Free and Easy (1930)

Elmer Butts (Buster Keaton) is the bumbling manager to Queen of Gopher City Elvira (Anita Page), who is a Kansas beauty contest winner and his secret crush. Along with her overbearing mother played by Trixie Friganza, Elvira is going to Hollywood to try and become a star. On the way they meet movie star Larry Mitchell (Robert Montgomery) who is instantly smitten with Elvira. He invites them to his upcoming premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre where Elmer is mistaken for William Hanes (much to the actual Hanes delight). Trying his best to promote Elvira, he mostly makes a fool of himself. The next day Elvira and her mother are invited to the studio by Larry to watch him perform in his current movie. Elmer, having been left out due to his antics the night before, manages to sneak onto the studio lot where he accidentally wreaks havoc on various sound stages that include famous people such as Lionel Barrymore, Karl Dane, and Dorothy Sebastian. Larry, who genuinely likes Elmer tries to get him a job but the director miscasts him in the part and he’s thrown off the set. Larry tells him to go to the transportation department on the lot so he can get a ride home but the manager mistakes him for a new driver. He is assigned to be Larry’s driver and must watch as Larry tries to seduce Elvira. Hurrying off to fetch Elvira’s mother, they arrive to find Elvira crying. Elmer tries to attack Larry and is knocked out in the process. However, Elvira’s mother knocks him out. When the men come to and start talking, they realize they knew each other as kids. Larry, who is remorseful for trying to seduce Elvira, decides to try and get Elmer another acting gig. This time the casting is perfect and even Elvira’s mother gets a part in the show. Elmer is a big hit and wins himself a studio contract. However, Larry wins Elvira much to Elmer’s dismay.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I have been enjoying TCM’s tribute to Buster Keaton this month. Knowing him only as the silent comedian who lit up the screen with his CRAZY antics (I mean Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin are fantastic but the physical body comedy Keaton performed goes above and beyond) it was a delight for me to watch him in a talkie. Despite the odd pacing and random story line so typical in early 30’s film, Free and Easy was a delight mostly due to Keaton and Friganza. Their interactions with one another are hilarious! I also got to watch the short documentary on Keaton So Funny It Hurt; Buster Keaton and MGM, a poignant title in that his years at MGM after being an independent actor for over a decade basically ruined him. I was not aware that MGM played such an integral part of the disintegration of his stardom and aided his descent into alcoholism. Nor was I aware that once he was able to straighten his life out, that he did so much work, often uncredited, behind the scenes- he recycled his on-screen gags and wrote new material for the likes of Red Skelton and the Marx Brothers. If you haven’t had a chance to check out his body of work- tune in this Sunday as TCM continues to pay tribute to one of the greatest physical comedians ever!

Side note:

Be on the look out for Ann Dvorak who is uncredited in this film- she's pretty easy to spot!

Tonight on TCM!

The Big Combo (1955) A police detective tries to convict a mob boss by going to the man's girlfriend.  Dir: Joseph Lewis Cast: Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Brian Donlevy.

Speakeasy: Oscar Version

Alfred Hitchcock was nominated five times for Best Director and once for Best Picture for his work with Rebecca, Suspicion, Lifeboat, Spellbound, Rear Window, and Psycho.

Gregory Peck was nominated five times in his career for Best Actor for his roles in The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Gentleman's Agreement, Twelve O'Clock High,  and To Kill a Mockingbird. He won the Best Actor Award for Mockingbird.

James Cagney was nominated three times in his career for Best Actor for his roles in Angels with Dirty Faces, Love Me or Leave Me, and Yankee Doodle Dandy for which he won.

Burt Lancaster was nominated for the Best Actor award four times in his career for From Here to Eternity, Elmer Gantry, Birdman of Alcatraz, and Atlantic City. He won for his role in Elmer Gantry.

Gary Cooper received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, winning twice for Sergeant York and High Noon. He also received an Honorary Award in 1961 from the Academy which was accepted by his friend Jimmy Stewart.

Groucho Marx received an Honorary Academy Award in 1974 for his body of work.

Danny Kaye was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1955 for his humanitarian work.

Frank Sinatra won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in From Here to Eternity, and also had a nomination for Best Actor for his role in The Man with the Golden Arm.

At age 80, George Burns was the first oldest recipient of the Academy Award (for Best Supporting Actor) for his role in The Sunshine Boys.

Robert Montgomery earned two Academy Award nominations for Night Must Fall and Here Comes Mr. Jordan.  Sadly, Tallulah was overlooked.

Burnt Offerings (1976)

Despite the strange requirements the Allardyce siblings, Arnold (Burgess Meredith ) and sister Roz (Eileen Heckart- thankfully not in a role that required crying), set for renting their vacation home, The Rolf family, desperate to get out of the city for the summer, decides to rent the large Victorian mansion in the countryside. Marian (Karen Black) convinces her husband that she alone will take care of the Allardyce’s elderly mother who insists staying on the property. Though skeptical, her husband Ben (Oliver Reed) packs up their son David (Lee Montgomery), and his elderly aunt Elizabeth (Bette Davis).

 Gradually Marian becomes possessed by the house and a malevolent force starts to consume the whole family. Marian begins spending more time in Ms. Allardyce’s private parlor and Ben, after randomly trying to kill his son, begins to have a former reoccurring nightmare involving a goulish chauffer. Various "accidents” occur which result in the death of everyone but Marian who becomes the old woman in the attic. With the house fully rejuvenated and glistening like new, the Allardyce siblings return and marvel at the house's beauty.

Burnt Offerings has some exciting and creepy moments, like each time Marian visits Ms. Allardyce’s parlor and the various times Ben becomes possessed or had his nightmares. At first I was expecting Arnold and Roz to turn on the Rolfs à la Skeleton Key but it turned out to be the house that needed victims.

Tonight on TCM!
Let's be Frank...enstein!

Hooray! Hurrell!

Miriam Hopkins

Robert Montgomery

Let's get physical!

Robert Montgomery and Norma Shearer in Private Lives

Harold Lloyd and Jobyna Ralston in Girl Shy

Lee Cobb and Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront

Fredric March and Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours


Carole Lombard and John Barrymore in Twentieth Century


Mae Clark and James Cagney in The Public Enemy

Tonight on TCM! Finney is pretty handsome in this movie!

Tom Jones (1963) In this adaptation of Henry Fielding's novel, a country boy in 18th-century England becomes a playboy.Cast: Albert Finney, Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans Dir: Tony Richardson

Depression Diary: Faithless (1932)

Carol Morgan (Tallulah Bankhead) is a woman who values money over everything, even love. Though she loves Bill Wade (Robert Montgomery), they bicker and separate because he wants to marry her but have her live off his yearly salary of $20,000.00. Unaware of her true financial position, she thinks his $20,000 a year salary is an impossible amount on which to live. A few weeks later when she learns that all her money is gone, she runs to Bill, but learns that he has lost his job because his company is bankrupt. Despite being faced with the possibility of poverty, she still refuses to marry Bill. While he goes to Chicago for another job, Carol goes to Florida to live off some of her rich friends, eventually settling in Chicago as Mr. Blainey’s (Hugh Herbert) mistress which she is completely disgusted by.. One night, while she and Blainey are drinking, Bill comes to see her, and Blainey lets him know what their relationship is prompting Carol leave. After desperately trying to find work, Carol runs into Bill at a cheap diner, she hasn’t eaten for days and has truly learned that love is more important than money. Bill forgives her and they marry. After months in and out of work, Bill finally gets employment at a trucking company but is injured on his first days in an accident caused by strikers. On the brink of death, Carol must take care of Bill and needing money for medicine, she turns to prostitution when she can find no job. One night she runs into Bill's younger brother Tony, who yells at her for being a tramp which catches the attention of a policeman. Instead of taking her to jail not to take her to jail, the kind-hearted man gets her a job as a waitress when she tells him of her husband’s illness and promises not to hustle again. Several weeks later, after Bill has regained some of his strength, Tony comes to see him and tells him about that night, unaware that Bill and Carol are married. Though Bill is shaken by what has happened, he realized she did it to save him and loves her all the more for it. The movie ends with Bill getting a new advertising job for $60 a week.

This film had some teary moments for me. Though it falls under the usual conditioning of pre-code films with the stilted scenes and ambiguous actions, I thought Bankhead did a really wonderful job of portraying a woman in dire straights. As a viewer I could see in her face how disgusted she was with what she had to do to survive- it's especially poignant in the drinking scene between her and Herbert as he tells of his future plans for her. As for Montgomery, the typecasting he was subjected to prior to this film made it hard to place him as the working man and not the rich bon vivant/playboy he usually played. Overall, I liked the film and got a sense (maybe with a little help with today's economy) of how desperate things were for people then.

Sidenote:
One of Bankhead's most notorious events was an interview that she gave to Motion Picture magazine in 1932, in which she ranted wildly about the state of her life and her views on love, marriage, and children prompting several viewers to see her upcoming film Faithless. However, this did nothing to help Bankhead's movie career. Faithless would be her last film until over a decade when she appeared in Stage Door Canteen in 1943. She was always more successful onstage.

Tonight on TCM! My favorite Hitchcock Film!
Vertigo (1958) A detective falls for the mysterious woman he's been hired to tail.
Cast: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore Dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Stars & Cars

Spencer Tracy

Robert Montgomery

Clark Gable

Joan Crawford

Gary Cooper

Errol Flynn

Camera Shot!

Robert Montgomery and George Hurrell.

Ruth Chatterton most likely on the set of Frisco Jenny.


Burton and Taylor on the set of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Director Clarence Brown on the set of Anna Karenina with Garbo and March.

On the set of Gone With the Wind.

Herbert Brenon and Alla Nazimova.

Orson Welles

Tonight on TCM!

Strange Cargo (1940) Devil's Island escapees are changed forever by a prisoner who thinks he's Jesus.Cast: Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre Dir: Frank Borzage

Get Your Hair Did!

Tonight on TCM!

Angel On My Shoulder (1946) The Devil sends a murdered gangster to Earth as a respected judge.Cast: Paul Muni, Anne Baxter, Claude Rains, Onslow Stevens Dir: Archie Mayo