Guess the Actor!

Here's your clue...the answer will be posted in the comments section of this post:

He was the only actor in Hollywood who posed for more mug shots than publicity photos. The day his mother killed herself in 1960, [] was arrested for breaking down a woman's door and assaulting her boyfriend.

His off-screen antics also continued, and in 1948 he served three months for breaking a student's jaw. Throughout the 1950s, he faced a string of charges from kicking a policeman while drunk and disorderly to hitting a waiter in the face with a sugar-bowl and attempting to choke the life out of a cab driver."

Hint: It ain't Shia Leboeuf!

Husband & Wife Detectives: Fast and Loose (1939)

Fast and Loose (MGM, 1939; Director: Edwin L. Marin) is the second of three entries in the sleuthing saga of husband and wife rare book dealers Joel and Guarda Sloane. This one stars Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell as the sleuthing couple. The studio was still trying to replicate the success of their Thin Man series with a similar-themed married detective duo when their star, William Powell, was out of action for two years while undergoing treatment for Cancer (all of which is chronicled in Replacing the Thin Man.)

Note: Forgive me when I interchange the actors’ names and that of their characters. Joel=Bob; Guarda=Roz. We’re also spoiler free as always, these reviews merely splatter some scattered thoughts and impressions of the movie seen.

The Story: Joel and Guarda Sloane are in an expensive line of work, but seeing as there’s a Depression on, they’re finding themselves in dire financial straits. Luckily, they get the chance to sell a Shakespeare manuscript, but when its owner winds up dead, Joel and Guarda find themselves working another murder case.

The fact that the Sloanes have creditors nipping at their heels doesn’t stop them from engaging in Nick-and-Nora like revelry as Fast and Loose opens, with the camera panning along the floor with various undergarments strewn about the room and finally settling on our heroes sleeping off their hangover—in separate beds, naturally. They also have “cute” signs hung on their front door, like “Milkman, please leave 1 quart of aspirin tablets”, things that would appear in later Thin Man movies, when that series’ sophisticated banter occasionally gave way to attacks of the cutes. More Nick and Nora-style witticisms continue as Joel and Guarda’s phone rings, with the couple “talking” to it as if that will get it to stop. It’s all Thin Man by association as well as execution.

Montgomery has an amusing bit when he talks to his bleary-faced reflection in a gorgeous Cedric Gibbons-designed bathroom set, with the round mirror and Deco shower stall being quite impressive; it’s a shame we only see it in that one scene and the shower stall only in passing!

“I don’t know who you are my friend, but if you stand still I’ll shave you.”

Robert Montgomery is quite good in Fast and Loose. Bob in light comedy mode is always a treat and he’s fun to watch here. He avoids any comparisons to William Powell’s Nick Charles and inhabits the Joel Sloane role with his own pleasant style (and he wears a porkpie hat, too). Montgomery has several impressive scenes, all in keeping with the breezy tone of this “light” murder mystery.

Rosalind Russell’s Guarda Sloane, however, is a bit too much like Nora Charles, only with a jealous streak. In fact, Roz’s speaking tones in the film’s first half hour are very much like those of Myrna Loy’s. It’s as if Russell is aware of the limitations of her character and that it’s all been done already—by Myrna Loy. That doesn’t keep us from enjoying her go at this role. Only in the scenes where she plays things with a broader comic range does she emanate her trademark Rozness. It’s also interesting to note that she wears low-heeled shoes in Fast and Loose, because the 5’8’ Russell towers over Montgomery!

Montgomery and Russell have solid on-screen chemistry, though they have comparatively little screen time together. The bit where Guarda is tying a ribbon into the brainstorming Joel's hair is amusing.

The Supporting Cast: All are quite good, despite my never having seen most of them before. The entire group is paraded early on in the film, giving the viewer a chance to see a bunch of contract players act guilty. Most notable are Etienne Giradot, who plays the absent-minded Mr. Oates. One of the ongoing jokes in Fast and Loose is Guarda’s correcting Oates’ mangling of clichés. She has more time with Oates than she does with her own husband.

There’s also a fine performance by Sidney Blackmer (Lucky Nolan), the mob boss who’s a combination of polished villainy and menace. Nolan’s the kind of bad guy who’s smooth and calculating but isn’s above slapping a dame in her yap for mouthing off. Blackmer would later enjoy a long career in several TV guest appearances, including Robert Montgomery Presents, appearing in that program three times. Blackmer gets the best line in the movie: “May I have the pleasure of your absence?”

One cast member of particular interest is the role of Phil Sergeant, played by Anthony Allan (though credited as “John Hubbard; that’s Hollywood). Allan looks like he could work as Bob Montgomery’s stand in or stunt double, as the two look alarmingly alike! They even have similar-styled hair. There’s a shot of the two standing face to face and they resemble mirror images of one another. Bob even says (as Sergeant is hauled away as a suspect): “There goes the only protégé I ever had!” Is that an in joke?

“I worry when someone shoots you.”

Other Thin Man-style touches include the Lucky Nolan gambling den scene, where many comedic shenanigans occur. Joel performs an amusing hidden coin trick on one of Lucky’s thugs which he punctuates with a bored “Ho hum.” Joel says that twice in the movie, as if they were trying it as a catchphrase. After a violent fracas injures our heroes, the couple sport matching steaks for their matching black eyes. Guarda mentions that her appetite is intensifying as she’s got food on her face.

The murder mystery element takes a turn for the brutal when one of the suspects is murdered and found stuffed inside a standing suit of armor that all wealthy people in the ‘30s had.

I love how in 1930s and ‘40s films, the cops look like cops and the thugs look like thugs. Nowadays, they’re apt to resemble those ivory-fleshed teen vampire people that have addled the brain of a generation.

All in all, Fast and Loose is a fun seventy-five minute distraction from the present day, with enough star power and charisma from the two leads to make it all worthwhile. None of the three “Fast” movies are yet available on DVD, but it looks like an ideal project for the Warner Brothers Archive. These would make a fine addition to my growing collection of Husband and Wife Detective movies.

A special thanks to Carrie of Classic Montgomery for providing some of these pictures.

Top Ten Oscar Travesties of the Golden Age: #1

The #1 Oscar travesty of the Golden Age

Double Indemnity fails to win Best Picture in 1944.

It would help to get inside the Academy’s mindset in early 1945 in order to try and comprehend why one of the greatest of all crime dramas lost Best Picture to the relentlessly cheery and sentimental Going My Way.

It was early 1945 and World War II was near its end. The Academy, wishing to send an “uplifting” message to the world, chose the movie about two Irish Catholic priests trying to save their parish instead of the film about an adulterous and murderous couple killing the woman’s husband for the policy benefits. What’s not wholesome about the entrepreneurial spirit? That’s as powerful an illustration of the human spirit as teaching some incorrigible boys to sing, isn’t it? You mean it isn’t?

The single greatest Oscar travesty of the Golden Age is Going My Way 's Best Picture victory over Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity. The latter is the first truly brilliant Film Noir and the first time the writer-director gave the movie going audience a glimpse of his greatness. Never again would Wilder be as chilling or ruthless (that includes 1951’s Ace in the Hole) without the trademark Wilder humor. The very title “Double Indemnity” forever changed an insurance policy term into thought-association trigger words for cold-blooded murder.

The primary reason Double Indemnity didn’t win is because the story and characters are just so unappealing! The sweaty-lipped Fred MacMurray-as Walter Neff is the epitome of slime and Barbara Stanwyck is the definitive Black Widow, Phyllis Dietrichson.

Another reason why it lost was no doubt due to the popularity of Bing Crosby, whose multimedia power was second to none during the ‘30s and ‘40s. It's also worth noting that the tenor of those times helped the Crosby vehicle win scads of awards, so it’s no wonder Going My Way emerged as the Best Picture winner. However, in retrospect, Going My Way represents the toothless and overly-sentimental type of movie that gives classic film a bad name. Noir, on the other hand, has emerged as all that is stylish about great cinema. Double Indemnity is a work of art. The cinematography, music, set direction, and especially its dialogue serve to create the perfect cinematic environment, whereas Going My Way looks like a series of indoor sets. Double Indemnity creates a vivid Los Angeles of the mind. If the stories of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler (co-author of the screenplay), and Double Indemnity's author, James M. Cain could come to life in our most vivid imaginings, they would look exactly like Double Indemnity. The film’s atmosphere is smothering in its oppressiveness. Every flickering frame of this movie is sinister, and evil. Only the mighty presence of Edward G. Robinson emerges from the dreariness. The film is leagues ahead of the other Best Picture nominees:

Gaslight- Gothic psychological thriller that was the second-best movie of the five films nominated.
Going My Way- That Barry Fitzgerald movie.
Since You Went Away- Sentimental and mawkish to the extreme, though the ending is guaranteed to produce a couple of tears.
Wilson- Heavily sanitized biopic of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson; the kind of movie “designed” to win Oscars.

When watching these five films, I can’t help but think how of their time the other four are, but Double Indemnity is like some undying evil that only grows in stature with each subsequent viewing. As many times as I’ve seen it, the murder scene still has the ability to produce unbearable tension. Billy Wilder’s first bona fide masterpiece had no business losing to those other efforts by directors whose best work was in the previous decade. McCarey peaked with The Awful Truth, and Cukor with The Philadelphia Story. The other two, John Cromwell of Since You Went Away and Henry King of Wilson, were essentially competent, but journeymen directors; though to be fair, King had a couple of good efforts left in him in the 1940s yet his work comes nowhere near that of Wilder’s, largely regarded as the best writer-director of all time, which subsequent Oscar award ceremonies would prove; just not in 1944, when the Academy should’ve recognized how special a talent he was.

Top Ten Oscar Travesties of the Golden Age: #2

The #2 Oscar travesty of the Golden Age

High Noon fails to win Best Picture in 1952.

The result of the 1952 Best Picture race was among the first that shocked me when I first learned of it so many years ago. It was 1990, and I had recently seen High Noon at my grandfather's recommendation. I was 18 or 19 and quite taken with High Noon's themes of courage and duty. I was especially impressed with Gary Cooper's performance. His very screen presence captivated me. Thankfully, he won (his second) Best Actor Oscar that year, his second, though Leonard Maltin claimed it was "Cooper's only Oscar" in the old VHS edition of High Noon. I must’ve watched the movie a dozen times or so in an embarrassingly short amount of time and even more so when I became all the more enamored with old cinema in 1997; it remains a favorite today.

One day around the time I had discovered the movie, I was leafing through my Inside Oscar book (the edition with the red cover), I was flabbergasted and in denial when I saw the winner’s asterisk next to the empty entertainment “spectacle”, The Greatest Show on Earth. I was further surprised to discover that a Western had only won Best Picture one time, when Cimarron pulled off the feat in 1930. Anyway, I had seen The Greatest Show on Earth as a child and while it was chock full of notable stars, it was a less-than-memorable two hours. In fact, it’s only memorable if you carry the youthful trauma of having been savagely beaten by angry clowns.

By the way, I happen to like the circus; went to one as a kid.

The Greatest Show on Earth is by no means an awful film; it’s nice, well-made entertainment, like the circus. It’s definitely not Best Picture material and it’s not a work of art, but Demille was due, so the Academy lavished his circus drama with the top prize. It’s just a shame that the more deserving High Noon was denied Best Picture. I’d have an easier time accepting any other nominee winning instead of The Greatest Show on Earth. The other contestants that year were Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge, and The Quiet Man. It's a travesty in itself that for fifty-nine years, the Western never won Best Picture. Only 1931's Cimarron pulled that feat; it wouldn't be until 1990 when Dances With Wolves finally earned Oscar's greatest prize. It pains me deeply to think of all the Western films that didn't win, or even worse, never even nominated.

The accepted reason why this won Best Picture is because it was the industry’s tribute to director Cecil B. Demille. I understand that, but why not just give him the Best Director Oscar—it went to John Ford for The Quiet Man—or why not just be content with the Thalberg Award, which is what they also gave him? Did the Academy have to derail Fred Zinneman’s masterwork? They sure did!

Greatest is never remembered as one of the finest motion pictures of all time and it sure isn’t; whereas High Noon, despite the subsequent over emphasis on the political allegory it’s supposed to be (I don’t buy it), is still one of the finest Westerns ever made. The cinematography, direction, music, Cooper, and the entire supporting cast are tremendous. High Noon has achieved immortality among great movies while Greatest is largely forgotten. You’d have to remind yourself that James Stewart was in this and it doesn’t figure prominently in the careers of anyone involved except for them to say they worked with Demille.

High Noon's director, Fred Zinneman, would get a measure of redemption the next year, when From Here to Eternity crushed all opposition, but High Noon losing Best Picture still hurts.