Silent Sundays: Lucky Star (1929)

When most people think of silent films they either think of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton or Louise Brooks or actors and actresses being way too melodramatic. When I say I watch silent films I get stared at as if I have three heads. Someone usually says they cannot even stand watching black and white films let alone a film without talking. Before I go off on a tirade I have to think that six years ago I did not even like to watch Young Frankenstein because it was made in black and white. I think I have come a long way since then. When I think of the silent era I think of Greta Garbo in her performance in A Woman of Affairs, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, and Lon Chaney in HE Who Gets Slapped, John Gilbert and Eleanor Boardman in Bardleys the Magnificent, The Cabinet of Dr. Calagary, Gloria Swanson in Sadie Thompson, and so many other films. Over the past several months I have begun to watch silent films that Janet Gaynor made. I adore her and the film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. I recently began to watch Gaynor’s films she made with Charles Farrell who she was paired with ten times. Now when I think of the silent era I will think also of Gaynor and Farrell. Of the pair’s films I have seen Seventh Heaven and Lucky Star.

            Mary Tucker (Gaynor) lives and works on a small farm with her mother and younger brothers and sisters. They all work the farm from the early morning into late in the day. One morning a few telephone line workers want milk from their farm. Mary goes to where the men are working. She sells a bottle of milk to a guy named Wrenn. Instead of handing the nickel to Mary, Wrenn throws it and it lands on the ground. Mary hides the nickel in the dirt and tells Wrenn that he did not pay her. Wrenn starts to get mad saying he did pay her. Tim (Farrell) is up at the top of the telephone pole. He yells down for Wrenn to pay Mary. Wrenn gets mad at Tim, he climbs up the pole and the two of them start fighting. The work phone rings. Tim answers it and gets the news that War has been declared. All the men run away from the sight to enlist immediately leaving Tim and Mary behind alone. As he climbs down the pole he sees Mary dig the nickel out of the dirt. When he gets down he grabs a hold of Mary and starts smacking her behind telling her she is a dirty low-down thief. She gets Tim back by biting him in the leg. On the way home Mary passes Tim leaving his house. He tells her he is leaving for the front. Mary asks Tim if he wants a ride into town and declines saying he has two legs that can take him there.

            Mary writes both Tim and Wrenn in Europe after she sees a sign asking people to write to soldiers overseas. Both men think they are special to her until they realize she wrote both of them. The night they receive their letters Wrenn, as sergeant, was supposed to take food to the men at the front. He begs off to go into Paris to find some women and gets Tim to drive the truck out. Tim’s truck is shelled. He is injured and the poor cook dies.

            A year later Mary is walking home when she happens to glance at Tim’s place. She sees he has returned home. She throws a rock at his window and accidentally breaks it. She runs away as quickly as she can. Tim is now in a wheelchair. He spent a year in the hospital after he was injured. Mary comes closer to the house. Tim tells her to come in. She is surprised to see him in a wheelchair. He makes her laugh by spinning the chair around and around. Mary asks Tim what he cannot use his feet. He tells her he is saving them for a special occasion. He asks her to stay for dinner. He gives her the nickname Baa-baa because he thinks of Mary as a black sheep. Before she leaves Mary apologizes for breaking the window but she got him back for the licking he had given her. Tim says he is not mad because he made a friend. He wants Mary to come over again.

            The next day Mary comes over to find Tim outside with a wash basin next to him. He heard that some people have washed their hair with eggs and want to try it out on her. Several eggs latter Mary’s hair is a big frizzy mess but Tim declares he did not know she was a blonde. He goes to wash the rest of her but then he asks how old she is and she replies she is almost eighteen. Tim makes Mary go wash herself up somewhere where he cannot see her.       

 

            While driving through town Mary sees a poster for a fireman’s ball and a dress in a shop window. That night she sneaks out to Tim’s house so she can get changed into her new dress. Before she goes Mary tells Tim she wishes he was going with her to the dance. When Mary leaves Tim tries to get up and walk on his own with the help of his crutches but he falls down. At the ball Mary runs into Wrenn. Everyone in town knows Wrenn’s reputation. One man tells another that Wrenn has no right wearing his army uniform because he was kicked out. Wrenn leaves the girl he had brought to the ball to go charm Mary. After the dance Mary returns to Tim’s house to change and Wrenn is with her to bring her home. Tim is furious with Wrenn because he knows that Wrenn’s intensions are not good. As soon as they get to Mary’s house Wrenn is trying to kiss her. She manages to get out of his clutches but she runs into her mother’s which are violent and angry. Her mother thinks Mary has been sneaking off for long periods of time to be with Tim and that she was with him that night. Wrenn hears the commotion and goes to the window. Immediately upon entering the house Wrenn is trying to sweet talk the mother by telling her how much he loves Mary and that he wants to marry and be good to her.

            Sometime later Mary goes to Tim to tell him her mother does not want her to see him. Her mother thinks it is not respectable for her to be seeing him because he is a cripple. Tim tells her he will make her mother understand he wants to go speak to her the following day. He gives Mary a bracelet with “BAA-BAA” engraved on the inside. Mary remarks that it is just like a wedding ring. Wren meanwhile applies all the butter he can to Mary’s mother. He lies to the mother by saying he has been made a Major in the army and he can give Mary a good home where she (the mother) and the kids can come and live with them and that the army will be paying for the wedding. When Mary comes home her mother beats her because she kept Wrenn waiting two hours. Mary tells her mother she does not want to marry Wrenn. Her mother tells her she just wants to see her with Wrenn so she will have a better life.

            On the day Tim is supposed to come Mary washes up her brothers and sisters. Her mother still does not approve of Tim. Mary waits all day for Tim to show up. She becomes worried and has the delivery boy check on him and to bring him over. The delivery boy sees Tim trying to get through the snow on his wheelchair but without success. He tries to help Tim and unfortunately there is nothing he can do. Tim says he will just have to wait until the storm lets up. All night Tim works on trying to stand and walk with his crutches.

            Mary is heartbroken the next day thinking Tim does not love her and that he did not come and rescue her. Now she has to go with Wrenn. Tim struggles through the snow on his crutches to get to her. By the time he gets to Mary’s house she is gone with Wrenn. Tim fights his way all the way into to town. Mary sees him struggling to make his way to her. She runs to Tim as he makes it to her using just one crutch. Wrenn comes out and the two men have a brawl and several other men come to break up the fight. Eventually with the help of the other men Tim gets Wrenn on the train he was supposed to leave on with Mary.

            Mary asks Tim if this was the occasion he had been saving to use his legs for.

            Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell were wonderful together. I love their pairing. I am not normally a fan of the rough and tumble guy falling for the sweet naïve young her girl but Gaynor and Farrell played their characters just right that I did not have a problem with the set up. You can see they had a nice chemistry together. It was not a sexual chemistry or strong loving chemistry it was a nice sweet chemistry, a kind of chemistry where you can see they truly just love being together in each other’s company. The scene where Tim tells Mary she should wash her hands before she eats was ridiculously adorable. Tim tells Mary to wash her hands and she replies she just washed them that morning. He says that was in the morning she has to wash her hands now to each. He goes over to the basin and washes his hands and she sheepishly looks at him. He grabs her hand and pulls her over to the basin. The scene was played so well it was adorable and perfect. Gaynor and Farrell were just equal in their acting ability. Yes, he was supposed to be the tough older man to her innocent young girl but they both had such a nice nature to their acting they did not overshadow each other.

            This is the last film that Gaynor and Farrell would make with Frank Borzage. Borzage made a wonderful film. Everything he filmed was just brilliant. He captured every expression and emotion of all the actors. He made you love and feel for all of them even the mother who wanted better for her daughter and for Wrenn who was an idiot. Borzage’s direction is like a work of art it is just beautiful and enjoyable.

            Lucky Star from beginning to end is wonderful. I have no complaints about the film whatsoever. The story is not earth shatteringly good and neither is the acting but the film is just fantastic. There was no passion or lust in the characters there was just love. Several silent films I have seen are like this and these are the ones I usually like the most. Lucky Star is a film I absolutely recommend seeing as soon as you can. Maybe even you will think of Lucky Star and Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell when you think to the silent era of film.

            Lucky Star is currently available to view on Youtube. It is not available on DVD. 

Trade Winds (1938)

Trade Winds is the kind of film that should be more well known. The story is not earth shatteringly amazing and the direction is so-so, it becomes a bit too much and over dramatic in some scenes. The reason Trade Winds should be more well known is because of the cast and their acting. The acting is not even stand out acting but every one of the cast members was top notch and perfect in their roles.

            Kay Kerrigan (Joan Bennett) gets a call from the police that they have found her sister’s body. Kay goes to her sister’s boyfriend Thomas Bruhme. She thinks Bruhme is the murderer and wants to kill him. It appears she does kill him. In the car Kay realizes she left her pocketbook in the boyfriend’s apartment.

            Detective Ben Blodgett (Ralph Bellamy) has been assigned to the case. He learns that Bruhme died from a crack to the skull. Since she left her pocketbook in the apartment Kay is Blodgett’s number one suspects and sends the police to search for her. The police chase Kay to the edge of a river. She drives her car into the water. Ben thinks Kay has killed herself and officially closes the case. Kay survived the crash and swims away. The police know Kay is still alive and she knows they are still after her. She makes it to Honolulu where she dyes her hair black from her natural blonde.

            The police commissioner Blackton (Thomas Mitchell) points out that Bruhme’s father owns the paper and that he is out for Kay along with the rest of the city. Blackton is brought Kay’s ring from a pawn shop. After this he puts Sam Wye (Fredric March), a former police detective, on the case. Although Sam had been fired from the police force, Blackton wants him on the case because he can find anyone. Blackton sends along Blodgett to keep an eye on Sam.   

            Sam is able to get information on Kay from some girls. They tell him a woman fitting her description came in with blonde hair for a dye job and that she had a ticket for Japan. Sam treks it to Japan and finds out from a Geisha that Kay went to Shanghai. In Shanghai Ben walks right into Kay not knowing she is now a brunette. For some reason he is convinced she is in New Zealand. Sam’s secretary Jeanie (Ann Sothern) shows up in China. She is also looking for Kay because Bruhme’s father has set a $100,000 reward for whoever catches Kay. Jeanie tracked Kay down through the British embassy and steamship log. Sam takes what Jeanie has told him and has her stay behind to pay the bill. He meets Kay on the ship. Sam immediately likes her. They begin to see each other when they land in Saigon.

            Jeanie winds up finding Sam and Kay and she becomes Kay’s maid. She knows perfectly well who Kay is. Ben also meets them in Saigon. He lets it slip that he and Sam are detectives. Jeanie wants half of the reward money but Sam does not want to hand Kay over. She almost blackmails her boss. To get the money Jeanie calls Kay to tell her to leave because she read Sam’s cable and saw that he left her out.

            Kay thought she got away but Sam found her again. He tells her he is going back to San Francisco but he is going to report that he failed to her. Blodgett figures out that the woman he thought was Mary Holden is actually Kay Kerrigan. He sends a cable to San Francisco that Sam has no intentions of turning Kay in. Sam gets a cable from Blackton that another detective named Faulkner will pick Kay up in Bombay. Jeanie and Ben are on the same ship. When Sam sees Faulkner he turns Jeanie over and he makes Ben think a woman in a bathrobe was Kay and Ben winds up shutting her up in the bathroom.

            Sam and Kay make it to a remote island and are finally alone. They talk about staying on the island forever. Unfortunately Faulkner finds them. The detective shoots at them. Sam makes it look like he had Kay the whole time. He has her handcuffed. Back in San Francisco Sam gets the $100,000 reward. Kay feels cheap after the way Sam treated her, she does not care if she lives or dies. Ben and Jeanie go to see Kay in jail. They bring her what they think are her gloves from Bruhme’s apartment. Kay tells them they are not her gloves.

            Sam knows Kay is not the killer. His reasons for everything he did are that the killer would have no issue coming out in public now that someone was arrested for the crime. Besides seeing Kay’s sister Bruhme had been seeing six other women. Sam plans a party and the one who does not show up is the guilty one. Every one of the women and some of their husbands come to the party. Sam has a fake radio broadcast of the trial playing. One of the husbands becomes upset that Kay is sentenced for the murder and confesses he is the actual murderer.

            As I mentioned at the beginning the cast is great. Joan Bennett was gorgeous and wonderful. I am still trying to get through some more of her films but for some reason with every film I have seen her in I have been surprised by her acting. I do not know what I am expecting from her but she just always surprises me and it is in a good way. I have enjoyed her acting in the films I have seen of hers so far. Trade Winds is the film where Bennett dyed her hair brunette and never went back to being a blonde. Her brunette hair completely changed her career. She went from being cast as these fragile innocent women to being gorgeous alluring femme fatales. Fredric March I feel does not get enough attention. The man could do drama and comedy and whatever he was tasked to act with the utmost perfection. He made a perfect quick thinking detective. It would have been interesting to see March and Bennett in a noir together as the detective and femme fatale, it totally could have worked. Ralph Bellamy was no longer the mean angry rough guy he was in his Pre-Code days. He was now the bumbling silly actor in films to get a laugh or bring lightness. Regardless I still loved Bellamy in this. He was very funny especially when he pushed the woman into the bathroom and kept her in there on the ship thinking the woman was Kay. I must confess that I lied when I said Maisie Goes to Reno was the first time I had ever seen Ann Sothern in a film. I did not even realize she was in it I did not really pay attention to her character. From what I can recall she was very good too. I liked how she gave Sam a run for his money. Thomas Mitchell is not in the film too much. I just always enjoy seeing him in films he always added something to whatever he was in. Every one of the main cast members worked very well together.

            Trade Winds is a decent film. The story is not too shocking and it is predictable given that Joan Bennett in the lead could not be the actual murderer she had to be innocent to end up with the good guy. Besides the predictable story Trade Winds is a film I would recommend seeing especially for the cast. The film is not available on DVD or Youtube, hopefully TCM will air it again in the near future. 

The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)

“Forgive me. I am not myself. Just now I have been forced to condemn a Man. Poor Man, I found no fault in Him. But I must try to keep the peace.”

            When I was younger I was fascinated with Ancient Rome. In third grade I dressed up as a Roman woman I saw in a book (remember those DC Eye Witness books? That is where I got the idea from. I still have those on Egypt, Rome, and Greece and are displayed proudly on my bookshelves). I can remember first seeing a plaster cast of a body from Pompeii. I was puzzled by how someone wound up in that condition and wondered if their bodies were still inside. Pompeii is such an interesting topic to learn especially from an archaeological/art historical point of view. The town and art works were so beautifully preserved. One of my life’s missions is to get to Italy and see Pompeii.

            This all being said I had to watch the 1935 RKO film The Last Days of Pompeii. I thought the whole film would take place in the last day or two of the city but it actually took place over a series of years and the scene of the last day was not very long.

            The story begins with Marcus (Preston Foster) a blacksmith. He takes down a slave that had escaped from the line he was in with other slaves. The slaveholder takes a look at Marcus and wants him to be a gladiator. Marcus does not want to be a gladiator he has enough money and he is happy with his wife and baby son. The slaveholder gives Marcus money for the job and a silver piece because he likes him. While out spending their money his wife Julia and their son get hit by a carriage. To get the money to pay the taxes and the doctor Marcus agrees to fight in the arena as a gladiator. Marcus does not do this task lightly he is a peaceful man he hates the idea of killing but he desperately needs the money. He wins a fight. Unfortunately when he returns Julia and their son have died.

            Now all Marcus wants and sees is money. As the years go on he becomes a famous gladiator. After a fight a young boy named Flavius is looking for his father who had fought a match. Marcus tells the boy his father died. Marcus takes the boy as his own son. After he takes in Flavius he is more careful in the arena he is afraid of what will happen to the boy if something were to happen to him. During a fight in the arena Marcus was too careful and becomes seriously injured. His fighting days are over.

            Marcus works for the slaveholder he had once helped by gathering conquered people to be gladiators. He now wants enough money to run an arena then he will truly be a rich man. An old soothsayer tells Marcus he will face either success or failure on his next journey. She also tells him to take Flavius to Judea with him to see the greatest man there. In Judea Marcus drops Flavius at an inn. The owner says the great man is at the inn. Marcus goes to see Pontius Pilate (Basil Rathbone). He takes Flavius with him thinking Pilate is the man the soothsayer told him about. Pilate has Marcus lead a group of prisoners to steal horses. When Marcus returns he finds Flavius has been thrown from a horse and is very sick. The philosopher Marcus had hired to be Flavius’s teacher tells him to go to a healer who has been traveling around Judea. The man heals Flavius. Marcus has a chance to save the man but he wants his money more and to get out of the city.

            Years later Marcus and Flavius are noblemen living in a large villa. Flavius keeps trying to remember the man who had healed him Judea. Marcus tells him the man was just a myth. Some of the slaves Marcus has just captured for the slaveholder have gotten away. It turns out Flavius has been hiding them and want to send them to an unknown island where they can all be free. The Prefect (Louis Calhern) and his soldiers have found out where the slaves are. Flavius hears this at his father’s villa and runs to warn the slaves. The soldiers close in on the hiding place. The Romans captures the slaves as well as Flavius.

            The Prefect has the slaves and Flavius sent to city to fight to the death as gladiators. The same day the slaves are fight Vesuvius begins to smoke. Marcus tries to delay the games to see Flavius. The Prefect has enough of waiting and he sends the slaves out into the arena. He refuses to stop the games. He feels Flavius should be punished as well since he helped the slaves. Just as the games are about to begin Vesuvius erupts. Marcus is oblivious to what is happening he is too stunned that no one would help him save Flavius.

            A man who did not help Marcus save Flavius asks Marcus to save his son. Marcus does not want to help since the man did not help him. The man says to have mercy on his son. Marcus remembers he had asked the man in Judea when Flavius had been hurt. He picks the boy up and starts trying to save other people. Marcus risks his like keeping the Romans away from a ship with his money and the slaves on it. In the struggle Marcus is hurt and dying. He sees the Master who had helped his son reaching out to him.

            There were two scenes I found to be very interesting especially because they are in an old film. When Marcus is speaking with Pontius Pilate, the emperor tells Marcus that he had to condemn a man who was not bad but he had to keep the peace. There is also a scene where Pilate tells the people of Judea that he washes his hands of everything. The film showed Pilate condemning Jesus to death and it is the way the Bible tells it. I took a Bible class in college as part of a requirement for Art History and the professor went over the Gospels where they tell of Jesus’ death. The way the film shows it is the way the Bible explains it. Pilate condemned Jesus to appease the people so they would not riot against him.   

            The Last Days of Pompeii is a good film. It was a little long in some parts but it moves along nicely. Preston Foster was great, he is such an underrated actor. Basil Rathbone was perfect in the part of Pontius Pilate he had the look. My only complaint is that the film is supposed to be about the last days of Pompeii and it mostly takes place over the course of several years and mostly away from Pompeii. Despite this complaint I would still recommend seeing The Last Days of Pompeii if TCM airs it again.