Barbara Stanwyck at the Stanford Theater

The Stanford Theater had a Barbara Stanwyck retrospective from March 21 to May 18.  The calendar for the series was one of the thickest I've seen at the Stanford.  Richard von Busack wrote an essay and provided plot synopses for all 36 films in the series.  Only 35 of the films featured Stanwyck.  For some reason, the paired Casablanca with Double Indemnity.  I had previously seen about a dozen of the films in the series.

I only saw six Stanwyck films.

The Lady Eve starring Henry Fonda & Barbara Stanwyck; directed by Preston Sturges; (1941)
Lady of Burlesque starring Barbara Stanwyck; directed by William Wellman; (1943)
The File on Thelma Jordan starring Wendell Corey & Barbara Stanwyck; directed by Robert Siodmak; (1950)
East Side, West Side starring James Mason, Van Heflin & Barbara Stanwyck; with Cyd Charisse & Ava Gardner; directed by Mervyn LeRoy; (1949)
Titanic starring Clifton Webb & Barbara Stanwyck; directed by Jean Negulesco; (1953)
Executive Suite starring William Holden, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters, Paul Douglas & Barbara Stanwyck; directed by Robert Wise; (1954)

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The Lady Eve screened at the Stanford in November/December 2013 as part of their Preston Sturges series.  I didn't see the film during the Sturges series.  There was a double bill featuring another Fonda/Stanwyck pairing which interested me more than The Lady Eve.  I wanted to see The Mad Miss Manton (with Fonda) and Red Salute (with Robert Young) on April 9 or 10 but couldn't get down to Palo Alto on a weekday.

Jean (Stanwyck), her father "Colonel" Harrington (the always memorable Charles Coburn) and his partner Gerald (Melville Cooper), are three con artist hunting for a mark on a cruise ship.  They set their sights on Charles Pike (Fonda), a herpetologist by training but also the heir to Pike's Ale fortune.  Jean reels him in using her feminine wiles while the card sharp Colonel plays some friendly, high-stakes gin rummy.  As is wont to happen in Sturges' films, Jean falls in love with Pike...and the fact that he is wealthy has nothing to do with it.  She protect hims as best she can from her father but ultimately Pike discovers their true identity and breaks off the relationship with Jean whom he was madly in love with.

Seeking revenge, Jean enlists the aid of another con man and poses as the Lady Eve Sidwich.  Not disguising her appearance, Lady Eve is introduced high society in Connecticut...including the Pikes.  Obviously suspicious, Pike can't believe his eyes but the audacity of Jean's plan blinds him to Lady Eve's true identity.  Pike falls in love with Lady Eve and marries her.  On their honeymoon, Lady Eve begins to recount past romances (she was quite a roundheel).  Pike abandons Lady Eve after the revelations.  Jean's revenge is complete.  She has broken Pike's heart, embarrassed him and is in line to get a fat divorce settlement.

Rather than go in for the kill, Jean follows Pike to another cruise ship where she accidentally meets him, this time posing as herself.  Pike quickly realizes his love for Jean, if not the fact he is already married to her.

The Lady Eve is a solid comedy, but not nearly to the level of Sturges' The Great McGinty or Sullivan's Travels but few films are.

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Lady of Burlesque was on a double bill with The Lady Eve.  I had not heard of the film before.   The film was based on a novel titled G-String Murders by Gypsy Rose Lee.  Although made during WWII, the film feels like something from the 1930s...even pre-Code.  The film must have pressed against the boundaries imposed by the Hays Office.  Stanwyck sings a song with the provocative title Take It Off the E-String, Put It On the G-String (lyrics by Sammy Cahn).

Lady of Burlesque is set in a New York burlesque theatre and involves not one but two backstage murders.  Stanwyck is sassy Dixie Daisy, the new girl in the show.  The murders start happening soon after her arrival.  Dixie verbally spars with the police detective investigating the murders, goes back and forth the comic who is romancing her and gets catty with one of the other dancers.

Honestly, I can't remember whodunit.  I remember Stanwyck wore some tight skirts that slit up the side to her hips.  As they said back in the day, she had some nice gams.  However, the most amazing scene involved Stanwyck dancing like I have never seen her dance before.  She drops into a leg split twice, does some Cosack dancing and finishes with a cartwheel!  I had no idea she could dance like and at age 35.  Actually, Stanwyck looks like she is having a ball throughout the film which makes it that much more fun to watch.

Lady of Burlesque came out in 1943; the next year Double Indemnity was released.  I think it is amazing that the same actress could have made both film within 18 months of each other.

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I had heard of The File on Thelma Jordan but had never had the opportunity to see it.  Starring the ever reliable Wendell Corey, Thelma Jordan is a lesser-known noir overshadowed by Double Indemnity and their earlier collaboration Sorry, Wrong Number.

Cleve Marshall (Corey) is an Asst. D.A. who drinks too much because he is bored with his marriage and resentful of his in-laws.  Late one night, Thelma Jordan (Stanwyck) shows up at the office to file a report about some suspicious man lurking around her wealthy aunt's house.  They immediately hit it off and begin an affair which they must keep secret due to his marital status.  Actually, it turns out Thelma is married also but separated from her husband Tony Laredo (Richard Rober).

One evening, Thelma calls Cleve in a panic.  Her aunt has been shot by a burglar.  When Cleve arrives, he makes a fateful decision to tamper with the evidence in order to make Thelma innocence more believable.  That's a tall order because I was unconvinced from the start as secrets, lies and half-truths become revealed, Thelma's complicity or outright guilt becomes highly likely.

Cleve goes on to manipulate the situation so that he becomes the prosecuting lawyer.  Meanwhile, suspicions are growing in every sense.  Cleve's wife is suspicious and the authorities are suspicious of Thelma's statement which eventually implicate a secret Mr. X who is Cleve.  Eventually, Thelma is acquitted but reveals that she and Tony are indeed the killers (which one actually shot the aunt is left unsaid) and that Cleve was the patsy.  His silence is guaranteed given his evidence tampering, prosecutorial misconduct and conflict of interest.

I won't reveal the ending but will say that Thelma Jordan is similar to Lady Eve.  What started as false affection in order to commit a crime leads to Stanwyck's character actually falling in love with her mark.

I left Thelma Jordan thinking it was an above average noir but now that I've had six weeks to ponder it, I think Thelma Jordan is a minor masterpiece.  Thelma Jordan was released in 1950 which is arguably the high water mark for US film noir.  Sunset Boulevard, D.O.A., The Asphalt Jungle, Night and the City and In A Lonely Place were all released in 1950.  It's easy to see why Thelma Jordan would get overlooked.  I could nitpick such as  the fact that Cleve's easy slide into criminality is never really explained.  Once again Stanwyck's versatility carries the film.  Corey, whom I have now seen holding his own on-screen against Joan Crawford (Harriet Craig) and Evelyn Keyes (Hell's Half Acre), proves to be Stanwyck's equal in Thelma Jordan.

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East Side, West Side (paired on a double bill with The File on Thelma Jordan) is one of these post-WWII melodramas about sophisticated and wealthy New Yorkers.  Jessie (Stanwyck) and Brandon Bourne (James Mason) live in a Manhattan penthouse.  I cannot recall Brandon's occupation.  I believe he was a lawyer but regardless he had a lot free time to pursue his leisure activities which mainly consist of adultery.  Bourne's ex-mistress Isabel Lorrison (Ava Gardner looking stunning even by Ava Gardner standards) is back in the Big Apple and wants to take up with Bourne again.  Understandably, Lorrison's return causes Jessie great consternation about the future of her marriage.

Meanwhile, dress model Rosa Senta (Cyd Charisse) becomes friendly with the Bournes.  She looks after Brandon after Lorrison's new boyfriend punches him and she becomes friendly with Jessie who shops at the boutique where she models.  Rosa's boyfriend Mark Dwyer (Van Heflin) is back from Army service in Europe.  An ex-NYPD cop and US Army intelligence officer, Dwyer is shopping around his book for publication.  Giving Rosa a ride to the airport to me Dwyer, Jessie finds Dwyer attractive and Dwyer feels likewise. 

The pieces are set for a melodrama - Bourne can't resist Lorrison and the spurned Jessie is quickly finding herself spending more time with Dwyer.  Only poor Rosa is left out and Dwyer rationalizes this by saying Rosa is too young for him and would be better off getting a guy closer to her age.  Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows...

East Side, West Side veers toward the absurd when Lorrison turns up murdered and Brandon Bourne is the prime suspect.  Dwyer investigates the crime independently...and discovers the statuesque Beverly Michaels is the killer!

It was fun to see Stanwyck play the victim (although I like it better when her character is bitchy) and I was certainly paying attention when Ava Gardner was on screen.  Otherwise, I didn't think Stanwyck had much chemistry with either Mason or Heflin.  Mason & Heflin both have great, distinctive speaking voices.

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I was not aware that there was a 1953 film about the Titanic.  Unlike the 1997 Titanic, the 1953 version spreads its focus around to a few subplots.  The main plot involved the Sturges family - Richard (Webb) and Julia (Stanwyck) and their children, Annette (Audrey Dalton) and Norman (Harper Carter).  The Sturges family are very wealthy and travel Europe extensively.  Julia is concerned about the effect this lifestyle will have on their children and books passage on the Titanic so that she can raise them with more down-to-earth values.  Richard had to hurry and buy someone else's ticket in order to get on board.

Other passengers include Richard Basehart as a defrocked Catholic priest, Robert Wagner as college tennis player who is attracted to Annette and Thelma Ritter as a thinly disguised Molly Brown.

The film didn't make much of an impression on me.  I recall that Julia reveals to Richard that Norman was not his son.  Von Busack's film notes mention that Stanwyck and Wagner were dating at the time of production.  That came as a surprise to me given their 20+ year age difference.

Any Titanic film will rise and fall based on the depiction of the sinking and the last few minutes.  By that standard, the film ended on a "high" note.  For a director of the caliber of Jean Negulesco, it would have been impossible not to extract the tension and drama of the situation.

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If my estimation of Thelma Jordan went up in the intervening period, my opinion of Executive Suite went down.

Avery Bullard is the president of Tredway Corporation, a furniture manufacturing company.  After meeting with his bankers, he sends a telegram from New York City to the company headquarters in Pennsylvania.  He is calling an executive meeting that evening.  Then he promptly drops dead on the sidewalk and his wallet is stolen in a New York minute.  That means his body is not immediately identified.

The various vice presidents of Tredway gather while wondering what the last-minute meeting will be about.  Many suspect Bullard will name his successor at the meeting.  The most ambitious of VP is the Controller Shaw (Fredric March) who is the most cost conscious.  Bullard's long-time right-hand man and Treasurer Alderson (Walter Pidgeon) is too close to retirement to want the job.  Similarly, VP of Manufacturing Grimm (Dean Jagger) has already decided to retire but has not announced his decision. Dudley (Paul Douglas) is VP of Sales and is weak willed sort who is having a not-so-secret affair with his secretary (Shelley Winters).  Rounding out the executive team is Walling (William Holden), the idealistic VP of R&D.   Tredway Board Member and investment banker George Caswell (Louis Calhern) saw Bullard die from his office window and shorted Tredway's stock but Bullard's lack of identification has delayed news of his death and the subsequent stock price drop.

Caswell tips off the police as to dead man's identity but unfortunately, it is Friday night and stock markets are closed.  Once news of Bullard's death reaches Tredway Corp., there is a furious positioning by Shaw to succeed Bullard with Alderson & Walling leading an ABS (Anyone But Shaw) campaign.  A Board meeting is called for Sunday afternoon so that they can elect a new CEO and hopefully stem any stock decline.

All the VPs plus Caswell are on the Board.  I guess rules about independent Board members didn't exist back then.  The final board member is Julia Tredway (Stanwyck), the daughter of the company founder and Bullard's former mistress.  Nina Foch was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Bullard's secretary.

I won't go into the details but there are numerous manipulations, hidden agendas, secret resentments, extortions and shifting loyalties before the Board elects the next Tredway CEO.  During the film, it was quite interesting but now it seems trivial.  I will note that Walling's commitment to quality vs. Shaw's commitment to cost containment is still relevant 60 years later.  In Executive Suite, Walling gets the CEO job but the attitude of modern business management favors Shaw's attitude in my opinion.

Crisply paced and an ensemble piece which gives most of the principle cast one or two meaty scenes, Executive Suite is nice find for me.  I had never heard of the film before.  I left the theater thinking I had a seen a film which was eerily prescient of modern businesses.  However, after some contemplation, I realize the issues and themes in Executive Suite are quite old (if not timeless) and global (if not universal).  It doesn't make the issues any less important or compelling but it reduces some of my initial excitement from the viewing.

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I've long admired Barbara Stanwyck so this series really didn't increase my appreciation of her.  I'll just say it substantiated my opinion of her acting.  There were several films in the series which I am unfamiliar with.  There are many films I have not seen from Stanwyck's filmography.

Preston Sturges and the Marx Brothers at the Stanford Theater

The Stanford Theater ran Preston Sturges/Marx Brothers double features for seven consecutive weeks in November and December.  I was able to catch four of the double features.

Sullivan's Travels starring Joel McCrea & Veronica Lake; directed by Preston Sturges; (1941)
Horse Feathers starring the Four Marx Brothers & Thelma Todd; directed by Norman Z. McLeod; (1932)

Miracle at Morgan's Creek starring Eddie Bracken & Betty Hutton; directed by Preston Sturges; (1944)

Duck Soup starring the Four Marx Brothers & Margaret Dumont; directed by Leo McCarey; (1933)

The Palm Beach Story starring Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, Mary Astor & Rudy Vallee; directed by Preston Sturges; (1942)

A Night at the Opera starring the Three Marx Brothers & Margaret Dumont; directed by Sam Wood; (1935)

A Day at the Races starring the Three Marx Brothers, Maureen O'Sullivan & Margaret Dumont; directed by Sam Wood; (1937)

Hail the Conquering Hero starring Eddie Bracken & Ella Raines; directed by Preston Sturges; (1944)

I have previously stated my enjoyment of the Marx Brothers' films but haven't mentioned Preston Sturges.  I recall watching Preston Sturges films on television (the Family Film Festival) as a boy.  I don't think I've seen a Preston Sturges film since the 1980s and I'm fairly certain I have never seen a Sturges film on the big screen.

In addition to their typical calendar, the Stanford Theater published an eight page essay titled Preston Sturges & The Marx Bros. by Richard von Busack.

The Sturges film I most wanted to see again was The Great McGinty with Brian Donlevy.  However, that screened the same days as the San Francisco Film Society's New Italian Cinema series.

Some of the 35 mm prints were badly worn and scenes were abridged due to splicing.

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I will dispense with comments on all but one of the Marx Brothers films. I stand by my July 11, 2011 post regarding Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera and my July 4, 2012 post regarding Horse Feathers.

I showed up 15 minutes late to A Day at the Races.  I misread the showtime as 5:25 when in fact 5:35 and I didn't walk into the auditorium until 5:40.  I know I have seen A Day at the Races before but it seemed new to me.  Unlike the other three Marx Brothers films I saw in the series,  I had not seen A Day at the Race often enough to know which gags were coming up.  In fact, I thought the gags were curiously absent. from the film  At 111 minutes, A Day at the Races seemed bloated and I only caught 95 minutes of it.

There was an extended Lindy Hop musical number featuring Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, an African American dance troupe where we are treated to Groucho, Chico & Harpo in blackface.  The size & scope of the number clarified for me why I prefer the Marx Brothers' Paramount films to their later MGM films.  In the Paramount films, the songs were an extension of their comedy.  In the MGM films, the plots are more structured and musical numbers more professional.  The emphasis has shifted away from the Marxist free-for-all anarchy to a formulaic plot with high-end song & dance numbers tacked on.

Of the six Marx Brothers films I've blogged about over the past 2.5 years, A Day at the Races was my least favorite.  Notable gags were the Tutsi Fruitsy Ice Cream scene where Chico scams Groucho out of money at the race track (I didn't think it was that funny) and a scene where Groucho attempts to woo Esther Muir's character (who in real life was Busby Berkeley ex-wife) only to be continually interrupted by Chico & Harpo.

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Of the Sturges films I saw, I was most anticipating Sullivan's Travels and I was not disappointed.  Joel McCrea plays John L. Sullivan.  I'm not sure why the character was named after the famous boxer.  Sullivan is a successful Hollywood film director of light comedies.  He chafes at what he perceives to be wasting his talent on trivial films.  Sullivan wants to make a serious film about the struggles of the poor.  His butler & valet  tell him he knows nothing about being poor and foolish for trying to ascribe a nobility to what is actually just survival instinct.

Sullivan hits on the idea of dressing like a hobo (with the help of his studio's wardrobe dept.) and setting out with only a dime in his pocket.  The studio dispatches a tour bus to follow him for publicity purposes.  This leads to a truly rambunctious gag as the bus attempts to follow Sullivan when he gets a ride from a kid in a hot rod.

At this point, Sullivan convinces his handlers that he needs to proceed alone on his journey.  Actually, this is the point in the film where goes from comedy to fairly serious social commentary which is strong suit for the film.  Sullivan hitchhikes to nowhere in particular except eastward (Kansas City is his destination if I recall).  Instead, Sullivan is dropped off in Los Angeles.

Discouraged, he goes to a diner where Veronica Lake (no character name given; credited as The Girl) takes pity on him.  She tells him she came to Hollywood to be a movie actress but has failed and is going back to her hometown.   Sullivan eventually reveals his identity and the reason for his appearance.  Initially disbelieving and later angry at being deceived, the Girl eventually decides that she should travel with Sullivan since he knows nothing about being poor.

Surprisingly convincing while posing as a boy (and reminding me a lot of Louise Brooks in Beggars of Life) , the Girl & Sullivan hops a freight train out of LA.  Sturges effectively uses a montage sequence to show the difficulty the homeless during the period.  After he has gathered enough background material, Sullivan ends the odyssey.  In appreciation of the lessons taught to him by the poor, Sullivan decides to handout $5 bills to the hobos near the freight yard.  I have found people can be categorized into one of two types.  Some people think that handing out money to the homeless is a kind and charitable act.  Other people (myself included) question the benefit of giving money directly to homeless people and would fear for our safety if we flashed a wad of cash in a homeless encampment.

Sullivan is robbed of his cash (by the same hobo who stole his shoes while he was sleeping) and knocked unconscious.  His assailant is killed trying to pick up the cash while a train bears down on him.  Sullivan was deposited into a boxcar and the train pulls out the yard with him out cold.   The dead hobo is wearing Sullivan's shoes which have been altered to include his identification papers in the sole.  The dead man's face is mangled by the impact of the train but his remains are identified by the ID in his shoes.  Sullivan's death is reported in the newspapers.

Meanwhile, Sullivan wakes up in a freight yard which is serious breach of hobo etiquette.  Hobos jump off the train just outside the railroad property lest the bulls hassle them.  Sullivan gets hassled by a railroad bull.  Not thinking clearly due to the head blow and unaccustomed to being treated so roughly, Sullivan lashes back and strikes the other man.  Suffering from amnesia, Sullivan is unable to assist in his subsequent trial for assaulting the railroad man.  He is sentenced to six years in prison.  Eventually, he regains his memory but the guards don't want to hear it.  It seems as though Sullivan will have to serve out his sentence until he hits upon the novel idea of confessing to a murder - the murder of John Sullivan.  Eventually, his Hollywood contacts see "the murderer's" photo in the paper and realize what has happened.  The film ends with Sullivan set free (what about assaulting the railroad guy?) and free to marry the Girl (there had been a subplot involving Sullivan sham marriage).

I thought the last part of the film was inspired screenwriting despite the contrivances.  The film is ostensibly a screwball comedy but really present a bleak view of society which must have particularly pointed at the time given that the Great Depression was so recent.  Sullivan's Travels was a great firm.  I think it would have worked equally well as a straight up drama.

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There is something about Eddie Bracken's screen persona that I don't like.  In Miracle at Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero, he plays a stumbling, bumbling milquetoast type of guy who allows other to manipulate him.  That's not altogether different that the characters Danny Kaye or even Bob Hope played but Bracken turns me off for some reason I can't quite identify.

In Miracle at Morgan's Creek, Betty Hutton plays Trudy Kockenlocker (you would think Hays Office would have objected to the name), a small town girl with a thing for men in uniform.  Fortunately for her, there is an Army base nearby and dance on Saturday night in honor of the soldier shipping out to the war.  Trudy's father (William Demarest) won't allow her to go to the dance so she gets a beard in the form of Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken), a local 4F boy who stutters, is too nice for his own good and long had a crush on Trudy.  Jones picks up Trudy at her house and as soon as they leave, Trudy asks to borrow his car so she can go to the party.  Jones relents and catches a triple feature at the movie theater while Trudy goes to the party.

The next morning, Jones is asleep outside the theater when Trudy pulls up.  Obviously intoxicated (so much Production Code not showing DUIs), Trudy can't remember what happened the night before...except she married a soldier whose name she can't recall.  Soon enough, she discovers she is pregnant (what does that say for the unknown soldier's sexual prowess?) and her father only knows that the last guy she went out with was Jones.

I can't recall the specifics but somehow Trudy needs to marry Jones under an alias to get out of the first marriage.  In all goes sideways and Jones ends up under arrest (if I recall correctly, Trudy is a minor!).  Sturges extricates the couple from their situation by having Trudy give birth to sextuplets...one-upping Dionne quintuplets.

I never really got into Miracle at Morgan's Creek.  Demarest and Diana Lynn as Trudy's younger sister stood out in my memory.  Brian Donlevy & Akim Tamiroff makes cameos at the start & end of the film as their Great McGinty characters. 

In Hail the Conquering Hero, Bracken plays Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith, a small town boy who has been medically discharged from the Marine Corps due to hay fever.  As his name indicates, Truesmith has special reason to hide is medical discharge.  His father was a marine who was killed in WWI.  Truesmith has been hiding his civilian status from his family and friends by having marines mail pre-written postcards from overseas.  Truesmith sees a group of Marines in a bar and buys them a round.  The sergeant in the group (Demarest) knew Truesmith's father in WWI.  When one of the marines hears about Truesmith's situation, he decides to call Truesmith's mother and tell her that he is coming home after meritorious service in the Pacific.

When Truesmith and the marines get to town, there is a rally to greet the hero.  Things spiral out of control from that point.  Truesmith is pressed into running for mayor based on his service record.  Complicating matters is that Truesmith's former girlfriends is dating the incumbent mayor's son and is the mayor's secretary.

I found Hail the Conquering Hero to be tedious although it was criticizing the mindless patriotism and hero worship which I suppose was prevalent during WWII.  My father fought in WWII and he has told me that people recognized the dissonance between what was depicted in films and what happened in real life.  In other words, was Hail the Conquering Hero decrying the mindless patriotism and hero worship that was occurring or decrying the media's promotion mindless patriotism and hero worship?

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I enjoyed The Palm Beach Story more than Miracle at Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero.

In The Palm Beach Story, Claudette Colbert is Geraldine Jeffers, who is surprisingly ambivalent about her marriage to Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea).  There is prologue which was kind of confusing but explained at the end.  Geraldine is an identical twin & Tom is an identical twin and each thinks they are marrying the other twin.

Anyway, Gerry is ready for a new husband.  Tom is nice enough but he isn't successful enough for Gerry.  With some help from odd, little, old, rich guy, Gerry takes off for Palm Beach to get a divorce.  Along the way, she meets a rambunctious group of hunters from the Ale & Quail Club, gets separated from her luggage and eventually accepts the kindness of John D. Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee), one of the world's wealthiest men who is travelling in a sleeper car.

The old rich guy (Robert Dudley) who helped Gerry also helps Tom by flying him down to Palm Beach so he can arrive there before Gerry and convince her not to get divorced.  Upon her arrival, she introduces him to Hackensacker as her brother because she has told Hackensacker about her pending divorce and allowed him to think the worst of her husband.  That suits Hackensacker's sister (Mary Astor) just fine.  The oft divorced heiress takes an instant liking to Tom which creates the situation where two siblings are courting two siblings, unaware that the siblings are in fact, a married couple.  A little too contrived but that's Sturges's MO.

Astor plays the man eating princess quite well and Vallee is also memorable as the lonely millionaire.  Eventually, Gerry & Tom (I just noticed this may be play on the Tom & Jerry cartoons) decide  to give their marriage another chance and confess their ruse to the Hackensackers.  This allows for the opening sequence to be explained and the possibility that the Hackensackers will pursue Gerry and Tom's identical twin siblings.