WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[JackFavell]

I agree, I do try hard to make peace with actor's faults.

I watched Forbidden last night and thought Menjou was very good, and Stanwyck was great. Capra realy did film her as a man in love, I think, she looked almost other worldly. It turns out I had seen the ending before, which left me feeling a little gypped. I thought the first half was great, it went fast, like gangbusters. I HATED Ralph Bellamy. I think this is the only time I can say that.

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, I felt the same about Ralph Bellamy, yet he's more attractive in this movie than in others I've seen. I must have a taste for oily no good characters.

[JackFavell]

I was thinking the same thing yesterday, watching Joseph Calleia as a baddie who kidnaps and then befriends Jackie Cooper in Tough Guy. I found him incredibly sexy. (I mean Calleia, not Cooper).

[charliechaplinfan]

I haven't seen the movie but can use my imagination.

[feaito]

Yesterday thanks to Knitty I saw "Fragments" and "Unseen Cinema", which I enjoyed immensely. Highlights: Colleen Moore's Flaming Youth; Clara Bow's flicks; John Ford's incredible "The Village Blacksmith" and Lon Chaney's "The Miracle Man" (1919). As one of the hosts said, the worst part is that one really wants to see more of the films... one bit is not enough! But, thank Heavens for these sequences!

I also watched an acceptable print of "Lilac Time" (1928) a melodrama starring Colleen Moore as a French -mischievous- Peasant girl who's kind of the mascot of a group of British Flyers during WWI (1918). It's the first -complete- film of Colleen Moore I have ever seen and I liked her very much. She was equally good at comedy & drama, because the movie has some charming comedic moments, especially during its first part. Gary Cooper plays an aristocratic British Captain with a melancholic quality (reminiscent in some way of his small role in "Wings" (1927)) and has good chemistry with Ms. Moore. The aerial scenes are very well done and the special effects are quite amazing (I read that one stunt flyer died during some of the dogfight air sequences). This film should be restored and released on DVD. The Organ score is just OK.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Greta Garbo's Romance today, Greta looks and acts wonderfully but the script let her down, it's too mellow, when I compare it to the depth of plots in some precodes, this is a little watered down in comparison, the implication is that Rita a famous opera singer has been a kept woman, she can't have her man, even though she loves him despite it being a precode, MGM must have felt that Garbo at this pooint in her career had her morals. Maybe it's me but her accent in this film, one of her earliest talkies sounds heavier on the accent but nevertheless lovely. She's joined by Lewis Stone, so good at portraying older lovers/husbandsand a lacklustre Gavin Gordon.

[Papermoon]

I've recently watched both Follow Thru(1930) and Stage Mother(1933). Enjoyed them both

[JackFavell]

I watched Stage Mother too, and liked it much more this time. Alice Brady got me with her Stella Dallas change of heart at the end.

For me, though, today's best films in the Maureen O'Sullivan film fest were The Flame Within and Woman Wanted.

The Flame Within was a perfectly cast movie with some heavy psychological conflicts going on, but it was handled with a delicate touch by the director, Edmund Goulding. The psychological aspects were deftly explained in the script and I found them quite reasonable. I would have liked Herbert Marshall, as Harding's partner at the clinic and fiance, to get one kiss, just one, he never seems to get kissed in any of his movies. Leaned on, patted and dropped out of an airplane, but never Yum Yummed. He was really almost forceful and rather passionate here. He seems to have had a real yen for Ann, they had great chemistry together. Marshall should have gotten an Academy Award for the scene in which he sat down on the floor! and got up again all in one shot, with his wooden leg. Watch for it! You'd never know he was challenged.

Ann and Louis Hayward worked very well together, too, he was appropriately weak but ardent, serious but childlike. There is something darker and dangerously strange in him, it's the thing I look for in his performances now. Ann Harding was superb in this film. I find I like her so much when she is playing non-traditional women. There was no affectation here, just a very truthful portrayal of a modern woman. But can you tell me why people pressure her to give up her career in this movie, and Franchot Tone in the very next movie shown today was dying because his snippy wife Virginia Bruce wanted him to quit his career? What a double standard. Virginia is becoming a new favorite too, BTW. I love a woman who can express dissatisfaction so well.

Woman Wanted was just great, with Maureen and Joel McCrea - THIS is why Joel McCrea had a career - he's just such a great mix of hunky and goofy and cute and sexy and earnest and hilarious. He's all about the person he's with, giving his leading lady all his attention. Does he have great chemistry with EVERY leading lady he ever had? I feel the same about Maureen and her leading men, I bet every leading man wanted to hug her tighter, she made them all look good. I caught pretty much every leading man today trying to give her longer kisses than she was expecting. Oh, to have such problems!

[CineMaven]

There is a strength and delicate beauty in ANN HARDING that compels me to watch her. There's really nothing actress-y about her. I find Ann Harding gives out with real emotion and conviction. And what a twisted pretzel "THE FLAME WITHIN" turns into. Harding doesn't want to marry. Herbert Marshall loves her...tries to get her to marry him, but she won't. She wants her career as a psychiatrist. She treats ( high-strung ) Maureen O'Sullivan who is obsessively in love with ( alcoholic ) Louis Hayward by giving Hayward the strength to stand on his own without the dependency of alcohol. All's well...she cures him, which in turn calms O'Sullivan down. The psychology is a little soft, but the shorthand works for the movies. But aye here's the twist...Harding falls in love with patient Hayward.

Well that little plot twist dropped my jaw. I didn't see that coming (not until she got the little dog as a gift). As much as I believed Harding's conviction for working and being her own person in a world where home and hearth and housewifery was the 'law of the land for women'...I believed her turmoil in falling in love with a patient. When I think of Ann Harding I think of my other favorite 30's perennial, Norma Shearer. But the difference...the thing that puts Ms. Harding a cut above, in my estimation, is the quiet understated way she plays her roles. And that's no different here. (I'm afraid Norma would have chewed up everything in sight including Herbert's wooden leg. But then again...that's why I love her). If you ever get the chance, please do see Ann Harding in "LOVE FROM A STRANGER."

Ohhhh the ending of the movie... Don't worry. I won't spoil anything here, but let me just say that, for me, the ending is a very very sad one indeed. Her flame is extinguished.

[feaito]

By the by, the ending. Don't worry...I won't spoil anything here, but let me just say that, for me, the ending is a very very sad one indeed. Her flame is extinguished.

And the Production Code is to blame for that

[CineMaven]

Yes Feaito. Sadly, they are! Thank you.

[JackFavell]

I agree, the end was disappointing, not to mention abrupt! What a turn around. I can think of a dozen endings I probably would have liked better. But I still wish my Herbert got a little lovin'.

[Papermoon]

Mick LaSalle's quote about the ending of The Flame Within in Complicated Women describes it to a T. He says that Harding plays it as if she's just had a lobotomy... one has to admit it is pretty true.

[CineMaven]

"I agree, the end was disappointing, not to mention abrupt! What a turn around. I can think of a dozen endings I probably would have liked better. But I still wish my Herbert got a little lovin'." - << JackFavell >>

I betcha Gable'd get a kiss. Herbert was just too much of a gentleman. Oohhhh those pecks on Ann's forehead. (P.S. Did you get the impression that Maureen O'Sullivan was just too high-strung for Hayward?)

***

"Mick LaSalle's quote about the ending of The Flame Within in Complicated Women describes it to a T. He says that Harding plays it as if she's just had a lobotomy... one has to admit it is pretty true." - << Papermoon >>

Yep, she looked like she was about to face her executioner.

[JackFavell]

I betcha Gable'd get a kiss. Herbert was just too much of a gentleman. Oohhhh those pecks on Ann's forehead.

Poor guy. I'm longing to find the pre-code where Herbert grabs his leading lady and...

(P.S. Did you get the impression that Maureen O'Sullivan was just too high-strung for Hayward?)

I kept wondering why Ann didn't treat her - she seemed far more messed up than Hayward.

Papermoon, that quote is perfect.