Last night's movie was "Strange Marriage"(1932), another pre-Coder, this time loosely written, almost improvised in places and very, very talky. Evalyn Knapp stars as "Mary Smith", who as the movie opens is in court following a prostitution sting operation. Talk about your pre-Code realism! Mary tells the judge she was standing on a street corner. "Do you do that often?" he asks, to the guffaws of spectators. Exasperated, she tries to explain that she was tired after walking around all day looking for a job. "And then you decided to look on the street corner?" the judge inquires. It's no use, he thinks shes a streetwalker. She admits she was arrested after "a car pulled over and a man asked me if I wanted to earn some money," but the judge sees that as solicitation. Mary accepted the offer and was busted because the man was a detective, now the judge is about to sentence her unless someone can vouch for her story. Suddenly a gentleman stands up and says: "I'll vouch for her; she's my fiance."
He's a tall handsome gent by the name of "Jimmy Martin"(Walter Byron). It isn't specified why he is in the courtroom. My guess is that he's checking out the streetwalkers who got arrested in the sting. Anyhow, he vouches for Mary, pretends he's her fiance, then the judge calls his bluff. "Well, then, you need to marry her right here and now or she goes to jail."
Jimmy, not wanting a pretty girl to slip away, agrees, and Mary, wanting to avoid six months in the slam, agrees also.
Well, now they have to get to know each other, and the movie looks improvised here, with an extended pre-Code scene in which Jimmy tries to paw Mary in overly aggressive clinches, which she tries to squirm out of. He backs off, and they sit down and talk. Now that he's not grabbing her, she's more comfortable around her all-of-a-sudden husband, and she decides she likes him. But he has to go home, because his Momma is expecting him (it's another Smothering Mother movie), and not only that, so is his fiance!
Yes, Jimmy was on the hook before he married Mary, but his fiance is a phoney (though beautiful) society gal with a continental accent. You can picture the type. Her engagement to Jimmy was arranged by his mother and Jimmy wants out of it, another reason he spoke up for Mary in the courtroom. Now, he's starting to fall in love with her, but his best friend "Jack" (Jason Robards Sr.) is horning in. Jack's another rich boy who thinks gals are there for the pickin', all you have to do is choose one, so while Jimmy is back at home, trying to appease his mother, Jack goes to Mary's apartment and hits on her himself. He's that kind of guy, and when Jimmy returns, he sees Jack trying to kiss Mary and figures she's cheating on him already. Now he wants a divorce, thinking Mary is just a streetwalker after all.
Mary is heartbroken at Jimmy's decision and furious that he doesn't even bother to ask her side of the story. He divorces her and offers her a settlement. His mom is thrilled that Mary is out of his life and the society fiance is back in. As for Mary, she won't accept the divorce settlement money from "those people", so she takes a job at a movie theater to make ends meet. One night, a gal comes to the ticket booth and says, "Hey, you're Mary, aren't you? Remember me? I'm Nelly, from that day in court." Nelly (Marie Provost) is a prostitute who was also up on charges that day when Mary was nearly sent to jail. Now Nelly has a legit boyfriend, and wants to reconnect with Mary. When they both go to Mary's apartment after the movie, Mary tells Nelly she's pregnant. The baby is Jimmy's, but since they aren't married anymore, it's gonna be illegitimate. Super pre-Code alert! A divorce and an illegitimate baby! Nelly tells her she was crazy to have refused Jimmy's settlement money and calls his lawyer to tell him Mary wants it after all. The lawyer doesn't know Nelly and thinks it might be a ruse, so he has Jimmy deliver it in person on the condition that is has to be accepted and signed for by Mary. Jimmy arrives slightly tipsy, because he's nervous about seeing her again, which leads at first to an argument between the two of them, and then an emotional talk, in which Jimmy finds out that Mary never invited nor accepted Jack's advances toward her that day. Jimmy only saw the kiss, but he didn't see Mary trying to push Jack away. The ending is happy. Jimmy and Mary tie the knot again (and their baby is now legit), and Jimmy tells his mom and Jack to stuff it. We're awarding the movie Two Big Thumbs because of its overall likability (characters, story, pre-Codeness), but be prepared for a truckload of jabbering, and a few unnecessary scenes. 10 minutes could and should have been cut from the 68 minute running time, but even so, it's too well-meaning to dismiss. Watch it for Marie Provost's performance, she steals the show. The picture is razor sharp. ////
The previous night we began another chapter serial: "The Phantom Creeps"(1939) starring Bela Lugosi as - what else? - a Mad Scientist inventing gadgets that will allow him to Run Za Velrd! To begin with, he's got one of the ugliest and scariest robots in the history of Mad Scientist movies, a big, blocky thing with a giant sized Chinese/Voodoo-lookin' head that makes it look like an evil god. Lugosi's assistant - an ex-con - is terrified of the robot and begs Bela not to let it out of it's cell, but Bela assures him there's no danger. "Vatch," he says, then demonstrates his new remote control for the robot, allowing him to dictate it's moves. The assistant is pacified, and Bela then shows him his new invisibility belt, "Vich vill allow me to break in to za bank ven vee need funds. I can also listen in on police meetings, to see if zey are getting suspicious." He's a regular Dr. Mabuse, a one-man crime wave.
Well, he is right to be paranoid, because he is under surveillance by law enforcement, but it ain't the city cops, it's the Feds. He gets vord of this from a broker who sells his lesser gadets to foreign countries, and he and his assistant, and the robot, move the lab and it's entire contents to Zee Basement of his mansion - they complete the move in one night, thanks to the big-ass robot, a strong mofo.
Bela plans to be absent when the Feds raid his mansion, and whilst driving on PCH, he and his assistant spot a man hitchhiking who looks just like him. "Vee can use zat guy!" Bela says, but no sooner do they pick him up, then a drunk driver runs them off the road and the hitchhiker is killed in the accident. Lugosi gets an idea, to fake his own death. He plants his drivers licence on the man, leaves him with the crashed car, and when the cops come and alert the Feds, they assume the dead man is Lugosi. But one agent isn't so sure. He wants to bring in Bela's wife to identify the body. Lugosi knows that she'll know it's not him, so he uses another of his gadgets - a spider that can put it's victim into suspended animation - to knock her out so she won't be able to identify the body. But the problem is, she's in an airplane, and the spider bites the pilot instead and the plane goes into a tailspin. That ends Chapter One, with the plane about to crash with Lugosi's Vife on board. Sounds like a good one, eh? We recently finished "S.O.S. Coast Guard", which also starred Bela and, as an added bonus, featured Richard Alexander as his gigantic, lobotomised henchman. That one was excellent and gets Two Bigs. Chapter Serials rule!
And that's all I have for tonight. I hope your weekend is off to a good start. My blogging music is once again Atomic Rooster, this time the "Made in England" album. I'm on a mini-binge with them, never having heard much of their music before, and while it does sound "of its time" in some ways, it's quite good in that context. And Vincent Crane is a top-notch organist. My late-night is still "Parsifal" by Richard Wagner, I finished "Fairy Tale" by Stephen King and deem it a masterpiece, and I send you Tons of Love as always.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxo :):)
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