California 2017: Highlights from the Warner Bros. Studio Tour

We spent spring break in Los Angeles and Anaheim this year, ostensibly to tour colleges for our teenager (whose dream school is Cal Arts). While I was once again too early to revel in the delights of the TCM Film Festival in Hollywood, I did manage to enjoy plenty of movie buff destinations, from Hollywood Blvd. to Disneyland. One of our best side trips was a morning at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, where we took in a guided tour. Lauren, our tour guide, was a TCM addict and classic film fan, so she was the perfect person to tell us all about the studio's golden age stars and productions!

Here are a few photos of classic Hollywood items from the museum showcase near the end of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour.

First up is a dress worn by the great Olivia de Havilland in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), which also stars Bette Davis and Errol Flynn as the title characters. It's not one of the more elaborate costumes from the film, but it was still wonderful to see something the actress wore in the picture. It was even nicer because de Havilland celebrated her 100th birthday last summer and is still with us.

Also on display is the microphone used in The Jazz Singer (1927), which is, of course, the perfect item to symbolize the picture that really ushered in the talkie era. It's so big that I inevitably thought of Singin' in the Rain (1952) when I saw it, remembering how much trouble those clunky nuisances gave Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen when their characters tried to make the jump from silent films to sound!

I was also delighted to find a few items from The Music Man (1962), starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. My husband and daughter were horrified when I immediately began singing "Seventy-Six Trombones" while staring at this display case, but, honestly, could you have resisted the urge? That trombone is right there. They're lucky it wasn't a costume worn by Ron Howard, or I might have struck up "Gary, Indiana" or "Wells Fargo Wagon" and never stopped.

These photos are just a fraction of what we saw on the tour, which took all morning and was worth every penny. If you find yourself in the LA area, I definitely recommend the Warner Bros. tour as a top pick. Although it also provides a lot of exhibits geared toward fans of modern movies and TV shows, there's plenty for classic movie buffs to appreciate. The only disappointment is the gift shop at the end, which has absolutely nothing to celebrate the studio's long history. Come on, Warner! Can't you even get us a Casablanca fridge magnet or a Rick's Cafe Americain coffee mug?

Classic Films in Focus: THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942)

Patriotism is not a quality one expects in a noir film, but Frank Tuttle’s 1942 picture, This Gun for Hire, reflects the moment of its making. The theme, however, sits awkwardly with the more conventional elements of the genre, especially in the third act. Despite a high profile cast that includes Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, and Laird Cregar, This Gun for Hire doesn’t quite come together, and each of its stars can be found in better films.

Ladd plays Raven, a hired killer out for revenge after his most recent employers set him up as a fall guy to cover their own tracks. Raven wants to settle the score with the craven Willard Gates (Cregar) and his mysterious boss, but the cops are hot on the killer’s heels. Meanwhile, the government recruits Ellen Graham (Lake), a beautiful nightclub entertainer, to spy on Gates, and she ends up caught between Raven, the police, and Raven’s dangerous prey.

Ladd’s fatalistic hit man is meant to be psychologically unstable, and he does have several good scenes of wild-eyed psychosis, but his conversion to the patriotic cause rings false. Lake, one of noir’s most iconic leading ladies, seems oddly subdued and fragile. There’s little real chemistry between her and either Ladd or Robert Preston, who plays her perfectly dull cop boyfriend. Laird Cregar, always a formidable presence, threatens to walk off with the whole picture every time he appears on screen. His Gates might be a pervert and a coward, but he’s more fun to watch than anything else in the film. Cregar’s performances are always a reminder of the kind of star he might have become had he not died in 1944.

Aside from Cregar, other highlights include the novel idea of Lake as a singing magician who punctuates her musical numbers with sleight-of-hand tricks. Cregar also gets a memorable sidekick in Marc Lawrence, who plays Gates’ henchman with a delightful mix of humor and menace. Several scenes underscore Raven’s contrasting impulses toward humanity and brutality, with the hit that opens the picture serving as a particularly good example. 

The movie falters mostly because it refuses to turn noir’s essentially cynical gaze on its flag-waving call to arms. Somewhere in the background lurks the possibility that Lady Liberty might be the picture’s real femme fatale, seducing the central characters into a series of lies and betrayals, but the neat ending suggests that Raven’s death, a foregone conclusion, might as well do his country some good. If he kills policemen and criminals alike along the way, well, that’s just eggs to make omelets, isn’t it?

This Gun for Hire made Alan Ladd a star, but he’s probably best remembered today for his performance in Shane (1953). See the lovely Veronica Lake in Sullivan’s Travels (1941). Robert Preston proves far more charismatic in his defining role in The Music Man (1962). The fabulous Laird Cregar can be seen in The Black Swan (1942), Heaven Can Wait (1943), The Lodger (1944), and Hangover Square (1945). You can also read more about Cregar in this Classic Movie 10 article at Examiner.com.