March 15

George Brent

TCM celebrated with a Birthday salute to George Brent. Quite a few people on the site think that he is bland. It is true his is not the most overpowering charismatic actor but he is talented. Last week Robert Osborne stated that women in Hollywood wanted to work with him because he didn't overshadow his leading ladies. I thought that was the perfect way to describe him. I would have liked a Kay Francis film, but there was a nice variety shown. I think he is very talented. He may not outshine the leading woman, but he does outshine the men in the film.

I watched They Called it Sin with Loretta Young. Loretta plays a Kansas woman who dates a New York man, Jimmy traveling through the state. She spends the day with him until almost midnight, telling her mother that she had nothing to be ashamed of. Her mother tells her that she is not her mother, her mother was a singer passing through and they don't know who her father is, she took her in because her husband asked her to. Loretta goes to New York to find Jimmy. When she gets to his apartment George Brent is also there as a doctor friend. He takes her to a hotel as Jimmy's fiancee comes over for dinner. When Jimmy tells his fiancee he met the girl in church her father spits out his drink (I love that). The next day Loretta finds out that he is engaged and leaves the hotel without a forwarding address. She applies as chorus girl at every agency. At this point she doesn't drink or smoke. At one agency she meets Una Merkle as a cartwheeling southern dancer. Una who has been in the business a long time ambushes the producer to watch her dance to Loretta's piano playing. The producer likes how Loretta looks and plays music. They are both hired and become roommates. Una as a dancer in front of the chorus and Loretta is hired to play at rehearsal. The producer decides to help her with her music compositions. They record her playing the songs. The story of Jimmy's marriage is on the front page of the newspapers. At a party George sees Loretta with the producer, who is a rouge and goes to talk with her. Loretta is now smoking and drinking. When the producer calls her “Sweets” George whips his head around to look at him with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. They occasionally date, but Loretta acts like she doesn't really care for him. George asks him to marry him but she refuses since she doesn't love him, she sees him as a friend. At a party the producer tells Loretta that she is invited to a breakfast party of which she is the only guest. She refuses. The producer sees her and Jimmy kiss and decides he is through with her. He leaves her a check stating “we are closing you as of today”. The next day Una is getting ready for rehearsal and sings a song. It is a new song in the show, which Loretta wrote. Loretta furious that the producer has taken her music she goes down to the rehearsal theater to confront him. Both Loretta and Una stand up to the producer. The producer stated that he wrote the numbers and has the two women thrown out. It takes two big men to get rid of each woman. There is a story in the newspapers about the incident. Jimmy goes to Loretta. He then goes to confront the producer at his apartment. They argue. The producer who is already drunk, falls off the balcony. Jimmy scared runs away. Loretta goes to the police to admit that she was the reason he was hurt to protect him. The producer is in very bad shape. George wants to clear Loretta and performs surgery so that the producer can talk to tell what really happened. After the surgery the producer wakes up for a brief time and states what really happened. It was accident and Loretta is cleared. Jimmy decides to leave his wife, but Loretta states she is going to marry George. There are some great stylized framing of the actors, especially Loretta.

I then watched Weekend Marriage. Loretta Young also stars in this film. She is interested in a man who won't commit to marriage. Her sister-in-law played by Aline MacMahon (who is a working married woman) helps her trick the man into marriage. At first Loretta resists, but falls into the temptation of marriage. The man did not want to marry until he had enough money to live in proper style. He was going to take a job offer in Brazil, but they get married instead. Loretta quits her job and is completely bored. She decides to go back to work. It is a pre-code film so the husband and wife share a bed and even kiss and become romantic, first thing in the morning. She works long hours and the husband gets upset. One of which is after a day of work she goes home and cleans, makes the bed and does the dishes. The husband went to visit a friend in his workshop. George works at the same company as Loretta. One day a female co-worker asks Loretta come home with her and help her stand up to her father who wants her to marry a man. The father forces her to marry the man by physically abusing her. Loretta's husband who was making dinner when she called to say she would be home late, left the food where it was and left the apartment. When Loretta gets home about 10:30 PM he is not home. A few hours later she gets a phone call, he is in jail for drunkenness. When she goes down and bails him out a woman was also arrested with him and she pays her bail. When Loretta gets to work, her boss offers her a job in St. Louis as his executive assistant. She and her husband argue, he won't go to St. Louis even though he does not have a job. He leaves her and blames her for his lost opportunity (which I knew would come up at some point). While there George states that he is interested in her. At her birthday party she gets a telegram that her husband is ill. She leaves on a mail cargo plane. George looks at her when she leaves, knowing he will never see her again. When she gets to her husbands apartment, the woman who she bailed out is there. She has been taking care of him. The doctor (who spends hours with the patient) gives her a lecture about woman's role in the house (old fashioned, egotistical and chauvinistic lecture in my opinion). She sees her husband telling him she was fired and will be staying. The woman who was taking care of him packs her suitcase and leaves. There are a lot of really great scenes in this film, better than the doctors lecture. Aline going through the whole scenario of how to trap the man, writing the notes in shorthand in a book for easy reference. At the very beginning of the film the couple are at the theater to see a Lee Tracy film, while in line they hide behind a large man to kiss. At a restaurant Loretta and her co-worker talk about what they want out of life doesn't matter, it is the men who run everything and are selfish with their desires and careers.

I also watched So Big and The Painted Veil. I had planned to go to bed early, but I got so engrossed in the films I had to stay up and watch them.