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Desert Victory (1943)
Oscar-Winning Documentary First to Capture Wide Battlefield in UK's First WW2 Win
Before the British produced March 1943's "Desert Victory," filmmakers had little idea how to cover a broad field of battle in World War Two and edit the footage into a cohesive documentary. A network of cameramen from the British Army Film and Photographic Unit, four of whom died while photographing the WW2 North African campaign, proved it could be done by capturing stirring footage of the wide ranging desert battles. Once edited, the United Kingdom Ministry of Information, who funded the film, claimed the documentary would "transform the international view of Britain" and make "an impact on filmmaking around the world." Such a pronouncement was accurate, earning the feature the Oscar for Best Documentary.
The English film highlights the Battles of El Alamein and other North African British victories in the autumn of 1942, collectively known as the Western Desert Campaign. UK troops led by newly-appointed Lt. General Bernard Montgomery turned back the German troops of General Erwin Rommel, known as 'The Desert Fox,' at the critical junction of El Alamein, Egypt, in late October 1942, This was the first victory for England against Germany in WW2. Initially there weren't any plans to make a full-length documentary with the film the British Army cameramen took. A chance meeting between the British film unit's producer David MacDonald and the commander-in-chief of the overall forces in the Middle East, General Harold Alexander, led to a discussion on what could be done with all the canisters of film reeled off on the front lines during the Second Battle of El Alamein. MacDonald told the general he favored producing a documentary, to which Alexander agreed. The producer journeyed to England's Pinewood studio to shape the Oscar-winning picture.
"Desert Victory" became an invaluable morale booster for the war-weary English yearning to witness the events on the theaters' screens they read about in their newspapers. Film historian Hilary Roberts described how the documentary proved "The Army had been transformed from a losing force into a force which could win battles against really well-trained, well-equipped troops which German General Rommel's forces actually were. It transformed the international view of Britain and it transformed Britain's view of itself so. That's quite a significant achievement for a one-hour feature documentary film."
The experienced photographers in the Army's Film Unit were required to undergo military training in case they needed to take up arms to fight in situations facing the enemy. Percentage wise they suffered the highest casualties of any unit in the British Army in WW2 while some were captured and sent to POW camps. The Western Desert Campaign was the first time in WW2 cameramen were on the British front lines. As historian Roberts noted, "Film shows and screenings were terribly important for the troops and that really gained momentum in 1943, so at the time of El Alamein itself, awareness of what the cameramen were doing amongst the troops, in general, was relatively low but the success of the film and the photography at El Alamein changed all that and it was an absolute landmark."
Prints of "Desert Victory" were sent to President Franklin Roosevelt and the military brass. Viewing its fluid camerawork compared to the low quality of static shots the U. S. photography units were producing at the time motivated the United States armed forces' film units to produced better quality footage. Not only did "Desert Victory" "have an impact in Britain," said Roberts, "but it certainly had an impact on filmmaking around the world."
The Outlaw (1943)
This Movie Changed the Conventional Thinking of Sex Appeal in Film
Howard Hughes was looking to amp up the pizzazz from actress Jane Russell. Turning to his drawing board, the producer sketched an uplifting design which proved to be one of Hollywood's more provocative marketing ploys in February 1943's "The Outlaw," a scandalous film which changed the conventions of cinema. As an aviation industrialist, Hughes, who had a passion for movies, came up with an innovative bra with curvy underwire metal supports in each cup to give his star a more uplifting look.
"Legend has made it sound like he was trying to design some kind of aerospace dynamic thing," said author Christina Rice. "But according to Jane, he just wanted to do something that was seamless, so that under her clothes it didn't look like she was wearing a bra." Trouble was, his metal-framed contraption was incredibly uncomfortable for Russell to wear. Describing the newfangled bra as "ridiculous," the actress secretly discarded the bra after she wore it for a couple of minutes, and replaced it with her own bra with padded cups. She tightened the shoulder straps to lift her top and concealed her substitution to Hughes.
"I never wore it in 'The Outlaw,'" Russell said years later, "and he never knew. He wasn't going to take my clothes off to check if I had it on. I just told him I did."
The millionaire Howard Hughes' top priority in "The Outlaw" was showing off Russell's assets, producing an edgy Western aimed at capitalizing on the actress' sex appeal. The censors at the Hays Office, through much back and forth, eventually gave its stamp of approval. Its plot featured Old West legends Pat Garret, Doc Holiday and Billy the Kid. Distributors such as 20th Century Fox refused to handle the film because of all the controversy. Hughes, a believer in the adage bad publicity is better than no publicity at all, stirred up the impression his movie was the juiciest film ever made. Completed in early 1941, he spent the next two years making headlines criticizing the Production Code for erecting barriers on "The Outlaw." Joseph Breen, the head censor of the Hays Office, submitted a letter to Look Magazine's editor placing the blame entirely on Hughes.
While all this controversy was swirling, Russell, 19, under contract with Hughes, spent the two years busy posing for publicity photos. Dubbed "the motionless picture actress," her photos in farm settings, complete with ripped blouses and hiked up skirts, emphasized "The Outlaw's" sexual allure. "The haystack images she was okay with until they were doctored," said author Rice. "She rolled into San Francisco for the premier and started seeing these gigantic billboards of herself. She was mortified and really upset."
Hughes secured a theater in San Francisco to show the movie for the first time in public on February 4, 1943. City police and religious groups in the region were highly distressed by the large provocative posters displaying a seductive Russell on piles of hay. But the publicity proved to be a major attraction with packed audiences filling the theatre. Its success spurred Hughes to distribute "The Outlaw" himself into other city venues. More than a few state censor boards created roadblocks on the showings, outraged at such questionable scenes which showed Billy the Kid (Jack Buetel) taking advantage of Rio McDonald (Russell). Frustrated, Hughes gave up on his piecemeal showings until 1946 when United Artists agreed to distribute the film. Through several re-releases, "The Outlaw" eventually took in over $20 million by 1968, an astronomical box office take in those days which more than covered its production costs.
Was "The Outlaw" worth all its hype? Its original director, Howard Hawks, left the production to handle 1941's "Sergeant York." Scriptwriter Jules Furthman eventually took over the directing reigns. "This is a drab, dreary, and slow-moving oater in just about every way," observed film reviewer Mitch Lovell, echoing what scores of critics wrote about the movie. "You know you're in trouble when the great Gregg Toland (1941's "Citizen Kane") is your cinematographer and the film still looks blah." Upon seeing the Western even Russell called it boring. Hughes had brought on board veteran actors Thomas Mitchell as Pat Garrett and Walter Huston as Doc Holliday, yet the pair, according to reviewers, weren't able to overcome the inferior direction of Furthman's as well as Jack Buetel amateurish acting as Billy the Kid .
Russell, born in Bemidji, Minnesota and raised in southern California, appeared in high school plays. Upon graduation she was a receptionist while doing side work as a model. Hughes spotted one of her photos, and on just her looks signed her to a seven-year movie contract. Her first film was "The Outlaw" as Rio, whose brother was killed by Billy. Hughes later said of Russell, "There are two good reasons why men go to see her. Those are enough." As a devout Christian, the actress didn't mind becoming one of the more popular pin-ups during World War Two, despite her lack of on-screen presence. Her next film was 1946's "Young Widow," which proceeded "The Outlaws" in nation-wide distribution, exposing her to the public for the first time on the screen. A couple of years later she was the rage of Hollywood with Bob Hope in 1948's "The Paleface," as well as with Marilyn Monroe in 1953's "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Jack Buetel as Billy the Kid was born and raised in Dallas and long aspired to be a film actor. As an insurance clerk, Buetel was spotted by Hughes' talent agent, who recommended him for the Billy role because of his looks. Like Russell, he was signed to a standard seven-year contract by Hughes at $150 per week. Hughes refused to loan him out when Buetel received an offer to be in John Wayne's 1948 "Red River," whose role went Montgomery Cliff in his film debut. At long last Buetel received a part in 1951's 'Best of the Badmen' and a handful of small roles before television beckoned, with his last part in 1961's 'Wagon Train.'
"The Outlaw" not only broke new ground with its sex appeal but was an early example of a 'psychological Western,' one which flipped the good guy/bad guy images of the Old West's legendary characters. Such revisionist films made outlaws sympathetic to viewers, which Buetel's characterization of Billy the Kid surely was.
They Stooge to Conga (1943)
One of the Most Violent, Yet Best Stooges' Film
Film historians acknowledge their most brutal film is January 1943's "They Stooge to Conga." What made this so unusual was Del Lord, known more for his intellectual Stooges skits, is the director rather than Jules White. One particular scene was so vicious even by Stooges' standards programmers edited it out whenever shown on TV or outright banned the entire film. The Stooges are repairmen tasked with fixing a doorbell in a house secretly harboring German and Japanese agents in charge of steering via radio waves a Nazi submarine through a nearby heavily-mined city harbor. Moe is thrusted through a wall as Larry and Curly pull on the other end of the doorbell wire, causing an actual wooden plank to crash down on Moe's head. Among other acts of mayhem is the controversial scene where Moe and Larry push Curly up a telephone pole to check out the electrical wires. Curly, wearing spiked climbing shoes, punctures Moe's scalp and eardrum while nearly poking his eyes out before Moe grabs a flame torch, firing Curly's butt to get him up there. Curly gets zapped by electrical wires as he rearranges them, and then falls on Larry and Moe standing on the ground. He's so charged with energy he powers a light bulb in one ear, only to see Moe take a screwdriver in Curly's other ear to pop it.
"They Stooge to Conga" contains an early appearance of Lloyd Bridges, in one of his last uncredited roles, as a telephone customer frustrated by his connection because of Curly's rerouting several telephone wires. And Christine McIntyre, a future regular in Stooges' films, is briefly seen as one of the phone operators in only her second movie. Moe reprises his uncanny impersonation of Hitler in his third of four movies where he plays the Fuerher, this time posing as the German Chancellor inside a framed painting while the Nazi agents enter their radio room.
Dizzy Detectives (1943)
Crazy Time in an Antique Store for the Stooges
The Three Stooges short films traditionally were shown on television during the 60's and 70's on Saturday mornings aimed at children. As funny as the three comedians were, some parents felt they were too violent for their kids. The second Stooges' shorts released in early 1943 gave them plenty of ammunition to support their case.
In February 1943's "Dizzy Detectives," this Stooges classic shows decapitations, a knocked-out police commissioner, and a three-way brawl which everyone except Curly is clonked unconscious, and ends with a gorilla blown up. Directed by Jules White, who was known for his affinity with physical comedy, "Dizzy Detectives" is strangely front-ended by a four-minute clip from the Stooges' 1935 "Pardon My Scotch," where they're carpenters. The scene is the one Moe actually was sent to the hospital after falling off a table Curly had cut in half with a power saw, causing him to break several ribs. The sequence seamlessly segues to the three as police officers assigned to capture the "Ape Man" (Ray 'Crash' Corrigan, the stuntman who specialized in dressing in his own gorilla costumes.). The ape is causing havoc in the city, but is controlled by three thugs, one who wants to be commissioner of the police to rip off the city.
The violence grows as the Stooges stake out an antique store where the ape is known to frequent. In one scene Curly is lying on a sofa napping when he wakes up to discover a hat on one of his feet. Startled, he shoots at it, clipping one of his toes off. As an early teenager, Curly was cleaning a rifle when it accidentally discharged, hitting his ankle, an injury causing him to limp throughout his life. Curly also sits on a chair rocking back and forth, not knowing there's a cat beneath him with his tail waging. Curly rocks one too many times crushing the feline's tail, causing the cat to scream while sending the Stooge flailing in fright. Later, Curly finds himself stuck in a guillotine, and unknowingly pulls on a rope in an effort to free himself, only to find its blade falling upon his neck. Moe and Larry, emerging from their hideout in a trunk, see the head of a mannequin next to them the gorilla has knocked off, thinking it's Curly's head decapitated.
Der Fuehrer's Face (1942)
Oscar Goes To Disney For Best Cartoon
Disney won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for his January 1943's "Der Fuehrer's Face." Donald Duck dreams he's in Nazi Germany working in a military armaments factory. This was the only cartoon with Donald in the lead to win an Academy Award, and it's a doozy. Donald's nightmare occurs in a dystopian world dominated by swastikas. Every breathing animal, from the bird in a cuckoo clock to a rooster, gives the 'Heil Hitler' salute. The cartoon ends in a positive note as Donald awakens from the nightmare to face a patriotic conclusion. "Der Fuehrer Face's" displays a Nazi Germany world filled with hate and brutality counterpointed by America's love for peace.
Saludos Amigos (1942)
Disney's Contribution to Closer South American Ties in WW2
Ever since the beginning of World War Two, the United States was concerned about the strong ties several South American countries had with Nazi Germany, everything from trade to cultural relationships to their many German immigrants. The U. S. government enlisted Hollywood's help in promoting ties between America its neighbors to the south. Walt Disney lent his studio to such an effort by producing February 1943 "Saludos Amigos" ("Greeting, Friends").
Under the sponsorship of the U..S. State Department's Office for Inter-American Affairs (CIAA) established in the summer of 1941, Walt and twenty of his employees, including musical composers, artists and technicians, visited South America to research the life down there. Nelson Rockefeller, head of the CIAA, felt Disney was perfect to connect his popular characters such as Donald Duck and Goofy with the Latino culture. Concurrently, the film footage shot by the Disney team showing the daily lives of those in the southern hemisphere would reflect to Americans how similar they were to the people in Latin America. When first projected such images came as a surprise to those who were expecting jungle civilizations. Film historian Charles Richard noted Disney's "Saludos Amigos" "did more to cement a community of interest between peoples of the Americas in a few months than the State Department had in fifty years."
Its timing couldn't have come at a more perfect time for Disney, whose studio was severely affected by WW2. The European market was nearly nonexistent, which had earlier provided a huge financial boast. A crippling employees strike in 1941 also created a monetary hardship. Once Pearl Harbor drew the U. S. into the war, Disney lost some of his best animators to the service. The studio turned to making military training and propaganda films, including "Saludos Amigos," consisting up to 95 percent of his productions.
"Saludos Amigos" was the first of "package films" Disney produced during the 1940s, which came in three formats: the South American travelogue, the musicals and the duopoly, feature films split into two separate stories. The Latin American films, first "Saludos," and followed by 1944's "The Three Caballeros," were immensely popular. Four cartoons made up "Saludos," each originally intended to be shown separately in South American movie theaters.
"Saludos" led off with Donald Duck meeting the locals in the 'Lake Titicaca' regions of Bolivia and Peru, culminating with his frustration in riding a stubborn llama. 'Pedro' is next in the form of a human airplane whose mission is to transport mail over the high Andes Mountains to its destination. Sensitive Chilean cartoon artist Rene Boettiger (Pepo) was taken aback at how the airplane slandered his native country, and came up with his own flying hero in his later cartoons by transitioning the airplane into a condor bird named 'Condorito,' becoming as one of Latin American's most popular animated personalities. The third cartoon was titled 'El Gaucho Goofy,' featuring the pooch as a Texan cowboy who adapts to the Argentinian gaucho way of life. The final segment is 'Aquarela do Brasil.' Donald Duck reappears along with his friend Jose Carioca, who became a very popular Brazilian animated character. He demonstrates samba dancing's intricacies.
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Journey Into Fear (1943)
Orson Welles' Fingerprints Are All Over This Thriller
It wasn't supposed to be Orson Welles' third directed feature film. But RKO's February 1943's "Journey Into Fear," contains his distinctive look in almost every scene, yet Norman Foster was the sole director given credit. As an actor in the film, Welles, 27, spent several days on the set, and many claim he handled more than just the opening and closing sequences. Welles, who shaped 1941's "Citizen Kane" was finishing up directing 1942's "The Magnificent Ambersons" when he slinked over to another set at RKO to spend time on the movie he had scripted along with its lead actor Joseph Cotton.
Norman Foster was mainly known for directing late 1930's low-budgeted movies such as Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto detective thrillers. The Welles-Cotton script was based on Eric Ambler's 1940 novel of the same name. Film critics noticed the picture's unique look clearly belonged to Welles. "Anyone who's familiar with Welles' expressionistic shooting style will see his fingerprints all over the movie," wrote film reviewer Paul Tatara. The movie was one of cinema's earliest to have a scene unfold before the opening credits rolled. The ending has Welles' directorial touch with hired assassin Banat (Jack Moss) pursuing the film's hero, Howard Graham (Cotton), high on a building's narrow ledge. Questioned who directed both sequences, Welles later admitted, "It was a collaborative effort. Well, we all did-whoever was nearest the camera, there was no other way to get it made, because of the difficulties."
"In truth," notes film reviewer Colin McGuigan, "although Norman Foster is credited as director it's clear to anyone familiar with his work that Welles, at the very least, exerted a huge influence over the shooting."
As producer to "Journey Into Fear," Welles' presence and his role as Turkish secret policeman Colonel Haki looms large in the movie. Haki sends Graham, an American armaments engineer, incognito as a passenger on a tramp steamer to whisk him out of Turkey. Haki suspects Banat, a hired hand by German agents, is out to kill Graham, who has critical naval information. The engineer barely escaped an earlier assassination attempt during a magic show where the magician was shot instead of him. Graham's escape out of Turkey, however, is complicated on the steamer when he discovers Banat and other conspirators are on the same boat to get him.
Welles got in a fierce row with RKO executives who wanted French actress sensation Michele Morgan, a recent escapee from her native France in the face of the German invasion, to play Josette. Welles felt his girlfriend of two years Dolores Del Rio was perfect for the part. Orson and Dolores' secret relationship became public about this time, resulting in her divorce from Hollywood film art director Cedric Gibbons. Del Rio, eleven years older than Welles and a veteran of film since 1925, was one of Mexico's earliest stars to appear in American movies. She received the role of Josette, but it proved to be her last in Hollywood for years. Welles snubbed her when he went to Brazil for a United States government goodwill tour, causing her to reassess her movie career. She returned to Mexico to appear in several movies until the late 1950s.
"Journey Into Fear" was prepared for a national release in the summer of 1942 before RKO, reading some preliminary negative reviews during the film's previews, yanked it. "That picture was also ruined by the cutting," noted Welles, who was fired by RKO after he left for Brazil. The editing was done by Mark Robson, who had assisted editor Robert Wise in "Citizen Kane" as well as edited Val Lewton's films, including 1942's "Cat People." After Welles viewed the movie, he said "It was horrible what they did with it, because it was quite a good script that we did- it should have been a very decent picture. Good cast and everything. RKO took out everything that made it interesting except the action."
"Journey Into Fear" was another loss at the box office for Welles, the third in a row of Welles for RKO. Despite his harsh critique, film critics loved it when it was released as well as now. Modern film reviewer Tony D'Ambra wrote, "This is a connoisseur's film: for those who rejoice in its eccentricities, wit, and romantic melodrama, while lamenting what has been lost to the barbarians."
Air Force (1943)
Howard Hawks' Take on Pearl Harbor and the Weeks Following on a Bomber
The opening of the Howard Hawks-directed February 1943 film, "Air Force" gives an insight to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor's more intriguing events. The movie follows the crew of a United States Army Air Corp bomber, named the "Mary-Ann." The plane seen in the film, a B-17D and part of the 'Flying Fortress,' was one of nine departing Hamilton Field near San Francisco on December 6, 1941. Based on actual events, the movie does reenact the actual flight of twelve bombers flying out of California at 9 p.m. The evening before December 7th for Hickam Field in Oahu, Hawaii.
In "Air Force," the crew, piloted by Captain Michael Quincannon (John Ridgely), hears Japanese spoken over the radio airwaves as the 'Flying Fortress' is approaching Hawaii. Suddenly, the bombers are attacked by Japanese fighter planes. History records the anticipated arrival of the twelve bombers from the states caused utter confusion when the first Japanese planes were detected by radar, but were ignored by the Watch Officer at Hickam Field because of the anticipated arrival of the American bombers. Those precious few minutes allowed the Japanese to completely surprise the military bases in Hawaii. All twelve B-17s did land safely, but were shot up with their crew members sustaining two dozen injuries and one death. In "Air Force," Quincannon's plane continues to Wake Island, then onward to the Philippines. They join the Navy attacking a Japanese fleet similar to what happened during the Battle of the Coral Sea. The real B-17s stationed in the Philippines were pressed into air patrol service around the islands before the country was overwhelmed by Japanese forces.
Warner Brothers studio boss Jack Warner wanted to premier the film one year after Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1942. But between scripting delays, Hawks' dialogue revisions and filming 33 days over schedule, "Air Force" wasn't finished for release until February 1943, where it was met with positive reviews and a public outpouring at the box office. Film reviewer Glenn Erickson wrote the movie was "a remarkable WW2 combat film. It's an exemplary Howard Hawks male bonding picture, in which a group of rugged professionals molds itself into a fighting unit capable of extraordinary feats."
Sergeant Joe Winocki (John Garfield) is a disgruntled gunner on the 'Mary-Ann' whose ambition to be a pilot was thwarted by a fatal accident when he was behind the controls. His plane lands on Wake Island just before it was attacked by the Japanese and smuggles on board a small dog of a Marine who wants them to take it for safety. In Quentin Tarantino's 1994's "Pulp Fiction," actor Christopher Walken tells young Butch Coolidge about a golden watch passed down from multiple generations. His grandfather, a Marine on Wake, gave a gunner named Winocki this watch as the bomber was passing through to give to his wife back in the states. Sitting in the co-pilot seat in "Air Force" was actor Gig Young, 29, playing Lt. William Williams. Born Byron Barr, Young grew up in Washington, D. C. where he developed a love for acting while attending McKinley High. Appearing in amateur plays in the Los Angeles area, Byron received small roles in film beginning in 1940. Changing his name to Gig Young when he signed with the Warners in 1942, "Air Force" was one of his biggest parts yet. Young was nominated three times by the Academy Awards, winning an Oscar for 1969's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"
Author William Faulkner, a friend of Hawks, contributed to Dudley Nichols' screenplay. Faulkner wrote the moving death scene of Cpt. Quincannon's and penned the immortal lines said by assistant crew chief Corporal Weinberg (George Tobias): "The sun shines and nothing ever happens, and before you know it you're 60 years old." The aerial combat scenes of "Air Force" had to be filmed in Texas and Florida instead of California since the already-skittish residents there would panic if they saw Japanese planes flying in formation and dive bombing overhead.
The New York Time film critic Bosley Crowther included "Air Force" in his 'Ten Best Films of 1943,' writing the movie was "continuously fascinating, frequently thrilling and occasionally exalting." George Amy won the Oscar for Best Film Editing, while Nichols was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. "Air Force" was also nominated for Best Effects for substituting miniature boats for the real thing, as well as James Wong Howe and Charles Marshall for Best Black-and-White Cinematography.
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Hitchcock Classic Showing Underpinnings of a Normal Family Gone Astray
Alfred Hitchcock had a history of taking idyllic ordinary life and using a flame thrower to show its underbelly of a hidden yet sordid, dark foulness. His January 1943's "Shadow of a Doubt" serves as Hitchcock's prime example of the dichotomy between good and evil in an everyday normal life. The director called this his favorite filming experience while working with playwright Thornton Wilder, writer of the play 'Our Town,' who was an expert in small town social patterns. The film especially connected with those serving overseas in World War Two, who had fond memories of their home life.
"Shadow of a Doubt," observed film critic Kevin Hagopian, "slanders that most cherished of American landscapes, the small town. That such a thorough critique of American mores appeared during WW2, a time when other directors were enshrining rather than embalming these standard, seems nothing short of incredible." The thriller was inspired by America's first known serial sex murderer, 1920s Earl Nelson. Hitch uses the setting of a quiet California town, Santa Rosa, as a backdrop to insert a serial killer embedded within an innocent, naive family network.
Hitchcock and Thorton Wilder teamed up to expand a nine-page treatment called 'Uncle Charlie' by Margaret McDonell and her husband Gordon under producer David O. Selznick's story department. They received a Best Original Story Oscar nomination, the only Academy Award recognition for "A Shadow of a Doubt." Hitchcock remembers his collaboration with Wilder, recalling they "worked together in the morning, and Wilder would work on his own in the afternoon, writing by hand in a school notebook. He never worked consecutively, but jumped about from one scene to another according to his fancy." Hitchcock's wife Alma, whose contribution to her husband's scripts throughout his career was immeasurable, also assisted in the writing.
Joseph Cotton was Uncle Charlie, Hitchcock's second choice behind William Powell, who was unavailable to play the family member who carries a dark past. Charlie, like serial murder Earle Nelson, preyed upon elderly widows who owned boarding houses back East. To thwart detectives hot on his trail, he travels cross-country to visit his sister Emma Newton (Patricia Collinger). Hitchcock, unable to visit his sick mother in England because of travel restrictions, heard she had died just before filming "Shadow of a Doubt," and named Uncle Charlie's sister after her. His biographer Donald Spoto wrote, this was "the last benevolent rendering of a mother figure in Hitchcock's films. The movie would become a handbook of all the literary and cultural influences on his own life, and it would be as near as he would ever get to wearing his private heart on his public and professional sleeve."
The train carrying Uncle Charlie to Santa Rosa billows black smoke, symbolizing his evil arrival. Hitchcock said it was "one of those ideas for which you go to a lot of trouble although it's seldom noticed." The uncle is warmly greeted by Emma, her husband Joseph (Henry Travers) and their daughter Charlotte (Teresa Wright), coincidentally nicknamed 'Charlie.' Wright a three-time Academy Awards nominee and Oscar winner for her role in 1942's "Mrs. Miniver," received top billing. She always said this was her personal favorite, adding, "During the shooting (Hitchcock) made us feel very relaxed. His direction never came across as instruction. He saw the film completely in his mind before we began - as if he had a little projection room in his head."
The Newton's house they lived in is still standing, built in 1872 on 904 McDonald Avenue in Santa Rosa. Before the production, a scouting team had spotted a perfect house for this middle-class family, a partially run down home with faded paint, an overgrown lawn, but solidly-built. Hitchcock loved its appearance for the film's exterior shots. Signing a lease, its owner decided to spruce up the house before the film crew arrived, giving it a new paint job, hired landscapers to trim their yard and fixed all the rough spots. Upon arrival, the director hated the new look, and spent a considerable amount of money to have his crew restore the home back to its shoddy appearance. Once done, the studio did pay to bring the house back to its new look.
Charlotte turns detective in "Shadow of a Doubt" once she suspects her uncle is hiding a dark past. "Much of the film's effect comes from its visuals," film critic Roger Ebert wrote. "Hitchcock was a master of the classical Hollywood compositional style. See how he zooms slowly into faces to show dawning recognition or fear. Watch him use tilt shots to show us things that are not as they should be. He uses contrasting lighted and shadowed areas within the frame to make moral statements, sometimes in anticipation before they are indicated."
"Shadow of a Doubt" is regarded as Hitchcock's masterpiece. Time Out magazine ranks it 41st of 'The 100 Best Thriller Films of All Time.' The American Film Institute nominated it for both Greatest Movie and Most Thrilling pictures of all-time. It has since been remade twice, in 1958's 'Step Down to Terror' and 1991's TV movie of the same name with Mark Harmon as Uncle Charlie. The drama is one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
First Musical Revue Film After Pearl Harbor Hits Patriotic Tone
Musical revues in film were as old as far back as the first year of what is called the talkies. Paramount Pictures' revived this highly entertaining musical format with December 1942's "Star Spangled Rhythm." The picture served as a morale booster for military personnel with special showings on bases internationally during World War Two as well as to the general public back home. The musical was a huge hit, ranking fifth at the box office.
Previous musical revues such as "The Hollywood Revue of 1929" and "The Big Broadcast of 1938" consisted of the major studios' stars singing, dancing and performing skits based around the flimsiest plot. "Star Spangled Rhythm" followed that pattern and was the first such revue produced after Pearl Harbor. "These musicals were filmed like a USO show for servicemen, and they made the actors back home feel like they were doing their part," describes film reviewer Jessica Pickens. "It's fun to play 'spot which actor will come on screen next' and watch the happy numbers. It's bright, exuberant and hopeful, what the United States needed during the dark days of World War II."
"Star Spangled Rhythm's" plot involves several U. S. Navy sailors on shore leave in Los Angeles. One of them, Johnny Webster (Eddie Bracken), claims his father is an executive producer at Paramount. His dad "Pop" Webster (Victor Moore) told him a big, fat lie to fake his position at the studio. He's really a lowly security guard. Johnny's fiancee, Polly Judson (Betty Hutton), finds out about the boys' visit to the studio and plots with Pop to create the illusion of his lofty position by "borrowing" an executive's office while he's on a lunch break. The studio visit leads to a big show presented by Paramount's stars to entertain the navy service members before they ship out to the Pacific.
Bob Hope is the Master of Ceremonies for the studio's performance. It was around this time Hope in real life began his tradition of entertaining troops during USO shows whenever the country was at war. His first show exclusively for the military was at March Field in California, and he continued his routine throughout every American conflict for over fifty years, headlining 57 performances.
"Star Spangled Rhythm" was Betty Hutton's largest role yet in her young film career. As a drop-out in ninth grade, Elizabeth Thornburg was raised by an alcoholic single mother of two. The mother manage a speakeasy during Prohibition while Bette and her sibling sang and entertained the customers. A gig with orchestra leader Vincent Lopez followed by Broadway appearances led to a contract with Warner Brothers. Hutton carried her brand of physical humor from the stage over to film, where she famously said, "When they work with me, they gotta get an insurance policy."
"Star Spangled Rhythm" was Hutton's second feature film after her movie debut in 1942's 'The Fleet's In." Bette's seen in a hilarious skit where she tries to climb a wall with the help of two contortionists, including Gil Lamb. Several writers, notably playwright George S. Kaufman, contributed, while a handful of directors assisted main director George Marshall. Cecil B. DeMille and Preston Sturges are themselves in front of the camera, and Bob Hope and William Bendix are in a shower as one of the movie's highlights.
"Star Spangled Rhythm's" final forty minutes contains mostly musical numbers, performed in front of the sailors in the auditorium. The music, largely written by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer (lyrics), offers an early movie appearance by Mary Martin, teaming with Dick Powell in 'Hit the Road to Dreamland.' Paulette Goddard, Dorothy Lamour and Veronica Lake are together singing 'A Sweater, Sarong and a Peek-A-Boo Bang,' which were trademarks of each actress. Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson and Katherine Dunham whip through "Sharp as a Tack.' In the Oscar nominated Best Song "That Old Magic," singer Johnny Jackson provides vocal accompaniment to Vera Zorina's dancing. The tune has been sung by Frank Sinatra, Ann Margret, Bob Dylan and Johnny Mathis, among many others. The movie was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Musical Score while the American Film Institute nominated it as one of the Greatest Musicals Ever Made.
The Palm Beach Story (1942)
Sturges' Insightful Yet Hilarious Look at the Rich Part of His Five-Year Creative Burst
Scriptwriter and director Preston Sturges once famously said, "Millionaires are funny." He located his December 1942's comedy, "The Palm Beach Story," in one of the wealthiest areas in the country where its primary character is looking for financial happiness.
In his autobiography Sturges said the idea of "The Palm Beach Story" was "as an illustration of my theory of the aristocracy of beauty, or, as Claudette Colbert expressed it to Joel McCrea, 'You have no idea what a long-legged gal can do without doing anything.' The setting was the Palm Beach I had known during the years when Paris Singer used to invite me to join him there. The few weeks I spent as Eleanor's house guest at Mar-a-Lago were not unuseful to the story either."
"The Palm Beach Story" was part of Sturges' unprecedented burst of creative energy which saw him write and direct in a five-year span some of cinema's most witty and memorable classics. Sturges' uplifting films with snappy dialogue became a love affair between him and his fans. Soon after his 1941's "Sullivan Travels," Sturges sat down to compose a plot where Geraldine 'Gerry' Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) yearns for the finer things in life after five years of marriage to financially-struggling inventor Tom (Joel McCrea). Although she still loves him, Gerry decides they would be better off if she seeks a rich man to support her and her husband. She was struck with the idea after an eccentric businessman had generously given her $700 to pay their back-rent and creditors with no strings attached. Against Tom's wishes she carries out her plan, and she meets John Hackensacker (Rudy Vallee), a multi-millionaire on the train from New York City to her destination in Palm Beach, Florida.
Sturges' marriage to Eleanor Hutton, the daughter of Marjorie Merriweather Post, in the early 1930s gave the screenwriter the idea to write the screwball comedy, a genre on its last legs, about gold diggers who stalk around the rich enclaves of Palm Beach, Florida. His mother-in-law, heir to Post Cereals, built her 1920s mansion in Palm Beach where Sturges stayed, which became the future winter home to President Donald Trump. His script includes Hackensacker and her sister, the Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor), who both provide some of the movie's funniest lines. Writes film critic Caterina Benincase, "What I love about this film is how much more modern, frank and wise it seems compared to contemporary romantic-comedies. Most of us would view the 1940s as a far more sexually repressed and simpler world, but here we have the battle of the sexes fought with far more elegance and savoir-faire than you see in the average chick flick."
Sturges had Carole Lombard in mind when he wrote "The Palm Beach Story." But her death in a plane crash in January 1942 saw Colbert as her replacement. Paramount Pictures' executives tried to dissuade Sturges from hiring popular radio crooner Rudy Vallee to the major role. But Sturges saw how funny he was in 1941's 'Time Out for Rhythm,' which was greeted with howls of mockery from viewers at the time. Sturges' instincts proved correct, and his part as a wealthy man was so convincing the studio signed him to a contract.
Sturges was a stickler for his actors to precisely stick to his script verbatim. William Demarest, who played in eight Sturges' comedies, said the director possessed an iron-clad knowledge of his writings. "He had a great memory," Demarest noted. "If you changed anything, he'd say, 'Wait a minute,' and, gee, he was right." Mary Astor, in her first and only Sturges movie, had a difficult time in her role as the millionaire's sister. "I wore a blond wig and waved a lorgnette around and I could never please Preston Sturges. It was not my thing," said Astor as man-hungry Princess Maud. "I couldn't talk in a high fluty voice and run my words together as he thought high society women did, or at least mad high society women who'd had six husbands and six million dollars."
"The Palm Beach Story," a parody of Katherine Hepburn's 1940 "The Philadelphia Story," has become a comedy classic after mixed critical reviews during its initial release. Film historian Tom Dicks called it "a hilarious, zany, marital screwball comedy - it was his last romantic comedy and one of the last, classic screwball comedies. The witty, nonsensical film of mistaken identities and deception is a satire on sex as an asset." The American Film Institute ranks it as the 77th Funniest Movie Ever Made, while it's included in '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'
The Black Swan (1942)
Cinematographer Leon Shamroy Wins Oscar For Stunning Camerawork
Rationing in the United States was a big deal during World War Two, and Hollywood didn't escape its pangs when film stock, especially Technicolor film, was included in the list of commodities such as food, gas, cars and tires that had to be allocated sparingly. When Henry King was directing 20th Century Fox's swashbuckler pirate adventure December 1942's "The Black Swan," he made sure the actors were well prepared with numerous rehearsals to lessen any mistakes while the camera was rolling as well as minimizing his camera placements. King required only one take in thirty complicated scenes, considered an amazing feat for any production.
Cinematographer Leon Shamroy was particularly under pressure to limit his takes. A four-time Oscar winner, Shamroy won his first Academy Awards trophy for Best Color Cinematography for "The Black Swan." Film reviewer Adam Tyner noticed, "though filmed on a soundstage rather than the high seas, its massive models remain surprisingly convincing these many decades later, heightened by the breathtaking Technicolor cinematography of Leon Shamroy." The director of photography won another Oscar for 1963's "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor, and filmed such classics as 1953's "The Robe," 1956's "The King and I," and 1958's "South Pacific."
Maureen O'Hara starred in the elaborate production, describing it as "everything you could want in a lavish pirate picture: a magnificent ship with thundering cannons; a dashing hero battling menacing villains, sword fights; fabulous costumes." Ben Hecht co-scripted the very loose adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's 1932 novel of the same name, whose title refers to the incorrigible pirate Captain Leech (George Sanders, nearly unrecognizable in a beard). The governor of Jamaica, Captain Morgan (Laird Cregar), where the rum brand gets its name, is a former pirate obligated to round up all his former buccaneers. Captain Jamie Waring (Tyrone Power) relinquishes his sword to Morgan, but renegades Captain Leech (Sanders) and Captain Wogan (Anthony Quinn) continue to plunder away. Cpt. Waring has a twinkle in his eye for Lady Margaret (Maureen O'Hara), but she's engaged to Englishman Roger Ingram (Edward Ashley), who's secretly in cahoots with Leech and Wogan. The lines are formed as the good ex-pirates confront the still active privateers.
"The Technicolor film was a splashy adventure pic for 1942 that combined romance with more traditional pirate action," said film reviewer Matt Paprock. "A classic pirate tale full of sword-fighting and battles on the high seas, fans of classic Hollywood will find much to love."
With the tight stock in film, Hollywood reduced its output of lower-budgeted B-listed movies and poured more money into films such as "The Black Swan" during WW2. The swashbuckler not only won Best Cinematography Oscar, but the convincing battle scenes between the miniature ships earned it a nomination for Best Visual Effects, and Alfred Newman, uncle of the future movie composer and songwriter Randy Newman, was nominated for Best Original Score.
Random Harvest (1942)
Greer Garson's Personal Favorite Movie of Hers
Greer Garson was one of many stars who favored a particular side of their face to be photographed-this being her right. In the MGM mega-hit December 1942's "Random Harvest," she spent more time with cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg than any other person on and off the set, including her co-star Ronald Colman, to make sure she photographed in the best light. Their partnership paid off when the tear-jerker was nominated for the Academy Awards' Best Picture as well as the number two box office hit of the year.
Garson fell in love with Ruttenberg's photography when the two worked together in her previous MGM film, 1942's "Mrs. Miniver," the year's top box office movie. Ruttenberg worked his magic whenever Garson appeared on the screen in "Random Harvest." He covered his camera lens with a woman's shear stocking to soften her look. He agreed with Garson her right side was far more photogenic than her left. Ruttenberg coached the actress to make subtle body motions such as tilting her head at a certain angle to appear more attractive for the camera. Consulting with the studio's art department, Ruttenberg made sure the sets were designed and placed favorably in relation to where Garson was positioned with the camera to her right.
In "Random Harvest," Garson plays music hall singer/dancer Paula Ridgeway, who meets 'Smitty,' a disoriented World War One veteran gassed during the final days of the war with no memory of his past. She escorts him to the theatre where she belts out the Scottish song 'She is Ma Daisy,' dressed in a short kilt. Nicknamed "M-G-M's First Lady of Saintly Virtue," Garson felt the heat from studio executives leery of her wearing a skimpy dress. She altered the kilt's to a more acceptable mid-knee length, which hid her thighs. Paula and Smitty eventually fall in love, get married, and have a son before Smitty gets hit by a cab when traveling alone to Liverpool. Suddenly he regains his memory-but loses any recollection of his marriage to Paula, and disappears from her life. Reverting back to Charles Rainier, he takes over his late father's business, and becomes wildly financially successful. A distant relative, Kitty Chilcet (Susan Peters, nominated for Best Supporting Oscar), becomes acquainted with Charles, and the two become engaged just as Paula reenters his life as his executive assistant.
Based on James Hilton's 1941 novel of the same name, the public responded to the movie's underlying message about shell-shocked war veterans. "Random Harvest" refers to British war reports stating "bombs fell at random," and was an enjoyable experience for Colman, expressing when filming wrapped, "This is one picture I hate to finish!" The actor's career was stuck in the doldrums for the past several years, but perked up with his previous film, 1942's "The Talk of the Town" with Cary Grant and Jean Arthur. He identified with his character 'Smitty,' having fought early in World War One resulting in an ankle wound during the Battle of Ypres in October 1914. Medically discharged, Colman turned to acting. As a young girl, Greer Garson idolized Colman's acting, and was elated when she found out she would have a chance to work alongside the 51-year-old actor.
Actress Susan Peters, 21, reached the height of her popularity by her Oscar-nominated performance as Kitty. A Hollywood High School graduate, she played small parts before her meatiest role yet in 1942's "The Big Shot" with Humphrey Bogart. Gaining stardom in several leads, Peters when on duck hunting trip when she was accidentally shot on New Years Day 1945, with a bullet lodged in her spine, paralyzing her from the waist down. For the paraplegic, film roles became scarce, and she died at 31 in August 1952. Says film reviewer Lisa Bowman, "you should watch it just to see Susan Peters's great performance and to consider what could have been."
Meanwhile, Greer Garson was on a roll. She was awarded the Oscar for Best Actress for 1942's "Mrs. Miniver." Some critics say her performance with Colman in "Random Harvest," a role which didn't merit an Oscar nomination, was more dynamic than her win as a housewife during the Battle of Britain. Wrote Variety, "Miss Garson, more charming and seductive than ever, is an important mainstay of the picture. Essaying a highly sympathetic role, she overshadows Colman and places the film in the laps of the women together with their moist handkerchiefs." Garson said this was her personal favorite movie.
"Random Harvest" broke the record for the longest-running film at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, packing sell-out crowds for a 12-week exclusive run. In his novel 'The Catcher in the Rye,' J. D. Salinger wrote its protagonist Holden Caulfield watched the film during the Radio City Music Hall showing. It was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Mervyn LeRoy for Best Director, Colman for Best Actor, Peters for Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Herbert Stothart for Best Musical Score, and Best Art Direction. Actor Gene Wilder said this was his favorite film and the most romantic movie he had ever seen. "Random Harvest" was named the best film in Great Britain for the year 1942. And the American Film Institute ranked it #36 as the Greatest Love Story in Movies.
Cat People (1942)
One of the Most Influential Horror Movies in Cinema
The best horror movies contain what's called the "jump scare," making these films memorable in the eyes of frightened viewers. The unexpected "boo" coming out of nowhere when everything before it has been relatively quiet is almost guaranteed to send audiences flying out of their seats. These jolts, also known as the 'Lewton bus,' was introduced in December 1942's "Cat People," a low budget feature film regarded as one of cinema's most influential horror movies.
RKO budgeted "Cat People's" producer Val Lewton a scant $150,000 to spend on the Jacques Tourneur-directed film. Aware of the limitations, Lewton and his director turned to innovative inexpensive audio effects, dark lighting and tight editing for the first jump scare where Alice Moore (Jane Randolph) walks under a bridge in a desolate nighttime city park. Irena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) is unseen by Alice behind her. Says film historian Lewis Royle describing the sequence, Alice's "pace quickens, and she is scared, it's dead silent, the audience is on tenterhooks, and then... a bus innocently pulls into the frame with its brakes loudly hissing and making the audience scream like fools. This is the scene to which all modern jump scares can trace their heritage." The sequence was effective, as Lewton explained. "I'll tell you a secret: if you make the screen dark enough, the mind's eye will read anything into it you want! We're great ones for dark patches. Most people will swear they saw a leopard move in the hedge above her - but they didn't! Optical illusion; dark patch."
Much of "Cat People's' scary sequences are unseen but embellished by the imagination of the mind. Film critic Roger Ebert said the film "wasn't frightening like a slasher movie, using shocks and gore, but frightening in an eerie, mysterious way; the screen harbored unseen threats, and there was an undertone of sexual danger that was more ominous because it was never acted upon." "Cat People" was the first horror film to introduce the element of sex into its narrative, drawing a parallel between death and the act of mating, including kissing.
"Emotional arousal or jealousy may literally (and metaphorically) turn Irena into a lethal, animalistic killing force that may devour its male prey," points out film historian Tim Dirks. "Lewton's film was one of the first to make an explicit link between horror and female sexuality, something that has since become a staple of modern-day horror films."
RKO realized the rejuvenation of horror flicks after seeing Universal Pictures' recent box office returns from such movies as 1941's "The Wolf Man." Lewton, a writer and story editor first for MGM, then for independent producer David O. Selznick, had tightened the script for 1939's "Gone With The Wind." He was hired by RKO to run its new horror unit by studio head Charles Koerner, giving Lewton skimpy budgets and tight shooting schedules. A plus was Lewton could hire anyone he wanted, but he had to follow Koerner's suggestion on the movie's title and subject. DeWitt Bodeen, scriptwriter for "Cat People," remembers, "Mr. Koerner was of the opinion that vampires, werewolves and man-made monsters had been over-exploited and that 'nobody has done much with cats'. He added that he had successfully audience-tested a title he considered highly exploitable, 'people that turn into cats. Let's see what you two can do with that,' he ordered. When we were back in his office, Val looked at me glumly and said: 'There's no helping it - we're stuck with that title. If you want to get out now, I won't hold it against you.'" Bodeen stayed, and the next day, after a sleepless night thinking about a plot, Lewton revealed to Bodeen, "It was to deal with a triangle - a normal young man falls in love with a strange foreign girl who is obsessed by abnormal fears, and when her obsession destroys his love and he turns for consolation to a very normal girl, his office co-worker, the discarded one, beset by jealousy, attempts to destroy the young man's new love."
Emerging from Bodeen's typewriter was exactly that: engineer Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) sees fashion illustrator Irena (Simon) sketching a portrait of a black panther in the city zoo. A conversation over tea ends with the two hooking up and eventually marrying. Irena reveals to him she's from a Serbian village where the residents turn into killer cats. She's afraid of consummating the marriage for fear she'll transform into a one of those angry felines and murder him. Co-worker Alice Moore consoles sad Oliver before the two fall in love. Irena gets a sense of her husband's affair and stalks Alice in the park, at an indoor hotel swimming pool, and at the office, creating hair-raising situations.
"We tossed away the horror formula right from the beginning," scriptwriter Bodeen noted. "No grisly stuff for us. You can't keep up horror that's long sustained. It becomes something to laugh at. But take a sweet love story, or a story of sexual antagonisms, about people like the rest of us, not freaks, and cut in your horror here and there by suggestion, and you've got something."
Lewton hired Jacques Tourneur to direct "Cat People," working with him earlier as the second unit director in 1935's "A Tale of Two Cities." Directing since 1931, Tourneur "was entirely responsible for the style of the film," noted Bodeen. Shot in 18 days, the movie was filmed using existing sets, including the same staircase for Irena's apartment building seen in Orson Welles' 1942 "The Magnificent Ambersons," while the swimming pool sequence was shot at the Royal Palms Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
When Lewton showed the initial cut to RKO executives, the room fell silent; no one appreciated the film besides boss Koerner, who demanded a panther be visible in the office scene stalking the couple. Another preview screening was at a downtown Los Angeles theater where Bodeen recalled, "The preview was preceded by a Disney cartoon about a little pussy-cat and Val's spirits sank lower and lower as the audience began to catcall and make loud mewing sounds. 'Oh God!' he kept murmuring, as he wiped the perspiration from his forehead. The picture's title was greeted with whoops of derision and louder meows, but when the credits were over and the film began to unreel, the audience quieted, and, as the story progressed, reacted as we had hoped an audience might. There were gasps and some screaming as the shock sequences grew. The audience accepted and believed our story, and was enchanted."
Based on the positive audience reaction RKO decided to create a big publicity campaign for it, with taglines such as "To kiss her meant death by her own fangs and claws!" "She was marked with the curse of those who slink and court and kill by night!" The low-cost movie was a huge success, earning well over $4 million, saving RKO from bankruptcy after its initial loss in 1941's "Citizen Kane." "Cat People" introduced RKO's line of low-budget horror films, among them 1943's "I Walked with a Zombie" and 1944's "The Curse of the Cat People," the first film Robert Wise directed. It was updated in 1982's "Cat People," starring Nastassja Kinski and John Heard, with David Bowie's song "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)." The 1942 version "Cat People" is on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list, and the American Film Institute nominated Lewton's film for its Greatest American Movies as well as the Most Heart-Pounding and Best Musical Score. It's one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.'
Arabian Nights (1942)
Universal Pictures Has Its Own Glamour Star in Montez, the Queen of Technicolor
Every Hollywood major studio had under contract glamour starlets with tremendous sex appeal during the Golden Age-MGM with Hedy Lamarr, 20th Century Fox with Betty Grable, Columbia Pictures had Rita Hayworth, and so on. Only Universal Pictures, the studio specializing in horror films, came up empty. That was until the arrival of Maria Montez, who in December 1942's "Arabian Nights" emerged as the studio's sexiest star. Montez was for a time comparable to Hollywood's most attractive actresses.
A native from Dominican Republic, Montez drew the notice of Hollywood after appearing on the cover of a New York publication when she first arrived in the United States in 1939. A year later, she signed with Universal for $150 a week, playing small roles until receiving the lead in "Arabian Nights." In the exotic film she plays Sherazade the love interest between brothers Haroun (Jon Hall) and Kamar (Leif Erickson), who are battling one another with their mini-armies for the Persian caliph. The supporting characters include Ali (Sabu, 18), an entertainer for Ahmad (Billy Gilbert), a friend of Haroun. Shemp Howard, brother of Moe and Curly in real life, adds to Gilbert's levity. Montez captured the male viewers' hearts with her erotic looks and movements. Film reviewer Jeremy Arnold observed the movie "is filled with beautiful close-ups throughout of Montez bedecked with jewelry and wearing exotic, midriff-baring costumes." One of the film's characters said about Montez, "her beauty shames the glory of a desert sunset!" Producer Walter Wanger, in only his second picture with Universal, was able to secure one of the very few three-strip Technicolor cameras in existence to make Universal Pictures' first film under the color format. "Arabian Nights" was so successful for Montez, who appeared in 26 films, a majority of them in color, she became known as 'The Queen of Technicolor.'
"World War II was a major boon for Maria," said her biographer Tom Zimmerman. "There was a huge desire to have an action adventure movie that was totally irrelevant and didn't even make much sense. You could go into the theater and forget what was happening. Her films were the perfect escapist pictures."
The Academy Awards members loved "Arabian Nights," nominating it in four categories: Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score, Best Sound Recording and Best Art Direction. Earning nearly two million in profits, Universal produced three follow-up 'Arabian Nights' themed movies, including 1943 'White Savage' and 1944 'Cobra Woman,' both starring Maria Montez and Jon Hall.
Went the Day Well? (1942)
The Possibility of An English Invasion From Germany Was Very Real
The British were extremely concerned Germany would invade their island country in the summer of 1940 during World War Two. Even though events proved differently, when December 1942's "Went the Day Well?" was released there was a possibility the German military, sitting on the other side of the English Channel in occupied France, was still contemplating such an invasion. The England-produced film sent a cautionary tale throughout the United Kingdom to be on guard because the events seen on the screen was plausible by demonstrating how a platoon from the German Army could overwhelm a village in southern England.
"The most striking and surprising quality is the unsparing savagery that uncoils from the deceptively mild roots of the folksy opening scenes," writes film reviewer David Sterritt. "Germans mow down Home Guard soldiers on patrol, prepare to slaughter a group of children to punish adults for disobeying their orders, and gravely injure a young boy who manages to escape with a message to the British army."
"Went the Day Well?", produced by Ealing Studios, known more for their later comedies than serious dramas, was based on Graham Green's short story, 'The Lieutenant Died Last.' The title derives from a line in John Edmonds' 1918 poem, reading, 'Four Epitaphs: "Went the day well? We died and never knew. But, well or ill, Freedom, we died for you." The movie opens with German paratroopers disguised as British soldiers arriving at a small English town as the forefront of an impending massive invasion. Initially, the friendly villagers are accommodating towards the soldiers, who say they've been ordered in the area to spend several days for training purposes. Eventually, the villagers get wise as to whom these soldiers really are, setting off a series of bloody confrontations.
"Went the Day Well?" was released two years after Adolf Hitler was preparing Operation Sea Lion with an objective of sending his troops to England once the Luftwaffe destroyed the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain. Brazilian-born Alberto Cavalcanti, 45, a former architect-turn-director, had specialized in documentaries since 1926, and was an ideal choice to handle this startling war drama. Cavalcanti was one of many future film directors who worked in the United Kingdom's General Post Office Film Unit, where he became supervisor in 1937. He was hired three years later by Ealing Studios, bringing along his passion for horror filmmaking.
Film critic Jaime Christley noticed Cavalcanti transitions from "the 'normal life' scenes, which are surprisingly absent of red flags (or they're wickedly subtle), with the same urgent tempo as the later scenes of violence and vengeance. Only the tone is shifted, achieving the effect of a dagger slipped quietly between the shoulder blades."
"Went the Day Well?" reflected the bravery of the ordinary British residents, men, women and yes even children, rising up to the challenge of facing a well-armed highly-trained enemy. Critic Anthony Quinn said the movie "subtly captures an immemorial quality of English rural life-the church, the local gossip, the sense of community-and that streak of native 'pluck' that people believed would see off Hitler."
A poll from Channel 4, UK's version of public broadcast stations, of the '100 Greatest War Films' includes "Went the Day Well?" Jack Higgins' WW2 novel, 'The Eagle Has Landed,' and its 1976 movie adaptation contain many of the elements seen in the 1942 Cavalcanti picture of German paratroopers operating inside England.
Springtime in the Rockies (1942)
Springboard for Gable to Become 1943 Box Office Champ
There are a variety of reasons why musicals such as Bette Grable's sparkling November 1942's "Springtime in the Rockies" was such a hit in the middle of World War Two. As film critic Nick Zegarac notes when the Technicolor picture was released in the first year of America's participation in the war, "with half a hemisphere in flames, rationing on the home front, the men fighting abroad, and the women pulling double duty in the factories and the kitchen-money still tighter than a drum-you better believe movies like 'Springtime in the Rockies' were considered not only a luxury, but also a necessity to keep the morale and sanity alive and thriving during those terribly dark days."
The success of Bette Grable arriving at the perfect time was attributed to her talents as a dancer and an actress-and to her sex appeal. "I became a star for two reasons, and I'm standing on them," Grable once said, pointing to her two legs, insured for a million bucks. "Springtime in the Rockies" was her biggest hit so far, and her iconic look-over-the-shoulder pinup photo the next year made her the most popular woman for the GI's fighting overseas. The musical was where Grable met her future husband Harry James. The band leader who played trumpet captured the woman of every servicemen's dream, whose slogan was, "I want a girl just like the girl that married Harry James."
Grable's first marriage was to actor Jackie Coogan, the childhood actor in Charlie Chaplin's 1921 "The Kid" and later as Uncle Fester in TV's 'The Addams Family.' Grable and Coogan met as supporting cast members in the 1938 musical 'College Swing,' and their bliss lasted two years. Meanwhile, Harry James had joined Benny Goodman's band in 1937 playing his trumpet, then formed his own 'Music Makers' in 1939 with Goodman's backing. His orchestra was the first vocalist Frank Sinatra sang for in 1939 before moving on with Tommy Dorsey. James replaced Glenn Miller's nationwide radio program when the orchestra leader joined the Army in 1942. Grable always placed "Springtime in the Rockies" as one of her favorites because of her union with James, and named their first daughter after her movie character, Victoria "Vicki" Bivens. Their marriage lasted 22 years before they divorced.
"Springtime in the Rockies" was a remake of 1937's 'Second Honeymoon' with Tyrone Power and Loretta Young. Its plot sees Vicki (Gable) frustrated with her boyfriend, Dan Christy (John Payne), her Broadway dance partner caught fooling around with other women. Vicki hooks up with her former dance partner Victor Prince (Caesar Romero), where they're hired to perform in a swanky hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Meanwhile, Dan receives an offer from a pair of financiers to team up with Vicki again. He arrives at the Canadian hotel with newly-hired valet McTavish (Edward Everett Horton) and secretary (Carmen Miranda) in an attempt to make amends with Vicki.
The "Brazilian Bombshell" Miranda was enjoying success in Hollywood when making "Springtime in the Rockies." 20th Century Fox bought out her contract with theatre owner Lee Shubert for $60,000 to devote all her time to movies. The film critic at the Chicago Tribune loved her performance in "Springtime in the Rockies," writing the "musical was "senseless, but eye intriguing. The basic plot is splashed over with songs and dances and the mouthings and eye and hand work of Carmen Miranda, who sure would be up a tree if she ever had to sing in the dark."
Grable captured the number one box office spot in 1943, sending its previous champs Abbott and Costello into third place. "Springtime in the Rockies" was a huge hit, grossing well over $2 million. The movie consistently ranks as one of Gable's most popular motion pictures, with one fan poll placing the film at the top.
Even as IOU (1942)
The Stooges Horse Around in This Delightful Display Towards Animals
Despite all the physical abuse the Three Stooges dished out to one another, the comedians' hearts melted when it came to babies and animals. In the past, Three Stooges films have portrayed Curly's love for dogs, which in real life he had a passion. In September 1942 "Even as IOU," their 65th short film, the Stooges find themselves owners of a washed-up race horse. Fleeing from the police after caught selling fraudulent racing forms, the three find a mother and daughter with their furniture laid out behind a billboard. They've had their house repossessed, leaving them with just a piggy bank of loose change. The Stooges promise to parlay the mother's life savings, going to the track to bet on a long-shot. Their horse wins, but two shysters convince them to buy their talking horse, which turns out to be an aging race horse. Stuck with a bad purchase, the Stooges decide to keep the equine when Curly accidentally ingests a Vitamin Z pill for the horse, which hits home for survivors of Covid-19 when the horse medicine ivermectin was purported to treat the virus ripping through the world in 2020.
Several topical subjects of the WW2 era crop up in "Even as IOU" when Curly mentions to the mother she could take out an "FBI loan." He mistakenly confuses the FBI with the FHA, short for the Federal Housing Administration under President Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" where the government made low interest home loans to alleviate the housing crises. Later, while the Stooges accept the challenge to increase the wealth of the mother by taking her piggy bank, the Stooges call it "a lend-lease" transaction. This was the 1941 Lend-Lease Law which had neutral United States supply England as well as other Allied countries equipment and goods so they could keep up with the Nazi war machine.
The Stooges' love for horses is quite evident when the old horse Seabasket (a variation of the legendary Seabiscuit) gives birth to a promising future racehorse, causing the three to hug the baby colt knowing it had the potential of being a prize-winning horse.
Sock-a-Bye Baby (1942)
The Stooges Show a Tender Heart Towards Babies
Despite all the physical abuse the Three Stooges dished out to one another, the comedians' hearts melted when it came to babies and animals. Two back-to-back movies serve as a prime example of their softie attitude towards tiny tykes and horses. In November 1942 "Sock-A-Bye Baby," their final film of the year, the Stooges find themselves with a baby left at their doorstep by a despondent mother. They immediately get into the tender parental mode by first buying the abandoned kid a variety of adult food, starting off by feeding it a radish. The baby boy, who was played by little girl Joyce Gardner, gives out an enormous belch after finishing the large radish. He's then clothed with the Stooges cutting up their checkered table cloth and holding the seams together with safety pins. To hydrate him they placed a nipple on a beer bottle. Curly, who was known to have had a love for the brew in real life, can't help but take a nip from the bottle, only to see it spray all over the place. It's a good excuse for him and Moe to contain the beer by continuing to drink it via the nipple.
Filming "Sock-A-Bye Baby," a variation on the popular phrase 'Rock-a-bye baby,' took place in the spring of 1942, just a few months after Pearl Harbor at the height of anti-Japanese hysteria. A couple of World War Two references made their way into the Stooges' jargon in the short. Curly catches himself mid-sentence while singing to the baby about Japan and spits out, "What am I saying....on the Japanese?" Moe then asks Curly, "What did you eat when you were a baby?" Curly replies, "Weeds." While trying to feed the baby an artichoke, Moe realizes how difficult it is to eat, and labeled the vegetable a 'Nazi Onion.'
Road to Morocco (1942)
Acknowledged as One of the Best, If Not the Best 'Road to....' Films
David Butler, director for the third 'Road to...' picture with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in November 1942's "The Road to Morocco," sported a rather rotund figure, a fact the two stars never let him forget. Tired of their relentless ribbing about his weight, Butler got his revenge when filming the two actors in the middle of a city street facing charging horses. The director told the two not to jump too soon from the galloping horses with riders atop until he barked out the "jump" signal. Once the cameras rolled, the horses ran closer and closer as Hope and Crosby patiently waited. Realizing Butler was taking too long to give the command, they jumped before hearing him. Bruised from the impact, the actors saw Butler laughing hysterically, saying it was an outstanding shot. Crosby fired back, "Great shot? Great shot? You almost killed us!" Butler, seeing the two received a nice payback, said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that. Not until the final scene, anyway." Hope later came up with the nickname for Butler as "The Murderer."
Victor Schertzinger, who directed the first two "Road to ..." successful movies, died of a sudden heart attack at 53, and Butler was called in to replace him. A former actor, Butler turned to directing in 1927, helming dozens of films. He later handled several television shows including 'Leave It To Beaver' and 'Wagon Train.' He believed in giving a long rope to his actors, allowing Crosby and Hope to improvise when they could, knowing both possessed a quick wit for ad-libbing. "If anything happened that was out of the ordinary, I'd always let the cameras run," said Butler. "And we got some of our funniest stuff after the scene was over. I'd let the camera roll until they got off the set, or walked out, or whatever happened." One scene had a camel kissing Hope, which resulted in the actor getting spit in the face, footage which remains in the final print. Dorothy Lamour, the movie's regular love interest in the Road movies, later described herself as "the happiest and highest-paid straight woman in the business. I felt like a wonderful sandwich, a slice of white bread between two slices of ham."
"The Road to Morocco" was the first in the series to have an original script. Jeff Peters (Crosby) and Orville Jackson (Hope) finds themselves on a life raft after the ship they were stowaways on blew up. Stealing a camel to get to a nearby Moroccan city, Jeff sells Orville into slavery to squeeze out of a jam. A prophet predicted to bachelorette Princess Shalmar (Lamour) her first husband will die within a week of marriage, prompting her to buy Orville to marry her. Suddenly her lover, Sheik Mullay Kasim (Anthony Quinn), arrives riding into town.
The writers felt Quinn had a strong resemblance to Rudolph Valentino, star of 1921's "The Sheik," and inserted a scene of the actor and Lamour riding the sand dunes near Yuma, Arizona, duplicating the famous silent movie sequence. "Anthony Quinn played the villain," wrote Lamour in her autobiography. "Old-time actor Monte Blue, who was also in the film, walked over to Quinn one day and told him, 'It's remarkable you look so much like Rudy Valentino. I've never seen such a likeness, and I should know - I worked with him.'"
Film reviewer Steve Morrissey observed, "It's the Arabian Nights reworked as a cosy nightclub double-act and even now all these decades later it's highly enjoyable." "Road to Morocco" was released just at the time the United States Army was landing in North Africa in November 1942. Allied commander General Dwight Eisenhower was about to leave his base in London to visit the front when his transport plane was grounded because of bad weather. To kill time, his staff arranged a private screening of "Road To Morocco." The timing was perfect since Eisenhower thoroughly enjoyed the scenes depicting where he was headed.
Considered by critics as one of the best, if not the best, "Road to..." movies, the Academy Awards nominated "Road to Morocco" for Best Original Screenplay and Best Sound Recording. The American Film Institute ranks it the 78th Funniest Film and its title song, 'We're Off on the Road to Morocco' the 95th Best Song in film. AFI also nominated it for one of the Best Movies, as well as its hit song, 'Moonlight Becomes You,' sung by Crosby, as one of the Best Songs in Movies.
Casablanca (1942)
A Cultural Touchstone and a Major Influence For Future Directors
The most quoted film in the history of cinema saw a copy of the play it was based on, 'Everybody Comes to Rick's,' lying in the cluttered office of a Warner Brothers' story editor for months. When it was discovered, scripted, produced and released in November 1942, "Casablanca" emerged as one of the most popular movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Its influence touched an inordinate amount of future film directors as well as it created a cultural touchstone for millions.
Going into "Casablanca's" production, studio executives felt the film, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, would be just another movie centered around recent World War Two events. Instead, the war-time romance set in Vichy French Morocco was the dark horse winner for the Academy Awards 1943 Best Picture, and Michael Curtiz the Best Director winner. "Casablanca" has consistently been listed in the top ten 'Best Movie' polls, named the second best by the American Film Institute.
"With rich and smoky atmosphere, anti-Nazi propaganda, Max Steiner's superb musical score, suspense, unforgettable characters (supposedly 34 nationalities are included in its cast) and memorable lines of dialogue," writes film historian Tim Dirks, "it is one of the most popular, magical (and flawless) films of all time - focused on the themes of lost love, honor and duty, self-sacrifice and romance within a chaotic world."
The unproduced play, 'Everybody Comes to Rick's,' was sitting in studio East Coast editor Jack Wilk's office. An associate producer under Hal Wallis rummaged through Wilk's shelves soon after Pearl Harbor looking for ideas with a war message, and saw potential in its dust-covered pages. When Wallis read the play he realized it could make for a good movie, and he had brothers Philip and Julius Epstein write the script. Inspired by the Charles Boyer 1938 movie "Algiers," they gave the embryonic movie the geographical name where it took place, "Casablanca."
This was Bogart and Bergman's only film together. Their relationship on the set was cordial, while off the set they got together just once to discuss the movie during lunch early in the filming. Actress Geraldine Fitzgerald remembers her and the two at the table. "The whole subject at lunch was how they could get out of that movie," Fitzgerald remembered. "They thought the dialogue was ridiculous and the situations were unbelievable. I knew Bogart very well, and I think he wanted to join forces with Bergman, to make sure they both said the same things." Bogart told Orson Welles during its filming, "I'm in the worst picture I've ever been in." Bergman saw the part of Ilsa a pure fluff, especially compared to her next film, her dream role in an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Even Paul Henreid, whose character was resistance fighter Victor Laszio, realized playing fourth fiddle in "Casablanca" after co-starring with Bette Davis in "Now, Voyager" was a demotion. Julius Epstein admitted the script had "more corn than in the states of Kansas and Iowa combined. But when corn works, there's nothing better."
Bogart was more upset with his actress wife Mayo Methot than the script. Her extreme jealousy towards Bergman drove the actor crazy. Whenever Mayo knew Bogie was scheduled to be in a scene with Ingrid, she would storm into his dressing room accusing him of having an affair. Ironically, Bogart hated those love scenes with Bergman. "I don't like them, maybe because I don't do them very well," he admitted. "It isn't possible to shoot a love scene without having a hairy-chested group of grips standing four feet away from you, chewing tobacco." Standing a few inches shorter than Bergman, Bogart had to wear three-inch wooden blocks tied to his shoes, and when on a couch he sat on extra cushions next to her.
Filming the conclusion in "Casablanca, the script still had loose ends. Leading up to the scenes at the foggy city airport, American Rick Blaine (Bogart) had purchased a bar/casino in Casablanca, Morocco, after the Germans overran Paris where he was living in 1940. He was stood up at his appointed date with his girlfriend Ilsa Lund (Bergman), who heard her thought-to-be dead husband Victor Laszio was alive and had escaped a concentration camp, seeking Ilsa's help. Rick possessed German letters of transit (in the real world this was pure fiction) which would allow the couple to book passage on an airplane to Lisbon. The play ended with Rick arrested by the Germans and sent to prison for killing a German office as the couple were flying off, an ending which was a downer in wartime America. On the way to the studio to film the final scene, the Epsteins figured out how to solve the sticky situation by seeing corrupt local police captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) having a change of heart, telling his police underlings, "Round up the usual suspects" instead of arresting Rick. In addition, the Epsteins wrote two separate lines to chose for the ending as Rick was walking away from the camera with Renault. The first was Rick saying, "Louis, I might have known you'd mix your patriotism with a little larceny," while the second was, "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Producer Wallis picked the second, and summoned Bogart back to the studio to voice over one of cinema's greatest concluding quotes.
The play had Rick and Ilsa's favorite song "As Time Goes By" carried over to the film. Played by Rick's close friend Sam (Dooley Wilson), the tune was composed for the 1931 play 'Everybody's Welcome." In "Casablanca," Bergman actually asks Sam who's tickling the keys on his piano to "Play it once, Sam. For old times' sake." Later, Bogie insists to Sam "you played it for her, you can play it for me!" The song "As Time Goes By" didn't qualify for the Academy Awards Best Song since it was introduced in 1931.
Warner Brothers wanted to capitalize on the Allied landings in Morocco and the North African coast known as Operation Torch in late 1942, and rushed "Casablanca" for its November release. The film also received a boost in publicity during its January nationwide release coinciding with the Casablanca Conference where Allied leaders President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met. Roosevelt requested a special showing of the picture as soon as he returned to Washington, D. C. Even though "Casablanca" premiered in New York City on November 26, 1942, the movie didn't qualify for the Academy Awards until its showing in Los Angeles and nationwide in January 1943, a rule which delayed its consideration until the 16th awards ceremonies in March 1944, winning the Best Picture Oscar along with Curtiz as Best Director and Best Screenplay. Bogart and Rains were nominated, while Arthur Edeson's Best Cinematography, Owen Marks' Best Film Editing and Max Steiner's Best Musical Score were all nominees. The American Film Institute ranks "Casablanca" the second best Movie Ever Made, first as the Most Passionate, 'As Time Goes By' as the 2nd Best Song heard in film, Rick Blaine as the 4th Best Hero, 32nd as the Most Cheerful, and 37th Most Thrilling. Six lines were voted by AFI as the Best Quotes in Film, the most by far for any movie (1939s "Gone With The Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz" share second with three Best Quotes.). "Here's looking at you, kid," ad libbed by Bogart (fifth Best), "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship" (20th Best), "Play it, Sam, play 'As Time Goes By'" (28th), "Round up the usual suspects" (32nd), "We'll always have Paris" (43rd), and "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine" (67th). "Casablanca" is one of '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die."
A Tale of Two Kitties (1942)
Tweety Bird's First Cartoon, Foiling Two Abbott and Costello Lookalike Cats
Tweety, the yellow pet canary in Warner Brothers Looney Tunes, wasn't always the caged bird battling his feline adversary, Sylvester. In his first cartoon appearance, November 1942's "A Tale of Two Kitties," Tweety was a wild baby bird nesting high in an outdoor tree. Two hungry cats in the shape of Abbott and Costello are hungry for the little bird. Once aroused, Tweety becomes a powerhouse dynamo, frustrating several attempts by the two cats, Babbit and Catstello, to catch and eat him.
Designed by Warner Brothers' animated director Bob Clampett, Tweety joined the artist's innovative characters Porky Pig and Daffy Duck into the studio's fold. Clampett was inspired by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali, shaping his objects into abstract forms, as evident when Catstello, on the receiving end of a falling anvil, is mushed into a pancake. In "A Tale of Two Kitties," Tweety says his signature line, 'I taut I taw a puddy tat,' voiced by Mel Blanc for the first time as the canary breaks the 'fourth wall' and talks into the camera. Like the later 'Roadrunner' episodes, Tweety's adversaries ramp up ingenious methods in the cats' attempts to capture the bird, only to be frustrated, mostly with Catstello bearing the brunt.
Tweety was first known as Orson on the drawing boards. By combining the words 'sweetie,' which was the bird's initial disposition while snoozing in his nest, with 'tweet,' the sounds birds make, Tweety's baptism name came about. During the course of the Golden Age of Cartoons lasting until 1964, the bird was drawn in 46 different forms. At first, Tweety was pink. The censors, viewing the original sketches, told the studio the pink bird, looking sunburned, appeared naked. So the artists shaded the bird yellow, similar to a canary, the color he's kept throughout his life.
"A Tale of Two Kitties" contains several references to World War Two. Catstello is inside a 'victory garden' when an anvil falls on his head. These gardens were situated both on private and public lands to increase food supplies and to alleviate vegetable shortages, much of it shipped overseas. When Babbitt launches Catstello tied to a board serving as airplane wings, the the cat spits high into the air claiming he's a Spitfire, the British fighter plane which played such a crucial role during the Battle of Britain. And Tweety dons a helmet reading air raid warden, where volunteers in this position were tasked with enforcing area blackouts as well as sounding the air raid alarm.
Clampett left Warner Brothers after the war. Artist Friz Freleng shortly came up with Sylvester the cat, and gave Tweety a more adorable look. The pair emerged as one of the most popular rivalries created in cartoons.
Who Done It? (1942)
One of Best A&C Comedies Ending a Banner Year for Them
The year 1942 was great for the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. They ruled as box office champions, and they had their hand and footprints immortalized in concrete in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. They wrapped up their banner year by the November release of "Who Done It?" one of the pair's most celebrated films. Its success promptly sent them on a 35-day cross-country summer war bond drive, netting the United States Treasury Department over $85 million. To boot, they launched their own popular radio program on NBC, 'The Abbott and Costello Show.'
"Who Done It?" was Abbot and Costello's first feature film without musical interludes. "It's like someone took a serious script from a typical B-movie murder mystery and inserted comedy routines, deftly weaving the more serious story around them," describes film reviewer Steve Miller. Bud as Chick Larkin and Lou as Mervin Milgrim are two soda jerks working in a radio station's headquarters who aspire to be radio script writers. They drop in on the station's live airing of a program just as the network's president is mysterious electrocuted. His death kicks off a madcap series of events for the two as they take on investigator roles, while city police detectives Lt. Lou Moran (William Gargan) and Detective Brannigan (William Bendix) arrive on the scene.
Abbott and Costello's most popular schtick early in their career was the 'Who's on First' skit. In ""Who Done It?" the routine is brought up twice. The first is when the discussion of the electrocution of the network president comes up. The totally ad-libbed scene between the two intermix electrical terms 'watts' (what) and 'volts' (votes), confusing Lou. "Next you'll be telling me Watt's on second base," says the perplexed Costello. The second was when they later turned on a radio and their 'Who's on First' routine is aired. They immediately turned it off, revolted by what they heard.
Costello correctly pegged himself as the funny man of the comedy team, playing against straight man Abbott. After filming a few scenes in "Who Done It?" with actor William Bendix, Lou stormed into producer Alex Gottlieb's office and bellowed, "Don't you ever do that to me again!" Confused, Gottlieb asked what he had done. Flustered, Costello explained, "You put somebody in one of my pictures who's funnier than me," referring to Bendix, who said his serious lines exactly from the script. Yet Bendix, an Oscar nominee, was unintentionally funny in his sublimed physical delivery.
"It couldn't have been easy playing second banana to Lou," noted film reviewer R. B. Armstrong, "whose style of comedy demands the camera focus on him." Producer Gottlieb was increasingly frustrated with Costello's work habits, feeling the comic's indolence was affecting his acting and his movies. The producer reached the end of his rope with the two, and soon quit Universal Pictures to go elsewhere.
The pair never reached the heights of popularity again. Four months after the release of "Who Done It?" when the two comedians were wrapping up their winter tour of USO shows at the various army bases, Lou came down with a bad case of rheumatic fever, forcing him to take a six month hiatus. Universal had two movies in the can which they released in 1943, but their one-year box office reign slipped to third, and would never regain the top position again.
You Were Never Lovelier (1942)
Rita Hayworth's Personal Favorite, Her Second and Final With Fred Astaire
A funeral parlor would normally be the last place to rehearse dance routines in preparation for a movie musical. But with space unavailable at Columbia Pictures' studio, Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth were forced to rent the only space available in the nearby neighborhood above the Hollywood Cemetery funeral parlor to practice for November 1942 "You Were Never Lovelier." Their rehearsals were put on pause when a funeral took place downstairs. Astaire was always ready with a quip when the somber atmosphere casted a cloud on their sessions. One practical joke he loved was dipping his hand in the bucket of ice used to cool soft drinks and take Rita in his arms, sending her screeching.
Despite all the lamentations downstairs, Hayworth said of all the movies she appeared in, "You Were Never Lovelier" was her personal favorite. Marking her second film with Astaire, her first with Fred was in 1941's 'You'll Never Get Rich.' Their chemistry was so seamless Astaire confessed after he was evasive when asked who his favorite dance partner was, which included Ginger Rogers in ten movies, and Hollywood's best tap dancer in Eleanor Powell. "All right, I'll give you a name," Astaire reluctantly responded. "But if you ever let it out, I'll swear I lied. It was Rita Hayworth." He described her as the first 'natural' dancer he worked with since his sister Adele during his Broadway days, adding Hayworth was "with trained perfection and individuality. She learned steps faster than anyone I'd ever known. I'd show her a routine before lunch. She'd be back right after lunch and have it down to perfection. She apparently figured it out in her mind while she was eating." Fred's biographer Charlie Reinhart added, "There was a kind of reserve about Fred. It was charming. It carried over to his dancing. With Hayworth there was no reserve. She was very explosive. And that's why I think they really complemented each other."
The previous year, Hayworth was featured in a Life magazine article accompanied by a photo in her negligee. This was the most requested pin-up photograph besides Betty Grable's during World War Two. Columbia Pictures capitalized on Hayworth's recent stardom by producing "You Were Never Lovelier," a remake of 1941's Argentina musical 'On Tuesdays, Orchids,' lending a Latino flair to the music composed by Jerome Kern and Johnny Mercer (lyrics). Spanish bandleader Xavier Cugat and his orchestra are featured as the house band in the swanky New York City nightclub owned by Eduardo Acuna (Adolphe Menjou), who invites them to Buenos Aires to play at the wedding of his daughter Maria (Hayworth). Well-known dancer Bob Davis (Astaire) lost all his money betting on horses, and seeks employment at Acuna's Argentina nightclub where he meets Maria. She thinks Bob is writing passionate love letters to her, but it's really her father who's penning the notes.
Fred and Rita danced three unforgettable numbers, kicking off with Astaire's best known one, 'I'm Old Fashioned.' Hayworth appeared to be singing the song, but it's really Nan Wynn's voice. The pair's second dance was 'The Shorty George,' a reference to Harlem's African-American champion dancer George 'Shorty' Snowden, innovator to the 'Lindy Hop' and other Jitterbug dance steps. Their third number was the title song 'You Were Never Lovelier,' appearing in the grand finale. In addition, Astaire performed a solo dance in front of Menjou, accompanied by Cugat's band in 'Audition Dance.' Fred claimed this was "one of my best solos," filled with comic overtones while he's showing off his incredible athleticism jumping on and off desks, couches and chairs.
Astaire and Hayworth were never paired again, using their busy schedule as an excuse. "You Were Never Lovelier" was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Musical Score, Best Sound Recording and Best Song, 'Dearly Beloved,' which proved to be a big hit for Astaire.
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Errol Flynn Shows Personal Health Concerns With a Heart Attack While Filming Classic Boxing Film
Playing the role of a championship boxer took quite a toll on actor Errol Flynn, who had just failed his physical for military service in World War Two. His portrayal of Jim Corbett, the fleet-footed boxer who transformed the sport at the turn-of-the-century in November 1942's "Gentleman Jim" required long boxing sessions in the ring. Flynn, 33, worked out so hard he suffered a mild heart attack while filming a boxing scene with Ward Bond, who played John L. Sullivan, delaying production for several days (Warner Brothers claimed he simply was exhausted.).
His co-star, actress Alexis Smith, told Flynn after one grueling session, "It's so silly, working all day and then playing all night and dissipating yourself. Don't you want to live a long life?" The actor, known for his late night carousing, replied, "I'm only interested in this half. I don't care for the future."
The Australian Flynn was motivated to become a United States citizen in August 1942 after Pearl Harbor. He tried to enlist right after his citizenship swearing-in ceremony, but his physical exam showed the malaria he contracted in New Guinea as a young man was still in his system. He also had venereal disease, a heart murmur and latent pulmonary tuberculosis. Seen as a model of fitness in "Gentleman Jim," Flynn had trouble shaking off the stigma of military service cowardliness from the press and his critics since Warners didn't want to publicize all his disqualifying ailments.
"Effortlessly transferring the agility of his swashbucklers to the fleet-footedness of a boxer," writes film reviewer Stephen Lynch, "Flynn gives one of his most confident performances in a role that relies on his physical and verbal acuity equally." Loosely based on Corbett's 1894 autobiography 'The Roar of the Crowd,' "Gentleman Jim" was one of Flynn's personal favorites. To prepare for the fight scenes, former boxer Flynn needed to adopt Corbett's famous style. Junior Welterweight champion Mushy Callahan worked with the actor on his footwork and agility for several days. Callahan described his sessions with the actor: "Errol tended to use his right fist. I had to teach him to use his left and to move very fast on his feet. Luckily he had excellent footwork, he was dodgy, he could duck faster than anybody I saw. And by the time I was through with him, he'd jab, jab, jab with his left like a veteran." Flynn was so expert in the ring he's seen doing most of the boxing himself on the screen.
Directed by Raoul Walsh, his third of eleven films with Flynn, "Gentleman Jim" opens with Corbett as a bank teller, who eventually enters the boxing ring, departing from the bare-knuckled brawling tactics of old with more sophisticated tactics and a new punching style. The real Corbett, labeled the 'Father of Modern Boxing,' introduced daily training to the sport as well as emerging as the first sex symbol in sports. He broadened boxing's popularity in his 1897 championship fight with Robert Fitzsimmons, captured in what some claim is cinema's first feature film. He's the only boxer to defeat John L. Sullivan, depicted in the movie with Ward Bond as the former champ. Flynn displayed a brash confidence in the film, opposite of the humble and quiet Corbett. The fighter's arrogance in the picture initially turns off his future wife, Victoria Ware (Alexis Smith), who's cool towards his overbearing personality, but eventually warms up to the personable boxer.
Alexis Smith, 21, was a recent discovery for Warner Brothers. The Hollywood High School graduate was spotted in a Los Angeles City College stage play and signed with the studio. Receiving bit parts from 1940 onward, she achieved her first credited role in Errol Flynn's 1941 "Dive Bomber" before elevated to playing Victoria in "Gentleman Jim." Loving the stage, she continued live acting while making movies, and was a frequent guest star in many television dramas. Her final appearance was in Martin Scorsese's 1993 "The Age of Innocence."
Flynn was on a hot streak rarely seen in Hollywood with "Gentleman Jim" grossing well over two million, his third movie to achieve such a milestone within a year. He shortly signed a new contract with Warner Brothers stipulating four film appearances a year, one which gave him the luxury to produce. With the contract, the actor made far more than Corbett ever did in the ring.