One can only imagine how thrilled Miranda became when a letter is received by her mother from a distant cousin who is a rich land owner. The letter asks that one of the Wells daughters be sent to Dragonwyck, a mansion on the Hudson River.

Miranda is chosen to go and meets her most eccentric cousin, Nicholas Van Ryn played eerily by Vincent Price. She salivates when she sees all the opulence and abundance. She is captivated, spellbound, and lured. But so is Nicholas, he falls for beautiful Miranda from the moment he sees her. Miranda meets the rest of this eccentric family, his daughter Katrine, and his gluttonous wife. Miranda spends a lot time with Katrine, a melancholic child, who quite clearly is a product of her pathetic, icy parents.

Miranda soon discovers that Nicholas is a pitiless landowner who mistreats his tenants. The tenants hate Nicholas and soon let him know it. A revolt looms, but that does not stop Nicholas or Miranda. Nicholas begins to plot a way out of his marriage and Miranda overlooks Nicholas’ cruelty and falls in love with him, ah, more like, with his money.

Nicholas mistreats his wife; he is disgusted with her and wants Miranda bad. He spends hours in a room in the upper part of the house. His wife fruitlessly begs him for his love. The more she begs, the more he hates her. Nicholas surprises her one day when he begins to treat her well, and tells her he wants to spend time with her, and even brings her his favorite plant, an Oleander. He indulges her and gives her cake, her favorite. That night his wife dies. Nicholas cleverly murders his wife with poison and gets away with it.

The same night his wife died he meets Miranda in her bedroom and tells her he was never happy with his wife who never gave him a son to inherit his land and wealth. Miranda admits she too loves him. Nicholas marries Miranda and all seems happy for a while. He returns from a business trip and meets a maid Miranda has hired, Peggy O’Malley, a woman he calls a “lame creature,” and “cripple.” It would be the one of the many horrible outbursts she’d see in Nicholas. His true colors shine through and through. Miranda is shocked and expresses her disappointment. They quarrel and despite the fury Nicholas feels, he has a bi-polar moment when Miranda tells him she is pregnant, his mood quickly changes to bliss.

The baby is born, a son, and soon after dies. This throws Nicholas over the edge. The laws have changed for the tenants as well; they now can buy the land they have toiled, this stripping Nicholas of his historic rights. He continues to spend hours upon hours in the upper room. Miranda surprises him in the upper room and discovers he has been using drugs, and has become a drug addict. Yes folks drugs existed back in the day, the drug of choice in the 1800’s were Opium and Morphine.

He soon plots to murder Miranda as he did his first wife. This time he is discovered before he can act. Miranda leaves the house in total horror and disbelief. Nicholas is later killed while being arrested for the murder of his 1^st wife. Miranda packs a few belongings and returns to Greenwich and realizes you can’t marry a dream. One can daydream, but its ok if dreams aren’t realized; after all, there might be a reason and purpose all dreams are not.

OK I am going to go on a political rant…I watched the O’Reilly Factor last night, (please do not stone me) and he had a segment on how Hollywood is producing movies that are Anti-anything American.

O’Reilly quoted from a letter written by Samuel Goldwyn to one of his producers on November 9, 1961… “I feel we each must execute today a higher degree of self-discipline, and self-censorship than ever before. We should never lose sight of the fact that no matter how entertaining a picture may be or how much money it may make, it can do our country a great deal of harm if it plays into the hands of our enemies.”

Whatever happened to responsible thinking like this? Does Hollywood even care how dangerous their movies are “in the hands of our enemies?” Whatever happened to producers, and actors that fought for the greater good of America? Stars like Jimmy Stewart who earned numerous medals for bombing Germans in WWII. Clark Gable, Charles Durning, Lee Marvin, and Charles Bronson just to name a few fought. Today the USO can’t even get stars to perform for the soldiers. What on earth has happened to us? Whatever happened to movies that made Americans proud?

Today’s Hollywood in my eyes most definitely has an agenda when they invest millions of dollars producing sub-par anti anything American movies and make absolutely no money, in fact they lose money. Movies like “Redacted,” (which by-the-way billionaire Mark Cuban spent 5 million dollars making it, and the flop grosses $65,000) “Lions and Lambs,” and others like this are losing big time. Why are these movies flops? Well, maybe just maybe Americans don’t want to see our troops portrayed as savages. Maybe they believe that although America has many faults, we are still a good country. A country the world looks up to in times of crisis.

Yes, maybe the Iraq thing could’ve been done differently and some Americans are discouraged with no clear end in sight. But does that mean that we should turn on our own country? Although Iraq is disheartening to many, aren’t we happy that an evil man like Saddam Hussein is no longer breathing the same air we breathe? Isn’t it good to know that many Iraqi citizens although struggling are happier without a tyrant like Saddam? We cannot doubt for a moment that things are better in Iraq today than they were in 2001. And yes it has cost us big time in life and money. But do we turn our backs on those that have sacrificed their very lives now?

I concur with Bill O’Reilly “There is a difference between loyal dissent, a good thing, and trying to make your country look bad. You, Hollywood people, often do the latter. And the folks know it. So, please stop.” [source billoreilly.com]

]]> http://www.classicmoviegab.com/2008/04/samuel-goldwyns-advice-to-hollywood/feed/ 1 http://www.classicmoviegab.com/2008/03/thou-shalt-notpre-code-hollywood-forbidden-collection-vol-2/ http://www.classicmoviegab.com/2008/03/thou-shalt-notpre-code-hollywood-forbidden-collection-vol-2/#comments Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:10:00 +0000 Bacall http://kickbackgirl.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/thou-shalt-notpre-code-hollywood-forbidden-collection-vol-2/

Hollywood Forbidden Collection Vol. 2 has been released. This DVD set has 5 other controversial (for the day) pre-code movies. It has 2 of my very own favorites.

The DVD also has a documentary on pre-code movies titled “Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin, and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood.” And although, these films are dated they still shock, stun, titillate us.

“The Divorcee” (1930), with Norma Shearer;

“A Free Soul” (1931), with Lionel Barrymore and Clark Gable;

“Three on a Match” (1932), with Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and Ann Dvorak;

“Female” (1933), with Ruth Chatterton;

“Night Nurse” (1931), with Barbara Stanwyck;

The movies are restored, and re-mastered. I’ve seen each and every one of these films, but my absolute favorite are the ones with Norma Shearer, “The Divorcee” totally blew me away, and if it did that to me, what did it do to the audience of the day? In this film she plays a wife who catches her husband in an affair. Norma’s character decides to apply the “eye for an eye,” law. To teach her husband a lesson she embarks on numerous love affairs. She takes the infidelity a step further, eventually leading her to self-destruction.

“A Free Soul,” Norma plays opposite Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore. The movie exposes the dark side of human beings without any apologies. In the end the bad guy gets it all and all his sins go unpunished.

The others are just as good and controversial for the day, but I have to single out the two above. Norma Shearer was the quintessential pre-code diva. The DVD Set is worth every dime.

Legendary actor Richard Widmark died at age 93 on Monday 3/24. I remember Widmark for the eerie role he played in the 1947 thriller “Kiss of Death.” The most unforgettable scene in this film is the one where he ties up an old lady to a wheelchair and just throws her down the stairs as he malevolently cracks up. It is the most realistic role of a psychotic I’ve ever seen anyone play. Film critics described Widmark’s performance in the film as one of the scariest ever seen on screen. It is memorable indeed, a role which made him a star overnight, and earned him an Oscar nomination.

Early on in his career he was pretty much type casted. He later branched out to other roles, but I think most fans remember him most for his tough guy roles. I heard it once said that he was a close friend of Sydney Poitier. They were both in a film that tackled the day’s race issues, 1950 “No Way Out.” In the film, Widmark played a bigot and used harsh racial slurs. It is said that he had a hard time playing this role. He felt sick inside when he had to read those lines.

That tells me a lot about Widmark. It tells me that he truly was an actor and a good person. He played his roles so well, so much so that he made us believe that Tommy Udo in “Kiss of Death” really existed, and that bigots like Ray Biddie in “No Way Out,” were heartless, ruthless and that the madness had to stop. Only a good actor can do that. It just crushes my heart that we are losing all the great ones… Richard Widmark, gone, but never forgotten.

Karla Zachanassian played to the hilt by Ingrid Bergman is the world’s richest woman. She returns to her birthplace, a poor, European town called Guellen. The town is having a depression when she visits, and it is the hopes of Guellen’s inhabitants that Karla will bail them out. They prepare for her visit as if God Himself was arriving. The red carpet treatment is an understatement. She arrives ahead of schedule and the town is caught off guard. When she gets off the train she seems cross, distant, cold, like a volcano that wanted to erupt on the whole town. Hundreds of the townspeople run to the railroad to greet her, but when they see her they are afraid to even approach her. They reminded me of what the Indians must’ve looked like when Columbus landed in the New World. She finally smiles and the town loosens up. She arrived with her bodyguards and her pet panther.

Karla greets the people and in the crowd she notices Serg, powerfully played by Anthony Quinn. Serg used to be her lover when she was 17. She reminds Serg of the passionate love they shared and even points out the pet names they had for each other, his being “Panther.” The conversation is a little unsettling for Serg, but he goes along with it after all he’s got to kiss up to her to get the money for the dying town.

During a banquet in Karla’s honor, Karla shocks the people by offering them 2 million dollars under one condition. They must execute Serg. She explains that when Serg was her lover, she got pregnant, and to get out of his responsibilities, he bribed two men and others to testify that Karla was a whore who slept with anyone in town. The town believed the rumors and ran Karla out of town. Karla had her child; the child was taken away from her, and died a year later. With no other choice Karla was forced to get into prostitution. She later marries a rich man.

At first the town was enraged with her request and thought she was joking. But Karla was not joking. Karla must get the town to side with her. Karla sends for alluring items for the townspeople. She wets their appetites with materialism and even offers credit, “buy now, and pay later.” The sort of thing that has gotten a lot people in trouble for ages. The town could not resist these tasty morsels and slowly turned on Serg and did whatever Karla wanted, yes, even murder. After all money can buy anything, even justice if need be. Serg is like a trapped animal in the town; he is ostracized, and terrorized by the citizens of Guellen. He tries to escape, but the citizens of Guellen have become lust-blinded monsters and stop him. He is their meal ticket.

Finallly Serg is forced to stand trial and he is officially sentenced to death. The day of the execution Karla announces that she will free Serg if one person thinks his sentence is unjust, but no one speaks out. Karla decides to free Serg anyway. Her revenge? Serg will have to live with the very people that try to kill him for money. It is as if Karla had a great big mirror and showed the townspeople “the man in the mirror,” an ugly reflection. These were normal people going through life just like you and me. They knew each other, they played together, did all things together. And one day like an ominous spirit, Karla, a woman filled with hate and bitterness arrives and shows them who they really are inside. Human beings are capable of anything for money. The power that comes from money can make a man hateful, murderous, and can collapse of the very foundation of morality. A powerful movie indeed. If you’ve not seen it, you must.

She is forced to work for a snake oil quack, Doc McGill played by Guy Kibbee, who claims he has the cure to all ills. Lily goes on day by day in a drab existence. This existence pushes her to go through a number of empty love affairs until she meets Bob Chandler played by George Brent as only Brent can play. By-the-way Brent was Chatterton’s real life, much younger husband. It lasted all of 2 years…but I digress. As life would have it especially in pre-code movies, Lilly Turner isn’t going to get off that easy. She must suffer. Why is it that pre-code movies loved to show women suffer? That must have gotten old for the audience.

Lilly and Bob are in love and he has gotten his break to work as an engineer. Bob wants to marry Lilly. Lilly is willing because her marriage to Dave is meaningless. She knew that and so did Dave. One of Lilly’s lovers who is in insane asylum escapes and severely injures Lilly’s husband Dave. When Dave is injured he asks Lilly to stay with him. She feels she owes him, she can’t walk away and she stays. She must let go of the one man who truly loved her.

The movie has funny lines, and typical pre-code sarcasm. The movie was trying to make Dave the drunk seem funny, but I don’t think it was funny at all. A man living in a stupor, and constantly in need of whiskey is not funny. Chatterton as Lilly was well done, but I am used to seeing Chatterton in stronger roles. The love scenes with real life husband George Brent are electrifying. The best role in this movie was that of Doc McGill. Guy Kibbee is awesome in this role.

I just watched Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller, “Psycho.” Being a classic crime “wannabe” sleuth, as was Hitchcock, this movie has always been very interesting to me. I’ve watched it a few times and still am captivated, uh, horrified by it. Virtually everything about this movie is amazing, no other film can compare although many have tried to copy it. Hard to believe that this film was done on a budget. The film was nominated for 4 academy awards and I don’t think any other horror film will ever achieve that.

Alfred Hitchcock has his main star (Janet Leigh) die half way in the movie and although she is dead for the second half, you can’t help but keep her in your mind. I remember when I was in High School, one of my teachers, who was in college when Psycho was released, told me that after seeing this film many women did not take showers! And she wasn’t kidding. Even today many of us will have a hard time turning our backs in the shower after seeing this movie. For me, the most frightening thing about the film is the eerie, and ominous, violin music and the murder scene. The dark imagery in the film is unforgettable. The house on the hill, the Bates Motel off some lonely, forgotten and abandoned road, Anthony Perkins nervously looking for words to cover his most atrocious act. It’s all unforgettable and will leave a long and lasting impression.

The movie begins with a woman on the run from the law and quickly turns into a horrible story of a sick man who murders her. In a scene before the murder, villain and victim to be, are having a “life” conversation. Ironically it is this very conversation that turns this woman around. She realizes she has done wrong and must turn back to make things right. Her intentions were good, but her fate was sealed.

In the murder scene the camera pans out to the woman reaching out in vain, hanging on to dear life, but instead she gets a hold of a shower curtain which is neatly torn away from it’s hooks. The same shower curtain which will be used by the killer to bury her in. The camera continues to pan around the bathtub and woman’s body lying dead in a pool of blood . The eerie silence and the camera focusing on her lifeless eyes, made me think how sad it all was for her. How very sad. The bloodied water as it went down the drain, a metaphor of her very life gone down the drain.

All I could think of at the end of the movie is how a woman’s hopelessness caused her to cross paths with a killer, a psycho. It all seemed so sad and unfair to me. She didn’t get her break after all. So I guess we can say that “Psycho,” isn’t all horror, but also, a sad story of a woman who thought that the answers to her problems was running away to an “island,” but what she found instead was a road that led to her destruction.

Sharon Stone said in an interview with an Arab paper, “I feel at great pain when the spotlight is on the death of 4,000 American soldiers, while 600,000 Iraqi deaths are ignored,” she said. “War is not a movie, it is a tragedy of dead bodies, victims, the disabled, orphans, widows and the displaced.” [source:wibw.com]

Maybe Ms Stone should see a re-run of the 2001 Oscars. “From 2001 (Oscar) – Woody Allen making his first appearance ever at the Academy Awards. He’s won Oscars before, he has been nominated many times, especially for writing awards. But yet, he was one of those few who had decided to never show up at the Oscars, even to accept his own awards. But finally, the tragic events of September 11, 2001 and a special invitation by the Academy brought him to Oscar’s stage for the first time, and what a moment. He was invited to introduce a film clip retrospective of various films shot in New York City, including his own beautiful tribute to the city, MANHATTAN. It had been a well kept secret that Allen would be appearing, and he arrived on stage to a very warm standing ovation. He then proceeded to give a wonderful comic, self-deprecating, and sincere intro to why he accepted the Academy’s invitation this time, and then rolled the film, reminding us of the beauty of a city which had undergone such hell in that terrible year.” [source: oscarworld.net]

And that Ms Stone is why we are in Iraq…for the “tragedy of dead bodies, victims, the disabled, orphans, widows and the displaced,” victims of 9/11! How quickly we forget. Maybe what Ms Stone saw on TV on 9/11 was “a movie,” and not reality. And Hollywood wonders why Oscar viewership drops each year. Try your Basic Instinct act on a terrorist Ms Stone and see if that works.

If a president were to attempt this today, he or she would be stoned, unless of course, the politician defends and protects Hollywood’s agenda. And that my friend is a fact, just take a long hard look at most nominated films, especially those in the documentary category. No doubt about it, the Hollywood of old was much, much different than it is today.

It is said that Joan Fontaine who presented Ms Greer with the Oscar had to take a seat. Ms Greer went on and on about crazy stuff like the “arbitrary nature of awards,” thanked, and thanked everyone including the ants on the set, no just kidding. But you get the picture. But to her credit, it was 1:00 in the morning when she was called and her first line was “I’m practically unprepared.” Yeah, right. Her speech was so long and boring that the starlets in the audience questioned their very own sanity! It is also said that “WC Fields called tipsily for the deployment of snipers.” Something WC would do.

Needless to say Garson never won an Oscar again. Hum, I wonder why?

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