Last night we watched our very own Barbara Stanwyck in one of her earliest pictures, "Shopworn" (1932). Barbara plays "Kitty Lane, a young woman of low station who lives with her father, a railroad worker. When he is killed in a dynamite accident, she goes to stay with her "Aunt Dot" (Zasu Pitts), who works as a waitress at her friend Fred's burger joint. Kitty takes over as waitress and is an instant success (Stanwyck is very cute here at 24, with a mane of hair, an overbite and a slight lisp). The male patrons hit on her, and having grown up around men on her Dad's railroad crew, she's an expert at rebuffing their advances. The guy she's attracted to is the one who says nothing. "David Livingston" (Regis Toomey) just sits in his booth, eating his hamburger and reading an anatomy book. Kitty finds him intriguing because he ignores her. He's not rude, just studying to become a doctor.
But one night she sits down with him to see what makes him tick. As total opposites, they hit it off, and soon they're dating. Then David brings her home to meet his mother, for whom he has a surprise announcement: "Mom, this is Kitty. We're going to be married." This happens fast, and there's a lot of montage in this film because the story takes place over a decade and the running time is 67 minutes. Anyhow, David's mother is upset at his sudden engagement. She instantly dislikes Kitty, not because of anything Kitty has said or done, but because she's a waitress. She thinks David is marrying beneath him.
Mrs. Livingston's dislike of Kitty sets into motion her ruthless determination to prevent the marriage, first by faking a stroke, so that David will feel obligated to accompany her to Europe to "recover". When that doesn't work, because David invites Kitty along, Mrs. Livingston next has her lawyer file a court petition accusing Kitty of violating a morals clause (not specified), in the days when you could have someone committed to an asylum or otherwise "sent away" if you were wealthier or more powerful than they were. Mrs. Livingston's court action results in Kitty getting sent to a women's reformatory, where she's at the mercy of a harsh matron, who orders her to scrub floors and otherwise heaps her with abuse. When she gets out, she has nowhere to go, but sees a sign on Broadway advertising for "dancers wanted". Here is where the story kind of mirrors Barbara Stanwyck's life because she began her showbiz career as a dancer after an extremely difficult childhood. In the movie, this is where the use of montage makes it's biggest jump. Because of the short, hour-plus running time, the filmmakers needed to cover some ground quickly, so within 30 seconds of Kitty getting out of the reformatory and seeing that sign, she's now the most famous dancer in New York - the toast of the town who owns her own nightclub.
Six years have passed. One night, David Livingston comes to see her act, but she hates him now because when she was sent to the reformatory, the lawyer made it look like David agreed with his mother's legal actions and broke off their engagement. But he didn't break it off, and actually had nothing to do with what happened. It was always his treacherous momma's doing. Kitty and David eventually work out their differences, and their engagement is back on again, but Mrs. Livingston ain't gonna let the matter drop. Successful Broadway career or not, Kitty is still a "shopworn" girl to her, and she isn't gonna let David marry her. This is one of those Smothering Mother movies that were common in the '30s, and it has layers on top of the central conflict that give it depth, such as the subplot concerning Kitty's hugely successful dancing career, and a suitor from France who competes for her hand, but the real draw is seeing Stanwyck at such a young age, already showing the talent that would make her a top star. She has some explosive scenes in the film that made me wonder if she was drawing on her childhood for inspiration. "Shopworn" gets Two Big Thumbs Up and a high recommendation. The picture is razor sharp. ////
Here's a question for ya: do you remember Charles Starrett? He was one of our first cowboy stars, when we initially got into B-westerns about four years ago. You might recall he played "The Durango Kid" in a series of movies in the '40s. I bought the box set and we watched the whole thing; we thought Starrett was great as the black-masked, gunslinging Kid. He looked just a little weathered in those films; lots of stars smoked and drank in the old days, but how about Charles Starrett as a young, very handsome adventure star, even a romantic lead? That's what he is in our previous night's movie: "Jungle Bride"(1933), where he co-stars with early blonde superstar Anita Page who plays the bride in question. As the movie opens, Starrett and Page are on a ship, bound for a foreign shore, but they aren't sailing together; quite the opposite. She's the sister of a man convicted of murder, he's the man who, the papers say, is the real killer, who got away with killing a policeman and framed her brother for the job. Now, Starrett is trying to get away from the press, and the accompanying public persecution, by sailing to wherever the ship is going (not specified). But he can't get any peace, because Anita and her boyfriend are dogging him. Her boyfriend is a top reporter, who is trying to expose Starrett as the killer. On the ship, he swears to Anita that he will bring Starrett to justice and see him fry in the electric chair.
That night, the captain throws a party. Everyone gets drunk, and Starrett strums his guitar. He starts to tell a story, which will explain his side of the murder, but just then, there's chaos on deck and in the ship's boiler room. The first mate spots a reef, but too late - the ship runs into it and sinks. The in-rushing water is a tremendous special effect for an early, medium budget movie. I asked myself how they did it. Must've built the set below a pool or water tank, but even that wouldn't explain the high pressure flow.
Anyhow, the ship sinks, but Starrett survives, along with - naturally - Anita Page and her reporter boyfriend, and Eddie the first mate. The four of them are in the same lifeboat, which ends up on a beach in Africa. With little to survive on (and no Gilligan, Skipper or Professor) they venture into the jungle to set up camp.
Much conversation ensues as they take stock of their situation. Competition for Page begins as alpha male Starrett starts to assert himself to the accusing reporter. Of course, with survival on the line, she responds by siding with Starrett, especially after he fights a lion to save her life, while two chimps applaud from a tree. We get some African stock footage of various wild animals, including hyenas and hippos and leopards, then the movie alternates between the relative downtime of trying to repair the lifeboat, and the chest-puffing of the reporter, who knows he's losing his gal, and Charles Starrett, who is holding onto a secret about the murder case. He knows Page's brother is guilty - he witnessed the shooting of the policeman - but he absolutely will not tell her because, as he says to Eddie the first mate, "her brother is her whole world. She loves him. I won't disillusion her."
The reporter keeps trying to pick fights (like Jonesy and Ralph Meeker in "Lost Flight"), and eventually a boat floats up offshore. It's half of the sunken ship! The captain is still aboard, barely alive! Anita asks him to marry her and Starrett, and because it's legit (ship captains can do that) he marries them, then dies. The reporter is furious. He's ready to kill Starrett now. Then a rescue ship shows up, alerted by the fire of the Captain's requested Viking funeral pyre. "Jungle Bride" is one heck of an entertaining pre-Coder, with lots of Adam and Eve and Darwin jokes regarding the goofy chimps. Also, Anita Page takes her shirt off, in true pre-Code style. Two Bigs! The picture is very good. ////
And that's all I know for tonight. I'm glad the election is over. Now I don't have to recycle all those cardboard candidate flyers anymore. What's that? Oh yeah.....the flyers were cardboard, too. Ha! Man, that's a riot. My blogging music tonight was "Death Walks Behind You" by Atomic Rooster, and my late night is "Parsifal" by Wagner. I highly recommend "Fairy Tale" by Stephen King, one of his best, and I send you Tons of Love, as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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