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The Sea Hawk (1940)
Events of 1500 Parallel Opening of World War Two
The English government begged Hollywood to produce pro-British movies after the United Kingdom found itself enmeshed in World War Two. Warner Brothers listened to England's persuasion even though the United States remained neutral, and produced the pro-British swashbuckler July 1940 "The Sea Hawk." Even though the movie was set in the Elizabethan era during the late 1500s when England was preparing for war with Spain, "The Sea Hawk's" script by Howard Koch and Seton Miller was revised to reflect the current political situation in Europe.
"The Sea Hawk" was actor Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz's tenth film together, and became a huge box office hit, especially with the British pubic. It also was a morale booster for imperiled England in the summer of 1940 when its Royal Air Force was fighting the German Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Clearly the movie draws many parallels to the European conglict in the early 1940s, beginning with its opening scenes of King Philip of Spain expressing his desire to conquer England in his quest for world domination. Queen Elizabeth 1, acting as a later-day Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, insists diplomacy is the only way to peace in the face of Spain's increasingly efforts to arm itself to the teeth, as the Nazis had done. When she finally realizes what the King of Spain's intentions are, the queen gives a speech which could have been applied to Hitler: "when the ruthless ambition of a man threatens to engulf the world, it becomes the solemn obligation of all free men to affirm that the earth belongs not to any one man, but to all men, and that freedom is the deed and title to the soil on which we exist."
Film critic Ken Peary admits "The Sea Hawk" is a thinly "veiled propaganda piece that attempts to get Americans solidly into the war effort." Reviewer Danielle Solzman adds, "While the film takes place in the late 1500s, one can definitely see how they use the launch of the Spanish Armada as an allegory for Nazi Germany seeking to expand their own land. Look no further than the Queen's speech towards the end of the film."
"The Sea Hawk" also entertains with its intrigues, romance, and epic sword fighting scenes. Warner Brothers delved into its film library to insert footage from its 1924 silent movie predecessor of the same name as well as from its 1935 "Captain Blood" to illustrate the battles in the open seas. To complement those clips the studio built two replicas of ships of that era into its massive sound stage called the 'Maritime Stage.' It was the second largest film stage for its time in Hollywood, only behind MGM's enormous Stage 15. A water tank inside the studio created the illusion of the sea. The 1940 movie "The Sea Hawk" is based on Seton Miller's story 'Beggars of the Sea.' Flynn plays Geoffrey Thorpe, a Sir Francis Drake-type personality who commands a privateer ship raiding Spanish merchants. Thorpe gives most of his prizes to Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson), who uses the money to fund England's Navy. Thorpe concocts a land raid in Panama to ambush a caravan laden with Spanish gold, just as Drake did. Thorpe's plans are thwarted when he and his men are captured, when they overhear plans for the Spanish invasion of England by its Armada.
In only her second year in film, actress Brenda Marshall serves as Thorpe's love interest. She's Doria Maria, niece to Spanish envoy Don Alvarez (Claude Rains). Marshall, who despised her stage name given by the studio, wanted to be called her real name, Ardis Ankerson. She was wedded to William Holden in 1941, culminating in an unhappy marriage, even though they were matron of honor and best man in Ronald and Nancy Reagan's 1952 wedding. Her film career lasted until 1950, when she gave up acting to raise two sons.
Flora Robson gives her second rendition of Queen Elizabeth following her stirring performance in 1937's "Fire Over England." Film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, noted for his rousing score in 1935's "Captain Blood" and 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood," composed his final swashbuckler in "The Sea Hawk." Korngold enjoyed a resurgence of popularity 15 years after his death by the release of 1972's RCA's album 'The Sea Hawk: The Classic Film Scores of Korngold" by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, which introduced his movie compositions to a new generation of listeners.
Korngold was nominated by the Academy Awards for his Original Score, while "The Sea Hawk" was also nominated for Best Art Direction, Best Sound Recording, and Best Special Effects. A Winston Churchill favorite, the swashbuckler was nominated by the American Film Institute as one of Hollywood's Most Thrilling Movies and Best Film Scores.
They Drive by Night (1940)
Cited as One of Raoul Walsh's Best Directed Film
George Raft was probably the best thing to come the way of Warner Brothers' contract actor Humphrey Bogart. Although respected in Hollywood by his tough edged on-screen personality, Raft had a habit for refusing parts which turned out to be massive hits. Soon after he and Bogart appeared in July 1940's "They Drive By Night," considered one of director Raoul Walsh's best films, Raft was offered a role where he dies as Roy Earle in 1941's "High Sierra." He refused, opening the door for Bogart in what was his breakout film. Raft later turned down the lead in 1941's "The Maltese Falcon" and reportedly 1942's "Casablanca," all movies Bogart was his replacement, furthering his star status.
But in "They Drive By Night," Raft did accept top billing as Joe Fabrini, who along with his brother Paul (Bogart) criss-cross the country delivering goods by truck. Using elements from the Paul Muni and Bette Davis' 1935 'Bordertown,' Joe is hired by good friend and truck business owner Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale) after Paul lost his arm in an accident and is unable to drive. Trouble enters when Ed's wife, Lana (Ida Lupino), who had a crush on Joe for years, renews her passion for him. She eventually kills her inebriated husband Ed, which police rule as an accident. Lana then entices Joe a share of her late-husband's business. But Joe loves waitress Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan), setting Lana's head steaming.
"They Drive By Night" was the big break for actress Ida Lupino. Later Hollywood's only female director in the 1950s, Lupino was encouraged as a child by her musical comedian father to go into acting. The British native Lupino had a photographic memory, learning in every Shakespearean play the entire female dialogue by the age of ten. The film debut of Lupino, 13, was 1931's British film 'Her First Affair.' Soon Lupino earned the moniker "the English Jean Harlow" because of her good girl/bad girl roles. After a dozen films, Lupino was signed by Warner Brothers to play Lana. Critics say she dominated "They Drive By Night" with her crazy dramatic courtroom testimony. Film reviewer Anthony Clarke says "Watch for Ida Lupino's courtroom scene towards the film's close. Without giving anything away, it's easy to see why she stole the movie." In her next pict she plays Roy Earle's girlfriend in 1941's "High Sierra." Years later Lupino directed Alan Hale's son in several 'Gilligan's Island' television episodes. Alan Hale Jr. As the Skipper wore the gold ring his father is seen wearing in "They Drive By Night" for the rest of his life in honor of his dad, whom he was very close.
"They Drive By Night" would never have seen the light of day if it weren't for Gladys Glad, wife of producer Mark Hellinger. She had a habit of reading scripts her husband would bring home after work. She insisted Mark read the adaptation of A. I. Bezzerides' 1938 novel 'Long Haul.' Hellinger, after reading the script, told her, "nobody would pay money to see a bunch of truck drivers." Through Gladys' persistence, Warner Brothers eventually made the film, becoming one of the studio's sleeper hits of the year, taking in more than $4 million at the box office on a $400,000 budget.
Warner Brothers was impressed by Raft's performance in "They Drive By Night," but he continued to reject scripts left and right. "Our association with Raft was a constant struggle from start to finish," recalled studio producer Hal Wallis. "Hypersensitive to public accusations of underworld connections, he flatly refused to play the heavy in any film. Time and time again we offered him gangster parts and time and time again he turned them down." Filmlink Magazine complemented Raft's acting in the Warner Brothers film, but saw the movie "a sensationally entertaining flick that was a solid box office success and should have convinced Raft that his new employers knew what they were doing, but his judgement continued to get worse." Thankfully for Humphrey Bogart, he capitalized on Raft's bad decisions.
All This, and Heaven Too (1940)
Warner Brothers Answer to Gone With The Wind
Charles Boyer was one of the first Hollywood actors to enlist in World War Two when his native France declared war on Germany in September 1939. Because of Boyer's age, 40, and his movie popularity, he was assigned to desk duty, a job he loathed. After listening to his complaints, the French government felt the actor would be more effective to his county's cause by making Hollywood films than pushing paper. The military discharged him in November so he could appear in July 1940's "All This, and Heaven Too" with Bette Davis, nominated for the Academy Awards Best Picture.
Boyer didn't talk much about his limited 'war' service. By the time he returned to Warner Brothers' studio to make the period picture "All This, and Heaven Too," set in 1847 France, Boyer was sporting a receding hairline and a paunch. To tuck in his bulging stomach while filming, he had to wear a corset underneath his outer clothes. Seeing him for the first time without his hairpiece, Davis failed to recognize the famous actor and called the studio's security to have 'the stranger' removed from the set. Boyer was also shorter than she ever imagined, a stature requiring him to stand on a box next to others, especially for the actresses who towered over him. Despite his short comings, film reviewer Patrick Nash observed, "He holds his own with Davis and in fact has the scene with the biggest emotional impact." That scene has Boyer's character, the Duke de-Praslin, killing his cruel wife Francoise (Barbara O'Neil). The duke had earlier hired Henriette Deluzy-Desportes (Bette Davis) to tutor the family's four girls. The jealous Francoise is cold to her children, her husband and especially to the new teacher, who lives in the household. "All This, and Heaven Too" is based on a true story, which Rachel Field wrote her 1938 novel of the same name. The author had personal insight on the murder. Her great aunt was the family tutor Henriette, and the murder of the duke's wife caused a scandal in King Louis-Philippe's administration in 1847, one of many compounding political events leading up to the French Revolution of 1848.
Many film historians point to the long two hours and twenty minutes movie as Warner Brothers' answer to producer David O. Selznick's four-hour 1939 "Gone With The Wind." Studio head Jack Warner spent almost $1.4 million on this elaborate prestige pictures, nearly three-quarters of the budget spent on 65 exterior sets and 35 interiors, meticulously displayed with real antique furniture and 150 paintings and sculptures from the King Louis Philippes period. Davis wore 37 different dresses with several layers of undergarments and corsets, which took her 40 minutes each day to put on. The relationship between the Warners' film and "Gone With The Wind" is uncanny: the bed in the duchess' bedroom was the same Scarlett O'Hara slept on when married to Rhett Butler, and actress Barbara O'Neill, 30, (the duchess) played Scarlett's mother. The St. Louis-born O'Neill as a teenager played in summer stock and attended the Yale School of Drama, making her Broadway debut in 1932 and her inaugural film in 1937's "Stella Dallas." She was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Supporting Actress for her role as the duchess in "All This, and Heaven Too." Married to stage and film director Joshua Logan for only one year, she took a break from film until 1948, remaining single after her divorce.
Director Anatole Litvak and Davis were having an affair during the production of "All This, and Heaven Too." Litvak's marriage to actress Miriam Hopkins, who was considered for the role of the duchess, ended shortly before filming began. Hopkins and Davis had a rivalry ever since they appeared in 1939's "Old Maid" and continued in their second movie together, 1943 "Old Acquaintance." Despite the love arrows between them, Davis was disdainful toward Litvak's direction, saying later, "Litvak had it all on paper; he planned every move. There is not the spontaneity or flexibility." Some critics say Litvak's style didn't suit the more free-wheeling two-time Oscar winner Davis.
Playing the oldest daughter of the Praslin family was child actress June Lockhart, 14, who latter was in television's "Lassie" and "Lost in Space." "All This, and Heaven Too" was nominated not only for Best Picture and O'Neil's performance but Ernest Haller for Best Black and White Cinematography. Film Daily's national poll at the time listed the Warner Brothers' picture the fifth best movie of 1940.
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
First Movie Version of Jane Austen's 1813 Classic; Greer Garson's Second Film
Popular movies based on classic novels almost assure a revival in interest in the books. In cinema's first adaptation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel, MGM's July 1940 "Pride and Prejudice," the hit film immediately created a wave of Austen-fever which centered around Elizabeth Bennett and her male counterpart, Mr. Darcy. Five editions of the 19th-century novel hit the bookstands shortly after the motion picture was released. Less than a decade later twenty-one printings could still barely keep up with public demand. So in vogue was the movie the now prestigious Jane Austen Society was formed in the United Kingdom soon after its release in 1940.
On Harpo Marx's suggestion, the late MGM producer Irving Thalberg bought the rights to Helen Jerome's popular 1936 Broadway play based on Austen's book. Irving had planned to have his wife Norma Shearer play Elizabeth and Clark Gable as Mr. Darcy. But his untimely death put a hold on the project until MGM decided to produce it at its England studio. The war put the kibosh to those plans after MGM shuttered its British facility. Back in Hollywood, the studio decided to cast "Pride and Prejudice" largely with English actors, who, once hired demanded-and received-their daily afternoon tea time. England's Laurence Olivier was a shoe-in to be Mr. Darcy after his performances in 1939 "Wuthering Heights" and 1940 "Rebecca." Just as in his other movies, Olivier demanded his soon-to-be wife Vivien Leigh be co-star alongside him. And as always, the studio rejected his demands feeling the couple's scandalous relationship would have turned off American audiences. In just her second movie, British actress Greer Garson received the role of Elizabeth.
Olivier was disappointed with the movie after filming wrapped. "I was very unhappy with the picture," the actor lamented. "It was difficult to make Darcy into anything more than an unattractive-looking prig, and darling Greer seemed to me all wrong as Elizabeth." It was an odd comment for Olivier since he praised the young actress years earlier in the opening night speech of his 1935 stage play 'Golden Arrow,' which he produced and directed. Garson, 35, was believable as 20-year-old Elizabeth, with film reviewer R. B. Armstrong writing, "Garson's performance brims with intelligence and charm." This was Olivier's final Hollywood film for the next twelve years. He returned to his native England to continue in plays and movies until he went back to California for 1952 "Carrie."
One criticism of MGM's "Pride and Prejudice" was it showcases dresses made much later than the setting of Austen's novel. Studio executives felt the early 1800's attire was more akin to night-time pajamas rather than elegant dresses viewers were used to seeing in period films. To cut down expenses, MGM recycled much of 1939 "Gone With The Wind's" clothes for the actresses and extras. Since the costumes and sets were so vibrant, the studio wanted to shoot the picture in color. Technicolor claimed its film stock was low because of the great amount used for "Gone With The Wind." As it was, the picture still earned an Oscar for Best Art Direction in a Black and White Film.
The script for "Pride and Prejudice" was much lighter in tone than in Austen's novel. Screwball comedies were still in vogue, so the studio's ad campaign hyped, "Bachelors beware! Five gorgeous beauties are on a madcap manhunt!" which described the five daughters of the Bennetts looking for suitable mates. Nine writers shaped the Austen adaptation, with writers Jane Murfin and Aldous Huxley injecting humor. The author of 1932's 'Brave New World," Huxley embarked on his first Hollywood scriptwriting assignment since relocating from England in 1937. Jane Murfin's previous works were known for their witty scenarios, including 1935 "Alice Adams" and 1939 "The Women." The American Film Institute nominated "Pride and Prejudice" as one of cinema's Funniest Movies. Film reviewer Chip Lary noticed the difference in humor from the subsequent movies based on the Austen novel. "If you have seen other versions, but not this one, then you should probably watch it to see how it compares with the others," recommends Lary. "It presents the most humor of any of the versions."
The Milky Way (1940)
The Oscar Winner of Best Animated Short Film
"A Wild Hare" was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, but was nudged out by the winner, MGM's June 1940 "The Milky Way" was the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, the first time Walt Disney, placing most of his resources on his feature films at the time, didn't earn an Oscar in that category. In fact he was shut out of the three nominated. Besides "A Wild Hare," MGM's "Puss Gets the Boot," a forerunner to Tom and Jerry cartoons, was the other nominee. In back of their minds the Academy voting members must have remembered the Disney look since "The Milky Way" resembles Walt's 'Silly Symphonies's' cartoons, which he ended in 1939.
The Rudolph Isling-directed "The Milky Way" has three kittens punished by their mother for losing their mittens while playing in the snow, to which they're sent to bed without their milk. They dream of going on a balloon space flight to the Milky Way, where all forms of milk is delivered and gulped down by the ravenous kittens. When they wake up, their mother regrets what she's done and prepares a dinner for them-of milk. The three kittens' stomachs churn just at the thought of milk.
MGM did a movie tie-in with the National Dairy Council, promoting "The Milky Way" with milk bottle caps as well as cards displayed in grocery store windows. The studio also advertised the cartoon on billboards alongside the National Milk Month logo.
A Wild Hare (1940)
The Modern Day Version of Bugs Bunny is Revealed For First Time
Rabbits were common in early animation such as in Walt Disney's 'Oswald the Rabbit.' But the king of all cartoon rabbits is Bugs Bunny. His first official appearance was in July 1940 "A Wild Hare,' co-starring Elmer Fudd as the hunter entrapped by Bugs Bunny's clever antics.
The Merrie Melody cartoon, drawn by the wizard artists at Leon Schlesinger Productions, was part of Warner Brothers distribution arm. The studio had introduced an earlier incarnation of Bugs in 1938's "Porky's Hare Hunt' featuring a frustrated Porky the Pig trying to shoot a clever and elusive rabbit. Four cartoons later of the pesky rabbit Bugs appeared in "A Wild Hare," directed by Tex Avery. Voice actor Mel Blanc employed his Bronx/Brooklyn accent to mimic the rabbit modern viewers are familiar. This is the first cartoon Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?" Director Tex Avery claims he's the one who came up with the phrase from his days living in Texas where it was a commonly said. Mel Blanc, however, said he first ad-libbed the saying spontaneously in the narration booth, and everyone loved it.
Animator Bob Givens was assigned to redesign the previous rabbits into the basic look we see today as Bugs Bunny. Givens lengthened the rabbit's body, and has him standing straight up. There were a couple of attributes as to the origins on Bugs' habit chomping on carrots. One is the famous scene in 1934's Academy Award Best Picture winner "It Happened One Night" where Clark Gable munches on a carrot while Claudette Colbert exhibits her method of hitchhiking. Another is wise-cracking actor Roscoe Karns' character Oscar Shapely in the same movie, who was a big carrot fan.
Bugs Bunny appeared in over 160 cartoons between 1940 and 1964, and has been in more films than any other animated character. Bugs has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame and is Warner Brothers' official mascot.
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Inspires Slew of Horror-Comedy Movies, Including 1984's "Ghostbusters"
Comedian actor Dan Aykrod, co-writer for 1984's "Ghostbusters," credits the Bob Hope comedy-horror motion picture, June 1940 "The Ghost Breakers," among one of the major influences for his ever-popular film. Aykrod, who harbors a deep interest in the paranormal inherited from his great-grandfather's research on the subject, watched a number of older horror movies saturated with comedy. Aykrod said, "It was a combination of my family's history and watching films like the Bowery Boys' Ghost Chasers and Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers. I thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to update the ghost movies from the '40s?'"
"The Ghost Breakers" was Hollywood's first affirmation that comedy could successfully be combined alongside scary horror plots. Bob Hope had introduced the mix in 1939's "The Cat and the Canary," but his latest incarnation with co-star Paulette Goddard set in a dark, old house amongst ghosts proved to be a major box-office hit. The Paramount Pictures production spawned a number of profitable films melding comedy with horror, including 1941's Abbott and Costello's "Hold That Ghost," 1941's 'The Smiling Ghost" with Alexis Smith and 1951 "Ghost Chasers." Even horror movie star Belli Lugosi got into the swing of comedy with his 1941 "Spooks Run Wild" and 1948's "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein."
"The Ghost Breakers" was the third-and first talkie-version of the 1909 play 'The Ghost Breaker,' beginning with Cecil B. DeMille's 1914 and director Alfred Green's 1922 silent films. Hope's quip in "The Ghost Breakers" alludes to the director of biblical epics when he and Goddard arrive in Cuba, saying "It sounds like a Cecil B. DeMille script." Hope said later this was one of his favorite roles because he was playing a brave hero as radio personality Larry Lawrence rather than his normally witty but cowardly type. Mary Carter (Goddard) inherits a mansion that a couple of Cuban nationals are eager to buy. Mary insists she wants to live there despite warnings it's terribly haunted with ghosts. Larry links up with Mary while running away from a shooting, and both venture to the mansion accompanied by his capable assistant, Alex (Willie Best). Once they arrive, however, the mansion contains all sorts of strange going-ons.
Besides influencing Aykroyd's updated 1984 classic, "The Ghost Breakers" also impacted others, including writer/director Peter Bogdanovich, who in his 1976 "Nickelodeon" used the scene similar to Alex's bowler hat sent upwards as he leans against the wall in fright. Author Joseph Heller's names one of his officers Major Major Major in his 1961 book "Catch 22," mimicking Hope's character when he's first introduced to Mary. She asks, "You mean your name is Lawrence Lawrence?" He answers, "Yeah, and my middle name is Lawrence, too. My folks had no imagination." For the longest time people thought the politically-neutral Hope was a Republican when his character was warned zombies lurked around the mansion. He's told, "It's worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring." Hope responds, "You mean like Democrats?"
Today's politically correct viewers roll their eyes at actor Willie Best's characterization of Lawrence's assistant. The Mississippi-native Best was one of the first African-American movie actors largely known to the public, first appearing in Harold Lloyd's 1930 "Feet First." Although there are a few racist lines directed his way, more than a few critics saw his humor in "The Ghost Breakers" outshining Hope. Film reviewer Kevin Lyons observed, "Most of the show is stolen by Best. With Hope stepping back from the comedy, Best gets most of the movie's memorable lines and physical comedy bits." Hope paid Best the supreme compliment, ranking him as "One of the finest actors I've ever worked with."
Gaslight (1940)
First Movie Centered Around Gaslighting
The definition of 'gaslighting' is a "psychological manipulation in which a person or a group covertly sows seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or group, making them question their own memory, perception, or judgment."
The term came from a 1938 British play 'Gas Light' by Patrick Hamilton that was made into the British movie, June 1940 "Gaslight." The England version is lesser known to the more famous MGM's 1944 Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman film. Bergman won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as a newlywed whose husband is searching for the hidden jewels after he killed her aunt to steal them.
In a practice film historians shake their heads but say was done back then, MGM didn't want its newer version to be judged against the earlier British film. When the studio purchased the American film rights of the play, it insisted all prints, even the negative, of the 1940 movie be destroyed. MGM nearly succeeded in suppressing all traces of the English movie, but director Thorold Dickinson possessed a copy he made before the negative was destroyed.
Film reviewer Andy Webb is thankful for the preservation of the 1940 picture, remarking, "It still remains one of the best movies which features a storyline about a person trying to manipulate a loved one into thinking the are going crazy."
The tale involves the recently married Mallans, Paul (Anton Walbrook) and Bella (Diana Wynyard), who rent a London apartment which hadn't been occupied in quite some time. Shortly after settling down, Paul begins to accuse his wife of misplacing objects. He plays secret tricks on her which triggers Bella to question her sanity. A neighbor, former detective B. G. Rough (Frank Pettingell), who had investigated the murder of elderly Alice Barlow (Marie Wright), hears about the strange occurrences in the apartment where Alice was found dead. Paul has been searching for the missing jewels in the two top floor rooms which have been cordoned off. He uses the apartment's gas system to illuminate the upstairs while rummaging, so much so he inadvertently dims the gas-lit lamps downstairs.
Time Out magazine's reviewer wrote, "Lurking menace hangs in the air like a fog, the atmosphere is electric, and Wynyard suffers exquisitely as she struggles to keep dementia at bay." Playing the confused Bella, Diana Wynyard was known for her Academy Award Best Actress nomination in 1933's Best Movie, "Cavalcade," the first British actress nominated in that category. As the villainous Paul, Austrian actor Anton Walbrook later was known for his roles in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1943 "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" and 1948's "The Red Shoes."
The American version of the play opened on Broadway soon after the movie "Gaslight" premiered in the United Kingdom, with Vincent Price as Paul and Judith Evelyn as Bella. After 1,300 performances, the longest-running melodrama on Broadway at the time, 'Gas Light,' is ranked as the 81st all-time longest-running play in the New York City theatre district. MGM capitalized on its popularity by producing the 1944 movie. Critics recognize the British film remains closer to the play, with many, such as film reviewer Bill Thompson expressing, "I find the 1940 Gaslight to be far superior to the 1944 Gaslight. I tend to like stripped down movies over bloated affairs, and the actors in the 1940 Gaslight outshone their 1944 counterparts by a good margin. Gaslight, the 1940 version, is a really good 'what's he doing' mystery that plays well on the screen and brings you in with the story." Film reviewer Fredrick recognized, "They are respectively excellent examples of British and Hollywood 1940s productions, and even though the basic plot is the same, the two movies are very different. Not only in the details, but also in the entire build-up of the plot and the interplay between the main characters."
Fortunately, MGM didn't realize its objective to squash any evidence of the British movie, allowing today's viewers to draw their own conclusions.
The Mortal Storm (1940)
MGM's First Anti-Nazi Film, Which Gets Studio Banned In Germany
Even though the neutral United States was standing by England and its allies during the opening months of World War Two, Hollywood was still reaping financially by showing its movies in the lucrative German market. A few major studios were beginning to reassess whether it was worth the money after Germany invaded Poland, sparking the major war. MGM finally came to the realization it wasn't by producing its first anti-Nazi film, June 1940 "The Mortal Storm." Adolf Hitler and his subordinates were so appalled by the movie's contents their government not only prohibited the film from playing in German theaters but it enacted a complete ban on all MGM motion pictures. Joseph Goebbels, the minister of propaganda, shuttered Loew's Berlin office, MGM's parent company, causing a crimp in the studio's bottom line.
The war in Europe was less than a year old, and the United States wouldn't enter the conflict for another 18 months, but slowly the German public who flocked to see Hollywood movies were deprived of them. Film reviewer Clayton White wrote of "The Mortal Storm," "It takes a clear, unwavering stance against Nazism, and was one of few Hollywood films at the time that did. The most amazing aspect is that not only does it take a stand, but it clearly shows the ignorance and naivety of Nazi supporters."
"The Mortal Storm" was adapted from the 1937 novel of the same name by British author Phyllis Bottome, a teacher-turned-writer who lived in Germany in the 1930s. Her book was one of the earliest anti-fascist fictional stories on what was happening in the Nazi-led country. Bottome managed an Austrian school during the mid-1920s where future writer Ian Fleming attended. Some claim Fleming was inspired to base his James Bond character from Bottome's spy novel 'The Lifeline.' The MGM film "The Mortal Storm" takes place in southern Germany in 1933 when Hitler was named chancellor. The film follows the Roth family, non-Aryans whose patriarch, Viktor (Frank Morgan), finds himself celebrating his 60th birthday with his daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan), his two step-sons, Otto (Robert Stack) and Erich (William Orr), Freya's fiancee Fritz Marberg (Robert Young) and family friend Martin Breitner (James Stewart). Once they hear Hitler has become head of Germany, Otto, Erich and Fritz are enthusiastic about the Nazis' ideologue. Eventually Professor Roth, who disapproves of the Fuhrer, is removed from his college position and sent to a concentration camp while Martin and Freya secretly refuse to join the party.
Director Frank Borzage's work was hailed by film critic Arsaib Gilbert, saying "There may not be a shot in Borzage's oeuvre as haunting as the one here of Morgan's character emerging from the dark recesses of a prison. It is the last time we see him in the film." "The Mortal Storm" also marked the final of four movies long-time friends Stewart and Sullavan were together. Although the actress displayed periods of erratic behavior on and off the set, Stewart loved working with her. "She had you just a little bit off guard," Stewart said later. "She could do moments that would hit you, maybe a look or a line or two, but they would hit like flashes or earthquakes."
"The Mortal Storm" was only the second credited role for Robert Stack, 21. Moving with his family to Europe from Los Angeles as a baby, Charles Langford Modini Stack did not learn English until he was seven after returning to the states. He later excelled in polo and skeet shooting, winning national championships. While taking drama courses at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, Stack visited Universal Studios where he was spotted by a producer, who gave him a screen test. Studio executives loved what they saw from the college student and signed him to a contract, with his film debut in 1939's 'First Love.' He became famous in the movie for kissing young starlet Deanna Durbin, her first on-screen smooch.
Variety noted that "The Mortal Storm" wasn't "the first of the anti-Nazi pictures, but it is the most effective film exposé to date of the totalitarian idea, a slugging indictment of the political and social theories advanced by Hitler." And The New Yorker John Mosher predicted "The cruel story is told without any of the highlights of horror. We feel that what lies behind is worse than what we are shown." The film is listed in the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" reference book.
My Favorite Wife (1940)
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne Second Teaming Produces Top-notch Screwball
Just as in sports, it's nice to have a deep bench for Hollywood studios when it comes to directors. Fortunately for RKO Pictures, when Leo McCarey was involved in a serious car accident right before filming May 1940's "My Favorite Wife," the studio turned to Garson Kanin to direct the Cary Grant and Irene Dunne comedy. The jack-of-all trades playwright and screenwriter who broke into cinema by directing his first movie, 1938's "A Man to Remember," Kanin was prepared to replace McCarey immediately after directing five additional films.
Film critic Pauline Kael noticed that "Garson Kanin was 27 (and at his liveliest) when he directed this screwball-classic hit." Film reviewer John Sinnott added "This is a comic masterpiece, one of the great romantic comedies of the era. Every time I watch it I seem to enjoy it more."
"My Favorite Wife" almost wasn't quite the treasure it turned out to be. McCarey, on his feet after a couple of weeks recuperating, visited the set and saw "My Favorite Wife's" first preview. He noticed "after about five reels, the picture took a dip, and for about two reels or more, it wasn't as funny as what preceded it-it was a lot of unraveling of a tricky plot." The movie opened with a judge presiding over the request from attorney Nick Arden (Cary Grant) to declare his missing wife Ellen (Irene Dunne) dead after her ship sank seven years before. He wanted an official resolution to marry Bianca (Gail Patrick), which the judge approved.
McCarey had Kanin rewrite the conclusion to bring back the judge. "When the film was previewed again, it worked," McCarey remembered. The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther credits actor Granville Bates (Judge Bryson) for making the final scenes a fitting ending. "Mr. Bates deserves a separate mention for his masterpiece of comic creation," praised Crowther. Bates died of a heart attack a few months in July 1940 after filming wrapped.
"My Favorite Wife," based on Lord Alfred Tennyson's 1864 poem 'Enoch Arden' which was previously made into six silent films, switches genders, with the wife declared dead. The missing Ellen returns to find her husband married to Bianca. In one of cinema's more funnier scenes, Irene goes to the hotel where Nick is celebrating his honeymoon. As the elevator door in the lobby closes, Nick spots his 'dead' wife, shifting his head in disbelief as the door closes. "It is a classic scene," writes film reviewer Sinnott. "Cary Grant can get a laugh with a simple facial expression easier than any other actor of his time."
Nick and Ellen eventually link up with their two children and declare their love for each other. But there's a wrinkle in their reunion: During the seven years Ellen was on a deserted island, she spent the entire time with one other survivor, Stephen Burkett (Randolph Scott). That's when things get sticky for everyone involved. Nominated for the Academy Awards' Best Story, "My Favorite Wife" was similar to the earlier Grant/Dunne 1937 classic "The Awful Truth." Film historian Richard Jewell notes, "Both in theme and execution, 'My Favorite Wife' was a quasisequel to 'The Awful Truth.'" This was Grant and Dunne's second of three movies together, which Irene enjoyed immensely. She reminisced, "I appeared with many leading men. But working with Cary Grant was different from working with other actors - he was much more fun! I think we were a successful team because we enjoyed working together tremendously, and that pleasure must have shown through onto the screen." One locale the two especially loved filming was at the famous Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park, where director Stanley Kubrick based the interiors of the hotel in his 1980 "The Shining."
Roy Webb was nominated for composing the Academy Awards Best Score while it was also a Best Art Direction nominee. A 1962 remake of "My Favorite Wife" was in production, "Something's Got to Give" with Dean Martin, Cyd Charisse and Marilyn Monroe before it was abandoned when Monroe underwent a myriad of mental problems and died. A year later, Doris Day and James Garner used the same framework in 1963's "Move Over, Darling," with Garner duplicating Grant's famous elevator scene.
Our Town (1940)
Academy Award Best Picture Nominee Brings Pulitzer Prize Winning Play to Screen
Screen tests for actors and actresses usually are a make or break proposition for those receiving-or rejected from movie roles. Martha Scott, who never was in film, felt her Broadway performance as Emily Webb, a key character in Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning 1938 play, gave her the inside track in May 1940's "Our Town," an Academy Award nominated Best Picture. How wrong she was.
Scott, 30, had screen tested poorly the previous year when she was auditioning for the role of Melanie in "Gone With The Wind," a part Olivia de Havilland eventually got. Casting directors were aware popular stage actors sometimes don't translate well on to the big screen. Producer Sol Lessor laboriously conducted auditions with a number of actresses, both famous and not so famous. Ultimately, though, frustrated on finding the perfect person to play Emily, he selected Scott despite a mediocre previous screen test. In hindsight, it proved to be the correct choice since in her movie debut Scott earned an Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress, a rare feat for a Hollywood first timer.
Located in fictitious Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, "Our Town" was fortunate to have set designer William Menzies, an Honorary Oscar recipient for his work on 1939's "Gone With The Wind," in charge of the look of the village complete with quaint rail fences and homey interiors to reflect its residents' inward comforts while outside their experiences with others were just the opposite.
"Our Town," set in the year 1901, showed according to film reviewer Glenn Erickson, a "combination of nostalgia and wisdom from beyond the grave which addresses the issue of temporality and the fleeting joys of day-to-day life." The film reflects a number of residents undergoing their own personal dramas, especially young George Gibbs (William Holden) and Emily Webb (Martha Scott), and their relationship with their families. George and Emily end up marrying a week after high school graduation, and enter the world of the Grover's Corners' daily routine.
Playwright Wilder, with the help of Frank Craven, who played the 'stage manager' in both the play and the film, and Harry Chandlee, an Oscar nominee for co-writing 1941's "Sergeant York," adapted his play to Hollywood standards. This ranged from realistic sets (his play's staging was spare) to changing the ending to be more upbeat. Emily returns from the dead after experiencing a fatal childbirth where she learns a valuable lesson: she sees the living scurrying through their busy daily routine without stopping and appreciating the treasures life has to offer and their failure to connect with people close to them. She asks the Stage Manager if anyone truly understands the value of life. He hedges his response by saying, "No. The saints and the poets, maybe-they do some."
The Jamesport, Missouri-native Martha Scott, whose mother was the second cousin to President William McKinley, earned a bachelor's degree in drama at the University of Michigan. After several summer stock plays and radio dramas, Scott received her first Broadway role in 1938's "Our Town." After her Oscar nomination, Scott remained busy in Hollywood, most notably as the mother of actor Charlton Heston's characters in 1956's "The Ten Commandments" and 1959 "Ben-Hur." On television she was the mother of Bob Newhart on his show as well as Sue Ellen and Kristin's mother on 'Dallas.' She always remembered her hometown cemetery in Jamesport, Missouri that inspired her in the final act of "Our Town." She told her son, "she used that place as her image because it's so serene and beautiful." Scott is buried at her native Jamesport's Masonic Cemetery, dying in 2003 at 90.
Besides the Academy Awards Best Picture and Scott's nominations, "Our Town" saw composer Aaron Copland nominated for his Best Musical Score and Thomas Moulton for Best Sound.
Pastor Hall (1940)
First British Film After WW2 Declared to Place Harsh Light on Nazism
While British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was negotiating with German chancellor Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s resulting in the Munich Agreement, England refrained from criticizing Germany. That all changed once Germany invaded Poland in the autumn of 1939. One of the first British films portraying Germany in a realistically harsh light after World War Two began was May 1940 "Pastor Hall."
Based on a 1939 play of the same name by the late German Jewish exile Ernst Toller, the screenplay 'Pastor Hall' was rejected by the British Board of Film Censors before the opening of WW2. The censors claimed the portrayal of a small town in Germany forced by SS Stormtroopers to submit to Nazi ideology would hamper the negotiations Chamberlain was conducting with Hitler. The script was the first to detail the concentration camps rumored to have existed in Germany in the 1930s. Toller, who fled Germany in 1933, was well aware of the events happening internally in his country. He centered his play loosely on Pastor Martin Niemoller, who refused to preach the Nazi doctrine in his church and was sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticizing the Nazi party.
Film reviewer Gary Tooze said "Pastor Hall" was "one of the first anti-Nazi dramas ever made and had its original production delayed by British censors who were told not to be openly critical of Hitler's regime." The strong-armed tactics of the Nazi Germany were personified by the Storm Troopers made up of unemployed young men looking for a regular paycheck. Pastor Frederick Hall (Wilfred Lawson) just wants normalcy for his congregation and the small village he resides. Yet military commander Fritz Gerte (Marius Goring) flexes his swastika-drapped muscles and sends the pastor to a concentration camp after he refuses to adhere to the Nazi's "New Order" talking points at his church.
"Pastor Hall," although not as graphic in its propaganda as those later Hollywood films produced after Pearl Harbor, is a harbinger of what movie audiences would view for the next five years. It proved to be quite a contrast after the years of appeasement when film studios looked upon the lucrative German cinema market as too valuable to lose.
Virginia City (1940)
Contentious Studio Set Results in Stirring Civil War Western
Actor Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz, who eventually made twelve films together, had been adversaries ever since the mid-1930. Yet they were teamed up once again for May 1940's "Virginia City." Flynn, the lead in the Civil War Western as Captain Kerry Bradford of the Union Army, had locked horns with Curtiz beginning with their monumental blowout in 1936's "Charge of the Light Brigade." In turn, Curtiz loathed Flynn and his co-star Miriam Hopkins, a last-minute replacement for Olivia de Havilland. Compounding the tension on the set, Humphrey Bogart took the place of Victor Jory as a Mexican bandit, and was at odds with both Flynn and Randolph Scott.
"It wasn't a happy set," said film historian Jeff Arnold. "Flynn did not slacken his usual rhythm of heavy drinking and was often late. Curtiz was famously scathing of actors, whom he called bums." A reporter from Hollywood Magazine described the tension on the set: "Tempers flared and feuds raged. For one eventful weekend it appeared that the cast was about to choose sides - the blues and the grays - and refight the Civil War with bare hands, rocks or practical bullets."
Warner Brothers' premier of "Virginia City," named for the Nevada town where the film's opening release was taking place, was just as contentious. People paid a high price for tickets to attend the movie's first showing, with the promise Flynn, Hopkins and others in the cast would be on hand to talk about the film. None showed up, creating a scene unlike any other premier. The crowd took several Warner Brothers' employees hostage, and demanded their money back. The theater manager eventually agreed to refund them minus the standard admittance fee.
Not only was Flynn upset working with his loathed director, but he was upset the studio was so ill prepared going into the production. His role was switched at the last minute from Confederate officer Captain Vance Irby to the Union officer. Randolph Scott inherited the part of Irby, who in the waning days of the Civil War carries out the idea of spy Julia Hayne's (Hopkins) to shanghai $5 million at a rebel-held Nevada gold mine to help finance the Southern cause. Confusing as that was, the cast was faced with a partially-written script. Film historian Peter Valenti defends Flynn's frustration. "He changed from antagonist to protagonist, from Southern to Northern officer, almost as the film was being shot. This intensified Errol's feelings of inadequacy as a performer and his contempt for studio operation."
With all the drama behind the camera, it didn't deter from "Virginia City" becoming a big hit at the box office. The Western genre, so foreign to Flynn before 1939's "Dodge City," which ironically ended with he and de Havilland head to the Nevada town of Virginia City, solidified the Australian actor's image as an American Westerner. Bogart, however, took a step backward in his career as the leader of a gang of Mexican outlaws, John Murrell, whose Latino accent comes and goes like the prairie wind. Says film reviewer Frank Showalter, "Bogart's accent grows more pronounced as the film goes on, starting mild-and even vanishing-during his early scenes, but reaching full parody by the film's end."
The New York Times film critic Frank Nugent summed up the successful Western as containing "enough concentrated action, enough of the old-time Western sweep, to make it lively entertainment." And that was on the screen. Off camera, the drama between personalities was just as rousing.
Saps at Sea (1940)
Last Great Laurel and Hardy Movie--With Producer Hal Roach
Roach contracted Laurel and Hardy to make two films, the second May 1940's "Saps at Sea." The pair find themselves working at a horn factory where Oliver is losing his mind with all the constant honking, and is diagnosed with a bad case of "hornophobia." Recuperating at his apartment, Oliver gets little rest where he experiences several accidents, including a plumber's bungled job performed by actor Ben Turpin in his final film appearance. Yearning to escape, Oliver calls Stan to accompany him on a rickety rented boat for rest and relaxation. An unwanted guest, murderer Nick Grainger (Richard Cramer), slinks on the boat to escape the law, a discovery the pair realize only when their drifting boat is miles from land.
The script, co-written by silent movie comedian Harry Langdon, reuses a Three Stooges gag introduced in their 1934 "Punch Drunk" where Curly goes berserk when he hears the song 'Pop Goes the Weasel." In "Saps at Sea," Oliver becomes a raging maniac whenever he hears a horn, which proves beneficial on the boat. Film reviewer Mike McCahill calls "Saps at Sea" "a much underrated work in their canon: an hour of Hollywood Dadaism that commits to pushing a particular comic aesthetic as far as it can conceivably go." British Prime Minister Winston Churchill loved the movie, calling it one of his favorites. He made it a point to show the film on the HMS Prince of Wales to lighten the mood as he and the crew were steaming through German submarine-infested waters to his conference with U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt in Newfoundland, Canada in August 1941.
Many Laurel and Hardy fans consider these two last films they made for Hal Roach their final 'good' motion pictures. Premier magazine readers voted in a 2006 poll "A Chump at Oxford" as one of 'The 50 Greatest Comedies of All Time.' Stan and Ollie historian John Larrabee noted, "Fans may wish that Laurel and Hardy could have continued their relationship with Hal Roach into the 1940s, but the conditions wouldn't have allowed for it even if Stan and Babe had desired to do so. The irony is, of course, that had Roach continued to make films with the Boys, it might have prolonged the careers of all concerned." Roach realized his idea of 'featurette,' or 'streamliners' was viable. With United Artists' insistence Laurel and Hardy were too valuable to subject them to these shorts, Roach released the pair while making a fortune with his cheaply-made 17 streamliners released before Pearl Harbor. Free once again, Stan tried to establish his own film production company, only to see it go nowhere. He and Ollie signed on with Twentieth Century Fox, but the studio's constrictions in their subsequent movies placed a damper to their innovative humor.
A Chump at Oxford (1940)
Only Film Since 1927 Stan Plays a Character Not Himself
There was turmoil on the Laurel and Hardy landscape, but their longtime producer Hal Roach knew the team was still a lucrative commodity. The owner of his own studio, Roach brought the pair back into his fold, producing two memorable comedies, February 1940 "A Chump at Oxford" and May 1940's "Saps at Sea." One of the reasons the two films were released so quickly from each other was Roach originally filmed the two as "featurettes," four-reelers lasting only 40 minutes. His rationale was theaters were having a difficult time fitting double-billed full-length movies, averaging two hours long, into two separate admissions for the evening. Roach felt the showing of two shorter "featurettes" was the solution. Trouble was, United Artists, the distributor to Roach's movies, balked at the idea.
Stan Laurel was at odds with Roach ever since 1934's "Babes in Toyland," and was released by the producer after his contract expired in 1938. Oliver Hardy was still contracted with Roach when the producer decided to rehire Laurel for the two featurettes. After showing the short movies to United Artists, the distributor insisted Roach lengthen the two films by shooting additional scenes. Eventually UA got its way despite Roach's objections, and both "A Chump at Oxford" and "Saps at Sea" were released within three months of each other.
"A Chump at Oxford" is a parody on Robert Taylor's 1938 "A Yank at Oxford" with Vivien Leigh. The opening twenty minutes show Stan and Ollie posing as a butler (Hardy) and a maid (Laurel) at a posh dinner party. The scenes, adapted from the pair's 1927 silent "Soup to Nuts," were filmed with updated shots. After Laurel and Hardy destroy the party, they're hired as street cleaners where they happen to foil a bank robbery. The bank president rewards the illiterate pair to full scholarships at Oxford University in England, where they continue to cause mayhem at the college.
Stan is the chump in "A Chump at Oxford." He's a complete idiot until he transforms into a brilliant intellectual when he's hit in the head by a sliding window, and receives the distinguished title Lord Paddington. Film reviewer Scott McGee wrote, "Stan demonstrates what an accomplished actor he really was. With his natural British accent and a solid contemptuous air, Stan runs roughshod over all the students (including the ones that were bullying him earlier) and most interestingly, Ollie himself." As Lord Paddington, this is the only role after 1927 where Stanley doesn't play himself.
Earlier in "A Chump at Oxford," a handful of devilish students decide to play tricks on the unsuspecting pair. One of the troublemakers was a young Peter Cushing, later Hammer Studio's most famous ghoulish actor, in an early film appearance. Cushing appreciated Laurel and Hardy's comedic genius, calling them the "two of the greatest comedians the cinema has ever produced." He respected Hardy in particular, noticing the comedian was concerned at the treatment the extras were receiving. During a scene where Cushing and the others were totally drenched in a pond, Oliver made sure the soaked extras were provided with towels and dry clothes. Oliver also brought a huge tray of donuts for the extras during the filming.
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor's Personal Favorite Movie
Very few actresses go into a movie production so cynically as Vivien Leigh in May 1940 "Waterloo Bridge." Just after achieving superstar status with her Oscar-winning performance as Scarlett O'Hara in 1939's "Gone With The Wind," she felt terribly miscast as a London ballerina in the middle of World War One who ends up as a hooker. She was also disappointed in hearing an American actor was going to be her co-star.
"Robert Taylor is the man in the picture," she wrote to her lover actor Laurence Olivier, "and as it was written for Larry, it's a typical piece of miscasting. I'm afraid it will be a dreary job."
Producer David O. Selznick, who had Leigh under contract, felt the Robert E. Sherwood play was a perfect vehicle for his star actress after his and her mega-hit Civil War movie. Vivien desperately wanted to be in the upcoming production of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," where her soon-to-be husband was scheduled to play Mr. Darcy. But Greer Garson ended up getting the role of Elizabeth Barrett, leaving Leigh to play opposite Robert Taylor, 29, an actor she played alongside in 1938's "A Yank in York."
For Taylor, he was looking forward to be in a role with meat on its bones instead of playing the pretty boy who is strung along by his lovers. He strove for more intellectual parts, and he found it in "Waterloos Bridge" as British officer captain Roy Cronin. He meets Myra Lester (Leigh) on the Waterloo Bridge during an air raid, and both retreat to the subway's underground for protection. Both quickly fall in love. Taylor adored his part as a British office and enjoyed working alongside his co-star. "It was the first time I really gave a performance that met the often unattainable standards I was always setting for myself," Taylor said after filming wrapped. "Miss Leigh was great in her role, and she made me look better."
Leigh changed her mind about the movie after seeing "Waterloo Bridge" on the screen. Both she and Taylor claimed this was their personal favorite film. Taylor secured a print and stored it in his house. During his last remaining months, the actor would project the movie several times, reminiscing with great satisfaction how good his role was.
Selznick had a lot riding on this movie after Leigh's Best Actress Oscar performance in "Gone With The Wind." He hired Academy Award winner Joseph Ruttenberg, the director of photography in 1938's "The Great Waltz," to be his cinematographer. The producer wrote, "Miss Leigh is not one of those girls who can be photographed by any cameraman," and leaned on Ruttenberg to capture her "very strange beauty." Film reviewer Paul Mavis likened the movie to "a silent film, with a resolute left/right POV visual schematic, and silhouetted and shimmering back-lit close-ups that linger for moments on our photogenic pair (the expert, dewy lensing by Ruttenberg is a key element to the film's success)."
It wasn't easy for Leigh to play a down-and-out unemployed dancer once Roy leaves the city for the war front. The scriptwriters had to hint around the edges of Myra's profession to put food on the table, something the 1931 Pre-Code film with the same name, directed by James Whale with Mae Clarke and Kent Douglas, could be more forthright in its depiction. The 1940 version is also known as the first Hollywood movie to include the recently broiling World War Two in its plot, with both the front and back ends describing how England is under a state of war with Germany after the September 1939 invasion of Poland. The aging Roy is seen on the Waterloo Bridge recalling the events 24 years earlier in a flashback when he first meets Myra.
The production of "Waterloo Bridge" also came in the middle of Leigh and Olivier's long sought-after divorces from their spouses so they could marry each other. Vivien received an agreement with her husband Leigh Holman, with the stipulation he was granted custody of their daughter, Suzanne, while Oliver had a similar divorce decree from his wife Jill Esmond, giving custody of their son to her. In a private ceremony in Santa Barbara, Olivier and Leigh wedded on August 31, 1940, a marriage that lasted until January, 1961.
Dr. Cyclops (1940)
A Technological Marvel in its Time on Human Miniaturization
Films centered around shrinking humans have proven popular for those who love science fiction movies. The first sci-fi horror motion picture filmed in Technicolor's recently-developed three-strip process was April 1940's "Dr. Cyclops," displaying the latest in special effects technology. Producer Merian C. Cooper teamed up with his 1933 "King Kong" directing partner, Ernest Schoedsack, to showcase a colorful portrayal of a 'mad scientist' whose experimentation in shrinking animals at his Peruvian jungle laboratory extends to miniaturizing a handful of visiting scientists.
"Dr. Cyclops" belongs to one of the many sci-fi films centered around reducing humans to create a fantasy world where people are forced to co-exist with objects, vegetation and animals previously much smaller than they were. From 1936's Tod Browning's "The Devil Doll" to 1957's "The Incredible Shrinking Man" to Matt Damon's 2017 "Downsizing," cinema loves plots showing the horrors humans experience undergoing their smaller transformations. Based on Henry Kuthner's 1940 story of the same name, "Dr. Cyclops" features Dr. Alexander Thorkel (Albert Dekker), a nut job who suffers from bad eyesight. He summons a team of scientists to his jungle lab to examine what he feels is a unique specimen never seen before. One of the scientists making the long, arduous journey scoffs at the doctor's supposed discovery, deducing it as an obvious simple identification of a well-known specimen. This diagnosis upsets Dr. Thorkel so much he brusquely sends them on their way. Before they go too far, however, the doctor, who has developed a process of shrinking animals by mixing uranium with radium, exacts revenge by using his invention to make them small.
"Dr. Cyclops" is not the masterpiece like "King Kong," ruled film critic Greg Klymkiw, "but in its own special way, it was definitely ahead of its time in terms of both special effects and political/historical considerations. The picture's exploration of a foreign enemy wanting to experiment upon and ultimately subjugate American interests also pre-dates that attitudes so prevalent over one decade later in the sci-fi pictures made during the Cold War."
Previous horror movies such as 1932' "Doctor X" and 1933's "Mystery of the Wax Museum" used the older two-strip process Technicolor film stock. "Dr. Cyclops," whose title points to when the shrunken scientists break one lens of Dr. Thorkel's thick eyeglasses, was deemed "a triumph of the process screen and the department of trick effects" by The New York Times film critic B. R. Crisler, while film historian Phil Hardy called it "gloriously photographed in Technicolor and imaginatively directed by Schoedsack." There were some limitations in the early 1940s technology, with a lack of depth-of-field focal clarity. "Foreground people and objects in the background are often in focus while the middle ground between them goes soft, like the riverbank in front of the alligator," noticed film reviewer Glenn Erickson. "That just doesn't happen in normal photography." The ingenious construction of giant objects to make the viewer think these unfortunate shrunken people were living in a real world compensates for the blurring effect. Because of the use of the latest technology, "Dr. Cyclops" was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Visual Effects, and added greatly to cinema's love of miniaturized people.
Rockin' Thru the Rockies (1940)
The Beginning of 'The Golden Age of The Three Stooges'
In The Stooges' short film, March 1940 "Rockin' thru the Rockies," Jules White directed his fifth straight Stooges' short, finding the three as guides leading 'Nell's Belles,' three female entertainers with matron Nell (Katheryn Sheldon) as their chaperone supervisor, through the Indian-infested Rockies to their destination San Francisco. Strangely, the Stooges' 1945 feature film, 'Rockin' Thru the Rockies,' shares the same name as this 1940 short. Curly pays homage to Columbia Pictures' 1934 Academy Awards Best Picture winner "It Happened One Night." He mutters Clark Gables' famous line, "The walls of Jericho are falling," when he stumbles through a blanket-hung wall separating the ladies from the men inside a prefab stage cabin scampering from an intruding bear in their sleeping quarters. Gable labeled the wall 'Jericho' he set up made of bedsheets shielding him from Claudette Colbert in their shared motel room.
"Rockin' Thru the Rockies" was Lorna Gray's final Stooges' film before she left Columbia for Republic Pictures, where she excelled mostly in Westerns. Appearing as one of Nell's Belles was actress Dorothy Appleby, a former winner of the Miss Maine contest who was chosen by Rudolph Valentino as the prettiest of her competitors. The short is also known for Curly's enthusiastic chant, "Give 'em the axe, giving 'em the axe, right in the neck, right in the neck," a variation of Stanford University's well-known student body shout during football games popular during that era.
A Plumbing We Will Go (1940)
Curly's All-Time Favorite and Considered One of Stooges' Best
Although The Three Stooges were one of the more successful comedy entertainers between 1922 and 1970, the trio's three years, from 1940 to 1943, with Moe, Larry and Curly, have been tagged 'The Golden Age of the Stooges.' Cited as one of their best Columbia Pictures short films was April 1940's "A Plumbing We Will Go." The mayhem they created in a mansion by pretending they're plumbers has created an indelible picture in the mind of viewers of the immense talent they had possessed.
By this time in their film careers, the Stooges' shorts were relegated to two directors, Jules White and Del Lord, the later handled "A Plumbing We Will Go." The three comedians found themselves comfortably in a cohesive rhythm, their skits sharpened by each successive short. Curly ranked this film, the Stooges' 46th, as his favorite. Film reviewer Dennis Schwartz writes, "What makes this solid entertainment is that The Three Stooges execute to perfection a well-conceived sight gag." That sight gag is Curly's, one of the three pseudo-plumbers who finds himself encased in a circle of pipes while attempting to staunch a water leak in a bathtub. The Stooges' film was a remake of a 1934 short, 'Plumbing for Gold,' whose focus was a search for a lost ring. There have been several remakes of this Stooges' classic as well as reprises of a Stooge stuck in a maze of pipes, most notably Joe DeRita in the Stooges' late feature film, 1959's "Have Rocket Will Travel."
"A Plumbing We Will Go" contains a scene where the host of a party where the Stooges are busting pipes is introducing a television broadcast of Niagara Falls on her newly-purchased TV set. Although the television seen in the Stooges' film is simply a prop, the electronics company Dumont was selling televisions (not many) in the late 1930s with a price tag adjusted for inflation for over $7,500. NBC and CBS were early broadcasters on their New York City experimental stations, with the first major league baseball game sent over the airwaves in August 1939, followed by the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that November. African American actor Dudley Dickerson as the cook displays his dexterity confronting a water spray from his kitchen stove since the Stooges had hooked up a water pipe to the electricity pipes in the house. Dudley looks up and sees the ceiling lightbulb filling up with water before bursting. The scene inspired director Sam Raimi, known for his love of The Stooges, to duplicate a similar situation in his 1981 horror classic 'The Evil Dead,' showing a light bulb filling up with blood.
Dark Command (1940)
Republic Pictures Capitalizes on John Wayne's New-Found Popularity
It's a common misconception that John Wayne, after his breakout role in John Ford's 1939 "Stagecoach," had him forever star in big-budgeted films. In fact, he was tied down to a lengthy contract to low-budget independent studio Republic Pictures. The studio recognized Wayne's box office appeal, however, and produced one of its more expensive Westerns in April 1940's "Dark Command." Republic spent $800,000 for the production, an unusually high amount for the studio.
One of Republic's first hires for the A-listed film was director Raoul Walsh, who ten years before slotted young actor Marion Morrison in his first major role in 1930's "The Big Trail." It was Walsh who had suggested for the former studio prop boy and USC college football player the stage name after Revolutionary War General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. For "Dark Command," Raoul, his second and last with Duke, said he put everybody into the movie, and he wasn't kidding. He secured Walter Pigeon as a loan-out to play William Cantrell, loosely based on the Civil War Confederate officer William Quantrill, whose rebel Raiders burned down the city of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863. Actress Claire Trevor, in her third role with Wayne and his co-star in "Stagecoach," was brought on board as Mary McCloud, torn between her long romance with Cantrell and the newly elected sheriff to Lawrence, Bob Seton (Wayne). Raoul also elevated Republic Pictures' B-actor Roy Rogers, 29, as Mary's younger brother Fletch. Majorie Main, the future Ma in the "Ma and Pa" series, played Cantrell's mother-even though she was only seven years older than Walter Pigeon. To add a dash of lighthearted comedy was "Gabby" Hayes, playing Wayne's sidekick "Doc" Grunch, an amateur doctor.
"It is the depth which makes "Dark Command" more than just another western," described film critic Andy Webb, "and whilst you get all the expected western elements and there are some brilliant action scenes, it is the conflicted character of Cantrell who makes the movie work." Pigeon plays the frustrated town school teacher who lost the sheriff's election to illiterate Seton. Once the Civil War arrives, he seeks revenge on the town that rejected him for head law enforcer. He gathers a group of the most unsavory men around and dresses them in rebel uniforms to carry out his mission, which is to exact revenge on the man who stole both his girl Mary and his sheriff position, Bob Seton.
Jeff Arnold noted how off-base the prominent thinking was that "The 1939 John Ford classic 'Stagecoach' made John Wayne a star. There would be no more quickie B-western films for him." Arnold points out "He was under contract at Republic, and did four of those one-hour Three Mesquiteers Westerns before 'Stagecoach' and four of them after it. He would go on making low- and mid-budget movies at Republic for years." The 'Mesquiteers' series begun in 1936 through 1943, consisting of 51 inexpensive Westerns. The series also showcased several future stars, including Rita Hayworth, Jennifer Jones, Carole Landis, George Montgomery and Roy Rogers, as well as silent movie star Louise Brooks and Noah Beery (Wallace's brother). Republic's contract with Wayne continued through 1945, which the studio loaned him out in bigger-budgeted films. From 1946 until the early 1950s Wayne contracted with Republic in a seven-picture deal that gave him the total freedom to free-lance. After Republic's contract expired, Wayne co-founded his own production company in 1952 called Batjac.
"Dark Command," was an enormous success for Republic, who realized capitalizing on Wayne after "Stagecoach's" box office bonanza was not a fluke. The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards, for Victor Young's Best Musical Score and John Mackay's Best Art Direction.
One Million B.C. (1940)
Special Effects Take Center Stage in Hal Roach's Caveman Classic
Selling breathtaking special effects footage to other studios is a profitable business in Hollywood, sometimes as lucrative as box office ticket sales. Producer Hal Roach's April 1940 "One Million B. C." had filmed several reels of footage not used for its original movie. For years after its release, Roach sold these unseen clips by the public to recoup his expenses from the high costs he incurred producing the special effects shots of dinosaurs and slurpasaurs-lizards with attached fins. Roach's shots of an exploding volcano with rock slides were also popular with Hollywood studios.
Film reviewer Stuart Galbraith noticed the expensive production shots seen in "One Million B. C." It "must have at least a hundred individual effects shots, and they're rarely less than excellent," related Galbraith. "It's probably the most ambitious, effects-heavy film made between King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). I can't think of a movie made in-between that combined that volume of work with that high level of quality."
Roach's market for such footage stretched from 1943's 'Tarzan's Desert Mystery' through the 1950s in 1953 'Robot Monster' and 'Godzilla Raids Again,' up to 1967's 'Journey to the Center of Time.' The Three Stooges' 1957 'Space Ship Sappy' incorporates clips from the 1940 movie into its short film.
In only his second screen appearance, Victor Mature, 27, received top billing as Tumak, son of Rock Tribe leader Akhoba, played by Lon Chaney Jr. In the follow-up of his much-heralded performance in 1939's "Of Mice and Men." Chaney was disappointed by his role as Akhoba, who gets in a fight with Tumak, and kicks his son out of the tribe. He wanted to emulate his father's make-up skills and designed an elaborate Neanderthal look when the Cosmetic Film Union prohibited him from applying his own make-up.
The Louisville, Kentucky-native Victor Mature had moved to California after business school and acted in the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where he was spotted by a scout for Hal Roach. His first film, 1939's "The Housekeeper's Daughter," elicited a description from one reviewer as "a handsome Tarzan type." Mature said of his caveman role, "I had to 'ugh' my way through that picture." After escaping a mammoth, Tumak is rescued by Lana (Carole Landis), a member of the more advanced Shell Tribe. The Shells take him in, where they face a whole slew of gigantic reptiles and monsters. "One Million B. C." was a boon to Landis' career, opening more opportunities after three years in Hollywood largely uncredited.
"One Million B. C" was heavily criticized by some as excessively cruel to the reptiles used in the film. Movie reviewer Mark Hodgson rips off a litany of brutal scenes where "a crocodile and a gila monster chomp on each other. There's a bear killing a snake and an almost dead gila monster pumping blood. Plus an astonishing shot of a cave/stuntman braining a charging bull with a staff." Most of the animal scenes were deleted when shown in British theaters, whose United Kingdom had strict laws against animal cruelty.
"One Million B. C." also marked the final Hollywood production for film pioneer D. W. Griffith. Roach had hired Griffith in the hopes the retired director would handle some scenes. Griffith did suggest a narration in the beginning, which was expanded into an introductory scene where modern day hikers stumble upon an anthropologist studying cavemen art. The anthropologist tells the story of the movie based on the drawings on the wall. Griffith was involved in the screen tests for the actors, with Mature remembering, "He tested for six months. I don't know what he was looking for. They'd have been better off letting the old man direct the picture. One day, he just wasn't around any more." Griffith claims Roach ignored most of his advice and he withdrew from the project.
"One Million B. C." earned two Academy Awards nominations, one for Best Musical Score and the other, naturally, for Best Special Effects. The movie was updated in 1966 as "One Million Years B. C." with Raquel Welch as Loana and John Davidson as Tumak.
It All Came True (1940)
Sheridan's First Lead Role After Oomph Title with a Funny Humphrey Bogart
She was forever known as the "Oomph Girl" after Warner Brothers conducted a contest of Hollywood starlets naming the top actress with the most sex appeal. Ann Sheridan won the promotional contest to headline her first lead role in April 1940's "It All Came True."
Initially embarrassed by the promotional ploy by Warner Brothers to elevate her film career beginning in 1934, Sheridan's crowning as the "Oomph Girl" catapulted her into higher budgeted pictures. She beat actresses Alice Faye, Carole Lombard, Hedy Lamarr and Marlene Dietrich among others, but said winning was similar to the sound of old men bending over to tie their shoes. The studio got the idea of the contest when gossip columnist Walter Winchell, an admirer of Sheridan after seeing her as James Cagney's girlfriend in 1938's "Angels with Dirty Faces," wrote she had "oomph." Forming a committee of judges made up of studio filmmakers, including Busby Berkeley and Rudy Vallee, the panel named Sheridan the winner possessing "a certain indefinable something that commands male interest."
Sheridan shrugged off the crown until actor Paul Muni told her she would be a fool not to ride the wave of excitement of the "Oomph Girl." In retrospect she admitted right before the release of "It All Came True" she no longer "bemoaned the 'oomph' tag. I know if it hadn't been for 'oomph' I'd probably still be in the chorus." Sheridan received over 250 weekly mailed marriage proposals. And she became one of the most popular pin-up girls during World War Two.
As Sarah Jane, Sheridan plays an aspiring nightclub singer who lives in a boarding house with her mother, Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor). The house is mortgaged by Mrs. Nora Taylor (Jessie Busley), who dreams her musician son Tommy (Jeffrey Lynn of Deanna Durbin films fame) will return from a five-year hiatus to rescue her from debt. He does, but only with the help from night club owner and murderer Chips Maquire (Humphrey Bogart), who becomes a boarder hiding from the police.
The third-billed Bogart behind Sheridan and Lynn continued to be typecast as a gangster like he was in "It All Came True," but this role came with a comedic edge. It was one of his meatier roles after George Raft turned it down, calling it a "Humphrey Bogart part." Bogie shows his warm side by not only paying Mrs. Taylor debt, but transitioning the boarding house into a respectable dinner show place, with Sarah Jane singing the original tunes Tommy has composed on his piano. The actor drew headlines from his performance such as "Bogart Steals Comedy Honors," "Humphrey Bogart Excells," and "Humphrey Bogart Tops," a recognition to his acting talents by the press. A good friend of Bogie's, writer Louis Bromfield, who authored the book 'Better Than Life,' which the film was based on, wrote a letter to producer Hal B. Wallis noting, "I doubt that his talents as a comedian, which are very great, have been enough appreciated." Less than a year later Bogart would become one of Hollywood's most popular actors with his appearances in two Wallis-produced movies, 1941s "High Sierra" and "The Maltese Falcon." Bogie's public appeal rose so much that by the time "It All Came True" was re-released in 1945, his name appeared above Sheridan's in the opening credits.
Film reviewer Dennis Schwartz praised "It All Came True," writing, "This ignored gangster comedy is a treat because Sheridan and Bogie give it star power, while the character actor supporting cast are wonderfully zany. Bogie has the film's best line: "I hate mothers: all this 'silver-threads-among-the-gold' stuff!"
Rebecca (1940)
Hitchcock's First Hollywood Movie and His Only Best Picture Win
Alfred Hitchcock, Britain's most popular director, wanted to be a big fish in a huge pond known as Hollywood when he accepted studio owner and producer David O. Selznick's offer to work for him. His first American movie was March 1940 "Rebecca," the only Academy Award Best Picture winner the 'master of Suspense' ever directed in his long and storied film career.
Hitchcock enjoyed a quasi-independent free reign directing his British movies and expected the same under Selznick. He quickly learned differently. Assigned Daphne du Maurier's 1938 Gothic novel 'Rebecca,' Hitchcock, in his usual fashion, developed a script that deviated from the best seller Selznick had purchased the movie rights for $50,000. The director upped the suspense and chills of du Maurier's book which Selznick immediately rejected. "I am shocked and disappointed beyond words..." led Selznick's ten-page memo to Hitchcock after reading his script.
As he had in England during filming, Hitchcock minimized his shot selection; he carefully edited "in camera," controlling what clips would be splice together like a jigsaw puzzle in the editing room. Selznick, who was a frequent overseer in the editing process, was frustrated by Hitchcock's lack of multiple shots he could select from. In a rare move, the producer called in his wife to look at Hitchcock's footage, going so far as telling her he was thinking of canceling the production. After viewing a few reels, she thought the director's footage was excellent and he had nothing to worry about.
Hitchcock continued to use psychological tricks on his actors he felt would maximize their performance. In "Rebecca," wealthy George de Winter (Laurence Olivier) brings home his second wife, newlywed Mrs. De Winter (Joan Fontaine), who gets a cool reception from his household staff. Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), the housekeeper, is especially frosty towards her. George's first wife, the late Mrs. Rebecca de Winter, who had died under mysterious circumstances, was a favorite of the staff and notably to Mrs. Danvers. Selznick, impressed by actress Fontaine, 21, in 1939's "The Women," sat next to her during a dinner party one evening and asked her to audition for the highly sought after part of the insecure new bride of George's. She passed with flying colors, displaying a unique fragility on the screen. Competition was fierce, with Margaret Sullivan reportedly the favorite. But Selznick had a different opinion, thinking "Imagine Margaret Sullivan pushed around by Mrs. Danvers!" Loretta Young and Joan's sister Olivia de Havilland were also high on the list. Olivier's soon-to-be wife Vivien Leigh auditioned, but didn't get it, causing a bitter Laurence to belittle Fontaine throughout the shoot, as he did with Merle Oberon in 1939's "Wuhtering Heights." Hitchcock compounded Fontaine's lack of confidence in her biggest role yet by pulling her aside early in the shoot and telling her the largely British cast thought little of the American actress playing an English lady. He added everyone felt her acting was inferior. His ploy worked; in almost every scene Fontaine's anxieties jump out, a performance Hitchcock was looking for and the Academy equally appreciated, awarding her a nomination for Best Actress.
To play the relatively cold Mr. De Winter, Selznick felt Ronald Colman would have been perfect. Once he read the script, Colman realized this was newlywed Mrs. De Winter's picture and he would be second fiddle. On the basis of Olivier's performance in 1939's "Wuthering Heights," whose female fans were left swooning, Selznick casted him. Many critics found actress Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers stealing the show. Film reviewer Ed Howard observed, "Anderson gives a wonderfully fiendish performance as the gaunt, sinister housekeeper, always lurking around and padding quietly through the mansion to surprise the lady of the house at inopportune moments." Hitchcock rarely shows her walking into a scene. Like a ghost, she consistently pops into frame, scaring the wits out of Mrs. De Winter. The Australian Anderson, 43, specialized in stage acting, and was in her only second credited feature film as the evil-eyed Mrs. Danvers, earning her only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She holds the rare distinction of winning two Emmys, a Tony and a nomination for both the Grammys and the Academy Awards.
Even though the director dismissed "Rebecca" as "not a Hitchcock picture," largely because of its lack of dark humor and Selznick's strict rules of sticking to a script which closely followed the book, film critic Chuck Bowen saw the movie as a learning curve in Hitchcock's auteurism. "In his early British thrillers, Hitchcock used German expressionist tricks to conjure notions of evil and dread," Bowen notes. "After Rebecca, Hitchcock would infuse such dread in bourgeoisie comedies of manners, occasionally springing formalist tricks to highlight key emotional shifts."
"Rebecca," the third highest box office movie in 1940, earned eleven Academy Awards nominations. Besides the Best Picture Oscar, George Barnes won for Black and White Cinematography. Hitchcock garnered his first of five Best Director nominations (he never won an earned Oscar), while nominees were Oliver (Best Actor), Fontaine (Best Actress), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Special Effects, and Franz Waxman for his Best Original Score. The American Film Institute ranks the drama as the 80th Most Thrilling Movie while Mrs. Danvers earned its #31 Most Villainous Movie Character. The Guardian British newspaper said it was "one of Hitchcock's creepiest, most oppressive films." The motion picture is included as one of the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'
Road to Singapore (1940)
The First of the "Road to..." Films Establishes Hope and Crosby Trademark Comedy
There was a rapport crooner Bing Crosby and stand-up and radio comedian Bob Hope had shown between them that some thought would make a good comedy team. Paramount Pictures gave them a chance by pairing them up in March 1940 "Road of Singapore." The movie was such a box office hit the two would appear in seven more 'Road to...' pictures spanning 22 years, making them one of cinema's more successful comedy acts. Crosby and Hope's inaugural 'Road to...' film established the pattern the others would follow.
"In an era of staid and somewhat formulaic romantic comedies," wrote film critic Lou Marrelli, "Hope and Crosby broke that tedium by inundating their audience a barrage of wisecracks, joke and insults delivered in rapid-fire succession."
In "Road to Singapore," Hope and Crosby play globe trotting vagabonds whose journey to the South Pacific results in crossing paths-and falling in love with-Dorothy Lamour's character, islander Mima. Lamour starred in every 'Road to...' film except for the final one. Facing the two friends who previously vowed to never fall in love with a woman, Mima instantly melts their hearts, just as she does in all the "Road to..." features. Every 'Road to...' movie has the friends invent get-rich-quick schemes. In "Road to Singapore" they come up with a spot remover which unbeknownst to them is so strong it dissolves clothing. One of their famous trademarks introduced in the first film is when they get into a jam, they break out into their 'patti-cake' routine before slugging their adversaries, allowing them to scram.
Crosby and Hope met on the stage eight years earlier in 1932 in the same vaudeville show at the Capitol Theatre on Broadway. Hope was the emcee introducing Crosby, already a popular singer and movie actor. The two traded quips during the show, displaying a certain natural chemistry. Later, they hosted each other on their own radio show, jokingly ribbing one another on the air. When Hope relocated to Los Angeles from New York City, a 1937 charity show performance at the Del Mar Racetrack solidified their on-stage comfort level. Studio executives attending the benefit never forgot their smooth stage banter.
The original script of "Road to Singapore" was presented to Fred MacMurray and Jackie Oakie, titled 'Road to Mandalay,' but they passed on it. A rewrite, 'Beach of Dreams,' was handed to George Burns and Gracie Allen with another male co-star, but Gracie thought "the whole thing was silly." That's when Crosby, Hope and Lamour entered the picture. The working title morphed into "Road to Singapore" even though the three don't get anywhere near the British territory.
Hope and Crosby didn't exactly envelop Frank Butler's script. They changed the dialogue to fit their personalities. Early in the filming, Butler was standing in the wings of the set when Hope quipped to the screenwriter, "Hey Frank! If you hear anything that sounds like one of your lines, just yell 'Bingo!" Lamour, who previously starred in a number of exotic island location films and was an ideal siren for the 'Road to..." foreign settings, was equally confused by her male counterparts' unscripted lines. Her best preparation, she confessed, was "What I really needed was a good night's sleep to be ready for the next morning's ad-libs. This method provided some very interesting results on screen. In fact, I used to ask to see the finished rushes to see what the movie was all about." Victor Schertzinger, music composer-turned-film director, would sit back and just enjoy the show, simply directing his cameraman to "Go!" and "Stop."
"The Road to Singapore" established an entirely new form of comedy for the screen. Film critic Lou Marrelli described their humor as setting "a new standard for the buddy picture and all comedy duos that would follow."
Strange Cargo (1940)
Controversial Film Marks Gable and Crawford's Eighth and Final Film Together
Movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood had to go through a rigid censorship inspection by the Hays Office. If the films' plot involved a religious element, then the Catholic Legion of Decency would step in whenever it viewed potentially objectionable content. That's what faced MGM right before the March 1940 release of "Strange Cargo," starring Clark Gable and Joan Crawford.
The eighth and final pairing of Gable and Crawford was based on Richard Sale's 1936 novel 'Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep,' about a breakout of several prisoners from the Devil's Island penal colony. One member who escaped was Cambreau (Ian Hunter), a new arrival to the prison. He appears to know everything, and recovers from death at least twice. His pronouncements about God making an image of Man like himself, with everyone having a piece of God in themselves unsettled the Legion of Decency. The organization claimed Cambreau's Christ-like figure presented "a naturalistic concept of religion contrary to the teachings of Christ, irreverent use of Scripture, and lustful complications." The 'lustful complications' were directed towards the character of Julie (Joan Crawford), an abrasive entertainer (hooker) who finds herself in love with Andre Verne (Gable), a convict and escapee with Cambreau. As the movie progresses, Julie becomes a redeemer to Verne, who has a habit of committing burglaries.
Between the cuts MGM made to satisfy the Motion Picture Code censors and the Legion, the film's producer, Joseph Mankiewicz lamented, "It was almost a good film. I wish it could have been made later. It was tough doing any kind of film that even approached reality in any way." "Strange Cargo" was banned in Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and Detroit among a number of smaller towns while Catholics picketed in front of theaters playing the movie. MGM felt the pairing of Gable, just off his "Gone With The Wind" performance, and a rejuvenated Crawford from her highly-praised appearance in 1939's "The Women," would spark box office magic. But because of the dark themes introduced in the film, MGM barely eked out a small profit.
"Strange Cargo is an odd film in that, although surely a product of the studio system-who were not especially known for taking chances-it does in fact take several," notes film reviewer Orson DeWelles. "It starts as a gritty prison escape film, then a symbolic theme of religious reawakening." It has been cited by film historian Margarita Landazuri as director Frank Borzage's best expression of his metaphysical themed works, a specialty of his mystical-atmospheric films.
Crawford stands out as the jaded 'entertainer' who's caught in the mix of the penal colony's inmates. To reflect her character's cheapness, Crawford wore off-the-rack clothes, each costing less than $40 apiece. She wore no make up, unusual for her, except applying Vaseline to her lips, eyelids and eyebrows so they could be moist in the hot climate. Director Borzage called her a professional working under difficult conditions on the humid, dank jungle set. This included every scene except for one where she spotted an eight-foot python on a tree branch as she was walking underneath it. "That son of a b... is alive!" Crawford yelled, startled by the slithering snake. Borzage reassured her its jaws where clamped down by a rubber band. "What happens if the f... rubber band snaps?" she asked him, and refused to reshoot the scene.
Film critic Dan Callahan commented on the actress: "it does contain memorable glimpses of Crawford's young star face starting to turn to impervious middle-aged granite as she listens to Ian Hunter's Christ figure drone on about saving her soul." The actress was approaching late 30s and her roles were becoming more hard-edged to fit her changing on-screen personality. Shortly after "Strange Cargo's" release, Crawford adopted the first of five children, Christina, who would famously pen the tell-all expose on her adoptive mother in 1978's 'Mommie Dearest.'