I Love You Again (1940)

For me, Myrna Loy is never better than when she's playing verbal volleyball with William Powell and I Love You Again is another fantastic demonstration of the pair's chemistry: chock full of sass and those droll one-liners that Loy and Powell both do so well.  

Released in 1940 by MGM Studios, the film was directed by W. S. Van Dyke (who directed Powell and Loy in the first four movies of The Thin Man series) and went on to be a big success. 

I Love You Again stars William Powell as stuffy, penny-pinching businessman Larry Wilson...at first.  The film opens at the bar on a vacation cruise and here we meet Larry, whose uptight personality has earned him quite a reputation with his fellow passengers, who call him Grape Juice Man in reference to his signature drink: ginger ale and grape juice.

On the last night of the cruise, an inebriated man named 'Doc' Ryan (Frank McHugh) hassles Larry for being too high-and-mighty to have a drink with him, but when Doc slips and falls into the ocean, Larry jumps in after him and winds up saving his life, taking an oar to the head while he's at it. 

   

The blow knocks him unconscious and when he comes to, Larry Wilson is no more.  Doc is there in his room with him, wishing to befriend the man who saved his life, but the two of them soon discover that he is not the same man that just rescued Doc from drowning.  

Larry Wilson is really George Carey, a suave conman who suffered amnesia for the past nine years after he took a blow to the head.  Unfortunately for George, he has no memory of his life as Larry Wilson - he doesn't know what he does for a living or even where he lives, but a quick glance at his bank account balance indicates that he has saved up a sizable chunk of money ripe for the taking.

So, in typical swindler fashion, he decides to go "home" to Habersville, New York and collect his money, which he agrees to share with Doc in exchange for his assistance in pulling it off. 

He doesn't count on the surprise waiting for him at the pier, though: turns out he's married to a beautiful woman named Kay (Myrna Loy) and he thinks it's his lucky day, but he soon finds out that he and his wife are separated and she is ready to make the separation legal.  So much so that she's already seeing other people.

George doesn't care all that much, at first.  After all, Kay is really Larry's wife, not George's, and he doesn't feel one way or the other about her or anyone else in Habersville.  All he wants is the money.  Unfortunately, nothing is ever easy and he learns that the hundred grand he thought was his is, in fact, money held in trust for community projects.  He only has a modest savings to call his own.

So George, ever the enterprising fellow, cooks up a scheme to bilk some of the town's wealthier men out of their money.  But when the best laid plans mix with the worst of intentions, George finds himself in spot after spot of trouble, all the while falling in love with his own wife.  

Will George go through with it or will he choose Larry's life over George's?

There are so many fantastic scenes in the film: George dancing with himself, Kay dumping eggs on George's head, George tramping through the woods with a troupe of reverent Boy Scouts.  William Powell is very funny as debonair George Carey, especially in scenes that put George out of his element.   Powell delivers his lines with perfect timing and inflection, but this role also showcases his skill as a physical comedian, which is an absolute treat.  

Myrna Loy is fantastic, as always.  She doesn't get as much screen time here as in some of her other pairings with Powell, but she is effective and engaging in every one of her scenes.  She is the perfect counterpart to Powell's character: wholly (and often humorously) unimpressed with George, who is using every trick in the book to win her back.  

The supporting cast is good.  Frank McHugh as Doc, George Carey's partner of sorts, is funny and gets a lot of good lines.  I enjoyed his performance a lot. The film also features Nella Walker as Kay's mother,  Donald Douglas as Kay's boyfriend and Edmund Lowe as the "villain of the piece".

I Love You Again is a wonderful film.  The story is original, fast-paced and immensely funny.  I love every minute of it.

Dark Victory (1939)

Released in 1939, Dark Victory is a Warner Bros. film starring Bette Davis, George Brent and Geraldine Fitzgerald. I had seen the movie before, years ago, and remembered that it had impressed me, so I was curious to find out if I would still find it as wonderful as I had then.

Well, let me just say, I was glued to the TV and cried like a baby. I was not disappointed.  



Bette Davis stars as Judith Traherne, a young, carefree Long Island socialite with a wild streak and an indulgent lifestyle. 

Judy has been feeling poorly for a while now - headaches, dizzy spells, double vision - but she stubbornly refuses to seek help.  A scare while racing her horse and a tumble down the stairs lead Judy's friend Ann (Geraldine Fitzgerald) to call the family doctor, Parsons (Henry Travers).

Judith is uncooperative, refusing to admit that there is anything the matter with her. Still, Dr. Parsons is worried and feels that she requires a specialist.  He visits fellow colleague Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent), a brain surgeon who has just closed his practice so he can move to Vermont and devote his time to brain cell research.  Dr. Steele is reluctant to meet the patient, but Dr. Parsons' obvious concern finally convinces him to see her.

Judy is cavalier, even rude, during her meeting with Dr. Steele, responding to his questions with answers intended to shock.  But Steele isn't fooled - he can see that she is scared and it's this fear that is driving her to pretend everything is fine.  He calls her out on it and his directness helps her accept that she is ill and needs help.

"I'm accustomed to a reasonable quantity of tobacco and alcohol..."

Judy is tested thoroughly and the results are not good: she has a malignant brain tumor, just as Steele had suspected.  She agrees to surgery to remove the tumor and puts on a brave face.  Steele performs the surgery and, although Judy survives the procedure, it is not a true success.

The doctors were unable to remove all of the tumor and it will grow back over time. A second surgery is impossible. Judy  has only months to live.  

Dark Victory is filled with emotion - tragic, hopeful and quietly powerful. Many of its most potent and poignant moments can be attributed to a single expression - Davis could say more with one look than many actors could with a hundred words.  

Davis' role as Judith Traherne was her own personal favorite and garnered a nomination for a Best Actress Oscar, but she and the film were up against tough competition that year and the award instead went to Vivien Leigh for her role as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind.  The film was nominated for Best Picture (but lost to Gone With the Wind) and the score, which was composed by Max Steiner, also received an Oscar nod.  In fact, Steiner received two nominations that year for Best Original Score, one for Dark Victory and the other for Gone With the Wind, but the award went to Herbert Stothart for The Wizard of Oz.

Overall, the supporting cast is good.  George Brent’s Dr. Steele is self-possessed and kind, the perfect steadying influence on Judy.  I was particularly touched by his performance during the scene where he explains his reasons to Ann for keeping Judy’s prognosis from her.  It was evident even then that he had already fallen in love with Judy.  I was surprised to discover that Brent appeared in many films - thirteen of them - with Bette Davis.  I remember him best for his role in The Spiral Staircase.

I loved Geraldine Fitzgerald in this film  – her performance as loyal, caring Ann is fantastic.  She embodies the ideal friend. It was a real treat for me to see Fitzgerald once again as a young woman - I am a rabid fan of The Golden Girls, so I see her two performances in that show as an elderly woman often.  She was a wonderful actress all throughout her career.  In fact, her role as Anna in the Mother's Day episode of The Golden Girls earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series.  (I adore that episode!)

Henry Travers has a small role as Dr. Parsons and he is solid, as usual.  Humphrey Bogart's part as Irish stablemaster Michael O'Leary seemed unnecessary to me.  I don't know if it was just the role or if it was Bogart's performance, but I felt the film would have been better without his role.  (And I'm a Bogie fan, so that's saying something.)  Another notable part was that of Alex, one of Judy's society pals, played by a very young Ronald Reagan.  The role was one of his earliest and one he apparently hated.

So, I guess all I can say is: if you like Bette Davis (and crying your eyes out), watch this movie!  It is, simply put, beautiful.

Roberta (1935)

I'm a big Ginger Rogers fan, so it's surprising me to that this was the first time I had seen Roberta (1935).  Irene Dunne gets top billing for this film, so it isn't a true Rogers/Astaire musical, but it should have been, considering that the two of them contribute the best parts of the film.

The first scene opens on a ship headed for Paris.  John Kent (Randolph Scott), a former college football hero, is traveling there with his good friend Huck Haines (Fred Astaire), a bandleader who has booked a gig in the city for his dance band, the Wabash Indianians.

Unfortunately, when their client (an excitable club owner played by Luis Alberni) discovers that they're a dance band - not a band of American Indians - he fires them immediately, despite their attempt at changing his mind with a fun, creative performance in which Huck plays the "organ".

Randolph Scott as John and Fred Astaire as Huck

Astaire et al performing The Pipe Organ Number

Now in Paris with no job, the group has nowhere to stay and no idea what to do next, until John reveals that his aunt Minnie (played by the fabulous Helen Westley) lives in Paris - and happens to be the famous, wealthy dressmaker "Roberta".  He thinks maybe she can help the band land a gig, so he pays her a visit at her dress shop.

Helen Westley as Aunt Minnie

There John meets Aunt Minnie's assistant Stephanie (Irene Dunne).  He is instantly charmed by her and she seems to think he's pretty adorable, too.

Irene Dunne as Stephanie

While John is talking with his aunt, he meets Countess Scharwenka (Ginger Rogers), a fiery Polish nightclub entertainer who has taken Paris by storm.  Wanting to impress John, she tells him she can get his friend's band a job at her nightclub - assuming they're good - so, since Huck and the Indianians happen to be at Roberta's, he forces her to hear them play right then.

Huck and the Wabash Indianians perform Let's Begin

To Countess Sharwenka's dismay, she discovers that John's friend the bandleader just so happens to be an old boyfriend of hers - and the one person in Paris who knows her true identity: not as a Polish Countess, but as Lizzie Gatz, a small town girl from Indiana.

Lizzie convinces Huck to keep her identity a secret in exchange for a gig for his band at the nightclub where she performs.  (She manages to get it for him, too - even though her boss is the same nightclub owner that fired the band when they first arrived in Paris.)

Lizzie and Huck renew their friendship and reminisce about old times.

Then Lizzie, as Countess Scharwenka (Polish accent and moxie galore) performs I'll Be Hard to Handle, my favorite song of the film:

A wonderful dance number follows:

Meanwhile, John grows more and more interested in Stephanie, but he hasn't quite gotten over Sophie (played by gorgeous Claire Dodd), a girl who just recently dumped him because she felt he wasn't sophisticated enough for her.  Huck thinks that Sophie is a self-involved snob and John is probably better off without her, anyway.

Things seem to be going swimmingly...and then Aunt Minnie suddenly passes away.  Everyone knows Minnie intended to leave the shop to Stephanie (who, we find out, has secretly been the shop's head designer all along), but because she didn't leave a will, the shop goes to her next of kin, John.  John has no interest in running the shop by himself, so he and Stephanie agree to a partnership.  All the while their attraction continues to grow.

Unfortunately, Sophie learns about John's inheritance in a recently published newspaper article and decides she wants her old country bumpkin boyfriend after all, so she heads to Paris intent on winning him back.

What little plot that follows is mostly uninspired and contrived, with only the Rogers/Astaire song-and-dance scenes to save the film.  Ginger Rogers looks positively gorgeous in every scene and she is hands-down my favorite part of the movie.

Rogers and Astaire sing one of my favorite duets of all time, I Won't Dance, followed by a fantastic tap solo performed by Astaire.

Irene Dunne, who is usually so smart and funny and striking on screen, is dreadfully boring in this film. Anyone would have been with the lackluster lines she was given.

I did enjoy listening to Dunne sing - she performed four solos in the film, all beautiful ballads, and three of them were written by genius composer Jerome Kern: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Yesterdays and Lovely to Look At.

Irene Dunne performing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

The song and dance numbers were definitely the best scenes of the movie, but another highlight for me was the fashion.  There are a TON of glamorous dresses in this movie, so that was fun to watch, especially then-unknown Lucille Ball in a non-speaking role as one of the fashion models.

Overall, Roberta is a cute movie.  Lots of laughs (courtesy of Rogers and Astaire), musical numbers and beautiful gowns kept me entertained, but the silly plot kept getting in the way.

Rogers and Astaire make it worth a watch, though!