Crooner (1932)

I think we can all admit that we have had the dream while singing into a hairbrush and dancing around the room to our favorite songs that we were famous singers on stage singing to huge crowds. I remember after I had watched Kelly Clarkson win American Idol (yes, I am that old and have been her fan for that long) I would pretend I was singing along to my favorite songs as if I was on the show (and I was fourteen…). We all have dreams of being singers whether solo or in a band. We get those dreams from stories throughout the history of music or from movies about how some people are plucked from obscurity either by luck or fate. One film that could aid in our imagination of being a famous singer is the Pre-Code Crooner from 1932. I know it certainly set me imagination going!

            Ted Taylor is a saxophone player in a band. They struggle to find jobs and play wherever they can. The band finally finds a gig in a nightclub in New York. The singer for the band gets a sore throat after staying out all night. They need a singer and the only one who can sing decently besides him turns out to be Ted. Out on the stage Ted does not have the volume to really sing and as a joke one of the patrons at the club gives Ted a megaphone. After that the whole club can hear him and he actually has a really nice voice. All the ladies in the nightclub cannot help but gape and stare.

            Ted goes to see his old college friend Judy Mason (Ann Dvorak). He tells her all about his singing and how well he did. Judy has a friend named Peter Sturgis who is a talent manager with some successful acts under his belt. The nightclub is packed because of Ted. Peter tells Judy that he is not crazy about Ted but he can see that he can build Ted up. The night Peter is in the nightclub is the night that the band’s contract with the club’s owner Myer is up. Peter comes in just in time to negotiate and throw out the contract with Myer.

            A few weeks later, Ted has not heard from Peter. Judy tells Ted to relax that Peter is out looking for the best possible deal for him. Thinking about his band who need to eat and work goes back to Myer to sign a decent contract. Again Peter shows up just in time to stop Ted from signing.

            Peter gets the band, or specifically Ted, a few good places and they become very popular. They wind up back at Myer’s club but as a big time act making a lot more money. Over time Ted becomes very popular with the ladies and that popularity goes to his head big time. He becomes a snob about everything. His downfall comes when he faked having a sore throat and his doctor signing off to go on vacation for a rest. Instead of going to the mountains the press found out the truth that Ted was on a yacht of a married rich woman. When he resumes singing at the nightclub the crowd heckles him and a big fight breaks out.

            A few months later Ted is a nobody back to playing saxophone in another band. He hears on the radio that Judy is going to marry Peter. He calls at her apartment to wish her good luck. Peter can see that she is still in love with Ted no matter how much she says she is not. In the end Peter arranges it so that Judy and Ted meet up at a restaurant and, of course, they wind up back together.

            Crooner was not too bad. Every time Ted sang into the megaphone I thought of the scene in Singin’ in the Rain that is a mash up of a whole bunch of songs (if you know Singin’ in the Rain well you will know what I am talking about…. Maybe). Ted was a lucky bastard with his getting famous! What an awesome twist of fate! But I would not want his big headedness at all. I watched Crooner because Ann Dvorak is in it and I like her a lot she was a very good actress who I believe is totally underrated. She was good in the small amount of scenes she had. If you are a fan of classic films or a fan of Ann Dvorak Crooner is worth watching at least once. It is available to view in full on YouTube. 

Three On a Match (1932)

“Everything depresses me - including this house.”

            We all want to believe that having all the money you could possibly want and all the things that come with can make us happy. For some having money would be a blessing, like me for instance. If I ever won the lottery all my crushing school loans would be paid off, I would have a new car, a new computer, and move wherever the hell I want (either New York City, California or London would be nice). But sometimes having money and whatever you does not make people happy. They can be just as depressed and lonely than those who do not have money. Having everything one could ask for gets one woman in the 1932 Pre-Code film Three on a Match in serious trouble.

            Mary Keaton (Joan Blondell), Vivian Revere (Ann Dvorak), and Ruth Westcott (Bette Davis) had known each other since they were young girls in public school together. Mary was the wild girl always getting into trouble and no direction in her life, Vivian was the class valedictorian with the highest grades and the good girl, and Ruth was serious and knew she wanted to go to business school.

            Over the next ten years, Mary has gotten herself thrown in a women’s prison for two years, Vivian has gone to a private school, and Ruth to a business school to become a secretary. One day Mary is getting her hair done when she mentions to the hair dresser she ran into an old friend from school and mentions the school she went to. Another hair dresser comes in and says to Mary that the person she is with overheard the conversation and that she also went to the same school. When their sessions are done Mary and Vivian meet up. They get in touch with Ruth and they go out for lunch. Mary is an actress going by the name Mary Bernard, Ruth is working in an office, and Vivian is married to a lawyer but is bored and unhappy with her life getting whatever she wants. Before they leave, Mary lights a match to light her cigarette and shares the match with her two friends. There had been a write up in the paper how a matchstick manufacturer made up the idea that three on a match and one will die to boost his sales. The superstitious implanted idea did boost his sales.

            Vivian and her husband Robert (Warren William) come home from a party one night. He can sense that his wife is not happy. She tells Robert that she is unhappy and needs a change of pace and scenery. He wants to take her to Europe for a few months but she tells him it would be the same if he came. She wants to go alone with their son Junior. Robert sees them off on the boat but has to leave in a hurry because a settlement is falling through. Mary comes on the boat to see off a friend and invites Vivian to the party. At the party Vivian meets Mike. After this party Vivian leaves the boat and runs away with Mike with Junior in tow.

            For weeks Vivian is missing. Robert does not care so much about his wife than he does about his son. He is worried Vivian is bringing Junior into her mess. Mary knows that Vivian is with Mike in New York City. She knows how hard her friend has been partying and ignoring her son. Mary suggests to Vivian that Junior can go stay with Ruth and Ruth’s sister who has a small daughter but that does not go over very well. She then goes to Robert to say she knows where his wife and son are but that he has to be careful because if Vivian hears he is coming she might run off with Junior. Robert and Mary walk in on Vivian lying in a bed after drinking and doing drugs.

            Months go by. Mary and Ruth have been helping Robert out with Junior. He brings the two women with him to his beach house over the summer. He tells Mary that his divorce will be final the following day and he wants her to marry him.

            Three years go by. Robert and Mary are married and happy. Vivian sees Mary at a store. She was waiting for Mary to come out so she can ask her friend for money. Mary wants Vivian to come back to the house with her but Vivian does not want to do that. As she walks away Mike comes out from a spot where he was waiting for her. He needs the money to pay off some gambling debt to a man named Ace (Edward Arnold). Desperate Mike goes to Robert and tries to blackmail with information about Mary having been in jail for a while. Robert does not give in he yells at Mike that if any paper were to print that he would sue the paper for libel and throws him out of the office. When Mike walks out into the waiting room, Ruth is there with Junior. Mike gets the idea to kidnap Junior for the money and does so at the park.

            Vivian is furious about what Mike did to her son. Ace’s right hand man Harve (Humphrey Bogart) comes to their apartment. He lets Mike know that Ace has heard about the kidnapping and that he and Ace want in on the reward money. But things do not go smoothly. For ten days Mike, Harve, and a few other guys are holed up in the apartment. Vivian is going through massive drug withdrawal. Junior is left alone on the couch in underclothes in another room. Soon the police are coming around more often and no one can leave the apartment. Harve wants Mike to kill the kid so they could leave. Vivian overhears their plan. She tells Junior to go hide under the bed. She makes a fuss and one of the guys checks on her. He reports that Vivian is going crazy putting lipstick on her clothes. All the sudden they hear the window break as Vivian jumps out of the window to the sidewalk below. Before she jumped Vivian wrote on her clothes with the lipstick that her son was in the apartment.

            The cast was really good. It was the top tier of Warner Bros. actors. Well, Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis were still minor actors for the studio they still had yet to become big time actors. Joan Blondell was fabulous as usual. Her dry quick wit is always so much fun to watch and hear. Ann Dvorak’s acting I did not think was great but at the same time I think she was good at playing Vivian. Bette Davis really was not in the film too long. She did not have too many lines compared to Blondell and Dvorak. Humphrey Bogart had more lines than Davis did. It was nice to see Warren William as a gentleman I am so used to see him as a bad guy of sorts in Pre-Code films. Edward Arnold was only in one scene.

            Three on a Match is considered one of the quintessential Pre-Code films because of the content of a wife running away from her responsibilities as a wife and mother and falling into a drug habit. And also for some of the racy bits of clothing Ann Dvorak wears. The story was interesting with the good girl being the one to fall so far down the rabbit hole of drugs and alcohol. I love Pre-Code films, I have seen a handful and I can definitely see why Three on a Match is considered one of the Pre-Codes. If you can find Three on a Match it is definitely worth watching especially if you like any of the actors or are a fan of Pre-Codes. 

The Crowd Roars (1932)

I hate race car driving. I cannot understand the lure of watching cars going round and round in a giant circle for god knows how many laps. I think I cannot stand NASCAR and all that racing stuff is because whenever it is on TV it usually interrupts a show I want to watch! Is race car driving considered a sport? To me that would be like saying cheerleading is a sport. Anyway, before I start saying what I really think about race car driving and cheerleading… The Crowd Roars is a film from 1932 about race car driving. Fortunately the cast was very good and the theme of race car driving did not annoy or bore me.

            Joe Greer (James Cagney) is a professional race car driver. He goes back to his small hometown for the first time in four years. His girlfriend Lee (Ann Dvorak) is not getting off the train with him. She is mad at Joe because she thinks he feels she is not good enough to meet his family. Joe’s younger brother Eddie (Eric Linden) meets him at the train station. Eddie wants to race just like his older brother. Eddie has built his own car and is a local racing champion. He wants to go with his brother next time Joe leaves town. Joe tells Eddie to stay out of racing it is a hard life

            Eddie convinces Joe to race with him at a local competition. It is neck and neck for a while but both brothers get run off the track and neither finishes the race. Later on Joe wires Lee to tell her he is extending his tour so he can teach Eddie how to race. Joe eventually goes back to Lee’s place. Instead of spending time with Lee he is always with his brother. He breaks things off with her because he wants to keep Eddie away from women and booze. Lee gets very upset she does want Joe to go. Her friend Ann (Joan Blondell) is not thrilled with Joe. Lee decides to teach Joe what it is like to lose someone he loves like. She has Ann go after Eddie. Lee’s plan to get back at Joe backfires. Ann finds she is falling in love with Eddie. Joe wants nothing to do with Eddie now that he is with Ann.

            Eddie beats Joe in his first race. The newspapers are talking how he is the next up and coming racer. After Joe drives drunk in a race and kills a man he cannot find a job anywhere and fades into obscurity. Lee decides to head out East and start over. She gets a job as a waitress at a racetrack. Joe is at the same racetrack looking for a job. They see each other and talk. Lee tells Joe that Eddie is still a shamed of him for driving drunk.

            Somehow Joe gets a job and gets to drive against Eddie. In the happy Hollywood ending Joe and Eddie make up.         

            The cast was excellent. I like seeing James Cagney with Joan Blondell. They always played tough characters and their tough characters together were fabulous. Ann Dvorak gave a great performance also. When I think of Pre-Code actresses Blondell and Dvorak are two of the greats that come to mind. Eric Linden is not one of my favorites. He just always seemed like a weird little boy.

            The Crowd Roars is a typical 1930s guy film with romance thrown in so the women would also come and see it. I guess the romance angle works it acts as a motivator for the characters. The Crowd Roars is good to see once mostly just for the cast unless you are into racing and want to see some pretty cool old racing footage.