The Front Page (1931).

Review #1336: The Front Page.

Cast: 
Adolphe Menjou (Walter Burns), Pat O'Brien (Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson), Mary Brian (Peggy Grant), Edward Everett Horton (Roy V. Bensinger), Walter Catlett (Jimmy Murphy), George E. Stone (Earl Williams), Mae Clarke (Molly Malloy), Slim Summerville (Irving Pincus), Matt Moore (Ernie Kruger), Frank McHugh ("Mac" McCue), Clarence Wilson (Sheriff Peter B. "Pinky" Hartman), Fred Howard (Schwartz), Phil Tead (Wilson), Eugene Strong (Endicott), and Spencer Charters (Woodenshoes) Directed by Lewis Milestone (#901 - The Racket)

Review: 
As the phrase goes, laughter can be the best medicine. The silent era had plenty of comedies to go around, whether short or feature-length, all with their own level of imagination in terms of craftsmanship of gags and actors to play with amusing situations. Obviously this would continue with the sound era, only now you had a voice to go with amusing situations, along with the rise of one notable section of the comedy genre: the screwball. There exists plenty of subgenres to comedy, ranging from slapstick to romantic comedies. The screwball associates with those particular genres with its own twists on the conventional love story alongside characteristics such as fast-paced overlapping dialogue, situations bordering on farce and other various tactics helping with making prime escapist fare. The decade was prime for the screwball comedy, with the most famous example being It Happened One Night (1934). Plenty of directors found a name for themselves in the decade, or at the very least settled into the transition of the silent era without too many snags. Lewis Milestone fell into the category of continued success. Although his body of work for the decade was nearly half from the last decade, he managed to create several interesting and memorable films in varying genres (after all, he is the only man to win an Academy Award for Best Director for comedy and drama), such as the epic war film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), or the novella adaptation Of Mice and Men (1939). Simply put, Milestone had a career spanning six decades for good reason. It should not prove surprising to see Howard Hughes listed as producer, with this being his follow-up after Hell's Angels, since he had produced Milestone's Two Arabian Knights (1927) and The Racket (1928).

The film was adapted to the screen by Bartlett Cormack and Charles Lederer based on the Broadway play of the same name, which had first premiered in 1928 from the creation of Chicago reporters-turned-playwrights-turned-film writers Ben Hecht (who you may remember from his work on Underworld in 1927) and Charles MacArthur. Louis Wolheim was to play the lead role, doing nearly a week of rehearsals before he died unexpectedly of what is now attributed to stomach cancer. In his place is Menjou, who had a near five decade long career in silent and talkie films. He does a tremendous job in garnering sharp laughs, spot on for a rough-and-tumble yet resilient role like this, never turning it into a complete cliche. O'Brien handles himself fairly well, rolling well whenever needing to generate interest with making chemistry with a gamely strong Brian or with the quirky co-star reporters, such as the banjo-playing Moore, and others such as Wilson prove just as well in inducing chuckles. The film has a compact pace, juggling its subplots in 101 minutes with the strokes of a director in his element to make entertainment that impacts the viewer with enough sense in humor and style to keep the audience locked in their seats with anticipation for what amusement could come next, mixing cynicism and sentiment without too much trouble. By the time the film wraps up its subplots up neatly (complete a memorable way of getting around the censoring of a certain word), one is left fairly satisfied by what they have seen. The play would not stop with just one adaptation. In 1940, it was adapted again, this time with the Hildy character being a woman and ex-wife to the Burns character in His Girl Friday, with director Howard Hawks attempting to have even faster-paced dialogue present. Like this film, it also happens to be in the public domain. The film was then remade in 1974 by Billy Wilder and subsequently revised to have the character work in television reporting with Switching Channels (1988), for which neither were particularly big hits. In any case, The Front Page is a fine piece for its era, worthy of a viewing for the curious that yearn for some quick sharp laughs for a worthwhile time in a worthwhile age.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Coquette.

Review #1331: Coquette.

Cast: 
Mary Pickford (Norma Besant), Johnny Mack Brown (Michael Jeffery), Matt Moore (Stanley Wentworth), John St. Polis (Dr. John Besant), William Janney (Jimmy Besant), Henry Kolker (Jasper Carter), George Irving (Robert Wentworth), and Louise Beavers (Julia) Directed by Sam Taylor (#667 - The Freshman, #727 - For Heaven's Sake, #758 - Safety Last!, #864 - Hot Water, #903 - Dr. Jack, #918 - Why Worry?, and #938 - Girl Shy)

Review: 
"I am no longer in pictures for money. I am in them because I love them. I am not in vain. I do not care about giving a smashing personal performance. My one ambition is to create fine entertainment."

Mary Pickford was a star in a time of transition for Hollywood in 1929. Born in Toronto, Canada in 1892, she had grown up with the theatre from a young age, with her mother having taken the suggestion of one of her boarders, a theatrical stage manager to give her two daughters small roles in a production. Years of touring with her family in the theatre were soon changed in 1909 after encountering D. W. Griffith (of the Biograph Company at the time) for a screen test, which led to her being hired to appear (both in bit parts and lead roles) in the company's films; despite not being credited, she received notices from audiences. She left for Adolph Zukor’s Famous Players studio in 1912 and found continued success with films such as Tess of the Storm Country (1914) and The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917). Pickford was also an innovator when it came to studios, as she was one of the co-founders of United Artists in 1919 alongside Griffith, Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, which was formed on the premise of giving creative control to the actors and directors. The burgeoning of the sound era did not deter Pickford from acting. Although she had famously said that adding sound to film would be "like putting lip rouge on the Venus de Milo", Pickford was nervous but ready to debut her voice onto film (she had not appeared in a film since My Best Girl in 1927). When she heard her voice for the first time for a test, she remarked that she sounded like a pipsqueak (ironic for someone who had played numerous child characters since a teenager). She soon did voice training to try and get herself ready to play this southern role with equipment that would try to stick out from the stagey static sound films that encompassed the early sound films.

The film was adapted to the screen by John Grey, Allen McNeil, and director Taylor from the play of the same name by George Abbott and Ann Preston Bridgers, which had featured Helen Hayes in the main role. The play was about a flirty young woman who has to decide what to do after her father kills the man she loves. The manner of who commits suicide is actually the choice of the main character (who was pregnant), as opposed to the film, where it is the father who does so in the midst of his court trial, where his daughter struggles to try and save her father from a death sentence. As for the film itself, it is one that seems more appropriate to give slack for rather than one to give much credit for. It is a middling affair, helmed by a fairly confident Pickford and not much else. It is a fairly clunky affair, filled with plenty of stagy staleness begging to be drawn out more through a 76 minute time that somehow seems ten minutes too long. One would wish more from Pickford, only to realize that she is the key in keeping it from collapsing into being forgettable all together. She seems bright and vivid in a way that the rest of actors are left to act around her with a bit too much camp to go around. There would be plenty of stories to tell about flirtatious or quirky Southern folk to come, some classics and some not: this is one that twists in the wind of the latter category.

Pickford (a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) lobbied with a publicity campaign when it came time to awards season (whereas other nominees didn't even know they were nominated), the first of its kind that seems routine nowadays (with this case being inviting the judges for tea at her estate Pickfair). In any case, Pickford won for Best Actress at the 2nd annual ceremony. She would appear in four more films in the next four years before retiring from acting (although she would keep producing before selling her UA stocks in the 1950s). While the film may not hold itself too well after nine decades, it has not stopped Pickford from enduring as one of film's first and brightest stars, where the term of "America's Sweetheart" just seemed fairly appropriate for her.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: As you could tell, Tribute to the Decades decided to go all out and actually try to cover each year for the 1920s. As such, it will continue for the 1930s.