THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET (1934)

Aging out of her Daring Modern Women period (at 32!), and with the re-enforced Hollywood Production Code breathing down her decolletage, Norma Shearer narrowed her range to ‘distinguished’ stage vehicles like this popular play (a great success on B’way for Katharine Cornell) about invalided poet Elizabeth Barrett, her tyrannical father and romantic rescue by fellow poet Robert Browning. Probably the best of her latter day roles, Shearer’s a size & a half small for it, but at least she doesn’t press. (Later, as Juliet, Marie Antoinette, and in roles associated with Lynn Fontanne, Gertrude Lawrence & Jeanne Eagles, she can seem lost or panicked, tossing in insufferable little laughs as cover. Likely she saw ‘Kit’ Cornell in this, everyone did . . . and took notes.*) The story is surprisingly uncomfortable even now, with Charles Laughton’s monstrous father (as ever, toeing the line between slightly ridiculous & brilliant) is still alarmingly scary, bringing out the incestuous angle in spite of any censorship issues. And there’s excellent support from Fredric March, offering some much needed zip as an impetuous Browning, and, gliding across the floor, that great eccentric Una O’Connor as a lady’s maid nearly as loyal as Elizabeth’s dog Flush.

DOUBLE-BILL: Sidney Franklin, after about 50 (mostly silent) features, and now transitioning from helming to producing, megs in default M-G-M laissez-faire style. (A simple staircase crane shot a major event.) He’d return to directing for the CinemaScope/MetroColor 1957 waxworks remake w/ Jennifer Jones, John Gielgud & Bill Travers.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: A few notes on ages: *Cornell still reviving this on B’way in 1945 when she was 52, and still playing against her original Browning from 1931, Brian Aherne. And note that in the film, Laughton, a mere 35, was only three years older than Shearer, and two years younger than March. (The real Browning was about six years Elizabeth Barrett’s junior.)

THE SUNDOWNERS (1950)

Not to be confused with Fred Zinnemann’s fine 1960 Australia-set family drama (see below), this little indie Western ought to be better. Connected to John Ford’s THE SEARCHERS/’56 via writer Alan LeMay and lenser Winton C. Hoch, you can certainly see the possibilities in its cattle poaching plotline, but director George Templeton doesn’t pull much out of the situations. As brothers bent on stopping a gang of local cattle rustlers, Robert Sterling & debuting John Barrymore, Jr. (Drew’s pop!) don’t exactly fill the screen with personality. But they completely disappear once Robert Preston shows up as The Sociopath Who Came To Dinner. He’s got a shared past with the boys and is eager to steal back any losses in the herd . . . and then some. Shooting to kill when given half a chance, romancing Sterling’s gal, rubbing his victims’ noses in defeat and singing a little victory song to celebrate, he’s a show & a half all on his lonesome. If only someone would have stepped up to meet him halfway, Preston might not have slipped off the big screen and over to tv & the B’way stage for much of the ‘50s. Then again, that’s how he snared the role of a lifetime when an upstart musical no one gave much of a chance to came along needing a semi-forgotten leading man to play MUSIC MAN Harold Hill. And there’s a taste of that conman's showmanship on display here.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In an early appearance, a young, rail-thin Jack Elam makes an impression as a Preston victim.

SANDOME NO SATSUJIN / THE THIRD MURDER (2017)

Best known Stateside for warm-blooded, multi-layered family tales (STILL WALKING/’08; LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON/’13), Japanese writer/director Hirokazu Kore-eda shows impressive range in this methodical & deliberately paced, but consistently compelling courtroom drama. The victim, a small factory owner, has evidently been murdered & robbed by a recently fired employee, a man who’s killed before. But little turns out to be quite as straightforward as we are first led to believe. Or, indeed, first shown. (In film, seeing is always believing.) The confession may be a partial lie; even a complete one. A false statement given to take the death penalty off the table. Or perhaps to protect a family member’s participation in the crime. (That’s a member of the victim’s family.) Then, in a self-destructive move as the trial nears an end, the accused reverses his plea, reneges on his confession and reverts to ‘the truth.’ Whatever that is. A move all but guaranteed to doom his case. Kore-eda lays all this out with deceptive calm, the interview sequences in jail between client & lawyer, a masterclass in close-up camera positioning and changing levels of power. The typical Japanese reserve can be puzzling to Western audiences at times. (Hey! Speak up! Be a bit rude and tell us what you want!) But it’s Real Deal, fascinating stuff.

DOUBLE-BILL: Pumped up for Hollywood, this sort of story gets ‘Pop’ sensibility as in PRIMAL FEAR/’96 (Richard Gere; Edward Norton. OR: With an Art House veneer from Iran, the shifting perspectives of Asghar Farhadi’s superb A SEPARATION/’11.

THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER (1941)

Originally welded onto George Bernard Shaw’s ARMS AND THE MAN (War, Sex, Bulgaria), Oscar Straus’s popular Viennese operetta was retrofitted at M-G-M for Ferenc Molnár’s THE GUARDSMAN (jealous Musical Comedy Leading Man disguises himself to woo his own ‘unfaithful’ Leading Lady wife). No wonder Straus’s score is arbitrarily scattered about (with hit number ‘My Hero’ getting five hearings!), and buttressed with party pieces by Mussorsky, Wagner & Saint-Saëns. And why not? Nelson Eddy, on one of his periodic outings sans Jeanette MacDonald, is in resounding voice, and certainly does better on the vocals than in handling Molnár’s sophisticated Boulevard Farce. (Comic style on the hearty side). While new co-star, debuting Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens, glories in a rich, warm voice that knocks the socks off M-G-M’s twittering stratospheric songbirds. (Her comic style? Mostly of the butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-her-mouth variety.*) Poor Molnár also gets manhandled by the Hollywood Production Code since his playful banter on infidelity is sabotaged by having Stevens know right from the start that her new Russian lover is really her very own husband. In the play (and in M-G-M’s 1931 Pre-Code Talkie with Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne), neither the audience nor the masquerading husband can be quite sure that she knows.* Considering that Roy Del Ruth directs as if one scene isn’t connected to the next, the film is harmless stuff, and certainly sounds well. And that recurring hit number, ‘My Hero,’ is a first-rate earworm.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Greta Garbo’s TWO-FACED WOMAN, out the same year, ran into the exact same Production Code trouble. In that one, it’s Garbo who’s two-timing herself with Melvyn Douglas . . . except he knows all along!

DOUBLE-BILL: *(A theoretical double-bill as this is currently unavailable.) Stevens did a 1955 tv version of CHOCOLATE SOLDIER that may have returned to the original Shaw-based storyline. OR: As mentioned above, The Lunts in THE GUARDSMAN/’31, alas very stiffly directed by Sidney Franklin.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Returning to Hollywood just once, in Leo McCarey/Bing Crosby’s GOING MY WAY/’44, Stevens never enjoyed the filmmaking process. Especially lip-synching on set where she generally sang her numbers an octave below pitch to her own pre-recorded track. It kept her from opening her mouth too wide and spoiling the pretty picture. She hated it. So, back to Met for two more decades on stage, then fund-raising until her death in 2013 at 99.

THE ASTONISHED HEART (1950)

Having already expanded STILL LIFE (one of nine short plays that made up three evenings’ entertainment in TONIGHT AT 8:30) into the hugely successful BRIEF ENCOUNTER/’45, Noël Coward no doubt hoped lightning would strike twice adapting a second. Think again. This time, Coward takes the lead (after dismissing initial choice Michael Redgrave) in this psychiatric gloss on the old ‘Physician Heal Thyself’ theme. As a top London shrink, happily married to Celia Johnson, he finds himself helplessly falling into a death spiral of bottomless passion when her old school chum Margaret Leighton stops by. Johnson, as supporting wife, patiently waits out the affair, unaware he’s hitting untested depths even as the mistress looks ready to move on. As a condensed half-hour, the play works far better than the film* where every addition comes across as too obvious or simplistic. But fun to see Coward working with real life partner Graham Payn (overparted even playing his assistant), plus Joyce Carey, who played the wife on stage, now as office secretary. Naturally, Johnson & Leighton (particular faves of Coward) are immaculate as spouse & temptress, but Coward’s clipped delivery comes close to self-parody.* (Yet what strength he finds at the wordless end.)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Coward was usually very canny about what he could do on film (as opposed to stage & tv). Presumably, Redgrave’s abrupt departure necessitated a quick replacement. He never chanced another leading role on the big screen. (Even turning down David Lean when offered Alec Guinness’s role in BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI.)

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:*And when played in its original One Act form, still does. In this Joan Collins’ anchored tv production, Sian Phillips nails the Celia Johnson role. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bJa1lnF5rE

THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1948)

Somewhat cavalier Hollywood adaptation of the classic Wilkie Collins’ mystery novel (less a Whodunit than a Who-Is-It) makes for good spooky Victorian fun. (Is there a faithful first-class iteration out there?) The basic set-up & characters are recognizable: a family fortune to inherit, a hidden step-sister, the pretty companion & the handsome art teacher, a trio of odd villains and neurasthenic uncle, even if the story runs its own course. But with the Good Guys indifferently cast (Gig Young & Alexis Smith hopelessly American; Eleanor Parker only right in half of a double role), the film gets taken over by the Baddies (corpulent, threatening Sydney Greenstreet; John Emery, chilly & supercilious; and a memorably nasty, lunatic John Abbott). And with Warners unable to decide if they were making an A or B+ production, director Peter Godfrey & lenser Carl Guthrie put out standard Hollywood backlot Brit flavor. On the other hand, Max Steiner composed an unusually ambitious score, too little known and helping the third act ratchet up considerable suspense. Worth a look.

DOUBLE-BILL: A friendly rival to Dickens, Wilkie Collins launched the Victorian Mystery novel. But this film comes in the wake of more unified pics it strongly influenced like George Cukor’s big ticket GASLIGHT/’44 (Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Angela Lansbury, Joseph Cotton) and John Brahm’s HANGOVER SQUARE/’45 (Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders).

LA POISON (1951)

Multi-tasker Sacha Guitry (playwright/ actor/director) left his Boulevard Comedies for rural Marcel Pagnol territory in this marital farce, a village fable both comic & cruel, burnt sugar on a crème brûlée. Michel Simon (at his rumpled best) & Germaine Reuver are miserably mismatched in a marriage from Hell, daggers in their eyes/murder in their heart. She’s bought rat poison from the druggist/he’s found a fancy Paris lawyer to confess to. And that’s where he goes before the crime, to let the celebrated defense lawyer suggest ‘proper’ answers. The lawyer has no idea he’s teaching Simon the best way to do in the missus and get off scot-free. So, the courtroom trial plays like a theatrical turn; the town gets windfall publicity & lucrative tourist trade; police & the legal system prove incompetent &/or corrupt; and Simon is Hero of the Day, while the poor druggist gets a taste of his own medicine. Technically, the film is one of Guitry’s most conventional, but in its ideas as cynical, bitter & subversive as he ever got . . . plus hilarious.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Guitry could always be counted on for witty credit sequences, and this film’s elaborate, deeply personal intros rank with his best.

DOUBLE-BILL: Orson Welles’ original idea for what became Chaplin’s MONSIEUR VERDOUX/’48 must have been closer in tone to LA POISON than the finished product. Which, in spite of many felicities, ultimately mistakes sanctimonious for serious. A charge Guitry could never be accused of.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: How this missed the ‘90s Hollywood remake boom (maybe for Jack Nicholson/Kathy Bates?) is a mystery.

A DISPATCH FROM REUTERS (1940)

Fifth & final of the Warners/William Dieterle ‘Great Man’ bio-pics*, climaxes with Edward G. Robinson, as News-Wire pioneer Julius Reuter, fighting accusations of fake news! Mighty timely for an 80 year old film. Equally timely then, what with war breaking out in Europe, and the border separating legit news & political propaganda crumbling. Lightest of the series, the first half struggles to find drama. (Poor Eddie Albert, as Reuter’s dreamy assistant, overdoes his fool act for a few weak plot beats.) But the film gains in interest as Robinson moves up from carrier pigeons and telegraphed stock quotes, switching to a news gathering service based on the network of financial news agents he’s built up. And a climax with news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination (true report or venal stock manipulation?) works up enough suspense (along with a nod at Insider Trading issues) to overcome a lackluster romantic angle between Robinson & Edna Best (they each have more chemistry with the pigeons) and the bizarre casting of angelic Dickie Moore to play Robinson as a little boy in the prologue.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Paul Muni starred in Dieterle’s first three bio-pics (PASTEUR, immunization & science vs. suspicion; ZOLA, on Anti-Semitism; JUAREZ, national self-determination) before Robinson took over the series on DR. EHRLICH (STDs) and this paean to a Free Press. Worthy films (in good ways and bad, see Write-Ups below), though the Muni trio (big ticket prestige items in their day) have largely fallen out of critical favor. Best to start with DR. EHRLICH’S MAGIC BULLETS/’40, lively and retaining its air of daring controversy.

WHIPSAW (1935)

Well-turned jewel heist pic, taken to unexpected heights by the phenomenal star wattage on display from Myrna Loy, a year after hitting her stride in THE THIN MAN, and Spencer Tracy, still the new guy @ M-G-M after splitting from FOX. Seeing these two in early peak form, and with some sort of electro-magnetic/ chemical charge coursing between them, defines the very essence of M-G-M’s core strength. It opens in London, with Loy causing a fender-bender with rich American Robert Warwick. He’s about to pick up four fabulous matching pearls worth half a mill/she’s looking for his weak point. Instead, two accomplices move in, eventually grabbing the pearls somewhere in the Customs Office after a Trans-Atlantic cruise. But wait!; a second gang is waiting on the dock, ready to grab the pearls from the first gang! Also plenty of reporters & cops. That’s when Tracy shows up, a mug working a con of his own, one he needs Loy to pull off. But something’s fishy about this guy, and Loy knows it. He’s no mug . . . he’s a . . . well, you’ll guess what he is. But the whole four-way sting is so neatly worked out; the by-play for the stars so terrific; and a rain-drenched country pit-stop at the home of an isolated couple with a baby on the way so loaded with legit sentiment that you’ll forgive a bit of awkward plot mechanics in the last act for the satisfied feeling you’ll get. Director Sam Wood, always dependent on his creative team, sets a crackling pace even without a background score, and gets a major assist from lenser James Wong Howe, offering glamor & loads of visual imagination.*

DOUBLE-BILL: *Add art director William Cameron Menzies to Wood & Howe and you get something as imaginatively rich (and downright weird) as KINGS ROW/’42.