Meet The Baron (1933)

Like how today movies get made based off TV Shows, back in the 1930's there were movies based off of radio shows. Meet the Baron was based off a comedy radio show about the fictional Baron Munchausen. Jack Pearl, the radio actor for the character was hired here to play the Baron (or at least someone who is believed to be the Baron) for the screen.

This film would be directed by Walter Lang. Walter Lang is a director who is mostly associated with musical films like State Fair, The King and I (the 1956 live action version)and There is No Business Like Show Business. One of the writers for this film was Herman Mankiewicz, who is known by film fans today for co-writing Citizen Kane (he was also the father of All About Eve director Joseph Mankiewicz and grandfather of TCM host Ben Mankiewicz). One interesting thing in here is that there is a mule named Rosebud in this. I am not saying this film would have inspired any of Citizen Kane, but it is still an interesting tidbit. On top of this the film has a great cast including Jimmy Durante, Edna May Oliver and Zasu Pitts. Even some great actors appeared in very small roles such as Lionel Belmore and Leo White.

However what this film is most watched today for is that it includes a group soon to be known as The Three Stooges. At this time they were known as Ted Healy and his Stooges. Ted Healy was originally the boss and leader of the group, yet after some personal problems between them they would separate and the group would become The Three Stooges. Meet the Baron was the first feature film to feature Curly (although he had appeared in some shorts with this team before). Earlier Shemp would appear in these films with Moe, Larry and Ted. However Shemp was not happy with Ted and left the group. Shemp was replaced by his and Moe's younger brother, Curly. However when in 1946 Curly would have a stroke, he would be replaced again by Shemp, who would once again become part of the team. In this film Curly was credited as Jerry Howard, as his real name was Jerome Howard. This is one of the very few times he would be credited as such.

Curly wasn't the only star to have Meet The Baron as a feature film debut. This was the film debut (not just feature) of  Lynn Bari, who would star in quite a few B-movies including Return of the Cisco Kid and Hotel For Women.

The story begins with the real Baron (played by Henry Koller)and his two assistants (played by Jack Pearl and Jimmy Durante) traveling through the jungle. The Baron discovers they are low on supplies and leaves his assistants out to die. At this time some explorers find the two assistants and mistake one for the Baron (Jack Pearl)and take him and his friend to the U.SA.. The phony Baron must keep up the facade and not be found out, which only gets more difficult when he is a guest at an all female college and the real baron shows up.

This film is very entertaining, it has a good sense of humor, a great cast and even a great musical number (a rather risqué one too reminding you that this is in fact a pre-code movie). Most of all though this film is just good corny, silly fun.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
The Three Stooges: An Illustrated History, From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons by Michael Fleming

A Slight Case of Murder (1938)

When in 1931 Little Caesar became a surprisingly huge hit, Edward G. Robinson was cemented as the cinema's most popular and most representative gangster star. However often after that movie Robinson would not just act in serious gangster movies, he also often appeared in comedies that parodied these gangster films. These comedies included movies like The Little Giant, The Whole Town's Talking, Brother Orchid and Larceny Inc.. A Slight Case of Murder is one of those comedies and a really good one as well.       

The director of A Slight Case of Murder was Lloyd Bacon, one of the great studio directors of the 1920's, 30's and 40's. While Bacon had been a director (before directing he had been an actor in some of Charlie Chaplin's best short comedies) since the silent era directing short comedies (starting for comedian Lloyd Hamilton and then for comedian producer Mack Sennett), his career really took off in the early talkie era when he started directing feature films for Warner Brothers. During his stay at Warner Brothers, he would become one of that studio's most reliable directors with such great (and diverse) movies as 42nd Street, Marked Woman, Action in the North Atlantic, Footlight Parade and many many more. He would also direct Edward G. Robinson in the comedies Brother Orchid and Larceny Inc.. A Slight Case of Murder was just one of the many great films Lloyd Bacon worked on for Warner Brothers.

During Prohibition Remy Marco (played by Edward G. Robinson) is the king of beer. However when prohibition ends, he decides to go legitimate and sell his beer legally. Since Remy never drinks though he has no idea just how bad his beer is, and now that people can get the good stuff, they have little to no interest in Marco's beer. With the assistance of his wife (played by Jane Bryan), and his gang (played by Allan Jenkins, Edward Brophy and Harold Huber) he tries to keep this business afloat. To add to Remy's troubles when his daughter (played by Ruth Donnelly) returns from school she is engaged to a guy who just got a job as a cop (played by Willard Parker).

This film is a fast paced, laugh out loud funny comedy that never loses its audience's enjoyment. The movie is simply so much fun from start to finish. Edward G. Robinson (as he has in quite a few other movies) proves he is just as good at comedy as he is at crime dramas. Adding heavily to the fun are Remy's Henchmen. Allan Jenkins, Edward Brophy and Harold Huber were in a whole lot of Warner Brothers movies at this time and though they were mostly in supporting roles, they were fantastic in each of these movies, and this movie is no exception. The three have perfect chemistry together and with Robinson and often bring this movie's biggest laughs. By the way my fellow Disney fans probably know Edward Brophy as the voice of Timothy Mouse in Dumbo and my fellow Hanna-Barbera fans might know Allan Jenkins as the voice of Officer Dibble in Top Cat. The whole cast here in fact plays their roles almost perfectly. Adding to this is a very smart and very funny script by Earl Baldwin and Joseph Schrank and expert direction by Lloyd Bacon.

The film was a huge success with both audiences and critics when released. Even though this movie may not be as well remembered as it should be, more people should definitely watch it as it will continue to delight many people today.  

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90494/A-Slight-Case-of-Murder/articles.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030764/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

The Gold Rush (1925)

Charlie Chaplin's little tramp character is probably the most recognizable image of silent cinema. Even many of those who have never seen a film with this character recognize the look of this character and his funny walk. After watching a movie like The Gold Rush, it is not at all hard to see why this character gained such popularity. After many films of the past have dated (heck even some movies from the 1990's and early 2000's have dated, and many of today's films will seem dated not too long in the future), a movie like The Gold Rush never will. This is the type of movie that so many of those who see it (even those who don't usually like silent movies or slapstick comedy), no matter what year it is, no matter how much movies have changed will continue to be enchanted by this movie. It is this that makes The Gold Rush never date, even when much more recent films are already doing so.

The Gold Rush marked Charlie Chaplin's first starring film for United Artists. United Artists was founded in 1919 by D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin himself. Though Chaplin had been on of the founders of the studio, he was still under contract to make films for First National. In 1923 Chaplin made his first film for Untied Artists a drama that he directed but only appeared as an uncredited cameo (and is very unrecognizable in that cameo). With The Gold Rush he would finally star in an United Artists film.

This film had an odd inspiration for a comedy, it was inspired by the story of The Donner Party, a group of pioneers who were stuck in a snow storm and had to resort to cannibalism. Making comedy out of something tragic or dark is something Charlie Chaplin excelled in as you can see in such films as Easy Street or Monsieur Verdoux. 

 This film has three of Chaplin's most famous set pieces, the eating of the shoe, the Tramp turning into a chicken and the dance of the dinner rolls. The shoe was made of licorice, and 20 pairs of these shoes were eaten to get the take just right. Mack Swain who would share the shoe with him in the movie, got to the point where he could hardly eat it anymore. In the scene where Big Jim hallucinated the Tramp as a chicken and tried to eat him, Charlie himself was in the chicken costume. Originally a painter was supposed to wear the costume, but Chaplin was not happy with his performance and felt he had to do it himself. This scene would inspire cartoon director Chuck Jones, who would use a similar bit in the 1943 Bugs Bunny cartoon Wackiki Wabbit. The dance of dinner rolls scene was not the first time this skit had been done on film. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle had performed a very similar skit in the 1917 short film The Rough House. However it had never been done better anywhere than in The Gold Rush. All these set pieces are worthy of the praise they get, as all these scenes are fantastic.      

Georgia Hale played the part of Georgia. However this part was originally going to be played by Lita Grey. Lita Grey had previously been the angel that Charlie was tempted by in The Kid. However Charlie and Lita had an affair and Lita was now pregnant, and therefore couldn't play the part as she refused to get an abortion. Though The Gold Rush was the only Chaplin film Georgia Hale appeared in, she would be briefly considered to replace Virginia Cheryl in Chaplin's City Lights.    

This film is not only really funny, but quite dramatic as well. What is incredible about this movie is that the comedy and the drama work perfectly together. Neither ever gets in the way of the other, and instead they only seem to help each other. Both the comedy and the drama work near perfectly here, and neither ever feels forced. This is something no one else could do as well as Charlie Chaplin, and this film is the perfect example of why. The whole movie is simply a delight to watch and one of Chaplin's best films.

Charlie Chaplin would later rerelease this film in 1942. However in that version he would narrate the movie and cut about a reel from it. While that version is still quite good, to me at least, the 1925 silent version remains the best way to watch this movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/5779/The-Gold-Rush/articles.html
DVD commentary by Jeffery Vance.

Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)

When one thinks of film comedy Ingmar Bergman is usually not the first director who comes to your mind. However he actually made some comedians over his career including The Devil's Eye, Secrets of a Woman and All These Women. However probably the best of his comedies is Smiles of a Summer Night.

Around the time Bergman started making Smiles of a Summer Night, he was in fact very depressed. After a lot of stress making some of his previous movies, he knew he had to make a film just for fun and that film ended up being Smiles of a Summer Night. He would later say at this time he had just two options, "write Smiles of a Summer Night, or kill myself." Fortunately he choose the first option. Bergman would also later say "I thought it was time for a box-office success, and though everyone disagreed with me, I was convinced that this picture would succeed."

This film was heavily by the famous Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. One person who definitely realized that connection was Woody Allen, who would incorporate much of this Bergman film into his 1982 movie, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy.

Fredrick (played by Gunnar Bjornstrand) is married to a young woman named Anne (played by Ulla Jacobsson). Despite being married for two years and sharing a bed Anne is still a virgin and this makes Fredrick quite nervous. Fredrick asks a woman who he used to have an affair with, Desiree a beautiful actress (played by Eva Dahlbeck). Desiree still has feels for Fredrick though she is currently the mistress of a solider named Count Malcom (played by Jarl Kulle). Meanwhile Fredrick's son Henrik (played by Bjorn Bjelvenstam) has devoted himself to God, but finds himself quite tempted by the family's maid Petra (played by Harriet Andersson).

This is a sex comedy that is very frank about sex (shockingly so for a 1955 Swedish movie). However it never delves into cheap or easy vulgarity. Rather than this, the humor in the film remains very smart, sophisticated and charming even with its highly sexually nature. The humor also remains very funny throughout. Often making one laugh out loud. The humor is not the only great thing about this film as the performances are all fantastic and Gunnar Fischer's cinematography is quite lovely to look at. This all comes together to create a film that is smart, sexy, funny and just all around fantastic. 

The film was huge success all over the world. Because the film earned so much money Svensk Filmindustri, the studio Bergman was working for would give Bergman strong control over his future films. The studio was so happy with this film they submitted it to the Cannes Film Festival. However Bergman was unaware of that it was even submitted until one day while sitting reading the newspaper he saw that the film was a huge success there.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90563/Smiles-of-a-Summer-Night/articles.html

Monkey Business (1931)

Though most people site Duck Soup or A Night at the Opera as their favorite Marx Brothers movie (I love both those movies a lot  by the way), my personal favorite is Monkey Business. This film is so fast paced and full of jokes, yet almost every single one of them hits perfectly. This movie features the great skit where all four of the brothers try to inmate Maurice Chevalier (which has to rank as among the funniest skits in movie history), Groucho and Thelma Todd have great chemistry (she would only appear in one more Marx Brothers movie, Horsefeathers), there is a brilliantly surreal sequence in which Harpo interrupts a Punch and Judy show that doesn't seem to have any puppeteers and it has one of my favorite Groucho lines "Madam, you're making history. In fact, you're making me, and I wish you'd keep my hands to yourself". Also helping make this film great is that Zeppo is actually given some good scenes here and he pulls them off very well (making me wish he was given more to do in other Marx Brothers movies).

Monkey Business was the brothers' third movie and their first one written specificly for the screen. Their two previous films, The Coconuts and Animal Crackers had been two of the brothers' successes on Broadway. Since these were hits on Broadway, it was assumed they would probably have success with them on the movie screen and that ended up being correct. Those movies were huge successes.

Writer S.J. Perelman had written a book called Dawn Ginsbergh's Revenge, which Groucho really liked. Groucho sent a complimentary letter to Perelman and asked to meet him backstage (the brothers were still on Broadway at this time), and Perelman said he would enjoy writing for the brothers. He was assigned to co-write (with W.B. Johnstone, who wrote the brothers' first stage success, I'll Say It Is) a radio script for the brothers, this would end up not happening because of the difficultly of the non-speaking Harpo being on radio. However the basic story idea of the Marxes as stowaways became the basis for this film in which Perelman would be a writer. However despite Groucho being impressed with Perelman' book, he wasn't as impressed with the script. His response can be summed up in two words "It stinks". Groucho often stated that the brothers in reality adlibbed nearly all of the funniest jokes in this movie and the next film Horsefeathers (also written by Perelman) and little of what Perelman wrote ended up in either script. The director of both films, Norman Z. McLeod, agreed that there was a lot of adlibbing on both the movies, and McLeod felt these adlibs were funnier than anything in the script. Groucho would later state about Perelman "...he is a great writer with a brilliant comic mind that didn't always mesh well with the lunacies of the Marx Brothers."

This film has inspired debate among Marx Brothers fans. It begins with a man telling the captain that there are four stowaways on the ship, but no one has seen them. When asked how he knows there are four, he states that they were singing Sweet Adline. Then the film cuts to four barrels and we hear Sweet Adline being sung, and after the song the Marx Brothers pop out of each. Now the debate has to do with whether there are three or four voices singing and if we actually hear Harpo's voice. Unfortunately I do not know the answer to this.

This film was not surprisingly a hit at both the box office and with critics. Now the story is simply an excuse for comedy, and it is impossible to properly analyze why the Marx Brothers are so funny. So just watch the movie for yourself and laugh yourself silly, you won't regret it.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/290225%7C86548/Monkey-Business.html


            

Happy 87th Birthday to Looney Tunes and Bosko

87 years ago today the very first Looney Tunes cartoon Sinkin in the Bathtub was released. This also marked the first appearance of Bosko on cinema screens. While it is true that he had appeared in 1929's Bosko the Talk-ink Kid before, that was just a pilot film and only shown to distributors for the cartoons. Sinking in the Bathtub marks his real birthday. So to celebrate the greatest cartoon series ever made, and the birthday of the first Looney Tunes star, today we are going to look at three Bosko cartoons.

The first we will look at is the second Bosko cartoon and second Looney Tune all together, 1930's Congo Jazz. In Sinkin in the Bathtub Bosko clearly had a stereotypical black voice (provided by animator Max Maxwell), However with this film he was made to sound more like Disney's star character Mickey Mouse with a high pitched voice (now provided by Johnny Murray). A lot of stereotypical black dialogue was originally written for this cartoon but never used. This is not were the similarities to Disney end as this cartoon bares a strong rebalance to the 1929 Mickey Mouse cartoon Jungle Rythym. Despite all this it remains a very entertaining picture so directed by Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising here is Congo Jazz.

Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising were the creators of Bosko and they also co-directed is earliest films. However when Looney Tunes sister series Merrie Melodies was created, Ising took over directing that series while Hugh Harmon directed the Looney Tunes (all the Bosko films) mostly by himself. This next cartoon took place after that happened and is also one of Bosko's best films. This cartoon shows Bosko in a much more violently funny cartoon. That shows a brief glimpse of what Looney Tunes would later become, despite the still obvious Disney influence. This cartoon bears a passing rebalance to another Disney cartoon, this time Walt's 1927 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Great Guns (for which Harmon was an animator on). So from 1931 here is Bosko the Doughboy.

                                           Last but not least is another one of Bosko's best outings. This cartoon featured another addition to make Bosko resemble more and more Mickey Mouse. That was Bruno the dog, obviously inspired by Pluto. This was Bruno second appearance in a Looney Tunes as he had previously appeared in Bosko's Fox Hunt (released the previous year). This film features some sentimentality, which would figure more into Harmon's MGM work. It is also a film of great energy and a joy to watch. So from 1932 and directed by Hugh Harmon, here is Big Hearted Bosko.
                                                                 

While these films were quite successful Hugh Harmon (and to a lesser extent Rudolph Ising) was not happy about the budgets they were made on. He simply wanted more money to make these cartoons. However Leon Schlesinger refused to raise the films budget. After this both Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising left Warner Brothers in mid-1933. However learning from their former boss, Walt Disney, losing the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Harmon and Ising made sure they owned the rights to the character of Bosko.  Because of this the Looney Tunes series no longer had any star characters (which would lead to the creation of the beloved characters we associate with Looney Tunes today) When at MGM Harmon and Ising created a series called Happy Harmonies. Though this series focused mostly on one shot characters and stories, a few Bosko cartoons were made for it.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age by Michael Barrier

Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin 

                                                 

Happy 80th Birthday to Daffy Duck

80 years ago today one of the world's greatest cartoon characters made his first appearance on movie screens. This character was Daffy Duck and his film debut was 1937's Porky's Duck Hunt. Before this cartoon movie audiences had never seen a cartoon character as wild, crazy and energetic as Daffy. Naturally audiences wanted more Daffy, and of course they got more of him. Today to celebrate his birthday we are going to look at three classic Daffy Duck cartoons.

Our first film is Daffy Duckaroo directed by Norm McCabe. Norm McCabe is one of the most forgotten directors of Looney Tunes cartoons. Part of this is that he spent such a short time as a director. Before becoming a director McCabe had been one of Bob Clampett's main animators, when Clampett was still doing black and white Looney Tunes. When in 1942 Bob Clampett got promoted to doing color Merrie Melodie cartoons, Norm McCabe took over his black and white Looney Tunes unit. However in 1943 director Frank Tashlin had returned to Warner Brothers after leaving it to work at Disney and Colombia. Tashlin was given charge of this unit and McCabe was no longer a director. However Norm McCabe would later return to be director as he directed various TV cartoons. Included among his TV work is a segment in the Tiny Toons Adventures episode Pledge Week entitled Lifeguard Lunacy. Another reason is that you will not see his shorts on Cartoon Network or Boomerang, because they are in black and white, they contain many references to World War Two and they feature a lot of racial stereotypes. Despite all this though his cartoons had their own unique personality all to themselves, and were often very good films. One of the best examples of his work is the following cartoon so from 1942, here is The Daffy Duckaroo.

  Next up comes one of the most pure energetic cartoons ever made. This is Friz Freleng's Yankee Doodle Daffy. Despite the title this is not a patriotic cartoon even though there were plenty of those coming out of the Looney Tunes series at this time. The title rather alludes to the famous Michael Crtiz live action feature that had come out the previous year. That film featured James Cagney playing George M. Cohan, who was one of the all time great entertainers. This film on the other hand features Daffy as a talent manager trying to promote his latest sensation, Sleepy Lagoon to a less than enthusiastic Porky Pig, who in this cartoon is president of Smeller Productions (a talent agency). Friz Freleng was a master of comic timing and that shows perfectly here as the film is paced perfectly. It may never really slow down, but never does this fast pace become distracting. So from 1943 here is Yankee Doddle Daffy.

     Lastly comes another pairing of Daffy and Porky, this time in a black and white Looney Tune directed by Bob Clampett called Scalp Trouble. Clampett was one of the most energetic and wild directors in the history of cartoons. Since Daffy Duck is one of the most energetic and wild cartoon characters of all time they made a perfect team. The writing credit for this cartoon was given to Ernest Gee. Gee was one of Clampett's friends from high school. He wasn't a writer in the traditional sense. Rather than actually write out a story on a script or storyboard, Gee would join Clampett for a game of Ping Pong. As they played they talked about the cartoon and doing it this way caused him to come up with ideas and gags quickly. Scalp Trouble would be remade by Friz Freleng as a color Merrie Melodie called Slightly Daffy in 1944. So from 1939 here is Scalp Trouble.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age by Michael Barrier