Saturday come see 2 gems from the golden age of cinema John Barrymore & Carole Lombard in Howard Hawks’ TWENTIETH CENTURY & Brian Donlevy in Preston Sturges’ THE GREAT MCGINTY TWENTIETH CENTURY Hollywood used to know how to make comedies…comedies that were literate…comedies that were witty…comedies that were…well…funny. Howard Hawks’ Twentieth Century (1935) is a perfect gem of a screwball comedy, that after a breakneck 91 minutes, you find yourself wondering aloud how did the art form known as cinema, and society as a whole, devolve into such mire, and mislay such wondrous gift. The plot is simple enough. Megalomaniacal stage director Sam Jaffe (John Barrymore), a phantom…err…veteran of too many productions, is launching his latest in a long line of overcooked melodramas, rehearsing his typical array of mediocre actors. The fly in the ointment is that one of them, Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard), actually has enough raw talent for Jaffe to mold into a prize stallion, Lily Garland. Having risen to fame, and fled to Hollywood, Garland can write her own ticket, and has, of course, no use for Jaffe. Okay, that is the plot. But Twentieth Century has about as much need for plot, as Hitchcock had for his numerous “MacGuffins.” Rumored to have been shot at breakneck pace by Hawks in a month’s hiatus from MGM, Barrymore and Lombard’s rapid-fire byplay, with breathtaking overlapping dialogue, is the thing of grace and beauty, as they elevate their love-hate relationship to soaring comedic heights. Deftly authored by Academy Award winning screenwriter (Underworld) Ben Hecht and The Front Page co-author Charles MacArthur (not to mention, ably assisted by an uncredited Preston Sturges), the time flies by so fast, you’ll wonder where the 91 minutes went. It’s often said, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Mores the pity, since quite honestly, some eighty years later, it still doesn’t get much better than this. (USA, 1934, 91 min., b/w, 35mm, Cast: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly and Roscoe Karns) THE GREAT MCGINTY Based on the novel by James M. Cain Hollywood’s rather tarnished history is virtually littered with tales of talented individuals who never got their break. Born into a wealthy family, Preston Sturges, a veteran of the Army Signal Corps during WWI, and ne’er do well inventor (kissproof lipstick), moved to Hollywood at the age of 34 to establish himself as a screenwriter after gaining Paramount’s attention as an up and coming Broadway playwright. Sturges’ breakthrough screenwriting project, The Power and the Glory, a vehicle for Spencer Tracy, earned him the distinction of being one of the highest paid solo screenwriters (writing duos were virtually de facto in the 1930s), earning him $17,500.00 plus a percentage of the profits. Still, Sturges was frustrated by the lack of control that he had over his scripts, electing to write “The Great Ginty” (1940) for Paramount for free, in exchange for the opportunity to direct it. Over the course of the next decade, Sturges wrote and directed ten of the most verbally distinctive, literate and paradigm setting screwball comedies in film history, including The Lady Eve (Barbara Stanwyck & Henry Fonda), Sullivan’s Travels (Joel McCrea & Veronica Lake), The Palm Beach Story (Joel McCrea & Claudette Colbert) and Hail the Conquering Hero (Eddie Bracken & Ella Raines). Winning the Academy Award for Best Screenplay, The Great McGinty, a seldom seen morality fable about a common man (Brian Donlevy) who sells his soul to the political machine in exchange wealth and influence, is often branded as being “minor Sturges,” however it’s understated satire, and nuanced performances, has many charms. (USA, 1940, 82 min., b/w, 35mm, Cast: Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus and Akim Tamiroff)
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 23:01:10 +0000
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