The Hot Air Merchant (Paramount, 1930) Directed by Ray Cozine;
Dialogue staged by Max Hayes; two reels
Starring Charlie Ruggles, with Betty Garde, Paul Clare.
Familiar as we are with Charlie Ruggles as the henpecked husband or pompous stuffed-shirt, it's odd - and amusing - to see him in this very early sound short invading W.C. Fields' territory as a charlatan with the gift of gab. This is another one of those curious 2-reel comedies of 1929-30 which is all talk, and done like a vaudeville skit, but done so well that it really pays off. The whole film is both anti-marriage and anti-female, and a delightfully savage attack on all the womanly wiles, deceits, tricks, sadistic schemes and sundry stabs in the back that we all either run away from or pretend not to notice, but are inevitably defeated by. Possibly someone like Kathleen Howard might have made a follow-up, presenting the other point of view, but as such it would have been biased and distorted, and not nearly as much fun as this.
Our Wife (MGM-Hal Roach, 1931) Directed by James W. Horne; two reels
With Laurel & Hardy, James Finlayson, Charlie Rogers, Ben Turpin.
1930 had been a disappointing year for Laurel & Hardy, but by 1931 they were back in stride again, and all of their shorts that year were good ones. In terms of their overall output, Our Wife is one of their "better lesser" films, it has many good things in it, ranging from Hardy's self-satisfied preening prior to his marriage, through at least two truly ferocious falls to a typical pants-ripping bit (nobody could look more forlorn than Hardy in his shorts, chubby knees staring nakedly at the camera) and a routine with a miniature car that predates the Marx Brothers' cabin sequence from A Night at the Opera. As often with L & H, some of the most distasteful bits are the funniest -- and
the aggressive flies, backed up by exaggerated sound effects, that drone around and land on Hardy's wedding cake, provide some of the funniest moments that the boys have ever given us.
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BROADWAY BILL (Columbia, 1934) Directed by Frank Capra; screenplay by Robert Riskin from a Mark Hellinger story; photographed by Joseph Walker; edited by Gene Havelick; 11 reels
With Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Walter Connolly, Helen Vinson, Lynne Overman, Raymond Walburn, Clarence Muse, Douglas Dumbrille, Ward Bond.
Ever since Capra's remake of this film for Paramount in 1950, under the title Riding High (with Bing Crosby) the original has tended to grow in stature; partly because the unavailable always seems to be outstanding, and partly too because in that remake Ceara used a tremendous amount of stock footage from this first version. He even re-cast many of the same players (Walburn, Bond, Dumbrille, Muse) for matching-up purposes, and used closeups of these players from both versions, despite the 15 year gap. Once, by an editing tour-de-force, Ward Bond even wound up chasing himself! Seeing the two versions thus side by side in one film, there was no question but that the original was superior -- and this still holds good.
But in other ways, Broadway Bill disappoints a little. Its material is charming and poignant, but it is also very slight, and there seems no logical reason for it being stretched to 11 reels (in the remake it was 12) other than that Capra was newly arrived as a "prestige" director, and to so many directors (now alas far more than then) it is inconceivable to make a "prestige" film of less than two hours. Capra's other 1934 entry It Happened One Night warranted that running time; Broadway Bill, which is basically familiar program material lifted out of the rut by good performances, writing, and direction, does not. At 90 minutes, and with some of the trimmings trimmed, it would have been infinitely better. Nevertheless, it's good, vintage Capra - uncomplicated, pleasing, well made, and with a climax that is still both affecting and exciting, Warner Baxter, largely repeating (with variations) his 42nd Street performance, is again excellent and the supporting cast has just about every Capra stock performer and Columbia bit-player on view throughout.
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NEXT TUESDAY -- KING VIDOR - 1935/36 - THE CIVIL WAR AND THE OLD WEST
SO RED THE ROSE with Margaret Sullavan, Randolph Scott, Walter Connolly
THE TEXAS RANGERS with Fred MacMurray, Jean Parker, Jack Oakie, Lloyd Nolan
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Coming - July 16 - KARLOFF in THE RAVEN (1935) and ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945)
July 23 - Louise Brooks in LOVE 'EM & LEAVE 'EM (1926); plus Mary Pickford in Griffith's Female of the Species; Pearl White in The Floating Coffin; Helen Holmes in The Sidetracked Sleeper.
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