Fifty Years of Film in 50 Weeks, #26: To Each His Own, 1946

"Although (screenwriters) Charles Brackett and Jacques Théry are not telling anything new in "To Each His Own," which follows the broad pattern of countless tales about the grief of unwed mothers, they have worked in a few refreshing twists."  
--NY Times reviewer Bosley Crowther, May 24th, 1946.

To Each His Own, 1946

Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writers: Charles Brackett and Jacques Théry
Cinematographer: Daniel L. Fapp
Producer: Charles Brackett for Paramount Pictures
Starring: Olivia de Havilland, John Lund, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, Philip Terry, Bill Goodwin, Griff Barnett

'No-spoiler' plot overview 
In a tale told in flashback, middle-aged business executive Miss Jody Norris talks to her London colleague Lord Desham about why she gives her life over to work. As a young woman, helping her father in his drug store in Piersen Falls, USA, during the time of the Great War, she meets a young combat pilot (Capt. Cosgrove) with whom she has a secret and brief affair before he is killed in action. She retreats to NYC to have her baby, a son, and despite her wanting to keep him, he is adopted by her friends Corinne and Alex Piersen who don't know the truth about his birth parents. Jody plays nanny to the little boy until she can find a way to convince them to give her her son back. Meanwhile, she throws herself into work, and nearly single-handedly converts her friend and former beau Mac's bootlegging operation into a cosmetics factory that brings her wealth and status. Her efforts to get her son back don't go as planned, of course, and she must make a choice once her grown son crosses her path.

Production Background
To Each His Own was a significant film for Olivia de Havilland for at least two reasons. First, it won her first Oscar for Best Actress, and second, it was her "comeback" role after her legal battle with Warners' seeking early termination of her contract. She won the lawsuit, and what became known as the De Havilland Law, that prevented movie studios from indefinitely extended actors contracts that limited their options and creative freedom. She had been off the screen for two years prior; her previous film was 1943's Government Girl.

De Havilland campaigned to have Mitchell Leisen direct the film, as she thought the material would be elevated from its soap opera foundation, as she was thrilled with his work directing her in Hold Back The Dawn (1941), also a wartime romantic melodrama. A name largely unrecognized today, Leisen helmed many successful A pictures at Paramount (including Death Takes A Holiday (1934) that I wrote about here), and de Havilland and other actors felt supported by him. Leisen worked closely with Charles Brackett to polish the script and make de Havilland's character more nuanced. The film also marked the debut of actor John Lund, who played both Jody's lover and her grown son. 

Some other notable film-related events in 1946 (from Filmsite.org):

• Disney's first live-action feature film The Song of the South was released, with three major segments of animation; it was based upon Joel Chandler Harris' Uncle Remus folk tales regarding Br'er Rabbit; due to extensive protests (mostly by the NAACP) over the stereotypical representations of blacks in the film and the film's romanticizing of slavery, the controversial film was never released on home video for US audiences
• The most famous role and peak performance of WWII's GI "love goddess" - the beautiful, alluring, and provocative, red-haired pin-up Rita Hayworth - with her sleek and sophisticated eroticism, lush hair and peaches and cream complexion, was in director Charles Vidor's Gilda. 
• Director William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor in 1947. It was a classic post-war film that poignantly portrayed the readjustment of veterans and their families after their return home. Double amputee and amateur actor Harold Russell became the only actor to win two Oscars for playing the same role, a returning GI named Homer Parrish. He was awarded a special Academy Award for "bringing aid and comfort to disabled veterans," and then also won the year's Oscar as Best Supporting Actor.
• French critic Nino Frank was credited as being the first to coin the phrase "film noir" in reference to Hollywood movies in the 40s (dark crime dramas and gangster films, psychological thrillers, etc.) that combined gritty expressionistic cinematography and bleak, hard-boiled writing - from novelists such as James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett. His article was published in the French film magazine L'Ecran Francais (August 28, 1946 issue).

My Random Observations

• Olivia de Havilland owned this movie. In addition to being in nearly every scene, she in effect played two distinct characters: the ingenue and the hard-nosed businesswoman with a secret. The former was shades of Melanie Wilkes, and the latter was a warm-up for her older character in The Heiress. Come to think of it, that was another film requiring her to portray great range. 

  

  Middle-aged Jody immediately before the flashback begins...

  
  

  

  And with the power of lighting and makeup, she
  is transformed to a younger woman.

• It was refreshing that the main character was allowed to be unsympathetic at times. When she blackmailed Corinne to get her son back (then at schoolboy age) you rather rooted against her. But when she was sympathetic it wasn't just when she was a young innocent following her heart; it was when she showed a better business head than her male colleagues and worked circles around them.  And she clearly enjoyed the success her career gave her.

Jody gets to work to convert Mac's (Bill Goodwin,
right) bootlegging operation to a cosmetics plant.

• Any film about unwed motherhood made in the 1940s will be dated, and while you do feel for Jody here, and rue the societal forces that conspired against her, to me adoption by a loving (if vain) mother is a special calling that should be honored. So I winced during those moments when Jody was trying to wrestle "Griggsy" away from Corinne and Alex. And the ending was sour for me (Warning: Spoiler ahead). While it seemed a fait accompli that the adult Griggsy would be made aware and be reunited with his birth mother, the fact that that revelation was made during his wedding I felt was wrong. Even though it was lovely that Lord Desham arranged for the quick wedding before Griggsy was to ship out, the evening should have been about the wedding and not a reunion that really wasn't needed. (And I 100% with Bosley Crowther's statement at the beginning of this post).

Jody preparing to blackmail the unsuspecting
Corinne (Mary Anderson) by offering to bail her husband
 out of financial ruin if they give her back their/her son.

Lord Desham (Roland Culver) encouraging Jody
to tell about her younger years.

• Who were all these wonderful character actors?! I've been used to recognizing well-loved character actors over and over again, so my experience with this film was just...odd. Perhaps because I've seen fewer Golden-age films from Paramount? Regardless, one I recognized slightly was Griff Barnett as de Havilland's father, as he had some small roles in some Alan Ladd films of the era. He was wonderful.
  

  

  Griff Barnett as the wise father.

• Speaking of Alan Ladd, John Lund bore an uncanny resemblance to Ladd, although Lund was, of course, taller. Ladd and de Havilland had worked together in 1958 in the underrated and heartwarming The Proud Rebel.

  

  John Lund as Capt. Cosgrove

• This picture was lush and evocative. I've learned Mitchell Leisen was apparently very attuned to period detail in set design and costuming and insisted on 100% accuracy. That gave his films a sense of time and place that elevated his films.

First indication she's pregnant -- she very deliberately
drinks milk in her father's small-town drug store.

Stylish and successful, Jody takes no prisoners.

Where to Watch

Unfortunately, this one is difficult to find commercially. It isn't available on DVD in the U.S., although it was released on VHS. A rough print is available on archive.org here. 

Further Reading
A detailed analysis of the film is provided in this article in Film Comment magazine.

Fifty Years of Film in 50 weeks, #14, a 'Hidden Classic': Death Takes a Holiday, 1934

Bad News: Due to a confluence of events I am now officially one week behind in my film-watching and blog updates for this series. I hope I can make up the difference to end the year on goal!

Good News: I'm thrilled to be submitting this post as part of the Classic Movie Blog Association's Spring Blogathon on 'Hidden Classics'. Click on the image below to access everyone's choices of films that you may not have heard of but definitely should watch.

My 'hidden classic' is: Death Takes a Holiday, from 1934.

Director: Mitchell Leisen
Writers: Maxwell Anderson and Gladys Lehman, adapted from the play by Alberto Casella
Cinematographer: Charles Lang
Visual Effects (not minor here): Gordon Jennings

Produced by: Emanuel Cohen and E. Lloyd Sheldon for Paramount Pictures
Starring: Fredric March, Evelyn Venable, Guy Standing, Katherine Alexander, Henry Travers, Gail Patrick, Kent Taylor, Kathleen Howard

Why I chose it
Once again, I reached out to a film friend for some recommendations of 1934 films I hadn't seen; this one was on her list and then it won my Twitter poll ( the other options: Lady By Choice, Crime Without Passion, and Cleopatra).

'No-spoiler' plot overview
A small group of wealthy, fun-loving families plans to enjoy some time together in an Italian villa, but challenges ensue when they are visited for three days by mysterious Prince Sirki, who seems to know little of common courtesies. Unknown to all but Duke Lambert, the owner of the villa, Prince Sirki is the earthly disguise for none other than the Grim Reaper, or Death himself, who has decided to take a few days off from whisking mortals to the afterlife. His objective? To better understand why humans fear him. He lives it up with fun and games, and enjoys the attentions of several women in the party. He's particularly enthralled with young Grazia, who is engaged to Corrado, son of the Duke. He's a quick learner and realizes love is the transcendent driver of the human experience.

Production Background 

• This film was director Leisen's second feature; his first was Cradle Song, also starring Evelyn Venable and putting her ethereal beauty to good use. (I saw Cradle Song at the Capitolfest Film Festival a few years back). 
• The play was translated into English by Walter Ferris, and this was the version adapted for the film. Ferris, for his part, went on to become a screenwriter himself. 
• According to an account by Leisen, the film succeeded for Paramount, and he received mail from fans saying they no longer feared death!
• A remake called Meet Joe Black was released 53 years later starring Brad Pitt. I'd feel better about death, too, if I knew it took the shape of a handsome leading man!

Some other notable film-related events in 1934*:

• The pre-Code Era comes to an end: An amendment to the Production Code established the Production Code Administration (PCA), which required all films to acquire a certificate of approval before release or face a penalty of $25,000. The members of the MPPDA agreed not to release or distribute any film that didn't carry the seal. The MPPDA appointed Joseph Breen as the director of the PCA to enforce the Production Code. The era of "separate beds" was inaugurated.
• The Catholic Church formed the Legion of Decency to boycott any film that didn't use the Production Code as a guideline.
• Louis de Rochemont began the documentary newsreel film series, The March of Time.
• The Thin Man was the first installment of a popular series of six MGM films casting a sophisticated, glamorous, pleasure-seeking, and urbane husband-wife detective team (William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles). The story was taken from Dashiell Hammett's 1934 detective novel of the same name. Eventually, Powell and Loy appeared in 14 feature films together (from 1934 to 1947).
• Famed child star Shirley Temple made her feature film debut in 1934, producing several films that year for Fox and Paramount. In 1935, Shirley won the Juvenile Academy Award for her film work encompassing 1934, and became the first female to receive a "special" Oscar.

My Random Observations

• Some movies blow you away when you first see them; others that leave you flat on first viewing come to life on the second. I'm glad I watched this twice as it fell in the latter of those two categories. At first, the film seemed a bit too mannered for me. But once you accept some of the conceits that are built into the script, and realize those conceits are part of the point, the film really comes to life. The characters are all well-drawn, even if the film doesn't reach 90 minutes, which is a delight in itself. I particularly enjoyed Guy Standing as the nervous Duke, who must keep the dreadful secret about his mysterious houseguest. 
• I smiled when I counted the various fairy tales and legends that seemed to find their way into this script; in particular, it seemed a mash-up of Cinderella, The Flying Dutchman, and Jekyll and Hyde (the latter aided by the presence of Fredric March, who had portrayed Stephenson's protagonist(s) two years earlier).
• Fredric March sure looked good at this stage in his career. That said, the accent he adopted here, made to sound 'foreign' no doubt, reminded me of Dracula. It didn't help that he had dark make-up around his eyes that hinted at his supernatural origin.
• Evelyn Venable had some amazing gowns in this film (yay, Edith Head & Travis Banton). And despite her beauty and attire, she totally convinced as the spiritual young woman not interested in the pleasures of earthly life. Maybe that is because she already had them (!).
• I love when Gail Patrick appears in a film - she is a willowy beauty from the early Hollywood days who had enough of a haughty air to prevent her from *ever* getting a lead role in a film and was always relegated to the part of romantic rival (Love Crazy), nasty sister (My Man Godfrey), or the like. She played these roles to perfection, and I suppose was grateful to have a long, fruitful career in Hollywood nonetheless. After her acting career, she got into producing, and was apparently named 'Los Angeles Woman of the Year' twice!

Screenshots

Just one of several times that Grazia (Venable) gives Corrado
(Taylor) a weary look when he presses her to marry him, again.

Cruising down a twisty road at night - the light on Venable
vs. the shadows on her friends was striking.

What kind of villa is this? Gothic-Greek-shabby-chic?

The shadowy figure of Death approaches at Midnight.

Duke Lambert tries to keep it together in a conversation with Death.

The guests are stunned to see the arrival of Prince Sirki...

...a vision in white, looking like Fredric March.

Gail Patrick's and Katharine Alexanders' characters are 
forced into a rivalry trying to be the first to get the attention
of the handsome Prince.

The Prince grins as his holiday has the effect of keeping 
people from the death that would have been inevitable had
he been on the job.

Cesaria (Travers) lectures the Prince on life and love.

Now this is scary -- when provoked, the Prince shows his dark side.

The Prince looks on after giving Alda (Alexander) the scare of
her life.

The Prince and Grazia have a dance before midnight.

Where to Watch

I watched the film on Archive.org here, but it is also available on DVD. 

Further Reading
A bit of production history and discussion of the special effects are shared in TCM's film article here.

I love reading snarky contemporaneous reviews, and this one by Helen Brown Norden for Vanity Fair fits the bill (you will have to scroll down the page a bit to find it). She made an observation that I also did above: "Fredric March plays Death as if he thought he might possibly be Dracula; and he intones all his words with an awesome, old-Shakespearian-actor solemnity." 

Don't forget to check out all the posts highlighting 'hidden classics' here, and have fun!