Quote of the Week

If people don't like your work, all the still pictures in the world can't help you and nothing written about you, even oceans of it, will make you popular.
--Jean Arthur

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Jean Arthur!

Born October 17, 1900. Died June 19, 1991.

She is one of my all-time favorite comic actresses. I even love the sound of her voice, which manages to be distinctive even in an age when almost every actress had a distinctive voice.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Jean Arthur!

Actress Jean Arthur was born this day in 1900. She was a big star today but she rarely gets mentioned outside of old movie blogs nowadays. She will be missed.

Movie Quote of the Week

I don’t say Joe’s the greatest thing that ever lived. I probably wouldn’t love him if he was. I’d just want to look at him. But you see, I’m not the greatest girl in the world either. Two people look at each other and they see something way deep inside that nobody else can -- and that’s it.
--Jean Arthur, The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)

Mistaken Identity Crisis

Suppose you woke up one day and found out that you looked just like Osama bin Laden. Suppose almost everyone you met thought you were bin Laden as well -- including the local police. Suppose some guy tried to collect the reward for bin Laden's capture by ratting you out to the cops. Suppose the only way you could prove you weren't bin Laden was if someone in authority finally vouched for you. And suppose the only way the cops could come up with to prevent a similar mistake in the future was to give you a note verifying to all would-be arresters that you were not actually bin Laden.

Now suppose you came home one night and found out that the real bin Laden had broken into your home and was prepared to steal that note away from you at gunpoint. And that if you didn't cooperate, he would take the note from your corpse's cold stiff fingers. What would you do then?

The above scenario would work just as well if you substituted the name Timothy McVeigh or Jeffrey Dahmer for bin Laden. For the whole point of the scenario is not to draw focus on just one evildoer but to point out how much it would stink if you were a totally innocent person who just happened to look like said evildoer.

Such a scenario is at the heart of 1935's The Whole Town's Talking, a dark comedy directed by -- of all people -- John Ford, a guy not normally associated with dark comedies. Among other things, the film was actor Edward G. Robinson's second attempt at a movie comedy and the true start of actress Jean Arthur's career as a comic lead. (She, of course, had been in comedies before but The Whole Town's Talking was the first such film to get her major attention.)

Robinson plays a dual role as a humble office worker named Arthur Ferguson and a vicious gangster named “Killer” Mannion. Mannion just happens to resemble Ferguson and when a fellow office worker sees Mannion's picture in the newspaper and comments on the resemblance, it starts a chain of events similar to the scenario described above.

Arthur plays one of Ferguson's office workers, a woman named Wilhelmina “Bill” Clark. Initially, she has nothing to do with Ferguson but as events go on, she becomes more and more involved with him. Unfortunately, said involvement ends up getting her kidnapped by Mannion's thugs and it eventually becomes up to Ferguson to save her, an visiting aunt and himself from an early grave. Unfortunately, he does not have a clue how to do that. Not only is he unable to stand up to Mannion but Mannion tricks him into a suicide mission that might end up having Ferguson killed by the local cops.

The Whole Town's Talking can best described as one of those odd comedies -- and yes, it is a comedy -- that were made in the good old days that nonetheless slipped through the cracks and that today are only remembered by a few confirmed film buffs. It is not a perfect movie. Among other things, it sets up a gag involving an untended bathtub that never pays off.

But it is not a bad movie either. And the questions it asks (how do you tell the innocent from the guilty, how do you avoid punishing the innocent, what can the innocent do to avoid such punishment) are questions that are still relevant today. Indeed, if there is one thing that most bothers me about this movie, it is that the questions it asks are not asked enough nowadays -- and are even more rarely answered.

Movie Quote of the Week

Why is it everyone in the world eats grapefruit when there are so many bananas running around loose?
--Jean Arthur, Whirlpool (1934)

The Clarissa Complex

I probably can come up with a hundred theories if Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington became so popular but if I had to pick just one, it would be this:

Almost every American, male or female, can't help identifying with Jean Arthur's Clarissa Saunders character when we look at the American political world. We would like to be as idealistic as Jimmy Stewart's Jefferson Smith but I suspect most of us identify more with Ms. Saunders. Why? Because over the years, we can't help but grow a bit cynical at the difference between what our politicians promise and what they deliver. And although we would like to truly think the best of them, we can't help fearing that we'd end up like suckers if we do so.

Yet every now and then, we meet a politician that gives us hope that the world of politics does not have to be the way that it is. We do not necessarily develop the same type of relationship with them as Ms. Saunders does with Mr. Smith but we do come to trust said politico to the point of abandoning our cynicism in favor of idealism. Perhaps because said politico chooses to encourage our more positive emotions instead of encouraging our most negative ones.

I must confess that I have a tendency to wax more than a little cynical about politics myself. (For example, it is not a coincidence that "trust not in princes" is one of my favorite Biblical quotes.) And yet I am idealistic enough to prefer a politician who encourages me to vote in favor of something over a politician who encourages me to vote against something. A politician who chooses to run a positive campaign as opposed to one who runs a negative one.

In any event, I would rather take a chance that the candidate of my choice is a genuine idealist like Jefferson Smith than to assume that he is more a cynical rogue like the title character of The Great McGinty. And no doubt that is the real reason I like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington so much.

Either that or else I really like the chance to look at Ms. Arthur for about two hours...

Dreaming of Jeannie with the Light Blonde Hair

Heh. First Jean Arthur woos me with her reaction to a coin in Only Angels Have Wings, then she does it again with her reaction to another coin in Easy Living, now she has me smitten with the note she slips Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. What can I say? I guess I'm an old softie.

Of course, it could be just that the contrarian in me hates how Ms. Arthur has been overlooked over the years. Nor do I like how she's been mocked for her distinctive voice -- as if having a distinctive voice is somehow supposed to be a handicap. Or maybe it is the way she manages to steal almost all her movies despite not exactly playing an aggressive character.

All I know is that I have yet to see a movie in which she has disappointed me. And there's not too many modern actresses about whom I can say the same thing.

I'll probably have more to say about Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in the near-future, but for now, I have to admit it had me at "starring Jean Arthur."

It's Not Easy Being Jean

Jean Arthur’s most memorable scene in Only Angels Have Wings involves a coin so I guess it’s no coincidence that her most memorable scene in 1937's Easy Living involves a coin as well. In this movie, she ponders breaking open her piggy bank to extract one last coin. And the expression that appears on her face while she’s doing this is almost worth the price of admission. So is her expression when she almost loses the coin, only to unexpectedly retrieve it.

The movie starts when Arthur’s character -- Mary Smith--accidentally receives a mink coat that has been thrown out the window by an irate businessman -- J.B. Ball -- who was attempting to punish his extravagant spouse. Ms. Smith is mistaken for Ball’s mistress and is eventually fired by her employer for setting a bad example. She eventually receives free lodgings in a nearby hotel whose owner hopes to parley Ms. Smith’s “reputation” as Ball’s mistress into free publicity for his otherwise failing enterprise. Poor Ms. Smith has no idea that she is the object of such controversy -- though it is fun to see how she adjusts to her new lifestyle. She spends her last dime -- the coin mentioned above -- in a local automat where she attracts the attention of an employee who just happens to be Ball’s son. And after that, things get really complicated.

It’s tempting to dismiss this movie as mere fluff but it’s still a lot better than what passes for mere fluff nowadays. Arthur does a great job of portraying someone who isn’t necessarily the smartest person in the room but not quite as dumb as the traditional blonde stereotype would have you believe. Her character has none of the child-woman qualities that one associates with the typical Marilyn Monroe character but she’s not as hard-boiled as your typical Barbara Stanwyck character either. Indeed, she occupies a happy medium between the two types that isn’t all that easy for an actress to pull off. I could see from this movie alone why she became such a popular actress because it certainly made me want to see more of her -- even more so than her appearance in Only Angels Have Wings.

Besides, the movie’s main points -- (1) that society often makes wrong assumptions about people and (2) society is more often prone to reward bad behavior than good -- are worth noting. While it’s tempting to see these points as being old-fashioned and out-of-date, one need only note how often the media trashes celebrities like Britney Spears for the most trivial of offenses -- and how often they reap attention upon people like Marla Maples who have little reason to deserve such attention -- to see that we haven’t come all that far from the era depicted in Easy Living. Given the weaknesses of human nature, we may never get all that far. But at least we can keep a sense of humor about it.

All the Classic* Movies That I Have Seen

1. Only Angels Have Wings (1939).

Cary Grant played a snarky guy who had been jilted by a former girlfriend and now had difficulty relating to any female. So totally not the type of guy I can identify with right now...

The film was one of those subtle thrillers in which the arrival of a key character was announced with a flash of lightning and a sound of thunder.

And yet in spite of it all, I kinda liked this film. If nothing, its ending was very memorable and emotionally satisfying.

Though I was kinda surprised to see Jean Arthur of all people -- an actress best known for playing homebodies like the mother in Shane and demure reporters like the one in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town -- playing a showgirl. Granted, she didn't fit the image one usually thinks of when one thinks of showgirls. (There's no way Ms. Arthur would ever be mistaken for, say, Jane Russell or Joan Blondell.) But she managed to pull it off.

I was even more surprised to see Rita Hayworth make an appearance. And though she played a character named Judy, Cary never once said the obvious “Judy, Judy, Judy” line so often attributed to him by celebrity impersonators. Yet another Hollywood myth bites the dust.

2. Holiday (1938).

Yet another Cary Grant movie. No, I don't have a thing for Cary Grant but I do admire his movies. And quite frankly, who wouldn't want to be a member of any club that has Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in it?

This movie has been eclipsed by its more well-known successor The Philadelphia Story, which is a shame. Both Grant and Hepburn gave memorable performances, and Lew Ayres actually managed to play the type of character I didn't think was possible -- an alcoholic character which was actually sympathetic.

Perhaps, it was because Ayres's character displayed a certain self-awareness about his drinking that certain characters in more recent films (Sideways, Crazy/Beautiful, etc.) have not. Ayres' character did not really ask us to pity him for his condition; indeed, he showed far more pity for his sibling (played by Katharine Hepburn) than for himself. And though we were not really told the reasons for his constant drinking (there was some hint of a riff between him and his father but it was never fully explained in detail), director George Cukor wasn't above dropping a few hints that might or might not have meant something. (For example, the way he responded to certain remarks Ms. Hepburn's character made about Mr. Grant's character.)

Anyway, the result was an enjoyable movie that really deserved to be far more well-known.

* “Classic” in this case meaning “made before 1970.”