Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Eleven

Since it’s been almost a year since I last mentioned Barbara Stanwyck’s name, I figured that my Stanwyck ban can come to an end. As mentioned in one of my previous posts about Stanwyck, she starred in multiple Christmas movies. I’ve already talked about Christmas in Connecticuit (1945) and I’ve made brief mention of Meet John Doe (1941), but I have not spoke about her first, most obscure, Christmas film.
Remember the Night ( directed by Mitchell Liesen in 1940) finds Stanywyck playing Lee Leander, a shoplifter who gets picked up right before the Christmas holiday. During her preliminary hearing for the crime she meets prosecuting lawyer John Sargent, played by Fred MacMurray. While as a lawyer John is known to be a killer, he turns out to be a pretty nice guy and offers to give Lee a ride home to her family home in Indiana while on the way to his own family's Christmas. Of course, the pair meet up with misadventure on their way from New York to Indiana, and when Lee’s mother rejects her upon her return John offers to take her home to his mother’s for Christmas. All of the warm hospitality of the Sargent family soften Lee and she and John soon fall in love. However, the specter of Lee's post-holiday court date loom heavy.  Will John take a dive in the courtroom to help Lee get off? Will Lee let him jepordize his carreer to do it?

The reason that Remember the Night has remained fairly obscure is due to the fact that it does have such a bittersweet finale.  MacMurray's character is such a good guy and Stanwyck's has such a jaded past that it is inevitable that a union between the two of them would have more than its share of difficulties.  Yet, the scenes of the Sargent family Christmas are quite lovely, and the misadventures that the two expereince on the way home are pretty enduring.  It's funny that a few years later Stanwyck and MacMurray would be play cold-blooded killers in Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944).  Mind you, you can see where their chemistry began.  It's also interesting to note that the screenplay was written by Preston Sturges who would go on to direct Stanwyck in The Lady Eve a year later.

Here's the trailer...

My Latest New Favorite Book: Edith Head

I'm extremely excited to have finally gotten my hands on a copy of Edith Head: The Fifty Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer by Jay Jorgensen.

For those who are unfamiliar with the name, Edith Head was the costume designer for innumerable films from the nineteen-thirties through to the nineteen eighties.  She designed costumes for practically every major Hollywood star of the classic Hollywood era, including Barbara Stanwyck, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, and a host of others.  She was a favorite of Hitchcock who used her designs for the iconic costumes worn by Grace Kelly in Rear Window (1954) and Kim Novak in Vertigo (1958)... and this is just me scratching at a VERY wide surface

So far, I've spent most of my time with the book ogling the various studio costume shots of the various actresses dressed in her frocks so I cannot vouch for the quality of the text.  I can say that with photos like this who needs text?

Xmas in Film: Christmas in Connecticut

All right... this is the last time I talk about Barbara Stanwyck for a while.  Promise!  As I previous mentioned, Stanwyck made multiple films that occur around the Christmas holiday.  Today, I'll be speaking about the most obvious of these films 1945's Christmas in Connecticut, directed by Peter Godfrey.  There's Christmas in the title and a Christmas movie is what you get, which is actually not as common as you would think with many of these classic films.  Don't believe me?  Just look at TCM's annual Christmas offerings - many with a single scene devoted to something Christmasy to tie it in with the theme (speaking of TCM, I'm rather disappointed that they have elected to leave Christmas in Connecticut off their schedule this year).

Christmas in Connecticut features Stanwyck as Elizabeth Lane, a Martha Stewart type columnist for a popular House and Home magazine.  To her publisher and loyal audience she owns a farm in Connecticut, has a husband and baby, and is an expert cook and homemaker.  In reality though she is a bachelor girl who lives in a small New York apartment who doesn't even know how to boil water.  With the help of her dear friend Felix (played by the ever-endearing S.Z. 'Cuddles' Skall) and would be man (he wants to marry her, but she doesn't love him) John Sloan's own farm as inspiration she has managed to keep her ruse under wraps (up until this this point).  Everything changes when her publisher Alexander Yardley (played by another great character actor Sydney Greenstreet) demands that she invites a war hero to her Connecticut farm for a traditional Christmas.  Things get worse when Yardley decides that he would also like to come to Elizabeth's farm.  To keep the truth from coming out, Elizabeth agrees to marry John Sloan and with the help of Felix, create the illusion that she is the woman that inhabits the world of her column.  The scheme is perfect until she falls in love with the war hero (played by Dennis Morgan).  Hijinks ensue as Elizabeth and Felix jump through hoops to save her job and avoid marrying John Sloan.

This film is a novelty in Stanwyck's filmography, being one of the few roles where she doesn't have it all together.  In fact, she's kind of a passive character who allows much of the action to happen around her, especially when being pushed around by her publisher.  Part of the reason Stanwyck agreed to play the role of Elizabeth Lane was because the film she completed right before this movie was Double Indemnity, where she plays a cold-blooded seductress and murderer.  Due to the dark nature of the role, Stanwyck really needed a nice light role, which she found in Christmas in Connecticut.  You know what, she makes it work, and in the end we get to see a little bit of the strong independent Stanwyck that we know and love.

Ultimately, this film is completely charming.  It really deserves to be put on the same pedestal as It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol as a perennial Christmas classic.  Here's the trailer to whet
your appetite.

A Bombshell for the Ages: Barbara Stanwyck

Yes, I'm going to force you all to listen to me gush about Barbara Stanwyck again.  Take comfort though, if you're not on the Stanwyck bandwagon, after this weekend I don't have any plans to talk about her in the near future.  Just allow me two more indulgences.

For me no actress makes me think of Christmas more than Barbara Stanwyck (her male counterpart would probably be Jimmy Stewart) as she has made multiple holiday themed films, making her a natural for December's Bombshell for the Ages.  It is a funny thing to associate Ms. Stanwyck with a happy time like Christmas, given her penchant for playing duplicitous femme fatales, scrappy hardboiled dames who climb their way to the top, and tragic maternal figures; however, she could also deftly play wisecracking showgirls, screwy socialites, and charming con-women with equal vigour.  The bottom line is she did it all extraordinarily well, which is why she often referred to as being the greatest actress who never won an Oscar.  

Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Stevens in 1907 to working class parents.  When Ruby was four her mother was killed in a streetcar accident and her father abandoned her along with her four siblings.  Spending her young life bouncing between her sister's care and various foster homes, she fell in love with show business at an early age and spent her teenage years working various odd jobs while trying to find a way into the business (she left school at a very young age with a string of fights and low grades to her name).  At the age of fifteen she got a job as a chorus girl and spent the next few years as a member of several New York choruses, including the legendary Ziegfeld follies.  In 1926 she was give a small role in the Broadway play The Noose.  It was initially a flop; however, after the play was retooled to give the newly re-christened Barbara Stanwyck a larger part, the play became a major hit.  Stanwyck soon was getting lead roles in Broadway plays and in 1928, Hollywood came calling.

Though her first films were not particularly successful, Stanwyck became a sought after actress during the thirties, playing a variety of tough dames who triumphed against adversity.  In the forties, as films grew darker, so too did the roles that she inhabited.  By the late nineteen-fifties film roles began to dry up and Barbara moved to television, where her career continued to flourish into her twilight years.

Throughout her career she was able to imbue all the characters she played with a world-weary grit cultivated in her own troubled childhood.  In day-to-day life she was known as being incredibly kind and friendly to everyone who worked with her, from the most powerful directors to the lowly crew members.  No one else in Hollywood could touch Barbara's reputation of being total class act.  Her own familial life included two failed marriages.  Her first to actor Frank Fay in 1928 ended in 1935 (there are rumours that their marriage was the basis for the multiple versions of A Star is Born).  Stanwyck married actor Robert Taylor in 1939, with their union ending in 1950 after Taylor's many infidelities became common knowledge.

While she never won a competitive Oscar, Stanwyck was nominated for the best actress Oscar four times for the films Double Indemnity (1944), Ball of Fire (1941), Stella Dallas (1937), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948).  She was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1982.  In spite of her lack of competitive Oscars, she did win a trio of Emmys for her television work as well as several other honours throughout her long career.

Stanwyck passed away in 1990, leaving a massive resume of film and television roles.  Her unusual beauty and sassy brand of tough intelligence has never been duplicated.  I've included a clip of a TCM tribute to Stanwyck narrated by Jennifer Jason Leigh, which describes the awesomeness that is Barbara Stanwyck far more eloquently than I ever could.

Classic Romantic Comedies Vol. 6: Ball of Fire

Nineteen forty-one was a banner year for Ms. Barbara Stanwyck, and today we're exploring her second great comedy of the year.  This would be the film for which she earn her second of four Oscar nominations and her second staring opposite Gary Cooper that year.  Adding to it's pedigree is the that it features the directorial talents of the magnificent Howard Hawks and was co-written by a man who would go on to direct some of the greatest films (both comedies and dramas) of the classic era-the legendary Billy Wilder.  Unless you've completely ignored the title of this post that you've probably already guessed that it is indeed, Ball of Fire. 

Stanwyck stars as nightclub singer and gangster's moll Sugarpuss O'Shea, who finds herself on the run from the cops when they come looking to get her testimony against her man's (played by Dana Andrews) involvement in a murder.  She finds a safe haven in a house inhabited by eight professors who have cloistered themselves off from the world to write a great encyclopedia.  Like a more subversive version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, seven of the professors are cute older gentlemen and the eighth is a nerdy version of prince charming, Bertram "Pottsy" Potts, played by Gary Cooper.   Sugarpuss pushes her way into the eight scientist's lives by promising to teach Potts, the grammar professor, all about slang.  Chaos reigns as the eight professors fall under Sugarpuss' spell.  Before long Pottsy is proposing marriage, but Sugarpuss' gangster beau looms in the background with his own proposal ( a wife can't testify against her husband, after all).  Who will the fair maiden choose?

Ball of Fire has an abundance of charm that comes not only from the leads, but the supporting cast who bring the film many of its great comedic moments.  Nowhere is this more felt than from the seven gentlemen who play the professors, who scuttle about getting into the sort of trouble you would imagine their cartoon Disney counterparts would had they been faced with the mob.  Cooper plays the bland studious Potts appropriately naive and befuddled while Stanwyck turns on her trademark charm and intelligence bringing yet another memorable performance to the screen.

This is an adorable gem that puts a delightfully screwy spin on an old favourite.  Here's a clip...

Classic Romantic Comedies Vol. 5: The Lady Eve

Today's instalment in our series on classic romantic comedies comes to the film that easily wins out over all classic Hollywood films as my absolute favourite of all time.  It features my favorite first lady of Hollywood, Barbara Stanwyck, co-stars her The Mad Miss Manton leading man Henry Fonda, and is directed by a man whose name is right up with Lubitch's as one of the great comedy writer/directors of the golden age of Hollywood, Mr. Preston Sturges.  Preston Sturges directed several comedies in the late thirties and early forties that have been hailed classics by critics and audience members alike, including his Hollywood satire Sullivan's Travels, his political satire The Great McGinty, and his divorce satire Palm Beach Story.  However, the film that is most commonly brought up in a discussion of the great films of Preston Sturges is 1941's The Lady Eve. 

The Lady Eve features Stanwyck as con-artist Jean Harrington, who with her card sharp father and their faithful assistant Gerald roam trans-continental cruise ships relieving wealthy travels of some of their riches.  On this particular cruise their mark is wealthy ale hair, Charles "Hopsy" Pike, an ophiologist who has been up the amazon for a year studying snakes.  Hopsy is as naive as they come and easily falls under Jean's spell.  What Jean doesn't account for, is her own development of feelings for Hopsy.  When he proposes she decides to reform and saves him from being another one of her father's victims.  Unfortunately, he discovers her former occupation and cruelly dumps her, devastating Jean and leaving her wanting revenge.  In a bold act of anger and defiance she takes on a new identity as The Lady Eve Sidwitch and walks right back into Hopsy's life and dares him to call her bluff.  Hijinks ensue.

What makes Sturges' style different from Lubitch, is that he embraces pratfalls wholeheartedly.  In some of his other films this is often to the film's detriment; however, in The Lady Eve, Sturges manages to balance the physical comedy with romance.  The biggest asset this film has going for it is the performance of Barbara Stanwyck.  As usual, Stanwyck's character is the smartest person in the room, but in addition to this she manages to imbue this character, who for all intensive purposes is an out-and-out predator, with a remarkable amount of sympathy and heart.  As she starts falling for Hopsy, we see her tough-as-nails/world-weary demeanor melt away and the result is quite touching, making the character of Jean so compelling.  Stanwyck is able to convey her surprise and joy at finding love with Hopsey with an all so subtle change in the cadence of her voice and a look that infects the viewer with warmth; making it easy to get on Jean's revenge bandwagon when Hopsy breaks her heart.  A lesser actress would not be able to handle such heavy lifting.  I also have to give a shout out to Henry Fonda, as the terminally clumsy and naive Hopsy, for falling over (and into) a barrage of pratfalls that would make Charlie Chaplin proud.  The supporting cast including Charles Coburn as Jean's father Colonel Harrington and William Demarest is similarly wonderful.

I honestly cannot say enough positive things about this phenomenal film.  If you only watch one of the films from this series, this one would get my vote.  To further sway you, I give you the scene that has been described by many as being one of the sexiest of all time...

Hollywood Canteen - The Club and Film

Since, we're within a few days of Remembrance Day (or Veteran's Day if you're American), I though I'd shed some light on one of Hollywood's bigger contributions to the war effort during the second world war. The Hollywood Canteen was the brainchild of actors Bette Davis and John Garfield, as a club that would provide free food, dancing, and entertainment to the serviceman and women who were on military leave in Los Angeles.  Hollywood actors and actresses would volunteer at the canteen in their down time doing everything from washing dishes, serving food, dancing with servicemen to performing onstage.  No job was too small for these big stars as volunteering at the Hollywood Canteen was seen as an act of patriotism. Looking at the roster of stars who volunteered at the Canteen (you can find it here on the Canteen's Wikipedia Page) shows a veritable who's who of celebrities of the era and the few exceptions are those who were able to make the ultimate sacrifice of going overseas to help fight.   The Canteen was in operation from October 3, 1942 to (American) Thanksgiving 1945.

One of the more interesting artifacts from the history of the Hollywood Canteen is the film, Hollywood Canteen, which was released in 1944.  The story of the film is pretty sparse, a wide-eyed GI on sick leave goes to the canteen, ends up meeting a galaxy of stars, is named the canteen's one millionth customer, and romances starlet Joan Leslie.  Trust me, if you're looking for a deep film you won't find it here.  What does make it a worthwhile watch is the endless number of cameos by many of the great actors, actresses, and other popular performers of the day.  There are a several musical numbers performed by Andrews Sisters, Joe E. Brown, Jane Wyman, Dennis Morgan, and a host of others.  All and all it's a pretty entertaining movie.  Here's my favourite cameo, by my favourite actress...

Click Here to view the Hollywood Canteen Trailer at TCM.com.

Classic Romantic Comedies Vol. 3: The Mad Miss Manton

We travel, this time, two years later than our last entry into this series, all the way to 1938 for what will likely be the most obscure romantic comedy that I write about.  It features a duo who will definitely appear again, and a women who you will soon grow tired of me praising. 

Directed by Liegh Jason, The Mad Miss Manton, stars the great Brabara Stanwyck as wealthy (is there any other kind?) socialite Melsa Manton, who stumbles upon a corpse in an abandoned building one night while walking her dogs.  When she returns with the police the body is gone, and the cops and media brand it as another one of her (and her band of socialite friends') pranks of which the whole of Manhattan are intimately familiar with.  Reporter, Peter Ames, played by Henry Fonda, is particularly nasty in his apprasial of Miss Manton's trickster ways in a column that he writes for a local paper.  Concerned with solving the murder, saving her name, and sticking it to Peter Ames, Melsa and her band of friends go investigating.  What follows is a delightful 80 minute romp in which Melsa and her girls slowly uncover the identity of the body and the perpetrator, with Ames and the police nipping at their heels.

As you would expect, Ames quickly changes his tune about Melsa, deciding that there is something to her story and mounts his own investigation.  The two butt heads, and as you would expect end up together at the end, and it is their sparkling banter that really lifts this out of the realm of silly screwball comedy and into something more special.  The dialogue is sharp and delivered at a machine gun pace, and as is the case with the majority of comedies starring Barbara Stanwyck she is the smartest person in the room and easily lays Henry Fonda's character to waste.

It is interesting to note that Henry Fonda hated his role in this film, and resented being forced to star in it (a victim of Hollywood's studio system).  He is quoted as saying that he did his best to ignore everything that had to do with the film, including the director and his leading lady.  It is said that his relationship with Stanwyck on this film was very icy, which is surprising considering their considerable chemistry.  It comes as an even greater shock that they would work together on two more occasions, and that Fonda would later admit to a great fondness for Stanwyck that some say was more akin to love.  As mentioned previously, this will not be the last time we focus on this duo.

Here's the first few minutes of the film:

My New Favourite Prop

Last week I received my new favourite prop- a white ostrich feather fan.

I've been obsessed with acquiring one since falling in love with the film The Lady Eve a couple of years ago. If you've never had the pleasure of seeing this film, a screwball classic written and directed by the great Preston Sturges and starring the great Barbara Stanwyck, I highly recommend watching it.

In a pivotal scene, Stanwyck's character carries a similar ostrich feather fan. To save from writing a lengthy analysis of the film, click here to link to the introduction Peter Bogdanovich gave for the film on TCM's Essentials program several years ago (the entire film used to be available on You Tube, but has since been removed). In the first couple of clips with Stanwyck in the white dress feature the aforementioned fan.

What Bogdanovich fails to mention about the film, the most appealing quality in my mind in fact, is the empowered nature of Stanwyck's character. She is always the smartest person in the room and is a fascinating blend of calculated vixen and soft-hearted romantic- my favourite female character in all of cinema.

If you love The Lady Eve as much as I do, or would like to recreate the fan scene, I have the fan to do so.

Here's the trailer if you've never even heard of the film: