Marie Prevost is… Up in Mabel’s Room (1926), Günter A. Buchwald & Zerorchestra, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto Streaming, Postscript...

Gary dearest, I thought you were so naughty but I’ve found you are so nice… 

Sounds just like a movie.

 

Oh, this was so much fun and with accompaniment recorded right at the start of this year’s festival at the screening in Teatro Zancanaro, Sacile, it had that live energy some of the streaming films don’t always get, although, to be fair this was an ensemble, with the local group Zerorchestra improvising alongside Günter A. Buchwald’s piano and violin. I had planned to be there for the festival but a last-minute Covid infection put paid to all that leaving me to relish the Giornate’s online offering and imagine everything I was missing… the films, the gelato, the relaxed late night’s discussing the films and much more. This film was the perfect finale for the streaming version though, setting us up for a physical return in 1923, sorry, 2023!

 

Directed by E. Mason Hopper, this perfectly executed farce was based on the play by Wilson Collison and Otto Harbach from 1919, and like every successful comedy of this type it relies on perfectly executed performances and timing, whether from the performers and director or in the editing suite. There’s also some exceptionally pithy title cards courtesy of F. McGrew Willis’ script and Walter Graham’s text… and if a picture paints a thousand words, the expressions on Marie Prevost’s face are a British Library’s worth of inuendo!

 

Harrison Ford and Marie Prevost

Marie plays Mabel Ainsworth returning from Europe on a cruise-liner, who has just divorced her husband, architect Garry (The Original Harrison Ford) after finding him in a lingerie department buying what she presumed was a present for another woman. Big mistake Mabs, as young Garry was buying you a silky see-through with both your names on it… too late she decides that he’s a keeper not a creeper and she knows she must do right by him, whether he likes it or not. Remember that embroidered nightware though, it will be important later. Also important will be her meeting on board with man-about-town Carl Gerard (Arthur Walkers) and his rather less outgoing spinster sister, Henrietta (Maud Truax).

 

Among new friends Gary Ainsworth was posing as a bachelor. He figured his secret marriage in Paris was like a vaccination… it hadn’t taken.

 

To Garry’s office where we meet his neighbours, Insurance Broker Jimmy Larchmont (Harry Myers) and his fearsome wife, “his top-go signal”, Alicia (Sylvia Breamer) who announce a party to celebrate their six-month anniversary, as so many don’t make it to their first, cue wince from Garry. Next to them is Leonard Mason (Paul Nicholson), a gay bachelor who is in love with vivacious Sylvia Wells (Phyllis Haver) who rather takes a shine to Garry, even as the latter advises his pal Paul on how best to broach the subject of asking her on a date. 

Harrison and Phyllis Haver

These characters all have elements of a classic farce set-up, which is completed when Mabel arrives just in time to hear that Garry has clearly told them all he’s a bachelor… Information is power and we all know the young draughtsman hasn’t a chance, but at this point the poor sap doesn’t though and rebuffs his ex-wife’s advances when she pops into his office on the grounds that they’re no longer wed and kissing would just not be proper. All the same she catches him unaware winking at his office assistant Simpson (Arthur Hoyt) causing Garry to worry that he’ll gain a reputation as “a swivel-chair sheik…”

 

The El Rey Night club was one of those places where twenty dollars wouldn’t buy enough food to widen a worm’s waistline.

 

One celebration leads to another after Garry is shocked to see his secret ex arrive at the Larchmont's party at the El Rey club with the Gerards. Mabel has so successfully rubbished the good name of her previous husband that the men promise to exact revenge if they see the swine. Garry panics and proposes to Sylvia, using the engagement ring which his lovelorn pal his pal Leonard had given to him for safekeeping. As usual, Mabel is the quicker thinker and extracts the maximum torture from the “bachelor boy” as she talks of her unknown previous husband and the special gift he had given her; perhaps Sylvia would like it as a wedding gift? 

Arthur Walkers, Maud Truax, Sylvia Breamer, Phyllis, Paul Nicholson and Harry Myers 

From this comes an invite to the Mason’s for a weekend away, to celebrate the new couple's engagement and which will involve combinations of most couples in ways that I’d need a spreadsheet to fully transcribe. The misunderstandings fly thick and fast as Garry, aided by his valet, Hawkins (William Orlamond) set out to recover the incriminating lingerie – the “doo-dad” – from Mabel’s room before she uses it to blow his cover and his fresh and instantly regrettable, engagement.

 

You’ve been hanging on her door all day, you’re a regular doorknob!

 

Cue grown men hiding under beds, dancing as if wearing ladies’ lingerie (I know) and being assaulted by three women in search of imagined burglars… it’s a richly comedic closing segment that would have been hilarious to watch with an audience instead if on a laptop with my family checking I was OK after every few minutes of snorting. Sooner or later, everyone ends up in Mabel’s room…

Listen baby, I can explain everything so that even you can understand it!

  

It’s a classic farce and fascinating to see the Anglo-American tradition expressed so well in silent film. Hopper directs with precision and great timing which, as we all know, is the essence of good humour. He has a cast of great reactors; shock, stunned, outraged, surprised and even frightened all freely expressed and played as perfectly as the instruments in Günter and the Zerorchestra accompaniment.

 

Talking of which, the boys in the band were perfect and spirited and the fact they were improvising in front of an audience adds extra frisson and humour. The music is perfect in tone for this delightful comedy and also great for dancing… who wouldn’t want to cut a rug with Marie and Harrison.

 

A band not unlike Günter A. Buchwald & Zerorchestra

Prevost is, as every time I watch her, pitch perfect, full of sass and perky emotion, she’s not only the best winker in Hollywood but one of the most endearing comedians of her age. She’s the queen of emoting on clue, that perfect timing again, but also thoroughly likeable and believable. She should have gone on to be huge in the wise-cracking pre-codes and throughout the thirties but it wasn’t to be.

 

Still, with films as strong as this to display her wit, beauty and talent she won’t be forgotten and when she’s recalled it will be in the knowledge that, despite her early passing aged 40, she was capable of creating so much cinematic happiness.

 

Shearer vs Shearer… The Divorcee (1930) and Their Own Desire (1929)

In 1930 Norma Shearer was nominated for two Oscars for her performances in each of these films winning on Divorce but losing on Desire. Sometimes too easily associated with her mighty husband Irving Thalberg, Ms Shearer deserves a lot of credit for evolving screen acting from silent to sound along with Greta, Joan and co.

I like her relaxed focus, her uncluttered expressiveness and the unconscious way she’ll pay attention to the granular details in order to reinforce the naturalistic surface. She has energy – literally – standing up against the men as well as a wit and native intelligence which transcends her characters.

Norma Shearer

Then there was her look… falling somewhere between Clara/Jean’s inherent sexiness and Garbo’s ethereality, Norma had a naturally-fascinating face, one you could see on many streets but one that came to life on screen animated by a gentle expressiveness that presents convincingly as real.
In these early sound  films her voice can come across as slightly shrill and high pitched but that’s technology as much as technique and is more noticeable in Desire than Divorce. She may not have had Greta’s range or Joan’s ferocity but she was a force to be reckoned with even for her husband.

Norma gives Robert Montgomery a piece of her mind

Famously, Joan Crawford was up for the part in Their Own Desire with even Thalberg doubting his wife’s ability to sex-up. Norma’s response was to commission a photo shoot that so emphatically proved her point that she got the part. That’s acting… and the assurance of the moral high ground at home for months.

The nominees include… Their Own Desire (1929)

Belle Bennett, Norma and Lewis Stone

Their Own Desire was directed by E. Mason Hopper, written by the ubiquitous Frances Marion based on the novel by Sarita Fuller. It was released just after Christmas in 1929 and is a slick early talkie with evident “pre-code” leanings…

Cue Norma in tight top and jodhpurs (the swim suit comes later…) taking part in a polo game, playing daughter Lucy - aka “Lally” - to her lovingly-competitive dad, Henry Marlett (Lewis Stone). She falls and there are anxious minutes as she recovers yet she won’t let a little winding slow her down.

A bit like my weekends...

Back home to see mother, Harriet (Belle Bennett) who seems old before her time, especially in comparison to the widow Beth Cheever (Helene Millard) a woman who hasn’t forgotten where the peroxide bottle is. She’s clearly on the lookout and, whilst Lally makes fun of this she doesn’t suspect that there’ be any danger…

Cut forward some months and the worst has come to the worst and Lally still knows nothing even after her parents have agreed to divorce which they are hoping to disguise by her and mother going off to Europe for a few months…

The other woman...

But Lally blunders across the truth when she walks into her father’s workshop to find him and Mrs Cheever in a compromising cuddle. She can’t take it all in and refuses to balance her father’s wish to spend time with “The one” against her mother’s misery.

Meeting Mr Wrong?

Team Mom heads off on their break and Lally meets a sparky young man called John (Robert Montgomery) whilst demonstrating a sleek swimsuit at the local Lido. He sneaks a sub-aquatic kiss and a romance begins. All is swimmingly-swell until a fateful moment when he reveals himself to be Mrs Cheever’s son.

Oh delicious pain… Can Lally be involved with the son of the woman who ruined her parent’s marriage? No spoilers… 

And the winner is… The Divorcee (1930)

This film was released just under four months later and, allowing for the Thalberg’s Christmas break and January skiing holiday, must have taken less than three months to produce.

Directed by Robert Z. Leonard from a novel by Ursula Parrott, The Divorcee is a “tighter” film and less obviously melodramatic than Desire. The drama comes out of the central couple’s relationship and the eternal questions of fidelity and communication between men and women.

The guests are all shocked in different ways...

It starts off with a gathered of NYC high-flyers at a large log cabin – large enough to include the wise-cracking housekeeper Dorothy (Judith Wood) and separate rooms all round.

As the jollity proceeds, everyone wonders where Ted (Chester Morris) and Jerry (Norma Shearer) are? Jerry’s former/nearly-love (?) Paul (Conrad Nagel) stands watch at the door; still hoping, still pining whilst a young woman Dorothy (Judith Wood) looks longingly at him: a daisy chain of the disappointed.

Ted and Jerry encouraged by a local youth...

We cut to Jerry and Ted enjoying some affectionate larks by a stream as he kind of pops the questions and she, kind of, accepts – it’s carefree as emphasised by a young boy urging her to say yes “for the love of Mike” as he waits to resume his fishing… They return to the party to congratulation and celebration led by Ted’s best mate Don (Robert Montgomery – again!) as Paul turns quickly to the bar with disastrous results. As everyone leaves he crashes his car disfiguring Dorothy for life and eventually marrying her out of the obligation of pity.

Shifting forward three years we re-join the crowd at a party to mark Ted and Jerry’s anniversary. All looks to have been blissful until an uninvited guest arrives: Janice (Mary Doran), a woman who seems on familiar terms with Ted.

Oops!

Now comes the test as Ted reveals to Jerry that he had a one-night stand with Janice…. Protesting that “it “doesn’t mean a thing…” Ted clearly isn’t able to admit or comprehend the huge misstep he’s taken and, with a business trip looming, he’s about to be away from two whole weeks before he and Jerry can really process the betrayal… and, by the time he gets back things have developed momentum.

Ted departs that night and one thing leads to another as Jerry  gets tipsy with kind, loyal Don and, as the curtains are drawn in his apartment Jerry decides to “balance the account”.

Jerry about to balance the account...

Jerry’s not really that kind of girl and on Ted’s return, as he tries to go back to normal she reveals the truth (careful to keep Don’s name out of it). Oddly enough Ted takes this badly and seems to have lost touch with the whole “meaning nothing” vibe... He loses it and Jerry, realising by now that she’s married to a narrow-minded hypocrite, decides to become the kind of lady that he imagines men to be: she will enjoy herself.

Ted turns to drink and runs off to Europe whilst Jerry enjoys a string of relationships smartly represented by various tableaux involving Jerry’s and a variety of suitors’ hands as they hit the towns… Are they punishing themselves or trying to run away? The escape is going well until Jerry finally runs into Paul again…

The Divorcee is a better film than Desires both technically and in terms of content but I think Norma Shearer’s performances are equally good in both and she is the main reason to view. For all the sexy pre-code accoutrements – infidelity, wine and skimpy – both films are ultimately morality tales that promote the values of loyalty, forgiveness and the importance of love over pride.

The Divorcee is available as part of the Forbidden Hollywood box set volume two whilst Their Own Desire is on Warner Archives DVD.