Comfort Watches on Blu-ray: Lullaby of Broadway (1951) and The Thin Man Goes Home (1944)

 

I recently watched a pair of flicks on Warner Archive Blu-ray that hit the spot as far as being just right as comfort watches. Lullaby of Broadway (1951) and The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) aren’t the best vehicles for their stars, but they’re pleasant, well-crafted films. 

Lullaby of Broadway is an odd grab-bag of a film. Its soundtrack ranges from the mediocre to the magnificent, with tunes from George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and the team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin at the top of the heap. The same holds true for the cast, with Doris Day doing her usual impeccable job and Warner Bros. favorites like S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall and Gladys George achieving typically fine character work, but Gene Nelson flopping as a bland, if light-footed partner to Day.

The musical about a performer (Day) who learns of her mother’s (George) fall from Broadway star to alcoholism and finds love and stardom of her own along the way will please fans of its star. While it isn’t among her best productions, she is always at her best as a performer. While Day has no chemistry with Nelson, they have their moments on the dance floor. An energetic rehearsal room number shows the two at their playful best; it tops their performance together on the stage later in the film. 

An unusual number featuring Constance De Matiazzi as a “mechanical doll” is a bizarre delight and basically nails the random, but essentially enjoyable vibe of the film. 

Special features on the disc include a trailer for the film and a menu that links directly to the songs.

The Thin Man Goes Home is the fifth entry in the popular series starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. It marks a transition for the films, being the first not directed by W.S. Van Dyke, as the filmmaker had passed on the year before. 

While it is populated by the usual fascinating cast of characters, including Anne Revere, Lucile Watson, and Gloria DeHaven in an amusing comic turn, it doesn’t have quite the energy of previous entries in the series. This is primarily because there’s never a true feeling of peril in the story. Everyone just seems to be on vacation. There isn’t a classic moment or key scene of hilarity as with the other films. 

There isn’t a bad Thin Man film though. The characters, and the stars, are always appealing. While it is only slightly satisfactory as a stand-alone film, it is decent as a part of the whole series. 

Special features on the disc include the Robert Benchley comedy short Why Daddy?, a theatrical trailer and a cartoon featuring the hideous Screwball Squirrel.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review.

On Blu-ray: Loy and Powell Team Up a Fourth Time as the Charles' in Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)

This fourth entry of the Thin Man series is the second in which Nick and Nora are parents. Their little Nicky is adorably picking up all of Daddy’s bad habits. It’s no surprise given that in the last film he was a giggling infant in the middle of a murderous country house melee. I recently revisited this enjoyable, if minor entry in the Charles saga on a newly-released Warner Archive Blu-ray. 

While Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) isn’t among the best of the series, the quality is so consistent that any entry is a good time. Here Nick works to solve a murder at the race track, which ends up leading him all over San Francisco with Nora and sometimes little Nicky in tow. 

Like always, the spice is between the lines in the Thin Man series. The running joke of their open marriage is this time referred to in the many instances where Nora is mistaken for Nick’s down low girlfriend. It’s a neat trick: readers of the novel get their wink, while those not in the know can take it as a comment on Mrs. Charles being an especially dishy wife. 

And she is, and they are a remarkably happy screen couple, for the most part because they understand each other so well. Nora brings her husband home with the shake of a cocktail shaker and she knows that showing up in macho spaces like a crime scene or a wrestling match will strengthen her bond with Nick. He on the other hand is aware that his wife should never be excluded if she feels she should be present. 

As usual, the cast has some lively characters, though not quite the bizarre roster as in past entries. As the Charles’ domestic, Louise Beavers demonstrates how she made more of an essentially thankless maid role than anyone; it makes you pine for the comedy series she could have had on her own. In an early role Donna Reed is fresh and young, but plenty wise and lacking the primness of many starlets in a similar role. Sam Levene has a great stink face and excellent comic timing as the often flustered, but always competent Lieutenant Abrams. 

There’s always that one memorable scene in a Thin Man movie, this time there’s two. One is a raucous wrestling match where Nora remains adorably elegant and polite. The other is a much weirder set-up in a seafood restaurant where the waiter insists that everyone order sea bass, before the Charles pooch Asta starts a wild brawl. 

It’s a fun flick. If you’ve enjoyed one Thin Man movie, it’s well worth seeing all of them. 

Special features on the disc include a trailer, the cartoon The Goose Goes South, and the vintage short The Tell-Tale Heart. 

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review.

On Blu-ray: Another Thin Man (1939) and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

I love the way Myrna Loy was essentially typecast as “not bothered” throughout her career. I’m trying to think of a time she yelled or broke a sweat about anything. If it happened, it wasn’t often. She was cool. 

 This pair of Blu-rays, newly-released from Warner Archive, is peak chilled-out Myrna. The house is falling down, bullets are whizzing through the air, and Ms. Loy wrinkles her nose at it all. 

Another Thin Man (1939) 

I’ve always found the third edition of the Thin Man series the most sinister, because the Charles’ have a baby now and Nicky Jr. is always in danger. With all the gunfire, thugs, murderers, and even an attempted kidnapping, you just hope the kid makes it to adulthood. 

Nick and Nora’s interactions with the baby are fascinating. It’s pure fantasy to be delighted to wake up in the middle of the night to play with an awake, but mysteriously not fussy baby, but it’s cute to see their delight in this small person they’ve made. It’s essentially an extension of their take on marriage: why be so serious? Why not enjoy it all? Of course there’s also the always light allusion to their open marriage, but the suggestion is by necessity only a vapor, so that the easily outraged will miss it. 

Based on The Farewell Murder, this would be the last film in the series drawn from a Dashiell Hammett novel. The mystery unfolds at a lavish Long Island estate, where a wealthy colonel (C. Aubrey Smith) is under threat from a mysterious enemy. Chaos, arson, and murder ensue. 

The cast is the typical bizarre grab bag that always seems to populate the series. It is unusual to see Marjorie Main, Otto Krueger, Tom Neal, Virginia Grey, Ruth Hussey, Abner Biebermen, and Shemp Howard all in the same production, but not so unusual in this world. The latter makes an appearance in what is perhaps the movie’s most memorable scene: a birthday party for Nicky Jr. full of low-level criminals who have plenty of enthusiasm, but no idea what to do with a baby. 

For no apparent reason but the delight of it, the Afro-Cuban dance team René and Estela does a beautifully fluid dance number in a nightclub scene; a setting similar to the Havana-Madrid Club in New York where they performed at the time. 

Special features on the disc include the musical short Love on Tap, the cartoon The Bookworm, and a theatrical trailer.

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) 

A harrowing story based on the equally harrowing novel by Eric Hodgins, somehow this tale of a New York couple sinking money into a disastrous home construction works as a comedy. 

It’s a shame that Myrna Loy and Cary Grant never made another film together. They have a similar light comedic style tinged with a sly recognition of the myriad disasters of life. I could see them succeeding together with edgier material, but watching them navigate their money pit while Loy’s ex-boyfriend (Melvyn Douglas) lingers flirtatiously in the background is entertainment enough. It isn’t as sparkling a partnership as Loy and Powell, but they are easy together, with that slight bit of friction necessary for spice. 

As the couple’s daughters, Sharyn Moffett and Connie Marshall are refreshingly lacking in cutesy behavior. Instead they are clever, analytical observers of their parent’s folly. Louise Beavers is equally charismatic in what should be a thankless role as the family maid, but she’s always fun to watch. 

Special features on the disc include two radio productions of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, the cartoon The House of Tomorrow, and a re-issue trailer.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing copies of the films for review.

On Blu-ray: William Powell and Myrna Loy in After The Thin Man (1936)

 

William Powell and Myrna Loy were perfectly matched as Nick and Nora Charles in the Thin Man detective film series. For that reason, of the six movies they made as the tippling marrieds, the entries that focused most on their relationship were the best. After the Thin Man (1936), the second film featuring the Charles' is especially good for that reason. I recently watched the new Warner Archive Blu-ray release of the film and enjoyed revisiting one of the best screen marriages. 

After the Thin Man doesn’t waste time building up a mystery in its opening scenes. It knows what the audience wants to see and blasts you right into the sparkling presence of Loy and Powell. After their crime-busting New York adventure, they’re returning to the West Coast, where they’re greeted by Asta, his missus and a lively litter of puppies. They’re also supposed to be surprised by a gathering of their friends, though in one of the film’s funniest scenes the party is too wild for anyone to notice the guests of honor have arrived. 

After a good taste of that Charles charm, the mystery begins. Nora drags Nick to dinner with her stuffy relatives and the pair learns that her cousin Selma (Elissa Landi) is distraught over the disappearance of her husband. While the couple tracks him down, it turns out he’s not a great guy and his plotting and deception leads to trouble for all. 

It’s quite a feat to distinguish oneself in the company of Loy and Powell, but Jimmy Stewart does just that as an old friend of Selma’s who carries a torch for her. He was still in the wobbly early phase of his career where he was just as likely to be tossed into a musical as a comedy or drama. Here he combines that doddering quality for which he would become famous with startling moments of dramatic intensity. He was previewing better things to come. 

I’m not sure what to make of the way Nick and Nora’s relationship is portrayed in the films. In the original Dashiell Hammett novel, they’ve clearly got an open marriage. Of course the Code could never allow such an arrangement, but there always seems to be a breath of that permissiveness in the films, in this case when Nick shows up with lipstick on his face and Nora wipes it off, entirely unfazed. 

The idea certainly fits with their happy rejection of polite society. You get a sense of how bored Nora was before she met Nick. She seems happy being surrounded by ex-cons, drinking into the night, and not only accepts that her man has a sketchy past and is in many ways dishonorable, she counts on it. Their love for each other is solid and the rest is just a gas. 

Special features on the disc include the Robert Benchley short How to Be a Detective, the classic cartoon The Early Bird and the Worm, a radio show featuring Powell and Loy, a Leo Is on the Air radio promo, and a theatrical trailer. 

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

On Blu-ray: The Glorious Quartet of Loy, Powell, Harlow, and Tracy in Libeled Lady (1936)

The first time I watched Libeled Lady (1936), in the midst of my stunned teenage discovery of Jean Harlow, was on a well-worn VHS I’d borrowed from the library. What a gigantic shift it was to see it on a new Blu-ray from Warner Archive; it looks and sounds so sharp and clean it feels like a different film.

I’ve always been fascinated by the contrasting personas of the cast in this lightly entertaining comedy. There’s the crisp and amusing William Powell and Myrna Loy, already comfortable playing off each other in a cool, but pleasant manner as they would in several films. Juxtaposed with this is the earthier appeal of Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow, who are less suited to each other, but similar in the way they always project an aura of honesty.

This is a film that rests on its star power. For the most part, with the notable exception of Walter Connolly, playing Loy’s exasperated father, these four carry Libeled Lady. Loy plays a carefree socialite who finds herself the victim of false reporting. Tracy is the guilty reporter who in his desperation to avoid litigation enlists Powell to trap Loy in a real scandal to negate the false one. He convinces his eternally frustrated fiancé Harlow to marry Powell, temporarily of course, as a part of his scheme.

Though her screen time is brief compared to her fellow stars, Harlow steals Libeled Lady. She’s effortlessly mesmerizing, playing big and loud one moment only to dial it down with subtle, sweet moments of silent acting, like a charming scene where she realizes Powell is more honorable than she thought. It’s heartbreaking to realize this was her last great role, with only Personal Property (1937) and a partially completed appearance in Saratoga (1937) to come before her death at age twenty-six. Here she appears ready to take her comedy chops to another level, a skilled comedienne who endured the brutal public scrutiny of learning onscreen only to become the best in the game.

As much as I love the ease of Powell and Loy together, I enjoyed the sizzling chemistry between real life lovers Powell and Harlow even more. Their emotional connection translated to the screen, much like Bogart and Bacall. There is a warmth and shared humor between them that comes through in their few scenes together, even when they’re supposed to be at odds with each other. It’s fascinating to imagine what kinds of movies more Powell and Harlow pairings could have produced.

Libeled Lady is solid entertainment with all the elements in place: a witty script by Maurine Watkins, Howard Rogers, and George Oppenheimer, smooth direction by Jack Conway, and a quartet of stars working at their peak. It was a pleasure to be able to see and hear it anew with such clarity.

Special features on the disc include the comedy short Keystone Hotel, an MGM short New Shoes, the cartoon Little Cheeser, audio for the Leo is on the Air radio promo, and a theatrical trailer

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

On Blu-ray: William Powell and Myrna Loy Bring Thrills to Marriage in The Thin Man (1934)

The first film in the Thin Man series has long been my cinematic comfort food. William Powell and Myrna Loy are the kind of stars that feel like home, because their wit and high spirits lift you, despite or maybe because of the sour past you can see behind the characters they play. Life has imbued them with cynicism, which they medicate with cocktails, but they are also wealthy, occupied in pursuits that amuse them, and in love in a way that seems off-hand, until you recognize the forces working to pull them apart.

Much like the close-knit marriage that drives the Thin Man movies, Powell and Loy developed an easy, natural partnership on the screen, which they would also enjoy in several films outside of the series. The key factor was that they listened to each other. Director W.S. Van Dyke honed in on that connection; he’d purposely selected actors that were not heartthrobs, so that the romantic excitement came purely from chemistry.

Unsurprisingly, the thrill of Powell and Loy together neuters much of the rest of the film. Its greatest flaw is that the pair is absent from the long exposition in the opening scenes, a problem that is solved when Asta the dog pulls Loy into a bar, off her feet, and she is finally united with her boozy spouse. The best moments are between them: the Christmas morning where Powell blasts balloons off the tree with a bb gun, the smirking lack of concern with which Loy greets her man with another woman in his arms, and the chaos of the dinner party they throw together to catch a murderer are all classics and far more interesting than any mystery they have to solve.

Now available on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, the film looks magnificent; as luxurious as it should be. Special features on the disc include audio of a 1936 Lux Radio Theater broadcast of The Thin Man starring Loy and Powell, a theatrical trailer, and a 1957 episode of the lackluster The Thin Man television series starring Phyllis Kirk and Peter Lawford.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

On DVD: A Myrna Loy and William Powell Double Feature

Myrna Loy and William Powell co-starred in thirteen films, and they are by far most popular for playing the adorably debauched Nora and Nick Charles in the Thin Man series. While this is understandable, the pair create the most effervescent of screen couples as hard-drinking, merry spouses, it is a shame that the rest of their efforts have fallen aside as a result. Almost all of their pairings are satisfying entertainment and many are as worthy of classic status as those famous mysteries. This pair of flicks now on DVD from Warner Archive provides two solid examples of their best non-series work.

Evelyn Prentice (1934)

So much of the success of this society murder drama depends on the appeal of Loy and Powell. It could have come off a bit creaky had it been made a few years earlier and with less adorable leads. As it is, it isn’t one of the best of their pairings, but it is solidly engrossing and much helped by the glamorous clothes, clubs and fancy parties that form their milieu.

Loy is the titular society wife of a busy lawyer. Though deeply in love with her husband, she never sees him and soon finds herself in too deep with a flirtatious, but dangerous writer. Mr. Prentice is not much better, briefly giving in to the advances of an emotionally fragile client, who is played by Rosalind Russell with unnerving gravity and banality given how she would later sparkle in even the darkest of roles.

Una Merkel is perfect as Loy’s best friend, really the only actress who could go from goofy to gravely serious with such ease as she does here. In a wonderfully tense courtroom scene Isabell Jewell is remarkably effective as one of Powell’s clients. There are so many times that she could have gone over the top, but she instead maintains a marvelous tension that ebbs and flows in a monologue in which she almost steals the film.

Special features on the disc include the comedy short Goofy Movies #3, the cartoon The Discontented Canary and a theatrical trailer.

Love Crazy (1941)

While Loy and Powell are charming and romantic in all of their films together, I think this is their sexiest pairing. They are so erotically in sync with each other that you almost feel guilty intruding on their time alone together. As an eccentric couple celebrating their fourth wedding anniversary, they so clearly still have honeymoon-caliber hots for each other that you’d think nothing could drive them apart. Instead, they spend the entire film being pulled apart for the silliest reasons and making great comedy in the process.

I watched this with a packed house at the TCM Classic Film Festival and it was clear the crowd felt itself in the presence of a classic. Perhaps the larger success of the Thin Man series has overshadowed it to a degree, but there’s really no good reason this funny flick isn’t better known. The giddily balanced mix of sharp wordplay and physical humor are the most adventurous of the Loy and Powell films and the risks it takes pay off.

The supporting cast is full of marvelous troublemakers. Florence Bates is a nightmare as Loy’s clueless mother, who thinks nothing of crashing and ruining her daughter’s anniversary dinner. Gail Patrick is predictably slippery as Powell’s former and still interested lover and Jack Carson is amusingly brash as the alliteratively ridiculous Ward Willoughby. The title is appropriate, because this crew gets increasingly wilder, topping itself with new absurdities until the very end.

Special features include the cartoon The Alley Cat, a Screen Directors Guild Playhouse Radio Broadcast of the story and a theatrical trailer.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing copies of the films for review. These are Manufacture on Demand (MOD) DVDs. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

On DVD: William Powell and a Land-Bound Esther Williams in The Hoodlum Saint (1946)

William Powell, Esther Williams and Angela Lansbury in a love triangle. Who thought up that one? I love all three of them, but I'd never put them together. It was this curious casting that led me to The Hoodlum Saint, now on DVD from Warner Archive.

Set in the years after World War I, Powell is Terry O'Neill, a veteran who returns home to find he has lost his job as a reporter. Barely missing a beat, he crashes a wedding, where with the help of socialite Kay Lorrison (Williams), he meets the right people and finds a job on another paper. Kay and Terry fall in love, but the socialite loses her beau when ambition leads him to work with an unsavory tycoon.

While Terry movies on to nightclub singer Dusty Millard (Lansbury), he never forgets Kay, much to the frustration of his chanteuse. He becomes wealthy, but not happy, and by discarding his old friends, he finds himself in more trouble.

The Hoodlum Saint is a pleasant enough experience, but it doesn't quite come together. There is never any real sense of peril. Problems are solved with relative ease, resulting in a lack of dramatic tension.

Part of the problem is a lack of unified tone. The movie starts like a comedy, and is even a little goofy , but then it makes an abrupt shift into drama. And it's not a very intense kind of drama; it just stops being lighthearted.

The leads aren't given much to work with, but they're enjoyable to watch. Powell is too old for his role, but once he starts talking in that familiar, jovial, cadence you start to feel at home. He's miscast, but not unwelcome.

While Williams could never have been a star if she'd stayed on land, she could act. That said, she's not particularly compelling here; I have to admit I made the mistake of thinking Carole Lombard would be good in her part as I watched those early comic scenes. Williams doesn't seem as happy in straight drama and that dims some of her charisma, though she is still an appealing presence.

Lansbury comes off best. I can't think of any time that she didn't. In these years she tended to play the gentle-hearted victim of love. Here she does get dumped, but rather than wilting away, she is dangerously icy in the way she'd be more often in later roles.

So about the curious casting? They're all fine together, but it never feels comfortable. I could never accept that these two women would get hot and bothered about Powell. He doesn't exude the power or sex appeal  that would inspire that reaction.

Still, it all works fine if you accept the movie on its own terms. Start comparing to other comedies and dramas and you might start to get restless. For fans of its stars though, it's worth the watch.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a copy of the film for review. This is a Manufacture on Demand (MOD) DVD. To order, visit The Warner Archive Collection.

"Double Harness" Free on TCM

The 1933 pre-code soaper Double Harness is available for free viewing on TCM. Starring the always underrated Ann Harding and a typically pitch-perfect William Powell, it's one of the most pleasing current features of the TCM website's Media Room. After you view the flick, check out the huge library of shorts, trailers and movie clips. Quite addictive, and the player is a step above YouTube in quality if not quite up to DVD standards.