'The Thirteenth Guest' (1932) \ ‘Vivacious Lady’ (1938)

'The Thirteenth Guest' (1932) \ ‘Vivacious Lady’ (1938) Sept 10, 2017 0:04:02 GMT MCDemuth and teleadm like this

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Post by petrolino on Sept 10, 2017 0:04:02 GMT

'The Thirteenth Guest' is a drawing room mystery with a difference. Marie Morgan (Ginger Rogers) is lured to an abandoned house where darkness has permanently settled. She discovers a table where a fateful dinner was held 13 years earlier, for 13 guests, though the 13th chair was left empty ...

Lyle Talbot & Carole Lombard

Albert Ray's edgy crime programmer 'The Thirteenth Guest' is based on a shocking 1929 novel written by pulp author Armitage Trail. The film's pointed screenplay combines terse dialogue with symbolic features and doesn't shy away from murderous deeds (including death by electricity!) With her mordant sense of humour, Ginger Rogers catches fire in dual roles, assuming her identity ‘Little Bo Peep’ while being watched from every corner. She's not only a great mover, but also exhibits a gift for complete stillness, an underappreciated quality only a few performers achieve in each generation. Rogers fully embodies the macabre spirit of the piece by delivering a tricky performance imbued with mystery. Lyle Talbot is superb as maverick detective P.I. Phil Winston and he's well supported by J. Farrell MacDonald as inquisitive investigator Captain Ryan, Paul Hurst as dappy flatfoot Detective Grump and William B. Davidson as stern official Captain Brown, establishment lawmakers on the case. The ensemble assembled to play the guests are likewise excellent.

"Fred Astaire had such naturalness of movement, he showed how dance could emerge from real situations as you were walking down the street. That's always a problem, like justifying the singing in a musical: how do you get across the gap between speech and song? It's why we have a jukebox in 'Car Man'. Astaire accomplished that so effortlessly. And I loved Ginger Rogers too. Somehow she was trashy and classy at the same time. An amazing body, a fantastically loose back!"

- Matthew Bourne, The Observer

"Perhaps I am old-fashioned, but black and white films still hold an affectionate place in my heart; they have an incomparable mystique and mood."

- Ginger Rogers

Katharine Hepburn & Ginger Rogers

Ginger Rogers in 'Follow The Fleet' (1936)

'The Thirteenth Guest' is sure to shred your nerves but stick with it. It features some nifty camerawork, inventive set designs, smoking sensuality and a crackling atmosphere. Check out the incredibly creepy 360° roundtable shot which places the 12 guests in focus and the voyeuristic thrills of the letterbox. Rogers and Talbot would reteam for Albert Ray a year later in ‘A Shriek Of The Night’ (1933).

Cocktail Recipe : The Ginger Rogers

1 oz dry gin
1 oz dry vermouth
1 oz apricot brandy
4 dashes of lemon juice

- Always somewhat testy about comparisons with her famous dancing partner, Ginger Rogers liked the cartoon caption that she "did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels". Moreover, Astaire never had a cocktail named after him. Mix the ingredients well with ice and serve in a chilled cocktail glass. If sweet martini isn't to your taste, try the alternative Ginger Rogers: a mix of champagne, ginger root and fresh lime juice.

'Dear Sir' - Ginger Rogers

The witty romantic comedy 'Vivacious Lady' embraces the eternally contentious idea that there's such a thing as love at first sight. In this case, love occurs between stuttering botany expert Professor Peter Morgan Jr. (James Stewart) and seasoned nightclub singer Francey (Ginger Rogers). The narrative sees Professor Morgan struggling to break the news to his privileged father Peter Morgan Sr. (Charles Coburn) and long-suffering mother Martha Morgan (Beulah Bondi) that he's in love with Francey.

James Stewart & Ginger Rogers

The opening to 'Vivacious Lady' is something to witness. Stuffy Peter is out at a jazz club with his cousin, juvenile playboy Keith Morgan (James Ellison). Peter keeps getting a dancing girl's tail-feather in his face and thinks she may be doing it on purpose. He heads to the relative safety of the cloakroom counter where a wisecracking hatcheck girl cuts him down, only to suddenly be struck by a distant voice emanating from a shimmering image. Director George Stevens' framing of two disparate souls manipulates time and space in both the foreground and background as Peter slowly makes his way towards Francey. You can see why the filmmakers Robert Altman and Alan Rudolph cited Stevens' work in interview for the way in which he brings two figures, who are seemingly miles apart, close together. Visually, 'Vivacious Lady' extends a hypnotic invitation to a romantic dinner for two by turning an overcrowded room into an intimate (open) booth via technical bravado. Stevens' acumen remains strong throughout this magnetic lullaby which captures Ginger Rogers liaising close-up with real-life lover Jimmy Stewart.

"Ginger's mother Lela had always been attracted to show business, and when Ginger was five she was left with her grandparents in Kansas City while Lela went to Hollywood to pursue a writing career providing scripts (as Lela Leibrand) for silent stars such as Theda Bara. Ginger had already appeared in some advertising films, and when Lela returned to Kansas as reporter and theatre critic for the Kansas City Post, she made sure her offspring met performers who were appearing in the city. Lela has often been described as the archetypal show-business mother, and Ginger herself always credited her with a major share of responsibility for her later success. Friends of theirs in Texas, however, have always claimed that Lela did not seriously push Ginger until the girl herself became irreparably stage-struck. This happened when Ginger, having studied dance since childhood, entered a local Charleston contest and won, going on to become champion Charleston dancer of Texas. The prize included a vaudeville tour and Lela, taking over management of Ginger, hired the two runners-up to support her in a group called "Ginger and Her Redheads", with Lela supplying costumes and linking material. Later Ginger toured as a single, incorporating her speciality of monologues in baby-talk, then suddenly married another dancer, Jack Culpepper (against her mother's wishes), and they formed an act called "Ginger and Pepper". They separated after only a few months, and Ginger took her single act to New York, where she was spotted by the owner of the Mocambo night club, who recommended the newcomer to composers Kalmar and Ruby for their Broadway show Top Speed. As second female lead, Ginger stole a lot of the notices with her peppy rendition of "Hot and Bothered". She had already been making one- and two-reelers at the Astoria studios in New York, and now she was offered a Paramount contract and made her feature debut in "Young Man of Manhattan", starring Claudette Colbert. As an easy-going flapper, she uttered a line, "Cigarette me, big boy!", which became a popular catchphrase of the day and helped establish her name. Her first major break came with her casting as the lead in the Gershwin musical "Girl Crazy on Broadway" (1930), in which she introduced "Embraceable You" and "But not for Me". Her singing voice, never strong, came in for some criticism and the show was stolen by another newcomer, Ethel Merman, whose voice was anything but small. Lela and Ginger decided that Hollywood was the place to pursue her future, and accepted a contract from Pathe."

- Tom Vallance, The Independent

"So why ask if she’s a better comedienne than dancer? Well, lot’s of reasons. First, it’s important to acknowledge that her talents as an actress, both comedic and dramatic, are an important part of what made her dancing so powerful. There was never more dance talent available than in the 1930s, but Rogers was able to dance in character - a feat far more challenging for the actor and rewarding for the audience. As dance history scholar John Mueller put it, “Rogers was outstanding among Astaire’s partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began.” Also, there’s the fact that she made far more comedies than musicals (per imdb, the count is 86 comedy performances in her filmography to 38 musical performances). Granted, such a preponderance can simply point to the tastes of the theatergoing public in a given era (would anyone’s career today be dominated by comedic parlor mysteries, as Sam Levene’s was for some years?). But you have to say this much for the studios: as many mistakes as they made handling talent, in the long run they usually figured out what their actors were good at and cast them accordingly. You don’t get cast in that many comedies unless you’re a superb comedic actress. Most importantly, there are the performances themselves - sparkling, touching, sometimes side-splittingly funny performances in a string of comedy features spanning over three decades, from 'Young Man of Manhattan' (1930) to 'The Confession' (1964), and including such gems as 'Rafter Romance' (1933), 'Stage Door' (1937), 'Vivacious Lady' (1938), 'The Major and the Minor' (1942) and 'Monkey Business' (1952). Watching these films, you realize there’s a simple reason Rogers was without peer as both a dancer and a comedienne. Timing."

- Shannon Clute, 'On Ginger Rogers And The Choreography Of Comedy'

Robert Armstrong, Eddie Quillan & Ginger Rogers

A Tribute to Ginger Rogers

Few films capture the loneliness of a big city so well as 'Vivacious Lady' which may have been an inspiration to Sofia Coppola when she made 'Lost In Translation' (2003). The sincere script is unapologetic in its syrupy romanticism and Stevens invites the viewer to observe the kind of private moments between a couple that you probably shouldn't see. On board a train for example, Peter carries Francey to an occupied carriage by accident, proceeds to find an unoccupied one, takes off her hat and drapes his coat over her to form a blanket. At a party, Peter simulates the shakes subconsciously in sympathy with Francey's frenzied movements. It's a touch too romantic for me to embrace fully but I guess this is real-time love in action. So if it's romance you're after, with all its aches and pains, look no further. Composer Roy Webb encourages his orchestra to be light and responsive and there's a knockout 'Susie Q' dance trio. Enjoy!