Saturday, February 16th, 2008

pre-Codes: CLOSE HARMONY / MANSLAUGHTER

CLOSE HARMONY (1929)
Yet another great night at the UCLA Pre-Code series kicked off with CLOSE HARMONY made in 1929 and starring Nancy Carroll and Charles “Buddy” Rogers.  I’ve seen numerous photos of Nancy Carroll, but have never seen any of her films.  She was a huge Broadway star in musicals who made the crossover to film in the early sound era, but her films are almost impossible to see.  To my knowledge, none of them are on VHS or DVD and until this series I’ve never even seen them get screened on the repertory revival circuit.  The story of the film concerns a big musical stage star (Nancy Carroll) who tries to help a struggling jazz band leader she falls in love with (“Buddy” Rogers) make it to the top.  While her intentions are sincere, she tries to seduce and break up another vaudeville act in order to get the jazz band to the top.  Naturally chaos, hurt feelings and misunderstandings ensue until they kiss and make up at the end.  While the story is slight, the music, costumes and charm of the actors make this film a real treat!  I love the 1920s and 30s so much and the film is filled with numerous vintage songs from that era.  They even had a music historian introduce the film and talk about the importance of the music.  Nancy Carroll is very charming and fun to watch.  She makes a perfect romantic partner for “Buddy” Rogers.  I must admit the soundtrack of the film was extremely crude, but this was apparently one of the very earliest talkies produced by Paramount, which would explain why.  I’d really like to see more Nancy Carroll films someday if the opportunity ever presents itself.  It is always interesting to me to see new stars that I haven’t really seen before.  There are simply so many people who were HUGE in their day and then forgotten in subsequent years.  I love discovering or in many cases re-discovering new actors to watch.

MANSLAUGHTER (1930) was another pre-code with a far more dramatic storyline that served as a nice contrast to the first film.  Claudette Colbert plays a shallow, spoiled, carefree flapper who has a penchant for reckless driving.  She often bribes police offers with diamond bracelets and gets away without consequence.  One day, her actions catch up to her and she causes the death of a police officer.  Making matters more complex is the fact that the prosecuting attorney (Fredric March) is secretly in love with her.  In spite of his love, he realizes that she must go to jail and pay for her crimes.  Both Colbert and March are excellent in this film.  The only real problem is that one wonders what March’s character could possibly see in Colbert’s.  Sure she is attractive, but she is so cruel, thoughtless, shallow and entitled that it is really difficult to find anything redeeming about her.  In the end of course she has realized the error of her ways and they re-unite.  One gets the impression that perhaps way deep down inside she had the potential to be good, she just needed Fredric March to help her.  Either way, it was still an interesting film. 

Watching this film though, I couldn’t help but think about how many wealthy people (past and present) do terrible things and largely go unpunished because they are wealthy, famous and think they are somehow above the law.  Busby Berkeley killed two women in the 1930s while driving drunk.  He was acquitted.  John Huston killed a pregnant woman on Sunset Blvd, as he struck her with his car while driving drunk.  He walked away a free man.  The list goes on and on…but it never ceases to amaze me why these sorts of acts go unpunished.