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Ice Cream Colors Splash of Horror in DOCTOR X

A hodge podge mix of tones – and colors- unexpected in a Pre-Code horror flick. Michael Curtiz’s DOCTOR X remains a stand-out, even more nine decades later. As we explore the filmography of director Curtiz, let’s begin early in his Hollywood years with a Warner Brothers rarity, a horror film. Based on the play “The Terror” by Howard W Comstock and Allen C Miller, the stage production opened in…

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“ONLY CURTIZ SPOKEN HERE”

A Film Study of MICHAEL CURTIZ One of Hollywood’s greatest directors of its pinnacle ‘golden era’ is a name you’ve possibly never heard of. Michael Curtiz directed an impressively prolific filmography, from silents to the early sixties, including popular classics that endure to this day. And yet, his is not a household name. Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, and Steven Spielberg are…

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WHAT EVER HAPPENED to BABY JANE?

We have arrived at the final film in this Bette Davis film study series. The opportunity for WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE came nearly twelve years after our last film, ALL ABOUT EVE. She continued working in those dozen years, but the golden era of Oscar nominated romantic lead roles was rapidly fading away. Now fifty-six years old, Davis was entering the last chapter in her film career. While…

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A Real Hollywood Comeback: ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)

Today we are in for a real treat. Many have rightfully described Joseph L Mankiewicz’s ALL ABOUT EVE as one of cinema’s most remarkable films, and specifically as the most literate and intelligent scripts in all of Hollywood’s golden era. Based on a short story in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1946, author/actress Mary Orr (1910 – 2006) scribed, “The Wisdom of Eve,” in 1946 of an aging theater…

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The Background Story: Bette Davis in NOW VOYAGER

In today’s stop along our grand Bette Davis adventure, we are studying NOW VOYAGER (1941). It is undoubtedly a dramatic tale of romance, but also rooted in a theme of psychiatry and mental health. As a bonus, we are treated to a character makeover. This is a coming out tale. Who doesn’t love a dazzling ‘before and after’ reveal? NOW VOYAGER is based upon a novel by Olive Higgins Prouty (1882 –…

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Bette Davis Delivers in THE LETTER

In our last film, DARK VICTORY (1939), we explored a medical mystery surrounding a privileged socialite. Today we are discussing THE LETTER (1940), another mystery, yet this time of murder and less mystery; and Bette Davis is not just another socialite of privilege, but very much of white colonial privilege. Today we’ll address whether she is portraying a true vixen or perhaps a deeply…

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Tallulah Bankhead Exposes THE CHEAT (1931)

One of the captivating traits found in a Pre-Code film is a dark tone, that often reflects a discernible note of danger. I suppose it’s a flair for the dramatics that draws many to the dark side of Pre-Code cinema. There are many such themes of sins and malice found in George Abbott’s The Cheat (1931) . The alluring Tallulah Bankhead is Elsa Carlyle, an extravagant spender who lives beyond her…

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Bette Davis earned a DARK VICTORY

In our Bette Davis journey, we have arrived at the year 1939, which history has claimed was the greatest in cinematic history. I tend to agree. It was also a pinnacle time in Bette’s career. As we discussed last week, she won the Oscar for her performance in JEZEBEL (1938) at the 1939 Academy Awards. Many films competed in 1939’s crowded array of offerings, in the shadows of its two giants- GONE…

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Is a New Era Red Scare Underway in Hollywood?

I’m fascinated by politics as much as I am classic film. As a local film historian in my small college town, I teach a variety of courses on Old Hollywood with a healthy dose of history. When Variety published an article today, “Trump Names Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as ‘Special Ambassadors’ To ‘Troubled’ Hollywood: They’ll Bring ‘Lost Business’ Back,” it caught my eye. I…

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Exploring JEZEBEL (1938)

For this installment of our Bette Davis study, we’ll explore another significant role for Davis as “Julie Marsden” in William Wyler’s JEZEBEL (1938). As we have addressed in our introduction, the often contradictory and complicated, undoubtedly attention-grabbing, and fiery, yet with a heart-of-gold persona of Bette Davis, “Julie” will pull us in to a similar path of discovery. JEZEBEL was…

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A Fairytale Gone Wilder: BALL of FIRE

Before he came to Hollywood, Billy Wilder had written this story concept years earlier in German, “From A to Z.” He said Thomas Monroe helped him “Americanize it”. Here, his story fully evolves into a screwball comedy with a twist on SNOW WHITE and the SEVEN DWARVES (1937). We see many references to the Disney animated version of the classic fairytale. But this is not the only theme that comes to…

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Bette Davis Defies Gender Conventions in EX-LADY (1933)

As we begin our filmography of Bette Davis films, we’ll start with a Pre-Code from 1933, Robert Florey’s EX-LADY. For those of you who have not taken my Pre-Code course or those who simply need a reminder, let’s start with a little refresher of what exactly a “Pre-Code” is.  Pre-Code cinema (1929 – 1934) refers to a very specific timeline in film history when the advent of sound technology…

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A Haunting Hometown: CARNIVAL of SOULS (1962)

A charming, small town in ‘Middle America.’ A simple way of life of life where neighbors are friendly, polite, but cautiously on guard of strangers that behave strangely. In Herk Harvey’s only feature film/now cult classic, CARNIVAL of SOULS (1962), the small college town of Lawrence, Kansas was the perfect setting for the eery, atmospheric horror. In the early 1960s, with a population of little…

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A Film Study: BETTE DAVIS

Welcome! In this series we will explore the legendary actress Bette Davis through an introduction of her life and a selection of her films. By examining her life, we gain a glimpse into understanding her drive to become one of the best actresses on the Hollywood screen. Fans beloved her but the larger-than-life Bette was frequently misunderstood. The brutally honest but hard-working yank has…

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Cary Grant Builds Trust Issues in NOTORIOUS (1946)

By the Autumn of 1945, Cary Grant, along with our global allies, surely breathed a collective sigh of relief. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945. After the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan followed by surrendering on September 2, 1945. The second world war was over, but this was the deadliest global conflict in human history, with an estimated 50 to 85 million…

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A Spooky Study: ARSENIC and OLD LACE

Today we’ll meet Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, a very different sort of ‘challenged married man’ than we met in his prior film, PENNY SERENADE. In contrast, Frank Capra’s ARSENIC and OLD LACE is madcap macabre whirled into a hilarious, bigger-than-Brooklyn tale. Before being made into a film, ARSENIC and OLD LACE was a huge hit on the Broadway stage. Playwright Joseph Kesselring was said to…

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Beautiful Tearjerker: PENNY SERENADE (1941)

Get your hankies ready. Today, we’re discussing George Stevens’ PENNY SERENADE. This is the third feature film pairing of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. While audiences had seen both Dunne and Grant in some dramatic roles in the 1930s, each had gained their biggest successes via comedies. This film takes a dramatic turn to melodrama. Director George Stevens (December 18, 1904 – March 8, 1975) was a…