21 Days Together (1940)

21 Days Together is a film I am sure not many of you have never heard of unless you are a fan of either Vivien Leigh or Laurence Oliver or the two of them as a couple. I am a fan of Vivien Leigh and apparently I went looking this a while ago on Youtube because when I searched for it again today it came up that I had already looked for it. Thanks to Hulu this weekend I was able to view 21 Days Together as part of the sites promotion to watch their collection of Criterion films for free.

            Keith Durrant has just been named to be a new judge in a town court. That day his brother Larry (Olivier) turns up. Larry is the family that is never mentioned. He is not a bad man he just causes unwanted trouble for the family. Keith is not too pleased to see his brother since he has gotten the position he has wanted for so long.

            Larry has been seeing Wanda (Leigh). While walking to her house they see the lights are on. Wanda says she did not leave the lights on when she left someone could be in her house because she lost the key the week before. When they walk in they see a man. The man is Wanda’s husband who she has not seen in three years. The man tries to blackmail Larry to disappear. The two men get into a fight. It ends after Larry has accidentally strangled the husband. Larry takes the body to an alley way and leaves it there to be found.

            A police officer finds the body the next night. Larry goes to his brother and confesses. He tells Keith he wants to go to the police to confess his crime. Keith cannot have this happen since he has just gotten his new position. He tells his brother to leave the country to go down to Rio. Larry asks what Wanda do he does not want to leave her alone. Keith says she can follow later for now they have to burn anything they have given each other. Being either a nice older brother or trying to tie up loose ends for his own sake Keith goes to visit Wanda to talk about the night of the murder. Wanda explains that she got married after a week because she was starving. Not long after she was offered a job in London and had not seen her husband until that night in three years.

            A man is apprehended for the murder of Wanda’s husband. All the evidence is circumstantial. Keith is convinced that the man will not be punished based off the lack of evidence. Larry is not so sure and claims that if the man is found guilty he will turn himself in if the man is innocent he will not say anything. The poor man is convicted of the murder. Larry now has three weeks of freedom before he is to turn himself in. He and Wanda get married and he lavishes her with clothes and even a boat trip to an amusement park.

            The night Wanda and Larry come home his landlord throws them a going away party since they all think the couple is going off to New Zealand for some time. Larry quietly leaves the party to turn himself in. Just as he walks a few blocks down the street Wanda reads in the newspaper the man that was convicted of the murder died on his way to the gallows. Wanda races after Larry and gets to him just as he is about to walk into the police station.

            The film was made in 1937 but was not released in America until 1940. You can tell that both Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were younger looking. Before I read this I could not get over how much different Oliver looked in Rebecca I thought that could have been down to the makeup that could have been put on his face. The couple were amazing actors there is no denying either one of them had tremendous talent. But in this early film of both their careers their film acting is not too great. Laurence Olivier kind of drives me crazy either way he was too much of a stage actor always going a little over the top for my taste. With Vivien Leigh I knew there was something going on because she obviously awesome as Scarlett O’Hara and even more incredible as Myra Lester in Waterloo Bridge that was released the same year. She looks so young and even her acting was a little too much.

            21 Days Together is definitely not the best film ever made. If it had not been for the fact that Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh were in it am sure it would not be known at all. Even though the film has quite a few faults it is worth seeing at least once. Right now 21 Days Together is available to view on Hulu for free and will be available to see on Hulu Plus if you pay for it. 

A Yank at Oxford (1938)

Do not ask me why but one day I watched an episode of The Jersey Shore where they go to Italy (it is bad enough I live a half hour away from Sleazside- excuse me- Seaside). All I could think of was why did the Italian government allow these assholes into their country. They are the last group of people who should be allowed in a cultured place. I was so pissed off because they went to the country for free and none of them appreciated the culture or the art and architecture when someone like me who loves art and history and appreciates and respects other cultures has to pay an arm and a leg to go.

            This just proves how ignorant people can be of other cultures. I find that Americans are the worst at respecting other cultures. When you are in a foreign country you need to respect the people who live there and their customs and shut the hell up about how they think America is awesome. That drives me so insane.

            A Yank at Oxford pokes fun at Americans and their ignorance about other countries. The film is about Lee Sheridan (Robert Taylor) who is an All-American colligate athlete. His father Dan (Lionel Barrymore) does nothing but praise him in his paper and reports on Lee’s events. The college Lee is at in his small hometown does not want him there anymore since he does not do well in his classes so the dean decides to send him to Cardinal College (a fictional school) at Oxford where he happens to be friends with one of their deans. Right away Lee sees this opportunity as a way to show the Brits what Americans are made of and thinks of ways he can beat them at sports. He is given a big send off with a parade that the whole town attends.

            While taking the train to London he meets three fellow Oxford students named Paul Beaumont, Wavertree, and Ramsey. They see Lee as an American showoff and they do not like that. They play a trick on him telling him that there is a procession waiting for him at the station that he should get off at the next station. Lee agrees he does not want to make a bad impression on the other students. Before he gets off he meets Paul’s sister Molly (Maureen O’Sullivan). Lee gets off the train and finds that the school is ten miles away.

            When Lee gets to the college Paul plays another trick this time it is one that is meant to boost Lee’s too big ego. Lee sees through the trick and is upset. This starts off his rivalry with Paul that threatens to run both of them out of the college.

            The athletes begin to like Lee. He wins the track team some titles. At one race everyone sees him for the ultra competitor he is when he get taken out of a race but knocks Paul out when he feels Paul is running too slow. Molly does not like what Lee has done not just because he knocked her brother out of the race but because it was very un-sportsman-like.

            As the film goes on there is still a lot of back and forth between Lee and Paul and they actually cover for each other when each gets into big trouble. They eventually make up and become friends to help win the rowing championship against Cambridge. And Lee does end up with Molly; she and Dan help to get him out of some deep trouble. In the end Lee learns to be a team player.

            Robert Taylor was the best choice for the lead. He really did have that All-American colligate look to him. He was incredibly handsome and outrageously well built. Maureen O’Sullivan was ridiculously adorable and sweet as Molly. This is the best film I have seen her in she was not over the top she was just right. There was a very cute scene between her and Taylor in the bookstore when they talk between the bookshelves. Vivien Leigh plays Elsa Craddock who is a much younger woman married to a much older man. Elsa and her husband run the local bookstore where the students go for their books. She gets all her attention from the younger men on campus. Paul is her latest squeeze but of course she starts flirting with Lee as soon as she lays eyes on him. Leigh was a year away from playing her most famous role, in her few scenes you can just see that she had a load of star power she completely commands your attention (even if she looks awful with pencil thin eyebrows and a bad hair style). Lionel Barrymore was made to look like a little old man. He was good but I have not seen a film of his yet where he was not excellent. The rest of the cast were all well known British actors.

            Knowing that Vivien Leigh got the part of Scarlett O’Hara most likely that year there is a good part in the film: Lee is meeting with his tutor for the first time and the tutor asks him what he is reading. Lee responds that he is reading Gone With the Wind but he is only half way through it.

            A Yank at Oxford is a very cute film romantic comedy. At times the constant back and forth between Lee and Paul gets tiresome but for the most part the film is very enjoyable and very funny. Robert Taylor, Maureen O’Sullivan, and Vivien Leigh were great to see together (especially O’Sullivan and Leigh because they were good friends in real life when they were still at school in England). I liked how A Yank at Oxford poked fun of how ignorant Americans can be and how ridiculously we are obsessed with sports and being the best.

 

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

“I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic.”

            The more I read a Tennessee Williams’ play or see a film based off his plays the more I cannot stand him. The same thing goes for Marlon Brando good God does this man drive me up a wall! So you may be asking yourself why if I do not like the playwright or the actor did I sit through A Streetcar Named Desire? Well first my brother several years ago gave me the TCM collection of dramas with the film along with The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which I have not watched until a few days ago for the first time and Vivien Leigh was in the film and I adore her so I had to see it. If Vivien Leigh had not been in the film I never would have even bothered to see it.

            I cannot even tell you what the plot is because I did not understand it. All I know is that Blanche Du Bois (Leigh) went to New Orleans to visit her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski. Blanche is seriously disturbed she has some kind of psychological disorder. She was had been an English teacher but as she says she was forced to resign. The more she stays in the house with Stanley and Stella the more she loses grip on reality and the more she becomes disturbed.

            Stanley certainly does not help at all. He is a greasy, nasty brute. Blanche cannot understand what her sister sees in the man. As time goes on Stanley plays on her illness going so far as to drive her to the breaking point where she needs to be put in a home. Stella hates her husband for what he has done to her sister who mentally is like a child and she leaves him.

            Vivien Leigh was amazing. She won the Academy Award for this role and absolutely deserved it. This is one of the best performances in a film I have ever watched. Before Leigh performed Blanche in the film she originated the character on the London stage. Laurence Olivier had directed her in the stage show and she claimed that his direction rather than Elia Kazan’s direction for the film influenced her the most. You can see her performing like she was on the stage she had such a great intensity that is only seen in a live performance. I read that this point in her life Leigh was suffering from bipolar issues and had a hard time distinguishing her real life from the character. That was sad to read because she was such a talented actress but then again she performed so well she did not let her illness get in the way. The scene where Leigh blew me away was when Stanley’s friend Mitch came by the house. Mitch had been dating Blanche but Stanley was an ass and told him nasty things about her and Mitch no longer wanted to see her. For some reason he went to the house and was just totally cruel to her. She told him to get out of the house or she would scream. She did scream she chased him out of the house screaming and right into the court yard. Leigh was perfection she was intense and emotionally over the edge.

            The rest of the cast was alright. Marlon Brando was not Brando yet. I really cannot stand Brando I know the character was a jerk and everything but whatever the man is in I cannot stand him a minute. The cast including Brando were from the original Broadway play. Jessica Tandy played Blanche in the stage show but she was not well known at the time and the studio wanted a big name so they went with Leigh.

            A Streetcar Named Desire was alright. It is not the kind of film I would want to sit through again. I find Tennessee Williams plays to be boring. Marlon Brando kind of ruined the whole thing for me in many scenes. Only sit through the film if you want to see Vivien Leigh be absolutely amazing or if you like Brando or Tennessee Williams.  

St. Martin's Lane/ Sidewalks of London (1938)



“Everything's luck, see. And good temper. And if you can take a joke. The whole of life's a joke.”

            St. Martin’s Lane better known outside the UK as Sidewalks of London is about a group of buskers or street performers. Buskers were people who would perform outside of London theaters entertaining the crowds as they wait on line to see a show. Charles Stagger (Charles Laughton) is one of many buskers making their living entertaining this way. One day as he is performing a young woman sneaks up and steals his sixpence. She runs away before he can get her but eventually they meet again at a coffee stand. The young woman’s name is Liberty (Vivien Leigh), Libby for short. Also at the coffee stand just happens to be a famous songwriter named Harley Prentiss (Rex Harrison). Libby sees that Prentiss has put down his gold cigarette case without realizing it and she steals the case.

            Charlie sees Libby take the case and he runs after her. He follows her to an abandoned home where Libby seems to be squatting. Libby starts to dance around the large open room. Charlie sees her dance and is taken by her. He blackmails Libby into coming with him so he can turn her in to the police for stealing the case. Charlie takes her back to his place for the night.

            After that night Charlie and Libby become friends. They create a little act along with Charlie’s friends Arthur and Gentry. He never does turn Libby in for the cigarette case but he does have Prentiss come to pick up the case. Prentiss likes what he hears as the busker group practices a new routine. He asks them to perform at a party he will be hosting. On the night of the party Charlie and Libby get into a heated argument over how foolish busking is. Libby goes to Prentiss’s party alone and there that night is a theatrical manager who promises Libby a stage career.

            Charlie waits up all night for Libby. When she comes home he is angry with her but he professes his love for her even going so far as to ask her to marry him. She becomes afraid and once everyone in the house hears her screaming in embarrassment he walks out.

            Liberty becomes the newest West End sensation. Charlie becomes so depressed he turns to drink. He gets thrown in jail for four months after hitting a police officer when he calls to Libby outside a stage door theater and creates a ruckus.

            Libby sees Charlie four months later. She treats him like the dear friend he was to her. She tries to do something good for him by getting him a small audition on a real stage in front of her manager and his people. As Charlie repeats his monologue people keep interrupting. He walks out with Libby chasing after him. She is truly upset that he was not given a proper chance because he is a good actor.

            At the end of the film Charlie realizes that he belongs to the streets. The only place in the world where he belongs is being a busker out on St. Martin’s Lane.

            The performances by Laughton, Leigh, and Harrison are excellent. Laughton I am not really a fan of, I have seen him in other films and was not really impressed. Some of his scenes in this film were way too over the top and theatrical. Vivien Leigh was incredible. You can clearly see she had a great screen presence that the following year would become internationally known. She made Liberty a spunky, feisty, driven character. I loved her cockney accent in some scenes; I just love her British accent in general. The scenes where Leigh was dancing especially the first scene she dances in she was fantastic she was so graceful and beautiful. There was one scene I thought was interesting: Prentiss gets a call from someone saying they want Libby to come to Hollywood. The following year Leigh would be in Hollywood and she would create one of film’s most iconic characters. Rex Harrison all I can say about him is how handsome he was. I am so used to seeing him as the cranky old man from My Fair Lady and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir that seeing him young and not cranky was nice.

            Sidewalks of London is a very good film. I liked the story it was different since I never heard or knew of buskers before this. Each actor right down to the extras give fantastic performances. This is definitely a film to see especially if you are a fan of Vivien Leigh this is one proof that she is much more than Scarlett O’Hara. As of right now Sidewalks of London is available to view on youtube. Take advantage of this available viewing before the film is taken off the site.

Waterloo Bridge (1940)



“I loved you, I've never loved anyone else. I never shall, that's the truth Roy, I never shall.”

            The plot to Waterloo Bridge sounds like a typical love story told through a flashback: a soldier falls for a girl he just happens to meet by chance and is totally taken with her at first sight. He is on forty-eight hours leave and asks the girl to marry him. She says yes but before they can marry the next day he is called away to the front. One day she sees his name in the paper as one of the fallen. Believing he is dead her life reaches a low point and she must do what she needs to be done in order to survive. A few months later she finds the soldier is not dead the whole thing is a mistake. They agree to marry again and he takes her back to his family home where they are all distinguished. The family likes her even though she is a ballet dancer. All the time what she has done during the War is in the back of her mind she cannot tell the soldier what she has done she feels as if she were to stay with him she would ruin his reputation. She leaves the family home never to see the solider again. The soldier goes looking for her along with a friend. The friend tells him what the love of his life has done but it does not matter to him he understands.

            Ugh, if I had to sit through a film with this plot like so many films of the Golden Age of Hollywood were written I would have been so bored out of my mind. The plot is pretty much what I have explained but there is much more to Waterloo Bridge it is more than your typical love story. The film was released in 1940 before America entered WWII but it is about a British soldier played by Robert Taylor named Roy Cronin who, standing on Waterloo Bridge, reminisces about the time he met the love of his life Myra Lester (Vivien Leigh) as the Second World War breaks out around him. From almost the beginning the story is a bit heartbreaking… that is all you are getting out of me about the rest of the film!

            Vivien Leigh was amazing she was such a great actress. Before Waterloo Bridge I had only seen her as the feisty and courageous Scarlett O’Hara and of course she was incredible in that role. In this role Leigh proved she could be more than Scarlett O’Hara. She is even better than Scarlett in certain moments. Even in Gone with the Wind Leigh was able to portray more than words could just with her facial expressions; you can clearly see how in love and taken away Myra was with Roy and then you can perfectly see how tormented and guilty she felt. This was Leigh’s first film after Gone with the Wind. I cannot even imagine how difficult it must have been to pick a film after such a gigantic success but as I said Leigh was wonderful and it showed just how great of an actress she was to go from playing someone who was so head strong and independent to someone who was caring and completely in love and tormented.

            Robert Taylor was also excellent. This was my first time watching a film with Taylor as the star. He and Leigh had a great chemistry you can believe their characters loved each other very much and that Roy was willing to do anything for Myra. I look forward to viewing more films starring Taylor.

            Waterloo Bridge is a film I highly recommend seeing. Everything about it is perfection. The acting is just incredible all the actors not just Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor. The cinematography is beautiful and was rightly nominated for an Academy Award. The score is beautiful and moving and was also nominated for an Academy Award. The story is gorgeous and heartbreaking. I enjoyed seeing a film where the characters and ending were not predictable and was still able to create such a strong impact.