Showing posts with label Edward Everett Horton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edward Everett Horton. Show all posts

Friday, December 22, 2023

Alice in Wonderland (1933)

   "...mild fun... trying to identify the Big Names hidden behind turtle shells and teddy-bear skins."

With The Mock Turtle costume.

Alice in Wonderland - Review is taken from 'The Films of Cary Grant' by Donald Deschner (1973):

"Why mince matters? Alice in Wonderland is, to my sober (despite repeal) judgment, one of the worst flops of the cinema.  Paramount's first mistake was in attempting it.  The only person in Movieland to have done it is Walt Disney.  Mary Pickford, who once contemplated doing it, was right when she said that "Alice" should be made only in cartoons.  

So - with a fine script (Joe Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies), delightful music (Dmitri Tiomkin), a splendid director (Norman McLeod), and about fifty of our best actors and actresses, the picture, when it isn't dull, is still utterly uninspired. 

English children who still read Alice in Wonderland may get a mild kick out of it.  I doubt if our young sophisticates will.  It's a cinch that all the grown ups will get is the mild fun of trying to identify the Big Names hidden behind turtle shells and teddy-bear skins.  Even when they do occasionally recognize a voice they will still wonder why all these high salaries were hidden beneath bushels of props.  Extras, or even children, would have been adequate to most of the parts.  No acting was required.  Indeed production costs could have been cut tremendously by letting cheap actors play the parts and then hiring Big Names to register five minutes of dialogue easily dubbed in.  

The second mistake was in choosing a young lady to play the five or six-year-old part of Alice.  Charlotte Henry is a comely youngster with an intelligent face, who looks as though she would be more interested in Vance Hoyt's nature studies in Script than in Fairyland.  She tries hard to look wonder-eyed but can't quite make it.  And with all our wonderful kid actors!  

Even so there was still a chance to make a picture of fairylike charm.  In all the arts there is no medium that lends itself to fantasy like the movie camera.  By soft focus, shooting through silk, and other technical tricks, scenes can be given an elusive dreamlike quality that eloquently visualizes the subjective mind.  Alice goes to sleep and dreams her trip to Wonderland, but we see both her and her dream in hard reality, with the flat lighting and sharp focus of the objective world.  Never for a moment are we in dreamland; we are on Stage Four, witnessing the technical staff and prop boys doing their stuff.  Even much of this is bad.  When Alice flies through the air, she is obviously hanging by a wire (remember how well that was done in Peter Pan - also by Paramount?) and when she is falling down the well, she is still hanging by a wire.  Nor are her skirts blown while falling.  It's hard to write a review like this, for practically everybody who had anything to do with the picture is a Scripter, but when a picture is a flop, it's a flop, and it's silly to alibi.  The biggest mistake was in undertaking it at all."

- Bob Wagner, Script


New Artwork by Rebekah Hawley at Studio36 -
Number 13 - Alice in Wonderland (Lobby Card Style)

Part Of


For more, see also:

Quote From Today - December 22nd 2022

On This Day - December 22nd 2021

On This Day - December 22nd 2020

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Quote From Today... Ladies Should Listen (1934)

    "Suppose we resume our silence where we left off?"

With Frances Drake and Edward Everett Horton.

Ladies Should Listen was Cary Grant's 17th full length feature film.

Julian De Lussac: Cigarette!

Paul Vernet: Offering or asking?

Julian De Lussac: Either or both.

Paul Vernet: Well, in that case, no thank you.

Julian De Lussac: You're very welcome.

Paul Vernet: Not at all.

Julian De Lussac: Suppose we resume our silence where we left off?

Paul Vernet: Why not?

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Quote From Today... Kiss and Make Up (1934)

   "Messing around?"

With Genevieve Tobin.


Kiss and Make Up was Cary Grant's 16th full length feature film.


Dr. Maurice Lamar: So, you're Madam Caron's husband, huh?

Marcel Caron: I am, yes. On those rare occasions when you're not messing around with her.

Dr. Maurice Lamar: Messing around? I'll have you understand...

Monday, August 10, 2020

On This Day...Ladies Should Listen (1934)

 Ladies Should Listen was Cary Grant's 17th full length feature film.


He plays, Julian de Lussac, a South American nitrates concession option peddler!!
Who through no fault of his own is caught between three women.


With Frances Drake.


"I purred with delight. The story...is a melange of bedroom-blunder stuff and smart lines.
I was particularly pleased with Cary Grant...he surprises everyone with his delightful flair for light comedy" - Rob Wagner, Script


With Edward Everett Horton

"Cary Grant is brutally miscast as a philandering young Parisian. He plays the part for comedy, miscuing several times." - Wolfe Kaufman, Variety


With Nydia Westman.


With Rosita Moreno and Frances Drake.

Press Pack Stills:





Cast:

Julian de Lussac         Cary Grant
Anna Mirelle              Frances Drake
Paul Vernet                 Edward Everett Horton
Marguerite Cintos       Rosita Moreno
Joseph Flamberg         George Barlier
Susie Flamberg           Nydia Westman 
Henri (Porter)             Charles Ray
Albert (Manservant)   Charles Arnt
Ramon Cintos            Rafael Corio
Blanche (Operator)    Clara Lou Sheridan
Operator                     Henrietta Burnside
Butler                         Joe North



With Edward Everett Horton

Lobby Cards:





Directed by Frank Tuttle
Distributed by Paramount Publix
Running time: 62 minutes

Monday, July 13, 2020

On This Day...Kiss and Make Up (1934)

Today was the release date in 1934, of Cary Grant's 16th full length feature film, Kiss and Make Up.


Grant plays Dr. Maurice Lamar, who runs a modernistic beauty salon, which is a haven for ladies, old and young, who want to be beautiful.


Helen Mack plays his plain secretary Anne, who loves him, while Genevieve Tobin plays Eve Caron, who becomes the a beautiful Frankenstein in the story.


With Helen Mack

With Genevieve Tobin and Edward Everett Horton

The film still has a relevant commentary to make about beauty, etc, even today! And don't forget, this was a Pre-Code film!


"There is a theme in the new film which, in more skillful hands, might form the basis of a good comedy. Carrying the principles of the beauty culture to their logical conclusion, Dr. Lamar finally produces a masterpiece of liveliness, who is, unfortunately, so bound to the harrowing ritual of lotion, massage,diet and rest that she becomes entirely useless." - The New York Times

With Genevieve Tobin.

"Either a gag comedy with a romantic thread or a light romance with gag comedy, but more gags than romance. 
Cary Grant does well as the doctor but both he and E.E. Horton play too strongly for laughs. Genevieve Tobin fills the specifications as the beauty, but acting honors go to Helen Mack as the secretary. A delightful sincere performance. Plenty of sight stuff and plenty of laughs in spots." - Variety 

With Helen Mack, E.E. Horton and Genevieve Tobin

Cast:

Dr. Maurice Lamar                    Cary Grant
Anne                                         Helen Mack
Eve Caron                                 Genevieve Tobin
Marcel Caron                            Edward Everett Horton
Max Pascal                                Lucien Littlefield
Countess Rita                            Mona Maris
Vilma                                         Katherine Williams
Magda                                        Lucille Lund
Rolando                                     Rafael Storm
Mme. Severac                            Mme. Bonita
Mme. Durand                             Doris Lloyd
Maharajah of Baroona                Milton Wallace
Plumber                                     Sam Ashe
Landlady                                    Helena Phillips
Consuelo of Claghorne               Toby Wing
Chairman of banquet                  Henry Armetta
Jean (Valet)                                George Andre Beranger
Beauty clinic nurses                   Judith Arlen, Jean Gale, Hazel Hayes, Lee Ann
                                                  Meredith
Radio announcer                        Helene Cohan
Maharajah's wife                        Jean Carmen
Radio listener                             GiGi Parrish
Lady Rummond-Dray                  Ann Hovey
Beauty clinic patients                 Betty Bryson and Jacqueline Wells 
                                                  and the Wampas Baby Stars of 1934



Lobby Cards:






Directed by Harlan Thompson
Distributed by Paramount Publix.
Running time: 80 minutes.

Monday, June 15, 2020

On This Day...Holiday (1938)

Today in 1938, saw the release of Cary Grant's 31st full length feature film, Holiday.


This was his 3rd film with leading lady Katharine Hepburn, playing the role of Linda Seton.


The title of the film when released in Great Britain was  Free to Live, Unconventional Linda.

The story is about a restless Johnny Case (Grant), wanting to take time out and see the world
He becomes engaged to Julia Seton(Doris Nolan) who tries to make him conform, unlike her sister Linda (Hepburn), who falls in love with him.


Based on a Broadway play by Philip Barry.

Newsweek wrote - "Cary Grant again turns in a smooth performance of the type that has made him one of Hollywood's most-sought-after leading men.
It is more to the point that Katharine Hepburn gives one of her most successful characterizations of her film career."


Cary Grant's acrobatics seemed to have rubbed off on Katharine Hepburn.



They were both known for doing their own stunts. Hepburn thought her double didn't have the correct deportment.


With Jean Dixon, Katharine Hepburn, Lew Ayres and Edward Everett Horton.

Lobby Cards:






Directed by George Cukor
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Running time: 94 minutes