What’s on TCM: December 2011

We’re down to the last month of 2011 already!  TCM will be closing out the year in top form.  December’s star of the month is William Powell, which I am very excited about since I’m a big fan of his.  It also means we get two nights of movies featuring him with Myrna Loy, one night being the entire Thin Man series and another night featuring their other collaborations.  His movies will be showcased every Thursday night this month.  TCM will also be celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens a little early (his birthday isn’t actually until February) by devoting Monday nights to showing various film adaptations of his work.  And of course there are Christmas classics galore to look forward to!

Fashions of 1934

What do you do when the investment firm you own goes under?  Why, naturally you decide to get into the fashion game!  Well, at least that’s what Sherwood Nash (William Powell) does.  When he meets aspiring fashion designer Lynn Mason (Bette Davis), Sherwood, Lynn, and Sherwood’s partner Snap (Frank McHugh) decide to start making copies of designs by famous designers and selling them to discount shops for a fraction of the cost.  When the owners of shops that sell the real deals find out about this, they want to put a stop to it, but Nash smooth talks them into selling his knock-offs, too.  Not only that, he gets them to send them to Paris to better copy the designs.

To get in to see the designs, Lynn pretends to be interested in buying something while Snap stealthily takes pictures.  But when their film gets confiscated, they have to come up with another plan.  By pure chance, they find out that the famous designer Oscar Baroque (Reginald Owen) turns to old costume design books for inspiration.  So they get some costume design books and let Lynn design some pieces based on what she finds in the books, then forge famous designers’ signatures to them.  The stores back in New York buy the designs up like hotcakes, but Sherwood can’t resist an opportunity to make money.  When he meets a man with an abundance of ostrich feathers, he gets an idea.  He buys up the feathers and goes to see Baroque’s fiancée Grand Duchess Alix (Verree Teasdale).  He knows Alix is no Grand Duchess, she’s really just Mabel from Hoboken.

Since Alix doesn’t want Sherwood to tell Baroque who she really is, he blackmails her into convincing Baroque to design a musical show full of ostrich feathered clothes that Alix could star in.  He agrees and the show is a big success, so then he decides to open his own boutique.  But Lynn is getting fed up with Sherwood’s schemes.  Also, she’s fallen in love with him and is jealous of all the attention he’s giving Alix.  Even though her designs are once again hugely popular at the boutique, the idea of running off with Jimmy the piano player sounds pretty appealing to Lynn.  But by now, Baroque has found out about the forged designs and calls the police on Sherwood.  Sherwood gets arrested, but he has one more trick up his sleeve to get out of jail, get Baroque to buy the boutique from him, and get Lynn.

If I had a rating system, I’d give Fashions of 1934 2.5 out of 4 stars.  William Powell is pretty good in it, but poor Bette Davis is woefully out of place.  It’s pretty well-known that Warner Brothers really didn’t know what to do with Bette Davis when she first started working for them.  She wasn’t a glamour girl, but Warner’s insisted on trying to make her into one and this was their biggest attempt to shoehorn into that type.  She had blonde hair and was decked out in all sorts of fancy Orry-Kelly gowns, it was so not her style.  At least in movies like 20,000 Years in Sing Sing, even though they tried to make her somewhat glamorous, her part still had some grit to it.  There’s nothing gritty or raw about Fashions of 1934.  It’s a fun and entertaining little movie, but think of it as a William Powell movie more than anything else.  Bette isn’t outstanding here and although Busby Berkeley was involved, there’s only one musical number.  But at least he made the most of his one number, Spin a Little Web of Dreams is a really beautiful scene.  And if you’re interested in costume design, there’s a lot to appreciate here.

Lawyer Man (1932)

On New York’s Lower East Side, Tony Adam (William Powell) has built up a reputation as one of the best lawyers in town.  Even kids on the street admire him and want to grow up to be just like him!  One day, he gets a visit from Granville Bentley (Alan Dineheart), an attorney working in Uptown Manhattan, who invites Tony to join his firm.  He talks it over with his faithful secretary Olga (Joan Blondell), who believes he could be a big success if he moved uptown.  She has just one piece of advice for him: stay away from women.  But does he listen?  Of course not.  Tony makes the move, bringing Olga with him, and at first, he’s determined to stay on the straight and narrow.

When notorious racketeer Gilmurry (David Landau) finds out what a good lawyer Tony is, he tries to get Tony to come work for him.  Tony declines the offer, but then he meets the conniving showgirl Virginia St. Johns (Claire Dodd).  Virginia wants Tony’s help suing Dr. Gresham (Kenneth Thompson), her fiance, for breach of promise.  She also seduces Tony to convince him to help her.  Tony is no match for her charms and pulls out all the ethical stops to build her case up.  He doesn’t realize that she’s actually working with Dr. Gresham to catch him acting unethically so they can take him for everything he’s worth.  When they get through with him, he’s lost everything he’s worked for.   Tony defends himself at his trial and even though he isn’t convicted, he isn’t acquitted either.  Bentley fires him from the law firm and nobody wants him to represent them.

The only cases he can get are the shadier cases that nobody else will touch.  He realizes the only way for him to succeed is to play dirty, so he takes on those cases, but not without asking a hefty fee for his services.  When he hears about an opportunity to handle a case against Gilmurry, he jumps at the chance.  Even though the jury finds Gilmurry not guilty, Tony manages to get a big settlement out of Gilmurry before the jury reaches their decision.  Again, Gilmurry tries to get Tony to join his organization, but Tony is willing to let Gilmurry use his influence to get him a spot as Assistant District Attorney.  As Assistant DA, Tony sets his sights on getting even with Dr. Gresham.  He’d gotten all the dirt on Gresham’s fraudulent practices while working with Virginia and uses it to get him put behind bars.  Gilmurry isn’t to pleased about this since Gresham is part of his racket, but once again, Tony is able to turn the tables on Gilmurry and next thing he knows, Gilmurry is offering to get him in as a judge.  But Tony isn’t interested in being a judge.  He wants to go back to the Lower East Side, where he belongs, and work as an honest lawyer.

What piqued my interest in Lawyer Man is the fact that it’s William Powell in a more dramatic role.  I mostly know William Powell from comedies, so I was interested in seeing something a little different from him.  I like him better in comedies, but he did not disappoint here.  Joan Blondell did just fine and dandy here, even though she could have stood a little more screen time.  Surprisingly, this was the only movie William Powell and Joan Blondell ever made together.  I would have liked to see them teamed up again in something like a pre-code comedy, that could have been a lot of fun.  But at least we have Lawyer Man, which I really enjoyed.  Good story that fits a lot into just over an hour.

Why a Thin Man Remake is Doomed to Fail

Oh, how I was hoping talk of this remake would just go away.  But nope, it looks like they’re serious about remaking The Thin Man with Johnny Depp. *sigh*  When I first heard about this, I think I yelled, “NO!” the exact same way Myrna Loy did in that scene from the first Thin Man movie where Nora is very hung over and Nick offers her a pick-me-up.

To me, The Thin Man is a movie that simply can’t be remade in a way that would do justice to the original.  There are a lot of reasons that the original movie is so perfect.  You’ve got Myrna Loy and William Powell, who are both simply divine in their respective roles.  But Johnny Depp is a good actor, right?  I do like Johnny Depp, but when you’re best known for playing a Keith Richards-inspired pirate and being a muse to Tim Burton, I have a very hard time picturing you in any role originated by William Powell.  Then there’s W.S. Van Dyke’s direction.  But Rob Marshall is an Oscar nominee, so he must be good, right?  OK, so I don’t really have a problem with Marshall directing.  And I can’t forget the razor-sharp writing of the original movie!  Considering the article I linked to names Jerry Stahl as the writer for the remake, then cites him as being a writer for CSI and Bad Boys II, I’m rather concerned about just how genuinely witty and sophisticated this will be.

But the acting, direction, and writing aren’t the only reasons why The Thin Man was excellent.  The real glue that brought the movie together was that spectacular chemistry between Myrna Loy and William Powell.  Their chemistry is always a joy to watch in any movie, but when you put that spark together with that director and that ultra witty script, you get cinematic perfection.  Even if Johnny Depp surprises me and does a great job as Nick Charles and the screenplay is truly delightful, they will never be able to recreate that infamous Loy/Powell chemistry.

I believe that remakes, in theory, can work.  But when a huge part of the appeal of the original hinges on an intangible quality, I really don’t have much hope for the success of a remake.  The part of Nora Charles has yet to be cast, but whoever it ends up being could have fabulous chemistry with Johnny Depp, but it could be the wrong type of chemistry for something like this.  Just try to imagine The Thin Man with some other classic film duos as Nick and Nora.  It just wouldn’t have worked as well starring Bogie and Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, or Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.  Even though I don’t think a Tracy/Hepburn version would be so bad, it just wouldn’t be the same without Loy and Powell.  They were made for movies like The Thin Man and trying to recapture that is like trying to make lightning strike the same place twice.

My Top 100, 30-21

Wow, I can’t believe we’re already up to number 30! This week is another week where if you don’t know anything at all about my style and only saw these ten movies, you’d get a pretty good idea of what my taste is.  So, let’s get on with the list!

What’s on TCM: July 2010

Wow, TCM in July is chock full of noteworthy days!  Gregory Peck is the star of the month, so that means lots of great movies like To Kill a Mockingbird, Roman Holiday, Designing Woman, and Spellbound.  In addition to Gregory Peck, TCM will spend some time spotlighting other great stars like Myrna Loy, Gene Kelly, William Powell, and Doris Day.  Every Thursday this month, TCM will be showcasing classic teen movies, everything from Rebel Without a Cause and Beach Blanket Bingo to Sixteen Candles and Risky Business.  It feels like this is one of those months where there’s something for everybody, whether you like John Ford westerns or Ingmar Bergman.  Now, on to my picks for the month:

Ziegfeld Follies (1945)

Part 3 of my Ziegfeld in Hollywood series.

In a way, Ziegfeld Follies is kind of like Man With a Movie Camera: they’re both movies that are rather difficult to write about since neither one has a real plot.  They’re both concept movies.  In the case of Ziegfeld Follies, the concept is Florenz Ziegfeld (played once again by William Powell) in Heaven planning a show featuring some of the greatest film stars.  The movie is a true all-star extravaganza featuring the likes of Judy Garland, Esther Williams, Lena Horne, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Fanny Brice, Kathryn Grayson, Red Skelton, and Lucille Ball in a series of musical numbers and comedy sketches like you might see in the Ziegfeld Follies.

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

Welcome to part one of my Ziegfeld in Hollywood series, examining how Hollywood has paid tribute to the glorious days of the Ziegfeld Follies.  First up is none other than MGM’s lavish biopic of the man behind the Follies, The Great Ziegfeld.

The Great Ziegfeld follows the life of Florenz Ziegfeld (William Powell) beginning with his days at the 1893 World’s Fair working as a promoter for the legendary strongman Sandow.  While working for Sandow, Ziegfeld turns Sandow into the most popular attraction by drumming up media attention.  He later set his sights on Polish-French stage star Anna Held (Luise Rainer) and wants to do for her what he did for Sandow.  Even though he doesn’t have any money, he meets with her and charms her into letting him promote her anyway.  After Anna’s stage debut in New York is underwhelming, Ziegfeld starts ordering large quantities of milk and refuses to pay for it.  He tells the press that Anna bathes in the milk to keep her skin beautiful.  Curious crowds begin flocking to the theater to see for themselves whether or not the milk baths work.  Anna is now a hit and she and Ziegfeld are soon married.  However, no longer content with having just one successful stage star, Ziegfeld decides he wants to turn hundreds of women into stars, and thus the Ziegfeld Follies are born.

Since Anna is already starring in her own show, this means she can’t star in the Follies, and she soon becomes jealous of the attention Ziegfeld gives to other women, Audrey Dane (Virginia Bruce)  in particular.  Ziegfeld tries very hard to turn Audrey into a star, but ultimately, her alcoholism gets in the way.  Anna divorces Florenz and he soon meets actress Billie Burke (Myrna Loy), who he marries.  Ziegfeld’s career carries on, but eventually, the public loses interest in his shows.  This only makes him more determined to return to the top and he goes on to have four hit shows on Broadway at the same time.  However, the stock market crash of 1929 hit Ziegfeld very hard and his wife Billie had to return to the stage to make ends meet.  But Ziegfeld never gave up the dream of making yet another comeback and was planning his next show up until the day he died.