Classic Movie Man

“Reel People” Film Series at Facets Film School February—April

2012-02-01T18:31:00.000-06:00

Facets Film School, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave., is presenting a new midnight movie series starting February 25, 2012. “Reel People” will feature films about real people and events. A different host will introduce each movie every week. Many of the hosts are instructors at Facets. The film series features Classic Movie Man, Steve Reginald, introducing the 1950 release, Three Came Home starring Claudette Colbert on Saturday, March 17.

Mark Keuning and Claudette Colbert

Three Came Home tells the story of Oak Park, IL, native Agnes Newton Keith. The film is based on Keith’s memoirs written about her experiences as a Japanese prisoner of war on the Island of Borneo, during World War II. The film is remarkable on many levels, including a realistic and gritty performance from Colbert as Keith. Colbert, famous for her glamorous persona in romantic comedies and melodramas, is anything but glamorous as Keith.

The film, released barely five years after the end of the conflict, presents a remarkably balanced portrayal of Keith’s experiences as a prisoner of war under the Japanese. Sessue Hayakawa (Bridge on the River Kwai) lends excellent support as Colonel Suga, both Keith’s tormentor and confidant. The direction by Jean Negulesco (Johnny Belinda, Road House) is steady and true. Considered one of the most important films of the year when first released, this classic is almost forgotten today.

Admission to each film is free for Facets members, $5 for nonmembers.

Facets Multi-Media, founded in 1975, is a non-profit, 501(C)3 organization, and a leading national media arts organization. Its mission is to preserve, present, distribute, and educate about film.

Feb. 25             Lew Ojeda        Amin: The Rise and Fall (1981)
March 3            Mike Smith       I’m Not There (2007)
March 10          Chris Damen     Barfly (1987)
March 17          S. Reginald       Three Came Home (1950)
March 24          Cary Elza          Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
March 31          N. Calderone    The Bengali Detective (2011)
April 7               Joe Lewis         The Beaver Trilogy (2000)
April 14             Dom Mayer      King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
April 21             J. Wicklund       Head (1968)

Angela Lansbury: TCM Star of the Month and so much more

2012-01-25T08:35:00.000-06:00

An early studio glamor shot of Angela Lansbury

Angela Brigid Lansbury was born October 16, 1925 in Poplar, London. One of the most versatile talents to come out of Hollywood, Lansbury, now in her late 80s, has had a remarkable career that has spanned eight decades. Besides her film work, Lansbury has starred on the stage and was mystery-writing sleuth, Jessica Fletcher on TV’s Murder She Wrote for 12 years.

A Star a 18!
Lansbury’s first movie role came to her at the age of 18. She played saucy maid Nancy Oliver with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer in Gaslight. For her performance, Lansbury received an Academy Award nomination (first of three) for Best Supporting Actress. She didn’t win the award, but her movie career was on its way.

Contract Player
As a contract player at movie studio M-G-M, she was cast in a variety of roles, often in supporting roles or second leads. During the height of the studio system, movie players were often typecast and at M-G-M, Lansbury was typed as a supporting player, never the first choice as glamorous leading lady in spite of her beautiful leading-lady looks.

Stage, Film, and TV Successes
Perhaps not being given the top roles in Hollywood helped Lansbury develop into the wonderful character and stage actress she is today. Had she been a glamorous movie star, say like Lana Turner, her career might not have been as long. Who can forget Lansbury’s turns as disturbed mothers in both The Manchurian Candidate and All Fall Down, both released in 1962? And what about her award-winning stage performances in Mame and Gypsy? In spite of five Tony Award wins (a record she shares with Julie Harris) and numerous other awards, audiences around the world will probably remember Lansbury for her long-running role in TV’s Murder She Wrote. As the mystery writer from Cabot Cove, Maine, Landsbury became an icon of the genre. Not too shabby!

To learn more about Lansbury’s incredible movie career and to purchase some of her films on DVD, check out the Turner Classic Movies online shop. Lansbury is TCM’s January star of the month.

Special Screening of “Three Came Home” at Facets in March, 2012

2012-01-20T17:32:00.000-06:00

There will be a special midnight screening of Three Came Home, a true story based on the memoirs of Agnes Newton Keith, at Facets Film School in March. The exact date has not been set, so stay tuned.

Claudette Colbert plays a prisoner of war in Three Came Home.

True Story
Agnes Newton Keith was imprisoned on the island of Borneo by the Japanese during World War II. The classic film starring Claudette Colbert as Agnes and directed by Jean Negulesco will be part of Facets Night School’s “Reel People” series. If you are used to seeing Colbert in glamorous roles, this movie will be a bit of a shock. Dressed in clothes off the rack and often appearing sweaty and dirty, there is nothing glamorous about Three Came Home.

Illinois Native
Agnes was born in Oak Park, IL, and earned a degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She married Henry G. Keith (Patrick Knowles), a citizen of the United Kingdom and a childhood friend of her brother’s. Henry Keith worked for the Government of North Borneo. After Henry and Agnes were married, they settled there and had a child. A writer by profession, Agnes was the author of many books, including several about Asia and its people.

Tormentor and Confidant
When the Japanese invaded Borneo, they separated husband and wives. Men were imprisoned with men and women with women (children were imprisoned at the womens’ camp). Agnes suffered many indignities under the Japanese. She also had a unique and strange relationship with the camp’s commander, Colonel Suga, portrayed by Sessue Hayakawa in the film. He was both her tormenter and confidant.

One of the Strongest Films of the Year
The film, well received at the time of its release, is mostly forgotten today. New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther had this to say in his February 21, 1950 review: “Soundly written, sincerely directed and honestly played by Claudette Colbert and an excellent cast, this picture, which opened here last night at the Astor, bids fair to stand as one of the strongest of the year.”

Three Came Home is definitely worth viewing for its honesty and superior storytelling that avoids stereotyping. But it still packs a wallop.

The Classic Movie Man (Steve Reginald) will introduce the film at Facets Film School, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. Chicago IL 60614 800.331.6197, and conduct a Q & A afterward.

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe Marry Today: January 14,1954

2012-01-14T16:12:00.000-06:00

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio on their wedding day

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe married today in 1954. The marriage only lasted 247 days, but the two remained friends until Monroe’s death in 1962. When they met, DiMaggio was an American baseball legend and Monroe was a movie starlet about to become a major film star. DiMaggio, retired from baseball, wanted Monroe, who was 12 years his junior (Joe was 37 and Monroe was 25 when they first met), to retire from films and be his stay-at-home wife.

Tumultuous Relationship
Both DiMaggio and Monroe had a tumultuous relationship that may have included physical abuse. Had the two met in 1957 instead of 1952, things might have been different. Monroe wanted a movie career desperately and she wasn’t about to give it all up when things were finally going her way. At the end of their marriage, Monroe was in demand by top directors like Billy Wilder who directed her in The Seven Year Itch (1955).

The Second Time Around
After the two divorced, Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956. From all accounts, their union was far from a successful one. After Monroe divorced Miller in 1961, she and DiMaggio became friends and rumors abounded that the two would remarry. Both had changed. DiMaggio had mellowed and dealt with his anger and Monroe was thinking of settling down and having a family. For all his faults, DiMaggio truly loved Monroe. Monroe knew that of all the people in her life, she could always count on DiMaggio. When DiMaggio secured Monroe’s release from the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic on February 10, 1961, rumors of remarriage intensified . At the 33rd Academy Awards, host Bob Hope dedicated the Oscar-nominated song “The Second Time Around” to DiMaggio and Monroe. In August of 1962, it looked as if the two might in fact remarry. But this was not to be. Monroe was found dead on August 5, 1962. She was 36 years old.


The Yankees retired DiMaggio's Number 5	in 1952.

DiMaggio made all of Monroe’s funeral arrangements and for years had flowers sent to her grave on a weekly basis. DiMaggio never spoke about his relationship with Monroe publicly; he never exploited her name in any way. Although he was linked with other women romantically years after Monroe’s death, he never remarried. DiMaggio died on March 9, 1999. He was 84 years old.

Classic Movie Man Takes a Look at “The Artist”

2012-01-03T15:05:00.000-06:00

The 2011 release, The Artist is one-part A Star Is Born, one part Singing in the Rain, and another part The Jazz Singer. French director Michel Hazanavicius has managed to capture the look and feel of Hollywood when the movie studios were making the transition from silent films to “talkies.” During this transition, some movie stars managed to stay on top, while others faded into obscurity.

A Falling Idol
The Artist is the story of silent movie idol George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) who finds his career on the skids with the advent of sound. In contrast, young starlet Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) finds her career soaring as talkies gain acceptance with the movie-going public. The film spans the years 1927 (the year of The Jazz Singer) through 1932, the year Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s all-star (and all talking) blockbuster Grand Hotel won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

A Star is Born

Jean Dujardin as matinee idol George Valentin

The movie opens at the premier of Valentin’s latest action film A Russian Affair. While posing for photographs outside the theater, Valentin bumps into a pretty fan, Miller. A photographer snaps a picture of them together, which ends up on the cover of Variety with the headline “Who’s That Girl?” Miller uses her newfound fame and auditions for Valentin’s movie studio. Over the objections of studio boss Al Zimmer (John Goodman), she is given a bit role in Valentin’s next film at the star’s insistence. Once it’s clear that talking pictures are the future, Zimmer fires all his silent film stars, including Valentin who is convinced talkies are just a fad. In the meantime, Miller has progressed from bit roles to leads and is quickly promoted by the studio as one of its brightest new stars.

Using all his own resources, Valentin produces, directs, and stars in a silent epic that has the misfortune of opening on the same night as Miller’s latest talking picture. Miller’s film is a smash and Valentin’s is a bomb. Shortly thereafter Valentin’s wife (Penelope Ann Miller) leaves him, he goes broke, and he ends up living in a small apartment with his pet dog and faithful butler (James Cromwell). Miller, who has never forgotten his kindness toward her, buys all his possessions at an auction and keeps them in her home, unbeknownst to Valentin. In a fit of depression over his fall from grace, Valentin sets his films on fire and he almost dies. If not for his faithful dog (a cross between Lassie, Rin TinTin, and Asta) alerting a police officer, Valentin would have been lost.

Bérénice Bejo as future star Peppy Miller

Dancing Into Our Hearts
Miller takes Valentin into her home to nurse him back to health and for a time it looks like things will be alright. When Valentin discovers his possessions in storage in Miller’s Hollywood mansion, he returns to his burned out apartment and attempts to commit suicide. Miller suspecting the worst goes in search of Valentin. Finding him just in time, she convinces him all is not lost and that she loves him. Since she’s a major movie star, she insists on having Valentin costar with her in her next film, threatening to quit if Zimmer doesn’t relent.

A Plan Emerges
Remembering what a good dancer Valentin is, Miller comes up with a plan. The two perform a tap dance number for Zimmer and the movie production crew. During their number, we hear the music play and the sound from their tap shoes. Their performance is a smash and they get the go-ahead to make a movie together. Zimmer asks for one more performance and Valentin says “with pleasure,” revealing a heavy French accent.

Clever Use of Sound

Valentin at his lowest

Most of the film is silent with an accompanying sound track, but there are occasions where sound is cleverly employed. When sound movies begin to gain popularity, Valentin dreams “in sound.” The score borrows from other musical pieces and soundtracks, including a large part of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score during the film’s climax. Hazanavicius reportedly did a lot of research for The Artist, including viewing many silent films so he could copy the best techniques. The research seems to have paid off. The Artist captures the look and feel of early Hollywood and Valentin and Bejo (Hazanavicius’s wife) are enormously appealing. Valentin is a cross between Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and John Barrymore, having a profile rivaling the latter. Bejo resembles Natalie Wood and Leslie Caron. But she seems to have Wood’s camera instincts; she’s always framed just right.

Look out Fred and Ginger!

Fictional History of the Movies
In an entertaining way, Hazanavicius has given us a fictional account of the history of the movies. There were many stars like Valentin who had foreign accents and/or a poor command of the English language whose careers ended with the advent of sound. Executives at M-G-M were extremely nervous when Greta Garbo spoke her first words in Anna Christie (1930). “Garbo Talks” they announced in pre-publicity for the film, but studio heads weren’t sure how audiences would react to her Swedish accent. They loved Garbo, of course, but not all silent film stars were so fortunate. When Valentin reveals his French accent, it’s clear he understood it could work against him in the new world of talking pictures. But just like in the movies, with the love and support of a woman like Peppy Miller, George Valentin’s career lives once again. For classic movie fans, The Artist is a rare treat in today’s motion picture landscape. Give it a try!

Happy New Year from Classic Movie Man

2011-12-31T23:00:00.000-06:00

Bing Crosby, Marjorie Reynolds, Fred Astair, and Virginia Dale in Holiday Inn (1942)

Classic Movie Man’s Top Posts of 2011

2011-12-30T10:00:00.000-06:00

The Year in Review
As 2011 comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to revisit the top-ten posts of the year. We lost some classic movie legends, including Elizabeth Taylor and Farley Granger. This year, Classic Movie Man taught another film class at Facets Film School: Elegant and Madcap: The Incredible Versatility of Irene Dunne. It was great fun introducing this remarkable actress and movie star to folks who were not familiar with her body of work.

Below are the top-ten Classic Movie Man posts for 2011. Are any of your favorites on this list?

Number 10—Classic Movie Man’s Guilty Pleasure: “Devotion” This fictionalization of the lives of the Brontë sisters was short on the facts (according to critics of the day), but is great melodrama with Ida Lupino as Emily and Olivia de Haviland as Charlotte. Paul Henried, Nancy Coleman, and Arthur Kennedy round out the talented cast. The film score by Erich Wolfgand Korngold is lush and beautiful, as is the movie’s overall production.

Number 9—Jeanne Crain: More Than Just a Pretty Face. A personal favorite of mine, Crain was one of the most popular movie stars during the late-1940s to early-1950s. So popular was Crain that when she passed away in 2003, Turner Classic Movies’ Robert Osborn called her “the Julia Roberts of the day.” She appeared in some great films, including A Letter to Three Wives, Apartment for Peggy, and Pinky, the latter earning Crain her only Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Fred MacMurray

Number 8—Farley Granger, star of Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train.” Granger was a product of the Hollywood dream factory. Plucked from obscurity and signed to a movie contract by Samuel Goldwyn, he was featured in some popular films during the mid-1940s like The Purple Heart and The North Star. While under contract to Goldwyn, Granger’s best roles were a result of being loaned out to other studios. Two of his most famous films, Rope and Strangers on a Train both directed by Alfred Hitchcock, were made on loan to Warner Bros.

Number 7—Fred MacMurray: Nice-Guy Movie Star. Mostly remembered today for his iconic TV role as Steven Douglas in My Three Sons, MacMurray had a substantial movie career. In fact, MacMurray was the highest paid movie star in the world in 1943.

Number 6—Ida Lupino: A Lasting Legacy in Hollywood. Lupino not only was a great movie star, but she was a writer, director, and producer of independent films in the late-1940s and 50s. She was one of the only women directors working in Hollywood, directing classic TV episodes of The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and The Untouchables. In 1966, Lupino finally got a big budget production to direct: The classic comedy The Trouble With Angels starring Rosalind Russell and Halley Mills.

Number 5—Classic Movie Man’s Guilty Pleasure: “Elephant Walk.” This action-adventure melodrama starred a very young Elizabeth Taylor, Dana Andrews, and Peter Finch. Released in 1954, the main action takes place on a Ceylon tea plantation run by Finch. Feeling neglected, Taylor turns to overseer Andrews. Some great color cinematography and those stampeding elephants make this a fun movie to watch.

A lovely studio portrait of the very lovely Joan Bennett

Number 4—“Jane Eyre”: A Golden Age Classic. One of my favorite classic films, I thought a review was in order when a new version by director Cary Fukunaga released this past spring. Featuring beatuiful black and white cinematography and a wonderful performance from Joan Fontaine as Jane. Orson Welles is a little over-the-top as Rochester, but it doesn’t take anything away from the overall production. It also features a young unbilled Elizabeth Taylor as Jane’s doomed childhood friend Helen.

Number 3—Joan Bennett: Almost Scarlet O’Hara, But Always a Star. Bennett almost snagged the role of Scarlet O’Hara, but she got over that disappointment fairly quickly. She starred in musicals, comedies, and dramas, becoming one of the screen’s great femme fatales. Bennett gave terrific performances in three films directed by Fritz Lang: Man Hunt, Scarlet Street, and The Woman in the Window. After her movie glory days were over, she became a pop-culture icon as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard in daytime TV’s Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. She was also one of the few actresses who could realistically play mother to Elizabeth Taylor (she physically looked as beautiful). She did this twice in Father of the Bride and Father’s Little Dividend.

Elizabeth Taylor

Number 2—This Island Earth: 1950s Science Fiction Classic. One of the best flying saucer flicks, the film benefits from a decent script, great special effects, and more than competent performances by the three lead performers: Rex Reason, Faith Domergue, and Jeff Morrow.

Number 1—Elizabeth Taylor: Born To Be a Star. With Taylor’s passing, an era passed with her. One of the last great movie stars to come out of the studio system, she epitomized Hollywood style and glamour. Her beautiful looks notwithstanding, Taylor gave some memorable screen performances and won two Best Actress Academy Awards during her long career. As famous for her well-publicized off-screen life, she was the quintessential movie star.

Thanks for reading the Classic Movie Man blog in 2011. I hope you’ll continue to read and follow this blog into 2012 and beyond!

Merry Christmas from Classic Movie Man

2011-12-24T01:00:00.000-06:00

Jeanne Crain and Farley Granger dream of Christmas in “The Gift of the Magi” from O. Henry’s Full House (1952)

Remembering Irene Dunne in “I Remember Mama”

2011-12-20T13:13:00.000-06:00

In 1948, Irene Dunne was a very youthful looking 50-year-old actress. When she made I Remember Mama, Dunne was fitted with padding to make her appear overweight and makeup was applied to make her look older. It’s hard to believe that Dunne wasn’t the first choice for Marta Hanson because her performance as the matriarch of a clan of Norwegian Americans is one of the great screen characterizations of all time.

I Still Want To Be Left Alone
Before Dunne signed on to the project, the property had been bought with hopes of coaxing Greta Garbo out of retirement. Garbo had also turned down Alfred Hickcock around the same time she was being considered for I Remember Mama. Hickcock wanted Garbo to play a murderess in The Paradine Case (1948). She supposedly said “No murderesses, no mamas” and remained in retirement. Marlene Dietrich expressed interest in the role, but producers didn’t think she had enough warmth to portray the character effectively. When Dunne was onboard, everything fell into place.

Director, George Stevens

George Stevens at the Helm
I Remember Mama was director George Stevens’s first major production since The More The Merrier (1943). Having served overseas during World War II, observing and filming the liberation of several Nazi death camps, Stevens wanted to return to a simpler time. Stevens was one of the top directors of his day. He directed Gunga Din (1939), Penny Serenade (1941), and Woman of the Year (1942).

The Most Perfect Picture in Years
Based on the play by John Van Druten, which was based on the short story, Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes, it recounts the trials and tribulations of the Hanson family in the San Francisco of the 1910s. For her role, Dunne studied with a dialogue coach to get her accent just right. Supposedly, she stayed in character while she was filming, speaking to friends and family in her newly acquired Norwegian accent. On screen, Dunne is completely lost in her characterization. There is no artifice or anything untrue in her portrayal of Marta. In his New York Times review, Bosley Crowther said this about Dunne’s performance: “As Mama, the wheelhorse of the family, Irene Dunne does a beautiful job, in a blonde, braided wig and in dresses which actually appear to be worn. Handling with equal facility an accent and a troubled look, Miss Dunne has the strength and vitality, yet the softness, that the role requires.” Michael Curtiz, the Academy Award winning director of Casablanca said I Remember Mama was “…the most perfect picture in years…”

Last Great Role


Philip Dorn, Barbara Bel Geddes, Steve Brown, and Dunne

For this, her last great screen role, Dunne received her fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. The film was nominated for four more awards, but was shut out in every category.The Best Actress race of 1949 was a competitive one. The other actresses in the running included Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc, Olivia de Haviland in The Snake Pit, Barbara Stanwyck in Sorry Wrong Number, and eventual winner, Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda.

Lasting Legacy
Dunne would end her career without that coveted Oscar, but she left us with an extraordinary film legacy as a testament to her unique talents.

Classic Movie Man’s Favorite Christmas Movies: 2011 Edition

2011-12-20T02:00:00.000-06:00

Last year I put together a short list of Christmas movie favorites (see Classic Movie Man’s Favorite Christmas Movies). So I decided to put together another list for 2011. This year’s list includes some movies that you may not identify as Christmas movies, but they all include pivotal climatic holiday scenes and often show up during this time of year. The movies are listed below in order of their respective release dates.

Babes in Toyland—1934 This Laurel and Hardy classic also known as March of the Wooden Soldiers, was a favorite of mine as a kid. The “boys” are at their comic best in this interpretation of the Victor Herbert operetta. All the Mother Goose characters are here, including Bo-Peep, Tom-Tom, The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe, and Mother Goose herself. Santa Claus makes an appearance, checking up on an order with the toy maker. Due to a misunderstanding the soldiers Santa ordered were mistakenly made life-size and too big for children to play with, which forces the jolly old man to cancel his order. But it’s these giant toy soldiers that save the day at the end.

Heidi—1937 This Shirley Temple classic includes a climatic scene toward the end of the film that takes place during Christmas. Loosely based on the Swiss literature classic by Johanna Spyri, Heidi was originally released on October 15, 1937. One of Temple’s best and most popular films, it has a wonderful message about redemptive love and reconciliation. Jean Hersholt’s characterization as The Grandfather is perfect. He makes the transition from a gruff and bitter man into Heidi’s kind and gentle protector most touching. The film also includes Temple movie mainstays Mary Nash as the evil Fräulein Rottenmeier, Marcia Mae Joes as Klara, and Arthur Treacher as Andrews, the butler, of course.

Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart

The Shop Around The Corner—1940 Legendary film director Ernst Lubitsch’s classic stars Margaret Sullivan and James Stewart as battling coworkers in a Budapest shop. They fall in love when they start corresponding through letters, after answering ads in the newspaper’s lonelyhearts section. Of course Sullivan and Stewart don’t know the true identities of their loves, which makes for some wonderful situations. Never mind that everyone in Budapest sounds like they’re from California, this movie has a warmth and charm that neither remakes, In The Good Old Summertime and You’ve Got Mail, came even close to capturing. For good measure we have the irrepressible Frank Morgan as shopkeeper Mr. Matuschek.

Remember the Night—1940 Tough girl Barbara Stanwyck gets caught shoplifting a bracelet during the Christmas holiday season and is arrested. Fred MacMurray, the prosecuting attorney, postpones the trial until after Christmas and bails Stanwyck out, rather than have her spend the holiday in jail. MacMurray then volunteers to drive Stanwyck to her mother’s house. When Stanwyck’s mother gives her the cold shoulder, MacMurray brings her to his mother’s home to spend the holiday, where she is warmly received. A wonderful romantic melodrama, Remember the Night was written by Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve) and directed by the underrated Mitchell Leisen (Hands Across the Table). An edearing film that demonstrates the power of love and its ability to redeem and transform.

Meet John Doe—1941This lesser-known Frank Capra classic stars Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell a crafty newspaper columnist who creates an everyman character, John Doe. Doe pledges to jump off of the roof of city hall on Christmas Eve, to protest all the injustice in the world. Gary Cooper plays John Doe, handpicked by Mitchell to perpetuate her newspaper column and her job. The column, and the sentiment expressed in it is such a hit with the public that John Doe clubs start forming, making Doe a national figure. Double-crossed by a corrupt newspaper tycoon (Edward Arnold), Doe is disgraced and makes his way to the roof of city hall on Christmas Eve. Will he jump? You’ll have to find out for yourself. Cooper and Stanwyck had a great 1941. They costarred again in the Howard Hawks classic Ball of Fire and Stanwyck starred in the Preston Sturges classic, The Lady Eve. Cooper won the first of his two Oscars for Sergent York. Available in a 70th Anniversary two-disc DVD, Meet John Doe never looked better.

Penny Serenade—1941 The third and last pairing of screen legends Irene Dunne and Cary Grant is a tear-jerking melodrama, which was a change of pace from the rollicking comedies they made together in 1937 and 1940. The movie told in flashback, begins with Julie Adams (Dunne) packing up her belongings, in preparation to leave her husband, while listening to old recordings on the phonograph. With each familiar tune, she thinks back to the early years of her marriage and happier times. After it is revealed that Julie cannot have children, she and her husband Roger (Grant) adopt a little girl. Tragedy strikes right before Christmas and it tears the couple apart. Directed by Academy Award winner George Stevens, the movie still packs an emotional punch. Grant’s performance earned him his first Best Actor Academy Award nomination. The film also costars the great character actors Beulah Bondi (wonderful as a sympathetic social worker) and Edgar Buchanan. If you’re not crying by the end of this film, you’re dead!

Holiday Inn—1942 Another favorite from my childhood, the movie revolves around friends and entertainers Jim Hardy (Bing Crosby) and Ted Hanover (Fred Astaire) and their professional and romantic entanglements. After Jim’s girlfriend Lila Dixon (Virginia Dale) throws him over for Ted, Jim decides to retire to a Connecticut inn open only during public holidays. Jim hires Linda Mason (Marjorie Reynolds) to work as an entertainer at the inn and a romance quickly develops. This is the movie that launched the song “White Christmas,” which became the biggest selling Christmas song of all time. This film isn’t shown on TCM because it contains a minstrel number, “Abraham” where Crosby and Reynolds appear in blackface. It’s uncomfortable to watch today, but it’s a unfortunate part of our history. The future holiday classic, White Christmas (1954) was a loose remake of this film.

Since You Went Away—1944 Another film not necessarily associated with Christmas, this war-time classic boast an all-star cast featuring Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore, Montey Wooley, Robert Walker, and Hattie McDaniel. The film begins in early January and ends in late December 1943. Concentrating on the Hilton family as they keep the home fires burning while its matriarch’s (Colbert) husband is fighting overseas. The film is at times sentimental, but at others is brutally honest about the emotional toll of war, separation, and loneliness. The film has a very moving scene between Ann Hilton (Colbert) and fellow factory worker Zofia Koslowska, a Europen émigré, played by silent-screen legend Alla Nazimova. Zofia details her emigration to the United States and how in spite of the tragedy of war, her life is still so much better than it was in the war-torn land of her birth. The end of the film ends on an inspirational note during Christmas to encourage wartime moviegoers, but the message of courage and hope still resonates—maybe even more so—today.

It Happened On 5th Avenue—1947 This minor classic hasn’t benefited from annual showings on TV to build its reputation, but it is an interesting and engaging film. Frank Capra had intended to film this story, but decided he couldn’t film two movies centered around Christmas in the same year, so he opted to make just one, It’s A Wonderful Life. It Happened On 5th Avenue is about a hobo named Aloyisius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) who lives in a boarded up Manhattan mansion during the winter while the owner, Michael J. O’Connor (Charles Ruggles), the second richest man in the world, moves down south for the season. McKeever meets a homeless World War II veteran, Jim Bullock (Don DeFore), recently kicked out of his apartment. Aloyisius feels sorry for Jim and decides to take him “home.” O’Connor’s daughter, Trudy (Gale Storm) unhappy at finishing school, runs away and returns to the boarded up New York City mansion. Both Aloyisius and Jim think she’s a crook out to steal a mink coat. Not wanting to get her father involved and possibly sent back to school, Trudy confesses to being a girl down on her luck and in need of some nice clothes for a job interview. The three become fast friends and decide to invite two homeless families with children to live with them. Before you know it, Trudy’s mother, Mary O’Connor (Ann Harding) is living in the mansion too, disguised as a cook, along with her estranged husband, Michael, now pretending to be another hobo. The plot is incredible, but the cast of pros make it all work somehow. Don Defore and Gale Storm would go on to TV immortality as Mr. Baxter in Hazel and Margie Albright in My Little Margie respectively.

Holiday Affair—1949 Not a big hit when first released, it’s become something of a classic today, due in part to the curiosity surrounding the change-of-pace role for tough-guy Robert Mitchum and repeated showings on TCM. Fresh-faced Janet Leigh costars as war widow, Connie Ennis, with a young son (Gordon Gebert) to support. Connie, a comparative shopper, buys an electric train set from salesman and army veteran, Steve Mason (Mitchum). Connie returns it the next day for a refund, which results in Steve being fired. Connie’s long-term relationship with lawyer Carl Davis (Wendell Corey) is complicated when she finds herself attracted to Steve. Similar to Miracle on 34th Street in some ways, the film benefits from the good chemistry between Leigh and Gebert as mother and son.

Of course there are more Christmas movies, but that’s what the 2012 list is for! Please feel free to share you favorites here and Merry Christmas!

Irene Dunne in “The White Cliffs of Dover”

2011-12-14T12:45:00.000-06:00

By 1944, Irene Dunne was one of the top female stars in Hollywood. A four-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actress, she was in demand by all the major Hollywood studios. In 1943, Dunne signed on to star in a picture at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. A Guy Named Joe paired the actress with Spencer Tracy and a young newcomer named Van Johnson. During filming Johnson was involved in a serious car accident. Dunne and Tracy didn’t want to replace Johnson, so production was delayed while he recuperated. Since Dunne was already on the lot, M-G-M scooped her up for The White Cliffs of Dover.

Verse Novel Source for Film
The White Cliffs of Dover is based on a verse novel The White Cliffs by Alice Duer Miller published in 1940. The novel was an instant success and sold almost a million copies. Duer Miller was a popular writer and screenwriter. In fact one of her stories was made into the musical Roberta starring Dunne in 1935.

War-Time Romance

Elizabeth Taylor and Roddy McDowell

The White Cliffs of Dover focuses on a young American woman, Susan Dunn, played by Dunne and her father (the irascible Frank Morgan) who are touring London before the outbreak of World War I. She meets a young British aristocrat and army officer, Sir John Asherwood (Alan Marshall). After a whirlwind courtship they marry, but their honeymoon and marriage is cut short. Susan Dunn Asherwood remains in her adopted country and has a son, John Jr.

Serene and Dignified
The film is told in flashback as Dunne’s character recalls her younger days, while serving as a nurse during World War II. At the beginning of the movie, Dunne plays a young girl of 20, which was quite a stretch since she was 46 years old when the film was released. Even though it’s obvious that Dunne isn’t in her 20s, she captures the spirit of a young woman in both her mannerisms and speech. As the older woman, Dunne is serene and dignified. In his May 12, 1944 review of the film, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther said, “Miss Dunne gives to her character a nice glow of American charm...”

Alan Marshall and Dunne

Like Mrs. Miniver (1942), The White Cliffs of Dover was popular with wartime audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. The novel on which it is based, cemented the relationship between the United States and The United Kingdom, during the war years. The movie cost $2,343,000 to produce, earned $4,045,000 in the U.S. and another $2,249,00 in foreign receipts making it a blockbuster hit and a good choice as the M-G-M 20th Anniversary film.

In a famous photograph of M-G-M movie stars, commemorating its 20th anniversary, Dunne, technically not a studio contract player, is seated in the front row two seats to the left of studio chief, Louis B. Mayer. It’s a tribute to Dunne’s popularity (and Mayer’s keen marketing sense) that she was included in this iconic image.

More stars than are in the heavens: M-G -M celebrates 20 years.
Dunne is in the front row fourth from right.

This post corresponds with the class Elegant and Madcap: The Incredible Versatility of Irene Dunne—Class starts November 16, 2011. Meets on Wednesdays from 7p.m. - 10 p.m. for six weeks. Classes are held at Facets Film School on Fullerton Ave. in Chicago, IL.

Re-Dunne: Original Irene Dunne Films Remade

2011-12-10T20:49:00.001-06:00

Rex Harrison and Dunne in Anna and the King of Siam

A few weeks ago, a Twitter friend of mine Bobby Rivers, (@BobbyRiversTV) and I were talking movies, specifically, Irene Dunne movies. He remarked that it is amazing how many of Dunne’s movies have been remade. We started trading movie titles and compiled quite a list. I thought the list was long enough that it was worthy of a blog post.

An Incredible Body of Work
Dunne, one of the movie screen’s great actresses, left an incredible body of film work. Many of the films she starred in are considered classics or near classics today. Dunne started working in films at the beginning of the sound era. Some of the films she made were remakes of silent films, but most of the movies she starred in were not remakes, but properties tailored specifically for her talents.

Dunne and John Boles starred in the 1932 version.

Let’s Do It Again
Movies are remade for a few reasons. One reason is it’s easier to go with a known property than to create something from scratch. Another reason is to update a popular film using new technology like color photography to make it palatable to a younger generation of filmgoers. Since I’m the Classic Movie Man, I generally prefer originals as opposed to remakes. And most of Dunne’s versions hold up and are in most cases superior to the remakes, in my opinion.

Below is a list of Dunne’s films that were remade and the actresses who starred in the roles Dunne originated.

Cimarron* 1931 (1960-Maria Schell)
Back Street 1932 (1941-Margaret Sullivan; 1961-Susan Hayward)
The Age of Innocence 1934 (1993-Michelle Pfeiffer)
Roberta 1935 (1952-Kathryn Grayson; remade as Lovely to Look At)

The 1936 version featured Paul Robeson singing “Ol’ Man River.”

Magnificent Obsession 1935 (1954-Jane Wyman*)
Show Boat 1936 (1951-Kathryn Grayson)
The Awful Truth* 1937 (1953-Jane Wyman; remade as Let’s Do it Again)
Love Affair* 1939 (1957-Deborah Kerr, remade as An Affair to Remember; 1994-Annette Benning)
My Favorite Wife 1940 (1962-Doris Day; remade as Move Over Darling)
A Guy Named Joe 1943 (1989-Holly Hunter; remade as Always)
Anna and the King of Siam 1946 (1956-Deborah Kerr*; remade as The King and I; 1999-Jodie Foster remade as Anna and the King)

If you want to learn more about movies, TV, and pop culture, you should follow Bobby Rivers on Twitter and find him on Facebook. Rivers was one of the original VH1 hosts and has been an entertainment reporter for ABC News.

*Academy Award nominations for Best Actress

This post corresponds with the class Elegant and Madcap: The Incredible Versatility of Irene Dunne—Class starts November 16, 2011. Meets on Wednesdays from 7p.m. - 10 p.m. for six weeks. Classes are held at Facets Film School on Fullerton Ave. in Chicago, IL.

Facets Holiday Warehouse Sale this Saturday and Sunday!

2011-12-09T12:50:00.001-06:00

Thousands of releases from small, independent labels and major studios alike, discounted up to 90% off. Rub shoulders with fellow Chicago cinephiles as you uncover hidden movie treasures at unbeatable prices.

Sounds like a dream come true for movie fans. For more information, visit the Facets Web site by clicking here.

The Not So Awful Truth About “The Awful Truth”

2011-12-06T13:06:00.001-06:00

In 1937, Irene Dunne was at the height of her career. The year before, Dunne received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for Theodora Goes Wild, a comedy role she was reluctant to take. Not only was that picture a critical success for Dunne, but a huge box office hit for Columbia Pictures. So it wasn’t a surprise that the next picture she would make for the studio would be another comedy.

From Stage To Screen
The Awful Truth was based on a play by Arthur Richman and brought to the screen with the aid of screenwriter Vina Delmar and Theodora Goes Wild screenwriter, Sidney Buchman, who went uncredited. Teamed with Dunne for the first time was Cary Grant. Grant was quickly becoming a top leading man in Hollywood, but his pairing with Dunne was inspired and their on-screen chemistry delighted movie-going audiences. B.R. Crisler writing in his New York Times review said, “Miss Dunne and Mr. Grant, as the couple...have fun with their roles, and the pleasure seems to be shared, on the whole, by the [Radio City] Music Hall audience.”

What Is The Awful Truth
The plot revolves around the marital woes of Lucy (Dunne) and Jerry (Grant) Warriner. Each becomes suspicious of the others’ marital fidelity, which eventually leads them to divorce court. After the divorce, Lucy and Jerry are consumed with foiling each others’ new romantic interests. Is the awful truth the fact that Lucy and Jerry are still in love?

Get Me Out Of This Picture

Irene Dunne and Cary Grant

Like Dunne in the previous year’s Theodora Goes Wild, Grant wasn’t too happy working on this film. Director Leo McCarey’s working style didn’t sit well with Grant and he tried to get out of the movie, even going so far as requesting he swap roles with supporting player Ralph Bellamy! McCarey liked to get spontaneous performances out of his cast, which meant a lot of on-set improvising, which Grant found unsettling. Eventually things worked out for all concerned. Ironically, this is the movie that catapulted Grant to superstar status and is responsible for the Grant movie persona beloved by generations of moviegoers.

Comedy Triumph
For Dunne, The Awful Truth was a delightful experience. She loved working with both McCarey (who became a personal friend) and Grant. Professionally, it was another triumph. Once again, the critics raved about her and the film. And once again she was nominated for Best Actress by the Motion Picture Academy. If there was any doubt about Dunne’s comedy chops, they were all dispelled when the film was first released on October 21, 1937. Dunne and Grant would go on to star in two other popular films: the comedy My Favorite Wife (1940) and the melodrama Penny Serenade (1941).

Award Winner
The Awful Truth was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor. McCarey won the only Oscar for his direction and insured his place in motion picture history.

Lasting Legacy
In 2000, the American Film Institute listed The Awful Truth at #68 on its list of 100 Years…100 Laughs. In 2002, the AFI listed it at #77 on the 100 Years…100 Passions list.

This post corresponds with the class Elegant and Madcap: The Incredible Versatility of Irene Dunne—Class starts November 16, 2011. Meets on Wednesdays from 7p.m. - 10 p.m. for six weeks. Classes are held at Facets Film School on Fullerton Ave. in Chicago, IL.

Irene Dunne Goes "Wild" and Reaches New Heights in Comedy Role

2011-11-27T12:12:00.001-06:00

A Forgotten Comedy Classic
After almost a decade of starring in popular melodramas, Irene Dunne reluctantly starred in the comedy Theodora Goes Wild (1936). Dunne had established herself as a dramatic actress with great success and she wasn’t inclined toward comedy. When Theodora Goes Wild was released, it was an instant hit with the public and launched a new phase in Dunne’s film career. Overnight she became one of the movie’s top comic actresses, surprising not only the movie-going public, but Dunne herself.

Two-Picture Deal
Theodora Goes Wild was the first of two movies Dunne was committed to making at Columbia Pictures after she left RKO. As an independent movie star, not under exclusive contract to a major studio, she was reluctant to star in a comedy and perhaps risk her standing as a top movie star. So reluctant was Dunne to star in Theodora Goes Wild that she stayed an extra month on a European vacation hoping the executives at Columbia would cast another actress. When Columbia threatened legal action, Dunne relented.

She Sings, She Dances, She Romances
As Theodora Lynn, Dunne gets to utilize all her talents. Before heading to Hollywood, the actress graduated with honors from the Chicago Musical College (now Roosevelt University). As Theodora Lynn, she gets to sing, play the organ and piano, all skills she obtained while studying music.

Small Town Girl
Theodora hails from Lynnfield, Connecticut, and was raised by two maiden aunts who just happen to be the town’s leading citizens. Unbeknownst to her aunts and the town is Theodora’s secret life as bestselling author Caroline Adams. The Lover, written by Theodora is too hot for the town’s Literary Circle, of which Theodora and her aunts are members.

The Artist As A Young Man
Theodora meets artist Michael Grant (Melvin Douglas) who challenges her to break out of her shell and to get out from underneath the town of Lynnfield. Grant has his own problems, however. Stuck in a loveless marriage because of his family’s position and political connections, he’s hardly the person to tell anyone how they should live their life. When Theodora learns about Michael’s predicament, she puts a plan in motion to free him.

Wild Success

Irene Dunne and Melvin Douglas

When released, Theodora Goes Wild was a critical and box office success, propelling Dunne to even greater popularity. The film earned Dunne her second Best Actress Academy Award nomination, five years after her first for Cimarron. Nineteen thirty-six was a very competitive year for screwball comedy films. The classics My Man Godfrey and Mr. Deeds Goes To Town were released that same year to similar acclaim and box office success.

Holds Up Well
Although not as well known as other screwball comedies today, Theodora Goes Wild holds up remarkably well. The more I view it, the more impressed I am. Director Richard Boleslawski, who passed away a year after the film was released, expertly paced Theodora Goes Wild and got great performances out of the more than competent cast. Go “wild” with Theodora. You won’t be disappointed.

This post corresponds with the class Elegant and Madcap: The Incredible Versatility of Irene Dunne—Class starts November 16, 2011. Meets on Wednesdays from 7p.m. - 10 p.m. for six weeks. Classes are held at Facets Film School on Fullerton Ave. in Chicago, IL.

"Miracle on 34th Street" Kicks off the Holiday Movie Season

2011-11-24T06:00:00.001-06:00

Natalie Wood and Maureen O'Hara

Does Macy's tell Gimbels?
Miracle on 34th Street, starring Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, and Natalie Wood is a true holiday classic. Released in 1947, the movie boasts some terrific location shots of New York City during the late 1940s, including interior and exteriors of the landmark Macy's department store located near Times Square.

On Location in New York City
Twentieth Century Fox film studios actually filmed the real Macy's Day Parade to lend authenticity to the production. O'Hara and Gwenn are right in the middle of all the action along the parade route which starts at 77th St. and Central Park West to Columbus Circle (59th St.), continues up Broadway to 34th St., turning at Macy's Herald Square, and ending at Seventh Ave. The Macy's Day Parade is a New York tradition that started in 1924.

Prince Charming was a rat!
The story centers around Doris Walker (O'Hara) as a busy Macy's executive and single mother trying to raise her young daughter, Susan (Wood). O'Hara believes in always being truthful with her daughter and considers myths like Santa Claus harmful. She thinks that filling up her daughter's head with a bunch of fairy stories paints an unrealistic portrait of life and leads to disappointment and heartache in adulthood. What Doris doesn't realize is that it's her own bitterness and disappointment that is driving most of her parenting decisions.

John Payne, Wood, and Edmund Gwenn

Enter an eager, young lawyer, Fred Gailey (Payne), who challenges Susan first and then Doris to believe in something bigger than themselves. When Fred finds himself proclaiming a kind, old gentleman (Gwenn) as the one and only Santa Claus in a New York City courtroom, the city and its colorful inhabitants get swept up in the spectacle.

Honored Classic
Winner of three Academy Awards, including one for Best Writing, Screenplay (George Seaton), Best Writing, Original Story (Valentine Davies), and Best Supporting Actor (Gwenn), Miracle on 34th Street is a classic for all seasons.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Classic Movie Man!

2011-11-24T02:00:00.000-06:00

Jeanne Crain has an ax to grind with one turkey in particular.

Irene Dunne Comes of "Age" as Edith Wharton's Famous Heroine

2011-11-22T09:55:00.001-06:00

The Queen Takes Her Throne
By the mid-1930s, Irene Dunne’s career was in an upward arch. She was one of RKO Studio’s biggest and most dependable players, starring in four pictures per year on average. After her breakout performance in Cimarron (1931), Dunne starred in the classic tearjerker, Back Street (1932), based on the popular best-selling novel by Fannie Hurst. The film was a critical and box office success. Dunne went on to star in a string of popular melodramas, earning the title “Queen of the Weepies” by the motion picture press.

Manhattan Manners
In 1934, Dunne replaced Katherine Hepburn as Countess Ellen Olenska in the first talking-picture adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel The Age of Innocence published in 1920. The period piece also starred John Boles, Dunne’s costar from Back Street. RKO borrowed Boles from Fox Studios, hoping lighting would strike twice by pairing him once again with Dunne. The film tackles the peculiar manners and mores of upper class New York Society during the latter part of the nineteenth century. It follows Wharton’s narrative fairly closely, but according to the film’s credits, it is also partially based on a play by Margaret Ayer Barnes.

Divorced Lives

First Edition of the novel

The plot concerns Ellen and her attempts to seek a divorce from her European husband with whom she has become estranged. On a visit to see her American relatives, news of her planned divorce is received as well as her unexpected arrival in New York. Ellen’s family will do just about anything to avoid even the hint of scandal so they enlist the aid of lawyer and old family friend, Newland Archer (Boles) to convince the Countess that divorce would be a terrible mistake. Newland sympathizes with Ellen, but gives in to social and family pressures to convince her not to go through with the divorce.

Disengaged Engagement
Newland is engaged to be married to Ellen’s cousin, May Welland (Julia Haydon). Newland knew Ellen growing up, but barely remembers her. At Newland and May’s engagement party, Ellen tells Newland a story from their childhood to jar his memory. Almost at once, Newland is smitten with Ellen and finds himself conflicted in his relationship with May.

Newland encourages May and her family to move up the date of the wedding rather than face his feelings and potential scandal. He marries May, but his love for Ellen grows stronger. Ellen loves Newland, but she too, understands the code of conduct that runs New York society. She also loves her cousin and wouldn’t do anything to purposely hurt her.

John Boles between takes

Wharton’s Ambivalence
Edith Wharton was born into New York society before World War I. When she was 23, she married Edward (Teddy) Robbins Wharton, who was 12 years her senior. He was her equal in the society circles of the day, but they had little else in common. Wharton’s husband suffered from depression that eventually turned into mental illness that was considered incurable. When she divorced him in 1913, Wharton came under heavy criticism. Wharton understood the pressures put on both men and women during the 1870s. Although one may speculate the author’s true feelings about the sanctity of marriage and upper class propriety, Wharton never seems to agree with or condemn Newland or Ellen for their actions (or inaction). The film version does a good job interpreting Wharton’s ambivalence, which makes it rife for discussion.

Modest Success
Although not the blockbuster RKO had hoped for, The Age of Innocence did respectable business and garnered decent reviews. Once again, Dunne’s performance was praised and holds up well today. Film critic Leonard Malton in his review of the film said, “Dunne gives a luminous and touching performance.” Other members of the cast giving good performances are Haydon as May, Laura Hope Crews as May’s mother, Mrs. Welland, and Helen Westley as Granny Mignott.

Boles and Irene Dunne

In 1993, Martin Scorsese filmed a sumptuous interpretation of the Wharton classic starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland Archer, Michelle Pfeiffer As Ellen, and Winona Ryder as May.

Gone With the Wind Connection: It’s hard to compare the 1934 version of The Age of Innocence with the Civil War drama, GWTW, but if you take a look at the Age of Innocence’s film credits, you will see that they do share some remarkable things in common. First the cast: Laura Hope Crews would go on to screen immortality portraying Scarlett’s Aunt Pittypat. The gowns that Irene Dunne wore were designed by Walter Plunkett, the designer of all the costumes for GWTW. And last , but not least, the music was adapted by the legendary Max Steiner, who composed “Tara’s Theme.”

This post corresponds with the class Elegant and Madcap: The Incredible Versatility of Irene Dunne—Class starts November 16, 2011. Meets on Wednesdays from 7p.m. - 10 p.m. for six weeks. Classes are held at Facets Film School on Fullerton Ave. in Chicago, IL.

Classic Films in Context: Cimarron 1931

2011-11-03T17:17:00.000-05:00

First edition of the classic

In 1929, author Edna Ferber (1885 – 1968) published a colossal bestseller about the settling of what would eventually become Oklahoma. Ferber, who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, saw first-hand the settling and development of the West. Her parents and grandparents moved west from New York before her birth and had many tales to tell about their journey. When Cimarron was first published in 1929, it was a hot property that the Hollywood studios all wanted to film. RKO outbid its rivals and purchased the film rights to the novel for $125,000, a remarkable figure today, an enormous amount of money during the Great Depression.

Over 5000 Extras!
The film and novel begin with the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. To recreate this scene, RKO employed over 5,000 extras and 28 cameramen to capture all the action. The film had a then staggering $1.5 million budget. Cimarron was in production only three years after the introduction of talking pictures—barely 40 years after the real Land Rush—and it is a mix of acting techniques. Matinee idol Richard Dix’s performance is very theatrical and broad by today’s standards. However, when first released, The New York Times’s Mordaunt Hall praised the actor for his “fine impersonation of [Yancey] Cravat.” Irene Dunne, in only her second film, gives a more naturalistic performance as Dix’s wife Sabra. In the same review, Hall called Dunne’s performance “excellent.” The stars’ performances were good enough for both to earn nominations for Best Actor and Actress of 1931 come Oscar time.

Strong Heroines

Ferber’s novels often featured strong female heroines who dealt with complicated issues like racism, prejudice, and discrimination. Cimarron was no exception. Ferber’s father was a Hungarian-born Jew, so she understood prejudice first-hand. In Cimarron, Ferber acknowledges the raw deal the Native Americans got, and the film version acknowledges this as well. Unfortunately, by today’s standards, many of the characterizations in the film are uncomfortable for today’s viewers, although they were perfectly acceptable, if not ground-breaking, for “a keenly interested audience” as Hall noted in his January 27, 1931 review.

Amazing Production
From a production standpoint, it still impresses. The opening Land Rush scene is a wonder. There seems to be little process photography, which is remarkable. Early sound pictures often suffered from lack of movement. Such is not the case with Cimarron. The camerawork seems fluid and natural, capturing all the action, which must have impressed moviegoers not used to seeing so much activity on the big screen.

Fictional Life of Temple Houston?
The Yancy Cravat character was supposedly modeled after Temple Houston, Sam Houston’s youngest child. Yancy is a flawed hero at best who abandons his wife and children for five years while he explores the Cherokee Strip. Yet, he has a sense of fairness, going so far as defending the notorious Dixie Lee, the towns most scandalous woman in court and protecting a Jewish peddler from the outlaw Lon Yountis and his gang. Yancy is also quick to accept his son’s romantic involvement with an Indian woman in contrast to Sabra who is slower to come around.

A Movie Buff’s Delight
Film fans today will enjoy seeing Edna May Oliver providing the film some much-needed comic relief and pick out an unbilled Helen Parrish (Deana Durbin’s evil cousin in First Love) as the young Donna Cravat. Director Wesley Ruggles (brother of Charlie) would later direct a string of popular romantic comedies at Paramount, working with such major stars at Claudette Colbert, Bing Crosby, and Carole Lombard.

Irene Dunne and Richard Dix

No Box Office Mojo
Although Cimarron was a critical success, due to its exorbitant cost and being released during one of the bleakest times during the Great Depression, it was years before RKO realized a profit. Cimarron was also the first western to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, a record it would hold until Dances With Wolves won the same award in 1991.

Part of Our History
Cimarron is a piece of our history. Not always pretty, but it gives us a frame of reference for where we’ve been, where we are today, and perhaps, how we need to move forward.

For a look at this film on the big screen, consider taking the course: ELEGANT AND MADCAP: The Incredible Versatility of Irene Dunne at Facets Film School, Wednesdays, 7-10pm, November 16 to December 21, 2011.

Looking for Some Halloween Chills? Watch a Classic Horror Movie Tonight

2011-10-31T15:55:00.000-05:00

by Classic Movie Man

Producer Val Lewton is not a household name, but during the 1940s, he produced some of the best horror films to come out of Hollywood. Under tight studio budgetary constraints, Lewton thrilled and scared audiences without resorting to cheap shock or senseless gore. Instead he created interesting and realistic characters, developed literate scripts, and worked with some of the best developing talent at RKO studios. Some of the people Lewton employed included directors Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Sound of Music) and Mark Robson (Bridges at Toko-Ri, Peyton Place). Lewton influenced such famous directors as Martin Scorsese and William Friedkin. The former even produced a documentary on Lewton in 2007 called Val Lewton: Man in the Shadows.

Below is a list of nine classic Lewton-produced horror films in order of their initial release dates. All of these classics are available via Netflix, Amazon, and your neighborhood video store.

1. Cat People (1942)—This is the first horror film Lewton produced and some consider it his best. A young artist, Irena Dubrovna is convinced that she is the victim of an ancient curse that turns its women into panthers once they enter a romantic relationship. The film contains two classic scenes: One in New York’s Central Park, where one of the main characters finds herself being stalked and another in an indoor swimming pool. These atmospheric scenes made 1940s audiences scream in terror and they still work today in the sophisticated 21st century.

2. I Walked With A Zombie (1943)—This film was in production before Cat People was released and it set in motion a host of imitators. Borrowing its plot from Jane Eyre, Zombie is set on a remote plantation in the West Indies. White and native cultures clash and family secrets are revealed on the exotic and mysterious island of Saint Sebastian. Classic scenes: The heroine, a young nurse named Betsy, meets her patient in a most unusual manner and a night walk with her “zombie” patient through the sugar cane stalks, to visit a voodoo priest. Director Jacques Tourneur (Out of the Past, Curse of the Demon) considered I Walked With A Zombie his best film.

3. The Leopard Man (1943)—Released on the heels of Zombie, the film starts out with two competitive women entertainers (Clo-Clo and Kiki) working side-by-side in a New Mexico club. Thinking she needs a little more pizzazz, Kiki introduces a beautiful black leopard to her act. Unfortunately, the panther is frightened by the crowd and escapes and runs away. Shortly after, women end up dead, apparently killed by the escaped leopard. Is it really the leopard doing the killing or is something else going on? Classic scenes: Without giving too much away, one involves a train and the other a locked door. The latter gave us one of the screens most iconic horror scenes ever filmed.

4. The Seventh Victim (1943)—The RKO movie factory was working at full tilt, with Lewton releasing four films in 1943! The plot of The Seventh Victim surrounds a businesswoman named Jacqueline who aligns herself with a Satanic cult in order to gain success and power. She decides later that she wants out. The cultist will let her go—if she agrees to commit suicide. Jacqueline tries to escape, but finds the cultists mean business. Classic scenes: Jacqueline’s younger sister Mary discovers strange activity on a New York City subway and Jacqueline encounters a cultist on a deserted back alley.

5. The Ghost Ship (1943)—Concerns a demented and vindictive freight ship captain (Richard Dix) and his sinister attempts to dominate his crew. The onboard claustrophobia adds to the scary mood Lewton and director Robson established. Classic scenes: Without giving too much away, one involves an anchor and chain and the other an unsecured hook. Are you curious how this all turns out?

6. The Curse Of The Cat People (1944)—With the runaway success of Cat People, it was inevitable that the studio executives would demand a sequel. Lewton, ever the clever and creative man, produced this psychological masterpiece, which gave Wise his first directorial credit. The film concerns a shy young girl named Amy who imagines that her secret friend is the now deceased Irena from the original Cat People. Classic scenes: Amy lost in a snowstorm as she is “pursued” and an old woman’s scary storytelling.

7. Isle Of The Dead (1945)—Boris Karloff, fresh off his Broadway triumph in Arsenic and Old Lace, entered into a three-picture deal with RKO. Instead of playing monsters, which he had grown tired of at rival studio Universal, Karloff was thrilled to be able to play General Pherides quarantined on a Greek island during a suspected plague. Karloff starts off as a tough no-nonsense military man until he comes under the spell of an old caretaker woman who tells him tales of the evil Vorvolaka, an evil spirit who inhabits the corpses of the dead and whose presence brings death to those she touches. Classic scenes: Karloff slowly cracking under the pressure of the caretaker’s superstitions and menance and the premature burial of a woman who has this as her greatest fear.

8. The Body Snatcher (1945)—Karloff again, is the star of this reworking of the classic Robert Lewis Stevenson story. The Body Snatcher is masterful in its creation of an absolutely creepy and mysterious mood throughout. Set in the 19th century, the plot surrounds a corrupt doctor and his complicated relationship with his grave-digging accomplice. Classic scenes: A nameless peasant woman singing sweetly in the night, her voice suddenly stopping mid-note and Karloff’s nemesis Toddy MacFarlane's, brilliantly played by Henry Daniell, delirious carriage ride in the rain. To add to its horror movie credibility, it has Bela Lugosi (Dracula 1931), another horror film icon in a minor supporting role.

9. Bedlam (1946)—This film isn’t a horror film in the traditional sense (you could say that about all of Lewton’s films) because it is rooted in reality. During the 18th century in England, there was a notorious insane asylum: St. Mary of Bethlehem Hospital for the Insane near London. It was known as Bedlam. Karloff once again stars as the cruel Master Sims of Bedlam, treating patients with heartless cruelty. An outsider named Nell Bowen (Anna Lee) takes a dislike to Sims and in the process her employer who, with Sims’s help, has her confined to asylum. There Nell, who before her confinement had led a self-centered life of ease, realizes how horrible Bedlam is and how poorly the “inmates” are treated. She develops compassion for the mentally ill inhabitants and gains their trust. Classic scenes: Nell locked in a cage with a giant of a man and Sims being carried away by the “loonies” and imprisoned behind a brick wall.

Boo!

Classic Movie Man, also known as Stephen Reginald, is the creator of the South Loop Connection and Classic Movie Man blogs. A writer, editor, adult education instructor and social media strategist, he loves writing about the South Loop and classic movies. He will be teaching a class on the films of Irene Dunne at Facets Film School, Chicago, for six weeks starting November 16, 2011. Classes meet on Wednesday evenings from 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Click here for information on how to take classes at Facets.

Fright School Recap

2011-10-16T21:34:00.000-05:00

Lewton’s Legacy
My presentation of I Walked With A Zombie at midnight on October 15, 2011 was well-received by the Facets Fright School attendees. Although many in the audience were familiar with director Jacques Tourneur, most had never heard of producer Val Lewton, or his horror film legacy.

Fright School audience

I enjoy introducing classic films to folks who have never seen them before and last night was no exception. I also enjoyed the reactions and comments from first-time viewers of I Walked With A Zombie.

Literate Audience
The audiences at Facets are generally very literate when it comes to film and last night’s attendees didn't disappoint me. Several made insightful observations and brought to light things I hadn’t noticed, which gives me some more reasons to watch the film again (like I needed any)!

Dee Delights

Frances Dee and Tom Conway in Zombie

Many were impressed with the production and the complexity of the plot for what was supposed to be a horror “programmer” for RKO. One viewer was impressed with Frances Dee’s (1909-2004) performance, which is one of her best in a long film career that started in 1929.

For more information on the rest of the films in the Fright School series, please check the Facets Film School Web site.

Fright School at Facets Multi-Media

2011-09-25T17:54:00.000-05:00

The Return of Fright School
Fright School, Facets midnight-movie horror series, returns for a third year. The series begins September 30, 2011. Films will be screened every Friday and Saturday night at midnight through October 29.

Fright School is a great way to learn about all types of horror films, from exploitation to classic. Films are introduced by local film experts with Q & A afterwards. It’s a crash course on the horror genre. Plus, there are raffles, prizes, and other give-a-ways. Admission is only $5, free for Facets members.

Fright School schedule

Facets Multi-Media is located at 1517 West Fullerton. For more information, please visit their Web site.

I Walked With A Zombie to be Screened October 15
Stephen Reginald, aka The Classic Movie Man will present producer Val Lewton’s horror classic on Saturday, October 15, 2011 as part of the Facets Multi-Media “Fright School.” Directed by Jacques Tourneur (Cat People 1942), I Walked With A Zombie was the second collaboration between the producer and director and supposedly Tourneur’s favorite of all his films.

Jane Eyre in the West Indies
Set in the West Indies, Zombie feels like a contemporary version of Jane Eyre. Frances Dee plays Betsy Connell, a young nurse who leaves her native Canada to care for Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the sick wife of wealthy businessman, Paul Holland (Tom Conway). Holland runs a sugar plantation on the island of Saint Sebastian and lives at Fort Holland with his mother and half-brother, Wesley Rand (James Ellison). On the island, Betsy discovers the conflict between the voodoo beliefs of the island’s natives and the small white community of medical workers and officials that have settled there. Believing that her employer’s wife may be a zombie, she brings the woman to a voodoo ceremony hoping they will have a cure for her condition. Betsy’s bold action sets in motion a series of events, which reveal family secrets and the mystery behind Jessica’s “sickness.”

Literate Horror
Producer Val Lewton was tasked with creating a horror unit at the RKO studios to rival Universal. Universal hit box office gold with horror hits like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Wolf Man. Instead of copying Universal’s movie monsters, Lewton created horror films that combined literate scripts with believable characters and seemingly plausible plots. These elements, plus good production values, intensified the suspense and packed movie houses throughout the 1940s. I Walked With A Zombie was Lewton’s second horror film at RKO and one of his very best.

Classic Movie Man Teaching at Facets in November

2011-09-03T17:27:00.000-05:00

Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama

Stephen Reginald, also known as the Classic Movie Man, will be teaching a class on the films of Irene Dunne at Facets Film School in Chicago. The six-week course begins on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. All classes will meet on Wednesdays, from 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. The last class is December 21.

Regular readers of this blog know that Reginald has admired Dunne’s work in film for some time. He’s written no fewer than three posts on Dunne, including “Been There Dunne That,” and “Well Dunne: From Queen of the Weepies to the Queen of Comedy.”

Reginald’s class will feature some of Dunne’s best known work, including Cimarron, The Awful Truth, and I Remember Mama. The complete list of films screened and discussed is listed below.

Cimarron (1931)
The Age of Innocence (1934)
Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
The Awful Truth (1937)
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
I Remember Mama (1949)

For more information about this class and others at Facets Film School, please visit their Web site.

Classic Movie Man’s Guilty Pleasure: “Devotion”

2011-08-18T17:47:00.000-05:00

In 1943, Warner Brothers set out to film an account of the Brontë siblings, focusing mainly on the lives of authors Charlotte (Jane Eyre) and Emily (Wuthering Heights). In the 1930s and 1940s, the studio produced many successful historical biographies. Film versions of both Wuthering Heights (1939) and Jane Erye (1943), produced by rival studios, hit box office gold, so wouldn’t a movie on the lives of the authors and real-life sisters be a hit too? That was part of the thinking behind Devotion, a production that seemed to be doomed from the beginning, but succeeds in spite of itself.

Lupino and DeHavilland Set To Star
Before production started, Warner Brothers had hoped that movie star sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia DeHavilland would play Emily and Charlotte respectively. Fontaine wasn’t available, so Warner Brothers replaced her with Ida Lupino, who was already under contract to the studio, as was DeHavilland. Nancy Coleman played youngest sister Anne, and Arthur Kennedy played Branwell, the only boy in the Brontë brood. The cast was rounded out with Paul Henried as the Reverend Arthur Nicholls, Sydney Greenstreet as William Makepeace Thackery, and Montagu Love, in his last film role, as Rev. Brontë, patriarch and widowed father of four gifted and complex children.

From left to right: Olivia DeHavilland, Ida Lupino, Nancy Coleman

Top Production
The studio employed some of its top talent for the film’s production. Curtis Bernhardt (Possessed, 1947) was tapped as the director. Oscar-winner, Ernest “Ernie” Haller (Gone With The Wind, 1939) was assigned the cinematography duties, and Perc Westmore was on hand for makeup. The lush score was composed by Erich Wolfgand Korngold who won an Academy Award for scoring The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

Don't Know Much About History
One of the major criticisms of the film is that it plays fast and loose with the facts, although Hollywood biographies of the period were hardly known for their absolute accuracy. As is often noted, the Brontë sisters were not famous for their attractiveness, but Lupino, DeHavilland, and Coleman are all quite beautiful in the movie. But come on, it’s Hollywood where there are no plain Janes.

For “poor” girls, they sure have some great clothes!

Poor, But Nicely Dressed
The Brontë’s weren’t wealthy by any stretch; in fact, they were quite poor. Jane Erye’s Lowood school was partly based on the four older sisters’ experiences at the Clergy Daughter’s School at Cowan Bridge, where the eldest Brontë daughters, Maria and Elizabeth became ill and died. Charlotte and Emily returned to Howarth, England, and were homeschooled by their father. The movie version hints at their lower economic circumstances, but the sisters Brontë are always beautifully, if simply, dressed and coiffed.

In the film, older sister Charlotte, as portrayed by DeHavilland, is somewhat self-centered and a bit snobby compared with Lupino’s more cerebral and serious portrayal of Emily. As the youngest sister Anne, Coleman doesn’t have much to go on. Her character has minimal screen time and no real story line to follow. Kennedy’s Branwell is a tortured self-destructive soul. The real Branwell struggled with drugs and alcohol, so Kennedy’s portrayal does seems close to the truth.

Lupino and Paul Henried starred together
in In Our Time (1944)

A Faithful Setter Dog?
As melodrama, Devotion is quite satisfying. Lupino and DeHavilland obviously took their roles seriously and give excellent performances, as does Kennedy. Henried is fine as Nichols, although some critics at the time didn’t find him at his best. Bosley Crowther in his New York Times review said, “Paul Henreid plays Arthur Nicholls with the air of a faithful setter dog.” In the broader context of his review, that was actually a compliment, since Crowther didn’t like the film overall. But Crowther and many other critics couldn’t get past the liberties the screenwriters took with the facts.

A Love That Never Was
In the film, Emily and Charlotte are both in love with Nicholls; however, there is no evidence that Emily was involved with her father’s curate or even had any feelings for him. Charlotte eventually married Nicholls, but she refused his first proposal and some Brontë historians believe Charlotte, although fond of Nichols, was never really in love with him. In the film Charlotte is infatuated with Professor Heger while studying in Brussels. Again there is no evidence that any romance took place. Events are out of order, which bothered purists like Crowther, but for lovers of classic film, Devotion is fun to watch.

DeHavilland starred with John Lund in Too Each His Own,
at Paramount after she successfully sued Warner Brothers.

Loving Lupino and DeHavilland
I love Lupino’s brooding, wistful Emily. When she shows Nicholls the moors and the house in the distance that she calls Wuthering Heights, with Korngold’s score at full tilt, it’s wonderful. Emily’s dream sequences are artfully done, too. The dark mysterious man on horseback haunting Emily looks quite spectacular on the screen. DeHavilland’s snobby and bossy Charlotte can be obnoxious, but she’s far from unlikable. When she professes her love for Profesor Heger, she’s convincing and sincere. Who cares if it didn’t really happen? It’s effective filmmaking.

Three Years on the Shelf

When the film wrapped, Warner Brothers held back its release. There are a few stories explaining their decision. Some say the studio delayed the release because they felt a costume drama wouldn’t play well during the height of World War II. The studios were sensitive about showing too much opulence on the screen during the war years, but rival Twentieth Century Fox released Jane Eyre in 1943 to great reviews and good business. The other, and more intriguing explanation, involves DeHavilland and her lawsuit against the studio. During the studio era, stars signed long-term contracts, typically for a period of seven years. Under that system, actors were paid a weekly salary and expected to perform in movies assigned them. If a star refused a role, they were put on suspension without pay until production of the film they refused to star in was completed. In addition to not paying the star’s salary, studios added time spent on suspension to their contracts, potentially extending them almost indefinitely. DeHavilland was fighting this practice in court.

Banned From the Premier
The story goes that so angry was the studio with DeHavilland that they refused to promote her career during the litigation. Whether or not their anger would go so far as to shelve a big-budget movie like Devotion to make a point, seems over the top. However, movie moguls from the period could be vindictive and spiteful. When the film was finally released, DeHavilland was under contract to Paramount. Warner Brothers wouldn’t let her attend the premier. Even worse, they gave her third billing behind Henried, which would never have happened had she been in the good graces of the brothers Warner. Considering how hot DeHavilland’s career was after she left Warner Brothers, it would have made sense, from a business perspective, to have let her participate in the film’s publicity. Hard to tell if we’ll ever really know the story behind Devotion’s delayed release, but it’s fun speculating.

The Classic Movie Man’s Verdict
Devotion may not be an accurate portrayal of the lives of the most famous of the Brontë sisters, but as film entertainment, it’s a lot of fun. Lupino, DeHavilland, Henried, and the rest of the cast are such pros, they make you care about their characters. Would it have been a better film if they spent more time on historical accuracy? Perhaps, but did audiences complain that both the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights and the 1943 version of Jane Eyre left out major plot points and characters? Hardly. That’s one of the reasons Devotion remains one of my favorite guilty movie pleasures.

What do you think? Is there a classic movie that you love, but the critics hate? Please feel free to share your favorite guilty movie pleasures here.

Ida Lupino: A Lasting Legacy in Hollywood

2011-08-02T11:35:00.000-05:00

Ida Lupino was a major movie star during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Born in England to a show business family with roots going back to the Renaissance, she came to Hollywood in 1933 as a bleached blond Jean Harlow look-a-like. After a breakout performance in The Light That Failed (1939), Lupino moved on to starring roles at Warner Brothers as one of their top contract players. When she left the studio in the late 1940s, she began thinking about working behind the scenes as a director. Lupino eventually formed her own production company and directed a series of low-budget melodramas. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she was the only female director of note working in Hollywood.

The story goes that Lupino was signed on at Warner Brothers to keep the lot’s top female star, Bette Davis in line. The truth behind that tale is open to speculation, but Lupino bolstered it by self-deprecatingly calling herself “the poor man’s Bette Davis.” It’s true that some of the roles Davis turned down went to Lupino, but this type of thing happened regularly during the height of the studio system.

In 1940, Lupino starred in They Drive By Night alongside Warner heavy-hitters George Raft and Ann Sheridan. The film also starred Humphrey Bogart, but he was billed fourth behind Lupino. As Lana Carlsen, the unfaithful wife of Alan Hale, Lupino literally tore up the screen. So compelling was her characterization, that movie audiences supposedly applauded when her character breaks down in front of a packed courtroom. With that performance, Lupino showed she was a talent to be reckoned with.

As one of the hottest new stars in the movies, Lupino was cast next as Marie, a hard luck dame with a soft spot for career criminal, Roy “Mad Dog” Earle (Humphrey Bogart ) in High Sierra (1941). So hot was Lupino that she received top billing over Bogart. The movie is credited with making a major star out of Bogart, but Lupino gives a multi-layered performance that showed she could hold her own opposite anyone. As the film progresses and Marie’s love for Earle grows, Lupino’s characterization becomes more complex. We see her vulnerability, her tenderness. A classic that holds up today, High Sierra’s success owes as much to Lupino’s performance as Bogart’s. And you gotta love her close-up at the end, looking luminous in her grief, tinged with happiness for her love who is free at last in death.

Lupino starred in three other films in 1941: The Sea Wolf, Out of the Fog, and Ladies in Retirement on loan to Columbia. Once again, she proved that she could hold her own against the bigger-than-life Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield in The Sea Wolf and Garfield again in Out of the Fog. And like Davis, she wasn’t afraid to immerse herself into the character she was playing even if it meant downplaying her looks, as she did in Ladies in Retirement. Of her performance in that film, The New York Times wrote, “Give Ida Lupino the largest measure of credit, for her role is the clue to the suspense. Perhaps she is too slight to portray the stolid threat that lay in Flora Robson’s original [stage] performance, but she is none the less the thin ribbon of intensity that makes the film hair-raising.”

In 1942 Lupino was loaned out to Twentieth Century Fox for two films. The first was Moontide, costarring French star Jean Gabin, making his American movie debut. The second, Life Begins at Eight-Thirty, costarring Monty Wooley. Both films featured stronger male than female roles, but Lupino’s presence in both did not go unnoticed. Of her performance in Moontide, The New York Times’s Bosley Crowther had this to say: “Miss Lupino makes a taut and sleazy slattern who is prettily revivified by love.” And as Wooley’s handicapped daughter in Life Begins at Eight-Thirty, Crowther said, in his December 10, 1942 review in the Times, that “Miss Lupino plays the crippled daughter with compassion and simplicity.” In 1943, Lupino would star in a film that would bring her great critical acclaim.

The Hard Way (1943) is a tough tale of two sisters trying to escape their dreary and impoverished existence. Ironically the mining town from which they want to escape is called Green Hill, where there is nothing green or leafy. Under the sharp direction of Vincent Sherman, Lupino gives one of her most complex and nuanced performances as Helen Chernen, Joan Leslie’s pushy success-driven sister. Lupino is Leslie’s “stage sister,” exploiting the younger Leslie’s talent while vicariously living through her. So compelling was Lupino’s performance that she won the New York Film Critics Circle Award in 1943. For some unknown reason, she was overlooked come Oscar time. (Lupino was never nominated for an Academy Award.) In the hands of a lesser actress, Helen would have been merely a villain. The beauty of Lupino’s performance is that while you don’t necessarily like her actions, you understand them. She isn’t perfect for sure, but neither is her sister or the others in the rough and tumble world of show business that they inhabit.

Now an established star at Warner Brothers, Lupino was not always offered the best roles on the lot. Bette Davis was still the queen of the studio and had first refusal on the choicest scripts. Not one to take just any role, Lupino was often put on suspension by the studio. It was during these periods that she became interested in working behind the scenes. A naturally friendly individual, calling everyone she knew “darling,” Lupino learned from the contract directors, cinematographers, and others about the technical side of filmmaking. It would be a while before Lupino would move behind the camera.

In the mid-to late 1940s, Lupino starred alongside some of the top talent at the studio, including Errol Flynn, Olivia DeHavilland, and Paul Henried. One of her best roles during this period was as Petey Brown in The Man I Love (1947), directed by the legendary Raoul Walsh. As the tough-talking club singer, her Petey is the epitome of independence. As the take-charge career woman, Lupino showed she could carry a picture. The Man I Love was popular enough for Jack Warner to offer the actress a four-year exclusive contract. Lupino decided to try her hand as a freelance artist and turned down Warner’s offer.

Her first role after leaving Warner Brothers was the enjoyable and popular success Road House (1948). Released by Twentieth Century Fox and directed by the underrated Jean Negulesco, the film costarred Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm, and Richard Widmark at his loony best. Lupino plays Lily Stevens, a torch singer from Chicago, slumming at Jeffty’s road house and bowling alley, owned by Widmark’s character. A predatory Widmark stalks Lupino when he finds out that she favors his “best friend,” Wilde, over him. As interesting as this triangle is, some of the film’s most enjoyable moments are when Lupino sings and plays the piano. Her modest gravely voice has an appealing style that is hard to resist.

As the 1940s came to a close and with good roles harder and harder to come by, Lupino formed her own production company with second husband Collier Young. She produced and directed a series of low budget films utilizing the skills she gleaned from working with the male directors at Warner Brothers. The movies Lupino made during this period were gritty and for the time, groundbreaking. Not Wanted (1949) dealt with unwanted pregnancy and Outrage (1950) told the story of a young woman raped on her way home from work, hardly popular themes at the time. Lupino was now the only working woman director and the second to become a member of the Director’s Guild. When television came on the scene, Lupino hit her stride. She directed numerous episodes of popular TV series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun Will Travel, The Rifleman, The Untouchables, and Lupino has the distinction of being the only woman to ever direct and star in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Not only did she direct in television, she guest starred on many TV shows herself, staying busy throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Ida Lupino is the only woman to direct an episode of the classic TV series.

Ida Lupino’s legacy is a long one. As an actress, she has a body of work that holds up alongside the best of her contemporaries. As a director, she paved the way for future generations of women. It’s amazing that the small fragile-looking Lupino had such a strong and wide-reaching influence that continues today. Lupino died of a stroke while being treated for colon cancer on August 3, 1995. She was 77 years old.