Classic Films in Focus: THEODORA GOES WILD (1936)

The truly delightful Theodora Goes Wild (1936) is an underappreciated gem of the screwball genre, one that ought to be much better known today among fans of classic romantic comedy. Its stars, Irene Dunne and Melvyn Douglas, are A-listers performing at their comedic best in this outing, although director Richard Boleslawski lacks the name recognition of Capra, Hawks, and Sturges, all widely celebrated for their screwball films. The movie was a hit in 1936, and Dunne, in her first starring comedic role, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her performance as the titular Theodora, a young woman living a double life in a conservative New England town. Knowing that some readers won't have seen it before, I'm hesitant to spoil too much of the plot of Theodora Goes Wild, which makes great use of its second act twist, but it's such a charmer that I can't help shouting its praise now that I've finally seen it myself.

Dunne plays Theodora Lynn, a church organist raised by her strict spinster aunts (Elisabeth Risdon and Margaret McWade) in a narrow-minded little town named for the Lynn family. Under the pseudonym Caroline Adams, Theodora is also the best-selling author of a racy romance novel, with heaps of money piling up in her bank account and her publisher (Thurston Hall) eager for a new book. Theodora's effort to keep her two lives completely separate becomes complicated once nosy, carefree illustrator Michael Grant (Melvyn Douglas) learns her secret and blackmails his way into her aunts' house. When Theodora finally "goes wild," Michael finds that his intervention has worked far better than expected, and with alarming consequences for everyone connected to her, including Michael himself.

The situation of a young person chafing under the constraints of life in a small, uptight town full of busybodies has enduring appeal, especially to those who experience it in real life, but the movie softens its criticism with scenes of berry picking, fishing, and other rural pleasures. Still, it won't make you want to relocate to Lynnfield, where self-righteous old women decry the liberal values of "civilization" and threaten to boycott the local newspaper run by Jed Waterbury (Thomas Mitchell) when he publishes the Caroline Adams novel as a serial. Theodora's aunts have great sway with this crowd as representatives of the Lynn family, but the worst of the lot is the gossipy, hypocritical Rebecca Perry, played with particular comedic malice by Spring Byington. Melvyn Douglas' Michael drops into the town like a bomb, and he quickly throws Theodora, her aunts, and the gossips into a tizzy. The rakish troublemaker is determined to dig Theodora up like a rosebush in her aunts' garden and see her transplanted into more suitable soil, preferably New York, where her literary talents and her youthful energy have room to breathe. As it turns out, Michael also needs some digging up, which Theodora proves only too happy to undertake.

Screwball comedies so often turn on the idea of the woman as a chaotic, disruptive force, and it's great fun to see that switched here, with Douglas gamely balancing the obnoxious and attractive elements of the role. His constant whistling is especially destructive of the Lynn family's peace, but his instant attachment to a stray dog speaks to his generous heart, so we know that he's really a good guy in spite of his antics. When their situations are reversed, Theodora takes on the role of the relentless saboteur with equal enthusiasm and a striking disregard for her own reputation. Dunne is absolutely hilarious throughout, whether she's in retreat from Douglas or on the attack, and it's easy to see how this performance launched her into comedy classics like The Awful Truth (1937) and My Favorite Wife (1940). In spite of the disapproving Lynnfield ladies, the entire movie cheers for modernity, women's liberation, and gender parity with palpable enthusiasm. Ironically, their two chief supporters are both old men: Waterbury, the newspaper publisher, is an unrepentant radical, and Theodora's Uncle John (Robert Greig) is an unreformed rake who encourages her to live as she pleases. The second half of the story establishes the perfect equality between the two protagonists and gives Theodora Goes Wild an especially satisfying conclusion, with a finale that scandalizes Lynnfield in uproarious fashion and flirts with the limits of the recently enforced Hays Code.

Richard Boleslawski's directorial credits include The Painted Veil (1934), Les Miserables (1935), and The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937); his sudden death in 1937 put a premature end to his career. A five-time nominee for Best Actress, Irene Dunne never won an Oscar but gained lasting fame in dramatic films like Show Boat (1936), Love Affair (1939), and I Remember Mama (1948), as well as her comedy roles. Melvyn Douglas won two Best Supporting Actor Oscars late in his career, for Hud (1963) and Being There (1979), and earned a Best Actor nomination for I Never Sang for My Father (1970), but be sure to see him in earlier pictures like Ninotchka (1939) and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Nana Bryant has a small but very funny role as the book publisher's wife, Ethel Stevenson, which might tempt you to look for more of her in Brewster's Millions (1945) and Harvey (1950).

Theodora Goes Wild is currently available for streaming on The Criterion Channel.

 

  

2022 Movie Log in Review

Happy New Year! Here's my annual post listing every movie I watched in the previous year. Getting the Criterion Channel rather late in 2022 helped me add more new-to-me classics to my list - it's far and away my favorite streaming service at the moment, and I plan to continue using it in 2023. As always, my list is a wide-ranging collection of classics, favorite hits, and new movies. June and August were busy months for family travel, gardening, and other activities, which meant less time for movies. As always, we closed out the year with the family's holiday favorites.

Total for 2022: 107

January 

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)

Sparrows (1926)

Iron Monkey (1993)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Afterlife of the Party (2021)

Dark City (1998)

The Egg and I (1947)

Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

Easy A (2010)

Jonah Hex (2010)

Jolt (2021)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

February

Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Down with Love (2003)

Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020)

Palm Springs (2020)

March

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

The Haunted Palace (1963)

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

Turning Red (2022)

Save Yourselves! (2020)

That Night in Rio (1941)

Midnight (1939)

Death on the Nile (2022)

April

Holiday (1938)

The French Dispatch (2021)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Turning Red (2022) - Second time

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Cruella (2021)

 

May

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) - Second time

The Lady Eve (1941)

The Lost City (2022)

Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)

June

Fire Island (2022)

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

 

July

Stage Fright (1950)

Bombshell (1933)

The Bad Guys (2022)

Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)

Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000)

 

August

Lightyear (2022)

The Sea Beast (2022)

Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

September

Holiday Affair (1949)

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

The Blob (1958)

Star Trek (2009)

Destry Rides Again (1939)

The Mark of Zorro (1920)

Marjorie Prime (2017)

Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)

 

October

Do Revenge (2022)

Angel Face (1952)

Winchester 73 (1950)

The Corpse Vanishes (1942)

Tormented (1960)

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

Wolfen (1981)

Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001)

The Raven (1935)

Caught (1949)

The Mummy (1932)

November

The Blue Dahlia (1946)

This Gun for Hire (1942)

The Dark Corner (1946)

Cape Fear (1962)

The Glass Key (1942)

Out of the Fog (1941)

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

The Man from Laramie (1955)

The Divorce of Lady X (1938)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)

The Bubble (2022)

See How They Run (2022)

The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)

December

Twentieth Century (1934)

Murder, He Says (1945)

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)

You Never Can Tell (1951)

Pinocchio (GDT version) (2022)

Lady in the Lake (1946)

Theodora Goes Wild (1936)

His Girl Friday (1940)

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

White Christmas (1954)

Scrooged (1988)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

Glass Onion (2022)

Knives Out (2019)

Your Christmas or Mine (2022)

The Addams Family (1991)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Easy Living (1937)

Strange World (2022)

The Adam Project (2022)

Bullet Train (2022)

Classic Films in Focus: MURDER, HE SAYS (1945)

Fred MacMurray and Marjorie Main most famously appear together in the 1947 comedy classic, The Egg and I, but Murder, He Says (1945) offers an earlier pairing that pits the two against one another as hapless city slicker and unscrupulous backwoods crook. This comic mystery from director George Marshall bursts with physical comedy, sight gags, and cartoon peril that even the youngest viewers can appreciate; I first saw Murder, He Says many decades ago, and the memory of its loony fun has stayed with me ever since. MacMurray and Main are the chief attractions in this homicidal hoot, but the supporting cast features entertaining, offbeat performances from Porter Hall, Jean Heather, Peter Whitney, Barbara Pepper, and Helen Walker as MacMurray's attractive ally.

The story opens with locals concerned about the lawless Fleagle gang just as professional pollster Pete Marshall (MacMurray) arrives in town looking for his missing coworker. Pete soon discovers that his predecessor had a fateful encounter with the Fleagles, who also take Pete prisoner with the intention of murdering him. The Fleagle matriarch, Mamie (Marjorie Main), spares Pete so she can use him to get dying Grandma Fleagle (Mabel Paige) to reveal the location of a fortune in stolen cash, but Pete only acquires a confusing clue before the old lady expires. Everyone in the house rushes to find the loot while thwarting or betraying the others, but the confusion increases when two different women claiming to be Bonnie Fleagle turn up and demand the money.

The Fleagles are as nutty and sinister a gang as any madcap comedy could invent, but their wackiness overpowers their ability to terrorize. Main leads the pack as bad-tempered but duplicitous Mamie, alternating between imitations of human tenderness and cracks of her much-used whip. The role lets Main cut loose with an extreme version of her usual character type; Mamie is a rough matriarch with no heart of gold to redeem her brusque manner. Mamie's current husband, a mild-looking little man named Mr. Johnson, is played by comedy stalwart Porter Hall with sly amiability and amoral intentions. Peter Whitney does double duty as identical twins Bert and Mert, a hilarious gag that the picture fully commits to in repeated scenes that frequently have Whitney acting against himself. Of the other family members, Grandma and the real Bonnie (Barbara Pepper) make brief but memorable appearances, while Jean Heather gets a sympathetic but rather tragic role as Mamie's daughter, Elany, a pretty sort of Ophelia figure whose main job is to sing the nonsense song wherein the clue to the stolen cash is hidden. Together they're a lot to keep track of as the rapid action unfolds, especially in a house full of trap doors, secret passages, and even radioactive poison. Each character, though, is played with enough energy and comedy to be memorable, even if nobody can tell Bert and Mert apart.

MacMurray and Helen Walker play the sane characters in the midst of this mayhem, but their roles also have great comedy moments. Walker's tough act in her first scene gives way to her development as the hero's love interest and partner against the Fleagles, but she gamely keeps up the deception for much of the movie. While he starred in dramas and serious films like Double Indemnity (1944), MacMurray is also widely celebrated as a comedy lead in pictures like The Egg and I (1947), The Shaggy Dog (1959), and The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). Murder, He Says belongs very much to the second set, despite its title, which recalls a song written for the 1943 film, Happy Go Lucky, and predates the arrival of the Miss Marple comedy, Murder She Said, in 1961. As the unlucky but quick-thinking Pete, MacMurray is constantly on the move, falling into traps, climbing out windows, and always trying to stay one step ahead of the violent but incompetent Mert and Bert. His scenes with the imaginary ghost are especially fun and will remind viewers of Harvey (1950), which might well be intentional as the original stage version had appeared in 1944.

For more of Marjorie Main's comic roles, see The Women (1939), Heaven Can Wait (1943), and The Harvey Girls (1946). George Marshall's other comedy films include The Ghost Breakers (1940), Hold That Blonde! (1945), and Scared Stiff (1953). Look for Helen Walker in Brewster's Millions (1945), Cluny Brown (1946), and Call Northside 777 (1948). Jean Heather appears in supporting roles in Double Indemnity and Going My Way (1944), but her film career was cut short by a 1947 car accident that damaged her face. If the clue tune in Murder, He Says sounds weirdly familiar, you probably listen to NPR's All Things Considered, which features an identical song as its theme music.

You can find Murder, He Says on DVD or stream it on The Criterion Channel (as part of the December 2022 Screwball Comedy lineup).

Classic Films in Focus: YOU NEVER CAN TELL (1951)

I've seen a lot of unusual classic movies, but You Never Can Tell (1951) might be in a class all by itself when it comes to animal themed reincarnation private detective mystery comedies. Directed by film writer Lou Breslow, this offbeat picture stars Dick Powell as a murdered German Shepherd who comes back to earth as a human private detective in order to reveal the identity of his killer. If that sounds like a lot to process, there's also a reincarnated racehorse (Joyce Holden) along for the trip to serve as his assistant! Imagine Angel on My Shoulder (1946) mixed with The Shaggy Dog (1959) and Murder, My Sweet (1944) and you begin to get an idea of You Never Can Tell. As bizarre as that sounds, the whole thing comes together to create a delightful romp with some hilarious performances from Powell and Holden as the animals in human form. Those who enjoy oddball comedies will find plenty of laughs in this wacky gem, and it's definitely zany enough to hold the attention of younger viewers who are used to cartoon antics.

Powell plays private detective Rex Shepherd, who was previously known as King before his untimely demise thanks to a killer who slipped the dog a fatal dose of poison. King was murdered because he inherited the immense fortune of his misanthropic owner, and public opinion says his caretaker, the lovely young Ellen Hathaway (Peggy Dow), is the most likely culprit, since she inherited the money after King's death. Determined to expose the real murderer, King asks to return to Earth as a human being, where he presents himself to Ellen as a private eye who can clear her name and get justice for King. The racehorse Golden Harvest comes with him to be his sidekick, Goldie (Holden), but the two have a limited amount of time before they must either return to animal heaven or be stuck living out second lives as human beings.

There's not really much mystery about the killer's identity here, since King/Rex knows who poisoned him, but the noir angle lets Powell play the hard-boiled detective type again after his 1944 outing as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet and subsequent noir roles. Rex looks and talks like a detective but also enjoys snacking on dog food, chasing balls, and sitting on previously forbidden chairs. His biggest problem is convincing the cops that he's not insane, a criminal, or both, since he can't exactly explain his situation to them. Powell is having fun here, but Joyce Holden proves a scene-stealer as Goldie, and she gallops off with the picture at every opportunity. Her costume, complete with ponytail, straw hat, stirrups belt, and horseshoes under the soles of her pumps, is funny on its own, but Holden's performance goes all in on the Kentucky Thoroughbred persona. The regular human characters are pretty tame in comparison: Peggy Dow has ample charm and warmth as Ellen, but Charles Drake is a bit bland as dog trainer turned suitor Perry Collins. We don't see him for long, but it's also worth mentioning that King is played by animal star Flame the Wonder Dog, here nearing the end of his acting career after starring as Shep, Rusty, and Pal in a string of features and shorts.

Rex watches as Goldie surveys the latest racing news.

The scenes on Earth feature constant gags and comic takes on the private detective plot, but the weirdest moments of You Never Can Tell take place in the afterlife, where King joins other dead animals to appear before their ruler/god, who is, of course, a lion. The cinematography for this segment makes the setting even stranger, and the scene goes on longer than you might want or expect, especially if you're showing this movie to kids who will immediately ask if animals have souls or go to heaven. The picture's commitment to this sequence is impressive, though, and it does show us why King wants to return to Earth and what he's giving up to do that. It also sets up the idea that other animals have become humans before (the movie even has an unwieldy portmanteau name for them - "humanimals"), so we aren't too surprised when Goldie identifies some of these animal people later in the picture. 

If You Never Can Tell sounds like a treat, check out other animal themed comedies like Francis (1950), Rhubarb (1951), and The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964). Lou Breslow was primarily a film writer; in addition to the story for You Never Can Tell, he also worked on A-Haunting We Will Go (1942), Murder, He Says (1945), and Bedtime for Bonzo (1951). Dick Powell rose to fame in musicals like 42nd Street (1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), while Peggy Dow also appears in Harvey (1950) and Bright Victory (1951). Look for Joyce Holden in The Milkman (1950), Iron Man (1951), and Private Eyes (1953).

Classic Films in Focus: THE DIVORCE OF LADY X (1938)

While not on par with the greatest of the screwball comedies, The Divorce of Lady X (1938) delivers a thoroughly engaging British take on the genre with notable performances from two iconic stars. Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon lead a fairly small cast in this second adaptation of Gilbert Wakefield's play, Counsel's Opinion, the first having appeared under that title in 1933. Alexander Korda produced both versions and even brings back Binnie Barnes, who previously had Oberon's role, as one of the supporting characters, while Tim Whelan provides direction. Gorgeous Technicolor brightens the scenes, especially a fancy dress ball at the beginning of the picture, and the absurd comedy of the mistaken identity plot keeps the mood lively and light, even though Olivier's dialogue occasionally veers into sexist rants about the nature of womankind. Fans of the two stars and screwball comedy in general will appreciate The Divorce of Lady X for its madcap romance and the chance to see Olivier and Oberon paired in a lighter setting than the more famous Wuthering Heights (1939), which would be the last time the two shared the screen.

Olivier plays barrister Everard Logan, who specializes in divorce cases and has returned to London for an important trial when a heavy fog brings the entire city to a standstill for the night. He nabs the last room at a nearby hotel just before a mob of trapped party guests descends on the front desk demanding places to sleep. Unwilling to share his suite with a group of ladies, Everard nonetheless finds himself giving up his bed and his pajamas to the relentlessly charming Leslie (Merle Oberon), who tells him that she's a married woman and refuses to disclose her last name for the sake of discretion. When an incensed Lord Mere (Ralph Richardson) later appears in Everard's office to demand a divorce from his wife, the circumstance lead Everard to assume that Leslie is actually Lady Mere, making him the co-respondent in the impending trial.

Despite accounts of their dislike for one another, Olivier and Oberon generate plenty of chemistry onscreen, perhaps because love and loathing both radiate palpable energy that can be hard for the viewer to differentiate. Oberon's feline smile and wide eyes suit the scheming Leslie perfectly; like most screwball heroines, she takes control of the romance from the start and then upends every aspect of the hero's life. We learn quite early on that Leslie is not Lady Mere and is, in fact, a single young lady and perfectly acceptable love interest, but the ironic comedy of watching Everard suffer under his assumptions delights Leslie and the audience. Our introduction to the barrister sets him up as a selfish cad with a history of questionable liaisons, so we don't judge Leslie too harshly for manipulating him and then forcing him to prove his devotion repeatedly. Everard needs to be taught a few lessons, and Leslie, the granddaughter of a powerful judge, is just the girl to teach them. It's also great fun to watch Olivier, so lionized now for his serious Shakespearean roles, fumble about in pajamas or try to hide his face from the notice of Lady Mere's maid. His physical comedy here never rivals that of Cary Grant or Henry Fonda in their best screwball parts, but Everard has a lot in common with David Huxley and "Hopsy" Pike as he careens between pleasure and panic.

The reveal scene at the end falls a bit flat, and the movie feels like it could do more with its supporting characters, especially Binnie Barnes as the real Lady Mere and Morton Selton as Lord Steele, but the biggest hiccups are the moments of sexist nonsense. Everard has one scene where he humiliates a woman in court solely because of his frustration with Leslie; he rants about the deceptive, irrational nature of women and how they don't deserve independence and respect. Later, when he's happy, he gives the reverse of the same speech, now lauding women as helpmates and loving companions to men but still not recognizing them as human equals in any capacity. Everard wants to read Leslie - and all women - as either evil temptresses or angels in the house, but Leslie's character throughout the movie defies both categories. She's a bit of each, depending on the moment, but mostly she's a very intelligent, ambitious young woman who has no chance of her own career but sees Everard as husband material with potential for greatness. In a modern setting Leslie could be ambitious for herself, and she'd certainly make a cunning lawyer or politician with her ability to talk a complete stranger out of his room, his bed, and his pajamas for the night. It's grating to think that Everard can understand so little about her even after their misadventures end in mutual affection.

Olivier's big pictures following The Divorce of Lady X include Rebecca (1940), Pride and Prejudice (1940), and That Hamilton Woman (1941), but if you like him as a romantic comedy lead try The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), which pairs him with Marilyn Monroe. Merle Oberon also stars in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), The Cowboy and the Lady (1938), and That Uncertain Feeling (1941). Oberon and Binnie Barnes both get beheaded as wives in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), which came out the same year that Barnes played Leslie in Counsel's Opinion. Although he's hamming it up here as the foolish Lord Mere, Sir Ralph Richardson is remembered as a great Shakespearean stage actor whose extensive film credits include Anna Karenina (1948), The Heiress (1949), and Doctor Zhivago (1965).

Classic Films in Focus: OUT OF THE FOG (1941)

Director Anatole Litvak's Out of the Fog (1941) delivers on the promised atmosphere, with fog heavy piers and dark alleys providing a moody setting for this story of Brooklyn's waterfront working class, but the tone veers away from true noir thanks to the sympathetic and often very funny characters played by Thomas Mitchell and John Qualen. Adapted from a play called The Gentle People by Irwin Shaw, the movie also features compelling performances from John Garfield and Ida Lupino as more typical noir types, with Eddie Albert in a supporting role, but the title of the original work suggests that the characters played by Mitchell and Qualen, two old men who dream only of boats and fishing, are the real protagonists here. Still, Garfield and Lupino fans will find plenty of scenes with the stars to appreciate, and the picture's message about standing up to a bully is a pointed commentary on the looming American entrance into World War II.

Mitchell and Qualen play Jonah Goodwin and Olaf Johnson, two working men who are saving their money to buy a seaworthy fishing boat for a long imagined trip to Cuba. Their dream is threatened when small-time racketeer Harold Goff (John Garfield) forces them to pay protection money for the little boat they already own. Goff also takes up with Goodwin's restless daughter, Stella (Ida Lupino), who chafes at her bland future with boyfriend George (Eddie Albert) and is attracted by the money and excitement Goff offers. With Goff trying to steal both his savings and his daughter, Goodwin becomes increasingly desperate to make a stand against the dangerous gangster. 

Garfield's crook is a grinning menace, bright enough to cause trouble and make himself untouchable by the local law while happily spending his ill-gotten cash. In an especially ironic moment, he uses the money he just extorted from her father to buy Stella a bottle of perfume. Even Stella knows Goff is headed for a violent end, but she likes the excitement of being around him after her humdrum days as a telephone operator and nights on predictably cheap dates with George. Garfield and Lupino don't give us the impression that these two characters share any genuine romance; they're just thrill seekers using each other for their own ends. If they really loved each other this would be an entirely different, and much darker, story because it's clear that nothing good can come out of their relationship. George would undoubtedly be better off with a steadier girl than Stella, especially as a wife, but she doesn't seem any more devoted to him than to Goff. She's a young version of the two older women we see in the picture: her mother, played by Aline MacMahon as a shrill hypochondriac, and Caroline (Odette Myrtil), the domineering owner of the restaurant where Olaf works. Domestic bliss is a myth in this world.

Counterbalancing the classic noir setup are Mitchell and Qualen as the kindly old men, whose scenes without Garfield generally involve fussing about their boat, dodging their disagreeable women, and debating the merits of making a stand against Goff. Mitchell, a brilliant character actor with iconic appearances in Stagecoach (1939), Gone with the Wind (1939), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), deftly navigates the shifts between gentle comedy, paternal suffering, and hardened resolution. Qualen acts more as his sidekick but perfectly embodies the cook's mild-mannered, philosophical nature. Given the noir atmosphere of the picture the two seem destined for victimization, but the third act sees them rally against their oppressor, first through the useless court of law and then through their own devices. Throughout the narrative they make an argument to the audience about the importance of pushing back against an insatiable antagonist who only takes more and more if left to operate unchecked. The parallels between Goff and Nazi Germany aren't meant to be subtle, especially with Jonah and Olaf frequently punctuating their conversations with discussions of what America ought to be.

Lupino and Garfield also starred in The Sea Wolf (1941) the same year they made Out of the Fog. Garfield would go on to a particularly memorable noir role in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), while Lupino would star in The Man I Love (1946), Road House (1948), and On Dangerous Ground (1951). Thomas Mitchell is easy to find given his prominent roles in some of Hollywood's greatest hits, but look for more of prolific supporting player John Qualen in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Casablanca (1942), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Anatole Litvak also directed the noir classic, Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Director for The Snake Pit (1948). Moontide (1942) makes a particularly good follow-up to Out of the Fog because it reunites Lupino and Mitchell in another waterfront noir, this time costarring Jean Gabin and directed by Archie Mayo.

Classic Films in Focus: THE DARK CORNER (1946)

Henry Hathaway directed the very solid Fox noir, The Dark Corner (1946), which features genre standouts like Mark Stevens, William Bendix, and Clifton Webb, but most viewers will be drawn to the picture for Lucille Ball, an actress not normally known for noir roles but perfectly at home as the loyal heroine of this romantic detective mystery. The love story between the private eye and his secretary lightens the overall mood in a tale of betrayal, deception, and revenge, but we get plenty of hard-boiled action thanks to Stevens' scenes with Bendix, who knows how to make the most of a tough guy role. With plenty of double crosses and twists to keep the audience guessing, The Dark Corner has everything a noir fan could want, even if it doesn't spin as nasty a plot as some of the genre's darkest gems.

Mark Stevens stars as private detective Bradford Galt, who's trying to rebuild his life after a frame job by a crooked former partner in San Fransisco stuck him with a two year prison sentence. He's making good progress with his new office and his attractive secretary, Kathleen (Lucille Ball), at least until it looks like his old foe, Jardine (Kurt Kreuger), is back to torment him again. Galt's efforts to to learn the truth about his latest string of bad luck set him on the trail of Jardine, a shady henchman (William Bendix), and a wealthy art collector named Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb), whose beautiful wife is Jardine's latest conquest.

Stevens is well cast in the detective role, which requires him to shift between hard-boiled violence and budding romance with Ball. His good looks and jawline make him an attractive leading man, and he's equally capable of making eyes at his leading lady and throwing punches at his male costars. Ball, of course, already has that star power about her, and her Kathleen quickly emerges as a very compelling character, practical but good-hearted, and smart enough to be the detective herself. Too often noir detectives ignore Kathleen's type in favor of smoky-eyed femme fatales, but luckily for Kathleen she doesn't have any competition in that department. It's always fascinating to see Lucille Ball in her roles before TV stardom made her an icon; we think of her now as a goofy comedian, but she can be glamorous and serious when the role allows.

The supporting players spread out our attention between them fairly evenly, partly in order to keep us guessing about their motives and relationship to Galt's predicament. Kurt Kreuger is suitably smooth as the blackmailing serial adulterer who makes wealthy married women pay for falling in love with him, and Clifton Webb oozes his trademark sinister charm as the art lover who has acquired a much younger and very alluring wife. Cathcart's obsession with his wife, Mari (Cathy Downs), recalls that of Robert Browning's speaker in "My Last Duchess," particularly when we see him pull back a curtain to reveal a portrait whose subject looks remarkably like her. If Mari read more poetry she might know better than to tempt Cathcart's jealous wrath. Bendix enjoys a little more screen time than his fellow cast members because he handles the dirty work of persecuting Galt, but he's so good as a heavy that the audience can't complain. Reed Hadley drifts into the picture for a few scenes as policeman Frank Reeves, a local cop who wants to make sure Galt sticks to the straight and narrow path of legality after his prison stint.

If you like Lucille Ball in The Dark Corner, be sure to see her in Lured (1947), in which she plays a dancer who turns detective to help Scotland Yard catch a serial killer. Mark Stevens' other noir films include The Street with No Name (1948), Between Midnight and Dawn (1950), The Big Frame (1952), and Time Table (1956). William Bendix earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Wake Island (1942), but be sure to see him in Lifeboat (1944), The Blue Dahlia (1946), and, for contrast, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949). Don't miss the scene-stealing Clifton Webb in Laura (1944), The Razor's Edge (1946), Sitting Pretty (1948), and Cheaper by the Dozen (1950). Henry Hathaway was primarily a director of Westerns, but his other notable noir films include Kiss of Death (1947), Call Northside 777 (1948), and the outstanding Marilyn Monroe noir, Niagara (1953).