Monday, December 26, 2022

Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward star in "Rawhide"

Rawhide (1951) is an American western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward. The supporting cast members include Hugh Marlowe, Dean Jagger, Edgar Buchanan, Jack Elam, and George Tobias.

Tom Owens (Power) is the sophisticated heir to the J. C. Owens of the Overland Mail Company. His father sends him west to the remote relay station Rawhide Pass to learn about the business from Sam Todd (Buchanan). Tom can’t wait to get back to civilization in one week’s time.

A young woman named Vinnie Holt (Hayward) arrives at the station with her young niece Callie. Callie is the daughter of Vinnie’s deceased sister. Vinnie was traveling east to take Callie to her paternal grandparents. Before Vinnie can catch the next train, The U.S. Calvary arrives to inform the stagecoach passing through Rawhide that four convicts escaped from Huntsville prison. With this news, the Calvary refuses to let Vinnie and Callie ride the stagecoach—it’s against the law to allow children to travel in a dangerous situation.

Tyrone Power and Hugh Marlowe

Now Vinnie and Callie are stuck at the Rawhide Pass with the escaped outlaws heading their way. When Rafe Zimmerman (Marlowe) arrives at the pass with his three fellow outlaws, no one is safe.


Henry Hathaway (1898 – 1985) was an American film director and producer. Hathaway started working in silent films in 1925 as an assistant to established directors like Victor Fleming and Josef von Sternberg. His first solo directorial effort was Heritage of the Desert (1932) starring Randolph Scott. Hathaway, along with Scott, would be known for western movies. Besides Scott, Hathaway directed Gary Cooper in several films, including The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) which earned him his only Best Director Academy Award nomination. In 1940, Hathaway began working at Fox where he directed Tyrone Power in Johnny Apollo and Brigham Young (both 1940), Gene Tierney in China Girl (1942), Don Ameche and Dana Andrews in Wing and a Prayer (1944), and Call Northside 777 (1948) starring James Stewart and Richard Conte. After leaving Fox, he was one of three directors who worked on the western epic How the West Was Won (1962). He directed Steve McQueen in Nevada Smith (1966), directed John Wayne in True Grit (1968) which won Wayne his one and only Best Actor Academy Award.

Tyrone Power (1914 – 1958) was a major movie star as well as a star on stage and radio. He was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1930s and 1940s. Power was under exclusive contract to 20th Century-Fox where his image and film choices were carefully selected by studio head Zanuck. After the war, Power wanted to stretch his acting past romantic comedies and swashbuckler roles. Nightmare Alley was Power’s personal favorite of all his films. Some of Power's films include Marie Antoinette (1938), The Rains Came (1939), Jesse James (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), and  Blood and Sand (1941). Later in his career, he starred in Captain from Castile (1947), The Black Rose (1950), and Witness for the Prosecution (1957). Power’s favorite of all his films that he starred in was Nightmare Alley (1947) even though it was a commercial and a critical failure when first released. Its status as a classic film noir has been recently reevaluated.

Tyrone Power and Susan Hayward


Susan Hayward (1917 – 1975) was an Academy Award-winning actress for her role as Barbara Graham in I Want to Live! (1958). Hayward worked as a fashion model but traveled to Hollywood in 1937 to try out for the role of Scarlett O’Hara. She didn’t win that coveted role, but she secured a film contract. Hayward’s career took off in the late 1940s when she was nominated for Best Actress for Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman (1947). She received four more Best Actress nominations for My Foolish Heart (1949), With a Song in My Heart (1952), I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955), and I Want to Live. Later in her career, Hayward replaced Judy Garland as Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls (1967).


Rawhide trivia

  • This was Susan Hayward's first film for Fox after Walter Wanger sold her contract to the studio.
  • Tyrone Power was 20 years older than his character.
  • The film score was originally written for Brigham Young (1940) starring Power and Dean Jagger. It was also used for Yellow Sky (1948).
  • Quentin Tarantino said this film was the inspiration for The Hateful Eight (2015).


To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.


To join the discussion on January 2, 2023, at 6:30 p.m.Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation with a link to the discussion on Zoom. 


Discussion questions

  1. Does this film remind you of any other westerns you've seen?
  2. Did you think Tyrone Power was too old for the role of Tom Owens?
  3. Were Power and Hayward a good "team?"
  4. What about the supporting cast? Did anyone stand out to you?
  5. Did anything about this film surprise you?

Monday, December 19, 2022

Barbara Stanwyck Sleighs Christmas

Barbara Stanwyck is one of the icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was believable as a hard-boiled film noir dame as she was a madcap heiress in screwball comedy. She had a way of mixing toughness and vulnerability like no other actress in film history. These qualities would contribute to Stanwyck’s longevity in a career that spanned over 60 years.

Stanwyck is so closely identified with film noir due to her Oscar-nominated performance in Double Indemnity (1944) that she is almost forgotten for some of the best Christmas-themed movies ever made.

The four Christmas movies Stanwyck starred in have stood the test of time and all are worth watching, even in the jaded 21st century. So here we go!

Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) and John Sargent (Fred MacMurray) take a break on their way to Indiana.

Remember the Night (1940) is directed by the underrated Michell Leisen with a screenplay by Preston Sturges. It’s a wonderful Christmas movie that has been rediscovered in the last several years. It’s also the first pairing of Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, four years before Double Indemnity cemented their status as film noir icons.

Lee Leander (Stanwyck) is arrested for shoplifting a bracelet from a jewelry store in New York City. Her trial is set to start right before Christmas. John “Jack” Sargeant (MacMurray), the lawyer set to prosecute her, gets the trial postponed until after Christmas. He fears that the jurors will be filled with compassion during the Christmas holiday and declare her not guilty. But when he hears Lee complain to her lawyer that she’ll be spending Christmas in jail, Sargeant arranges for her bail.

Through a misunderstanding, the bail bondsman delivers Lee to Jack’s apartment, thinking he wants to take advantage of the situation by seducing her. When Jack realizes that Leander is a fellow Hoosier, he volunteers to drive her home for Christmas. When Lee arrives at her mother’s home, she finds a mean spirited woman who wants nothing to do with her daughter. Lee is devastated by her mother’s rejection. Seeing how hurt she is, Jack invites her to come home with him for Christmas.

Lee is embraced by Jack’s family including his mother (Beulah Bondi), Aunt Emma (Elizabeth Patterson), and Cousin Willie (Stanley Holloway). Perhaps for the first time in her life, Lee feels loved and accepted. Jack’s mother and aunt treat Lee like family and it has a profound effect on her.

Lee and Mrs. Sargent (Beulah Bondi) have a serious conversation. 

When Jack and Lee start falling in love, things begin to change. As much as Jack’s mother feels for Lee’s predicament, she’s concerned for her son’s career, a career that took a lot of hard work and sacrifice.

Will Jack and Lee be able to overcome the obstacles in their way and find happiness? I hope you get the chance to see this classic for yourself; I think you’ll be surprised by the ending. 


Meet John Doe (1941) is a comedy-drama directed by Frank Capra. Stanwyck’s co-star is Gary Cooper who has the title role. Stanwyck stars as Ann Mitchell, a newspaper reporter who is fired when a new owner takes over The Bulletin a paper with a sagging readership. As she exits, Ann creates a column featuring a man she calls John Doe who plans on committing suicide to protest the ills of the world on Christmas Eve.

John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) and Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck)

The column gets such a big response from the public that the new editor of the paper hires Ann back. Once she’s back on the paper, Ann sets about finding a “real” John Doe to promote her column and to keep her employed. When she sees Long John Willoughby (Cooper), a former baseball player and tramp, she thinks she’s found the perfect man to play the part. With coaching from Ann, John develops into a competent speaker and leader. John Doe clubs pop up all over the country due to John’s appearances on the radio and Ann’s columns.

Ann convinced newspaper editor Henry Connell (James Gleason) that she should get her job back.


When the owner of the paper D. B. Norton realizes that the John Doe clubs could help him with his political ambitions, as long as he can convince Ann and John to go along. Things get complicated when Ann finds herself falling in love with John but is blinded by the money and position Norton offers her.

John refuses to go along with Norton which also alienates him from Ann who he thinks has betrayed him. At an outdoor rally where John is set to speak, Norton has the microphones turned off and agitators in the crowd hired to turn the rallygoers against him. Ann, now being held by Norton is desperate to explain herself to John but he won’t listen. Frustrated and upset, Ann makes herself sick when she realizes that John thinks she played him for a fool.

Hurt and disillusioned, John decides to jump off of the top of City Hall on Christmas Eve just as Ann had said he would in her first column. D. B. Morton and his associates fear that John may actually try to jump to his death and go to the top of City Hall. They’re afraid he’ll turn himself into a martyr and thwart their political ambitions.

Ann Mitchell begs John not to jump

Ann, leaving her sickbed goes to City Hall in an attempt to keep John from jumping. She confronts John and begs him not to jump. She also proclaims her love for him and that together they can continue the John Doe movement. Exhausted from her climb to the top of City Hall and her illness, Ann collapses in John’s arms. At that moment, some members of the John Doe clubs have gone to the top of city hall to tell him the movement isn’t dead and that they still believe in him.

What does John do? Is there hope for John and Ann and the John Doe movement? Watch this classic (it’s free on YouTube) to find out.


Christmas in Connecticut (1945) is a wonderful screwball comedy directed by Peter Godfrey. Stanwyck plays Elizabeth Lane, a popular food writer for Smart Housekeeping magazine owned by publisher Alexander Yardley (Sydney Greenstreet). Her stories about her married life on a farm in Connecticut with her husband and baby have helped boost circulation, making it one of the top magazines in the country. The only problem is Elizabeth Lane’s life is one big lie. She can’t cook, she’s not married, has no baby or a farm in Connecticut. All her recipes come from her friend Felix Bassenak (S.Z. Sakall) a restaurateur in her neighborhood.

Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) and Elizabeth Lane (Barbara Stanwyck) out for a sleigh ride

As a publicity stunt, Yardley invites a Navy veteran who was adrift at sea for several weeks before his rescue to Elizabeth’s “farm” for Christmas. Yardley believes that if Elizabeth Lane entertains a war hero in her home, readers will buy and subscribe to Smart Housekeeping.

This development puts Elizabeth on the spot. How will she be able to entertain a war hero when she lives in a small New York City apartment? Enter John Sloan, an architect, who is in love with Elizabeth and has asked her to marry him on several occasions but has always been turned down…until now! John has a farm in Connecticut, the farm she has based her stories on, and he’s anxious to make her his bride. Sloan even has worked out a plan where they can “rent” a baby!

Felix (S.Z. Sakall) teaches Elizabeth how to flip pancakes

When returning war hero Jefferson Jones (Dennis Morgan) arrives at the Connecticut farm, he is immediately smitten with Elizabeth Lane, and she is with him. Elizabeth and Sloan try numerous times to get married at the farm but are always interrupted by someone or something. Felix, who doesn’t think Sloan is the right man for Elizabeth, finds ways to disrupt their wedding plans on several occasions. On the other hand, he does all he can to bring Elizabeth and Jefferson together since Felix sees the war veteran as a better match for his friend.

Like many screwball comedies, the action is fast and furious with lots of witty dialogue and improbable situations. You know that Elizabeth and Jefferson are destined to be together, but it’s the crazy path they take to get there that makes this movie so much fun.


My Reputation (1946) is a wonderful romantic drama directed by Curtis Bernhardt. Stanwyck stars as Jessica Drummond a widow who is trying to get on with her life while raising two young boys. She gets a lot of advice from her friends and family on how she should act now that she’s a widow. Her mother (Lucile Watson) especially feels that her daughter should mourn her husband perpetually. Jessica’s mother still wears black in memory of her dead husband. Jessica wants no part of her mother’s view of widowhood. Some of the film’s major events take place during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve holidays.

Ginna Abbott (Eve Arden) and Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck)

Jessica’s best friend Ginna Abbott (Eve Arden) and her husband Cary (John Ridgely) invite her on a ski vacation in Lake Tahoe. Jessica has a skiing mishap and is assisted by Major Scott Landis (George Brent). Jessica is wary of Scott’s attention but she needs his help to get back to her friends' cabin. After a little back and forth between the two, Jessica asks him to leave.

Back home in Lake Forest, Illinois, Jessica learns that Scott is stationed in Chicago. In the meantime, Jessica’s social circle starts spreading rumors about her and Scott. Not understanding why, when she’s unattached, a platonic relationship should garner so much attention and ruin her reputation. One of Jessica’s chief critics is Riette Van Orman (Leona Maricle) whose husband tried to force himself on Jessica.

Jessica and Major Scott Landis (George Brent) on the slopes


During the Christmas holiday, Jessica spends time with her mother her boys, and the family lawyer and friend Frank Everett (Warner Anderson). Jessica’s mother thinks Frank is a suitable man for Jessica to consider dating. Jessica is having none of it; she doesn’t want to be pushed into a relationship with someone she doesn’t love.

After being subjected to her “friends” talking behind her back for months, Jessica confronts Riette at Van Orman’s New Year’s Eve party. Riette expresses her disapproval of Jessica’s behavior in a most unkind way. Jessica protests saying she’s done nothing wrong and resents Riette’s judgment.

It’s about this time that Jessica realizes that she’s in love with Scott and wants to build a life together with him in spite of the gossip and judgment she may encounter going forward. Scott has orders to go overseas which complicates their relationship. It is especially difficult for her two boys who wonder if Jessica has forgotten their father. She tells them that she loved their father but has it in her to love another

My Reputation had its premiere at a U.S. Army base.

Scott is on his way to New York by train and Jessica goes to meet him. She originally planned on going to New York with him but after speaking with her boys decided not to. Jessica meets Scott at the train but tells him she can’t go with him because her boys are too young to understand. Scott asks her to wait for him. Jessica says she will as she watches the train leave the station.

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Maureen O'Hara and John Payne experience the "Miracle on 34th Street"

Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is a comedy-drama directed by George Seaton and starring Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, and Edmund Gwenn. Others in the cast include Natalie Wood, Gene Lockhart, Porter Hall, Jerome Cowan, William Frawley, Theresa Harris, Jack Albertson, and in her screen debut, Thelma Ritter.

Doris Walker (O’Hara) is an executive with Macy’s Department Store in New York City. She’s also a divorced single mom raising her daughter Susan (Wood). Due to her disappointment with marriage, she’s raised Susan not to believe in fairy tales and Santa Claus.

When Doris hires a man named Kris Kringle to play Santa Claus in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, things get interesting. Kris doesn’t just play Santa Claus, he believes he is Santa Claus!

Fred Gailey, a lawyer who lives in the same apartment building as Doris and Susan. He befriended Susan in an effort to meet Doris. His plan works and he and Doris begin a relationship. Things get complicated when the two clash on whether or not Susan should be exposed to the “myth” of Santa Claus.

Kris Kringle suspects that Susan doesn’t believe in Santa Claus and he makes it his mission to make her think otherwise.

Wilk Kris be successful? And is there really a Santa Claus and is his name Kris Kringle?

Edmund Gwenn and Natalie Wood

George Seaton (1911 - 1979) was an American director, screenwriter, and producer. Seaton started out as an actor and played the Lone Ranger o the radio. He got a job as a contract writer at M-G-M in 1933. His first credited script was for the Marx Brothers' comedy A Day at the Races (1937). Unhappy with only working on comedies, Seaton moved to Columbia in 1940. In the early 1940s, he went to 20th Century-Fox where he achieved his greatest success as a writer and director. At Fox, he wrote the scripts for That Night in Rio (1941), Moon Over Miami (1941), and The Song of Bernadette (1943). He made his directorial debut with Diamond Horseshoe (1945) starring Betty Grable. He wrote and directed Junior Miss (1945) starring Peggy Ann Garner. Seaton wrote and directed the classic Miracle on 34th Street. He won an Academy Award for his screenplay. Other films directed by Seaton include Apartment for Peggy (1948), The Country Girl (1954), Teacher’s Pet (1958), The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), 36 Hours (1964), What’s So Bad About Feeling Good (1968), and Airport (1970), the biggest hit of Seaton’s career.

Maureen O’Hara (1920 - 2015) was an Irish-American actress and singer. In her native Ireland, O’Hara trained with the Abbey Theatre at age 14. She screen-tested for the role of Mary Yellan in Jamaica Inn at age 19. Director Hitchcock wasn't impressed with O’Hara’s test but Laughton persuaded him to cast her. After finishing the film, O’Hara moved to Hollywood where she was signed to a contract at RKO. In 1941 she starred in How Green Was My Valley, her first collaboration with director John Ford. She starred alongside Tyrone Power in The Black Swan (1942), The Spanish Main (1945) with Paul Henreid, and Sinbad the Sailor (1947) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. That same year she starred in the Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street with John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, and a young Natalie Wood. Other popular films include The Quiet Man (1952), The Parent Trap (1961), and McLintock! (1963). 

John Payne (1912 – 1989) was an American film actor. He made his film debut in Dodsworth (1936). He had roles are various studios but found stardom at 20th Century-Fox. At Fox, he had major roles in Tin Pan Ally (1940), Sun Valley Serenade (1941), The Dolly Sisters (1945), The Razor’s Edge (1946), and perhaps his most famous role as Fred Gayley in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Payne wasn’t happy with the roles he was being offered at Fox so he broke his contract which had four more years to go. As an independent freelance actor, Payne then specialized in westerns and films noir. During this period, he starred in Kansas City Confidential (1952), 99 River Street (1953), and Santa Fe Passage (1955). From 1957 to 1959, he starred as Vint Bonner in the western TV series, The Restless Gun. Payne’s final role was in an episode of Columbo in 1975.

Edmund Gwenn (1877 – 1959) was an English stage and film actor. He is best remembered for his role as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Gwenn made his Hollywood film debut in Sylvia Scarlett (1935) and went on to have a long career in that town. He was a member of what was known as the British Colony—British ex-pats who were working in Hollywood. So of his other films include Pride and Prejudice (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Lassie Come Home (1943), The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), Undercurrent (1946), Apartment for Peggy (1948), and Mister 880 (1950). The actor Cecil Kellaway was Gwenn’s cousin.

Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, and Edmund Gwenn

Miracle on 34th Street trivia

  • The team at Twentieth-Century Fox filmed the actual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1946.
  • Edmund Gwenn actually played Santa Claus in that 1946 parade!
  • Both Macy's and Gimbel's gave their permission to have their names used in the movie...after they saw the completed film!
  • Gwenn gained 30 pounds to play Kris.
  • This as Thelma Ritter's film debut; she was soon under contract with Fox and was nominated six times for Best Supporting Actress Oscars. She never won.
  • The marketers at Fox didn't promote the film as a Christmas movie and came up with a crazy trailer that doesn't mention Christmas at all. (see trailer below)
  • Miracle on 34th Street was released in theaters on June 11, 1947.
  • The movie grossed four times its production cost.


To watch the film on YouTube, click the link below.


To join the discussion on December 19, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and a link to join the discussion on Zoom.


Discussion questions

  1. The film is an acknowledged holiday classic. Is it one of your favorites?
  2. Does this film hold up in the 21st century?
  3. What did you think of the relationship between Maureen O'Hara and John Payne? Did they have screen chemistry?
  4. This movie put a young Natalie Wood on the map. After this performance, every studio in Hollywood wanted her in one of their movies. What did you think of her performance?
  5. If you saw Edmund Gwenn, would you believe he was Santa Claus?
  6. Do you have a favorite scene or piece of dialogue?



The original trailer for Miracle on 34th Street, featuring several movie stars on the Fox lot

Sunday, December 4, 2022

Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne top the cast in "Merrily We Live"

Merrily We Live (1938) is an American screwball comedy directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne. The supporting cast includes Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb, and Patsy Kelly.

Emily Kilbourne (Burke) has the annoying habit of taking in unfortunate and destitute men and training them to be the family Chauffeur. When her latest charge, Ambrose, leaves with the family silver, Emily declares never to take in any more “tramps.” While the family rejoices about this turnaround, writer Wade Rawlins (Aherne) arrives on the doorstep of the Kilbourne mansion asking to use their phone. Due to his shabby manner of dress, the butler Grosvenor (Mowbray), tries to chase him away. When Emily sees him, she once again goes soft and hires him as the new Chauffeur.

Emily’s eldest daughter Jerry (Bennett) tries to convince her mother to get rid of this latest tramp. Younger sister Marion (Granville) sides with Jerry against their mother but to no avail.

When Wade cleans himself up and puts on his chauffeur’s uniform, Jerry—and Marion—take notice. Through his charming personality and his good looks, Wade becomes an integral member of the Kilbourne household in spite of the family’s best efforts to give him the boot.

Will Wade’s true identity be revealed and will that change the way the Kilbourne family sees him?

Brian Aherne and Constance Bennett

Norman Z. McLeod (1898 – 1964) was an American film director, cartoonist, and writer. McLeod is best known for directing some of the most popular comedies from the 1930s including Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932) starring the Marx Brothers and, It’s a Gift (1934) starring W.C. Fields. In the 1940s, he directed the hit comedies The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and Paleface (1948) starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell. McLeod also directed Topper (1937) and Topper Takes a Trip (1938).

Constance Bennett (1904 – 1965) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actress, producer, and businesswoman. During the 1920s and 1930s, Bennett was a major star. In the early 1930s, she was the highest-paid woman in Hollywood. Early in her career, Bennett was famous for playing in melodramas, but later in her career, she made a successful transition to comedy in films like Topper (1937). Two of her most popular films are What Price Hollywood? (1932)—considered the unofficial first version of A Star is Born—Bed of Roses (1933), and Topper (1937). Actress Joan Bennett is Constance Bennett’s younger sister. Constance Bennett had a makeup and clothes line during the 1930s. Below is a short film makeup tutorial that was shown in movie theaters.



Brian Aherne (1902 – 1986) was an English stage, screen, radio, and television actor who enjoyed a long career in the United King and the United States. During the 1930s and early 1940s, he was a popular leading man starring opposite the likes of Madeleine Carroll, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, and Carole Lombard. He was Oscar-nominated for performance as Emperor Maximillian in Juarez (1939) co-starring Paul Muni, Bette Davis, and John Garfield. Other films include Vigil in the Night (1940), My Son, My Son! (1940), My Sister Eileen (1942), and First Comes Courage (1943). By the late-1940s, Aherne was playing supporting roles in films while still acting on the stage. During the 1950s, he appeared on television on shows like Robert Montgomery Presents (1953), the Colgate Comedy Hour, and General Electric Theater.  In 1960, he had a lead role on The Twilight Zone. He was married to actress Joan Fontaine (1939 – 1945).

Billie Burke, Constance Bennett, and Brian Aherne

Merrily We Live trivia

  • Constance Bennett, Alan Mowbray, and Billie Burke all worked with director Norman Z. McLeod’s Topper the year before.
  • This was Billie Burke’s only Oscar-nominated performance.
  • Ronald Colman was originally considered for the role of Wade Rawlins.
  • Bonita Granville as Marion, says “He’s no Robert Taylor!” to Billie Burke as her mother Mrs. Kilbourne. Burke co-starred with Robert Taylor in Society Doctor (1935).


To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.


To join the discussion on December 12, 2022, at 6 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and a link to the discussion on Zoom.


Discussion questions

  1. Often compared to  My Man Godfrey. Do you see the comparison? How are they similar? How are they different? Which is the better film in your estimation?
  2. What did you think of Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne? Was there chemistry between them? 
  3. The supporting cast is stocked with some legendary character actors. Did you have a favorite?
  4. Merrily We Live was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Song ("Merrily We Live"), Best Art Direction (Charles D. Hall), and Best Cinematography (Norbert Brodine). Although they were shut out, do you think they were deserved?
  5. The film was a huge box-office success. Do you think it ranks with some of the other screwball comedies of the era like The Awful Truth (1937) and Bringing Up Baby (1938)?



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