Just a quick note for film and Precode lovers. The Media History Project is a wonderful source for an abundance of fan magazines
from 1911 to 1963. They can be downloaded or viewed online for free depending
on your internet capabilities. The element I love the best is that the website
includes an extensive collection of Photoplay
magazines which I think is one of the best overall fan magazines of the Precode
era. Photoplay features a wide
variety of film reviews, gossip, articles, posters and vintage advertisements.
But there’s more, with many copies of Hollywood,
Motion Picture, Picture-Play and New Movie
magazines also available. I recommend everyone check it out!
Precode Spreads
From 1934 Film Fun Magazines taken from blogspot: Allure
Filled with illicit relationships, alcohol,
prostitution, murder without consequence and tons of sexual innuendo,
‘Mandalay’ (1934) is a perfect example of a Precode film at its best. The
Warners/ First National production packs a punch at around 65 minutes, a
perfect vehicle for the then reigning queen, Kay Francis, alongside habitual
irresistible ‘bad-boy’ Ricardo Cortez.
Francis plays Tania Borisoff, a Russian refugee
living with her lover, gunrunner, Tony Evans (Cortez) on a yacht in Rangoon,
Burma. One night, Tony is offered a lucrative contract trafficking weapons for
nightclub owner Nick (Warner Oland). Nick knows of Tony’s relationship with
Tania and is using the deal as a front to lure her to work as one of his
principle “hostesses” (a euphemism for prostitute). The plan works and Tony
abandons destitute Tania at the nightclub and alone, depressed and hopeless,
Tania agrees to work as a “hostess” for Nick.
Renaming herself, “Spot White”, Tania creates a new
persona for herself; tempting and flirting with men while remaining cool and
aloof all with the aim of receiving expensive gifts and money. It is a game
that she succeeds at but one that draws the attention of law enforcement. The
Police Commissioner (Reginald Owen) eventually breaks and threatens to deport
her because of her negative influence on the army officers stationed in the
area. Calmly, Spot White blackmails the commissioner using his behaviour
towards her one night at a masked party and showing him gifts as evidence. He
caves to her pressures, removes the deportation order and even gives her 10,000
rupees for her silence.With her money,
Tania is now free and leaves the nightclub boarding a steamer destined for
Mandalay, Burma. She takes on a new identity as Marjorie Lang and aims to put
her past behind her. On the boat, Tania meets an endearing but broken doctor,
Dr Gregory Burton (Lyle Talbot) who – because of his equally troubled past –
has become an alcoholic. They create a repour with Tania persuading Gregory to
become sober and slowly fall in love. The couple know the relationship will be
short-lived as the doctor is travelling to a camp in the hills plagued with a
contagious fever and is unlikely to survive long.
But Tania’s past couldn’t be forgotten for long as
Tony, back from his trip, has entered the boat intending to win Tania back. He
books a cabin in a room adjourning hers and begins harassing her to continue
their affair. Tania, not forgetting his treatment of her, refuses him. That
night Tony receives a letter warning him that the police are after him and to
escape. Instead of running, Tony decides to fake his own death. He lures Tania
to his apartment for a drink, spikes his drink with poison and ensuring that
her glass is clearly marked with her lipstick, opens a window making police
believe the drugged man has fallen overboard.Tony waits, patiently, hiding on a lower deck while Tania is instantly
implicated and charged with the death. Thankfully with the assistance of Dr.
Gregory, Tania is cleared and the death is ruled a suicide. Later that night,
seeing the police have abandoned their case, Tony enters Tania’s cabin still
eager for a reconciliation. In a truly Precode moment, Tania poisons Tony and
he falls overboard to his death. Finally rid of her past, Tania and Dr Gregory
disembark intent on starting a new life in the diseases ridden camps of
Mandalay.
For Precode and Miss Francis lovers admittedly this
is a very formulaic movie. Francis is spectacular in a strong dramatic role
playing between a sultry vamp and a damaged women heavily influenced by her
circumstances. Ricardo Cortez and Lyle Talbot are great male counterparts
neither portrayed as heroes or villains but realistic depression-era
characters. Director Michael Curtiz manages to pack a wide array of interesting
shot types, wipes and opticals in the relatively short film. The movie’s most
thought provoking element is its ending. It is a pure double-edged conclusion –
Tania is finally liberated from her past and has found love with another man;
however, she has agreed to follow him to a life that will probably bring both
their deaths. This ending is an integral part of many realistic, Precode dramas
and makes the film a believable and engrossing tale.
Known for her performance as the exotic and sinful,
Ancaria, in ‘Sign of the Cross’ (1932), actress and dancer Joyzelle Joyner was, in reality, more complicated and mysterious then
the glamorous, Eastern characters she played.
Joyner was in fact born in the US
in Alabama on the 27th of August 1905. She began her film career as
an extra, first appearing as a slave girl in the silent epic ‘Ben-Hur: A Tale
of Christ’ (1925) and following it with small roles in ‘Dance Madness’ (1926)
and ‘Out of the Past’ (1927). Her persona and performances were growing as
audiences began to notice the striking, exotic actress. In 1927, tragedy struck
and was inevitably followed by scandal. Joyner, now aged only 22, was married
to Dudley V. Brand who, jealous of his wife’s acting career, wanted desperately
for her to behave like a traditional housewife instead of a Hollywood sex
symbol.
More provocative shots rumoured to be of Joyner as Salome
In mid-August 1927 Brand’s
temper finally gave way and he shot his young wife twice through a closed
bedroom door, injuring but not killing Joyner. The August 11 papers included
articles on the scandal. Below is one from The Miami News:
Film Star
Shot by Piqued Husband.
Jealousy of a wife’s desire for a
film career was blamed by the police for the shooting here last night of
Joyzelle Joyner, 20, dancer and screen actress.
Miss Joyner, wounded in her left
arm when her estranged husband, Dudley V. Brand, shot through the closed door
of her bedroom, was taken to a hospital where physicians said her injury was
not serious. Police were seeking Brand, who fled immediately after the
shooting.
After two shots had been sent
through the door of Miss Joyner’s room, her 19-year-old brother, Clarence
wrested the pistol from Brand’s hand.
Joyner in 'Just Imagine' (1930)
Joyner promptly divorced Brand and subsequently
married film director Phil Rosen in 1929 and,
without any marital restraints, continued her film career ambitions.
The new decade brought a surge
in Joyner’s popularity and a major role in David Butler’s controversial sci-fi
film ‘Just Imagine’ (1930). Appearing opposite Maureen O’Sullivan and El
Brendel she played futuristically and quite minimally costumed twin queens of
Mars – Boo Boo and Loo Loo. After this
role she appeared in several films in her usual type-casted role as the ‘exotic
dancer’ and generally uncredited until she landed her standout part two years
later.
Another shot of Joyner in 'Just Imagine' (1930)
Directed by the king of the religious
epic, Cecil B. deMille, ‘The Sign of the Cross’ (1932) starred Claudette
Colbert, Fredric March and Elissa Landi in a story set in Ancient Rome during
the reign of Emperor Nero. Like many of deMille’s Precode films the original
print focused mainly on the struggle between purity and sin and included many
sexually charged and provocative scenes. Joyner, portraying immoral dancer
Ancaria, is prominent in one of these shots when she is encouraged by Marcus
Superbus (March) to dance around Mercia (Landi) and perform the song ‘Dance of
the Naked Moon’ in order to “warm her into life”. The deMille was pressured by
the Hays Office to remove the sequence but he refused and left it in the final
124 minute cut. The scene – as well as several gladiatorial fighting and nudity
parts – were removed from the reissues following the 1934 code changes.
However, they were replaced MCA-Universal for the 1993 edition.
Joyner in 'Sign of the Cross' (1932)
In the same year as her
triumph in ‘Sign of the Cross’, Joyner performed in two credited roles in
westerns ‘Whistlin’ Dan’ and ‘The Vanishing Frontier’ with Johnny Mack Brown.
She appeared in a handful of films before retiring from the screen prematurely
in 1935. These include featured parts as Vavara in ‘I Believed in You’ (1934)
and Chanda in horror film ‘House of Mystery’ (1934), under the name Laya Joy.
Her last film was uncredited as a dancer in ‘Dante’s Inferno’ (1935). The
conclusion of the Hays Code in 1934 appeared to put a standstill Joyner’s
career similar to many other actresses of the period, such as, Mae West and
Dorothy Mackaill. She lived a private and quiet life until her death in Orange
California on August 27, 1980. Strangely, the Social Security
Death Index reported her last name at the time of her death to be ‘Brand’
showing she had legally kept the name of her first husband who had injured her
decades before.
Below
is a colour clip from ‘Wild People’ (1932) where Joyner performs as The Panther
Lady:
I submitted this review as part of Movie Waffler’s ‘1001
Overlooked Movies’ project which aims to promote films that were left out of
the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ series. ‘The Divorcee’ (1930) is
one of those essential Precode films with a spectacular performance by Miss
Norma Shearer. I encourage all bloggers to get involved in The Waffler’s almost
impossible task, more information can be found here.
“If the world permits the husband to philander – why
not the wife?” The controversial question posed by filmmakers in the landmark
film, ‘The Divorcee’ (1930) that ushered in a new generation of woman’s rights,
social freedoms, political ideologies and not to mention the new fad of talking
pictures. Based on an equally provocative novel, ‘The Ex-Wife’ by Ursula Parrot,
it stars a radiant Norma Shearer alongside Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel and
Robert Montgomery who play members of New York’s young, wealthy social elite.
Jerry (Shearer) is the centre of the group and object of many men’s gazes,
including Ted Martin (Morris), Paul (Nagel) and Don (Montgomery). She is
hopelessly in love with Ted and they become engaged one night at a party. The
news devastates Paul, who after a night of excessive drinking, crashes a car
permanently disfiguring Dorothy (Helen Johnson). Racked with guilt and still
infatuated with Jerry, he marries Dorothy who had been in love with him. A
short time later Jerry and Ted also marry.
The film skips to three years in the future; Ted and
Jerry are still happily married while Dorothy and Paul share a distant but
still binding relationship. On the night of their wedding anniversary and at
another one of the couple’s parties, a young dark-haired beauty, Janice (Mary
Doran), arrives claiming to know Ted. Jerry soon discovers that Janice and Ted
had had a brief affair, that it was over and “didn’t mean a thing” to Ted who
claimed he was still totally in love with his wife. He tells Jerry jovially to
“snap out of it” and “have a man’s point of view” about the situation. He
leaves that night for a business trip and Jerry lonely and confused responds by
having a one night stand with his best friend Don. The mood changes the morning
after and Jerry is both guilty and disgusted by her actions and, despite the
protestations of Don, tells Ted the truth when he returns. Using the
euphemistic phrase that she had “balanced [their] accounts,” she explains that
she had behaved the same as he had and to not act conventionally. But he sees
her adultery as ruining her and a wife’s pure and chaste identity and reacts
angrily. That night when Ted is preparing to leave, Jerry cries, “from now on
you’re the only man in the world that my door is closed to.”
The couple are soon divorced and Jerry begins
exploring the loose and free lifestyle she had been missing. She falls into a
world of partying, alcohol, travelling and men. Changing everything from her
personality to her morals and even her clothing to escape from her past.
Similarly, Ted falls into a trap of cheap alcohol, parties and country-hoping,
equally wanting to forget. Months later exhausted and in the arms of another
man, Jerry runs into Paul, who is still married to Dorothy, on a train. They
begin reminiscing about the previous years, mistakes and the future. Paul
persuades Jerry to join him on his yacht for a relaxing holiday and influenced
by his enduring love for her and desire for stability, Jerry consents to marry
him. A few weeks before their intended nuptials, Dorothy confronts Jerry and
pleads for her to give up Paul. This makes Jerry contemplate her past and her
desires for the future, making for a more conservative and conventional ending.
Norma Shearer
triumphs as both the adoring wife and controversial divorcee. She is bubbly and
fluid and surprising alluring in her golden, revealing costumes towards the end
of the film. Her performance centered the film and was a good choice for the
Academy Award for Best Actress. However, she was assisted by the well derived
plot and cast who shape the exploration of changing morality in America. It is
in its themes that the films significance lies. It probes the existing sexual double standards
from the viewpoint of a middle ground between ridged Victorian and the altering
Twentieth Century values. The film, despite its age, is surprising modern and
relevant to contemporary audiences and well worth a watch.
There has been a bit of talk about Loretta Young’s
wonderful costumes in the crime film, ‘Midnight Mary’ (1933), on Facebook
lately and I thought I would delve further into it myself. I don’t think I have
seen Miss Young looking so radiant and stunning nor have I seen her behaving so
sinful. It seems beauty and immorality go hand-in-hand in the Precode era.
Her
clothing was curtsy of famous film costume designer, Adrian. Born, Adrian Adolph Greenberg,
he had been MGM’s chief designer for five years when he was enlisted to create
pieces for Young’s bad-girl role.
He was known for the creation of provocative and eye-catching
evening gowns over the early thirties and beyond. His signature style included
simple dresses – often silver or gold – with emphasis on draping and external
elements, such as, fringes or ruffles. These can be seen in these fabulous
costumes for Loretta Young from ‘Midnight Mary’.
Or look at Una Merkel’s Adrian designs from the same
year:
Adrian’s other triumphs include creating iconic
gowns for Norma Shearer in her Oscar winning role, ‘The Divorcee’ (1930), Joan
Crawford in ‘Letty Lynton’ (1933) and Jean Harlow in ‘Dinner at Eight’ (1933).
Notice again the clear similarities between all Adrian’s pieces, he obviously
had a signature style.
Nicknamed, “The Girl with the Curls”, silent actress
Mary Pickford had made her living through her spunky, confident persona and
iconic matching long, golden curls. By early 1928, Pickford’s life and career
was still at its peak. She was married to the equally legendary actor Douglas
Fairbanks, just completed what would be her last silent film ‘My Best Girl’
(released October 1927) and had co-founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences – along with the Academy Awards – only a year before. However, a
few months later in March 1928, her life would take a dramatic twist with the
death of her greatest support and ally, her mother, Charlotte Pickford, from
breast cancer. Mrs Pickford had introduced her daughter to acting and had
advised her during most of her career.
A few months later and still intensely grieving her mother’s
loss, Mary Pickford made what would become a major and controversial decision,
to bob her famous curls. They had been her attraction since her early stage
years and a symbol of her youthful innocence. But Pickford, now aged 36, wanted
desperately to graduate from the child-like roles that had shaped the stardom
of her silent years and move on to the more adult and sophisticated parts that
were on offer as the talkies arrived. Instead of seclusion, Pickford invited a
journalist and had the event filmed and photographed.
Although, Pickford aimed
at receiving some publicity she could not predict what was to follow. On 22
June 1928, it had become front page news. Titles like, “Famous Golden Curls Go”
and “Mary Pickford Cuts Her Hair”, were plastered over the front pages of
almost every major newspaper in America. It had become a national scandal.
Pickford quickly issued interviews and statements
regarding the controversial haircut. “I’ve cut my hair,”she said,
printed in the New York Times 23 June 1928. She continued:
“Oh, I still have them.
They’re all wrapped up ready to be pinned on if I ever need them. They were
such a nuisance, you know, hanging down below my waist. So many women in New
York were wearing long hair, I can’t see why any woman would want it long. It
was a shock to Doug, of course; he almost wept when he saw it cut short. I had
to have it done because I’m not going to be a little girl any more. No slums or
curls in my next picture. I’ve always been a girls’ girl and now I’m going
after the boys.”
Her comments continued the publicity and interest in
her new ‘do’, also being featured on the cover of a 1928 edition of Photoplay
magazine.
But, the big question was yet to be answered. How
would this snip affect the career of an actress who seemed to be created by her
iconic curls? The result was initially mixed, her next film and the first with
Pickford featured, curl-less, in a more adult and sophisticated role was ‘Coquette’
(1929) where she played a flirtatious society girl. It was well received by
audiences and critics and won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. However, after
her initial talkie success, Pickford’s career faded as audiences failed to
respond to her in similar roles. She appeared in three more films before her retirement
from acting in 1933.
Although, Pickford’s career was not reliant on her
hair style and retirement could have been due to many other factors, such as,
her age, the introduction of sound and altering acting styles and the new
female ‘ideal’, it is interesting to note the impact of hair on an actor’s
career. This topic was featured in an
article in ‘Troy Sunday Budget’published a few years before in 1925. (This was
taken a post on the wonderful Nitrateville website).
"The vogue of bobbed hair gave the employers of
movie stars many worries and in a number of cases caused them heavy financial
loss. Too late they discovered how much a few ill-considered snips of the
hairdresser's shears could impair the value of an actress. In drawing a
contract with a woman star nowadays the length of her hair and the manner of
dressing it are carefully considered.”
"Jobyna Ralston is a member of the Hollywood sisterhood of unshorn
tresses. Harold Lloyd, whose leading lady she is, thinks Miss Ralston is of
much greater worth to him in his pictures as the modest, demure little miss
with long curls, than as the bob-haired flapper type. Consequently in a
contract recently signed she agrees to shun the barber's shears.
"On the other hand, Betty Bronson had to agree to cut off the beautiful
long hair of which she was so proud before she would be given a contract. Only
a boyish bob would do for the role of Peter Pan for which she had been selected
by Sir James Barrie."
Also,
interestingly, according to the Mary Pickford Foundation, Pickford later wrote
about her decision to cut her famous tresses, “Were the choice
given to me again, I am positive I would not do it.”
Its times like these I wish I lived in
Melbourne. The arts capital of Australia is playing host to an amazing
collection of costumes cataloguing decades of film history. The ‘Hollywood
Costume’ Exhibition from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London and
touring worldwide is on its final stretch closing August 18. It features a
massive array of iconic pieces, such as De Givenchy’s famous LBD for Audrey
Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ (1961) and Vivian Leigh’s green curtain
dress in ‘Gone With the Wind’ (1939).
The exhibition, housed in the ‘Australian Centre for
Moving Image’ (ACMI), also includes other components of the costume making
process including scripts, sketches and costume fitting photographs as well as
film clips, montages and interviews to accompany the pieces. In addition to the
exhibition, the ACMI is running a number of events focusing on key figures and
designers; such as, Australian-born Orry Kelly programs on his creations in ‘Some
Like it Hot’ (1959) for Marilyn Monroe and ‘Gypsy’ (1962), and special showings
of ‘The Addams Family’ (1991), ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939) and ‘102 Dalmatians’
(2000). Some other costumes featured in the exhibition were featured in: Titanic(1997),Ben-Hur (1959), Casino Royale (2006), ‘Superman’
(1978), ‘The Iron Lady’ (2011) and many more. I encourage any film loving
Australian to go see it as I probably won’t be able to make the trek from
Brisbane to Melbourne before it moves overseas. Below is a few pictures from the exhibition mostly
from its original home at the V&A:
The clip below features the exhibitions curator, Academy
Award nominated film costume designer and historian, Professor Deborah
Nadoolman Landis, discussing the exhibition and its importance in film history.
