China Seas (Tay Garnett, 1935)

Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in China Seas

Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Rosalind Russell, Lewis Stone, C. Aubrey Smith, Dudley Digges, Robert Benchley, William Henry, Hattie McDaniel, Liev De Maigret, Lilian Bond, Edward Brophy, Soo Yong, Akim Tamiroff, Ivan Lebedeff. Screenplay: Jules Furthman, James Kevin McGuinness, based on a novel by Crosbie Garstin. Cinematography: Ray June. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons. Film editing: William LeVanway. Music: Herbert Stothart.

China Seas is a pretty good romantic adventure that seems to have been pieced together from better movies. Its romantic triangle of Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Rosalind Russell mimics that of Gable, Harlow, and Mary Astor in Red Dust (Victor Fleming, 1932). Harlow and Wallace Beery have a relationship that echoes the one their characters had in Dinner at Eight (George Cukor, 1933). And the byplay between Harlow's character and her maid (Hattie McDaniel, of course) is a lot like the banter between Mae West and her maids in She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933) and I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1933). China Seas has a few standout moments of its own: There's a terrific typhoon sequence involving a runaway steamroller on the deck of the tramp steamer captained by Gable's Alan Gaskell, and Robert Benchley has some funny bits as an alcoholic writer who's usually too drunk to know where he is or to respond to other people with anything more than non sequiturs. There's a kind of uptightness to the movie that reminds us that the Production Code censors were breathing down people's necks, whereas all of those better movies mentioned above were pre-Code. But Gable and Harlow are in fine form. She's Dolly Portland, aka "China Doll," the shady lady (sometimes introduced as "an entertainer") who used to be involved with Capt. Gaskell and has now booked passage on his steamer from Hong Kong to Singapore in an effort to win him back. Russell plays Sybil Barclay, a high-class English lady who also has a past with the captain and nearly does succeed in recapturing him. Russell seems to be trying too hard at the role, slipping into stiff-upper-lip mannerisms and becoming rather arch, so there's no real heat between her character and Gable's. Another old flame of Dolly's, Jamesy McArdle (Beery), is also on board, and he's in cahoots with Malaysian pirates to board the ship and steal the gold it's carrying. Rejected by the captain, who decides to marry Sybil, Dolly joins forces with McArdle, though she doesn't really mean to. You've seen this sort of thing before, so there are no surprises, but relax and be entertained.

A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935)

Watched 10/7/2018

Groucho Marx and Kitty Carlisle in A Night at the Opera

Otis B. Driftwood: Groucho Marx
Fiorello: Chico Marx
Tomasso: Harpo Marx
Rosa Castaldi: Kitty Carlisle
Ricardo Barone: Allan Jones
Herman Gottlieb: Sig Ruman
Mrs. Claypool: Margaret Dumont
Rudolfo Lassparri: Walter Woolf King

Director: Sam Wood
Screenplay: George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, James Kevin McGuinness
Cinematography: Merritt B. Gerstad
Art direction: Cedric Gibbons
Film editing: William LeVanway
Music: Herbert Stothart

Verdi's Il Trovatore is one of my favorite operas, but it only works if it's performed by a cast willing to give it their all. To see what I mean, try to find the live recording from the 1962 Salzburg Festival conducted by Herbert von Karajan and starring Leontyne Price, Franco Corelli, Ettore Bastianini, and Giulietta Simionato. Thrill to Price and Corelli in a duel of high notes, Corelli and Bastianini trying to out-ham each other, and Simonato camping the hell out of Azucena. That's what opera is all about and why it's such a natural target for the Marx Brothers. A Night at the Opera is not my favorite of their films, however. It was made after they left Paramount for MGM, where Irving G. Thalberg seemed determined to file down the team's rough edges, Louis B. Mayer didn't get their jokes, and the direction was assigned to Sam Wood, who earned his surname honestly. So we get an insipid romance between the opera singers played by Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones, who are allowed to do the "Miserere" scene straight-faced, and one of those gooey musical interludes in which Chico and Harpo are allowed to charm a bunch of kids with their piano and harp playing. For many, the comic highlight of the film is the stateroom scene, in which much of the cast is crammed into a tiny space, but I'm afraid too many viewings have left me cold to it. But I will never grow cold to Groucho, who rises above all inanities. Any moment he's on screen cracking wise is golden. The rest ranges from silver to Wooden.