Last night, we watched the third installment in the Five Little Peppers series, entitled "Out West with the Peppers"(1940). It's the first of the films that wasn't adapted from one of Margaret Sidney's books, so the script has a looser feel, as if the screenwriter set out to rely on hijinx rather than story to fill out the 62 minute running time. Whereas the first two films grabbed you right away with plight and heartfelt sentiment, this time the movie opens with the Peppers on an ocean cruise. The two middle boys nearly give old Mr. King a heart attack when they are caught tighrope-walking the ship's guardrail in the middle of the ocean. This is merely a Pepper set piece, though, because the real issue is that the cold ocean air causes Mom to get sick. When the family gets home, her doctor recommends they move west to a dry climate, telling them: "She'll need at least a year to recover."
The Peppers say goodbye to Mr. King and Jasper (see last week's Pepper blog to refresh on their characters), and that's the last we see of them in this movie. Now, at the end of the second film, if you remember, a mother lode of copper had just been discovered in the mine co-owned by Polly and Mr. King. Therefore you'd think the Peppers were in the money. And, they were just on a cruise, which isn't cheap. But when they move west (to Oregon by way of Big Bear), they move into a boarding house run by Mrs. Pepper's sister. The screenwriter didn't study his previous Pepper movies, apparently, so it's all a setup, to have the kids antagonize sister Alice's husband "Uncle Jim" (Victor Killian) a mean, drunken logger who hates children. All the other boarders are loggers, too, and much of the middle of the film features little "Phronsie Pepper" (Dorothy Anne Seese) interacting with these gruff men; teaching them table manners at the communal supper, and generally talking her little head off in a cute but insistent way. After mean Uncle Jim lets her pet bird out of it's cage, kindly "Ole" (Emory Parnell), a big Swede, tries to help Phronsie catch a new bird. The other Peppers help, too, but end up trapping a skunk, which they bring back to the house thinking it's a squirrel. The skunk sprays all over Uncle Jim, who now demands that Aunt Alice throw the Peppers out. She vetos that order, however, and - to get the kids away from Uncle Jim - Ole takes them down to the logging camp to build a pirate ship out of timber. After he puts together a raft worthy of Tom Sawyer, the Pepper kids (minus Polly who stays ashore), wind up launching it before Ole is ready, and just as the logging flume is opened up on the river. Now comes the movie's big crisis, 45 minutes in, which would've been presented earlier in the first two, better written, films. The resolution teeters on the hope that Ole can save the kids from certain death in a river filled with onrushing logs, that might clobber him while he's swimming to their rescue. But Uncle Jim is nearby, sleeping off a hangover. Something tells me he will have to help Ole and the children out, in order to redeem himself.
While not on the dramatic or storytelling level of the first two films, which are certified classics, "Out West with the Peppers" nonetheless gets Two Big Thumbs Up simply because it's the Peppers, and the Peppers are a guaranteed good time at the movies. One bad thing: there's not enough Mr. King and Jasper, and Mr. King is played by a different and younger actor. But one good thing: there is an amazing and lengthy scene at the Chatsworth train station! It's mostly a hijinx movie with a modicum of friction-based plot (kids vs. grumpy adults), but it's still very highly recommended. The mess-making scene with molasses in the general store is worth the watch by itself, and the picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night's flick was "The Ghost and the Guest"(1943), a haunted house comedy from PRC that would've benefited from better direction. The screwball script is by Morey Amsterdam of "Dick van Dyke Show" fame, so the jokes are flying a mile a minute, but the usually reliable William Nigh, who made many good b-movies including "The Ape", "The Strange Case of Doctor Rx" and the Boris Karloff "Dr. Wong" series, overlooks here an emphasis on scenes that delineate plot, in favor of the goofy repartee, and we are left wondering what the heck is going on. Broadly, we have the gist of it ; a recently married couple (James Dunn & Florence Rice), after bickering about where they're gonna schpend their honeymoon, decide on a house left to Rice by her grandfather.
When they get there, an old Creepo is on the property testing nooses. Here we go with high (or low, depending) concept. The old guy's a retired hangman, who claims to live in a guest house on the property.
"That isn't possible" says Florence Rice, the wife. "I inherited this house from my grandpa." Cue a passel of hanging jokes, featuring necks as punchlines, with the upshot being that not only does the skinny old hangman live there, he's also apparently a psycho. Thanks, Morey, for clearing that up. Well, five minutes in, you know you've got an Old Dark House movie. Instead of a nice honeymoon, the couple are in for chaos as some cops show up, trying to solve a murder. Just before that, a team of movers has brought a coffin and stashed it upstairs. The hangman says it belongs to the body of the former owner, a Mob hoodlum who he hanged (cue more neck jokes), and who, in his will, decreed that he would be "buried" upstairs in his house.
"But it isn't his house, it's my house" says Florence the wife. You get where this is going, to Crazyville, and it would've worked a lot better - because Morey Amsterdam was known for quick quips - if they'd just taken a moment here or there to explain what the plot is. All of a sudden, the coffin opens upstairs and a prison convict gets out. This presumes a smuggle job, of the supposedly "deceased" Mob boss. Then a whole slew of swindler crooks show up; two tough guys and their molls, one a hilarious nitwit. Then Charles King makes an appearance 45 minutes in and we're rescued somewhat; his credit says he's a "Dumb Detective". I think Charles King is my favorite movie star of all time.
The bottom line is that there is some very funny/scary business going on in this nuthouse, but it's hampered by incoherence, and - unfortunately - a print that is soft and very murky in places. Still, having said all of this, I give it Two Big Thumbs Up. It's fun, and supporting player Sam McDaniel has a great scene at the beginning, commiserating with James Dunn about his wife talking non-stop on the phone. It's a riot, and the movie as a whole is very inventive with it's off-the-wall black comedy. It's another one of those films with a style that presages SNL, so for that reason I recommend it, and maybe you can find a better print than the one I saw. If you can't, watch it anyway, in the name of Charles King. ////
That's all I know for tonight. If you saw my photo post on FB, you know that I visited Marwyck. The house was open to the public for a few hours yesterday, for self-guided walk-through tours. I'd been inside once before, in 2010 when the property was first acquired by the city's Parks & Recreation Department. That time was awesome, too, but it was with a group led by a docent. This time, I was in there walking around by myself, as in a museum. There were only a handful of people inside, so there was really a chance to linger, and I wound up having a lengthy conversation with a gal who was with the conservatory group that is restoring Marwyck. She was as big a fan as I am, of Barbara Stanwyck and Hollywood in general, and it was amazing to be talking about Barbara with this lady, in Barbara's house that she shared with Robert Taylor. At one point I was standing over the sink, and I imagined them doing their dishes. It was pretty doggone cool.
Last night, I also walked by another house, the legendary 9032. I was returning a dvd to the Libe, and a little bird told me "you should detour around the block". So I did, and I was confronted by an absolute tragedy. Whoever owns it is remodeling the house, and they've not only walled-up the original front windows and changed their location, but they've changed the direction of the front steps, and walled off the back porch, too. It looks like it's gonna be another Extravaganza in Stucco when they get done with it. The horror and the sadness. Imagine being a knucklehead who thinks he or she knows better than the original architect. Well anyhow.......
My blogging music is Magma "Kohntarkosz" and my late night listening is "Parsifal" by Wagner. I hope you had a nice weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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