Movie Review: Too Many Husbands (1940)

A one-joke comedy, Too Many Husbands (also known as My Two Husbands) stretches its premise too thin, despite a willing cast.

After her first adventurous husband Bill (Fred MacMurray) is believed drowned at sea, Vicky (Jean Arthur) marries Bill's more staid business partner and best friend Henry (Melvyn Douglas). But Bill is only stranded on a deserted island for a year, and upon his return is shocked to find his wife and best friend have tied the knot. Neither man yields, and both want to claim Vicky as their own.

Although Vicky's father George (Harry Davenport) is horrified at the situation, she enjoys the two men vying for her love and attention, and delays choosing one of them to be her husband, teasing both Bill and Henry to prolong the competition to win her heart.

Bill is a vivacious thrill seeker, Henry represents all-business stability, but during their husband stints both fell into the trap of neglecting Vicky. And so director Wesley Ruggles, working from a Claude Binyon adaptation of a W. Somerset Maugham play, creates a straightforward contrast between two men chasing the heart of the woman who claims to love them both. Too Many Husbands enjoys some witty dialogue and attractive costumes, but overall the humour is at the juvenile level, both men defaulting to a lap dog stance, wagging their tails and barking at each other in their eagerness to do whatever it takes to claim top dog status.

The film occasionally threatens to spark into life. While Jean Arthur is much better than this material, she injects sly undertones to hint at just how much Vicky is going to enjoy this old-fashioned duel. The script goes as far as it can to suggest the benefits of polyamory, and indeed silly humour and childish antics aside, Ruggles steers Vicky towards maintaining the tension of multiple concurrent loves for as long as possible. Meanwhile, on the sidelines, Harry Davenport is a joy as the stoically flustered father.

But MacMurray and Douglas are stuck in thankless, single-tone roles, men reduced to schoolyard boy behaviour to attract the attention of the pretty girl. The film does descend to a ridiculous jump-over-the-furniture contest followed by the drawing of lots, laying bare the shallowness of ideas despite the meager 84 minutes of running time.

Vicky has Too Many Husbands, but the film is well short of clever content.



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Movie Review: Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

A drama and romance, Only Angels Have Wings explores the psyche of men intent on conquering the dual risks of gravity and jagged terrain.

The setting is the remote port city of Barranca, in South America at the base of the Andes. Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) runs a ramshackle airline flying mail, supplies and rescue missions through mountain passes. The elderly Dutchy (Sig Ruman) owns the airline but is close to bankruptcy. Kid Dabb (Thomas Mitchell) is Geoff's loyal second-in-command and one of the pilots. 

Entertainer Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) arrives in Barranca and is attracted to Geoff, although he is clear about never wanting to be constrained by a woman. Bonnie witnesses one of the pilots crashing in heavy fog, and is shocked at Geoff's casual attitude towards tragedy. Nevertheless, she decides to hang around.

An experienced pilot calling himself MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess) arrives with his wife Judy (Rita Hayworth), seeking a job. Judy has a romantic history with Carter, and MacPherson carries a suspect reputation due to an incident involving Kid's brother. Carter gives him a chance and MacPherson proves his flying skills. With financial pressure increasing to fly more missions, Carter and his men accept higher risks.

It takes a special breed of men to settle at the limits of civilization and fly suspect equipment through soaring mountains, and the women attracted to such men are also made of stern stuff. In Only Angels Have Wings, director Howard Hawks and screenwriter Jules Furthman create an unforgettably scrappy edge-of-the-world ambience enlivened by compelling characters dancing with death. Personal and financial desperation mix with brazen courage and adrenaline, and several memorable flying sequences celebrate the early days of commercial cargo aviation.

The film notably refuses to conform to any genre. Starting with the foundation of a frontier western mentality (all the pilots wear guns), Hawks crafts a unique character-centred drama with one-sided romantic entanglements, a cryptic sense of humour, a couple of organic musical numbers, breathtaking aviation scenes and no shortage of tragedy, injury and interpersonal tension. 

The unifying theme is a sense of close-knit family nourished by camaraderie forged by like-minded adventurous but interchangeable men. While they each have limits, none have the patience or inclination to grieve. The meagre belongings of the deceased are unceremoniously shared, and after a few songs are belted out focus quickly shifts to finding a replacement.

Cary Grant's Carter stands tall as a risk-taking leader, quick to bark out orders and push back on emotions. Full of prickly self-confidence, he leads by example and never hesitates to speak his mind to the men and women in his life. Nor does he care should anyone pack up and leave because of his forthright words - in fact, he frequently encourages them to do so, Barranca being no place for unsure personalities.

He is surrounded by colourful characters with their own stories. The doddering Dutchy is buckling under financial pressure and a life lived watching others die, while Carter's sidekick Kid is approaching his best-before flying date and now has to confront the man responsible for his brother's demise. And Richard Barthelmess as MacPherson emerges with the most interesting side-quest as a pilot quietly gritting his teeth to seek redemption in perilous skies.

Only Angels Have Wings bluntly advocates for women to accept men as they are or leave them alone. With Jean Arthur at her inquisitive best, Bonnie has to decide if loving Carter is worth daily heartstopping drama, while Rita Hayworth's Judy, having bounced from Carter to MacPherson, is clearly attracted to the thrill, although she may not admit it. Flying with the angels is treacherous, but also euphoric.

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Movie Review: Easy Living (1937)

A screwball comedy and romance built on a series of misunderstandings, Easy Living enjoys high energy levels but too often strays into excessive overacting.

Wealthy bank tycoon J.B. Ball (Edward Arnold) first insults his son John Ball Jr. (Ray Milland), then has an argument with his wife Jenny (Mary Nash) and throws her new expensive fur coat off the balcony. It lands on the head of the penniless Mary Smith (Jean Arthur), ruining her hat. She tries to return the coat, but J.B. insists she keep it and helps her buy a new hat. 

Rumours immediately swirl that Mary is J.B.'s new mistress. Hotelier Louis Louis (Luis Alberni) spots an opportunity to revive the fortunes of his flagging luxury hotel, and invites Mary to stay at the Imperial Suite for the pure publicity value. She is bewildered but accepts, and soon meets John, not knowing he is J.B.'s son. Additional false assumptions are piled on, eventually leading to romance and frantic stock market trading.

Filled with over-the-top physical comedy bordering on juvenile farce, Easy Living walks a fine line between smart and silly. The script by Preston Sturges is punctuated by people falling down the stairs, tripping over each other, smashing into furniture, getting into fights, and in one instance, a massive fracas at an automat fast food restaurant. Director Mitchell Leisen fully invests in the slapstick, with the resulting vitality and absurdity competing for prominence.

The script enjoys a modest level of sharp wit, and is mostly concerned with poking fun at pompous rich people grappling with the consequences of wagging tongues and profit seekers. Mary's spectacular ascent from a nobody to the buzz of town, through no intention or action of her own, is wry commentary on fate's little games. 

The actors are encouraged to match the madcap shenanigans and deliver loud and broad performances. Edward Arnold shouts his way through the entire movie and gets progressively more tiresome. Leisen also offers too much of Luis Alberni's smarminess and mangled English as he tries to cheese his way towards salvaging his hotel business.

The exception is Jean Arthur, perfectly cast as the eye of the storm. She maintains an even keel as Mary Smith, unaware of the gossip and innuendo storm unleashed by a fur coat landing on her head. Easy Living remains watchable thanks to her grounded performance.

The romance elements are relatively tepid, John Ball Jr. and Mary brought together at that automat fiasco then finding a nominal spark. Ray Milland enjoys a few decent moments but is largely overshadowed by the louder characters and disappears for long stretches. Instead of building towards a romantic climax, the script is distracted by a much less interesting frenetic stock trading sub-quest.

Easy Living is easy to like, and also relatively easy to leave.

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The Movies Of Jean Arthur

All movies starring Jean Arthur and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Easy Living (1937)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Too Many Husbands (1940)

A Foreign Affair (1948)

Shane (1953)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: A Foreign Affair (1948)

A stressed romantic comedy set in a dramatic post-war environment, A Foreign Affair creates an intriguing context but gets caught reaching for an unsuitable level of frivolity.

A bombed-out Berlin, just after the end of World War Two. A US congressional committee led by prim and proper Iowa congresswoman Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur) arrives to investigate troop morale. She is soon exposed to soldiers fraternizing with local woman, and in particular gravitating to a popular cabaret where sultry singer Erika von Schlütow (Marlene Dietrich) performs. Erika has a dark past with strong connections to the highest echelons of the Nazi party, but is currently surviving by carrying on a secret affair with Captain John Pringle (John Lund), who is also from Iowa.

Phoebe insists on investigating Erika, not knowing that Pringle's commander, Colonel Plummer (Millard Mitchell), already has the singer under observation in the hopes of smoking out a high ranking Nazi still in hiding. Pringle worries that Phoebe's meddling will expose his affair, so he feigns a romantic interest in the congresswoman, melting her heart and creating a complex love triangle in the destroyed city.

Directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, A Foreign Affair is visually attractive, but otherwise more curious than successful. The grim setting of a Berlin in ruins hosting emotionally shattered locals and a bored occupying army creates fundamentals for a hefty drama. Instead Wilder half-heartedly steers towards comedy, and the playful elements are never at ease within the dour context.

The film's conflicted core is typified by the two women at the heart of the story. Erika rules at the smoky, rowdy cabaret, and Dietrich gets to perform three melancholy numbers inspired by a broken city and its demoralized people: Black Market, Illusions, and The Ruins of Berlin. Her character is world weary, dealing with a glorious but destroyed past and an uncertain future. In contrast Phoebe Frost is a cartoon figure, starting out in humourless headmistress mode and transforming into a puddle of goo melted by fake romance. It's no fault of Jean Arthur, who does well in the role, but Frost is a ludicrous character with no credibility, dropped into a grieving world.

John Lund in the role of Captain John Pringle does not help matters as all. Singularly lacking in charisma, it is difficult to imagine one woman even pretending to be attracted to him, let alone two at the same time. Buffoonish congressmen and the barely sketched side story of a Nazi coming out of hiding further erode enjoyment.

It is left to the prevailing mood and on-location cinematography to rescue the pleasures of the film, and Wilder and cinematographer Charles Lang do not disappoint. The mountains of debris on every street corner and the bombed-out buildings still serving as housing for shell-shocked Germans are captured in their destructive majesty, with plenty of crisp nighttime scenes making the most of the black, white and grey austerity.

A Foreign Affair is an uneven effort, a laughing-in-the-graveyard exercise where the fun falls flat but the prevailing aesthetics impress nonetheless.

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Movie Review: Shane (1953)

A classic Western, Shane perfectly blends all the genre elements into a monumental package. The story of a mysterious gunman helping homesteaders defend their land against evil cattlemen captures the mythology of a changing landscape, with one lifestyle expiring and another setting down roots.

In rural Wyoming, Joe and Marian Starrett (Van Heflin and Jean Arthur) are working hard to create a home for themselves and their young son Joey (Brandon deWilde). A soft-spoken loner known only as Shane (Alan Ladd) passes by and witnesses the Starretts being intimidated by cattleman Rufus Ryker (Emil Meyer) and his rough band of cowboys, including Chris Calloway (Ben Johnson). Rufus believes that homesteaders are unwelcome invaders, opportunistic latecomers to land tamed by cattlemen, disrupting the landscape with fences and crops.

Shane is attracted to the life of domesticity, and accepts Joe's offer of a job. He hangs up his gun and tries to adapt to life helping out on the farm. Young Joey quickly sees Shane as a hero and starts idolizing him. Ryker tries all combinations of threats and promises to scare off the Starretts and the other homesteaders including the particularly headstrong Frank 'Stonewall' Torrey (Elisha Cook Jr.), but the stubborn Joe does not yield and repeatedly inspires the others to stand firm. In desperation Ryker brings in notorious gunslinger Jack Wilson (Jack Palance) to threaten the farmers with abrupt violence, setting off a seminal confrontation.

Meticulously directed by George Stevens with exquisite care to achieve perfect framing and perspective, Shane is an engaging story presented as a feast for all the senses. The tension is introduced early on through the eyes of young Joey, and the confrontation between two lifestyles underpins an exploration of manhood and contrasting visions of the future.

The themes are grand and given suitable room to evolve in the breathtakingly beautiful landscape. Shane is based on a 1949 novel by Jack Schaefer and inspired (although it is not mentioned) by the infamous Johnson County War. Joe Starrett and Rufus Ryker cannot both thrive in the future, and no less than the destiny of a nation is represented in their struggle of wills. Starrett represents hope that there is room for families, children, settlements and a lifestyle not governed by guns and violence. Ryker is threatened by fences, rows of crops, limits on where and when he can drive his cattle, and cannot fathom a West parcelled off and sold out to farming families.

The one thing Shane is sure of is that gunmen like himself and Wilson will have no role to play in whichever future unfolds. The days of disputes being settled by gunfights are drawing to an end, and Shane is already making his way to nowhere when the film opens. He desperately tries to fit into the Starrett's way of life, enjoying Joe's friendship, Joey's hero-worship and Marian's more coy but also unmistakable signals of attention. But he also sees his negative influence on Joey, the boy naturally attracted to gunmanship and violence, and in his own way Shane is just as incompatible with Joe Starrett as Ryker is.

Shane: What's your offer, Ryker?
Ryker: To you, not a thing.
Shane: That's too bad.
Ryker: Too bad?
Shane: Yeah, you've lived too long. Your kind of days are over.
Ryker: My days! What about yours, gunfighter?
Shane: The difference is I know it.

The action set-pieces are magnificently staged. Shane's opening entrance and Wilson's later first appearance are brilliant examples of men drifting across the landscape to impose their will on the winds of destiny. There is a memorable bar fight between Shane and Chris Calloway that expands into a brawl. Stonewall trudges through the mud of a barely defined civilization with Wilson towering over him. And the final stand-off to settle the conflict once and for all is an echo from the past that will cascade into the future.

Alan Ladd as the gunman with a conscience and Van Heflin as the homemaker with an intractable dedication to his land deliver career defining performances, while Jack Palance creates quite an intimidating, almost soulless villain. Through no fault of his own, the performance of youngster Brandon deWilde has not aged well. The script saddled him with annoying lines of dialogue and endless whiny questions, with almost every single phrase out of his mouth containing Shane's name. In his one miscalculation Stevens includes endless reaction shots of young Joey's face, and the child actor was simply not up to the task.

Otherwise, Stevens' direction and editing is masterful. Filming near Jackson Hole, Wyoming with the imposing Grand Tetons providing a stunning backdrop, the film is filled with spectacular scenery. The choice of perspective is frequently dazzling, with the camera often placing seemingly peripheral children, wives and faithful family dogs at the centre of the screen while heated adult confrontations unfold. The men are settling the future, but it is the families who will live and die with the outcomes.

The audio effects are equally impressive. There are few shots fired in the film, but Stevens carefully recreated the deafening aural impact of every single shot, a rare instance where the startling impact of each bullet is emphasized to drive home the implications of life and death at the mercy of a gun.

Shane: I gotta be goin' on.
Joey: Why, Shane?
Shane: A man has to be what he is, Joey. You can't break the mold. I tried it and it didn't work for me.
Joey: We want you, Shane.
Shane: Joey, there's no living with, with a killing. There's no going back from it. Right or wrong, it's a brand, a brand that sticks. There's no going back. Now you run on home to your mother and tell her, tell her everything's alright, and there aren't any more guns in the valley.

Shane is the perfect ode to a remote west emerging from lawlessness, where a clash of ambitions defined the soul of a fledgling nation.

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Movie Review: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Frank Capra's classic political drama is a sweet fable about one honest man trying to make a difference. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington remains as relevant today as the day it was made, an unheeded cry for the overhaul of an entrenched system.

When a senator from an unnamed state unexpectedly dies, Governor Hopper (Guy Kibbee) has to choose a successor. Hopper is just a puppet controlled by wealthy industrialist Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who owns everything and everyone worth owning in the state, including the sitting senior senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains). Hopper eventually appoints Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), the popular head of the Boy Rangers, to the empty senate seat. An admirer of United States history and a believer in the values of the founding fathers, Smith knows nothing about politics.

Taylor and Paine expect Smith to do as he is told, and in particular they need him to not oppose an upcoming senate vote that would release federal funding to build a dam in a pristine area of the state. Smith is mesmerized by the culture of Washington DC, and infatuated by Paine's glamorous daughter Susan (Astrid Allwyn). His secretary, known by all as simply Saunders (Jean Arthur), is quick to recognize and appreciate Smith's idealism, although it is clear to her that he is out of his depth in the shark waters of the capital. When Smith does become aware of the dam project, he has to decide to either fall in line with politics as usual, or to make a stand.

The Sidney Buchman script celebrates Smith's idealism, pokes fun at his naivete, and does not attempt to hide its contempt for the Taylors and Hoppers of the world. If the movie has a weakness, it lies in the sharply defined edges of the villains, who are not afforded any positive attributes.

Frank Capra's demonstrates genius by creating in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington a film that is both intimate and grand. Smith, Paine, Saunders and Taylor are the humans at the centre of the battle for the soul of politics in Washington DC, and while the characters remain dominant, Capra amplifies their struggle to represent an attempt to salvage the soul of a nation. As the film hurtles towards its climax, Capra injects urgency through scenes at massive newspaper printing presses, the voice of radio reporters broadcasting the Smith battle, and quick edits to capture the impact of the political fight in Smith's home state. What happens in Washington matters everywhere, and the decisions of a few men and women do have far-reaching consequences.

Painstakingly recreating the senate chambers, where a lot of the action takes place, Capra creates political tableaux worthy of classic paintings portraying seminal moments in nation building. But he is also not beyond playfulness of the highest quality, Smith unable to retain control of his hat while talking to Susan, and later proving equally inept at handling a phone when she is on the other end of the line.

In his breakout role James Stewart shines as Jefferson Smith, a quixotic man absent-minded enough to dream big and smart enough to go after his dream. Smith knows what he knows, and he knows that the founding fathers had a vision for the country's governance quite different from the one he finds in Washington. He also doesn't know what he doesn't know, and this allows him to stumble forward against all the odds to start a political fight that redefines David against Goliath. Smith is a perfect role for Stewart, a slightly odd man not in full control of anything but believing enough in something to make a difference.

Jean Arthur and Claude Rains are also formidable. Arthur sparkles as the sassy and savvy Saunders, a woman who understands all the ins and outs of DC and the role of everyone within it. She immediately spots in Smith an outsider who will either rock the boat or be thrown overboard, and she helps him to navigate the treacherous rapids while he is busy admiring Susan Paine.

And as Senator Paine, decked out with a shock of white hair and living up to his Silver Knight nickname, Claude Rains delivers the most finely shaded role in the movie. Senator Paine was a friend of Smith's father, and started his life bursting with the same enthusiastic idealism. Trying to walk the fine line between doing well for the people and personally benefiting from doing it, Paine's world is about to be severely disrupted by Smith, and Rains perfectly captures a comfortable man confronting a mortal threat to his well-established contentment.

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington ends with a collapse, a capitulation, and chaos. None of it is orderly, but the resultant mess carries hope for triumphant reformation. This is, after all, a work of fiction.

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