Western RoundUp: Western Film Book Library – Part 3

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Laura Grieve

Western RoundUp: Western Film Book Library – Part 3

A silver lining to spending this spring at home has been time to watch more Westerns – and also more time to read about them!

I previously shared recommendations of titles from my “Western Film Book Library” last summer and fall. This seemed like an opportune time to write about some additional favorites, especially as anything of interest can be ordered without leaving home.

Below is a rundown of more books I’ve enjoyed, along with mentions of a couple of newly arrived titles I’ll be reading soon.

The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962 by David Meuel is a terrific overview of what I referred to in my December column as “Noir-Tinged Westerns.”

The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962 by David Meuel
The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962 by David Meuel

Meuel’s book, published by McFarland in 2015, covers most of the key films of this subgenre, which often feature conflicted or morally ambiguous heroes. The excellent titles discussed include Ramrod (1947), Pursued (1947), Blood on the Moon (1948), I Shot Jesse James (1948), and more. The author provides both critical analysis and information on the filmmakers behind the movies, including directors such as Andre de Toth, Raoul Walsh, Samuel Fuller, and Robert Wise.

One of the real treasures of my collection is a signed first edition of The Years of George Montgomery.

The Years of George Montgomery, co-written by Jeffrey Millet
The Years of George Montgomery, co-written by Jeffrey Millet

This book is much more than a memoir, it’s an amazingly detailed 288-page record of Montgomery’s life as a film star, artist, and family man. Cowritten with Jeffrey Millet, it’s an oversized volume with glossy pages, packed with movie stills, photographs of fan magazine pages, and personal photos of Montgomery’s family and artistic creations, including furniture, sculptures, and paintings.

The book begins with marvelous old photos chronicling Montgomery’s life growing up in a big family on a Montana ranch. His riding ability led to him landing a job on his second day in Hollywood, riding a horse in Conquest (1937); that in turn led to his long acting career, which included many Westerns.

Cowboy star “Wild Bill” Elliott has become quite a favorite of mine in the last few years, and I’m fortunate to have two books on him on my shelves.

Bill Elliott: The Peaceable Man by Bobby Copeland, and Wild Bill Elliott: A Complete Filmography by Gene Blottner
Bill Elliott: The Peaceable Man by Bobby Copeland, and Wild Bill Elliott: A Complete Filmography by Gene Blottner

The first book, Bill Elliott: The Peaceable Man, was written by Bobby Copeland and published in 2000. It includes a detailed overview of the actor’s career and filmography, along with quotes from those who knew Elliott and an introduction by one of Elliott’s costars, Peggy Stewart.

Wild Bill Elliott: A Complete Filmography by Gene Blottner, published in 2007, is an even bigger book in terms of both the number of pages and physical size. I just received this title, purchased in a sale by publisher McFarland & Company, and I can’t wait to read it. The alphabetical filmography includes listings for movies from Elliott’s earliest career days as an extra and bit player of the ’30s, telling the reader where to spot him in those films. Elliott’s starring Westerns are gone into with considerable detail. This looks like both a fun read and an excellent reference; Blottner also wrote the book on Universal-International Westerns which I recommended last summer.

Hollywood Hoofbeats: The Fascinating Story of Horses in Movies and Television has terrific photos dating from the earliest days of movie Westerns.

Hollywood Hoofbeats: The Fascinating Story of Horses in Movies and Television by Petrine Day Mitchum
Hollywood Hoofbeats: The Fascinating Story of Horses in Movies and Television by Petrine Day Mitchum

Author Petrine Day Mitchum is the daughter of Robert Mitchum, whose own experiences in Westerns ranged from small parts in Hopalong Cassidy films to starring roles in a number of Westerns. I loved learning more from the author about Buck Jones and Silver, Ken Maynard and Tarzan, and all the rest. Mitchum’s chronicle of horses throughout movie and TV history also includes a look at horse stunt work and how the humane treatment of horses progressed in the film industry over time.

Cowpokes ‘n’ Cowbelles and Cowboy Cliffhangers are a pair of oversized paperbacks by Donn Moyer which I discovered in the gift shop at the Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine.

Cowpokes 'n' Cowbelles and Cowboy Cliffhangers by Donn Moyer
Cowpokes ‘n’ Cowbelles and Cowboy Cliffhangers by Donn Moyer

These are amply illustrated books which are also great references. Cowpokes ‘n’ Cowbelles focuses mainly on supporting Western players, with photos and brief biographies of actors such as Morris Ankrum, Myron Healey, Fay McKenzie, Joan Woodbury, and many more. It’s a great book to page through when you spot a familiar face in a Western but can’t quite place the name!

Cowboy Cliffhangers is subtitled A Listing of All Sound B-Western Chapter Plays From A to Z, and it’s been an enormously informative reference for an aspect of Westerns I have only just begun to learn about and enjoy. It seems like there’s always more fun stuff to discover when it comes to movies in general and Westerns in particular!

Radio on the Range, edited by Jack French and David S. Siegel, is subtitled A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929-1967. Like my new Wild Bill Elliott acquisition, this book just arrived thanks to a McFarland sale, so I’ve only just begun to delve into it.

Radio on the Range, edited by Jack French and David S. Siegel
Radio on the Range, edited by Jack French and David S. Siegel

Various authors, including the editors, contributed essays describing the history of a wide variety of radio Westerns, and they also include information on surviving recordings and scripts. Although the book’s focus is on “old-time radio,” I believe it will be of great interest to movie Western fans because the radio shows feature so many well-known film actors; Tales of the Texas Rangers (1950-52) starring Joel McCrea and Hopalong Cassidy (1949-52) starring William Boyd are just two examples.

Believe it or not, I have several additional book recommendations which may well form the basis for a Part 4 at some point down the road. Westerns are a rich topic for film histories, and I love the extra levels of enjoyment reading about them adds to my viewing. I hope my fellow Western fans will enjoy checking out some of these titles along with the films they discuss.

Favorite Western film book recommendations from readers are always welcome in the comments!

…

– 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.

Posted in Posts by Laura Grieve, Western RoundUp | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Classic Conversations: Vivien Leigh Slays in Zoom Call with Samuel Goldwyn, Kenneth Tynan, and Edward R. Murrow

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Danny Miller

During this isolated time of quarantine, I’ve been catching up on some of my favorite conversations with the classic movie artists that I love. One of the greatest conversations I’ve ever seen among show biz folk occurred in 1958 on Small World, a TV show created by award-winning radio and TV broadcaster Edward R. Murrow.

On this show, Murrow gathered people from all walks of life and synced them up live from their own homes in a kind of glorified Zoom chat to have lengthy in-depth discussions about all sorts of topics. In the two seasons of this show, which lasted from 1958 to 1960, Murrow spoke to a range of luminaries including John F. Kennedy, Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell, Jawaharwal Nehru, Maria Callas, Carl Sandburg, Noel Coward, James Thurber, Clare Boothe Luce,  Isaac Stern, Lauren Bacall, Agnes de Mille, Harry Truman, Ingrid Bergman, and many others. But my favorite conversation that ever took place on this program happened in late December 1958 between two-time Oscar winner Vivien Leigh, pioneering producer Samuel Goldwyn, and English theater critic Kenneth Tynan. 

This was a time when talk shows were really talk shows — true, in-depth conversations were possible with a minimum of commercial breaks, even in a half-hour time slot. And no holds were barred. Few people on television today (short of trashy reality TV stars) would dare to confront each other in the matter-of-fact way guests did back then, it’s almost shocking to see. And exhilarating. As far as I’m concerned, the real star of this show is 45-year-old Vivien Leigh. She comes across as brilliant, articulate, and fearless as she vehemently sides with one guest one minute and then switches sides the next based on the discussion at hand. It’s sweet to see her so fiercely loyal to her husband Laurence Olivier and also how she tries to show respect to 79-year-old Sam Goldwyn while vehemently disagreeing with him. But it’s her exchanges with 31-year-old Ken Tynan that made me see red. The critic had the effrontery, the gall, the chutzpah to question Leigh’s performances in her two most well-known roles, Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois, saying that seeing her play those characters “took him out of the story” because she was British as opposed to being from the American South. When he claims that she failed to pull it off, I was screaming in horror at my set. Leigh, by contrast, just smiled and said calmly that she guessed she needed to do better. It’s so fascinating to watch every aspect of this conversation between these four very different people. Take a look at the first part of the show:

Isn’t Vivien Leigh fantastic? I mean, I do side with the obnoxious Tynan when he talks about casting non-Chinese actors for Chinese roles — I think we’ve come a long way, thank God, since the absurdities of having people like Luise Rainer and Katharine Hepburn play Chinese peasants in major motion pictures, but I don’t agree with Tynan one bit about Vivien Leigh’s lack of suitability to play the roles for which she is so beloved. I also admire how she bristles at the idea that Scarlett and Blanche were anything alike and how beautifully she describes their differences. 

In the second part of the show, Leigh, Goldwyn, and Tynan get into a discussion about how politics are embedded into the fabric of movies and culture whether we like it or not. Sam Goldwyn was busy trying to promote his upcoming production of Porgy & Bess and I’m afraid I completely side with Tynan and Leigh on this one despite Goldwyn’s insistence that politics and art are separate. Watch these amazing folks in action:

In the final minutes of the show, these incredible personalities embark on a discussion of “What went wrong in Hollywood?” To be honest, with all the jokes over the years about Sam Goldwyn’s malapropisms (e.g., “That verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on!”), I was actually quite impressed by the way Goldwyn talked about the industry and stood his ground, even if I often disagreed with his conclusions. Here the three talk about what films they think will still be known 50 years hence, and Goldwyn seems stuck on directors like Cecil B. De Mille since he sees box office as the primary arbiter of success and longevity. Needless, to say, Leigh and Tynan beg to differ. Take a look:  

I’m intrigued by the fact that while I often agreed with Kenneth Tynan’s assessments, I vigorously detested him during the course of this broadcast. But who cares what he or Goldwyn does, it’sVivien Leigh’s show here, and if I didn’t already worship her going in, this would seal the deal. 

Five years north of her second Best Actress Oscar for A Streetcar Named Desire, Vivien Leigh was in a precarious position as far as her movie career was concerned. She would only make two more films, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Warren Beatty and Stanley Kramer’s poignant Ship of Fools. Leigh was increasingly beset with the mental health issues that had plagued her for many years and her marriage to Laurence Olivier was crumbling. They divorced within a year of this broadcast.  Leigh continued to appear on the stage and even won a Tony Award in 1963 for the Broadway musical Tovarich. Vivien Leigh sadly died in 1967 from tuberculosis at the age of 53. At the announcement of her death, the lights of every theatre in London were extinguished for an hour.

Kenneth Tynan, who at the time of this show had just started writing reviews for The New Yorker, continued to be a provocative pot stirrer. After two years at The New Yorker, he returned to London and was a powerful presence in the theater scene there, becoming the literary manager of the British National Theatre Company. He was reportedly the first person to ever say “fuck” on British television and, later in life, moved to California where he continued writing and getting involved in controversies including some sex scandals in his personal life. He developed pulmonary emphysema, and, like Vivien Leigh, died at the age of 53. 

Porgy & Bess ended up being the last film that Samuel Goldwyn produced (a surprise after seeing his vitality on this show), following an illustrious career that included great movies like The Little Foxes, Ball of Fire, The Bishop’s Wife, and, one of my favorite films of all time, The Best Years of Our Lives. Born Schmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Poland, in 1879, Goldwyn had quite an impressive trajectory in the business, despite all the ways people made fun of him over the years. One of the funniest moments in this show, in my opinion, is when he’s unable to remember the title of the film in which Vivien Leigh played Scarlett O’Hara. The look on Leigh’s face is priceless. Unlike Vivien Leigh and Kenneth Tynan, Samuel Goldwyn lived to the ripe old age of 94, outliving the other two by decades. Five of his grandchildren are still active in the entertainment industry, including actor/director Tony Goldwyn who recently played U.S. President Fitzgerald Grant III on Scandal.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray back to 1958. As for me, I can never tire of the wit, intelligence, and splendor that is Vivien Leigh. 

…..

–Danny Miller for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Danny’s Classic Conversation Articles Here

Danny Miller is a freelance writer, book editor, and co-author of  About Face: The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel, Make-up Artist to the Stars. You can read more of Danny’s articles at Cinephiled, or you can follow him on Twitter at @dannymmiller. 

Posted in Classic Conversations, Posts by Danny Miller | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Silents are Golden: Animal Stars of the Silent Era

Posted on May 21, 2020 by Lea Stans

Silents are Golden: Animal Stars of the Silent Era

The silent era boasted an incredible number of stars, from sweet ingenue types to “grotesque” comedians to dashing heroes. But not all stars were flappers or sheiks–some were furry and even came on four legs. I’m talking about the animal stars, of course–and there were quite a few of them!

Luke the Dog with Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton in The Cook (1918)
Luke the Dog with Roscoe Arbuckle and Buster Keaton in The Cook (1918)

Performing animals showed up on film almost as soon as film was invented. One example is the British Kinetoscope short Performing Animals; or, Skipping Dogs (1895). The Boxing Kangaroo (1896) is another tiny film, showing a trained kangaroo boxing with a small boy (truly, you never knew what you’d find in a Kinetoscope).

A very popular early short was Rescued by Rover (1905), another British work. Made by early directors Cecil Hepworth and Lewin Fitzhamon, it “starred” the Hepworth’s family collie, Blair. The film showed Blair racing to rescue a kidnapped baby from a cruel beggar woman. The film was so popular that the original negatives kept wearing out, so it had to be reshot twice. Blair the collie has since been recognized as the very first animal star.

Blair and baby in a still from Rescued by Rover (1905)
Blair and baby in a still from Rescued by Rover.

He would be followed by a whole zoo’s worth of furry and feathery performers. One of the earliest is Jean the Vitagraph Dog, a black and white collie. Getting her “big break” in 1910, Jean proved to be such a well-trained performer that Vitagraph made her the star of many light comedies and dramas, such as Jean the Match-Maker (1910) and Jean Intervenes (1912). She also appeared alongside John Bunny and Florence Turner. Shep the Thanhouser collie was worked from 1913 until 1915, when he passed away from an illness. He was so well-trained that it was said directors rarely had to retake his scenes.

Jean in The Church Across the Way (1912).
Jean in The Church Across the Way (1912).

An early canine “hero” was the German shepherd Strongheart, owned by the same director who had trained Jean the Vitagraph Dog. The star of a number of adventure stories, Strongheart also helped popularize the German shepherd breed in the U.S. He was soon rivaled by the most popular dog star of them all, Rin Tin Tin, who Variety called “the Fairbanks, Mix, and Barrymore of the canine world”. Found as a puppy in a bombed-out kennel in France during WWI, Rin Tin Tin would compete at dog shows and eventually be put into the movies. His films likely saved the Warner Bros. studio from bankruptcy.

Rin-Tin-Tin in 1930
Rin-Tin-Tin in 1930

On the silent comedy side, there was little Brownie the Wonder Dog, who would co-star with Baby Peggy in the early 1920s. The Keystone Film Company had Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s dog, Luke, a fearless Staffordshire bull terrier who loved chase scenes could climb ladders, and could even jump from one rooftop to another. Luke showed up in a number of 1910s Keystones (often chasing Al St. John) and much of Arbuckle’s subsequent Comique series. He would also make a cameo in Buster Keaton’s short The Scarecrow (1920).

The most famous Keystone canine was Teddy, a gentle Great Dane who appeared in dozens of shorts between 1915 and 1924, plus parts in films like Mary Pickford’s Stella Maris (1918). Called “Keystone Teddy” or “Teddy the Wonder Dog,” he’s said to have been paid $350 a week.

Louise Fazenda, Mack Sennett, and Teddy.
Louise Fazenda, Mack Sennett, and Teddy.

Of course, dogs weren’t the only performers in Hollywoodland. The chimpanzees Napoleon & Sally were a mid-1910s comedy duo who were featured in one-reel shorts. The two were usually dressed in little outfits and mimicked housekeeping and other human-like behavior. Their offspring was a female named Snookums, who would also go on to perform in comedies. Billed as the male Snooky the Humanzee, she was talented enough to star in her own 1920s series. (Yes, in silent comedy even chimpanzees sometimes performed in drag!)

Still from Snooky’s Twin Troubles (1921), from the NFPF site.
Still from Snooky’s Twin Troubles (1921), from the NFPF site.

Not to be outdone, in the 1920s Fox had a trio of performing monkeys named Max, Moritz and Pep. They were dubbed, appropriately enough, the Fox Monkeys, and their human costars included Jean Arthur and Jack Duffy. And one exceptionally talented little Capuchin monkey was named Josephine, who even had an expressive face. She’s probably the most famous for appearing alongside Buster Keaton in The Cameraman (1928).

Along with Teddy, Mack Sennett also had Pepper, a dark gray cat who was said to have been born underneath a Keystone soundstage. She showed up in shorts like The Kitchen Lady (1918) and Bow Wow (1922), both starring Louise Fazenda. Waddles the Duck also had his heyday on the Sennett lot, and eventually retired to live in Fazenda’s backyard. Anna May the Elephant showed up in several shorts, such as Remember When (1925) starring Harry Langdon. And thanks to a silent comedy trend of having bears wander into the action, Bruno the Bear and Cubby the Bear were also regular players in Sennett’s comedies.

Pepper chilling with Louise Fazenda.
Pepper chilling with Louise Fazenda.

Century Comedies was practically a zoo, boasting not only the orangutan couple Mr. & Mrs. Joe Martin, but Queenie the horse, Charlie the elephant, dogs Brownie and Pal, and even some trained lions. Lions being tussled with or popping up at inopportune times were also big trends in silent comedy, and Century delivered on a whole slew of films like Daring Lions and Dizzy Lovers (1919) and Lion Paws and Lady Fingers (1920).

Lions' Jaws and Kittens' Paws (1920)
Lions’ Jaws and Kittens’ Paws (1920)

Perhaps the most surreal use of animal stars was in Hal Roach’s short-lived series the Dippy-Doo-Dad Comedies. Often set in rural or western locations, they featured pretty straightforward stories but with the bizarre twist of having an all-animal cast in little outfits. Played by trained dogs, ducks, monkeys (including Josephine), and what have you, the series was silent comedy’s take on an alternative universe.

Still from Go West (1923)
Still from Go West (1923)

We can’t cover silent era animal stars without a couple nods to its equestrian stars. Rex, a frankly ferocious Morgan stallion, starred in 1920s adventure serials and kept going throughout the 1930s, too–despite any actors being nervous to work with him. And Tom Mix’s trusty “wonder horse” Tony was a familiar sight to many fans of westerns.

With the love of cute, funny, and talented animals being just as strong back in the early 20th century as it is today, it’s not surprising that directors used them to jazz up so many films. (And, admittedly, it probably helped that animal stars couldn’t complain about their salaries.) When we look back on the legacy of cinema, let’s not forget that it’s all because of the hard work of men, women…and our four-legged friends.

Brownie the Wonder Dog
Brownie the Wonder Dog

—

Steve Massa’s book Lame Brains & Lunatics: The Good, the Bad, and the Forgotten of Silent Comedywas very helpful in researching this article, as was the book chapter “The Dogs Who Saved Hollywood: Strongheart and Rin Tin Tin” by Kathryn Fuller-Seely and Jeremy Groskopf, excerpted from the 2014 book Cinematic Canines (the chapter can be read here).

…

–Lea Stans for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Lea’s Silents are Golden articles here.

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 Quarterlyand has also written for The Keaton Chronicle.

Posted in Posts by Lea Stans, Silents are Golden | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Directors’ Chair: North by Northwest

Posted on May 16, 2020 by Theresa Brown

The Directors’ Chair: North by Northwest (1959)

…..

NORTH BY NORTHWEST ( 1959 ) ~ TO BE or NOT TO BE THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

north by northwest hitchcock

A case of mistaken identity takes a dull Madison Avenue advertising exec on a journey across the United States, hooking up with a cool blonde, bidding against suave villains and chased over mountainous monuments.

cary grant north by north west, my wives divorced me. i think they said i led too dull a life.
“My wives divorced me. I think they said I led too dull a life.”

Cary Grant, dull??

cary grant, north by northwest, kidnapped in car

The movie starts off with a rousing score by Bernard Hermann over opening credits by the great Saul Bass that gets you going. What I like about what Hitchcock sometimes does is his “Show & Tell & Show” device. He SHOWS us a little of the plot, then has a character TELL us what we’ve just seen… then SHOWS us more of the plot. At least that’s how North By Northwest unspools for me. It’s Cary Grant’s last time at the rodeo in Hitchcock’s ballpark. And it’s his most physical role with the director. This is not a 1930’s Cary “Gunga Din” Grant, but a 54-year old actor who is fit as a fiddle and still gorgeous as all get out. His character, Roger Thornhill, stumbles into his mistaken identity thanks to two henchmen mistaking him for secret agent George Kaplan, who the bad guys want to kill. Grant’s denying he’s that spy falls on deaf ears; he’s got to find the real Kaplan to get him out of this mess. Grant’s search for the elusive secret agent only gets him in deeper and deeper.

Hitchcock villains are almost if not better than those in James Bond. Heading the villainy here is James Mason.

james mason, north by northwest, has anybody ever told you you overplay your roles very severely mr kaplan
“Has anybody ever told you, you overplay your roles very severely, Mr. Kaplan?”

Mason is attractive, cultured, urbane, sophisticated and unruffled. And that smooooooth voice of his… don’t get me started. He doesn’t need to get his hands dirty with all this spy business. That’s what Martin Landau is for.

martin landau, north by northwest, call it my woman's intuition
“Call it my woman’s intuition…”

I love him in this film as the ever-watchful Leonard. Always in the background, he’s like a guard dog or an Iago. He’s the man who deals with the dirty details of murder. 

Continuing his quest for George Kaplan, Cary Grant’s search takes him far from New York, out west to Chicago. It’s on his way to Chicago that Grant bumps into the Hitchcock Blonde: EVA MARIE SAINT. Now, she’s no Grace Kelly…

eva marie saint, north by northwest
eva marie saint, north by northwest, cary grant how does a girl lik you get to be a girl like you
“How does a girl like you get to be a girl like you?”

…And she doesn’t need to be. She coolly sizzles in her own right. She is soft and silky and straightforward. In the train’s dining car scene, she really puts it out there. She’s not coy. She makes no bones about what she (and every woman alive, past present and future) wants from Cary Grant. It’s a titillating and very refreshingly modern scene for a movie on the cusp of Women’s Lib.

cary grant and eva marie saint, north by northwest, train dining car, lighting a cigarette

Ohhhh, to be in her shoes!

North by Northwest is filled with double crosses, betrayal, plot twists and crop dusting where there ain’t no crops. It also contains Hitchcock’s most iconic scene, a chase in South Dakota…over the face of Mount Rushmore. It’s all pulled off believably by Cary Grant who goes from unwitting pawn…to hero, without becoming a dare-devilling James Bond. It’s all pulled off by good guys and bad guys and unwitting guys and cool blondes and Alfred Hitchcock and a train going into the tunnel.

north by northwest - you're trapped living someone else's life - who doesn't exist. well, at least there is one fringe benefit

…..

— Theresa Brown for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Theresa’s Directors’ Chair articles here.

Theresa Brown is a native New Yorker, a Capricorn and a biker chick (rider as well as passenger). When she’s not on her motorcycle, you can find her on her couch blogging about classic films for CineMaven’s Essays from the Couch. Classic films are her passion. You can find her on Twitter at @CineMava.

Posted in Posts by Theresa Brown, The Directors' Chair | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Noir Nook: Spring Trivia

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry

Spring Trivia – Audrey Totter, Joseph Cotten, Jane Russell, Vincent Price and Marie Windsor

There are not many things I love in life more than classic movie trivia. In celebration of spring, this month’s Noir Nook is serving up some trivial tidbits on some of my favorite noir actors and actresses and some of their iconic noir films. Enjoy!

…..

Audrey Totter

Audrey Totter in Lady in the Lake (1946)
Audrey Totter in Lady in the Lake (1946)

Audrey Totter starred with Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake (1946), a unique MGM feature that is shot from the point of view of the main character. Totter stated that MGM chief Louis B. Mayer was overly aware of the “MGM look,” and while watching the daily rushes for Lady in the Lake, Mayer noticed that Totter’s hair was disheveled in a scene where she’s awakened from her bed. Mayer insisted that the scene be reshot, with Totter’s hair carefully coiffed and her makeup in place. “He said, ‘A Metro star must look her best, even asleep,’” Totter recalled. “He was peddling dreams. Reality never interested him.”

…..

Joseph Cotten

Joseph Cotten in The Third Man (1949)
Joseph Cotten in The Third Man (1949)

The director of The Third Man (1949), Carol Reed, originally wanted James Stewart to play the part of pulp novelist Holly Martins. The film’s producer, David O. Selznick, insisted on Joseph Cotten, who was under contract at the time to Selznick’s production company. According to Cotten, Reed started shooting the film’s final scene without an ending. It’s the scene where Cotten’s character is waiting for Alida Valli and she walks right past him like he’s not there. “He made that up on the spot and it’s wonderful,” Cotten said. “I’m in the foreground waiting patiently for her to walk into my arms and it never happens.”

…..

Jane Russell

Jane Russell in Las Vegas Story (1952)
Jane Russell in Las Vegas Story (1952)

One of Jane Russell’s three noirs was The Las Vegas Story (1952), co-starring Victor Mature and Vincent Price. Russell said that Mature “didn’t give a damn” about the film. “Sleepwalked through it and then ran for lunch when the commissary bell sounded,” she said. Russell also recalled that at the premiere of the film, she had a swollen face – the result of being hit by her then-husband Bob Waterfield. “In those days gals were supposed to grin and bear it,” Russell said. “And the PR staff said I’d been hit by a car door. But everybody knew the truth.”

…..

Vincent Price

Vincent Price in Laura (1944)
Vincent Price in Laura (1944)

Price said that his “best-ever” film may have been the 1944 noir Laura, where he played Shelby Carpenter, a ne’er-do-well who is one of several suspects in the “murder” of the title character. Price said that he found the script’s dialogue to be “brittle and clever.” He also recalled that the film’s original director – Rouben Mamoulian – wanted Laird Cregar for the part of Waldo Lydecker. Mamoulian was later replaced by the film’s producer, Otto Preminger, who chose Clifton Webb for the part. “Laird was personally devastated and that rejection began a downward personal spiral,” Price said. “But Otto was right. I think the casting was near perfect.”

…..

Marie Windsor

Marie Windsor in The Killing (1956)

Windsor described her character in The Killing (1956) as a “horrible woman.” In this Stanley Kubrick-directed feature, Windsor played the wife of mousy racetrack cashier Elisha Cook, Jr., who’s stepping out on her devoted spouse with the younger and infinitely more attractive Vince Edwards. Windsor had been cast in what she termed a “terrible” Roger Corman film – Swamp Women (1956) – that overlapped the shooting schedule for The Killing. “But I loved the script of The Killing and didn’t want to lose it.” Luckily, Kubrick started his picture two days late and Corman let Windsor out of Swamp Women two days early.  (Swamp Women, incidentally, got a great send-up on Mystery Science Theater 3000!)

Stay tuned to the Noir Nook for more trivia in future months!

…

– Karen Burroughs Hannsberry for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Karen’s Noir Nook articles here.

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:

Posted in Noir Nook, Posts by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Classic Conversations: A Rare In-Depth Interview with the Great Katharine Hepburn

Posted on May 12, 2020 by Danny Miller

A Rare In-Depth Interview with the Great Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn was born 113 years ago today. I recognize that there may be other icons in Hollywood history who arguably had more of a range as an actor. I understand that there are some people who have never been fans of Hepburn’s particular style or affectations. I remember that there was a period of time, even after winning her first Academy Award, that she was deemed “box office poison” by motion picture distributors. None of that matters to me. Whenever I’m asked the question, “Who is your all-time favorite actress?” only one answer comes to mind every time: Katharine Houghton Hepburn of Connecticut. 

Katharine Hepburn’s four Oscars on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Looking at her unprecedented four Best Actress Oscar wins that spanned half a century including Morning Glory (1934), Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1968), The Lion in Winter (1969), and On Golden Pond (1984), we can debate  which of her eight other nominations should have resulted in a win. Personally, I would have happily awarded her the prize for Woman of the Year (1942), The African Queen (1952), and Summertime (1956), but the loss that strikes me as one of the biggest travesties in Academy history, on par with Judy Garland failing to win the Oscar for A Star Is Born, is Hepburn’s loss in 1941 for what I would call a perfect performance in The Philadelphia Story. I love Ginger Rogers and think she was a wonderful actress, but sorry, Ginger, let’s just say Kitty Foyle doesn’t hold a candle to Tracy Lord. 

Now that we’re stuck in quarantine on the anniversary of Katharine Hepburn’s birth, I can think of no better activity than watching her in action, from her debut performance opposite John Barrymore in A Bill of Divorcement (1932) through all the wonderful Tracy-Hepburn films along with other personal favorites of mine including Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) and Long Day’s Journey into Night (1962) all the way to her amazing work later in her career in roles such as as Hecuba in The Trojan Women (1971), Eula opposite John Wayne in Rooster Cogburn (1975), and her excellent work in TV movies such as The Glass Menagerie, Love Among the Ruins, and The Corn Is Green. 

Katharine Hepburn in
Woman of the Year (1942)

Unlike most of the stars of her day, Katharine Hepburn was never one to participate in the publicity machine of the major studios which is part of the reason why such a mythology built up around her and why she often received negative press. While at MGM, I think only Greta Garbo got away with more flouting of the traditional relationship between the studio and its stars. Very few people on the lot ever managed to avoid submitting to the endless hours of command performances with the columnists of the day. But throughout her long life, Hepburn never suffered fools gladly and had zero interest in participating in many of the rituals that were considered par for the course if you were in that top echelon of movie stardom as she was for so many years. “If you always do what interests you,” Hepburn famously said, “at least one person is pleased.” It was that reticence to play the game that made her rare interviews and appearances all the more thrilling and unusual. 

To mark Katharine Hepburn’s birthday, I plan on rewatching her utterly fascinating 1973 interview with talk show host Dick Cavett. I was a kid when this spectacular two-part interview first aired on TV and even then was enough of a classic movie fanatic to be glued to her every word. In my opinion, it is one of Cavett’s most remarkable interviews ever, and he interviewed hundreds of luminaries from all walks of life. 

Even the way the interview happened was pure Hepburn. Dick Cavett, along with every other talk show host in town, had been trying to get Katharine Hepburn on his show for years. One afternoon in 1973, for reasons that he never completely understood, the woman who had been avoiding the press for most of her life and had never appeared on television agreed to simply come into Cavett’s studio to have a look. She wanted to see how it would feel to be on his set. She barreled in, in classic Hepburn fashion, commenting critically on the ugly carpet, the unmoving chairs, the lights, and other aspects of the set, and then shocked Cavett to the core by saying, “Why don’t we just go ahead and do it now?” To his credit, and to the thanks of all of us the world over, he immediately agreed, knowing that if he put it off, it was highly unlikely that she’d ever be in that studio again.

What followed was an utterly riveting and intimate interview about Hepburn’s life and career that ran over two successive nights. You can find the entire interview online and I strongly urge you to watch it, but to whet your appetite on this auspicious day, here are a few more delightful clips of Hepburn at her best. 

Oh, man. Is it any wonder why this is my favorite actress of all time? Happy Birthday, Katharine Hepburn. We need you now more than ever! 

…..

–Danny Miller for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Danny’s Classic Conversation Articles Here

Danny Miller is a freelance writer, book editor, and co-author of  About Face: The Life and Times of Dottie Ponedel, Make-up Artist to the Stars. You can read more of Danny’s articles at Cinephiled, or you can follow him on Twitter at @dannymmiller. 

Posted in Classic Conversations, Interviews, Posts by Danny Miller | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Silver Screen Standards: The More the Merrier (1943)

Posted on May 12, 2020 by Jennifer Garlen

Silver Screen Standards: The More the Merrier (1943)

Lately, I’ve only been interested in comedies and musicals, the kinds of pictures that make the viewer feel happy in spite of whatever madness is at work in the world outside. Depression and World War II-era mood boosters were quite literally made for this kind of cultural moment; they exist to bring smiles to our faces and songs to our hearts as we hope for better days ahead. Now, you certainly can’t go wrong with musicals from Fred and Ginger, Alice Faye, or Betty Grable, but a screwball comedy also has a lot going for it in times like these, and one of the quirkiest and most interesting is the 1943 picture, The More the Merrier, starring Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea as a couple of serious young people brought together by a gleefully disruptive Charles Coburn.

Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier (1943)
Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn star in the charming wartime comedy, The More the Merrier.

Unlike films that offer a complete escape from the world outside, The More the Merrier leans into its moment, depicting life in Washington D.C. during the wartime crisis. The plot hinges on a housing shortage caused by the huge numbers of people working in the city as part of the war effort, and the picture opens by showing us the busy, chaotic world that both characters and audience share. Our heroine, Constance Milligan (Jean Arthur), is lucky enough to have her own apartment but decides it would be patriotic to take in a roommate, never guessing that the roommate she’ll get stuck with is a crafty old codger bent on playing Cupid. Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) not only moves himself in – over Connie’s objections – but swiftly adds a second renter by taking in handsome Joe Carter (Joel McCrea). With Joe set to leave for dangerous military work in Africa in just a few days, and Connie and Dingle both working for the war effort in their own ways, the picture never tries to forget the war but instead shows the audience that even trying times can bring laughter and happy surprises.

Jean Arthur in The More The Merrier (1943)
Connie brushes her teeth while Dingle tries to get her attention after she locks him out of the apartment.

Another noteworthy quirk of the movie is its willingness to show its protagonists in very unglamorous activities, which humanizes the characters and endears them to the audience. When Connie and Joe get dressed up they look as good as Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea are expected to look, but at the moment of their initial meeting, Joe is wearing a bathrobe and socks while Connie has a face covered in cold cream. The shared bathroom of the small apartment provides a lot of comic opportunities and also ensures that we see all three characters in various states of undress, especially Joe. If shirtless Joel McCrea is something you want more of in your life then this picture is here to deliver. For some reason, Joe also barks like a seal every time he gets wet, which comes as something of a shock when we see him in the shower. Dingle, meanwhile, can’t seem to keep track of his pants, and he and Connie take turns managing to lock each other out of the apartment in their pajamas. All three characters are harried, rumpled, sometimes absent-minded, and making the best of things, just like everyone else in the country in 1943.

Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier (1943) bathrobes
Dingle’s meddling results in Connie and Joe meet for the first time when neither is looking particularly glamorous, but the sparks fly in spite of bathrobes and cold cream.

Most screwball comedies invest their signature “screwy” energy in the female lead – think of  Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934), Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey (1936), Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1938), and Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941) – but The More the Merrier assigns that energy to Charles Coburn instead. Taken as a real human being, Benjamin Dingle would be downright criminal and a good candidate for arrest and a restraining order; he does basically force his way into Connie’s apartment and then refuse to leave like a geriatric cousin of Michael Keaton’s nightmare tenant in Pacific Heights (1990). Instead, it’s important to see Dingle as an agent for change, a chaotic Cupid embodying the way in which life throws us for a loop in spite of our intentions and plans. Connie is too rigid with her schedules and routines; she has become stuck in an endless, loveless engagement and the rhythm of her daily life. Joe, more shy than surly and never much of a talker, also needs a push even when there are eight women to every man. Dingle is there to shake both of them up, and the full extent of his meddling only becomes clear with the picture’s final, hilarious reveal. His gift of change comes with its own downside; Joe is still departing for dangers unknown, but the lesson of the picture is that a chance at love and happiness is worth the risk of heartbreak even in the most uncertain times.

Joel McCrea surrounded by women in The More The Merrier (1943)
Joe finds himself very popular with the ladies in DC, where there are eight available women for every man, but he’s not really a ladies’ man.

The Academy recognized Charles Coburn’s importance to the picture by awarding him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. The movie also garnered nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Story, and Best Screenplay. For more feel-good comedy with Jean Arthur, try Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) or Easy Living (1937), and for more with Joel McCrea see Sullivan’s Travels (1941) and The Palm Beach Story (1942). George Stevens directed The More the Merrier just before his departure for the U.S Army Signal Corps, where he filmed historic events like D-Day, the liberation of Paris, and horrific footage of the Dachau concentration camp, which helps explain why The More the Merrier was Stevens’ last real comedy. You can learn more about Stevens’ wartime experience and its effect on him in the excellent 2017 documentary, Five Came Back, adapted from the equally fascinating book by Mark Harris. For more of Stevens’ light-hearted work, see Swing Time (1936), Vivacious Lady (1938), and The Talk of the Town (1942).

…

— Jennifer Garlen for Classic Movie Hub

Jennifer Garlen pens our monthly Silver Screen Standards column. You can read all of Jennifer’s Silver Screen Standards articles here.

Jennifer is a former college professor with a PhD in English Literature and a lifelong obsession with film. She writes about classic movies at her blog, Virtual Virago, and presents classic film programs for lifetime learning groups and retirement communities. She’s the author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching and its sequel, Beyond Casablanca II: 101 Classic Movies Worth Watching, and she is also the co-editor of two books about the works of Jim Henson.

Posted in Posts by Jennifer Garlen, Silver Screen Standards | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Monsters and Matinees: Anthologies Serve Quick Bites of Horror

Posted on May 9, 2020 by Toni Ruberto

Monsters and Matinees: Anthologies Serve Quick Bites of Horror

We’re hearing a lot about Quibi these days, a new video platform touting a “quick bite” philosophy of short-form videos.

Classic horror fans been ahead of the curve on this idea, enjoying our own version of quick bites of entertainment through anthology films. Though these aren’t as short as the 8-to-10-minute Quibi bites, they are still easily digestible and satisfying. They generally have three to five segments that last 15 to 25 minutes each. Watch each separately or sit for the entire feature-length film.

Anthologies are the movie version of an amusement park fun house or stories told around a campfire. We know going in it’s pure entertainment but we’re hoping for a few scares, too. When we do jump (and we always do), we’ll laugh at ourselves later.

They are great because they offer variety in horror (ghosts, vampires, hallucinations, haunted items and even the green-eyed monster,  jealousy), tone (thrills, scares and comedy) and great genre talent. But do forgive them for being a bit, shall we say, uneven.

Peter Cushing is among the tenants of The House That Dripped Blood.

An anthology can be compiled under a general theme, where each segment stands on its own such as Twice Told Tales (1963), three short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Or it can be a collection of stories with a common thread, as in The House That Dripped Blood (1971) which shared the fate of various inhabitants of a British cottage.

I enjoy classic horror anthologies for the talent in front of, and behind the, camera that includes some of our favorite names like Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Roger Corman, Mario Bava and Richard Matheson.

The earliest anthologies may be two German silent films, Unheimliche Geschichten (1919), also known as Eerie Tales or Uncanny Stories where portraits of Death, the Devil, and the Strumpet come to life to read Gothic tales; and Das Wachsfigurenkabinett or Waxworks (1924) from director Paul Leni about a young poet tasked with writing stories to match wax museum exhibits of the likes of Jack the Ripper. Both star Conrad Veidt.

Perhaps the most highly regarded anthology is the 1945 black and white British film, Dead of Night, one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite horror movies. It takes the familiar idea of strangers in an old house to a different place when one insists he’s met the others in a recurring dream. So begins five stories told by various characters and linked together by the debunking of a doctor who is among them.

The Ventriloquist’s Dummy segment from the anthology Dead of Night
has influenced many films including Magic.

The most famous of the tales is The Ventriloquist’s Dummy, starring an increasingly agitated Michael Redgrave who fears his creepy doll has come to life. My favorite is The Haunted Mirror where a man’s mirror reflects a different world. I highly recommend the humorous The Golfer’s Story, based on The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost by H.G. Wells, about two golfing buddies whose affection for the same woman land them in an otherworldly circumstance.

Here’s a quick look at three other anthologies that I enjoy.

Tales of Terror (1962)

This trio of tales based on the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe has Vincent Price in each segment acting alongside Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, and Debra Paget. The screenwriter is Richard Matheson and the director is Roger Corman. (Of course, you want to watch this now.)

Price narrates the film – a device used often in anthologies – and gives us the treat by playing three distinct characters including one with a comic touch.

In Morello, Price is so haunted by the death of his wife 26 years earlier, that he has her decomposing body lovingly laid out in his bedroom. In The Black Cat, he plays it for broad laughs as a wine connoisseur in a humorous take on The Cask of Amontillado, co-starring Peter Lorre. In the final and scariest segment, Price is a dying man who believes in the power of hypnotism, or mesmerism as they call it in The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar. Basil Rathbone is the slimy mesmerist with ulterior motives. This one freaked me out with the idea of being dead in body, but alive in your mind. (“Give me peace, give me peace,” Price cries. I wish I could!)

The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

This Amicus film is considered among the best in the horror anthology canon and I agree. It has jump scares, laughter and many references for horror film buffs to enjoy. The original stories are from the inventive mind of Robert Bloch (Psycho) and its all-star horror cast is led by Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Ingrid Pitt.

The movie shares the fates of various tenants in the house of the title, a cottage in the English countryside. It’s framed by the investigation of a Scotland Yard inspector into the disappearance of an actor who was the last tenant. The inspector scoffs at talk of the house being to blame, even as he’s filled in by a local official and a man named Mr. Stoker (ahem!) who share stories of past tenants that link the film together.

I love the twists and turns in this film and how different the fate is of each tenant – something we owe to the “secret of the house” that is revealed at the end.

In Method for Murder, a horror author (Denholm Elliott) finally cracks open his writer’s block only to find his murderous creation has come to life. In Waxworks, Peter Cushing is obsessed with a wax figure that bears a startling resemblance to the woman in a photo he carries.

A new teacher (Nyree Dawn Porter) tries to learn what’s bothering her innocent looking charge (played by Chloe Franks) in a segment of The House That Dripped Blood.

The terrifying Sweets to the Sweet finds Christopher Lee has his hands full with his young daughter (Chloe Franks), an adorable child with some unusual interests. I jumped multiple times watching this.

In The Cloak, we meet that missing actor (played by Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor in Doctor Who), who buys an “authentic” vampire cloak to add realism in his film (Curse of the Blood Suckers). Unfortunately, it’s a bit too realistic. Ingrid Pitt (and her cleavage), looking like she just stepped out of a Hammer film, plays his co-star and love. It’s campy fun and a love letter to horror fans with nods to Shepperton Studios (where this movie was made). The estate agent’s address is Hynde Street Bray, which I’ll take as a reference to Hammer’s Bray Studios and screenwriter and producer Anthony Hinds.

Oh, that inspector? He gets his own part in the story, too.

Black Sabbath (1963) Movie Poster
Black Sabbath (1963)

Black Sabbath (1963)

I’ll always remember Black Sabbath for the disembodied head of Boris Karloff that narrates the opening of this three-part movie (later we’ll see the rest of his body) from Italian horror master Mario Bava.

Is this what it looks like to be scared to death? Watch theDrop of Water segment
of Black Sabbath for your answer.

Drop of Water is a creepy story about a home nurse who faces otherworldly consequences after stealing the ring off the corpse of a patient. The woman died of a heart attack at a séance and her corpse bears a grotesque face that has the look of being frightened to death. A household fly is one of the scariest things in this short.

In The Telephone, a young woman (Michele Mercier) is terrorized by calls from a stalker who seems to have eyes inside her home – and may not be of this world. (For the U.S. version of this film, it’s been reported that Bava was forced to add a supernatural element and tone down elements of prostitution and lesbianism.)

Lovers of Italian horror will feel most at home with The Wurdulak a vampire who survives by only drinking the blood of those he loves. Mark Damon is the young Russian count who stumbles upon a family terrified of the return of their father (played by a wild-haired Karloff) who they fear has become a Wurdulak. Damon, as he tends to do in his films, immediately falls for the gorgeous young lady of the house.

…

– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub

You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.

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. 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.

Posted in Horror, Monsters and Matinees, Posts by Toni Ruberto | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Classic Movie Travels: Dorothy Dare

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Annette Bochenek

Classic Movie Travels: Dorothy Dare

Dorothy Dare
Dorothy Dare

While Dorothy Dare appeared in her fair share of Pre-Code films, her name is not remembered as strongly as the names of her peers. Her early roles in film shorts showed promise but, unfortunately, the roles she received in feature films failed to place her in the spotlight. Nonetheless, her work and cheery persona are worth celebrating, as she lent on-screen support to many leading stars of the day. 

Dorothy M. Herskind was born on August 6, 1911, to Fritz C. Herskind–hailing from Denmark–and Katharine Paillet Herskind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to a 1914 ship roster of passengers sailing from Liverpool to New York, the family lived at 426 N. Franklin Street in Philadelphia.

Young Dorothy Dare
Young Dorothy

From an early age, Dorothy showed an interest in performing. She sang in church and would appear in her first stage role at the age of seven. Later, she would find herself performing in Ziegfeld‘s shows, entertaining audiences night after night.

As the film industry grew, so, too, did Dorothy’s interest in the medium. She took on the stage name of Dorothy Dare and appeared in several Vitagraph shorts – working with the likes of Hal Le Roy and other stars – which would pave the way for her transition to Warner Brothers. In 1934, Dorothy secured a contract with the studio and would appear in films such as Happiness Ahead (1934), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), Front Page Woman (1935), and more. She would also perform songs as part of some of her film roles. 

Dick Powell and Dorothy Dare in Happiness Ahead (1934)
Dick Powell and Dorothy Dare in Happiness Ahead (1934)

In 1937, Dorothy left Warner Brothers to begin freelancing. She worked in two films which were shot in the United Kingdom, which included Clothes for the Woman (1937) and Rose of Tralee (1937).  Upon returning to the United States, her freelance work continued but the roles she was receiving were lackluster. Over time, she became disenchanted with acting and would appear in her final role as Peggy in The Yanks Are Coming (1942). 

As the years went on, Dorothy would marry and, for the most part, remained quiet about her time in Hollywood. Any reflections or interviews regarding her entertainment career were few and far between. 

Dorothy Dare in The Yanks are Coming (1942)
The Yanks are Coming (1942)

She passed away at age 70 on October 4, 1981. She is buried alongside her mother at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona Del Mar, California.

Today little exists in relation to Dorothy’s life. Her family home has long since been razed and there are no current physical tributes to her, aside from her gravestone. This is the area in which her childhood home once stood:

Dorothy Dare's family residence no longer stands
Dorothy’s family residence no longer stands

However, in addition to watching her films, fans of her work may also consider visiting the Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, California, where she once was under contract. The studio has crafted a tour focusing upon the classic films made at the studio, which will take visitors past the various soundstages to which Dorothy had reported. 

While Dorothy is not memorialized as heavily as her counterparts, she continues to delight audiences in her few but enjoyable film appearances.

…

–Annette Bochenek for Classic Movie Hub

Annette Bochenek pens our monthly Classic Movie Travels column. You can read all of Annette’s Classic Movie Travel articles here.

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 SocietyMagazine.

Posted in Classic Movie Travels, Posts by Annette Bochenek | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Western RoundUp: Streaming “B” Westerns at Home, Vol. 2

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Laura Grieve

Western RoundUp: Streaming “B” Westerns at Home, Vol. 2

As everyone continues to wait out the ongoing epidemic at home this month, I’m returning with another round of streaming recommendations!

This month we’ll take a look at some “B” Westerns available for streaming at home, starring Roy Rogers, William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd, and the Rough Riders, Buck Jones, and Tim McCoy.

As was the case with last month’s recommendations, these films are all currently available for streaming from Amazon. They’re free at no additional cost for members of Amazon Prime.

I’d like to note that many additional Westerns are available for streaming via Amazon, often for a fee. I’ve focused on Amazon simply because of the much greater availability of classic-era Westerns there compared to other streaming services.

Please note that titles tend to come and go from streaming services, so it’s possible they’ll disappear from Amazon in the future, but they can also be found on DVD.

Under Western Stars (Joseph Kane, 1938)

Under Western Stars (1938) Movie Poster
Under Western Stars (1938) Movie Poster

Roy Rogers became a Western movie star thanks to Under Western Stars. This Republic Pictures film was originally planned for established star Gene Autry, but Gene went on strike, resulting in Roy getting his big break. Roy proved to be a success, so Gene decided not to stay on strike long!

Roy, born Leonard Slye, plays a character named Roy Rogers in this film, and that of course was also his professional name from that point forward. Under Western Stars is a rather different type of Western; Roy is elected to Congress, where he tries to aid Depression-era Dust Bowl farmers desperately in need of water.

Roy Rogers & Smiley Burnette in Under Western Stars (1938)
Roy Rogers & Smiley Burnette

Somewhat unusually for a “B” Western, Under Western Stars received an Academy Award nomination for the song “Dust” by Johnny Marvin. This somber song is memorably performed as Roy sings it while showing documentary-style footage of struggling farmers.

The score also includes the terrific song “Listen to the Rhythm of the Range,” which Marvin wrote with the film’s originally planned star, Gene Autry.

Roy was teamed in this film with Autry’s perennial sidekick, Smiley Burnette. Leading lady Carol Hughes, the wife of character actor Frank Faylen, would go on to appear in multiple Autry films. This was the last screen appearance for the music group the Maple City Four, who had previously appeared in a pair of Autry films.

Like most “B” Westerns the movie is short, at just 65 minutes. It’s worth the investment of a little over an hour for the unusual story, the Oscar-nominated music, and the look at one of our greatest Western stars at the outset of his long career.

The Gunman From Bodie (Spencer Gordon Bennet, 1941)

The Gunman From Bodie (1941)
The Gunman From Bodie (1941)

Monogram Pictures’ Rough Riders series of 1941-42 starred Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and Raymond Hatton as crime-fighting marshals.

The first film in the series, Arizona Bound (1941), is available for streaming and is good to watch to understand the origins of the series. The three marshals, all working undercover, arrive in a Western town to solve stagecoach robberies, eventually revealing their true identities as lawmen. One might almost think of the series as foreshadowing the superhero films of decades later, with a trio of great Western crime fighters uniting to work as a team.

I like the second Rough Riders film, The Gunman From Bodie (1941), even better than Arizona Bound. I feel it’s a marvelous example of a quality “B” Western.

Buck Jones & Tim McCoy in The Gunman From Bodie (1941)
Buck Jones & Tim McCoy

In a spooky, atmospheric opening sequence, Bob “Bodie” Bronson (Jones) enters a darkened home, seeking shelter from a storm, only to discover a pair of bodies. The woman is holding a note naming their killer which also says “Take care of my baby.” Bodie locates the baby and soon thereafter finds the little one a home at a ranch owned by Alice Borden (Christine McIntyre).

Bodie then ingratiates himself with the unsavory characters around town, while carefully avoiding Marshal Tim McCall (McCoy), who’s in possession of a “wanted” poster for Bodie.

Late in the game, it’s also revealed that Alice’s cook Sandy (Hatton) is a marshal just like Marshall McCall… and is Bodie really the bad man he seems to be when he’s not saving a baby? Hmmm.

McCoy occasionally seems to be on the verge of overacting, yet his confident persona is compelling enough to push those infrequent awkward moments aside. Viewers won’t soon forget the scene where he describes a hanging to a murderer.

Jones is terrific as a seemingly dark, conflicted character, while Hatton provides the “third wheel” comic relief.

The story of this 62-minute film, scripted by Jess Bowers (aka Adele Buffington), was sturdy enough that it was remade on at least two occasions.

This is an attractive movie that was filmed at various Southern California locations. Incidentally, what’s now the California ghost town of Bodie, referenced in the title, is never seen.

The trio of Jones, McCoy, and Hatton appeared in a total of eight Rough Riders films, with Jones and Hatton also starring with Rex Bell in a ninth film after McCoy was called up from the Army Reserves for active duty in World War II. That final film, Dawn on the Great Divide (1942), was released a month after Jones’s tragic death in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, and with that, a wonderful series came to a sad end.

In Old Colorado (Howard Bretherton, 1941)

In Old Colorado (1941) Movie Poster
In Old Colorado (1941) Movie Poster

Over 30 Hopalong Cassidy films had been released in the half-dozen years between the first film, Hop-a-long Cassidy (1935), which I wrote about for Classic Movie Hub last fall, and In Old Colorado.

With over 60 Hoppy films produced, a great many of these titles can be found streaming, and I recommend Western fans explore them as they are generally solid, enjoyable films with good production values. Over the last few years, I’ve become quite a fan of the series thanks to repeated exposure to Hoppy at the Lone Pine Film Festival.

Hopalong Cassidy and cast in a scene from "In Old Colorado", 1941. William Boyd (third from left, black hat) played Hopalong Cassidy in 66 theatrical features between 1935 and 1948, and more than a third of them were shot in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine California.
Hopalong Cassidy and cast in a scene from “In Old Colorado”, 1941. William Boyd (third from left, black hat) played Hopalong Cassidy in 66 theatrical features between 1935 and 1948, and more than a third of them were shot in the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California.

I chose to highlight In Old Colorado here as not only have I enjoyed watching it, but I’ve been fortunate to visit the locations where it was filmed outside Lone Pine. It’s also notable as the screenplay was co-written by Russell Hayden, who plays Hoppy’s sidekick Lucky. It was Hayden’s only feature film writing credit.

Hoppy, Lucky, and their sidekick California (Andy Clyde) are on their way to buy cattle for the Bar 20 Ranch when they’re robbed of $20,000. They had planned to buy the cattle from Ma Woods (Sarah Padden), who desperately needs the income. She’s also dealing with nasty Joe Weiler (Morris Ankrum), who’s keeping her cattle from getting to water as well as causing conflict with one of her neighbors (Stanley Andrews).

In a compact 66 minutes, viewers can rest assured that Hoppy will take care of everyone’s problems. It’s a simple but well-made film from Paramount Pictures, beautifully shot in black and white by Russell Harlan. It’s a wonderful way for Western fans to spend some time in Lone Pine’s Alabama Hills, where so many Westerns, from “B’s” to classics, were filmed over a span of decades.

Happy streaming!

…

— 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.

Posted in Posts by Laura Grieve, Western RoundUp | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments