Music For Millions (1944)

In 1944 Margaret O'Brien won a special Academy Award for Outstanding Child Actress. One look at her output that year and it is not hard to see why. After all it was the year she played her most famous role, as Tootie in Meet Me in St. Louis. That same year she also acted in Jene Eyre, The Canterville Ghost, Lost Angel and this overlooked gem Music For Millions. There is little need to state that she plays a big hand in making this movie so delightful.

This movie also marks the first time she played sisters with June Allyson. They would later play sisters again in the 1949 film version of Little Women. Their chemistry is very apparent in this film, and in fact so was there chemistry off screen. The two became very close and June Allyson always kept a picture of little Margaret on her dresser. They had even more in common too. They were considered the best actresses at crying at this time, and had earned the nickname "The Town Criers". Director Henry Koster even remembered Margaret O'Brien being able to control how much of her tears would be visible for the camera.

This film boasted another excellent team behind the camera as well. Henry Koster and producer Joe Pasternak. They had previously both helped save Universal from financial problems, with a series of successful musicals starring Deanna Durbin. This was the first film the team had made together after moving to MGM. It was also Koster's first MGM movie. However it was Pasternak's sixth.

The story revolves around little Mike (played by Margaret O'Brien) visiting her sister Barbara (played by June Allyson). Barbara is a member of an orchestra and many of the women in that orchestra take Mike in. Meanwhile though Barbara is waiting for a letter from her husband (who is fighting in World War 2), but isn't getting any.

This film is a tearjerker, but it never feels forced. The storyline always feels real because the characters feel real. This is achieved through a great script (by Myles Connolly) and great performances from the whole cast.

The main stars of the film aren't the only ones who put on great performances. The whole cast does. However Jimmy Durante stands out here as being at his best. His slowly growing to love Mike is very heartwarming. One of the highlights of this film is him preforming a song number called Umbriago. His performance of this song is just dripping with pure energy and enjoyment of what he is doing. I don't see how anybody can not like this scene.

Adding to the musical fun is real life conductor and pianist José Iturbi. He and the musicians  help treat us to some great renditions of various classical music standards including an especially good finale of  Handel's Messiah.

Overall this movie is a must see.

-Michael J. Ruhland  
  
  Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2704/Music-for-Millions/articles.html

All Through the Night (1942)

Humphry Bogart is easily one of the best known actors to ever appear on the cinema screen. Such films as Casablanca, The Treasure of the Serra Madre and The Maltase Falcon will always be some of the most widely praised movies ever made and for good reason they are incredible. However with as huge of an output as Bogey had some had some films naturally had to be forgotten. Naturally as well some of these forgotten films have to be really good as well. Such is the case with All Through the Night.

The movie however wasn't always going to star Bogey. As strange as it might seem the original star was going to be Walter Winchell, a famous gossip columnist at this time. Winchell was not known as an actor, but producer Hal Wallis felt that the novelty alone would make the movie money, even if Winchell's acting left something to be desired. Winchell however could not take the time off of his job to act in the movie. After this the lead role was offered to George Raft, who turned it down (he also turned down the lead in The Maltese Falcon which of course also would go to Bogey). After this the role was finally given to Humphry Bogart.

Before Warner Brothers made All Through the Night Hal Wallis saw another anti-Nazi film called Underground. This was a low budget serious film and did poorly at the box office. The movie was also directed by Vincent Sherman who would direct All Through the Night. Wallis felt this film was pure propaganda and made sure All Through the Night would be different and it was. This movie would be much more humorous and fun. All Through the Night would be a true action comedy. The movie was also an A picture with a $600,000 budget. Sherman however felt for this being an A picture he was being underpaid at around $300 a week. According to him most A picture directors got thousand of dollars a week at that time. However he felt that the fun of making this film made up for that.

Not only was Bogey in the lead but the supporting actors would be an incredible lineup. Included are Peter Lorre, Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, Edward Brophy (my fellow Disney buffs will immediately recognize his voice as Timothy Mouse from Dumbo), and Jane Darwell (who had recently won an academy award for best supporting actress for play Ma Joad in John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath). Jackie Gleason and Phil Silvers were just starting around this time, when Jack Warner told Vincent Sherman to put them into the picture. Sherman asked them to bring in some jokes and he would see what could be done with these two. Gleason brought in a page of jokes and Silvers brought in seven pages.

One of the best scenes of the movie involves a double talk routine. Hal Wallis hated this scene, but Vincent Sherman felt it needed to be in the movie. Wallis said that the scene should be removed. However Sherman kept in a bit of it for a preview audience and the audience found it very funny. Because of this Wallis demanded the scene be put back into the film.

The storyline of this movie involves a gangster named Gloves Donahue (played by Humphry Bogart), who loves his Cheesecake from Miller's Bakery. However one day Miller (played by Ludwig Stössel) is attacked by a thug named Pepe (played by Peter Lorre). Gloves' mother (played by Jane Darwell) has a hunch that a woman (played by Kaaren Verne) has something to do with it. Gloves goes out to investigate and ends up going against Nazi spies.

This is an extremely entertaining movie, that is both funny and exciting. Many scenes of this movie (like the aforementioned double talk) are very funny, and the timing couldn't be better. To make matters even better is that the action scenes here are very exciting. The reason for this is the characters are so well written, and you care about what happens to them. All of this adds up to a very funny movie and a must watch for classic movie fans.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2526/All-Through-the-Night/articles.html            

Platinum Blonde (1931)

I have said a few times that one of my favorite things about watching old movies is finding these great gems that are heavily overlooked today, but happen to be just as great as any of those that have gone down in history as classics. Frank Capra's Platinum Blonde very easily fits in this category. This film is just as funny, smart and simply fun to watch as many of the later Capra classics.

One should remember at this time, Frank Capra wasn't the household name he would become. Capra's big breakthrough film would be released three years later with the surprise smash hit, It Happened One Night. Frank Capra had made his feature length directorial debut in 1926 directing Harry Langdon in the great silent comedy The Strong Man, and continued to direct many features before It Happened One Night. Some of these such as the 1933 comedy Lady For a Day, have gained better appreciation over the years (though admittedly Lady For a Day is still underappreciated). Platinum Blonde still doesn't get much attention.

This film however was not originally intended for Capra though. It was originally intended for Edward Buzzell, who is probably best remembered for directing the Marx Brothers in At the Circus and Go West, as well as The Song of the Thin Man. By the time Frank Capra joined the production Dorothy Howell, Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin's script was nearly finished. Capra would later write off this film, but it has also been speculated that this was because he had so little to do with it. This was however still the first time Robert Rimskin and Frank Capra would work on the same film. This turned into a good relationship as he also was a writer for It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town(1936) and Meet John Doe (1941).  

Despite such well known names as Jean Harlow and Loretta Young appearing in this film's cast the real star of the movie is Robert Williams. Despite much talent his career would never take off because of his sudden death shortly after this film's release (he had appendicitis). He only appeared in 6 other known films in his career, The Vengeance of Winoma (1914), Thoughtless Women (1920), Two Masters (1928), The Common Law (1931), Rebound (1931), and Devotion (1931). As you can tell from these years even with a appearances in silent films, his film career was really just beginning to become a regular job in 1931. This will seem unfortunate to many movie fans as he does a great performance here. Jean Harlow was not that big of star as she would later become. She did have some great performances in big name films such as Hell's Angels (1930) and The Public Enemy (1931), but she was mostly cast due to her looks and had a while to go before becoming a big star. However she certainty was on her way. This film contains an amazingly good performance from her. Despite how good she was in this film though Frank Capra did have problems with her. The main one being she couldn't pronounce "library" right, and she was playing a high society woman. It took fifteen takes for her to say this word right. This film is also rounded out with many other great actors of the time. One who does an especially good job is Walter Catlett (my fellow Disney lovers may know him as the voice of Honest John in Pinocchio). Also great here is Halliwell Hobbes as the butler, and Lousie Closser Hale as the snobbish mother. In fact the whole cast is just great.

The story centers around a young reporter, with a quick wit and just as quick of a mouth, named Stew (played by Robert Williams). This young reporter works with a young woman named Gallagher (played by Loretta Young), who has more than a bit of a crush on Stew. However during a story he falls for a rich young socialite named Ann (played by Jean Harlow). He marries Ann, however this marriage isn't quite happy for him. Ann tries to make Stew fit into high society and a reporter for a rival newspaper (played by Walter Catlett) makes fun of him for not wearing the pants and for being a bird in a gilded cage. A bird in a gilded cage is exactly what Stew feels like, and he needs to find some way out.

This movie is extremely funny, as well as having a delightful story. Much of the humor comes from the clever dialogue that populated many Hollywood comedies of the early 1930's ("Anne Schuyler's in the blue book; you're not even in the phone book. Think that one over... sucker!", "Yeah, I know those bluenoses. Their ancestors refused to come over on the Mayflower because they didn't want to rub elbows with the tourists... so they swam over!"), and is just as funny, smart and unlike anything you hear in today's movies as you could ever want it o be. As stated before all the cast gave great performances. As well as all this the film just supplies the great sense of pure fun, and charming simplicity that we all know and love Frank Capra for doing.

After an early preview screening the film shortly switched its name to The Gilded Cage. However it was changed back to Platinum Blonde on September 24, 1931, when it had its last preview showing because of Jean Harlow becoming a bit of a bigger star due to Public Enemy.

The film received decent reviews, but they were far from great.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.jbkaufman.com/movie-of-the-month/platinum-blonde-1931
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3747/Platinum-Blonde/articles.html

     
 
        

Ladrones (1930)

During the 1930's, before dubbing became popular, many American films were shot in multiple versions each in a different language, so they could be shown world wide. Most of the time these films while using the same script and sets used different actors. However this naturally couldn't be done with Laurel and Hardy films, which needed... well Laurel and Hardy. Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy would read the foreign words off of a blackboard just off screen. Often times these films would feature different actors as the supporting cast. However this film featured Edgar Kennedy and James Finlayson as part their supporting cast, the same used in the English original (though Anders Randolf, (the police chief in the original) was replaced here by Enrique Acosta) . What is fascinating however is that these foreign language versions would often times be longer than the original films. Night Owls was a 21 minute film, but this Spanish language version run 36 minutes.

The film begins with an officer (played by Edgar Kennedy) being told he must stop at least one burglary to save his job. After hearing this he convinces Stan and Ollie (played by Laurel and Hardy of course) to rob the Chief's (played by Enrique Acosta) house. However the officer gets knocked out and the chief and his butler Juan (played by Jimmy Finlayson) are wide awake.

Now the ending here is actually very different from the ending in the original (skip this paragraph if you don't want spoilers). In the original the boys escape and the officer gets arrested. Here many other cops come in and the boys thinking it will be their friend, are arrested by those cops. The officer comes in late and turns on Stan and Ollie. So all three are arrested. The boys riding in a convertible to jail grab onto a tree branch and think they have escape wind up in the chief's car. That car however winds up in a lake, Fin.

Also changed in this version is character names. In the original the officer was called officer Kennedy (after the actors name of course), here he receives no name, but is just called the policeman for the whole film. Also the butler in the original was called Meadows (now my mind is quoting a Chuck Jones cartoon), but in this film is called Jaun. Also this film features more jokes involving the boys getting inside the house.

This is an excellent film. It is very funny. The humor works just as well here as in the original and the new ending is better as well. Stan and Ollie's comedic skills are at the top of their game as is director James Parrott's (brother to Charlie Chase) and writer Leo MacCarey (later to direct such classics as Duck Soup, Love Affair, The Awful Truth, Make Way For Tomorrow and The Bells of Saint Mary) and H.M. Walker. As may be excepted some of the line reading from Laurel and Hardy is a bit awkward, but never distractingly so and this is a film full of visual comedy, which features the boys at their best here. A must check out for all Laurel and Hardy fans.

-Michael J. Ruhland