The Gay Divorcee (1934)

The Gay Divorcee
Director: Mark Sandrich
USA 1934
107 min
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Alice Brady, Eric Rhodes and Eric Blore, among others.

Mr. Monotony with Judy Garland

I saw Easter Parade (1948) the other day. What a lovely film! Not as perfect as The Band Wagon (1953), but not really far from it. I love to see Fred Astaire playing grouchy and sometimes almost rude, as his character is every now and then in both movies mentioned. And I can't help but fall in love with Judy Garland, even though I know it's a cliché to love her. (I like Marilyn Monroe too! Ha!)

I found a cut out scene on the extra material. Usually that kind of extra material is quite boring (the reason why the scenes where cut out can be quite obvious), but I always watch them if it's from an old movie. It feels like taking a trip back in time - "This wasn't in the movie! It's magic!"

However, this scene was not boring. In fact, I can't understand why it was cut out - the film couldn't suffer too much of being two and a half minutes longer, could it? It is however a song and dance number with Judy Garland and a swinging song called "Mr. Monotony". I know I talk a lot about Cyd Charisse's legs, but there was nothing wrong with Garland's either!

I will only include the finished version of the song. There was a lot of re-takes that were fun to watch (isn't it awfully interesting to see the actors/actresses go in and out of character?), but if I would have included those it would have reached a time of 25 minutes. Just buy the DVD, and don't complain!

Here's Judy Garland with "Mr. Monotony"!

The Band Wagon (1953)

The Band Wagon
Director: Vincente Minnelli
USA 1953
111 min
Starring: Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan, among others.

Can you believe that I actually saw this film for the first time just yesterday? I have trouble believing that myself. Well, anyway I had to write something about this crazy Technicolor delight!

The year before The Band Wagon, Singin' in the Rain (1952) became a box-office success. There are some interesting likenesses between the two movies:

• Adolph Green and Betty Comden are the persons behind both the films' scripts.
• Both films take place in the world of entertainment during eras of extensive changes: Singin' in the Rain takes place in Hollywood during the change from silent films to talkies, The Band Wagon on the stage, where the audience now wants more than top hats and tap dancing.
• In both movies the first attempt of trying something new becomes a great failure, and only when the persons involved go for something they can and like does it become a success at a second attempt.

Now, do not misunderstand me: Both movies manages on their own, and The Band Wagon is not a blatant copy of Singin' in the Rain. Oh no. I just find comparisons very interesting. No that I finished that off, I can go on with the rest of the film!

The film begins with an auction, where the top hat of the once popular Tony Hunter (Fred Astaire's alter ego: his career was beginning to fade at this time) is sold on auction - no bidders. In the next scene we see a couple of men in a train discussing celebrities, and how they remember the glory days of Tony Hunter. Behind a newspaper is Tony Hunter himself, joining the discussion by stating that he wouldn't go to see Tony Hunter even if he was given $5 for the effort. (That is called self-distance, my friends.)

After having sung the sad "By Myself" (mostly sad because he looks so jolly while singing it) he meets his friends on the platform, the scriptwriting couple Lester and Lily Marton (Betty Comden and Adolph Green's alter egos) played by Oscar Levant and Nanette Fabray. I instantly loved Fabray for her exploding energy, Jesus! Oh, and Ava Gardner makes a cameo!

That shoe shining routine is wonderful, but I can't see that it would have made it into a film today...

Lester and Lily has an idea for a Broadway show that they want Tony Hunter to star in to bring his career back on tracks. They also have a popular ballet dancer in mind, Gabrielle Gerard (Charisse, complete with her fabulous legs), and a famous director/actor by the name of Jeffrey Cordova (Buchanan). Cyd Charisse as a ballerina can only look right when wearing a dress red as sin.

I read somewhere that Cordova is a parody of Orson Welles, but I feel that he is a general spoof on all over ambitious directors. He is without a doubt the most hilarious character in the film, and the scene where he imagines Lester and Lily's play as a sort of modern interpretation of Faust is painfully hysterical.

Immediately when Tony and Gabrielle meet they get on the wrong foot with each other because of either ones insecurities if they can live up to the other one's talent. A little dance in Central Park later, they do however come to the conclusion that they can meet half ways and make it a success.

Cordova's Faust play becomes a huge failure as the audience look like they have had a seizure after leaving the theatre. The gang re-writes the whole thing, and the rest of the film contains of a series of entertaining song and dance numbers, including the famous and weird "Triplets" act.

But my absolute favorite scene in the entire film is, as anyone probably could guess, the film noir spoof "The Girl Hunt". It starts of in a black alley with a cool-as-ice Fred Astaire and a cynical narration. Out of nowhere a lady in distress pops out, some gang members beat him senseless and leaving clues behind them. And of course, Cyd Charisse as the femme fatale who is "selling hard, but I wasn't buying". Oh, can it get more perfect than this? Pure joy, all through the scene. Charisse must be Astaire's best dance partner after the Ginger Rogers era, such delight to watch.

I guess all this comes down to this: I adored this film after the first viewing. I will put it in my perfect-films-to-watch-when-I'm-sick-or-when-just-generally-feeling-sorry-for-myself-list, among Gone With the Wind and Singin' in the Rain. But the latter one is a little overused for the moment, I know everything in and out in that film. The Band Wagon simply gets to take it's place for a while.

Now - pic spam! (I want her legs!)

Swing Time (1936)

Swing Time
Director: George Stevens
USA 1936
103 min
Starring: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Victor Moore, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, Betty Furness and Georges Metaxa, among others.

See it on YouTube: link






Lately I have been most too masculine in my choice of films, so I felt I had to watch a Fred & Ginger picture to remind myself and my readers that I am, in fact, still a lady.

I have a DVD box set with four of the couple's RKO pictures, bud sadly this one is not included. Therefore Swing Time was a new experience for me. A lovely experience, in fact, and I think it for the time being is my favorite Fred & Ginger film.

The plot is quite similar to Top Hat (1935) - but who cares about the plot in films like these? Oh, you do? Me too. But it's no disappoinment, the similar factors are those you don't care about anyway. Like re-using actors: if you like the actor, why complain that they have similar roles in another picture? Nice to see more of them.

I'm talking about the refined, eccentric and lisping Eric Blore and the middle aged, urbane cool older friend of the leading lady, Helen Broderick. Broderick even appeared with Astaire on Broadway with The Band Wagon!

Then we have the essential slimy Italian, this time played by Romanian actor Georges Metaxa. He has that kind of a role that Ginger for some reason always ends up almost marrying, because Fred has let her down in some way. In Top Hat she misunderstood him to be already married, in Swing Time she finds out he already has a fiancée. Good enough reason to take a pause from Fred, but why throw yourself in the arms of greasy narcissists? I think she need a few lessons in womanhood.




That much for the plot. I'm confusing, I know, but I don't find it important enough to straighten out (plus you all have probably already seen the film). Now to the good stuff!

The songs are wonderful. Fred sings "The Way You Look Tonight" while accompanying himself on the piano and Ginger washes her hair. (With whipped cream, from what I read in the trivia section on IMDb.) They both sing the jolly "Pick Yourself Up" during a dance class. Fred gives a minstrel show singing "Bojangles of Harlem" with three giant shadows dancing behind him. Itäs all very entertaining and joyful.




But my favorite part of Swing Time is the winter section, with heavy snowflakes filling every inch of the screen. Ginger gets disappointed when she tries to have a romantic moment with Fred, but the fact that he is in love with one woman and engaged to another (without any of them knowing it) destroys his sense for romantic settings.
They sing "A Fine Romance", a song I only have heard Marilyn Monroe sing before, and it's such a lovely scene. The camera work is perfect; the snowy landscape seems almost unreal. (Maybe it was? Was it filmed in a studio? All I know is that winters in Sweden can look just like that, and it's wonderful.)

I hope I look as cute as Ginger Rogers do when I'm angry.

The last scene is simple but superb. That hysterical laughter everyone breaks out into has to be for real, I can't believe anyone can fake such a thing. (For is it anything that really enoys me with feel-good films is that fake laughter the actors are forced to squeeze out, it's unbearable.) I guess it was the last scene filmed, and everyone was tired and silly. That's my explaination. And even if it was fake it got to me, and I found myself with a creepy smile by the end of the film.

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Meet Me in St. Louis

Director: Vincente Minnelli

USA 1944

113 min

Now I've finally seen this wonderful musical! I've been meaning to watch it for a long time, but we all know how that often turns out - putting it on the "to-see-list", and hopefully having watched it by the turn of the next millenium.

I was just lucky to turn on TCM yesterday, and I unintentionally timed it perfectly while zapping among all the God forsaken choices of channels my generation is cursed with. I suddenly heard the voice of the Lord himself saying "Next up on TCM - Meet Me in St. Louis", jumped high of joy and threw myself on the couch with a chocolate bar. And was it a delight, oh boy.

I must keep my eyes open for more Vincente Minnelli musicals (I've only seen An American in Paris before), cause Meet Me in St. Louis had the unusually right amount of everything - well-written lyrics, catchy tunes, melodrama, humor and even some horror (seen through the eyes of the children). All in magical Technicolor!

Rose (Lucille Bremer) and Esther sing the title song, to their father's despair.

The plot plays out in the city of (what else) St. Louis in 1903, the year before the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. During the whole film the town is getting ready for the event of the century.

In the centre of the plot is the Smith family, mostly dominated by women. Here we find the grouchy but well-meaning father Alonzo (Leon Ames), who bravely tries to keep his authority in the female household. There's also his wife Anna (Mary Astor), grandfather Smith, son Lon Jr and four daughters. Among the daughters we find the second eldest, Esther, played by Judy Garland. It is probably Esther and the youngest daughter, "Tootie" (Margaret O'Brien), who are the most important characters in the film. (The film is based on a novel written by Sally Benson, the real "Tootie".)

Tootie and Esther entertaining the guests at a family farewell party.

As I said before the film's greatest strength lies in the combination of candy sweet entertainment and, minutes later, truly heart tearing moments. A good example is the scene where Esther sings Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to Tootie, only days before the family has to leave St. Louis to move to New York City. Taken out of context, the scene looks really calm and beautiful, but it's perhaps the most bittersweet moment in the entire film. Let me put it like this - I cried. (Luckily, I had my chocolate bar in reach.)

Meet Me in St. Louis was a huge box-office hit, and grossed more money that any MGM film had done in 20 years (except for Gone With the Wind, of course).

It was also during the filming of Meet Me in St. Louis that Judy Garland met her second husband (of five), director Vincente Minnelli. The married soon after the filming was done, were married for six years and had a daughter in 1946 - Liza Minnelli.

I'm No Angel (1933)

I'm No Angel

Director: Wesley Ruggles

USA 1933

87 min

Yes, I'm quite into pre-code right now. So blame me.

It's time for another Mae West-written 1933 comedy starring herself and Cary Grant - and this time an even better one than She Done Him Wrong! At least in my opinion.

West plays Tira, a seducing circus performer swaying her hips "north, south, east and west" (don't know about that, but her body language sure oozes sex). Behind the stage her favourite waste of time is finding rich men and using them. In one of the first scenes she even gives an unforgettable advice to a young friend of hers:

Always remember, honey. A good motto is: "Take all you can get and give as little as possible". Don't forget, honey. Never let one man worry your mind. Find 'em, fool 'em and forget 'em!

That is a dangerous lady! And of course, the Hays office had a lot to say about this one. For instance they had to change the title of a song from "Nobody Does It Like A Dallas Man" to "Nobody Loves Me Like A Dallas Man". But grieve not - there are so many obvious sex insinuation in this film that you loose the count after only a couple of minutes.

Cary Grant appears as a rich, genuine man named Jack Clayton, who manages to grab Tira's heart for real. But of course, there are many men from Tira's past that want to stand in the way of her romance - not to mention the head of the circus, who doesn't want to loose his main attraction to something as trivial as marriage. They manage to frame both Tira and Clayton, leading to a misunderstanding that cancel their marriage plans. What follows is one of the most entertaining courtroom scenes I've ever seen in a comedy, full of snappy dialogue and wise cracks.

Trailer:

How could one not love this meaty, seductive female version of Groucho Marx? I recently read an (unintentionally) amusing blog post from som crappy blogger, accusing Mae West of not writing her own screenplays. Why? "Mae West was illiterate, and told other people what to write down, and then she took the credit for their work."

Aaallright... So if Dostoevsky had read Crime and Punishment aloud for me, and I had written it down - would I be the author of that masterpiece? Oh, it would have made me so sore if he took the credit for my work, then. Fucking idiot.

I've also read that many hate West's singing voice. Why? It's got swing in it, power and character. The last two films I've seen with her, I've never been bored with one musical number. I like it!

Tira and her monkey. "Beulah, peel me a grape."

Anyway, I have fallen for Mae West. And the fact that she's rather cram herself into those nasty corsets than loosing weight, becoming a sex goddess woth that healthy figure, and continuing seducing men, much younger than she, on-screen well into her 80's. She was 85 when she seduces a 34 year old Timothy Dalton in the, apparantly very bad, film Sextette (1978). By then, she was known as "The Queen of Camp". Now, isn't that something? She really loves herself, and that's what's so admiring. At least when it's well-deserved.

Okay, so any favourite scenes of mine from this film? The whole picture is pure delight (I gave it a 9 out of ten on IMDb), but some comical tops are:

• Clayton's first visit at Tira's apartment, when he awkwardly tries to say goodbye to her, just as he understands that she wouldn't mind him staying a bit longer. Those seconds of ambivalence are just hilarious.
• All scenes with the three black maidens. Sure, they're stereotypical black women, but that's what makes it so great. They really love their employer, giggling every time she receives another phone call from a man, or a knock on the door. The dialogue between them and West is top notch.

  "I always thought of you as a one man woman!"

  "Yeah, sure... One man at a time."

• Clayton, when he can't help laughing at Tira's wise cracks in the courtroom scene. He can't help it, he adores her.
• The short Nat Pendleton appearance, as Harry the acrobat, one of Tira's many admirers. Seriously, WAS he in every 1930's movie there was? I don't mind it though, he's an underestimated supporting actor. Always looking like he has more muscles than brains.

Quotes:

Jack Clayton: You were wonderful tonight.

Tira: Yeah, I'm always wonderful at night.

Jack Clayton: Tonight, you were especially good.

Tira: Well... When I'm good, I'm very good. But, when I'm bad...

[winks at Jack]

Tira: I'm better.

Tira: What do you do for a living?

Ernest Brown: Oh, uh, sort of a politician.

Tira: I don't like work either.

Rajah the Fortune Teller: I see a man in your life.

Tira: What? Only one?

Jack Clayton: Oh I'm crazy about you.

Tira: I did my best to make you that way.

Jack Clayton: Look darling, you need a rest, and so do I. Let me take you away somewhere, we'll...

Tira: Would you call that a rest?

Jack Clayton: What are you thinking about?

Tira: Same thing you are.

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

"When women go wrong, men go right after them."

Lady Lou in She Done Him Wrong

She Done Him Wrong

Director: Lowell Sherman

USA 1933

66 min

Here it is - one of the major reasons of the "necessity" of The National Legion of Decency, and Mae West's breakthrough performance. Set in the 1890's, the film has a typical setting for the Depression era audience who wanted to get far, far away from the harsh reality.

Mae West appears as the diamond draped nightclub owner Lady Lou. Wiggling her hips in inhuman corsets and tight dresses (that West apparantly often had to be sewn into), she seduces every man in sight and keep up illegal business with her nightclub partners. With one fiancée in jail, another on the ground floor of the nightclub (Wallace Beery's brother Noah Beery) and a lover on his way up to her room, Lou lays her eyes on a handsome mission director, Captain Cummings (a young Cary Grant). Within a short period of time, the plot ends up including a jealous jail-breaking fiancé, white slavery, murder and a lot of witty dialogue with a heck of a lot of double entendres delivered by West.

This film sure succeeds in cramming in a lot of plot, dialogue and great musical numbers in only just over an hour! You don't have time to get bored with anything; you can only lay back, relax and enjoy.

And don't forget: Mae West was 40 years old when making this film (just a year after her motion picture debut), while Cary Grant was only 29. An admirable woman, indeed!

Gilbert Roland as Serge, Mae West and Rafaela Ottiano as Russian Rita. Both West and Ottiano repeat their stage roles in this film version of the play.

She Done Him Wrong is based on Mae West's successful stage play "Diamond Lil". Even if this was one of the last films that managed to escape the scissors of Joseph Breen and company, a lot of the sexual references and double entendres were cut out when re-writing the script for film. (There was a reason for Mae West to be on trial for obscenity in 1927, right?)

Mae West on trial for obscenity for her burlesque Broadway Show "Sex", 1927.

What worries me though is that I might have gotten my hands on a cut copy of this film on DVD. Everywhere I look it's supposed to be 66 minutes long, but my copy was only 62 minutes. Have I missed out on any West/Grant bathing scene or something? I didn't hear the famous line:

"Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

Was that cencored perhaps? According to IMDb this is the film where it's supposed to be in. Damn it. If that's the case, I will sue the DVD store I bought the Mae West box in!

Anyway - a great film I'm guaranteed to see over and over again. Some quotes from the wonderful Mae West-written dialogue:

Quotes:

Serge Stanieff: I am delighted. I've heard so much about you.

Lady Lou: Yeah, but you can't prove it.

Lady Lou: Why don't you come up some time and see me?

Captain Cummings: Surely you don't object to my holding your hand?

Lady Lou: It ain't heavy - I can hold it.

Captain Cummings: Haven't you ever met a man who could make you happy?

Lady Lou: Sure, lots of times.

Three Little Pigs (1933)

Notice the portrait of their father hanging on the wall?

Disney's 8 minute animated version of Three Little Pigs was released on this day, May 27, 1933. The audiences loved the cartoon, and theatres actually continued running it several months after its release. (Some theatre owners even draw beards on the posters of the cartoon, to mock the fact that they were still running it.) It's hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" immediately stuck. (Try listen to it and not sing it for the rest of the day... I failed, epically.) The song reflected and encouraged the people's attitude to the Great Depression as "the Big Bad Wolf", and even transcended into representing Hitler during WWII.

According to IMDb, Walt Disney himself actually has one of the voices to the Practical Pig. (For some reason there are two people doing his voice.)

The cartoon actually had to be cencored, believe it or not. Originally the Big Bad Wolf dressed up as a caricature of a Jewish peddler (!), but was changed to a Fuller Brush man instead (still having a Yiddish accent, though).

I read some interesting trivia about schools in England actually modified the classic tale to "Three Little Puppies" in 2007, "to avoid offending Muslim families". A man called Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain made the statement "bizarre" about that move, and the tale was changed back to its original form. Jeez...

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf - big bad wolf - big bad wolf? Who's afraid of the bid bad wolf? Lalalalala...

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

The Great Ziegfeld
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
USA 1936
185 min


The Great Ziegfeld is a semi-biographical musical drama about the life of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr, the American Broadway manager and creator of the Ziegfeld Follies.
In this film Ziegfeld is played by William Powell, playing the smooth womaniser (who always keeps his eyes open for attractive women) to perfection.

Virginia Bruce as Audrey Dane.

The story begins with Ziegfeld's entrance in show business and ends with his death. Playing his first wife Anna Held (which in reality Ziegfeld never married, but in the film adaption I guess it looked better if they were married to the 1930's audience), is the amazing Luise Rainer, who also won a Best Actress Academy Award for her role. His second wife, actress Billie Burke, is played by the woman who plays the best wives - Myrna Loy (who, even though she is billed second, appears first after two hours and ten minutes into the film).

One of the amazing musical sequences.

The tagline of the film was "10 Big Shows in 1", which is quite right. I thought that a three hour long musical had to have a lot of suicide-tempting meaningless dance numbers, but I was totally wrong. All the dance numbers are beyond impressing - they're magnificent. The choreography is very inspiring, and I can't imagine how many hours were spent on rehearsals. All these people dancing without bumping into each other, and on top of that makes it seem so easy - magnificent is the word.

Esther Muir, William Powell and Fanny Brice (as herself).

The actors and actresses is well chosen for their parts, too. I can't mention them all, but Frank Morgan as the friend and rival Billings is worth mentioning, and so is Virginia Bruce as Audrey and Fanny Brice as herself.
One interesting thing, that makes me think that the casting of actors was very thoughtfully done, is that you can see the resemblance between the real persons and the characters in the film. Here are som examples:

Anna Held and Luise Rainer.

Billie Burke and Myrna Loy.

Florenz Ziegfeld and Billie Burke, and William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Sandow and Nat Pendleton. (Remember him from The Thin Man and Manhattan Melodrama?)

And I have to include the scene which is believed to have been the one who settled the Oscar statue for Luise Rainer. That is called real acting, I was really stunned when I watched it.




And a proud Luise Rainer at the Academy Awards, 1937: