Any Roz fans out there? Rosalind Russell fans, that is. Here's a rundown of her films this month, which is discussed over on TCM here. See if any of them catch your eye and elicit a cry of recognition or a warning not to waste your time, won't you?
His Girl Friday
The Women
My Sister Eileen
No Time For Comedy
Design for Scandal
Reckless
Four's a Crowd
The Feminine Touch
The Guilt of Janet Ames (Never seen it, but I've heard it's sort of noirish in a psychological way. Sounds neat) Craig's Wife (Great performance by Roz & John Boles is good (!), directed by Dorothy Arzner & Thomas Mitchell's debut) Roughly Speaking (My favorite Rosalind Russell-Jack Carson movie) The Citadel
Sister Kenny
The Casino Murder Case
The Night Is Young
West Point of the Air
Picnic
A Majority of One (What, this wasn't on during Asians in Film Fest? lol) They Met in Bombay
China Seas
Man-Proof
Evelyn Prentice
Rendezvous
Never Wave at a WAC (1953)
Night Must Fall (1937)
The Velvet Touch
Tell It to the Judge
A Woman of Distinction
Fast and Loose
Trouble For Two
Live, Love and Learn
Auntie Mame
Gypsy
The Trouble with Angels
Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows
Mrs. Pollifax, Spy
I just caught Reckless (1935) early this morning on TCM, which our friend, Eve Golden, has written about so well in her book on Jean Harlow, called Platinum Girl (Abbeville Press). Never having seen the entire loopy movie before, here are a few quick impressions:
William Powell was never more appealing in the role of the classiest guy to ever come up the hard way. Not surprisingly, he proves a lot more reliable than Franchot Tone, the moneyed Long Island type who catches Harlow's eye and pity. At the beginning of her movie career, SOTM Roz wears nice clothes, natters on in a faux English accent (though she claims to be an American), and is just plain nice, if too boring for our troubled anti-hero, Franchot. Tone, who is not one of my favorites as an actor, is actually pretty good as the troubled spouse who's also a souse.
Miss Harlow also has an intermittently faux English accent that lots of MGM actors affected at one time, (this seems to have been epidemic in that studio's films in the relatively early talkie period, though I can't recall who trained these girls to speak like this back then, before Lillian Burns Sidney, who became one of the head acting & speech coaches at MGM in 1938, began to work overtime getting all the females at the studio to sound alike. Well, at least they could be understood when they opened their mouths).
The primary difference between Russell & Harlow's accents is that Jean uses "swell" and "dandy" as salty epithets occasionally, and raises her voice once in awhile to indicate she's having a good time, though I don't think the audience would understand that just by watching this picture, which is clearly based on the talented blues singer and screwed up human being, Libby Holman, and her checkered marital career. Roz keeps all her tones low, pear-shaped and ladylike.
Unfortunately, Harlow not only has to sing soulfully, (she sounds as though she's a 78rpm recording being run at at 45rpm speed), but dance, a talent the girl never claimed to have, and boy, was she right. In a couple of scenes she tries to move in what is meant to be a suggestively sinuous way, but it isn't pretty, and she looks as though she merely has a pebble in her dancing shoe, or a cramp in her thigh, rather than rhythm in her soul. Reportedly MGM cut away during her main dance scenes to a more adept struttin' double, but it doesn't help much. Newbie Rosalind Russell really came out the winner in this one, along with the always delightful Mr. Powell.
That gave me a giggle, your bit about Roz's "pear shaped tones". That period in her career always leaves me cold and I was really surprised when I first saw one of her early "lady like" roles, having been introduced to the lady in Auntie Mame and His Girl Friday, I assumed she was always down to earth and charmingly loud. What a difference! I'm so glad she found a niche in comedy that allowed her to thaw out and shed her tweeds. The one movie in which her frostiness serves her well, in my opinion, is Night Must Fall. But then that movie belongs to Robert Montgomery all the way. She gives him something to work off, something cold and unrelenting to play against and their relationship is quite fascinating as a result. She's attracted to him---he's the "something different" she's been craving in her stultifying career as a querelous old woman's companion (played with coy shrewishness by Dame May Whitty).
If I am a fan of Rosalind at all, it's for her loose, comedy parts (the exception being The Women---she's too much for me there and I think Paulette Godard is the gem amongst the rhinestones), and in spite of her dramas. However, I will watch Craig's Wife because I've always heard it's better than Joan's version.
One BIG disappointment about TCM's lineup: No Take A Letter Darling???? This Mitch Leisen movie has been on my wish list forever since I saw it as a kid and never forgot it. It may even be the first Roz movie I ever watched. She's paired with Fred MacMurray and I only remember that I loved the tug of war between the two of them (he plays a broke painter who takes a job as her secretary). It was so charming I do wish they could have included it.
If you need further encouragement to see Rendezvous and They Met in Bombay, you have mine. The latter film is somewhat uneven between comedy and seriousness, but just seeing Rosalind with the "king" makes it worth while. I can't really quite say they have chemistry together, but they nearly do. I blame the script or the direction (I don't really think of Clarence Brown for comedy) because it feels "slow". More pace and patter might have allowed Rosalind to loosen up. Gable is always Gable (thank the merciful heavens) so no need to tinker with him. Still, I'd like to know what you think of it.
Rendezvous has no problem with chemistry, script or pacing in my opinion. Though it may seem confusing at first as to whether it's supposed to be a spy thriller or a comedy. Rosalind and Bill Powell are terrific together and I love her character. For once she doesn't "know what time it is", she's more innocent but this means she's also less stiff, more elastic and possessing a pep she wouldn't regain (this was 1935) until His Girl Friday. She's just the sort of girl Powell needs because he's soooo elegant and on the ball all the time. I hope you enjoy their Rendezvous...it should be better known.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education." -- Will Rogers
I agree, MissG. Although Russell was beautiful, elegant, etc. in her earliest roles, I always thought that perhaps her studio was trying to make her into a Margaret Lockwood type of actress - you'll note that in the very early movies her accent is much more England than New England. She's very nice, but she isn't -- Roz Russell.
I think her dramatic performances improved year by year, but it's in comedic situations that she really shines. One of my favorite kinds of actress is the kind who is beautiful and elegant, but who has an underlying earthiness, and who can cut loose without inhibition. Russell certainly fills the bill, in my estimation.
I can't wait to see Craig's Wife. I saw it years and years ago on TV, and I don't really remember it very well, but I do remember being impressed by it.
I enjoyed Rosalind's autobiography (Life is banquet) a lot. It shows a really spunky New England lady. I haven't seen as many of her films as you. But, I saw: Under Two Flags, His Girl Friday, China Seas, Night Must Fall and Picnic.
Earlier in her career, she was usually cast as posh English ladies because she could fake a remarkable English accent. She was quite fed up with that type-casting....
Shoot! I didn't pay attention to the schedule and missed recording The Guilt of Janet Ames. If anyone is watching it I would love to read their review as I had never even heard of it until now. The brief bit I saw looked pretty wild. I take it she has blocked some horrible memory and Melvyn Douglas is the shrink who tries to ferret it out? The dream or memory sequences looked imaginative.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education." -- Will Rogers
I just finished watching The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947) which was really interesting!
In an effort to try more varied roles after making her mark in so many comedies, this was one of Russell's tries at drama, which she also attempted just before this in the critically acclaimed but--to my taste, at least, leaden Eugene O'Neill adaptation, Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) and just before the fitfully intriguing The Velvet Touch (1948). I think Roz's tries at straight drama and melodrama were a mixed blessing at best. Though Roughly Speaking (1945), the wonderful, at least to me, blend of comedy and drama (and a healthy dash of female empowerment) is my all time fave of her movies, I give her major doobie points for trying something in Janet Ames:
a.) in which her character is deeply selfish and
b.) appearing in a movie that really tried, within the bounds of Columbia's typically parsimonious budget, to do something so experimental, utilizing expressionistic and surrealist elements, (enhanced no doubt by the great cinematographer Joseph Walker and an enterprising set decoration by, among several others, Frank Tuttle), and
c.) even though the movie could've used some of the enlightened attitudes toward women of the lead character in Roughly Speaking or the practicality of a Sister Kenny, it did try to depict the psychological effect of loss on women as well as men after 300,000 of their compatriots, friends and lovers never came back from combat in WWII.
Playing a grieving war widow of a soldier who jumped on a grenade, saving five other men during the Battle of the Bulge, Russell is first seen wandering in a near catatonic state across a city street toward a bar. Knocked down by a car, she is taken to a hospital where, despite her lack of physical injury, she is unable to walk and no identification is found on her other than The Congressional Medal of Honor and a list with five names on it.
The cop at the hospital recognizes the name of Smithfield Cobb at the bottom of the list as a likable drunk who used to be a big wheel journalist (Melvyn Douglas, in his first role after serving in WWII, and who is very good). Found in philosophical conversation with Danny the Bartender (Frank Orth, a decent, familiar character actor who has, for once, much more to do in a role), Douglas is about to have a snort for the road after his most recent firing from the newspaper. After hearing about the anonymous woman who carried his name in her pocket, he reluctantly abandons his bottle to attempt to "balance the books."
Playing both good cop-bad cop, and using his skill to paint a word picture, Douglas browbeats and lulls Russell into "visiting" with the other men on this list during the course of the movie via her imagination.
Altered states of consciousness, compared by the characters in the movie to that of the dream life of Peter Ibbetson's main character, are central to the movie, and they worked best when they concentrated on empathetically imagining the survivors as they fulfill themselves through proving their manhood, preparing dreams of their future, building a life in the desert, nurturing a child, and pursuing a show biz dream, all made possible by Janet's unseen hubby's sacrifice. As the story plays out, it becomes clearer that Janet's real problem is
her nearly terminal self-absorption and her belief that she caused her husband's death by failing to love him. In the course of the film, we also, alas, must witness the weakest sequence of the movie, when Melvyn & Roz get romantic, though this makes the final, very well acted scene of the movie much more credible and powerful.
Lots of familiar and even good character actors pop up in this apparently troubled production, (Please see this TCM article for that background), such as Emory Parnell, Denver Pyle, (who plays a character simply listed as "masher"), Hugh Beaumont, Sid Caesar, (who to me was like a Tex Avery cartoon come to life, though my "i hate movies" sis, who happened to wander through when this was playing and got sucked in thought he was "really good") and, most welcome of all, the great Nina Foch, and a radiant Betsy Blair, in her debut, playing a poor singer in a dive, though she really looks seraphic enough to appear at home sitting on a cloud playing a harp.
Great job by Roz playing a disagreeable character with such skill that you can loathe her and feel sympathy for her position simultaneously. Not for the first time, I noticed this actress' subversive ability to play a woman whose outward adherence to society's dictates belies the conflict that her rebel soul endures and the guilt she so credibly portrays. Also, as usual, this gal looks better in what appears to be an off the rack skirt and blouse* with her hair swept back without ornament than she ever did in any of the fancy duds and outlandish clothes that being a movie star seemed to imply back then. Too bad she usually seemed to like getting all horsed up in something expensive. She didn't need it to reveal the woman within her characters.
Btw, the movie can be seen in its entirety on youtube, here. The first segment is below:
[youtube][/youtube]
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*Jean Louis & Travis Banton are credited with the costumes. So much for my "off the rack" theory, though I wouldn't be eager to take too much credit for the poorly conceived & tailored ball gown Roz sports in an imaginary nightclub if I were those talented guys.
charliechaplinfan wrote:I'd love to see Reckless you make it sound so good. To see Rosalind and Jean together must be a great experience
Well, "good" wasn't really the term that popped into my head when I was watching this, Alison. Maybe "amusing". Roz and Jean were both painfully ladylike when encountering one another in this film. From what I've read in Eve's book, I suspect that Harlow, in her typical warm-hearted manner, was friendly to Russell. Jean Harlow seems to have much more likable off screen than one would expect, and very unlike her rather tawdry characters. She did not want to make Reckless, due to her acquaintance with Libby Holman & the connotations in her own life after her husband, Paul Berns' suicide.
I really wish TCM would've canned either the appropriately titled No Time for Comedy or Gypsy and instead opted for Rosie!, which hasn't aired on TV since the network formerly known as The Family Channel stopped scheduling classic Universal and Paramount comedies on Sunday afternoons (yes, I'm old enough to remember those days). I only saw snippets one day and after reading the cast roster, I was hoping that it would air again someday. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it scheduled for the past few years on any one of the thousand cable stations currently operating in this country (was it really only 10-15 years ago that cable stations other than TCM and FMC were regularly showing films made before 1980?)
I tend to agree, Stephen, especially about No Time for Comedy, which doesn't work at all. I've only seen snippets of Rosie! as well, and would like to see this rarely broadcast late career movie of Russell's.
I do think that there are many people who've never seen Gypsy and, even though it probably should have been Merman in the lead, I like Roz in this one and love Natalie Wood in it.
Another choice that would've been unique (and one tailor-made toward the Underground set) would've been Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad. Speaking for myself, however, I've seen enough of it to know that it's a turkey - not easy to admit as I love both Roz and Barbara Harris.
Despite those films missing from the schedule, my sister is glad to finally have the chance to see and/or record Craig's Wife, Night Must Fall, The Citadel, My Sister Eileen and A Woman of Distinction, all of which have been denied DVD release. It would be nice if Columbia/Sony (which owns at least 3 of the aforementioned titles) would compile a box set.
charliechaplinfan wrote:I'd love to see Reckless you make it sound so good. To see Rosalind and Jean together must be a great experience
Well, "good" wasn't really the term that popped into my head when I was watching this, Alison. Maybe "amusing". Roz and Jean were both painfully ladylike when encountering one another in this film. From what I've read in Eve's book, I suspect that Harlow, in her typical warm-hearted manner, was friendly to Russell. Jean Harlow seems to have much more likable off screen than one would expect, and very unlike her rather tawdry characters. She did not want to make Reckless, due to her acquaintance with Libby Holman & the connotations in her own life after her husband, Paul Berns' suicide.
I've been reading Complicated Women and just read the pages about Jean Harlow it illustrates what you've said about her. She is meant to have been the MGM star who was most removed from he rimage being a shy, retiring and kind person off screen.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
The one movie in which her frostiness serves her well, in my opinion, is Night Must Fall. But then that movie belongs to Robert Montgomery all the way. She gives him something to work off, something cold and unrelenting to play against and their relationship is quite fascinating as a result. She's attracted to him---he's the "something different" she's been craving in her stultifying career as a querelous old woman's companion (played with coy shrewishness by Dame May Whitty).
