Royal Wedding

 (1951)
Directed by Stanley Donen
Written by Alan Jay Lerner
Starring Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill, Keenan Wynn
IMDB Entry 

Some movies are known only for one classic scene. The most obvious is Five Easy Pieces, for Jack Nicholson ordering in a diner: that's been shown often, but far fewer people have seen the entire movie. Another example is Royal Wedding. 

Tom (Fred Astaire) and Ellen (Jane Powell) Bowen are Broadway stars who take their show to London around the time when Elizabeth marries Prince Phillip. On the voyage over, Ellen falls for Lord John Brindale (Peter Lawford). Later, in the UK, Tom meets Anne Ashmond (Sarah Churchill) and falls for her. Complications ensue:  Brindale, despite being a lord, is a playboy who's unwilling to settle down, and has very little money. Anne is engaged to be married to a man who has moved to the US, but still keeps up the long distance relationship.

This is a romantic comedy and the story is a very slight one. It's sabotaged by having the romantic couples join up early on, which leaves little room for conflict. Lots of movie musicals used a similar plot, but in this it seems very tired.

But the movie achieved immortality due to Astaire's "Dancing on the Ceiling" routine, which shows up in any compilation of his work. It is still technically impressive today, and probably even more so when it first came out. This is also the movie where Astaire danced with a hat rack, and where he and Powell performed "How Could You Believe Me when I tell You that I Loved You when you Know I've been a Liar All My Life?"  There's also the technical challenge of "Open Your Eyes," where Astaire and Powel dance on the ship as it goes through a storm. Its rocking causes them to slip and fall, and musical instruments to roll behind them.

Astaire is Astaire, performing his usual light romantic comedy to perfection. Powell is also quite good.* Lawford is a bit too stiff as a romantic lead, but manages all right.

Sarah Churchill was primarily a stage actress and doesn't have much chemistry with Astaire. She is the daughter of Winston Churchill and was successful at that despite having a British national hero as a father.

Also of note is Keenan Wynn as their American theatrical agent, Irving Klinger, and his English twin brother agent, Edgar Klinger.

Alan Jay Lerner wrote the script and lyrics. He did better when he joined with Fredric Lowe a couple of years later.

The movie had a difficult production history. June Allyson was first hired to play opposite Astaire,  under the direction of Charles Walters. Allyson got pregnant and Judy Garland was tapped for the role. Garland was in a troubled state of mind and missed rehearsals until she was fired and replaced by Powell. Walters left at about this time (possibly due to Garland's firing) and Stanley Donen took over.**

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*It's interesting that her character dates several different men, sometimes going from one to another an back in a few days, much like Lawford's character going through women,  The the movie's credit, this is treated lightheartedly, with no shame attached.

*Donen directed Singin' in the Rain the next year.

Up the River

 (1930)
Directed by John Ford
Written by Maurine Dallas Watkins
Starring Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, Claire Luce, Warren Hymer, Morgan Wallace, Joan Lawes
IMDB Entry

When sound came in, Hollywood brought in an influx of actors, hoping they would be successful on the screen. Up the River features two of the greatest names of the golden age of Hollywood, as well as one of the screen's greatest directors.

The film is set in a prison. Saint Louis (Spencer Tracy) is sent to prison, where he meets with Steve Jordan (Humphrey Bogart).  Steve is a trustee and helps with the intake of new prisoners, including Judy Fields (Claire Luce) in the woman's prison next door.*  She is there because she was innocently involved in a stock fraud scheme run by Frosby (Morgan Wallace). Steve and Judy develop feelings for each other, and when Steve is paroled, he promises to get together with Judy when she is released in a few months. 

Saint Louis learns that Frosby is going to Steve's home town, and breaks out of jail along with Dannemora Dan (Warren Hymer) to warn Steve. 

The movie was conceived as a dark prison drama, but the release of The Big House caused director John Ford to rethink it as a romantic comedy. The romance between Steve and Judy takes center stage, as does business among the inmates, who are concentrating on winning a baseball game against another prison. The movie even contains a musical sequence as a stage show put on by the inmates. At the same time, there are some dark moments, but they are off stage and only implied.

Bogart is quite bland as Steve, showing little of the personality that made him a star.** Tracy does show promise and his acting has the wonderful naturalness that made him a star.. Claire Luce was primarily a stage star*** and is perfectly fine. 

This is the only time Bogart and Tracy worked together. They spent their careers at different studios, and by the time they got out of the studio system, there was problems with billing that kept them from working together.

Of note is Joan Lawes as the warden's daughter. She is allowed to walk among the inmates, who treat her as though she was their own.

The film is a bit slow, but entertaining.

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*It doesn't seem a likely setup, though having woman around has been shown to help the male inmates to stay away from violence.

**This was the first of his films to be released.

***Even appearing with Fred Astaire in The Gay Divorce.

Libelled Lady

 

(1936)
Directed by Jack Conway
Written by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, George Oppenheimer
Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Walter Connolly
IMDB Entry

Screwball comedy is about love and romance. Despite all the frenetic action, slapstick, and fast talk, the ultimate story involves people falling for each other. A lesser known example of the form, Libelled Lady, shows it in all its glory.

It starts out with a mistake. The New York Evening Star prints a false story about the rich Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) without it being checked by its editor Warren Hagerty (Spencer Tracy), since he is preparing to marry his long-suffering fiancé Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow). Connie sues the paper  for $5 million,* which would put it out of business. Frantic, Hagerty hires Bill Chandler (William Powell) in a scheme to discredit Allenbury. He has Bill marry Gladys -- who objects but is forced to play along -- then send him to romance Connie. Hagerty plans to reveal to the world that Connie is with a married man. The scandal will discredit the suit, and Gladys can then divorce Bill and marry Hagerty.**

Bill sets up a meet cute as Connie boards a boat to sail to the US*** and charms her father (Walter Connolly) by pretending to be an avid fisherman, a passion of her father. Slowly, Bill and Connie fall in love, complicating the plan.  Even more complicated is the fact that Gladys begins to fall in love with Bill, too.

Powell and Loy had already become the screen's number one romantic couple from the Thin Man movies and the same romantic chemistry is shown here. Tracy's reputation as the actor's actor is obvious here; at no point does he ever seem to be acting.

Jean Harlow was at her peak. It's interesting that she ditched the Platinum blonde locks for something a bit more subdued, but she puts on a strong performance.

I did notice a plot hole that was glossed over at the end.  I don't know why the Hayes office let it pass, but it may be because the story was working toward something that was perhaps even more objectionable (see note for spoiler)****

Powell was together with Harlow at the time and wanted Connie and Gladys to switch parts, but the studio wouldn't allow it.

The movie was a hit, but Harlow's death (she only made two more movies after this) cast a pall over it over the years.

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*Almost $120 million today

**An extremely convoluted plan, which is unlikely to work out even under the best of circumstances. But that's why they call it "screwball."

***Even more convoluted: Bill has to sail to England in order to get to the ship back to the U.S.

****The final scene deals with the fact that Gladys was previously married and then divorced. Bill shows that the divorce was invalid, so their marriage was bigamous and illegal. Gladys says she got a legal divorce later, making the marriage between Connie and Bill illegal. This is not dealt with. However, there are obvious grounds for annulment of the marriage, but the censors probably didn't want to talk about non-consummation.

It All Came True

 (1940)
Directed by Lewis Seiler
Written by Michael Fessler, Lawrence Kimble
Starring Ann Sheridan, Jeffrey Lynn, Humphrey Bogart, ZaSu Pitts, Una O'Connor, Felix Bressart, Jessy Bussley
IMDB Entry

Humphrey Bogart has a long road to stardom. Warner Brothers didn't know what to do with him, thinking of James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson for lead gangster roles. Bogart was usually secondary and not the star. But one film on his rise to becoming a star was a forgotten comedy called It All Came True.

It's starts with a boarding house run by Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor) and Nora Taylor (Jessie Busley). We meet the boarders, including Miss Flint (ZaSu Pitts), who can't walk down the street without thinking men are harassing her* and the Great Boldini (Felix Bressart), a down-on-his-heels magician. The calm of the boarding house is upset when Mrs. Ryan's daughter Sarah Jane (Ann Sheridan), returns after pursuing a career as a singer. Sarah Jane was close to Mrs. Taylor's son Tommy (Jeffrey Lynn), and aspiring songwriter.

Tommy is working for nightclub owner and gangster Chips Maguire (Humphrey Bogart). When Maguire murders a squealer, he forces Tommy to take him to stay at the boarding house because the gun that committed the murder is registered to him.  He hides in his room, calling himself Grasselli, but slowly gets drawn in to the community. Sarah Jane recognizes him at once, but helps to keep his secret.

Even though Bogart was third billed, he stands out throughout the film. He downplays the menace most of the time. 

I hadn't seen much of Ann Sheridan before, and she's good as the hard-boiled dame who can see what's up. ZaSu Pitts has been a favorite actress of mine and this is one of her best comedy role, especially in a scene where Sheridan discourages her from going to the police about Maguire. Other notables in the cast include Una O'Connor from Bride of Frankenstein, who plays the comic Irish woman to perfection, and Felix Bressart -- from The Shop Around the Corner -- who is delightful as the incompetent magician.

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*Don't worry.  They aren't.

Murder at the Vanities

 

(1934)
Directed by Mitchel Leisen
Written by Carey Wilson, Joseph Gollomb, Earl Carroll
Starring Jack Oakie, Carl Brisson, Kitty Carlisle, Victor McLaglen, Duke Ellington, Gertrude Michael, Gail Patrick
IMDB Entry

During the early days of the 20th century, the Broadway musical slowly evolved. One aspect was the  musical revues of the teens and twenties. The Ziegfeld Follies is probably the best known these days, but another series of them was Earl Carroll's Vanities. While Ziegfeld strived to be high class, Carroll didn't  care about that. In 1933, he tried with a book musical and the result was filmed as Murder at the Vanities.

Jack Ellery (Jack Oakie) is the producer of one of Carroll's shows, starring the couple of Eric Lander (Carl Brisson) and Ann Ware (Kitty Carlisle). The two of them plan to mary after the show, but Rita Ross (Gertrude Michael) is jealous, having been with Eric some time before and still believing he loves her. There are various attempts on Ann's life, and when a woman private investigator (Gail Patrick) is found dead on the catwalk, Ellery calls in a cop, Bill Murdock (Victor McLaughlin) to keep from getting worse. Of course, things get worse, and Rita ends up dead.

The murder mystery is pretty routine.* but the musical elements are delightful.

First of all, this movie introduced the song "Cocktails for Two," first as a duet, then as a full production number. I knew the song primarily through Spike Jones's version, one of the funniest songs ever performed. I kept expecting to hear the sound effects that made it so memorable.

And one sign that this is a pre-code film is a short number called "Sweet Marijuana."  In her memoirs, Kitty Carlisle said she had no idea what marijuana was at the time, thinking it a musical instrument. It also wasn't illegal until a few years later.

The third element was the production number "Ebony Rhapsody," which starts out as a classic version of Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody. But slowly, Duke Ellington and members of his band and group of Black dancers replace the original and turn it into jazz. It's a nice use of the song. The ending, though, is a bit problematic as someone pretends to shoot all the Black people down with a machine gun.

As for the leads, I've always liked Jack Oakie for his breezy charm. He's only known these days for his role as fake Mussolini in The Great Dictator, but also shows up in the underrated Million Dollar Legs. Victor McLaughlin earned an Oscar the next year for his dramatic turn in The Informer, and becomeon of John Ford's stock company,

I mostly remember Kitty Carlisle for her appearances as a panelist on game shows, but she did star with the Marx Brothers in A Night at the Opera. Other names of note in the cast include Gail Patrick,** Charles (Ming the Merciless) Middleton, and Donald Meek***

Carroll's Vanities were always a bit more risque than Ziegfeld's Follies. Many of the chorus in the movie had appeared on Broadway, and did appear nearly nude in the film. Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan, and Alan Ladd has roles in the chorus.

Director Mitchell Leisen started out a set designer, but moved to directing in the 1930s and was known for his keen eye for composition.

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*Indeed, it only works because it is contrived so that the person who can clear up everything is always ignored when they try to alert people.

**Later the producer of Perry Mason.

***His name described his character. He shows up as the whiskey drummer in Stagecoach.