The Silver Queen (1942)

The Silver Queen takes place in the 1870s. James Kincaid (George Brent) has made his fortune gambling and runs a successful casino in New York City with his friend. One night he is invited to a charity party being given by a Coralie Adams (Priscilla Lane) at her home.

            Coralie is engaged to Gerald Forsythe (Bruce Cabot) who is a rich man. Her father wants her to marry Gerald as soon as he can because of her gambling and that he can give her whatever she wants. Coralie likes to gamble and bet on things the same as her father. Her father is expecting James to gamble. Before the party Coralie had never met James. When she sees him she is taken with him.

            Some time after the party the stock market crashes. Coralie’s father loses all his money. They could have been alright had he not lost of his mine deeds gambling. Her father dies leaving her penniless and in debt. Coralie swears to pay of his debt by herself. Gerald wants to buy James’s gambling house to give to Coralie as a wedding present. James refuses to sell it to Gerald. That night James runs out of town.

            Coralie wants to run away. She tells Gerald she cannot marry him. Since he does not want to break the engagement she has him promise to wait for her so long until he wants to move on. Coralie goes out to San Francisco. She gets the idea to gamble to make her money. For the next few years Coralie has been sending Gerald money so he can pay off her father’s debts. Gerald has been squandering the money. He asks his mother for thirty thousand dollars the amount he has taken from Coralie. His mother refuses to help him since he got himself into the mess.  

            James is at a hotel in San Francisco. He hears two men talking about a woman known as the Silver Queen. James wants to play against this Silver Queen. When James sees that the Silver Queen is Coralie and she sees her old friend they are happy to see each other. James hears from Coralie’s uncle Hector that the creditors never got the money Coralie had been sending. James decides to help her. He leaves so suddenly he does not even say goodbye to Coralie.

            Gerald travels out to San Francisco to see Coralie. When her maid tells her “he’s here” Coralie thinks the maid meant that James was there to see her. She tells Gerald that her uncle told her he was never paid off. Gerald passes it off as if Hector had gambled the money away. He still wants to marry Coralie and suggest they get married in Nevada City where she was born. Neither one of them knows that James is out in Nevada City.

            My note taking ended at that scene and for the life of me cannot remember how the rest of the film went. I think it is safe to say that Coralie and James wind up together in the end.   

            The Silver Queen was very boring. I felt bad for the actors because all three of them are very good and they were put into this B picture. Neither one of them was leading actor material but they did not deserve to be leading actors in a film like this. Priscilla Lane did not look good in period clothing at all. She had a modern face and her who disposition was so modern that she did not really fit into the role. Someone wrote in their review on IMDB that Barbara Stanwyck could have carried this role off better. Yeah she could have but a role like this for Stanwyck would have been a part she would have done early in her career. I can only suggest looking for The Silver Queen and watching it if you are a fan of George Brent, Priscilla Lane, and Bruce Cabot otherwise skip it. 

Dodge City (1939)

“Dodge City... rolling in wealth from the great Texas trail-herds... the town that knew no ethics but cash and killing.”

            I believe I am beginning to like Westerns when for a long time I vehemently swore against them. I thought them cheesy… and to a certain extent I still do but sometimes I see a Western that has a good story and cast. There was no way I could pass up viewing Dodge City since one, this is the fifth of nine pairings of Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn and two, it  was made in the fabulous year of 1939 when over five hundred films were released. De Havilland would star in five films that year including this and Gone With the Wind (this is totally unfair I am the age she was at this time and I feel totally unaccomplished with my life. Just think to be twenty-three years old, starring in one of the greatest films of all time and being nominated for an Academy Award. Yes, this is something I think of jealously at night after watching one of her films). Dodge City has a good story and of course very good acting from the leads as well as the supporting cast.

            Wade Hatton (Flynn) and his two friends just helped to build a railroad out to Kansas. The railroad passes through the newly named town of Dodge City. The town is horrible with no morals or ethics and people running manic all over the place. Even on Sundays the streets are not safe. A cattle herder and seller makes the town very dangerous and corrupt. Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot) and Wade are old enemies. Surrett is corrupt as the day is long and is not afraid to kill anyone to get what he wants. He and his cronies recently killed a man that wanted his money from them. The man had a wife and young son.

            Wade also helps a group of pioneers traveling to Kansas cross the Midwest. One of the travelers is Abbie Irving (de Havilland) and her brother Lee. Lee has been drunk and embarrassing most of the trip. When the travelers stop to rest Lee starts shooting off his gun scaring a herd of buffalo. Wade tells the guy to stop but he will not listen and has no choice once the buffalo start to run to shoot Lee in the knee. The buffalo come storming through the camp and crush Lee to death. Abbie is more than angry with Wade for what she feels he did to her brother.

            In Dodge City, Wad befriends the little boy who lost his father. Abbie was taking the boy and a group of children out for a wagon ride one Sunday when a gun fight erupted. The horse got scared and the boy tried to help but they got loose and he was killed. After this incident Wade is no longer reluctant to become the sheriff of Dodge City. He does a fantastic job the streets are safe to walk along and people are now moving back.

            The only person keeping Dodge City from being truly safe and sound is Surrett and his gang. Abbie’s life becomes threatened when she and the local newspaper man get dirt on Surrett that can send him away for life.

            Knowing that Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland were the stars it is not a shock that they end up together and the final moments of the film they live happily ever after.

            I truly enjoyed this western very much. Errol Flynn was a great action star and made a great cowboy. I found it funny that the two stars of the American west were not Americans: Flynn was Australian and de Havilland is British. Flynn made a much better cowboy than any American I have ever seen (well, ok, so no one throws anything at me John Wayne was the ultimate cowboy). De Havilland was adorable in the film. I love seeing her as feisty characters who talk back and get involved. I loved all her costumes too I think this was her best film as far as costumes go and looking good in them from the films I have seen her in as of now.

            Bruce Cabot as a bad guy was so weird to see!! I am so used to seeing him as Fay Wray’s rescuer Jack Driscoll in King Kong and the very sweet Mac in Finishing School that seeing him as a bad guy was nuts!

            Now the whole time I was watching this film I was going nuts wondering who the guy was who played Yancy one of Surrett’s cronies. His hard face and speech looked and sounded so familiar. Times like these I love have the iPhone and the IMDB app because I found out that the actor’s name was Victor Jory who just so happened to be Joans Wilkerson in Gone With the Wind.

            The rest of the supporting cast was great. They brought along much needed funniness and plenty of action.

            One of the scenes is fantastic. It is a brawl in a saloon Surrett owns which starts out over men who fought in the Civil War on both sides. The performer on stage sings the Yankee song then a group of men start singing the Confederate song. Pretty soon some punches are being thrown and the whole inside of the saloon comes tumbling down. Everyone goes to jail afterwards and new laws and rules are set forth about drinking, gambling, and fighting.

            Michael Curtiz, one of my favorite directors of all time, directed this film. The man made so many different genres of film and I am always impressed with whatever he does.

            Dodge City is a great Western film. This put Errol Flynn on the map for making action films and he deserved it. He was not the dirty, slimy, tough as nails cowboy he was a clean, handsome, quiet, and well respected one. Olivia de Havilland was adorable to no end; I can gush all day about how cute she was in her early films. This is one of the films that shows how great Flynn and de Havilland were as a screen couple they really did have so much chemistry between them. Dodge City is a fabulous Western film that when I eventually get it on DVD I will be watching plenty of times over

Finishing School (1934)

“You're supposed to do exactly as you please in this old ladies home for nice young gals. Just don't get caught, that's all”

            The first time I ever watched Finishing School was when TCM had Ginger Rogers as the actress of the month back in March. I always know when I love a film because I am left thinking about it and looking all over the place for pictures of it and seeing if I can find it on DVD. With Finishing School I was left with a great admiration for an actress I had never seen before and wanting it on DVD so bad that I hyped it up for myself.

            Virginia Radcliff (Frances Dee) is sent to Crocket Hall, a finishing school for girls. The headmistress lays down strict rules which Virginia fully plans on following until she meets her wisecracking, rule breaking roommate Cecilia “Pony” Ferris (Ginger Rogers). Pony’s friends at the school- Ruth and Madeline- follow her around like she is the coolest thing ever. Virginia really does not know any better because she has been sheltered by her overbearing mother (Billie Burke). She winds up getting into some trouble in class one day for passing a note but she never reveals who wrote it.

            The girls are not allowed to go to New York City without an escort. One weekend Pony hires an actress to pass off as her aunt and she takes Ruth, Madeline and Virginia into the city to stay at a hotel and party. Virginia feels like she is ready to let loose, she even goes so far as to tell Pony “I always wanted to get tight, you know see how it feels” (gotta love pre-code Hollywood for lines like this). The guy Pony hooks Virginia up with is no good he gets means with her when they are both drunk and he will not leave her alone. Luckily the waiter cleaning the room hears the scuffle and he saves Virginia from being hurt. The waiter’s name is Ralph McFarland (or “Mac” as Virginia calls him). Mac is very nice and Virginia takes to him right away. He takes her back to Crocket Hall where the headmistress is none too pleased.

            As time goes by Virginia and Mac see each other here and there when she can get into the city with the school. She invites him to tea one Sunday at the school. When the headmistress sees that Mac is just a regular guy working his way through medical school and not a rich “proper” type she kicks him out. She even goes so far as to throw away his letters he writes to Virginia.

            The headmistress tells Virginia that because of her “actions” and “misbehavior” she is not allowed to go home for Christmas which her mother also agrees to. Her mother sends her a fur coat worth $2,500 and her father sends her $1,000 to do whatever she wants. She is totally unfazed like both gifts are nothing because she does not care for them. All of a sudden she hears something against the window and when she turns around it is Mac tapping on the window. Pony got in touch with him and told him that Virginia has had to stay in the school for the holiday. He tells her that he has written her letters which she tells him she never got them otherwise she would have written back.

            Virginia takes Mac over to the boathouse where they can be alone without anyone seeing them. Mac gives her a handkerchief with her name stitched into it. She begins to cry because she really cares for the gift and for him and she is beginning to think that the headmistress is right that she is not right. Mac comforts her and as the two kiss the camera pans to the window then to their footprints in the snow.

            After that nothing goes exactly right for Virginia. She has to get in touch with Mac but it seems the headmistress really has it out for her and will not let her do anything. Pony gets in touch with Mac and tells him to get to the school as soon as he can. He gets to Crocket Hall just in time for Virginia to see him from the balcony she is standing on.

            So this is a pre-code film. This was released in the year the Code was enforced but was made the year before. What makes Finishing School a lovely pre-code film is not the fact that Pony is a bad influence and never punished it is for the fact that Virginia, the main character, winds up pregnant and is not punished for her “sin”. It is never said that she is pregnant but the fact she does not feel well and is a bit jumpy with nerves towards the end and she needs to get in touch with Mac and when they see each other at the end he says they are going to get married you know she definitely is.

            As I said at the beginning I watched this because Ginger Rogers was in it. She is in the film for like ten minutes total if that but she has some really witty lines. She tells one of the girls in a scene “Will you keep your nose out of other people’s business and take it in your room and wipe it” (haha). Before this I had never seen Frances Dee in a film or even heard of her name. I was so taken with how unbelievably gorgeous she was. All I kept thinking was Dee looks like an actress that could be around today and how beautiful she looked. I like Dee as an actress I have seen her in several films since this and I enjoy her very much. She was excellent in this film from being an innocent, naïve girl to playing a bit of heavy drama at the end

I am so used to seeing Bruce Cabot as the macho Jack Driscoll from King Kong who tells Fay Wray that a ship and the jungle is no place for a woman that seeing him as the caring Ralph McFarland was actually adorable. Billie Burke will just always be Glinda the Good Witch to me. This was the first time I had ever seen outside of her Wizard of Oz role. Like Dee I have seen Burke in several other roles besides this (and Glinda) and she played the same kind of scatterbrained character in them.

            In the credits Crockett Hall is given characterization as “The Snob.” The title is very fitting. The rules are so strict and the headmistress and teachers are so not caring and snobbish. Virginia’s mother went to the school which is why she sent Virginia. All the mother and the headmistress care about is reputation. The mother does not want Virginia to see Mac because he works as a waiter even though he is an intern studying to be a children’s doctor and the headmistress is only concerned about the school’s reputation for girls who behave and go with rich young men. At the end of the film when Virginia needs an ally and someone to help her Pony is the only one who cares and is willing to help because she hates the school herself.

            Finishing School is not an earth shattering, life changing film but it is a film where the performances especially by Frances Dee are fantastic. I will admit that I had hyped this film up for myself for so long that I was afraid that when I watched the film again on DVD that I was going to find myself saying “really I liked it this much?” but I never did. I loved it just as much as the first time I saw it. Finishing School is definitely a film and a pre-code worth watching.

I would like to give a HUGE thank you to Courtney from The Golden Age of Hollywood website for making the awesome screencaps for me to use for this post.