Caftan Woman's Choice: One for May on TCM

Joel McCrea, Dean Stockwell, Ellen Drew

Stars in My Crown (1950) is Joe David Brown's adaptation of his 1947 episodic novel featuring stories that previously appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. The screenplay is by Margaret Fitts whose other scripts include The Sun Comes Up, Talk About a Stranger, and the adaptation of her own novel The King and Four Queens.

Stars in My Crown is a nostalgic story where a man recalls his youth and the importance of his mentor, Parson Josiah Gray. In the novel, the parson is the grandfather. In the film, Parson Gray played by Joel McCrea is the adopted uncle of the orphaned John Kenyon played by Dean Stockwell. Ellen Drew is the youngster's loving Aunt Harriet.

The tone for the film directed by Jacques Tourneur (I Walked With A Zombie, Cat People, Canyon Passage, Nightfall, etc.) is set right from the top as an unseen congregation sings the parson's favourite hymn, Stars in My Crown.

I am thinking today of that beautiful land
I shall reach when the sun goeth down
When through wonderful grace by my Saviour I stand
Will there be any stars in my crown
Will there be any stars any stars in my crown
When at evening the sun goeth down
When I wake with the blest in those mansions of rest
Will there be any stars in my crown . . .

The narrator, Marshall Thompson as the adult John Kenyon, greets us with these words : -

"Do you hear that? You might say I was raised on that song. It takes me back - back to the old times when I was young - back to Walesburg. According to the words of the song we're promised a City of Gold in the hereafter. I used to think that was a long time to have to wait, but I know now that there is a City of Gold right here on earth for every one of us. The city of our youth. Walesburg is only one name for it that's all. Walesburg not as it is now but as it used to be. I just have to shut my eyes and I'm there. Nothing's changed. I'm always a boy in Walesburg. There at my side, as he'll always be, is the parson, Parson Gray."

 

Dean Stockwell, Joel McCrea, Juano Hernandez 

We meet the people of Walesburg and follow their stories as John recalls them with both the clear eyes of uncensored youth and the nostalgic glow for a time past. We meet the sweet and pretty schoolteacher, Miss Samuels played by Amanda Blake and her beau, the opinionated young doctor played by James Mitchell.

There is Juano Hernandez's Uncle Famous who dispenses understanding and fishing tips to growing boys. Charles Kemper's Professor Jones the traveling medicine showman. The parson's best friend farmer Jed Isbell played by Alan Hale and his five tow-headed sons. There's the town's ruthless businessman Lon Backett played by Ed Begley. Arthur Hunnicut is the town character Chloroform Wiggins and Jack Lambert as the town bully Perry Lockey. Their stories play out through greed and illness, through acts of kindness and acts of courage.

 

James Mitchell, Amanda Blake 

The young Dr. Harris has inherited his position in town sadly from the passing of his father. The senior Dr. Harris had the confidence and love of Walesburg. The junior Dr. Harris has, in the words of his father, played by Lewis Stone, "A lot of education, but very little sense." Conflict and heartbreak will be his maturing with the help of Parson Gray.

Dr. Harris Jr.:  "As long as I am doctor in this town you will oblige me by asking my permission before you interfere with my patients."

Parson Gray:  "I came out here tonight because I was sent for, same as you.  We'll be meeting like this right along now and you may as well get used to it.  Souls don't always enjoy perfect health you know - any more than bodies do."

Dr. Harris Jr.:  "Well, I'm not interested in souls, Mr. Gray.  And when I want a sermon on the subject I'll come to church for it."

Parson Gray:  "Good.  I'll be glad to preach  you one."

The stories of Stars in My Crown are played out at a gentle pace befitting the backwards view. When silence is all that is necessary, as at the side of a sick bed, we see the experience in silence. When dialogue is necessary, it is amusing, as when the parson diffuses a difficult situation with a humourous anecdote. It may be revealing as in the relationships between the parson and his friend Jed, or between the parson and his devoted, plain speaking wife.

There are wonderful scenes between the young John and his friend Chase Isbell played by Norman Ollestad (Sky King) as they philosophize as only the young may. One scene features the lads riding a hay wagon with the sunlight dappled through the treetops. The black and white cinematography by Charles Schoenbaum gives you the feel of the warmth of the sun and the scratchiness of the hay.

In both the novel and the movie, one of the most moving scenes and challenges to Parson Gray is dealing with the ambitions of Lon Backett to force Uncle Famous from his land over mining rights. The Klan is organized to frighten the old man and when that doesn't work, murder is in their hearts threatening the very soul of Walesburg.

Parson Gray will not use guns and will not accept help as he faces the evil. The first time I read the book, I was reading that section in public and could not hold back my tears.

 

Parson Gray: "Night Riders.  Yellowbacks in fancy dress!  You shame me and you shame the Lord that made you and called you men. And if I wasn't His servant I'd take a buggy whip to the lot of you." 

When Stars in My Crown ends, it ends much too abruptly for my liking although all of the stories that wanted telling have been told. Perhaps, like John Kenyon, I want to spend a longer time in Walesburg. There is not a false moment in any of the performances and the people and emotions are genuine. Joel McCrea often cited Stars in My Crown as a favourite among his films and director Jacques Tourneur so loved the story that he offered to work on the film for scale, which may have tarnished his reputation among studio executives. Nonetheless, he left us a true classic film.

I can't help but wonder if during the filming second lead Amanda Blake took any notice of a gangly young man with an engaging smile who was the tallest of Alan Hale's brood. Could she possibly have imagined that inside of a decade she and James Arness would make television history as 19 year co-stars as Kitty Russell and Matt Dillon? Before any regular visitors to this blog ask, the answer is yes. All roads lead to Gunsmoke.

TCM is screening Stars in My Crown on Wednesday, May 16th at 12:45 AM.  I hope they will pardon my saying that I believe the movie deserved a prime time spot during Joel McCrea month.

Jack Albertson and the Movie Buff Moment

Jack Albertson
1907 - 1981

"I started out in vaudeville, and vaudeville died. I hit the burlesque houses and they padlocked 'em. I tried radio, and you know what happened to radio. Then live TV, and it vanished. Now that I've finally got a toehold in movies, look what's happening to them."  

Massachusetts born Jack Albertson, and his sister Mabel, inherited the show business gene from their mother who appeared in stock. I don't imagine Jack's Russian-Jewish immigrant parents were too impressed when their son left high school to pursue life upon the wicked stage, but they probably understood. In those early years perhaps Jack himself often wondered why he kept at it. However, people like to be entertained and this versatile and willing performer persevered.

By the 1950s High Button Shoes and Top Banana would see Jack on Broadway with Burlesque compatriot Phil Silvers. Television audiences would start to recognize him on shows such as The Jack Benny Program, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Twilight Zone, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Mr. Ed and more.

Albertson played his share of reporters, doctors and desk sergeants in movies. And one very famous postal worker who can be seen every Christmas season sending bags of letters to Santy Claus at the courthouse in Miracle on 34th Street. Jack Albertson was working steadily, but if he had early dreams of acclaim and awards - well, that time was probably past.  

Enter Frank D. Gilroy's The Subject Was Roses in Broadway's 1964 season. The tthree-person character study won Best Play from the Tony Committee. Young Martin Sheen was nominated for Featured Actor in a Play and Jack Albertson won the award in that category. The 1968 film of the play brought both actors to the screen with Patricia Neal replacing stage star Irene Daily. Ms. Neal was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar and Jack Albertson won Best Supporting Actor.

 

  Amanda Blake, Jack Albertson

Gunsmoke

Suddenly, in his 60s, Jack Albertson wasn't "that guy playing the cop or neighbour". He was the special guest star on series with episodes written for his character such as "Danny" who had a mysterious hold on Kitty's affection in Gunsmoke or a pool shark on Ironside: "Side Pocket".  Five Emmy nominations and two wins would come his way for guest spots and the sitcom Chico and the Man. Popular film roles would rack up with The Poseidon Adventure, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and The Fox and the Hound. Jack Albertson certainly had a wonderful career.

  Gavin Hall

Easy to shop for!

My boy Gavin has his challenges with autism/developmental delay. He has limited independent language skills, but if you take the time you will find him to have a good memory and a rollicking sense of humour. He is also a movie buff. My husband and I often fight over which side of the family Gavin gets his good looks from, but we know beyond the shadow of a doubt he gets the movie buff gene from me.

Gavin is also imaginative. He invented the alternate casting game. He must have invented it because no one has every played it with him. Gavin likes to write out the casts of his favourite movies and get his dad, sister Janet or I to read the list aloud. Every so often Gavin will throw in a ringer and watch for our reaction. For instance, in The Jungle Book he'll put Hans Conried as Colonel Hathi (Everybody knows J. Pat O'Malley was the voice of Colonel Hathi!). Gavin watches us with wide eyes waiting to see our reaction. He's so proud of us when we catch it. By the way, wouldn't you agree that Billy Gilbert and Martin Short would have been fine as "a monkey" in The Jungle Book?

 

 Jack Albertson - Amos Slade

The Fox and the Hound

Last weekend Gavin was in a The Fox and the Hound mood. That means if you are not in a The Fox and the Hound mood, you are in for a rough time because that is all that will be playing for hours. The weekend also brings one of Gavin's favourite activities which is going to the library with Daddy and borrowing a movie. After his last trip to the library, Gavin bounded into the house clutching Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He made us sit in the living room. He turned on the disc of The Fox and the Hound and paused at the credit "Jack Albertson - Amos Slade".  He then replaced the disc with Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and paused at the credit "Jack Albertson" and turned with triumph in his eyes to see our reaction. "Yes" we told him. "Jack Albertson - Amos Slade and Jack Albertson - Grampa Joe."

 

 Jack Albertson - Grampa Joe

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

It may not have been the Helen Keller "water" moment, but what movie buff can't relate to the "Aha!" of discovery. It brought me back to the glorious day when it finally dawned on me that Irving Bacon, Olin Howland and Tom Fadden were not the same guy. It was an exciting moment for my boy and it was gratifying that he wanted to share. I may have gotten a little carried away because Gavin gently let me know that although he was pleased that I understood his joy, the hug was too much and a high five would suffice. I'll gladly take that high five and the movie buff connection with my son. If he must have a label - and apparently he must - let it be Gavin Hall, movie buff.

Richard Kiley - Man of ... Gunsmoke?

Richard Kiley

1922 - 1999

Richard Kiley was on tour in his famous Tony winning role of Cervantes/Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha, thrilling sold out audiences at Toronto's O'Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts. In his spare time he was autographing the cast album at Eaton's Department Store, telling amusing show business anecdotes and shaking hands. I was working downtown at one of my first secretarial jobs and happily spent my lunch hour with the crowd at Eaton's.

Next in line for an autograph I couldn't believe I was that close to Richard Kiley. Everyone was saying how much they enjoyed Man of La Mancha or how much they were looking forward to it. I had enjoyed the show as well, but when I handed my album to Mr. Kiley I told him how much I enjoyed all his guest appearances on Gunsmoke. Well, it was different anyway. Kiley looked up from the album with a bemused smile on his face and sat back. I don't think a theatre buff/western fan is such a rare creature, but maybe on that day I was. "Thank you" he said. "I always enjoyed working on that show. Great people."

An actor never really knows what sort of an impact they are making on an audience, do they? Acclaim and awards are a good indication. Fans at the stage door. Or it could be a week's work on episodic television.

Richard Kiley on Gunsmoke

Stark, Season 16, 1970
Written by Don Sanford
Directed by Robert Totten

Richard Kiley plays Lewis Stark, a cold and calculating bounty hunter. Shelly Novak is the wild son of a rich, stubborn rancher beautifully played by Henry Wilcoxon. Stark captures the young man, who has escaped prison, and holds him for ransom. The plan to make some fast money is complicated by Suzanne Pleshette as the rancher's very modern daughter, and Wilcoxon's failing health. A brutal beating and the torn open heart of a dysfunctional family feature in this engrossing drama with excellent performances.

Lynott, Season 17, 1971
Written by Ron Bishop
Directed by Gunnar Hellstrom

This time out Kiley is Tom Lynott, a lawman between jobs who takes over in Dodge while Matt is recovering from a shooting. Lynott is a garrulous soul with his own way of doing things which is more suited to the rough cow town Dodge used to be. His loving wife played perfectly (what else?) by Peggy McCay is the rock for the rambling interim marshal. He has a wee bit of a liking for the drink and is perhaps too close in temperment to the outlaws he should be policing. What cost will come with Lynott's new found respect for his position? Great dialogue and memorable characterizations from bad guys Anthony Caruso and Jonathan Lippe (currently the World's Most Interesting Man).

Bohannan, Season 18, 1972
Written by William Kelley
Directed by Alf Kjellin

Doc Adams is determined to prove the flamboyant faith healer Bohannan a charleton. Bohannan himself is in a crisis of faith that is heightened by his relationship with a terminal ill youngster played by Vincent Van Patten and his mother, Linda Marsh. A touching and thought-provoking episode.

Kitty's Love Affair, Season 19, 1973
Written by Paul Savage from a story by Susan Kotar and Joan E. Gessler
Directed by Vincent McEveety

Well, the title just about says it all. How could Kitty not be impressed with the attentions of reformed gunfighter Will Stambridge who comes to her aid against outlaws? After all, it's Richard Kiley.

The Macahans

Kiley's future work with producer John Mantley and actor James Arness includes 1976s The Macahans as Timothy Macahan, father of a family relocating to the west in the Civil War era. Also, the second made-for-TV Gunsmoke movie 1990s The Last Apache.

Richard Kiley's television work garnered him 9 Emmy nominations including 3 wins. A 1983 win as Paddy Cleary in The Thorn Birds, in 1988 as Joe Gardner in the well-remembered A Year in the Life and a Guest Performance Emmy in 1993 for Picket Fences as Jill's father, Hayden Langston. He also won Golden Globes for The Thorn Birds and A Year in the Life, plus a nomination for 1991s Separate But Equal.

Richard Kiley, Peter Falk

Police Commissioner Mark Halperin's byzantine murder plan is doomed to failure when Lt. Columbo is on the case in 1974s A Friend in Deed. When "Lt." arrests the culprit, the look of pure hatred on Kiley's face is chilling.

National Geographic specials were more special when narrated by Richard Kiley. That voice! Mellifluous, commanding and sexy. High on my list of favourite Kiley TV appearances is on American Playhouse in 1993, Verse Person Singular. Kiley wrote the narration and the music for this one man show with poems by Poe, Lewis Carroll, Kipling and others. My favourite was T.S. Eliot's Gus the Theatre Cat. After all, that's what Richard Kiley was - a theatre cat.

Along with touring, Richard Kiley appeared in 17 Broadway plays between 1953 and 1987. He won 2 Tony Awards for Man of La Mancha in 1966 and Redhead in 1959. He was nominated in 1962 for No Strings and in 1987 for All My Sons.

The Blackboard Jungle

Let's not forget the movies. The pilot in 1974s The Little Prince. Narrating 1993s Jurassic Park. Heading a Board of Inquiry in 1998s Patch Adams. The crusading lawyer in 1955s The Phenix City Story. The murderous communist agent in 1953s Pickup on South Street. The naive high school teacher in 1955s The Blackboard Jungle. The fate of Josh Edward's jazz records breaks my heart.

Speaking of record albums, when my husband and I became a couple we faced the chore of combining our record collections. Not surprisingly, since we met doing community theatre, the only doubles were the Original Show Cast Albums. It is my copy of Man of La Mancha that has the autograph and is wrapped up with the memory of a bemused smile and a warm handshake.

Caftan Woman's Choice - One for April on TCM

Ruth Etting was a very popular vocalist in the 1920s and 1930s with hit records and Broadway and movie appearances. Scandal sent her career off the rails when her gangster ex-husband Martin Snyder shot and wounded her younger lover, pianist and arranger Johnny Alderman. Martin would serve a brief stint in jail and Ruthie would marry Johnny in a happy union which lasted 28 years until his death.

It sounds like the stuff of the movies, doesn't it? Hollywood has always loved a good show business biography and Ruth gave the rights to her story and told them to go ahead "warts and all", as did Alderman and Snyder. Later Ms. Etting would sentimentally decry the fact that the happiness of her post show business career wasn't the "stuff of movies".

Ruth Etting, Martin "The Gimp" Snyder

MGM produced the Ruth Etting story as a Technicolor blockbuster titled Love Me or Leave Me, the title of a popular Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn torch song. The screenplay which won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture Story is by Caftan Woman favourite Isobel Lennert (Holiday Affair, The Sundowners, East Side, West Side) and Daniel Fuchs (Criss Cross, Storm Warning). Charles Vidor directed with his usual sure hand that guided such films as Gilda, Ladies in Retirement, and Blind Alley.

Doris Day, James Cagney

Who to star? Adding another of his real-life portrayals to his resume alongside the roles of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy and later Lon Chaney in Man of a Thousand Faces and Adm. Halsey in The Gallant Hours, and returning to the gangster role, but one quite different from his early psychos, was Oscar-winner James Cagney. Cagney was thrilled to have such a strong role and to work with Vidor whom he described as "a nice version of Michael Curtiz".

The leading lady? It would have to be someone special. Someone who audiences would root for. Someone who could carry off all of the great songs that Ruth sang. Of course, Doris Day! Away from her home studio of Warner Brothers, Day was given the role of a lifetime.

The story of the ambitious Ruth and the businessman of the rough and tumble methods plays out against the backdrop of Chicago in the roaring twenties and the Great White Way of Ziegfeld. James Cagney and Doris Day had worked together previously in Warner's musical The West Point Story. Cagney related to biographer John McCabe for 1997s Cagney that when rehearsals began for Love Me or Leave Me he saw that there was much more than just another talented pretty girl in Doris Day. Cagney considered Doris Day to be an actress on a par with theatrical legends Pauline Lord and Laurette Taylor. Their intense screen personalities and acting styles of delving into the souls of the characters were perfectly matched, leading to one of the screen's more interesting combinations and surely one of Cagney's most intriguing leading ladies.

The crucial role of musician Johnny Alderman was played by Cameron Mitchell (Death of a Salesman, All Mine to Give, TVs The High Chaparral). Caught up in the whirlwind of the obsessive relationship between Ruthie and "The Gimp" (as Snyder was called due to a limp resulting from childhood polio), Mitchell's portrayal is of a man full of heart and understanding. An interesting bit of trivia is that Johnny Alderman was an arranger on the delightful 1937 James Cagney musical Something to Sing About.

A scene in the movie that makes me chuckle about how little the world has changed is when Alderman, who is playing piano in a Snyder run club, is asked by The Gimp to work with Ruth on her singing. After listening to her, Alderman assumes his boss will want to know if the girl can sing or not. Cagney/Snyder responds that it doesn't matter. You put a pretty girl up on stage and tell folks she's a singer, and that makes her a singer! As the saying goes, no one ever went broke underestimating the public. In this case, Ruth and her public were on the right track. The woman could sing and her popularity was well-deserved.

Ruth sings If I Could Be With You

If all you were looking for in the biography of a singer as popular as Ruth Etting was great songs, this movie is filled with them, including You Made Me Love You, Ten Cents a Dance, Mean to Me, Shakin' the Blues Away, At Sundown, I Cried for You and more, plus an original song I'll Never Stop Loving You by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn that was nominated for a Best Song Oscar. The winner was Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster's theme for Love is a Many-Splendored Thing.

James Cagney would receive his third and final Oscar nomination for the role of Snyder. The winner that year was Ernest Borgnine for Marty. Doris Day was overlooked at award time and would receive her only nomination a few years later for Pillow Talk. As a fan I am pleased that her comic abilities were acknowledged, but also as a fan I am surprised that her sterling dramatic turn as Ruth Etting was overlooked.

Doris sings the Oscar-nominated I'll Never Stop Loving You

In addition to the wonderful standards, beautifully sung by Doris Day and released as a top-selling album, this is the dramatic story of three people, their loves, and their intertwining fates. Love Me or Leave Me is entertaining and unforgettable. TCM is screening the film as part of their month-long salute to Doris Day on Friday, April 7th at 8:00 pm.

A Tribute to The Archers: 49th Parallel

Today it is my pleasure to join devoted film fans by posting a contribution to the Classic Film and TV Tribute to the Archers: A Powell & Pressburger Movie Blogathon.

Although the first film to officially feature The Archers onscreen logo is 1941s One of Our Aircraft is Missing I believe The Archers as a team was destined from birth to create some of cinema's most uniquely personal artistic triumphs and the greatest of these during the upheaval of wartime.

Director Michael Powell was raised in Canterbury with the poetic soul of his ancestors. His love of film led to his working in the industry in the 1920s, learning much from the Dublin born legend Rex Ingram in Hollywood on the classics Mare Nostrum and The Garden of Allah. He returned to England and began a prolific director of what he referred to as “quickie quota” films.

Hungarian born Emeric Pressburger was a writer who plied his craft throughout Europe one step ahead of the rise of Adolph Hitler. He found his home in England and work with producer Alexander Korda. The London Films (Korda) release of 1939 The Spy in Black starring Valerie Hobson and Conrad Veidt brought Pressburger and Powell together for the first time. The movie gods smiled. In 1940 they again joined forces with Hobson and Veidt for Contraband, one of the first movies to feature London during wartime with a timely plot and an Alfred Hitchcock like ambiance. Hitchcock was an admired associate and friend of Michael Powell’s.

It is an undeniable paradox that the movie 49^th Parallel aka The Invaders manages to be both a government sanctioned propaganda and a deeply personal statement. Emeric Pressburger had experienced the tyranny and oppression of life under Nazi rule and now his adopted countrymen were in the same battle. It was his duty and his privilege to strike a blow in that battle.

The Ministry of Information tasked Powell and Pressburger with creating a film which would not only show Britains what they were up against and what they were fighting for, but would strike a chord with American audiences whose participation in the conflict was considered essential for victory. It was while staring at a map of North America that Emeric was inspired to set the story in Canada. As a member of the Commonwealth, Canada was already at war and American audiences would have no difficulty identifying with their friendly neighbour to the north. Not only did the Ministry approve and provide funding, but Michael Powell was excited about the prospect of exploring and filming in Canada. The Canadian High Commissioner in London (later first Canadian born Governor-General) Vincent Massey provided letters of introduction and recommendation, and the film crew sailed the perilous Atlantic in April of 1940.

Powell and Pressburger traversed the country from New Brunswick to Ontario to Manitoba to British Columbia, interviewing and researching the vast Dominion. Emeric completed the first draft of the script on the boat back to England having decided on the format of four acts with Nazis stranded from a U boat encountering the citizens they plan to conquer while their meager force is steadily depleted.

Upon returning to England, Emeric Pressburger, an alien, was arrested and threatened with deportation. He and his loyal partner Michael Powell spent an uncomfortable night in jail until the Ministry intervened. For the next month, while he worked on the script of 49^th Parallel, Emeric Pressburger had to report to the police daily until his papers were straightened out. However, because of fear of further red tape, he did not return to Canada with Powell when location shooting began on the picture.

Raymond Lovell, Eric Portman, Niall MacGinnis

Peter Moore, John Chandos, Basil Appleby

49^th Parallel begins with the German U Boat 37 sinking a Canadian naval vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They evade the enemy by heading to Hudson’s Bay where a landing party of 6 is set ashore to secure fuel and supplies. When the Canucks destroy the submarine, the landing party is left on their own to reach neutral territory, the United States.

Our stranded Germans are a mixed bag of characters as Emeric did not want to merely show cardboard villains. Eric Portman is Lt. Hirth, a fully indoctrinated Nazi with a single-minded sense of purpose and unshakeable belief in his Fuhrer and his ideals. Second in command is Kuhnecke played by Raymond Lovell. He chafes at being second and is a bit of a small time bully. Niall MacGinnis plays Vogel, a sympathetic every man at the mercy of politics. Three younger sailors are the sneaky Lohrmann played by John Chandos, the nervous Kranz played by Peter Moore and the over-eager Jahner played by Basil Appleby.

Ley On, Laurence Olivier, Finlay Currie

Johnny the trapper: "He Canadian. He Canadian. I'm Canadian."

The stranded Nazis first encounter with the Canadian character is at a Hudson Bay outpost run by a Scottish Factor played by Finlay Currie, with untimely visitors in a trapper played by Laurence Olivier and his Eskimo partner Nick played by Ley On. Johnny the trapper has been in the wilds for many months and is shocked to learn of the war and Canada’s, particularly French Canada’s participation. Olivier’s performance perfectly embodies the independent spirit and joyously irreverent accent of the rural Quebecois. Johnny’s devil-may-care combative attitude and humour confound his German captors.

Research in Canada unearthed the existence of the Hutterites, a Lutheran sect living in communal settlements throughout the prairies. Emeric Pressburger was determined to use them in the film and created the role of Peter, the leader, for the incomparable Anton Walbrook. The Nazified Germans think that at last they have found their people, but their arguments of the bond of racial superiority are firmly discarded by Peter/Anton’s understated, yet impassioned response.

Anton Walbrook

"Someone has given you, no doubt deliberately, a completely false impression of us. We are only one amongst several foreign settlements in Canada. There are thousands of them in this part of the world. And they have been founded - some recently, some 80 years ago by people who left their homes in Europe because of famine, because of starvation because of racial and political persecution. Some, like ourselves, because of their faith. Some came only to find new land, new boundaries, and new worlds. But all have found here in Canada security, peace and tolerance, and understanding which in Europe it is your Fuhrer's pride to have stamped out.

You call us Germans – you call us Brothers! Yes, most of us are Germans. Our names are German, our tongue is German, our old hand-written books are in German scripts. But we are not your brothers. Our Germany is dead. However hard this may be for some of us older people, it is a blessing for our children. Our children will grow up against new backgrounds, new horizons and they are free. Free to grow up as children. Free to run and to laugh without being forced into uniforms. Without being forced to march up and down streets singing battle songs!

You talk of the New Order in Europe! A new order where there will not be one corner, not a hole big enough for a mouse, where a decent man can breathe freely. You think we hate you, but we don't. It is against our faith to hate. We only hate the power of evil which is spreading over the world. You and your Hitlerism are like the microbes of some filthy disease filled with the longing to multiply yourselves until you destroy everything healthy in the world. No. We are not your brothers."

Glynis Johns

The Hutterite sequence features a young Glynis Johns in the role of Anna whose parents were killed by Nazis. She replaced the originally cast Elisabeth Bergner who left the production to join her husband in America. Glynis became an immediate audience favourite.

The depleted landing party hits the big town when they land in Winnipeg, giving urban audiences a chance to see a familiar setting and experience the unsettling thought that the fellow next to them in a diner just might be the enemy.

Leslie Howard, Eric Portman

Traveling cross-country and taking what they want, the displaced sailors reach Jasper National Park. In the park, there are only two remaining when they cross paths with the dilettante author Philip Armstrong Scott played by Leslie Howard. Perceived as the decadent weakling of a morally corrupt society our wandering Nazis once again find themselves up against sterner stuff – and then there was one.

Eric Portman, Raymond Massey

The backtracking and unrepentant Hirth, a hero to his countrymen, makes his way to southern Ontario and a train heading stateside at Niagara Falls. The Hollywood-New York-London actor Raymond Massey, brother of the aforementioned Canadian High Commissioner, plays my favourite character in the movie. Andy Brock is a Canadian I can understand and relate to. Brock is a slightly AWOL soldier sneaking back to camp. He doesn’t think of himself as a criminal, just somebody who is fed up. He gripes about life in general and the army in particular with a sardonic sense of humour and sees the world through his own code. The exchange between Hirth and Brock tickles me greatly as the narrow-minded Nazi has not been able to figure out that individual humour and the freedom to express it is the basis of the Canadian character. A sense of humour is also finely tuned in our American cousins as well and the border inspector’s role in dashing Hirth’s escape is one of the all-time great movie punch lines this side of I Know Where I’m Going!.

In some ways, time has taken the edge off of a movie made for a specific audience and purpose at a specific time in history. In other ways, 49^th Parallel holds up as entertainment and a window into that other time. It was the only feature film to be funded by Britain’s government and was awarded the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.

49^th Parallel was an amazing accomplishment and a fully realized opportunity to contribute something concrete to the war effort. Michael Powell considered the film one of his finest achievements and it held a place of special pride in Emeric Pressburger’s heart.

Clivey Rules!

E.E. Clive (1879-1940)
The Hound of the Baskervilles

The character actors who grace our favourite classic movies came from varied backgrounds and brought a wealth of talent to their screen portrayals. E.E. Clive (his parents named him Edward) was born in Monmouthshire in Wales in 1879. Clive was 22 when he decided to abandon the path of respectability as represented by his medical studies to pursue a life in the theatre. Was it an easy decision? Had he found himself bilious at the sight of blood? Was he always the class clown who liked the attention? Did a pretty girl lead him astray? His wife's name was Eleanor Ellis. It could be the name of an actress. Whatever the reason, switching careers was the correct decision.

E.E. Clive, known as Clivey to his many friends, was successful and respected in his new life. For many years he toured the provinces becoming a master of every dialect the British Isles possessed. His facility for dialects would serve him well later in Hollywood where he could portray every sort of British character from crooks to butlers to peers in such films as Captain Blood, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Earl of Chicago, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula's Daughter, Tarzan Escapes, Congo Maisie, The Great Garrick, Arsene Lupin Returns, Foreign Correspondent and Pride and Prejudice. Clivey even taught William Powell how to fish in Libeled Lady.

Seeking new worlds to conquer, E.E. Clive emigrated to America in 1912 where he ran a company at the Copley Theatre, located near the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. Clivey produced, directed, acted in plays and mentored the young people who luckily found a start to their careers in the company, including Walter Pidgeon and Rosalind Russell. In her 1977 autobiography Life is a Banquet written with Chris Chase, Roz describes the theatre as a place where the kettle was always boiling for tea and where she learned much not only by performing, but by observing the professionals in the troupe. Here she describes a lesson in negotiation:

"...By now, though I'd been working a year and wanted more money, I didn't know how to approach Clivey. Having suffered the experience of graduation day, I wasn't anxious to see yet another manager backing out of a room gasping like a fish and trying to get his breath to call the cops. But I knew I deserved a raise. So I turned in my two weeks' notice, in writing. It'll kill 'em, I thought. They'll fall apart; the theatre will have to close.

And I waited. The first week went by. Nothing happened. Nothing. I started gibbering to myself. So we were into the second week, at the end of which I would have to leave. Miss Smart-Ass, hoist by her own presumption.

Clivey was not only our director, he sometimes acted with us, and he happened to be in the Ian Hay play. I started timing my entrances for the curtain call so that I'd walk up the stairs right in front of him. Or I'd stand next to him in the wings, ostentatiously asking him how he was tonight. On the stairs he didn't chat; in the wings he said only, "Fine, Rosalind, very fine."

It came down to the matinee of the last performance. My two weeks were up. I knew I'd have to go to the hotel - I was living at the Copley - and pack. After the curtain fell, Clivey finally spoke to me. "Come into my dressing room for a minutes, will you?"

In his dressing room he was a kindly uncle. For two weeks he'd been teasing, now he really wanted to know. "Why have you done this?" he said. "Has somebody been rude to you?"

"No, no," I Said. "I just feel I should have some more money."

"How much more money do you think you should have?" he said. My original plan had been to ask for a bundle, but I settled on fifty dollars. "Fifty dollars a week."

"I'll give you twenty-five," he said. "Now go back to work."

E.E. Clive and Claude Rains

Constable Jaffers confronts The Invisible Man

As he once crossed the Atlantic to broaden his career which included producing, directing and acting on Broadway, in the 1930s E.E. Clive crossed the continent to give Hollywood a whirl. He made an impression in the first of seven movies with director James Whale as the stubborn and doomed constable in The Invisible Man. Rosalind Russell and Clivey would cross paths in three movies, 1936s Trouble for Two based on Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, 1937s Live, Love and Learn with a screenplay by Charles Brackett, and Emlyn Williams' Night Must Fall. Jacqueline Lynch's detailed look at Night Must Fall can be found at Another Old Movie Blog. I particularly like Clivey's role in the movie as an entrepreneur who conducts tours of a murder site. Proof positive that human nature hasn't changed much through the years.

The fabled year of Hollywood greatness, 1939, would see Clivey featured in 13 movies, many fondly recalled by fans including The Little Princess, Raffles, Rose of Washington Square and Mr. Moto's Last Warning. He would cross paths twice with Mr. Sherlock Holmes. In The Hound of the Baskervilles he is a cabby with a startling revelation. In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes he is a stubbornly wrong-headed Inspector Bristol.

Warner Oland and E.E. Clive
Charlie Chan in London
"I must write that down. That's our method here, Mr. Chang."

Since my movie universe revolves around the Charlie Chan series, it is an especial treat for me to watch E.E. Clive as Detective Sergeant Thacker in 1934s Charlie Chan in London. The Sergeant is wary of the courtly and famous Inspector from Hawaii, but gradually comes to respect Chan and take pride in helping solve the case. Clivey is but one of the joys of the movie which features a young Raymond Milland, and some of the loveliest evening gowns this side of Gosford Park (wink).

Reginald Denny, John Howard, E.E. Clive, John Barrymore
Algy Longworth, "Bulldog" Drummond, Tennison, Colonel Nielson

Clivey also spent time in an official capacity, that is portraying Bobbies, with some other crime solvers in 1934, Walter Connolly as Father Brown, Detective and Ronald Colman in Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back.

Bulldog Drummond would figure prominently in Clivey's career when Paramount would bring "Sapper" McNeile's intrepid adventurer back in a series of movies with a cast that included John Howard (The Philadelphia Story) as Drummond, and John Barrymore (Twentieth Century) and later H.B. Warner (It's a Wonderful Life) as Colonel Neilson of Scotland Yard. Reginald Denny (The Lost Patrol) plays Hugh's pal Algy, the sort of amiable twit who would fit in quite nicely at P.G. Wodehouse's Drone's Club. Heather Angel (The Last of the Mohicans) was the actress most often cast as Phyllis, the more than understanding love interest. Fun trivia: Barrymore and Denny co-starred in 1922s Sherlock Holmes.

Clivey plays Drummond's valet Tenny, or Tennison for the more formal among you. Tenny was often annoyed at the complications brought into the household by Captain Drummond's exploits, but he was ever loyal, frequently resourceful, witty, and a vital part of the team. There were seven Bulldog Drummond pictures made between 1937 and 1939 and I find something to enjoy in each of the titles.

A popular performer until his untimely death from a heart attack at age 61, once seen on screen there is no doubt that Clivey Rules!

The Return of Caftan Woman and Dr. Moreau

The old PC has been in mothballs for the past month while the homestead has been undergoing renovations. I can hear you now - "Really, Caftan Woman, it's a wireless world. What is your deal?" Well, my deal is that all the cool, new toys will have to wait until I've finished paying for the renovations, and by the time I've finished paying for the renovations we'll all be communicating telepathically!

And speaking of communicating telepathically, I hope you woke early on March 3rd for what would have been Caftan Woman's Choice for March on TCM, Paramount's 1932 production of Island of Lost Souls, the first screen version of H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau.

Charles Laughton is magnificent as the maddest mad doctor of them all. Driven from his native England for his obscene experiments, the scientist rules over a Pacific island where he plays god, trying to turn animals into humans, creating tortured nothings. Bela Lugosi (Dracula, The Black Cat) is the leader of the unfortunates. Into this garden spot comes shipwreck victim Richard Arlen (Wings, The Virginian, Artists & Models). At first grateful for rescue by Moreau's alcoholic assistant Arthur Hohl (The Scarlet Claw, Moontide), our hero quickly assesses the true nature of the island. Luckily, his fiancee Leila Hyams (Freaks, Ruggles of RedGap) plans a rescue. Maybe not so lucky. Moreau sees in the new arrival a substitute for his diabolical plans for a Panther Woman played by Kathleen Burke, a beauty contestant who won the role.

How will it all end? It ends as it must for all mad scientists. A true horror film that plays on deep fears and ethics, with Laughton as enjoyable to watch as his character is abhorrent.

TCM's next screening of Island of Lost Souls is June 6th at 2:15 pm. Don't miss it!