When Noel Coward, whose 1933 hit Broadway play this was based on, say this film, he famously quipped, “I’m told that there are three of my original lines left in the film – such original ones as ‘Pass the mustard’.’” Coward was prone to descriptive exaggeration in his, but in this case he was erring [...]
After seeing Jean Harlow in a role that was all too small in The Public Enemy, I wanted to see more of her as soon as possible. Harlow is great as the whining, spoiled wife of a brash, power-mad businessman (Wallace Beery). “Doctor Talbot says yer a extravurt an I’m a intravurt, and intravurt you [...]
When the Marx Brothers started making motion pictures, they had already been through two successful careers—one as a touring Vaudeville act, and one as Broadway stars. When Groucho stepped in front of the cameras to film The Cocoanuts in 1929, he had already been in show business for 25 years. Comparing their first two sound [...]
Movie fans tend to always compare Bette Davis and Joan Crawford—I know I do. This is probably because they famously feuded for many year, including during their costarring appearances in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and because they both had extremely long careers stretching into five separate decades each. I have always been more of [...]
A Lady for a Day seems to offer the perfect sentimental material for Frank Capra’s brand of filmmaking. An elderly woman in Depression-hit New York maintains a complex ruse with the aid of hotel porter to make it seem as if she is living in suite in the luxury hotel, while she is actually scraping [...]
Year in Film: 1933
Design For Living
When Noel Coward, whose 1933 hit Broadway play this was based on, say this film, he famously quipped, “I’m told that there are three of my original lines left in the film – such original ones as ‘Pass the mustard’.’” Coward was prone to descriptive exaggeration in his, but in this case he was erring [...]
Dinner At Eight
After seeing Jean Harlow in a role that was all too small in The Public Enemy, I wanted to see more of her as soon as possible. Harlow is great as the whining, spoiled wife of a brash, power-mad businessman (Wallace Beery). “Doctor Talbot says yer a extravurt an I’m a intravurt, and intravurt you [...]
Duck Soup
When the Marx Brothers started making motion pictures, they had already been through two successful careers—one as a touring Vaudeville act, and one as Broadway stars. When Groucho stepped in front of the cameras to film The Cocoanuts in 1929, he had already been in show business for 25 years. Comparing their first two sound [...]
Ex-Lady
Movie fans tend to always compare Bette Davis and Joan Crawford—I know I do. This is probably because they famously feuded for many year, including during their costarring appearances in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and because they both had extremely long careers stretching into five separate decades each. I have always been more of [...]
Lady for a Day
A Lady for a Day seems to offer the perfect sentimental material for Frank Capra’s brand of filmmaking. An elderly woman in Depression-hit New York maintains a complex ruse with the aid of hotel porter to make it seem as if she is living in suite in the luxury hotel, while she is actually scraping [...]