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Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940)
Two Top Hollywood Dancers, Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell's Only Movie Together
Two of Hollywood's top dancers were intimidated by one another when they shared the screen together for the only time in February 1940 "Broadway Melody of 1940." Fred Astaire, acknowledged as one of the greatest dancers on film, had enjoyed partnering with several actresses, most notably Ginger Rogers. Meanwhile, Eleanor Powell had proven herself in six previous films as one of the best female tap dancers, which somewhat intimidated Fred, who wasn't used to teaming up with someone as talented as her.
Astaire and Powell were scheduled to dance together in four Cole Porter songs for "Broadway Melody of 1940." Both were initially extremely respectful, addressing each other as "Mr. Astaire" and "Miss Powell." The two bordered on stiff formality until Eleanor bucked up and said, "Look, we can't go on like this. I'm Ellie; you're Fred. We're just two hoofers." This simple exclamation melted the ice between the two. After giggling at one another they thoroughly loosened up, so much so that during their lengthy rehearsals they exhausted the piano player accompanying them.
"Broadway Melody of 1940" was the final in a long line of 'Broadway Melodies' beginning in 1929, which was the winner of the second annual Academy Awards Best Picture. The 1936 and 1938 versions had little to do with the original, but the 1940 edition contained the original song 'Broadway Melody' playing in the background.
Norman Taurog directed what film reviewer Jessica Pickens describes as "a must-see and one of the best movie musicals ever released. The dancing will blow you away." Both Eleanor and Fred danced separately in the movie's first half. Powell plays a Broadway star while Astaire's Johnny Brett and his friend King Shaw (George Murphy) labor in dance halls for peanuts. When talent agent Bob Casey (Frank Morgan) spots Johnny lighting up the dance floor, he yearns to team him up with Clare Bennett (Powell) for her upcoming stage extravaganza. Trouble is, Johnny thinks Casey is a debt collector, and switches names with his pal King. Casey mistakenly hires King as Clare's new stage partner. The two continue throughout the duration of the musical until the real Johnny emerges.
"Broadway Melody of 1940's" is famous for its finale, 'Begin the Beguine,' a collaborative dance between Powell and Astaire. The two-part routine opens with a masked Johnny pretending to be King performing flamenco-style. After an intermission, the mask comes off, revealing what film critic Glenn Erickson describes as "their fantastic exhibition of hoofing and tapping comes with an extra helping of grace and beauty. Musical fans of early 1940 must have thought they had died and gone to heaven." Reviewer Jessica Pickens adds the pair's last routine "isn't just one of the best numbers in the film, it's one of my favorite musical numbers of all time." Powell and Astaire seemingly dance on a mirror; in reality MGM spent $120,000 to construct the set by pouring liquid glass on the floor, hardened to perfection while edged with mirrored walls with acres of curtain fabric four stories high.
Despite the breathtaking finale routine, Powell said her all-time favorite number in "Broadway Melody of 1940," as well as in her entire film career was Walter Ruick's 'Jukebox Dance' with her and Astaire. Unfortunately for Powell, the movie proved to be the pinnacle of her Hollywood career. After the filming wrapped, she underwent a gall stone operation. When she returned, Eleanor was handed roles in minor pictures, not coming close to the big-budgeted Astaire films. Fred remembered the fantastic experience in their only movie together. He later paid her the ultimate compliment: "She 'put 'em down' like a man, no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie," Astaire said. "She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself."
The American Film Institute nominated the tune 'Begin the Beguine' for the Best Songs in Movies as well the film as the Greatest Movie Musical.
My Little Chickadee (1940)
West and Fields Make a Dream Comedy Team in This Western Classic
Even though comedian W. C. Fields was a well known dipsomaniac, he never let his drinking get in the way of a good performance in front of the movie camera. Mae West, 46, who hadn't made a film in over two years, was asked to co-star with Fields in February 1940 "My Little Chickadee." Frowning upon drinking and drinkers, West was hesitant to accept the assignment. She insisted Universal Pictures write a clause in her contract that if Fields was drunk on the set, she could step away until he sobered up. The studio agreed.
That began what both acknowledge was an acrimonious production between the two. Fields had previously described West as "a plumber's idea of Cleopatra." They never talked to one other except when on camera together. Edward Cline, who had directed Fields in a couple of earlier movies including his 1939 "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man," described the atmosphere on the set of "My Little Chickadee" as " I'm not directing them, I'm refereeing." Fields was known to take a nip or two between takes as well as several drinks during lunch. One day, returning to his dressing room to get a noontime refreshment, he saw his new whiskey bottle opened and half empty. He stormed out to the set and yelled to the film crew, "Who took the cork out of my lunch?" In a later interview Mae claimed she did close down the filming because of W. C.'s tipsiness. But actor Dick Foran defended Fields, saying "the fellow drank all the time, but I never saw him drunk."
The script process was also an ordeal. West and Fields were normally writers of their own dialogue and screen treatments. For "My Little Chickadee," both tried to dominate the content within the screenplay. Producer Lester Cowan compromised by giving West the ability to write the framework of the script, with each drawing up their own scenarios and dialogue. Humphrey Bogart remembered reading the script when he was offered the part of the Masked Bandit/Jeff Badger, ultimately played by Joseph Calieia. The actor noticed while reading his character's lines a note would be inserted, "'The following ten pages to be supplied by W. C. Fields.,'" Bogie said. "Then I would read more of the lines followed with another note, 'The following ten pages to be supplied by Mae West.'" Fields drove West nuts when they shared the same scenes together. He loved to ad-lib while she was always carefully prepared, insisting on saying every word as it was written in the script.
Universal Pictures executives wanted to duplicate the great box office results of James Stewart and Marlene's Dietrich's wildly successful light-hearted Western, 1939's "Destry Rides Again." They felt with the two top comedians acting in a similar vein, "My Little Chickadee" would be a surefire hit (In fact, Universal used the same saloon set seen in its Jimmy Stewart movie.). Their hunch was correct. The comedy proved to be Fields' biggest financial bonanza in his movie profession. Film reviewer Patrick Nash wrote, "Mae West and W. C. Fields were a comedy dream team. I can't think of another movie that starred two such completely unique powerhouse comics."
West plays Flowers Belle Lee, a singer from Chicago who is traveling out west to visit relatives when her stagecoach is held up by a masked bandit. He kidnaps Flowers, and later returns her to the nearest town. She describes her ordeal with a smile. "I was in a tight spot but I managed to wiggle out of it." She boards a train where, after personally taking charge of fending off an Indian raid, sees card shark Cuthbert J. Twillie (Fields) with a bag of money from his winnings. She arranges a fake wedding to obtain the cash, which leads to a hilarious honeymoon and very unusual sleeping arrangements-including one with a goat. Margaret Hamilton of "The Wizard of Oz" plays a busy-body who snitches on Flowers' nightly rendezvous with the Masked Bandit.
Mae West hoped "My Little Chickadee's" success would rejuvenate her career just as Dietrich's enjoyed with "Destry Rides Again." Unfortunately for the former burlesque entertainer, her next movie, 1943's 'The Heat's On,' which she had no script input, was a flop. She turned to lucrative acts on the stage and in nightclubs, avoiding Hollywood for the next 27 years until her return in 1970's 'Myra Breckinridge,' when she was in her mid-80s. "My Chickadee" would always be remembered for Field's closing line "Why don't you come up and see me sometime," a quote West made famous in her 1933 "She Done Him Wrong."
'Northwest Passage' (Book I -- Rogers' Rangers) (1940)
One of Era's Most Stunning Adventure War Films
It's rare a movie's title doesn't have anything to do with the plot. One prime example is February 1940's "Northwest Passage," a French and Indian War adventure picture focusing on the Rogers' Rangers and their 1759 raid on a Canadian Indian village. Even though there is a couple brief mentions of seeking the water passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans through North America, the movie never delves into the actual journey to find the unbroken waterway.
Film reviewer Glenn Erickson notes, "We do get a bit of conversation about a future goal of finding a Northwest Passage to the Pacific, but in the context of the story that comes as pie-in-the-sky talk."
MGM originally was planning to tackle Kenneth Roberts' best selling 1936 two-part novel of the same name into separate movies, with the first titled "Northwest Passage, Book One: Roger's Rangers." Roberts' opening section dealt with Roger's soldiers consisting of New Englanders conducting a raid on the village of the hostile Abenaki tribe in Quebec, Canada. The company's ordeal of evading French scouts by tramping through miles of swampland to reach the village named St. Frances was stirring enough. But after the village's destruction, the journey back to New Hampshire was horrific in the rangers' struggle to stave off starvation, where some resorted to cannibalism. All the while the bedraggled rangers were chased by French soldiers and their allied Indians looking for revenge, providing a story of human endurance in its extreme.
Film reviewer Brian Koller questions the motivation of the men under Major Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy) to volunteer for this assignment. "Why would anyone join Tracy's outfit? You march, starve, and kill, and for this you get ... nothing." Today's critics harp on the slaughter Roger's Rangers commited inside the Indian village. "One of the more unpleasant aspects of the MGM film is the sheer glee with which they burn down the village, massacre all the men of fighting age, steal all the food they have left and cheerfully joke that anyone else can feast on roast Indian," writes film reviewer Jeff Arnold, describing a scene where a mentally unstable Sergeant McNott (Donald MacBride) feeds on an Indian's severed head to fight off his hunger. But critic Patrick Nash sees the village scene, directed by King Vidor, differently. "It clearly cost a pretty penny to shoot this scene as it rivals the burning of Atlanta for sheer scope," praises Nash, comparing it to 1939's "Gone With The Wind's" spectacular Atlanta footage. "It is easily one of the most impressive action sequences made during the classic studio era."
Another movie highlight is when Rogers orders his men to create a human chain across a raging river to get the remainder of the rangers to the other side. Without using any paid stunt men, the actors themselves had to endure the rapids in the cold Idaho water where most of the movie was filmed. Tracy said it was one of his most difficult shoots he had to endure, surpassing even his harrowing drowning scene in 1937's "Captains Courageous."
"Northwest Passage" was MGM's most expensive production since its 1925's "Ben Hur." The motion picture was the sixth highest grossing picture in 1940. But because of the tremendous expense bringing the film to the screen, the movie lost money for the studio. Director Vidor was scheduled to direct the second part of Roberts' book, but the unprofitable results likely put a halt to MGM's plans. Television revisited 'Northwest Passage' in the 1958-1959 series with Keith Larsen and Buddy Ebsen. The Technicolor film was nominated for Best Cinematography (Color).
Puss Gets the Boot (1940)
Hanna-Barbera's First Cartoon
The animation studio owned by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created such classic television series as "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons" and "Scooby-Doo." Their first Hanna-Barbera cartoon, under the auspices of the MGM Cartoon Department, was February 1940's "Puss Gets His Boot." The cat's name was Jasper, but the mouse was anonymous. The two antagonists would soon receive their more famous permanent names Tom and Jerry, becoming one of animated films most popular characters. Their film debut was nominated by the Academy Awards for Best Short Subject Cartoon.
"Puss Gets His Boots" began a sixty year partnership between Hanna and Barbera. Hanna, a gag writer, was responsible for their cartoons' music and the timing of their jokes. He also oversaw the animators and assigned them for each segment drawn. Barbera was the creative force behind the stories' ideas and constructed the overall plots while providing the characters' appearances and the templates of the backgrounds. Together the two were personally involved in the production of their studio's shorts and feature films as well as the television programs well into the late 1990s.
As a young man Hanna had a penchant for drawing, even while working at a car wash. His talents secured a job with a subsidiary of Leon Schlesinger's 'Looney Tunes,' where he became head of inking and painting. He joined MGM in 1937 when the studio formed its new cartoon department. After his failure with 'Captain and the Kids' series, he found himself demoted to a story man, sitting at a desk opposite of Joseph Barbera. The Little Italy, Manhattan, New York City native Barbera displayed a knack for drawing beginning in the first grade. Upon selling his work to several magazines, he was hired by Fleischer Studios as an inker. After a stint with Terrytoons for owner Paul Terry, Barbera took a job with MGM, where he met Hanna sitting at a desk opposite him. Both worked alongside animator innovator Ted Avery.
MGM wanted to expand its roster of cartoon characters, motivating Hanna and Barbera to collaborate on two "equal characters who were always in conflict with each other." At first they thought of a dog and a fox before they settled on the intense rivalry between a cat and a mouse. They received the green light from MGM's short film department boss Fred Quimby. "Puss Gets The Boot" uses a series of Barbera gags. The mouse, initially named Jinx by the artists but is nameless in the cartoon, gets the domesticated house cat Jasper in trouble from its owner. Jasper breaks many of the house's delicate valuable objects in pursuit of the mouse. The maid in the house threatens to kick Jasper out if he breaks another thing. The mouse gains the upper hand when he threatens to drop more items near the cat.
Even though "Puss Gets The Boot" impressed viewers when it played in a few selected theaters, Hanna and Barbera's supervisor Quimby only yawned, and instructed them to work on other projects. Texas businesswoman Bessa Short wrote to MGM inquiring when she could expect to see another Puss cartoon. That letter spurred studio management to get the cat and mouse characters into their own series. An in-house MGM contest was held to name the feline and the rodent. Animator John Carr was the winner of a $50 cash prize with his entry naming Tom (the cat) and Jerry (the mouse) after a popular Christmas cocktail. The drink was named after two characters from an 1821 book 'Life in London.'
Hanna and Barbera worked on Tom and Jerry cartoons for the next 17 years, producing 114 shorts. The cat and mouse won seven Academy Award Oscars, more than any other cartoon character in the history of animation, and was nominated 13 times. The pair also appeared in several MGM films including the 1945 musical "Anchors Aweigh" and Esther Williams' 1953 "Dangerous When Wet." To think it all began with Jasper the cat and an unnamed mouse who got the upper hand in "Puss Gets The Boot."
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)
Edward G. Robinson's Favorite Role in His Long, Storied Career
One of medical science's greatest researchers in the history of modern pharmaceutical therapeutics was Germany's Dr. Paul Ehrlich. His early 1900's discoveries in medicine provided the foundation of treatment widely used today to save millions from cancer and other terminal diseases. A pet project of actor Edward G. Robinson's was bringing forth a biography on this German genius in February 1940's "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet." Upon seeing the film, the actor claimed it was the best role in his long and storied career.
Nazi Germany had erased all mention of the jewish Dr. Ehrlich, removing his name from pubic buildings and street signs that had recognized his work. Adolf Hitler claimed in 1938 that "a scientific discovery by a Jew is worthless." Yet for the jewish Robinson, he wanted to highlight one of history's greatest medical scientists, his discoveries and his lasting influence in the field. His discoveries included a wide range of cures, including treating diphtheria, syphilis and antibiotic chemotherapy to treat diseases such as cancer. Dr. Ehrlich did this in the face of incredible resistance from the country's entrenched medical community who didn't believe in his work.
"It was, I think, one of the most distinguished performances I've ever given," said Robinson years later. "I say that not only because the critics said it, and my mail and the box office said it, but most of all because that inner voice, that inner self, that captious critic Emanuel Goldenberg (Robinson's birth name) said it." Robinson ages 35 years in the film, beginning when Dr. Ehrlich was a practicing physician at a German hospital interested in color staining slides showing an affinity in attracting and targeting cells and microorganisms. His breakthrough in isolating a sample of tuberculosis from other cells when looking through a microscope proved revolutionary, even though the doctor was fired from his hospital job because of the time he took doing his research during off-hours.
Warner Brothers studio battled on two fronts to get "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" produced. One was Dr. Ehrlich's background. Studio boss Jack Warner wrote to his scriptwriters, "It would be a mistake to make a political propaganda picture out of a biography which could stand on its own feet." Despite the antisemitism the doctor faced by his colleagues, the movie gives only subtle hints of their biases towards Dr. Ehrlich. The other fight was the studio's tussle with the Hays Office censors. "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" touches upon the doctor's discovery of the Salvarsan 606 drug, a cure for syphilis, a disease the censors normally struck any mention of in films. Producer Hal B. Wallis wrote to the Hays Office stating "to make a dramatic picture of the life of Dr. Ehrlich and not include this discovery, the anti-syphilis drug Salvarsan among his great achievements would be unfair to the record." The censors finally relented, but cautioned the studio couldn't use the term in its advertisements. Scriptwriter John Huston, whose reputation was rising with each screenplay he submitted, was brought in to shore up the script. Wallis said of Huston, who later wrote and directed 1941's "The Maltese Falcon," "With his gift for writing fluid, idiomatic dialogue, he did a fine job of making the story smooth and believable and all the characters very much alive." The screenplay was nominated for the Academy Awards.
"Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet" was William Dieterle fifth biography he directed. Known for his eccentricities in referring to astrological charts to determine when the best time was to begin filming while wearing white gloves on the set, Dieterle tackled his second movie about a scientist peering through a microscope, his first the Oscar 1936 Best Picture nominee "The Story of Louis Pasteur." Robinson described his routine making the movie: "During the filming I kept to myself, studied the script, practiced gestures before the mirror, read about his life and times, studied pictures of the man, tried to put myself in his mental state, tried to be him." The American Film Institute nominated the Robinson film as one of the most Cheerful Movies Ever Made.
Son of Ingagi (1940)
Rare Horror Film from Jim Crow Era Geared Towards African-Americans
Before the mid-1950s, movies geared towards African-American audiences, which for the most part were shown in segregated theaters, avoided horror-themed flicks. That was until Sack Amusement Enterprises produced the first, and some film historians say the only black horror film of that era in February 1940's "Son of Ingagi." The low-budget film, written and starring Spencer Williams, who went on to play Andy on television's 'The Amos 'n Andy Show,' has no relation to the classic 1931 exploitation film "Ingagi." The 1940 movie does contain a 'missing link' monster transported from Africa who is kept in the basement of a doctor's home.
Although "Son of Ingagi's" production values were a far cry from the slick films the major Hollywood studios created during the Golden era, the picture does reflect the comfort level of African-Americans' integration within the fabric of American society, unlike most roles blacks found themselves in the A-listed movies. Film critic Mark Welsh notes, "it's really nice to see black people on the screen at this time in history as normal, ordinary men and women, rather than as mugging, idiotic stereotypes used for comic effect." In "Son of Ingagi", newlyweds Eleanor (Daisy Bufford ) and Robert Lindsay (Alfred Grant) are approached by Dr. Jackson (Laura Bowman), who says she knew Eleanor's father intimately and plans to leave her personal inheritance with the couple when she dies. Dr. Jackson has transported a 'missing link' animal similar to a gorilla caged in her house to study. Unfortunately, the monster gets loose, murdering the doctor. The Lindsays inherit her house as promised and move in, not realizing the monster is still lurking around the premises.
"Son of Ingagi" was one of many "race films," a genre popular between 1915 and the early 1950s. These movies, produced outside the Hollywood system, consisted primarily of African-American actors and shown mostly in theaters for black audiences. More than 500 movies were produced during that span, yet only 100 have survived. Alfred Sack, producer for "Son of Ingagi," was a white owner of a small studio that was part of 150 minor film production studios focused on all-black cast pictures for African-American audiences. In the segregated South these films were shown in exclusive black filmgoers' theaters. In the more integrated North, the 'race films' rarely attracted white audiences, and were shown either at matinee times during the day or late at night in regular movie theaters.
Film historian Todd Stadtman points out, "As the products of a segregated America, the Race Films ironically present us with a vision of America that can't be seen anywhere in the commercial cinema of the time. This is an America where blacks are doctors. Lawyers, police detectives, scientists. There is not a white face in sight, and so the black actors are free from having to react to the oh-so-important doings of Caucasians and can instead relate to each other as equals."
Three Sappy People (1939)
Lorna Gray Steals the Show As Bored Daughter who Wants to Be Entertained
In, December 1939's "Three Sappy People," their 43rd short. Lorna Gray stars as Sherry, the spirited rich wife of millionaire J. Rumsford Rumford (Don Beddoe). She's bored to tears during her birthday party and wants to venture out to more exciting adventures. Meanwhile, her husband calls psychiatrist Drs. Z. Ziller, X. Zeller and Y. Zoller, only to get telephone repairmen Moe, Larry and Curly working on the doctors' switchboard. Hearing about the amount of money the doctors would make by curing Sherry's ennui, the three pose as the psychiatrists and arrive at the wife's party. They soon turn the formal dinner party into a riotous affair, breaking out into an outrageous pastry altercation, much to the delight of Sherry.
During the filming Gray, 22, was injured by a thrown pastry which happened to lodge in her throat. Seen in the final edit, Lorna was taken by complete surprise when the cream puff entered her gullet. Director Jules White immediately stopped filming and sought the studio medical team. The actress in subsequent interviews brushed off the incident, claiming the story was exaggerated by White, saying she was never in any medical danger. Gray was one of the longest living actresses who played alongside Curly when he was with the Stooges, dying just a couple of months from turning 100. Born Virginia Pound, Gray took a second stage name, Adrian Booth, in 1945 after leaving Columbia Pictures. Lorna was strictly a B-film actress, starring in a number of Westerns for Monogram and Republic Pictures. She was the only actress at Republic beside Dale Evans to receive top-star billing for her movies at the studio. After retiring from Hollywood in 1951, Lorna attended a number of film festivals and Stooges' conventions well into her nineties. She received the prestigious 'Golden Boot Award' in 1998 for her many appearances in Westerns.
You Nazty Spy! (1940)
Hollywood's First Satire on Hitler and Nazi Germany
Even though America's allies were fighting against Adolf Hitler and his army of Nazi minions before Pearl Harbor, the movie production code still forbade Hollywood from producing motion pictures criticizing or making fun of the Fuhrer. The Three Stooges were able to slip through January 1940's "You Natzy Spy," a satire on the German leader. The censors gave it some latitude since they felt short movies were less impactful and visible than feature films. The movie was the first anti-Nazi Hollywood film to poke fun at Hitler. The short predated by several months Charlie Chaplin's parody feature film of a Hitler lookalike in 1940's "The Great Dictator."
"You Natzy Spy," observed film critic Martin Chalakoski, "is now considered as one of the most influential movie pieces ever made, and one that raised people's awareness when it was needed the most, while at the same time inspiring many others to speak freely on the silver screen and do the same."
The censors working in the Hays Office were under pressure from influential American isolationists, including United States senators, who demanded they ban any Hollywood movie with an anti-Nazi slant that would inspire the public to press the United States into the European war. "You Natzy Spy," whose title was a variation of an Alice Faye song, 'Oh You Nasty Man,' shows the Three Stooges as wallpaper hangers working in the adjourning room conscripted by three munitions manufacturers to overthrow Moronika's king and to move the nation into war. The Stooges, who are eager to assume the leadership mantle, transition into Moe as Hitler, Curly as Hermann Goring and Larry as Joseph Goebbels, all under the guise of Hailstone, Gallstone and Pebble. Just before filming, Larry had injured his foot and walked with a noticeable limb. His portrayal of the Propaganda Minister was fortuitous since Goebbels always was seen hobbling because of a club foot.
Moronika is infiltrated by a spy, Mattie Herring (Lorna Gray), who uses a billiard 'Eight-Ball' to predict the future for the three rulers. The fortune-telling ball seen in the film quite possibly had inspired toy manufacturers to produce the hot-selling "The Magic Eight Ball" ten years after the release of "You Natzy Spy." Moe and Larry said this satire on Nazi Germany was their favorite Stooges' film. The short was so successful the three comedians made a follow-up Nazi spoof in 1941's "I'll Never Heil Again."
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
John Ford's Classic On John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize Bestseller
Writers are often very leery about what Hollywood does to their work when they're adapted to the big screen. That was the case of John Steinbeck when he sold his 1939 Pulitzer Price novel to 20th Century Fox for the January 1940 film "The Grapes of Wrath." Steinbeck agreed to the hefty $70,000 purchase price of his book to the movie rights on the condition "the producer agrees that any motion picture based on the said literary property shall fairly and reasonably retain the main action and social intent of the said literary property."
Steinbeck's novel on Oklahoma farmers who experienced tough times during the Depression in the early 1930s while their land was ravaged by the Great Dust Bowl was controversial in blaming greedy capitalists for removing large numbers of tenant farmers from their long-held properties. The author met with studio head Darryl F. Zanuck and scriptwriter Nunnally Johnson for the first time by relating how he heard the studio was planning to eliminate all the social commentary in his book and producing a simple tale of impoverished farmers migrating from the Midwest to California to pick fruits and vegetables. Zanuck, an ex-screenwriter himself, promised Steinbeck he was giving special attention to insure the script faithfully followed his book, no matter what the consequences were.
Once word got out 20th Century Fox was producing the Steinbeck book into film, two powerful California agriculture groups organized a boycott telling rural newspapers not to run ads for the movie. Besides changing the ending and reversing the camps of the Joad's, scriptwriter Johnson was faithful to the best seller. Johnson defended the more sanitized, yet optimistic conclusion to the film "The Grapes of Wrath" than the book's. The screenwriter said, "There had to be some ray of hope, something that would keep the people who saw it from going out and getting so drunk in utter despondency that they couldn't tell other people that it was a good picture to see." Steinbeck agreed on the necessity for a more hopeful ending after seeing the film's pre-released version. He praised the studio's work, saying it's "a hard, straight picture in which the actors are submerged so completely that it looks and feels like a documentary film, and certainly it has a hard, truthful ring."
The Academy Awards nominated "The Grapes of Wrath" in seven categories, winning two Oscars. Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune wrote at the time of its release the movie "is an honest, eloquent, and challenging screen masterpiece. Great artistry has gone into its making and greater courage, for this screen tribute to the dispossessed not only has dramatized the large theme of Mr. Steinbeck's novel in enduring visual terms-it has demonstrated beyond any question that the cinema can take the raw stuff of contemporary living and mold it to a provocative photoplay pattern."
One of the more interesting choices in Hollywood history was Zanuck's selection of John Ford to direct the socially-conscious tale. Ford, whose political leanings were right of center, was approached to direct "Grapes of Wrath" while in the middle of filming 1939's "Drums Along the Mohawk." Ford agreed, later stating, "I was sympathetic to people like the Joads, and contributed a lot of money to them, but I was not interested in 'Grapes' as a social study." The short one-month break between the director's productions required the studio's front-line film crew, including cinematographer Gregg Toland and art directors Richard Day and Mark-Lee Kirk, to do all the pre-production mapping, including casting. Their detailed work gives "The Grapes of Wrath" the look of the film that exists on the screen.
Jane Darwell, 61, was an interesting choice to play the Joad's matriarch. The veteran film actress who first appeared in on the screen in 1913, was known for her five appearances in Shirley Temple movies. Her plump frame went against the iconic photos taken by photographer Horace Bristol of thin, practically starving women existing in the barren fields of the lower Midwest. Henry Fonda, as the lead character in the Joad household, lobbied for Darwell to play his mother. Darwell won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, her only time nominated for the Academy Awards. Film historian Tim Dicks noted, "Jane Darwell is marvelous as the strong center and backbone of the migratory family that must leave its ancestral land."
Ford's legendary temperament on his actors flared up during "The Grapes of Wrath's" filming. In one instance the director was particularly hard on actress Dorris Bowdon as Rose Joad. Darwell took Bowdon aside before one planned scene and told her she was nervous "being such a fat old lady and I have to dance and say lines at the same time." Standing on the sidelines watching Darwell dance, Bowdon broke into applause after Ford yelled "Cut!" so happy her friend was able to get through the difficult scene. The director turned to Bowdon, yelling several expletives, sending the shocked actress running off the set in tears. Ford the next day approached her by brushing off the incident with some bawdy humor, and he eased up on her for the remainder of the shoot. "I was glad I never had to work with him again," Bowdon rejoiced. But like many actors who got the severe Ford treatment, Bowdon appreciated his coaching through some very difficult scenes, praising, "He was a superb director. I never saw another director work in a way that was as skilled." Bowdon later married scriptwriter Nunnally Johnson soon after filming wrapped, a marriage that lasted until he died in 1977.
John Carradine, a regular Ford actor, played the former preacher-turned-activist Jim Casy. Despite the eleven movies over 28 years the two made together, Ford always aimed to deflate the huge ego he felt Carradine possessed. But Carradine's skin was thick and always deflected the director's barbs. Ford's philosophy was some actors needed to be chewed out to get the performance he required for certain scenes. During one tirade Ford dished out in front of those on the set was directed at Frank Darien, as Uncle Joe. The director didn't let up on him until the actor physically was seen wilting from all the abuse. It was exactly the look Ford wanted from a dejected Darien during the stew eating scene with starving children. Ford's psychological games paid off by winning his second Best Director Oscar, the first since his 1935 "The Informer."
In poll after poll until 1958 "The Grapes of Wrath" was consistently ranked the number one film made from 1940 until Orson Welles' 1941 "Citizen Kane" finally gained recognition, superseding it. Film reviewer Gabe Guarin wrote, "Truly deserving of its reputation as one of the greatest films of all time, this movie is a poetic and haunting slice of Americana that hasn't been matched since it was first released, and might just be the best work of everyone involved." Beside the two Oscars, the movie was nominated by the Academy for Best Picture, Henry Fonda for Best Actor, Johnson for Best Screenplay, Robert Simpson for Best Film Editing, and Edmund Hansen for Best Sound Recording. The American Film Institute ranks the picture as the 21st Best Movie of All Time, the seventh Most Cheerful Film, Tom Joad (Fonda) as the 12th Best Hero in Movies. AFI also nominated it for the Best Movie Quote, Tom's closing statement to his mother before leaving the family fold, "Wherever there's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there." It's one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'
The Green Hornet (1940)
The Screen Version of the Popular Radio Program on the Newsman Turned Masked Hero
The war in Europe and Asia at the turn of the New Year in 1940 forced Hollywood studios to make changes in a few of their scripts. In the new serial, January 1940's "The Green Hornet: The Tunnel of Terror," the hero's assistant, Kato, was originally from Japan, which had been engaged in a savage invasion of China in the late 1930s. The film's producers decided to change the Japanese roots of Kato's radio origin to Korean.
Kato's importance to his employer, newspaper publisher Britt Reid, who was the Green Hornet in disguise, was far more than simply as his valet. Kato was responsible for several complex inventions, including a gas gun and a super-fast bullet-proof car, "the Black Beauty." Kato's innovations were heavily relied upon in Reid's quest to stamp out a powerful criminal organization in the city. In the original 1936 radio series, "Green Hornet," Kato meets Reid for the first time in his Japanese homeland while the newspaper owner was traveling around the Far East. By 1939, when the Japanese presence in China was brutally apparent, the radio show dropped any mention of Kato's background. The 13-chapter film series changed Kato's lineage, describing him as a Korean. A year later, he was discussed in passing as a Filipino. Kato's character was played by Chinese-born American actor Keye Luke, who throughout the series saves Reid's life on several occasions.
"Green Hornet" was different from other serials of the era, with an emphasis on realistic crimes such as car theft, insurance fraud, protection rackets, and graft in construction projects. These more common racketeering schemes set "Green Hornet" apart from the espionage, exotic adventure and science-fiction themes seen in other serials at the time. "Green Hornet" has Reid (Gordon Jones) inheriting his father's newspaper, assuming a publisher and editor role. Reid departs from his father's passion of exposing the truth through print. The paper's abrupt change drew harsh criticism from city leaders who wanted the publication to continue Reid's late father's crusade against corruption by way of scathing editorials. Britt, however, has a different tactic: using his reporters' inside information to physically confront the criminals while hiding behind a mask. Reid and Kato leave a trail of blood so that law enforcement can investigate the bad guys at the scene of the crime, even though police initially suspect the Hornet as the perpetrator.
If the similarities between the "Green Hornet" and the 'Lone Ranger' seem apparent, it's because the writer of the 1933 radio ranger series, Fran Striker, patterned the urban crime-fighter after the Western hero. The Lone Ranger is partnered with Tonto (Kato with Reid), his horse Silver substitutes for The Black Beauty car, his six-shooter revolver for the gas gun, and the William Tell Overture (Gioachino Rossini-composer) theme song for the Hornet's The Flight of the Bumblebee (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsako-composer). Each of the "Green Hornet's" episodes contained stories on different crimes the unnamed gang planned and carried out, only to be thwarted by the masked duo. Written by George H. Plympton and Basil Dickey and directed by Ford Beebe, the film serial was so successful Universal Pictures followed it up with a 15-chapter series, 'The Green Hornet Strikes Again!' Michel Gondry directed an updated feature film of the Green Hornet in 2011, which was preceded by the 1966/1967 short-lived TV series with Bruce Lee as Kato. Lee expanded Kato's martial arts skills, helping launch the actor's movie career in Hong Kong and the United States.
His Girl Friday (1940)
Quickest Paced Screwball Comedy in Cinematic History
Overlapping dialogue in film, where characters talk over each other, quickens the pace in a movie, sometimes at a frenetic clip. Acknowledged as one of most effective films using this verbiage technique is January 1940's "His Girl Friday," with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.
Director Howard Hawks was aware most people don't wait until others stop talking before they begin speaking, like they do in movies. "I had noticed that when people talk, they talk over one another, especially people who talk fast or who are arguing or describing something," Hawks noted. "So we wrote the dialogue in a way that made the beginnings and ends of sentences unnecessary; they were there for overlapping." He got the idea from Frank Capra's 1932 "American Madness," where its characters during the middle of frantic scenes, such as the run on a bank, were talking over one another. With the helter-skelter of "His Girl Friday's" setting of a newsroom inside a prison facility where reporters cover a convicted killer's pending execution, the scenes were perfectly designed for over-lapping dialogue.
A remake of 1931's film "The Front Page," "His Girl Friday" is regarded as one of Hollywood's most admired screwball comedies. The plot revolves around newspaper editor Walter Burns' (Grant) attempt to retain his best reporter (and ex-wife) Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) to write one last story, this on condemned Earl Williams (John Qualen) before he gets zapped in the electric chair. Hildy plans to leave for Albany with her fiancé, insurance salesman Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy), and has no intention of sticking around, that is until the shrewd Walter pulls a zinger. The movie becomes a three-ring circus when Earl escapes from his cell and ends up in the clutches of Walter and Hildy before a crooked city mayor and his sheriff get ensnared in some political shenanigans. Included in the mix is Bruce's mother with a bevy of reporters hovering around serving as a commentary on the fourth estate.
Film reviewer Glenn Erickson advises this movie "is not a picture to see if one has a slight headache." Charles Lederer's script ran a lengthy 191 pages for the 90 minute film, with its characters speaking 240 words a minute. In a normal film, actors say on average 90 words every sixty seconds. Film reviewer Matt Brunson wrote, "The fast-paced banter sprays the screen like machine gun fire." So quick was the dialogue between the actors, the audio engineer operating the sound mixer was on his toes switching between multiple microphones installed around the set. Some scenes requiried as many as 35 off/on switches to be performed (this was before multi-track recording). The production discarded the boom mic since the actors were constantly moving while talking.
Hawks was originally planning to have two male leads in "His Girl Friday" just like the earlier "The Front Page." When his secretary recited the lines of reporter Johnson during the pre-production readings, Hawks liked the way a female would fit into the movie while adding a romantic layer. Screenwriter Lederer, with the help of Ben Hecht, rewrote the script with Hildy's inclusion. Meanwhile, Hawks set about casting for the role. Carole Lombard was his first choice, but the freelance actress' salary demands were too high for Columbia Pictures. Katherine Hepburn (whom Hawks worked with in 1938's "Bringing Up Baby"), Claudette Colbert, Margaret Sullavan, Ginger Rogers (who said she would have taken the part if she had known Grant was her opposite) and Irene Dunne, (who felt the part was too small) all rejected the role of Hildy. Rosalind Russell was dismissive on the part since so many had refused it, showing up for the screen test with wet hair after swimming. Because of Russell's silver-tongued delivery in 1939's "The Women," Hawks offered her to play Hildy.
The director didn't say anything to Russell on the first few days of filming. Frustrated by being ignored, she asked Grant what she was doing wrong. He replied, "If he didn't like it, he'd tell you." Later, Russell went up to Hawks and asked about his opinion on her acting. "You just keep pushing him around with what you're doing," he said. Her confidence rose after that. The director allowed his actors to ad-lib. Russell felt Grant's character was getting all the great lines. Her brother-in-law knew an advertising writer who could compose clever quotes for her to say. Everyone on the set thought Russell was the wittiest actress in Hollywood until Grant, suspecting she had some help, greeted her every morning with "What have you got today?"
Grant also snuck in some lines Hawks allowed in the final cut, including when his Walter said the actor's real name: "the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat." He ad libbed a stunner in his description of Bruce Baldwin: "There's a guy in a taxi down at the court building looks just like that movie star, what's his name? Ralph Bellamy!" And Grant brought up a previous role as a turtle in 1933's "Alice in Wonderland" by telling Earl Williams hiding inside the desk, "Get back in there, you Mock Turtle."
"His Girl Friday" drew almost universal praise. Wrote Richard Schickel, the movie was "A tour de force for both Grant and Hawks. It represents a culmination for screwball comedy. With it the form has been pushed to its outer limits." Film reviewer Geoff Andrew added, "Perhaps the funniest, certainly the fastest talkie comedy ever made. Charles Lederer's frantic script needs to be heard at least a dozen times for all the gags to be caught. Quite simply a masterpiece." Others have pointed out the film was one of the rare screwball comedies not involving money within a new marriage such as 1936's "My Man Godfrey," and 1940's "The Philadelphia Story." "His Girl Friday" is ranked in a number of cinema's best comedy polls. Total Film lists it as the tenth Greatest Movie of All Time, while Premier has it as one of The 50 Greatest Comedies. The American Film Institute ranks it #19 Funniest Movie. Director Quentin Tarantino cites the film as one of his favorites. He had actors Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer watch the film for its fast-paced dialogue he called for in the scene where the two bicker back and forth before robbing a diner in his 1994 "Pulp Fiction." And it's one of the films in '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die."
The Blue Bird (1940)
Shirley Temple's First Big Flop
There is one major liability childhood actors have: they grow up. Approaching adolescence, Shirley Temple was nearly twelve when she made January 1940's "The Blue Bird." Her devoted fans saw a change in their sweetheart, and they failed to embrace the movie, handing Shirley her first box office flop. The film led to a quick exit from her box-office reign, breaking a six-year top ten winning streak, four as number one.
Shirley Temple was one of several actresses considered for the role of Dorothy in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz," and was screen tested by singing. However, her voice didn't compare to front-runner Judy Garland's. The idea of Shirley starring in a child-fantasy movie like 'Oz' took hold with 20th Century Fox head Darryl Zanuck, who dug up a 1908 play "The Blue Bird" by Maurice Maeterlinck. He decided to pour $2 million into the production, quite a high budget in those days, figuring the movie would be a surefire hit. It wasn't.
Film critic J. P. Roscoe described "The Blue Bird" as having "all the pieces of a big and bold fantasy but seems to miss the target. It mostly feels like it tries too hard to be something that it isn't." Many have pointed to the personality of Shirley's character, Mytyl, the spoiled daughter of a wood cutter who doesn't appreciate her life in a small German village during the Napoleonic wars. She's haughty and petulant, something her fans never witnessed in Shirley before. Mytyl and her younger brother, Tyltyl (Johnny Russell), capture a blue bird and bring it home. Like "The Wizard of Oz," "The Blue Bird" was filmed in black and white prior to Mytyl's dream, then kicks into a Technicolor world once she's in slumberland. In the dream, the sister and brother set out to find the Blue Bird of Happiness which has flown away. They're accompanied by their family pet dog who has transformed into a human, Tylo (Eddie Collins), while Tylette (Gale Sondergaard), the house cat has turned into a woman. Sondergaard had been cast as the original Wicked Witch of the West in "The Wizard of Oz," with a look similar to the glamorous Evil Queen in 1937's 'Snow White.' But the film's producers had a change of opinion, feeling the bad witch should be ugly. Sondergaard refused to play the new look figuring it would be a career killer, and the witch went to character actress Margaret Hamilton instead.
Shirley's dream in "The Blue Bird" lead the four wanderers to the land of yet-to-be-born children. Throughout Mytyl's travels, the child eventually gains an appreciation to life. But both the movie public and critics disliked the fantasy film, with many in the press labeling it "The Dead Pigeon." Temple's previous film, 1939's "Susannah of the Mounties," was popular at the theaters, and made a profit, but not as large as her earlier films. Because Temple was in only two motion pictures in 1939, her first place mantle as the top box office actor ended. Compounding her turn of fortune was an occurrence the month before "The Blue Bird's" release. A deranged woman barged into the CBS radio studio where Shirley and actor Nelson Eddy were reading an adaptation of the film. She approached the pair with a loaded gun while Temple was singing 'Someday You'll Find Your Blue Bird." She aimed the gun at the child star before security guards stopped her. The would-be assassin believed that Shirley stole her late daughter's soul after she had died in 1929, the same day she thought Temple was born. Trouble was, the gun slinger got the year wrong: Shirley was born in 1928.
After "The Blue Bird," 20th Century Fox terminated Temple's contract. Technically, Shirley's final movie for the only studio she had ever worked for was August 1940's 'Young People,' where she made several brief appearances while stock footage was inserted showing her in her cutesy heyday. After that Shirley's private suite in the studio was disassembled and made into offices, leaving no trace of the actress who purportedly rescued Fox years before from insolvency.
The Fighting 69th (1940)
Hollywood Prepares America For Eventual War
The period between the declaration of war in Europe in September 1939 and Pearl Harbor in December 1941 saw a string of patriotic Hollywood films made to prepare the public for the strong possibility of the United States' involvement in the conflict. One of the earliest movies in that span rallying around the flag was January 1940 "The Fighting 69th." Even though the Warner Brothers movie was centered around World War One, there was no mistaking it was referring to the current situation Americans were facing while war was unfolding overseas.
Film critic Eric Nash noted, "It almost seemed that Hollywood knew that the United States was about to enter into another war and was preparing the country to accept it. 'The Fighting 69th' is about a soldier finding courage." That soldier, Jerry Plunkett (James Cagney), is a wise guy from New York City whose brave talk during training camp turns into cowardice once he arrives on the front lines. He eventually performs an act of redemption which makes up for all his false bravado. "It's a war film with attitude to match the britches of Cagney's Plunkett character," points out film reviewer Steve Pulaski, "and it's a role he embodies with his trademark attributes of being hard-edged and blunt." He's assisted spiritually by the battalion's chaplain, Father Francis Duffy (Pat O'Brien), whose statue today graces New York City's Times Square. Duffy Square in the city is also named after the chaplain.
The public lapped up "The Fighting 69th." The war movie was Cagney and O'Brien's eighth film together, following their wildly successful 1938 "Angels with Dirty Faces." The two life-long friends appeared in only one other picture after the '69th,' and that was 1981's "Ragtime," the final movie for each actor. Besides the real life Father Duffy, who was on the front lines during the war, a handful of other historic personalities were seen in "The Fighting 69th." Major "Wild Bill" Donovan (George Brent), later the first director for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), orders Plunkett to join a group whose mission is to capture German soldiers to gather intel. Sergeant Joyce Kilmer (Jeffrey Lynn) also has a role in the the WW1 movie; he was a famous poet killed in the Second Battle of the Marne.
The famed Fighting 69th regiment's name dates back to Civil War's 1862 Battle of Malvern Hill, which purportedly received its name from the opposing general, Robert E. Lee. The Union regiment fought in several Civil War battles, and was almost obliterated charging up Marye's Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg. They remained a regiment in honor of the Irish Americans who made up the contingency, and exists today as a single light infantry battalion.
The Stars Look Down (1940)
Early British Social Realism Film Expertly Directed by Carol Reed
Film's British New Wave in the early 1960s was inspired by several early 1940s social realism motion pictures, led by January 1940 "The Stars Look Down." This Carol Reed-directed ground-breaking movie looks at the underbelly of the working class, with its members struggling against an inequitable system run by elites.
The movie adaptation of A. J. Cronin's 1935 novel of the same name (the author also helped co-write its script), "The Stars Look Down" had Carol Reed, after viewing the final edit, lamenting it was "a gloomy little piece. I immediately disowned it." But the British public didn't see it that way. Released in the middle of the 'Phony War,' a period which saw little land action between the Allies and the Germans after war was declared in September 1939, movie goers embraced Reed's film of a mining community whose workers sensed a water break in the mine shafts was imminent, instigating a strike. While Bob Fenwick (Edward Rigby) leads the strike, his oldest son, Davey (Michael Redgrave), is off to college on a scholarship. Davey is in love with Jenny Sunley (Margaret Lockwood), who convinces him to give up college for a teaching job. Davey's old acquaintance Joe Gowlan (Emlyn Williams), an ex-boyfriend of Jenny, made a secret deal with the owner of the mine to convince the workers to return to the dangerous section of the mine. When the workers, with Bob Fenwick in the lead, go back into the mine shaft, the two stories intersect, with startling results.
"The Stars Look Down" is regarded as the first British film touching upon England's important social issues. The picture reflects "the contempt rich owners have for their underpaid employees and the distrust labor has for its union leaders," notes film historian Danny Peary. As the most expensive British movie produced up to that time, Grafton Films built a reconstruction of a real life colliery 40,000 square yards in size, the largest English set built outdoors. Actor Redgrave, a committed socialist, felt the production screamed to nationalize all the United Kingdom mines, feeling the dastardly mine owner, Richard Barras (Allan Jeayes), was common in the industry.
Film reviewer Gary Tooze praised "The Stars Look Down" as "The film is yet another reason to recognize Carol Reed as one of the best and most underrated directors of all time. The character, the story and its filmic retelling are a remarkable achievement of powerful cinema." His first film, 1935's 'Midshipman Easy,' was a low-budget 'quota quickie.' Reed confessed later his directorial debut was highly disappointing in the way he handled it: "I realized that this was the only way to learn - by making mistakes." By the time he made "The Stars Look Down," Reed was drawing critical praise from such critics as Graham Green, who wrote "one forgets the casting altogether: he handles his players like a master, so that one remembers them only as people." Reed went on to direct classics as 1947 "Odd Man Out" and 1949 "The Third Man."
As the forerunner to Britain's early 1960's 'Angry Young Men' genre, otherwise known as 'kitchen sink dramas,' "The Stars Look Down," reviewer Derek Winnert points out, "is distinguished by its presentation of lots of realistic and gritty detail that are rare in British films of the period - about strikes, mine conditions, difficult personal relationships and so on," an apt description of the prototype of British social realism.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
The Original Blind-Dating Love Story Movie
Generational advances in technology give filmmakers the opportunity to remake some endearing classics. Such was the case when a film on romantic letters mailed in response to a newspaper ad preceded a picture about finding love on the internet. The original movie was January 1940's "The Shop Around the Corner," starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan. Almost sixty years later, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan rejuvenated the theme in their 1998 "You've Got Mail."
In "The Shop Around the Corner" (which is coincidentally the name of the store managed by Meg Ryan character's), Alfred Kralik (Stewart) and Klara Novak (Sullivan) work in a Budapest, Hungary leathergoods store. Just as in "You've Got Mail," the older version has the two knowing each other, but they don't realize their corresponding admirers are really those whom they dislike. Both movies were based on the 1937 Hungarian Miklos Laszio play 'Perfumerie,' whose events take place in a perfume retail store.
"The Shop Around the Corner," directed by Ernst Lubitsch, has continued to draw praise from film critics. Reviewer Ed Howard writes, "The film is such a delight because there's so much to it, so many layers built into its deceptively simple premise. It's an uproarious comedy, a sugary romance of opposites attracting, a wonderfully subtle look at working class life, and a parable on the multifaceted nature of humanity. It's also just a really great film."
Lubitsch bought the movie rights to Laszio's play for a paltry $7,500. The director identified with the setting from working in his father's shop as a boy. "I have known just such a little shop in Budapest," recalled Lubitsch nostalgically. He places a special light on "The Shop Around the Corner's" store owner Hugo Matuschek (Frank Morgan, the wizard in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz"). "The feeling between the boss and those who work for him is pretty much the same the world over, it seems to me," said the director. "Everyone is afraid of losing his job and everyone knows how little human worries can affect his job. If the boss has a touch of dyspepsia, better be careful not to step on his toes; when things have gone well with him, the whole staff reflects his good humor."
Hugo can be warm and generous to his employees. But he also can be vindictive, as when he fires his loyal long-time assistant Alfred because the boss suspects he's messing around with his wife. As much as Alfred and Klara don't hit it off at work, they love the imaginary lovers' amorous letters they've received, sending them in a tizzy with their intellectual insights on classical books and universal expressions of deep feelings. The question of who sent these letters comes to a head when, through letters of correspondence, they agree to meet at a neighborhood restaurant. Alfred soon realizes Klara is his pen-pal when he sits near her at the restaurant, but fails to tell her. "It's only after Stewart discovers the truth, and sets out explicitly to become worthy of Sullavan's fantasy, that the two reach their (ultimate destiny)," describes film critic Jon Lingan. "This resolution is not played cynically (the movie's ending is wonderful, and built for Kleenex), but it's so graceful and honest that it conveys a kind of universal wisdom."
Actor Stewart first met Sullivan in the late 1920's during their Cape Cod theatre acting days, and were fast friends ever since. He was familiar with her quick, irrational temper that flared up at a moment's notice. Towards the tail end of filming that crucial restaurant scene, Stewart recalled, "We were in this little restaurant and I had the line: 'I will come out on the street and I will roll my trousers up to my knees.' For some reason I couldn't say it. She was furious. She said, 'This is absolutely ridiculous.' There I was standing with my trousers rolled up to my knees, very conscious of my skinny legs, and I said, 'I don't want to act today; get a fellow with decent legs and just show them.' Margaret said, 'Then I absolutely refuse to do the picture.' So we did more takes"-48 of them before the satisfying shot was in the can.
"Shop Around the Corner" not only was remade as "You've Got Mail," it was adapted into the 1949 musical movie "In The Good Old Summertime" with Judy Garland. Broadway reworked the plot into the 1963 musical 'She Loves Me.' The American Film Institute ranks the the 1940 version as the 28th Most Passionate Movie, while nominating it as one of the Funniest Motion Pictures.
Remember the Night (1939)
Preston Sturges' Last Script Not Directed By Him
Screenwriter Preston Sturges always harbored an ambition to direct his own scripts ever since his first screenplay was accepted in Hollywood in the early 1930s. Sturges had an intense disagreement with Mitchell Leisen in January 1940's "Remember the Night," finding the director had changed his characters' dialogue while cutting crucial scenes. The writer had enough, and he informed his employer Paramount Pictures this would be his last script a director would ever handle. True to Sturges' word, the studio bowed to his wishes, and the writer-turned-director would soon excel by creating several memorable classics.
Sturges's dictum, "Directors are a dime a dozen; really good writers are always scarce," were words he lived by for the remainder of his Hollywood years. The scriptwriter held Leisen, a former costume designer and art director, in low regard ever since he directed his screenplay, 1937's "Easy Living," calling him "a bloated phony" who was "more interested in the sets than the material." Sturges visited Leisen's shooting sessions in "Remember the Night" daily, and was unhappy in what he saw. Sturges' plot involves New York City District Attorney John "Jack" Sargent (Fred MacMurray), who's prosecuting a jewel theft case committed by Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) just before the Christmas break in the courts. The judge grants him his requested postponement until after the holidays since Sargent knows the jury's joyful spirit wouldn't want to see a woman spend time in jail during the festivities. Sargent finds out Lee's mother lives near his family in Indiana and offers her a ride there. She does, but the visit is cold for Lee, whose mother (Georgia Caine) rejects her and kicks her out. Jack offers to take her to stay with his family, and for the first time in her life, Lee feels the warmth of people surrounded by love, welcoming her into their lives. Sturges' script offers a number of heartwarming scenes, qualifying the film as a true holiday classic.
Leisen made his script changes contoured to the personalities of his two leading stars. The director slashed much of the dialogue he felt the taciturn MacMurray would never deliver, such as the lengthy speeches Lee's defense attorney, Atty. Francis X. O'Leary (Willard Robertson) gave in the court's opening scenes. Leisen's biographer David Chierichetti noted, "Cutting MacMurray's lines down to the minimum, Leisen played up the feeling of gentle strength MacMurray could project so well. It was a far cry from Sturges's dashing hero."
Sturges admitted his weakness was describing love scenes within his scripts. His marriage to his third wife, Louise Sargent Tevis in November 1938, gave him the passionate insights he needed to write about the romantic sparks between Jack and Lee when they embarked on their trip to Indiana by way of car. Film historian David Thomson said, "It is close to a great film, and arguably the most human love story Preston Sturges ever wrote."
Like most directors, Leisen loved working with Stanwyck in "Remember the Night," which came under budget and a week ahead of schedule, largely attributed to the actress. "She was the greatest," Leisen recounted. "She never blew one line through the whole picture. She set that kind of pace and everybody worked harder, trying to outdo her. She was always right at my elbow when I needed her. We never once had to wait for her to finish with the hairdresser or the make-up man." Sturges got to know Stanwyck while she was on breaks. She remembered him saying, "Someday I'm going to write a real screwball comedy for you, and I replied that nobody would ever think of writing anything like that for me - a murderess, sure. But he said, 'You just wait.'" True to his word, he handled Stanwyck in his third directed film, 1941 "The Lady Eve" with Henry Fonda.
Leisen's direction on "Remember the Night" is recognized as one of his better films, right next to his previous movie, 1939's "Midnight," co-written by Billy Wilder. Coincidentally, it was that movie that motivated Wilder to direct his own films he scripted, just as Sturges vowed to do the exact same thing. Both went on to have outstanding careers sitting in the director's chair.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Selznick's Big Epic Resonates with 1930s Feminism
The timing of the release of December 1939's "Gone With The Wind" was perfect for inspiring the battered British during the opening year of World War Two. Scarlett O'Hara's physical and mental persistence in the face of near total destruction of her hometown Atlanta and the rebuilding of Tara plantation in Georgia during and after the Civil War became emblematic of what the English faced daily from aerial bombardments in the German Blitz during the summer of 1940 as well as the mounting casualties of its soldiers overseas. The epic film opened in the United Kingdom four months after its premier, and was so popular a number of theaters continued playing the motion picture during the duration of the war.
Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel, 'Gone With The Wind,' about a spoiled daughter of a wealthy southern planation owner, was more than just a simple Civil War story; it reflected on the maturation of a young woman going through harsh wartime conditions and exerting her independence in the process. Mitchell was describing the emerging 'new women' of the 1930s who were gaining increasing confidence in the working world compared to generations before. "Scarlett O'Hara is not a creature of the 1860s but of the 1930s: a free-spirited, willful modern woman," notes film critic Roger Ebert. "The way was prepared for her by the flappers of Fitzgerald's jazz age, by the bold movie actresses of the period, and by the economic reality of the Depression, which for the first time put lots of women to work outside their homes. She sought to control her economic destiny in the years after the South collapsed, first by planting cotton and later by running a successful lumber business. She was the symbol the nation needed as it headed into World War II; the spiritual sister of Rosie the Riveter."
"Gone With The Wind," considered by many as the greatest movie Hollywood has ever produced, is cinema's highest grossing movie (accounting for inflation). It had won more Oscars in the history of the Academy Awards during its release as well as in the next twenty years. The David O. Selznick-produced film continues to enthrall modern day viewers, unfolding stirring scenes of the annihilation of the ante-bellum Southern landscape by Union troops in the midst of a weepy triangular soap opera romance between Scarlett, Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes. The movie redefined how screen epics were produced.
Mitchell's novel looked at the Southern experience before, during and after the Civil War, creating a buzz in Hollywood even before it was published. Independent producer Selznick paid a record $50,000 for a never before published writer for the book's movie rights. In the next three years, Selznick's pubic relations department spun stories about the progress of one of cinema's most highly-anticipated movie, highlighted by the search of the actress to play Scarlett O'Hara. Over 100 hired talent scouts scoured live theatre stages, drama schools and colleges to search for the 'perfect' lead actress. They interviewed over 1,400 mostly unknown professional and amateur actresses answering the casting call, and flew four hundred to Los Angeles to do a reading. Thirty-one were screen tested, and just two were filmed in Technicolor, Vivien Leigh and Paulette Goddard. The two-year search cost nearly $100,000. Writer Mitchell favored Miriam Hopkins, 37, but she was deemed too old for the role of Scarlett, aged in her early twenties.
Selznick leaned towards Goddard, who nearly received the O'Hara role. But her relationship with Charlie Chaplin created some uneasiness, and her New York background went against Southern sentiments. That didn't stop the producer, who had the final say, from considering British Vivien Leigh,a client of his brother Myron, the owner of a talent agency in England. Selznick was impressed by her presence when she attended the filming with her boyfriend, Laurence Olivier, on the MGM Hollywood studio lot to watch a reenactment of the burning of Atlanta. A month later, after a series of screen tests, Selznick rationalized in selecting the British Leigh, stating, "Scarlett O'Hara's parents were French and Irish. Identically, Miss Leigh's parents are French and Irish." Once chosen, she along with other major cast members were given multiple voice lessons on how to speak with a Southern accent.
The choices for the role of Rhett Butler was much easier. Gary Cooper and Clark Gable were a toss-up, but eventually Cooper admitted he wasn't the bit interested. Upon hearing Gable was Selznick's strong candidate, Cooper predicted the movie "was going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I'm glad it'll be Gable who's falling flat on his nose, not me." Gable himself wasn't all that excited about the part either, describing it as a "woman's picture." The actor was burned from his previous historical period film, 1937's "Parnell," his biggest movie flop ever. However, the unusually high salary he was paid allowed him to divorce his second wife, Maria Langham, giving her a nice settlement which allowed his marriage to actress Carole Lombard to finally take place. The two wedded in March 1939 during a break in 'Wind's' filming. Later, when his career hit a trough, the re-release of "Gone With The Wind" rejuvenated his marquee popularity, with studio offers coming his way again.
Actor Leslie Howard was also apathetic about his role as Ashley Wilkes, who marries his first cousin Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland) even though Scarlett wants to ensnare him in her web of love. At 46, he felt he was way too old to play Scarlett's love interest, saying "I'm not nearly beautiful or young enough for Ashley, and it makes me sick being fixed up to look attractive." His character, at 21, required him to wear extra make-up and a light brown hairpiece. Selznick persuaded Howard to take the part by making him co-producer for 1939's "Intermezzo: A Love Story," Ingrid Bergman's first Hollywood film. Howard never bothered to read Mitchell's book, describing the novel a "terrible lot of nonsense."
"Gone With The Wind" had as many as eight directors handlng various film crews and scenes, with Victor Fleming pulled off directing MGM's 1939's "The Wizard of Oz" to replace George Cukor, the original lead director. Cukor wasn't happy with the constant revisions of Sidney Howard's script after spending nearly two years working on and off the movie. Selznick felt he was too slow filming his scenes after just three weeks and felt he was incapable of handling the sprawling epic scenes. Leigh and de Havilland, who enjoyed working with the nicknamed 'Hollywood's women director,' were devastated by the decision. Cukor continued to coach both actresses behind the scenes, but Fleming directed most of the movie until he relinquished the reins due to exhaustion to Sam Wood. A rejuvenated Fleming later returned to finish the primary filming. Set designer William Menzie was credited as a "Production Designer" for both his artistic settings as well as directing the second unit, including scenes of Scarlett returning to Tara during the war. Menzie earned an Honorary Award from the Academy for his use of color to increase the movie's pictorial mood, such as the sunsets highlighting the film's many emotional moments. Stuntman Yakima Canutt directed the sequence of Scarlett and Rhett's daughter little Bonnie falling off her horse and dying. Even Selznick had a hand at directing. The producer also hired more than one cinematographer for "Gone With The Wind." First was Lee Garmes, who was released after the first four weeks because his filming was "too dark," according to Selznick. He shot the first third of the film right up to when Melanie has her baby. Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan then handled the bulky Technicolor cameras Selznick leased, all seven of them, at one time every color camera in Hollywood. The two handled the famous crane shot capturing the mass of Confederate soldiers, half of them prone dummies seen in the frame, who were injured in the rail yard while Scarlett is looking for her family doctor to help Melanie deliver her baby.
Before Leigh and Gable were even hired, Selznick's film crew shot the Atlanta burning scene. Decaying old sets sitting on the MGM lot, including the massive wall in 1933's "King Kong" as well elaborate but faded sets from 1936's "The Garden of Allah" contributed to the mass burning. Los Angeles Fire Department's equipment and personnel were on standby while several stunt people filled in for Gable and Leigh. The forty acre fire blazed so high, towering over 500 feet, Culver City residents jammed telephone lines reporting MGM's studio was burning down. Three 5,000-gallon water tanks doused the flames after the scenes were filmed.
"Gone With The Wind" cost nearly $4 million to produce, the third most expensive film yet, trailing only 1925's "Ben-Hur" and Howard Hughes' 1930 "Hell's Angels." So taxing was her role, Leigh smoked four packs of cigarettes a day (Gable puffed on three packs daily himself.). Fortunately her first scenes scheduled to be shot were the opening ones where she appeared fresh, wearing a white dress to symbolize her virginity and innocence. Leigh was so visibly worn as the production progressed she needed a break to recuperate. To see how thin Leigh became, house servant Mammy (Hattie McDaniel) tightened her corset around her 18-inch waist. In 2001 "Moulin Rouge!" Nicole Kidman tried to replicate Leigh's feat on film, only to suffer cracked ribs and sustain internal injuries.
At a preview of "Gone With The Wind" three months before the official December premier, Selznick decided to show a rough-cut in a Los Angeles theater which happened to be playing Gary Cooper's 1939 "Beau Geste." The surprised audience gasped when they saw the opening, and when finished its viewers gave the film a standing ovation. Selznick, in attendance, was described by his biograph.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Laughton's Portrayal of the Hunchback Wa a Grueling Assignment
Perc Westmore was one of Hollywood's top make-up artists, in constant demand by top-tier stars who loved the magic he applied to them. He agreed to be actor Charles Laughton's personal make-up applicator in December 1939's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," one of Westmore's most challenging assignments in his life. As owner of the thriving Los Angeles cosmetic studio, 'The House of Westmore,' Perc took weeks to produce a look Laughton was satisfied for his Quasimodo, a major character in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel. The daily toll of two to three hour sessions every morning beginning at 4 a.m. Was causing a bit of stress and friction between the two. Westmore applied sponge material to half of Laughton's face, inserting a fake protruding eyeball on the lower level of his real eye, complete with a milky contact lens. The actor's hunched back consisted of an aluminum frame stuffed with four pounds of foam rubber. Laughton insisted Westmore make his back heavier with more padding so he could feel the pressure on his body Quasimodo experienced. "Why doncha just act it?" reasoned Westmore. Laughton shot back, "Don't you ever speak to me like that again, you hired hand!"
On one of the last days of the shoot, Westmore reached a boiling point with Laughton's rudeness. He arranged for his brother to drop in while he was working on the actor. Just as he was strapping the hump, Westmore shook a bottle full of seltzer water and sprayed it into Laughton's face. Then he kicked him in the buttocks, saying, "That's for all the grief you gave me." He told the stunned actor he had his brother in the room as a witness so both could deny what he just did.
The actor also had confrontations with director William Dieterle, who was hired for "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" for his many award-winning historical films such as 1937's "The Life of Emile Zola." Laughton, a method actor before the term was even invented, had an assistant director twist his ankle before the scene showing him whipped so he could feel the pain walking up to the platform. Trouble was, Laughton felt each whiplash on his back even though he had been wearing padding and a rubber suit designed to absorb the sting, which heavily bruised his back. Dieterle called for a 16th take on the scene, telling the actor, ""Now, Charles, listen to me. Let's do it one more time, but this time I want you - I want you to suffer." Laughton never forgot Dieterle's 'stinging' remarks.
Filming took place on the opening days of World War Two in September 1939. When England and France officially declared war on Germany, Laughton coincidentally had his character Quasimodo scripted to ring Notre Dame's bells. The actor put everything into pulling the church's rope, and failed to hear Dieterle yell "cut," continuing until he nearly passed out. Laughton later said he was caught up with the events of his native homeland. "I could only think of the poor people out there, going in to fight that bloody, bloody war!" Laughton remarked "To arouse the world, to stop that terrible butchery! Awake! Awake! That's what I felt when I was ringing the bells!" During a break that day, while the cast and film crew were absorbing the drama happening in Europe, Laughton gathered everyone around him and, still in his Quasimodo outfit, recited Abraham Lincoln's entire Gettysburg Address, the speech he said in 1935's "Ruggles of Red Gap." His listeners stood in stunned silence after the recitation, a moment the cast and film crew said they always remembered.
Critics noticed the parallels between Sonya Levien's script and the events of Paris in the late 15th century. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" had the French government treat its gypsies like outcasts while the Germans harshly stripped its Jewish citizens of their rights. Actress Maureen O'Hara, in just her third film, played Esmeralda, a young gypsy women whom befriends Quasimodo and is wrongfully accused of killing her lover Phoebus. Laughton, impressed by O'Hara's performance when both were in Alfred Hitchcock's 1939 "Jamaica Inn," insisted to the producers she receive the gypsy role.
RKO didn't spare any expense in filming the crowd scenes in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame, hiring over 3,000 extras to fill its city scenes. Film reviewer Richard Scheib commented Dieterle's "handling of crowds-no directors other than Sergei Eisenstein and Fritz Lang ever used crowds to such a group mime effect. Dieterle whips the crowds from one side of the screen to the other-they are all naked forces of expression and the effect as giant masses collide on the screen is stunning." The movie was one of the most expensive RKO ever spent, $1.8 million. A replica of the Paris square was built on the studio's Encino Ranch, complete with a partially constructed Notre Dame Cathedral 190 feet in height (the remainder was matt painted to portray the authentic Paris church.). The movie realized a tremendous box office return, but because of its high production costs, RKO only tabulated an $100,000 profit.
The Academy Awards, filled with one of Hollywood's most impressive line-up of movies for 1939, gave "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" only two nominations, Best Original Music Score (Alfred Newman), and Best Sound (John Aalberg). The American Film Institute ranks the film as the 98th Most Passionate Movie Ever Made. AFI also nominated it for Most Thrilling and Best Film Score Ever.
Destry Rides Again (1939)
The Granddaddy of the Western Comedy Films
A Western combined with comedy was the last thing Marlene Dietrich felt she needed to boast her sinking film career. But she certainly was glad she did when she appeared in cinema's second Western comedy feature film in December 1939's "Destry Rides Again." The hit movie, co-starring James Stewart, would see her screen career rebound with critics raving about her inspired performance. Prior to her appearance in the 1939 film, Dietrich was included in the infamous 1938 "Box Office Poison" letter published by independent theater owners, seeing her rank 126th in box office sales for movie stars. She hadn't made a film in two years when, vacationing at Cap d'Antibes in southern France with her family, director Joseph von Sternberg and her boyfriend author Erich Maria Remarque, she took a call from producer Joe Pasternak to headline the Western. Ed Sullivan, the newspaper columnist who later hosted his own TV show, claimed credit while hosting a house party for linking Universal Pictures with Dietrich. Attending was Universal head Nate Blumberg, who Sullivan suggested his studio could hire the actress on the cheap.
Dietrich initially showed no interest in doing the Western. After all, the genre with comedy was limited to only Laurel and Hardy's 1937 "Way Out West" and The Three Stooges' short films. Remarque said the picture would make her "more American" with Westerns gaining mainstream acceptance by 1939. She took his advice and accepted the role of Frenchy, a salon singer associated with Kent (Brian Donlevy), tavern owner and corrupt opportunist in the western town of Bottleneck. It was about the only offer Dietrich had recently, besides one from her native Germany where the Nazis promised to make her their biggest star while paying her a very lucrative salary. "Destry Rides Again" was also pivotal in her personal life, motivating Dietrich to apply and receive her United States citizenship.
"Destry Rides Again," no relation to the Tom Mix's 1932 movie of the same name, is based on Max Brand's magazine serial "Twelve Peers." James Stewart, whose appearance in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" delayed its filming, plays Thomas Jefferson Destry, Jr., whose father was a famous gunslinger shot and killed in the back. Junior is hired by newly-named sheriff Wash Dimsdale (Charles Winninger), the town drunk, thinking Destry is a carbon-copy of his father. Instead, Tom Jr. Is a pacifist who doesn't carry a gun. Kent is surprised by his non-combatant stance when he demands Destry relinquish his six-shooter as he arrives into town. "You see if I woulda had a gun then, why, one of us might have been hurt and it might be me," says Tom to the apprehensive Kent. "I wouldn't want that to happen... would I?"
Off the set Dietrich, 38, swooned over Stewart, 31, at first sight. The movie's producer Joe Pasternak witnessed their first meeting. "She wanted him at once," Pasternak said. "He was just a nice, simple guy who loved Flash Gordon comics. That was all he seemed to read on set. Marlene gave him a life-sized doll of Flash Gordon made by the studio art department over a weekend. It was correct in every detail." The gift started a short romance, which lasted throughout the filming. One of the movie's highlights was an all-out brawl between Dietrich and actress Una Merkel's characters, who as Mrs. Callahan accused Frenchy of messing around with her husband after he returned home without his pants (he lost to them in a poker match.) Director George Marshall's only instruction for the scene was not to fight with clinched fists. Fortunately, they needed only one take to get what the director wanted. "We just plunged in and punched and slapped and kicked for all we were worth," recalled Merkel. "They never did call in the stunt girls. Marlene stepped on my feet with her French heels. The toenails never grew back. I was bruised from head to foot when it was over. I looked like an old peach, green with brown spots. And I felt like one, too."
In a preview attended by a censor from the Hays Office, the audience roared when Dietrich tucked a few gold coins into her bra from a night's winnings. While patting her chest, she brags, "There's gold in them thar hills." Out went the line. Dietrich sang "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have" in the film, which became a big hit in the '40's. Mel Brooks was so inspired by the portrayal of Dietrich's performance as saloon singer he patterned Madeline Kahn's character Lili Von Sctupp after her in his 1974 comedy western "Blazing Saddles."
This was James Stewart's first Western, a genre he became famous for acting. It would be another eleven years before he appeared in his next Western, 1950's classic "Winchester '73." Irene Hervey, as Janice Tyndall, who vied with Frenchy for Tom's attentions, was in her sixth year in Hollywood. She married actor Alan Jones, and gave birth to a son, Jack, a year before her "Destry" appearance. Jack Jones as an adult was a popular singer during the 1960s. Director George Marshall, a veteran film director beginning in 1916, made a nearly shot-for-shot remake of his 1939 Western comedy in 1954 "Destry" with Audie Murphy. The 1959 hit Broadway musical 'Destry Rides Again,' starring Andy Griffith as Tom Jr., ran for 472 performances.
The American Film Institute nominated "Destry Rides Again" in several categories, including Greatest American Movies, Greatest Music, Movies' Best Song 'The Boys in the Backroom,' and the Funniest Movie. Flick Charts ranks "Destry Rides Again" as the third most popular Western comedy. And its one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'
Of Mice and Men (1939)
Lon Chaney Jr., Burgess Meredith's Breakout Roles
There were no more coveted roles in Hollywood than that of George and Lenny when Hal Roach announced he was producing a movie based on John Steinbeck's novella in December 1939's "Of Mice and Men," an Academy Award Best Picture nominee. The odds-on favorites to receive the parts were Wallace Ford as George and Broderick Crawford as the dim-witted Lenny, both appearing in the Broadway adaptation of Steinbeck's 1936 book. Lewis Milestone, directing the film and had bought the movie rights to the play, had a big say on choosing the actors. He was impressed by Lon Chaney Jr.'s performance as Lenny when he saw the Los Angeles production of the play where the large-framed actor took Crawford's place. The director approached Chaney afterwards and asked him to screen test for the role. Upon seeing him on film, Milestone selected Chaney instead of Crawford.
Chaney, the son of the late silent movie star, Lon Chaney, wasn't a stranger to the screen. Born Creighton Chaney, he jumped into film in 1931 after his father's death. He adopted his dad's first name in 1935 when he began receiving larger roles in low-budgeted films. "Of Mice and Men" was his first major part in a big production. In the film Chaney wore high platform shoes, increasing his height by six inches. Because his hulking body, he later became typecast as monsters, his first in 1941's "Man-Made Monster," followed by "The Wolf Man." Film reviewer Graeme Clark bemoans Chaney's change of direction towards scary movies, writing, "Such a pity it was at the start of his career, and he would quickly be typecast in horror and western roles that didn't stretch him but rather placed him in the shadow of his father."
The Cleveland-born Burgess Meredith was relatively unknown when Milestone picked him to play George in "Of Mice and Men." The stage actor dabbled in film as early as 1935, but his small role as Quillery in 1939's "Idiot's Delight," the only movie Clark Gable is seen dancing, drew Milestone's attention. As George, Meredith embarked on a sixty-year movie career, concluding in 1995's "Grumpier Old Men." Meredith and Steinbeck became lifelong friends when the writer paid visits to Hollywood to see the progress of "Of Mice and Men" as well as another of his book's adaptation "The Grapes of Wrath," filming at the same time in another studio. The author later composed two books, 'The Moon Is Down' and 'Bombs Away," at Meredith's Mount Ivy, New York home. One huge regret the actor had in his life was Steinbeck wrote an unproduced play about a modern-day Joan of Arc which Meredith placed in a trunk. While relocating to his new house, the play was lost, and the work was never seen again.
Steinbeck and director Milestone shared similar backgrounds as itinerant workers picking up odd jobs in rural farms. The author's Lenny was based on an actual person. Steinbeck said in a New York Times interview, "He's in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach. I hate to tell you how many times. I saw him do it. We couldn't stop him until it was too late." In the movie "Of Mice and Men," Lenny strangles Mae (Betty Field), the wife of Jackson (Oscar O'Shea), the owner of the ranch George and Lenny work at. Mae, the only woman in the picture, had a habit of flirting with the ranch hands. One day she got too close to Lenny, who loved stroking animals in a loving way before they died. Actress Betty Field, from Boston, appeared on London and Broadway stages since 1934 before making her second film, "Of Mice and Men." Field, who enjoyed a prolific film and television career, traveled back and forth between Broadway and Hollywood before her last film alongside Clint Eastwood in 1968's "Coogan's Bluff."
"Of Mice and Men" was also Aaron Copland's first of a handful of film scores. Cultural historian Morris Dickstein criticized the composer from branching out from his classical roots, saying his score was "a dumbing down of art into toothless entertainment." But Copland, who earned an Oscar nomination for the film's score, was also praised by many film critics, including Virgil Thomson, who claimed his score established "the most distinguished populist musical style yet created in America." Copland's 1942 'Rodeo' and 1944 'Appalachian Spring' influenced Western movie composers for the next two decades.
"Of Mice and Men" was producer Roach's only film to earn a Best Picture nomination. Although the movie brought his studio, which had handled Laurel and Hardy films for years, the prestige he was always seeking, Roach rarely brought up the picture in later interviews since it was a disappointment at the box office. The film's conclusion was a buzz-kill while the European war was unfolding. It does have the distinction of being the first movie to show a sequence before the opening credits. The dramatic film was also nominated for Best Sound Recording, Best Musical Scoring and Copland's Best Original Score. The American Film Institute also recognized the composer's work by nominating it as one of the Best Film Scores in cinema history.
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
John Ford's First Technicolor Film in a Rare Revolutionary War Movie
Hollywood in 1939 was sensitive not to portray England's past in a bad light when the country was immersed in its battle against Nazi Germany. Just before the breakout of World War Two, director John Ford erased most of the negativity of the British in their conflict against the colonists during the Revolutionary War when he released November 1939's "Drums Along the Mohawk." The film centers on the St. Leger Expedition, part of the 1777 Saratoga campaign made up mostly of Tories and Native Americans loyal to the Redcoats marching through the upper New York Mohawk Valley.
"Drums Along the Mohawk," based on Walter Edmonds 1936 novel of the same name, focuses on newlyweds Gil Martin (Henry Fonda) and his wealthy wife, Lana Borst (Claudette Colbert). Settling on a farm in the wilds of New York was a challenge in itself, but when Indian raiding parties descend upon the region, the settlers muster together for their self defense. Film reviewer Jason Abbey noted this rare Revolutionary War Hollywood movie "may not be up there with the director's greatest work, but it's still a spry, rousing work, shot in the unfussy but militarily precise way that has become a Ford trademark." The production's scouting team selected Utah's Strawberry and Sidney Valleys, Mirror and Navajo Lakes and Duck Creek to mimic the typography of New York. The filming location was so isolated Colbert, knowing there weren't any Holiday Inns nearby, demanded and was shipped a bathtub to her private cabin. Constant rain plagued the shoot, setting the shooting schedule back. Miles of roads had to be cut into the dense forests to construct a large fort as well as several log cabins, sending production costs soaring. For a scene where Indians burned Gil's homestead, the film crew placed several tires inside to heighten the flames. So much smoke enveloped the house a hand-painted overlay of the cabin was used in post-production so the structure could be seen. Fonda had fond memories of the primitive conditions, specifically in the evenings when the cast and crew gathered around the campfire telling stories. He admitted to almost crying when filming wrapped in Utah.
In "Drums Along the Mohawk," with their homestead destroyed, Gil and Lana are taken in by wealthy Sarah McKlennar (Edna May Oliver). Sarah is the tart-tongued widow who famously says "I've got a long face, and I poke where I please." Actress Oliver, a Malden, Massachusetts native, first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1917, making her film debut in 1923. As a film character, Oliver was in many classics, including 1933's "Little Women" and 1935's "David Copperfield." She earned her only Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs. McKlennar.
"Drums Along the Mohawk" was Ford's first Technicolor movie. It was also the second of three films in a row Ford directed Henry Fonda, the first 1939's "Young Lincoln" and the third 1940's "The Grapes of Wrath." Fonda was the director's first "Fordian hero," making eight movies with Ford before the two had a falling out while filming 1955's "Mister Roberts."
Gulliver's Travels (1939)
Cinema's Second Cel-animation Feature Film
Hollywood has proven throughout the years that if one movie produces gold, others will follow. That's exactly what happened when Fleischer Studio produced cinema's second cel-animated feature film in November 1939's "Gulliver's Travels."
Two years earlier Walt Disney had released 1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first full-length cartoon using the superior Technicolor cel-animation process which astonished viewers with its vibrancy. The Fleischer brothers Max and Dave, under Paramount Pictures' umbrella, had begged its parent company for years to fund a feature film cartoon. When studio head Adolph Zukor saw the eye-popping receipts pouring into Disney, he approved Fleischer's proposal-but with a far smaller budget to work with than the "Snow White" film. He also wanted the movie, based on the opening section of Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel, delivered by the 1939 Christmas holiday, a short 18 months from when he approved the cartoon-half the time Disney's "Snow White" took.
"I knew it was my father's (Max) favorite book since he used to read it to me as a bedtime story when I was a child," recalled Max's son Richard Fleischer. Initially Popeye The Sailor was to be the Gulliver character, but that was nixed when Fleischers' writers convinced the brothers this was a bad idea. A previously-planned relocation of the Fleischer studio from New York City to Miami to take advantage of the city's tax exemptions made the tight delivery schedule all the more stressful with all the equipment in transit. Once receiving Paramount's funding, the Fleischers tripled the size of their new studio and beefed up their animation staff from 200 to 700 artists, including students from the Miami Arts School.
Working overtime to meet the deadline, the staff was under constant strain, epitomized by one artist's sketch of the employees behind the walls of an insane asylum, singing "We're all-l-l-l together now!" Max and Dave Fleischer were also affected by the pressure, so much so they stopped talking to one another, communicating solely by memo. A scandal became public when Max was discovered to be having an adulterous affair with his secretary.
The Fleischers did make the delivery deadline, with its Miami premier in mid-November. Paramount distributed "Gulliver's Travels" to only 50 movie houses nationwide during the Christmas season, but that limited number still garnered $3 million in its initial release, an astronomical amount in those days. That still didn't stop Paramount from exercising its clause in Fleischers' contract penalizing them $350,000 for going over budget, a fee which later proved disastrous for the animated studio. Paramount did order a second Fleischer-produced full-length movie cartoon, 1941's "Mr. Bug Goes to Town," seeing how successful full-length feature cartoons were.
Walt Disney was dismissal of the quality in "Gulliver's Travels," caustically stating, "We can do better than that with our second-string animators." As critical as he was of the Fleischers, Disney was so mindful of the popularity of the Gulliver cartoon he delayed his studio's second animated feature "Pinocchio" for two months until January 1940. Critics weren't so disparaging of "Gulliver's Travels" as Walt was, with modern reviewers such as Richard Smith saying, "the crowning glory has to be the colors, motion and gravity behind the animation. One could argue it's more expressive and soulful than many of the digital equivalents in modern filmmaking. Such creativity, namely in the rotoscoping of Gulliver, inspires awe long after the end credits."
Remarkably, more people have seen "Gulliver's Travels" than Disney's "Snow White" because of the number of times it has been re-released for Saturday matinee showings throughout the years until the mid-1960s. Meanwhile, Fleischers' library of work was sold to television in 1955, making the movie available for public broadcasts on local TV stations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. The Academy Awards recognized the music in "Gulliver's Travels" by nominating it in two categories, Victor Young for Best Original Score and the tune 'Faithful/Forever' as Best Original Song. Both Oscars went to "The Wizard of Oz."
Ninotchka (1939)
Garbo Transitions To Comedy
Greta Garbo's inclusion in the infamous 1938 'Box Office Poison" letter, compounded by her 1937 flop with Charles Boyer convinced MGM its former number one star had to change her on-screen persona-and quickly. The studio felt a clever comedy would be the panacea to all her misfortunes. And what better way to do that than to have the rising popular scriptwriters, Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, deliver the screenplay in November 1939's "Ninotchka." The tagline "Garbo Laughs" helped promote her new attitude. MGM proved the no-nonsense Garbo could fit perfectly in a lighthearted role that was convincing, entertaining and well received by her legion of fans. The comedy was nominated for the Academy Awards' Best Picture.
When told MGM was looking to steer the actress in a new direction, writer Melchior Lengyel came up with a bare-bones story of a "Russian girl saturated with Bolshevist ideals goes to fearful, capitalistic, monopolistic Paris. She meets romance and has an uproarious good time. Capitalism not so bad after all." Wilder and Brackett, along with a handful of writers, including director Ernst Lubitsh fresh from a visit to the Soviet Union, worked on the Academy Award-nominated Best Screenplay.
Garbo felt uncomfortable in a laughing scene when paramour Count Leon d'Algout (Melvyn Douglas) courts the stern Soviet envoy Nina Ivanovo 'Ninotchka' (Garbo). She's invited by Leon to a Paris dinner, plying her with champagne. The sequence went against her image of a sophisticated composed actress by having her guzzle like a fish and laughing uncontrollably, seduced by the Parisian lifestyle. Her transformation to comedy was symbolically pictured by the hat Ninotchka spots in a store display, then proceeds to wear it. Lubitsch came up with the idea when he said to the scriptwriters, "Boys, I've got it. I've got the answer. It's the hat." Costume designer Adrian filled in the details of the sketch of the hat Garbo drew. Adrian remembered that "crazy little hat. I hope women generally don't adopt it because it wouldn't look good on anybody but Garbo." The film marked the last collaboration between the designer and the actress dating back to 1929.
Garbo claimed Lubitsch, despite being wary about his gregariousness behavior on the set, was the best director she had ever worked with. He was equally effusive about Garbo, relating, "I love to work with her. She's got no phoniness, no star allures. She is the only star I ever worked with I did not have to drag away from the mirror." Co-star actor Douglas attributed Lubitsch's ability to draw out Garbo's humor. It wasn't "so much because of any comic sense she may have had," noted Douglas, who previously appeared with Garbo in 1932's "As You Desire Me," "but the genius of Lubitsch; he knew just how to make use of the stolid Scandinavian in her."
Garbo earned her fourth Best Actress Academy Awards nomination, but Vivian Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara ruined her golden chance to be handed her first Oscar. "Ninotchka" was Garbo's second-to-last film, and her new-found comedic talents failed to click with movie goers in her next motion picture, coincidentally with Melvyn Douglas. Writer Melchi was nominated for Best Original Story as well as Wilder and Brackett for Best Screenplay. "Ninotchka" was Hollywood's first in a long line of spoofs on communist Soviet Union, with 1940's Clark Gable "Comrade X" and 1956's "The Iron Petticoat" with Bob Hope and Katherine Hepburn following Garbo's pioneering film. Cole Porter was inspired by it to base his 1955 Broadway musical "Silk Stockings," adapted into Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse's 1957 film, on its premise.
The American Film Institute ranks "Ninotchka" as the 52nd Funniest Movie Ever Made, and 40th Most Passionate Film. AFI nominated it as one of the Best Movies Ever Made, and its exchange between the serious Garbo and the carefree Douglas while crossing the street as one of Film's Best Quotes-Ninotchka: "Must you flirt?" Leon: "Well, I don't have to, but I find it natural." Ninotchka: "Suppress it." The film is also one of the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'
Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939)
Glenn Ford, Richard Conte's Film Debuts
It was bad enough the young actor in his first feature film to have a case of the jitters when he initially reported to the studio's morning shoot. But then he had to face an abusive director hurling insults at him. Such demeaning put-downs nearly unnerved Glenn Ford, 23, in his major film role debut in November 1939's "Heaven With A Barbed Wire Fence."
Ford became one of cinema's biggest box office draws of the 1940s and 1950s. He had previously appeared in only a 1937 short credited under his real name, Gwyllyn Ford, when he appeared at the 20th Century Fox studio that morning. Ricardo Cortez, an actor-turned-director, sauntered in front of the movie's actors and film crew and said, "I want you all to know they stuck me with this guy in the lead," according to Ford's son Peter in his father's biography. Cortez continued, "I didn't want him. I wanted a real actor for the thing and not some unknown amateur. I'm disgusted, but there's nothing I can do, so I ask you for your patience as we put up with him."
Cortez, going through his own personal problems, continued riding Ford throughout the shoot, telling him he had a stupid expression, exclaiming "What did I do to deserve a no-talent like you on this film." Glenn later told his son, "Every time I looked up, I saw pity in the eyes of the other people on set." He recalled cameraman Eddie Cronjager whispering to him, "Don't let the jerk get you down." Years later when Ford bumped into Cortez in a Los Angeles restaurant, the now-wildly popular actor nearly punched him in the face, but his better judgement told him to walk away.
Glenn Ford specialized in playing ordinary men caught in unusual circumstances. The Quebec, Canadian moved with his family to Southern California when he was six years old. He was active in his high school drama class and appeared in several stage plays after graduating. Appearing in the 1937 short 'Night in Manhattan,' Ford was signed to a Hollywood studio contract, and he changed his first name in honor of his father's hometown of Glenford, Alberta.
Another young actor making his film debut in "Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence" was Richard Conte, listed as Nicholas Conte in the credits. The Jersey City, New Jersey native dabbled in a series of jobs after graduating high school before he was discovered on the stage at a Connecticut resort by Elia Kazan and John Garfield. Conte, 29, was assigned to his first movie after impressing studio executives on his screen test for 1939's "Golden Boy," a role that went to William Holden. He somehow escaped the wrath of director Cortez, playing a wandering hobo who meets at a truck stop Joe (Ford) and Anita (Jean Rogers), an illegal Spanish immigrant in the states. In the Dalton Trumbo co-written script, Joe worked six years to buy a 20-acre farm in Arizona and was hitchhiking across the United States from New York City to settle there. The three decide to ride the rails, encountering a number of adventures, including an attempted rape of Anita by Hunk (Ward Bond). The three arrive at his farm, only to discover a barren stretch of desert land. Jean Rogers was one of a number of low-budgeted film actresses who appeared in Grade B movies. Her major claim to fame was playing Dale Arden in the Flash Gordon serials.
Film reviewer Jessica Pickens praised "Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence," writing the movie "packs a punch. It's funny, endearing and at other parts tragic. You'll find yourself cheering for the group of travelers, hoping that they find their 'heaven' in the end." For Glenn Ford, despite the torture working for an abusive director, it proved to be a promising beginning to a long career of film acting.
The Flying Deuces (1939)
First Non-Hal Roach Produced Laurel And Hardy Feature
For the first time since they were a comedy team, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy weren't under the watchful eye of producer and studio owner Hal Roach, who had handled the two right from their inception. Under a temporary reprieve from Roach, the pair starred in November 1939 "Flying Deuces," where their characters have inadvertently joined the French Foreign Legion. After months of Laurel and Hardy fans gnashing their teeth over rumors on their separation, the two proved otherwise, captivating the audiences with their audacious antics, military style.
Stan Laurel was at odds with Hal Roach ever since 1936's "Babes in Toyland." Roach had signed Laurel and Hardy to separate contracts, Stan by the picture, Oliver by the years. Stan was suspended by Roach for refusing to do reshoots for 1938's "Block-Heads,." The comedian countered by taking the studio owner to court. Meanwhile Oliver, still under contract, appeared in 1939's "Zenobia," a critically-bashed flop with former silent movie actor Harry Landon. While twiddling his thumbs sitting on the sidelines, Laurel met Boris Morris, a Russian-born former Broadway producer who was able to secure a distribution deal with RKO Pictures. Unbeknownst to Stan, Morris was a Soviet spy recruited by Jospeh Stalin's government five years before. Morris proposed to Roach to release both Laurel and Hardy to make one picture, that being "Flying Deuces." Roach agreed. The move squashed media reports the team was finished, which renewed interest in Laurel and Hardy's style of comedy.
Morris based part of the "Flying Deuces'" on the French farce 'Les deux legionnaires,' but there were bits of the pair's earlier film, 1931's 'Beau Hunks.' Stan and Ollie are in Paris on vacation when Hardy is rejected in his marriage proposal to an inn's daughter. After the snub, Stan and Ollie are persuaded to join the French Foreign Legion, thinking it's a paid vacation. It turns out they've enlisted for a long military commitment in a hostile land. While making "Flying Deuces," the recently-divorced Hardy met studio script supervisor Virginia Jones and proposed to her. The two remained happily married until his death in 1957.
Two musical highlights elevated "Flying Deuces" apart from the pair's later films. They perform a soft shoe dance seamlessly during one song. And Stan plays "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" on the jail's bed springs, which sounds like a harp. Harpo Marx, a good friend of Laurel, actually recorded the song on his own harp. Stan mimicked Harpo's playing while plucking the bed springs. Laurel not only acted in the film, he co-wrote the script and assisted with its editing. Edward Sutherland, who directed eccentric comedians such as his close friend W. C. Fields and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, was frustrated while dealing with Stanley. He famously said he "would rather eat a tarantula than work with Laurel again."
"Flying Deuces" was a hit for Laurel and Hardy, and Hal Roach eagerly took them back with his good graces-at least for another two movies. Film reviewer Andy Webb gushed that at "every single gag, be it a moment of visual hilarity or a subtle one liner, brings a huge smile to your face. And the comic timing is so impressive, so slick that it's hard to do justice to what a class double act Laurel and Hardy were."
Meanwhile, the movie's producer Boris Morris was recruited by the FBI, who knew of his work with the Soviets, to be a double-agent for the United States in 1947. Columbia Pictures made a movie about Morris' undercover work in the 1960 film "Man on a String." Ernest Borgnine played Morris, with the spy writing his biography's screenplay.