Lady with Red Hair

As a biographical film, "The Lady With Red Hair" (the story of how director /producer/playwright David Belasco transformed notorious society divorcee Mrs. Leslie Carter into an international stage star) is certainly not in a league with that other Warner's biopic of similar vintage, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (what is?), but "Lady" is an enjoyable film in its own right--AND shares quite a few traits in common with the Cagney classic.

Like "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "The Lady With Red Hair" brims over with old -time show-business flavor. (Among other things, both films feature delicious theatrical boarding-house sequences as well as the inevitable scenes set backstage and in theatrical managers' offices.) Also, in "Lady" as in the Cohan biopic, the supporting cast is made up of familiar and beloved character actors of the period, all doing the sort of top-notch work we remember them for.

Need I add that, again like "Yankee Doodle Dandy," "The Lady With Red Hair" doesn't let the truth get in the way of telling a good story? But, also like "Dandy," "Lady" does manage--gloriously!--to convey the esssence of its show-business-giant hero's larger-than-life personality. Everyone knows that Cagney limned Cohan for all time in his brilliant and affectionate portrayal in "Yankee Doodle Dandy"--but few moviegoers realize that Claude Rains did a similar service for David Belasco in "The Lady With Red Hair"- -and did it with a panache that almost equals Cagney's.

Rains-as-Belasco perfectly captures that legendary showman's galvanic personality in all its outsized glory. Rains gives a tremendously enjoyable , superbly observed, and remarkably true-to-life performance as the man all Broadway once called "The Wizard." To watch Claude Rains in action (looking in every shot as if he's having a helluva good time!) in "The Lady With Red Hair" is to see David Belasco leap to life on film as if he can't wait to shake things up on the Main Stem once again.

The film charts the unlikely theatrical success of turn-of-the-century stage star Mrs. Leslie Carter (Miriam Hopkins). Already in her 30's when she endured a scandalous divorce in Chicago, she decides to become a theater actress, although having no experience. A rich family friend agrees to back her in a play on Broadway to be written by an incredulous and uncooperative David Belasco (Claude Rains), then one of the stage's leading producers. With Belasco's tutelage, Carter ends up becoming a much admired actress, but not without her ups and downs.

The real Mrs. Leslie Carter had one of her final roles before her death in 1935's Becky Sharp, which may have played a part in Hopkins wishing to do this biopic. From what I can gather, much of the material in the movie is fictitious, designed to make Carter look like more of victimized saint, when naturally the truth is much murkier. One wouldn't also gather why Carter was considered a sensation, as all of the play reenactments in the film are hammy and phony. Hopkins never manages to be likable, and I say this as someone who has liked Hopkins in a number of other things. Rains also gets shout, scowl, yell, thrash around, and then shout some more. Speaking of bad wigs from The Howards of Virginia, Claude sports one here. The most worthwhile scene in the whole movie was a catty dinner scene at a boarding house for theatrical people.

I had seen Lady with Red Hair back when it appeared, and didn't remember it as something to cherish. The truth is that, notwithstanding its base in a true story, its screen play is silly and unbelievable. The real merit of the picture is the cast. A constellation of some of the best supporting players of the 30's and 40's make a background for the delicate, intelligent work of the always underrated Miriam Hopkins, and the wonderful, spectacular performance of Claude Rains, who, as usual, is the best thing in the picture. What an actor! He never won an Oscar, but he is in the good company of Chaplin, Garbo and Hitchcock. Perhaps Lady with Red Hair contains his best work in films. See it and enjoy him.

This film was released a year after "The Wizard of Oz," and I was surprised to hear some of that classic's music being utilized in a scene here. The music in question from "Oz" is played over the opening scenes of Dorothy and Toto (puzzlingly entitled "Trouble In School"), and several times throughout the film. In "Lady with Red Hair," the same music is heard in scenes involving the lead character's young child.

Interestingly, in 1951, the film "Too Young to Kiss" utilized the exact same music over the opening credits.

Being that 1939's "Oz" came first, I can only assume the later films "borrowed" composer Harold Arlen's score.

CORRECTION: I have been informed that the above-mentioned tune is actually not original to "Oz," but is a classically composed children's tune.

The Lady With Red Hair is about the relationship of Broadway impresario David Belasco and his star creation Mrs. Leslie Carter.

Mrs. Carter was a society socialite whose rather messy divorce and custody battle made her want to seek employment in the theater when she couldn't get a job doing anything else. After a few tries she hook up with David Belasco who molds her into a glamorous stage star from the turn of the last century.

What I found amazing in this whole film was that we never do find out just what in this divorce made her such a notorious woman. The film opens as the divorce proceeding is about to conclude, we never see what it was all about.

We do find out that the terms of the divorce gave her limited visitation rights to her son. That's given as the real reason for her determination to succeed as opposed to possibly trading in on her notoriety. A reason today's audience would definitely understand. In fact why was she billed as "Mrs. Leslie Carter" if it wasn't for the notoriety.

Miriam Hopkins as Carter and Claude Rains as Belasco give a good account of themselves. So do those two old gals Laura Hope Crews as Hopkins's mother and Helen Westley as the owner of the theatrical boardinghouse where they reside. Those two date back to when Mrs. Leslie Carter was a big name on Broadway.

Richard Ainley of the Ainley British theatrical family gives a wooden performance in a part that's underwritten as Carter's second husband. Wasn't Errol Flynn available?

Back in the 1890s divorce in and of itself was scandal. So why weren't we given the salacious details?