THIS WEEK on NOIR and CHICK FLICKS

This week showing on Noir and Chick Flicks, at the movies:(Located on sidebar). COWBOY AND THE LADY(1938). Western comedy/romance. Cast: Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon (PICTURED ABOVE). Director: H.C. Potter. It won an Academy Award for Sound, Recording (Thomas Moulton) and was nominated for two others, Original Score (Alfred Newman) and Original Song ("The Cowboy and the Lady", Lionel Newman and Arthur Quenzer).


THIS WEEKS TCM SPOTLIGHT:

NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959). Sunday Feb. 21st. Suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, and featuring Leo G. Carroll and Martin Landau. Check local listings for times.

THE DIVORCEE (1930). Monday Feb. 22nd. The double standard destroys a liberal couple's marriage. Cast: Norma Shearer, Chester Morris, Robert Montgomery. Check local listings for times.


AMERICAN IN PARIS(1951). Tue. Feb.23 rd. An American artist finds love in Paris. Cast: Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Check local listings for times. Please check Noir and Chick Flicks: Musical page for review. :)

Have a great week at the movies. :)

MEET JOHN DOE (1941)

Meet John Doe (1941). Comedy/ drama. Director: Frank Capra. Cast: Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. And a couple of my favorite charactor actors: Spring Byington and Walter Brennan. The film, about a political campaign, created by a newspaper columnist and pursued by a wealthy businessman, became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for best original story (for Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.).

There are so many wonderful reviews about MEET JOHN DOE. I will just share a couple of my thoughts. Stanwyck is absolutely wonderful in this film, as her character realizes she has found a man just like her father. Also Cooper, is wonderful as the average everyday guy. A couple of my favorite scenes are when Cooper needs Stanwycks mother's help to ask her daughter to marry him and the baseball scene in a hotel room, when they play pretend ball, is very charming..
FULL MOVIE: MEET JOHN DOE.
FUN FACTS:

Frank Capra only wanted Cary Cooper to play John Doe. Cooper agreed to play the part (without reading a script) for two reasons: he had enjoyed working with Capra on Mr. Deeds Goes to Town(1936) and he wanted to work with Barbara Stanwyck.

The song 'Sweet potatoes' that Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan play, in addition to "Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor's Life For Me)", from "Pinocchio": Brennan alone plays this on an ocarina (sweet potato), but Cooper plays a small harmonica. The tune they play as a duet, while Barbara Stanwyck is interviewing them, is The "William Tell Overture, Finale" by Rossini (The Lone Ranger Theme). Cooper explains the reason Brennan likes him is that they both play 'Doohickeys'.

Kathryn Grayson (February 9, 1922 – February 17,2010.)

Kathryn Grayson, was an American actress and operatic soprano singer. Trained as an opera singer from the age of twelve, Grayson was contracted to MGM and established a career in films from the early 1940s. Most of her films were musicals and after several supporting roles, she was given lead roles in such films as Show Boat (1951) and Kiss Me Kate (1953). She was paired with Howard Keel and Mario Lanza in some of her films.

Fun Fact: Telegraph (news paper.)
Legend has it that, as a child, she wandered on stage after the show at the St Louis Municipal Opera House and sang just for the janitor. In the empty auditorium, a torrent of one-man applause greeted the performance. Only when it was time to say goodbye did she realise that he was stone deaf and hadn't heard a note.
KATHRYN GRAYSON TRIBUTE.
My favorite Kathryn Grayson performance was in the films: Anchors Aweigh (1945), Lovely to Look At(1952) and Till the Clouds Roll By (1946). She will be greatly missed.

THE CROWD (1928)- Eleanor Boardman.

The Crowd (1928) Silent Film. Cast: James Murray and Eleanor Boardman. Director: King Vidor.

John Sims always believed that he would some day become important. Unfortunately, John's father, died young, changing John's future and his plans. By twenty one, John is working as a clerk for the Atlas Insurance Co. One of Bert's friends, sets him up on a blind date with a girl named Mary. After spending the evening with Mary, John asks her to marry him. She agrees and they honeymoon at Niagara Falls. John promises Mary an beautiful home "when his ship comes in,". On Christmas Eve, Mary's deaf mother and her two well to do brothers , who do not think very highly of John, visit them for dinner. When John leaves to pick up some liquor, he comes home drunk, long after everyone has gone home. Mary forgives him, but by April they are arguing about everything.

However, they make up when Mary tells John that she is expecting a baby. In October, when a baby boy is born, John tells Mary that this is what he needed to make him try harder to become "somebody." Five years pass and a baby girl is born to the family. so far, John has received a small raise in pay and it is clear that he may never full fill his dreams. Mary tells him that she does not believe that his "ship" is ever going to come in. Will John ever get the break he needs to find a brighter future?

Even though I found the movie very sad. I could not help rooting for John even though he gets into one mess after another. Girlfriend/wife played by Eleanor Boardman stands by her man, I thought her performance was amazing. One of my favorite scenes is John's office, showing hundreds of desks in rows. You really get the feeling of being just another face in 'the crowd'.

Another thing that caught my eye was the background scenery. It is fascinating to see how people lived in the 1920's. Men wore suits and hats, ladies wore dresses. It was a different time. A time where manners were still important..

FUN FACTS:

King Vidor filmed many scenes in New York City streets using real crowds instead of extras, real buses and trains, and even real traffic cops. In one scene, a police officer is looking toward the camera, telling someone to "move along". In fact, he was actually telling Vidor and his film crew to move along.

King Vidor shot nine different endings before settling on the one used in the film, because MGM did not like films without a happy ending.

Eleanor Boardman, was named by Goldwyn Pictures as their "New Face of 1922,". After several wonderful supporting roles, she played the lead in Souls for Sale (1923). She appeared in less than forty films during her career, best known for her performance in Vidor's The Crowd(1928).
Video interview of KING VIDOR making the movie THE CROWD (1929.)

PAULINE STARK

Pauline Starke, made her acting debut performing as a dance extra in D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance (1916). She continued to play bit parts until director Frank Borzage started casting her in leading roles, beginning in 1917. Pauline Starke performed in a number of films from 1916 to 1935. She had been introduced into the film industry by a friend. She played several lead roles in films, establishing her place as a silent-film actress during the 1920s. Pauline Starke has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for her contributions to Motion Pictures.

Lars Hanson "Captain Salvation" (1927)

"Captain Salvation" (1927) is a silent romantic drama starring Lars Hanson, Pauline Starke, Marceline Day, and Ernest Torrence. Directed by John S. Robertson and adapted from the novel by Frederick William Wallace, this film is the tale of a minister who is ostracized when he shows compassion to a prostitute. The story begins in the spring of 1840, in Maple Harbor, a small waterfront town of New England. A seafaring lover, Anson Campbell, played by Lars Hanson, returns from theology school. He is expected to wed Mary Phillips, played by Marceline Day, one of the girls from town, and become a minister in the local church. Campbell's plans are crushed when a prostitute, Bess Morgan, played by Pauline Starke, arrives in Maple Harbor via a shipwreck and none of the townspeople want to help her. In fact, most of them would rather have seen her drown or locked in the town jail. Campbell, appalled at his fellow church members, takes Bess into his home and nurses her back to health. At this point, the townspeople begin gossipping and insinuating that Campbell and Bess are living in sin. They even threaten to take the pulpit away from Campbell. The young minister, furious with his fellow church members and distraught that his fiancee doesn't believe him, books passage for Bess and himself on a ship, The Panther. However, Campbell soon discovers the ship's cargoes are prisoners who are mistreated by the wicked crew and the captain, played by Ernest Torrence, is a lecherous man. The young minister falls into despair until the captain threatens Bess. Will Campbell be able to rescue Bess before it is too late?

"Captain Salvation" is a major MGM studio obscurity largely because its leading stars, Lars Hanson and Pauline Starke, are forgotten today. Lars Hanson began his career as a stage actor in his native Sweden. He made his film debut in "Dolken" (1915), which was directed by Mauritz Stiller. Hanson gained international acclaim for his role as the title character in the Stiller film, "Gosta Berlings saga" (1924), which featured a young Stiller protege named Greta Garbo. Hanson arrived in Hollywood to star opposite Lillian Gish in the "Scarlet Letter" (1926). He starred in a total of six American silent films from 1926 to 1928. Seeing that his thick Swedish accent might be a liability in American films, Hanson returned to Europe during the advent of sound. Pauline Starke was initially an extra in D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) and "Intolerance" (1916). Starke had the look of a country girl, unspoiled, natural, and unfamiliar with makeup. She was featured in a number of films produced by the Fine Arts Company, which Griffith was the supervising producer. In 1925, MGM signed Starke to a contract, and her first starring role there was as a rugged, outdoor type in "Sun-Up" (1925). However, MGM quickly changed her image to that of a glamorous Hollywood-style star. Nowhere is this change more apparent than in the two-color Technicolor extravaganza, "The Viking" (1928), which was Starke's last MGM release. Starke starred in a couple of talkies for Universal and one for Columbia before she retired from the screen in 1935.
In "Captain Salvation," Lars Hanson is excellent as the tormented minister, but he does overact in crucial dramatic scenes. Pauline Starke gives the best performance of all the cast members as the scarlet woman who vows to reform. The film is visually beautiful with its breathtaking ocean views and the settings of a small New England harbor town. The shipwreck scene was superbly done. Perhaps what is most impressive about the film is its criticism of strict religious judgment, discrimination, and gossip without being so preachy. Instead, the film advocates kindness, mercy, and sympathy for others. "Captain Salvation" is a silent gem that is definitely worth discovering.


*It is interesting to note that the Pre-Code elements in the film such as rape, prostitution, and suicide would have been eliminated less than a decade later.

BALL OF FIRE (1941)

Ball of Fire (1941). Comedy. Cast: Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Supporting cast: Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea and Elisha Cook J. The story was turned into a musical film, A Song Is Born(1948). Cast: Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo. Director: Howard Hawks. Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck make a wonderful on screen couple in this comedy.

I finally had the opportunity to see the film BALL OF FIRE. I thought the story of Bertram Potts, a linguistics professor and his group of quirky colleagues writing a encyclopedia, was Hilarious.

Loved watching the faces of the people that Bertram was eavesdropping on, while writing what they had to say in his little notebook.

My favorite scene is when Sugarpuss is teaching the conga to the other professors.

I also loved when the story takes a wild turn and the professor and his colleagues take on Sugarpuss's mobster boyfriend and his henchmen and wonderful scene in the nightclub.

FUN FACTS:

The roles of the seven professors (besides Gary Cooper) were inspired by Disney's Seven Dwarfs. There is even a photograph showing the actors sitting in front of a Disney poster: S.Z. Sakall - Dopey; Leonid Kinskey - Sneezy; 'Richard Haydn' - Bashful; Henry Travers - Sleepy; Aubrey Mather - Happy; Tully Marshall - Grumpy, and Oskar Homolka - Doc.
BALL OF FIRE (FULL MOVIE)

Kathleen Howard (July 27, 1884 - April 15, 1956) was a Canadian-born opera singer (mezzo-soprano), magazine editor and US film character actress from the mid-1930's through the 1940's.

 She was also best known as the nagging, shrewish wife of W.C. Fields in a film, It's a Gift (1934). She performed in two other films of W.C. Fields: You're Telling Me! (1934) and Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935).