"MY PAL THE KING" (Universal, 1932) 6 Reels; directed by Kurt Neumann;
story by Richard Scheyer; photographed by Dan Clark.
Starring TOM MIX with Mickey Rooney, Noel Francis, Paul Hurst, James
Kirkwood, Finis Barton, Stuart Holmes, Jim Thorpe, Christian Frank,
Clarissa Selwynne, Ferdinand Schumann-Heink, Wallis Clark and "Tony".
Universal, which has always made some of the very best program westerns,
was the only major company that maintained its horse opera schedule at
full blast when sound came in. MGM abandoned "B" westerns completely;
Rko did temporarily; Warners cut down on them; Paramount's Zane Grey
westerns of the period were not really "B" epics in the usual sense.
At various times in the early days of sound, Universal had three really
top-line western stars working for them, all with their own production
units - Buck Jones, Ken Maynard and Tom Mix. Jones' westerns were
unusually intelligent, and often (particularly in the case of films like
"Stone of Silver Creek") recognisably patterned after Bill Hart. Maynard's
were actionful and bizarre; he often wrote his own stories, and sometimes
went quite haywire. His "Smoking Guns" is the sort of western one can
imagine Erich von Stroheim turning out, if he were given his head! In
addition, Ken had a strange (and amusing) habit of ad-libbing most of his
dialogue. Mix's series for Universal was more elaborate by far than
those of Maynard and Jones. His westerns were also fairly un-typical
of westerns of the early thirties; they remained Mix westerns, which
means that they were actionful, escapist and colorful, designed to be
darned good shows -- designed, in fact, to be as much like Mix's silent
westerns as possible.
And "My Pal the King", far more than the other half-a-dozen in this
series, is a spectacular throwback to Mix's silent heyday at Fox. It's
an extravaganza rather than a horse opera - "The Prisoner of Zenda",
"Robin Hood" and "Lone Star Ranger" all rolled into one. As with most
Mix films, nobody ever gets really hurt - he downs his enemies via
ruses and colorful tricks rather than with a six-gun. And stunts are
worked into the plot purely for their own sake. Mix was in his fifties
when he made this film and thus he is far from being as agile as he was
in such great ones as "Sky High" and "The Great K & A Train Robbery".
Nevertheless, it is still recognisably Tom and not a double that leaps
from Tony to a stagecoach, and climbs up castle walls via a lassoo. Mix
looks in remarkably good shape for his years, and it is both sad and
astonishing to realise how he aged in just a few years. His last film,
"The Miracle Rider", made only three years later, was a sad disappoint-
ment; he looked old and tired, and did not even deliver his lines
intelligibly.
"My Pal the King" cunningly manages to look considerably more
expensive than it was, through shrewd utilisation of standing interior
and exterior sets. Universal's "European town" set, used in "All Quiet
on the Western Front" and all the Frankenstein epics, makes a particularly
impressive background to much of the action. So do lavish interior sets.
Most of the outdoor scenes seem to have been taken right on Universal's
back-lot, so location expenses were nil. And with all the corner-cuttings
it emerges as a really handsome and impressively turned out little
picture. One of its prime assets is the fine photography of Dan Clark,
Mix's favorite cameraman from the old Fox days, and one of the best
cameramen in the business -- although since this print is a first-
generation dupe, some of the sparkle that distinguished Clark's work has
gone. But the visor, composition, and frequently changing angles remain.
Mix's pleasing personality still comes through well, helped a little
by dialogue which points up his international popularity, and takes one
out of the picture a little at times. Another strange little scene has
Mix riding up to the camera, addressing the audience directly and then
wheeling around on Tony and riding back into the action again.
I may be a trifle over-enthused about this film. I saw it first, as a
child of four, some 26 years ago. Until last night, I had never seen it
again, though I had remembered it vividly. Running it off last night,
that quarter of a century seemed to dissolve away completely, and I was
a little boy again ... and happy to find that the things that paid off
for me then are still exciting today. It's grand kiddies' matinee stuff
Next programs Tues. next April 28:
Jacques Feyder's CRAINQUEBILLE
Jack Mulhall, May McAvoy - THE MAD WHIRL |
spiked with good humor and robust action. What a treat it used to
be to be a little boy and see a film like this. It's a treat, I'm afraid,
that tv has taken away from today's generation. It's too easy to see
films nowadays; there is none of the excitement of waiting, talking about
it in advance, and then discussing it afterwards. Why wait? Flick to
another channel, and there's something that'll do just as well. The thrill
has gone ... and in any event the cowboy has turned over his throne to the
spaceman. Those of you who went to the movies in the 20's are indeed a
happy breed, and those of us who just made it for the thirties, have much
to be grateful for as well!
While "My Pal the King" didn't entirely please me as a child - I preferred
my westerns unmixed with Ruritania - it impressed me sufficiently for me
to remember it much more vividly than the more orthodox sorties of Hoot
Gibson and Tim McCoy. But, alas, the scene that impressed itself most
vividly on my mind is no longer there. In the film's climax, Mickey
Rooney is rescued from a water-filled dungeon by Tom Mix. The arch-
villain is brought in, and the hero's aides promptly consign him to this
watery grave! He is toppled into the dungeon, and the camera lingers on
the surface, long enough (before the trap door is slammed shut again) for
the tell-tale air bubbles to tell us that the scoundrel has breathed his
last. It seemed a rather unsportsmanlike attitude for a cowboy hero to
take towards a vanquished foe, and I recall being much moved by the
villain's plight ... in fact, not until Jack Holt walked to the gallows at
the end of "The End of the Trail", a few years later, did any western
provoke any kind of emotional response in me. Alas, tv today has decreed
a more honorable code for the westerner, resulting in this strange little
reshuffling. As the villain is brought in, new dialogue has now been
dubbed in, indicating that no harm will come to him -- and the scene of
his death has been eliminated. (None of the Mix Universal films have
played New York tv yet, although they have played elsewhere on tv in the
U.S.) Apart from that one scene, and a re-done main title giving Mickey
Rooney sailed prominence, the print appears to be complete and intact,
with that lovely old Universal trademark at the beginning.
Mickey Rooney as the boy king who learns about democracy is just fine, and
James Kirkwood is obviously having the time of his life as the scheming
villain. Stuart Holmes - Black Michael in the old "The Prisoner of Zenda" -
is equally at home as a villainous Baron. And not the least of the film's
delights are the energetic old musical agitatos.
"My Pal the King" is slow in starting, but winds up with a rousing slam-
bang Fairbanksian climax. A long way below the standard of Mix's silents,
it is still a most enjoyable frolic. Mix never gave a hoot about
authenticity or poetry or realism - that he left to Hart. He just wanted
to put on a darned good show, and one that the kids would enjoy. He always
did -- right up to the last, as this film, I think, shows.
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"MAD WEDNESDAY" (Howard Hughes, 1947) Written and directed by Preston
Sturges; Technical director, Curtis Courant; starring
HAROLD LLOYD with Frances Ramsden, Jimmy Conlin, Raymond Walburn, Edgar
Kennedy, Jack Morton, Rudy Vallee, Arline Judge, Franklin Pangbourne,
Lionel Stander, Margaret Hamilton, Al Bridge. 8 reels.
Lloyd's "comeback" picture, produced the same year as Chaplin's "Monsieur
Verdoux" and 25 days longer in production than the Chaplin film), "Mad
Wednesday", earlier known as "The Sin of Harold Diddlebock", was fraught
with typical Hughesian problems from the beginning, and finally went into
release - briefly - in the early 50's, only to be withdrawn almost
immediately. It is surprising how many people never saw it, and thus
although it's the newest revival we've ever had, we think it well worth a
place on our program. It hasn't yet appeared on tv, and in all possibility
won't. Harold Lloyd's success-phobia strangely parallels that of his
screen character; anything that isn't assured of a 100% success he wants
no part of. Hence the withdrawal of the unsuccessful reissue of "The
Freshman", and of "Mad Wednesday". Hence too Lloyd's long delay in doing
anything with his long completed feature compilation of excerpts from
his silents. In the 50's - the early 50's that is - when "Mad Wednesday"
was first released; it seemed funny but no more. Screen comedy has gone
downhill so fast that less than 10 years later it already seems quite
wonderful, though the Sturges satire stands up better than some of the
Lloyd slapstick. There are some real dillies of comic sequences - and
Lloyd's hitherto largely unexploited talent for pathos and serious acting
results in some genuinely moving scenes with the heroine. As you probably
know, the film opens with the last sequence of "The Freshman", and the
matching-up (aided by Lloyd's unchanging appearance) is remarkably
skillfully done. Wm.K. Everson
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