tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post2305070875203933632..comments2024-03-21T22:19:26.920-05:00Comments on A Follow Spot: Barbara Stanwyck No. 1: THE LADY EVE Tomorrow on TCMJulieKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-1874273223668394872012-12-12T11:45:38.380-06:002012-12-12T11:45:38.380-06:00Oh, I remember that one from the book. He doesn...Oh, I remember that one from the book. He doesn't want she should rot in the clink over Christmas, so he gets her sprung for a week and takes her home to Ma with him, or something like that. And.... really? I suppose I should fill in the blank too.<br /><br />The dramas I was thinking of for Leisen came later: "Hold Back the Dawn" (1961, Charles Boyer, Olivia DeHavilland, Paulette Goddard) about hopeful immigrants held up indefinitely at the Mexican border. And especially that classic weepie "To Each His Own" (1946), which won Olivia DeH her Oscar, as the unwed mom who, years later, runs into her very own son.<br /><br />But yes, there's "Death Takes a Holiday" early on, which I see made it onto DVD. And there's much talk about "Swing High, Swing Low," which casts Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard as musicians whose romance/marriage is doomed because he drinks, or can't hold a job, or something, and apparently the fadeout is pretty ambiguous, like... maybe he'll make it back to health, maybe not. It's made it onto DVD, but from all reports it's so miserably transferred as to be almost unwatchable.JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-33546497100515904482012-12-12T09:16:36.411-06:002012-12-12T09:16:36.411-06:00Remember the Night, another one that Preston Sturg...Remember the Night, another one that Preston Sturges wrote the screenplay for and Leisen directed, with Fred and Babs as a prosecutor and a shoplifter at Christmastime, is on tonight, too. I haven't seen that one, so I guess I'd better fill in this blank on my resume!JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-18448747936631186652012-12-12T09:13:30.126-06:002012-12-12T09:13:30.126-06:00I think it's more to do with the fact that he ...I think it's more to do with the fact that he didn't have an It Happened One Night or Philadelphia Story or Awful Truth or Sullivan's Travels. Easy Living seems much more like a Preston Sturges movie than a Mitchell Leisen movie. Although I suppose Death Takes a Holiday could've pushed him farther.JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-86804468456219230882012-12-12T05:12:57.104-06:002012-12-12T05:12:57.104-06:00Oh, I never meant to diminish the role of Leisen! ...Oh, I never meant to diminish the role of Leisen! He was a master director like the others on the list. In fact he's the one whose work I know best, as my father had (as a freebie from the Directors' Guild) a book about Leisen's life and work, based on oral history interviews with him and anybody they could find who worked with him. I hear that some historians rank him lower because he began as a designer (for De Mille in silents) and continued to design his leading ladies' wardrobe in some cases. But... everybody has to start somewhere, and he certainly had a distinctive directorial touch in his best work, like "Easy Living" and "Midnight." (He was also good with drama later on, and if his movies began to decline in the 1940s, like the dreadful adaptation of "Lady in the Dark," he was hardly the only one with that kind of career arc.)<br /><br />I just wanted to salute those who came up with the comedic situations and lines, too. <br /><br />The "sandhog" one is "No Time For Love" (1943). I was interested to see in its wikipedia entry that the poster heavily featured a bare-chested Fred MacMurray. (Did that become a "thing" in the wake of Clark Gable's famous uncovering, also vis-a-vis Colbert?) Colbert & MacMurray again starred for Leisen in 1944, as a young couple paired together in wartime by others, due to a wacky mixup. It's recorded in the book that Fred said to Claudette on the set, "The only problem with this picture is that you and I are too damned old for it." Her reaction is not recorded.JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-17264620364287162652012-12-11T22:44:27.623-06:002012-12-11T22:44:27.623-06:00Leisen is definitely the one who stands out. But h...Leisen is definitely the one who stands out. But he was the director of record for Easy Living, even if Preston Sturges' script is really what makes it. Plus Midnight is lovely. We also saw one in class with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray where he was a "sand hog." Fred MacMurray's roles in the films of that period are such a surprise to anyone who grew up on My Three Sons and Flubber.<br /><br />As for The Lady Eve... I love that she is so in charge from the get-go and she's just so darn charming it seems like that's the way it should be. I don't like Rosalind Russell, and I think that's why. She lacks the charm to make her steamrollng work.JulieKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12521424567356348282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6816366806127608207.post-12922467610593673492012-12-11T22:23:14.988-06:002012-12-11T22:23:14.988-06:00I actually never saw that list of 7 before. Very i...I actually never saw that list of 7 before. Very interesting, and it makes sense as a grouping -- they did seem to cover most of the classic comedies of the period. And (my father, a director, always said) let's not forget the writers, who made all the funny goings-on possible. Sturges wrote for other director before he got to direct his own work (some of the Leisen titles, for instance).<br /><br />"The Lady Eve" is marvelous, and it's also rather surprising and unusual when one first sees it. The way it breaks into two, for instance (just at the point where one starts to wonder what the title has to do with anything). And the way her "disguise" as Eve doesn't amount to anything: she looks exactly the same, and any difference in accent is barely perceptible. All part of the unique atmosphere.JAChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10942256334004773509noreply@blogger.com