Tuesday, July 11, 2017

"The Spoilers" (1942)

This was the third filming of Rex Beach's novel of the Yukon gold rush of the early twentieth century and it brings together the unlikely, but charming, pairing of John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich as a fortune hunter and his dance hall proprietress ladyfriend. They're trying to protect their claim from a new unscrupulous gold commissioner who's out to swindle them played by Randolph Scott. He's also got a roving eye on Dietrich. And who wouldn't? She's stunning here in one feathered and sequined gown after anther which her hair done up in the highest Gibson Girl 'do you've ever seen. She's the one oasis of visual prettiness in the hardscrabble, muddy town of Nome where all the action takes place. This was clearly a bid to capitalize on Dietrich's other western role, the big hit "Destry Rides Again". Sadly, she doesn't do one of her patented dance hall ditties here. There's a lot of action, culmination with a huge fistfight between Wayne and Scott  where they tear up practically all the sets. It's a rouser. Solid entertainment all around.

Sunday, July 9, 2017

"Sylvia Scarlett" (1935)

Probably best described as "offbeat", director George Cukor, deemed it "picaresque"; suffice it to say it's an odd little film that has grown into a minor cult classic over the years. A young girl (Katherine Hepburn) and her recently widowed father (Edmund Gwen) are on the lam because of his gambling debts. She disguises herself as a boy so as not to attract attention. The plot is shambling and rambling as they stumble into one minor adventure after another. Along they way they pick up a Cockney grifter (Cary Grant) in a performance that showed Hollywood he could do more than look handsome, it was a career breakout. By far the most interesting aspect of the film is the shuffling of gender roles and gay subtext. Every new person Hepburn encounters (she's equally impressive as both sexes) has an impulsive attraction to her character, one they most often can't explain...even when they find out she's a girl. A definite filmic curio to seek out.

Thursday, July 6, 2017

"Bluebeard's Eighth Wife" (1938)

One thousand kilowatt star power on display here. A luminous Claudette Colbert is the daughter of a penniless marquis (the ubiquitous Edward Everett Horton). When she falls for, and agrees to marry, a rich businessman on holiday in the French Riviera (Gary Cooper at his most unbelievably handsome),  she finds out she's not his first wife but his eighth. That's a problem for her so she decides to make sure he's sincere. It's a paper thin plot, but it's wrapped in a script filled with asides, non-sequiturs, one-liners, and sightgags by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett. Some of the bits are laugh-out-loud great. Maybe it's that famous "touch" of the director Ernst Lubitsch, but big credit goes to the effortless élan of the two stars who make it all look way to easy. And isn't that the definition of 'star' anyway?