Ladies of Leisure

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1930. D: Frank Capra. From the play Ladies of the Evening di David Belasco e Milton Herbert Gropper; SC: Jo Swerling; DP: Joseph Walker; ED: Maurice Wright; DP: Harrison Wiley; M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff; S: John P. Livadary, Harry Blanchard; CAST: Barbara Stanwyck (Kay Arnold), Ralph Graves (Jerry Strong), Lowell Sherman (Bill Standish), Marie Prevost (Dot Lamar), Nance O’Neill (Mrs. Strong), George Fawcett (Mr. Strange), Juliette Compton (Claire Collins), Johnnie Walker (Charlie), Charles Butterworth; P: Frank Capra per Columbia Pictures; 35mm. 99’. B&w. From: Sony Columbia. - E-subtitles in Italian (Sub-Ti). Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino, Bologna, 1 July 2009. - A brilliant print. - Essential Capra. - Barbara Stanwyck brings her special presence to one of her first starring roles and to her first Frank Capra film of five (Ladies of Leisure, Miracle Woman, Forbidden, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Meet John Doe). - Jo Swerling is the screenwriter, also he in one of his first films and in his first Frank Capra film of seven. - Lots of wisecracking, tough surfaces barely hiding a great vulnerability. - "Look through the ceiling". "The ceiling seems to be your limit". "You give up too easily". - I had to go in the middle of the film, but this picture would be worthy to revisit.

Flight

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1929. D: Frank Capra. Story: Ralph Graves; SC: Howard Green, Frank Capra; DP: Joseph Walker, Elmer Dyer, Joe Novak; ED: Ben Pivar, Maurice Wright, Gene Milford; DP: Harrison Wiley; S: John Lividary, Harry Blanchard, Dean Daly, Eddy Hahn, Ellis Gray; CAST: Jack Holt (“Panama” Williams), Ralph Graves (“Lefty” Phelps), Lila Lee (Elinor), Alan Roscoe (Major), Harold Goodwin (Steve Roberts), Jimmy De La Cruze (Lobo); P: Frank Capra per Columbia Pictures; 35mm. 110’. B&w. From: LoC. - E-subtitles in Italian (Sub-Ti). Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino, Bologna, 29 June 2009. - A brilliant print save for stock footage montages. - The middle film of Capra's marine trilogy (Submarine, Flight: it's about the Marines flight school, Dirigible), all with the same actors, usually with a triangle of two men and a woman. - The story of a loser: Lefty scores in football for the opposite team; in his flight test, his plane crashes before taking off. - Also a Cyrano story: Lefty is good with words, Panama is clumsy. - A colonialistic story: the Marines go to Nicaragua to quench a rebellion. - Interesting semi-documentary footage on early flying. - Mediocre. - I did not watch this till the end.

Dirigible

Lentävä kuolema. US 1931. D: Frank Capra. Story: Frank Wilber Wead e James Warner Bellah (n.c.); SC: Jo Swerling, Dorothy Howell; DP: Joseph Walker, Elmer Dyer - 1,2:1; ED: Maurice Wright; M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff, David Broekman; S: E. L. Bernds; CAST: Jack Holt (Jack Bradon), Ralph Graves (Frisky Pierce), Fay Wray (Helen Pierce), Hobart Bosworth (Louis Rondele), Roscoe Karns (Sock McGuire), Harold Goodwin (Hansen), Clarence Muse (Clarence), Emmett Corrigan (Admiral Martin), Selmer Jackson (il luogotenente Rowland); P: Harry Cohn, Frank Capra per Columbia Pictures; 35mm. 106’. B&w. From: Sony Columbia. - E-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti. Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino, Bologna, 28 June 2009. - A brilliant print. - The last picture of Capra's Marines trilogy, all with Jack Holt and Ralph Graves as rivals for Woman, here played by Fay Wray as the conceited hero's long-suffering wife. - An ugly feature in Frank Capra's films: blatant racism is recurrent. - The dirigible sequences have documentary value. I did not know that Zeppelins had such a role in the U.S. Marines. - The second half of the picture is a harrowing adventure on the Antarctic with a grim fate for the unfortunate flyers. Snow blindness threatens our hero. - Interesting but mediocre.

That Certain Thing

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1928. D: Frank Capra. SC: Elmer Harris; DP: Joseph Walker; ED: Arthur Roberts; DP: Robert E. Lee; CAST: Viola Dana (Molly Kelly), Ralph Graves (Andy B. Charles, Jr.), Aggie Herring (Mrs. Maggie Kelly), Carl Gerard (Secretary Brooks), Burr McIntosh (A.B. Charles, Sr.), Sydney Crossley (Valet); P: Harry Cohn; 35mm. [announced: 70’ a 24 fps]. Actual duration: 64 min. B&w. From: Sony Columbia. - Presenta Grover Crisp, grand piano: Donald Sosin, earphone commentary in Italian, viewed in Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 28 June 2009. - GC: this print is from material in poor condition, made in 2001, now there is access to an incomplete 35mm print, and a new restoration is in progress. - Joseph McBride: of all the early Columbia films, the story of this is the most Capraesque. - The girl wants to marry money, but the son of the millionaire is disinherited. They stay together anyway and make a fortune with box lunches. "Cut the ham thick!"

The Awful Truth

Rouvani sulhanen / Min fru har en fästman. US (c) 1937 Columbia. P+D: Leo McCarey. SC: Viña Delmar - contribution to screenplay construction: Dwight Taylor - based on the play by Arthur Richman (1922). DP: Joseph Walker. AD: Stephen Goosson, Lionel Banks. Interior Decorations: Babs Johnstone. Gowns: Kalloch. M: Ben Oakland, MD: Morris Stoloff. Song: "My Dreams Are Gone With The Wind" (Ben Oakland, Milton Drake). "Home On The Range". "La serenata" sung by Irene Dunne. CAST: Irene Dunne (Lucy Warriner), Cary Grant (Jerry Warriner), Ralph Bellamy (Daniel Leeson), Alexander D'Arcy (Armand Duvalle), Cecil Cunningham (Aunt Patsy), Molly Lamont (Barbara Vance), Esther Dale (Mrs. Leeson), Joyce Compton (Dixie Belle Lee), Skippy (Mr. Smith). 91 min. [Other film adaptations of the play: 1925, 1929, 1953.] A SFF print with Swedish subtitles by Torsten Manns. Viewed at Cinema Orion, 1 April 2009. - Print was intact but with low contrast. - Revisited: a film I had seen only on tv before. I had not unreservedly liked it because I sensed a mean streak in the parody of the characters around the Warriner couple. I have preferred the Lubitsch approach which makes fun of everybody, with tenderness underneath. - I still find that the film's weakness is that all except the Warriners are made too ridiculous, and as we feel no sympathy for them, the whole story is diminished. - Having said that, the film has abundant joys to offer. Even as I watch it I want to see it again, because there are too many touches to savour during a single viewing. - Cary Grant and Irene Dunne: sophisticated comedy acting at its best. - The skill of Cary Grant of making Irene Dunne's remarriage plans look ridiculous as he feigns to defend them. - The affection of Cary Grant as he rises to Irene Dunne's defense when her reputation is questioned. - Cary Grant's girlfriend's skirt-blowing song scene and its parody by Irene Dunne. - The dance scene with the waltz and the jitterbug. - The scene with the two hats and the dog. - Ralph Bellamy: "Well, I guess a man's best friend is his mother". - The final sequence is magnificent. The couple drive together on the final evening before their divorce is legal. The seriousness behind the fun. Irene Dunne tricks them to Aunt Patsy's cabin, a trysting place of affairs. There is between the two bedrooms a creaking door that won't stay shut. There is a black cat, a wind from the window, and a cuckoo clock with a male and a female figure. "Things are the way you made them". "Things could be almost the same, only a little different". The eroticism and sensuality of Irene Dunne in the final bedroom image is of Lubitsch caliber (resembling Jeanette McDonald's nightgown scenes).