Joseph “Joe” Frank Cobb was among the many children cast in the early iteration of Our Gang, spending his tenure in the hit comedies from 1922 to 1929. He was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, on November 7, 1916, to James Cobb and Florence “Flossie” Jewel McComas Cobb. By age five, he was discovered as a new talent when vacationing with his father in Los Angeles, California. There, his father sent him to audition for Hal Roach’s Our Gang, leading him to appear in some of the earliest shorts, including The Champeen (1923) and The Big Show (1923). Notably, he would appear in the last silent short in the series, entitled Saturday’s Lesson (1929). In the same year, he appeared in the first Our Gang sound short, Small Talk (1929).
By age 12, he was phasing out of the series. Essentially, his replacement would be Norman Chaney as “Chubby,” with both Chaney and Cobb appearing in Boxing Gloves (1929). His final appearance as a regular in the series was in Lazy Days (1929), though he did make three additional cameo appearances in the years to come.
Our Gang Celebrating New Year 1925
In the 1940s, his acting career came to a close after carrying out various minor film roles. He worked as an assembler for North American Aviation in Downey, California, for several decades, retiring in 1981. During those years, he was also a master of ceremonies for Our Gang publicity tours and made appearances for the Sons of the Desert Laurel and Hardy fan society. He passed away in a convalescent home on May 21, 2002, in Santa Ana, California, at age 85. Cobb was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park —Glendale.
Cobb building B-52 bombers for North American Aviation
In the 1930s, Cobb and his family resided at 836 S.
Spaulding Ave., Los Angeles, California. At this point, he was an established
child actor. His mother had just passed away in 1929. Here, he resided with his
father, siblings Loretta and Lucile, as well as his great aunt and uncle,
Arvila and Charles Mechler. His father worked as an attorney. The home stands
today.
Cobb’s 1930s residence at 836 S. Spaulding Ave., Los Angeles, California
In the 1940s, Cobb lived at 2175 Broadview Terrace, Los
Angeles, California, per his draft card, which also listed him as unemployed. This
home still stands.
Cobb’s 1940s residence at 2175 Broadview Terrace, Los Angeles, California
In the same decade, he resided with his uncle and aunt,
George and Mattie Cato, at 4328 W. Normandy Ave., Dallas, Texas, as well as
with lodger Joe Goldstein. In 1950, he lived at 4353 S. Bonnie Brae, Los
Angeles, California, while working as an assembler. Both of these homes have
since been razed.
Today, Cobb’s grave marker cites him as a member of Our Gang.
Annette Bochenek, Ph.D., is a film historian, professor, and avid scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the “Hometowns to Hollywood” blog, in which she profiles her trips to the hometowns of classic Hollywood stars. She has also been featured on the popular classic film-oriented television network, Turner Classic Movies. A regular columnist for Classic Movie Hub, her articles have appeared in TCM Backlot, Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, The Dark Pages Film Noir Newsletter, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.
Western RoundUp: Western Film Book Library – Part 7
Every year or so I share some interesting titles on the Western film genre in this column. Here’s my 2023 look at a mixture of brand-new and vintage books on Westerns!
There’s an exciting new series of paperback books on Westerns, “Reel West,” which has recently debuted from the University of New Mexico Press.
Blood on the Moon by Alan K. Rode and Ride Lonesome by Kirk Ellis
The
publisher describes them as “short, well-designed volumes exploring
individual films across the whole history of the Western,” also calling
them “smart, incisive examinations.” Having now read the first two
books in the series, I found the descriptions accurate. I’m enthused about the
titles I’ve just read, and I’m looking forward to reading forthcoming titles.
Blood on the Moon by Alan K. Rode
Blood on the Moon is a 99-page book on the 1948 film of the same name. It was written by film historian Alan K. Rode, whose other books include excellent biographies of Michael Curtiz and Charles McGraw. Charles McGraw, incidentally, appears as a rancher in the film, memorably wearing a bearskin coat.
The new book concisely yet thoroughly details the history of the 1948 Western, doing an admirable job recounting details of the movie’s production while also placing the film in a wider context. Readers will come to understand how the movie fits in Western, film noir, and RKO studio history, as well as in the careers of filmmakers such as director Robert Wise and rising star Robert Mitchum.
The book
also delves into the history of author Luke Short, whose book was the basis for
the screenplay; over the years his novels were filmed on numerous occasions.
There
are detailed chapter notes and a bibliography, though not an index. The book
contains numerous interesting black and white photos, many of which were new to
me. While an index would have been handy for referring back to the book in the
future, I felt it lived up to the publisher’s promise of a “well-designed
volume,” including a three-page spread neatly detailing the film’s
credits.
Blood on
the Moon is a very engaging read which I devoured over the
course of a single airplane flight. Fans of Westerns and classic films alike
should find it quite enjoyable and informative.
Ride Lonesome by Kirk Ellis
It was a pleasure to unexpectedly meet Kirk Ellis, the author of Ride Lonesome, at a recent film festival – all the more so as I happened to have the book with me and was able to have him sign it!
At 207
pages the Ride Lonesome book is about twice the length
of Blood on the Moon. It follows the same style, with chapter
notes, bibliography, and a number of black and white photos, but no index.
The 1959 film Ride Lonesome is my favorite of the seven Westerns in which Budd Boetticher directed Randolph Scott, and I’ve also been to the film’s Alabama Hills locations several times, so it was quite a treat to read an entire book on this beloved Western. I also appreciated that Ellis describes trekking to the Alabama Hills himself to see the locations firsthand.
In his introduction Ellis describes Ride Lonesome as “one of the starkest, leanest, and most unrelenting films in any genre of the period.” It certainly is all that – I love the short 73-minute running time and the memorably bleak ending — though I also find it rather optimistic in the way that outlaw Sam Boone (Pernell Roberts) ends up working with Randolph Scott’s Ben Brigade, and just maybe going on to a better life after “The End.”
The
author’s personal relationships with both Boetticher and screenwriter Burt
Kennedy gives his knowledgeable text an added dimension. He shares both men’s
personal stories along with the production history of the film; he places Ride
Lonesome in the context of the other “Ranown” Westerns and
also offers excellent critical analysis of both Kennedy’s script and the
finished film. He offered so many insights that I’m anxious to pull this film
off the shelf again in the near future and watch it with this fresh
perspective. In short, I loved and recommend this book.
Heroes, Heavies and Sagebrush is a 1972 book by Arthur F. McClure and Ken D. Jones. I discovered it thanks to my friend, film historian Toby Roan; I immediately sought a copy, as the authors’ 1970 book The Films of James Stewarthas been on my bookshelf since I was a pre-teen, when I found it on a closeout table in the attic at Pickwick Books in Hollywood.
Heroes, Heavies and Sagebrush by Arthur F. Mc Clure and Ken D. Jones
It’s a
photo-filled 351-page hardback packed with biographical information and credits
for a wide variety of Western supporting players. Examples of a couple pages
are seen below. While a considerable amount of the biographical data —
especially death dates — has become outdated in the half century since it was
published, the book still contains a great deal of value.
Heroes, Heavies and Sagebrush by Arthur F. Mc Clure and Ken D. Jones
Heroes, Heavies and Sagebrush by Arthur F. Mc Clure and Ken D. Jones
The many
photos are useful to help identify Western players by name, and for me such
photos have also always sparked interest in films to search out for future
viewing. This is a delightful read and reference source for Western fans.
Sweethearts of the Sage: Biograhies and Filmographies of 258 Actresses Appearing in Western Movies by Buck Rainey
This
632-page book by Buck Rainey, published by McFarland, is truly remarkable, and
it was certainly worth what I paid, as I’ll be referring to it for years to
come.
Sweethearts of the Sage: Biograhies and Filmographies of 258 Actresses Appearing in Western Movies by Buck Rainey
Sweethearts of the Sage: Biograhies and Filmographies of 258 Actresses Appearing in Western Movies by Buck Rainey
As seen
in the page spreads above, the book features biographies of varying lengths;
some are quite detailed, and in all cases the book is a great way to learn more
about Western leading ladies. The book also contains an extensive film title
index at the back.
While I’m on this topic, I’d like to remind readers of books about Western heroines which I’ve covered in the past: Westerns Women and Ladies of the Western, which I wrote about here in July 2019, and The Heroine or the Horse, which I wrote about last summer.
I’ll
wrap up this month’s column with two books on Randolph Scott, who
coincidentally starred in the previously discussed Ride Lonesome.
This
time around Nott explores Scott’s entire career, beginning with bit parts. He
provides film credits and plot outlines, production history and critical
response, as well as including his own takes on the titles. Examples are seen
in the page spreads below.
The Films of Randolph Scott by Robert Nott
The Films of Randolph Scott by Robert Nott
Some of
the information necessarily overlaps with Last of the Cowboy Heroes,
but it’s all very useful and I quite enjoyed reading about Scott’s other films
and placing his Westerns in the context of his full career. Nott pulls together
facts about each film to provide a smooth and interesting read about each
title, and the book is nicely illustrated with high-quality black and white
reproductions on the book’s pages. Scott fans will want this book, especially
if they don’t have the earlier title.
The other Scott title, Randolph Scott: A Film Biography, is an older book, originally published by Empire Publishing in 1987. Empire also published David Rothel’s book Tim Holt which I shared here in November 2019.
Randolph Scott, A Film Biography by Jefferson Brim Crow III
Randolph
Scott: A Film Biography was written by Jefferson Brim
Crow III and runs 303 pages. It’s a heavy book with glossy pages.
The text is lighter than Nott’s book, with a strong focus on photographs. There are also several pages of reprints of original Scott movie reviews which are fun to peruse — those with aging eyes may want a magnifying glass – and there’s a lengthy section of film credits at the back of the book.
\
Randolph Scott, A Film Biography by Jefferson Brim Crow III
The
photos are very enjoyable and make this book a nice supplement to Nott’s
writings on Scott.
Thanks to the University of New Mexico Press and editor Andrew Patrick Nelson for providing review copies of Blood on the Moon and Ride Lonesome.
…
– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
Silents are Golden: Silent Superstars – The Sensational Pola Negri
We’re all familiar with the stereotype of the flamboyant silent film actress: the lavishly-dressed temptress being chauffeured around Hollywood in gold-plated automobiles, stalking through the most exclusive parties, leaving a trail of ex-husbands in her wake. If there’s one actress who conforms the most closely to this image, it’s probably the “exotic” Polish-born Pola Negri. Savvy at keeping her name in the press, it was her acting skills and undeniable charisma that ultimately kept audiences coming to her films.
Pola Negri
Her backstory was a publicist’s dream, being
the sort that could be easily tweaked to emphasize either privilege or
pluckiness at will. Believed to have been born in 1897 (exact dates have varied
according to source), Barbara Apolonia Chalupec was raised in the town of
Lipno, Poland. (Her screen name “Pola” was based on her middle name, and
“Negri” came from an Italian poet.) She claimed her mother’s family were former
aristocrats who had lost their fortune due to their support of Napoleon. When
her father turned revolutionary, the Russians exiled him to Siberia and an
impoverished Negri and her mother moved to Warsaw. (Later in life she would
claim her mother was a “noblewoman” and her father a “Gypsy violinist,” or said
that both parents were revolutionaries, or some variation of the above.)
Fortunately, Negri was a talented girl and was accepted into the Imperial Ballet Academy and then the Warsaw Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts. By 1912 she had made her stage debut in Polish theater, and in a few years she had gained enough popularity to move to Germany to work at Max Reinhardt’s prestigious Berlin theater. She first met future film collaborator Ernest Lubitsch in 1917 during Reinhardt’s production of Sumurun (1920). While Lubitsch wasn’t acting he was directing films, and this apparently piqued Negri’s interest in acting in moving pictures.
A postcard for one of Negri’s early films, Carmen (1918).
She initially appeared in six films for Saturn Films, then started working for Germany’s UFA studio. Her famed collaboration with Lubitsch began in 1918, when he created the big-budget Die Augen der Mumie Ma (The Eyes of the Mummy Ma) to showcase Negri’s fiery talents and striking beauty. This was followed by Carmen (1918) and then the influential Madame DuBarry (1919), released in the U.S. as Passion. Madame DuBarry was an international hit and a major boon for the German film industry, which had been largely shunned during World War I. It even threatened to knock Hollywood’s dominance in the film market down a peg or two.
A trade ad for Passion.
But not for long–Hollywood soon invited both Lubitsch and Negri to make pictures in the U.S. Negri arrived in 1922 with much fanfare, making her one of the first major European stars to be “imported” to Hollywood. Her first features were Bella Donna, The Cheat (a remake of the 1915 classic starring Sessue Hayakawa), and The Spanish Dancer, all filmed in 1923. (Lubitsch, in the meantime, was busy making Mary Pickford’s Rosita.)
In costume for The Spanish Dancer (1923).
These were followed by a string of big-budget films like the acclaimed Forbidden Paradise(1924), her last collaboration with Lubitsch. Her talents were well-suited for Spanish dancer and seductive lover roles. She also starred in the cheekily self-aware A Woman of the World(1925), which toyed with her “exotic temptress” image.
Pola in A Woman of the World (1925)
The dramatic-looking diva, with her black hair, porcelain skin, and penchant for flashy red nail polish and expensive jewels, fascinated the public. She bought a swanky Beverly Hills mansion modeled after Mount Vernon and was chauffeured about in a cream-colored Rolls Royce or a limousine, depending on the occasion. When audiences weren’t flocking to her films they were hearing about her exploits in the press (although a supposed feud with fellow beauty queen Gloria Swanson was fabricated). She was described as “the eternal Carmen… passionate, elemental, primitive.”
Negri in 1937
Divorced from Count Eugeniusz Dąbski since 1922, any real or potential love affairs were fawned over in the tabloids – especially an early 1920s romance with Charlie Chaplin. Other lovers included Rod La Rocque and, most famously, Rudolph Valentino. Negri had met the great Latin Lover at a Marion Davies party in 1925, around the time Valentino was divorcing Natasha Rambova. The two had an affectionate, if somewhat tempestuous relationship, given Negri’s willingness to cause the occasional public scene.
The costumed couple.
When Valentino tragically passed away in 1926, Negri made headlines for her appearance at his funeral bier in New York City – and not in a positive way. Reporters were on hand to see her emotional arrival at Grand Central station, wearing expensive black widow’s weeds and a veil, with a nurse and publicist in tow. After fainting into the arms of her friends, she made her way to Valentino’s bier, where she prayed and wept copiously and then fainted again. Apparently she tried to have a $2000 flower arrangement draped on the coffin for the funeral, with white roses spelling out “POLA.” While some friends later claimed her histrionics were genuine, the public felt they were attention-seeking and in bad taste.
Pola arriving in New York.
Negri’s reputation fell further when she married “Prince”
Serge Mdivani, of Georgian descent, less than a year after Valentino’s death.
In 1928 Negri discovered she was pregnant and considered retiring from the
screen to raise a family. But to her lasting grief, she had a miscarriage. The
marriage to Mdivani, who turned out to be a heavy gambler, would only last a
few more years. She would not remarry.
Negri would weather the transition to talkies well, but the material she was given tended to be subpar. She would return to Germany for a few years to make films for the old UFA studio, but returned to the U.S. when the Nazis took over. Largely retiring from the entertainment business in 1945, she would be approached by Billy Wilder for the title role in Sunset Boulevardin 1948. Despite her silent era image arguably being the closest to the fictional Norma Desmond, she turned it down. After the death of her mother in 1954, Negri moved to San Antonio where she quietly spent her remaining years.
Pola circa the early 1940s.
Negri’s last film appearance – in full color – was the Disney mystery film The Moon-Spinners(1964). In 1970 she released an autobiography titled Memoirs of a Star. A devout Catholic in her later life, she also fundraised for Catholic charities. She would leave sizable portions of her estate to the Polish nuns of the Seraphic Order in San Antonio, as well as St. Mary’s University in Texas, which was also fortunate to receive her memorabilia from her glory days in Hollywood.
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
Halley’s Comet is on its way, and people are terrified. They buy gas masks to save themselves from poisonous fumes and take anti-comet pills for protection from other bad things. They pray in the streets and seek shelter in caves.
The comet comes – as close as 13.9
million miles from Earth or about one-fifteenth the distance between Earth and
the sun – but leaves the Earth safe and untouched. Yet it has a lingering
effect.
In 1916, fears are revived by director August Blom in his Danish silent film Verdens Undergang (or The End of the World) where a comet passing too close to Earth brings poisonous smoke, flooding and fire – the same things feared from Halley’s Comet.
Welcome to the birth of the world’s first doomsday movie. Verdens Undergang was a hit.
More than a century later,
moviegoers still enjoy the “giant object is getting too close to Earth”
doomsday subgenre which includes decades of films and TV movies including The Green Slime (1968), Meteor(1979), Deep
Impact (1998) and Moonfall
(2022). Most deal with the impending doom by going on the offensive and
attacking the incoming object with bombs and rockets, even sending brave
citizens into space to meet it head-on.
That’s not what happens in When Worlds Collide (1951), one of my favorites. In that film from visionary producer George Pal, the mission is to build a spaceship – a Noah’s Ark in space – to take a small group of survivors to a new planet, leaving everyone else behind. Don’t blame them – they did try to save the world but weren’t believed until it was too late. And if that sounds familiar, it should. It’s among the disaster film tropes that When Worlds Collide brought to sci-fi movies.
Add the movie’s nifty Oscar-winning special effects and that explains the full house more than 70 years later to watch When Worlds Collideat the Hollywood Legion Theatre/Post 43 in Hollywood during the 14th Turner Classic Movie Film Festival in April of 2023. The audience was enthralled witnessing the mass destruction of Earth by fire and water as a thunderous sound rumbled under foot and the theater doors blew open. This extra movie magic was courtesy of Oscar winners Craig Barron and Ben Burtt who brought 14 additional subwoofers to add special sound effects during a presentation for the film. The audience cheered Burtt’s “Bensurround,” as it was humorously called as a nod to Hollywood’s Sensurround of the 1970s. It was a blast – and so was the movie.
The space ark that’s the last salvation for humans in When Worlds Collide. The question is whether it can it make it up the runway ramp into space.
* * * *
When
Worlds Collide is based on the 1933 sci-fi novel co-written by
Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie. The sequel After Worlds Collide, was written but never adapted
into a movie because of Pal’s lack of success with a later project (fickle
studios!).
The film opens with a bit of humor
as we watch a couple cuddled in the cockpit of a small plane. It’s our intro to
brash young pilot David Randall (Richard Derr, a dashing
Danny Kaye lookalike). He’s a smooth operator and a great pilot whose world is
about to change.
Cut to a laboratory in South Africa where scientist Emery Bronson (played by Hayden Rorke, the first of our familiar faces from his time on I Dream of Jeannie) has discovered the star Bellus is on a collision course with Earth, bringing with it the planet Zyra.
Pilot David Randall (Richard Derr, center) looks on as scientists Joyce Hendron (Barbara Rush) and her father Dr. Hendron (Larry Keating) discover bad news in When Worlds Collide.
Bronson hires David Randall who
thinks he’s going to pilot a delivery, but instead is handcuffed to a briefcase
he must hand-deliver to Dr. Cole Hendron (Larry Keating) in New
York.
David, who is only in it for the
money, is met by Hendron’s daughter, Joyce (played by Barbara Rush) and
immediately falls for her. That fact that she’s engaged to the nice Dr. Tony
Drake (Peter Hansen), doesn’t matter.
Inside the briefcase are photographs and Dr. Bronson’s calculations predicting the collision which Dr. Hendron and his team confirm. In eight months, the planet Zyra will pass perilously close to Earth messing with our gravitational pull and causing all sorts of natural disasters; Bellus follows 19 days later and obliterates the planet.
With the end near, handsome pilot David Randall (Richard Derr) makes a grand gesture by burning money to light a cigarette for lovely scientist Joyce Hendron (Barbara Rush) in When Worlds Collide.
They present their findings to the United Nations and the government to ask for help (money) to build spaceships in hopes of rebuilding humanity. They are rebuked and laughed at by all but two wealthy humanitarians who offer funds while knowing they will be left behind to die. But it’s not enough to build even one ship, and they are forced to take money from the despicable businessman Sydney Stanton (John Hoyt), in exchange for a seat on the spaceship. It’s clear the entitled business tycoon is going to be a problem, but his money is desperately needed.
So they build. Hundreds of people – mostly students in engineering, agriculture and the like – create the space ark dubbed “Stanton’s folly” in record time. And that’s basically the rest of the film. The workers keep building the ship and doing other “save our civilization” tasks like copying pages of books that will be too heavy to bring along; Stanton grows crankier and more demanding, and the love triangle plays out. (I can’t help but always feel sorry for poor Dr. Drake who is a good man, but no match for the charismatic pilot.)
Time is counted down on a paper calendar – the type where you rip off the days – for the arrival of Zyra and Bellus. On the calendar and elsewhere you’ll see the motto: Waste anything except time … time is our shortest material.
Dr. Tony Drake (played by Peter Hansen, left) and Harold Ferris (played by Frank Cady) hold on as the room shakes when Zyra gets too close to earth in When Worlds Collide. We know that’s what happening because the wall calendar reads that it’s Zyra day.
Finally, it’s Z-Day and we witness the reason we’re here: mass destruction. (I apologize for my giddiness.) As Zyra passes earth, it causes tidal waves, fires, flooding, earthquakes (cue those subwoofers) and ruin. Survivors try to help others knowing the end is near. Even romantic rivals David and Tony team up in a helicopter to drop supplies and rescue a little boy from a rooftop. It’s one of the moments that gives the film a dash of hope and humanity as does the subplot of two sweet young-and-in-love workers (played by Rachel Ames and James Congdon). Watch what happens when the lottery numbers are chosen.
It’s time to pick the lottery numbers out of a box to see who gets to fly to Zyra and who will be left behind in When Worlds Collide. I hope young lovers Eddie (James Congdon) and Julie (Rachel Ames) will both pick winning numbers.
Meanwhile, our disagreeable
millionaire Stanton warns that those left behind will revolt while Dr. Hendron
trusts in the goodness of people. “You spend too much time with the stars. You
don’t know anything about living – the law of the jungle – the human jungle,” Stanton
says. Sadly, he is right, but the film prefers to focus on the positivity and
hope for humanity and that’s what we’re left with by the end.
Now if you think When Worlds Collide is all
sci-fi, think about this: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has an asteroid watch dashboard
that shows the next five objects passing within 4.6 million miles (7.5 million
kilometers) – the danger zone – of Earth. I am creeped out but will try not to
think about the reality while enjoying my treasured doomsday movies.
The special effects
Chesley Bonestell was a pioneering
and influential painter and designer, credited with inspiring the American
space program. In his later years, the work of the “father of modern space
art,” was seen in many films including Pal’s Destination Moon, The War of the
Worlds and Conquest of Space.
For When Worlds Collide,
Bonestell designed the space ark, coming up with the idea for it to take off
horizontally instead of vertically, and created the pre-production sketches
that depicted the destruction when Zyra passed closest to the Earth.
Those sketches were used by Oscar-winning special effects artist Gordon Jennings, who led the Paramount team, for such scenes as the flooding of Times Square. To create it, a scene from a Samuel Goldwyn film was used. They freezed the frame and built a replica in black of the buildings; later dumping water from two tanks. Pal said each frame was rotoscoped and hand-painted mattes were used. The sequence cost $1,800.
At the TCM Film Festival, Oscar winners Craig Barron, left, and Ben Burtt share a photo of the “unsung heroes” of When Worlds Collide, the rocket operators group. (Photo by Toni Ruberto)
In the presentation at the TCM Film
Festival, Craig Barron and Ben Burtt discussed these effects, explaining how
they were done, sharing rare behind-the-scenes photos, videos and outtakes.
They showed a photo of the “rocket operators’ group” – the men who created the space
ark in the film – calling them “the unsung heroes of When Worlds Collide.”
In one outtake, the miniature
rocket had a bit of a hard time moving up the runway ramp. “There was no chance
of CGI then,” Barron said. “This is pioneering stuff, so we will have to
forgive a bit of wobble.”
Behind the scenes
For all its great work in special effects, When Worlds Collide had some shortcomings that areoften mentioned (but that I forgive).
Though the mass destruction scenes are great, we don’t see the collision promised in the film title, but instead see two small circular images – the Earth and Bellus – move closer on a small screen in the space ark and then there’s fire. Anticlimactic is an understatement.
Another complaint is that the space ark flies over snow-capped mountains and icy terrain on Zyra, yet when the doors open it’s all green and beautiful with an obviously painted backdrop. Although it could have been handled better, it’s not quite as bad as it seems. Look closely at the bottom of the screen in some shots and you’ll see part of the ark has landed on snow and the rest is on grass.
Now that painted backdrop ruins it for many viewers because, well, it looks like a painting. Blame that on the studio.
Yes, it’s clearly a painted backdrop but look closely for the intriguing items added to the Martian landscape by notable science-fiction artist Chesley Bonestell for When Worlds Collide.
In the book The Films of George Pal by Gail Morgan Hickman, Pal describes how Paramount made him rush the final days of shooting and scrap his original ending to get the film out for preview and take advantage of the newly announced Oscar for his film Destination Moon. “We wanted to have a miniature for that ending shot, but Paramount was anxious to preview the picture. We had a painting by Chesley Bonestell from which we were going to build a miniature, so we just cut the painting into the picture for the preview,” Pal is quoted as saying.
The preview did so well that Paramount refused to give Pal the time or extra $5,000 needed for the miniature to finish his film. So instead of criticizing what was out of the control of Pal & Company, let’s take a closer look at the picture and allow our imagination go wild. See those pyramids Bonestell painted in the background along with another interesting structure on the left? They are clearly the work of an alien race that did the same thing on Earth. That would have made a great sequel if only the studio allowed.
The familiar faces
You may get a kick out of spotting
the large number of character actors in this film. Here are a few.
Six of the familiar faces you’ll see in When Worlds Collide.
Rachel Ames as Julie Cummings (she was half of the young couple) and Peter Hansen as Dr. Tony Drake. I’m putting them together for their notable reunion in the 1960s on “General Hospital.” For decades, Hansen played Dr. Lee Baldwin and Ames was Nurse Audrey Hardy on the soap, each earning accolades and awards.
Frank Cadyas Harold Ferris. Cady plays the put-upon manservant to the nasty Sydney Stanton. Watching him go bad is a surprise for viewers who know Cady as the comical Sam Drucker on TV shows Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies.
Larry Keating
as Dr. Hendron. He was known for such comedies The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and Mr. Ed, along with the
films Monkey Business, Daddy
Long Legs and The
Mating Season.
Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at
The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a
member of the Classic
Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo
chapter of TCM Backlot and now leads the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie
Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in
the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You
can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto.
Last month, here at the Noir Nook, I served up the first
half of my top 10 bad boys of noir. I’m finishing up the list this month with
another spate of dastardly dudes. Watch yourself – they’re up to no good!
This feature centers on private dick Jeff Markham (Robert
Mitchum) turned filling station owner Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), whose past
catches up with him in the form of a gorgeously nefarious femme, Kathie Moffat
(Jane Greer), and a ruthless gang boss, Whit Sterling. Out of the Past
boasts one of those labyrinthine noir plots that you’d rather disregard than
figure out, but in a nutshell, Whit hired Jeff to find his girl, Kathie, who’d
stolen forty grand and took it on the lam, leaving Whit with a bullet in his
side as a parting gift. Jeff finds Kathie, but instead of returning her to
Whit, he falls for her and the two enjoy an idyllic sojourn – until they don’t.
In Whit Sterling, we have one of noir’s scariest characters –
he’s smart but ruthless, refined but lethal, genial, with an affable façade that
masks a monster. Whit isn’t in many scenes, but he dominates each one with a
frightening air – you never know what he’s liable to do or say, or what duplicitous
intentions are bubbling behind his pleasant and uber-calm comportment.
Favorite quote: “You’re gonna take the rap and play along. You’re gonna make every exact move I tell you. If you don’t, I’ll kill you. And I’ll promise you one thing: it won’t be quick. I’ll break you first. You won’t be able to answer a telephone or open a door without thinking, ‘This is it.’ And when it comes, it still won’t be quick. And it won’t be pretty. You can take your choice.”
Criss Cross – one of my very favorite noirs,
incidentally – tells the story of Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster), who returns
to his hometown after a lengthy absence only to find himself getting mixed up with
his irresistible and combustible ex-wife Anna (Yvonne DeCarlo) – and local gangster
Slim Dundee. In an extended flashback, we see how Steve and Anna reconnected
(despite Steve’s attempts to convince himself that he wasn’t interested); how,
without warning, Anna married Slim; and how Anna and Steve schemed to reunite,
double cross Slim, and wind up with a big payday in the bargain.
Slim is a hothead. Suspicious. Jealous. Mean. Abusive. Merciless.
And you can’t take your eyes off of him – because he’s also cooler than the
other side of the pillow. Take my favorite scene, when Slim returns home early
from a trip and catches Anna and Steve together (with Steve in his undershirt,
yet!). Silently declining the offer of a beer from one of his underlings, he
greets Anna, then calmly offers: “You know, uh, it don’t look right,” he comments.
“You can’t exactly say it looks right, now, can you?” But beneath that composed
exterior, Slim is like a caged tiger, just waiting to pounce.
Favorite quote: “Is that polite? Is it hospitable? Tell me, Stevie, what kind of a job is this you need crooks?”
White Heat gives us a straightforward story – government
agent Hank Fallon (Edmond O’Brien) goes undercover to infiltrate a gang headed
by Cody Jarrett (James Cagney. Also along for the ride are Big Ed Somers (Steve
Cochran), Cody’s right-hand man (until he stabs him in the back), and Cody’s gorgeously
duplicitous girlfriend (Virginia Mayo).
An undeniable psychopath, Cody isn’t your everyday,
garden-variety mobster: he suffers from debilitating migraines and an unnatural
attachment to his mother (Margaret Wycherly). Ruthless, fearless, and utterly
remorseless, Cody ultimately fails to get away with his crimes, but his
comeuppance is particularly explosive, if you know what I mean.
Favorite quote: “Did I ask you for any advice? Look Pardo, I’ve been watchin’ you. And up to now you haven’t done anything I can put my finger on. And maybe that’s what bothers me. But I don’t know you. What I don’t know, I don’t trust. To me you’re just a face and a number and let’s keep it that way for now. When I want your help, I’ll ask for it.”
This film stars Steve Brodie as Steve Randall, a newlywed
truck driver whose wife, Anne (Audrey Long) is expecting the couple’s first
child. All is sweetness and light in the Randall household until Steve is
contacted by an old school chum, Walt Radak, who offers him a lucrative job
hauling freight. When Steve learns that the freight consists of stolen goods,
he tries to alert the authorities, but a gun battle results in a dead
policeman, the arrest of Walt’s kid brother for the murder, and Steve and Anne
on the run from both police and a vindictive Walt Radak.
Walt Radak was a hood with a one-track mind. Once he decided
that Steve Randall was responsible for the arrest, conviction, and ultimate
execution of his brother, he had Steve in his sights like a deer during hunting
season. And he tracked him across the country with vengeful glee. Steve didn’t
have a chance.
Favorite quote: “I’m sorry I can’t give you a choice of food, Steve, but it won’t make much difference. You’re not going to live long enough to get any nourishment out of it.”
A gang of criminals takes over a hotel in Florida’s Key
Largo, led by exiled gangster Johnny Rocco, who has plans to conduct a
transaction involving counterfeit cash with some of his former crime cronies.
Held captive by Rocco’s gang in the midst of a hurricane are the hotel’s
feisty, wheelchair-bound owner James Temple (Lionel Barrymore), his
daughter-in-law Nora (Lauren Bacall), Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart), a war
hero who’d served alongside Nora’s late husband and is in town visiting the
Temples, and Rocco’s former moll, Gaye Dawn (Claire Trevor), who’s now a rather
pitiable alcoholic.
Rocco possesses a multifaceted personality. He’s capable of
tossing off a humorous quip, but he’s clearly afraid of the powerful storm
raging outside the hotel. He’s mean-spirited, as he demonstrates by forcing
Gaye to warble a tune in exchange for a drink, then refusing to keep his part
of the bargain. He’s wily, as we see when he rattles off a smooth lie to the local
sheriff seeking the killer of his deputy. And he’s overflowing with arrogance
and egotism: “Thousands of guys got guns,” he says, “but there’s only one
Johnny Rocco!”
Favorite quote: “After living in the USA for more than thirty-five years they called me an undesirable alien. Me. Johnny Rocco. Like I was a dirty Red or something!”
— Edward G. Robinson as Johnny Rocco
…..
That’s the end of my Top 10 list of Noir’s Bad Boys. Who would you add to this corrupt crew?
…
– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages. If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
Although it’s not as iconic as films like The Women (1939) or Mildred Pierce (1945), I really enjoy the George Cukor murder melodrama A Woman’s Face (1941) because it gives us a different view – quite literally – of star Joan Crawford. When we imagine Crawford today, we usually think of the heavy eyebrows, smear of red lips, and shoulder pads version, an image crystallized by Faye Dunaway’s embodiment of Crawford in Mommie Dearest (1981), but classic film fans already know that Crawford’s long career took her through many incarnations, from flappers and chorus girls to diva of grand dame guignol. In this Hollywood remake of the 1938 Swedish picture starring Ingrid Bergman, Crawford gets to play a truly dynamic character, one whose face is only the most obvious thing about her that changes. In many ways, it’s a perfect Crawford companion piece to Bette Davis’ Now, Voyager (1942), and, in fact, Davis starred in a 1942 radio version of A Woman’s Face with Crawford’s costar Conrad Veidt. If you want to see as many aspects of Joan Crawford as possible in one picture, A Woman’s Face is an excellent choice.
Joan Crawford stars as Anna Holm, a woman caught between the possible lives represented by her criminal partner (Conrad Veidt) and a kind plastic surgeon (Melvyn Douglas)
Crawford plays Anna Holm, a woman whose childhood facial injury has always prevented her from being part of normal society. She turns to crime to survive and punish those who have ostracized her, but her blackmail business eventually leads her to a fateful encounter with plastic surgeon Gustaf Segert (Melvyn Douglas), who commits to repairing her damaged face. After a series of painful operations, Anna has the chance to begin a new life, but her old partner, Torsten Barring (Conrad Veidt), refuses to let her leave the past behind. Those who have known Anna both before and after her transformation reveal the circumstances through which Anna becomes embroiled in the murder trial that forms the frame tale of the story.
Dr. Segert tells Anna that he can repair her damaged face with a series of operations
Like Grand Hotel (1932) and The Women, A Woman’s Face features an impressive ensemble cast, but Crawford is absolutely the star. Her performance is supported by two leading men, Melvyn Douglas as the generous but unhappily married surgeon, and Conrad Veidt as the charming but unscrupulous schemer. The two male leads play angel and devil to Crawford’s Anna, one urging a path to righteousness and the other luring her back into the dark. The rest of the cast includes Osa Massen, Reginald Owen, Marjorie Main, Donald Meek, Connie Gilchrist and even George Zucco and Henry Daniell filling small roles as lawyers in the murder trial. Richard Nichols is a tiny scene-stealer as Lars-Erik, which makes it even worse that Torsten, his uncle, wants the child dead. Each of the characters offers a different take on Anna as part of the testimony, while the flashback scenes allow us to see how each character has interacted with her in the past, bringing out anger, longing, grief, hope, and tenderness depending on the circumstances. Each witness brings us a little closer to understanding Anna and her actions, although the film carefully holds some of its secrets until the climactic end (and I won’t spoil them here).
After the operations, Anna pauses to admire her own reflection in a mirror
Facial disfigurement frequently appears as a plot point in movies, often in problematic ways that use a scar or other marks to signify villainy, but A Woman’s Face pushes back against that reading to a certain degree. Anna is scarred because her drunken father accidentally set her room on fire when she was just a child, and she was also orphaned as a result of the incident. In a society where women must have pretty faces or strong protectors to survive, Anna has had neither. She is the victim of a system that failed to protect her, which makes her even more vulnerable to Torsten’s seductive powers. Gustaf, however, sees her as either his Galatea or his Frankenstein’s monster, a creation that he brings to life, which makes him a problematic love interest, too. Although the film argues that Anna’s hardness was always a façade put up to defend her from the world’s cruelty, it still ultimately depicts scarred Anna as a criminal and beautiful Anna as a kind governess, so it’s not nearly as radical a reading of the disfigured protagonist as The Man Who Laughs (1928), which naturally comes to mind because it also stars Conrad Veidt. On the other hand, A Woman’s Face offers a much more nuanced depiction of the theme than Stolen Face (1952), in which Lizabeth Scott’s character is just a terrible person no matter how she looks. It’s also a narrative that centers the experience of the scarred character without being a horror story, which is something of a rarity, especially for a female protagonist. The most iconic example from the horror genre is, of course, Eyes without a Face (1960), which ends in a nihilistic blaze of gory glory that we’re happily spared in A Woman’s Face.
Anna takes the stand in her own defense at the murder trial
Joan Crawford starred in A Woman’s Face toward the end of her time at MGM; she would eventually leave the studio for Warner Bros. and her Oscar winning success with Mildred Pierce. She also earned Academy Award nominations for Possessed (1948) and Sudden Fear (1953), but if you want a full tour of the many faces of Joan Crawford, start with silents like The Unknown (1927) and Our Dancing Daughters (1928). In addition to the big hits already mentioned, savor the variety represented by films like Dancing Lady (1933), The Damned Don’t Cry (1950), Johnny Guitar (1954), and, of course, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).
Arline Leanore Golonka was born on January 23, 1936, in Chicago,
Illinois, to Elinor Wroblewski Golonka and Frank Golonka. Her father passed
away when she was two years old and her mother later married Edward Rejba. Elinor
and Edward then had two children named Zorine and Jimmy.
Golonka was of Polish descent, living in a Chicago neighborhood and
attending Wicker Park School. A social worker encouraged her to follow her
dream of becoming an actress.
Over the years, she worked as a waitress while also pursuing her
interest in acting by appearing in summer stock productions as Arlene Golonka.
She took singing and acting classes in her pre-teen years.
Eventually, she studied at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and the Second
City, later becoming a member of The Actors Studio. She also performed at the
Chicago Playboy Club and in the Hinsdale Summer Theatre’s production of Burlesque alongside Burt Lahr. Her
roommate in New York City was Valerie Harper, who would also go on to realize a
successful career in entertainment.
Arlene Golonka as Millieon Mayberry R.F.D.
Following her first major production, The Night Circus, she performed at the Shubert Theater in
Connecticut and on Broadway in 1958. Though the play closed after seven
performances, her stage career continued with other Broadway productions,
including Take Me Along; Come Blow Your
Horn; and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest. She recorded a comedy album called You Don’t Have to Be Jewish in 1965.
By 1967, Golonka relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in
television. During this period, she made numerous appearances in small roles on
The Flying Nun, Barnaby Jones, The Mary
Tyler Moore Show, M*A*S*H, The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D., and
many more. She also occasionally provided voices in animated serials, including
Yogi’s Treasure Hunt and The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Her career
also continued with supporting roles in over thirty films, along with Golonka
teaching acting.
Allan Melvin, Jack Dodson and Arlene Golonk in The Andy Griffith Show (1967)
Golonka passed away on May 31, 2021, due to complications from
Alzheimer’s disease. She was 85 years old.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Golonka resided at 2053 Evergreen Ave., Chicago,
Illinois, which remains today.
2053 Evergreen Ave., Chicago, Illinois home
The
Goodman Theatre operates at 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago’s
Second City is located at 230 W. North Ave., Chicago, Illinois.
Chicago Second City
The
apartment she shared with Valerie Harper stands at 290 Riverside Dr., New York,
New York.
290 Riverside Dr., New York City, apartment
The Shubert Theatre is located at 225 W. 44th St., New York, New York.
Annette Bochenek of Chicago, Illinois, is a PhD student at Dominican University and an independent scholar of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She manages the Hometowns to Hollywood blog, in which she writes about her trips exploring the legacies and hometowns of Golden Age stars. Annette also hosts the “Hometowns to Hollywood” film series throughout the Chicago area. She has been featured on Turner Classic Movies and is the president of TCM Backlot’s Chicago chapter. In addition to writing for Classic Movie Hub, she also writes for Silent Film Quarterly, Nostalgia Digest, and Chicago Art Deco Society Magazine.
Western RoundUp: Final Resting Places, Western Filmmakers
In this month’s Western RoundUp column we’ll return to the topic of the final resting places of Western filmmakers, visiting the gravesites of 13 actors, actresses, and directors.
We’ll start in the little town of Marysvale, Utah, where
widely admired actress Marie Windsor is buried in her hometown. She’s interred
along with her husband, former USC basketball star Rodney Hupp; her gravestone
includes both her birth name and her stage name.
My husband and I were fortunate to be able to make a stop
in Marysvale on a road trip through Utah last year. Marie Windsor was in
several Westerns over the course of her career, with one of the best
being Hellfire (1949) opposite Bill Elliott.
Marie Windsor (1919 – 2000)
Returning to California, here is the gravesite of Fritz Lang, who directed a Western I reviewed here very recently, Rancho Notorious (1952). Lang also directed the Westerns The Return of Frank James (1940) and Western Union (1941). He’s buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills.
Fritz Lang (1890 – 1976)
Another director buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills is
George Stevens, director of the classic Shane (1953). Stevens
also directed Barbara Stanwyck as Annie Oakley (1935).
George Stevens (1904 – 1975)
The star of Shane, Alan Ladd, is interred in a mausoleum at Forest Lawn Glendale. He’s surrounded by several other stars, including Nat King Cole, Clara Bow, Jeanette MacDonald, and George Burns and Gracie Allen. Ladd’s other Westerns included Whispering Smith (1948), The Big Land (1957), and The Proud Rebel (1958), which I wrote about here in 2020.
Alan Ladd (1913 – 1964)
Mona Freeman, who starred opposite Alan Ladd in the
Western Branded (1950), is at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. She
also appeared with William Holden and Macdonald Carey in Streets of
Laredo (1949); other Westerns included Copper Canyon (1950)
and The Lady From Texas (1951). Off the screen Freeman was an
artist whose best-known work is the portrait of Mary See which hangs in all
See’s Candies shops.
Mona Freeman (1926 – 2014)
Macdonald Carey, who appeared in Streets of Laredo and Copper Canyon with Mona Freeman, is at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. I particularly admire his charismatic villain in Copper Canyon. Carey’s long film career included films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943), but he is ultimately best remembered as the longtime star of the soap opera Days of Our Lives.
Macdonald Carey (1913 – 1994)
’30s “B” Western star Bob Steele, who went on to
play bit parts in many later Westerns, is at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills under
his birth name, Robert N. Bradbury. He’s interred with the remains of his twin
brother Bill and his sister-in-law. The boys’ father, also named Robert
Bradbury, was a “B” Western director.
Bob Steele (birthname Robert N. Bradbury) (1907 – 1989)
Gail Davis, buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, starred
as TV’s Annie Oakley and was a frequent leading lady in Gene Autry
Westerns. In 2004 she was posthumously inducted into the National Cowgirl
Museum and Hall of Fame in Texas.
Gail Davis (1925 – 1997)
Also at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills is Lynne Roberts, who
appeared in Westerns opposite numerous stars, including Gene Autry, Roy Rogers,
Tim Holt, and George Montgomery, to name just a few. In some of her early films
she was billed as Mary Hart.
Lynne Roberts (1922 – 1978)
“B” Western actor-singer Eddie Dean is at Valley
Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California. Dean was born Edgar Dean
Glosup, hence the unfamiliar name across the top of the gravestone. He
appeared in films for about a decade, beginning in the late ’30s.
Eddie Dean (1907 – 1999)
Another “B” Western actor-singer, Jimmy Wakely,
is at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. In addition to many “B” Westerns,
he sang in the very good Arrow in the Dust (1954) with
Sterling Hayden and Coleen Gray. Besides Wakely’s work in Westerns, his duet of
“Silver Bells” with Margaret Whiting is still heard often at
Christmastime.
Jimmy Wakely (1914 – 1982)
Actress-Singer Julie London is perhaps best remembered
today for her role on TV’s Emergency!, but she starred in a number
of Westerns, including Saddle the Wind (1958) with Robert
Taylor, Man of the West (1958) with Gary Cooper, and The
Wonderful Country (1959) with Robert Mitchum. She’s at Forest Lawn
Hollywood Hills along with her multitalented husband — and Emergency! costar
— Bobby Troup.
Julie London (1926 – 2000)
One of my favorite actors, Tyrone Power, starred in a few
Westerns, including Jesse James (1939) and Rawhide (1951).
He was said to be a popular figure when filming Westerns in Lone Pine,
California, where he was friendly to all and known to occasionally get behind a
bar and pour out drinks. He passed on far too young and has this impressive
burial site at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Laura can be found at her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she’s been writing about movies since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film fan, Laura loves the classics including Disney, Film Noir, Musicals, and Westerns. She regularly covers Southern California classic film festivals. Laura will scribe on all things western at the ‘Western RoundUp’ for CMH.
Silents are Golden: What Were the Top Box Office Hits Of 1923?
Recently I attended the Kansas Silent Film Festival (and yes, that is my plug for that delightful–and free–event!) where the theme was the silent films of 1923. It got me pondering: what were the highest-grossing films from exactly one century ago? I could make an educated guess about the top two or three, but could I put together a top ten list?
It’s a trickier task than you might think.
Silent film box office statistics are notoriously difficult to figure out in
detail since the numerous movie theaters
of the time didn’t have to report detailed bookkeeping numbers. Theaters
normally paid a flat fee to rent a film (often around 10 cents per foot) and
then played it as many times as they liked. Films tended to be distributed on a
state’s rights basis, meaning there were various companies that simply doled
out completed films to different regions. Plus, prestigious, big-budget films
were sometimes given a roadshow presentation, where they had a limited release
in the fancier theaters (with higher ticket prices to match) before being
distributed more widely. Most box office statistics from the 1910s and 1920s
depend a lot on educated guesswork–and the admission, “Well, we can’t know for
sure.”
So let’s compare different figures and see if
we can come up with a list that’s maybe pretty
close to being on the right track. Just don’t take the figures as gospel–and
did I mention that sometimes “worldwide grosses” get lumped in with “U.S. and
Canadian grosses”?
Buster Keaton’s second feature-length comedy and first period piece was a popular and critical hit. It was set in the 1830s American South and based on the story of the Hatfields and McCoys. Its success proved that Keaton was not only an exceptional comedian, but an exceptional filmmaker too.
This drama was based on the famous, somewhat humorless novel by Sinclair Lewis, about a librarian who moves with her husband to the small, humble town where he grew up. It starred Florence Vidor and Monte Blue and was also the first film released by Warner Bros. after it was incorporated in April of 1923. It’s now considered a lost film.
Carl Miller and Edna Purviance in A Woman of Paris (1923)
This was an oddity of sorts in the Charlie Chaplin directorial canon, being a serious drama where he doesn’t even appear (except for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo). It’s beautifully filmed and did respectably well, but it’s not hard to suspect that many people saw it out of curiosity.
Starring the lovely Lillian Gish and the dashing Ronald Colman, this romantic film was made on location in Rome and Naples. Ms. Gish had a say in much of its planning and production. She was also very drawn to accurately recreating the Catholic ceremony of nuns “taking the veil,” which had never been shown on screen before. The Catholic Church served as an advisor, ensuring these scenes would be done reverently.
Alice Terry and Ramon Novarro in Scaramouche (1923)
Rex Ingram’s popular swashbuckler was reportedly an expensive, difficult production that had frequent delays. Fortunately its popularity helped make up for it, no doubt partly due to its fine cast, including Alice Terry, Lewis Stone and the handsome Hispanic actor, Ramon Novarro.
This nailbiter of a comedy was a big hit for Harold Lloyd, who famously performed much of the stunt work himself (the main set for the climbing scene was actually on a building’s roof, although close enough to the edge to give the illusion of hanging in space). Still a classic today, everyone’s seen that famous still of the bespectacled Harold dangling from a huge clock, if anything.
Elizabeth Murray, Harry Watson and Marion Davies in Little Old New York (1923)
There’s differing opinions on where exactly this Marion Davies feature should be placed on this list, but it was definitely a high grosser–enough for Hollywood to declare the talented Ms. Davies the #1 female star of 1923. Set in 1800s New York City, it revolved around Marion’s character disguising herself as a boy in order to claim a rightful inheritance for her family.
Lon Chaney was a shoo-in for the role of Quasimodo, which involved a sizable amount of the grotesque makeup, prosthetics, and difficult body language that he excelled at. The elaborate sets recreating the exterior of Notre Dame and its surrounding medieval streets took six months to build. Happily the film was a huge success, and Chaney’s performance is considered legendary even today.
A massive hit at the time, this is regarded as
the first great Western epic. It followed the journey of a wagon train during
the great westward expansion of the 19th century, with all its attendant
adventures and hardships. Interestingly, the many covered wagons used in the
filming weren’t replicas, but actual heirlooms owned by the families of former
pioneers.
And the number one biggest blockbuster of 1923 is… Cecil B. DeMille’s first version of The Ten Commandments. Most people today are very familiar with the 1956 Charlton Heston version, and know little about the original silent – if they’re aware it exists at all. Differing in many ways from the Heston version, much of the Exodus story is contained in a long “prologue,” with a modern story being the focus of the second half of the film. The Exodus scenes were filmed in the sand dunes of Santa Barbara county where DeMille built the giant set of the gates of Rameses. Rumor had it that he had the sets destroyed and buried after filming, to keep rivals from using it for other films. Decades later, remains of the sets were indeed discovered in the sand.
I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of some of the blockbusters of 1923! It may be an educated guess – except for the undeniable popularity of the top three – but it’s sure interesting to see what made audiences flock to the theaters a full century ago.
Lea Stans is a born-and-raised Minnesotan with a degree in English and an obsessive interest in the silent film era (which she largely blames on Buster Keaton). In addition to blogging about her passion at her site Silent-ology, she is a columnist for the Silent Film Quarterly and has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.
The days are getting longer, the flowers are starting to bud… and it’s a great time for a list! (No, there’s no real connection, but still – what a great time for a list, am I right?)
This month’s Noir Nook takes a look at some of my favorite
bad boys. The fatal femmes are no strangers to the spotlight, so I thought it
was time to give the nods to the fatal fellas (if you will). Let me know if
some of the dudes you love to hate made the list!
Richard Widmark and Mildred Dunnock in Kiss of Death (1947)
When small-time thief Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) is nabbed after a botched robbery, he refuses to drop a dime on his buddies and goes to prison, leaving his wife and two small girls behind. But he doesn’t hesitate to rate on his pals after his wife commits suicide and his daughters wind up in an orphanage. Bianco is later released on the condition that he continue to work with authorities as a “stool pigeon” – but after remarrying and settling down with his new family, he finds that they’re in jeopardy when they’re targeted by one of guys Bianco fingered: Tommy Udo.
Udo is an undeniable psychopath; this is the guy who
famously ties an invalid to her wheelchair and sends her careening down a
flight of stairs, delivering his trademark maniacal giggle as he prepares to
end her life. There’s not a single scene featuring this character that doesn’t
make you more than a little uncomfortable – and grateful that you’re not the
one sitting across from him.
Favorite quote: “You know what I do to squealers? I let ‘em have it in the belly. So they can roll around for a long time, thinkin’ it over.”
Richard Conte and Cornel Wilde in The Big Combo (1955)
Police detective Leonard Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is obsessed with nabbing local kingpin, Mr. Brown, who he suspects of murder. Diamond is not only obsessed with bringing Brown to justice, but he also has eyes for Brown’s girlfriend, Susan Lowell (Wilde’s then-wife Jean Wallace). Brown seems untouchable, but as the authorities close in, he proves that nobody is expendable in his resolve to remain free.
Brown is cooler than the other side of the pillow – and heartless as a stone. He treats his right-hand man (Brian Donlevy) with contempt and his henchmen (Earl Holliman and Lee Van Cleef) as disposable tools. His only soft spot seems to be Susan, but don’t let this fool you. For Mr. Brown, Susan is merely a trophy – something he owns and is determined to keep.
Favorite quote: “Joe, tell the man I’m gonna break him so fast, he won’t have time to change his pants. Tell him the next time I see him, he’ll be in the lobby of the hotel, crying like a baby and asking for a ten dollar loan. Tell him that. And tell him I don’t break my word.”
The aptly named Sam Wild commits a double murder in Reno after finding his sometime girlfriend (Isabel Jewell) on a date with another fella, then hightails it to San Francisco (on the advice of his wise and loyal BFF, played by Elisha Cook, Jr.). On the way, he meets and falls for newly divorced Helen Trent (Claire Trevor). What he doesn’t know is that Helen discovered the bodies. And what he’s soon to find out is that Helen doesn’t care that he’s the murderer. But she will.
This Sam Wild is one scary, but fascinating, dude. He’s the
kind of guy who doesn’t shy away from homicide, but he’s also an ambitious social
climber who marries Helen’s wealthy foster sister (Audrey Long), then insists on
taking over the family newspaper business. This is a guy who wants to BE
somebody.
Favorite quote: “We’ll not only be rolling in dough, but marrying into this crowd’ll fix it so as I can… spit in anybody’s eye.”
Joan Crawford and Jack Palance in Sudden Fear (1952)
Following an unusual meet-cute (that’s really not so cute), and a whirlwind romance, playwright and heiress Myra Hudson (Joan Crawford) marries actor Lester Blaine and settles down with her new hubby for a life filled with love and luxury. She didn’t reckon on a little monkey wrench in the form of Lester’s former lover, Irene Neves (Gloria Grahame). And when Lester and Irene get their heads together, it spells murder for lovestruck Myra.
I find Blaine to be a particularly unlikable character,
who’s as transparent as a pane of glass. His charm and seeming devotion to Myra
can’t be denied, but I can’t say I was exactly shocked to learn that his wife’s
primary allure was her bank account. Nor was I surprised when he proved that
he’d do anything (and I mean ANYTHING) to keep his hands on it.
Favorite quote: “I’ve got to think fast. Got to think of a nice, foolproof little accident.”
Frank Lovejoy, William Talman and Edmund O’Brien in The Hitchhiker (1953)
Two buddies, Roy Collins and Gilbert Bowen (Edmund O’Brien and Frank Lovejoy), off on a weekend fishing trip, get more than they bargain for when they pick up a hitchhiker along the side of the road. It turns out that their passenger is one Emmet Myers, who has recently escaped from prison, is in the midst of a killing spree, and has no qualms about adding Collins and Bowen to his roster.
Myers is the kind of killer who leaves you with a sense of
utter defeat; he’s equipped with a frightening countenance and an attitude which
makes it clear that your life means less to him than a stray pebble on the
highway. But worst of all, he has a peculiar affliction that allows him to
literally sleep with one eye open. What chance do you have?
Favorite quote: “Nobody ever gave me anything. So I don’t owe nobody. My folks were tough. When I was born, they took one look at this puss of mine and told me to get lost. Well, I didn’t need ‘em. I didn’t need any of ‘em. Got what I wanted my own way.”
– William Talman as Emmet Myers
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Next month’s Noir Nook will feature the second half of my Top 10 Bad Boys. Hope you’ll join me!
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– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub
Karen Burroughs Hannsberry is the author of the Shadows and Satin blog, which focuses on movies and performers from the film noir and pre-Code eras, and the editor-in-chief of The Dark Pages, a bimonthly newsletter devoted to all things film noir. Karen is also the author of two books on film noir – Femme Noir: The Bad Girls of Film and Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. You can follow Karen on Twitter at @TheDarkPages. If you’re interested in learning more about Karen’s books, you can read more about them on amazon here:
