"Curly Top" (1935) Review: Overtly cutesy, but not in a bad way

Shirley Temple was America's sweetheart and saving grace during Depression era America. The little girl was all of 4 when she appeared in her first film The Red-Haired Alibi in 1932 and by 1934 she appeared in Bright Eyes, which was the first film expressly written for her. Curly Top  came on the heels of Bright Eyes, and is in many ways a similar picture. In Bright Eyes, Temple plays a lovable little girl who is the subject of a custody battle between a pilot and her mother's rich employer when her mother passes away. Curly Top follows Temple as an adorable and somewhat mischievious young orphan, who is whisked away to be with a rich orphanage trustee who has told her she has been adopted by a man named Jones, but it is really him. In both films, Temple is overtly cutesy, but not in a bad way. She was a fine and possibly the best child actress there ever was. In looking up information about the film, it was unearthed that Temple's mother coached her through her scenes, but her performance does not show any signs of coaching. She is a natural. Her co-stars in the film were unknown to me, John Boles as the Trustee, and Rochelle Hudson as Temple's sister, Mary, whom Boles fall in love with. The film also has several songs, 2 for Temple, 2 for Boles, and 1 for Hudson. This is the film where Temple's famous "Animal Crackers in my Soup number debuted.

Animal Crackers in my Soup!

The film also includes an expert supporting cast of character actors and actresses including underused Jane Darwell as a kindly matron of the oprhanage, hilarious Arthur Treacher as Reynolds, the butler, and Rafaela Ottiano as a firm matron of the orphanage. Ottiano has minimal screen time, but is immensely memorable. The film contains one of my favorite exchanges in which Ottiano's Mrs. Higgins is scolding Temple for letting her pony she inherited (and she also has a duck) from her parents into the orphanage and out of the rain. Missus Higgins tells Elizabeth that she is going to send her duck and pony away and temple says "My duck can do a wonderful trick! My duck can lay an egg." Mrs Higgins sneered back "Just what is so wonderful about that?" and Temple responds "Well, can you lay an egg?" It's an adorable and funny moment in the show, well executed by Ottiano.

The main conflict in Curly Top is a romantic one. Mary and Mr. Morgan (Boles) have fallen for one another but a young pilot named Jimmy (Maurice Murphy) has also fallen in love with Mary and proposes. Mary accepts, only after she overhears Morgan saying he doesn't love her. In the end of course, all the wrinkles are ironed out and they all live happily ever after.

Boles and Hudson

It's a silly plot line, but just what Depression era audiences craved. Temple was the beacon of hope for early and mid '30's audiences and her roles reflected the times. She was often cast as a young precocious little girl who won everyone over, and she had certainly done that with the American public.

Sheet music for "Animal Crackers" with promotion for the film

"Cain and Mabel" (1936) Review: Overlooked 1930's Romcom gem

Davies in a 1936 publicity still

Gable in a screenshot from the movie

Marion Davies may be a name unfamiliar to some classic movie fans, and if she is, you must soon become acquainted with her and her work. Davies was infamous for being the mistress of William Randolph Hearst (who produced and/or paid for a lot of her pictures), but her real crowning glory should be her comedic acting chops. Davies had her start in the silents, including the great silent gem Show People in which she plays a bouncy country girl who breaks into movies. Her first talking picture was Marianne in 1929, and it was also released in a silent version. Cain and Mabel came at the end of Davies' career and it is her second to last picture. Davies' talkie career was sprinkled with great leading men, including Leslie Howard (1931's Five and Ten), Robert Montgomery (1932's Blondie of the Follies and her last picture 1937's Ever Since Eve), Bing Crosby (1933's Going Hollywood), and Gary Cooper (1934's Operator 13).  Her co star in Cain and Mabel is Clark Gable, who at this point was a fairly big star because of his role in 1934's It Happened One Night, which Cain and Mabel seems to be in response to. Gable and Davies had appeared together earlier in 1932's Polly of the Circus.

Davies and Gable show off some great romantic tension in "Cain and Mabel".

Cain and Mabel follows two young career people on the rise: Waitress turned hoofer Mabel O'Dare and prizefighter Larry Cain. The pair meet in a typically 'meet cute" romantic comedy way: Mabel has the hotel room above Cain's and is keeping him up with her dance practice, while he is trying to rest up for a fight. Due to this, they at first have a mutual disdain for one another. Mabel's hokey show Words and Music is becoming a flop and Larry's boxing career is on the skids and so Mabel's friend and publicity man Aloysius  Rielly (Roscoe Karns, another holdover from It Happened One Night) cooks up a phony romance for the pair.  The film is a great romantic comedy and has many hilarious moments.

William Collier and Allen Jenkins (both behind) cheer on Clark Gable in a scene from "Cain and Mabel"

In addition to Gable and Davies' solid romantic chemistry, it is greatly strengthened by it's terrific supporting cast, which in addition to Karns, Allen Jenkins, Walter Cattlet, Ruth Donnelly, David Carlyle, and William Collier, Sr. Pert Kelton also has a hilarious bit part as a mouthy chorus girl. The film also includes some outrageously over the top Busby Berkley style musical numbers, choreographed by Bobby Connolly. These are all very grand and silly, with big costumes and outlandishly complicated sets that don't make sense for a stage show, but such is Hollywood. Something should also be said about the screenplay written by Laird Doyle from a story by H.C. Witwer. The dialogue is oftentimes hilariously funny, and some lines take a moment to sink in, which means that  the great supporting cast is well seasoned in comedic timing. The direction by Lloyd Bacon is fast and breezy, much like a great romantic comedy should be. Cain and Mabel is a forgotten 1930's romantic comedy gem and should not be missed!

Character actress tribute: Mary Wickes

The leading ladies of the golden age of Hollywood are great and all, but some of the greatest performances came from the character actresses, those actresses backing up the leading lady. Born Mary Wickenhauser, Mary Wickes was a perfect example of the character actress, and worked alongside some of classic Hollywood's greatest actresses. Wickes was a tall woman, she was 5 foot 10 inches and she had a gruff voice, making her perfect for these supporting roles with light comedy in them

in "The Man Who Came To Dinner"

Her first screen role, Miss Preen in The Man Who Came To Dinner, was a recreation of the role she played in the Broadway production. Wickes would go on to appear in many films in supporting roles. She played sarcastic nurse Dora in Now, Voyager, a crowning achievement of Bette Davis's career, appeared with Abbott and Costello in Who Done It?, and in the '50's appeared as long suffering maid Stella in the Doris Day musical On Moonlight Bay and it's sequel By The Light Of The Silvery Moon.She also appeared in the beloved classic musical White Christmas as housekeeper Emma and played a maid named "Katie" in Annette Funicello's self titled serial on The Mickey Mouse Club. She would appear with Davis again in 1948's June Bride and Day again in 1959's Leave It To Jane and appeared as one of the "Pick-a-little ladies" in the 1962 film adaptation of the musical The Music Man.

With Bette Davis in "June Bride"

 In the '60's Wickes appeared in The Trouble with Angels and Where Angels Go Trouble Follows a pair of films where she played a nun. Much later in her career, she would appear as a nun again, in the popular Sister Act films. This is where I first saw her as a youngster in the 90's and I loved her gruff line delivery. She also appeared as Aunt March in the 1994 version of Little Women. Wickes also appeared on television throughout her career and frequently with Lucille Ball in her many television series, including an episode of I Love Lucy where she played a ballet instructor. 

With Lucille Ball, 1952; This picture always makes me smile!

Mary Wickes is an actress who should not be forgotten in the scope of Hollywood character actresses. She passed away in 1995, before the release of her final role in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She is one of my favorite actresses and I hope that if you did not know about her, this post has piqued your interest enough to take a look into her widespread career.

Wickes as Sister Mary Lazarus in "Sister Act" and as Aunt March in "Little Women"

"The Kissing Bandit" (1948) Review: Frank Sinatra and Kathryn Grayson in a silly but fun comedy musical

The Kissing Bandit was an attempt by MGM to build up Frank Sinatra as a leading man. The result is a lively, bright, and goofy comedy musical. Sinatra plays Ricardo, a California born, Boston-bred young man who returns to California to take over the family business, not knowing that his father was the infamous Kissing Bandit, so named because he kissed all the women after he was done with his thievery. Ricardo is the last possible candidate to take up his father's mask. He is proper and uncoordinated, and in his funny entrance he literally crashes through the inn that his father owned, having fallen off of his horse. J. Carroll Naish plays the comic relief on the male side as Chico, who was Ricardo's father's right hand man. Frank Sinatra is fine, but stiff at times in his role.

Sinatra as Ricardo and J. Carroll Naish as Chico

Sinatra's leading lady is operatic coloratura singer Kathryn Grayson, and this is a strange pairing. When they are doing songs by themselves, both actors shine, but their lone duet in the film (and thank goodness there is only one!) just doesn't work. Sinatra's smooth, jazz crooning is an odd, almost jarring pairing with Grayson's operatic arias. The film would have been stronger had they paired Frank with someone whose singing style wasn't as vastly different. The songs in the film are all good and memorable, including the Grayson solo "Tomorrow Means Romance", the Sinatra solo "Siesta", and my favorite song in the film "What's Wrong With Me?", which both Grayson and Sinatra sing. The songs were written by Nacio Herb Brown and Earl K. Brent. Brown had been paired frequently with Arthur Freed in the '20's and '30's and their songs were later used as the basis for possibly the best known movie musical of all time, Singin' in the Rain. "What's Wrong With Me", in fact, was used in the stage version of Singin'. 

Ricardo and Theresa (Kathryn Grayson) look tenderly at each other in a scene from "The Kissing Bandit".

In addition to Naish, the film has a fine supporting cast of character actors, including Mildred Natwick as Grayson's man hungry aunt, and Clinton Sundberg as the bumbling Colonel Gomez, who keeps getting demoted. The plotline is thin and pure silliness, and Sinatra and Grayson have a flimsy chemistry, but it is held up by several strong musical performances and two cool dance sequences, one that includes Ricardo Montalban, Cyd Charisse, and Ann Miller. The comedy is not lacking though, and I had a smile on my face throughout. Overall, The Kissing Bandit, provides a fun time-filler for a late night or rainy day.

Annette Funicello (1942-2013)

This is my first blog post! Today is a sad day for us pop culture addicts. One of the most beautiful, talented, and kind hearted stars, Annette Funicello, has passed away. She was the original "Disney Starlet", a precursor to that of Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Bridgit Mendler. Often just credited as "Annette", Funicello starred in The Mickey Mouse Club, beginning in 1955. Her association with the company continued into films and music. She had pop hits with "Tall Paul" (#7 in 1959) and "Pineapple Princess" (#11 in 1960). Both songs were written by Disney songwriters Robert and Richard Sherman, who did the music for the films Mary Poppins and The Happiest Millionaire. 

                                        

  In films, Funicello appeared in two Disney firsts: The first live-action Disney comedy (1959's The Shaggy Dog) and the first live-action Disney musical (1961's Babes In Toyland). Also in 1961 she recorded the theme song for the popular Disney comedy The Parent Trap with Babes In Toyland co-star Tommy Sands. This is where I remember seeing her as a child in the mid-1990's. I would rent Babes in Toyland frequently from the local library and I remember being quite taken with Annette's beauty.

Post-Disney, Annette appeared in the popular Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon. She appeared in a total of six:  Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Pajama Party (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965). 

In her later years, Funicello still remained with cameos in films and television. She appeared on Full House in 1991 with her frequent co-star Frankie Avalon. She also was very vocal about her struggle with Multiple Sclerosis. Due to the disease, she had lost the ability to walk in 2004 and the ability to speak in 2009, which brings us to today. I have always loved Annette Funicello and I will greatly appreciate her mark on films and television.