Handsome Lon Chaney… Tell it to the Marines (1926)

This is an unusual vehicle for Lon Chaney in that it allows him to play a sympathetic character with a straight face…his own.  In the process he shows what a skilled actor he was, moving those granite features with an unexpected deftness for those used to his more dramatic, made-up roles. And what a fascinating face it is…a likeable face, a funny face!

Tell it to the Marines was his most successful film for MGM and is a patriotic film extoling the virtues of steadfastness, honesty and true love.

Chaney maybe invents the tough drill sergeant role as Sergeant O'Hara – a man who seemingly gives no quarter and yet who secretly cares for all his greenhorns. Into his hands come the usual motley crew of raw recruits, each underestimating the task ahead. None are quite as couldn’t care less as “Skeet” Burns (William Haines) who see this is just a free ride to the horse races.

Haines plays really well against type by playing a (barely) lovable rogue who seems to have no respect for others (let alone authority) and to be driven purely by selfish motives.

Naturally enough, Skeet is singled out for straightening out early on by O’Hara who does his best in spite of Skeet’s incorrigibility.

Skeet very quickly spots Nurse Norma Dale (elegant Eleanor Boardman, who was a life-long time friend of Haines following their Goldwyn “New Faces”  selection back in 1921) and hits on her much to O’Hara’s dismay…seems like the there’s a beating heart underneath the rock hard exterior after all.

Skeet begins to romance Norma little suspecting that O’Hara is his competitor. When eventually the time comes to go the younger couple swear to be re-joined and it breaks O’Hara’s heart. There’s a wonderful scene in which the sergeant is talking to his bulldog about being the ugliest mug in the navy…he decides with a grin that maybe the dog just edges him. Chaney’s smile here is superb, such energy and so much conveyed through a simple act.

The unprecedented co-operation of the military means that there are some outstanding sequences of the men at sea, surrounded by American naval might as their battleships forge through the ocean and let lose their guns in a cloud of smoke with even the biggest ships recoiling from the force.

The men set off on their first posting to the Philippines. Little happens there besides continuous rain but one of the local women offers Skeet some welcome distraction. Unable to resist the lure of the candy store he goes with her only to think better of it after she scratches a flea or two on their date. This doesn’t go down well with her fellow islanders and an almighty scrap breaks out with the marines.

O’Hara comes to Skeet’s rescue but he barely appreciates it. Then word somehow gets back to Norma and Skeet is in no doubt that it is O’Hara who has ruined his chances only to improve his own…he begins to hate his Sergeant even though he has entirely miss-judged him.

The marines move onto China where they are reunited with the Nurse Norma but she wants nothing more to do with Skeet, even though in her eyes you can tell she love shim still. She talks with O’Hara who is man enough to tell her that she’s walking away form Skeet “just when he needs her most “ (if there was any doubt who the real hero of the film is…it is hereby removed!).

Will the two lovers discover the truth in time or will they be deprived forever by the local rebels who kidnap Norma and the rest of her contingent. Can the Marines come to the rescue and will our heroes finally find respect for each other?

The storyline is perhaps a bit deeper than some given the possibility that Chaney may end up with the girl. Even though Haines is handsome he’s certainly a rogue and needs to find his moral direction fast.

Directed by George W Hill, Tell it to the Marines is very well assembled, quick changes in pace and excellent composition. There is some superb camera mobility, including hand-held action during the fight on the island and also dolly shots tracking the actors as they march. There are also some stirring shots of the navy at sea – huge battleships rolling with the waves.

It’s a meaty role for William Haines as he gets to play the shallow raw recruit who’s only in it for himself. He falls for Eleanor Boardman’s nurse mainly as she’s the prettiest thing in sight and it’s only later that he learns how much he really meant it. An excellent performer, it’s no surprise he was so popular: he has an easy way and always seems to throw in the odd realistic gesture like…picking his nose!

Boardman does her usual top-notch job with not a lot to play with. It’s good to see her in a decent quality print (there follows the usual lamentation about the lack of proper DVD release for The Crowd…) and she is as ethereal as ever even if she never has to get out of second gear…you know she has the extras anyway!

But it’s Chaney’s film with his Pete Postlethwaite complexion, iron jaw and smiling eyes. I’ve heard that he gained such expressiveness as the son of deaf and mute parents. This may have been the case but he’s also emotionally intelligent and able to submerge himself completely in character. So much so that his character continues to surprise you throughout the film… he only reveals the disguised decent hearted softy when he wants… “He’s the hero!” exclaimed my wife with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for Ewan McGregor… and she’s right.

Married to the navy, loyal to all his charges, Chaney’s portrayal struck so true with the marines themselves that he became the first actor to be awarded an honorary membership in the Corps.

Tell it to the Marines is now available in an excellent print from the Warner’s Archives series either direct or from Amazon. It comes with the original score composed by Robert Israel that serves the action well if a little formally for an action-orientated, romantic comedy. A film with many moods but overwhelmingly good fun.

Norma Talmadge… Smiling Through (1922)

Smiling Through (also Smilin’ Through) was a box office smash in 1922 – 6th highest grosser after the likes of Robin Hood, Blood and Sand, Manslaughter – and, at this point its star, Norma Talmadge, was arguably second only to Mary Pickford.

Having raved about Mary I must return to Norma for she could act with a subtlety and a believable force unmatched by most contemporaries. And, as with Miss P she had a like-ability, energy and common touch that struck a chord with millions.

Smiling Through was based on the 1919 Broadway play staring Jane Cowl, who also co-wrote with Jane Murfin under the male pseudonym of Allan Langdon Martin. It was a play about eternal love that wrestled with the impact of the Great War… after such carnage you had to hope there was something more to life than death.

The story is a simple one and undoubtedly populist. As the New York Times review pointed out “…it is entirely sentimental, and it is well done. Those who like photoplays deliberately sentimental will be attracted to it…”. Moving Picture World pronounced that "Smilin' Through is a personal triumph for Norma Talmadge…” whilst also commenting that it will make good box office: “…a safe, satisfying success.”

It’s interesting to put this melodramatic and emotive film in the context of the period: a well-made, professional film that more than met business objectives and enhanced the status of its star. Modern viewers may find the production simplistic and too sugary but, at the time, people wanted the sweet stuff… We still need it now but the wrapper’s different.

Underneath the sweet was quite a lot of sour… Smiling Through’s main male character, John Carteret (played by Wyndham Standing) lives in hate following the tragic murder of the love of his life on their wedding day. Moonyeen (played by Norma) is a young Irish girl who has fallen for this upright English gentleman, but she has also unwittingly stole the heart of Kenneth Wayne (Harrison Ford… “no, not that one”… never gets old…).

Wayne tries to murder Carteret at the wedding but only succeeds in killing Moonyeen after she throws herself in front of her true love. Her death is a tragedy echoing the untimely ends met by so many at this time - the audience and film, cannot let this be the end.

This is told in flashback someway into the film. The story starts many years later with Carteret an old man obsessed with his memories and his hatred of all things Wayne. He still dreams of his love though and holds a doll against the moonlight to see the shadow of Moonyeen against his garden gate.

He adopted Moonyeen’s niece, Kathleen (also played by Norma) and she is the one bright point in his life. Yet, into their midst comes Jeremiah Wayne (Ford again) who has returned from a life in America and is unaware of the bad blood.

 

There's a lovely scene when Kathleen and Jeremiah meet at a ball in Dunstable. Kathleen rebuffs the advances of earnest Willie Ainsley (Glen Hunter) and pulling a variety of comedicalyy-disgusted faces, she manages to get the newcomer to invite her to dance.

The two go off to talk and fall in love but Carteret finds them and refuses to sanction their relationship. Undeterred they begin to meet in secret, aided by Doctor Owen (Alec B. Francis) who wishes his best friend would forgive and forget.

But Carteret is not going to change his mind even when Jeremiah joins up and leaves for France in 1914.

The Great War passes and Kathleen waits anxiously for her lover’s return but Jeremiah has been wounded and does not want her to marry him out of pity. Carteret is more than happy to accept this – the man has a heart of stone!

He starts to get his come-uppance though as Kathleen blames him for Jeremiah’s distancing… and Carteret tells her just why he hates the Waynes. But it’s not enough to convince her and she resolves to leave him.

Spoilers ahead: Left alone with friends and family alienated by his hatred, Carteret finally asks his friends for help in re-uniting the young couple.

There’s not a dry eye in out living room as Jeremiah proposes to Kathleen in the manner she instructed him to before the war. Talmadge’s emotional display here is so very impressive, she seemed to specialise in close up transitions from sad to happy and her huge dark eyes shine with relief and compassion.

Meanwhile, Carteret plays dominoes with his old pal the Doctor and, at last released from his emotional cage, he is joined by the spirit of Moonyeen. They are, at last reunited in the afterlife and, Moonyeen says that if only people knew what follows after death they’d spend their whole lives smiling through…. sentimental but reassuring to a population still mourning the deaths of millions.

Directed with efficiency by Sidney Franklin, Smiling Through was filmed largely on set – apart from a brief location shoot when Kathleen is first encountered a Californian inlet passing itself off as Ireland. This enclosure reflected its Broadway origins and adds to the cosy feel.



The cast is good, especially Alec B. Francis, whilst Harrison Ford excels especially as the bad Wayne, but it is Norma’s show and she dominates every scene she’s in always reaching out to the watcher with her expressive features, dancer's poise and those shininng eyes.

The print I watched was pretty good with the exception of some bleaching and peripheral damage after about an hour. It’s to be hoped it gets a clean up and proper release at some point - I’ve seen worse official releases from the twenties.

Catch it if you can and settle back to fully appreciate the skill and appeal of Norma Talmadge, a major contributor in the development of screen acting and a great, intelligent, entertainer.

And for those who think this blog is sometimes a little random... the reason Norma Jean (see previous post) was called Norma is because her mother was a big fan of Miss Talmadge.

Still waters fall deep… Niagara (1953)

I naturally expected Niagara to be all about its young blonde star and that she’d be the heroin. Well, kind of and…not really. That honour must go to the talented Jean Peters who’s acting ability made for a believable and quite modern hero.

Marilyn is indeed an impressive presence and, commenting on the cinematographic focus on her physique, the Variety review of the time nailed it well enough: “…the natural phenomena have been magnificently photographed on location…" giving equal billing to the falls and Miss Monroe herself.

Yet this film is much more than a chance to ogle nature’s charms, it’s an intense and unsettling full-colour “noir” that unflinchingly deals in the battle for life over surrender.

A young couple, Ray (Casey Adams) and Polly Cutler (a superb Jean Peters), have come to Niagara for a belated, modest honeymoon. They arrive, car tellingly packed full of books (how long have they been wed?) and yet with a naïve glow all over them: excited to be at the falls and with each other.

Ray is also thrilled to be within site of his company’s main factory and hopes to meet up with his senior colleague – the guy sure knows how to run a honeymoon!

If this sets a reassuringly prosaic scene, their meeting with the oddest couple in the Rainbow Cabins chalets soon spins things a bit further out. The Loomis’ have outstayed their welcome but Rose (Marilyn Monroe) pleads for them to be able to stay in the plum chalet, as her husband, George (Joseph Cotton), is unwell.

We first encounter George walking alone amongst the rocks at the base of the falls, he walks back to their chalet to find Rose seemingly still asleep (she isn’t). His early morning rambles are the first indication of a mind disturbed by the brutality of war, he can’t settle and Rose provides further provocation.

She is much younger than him and far too beautiful as well – we wonder at the circumstance that has brought these two together and we know for sure that they cannot last. But sometimes they’re together and you can sense that there may have been something once but George appears to be the one incapable of holding things together…or is he also being driven to distraction by someone who knows what she’s doing.

Rose steps out in the evening and joins in the hootenany running between the chalets. She puts on her favourite record and revels in the tune for a few moments, singing along lost in the words as Polly and Ray who marvel in their different ways at this oddly passionate woman.

But then George staggers out of his chalet and rips the disc apart – angered in just the way Rose intended. Poly follows him back into the chalet and bandages his bleeding hands…the first sign of her strength of character – George is unreasonable but she’s not going to let that stop her help him.

The next day the young could sight-see at the falls and Polly catches Rose in a clinch with a handsome young man. It’s what we expected but there’s more…

Rose and George continue to pick at each other and the former plans her escape. She tricks George into going to the tunnel under the falls where he is to encounter her younger, stronger lover.



Spoilers ahead: George goes missing and a body is found but… it’s not George and Rose feints as she discovers he has turned the tables. And that, might possibly have been that, had Polly not seen George alive and well… he confesses to her what had happened and it sounds like self defence. He wants Polly to let him “stay dead” and start afresh but she can’t see why he doesn’t just go to the police and give himself up.

A triangular game of cat and mouse begins during which George catches up with Rose with the inevitable fatal outcome… it’s not pretty and, tragically, George returns to the body in almost apologetic fashion.
On the run, George steels the boat that Polly and Ray are using for a fishing trip with his colleagues.  George heads off but with an unconscious Polly on board… the boat runs out of gas and begins to drift towards the falls in a tense finale…

Niagara is maybe the first time I’ve seen Marilyn Monroe playing a morally ambiguous character and in fairly straight fashion. She’s still the over-made-up, well-stacked dame of fifties sexual fascination but a real-life version. She’s used George to get her somewhere in life and now she’s heading off with someone else.

It’s interesting how, with a slight shift in emphasis, her meaning becomes darker. From someone seemingly flaunting her agenda in an obvious way she is transformed into someone who is still doing that but as a mask for deeper motives. She acts well and is of course a joy to behold. A natural redhead her whole act was exactly that anyway… how easily we confuse the myth with the Miss.

Joseph Cotton is incredibly intense, an actor of strength and courage. He's quite hard work to watch - Orson Wells knew what he was dealing with here. He conveys all of the misery his unfortunate life has heaped on his narrow shoulders. He can’t sleep…he’s tense and nervous, can’t relax… (Ithankyou Mr David Byrne!) but he initially only kills in self defence and, ultimately, kills Rose in pity as much as revenge.

He’s decent enough to battle to save Polly even though it costs his own life: he’s dead already with Rose and he having mutually assured each other’s destruction.

Then there’s Jean Peters – of whom I knew nothing before hand – but who puts in an intelligent and compelling performance. There’s an almost feminist edge to her role in this film: she’s decisive, quick thinking and morally alert – far more so than her jovial if slightly shallow husband. When the men just want this all neatly wrapped up she persists until the truth is uncovered.

Apparently,  Peters always fought against her own “glamorisation” and there’s even a scene here in which Ray tries to get her to pose for a cheesecake bikini shot. The result was perhaps a more interesting persona that was more nuanced than many other actresses were allowed to be. But then film noire always did give room for people who had the chops to show shade along with light.

I’ll certainly be seeking out more of her films.

Niagara is frequently shown on TV and is also available from your friendly neighbourhood e-tailer.

Vera Kholodnaya ‘The Queen of Screen’ … A Life for a Life (1916)

Yevgeni Bauer was the leading film director in pre-revolutionary Russia and it’s a joy to uncover more of his work. He operated on a similar level to the Scandinavians and Americans of this period in terms of setting out and defining film language with increasing depth and sophistication.

Watching A Life for a Life ( Zhizn za zhizn) from 1916 it doesn’t appear initially to be that ground-breaking or much different from many melodramas from the period but… the more you watch the clearer it becomes that Bauer is controlling almost every aspect of what you see with vision and verve.

Now this sounds obvious (and maybe it is) but I’ve rarely been as conscious of the actors acting when not centre stage - or of their movement and positioning indicating important issues of character or plot. The spaces they are in seem to be indicators both of emotion as well as circumstance.

As with the earlier After Death Bauer builds real spaces in which to act his dramas – they are spacious sets and built to the very edge of his relatively fixed camera frame and filled to brimming with flowers and ornaments. The actors use every inch of the stage and move around each other to be revealed in different parts of the set – reinforcing the impression of depth, solidity and the “real”.

The actors are in nearly constant motion and move back and forth and across the screen to signify different moods or developments in their relationships… I suppose you could call Bauer economical: no space goes unfilled and the actors’ movements not only tell the story they also create its rhythm.

Based on the novel by French writer, Georges Ohnet, Bauer sets the story in the Russian upper class set. Mrs Khromova (Olga Rakhmanova) is a wealthy industrialist who runs her factory very effectively – a strong female character and one you might not find in some other cultures at this time? She has a birth-daughter, the winsome but naive Musya (Lydia Koreneva) and another she has adopted, the beauteous Nata (played by Vera Kholodnaya famously Russia’s first film star ) .

Both girls are of marrying age and, whilst Nata has attracted the attention of the wealthy merchant Zhurov, (Ivane Perestiani) she does not love him. Into their lives comes the wastrel Prince Vladimir Bartinsky (Vitold Polonsky looking a little like an over made up Peter Capaldi…), who has no money and plenty of debts. He woos Musya as she is the only daughter who will inherit from their mother, yet, he has lost his heart to Nata who has no money nor, being adopted, the rights to any.

A bargain is struck between the two men and Zhurov offers to help the Prince marry Musya in return for having a free run at Nata… thus do both men abuse the trust of the family. Zhurov makes the Prince’s case to Madame Khromova but she is only finally swayed by the affection her daughter shows for this dubious character. Musya hardly knows what she’s getting into and her mother warily takes the chance.

There’s a superb set piece at the wedding when Bauer swoops the camera towards the wedding banquet and then out again after the speech: this is the heart of the story and we can only guess how things will now unfold. The omens are not good as Nata breaks down and confesses her true love to her mother who asks her to never put Musya’s happiness under threat.

These scenes are well worked with the characters moving on and off the dance floor and a breeze gently blowing Nata’s wedding viel across her face… ‘tis and ill wind…

The Prince and Musya go off on an extended honeymoon and on their return it is clear that the Prince has continued his wayward lifestyle and is gambling his wife’s dowry away. To make matters worse, the Prince is soon reunited with Nata in spite of her protestations that she now hates him. She can’t resist him and begins to help him defraud her husband. This Prince is something like the male version of a “vamp” bringing destruction to all those he touches…

There’s an horrific moment in which he re-encounters Nata and she gives in once again to his advances. Musya opens a curtain to recoil in horror as the two make love. It’s a great reaction from Lydia Koreneva.

Spoilers ahead: Zhurov uncovers the fraud and quickly sees the truth of his wife’s relationship with the Prince. He and Madame Khromova agonise over what course of action to take. She wants the Prince disposed of and he wants to tell the police but this course will only bring shame on them all.

No one seems capable of resolving the situation and the Prince prepares to brazen his way out by saying that there is no way to prove his guilt. But he reckons without the superior moral courage of Madame Khromova who taking the gun intended for his suicide, shoots him dead from across the room and then has the presence of mind to plant the weapon in his dead hands.

My teenage daughter and I were high-fiving at this point, possibly inappropriately, but in recognition of Khromova’s strength of character and willingness to act. Her daughters are both distraught but the evil in their lives has been removed. Not such a morally-questionable resolution in Russia in 1916...and it's difficult to not see political overtones.

It is also really striking to find such a strong female character in a story from this period and to find none of the men heroic.

The five leads all play well, especially Olga Rakhmanova as the matriarch, whilst Vitold Polonsky is wonderfully weasily as the pointless Prince.

The stand out though has to be the powerfully-enigmatic Vera Kholodnaya who is remarkably beautiful and also a fine naturalistic actor. Her expressive face – huge illuminated eyes – is matched by a dancer’s poise (she had classical ballet training at the Bolshoi Theatre no less) which suited Bauer’s mobile agenda, and an expressive physicality. At one point she almost shivers with disgust – a violent shake of her shoulders – whilst at other times she is more understated than you’d expect: carrying a lot within even though in torment.

A Life for a Life was the film which inspired the actor/singer Alexander Vertinsky to dub her ‘the Queen of Screen’ – he was besotted along with many of his countrymen, and she went from strength to strength as world war gave way to revolution in Russia.

Kholodyana made over 50 films but sadly only five remain. She died in the spanish flu pandemic in early 1919 and the Milestone DVD I watched has footage from her funeral in Odessa; a sad coda to a film that shows her in such vibrancy. The attendance at her passing was huge and she was much loved yet by the mid-twenties the communist regime had ordered the destruction of most of her films. We are lucky that enough remains to show us her talent and to enable her to live on as an artist.

Vera’s other extant work is difficult to find but there are reasonable copies of the following on youtube…it may be a good time to learn Russian though…
Children of the Age - Deti Veka (1915)
Be Silent, My Sorrow, Be Silent - Molchi, grust... molchi (1918)
The other titles¸ The Mirages - Mirazhi (1915) and A Corpse Living - Zhivoy trup (1918), are proving harder to track down!

A Life for a Life is available direct from Milestone as Volume 9: High Society of their Early Russian Film collection. It is based on the BFI restoration from the early 1990s and features a stirring piano accompaniment from Neil Brand. In addition to the main feature there’s also a winsome short comedy, Autosha Ruined by a Corset … proof that the Russians were equally capable of laughing as crying.

Immensely spirited, Bauer and Kholodyana are deserved of more attention. Overcome by events and ill-health they were major figures of world cinema at a time of great advances as well as social and political instability.