SassMouthDames

Before she put her trademark on screwball comedies, Irene Dunne was the queen of melodrama. Irene's Sarah Casanove decides she's had enough of a husband (Nils Asther) who holds her at gunpoint.

What saves her in this picture is work. Sarah opens an antique shop and finds purpose. Since this is a Pre-Code, she can take up with a married man (Clive Brook) without any consequences. Irene Dunne showed women in the audience how to absorb the slings and arrows from living in a man's world without losing their wits.

Somehow Parnell (1937) is often included on 'worst ever' film lists, but there's much about this MGM production to recommend. Pearl Quinn (RTE archives) and Celina Murphy (One Fab Day podcast) join me to discuss the picture that Myrna Loy said contained Clark Gable's best romantic performance.

Instead of looking at Joan Fontaine as a noir dame, let's think of her as a post-war Baby Face. Somewhere along the line, Fontaine's character Christabel Caine internalised the mantra 'use men to get the things you want'. Men fall for the sweet looking blonde without second-guessing her true motivation. I wrap it up with a chapter from Fontaine's memoir No Bed of Roses (1978) where she talks about Howard Hughes, her boss at RKO.

This picture boasts a trinity of sass mouth dames: Ruth Chatterton as the star, it was directed by Dorothy Arzner, with a screenplay by Zoe Akins. Chatterton plays a high-stepper who confesses the only man she ever loved was the lawyer who had defended her against public indecency charges, after she danced half-naked in a burlesque. When she winds up married to the lawyer (Clive Brook), it's nothing like the fairy tale she had imagined. Dorothy Arzner made cautionary tales about marriage her business. I close the episode with a brief passage from The Pride of the Peacocks, the novel Ruth Chatterton published in 1954.

Joseph Losey’s creepy noir stars Evelyn Keyes as an unhappy wife who spends every night alone, a captive audience to her husband’s voice on the radio. Losey’s picture blends a thoughtful social critique, which anticipates ‘the problem that has no name’, as well as men who chase material wealth, and the pernicious way the line between entertainment and advertisement is blurred by the media. I close the episode with two chapters from Scarlet O’Hara’s Younger Sister, the juicy bestseller from Evelyn Keyes, where she recalls the time when her boss Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Studio, vowed to make her a star.

Hands Across the Table (1935), strikes the perfect balance of screwball antics and romantic drama between Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray, the first of four pictures they made together. It was a hit that confirmed Carole Lombard’s stardom. This was the first project Ernst Lubitsch supervised in his role as head of production for Paramount Studio. Mitch Leisen directs a gem full of brilliant gags, sets, and costumes. I read a brief interview with Mitch Leisen and Fred MacMurray, included in David Chierichetti’s brilliant mix of biography, criticism, and interview, Mitchell Leisen: Hollywood Director.

For this episode, I'm delighted to welcome Pearl Quinn (an archivist), and Sandra Godkin (a librarian), to talk about the film where Bette Davis plays a small town librarian who safeguards free speech. Bette refuses to fold when the city council full of stuffed shirts orders a book removed from the shelves. This picture offers so many contemporary parallels on issues such as freedom, privacy, scapegoating, and sexism.

By this point in her career, Barbara Stanwyck was such a pro that she could have done the picture blindfolded and still hit every emotional nuance required for the part. Frank Capra was dead right when he called her the greatest emotional actress the screen has known. Watching Stanwyck absorb men's low opinions of her and carry on is devastating. Enmeshed in criminal rackets on one side and married into a snobby blue blood family on the other, it seems as though Stanwyck's character is the only one with a functioning moral compass. Supported by Joel McCrea, Pat O'Brien, Claire Dodd, and C. Aubrey Smith, Gambling Lady showcases Barbara Stanwyck's supreme craft at the close of the Pre-Code era.

Ryan Murphy's show Feud may have created new fans of Joan Crawford's film career, but one episode suggests that Above Suspicion was a bomb that doesn't merit viewing. On the contrary, Joan Crawford, Fred MacMurray, and Conrad Veidt deliver a rock-solid spy caper filled with bawdy comedy and moments of suspense. It may have been the end of Joan's career in MGM after 18 years as a star of the studio, but she sails out on a high note. And two days after she left, Joan started a new contract with Warner Brothers.

Dr Gwenda Young joins me to discuss her study of Clarence Brown's life and work. Often overlooked or dismissed as the consummate MGM company man, Brown had a singular talent for blending artistic flourishes into formula pictures. He also forged innovative techniques that relied upon symbolic images to show the story rather than tell it with wordy dialogue. Young's book illustrates how integral he was in woman's pictures. Clarence Brown coaxed fascinating performances from Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy and many other women. Young's book is an important contribution to film studies. Add it to your collection.