THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 14 of 20)

 Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart bicker

in The Shop Around the Corner

as boss Frank Morgan looks on

The Shop Around the Corner may me known more to modern day audiences as one of the inspirations for The Tom Hanks movie We've Got Mail. It's also not in the 1001 book...and it was released in January of 1940 , but by golly I'm making an entry for it in More 1001 Movies from the 30's anyway!

The film is directed by Ernest Lubitsch and the screenplay is by Samuel Raphaelson, who collaborated on the classic Trouble in Paradise. Screenplay credit (at least belatedly) also goes to Ben Hecht who collaborated with Lubitsch on Design for Living.

The plot involves the goings on in a Budapest leather goods store featuring top salesman Kralik (Jimmy Stewart), his demanding boss Matuschek (Frank Morgan), the shady salesman (Joseph Schildkrauf) and family man Pirovitch (Felix Bressart). Their lives get complicated with the hiring of the pretty and opinionated Miss Novak (Margaret Sullavan). The plot involves the intrigue, back stabbing and mistaken identity that goes on at the store...including the budding romance between Kralik and Miss Novak. They don't like each other very much for most of the movie, but I think we know that will change by the end credits.

It's a fun romp with engaging performers and I am definitely a Lubitsch fan...which is why I added this film to my list in the first place. I also really like that little leather goods shop. Next time I'm in Budapest, I'll see if it's still there...

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Margaret Sullivan. I don't think I had ever seen a movie with Margaret Sullivan until I saw her in the war drama The Mortal Storm (Also, released in 1940 and also starring Jimmy Stewart). I thought she was quite good in that and was surprised she didn't get an Academy Award nomination for it (neither did the film). 

Margaret Sullavan hoping that Jimmy Stewart will leave
so she will meet her blind date who she doesn't know is
actually Jimmy Stewart in The Shop Around the Corner

 In The Shop Around the Corner, she gets to show off her comic chops as the girl who Stewart eventually gets around to dating once he discovers he actually likes her and she discovers she likes him and they go through the whole mistaken identity thing before coming together at the end of the film.

Sullivan was one of the top leading ladies of Hollywood from 1933-1943, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Three Comrades in 1938. Yet, she isn't really held in the same regard as other of her contemporaries of the era. This is probably because her she pretty much quit making films after 1943. Her later life was definitely the stuff of drama involving mental illness, physical infirmity, drug addiction, family problems and a premature death in 1960 at the age of 50.

Haywire, a  TV mini-series based on her daughter's book about Sullavan's life was broadcast  in 1980.

I think Haywire by Brooke Hayward and Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford  might make an interesting reading double feature for those so inclined...

TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 13 of 20)

Miriam Hopkins and George Marshall are the 

charming thieves in Trouble in Paradise

Peter Bogdanovich referred to Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise as a "real treasure" and a for years forgotten gem from the Lubitsch film cannon. This film is a succinct, witty and thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy that wasn't shown for many years (according to Bogdanovich) after the Hays code was implemented because it actually showed thieves in a positive light and let the leading man go from woman to woman, etc...Anyway...It is a delightful romp and certainly worth 83 minutes of your time...or 166 if you want to see it twice...#math. Screenplay by Lubitsch regular Samson Rapahelson. Starring George Marshall with Miriam Hopkins and Kay Francis as the women in his life. Edward Everett Horton and Charlie Ruggles play hapless suitors. C. Aubrey Smith also has an important supporting role as a shady board member of Francis's company.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Charles Ruggles

Horton and Ruggles play the amusing but unsuccessful

suitors of Kay Francis in Trouble in Paradise

Charles Ruggles spent a long career as a supporting player in Hollywood, almost always playing someone articulate and proper, but often befuddled in the long run as in Trouble in Paradise. Other major films for Ruggles include: Ruggles of Red Gap (where he interestingly doesn't play Ruggles) and Bringing Up Baby. One only has to look at the names of his characters to see the type of role he usually played: Viscount Gilbert de Varèze (Love Me Tonight), J. Elliot Dinwiddy and Lowell Eddings Farquar, his character from later appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies.

He also played one of Aunt Bee's suitors in a later episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

Charlie Ruggles romances Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) in

an episode of The Andy Griffith Show.

In fact...Aunt Bee was romanced by many other character actors during the course of that show...Will Geer, Denver Pyle, Edgar Buchanan, Woody Chambliss,Wallace Ford, Ian Wolfe...but I digress.

DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 12 of 20) 

Gary Cooper and Fredrick March admire a saucy dame

in Design for Living

Ernst Lubitsch's Design for Living did not make the 1001 movie cut, but is certainly a must see for all you pre-code Hollywood film junkies (a select and admirable group, I must say). Gary Cooper and Frederich March are two Bohemian artist buddies living in Paris who meet up and fall for the attractive Miriam Hopkins. Ms. Hopkins works for the stuffy Edward Everett Horton who could in turn help the boys with their careers if they play their cards right. The clever goings on can be credited to writers Noel Coward and Ben Hecht, as well as Lubitsch and his stars. I also don't know if the way Miriam Hopkins jumps around from man to man in this film would have passed the muster after the Hays code was passed the following year, but it's hard to imagine the film working without it.

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Edward Everett Horton
Edward Everett Horton was one of Hollywood's top second bananas for years, mostly in films in the 1930's and 40's.. His wit and articulate speech seem made for a film like Design for Living,  though you know he isn't going to succeed in his ultimate quest for the girl...even if she does marry him! Other movies I've seen Horton in include: Top Hat, Arsenic and Old Lace, Alice in Wonderland (1933, as The Mad Hatter), Lost Horizon (as the paleontologist), Here Comes Mr. Jordan, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise

The marriage of Edward Everett Horton to Miriam Hopkins
in Design for Living is designed to be short

I first became aware of Horton (even if I didn't know his name) as the narrator on the classic cartoon Fractured Fairy Tales. This segment was part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show and Horton's wonderfully dignified voice added much to the rather goofy antics of the cartoon itself.

 Opening credits to Fractured Fairy Tales

 He also played the politically incorrect Chief Roaring Chicken in several episodes of the 60's sitcom F-Troop, which I still have fond memories of watching with my mother.

He parodied his F-Troop as Chief Screaming Chicken in an episode of Batman.

 

Edward Everett Horton and Adam West

in Batman

THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936)

MORE 1001 MOVIES FROM THE 30's

(Post 11 of 20)

Luise Rainier and William Powell

in The Great Ziegfeld

The 1936 musical autobiography of show biz impresario Flo Ziegfeld won the Best Picture award for 1936. It does have it's share of virtues including: some very elaborate musical numbers, a solid show biz rags to riches story that was common to the era and the always great teaming of William Powell and Myrna Loy.

The problem with the film is that it's just too damn long! I guess there was a need to give the depression era audience their money's worth, but let's trim some of the fat and cut down this over three hours of length next time, shall we boys? Also, it doesn't feel like a Best Picture winner. It also doesn't seem especially better than other autobiographical films of the type released during the era.

The first choice for Best Picture that year I can think of would be another William Powell movie, My Man Godfrey. Also, Luise Rainer isn't bad in her role as Ziegfeld's first wife, but I'd certainly argue her role was neither a lead or in the "best" category. Once again, I'd have given this award to My Man Godfrey and Carole Lombard...but nobody asked me in 1936!

A note on Luise Rainer. Rainer's film career did not have much longevity after Oscar wins for The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth but the longevity of Rainer herself is much to be envied as she died in 2014 just a couple of weeks shy of her 105th birthday!

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to...Frank Morgan and Ray Bolger

Morgan and Bolger will of course mostly be remembered by movie watchers as the Wizard and the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, but they were in other things, you know!

In The Great Ziegfeld, Morgan plays Ziegfeld's rival Billings, who Ziegfeld always seems to get the better of until the end, when Morgan and Powell have a very poignant moment together. Morgan also played the harried boss in The Shop Around the Corner. He had a very touching role as Margaret Sullavan's father in The Mortal Storm. He received two Academy Award nominations during his long career (The Duke of Cellini, Tortilla Flat) which lasted from 1916 until his death in 1949.

 Frank Morgan and William Powell

share a final moment in The Great Ziegfeld

Ray Bolger also had a long career and The Great Ziegfeld is actually his first movie credit. He has a small role in Ziegfeld as a theater worker who gets a chance to be in a dance number from the great showman.  I tried to think of other Bolger roles other than the obvious one and have to admit that the first thing that came to my head was as Shirley Partridge's father in an episode of The Partridge Family. If I only had a brain, I could come up with a better example. He also made the latter day late 70's rounds by being in an episode of both The Love Boat and Fantasy Island. His most famous non-Scarecrow role is probably in the musical Where's Charley?, where he starred on Broadway and in film. Bolger died in 1987 at the age of 83, making him the last surviving major cast member of The Wizard of Oz.

 William Powell about to give Ray Bolger his big break

in The Great Ziegfeld

 Wizard Frank Morgan about to give

Scarecrow Ray Bolger his diploma in

The Wizard of Oz

And another Wizard of Oz reference...Billie Burke played Glenda in The Wizard of Oz, but in real life was Flo Ziegfeld's wife and is portrayed in The Great Ziegfeld by Myrna Loy.

The real life Mrs. Flo Ziegfeld with Judy Garland and Toto

in The Wizard of Oz