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Ear-Way Innay the UNNY-May

4/3/2015

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It's the Depression: Let's put on a show!

Featuring

Ginger Rogers' Pig Latin
Aline MacMahon's delivery
Ned Sparks' enthusiasm
Busby Berkeley's bird's eye view
Warren William's drunken snob
Joan Blondell's big, blue, righteously angry eyes

So. Good.

Gold Diggers of 1933

I have no such thing as "favorite old movie," so when asked what mine is, I either deflect or go on too long in too many directions.

However. Among the handful of pictures I can see any time in (almost) any mood, Gold Diggers of 1933 is high on that list. It's got everything: snappy dialog expertly delivered; beautiful girls in great clothes; weird Dr. Seussian musical numbers; and an adorably silly self-awareness that brings me joy every time.

The gold diggers in question are a group of girls trying to make a living in the show business: ingenue Polly Parker (Ruby Keeler), comedienne Trixie Lorraine (Aline MacMahon), torch singer Carol King (Joan Blondell), and hoofer Fay Fortune (Ginger Rogers). The film opens on Fay in dress rehearsal for a big musical number backed by a bunch of chorines dressed in nothing but their Sheer Energies and some strategically placed cardboard coins, singing "We're in the Money." Right in the middle of the number, a bunch of goons barge in and start breaking down sets and gathering coins, claiming the creditors are closing the show due to lack of payment.

This throws producer Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks) into a rage and the girls out of work -- again -- this unnamed show being the latest in a series of productions they've rehearsed for but never opened in. Some weeks later, there is a rumor that Barney is casting for a new show! Great news for the girls and for Polly's crush across the way, a young composer and crooner called Brad Roberts (Dick Powell). Barney tells the girls all about this great new show. It's about the Depression, see, with men marching marching marching, can't you hear it? Brad starts playing a doleful march; Barney loves it. Polly thinks Barney should use Brad's music. Barney thinks so too, and Brad will do it if Barney gives Polly a feature role. There are parts for everyone, especially the comedienne, because it's a show about the Depression and it's going to go on for six months, easy!

That is, as soon as Barney gets the money.

Not to worry, Brad says, he can get them the $15,000 they need, no problem, as long as he doesn't have to appear on stage. The girls, presuming him to be just as poor as they are, think he's making a cruel joke. Everybody is annoyed and saddened, but when Brad shows up at Barney's office the next day with stacks of cash, all is forgiven. But the girls (especially Polly) fear that Brad is in trouble with the law or the mob or something: where else would anyone get that kind of money, and in such neat little piles, and why won't he appear in public?

Because Brad Roberts is in reality, Robert Bradford, the youngest son in a wealthy family whose fortune is held in trust by Brad's elder brother, Lawrence (Warren William), that's why. Brad/Robert wants to make it in the musical theater, a profession disdained by his class, and is living incognito on the poor side of town. So the show goes on, with Brad at the piano, Polly in the lead, and Busby Berkeley at the drawing board. On opening night, however, the "juvenile" lead gets an attack of lumbago (he's been a juvenile for 18 years) and Brad MUST go on in his stead, which he does. The show is a SENSATION but Brad is immediately recognized by a society reporter (Charles Lane), who rats him out in the newspaper the next day. Enter angry brother Lawrence and family lawyer, Faneul Peabody (Guy Kibbee), who insert themselves into Brad's happy life.

Now that we've met all the principal girls and boys, the rest of the film is about how each of them wind up with each other. Lawrence mistakes Carol for Polly, falls in love with her (Carol, not Polly); Trixie latches onto Faneul (who's an established big, fat sucker for showgirls) beating off Fay once or twice in the process; and the real Polly and Brad, already in love anyway, wait for all the dust to settle.

Along the way there are three more spectacular, bizarre musical numbers: "Petting in the Park," an irritating if catchy tune about furtive groping through all four seasons; "Waltz of the Shadows," an unmemorable love song accompanied by girls in white dresses making jaw-dropping, kaleidoscopic formations while playing neon violins; and the closer of all closers, "Remember My Forgotten Man," a ginormous blues extravaganza that explicates the plight of the Bonus Army in just under eight minutes.

If ever I taught a course on the Depression, I'd anchor it with this picture. It pulls you in with such affable, toe-tapping irony and shows you the door with another: the rousing dirge, a call to action that gives you hope and purpose. So entertaining, so silly, and so much to think about.

In God We Trust

This post is another contribution to The Pre-Code Blogathon, hosted by Shadows and Satin and Pre-Code.com. Read 'em all, why doncha?

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How Many Times Can a Sap Get Sapped?

5/19/2014

1 Comment

I want you to meet a guy.

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

I've never been much of a fan of Dick Powell the singer, but I really like Dick Powell, the hard-boiled detective. And here he is as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, the film version of Raymond Chandler's novel, Farewell, My Lovely. Powell was a risky choice for director Edward Dmytryk, who, like everyone else in the world, thought of Powell as a sweet, drippy singer in comic musicals. Studio executives didn't want to take any chances either, and butched up the title from Farewell, My Lovely, to Murder, My Sweet, lest the average moviegoer think they were in for another Goldiggers franchise when they would actually be getting Powell ogling Claire Trevor's shapely leg (without bursting into song) and running around a mental hospital socking people.

But this is, indeed, a murder mystery, so there's dames and thugs and gats and jewels and intrigue. It starts with Philip Marlowe being grilled by police detectives about some murders. The rest of the picture is Marlowe's testimonial flashback that begins in his noir-lit office where he is lamenting his financial situation, when the wonderful Mike Mazurki as Moose Malloy, a Great Ape, shows up fresh out of prison to hire Marlowe to find his girlfriend, Velma, who hasn't written to him for some years. Moose has money, as well as great height and strength, so Marlowe goes with him to check out Velma's last place of employment. They hit a dead end, but Marlowe gets a lead from the boozy former owner of the clip joint where Velma used to work. So far it looks like Velma is dead, but Marlowe ain't so sure.

When he gets back to his office, he finds a nattily dressed man named Marriott (Douglas Walton), pawing over the papers on his desk. This guy wants to hire Marlowe to help him buy back some stolen jewels for a friend, but at the meeting place, the fancy man is killed and Marlowe is "sapped" unconscious. When he wakes, he finds that someone has taken the payoff money from his pockets, but left him his gun. Cops are called; Marlowe is grilled.

Meanwhile, a lovely young woman comes to his office posing as a reporter to get some dirt on the dead man and the jewels. She turns out to be Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley), the daughter of a wealthy jade collector (Miles Mander), who is married to Helen (Claire Trevor), a woman a couple of decades younger than he. Turns out that Helen was stepping out with Marriott when the very expensive jewels she was wearing at the time were stolen from her. It also turns out that the dead man had been undergoing psychic (not psychiatric) treatment under spiritualist Jules Amthor (Otto Kruger), a guy you know is up to no good.

How are these two cases related? I'll give you a hint: Moose Malloy does some thugging for Dr. Amthor on the side and is responsible for another clobbering Marlowe receives and the wild, drug-induced dream sequence Marlowe experiences while being held hostage and off the trail for several days.

I won't spoil the whole thing, but I will tell you that Marlowe is romanced by both Helen and Ann, is beaten by several people, and is present at a few more murders before the picture ends. Claire Trevor exhibits a coldness she usually never employs, as she usually plays the salt-of-the-earth fallen woman type; this time she just fell. Also, Dick Powell looks good with a few days' beard growth. It stabilizes that wobbly chin.

On a final note, if you want this mystery to retain some mystery, don't look it up in IMDb first, because there's a huge plot giveaway in the credit list.

1 Comment

Ear-Way Innay the UNNY-May

Featuring

Gold Diggers of 1933

In God We Trust

How Many Times Can a Sap Get Sapped?

Murder, My Sweet (1944)

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