W. S. Van Dyke directing Myrna Loy and William Powell in THE THIN MAN #ServeTheNuts dinner party scene.
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Hello! You may have gathered you’re my favourite “what film should I watch?” go to person 😌 but truly what is your liminal time in between christmas and new year when everything is a bit strange and nothing quite makes sense go to film? ☺️
I THINK it's time for Nick & Nora Charles be incredibly drunk and in love and also nonchalantly solving a murder mystery in the midst of their own Liminal Spacemas, in the Dashiell Hammett adaptation The Thin Man (1934)
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The vibe is like this
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Filmfolk from Hollywood on the second leg of the 10,000 mile trip to location filming of Trader Horn left New York for Africa on the Ile de France, March 29, 1929. Left to right: Harry Carey, who played Trader Horn; Edwina Booth, who played Nina T, W. S. Van Dyke, the director, and Duncan Renaldo, who played Little Peru.
Photo: Associated Press via Shutterstock
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Robert Morley and Norma Shearer in Marie Antoinette (W.S. Van Dyke, 1938)
Cast: Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley, Anita Louise, Joseph Schildkraut, Gladys George, Henry Stephenson. Screenplay: Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart, Ernest Vajda. Cinematography: William H. Daniels. Art direction: Cedric Gibbons, Henry Grace. Film editing: Robert Kern. Costume design: Adrian, Gile Steele. Music: Herbert Stothart.
Hollywood historical hokum, W.S. Van Dyke's Marie Antoinette was a vehicle for Norma Shearer that had been planned for her by her husband, Irving G. Thalberg, who died in 1936. MGM stuck with it because as Thalberg's heir, Shearer had control of a large chunk of stock. It also gave her a part that ran the gamut from the fresh and bubbly teenage Austrian archduchess thrilled at the arranged marriage to the future Louis XVI, to the drab, worn figure riding in a tumbril to the guillotine. Considering that it takes place in one of the most interesting periods in history, it could have been a true epic if screenwriters Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart, and Ernest Vajda (with uncredited help from several other hands, including F. Scott Fitzgerald) hadn't been pressured to turn it into a love story between Marie and the Swedish Count Axel Fersen. But the portrayal of their affair was stifled by the Production Code's squeamishness about sex, and the long period in which Marie and Louis fail to consummate their marriage lurks unexplained in the background. MGM threw lots of money at the film: Shearer sashays around in Adrian gowns with panniers out to here, with wigs up to there, and on sets designed and decorated by Cedric Gibbons and Henry Grace that make the real Versailles look puny. The problem is that nothing like a genuine human emotion appears on the screen, and the perceived necessity of glamorizing the aristocrats turns the French Revolution on its head. The cast of thousands includes John Barrymore as Louis XV, Gladys George as Madame du Barry, and Joseph Schildkraut (made up with what looks like Jean Harlow's eyebrows and Joan Crawford's lipstick) as the foppish Duke of Orléans. The best performance in the movie comes from Morley, who took the role after the first choice, Charles Laughton, proved unavailable; Morley earned a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his film debut. With the exception of The Women (George Cukor, 1939), in which she is upstaged by her old rival Joan Crawford, this is Shearer's last film of consequence. When she turned 40 in 1942, she retired from the movies and lived in increasing seclusion until her death, 41 years later. It says something about Shearer's status in Hollywood that Greta Garbo, who retired at about the same time, and who also sought to be left alone, was the more legendary figure and was more ardently pursued by gossips and paparazzi.
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@tcmparty live tweet schedule for the week beginning Monday, August 29, 2022. Look for us on Twitter…watch and tweet along…remember to add #TCMParty to your tweets so everyone can find them :) All times are Eastern.
Monday, Aug. 29 at 8:00 p.m.
THE THIN MAN (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Saturday, Sept. 03 at 8:00 p.m.
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
An insurance salesman gets seduced into plotting a client's death.
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W. S. Van Dyke, March 21, 1889 – February 5, 1943.
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