On Our Merry Way (1948)

I was reading a review for On Our Merry Way and the reviewer said that the film is like when you read a book that you cannot get into but you have to see the whole way through to see how it ends even though the ending is predictable. I completely agree with argument on that review. The only reason I even bothered to watch this film was because Paulette Goddard was the first billed. I adore Paulette Goddard and I have already watched her in anything and two of three of those anythings have not been good. On Our Merry Way included. She was not even in the film that long.

            On Our Merry Way is about a newspaper writer named Oliver Pease ( Burgess Meredith). Well, he is not really a reporter he writes the pages for lost pets. He has never told his wife of seven months that he writes ads for lost pets. He has Martha (Goddard) believe that he is the roving reporter making fifty bucks a week. Martha gives Oliver the question for what she thinks is his next roving report- “Has a child ever influenced your life?”

            Oliver goes into work and pretends to be someone from the head office and convinces his boss to let him write the roving section. Before Oliver walks out the door he is hunted down by a goon working for a bookie. Oliver had placed a few bets and lost a lot of money. So not only is he running around town looking for stories he is now running away from some goon trying not to get the crap beat out of him.

            Trying to get away from the goon he runs into a bar. He sees two musicians Lank (Henry Fonda) and Slim (James Stewart) and asks them a question. They go into the story of how their car broke down when they were on the road. They came up with the idea to hold a band contest but the mayor’s kid that they ran into said his father would not have any because the kid would never win. Lank and Slim plan to have the kid win so they can keep the money from the show but the mechanic has another idea. His “baby” daughter Gloria is a beautiful young lady who can play all kinds of instruments. Lank and Slim were going to be the judges so the mayor’s son would win but the mechanic found Harry James and had him be the judge. So obviously the whole thing for Slim and Lank goes south and the “baby” Gloria winds up winning and going out on the road with the band.

            The next person Olivier runs into is a priest at a church. Reverend John B. Dunne (Charles Laughton) regales the story how a number of years ago he realized he was not a very good priest. People were leaving his church and he could not get through to anyone. He decided he was going to resign and leave the parish. As he was waiting a little boy came up to him saying that John had to follow him someone needed him. John was reluctant at first but he followed the boy to a house. Before John could get the boy’s name he disappeared. John was brought upstairs to a man who seems to have asthma and thought he was going to die. The man was extremely angry with John for being a priest he did not believe in religion and is outrageously bitter. The man calls John weak and John agrees with him but the man says something else that makes John turn around and begin to read the story from Kings about David and Goliath. The man is able to calm down as he listens to the story and he feels better. When John goes to leave he sees a photograph of the little boy he saw outside. The man says the little boy was his son and that he died. After this John went back to his home and tore up the letter and ever since then he has become a better priest.

            The last person Olivier comes across is a guy named Al (Fred MacMurray). Al and his friend Floyd were traveling down to Florida when they had gotten arrested and were brought over the county line by two sheriffs. When the sheriffs leave Al and Floyd think they are being held up by a gangster. They turn around and see it is a little kid called Sniffles who likes to think he is a gangster. He takes the two men to his mine where he has been living. Al asks if he has any family and he says only a rich uncle who does not like him very much. This gives Al the idea to try to find out who the uncle is so they can get money for bringing the kid back. For the few days Floyd and Al are with Sniffles he tortures them to no end with his crazy tricks. Al eventually goes into town and finds Sniffles’s uncle. The uncle has been driven to insanity by Sniffles and does not want the kid back. After some negotiation and lying Al gets Sniffles back to his uncle but the uncle wants to bring Floyd and Al up on extortion. Sniffles suggests they work their money off and Al has no problem with that once he sees the sister.

            Oliver rushes back to the office but his boss has found him out. He tears up Oliver’s write up for the Roving Reporter and fires him. As soon as he steps out of the building the goon beats up. The police bring Oliver back to his apartment. Martha brings him inside and tells him she knew all along that he worked for the lost pets pages and she was trying to push him to make more money. She tells him the reason she pushed him and gave him the question was because she is going to have a baby. In the midst of their furniture being taken away the boss comes in after having read Oliver’s report and tells him he loved it and will take him back.  

            So there you go now you do not have to watch the film. Please spare yourself the one hundred and five minutes watch another film that is better.

            Paulette Goddard only got top billing because she was married to Burgess Meredith at the time and he produced the film. She is only in it for the first ten minutes if that and the last ten minutes if that. Henry Fonda and James Stewart seemed a little out of their element doing comedy but I loved them they were so funny together. Dorothy Lamour played the “baby” in their story. I have never seen her in anything before she was not bad. Charles Laughton’s scenes depending on which version you see were originally cut because it was not comedic enough with the rest of the film. Fortunately I saw the version where his scene was kept in and I really liked him and the scene. It was the only watchable one. Fred MacMurray’s part was boring as sin. I think by the time his scene came on I had enough of the film.

            On Our Merry Way was very boring but I had to finish it. I knew what the ending was right from the moment Paulette Goddard gives Burgess Meredith the question so no shock there. Unless you are huge fans of Paulette Goddard, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Charles Laughton, Fred MacMurray or Burgess Meredith absolutely skip the film.  

Elena and Her Men (1956)

The only foreign films of Ingrid Bergman’s I have seen are some of her Swedish films before she came to America. I still have yet to see her films she made with Roberto Rossellini but I am holding those off for a bit. I did not realize that Bergman’s real comeback film Elena and Her Men was filmed in French before I sat down to watch it. My favorite foreign films come from France. I find that they are extremely passionate about filmmaking and creating good stories for their films. So saying that I find it fitting that Ingrid Bergman who probably has the most passion in her craft as an actress was in a French language film.

            Elena (Bergman) is a former Polish princess living in Paris during the 1880s. She has just helped a young pianist create a concert and is set to have it staged. He asks her to marry him and just walks away letting him know is so many ways that she is done with him. This is not the first time Elena has helped a young man out as a patroness or a good luck charm.

            Her aunt wants her to marry a rich man named Martin-Michaud. Elena bluntly asks the man when they are going to get married when he comes by the house. Martin-Michaud is only too happy to accept that they are to be married. He takes her in his car down to the crowded streets. It is Bastille Day in the middle of a parade for a general named Rollan and the car gets stuck. Elena is literally swept out of the car as soon as she opens it. She gets shoved and moved throughout the crowed as they excitedly await the sight of the general. Elena pleasantly bumps into a man named Henri (Mel Ferrer). Henri tells her he can take her to personally see the general since he has something to do with the government. Elena meets the general and gives him a daisy for luck which she gives all the men she meets except for Henri.

            After Elena gives Rollan the daisy he is asked if he would like to be appointed to the French cabinet by the president. Rollan’s advisors see it as a trap and do not want him to take the position but he takes it anyway. A beautiful girl he has been seeing comes to him at this time, she takes the daisy and throws it on the ground.

            That night Elena and Henri have a fun night out on the town celebrating with other Parisians and drinking wine. In a small café Henri suggests going back to his place and tries to kiss Elena but she backs away. She gets nervous and runs out into the crowd where Henri loses her. When Henri goes to her place sometime later he learns that she has moved to Martin-Michaud’s chateau out in the country.

            In the meantime, the military’s air balloon carrying a captain has accidentally landed in Germany. The Germans see the captain with his balloon as being a spy. The situation to have the captain released is put up to Rollan. Henri and Rollan’s advisors have not had the chance to really speak to him since he has been constantly seeing Elena at the chateau. Henri travels with the advisors out to the chateau for an engagement dinner and to have Elena and the general sit and speak with each other. Elena is told that she is being given a special assignment to have the general make some kind of agreement with the Germans to release the captain.

            From this point on the situation gets a little messy and complicated to explain… mostly because I was starting to lose interest in the film somewhat.

            Ingrid Bergman was fabulous. From the first frame she is in to the last she was so beautiful. I loved seeing her in color I did not realize her hair was that light! No matter what language she is speaking be it Swedish, English or French the woman was such an amazing actress. Bergman just commands your attention with her acting.

            

            Robert Osbourne said at the end of the film that Ingrid Bergman wanted to work with director Jean Renoir when they were both in Hollywood. He told her that the time was not right for them to work together and that if she were to ever fall he would be there with a net to catch her. Well he came at the right time with his net. Bergman had been working with Rossellini since he did not want her working with any other director but he respected Renoir and let her work with him. This film lead to Bergman getting the part for Anastasia that became her Hollywood comeback.

          Mel Ferrer I do not normally care for but I liked him in this film. Maybe because he was speaking French and he looked so handsome in his period costumes.

            Elena and Her Men was a good film. There are some scenes that were hysterical and offered a much needed comedic break from the main story. Being filmed in color really enhanced the film it helped to make it more dramatic and comedic. Elena and Her Men as I said is good but it is not a film I would really search for too hard unless you are an Ingrid Bergman fan. 

Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)

“Our chance has come! Show no mercy! Let no power on Earth stop you! Prove to the world that no man could kill women and children and live to boast of it!”

            Of course I had to watch Charge of the Light Brigade. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland are in the film. Well, I should say it was just Errol Flynn because Olivia de Havilland was barely in it. Patric Knowles as Flynn’s brother was in the film more than de Havilland. If all three actors had not been in the film it would have been perfectly fine to skip. Pretty much as soon as the film started I was bored with it.

            I am not going into too much detail because as I said I was bored and there is no need for details. It takes place in the time when the British ruled India. There is a man named Surat Kahn who for the most part has been friendly to the British soldiers particularly Geoffrey Vickers (Flynn). Geoffrey has come to know the Kahn well and has a feeling that the man will not remain friendly for too long.

            Eventually the Kahn attacks a British garrison and orders all the women and children killed. Every man in Geoffrey’s regiment wants their revenge on the Kahn but they are ordered to fight the Russians in the Crimea War. The Kahn is hiding in Russia and is being protected by the Russian government. Geoffrey goes against orders and has his outnumbered troops follow him to face Surat Kahn.

            Mixed in this melodrama is an incredibly pointless love triangle between Geoffrey, his fiancée Elsa Campbell (de Havilland), and his brother Perry (Knowles).

            The cast main cast of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Patric Knowles is fabulous I just wish they had been used in a better film… yes I know they were in The Adventures of Robin Hood together! I am talking about the time they could have been put in a better film. This was Flynn and de Havilland’s second film together so I am sure that Warner Bros. just wanted to throw them in any film they could since they were such a successful pairing in Captain Blood. Knowles was the other Errol Flynn at Warner’s because he looked like him so it as an obvious choice to cast him as the brother. For some reason I could not get over de Havilland’s eyes they were so pretty in this film. Spring Byinton, Nigel Bruce, and Donald Crisp are also in the film. Byington was so wrongly used she the annoying wife of Nigel Bruce who constantly nagged him and was a gossip whore.

            Charge of the Light Brigade did very well when it was released. I can see how was successful at the time Errol Flynn was a handsome man and was put into a perfect setting. If you are not a fan of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland skip the film and watch their other much better films.

 

Silent Sundays: La Boheme (1926)

I need to make a note to myself not to watch films when I am tired and it is getting very late. My takes on the films are usually not good because I cannot wait for them to be over so I can go to bed. When I watched La Bohème I was looking to watch a quick film because I had had a long day and I was getting pretty tired (I am such an old fart I went to bed before eleven thirty. Go me). Unfortunately the way I feel about La Bohème is not that great although I am sure if I had watch it when I was not ready to practically pass out I would have still found it a bit boring.

            The story takes place in France in the 1830s in the Latin Quarter. A landlord is coming to his apartment building to collect the month’s rent. Times are hard and the artistic tenants give the landlord an especially tough time. Rodolphe (John Gilbert) and his friend share an apartment. Rodolphe is an aspiring playwright while his three friends are either a singer (I believe I cannot remember), a music player with a monkey, and a painter. They freeze in the numbing winter cold slaving away at their passions in life. Rodolphe tries to trick the landlord saying he forgot that the first was the week before the landlord is not fooled. Luckily before the end of the night when they were to be kicked out they come into money from selling or peddling things.

            Next door to the artists Mimi (Lillian Gish) is not so lucky. She embroiders to make money and business is not very good. The landlord tries to be nice to her but he tells her very sternly she has until that night to get the money or she is out. Mimi tries to raise the money but all seems lost until she meets a man who almost runs over her named Vicomte Paul. Paul sees what building Mimi goes into and asks where she lives.

            Rodolphe’s friends also find food for themselves that night. Rodolphe was invited but he decided not to go. He looks out the window and sees Mimi across the way. Mimi goes over his room where he breaks the leg of a chair to put in the heater for her to warm up. She is so shy she rushes back to her room. Mimi is on her way out of the building when Rodolphe and his friends see her and drag her into the apartment for some food and fun. They all say they will take care of Mimi like a dear friend.

            One Vicomte Paul comes by Mimi’s apartment. He is interested in her embroidery work and asks her for several commissions. Rodolphe wanted her to come out with him and his friends but she pushed him away since the vicomte was at her place. She did not tell him about the vicomte so when Rodolphe sees the two of them together he gets angry and upset. When Paul leaves Rodolphe tells Mimi he felt jealous even though he has no right to be.

            Spring finally pushes winter right along. All the friends and Rodolphe and Mimi take a carriage ride out to the country. Rodolphe professes his love to Mimi. From that time on both their lives have meaning a purpose. Rodolphe works on his play vigorously because Mimi has become his inspiration. Mimi now has someone in her life to cherish.

            One day Mimi delivers Rodolphe’s writings to the paper he is employed to. The boss says that Rodolphe is a few weeks late on his articles and has no use for him anymore. Mimi does not want Rodolphe to give up on his play so she decides she will not tell him that he has been fired and she will work day and night to make enough money to give him. Working day and night for the man she loves takes its toll on her health. Mimi becomes weak, thin, and pale.

            Vicomte Paul comes by one day. He sees a piece of Rodolphe’s play on Mimi’s table. She practically knows the play by heart from all the times Rodolphe has told her what he has written. She acts out some of the scenes and Paul likes what he hears. He tells Mimi he has a friend who is a theater manager and he will gladly give Rodolphe’s play to his friend. After her performance and the excitement at the news she begins to have a coughing fit and Paul rushes to her side where she fell on the floor. Rodolphe climbs from his window over to Mimi’s and sees the pair on the floor. After the vicomte leaves Rodolphe rips his play up and says he does not want any help from the man. Mimi still helps Rodolphe out by seeing the theater manager who says he likes the play.

            Rodolphe goes out with his friends to a pub one night. He sees his boss, goes to the man, sits next to him, and sneakily asks for an advance and the man says that he released him from the job five weeks ago. Rodolphe realizes that Mimi has been giving him the money he thought he was making from the paper. He goes to her and things are almost forgiven until he sees her in nice shoes from when she went to the theater to see the manager and he thinks she has become a “light woman.” Rodolphe walks out of the room but comes charging back when he hears Mimi coughing violently and falls to the floor. He runs for a doctor but by the time he comes back Mimi is gone leaving behind a letter that she will come back when his play is a success.

            Months later Rodolphe’s play is a success but Mimi has not come back to him. He cannot even celebrate because his heart is so heavy with missing her. In that time Mimi has been working in a mill with other women. She collapses to the group too sick to doing anymore. The owner of the mill takes her to her home and gets a doctor. The doctor says that Mimi will not live through the night. When everyone leaves the room, Mimi gets out of bed and struggles for a long time to get back to Rodolphe. She makes it back to the apartment where her room has been kept the same as when she left it. Rodolphe and all the friends rush to her side.

            Lillian Gish and John Gilbert were great together. Gish was known for playing women who sacrificed themselves for love and this film was no different for her. I will say Gish was fantastic at the end when Mimi desperately tries to get back to Rodolphe before she dies. You can see the desperation on her face and in her body language she was completely and utterly perfect. I cannot get over the fact that Gish was thirty-three when she made this film and she did not look a day over seventeen. John Gilbert was wonderful. He was so handsome and so full of energy in every scene even in the dramatic scenes.

            La Bohème was not a bad silent film but as I said at the beginning I watched it when consciousness was not working for me and I barely paid attention through much of the film. But what I did manage to retain of the story it was not so bad but it was boring and I am sure I would have felt the same way if I had watched it when I was fully awake. I did like King Vidor’s direction there were certain scenes that were excellently directed. La Bohème is considered one of the best and most well known silent films as well as one of Lillian Gish’s best films. I say give the film at least one viewing just to see what it is about.

 

Maid's Night Out (1936)

Maid’s Night Out is a classic film I am sure many have not heard of unless they are fans of Joan Fontaine. It is a mistaken identity plot which if you follow this blog enough you will know I hate with a passion. Very rarely do I think a mistaken identity plot works and this is one of those rare times. The mistaken identities go both ways in this romantic screwball comedy.

            Bill Norman (Allen Lane) is a fish expert. He is talking to a fish peddler on the side of a road about all the different kinds of fish the peddler is selling. The peddler goes to move his cart when suddenly a car comes tearing around the corner and knocks into the peddler’s cart. Bill manages to get the driver’s information so they can settle the matter. A woman is in the passenger seat. She does not want to talk to Bill she just wants to get out. When the car goes to pull away she throws a fish at Bill.

            Back at his house, Bill has all kinds of tanks full of fish. He tells his father he wants to go to the South Seas to study tropical fish. His father absolutely refuses he wants Bill to join his milk delivering business. At night Bill goes to sneak out of the house on the yacht but his father catches him. The father makes a bet with Bill that if Bill works for a month at the business and does not make any mistakes and shows up on time he will let him have the yacht if not he simply cannot go to the South Seas.

            The first day of work starts off without a problem. Bill’s first house he delivers to belongs to a young woman who is completely ready to hit on him. The next house he just so happens to be the girl from the car who hit the fish peddler’s cart. Her name is Sheila (Joan Fontaine) and when Bill sees her she has a maid’s cap on and is brushing her coat. Bill thinks she is the maid and lets go right on believing so. He ribs her a bit and on his way out and tells her he will be there to pick her up on Thursday at two o’clock. She throws the brush at him and he sends it back to her. When Sheila goes to send it back to him she winds up hitting her boyfriend (the driver of the car) Wally.

            Shelia’s mother Mrs. Harrison (Hedda Hopper) really wants her to marry Wally since he has money. She does not want to marry Wally and tells her mother to stop living above their means. Wally comes in like a hurt animal with a bruise on his head. He tells everyone that he was attacked and when he pulls out the brush all Sheila can do is laugh hysterically.

            On Thursday Shelia nearly forgets her date. She had planned to go with her mother and Wally to an orphanage to play with the children. She goes outside to wave the milk truck away but Bill takes it as if she is waving to him saying hello. Bill gets out of the truck and luckily a bus comes by they jump on the bus before her mother can see who she was with. Bill and Shelia spend a nice day at the boardwalk walking around and even riding a rollercoaster three times.

            A few weeks later, Mr. Norman hears that his son is in love with a servant girl. He asks his son about this situation and Bill says yes he is and he is planning on turning the yacht trip into a honeymoon as well. Mr. Norman wants to hear nothing of it and says he is taking his cousin to the charity dance that week. Wally tells Mrs. Harrison that he wants to marry Sheila and asks for her help. Mrs. Harrison says the only way Sheila will listen to her is if she cries. Wally tries to get her to cry but it does not work so she has the maid grab a handkerchief with an onion in it. When Sheila comes in Mrs. Harrison puts on the waterworks. She breaks her meeting with Bill and goes to the charity dance with Wally and her mother.

            At the dance Bill is with his cousin Adele. He sees Sheila with Wally. They both get mad at each other for being with someone else and Bill even punches Wally in the face after he says he and Sheila are engaged. Bill gets thrown out and is ready to leave on a milk truck in the alley. Adele comes out to tell him she heard Sheila say that she is not engaged to Wally. Bill wants to go to her but Sheila and her mother already left so Bill has his friend Hogan in the truck drive him over to Sheila’s.

            Sheila meanwhile is having a fit in her room. She is really upset about how the evening went and just wants to be alone. Bill gets to her house and starts calling to her but she does not want to see him. Wally calls the police to say there is a lunatic outside yelling. When the police officer arrives Bill is climbing a ladder up to Sheila’s room. The police officer arrests him. Mr. Norman just laughs when he hears his son is in jail and says to lock him up.

            Hogan climbs into Sheila’s room to tell him what happened to Bill. The maid in the next room hears voices and goes to Sheila’s room to see if anything is wrong. Sheila obviously says no and she leaves with Hogan to help Bill. The maid opens the door to check on Sheila and she sees over the balcony that Sheila is going into a milk truck in the middle of the night with a strange man.

            Once the maid calls for help the film gets silly and really funny. I am hoping you know the ending is all kinds of happy and cute and the whole issue with Bill and Sheila gets resolved and they live happily ever after.

            Joan Fontaine gets nothing but praise from me. I loved her from beginning to end she was so hilarious and ridiculously adorable. Fontaine’s career was really just starting out this was her seventh film. I love watching her early films because she was so young when she started. In this film Fontaine was twenty-one (I do not know why I am always fascinated with her age in her films. I think it stems from when I first saw her in Rebecca and I found she was twenty-three and not that much older than me at the time I thought it was incredible how much talent she had for her age) you can see that she would go on to be a good actress. After having seen Fontaine in so many other films including comedies she had a great range for an actress. The more I see of the comedies the more I like her in those better than her dramas. I also have to mention that besides from being an adorably twenty-one year old she looked beautiful in her suit and hat in the scene where Bill and Sheila head to the beach. Her face was just beautiful.

            This was Hedda Hopper’s last film she made before she became the famed Hollywood gossip columnist (not sure if she had already started her column by then so I could be wrong but I am definitely sure this was her last film). I liked her in this film. I have seen her in bit parts in other films. Hopper was not a bad actress. 

            Maid’s Night Out was so much fun to sit through. If this ever comes out on DVD I will be owning it. Maid’s Night Out is a light silly screwball comedy where you do not have to listen at all. I wound up really liking the mistaken identity plot because both the leads were not being true about who they really were. I liked how they loved each other and thought the other did not come from a wealthy family. I needed this type of film after working and doing homework all day. If TCM ever airs Maid’s Night Out again or you can find (which if you do let me know!) absolutely watch it and have a good time.

 

Mafia (1998)

“Some would argue that the Mafia is a bad thing, that it uses its power to undermine law and order, to promote the very lowest forms of human behavior. Of course, that's all true, but in the end, maybe it's worth it.” 

                Mafia is one of those movies I cannot for the life of me remember watching for the first time. It has just been in the family collection for years. I knew it was parodying The Godfather but up until a few weeks ago I had never seen The Godfather. That did not mean I never got the references I heard enough about the original since my family is Italian and it is like the Holy Grail of Italian films (How I was not shunned from my family for so long I will never know). Now that I have seen The Godfather I had to watch Mafia since I would finally get all the references. I have not seen Mafia in ages and it was just as hysterical as I remembered it and even better since I knew what they were making fun of.

            Honestly I do not even know what to write about in this review because I do not want to give too much away the movie is just so hysterical. Literally every scene has something to laugh at. One of my favorite parts of the film is the flashback scene of the father Don Cortino when he was still in Italy as a little boy. Now in The Godfather II Don Corleone escapes the country by traveling in the basket attached to a donkey. Well in the parody Don Cortino gets put up a donkey’s behind! I die laughing every time in that scene. Don Cortino is a clumsy fool he falls all over the place or hitting people. The son that is like Sonny Corleone is Joey whose hot headedness is played up to the nth degree. The son like Michael Corleone is Anthony (Jay Mohr, his name is after Michael’s son). His girlfriend is a non-Italian girl named Diane (Christina Applegate, get it her name is Diane like Diane Keaton).

            My brother Joey (and I have a brother Anthony haha) comes close to peeing himself senseless at the funeral scene. When we watched it together he was laughing so hard and he had to rewind it about four times. Joey has loved this movie forever and quotes some of the lines like every day.

            Movies like Mafia make me miss the real spoof movies. Unlike today’s so called “spoof” movies Mafia and Mel Brooks’ films were silly without going over the top. The writers for Mafia picked out the most memorable parts of The Godfather and just ran with them. Some of the scenes and the lines and the silliness comes so fast but when you catch them you laugh so hard. As an Italian (with some other nationalities thrown in but mostly Italian) I do not find this movie degrading to Italian culture at all. Each culture has their stereotypes and stereotypes are based on truths. Mafia is not a spoof or comedy movie to be missed. I think it is hard to find on DVD but in my research I found the entire movie on Youtube so get over there now and watch it!! (I think it is under Jane Austen’s Mafia on Youtube.)

Rafter Romance (1934)

“I loathe landlords”

            Do not let this semi-1930s- pornographic film poster fool you. Rafter Romance is not THAT romantic. It is a Pre-code film with plenty of the genre’s fabulousness but it was not that racy and romantic. I chose this over the “cleaner” one because I had it saved and liked it better for some reason. Anyway… Rafter Romance is a really cute film even if it is predictable.

            Mary Carroll (Ginger Rogers) and Jack Bacon (Norman Foster) have fallen on hard times. The landlord of their apartment Mr. Eckbaum likes Mary and Jack he does not want to kick them out but he needs money. He comes up with the idea that Mary and Jack will share the attic apartment and they will never have to see each other since Jack works at night and Mary works during the day. So he tells Jack who has a large attic apartment that he is going to be sharing the apartment to split the rent. Jack is not happy but he has no other choice. Eckbaum next tells Mary that she has to move out of her apartment and into the attic where she will be sharing with someone and splitting the rent. Again he does not say who she is sharing the apartment with. Mary gets a new job selling refrigerators but by the time she tells Eckbaum she can pay the rent again he has already let the room to someone else. All her belongings have been moved upstairs.

            Jack and Mary eventually figure it out that they are sharing a room with the opposite sex and are all the more unhappy with their arrangement. Mary overhears Jack say to Eckbaum that Mary is probably an old cranky maid and other things. They leave notes to each other about certain issues in the apartment and do some damage to the other’s belongings.

            One day after work Mary sits outside a deli and waits until she can go to the apartment. She recites the speeches she has to give over the phone to customers. Jack is in the deli and sees Mary outside and introduces himself as a man named Warburton. Neither knows who the other is so there is no harm in them speaking to each other. Jack pretends to me a man named Warburton because it was a name Mary had been using in her speech. He makes like he thinks she was speaking to him. Jack says that he has an aunt who is buying real-estate for a few houses and would like some refrigerators for the housing complex she plans to build. Mary gets all excited thinking she can make some nice money off the commission. They agree to meet the next day to make some arrangements.

            Before Mary can walk out of her office her boss is hitting on her and asks her out for dinner. She says something about a banquet out loud which grabs the attention of the other girls in the room and she sneaks out. It is pouring rain outside. Mary comes home to take a shower and change. When she goes to take a show the bucket hanging over the pipe falls on her head. To get back at Jack she hangs his suit up in the shower. When Jack goes to take a shower his suit jacket gets all wet. From this small fiasco Mary and “Warburton” never have their meeting. The next day they run into each other. Mary is mad at Jack but all is forgiven when he is nice to her and takes her out to dinner and buys her flowers.

            Jack kind of invites himself to Mary’s company’s picnic the following day. They have a great time together going rowing on the lake. Her boss is none too pleased that he cannot find Mary anywhere especially because they had gone out one night together during the week (nothing happened Mary was totally uncomfortable with him). The whole company leaves without Mary and Jack when they realize what time it is. Jack sprains his ankle while they were running across a stream. He calls a cab to bring them back to his apartment. Mary is the one who notices they live in the same apartment building and that they share the same room. All hell breaks loose when Eckbaum comes upstairs seeing them together, then Jack’s art patron Elsie comes to the room and says nothing but nasty things about Mary (the two women met the day before when Elsie was passed out on Mary’s bed), and Mary’s boss. Then a small argument and fight break out. Jack runs down to Mary and says he loves her and she loves him.

            Yeah totally completely predictable but the film was cute.

            Ginger Rogers was not Pre-code snarky and feisty like she was in 42^nd Street or Gold Diggers of 1933 but she did have a little attitude going on. I could not get over how unbelievably adorable she was in this film. Oh good she was so freaking cute!! Rogers looked amazing I loved all her outfits and especially her makeup. Whoever did the makeup did a great job with the eye makeup because it made her eyes look a longer sideways and the darkness of the eyelashes with the eyeliner brought out her round cheeks. Rogers’ character was almost like a little girl whenever she would get upset she would run and cry to landlord and his wife. Norman Foster was alright. I have never seen him in a film before. Laura Hope Crewes played Elise. She plays Aunt Pittypat in Gone with the Wind. The woman had a knack for playing the most annoying women ever and being too good at it. You just want to kick her in the face when she says some things to Ginger at the end.

            The Pre-code factor is that there is a man and a woman who are not married living in the same apartment. They touch each other clothes, especially Jack touching Mary’s, which most likely became a really big no no once the Code came along. There is a scene where Ginger Rogers undresses to get in the shower and you see her underwear fall off and she kicks it away.

            Rafter Romance as I mentioned is a completely predictable 1930s film but it is really cute and very well acted. I liked the story I thought it interesting with the concept of these two people sharing an apartment and them never seeing each other. Rafter Romance is currently available on youtube and I highly suggest getting over there to see it.