My Forbidden Past (1951)

“Beautiful figure underneath those clothes, I imagine.”

“And you thought it wasn’t worth waiting for.”

            There are so many classic films that I wish were available on DVD. My Forbidden Past starring Ava Gardner and Robert Mitchum is one of the several classic films I wish I could add to my collection. It is not one of the greatest films ever made but Ava Gardner gives one of her best performances.

            Barbara Beaurevel (Gardner) has been having an affair with Dr. Mark Lucas(Mitchum). Mark is leaving for South America to study so he can make professor at Tulane. He wants Barbara to come away with him and she wants to desperately. When she gets back to her house she quickly packs but her sneaky slimy cousin Paul (Melvyn Douglas) manipulates her into staying to not ruin the family name. Barbara writes her regrets to Mark but says she still loves him.

            Months later an attorney comes to Barbara’s home to tell her that she has inherited money from her mother’s Crandall family. Her witch of an aunt and Paul lie to the attorney telling him that Barbara has died and turn the man away. Both mother and son are money hungry and nasty people they desperately want Barbara’s money but they do not want the shame of the name with it.

            The day Mark’s ship returns she tells her aunt that she wants to go down to the docks to meet her other cousin who is also on the ship. Paul goes down with her and notices she is looking for Mark. When Mark walks off the ship he is cold to her and tells her he got married while he was away. Barbara is devastated. She knows the attorney was at her house and goes to him seeking the money. As she leaves the attorney’s office he says that he does not like her smile there is something behind it.

            When Paul finds out what Barbara has done he bursts into her room in the morning and pulls her out of bed. She slaps him in the face but he likes it. He and his mother are upset with her for taking Crandall money. Barbara’s grandmother Carrie Crandall was a notorious woman with a bad reputation. Barbara does not care it is her money that has come down to her and she wants to do what she wants with it. Paul and his mother begin to scheme of ways to get Barbara’s money.

            Barbara is throwing a party at her aunt’s house like they used to. She wants Mark and his wife Corinne to come. She personally visits Corinne to give her the invitation but also to see if Corinne really loves Mark. Corinne admits that she is a social climber and will not be happy if Mark does not make a lot of money. At the party Barbara and Mark talk about what happened after he left. He tells he got her letter that she never wanted to see him again. Paul did not deliver her letter to Mark which is why Mark was cold to her.

            After the party Barbara confronts Paul about the letter but offers her dear cousin a deal. She noticed that Corinne was attracted to Paul at the party. She tells her cousin that she will give him fifty thousand dollars to start his own brokerage firm if he can seduce Corinne and get her to leave Mark.

            Barbara’s plan goes well for a while. Corinne does fall in love with Paul but one night things go wrong and he accidentally kills Corinne. Barbara shows up not long after and so does Mark. The town thinks Mark is guilty and he is put on trial. Barbara cannot bear to see her former love accused of something he did not do and yells out in court that it was she and her cousin who killed Corinne.

            Alright so definitely not the greatest story ever but let me tell you Ava Gardner was fabulous. There were certain shots of her face that were absolutely stunning especially the ones of her in the garden during the party. Gardner was very subtle playing her character’s emotions of anger and hurt and sadness. She really played the part just right. Gardner was a good actress but after reading that she really did not care in her earlier career you can see that in some of her performances but in this film she looked like she cared and did an incredible job.

            Robert Mitchum was good but he felt awfully miscast as a doctor from the late 1800s. You can believe him to be a former Northerner who had to gamble his way through school and work hard to get where he is but it is just hard to really accept him in this sort of role. Mitchum and Gardner did have excellent chemistry though, I wish they had made a better film together, they would have been great in a Noir together.

            Now I love seeing Melvyn Douglas in films. His characters in the thirties were always charming and sweet and nice but in this film he was slimy and no good. He did a fabulous job because I really hated his character so much!

            My Forbidden Past is not a very good film the plot has a lot of holes and is very thin but for what we are given and the performances by Ava Gardner, Robert Mitchum, and Melvyn Douglas make up for the thinness. The opening scene alone is worth sitting through the film. It opens up with Mitchum and Gardner by a river. Gardner is lying down in the grass and opens her eyes to see Mitchum standing above her. There is no dialogue here and it is just gorgeous. Whenever My Forbidden Past becomes available on DVD I will surely be buying it simply because it is one of Ava Gardner’s best acted films and for the beautiful opening sequence. 

Silent Sundays: The Gold Rush (1925)

When it comes to Charlie Chaplin films The Gold Rush is considered one of his greatest. I am not sure why the film is considered such to me it was good but not as good as Modern Times and The Great Dictator.

            Chaplin takes his Little Tramp character into Alaska as The Lone Prospector. A title card lets it be known that not many men have made it through a pass in the mountains. Many have attempted to but they usually turn back. Of course Chaplin dressed only in his Tramp outfit of a suit, bowler hat, cane, and floppy dress shoes makes it through.

            On the mountain the wind picks up and a storm blows through. He and a man named Big Jim stumble across a shack where the criminal Black Larsen is living. Big Jim fights with Larsen to stay in the house since the storm is so bad. Whenever Chaplin opens the door is blown back through the other door on the other side of the shack. Big Jim wins and the men settle in for several days as the storm rides out.

            Black Larsen has had enough of stay with the other two and goes out to look for provisions. He comes across a campsite with two men. The men have seen Larsen’s wanted poster and they go after him. Unfortunately in a lawless place Larsen kills the men taking their food as well as their gold.

            Back at the shack Chaplin and Big Jim are starving. Big Jim begins to imagine Chaplin as a giant turkey and goes after him. For Thanksgiving Chaplin cooks his shoe which he happily eats. Eventually a bear comes through the shack and Chaplin kills it giving them some real food.

            Chaplin and Big Jim leave the shack. Big Jim goes to find his claim and runs into Larsen. He sees what Larsen has done to the other two men and attacks him in anger. Larsen hits Big Jim over the head so hard that he forget where he is and wanders aimlessly back into town. Larsen gets his comeuppance when as he is walking along a cliff edge the ground breaks apart sending him to his death.

            Back in town Chaplin walks into a dancehall. The moment he sets eyes the beautiful dance girl Georgia he is taken with her. As with most of Chaplin’s romances in his films the love he has for Georgia is innocent and sweet. Georgia is not very much interested since she leads a rather wild life in the dancehall. Chaplin goes to walk out but he finds a torn picture of Georgia on the ground and instead of leaving walks back in. A big tough guy named Jack is in love with Georgia but he is very rough with her and will not listen when she says she does not want to dance with him. Out of spite she finds Chaplin and dances with him. After the dance Georgia goes into her dressing room. Jack goes after her and Chaplin innocently and gentlemanly guards her door. He flinches every time Jack moves his hands up.

            The next day Chaplin ingeniously gets himself invited into a house where a man is making some beans. The man takes Chaplin on as a partner and when he leaves to go look for a claim he has Chaplin take care of the cabin. One day he finds Georgia and her friends playing in the snow outside the cabin. He has them all come in. Georgia sits on the bed and finds her picture under his pillow. He invites them all to come over that night to celebrate New Year’s. In order to get some food and presents he shovels for people all day. That night he waits for them all to come. He imagines the fun they will have and how they will react to his gifts. By midnight Georgia and her friends never come they were at the dancehall all night. Georgia takes her friends and Jack to trick Chaplin at the cabin. She finds he is not there and sees all his preparations and feels guilty for what she has done since he was so sweet.

            Big Jim returns to town. He tells the claims office that he has a claim but he cannot remember where. If he can only find Chaplin they can find the shack and he can go from there to where his claim is. Big Jim finds Chaplin and tells him if goes he will get part of the claim. They find the shack and in the middle of the night a bad storm pushes the drafty shack towards the edge of the cliff. After several minutes of trying to get of the shack they makes it before the whole thing goes over the edge. Not far away is Big Jim’s claim.

            The two men are now multi-millionaires headed home on a luxurious ship. A photographer asks Chaplin if he would mind putting on his old prospector clothes for the papers. The captain has been looking for a stowaway. Georgia has also had enough of the Alaskan frontier and is on the ship heading back to the mainland. As Chaplin is taking the picture he falls down a ladder in front of Georgia. She thinks he is the stowaway and tries to hide him. Luckily Big Jim finds him and explains who Chaplin is. For the papers he lets the reporter know that he is marrying Georgia and as they take the picture they share a long sweet kiss.

            There are several funny scenes in the film: the one that most people will probably know is when Chaplin does the “dancing rolls” sequence when he imagines the party. He just sticks the rolls on a fork and pretends to make them do a little dance. It is very cute and very funny. It was very cute when Chaplin got so excited when Georgia said that she would come for dinner and he jumped up down on the bed and ripped a feather pillow and all the feathers went everywhere. During his dance with Georgia, Chaplin’s pants start to fall down so he ties them with rope he found. On the other end of the rope was a dog and the dog keeps dragging him away.

            While I am not too much of a fan of The Gold Rush I did think it was a good film. Charlie Chaplin was such a great filmmaker and a great story teller. He really knew how to hit your emotions just right and really create sympathy for his characters. 

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

“There's this part of Judaism that I like. Tikun Olam. It said that the world is broken into pieces and everyone has to find them and put them back together.”
“Maybe we don't have to find it. Maybe we are the pieces.” 

            I am saying this for my own sake but why the hell do I torture myself watching hipster movies? For the longest time I have wanted to see Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, it just looked like a cute movie. Well it was but I could not get over how damn hipster it was and it drove me nuts after a while.

            Nick (Michael Cera) got dumped by his girlfriend Tris. He is depressed about it and she really does not care. He makes her these mix CDs and leaves them on her doorstep. Tris takes them to school and her friend Norah takes them out of the garbage and listens to them. Norah likes all the music that Nick puts on the CDs.

            Nick’s friends that he has a band with convince him to come out and look for their favorite band Fluffy who are running this sort of scavenger hunt to find them at a secret gig location. Norah heads into the city with Tris and her friend Caroline she is always taking care of and being taken advantage by. They all wind up at the same bar. To make Tris think she came with a boyfriend she walks up to Nick who she has never met and tells him just to be her boyfriend for five minutes. Tris walks up to them and gets a little jealous and lets it be known that Nick is her ex.

            The rest of the night is spent trying to find Caroline who Nick’s friends lost and trying to find Fluffy. They keep running into the jealous Tris and Norah’s douche bag ex-boyfriend Tal (Jay Baruchel). Nick and Norah come together through their love of music and how they are both being taken advantage of.

            I was bored with Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Kat Dennings never fails to give a good performance she is so funny and so good. Michael Cera can go suck it I cannot stand him whatsoever he annoys the crap out of me. I did like how everyone was connected by music even if it was not main stream. Music connects people more than anyone realizes. Music is just a great thing; I have so many good memories attached to certain songs and bands/groups. And I really liked how the characters were supposed to be from New Jersey and they took NJ Transit back. I take NJ Transit back from Penn Station all the time... I know I am weird but it is fun when Jersey gets a mention in any form and I see something I recognize. 

            If you like hipster, new-aged, whatever kinds of modern, indie movies than Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is for you otherwise skip it. 

Bed of Roses (1933)

“I like a woman with some spunk. But don’t make a habit of it.”

            When most film fans think of the greatest screen couples they think of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, William Powell and Myrna Loy, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and so on. The last screen pairing anyone would think of or would probably ever know is Joel McCrea and Constance Bennett. McCrea and Bennett made four films together starting with Born to Love in 1931 and ending with Bed of Roses in 1933. McCrea and Bennett do not disappoint in their last film together.

            Lorry Evans (Bennett) and her friend Minnie are ex-hookers who have been released from jail. For a while it seems that both of them will go back to their old ways. They board a riverboat that will take them to New Orleans. They take advantage of some rich men and take their money for their tickets but one of the men is onto Lorry and has her brought to the attention of the captain. Instead of being thrown back in jail Lorry jumps overboard into the river. The night is so foggy that no one can see where she is.

            Lorry swims to a barge that is captained by a man named Dan Walder (McCrea). As he pulls Lorry up he makes her lose her money she stole. She gets mad and kicks Dan overboard. He gets back on the barge, picks Lorry up and tosses her back into the water! As they sail along in the barge Dan and Lorry come to like each other. On the last day of their trip Dan takes out the bag that has the pay for his crew. Lorry takes a great interest in the money. When Dan wakes up the next morning he finds that Lorry is gone and the money for the pay is gone. He is mad but not too mad saying that she must have needed the money pretty badly if she had to steel it.

            Not too long later Lorry looks up a wealthy man named Stephan Paige. He is a publisher and she goes into his office with a big story looking for a job. She gets him to give her a drink, she asks if he will drink with her and he says no but by the end of the night Lorry has Stephan pretty smashed. The next morning he wakes up in his robe and no memory and Lorry walking out of his room. Lorry fakes a fit and makes it look like she is unstable saying she is going to kill herself if he is not nice to her. Stephan carries on an affair with Lorry and gets her an apartment.

            Lorry eventually finds Dan again. She gives him the money she stole. They still have feelings for each other and Lorry realizes that she really loves Dan. She tells Dan that she is a governess for a wealthy family so he will not know what she is really doing. Stephan has Lorry followed he knows she went to the barge and demands that she not go there anymore. After their argument Lorry runs back to Dan and he proposes to her and tells her to runaway with him on the barge. Back at her apartment she calls Minnie to tell her the news but Stephan is standing over her. He is willing to let her go but he is going to tell Dan about her past if she does not. Instead of telling Dan about her shameful past she does not go to the barge leaving Dan heartbroken.

            Lorry moves out of the apartment Stephan was paying for, moved into a small attic room and works as a shop girl. Stephan wants Lorry back and arranges with Minnie to have them meet by “accident.” The plan backfires Lorry does not want to go back to him.

            Dan eventually finds Lorry in her apartment. She tries to tell him that she is no good but he will not listen all he knows is that he loves her regardless of what she was and has done.

            Constance Bennett and Joel McCrea were excellent together. Bennett never fails to be amazing. She has such a fabulous attitude especially when she swims up to the barge. I love the tough 1930s female characters and Bennett is one of the best. McCrea plays the nice poor boy with the heart of gold who Bennett falls for. He was so incredibly handsome and so sweet that when Lorry does not go with him you are really made at her! Hell, if I ever met a man who was handsome like McCrea I would surely run away with him! What I like about Joel McCrea and Constance Bennett’s paring is that they were really good looking together. Let me tell you they have one of the best screen kisses I have ever seen! Bennett oozed this sex appeal that, while McCrea was incredibly good looking anyway, made him look even more good looking and incredibly handsome. I really wish their screen pairings would be more recognized they were so good together.

            Bed of Roses is not a stand out film but with Constance Bennett as the star and Joel McCrea as her leading man it is worth sitting through. Bed of Roses is unfortunately not available on DVD nor is it on youtube. Try to catch the film if it ever airs on TCM again. 

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

“Faith. Hope. Charity. You have Faith. Barney has Hope. And we need Charity!”

            When I first viewed Gold Diggers of 1933 I only watched it for Ginger Rogers who was barely in the film. Since Rogers did not have a large part I did not really think anything of the film. I liked it but I did not really pay too much attention when Ginger was not on the screen. A few years later I became more of a classic film fan, a fan of pre-code films, a fan of Joan Blondell, and a fan of Dick Powell. Today I viewed Gold Diggers of 1933 with new eyes and interest and truly enjoyed and loved this film.

            Nineteen thirty three was the worse year of the depression. Unemployment was sky high and there seemed to be no end in sight for the American people. Suffering along with the millions of out of work people are chorus girls and roommates Carol (Blondell), Polly (Ruby Keeler), and Trixie (Aline MacMahon). They have not had a job in quite some time and their rent is due. Another fellow out of work chorus girl Fay (Rogers) comes to their apartment to tell them that a guy named Barney is putting on a show. All four girls get very excited. Carol decides she is going to go down to Barney’s office to if the news is true.

            While the rest of girls wait for the Carol to come back, Polly sits and pines away at Brad (Powell) who has just moved in across the way. Brad is a composer so he plays and sings the piano all day. Carol, in tears of joy, calls the apartment to tell them it is true that Barney is putting on a play and that he is coming back to the apartment with her. When Barney comes over he hears Brad across the way. He likes what he hears and has Brad come over. Barney listens to more of what Brad has composed and signs him on to the show even putting him in the lead with Polly. Brad says he cannot be in the lead but does not explain. The producer tells everyone that he would love to go ahead with the show but the backers have bowed out along with their money. He needs fifteen thousand. Brad says he can have the money to him by the next day.

            No one really believes that Brad can get the money and in cash as he promised but he pulls through and the show goes forward. Trixie and Polly think Brad stole the money from a bank after they read about a robbery in the paper and they see him give money to a man who looks like a gangster.

            The night of the show the lead actor gets a bad back. Barney needs Brad to go on in the lead but he just cannot but does not explain why. Eventually Barney and the girls tug at his heartstrings and he accepts to go in the lead. The show becomes a hit and all the girls have money they never thought they would have.

            The news gets back to Brad’s brother Lawrence (Warren William). The brothers are part of an old wealthy Boston family. Lawrence is trying to protect the family name he does not want it splattered all over Broadway which he sees as a sleazy profession. He also does not want Brad to marry Polly a chorus girl. Carol and Trixie hear how Lawrence wants to break the couple up and decide to have some fun with Lawrence and the family lawyer Peabody. Carol pretends to be Polly and Trixie has a fabulous time taking Peabody for all he is worth! After a while Lawrence starts to fall for Carol as Polly and wants to try to break her and Brad up. When Lawrence professes his love he drunk beyond reason. Trixie comes up with the idea to put him in Carol’s bed but neither Carol nor Polly like the idea. When Lawrence wakes up the next morning he writes Carol a big check but she feels so bad she just has it framed instead of cashing it.

            In the end Lawrence finds out that Carol is really not Polly. Carol feels really bad because she came to love him. Brad and the real Polly get married and his brother finds out in the paper.

            This is a happy go lucky musical so you should know that everything ends well with the characters.  

            If you look at this film knowing what was taking place in America in 1933 Gold Diggers is a perfect example of history on film. MGM may have had the glamour and the films that made you forget your troubles but Warner films had a social message and their characters were working people. Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, and Aline MacMahon their characters were starving chorus girls looking for their break and being able to eat. I loved Rogers, Blondell, and MacMahon were snarky wisecrackers with tough attitudes. I guess they had to be just to keep their heads up.

            Gold Diggers I believe was the first pre-code film I ever saw without even realizing it. Now that I know the pre-code era better I can definitely say that this is one of the best example of a pre-code film. Ginger Rogers is pretty much in her underwear in the opening sequence and when we are first introduced to Polly, Carol, and Trixie they are in their underwear and robes. In the “Petting in the Park” sequence the chorus girls get changes behind these screens and you can clearly see their silhouettes as they are changing. During the same number the girls are in metal outfits that the guys cannot get off of them. Brad and Polly are the focus and he gets frustrated and gets a can opener.

            I adore this cast. Ginger Rogers was the pest of the group who thought she was better than everyone. She opens the film with her performance of “We’re in the Money.” She was snarky and wonderful, I love Ginger’s attitude in her early films she always played the perfect 1930s modern girl. When I sat through this film the first time I did not really think much of the cast but as I said in the beginning of this review I have since come to be a fan of Joan Blondell and Dick Powell. Like Rogers, Blondell was also the perfect 1930s modern girl. She had the attitude and the look. I liked how her character was a bit tough at the beginning and then when Carol falls in love with Lawrence she softens up a bit. Dick Powell was so charming and cute… that is all I can really say for him in this film. He gave a great performance in the one musical number he did. Aline MacMahon as Trixie pretty much steals the whole film. She was so funny because Trixie was supposed to be the comedian and she really did not care what she did. Her scenes with Peabody were some of the best it is so funny how she just totally takes advantage of the poor guy. Ruby Keeler… she was not horrible but she was not great. Her singing was not very good and her dancing was very stiff.

            I only liked one of the Busby Berkeley numbers and that was it. The “Petting in the Park” number was good I could sit through that one but the ones where the dancers have the neon violins I fast forward through it, it was too long. The ending number that closes the film, though, is probably one of the best numbers ever put on film and one that sums up the entire depression. It is called “My Forgotten Man” and is about the soldiers who fought in The Great War and are ignored by the government. It really is moving and excellently well done.

            Gold Diggers of 1933 is one of the best films to be made in the 1930s. As I mentioned in the review Warner Bros. Studio made films with social messages and this film greatly sends out the message of what working people went through during the depression. 

The Girl Who Had Everything (1953)

I really do not like remakes especially if they were of films that should have been left alone. Someone once told me the reason for remakes is because the originals were not good… if that was true than there would be no need for The Thin Man and Hitchcock’s Rebecca to be remade. The Girl Who Had Everything starring Elizabeth Taylor and William Powell is a remake of the incredible 1931 film A Free Soul starring Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Clark Gable, and Lionel Barrymore. I only sat through this remake because William Powell is in it and I adore the man to no end otherwise I never would have even bothered especially because Elizabeth Taylor is the star.

            So the plot is this girl Joan Latimer (Taylor) has been given everything she has wanted in her life. Her father Steve (Powell) is a high powered attorney who travels all over the place for rich clients. One of his clients is the gangster Victor Raimondi (Fernando Lamas). He is currently on trial for running an illegal gambling establishment in New York City. Besides that he is known to have killed people and stolen and other typical gangster activities. He is being tried in Washington DC in the Supreme Court.

            Joan goes down to see her father in DC and as soon as the gangster and the good girl lay eyes on each other it is love at first sight. At first Steve does not mind but when Victor moves down to Kentucky where they live and starts giving her expensive things he tries to get Joan away from the guy. His plan backfires when Joan runs away to marry Victor in New York City.

            Back in the city Victor says he is going to give up his racket but does not when he reads that Steve has some new evidence that can convict him. Steve comes up to the city and Victor threatens him to go down to DC. Victor punches the poor guy and screams at him. Joan is beyond upset and wants to leave Victor but he will not let her. That night at a stop light Victor is murdered in a mob hit.

            God this film was so boring! It is worse knowing that it was a remake of A Free Soul which was incredibly sexy and shocking. Elizabeth Taylor is in absolutely no way Norma Shearer! I know that The Girl Who Had Everything was made in wholesome fifties and A Free Soul was made in the scandalous pre-code era but just thinking of Taylor at a young age playing a sexy scandalous woman who pretty much wants a relationship and sex like man if there had been no production code makes my stomach turn.

            William Powell was the only good part of this film. This was his last picture for MGM and one of his last films before retiring. Powell was just his wonderful self even dramatic and older he was charming even if he was not supposed to be. It was weird not seeing him funny or acting with the leading ladies I am used to seeing him with.

            Elizabeth Taylor I am not a big fan of and never have been. When she was younger her acting was alright but her voice just gets on my nerves. She was stunning I cannot deny or say she was not gorgeous.

            The Girl Who Had Everything felt like a waste of my time. As I said I only watched it because William Powell was in the film. You are better off watching A Free Soul which I highly recommend that is an awesome film.