Rose Marie (1936)

"I thought all this would make you more merciful"

"Don't ever think that Nature is merciful.Nature is the cruelest policeman.When an animal sickens, the others turn on him and kill him"

            Rose Marie is the second Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy film I have seen. Quite fitting that this the second of the pair’s films I have seen and this was the second film they had made together. Like all their films this is an operetta this one set in the Canadian woods.

            Marie de Flor (MacDonald) is a famous Canadian stage actress. Her latest show is a musical of Romeo and Juliet and it is a huge hit. A rich man named Teddy wants to marry her. Marie does not want to marry him she says she has everything she could want in fame and money. What she really wants is her brother John (James Stewart) out of jail. John was put in jail for having a gun that someone used to shoot a man. Marie is upset that he is not being released for the crime he did not commit.

            Marie has the Premier of Quebec to her apartment. The staff has to get everything prepared in a hurry. Myerson, her agent, can see that something is worrying Marie. She said she will tell him her trouble another time. A comes to the apartment. He gives Marie a ring that belongs to John. The man tells Marie that her brother has escaped from prison and is now hiding out in the woods in the Quebec wilderness. Marie wants to get to John to help him as soon as she can.

            Marie arrives at a port town in Quebec. The small town is rough and hickish for Marie. There are Indians and half breeds all over the town. A man named Boniface has been assigned as her guide. He is not a very good man he steals Marie’s wallet when he saw how much money she was carrying around with her. The owner of the hotel tells her to go to the Mounties to possibly get her wallet back. Out on the streets Marie panics when she sees a wanted poster for John. Marie cannot find Boniface and her money which she needs. She goes into a saloon and asks for a job which she lands. No one pays attention to Marie at first because she is singing an opera song. Then she starts singing a new tune that the locals can understand and they turn their attention to her. A man named Sgt. Bruce (Eddy) had been put on her brother’s case after he escaped. He followed Marie out to Quebec. He talks to her and asks her questions and even takes her to an annual Indian fest. Marie does not tell St. Bruce the real reason she is in town. At the fest she finds Boniface and makes him give her money back and to be her guide.

            Bruce falls in love with Marie. He was talking to someone about her and he realized her last name in English means Flower. Bruce puts two and two together and knows the real reason Marie is in town. Out in the woods Marie sings a song. Bruce hears her and picks up her trail. He saves her from drowning after she falls off her horse in a lake. Bruce makes a camp for the night. Marie does not want to stay with him she is anxious to find Boniface and get to her brother. Bruce knows she will come to his camp and she does when she gets scared of a deer. He tells Marie to give him her clothes to dry off. When he gets the clothes he looks for any evidence of John.

            Marie gets away from Bruce and finds someone who will bring her to John. Bruce catches up with them. He had planned on taking her to John he made the whole thing a game. The whole situation is made harder because they really loved each other.

            Back in the city, Marie is in the middle of performing on stage when she thinks she can hear Bruce singing to her. She collapses on stage. For months Marie has not sung a note she says she does not care if ever sings again. Everyone knows she is saying that because she is heartbroken. Out of nowhere Marie thinks she can hear Bruce sing. When she turns around Bruce is really there singing to her.

            I adore Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald together. I love their chemistry. From the little I have read about MacDonald she and Eddy were apparently in love in real life so their chemistry on screen was very real. As I did with Sweethearts I fast forwarded through the musical numbers. I love musicals but the opera music is just too much for me so I skip them. I like Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald as actors better than singers. James Stewart was just at the beginning of his career. It is funny to see him in his early roles. It seems MGM had no idea what to do with Stewart at this time. The same year he was in After the Thin Man and played a not so good character (which was also directed by W.S. Van Dyke). With his looks Stewart could never have been a believable bad guy.

            Rose Marie is dated now but back in 1936 in the Depression this was the perfect kind of film to lift spirits and just to have a good time watching. As I said I enjoyed the acting more than the singing. I really liked the ending for some reason it was a bit cheesy but very sweet. Rose Marie was made for audiences to forget their cares and have fun for its run and even to this day it makes you forget your cares and have fun watching. 

 

Silent Sundays: White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)

“They are like man was before he lost the Garden of Eden.”

            White Shadows in the South Seas is about imperialism and how the white man feels superior to those he conquers. 

            The film begins on an island that over time has been “civilized” by greedy westerners. Dr. Matthew Lloyd lives on the island. He used to be respectable doctor but has become indecent because he is ashamed of what the white race has done to the natives. Some of the natives dive for clams. What they do is very dangerous. Many of them have died from burst veins and lungs from the pressure change. There are also sharks and other large sea creatures. Matthew is called a native coddler. He helps a man with collapsed lungs but unfortunately the man dies. The father of the dead man says he has lost all his sons the same way.

            Someone tells Matthew there is a ship out in the middle of the ocean that has sick people on it. When he gets out there he sees that most of the crew are dead not from measles but from the plague. He says the ship will have to be burned. The men attack Matthew, tie him up, and set the ship to sail. The ship heads into a typhoon. Matthew tries desperately to steer the ship away from rocks. He manages to jump and swim to land. He sees a hut on the other side of the island. He finds a whole native village untouched by white men. When Matthew approaches them they all scatter away. The men of the village are summoned to capture Matthew. The men gather around him, they have never seen a white man before. As the natives examine him, Matthew collapses from thirst and exhaustion. He is attended to by some of the women. One of the women is Fayaway. They massage him to take away his ache.

            The villagers see Matthew as a god and they prepare a great feast for him. He speaks with Fayaway alone and is immediately attacked by the men. An elder tells him that he cannot look at her with love in his eyes even if he is a god because she is a virgin of their temple. The next day Fayaway takes Matthew around the island. They hear a signal that the sea has taken someone’s life. It is a little boy who is in trouble. Matthew tries to save him. At first he is unsuccessful then he remembers what to do and saves his life. The elder says that now Matthew has saved his son and he may look into the eyes of Fayaway. White man and native are soon married.

            Matthew sees they do not collect pearls. His selfishness of his race and greed take over. One of the natives notices that Matthew goes around the lagoon looking for pearls. That night he sets fire to some leaves on the shore hoping ships will see it and come for his pearls. Fayaway asks him if he wants to leave. He realizes he has made a terrible mistake and gets mad at himself he does not want the ships to come. In the day time ships start coming ashore. Matthew tries to warn the villagers the boat is evil it will bring them woe. One of the crew members says they spotted the fire on the mountain the night before. The captain sees a girl wearing a pearl on a necklace. Now the greedy man wants to stay. The villagers think the other white men will be nice like Matthew. The captain is a man named Sebastian that Matthew knew on the other island. Matthew pleads with Sebastian to leave. He gets mad when Sebastian says he wants to open a store and have the villagers dive for pearls. One of Sebastian’s men shoots Matthew and the poor man dies.

            In the end all the villagers become “civilized.”

            I thought Shadow in the White Seas was good but very sad. In school when we learned about imperialism I would always get a little upset and mad how white men just went into lands they thought “uncivilized” and “civilized” the natives. Just because a group of people does not wear or practice something that you do does mean they are uncivilized. The people thinking this are uncivilized. W.S. Van Dyke directed the film. The more I see of his films the more I take notice of how good and creative he was. None of his films I have seen so far have been the same. Some of shots of the islands and the “natives” were beautiful. They reminded me of a Gaugin painting. I loved the feast scene, the food looked amazing! Shadow in the White Seas is definitely working watching. 

The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)

The Prizefighter and the Lady is such a melodramatic film title. The story is a bit melodramatic but not too badly. It actually has some surprises where you think clichéd things might happen which is odd for an early MGM melodrama.

            Steve Morgan (Max Baer) works in a bar. He sees a guy starting a fight with another guy who has no idea what is going on. Steve knocks the guy who started the fight and his friend out and drags them out of the bar. Witness the whole incident is a man simply called The Professor (Walter Huston). The Professor gets on the phone and calls some fight promoters that he has a new guy he wants to try out in the ring. After he gets off the phone The Professor tells Steve that if he fights for three rounds and wins he will make fifty dollars. Steve agrees.

            The next day while training out on a stretch of road they accidentally make a car go off the road. Steve pulls a woman named Belle Mercer (Myrna Loy) out of the car and takes her to a nearby farm house where they call for a doctor. Right away Steve is taken with Belle. He gives her a ringside ticket for his fight that night. Steve wins the fight without a problem. Belle comes to him after the fight to congratulate him. He tries his hardest to win her over by asking her out for dinner. When she leaves The Professor tells Steve that Belle is a gangster’s girl. This information does not bother Steve in the slightest.

            Belle’s gangster boyfriend is Willie Ryan (Otto Kruger). He becomes a bit jealous when he hears that she went to see Steve fight. Almost as soon as they sit down in his club Steve walks in just wanting to have something to eat and drink. Willie invites him over to the table. As Belle sings Willie kicks Steve out of the club. Much later after being dropped off at her apartment, Belle sees Steve waiting for her. She wants him to go away she does not want to fall for him especially because she believes Willie will have him killed. All her pleas are in vain.

            The following day Willie is frantic looking for Belle. Her maid tells him her club clothes were left on the floor and her traveling clothes were nowhere to be found. Belle walks into Willie’s office as if nothing is wrong. She tells Willie she and Steve were married that morning. Willie believes that something will go wrong and Belle will come back to him but for now no one is to touch Steve.

            The Professor does not trust Belle. He thinks that Belle just married Steve for his muscle. Both have a good talk and she sets him straight that she really loves Steve more than anything. A boxing promoter who knows The Professor comes to the house. He tells The Professor he is setting up a fight that he wants Steve for. The fight will be held at Madison Square Garden and Steve can make a thousand dollars. Steve and The Professor agree to the fight. The Professor takes Steve to a resort so he can train without distractions. Unfortunately Steve is able to find a distraction in another woman.

            Steve wins the fight. He goes from one fight to the next winning and becomes famous. The more famous Steve becomes the more he cannot keep his eyes off other women. The full drama of the film happens when Steve calls Belle to tell her he will not be home because The Professor has him training all night. Not more than two minutes after she gets off the phone with Steve The Professor walks in the door. Belle knows Steve is not being faithful to her. Steve begins to spiral out of control. Belle has enough and returns to Willie but Willie being a good gangster does not do anything to Steve because he can see Belle still love her husband.

            And like any nice MGM melodrama the ending is all wrapped up nicely and happily.

            Max Baer was not an actor and in some scenes it is obvious. Baer was outrageously charming with this huge presence that completely dominated everyone and everything else in his scenes. He and his character were very likeable which made the scenes where Steve cheats a real downer. Myrna Loy was one year away from getting her big break. W.S. Van Dyke saw so much potential in her that he apparently went yelling around the commissary at the studio that Loy was going to become a big star. And with his help Loy did become a big successful star. Loy’s scene with Walter Huston when they are talking about Belle loving Steve was cute. The Professor is talking and as he talks he walks and holds on to his coat. Belle walks with The Professor and imitates him. She put on the same cheeky smirk she would do as Nora Charles when tells Nick she will have a drink after she had originally said no. Otto Kruger I have only ever seen in Hitchcock’s Sabotage. This time he was not as oily and nasty. Kruger actually played a nice guy.

            The film was written by Frances Marion. She was a very prolific writer from the teens into the late thirties writing several hit films for MGM Anna Christie, Their Own Desire, and Camille. All the mentioned films are melodramatic but the one melodramatic film I will always associate Marion with is the 1921 Mary Pickford film The Love Light which is melodramatic with a capital M. Marion was a very good story teller and all the films I have seen that she has written have been very good, even The Love Light.

            The Prizefighter and the Lady has a terrible title but do not let that ruin the story even though it is a little cheesy. The performances and the direction make The Prizefighter and the Lady worth a viewing.  

The Feminine Touch (1941)

When I first saw the title The Feminine Touch I thought it was going to be a drag classic romantic comedy. Then I saw that Rosalind Russell and Don Ameche were in it along with Kay Francis and Van Heflin and figured it could not be that bad. And it was not I enjoyed the film a lot.

            Don Ameche plays John Hathaway a psychology professor in a small collage where education is put on the backburner to football. During one of his classes he finds a kid called Rubber- Legs carving his name in a heart along with John’s wife Julie’s name in it as well! John does not say much nor does he get jealous. He was supposed to pick up Julie (Russell) at the train station but he gets called into the dean’s office. Rubber- Legs takes advantage of this situation and picks up Julie saying that John had sent him to do so.

            When Julie gets to the house she tells her husband that Rubber- Legs picked her saying he had sent him to do so. John then tells her about the carving on the desk. She questions if he did anything out of jealousy. Since John was not jealous Julie gets mad and tells him just to get a reaction out of him that she saw her old fiancé when she was home and how she went out dancing with him and had a good time. John does not even react in the slightest to this news he just sits in his chair nice and calm which irritates Julie to no end.

            The next day the dean has John give Rubber- Legs the easiest test he can come up with so the kid can pass and play in the important game that weekend. John makes the test so easy but Rubber- Legs is just so stupid. John gets fed up he has fit. He has taken Julie to New York City where he plans to have his psychology book published. The next morning he regrets having dragged her to the city once he hears all the noise outside so early in the morning. Julie convinces him to stay and get his book published.

            They go to the publisher’s office together. They want to see a man named Elliot Morgan (Van Heflin) but he is not in and they are taken care of by his secretary Nellie Woods. Nellie tells John she liked the book especially the part about jealousy in marriage and suggests that John make the whole book about that. Nellie is very outgoing around John and almost completely ignores Julie which Julie does not like and becomes jealous. When John and Nellie go into her office to go over the book and sign the contract Julie is left outside. She sees a door lock with a key in it start moving and a newspaper come out from under the door. Whoever is in the next room wanted to get the key onto the paper to slide the key under the door but the door is too low and he does not get the key. Julie sees the person struggling and asks if he needs help. The person in locked in the room was Elliot Morgan he had been locked in the room by Nellie so she could be the one making the deal. He walks fast past Julie but as soon as he lays eyes on her he is very taken with her. At this time John and Nellie walk out of the room. John can see that the kind of woman his wife is might be good for Elliot since he has never known a woman to trust him. John is not worried about his wife going with Elliot but Julie is worried about the publisher and he secretary since she can see they like each other.

            The rest of the film sees Julie mad at John for not being jealous. All she wants is for her husband to jealous like she is when she walked in on John with Nellie in his arms. She even has a Surrealist-like dream where she and John are walking down a road and he punches all the guys who look at her out and she wakes up with a smile on her face thinking it was real. Eventually John does get jealous of Elliot when he thinks he asked Julie to his island in New England. Elliot does ask Nellie to marry him since he could not bear life without her.

            The funniest scene of the film is at the end when John and Elliot fight each other. The fight is too hysterical to describe except for the fact that they punch each other out. After they punch each other out Nellie and Julie exchange some words and then get into a cat fight themselves!

            I loved this cast they were all perfect together. Don Ameche was so good. I am used to seeing him as this nicely put together gentleman from Heaven Can Wait that seeing him all frazzled and not as well dressed was so funny. I love the man even more I think he was such a good actor. Rosalind Russell in my mind is the ultimate comedic actress. Her facial expressions crack me up alone. I did not really like seeing her as the jealous woman trying to get her husband to be jealous but she was just fantastic. Kay Francis I have absolutely nothing but praise for her. She looked amazing and had this wonderful tough New York City working girl attitude. Francis had a speech impediment that she was able to hide pretty well in the 1930s but later writers in Hollywood started to mess with her and give her words where her impediment can be clearly heard and in this film in a few scenes especially when she gets mad you can hear it. I think it makes her more endearing and the funny situations funnier. Van Heflin was a panic. I am so used to him as this serious guy from some of the other films I have seen him. I had such a great time seeing Heflin as this womanizing guy with a fiery attitude.

            The Feminine Touch is a very funny film with a different kind of plot but it starts getting a bit too much and becomes a little confusing. I did enjoy watching this film a lot I thought it was funny and very entertaining with a great cast and great dialogue. As of right now The Feminine Touch is not out on DVD nor is it available on Youtube. TCM played the film for Kay Francis’s day their Summer Under the Stars program. If TCM ever does play the film again definitely catch it.