SAFETY IN NUMBERS

The cast of Safety in Numbers

SAFETY IN NUMBERS  (1930). Director: Victor Schertzinger.

"My uncle says you're well-acquainted with the 400."

"We are. We know all of the husbands and none of the wives."

20-year-old Bill Reynolds (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) will inherit millions on his next birthday, so his uncle inexplicably sends him to New York to supposedly sow his wild oats, yet hires three chorus girls to look after him and keep him out of trouble and away from predatory females. You would think with a plot like this the movie would at least be some fun, but it's so badly written and paced that it's a real snooze-inducer. The three chorus girls are so amateurish that it's a shock to realize that one of them is actually Carol Lombard, who would of course develop into a talented comedienne and major Hollywood figure -- but you'd never know it from this movie. Geneva Mitchell is slightly saucier in her brief turn as Cleo Carew, who has a hankering for Reynolds. 

Rogers had some charm and aplomb, but the movie is dull and the songs not very memorable. Louse Beavers, playing a maid as usual, sings a number -- but you can miss it. The movie has a total of one laugh and only one interesting sequence, when we see a bunch of chorus girls in silhouette before a screen showing scenes of New York. Reynolds unaccountably  falls in love with Jacqueline (Kathryn Crawford), the plainest of the trio. Josephine Dunn rounds out the threesome and Virginia Bruce has so small a role that if you blink you miss her.

Verdict: Almost unbearably bad. 1/2 *. 

FOR THE DEFENSE

William Powell and Kay Francis

FOR THE DEFENSE (1930). Director: John Cronwell. 

Bill Foster (William Powell of The Thin Man) is a famous defense attorney known for his flamboyancy and for tricks that keep his clients from going to jail. His main squeeze is Irene Manners (Kay Francis of Give Me Your Heart), who is loyal to him but discovers that he has no intention of marrying her -- for him things are perfect as they are. Irene goes out for a drive with love-smitten Jack De Foe (Scott Kolk), who proposes to her just before she accidentally runs over and kills a man in the road (we never learn a damned thing about this unfortunate fellow). Jack doesn't want to get Irene involved so he lets her run off while he takes the rap, which is exacerbated by the fact that he was drinking. Irene importunes Bill to take Jack's case and keep him from going to jail for manslaughter, but the lawyer suspects that there's more to the story -- and more to Irene's relationship with Jack. 

Scott Kolk with Powell

At a mere 63 minutes, For the Defense moves at a brisk pace and wastes precious little time in true character development, although the actors, especially an excellent Powell, do much to bring these rather stock characters to life. There's a funny/scary bit in an early courtroom scene when Powell decides to test a piece of evidence, a bottle supposedly filled with nitroglycerine, by dashing it to the floor, giving everyone in the room conniption fits! With a far less dynamic role, Francis can do little to steal scenes from Powell, but she is quietly effective as a woman who loves not wisely but well; Kolk is also effective. The movie with its interesting situations is entertaining despite the contrived script. Poor Francis is decked out in a series of hats that remind one of a classic I Love Lucy episode when the boys give the gals some phony French fashions! John Cromwell would go on to direct much better pictures including Caged. Two years later Powell and Francis reteamed for Jewel Robbery. 

Verdict: Powell is always exciting to watch. **3/4. 

SCHOOL'S OUT

 

Chaney, Jackson, Cooper, DeBorba

SCHOOL'S OUT (1930 short). Director: Robert F.  McGowan. 

In this Little Rascals short produced by Hal Roach, the children are worried at the idea that their pretty teacher, Miss Crabtree (Dorothy DeBorba), might get married and leave the school. Therefore when a man that they assume is her beau shows up at the classroom, they tell him all sorts of awful things about Miss Crabtree, and then steal his clothing when he goes to take a swim in the watering hole nearby! This is a cute time capsule of a movie, rather unreal even when it was made, but the little actors are adorable and adept. Allen "Farina" Hoskins has as much to do as Jackie Cooper, and is very funny and likable. It would be all too easy to harp on the dated, stereotypical aspects of the film and others in the series, but it all seems good-natured for the time, and the young black actors in this are quite talented, especially Farina. 

Verdict: Amiable nonsense with a spirited cast of very young players. ***. 

BORROWED WIVES

Nita Martan

BORROWED WIVES (1930). Director: Frank R. Strayer.

Peter Foley (Rex Lease) has to get married by midnight or he'll forfeit a fortune. Unfortunately, the woman he loves, Alice (Vera Reynolds), is with another man, Joe (Robert Livingstone). Peter owes money to his boss, Parker (Sam Hardy), who insists that his secretary, Julia (Nita Martan), pretend to be Peter's wife. So off they all go to the creaky old home of Peter's Uncle Henry (Charles Sellon) and Aunt Mary (Dorothea Wolbert). Things are complicated when Alice and Joe show up, along with Julia's cop boyfriend, the aptly-named Bull (Paul Hurst). Borrowed Wives was probably meant to be a laugh-riot, but it isn't that funny, and it's an awkward mix of bedroom farce and "old house" movie with secret passages, people who disappear, and even a prowling bobcat  -- none of this does much good. Most of the acting is of the stilted stage variety, with people delivering their lines to the back row of the theater; Dorothea Wolbert is the worst offender.

Verdict: Forgettable creaky old movie. *1/2.

ANNA CHRISTIE

Greta Garbo and Marie Dressler share a cocktail

ANNA CHRISTIE  (1930). Director: Clarence Brown.

"If my old man don't help me, it's men again. Men all the time."

In this loose adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's play, the first film in which "Garbo Talks," coal barge captain Chris Christopherson (George F. Marion) is nervous because the daughter he hasn't seen in may years is coming to town. Chris' companion, Marthy (Marie Dressler), agrees to move off the barge to make way for Anna (Greta Garbo), who far from being innocent was employed as a prostitute after her cousins on the farm had their way with her. As father and daughter awkwardly try to mend fences, into their lives comes a sailor named Matt (Charles Bickford), who falls in love with Anna. But what will he think when he learns of the woman's past? Garbo's performance in her first talkie is a bit uneven, still influenced by the style of silents, but she does have some fine moments, such as when she delivers the poignant "I am my own boss" speech in which she tells of being misused by men throughout her life, and there's a beautifully played scene when Anna and Chris have their first meeting in the bar. Marie Dressler [The Patsy] almost walks off with the movie as Marthy, and has some especially splendid moments when she has a drink with Anna when the younger woman first arrives at the saloon. "You're me," Anna tells her, "forty years from now!" Charles Bickford [The Big Country] is a little broad but effective as Matt. The story is resolved much too neatly [except for poor Marthy] but the movie is well-done and well-acted for the most part. A German language version was made immediately afterward using the same sets but Garbo [Mata Hari] was the only cast carry-over. O'Neill's play was also the basis for the musical "New Girl in Town" decades later.

Verdict: Garbo Talks and More! ***.

A LADY TO LOVE

Robert Ames and Vilma Banky

A LADY TO LOVE (1930). Director: Victor Seastrom.

"Of all the lowdown, dirty tricks that was ever played on a girl!"

A vintner named Tony (Edward G. Robinson) is smitten with a pretty foreign-born waitress, Lena (Vilma Banky), and sends her a proposal of marriage through the mail. Unfortunately he also encloses the photograph and of his younger and better-looking hand, Buck (Robert Ames), leading to sensual complications when Lena finally arrives in the Napa Valley.  This is the second film version (and first sound picture) of Sidney Howard's They Knew What They Wanted and it has a slight edge over the 1940 film of that title, even though Robinson is not as good as Tony as Charles Laughton was. Robinson seems to play the character as if the film were a comedy, although he has some strong moments of poignant desperation at the end. Banky and Ames are fine, although Buck, who seems a decent enough sort, has a bit of a character reversal to bastard towards the end. The best version of this story might be Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella.

Verdict: Creditable adaptation with interesting cast. ***.

LOVIN' THE LADIES

Rita La Roy vamps Richard Dix

LOVIN' THE LADIES (1930). Director: Melville W. Brown.

Useless rich popinjay Jimmy Farnsworth (Jimmy Kearns) has such a cynical attitude that he thinks he can take any two people and get them engaged to each other in a week or so, and love has nothing to do with it. For his experiment he chooses an electrician named Peter (Richard Dix) and a somewhat plain and haughty woman named Betty (Renee Macready). Unfortunately, Peter falls for Joan (Lois Wilson), whom Jimmy hopes to marry, while in the film's funniest scene Jimmy is vamped by the highly aggressive Louise (Rita La Roy). Dix [Seven Keys to Baldpate] has about as much sex appeal as Ernest Borgnine, but he gives a good performance. Another cast stand out, after La Roy, is Virginia Sale as the saucy maid, Marie. This old drawing room comedy is fairly creaky and only intermittently amusing.

Verdict: Horny La Roy is a riot. **.

GREAT OLD MOVIES -- EXTRA

BACK TO "BACK STREET"

"Back Street" author Fannie Hurst

Every once in a while Great Old Movies will put out special "extra" editions where a few movies are lumped together according to theme. In this first extra edition we're looking at the classic 1930 novel of adultery, "Back Street," by Fannie Hurst, and the three film versions that were adapted from it:

BACK STREET (1932) with Irene Dunne and John Boles.

BACK STREET (1941) with Margaret Sullavan and Charles Boyer.

BACK STREET (1961) with Susan Hayward and John Gavin.

THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE

THE LAUREL-HARDY MURDER CASE (1930). Director: James Parrott.

-- "He fell through a trapdoor and died."

-- "Was he building a house?

-- "No. They were hanging him."

In this short the boys go the home of Uncle Ebenezer Laurel for the reading of his will, only to learn that he was murdered and all of the suspects have been gathered in his creepy old house. There are sinister relatives and possibly a ghost -- or at least something flying about in a sheet. Every Laurel and Hardy feature or featurette has some laughs in it, and this is no exception, but it's also kind of slow and until the end rather uneventful. Not one of their best.

Watch A-Haunting We Will Go or Hold That Ghost with Abbott and Costello instead. **.

THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE

THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE. Carolyn Keene. # 2 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Series. Published 1930. NOTE: Occasionally Great Old Movies will look at books, plays, operas and so on that were turned into feature films.

The Hidden Staircase, at least the first version published in 1930, is a pretty darn good juvenile book, and it's easy to see why the series became so incredibly popular. Nancy gets involved with the mysterious case of two sisters who live in a run-down mansion and are afraid that it's either haunted by a malevolent ghost or that some ruthless human agent is somehow gaining entry. Of course the very title alone pretty much gives the game away, but the thing is that the book still manages to be suspenseful and even harrowing at times, especially when our gal is nearly trapped in an underground tunnel with a fading flashlight. Meanwhile Carson Drew is held captive by a nefarious character who has a sinister, tough and rather stereotypical black housekeeper (this gal is a far cry from the typical Hattie McDaniel lovable nanny portrayals of the period). Ned Nickerson, and Nancy's pals Bess and George, do not appear in the book. Carson gives Nancy a gun for protection, and she carries it around with her at all times. Loosely adapted as Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, one of four Nancy Drew movies that starred Bonita Granville.

Verdict: The charms of this series are certainly not hidden. ***.

A NOTORIOUS AFFAIR

A NOTORIOUS AFFAIR (1930). Director: Lloyd Bacon.

Wealthy Patricia Hanley (Billie Dove) scandalizes her father and their friends by marrying a penniless violinist Paul Gherardi (Basil Rathbone). The only one of their crowd who is welcoming to Paul is the unfortunately predatory Countess Olga (Kay Francis, pictured), a sexually-free lady who leaves lipstick all over the stable boy. (This is the kind of movie that equates "loose" sexuality with evil.) As soon as Paul becomes a famous, flamboyant violinist, the countess gets her hooks in him and poor Pat is wringing her hands and consulting with daddy (Montagu Love). Talky and dull, A Notorious Affair could have benefited from a little more notoriety. Kay Francis steals the picture in her sexy, vibrant performance as the countess, but the others are also good. Even with an Italian accent, Rathbone scores as the touchy and temperamental Paul.

Verdict: Turn off the TV and find somebody to be notorious with. *1/2.

PASSION FLOWER

PASSION FLOWER (1930). Director: Uncredited.



"Men are kind of handy in the day time and sort of entertaining in the evening. But as far as I'm concerned, I'd just as soon have a good radio." -- Zazu Pitts.

Katherine (Kay Johnson) infuriates her father by marrying the family chauffeur Dan (Charles Bickford). Her cousin Dulce (Kay Francis) is married to a wealthy, much older man, Tony (Lewis Stone). Proud and stubborn, Dan refuses Dulce's help until circumstances force him to give in. Unfortunately the two proceed to fall in love, causing the expected painful complications. As the selfish Dulce, Francis isn't bad, but her part is too one-dimensional for us to feel much sympathy for her and at times her acting is artificial and stilted. Johnson is quite lovely and affecting as the heart-broken Katherine. The gruff Bickford is an unlikely lover boy but a good actor nevertheless; his scenes with his two little boys are touching (Dickie Moore is adorable as Tommy) but his character is also a bit of a stinker. Zazu Pitts plays Katharine and Dan's pessimistic landlady who somehow winds up moving to a farm with them as housekeeper.

Verdict: Entertaining, but maybe not enough passion. **1/2.

MIN AND BILL

MIN AND BILL (1930). Director: George W. Hill.

Min (Marie Dressler) runs a dockside boarding house and Bill (Wallace Dressler) is one of her tenants, with whom she has an "understanding." However, misunderstandings crop up when an old friend from Min's past, Bella Pringle, shows up. Bella (Marjorie Rambeau) is the prostitute who left her daughter Nancy (Dorothy Jordan) in Min's care years ago. Min told her the girl died just to keep Nancy away from her mother's negative influence, and will do just about anything to keep the slatternly woman from ruining Nancy's life. Trying too hard to be "cruel to be kind," Dressler's character is rather unpleasant in this. She's so anxious for the girl to go off and be happy that she makes her feel she doesn't love her (a ploy that probably occurs only in Hollywood movies); in fact she treats her quite horribly. And she doesn't really give the real mother much of a chance. Whatever the faults of the story --and there are many -- this study of misguided maternal devotion works because of the acting. Rambeau, Beery, and Jordan are top of the line, and Dressler won the Best Actress Oscar.

Verdict: Worth watching for that cast. ***.