When the events in our world become too unpleasant, I retreat to a comforting place: old movies.
I’ve been a movie buff my entire life, and I’ve previously written about some of my favorite films.
An invaluable source of old movies has been the TV channel TCM, Turner Classic Movies. A recent threat to the status of TCM arose when a new CEO assumed a degree of power over it. Maureen Dowd described the situation perfectly in her column in The New York Times on June 24, “Save Turner Classic Movies.” In her column, Dowd proclaimed that TCM is “a public good, like libraries,” adding that “It enshrines our cinematic past.” She relates that she has spoken with David Zaslav, the new CEO in charge, and he promised to preserve it. Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese have just announced that they will work for free to help TCM survive.
Watching old films is illuminating: They almost never feature extreme violence and the supernatural, two features prominent in current films. Although I’m frequently disturbed by the depiction of women as either frivolous or annoying (also apparent when I rewatched on DVD the first season of TV’s Twilight Zone), there’s almost no graphic depictions of the worst kinds of aggressive sexual violence toward women. Women didn’t have the role in society that we (for the most part) play today, and that’s reflected in the films from earlier eras. Still, women frequently played strong characters in many of the classic films I’ve watched. As Dowd noted, film noir femmes fatales “taught me that women could be tough and play the game better than any man.”
I fervently hope that the threat to TCM does in fact vanish because I rely on TCM to find films featuring absorbing plots, excellent dialogue, and highly regarded film stars of the past. Male stars like Paul Newman, Montgomery Clift, John Garfield, and Humphrey Bogart. I’ll add Tyrone Power, William Holden, Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas, Marlon Brando, Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Fred McMurray, Stewart Granger, Orson Welles, Ray Milland, Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster, Henry Fonda, Clark Gable, James Mason, Joseph Cotten, Charleton Heston, and Edward G. Robinson. And if Robert Redford has truly left making feature films, I’d add him also.
Unfortunately, many women stars haven’t survived nearly as well. Some may have been cast aside because they wouldn’t comply with the bedroom demands of certain Hollywood moguls. But women like Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, Ida Lupino, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Judy Holliday, Susan Hayward, Vivien Leigh, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia de Havilland, Anne Baxter, Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn, Geraldine Page, Lauren Bacall, Elizabeth Taylor, Lee Remick, Eve Arden, Myrna Loy, Claire Trevor, even Marilyn Monroe survived and played strong female characters in a variety of classic films. (I’m probably forgetting a few of your favorite stars of the past, both male and female. Sorry.)
I’m currently obsessed with Tyrone Power, a great actor who starred in 48 feature films during his short lifetime. His handsome face and endearing persona simply beam from my TV screen. Although I was already aware of some of Tyrone Power’s (hereinafter “TP”) best films, TCM has helped me discover a great number of movies I’d never encountered.
In my quest to find more of TP’s films, I’ve found many on Netflix DVDs (sadly ending in September). I also learned that the San Francisco Public Library houses some of them on DVD, and I can request that these show up at my local branch. The result is that, thanks to TCM and the two other sources, I’ve recently been immersed in TP’s films. Some of the DVDs also include wonderful special features, while TCM hosts like Ben Mankiewicz sometimes add “inside Hollywood” stories.
I’ll list just a few of TP’s films that you’re probably never heard of. (I didn’t.) I recommend that you seek them out if you can. In chronological order, they are:
In Old Chicago (1938): A fictionalized story of brothers who become political leaders in Chicago, ending with an amazing depiction of the Chicago Fire of 1871
Rose of Washington Square (1939): A music-filled film that centers on the same life-story of Fanny Brice as that told in “Funny Girl,” with Alice Faye as Rose (Fanny) and TP in the Nick Arnstein role. By the way, when Fanny Brice sued Fox for $750,000, the studio settled out of court for an undisclosed amount
The Rains Came (1939): TP plays a handsome MD in India, and a haughty Myrna Loy falls hard for him; it features astounding special effects of flooding rains and an earthquake that earned the very first special-effects Oscar
The Mark of Zorro (1940): An exciting updated version of the story that starred Douglas Fairbanks as Zorro in the 1920 silent version; Basil Rathbone, who sparred with TP in a fierce sword-duel, said that “Power was the most agile man with a sword I’ve ever faced…. He could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat.”
Blood and Sand (1941): TP is a wholly believable matador in glorious Technicolor
And now for a unique film I was surprised to come across: Thin Ice (1937). Here TP is paired with Olympics gold-medal-winning Norwegian ice skater, Sonja Henie. Henie set records as a three-time Olympic champion in women’s singles, and Hollywood welcomed her as a star from 1936 to 1943. Thin Ice is set at a resort in the Alps, where Sonja arrives to teach ice skating. While skiing, she encounters TP, a prince from somewhere in Europe. Clothed in casual skiing garb, he introduces himself as Rudy, and he charmingly proceeds to keep his real identity as Prince Rudolph a secret.
During the film, Henie performs as the star of several ice shows at the resort, skating to music by Borodin (before “Stranger in Paradise” used the same melody in the Broadway musical “Kismet”) and other classical composers. TP sits in the audience disguised in absurd Groucho Marx-type outfits, but of course the two finally meet up as prince and skating star and fall in love.
I find this film of special interest because Sonja Henie played a small but memorable part in my life. When I was very young, my parents took me to see one of the skating extravaganzas she starred in when her life as a movie star was over. My father remarkably saved the souvenir program from the extravaganza, the “Hollywood Ice Revue,” and I found it years later in a scrapbook he kept for our family. I’ve preserved this program, perfectly intact, ever since. And although I’ve forgotten almost the entire show, I retain a vivid memory of one thin slice of it when Henie came out onto the ice. She was perched at the top of an enormous ice-cream soda glass, sitting on the whipped cream at the very top, before somehow getting to the ice in order to skate.
Tyrone Power left Hollywood to serve in the Marines during World War II. His distinguished service record led to a bunch of medals. In 1946, he returned to Hollywood and resumed a successful career in films. But he also left on occasion to work as an actor in several notable stage productions.
Memorable films during this period include these:
Nightmare Alley (1947): TP’s favorite role, and one he had to fight to make. Darryl Zanuck, who ran Fox, viewed TP as his “darling boy” and tried to confine his roles to the lightweight ones in his early films. But TP was determined to play more challenging roles, and he finally succeeded in making Nightmare Alley. The studio didn’t promote it and, as a result, it wasn’t a box office hit, but it has gained acclaim and is now recognized as a film noir classic. The recent remake, starring Bradley Cooper, lacks the exciting flavor of the original.
Rawhide (1951): A wonderful pairing of TP and Susan Hayward (another of my favorites) in an unconventional Western setting; they’re hostages held by a murderous gang seeking to steal a shipment of gold (BTW, it has no connection to the TV series sharing its title)
TP’s last completed film, Witness for the Prosecution (1957), is an exciting drama ending with a riveting courtroom scene. In the story, based on a play by Agatha Christie, TP is the lead, playing a criminal defendant accused of murder. Although Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich, in starring roles, have probably garnered more attention for this film than TP, he plays his part brilliantly, directed by the esteemed Billy Wilder.
Tyrone Power tragically died at the age of 44 while making a film in Spain in 1958. I’ll skip the harrowing details of his death; you can read about them online.
I’ll simply state that watching him in one or more of his movies will probably lead you to admire him as a brilliant and accomplished actor who illuminated every film he was in.
And if you want to fall in love with Tyrone Power, as I have, please watch one more film: The Eddy Duchin Story (1956). In this film, TP assumes the role of the real-life pianist who achieved fame as a bandleader and musician in NYC in the 1930s. Co-starring with Kim Novak as his wife, TP is bound to win you over.
In my view, Tyrone Power’s reputation is secure.
On “thin ice”? Not the way I see it.
susanjustwrites
Susan Just Writes 