John Barrymore Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's a rare treat to be able to share a photo from a 1930s film featuring an actor who is still with us today. Charles Lane turned 102 on Friday, and has had a long and varied film and television career. He has 328 appearances credited in IMDb, from 1931 to 1995, so you've surely seen him somewhere. The above photo is from You Can't Take It with You, the 1938 adaptation of the Kaufman and Hart play directed by Frank Capra. That's Lionel Barrymore on the left as the grandfather of the large and eccentric family featured in the 1938 film, and Lane on the right as an IRS agent trying to explain that, yes, everyone has to pay taxes, even colorful eccentrics. Barrymore and Lane would appear together again in a later Capra film, It's a Wonderful Life, in which Lane was one of the rent collectors for Barrymore's nasty Mr. Potter.

Without a doubt, my favorite Carole Lombard film is Twentieth Century (although Nothing Sacred does run a close second). Today is the actress's birthday: she was born in 1908 and died in a plane crash in 1942. Her best years in film coincided with the beginning of the romantic comedy film in the Thirties, and she proved herself a versatile comedienne. She starred in movies directed by a surprising number of notable filmmakers, including Ernst Lubitsch (To Be or Not to Be), Alfred Hitchcock (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, his one stab at screwball comedy), Gregory La Cava (My Man Godfrey), and Howard Hawks (Twentieth Century).

Some might argue that Twentieth Century, released in 1934, is one of the first romantic comedies, but there's not enough romance between Lombard and John Barrymore. Their colossal egos are too busy competing with one another to make room for actual hearts and flowers. Broadway director Barrymore continually fires his long-suffering associates with the line "I close the iron door on you!" then rehires them five minutes later. His protege actress Lombard, who becomes a star, refuses to be controlled by him, although he tries every trick in the book ... and then some. Although the main characters are rarely sympathetic, the outrageous situations and witty dialogue, written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, contribute to a side-splitting comedy. My favorite scene is the one on the train where Lombard is seriously trying to kick Barrymore in the crotch (and you thought Thirties movies were prudish?), but it's one gem among many in the film.

I'm not obsessed with Claudette Colbert -- it's coincidence that I found lovely images of the actress two weeks in a row. I noticed that today was character actor Francis Lederer's birthday, and that reminded me of Midnight, one of my favorite films (which stars Colbert), and one thing led to another.

When Lederer died in 2000, he was over 100 years old. He played Louise Brooks' young love interest in the German film Pandora's Box in 1929, and started making American movies in the mid-1930s. Lederer's part in Midnight as a debonair playboy was typical of his early Hollywood roles. In the early 1950s he switched mainly to guest-star spots on television shows. Eventually he retired from acting on the large and small screens, and helped start a school for acting -- a friend of mine, after hearing how much I liked Midnight, once remarked that she'd taken classes with Lederer when she was growing up.

Midnight is a slight, sweet, witty Thirties comedy that I accidentally caught on cable one afternoon a dozen years ago and have liked ever since. The 1939 film was directed by Mitchell Leisen, a master of frothy filmmaking, and written by the incomparable team of Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. This riff on the Cinderella story has one of my favorite lines, ever: "From the moment you looked at me, I had an idea you had an idea." Colbert, a golddigger stranded in Paris, says that to John Barrymore (in one of his last roles), a millionaire willing to strike an odd deal to save his marriage. Mary Astor plays Barrymore's erring wife, Hedda Hopper has a small role as a society hostess, and Monty Woolley pops in briefly as a French judge. And did I mention Don Ameche as a Czech cab driver? Sadly, Midnight isn't available on DVD, so you'll have to catch it on cable yourself if you want to enjoy this charming little film.

[Image found on Classic Movie Favorites, which contains many lovely stills from Colbert's early movies.]