TCMFF 2014, Day 3 — From “Father of the Bride” to “Freaks”

Saturday, April 12, 2014:

After having ended the previous day’s movies with Eraserhead, I woke up this morning in need of a little levity.  Originally, I had been planning to see Stella Dallas, but decided to go with Father of the Bride instead.  Not only is it a very funny movie, I had never seen a Spencer Tracy or Elizabeth Taylor movie in a theater before.  Plus it had the added bonus of playing in the same theater as the next movie I wanted to see, Godzilla.

Father of the Bride was delightful as always.  Godzilla was so much fun to see with a crowd and boy was the crowd enthusiastic!  This screening was the world premiere of a new restoration of the original Japanese version of Godzilla, in all its Raymond Burr-free glory.  The picture quality was absolutely stunning.  If you have the chance to go see this restoration on the big screen, I very highly recommend it.  Godzilla was introduced by historian Eddie von Mueller and Gareth Edwards, director of the upcoming Godzilla movie.

From Godzilla, it was back to Club TCM to check out the conversation with editor Thelma Schoonmaker hosted by author and historian Cari Beauchamp. In addition to Schoonmaker’s long collaboration with director Martin Scorsese (her work on his films has won three Academy Awards), she was an editor on the groundbreaking documentary Woodstock and was married to legendary British filmmaker Michael Powell, half of the Powell and Pressburger team.  (Fun fact: Martin Scorsese was also an editor/assistant director on Woodstock.  Scorsese brought cufflinks with him to Woodstock because he thought they’d be going out to dinner while they were there.)

Photo courtesy Getty Images

Of the movies she’s done with Scorsese, she discussed Raging Bull the most. Raging Bull was a very challenging film to edit because there was so much improvisation from the actors; a challenge revisited with Scorsese’s most recent film, The Wolf of Wall Street.  She doesn’t visit the sets of his movies because she thinks it’s important to have a cold eye in the editing room.  Schoonmaker credits Scorsese with teaching her everything she knows about editing because he’s a director who thinks like an editor. As for what quality Scorsese most admires most in her, he knows he can trust her.  Ever since the time in film school when she helped him fix his student film that hadn’t been cut properly, he’s known she will do what’s right for his films.

Schoonmaker spoke very fondly of her time with husband Michael Powell. She’s very active in preserving her husband’s film legacy and also introduced his film A Matter of Life and Death at the festival.  She plays a role in overseeing the restorations of Powell’s work and mentioned that after this conversation, she was heading out to check some work on a transfer on one of his films.  If you are hoping to see a HD print of The Tales of Hoffman, you’ll be glad to know that she said the original negative is in excellent condition.

Next up was “Hollywood Home Movies: Treasures from the Academy Film Archive.”  We were treated to rare behind-the-scenes footage and personal home movies of film legends.  This was a must-see event for me because I knew it would be a totally unique event that I wouldn’t be able to attend elsewhere.  I was definitely not disappointed; the home movies we saw were absolutely fascinating.

The selections included home movies of Florenz Ziegfeld and Billie Burke, an extremely playful Alfred Hitchcock at home with Alma and daughter Pat, Jean Harlow in her dressing room, visitors to Hearst Mansion (including a cameo from Howard Hughes), Gilbert Roland and Constance Bennett with friends on their boat, behind the scenes footage of Gone With the Wind, the It’s a Wonderful Life wrap party picnic, Walt Disney riding on a backyard railroad, location footage of Oklahoma!, behind the scenes of Jerry Lewis on The Geisha Boy, and a montage of movie stars with their pets and other animals.

Behind the scenes of Gone With the Wind

My favorite clips were the Ziegfeld/Burke home movies, which included Florenz Ziegfeld frolicking with a butterfly net and a pet elephant trying to walk into daughter Patricia’s playhouse; the Hitchcock home movies; and Jean Harlow in her dressing room.  I found the Jean Harlow footage particularly interesting because it wasn’t official, studio-sanctioned footage; it appeared to be filmed by a friend or MGM employee who was casually testing out their personal home movie camera.  So it doesn’t show “Jean Harlow the movie star,” it’s Jean being herself, casually chatting with the camera operator.  Even when she wasn’t being “Jean Harlow the movie star,” she was captivating to watch.  The hosts from AMPAS said they could tell from some grain on the film that it had originally been filmed in color, but unfortunately, they only had a black and white copy.

The Gone With the Wind behind the scenes footage was a real treat.  It was color 8mm footage that showed Vivien Leigh with her stand in, Clark Gable riding horses with Cammie King, and the setups for filming the scene at Twelve Oaks where Scarlett is surrounded by all the men at the party and the scene where Rhett and Scarlett are on their honeymoon and are having dinner with the can-can dancers in the background.  I was also thrilled to see the It’s a Wonderful Life picnic since that was something Karolyn Grimes had talked about when I saw her at the Redford back in November.

The types of film used for some of the home movies were also unintentionally revealing about the types of people who used it.  The Ziegfeld/Burke home movies were filmed on 35mm, something that would have only been used by the very wealthy in the early 1920s.  The Hitchcock home movies, which dated from 1929-1936, were in color, so it should come as no surprise that he was definitely a person on the cutting edge of film.

After “Hollywood Home Movies,” I headed over to the Chinese theater for A Hard Day’s Night.  I was really torn between seeing A Hard Day’s Night and Bell, Book, and Candle introduced by Kim Novak at the Egyptian.  I had been leaning more toward Bell, Book, and Candle, but I really wanted to see something at the Chinese theater and I was starting to worry that I might not get to see anything there, so A Hard Day’s Night won.

Photo courtesy Getty Images

Beatlemania may have started 50 years ago, but it was still going strong at TCMFF.  I couldn’t have asked for a better venue to see A Hard Day’s Night in. Their sound system is wonderful, so it was a dream to hear all those Beatles classics  that way.  The picture quality was absolutely pristine.  The Chinese theater seats over 900 so it was packed with a lot of enthusiastic fans.  The excitement was palpable and I loved every minute of being a part of it.

A Hard Day’s Night was introduced by Alec Baldwin and music producer Don Was (who has produced albums for Ringo Starr, The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Bob Dylan, just to name a few).  Their introduction was one of my favorite introductions of the festival; it was hard to not be engrossed by their enthusiasm.

Then it was time to head to the El Capitan to get in line for The Women.  I joined Raquel (Out of the Past), K.C. (A Classic Movie Blog), and Lara (Backlots), who are exactly the kind of people you want to be in line with to see The Women. I had so much fun discussing the movie with them and quoting the famous, “There’s a name for you ladies…” line in unison.

Photo courtesy Getty Images

Over the course of TCMFF, I saw a lot of movies with very enthusiastic crowds, but I think the crowd for The Women took the cake.  I’m used to people applauding for certain things like a star’s entrance or a name appearing in the opening credits.  Since this is a movie with such an incredible cast, there was a lot of applauding going on.  The crowd went wild for Norma Shearer saying, “I’ve had two years to grow claws, mother! Jungle red!” It’s a fabulous movie to watch at home and even better to see with a crowd.  The Women was introduced by Ben Mankiewicz and actress Anna Kendrick. Much shade was thrown at the 2008 remake.

The last movie of the day was the midnight screening of Freaks.  I honestly don’t remember a whole lot about this screening since I was pretty exhausted by the time I got there.  But I’m glad I had to check out one of the ultimate midnight movies on the big screen.

And I just love the fact that I started this day with Father of the Bride and ended it with Freaks. 

Recasting “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” (2008)

After being fired from her job as a governess, a very straight-laced Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) finds herself deemed unemployable by her employment agency.  But when she hears about a job for a woman named Delysia LaFosse (Amy Adams), she jumps at the chance to get it.  When she arrives at Delysia’s apartment, she expects she will be taking care of children.  Instead, she finds herself taking care of an aspiring actress tangled up in a love triangle.  First there’s the young theater producer, Phil Goldman (Tom Payne), who is putting on a play that Delysia desperately wants the lead in.  She’s trying to keep him interested in her and not her rival Charlotte Warren.  Then there’s Nick Calderelli (Mark Strong), who owns the nightclub Delysia sings at.  He’s the one footing the bill for her lavish apartment and expensive clothes.  And last but not least, there’s Michael (Lee Pace), the piano player who just got out of jail.  He isn’t rich and doesn’t have the influence Nick and Phil do, but he does genuinely love her.

Over the course of one day, Guinevere helps Delysia get out of various messes and Delysia, in turn, helps Guinevere learn to embrace life.  Delysia takes Guinevere to her friend Edythe’s (Shirley Henderson) salon and gives her a makeover.  It turns out that Edythe and Guinevere have a little dirt on each other.  They had bumped into each other on the street the night before Guinevere came to Delysia’s, so Edythe knows Guinevere isn’t really the social secretary Delysia thinks she is.  But Guinevere saw Edythe out with a man who isn’t her lingerie designer boyfriend Joe Blomfield (Ciarán Hinds).  When Delysia takes Guinevere with her to a lingerie show, Guinevere meets Joe for herself and the two of them are instantly attracted to each other.

Although released in 2008, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day was actually intended to be made as a movie in 1941.  Originally, it was a novel by Winifred Watson released in 1937, and she later sold the film rights to Universal Studios in 1939.  Universal held on to it for a little while and by 1941, had plans to turn it into a musical starring Billie Burke as Miss Pettigrew.  Watson was very eager to see “Miss Pettigrew…” turned into a movie, but unfortunately, the project was shelved after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  In 1954, Universal renewed the rights to the story, but again, nothing ever became of it.  Watson died in 2002 believing her story would never make it to the silver screen.

The novel was released in 1937, but I wish it had been released just a few years earlier because I think “Miss Pettigrew” would have made a great pre-code had it been around in 1934.  Delysia’s bed-hopping to further her career is hardly a secret, there’s lots of lingerie, and the book contains drug references.  I’m very curious about how Universal planned to get around some of these issues in 1941.  The drug references were gone in the 2008 movie, so those could easily been cut out in 1941, but whitewashing Delysia’s bed-hopping would have definitely been a challenge.  I also would have pegged this for an MGM movie rather than a Universal.

Forsaking All Others (1934)

Jeff Williams (Clark Gable), Dill Todd (Robert Montgomery), and Mary Clay (Joan Crawford, and not to be confused with the Lana Turner character from They Won’t Forget) have been friends since childhood.  For the past twenty years, Mary has been in love with Dill and Jeff has been in love with Mary.  Years later, Jeff goes off to Spain on a long trip and Dill and Mary decide to get married.  When Jeff returns, not knowing Mary and Dill are engaged, he comes home determined to finally tell Mary how he feels about her.  But when he arrives, he realizes he’s just in time for their wedding.  He’s a little deflated, but keeps his chin up, offers to give the bride away, and starts enjoying the pre-wedding festivities.

The night before the wedding is Dill’s bachelor party, and everybody has a swell time.  When Dill gets back to his room at the end of the night, he’s surprised to get a visit from Connie (Frances Drake), a past girlfriend.  She’s heard that he’s getting married and has shown up to make one last attempt to win him back.  Even though he resists at first, he ends up sending Mary a telegram the next day announcing that he’s run off and married Connie instead.  Humiliated, Mary goes to spend some time in the country with her Aunt Paula.  After a while, Jeff comes to visit and to see how she’s doing.  He also comes bearing some of her mail, which includes an invitation to a party Connie and Dill are having.  Jeff tries to talk her out of going, but she insists on going anyway.  When she and Jeff arrive at the party, Dill was surprised to see them because he had no idea Connie had invited them.  But once he sees Mary, he remembers just how much he loved her.

After the party, Dill keeps trying to see Mary.  Even though Jeff tells her to stay away from him, she won’t listen.  One day, they get together and take a trip out into the country.  But then they have a minor car accident and get caught in the rain.  But luckily for them, they aren’t too far from Aunt Paula’s country home so they crash there for the night.  Dill calls his valet to come pick him up, but secretly tells him not to come until the next day.  Nothing too scandalous happens that night, but Dill does get burned badly while trying to build a fire in the fireplace.  The next morning, Aunt Paula finds out that the two of them are there and calls Jeff to go with her to get them out.  Little do they know that Connie is also on her way over since Dill’s valet tipped her off.  Paula and Jeff get there first and when Jeff finds a burned up Dill, who now has a cold from walking in the rain, sleeping on the couch,  he realizes nothing happened and has a good laugh at his friend’s unfortunate night.  But then Connie arrives and wants a divorce.  After all that they’ve been through, Dill and Mary once again decide to get married.  And once again, Jeff shows up before their wedding determined to tell Mary how he feels.  But this time he goes through with it.  After he leaves to catch a boat to Spain, Mary realizes that she loves him, too, and runs after him.  This time it’s Dill who gets left at the altar.

I think Forsaking All Others is something of an underrated 1930s Joan Crawford movie.  It’s not Oscar material, but it is a pretty fun little comedy.  Joan and Clark Gable always made a fantastic team and they are in top form here.  Robert Montgomery was pretty fun, too.  Billie Burke doesn’t have a big part and she basically just plays the same type of character she did in Dinner at Eight.  Even though I liked Frances Drake as the conniving Connie, I might have been interested in seeing Rosalind Russell in that part.  This was only Rosalind Russell’s third movie and she doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but I think she might have done well as Connie.  The writing is pretty fast paced and sharp, which Roz later proved she was a pro at working with, so I think she could have done well in a bigger part.  If you’re a fan of either Joan, Clark Gable, or Robert Montgomery, you’ll definitely want to check this one out.

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

When Ernest and Daisy Stanley (Grant Mitchell and Billie Burke) invite the famous radio personality Sheridan Whiteside (Monty Woolley) to dine at their home while he’s in town for a lecture, they’re only expecting the prestige that comes with having a celebrity come to their home.  What they don’t count on is Sheridan taking a fall on their steps and injuring his hip.  Unable to leave until it’s healed, Sheridan turns the Stanleys’ house completely upside down.  He and his secretary Maggie (Bette Davis) take over the entire first floor of the home: the phone is ringing off the hook, his Christmas presents are being delivered left and right, and Sheridan invites over some colorful guests like members of his prison fan club.  The Stanleys’ house staff is completely exhausted by trying to meet all his demands and dodging Sheridan’s endless barrage of insults.  And just to make things more interesting, some of those Christmas presents are things like penguins and an octopus.

One afternoon, Bert Jefferson (Richard Travis), the owner of the local newspaper, comes by to see if he can get an interview.  Sheridan initially turns him down, but Bert wins him over with some good snarky comments.  Bert also wins over Maggie and the two of them go ice skating together.  Maggie quickly falls in love with Bert and when she reads a play she wrote, she gives it to Sheridan hoping he’d get it into the right hands.  Instead, he sees that Maggie is smitten and, afraid Maggie will quit her job to be with him, calls up his actress friend Lorraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan) and has her come to town right away.

When Lorraine arrives on Christmas Eve, he tells her to try to charm Bert away from Maggie.  Even though Lorraine tries hard, Maggie sees exactly what Sheridan is trying to do.  Another actor friend of Sheridan’s, Beverly Carlton, comes to town on Christmas Eve, too.  As luck would have it, Beverly can do an uncanny impression of Lorraine’s current boyfriend so Maggie has Beverly call Lorraine, pretend to be her boyfriend, and tell her he wants to marry her.  Lorraine buys it hook, line, and sinker, but when Sheridan finds out who really called her, he fills her in and she goes right back to working on Bert.

By the time Christmas morning rolls around, all sorts of chaos ensues in the Stanley home.  Maggie quits her job, Sheridan’s friend Banjo (Jimmy Durante) comes to town, Bert decides to go with Lorraine, and, to top it all off, Ernest Stanley cracks and brings the sheriff over to force Sheridan out of his house.  But when Maggie tells Sheridan off, he realizes he has to get Lorraine away from Bert to make Maggie happy.  Luckily Banjo come up with an idea to get Lorraine away from Bert and off to Nova Scotia with him.  With Lorraine on her way to Nova Scotia, Sheridan gives Maggie his blessing to marry Bert and is finally ready to leave.  But just as he’s out the door, he slips once again and it’s back to the Stanley home for him.

I adore The Man Who Came to Dinner!  It’s so incredibly sharp and witty, I just can’t get enough of it.  Bette Davis didn’t make too many comedies in her long career, which I always thought was a shame because she was often absolutely hilarious in interviews.  She was never going to be a rival to Carole Lombard, but she knew how to deliver a witty line, which was exactly what this movie called for.  This was really a nice breath of fresh air in Bette’s career when you consider that she made this right after The Little Foxes and in the same year she also did In This Our Life and Now, Voyager.  The supporting cast was great, Jimmy Durante and Ann Sheridan were a lot of fun.  But even though Bette Davis gets top billing, there’s no denying that the real star here is Monty Woolley.  He was amazing at delivering all those razor-sharp comebacks.  I always love a movie full of snappy comebacks and The Man Who Came to Dinner certainly gives movies like The Women a run for the money in that department!  It’s one of those movies you have to see more than once just to catch everything.  But it’s such a delightful movie, watching it more than once is no chore.

Christopher Strong (1933)

While at a party one night, the hostess challenges her guests to go out and find either a man who has been married for a long time and has been faithful the entire time or a woman over twenty who has never had a love affair.  Monica Strong (Helen Chandler) and her boyfriend Harry head out to find these people.  Monica heads straight for home to fetch her father Christopher Strong (Colin Clive), but Harry ends up meeting famous aviatrix Lady Cynthia Darrington (Katharine Hepburn) after they have a minor accident on the road.  When Harry finds out that Cynthia meets the requirements, he brings her back to the party.  At the party, Monica is thrilled to meet Cynthia and quickly becomes friends with her.  Christopher is thrilled to see Monica spending time with Cynthia since he thinks Cynthia is a positive influence on her, but also because he has a growing infatuation with Cynthia.  Christopher’s wife Elaine (Billie Burke) suspects her husband has strong feelings for Cynthia and her worst fears are confirmed when Cynthia comes to stay with the family in Cannes.

While in Cannes, Cynthia and Christopher take a late night boat ride after a party and they both confess that they love each other.  When they get back to the house, they kiss, which Elaine sees, but agree that they shouldn’t be together.  Cynthia distances herself from the Strongs, but can’t help but get involved when Monica comes by her home one night on the brink of suicide.  Her mother had forbidden her from seeing Harry because he was married, but now that he’s divorced, he won’t marry her because he found out about a one-night fling she had with another man in Cannes.  Cynthia saves her by calling Harry and convincing him to give Monica another chance.  After straightening out Monica’s crisis, Cynthia embarks on a challenge to fly around the world.  She wins the challenge and becomes something of an international celebrity, but she still longs for her days with Christopher.  Much to her surprise, when she lands in New York, Christopher is also in town and eager to see her.

While in New York, they rekindle their romance and Cynthia agrees to give up flying to ease Christopher’s worries.  Even though she misses flying, she soon realizes that she has a reason to stay on the ground: she’s going to have a baby.  But before she can tell Christopher the news, he finds out that Monica (who is now married to Harry) is expecting a baby of her own.  Cynthia goes to congratulate Monica, but Monica and Harry have discovered her affair with Christopher and Monica gives her the cold shoulder.  To make matters worse for Cynthia, she feels awfully guilty when Elaine personally thanks her for helping to make Monica so happy.  She doesn’t have the heart to destroy Christopher’s marriage, so she gets back in her plane to break the world’s record for altitude and commits suicide.

I thought it was odd that this movie was named after the lead male character when the women are the strongest parts of it.  This was only Katherine Hepburn’s second movie, but it really set the tone for the type of roles she’d become infamous for playing: independent, confident women with careers typically held by men.  Kate gave a very solid performance, but my only complaint was that her character is supposed to be from England, but she has no trace of a British accent.  Billie Burke and Helen Chandler were both also quite memorable, but you can’t talk about the women involved in Christopher Strong without mentioning the director Dorothy Arzner.  Just like the character of Cynthia, Dorothy Arzner was also a woman doing a job typically only held by men, so I can’t imagine a better person to direct this movie.  On the whole, I thought it had some good performances, but I didn’t think the story was anything particularly special.  If I used a star system to rate movies, I’d give it two and a half out of four stars.

It’s also worth noting that there is a scene where Katharine Hepburn dresses up as a moth, which makes Christopher Strong the second movie I’ve reviewed this month where the lead actress dresses up as some sort of insect.