For this installment of “I Love Lucy in the Movies,” I’m covering Ladies in Retirement (1941) which I watched last night. This is a very good gothic film noir starring Ida Lupino. Also starring in this film was Elsa Lanchester as one of Lupino’s mentally ill sisters. Aside from this film, another thing Lupino and Lanchester have in common is that they both appeared in I Love Lucy. Lupino, to be accurate, actually played herself in an episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. I’m counting it because The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour is more or less a one-hour episode of I Love Lucy.
In 1956, after six years and 180 30-minute episodes, Desilu president and I Love Lucy star, Desi Arnaz, was eager to leave the hectic pace of producing a new episode every week. He had tried to end the series a year prior with “Return Home From Europe” being the final episode, but CBS threw money at him and Lucy to convince them to stay on another year. The ending dialogue in “Return Home From Europe” sounds like it was written to be a series finale. To convince CBS to allow him to pull the plug on I Love Lucy, Desi convinced them to allow him to air I Love Lucy as a 60-minute special sporadically throughout the year. CBS agreed and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour was born.
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, while more or less an hour long episode of I Love Lucy, it did have the minor difference in that each episode featured a celebrity who has an unfortunate encounter with Lucy. Logically, it makes sense, as Ricky Ricardo’s celebrity and ownership of Club Babalu makes it logical that he’d either hire these celebrities at his club, or he’d met them previously because of his time in Hollywood.
Ida Lupino and Elsa Lanchester appeared together in 1941’s Ladies in Retirement. In this film, Lupino plays Ellen, the spinster sister of her two mentally ill sisters, Emily and Louisa. Lanchester played Emily. In the film, Ellen receives a letter from the boarding house in London where her sisters are living. The letter informs her that Emily and Louisa are being evicted from the home due to their behavior. Not wanting her sisters to be institutionalized, Ellen brings them to the home on the English moors where she works and lives. Ellen’s employer, Miss Fiske, graciously allows the two sisters to stay in her home, but quickly grows tired of their behavior. Eventually Miss Fiske gives Ellen the ultimatum that the sisters need to leave. Ellen tries to defend her sisters, but insults Miss Fiske in the process, and is fired. Later, taking matters into her own hands, Ellen strangles Miss Fiske to death. She makes it look as if Miss Fiske decided to take an extended trip. Ellen tells her sister that she purchased the home for them. Eventually Miss Fiske’s absence and Ellen’s behavior arouses the suspicions of her nephew and the maid, Lucy.
Ida Lupino (center) and Elsa Lanchester (right) in “Ladies in Retirement”
The film never makes it clear what mental illness is that that the two sisters have, nor is there any indication that an event may have triggered or caused their mental illness. It is also unclear whether Emily and Louisa are actually mentally ill, or whether they are just eccentric. Elsa Lanchester excelled at playing these slightly off-kilter personalities.
Lanchester made her appearance on I Love Lucy first, playing “Mrs. Grundy” in a season 5 episode, “Off to Florida.” In the episode, Ricky is playing with his band at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, Florida. Ricky, Fred, and Little Ricky go ahead to get some fishing in before Ricky has to work. Lucy and Ethel plan to take the train and meet the men down there. However, Lucy has lost the train tickets. To save face, she decides that she and Ethel will answer a “Share a Ride” classified ad to split the travel costs with another traveler who is also headed from New York City to Miami. Mrs. Grundy answers the ad.
Vivian Vance, Lucille Ball, and Elsa Lanchester in “I Love Lucy.”
Lucy and Ethel find Mrs. Grundy’s behavior odd. She only lives to travel at night or early in the morning. She won’t stop for meals, preferring to subsist on watercress sandwiches instead. Later, Mrs. Grundy gets a flat tire and expects Lucy and Ethel to change it while she naps. While looking for tools, Lucy and Ethel find a hatchet in the trunk. Thanks to a convenient radio bulletin about gray-haired escaped hatchet murderess, Evelyn Holmby, Lucy and Ethel jump to the conclusion that this must be Mrs. Grundy. Her weird eccentricities all make sense for a woman on the lam. Later, Lucy and Ethel are asleep while Mrs. Grundy is at the wheel. She also hears a radio bulletin about Evelyn Holmby, except this bulletin has more information. Mrs. Holmby, despite being gray haired, is thought to have dyed her hair red, and is also thought to be traveling with a blond companion. Comedy ensues with Lucy and Ethel suspecting Mrs. Grundy and Mrs. Grundy suspecting them.
This is the funniest episode of the Florida trilogy, with much of the humor coming from Elsa Lanchester. Her sing-songy line delivery, and her delightful eccentricity makes the episode.
Flash forward 3 years to the 10th installment of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, “Lucy’s Summer Vacation.” There would be 13 total. Celebrity couple Ida Lupino and Howard Duff are the guest stars, playing themselves. In the episode, a mutual friend of Ricky’s and the celebrities, double books his cabin on the lake. Both couples go to the cabin expecting a romantic week with their partner. However, when they all meet, Ricky and Howard hit it off over their mutual love of fishing and see it has an opportunity to fish, since their wives can talk to each other. The men end up spending the entire week fishing, with the women getting stuck cleaning the fish. Towards the end of the week, the women are desperate for some romantic time with their husbands and decide to sabotage the fishing expedition. The joke is on them however, when the husbands decide to throw their wives a bone and plan a romantic evening on the lake. Too bad Lucy and Ida have already sabotaged the boat.
From left to right: Ida Lupino, Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, and Howard Duff (hunched over) in “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.”
This episode has some funny moments. Lucy and Ida trying to discreetly plug the holes in the boat (that they put there earlier) with gum and their bodies while also trying to be romantic is pretty funny. There are some good lines. However, on a whole this isn’t one of the better hour long episodes, though it’s not the worst one (I’d give that one to the Milton Berle episode). Often in these hour long episodes, the Mertzes are kept on the sidelines during the celebrity scenes. If there’s a female celebrity, she’s often given the role that we would expect for Ethel. In this episode, Ida is definitely in the Ethel Mertz part. In the Betty Grable episode, Lucy even calls her “an Ethel Mertz with money.” The Mertzes are barely in “Lucy’s Summer Vacation.” I believe they only appear at the beginning to pick up Little Ricky to explain why he’s not in the rest of the episode.
By this point in the series, Lucy and Desi’s marriage was so strained, that they were barely speaking. The tension and stress in their marriage comes through in the last episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, and it makes these episodes less enjoyable to watch. Each episode of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour is worth watching, but they are not the same as I Love Lucy. Lucy and Desi would divorce only a year after “Lucy’s Summer Vacation” aired. For what it’s worth, Ida Lupino and Howard Duff would divorce in 1984 after 33 years of marriage.
It’s been a while since I posted. I apologize for missing the last blogathons–I’ve been so busy this summer. Between being busy, going to the beach with my husband for our anniversary, birthdays, and everything else, it’s been hard. With autumn here, and (hopefully) the rainy Oregon weather coming back, I can be more diligent about posting. Over Halloween weekend, my husband and I will be traveling down to Southern Oregon to stay at the historic Wolf Creek Inn where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard stayed back in the late 1930s. I’m hoping I’ll be able to do an article about it after my trip.
Another thing that I did this summer was attend the Film Noir Foundation’s annual Noir City event at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR. This is the third year in a row that we’ve attended, and the third year that we’ve had VIP passes. TCM host and Film Noir Foundation president, Eddie Muller, was also in attendance all weekend to talk to the attendees and introduce the films. This year’s theme was “Face the Music,” which meant that every one of the seven films screened featured either a musician or a nightclub. This year, my husband and I attended Noir City with our BFFs and my parents.
Noir City started on Friday night. First my husband, friends and I attended the VIP party at the Bar Hollywood (next door to the theater), and then moved next door to the theater to watch our first film, Black Angel (1946) starring Dan Duryea and Peter Lorre. This was an interesting film, one that I’d seen once before. However, towards the end of the film, I had to go to the bathroom so badly and actually had to leave the theater during the film, because I couldn’t take it anymore. Turns out there is a drawback to free drinks at the VIP party–an insanely and uncomfortably full bladder. I typically do not leave the theater once the film starts. The next film that evening was The Man I Love(1946) with my queen, Ida Lupino, and Robert Alda. This is a film that I’d just seen for the first time a couple years ago. I really enjoy this film which features Ida as a torch singer with the odd name of “Petey.”
Saturday was the second and longest day of the festival. This was also the day when 2/3 films featured were new to me titles. The day opened with a “Conversation with Eddie Muller” event with the Hollywood Theatre Director of Education & Special Projects, Ted Hurliman, who was previously acquainted with Eddie Muller prior to the revival of Noir City Portland in 2024. They had tried to do Noir City previously back in 2008, and it bombed. In 2024 they tried Noir City Portland again and it’s sold out three years in a row–yay! After the conversation, there was a book signing. I have all of Eddie’s books, so instead of the book signing my parents, husband, and I went a few doors down to Sizzle Pie pizza for lunch. My friends opted out of the conversation event and went to OMSI to see the traveling Titanic exhibit. I highly recommend that exhibit to anyone who will be visiting Portland before October 18.
Saturday’s afternoon slate of films started with a new-to-me film, A Man Called Adam (1966) starring Sammy Davis Jr, Cecily Tyson, and Louis Armstrong. In this film, Sammy plays the titular Adam, a musician who is self destructing. As someone who was in band from 5th-12th grade, I want to make it clear that while the film refers to Adam as a trumpet player, he’s actually playing a cornet. After ‘Adam,’ it was time for the film of the day that I had seen before, To Have and Have Not (1944), starring Bogie and Bacall. When I saw this film on the schedule, I thought it was featured maybe for Bacall’s character who sings in the film. During his introduction, Eddie clarified that while this film may not be a noir per se, it had enough elements of noir that it works and that he wanted to show something featuring Hoagy Carmichael. Eddie stated that he considered Carmichael to be one of America’s greatest musicians and songwriters.
Saturday ended with the premiere of the Film Noir Foundation’s recent restoration of The Yellow Canary (1963) a film noir featuring Barbara Eden (!) and Pat Boone. Yes. That Pat Boone. Boone plays a singer whose child is kidnapped and he takes it upon himself to investigate and find his kid. This wasn’t the greatest film, but it was a lot of fun. It felt like a long episode of Get Smart without the gadgets. TCM recently re-aired The Yellow Canary on Noir Alley and I’m so mad my recording didn’t take. I’m hoping that this film will be released on Flicker Alley (who typically distributes The Film Noir Foundation’s new restorations) in the near future.
Sunday was the final day of Noir City and started with The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) starring Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, and Eleanor Parker. This movie features a very atypical Sinatra role and shows that he was a good actor. Kim Novak is also very good and Eleanor Parker is a little over the top but it works for this film. Finally, the day closed out with probably the biggest film of the festival, Sweet Smell of Success (1957) starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. I love journalism movies. This movie also has an amazing score and cinematography. I couldn’t help but notice though that Elmer Bernstein’s score for both ‘Man’ and ‘Sweet’ were VERY similar. That doesn’t matter though because both scores are excellent.
Noir City is such a fun event and reasonably priced, especially if you’re like me and don’t have to rent a car or hotel room to attend. I do have to drive ~45 minutes across town one way three days in a row, but that’s worth not spending hundreds of dollars to stay in a hotel. Eddie Muller is so much fun to talk to and he makes the effort to talk to everyone who approaches him in the lobby and at the VIP party (if you can get in). I highly recommend it.
This evening, The Hollywood Reporter broke the sad news that Ann Blyth passed away yesterday, Wednesday, June 24, at the age of 98. Some other sources had her age at 97. Regardless, Blyth was one of the last stars of the Classic Hollywood era, and earliest surviving nominee of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She was nominated in 1945 for her performance as my favorite character and villain, Veda Pierce, in Mildred Pierce. For the record, I think that Blyth was robbed and should have won.
Ann Blyth was 16/17 years old (based on whether she was born in 1927 or 1928) when she landed the role of Veda, the teenaged daughter of Joan Crawford’s character, the titular Mildred Pierce. Mildred is determined to give her daughters (Veda and Kay) the finest things in life, much to the chagrin of her husband Bert (Bruce Bennett). In fact, Mildred’s extreme devotion to making sure her daughters, especially Veda, get everything they desire is what drives her and Bert apart and leads to their divorce. Veda is overly focused on money and appearances, and only wants what she thinks she deserves. Mildred reinforces Veda’s shallowness by constantly getting her what she wants. When Kay tragically dies of pneumonia, Mildred’s resolve to win Veda’s love through material objects only intensifies. To put it succinctly, Veda is a spoiled brat.
Veda in her flight attendant uniform in Mildred Pierce.
However, Veda’s extreme fixation on money and appearances is exactly why I love her. This is a girl who knows what she wants and she’s unrelenting about getting it. She will not settle for less. She also drops random French phrases here and there, just to seem higher class than Mildred. Veda is a complicated character who thinks she deserves to be given everything in the world, but has no intention on earning it. While she acts like she’s above it all, she’s also very immature. Using random French phrases to assert herself as “better than” the working class Mildred, is something that a child would do to show off the new language they’ve learned. There is nothing Veda won’t do for money, no matter what terrible thing she has to do to get it. At one point in the film, she marries a wealthy young man and his mother doesn’t approve. She uses this as an opportunity to fleece $10,000 ($186k in 2026) from the family by feigning a pregnancy and using the services of family friend/lawyer Wally Fay (Jack Carson) to help with the extortion. I love a real villain who is a nasty piece of work until the bitter end.
VEDA to MILDRED ABOUT TAKING UP SMOKING TO USE A CIGARETTE CASE MONTE GAVE HER: And I couldn’t hurt him by not using it. I mean, that would have been dreadfully recherche, n’est-ce pas?
Veda was apparently too good to be associated with her mother who owned and operated her own successful restaurant business, but not too good to work as a singer in a dive bar.
Ann Blyth’s performance as Veda is truly spectacular as she’s able to imbue Veda with charm and moments of kindness and compassion, that it makes her true character even more jarring when it emerges. Her character also ages a few years during the film, and she very skillfully portrays her character maturing. At the start of the film, she’s a teenager, seeming somewhat innocent and childlike. By the end of the film, she is a legal adult and suddenly seems a lot more mature, albeit still dropping French phrases in her vernacular to seem more cultured and sophisticated. Blyth’s portrayal of Veda’s slowly emerging greed, selfishness, and shallowness is very well done. The audience only gets glimpses of her true nature when Veda makes an off-hand comment here and there or does something offscreen, such as having their housekeeper wear Mildred’s restaurant uniform while working. When Mildred reveals to Veda that she works as a waitress, Blyth’s warm expression quickly transforms into a look of anger and shame, with a narrowing of her eyes, and the tone of her voice changes from honey to poison as Veda reveals her feelings about her mother holding a working class job.
VEDA to MILDRED: You think just because you made a little money you can get a new hairdo and some expensive clothes and turn yourself into a lady. But you can’t, because you’ll never be anything but a common frump whose father lived over a grocery store and whose mother took in washing.
VEDA to MILDRED: With this money I can get away from you. From you and your chickens and your pies and your kitchens and everything that smells of grease. I can get away from this shack with its cheap furniture. And this town and its dollar days, and its women that wear uniforms and its men that wear overalls.
Blyth seems completely comfortable going toe-to-toe with powerhouse Joan Crawford and effectively delivers her tart, seeping with vitriol, scathing dialogue gems such as telling her mother how much she wants to get away from her and her kitchens that smell of grease. She even skillfully slaps Crawford, the queen of slapping people in movies. However, as quickly as Veda says something horrible to her mother, she’s back acting sweet as pie to Monte and everyone around her. As the film wears on, the audience becomes aware that Veda is manipulating everyone around her, so she can get what she wants. While Blyth does nothing overt to convey that Veda is insincere, she manages to seem sweet yet also subtly manipulative, making most people in the film turn a blind eye to her. Only Ida seems unconvinced by Veda’s pretense of being a kind person.
Ann Blyth goes toe to toe with Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce.
Even at the end of the film, Blyth expertly portrays Veda’s confession to her mother that she killed Monte after he rejected her. She quickly switches between sobs, manipulation, desperation, panic, and then throws in some fake promises for good measure. When Mildred refuses to help her, Veda delivers the ultimate gut punch and says to Mildred, “it’s your fault I am the way I am.” She says it with such bitterness, that I almost feel sorry for her and want to blame Mildred! When Veda arrives at the police station, Blyth expertly conveys doe-eyed naivete about why she was picked up by police, then stoicism and misguided anger towards her mother for her situation. She then delivers another blow, with the seemingly optimistic line, “don’t worry about me, I’ll get by.” But as the audience we know that Mildred will be worried sick and will probably soon be down at the prison trying to deliver a pie to Veda with a file in it.
VEDA: That’s what I like about you, Ida. You’re so delightfully provincial. IDA: And I like YOU too.
I could go on and on about how much I love Mildred Pierce and Ann Blyth in the film. Veda is my favorite character in the film. I just love her. For the record, Eve Arden’s Ida is my second favorite character. However, I’d like to give some attention to some of Ann Blyth’s other films and performances of hers that I enjoy.
I have a mousepad at work with this publicity still of Glenn Strange from “Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein” carrying Ann Blyth from “Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid.”
Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid(1948). This is a fantasy film starring Ann Blyth and William Powell. Blyth plays a mermaid whom Powell’s Mr. Arthur Peabody finds and names “Lenore.” Lenore does not speak a single word throughout the film, however she does sing. Ann Blyth had a beautiful singing voice which was used often in her films, even in non-musicals. Arthur is entranced by Lenore’s beauty and mischievous nature. The main plot of the film is that Arthur appears to be having a midlife crisis due to his impending 50th birthday. Much of the film is shown in flashback, as Arthur tells a doctor about his vacation in the Caribbean where he meets Lenore the mermaid. His wife, acquaintances, and the doctor all think he’s hallucinating Lenore and having a mental breakdown due to his midlife crisis.
Without saying a word, Blyth is utterly charming as Lenore. She also looks gorgeous and it’s easy to believe that someone would be enamored by her. Despite how the plot sounds, there is not a passionate romance between the 56 year old Powell and the 20 year old Blyth. Their romantic scenes are entirely innocent and work with the overall concept of the film. It is a very sweet movie.
Ann Blyth steps into Bette Davis’ shoes and portrays Regina in Another Part of the Forest, a prequel to The Little Foxes.
Another Part of the Forest (1948). In this film, Ann Blyth steps into the shoes of Bette Davis as she portrays Regina Hubbard in the prequel to The Little Foxes (1941), starring Davis. In a part similar to Veda, Blyth expertly plays the scheming Regina, who will use anyone for any purpose if it helps her get ahead. She doesn’t care about how her actions affect others, even her family! Her brother can’t even take her out with blackmail, as Regina is always one step ahead. Blyth, despite later being shoehorned into sugary sweet musicals was a very adept dramatic actress, especially when it came to playing nasty and frankly evil characters.
Ann Blyth and Claudette Colbert in Thunder on the Hill.
Thunder on the Hill (1951). This is a much more mature Ann Blyth than in Mildred Pierce. Interestingly, Blyth’s voice became much deeper and richer just in the few years between her mid-teens and early twenties. In this Douglas Sirk film noir, Blyth plays Valerie, a woman convicted of her brother’s murder. She is being transported via a mountainous road to her execution, however, it is delayed when she and the prison staff end up detained at a local convent hospital due to a torrential downpour flooding the road. Blyth’s Valerie is extremely bitter and angry about her entire life and she rejects everyone around her and demands to be left alone. Valerie insists that she’s innocent, but her pleas go unanswered because who wants to listen to a convicted murderess? It doesn’t help that dozens of people are also stranded at the convent and recognize Valerie. Murmurs go around the convent about the murderess on the premises and the audacity of the convent to allow it. Luckily for Valerie, Sister Mary (Claudette Colbert) has been following her case and is convinced of Valerie’s innocence and is determined to clear her name before the road opens up. This is a great movie and Blyth gives a fantastic performance as an angry woman wrongly accused of murder. It’s a very realistic performance. Who wouldn’t be upset to be on death row for a crime they didn’t commit?
Ann Blyth’s Gail is introduced as a family friend and given the brush off by birth mother, Ann Dvorak, who doesn’t want to admit to her husband that she gave a baby up for adoption 18 years prior.
Our Very Own (1950). This isn’t the most even film or the greatest film, however, Ann Blyth is great in it. This is another film where she seems much older and more mature than she was in Mildred Pierce, despite being filmed only 5 or so years later. In this film, Blyth plays Gail, a graduating high school senior, who on the evening of her 18th birthday, discovers that she was adopted. Her parents explain that they were going to tell her, but decided against it later. Gail insists on learning the identity of her birth mother (Ann Dvorak) and meets her. While the film is somewhat uneven and can’t decide what tone it wants to have, Blyth is very good. In fact the two Anns (Blyth and Dvorak) are the best part of this film and are worth watching. When Gail’s meeting with her birth mother does not go as hoped, Blyth is very adept at expressing her disappointment and anger without saying as much. Prior to the meeting, she skillfully displayed nervousness and apprehension–almost like she had a premonition that the visit wasn’t going to go well. Blyth’s character runs the gamut of emotions in this film, everything from happiness and giddiness in the scenes with her boyfriend (Farley Granger), anger and frustration in the scenes with her conniving sister, anger towards her parents for lying to her, hurt after her father inexplicably slaps her, and finally guilt for realizing that her best friend’s birth father is neglectful and selfish, whereas her adopted parents are loving and attentive.
If I can get a hold of them (::hint:: ::hint:: TCM play Ann Blyth’s films, Summer Under the Stars on her Aug 16 birthday), I can to catch up on all of her films I’ve missed.
RIP ANN BLYTH. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING–ESPECIALLY FOR BRINGING MY QUEEN, VEDA PIERCE, TO LIFE.
Rick at the Classic Film and TV Cafe started National Classic Movie Day on May 16th, back in 2014, and it’s still going strong. I actually have tickets today to see Double Indemnity up on the big screen, but I’m trying to decide whether to go. I know this sounds sacriligious, especially today, but it is about a 1.5 hr round trip from my house to NE Portland, OR. Frankly, sometimes I’m just not feeling the drive, you know? I have also seen Double Indemnity in the theater before, even at Grauman’s Chinese Theater! I could also see it tomorrow too. So we’ll see. I may opt to celebrate National Classic Movie Day at home with Chinese takeout instead. Also in my defense, I saw two classic films in the theater last weekend–Casablanca and The Bad and the Beautiful.
The Classic Movie Blog Association provided all the members with a series of prompts to celebrate this occasion. At the risk of creating an incredibly long blog post, I am going to try and answer each prompt.
Edmond O’Brien and Lucille Ball in A Girl, A Guy and A Gob.
Your Favorite Hidden Film Gems
A Girl, A Guy and A Gob (1941). This is a great comedy starring my fave, Lucille Ball, a young Edmond O’Brien (another one of my faves, and in his second film!), and George Murphy. In this film, O’Brien plays Stephen Herrick, the wealthy boss of a large shipping company. Lucy plays Dot, a secretary who ends up working for Stephen. Unfortunately for them, there was no “meet cute” as the two had met a day or two prior in a tumultuous encounter at the theater. Stephen is part of the upper crust and is engaged to a woman who is obviously with him for the status and perks that his class brings her. He ends up meeting Dot’s more down to earth, albeit eccentric family, and is enchanted by how fun and carefree they live their lives. He and Dot start falling for each other–except she’s going with “Coffee Cup” (Murphy), a sailor whom she’s been dating forever.
The Devil and Miss Jones(1941). This is another great comedy from 1941 with another of my faves, Jean Arthur. In this film, Arthur plays the titular “Miss Jones,” her character’s first name is Mary. “The Devil” in the title refers to Charles Coburn’s character, John P. Merrick, the owner of the department store in which Mary works. At the beginning of the film, Merrick receives word that the employees at his store are trying to unionize. He decides to go undercover as “Thomas Higgins” and get a job at the store so he can discover who is instigating the unionization efforts. Higgins gets a job on the shoe floor selling slippers. He meets Mary and her co-worker/friend, Elizabeth (Spring Byington) and is quickly charmed by both–especially Elizabeth. He then meets Mary’s boyfriend, Joe O’Brien (Robert Cummings), and learns that he is the person behind the unionization campaign. However, at this point Merrick has developed a friendship with these employees and starts to sympathize with their cause. This film is very funny and charming.
Conflict (1945). This is a great, unsung film noir, that even the film’s star, Humphrey Bogart, disliked immensely. However, I disagree with Bogart and think that this is a great film. In this film, Bogart plays Richard Mason, husband to Kathryn (Rose Hobart). In the opening scene, we can see that there is trouble with the Masons. Kathryn nags Richard relentlessly, and even tells him he’s wrong about disliking mutton when he very pointedly says he hates it. However, the tension in their marriage isn’t due to mutton, it’s due to the fact that Richard is openly smitten with Kathryn’s sister, Evelyn (Alexis Smith). Richard eventually comes up with a scheme to “off” Kathryn, and make it look like an accident. The plan seems to go off without a hitch. Family friend, Dr. Mark Hamilton (Sydney Greenstreet), however is suspicious as are the police. This is a great movie and the ending was done very well. While it might not be at the top of the Bogart canon of films, it’s a good movie. Bogart also played a wife murderer in a few films after this one–The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1947) with Barbara Stanwyck, which is also very good.
Out of the Blue (1947). This is an insane, but very funny movie. This film stars George Brent and Carole Landis as Arthur and Mae Earthleigh. The Earthleighs live in an apartment in New York City’s Greenwhich village. Their terrace is next door to bachelor David (Turhan Bey) who owns the very rowdy German Shepherd, Rabelais. David is also an artist and employs a lot of models to pose for him. His current muse is Deborah (Virginia Mayo), who also wants to breed her German Shepherd with his. Later, Mae goes out of town. Bored, Arthur goes to a bar where he meets Olive (Ann Dvorak), a woman who loves brandy, which she says helps soothe a heart condition. However, while the brandy may help Olive’s heart, it also causes her to pass out. In a questionable move for a married man, Arthur invites Olive to his home for brandy. Later, Arthur asks Olive to leave and she does. Until she reenters his home and passes out in his guest room, but not before redecorating the room! The next morning, he discovers Olive and accidentally knocks her down onto the floor. He thinks she’s dead; but she’s actually passed out. This starts a hilarious third act where Arthur, Deborah and David try to move Olive’s “body” around–all while the nosey old lady neighbors, including Elizabeth “Mrs. Trumbull” Patterson watch in shock.
That Funny Feeling (1965). This is a very funny movie starring power couple Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin. Nita Talbot, Larry Storch, and Donald O’Connor provide excellent and hilarious support. In this film, Dee plays Joan Howell, an aspiring actress who makes a living as a maid, cleaning clients’ homes. Darin plays Tom Milford, a publishing executive. On three separate occasions, he and Dee run into each other (literally) at the neighborhood newstand. What Tom doesn’t know is that Joan is the maid who cleans his apartment. Tom’s boss, Harvey (O’Connor), is in the middle of a divorce and is using Tom’s apartment to hide some of his expensive oil paintings, so that they’re not taken from him during the divorce settlement. Harvey wants to send Tom away on a business trip for two weeks. Tom leaves a note for his maid, letting her know that he’ll be gone and requests additional cleaning. She decides to invite herself and friend Audrey (Talbot) to spend the two weeks at her client’s apartment, to getaway from their horribly crummy and cramped place. Tom’s business trip ends up being canceled. He takes Joan out on a date. When it comes time to take her home, Joan directs Tom to his apartment, telling her it’s her home. He is amused and confused, but decides not to come clean just to see how far she’ll go in her deception. At one point, Tom is with Joan and his friends and has to pretend that Harvey’s place is his new place, as they would recognize his place that Joan is pretending is hers. This movie is very funny–especially the part when Dee and Talbot attempt to make Duck a l’orange to disasterous results.
Virginia Mayo, Ann Dvorak, and Turhan Bey in Out of the Blue
2. How did you become a classic film fan and/or who introduced you to classic films?
I’ve always watched classic films, as they were just films. My family never considered movies “old,” they were just movies. My love for classic film really increased though in 1994 when I was 10, when I discovered I Love Lucy one night on my beloved Nick at Nite. I loved the show and especially loved Lucille Ball. My family also went to the library once a month. I discovered that my library had a lot of Lucille Ball, I Love Lucy, and everything adjacent. I read all of it. From these biographies about Lucy, I learned about her movie career. My library also just happened to have a large number of Lucy’s films available on VHS in their audio/visual department. I borrowed every single one. From Lucy’s films and I Love Lucy, I discovered even more favorites–Katharine Hepburn, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, William Holden, Eve Arden… the list goes on. Then from seeing some of these stars’ movies, I discovered other favorite stars like Fred Astaire, Grace Kelly, Ann Blyth, etc. etc. Even 30+ years later, I’m still finding new favorites and I don’t anticipate that trend ending anytime soon.
Vivian Vance, William Frawley, Desi Arnaz, and Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy.
3. What is your favorite film memory?
Seeing Casablanca at the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, completely packed house (almost 1000 seats), and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Another favorite film memory is seeing Barbarella in a sold-out house at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, OR. The audience was completely entranced by the campfest that is Barbarella. One of the female attendees even dressed as Barbarella, which is admirable, because it was January in Oregon. Now THAT is dedication to cosplay.
Finally, another favorite memory is seeing Titanic on opening day in December 1997 when I was in the 8th grade. Me, my parents, my sister, my friends, my friend’s parents… at least 10 of us, filled most of an entire theater row at the now defunct Movieland in downtown Salem, OR (where I grew up). My mom worked a few blocks from the theater and went a week or two ahead of time to get the tickets. That was such a fun memory and I ended up seeing Titanic in the theater three times before it finally left the screens in late 1998.
4. What film(s) would you watch to introduce kids to classics?
I would probably choose a colorful, exciting film like The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) with my fave, Errol Flynn, or something colorful and funny like Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Kids, I’m sure would love Cosmo’s “Make ’em Laugh” dance where he does backflips off of the walls. I also think kids would like Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) because of Margaret O’Brien’s antics and for the bright colors and music.
Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood
5. Talk about your favorite film era/decade/genre
I love the 1940s, it’s my favorite decade of my favorite era (Classic Hollywood) and it is also the peak of my favorite genre–film noir. I love the 1940s for the wartime, homefront movies. I love the advent of film noir and the switch from the glamorous escapist films of the 1930s to the shadow-filled, moody, sometimes derelict locations of film noir. The 1940s were also when another of my favorite genres, musicals, started to become popular with the emergence of Gene Kelly, another of my favorite stars. Two of my favorite films, Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945) came out during this era.
Ann Blyth and Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce
6. Create a watch list
I’ll admit that I’m not the watch list type. My letterboxd watch list contains exactly zero films. However, right now, these are the films I’m trying to watch, mostly because I got them from the library and need to return them:
1. Nights of Cabiria (1957) 2. Days of Heaven (1978) 3. The Twelve Chairs (1970) 4. Manhattan (1979) 5. The Farmer’s Daughter (1947) 6. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) 7. Ishtar (1987) 8. Lonely Are the Brave (1962) 9. Swingers (1996) 10. Vanishing Point (1971) 11. Dangerous Liasions (1989) 12. Jerry Maguire (1996) 13. Money From Home (1953) 14. The Towering Inferno (1974)
7. Is there a film that has been passed down generations in your family?
Only films that my parents shared with me. I didn’t really grow up seeing extended family very often, mine lived halfway across the country from us.
8. Share any bucket list classic film you have
Besides allegedly lost films like Convention City (1932) and the full version of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), I need to watch the entirety of Gone with the Wind (1939). I’ve only seen the first half. I also sometime want to watch Cleopatra (1963) because of the legendary stories about the tumultuous filming. My “bucket list” films are going to be many of the very long films that are supposedly masterpieces.
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra
9. What are your favorite classic film resources?
TCM (of course), My own physical media shelves, Criterion Channel, and the library–especially the Inter-Library Loan program.
10. What classic films do you long to see on the big screen?
I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been able to see a lot of my favorite films on the big screen, including my all-time #1 favorite film, The Long Long Trailer (1954) which I’ve seen on the big screen twice. As for some of my other favorites that I haven’t been able to see on the big screen, I’d love to see The More the Merrier (1943), Funny Face (1957), Dark Passage (1947), and Gaslight (1944).
Charles Coburn and Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier
I’m not a big fan of war movies, however, what I do love are movies set against the backdrop of war, where a different story unfolds, something that isn’t just one battle scene after another. While there are films set during pretty much every war (some major, some minor), perhaps no other war inspired as many war films as World War II (1939-1945). While there were many films that focused on the individual WWII military campaigns, battles, prominent figures, etc. there were just as many films focused on the homefront in the United States after December 8, 1941, the day that the United States officially entered the war–the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It is these homefront films that I find more compelling and interesting than the films that just depict the military.
World War II was an era of great patriotism in the United States, citizens were encouraged to do their part to support the war effort. Hollywood stars used their celebrity to sell war bonds which helped to finance the United States’ military efforts. Star Carole Lombard was one of the war’s first American casualities when she died in January 1942 in a Nevada plane crash on her way home to Los Angeles from selling war bonds in her home state of Indiana. Other stars like Bette Davis and John Garfield formed the Hollywood Canteen to provide food, drinks and entertainment to the troops.
Ordinary citizens were issued ration stamps for both food and fuel to manage shortages of essential goods and supplies. Victory gardens were grown by countless families across the country as a way to reduce the strain on public food supplies. Women drew lines on the backs of their legs to simulate the seams of their stockings, because all nylon production was devoted to manufacturing parachutes and other war-related objects. Another way that citizens were asked to help the war effort was by offering up extra rooms in their homes to help alleviate the housing shortage. After the United States’ entry into World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the government halted all non-essential construction projects, citing that all building materials were needed for the military effort. The subsequent housing shortage is the subject covered in one of my favorite comedies, Director George Stevens’ The More the Merrier, from 1943.
Jean Arthur keeps Charles Coburn on schedule.
In The More the Merrier, Jean Arthur plays Constance “Connie” Milligan who lives in a 2-bedroom apartment in Washington DC. To do her part for the war effort, she sublets out half of her apartment for $12/week ($229 in 2026) and puts out an ad. Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn), who has arrived in DC two days early to discuss plans with a government bureaucrat to alleviate the housing shortage, answers Connie’s ad. Mr. Dingle lives by the mantra, “Damn the torpedos! Full speed ahead!” where he’s just going to go for “it” regardless of the potential consequences. It’s a great mantra, because frankly, sometimes you just have to take a risk (provided what you want to do isn’t illegal or harmful). Connie is reluctant to sublet half her apartment to a man, but relents after Mr. Dingle tells her a fictitious scenario where she rents her apartment to a dumpy looking roommate who is always dirty and insists on borrowing all her things. The next day, Mr. Dingle meets Sergeant Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) who needs somewhere to stay for a week while he waits to be shipped overseas. To help out Joe, Mr. Dingle sublets him half of his half for $6 ($114/week). Connie is not pleased.
MR. DINGLE: Well, any woman, no matter who, would insist upon borrowing that dress you got on right now. Because it’s so pretty. CONNIE: I made it myself. MR. DINGLE: And how would you like it if she spilled a cocktail all over it…at a party you couldn’t go with her to because she borrowed it to go to it in. CONNIE: She might have something I could wear. MR. DINGLE: Not her. CONNIE: Why not? MR. DINGLE: Because she’s so dumpy looking. Never has anything clean. That’s why she’s always borrowing your dresses.
Charles Coburn and Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier.
JOE: What do you do? MR. DINGLE: I’m a well-to-do retired millionaire. How about you? JOE: Same.
Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn in The More the Merrier.
MR. DINGLE: What’s your name? JOE: Carter. MR. DINGLE: Bill Carter? JOE: Joe Carter. MR. DINGLE: I used to know a party named Bill Carter. JOE: Wasn’t me. MR. DINGLE: Don’t you suppose I know that? JOE: What’d you ask for then? MR. DINGLE: Get you to know I know what Bill Carter looked like. JOE: Not like me. MR. DINGLE: Then you know Bill Carter? JOE: No I don’t. But he sounds like a great guy.
Charles Coburn and Joel McCrea in The More the Merrier.
MR. DINGLE: Oh. Maybe you think it is none of my business. JOE: Maybe I do. MR. DINGLE: Probably your name isn’t even Bill Carter. JOE: Probably not. It’s probably Joe Carter.
Charles Coburn and Joel McCrea in The More the Merrier.
Charles Coburn struggles to keep up with Jean Arthur’s extremely tight morning routine
The entire scene where Connie gives Mr. Dingle the lowdown on her schedule is hysterical and one of my favorite parts. First of all, Mr. Dingle is retired, why does he need to follow her schedule? Connie should just do her thing and leave him to do his. Second, Connie is an extremely efficient and organized woman. Here is the schedule that she gives to Mr. Dingle:
7:00am Connie’s alarm goes off, she and Mr. Dingle get up. 7:01am Connie goes into the bathroom. Mr. Dingle goes out to the hall to get the milk. 7:05am Mr. Dingle starts the coffee. 7:06am Connie leaves the bathroom. 7:07am Mr. Dingle enters the bathroom. 7:08am Connie starts to get dressed for the day. 7:11am Connie drinks her coffee. 7:12am Mr. Dingle leaves the bathroom. 7:13am Connie puts her eggs on the stove and finishes dressing while the eggs cook. Mr. Dingle puts on his shoes. 7:16am Connie takes her eggs off the stove. 7:17am Mr. Dingle starts shaving. 7:18am Connie eats her eggs. 7:21am Connie is in the bathroom fixing her hair. 7:24am Mr. Dingle is in the kitchen putting his eggs on the stove. 7:25am Mr. Dingle makes his bed. 7:26am Connie makes her bed. 7:27am Mr. Dingle eats his eggs, while Connie takes out the papers and cans. 7:29am Mr. Dingle washes the dishes. 7:30am Connie and Mr. Dingle are all finished, ready for the day. 7:32am Connie’s carpool comes to take her to work.
Jean Arthur meets Joel McCrea as matchmaker Charles Coburn looks on.
This woman does not leave herself much wiggle room in her schedule. 32 mins total from wake-up to carpool and in between she gets ready for work, has time to put on some sort of bed jacket while she eats her eggs, then puts on her actual work clothes, puts out her trash, and does the dishes! Mr. Dingle cannot keep up and has a hilarious scene where he accidentally brings the coffee into the shower with him.
Mr. Dingle quickly realizes that Connie and Joe are very compatible and should be together. The only person who stands in their way is Connie’s fiance of 22 months, Charles J. Pendergast (Richard Gaines), a 42-year old businessman who wears a terrible toupee and makes $8600/year ($164k in 2026), not too shabby. One of my favorite quotes in this movie comes in the scene where Joe and Mr. Dingle razz Connie about her relationship with Pendergast.
CONNIE: You look messy. Don’t you ever brush your hair? JOE: I s’pose Mr. Pendergast combs his hair every hour, on the hour. CONNIE: Mr. Pendergast has NO hair!
Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea in The More the Merrier.
Joel McCrea and Jean Arthur’s sexy scene on the stoop
Eventually, we know that the relationship between Connie and Mr. Pendergast is going to fizzle out. It has to! He is NO hunky Joel McCrea. We especially know that Connie and Joe will end up together after they share a very romantic scene on the front stoop of the apartment building. The scene between Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea on the stoop is one of the sexiest scenes in Classic Hollywood. Apparently, Arthur’s stage fright made her extremely nervous and anxious and she was having trouble with the scene. McCrea decided to ad-lib and distract her by nuzzling and touching her hands, shoulders and arms. Arthur’s nervousness is present, but it comes across as her character obviously becoming somewhat aroused by Joe’s actions, versus an actress nervous about shooting a scene.
CONNIE: What happened? Nothing. I’m not the kind of person anything happens to.
Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier.
There is also a scene with Morton (Stanley Clements) who may be the most annoying character ever committed to film. I hate this character. He’s too old to join the Scouts so who cares whether he’s the camp craft-type or not? I don’t want to talk about him any more because I hate him so much. However, his character does serve as the plot device that brings about the third act of the film–where Mr. Dingle is able to finish his scheme to bring Joe and Connie together.
Boo! The “L” must be for “loser.”
Charles Coburn won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, which I think his deserved, because he’s hilarious in this movie. Except when I see he beat Claude Rains for Casablanca, it’s hard to accept whether Coburn deserved the award instead of Rains. If only there’d been a tie. Coburn gets to do a lot of physical comedy in this film, one of my favorite bits being his reoccuring schtick with his suspendered-pants repeatedly getting caught on something and flying out the window.
Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea make for a great pairing. They appeared together in two other films aside from The More the Merrier, The Silver Horde (1930), and Adventure in Manhattan (1936). They have amazing chemistry together and McCrea was one of the few actors that could relax the notoriously anxious Arthur and calm her nerves. Arthur also has fun chemistry (thankfully not romantic) with Coburn, having memorably appeared with him earlier in 1941’s The Devil and Miss Jones. It also helps that Arthur and McCrea are very attractive people and make for an even more attractive couple.
Joel McCrea is fawned over by a bunch of women, including Ann Savage on his left.
There is a very funny scene where Connie and Joe dance together at a nightclub. They were just introduced by Mr. Pendergast after he is introduced to Joe courtesy of Mr. Dingle. Mr. Pendergast just happens to be the bureaucrat with whom Mr Dingle was planning to meet to discuss the housing shortage. After their dance, a group of Connie’s acquaintances (including an uncredited Ann Savage!) show up and fawn over Joe, and Connie is only too happy to show that he’s with her. I guarantee that they don’t fawn over Mr. Pendergast.
I would highly recommend this film as it features everything that I want in a film. It’s hilarious, it’s romantic, and it captures a unique moment in United States history. Why doesn’t this movie have a Blu Ray?! The More the Merrier also has great dialogue with Joel McCrea getting in a lot of funny sarcastic lines. The only blights on this film are McCrea’s comment about “being a Jap” to scare Morton away, and every single scene involving Morton. I loathe him.
Satsuke and sister Mei take shelter from the rain at a bus stop with Totoro keeping watch in My Neighbor Totoro (1988).
As a native of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon specifically, I have seen my share of rain. In fact, NW Oregon (where I’ve lived my entire life) is in the middle of yet another “atmospheric river” event. Basically, we’re getting rain and a lot of it–at least 3″ between yesterday through tomorrow. Personally, I like the rain. It’s relaxing and makes the outside smell nice. Plus, it makes for excellent movie watching weather. As long as the rain stays out of my basement, I am good.
During the last major rain event, just a couple weeks ago, I watched a bunch of excellent rainy film noir and Clue because I love it and it has rain. That rain marathon and this week’s downpour inspired me to write a post about rain in the movies as well as allows me to highlight some of my favorite movies. Right now, I haven’t returned to watching any rainy films, because I’ve been obsessed with playing Pokopia on Switch 2.
Movies have been using rain since almost the beginning to put forth a certain emotion, add suspense, express a metaphor, or even just to add some atmosphere. A rainstorm is often used as a reason for characters to be forced to stay confined in one space, such as in Key Largo (1948). Rain can be used as a setting for romance, such as the famous kiss in the rain between Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). To add atmosphere, rain will often be included such as in Clue (1985), where the characters are summoned to Mr. Boddy’s mansion during a dark, rainy night, and end up caught up in a murder mystery. In this blog entry, I want to focus on some of my favorite rain scenes in films.
Rain is often used to lend suspense to a scene, and where else would you want a lot of suspense and drama? A scene in which someone is driving. Driving in the rain can already be fairly treacherous. Add in a driver who is nervous, angry, distraught, or any other distracting emotion and it’s almost always a recipe for danger, or at least great melodrama.
BEST DRIVING IN RAIN SCENES
Lana Turner has a meltdown in “The Bad and the Beautiful.”
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952). Lana Turner’s Georgia is distraught after discovering that her boyfriend and producer, Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) has been cheating on her with a starlet. She expresses her indignation over his betrayal and he more or less tells her that he can do whatever he wants. He doesn’t owe her any loyalty, because he gave her stardom. Distraught, Georgia gets into her car and takes off on a high-speed race home, through a pouring rainstorm. Anyone who thinks Lana couldn’t act should watch her performance in this scene. She enters the car sobbing, but soon collapses into pure hysteria as the reality of Jonathan’s betrayal and callousness sets in. Juxtaposed against the frenzy of rain and flashes of lights, Georgia’s emotional collapse reaches its apex when she screams and slams on the brakes.
Dead Reckoning (1947). Humphrey Bogart’s character, Rip Murdock, is investigating the death of his friend, Johnny. During his investigation, he falls in love with Coral Chandler (Lizabeth Scott). Unfortunately, he learns that Coral isn’t all she seems and was involved in his friend’s death. Coral and Rip end up in a car together after she accidentally shoots her accomplice instead of him. While Rip drives through heavy rain, he and Coral argue over her intending to kill him. She then pulls out a gun and he hits the gas pedal to floor it. Anyone who has watched a lot of old movies knows that whenever it’s raining and someone is driving recklessly, something bad is going to happen. In this film, Rip ends up crashing head-on into a tree, mortally injuring Coral.
Psycho (1960). This is a classic and for good reason. In this film, Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane leaves Phoenix and heads to California with $40,000 in stolen money in hand. She wants to marry her boyfriend, Sam (John Gavin), but he refuses to do so due to lack of funds. When Marion’s employer asks her to deliver a $40,000 deposit to the bank, the temptation is too strong to resist. This money would solve all of her and Sam’s financial woes. While she originally plans to drive through the night, a rainstorm forces her to seek refuge at the Bates Motel, operated by the young and nervous Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Unfortunately for Marion, this is the end of the line.
Rain can also be used to add romance to the scene, because what is more romantic than a classic kiss in the rain type scene. Rain also seems to bring people together–often because they’re forced to seek shelter and each other for warmth.
FAVORITE ROMANTIC RAIN SCENES
Lucy and Desi kiss and make-up in “The Long Long Trailer.”
The Long, Long Trailer (1954). My favorite film of all time features a romantic, albeit cliched (now) romantic kiss in the rain. Tacy (Lucille Ball) and Nicky (Desi Arnaz) spend the entirety of the film more or less on the honeymoon road trip from hell, with one catastrophe after another. The tension and frustration reaches its end when Nicky discovers that Tacy has not only lied to him, but has also put their lives at risk. The couple needs to drive over a high elevation (8000 feet) peak in Colorado. Because of the steep incline and possibility that extra weight could pull the trailer down (and possibly off) the mountain, Nicky tells Tacy that she needs to get rid of all the extra weight she’s added to the trailer in the form of rocks and preserves. Tacy’s idea was that they could collect large rocks from different places they visit and use them to decorate their patio when they reach their new home in Colorado. As a cost-saving measure (to justify the purchase of the trailer), Tacy stars canning fruits and vegetables.
Instead of removing the material from the trailer, she instead distributes it evenly around the trailer, thinking it would solve the weight issue. It does not. Everything comes out. Nicky discovers it. The couple fight and separate. In the pouring down rain, Nicky finally tracks down Tacy (and the trailer) at a trailer park where she’s in the middle of planning to sell the trailer. He opens the trailer door, finds Tacy, but can’t bring himself to apologize. Nicky drives away and suddenly Tacy realizes that she doesn’t want him to leave. She runs out into the rain, in front of Nicky’s car. He stops and gets out. Nicky and Tacy embrace, having made up and reconciled. They run up the steps into their home (the trailer) and kiss.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). While a lot can be said about this film, ::cough:: Mickey Rooney ::cough:: there are some fun parts as well. The ending of ‘Tiffany’s’ is much like the end of The Long, Long Trailer, with Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly and George Peppard’s Paul (or “Fred Baby” as I like to call him) reconciling and kissing in the rain drenched streets of New York City. However, this scene has extra poignancy beyond the classic kiss in the rain. In a previous scene, Holly very cruelly abandons “Cat” her pet, out in the rain, saying that nobody belongs to anyone–even animals. Her whole mantra throughout the film is that she’s a free spirit, she doesn’t belong to (or with anyone). Paul is the only person her circle to actually care about her and want to help her. Everyone else in her orbit is someone she makes money off of (via trips to the powder room), or someone who takes advantage of her naivete (e.g., Sally Tomato providing her with the “weather report” to pass on to one of his associates).
However, Holly is no better in that she only associates herself with people she believes can do something for her. She’s a phony, her agent says. Paul bitterly tells Holly off by stating that in her efforts to prevent herself from being put into a “cage” she’s put herself into one, because she’s unwilling to share herself or part of her life with anyone. He then gets out of the car, throws the ring (that they’d had engraved at Tiffany’s during their fun day in New York City together) at her. The ring is a symbol of a time where Holly was probably being closer to her true self and not putting on airs. Holly grabs the ring, places it over the ever important (and symbolic) left ring finger and realizes that she (and Cat) belong with Paul. Their kiss in the rain (plus keeping Cat warm) symbolizes their new life together. Holly found where she belongs.
Top Hat (1935) Another one of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers films that features Astaire as a character who initially annoys Rogers’ character until a dance brings them together. In this film, Astaire’s Jerry Travers, a tap dance star, arrives in London to appear in a show for producer Horace Hardwick (Edward Everett Horton). Late at night, he decides to practice his number (on hard floors!) and wakes up and annoys Dale Tremont (Rogers). She comes up to his room to complain and he is smitten. She is less so. Then there’s a case of mistaken identity, with Dale thinking that Jerry is Horace, the husband of her friend Madge (Helen Broderick).
Jerry pursues Dale throughout the film and she continues to be repulsed by him because she thinks her friend’s husband is coming onto her. A rainstorm at the park forces Jerry and Dale to seek refuge under a gazebo, where they dance to “It’s a Lovely Day (to be Caught in the Rain).” As with many of their films, Rogers’ annoyed attitude towards Astaire lessens, as they start to fall in love through song and dance.
Finally, rain can also be utilized to add a certain atmosphere to a film, or to evoke a specific feeling.
FAVORITE ATMOSPHERIC RAIN SCENES
Gene Kelly in what is probably the most famous rain scene of all time in Singin’ in the Rain.
Singin’ in the Rain (1952). This film contains the most iconic rain scene of all and I would be remiss to not mention it. Gene Kelly’s classic dance in the rain to the title song, is perhaps the greatest dance number ever captured and the most joyous. I dare anyone to watch this scene and not feel better at the end. What is happier than a dance in the rain, splashing in puddles, without a single care in the world? The “Singin’ in the Rain” number happens after Kelly’s character, silent screen star Don Lockwood, returns from a disastrous screening of his first “talkie,” The Dueling Cavalier. It co-stars his on-screen partner, the incredibly untalented Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who is oblivious to the movie’s awfulness and delivers one of my favorite lines, “I liked it!” Don figures that his career is over until friend Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) and new love, Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) convince him to re-tool the film to be the musical, The Dancing Cavalier, with Kathy providing behind the scenes support to cover up Lina’s inadequacies. Overcome with joy and his new lease on life, Don happily sings, dances and splashes his way down the Hollywood streets, until he’s stopped by a befuddled cop. What a buzzkill.
Clue (1985). This film opens with the six main characters arriving at the mansion of Mr. Boddy, in their color-coded vehicles. The house is tall and ominous, as is the torrential downpour. Inside the mansion, both Mr. Boddy and the chef are killed, leaving the six guests, plus butler Wadsworth (Tim Curry) and maid Yvette (Colleen Camp), to wonder who was responsible. The rain forces other unsuspecting visitors to enter the mansion, like a motorist breaking down in the rain and wanting to use the phone, and a cop investigating the motorist’s abandoned car. It rains the entire time throughout the film, lending a sort of spookiness to the classic mystery of “Who Killed Mr. Boddy?”
Thunder on the Hill (1951). This film takes place almost entirely at a convent. Sister Mary Bonaventure (Claudette Colbert) is in charge of the hospital ward of the convent. A horrific rainstorm closes nearby roads, keeping everyone inside and others out. A woman, Valerie Carns (Ann Blyth), is brought to the convent to wait out the storm due to the closed roads. She is supposed to be delivered to the prison to await her execution for the murder of her brother. However, the washed out road delays the inevitable and she is forced to stay at the convent. As one can imagine, Valerie is not particularly amiable or even polite. Sister Mary does her best to be gracious and empathetic to Valerie, eventually softening her up a little. Through talking to Valerie, Sister Mary realizes that she may be innocent and decides to investigate Valerie’s brother’s death before the rain lets up and the roads re-open.
In this film, the rain adds a harshness and uneasiness to the events in the film. As soon as the rain lets up and the road is passable, Ann Blyth’s character is headed to Death Row for a crime that she may not have committed. Other refugees are unhappy with her presence. The head doctor’s wife, Isabel, is a patient at the hospital and is unhappy with Sister Mary. Lending to the tension is that this same doctor also testified against Valerie in the case against her brother–more or less sealing her conviction. The Mother Superior (Gladys Cooper) is upset that Sister Mary refuses to follow her orders that she not intervene between Valerie and the police. Sister Mary is also holding onto her own baggage–the recent suicide of her sister. The relentless rain, the only thing keeping these people cooped up at the convent, increases the tension and drama.
HONORABLE RAIN SCENE MENTIONS:
Dorothy Malone watches, longingly, as Bogart departs her bookstore in “The Big Sleep.”
The Big Sleep (1946). It rains constantly in this film and only lends to the overall darkness and spookiness of the proceedings. The plot is also a mess, the weather might as well be too.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988). In this film, sisters Satsuke and Mei discover Totoro, a forest spirit, living near their new home. The sisters are living near a local hospital where their mother is convalescing. Totoro and his fellow spirits watch over the girls and intervene when Mei goes missing.
Casablanca (1942). Humphrey Bogart’s Rick stands in the rain, eagerly awaiting Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa’s arrival, only to be handed a “Dear John” letter. As Rick’s heart breaks, the rain washes Ilsa’s words off the page. His life is over as he knows it.
Red Dust (1932). Getting caught in a monsoon forces Mary Astor’s stuffy Barbara into the home of the rugged Dennis Carson (Clark Gable). Also staying with Dennis? Vantine (Jean Harlow), a prostitute who is none too happy or impressed with Barbara’s presence. Vantine has her eye on Dennis too and does not want to share. However, upon spotting a rain soaked Barbara, Dennis is overwhelmed and seduces her. The rain in this film lends an intensity, further making an already stifling film feel even more stuffy than it did before. This isn’t a cold rain. This is a hot, humid, rain.
The Old Dark House (1932). A common trope in horror or mystery films, this is another movie that uses rain to force people inside. Horror often has people seeking shelter from strangers, and they’re always unusual strangers. In this movie, Phillip and Margaret Waverton (Raymond Massey and Gloria Stuart) are driving in a heavy storm with their friend, Penderel (Melvyn Douglas). They end up seeking refuge from the Femm siblings, Horace and Rebecca. The Femms are very weird. They warn their visitors about their butler Morgan (Boris Karloff), who is mute, alcoholic, and extremely dangerous. Eventually, two more people arrive at the Femms seeking shelter, Sir William Porterhouse (Charles Laughton) and Gladys DuCane (Lillian Bond). As the group stays at the home longer, they start to discover more and more unusual people and continue to be terrorized by Morgan. This is not only suspenseful, it is also very funny. “Please pass the po-tay-toes,” is my favorite line in the film.
This month, Bugs Bunny is TCM’s Star of the Month. No, TCM hasn’t lost their minds. Looney Tunes is joining TCM’s library and this was their way of welcoming Bugs and the gang into the fold. I personally am excited. I love Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny. In fact, I hadn’t watched Looney Tunes for a long time, despite my owning 7 volumes of Looney Tunes shorts and a collection of Bugs Bunny cartoons. TCM’s salute to Bugs, combined with this fairy tales blogathon, allowed me to binge a lot of Looney Tunes shorts and documentaries.
Looney Tunes released over a thousand animated shorts over a span of forty years (1929-1969). These shorts were released under both the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies banners. Both series’ names were take-offs of Disney’s popular Silly Symphonies series. Looney Tunes began in 1930 and Merrie Melodies started in 1931. Originally, the idea was that Looney Tunes would be black and white and feature reoccurring characters. Merrie Melodies would be color and would feature one-off characters. These films would also include Warner Brothers’ music, so they could also serve as advertising for their films. Eventually Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies more or less were the same. Remember, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons used to air in the theater prior to the main feature film. I wish they’d show cartoons before the movies. It’d be way better than seeing actual commercials in the theater.
Many of the shorts released were either film parodies or spoofs of popular stories, like fairy tales and fables. Over the course of forty years, many directors and animators were at the helm. This led to different versions of the same source material, but involved a different Looney Tunes character as the star or a different spin on the material. The gang at Termite Terrace (the nickname given to the Warner Brothers’ animators less than stellar accommodations) would never deign to do a straight telling of a familiar tale. I’m not even going to attempt to talk about all of them, but I will touch on a few of my favorites.
“The Three Little Bops” (1957). This short is my absolute favorite Looney Tunes take on a fairy tale. It is perfection. As one can infer from the title, this is a take on “The Three Little Pigs.” Everyone is familiar with the story of The Three Little Pigs. The Big Bad Wolf is after the Three Little Pigs. The first little pig builds a house out of straw. The wolf easily destroys the house and eats the pig. The second pig had built a house out of sticks. He too, has his house destroyed and is eaten by the wolf. The third little pig builds a house out of brick. The wolf is unable to destroy the house using the same means he used on the straw and stick house. Frustrated and unwilling to accept defeat, the wolf goes down the chimney. However, the little pig anticipated the wolf’s next move and places a hot boiling kettle of water inside the fireplace. The wolf enters the home and the hot water and is boiled alive. The pig eats him.
Thankfully, “The Three Little Bops” does not stay completely true to the original fable. None of the Three Little Pigs are eaten. Instead, they are part of a hot jazz trio. The wolf is desperate to get into their club and be part of their band, however, he’s a square and too stiff. His trumpet playing just isn’t hot. The Three Little Pigs kick him out of the House of Straw for being lame. Insulted, the wolf uses his trumpet to blow the club down.
The Three Little Pigs move onto the Dew Drop Inn, the House of Sticks. Again, they play in their hot trio and again the wolf tries to get in on the action. He’s again thrown out for being lame. The wolf is insulted again, and again, uses his trumpet to blow the club down. The Three Little Pigs move to the House of Bricks.
The wolf keeps trying to get into the House of Bricks, but to no avail. He tries a battering ram, He tries to masquerade as a band member wearing a fur coat and playing the Charleston on a ukulele, he tries to dress as a plant. Nothing works. Angry and desperate, the wolf decides he’ll use the ever popular TNT to blow up the club. However, he ends up blowing himself up and is killed. The wolf’s spirit does not ascend to Heaven. Instead, he is in Hell. But the bright side is, now he’s hot and a great jazz trumpet player. His spirit rises up through the floor and the wolf is finally part of The Three Little Bops. I’m glad that the Three Little Bops don’t eat him.
I love this short. The jazz music is fantastic. The art work is excellent. The story is a lot of fun. Stan Freberg also does excellent voice work as the hip narrator.
“Little Red Riding Rabbit” (1944). This short is the familar tale of that fairy tale, “Little Red Riding Hood.” In the original story, Little Red Riding Hood is a young girl, donning a hooded red cape, is walking with a basket of goodies for her grandmother who is sick. Riding Hood must walk through woods to get to her grandmother’s home. She is spotted by a wolf who decides that he is interested in both the basket of goodies (cake or wine) and Riding Hood herself. He approaches Riding Hood and suggests that she pick some flowers to bring to her grandmother. While she is off looking for flowers, the wolf goes to the grandmother’s home. He pretends to be Riding Hood to gain entry to the house. He eats the grandmother and then disguises himself as the grandmother and climbs into her bed. Riding Hood arrives. She questions her “grandmother’s” appearance, which eventually culminates with the wolf eating her too.
In “Little Red Riding Rabbit,” we meet “Riding Hood” a loud, shrill bobbysoxer teen who is singing popular song, “Five O’Clock Whistle.” In her basket, instead of the cake or wine from the original tale, Riding Hood has a rabbit to bring to her grandmother. Of course, the rabbit is none other than Bugs Bunny, so we expect some hijinks. Riding Hood’s trip is delayed when she’s tricked into taking an unusually long shortcut by the wolf. In the Looney Tales tale, Riding Hood’s grandmother isn’t sick, she’s working the swing shift at Lockheed. It’s World War II after all. There’s a funny bit where the wolf dresses up in grandmother’s nightgown to hide in her bed and there are already four other wolves there. He kicks them all out, and then finds a little tiny wolf hidden under the pillow! LOL. Eventually Riding Hood arrives. HEY GRANDMA! I BROUGHT A LITTLE BUNNY RABBIT FOR YOU TO HAVE! She yells. The wolf’s interest is piqued. Forget about Riding Hood, he wants Bugs.
In a hilarious change of events, the wolf is no longer interested in following the Red Riding Hood script. He couldn’t care less about Riding Hood. He only wants that Rabbit. Bugs tries to out run and out trick the wolf. Riding Hood, however, keeps interrupting the wolf and Bugs, with her “oh grandma what big eyes you have” type script–a desperate (or perhaps oblivious) attempt to get the story back on track. At first, her interruptions help Bugs, but eventually even he is irritated and joins forces with the wolf! I also love in Looney Tunes how the wolf from Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, and any other stories with a “big bad wolf” is always the same wolf and he seems to have recollection of his actions in those other stories.
HONORABLE MENTION: “Red Hot Riding Hood” (1943). This cartoon isn’t technically Looney Tunes. It’s actually MGM. However, I am listing it here, because it was directed by Tex Avery who directed Looney Tunes cartoons prior to working at MGM. This cartoon is pretty funny. This is a more risqué interpretation of the “Little Red Riding Hood” tale that I described above. The cartoon starts with the standard Little Red Riding Hood story. Riding Hood is carrying a basket of goodies to her sick grandmother. There’s a wolf. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Suddenly, Riding Hood, the grandmother, and the wolf stop performing and start complaining that the story is boring and it’s already been done. The narrator agrees and the cartoon starts over with a new title, “Red Hot Riding Hood.” The locale has changed from a forest to a city hot spot. Riding Hood, now called “Red,” is now an adult and appears to be working at a burlesque house, or at the very least, is a sexy nightclub performer. The wolf is a swinger who moves from club to club looking to hook up with the ladies. Grandma is the hip proprietor of a club. She is also hot to trot and wants to get with the wolf almost immediately. The wolf hits on Red and she’s not interested. She manages to get away from him and heads to Grandma’s. This cartoon has an insane ending where the wolf kills himself after swearing off women and spotting Red again.
Tortoise and the Hare Trilogy: “Tortoise Beats Hare” (1941), “Tortoise Wins by a Hare” (1943), and “Rabbit Transit” (1947). This trilogy is the classic tortoise and the hare fable. In Aesop’s original fable, a hare constantly harasses the slow-moving tortoise. Fed up, the tortoise challenges the hare to a race. When the race starts, the over-confident hare takes off, leaving the tortoise in the dust. He’s so confident in fact, he takes a nap. The hare awakes just in time to see the tortoise crossing the finish line.
In the Looney Tunes’ shorts, the hare-esque Bugs Bunny plays the cocky and arrogant opponent to Cecil the turtle. The first installment of the short plays just as Aesop’s Fable, except that Bugs and Cecil also make a monetary bet and we see Cecil arrange a prank with his turtle buddies to play a trick on Bugs. As Bugs rounds each checkpoint of the course, he is shocked to see Cecil there. Eventually, he gets to the finish line, only to see that Cecil has won. While Bugs does pay up, he is skeptical and wonders if Cecil cheated. We then see Cecil and his turtle friends all holding dollar bills. This ending does somewhat go against the lesson learned in the fable, but it’s funny.
In the second installment, Bugs Bunny is still trying to figure out how Cecil beat him. Bugs deduces that it was Cecil’s shell which gave him the advantage over rabbits. He challenges Cecil to a rematch. Bugs even goes as far as to build his own shell to use in the race. Somehow, the rabbit mob gets wind of the rematch and bets a large sum of money on Bugs winning and Cecil losing. The race starts and Bugs Bunny gets a sizeable lead. He then puts on his Cecil costume to continue the race. Except the mob spot him, think he’s a turtle and start beating him up. Meanwhile, Cecil puts on a Bugs Bunny costume and ends up helped to the finish line by the rabbit mob. Bugs Bunny is disgusted, removes his Cecil costume to reveal that the mob just helped Cecil win.
In the final installment, Bugs and Cecil’s story is retconned and the previous two altercations between Bugs and Cecil never happened. Bugs is reading Aesop’s “The Tortoise and the Hare” and is incensed at the ending, insisting that a hare would never lose to a tortoise. Cecil scoffs, saying that the ending is believable. Bugs challenges Cecil to a race. They also mutually agree not to cheat. We then discover that Cecil has a motor installed in his shell. Eventually Bugs wins the race, but is tricked by Cecil into admitting that he was easily going over 100 mph. Cecil has Bugs arrested. Because of course.
“Bewitched Bunny” (1954). This is the Looney Tunes send up of the classic German Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel are siblings who live alone in a forest. They attract the attention of a witch, who lives in a house made of bread, sugar, and cake. The witch has built the home to attract the attention of the children, because she wants to eat them. Taking advantage of the children’s loneliness, cold, and hunger, the witch lures them with food and the promise of a warm home and cozy beds. She then spends the next few weeks fattening them up until they are good enough to eat. Eventually Gretel wises up and shoves the witch into the oven when she was about to do the same to her.
Bugs Bunny seems to be at the forefront of all of these fairy tale spoofs. This cartoon also features Witch Hazel. Witch Hazel is a very proud witch who prides herself on her ugliness and needs constant reassurance from her magic mirror that nobody else is uglier than her. However, one day, her confidence is shattered when her mirror announces that an even uglier witch has arrived. This ugly witch is actually Bugs Bunny in a Halloween costume. While trick or treating, Bugs spots Witch Hazel coaxing young Hansel and Gretel into her home. Hansel and Gretel speak with German accents in case there was any doubt about their story’s heritage. There is a funny, albeit somewhat morbid scene where Witch Hazel is reading a cookbook about cooking children that includes recipes like “Moppet Muffins,” “Waif Waffles,” and my personal favorite, “Smorgas Boy.”
To save the children, Bugs Bunny poses as a truant officer and comes to Witch Hazel’s door. There’s a running gag with Bugs and other characters being confused about Hansel’s name. I’m not sure what that was about. Unfortunately for Bugs Bunny, Witch Hazel becomes more interesting in eating him when she realizes that he’s not in fact a truant officer, but rather a rabbit. At one point, Bugs Bunny is asleep and he is awoken by Prince Charming’s kiss. Bugs tells him that he’s in the wrong story and Snow White (another Brothers Grimm tale) isn’t there. He then tells the Prince that he’s in Hansel and Gretel. The Prince is also confused about Hansel’s name. Witch Hazel busts in, she’s found Bugs Bunny. Bugs grabs some sort of potion from behind the “In case of emergency, break glass” and throws it at Witch Hazel. The potion transforms her into a gorgeous woman–her worst nightmare! Bugs then has a wild ending line about Witch Hazel’s transformation “Aren’t they (women) all witches inside?” Yikes, Bugs Bunny!
“Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears” (1944). This is a re-telling of the classic British fairy tale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In the original story, a young woman with golden locks of hair more or less burglarizes the home of the three bears: Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear. She tries each bear’s porridge, one is too hot, one is too cold, and one is just right and she eats it. She then sits in their chairs, one is too hard, one is too soft, one is just right and she breaks it. Finally, Goldilocks is exhausted and decides to sleep. Again, one bed is too hard, one bed is too soft, and one bed is just right. The three bears come home to find Goldilocks asleep in baby bear’s bed. She awakens and runs out of the home. Never to be seen again.
In the Bugs Bunny version, the Three Bears having already gone through the aforementioned Goldilocks situation, want to entice her to come back to their home because they’re starving. They decide to use carrot soup as bait. The Three Bears then pretend to leave, thinking that Goldilocks will return if she thinks the house is empty. Instead, the aroma of the carrot soup attracts the attention of Bugs Bunny and he ends up the Goldilocks of the story.
The Three Bears are unable to capture Bugs Bunny as planned. As a means to escape, Bugs compliments Mama Bear. However, this woman is obviously starved for affection from her husband, because she takes to Bugs very quickly and showers him with kisses and affection. Mama won’t keep her hands off of him. There’s a very funny scene where Bugs opens each and every door trying to escape. Behind each door is Mama in a seductive costume, one of which appears to be a Veronica Lake-type look. Mama continues her lust for Bugs all the way through the ending credits.
The Three Bears were used in multiple shorts by the Looney Tunes. In another short, the family is completely dysfunctional and out of control. They’re like a bizarro version of The Berenstain Bears, if there was no Sister Bear.
It’s been such a long time since I’ve posted last. I apologize to everyone whose Blogathon I missed. I’ve been so busy, pretty much the entire summer that it’s been difficult to find the time, and frankly, the ambition, to write a blog entry. I have a ton of posts I need to write, including the much belated entry about my visit to this year’s TCM Film Festival in April. In July, I attended Noir City: Portland, which was a great event. While I may not have been writing about classic film, I have still been watching it. When I saw the Ingrid Bergman blogathon, I knew I wanted to get back to my blog–I love Ingrid Bergman and the film that I’m going to write about, Gaslight (1944).
Gaslight (1944) is based on Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play, Gas Light. In 1940, the play was adapted into the UK film, Gaslight. 1944’s Gaslight, starring Ingrid, Charles Boyer, and Joseph Cotten, was MGM’s remake of the 1940 film. I have not seen the UK version nor have I seen/read the play, so I am not going to compare and contrast the different versions. I am exclusively speaking to the 1944 version. Warning: it is impossible for me to discuss this film without spoiling the ending.
Recently, the term “gas light” has emerged as a popular buzzword to throw around when someone discusses a problem with their relationship. It was even named Merriam-Webster’s “Word of the Year” in 2022. Unfortunately, most of the time when the word “gaslighting” is being thrown around, it is being misused. Gaslighting is not about lying. It is not about disagreeing with your partner. Gaslighting is specifically a form of psychological manipulation and emotional abuse where someone essentially starts questioning their sanity, memory, experience, and their overall grip on reality.
Ingrid Bergman notices that the gas lights are dimming.
The title “Gas Light” was chosen because of the gas lights used in Victorian homes. When a gas light would be turned in in one room, it would be dimmed in another room. In all iterations of Gaslight, the antagonist husband knows that turning on the gas light in the attic will dim the other lights in the home, informing his wife that someone is in another room. Also, she will hear footsteps and other commotion coming from the attic. The husband knows he’s got to make her doubt what she’s seeing and hearing–hence the term “gas light.”
Gaslight (1944) opens in 1875 London with a young woman, Paula Alquist (Ingrid Bergman), being escorted away from the home of her famous aunt, Alice, an opera singer. Alice has just been murdered. Flash forward a few years and a now adult Paula is living in Italy, taking singing lessons with the hope of following in her Aunt’s footsteps. However, let’s face it, Paula is not going to become an opera singer. Accompanying Paula’s singing lessons is pianist, Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer). We quickly learn that Paula and Gregory are romantically involved. They marry and soon re-locate to London. Knowing that Paula still owns her aunt Alice’s home at 9 Thornton Square, Gregory insists that he and Paula set up shop there. All of Alice’s possessions also still reside in the attic.
Charles Boyer hires Angela Lansbury to work as Ingrid Bergman’s maid.
Gregory soon hires a young woman, Nancy (17-year old Angela Lansbury in her film debut), who can only be described as “a tart” to be his and Paula’s maid. Upon being hired, Gregory plants it in Nancy’s mind that his wife Paula is losing her mind and to ignore whatever she says. Nancy, also having the hots for Gregory, happily goes along with his instructions. She is very cruel to Paula and seems to take pride in how rotten she can be. Nancy seems to take pride in terrorizing Paula.
In this film, Gregory comes up with various methods to slowly torment Paula, and drive her mad. As an example, he hands her items, such as a brooch to wear, then secretly steals it back. When she’s unable to find it, he chides her on her “forgetfulness.” Later, he removes a painting off the wall and hides it, then accuses Ingrid of taking the painting and hiding it. The poor woman is an absolute wreck by the end of the film. The goal of Gregory’s entire plan is to be able to search through Paula’s aunt’s possessions in search of some expensive jewels she owned. It is revealed in the film that Gregory was actually Sergis Bauer, the man who murdered Paula’s aunt some years earlier. He was looking for the jewels then and was interrupted. His entire marriage to Paula was just a ruse to get back into the home and continue looking for the jewels. He wants to drive Paula mad so he can search for the jewels right under her nose. Talk about playing the long game!
Joseph Cotten investigates Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.
Gregory’s plan seems to be working very well, except for the presence of two busy bodies–Brian Cameron (Joseph Cotten) and Miss Thwaites (Dame Mae Whitty). Paula apparently bears a striking resemblance to her famous aunt. When she and Gregory visit the Tower of London, Brian just happens to be on the same tour. Brian was a childhood admirer of Paula’s aunt. He is drawn to Paula upon spotting her. Further observation reveals her to be nervous and anxious. Brian feels something is “off.” Brian also works at Scotland Yard. Out of concern for Paula and respect for her aunt, he decides to re-open Paula’s aunt’s cold case and goes to work investigating. Miss Thwaites is an older woman, and a neighbor of Paula and Gregory’s. She just happened to meet Paula on a train earlier in the film. She is more or less harmless, but she reveals herself to be a big fan of murder mysteries. She also becomes suspicious of Paula and Gregory when she witnesses Paula emerging from the home and quickly running back inside.
Ingrid Bergman’s tour-de-force performance in the final act where Gregory is caught is the scene which I imagine clinched her Oscar for Best Actress. She is absolutely fantastic in this scene and fully deserved all accolades she received. I love when she starts discovering that he was the one responsible for her mental breakdown while he still tries to maintain the charade. It is only out of his desperation to escape from Scotland Yard when he admits his guilt. Then, Paula brilliantly turns the tables on Gregory and makes him think he’s insane when she can’t find the knife he insists is in the drawer.
PAULA: [The knife] isn’t here. You must have dreamed you put it here. Are you suggesting that this is a knife? Have you gone mad, my husband? I could have set you free, couldn’t I? I could have cut those ropes and set you free. But I can’t find it. What shall we do?…Perhaps I’ve lost the knife as I’ve lost those other things. I must look for it, mustn’t I? If I don’t find it, you’re going to have me locked up, aren’t you?…If I had the knife, I could have had pity. But I could also kill. I could kill as you killed. You killed her as you tried to kill my mind. Without pity. Without pity you killed her as I can kill…Kill! Kill!
I way over-committed to blogging during April and May. I am so late with this post. It might not even be posted on Classic Film and TV Corner Presents’ page; but I wanted to finish it. Turning your homework in late is better than not at all, right? I was on vacation during the time of the blogathon, attending the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, in fact. I had every intention of writing this post ahead of time and scheduling it to post. Then, I just ran out of time. When I got back, I was tired. I had work. I had game night. Then I was sick for two days. Then I was sent on a last minute (literally, told Friday, left Sunday) work trip to California where I am now.
Anyway, I wanted to write about Ingrid Bergman and her multiple collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, the “Master of Suspense.” Their first collaboration was in 1945’s Spellbound, which starred Bergman with Gregory Peck. Spellbound was made during Hollywood’s obsession with psychoanalysis, psychiatry, psychology, and all of the other sciences involving the psyche. Some other memorable films dealing with this subject are The Dark Past (1948), High Wall (1947), Now Voyager (1942), The Three Faces of Eve (1957), The Snake Pit (1948), just to name a few.
Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman in “Spellbound.”
Bergman portrays Dr. Constance Petersen, a psychoanalyst working at the Green Manors mental hospital in Vermont. She regularly has to reject the advances of her co-worker which leads to her being deemed an ice queen. Her older colleague, Dr. Murchison, ends up retiring after suffering from nervous exhaustion. He is replaced by the much younger Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck). Obviously because he’s the male lead and he’s much hotter than every other guy in this movie, Anthony and Constance quickly become romantically involved. While kissing Anthony, Constance discovers that he has an odd phobia: parallel lines.
After Anthony’s phobia is revealed, Constance is on a quest to learn the truth about Anthony’s phobia. There are numerous twists and turns, complete with an amnesia storyline, a fantastic Salvador Dali-conceived surrealistic dream sequence, some excellent skiing scenes and an interesting look at dreams and psychoanalysis. Fitting with the dream motif, the haunting score featuring a theramin, provides a eerie, surreal feeling.
After Spellbound comes Bergman and Hitchcock’s best collaboration, Notorious (1946) co-starring Cary Grant and Claude Rains. This is an excellent film. A film noir, Notorious, stars Bergman, somewhat against type, as American party girl Alicia Huberman. She is the daughter of a convicted Nazi spy. Grant plays T.R. Devlin an American government agent who recruits Alicia to infiltrate the Nazi ring. She refuses at first; but ultimately relents when Devlin plays recordings of her insisting that she loves her country.
Because it’s Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, two actors known for appearing in some of the most romantic Hollywood films of all time, their characters of course fall in love. Hitchcock very adeptly defied the Production Code which prohibited scenes of prolonged kissing. “Prolonged” according to the very puritanical Production Code board meant that on-screen kisses could not last for more than three seconds. Bergman and Grant’s kiss lasted for over two and a half minutes! To get around this, Hitchcock had the actors deliver dialogue, nuzzle, take breaths, etc., every three seconds. Bergman and Grant reportedly felt awkward, but Hitchcock insisted that it was perfect. He was right. This scene is much sexier than if they’d just made out for two minutes.
Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman circumvent the Production Code in “Notorious.”
Eventually Alicia receives the assignment to seduce Alex Sebastian (Claude Rains), an associate of her father’s. Alex is more than happy to romance the much younger Alicia. Throughout the film, Devlin remains somewhat in the middle, as it’s sometimes not clear whether he’s genuinely in love with Alicia or whether it’s part of his work. Grant is very good at playing both sides. Rains makes an excellent villain. Bergman is of course excellent as the party girl caught in the middle of a love triangle with Devlin and Sebastian, as well as torn between her patriotism and love for her father.
In 1949, Ingrid Bergman completed her final collaboration with Hitchcock, Under Capricorn, co-starring Joseph Cotten and Michael Wilding. This film, unfortunately, is Bergman and Hitchcock’s least successful collaboration. I would even go a step further and say that it wasn’t even a very good film! Nothing seemed to happen until the last few minutes. This film is a period film, which seems like an odd choice for Hitchcock. Bergman doesn’t feel out of place in a period film, as she was very good in her Oscar-winning role in Gaslight in 1944. Unfortunately for Under Capricorn, it is no Gaslight.
Under Capricorn takes place in 1831 Sydney and stars Michael Wilding as Charles Adare, the second cousin of the new Governor, Sir Richard. In the mid-19th century, Sydney is overrun with ex-convicts from the British isles–so it is a rough place to be. Charles is in town because he wishes to make his fortune. He ends up meeting an ex-con, Samuel Flusky (Joseph Cotten), who is now a successful businessman.
Ingrid Bergman is probably the best part of “Under Capricorn,” an otherwise lackluster film.
Charles ends up meeting Samuel’s wife, Lady Henrietta (Bergman). Lady Henrietta is, to put it mildly, a mess. She is a drunk, social outcast, who is on the verge of just going completely insane. Bergman plays her like a slightly trashier version of her character, Paula, from Gaslight, except if she’d also turned to the bottle during her nervous breakdown. Poor Lady Henrietta, like Paula, has a maid who only contributes to her mental illness. Charles ends up befriending Lady Henrietta and helps restore her mental health. Eventually he uncovers a secret about Henrietta and Samuel.
Perhaps Under Capricorn would be more successful if Hitchcock’s reputation as the “Master of Suspense” hadn’t been so cemented in the minds of the audience. It doesn’t appear that Hitchcock intended for this film to be a thriller; however, the poster stating “Alfred Hitchcock’s Under Capricorn” carries the implication that this will be another Hitchcock film in the same vein as Rebecca and Shadow of a Doubt. Nothing happens in this film. Even the secret is kind of ho-hum. I won’t write this film off entirely; but if I wanted to watch Bergman in a Hitchcock film, I’d definitely choose Spellbound or Notorious over Under Capricorn.
In 1979, Ingrid Bergman hosted Alfred Hitchcock’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony. The ceremony also featured tributes given by other “Hitchcock Stars” including Henry Fonda (The Wrong Man), Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh (Psycho), James Stewart (Rope, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much), John Forsythe (Topaz, The Trouble with Harry), Teresa Wright (Shadow of a Doubt), Norman Lloyd (Saboteur), Jane Wyman (Stage Fright), Rod Taylor (The Birds), Vera Miles (The Wrong Man, Psycho), Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie) and Sean Connery (Marnie), Judith Anderson (Rebecca), and Cary Grant (Notorious, North by Northwest, To Catch a Thief, and Suspicion).
After the whirlwind of actors, Bergman was back with her closing remarks, which she directed towards Hitchcock:
Thank you. We must leave you now, but thanks to film, Hitch’s work never will. Now there’s just one little thing I want to add before we finish this evening. You remember that agonizing shot when you built some kind of elevator–it was a basket or something–with you and the cameraman, and you were shooting this vast party in “Notorious.” And you came zooming down, with your elevator, and your pull focus man…all the way down, into my hand, where you saw the key in a close-up…so that was an extreme long shot to close-up, just the key we saw now. Well, you know what? Cary stole that key after the scene! Yes, and he kept it for about 10 years and one day he put it in my hand and he said, “I’ve kept this long enough, now it’s for you for good luck.” I have kept it for 20 years and, in this very same hand, there is the key! I’m coming over… it has given me a lot of good luck, and quite a few good movies too, and now I’m going to give it to you with a prayer that it will open some very good doors for you too. God bless you, dear Hitch, I’m coming to give you the key.
Happy Valentine’s Day from the snowy and icy Pacific Northwest! I’m currently snowed/iced into my house due to a storm that started yesterday morning. Thankfully, the storm has passed and now it’s just a matter of all this nonsense melting. Anyway, what better way to spend a snow day than talking about one of my favorite musical performers, Carmen Miranda?
Carmen Miranda in one of her signature fruit-covered turbans.
Despite being known as “The Brazilian Bombshell,” Carmen Miranda was actually born in Portugal in 1909. Her family emigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when Carmen was not even a year old. Carmen was named after Georges Bizet’s opera, Carmen, which Mr. Miranda loved. Despite her father’s affinity for music, Carmen was not encouraged to pursue show business. In fact, her father actually beat her when he discovered that she’d auditioned for a radio program.
However, Carmen was not deterred. In 1929, she released her first single and her second single the year after. After her first record sold 35,000 copies, Carmen was signed to a contract with RCA in 1930. Until moving to the United States in 1939, Carmen made her living in Brazil, appearing in films and on the radio. In 1939, she made her debut in New York in the Broadway play, “The Streets of Paris.” While her part was small, Carmen Miranda was a sensation on Broadway. This led to her Hollywood film debut in Down Argentine Way in 1940.
Lucy Ricardo impersonates Carmen Miranda
In Down Argentine Way, Carmen Miranda makes her screen debut playing herself alongside two of Fox’s biggest stars: Betty Grable and Don Ameche. She performs quite a few songs throughout the film, including “Bambú, Bambú,” “South American Way,” and “Mamãe Eu Quero.” “Mamãe Eu Quero” was memorably lip synced by Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) in the third episode of I Love Lucy, “Be a Pal,” in 1951. In the episode, Lucy is convinced that Ricky is homesick and tries to bring Cuba home to him. Despite Carmen Miranda not being Cuban, the scene is hysterical when Lucy, dressed as Carmen, tries to keep up with a record that has gone haywire. Carmen Miranda not only gave her blessing to Lucy to imitate her; but she was also in the audience during the filming and loved Lucy’s performance.
Carmen continued to appear in Hollywood films, including That Night in Rio (1941) where she doesn’t play herself, but plays a character, albeit a character named Carmen. In this film, she is re-teamed up with Don Ameche, and plays his girlfriend. She has a larger role in this film. She has scenes to play, in addition to performing. It could be argued that Carmen Miranda’s performance is a stereotype of the fiery Latina character, popularized by Lupe Velez a decade prior. This would be a fair criticism; however, her musical performances are so much fun to watch that this flaw can be overlooked.
The original Chiquita Banana mascot styled after Carmen Miranda
Around 1944, Carmen Miranda’s icon status was cemented with the creation of the Chiquita Banana mascot. Chiquita Banana was created by comic strip artist, Dik Browne. She started as an animated banana who dressed in a gown and fruit hat. This image was inspired by Carmen Miranda’s most famous song, “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat,” in the film, The Gang’s All Here (1943).
“The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat” number was staged by famed choreographer, Busby Berkeley (who choreographed my favorite musical, Gold Diggers of 1933) and is completely bananas. Carmen is festooned in a turban made of bananas and strawberries with a strawberry necklace around her neck. Her solid black gown is rather toned down with strawberry appliques scattered sporadically throughout her gown. Dancing around Miranda are chorus girls carrying enormous bananas. In true Busby Berkeley fashion, he uses the girls and bananas to create a visual spectacle–culminating with Miranda standing against a backdrop of bananas, giving the illusion that she’s wearing an enormous turban, with miles of bananas stacked on top.
Carmen Miranda in “The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat,” in “The Gang’s All Here.”
Part of Carmen Miranda’s success in Hollywood during the 1940s can be attributed to the “Good Neighbor Policy,” a program implemented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to improve the relationship between the United States and Latin and South American countries. This policy encouraged Hollywood to set films in Latin and South America and to hire Latin or South American actors and performers. The idea was that it would promote and showcase Latin and South American culture and dispel the negative stereotypes that many Americans had of their neighbors to the south. Carmen was encouraged by the government to perform on the stage, on radio and in film, as a means to promote the Good Neighbor Policy.
Carmen Miranda’s attempts to promote the United States’ Good Neighbor Policy did not come without criticism however. Back in Brazil, her critics (mainly the Brazilian press), criticized her for encouraging American commercialism and projecting negative stereotypes. Some critics did not like her style of music and dance and others did not care for perpetuating the Latina bimbo stereotype. Despite Carmen’s success in American films, she was quickly losing fans in the Latin and South American countries. It’s ironic that in her attempt to promote the United States’ Good Neighbor Policy which sought to eliminate negative stereotypes, she fell out of favor with Latin and South America for becoming “too American” and projecting negative stereotypes. One of the main criticisms was that Carmen Miranda was promoting this region of the world as all the same, when obviously every country has their own culture and traditions.
Carmen Miranda without her signature look.
In typical Old Hollywood fashion (and maybe current Hollywood fashion too), their attempts at diversity fell short. Like so many non-white actors, or even white actors with “exotic” features, Carmen Miranda was cast as different nationalities, including Cuban. She, along with Fox, were criticized for their inaccurate portrayal of the Latin and South American countries. Down Argentine Way was denounced for failing to accurately portray Argentine culture. Weekend in Havana (1941), was condemned for its portrayal of Cuba. Carmen in particular was attacked for her failure to accurately perform Cuban dances when playing a character supposedly from Cuba. (Where’s Desi Arnaz when you need him?)
After World War II ended in 1945, Carmen Miranda started to lose popularity. The colorful, almost garish Fox musicals she was showcased in were now filmed in black and white. By 1946, she was no longer under contract to Fox and her film prospects were dwindling. Carmen tried to change her image to a comedienne, appearing in such films like Copacabana (1947) with Groucho Marx, but was unsuccessful. Her film image was now passé and she was cast more for a novelty, such as a Latina with broken English in films like A Date for Judy (1948) and Nancy Goes to Rio (1950).
By the mid-1950s, Carmen Miranda was mainly appearing in nightclubs and on television shows. On August 4, 1955, after an appearance on The Jimmy Durante Show, Carmen collapsed during filming. Despite offers from Durante to replace her, Carmen finished filming. Early the next morning at around 3am, while returning from the bathroom to her bedroom, Carmen suffered a heart attack, collapsed on the floor and died.
Today, Carmen Miranda is more remembered for her wacky fruit covered turbans and the inspiration for Chiquita Banana. However, despite the criticism she received from her native Brazil during her career, today she is considered an important figure from the Brazilian music scene. Her image, while often parodied, did introduce the United States and the world to Brazilian music and dance, as well as traditional clothing. In 1998, the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Orange Drive (across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre) in Hollywood, CA was named “Carmen Miranda Square.” This is the spot where Carmen gave an impromptu performance on V-J Day, celebrating the official end of World War II. In 2011, Carmen Miranda was featured on a stamp celebrating Latin music legends, released by the United States Postal Service. More recently, Carmen was remembered during the athlete’s parade at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and in 2017, she was honored with an official Google Doodle.
