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20th Century (1934) Is Barrymore's Last Roar It must have been quite something to sit in a theatre and watch a play about staging a play. 20th Century had been a major hit on Broadway, so was known quantity and a squeaker under lowering net that was fuller enforcement by the PCA (released May 1934). 20th Century improves for me on repeat viewings now that I'm reconciled to shouting that goes on throughout. Howard Hawks comedies had a habit of setting a pitch early on and maintaining it. That could mean set at high decibel, or early resort to speed that never flags. I've seen modern viewers exhaust fast on Hawks comedies. He might be credited as a screwball pioneer depending on your definition of screwball. Hawks did introduce a new wrinkle to comedy by using name stars as buffoons, per here with John Barrymore and Carole Lombard playing at clowns. We can see  con tradiction between what a public expected and what Hawks delivered by looking at posters for 20th Century , the

Masters Of Menace Greenstreet and Lorre in The Mask Of Dimitrios (1944) Warners went heavy on Euro seasoning for 40's thrillers set amidst unrest over there, and I'd guess shows like Dimitrios did well once foreign markets got back on postwar footing. Drop Warner sound for subtitles or crude dubbing and you might think it continental-produced. Dimitrios was based on an Eric Ambler story, and that was emphasized in selling. Flashbacks head for a same briar patch that claimed Passage To Marseille of a same year; these had become almost a signature at Warners. A new star seemed born in Zachary Scott as Ultimate Cad, his Dimitrios referred to by Peter Lorre's character as brilliant and a mastermind, though there's scant evidence of that in the narrative. Dimitrios plays instead as a kind of monster who apparently can't be killed, this maybe explaining how The Mask Of Dimitrios made ways to more than one "horror" list maintained by 1944 columnists. It is f

Could We Hack 40 Reels Of Greed ? There's nothing like Greed to lead you back to books after watching. This time, I consulted Arthur Lenig and Herman Weinberg, who dealt exhaustive with Erich von Stroheim's doomed masterpiece. But would forty-two reels, another four or so hours, amount to that? It was accepted for decades that (uncut) Greed would rank among greatest, if not #1 of all time, but days of it turning up on critic polls are over, and I've come to wonder how many, even among serious cineastes, are bothering to watch. Think of mini-series playing television "complete" in the 70/80's, those long tortured hours with commercial s besides. Networks even padded big-name theatricals with unused footage to sell additional hours of advertising --- Superman , Earthquake , plenty more. All of Greed might fit nicely over four nights of NBC primetime, and imagine it going dusk to dawn on TCM. Stroheim had rigid system of the 20's to face. Theatres were onl

The Easiest Way (1931) Again Seems a Most Sensible Way Remarkable how gritty MGM pictures of the 1930-31 season could be. The Easiest Way begins with Constance Bennett living in squalor with a bum father, (J. Farrell McDonald), sour mother (Clara Blandick), and passel full of ill-behaved siblings. It's enough to propel any working girl into clutches of mistress-keeper Adolphe Menjou, her ad exec boss who sees marriage and family as a trap and nothing else, on-screen evidence suggesting he's more than right. The Bennett persona dealt its mosaic of precode whoring until a public was sated with it and her. You could only do the same story so many times before exhaustion took hold. Bennett's many for RKO got that accomplished by 1933. This actress was sharp enough to pass along at least the illusion of major stardom until an industry wised up and put her in support parts or B leads. For The Easiest Way however, the act was fresh and plain-spoke on trading virtue for Depress

Missing Witnesses (1937) Is Off WB "B" Shelf Vice gangs rule backlot streets yet again at Warners, blowing out same store windows and auto-piling into street lamps, footage used/reused for decades. Crime paid better for WB than anyplace else. No sooner would they finish two/three racket B's than launch one on larger budget with Robinson or Cagney, all a sure thing for action money. Talent could be tried as well in the cheap ones --- how else could you road test a D ick Purcell as next Cagney (which he decidedly was not). Writing's fairly punk --- we don't get the sense of anyone laboring much over these scripts --- but how could they when a finished feature had to roll out of Warners each week? It was sheer nervous energy that put most cheap melodrama across, that plus pressure to finish on Friday. Missing Witnesses got a little lost on me as to who heavies were and what they were up to, though it's possible I snoozed through vital exposition. There's

Powell Trades Tough For Rib Tickle in You Can Never Tell (1951) Turns out Universal-International was making Disney live action comedies before Disney. This one's about a poisoned dog that returns in the person of Dick Powell to unmask his killer. Walt and crew might have done as much with Fred MacMurray or Dean Jones a decade later and to far wackier degree than restraint applied here. The subdue effect to what should have been friskier fare is what hobbles potential of You Can Never Tell . As long as they weren't really going to cut loose with the comedy, I found myself wishing the yarn were played straight, Powell's reincarnated pooch now a private eye squaring accounts in earnest, and never mind effort at laughs. Universal did any number of coat-and-tie (read genial) comedies during the 50's where nuttiness that was needed gave way to punches pulled. You Can Never Tell tries occasionally at breaking out of the pack. Powell's sidekick, formerly a racehorse, and

Cockleshell Heroes (1955-56) Turns Tide Of The War Warwick was a British firm headed by Irving Allen and pre-James Bond Albert R. Broccoli. They did big-sc ale actioners meant to compete with a best the Yanks could deliver. War themes were a staple, big names lured from our s hores to headline. So far there'd been Alan Ladd in several, Victor Mature for Safari and Zarak , plus oddball of a sci-fi, The Gamma People , with Paul Douglas. The big Cockleshell name was director and star Jose Ferrer, riding a career crest and regarded a triple, if not more, threat, for whatever project he took on, the Jack Buchanan character in MGM's The Bandwagon said to have spoofed him. The story was fact-based, impossible mission stuff, grim outcome from which Warwick doesn't shrink. There weren't a lot of war pix where objective was achieved at cost of nearly all personnel, as here, but it's that integrity that elevates Cockleshell Heroes . Did Robert Aldrich observe and take no

Have We Caught Up With Beat The Devil Yet? Shot in early 1953, but released in March 1954, this was sold by braver exhibs in terms of black-and-white flatness we should celebrate --- a deliberately old-fashioned show amidst shape-shifting screens. Beat The Devil would have been better off had it been more like the thrillers it proposed to spoof. The satire was obscure enough to need helpful narration confirming that indeed this was a lark; otherwise you could go the whole thing figuring Beat The Devil a plain misfire. Humphrey Bogart tagged it for exactly that, resenting his money wasted on such smug self-indulgence. The star spent personal funds to accommodate friend and Devil 's director John Huston, who'd handed Bogart his 50's triumph The African Queen and the Academy Award it yielded for an actor too-long typed as urban tough-guy. Beat The Devil then, was a hiccup among post-Warner Bogarts that were uniformly successful otherwise, and it would be after HB's deat