Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

If Arthur Freed was the king of MGM during the 1940's and 1950's, his closest competitor was Jack Cummings. Despite operating for most of his career in the shadow of Arthur Freed, who always was given the best actors and actresses, directors, technical crew and most importantly, money, Jack Cummings still managed to carve out an impressive career as essentially producer of MGM's "B" musicals. However, in a couple instances, he was able to secure enough talent that the finished product is so good, one might mistake it for a Freed unit production, a distinction which probably killed Jack Cummings. The pinnacle of the Cummings' unit was 1954's "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". Starring Howard Keel and Jane Powell, two sizable MGM stars in their own right (each of whom had already starred in a lavish Freed unit production; Keel in "Show Boat" and Powell in "Royal Wedding"), directed by A-list director Stanley Donen, featuring choreography by rising Broadway star Michael Kidd, and even borrowing frequent Freed musical mainstays Saul Chaplin and Adolph Deutsch, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" was quite simply a collection of talent that Jack Cummings never usually had, and the result thus is not surprising. Despite being buried by MGM initially, after asking for a long location shoot where he could accurately capture the changing of the seasons, Stanley Donen saw his film's budget get slashed, the shoot allocated entirely to the backlot, and the money earmarked for his film transferred to "Brigadoon", produced by, of course, Arthur Freed. In spite of all of this, the talented group was able to combine their impressive skills and produce a tune filled, rousing musical that still entertains today.

The film begins with mountain man Adam Pontipee confidently strolling into town looking for a wife. He does not know who that wife will be, but sings "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" to "her" anyway, an enormously catchy song among others written by Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul for the film that helped Saul Chaplin and Adolph Deutsch win an Oscar for scoring. Not in town more than a few hours, he meets Milly, a beautiful young woman with no family who longs for a home of her own. She immediately falls for the ruggedly handsome Adam and his promise of their own farm. What he neglects to tell her is that he shares that farm with his six brothers, all of whom are dirty, brawling, obnoxious brutes. Milly is furious at Adam for not being honest with her, but also sad that she still does not have her vision of an idyllic home, instead she is a cook and maid to a household of unruly men. Acting outside the normal musical parameters though, Milly grows a backbone and banishes Adam from her bed, and demands that the brothers all shave, wash, and act civilized around the dinner table. They grudgingly accept her rules of the house and soon turn to her for advice on how to get the attention of girls. Adam laughs at how Milly is domesticating them, vowing that she will never be the boss of him. Milly teaches each of the brothers how to act around girls, and implores them to not get into a fight when they attend the barn raising, a big event in the territory at which all of the town's pretty young girls will be. The Pontipee clan arrives and each naturally pairs off with a girl, but each girl has their own suitor from town, and the two groups square off in a heated, spectacular dance sequence involving essentially everything but the kitchen sink. The barn raising sequence is justifiably famous in musical history for being one of the most prolonged scenes of dancing featuring an entire cast, similar to the ballet finale in "An American in Paris", and it still generates excitement to this day. Unfortunately for the brothers though, the town suitors soon turn the rivalry dirty and a large fight breaks out. The brothers are spurred on by Adam who relishes the opportunity for him and his brothers to get their hands dirty again and soon the brothers are forced to flee to the mountains, leaving their sweethearts behind.

Back in their isolated farm, the brothers all feel intense melancholy over not being able to see their girls again. Adam gives them the bright idea of sneaking into town and snatching them, similar to what the Romans did to the the "Sobbin' Women" (actually the Sabine women, and hardly as romantic as this movie makes it out to be; the Roman soldiers essentially kidnapped and raped the entire female population of a town under their control, but the basis is what inspires this film oddly enough). The brothers do just that, and for added measure they cause an avalanche, insuring that the girls' suitors will not be able to catch up with them until the following spring. However the girls' reaction is hardly what the brothers imagined, and Milly brings all of the girls into the cabin while banishing all of the brothers to the barn to sleep with the animals. She harbors particular anger towards Adam for giving the brothers the idea, and Adam responds with his typical bluster and exiles himself to the hunting cabin, buried even deeper in the wilderness for the entire winter. Soon though, the girls' anger turns to affection, as their true feelings for the brothers returns with the spring thaw. Even Milly softens her stance on Adam, brought on mostly by the fact that she is going to have a baby. Just before the pass clears Adam returns and begs Milly's forgiveness when he sees their daughter. He also convinces the brothers that if they ever want to have the girls for wives they must return them to town. Before they can do so the town posse arrives and hears the baby crying in the cabin. Assuming the worst (and this being the sexually pre historic times of the 1950's) the girls refuse to acknowledge who the baby belongs to, forcing their fathers to allow each to marry their respective choice of Pontipee. Despite the plot being rather silly, the film contains beautiful music, amazing dance sequences, and even though Stanley Donen did not get his wish to shoot on location, the sets (with a few exceptions) look wonderful. And it had to give Jack Cummings a certain degree of satisfaction to see his film, which MGM cut funds for remember, beat "Brigadoon", which received the budget surplus earmarked for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", pretty handily at the box office. Unfortunately for Cummings, that was probably the only time he could make that distinction, but for this film, the stars were aligned, and he was responsible for a wonderful film that trumped the legendary Arthur Freed.

Holiday Inn

More famous today for being an answer to a trivia question, "Holiday Inn" is actually a really fun musical comedy, with great performances from Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and a memorable score by Irving Berlin. The question of course is, "What movie did the song "White Christmas" first appear in?" The answer, you might not have known, is "Holiday Inn" and not the commonly confused sequel with the more obvious title: 1954's "White Christmas". The plot is your typical nonsense, with Astaire and Crosby playing versions of themselves; Astaire is the restless hoofer, always looking for a new partner, on stage and off, and Crosby is the happy-go-lucky crooner, perfectly at ease sitting by the fire singing a song with his girl. Despite starring two lesser known female foils (a product of the film coming in between the two more prominent stages of Astaire's career: the Ginger Rogers 1930's and the Technicolor 1950's which found him with different co-stars, among them Judy Garland and Cyd Charisse) the film is still a delight, mostly due to the flawless chemistry between Astaire and Crosby, but it also helps that they get to sing and dance to classic songs. Again, now known merely as the answer to a trivia question, and perhaps dusted off at Christmas time for viewings on Turner Classic Movies, "Holiday Inn" is a wonderful musical that deserves recognition greater than being a nugget of trivia.

When the film opens, Ted and Jim are two thirds of a successful act. The third is Lila, who is secretly engaged to Jim, but even more secretly planning on leaving him to be with Ted. Jim has decided to give up the hectic life in show business and settle down on a farm in Conneticut. While Lila does love him, she also loves Ted (and her own career) more, and Ted promises her nothing but work. They drop the bombshell on Jim on Christmas Eve, right after their last performance together. Jim is heartbroken, but is adament about leaving show business and says his goodbyes to Ted and Lila before setting off for the rustic, simple life. Ted and Lila go on to continued success, meanwhile Jim finds that life on a farm is hardly what he imagined; over a montage covering the next year, we find that his chores around the farm are more demanding than show business ever was (and there is just something funny about watching Bing Crosby try to milk a cow and chop wood). After a year of frustration on the farm, Jim returns to New York to try and talk Ted into joining him in his next endeavor: the Holiday Inn. Since his plan was to get away from show business so that he could enjoy all of the holidays, instead of doing two shows on them, Jim decides that the Holiday Inn will only be open on holidays; giving him 355 days off each year! Ted is reluctant to commit to Jim's idea, but Jim goes ahead with it anyway, ending up with a beautiful young singer and dancer as his main attraction: Linda Mason.

Soon after Holiday Inn opens, Lila leaves Ted for a Texas millionaire, and Ted shows up at the Inn's opening night drunk. Proving the old axiom that to look good doing something bad you have to be really good at it, Astaire's drunken dance with Linda is incredible, considering he had to "act" drunk and still dance very well. The crowd loves Ted and Linda together, and naturally they assume she is his new partner. Jim has visions of Lila leaving him again, and for most of the next year he is able to hide Linda from Ted's prowling eyes. Finally he can no longer keep her hidden and when Linda finds out he had been hiding her, in essence keeping her from making "the big time" with Ted as his partner, she leaves him for Hollywood and the movies with Ted. Jim is heartbroken again, and it is only when he agrees to sell the rights to the Holiday Inn to be turned into a movie (a very rare post modern twist in Old Hollywood) that he decides to go to Hollywood and win Linda back. Arriving on the set of the "Holiday Inn" movie, Jim surprises Linda by singing "White Christmas" to her. The take is ruined, but Jim wins Linda back and she agrees to return to the real Holiday Inn with him and get married. At the big New Years Eve party even Lila returns and the new foursome performs one final number together, a reprise of the opening number "I'll Capture Her Heart Singing", which is a great comedic number. "White Christmas" is a great song, but "Holiday Inn" is also a great musical, one definitely worth visiting on any major holiday.

The Good Fairy

Another forgotten gem, much like "What a Way to Go!", "The Good Fairy" is almost light years ahead of its contemporaries in terms of how it holds up to today's standards of comedy. Written by the genius Preston Sturges, and directed by Hollywood legend William Wyler (very early in both of their careers) "The Good Fairy" takes a simple story and mines it for every laugh imaginable. There is plenty of slapstick, expertly crafted banter, sublime jokes, and pitch perfect situational humor. This story of a poor girl from an orphanage in Budapest(!!) who is plucked from obscurity to work at a movie theater, only to be sought after by a sex crazed millionaire, all the while innocently doing good deeds for a perfect stranger does not sound funny, but Sturges crams it with tons of humor and even more heart. The sad turn of events in the life of Margaret Sullavan would come later and now unfortunately overshadows her incredible comic skills which were featured in several of her early films, most notably this one. Herbert Marshall exudes sophistication and the proper amount of confusion as the unwitting object of Luisa's (Margaret Sullavan) kindness. And then there's Frank Morgan. There is funny, and then there is the character Frank Morgan portrays here. As Konrad, the sexually charged millionaire, Frank Morgan bumbles, stumbles and belly flops through his role. It is nearly impossible to resist Morgan in this role, as he plays the blundering blowhard so well, the audience inevitably loves him. Fans today will remember him more for his roles in "The Wizard of Oz", most notably as the title character, but his skills of comic timing and the ability to simply sound funny while stuttering, which he would do as both the Wizard and Professor Marvel, were perfected here. Not too many people are familiar with "The Good Fairy" today which is a shame, because it truly is a comedic masterpiece.

The film opens in an orphan in Budapest (the reason for the exotic location is ostensibly because the film is adapted from a Turkish play; I think Sturges just thought it would be funny to set this movie in Budapest and left it there) where movie theater mogul Maurice Schlopkohl is looking for a new usher for his theater. He selects Luisa Ginglebusher (another Sturges trademark, make the names as ridiculous as possible) and she is both delighted and scared to be leaving the safety of the orphanage. Her first night at the theater she is hit on by a number of men, including a hilariously out of place Cesar Romero (again, I think Sturges and Wyler included the Latin matinee idol in a film that takes places in Turkey because it would be funny), and manages to avoid all of their advances with the exception of Konrad. Konrad simply does not take no for an answer and insists on taking Luisa out to a lavish dinner the next night. Soon he is showering her with expensive presents, and Luisa in turn decides to give the money away to a perfect stranger, as a good fairy would do. She randomly picks Dr. Max Sporum's name out of the phone book and informs him that he is now in the employ of Konrad and has the salary to match that distinction. Konrad of course is oblivious to what Luisa is doing with the money he lavishes on her and Sporum is too confused to completely understand what is going, but being able to move into a new office, buy new furniture and a new car, he is quite happy to go with the flow. Luisa also manages to convince him to shave off his scary beard because he will "frighten children" otherwise, which he does and it is then she realizes how handsome he is. Soon the two of them fall in love, and when all is said and done, the flustered Konrad adamently insists on keeping Sporum on his payroll because he will not have anyone else telling him how to run his business and Luisa and Dr. Sporum live happily ever after, with Luisa finally getting to live her fairy tale.

Real life for Margaret Sullavan was hardly a fairy tale however. She was a natural born troublemaker and rebel and by the time filming began on "The Good Fairy" she had already married and divorced Hollywood hunk Henry Fonda after a very brief marriage. Sullavan and William Wyler fought extensively throughout the production (which is nearly impossible to believe considering the finished product is so perfect) but still somehow fell in love and were married for about 18 months around the time the film was being made. Unable to contain her wild ways, the pair divorced and Sullavan married her agent Leyland Howard, and managed to stay married to him for eleven years. However her reputation for being impossible to deal with found her completely out of work by 1943 after only sixteen films, "The Good Fairy" improbably only her third! Tragedy struck Sullavan hard in the 1950's, as two of her children spent extensive time in mental institutions, and it was during that time that Sullavan too began to lose her grip on reality. Always potentially "crazy", the toll of two children suffering mental illnesses devastated her led to a complete breakdown. She ultimately died from a drug overdose which was ruled accidental, but the circumstances would indicate a suicide. The sad tale of Margaret Sullavan is even more perplexing when considering that on screen her characters were so innocent and compassionate, slightly quirky but inherently kind people. For a great example of Preston Sturges genius comedic writing, and a lovely image of Margaret Sullavan before her life fell apart, check out "The Good Fairy".

The Sea Hawk

If "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is the absolute pinnacle of Errol Flynn's swashbuckling sub-genre, then "The Sea Hawk" is the product of that well oiled machine. If everything came together to make "The Adventures of Robin Hood", the stars, literally in the case of Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone, aligned with the necessary budget to create the ideal blueprint for a great swashbuckling adventure film, then "The Sea Hawk" follows that blueprint to perfection. Not terribly original (it liberally borrows from Flynn's earlier "Captain Blood", as well as thematically lifting directly from "The Adventures of Robin Hood"), "The Sea Hawk" still manages to deliver rousing entertainment because the formula is such a winning one. Flynn is impossibly charismatic as sly naval captain Geoffrey Thorpe, a privateer in Her Majesty's navy, who makes his living plundering Spanish ships to stock the British treasury. He is aided by his hearty companion Carl Pitt, played by Flynn's hearty companion Alan Hale, and is beloved by the men of his crew. Directed with great confidence by Michael Curtiz, "The Sea Hawk" possesses all of the ingredients that made "The Adventures of Robin Hood" so appealing. A period romp, filled with impressive sets and gorgeous costumes, a beautiful girl (alas not the charming Olivia de Havilland, but the lesser known Brenda Marshall), a pompous and deceitful Claude Rains, as the girl's father of course, and a climactic duel between Flynn and Henry Daniell, who ably fills in for Basil Rathbone by matching his sneer and his skill with the sword. Flynn's career would soon come crashing down, thus "The Sea Hawk" stands as his last great movie, a perfect example of a cinematic legend dominating the screen.

As the film opens, Geoffrey Thorpe is portrayed as the "Robin Hood of the Seas". Spain is secretly assembling their Armada with designs on world domination, and the brave "sea hawks" are the thorn in their collective side. Queen Elizabeth reluctantly allows Thorpe to continue his plundering ways, but admits that Spain's power grows by the day and tells him she can no longer protect him should he be captured by the Spanish. Like a modern day CIA operative who goes deep into enemy territory, England disavows all knowledge of Thorpe and his men as they set out to Central America to rob a convoy of Spanish gold. However there is a traitor in the Queen's court; Lord Wolfingham, who betrays his country to curry favor with the Spanish, informs them of Thorpe's plans and the Spanish lie in waiting for the sea hawks. With the action shifting to Central America the film shifts to a sepia toned stock, one of the few times classic Hollywood utilized film stock to convey a mood (the other being the most brilliant reveal of color ever: when Dorothy opens the door into the land of Oz). The sepia tone works well, serving to distance this part of the narrative from the rest (a symbol of Thorpe and his crew removed from their element; a signifier of the wild, exotic jungle, far removed from the courts and castles of England) and the ambush sequence is well executed. Thorpe and his crew are cast into bondage on a Spanish war ship but when they learn of Wolfingham's betrayal they escape in a rousing action scene and race back to England, where Thorpe and Wolfingham duel moments before secret dispatches proving Wolfingham's involvement in the plot (Spain's amassing their secret Armada) can be given to the Queen. The secret revealed, the Queen vows England will gather their own forces and meet their enemy head on, with the help of her loyal sea hawks. Interestingly enough, the passionate speech the Queen gives at the end was tacked on by Warner Bros. as a call to arms in response to the looming Nazi power in Germany.

A few years later, Errol Flynn would be brought up on charges of statuatory rape. Much like it would be today, the trail was extremely sensational, as Flynn was accused of having sex with not one, but two underaged girls. The public's fondness for Flynn began to change in light of the scandal as his swagger and sexual confidence on screen, which had made him so appealing in films like "The Sea Hawk", now were seen in a different perspective: Errol Flynn the lothario. While Hollywood legend insists Errol Flynn was a hard drinking, womanizing, troublemaking head ache for the studios (see Jude Law's portrayal of him in "The Aviator"), he was beloved by fans for his charm and charisma. Throughout the trial it became evident that the Los Angeles DA was going to lose and in turn he made the trial more about the decadence and sin that plauged Hollywood. Flynn never lost his cool, and played the charming, devil-may-care persona he perfected on screen whenever he was called to the witness stand. After being acquitted, however, the public had moved on to Tyrone Power and Stewart Granger for their swashbuckling matinee idols. Flynn starred in a few more films, but none of them were on par with his Warner Bros. films of the late 1930's and early 1940's. He died in 1959 at the age of 50, which one Hollywood insider quipped was "twice as long as he deserved to live" considering what he did to his body on a daily basis. While there are sadly too few great Errol Flynn vehicles, the ones that remain stand as the absolute best of the action/adventure genre.

What A Way To Go!

Featuring an incredible ensemble cast, a hilarious script by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, gorgeous gowns by Edith Head (and plenty of them!), a musical number with Gene Kelly, and a startling (for the time) dose of irreverance and irony, "What a Way To Go!" is an enigma. How does a movie with all of these things going for it get absolutely lost and forgotten. Look at that list of stars! Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings and Dick Van Dyke. How any movie starring even two of these fine actors could fly under the radar is odd, but this movie has all of them, plus everything else mentioned above. Upon learning of this movie I immediately sought it out, and after watching it simply cannot believe that this movie is not more celebrated or well known today. So often the biggest criticism of classic comedies is that the humor of the time is simply not funny enough for today's sophisticated audiences (I tend to think it is actually the opposite, it is the audiences today that are not sophisticated enough), but this movie does things movies of the 1960's simply did not do. Filled with irreverance, irony, and absurdity, "What a Way To Go!" has inexplicably been left off of the list of great latter golden age comedies.

I am still trying to figure out how Fox was able to corral all of these stars into one movie in the first place. Shirley MacLaine plays Louisa May Foster, a simple country girl whose mother teaches her that she must marry for money and let love follow. What follows is the inexplicable, fantastical, marital adventures Louisa experiences, beginning in her home town of Crawley, Indiana, before taking her to Paris, New York, Hollywood, and ultimately back again. Louisa comes to believe that she is cursed, or rather that she curses the men she loves. But she does not curse them in a bad way, instead she curses them with wealth and success. Her first husband is mild-mannered, Thoreau-quoting Edgar Hopper, played by mild-mannered Dick Van Dyke. Edgar owns a two bit hardware store and refuses to sell it, and more importantly the land it resides on, to Lester Crawley, son of the town's richest man, and operator of the family fortune. Lester, played with typical smarmy charisma by Dean Martin, is also vying for Louisa, but she considers him a snake (the first moment I knew this movie was going to be funnier than I expected: as Louisa's voiceover tells us what she thinks of Lester, up rolls his Corvette, with a cobra in the driver's seat) and chooses the simple life with Edgar. After she sees how Edgar's pride and integrity are suffering at Lester's expense, she suggests that Edgar should take a more active role in the running of his hardware store. Almost overnight Edgar goes from lover of the simple life to crazed department store owner, determined to put Lester Crawley out of business. Edgar gets his wish, but almost immediately dies from too much hard work, leaving Louisa a small fortune, an extra last name, and heartbroken.

Escaping to Paris, Louisa meets Larry, played with bombast by Paul Newman, an idealistic young modern artist. The two immediately fall in love, and everything is fine until Louisa accidentily puts on a classical music record, which "inspire" Larry's ridiculous machines he uses to paint his hideous modern art. Soon Larry is selling the paintings for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and of course, soon the work kills him (actually the ridiculous machines "come alive" in a hilarious moment and overwhelm him). At the airport, waiting to go home, Louisa May Foster Hopper Flint meets Rod Anderson, played with macho charm by Robert Mitchum, self made millionaire/playboy, who offers her a ride on his private jet. Louisa thinks she has finally met her match, a man who is already filthy rich and successful, thus one she cannot possibly curse to any more of either! The two fall deeply in love (portrayed in a stunning dream sequence montage during which MacLaine wears literally 20 different Head gowns!), until Louisa asks Rod to give everything up and move to a farm with her. Rod accepts, liquidates his fortune, and is ready for the "simple life", until he gets drunk and tries to milk a bull (arguably the film's comedic highlight, it has to be seen to be believed).

Widowed for the third time, Louisa May Foster Hopper Flint Anderson stumbles into a small club and watches the pathetic little song and dance routine by life long clown Pinky Benson, played with a twinkle and a smile by Gene Kelly. After harmlessly suggesting Pinky perform his act (the same act he has done in the same club to the same tepid reaction for over ten years!) without his makeup, Pinky is shocked when he receives a standing ovation. This of course leads to overnight fame and fortune as a Hollywood megastar. Pinky's obsession with pink eventually gets the best of him, of course, and he dies in a tragic stampede caused by his rabid fans, and while he leaves the majority of his fortune to Louisa, he makes sure enough of it is set aside to erect a pink museum in his honor. Four times a widow, Louisa tries to give over $200 million of her fortune back to the federal government, which lands her in Bob Cummings' psychiatrist's office, where she tells him of her incredible misadventures. On her way out she bumps into the building's janitor, and is shocked to find it is none other than Lester Crawley, who now embraces his simple lifestyle! The two immediately fall in love, buy a farm and have five kids, and everything appears fine.....until Lester strikes oil! Louisa cannot believe she is about to be rich, again(!!), but as the closing credits begin to roll, two oil company men drive up and begin yelling at Lester for hitting their oil line! Louisa rejoices, she is finally in love and poor. Whew. Simply one of the funniest, gaudiest, wildest Hollywood comedies I have ever seen.