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November 2011: Wellman & Harlow
by
John Gallagher
WARNER BROS. ARCHIVE COLLECTION pays tribute to the great director William “Wild Bill” Wellman (1896-1975) with three new releases. Best known for such classics as WINGS (1927, coming soon in a restored version on Blu-ray), THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931), A STAR IS BORN (1937), BEAU GESTE (1939), THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1943) and THE STORY OF G. I. JOE (1945), Wellman directed dozens of films between 1923 and 1958, including many neglected gems. SAFE IN HELL (1931) is one of these, a brilliant Warners Pre-Code drama starring Dorothy Mackaill on the run from the law. She holes up in a tawdry hotel on a tropical island with no extradition laws, joining a rogue’s gallery of memorable heavies. A sense of impending doom pervades SAFE IN HELL, but far from being a depressing film, the picture is full of small character touches as it see-saws from black comedy to dark psychological drama. It’s prime Wellman, surprising, tough, and uncompromising, with a terrific performance (her best) as world-weary expatriate Gilda.
Mackaill (1903-1990) was a London and Ziegfeld Follies showgirl before starting her career with several dozen silents. She made a smooth transition to sound but retired in the mid 30s as desirable leads dried up for her. She spent most of the rest of her life in Hawaii, living in Honolulu in her later years in The Royal Hawaiian Hotel. I wrote her for her impressions of Wellman, and she graciously replied in a letter dated July 15, 1982: “Exciting personality, besides (he) had the distinguished ability of making you see exactly how he wanted a scene played … most exacting, muy simpatico and adorable. Wish I could have made more movies for or with him as he was a treasure to work for. Everyone connected with his productions adored him, including electricians, prop men, assistant directors, etc. And believe me he did everything his way. I was the fortunate one – say no more.”
Wellman was renowned for his hatred of producers, but he mostly got along with MGM chief Dore Schary, doing some of his finest work on Metro’s BATTLEGROUND (1949), THE HAPPY YEARS (1950) and MY MAN AND I (1952), an offbeat, atmospheric character study of a working class hero, a frank condemnation of racial intolerance, with bravura performances from Shelley Winters, Claire Trevor, and Ricardo Montalban. The story revolves around a Mexican migrant farm worker (Montalban) unwittingly cheated out of his salary by a racist boss (Wendell Corey), then framed by the boss’ wife (Trevor) into a murder rap. Shelley Winters is superb as the world-weary floozy who provides Montalban with his only salvation ("America the Beautiful," she says, "You must show it to me sometime. I've never been there").
Trevor did another picture with Wellman, the blockbuster hit THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954), but she told me in an interview in New York City on March 10, 1983, that “Bill Wellman and I had a big fight on the first picture, MY MAN AND I. We had a meeting and I suggested some changes, which I usually do, sometimes in the script and sometimes just in my part, but something I thought would improve it. He said ‘No, no, no, I don’t like it.’ Then I got another idea, and I called the writer, because Bill was shooting on the set. I said, ‘I have a wonderful idea for this scene. What do you think?’ So he read it and he said, ‘Yeah, I like it.’ He told Wellman, who thought I went over his head. I had no intentions of going over his head, I just thought I’d save him some time and we’d both present it to him. Well, Bill yelled and screamed at me, and it was like a cold piece of ice between us the whole picture. Oh, he could be tough … (On THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY) Bill and I got along beautifully. He couldn’t have been nicer to me.”
I asked Claire Trevor to compare Wild Bill to his close friend John Ford, for whom she starred in the 1939 milestone STAGECOACH: “Wellman and John Ford were quite different directors. Wellman had eye-to-eye enthusiasm with you, and he’d say, ‘We’ll do this.’ Ford never did that. Never. Wellman was the old style director, building up enthusiasm in his people.”
The World War One aviation drama LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE (1958) has been gorgeously remastered and is available for the first time in widescreen on the home market. Filmed before Wellman’s DARBY’S RANGERS, but released after that movie, it’s the final release of the director’s long career. It was also a heartbreaker for the veteran of World War One’s Lafayette Flying Corps; Wellman’s original story “C’est La Guerre” dramatized his wartime exploits, and he had endured false starts for twenty years (Selznick in 1937, Schary in 1952). Jack Warner finally gave him the green light in 1955, with James Dean slated to star. The actor’s untimely death delayed the project yet again, and by the time production geared up in 1957, Warner insisted that current teen heartthrob Tab Hunter play the lead. Wellman cast his son Bill, Jr., as himself, as well as Jody McCrea (son of three-time Wellman star Joel McCrea), and rounded out the cast with Warner contractees David Janssen (doing his best Clark Gable characterization), Tom Laughlin, Will Hutchins, and, in only his third credited movie role, Clint Eastwood.
In our February 17, 1989 interview in New York, Tab Hunter remarked, “Wellman lived the story and knew it well. He tried to instill that Lafayette Flying Corps camaraderie into the whole cast. Bill built a family unit when did a picture. That’s the way it should be. That makes for good work. He allowed you the freedom to get out there and try things. Everybody works differently but when you’re comfortable in a scene you can do your best. Bill allowed you that.”
Cinematographer William H. Clothier worked on Wellman’s last seven features, and had started as an assistant cameraman on the 1927 WINGS. In our January 5, 1978 interview at his home in Studio City, California, Clothier told me, “I’ll tell you a funny story. When we were doing LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE, the studio furnished coffee and donuts on the set. Somebody went to Jack Warner and said it’s costing $80,000 a year to give people coffee in the morning, so they started charging for it, in a coffee machine. Wellman rolled it right out the stage door and into the men’s toilet. The head of the Warners restaurant came down and asked, ‘What happened to the coffee machine?’ Wellman said, ‘I threw it in the men’s room and you can get your ass off the set or I’m gonna throw you in there!’ The man said, ‘I’m going to tell Mr. Warner,’ and Wellman said, ‘You tell Jack Warner if he comes down here I’ll throw his ass in there, too!’ That was the end of that, and they sent us coffee every morning. That’s the kind of guy Wild Bill Wellman was. He took nothing from nobody.”
The Warner Archive Collection celebrates the centennial of Jean Harlow’s birthday with JEAN HARLOW: 100TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION, a long-awaited box set of seven of her MGM films. Born Harlean Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911, the rechristened starlet went from extra to bit player in Laurel and Hardy shorts to overnight sensation at 19 in Howard Hughes’ HELL’S ANGELS (1930), Harlow ascended swiftly in Hollywood. In 1931, Hughes loaned her out to Warner Brothers (THE PUBLIC ENEMY), Fox (GOLDIE), Universal (THE IRON MAN) and Columbia (PLATINUM BLONDE, THREE WISE GIRLS), then sold her contract to MGM, where she became a superstar opposite Clark Gable in Victor Fleming’s steamy RED DUST (1932). Beloved by co-workers and fans, Harlow persevered through a series of personal crises (a leeching stepfather, the suicide of husband Paul Bern), succumbing to severe kidney failure on June 7, 1937 at age 26. A studio worker remembered, “The day Baby died there wasn’t one sound in the commissary for three hours.”
Fleming’s BOMBSHELL (1933), one of the decade’s best comedies, is a showcase for Harlow’s considerable talents as a comedienne. She shines with her devastating satire of Lola Burns, Hollywood Star (based in part on Fleming’s old flame, Clara Bow). Harlow is ingenuous, by turns harried, charming, exasperated, glamorous, and always sexy. The supporting cast is in top form -- Lee Tracy as her outrageous press agent, Frank Morgan as her dissipated father, Franchot Tone as the society guy who falls for her, Pat O’Brien as a hard-nosed director clearly patterned on Fleming himself -- and there are some marvelous behind-the-scenes glimpses of Metro’s Culver City studios (home of today’s Sony Pictures). This raucous screwball comedy has been gorgeously remastered for the set, and includes a Spanish trailer that appears to be from the original release.
Jack Conway’s THE GIRL FROM MISSOURI (1934), remastered for this set, was one of the first casualties of the new Production Code, a gold digger comedy that sanitized the Pre-Code Conway-Harlow collaboration RED-HEADED WOMAN (1932). In that movie, Harlow works her way up the social ladder being generous with her charms; the Post-Code version saw her trying to snare a millionaire husband while keeping her virtue intact. Franchot Tone is once again on hand to fall head over heels with her, while his father Lionel Barrymore machinates to keep them apart. Lewis Stone, Patsy Kelly and Nat Pendleton are in support, and Harlow looks fantastic under the photographic eye of Ray June (replacing Harlow husband number three Hal Rosson). Fleming was at the helm of the lavish musical drama RECKLESS (1935), also remastered, produced by David O. Selznick from a story written under his pen name Oliver Jeffries. Harlow sings and dances as Broadway star Mona Leslie, pursued by Tone and William Powell, with an especially strong cast including Rosalind Russell, May Robson, Ted Healy, Mickey Rooney and Allan Jones. J. Walter Ruben’s RIFFRAFF (1935) is effective for the casting of Harlow and Spencer Tracy in a working class story set on a Cannery Row waterfront. This is a much softer Harlow who can nonetheless get fired up when necessary, while Tracy, in one of his first for MGM, essays the tough guy character he had specialized in at Fox for five years. George Fitzmaurice’s SUZY (1936) is another triangle story, set in World War One, between Harlow as a London chorine, a Scotsman inventor (Franchot Tone again, with an awful Scotch accent) and a French aviator, Cary Grant, just cutting loose from bondage after his first four years in movies at Paramount, a year away from hitting the big time in Leo McCarey’s THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937). There’s dogfight footage from HELL’S ANGELS purchased from Hughes, and it’s fun to see Harlow and Grant together -- it’s just a shame the material is so feeble. They even duet (kind of) on a song, “Did I Remember?,” featured later in THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT (1974), that sends the proceedings into high camp! “One Take” Woody Van Dyke’s PERSONAL PROPERTY (1937) is better, with a callow Robert Taylor miscast as a British lad who returns home after a brush with the law. He pretends to be Harlow’s butler, they fall for each other. Based on the H. M. Harwood play “The Man in Possession,” it had been produced under its original title in 1931 with Robert Montgomery and Irene Purcell; the studio beefed up the female lead for Harlow. It’s slight and breezy stuff. Regardless of the weaknesses of Post-Code Harlows like SUZY and PERSONAL PROPERTY, they still offer the joys of the actress’ charisma and star quality. Jack Conway’s SARATOGA (1937) brought Harlow and Gable together for the seventh time, this time supported by Lionel Barrymore, Walter Pidgeon, Frank Morgan and Hattie McDaniel in a romantic comedy with a racetrack background. This is the picture Harlow was shooting when she died (her illness shows in a few spots), and MGM completed it with doubles (painfully obvious in a number of scenes). In and of itself a glossy, entertaining Golden Age romp, SARATOGA is ultimately a sad reminder of a tragic loss.
The JEAN HARLOW 100th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION includes the lovely bonus of seven postcards of Harlow in studio portraits by the likes of Hurrell and Bull; RECKLESS and SUZY include selections from the audio vault. The set just about completes the DVD availability of the Harlow MGMs. George Hill’s THE SECRET SIX (1931) and Charles Brabin’s BEAST OF THE CITY (1932) are already in the Archive Collection, while George Cukor’s DINNER AT EIGHT (1933), Tay Garnett’s CHINA SEAS (1935), Clarence Brown’s WIFE VS. SECRETARY (1936), and Jack Conway’s LIBELED LADY comprise the TCM GREATEST CLASSIC FILMS COLLECTION: LEGENDS – JEAN HARLOW, released earlier this year, a highly recommended set of almost all her best pictures. That leaves only a pair of Pre-Code Metro Gable-Harlows to be released, Victor Fleming’s essential RED DUST (1932, perhaps her finest film) and Sam Wood’s HOLD YOUR MAN (1933, actually excerpted in BOMBSHELL as a “Lola Burns” movie). WBshop.com.
Another “Jean,” JEAN ARTHUR, was the leading female star at Harry Cohn’s Columbia Pictures from 1934 to 1944 (until dethroned by Rita Hayworth). An effervescent blonde with a uniquely melodic and lyrical speaking voice, she excelled at both comedy and drama, usually playing independent career woman. Her greatest successes at Columbia – Ford’s THE WHOLE TOWN’S TALKING (1935), Capra’s MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936), YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938), and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939), Hawks’ ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) – are among the decade’s best movies. The TCM Vault Collection in association with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released the JEAN ARTHUR COMEDY COLLECTION, a delightful set of four of Arthur’s lesser known bread-and-butter programmers. The rarely screened THE PUBLIC MENACE (1935), directed by unjustly neglected Erle C. Kenton (ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, GUILTY AS HELL), is a breezy gangster comedy co-starring future California senator George Murphy in one of his first roles, and, as the mob boss, Douglass Dumbrille, one of the 30s best heavies. Alfred E. Green’s romantic comedy MORE THAN A SECRETARY follows the formula of Columbia’s SHE MARRIED HER BOSS (1935), directed by Gregory LaCava, starring Claudette Colbert, with Arthur as the owner of a secretarial school who, to prove a point, goes to work for fitness magazine editor George Brent. The terrific supporting cast includes perennial best friend Ruth Donnelly and gravel-voiced Lionel Stander.
Edward Ludwig’s ADVENTURE IN MANHATTAN (1936) is a comedy-mystery that
suffers from a convoluted plot and an outlandish story, but is redeemed by the
still luminous charm of Arthur and Joel McCrea (on loan from Goldwyn). There’s brisk direction, and a supporting cast of wonderful character actors, including Thomas Mitchell (STAGECOACH, GONE WITH THE WIND), Reginald Owen (A CHRISTMAS CARO), John Hamilton (the future “Perry White” of the ‘50s SUPERMAN TV series), and comedic German Herman Bing (TWENTIETH CENTURY). Arthur was frequently involved in salary disputes with Cohn, and it is said that on her last day of her last Columbia picture, THE IMPATIENT YEARS (1944), she jubilantly danced and whooped it up on set. That film is included in the set, a wartime domestic comedy-drama directed by Irving Cummings; the choice of Lee Bowman as her leading man reveals the dearth of Hollywood leading men during WWII. Redemption comes in the form of Charles Coburn, reunited with Jean Arthur from two previous hits, Sam Wood’s THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES (1941) and George Stevens’ THE MORE THE MERRIER (1943, the star’s only Best Actress nomination from the Academy).
The TCM Vault’s JEAN ARTHUR COMEDY COLLECTION is a real treat for access to some forgotten titles, with beautiful transfers of quality prints. Sony has done a wonderful job preserving its vast Columbia Pictures library, and it’s good news for movie lovers that they’ve partnered with TCM’s Vault Collection. Next up in the series is a collection of Bogart Columbias, including the ultra-rare 1932 Pre-Code LOVE AFFAIR.
When it was announced in 1980 that John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd would co-star in the film version of NEIGHBORS (1981) based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Berger (LITTLE BIG MAN), with a screenplay by Larry Gelbart (the M*A*S*H TV series), anticipation ran high. Belushi and Aykroyd had revolutionized TV comedy with SNL, and scored big screen success with THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980), but NEIGHBORS was a misfire. Off-the-mark direction by John Avildsen and an obnoxious score by Bill Conti only add to the misery. The movie is especially depressing when one realizes it was Belushi’s last movie (his previous picture, Michael Apted’s romantic comedy CONTINENTAL DIVIDE is highly recommended as a more fitting farewell). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s DVD on Demand program has made a pristine copy of NEIGHBORS available to completists and the curious. Visit www.columbia-classics.com for some wonderful titles in their growing program.
CRITERION: Nearly 15 years after its release, Wes Anderson’s RUSHMORE (1998) holds up as one of the best films of the 90s, a sweet and inventive fairy tale about love and friendship. Jason Schwartzman kicked off a career of consistently stellar work playing over-achiever Max Fischer, perennial undergrad at private Rushmore Academy, where, in addition to founding a slew of extra curricular clubs, he falls insanely in love with teacher Olivia Williams. Bill Murray does perhaps the finest work of his career as the millionaire who befriends Max, then also falls in love with her. The Criterion disc is a digital transfer of the director’s cut, supervised by Anderson. There’s audio commentary from Anderson, Schwartzman and co-writer Owen Wilson; a making-of documentary; and episode of THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW with Murray and Anderson; the three “Max Fischer Players” sketches of ARMAGEDDON, OUT OF SIGHT and THE TRUMAN SHOW from the 1999 MTV Movie Awards; audition footage (including Schwartzman’s); Anderson’s hand-drawn storyboards; a film-to-storyboard comparison; the original trailer; a collectible poster; and an excellent essay by critic Dave Kehr.
IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT offers Matthew Leutwyler’s well-acted THE RIVER WHY (2011), based on David James Duncan’s best-seller. A young man (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS’ Zach Gilford) leaves his domineering parents (William Hurt, Kathleen Quinlan) to pursue his passion for fly-fishing. In a much tamer variation on Sean Penn’s INTO THE WILD (2007), he enters into reclusive wilderness life, meets a kindred spirit (Amber Heard) and falls in love. THE RIVER WHY is elegiac, often poetic, but exceedingly slow, with an overabundance of nature footage (without the significance Terrence Malick gives these kinds of shots), albeit beautifully photographed by high-end music video cinematographer Crash (real name Karsten Gopinath). The cast is uniformly excellent, and also includes the always terrific Dallas Roberts and veteran William Devane. Special features include interviews with cast and crew.
Four-time Oscar winner Dimitri Tiomkin created some of the most memorable scores in movie history: a short list of highlights include LOST HORIZON (1937), ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939), MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939), SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943), IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), DUEL IN THE SUN (1946), RED RIVER (1957), STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951), HIGH NOON (1952), THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY (1954), GIANT (1956), RIO BRAVO (1958), THE ALAMO (1960), THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961), and the theme from TV’s RAWHIDE. There’s an exceptional website dedicated to the composer (www.dimitritiomkin.com), loaded with audio clips, and pictorial, biographical and filmography materials, a model site to honor a great cinema artist.
John Gallagher
jgmovie@gmail.com |
