August 30, 1939

At His Worst Stewart Gives Lots of Laughs

It took a “show within a show” to spring the biggest acting surprise of the year on Hollywood and reveal James Stewart as a slapstick comedian of front rank and sure-fire for those “belly laughs.”

The actor, famous for his shyness of manner and humor, discloses the brand new angle on his histrionic ability in “It’s a Wonderful World,” coming Thursday to the Rex theater.  And it was all because he had been instructed to act his worst in the sequence.

The rollicking comedy murder mystery reaches a climax in a Little Theater setting when Stewart as a young detective gets a part in the play to track down a killer.  Claudette Colbert, his starring partner in the picture, assists him in the sleuthing adventure.

Ben Hecht, who wrote the screen play, conceived a hilarious sequence for the “show within a show.”  Stewart was told by Director W.S. Van Dyke II to give “the worst performance ever seen on stage or screen.”  Stewart furnished the company a hundred laughs with his imitation of an actor with stagefright.

Featured in teh supporting cast of “It’s a Wonderful World” are Guy Kibbee, Nat Pendleton, Frances Drake, Edgar Kennedy and Ernest Truex.

Eugene Register-Guard

GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (Warner Brothers) Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Aline MacMahon, Riby Keeler, Warren William, Ginger Rogers, Ned Sparks, Guy Kibbee. A mysterious young songwriter bankrolls a Broadway show in the depths of the Great Depression, and some chorus girls do all right for themselves.

Speaking of “pre-code” musicals as we were in our last review, this is one of the friskiest of the films that were being put out just before the puritans clamped down. It also has some awesome Busby Berkeley production numbers and a plot that unrolls smoothly under Mervyn LeRoy’s direction. The weakest link in an otherwise highly competent cast is young Keeler, but she and Powell made such a delightful couple that the country fell in love with them and they did two or three more films together.

Even though this movie is 76 years old, it still delivers a good measure of entertainment.

Scale of 10: I give it 8.

Rain, a flop in it’s day,  is a visually beautiful film thanks to camera shots and angles by Oliver T. Marsh. Joan Crawford is at the height of her beauty dressed in tawdry makeup and baubles playing Miss Sadie Thompson a woman of questionable sexual morals.  Both she and underrated actor Walter Huston give powerful performances.  The first half can be slow but in the latter part of the film Huston upstages Crawford as a hypocritical Christian missionary whom the natives of Pago Pago call a witch doctor.

What makes this film special is it’s portrayal of the missionaries as the sinners; the prostitute as compromising and decent.  Crawford can see through his evil religious facade but eventually succumbs to his brainwashing in a very powerful robotic prayer scene.  Does she really convert or play for vengeance?

Directed by Merlyn LeRoy with songs by Al Rubin and Harry Warren and choreographed by Busby Berkeley (in the credits he is listed as dance director), “Gold Diggers of 1933” was the second of Warner Brothers three 1933 backstage musicals, all reflecting the depression though none as directly as this one.

    Opening during a rehearsal with the ironic and iconic “We’re in the Money” sung by Ginger Rogers (Fay), in a full face close up dressed in an outfit lined with silver dollars and a strategically placed large silver dollar covering her “private parts.” Along with a chorus of scantily dress showgirls, Rogers sings:

                                   “We’re in the Money, We’re in the Money,

                                     We got a lot of what it takes to get along.

                                     We’re in the Money, The sky is sunny,

                   Old Man depression, you are though you’ve done us wrong.”

 Rogers does one amazing verse of the song in Pig Latin. It’s a brilliant start to what is, probably the grittiest musical ever made. The musical number comes to an unexpected stopped when the sheriff and his boys come in and seize all the property and costumes including snatching Ginger’s most personal piece.

    This opening scene sets up the tone for the rest of the story, with Fay’s sarcastically informing the three leads, as they talk about being out of work again, “it the depression, dearie.” 

    The story centers on Carol (Joan Blondell), Polly (Ruby Keeler) and Trixie (Aline MacMahon). Unlike Warner’s two other depression themed  musical’s “42^nd Street” and “Footlight’s Parade”, it is the ladies who carry this film with the male characters all pretty much regulated to supporting roles. Financially, the three chorus girls are forced to share an apartment, the same bed, the same clothes and even resort to stealing a bottle of milk from a neighbor for breakfast. Their luck soon changes when Fay informs them producer Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks) is putting on another show and wants the girls in it. He has everything he needs, a script, a theater, the girls, everything that is, except the money. Help comes from an unexpected source when Polly’s boyfriend Brad Roberts (Dick Powell) an aspiring songwriter, who lives in another building, conveniently located just across the courtyard from the girls, is over heard playing his own composition. Barney likes the kid’s stuff and wants him to write the music for the show as soon as he can raise the money. Brad unexpectedly offers to put in $15,000 for the show but no one believes him. After all, where is a young out of work songwriter going to get that kind of money? When he does inexplicably show up with the money, the girls believe he turned to crime to get the cash. When the show opens, Brad’s past appears in the form of his snobbish blue-blooded brother J. Lawrence Bradford (Warren Williams) and the family lawyer Faneul H. Peabody (Guy Kibbee). Both plan to derail Brad’s show business aspirations and his interest in chorus girl Polly by threatening to cut off his inheritance.

    Mistaken identities and shenanigans between Carol, Trixie and older brother Lawrence and the lawyer Peabody lead to various mishaps, unexpected love and of course a happy conclusion. That is until the final extraordinary Busby Berkley depression drenched extravaganza featuring Joan Blondell performing “Remember My Forgotten Man.”  This is one of Busby Berkeley’s most stunning, and certainly his most somber production number. It begins with Blondell’s as a streetwalker singing, more like talking, the story of her forgotten man. We cut to a homeless man walking the street as we now hear Etta Moten begin a powerful bluesy  version of “Forgotten Man”, the camera pans upward from the man  to Moten and then over to other war widows all sitting mournfully by their tenement windows. We next cut to another homeless man lying on a street corner. As Blondell passes by, a cop taps the homeless man with his bat nudging him to move on. Blondell gives the police officer a dirty look and steps in between the two, pointing out a war ribbon hanging on the inside of the man’s jacket, which we see in close up. She sends the man on his way as the police officer grudgingly moves on. This three-minute introduction segues into a spectacular musical montage of marching soldiers returning home to parades and loved ones, it then turns to a darker vision of those same soldiers at war, marching in a drenching rain. We next see the men still marching, some wounded with blood on their faces and other with bandages, carrying the most severely wounded as they continue marching, marching and marching. Berkeley cuts to a row of men now standing in soup kitchens and breadlines and still hopelessly marching.  He comes full circle by returning to Blondell in a spectacular shot encompassing all the marching soldiers, the poor, the downtrodden homeless men and women all who are now forgotten as the film comes to a quick and stunning end. Berkeley leaves us with one of the strongest political indictments to come from, not just a musical film, but from any film.

    I described in detail this approximately seven minute sequence because its impact is so strong and as relevant today as it was more than seventy years ago. As Matthew Kennedy states in his biography “Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes” “My Forgotten Man” has never gone out of date. What is the government’s responsibility to the dispossessed? What are the effects of war and neglect on women?”   Kennedy also says that Jack Warner did not envision the “My Forgotten Man” number as the finale; however it was so powerful it could not be inserted anywhere else.

    “Gold Diggers of 1933” according to the Motion Picture Herald was one of the top moneymakers of the year.  It is easy to see why depression era audiences were attracted to the film and could easily identify with the three female leads, the thematic topicality and enjoy the swipes taken at the pretentious, snobbish rich characters. The cast is wonderful with special kudos going to Joan Blondell and Aline MacMahon. Blondell is particularly satisfying, coming across as sincere and real, especially in her scenes with Warren Williams where he tries to buy the girls off. Aline MacMahon is hardnosed as the opportunistic Trixie in her efforts soak Williams and Peabody for all they have. However, it is Blondell and the closing number, “Remember My Forgotten Man” that really knocks you out.

    The film was roughly based on a 1919 play called “The Gold Diggers” which according to the IBDB ran for 282 performances on Broadway. A silent film version was made in 1923. The first sound version came out in 1929, called “Gold Diggers of Broadway” directed by Roy Del Ruth and starred Nancy Welford and Winnie Lightner. “Gold Digger of Broadway” has the distinction of being one of the earlier sound films and additionally one of the earliest Technicolor films.        

    Though the film is credited, as being directed by Mervyn LeRoy, it really had two directors, LeRoy, for the straight story, was no stranger to making films with depression era themes having made some of his best work during this period. Along with “I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang” and “Little Caesar”, he also did “Three on a Match”, Five Star Final” and “Hard to Handle.” After leaving Warner Brothers, LeRoy, eventually making his way to MGM, lost that gritty streetwise Warners look as his films took on the more of the MGM gloss. Warner Brothers was so high on Berkeley after “42^nd Street” he was given a blank check for “Gold Diggers” creating some of his most creative expressionist like musical numbers.

    Throughout the movie, “Gold Diggers of 1933” pushes the buttons on the pre-code limits. As previously mentioned there are plenty of scantily dressed chorus girls in the opening number. The girls are seen in various stages of undress in the dressing room, as are the three roommates in their apartment. Joan Blondell especially provides some views of her various attributes. The “Pettin’ in the Park” sequence is notable for silhouetted shots of the chorus girls who are definitely naked behind the curtain that is slowly raised by a smirking Billy Barty. In this production number, Barty plays a leering baby up to no good. In addition to the curtain raiser, he manages to look up a chorus girl’s dress and hands Dick Powell a can opener during the number so he can “open up” a metal type swimsuit Ruby Keeler is wearing.

    Of the three backstage musicals Warner Brothers released in 1933, it is arguable which is the best. Many feel it is “42^nd Street”, for others it’s “Footlights Parade” and for still others it is “Gold Diggers of 1933.”  For me, it is “Gold Diggers”, which stands out in its uniqueness from the others for a few reasons. It is socially conscience and significant to what we are going through today. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the finale is just powerful. Second, I like the idea of the women in the leading roles here. Blondell and MacMahon’s characters are strongly defined and intelligent parts. Finally, Gold Diggers of 1933” has resonated with filmmakers over the years including Arthur Penn who used “Gold Diggers” as the film playing when Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow duck into a theater in his 1967 film “Bonnie and Clyde”

If you ask around among James Cagney fans about which of his movies they’d most like to see get a DVD release, this pre-code film will be near the top of the list. It was a huge box office success at the time, and is memorable in his career for several reasons.

It’s the film where Cagney has his first extended dance scene (there is a brief dance scene in the earlier Other Men’s Women, but you see more of his footwork here) – and the film with his first, and longest , scene speaking Yiddish. Most famously, it’s also the movie where he (almost) says “You dirty rat” – though the actual wording is “Come out and take it, you dirty yellow-bellied rat.”

James Cagney and Loretta Young

The movie also features another major star, Loretta Young, who is at her luminous pre-code best here. It’s full of the trademark Warner grittiness, and packs a breathtaking amount of comedy, quickfire dialogue, action and melodrama into just under 70 minutes. Yet this movie has never been released on VHS, let alone DVD – and in the UK it is never even shown on TCM. Surely Warner Brothers should come up with a lovely remastered print soon in one of their box sets!

Having said all this, I don’t think Taxi!, directed by Roy del Ruth, is by any means a masterpiece. It seems to keep changing pace and direction, moving from melodrama to comedy and back again – and there are all sorts of puzzling plot twists which make no sense as soon as you stop to think about them. The first time I saw the movie, I kept brooding over the gaping holes in the story, but, for some reason, when I watched it a second time today, they didn’t bother me so much. Maybe I’m just in a more mellow mood – but, anyway, I found the performances by Cagney, Young and the other lead actors were so enjoyable that I was able to concentrate on these.

The film starts off by focusing on a taxi war in New York, with a scene where hot-tempted cabbie Matt Nolan (Cagney) is hemmed in by two members of a rival firm. Soon afterwards, the elderly Pop Riley (Guy Kibbee) is warned by a menacing cabbie-cum-gangster that ‘Consolidated’ is taking over his patch and he had better move on. When he refuses, a lorry arrives and drives straight into his taxi. Wild with rage and grief, Riley shoots the lorry driver dead, and lands up in Sing Sing prison, where he dies a week later.

Pop’s daughter, Sue (Young) falls out with Nolan over the best way to act next. Matt is all for fighting back against Consolidated, but Sue thinks there has already been enough violence. The pair argue bitterly at a public meeting and later fall out again in the street – the scene ending with Matt’s comment: “I wouldn’t go with that dame if she was the last woman on earth, and I just got out of the Navy.” But, in the very next scene, the two of them are on a date at the cinema , and he is full of warmth and charm. I don’t actually think this is a plot hole, more a demonstration of how inconsistent Matt can be, and how the two sides of his nature are constantly at war.

However, this plot turn is a jolt in the movie, as up to this point it has mainly been a melodrama, and suddenly it turns into a rough-edged romantic comedy. The start of the romantic storyline also marks a point where the film suddenly moves away from the whole issue of the taxi war and how workers should protect their right to make a living, and never really goes back to it again. I’ve noticed that quite often 1930s movies seem to raise contemporary issues at the start and then abandon them fairly quickly.

Nonetheless, the cinema scene is highly enjoyable, as Cagney and Young watch a scene from an invented movie, Her Hour of Love, starring Donald Cook, who played Cagney’s brother in The Public Enemy, and Evalyn Knapp, who starred with Cagney in both Sinners’ Holiday and Smart Money. This “movie within a movie” looks wildly romantic, in a stilted and already dated way, and Sue sighs over it – but Matt decides to demonstrate that he can come up with a clinch to rival any movie leading man. Only three years into talkies, and already Warner was mocking a slightly earlier style of acting.

Another in-joke included in this scene comes when Sue’s friend and workmate Ruby (Leila Bennett) looks at a poster with a picture of John Barrymore, advertising his 1931 movie The Mad Genius and comments : “I think John Barrymore is copying Fredric March more every day!” In fact, it was the other way round and Fredric March had famously sent up Barrymore in The Royal Family of Broadway – yet another movie which isn’t on DVD and which I’d love to see.

Cagney and George E Stone

A lot of the people who have commented on this movie at the imdb are annoyed by Leila Bennett as Ruby, a waitress working with Sue at a cafe. Ruby talks non-stop, in a whining monotone, and rarely lets anyone else get a word in edgeways. I’m sure she would drive me mad in real life, but I have to say I find her quite funny on screen. I like the friendship between her and Sue – and the fact that this is a movie which shows women working for their living in an everyday job. Ruby is also a refreshing presence in the movie because she is a down-to-earth, non-glamorous looking woman who nevertheless has a devoted boyfriend, Matt’s best friend Skeets (George E Stone) – and a long list of ex-lovers, whom she is constantly keen to mention.

Although Sue and Matt are soon going steady, they constantly argue over his fiery temper. He promises to control himself, but can’t – and is soon lashing out at anyone who gets in his way. For instance, a fat man who stands on his foot in a lift, or a rival dancer – a pre-stardom George Raft! – in a ballroom dancing contest. After his displays of temper, Sue repeatedly tells him it’s all over, but he always apologises, promises to reform and manages to win her over.

A couple of times Cagney uses a little gesture where he brings a clenched fist up to Young’s face but turns it into a caress, whispering “Ah, if I thought you meant it!” I’ve read that this was something his father used to do and he included it in the film as a tribute to him – but I think it also again sums up the conflict within Matt between violence and tenderness. Cagney often tended to come up with hand gestures which express elements of a character’s nature, as he does here. However, the gesture is disturbing because it suggests domestic violence, and there is a scene later where Matt slaps Sue in the face, after discovering what he sees as a betrayal, which also leaves a bad taste. Cagney felt that scriptwriters used to put scenes where he had to be violent to women in films on purpose after the success of the grapefruit scene in The Public Enemy, and he was bitter about it, saying they were making him “do their dirty work.” (A gossip column article about this, first published in the 1930s, has just been put online at the Hollywood Heyday blog.)

Matt’s violent streak flares up disastrously on his wedding day, when he and Sue are at a club where he is goaded by the man behind her father’s tragedy, Buck Gerard (David Landau). Matt tries to stay calm, but, as usual, can’t quite manage it and bursts out into violence – leading to tragedy when his younger brother, Danny (Ray Cooke) steps in and is knifed in the back by Buck.

 Danny dies in hospital, and Matt weeps in Sue’s arms – one of the powerful crying scenes which were often included in Cagney movies right through his career. It’s odd in a way, since he was known as a tough guy, that there are so many scenes where he breaks down in tears, but, then, you often feel as if his “tough” characters are living on nervous energy and could snap at any time.

Sue is actually tougher than Matt in some ways – she never breaks down, and she is determined to see them both through everything. I’ve liked Young in all the pre-code films of hers that I’ve seen, especially Man’s Castle with Spencer Tracy, and am impressed by how, despite her beauty, she tends to give her characters a forthright, down-to-earth quality.

Sue certainly has this. It’s just a pity that, towards the end of the film, she is caught up in a series of plot twists which make little sense, when the girlfriend of murderer Buck calls round to see her and asks for money to get him abroad, so that Matt won’t be able to find him and kill him and land up in prison. Sue gives Buck’s girlfriend the 100 dollars which Matt has saved up to buy a headstone for Danny’s grave – something which I think is really piling on the agony rather shamelessly.  And, of course, it doesn’t stop the inevitable violent climax. Why on earth doesn’t she ring up the police and save her money?

That’s just one of the film’s plot holes – but, despite the sometimes shaky storyline, I definitely think Taxi! is worth watching, and not just if you are a Cagney fanatic like me. To me, though admittedly I’ve never been out of Europe, it seems to have a strong flavour of New York, with snappy dialogue and enjoyable scenes in streets and restaurants, and with hard-pressed, sometimes desperate working-class characters at the centre. I think it stands up pretty well as a movie from what I fear we could soon be calling the First Great Depression.

James Cagney

I was keen to see this movie because I’m trying to see all of Cagney’s films – and, as this came next after The Crowd Roars, which is one of my favourites, I may have been expecting too much. To me this boxing movie, directed by Roy Del Ruth, feels a bit rushed and ragged round the edges, and it’s easy to see why around this time Cagney was getting fed up with Warner forcing him to make one quick movie after another, and repeatedly casting him as a hoodlum. In this movie they even give his character the name “Jimmy” (something they did again in the gangster comedy Jimmy the Gent), which can’t have helped him to avoid typecasting. 

Spoilers below cut – and more pictures

To be honest, I’d have to say this may be the weakest film starring Cagney that I’ve seen so far – it’s wildly uneven and his character changes completely about halfway through, from a sweet-natured rough diamond to a heartless two-timer. But, having said that, it certainly isn’t boring, and, as with so many early 1930s dramas, moves at a fast pace. It seems to lurch clumsily from drama to comedy and back again.

In the opening scenes, Cagney’s character, boxer Jim Kane, seems to be having some kind of health problem, apparently related to too many fights in a short time combined with boozing and late nights. He’s pulled into the ring by his manager (Guy Kibbee) not to fight, but so that the crowd can donate money for him to go to a spa and rest. The adoring fans duly shower him with  enough coins to fund a trip to New Mexico. This whole scene seems very much to be something which could only be set during the Great Depression – with the boxer who has to go on fighting, even if it takes a toll on his health, summing up what people in the audience are going through too.  But, from reviews I’d read before watching the movie, I was expecting this scene to be more poignant than it actually is. To me Cagney at this point just looks slightly embarrassed and not ill at all.   He does often give the impression all through the movie of being punch-drunk, through his movements and his thickened voice  - but somehow this scene doesn’t really work.

I’m  not really clear about what the place is where Jim goes to stay, described as a health ranch – is it some kind of rehab? Despite a few vague mentions of booze, there’s no hint of Kane having any real problem in giving up drinking – just that he is bored and lonely.

Jim quickly takes up with a young widowed mother, Peggy (Marian Nixon), a former nightclub table singer, who is also staying at the ranch. When she desperately needs money for her sickly son, he goes back into the ring, agreeing to a ”winner takes all” fight – and fighting on even when he is battered and exhausted. I’m not a fan of boxing in real life but sometimes find it strangely compelling in movies and for me this  is probably the best scene in the film – with the  meeting between Jim and Peggy afterwards where she tries to kiss him, but he doesn’t want her touching his broken nose.  I noticed that in this scene he tells her “Don’t be sloppy – I cry easy!” and wondered if this is a lighthearted reference to the powerful crying scenes in Cagney’s two previous movies, Taxi! and The Crowd Roars. It must have been a relief to fans that he didn’t put them through the emotional wringer this time.  

James Cagney and Marian Nixon

Unfortunately, at this point the movie  – and Jim’s character – both undergo an abrupt change. On arrival back in New York, he instantly forgets Peggy, even though they are engaged, and falls for a blonde “society dame” , Joan (Virginia Bruce). Most of the scenes between them are cringe-making, as she is so obviously contemptuous of him, just regarding him as a bit of rough, and he doesn’t see it – in fact he almost turns into a stalker, determined to keep their relationship going when she wants to end it. He even rushes off to a plastic surgeon and has a nose job when she objects to the look of his nose – then refuses to fight properly because he doesn’t want to damage his new face. I found it quite weird and almost surreal to see Cagney with a succession of fake noses in large chunks of this film, and the altered face  doesn’t help his acting, which relies so much on his expressive features.

Cagney in one of his fake noses

 It’s hard to believe that the same man we have just seen risking his health and maybe even his life for Peggy could now heartlessly forget all about her and fall for someone else. There’s quite a lot of class comedy/satire of the uncaring, rich society people in these scenes, as Joan and her friends seem only to be interested in seeking the next sensation and not in building up any real relationships. However, it is hard to know who is being satirised more when Cagney has to play working-class hero Kane as incredibly stupid and big-headed.  Also, he is being just as fickle as Joan is. The film twists round again to see him realise the error of his ways, fight properly and go back to Peggy – but the happy ending doesn’t carry much conviction.

I think both Nixon and Bruce give fine performances as the “good” and “bad” girls – interestingly, in this pre-code world, the “good” girl is a former waitress at a speakeasy, and the “bad” one is a society woman who won’t sleep with the hero.  I especially enjoyed the fact that Peggy (Nixon) is allowed to stand up for herself and doesn’t just wait and suffer, even though she is more forgiving than her cheating boyfriend deserves! As a pre-code movie, this does have some suggestive moments, including a flashback to the first meeting between Jim and Peggy, at the famous Texas Guinan’s speakeasy, where she dances right up close to him and seems about to strip off – I’ve read that there are few portrayals of this speakeasy in movies, so some people look this film out just for this scene.

Set during The Great Depression, Gold Diggers Of 1933 is the third adaptation of a Broadway musical by Avery Hopwood (The Bat). It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy (Mister Roberts) and written by Erwin S. Gelsey (Swing Time), James Seymour (42nd Street), David Boehm (Always) and Ben Markson (What Price Hollywood?). It stars Dick Powell (The Bad And The Beautiful), Joan Blondell (Grease), Warren William (The Wolf Man), Aline MacMahon (The Man From Laramie), Guy Kibbee (Mr. Smith Goes To Washington), Ruby Keeler (42nd Street), Ned Sparks (42nd Street) and Ginger Rogers (Top Hat).

Three out-of-work actresses are cast in a new show which will get going only once funding his provided. One of the girls’ boyfriend, a gifted musician decides to produce the show, but refuses to perform in it despite his obvious talent. When he’s forced to go on stage at the premiere following an unexpected, his identity is revealed and it turns out he’s part of powerful rich family. Concerned, his brother and the family lawyer arrive to stop him from marrying a gold digging showgirl but they mistake one of the other actresses as the girlfriend in question. The girls decide to play along and comedy ensues. Trailer and review after the jump.

Don’t be put off by Gold Diggers Of 1933’s age, as it holds up surprisingly well. There are plenty of downright hilarious moments, it moves along briskly and is simply very easy to watch. The actors are all very good, with special mention to Joan Blondell and Guy Kibbee and the musical setpieces, choreographed by the great Busby Berkeley (42nd Street) are amazing to behold to this day (especially the powerful Remember My Forgotten Man).

Really not much to say this time around. It’s a good movie and you should definitely check it out. Gold Diggers Of 1933 was huge success and Warner Bros quickly produced three sequels which didn’t follow the same characters and storyline, but two of them featured Dick Powell in different roles for some reason. The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library Of Congress in 2003, for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Verdict: Timelessly entertaining. Gold Diggers Of 1933 currently holds an 8.1/10 on IMDB and a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

More “Movies Of The Day”

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Political heavyweights decide that Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an obscure scoutmaster in a small town, would be the perfect dupe to fill a vacant U.S. Senate chair. Surely this naive bumpkin can be easily controlled by the senior senator (Claude Rains) from his state, a respectable and corrupted career politician. Director Frank Capra fills the movie with Smith’s wide-eyed wonder at the glories of Washington, all of which ring false for his cynical secretary (Jean Arthur), who doesn’t believe for a minute this rube could be for real. But he is. Capra was repeating the formula of a previous film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, but this one is even sharper; Stewart and Arthur are brilliant, and the former cowboy star Harry Carey lends a warm presence to the role of the vice president. Bright, funny, and beautifully paced, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Capra’s ode to the power of innocence–an idea so potent that present-day audiences may find themselves wishing for a new Mr. Smith in Congress. The 1939 Congress was none too thrilled about the film’s depiction of their august body, denouncing it as a caricature; but even today, Capra’s jibes about vested interests and political machines look as accurate as ever. –Robert Horton

It Happened One Night Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) rather than lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the “walls of Jericho” (a mere bedcover hung on a line down the middle of a room so opposite-sex roommates can get undressed), and Colbert’s famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra’s brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable’s character), and that inspired combination makes this film both a spirited entertainment and an uplifting experience. –Tom Keogh

You Can’t Take It With You
Frank Capra’s 1938 populist spin on the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart play about a family of happy eccentrics is a great deal of fun, though it significantly rewrites the original work and doesn’t represent Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) at his best. Jean Arthur plays a member of the blissful Vanderhof household who falls in love with a rich man’s son (James Stewart) and brings him into her nutty home. Lionel Barrymore, who played such a bad guy eight years later in Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, is the wonderful Grandpa Vanderhof, who addresses God during the dinner prayer as “sir” and speaks plainly and beautifully of why it’s good to be alive. Capra took this opportunity to rail against big business and champion the common man, but the overall tone of the film–typical for the director’s comedies–is buoyant and snappy. –Tom Keogh

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is Frank Capra’s classic screwball comedy about a village innocent who inherits $20 million, only to discover it’s more trouble than it’s worth. The screwball in question is Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), a small-town greeting-card poet and tuba player transplanted to the big city to administer his newly inherited wealth, where fast-pattering, wised-up cynics, sneering society denizens, and corrupt lawyers lord it over the ingenuous and straightforward. Deeds’s idiosyncrasies are amply magnified in the tabloids by journalist “Babe” Bennett (Jean Arthur), dating Deeds as a cover, only to discover she’s the sap when she falls irresistibly for him. But the damage has been done, when Babe’s column is used by a pack of corrupt lawyers, Cedar, Cedar, Cedar & Budington, to prove Deeds mentally unfit. The miracle of this unforgettable comedy is how it embraces dark material, calling into question some common assumptions about capitalism while maintaining an approachable atmosphere of light comedy, and deceptively so. You’ll be so pixilated by its charm, you won’t rest until you’ve doodled your way to a rhyme for “Budington.” –Jim Gay

More Stills from The Premiere Frank Capra Collection (click for larger image)

Designated the “Number One Director in Hollywood” by Time Magazine in 1938 and voted by Entertainment Weekly (April 19th issue, 1996) as one of the greatest directors of all time, Capra has received numerous industry awards and accolades over the course of his successful career including three Best Director Oscars�.

The Premiere Frank Capra Collection is a 6-disc collectible box set featuring five of Frank Capra’s best films. The digitally re-mastered set includes Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, You Can’t Take it With You, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, It Happened One Night and American Madness. The DVD box set includes a bonus disc packed with all-new interviews, archival footage, plus Frank Capra’s American Dream documentary hosted by Ron Howard and produced by Capra’s eldest son, Frank Capra, Jr. (An Eye for an Eye, Marooned). This Premiere Collection also features commentaries for each film, along with a 96- page collectible Movie Scrapbook.

The Premiere Frank Capra Collection (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington / It Happened One Night / You Can’t Take It with You / Mr. Deeds Goes to Town / American Madness / Frank Capra’s American Dream) is available at Amazon for $29.99. To Order click here
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Other Products of Interest

• Preston Sturges – The Filmmaker Collection (Sullivan’s Travels/The Lady Eve/The Palm Beach Story/Hail the Conquering Hero/The Great McGinty/Christmas in July/The Great Moment)
• The Cary Grant Box Set (Holiday / Only Angels Have Wings / The Talk of the Town / His Girl Friday / The Awful Truth)
• Ball of Fire
• Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection (Manhattan Melodrama / Evelyn Prentice / Double Wedding / I Love You Again / Love Crazy)
• Classic Comedies Collection (Bringing Up Baby / The Philadelphia Story Two-Disc Special Edition / Dinner at Eight / Libeled Lady / Stage Door / To Be or Not to Be)

58. Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

Now that’s a fucking poster. John Wayne wasting man, woman, and child(well no children exactly) with a rifle, all while Ricky Nelson looks on approvingly. Aside from the clash of the red font for the title, and the blue font for the actors, this poster is sublime. If I saw that poster today, I would think: “John Wayne killing people? Yes please.”

Anyway this film represents a number of firsts for me. It was the first John Wayne film I ever watched, the first Howard Hawks film I knowingly watched (I watched Bringing Up Baby on TCM one time without knowing who Howard Hawks was…yes I was once a very naive and sheltered boy), and I believe it was in the first batch of films I signed out of the library when I started all this list craziness. I think High Noon and The Seventh Seal were in that batch too.

I think it might also be the first classic western I ever watched, save for High Plains Drifter (which though entertaining isn’t especially classic). My brother always tried to get me to watch the Leone westerns, but I just didn’t care. It’s only with my watching Rio Bravo that I discovered how totally bitching the western genre can be. Dudes shooting each other while acting manly is something I find entertaining.

My appreciation of the western is rooted in my appreciation of the gangster film, they both make me feel gangsta. When I watch John Wayne I live vicariously through him. He talks tough, has the occasional witty line, shoots suckers left and right, and comes out on top. That’s a combination that appeals to me.

As an aside, when I was a kid, PBS used to show an Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet marathon each Christmas, and for whatever reason I would watch it. The show wasn’t especially funny, and obviously being a 1950’s family sitcom it was sappy as hell, but I still dug it. If I have to name a reason why I watched and enjoyed it, I suppose it would be that Ricky Nelson was cool (and a hunk too!). I mean he was handsome, charming, and he played rock n’ roll, he’s like James Dean without the undercurrent of rebellion and sexual frustration.

Anyway since then I have kind of admired Ricky Nelson, I used to take his CDs out of the library, and his cocaine addiction, and death in a plane crash satisfy my interests in the seedy and the macabre. My admiration for him is such that I’ve even forgiven him for this. It’s kind of a shame he became a victim of excess, because he is damn good in the film.

Exhibit A:

John Wayne and Ricky Nelson are enough to make the movie, but then add in Dean Martin as a cowardly drunk and Walter Brennan as Walter Brennan, and you have awesomeness coming out of every pore. Such gloriously fun stuff.

I should mention that I adore Walter Brennan. I mean sure his politics made John Wayne look like a commie, and sure he cackled with delight when Martin Luther King got shot (alledgedly), but dammit he is just so much fun to watch. He is one of those actors like Edward Everett Horton, Charles Ruggles or even Guy Kibbee where you see there name in the credits and you know the film will be decent at the very least, simply because of their presence. They might have a couple lines or maybe a couple of scenes, but you know they are always going to be quality.

Awesomeness of the highest quality.

On filmaffinity.com I gave the film 10/10.

Year: 1932

Director: Alfred E. Green

Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. , Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Alan Hale, George Rosener

Chick (Fairbanks) and Scraps (Kibbee) are two hobos just released from the hoosegow for vagrancy. They need money to eat and make their way to Union Depot where Chick manages to get some clean clothes and money off a drunk who leaves his luggage in the men’s room. While at the station he also sees Ruth (Joan Blondell), an out of work chorus girl who’s broke and needs $64 to get to Salt Lake City for her next job and to get away from a sexual predator. Hungry and broke she accepts Chick’s invitation to go to a hotel room next to the station where he buys her a meal. Thinking she is a prostitute he is looking for repayment with some female companionship. When he thinks she’s refusing to put Chick smacks Ruth (a 1932 review in Time magazine points out that this may have been prompted by recent screen activities of James Cagney and Clark Gable). He soon realizes that Ruth is not really a prostitute, just broke and desperate. Underneath, Chick is really a good guy and agrees to help her get to Salt Lake City.

In a series of incidents involving pickpockets, counterfeiters and just plain fate Chick finds himself in the possession of a violin case full of counterfeit money, though he does not know it is counterfeit at the time. He buys Ruth a couple of dresses and the ticket to Salt Lake City with the funny money. The store clerk where Ruth purchased her dresses realizes the money is phony and calls the police who quickly arrest Ruth and Chick. Chick tells the police how he came by the money finding a check stub in a discarded wallet. The wallet had been tossed by a pickpocket after stealing it from one of the counterfeiters. Eventually after a shooting, a chase through the train yards and more misunderstandings by the law, Chick and Ruth are both cleared and the counterfeiters caught. Ruth boards the train for Salt Lake City as Chick, broke again, waves to her goodbye.

The ending is a nice touch. In most movies the couple would have fell in love and lived happily ever after. Here, they meet and depart with no artificial happy ending. All this plays out in real time.

The film is entertaining and is helped by good performances, especially by Fairbanks, Blondell and Frank McHugh. Joan Blondell is always a pleasure to watch and is as sexy as she has ever been on screen.

Union Depot benefits from it pre-code openness and it is amazing what got past the censors, prostitution, sexual perversion, and attempted rape. Articles discussing Warner Brothers pre-code films hardly, if ever, mention Union Depot which is a shame. Director Alfred Green keeps the film moving at a nice pace and at approximately 75 minutes is a nice trip.

Oh, did I mention that Joan Blondell is in this picture?

By John Greco

I collect supporting actors, character actors. I revere them. I “cast” them. I watch feature films just to see their ten minutes of brilliance.  Part of this comes from my Dad.  

Like anyone who has even remotely participated in our family’s gene pool, he at one point got the acting bug. Unfortunately,  his screen career was limited to about 15 seconds as an extra in the 1949 film “Bad Boy,” when – sentenced along with Audie Murphy to a juvenile delinquency facility — he can be seen on camera rising up in anger and threatening the judge. (By the way, he was great!)

As I grew up, each re-run of “Bad Boy” would be an opportunity for a real family celebration. We would gather around the television, wait for the scene, watch his brief grimace, and cheer. And that is when I started watching these actors. 

I don’t know why I feel funny using the term “character actor.”  It has always  seemed  to demean the brilliance I would see in their performances, suggesting limitations rather than versatility. I know that some people use the term as high praise. I finally settled on “actor.”   

My favorite recent example – out of hundreds — is the absolutely brilliant Ned Eisenberg. In the first fifteen minutes of Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, Eisenberg – playing one of the Port  Authority police officers heading toward the towers – arrives on the scene and simply looks up.  But his reaction, so full of complexity and bewilderment and fear, and lasting no more than a brief moment, haunts the rest of the film.  His character knows that he has been instantly thrust into the worst day of his life. And we know this because of one subtle, nuanced and masterfully delivered glance.  

But I am a huge fan of these masters of their craft and wanted to share some absolutely random names. They could just as easily be followed by hundreds of others. Some occasionally made their way into starring roles, but their greatest moments were often glances, smirks, grimaces, or blank stares into the distance.

Thelma Ritter, Edward Arnold, Dabbs Greer, Robert Loggia, Ruby Dee, Andrew Robinson, Ward Bond, Robert Walker, Morris Ankrum, Charley Grapewin, Alfre Woodard, Ned Eisenberg, Paul Meurisse, Jane Withers, John Doman, Amanda Randolph, Margaret Dumont, Miriam Colon, Guy Kibbee, Barnard Hughes, Harry Dean Stanton, William Daniels, Bruno Kirby, H.B. Warner.       

Who would you include? Full-blown, leading-role movie stars are ineligible.