TopBilled

BOTANY BAY (1952)

BAMBI (1942) Next: lots of people involved with a lynching

MONEYBALL (2011)

FRENCH KISS (1995) Next: A KISS FOR CORLISS (1949)

SPRINGFIELD RIFLE (1952)

SEND ME NO FLOWERS (1964)

MY GAL SAL (1942)

Robert Montgomery

THE BANDIT OF ZHOBE (1959)

Mason, James

Paper Dolls

THUNDER IN THE CITY (1937) Next: Chinese

FIRST LOVE (1939)

Kingsley, Ben

Nightline

THE CAPTAIN IS A LADY (1940)...IN THIS OUR LIFE (1942)...PEPE (1960) Next: Merle Oberon & Charles Korvin

IT GROWS ON TREES (1952)

THE HOUR OF 13 (1952) Next: Chain

ZARDOZ (1974)

Law & Order: Organized Crime

Have you seen these classic films: 2971. 2972. 2973. 2974. 2975. 2976. 2977. 2978. 2979. 2980.

Nice review FadingFast. I would encourage anyone who's interested in the film to watch it on YouTube before it's removed. Here's another one of the decadent hats worn by Miss Oberon in the movie:

Essential: NO TIME FOR LOVE (1943) TopBilled: Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray enjoyed a successful collaboration which began in 1935. For the next fourteen years the two stars would turn out a series of box office hits, all of them in the romantic comedy vein except one. These comedies had a specific formula, usually a variation on the boy-gets-girl plot. Situations were often outlandish, and the duo would encounter serious complications before the happily ever after inevitably occurred. In NO TIME FOR COMEDY, Miss Colbert plays a glamorous career woman. She earns a substantial salary and develops a reputation as one of the country’s most renowned magazine photographers. The character is said to be inspired by Margaret Bourke-White. We learn Colbert won’t refuse any assignment, even ones where her publisher boyfriend (Paul McGrath) sends her to snap pictures of men working the city’s most dangerous jobs. This is where Mr. MacMurray comes into the story. He’s a construction foreman with knowledge in engineering; and he leads a group of rough and tumble men. Not only do they labor despite hazardous conditions, the temperatures in an underground tunnel beneath New York’s Hudson River are quite hot. What’s interesting about this set-up is how the job environments of the two main characters are so dramatically different. The contrast couldn’t be greater. Director Mitchell Leisen has a background in set design, so we see Colbert’s apartment and office space elaborately furnished and decorated. She operates in a hoity-toity yet somewhat sterile atmosphere. She is not alone here, though; she has assistance from her sister (Ilka Chase) and receives visits at all hours from her numerous upper-class friends, which include Richard Haydn. Meanwhile MacMurray toils under harsh and thankless conditions. He is usually seen without his shirt on, breaking sweat and busting his butt…trying to get his project completed on time. When Colbert first arrives to photograph him and his crew, the two do not exactly hit it off. Part of this is because the guys think that when a woman shows up down in the tunnel, it’s bad luck and she’s a jinx. Their superstitions seem verified when an accident soon takes place. The romantic and comedic elements take shape when MacMurray arrogantly assumes that Colbert has the hots for him. He all but accuses her of lusting after him, since he is just so darn desirable and women can’t help but be drawn to him. She insists she finds him repulsive, regardless of how much skin he bares. In fact, she calls him an ape several times in the movie. These are meant to be insults, but he takes these remarks as compliments. What’s a girl to do? The trouble escalates when she experiences a dream that Freud would have a field day analyzing. It involves a chair in her bedroom that she told him has more personality than him! As Colbert tosses and turns in her sleep, the dream (nightmare?) continues. She falls off the chair and needs help getting up. A figure appears in the sky out of nowhere. It’s a bird. No wait. It’s a plane. No wait. It’s Superman. No wait. It’s MacMurray dressed as Superman. Supposedly this riotous dream sequence was filmed in an enclosed area by Leisen and his cinematographer Charles Lang. For its time, the special effects and editing are rather advanced. Plus it’s clear that MacMurray and Colbert are having a blast filming it. As the story continues, Colbert realizes this man and his brazen attitude have seeped into her subconscious. Of course it doesn’t help when he turns up at her place one day and asks to see the chair that she compared him to…she takes him to the bedroom to see it (big mistake) and that is when he impulsively kisses her. As if that were not enough, he informs her and her sister that he’s been suspended without pay because one of the photographs that had been published in her company’s magazine was not very flattering. She now feels responsible for his temporary unemployment. In the next part, she hires him as an assistant until his suspension ends. It’s not the best idea she’s ever had…they still don’t really get along, and he certainly knows nothing about photography. But she figures she can teach him. There’s an amusing bit when a bodybuilder (Rex Ravelle) shows up at her studio for a spread she’s shooting. Of course, macho MacMurray is a bit annoyed with this he-man Mr. Universe type jerk. Another reason Colbert hired MacMurray to assist her is because she thinks that she will see all the man’s flaws up close and personal. If that happens, then she’ll come to dislike him so much that she’ll never have another dream or fantasy about him. You know where this is going… She only falls for him more in spite of her best efforts not to do so. A further complication occurs when they go out on a new assignment, in which she’s scheduled to photograph a bunch of chorus girls at a Broadway theater. During these scenes, a sexy chorine (June Havoc) catches MacMurray’s eye, and they begin dating. This makes Colbert jealous. However, we know that MacMurray and Colbert will still end up together to facilitate a happy ending. But getting there is a lot of fun. The dialogue is frequently witty, sparks fly, and there is a playful way that Leisen and his team put the material across on screen. No one escapes Cupid who has all the time in the world for love. *** Jlewis: According to the AFI site, this Paramount production was filmed in June and July 1942 but the release was held up until December 1943. This was due to changes in wartime showings, with all of the studios scaling back in production and certain types of films getting held over if they lacked significant wartime story topics with a more limited “expiration date.” This was especially true of historical costume-dramas and musicals, particularly those in Technicolor, that could easily be delayed in order to get something more timely like FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO out first. The war is only fleetingly referenced here in war bonds posters and most viewers would otherwise have assumed this was set at peacetime since all male characters are in civilian clothes. Interesting intro: the opening titles are developed on photographic paper in a dark room. Katherine Grant (Claudette Colbert) is the lady behind the developing and she frequently threatens co-worker Christley (Bill Goodwin sports a familiar voice to old time radio fans a.k.a. Burns & Allen and other series) with a resignation. She is engaged to Henry Fulton (Paul McGrath), editor of Mirror magazine and, accordingly, he’s quite patient with her and somehow persuades her to document a tunnel project under New York City despite its lack of appeal to her. The workers involved consider the presence of a woman as “bad luck,” but a brawling “sandhog Superman” named Jim Ryan (Fred MacMurray) catches her interest, after he almost gets injured in an accident. Jim is a bit a chauvinist when it comes to “dames” and this stirs Katherine’s annoyance/fascination with him. Him: “You’ve been on the prowl ever since you met me.” Her: “At home in my bedroom I have an inanimate object, a chair, that has ten times more quality and character than you.” Her sister Hoppy (Ilka Chase) is nonetheless impressed by the pictures of him shirtless and in fist-fights with his co-workers. Despite Katherine’s objections, she gets them published behind her back. This, in turn, gets Jim in some trouble with his job and Katherine decides to hire him as an assistant to compensate. After breaking the chair at her place (an impressive “Katherine Grant Studios,” I might add), others in league with the Mirror are equally attracted to him, including the matronly Sophie (Marjorie Gateson) and some fellows as well: playwright Dunbar (Morton Lowry), composer Roger (Richard Haydn) and Kent (Robert Herrick). Jim mocks one of them as “doll face,” prompting another to joke “Do you think we can harm this viking?” I am surprised this scene did not make THE CELLULOID CLOSET cut since it certainly stands out for modern viewers. Intriguingly, Roger plays a rather vital role in uniting the two heterosexual leads together in the end. Decades before Rupert Everett popularized the “gay best friend” in MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING, Richard Haydn carved a niche for himself doing much the same long before the terminology was ever applied. Back in the day, the wording tended to be “artistic types.” Although he is more famous for his nasal-voiced snoots that can also be read gay-coded (as featured in various radio shows, the popular comedy SITTING PRETTY which pitted him against equally snooty and “artistic” Clifton Webb and in Disney’s animated ALICE IN WONDERLAND, whose Caterpillar voice was not unlike other Haydn inspired voice characterizations in earlier cartoons like Tex Avery’s WHO KILLED WHO?). But more “straight”-forward roles sporting intellectual specs like Roger are equally significant. One could debate if “Uncle” Max in THE SOUND OF MUSIC qualifies as a proto-GBF type: that role is cut from the same cloth since, again, he displays no more interest in the opposite gender than the Mother Abbess and plays a key role in bringing Captain Von Trapp and Maria together by getting the family to sing professionally. By comparison, Jim is the old fashion He-Man who provides contrast to, not only Roger, but also Henry whom Katherine almost marries. Alas…she can not avoid her subconscious dreams involving her beloved chair shattering all by itself and being rescued in mid-air by a Superman sporting an R for “Ryan” on his chest. Nice touch is an additional Tarzan call. Jim is quite the flirt with other ladies (gotta prove he is heterosexual, y’know), including one showgirl named Darlene (June Havoc). Katherine tells Hoppy, “They were attracted to each other like syrup to a pancake.” Fighting fire with fire, she tests Jim’s devotion to her by hiring a Mr. Universe type (Jerome de Nuccio a.k.a. Rex Ravelle) to pose for publicity shots, resulting in yet another physical brawl among dudes. Yet even she is capable of her own cat-fights with none other than Darlene in our final reel. As directed by Mitchell Leisen, this is your trademark rom-com with the premise of boy meets girl but boy will not get girl until he proves his affection for her…and with a good pep talk by her GBF Roger as well. Likewise, Katherine proves her worth to him by obtaining all important photographic footage of a criticized machine in action underground that spares Jim’s former standing as a sandhog. Oscar nominated for the art and set directions of Hans Dreier, Robert Usher and Sam Comer, this is one visually appealing production. Modern viewers may be a trifle bored in spots since these types of talk-fests were better designed for an earlier generation of movie-goers more accustomed to its style. However, Colbert’s performance was well ahead of her time…and also of that time. She is a successful working woman who can take charge of her relationships and does not depend on any man. Then again, the war years were a great time to be a working woman, as a great many were taking on men’s jobs like Rosie the Riveter.

Saturday September 17, 2022

Saturday September 17, 2022 Breakfast on TCM the public enemy