Kid Galahad (1937) – Bette Davis Blogathon

It is fun to watch Bette Davis’ early films…before her role in Jezebel. There is something special about the way she pops off the screen, in a way she does not in later films (though she always dominates the screen). I noted in last year’s post for “The Bette Davis Blogathon,” hosted by In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood, that she was “like a dynamo or a ball of fire, bursting across the screen.” The sheer amount of energy and charisma is mesmerizing, even in films unworthy of her talents.

But Kid Galahad, directed by the ever versatile and able Michael Curtiz, is not unworthy of her talents, though she does not get top billing (that honor goes to Edward G. Robinson). It’s a boxing drama. Nick Donati (Edward G. Robinson) is a blowhard boxing promoter looking for a man to make champion, who can defeat the champion promoted by gangster Turkey Morgan (Humphrey Bogart). He finds his potential champion in Ward Guisenberry (Wayne Morris), who becomes known as Kid Galahad because of his simple, gentlemanly and slightly naive ways. Bette Davis plays Donati’s girlfriend, Louise “Fluff” Phillips, who falls for Ward. Ward, however, likes Donati’s sister, Marie (Jane Bryan), who Donati has tried to shelter from the tough racket of the fight game.

The film contains crime and boxing, gambling and gangsters, murder, romantic triangles, and nightclubs. The boxing sequences are also quite well done and exciting on their own and in the context of the plot. It has that 1930s Warner Bro. crime drama feel that is always entertaining. As is the cast.

Edward G. Robinson is another dynamic actor who made his career as a leading man by sheer power and skill rather than his looks (Bette Davis did not like kissing him and called him “liver lips”). He’s one of those actors I would watch in virtually anything and he brings vulnerability to his role as a promoter with a quick temper and willingness to skirt the law. And the same with Humphrey Bogart, who plays quite the dour killer. In fact, he’s so convincingly dour as a killer that if all I saw was this film, I would never have guessed that he could play a romantic leading man.

Bette Davis and Edward G. Robinson

Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart actually appeared in five movies together, always ending with one or the other killing each other….or sometimes both at the same time. In fact, many actors in Kid Galahad appeared in many different roles with each other throughout their careers at Warner Bros. Bette Davis appeared in at least four movies with Jane Bryan, once as her mother (The Old Maid), twice as her sister (Marked Woman, The Sisters), and once as romantic rival (in Kid Galahad). Jane Bryan also once played Edward G. Robinson’s daughter, as well as his sister. Not to mention the four movies Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart appeared in (though never after Humphrey Bogart hit the big time). The studios could be very flexible about these things.

Kid Galahad feels like an ensemble film rather than a showcase for any particular actor. However, Bette Davis does use the opportunity to make an impression. As Donati’s knowing girlfriend, who is grateful for his kindness towards her and keeps him out of trouble, she gets to play a person who definitely has an air of experience, but is still young and fresh enough not to feel jaded. Though her large and expressive eyes belie the happiness she professes to feel at the beginning of the story.

She is touched when Ward quite un-selfconsciously refers to her as a “lady.” He’s the first one to treat her that way and calls her Louise rather than her nickname, Fluff. But she still seems fresh enough for one to believe that Ward would see her as a lady. She is often the smartest one in the film, an invaluable partner to Nick and keeps him grounded.

Bette Davis, Jane Bryan, Edward G. Robinson

(plot spoiler) The end of the film involves a shootout and Bette Davis gets the last scene, as she sadly walks away down the street…on to better things, one presumes, like an Academy Award for Jezebel the following year. It would take a few more years for Humphrey Bogart to move on to better things. But Kid Galahad makes a nice send-off for Bette Davis. You just know you will be seeing her again.

This post was written as part of the “Second Annual Bette Davis Blogathon,” hosted by In The Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood. Click here for more posts covering Bette Davis’ vast career!

 

 

Dark Victory (1939)

I have had Dark Victory sitting on my shelf for a long time and I have steadfastly resisted watching it. It’s a story about a woman who dies of cancer and since my own mother died of cancer, I thought I’d never have the heart to sit through it all. But last week I must have been feeling reckless (or morbid), because I voluntarily and spontaneous decided to watch it, fully prepared to drown in an ocean of tears.

But the oddest thing happened. I didn’t actually cry and I think it’s because the film bears absolutely no resemblance to my own experiences. It is a pure Hollywood fantasy of disease and death….which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I don’t need a movie to teach me about grief. Movies either touch me on the raw (and they are only able to do so because I’ve already experience something) or they touch me in a more abstract, cerebral, certainly emotional, but not tangible fashion. Dark Victory was definitely in the latter category. I admired Bette Davis, enjoyed the drama, felt sad by the ending, was frustrated by the character’s decisions and generally was able to enjoy it like I would any other movie.

Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is a reckless and willful heiress who parties all night and has a huge collection of relatively useless friends, including Alec Hamm (Ronald Reagan, in a thankless role), though her loyal secretory, Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald in her first American film) is more like a sister to her and genuinely tries to look out for her interest. But Judith’s doctor is worried about her. Dr. Parsons (Henry Travers) knows something is wrong, though Judith refuses to tell him her symptoms or see another doctor. The symptoms include trouble with her vision, numbness in her left arm and hand, terrible headaches and an inability to concentrate.

Dr. Parson finally does get her to see a specialist, however. Brain surgeon Frederick Steele (George Brent) diagnoses a brain tumor almost immediately, though he consults with a few other doctors before telling her that they need to operate. The operation is a success, clearing up all her symptoms, but the doctors learn that the operation was only a reprieve. Judith only has at most ten months to live. There will be no symptoms (?!), she will appear perfectly fine until she loses her eyesight, at which point the end will only be a few hours away.

But Dr. Steele, Dr, Parsons and Ann elect not to tell Judith, feeling that she would be happier if she didn’t know (this is apparently rather European, where my piano teacher told me that it used to be quite routine for the family to choose not to tell a loved one that they were dying – the topic came up when we were discussing Rachmaninoff and I expressed surprise that his family should keep it from him that he had cancer, though eventually it becomes rather obvious to the patient that something is wrong – though this was in the days when there was really nothing that could be done). Judith is beside herself with gratitude for Dr. Steele and is falling in love with him, while Dr. Steele returns her affections. Should he tell her? And then things go haywire when Judith finds out that he and Ann lied to her about being cured and goes on a giant, months long bender.

One thing that interested me was Bette Davis’ performance. I am used to thinking of her as playing rather strong-willed women, but as Judith Traherne she plays her with a more childlike innocence, especially opposite George Brent’s Dr. Steele. She mentions that her father drank himself to death and that her mother lives in Paris and so there is a rather fatherly aspect to Dr. Steele’s love of her and her reaction to him. It begins when they first meet in his office. She is scared stiff and wildly resistant to his attempts to question her about her health. But as he gains her confidence, she suddenly relaxes, as if for the first time completely trusting someone else to take care of her. She plays Judith with wide-eyed, abandoned youthfulness that somehow isn’t really jaded yet, but also like a scared animal, shying away from kindness, who can’t quite fathom her fate.

Barbara Stanwyck evidently badly wanted the role or Judith Traherne and even performed the role for Lux Radio Theater, but because she was not associated with any studio, the role went to Bette Davis at Warner Bros. I wonder what her take on the character would have been. She can do many things, but I’m not sure childlike innocence is one of them. I am sure it would have been a good performance, but definitely different.

Also in Dark Victory is, of all people, Humphrey Bogart. 1939 was a strange and busy year for Bogart. He played a mobster in The Roaring Twenties, an outlaw in the western (!) Oklahoma Kid with James Cagney, a convict in the prison drama The Invisible Stripes, another mobster in You Can’t Get Away With Murder with the Dead End Kids, a bloodless, undead  zombie scientist with a white streak in his hair and a rabbit to stroke in the very B The Return of Dr. X, yet another gangster in King of the Underworld and an impertinent, lusty Irish stable-hand in Dark Victory with an unconvincing Irish brogue-like accent. Bogart must have been very glad to finally be done with the 1930s.

George Brent and Geraldine Fitzgerald are quite good, but Dark Victory is all Bette Davis vehicle with her nobly going off alone to die. It’s actually a bit frustrating. After all, she is taking the choice away from those who love her who would want to be with her. But in the context of the story, it kind of makes sense. She acts so young and dependent on others, it is important to her, at the end, to do this on her own. Finally, to bravely face something on her own.

As a side note, isn’t it odd the kinds of movies that move one emotionally? It can be so unpredictable. A movie like Dark Victory will leave me unmoved and than I’ll bawl at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Cheesy stuff, random stuff, who knows what will affect one next! I never know. Do you?

 

We’re No Angels (1955)

“What a cast!” was my first thought as I read about the Christmas film We’re No Angels: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone, Leo G. Carroll! And directed by the incredibly diverse Michael Curtiz? Woohoo!

“What was that?” was what I first wondered when I had completed watching it. I suspect that I am going to get into trouble if I try to analyze the film too closely. But purely on a superficial level, on the strength of it’s cast and script, We’re No Angels is both sentimental and somewhat darkly comedic and deliciously enjoyable. After all, how many angels kill the villain with a snake to bring peace and happiness to the heroes? I suppose that’s why they’re not really angels. I’m getting ahead of myself.

In 1895 on Devil’s Island in French Cayenne, three convicts escape from prison on Christmas Eve. They are Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov). And Adolphe, Albert’s poisonous pet snake. Because there are many convicts on parole on Devil’s Island, they figure they can walk boldly into the city and no one will notice them. Their plan is to forge passports, steal clothes and murder the owner of the general store where they plan to get their materials and then slip away on a ship back to Paris.

The general store they select is run by the vague and ineffectual Felix Ducotel (Leo G.Carroll), who is nevertheless a kind and honest man. Joseph wants to hang around until dark, so he offers to have the three of them fix Felix’s roof. While on the roof, they listen to Felix talk to his wife, Amelie (Joan Bennett) about their business difficulties, their daughter, Isabelle (Gloria Talbott) and Cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone), who is the rich business man who owns their general store. He is arriving that evening from Paris with his nephew (who Isabelle loves) to look at the books. Since Felix is a hopeless businessman, their fear is that Cousin Andre, who is a ruthless businessman, will throw them in prison.

As the convicts listen, they are drawn into the family’s concerns and their inherent goodness, but Joseph insists that they stick to the plan and cut their throats that night (“Now that’s the kind of thing that makes people stop believing in Santa Clause,” Jules complains). But instead they end up helping sort out the family’s affairs, both business and romantic, and go out of their way to give them a Christmas they’ll never forget.

Humphrey Bogart, Pete Ustinov, Aldo Ray

We’re No Angels is based on a French play and is a somewhat offbeat story. The three convicts are just as much avenging angels as good angels. They literally appear from on high (the roof) to help, even if they are kind of peeping toms. Bogart plays the scam artist who can sell anything (including combs to a bald man), cook any books and forge anything. Ustinov was a successful safe cracker who is only in jail because he murdered his wife. Aldo is the lug who murdered his uncle for not giving him money when he asked and likes to chase women.

But the Ducotel family doesn’t seem to mind having murderers, rapists and scam artists around. They are hopelessly naive, but honest and treat the three convicts like anyone else…actually, more like family friends. They even invite them to share their Christmas dinner with them. Jules begins to have second thoughts about murdering them that night, but Joseph insists they remain strong.

We came here to rob them and that’s what we’re gonna do – beat their heads in, gauge their eyes out, slash their throats…soon as we wash the dishes.

The three of them make a great team, always lolling about, stealing from the local community (the Ducotel’s become the unknowing repository of stolen goods), offering sage advice, cooking dinner, arranging flowers, washing dishes, being insolent to the villains, playing matchmaker, singing a carol in three part harmony. They combine a recognition of goodness with a perfectly open zest for criminality and rejoice when Cousin Andre unexpectedly arrives, because in the words of Jules, he was getting tired of all this niceness. But for all their talk about cutting throats and murder, it’s clear they’re really just big softies.

Peter Ustinov, Humphrey Bogart, Leo G. Carroll, Basil Rathbone, Aldo Ray – Rathbone wants to look at the books before Bogart has time to alter them

All three actors – Bogart, Ray and Ustinov – approach their roles lightly and seem to be having a great time. I particularly enjoyed Ustinov and Bogart, who I don’t usually associate with comedy, but he certainly can deliver a line. Basil Rathbone as Cousin Andre is also fantastic, showing up later in the film to make a big impression as the walking cash box. To an angry Isabelle, he says with complete indifference, “Your opinion of me has no cash value.”

Oddly enough, by being fugitives from prison, it actually frees the three of them from having to follow society’s laws, or even it’s most basic morals dictates. Joan Bennett as Amelie mentions to Joseph several times that she envies him for doing what he wants. Ironically, they also do what she dreams of doing, but would never do – which is kill Cousin Andre. So, crooks make it possible for the innocent people to go on being innocent and happy by committing murder? Somehow, that seems morally dubious, but hey! It’s a fun film, heartwarming despite that.

Bogart with his stolen turkey, while Ustinov admires his “beautiful big brown eyes.”

Bogart makes a sale and Joan Bennett is somewhat overwhelmed by the three convicts many talents.