Marathons: Classical Hollywood, Marilyn

Tags

Amy Tan, Betty Grable, Cary Grant, Dave Barry, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Gilda, Jane Russell, Marilyn Monroe, Monkey Business, Montgomery Clift, Norman Mailer, Olivia de Havilland, Proofreading Woman, Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, Rock Bottom Remainders, Shakira, Stephen King, The Awful Truth, The Grass is Greener, The Heiress, The Joys of Love

Tonight was supposed to be the last night of my husband’s movie marathon … but The Heiress (1949, Olivia de Havilland and Montgomery Clift) arrived from Netflix with a third of disk broken off. Considering that we must go through at least 20 DVDs a month (we’re on the 4-DVDs-at-a-time plan, which Mike constantly cycles for his dissertation film viewings), one broken DVD every few months isn’t too bad.

My favorite song from The Heiress: Plaisir D’Amour. No idea why they added Elvis in there at the end …

Instead, we watched The Grass is Greener (1960, Cary Grant), a charming romantic comedy about a husband who wins back the affections of his wayward wife. I’ll give you a hint: he challenges her lover to a duel. Yes, the movie takes place in modern times, but they’re British. The film spends way too much time on the adulterous romance between Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, but nothing can stop Cary Grant’s acting or his beautifully-written character. Neither of us are big Deborah Kerr fans, but Robert Mitchum deserved a better character. Still, at the end of the film I’m happy.

Our marathon, once complete, goes (went?) as such:
Mon 1/9: Of Human Bondage; Bride of Frankenstein
Tues: The Informer; Captain Blood
Wed: Swing Time; Lost Horizon
Thurs: One Hundred Men and a Girl; Bringing Up Baby
Fri: Stagecoach; Rebecca
Mon 1/16: Gone with the Wind
Tues: Citizen Kane; Song of Bernadette
Wed: Double Indemnity; Laura
Thurs: Meet Me in St. Louis; The Best Years of our Lives
Fri: The Paleface; The Heiress

It’s been great fun and perfect timing, as I’ve had the last two weeks off from work. As an assistant professor, I’m on a 10-month contract where I work Fall and Spring semesters plus one month in the summer (for Reference in the library). Spring semester starts Monday, and I’ve spent the last two weeks recovering from my 6-week sinus infection. I’m finally healthy again, though poor Mike has had a stomach bug and has to make up The Song of Bernadette since he too sick that afternoon even to watch a movie.

Asides from sleeping, movie watching, and catching up on housework, I’m pacing myself through a Marilyn Monroe “biography” that’s really more of a wordy poetic prose summary by Norman Mailer, accompanied by photo tribute. I’m having fun reading (and looking), but this is far from your complete biography. It’s really more Mailer’s opinions on Monroe combined with what he’s scraped up from other people’s biographies. Written in the 1970s, too, so that adds a perspective twist.

Norman Mailer bashes this number. I think he’s nuts.

Mailer, by the way, had horrible taste in movies. He bashes Monkey Business, for Christ’s sake. I’d label him an arrogant stiff from some of his writing in this book, but he sang in Dave Barry and Stephen King’s unabashedly bad band of writers, The Rock Bottom Remainders. The band’s name itself is self-derogatory, tongue-in-cheek. We own the CD. My favorite song is “Proof-Reading Woman.” Thus I withhold judgment on Norman Mailer.

Don’t worry, the CD recording’s better. Amy Tan sometimes performs in leather, I hear.

I never thought I’d become a Marilyn Monroe fan, but she’s simply fascinating once you dig in. The more I know about her, the more I love her movies and feel akin to her personality … her tragedy. I’m also trying to find any remotely equivalent female stars who could sing and dance on film with a similar effect. Yes, there are many other sexy performers … but the only one I’ve found that even holds a candle is Rita Hayworth‘s song “Put the Blame on Mame” from Gilda. But it’s too short, and perhaps isolated.

The only modern star who comes close to Marilyn, for me, is Shakira. Before I knew her identity, two of her performances literally stopped me in my tracks … separately. The first, her Pepsi commercial based on the little-known song Ask for More, made my jaw drop while I was walking through my college student union lobby. The second, Whenever, Wherever is much better known now. But at the time, she wasn’t. Nearly ten years later, Shakira hasn’t lost that goddess quality. It might just keep growing until … who knows? She has the health for it, unlike Marilyn.

Still, Shakira can’t claim to be Marilyn Monroe. Her stage had already been prepared by Marilyn. Marilyn Monroe catalyzed the sexual revolution of the 1960s … most of which she didn’t live to see. Her combination of out-there sexuality, innocence, and seeming divinity made her a film icon but a human wreck. Like so many true artists, she couldn’t survive her own talent. She paved the way for the rest of them, including Shakira.

As for Marilyn Monroe’s contemporaries … she didn’t have any. I’m still looking, but consider the following sexy song/dance numbers compared to hers:

Jane Russell: good but kinda vulgar when at her sexiest. She couldn’t pull it off like Marilyn even when paired with Marilyn, who was paid 1/10 of Jane’s salary in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Betty Grable: a little too innocent? Marilyn actually unseated her as the top blonde star at Fox.

From The Awful Truth. Hilarious but not terribly sexy, either time.

There’s just no one to compare. But I’m still looking. Mike seems to appreciate my efforts.

Preston Sturges’ Movie Mayhem

Tags

1940s, 1940s unwed mother, access fees, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Hutton, bigamy, censorship, Charles Coburn, cruise ships, digitized film, Eddie Bracken, Eric Blore, Eugene Pallete, film streaming, films destroyed, gang-bang, Henry Fonda, Janine Basinger, lost films, Marilyn Monroe, movie star salaries, movie studio monopoly, national blackout day, Netflix, Norville, pregnancy in film, Preston Sturges, The Lady Eve, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, The Star Machine, The Titanic, Trudy, Wikipedia, William Demarest, World War II weddings

I’m sitting watching one of my favorite films, The Lady Eve. It stars one of the best and least-remembered classic comedic actresses, Barbara Stanwyck. It co-stars someone you’ve more likely to have heard of, Henry Fonda (yes, the father of Jane Fonda). Henry Fonda’s better known for drama than comedy, but he plays perfectly as the straight man and romantic lead here. He’s putty around Barbara Stanwyck’s sexy-funny fingers.

Other well-known 1930s actors in The Lady Eve include Charles Coburn (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monkey Business), Eric Blore (multiple Fred & Ginger movies), Eugene Pallette (Robin Hood, My Man Godfrey), and William Demarest (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Miracle of Morgan’s Creek). If you’re a fan of the era, this in a candy box of character actors. Otherwise, they’re probably nobodies, a sad reminder of nearly everybody’s mortality. Exceptions include actresses like Marilyn Monroe, who may never be forgotten. Time will tell.

If you haven’t watched a Preston Sturges screwball comedy, in my opinion you’ve never seen a funny film. He was and remains the king of hilarious writing and directing. No one’s funnier, wittier, classier, sexier, smoother … or more harebrained. Really that’s what Sturges films come down to: complete nut-cased sophistication. Or is it the other way around?

What makes The Lady Eve one of my favorites? It’s hard to pinpoint. The cruise ship romance helps. Back then, the best romances took place on the sea: Fred & Ginger fell in love on a cruise ship, Marilyn Monroe seduced us on a cruise ship in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes … those are the first two that comes to my fingertips.

In the classical film era, cruise ships meant fantasy settings, gorgeous women dressed up in the height of 30s, 40s, and 50s fashions (which nothing modern comes close to), clean-cut gentlemen in tuxedos, love ballads wafting over the seas, waltzes in vaulted ballrooms, champagne and martinis, and escapism from real life. I suppose the closest modern movie to capture this atmosphere would be Titanic  … the first half of the movie, that is.

So maybe it’s The Lady Eve‘s romantic ship setting combined with Sturges’ screwball elements: snakes, a ridiculous plot, just a little slapstick, dramatic actor gone comedic victim. Barbara Stanwyck plays a conwoman seeking revenge on the millionaire who dumps her when he discovers her true identity before she can reveal it to him. Out of revenge she cons him into marrying her anyway … by pretending to be her own British doppelganger. It’s such a ridiculous plan that it works. But that’s not the end of the story. This is the beauty of a Preston Sturges film: his ability to pull off a completely ludicrous plot full of elegant characters and fantastic dialogue.

A rare Preston Sturges film

Unfortunately, Netflix does not yet have Sturges’ even funnier (but lacking Barbara Stanwyck) film The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. Not only is this Sturges’ funniest film, but I’d argue that it’s possibly the zaniest film of all time. But it’s hard to find. The DVD costs $58 on Amazon, last time I checked (today) and the VHS goes for $28. If you watch Half.com like a hawk, you can find a used copy for cheaper. Hopefully some distributor with excellent preservation taste re-releases it again soon. You can’t even rent it on Netflix yet.*

The plot of Miracle of Morgan’s Creek revolves around a girl (Trudy) who gets drunk at a going away party for WWII soldiers. She wakes up to find herself married to a departed soldier … with only a plastic ring on her finger and a pregnancy for evidence. They married under false names in their drunken stupor, and its unlikely that her groom (were his intentions honorable) will ever be able to find her after the war. Thus, she must find a surrogate husband to save her reputation and that of her child(ren?).

Yes, this could all be a great tragedy but instead it’s a farce and social mockery. In her search, the pregnant bride Trudy becomes mixed up in bigamy, officer impersonation, robbery, abduction, and I can’t keep track what else. Her romantic lead is a clumsy fellow named Norville who desperately wants to be a soldier but can’t because he’s haunted by high blood pressure … in his own words, “THE SPOTS!!!!” that appear before his eyes when he gets excited. He’ll do literally anything for Trudy, including bigamy. There’s even a suggestion of a gang-bang.

But this is 1944 so we’re not talking anything dirty, just hilarious and completely over-the-top forbidden. In fact, the gang-bang is just a theory … but a good one (Mike told it to me). Trudy’s father would today qualify as abusive, but in the movie whenever he tries to kick or throttle one of his daughters he misses and ends up kicking himself. His younger, 14-year-old daughter has the wit and tongue of one of the Sex and the City girls, so we don’t always blame him for losing his temper. Today the film might get a PG rating, as absolutely nothing’s more than hinted at. We don’t even see the actress pregnant.

I can’t understand how The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek became so rare, except that maybe it was so controversial in its day. [I'd look it up on Wikipedia, but today's the national blackout day.] I would not be surprised if the film had been almost lost due to censorship back in 1940s — it came out in 1944, when film censorship was in full effect. You couldn’t even show a pregnant woman, let alone mention the word “sex” or “bastard”. I’m frankly surprised that this movie got away with the words “I’m going to have a baby.” But my husband’s the expert on that, not I.

The censored version of how Trudy gets drunk, married, possibly gang-banged, and pregnant.

Few people realize how many movies have disappeared, probably never to return. I only know because I’m married to a film scholar. Since the invention of film in the late 19th century, over 50% of films ever made have been permanently destroyed. And I don’t mean copies. I mean originals. These are films that we will most likely never, ever be able to see because they no longer exist. Think of how many more films used to be made every year compared to today. We’re talking a mind-bogglingly huge number back then.

Today, barely any movies get made … and they are expensive to make. Relatively. Think of all the money that goes into special effects and movie stars’ salaries. Inflation does not make up the difference. In the 1930s, two-thirds of Americans went to the movies every single week. They could afford to: movies only cost a nickel. Even with inflation, that’s nothing. The studio system in place back then meant that movies could be made cheaply and fast. This system didn’t significantly change until television took over and the U.S. government took down the film studio monopoly, and both processes started in the 1950s.** Strange coincidence … if it is one. I’ll have to ask Mike.

*Currently, you can watch Miracle at Morgan’s Creek on YouTube. Since these usually get taken down pronto, I’m thinking that the copyright owner has enough kindness to keep it up due to the difficulty in viewers finding it.

**Mike’s college film professor, Jeanine Basinger, has a popular history book out called The Star Machine that’s both accurate and an interesting read on these topics … if you’re interested.

***That was embarrassing. An entire three-paragraph section of my post disappeared overnight. Restored now, thanks to auto-save. I have no idea what happened, but this isn’t the first time … And it still appears to be happening to this post. WP is helping me out. So weird.