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I thought I'd just add some random pictures from my collection before going to bed - they ended up being 71... Here's one of my favourites:
Even though it is officially Basil Rathbone week, I have to interrupt with the results of my latest poll - Which leading man had the best chemistry with Ingrid Bergman?
Alan Squier (Leslie Howard), a disillusioned, witty British writer, passes by an isolated diner in the middle of the American desert. Ordering some food, he meets Gabrielle (Bette Davis), who works at the diner owned by her father. Alan and Gabrielle quickly falls for each other, realizing that they share the same dreams of escaping the reality of their current lives. A gas-pumping boy called Boze (Dick Foran) is unfortunately also in love with Gabrielle, and the tension between the persons in the drama becomes even more tense when they all become hostages for a criminal on the loose and his gang - Duke Mantee (Humphrey Bogart). Along with the other hostages are a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chisholm (Paul Harvey and Genevieve Tobin), their driver and the excited veteran Gramp Maple (Charley Grapewin), Gabrielle's grandfather.
This film covers a lot of genres. I don't know whether it is a drama, romance, comedy or an action. But I do know that it is an entertaining film with great actors. Leslie Howard's character must be one of the most interesting in his career, combining witticism and love making with an underlying sorrow and unsatisfaction with life. And Bette Davis is, as always, lovely. Two supporting characters I liked is of course the almost-senile grandfather, excited by the thought that he might see another killing since Billy the Kid's era, and Mrs. Chisholm, the unsatistfied, frustrated and sad glamour wife. The scene were she tells Gabrielle about making sacrifices for other people and the result of not thinking about oneself is really great.
The arrival of the hoodlums - Duke Mantee and gang.
This was also the magnificent breakthrough for Humphrey Bogart as an actor. He and Howard had played The Petrified Forest on stage, and when Warner Brothers wanted a film adaption of the play they wanted gangster film legend Edward G. Robinson for the part of Duke Mantee. Howard, however, refused to star in the film if Bogart wasn't cast as the villain. The Warner Brother's didn't have much of a choice, casted Bogart in the film (which they later on would be very grateful for!), and Robinson was just happy not having to play aother type cast character. Leslie Howard remained a long-time friend of Bogart and his wife Lauren Bacall, them naming their daughter Leslie in tribute to him.
Leslie Howard and Genevieve Tobin signing papers.
"Have a drink, black brother!"
Trailer: A wonderful trailer for the film, making a big deal of the re-uniting of Leslie Howard and Bette Davis after Of Human Bondage (1934).
The character of Duke Mantee was based on the real gangster "hero" (in that time the maffia was more or less glorified in the news and among the people) John Dillinger. Remember that I mentioned him earlier in my blog? Yes, the same John Dillinger that was shot to death after leaving a movie theatre showing Manhattan Melodrama the same year! My post on that film here.
Oh, and let's not forget the quotes. There are some wonderful to pick from this film!
Quotes:
Gramp Maple: But let me tell you one thing, Mr. Squier. The woman don't live or ever did live that's worth five thousand dollars! Alan Squier: Well, let me tell you something. You're a forgetful old fool. Any woman's worth everything that any man has to give: anguish, ecstasy, faith, jealousy, love, hatred, life or death. Don't you see that's the whole excuse for our existence? It's what makes the whole thing possible and tolerable.
Alan Squier: The trouble with me, Gabrielle, is I, I belong to a vanishing race. I'm one of the intellectuals. Gabrielle Maple: That, that means you've got brains! Alan Squier: Hmmm. Yes. Brains without purpose. Noise without sound, shape without substance.
Alan Squier: Let there be killing. All this evening I've had a feeling of destiny closing in.
Alan Squier: What's your story, Duke? What's your life been like? Duke Mantee: You know the story. Most of my life in jail; the rest of it dead!
Duke Mantee: Maybe you're right, pal. Alan Squier: Oh, I'm eternally right. But what good does it do me?
Gabrielle Maple: Petrified forest is a lot of dead trees in the desert that have turned to stone. Here's a good specimen. Alan Squier: So that was once a tree? Hmmm. Petrified forest, eh? Suitable haven for me. Well, perhaps that's what I'm destined to become, an interesting fossil for future study.
And I'm ending this post with a kiss. Like I always should.
Spoiler warning. My movie reviews are more of the synopsis-type, so if you will hate me for spoiling the film for you, save the reading until after you've seen it. Or read carefully!
Back to the plot in Secrets. This film is Mary Pickford's last as an actress (she continued to produce some other films), and possibly her greatest. Opposite her is the perfect gentleman Leslie Howard in one of his first major roles. The film was at first supposed to be directed by Marshall Neilan (director of Pickford's Daddy-Long-Legs (1919), among others), but was fired by producer Mary Pickford for showing up drunk at work. The director's chair was therefore given to Frank Borzage, who made a fantastic job on this film.
Some people say that this film is a little uneven. I wouldn't agree. There are bits and parts were the cutting could have been done less than half a second earlier or later, and stuff like that, but there is nothing that messes with the continuity in the film. The plot is divided into four parts:
The first part were John and Mary meet and fall in love. This part is quite farcical, but funny and sweet.
The second part begins when John and Mary has run away together and star a-new in The West. Here the film makes a more dramatic turn, and develops into pure tragedy.
The third part begins after a leap of about twenty years. John and Mary has a great family, and John runs for governor. The film takes up a lighter tone, but reveals the seriousness underneath.
The fourth part takes place when the couple is in their seventies. It's a short chapter, funny and intelligent. We get to know what the title of the film is all about.
Of course, this dividing of the film might be the source of the "uneven" opinions, but I still don't agree. Every time we take a leap in the story, the different parts are linked together with meaningful, telling collages of short film clips and matching music. The story of John and Mary's lives couldn't have been told better. Now, over to the pictures and the texts underneath them, that will tell you more about the details.
Publicity still, with Howard trying to undress Pickford.
Part one:
Mary Marlow (Mary Pickford) is the daughter of an upper class family. John Carlton (Leslie Howard) works for her father. Her father plans to get her daughter to marry another high society man, Lord Hurley, but she resists.
The first scene. John rides a bicycle next to Mary and her mother's carriage. Their eyes open for each other.
Mary receives a note from her admirer.
Mary saves John from drowning himself by meeting him in the garden.
Scene: The escape from the upper class! And a lot of kerfuffle with the under skirts.
Part two:
Mary and John has run away, wanting to start a-new in The West.
A long journey with horse and carriage.
A happy family and proud parents to a son in a small cottage.
Cattle thieves surprise Mary when she's alone with her son.
They threaten her and her baby to get some food.
"When I'm hungry my finger ain't as steady as it outta be..."
When John comes home and finds out about the incident he decides upon revenge.
People hang, the war has started.
Scene: John and Mary Carlton are attacked by cattle rustlers. Their friend Sunshine is helping out, but there's also a baby that needs to be protected. This must be Mary Pickford's finest acting in her whole career.
Heart-breaking scene.
Part three:
A collage of film clips tells us that more babies are set to the world. We end up with the Carlton family in Monterey, California, where John runs a campaign to become a governor. The Carlton family, having climbed the social ladder, throws a party where some secrets are uncovered.
A montage of children leading up to the governor campaign, with the proud family of John Carlton waves at him from the balcony of their mansion.
A woman named Señora Lolita Martinez (Mona Maris) arrives uninvited at the party, accompanied by some invited guests.
Señora Martinez steals a dance with John from his wife.
Mary Carlton, a lady in distress.
Señora Martinez interrupts Mary for a revealing talk.
John and Mary have a marital talk, and more secrets (or are they?) are revealed.
The newspapers catches up the story.
Part four:
John and Mary's now grown up children are furious when their parents have locked themselves into a room. Why? They want to go away on their own. Pick up their relationship were it was interrupted by the arrival of their children, as they so beautifully put it.
A loving couple having grown old together.
And here is the end of my plot summary. As you can see from the screen shots the camera work was mighty fine, experimenting with shadows, angles and pictorial language. I'm amazed. But of course, this is a pre-code film. Censorship and "guidelines" can ruin art in an unrepairable way.
Leslie Howard, Mary Pickford and Lionel Barrymore attends a party at Gary Cooper's mansion in 1933. Possibly in connection to Secrets.
And here's two gorgeous pictures of actress Mona Maris (click on them for higher resolution). This beautiful and intelligent Argentine actress (at the age of 19 she knew four languages) never made the great success on screen that she deserved. Her foreign accent prevented a career in Hollywood, and instead she appeared in a lot of Spanish talking films. But even though her part in Secrets was a small one, it is without a doubt memorable. I think they could have made something with her, they could have gone with the "exotic image" that Valentino had. But everyone can't be Mary Pickford, I guess.