards, but  good for a  laugh and a sense of wonder about how they got produced and released in the first place.  But, hey, the fifties were kind of nutty.

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958)  Directed by Nathan Juran

We don't know exactly what, but something happens to the unhappy woman when she encounters an alien in the desert and is carried away by same, that made her grow and grow and take revenge on her cheat of a husband.

Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)

Directed by Roger Corman.

You guessed it – radiation is to blame for creating gigantic, murderous crabs who want to eat the scientists on the island for their knowledge.

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski

Another “Attack of…”  Well, they don’t attack unless you are foolish enough to go down to the swamp after several people have disappeared when they went down there.  Not the worst of the bunch, actually, or have I had my standards lowered?

Amazing Colossal Man (1957) Directed by Bert I. Gordon

 This is the man-exposed–to-plutonium-bomb-blast plot, where he grows too fast for his blood supply to his brain and becomes insane and attacks Las Vegas. Is there a message here?

The Wasp Woman (1959) Directed by Roger Corman

Where a cosmetics executive experiments with herself with wasp juice to remain eternally youthful. I know, foolish, right?  Hmm, I wonder if anything came of that. 

Bride of the Monster (1955) Directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.

If you don’t know Ed Wood, this is his best.  A mad scientist attempts to create a super being with atomic radiation.  The best thing about this is Bela Lugosi, who, while old, is still able to infuse some authenticity to the dialogue.

Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) Directed by Edward D. Wood, Jr.

Ed Wood’s second best/worst.  Aliens try to stop humans from developing a ‘sun bomb’ by turning dead people into zombies and vampires. Some would argue that it’s not the worst film ever made because although inept on every level, it is strangely entertaining.

Robot Monster (1953) Directed by Phil Tucker.

Picture that's worth a thousand words. Not really my idea of what a robot monster would look like, unless it was all I could find for my backyard production -- when I was seven. Title monster wipes out all but eight of the Earth’s population in a cheapie production that makes Ed Wood look like a genius. That alone makes it worth viewing.

King Dinosaur (1955) Directed by Bert I. Gordon.

Two astronaut couples (cute concept!) are sent to a newly discovered planet that looks a lot like Earth with the same animals and a low budget dinosaur (lizard). When the mean dinosaur threatens them, they obliterate the planet with an atomic bomb. We don’t come in peace.

The Giant Claw (1957) Directed by Fred F. Sears

     Astonishingly ridiculous-looking, alien, big bird attacks Earth while trying to lay eggs.  A script this bad doesn't get created without determined concentration. B-picture actor Jeff Morrow actually worked again after this embarrassment.

Have I missed anyone's best/worst favorite?

I love this still photo from It Conquered the World (1956)  another great one directed by Roger Corman. Yes, and Beverly Garland also worked again after this.

Watchingwell   

             Curated classic films

  

            Greetings!

Dear Readers,

      In the spirit of the season, instead of suggestions about classic holiday films, which you can still read if you scroll back in time, I offer presents for your viewing enjoyment.

Happy Holidays!

Watchingwell   

             Curated classic films

 William Powell

Suave, debonair, funny, elegant, sophisticated, polished, urbane, witty, distinguished...OK, I am a big fan of William Powell.  Many people who know only a few classic films are aware of The Thin Man series (1934-1947) where he played Nick Charles, and the great partnership that he had with Myrna Loy as Nora Charles.  But there are some less well-known films that these two made together that exhibit the same wonderful chemistry.

Libeled Lady (1936) directed by Jack Conway, is a gem of a comedy that also includes Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow in the cast.  Tracy is an editor who enlists Powell to romance socialite, Loy, so she will drop her suit for libel against the newspaper.  Jean Harlow, in a role that shows her talent for comedy, plays his fiancée who suspects that he has really fallen in love with Loy.

Jack Conway also directed the pair in Love Crazy (1941).  Through an annoyingly-contrived misunderstanding, Loy is divorcing Powell, to which he is desperately opposed.  So desperate is he that he agrees to fake insanity to put the divorce on hold.  He doesn't realize that he will be confined in an asylum so he makes an escape through some nimbly-timed and hilarious scenes.

I Love You Again (1940) directed by W.S. Van Dyke, stars Myrna as the disillusioned wife of a man who is replaced by a con artist who looks just like him, when the husband is actually killed on an ocean liner. Powell as the con artist feels that he has landed in a cozy spot where he can hide out from his enemies, but doesn't count on falling for Loy for real.

In Double Wedding from 1937, directed by Richard Thorpe, Myrna Loy is a controlling, career woman who plans her sister's life and that of her fiancé to such an extent that her sister pretends to fall in love with an artist to rebel against the life Loy has mapped out for her.  The artist, William Powell, finds that he has a better idea: that he and Loy should marry. (A similar dynamic is the plot in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) where Loy plays against Cary Grant.)  

Powell and Loy made fourteen films together and they always seemed to enjoy each other's company.  But, perhaps, this is the mark of the professional, because both actors have great screen rapport with other stars.

A particular favorite is My Man Godfrey (1936) directed by Gregory La Cava, with Powell opposite Carole Lombard.  Powell plays the 'forgotten man' Lombard brings home and turns into the family butler.  Of course, he is really well-to-do and of course, she falls in love with him, and of course, it all ends happily.

A more obscure classic is The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936) directed by Stephen Roberts, where Powell's character is drawn into a murder mystery by his ex-wife, played by Jean Arthur, who is a successful mystery novelist. The sets and costumes are glamorous and the mystery is unremarkable, but enough of an excuse for Arthur and Powell to interact.  Naturally, romance is inevitable.

Powell is an astronomer married to Hedy Lamarr in The Heavenly Body (1944) directed by Alexander Hall.  He is so absorbed in his work that Hedy is excited about meeting a 'dream man', an event predicted by her astrologer, played by Spring Byington. Silly plot (what man would be that absorbed in his work with Hedy Lamarr at home?) but an enjoyable comedy, even so, with the two stars being so easy to watch.

In Star of Midnight (1935) directed by Stephen Roberts, we get luscious art deco sets (take a look at Powell's bathroom ) and costumes surrounding a stylish, but hard-to-follow, murder mystery. An actress has disappeared, the star of a play called, "Midnight".  Powell is a rich lawyer and Ginger Rogers tags along, all the while setting her sights on Powell with a view to marriage. Not Myrna Loy level, but, definitely good chemistry.




If you're curious, the fourteen films Powell made with Myrna Loy are the four mentioned above, the six Thin Man films, Manhattan Melodrama, The Great Ziegfeld, Evelyn Prentice, and The Senator Was Indiscreet, in which Loy appeared in a cameo.