It was thirty years ago today...

Albert Lory (Charles Laughton) and Louise Martin about to face Nazi Tiranny in "This Land Is Mine" (1943). Miss O'Hara looks gorgeous as usual, and Charlie doesn't look 'arf bad, either

Well, it was thirty years ago, on a 30th of september. I think it was saturday. There was a film titled "Esta tierra es mía" (This land Is Mine") on TV. I saw it.

While it wasn't my first Laughton movie (a few months before that I had seen -and enjoyed- "Witness for the prosecution"), this was the one which hooked me to Charles. It also made me a Renoirian. And, definitely, a cinephile.

In short, had I not watched "This Land Is Mine" that evening of September 30th in 1978, this blog wouldn't exist.

Now You know what to blame ;D

Star of the month in November at TCM

1935. Charles, about to work in "Mutiny On The Bounty", reaches the American shores: a blessed land where one can still enjoy a season of his films on TV

Well, a fellow Laughtonian, who is a subscriber of Turner Classic Movies just told me that Charles is going to be the Star of the month in November at TCM. I've browsed the web and I've seen further mentions of it, though not in TCM USA's site, where only the current Star of the Month is featured.

This is good news for all those of you who live in the USA, for in my little corner of the Mediterranean, it seems highly unlikely that TCM Spain will programme a season of Charles' films. I fear that the thinking minds of TCM Spain are planning to do an Ed Wood season instead.

You'll tell me how it goes.

Another Gish experience

Miss Gish entertains a devoted fan

During his final illness, Charles Laughton was dictating to Bruce Zortman (1) what was meant to be an autobiography, but which remained unfinished due to Laughton's death. Elsa Lanchester reported how one day she entered in the room. Charles was asleep due to the medication, and Zortman showed the notes he had taken during that day. In Zortman's notebook there was just this one sentence: "I was in love with Lillian Gish".

The young Laughton was certainly impresed with Lillian Gish. He would say that, shortly after the 1918 armistice (2) he was struck by Miss Gish acting in "Broken Blossoms" , and would see the film "over and over again" (2). Years later, during the preparation of "The Night of the Hunter" he saw old silent films by David Wark Griffith, he would meet Miss Gish again, and he offered her the part of Rachel Cooper. Liking the script, she eventually agreed to play it, and the Silent film star and her fan would work together happily.

After the New York première, Laughton sent this affectionate letter to Lillian Gish (3):

Dear Little Iron Butterfly,

Even though I talked to you yesterday I feel compelled to write you a note to tell you further that I think you are the living end. The reviews in New York, as you have now discovered, were wonderful for you--
And from all over the country I keep getting wires and calls, and everyone is unanimous in their praise for you.

I am happy to have had another Gish experience, and as long as I shall live and be active I hope that my life, professionally as well as personally, shall have a lot of Gish in it.

So, you see, these are my roses and carnations -- and they are just as sweet as you are.

Love,

It is sad, in retrospect, not to feel sad when reading this letter, knowing what the future had in store for Charles' career as a director.

Shortly after the release of "The Night of the Hunter", Laughton and Gish would be briefly together in a TV programme produced by Paul Gregory, "The Day Lincoln Was Shot", in which some members of the cast and crew of "The Night of the Hunter" would be working as well. Laughton was the narrator of the story and Lillian Gish played Mary Todd (curiously, John Wilkes Booth was played by a young Jack Lemmon). This programme was an hiatus in the work which Laughton and the Sanders brothers were dpoing in the script of "The Naked And The Dead". This work was never resumed: in the meantime, "The Night of the Hunter" failed at the box-office. Laughton and Gregory split their partnership. Laughton would never directed again, would never have the chance of working again with Lillian Gish.

Dorothy and the Wolves

In between "Broken Blossoms" and "The Night of the Hunter", Charles was to have another Gish experience, more concretely, a Dorothy Gish experience! This was to be in "Wolves", a 1929 production (released in 1930), and one of the early British talkies. We know little of this film, apart from the fact that it was one of the "quota quickies", that is, one of the hastily produced films which were meant to cover the quota of British productions, established by the government as a protective measure for the local industry.

Lacking other sources, the picture below suggests that the young and upcoming actor must have been happy to work alongside Lillian's sister.


"Wolves": Charles Laughton, Dorothy Gish and director Albert de Courville, as seen in the Sunday Express (August 18th, 1929)

Short descriptions of the film coincide with the basic argument of the play "The Wolves", a French play by Georges G. Todouze, which was premiéred in an English version by John Protheroe in August 1929, so we imagine that the play was successful enough to suggest a near-simultaneous film version. Certainly most of the cast of the stage production is coincident with that of the film, with the exception of Sam Livesey and Olga Lindo, whose roles were played by Laughton and Dorothy Gish in the film.


The damsel in distress cleverly shields herself (Dorothy Gish, Charles Laughton)

The plot of the play goes as follows: in a settlement in the icy coast of Greenland, Job (Sam Livesey/Charles Laughton) is the leader of a gang of rough outlaws, a real group of human wolves, among them we have a Canadian, Pierre (Malcolm Green), who is also the only in the group to have a woman, an inuit girl named Naroutcha (Betty Bolton), who also acts as a servant of all the other men. Near the place a young girl, Kitty MacDonald ("Leila Macdonald" in the film. Olga Lindo/Dorothy Gish) is found, frozen and starving: her presence stirs the community, as they all want to possess her, and are ready to fight each other fiercely to accomplish so. Job organizes a lottery to see who will be Kitty's owner. He cheats and gets her, but not with the intention of having a woman himself, but with the aim of having the situation under control, which is not easy as, among other things, Kitty is the daughter of a Canadian fishery king, and Pierre says that it is because of Kitty that he commited the crimes for which he has looked for refuge in this distant place. Pierre not only wants revenge, he also has lusty intentions on poor Kitty, which makes Naroutchka jealous. Tension runs high and Job sees that the only way to ease it is help Kitty to flee from the place, but he will have to face his own men.

The magazine "Theatre World" (in its issue of October 1929) described "The Wolves" as a "vivid melodrama" which was "unusually good entertainment", and its critic referred to it in the following terms: "it is strong, crude stuff, and grips as much by the intensity of its passion as by the fitting fierceness of its language (...). Here primitive passions, fiery words and sinister actions are swiftly woven into a fabric which may be coarse in texture, but is surely more wholesome stuff than the fluffy frills and lascivious lingerie displayed ad nauseam elsewhere... This description of the play (the reviewer sure likes macho-macho stuff!) makes me imagine the film as a mixture of melodrama and early action movie. In fact, and according to the description of the imdb user reviewing the film, Job's hut is blown by an explosion at the end of the film. Since this doesn't happen in the play, where Kitty escapes while Job holds his men at bay and manages to subdue his men after killing the troublesome Pierre, I gather that "Wolves" might an early example of the recurrent solution when scriptwriters run short of ideas (you know, "if you don't know what to write in the next scene, put an explosion or two")

An anecdote of the film, told by Simon Callow (4), tells us that a young David Lean, who happened to see how Laughton was preparing himself for a fight scene, was quite impressed by both his thorough preparation of the scene andr his hability to fill the frame: many years later he would have his chance to direct Charles in "Hobson's Choice" (1954)

Also, of those who worked in the play but not in the film, two would have later connections with Laughton: Raymond Massey, the stage director of "The Wolves" would later in that year direct the first staging of Sean O'Casey's "The Silver Tassie", with Charles playing Harry Heegan (5), and Sam Livesey would appear with Charles in the successful production of Congreve's "Love for Love", staged during the 1933-34 Old Vic season.

The film would be released in the USA during the middle thirties, titled as "Wanted Men", when Charles had become one of the most successful film actors of the world, surely with the intention of milking some benefits out of Laughton's success. However, this version was heavily cut, and, if the original picture wasn't a hit, the edited version wasn't precisely an improvement.

The film seems to be lost, but I wonder if a copy was still around in existence. I'd be curious to see it: in the worst of cases it would be a toughening experience which would strenghten my character ;p

Some interesting links:
:: Lillian Gish's Official website
:: A Gish tribute by Dan Callahan at Bright Lights Film Journal
:: A lovely picture of the two collaborators at " If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats"


Notes:
1) Zortman had collaborated with Laughton in the literary research and ellaboration of Laughton's anthology "The Fabulous Country".

2) As mentioned by Simon Callow's BFI book on "The NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Gotta comment about it some day in this blog: recommended reading!). Incidentally, imdb.com gives May 13th, 1919 as the date of the American premiere of "Broken Blossoms". The European release dates given by imdb -although not mentioning dates for France or Great Britain-, range from 1922 to 1923. So I wonder if the film which Laughton saw shortly after the armistice was another one by Griffith and with Gish, and then a few years later he was impressed by "Broken Blossoms" and the two experiences were merged in his memories. Either this or maybe the allied troops were privileged to see that film before its European Official première?... Or maybe the film was released in France and/or the UK almost at the same time it was released in the USA?

3) From the photographic reproduction of this letter, reproduced in Charles Tatum Jr.'s "La Nuit du Chasseur de Charles Laughton", published by Editions Yellow Now

4) In the seminal "Charles Laughton. A Difficult Actor"

5) This would be the first of many occasions in which Massey and Laughton would work together: they were both in the cast of James Whale's "The Old Dark House", and Laughton would in turn direct Massey on the stage years later in "John Brown's Body"... Massey appeared also in the day The Day Lincoln Was Shot" playing (if you hadn't guessed it already) Abraham Lincoln

Jazzing up Schumann's score

The film "The Night of the Hunter", in spite of not being a hit when it was first released, has increasingly become more and more admired as time passes. Not only that, it has become an inspiration for many people who has watched it.

Such is the case of Pierre Fablet, a jazz musician who, inspired both by the film and the beauty of Walter Schumann's score, has been working in an one hour concert, in which Schumann's score is revisited through a jazzy arrangement with an ensemble of six, playing piano and keyboards, bass, drums, guitar, saxophones and trumpet. You can know more about Mr. Fablet's interesting project at His page at La Station Service . We hope that Pierre Fablet's concert is available in a recording sometime in the near future.

Walter Schumann may be one of the most relevant collaborators of Laughton in the film. Through Preston Neal Jones' "Heaven and Hell to Play With", we know that he didn't limit himself to write a score in the solitude of his studio, but collaborated actively with Laughton, and kept making adittions and changes to the initial score when a new idea came through. For instance, when cinematographer Stanley Cortez told Laughton that he was thinking in Sibelius' "Valse Triste" to visualize the scene where Preacher Powell kills Willa Harper, Laughton not only directed the scene to suit Cortez's brilliant suggestion, but promptly called for Schumann to compose the adequate music for the scene, as it was now envisaged. In the final film, that scene has the sad waltz tempo Cortez had in mind. Laughton also suggested to Schumann a technique he called "long muscles", devised to establish the continuity between the scenes of the film, rather than meant just to accompany or stress what was happening on the screen.


Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's hilarious comment about "Dragnet" (and Schumann's theme) in the pages of "Mad"

At the time "The Night of the Hunter" was released, Schumann was possibly better known for his theme for the "Dragnet" TV series. As Laughton's film remained obliterated for years, so was his beautiful score, and as Laughton, he died long before his score for the film gained the recognition it deserved.


In fact, there was an earlier Laughton-Schumann collaboration, prior to "The Night of the Hunter", which enjoyed a greater recognition it its time and I feel ought to be recovered. In 1953, after the success his innovative, stage prop-bare, a capella production of George Bernard Shaw's rarely staged third act of "Man and Superman" (titled "Don Juan in Hell"), Laughton embarqued in a similar project. Again produced by Paul Gregory, Laughton tackled Stephen Vincent Benét's poem"John Brown's body". In this production, Walter Schumann provided a prodigious background to the three main players (Tyrone Power, Raymond Massey and Judith Anderson -1-) declaiming the text: a chorus would sing and provide sound "effects". Schumann's grasped well Laughton's idea of a modern greek Chorus and produced a magnificent score for the play which fortunately, was recorded, but unfortunately, has known no re-releases for ages. We'll talk about John Brown's Body some other day with greater depth, but for the moment we suggest that it would be a good idea to release again this recording (2)

Notes:
1) Judith Anderson was to be substituted by Ann Baxter in later tours of this staging,.
2) it was originally released by Columbia Masterworks, so I guess this means we should be knocking at Sony's door.

He really was a groovy cat

Talking about Charles and "This Land Is Mine" in the comments with fellow blogger Solaris, we ended talking about George Sanders and James Mason, and how these enjoyable performers (and feline film cads) almost set a construction company to make houses for rich widows... and from this to Mason's own love for cats (of which he would produce fine sketches).

All right, I have a lot of pending stuff to post, but, hey, it's summertime and ... hey! I feel right now like indulging in a bit of trivia... Today: Charles and cats!


Charles and Elsa with the household's cat (early 1940's)

It seems that Charles (and Elsa's) relationship with cats started when Charles first arrived in Hollywood: while he was doing films, Elsa was unoccupied. To ease her feelings of loneliness while he was at work, Charles bought Elsa a little black cat, whom they named Nero . Nero (who liked to plunge into the swimming-pool at The Garden of Allah) was only the first of many cats owned by the couple. Another cat named Louis followed Nero in the Laughton's household: he was named after Louis XVI , the role Irving Thalberg wanted Charles to play in Marie Antoinette (though when the film was finally shot, Charles had other commitments and the Capetian was finally played by Robert Morley , in his first film role). As it happens, Charles and Elsa would always keep cats from then on, and it earned the couple a reputation: people even left kittens at their home for adoption!


The first Laughton kittens: Nero (left) and Louis (right)


Elsa was there before!
You may not know it, but Elsa Lanchester considered, for a long time, to stage an act reading and performing excerpts from T.S. Elliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats", eventually making a song version with her piano accompanist Ray Henderson. However, due to the author's denial to see his book staged as "a vaudeville act", the Lanchester-Henderson version was never performed. Most of you may be familiar with a later adaptation of this book... In the light of this, I think that Elsa and Henderson's version well deserved a chance.

Le gros chat
When director Jean Renoir came to the USA, he met in America another French exile who was very close to him: Gabrielle Renard, a cousin of her mother who, as a teenager, had come to the Renoirs' household to "help". Her help mainly consisted in taking care of little Jean (no small feat!). It was Gabrielle who introduced the future film director to guignol, films and melodrama. Gabrielle, besides her babysiting duties, would also model for Jean's father, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Gabrielle was in California with her husband, the painter Conrad Slade, and her son Jean.

Now, in Hollywood, Jean also met a British actor named Charles Laughton, who happened to own a painting by his father. The Briton had been often in France, loved the country and spoke fluent French. They became close friends.

Since Jean saw Gabrielle frequently, Laughton also got to see her on quite a number of occasions. Gabrielle was, according to Renoir, a woman of great vitality, who, like the French people of her era, had a healthy interest in romantic liaisons (and loved to talk about them)... Had she been in the mood for frivolity, Renoir wrote, she would have gone for his friend Laughton, whom she affectionately called "the fat tomcat". Laughton was proud of that nickname, and he would purr to Gabrielle to honour the epithet.

Albert's courtship scheme

Albert feeds the kitty

And since we are talking about Renoir, let's remember "This Land Is Mine and Albert Lory's sly courting technique. Albert is shy as can be, but his master plan to conquer Louise Martin's attention is cunning. Louise has a cat. The cat escapes every night and enters Lory's home. Albert treats the feline with the best of his attentions, including a dish of hard-to-get milk (incidentally, Albert's mother positively hates the cat). When Albert meets Louise about to go to school, he lovingly tends the runaway to her beloved. Not that she notices. Hum, OK... It's a long-term plan. In the meantime, the four-legged cupid gets a daily dose of milk...Oh, wait! maybe it is the cat the one with the master plan!


Albert returns the fugitive to Louise: "What's new, pussycat? Woah, Woah"

While Renoir was developing the film's story, he would be often in touch with Laughton... In fact, film historian and Renoir expert Alexander Sesonske mentions that it was a conversation between actor and director about Alphonse Daudet's story "La Dernière Classe" which suggested to Renoir an ending -and the lead actor- for the film. I wonder if the feedback between both men also suggested the cat bussiness in the script... and maybe hinted at the animal's casting? Call it a speculation from my side, but the cat in the film looks quite like the cat which appears with Elsa and Charles in the first image of this post! Unfortunately, imdb doesn't credit the cat performer, so I cannot tell for certain, ha.

Endnote on sources
Well, that was quite an impromptu trivia post... and coming from someone who is allergic to cats' hair! Among the sources gleaned for its ellaboration, there's Jean Renoir's "My Life and My Films", Elsa Lanchester's 1938 and 1983 books "charles Laughton and I" and "Elsa Lanchester Herself", and Alexander Sesonske excellent vindication of "This Land Is Mine" as one of the most interesting American films of Renoir (published in the all-Renoir issues 12-13 of "Persistence of Vision")

"Witness" in AFI's Best Ten list

Miss Plimsoll chastises her patient, Wilfrid the Fox, who is probably scheming about where to stash the cigars next

You may be interested to know that the American Film Institute has elaborated a list of what they consider the best ten courtroom drama films: Laughtonians will be pleased to know that "Witness For The Prosecution" is included in that list.

Well, I know, many of you would like the film even if it wasn't in that list, or any other... Still, as it is mentioned in one of the links below, it is good than news like this keep a good film like "Witness For The Prosecution" in the public's eye. And more when, for a few years from now, there has been talk about a new remake. But why a remake? Come to think, the film is already beyond its 50th birthday, and still giving enjoyment to many a new viewer, which is good as many young people today seems a bit averse to try Black and White films.

In fact, the memory of a 1982 remake, in colour, has almost faded: it had the same plot, a remarkable cast (which included Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr, Beau Bridges and Diana Rigg), it was shot in colour with the inter-war period craftily recreated in costumes and decors... But the made-for-TV perfunctoriness of the remake was no match for the spark of the Billy Wilder original, and the superb original cast shot the film in a state of grace. Also, the CBS remake subdued the comedy -the trump card of the 1957 version- in favour of the intrigue and the drama, which probably made for a more Christie-esque film, but not for a more engaging one. I suspect that a further remake just wouldn't live up to the expectations: how much you can improve the original? with CGI effects? With Janet McKenzie chasing Leonard Vole on a helicopter? With Sir Wilfrid saying, instead of "Liar!", "You *beep*ing *beep*! *beep* you!!"?

Honest, rather than make a new (and possibly, quite costly) remake, why don't the producers should rather release again the original film in theaters? Or give it a proper not-film-only DVD?

Check these links!
:: AFI's own page for "Witness For The Prosecution", including a trailer of the film and a brief comment by Sidney Lumet.
:: The news as featured in Charles' home town newspaper.
:: Also: Another film with Charles, Spartacus, is included in AFI's list of the ten best epic films. As already mentioned, good if it introduces Charles to new generations of film buffs.

"Come on baby, light my fire"

"Anybody got a light?"

I love this picture! Charles is seductively looking at you while holding a cigarette, and, if you ask me, makes me feel like striking a match, or producing a lighter, or, as Bogey does in the cartoon "Bacall to Arms", a blow torch, if necessary!! (AND take this from a non-smoker!)

Anyway, what we can do today is to light the 109 candles in Charles' cake, and, as the cartoon Lauren Bacall says, just put our lips together and... blow these candles while we make a wish

Happy birthday, Charles Laughton, wherever you are!