March 18

Happy Birthday to Robert Donat, Peter Graves and Edward Everett Horton.

TCM celebrated with a Birthday salute to Edward Everett Horton. I first heard Mr. Horton on the Rocky & Bullwinkle as the voice of Fractured Fairy Tales. That was my favorite part of the show. He has such a great voice and it seemed the same in the 1930's as the 1960's. There was only 1 film I had seen before, Smarty I wrote a blog on this site last year on the film.

I watched Easy to Love a pre-code comedy. The main character Genevieve Tobin is married to Adolphe Menjou. Genevieve and her husband go out with friends, Genevieve's friend Mary Astor and Adolphe's friend Edward Everett Horton. They take cars to a the married couple's house Genevieve and Edward and Adolphe & Mary. Each couple is kissing in the backseat. Adolphe agrees to see Mary the next day at 2:30, he tells his wife he is playing polo. The couple have separate bedrooms with a connecting door. The next day the wife goes to see a friend of theirs, a doctor. She finds out her husband has not been playing polo for months. In the same building she sees a detective's office and hires him to follow her husband, played by Hugh Hubert. Very quickly Hugh finds out what is going on and gives the information to Genevieve. She calls Edward and tells him that she will become his lover and she wants to look over an apartment. Pretending they are on the wrong floor she goes to the door number the detective gave her and Mary opens the door. Adolphe hears his wife at the door and runs into the bedroom. Mary states she is visiting a female friend who has stepped out. There is a cigar in the ashtray. Mary states it is hers and smokes the cigar (for quite awhile). Mary sees a hat on the chair and puts it under the seat cushion. Genevieve decides to tour the apartment and Adolphe goes into the closet. Genevieve tells Mary that she and Edward are going to become lovers and are renting an apartment in the building as a love nest and that she knows there is a man in the closet, which Mary says it is a General out of uniform. Adolphe in the closet becomes very upset at this. The couple leave and when Edward puts his hat on, it is too small but he doesn't notice. After Genevieve and Edward leave Adolphe comes out of the closet and leaves with a hat too big. He goes to Edward who realizes he was there and he won't say anything. Adolphe wants him to leave his wife alone.

When he gets home, Genevieve is getting ready for her dinner party by taking a bath. They talk but he doesn't look at her while she is in the bath. She throws the soap by him and he hands her the soap giving her quite a long look over. When Genevieve is getting ready she asks Adolphe for assistance, which he does. Mary comes in at that time and is jealous. Everybody comes clean and they know what is going on. They talk about divorces which greatly upsets their 17 year old daughter who is engaged. The next day Genevieve and Edward go shopping. When they get to her house she asks him to take the packages to her bedroom. He is upset that her husband is in the next room. This is a great scene. The men are jealous of each other and don't trust each other alone with Genevieve. The men turn at the same time, they close the door at the same time, they come back at the same time, they look at each other in the doorway at the same time and the scene ends when Adolphe in the doorway of his room watches Edward in the stairway. The couple argue and decide that they are going to divorced and he is going to leave. They call their sweethearts to come over. The daughter comes in and finds out what is going on. She and her fiance talk and they tell her parents that they are going to live together and not get married. The parents of course become very upset. The girl and her fiancee go to a hotel. The parents follow. Right after the parents leave, Mary and Edward arrive and they also go to the hotel. At the hotel the young couple won't let the parents in the room because they are in bed. Edward and Mary show up. Adolphe get the ax from the fire extinguisher and threatens to break down the door. A maid comes by and opens the door for them. The young couple are in separate twin beds, covers up to their neck. All the people argue. A justice of the peace comes in and the parents try to get him the marry the young couple but he can't marry unwilling people. He gets the daughter to tell the exact story. The justice says that Adolphe is crazy for messing around. Mary and Edward leave together. The young couple are already married. The parents have a room reserved for them and Adolphe says he is not going to play any more polo.


I also watched Sing and Like It with Edward as a Broadway producer. During a safe robbery, gangster Nate Pendleton he hears ZaSu Pitts sing a song about mother and it is the most beautiful thing he has ever heard, he weeps. ZaSu cannot sing. It is not awful, but is not good. Nate decides to get her into a Broadway production. He offers to finance a production for Edward if ZaSu sings her song. Her boyfriend is not happy, but wants her to have her chance. ZaSu moves in with Nate and his girlfriend Ruby. She is also a performer and is upset that Nate is not going to help her, but ZaSu. After a bit of rough housing the girlfriend decides to accept ZaSu and becomes her understudy. That night leaves the window open and feeds her pickles, cherries, ice cream and milk as a snack to get her with a cold and indigestion, but ZaSu is very healthy. Rehearsals begin and no one wants to work with ZaSu voluntarily. Nate and his crew force them to work. Nate comes up with a publicity stunt to kidnap ZaSu. Ruby blackmails a gang member to make it real. Nate goes all over town to every hood to see who has her. The gang member confesses and ZaSu's boyfriend makes Ruby confess. When they get to where ZaSu was held the kidnappers were tied up. ZaSu was taken by other people. The kidnappers want $15,000 which Nate pays and ZaSu is returned. To get tickets sold, the gang forces the ticket sellers to convince people to see the show. A famous critic is in the audience. People talking outside the theater state to watch the critic not the rest of the audience. During a so so comedy type Vaudeville routine the gang member forces the critic to laugh. So other people start to laugh. When ZaSu sings the critic squeezes his finger to force himself to cry. After the song, there is dead silence. The gang member starts the critic to applaud, say bravo and stand in ovation. Everyone else starts to do the same. ZaSu has has her “hour of triumph” and leaves the show and Nate. She then goes back to her previous life and boyfriend who has enough money to start there farm.

ZaSu is the star of the film. There is a really talented cast. Nate Pendleton has the biggest role as the tough gangster with a very strong love of mother. Pert Kelton gets knocked around most of the film. In one scene her character gets two black eyes. Edward Everett Horton plays a Broadway producer who is trying to make the show work. He has moments of frustration, anxiety, and complacency. My favorite character is probably Nate's right hand man Toots portrayed by Ned Sparks. Is is the interpreter for Nate. He either explains to people what Nate is asking or he tells Nate what other people are saying to him. He has a lot of one liners.