Larry Gelbart

    I love intelligent funny writing of which Larry Gelbart was a master, one of the most versatile and gifted comedy writers to grace the film, theater and TV world. Gelbart was one of the Comedic Knights of the Writers Table for the classic “Your Show of Shows” along with its follow-up “Caesar’s Hour”, which included Neil Simon, Danny Simon, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Woody Allen and Mel Tolkin.  Neil Simon would later on recreate the insanity of this era in his play “Laughter on the 23^rd Floor.”

    The early 1970’s was a creative time for television comedy, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “All in the Family” and “M*A*S*H” brought a new level of sophistication and controversy into our homes. Topics once considered verboten for family viewing were now not only out in the open but also were done with stylish and clever wit.          

    Gelbart began as a teenager writing for Danny Thomas’ radio show. From there he went on to write for Bob Hope, Jack Parr, Red Buttons and others. However for Gelbart, this was only the beginning. Ahead, were films, Broadway, more TV and a memoir. 

    On Broadway, he co-wrote “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” which was directed by the legendary George Abbott with words and music by Stephen Sondheim and starred Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford and John Carradine. Songs included “Comedy Tonight” and “Everybody Ought to Have a Maid.” The musical went on to win six Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Book. In 1966, it was turned into a film with Mostel and Gilford recreating their stage roles. Phil Silvers, who turned down a role in the play joined the cast along with Buster Keaton. The film was directed by Richard Lester. Gelbart’s other theater works include “Sly Fox”, based on Ben Jonson’s “Volpone”, “Mastergate”, a political satire and “City of Angels” a musical comedy with music by Cy Coleman.    

    Gelbart came back to television in the early1970’s as developer and creator of the TV version of Robert Altman’s anti-war film “MASH” that itself was based on a book by Richard Hooker. The show featured Alan Alda as “Hawkeye” Pierce. Co-stars included Mike Farrell, Wayne Rogers, MacLean Stevenson, Loretta Swit, and Harry Morgan. M*A*S*H was about the wartime adventures of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit. Though the story took place during the Korean conflict in the 1950’s the film resonated with modern day audiences as it made subtle references to the then current Vietnam War. In a New York Times interview Gelbart described “M*A*S*H” as “Marx Brothers superimposed on ‘All’s Quiet on the Western Front.’  Co-producer Gene Reynolds said “Larry not only had the wit and the jokes, he had a point of view. He not only had a ribald spirit,  he had the sensibility to the premise – the wastefulness of war.”  The show ran for 11 years.

    Other TV work included less successful series like the “M*A*S*H” sequel “After MASH” and “United States.” He also wrote films for HBO like “Barbarian’s at the Gate” in 1993 about the takeover of the R.J. Nabisco Corporation, based on a bestselling book. There was also “Weapons of Mass Destruction” and “Starring PanchoVilla as Himself.”

In film, Gelbart wrote or co-wrote such scripts as “The Wrong Box” (1966), “Oh God” directed by long time buddy Carl Reiner, “Movie, Movie” with George C. Scott who also starred in Gelbart’s play “SlyFox.” (1978), “Blame it on Rio” with Michael Caine and a young Demi Moore and “Tootsie” (1982). He was Oscar nominated for both “Oh God” and “Tootsie.”

    In 1997, Gelbart published his memoirs called “Laughing Matters.” Larry Gelbart died on Saturday September 11^th. He was 81 years old.

 

Sources: New York Times, LA Times, WiKipedia, IMDB

British Film Noir at the Film Forum

Here is a major reason I miss living in NYC – The Film Forum. Starting this friday, the Film Forum is presenting a 44 film series of British Film Noir. From well known classics like The Third Man and “Gaslight” to lessor known ( at least to me)  films like Roy Ward Baker’s  “The October Man” with John Mills.  American influence is to be found in films made by expatriates like Jules Dassin with “Night and the City” and Joseph Losey with “The Criminal.” 

Attached here is a New York Times article on the series.

Attached here is the Film Forum website.

For the Love of Miss Crabtree

        For many young boys and girls their first innocent crush is on a  school teacher.  I was  no different except my crush was on the Hal Roach Studio celluloid princess, Miss Crabtree.   Miss Crabtree was actually actress June Marlowe, a former model whose acting career began in silent films. In 1925, she appeared opposite Rin Tin Tin in two films, “Below the Line” and “Clash of the Wolves.” That same year she had a role in the film version of Willa Cathers novel, “The Lost Lady”,  and in 1926 June had the role of Trusia opposite John Barrymore in “Don Juan.”  Other silent films followed but with the advent of sound, June’s career changed course.

June was one of  the WAMPAS Baby Stars  of 1925. This was an award given to starlets who showed promise. In other years, winners  included Clara Bow, Loretta Young, Joan Crawford and Ginger Rogers.  

  In 1930, June appeared as herself in the Charley Chase comedy “Fast Work”, her first sound film and her first for the Hal Roach studios. That same year, she would be reunited with her canine co-star Rin Tin Tin in “The Lone Defender.”

    The year 1930 would continue to be a busy year for June as she appeared for the first time in what would turn out to be her most memorable role, that of the sweet, attractive, heart throbbing Miss Crabtree. “Teacher’s Pet” was her first Our Gang film.  June, a brunette, wore a wig in her role as Miss Crabtree, which the filmmakers felt complemented Jackie Cooper’s golden locks. In all, she made six Our Gang comedies,  some of the best in the series.  They included, “School’s Out” and “Love Business”, both with Jackie Cooper who she became friends with on and off the screen. As you watch their scenes together you can feel a real connection going on between them.  Jackie left the Our Gang series around this time however, June made three more films as the charming  Miss Crabtree, “Little Daddy”, “Shiver My Timbers” and “Readin’ and Writin.”   During this period, June also had a small part in Laurel and Hardy’s first feature “Pardon Us.”

    One of my favorite Miss Crabtree scenes is in “School’s Out” when she attempts to give the kids a history lesson and their responses all, unknownly, come from a joke book.  She asked Farina, “What was Abraham Lincoln Gettyburg Address” and he relies knowingly, “Sixteen forty four South Main Street.”   Frustated, she asked Jackie, “Who was the Hunchback of Nortre Dame?” and Jackie repsonds “Lon Chaney.”  With each question came another wrong answer and we see her facial expression go from suprise to shock to frustation and finally she is  livid.  It’s a beautifully done scene and funny. 

  Marlowe’s career abruptly ended in 1932 when she married and retired from the movies. Little did she realize at the time that the role of Miss Crabtree was her seminal role and would fuel the dreams of many prepubescent boys for multiple generations to come.

 

June on the cover of Moving Picture Stories Magazine…….talented….beautiful…..

…..and athletic too!

Classic Film Alert on May 2nd

On May 2nd two must see films will be making rare appearances on the Fox Movie Channel and TCM.  First up is Jules Dassin’s classic film noir “Thieves Highway” on Saturday May 2nd at 11:30AM and again on May 13th at 9:45AM on the Fox Movie Channel.

Released on DVD as part of the Criterion Collection “Thieves Highway” is Dassin right in the middle of his best period with “The Naked City” and “Brute Force” behind him and “Night and the City” and “Riffifi” still to come. This was Dassin final American film until his rare 1968 film “Up Tight”,  a black cast remake of  “The Informer.”

Here’s a review I wrote for Halo-17.

 

Later that same day, TCM will broadcast the 1932 classic prison drama, Mervyn LeRoy’s  “I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang” at 8PM. A repeat broadcast is scheduled for June 20th at 7:15AM.  Based on a true story this is one of Warner Brothers classic social dramas that they did so well back then.

Here’s a quick link to the review I wrote a short while back.

 

Don’t miss the chance to see this two classic works.

Femme Fatale: Gloria Grahame

Femme Fatale – a woman who is considered dangerous alluring or seductive, a fatal woman who leads men to destruction.

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

Who fits the description of femme fatale better than Gloria Grahame? Just watch the way she enters a scene, no matter where she is, her eyes never leave the bedroom. Sultry, pouty lips and shapely legs, Grahame was not the girl next door unless you lived in a neighborhood filled with dark rain drenched mean streets, dramatic lighting and women who carried a gat strapped to their thigh.  Though she generally played a loose woman, unfaithful wife or gun moll she brought a sensitivity and intelligence to her roles that went beyond the stereotypical dimensions usually associated with these kinds of parts. In reel life and in real life, Gloria Grahame lived close to the edge. You don’t get much more on the edge than sleeping with your teenage stepson and eventually marrying him after divorcing dad.

    Sexual heat just poured out of Gloria on film, even the titles of her films sizzled, “Naked Alibi”, “Blonde Fever”, “Human Desire’, “The Big Heat”, “The Bad and the Beautiful” and “Roughshod”, to name a few. Even in the perennial family Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, Gloria still was the town tramp, Violet Bick, dancing for a dime with men and maybe doing more, generally being the anti Donna Reed. Violet is one of the characters whose life would have been worst off had it not been for George Bailey.    

    Despite an Oscar winning performance as the over sexed wife of screenwriter Dick Powell in “The Bad and the Beautiful”, Grahame’s best performances were arguably in “In a Lonely Place” and “The Big Heat.”   She co-starred opposite Humphrey Bogart, in her then husband Nicolas Rays’ classic noir where she gives an amazing performance filled with paranoia, lust and distrust.  We watch her relationship with screenwriter and possible murderer Dixon Steele (Bogart) crumble before our eyes as she at first believes him to be innocent then begins to suspect he may have been involved in the murder of a young girl.  Vincent Curcio states in his Grahame biography, “Suicide Blonde”, that Nick Ray continually rewrote the script changing it to correspond to his version of their decaying marriage. In Fritz Lang’s “The Big Heat” Grahame is Lee Marvin’s narcissistic mirror loving gun moll who is brutally punished when he tosses scalding coffee on her face for talking to a cop. Disfigured, branded an informer, she eventually gets her revenge by throwing hot coffee back in Marvin’s face. Then there were the roles that got away, two roles in particular that got away from Grahame were due to Howard Hughes refusal to loan her out to other studios. She would have been wonderful in the role eventually played by Shelley Winters “A Place in the Sun” and it would have been an interesting comical role if she had been allowed to take the Judy Holiday part in “Born Yesterday.” 

    Like her character, in “The Big Heat”, Grahame was obsessed with her looks, never seeing herself as truly beautiful. According  Curcio in his biography, Gloria had much cosmetic work done on her face, mostly around the lip area (she often use to stuff cotton under her upper lip hoping to straighten it out). She was always unsatisfied with the way she looked.           Though she continued to work until the 1980’s, the 1950’s was Grahame’s decade. Her best and most memorable work came in those then years. Part of the reason for her decline is certainly attributable to her 1960 marriage to her former stepson Tony Ray, Nick Ray’s son by a previous marriage. She was 36 and Tony was 23. The marriage lasted 15 years and Gloria gave birth to two boys during the marriage. The mind-boggling relationships that developed out of all this became fodder for the news media of the day and took its toll on Gloria’s career.  Tony Ray would later on become a well-known actor, Assistant Director and Producer. Most of her post 1950’s work was beneath her talent, though she did make a few memorable appearances in films likes “Chilly Scenes of Winter”, “Melvin and Howard” and the TV mini series “Rich Man, Poor Man.” Much of her work though was on TV in shows like “Mannix”, “Then Came Bronson”, “Kojak”, “The Fugitive”, “The Outer Limits” and some low-budget films like “The Todd Killings” and “Mama’s Dirty Girls.”

    Gloria never became a major star though she was a major supporting player most wanted by some of Hollywood’s best directors including Fred Zinnemann,  Robert Wise, Frank Capra, Edward Dmytryk, Elia Kazan, Vincent Minnelli, Fritz Lang and of course Nick Ray. Gloria Grahame died in 1981; she was only 57 years old.

 

 Below is a list of her essential works.

 

1946 – It’s a Wonderful Life

1948 – Crossfire

1950 – In a Lonely Place

1952 – Sudden Fear

1952 – The Bad and the Beautiful

1953 – Man on a Tightrope

1953 – The Big Heat

1954 – Human Desire

1954 – Naked Alibi

1955 – Oklahoma

1959 – Odds Against Tomorrow

 

 

Upcoming Gloria Grahame films on TCM

 

Oklahoma   April 19th 3PM

Human Desire   June 8th 8:30AM 

 

 

 In Human Desire with Glenn Ford

Sultry with Sterling Hayden in Naked Alibi

Fatal in A Woman’s Secret

 

Publicity stills with Glenn Ford in The Big Heat

Those legs

 On the cover of Life Magazine

Posters and Lobby Cards

 

 

The Mayor of Hell’s Kitchen Goes to Crime School

 

     I was watching “Hell’s Kitchen” the other night, a 1939 Warner Brothers programmer with The Dead End Kids. They were still riding the crest of a wave of success that began with William Wyler’s “Dead End” and continued with films like “Angels with Dirty Faces”, and the lesser successful “Angels Wash Their Faces.” This is, of course, before they began deteriorating into overaged caricatures of their former selves as they continuously changed names, from The Dead End Kids to The East Side Kids to The Little Tough Guys and finally the Bowery Boys. Moving from major studios like Warners Brothers and Universal to the depths of poverty row with Monogram. What struck me about the Hell’s Kitchen was this feeling of déjà vu, I had seen the film once before but that was not why I had the feeling. Somehow, I thought Humphrey Bogart was in this film or maybe it was James Cagney. In addition, to The Dead End Kids, “Hell’s Kitchen” starred Ronald Reagan (who also appeared with the boys in “Angels Wash Their Faces”) billed way down on the list of characters after all the DEK’s!

    About halfway into the film, it struck me that “Hell’s Kitchen” was similar to the Humphrey Bogart film “Crime School” made just the year before. While there are differences between the films, the similarities are striking beginning with the fact both films are directed by Lewis Seiler, and Crane Wilber is given credit for both the story and co-screenwriting on each film. Then it came to me there is another similar film, 1933’s “The Mayor of Hell” where young James Cagney plays a reformed gangster who takes over a juvenile reformatory attempting to fix a corrupt system, which was what Ronald Reagan’s almost reformed gangster father-in-law Stanley Fields does in “Hell’s Kitchen.”

 All three films contain corrupt sadistic superintendents. Both “Crime School” and “Hell’s Kitchen” have scenes where the juvenile inmates establish a self-governing system though, in “Hell’s Kitchen” it is sanctioned by the officials in charge whereas in “Hell’s Kitchen”, it quickly turns to a lynch mob mentality. In “Crime School”, Bogart, a deputy commissioner, takes over the corrupt reformatory, as does lawyer Reagan in “Hell’s Kitchen.”  In “The Mayor of Hell”, a young James Cagney plays as a reformed gangster who takes over a juvenile reformatory attempting to fix a corrupt system.

     Of course, all the films have caring, beautiful leading women. In the “Mayor of Hell”, it is the lovely Madge Evans, while it is Margaret Lindsay who attempts to take care of the boys in “Hell’s Kitchen.” “Crime School’s” leading lady Gale Page is a bit different as she is the older sister of juvenile problem child Billy Halop.  One difference between the films is that “The Mayor of Hell” is pre-code while the other two films, made late in the decade, were more restricted in what they could show.                                                                                                      

    Today, remakes, sequels are almost an expected part of movie going. Can anyone imagine a summer season without a remake or a sequel?  We know creativity and the financial guts to take chances is a rare commodity in Hollywood. With these three films, we are given a snapshot that taking chances and looking how to save a buck in Hollywood is not new.  Warner Brothers recycled the same story, and in the case of two of the three films, the same actors (The Dead End Kids), the same director and the same writer, all within six years. That’s economy.

     None of the films could be called great but all are entertaining, however, “The Mayor of Hell” shines with good  performances by Cagney and Frankie Darro and “Crime School”, is well worth your time if for no other reason than it has Bogart. “Hell’s Kitchen” biggest problem is really a lack of a strong leading man. Ronald Reagan comes across as just bland. Of the three films, “The Mayor of Hell” is the only one available on DVD.  Your best bet to catch the other two films is when they occasionally appear on TCM or download on-line.

Lee Remick: An Appreciation

“I make movies for grownup.”  – Lee Remick 

 

    Lee Remick was a woman of deep sensuality, talent, elegance and on top of all that, a classic beauty.  She made her film debut in Elia Kazan’s underrated “A Face in the Crowd” portraying Betty Lou Fleckum, a sexy seductive seventeen year high school cheerleader, who is selected by “Lonesome” Rhodes (Andy Griffith) as the winner of a baton-twirling contest. Rhodes is so turned on by Betty Lou’s sensuality that they run off together and marry.  The following year Lee appeared in Martin Ritt’s “The Long Hot Summer” with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward and Tony Francisosa, followed by “These Thousand Hills” and Otto Preminger’s excellent “Anatomy of a Murder” where she played the seductive trampy wife of Ben Gazarra who allegedly was raped by the man Gazarra murdered. Remick’s use of her natural eroticism to manipulate others is so straightforward she never allows the character to seem like a stereotypical Hollywood tramp but a full dimensional human being. 

    The 1960’s got started with her second Kazan film, “Wild River” another underrated gem in which she co-starred with Montgomery Clift and gave what Richard Schickel says “may be her finest performance.”  In 1961, she played Temple Drake, her performance is the best thing, in Tony Richardson’s misfire “Sanctuary” based on two William Faulkner novels (Sanctuary and Requiem for a Nun).  Things improved in 1962 with the released of two Blake Edward’s directed films, the fine thriller “Experiment in Terror” and in what may be her most memorable role, that of the alcoholic wife in  “Days of Wine and Roses” for which she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. It is a harrowing performance that will stay with you long after the film is over. At this point in her career Lee should have been swimming right into the top tier of female stars of the sixties however, a series of uneven choices in her following films would derail that trajectory.  Carol Reed’s “The Running Man”, a decent film did not find much of an audience. This was followed by her first comedy, “The Wheeler Dealers” with James Garner, a pleasant enough movie but nothing to write home about. “Baby, The Rain Must Fall” with Steve McQueen, “The Hallelujah Trail” with Burt Lancaster were moderately successful though neither were groundbreaking.

     In the mid 1060’s, Lee took off some time between films to appear in a couple of Broadway productions. first, the musical “Anyone Can Whistle”, which closed after one week. This was followed by “Wait Until Dark” a play written by Frederick Knott who previously authored “Dial M For Murder.” Directed by Arthur Penn, the play was a hit running for 11 months. In addition to Lee, the cast included Robert Duvall in the role of Harry Roat Jr., the leader of the drug dealers. Lee received wonderful reviews and a Tony nomination for her role as Susie Hendrix the blind heroine. According to Alexander Walker in his biography of Audrey Hepburn, he states that Warner Brothers purchased the rights to the play before it even opened on Broadway and that they were negotiating with Hepburn as early as mid 1965. The play did not open until February of 1966. Upon agreeing to do the role, Hepburn wanted it announced early to avoid accusations, which previously occurred when she did “My Fair Lady”, that she stole the role from the original Broadway actress. 

    Lee returned to films in 1968, with the release of the enjoyably light thriller “No Way to Treat a Lady” based on an early William Goldman novel. That same year she played Frank Sinatra’s oversexed wife in the uneven version of the best selling novel “The Detective.” Other movies followed; among them are “Hard Contract” with James Coburn, “Sometimes a Great Notion” reuniting her with Paul Newman, “The Omen” with Gregory Peck “Loot”, “A Severed Head”, “Hennessey” and “Tribute.” There also was a production of The American Film Theater’s version of Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance.” However, Lee’s career turned more and more toward TV movies and mini-series. She played the title role in “Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill.”, She also appeared in “QBVII”, The Blue Knight” with William Holden, “A Girl Named Spooner”, “Ike”, “Ike: The War Years”, “Hustling,”, “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” and “Haywire” among others.

    Remick was known to prepare passionately for her roles. The Massachusetts’s born actress lived with a local family in the Arkansas town where they were filming “A Face in the Crowd” and learned from their daughter the art baton twirling for her role as the overly seductive cheerleader.  For her stage role in “Wait Until Dark”, Lee spent a month blindfolded every morning at New York’s Lighthouse for the Blind. In preparation for her role as Kristen in “Days of Wine and Roses”, Lee attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

    Lee Remick never achieved the stardom of say an Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn or Shirley MacLaine but her talent was just as great. She sometimes was second choice for a role (Lana Turner was originally offered her role in “Anatomy of a Murder”) yet she persevered and gave us some outstanding performances that will never be forgotten.       

    Despite her elegance, early in her career, 20^th Century Fox publicity was trying to build Lee up as “America’s answer to Brigitte Bardot.” According to an interview with Joe Hyams of the New York Tribune, Lee was not happy with the comparison saying, “anyone who’d want to build me up as a sex siren would have to be crazy.”   She added, “I’m an actress and a woman and you can’t classify me with your interview number 4, nor can you dispose of me by comparing me to Brigitte Bardot or Grace Kelly.” At the end of the interview, she smiled “you can compare me with Greta Garbo, I have big feet too.”

    While never compared to Marilyn Monroe, at least that I am aware of, Remick and Marilyn’s careers intertwined three times. In 1956, Lee did a stage version of “The Seven Year Itch” portraying the sexy neighbor that Marilyn would play in the Billy Wilder movie. In 1976, she played Cherie in a West End, London production of William Inge’s “Bus Stop.” In film, a more direct connection came when 20^th Century Fox announced after firing Marilyn that Lee would replace her in the ill-fated “Something’s Got to Give.”  Dean Martin who was to co-star stated that, no offence to Remick, but he would not do the film without Marilyn. 20^th Century Fox smartly just dropped the production. Five years later the story was resurrected and made with James Garner and Doris Day in the leads with the title changed to “Move Over, Darling.”  Lee Remick premature death at the age of 55 in 1991 was sad, shocking and severed the short career of one of the classiest actresses of our time.

 

“Wild River” will be on The Fox Movie Channel on March 3rd at 1:30 PM

“Anatomy of a Murder” will be on TCM on April 29^{th  PM}

 

 Here a good article on Lee Remick from The Passionate Moviegoer

Here is my review of “A Face in the Crowd” from Halo-17 

NY Times Obit.

Check out The Remick Galleries website.

Review of “The Long Hot Summer” from Self-Styled Siren

NY Times review of  “A Face in the Crowd” 

NY Times review of  “Anatomy of a Murder”  

NY Times review of  “Wild River”

NY Times review of “No Way to Treat a Lady”

NY TImes reveiw of  “The Wheeler Dealers”

NY Times review of “The Long Hot Summer”

NY Times review of “Experiment in Terror”   

  

Playwright Robert Anderson Dies

    Playwright Robert Anderson, author of  many hit Broadway plays among them “Tea and Sympathy”, I Never San For You Father”, “ Silent Night, Lonely Night” and “You Know I Can’t Hear You When The Waters Running” died on Monday. He was 91 years old.

    Anderson also wrote the screenplays for “The Nun’s Story”, “Until They Sail” and “The Sand Pebbles” in addition to adaptations of many of his own theater works. Anderson’s work was somewhat controversial at the time. His 1953 play “Tea and Sympathy”, directed by Elia Kazan, about an adulterous interlude between a professor’s wife and a student raised eyebrows. Deborah Kerr made her Broadway debut in this play soon after her steamy performance in “From Here to Eternity.” The play also starred John Kerr (no relation) as the young 17-year-old sexually insecure student. After a failed attempt at suicide, Deborah Kerr’s character offers herself to the boy in order to reinstate his sexual identity and confidence. The play ran for 712 performances. Later in the run, Joan Fontaine and Anthony Perkins assumed the lead roles.  The hit play was made into a film in 1956 with the same two leads and was directed by Vincent Minnelli.   

   Anderson was married (his second wife) to actress Theresa Wright from 1959 to 1978.

   

Attached here is the New York Times obituary.

 

Original New Times Movie Reviews of Tea and Sympathy  and I Never Sang For My Father.

 

New York Times theater review of 2007 revival of Tea and Sympathy.

 

  

 

Baby Face – Before and After

     The first time I saw “Baby Face” was back in the 1990’s when it was released on VHS as part of the “Forbidden Hollywood series.” The film had a well deserved reputation for being one of the racier films to be ever made with sex, prostitution and plenty of morally corrupt individuals. Now on DVD as part of volume one in the “Forbidden Hollywood” collection, I finally got around to watching the disreputable pre-released version. Discovered back in 2005 in the Library of Congress film archives, this version was unearthed when a request was made for a new print to be struck. Mike Mashon, curator at the Motion Picture Division of the Library of Congress, received a print that was struck from the original camera negative however; he was told there was a dup negative that was about five minutes longer. Intrigued, Mashon requested a print from the dup negative. After viewing the five-minute longer version, he knew he had struck gold. Typical for the times, “Baby Face” prior to its release was submitted to various state censor boards, in this case the powerful New York State Board of Censors and was rejected. Without the approval of the State Board, Warner Brothers knew the film would never play in the major New York City market. Subsequently the film was edited removing the Boards objectionable scenes. The recut film was released and opened at the Strand Theater in New York to mixed reviews.

    In viewing both versions, the dramatic changes are significant enough to change the tone, the pre-released version being darker and certainly more sordid. Barbara Stanwyck is Lily a young woman who is pimped by her own father to the slimy characters who frequent his Erie, Pa. speakeasy. This is explicitly shown in the uncut version where a coarse local politician pays dear old Dad hard cash to spend some quality time with Lily. When the politician fondles Lily’s leg, she pours hot coffee on him. Next, he crudely grabs her breasts and Lily retaliates by grabbing a beer bottle hitting him squarely on the head. In the officially released version, this scene was cut dramatically. No cash exchanges hands between Dad and the politician; the fondling of Lily’s leg is shorter and there is no groping of her breasts. In other scenes, dialogue was changed or cut to meet the censors’ requirements. When her father tells her she can’t talk to him so rudely Lily goes on a tirade about “What a swell start you gave me….” She goes on about him being a lousy father and about all the rotten lousy men of which he was the lowest. What was cut from the released version of this rant is a line about Dad pimping her out at the age of 14!

    Soon after, her father is killed when his still accidentally blows up. A local Cobbler, who in the original version comes across as more of a father figure, tells her to seek her fortune by going to New York. He tells her a beautiful young woman like her can get anything she wants but she must remember there is a right and wrong way to go about getting ahead in the world. In the pre-censored version, the cobbler’s advice is not as fatherly as he encourages her to read Nietzshe’s Thoughts out of Season and to “Crush out all sentiment.”  He tells her, a beautiful young woman like her can get anything because she has the power over men. “Use men, don’t let them use you”, he advises her. He goes on to say that she must be the master and not the slave. Use men to get the things she wants. Like Lily, this version of the film follows Nietzsche’s advice and crushes out any and all sentiment.

 .    Lily puts the cobbler’s advice to quick use when she hops a freight train with her friend and helper, Chico (Theresa Harris). Caught by a railroad inspector Lily using the new found power of her body seduces him as they ride the rails. In New York, Lily, with no work skills nor any education, seeks to get a job at the Gotham Trust Co. A personnel clerk asks her if she has any experience to which she replies “Plenty” with a knowing smirk. Telling Lily there are no jobs available she proposes they could work something out as she makes her way into the bosses empty office. The clerk follows closing the door behind him. Lily climbs to the top as she sleeps her way from the Filing Room, to the Mortgage Department to Accounting where she meets Ned Stevens (Donald Cook) who is engaged to Ann Carter (Margaret Lindsay), daughter of bank head J.P. Carter or at least he is until Lily becomes responsible for breaking up the romance. Stevens is so hooked on Lily that when he finds his future-father-in-law Carter in Lily’s bedroom he shoots him and commits suicide. Unperturbed by the violence, Lily nonchalantly calls the police telling them there has been an “accident.”

    At this point, with all scandal Lily is sent off to the Paris branch of the Bank, which is somewhat ludicrous, why not just fire her. In Paris, she meets Courtland Trenholm (George Brent), who falls in love with Lily. They marry and Courtland showers Lily with jewelry, clothes and money.  They eventually come back to New York when the Bank and Trenholm are having financial problems. He ask Lily to return some of the gifts and securities he has given her so he can pay his debt, she refuses. Despondent Courtland attempts suicide. As Courtland is taken away in an ambulance with Lily as his side, the censors strike one more time. They did not like the idea in the original version that Lily is shown as not “paying” for her sins. Warner’s was forced to tack on an artificial ending instead of the pre-censored version, which is more ambiguous and yet hints at the chance that Lily and Courtland will live happily ever after.

    “Baby Face” is not a great film and is remembered today more for its place in film history as one of the most salacious films ever made. The discovery, in 2005 of the pre-released version only cemented its place in history. The first half of the film holds up well from a story point of view however, the second part of the film somewhat shaky. Still the film is a thrill to watch mainly due to Stanwyck who gives us an early version of one of her classic bold ice-cold characterizations that she would play to perfection later on in films like “Double Indemnity and even on TV in “The Big Valley.”  Also a pleasure is Theresa Harris as Chico, Lily’s helper and friend who hums the bluesy “St. Louis Woman” throughout the film, subliminally reminding us of Lily’s immoral roots. Her role is a rare example of a non-stereotypical black character that is treated as an equal, especially by Lily. Harris appeared in many well known films, generally, as a maid or waitress. Her impressive list  include “Morocco”, Horse Feathers”, “Gold Diggers of 1933”, “Hold Your Man”, “Jezebel”, “The Women”, Phantom Lady”, “Cat People” “ The Dolly Sisters” “Miracle on 34^th Street, “The Big Clock”, “The File on Thelma Jordan” and “Angel Face” among many others. In the Jack Benny starring “Buck Benny Rides Again,” Harris had the opportunity to show off her singing and dancing talent in a duet with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. Unfortunately, because of the times this talented lady was never given the opportunity to climb the ladder to stardom.  Also, look for a young John Wayne is a minor role as one of Lily’s conquest and character actor Nat Pendleton in a small role as one of Lily’s Dad’s slimy speakeasy customers.  Pendleton appeared in over 100 films including “Manhattan Melodrama”, “The Thin Man”, “Another Thin Man”, “Buck Privates” and “Buck Privates Come Home.”

    The film was directed by Alfred E. Green, who started in the silent days and continued to work up until the late 1950’s.  “Baby Face” is probably his most famous or more fittingly his most infamous film. Most of Green’s output consisted of fairly routine programmers. The screenplay was written by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola based on a story by Darryl F. Zanuck writing as Mark Canfield. Zanuck’s career with Warner’s Brothers would end shortly thereafter, only partially due to his part in creating tawdry films, “straight from the newspaper headlines”, such as “Baby Face” and probably more to do with disputes with Jack Warner and his own desires to run a studio. He would soon be a co-founder of Twentieth Century Pictures and a few years later, they would buyout Fox Pictures forming Twentieth Century Fox.

An interesting aside I came across is from an article by Molly Haskell in the New York Times on how so many pre-code heroines were called Lily or Lil. Beside Stanwyck’s Lily Powers, there’s Marlene Dietrich’s Shanghai Lil’ in Von Sternberg’s “Shanghai Express”, Jean Harlow as the gold-digging secretary Lil’ Andrews in “Red Headed Woman” and Lily, alias Mlle. Vautier in “Trouble in Paradise.” The character called Lady Lou played by Mae West in “She Done Him Wrong” was based on the play “Diamond Lil” written by West. Paramount changed the character’s name in hopes of reducing the notoriety that preceded the play.

Jean Arthur on TCM

To my delight, over the next month  Turner Classic Movies will be  showing some of Jean Arthur’s classic films.  More importantly, for me personally, some of the films I have never seen and am looking forward too.  Since I just wrote about “Easy Living” it is all very timely and I thought I share the upcoming flicks.

Jan 25th (10AM) – The Whole Town’s Talking – Dir. John Ford

Feb 2nd (12:45AM) – You Can’t Take it With You – Dir. Frank Capra

Feb. 3rd (8PM) – The More the Merrier – Dir. George Stevens

Feb. 6th (2PM) – Only Angels Have Wings – Dir. Howard Hawks

Feb. 9th (8PM) – The Devil in Miss Jones – Dir.  Sam Wood

Feb. 18th (9:15AM) Talk of the Town – Dir. George Stevens

Feb. 23rd (5:45PM) Arizona – Dir. Wesley Ruggles