Fernando wrote:Last night I watched the Borzage Film "Street Angel" with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. ...
We're on a Borzage roll! As I just watched MGM's
The Shining Hour on TCM. What a spectacularly dreadful effort. JohnM won't understand my feeling, but 1) I loved this film, and 2) thought it was terrible.
Joan Crawford is a nightclub dancer who marries gentleman farmer Melvyn Douglas. The movie opens at the nightclub where we see Joan dancing to a jazz version of Chopin's Waltz in c sharp minor (trust me, you'd know it if you heard it). It's a ridiculous swing band arrangement, of course, but made all the moreso when matched to Crawford's unintended imitation of a clydesdale on the dance floor. Her dance partner was Tony DeMarco (who we all know from Busby Berkeley's
The Gang's All Here). As usual, with 1930's Crawford pictures, I'm mesmerized by her. Such a fascinating face; all handsome angles and surprising arcs. Adrian's shoulder pads have begun sprouting. The most surprising costuming choice was that she wore the gold lame pleated gown she also wears in the finale of
The Women. One day dress uses the same pattern as Eleanor Powell's "Begin the Beguine" number, with the addition of shoulder pads that could act as flying buttresses on Notre Dame.
There's a great deal of sexual tension in this movie that works. And an excellent supporting cast: Hattie McDaniel, Allyn Joslyn, Fay Bainter, Bess Flowers. They support the main cast which also includes the whispering Margaret Sullavan and nebbish Robert Young. Once Crawford arrives on the farm (where crops and livestock are never shown, and where the men are often found in black tie; but I stressed
gentlemen farmers, didn't I?) Young rediscovers that he can play the piano -- the Chopin Waltz, of course -- which haunts Crawford with memories of her heady days in cafe society. It was interesting to see Bainter playng a peer, rather than their mother; and she's quite evil in the role. The SPOILERs must begin now: Bainter goes mad and burns down Douglas' and Crawford's dream house (bringing a new meaning to "shining hour", as the flames reflect on the horrified cast). She's so loony, that it's surprising to find her making coffee the next day as if nothing's gone awry. I assumed they had her committed! But no, her hair is combed back in place and she's serving java as if everyone had forgotten her raving previous evening.
The greatest laugh was reserved for Sullavan's sick bed scene. In an ultimate sacrifice, she tried to immolate herself; thus freeing Young for Crawford. She survives valiantly; and Young finds her in bed, wrapped like a mummy with only her sparkling, false eyelashed eyes exposed. It was a Carol Burnett moment and secured this movie in its spot over the top. A howler. I loved it.