Beau Geste (1939)

As some Legionaries approach a fort in the desert, they initially think it’s fully manned with soldiers, but upon closer inspection, they realize all the soldiers are dead and have been posed to look alive from a distance. As they look at the bodies, they find a note on one of them confessing to stealing a valuable sapphire known as the “Blue Water.”

As children, brothers Beau (Gary Cooper), John (Ray Milland), and Digby (Robert Preston) were adopted by their aunt Lady Brandon (Heather Thatcher) and enjoy a happy childhood living with her, her ward Isobel (Susan Hayward), and her heir Augustus (G.P. Huntley). Lady Brandon is the owner of the valuable “Blue Water” sapphire, which, thanks to her husband, is the last valuable asset she owns. When her husband wants to sell it, Beau asks Lady Brandon to let them see it one last time. But while they’re looking at it, the lights suddenly go out and the jewel is gone.

Not wanting to disgrace the family, each of the Geste brothers leaves a note confessing to stealing the jewel and leaves to join the French Foreign Legion. But it isn’t long before their cruel Sergeant Markoff (Brian Donlevy) hears the brothers had been involved in a jewel heist and that Beau is the most likely suspect. When the fort where Beau and John are stationed is attacked, nearly all of their fellow soldiers are killed during battle. Markoff, Beau, and John are the last three standing and Markoff takes the chance to try to make the “Blue Water” sapphire his own.

Beau Geste is a movie that really does have a little something for everyone. It’s got the mystery surrounding the missing jewel, it’s got a story about brotherly love, it’s got lots of thrilling battle scenes, and it has just a little bit of a love story to it. You just don’t see too many movies that have that kind of combination. And if you were to find another movie (that wasn’t another adaptation of the novel “Beau Geste”) that has all of those things, you’d be even harder pressed to find one with such a high-caliber cast and excellent direction. I had a hard time buying a nearly 40-year-old Gary Cooper as a 20-something Beau Geste, but other than that, the cast was great. Although Gary Cooper and Ray Milland are two very recognizable names, Brian Donlevy is a great reason to want to see this movie; his performance as the sadistic Markoff was fantastic.

Beau Geste also had one of the most absolutely intriguing opening scenes I’ve seen in a while. A few Legionaries finding a fort manned by a bunch of corpses and a note confessing to a jewel heist is definitely the kind of opening that makes you want to keep watching the movie. On the whole, I really liked Beau Geste a lot more than I expected to; in fact, it’s one of my favorite movie discoveries in recent memory. Although it was a big hit when it was released, it’s not a movie I hear talked about very often anymore, and that’s really too bad.

The Gilded Lily (1935)

Marilyn David (Claudette Colbert) and Peter Dawes  (Fred MacMurray) are dear friends who get together every Thursday to sit together on a park bench and eat popcorn. Although Peter is very much in love with her, she only sees him as a friend and is convinced that someday she will fall madly in love with a person who is flat broke and doesn’t care about that. And as luck would have it, she happens to run into Charles (Ray Milland), who happens to fit that description — or so she thinks. As Marilyn and David spend time together and fall in love, Marilyn doesn’t realize that he is really the aristocratic Lord Charles Gray Granton from England, who is already engaged.

When Charles’ father finds out about Marilyn, he insists that Charles go back to England and break it off properly. Instead of telling the truth, he tells Marilyn that he’s leaving for two weeks for a job. Meanwhile, Peter, who works as a newspaper reporter, gets an assignment to go get a picture of Lord Charles Gray Granton before he leaves town. Marilyn doesn’t learn the truth until she sees his picture in the newspaper. When Peter sees how upset Marilyn is, he writes a phony article about how she turned down Charles. Once the article runs, Marilyn finds herself famous overnight and leaves Charles scandalized.

Things continue to spiral out of control when Peter gets the idea to extend Marilyn’s 15 minutes of fame by turning her into a nightclub star. She can’t sing, she can’t dance, but she manages to charm crowds enough to become a complete sensation. Her popularity grows enough for her to take her act over to England, where Charles is eager to see her again. But can they pick up where they left off with their relationship?

I recently got this movie on DVD as part of the Fred MacMurray and Claudette C0lbert Romantic Comedy DVD collection released by TCM. The DVD includes an introduction by Robert Osborne and he talked about how even though Colbert and MacMurray made several movies together, each of them is best remembered for their work with other co-stars. It’s really too bad they aren’t better remembered for their work together, because they are an absolutely delightful duo. I was surprised to learn this was only Fred MacMurray’s second major film role; he did a fantastic job of keeping up with Claudette Colbert, who was the more established movie star at the time. They were a very natural fit for each other. The Gilded Lily is a movie very ripe for rediscovery. It’s a pleasant little comedy with a lot of charm to it. The plot is silly, but could almost be seen as a satire of celebrity and stardom in the 21st century.

Pre-Code Essentials: Blonde Crazy (1931)

Plot

Bert Harris (James Cagney) is a hotel bellhop by day and runs gambling and bootlegging rackets by night. When Anne Roberts (Joan Blondell) shows up at the hotel looking for work, Bert knows Anne is exactly the kind of gal he needs working with him and manages to get her a job at the hotel even though the job has already been filled. He tries his best to win her over and she resists for a while, but eventually gets her to join his racket.

After the first time she helps him extort some money from a hotel guest, they go out to celebrate and Bert meets fellow con-artist Dan Barker (Louis Calhern). Dan and Bert start conspiring on a scam together, but it’s all a rouse to con Bert and Anne. When Bert realizes they’ve been ripped off, he and Anne go on a train to go after him, but Anne ends up meeting and falling in love with Joe Reynolds (Ray Milland). Bert has been head-over-heels in love with Anne since the day he met her, but Anne just isn’t as into the criminal lifestyle and thinks Joe is everything Bert isn’t. But after marrying Joe, Anne finds out he’s a lot more like Bert than she realized. Joe’s gotten himself into some serious trouble and the only person Anne can turn to for help is Bert.

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My Thoughts

I absolutely love Blonde Crazy. Cagney and Blondell are two of my favorite stars of the pre-code era and this is a perfect vehicle for them to do what they did best. They had the perfect energy for this kind of fast-paced movie with snappy banter.

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The Definitive Pre-Code Moments

When Bert goes looking for money in Anne’s brassiere.

Anne doing a glorious job of shutting down a lecherous hotel guest.

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Why It’s an Essential Pre-Code

It would be easier to list what isn’t pre-code about Blonde Crazy; it’s pretty much 79 minutes of non-stop pre-code action. Not only is it chock full of saucy and full of suggestive stuff, it does a great job of making Bert and Anne into characters you find yourself oddly rooting for and hoping they end up together despite the fact that they’re a con artist and an accomplice. Under the production code, it was a big deal that the audience wasn’t supposed to be able to root for criminals. Anne’s a little more conventionally sympathetic since she’s not as interested in the criminal lifestyle, but Bert is completely invested in it. Cagney brought so much energy and charisma to Bert (not to say that Blondell didn’t do the same for Anne), that it’s really hard to not to get wrapped up in all of that. He made it easy to forget you’re hoping a criminal gets the girl in the end.

Blonde Crazy (1931)

When Anne Roberts (Joan Blondell) tries to get a job as a hotel housekeeper, bellhop Bert Harris (James Cagney) takes one look at her and knows he wants her to work at the hotel.  The position has already been filled, but Bert fixes it so that Anne gets the job.  Even though Bert is a bellhop by day, he’s got gambling and bootleg alcohol rackets going on the side and he wants Anne to be his partner in crime.

After catching hotel guest A. Rupert Johnson, Jr. (Guy Kibbee) in a compromising situation, Johnson gives Bert quite a bit of money to keep his mouth shut.  Bert and Anne go to a fancy hotel in another city to celebrate and end up meeting fellow con artist Dan Barker (Louis Calhern).  Dan and Bert plan a scam to pull together, but in the end, it’s Bert and Anne are the ones who get ripped off.  They hop on a train to try to find Dan, but on the way, Anne meets and falls in love with Joe Reynolds (Ray Milland).  Joe is more sophisticated and cultured than Bert and Anne can’t resist that.  Even though Bert confesses his feelings toward her, Anne decides marries Joe instead.

A year passes and turns out Joe is much more like Bert than Anne realized.  He’s stolen $30,000 from the company he works for and is facing a prison sentence.  Anne knows the only person who can possibly get him out of this mess is Bert, so she turns to him for help.  Bert comes up with a plan, but it backfires and Bert is the one who ends up in prison.  When Anne comes to visit him, she tells Bert that she loved him all along.

What a duo James Cagney and Joan Blondell were!  I’ve seen nearly all of the movies they made together and I’d say Blonde Crazy is one of their best, second only to Footlight Parade.  Blonde Crazy is practically tailor-made for Cagney and Blondell — snappy dialogue, pre-code antics, and plenty of chances for Blondell to be sassy and for Cagney to be his high-energy self.  They make it an absolutely irresistible movie.  Whether you’re a fan of Cagney, Blondell, or pre-codes in general, you will have a lot of fun with Blonde Crazy.

The Uninvited (1944)

Have you ever gone someplace on vacation and wished you could impulsively buy a house and live there?  Well when brother and sister Rick (Ray Milland) and Pamela (Ruth Hussey) Fitzgerald take a vacation on the Devonshire Coast, that’s just what they do.  While walking with their dog one day, the dog starts chasing a squirrel and they lead Rick and Pamela to a beautiful, old, abandoned house.  They take a look around the house and fall in love with the place.  Both of them would love to buy it, and although Rick has some reservations, Pamela insists that they should go through with it ASAP.  They go to see the house’s owner Commander Beach (Donald Crisp) to make an offer on the place, but when they arrive, he isn’t at home.  Instead they meet Stella Meredith (Gail Russell), his granddaughter.  At first, Stella is very friendly with them, but she suddenly turns cold when she finds out why they were there.  The house they want to buy had once belonged to her mother, who died on the property when she was very young.  When Commander comes home again, Stella begs him not to sell the house.  But ultimately, he’s so desperate to be rid of the place since the maintenance is so expensive that he gladly accepts the Fitzgeralds’ very low offer.  Well, that and he believes the house is haunted.

When the Commander mentions that some of the house’s past occupants had complained about the house being haunted, Rick and Pamela aren’t fazed at all.  They’re eager to move in and go back to the house to look around some more.  This time they find a large artist’s studio with a great ocean view that for some reason, Pam thinks is the one ugly room in the house.  Even though Rick thinks it’d be a great space for him to work in, there’s no denying that the room has an eerie chill in there.  Plus they notice their dog refuses to go upstairs for some reason.  The next day, as Rick is getting ready to go back home to get their things, he hears more rumors about the house being haunted from the local store clerk.  Before he leaves town, he runs into Stella, who apologizes for being rude to them before.  Rick has no hard feelings toward Stella, actually he’s attracted to her, and the two of them end up spending the afternoon sailing together.  The two end up becoming friends and before he leaves town, he invites Stella to come by the house to visit Pamela while he’s away.

Rick returns to find that Pamela has done wonderful job of getting the house in shape while he was away.  But that night, Rick and Pamela hear some mysterious sobbing and begin to think that maybe, just maybe, there was some truth to the rumors about the place being haunted.  They start trying to find out more about the history of the place and deduce that it must be haunted by the ghost of Stella’s mother.  The Commander is truly upset by this idea and doesn’t want Stella to have anything to do with the Fitzgeralds, but one night, she sneaks over to their house anyway.  Stella senses a spirit in the house and believes it to be her mother, but while Rick is playing a song for her on the piano, Stella suddenly starts running toward the cliff that her mother had fallen off of.  Rick stops her in time, but Stella has no memory of how she got there.  Before they get back inside, they hear their maid Lizzie screaming about something.  She had seen a mist in the shape of a woman in the studio and when Stella goes to investigate, the room turns suddenly cold and she faints.  They send for Dr. Scott (Alan Napier) to check on her and he spends the rest of the night telling them about how Stella’s father had an affair with a woman named Carmel and Carmel was the one who pushed Stella’s mother off the cliff.

When Dr. Scott says Stella is well enough to leave, they decide that it’s not safe for her to come back.  But knowing that Stella isn’t going to want to stay away from the house, they decide to stage a séance and fix it to make her believe that the ghost of her mother wants her to stay out of the house.  During the séance, Rick and Dr. Scott do their best to make the Ouija board say what they want it to, but a ghost does take over and tells Stella that she should stay.  Not only that, it also becomes clear that there are two ghosts, not one: Stella’s mother and Carmel.  But their séance is interrupted by the Commander who has come to take Stella away.  The next day, Rick starts talking to Lizzie about how they want to know more about the incident between Stella’s mother and Carmel, but all the people directly involved with the incident are now dead.  Lizzie mentions that Miss Holloway, a close friend of Stella’s mother, is still alive and is running a sanitarium.  Rick and Pamela go to see Miss Holloway, but what they don’t know is that the Commander had brought Stella to Miss Holloway’s.  But when they find out, they try to go back for Stella only to find that Stella has been sent back to the Fitzgeralds’.  When they get back home again, they find that one of the ghosts has something important to tell them.

When it comes to horror movies, I tend to go for movies that are creepy and eerie rather than gory so The Uninvited was right up my alley.  I was impressed by how much it seemed like a real ghost story.  This story was something like you would hear on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries or one of the many ghost-related shows the Biography channel plays every Saturday.  But The Uninvited is far superior to any Unsolved Mysteries reenactment.  I loved the acting and the general atmosphere of the movie.  This is a perfect movie to watch on a cool, rainy October night.  It’s a perfect Halloween movie and I’m not sure why it took me this long to get around to seeing it.

Payment Deferred (1932)

William Marble’s (Charles Laughton) financial problems are hardly a secret.  He can’t go anywhere without someone asking him to pay up on a bill or someone whispering about how he can’t afford to buy his own drinks.  Things really come to a head when his boss finds out about a lawsuit against him and threatens to fire him if he can’t get it straightened out fast.  William thinks he might have found a solution to his problems when he gets an unexpected visit from his nephew James Medland (Ray Milland).  William doesn’t really know James, but he quickly notices that he has money.  First William tries convincing James to act on a financial tip he’s gotten, giving William a 10% commission of course.  James doesn’t like that idea, so William tries just asking him to lend him some money.  Again, James says no and William decides it’s time to move onto Plan C — murder.  He slips some Cyanide into a drink and offers it to James, then buries the body in the backyard.

The next day, William is wracked with guilt and his wife Annie (Dorothy Peterson) and his daughter Winnie (Maureen O’Sullivan) notice something is off about him.  When he goes to work, he takes James’ money and uses it on that hot financial tip and comes home a rich man.  All their debts can be paid off and William is able to quit his job.  Of course the family could also afford to either move or completely renovate their house, but obviously, William doesn’t want strangers poking around the place.  Instead, he sends Anna and Winnie off on vacation for a few weeks.  But while they’re gone, he gets a visit from Marguerite Collins (Verree Teasdale), a local shopkeeper.  Her visit isn’t purely social, though.  She’s there to get some money from William.  She seduces him and the two of them carry on an affair while Annie and Winnie are away, but Winnie finds out about them when she and her mother get home a day earlier than expected.

Not wanting to hurt her mother, Winnie keeps quiet about seeing Marguerite in the house.  But the idea of an unfaithful husband quickly proves to be the least of Annie’s problems when she figures out that William had poisoned James.  She doesn’t turn him in, though.  Life goes on, but Winnie starts hanging out with some more upper class people and becomes a real snob.  After fighting with William one night, she runs away and Annie goes chasing after her in the rain.  She doesn’t catch Winnie, but she does get horribly sick.  William takes care of her and she appears to be making steady progress.  At least she is until Marguerite pays another visit to blackmail William into giving her more money.  Annie overhears their conversation and, heartbroken, poisons herself with the Cyanide he used to kill James.  William doesn’t know she’s killed herself until a doctor arrives and finds her dead.  He is convicted of murder and put on death row.  Even though he didn’t kill Annie, he sees it as payment for killing James.

Payment Deferred was a very solid little movie.  Charles Laughton was pretty darn good in this.  He had some great sinister moments while interacting with James and I loved the scenes where he was paranoid and on edge.  This was a pretty early Ray Milland role and he doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but he does well with what time he does have.  Maureen O’Sullivan really didn’t make much effort to use a British accent, but Dorothy Peterson made a great loyal wife and Verree Teasdale was pretty wonderfully evil.  Plus it’s not even an hour and a half long, so it’s one of those great “short but sweet” movies.  I’d definitely recommend checking this one out next time it’s on TCM.

The Major and the Minor (1942)

Susan Applegate (Ginger Rogers) is just one of the thousands of people who move out to New York City in hopes of a more glamorous life.  After spending a year there, she’s gone through twenty-five jobs and eventually winds up working as a scalp massager.  When she gets called to take care of Albert Osborne (Robert Benchley), the appointment goes awry when he makes a pass at her and she finally decides she’s had enough.  She packs her things and tries to catch the next train back to Stevenson, Iowa.  Only problem is that she doesn’t have quite enough money for a ticket.  But if she were a child, she could ride for half fare.  She heads to the ladies room and does what she can to make herself look about twelve years old and manages to get a half fare ticket.

Even though she manages to fool the man at the ticket counter, some conductors on the train are pretty suspicious.  They keep giving her the third degree, but she blows her own cover when she goes to have a cigarette and gets caught.  As they conductors chase her through the train, she ducks into what she thinks is an empty drawing room, but instead finds Major Phillip Kerby (Ray Milland), a teacher at a military academy.  Phillip buys her disguise and when she tells him a story about not feeling well, he buys it hook, line, and sinker and invites her to spend the night in his room so she could lay down.  That night, there are some major thunderstorms and the train ends up being delayed because the tracks are washed out.  Meanwhile, Pamela, Phillip’s fiancée, and her father, who also happens to be his commanding officer, are waiting to meet him at the station.  When they find out the train has been delayed, they drive out to find the stopped train.

Pamela hurries on board and isn’t too pleased to find Susan in his room.  Phillip quickly comes up with a story about how Susan is his niece and he’s bringing her to the military academy until her parents can come get her. Pamela goes along with it and arranges it so that Susan can stay with her sister Lucy.  But Lucy’s a smart girl and can see that Susan is clearly not a kid.  She could easily blow the lid off this whole scheme, but she keeps her mouth shut because she wants Susan to help her with something.  Even though Phillip really wants to be put on active duty, Pamela has been arranging it so that he will stay at the academy with her.  Lucy can’t stand to see this so she recruits Susan to help get Phillip where he ought to be.  Meanwhile, Phillip has arranged it so that Susan will always have an escort from one of the boys on campus and she becomes quite popular with them.  During her time at the academy, she falls for Phillip and when Phillip looks at her with his bad eye, he thinks she looks like a pretty good-looking adult.  All goes well until the night of a big dance that is attended by some of the students’ parents.  Unfortunately, it turns out that Albert Osborne from New York is the father of one of the cadets and recognizes Susan immediately.  She flees from the academy and finally gets back to Iowa, but can’t get Phillip off her mind.  Phillip can’t forget her, either.

The Major and the Minor wasn’t Billy Wilder’s directorial debut, but it was the first American film he directed.  I wouldn’t call it his best comedy, but it is a wonderfully upbeat movie and very strong considering it’s only the second movie he ever directed.  The writing is pure Billy Wilder, Ginger was a riot in it, and Ray Milland wasn’t too bad, either.  I love the story about how Billy Wilder got Ray Milland to be in this movie.  The story is that Billy was driving along one night when he ended up stopped at a red light next to Ray Milland and on a whim, yelled to him, “I’m doing a picture.  Would you like to be in it?”  Ray said yes, so Billy sent him the script and the rest is history.  If you’re looking for a nice, lighthearted comedy, The Major and the Minor is right up your alley.   It’s one of those movies that’s so much fun to watch, I just don’t get tired of it.

What’s on TCM: April 2011

April is looking like it’s going to be a pretty busy month on TCM, especially if you’re interested in the Civil War.  TCM will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War by playing movies about the Civil War every Monday and Wednesday this month.  There will also be lots of Ray Milland to look forward to since he will be the star of the month.  The Lost Weekend, The Major and the Minor, Dial ‘M’ For Murder, all his best movies are in there.  There’s even a night full of real rarities that I’m very much looking forward to.