What a Character! Blogathon: Canadians in Hollywood, PART ONE: Miss Lucile Watson and PART TWO: Miss Maude Eburne

Lucile Watson

May 27, 1879 - June 24, 1962

Quebec City, the historic French settlement, trading post and sometime capitol of New France and Lower Canada, was the birthplace of Rosine Mary Lucile Watson on May 27, 1879.  Educated in one of the predominantly Catholic province's many convent schools, Lucile would retain the strong conservative values of her upbringing throughout her life.  However, the glamorous and quick-witted young lady would demand more from life than Quebec could offer.  She wanted a life on the stage so the teenaged Lucile left her old world  behind to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City.  Lucile was 23 years old when she made her Broadway debut in the 1902 production of Hearts Aflame.  For the next 20 years Broadway was her home.  Lucile could play anything, but was most popular in the chic comedies of the day.  She was a particular favourite of Brooklyn born playwright Clyde Fitch after starring in the 1909 production of his The City.

Lucile Watson, young actress

Sometime during the ragtime period, Lucile was briefly married to fellow Canadian actor Rockliffe Fellowes, star of Raoul Walsh's 1915 film Regeneration, whose film career lasted through the 1930s.

Lucile appeared in two plays by Louis Evan Shipman, 1918s The Fountain of Youth and 1922s Fools Errant.  In 1928 at the age of 50, Lucile married the playwright but was sadly widowed five years later when Shipman died in France on his 64th birthday.

During her widowhood Lucile made the most of her acting career continuing to shine on Broadway in such classic roles as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest and Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice.  While a starring comedienne on The Great White Way, the movies generally gave Lucile heavier fare.  The overall impression of her cinematic career is one of the dominating, patrician mother.  If we look closely at some of these women we find, here and there, a kind heart and a twinkle in the eye.  These qualities are abundant in her first credited film role as La Contessa la Brierra in 1934s What Every Woman Knows from the J.M. Barrie play.  Helen Hayes as the woman behind the successful politician Brian Aherne would be lost without Lucile's kindness and mentorship.

It is difficult to find something nice to say about Harriet Mason in 1939s Made for Each Other.  Perhaps we can feel sorry for the foolishness that causes so much heartbreak in her refusal to accept surprise daughter-in-law Carole Lombard into son James Stewart's life.

Audiences in the 30s and today, like the character Mary Haines in The Women, are shocked by Mrs. Morehead's advice to her daughter to overlook her husband's affair.  Yet, she doesn't demand, she offers support.  Certainly the advice to watch out for her "friends" was right on the money.

I find no malice in Lady Cronin's treatment of Myra in Waterloo Bridge.  She is merely a tool of Fate.  A glorious, tear-soaked, heartbreaking Fate.

 

 Watch on the Rhine

George Colouris, Donald Woods (another Canuck), Lucile Watson

Bette Davis, Paul Lukas 

In addition to a busy Hollywood career, Broadway still had a firm claim on Lucile Watson.  In 1941 she played Fanny Farrelly in the hugely successful Watch on the Rhine by Lillian Hellman.  the 1943 Warner Brothers production would bring Lucile and leading man Paul Lukas west to recreate their stage roles.  Lukas would win a most well-deserved Best Actor Oscar for his moving performance.  Lucile Watson was nominated in the Supporting Actress category as the Washington society matron whose family is intimately impacted by world events.  The award that year was given to Katina Paxinou for For Whom the Bell Tolls.  The other nominees were Paulette Goddard for So Proudly We Hail and Gladys Cooper and Anne Revere for The Song of Bernadette.

We can add Barbara Stanwyck to the list of Lucile's big-name Hollywood children in 1946s My Reputation.  Here we have a genuine generation gap as young widow Jessica Drummond not only has to face small-minded gossips and her disapproving children but her imperious mother, a woman who has always gotten her way.

 

The Thin Man Goes Home

Harry Davenport, Lucile Watson

Myrna Loy, William Powell

 

Lucile continued to be a busy actress.  Aunt March in Little Women, the gossipy and very funny aristocrat Princess Bitotska in The Emperor Waltz and facing off against Joan Crawford in Harriet Craig.  Would you want anyone else as Nick Charles' mother in The Thin Man Goes Home?   Radio anthology programs and talk shows where Lucile Watson could speak her mind.  Broadway again as Cornelia Van Gorder in a 1953 revival of Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Bat.  Lucile Watson would retire in her 70s remaining in her beloved NYC, passing from this life from a heart attack at age 83.

Some other movies to enjoy with Lucile include Three Smart Girls, Sweethearts, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Rage in Heaven, The Great Lie, Tomorrow is Forever, The Razor's Edge and Julia Misbehaves.

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 Maude Eburne

November 10, 1875 - October 15, 1960

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players...".  We may be the leading lady in our own dramas and comedies, but miss the mark when it comes to public consumption.  With her low centre of gravity and non-glamorous features, Ontario's Maude Eburne was a born character actress.  Now part of the City of Oakville, Bronte-on-the-Lake was a fishing village when Maude was born there in 1875.  Currently, it is a quick commuter train ride between that spot and Toronto, but it wasn't so convenient in the days of steam and stagecoach.  However, Toronto was always a good theatre town and it was the place a determined young woman with an alternately wry and bawdy sense of humour, and elocution lessons under her belt had to go if she wanted to be an actress.

Determination and talent can take you a long way.  It can take you from a fishing village in Ontario to the lights of Broadway.  Mind you, it was a winding path of stock companies and touring every place in between, but when Maude Eburne hit the big town in 1913 at age 38, she knew how to make 'em laugh and make 'em cry.  She would appear in 14 Broadway shows between 1913 and 1930.  After all, most plays at that time would call for a maid.  One of her successes as Coddles in 1914s A Pair of Sixes would be filmed in 1918.

Along with the jobs and the applause, Maude found time to marry a stage producer named Gene Hill.  She was widowed in 1932 as her Hollywood career was beginning and Maude would stay on the west coast the rest of her days.

Maude Eburne's career in pictures was a full and busy time with bona fide film classics interspersed with cult classics, B programmers, and uncredited bits.  A featured player or bit player, Maude always gave one hundred percent.  In 1944s Henry Aldrich Plays Cupid she is billed as "homely woman".  Did it rankle or was Maude of the "if you can't fix it, feature it" mind?  I prefer her billing in the 1948 western The Plunderers as "Old Dame at Wedding".

 

 The Bat Whispers

Maude Eburne, Grayce Hampton

Lizzie Allen: "I stuck by you when you was a theosophist and a suffragetist.  I've seen you through socialism, Fletcherism and rheumatism.  But when it comes to spookism I'm through!"

One of Maude's early talkies is 1930s The Bat Whispers, director Roland West's re-do of his 1926 version of Mary Roberts Rinehart's The Bat.  As domestic Lizzie Allen to the intrepid Cornelia Van Gorder, who is not afraid of things that go bump in the night, Maude gets to spout sass to Grayce Hampton.  She also gets to run around an old dark house in a nightgown with her hair in curl-papers making the most ungodly shrieks this side of Una O'Connor. 

Classic movie fans can find Maude, along with Lunt and Fontanne, in The Guardsman.  She's an incarcerated Madame with a raucous sense of humour in Ladies They Talk About.  She's Frank McHugh's chorister mother in the funny ending to Here Comes the Navy.  She positively steals the show as Gussie Schnappmann in 1933s The Vampire Bat.

 Ruggles of Red Gap

Zazu Pitts, Charles Laughton, Charles Ruggles, Maude Eburne

Just what was it Lincoln said at Gettysburg?

My favourite of Maude Eburne's roles is Ma Pettingill in Leo McCarey's 1935 version of Ruggles of Red Gap.  In this story of a third-generation valet who has independence thrust upon him Maude's "Ma" is the salt of the earth.  Unimaginably wealthy from oil, Ma indulges the snobbish whims of her daughters, but democratically treats all men the same.  It is primarily Ma Pettingill's attitude and example that guides Ruggles.  She is a dear.

Maude is the housekeeper, Mrs. Hastings, in the Dr. Christian series starring Jean Hersholt as the fictionalized doctor who delivered the Dionne quintuplet.

The Border Legion

Maude Eburne, "Gabby" Hayes

Honest John Whittaker:  "Miss Hurricane, where I come from chivalry is not dead."

Hurricane Hattie McGuire:  "Well, in this territory they got it gaspin' for breath!"

Maude had nice roles in three Roy Rogers movies, Colorado, Man from Oklahoma and The Border Legion.  These delightfully paired her with George "Gabby" Hayes with whom she could alternately spar or coyly flirt.  Talk about two old pros!

1942s The Boogie Man Will Get You is one of the goofiest movies you'll ever see, and you must see this screwy mash-up of Arsenic and Old Lace meets George Washington Slept Here plus a healthy heaping of wartime propaganda.  Impulse shopper Jeff Donnell buys a run-down farm/inn that comes complete with mad scientist Boris Karloff trying to create a Nazi fighting superman.  There's also Peter Lorre as a rival doctor with more than a few quirks of his own.  Don Beddoe is a flighty choreographer who may be a government agent.  Boxer "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom is a powder puff salesman and Frank Puglia a bomb-throwing anarchist.  In the middle of all this is solicitous landlady Maude Eburne who periodically slips into the belief that she is a chicken about to lay an egg.  Cluck.  Cluck.  I get a great kick out of The Boogie Man Will Get You.  I get a kick out of watching some of these really fine actors going for the gold of goofy.  I also get a kick out of imagining Maude at the first read-through.  "Amelia flaps her arms and clucks like a chicken about to lay an egg.  If my elocution teacher could see me now!"  Watch her - she's perfect and she's funny.  Maude Eburne was always a hundred-percenter.  Maude Eburne was a month shy of her 80th birthday when she passed away in 1960.

Some titles to keep on your "look for Maude Eburne list" are Hollywood Cowboy starring George O'Brien, The Amazing Mr. Williams with Melvyn Douglas and Joan Blondell, Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be and The Princess and the Pirate with Bob Hope. 

All hail Once Upon a Screen, Outspoken and Freckled and Paula's Cinema Club for hosting this wonderful tribute to character actor greats.

Caftan Woman's Choice: One for September on TCM

During my formative years as a credit reading television viewer, one name above all stood for quality - Fielder Cook. The director of such classic TV movies as Earl Hamner's The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys, A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Will There Really Be a Morning? and more was always prominently featured in the TV Guide Close-Ups of yore. I later learned about that time before my own, the Golden Age of live television and discovered the basis of Mr. Cook's prominence and esteem.

Fielder Cook, Rod Serling

The former naval officer had a degree in literature from Washington and Lee University and studied Elizabethan literature in England, and in 1950 began his career in television with the popular anthology series, Lux Video Theatre. The program, which was a spin-off of NBCs Lux Radio Theater featured original teleplays along with adaptions of popular theatre fare and abridged versions of familiar movie titles. Cook's other credits in those heady days of the 1950s include The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, Omnibus, Playhouse 90 and Kraft Television Theatre. The January 12th, 1955 live episode of Kraft Television Theatre was the Cook directed episode of Rod Serling's Patterns starring Richard Kiley, Ed Begley and Everett Sloane. The program's success led to a repeat performance on February 9th and a 1956 theatrical feature directed by Fielder Cook with Van Heflin replacing Kiley. 

Moving from television to features was a career move made by many of Cook's contemporaries such as Sidney Lumet, John Frankenheimer, and Franklin Schaffner, yet Cook preferred to work in television where the word was king. "I went back to TV because I could do what I wanted to do. You learn from your mistakes with nobody telling you what to do." In an industry of so-called auteurs, the man was a radical as evidenced by his attitude, "As a director, I tell a story, but it's not my story."

One story that gave Fielder Cook a lot of pleasure was a 1962 episode of the hour-long The DuPont Show of the Week written by Sidney Carroll called Big Deal in Laredo. The story concerns an annual poker game with Zachary Scott, Roland Winters, and John McGiver as high stakes players whose leisure and life is upended by the involvement of a pioneer couple played by Teresa Wright and Walter Matthau. Carroll and Cook, under Cook's own production company Eden Productions Inc., revamped and released a feature presentation of the story renamed A Big Hand for the Little Lady.

If you have seen A Big Hand for the Little Lady, you don't need me to tell you of its many delights. If you have not seen A Big Hand for the Little Lady, you don't want me to tell you too much of the delights awaiting you. Trust me on this, if on nothing else, the discovery is a joyful one you will want to make on your own. As a bit of an incentive, I will mention that the cast features a diverse collection of familiar and fabled actors including Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bickford, Paul Ford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Middleton, and John Qualen. The "little lady" in question is the mesmerizing Joanne Woodward. Ms. Woodward was nominated for a Laurel Award from the Motion Picture Exhibitors in the category of Female Comedy Performance. The award was given to Julie Andrews of Thoroughly Modern Millie and one of the other nominees was Shirley MacLaine for Gambit which was also based on a Sidney Carroll story. The script for A Big Hand for the Little Lady is funny, exciting, moving and very, very real.  

TCM is showing A Big Hand for the Little Lady on Saturday, September 8 at 6:00 pm.  I sincerely hope you find it a convenient time.

The Case of the Vacuous Victim or Caftan Woman vs. Garbage Truck Part II

A long time ago - 10 months to be exact - at an intersection not far from here, some of you may recall my run-in with a garbage truck.  Physically, the fracture of my nose is but a slight bump that doesn't give me any character at all.  I have a few "Sailor Moon" scars on my forehead.  Getting up and down is an issue due to very sore knees, although I haven't detected any weather prediction capabilities.  Mentally, I have a case of mild Depression and PTSD.  After last November's accident I found sleep eluding me in that four hours at a stretch is a relief.  I stopped enjoying things that used to make me happy.  I even pulled out of the June Etobicoke Centennial Choir concert.  Safe in my own home, the sound of trucks on the street make my palms sweat and my stomach jump.  I neglected my health to the dismay of my family doctor and physicians at the kidney clinic, who felt I should speak to someone about my lack of coping skills.  I've always been proud of those coping skills which saw me through radiation, two rounds of chemo and five surgeries, but had to agree something should be done.  So, I'm chatting with a young psychiatric intern and have sleeping pills if/when necessary.  Today something happened which may do a lot toward getting me that good night's sleep.  The case of the garbage truck came to Court.

Ouch

I had no idea that such a thing was occurring until last Thursday when the officer who investigated the incident phoned and asked if I could attend Court on Monday at 3:00.  I believe in the back of my mind was the thought that "Gee, I get hit by a truck and nobody cares".

The York Civic Centre is a block-like building rather stuffy and dusty.  It is filled with long lines of folks paying parking tickets and fines.  In fact, my daughter Janet and I saw so many people shelling out dough that I wonder what City Council is talking about when they go on about budget problems.  There is a wedding chapel that looks like as cheerless a place to tie the knot as you could imagine.  The courtroom resembled a small chapel with pews for seats, flags, computers and microphones that didn't seem to work.  Either my hearing is going or the acoustics in the room are terrible because I only seemed to get every second word, if that.  A number of cases came and went and they got around to the garbage truck incident. 

 Rex Reason

It is nerve wracking to take the stand.  The bailiff (I assume) spoke very quickly and I'm not sure if I was supposed to say "I do" when swearing to tell the truth, but they accepted it.  The Crown Attorney somewhat resembled one of the acting Reason brothers (must have been the curly hair), so I found that a little distracting (Does he look like Rhodes or Rex?).  I told my story pretty much as related in my blog of last November and the defendant's attorney questioned me.  Although the defendant wasn't in court, his lawyer gave 100% in trying to make me look the fool.  I'll give him marks for referring to me as a "young lady" (blush), but beyond that we are not friends.  He seemed quite stuck on the point that I didn't look for flashing lights on the truck.  Well, I told him the truck was stopped - there were no lights, no motor noises - it was stopped while the garbage was being collected.  The lawyer was also quite keen on the point that I didn't know which direction the truck was turning, north or south.  I explained vehemently that I didn't know which direction the truck was traveling because my face was in the asphalt!  In his summation, he said that "the victim claims she made eye contact, whatever that means".  Oh, it's hard to sit still for such snark when you have hundreds of classic movie quotes at your disposal.

Ambassador Trentino:  "I didn't come here to be insulted!"

Rufus T. Firefly:  "That's what you think!"

Anyway, this is where the "vacuous victim" almost caused a ruckus in Court.  When the police officer was on the stand there was a question as to the delineation of the crosswalk in question.  Nobody knew.  Was it outlined in white lines?  Was it a plain corner?  Ooh, ooh, I know.  I raised my hand and tried to get someone's attention.  The bailiff shook his finger at me like I was in kindergarten.  The Court Officer told me I had to be still.  Two little words, "red brick" could have cleared up the confusion.  Despite my genuine motivation to be of assistance I should have realized I was overstepping some sort of Courtroom etiquette.  I was chastened.  I was embarrassed.  Also, I should have recalled from my days of transcribing for a court reporting service that lawyers do NOT like to be told anything.

My late, lamented wheels

The defendant not being present his statement at the scene was read into the record.  Now, I know it was an accident and he didn't mean me any harm, but to hear his side of the story some crazy woman ran in front of the truck and fell down.  He was found guilty of some charge under the Motor Vehicle's Act and fined $125 payable in 60 days.  I would have been happy if he paid for replacing my $35 grocery/laundry cart.  Actually, I'm happy to think that it did matter that I had this accident.  I will probably sleep well tonight without the aid of a pill.  And I NEVER want to go to court again!

     

Classic Movie Blog Association Gene Kelly Centennial Blogathon: Black Hand (1950)

The promotional material for MGMs 1950 release Black Hand trumpeted Gene Kelly as “Sensational in his first great dramatic role”. The studio’s publicity department must have forgotten Gene as the determined POW in 1943s The Cross of Lorraine. Perhaps they overlooked his outstanding portrayal of a psychopath in the 1944 film-noir Christmas Holiday because that was for Universal, but once seen audiences could never forget the performance. MGM must also have forgotten that in his first film for the studio, 1942s For Me and My Gal, Gene’s character of Harry Palmer was more than a bit of a rat in the melancholy WWI era romance. 

Of all of the crafts, acting is the easiest to critique and dismiss as both fans and people in the profession have their own expectations and prejudices. A comedic actor? Hey, he’s just being funny. A performance in a western? The cowboy hat does the acting. The musical performer? All they’re doing is singing and dancing. As if Jeanette MacDonald singing Lover, Come Back to Me in New Moon or Judy Garland singing Over the Rainbow in The Wizard of Oz or Gene Kelly dancing with his alter ego in Cover Girl aren’t using all their skill to communicate to the audience as persuasively as Lord Olivier with a Shakespearean soliloquy. It must be a drama, dark and heavy, and preferably with ample opportunity to shed tears before some are convinced they are seeing “real acting”.

In 1950 Gene Kelly was beginning what was probably the most creatively satisfying time in his career. He had just completed his first credited co-directing assignment with the release of On the Town. Soon to come, with the resources of MGM behind him, are Singin’ in the Rain, An American in Paris, It’s Always Fair Weather and Invitation to the Dance. The decade begins with Gene top-billed and part of a fine ensemble of character actors in the offbeat crime drama Black Hand directed by the sturdy Richard Thorpe (The Thin Man Goes Home, The Crowd Roars, The Voice of Bugle Ann).

I call Black Hand offbeat because, for a gangster picture, it does leave the well-beaten path. By 1950 audiences could be forgiven for thinking that the gangster was solely the byproduct of the 18^th Amendment giving way to the roaring twenties, the period having been glamorized in dozens of crime pictures (Scarface, The Public Enemy, etc.).

Black Hand, however, deals with the turn of the 20^th century when organized extortion or the protection racket made life unbearable for countless immigrants seeking a better life in America. Along with the time period, Black Hand is unique in that its focus is not on the life of an unfortunate sucked into a life of crime through poverty and neglect, but on the victims of the criminals. The story is by Leo Townsend (It Start with Eve, Port of New York) with a screenplay by Luther Davis (Across 110^th Street, The Hucksters).

We are not in the turn of the century of Two Weeks With Love with its sunshine and wide verandas. In Black Hand we are in the claustrophobic city with narrow, dark streets and airless, crowded rooms courtesy of art director Gabriel Scognamillo (Mystery Street, Act of Violence, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao) and cinematographer Paul Vogel (Battleground, Lady in the Lake, Dial 1119). One of the crowded rooms houses the Columbo family. The father, a lawyer from Italy, Roberto Columbo played by Peter Brocco has had enough of the intimidation of the gangsters. Despite the pleading and prayers of his wife Maria played by Eleonora Mendelssohn, Roberto keeps a late night meeting with the police to inform against the Black Hand. Before the night is over both the police officer and Roberto Columbo will lose their lives to the vicious Serpi played by Marc Lawrence. The distraught Maria will return to Italy with her children, but her eldest son, Giovanni, vows to return someday and avenge his father’s death.

 Gene Kelly as Giovanni "Johnny" Columbo

A few years pass and the grown Johnny Columbo played by Gene Kelly returns to the neighbourhood incognito hoping to find his father’s murderer. His anonymity is short-lived as frightened people who know too much put the pieces together. Johnny is befriended by police officer Louis Lorelli played by the incomparable J. Carroll Naish (Oscar-nominated for A Medal for Benny and Sahara). Lorelli was a friend of the family’s in Italy and a long-time foe of the criminals who prey on his people. Johnny also rekindles a friendship/romance with childhood friend Isabella Gomboli played by Teresa Celli. She lost all in her family except a younger brother when the Black Hand bombed their tenement. Like Johnny, she seeks revenge, but in a civilized fashion. Isabella wants to organize the neighbourhood against the gangsters as such efforts have proved successful in other cities. Teresa has the backing of Lorelli and soon they sway Johnny to their efforts. Each small inroad against their tormentors is met with a setback in the form of beatings, kidnappings and destruction. Lorelli and Teresa are made of strong stuff and persevere, encouraging Johnny to study Law to further his cause.

J. Carroll Naish, Frank Puglia

The citizen’s committee takes a case to court when shopkeeper Sabballera played by Frank Puglia agrees to testify against the mob. Puglia is inspired as a man full of bravado and happy to be in the limelight. Slowly he is overcome by fear as nonverbal threats come from the spectators, leaving the case and the man in tatters. Equally as impressive is Naish as Lorelli makes an impassioned plea to the judge to understand the pervasive fear experienced by the people in his district. Again, the committee is rebuffed in their attempt to fully prosecute the gloating gangsters.

Another avenue of investigation comes their way and this one takes Lorelli back to Italy as he and Johnny devise a plan to exploit official records to name the gangsters before the courts. This time the gangsters are worried. This time Lorelli is in danger. This time Johnny faces a night of terror and desperation as he finally comes face to face with his father’s killer.

Black Hand is a well-told tale of an under-explored area in crime pictures. The fine ensemble effortlessly convinces us with their sincere and energetic performances, including Gene Kelly “sensational in his first great dramatic role”. 

Enjoy the brief clip from Black Hand as "Johnny" returns to the old neighbourhood and indulge yourself in All Things Gene Kelly as the Classic Movie Blog Association presents the Gene Kelly Centennial Blogathon.

Broadway to Hollywood: Chaney, Huston and "Kongo"

It's been quite a while since this blog has looked at the twists and turns of casting from Broadway to Hollywood. A recent screening on TCM of Tod Browning's 1928 thriller West of Zanzibar prompted this look at a two extraordinary actors.

Lon Chaney

April 1, 1883 - August 26, 1930

Lon Chaney, "The Man of a Thousand Faces", made only one sound picture before his untimely death from lung cancer at the age of 47 and that was a remake of 1925s The Unholy Three. Yet such is the power of his performances that long before I saw the 1930 movie I was convinced I had heard Chaney speak. In role after role, from The Phantom of the Opera to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, from He Who Gets Slapped to Laugh, Clown, Laugh Lon Chaney possessed the talent and the skill to transcend the screen and make the audience feel and know his inner being.

Chaney early learned to communicate with his deaf parents and was born an instinctive entertainer. A vaudevillian who could sing, dance and make people laugh, today Chaney is recalled mainly for characterizations in the horror genre. Yet, he said ,"I hope I shall never be accused of striving merely for horrible effects." Lon Chaney's talents as an actor and as a make-up artist created characters that showed us many horrors and much nobility.

One of the 10 films Lon Chaney made with director Tod Browning is West of Zanzibar, 1928. It is a tale of revenge and redemption. As Phroso aka Dead Legs, he rules a territory in Africa by confounding superstitious natives with magic and fear. Phroso lives for one thing, to take revenge on the man who made him a cripple and stole his wife and her daughter. The girl is the victim of abuse which is the core of Phroso's vengeance and the victim of a cruel twist of fate which tears the soul out of her tormentor. The audience is in the hands of the master watching Lon Chaney in West of Zanzibar.

Walter Huston

April 5, 1883 - April 7, 1950

Canadian born Walter Huston was enjoying success on the Broadway stage while Lon Chaney was wowing them in movies in the 1920s. One of those plays was Kongo written and directed by Chester De Vonde and Kilbourn Gordon. The play ran for 135 performances in 1926 and became the 1928 movie West of Zanzibar. How often has the stage star looked west to see someone else take over "their" role?

In 1929 Huston himself headed west and began his distinguished film career.  Early on he appeared in such diverse roles as the villain Trampas in The Virginian, as Abraham Lincoln in that titled picture for D.W. Griffith and as a sympathetic prison warden in The Criminal Code for Howard Hawks.

In 1932 Huston was outstanding in Frank Capra's American Madness, as the hypocritical Davidson in Rain and as Flint, the hate-filled cripple in Kongo in the sound remake of West of Zanzibar, going back to the original title. If it is possible, the lurid story seems even more so in sound. Huston is never less than riveting and no matter how much you want to turn away, you cannot ignore the depths to which this man fell and the overwhelming remorse he experiences.

In a fortunate case of not messing with success, when Walter Huston's 1934 stage success Dodsworth was beautifully filmed by William Wyler in 1936 it starred Huston who received a well-deserved Oscar nomination. However, he would have to wait until 1948s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre for the statue in the supporting category.

Two admirable actors and one despicable role in the winding road from Broadway to Hollywood.

Caftan Woman's Choice: One for August on TCM

Vacation From Marriage aka Perfect Strangers is a 1945 Academy Award Winner directed by Alexander Korda. The movie is based on a story by Clemence Dane, the British author born Winifred Ashton who took her pseudonym from the London church St. Clement Danes. Her popular works include Regiment of Women and A Bill of Divorcement. She was part of the Noel Coward set and a member of the Detection Club.

She adapted her story Perfect Strangers for the screen with actor/writer Anthony Pelissier, director/writer of The Rocking Horse Winner. The Oscar for the movie was awarded to Clemence Dane for Best Writing, Original Story.

Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr

Catherine and Robert at home

Vacation from Marriage is the story of Robert and Catherine Wilson played by Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr (it rhymes with "star"). When we first meet the couple it is Spring, 1940 and a single barrage balloon blots the skyline. It is both a typical and a not-so-typical morning in the Wilson's dreary flat. Robert, a nondescript bookkeeper in the city, is going about his routine in automaton type fashion. Catherine, nursing a perpetual cold, fusses over the eggs and her mate. The not-so-typical aspect of the day is that it is Robert's last as a civilian. He has heeded the call of King and country to join the Navy.

Shorn of the mustache grown for the sake of dignity and forced to acclimatize himself to life on the waves, Robert comes into his own. Robert's heroic actions in battle land him in a hospital where he shares a mutual attraction with an attractive nurse played by Ann Todd. Catherine would not recognize the man she married.

Robert is more than a little nonplussed to receive word that his mousy little wife has joined the Women's Royal Naval Service. Cathy is a Wren. In the Wrens, Cathy is befriended by the bright and outgoing Dizzy Clayton played by Glynis Johns. Cathy, for the first time, tries lipstick - and likes it. Cathy wears her uniform cap at a daring angle. Cathy spends too much time with and thinking of her pal Dizzy's exciting cousin played by Roland Culver. Robert would not recognize the woman he married.

 Deborah Kerr, Robert Donat

Who are these people?

Three long years of separation are about to come to an end as, finally, their leaves coincide. Robert and Cathy are returning to a home base that is no longer home. They are returning to a decimated neighbourhood with dozens of barrage balloons in the sky. They are returning, they think, to the old life, the old spouse and neither is very happy about it.  

Vacation from Marriage is funny and true and features exemplary performances. It is a love story with the lovers kept apart. It is a war story where the war just may be the best thing that ever happened to our protagonists. It is a winner in every way.

TCM is airing Vacation from Marriage aka Perfect Strangers on Monday, August 16 at 6:00 a.m. as part of a day-long tribute to Deborah Kerr (it still rhymes with "star") during their annual "Summer Under the Stars".

Better Parenting Through Movies

Janet and Gavin

The UK paper The Telegraph published a piece about the top ten films children must see before they are 9-1/2. 

"The line-up, compiled by child psychologist Dr Kairen Cullen, was based not only on entertainment value, but also the films' moral themes in order to teach children “essential life-lessons”.

"The hardest lessons children have to learn are not the sort that fit neatly into the school curriculum or can be found in any parenting guides. These lessons relate to emotion and relationships; both of which lie at the heart of any good film," said Dr Cullen." 

I read the article with interest even though my kids passed the 9-1/2 mark some time ago wondering how my parenting through movies agenda stacked up alongside Dr. Cullen's list.

Sid and Buzz

1.  Toy Story

Check.  We took Janet to see Toy Story when it was released.  Of course, since we were all seeing it for the first time we didn't know what lessons might be gleaned from the movie.  She displayed sympathy for Buzz Lightyear when he came to the realization he was only a toy.  Gavin is still waiting for his Woody and Buzz toys to start walking around on their own. 

2.  The Lion King

Check.  Janet saw The Lion King at the theatre with friends.  She learned the words to The Lion Sleeps Tonight.  Gavin saw the movie (many times) on VHS/DVD.  At an early age he would look at bugs and say things like "Oh, the little cream-filled kind."  When you live with an echolalic autistic/developmentally delayed person it is really important that you know what they are watching.

3.  Home Alone

Check.  I wasn't thinking about the "importance of family" when I made the kids watch this one.  I wanted to share the hilarious slapstick mayhem of the booby-trapped house.  I fulfilled my parental duty by informing them that no actors were harmed in the making of the film. 

4.  Labyrinth

I haven't seen this one.  Sounds good.  Have to check it out sometime.

 

5.  The Jungle Book

Check.  One of my all-time favourites.  I had the only babies at the park who could scat.  So proud.

6.  Mary Poppins

Check.  The Daddy Man has a thing for Julie Andrews.  Like father, like son. 

7.  The Wizard of Oz

Check.  One of the great perks of being a parent is scaring the bejeezus out of kids by showing them the flying monkeys.

8.  The Neverending Story

I think my daughter saw this on a rental.  I couldn't get through it.

9.  Matilda

Another I think Janet saw without me.  I'm not a big Roald Dahl fan.

10. Up

A 19 year old Janet made me watch this.  We cried and laughed and laughed and cried.  I'm not certain it would have appealed to her in those pre-10 years.

Rita and Gene

During their formative years my kids were exposed to a lot of classic movies through Family Channel Canada regularly showing musicals, comedies and dramas from the Golden Era of Hollywood (a practice sadly long since abandoned) and mom and dad sharing personal favourites.

On their own Janet discovered Singin' in the Rain and an adoration for Gene Kelly while Gavin found Cover Girl and a passion for Rita Hayworth.

Dad Garry enjoys Lilies of the Field and before we knew it Gavin was singing Amen and borrowing the tape to spend time with his pal Homer Smith.

The stuff that dreams are made of

My attempt to share the many joys of The Thing from Another World with young Janet, along with imparting significant life lessons in dealing with hostile extraterrestrials, inexplicably caused nightmares.  She forgave me when I introduced her to The Court Jester.

Another normal day for Donald Duck

The top 3 rentals during Janet and Gavin's toddler-hood were 101 Dalmatians which taught them to beware of smokers, Winnie-the-Pooh and the Blustery Day which taught them to beware of heffalumps and woozles, and The Three Caballeros.  Donald's surreal adventures in Latin America did not mess with their minds in any way.  I'm pretty sure.  Anyway - too late now.