Torch Song (1953)

Temperamental Broadway star Jenny Stewart (Joan Crawford) lashes out at anyone who displeases her or doesn’t strive for her brand of perfection. This includes her current dance partner, the director, the producer and most importantly her arranger, Charlie (Bennie Rubin), who has been driven to drink because of her demands. It’s soon discovered that Jenny’s kindness is reserved only for her needling mother and her fans that she adores. Aware of how very lonely she is, despite her relationship with Cliff (Gig Young), Jenny is caught up in her own insecurities about her self worth beyond being a star and has developed a defense mechanism of striking first and dealing with the consequences later.
When Charlie quits the show and is replaced by Tye Graham (Michael Wilding), a blind pianist very adept at accompanying Jenny and accommodating her changes, she rudely disregards his suggestions. Thrown off guard by his composure and knowledge, Jenny insists getting the director Joe (Henry Morgan) to fire Tye and bring Charlie back.

Despite being fired, Tye buys Jenny lunch and suggests that she uses her tough demeanor to conceal her fear of being vulnerable. Jenny doesn’t warm to the concept and they part bitterly. Later that evening, after thinking things over and realizing that Charlie won’t be coming back to the show, Jenny goes to Tye’s apartment and insists he come back to work for her.
Eventually Jenny comes to depend upon Tye but is thrown again by his seemingly disinterest of her. When the show is ready to go on the road, Tye decides not to go with it much to Jenny’s dismay. After another bitter confrontation, Jenny visits her mother and reveals her frustration about Tye. But when Mrs. Stewart produces the scrapbooks she has filled with newspaper clippings about Jenny's career (something Jenny is very surprised about), she finds a review written by Tye the evening before he went to war and eventually became blind. Realizing that Tye has seen her before, loved her singing and better yet, her- Jenny rushes to his home and admits her love for him as well.

Originally slated for Lana Turner who turned it down, Torch Song marked Joan Crawford's return to MGM after a ten-year absence. It was an ambitious piece intended to break Crawford away from the type of roles she had been playing throughout the forties. The goal was not achieved however, beyond getting Crawford to show off her gorgeous legs and her skill at lip-syncing. She did try to sing for the film but despite studying opera when she was younger, her voice could not support the role she was playing. The crux of the story is the same- woman desperately seeks love but her hard-as-nails attitude and independence gets in the way. What does come across is the self-referential way that Crawford plays her character. She is Jenny Stewart. A big star in the autumn of her career, she realizes that she has sacrificed a lot for the love of her fans. As Molly Haskell states in the small documentary after the film, “Other people were great actresses, Joan Crawford was a great star.” Crawford was supremely devoted to her fans and because of them her job always, always came before anything else, including real love and supposedly, family. This must have been especially hard for her when work started to dry up, not only to lose the potential to retain and make fans but to know she sacrificed everything for them.

Despite Joan Crawford being one of my favorite actresses, I mainly wanted to see this movie because of this photo above. I honestly thought it was someone playing a mean joke to make her look like this and was disappointed to find this is actually a sequence in the film, she is actually painted up like this. Out of nowhere and apparently for no explained reason, this is the finale piece to the show Jenny Stewart is in. This is also the moment when Tye leaves the theatre without a word of congratulations or anything to Jenny. Can you blame him?


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Spend an evening with Peter Sellers. His Pink Panther series were another favorite growing up.

Totally looks like...

Matthew Morrison...modern day Dennis Morgan? He sings too!

The Affairs of Cellini (1934)

The Affairs of Cellini is based (very loosely) on the life of Renaissance artist/political reactionary Benvenuto Cellini. Fredric March plays the short-tempered, overly amorous Cellini, who must be brought to heel for his committing yet another murder in a duel over a woman. When the duke of Florence (Frank Morgan) has taken it into his head to have Cellini executed, his decision is halted by Cellini ability to turn gold in to works of art and more importantly, he is gaga over Cellini's beautiful model Angela (Fay Wray). Cellini association with Angela allows him to be presented at court, whereupon he revives an ongoing affair with the duchess of Florence (Constance Bennett).
Though the duke comes of a bumbling buffoon, he nonetheless holds the power of life and death over everyone- especially Cellini who adores living on the edge, completely disregards. Through a series of improbable situations that keep the film, which is only seventy-nine minutes long, rolling at a quick pace, everyone will eventually get what they want.




Though all four characters are great in this film, Wray as the dimwit, Bennett as the sly seductress, and March as the hot-blooded lover, Morgan steals most of the scenes with his usual stammer and stutter method. His ill-fated attempts at philandering and his tactless observations provide most of the comedy and garnered him with a nomination for an Oscar.
As for March, he plays the impatient lover-fighter well. He seems to be in constant, bouncing motion and despite his over-inflated ego he still manages to illicit sympathy. After all, he can’t help it if women are hypnotized by his charm. All those except his model Angela who doesn’t budge at his attempts to woo her. March’s reaction to this is comical and endearing. He simply doesn’t understand not being able to win her over.

Laughter (1930)

Peggy Gibson (Nancy Carroll) is a former Follies beauty who forsakes her love for struggling musician Paul Lockridge (Fredric March) for the security C. Mortimer Gibson (Frank Morgan), an elderly but very wealthy broker can provide her as a husband. After a year of marriage, Peggy realizes that security has it’s own price- boredom. When Paul returns from Paris, he offers diversion and fun. Eventually, they both realize they are still in love and Paul implores her to come away to Paris with him stating, "You are rich--dirty rich. You are dying. You need laughter to make you clean.”

Parallel to their story is another man in Peggy’s life Ralph Le Saint (Glenn Anders), a young sculptor and friend to Peggy and Paul. He too is in love with Peggy and considers suicide when she does not return the sentiment. He is briefly dissuaded by the arrival of Gibson's daughter, Marjorie (Diane Ellis), who has returned from school abroad and takes a fancy to Ralph. However, when Marjorie plans to elope with Ralph, Peggy exposes the sculptor as a fortune hunter (insert irony here), and dejected, he commits suicide. The scandal causes Peggy to realize she truly is dying from all the security and so she confesses her unhappiness to Gibson and leaves for Paris with Paul.


Laughter is a movie full of firsts- the first screwball, the first time Nancy Carroll and Fredric March made a film together, and Frank Morgan’s first talkie. It is also, sadly, the last movie young Diane Ellis made before she got married and passed away of and infection during her honeymoon. Carroll and March are a good pairing. So much so, they seem to only light up in the scenes they played together. The best part of the film is when they are caught in a rainstorm and break into the absent Higginbottom’s home. The scene is played out beautifully with no awkward pauses in action. March and Carroll play a little role reversal when March comes to greet “husband” at the door.
March: “I have a surprise for you.”
Carroll: “You don’t mean…”
March: “That’s right... I made a strawberry pie for dessert.”
The idea of March playing wife and perhaps popping news of a baby is as hilarious as it is scandalous for the time.

Another aspect of the film that really stands out is the emergence of the 30’s art deco style- the Gibson apartment especially. I don’t know if Laughter being shot in New York aids in this different feel of this style but I found it very noticeable. The 30’s attitude is also apparent with savvy dialogue and playfulness. When March and Carroll are arrested for breaking into the Higginbottom’s home, the police officer states this is the third break in. March’s clever response is, “That’s why there’s no whiskey!”
Laughter is another film accomplishment for March who received favorable notices on the film. Reportedly, Laughter was one of his all time favorites. It’s made so well and with such a light touch that it’s lost none of its charm and can be enjoyed even today.
March is a man made up of several different and eye-catching mannerisms. I don't know if these were developed to be scene stealers but if you watch him in films, you will notice that he is not often still, even when he is... still. In Laughter, he sits at the piano and contemplates a song, he moves his fingers over the keys, looks about searchingly as if the answer is above his head, and most importantly, sucks the chicken he's just devoured out of his teeth. Mannerisms such as these that are so commonplace, so practical, so relatable but only noticeable because no one else in the scene or even the movie considers doing something similar.

Kitty Foyle: The Natural History of a Woman (1940)

Kitty (Ginger Rogers) is a woman torn between two men that will bring her two different types of lifestyles. There's Dr. Eisen (James Craig), a humble doctor who enjoys administering to the poor. Though his work will not be profitable, he loves Kitty and will be able to provide her his name, protection, and the family she craves. Then there is Wynnewood "Wynn" Stafford VI, Kitty's true love. He loves her but cannot marry her.

Told in retrospect, we learn of Kitty's upbringing, how she was raised on the wrong side of the tracks by her loving father who strove to keep Kitty from heartbreak with her tendency to daydream and wish to be like the socialites of their town. When she meets Wynn, her father soon sees he's failed at making her realize how different Wynn's people think she is.

When Kitty and Wynn meet, it's love at first sight. Finding out she has no job, Wynn immediately hires her as his secretary. He has decided to strike out on his own and start a magazine. An endeavor that Kitty encourages as she sees Wynn detests the idea of going into the family business. When the magazine fails, she encourages him to move to the city and try his luck there instead of heading home in defeat. They secretly marry and though his family accepts the marriage, they want to groom Kitty to become one of their own and bring Wynn back into the family business. When Kitty puts her foot down she learns where Wynn's loyalty lies and divorces him. Months later, a pregnant Kitty is determined to raise her child to be made of sterner stuff, unfortunately, the child is stillborn. Worse yet, Wynn has remarried to someone in his own social class and eventually has a son of his own.

When Wynn's wife unsuspectingly stops into the shop Kitty works for and brings her son along, Kitty gives the child the engagement ring Wynn gave her with directions for him to give it to his father as a birthday gift. This is how Wynn finds her after so many years and proposes that she run away with him the same night that Dr. Eisen proposed marriage to her.

Now kitty must decide, live lavishly but with no pride as a married man's mistress or as the wife of a humble doctor that will provide her the family she wants.

Kitty Foyle would have been another delightfully paced movie with a typical moral message but stands out due to the spice Rogers gives it with her natural allure, sass and seriousness. The more I watch Rogers,the more fascinated I become with her. She had the ability to be annoying (Professional Sweetheart), hep (Once Upon a Honeymoon), hilarious (Vivacious Lady), sarcastic (Finishing School, Stage Door), romantic (The Gay Divorcee), and childlike (The Major and the Minor), all with the extra talent of singing and dancing (Goldiggers of 1933, Roberta) to boot. She was a multi-faceted, shining talent and I think it's important to note (as I have only seen her in one film with Astaire) that she's talented enough to stand alone without need of ever mentioning Astaire's name.

Red, Hot And Blue (1949) An actress's rising career is threatened when she finds a dead gangster in her apartment. Cast: Betty Hutton, Victor Mature, William Demarest, June Havoc Dir: John Farrow

BoomTown (1940)

Betsy Bartlett (Claudette Colbert) is the love of Square John Sand's (Spencer Tracy) life. He’s been “wildcatting” (prospecting for oil in an area supposed to be unproductive) for years, hoping to strike it big so he can provide for her. When Square John knows he has a prime spot, he has difficulty getting the oil equipment from Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan) who has been swindled one too many times before. Enter Big John McMasters (Clark Gable) who Square John does not hit it off with until he assumes that Big John has the dough to front for the equipment and he tells him of his plan. However, Big John is more interested in boozing and womanizing at the moment and when the two start drinking, Square John realizes that Big John doesn’t have that much dough, that he’s just blowing some hard earned funds. Despite this, he helps Big John out of a scrap over a girl and Big John in turn promises to get the oil equipment so they can drill. After a failed first attempt where Square John admits they should have drilled near a spot that Big John indicated would produce, they have to beat feet out of town as Aldrich is on to their scam to use his equipment with plans to pay him off when the oil comes through. After months of working other fields, Big and Square John are able to scrape together enough money to get the equipment legitimately and go back to drill- this time in Big John's spot of choice. When it becomes clear they are going to hit oil, Square John sends for Betsy to come to town. When she does, she runs into Big John who is out for another night of boozing and womanizing. Having no idea who she really is, they spend the evening together and get hitched. Meanwhile, the oil has been struck and elated Square John comes to town to tell Big John the news. Betsy quickly admits who she is and together they tell Square John the news of their marriage. Though both men are upset, Square John is mostly concerned with Betsy's happiness and they work out their differences while building up their oil field and enjoying the spoils. Then one day Big John is caught by Square John and Betsy drunkenly carousing with a saloon waitress. The Johns butt heads and split up with Square John taking over the oil field and money having won the coin toss.
Years of struggling to get back on top strengthen the bond between Big John and Betsy, a bond that eventually produces a son. Despite years of refusing help from one another when both men were down and out, Big John decides to eventually extend the olive branch. When he gets into the oil refinery business he is determined to have Square John as his partner. Square John begrudgingly accepts but is then confronted with Big John's obvious affair with Karen Vanmeer (Hedy Lamarr) who is determined to win Big John for herself. Another battle ensues with Square John risking friendship and fortune to make sure that Betsy is not harmed by their affair.

An interesting film about the lengths one will go to when they truly love another person, Boom Town also has a surprising message delivered by Square John in defense of Big John. Something that we in America today are familiar with, the usage of America's natural resources in relation to the quanity of those resources. Square John makes a very convincing argument that compels viewers like me some seventy years later to ponder what America would be like today if we simply followed logical thinking instead of the almighty dollar.

Tonight on TCM!
Can't Help Singing (1944) A senator's daughter follows her boyfriend in the days of the California gold rush. Cast: Deanna Durbin, Robert Paige, Akim Tamiroff, David Bruce Dir: Frank Ryan

Fidgety and funny...

I always categorize Roland Young, Charles Ruggles, and Frank Morgan in this category. They had a flair for playing highly comical creatures with nervous habits and it's always a joy to see their name in the billing.

The Return of Dr. X (1939)

When reporter Walter Garrett (Wayne Morris) finds the dead body of actress Angela Merrova (Lya Lys) in her hotel room, he immediately alerts the newspaper he works for. However, by the authorities arrive, the body is missing, and Merrova is threatening to sue the paper. Confused and unemployed, Walt determines he really did see a dead body and proceeds to investigate. First he visits his friend Dr. Rhodes (Dennis Morgan), for some advice, and Rhodes refers the case to his associate, Dr. Francis Flegg (John Litel), a doctor renowned for his work in hematology. Flegg suggests that Walt stop drinking so much but Rhodes's interest is piqued when he is called in to identify the body of Rodgers, one of his patients, and Walt insists that this murder is identical to what he found at Merrova's apartment. A dead body drained of all its blood. That night, Rhodes visits Flegg to have him examine an odd blood sample he found at the scene of the crime. This is when he meets Flegg's sinister assistant Marshall Quesne (Humphrey Bogart). Walt secretly follows Rhodes to the doctor's house, and when he later sees Merrova enter the building, he convinces Rhodes to visit Merrova with him. The next day, they both call on the actress at her apartment, where she confirms Walt's story and promises to elaborate the following day. Their visit is interrupted by the arrival of Quesne who is there on behalf of Dr. Flegg. When Merrova mysteriously dies, before giving an explanation, Walt digs deeper, convinced he has seen Quesne somewhere before. While researching the newspaper files, Walt comes across a picture of Quesne that identifies him as Dr. Xavier, a killer executed for murdering a child via research. When Walt and Rhodes discover Xavier's empty grave, they confront Flegg, who confesses that he brought Xavier back to life as an experiment, hoping to create an artificial blood that would keep him alive. Until he does, Xavier takes matters into his own hands by killing for the rare blood he needs to remain alive. While Walt and Rhodes are confronted by police on Flegg’s front steps they hear a gun shot, Xavier has overheard Flegg’s confession and demands his blood donor book. When Flegg refused, he shot him. Xavier then kidnaps Joan Vance (Rosemary Lane), a nurse who has the rare blood type he needs, and takes her to his lab out in the woods with Walt, Rhodes and the police on his trail. They arrive just in time to shoot Xavier and save Joan from death.

Ok, synopsis aside, the real entertainment of this film is the fact that it's a B level horror film that features one Humphrey Bogart. Whaaa??? Though billed third in the credits, Bogart is the most memorable feature of the film with his odd appearance as a neurotic, half-dead lab experiment gone awry sporting bad hair. Unfortunately the rest of the film though not entirely bad, fades into the background due subpar acting, a insubstantial plot, and what seems to be a reluctant Bogart. That said, I didn't really dislike the film, I was mostly just bored whenever Bogart was not onscreen. I wonder how audiences of the thirties felt when they saw it.

I originally thought Bogart did this film as a hoax but upon further research learned that he was not quite the big name he would become a couple of years later after the successes of High Sierra (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942). I also read, but am not entirely sure if it's true, that Warner Brothers made him do the film as punishment for acting up in public with his then wife Mayo Methot, a woman who contributed to their popular moniker, "The Battling Bogarts".
Humphrey Bogart reviled the film and said: "This is one of the pictures that made me march in to Jack Warner and ask for more money again. You can't believe what this one was like. I had a part that somebody like Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff should have played. I was this doctor, brought back to life, and the only thing that nourished this poor bastard was blood. If it had been Jack Warner's blood, or Harry's, or Pop's, maybe I wouldn't have minded as much. The trouble was, they were drinking mine and I was making this stinking movie."


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Sherlock Holmes!

Dragonwyck (1946)

Miranda Wells Gene Tierney , a naïve farm girl, cannot seem to mix with her strict religious upbringing. She wants to see the world and all the different people in it. When an invitation to live with her rich cousin Nicholas Van Ryan in order to school his daughter at Dragonwyck arrives, Miranda jumps at the chance, convincing her father to let her go. When she arrives at Dragonwyck she observes the odd behavior of her dark and handsome cousin, his interactions with his tenant farmers, his wife, and his daughter. Something isn’t quite right, but the more she becomes aware of how different this family is from hers, with their dark secrets and selfish ways, the more she falls for Nicholas. When Nicholas’ wife mysteriously passes away, Nicholas wastes little time making Miranda his as well as making her wish she had never set eyes on Dragonwyck.

Originally to be directed by Lubitsch (wouldn’t that have been interesting?) who fell ill before production, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who wrote the adaption, was offered his first directorial piece. Chock full of little treats in the form of a young Jessica Tandy as Miranda's handicapped maid, Walter Huston playing the furthest thing from the devil as Miranda's pious father, Spring Byington playing the creepy housekeeper, and Major General Steele...er...uh Harry Morgan as the disgruntled tenant farmer. In the style of Rebecca and Jane Eyre, Dragonwyck too has some creepy twists and turns. Though I enjoyed the Dragonwyck- mostly because a young Vincent Price is so foreign to me, I finished the film with one questioned in mind: why did Mrs. Van Ryan eat so passionately? I want to assume it's because she was secretly being fed opium by Nicholas who was also a drug addict. I read that the PCA discouraged "showing Nicholas resorting to opium as an escape." Although Nicholas clearly states that he is a drug addict, he does not indicate to which drug he is addicted.

This is the second film I have seen with Gene Tierney (who, I learned, is Robert Osborn's favorite), I saw her in Toys in the Attic (1963) as well. She is absolutely lovely in the film and looking upon her filmography, I see that though she was in great demand, her personal life often put her career on hold. It's rumored that she met John F. Kennedy during the filming of Dragonwyck and that they had an affair which he eventually broke off due to his political aspirations.

Tonight: Happy Hallowe'en!!