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Tuesday, January 29, 2019

NO TIME FOR COMEDY (1940)

After 1939 saw James Stewart’s career kick into gear everywhere but his home studio (MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON; MADE FOR EACH OTHER; DESTRY RIDES AGAIN), M-G-M finally got the memo, coming up with PHILADELPHIA STORY, MORTAL STORM and SHOP AROUND THE CORNER in 1940, plus a lend out to Warner Brothers on this neglected prestige item. Adapted from S. N. Behrman’s upper-middlebrow B’way success (with Katharine Cornell & Laurence Olivier), the play was ‘opened up’ for the screen with a reasonably effective new first act setting up hayseed playwright Stewart and sophisticated actress Rosalind Russell for marriage & a run of fashionable comic hits. But with the world’s political scene darkening, surely this is ‘no time for comedy,’ and Stewart’s eye wanders to new muse Genevieve Tobin who sees great stage tragedies (and herself) in his future*; much to the dismay of patient husband Charles Ruggles who's seen these enthusiasms play out before. Unusually smart and literate, even grown up, especially once Behrman’s writing takes over, a talent not so much dated as currently out of fashion. The cast, largely non-contract players, is unusually fine, unusually specific; so too William Keighley’s discreet direction, avoiding the pushy quality of so many Warners comedies. Same holds for Russell, warm & unfussy. Even Ruggles cuts down on his usual quota of character tics & attention drawing tricks. While Louise Beavers, in her typical household black domestic spot, finds some new twists. First because she also plays the domestic part in Russell’s plays (yep, a maid on and off-stage) and second with some decidedly sharp elbows in lines you’d never get away with today. Listen for one about ‘dark innuendo.’ Yikes!  

(Note this oddly retitled re-release poster hoping to catch a draft off Stewart’s THE GLENN MILLER STORY/’54.)

DOUBLE-BILL: The basic comic/serious dilemma isn’t so far off from the one Joel McCrea faces in Preston Sturges’s SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS/’41. Inspired from the play?

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