Christmas Eve.

Review #1777: Christmas Eve.

Cast: 

George Raft (Mario Torio), George Brent (Michael Brooks), Randolph Scott (Jonathan), Joan Blondell (Ann Nelson), Virginia Field (Claire), Dolores Moran (Jean Bradford), Ann Harding (Aunt Matilda), Reginald Denny (Phillip Hastings), Douglass Dumbrille (Dr. Bunyan), Carl Harbord (Dr. Doremus), Dennis Hoey (Williams-Butler), Clarence Kolb (Judge Alston), Molly Lamont (Harriet Rhodes), John Litel (Joe Bland, FBI Agent), Walter Sande (Mario's Hood), Joe Sawyer (Private Detective Gimlet), and Konstantin Shayne (Gustav Reichman) Directed by Edwin L. Marin (#503 - A Christmas Carol (1938) and #532 - The Death Kiss)

Review: 

When it comes to Christmas movies, one has plenty of choices. This might be one of the stranger picks to go along with, if only because there are just so many movies centered around the holiday, complete with a handful that have it in the title. But hey, how many pseudo-anthology movies exist around the holiday? Well, at least if you think about it, given the framing device. It revolves around an eccentric old millionaire (one who likes to open the window after putting bird food in the house and give money to kids that kill rats) that could get committed to the nut house if she doesn't happen to have her three (adopted and fully grown) sons show up to meet the judge on Christmas Eve. This is where Brent, Raft, and Scott all come in, with the middle of the three being the only serious one of the bunch, complete with a brief skirmish with a Nazi. Of course, the latter involves a screwball-ish plot with adoption and undercover cops, so here we are with vignettes that revolve around some sort of vice. Of course, there were a few writers responsible for this film. Laurence Stallings and Richard H. Landau adapted the film from original stories, while Stallings did the screenplay. Of course, two other writers were not given credit for help with the story in Arch Oboler and Robert Altman. This was a Benedict Bogeaus production (having decided to become a producer after having been involved in real estate, radio manufacturing, and zipper-making), and the strange thing is that the firm that helped produce the film soon foreclosed on the film for insolvency, which you generally don't hear about.

Christmas movie or not, there is a great deal of mush to get through with this movie. Technically this film is a mishmash of genres, since it makes attempts to be a comedy-drama with chuckles. Unfortunately, it is lukewarm in its effectiveness, essentially being the equivalent of a roller-coaster ride that consists of a straight path with one curving path at half-speed. It isn't terrible enough to really make fun of (or ignore) nor is it exactly good enough to really sit through more than once. Two moderately okay segments cannot make-up for the rest of its rickety shortcomings, particularly with how predictable it is. It is probably one of the only times you will have a vignette with a fight scene turn out to be the lesser of the vignettes shown. It is a shame too, because Raft clearly deserves better material than what he is given with here, which is bland and not really anyone's speed (the stuff with Shayne is almost cardboard enough to become parody when it comes to cliche Nazi villain stuff). Brent at least seems the part for offbeat hijinks, but it barely goes anywhere in terms of actual interest, with Field's attempts at pep only going so far with a mildly interested person to match. This was actually the last non-Western film with Scott in his career, and he basically does a riff on it with plenty of "aw shucks" charm with a screwy vignette (with Moran), which manages to be more curious than the rest of the other stuff (fittingly, it is the last of the three segments). You might (or might not) be surprised that Harding is packed with plenty of aging makeup (for someone who was under 50 at the time this was made). She would likely be more effective if this was on the stage (i.e. playing to the rafters without much movement from a camera), what with all the carefully planned moments of speech that plays on "doddering" but really comes off as "nice try". Denny, Kolb, and Hoey close out the supporting cast with mild chuckles. As a whole, you get exactly what you think is going to happen for a ninety-minute movie with mild-mannered vignettes: serviceable mush, one that is neither terrible nor great in any regard. It is the kind of thing that can be easily found on the Internet, but the choice is up to those who seek it, because mediocrity can only go so far. I can't quite give it a winning grade, but that is just how it goes sometimes with "okay" movies.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

It doesn't happen often that the film title matches the day...and yet here we are. At any rate, I do have one more review coming for this holiday weekend, but I want to get the greetings out of the way. Have a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

His Girl Friday.

Review #1352: His Girl Friday.

Cast: 
Cary Grant (Walter Burns), Rosalind Russell (Hildy Johnson), Ralph Bellamy (Bruce Baldwin), Gene Lockhart (Sheriff Hartwell), Porter Hall (Murphy), Ernest Truex (Bensinger), Cliff Edwards (Endicott), Clarence Kolb (the Mayor), Roscoe Karns (McCue), Frank Jenks (Wilson), Regis Toomey (Sanders), Abner Biberman (Louie), Frank Orth (Duffy), and John Qualen (Earl Williams) Directed by Howard Hawks (#951 - The Big Sleep)

Review: 
Everybody needs a remake now and then. Or, at the very least, an adaptation of material that strives to improve what had been done before without seeming like a complete cash-grab or unnecessary. In other words, it makes sense to have someone like Howard Hawks at the helm of directing an adaptation of The Front Page, which had been adapted nine years prior. It was a chance meeting with cinematographer and future director Victor Fleming (while racing on vacation) that helped him get his first film job in 1917, serving as a prop boy for In Again, Out Again. After serving in World War I (serving in the US Army Air Service), he returned to Hollywood. Over the next few years, he gradually moved from producer on short films to production editing before his eventual directorial debut with The Road to Glory (1926) for Fox Film. He worked with that studio for three years with marginal success, but over the next four decades he worked as an independent producer-director, with The Dawn Patrol (1930) helping in his transition from silent to sound. He directed in various genres, ranging from romance to comedy to westerns to noir to action. Although he received just one nomination for Best Director, he received an Academy Honorary Award in 1974, three years before his death at 81. Hawks aspired to make a fast-paced adaptation, utilizing multiple microphones (which needed to be turned on and off by the sound technician for scenes, which could be done as much as 35 times) and even using a sound mixer to try and speed up the dialogue to be faster than The Front Page. Hawks encouraged his actors to be spontaneous, with improvisation in the lines serving to help in having the film run a few days over schedule. The main difference between the two films is the character of Hildy being played by a woman, with Hawks being inspired by the actor auditions (or more specifically, someone reading lines belonging to a character) and how his female secretary was saying the lines. Charles Lederer (co-writer of the previous adaptation) was brought in to write this film, which would keep some of the dialogue from before. In any case, this is a wonderful movie, having plenty of charming moments within a quick 92 minute pace that lives to its potential through a solid duo in Grant and Russell. Whether bantering with each other or with others, each does their part in generating amusement while following most of the beats from before without seeming old-hat or too familiar. Grant can be quite conniving with charm, and Russell (who was quite talented in both comedic and dramatic roles) holds up with her own energy, with her even hiring an ad-writer to give her more clever lines, which only Grant seemed to notice. Bellamy holds up just as well with being the straight man to these quirky folks, while Lockhart and Kolb make for a crooked pair of chuckles. The others provide a chuckle or two, with nobody seeming too out-of-place in the long run. It's a charming movie, one that runs fast to please and joke around with through some clever work by Hawks and his cast that makes this a worthy comedy to sit through (perhaps more than once). After all, the film lapsed into the public domain, so one can view it any-time they please without trouble, so there really is no reason to avoid this movie and have your curiosity rewarded. A solid remake that improves on the original - no question there.

Next Review: Sonic the Hedgehog.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.