Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain learn that “People Will Talk”

People Will Talk (1951) is a romantic comedy written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain. The cinematography is by Milton Krasner who won an Academy Award for Three Coins in the Fountain (1954). He also did the cinematography for A Double Life (1947), House of Strangers (1949), and All About Eve (1950).

Jeanne Crain and Cary Grant

The plot centers around Dr. Noah Praetorious (Cary Grant), an unconventional doctor who teaches at a medical school, but also runs a clinic that treats patients in a holistic manner. Dr.Praetorious’s medical practices are at odds with Professor Elwell (Hume Cronyn) who is determined to remove Praetorius from the university faculty.

In the middle of all this enters Deborah Higgins (Jeanne Crain), a single young woman who discovers she is pregnant. Deborah is determined not to let her father (Sidney Blackmer) know of her situation. She takes some desperate action that brings her to the attention of Dr. Praetorious. And then there’s Dr. Praetorious’s mysterious constant companion, Mr. Shunderson.

Will Dr. Praetorious’s career and future be ruined and sullied by those who are jealous of his accomplishments and popularity with the student body?

Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1929 – 1972) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz won Academy Awards for directing and writing A Letter to Three Wives (1949), and All About Eve (1950). He is the only director to win back-to-back Academy Awards for writing and directing. Other films directed by Mankiewicz include Dragonwyck (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Julius Caesar (1953), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), and Guys and Dolls (1955). He directed the 1963 crisis-plagued production of Cleopatra which negatively affected his career as a director.

Cary Grant (1904 – 1986) was an English-born American actor who became one of the most popular leading men in film history. Grant started his career in vaudeville before heading to Hollywood. He became a superstar in the late 1930s in a series of screwball comedies including The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne. He was a memorable C. K. Dexter Haven in The Philadelphia Story (1940) opposite Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart. He received two Best Actor nominations for Penny Serenade (1941) and None but the Lonely Hearts (1944). Other classic Grant films include Gunga Din (1939), Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944). He made four popular films with Alfred Hitchcock: Suspicion (1941), Notorious (1946), To Catch a Thief (1955), and North by Northwest (1959). He was presented with an Honorary Oscar at the 42nd Academy Awards in 1970.

Jeanne Crain (1925 – 2003) was an American actress whose career spanned more than three decades. While still a teenager, she was asked to take a screen test with Orson Welles. He was testing for the part of Lucy Morgan in his production of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). She didn’t get the part (Anne Baxter did), but she was on her way. She had a bit part in The Gang’s All Here (1943), but had a leading role in Home in Indiana (1944). The film was a box office hit and Crain became a favorite of film fans everywhere. She had another hit with Winged Victory (1944) and co-starred with Dana Andrews in the musical State Fair (1945). That same year, she was the “good girl” opposite Gene Tierney’s “bad girl” in Leave Her to Heaven. More good roles came her way including leads in A Letter to Three Wives (1949), The Fan (1949), and Pinky (1949). The latter won her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. She lost that year to Olivia de Havilland. Crain’s popularity continued into the 1950s but suffered when she was released from her exclusive contract with 20th Century-Fox. She continued to work in films and on television until 1975.

People Will Talk has an excellent supporting cast that includes Finlay Currie, Hume Cronyn, Walter Slezak, and Margaret Hamilton.

People Will Talk Trivia:

• Jeanne Crain campaigned for the female lead, but the role went to Anne Baxter. When Baxter became pregnant, Crain played Deborah. The opposite happened with All About Eve. Crain was originally cast as Eve Harrington. When Crain became pregnant (Crain had seven children), Baxter got the role and screen immortality.
• Margaret Hamilton was uncredited in spite of the fact that she had a sizeable supporting role.
• Dr. Pretorius’s car is a 1951 Lincoln Cosmopolitan 2-door convertible. Only 857 convertibles were built that year. It cost $3891 (about $40,000 in 2020).
• Grant had his hand and footprints immortalized a Grauman’s Chinese Theatre at the premiere of People Will Talk.

Below it the YouTube link to watch the film. Please us this link as there are several on the channel of inferior quality.



Join us August 25, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion on Zoom. The invitation and link are below.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "People Will Talk"

Time: Aug 25, 2020 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74191376726?pwd=WVdHK2JVc25HWTNsbEx3REROWTVwQT09

Meeting ID: 741 9137 6726
Passcode: jAUD7h


Questions for discussion:
1. What did you think of Dr. Praetorius and his medical philosophy?
2. What do you think drove Professor Elwell’s jealousy?
3. Do you think Dr. Praetorius was in love with Deborah when they married?
4. Would you like a “Mr. Shunderson” as a friend/companion?
5. Does Deborah’s plight hold up in the 21st century?

Carole Lombard and Fredric March star in “Nothing Sacred”

Nothing Sacred (1937) is a screwball comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by David O. Selznick, with a screenplay by Ben Hecht. Oscar Levant wrote the original music score.

New York newspaper reporter Wally Cook (March) was demoted to writing obituaries due to a scandal involving a phony African nobleman and a charity event in the nobleman’s honor. Wally begs his boss Oliver Stone (Walter Connolly) for a second chance.

Wally points out a story about Hazel Flagg (Carole Lombard), a young woman dying of radium poisoning. Wally convinces his boss that a story on the dying girl could boost the circulation of his paper the Morning Star. Wally is off to the fictional town of Warsaw, Vermont in pursuit of Hazel Flagg and her story. Wally meets Hazel and he invites her and her doctor to New York as guests of the paper. Unknown to Wally is the fact that Hazel isn’t dying of radium poisoning and that her original diagnosis was a mistake. Hazel anxious to leave the sleepy town of Warsaw for a trip to New York doesn’t let on that she’s not dying.

Will Hazel’s secret be found out and will Wally be sent back to writing obituaries once again?

William A. Wellman (1896 – 1975) got his start in the movies as an actor but decided he’d rather work behind the camera as a director. He directed his first picture in 1920. Seven years later, Wellman directed the World War I epic Wings. His other notable films in the sound era include The Public Enemy (1931), A Star Is Born (1937), Beau Geste (1939), and The Ox-Box Incident (1943).

Carole Lombard (1908 – 1942) was an American film actress best know for starring in a string of screwball comedies. So popular was she in the genre that Life magazine dubbed her “the screwball girl.” Lombard began her career in silent films, but her career was stalled when she was in a car accident that scarred her face. After the accident, she was dropped from her Fox Film Corporation contract. She underwent plastic surgery, which was relatively new at the time, hoping it would help jumpstart her career. The surgery was a success resulting in a minor scar that was hardly noticeable on screen. She made almost 40 films before her breakout role as Lily Garland opposite John Barrymore in Twentieth Century. Now a bona fide star, Lombard would be the highest-paid actor in Hollywood by the late 1930s. Lombard was Oscar-nominated for My Man Godfrey (1936) and starred in Alfred Hitchock’s only screwball comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith. In 1939, Lombard married Clark Gable and the two were the most famous couple in Hollywood. Lombard died tragically in a plane crash on January 16, 1942. She was 33 years old. Her final film was the Ernst Lubitsch comedy To Be or Not to Be (1942) which was released after her death.

Frederic March (1897 – 1975) was an American actor of both stage and film. He started his career as an extra in silent movies and by 1926 he appeared on Broadway and by the end of the decade, he was in Hollywood. March was one of the most successful actors working in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s. He starred in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) a role for which he won a Best Actor Oscar, Design for Living (1933), Les Miserbles (1935), Anna Karenina (1935) with Greta Garbo, and A Star is Born (1937) with Janet Gaynor. In the 1940s, March starred in I Married a Witch (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives, which brought him his second Best Actor Oscar. March was also a major star on Broadway. He won Tony Awards for Best Actor for his performances in Years Ago (1947) and Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956).

Nothing Sacred is a who’s who of 1930s character actors including Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig Ruman, John Qualen, Hattie McDaniel, and Margaret Hamilton.

Nothing Sacred has a creative title sequence.

Nothing Sacred trivia:

• This was the first screwball comedy filmed in Technicolor and Lombard’s only color film. 
• Frank Fay who plays the master of ceremonies in the film was Barbara Stanwyck’s first husband. His film career was basically over at the time of the film’s release, but he went on to Broadway fame as Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey (1944).
• The film was not a hit upon its release and recorded a loss of $400,000 at the box office.
• Lombard starred in True Confession (1937) with Fred MacMurray, the same year as Nothing Sacred. True Confession, almost forgotten today, was a huge box office success.

For more information on True Confession, which also starred John Barrymore, click here.

Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard, and John Barrymore in True Confession

To watch the film, click on the YouTube link below. Please use this link because there are other versions that are on the channel that isn’t as good.



After you’ve watched the film, join us for a discussion on Zoom at 6:30 p.m. on August 11, 2020. The links for the Zoom meeting are below.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "Nothing Sacred"
Time: Aug 11, 2020 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/74847286053?pwd=aFdsaElXcEdqcmZHVGthMTE0aUJyUT09

Meeting ID: 748 4728 6053
Passcode: ck2W1Q


Questions for discussion:
1. Were you surprised to see such an old film in color? Did color add anything to the narrative?
2. What did you think of Carole Lombard’s performance?
3. What did you make of the town of Warsaw? Did you understand why Hazel wanted to leave it?
4. Was Frederic March convincing as a newspaperman?
5. Was there a message or meaning behind the comedy? If yes, what was the message?

Edward G. Robinson Pursues Nazis in “The Stranger” directed by Orson Welles

The Stranger (1946) is a film noir directed by Orson Welles, produced by Sam Spiegel, and starring Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, and Orson Welles.

The film concerns Mr. Wilson (Robinson) of the United Nations War Crimes Commission and his hunt for Nazi war criminal Franz Kindler (Welles). Kindler was careful to erase all traces of evidence that would connect him to his war crimes, but it is known that he had an affinity for clocks.

Edward G. Robinson, Loretta Young, and Orson Welles

In an effort to locate Kindler, Robinson releases Meinike, a former associate of Kindler’s. Robinson hopes that Meinike will lead him to Kindler. Upon Meinike’s release, he travels to Harper, a small town in Connecticut. Kindler has created a new identity and life for himself there in the person of Charles Rankin, a teacher at a prep school. He is engaged to marry Mary Longstreet, (Young) the daughter of a Supreme Court Justice.

Will Kindler escape prosecution for his war crimes or will Wilson be successful in bringing him to justice?

The Stranger has the distinction of being the only film that Welles directed that was a commercial hit. After the back-to-back box office disasters of Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), no one wanted to hire Welles to direct. In order for Welles to direct, he had to sign an agreement that he would owe the studio a substantial sum of money if he didn’t meet his obligation to bring the picture in on time and on budget. In fact, Welles brought the picture in a day ahead of schedule and under budget!

Major cast members from The Stranger at the dinner table

Excerpts of the documentary film Nazi Concentration Camps (1945) were included when Wilson’s character is explaining the crimes of Kindler and other Nazis. Director George Stevens, along with James B. Donovan, and Ray Kellogg assembled the film from footage they took during the liberation of Europe for that documentary.

Orson Welles (1915- 1985) was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, with Citizen Kane considered by many to be the greatest film of all time. Welles got his start on the stage. He formed the Mercury Theatre with John Houseman in 1937. Many of the actors from his repertory theatre starred in his first two films. Welles had a reputation for being difficult and undisciplined which contributed to his low output of films. In spite of all that, his reputation as a Hollywood genius remains untarnished.

Sam Spiegel (1901 – 1985) was an American independent film producer. Speigel won Best Picture Academy Awards for three of the most famous American films of the twentieth century: On the Waterfront (1954), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). His three Oscar wins are a record for an independent producer.

Russell Metty (1906 – 1978) was an American cinematographer. He won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Color for Spartacus (1960). Starting his career at RKO, Metty photographed Bringing Up Baby (1937) and Room Service (1938). Other films he photographed include Magnificent Obsession (1954), There’s Always Tomorrow (1955), Written on the Wind (1956), and All That Heaven Allows (1956) all directed by Douglas Sirk. Some of his later films include Flower Drum Song (1961), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), The Omega Man (1971), and That’s Entertainment (1974).

Edward G. Robinson (1893 – 1973) was an American actor of the stage and screen. Robinson is a true legend from Hollywood’s Golden Age where he starred in the gangster classic Little Caesar (1931), Kid Galahad (1937), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), The Sea Wolf (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), and Key Largo (1948). Robinson was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1973, but he was never nominated for a competitive Oscar.

Loretta Young (1913 – 2000) was an American actress. She entered show business as a young girl working in silent films. Silent film icon Colleen Moore gave her the name Loretta (she was born Gretchen Young). With the advent of talkies, Young became a leading lady, landing a long-term contract at 20th Century-Fox. Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck paired her with Tyrone Power and the two were a movie team for a time. Young tired of the parts she was getting at Fox and she decided to leave the studio and become a freelance actor, which was a risky proposition. After a slow start where she reduced her per film fee, she managed to get back on top, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1948 for The Farmer’s Daughter. When film roles dried up, Young ventured into the new medium of television, becoming one of its earliest pioneers with the anthology series The Loretta Young Show.

To watch this film on YouTube, click on the link below. Be sure to use this link because there are several versions of this film on YouTube that are of poor quality.

After you have watched the film, join us on Zoom for a discussion. Below are the links to follow.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "The Stranger"

Time: Jun 2, 2020 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79106851740?pwd=cHRHSm1DVUtIckVSOVFZY2dBZjJDdz09

Meeting ID: 791 0685 1740

Password: 5Wqk1Z

Questions for discussion:

1. Noir or not? Does this film fit the film noir model as you know it?

2. What did you think of Edward G. Robinson’s performance?

3. From what you know of Orson Welles, did this feel like a Welles film?

4. Was Loretta Young’s character believable?

5. Did the ending surprise you? If yes, how did you think it would end?

“Nightmare Alley”—a pet project becomes a film noir classic

Nightmare Alley (1947) is a film noir directed by Edmund Goulding, produced by George Jessel and starring Tyrone Power, Joan Blondell, Coleen Gray, and Helen Walker.

The plot surrounds Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, a low-level carny who aspires to greater things. He manages to get by with his good looks, charm, and quick wit. On the surface, it appears that he cares about people, but he’s just using them on his way to the top. The film narrative is a dark one, one that 20th Century-Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck didn’t want to make.

Power was to 20th Century-Fox what Clark Gable was to M-G-M; he was the studio’s top box office draw. Power enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1942. He was released from active duty in 1946. Zanuck was anxious to get Power back on the screen. Power wanted to make Nightmare Alley, but Zanuck thought it was inappropriate for the handsome leading man. Power struck a deal: he would star in the more commercial The Razor’s Edge if he could also star in Nightmare Alley.

Zanuck relented, but his heart wasn’t in it and when the film was released and wasn’t an instant hit, he discontinued promotion and pulled the film from distribution.

Edmund Goulding (1891 – 1955) was a screenwriter and director. His directing career started during the silent era, but he moved easily to talkies directing some of the best-remembered films from Hollywood’s Golden Age including Grand Hotel (1932), Dark Victory (1939), The Old Maid (1939), and The Razor’s Edge (1946).

George “Georgie” Jessell (1898 – 1981) was an actor, singer, songwriter, vaudeville star, and film producer. If you’re a Baby Boomer, you may know him as the “Toastmaster General of the United States,” due to his numerous gigs as master of ceremonies at political and entertainment events. Jessel originated the role of The Jazz Singer on the stage.

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.

Joan Blondell (1906 – 1979) was an American actress who was a top movie star during the 1930s and early 1940s. Later in her career, she became a popular character actress. Some of Blondell’s early films include The Public Enemy (1931), Gold Diggers of 1933, Dames (1934), and Stand-In (1937).

Colleen Gray (1922 – 2015) was an American actress who was under contract to 20th Century-Fox in the 1940s. She was in another famous film noir, Kiss of Death (1947) with Victor Mature and Richard Widmark. She also had a role in Red River (1948) with John Wayne. In the 1950s she started working in television, guest-starring in many popular shows of that period.

Helen Walker (1920 – 1968) was a film actress during the 1940s and 1950s. After a quick start in Hollywood, working with stars like Alan Ladd and Fred MacMurray, a car accident resulting in the death of hitchhiker, stunted her career.

Below is a link to the film on YouTube. Be sure to follow this link because it’s the best print out there. There are many versions of Nightmare Alley on YouTube that are inferior and of poor quality. You want to view the best possible version of this film.



Join us for a discussion on May 26 at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Zoom meeting links below.

Stephen Reginald is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Discussion of "Nightmare Alley"
Time: May 26, 2020, 06:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/77499958394?pwd=MWo0ODc5YXM2L2ozYmQ3M05TY0NFZz09

Meeting ID: 774 9995 8394
Password: 4R5L4v

Questions for discussion:
1. What did you think of Tyrone Power’s relationships with women in the film?
2. Did you have any sympathy for “Stan,” Power’s character?
3. What did you think of the women in Stan’s life?
4. Were all the women victims of Stan’s schemes?
5. What did you think of the ending? Was it realistic? Did it surprise you?

“The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry”—Film Noir Set in New England

The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945) is a film noir directed by Robert Siodmak. The plot revolves around Harry Quincy (George Sanders) a bachelor who supports his two sisters Lettie (Geraldine Fitzgerald) and Hester (Monya Macgill). The younger sister, Lettie, is self-centered and needy and doesn’t want her brother to marry and leave her. When Harry begins a romance with Deborah Brown (Ella Raines) things get complicated.

Geraldine Fitzgerald, George Sanders, and Ella Raines

Director Siodmak once again directs a wonderful cast in one of the most unusual and controversial films noir released in the 1940s. Sanders has one of the best roles of his career and he isn’t playing a sophisticated cad, a role he practically patented. As “Uncle Harry,” Sanders plays an aging bachelor stuck supporting his two sisters in the old family mansion. The Quincy family was one of the town’s most prominent families, but we learn through the film’s opening scenes that they lost most of their money during the depression. Harry works in the local mill, designing patterns for the fabrics they produce.

When Deborah, a young designer from New York arrives at the mill, she and Harry instantly hit it off. They eventually plan to be married, which doesn’t sit well with the self-centered Lettie. Will love prevail or will Lettie’s scheming ruin Harry’s life and a chance at happiness?

Like Charles Laughton in Siodmak’s The Suspect, Sanders gives one of his most subtle and layered performances in The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry. His Harry is innocent, naïve, and sweetly charming. When was the last time anyone described a Sanders characterization as innocent? Sanders reveals an acting range that he was rarely ever to express on screen and it’s wonderful to see.

Fitzgerald as Lettie has one of the best roles of her career as the younger sister who manipulates her brother and abuses her older sister, Hester, all the while pretending to be a paragon of virtue and respectability.

Raines as Deborah finds herself once again ably directed by Siodmak, having starred in The Suspect the year before. As a young career woman, she exudes confidence and femininity. It’s no wonder Harry is attracted to her; she’s the opposite of his needy sisters.

Robert Siodmak (1900 – 1973) had a very successful career in Hollywood and is best known for his thrillers and films noir. He signed a seven-year contract with Universal and directed The Killers (1946), the film that made Ava Gardner a star. He worked with some of the top movie stars during Hollywood’s Golden Age, including Deanna Durbin, Gene Kelly, Burt Lancaster, Dorothy McGuire, Yvonne de Carlo, Olivia de Havilland, and Barbara Stanwyck. Often compared to Hitchcock in his prime, he never got the recognition that the Master of Suspense did, but most of his films hold up remarkably well and are worth watching.





George Sanders (1906 – 1972) was a British film and stage actor who also had a fine singing voice. Hollywood was looking for a villain to star opposite a young Tyrone Power in Lloyd’s of London (1936) and Sanders more than fit the bill. His performance in that film would forever stamp him as a sophisticated bad guy. Before his acting career, he worked in the textile industry, which must have helped him with his role in The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry. In the 1960s, Sanders played Mr. Freeze in the Batman (1966) television series.

Geraldine Fitzgerald (1913 – 2005) was an Irish stage and film actress. Fitzgerald’s film debut was Dark Victory (1939) starring Bette Davis. That same year she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress as Isabella Linton in Wuthering Heights. Fitzgerald’s movie career was hampered by her battles with studio management at Warner Brothers, where she was under contract. The role of Lettie in The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry was one of her best screen performances.

Ella Raines (1920 – 1988) was born in Washington State where she studied drama at the University of Washington. Howard Hawks spotted her in a college production and signed her to a contract. Right out of the gate, she starred in some big movies, including Preston Sturges’s Hail the Conquering Hero and Tall in the Saddle (both 1944) where she shared equal billing with John Wayne. As her movie career declined in the 1950s, Raines worked in series television starring as Janet Dean, Registered Nurse (1954-55). She appeared on the cover of Life magazine twice, once in 1944 and in 1947.


Join us on April 21 at 6:30 p.m. Central Time for a discussion on Zoom. To watch the movie on YouTube and for information on joining the discussion on Zoom, click here.


Questions for discussion:

1. Noir or not? The setting for The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry is a small New England town, not your typical noir setting. What do you think and why?
2. Does this film have a femme fatale? If yes, who is she?
3. What did you think of George Sanders and his characterization? Have you ever seen him in a role like this?
4. Geraldine Fitzgerald is an interesting character. What did you make of her? Did you sympathize with her in any way?
5. Ella Raines’s character was a real contrast to the other two female characters (Harry’s sisters). She’s independent and confident in her own skin.
6. Joan Harrison produced this movie. She started out as Alfred Hitchcock’s secretary. Do you think the fact that this movie was produced by a woman gave the film a different perspective on the genre?
7. What did you think of the ending? Was it satisfying? Explain.

Field Trip: “Casablanca” November 12 at River East 21

Join the Chicago Film Club, on Sunday November 12 at 2:00 p.m., as we enjoy viewing the 1942 classic, Casablanca on the big screen at the AMC River East 21, 322 East Illinois, Chicago, IL. If you’ve never seen the movie starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid on the big screen, you’re in for a treat.
You may buy tickets day of screening or order them in advance. Click the link to order. 

Casablanca on the big screen

Date: November 12 at River East 21

Time: 2:00 p.m.

I'll be holding a red "Meetup" sign by the concessions at theater level

Set against the backdrop of World War II, Humphrey Bogart stars as Rick Blaine, the owner of a nightclub in Vichy-controlled Casablanca, whose life changes forever when his lost love, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), walks into his club and back into his life. Also starring Paul Henreid and Claude Rains.

“What’s Up Doc?” final film screened in screwball comedy series April 12, 2014

When: Saturday, April 12, 2014 4:00 p.m.
Where: The Venue 1550 at the Daystar Center, 1550 S. State Street

I can’t think of a better film to end our screwball comedy series than with What’s Up Doc? This modern comedy classic directed by Peter Bogdanovitch is a homage to the screwball comedies from the 1930s and 40s. It owes much of its plot and structure to Howard Hawks’s Bringing Up Baby, but it more than stands on its own merits.

Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, in their first screen pairing, play Judy Maxwell and Howard Bannister respectively. Judy is a free spirit and college dropout who seems to create trouble wherever she goes. Howard is a Ph.D. and musicologist from the Iowa Conservatory of Music, engaged to Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn) who is a bit controlling, to put it mildly. The trouble all begins in San Francisco when four identical overnight bags get mixed up. Of course Judy and Howard’s bags are part of the mix up and their lives become entangled from there on in.

Streisand and O’Neal were at the top of their box office appeal in 1972, and Bogdanovitch exploits this. Like screwball comedies past, there are inside jokes, and allusions to other films, all with great good humor. Apart from the stars, Bogdanovitch assembled some of the best character actors available, including Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Sorrell Brooks, John Hillerman, Graham Jarvis, and Mabel Alberston to name a few. Kahn, in her movie debut, all but steals the picture. As the constantly unhinged Eunice Burns, Kahn is pitch-perfect. Annoying to both O’Neal and Streisand’s characters, she is never annoying to the audience. When I first saw the film in theaters, audiences howled with laughter every time Kahn was on the screen.

As a screwball comedy, What’s Up Doc? is so good that if released in the late 1930s or early 40s, audiences would have responded to it the way they did My Man Godfrey, The Awful Truth, and The Lady Eve.

Backstory: This was Peter Bogdanovich’s homage to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s, as well as a tribute to directors Howard Hawks, Leo McCarey, and Preston Sturges.

Trivia: Madeline Kahn was nominated as Most Promising Newcomer, female by the Foreign Press Association (Golden Globes). The Writers Guild of American (WGA), USA awarded What’s Up Doc? Best Comedy Written for the Screen (Buck Henry, David Newman, Robert Benton). The film’s first 2 weekends broke the Radio City Music Hall house record that had stood since 1933.

Ryan O’Neal and Barbra Streisand talk under the table.

Have some Joe and Enjoy the Show!
Before the movie, grab a cup of coffee from Overflow Coffee Bar, located within the Daystar Center. You can bring food and beverages into the auditorium; we even have small tables set up next to some of the seats.

Join the Chicago Film club, join the discussion
The Chicago Film Club is for classic movie fans. Once a month we screen a classic film and have a brief discussion afterward. For more information, including how to join (it’s free), click here.To purchase your ticket in advance, click here. The Venue 1550 is easily accessible by the CTA. Please visit Transit Chicago for more information on transportation options.