Mild disappointment with a recent TCM screening of the less than Lubitsch worthy 20th Century Fox, Otto Preminger directed Lubitsch produced outing Tallulah Bankhead made in A ROYAL SCANDAL after her best known and possibly best film, Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT, sent me in search of the seven Tallulah Bankhead films made in the 1930's for Paramount. Of the five found still circulating, all proved fun and three or four of them particularly noteworthy.
While the two George Abbott (!) directed pieces (MY SIN and THE CHEAT issued respectively 3 Oct. and 28 November 1931 and *both* filmed, apparently, at New York's Astoria Studios) struck me as pretty standard - if very well directed - period melodramas from a 2009 perspective, and the George Cukor TARNISHED LADY from May 2 of that year little more, a jealousy & submarine thriller called DEVIL AND THE DEEP (adapted from a little known novel, "Sirenes et Tritons") which the lady did with Gary Cooper, Cary Grant (!!) and (according to the screen credits on a separate card all his own) "introducing CHARLES LAUGHTON The eminent English character actor in the role of THE COMMANDER" (!!!) was a corker.
Directed by Marion Gering, lesser known today despite 15 films in the 30's - the studio had him as Sylvia Sidney's chief director, the film has all the pace and variety one could wish. Gering was still directing in film a decade before his death in 1977, but like George Abbott ('though on a far smaller scale) he may be best known as a producer and director on Broadway. Because of Ms. Bankhead, DEVIL AND THE DEEP may be his best known film today. It's certainly enormous fun.
Scenery (the film is sumptuously, if illogically, set at a "North African Submarine Base" - there were so MANY of those in the 1930's - so Paramount could get more use out of sets built for other films) is chewed by "eminent English character actors," wives are driven to adultery by maniacally jealous husbands, submarines sail and sink with them still aboard, mutinies lead to heroic rescues and a good time is had by all - except, perhaps, maniacally jealous husbands - although even HE'S laughing (maniacally) the last time we see him.
Charles Lang's expert cinematography is a master class in how to get major effect from minor effort, but DEVIL AND THE DEEP is most worth seeking out for Bankhead shining, simmering, sulking, seducing, sinking and swimming (all in ravishing Travis Banton gowns). Highly worth seeing out, even if less than high art.
Tallulah's even singing - better than one might expect and apparently un-dubbed. Nothing much in DEVIL AND THE DEEP, but in the Panama section of Abbott's MY SIN - she's first seen singing "Crazy Song" - and in the similarly sea-side set Abbott film of THE CHEAT briefly offers "I'll See You In My Dreams" and a lesser known song ["I Love You, Amour"?] in George Cukor's TARNISHED LADY.
The things films packed in in the 1930's!
While the two George Abbott (!) directed pieces (MY SIN and THE CHEAT issued respectively 3 Oct. and 28 November 1931 and *both* filmed, apparently, at New York's Astoria Studios) struck me as pretty standard - if very well directed - period melodramas from a 2009 perspective, and the George Cukor TARNISHED LADY from May 2 of that year little more, a jealousy & submarine thriller called DEVIL AND THE DEEP (adapted from a little known novel, "Sirenes et Tritons") which the lady did with Gary Cooper, Cary Grant (!!) and (according to the screen credits on a separate card all his own) "introducing CHARLES LAUGHTON The eminent English character actor in the role of THE COMMANDER" (!!!) was a corker.
Directed by Marion Gering, lesser known today despite 15 films in the 30's - the studio had him as Sylvia Sidney's chief director, the film has all the pace and variety one could wish. Gering was still directing in film a decade before his death in 1977, but like George Abbott ('though on a far smaller scale) he may be best known as a producer and director on Broadway. Because of Ms. Bankhead, DEVIL AND THE DEEP may be his best known film today. It's certainly enormous fun.
Scenery (the film is sumptuously, if illogically, set at a "North African Submarine Base" - there were so MANY of those in the 1930's - so Paramount could get more use out of sets built for other films) is chewed by "eminent English character actors," wives are driven to adultery by maniacally jealous husbands, submarines sail and sink with them still aboard, mutinies lead to heroic rescues and a good time is had by all - except, perhaps, maniacally jealous husbands - although even HE'S laughing (maniacally) the last time we see him.
Charles Lang's expert cinematography is a master class in how to get major effect from minor effort, but DEVIL AND THE DEEP is most worth seeking out for Bankhead shining, simmering, sulking, seducing, sinking and swimming (all in ravishing Travis Banton gowns). Highly worth seeing out, even if less than high art.
Tallulah's even singing - better than one might expect and apparently un-dubbed. Nothing much in DEVIL AND THE DEEP, but in the Panama section of Abbott's MY SIN - she's first seen singing "Crazy Song" - and in the similarly sea-side set Abbott film of THE CHEAT briefly offers "I'll See You In My Dreams" and a lesser known song ["I Love You, Amour"?] in George Cukor's TARNISHED LADY.
The things films packed in in the 1930's!