I've been listening to three different versions of a piece by Frederic Chopin, his Sonata #3 in B minor, Op.58. You can just call it Sonata #3, because he only wrote three of 'em. The sonata is about twenty minutes long, but I've been concentrating on the Largo section, which comes in at around the 11 minute mark. It constitutes the final movement of the piece and lasts approximately 8 or 9 minutes, depending on the pianist. I mention it - and have been listening to it - because I think it is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written for the piano. So, I've been listening to versions by all three members of my Holy Trinity of Pianists : Vladimir Sofronitsky, Dinu Lipatti and Wilhelm Kempff. Your homework for tonight is to go to Youtube, type Chopin Sonata 3 Largo into the search box, then add the names of each pianist mentioned, one at a time. Listen to the Largo by each one and then tell me who you think played it best. I'll give you my own answer tomorrow night. P.S: Please take into account that these pianists recorded in the mid-20th century, so the sound quality is not up to date. But the playing is timeless. So go......listen and make your pick. :)
Tonight's movie was "Made For Each Other" (1939), starring Jimmay Schtooart (billed as James Stewart) and Carole Lombard. Stewart plays a young lawyer who hopes to become a partner in his firm. He works under Judge Doolittle (Charles Coburn), the head of the firm, who is businesslike and hard of hearing. Actor Coburn specialised in playing these offious types; you'd recognize him if you saw him - heavy set and thick lipped, but here, he is a fair boss and has assigned Jimmy Stewart the firm's biggest case. Stewart is expecting a partnership if he wins it.
As the movie opens, he is just returning from a preliminary trip to Boston, where he's filed a deposition. While he was there, he met a lady in passing (Lombard), and boom! - twenty four hours later they were married. When Charles Coburn hears of this he is not thrilled. He was expecting Stewart to marry his daughter, a stuck up ninnyhammer who Stewart had feigned interest in for a short time to gain favor with her Dad. The script doesn't dwell on Coburn's displeasure, however. He's all about the business of the law firm, so he shrugs off Stewart's whirlwind marriage.......but - he pays him back for ditching his daughter by denying Jimmy the partnership he'd been counting on. This sets off a chain of events for Stewart and his new bride Lombard.
Though Stewart is a hotshot lawyer, he's also a milquetoast. He's great in the courtroom but shy in the office, afraid to ask the Judge for the partnership, which would mean a substantial raise. Wife Lombard tries to raise his confidence. She tells him that he's earned it. He deserves to be made partner, but he can't muster the courage to state his case, and so the Judge - feeling slighted anyway by Stewart's rejection of his daughter - awards the partnership to Jimmy's co-worker, a butt-kisser named Conrad.
When they got married, Jimmy had promised Carole Lombard the moon. They were gonna move into a nice house, buy furniture and have a baby. Well, as the screenwriter would have it, only that last part is on the way. Lombard is pregnant and the couple are almost broke. How can a lawyer be broke, you ask? This was The Great Depression, and though it was waning in 1939, times were still tough. The Judge's firm is experiencing losses. Stewart is asked to take a pay cut, which he does without protest.
It all sounds like a good dramatic setup, does it not? Yet for some reason, for much of the first hour, the drama falls flat. A lot of time is spent listening to the couple bickering, but nothing is ever resolved. Their minor conflicts never reach a crescendo of any kind. It's like watching a struggling couple bicker in real life, just taking mild swipes at each other and then sitting down for supper. But this is a motion picture, and there is supposed to be Something That It All Leads To. Remember how we talk about a "perfect film", one with "no fat", where each scene not only moves the story forward but also leads into the next scene like pieces in a puzzle, or steps on a staircase? This film doesn't do that. It meanders for almost an hour, and the attempts at comedy are often annoying rather than funny, for instance, the fact that the couple cannot hold on to a housekeeper. They hire several, but each is "problematic" shall we say. The first one is a tyrant who calls her own shots and tells Stewart and Lombard what she'll do and what she won't. She's awful, and I know she was supposed to be comic relief, but I found her irritating.
What makes the first hour tolerable is that we've got Stewart and Lombard, two of the best actors of the Golden Era. Her screen presence in particular is so warm and natural that she lights up a scene even when it has ground to halt. And with Jimmy Stewart you can never go wrong. Here he's doing an early version of his character in "It's A Wonderful Life", and in fact, "Made For Each Other" will turn around in the final 30 minutes to bear a dramatic resemblance to that picture.
Director John Cromwell made two other movies that are not only excellent but are favorites of mine. One is "Since You Went Away", a look at WW2 from the home front, and the other is a mysterious love story called "The Enchanted Cottage", which has a spiritual element to it's plotline. Cromwell direct that movie like a fantasy. He uses contrasts of darkness and light to suggest deep emotion or even the presence of God. His actors emote from the soul. So here, in "Made For Each Other", it's like a stand-in directed the first hour of the film and Cromwell finally showed up for the final thirty minutes. But when he does arrive, we move to the edge of our seats. All of a sudden we have Major Drama unfolding, and while I don't want to spoil it, I can say that it takes place on New Year's Eve, when everyone in New York is celebrating but Stewart and Lombard, who are more miserable than ever. There's raging blizzard outside, extending halfway across the country. Cromwell kicked some life into his movie in a big way, and for me it saved the picture. I'm not saying the first hour is bad, just flat. But once we come to the last act, it's positively Sirkian, as in Douglas Sirk the master of melodrama.
Therefore, I give "Made For Each Other" Two Thumbs Up. Had the whole thing been as good as the ending, it would've rated Two Huge Thumbs. But it's still a Good 'Un, redeemed by Stewart and Lombard and the action at the end. See it, and make sure to see "Since You Went Away" and "The Enchanted Cottage", the two Cromwell classics. ////
So there you have it for the moment. I'm gonna go to the store, the Libe and then back to Pearl's. I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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