Tonight's movie was "The Shining Hour"(1938), an MGM melodrama starring Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Margaret Sullavan and Robert Young, yet another top notch cast in our recent run of such. Crawford plays Olivia Riley, a nightclub dancer from New York who has attracted the attention of one Henry Linden (Douglas). Linden, a sibling from a wealthy Wisconsin farm family, wants Olivia to retire from dancing and marry him, which she agrees to do even though she really doesn't love him. Henry represents everything she's ever wanted - class, legacy, stability. Olivia is a New York sensation but she grew up poor and unloved. Inside she feels like little Maggie Riley (her birth name) from the wrong side of the tracks. That a man like Douglas could be in love with her is enough to change her life. She eagerly accepts his proposal, quits New York and moves back to Wisconsin with him. Waiting at the family farm is Douglas' brother, Robert Young, who heard about the marriage aboard an airplane when the movie opened. Young is married to Margaret Sullvan, a nervous but sophisticated woman who takes a liking to Crawford, admiring her outspokenness. The head of the family is sister Hannah (Fay Bainter), the eldest of the siblings. She is a shrew who dislikes Olivia before even meeting her.
We have here what might be considered an inversion of attitudes. Hannah loathes Olivia simply because she's from New York - i.e. the Big City - and she's a dancer, meaning part of show business and therefore she must be of low morals. But in reality, Oliva is the decent one. Though she's had failed relationships, she isn't the tramp that Hannah insinuates. She's kind and unfailingly polite in the face of Hannah's insults. Hannah, in turn, is exactly the kind of viper she accuses Olivia of being. She's also a culture snob. The Linden house is filled with expensive furnishings and art. The family wealth comes from agriculture, and they live in the countryside, but they'd be right at home in Manhattan, even more so than Olivia, who adapts easily to life in Wisconsin. She's happy because she is loved, and that translates to her attitude. Hannah, on the other hand, has no one to love her. She's alone except for her brothers and Margaret Sullavan. She's so resentful of Olivia's happiness that she treats her unmercifully.
Robert Young is perhaps the black sheep of the family. He doesn't care for farming and prefers to travel. He's also a gifted pianist. One day, Olivia hears him playing Chopin's Waltz 64 #2 (interjection to say that Lipatti owns this piece. Go to Youtube and listen). She is captivated because it was the music for her signature dance routine in New York. Young has treated her indifferently up to this time, but now they strike up a conversation over the music and are soon friends. Olivia discovers that she likes Young very much. He's artistic and sensitive whereas his brother, Olivia's husband, is business minded. Young begins to spend time with Olivia whenever he can, and it becomes clear to her that he doesn't love his own wife, Margaret Sullavan. Olivia sees what is happening and tries to discourage Young's companionship, but he keeps sneaking away to meet her and finally confesses that he loves her.
This is where things get complicated. Young tells Olivia : "I know you don't love my brother. Admit it"! She replies, "You're right. But he loves me, and I like him very much. We have a good marriage and I want to keep it that way". She goes on : "And you have a wife that worships the ground you walk on. You may not love her - and I don't think you do - but it's wrong for you to go behind her back. I don't want you to see me anymore".
Young won't give up : "Admit you love me! I can see it in your eyes". But Olivia won't say the words. Despite Hannah's accusations, she's a good woman who won't break up a marriage even if she does have feelings for Young. Instead, she goes to visit Sullavan, who's beginning to suspect that something is up with her husband and Olivia. She's the kind of wife who would step out of the way if her husband wanted another woman. She's loved Robert Young since childhood, but has secretly known all these years that he's never loved her in return. He only married her at Hannah's insistence.
So what we've got is quite a romantic mess. Robert Young loves Olivia, his brother's wife. She may have feelings for him, but won't succumb to them because it's wrong. Margaret Sullavan loves Robert Young, her husband, but he doesn't love her, and Olivia "really likes" her husband Melvyn Douglas, Young's brother, who loves her but is inattentive and oblivious to everything else that is going on.
But Hannah knows, and she's gonna fix things to try and get Olivia out of the way. Meanwhile, poor suffering Sullavan is having a nervous breakdown. This is quite the potboiler we have going. Just when Young declares that he is willing to divorce Sullavan to marry Olivia, if she will divorce his brother, all hell breaks loose following a party at the Linden estate. This is where I must leave you, but you'll never expect what's coming. Some folks at IMDB complained about the ending, feeling it was disingenuous; I loved it, and thought it provided some necessary relief after all the turmoil.
"The Shining Hour" was adapted from a play. Joan Crawford, only 34 here and not yet having acquired the "harder", over-madeup look of her later career, is exceptional as Olivia. I've mentioned before my regard for her acting ability, I think she's the "flip side" of Bette Davis, every bit as talented but fragile where Davis was tough. Margaret Sullavan was one of the great actresses of the 1930s and 40s, in lead or supporting roles. She's good enough here to have earned an Oscar in my opinion. Sadly, she had a short and tragic life like so many other Hollywood stars, dying at age 51 of a drug overdose, a probable suicide. Robert Young is effective as her disloyal husband. He was very handsome as a "young" man (see what I did there?), and was often put in the role of a middleman or interloper, in crime films and romances. He played guys you weren't sure you could trust, unlike Marcus Welby, M.D. Melvyn Douglas was a fine actor with a long, distinguished career, but he doesn't have much to do here except be oblivious to the ongoings of the other characters. Fay Bainter was a character actress whom you've seen in a jillion movies. She had a distinctive hairstyle and big eyes. Usually she portrayed matronly types, but this time she steals the show as the witchy Hannah, and - like Margaret Sullavan - could and should have james garnered an Oscar nomination.
Appearing for comic relief is the indefatigable Hattie McDaniel as Crawford's maid "Belvedere". She was great in every movie she was in, and did win an Academy Award, for "Gone With The Wind", the very next year in 1939.
"The Shining Hour" runs a tight 77 minutes and has a power packed script with a ton of stuff going on. The performances, as noted, are very good to excellent. Filmed in black and white on glamorous Golden Era MGM sets, it gets Two Very Big Thumbs Up from yours truly. Highly recommended for fans of melodrama. ////
That's all for now. I'm in a bit of a rush and have to get back to the House to cast my vote in favor of Impeachment, so I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time.
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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