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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 23, 2023 21:11:38 GMT
This may be like the one Christmas when I found all the hidden Santa presents and I couldn't restrain myself.
I don't know if I can wait 7 days for my No.1 boyfriend.
There is going to be much tossing and turning as I wrestle with this situation.
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 23, 2023 21:18:33 GMT
This may be like the one Christmas when I found all the hidden Santa presents and I couldn't restrain myself.
I don't know if I can wait 7 days for my No.1 boyfriend.
There is going to be much tossing and turning as I wrestle with this situation.
He is the golden boy in this one, so I think you'll like it.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 23, 2023 21:22:54 GMT
Let's just hope I like it 7 days hence and not in 7 minutes.
It could be my fellow Canuck Walter Pidgeon, you never know.
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 23, 2023 21:26:31 GMT
I'm just happy it isn't Dean Jagger or we'd have to have a little talk. 
No harm if you do see it ahead of time as I find I almost enjoy these more that way as it's hard to watch the movie, type about it and read other's comments if you've never seen it before.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 23, 2023 21:32:03 GMT
> Growing up on a farm, he wanted to act, and practiced oratory on cows while working. He later won several oratory competitions. At age 14, he worked as an orderly at a sanatorium.
Hmmmm....now my curiosity is really peaked.
And I thought Pidgeon's father being a haberdasher was appealing.
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 23, 2023 21:39:09 GMT
Talented as heck actor. He anchored the movie "12 O'Clock High," but he is good in everything he's in. He just didn't have leading-man looks.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 23, 2023 23:09:06 GMT
He just didn't have leading-man looks. is highly debatable my friend. All hail The General and his brethren. |
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Post by topbilled on Apr 24, 2023 0:26:12 GMT
I'm just happy it isn't Dean Jagger or we'd have to have a little talk.
No harm if you do see it ahead of time as I find I almost enjoy these more that way as it's hard to watch the movie, type about it and read other's comments if you've never seen it before. |
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Post by NoShear on Apr 24, 2023 16:30:05 GMT
Re: "...I'm just a dumb guy who watches a bunch of movies..." Really?! Fooled me: I'm always amazed at the film knowledge demonstrated by the participants of the TCM-related boards, and yours is no exception, Fading Fast. |
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Post by NoShear on Apr 24, 2023 16:41:17 GMT
There's that head back/ neck stretched pose the golden age actresses used to denote passion. Ava Gardner and Greta Garbo did it so well and so often I was afraid they were going to pinch something and give themselves strokes.  ![]() Andrea Doria, I was thinking that the actresses of yesteryear's heights contributed to those craned necks - Norma Shearer and Gloria Swanson averaged just five feet(!), but obviously this was not the case for Kay Francis. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 25, 2023 16:20:02 GMT
Man Wanted from 1932 with Kay Francis, David Manners, Una Merkel and Andy Devine
The three things that make Man Wanted special - a woman, with an open marriage, who enjoys running a business, a talented cast and A-picture production qualities - overcome its silly, off-the-shelf story about romantic entanglements.
Kay Francis, playing the head of a publishing company, is very good at a job she thoroughly enjoys. She can be curt with the men and women who work for her, but she's running a business and doesn't have the time or patience for worrying about others' feelings.
What's "shocking," though, is her quasi-open marriage to a society playboy where she seems okay with his philandering as long as he's somewhat discreet about it and still has feelings for her.
Into this unstable situation walks a handsome Harvard grad and salesman, played by David Manners, whom Francis hires away to be her personal secretary. Manners quickly becomes more of a business advisor to Francis, while also developing feelings for her.
Manners, however, is engaged to an annoying-as-heck and constantly whining woman, played by Una Merkel, who does, though, have a rich dad. Manners is clearly planning to marry for money, but with his looks, you'd think he could do better than screechy Merkel.
That's the setup in this short movie where the sexual tension mounts until Manners makes a move on Francis. She rebuffs him with a cold businesswoman aloofness, until she discovers her husband has developed real feelings for one of his paramours.
The climax is almost campy as all the deceptions and emotions spill out, but that doesn't really matter as the value in Man Wanted is Francis playing a serious businesswoman who doesn't simply chuck her career for marriage as often happens in 1930s movies, even precodes.
It's 1932 and both Francis and Manners give speeches about how traditional stereotypes are outdated as women are now, often, serious business professionals. It's mainly the men in this one who appear emotional and driven by passion, like Francis' husband or Manners.
One movie proves nothing, but it shows that the ideas that women can be business executives and that men can be the romantic and flighty ones were clearly in the mix in the early 1930s.
These ideas would be, sadly, all but removed from movies within a few years with the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code.
Books and newspapers from the era confirm, though, that the complexity of society and gender roles continued later in the decade even if movies denied it.
Man Wanted's talented cast, which also includes Andy Devine as Manners' friend from college, combined with Warners Bros. top production techniques - the sound quality and cinematography for 1932 are impressive - easily shepherd the story over its vacuous plot.
For us today, there is also a fun time-travel feel with all the cars, architecture and fashions of the period, including Kay Francis in an era-iconic hat. Plus, it's a neat peek into how the very few rich lived during the Depression.
Man Wanted can be silly, but it also has stunningly modern views. Its story construct of a successful type-A businesswoman surrounded by men distracted with romantic feelings is the set-up of many romcoms today. It is remarkable how contemporary Man Wanted's outlook is.
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Post by topbilled on Apr 25, 2023 16:32:30 GMT
What a great review...yeah, I think her hat in that outdoor scene is almost a character unto itself. She hadn't yet started her famous collaboration with designer Orry Kelly at Warner Brothers. On the IMDB, gowns for MAN WANTED are credited to Earl Luick. So I wonder if Luick also designed the hat, or if someone else did.
I would like to know what sort of conversations went into creating it. Unless it was just something the actress found in a boutique and decided to wear in this particular scene. But I don't think her fashion choices were random, they were usually quite deliberate, to set her apart from other actresses.
Glad you mentioned Andy Devine. Though you neglected to mention Elizabeth Patterson's contribution as Miss Harper, the first secretary who gets unceremoniously fired by Francis. (Yes, I know, she didn't have a lot of screen time but I still found her memorable.)
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Post by Fading Fast on Apr 25, 2023 17:09:37 GMT
What a great review...yeah, I think her hat in that outdoor scene is almost a character unto itself. She hadn't yet started her famous collaboration with designer Orry Kelly at Warner Brothers. On the IMDB, gowns for MAN WANTED are credited to Earl Luick. So I wonder if Luick also designed the hat, or if someone else did.
I would like to know what sort of conversations went into creating it. Unless it was just something the actress found in a boutique and decided to wear in this particular scene. But I don't think her fashion choices were random, they were usually quite deliberate, to set her apart from other actresses.
Glad you mentioned Andy Devine. Though you neglected to mention Elizabeth Patterson's contribution as Miss Harper, the first secretary who gets unceremoniously fired by Francis. (Yes, I know, she didn't have a lot of screen time but I still found her memorable.)
Patterson was great. Her final exchange with Francis, (paraphrasing), "Shall I come in tomorrow," "Just to collect your final paycheck," was perfect.
I agree, too, it would be neat to know the backstory on that insane hat that works so well. You could be right, it might just be something Francis found and liked as being confident in something like that is half the battle. |
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