Elisha Cook Jr. (1903-1995) represents the great Hollywood character actors – never out of work and never having the worries of a star. Maybe even being able to walk down Hollywood Boulevard in relative anonymity.
Elisha fought with Bogie, wed Marie Windsor, befriended Lawrence Tierney, was like a son to Sydney Greenstreet and stood up to Jack Palance in “Shane”.
Did he ever get to smile? Yes, he did in “ Stranger on the Third floor”(1940), though he’s accused of murder.
He was mostly timid, quietly menacing , small time gangster, and always believable.
In “Born To Kill”, he matter-of-factly tells Lawrence Tierney,
“You can’t just go around killin’ people whenever the notion strikes you – it’s not feasible.”
In “The Maltese Falcon”, Sidney Greenstreet tells him:
“ Well Wilmer, I’m sorry indeed to lose you. But I want you to know I couldn’t be fonder of you if you were my own son.
But, well, if you lose a son, it’s possible to get another. There’s only one Maltese Falcon.”
With Bogart, The Maltese Falcon
PHANTOM LADY
As the drummer in “Phantom Lady”, reacting to the come-on from Ella Raines.
With Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney.BORN TO KILL
With Marie Windsor. THE KILLING.
Willing to take part in a robbery to keep his ever loving wife (played by Marie Windsor) in the style which she’d like to become accustomed.
As ‘Stonewall’ Torrey in SHANE.
Handsome young man.
Elisha was active in films and television till the 1980s.
Who can forget the whiny tones of silent screen star ‘Lina Lamont’ in Singin’ in the Rain. Brought to life by Jean Hagen who fully deserved her Oscar nomination.
Lina was perfect on screen – as long as she didn’t talk!
I always liked her line –
”I make more money than – than – Calvin Coolidge – put together!”
In an excellent current touring production of the show in the U.K., that line has been changed to;
I make more money than the Warner Brothers – and Sisters!”
Douglas Fowley, Jean Hagen, Gene Kelly
Love Douglas Fowley in his vain attempts to get Lina to talk into the microphone.
Jean Hagen
Jean Hagen (1923-1977) was born Jean Verhagen in Chicago. After experience in radio and the stage, her first film was “Adam’s Rib” in 1949, followed by “The Asphalt Jungle” in 1950, in which she played the sympathetic girlfriend of Sterling Hayden.
She also played James Stewart’s wife in “Carbine Williams”, a Stewart film hardly ever seen.
Presumably with no good film roles on the horizon, Jean spent the next few years on TV, as the wife of Danny Thomas in “Make a room For Daddy.”
Jean’s health declined in the 1960s and her career never reached that peak again of playing Lina Lamont.
But she will be forever remembered as Miss Lamont, who was the triple threat -couldn’t act, sing or dance!
Set in the Florida Keys in 1840, Reap The Wild Wind is a rip-roaring Cecil B. DeMille tale of the salvage masters who “reap the harvest of the wild winds” .
Paulette Goddard is perfect casting as the captivating , headstrung southern belle who realises that JohnWayne is not the hero she thought, nor Ray Milland the dandy she thought him.
A fine supporting cast including a young Susan Hayward, Robert Preston, Raymond Massey, Lynne Overman, Charles Bickford.
The film received a well deserved Oscar for special effects.
I’m sure it was a resounding hit back in 1942, with its glorious Technicolor and amazing underwater scenes.
Reminiscent of Mae West asking Beulah to peel her a grape, Richard Widmark , as the psychotic hoodlum, ‘Tommy Udo’ in KISS OF DEATH(1947), sneers at assistant D.A. Brian Donlevy who tries to get some information from him:
I wouldn’t give you the skin off a grape.”
What a debut film for Widmark as the cackling killer. He later said, “That damned laugh of mine. For two years after that picture, you couldn’t get me to smile!”
Fortunately Richard managed to evade gangster typecasting in the rest of his career.
The film is remembered for the horrific scene where Udo pushed a wheelchair bound elderly woman down a flight of stairs. ( how it passed the censors, I don’t know.)
That’s some hairstyle .
Richard Widmark (1914-2008) went to Princeton High School in Princeton, Illinois. The newspaper highlights Widmark being a local. ( The film was only screened in his home town after he had been Oscar-nominated).
Victor Mature, Patricia Morison
I was interested to read that Patricia Morison played Victor Mature’s suicide driven first wife in the film, but her scenes were cut from the final print.
I was sorry to hear that L.Q.Jones (1927-2022) had passed away . I always remember him in the Randolph Scott western, “Buchanan Rides Alone”.(1958)
Born Justus McQueen, L.Q. took his screen name from the character he played in his first film, “Battle Cry”(1955).
Randolph Scott plays Tom Buchanan ,an army mercenary who has left Mexico after making enough money to return to his home in West Texas and buy a ranch .
He rides into the border town of Agry – where everything costs $10 – a whisky, a steak, a hotel room.
The town is run by the Agry family – the town sheriff is Lew Agry (Barry Kelley) ,the only judge in town is Simon Agry (Tol Avery) and the brother who’s not so smart, Amos is played by Peter Whitney.
And there is Abe Carbo ( Craig Stevens), the well groomed enforcer for the judge.
Buchanan makes three mistakes- he rides into Agry; he has a money belt containing $2000: and he helps a young Mexican, ‘Juan de la Vega’ (Manuel Rojas).
There is never going to be justice for either of them. The judge and the sheriff plot against each other. Buchanan is relieved of his money and rather than hang the Mexican for a killing, the judge sends a ransom request to the Mexican’s well off family.
Barry Kelley as Lew Agry
Tol Avery as Simon Agry
Peter Whitney as Amos Agry
Craig Stevens as Abe Carbo
L.Q.Jones, Randolph Scott
L.Q. Jones , as ‘Pecos’, along with Don C.Harvey ( as ‘Lafe’) are hired guns for the duplicitous sheriff. Pecos and Lafe are sent to kill Buchanan but Pecos can’t do it as he is also from West Texas. So he shoots Lafe instead!
L.Q.Jones
Pesos speaks over Lafe’s grave. ( they are looking up because the body is hitched onto to the top branches of a tree.)
L.Q.Jones, Randolph Scott
Pecos: “I’m sorry it was me who stopped your clock….when it come down to choosing between you and Buchanan, well, I just had to choose Buchanan on account of he’s a West Texan.”
Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens
A good shoot-out at the end of the film. I’d have liked Craig Stevens to have more screen time.
Randolph Scott, Craig Stevens
One feels Carbo has been biding his time. Agrytown is getting a new boss, I expect its name will change.
At the end of the film, Carbo to Buchanan:
“I’d advise you not to stay here. Like you say, this is my town now.”
Buchanan replies: “Mr. Carbo, you can have it.”
Carbo gets the last line: “Don’t just stand there, Amos, get a shovel.”
Like his character in “The Tall T”, Scott as Buchanan has no dark history, no scores to settle. He simply picked the wrong town to pass through on his way home.
A better ending would have been Buchanan and Pecos riding out together. Instead Buchanan rides out alone.
Unusually, there is no romantic interest for Buchanan. But the film moves along so well, a female lead wasn’t missed.
I liked Manuel Rojas (1926-1997) as the young Mexican. According to IMDB he was married to Martha Vickers for ten years. He only made a few movies.
A Scott-Brown production, directed by Budd Boetticher, with locations in Tucson, Arizona.
L.Q.Jones was active in Hollywood, films and TV, from the 1950s through to 2006. He appeared in Randolph Scott’s last western, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962), but playing a far less likeable character and no friend of Scott.
New from The Criterion Collection in October, 2022, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE , in both dvd and blu-Ray. ( website, criterion.com)
I like this cover, designed by graphic artist ,F.Ron Miller. ( though Priscilla Lane isn’t featured.)
Extras include an audio commentary plus a radio broadcast with Boris Karloff ( who originally starred in the Broadway play) – his part was played by Raymond Massey in the film.
Though filmed in 1941 and ready for release in 1942, the picture wasn’t seen by the public until 1944 as there was a contract banning the film’s release until the Broadway production finished.
Priscilla Lane had married in 1942 and only made three more films after Arsenic and Old Lace.
Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane
Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre
Cary Grant
Not “What’s in the box”, but “What’s in the window seat”
Great cast including John Alexander (Charge!), James Gleason and Edward Everett Horton.
…….Re-reading “Inside Warner Brothers” by Rudy Behlmer who ends his introduction to the book with this paragraph:
“Anyone interested in the making of films can only be glad that Warners saved their carbons, for it is one thing to read or listen to reminiscences of someone noted in his field, selectively recalling what happened many years before – with all the attendant inaccuracies and imbalances – but it is quite another when one is able to assess film history recorded at the time the events occurred, with the drama of the moment intact.”
For example: 11 January 1935. To Hal Wallis from Jack L.Warner:
“I overheard a typical Mike Curtiz-Harry Joe Brown squawk about not wanting to use Errol Flynn in ‘The Case of the Curious Bride.’ I hope that they did not change you because I want him used in this picture, first because I think it is a shame to let people like Curtiz and Harry Brown even think of opposing an order from you or myself and, secondly, when we bring a man all the way from England , he is at least entitled to a chance and somehow or other we haven’t given him one.”
20 February, 1935: From Warners to William Randolph Hearst:
“We are going to produce “Captain Blood” with Robert Donat. Would Miss Marion Davies be interested in playing in this important picture? There is an excellent part for her.”
So, in these two memos we learn quite a lot. Jack Warner wants everybody to know that he ( and Hal Wallis) are not to be argued with! And maybe he sees a future asset in Errol Flynn!
From the second memo, we see how casting can change.
Errol Flynn. The Case of the Curious Bride
Flynn did appear in “The Case of the Curious Bride”, but in a very brief, non-speaking part.( Warren William played Perry Mason.)
Olivia De Havilland, Errol Flynn. CAPTAIN BLOOD.
Robert Donat, Marion Davies.
…….John Howard was interviewed at the time Lost Horizon was restored by Robert Gitt of the American Film Institute. Howard , in 1986, commented:
“For the past 17 years I have been teaching English in a progressive high school in the San Fernando Valley. …I never dreamed one day this movie would be restored and re-released….I vividly remember testing for the role of Ronald Colman’s brother. David Niven and Louis Hayward both thought they had the part, for I wasn’t English.
Frank Capra wrote in a line that the brother had been educated in Canada, and I won the role. However , it did take several screen tests before the final approval.. One of them was with a young Mexican girl named Rita Cansino. Columbia had just put her under contract and soon changed her name to Rita Hayworth. Margo did the role in the movie.”
(Rita Hayworth , born in New York, was not Mexican. Her father was Spanish and her mother Irish/American. Rita took the name ‘Hayworth’, her mother’s maiden name.)
After its initial release in 1937, LOST HORIZON was severely edited from its original 132 minutes , till at last in the 1980s, the missing scenes were mostly reinstated and viewers could see the original version.
John Howard, Margo, Ronald Colman
Quiz photos.
Who are the two ladies and what film are they on the set of?
(That’s some carpet.)
“Three Little Words”(1950) has always been one of my favourite musicals, mainly because I love the songs of Bert Kalmar (1884-1947) and Harry Ruby(1895-1974).
Kalmar wrote the words and was played by Fred Astaire , while composer Harry Ruby was Red Skelton in a rare semi-serious role.
Despite the usual liberties taken by Hollywood , this biopic had some truth in it – Ruby loved baseball , and Kalmar was an amateur magician and had been a dancer in his youth.
They were a songwriting team for nearly 30 years, and THREE LITTLE WORDS is a fine tribute to their songwriting skills.
They wrote for the Marx Brothers in “Animal Crackers” and “Duck Soup”, including Groucho’s ‘Hello ,I Must be Going” and “Hooray for Captain Spaulding”.
Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby
A great song, “Nevertheless” ( written in 1931) is sung in perfect harmony by Astaire and Skelton.
Though written in 1923, “Who’s Sorry Now” first reached the screen in 1946’s “A Night in Casablanca “ sung by Lisette Verea. Gloria deHaven (playing her mother, Flora deHaven) sings it in “Three Little Words”.
It was recorded by many singers, and in 1958 Connie Francis had a top ten hit with it.
For this song, Ted Snyder wrote the music.
This song lists a Herman Ruby as one of the writers. I couldn’t find out if he was related to Harry Ruby.
Debbie Reynolds, Carleton Carpenter.
Debbie Reynolds ( in her first film) sings ‘I wanna be loved by you’ to an uncomfortable Carleton Carpenter. But Debbie is dubbed by Helen Kane (1904-1966) who had first sung it in the 1928 stage musical, “Good Boy.”
A nice touch to have Helen reprise her trademark song.
(Helen Kane’s “This Is Your Life” in 1958 ( available on You Tube) has Helen singing the iconic song, with Harry Ruby at the piano.)
Harry Ruby’s “This Is Your Life” is also on You Tube.
Helen Kane with Debbie Reynolds on the set. Helen was said to be the model for cartoon “Betty Boop”, with her famous ‘boop-boop-a-doop’.
Vera-Ellen as ‘Jessie Brown’, Bert Kalmar’s wife. Vera- Ellen was dubbed by Anita Ellis.
Arlene Dahl plays silent star Eileen Percy who married Harry Ruby in 1936. Arlene sings ‘I Love You So Much.’ in a lovely production number.
Arlene Dahl, Red Skelton, Harry Ruby, Fred Astaire, Vera -Ellen
Harry Ruby, Red Skelton
Harry Ruby was a baseball fan and in this shot from the film he is seen with Red Skelton.
Vienna's Classic Hollywood 