Last week I was looking over the filmography of Johnny Mack Brown, because after we saw him in the outstanding "Cross Streets", I wondered what else he had done as a traditional leading man. One of the films I found was an early talkie called "Coquette"(1929), in which JMB played the love interest to Mary Pickford, who won the second Best Actress Oscar ever awarded, for her role as "Norma Besant", a flirtatious young woman who finds her true love. I thought, "you know, of all the hundreds of movies we've watched, with thousands of actors, we've never seen Mary Pickford". She was the first superstar actress, known as "America's Sweetheart", and she also was one of the founders of United Artists studio. Simply put, there is no more legendary a figure in Hollywood history than Mary Pickford, and yet we had never seen her, mostly because we don't do a lot of Silent films here at the blog (although I watch several a year myself, and we may have to start reviewing them once in a while). I have to admit to being lame in my duties as a self-appointed film historian, because I wasn't aware that Pickford made any talkies, but when I saw the listing for "Coquette", I made a mental note to watch it, not only because of Mary and her Oscar winning performance, but also because of Johnny Mack, who was a talented leading man before becoming a Western star. I was distracted for a few days by my apartment repairs, but tonight I finally watched it, and it was tremendous.
Norma Besant is an upper class Southern belle, the daughter of a doctor (John St. Polis) who dotes on her. Her mother died 12 years earlier, her mother figure is her Black nanny "Julia" (the great Louise Beavers). Norma is a daddy's girl, she calls him "honey precious" (in the early 20th century tradition of young girls who address Dad as if he were a boyfriend), and she has a bevy of young men at her beck and call, one of whom is the nerdy, steady-but-boring "Stanley Wentworth" (Matt Moore), who loves her but it isn't reciprocal. Norma is really in love with "MIchael Jeffery" (Johnny Mack Brown), a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Dad considers him white trash and doesn't want Norma seeing him, especially after he gets into a fistfight with another man who insults her honor. Streetfighting is lowbrow to Dad, even though Michael was sticking up for Norma, who has a reputation for being loose. Michael wants to marry her. Nice boy Stanley understands that Michael and Norma are in love, so he steps aside and tries to mediate between the couple and Dad, who hates Michael's guts. Michael has his pride, even though he's poor, and he stands up to Dad's lectures and put downs. He tells Dad, "you can't stop me from marrying Norma. I'm going to work hard and save money. You may not think much of my people, but we have honor". Then he tells Norma he won't see her for six months, while he works to save the money to marry her.
But then the fall dance comes up at the rich folks' country club, and Michael can't resist making an appearance. He hides in the bushes, but Stanley spots him. Stanley is a genuinely good guy who was supposed to be Norma's fiancee (arranged by Dad of course), but he knows Norma loves Michael, so he tries to help them. He tells Norma that Michael is waiting for her outside the dance hall, on the lawn. Norma goes out there to see him, and he talks her into leaving the dance and going with him up to his family's cabin in the hills. "I know I said six months, but I just couldn't wait, I had to see you". He says he just wants to talk : "My mother will be home anyway". But when they get there, Mom isn't home, and in the aftermath, the insinuation is that Michael has gotten Norma pregnant. This is hard core stuff for 1929. When Norma and her brother don't come home from the dance until 4am, Dad is furious. He finds out the truth about where she went, then he leaves the house with his gun to find Michael Jeffery. A struggle ensues and he shoots Michael. I'm afraid that's all I can reveal about the plot, but there's a lot more left and it's heavy duty melodrama! I was surprised to hear the word "damned" in the dialogue, and also "damnable". I always thought that Clark Gable was the first one to use that word in a movie, but I'll be damned if I didn't hear it twice. Watch for yourself and see.
I was amazed at what a great actress Mary Pickford was. Her performance is a little histrionic and stagey, but remember that 1929 was the first year of sound; she was used to using exaggeration for her performances in the Silent era. But she's phenomenal here and deserves her Oscar. Watch her in a scene with Louise Beavers as "Julia" the nanny, when she curls up in Julia's lap and weeps like a child. It's real, naked emotion that the great actresses of today would have a hard time pulling off. Also fantastic is John St. Polis as her Dad. He was an early actor (born 1873) who came up on the stage, but here he shows the restraint of a tremendous film actor, playing inward for the camera in a performance of pure realism. Finally, Johnny Mack Brown once again shows why he could've - and should've - been bigger than Clark Gable, if MGM hadn't given up on him. He's got the looks and raw talent to go head-to-head with seasoned actors like Mary Pickford and John St. Polis, even though he was a football star just four years earlier.
This film should've cleaned up in all the acting categories, and the script is very frank in it's examination of an unplanned pregnancy, before marriage, which was a big no-no in 1929. Wow, what a shocker, and what an ending. Remember that I haven't told you about the last third of the movie. "Coquette" gets our highest rating, Two Gigantic Thumbs Up. The print has been restored but it's still slightly damaged in places. Still, it's a must-see, and we'll be looking for more from the great Mary Pickford. ////
The previous night, we saw Johnny Mack as "Johnny Hume", in "Branded a Coward"(1935), a Western directed by our pal Sam Newfield. The movie opens when he's a boy, traveling through the Arizony desert with his family. They stop to make camp and are ambushed by a gang of robbers. His Dad, Ma and older brother are all killed. Little Johnny only survives by hiding in some scrub brush, and he is traumatized. Fast forward twenty years, and he's now a sharpshooter cowboy in a rodeo act. Some of the macho locals hate him, though, because they think he's all flash. "He runs when there's a real gunfight", says one beer-bellied ranch hand. The criticism makes him wanna leave town, but one man stands up for him, a stutterer named "Oscar" (Syd Saylor) who becomes his champion. Johnny makes Oscar his sidekick, and the stuttering is played for comic relief, but they overdo it.
The local Wells Fargo office is suffering a string of stage robberies, and they need a new Marshal because the one they've got is drunk and elderly. After Johnny stands up to a bunch of tough guys in the saloon, the townsfolk wanna make him the Marshal. He declines at first because he's worried about being gun shy. He's still traumatized by the murder of his family as a child. But when Oscar talks up his bravery in stopping a stage robbery, he takes the offer and becomes Marshal. Now the town wants him to stop all the robberies, which are being carried out by someone who calls himself "The Cat". That's the film's big mystery: who is The Cat? I can guarantee that you'll never guess. There's a minor romance involving actress Billie Seward as the daughter of the drunken Sheriff. He doesn't want Johnny seeing her because he's embarrassed that Johnny took over his job. It would've been nice if they'd explored this thread a little more, but then the old man is killed in a showdown when he challenges Johnny. It's a classic Western frame job because Johnny was shooting at his gun hand, but the bullet hit the old man in the heart. Henchman Frank McCarroll, working for The Cat, made the kill shot from the windum of a nearby building, but yeah, the romance takes a back seat to the stuttering exploits of Oscar, and while Syd Saylor is good in the role, and likable, a little goes a long way with the stuttering gimmick. There are punchouts, shootouts, horse chases through the desert and stunts galore, including a great cliff jump into the river by Yakima Canutt, who also has a small role as a henchman.
This is one of those more serious Johnny Mack Brown roles, because he was traumatized by the murder of his family, so he has to show weakness as an adult gunslinger. But remember, JMB had big time acting chops, so he pulls it off with aplomb. There's an unspoken acknowledgement to the factor of the contemporary western. Billie Seward is shown wearing stylish 1930s clothes and a beret. There are no other indications we aren't in the Old West, no motorcars ala Tom Tyler, so I think in this case it was just a wink-and-a-nod gimmick, to bring women into the theater. Anyhow, Two Big Thumbs Up for "Branded a Coward. Filmed in the Arizony desert (that's how Syd Saylor says it), it's highly recommended and the picture is very good.
That's all I know for tonight. After three days, I finally have my apartment put back together, with improved Feng Schway. But man, I wanna live in a house. At least I have CSUN for a backyard, so that's a blessing, but I need more space I tell ya. I'm gonna go for my walk now, on what feels like a Summer night. I hope you have a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love, as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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