Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

The Smith family lives in idealistic 1903 St. Louis, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have problems. Serious problems like how can Ester (Judy Garland) get the boy next door to propose if they haven’t even been introduced? And can sister Rose get her boyfriend to propose over that new-fangled tele-phone contraption? Also, where has Tootie buried all of her dead dolls?

Meet Me in St. Louis is a nostalgic, feel-good, high production piece of fluff. Therefore, it was a huge success. The big song is Judy’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas which, unlike the others, has real meaning in the story. Here also is where The Trolly Song comes from, later made famous by the Sweeney Sisters.

The inciting incident comes past the halfway point. With a variety of personal issues in play, dad announces that they will move to New York City. Why live in a gorgeous Victorian in picturesque St. Louis when you can live in a Manhattan tenement? It’s a great opportunity, after all. Everyone must come to terms with this change while celebrating their last Christmas in St. Louis. This is the context of Judy’s song. Tootie doesn’t respond well.

Mary Astor plays Mom and she was hard to recognize, both in appearance and manner. Marjorie Main (Ma Kettle) played the maid. She wasn't hard to recognize. June Lockhart and Hugh Marlowe had tiny roles, but we must talk about Tootie.

Margaret O’Brien at 6 was already an established child star, so her momager decided the studio should pay her accordingly. The studio immediately responded by announcing that the part would go to the daughter of an electrician. The O’Brien’s held out and ended up with the contract they wanted. The electrician responded by dropping lighting equipment from a catwalk near where Margaret was standing. Hollywood is such a warm and inviting place.

The investment in O’Brien certainly paid off for the studio. She just about steals the show and was awarded a juvenile academy award. The same movie framed around her character would have been very interesting. The Halloween segment was, well, quite unexpected. The kids of the town are left to their own devices where they build a bonfire with stolen patio furniture, and throw flour in the face of adults they hate. The talk of hate and blood and murder from the youngest two Smith daughters was delightfully out of place.

But this is Judy’s film and a big hit for her, despite her hairstyle looking like she is hiding horns. And her acting ... wasn’t terrible. Perhaps the lack of gravity in her performance was masked by the mannered style of period costume dramas. The film has only slightly more realism than Oz. Her difficulty on set is an early example of the pill problem that would eventually take her life. At 22 the lines in her face were starting to appear. In the end she pulled out some pretty good performances and would go on to marry the ugly director, twice her age.

Meet Me in St. Louis is the kind of film that it is. Everything is perfectly lit, the colors supersaturated, and all characters, regardless of the circumstance, are impeccably costumed, styled, and made up. But the morbidity of the two youngest sisters is shockingly out of place. Out of place, but oddly not unwelcome. Were it all glitzy confection, it would have less appeal. As such, AMRU 4. It is a delightful piece of fluff.

“It'll take me at least a week to dig up all my dolls in the cemetery.”

Mädchen in Uniform (1931)

Young Manuela is sent to a stern boarding school where all of the girls are infatuated with the stunning headmistress von Bernburg. Manuela takes her infatuation a bit too far, and this can not be tolerated in a school for “the daughters of soldiers, and God willing, mother of soldiers too”. Does our headmistress reciprocate these feelings?

Mädchen in Uniform is in part a statement about the rise of authoritarianism in post-war Germany. As such, it would be banned outright when the Nazis take power a couple years later. They destroyed every copy within their grasp and may even have executed the author of the play it is based on. Or maybe they didn’t. Research is hard.

But more than a statement on authoritarianism, it is remembered as a landmark film embracing the “great spirit of love, in all its forms”. It would have been banned in America had Eleanor Roosevelt not spoken up for it, and went on to become a hit.

But as important as it has become to members of a certain community, I have difficulty getting past the fact that Manuela was fourteen. This is fine in the context of an adolescent awakening and infatuation, but things become problematic when read as a budding romance between student and teacher. In reality the actresses are only a few months apart in age, but change the context to priest and choir boy and the conversation takes on a whole new meaning. The film leaves some of this to interpretation.

The story, while sometimes wonky and episodic, is entertaining. Hertha Thiele is adorable and the movie was well photographed. Unfortunately the Kino version has some serious tape hiss, but I suppose we’re lucky to have it at all. AMRU 3.5.

Pardon Us (1931)

The boys hatch a plan to brew their own beer and sell what they can’t drink. Unfortunately they sell it to a cop and are sent to jail. It’s prohibition, remember. What was supposed to be another two-reeler, ended up their first feature-ish length film when they failed to edit out the boring parts. Or, in actuality, thought it was all good enough.

An early indication of efficient storytelling is how they go from concocting their brewing plan straight to being carted off to jail. No beer brewing antics, no arrest or trial bit, just “Let’s brew beer” to the close of the prison gates. But in reality they just wanted to do prison bits, so that’s all they did. Plus a scene in a cotton field wearing blackface. Yea, that was a thing.

Unpopular opinion: Laurel and Hardy’s comedy does not hold up. The big gag here is that Laurel has a bad tooth that causes him to make a rude mouth sound after every sentence. He can stop this by poking the side of his face. See him offend people when he forgets to poke his face! See him forget what side of his face he needs to poke! See him forget how blankets work! Pardon Us is rife with innovative punchlines like “Oh, yea?” and “Say, what is this?”

My hot take can be greatly influenced by mood, my company, and where I am in my film education. I fully acknowledge this. I don’t wish to dismiss a performer or performance too hastily and I should watch each film a second time before opening my big fat keyboard. But this is my third Laurel and Hardy film, one of their highest rated, and it, like the others, stunk.

I’ve rated higher films with more things wrong with them. Bad acting, bad editing, bad camera work, bad dialog. Here there is only one flaw, but it’s a fatal one. Pardon Us is uninteresting. Just a lot of pointless running around and goofy reaction shots. I have never before watched a film this short that felt so long. AMRU 2.

Saboteur (1942)

An airplane factory is set on fire, and Barry’s (Robert Cummings) buddy is killed. When it is discovered that his fire extinguisher was filled with gasoline, Barry is suspected. To clear his name he flees the police to search for the suspicious Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd) who was clearly responsible.

No train here, but man does it hit all the other Hitchcock points. Innocent man on the lam with a hot blond (Priscilla Lane) he can’t trust? Check-a-roo! That’s four in one sentence. Much of the film was reminiscent of The 39 Steps.

Hitch was disappointed with this one mostly because he couldn’t get any of the actors he wanted. Robert Cummings was more of a light comic actor and Hitch felt he didn't bring the sense of danger the role demanded. I thought Priscilla Lane was great but you know how particular Hitch can be with his hot blonds. She played Cary Grant’s fiancee in Arsenic and Old Lace a couple years later then faded from Hollywood.

Hitch was almost impossible to see in his cameo. Apparently his first attempt was cut because of a rude hand gesture. Old friend Ian Wolf appears again, the thirteenth time we’ve crossed paths. Tony Randall has a small speaking part that I had to go back and search for. Another I felt compelled to search for was Will Lee. He was a minor character actor and would rise to fame as the owner of a store on some street. Robert Mitchum is rumored to be in a crowd scene but I never saw him.

Allegedly Barry’s ill-fated buddy was played by an electrical assistant who looked the part. Best I can figure, that would be Jeffrey Sayer, who at 40ish seemed too old to be the boyish character. The woman playing his mom was three years older. That said, Sayer appeared, mostly uncredited, in 516 films! Including TV, he has over six hundred screen credits. I suppose if he is already on set working the gaffers tape, it is easy to pull into a background scene. This is our twenty first film together, which is comically small, considering.

The real saboteur was played by Norman Lloyd in his first feature role. Remembered mostly for St. Elsewhere, he seem to be forgotten when discussing remaining actors from Hollywood’s golden era. Norman turned 106 last month. Give the man a little respect. He was a delightfully slimy villain.

Saboteur is what I would describe as a Worthwhile Lesser Hitchcock. At its heart it is a World War II fifth-column film of which there are a few. Bogart’s All Through the Night is a recent example. But it’s better than most. The plot is a little convoluted, has a few hokey scenes, and drags for a bit, but it is engaging enough and well worth your time. Classic Hitchcock. AMRU 3.5.

Baby Face (1933)

Young Lili (Barbara Stanwyck) works as a barmaid in her father’s speakeasy. Everyone treats her horribly except a kindly older gentleman who tells her that she is better than all this. She has potential. She should screw her way to the top. Wait, what?

Of all the pre-code films, Baby Face just may be the pre-codiest. Cut to ribbons before release and again at each location it was exhibited, we are lucky to have a pre-censored version. Pretty but never gorgeous, Stanwyck showed that she can turn on the sex appeal when needed.

For those unfamiliar, there once was an agreed upon moral standard that Hollywood movies must adhere to. Formally, the Motion Picture Production Code, it mandated stuff like the bad guy must get caught (or die), the avoidance of overt sexuality or violent themes, and of topics like prostitution, abortion, or homosexuality. The so called “per-code era” is a span of four or so years after the studios agreed to this standard to when they actually started following it. During this time many films were released that directly flaunted these rules. While none of these movies could be described as explicit, they do raise eyebrows.

Another subversive aspect of Baby Face is that Lili has a black maid who is also her friend, played by the adorable Theresa Harris. Although a side-kick character, she didn't play the racial stereotype. She would be relegated to maid characters throughout her career. Someone who’s talent wouldn’t be wasted is a young John Wayne. He was already an established B western star and had a small role here as a stepping stone. Second billed George Brent didn’t appear until well past the halfway mark.

While not shocking by modern standards, Baby Face did have quite a few “Oh, crap!” moments. It is strongly implied that Lili was more than just a barmaid to her father’s customers, nudge nudge. Played as the story of a woman using her sexuality for her benefit rather than others, there will be a variety of opinions on this. I'm sure it provoked many viewers back in its day. Assuming they knew what was going on after all the edits. AMRU 4.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

James Allen (Paul Muni) returns from the Great War a hero and doesn’t want to return to his old desk job. Wanting to be an engineer, he goes out looking for his dream job. But work is hard to find and he ends up living as a hobo. Wrongfully convicted of a petty crime, he ends up on an old-timey chain gang. Spoiler alert: he becomes a fugitive.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is an indictment of the chain gang system which is apparently not just a Looney Tunes trope. And it is a pretty brutal depiction, as only pre-code Hollywood could do. In small part it’s the Midnight Express of its era. There are also frank depictions of prostitution, premarital sex, and infidelity. Into shirtless men being whipped? It has some of that as well.

In the second act a young woman utters a confounding line, one I’ve heard a couple times before. Expressing that she is beholden to no one, she says “I'm free, white, and twenty one”. I suppose that’s just something white Americans with means said back in the day. I don’t think the filmmakers had purpose behind the line, but earlier a black man on the chain gang wasn't being released because he was too good of a worker. The context of the film makes the line especially callous.

The story is based on the real life imprisonment of Robert E. Burns, who collaborated on the film while on the lam! Unlike many films that dabbled in exploitation, Fugitive is not played with a wink and a nod. This is real social commentary that helped reform the criminal justice system, and earn Burns his eventual freedom.

FW21 aside, Fugitive is a very compelling film, entertaining and eye-opening, and Muni was fantastic. Some of the acting is a little dated and truth be told, the story does drag for a bit. But I think I would like to see it again if I could share it with someone who liked movies like this. AMRU 4.