Night Nurse (1931) Review

Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell

Night Nurse is not only a great pre-code film, it is a very pre-code film. Barbara Stanwyck as Lora Hart and Joan Blondell as Maloney tackle two perspectives of how to handle the cynical world created here. Lora is willing to lose it all for the sake of doing the right thing, while Maloney doesn’t seem to care about anything that doesn’t concern her. Both periodically seem demoralized by how things are, wishing it could be better. Maloney even criticizes the societal view that a woman should be subservient to her husband and not work. A favorite line of hers is, “Maybe 56 bucks a week isn’t much, but it’s 56 bucks!”

Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Blondell both show a lot of skin and snuggle together in bed, which does provide a slight erotic undertone. Some shots seem to serve little more purpose than to get us some eye candy. It’s hard not to applaud the scene where both, mostly undressed, get in bed and snuggle together! Maybe even more adorable is when to stop Lora from fainting, Maloney holds her wrist? Ben Lyon as Mortie is a very charming bootlegger who sticks around with crime while being impossible to not love, especially how warm he is to the other characters.

There is a disturbing undercurrent throughout the whole picture, with life initially seeming fine before thing after thing happens to suggest that there’s something wrong. The pacing is great, as the protagonists are fighting the clock. Clark Gable is one of the most intimidating antagonists of these old movies, dressed in black and saying very little. He creates a strong presence and you know things are getting intense just because he’s around.

SPOILERS

Why would Lora go out late with Maloney, considering she knew that was against the rules and this whole time was trying to make a good impression? It’s so creepy watching the kids describe the killing of their sister. The kids supply really good performances. The closeup and zoom on Clark Gable as he reveals he’s Nick, followed by the same shot for Lora as she gasps is a striking bit of imagery that symbolizes this new information we’ve learned. Maloney comes off as pretty unlikable in that she doesn’t seem to care about what’s going on with the children. She’s getting paid and going on dates, which to her is all that matters. While this probably is not intentional, this could be seen as a commentary on how real people are, not caring unless a problem bothers them specifically.

We get some nice intense performances of the children’s mother screaming and the look of disgust on Lora’s face. She’s been reasonably composed, but now she’s dropping it all to criticize this woman. This all makes sense as she’s clearly so fed up with putting up with people that don’t care about anyone else. It’s a lot of fun when Lora punches out a man. We later get a good comedy moment where she dumps water on the mother. It was pretty irresponsible of Lora to reveal she knows about the trust fund, as Nick would then know where she got that from and hurt the person she talked to.

The romance is expertly done lightly. It makes sense that the male romance, Mortie, would be attracted to Lora after she helped him. There were also many opportunities for her to show off her personality to him. Once everything is resolved, it’s cathartic to see them agree to go on a date, as that suggests they can move on to greener pastures. That being said, the ending is gloriously creepy, epitomizing the pre-code glory on display. Mortie doesn’t become a moral character, as he reveals that he had Nick killed. We’re left to figure this out over about thirty seconds. This coming so late in the game, as well as before and after the lovers’ talk of a date, positions this as something to be celebrated. That offbeat tone leaves a memorable impression, like this killing is just the way things go. Considering how many characters here are morally dubious, that matches it while getting more intense.

OVERVIEW

Night Nurse packs a mean punch in only about an hour. It’s got some heavy drama, light comedy, and a great evil world that is so endearing to watch, with a protagonist that just wants to do the right thing when it’s so hard. Of course, even on the surface there’s a lot of girls and violence.

Berth Marks (1929) Review // Laurel And Hardy #31

A frame from the film

Berth Marks has a compelling beginning. The opening title card includes a decent joke that also describes Stan’s intelligence. The clownish music is really creepy and makes everything uncomfortable. There’s a rough and dirty visual look to the film, especially at the start where Hardy is looking for Laurel in a crowded area. Some shots, like when the boys get off the train, are particularly stylish and cinematic. While the scrappiness of these early sound films might seem unprofessional, they do bring with them a certain special aesthetic of “doing it all ourselves” that is endearing. It also makes everything come off as surreal and abnormal, which helps how slow everything can be.

This one has some delightfully weird moments, like how a cello in a case is obviously sometimes fake, with it condensing too much when pressed against surfaces. Overall, the jokes aren’t very sharp. It’s too repetitive with just, “Hardy tells Laurel to do something, he messes that up” over and over. Very little runtime is dedicated to anything other than Laurel making mistakes. Still, we get things like Hardy throwing their sheet music on the ground or pushing Laurel on someone’s hat. These exemplify that Hardy’s not as smart as he thinks he is.

Something that makes this film so infuriating is how much time is dedicated to Laurel and Hardy trying to get in their beds and sleep. This takes so long and it’s just things like, “They fall out the bed”, “Their clothes get tangled”. This sort of thing would only work if what was done was unexpected. Some nice moments are how Hardy sometimes seems genuinely annoyed, like he is sick of doing this bit so much! At one point, he asks Laurel to hold his hand and he sounds sincerely tired. That gives another depth that maybe even the actors are hating this! A lot of the other jokes are similarly as slow. This slower pace would work a lot better in a longer movie, though there are obviously very few ideas here, so it’s very fortunate it’s not longer. The lack of much setup or explanation for some ideas also suggests this was written in a hurry.

SPOILERS

Strangely, someone that works on the train throws out our leads’ shoes due to how battered they look. It doesn’t really make sense why he would. Also, this never comes back into relevance. There’s no scene of them looking for them. Similarly as confusing is ‘How would Laurel and Hardy not know how close they were to their destination?’ They tried to go to sleep right before they got to their destination. Imagine a scene where Laurel goes to get their shoes and right before he would learn they were absent, Hardy says they’re in too much of a hurry to worry about that.

OVERVIEW

To summarize this film in a question, “How hard is it to get ready for bed?” You keep hoping the camera will cut to something else more interesting. Despite how dull this sequence is, some of the other material, even on the train, is a lot better. Everyone fighting on the train is weird in a dreamlike way. It’s not sensible of them to do that, but it’s as if some aura, possibly created by Laurel and Hardy, is making them want to do that. Focusing on some weird ethereal curse is way better than what we get, especially considering how bland a lot of the concepts are, such as the cello merely getting stuck somewhere. Especially when compared to the first sound outing, Unaccustomed As We Are, Berth Marks really falters other than a few all too brief highlights. To close on a positive, this film does look a little better than the aforementioned episode.

The Gay Bride (1934) Review

To describe my future wife…

The Gay Bride is an electrifying offbeat romance that is not too comfortable being just one thing and is glorious for its eclecticism. Carole Lombard is the both extremely charming and devilish Mary. She does a great job at playing all these absurdities straight. She often is thoughtless and selfish, such as when she doesn’t care about holding up her friend so long her soup boils over, but she is still likable due to how much charisma and wit Lombard gives, injecting little things to make her real and relatable. Chester Morris as “Office Boy” is great at playing as a minor character, obtaining laughs and memorable scenes where he can, only to come into more prominence later. Morris wisely doesn’t overemphasize his character, staying out of the way until it makes sense. One highlight is when some gangsters want to put an apple on his head and see who can shoot it off first. Calmly Office Boy says, “Sounds a little dangerous. You boys good shots?” “Confidently between me and you and the tree, we never hit an apple yet!” He gets another good line with, “Only you’re a pretty good looking girl– as girls go.”

Nat Pendleton as “Shoots” Magiz is wonderful at projecting as a beefy muscle-head hot shot, only to be really fragile and manipulable. A lot of fun scenes come from him getting walked on by other people. ZaSu Pitts as Mirabelle gets less to do than she normally does. She does not need to do much for this story to be fine, but it is a shame when ZaSu is wasted. She gets two good lines with, “And they say the age of chivalry is dead.” and later, “I’d rather kiss Mickey Mouse than a rat like you.” Even if someone only has a little to do, like with Pitts, there’s enough clever dialogue and forward momentum for the story to keep things fresh.

It is irritating in these movies when typically female characters make really poor decisions. This film is arguably parodying that, as Mary gets even people she cares about in danger. If we are supposed to honestly like her, this movie fails, but it works at its main goals of being funny and telling a compelling story about a pretty normal girl getting into crime. The characters are also consistent, with Mary always trying to find comfort while she can get it. She’s not suddenly the definition of morality, as sometimes is attempted in these films. Some characters becoming suddenly sleazy makes sense, as we’re dealing with mobsters who will of course try to hide their intentions if it’s convenient to them.

SPOILERS

Mary doesn’t seem to understand that if she stays to get married at the church, she could be killed, despite essentially being told as much. Was it normal for grooms to let a bunch of other guys kiss the bride? You’d imagine Shoots wouldn’t want that. A genuine surprise comes when Shoots is killed early on. Part of the dark comedy is that no one seems to particularly mind, with our leading lady only bothered by this because she can’t keep taking advantage of him. This leads to nice moments where Office Boy insults her and other mobsters seem to like her enough to try to rush in and wed her. Despite deceiving people, we get a pre-code theme where Mary is portrayed as sympathetic for her ways. Sure she tricks people, but that’s because she doesn’t want to starve.

This movie does utilize some old tropes, but much better. There is a bit of absurdism to the main romance between Mary and Office Boy and plenty of shared scenes before they fall for each other, so it’s easy to buy them getting together. It also doesn’t feel contrived that Mary would give up on crime and wealth, because she’s had to experience so much danger throughout the film. Also, Mary never really becomes that likable. She complicates matters by giving away the money instead of getting it back to those that are after her. Did she not think that’d cause trouble? She later takes out a mortgage on Office Boy’s garage. Amusingly, he doesn’t really care about how destructive she is. Adding to the morbidity of this story, things generally get better for Mary because certain people that were causing her problems died.

The ending wraps things up a little too easily, with Mary just explaining the resolution. It isn’t the worst, but it comes off a little silly. The movie ending with Mirabelle becoming wealthy, which means Mary might by proxy, works at summarizing the theme of this film. We’re dealing with crooked, selfish characters and Mary had said earlier that she has been motivated by not starving, so it makes sense this would be on her mind. The main way women move up the social ladder in these old movies is by marrying a rich man. Mary was doing this and Mirabelle achieving such a task goes to normalize Mary. Even the more levelheaded Mirabelle isn’t beyond this sort of thing, as not playing this game makes basic living harder.

OVERVIEW

The Gay Bride is a raucous misadventure that has enough energy and well constructed characters to be well worth a watch.

People Will Talk (1951) Review

Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain

People Will Talk doesn’t go for having a strong story, being more casual, like it’s a span of a few days for the protagonist, Dr. Noah Praetorious, played by Cary Grant. This is done reasonably well, though these elements don’t amount to much. The easiest way to solve this is for the characters to end up in a different place than how they started, especially Noah, as he’s the main focus. The exception is Jeanne Crain as Deborah. Her character growth doesn’t contribute to much. This is exemplified with her not playing into the climax of the film. Her performance is also way too standard, seeming like a million other female leads of the time. Admittedly, many of the male characters fill their own archetype. Grant doesn’t completely escape such a thing, but he brings a captivating feeling and warmth to his dialogue, so he’s pretty enjoyable.

There’s quite a lot of “movie dialogue”, where someone is ridiculously witty or forward or whatever is needed, without much subtlety. As an example, Noah most of the time has something insightful to say, when a real person wouldn’t always have such a perfect comment. The character of Arthur does little more than let out some wordy exposition that answers some questions setup. He then proceeds to do practically nothing else. He also is set up as being someone intimidating, but he is ultimately very soft spoken and hearted. Noah and a woman have a conversation about death with a lot of levity and offbeat lightness. It is thoughtful for the audience, in terms of coming to understand death better, while also telling us about our main character and how he thinks.

Noah has these many elusive qualities that do make him fascinating. They too rarely appear in his scenes or the meat of the movie, with essentially just a few moments here or there dedicated to how he and his associate “Mr. Shunderson” are mysterious. Their various character traits seem to only serve to make them endearing, without providing substance. Shunderson seems to be effortlessly charming, calming a barking dog. Noah being an orchestra conductor is another way where he just seems way too worldly and artistic. He practically befriends everyone he meets, which again is pushing his ability to be taken seriously. The arguing about trains suggests there’s some intended comedic wit, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a point to those moments. They don’t matter at all, only having the effect of stapling human traits to Noah.

Despite being called a comedy by some sources, there’s very few attempts at humor. Still, we get some mileage from what there is, like when Noah forgets he doesn’t have a light. There’s also, “Never look a gift horse in the mouth. You?” “I never look any horse in the mouth.” Something that was unintentionally funny is when the character of Elwell takes a sip of water on a table dressed for a dinner he’s not going to attend and then just sets it back down, probably to be later sipped by someone else. A favorite unintentionally silly trope is when a woman claims to not wear makeup or is in a situation where they wouldn’t be, but they obviously are. I also got a laugh from when Noah goes to a farm and leaves the gate door open. Later, he gets into bed with shoes on.

SPOILERS

There’s a lot of humorously silly “Hollywood moments”. Deborah faints in class. Noah tells her to leave and a random woman to go with her. Maybe she was her friend and Noah knew it, but it’s funny to think he just asked a random person to help her. Noah then suddenly leaves, despite having a classroom of students that he was apparently in the middle of teaching. They weren’t even dismissed by him. When Deborah says she was giving up on the classes, Noah says he “imagines it’ll be more fun just sitting home with Mr. Higgins”, which plays as a weirdly sexist line that sadly isn’t out of place for the 50s. He’s just assuming a woman would really want to do nothing with her husband. The film is actually quite progressive, showing sympathy to an unwed mother. Why wouldn’t Noah say up front that Deborah was pregnant? Noah putting his arm on the wall behind Deborah, thus making her feel more trapped, was pretty creepy.

The character of Rodney Elwell seems pretty normal until he is treated as a villain. It’s also not unreasonable of him to want to make sure Noah is being ethical. Even if he is a genius, you’d think there’d be other doctors out there that really are life-endangering quacks. How would he know Noah would be any different? When Noah is vouched for, even when he seems to have done some wrongdoing, those issues are just ignored. When his friend calls him a genius to be learned from, that suggests the audience is supposed to be learning something from him, but what is not clear. It’s like some message is being hinted at, but everything is too unfocused for that to be apparent. Should someone with unproven methods of how to care for the ill come up to me and claim to be trustworthy, should I just take their word?

What did the revelations at the end or Deborah have to do with anything? The jumping from things like Noah’s teaching style to Deborah’s pregnancy and homelife to Noah’s various friendships is pretty jarring as they all are interchangeable with a million other things. There isn’t a cohesive thread or throughline at all. The ending you’d expect would resolve this, but instead it just reveals Mr. Shunderson’s and Noah’s past, unrelated to what we were seeing before other than a few odd scenes. Noah having saved his life could’ve been tied to his practice, maybe to show just how talented he really is, but it’s treated just as another thing. Also, all of this being contrived to simply be listed off seems like no one knew how to more naturally integrate the answers to the questions set up earlier. This apparently was intended to be a criticism of “McCarthyism”, wherein it makes sense this would be handled at a discussion table that is more spiritually like a trial.

OVERVIEW

People Will Talk for the most part fails to reach any deeper point or meaning, but the performances are good and the story beats create intrigue, though they aren’t answered in interesting ways. The elements which deal with Noah’s morality and principles, such as how to deal with patients and how he thinks about things like death are by far the most interesting element. Focusing on that beyond romance or a conflict with someone would make this picture much sharper.

ON THE CORNER AND OFF THE WALL

Cary Grant has changed my brain chemistry.

Kid Boots (1926) Review

Eddie Cantor and Clara Bow

Something to be envied about two-reelers is the lack of expectation for things like romance and drama. Both of those are all well and good, but it’s perfectly clear that for many films, including Kid Boots, they’re afterthoughts. The main victims of this are Clara Bow and Billie Dove. They both do extremely little and you just want to yell at the screen for them to get more action, especially because Bow gets more spotlight at the end and proceeds to make you wish she had more to do. Still, the movie isn’t hurt by being mostly about Eddie Cantor as “Kid Boots” and other characters beyond Bow’s.

This movie has a lot of fun with silly and quaint ideas. Do you like light comedy about golfing? You get that here. Do you like massage therapy comedy? Work life comedy? Many of these ideas are interchangeable for others. Thus, a lot feels inconsequential, but it’s nice seeing the characters get taken into this or that adventure. Eddie Cantor evokes Buster Keaton. He dresses, looks, and acts similar. Some of his gags also are reminiscent of Keaton’s characterization as a “lovable failure”. One example is when Kid Boots looks in a mirror right as it’s smashed. There’s also the quality line, “Excuse me – I didn’t know you were the lady I was kicking!”

Clara Bow’s character of “Clara” is more or less a straight man character. She does a lot of reacting to the insanity. This is a little surreal when compared to movies where she’s the protagonist and more of an active agent, but she does fine in this role. She also uses the wonderful insult of “you big egg”. “Tea-time two-timer” is another great line. Other highlights are the cute moment of Kid Boots seeing Clara in a mirror; the line, “Only half of [Redacted due to spoilers]’ party for two showed up.”; and the excellent and also Keaton-esque final joke.

SPOILERS

Kid Boots is pretty absurdly bad at being a tailor. Can’t he just think a few seconds, so as to not do something that will just annoy the customer? Also, even if it’s reasonable to not presume that customer would want to kill you as revenge, they’d probably come back angry at least. This is a difference between him and Buster. Even if Buster did a bad job, he could at least effectively fake it. Kid Boots sewing Clara’s outfit up is a pretty solid way to quickly establish a relationship, considering the limitations. While these movies are always in way too much of a hurry to get characters in love, this is at least very cute and lighthearted in the same way as the rest of the movie, especially because our lead does indeed make a mistake here, which reflects how prone to those he is.

The scene of Kid Boots pretending to have a date with a woman, when really it’s just his arm, is a wonderful comedy sequence that is really made by how well Eddie Cantor sells it, having great timing and fluidity. You’d think one might not be so good at having such control over their arm, to make it seem like a different person. Clara’s reactions and finally when a woman sits down right at the end when Kid Boots reveals his trick are great add-ons to make this a highlight.

When Kid Boots thinks he might get killed by someone, why doesn’t he run away early on? What’s stopping him? The comedy scene that plays out is a little too expected, with the common trope of the lead being able to avoid any serious harm magically, though there are nice touches. One favorite is when Kid Boots’ leg is put over his head casually to prevent him from leaving. It’s a little too silly when the big bad sits in the electric chair, giving Kid Boots the chance to use it.

The ending is pretty exciting, though it’s all very ridiculous in a way that is easy to enjoy, but hard to take seriously. Kid Boots and Clara had to cover a lot of ground in only thirty minutes and they got sidetracked pretty bad along the way. It’s hard to believe they managed to get there in so little time. There’s a lot to love about it otherwise, how it brings Clara and Kid Boots together, the energy, and things like our hero swinging down the cliff attached to his horse. Also ridiculous are the rules of the court. Everyone has to constantly jump through nonsensical hoops. These bits of absurdism work when taken as intentionally stupid, which the film mostly commits to being. They might’ve been intended to be more serious considering the romance between Kid Boots and Clara is resolved in a straight way, but even with that the movie still works at being a crazy comedy. The romance is another well-handled novelty to emphasize the other elements at play.

OVERVIEW

It’s always fun seeing characters in these movies, particularly the women, try on various snazzy costumes. Clara Bow is no stranger to these outfits, my favorite being the plane garb. Eddie Cantor has no trouble carrying the film himself, though everyone else is enjoyable enough to elevate Kid Boots, making it a pretty fun watch.