SIX OF A KIND

SIX OF A KIND (1934). Director: Leo McCarey. "

According to you everything I like to do is illegal, immoral, or fattening." -- W. C. Fields. 

 A bank employee, "Pinky" Whinney (Charlie Ruggles), and his wife (Mary Boland) advertise for another couple to share expenses as they go on a second honeymoon and drive all the way from the east coast to California. Who shows up but George (Burns) and Gracie (Allen), an unmarried couple with a humongous, if lovable, dog. The foursome and the beast have assorted, funny misadventures as they travel westward, especially in a small town where John Hoxley (W. C. Fields) is sheriff, Mrs. Rumford (Alison Skipworth) is the hotel proprietress, and "Pinky" is accused of stealing $50,000 from the bank where he works -- and of having a mistress! Fields gets to perform his famous pool routine as he explains how he got the nickname of "Honest" John, and it's a delight to see the formidable Boland squaring off against him. One of the funniest bits has Boland falling off a cliff onto a tree. Everyone in the cast is in top form! 

Verdict: This will put you in a good mood if nothing does! ***.

BECKY SHARP

Miriam Hopkins and Frances Dee

BECKY SHARP (1935). Director: Rouben Mamoulian.

Becky Sharp (Mariam Hopkins), a charity case in a finishing school, goes off with her wealthy friend Amelia (Frances Dee of I Walked with a Zombie) where she hopes to become affianced to Amelia's portly brother, Joseph (Nigel Bruce). Things don't go quite the way Becky expected, but she advances in society due to her looks, her aggressiveness, and many compliant men, including the Marquis of Sheyne (Cedric Hardwicke) and her husband, Rawdon Crawley (Alan Mowbray), whom she seems to love sincerely. But Becky's scheming may eventually undo her ...

Miriam Hopkins and Alan Mowbray

This version of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, filmed in early Technicolor, is amusing and engaging. Hopkins demonstrates true star quality, although her performance is at times overwrought and overly theatrical, yet she always plays with undeniable passion. It's hard to see Alan Mowbray [Dante], better known as a comic foil than anything else, as a romantic figure, but he is as good as ever, as is Hardwicke. Frances Dee is fine as Amelia, even though her character is allowed no real fireworks even when she thinks her husband is carrying on with Becky. Nigel Bruce offers one of his best portrayals as Joseph, and Alison Skipworth is a riot as Rawdon Crawley's peppery Aunt Julia. Billie Burke has a small role, and Mrs. Leslie Carter is lost in a crowd with no lines. (Five years later Hopkius would play Carter in Lady with Red Hair.) An exciting sequence takes place at a ball when Napoleon arrives at the nearby village of Waterloo.

Verdict: An arresting if uneven performance by Hopkins in an absorbing, fast-paced adaptation of a classic novel. ***. 

THE GIRL FROM 10TH AVENUE

Bette Davis and Ian Hunter

THE GIRL FROM 10TH AVENUE (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green.

Geoff Sherwood (Ian Hunter) has been tossed over by his fiancee Valentine (Katharine Alexander) for a wealthier man, John (Colin Clive of Bride of Frankenstein). On her wedding day Geoff gets good and drunk and encounters the sympathetic Miriam (Bette Davis), who eventually imbibes with him and winds up getting married to him that very night. Miriam agrees that he can end the marriage whenever he wants to, but she sticks to him as the weeks go by. Then Valentine, dissatisfied with her marriage to John, comes a'calling ... The young Bette Davis appeared in many forgettable movies but The Girl from 10th Avenue is actually not a bad picture. Davis is terrific and luminescent as Miriam, and she not only has credible support from Hunter [Call It a Day] and an excellent Colin Clive, but a very good playmate in Alison Skipworth [The Devil is a Woman] as her landlady, Mrs. Martin. The best and funniest scene in the movie has Miriam telling off the rather horse-faced Valentine in the dining room of the Waldorf-Astoria. John Eldredge and Phillip Reed also have small roles as Geoff's friends, and Mary Treen shows up briefly as well.

Verdict: Not bad early Bette. ***.

DANGEROUS

DANGEROUS (1935). Director: Alfred E. Green.

Don Bellows (Franchot Tone) is a successful architect engaged to Gail Armitage (Margaret Lindsay). One day Don spots the dissipated actress, Joyce Heath (Bette Davis), who has gone on a long bender after her once-promising career disintegrated. Joyce, and anyone who could hire her, are convinced she is a jinx. Admiring her talent and feeling that she once inspired him, Don takes it upon himself to bring Joyce back into the light -- and the limelight. But can Joyce overcome her own fears and insecurities, or will she sink back into the morass of doubt and depression? Dangerous is a good and entertaining picture, but one senses there's an even better movie lost in there somewhere. The sudden introduction of Joyce's husband, Gordon (John Eldredge), adds an almost weird plot turn to the movie, as well as an ending that may be strange to many (although I thought it worked). Davis [Dark Victory] won a Best Actress Oscar for Dangerous, although she's certainly given better performances elsewhere. Both she and Lindsay [Baby Face] ruin some dramatic scenes by rushing through their lines as if there's an explosive fire on the sound stage just out of camera range, and there's an unintentionally comical moment when a producer says of Joyce: "even in rehearsal it's the greatest performance I've ever seen." Unfortunately, Davis' on-stage emoting in this scene is laughably mediocre. There's some very good dialogue in the movie, but a little too much of "Mildred" from Davis' Of Human Bondage. Both Joyce and Gail are convinced  they will wind up with Don when neither lady has a good reason for thinking so. Franchot Tone [I Love Trouble] gives a fine performance; Eldredge is also good in a very under-written role; and Alison Skipworth is terrific as Bellows' housekeeper, Mrs. Williams. Dick Foran and Mary Treen have smaller roles and are swell.

Verdict: Snappy if suspect melodrama with some good lines and acting. ***.

THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN

THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN (1935). Director (and photography): Josef von Sternberg.

Anyone who's interested in examining the famous Dietrich mystique need look no further than this 1935 classic directed by her great admirer [and lover] von Sternberg. At the turn of the century during a carnival in Spain, Don Pasqual (Lionel Atwill) tells his friend Antonio (Cesar Romero) about his long-time love for the beautiful if cold-hearted Concha (Dietrich) in an attempt to warn him away from her -- or does he have another objective? This interesting and amusing study of unrequited love and love-finally-won is beautifully acted by all three principals, not to mention Alison Skipworth as Concha's mother and Edward Everett Horton as the fluttery governor, who's also smitten with Concha. The movie is unpredictable and highly sophisticated. One could argue that the ending is wish fulfillment on von Sternberg's part [he was only seven years older than Dietrich, but less attractive than Atwill], but it works beautifully. Atwill, who toiled in many B movies and horror items and always delivered fine performances, is given one of his most memorable roles in this picture. Dietrich sings the delightful "Three Sweethearts." This is miles ahead of von Sternberg junk like Macao.

Verdict: Dietrich and a fine cast in top form. ***1/2.

STOLEN HOLIDAY

STOLEN HOLIDAY (1937). Director: Michael Curtiz.

Kay Francis is a dress model who is hired by a man who wants her to model clothing for his wife, who is ill at home. Only it turns out the man (Claude Rains) has no wife and really wants Kay to help him put on a domestic front for some investors. Apparently it works, because in short order (in running time, that is) Rains is a successful businessman and Kay has opened her own fashion house with money given her by a grateful Rains. Unfortunately, it also turns out that Rains is a crook, although he feigns innocence with Francis, asking her to marry him (for added respectability) as the authorities close in, when she really loves Ian Hunter. This light drama hinges on the enduring friendship between Rains and Francis, who feels she owes him everything, but we don't see enough of those early years when this friendship is forged and see nothing at all of the crucial meeting with the investors for which Rains utilized Kay in the first place. The film isn't terrible, just distinctly minor. Francis is okay, giving the part no more than it deserves (although there are actresses who might have done more with it), Rains is excellent, and Alison Skipworth adds some sparkle as a friend and associate of Kay's who sees through Rains from the first.

Verdict: Easy to take but forgettable. **.