Crooner (1932): Still Crushing on Ann Dvorak

I caught up with a nifty little pre-code called "Crooner" on TCM the other day. Because I am pretty mad for the pre-code era of Ann Dvorak, I checked it out and have to admit, it was quite fun (if you're not expecting too much).

"Crooner" is just a Warner Brothers quickie (clocking in at 67 minutes), but it has a few sly tricks up its sleeve. The story centers on Ted Taylor, a struggling dance band leader who can't seem to land his group steady employment. 

David Manners as a crooner who is modeled after the real crooner, Rudy Vallee

As the good ladies of Gypsy sang, ya gotta have a gimmick, and Ted's band had none. When his vocalist can't perform, Ted attempts to fill in, but his voice is weak. A passing customer (Guy Kibbee, having fun on the dance floor with a lovely young lady) hands him a megaphone and the rest, as they say, is history. Mocking the rise of Rudy Vallee and his type, "Crooner" takes Ted from the depths of obscurity to the heights of fame and back again.

Ted's a sensation with the ladies.
It's only a matter of time before he finds it hard to be faithful

David Manners as Ted is pretty nifty. I admit not being too familiar with his work and he does a neat job of playing the big-headed celebrity who needs a pin prick in his inflated ego to bring him back down to earth. His quick turn from a rather nice fellow to an insufferable bore is amusing. Five minutes with some British society chaps and he's sipping tea with an extended pinky. He also cheats (with the always slinky Claire Dodd) on his way-to-nice girlfriend Judy, played by Ann Dvorak.

Poor Judy. Ted's success means suffering for her

I don't know what it is about this actress that fascinates me. Making the most of a bland role, she has enough star twinkle to hold the screen. 

Judy comforts Ted, that lying son of a so and so

Dressed in delicious Orry-Kelly plaids and stripes, she plays the part of the smiling and supportive girlfriend, but there is always an undercurrent of a rogue electric wire simmering beneath the surface. When she finally let's the stuffed shirt Ted have it, she demonstrates what sets her apart - a breathless, female fire that explodes like an emotional slap. Since the film purrs along at breakneck speed, it is only a moment in the film. And sadly, hers was a career made up only of those few fine moments in a string of mediocre films.

Ted thinks he has the chops for opera;
Judy's face says it all. Her ears might be bleeding.

But, "Crooner" is good pre-code fun. Ted's effect on the female population is overwhelming, with only one gal in the nightclub immune to his charms:

On the other side of the fence so to speak, he receives a fan letter form a fellow in jail. Ken Murray, as the promoter who pushes Ted to fame only to lose Ann to him, gets the last word on the whole crooner phenomenon. 

Ken Murray as the promoter who propels Ted to fame gets Judy to agree to marry him, but he knows her heart belongs to Ted (that rat).

When Ted's fame is eclipsed by the next hot singer, (someone named Bang Busby, a sly nod to Bing Crosby), he throws a drink at the radio. Darn those crooners!

Ann's face graced the sheet music from the film

National Classic Movie Day: 5 Favorite Movie Stars

In honor of National Classic Movie Day (May 16th), The Classic Film and TV Cafe is hosting the Five Stars Blogathon. 

Okay, it's really hard to confine this to 5, but here goes (in no particular order): 

James Cagney

Notice how I managed to insert Ms. Sheridan here?

5 reasons why:

He was the first movie star I fell in love with.

He has more charisma than any other star. Ever.

A tough guy who dances? Talk about having it all.

That bad-boy smile

New York to the core

5 favorite Cagney films:

Love Me or Leave Me

Angels With Dirty Faces

City For Conquest

The Strawberry Blonde

Taxi!

Cary Grant

Hello, Handsome

5 reasons why:

That face

That voice

The way he looks in a tux

More charm than any person on earth. Period.

With all of the above he never is afraid to be silly

5 favorite Grant films:

Notorious

People Will Talk

North By Northwest

Charade

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

Ann Dvorak

Ann being hard to resist

5 reasons why:

Her voice

Her eyes

The way she always seemed to be on last raw nerve

She makes me want to know more about her when I am watching her

She always seemed so sophisticated(even in her pre-code lingerie)

5 favorite Dvorak films:

Three on a Match

The Strange Love of Molly Louvain

Heat Lightning

Scarface

A Life of her Own

Charlie Chaplin

Sneaking a little Edna Purviance in with Charlie

5 reasons why:

He is the greatest movie star

The humanity of the Little Tramp

He makes me laugh

He makes me cry

He is eternal

5 favorite Chaplin films:

City Lights

The Kid

Modern Times

The Great Dictator

The Mutual Shorts (yes – cheating here – picking all 12 of them)

Jack Lemmon

The joy of Daphne

5 reasons why:

I am always surprised by how much I like him! In fact, I’m surprised to see him on this list.

He is extraordinarily ordinary in the very best way

He makes me want to be always on his side

As soon as I see him on screen, I feel better

He’s always good, no matter the film, no matter the part

5 favorite Lemmon films:

The Apartment

Mr. Roberts

Some Like it Hot

The Fortune Cookie

Apologies to Ann Sheridan, Edna Purviance, Tony Randall and Buster Keaton who would have been there if they could.

For more star-studded celebrations of Classic Movie Day, visit the Classic Film and TV Cafe and see if any of your favorites made the cut.

WHAT A CHARACTER! ANN DVORAK and the road less traveled

This is my entry in the What A Character Blogathon hosted by Paula at Paula's Cinema Club, Kellee at Outspoken and Freckled and Aurora at Once Upon a Screen. Check out their sites for more fabulous film characters.  

I admit to being an Ann Dvorak freak and have written about her often. However, most of my gushings have been over her as the almost A-list star and rarely about her later shift into secondary and character roles.

Ann was a limber veteran of the chorus

Ann Dvorak did it all. The daughter of silent film actress Anna Lehr, Ann did a short stint as a child actress and then, as a teenager, because a member of the chorus in early MGM musicals (she is all over the chorus in 1929's "The Hollywood Review"). She exploded on the screen as Cesca in 1932's "Scarface," and made a dramatic impression in such films as "Three on a Match," "The Strange Love of Molly Louvain," and "Housewife." It was a testament to Warner Brothers' faith in Ann that she was top billed over Bette Davis in both "Three on a Match" and "Housewife" (later re-issues featured Bette, but originally Ann was billed first). 

As Cesca in "Scarface"

Coked up and ready to jump out of the window
to save her son in "Three on a Match"

In 1932-1934, Ann seemed to be on her way to super-stardom, but she lacked something that Bette Davis had in abundance: a single-minded dedication to her career. She placed her marriage to actor/director Leslie Fenton  before her career and simultaneously took on Warner Brothers in a lengthy, and ultimately futile, pay dispute. After that Ann free-lanced, but never again got a shot at a starring role in a top flight film. She veered between leading roles in poor films and supporting roles in good films. But, whatever Ann did, she always improved the quality of the film just by being there. She was quirky, individualistic and not at all like anyone else.

Three of Ann's most notable character roles were in these films:

Out of the Blue (1947)

No star billing for Ann, but she stole the show

George Brent and Virginia Mayo were the stars and Carole Landis was getting the star treatment, but Ann, as the perpetually drunk Olive steals the show. In a rare chance to show some comedy flair, Ann is the only reason to see this fluffy, kinda-like weekend at Bernie's affair.

Ann spent a great deal of her time passed out in "Out of the Blue"

Our Very Own (1950)

As the unwed birth mother who gave up Ann Blyth, Ann gives perhaps her strongest supporting performance. In a part that could easily have become a cliche, she gives the part of Gert great depth and complexity. She is a poor soul, a miserable housewife trapped in miserable marriage and resigned to her fate. She doesn't want her husband to know she had a child out of wedlock, but she agrees to meet her birth daughter nonetheless. It is a small part, but showy and Ann Dvorak showed audiences what they had been missing.

Ann Byth was sure glad to get home to her adoptive
family after meeting Gert

A Life of Her Own (1950)

Ann only had 10 minutes of screen time in this film, but she is unforgettable as the aging model whose decline and demise proves a cautionary tale to Lana Turner. As Mary Ashlon, Ann wipes the floor with poor little Lana. As her career fades, a bitter Mary turn to drink and finally commits suicide by taking a swan dive out of a high rise window (just as she did when Ann Dvorak's career was on fire in "Three on a Match." Turner Classic Movies named Ann's performance as Mary Ashlon one of its 10 great overlooked performances.

Ann as the chic, doomed Mary Ashlon

Ann Dvorak was always more than her career. She was a passionate wife (3 times), an ambulance driver in WW II London, and a woman of many non-theatrical interests. Unfortunately,her acting talent was her bread and butter and, in that, she faltered. While she always played a prominent part in all of her films, she never again found that comeback hit. Her last film was a supporting role in the Humphrey Bogart/Gene Tierney film "The Secret of Convict Lake." She made a few TV appearances after that and then quietly chucked it all for a retirement in Hawaii, where she died in 1979.

Book Review: ANN DVORAK: HOLLYWOOD'S FORGOTTEN REBEL by Christina Rice

Ann Dvorak is one of my favorite actresses. Not a star of the magnitude of Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Crawford or her Warner Brothers team mate, Bette Davis, she certainly deserves more than the usual “who”” or “I don’t know anything about her” that are the usual responses to my gushings about her. Her list of quality films is short (but her list of quality performances is not). She was not a household name or a world-class beauty and she lived a life largely out of the spotlight. Consequently, she has proved to be an elusive, even mysterious, idol.

When I got wind that Christina Rice was writing a bio of my darling Ann, I was over the moon. At last, I would have some insight into this lovely, magnetic woman who burned so brightly for a short time and then seemed to disappear in fits and starts in largely forgettable films. I have waited patiently for Ms. Rice to complete her work and I am thrilled to report that she did not disappoint this fan of Ann. Oh, it was a delicious feeling opening that Amazon package and at last holding the key to Ann Dvorak in my hands!

Christmas came early this year!!

And so now I know her story. The child of show business parents, Ann grew up on the sidelines but had the show business in her blood. Her father was a show biz entrepreneur of sorts and her mother was silent film star Anna Lehr. Anna who? Exactly. Anna Lehr was a reasonably successful silent film actress who was all but forgotten by the time Ann was breaking into films. She was always a cautionary figure to Ann of the ephemeral nature of fame.

Ann gave an electric performance as Cesca in "Scarface" (1932)

While the young Hollywood resident dreamed of a career as a journalist, practicality and financial circumstances dictated that Ann seek work in the town’s film studios. She eventually landed at MGM as a chorus performer, appearing in countless musicals as just one of the girls. She also had some teaching skills and served as a dance instructor. It was in this capacity that she was befriended by star Joan Crawford, who tried like the devil to get Ann some screen time. Sadly, MGM was just not interested. Another actress friend, Karen Morley, had better luck. It was through her that Ann eventually landed the Cinderella part of an inexperienced actress’ lifetime: that of Cesca in Howard Hughes’ 1932 film, “Scarface.” Ann is unforgettable and she seemed headed for the top. Warner Brothers wanted her badly and eventually she made that studio her home.

As a young contract player, Ann was paired with the best

But, it never was really home. Notorious for their slave-driver methods, Ann and Warner Brothers were never an easy fit. While her focus had always been on her career, that all changed when she met the man who would change her life (and not always for the better): Actor Leslie Fenton. It seems that it was love at first sight and it was a passion that endured much. Ann, almost a decade younger than Fenton, was bewitched by him as he assumed control of her life. Once she became Mrs. Fenton, her marriage took center stage and her career a back seat. Fenton was an actor/director with little respect for Hollywood, and under his guidance she abandoned her contract at Warner’s to take a year off and travel the world with her husband. No doubt with his encouragement, she spoke out to the press against her employer. As you can imagine, Warner’s were not pleased with their wayward star’s antics off screen.

Ann flashes her wedding ring with hubby Leslie Fenton

Once Ann returned to the fold (after all, the couple needed the money) Ann was reduced to thankless parts in mostly supporting films as she continued to battle the studio. It is interesting to watch the paths of both hers and Bette Davis’ careers during these years. At one time they were on the same level at the studio. You might even say that Ann had a leg up, as she certainly got the meatier roles in both “Three on a Match” and “Housewife,” the 2 films in which they appeared together. But Davis was single minded about her career and Ann was not. She wanted to live, see the world, be with her husband and experience more than the movies had to offer. Sadly, her career suffered mightily. She went on to pick an enormous fight with Warner’s that left her career in shambles. While she might have paved the way for those other Warner rebels Cagney, Davis and DeHavilland, Ann’s case against the company was not strong and she paid the price dearly. The promise of the dark beauty who enthralled in “Scarface,” “Three on a Match” and other pre-code dramas never came to fruition and Ann Dvorak became another good actress competing for decent parts.

Fenton, British by birth, went home to serve in the war. Ann accompanied him and did not sit home and knit booties. Our intrepid heroine joined the war effort as an ambulance driver. While London was being bombed, Ann chose not to wait at home in Hollywood, but to actually risk her own life to save others. When not driving an ambulance, she was entertaining the troops. During this time Ann changed from a dependent wife to an independent woman.

Ann had many varied interests and always had a green thumb

Sadly, her marriage to Fenton was a casualty of war, as well. Ann married 2 more times, both times not too well. Her fortunes waned over the years and, after her last film in 1951, she retired to Hawaii where she lived a life completely out of the spotlight. After the death of her beloved mother and her 3^rd husband, Ann was alone and living on a very modest income. The life of a glamorous movie star was very far away when she died in Hawaii at age 68.

Christina Rice has produced a book of impeccable research. She writes with clarity and compassion and has given us a portrait of a woman whose life was filled with might-have-beens. While they do not look alike, Ann Dvorak has always reminded me a bit of Vivien Leigh. Perhaps it is their feline qualities. Both women followed their hearts and their men. But where Leigh followed the great Olivier, Ann followed men who did her little good.

The unforgettable Ann Dvorak

Lucky for us that Ann Dvorak’s finest performances are still with us. From her tragic Vivian Revere in 1932's “Three on a Match” to her pitiful Mary Ashlon in 1950's “A Life of Her Own” (films that bookend her career and, ironically, both end with her taking a swan dive out of a high rise window). Ann Dvorak might not have been the biggest star in Hollywood, but she was unlike anyone else. Once you see her, you never forget her.

Ann Dvorak Bests Bette Davis Again (and she's "just a housewife")

Housewife (1934)

Sadly, this advertisement is more interesting than the film. "Housewife," a Warner Brothers factory product of 1934, is pretty much a stinker (but not, as Bette Davis referred to it years later, "a horror"). Bette probably hated it because her part, as the vampish bachelor-career girl, was about as cliched as they come. And Ann Dvorak, once again, got the better role. If you remember, Ann also got the plum role of bored and coked up socialite Vivian Revere in 1932's "Three on a Match" and pretty much acted everyone in the film (including Davis, Joan Blondell and Humphrey Bogart) off the screen.

So why bother with "Housewife"? It is one of the few films where Ann Dvorak gets to shine and shine she does (brighter than poor Bette, who is all big eyes and carnal grins). Ann plays Nan Reynolds, wife of underachiever Bill Reynolds (George Brent, who always looks as though he has a short man's head on a tall man's body). Bill is a rather meek and passive office manager at an advertising firm. Nan, efficient home engineer that she is, manages to make do on his meager salary and makes a comfy home for Bill and son Buddy (played by an extremely annoying child actor by the name of Ronnie Cosby). 

the happy home of the housewife before the home-wrecker shows up

Nan is supportive of Bill, always encouraging him and helping him with new ideas. She knows he can do better, but Bill shows a stunning lack of ambition. Don Draper he is not!

Meek Man/Mad Man

A brash and sexy copywriter named Pat Berkeley (Bette Davis) shows up one day at Bill's firm and sets his world on fire. He and Nan and Pat were friends back at school. Pat might have felt a little hurt that Bill chose Nan over her, but now, Pat is a successful career girl and Bill is the boss's punching bag. Pat, who is a real go-getter, makes it her mission to go get Bill.

Pat makes goo-goo eyes at Bill

Meanwhile, Nan has a bright idea, encouraging Bill to pinch a client from his boss and start his own firm. Amazingly, it works, and now Bill is the big cheese and he has brought that little rat, Pat, along to help him. Not only does she help him in business, she helps herself to him after hours.

Nan knows those "honey, I have to work late again" calls are bunk

With Bill's financial success, Nan is running a much more prosperous household, but she is miserable. She must deal with both Bill's blatant affair with Pat as well as his lack of attention to her, his home and his son. She maintains her dignity with a capital "D." Nan married for life and was not going to bow down to that little vamp-tramp. After all, she knows Bill never had an original thought that was born above his waist, and even those thoughts didn't last long. Bill, hot for Pat and angry that Nan won't grant him his divorce, leaves their home in a snit and - EEK! - runs over little Buddy. Her son's life hanging by a thread, Nan agrees to a divorce. 

Buddy slowly heals and Bill feels more and more like a heel with every passing day. Finally, at the court testimony for her divorce, Nan shows herself to still be in love with Bill and Bill just goes back to being that pile of mush that he was before Pat showed up. Cue Pat to slink into the sunset.

Pretty awful, no? Aside from being a modern woman's nightmare and Warners' nightmare wasting Bette Davis after "Of Human Bondage," this film does have a few things to offer:

1. Ann Dvorak

For a brief moment, Ann Dvorak out-juiced Bette Davis at Warner Brothers, which meant that they thought she had just as much star power, ability and appeal as Davis. Sadly, it was a career that never fulfilled its promise. Ann Dvorak was not as driven or determined as Bette Davis (few were or are), and her star quickly faded. She is a rare treat, and she can be well savored here.

2. Orry-Kelly

There are some lovely dresses and gowns by Orry-Kelly, that are always a pleasure to watch. Those Warner gals had some swanky wardrobes!

3. Bette Davis

We all know she hated these kind of parts, but she had to serve her apprenticeship and man, was she a cutie!

So, this was really just an excuse to spend some time with Ann Dvorak in more than a supporting  or trivial part. For those who are Ann enthusiasts, a long-awaited biography of her will be published in November. The book, by Christina Rice, is titled "Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel."
I've pre-ordered mine!

Three on a Match: The Original Sex and the City

Once upon a time there were three (later four) girlfriends who lived in the big city. One was fun-loving, but good-hearted, one was career minded (and not man-minded), and one was the rich girl who thought all she wanted to do was get married, but learned later that all she really wanted to do was have sex, drink booze and do drugs.

In the new millennium, this could be Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes, and Charlotte York/Samantha Jones of "Sex and the City". In 1932, it was Mary Keaton, Ruth Wescott and Vivian Revere of "Three on a Match." While the gals of the new century get to whoop it up over Cosmos and a variety of boyfriends, the ladies of 1932 have to pay. And yet, some things never change because, being women, they all pay a price. Being a dame on the lose in the city has always been tough on a girl's psyche, not to mention her lingerie. The end result: tears and regrets for some, a child for others, and the arms of a "Mr. Big" for the jackpot winner. Though they are generations apart, both stories are, at heart, ones of friendship, sexuality, a woman's life in a modern metropolis and her vague dissatisfaction with her role in society.

Mary Keaton/Carrie Bradshaw

While Carrie Bradshaw explored the life of a single, professional woman of style in the city from a writer's point of view, Joan Blondell's Mary Keaton viewed it from the vantage point of the showgirl (that working girl that was just one societal rung above that other kind of working girl). Mary had to do a stint in reform school for her youthful cheekiness, but she was a tough little survivor with a tender heart who made her way in the world with a cheerful outlook and an eye out for a nice dress and her own "Mr. Big."

both Mary & Carrie like unusual headgear

Ruth Wescott/Miranda Hobbes

Being a single career woman is never easy, but at least Miranda got to be a lawyer. Poor Ruth, the smartest girl in the class, had to settle for a secretarial position (I'll be she ran the office). While Miranda had more material success, both she and Ruth struggled with society's look of pity on the poor, smart, self-sufficient - UNMARRIED -woman. Forget the fact that both women were lovely. Bette looked kick-ass in her bathing suit and slip, but her brains relegated her to the sexless pile and her prize at the end was to raise another woman's child while Mary got the father.

no matter how hot you look,
if you have brains you have trouble attracting men

Vivian Revere/Charlotte York - Samantha Jones

Oh Vivian - you had it all. Just like Charlotte, you were brought up to be a lady. Just like Samantha, the siren song of men, booze and illegal drugs called to you. But, while Samantha mostly had fun with it and Charlotte's good-girl upbringing kept reeling her in, Vivian threw it all out the window for a handsome and fun-loving stud. Married to a loyal, but boring drip, she followed her - um - heart (or whatever body part was talking to her) and left hubby behind. She did show some motherly instincts and took Junior with her, but the sex and booze and drugs interfered with her parenting skills.

both Vivian and Samantha took pride in their linens

If Viv had lived in the new century, she would have either hired a full-time nanny or left Junior with his dad and embraced her latent party girl. She could have kept this up well into her 50s with good skin treatments and a personal trainer. Instead, she spent her days coked up and passed out. There was no way she would be allowed to be rehabilitated. And so, in a final act of heroic motherhood, she must die while Samantha Jones lives to party on into her golden years.

a scream is a scream is a scream ... or is it?

Mr. Big or The Elephant in the Room

Oh, there has to be a "Mr. Big" for every little girl, doesn't there? And so, in our pre-code pre-feminist day, there was Warren William. Here, he is a rich stuffed shirt. You can't blame Viv for being bored and you can't blame clever Mary Keaton for snatching him and the big bucks after Viv hits the pavement.

Mr. Big gets the pick of the remaining litter and selects the
sassy showgirl with the heart of gold for his bed
and the girl with brains to raise his kid. Life is good!

At least sisterhood prevails for the SATC women: through their many trials and many men, they remain friends. In 1932, two women remain friends while one lies splattered on the sidewalk, never knowing that one friend married her ex while the other became her son's nanny. Nice work, ladies.

No matter how daring our 1932 or 21st century darlings were, the core moral of the tale barely changes: don't be dissatisfied, little girl. Instead, find happiness in the arms of your own Mr. Big. Believe it, my dear, and you will weep and continue to keep looking for stories that promise that ever elusive happy ending.

Once upon a time there were three (or four) glamorous
girlfriends who lived in the city and they wanted
all of the good things life has to offer.....