#ManCrushMonday #SurvivorStories Humphrey Bogart and "The Battling Bogarts"

It was popular knowledge that there was something going on in Humphrey Bogart's third marriage to fellow actor Mayo Methot. "Casablanca" screenwriter Julius Epstein called the marriage "the sequel to the Civil War." Whether Mayo and "Bogie" met at a mutual friend's home or at a Screen Actor's Guild dinner, Bogart would eventually find himself trapped in a marriage with a raging and violent alcoholic after having been freshly divorced with no plans on getting married again.

But there were proclamations to the contrary. Before the wedding, Bogart explained "one reason why we get on so well together is that we don't have any illusions about each other. We know just what we're getting, so there can't be any complaints on that score after we're married. Illusions are no good in marriage. And I love a good fight. So does Mayo." (Bogart, Stephen Humphrey. Bogart: In Search of my Father) He would come to nickname her, their home, and a dog respectively "Sluggy." 

Bogart also considered Mayo great fun and she was a loving wife, but when drunk she was described as a "combination of Mae West and Edward G. Robinson." While Bogart was known to needle her, even while with rope around his neck yelling "Sluggy, you miserable shrew, I'm going to hang you," he got most of the physical abuse although he was not afraid to defend himself. When Mayo dropped a phone on his face, Bogie was quick to slap her. Where he called her "Sluggy," Methot would often refer to him as "Mr. Bogart, the great Warner Brothers star."

The extent Methot would take on her then-husband would become terrifying from threatening Bogie at a party at gun point and even stabbing him in the shoulder. But everything changed when 5'8" blonde model freshly minted with the name Lauren Bacall came onto the set of "To Have and Have Not"...

#FridayShort Hollywood Capers

#FridayShort Hollywood on Parade 2

#FridayShort Seeing Stars (1932)

#FridayShort Errol Flynn Bloopers

#FridayShort Hollywood Victory Caravan

#FridayShort The Miracle of Sound (1940)

#FridayShort 1935 Warner Brothers Bloopers

#FridayShort Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Mary Pickford at the 1930 Academy Awards

#FridayShort Best Kisses in Film #ValentinesDayEdition: Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi in "Summertime" (1955)

#FridayShort A Hollywood Detour, Columbia (1942)

#FridayShort The Camera Speaks, Vitaphone (1934)

#FridayShort Romance of Celluloid, MGM (1937)

#FridayShort Bela Lugosi Interview

#FridayShort #HalloweenEdition Felix the Ghost Breaker

#FridayShort "Hot Dog" Dogville Shorts

Friday Short: 1940 Warner Brothers Bloopers

Portrayals of Mental Illness in Film: George Cukor and Ingrid Bergman in "Gaslight" (1944)

George Cukor was insistent he could have no other actress than Ingrid Bergman as the slowly driven mad Paula Anton. David Selznick was not convinced and neither was the actress herself frightened of taking on a role out of her league in being a frail weak woman. "She wasn't normally a timid woman; she was healthy," Cukor told Gavin Lambert in his later years, "To reduce someone like that to a scared, jittering creature is interesting and dramatic. You have to avoid letting people play scenes before you get to them. It would have been dangerous to cast the kind of actress you'd expect to go mad, the kind you know from the first moment you're in for a big mad scene."

Bergman's portrayal of Paula would be a slow process of being emotionally manipulated. Under the direction of her director, she had spent some time at a mental institution to understand nervous breakdowns. Bergman focused on one woman in particular whose quirks and physical habits would become apart of the character. Cukor would also explain the entire plot of the film to his actress up to the scenes they were set to film considering the lack of a sequential shooting schedule and the hectic emotions Bergman had to take on. "I'm not a dumb Swede, you've told me that before" and with that, Cukor stopped the process for a few days. A producer eventually came up to him pointing out a decline in the acting quality and that everyone appeared to be "acting as though they're under water." Right away, the story-telling process was resumed and Bergman never complained again. She would end up winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture in 1945.

TCM Movie: Night of the Demon (1957)

I detest the expression 'horror films,' I make films on the supernatural and I make them because I believe in them." (Horror Noir: Where Cinema's Dark Sisters Meet. Meehan. 2008) Jacques Tourneur believed in Charles Bennett's screenplay of M.R. James's "Casting the Runes" enough that production was not the easiest of his career. When Professor Harrington is found dead, an American colleague (Dana Andrews) tracks down the cult leader Karswell (Niall McGinnis) in the suspicion he possibly killed the professor through the use of a demon all the while being skeptical of all that fantastical events around him.

The greater question was whether to present the demon in a physical form. A creation of the screenwriter Charles Bennett, there was a lot of drama as to how to present this nameless being onto the silver screen. "I shot the sequence in the woods where Dana Andrews is chased by a sort of cloud. This technique should have been used for other sequences. The audience should never have seen the demon" insisted Tourneur but then in an interview with Joel E. Siegel contradicted his original statement. "I wanted, at the very end, when the train goes by, to include only four frames of the monster coming up with the guy and throwing him down. Boom, boom -- did I see it or didn't I? People would have to sit through a second time to be sure of what they saw." (Fujiwara. Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall. 1998)

But for an unknown reason, producer Hal E. Chester would often interfere with the filming. Tourneur would battle with him over upgrading the electric fans for the wind storm as well as the issue of showing the demon. But there was no love lost among the cast and crew, Dana Andrews going as far as calling Chester "a real little schmuck." "He would come up and start telling Jacques how to direct the picture. Jacques would say, "Now, now, Hal," and try to be nice. But I just said, "Look, you little son-of-a-bitch! You want me to walk off this picture? I didn't come all the way over here to have the producer tell me what he thinks about directing the picture. I came because Mr. Tourneur asked me.  Let the director direct the picture!" (Fujiwara. Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall. 1998)

It was during post production that Chester fully exerted his power as producer. 13 minutes were cut for the American release (renamed The Curse of the Demon) as well as inserting the actual image of the demon into the beginning and ending of what would have been another Tourneur psychological horror film. The actual creature itself was "taken right out of a book on demonology... and it looked great." (Fujiwara. Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall. 1998) Tourneur was heavily critical of these choices as was Bennett. "If [Chester] walked up my driveway right now, I'd shoot him dead." But Tourneur was far more vocal about his disappointment. In his interview with Joe E. Siegel, he continued in explaining, "But after I had finished [the film] and returned to the States, the English producer [Frank Bevis] made this horrible thing, cheapened it. It was like a different film."  (Fujiwara. Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall. 1998)

(The Night of the Demon will be playing on Turner Classic Movies tonight at 11:00 CST/12:00 EST)























 

Deathmatch: Dracula (1931) vs. Dracula, Spanish Version (1931)

History

Carl Laemmle was not the biggest fan of horror films despite all the money made from Lon Chaney's masterful horror silents. But it was his son, who got the studio for his 21st birthday, had his sights on making a big budget adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Unfortunately the plans were scrapped as The Great Depression got progressively worse. Instead of the novel, Carl "Junior" Laemmle Jr. had to make due with the 1924 stage play. Both Hamilton Deane, the playwright and Stoker's widow would receive $40,000. It also helped that the man who managed to convince Florence Stoker to sell had ambitions to play the title role which made him look even better to Universal.

The Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi had been playing the Count for 265 performances on Broadway and a national tour which made more than enough sense to achieve the coveted role. But Laemmle was not impressed, considering Paul Muni, William Courtenay, John Ray, Chester Morris, Ian Keith, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Joseph Schildkraut, anyone but Lugosi. When in Los Angeles on that same tour, Lugosi lobbied hard against Universal and came out with the role with a salary of 500 a week. Edward van Sloan and Herbert Bunston also recreated their stage roles as van Helsing and Dr. Seward respectively. Lew Ayres was considered for John Harker before David Manners was cast.

Tod Browning, whose expertise laid in the odd and supernatural, was hired for his first film with Universal after having been laid off for his alcoholism. It was poor timing considering Browning's close friend and frequent star in his films, Lon Chaney, had just passed away that same year of throat hemorrhage 7 weeks after their last film, "The Unholy Three" (1930), was released. Shooting began September 29, 1930 and ran until November 15, but retakes and additional scenes set the film back until the January of the following year costing $314,191.20 under its initial budget of $355,050. Browning was not like his usual meticulous self as David Manners (John Barker) described the set as "extremely disorganized." When asked what it was like to work with the director, Manners described the experience as "It's funny you should ask. Someone asked me the other day who directed and I had to say, I hadn't the faintest idea!" and that "the only directing I saw done by Karl Freund, the cinematographer." (Dracula (1931) - Articles - TCM.com)

Freund has been wrongly credited with shooting the Spanish version as well, but the directing credit had been given to ex-actor and non-Spanish speaking George Melford, who directed Rudolf Valentino in "The Sheik" (1921) to great success. His name was also on the Spanish version of "The Cat Creeps" that same year, proving himself capable to translate American films for the Spanish nations. Shooting began October 10, as the Laemmle production was only 11 days old until November 8, 1930. The shooting day for Melford and company began when Browning's ended in using the sets at night, this having been an established set up for Universal since the beginning of sound films.

The cast was inclusive to all Spanish speaking nations. Barry Norton (Harker) was Argentinian, Lupita Tovar (Mina/Eva) was Mexican and the title role was given to Spanish actor Carlos Villarìas. Villarìas had special privilege to watch the rushes of Browning's film as Universal continued to encourage him to imitate Lugosi. Tovar recounted to the authors of Universal Horrors:The Studio's Classic Films 1931-1946, "We didn't know any better, and everybody was happy to get a job. Most of them had been having little parts in silent films, and many of them had even played extras, even though they had a name in Spain and Mexico."

The Spanish version would open in Cuba on May 11th, 1931 then in New York on April 24th. Despite the Studio's nerves of how the public would receive a less comedic horror film, Browning's "Dracula" premiered at the Rosy Theater in New York on February 12th to immediate success and 50,000 more tickets sold within 48 hours resulting in a $700,000 profit. The critics were generally positive. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times insists that "with Mr. Browning's imaginative direction and Mr. Lugosi's makeup and weird gestures, this picture succeeds to some extent in its grand guignol intentions." Variety praised it as a "sublimated ghost story related with all surface seriousness and above all with a remarkably effective background of creepy atmosphere."

"Listen to Them, los Niños de la Noche" 

The plot of "Dracula" itself is pretty well known. Man goes to Transylvania to sell real estate of a broken down abandoned abbey to an aristocrat. Aristocrat turns out to be a vampire and becomes interested in two women, one who happens to be a neighbor. One woman succumbs to vampirism while the other is saved by a scientist, her father, and her fiancé.

The Spanish Version expands on many plot points as well as details lost in Browning's production. Details include showing the vampire bites to portraying Walpurgisnacht bonfires on the way to Dracula's castle to an homage to "Nosferatu" in showing Dracula in a mask as the carriage driver. 

But there is significant character development when it comes to the character of Renfield. He shows legitimate pathos in a session with Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing in wanting to be taken back to his cell not wanting to frighten Eva with his screams. He even asks Van Helsing to save his soul which explains why the doctor stays in the abbey at the end of film in both versions.

The Spanish Version also includes and often ignored B plot straight from Bram Stoker's pages. Lucia ends up becoming undead and is killing children until Van Helsing stakes her through the heart. This happens before Van Helsing and Harper go to the abbey to rescue Eva from Dracula who discovers daylight in a window and retreats. While the Browning production cuts away from Eva's own plight while Dracula is at last killed, the Spanish version intercuts the chase and death with Eva becoming more and more lost in the underground tunnels until Juan discovers her in her cured state.

 

Death Match

A lot of film scholars believe the same about the two movies: Browning's film had the passionate bravado from Lugosi and Frye and the Spanish Version is a technical masterpiece. This is death match is no different. Melford's production is intelligently shot and composed thanks to the Weimar inspired sets. Thankfully not only was Villarias was allowed to watch the dallies, but the whole crew was allowed to watch when they came in to work for the night.

The improvements are obvious against the ambiance already created. In addition to showing Villarias's hand coming out of the coffin, Dracula fully emerges in a cloud of vapor and that smoke becomes a foreshadow in later scenes. As Lucia falls asleep unknowing of her fate, it is easy to spot that same smoke in the window in the upper corner. An additional detail when Renfield first meets Dracula is the use of a spider web that Dracula somehow can walk through without a problem.

But it is the camera work and editing that truly makes the Spanish version more superior. Although with shaky movements appropriate for the equipment of the times, Dracula's first appearance is a jump scare after a bat flies towards Renfield. The camera slowly pans up to Villarias in front of the spider web than Lugosi standing to the side. Another tracking shot slowly encapsulates Renfield's living quarters for the night fully taking in more details of Charles D. Hall's art direction at all angles. Instead of lighting effects on Lugosi's pupils, it was a matter of editing by Arturo Tavares by intercutting with extreme close ups that are far more terrifying.

Villarias is no Lugosi and that is what keeps Melford's film from winning this death match. I cannot say enough about his performance although some of it could have been scaled back from a theater performance to something more filmic. But it was truly Lugosi and Frye's film which makes Villarias's and Rubio's performances more subdued towards character building, Villarias's internal monstrosity and its restraint is truly magnificent and Rubio's mania becomes less of a joke than Frye's but terrifying and yet almost sympathetic at the same time.

Lugosi is the epitome of presence. One of the times he comes out from his coffin, he slowly moves his fingers then clutches his cape in a restrained ferocity forcing the viewer to look away from his fate to this one gesture on his body. Even when he retreats from Van Helsing holding the crucifix, he holds onto his cape and swirls around in disgust. This theatrical athleticism is one of the quieter aspects that makes his version of the film the better one in terms of performance. Every scene he has with Edward van Sloan is heart racingly memorable. From when he beckons van Helsing to cross the room and smashing the cigar box, Lugosi is every inch of what it means to be a supernatural leading man. This death match can only be a draw.

TCM Movie: I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

Lewton always considered "I Walked With a Zombie" his favorite film despite the fact he hated the title. While "Cat People" was in production, RKO head Charles Koerner called the producer into his office to tell him his next project's title and that Universal horror screenwriter Curt Siodmark was going to write it. According to one of Lewton directors Mark Robson, he came out of the meeting  "impossibly gloomy." The next day he came in more enthused and announced to his unit that they would make a "West Indies version of Jane Éyre." (Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career. Bansak)

The original proposal was to adapt an article from "American Weekly" by Inez Wallace which described drug addicted Haitian slaves which only seemed zombie-like. Curt Siodmark would eventually leave the project and Lawton hired Ardel Wray to completely rewrite the script. Instead of a haunting love story about a plantation owner's possessiveness towards his wife who comes off as "in a living death," it was altered for the story to be told and experienced through a young nurse who is brought to the plantation.

"We were all plunged into research on Haitian voodoo, every book on the subject Val could find. He was an addictive researcher, drawing out of it the overall feel, mood, and quality he wanted, as well as some details for the actual production. He got a hold of a real calypso singer, Sir Lancelot [...] He, in turn, found some genuine voodoo musicians. [...] Everything had to be cheap because we really were on a shoestring. That was the thing about Val - a low budget was a challenge to him, a spur of inventiveness, and everyone around him caught the fever." (The Terror of Val Lewton. Siegel.)

Shooting started October 26 ran until November 19th, 1942 and reviews were mixed but the audiences approved through hype created from "Cat People" which was still in theaters. The New York Times, naturally, was a little more critical. "With its voodoo rites and perambulating zombie, "I Walked With a Zombie" probably will please a lot of people. But to this spectator, at least, it proved to be a dull, disgusting exaggeration of an unhealthy, abnormal concept of life."   Variety considered it to "fail to measure up to its horrific title. Film contains some terrifying passages, but is overcrowded with trite dialog and ponderous acting." The film has actually aged well since 1943 ranking number 5 in Stylus Magazine's Best Zombie Movies of all time.

Watch it tonight on Turner Classic Movies at 12:30 CST/11:30 EST

#FridayShort Outtakes from "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938)

#WomanEmpowermentWednesday 5 Times When Katharine Hepburn Held All the Fashion Goals

in Kalloch in "Holiday" (1938)

in Adrian in "The Philadelphia Story" (1940)

in Adrian in "Woman of the Year" (1942)

in Muriel King in "Stage Door" (1937)

in Adrian in "Woman of the Year" (1942)

#ManCrushMonday Fredric March in "A Star is Born" (1937)

A veteran actor already mid-downfall in his career and drink, Norman Maine still somehow manages to be his suave and charming old self. He becomes immediately enamored with Esther Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) soon rebranded as Vicki Lester. Norman marries her despite all of his vices and her soon skyrocketing stardom, but his demons cannot be undone.

The 10 Best Moments of TCM's Star of the Month (June), Leslie Howard

Of Human Bondage (1934)

Berkeley Square (1933)

It's Love I'm After (1937)

The Animal Kingdom (1932)

It's Love I'm After (1937)

British Agent (1934)

Secrets (1933)

Smilin' Through (1932)

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)

Of Human Bondage (1934)

#FridayShort Warner Brothers Breakdowns/Blow-Ups: Breakdowns 1935

Happy Independence Day from "Holiday Inn" (1942)

#ManCrushMonday Robert Walker in "One Touch of Venus" (1948)

Eddie Hatch is really just an average schmuck without much going for him, but, one good thing happens to him at his job as a window dresser. Discovering a life-size statue of Venus in a gallery room, he kisses her. The statue becomes alive, immediately following him home and making Hatch's life an overall hell. But once he starts to really fall under the Goddess's charm, there is something very charming and very suave about this guy who ends up portraying a Hitchcockian train riding psychopath.