Shadowy and Satiny: What to Watch on TCM in March 2024

My TCM picks for March aren’t the most highly acclaimed films in the history of pre-Code and film noir – but I like them. I hope you will, too.

Satiny Pick: Big Business Girl (1931)

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – I am not a big fan of Loretta Young. EXCEPT when it comes to her pre-Code films. And when it comes to those, I’d watch any of them, any time. In my pick for this month, Big Business Girl, Young stars as Claire “Mac” McIntyre – we meet her and her jazz bandleader boyfriend Johnny (Frank Albertson), at the State University Senior Class Graduation Dance.

R.J. is all about those gams.

(Incidentally, in case you weren’t sure you were watching a pre-Code, you get a pretty solid hint less than two minutes into the film. As the couples whirl around the floor, we see several of them, one couple at a time, dance their way behind a partition at the end of the room and pause there for a few seconds for some surreptitious smooching. We get another clue soon after, when a couple walks outside and the girl asks her beau if she’s safe with him out there in the dark. He assures her that she certainly is not and she rejoins, “Where’s your car parked?”)

We soon learn that Mac and Johnny are madly in love, but we also learn some interesting differences between them. Mac is graduating and moving to New York for a job that will help pay off her college debts. John flunked out, and Mac reads him like a book, observing that John “just didn’t care enough to try . . . You’re just too soft and lazy, dear. You don’t seem to be able to finish anything.” Mac is doubtlessly the more mature and practical one in this relationship; Johnny is a talented musician and loads of fun, but his idea of a future with Mac involves them both moving to New York, getting an apartment, and “read[ing] the want ads together.”

Tug-of-war time.

Ultimately, Johnny travels to Paris for a gig and Mac moves to New York, where she quickly snags a secretarial job at an advertising agency. Before long, she has worked her way up to a copywriter, under the tutelage of her boss, R.J. Clayton (Ricardo Cortez), who’s more interested in Mac’s gams than in her ability to create a successful ad campaign. Incidentally, Clayton is handsome and sexy and a real go-getter, but he’s also a supreme jerk who sees Mac as more of a conquest than anything else. (R.J. does deliver one of my favorite lines, though, telling Johnny in one scene: “You know, you made a silly ass of yourself. I let you insult a lady in my presence. Now, the next time that you lose control of your temper . . . I’m going to be forced to turn you over on my knee and give you a little spanking.”) (Hee!)

Joan Blondell is not here for play-play.

At first, it seems that the film is going to be an exploration of a woman’s ability to have it all – especially when one of Mac’s co-workers opines that it “takes more than a successful career to keep a girl warm on winter nights.” As it happens, that’s not the point at all – what it really boils down to is an ongoing tug-of-war between Johnny and R.J. for Mac’s affections. But don’t let that turn you off – it’s fairly entertaining until it takes a hard left in the last 15 minutes or so, and even then, it’s so darned daffy that it’s worth the trip. (Plus, the last 15 minutes feature an appearance by scene-stealing Joan Blondell, and that’s always worth the price of admission.) Big Business Girl isn’t my favorite Loretta Young pre-Code, but it’s definitely worth a look. Tune into TCM March 11th and see what you think.

Other stuff:

The film’s director, William Seiter, also helmed the delightful silent Colleen Moore feature Why Be Good? (1929); Hot Saturday (1930), starring Nancy Carroll, Cary Grant, and Randolph Scott; and the Laurel and Hardy starrer, Sons of the Desert (1933). Seiter was married to Laura LaPlante at the time this film was made, and later married Marian Nixon. (Ten years after Seiter’s death, Nixon married Ben Lyon).

Dorothy Christy has a small role as a married socialite who has eyes for Johnny (and doesn’t care who knows it). Christy was also featured in Sons of the Desert.

Shadowy Pick: Where Danger Lives (1950)

I can’t lie – Where Danger Lives is one of those films that, for me, falls into the “guilty pleasure” category. In fact, I came close to choosing it for the recent “So Bad, It’s Good” blogathon – that should give you an idea of what kind of movie this is. Even though its cast includes Robert Mitchum, Claude Rains, and Maureen O’Sullivan, and even though it’s directed by John Farrow, and even though the cinematographer is Nicholas “Out of the Past” Musaraca, it’s one of those movies that practically leaves me with my mouth open, no matter how many times I see it. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

The salad days.

The action in Where Danger Lives kicks off when an attempted suicide – Margo Lannington (Faith Domergue) – is brought into the hospital where Dr. Jeff Cameron (Mitchum) is on staff, along with his girlfriend, nurse Julie Dorn (the woefully underutilized O’Sullivan). Before you can say “Bob’s your uncle,” Jeff and Margo are an item, but there’s a monkey wrench in this sudden love affair – Margo tells Jeff that her father doesn’t approve and wants her to send her out of the country. Determined to confront his would-be future father-in-law, Jeff fortifies himself with a couple of cocktails and shows up at Margo’s house, only to learn that her father, Frederick (Rains) isn’t her father at all – he’s her husband! Yadda, yadda, yadda, Jeff and the hubby get into a battle of words, Frederick hits Jeff with a poker, Jeff fights back . . . and somehow, Frederick winds up dead.

These three.

From here, we go on the world’s wildest road trip, as Margo insists that they take it on the lam to Mexico because no one will believe that her husband’s death was an accident. Meanwhile, Jeff diagnoses himself with a concussion, and it sounds unusually dire: “I may talk rationally, but my decisions may not make much sense,” he tells Margo. “It’ll lead to slow paralysis in the extremities, maybe one entire side. It’ll probably end in final collapse and coma. During the unconscious period, I may die or I may come out of it.” Yikes. Will Margo and Jeff make it to Mexico? Will Jeff fall into a coma before they get there? Will Margo take the wheel if Jeff is too paralyzed to drive? And what about Naomi? (Sorry – just had an Electric Company flashback.) Tune into TCM March 24th for the answers to these and other questions.

I just love the expression on Mitchum’s face. So fitting.

Before I get to the other stuff, let me touch on why I considered this film for the “So Bad, It’s Good” category, as well as why I consider it to be a guilty pleasure. As for the “bad” part, that would come down to one person: Faith Domergue. She’s interesting, she’s kind of exotic – but she really can’t act, y’all. I mean, seriously. On the other hand, you have the always-stellar Claude Rains, who is only in one scene, but puts on a show you won’t soon forget and tosses off the film’s very best lines. (“I wish you’d stop calling her my daughter. She happens to be my wife,” Frederick informs Jeff. “Margo married me for my money. I married her for her youth. We both got what we wanted. After a fashion.”)

“Oh, no.”

Also, the film has a number of unintentionally funny moments as poor Jeff’s physical condition deteriorates and Margo’s batshit-craziness ramps up. I think the best example is when Jeff and Margo are alone in a room not far from the Mexico border, waiting to be picked up by a van. (Don’t ask.) Margo asks Jeff what time it is, and Jeff tells her that he thinks his whole left side is getting numb. Margo responds, “I said, WHAT TIME IS IT?!?!” (‘Cause Margo doesn’t give a damn about your left side, Jeff!) When the van arrives, Jeff says that he can’t walk, Margo insists that he only has to make it to the border, she pushes him to give him a bit of encouragement, and Jeff falls backwards onto the floor. And then Margo says, “Oh, no,” like she’d just discovered that her milk was past the expiration date. It’s my favorite part of the movie, y’all.

Other stuff:

Farrow, O’Sullivan, and six of their seven children.

Faith Domergue was first seen by Howard Hughes when she was 16 years old and under contract to Warner Bros. Hughes later bought her contract, and viewed Where Danger Lives as a way to showcase her talent.

At the time of filming, director John Farrow was married to Maureen O’Sullivan. The two were married for 26 years, until Farrow’s death in 1963, and had seven children, including actress Mia Farrow.

Tune into TCM on March 11th and March 24th for these two semi-gems – you won’t be sorry. At least, I don’t think you will!

~ by shadowsandsatin on February 29, 2024.