1934 Beggars in Ermine - Movie Review

Finally got to see 1934's Beggars in Ermine staring Lionel Atwell and a very young Betty Furness (just 18 at the time). The plot of the movie concerns a steel mill owner and his business rival. Atwill's rival causes an "accident" that cripples him and then he steals his wife and business. Reduced to becoming a beggar who sells phamlets that contain his business ideas, he comes to see the worth and power of others like him. Atwill meets a blind man who befriends him and encounters characters like Milligan the Miner who survives by selling soap, the sign on his sales tray reads "If I had hands I'd use this soap". In time his character decides to found a national fraternal organization to empower the disabled. The only requirement for membership is that you have to have a real disability.

I won't tell the rest of the plot but the script contains some wonderful old fashioned ideas; ideas like fair treatment of workers by big business, business knowledge gained from starting at the bottom and working your way to the top, and the film had characters who showed what can be achieved by working together for a common cause. Beggars in Ermine has a running time of 72 minutes and contains good performances by all concerned. Of note is Henry B. Walthall, whose career began in the silent era, he was especially good as Marchant the Blind Man. We watched this movie via Roku on the Movie Vault channel.

Millie a Movie Review - Helen Twelvetrees, Lilyan Tashman

Our latest film find is Millie a neat pre-code film with Helen Twelvetrees as the title character. Wow, she becomes one independent gal! In the early part of the film, Millie leaves her cheating husband and swears she will never again depend on a man for financial support. She also swears off the idea of marriage.

I had never seen a film with Helen Twelvetrees and found her performance gutsy and very good. Her female friends played by Lilyan Tashman and Joan Blondel were also wonderful. It's unfortunate that the Hays code would soon quash screen portrayals of independent women and those who refused to stay in bad marriages.

The Hays Code was designed to clean up the films produced by Hollywood. Written in 1930, by former Postmaster General Will Hayes, it was not enforced until 1934. The code contained a set of rules that forbade the appearance of everything from "lustful kissing" to belly buttons. It also demanded that the "sanctity of marriage" be upheld on screen with divorce seen as generally unacceptable.

Kudos to Pub-d-Hub for making this film available on Roku. Also, please be sure to see Wikipedia's biographies of Twelvetrees and Tashman. The information is funny, surprising, and sad. Twelvetrees committed suicide at the age of 49. Tashman, whose lesbian lifestyle was an open secret in Hollywood, died of cancer at the age of 37.

Sister Street Fighter - Movie Review

Sister Street Fighter - Sue Shiomi

One of the many wonderful things about the Pub-D-Hub channel is big selection of movies it offers. I was surfing through the Action/Adventure section and saw the movie Sister Street Fighter.

It features the 18 year old gymnast and martial artist Sue Shiomi. She plays Tina Long, a martial arts expert who agrees to go undercover for the Hong Kong police.  I don't recall seeing another action movie from the 1970's that features a woman in this type tough and heroic role. You can't help but cheer her on as she defeats the over-the-top bad guys. The print on Pub-D-Hub has a running time of 1h 20m and cuts short some of the the most violent and explicit scenes in the movie. I'm not complaining, I was grateful.

While I am not a big fan of this type of film I enjoyed Sister Street Fighter. Sometimes I was amazed by the stunts, sometimes I laughed till I cried (ie. the bad guy with the nunchucks and the awful hairdo). If you just can't get enough of this movie there is a boxed set with all three SSF movies.

Jamaica Inn - Movie Review

Jamaica Inn - Hitchcock

Last night we watched the movie Jamaica Inn via our Roku and the Pub-D-Hub channel. The print on Pub-D-Hub is quite good with decent sound quality. This 1939 film has a great cast including Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara, who appears in her first major film role.

The first part of the movie is a bit dark and dirty, and most of the characters are unlikable pirates and cut throats who live on the stormy Cornish cost of England. However, the second half of the picture moves more swiftly with characters to root for, as hidden identities are revealed.

While not known as one of Alfred Hitchcock's best films I think it's worth watching. Fans of Hitchcock will cite the behind the screen meddling done by co-producer Charles Laughton as likely the cause of the films uneven tone and sense of suspense. Laughton demanded many changes to the script and played the character of squire Pengallan as he wished. Still, time has proven Charles Laughton right for insistence that Hitchcock cast Maureen O'Hara, in-spite of her lackluster screen test.