Castle on the Hudson: I'll Do Anything To Get Outta Here!

This is my contribution to the John Garfield 100th Birthday Blogathon, hosted by They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To.  Please take the time to read all of the wonderful tributes to this very special actor.

Let's see.... tough but charming hoodlum lives the high life in the Big Apple. He is a swell dresser, has a load of untrustworthy "friends," and a swell dish for a girlfriend. A bit of bad weekend luck (Saturday is always his bad luck day) gets him sent up the river to that famous Castle on the Hudson known as Sing Sing. He thinks he can run the joint, but soon the reforming warden sets him straight. After some drama, a few laughs, and ultimate redemption, the mug goes to the chair a better man. Plus, everyone talks very fast and a 2-hour movie is condensed into 77 minutes. Must be a Warner Brothers production, right? Right.

1940's "Castle on the Hudson" is a remake of 1932's "20,000 Years in Sing Sing." I'm not really sure why Warner felt it necessary to recycle the story, but perhaps it seemed a good fit for its stars John Garfield and Ann Sheridan.

Garfield plays Tommy Gordon, an almost unlikable hood who went to the James Cagney school of cockiness (and graduated at the top of the class). There is no doubt that Garfield can handle the little tough but tender guy role with ease, but it has all been done before. He is wonderful but wasted. Wasted, too, is Ann Sheridan as Kay, at the peak of her celebrated "oomph" but required only to look beautiful and sincere while gazing through tear-glistened orbs.

But it's a good, professional Warner product with the usual wonderful group of supporting players, so let's focus on the fun things:

Tommy is a very natty dresser and prides himself on his good taste. In fact it is a lost shirt stud that is found at the scene of the crime that does him in. Tommy's vanity is rather adorable and Garfield puts it over with great charm.

Tommy after the heist - well dressed and ready for fun

Kay has a really neat wardrobe, too. The costumes by Howard Shoup are beautiful and I wish I could have found some better photos to illustrate how lovely Sheridan looked in them.

It always amazes me how these molls seem to
have evening gowns at the ready

An interesting cast member here is Burgess Meredith as an intellectual fellow inmate who organizes a break but ends up choosing a dramatic death over the chair. He is a bit out of  sync with the rest of the Warners rhythm section and shakes the film up a bit by his presence.

A publicity photo of the 3 stars

Following the story of Tommy's love of good clothes, there is a fun scene where he has to submit to the prison issued uniform. He goes from baggy, to union suit to rags before we finally see him in a better fit.

Tommy in rags: still cute

The ever-reliable Pat O'Brien as the warden who finds the good in Tommy. Sure, we've seen it before, but he always makes things better just by being there, doesn't he?

It is exhausting trying to reform all of these A-list stars!

Ann Sheridan, looking beyond beautiful after she leaps out of a speeding car to avoid Jerome Cowan's animal advances. She also lives in a beyond swank apartment that looks big enough to host the Superbowl. How does she afford it?

Right after the leap from the car and right
before she plugs Cowan. What a gal.

While the film is fun in an ordinary sort of way, the genre is tired. At one point Tommy Gordon cries "I'll do anything to get outta here!" and you get the feeling Garfield is saying the same thing. He can do this sort of role with his hands tied behind his back. He is ready for something better, something more challenging, something more modern. He belongs to the future, not to the past.

Happy birthday, Johnny Boy - you look great at 100.

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City For Conquest: Cagney gets some angst

This is my contribution to the Classic Movie Blog Association's Fabulous Films of the 1940s Blogathon. Who doesn't love the films of the '40s? Click HERE and check out all of the wonderful entries about some of the greatest (and best loved) films ever made

CITY FOR CONQUEST (1940)

For my money, the James Cagney of the 1930s is one of the greatest movie stars of all time. It's hard to find anyone who comes close to his personal charisma, charm, danger, grace and magnetism (not to mention talent). His cheerful amorality was irresistible and, no matter what side of the legal fence he was on, you had to love him. This was one guy who you just knew spent almost no time contemplating his navel. He was all action.

After the watershed year of 1939, Hollywood films took on a heavier tone and even Cagney, who was always fast on his feet, was slowing down a bit (although at 40 he got himself into fine fighting shape for this film).

City for Conquest is the perfect Warner Brothers story. Based on the novel by Aben Kandel, it is set in familiar Warners social commentary territory - the throbbing streets of New York City's poor, the city that rewards the strong and devours the weak. This time up, the neighborhood is Forsyth Street and Delancey.

The Story
Danny Kenny is a regular guy who is content with his lot as a truck driver. He boxes on the side and could be a champion, but Danny is not particularly ambitious.  His two passions are his girl, Peggy Nash (and who wouldn't be sweet on Ann Sheridan?) and the musical education of his talented brother, Eddie (Arthur Kennedy in his screen debut). Danny decides to enter the fight game as "Young Samson" to get money for Eddie's future. After all, the kid is not truck driver material.

Danny and Peggy share their dreams for the future

Eddie Kenny: that kid's got something

But Peggy has a passion, too. Not content to win neighborhood dance contests, she sees her name in lights on Broadway. She has ambition and is not all that pleased that Danny seems to have none. One night, at a local dance contest/beet soiree, Peggy meets professional dancer Murray Burns (well played by an oily, scene stealing Anthony Quinn). Murray promises her the fame she wants and Danny sees that, if he is to keep Peggy in his life he will have to step it up. He promises to use his fists to beat a path to success for both of them.

Could Cagney fight without Frank McHugh at his side?

So, Peggy dances, Eddie composes and Danny fights, but suffer they must. Peggy turns down Danny proposal of marriage. The lure of fame and fortune are too strong. Burns turns out to be a heal who abuses Peggy, and Danny - oh poor Danny. A shady opponent rubs rosin dust in his gloves and blinds Danny after a brutal 15-round fight. Only Eddie fulfills his dream and writes a symphony of the city, one filled with all of the heartbreak, longing and glory that Danny, Peggy and Eddie know all too well. The ending? More about that later.

Anthony Quinn comes between Jimmy & Ann

This film holds a very special place in my heart. Before I saw it (as an impressionable, tender-hearted teen) I was already a Cagney fan, but this one cemented my total adoration for him. Ann Sheridan also wowed me here and I still haven't recovered. Those first loves always stay with you to some degree. So, maybe it's not a masterpiece, but I was never one for masterpieces.

Cagney went on record saying he was quite disappointed in the film. Directed with a poetic touch by Anatole Litvak, it might have fallen short of Cagney's expectation, but it gives him a chance to give of his most moving, heartfelt and deep performances. John Garfield is already on the payroll, Bogart is rising and Brando, Clift and Dean are coming.

Chief Pleasures

James Cagney and Ann Sheridan

Cagney and Sheridan are one of my favorite screen couples. She is one of the few actresses that could hold her own with him. She had his number but was sweet on him anyway. He never got all mushy, but you knew he was crazy about her. They compliment one another perfectly and when he tells her that she will always be his girl, well, you know he means it from the bottom of his heart.

That old Warner Bothers Gang of Mine

I always feel warm and cozy when Frank McHugh, Donald Crisp, George Tobias, Jerome Cowan, Lee Patrick and Joyce Compton are on hand. I'll bet Cagney and Sheridan did, too.

Faux-Gershwin Score

That overture! Thanks, Max Steiner, for channeling your inner Gershwin and giving us that inner city heart-on-the-pavement rhapsody in blue collar (known as the Magic Isle Symphony).

Great Trivia Question
Who played Goggi Zucco in City for Conquest?

Yup - that's Elia Kazan in one of his only 2 movie roles. I've won a few trivia contests with this one!

Best Tear-Jerker Ending
So, this is how it all winds up. Danny, now nearly blind, is working at a newspaper stand. The night Eddie debuts his symphony at Carnegie Hall, Danny prefers to listen on the radio. He has sacrificed his sight for his brother's dream. 

Peggy, whose dreams have been crushed after Murray tossed her aside, approaches Danny at the news stand. Seeing his condition, she breaks down. But Danny is philosophical. He tells her that he is happy because he knew that one day she would walk up to him here; he knew that because, no matter what, she would always be his girl.

And she is. And together they listen as Eddie dedicates his music to his big brother Danny.

The Warners Gang is all there, more or less, but now it is 1940. Everything is a little darker, a little heavier, a little older. But beautiful, still. Noir is falling, and war is coming. Goodbye, old friends.

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Ann Sheridan: One Swell Gal

Fifth in a series about strong women in film. Strong women are independent, beautiful, sexy, feminine and just want everything in life that a man wants and believe that they have every right to have it!

Many great stars seem made of stardust, sent from the heavens to amuse the mere mortals. But not Ann Sheridan. Annie was a down to earth gal whose feet were firmly planted on the ground. She was one of the very few women in film that could stand toe to toe with James Cagney, look Bogey square in the eye and hold her own in a comedy with Cary Grant. She specialized in playing the hard-boiled type whose pedigree said "no papers," but no matter how shady the lady she played, you always knew, when it came to character, she was on the level.

Ann Sheridan was famously a glamor girl, but she endured because she was so much more. Warm, amusing and amused, she came up the hard way (well, at least the hard way for Hollywood). She was a real Warner Brothers "dame" and embodied all of the sass, swagger and heart that was the hallmark image of that studio in the 1930s and 1940s. There is no doubt that she was a "go to" gal and could do anything. Whether she was a glamor puss, waitress, gangster's moll, nightclub entertainer or down on her luck slum child, if you needed a loyal friend, no-nonsense intelligent advice or true, sincere love, Ann Sheridan was the one to call.

Search For Beauty, Cheesecake and OOMPH

Ann Sheridan came to Hollywood from Denton, Texas a winner of the Paramount Pictures "Search For Beauty" contest. Clara Lou Sheridan later became Ann and toiled in a series of small parts, all the while posing for lots of cheesecake. In the end, she was dropped by Paramount.

Young Clara Lou Sheridan

She had better luck at Warner Brothers. Notice how many strong women were developed by that studio? Working there must have required a steely nature, but it seems Jack Warner had an eye for a woman with spunk and a backbone. While rarely getting parts worthy of her Warner co-workers Davis, De Havilland and later, Crawford, Ann carved a niche of her own when it was discovered she had "oomph."

Oomph on a Bearskin Rug

Dreamed up by the Warner  Brothers' Publicity Department, "oomph" was a synonym for sex appeal, which they discovered Ann had quite a bit of. The name stuck and forever after, no matter how elevated her work, she was always know as "The Oomph Girl." Reportedly, she didn't care for the name, but accepted it as her lot in order to keep working and get better parts.

A Real Actress and a Comedy Player of Rare Sparkle

Her name Above the Title

Ann was usually singled out for praise no matter what type of role she was given. Although she never really made the top rank of great stars, she came pretty darn close. From sensitive drama to film noir to comedy, she always made the movie better because of her presence. When given a real chance to act, as in "Kings Row," she showed that she was up to the challenge.

She shined in gangster films, like "Angels With Dirty Faces," "They Made Me a Criminal," noir films like "Nora Prentiss" and "The Unfaithful," and showed her comedy skill in "I Was a Male War Bride" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner." No matter what the role, her warmth and intelligence alway came through.

Looking Good in a Snood - 1940s Glamor

Despite her starring roles and good performances, Ann Sheridan was first and foremost known as a glamor girl. She might have fought against it, but when you begin your career as a winner of a "Search for Beauty," and you happen to be lusciously beautiful, well, it's hard for people not to notice! Besides, Ann just looked great in those 40s fashion, especially the snood!

A Snood in the Boudoir  is Always a Hit!

A Snood For Daytime is Also a "Must"

A 1940s Beaver Fur Hat - For those Who Have a Point

Lucky Buttons

My favorite Ann Sheridan performance is Peg, James Cagney's ambitious girl friend in "City For Conquest." Cagney was her greatest co-star and she was his best leading lady. Both were believable and heartbreaking as the inner-city lovers who let the pressures of life and success come between them. 

Cagney and Sheridan: A Great Cinematic Team

I love Ann. She is the woman I would want to have for a best friend. More than her talent and beauty, it is the warmth and sincerity that she radiates that is so appealing. In film after film she proves that you can stand up to and take every knock this hard world throws your way and do it with grace, glamor and kindness. Ann Sheridan showed that you can be strong and never lose warmth, humor and humanity - the qualities that define a quality human being - male and female.

Top-Notch Oomph

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Is a Puzzlement... Little Movie Things That Keep Me Up At Night.....

As Yul Brynner says in "The King and I": 
Is a Puzzlement!

Now, I can suspend disbelief with the best of them. Audrey Hepburn falling in love with Humphrey Bogart in "Sabrina?" I got with the program. Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" sacrificing all for the obsession with Dorothy Comingore (Dorothy Comingore?)? I got over it. Dick Van Dyke as a cockney chimney sweep in "Mary Poppins"? I learned to love him. I am an obedient little movie goer and I can check my common sense at the box office for the sake of a good movie.

But there are just somethings that I can't stop thinking about, no matter how hard I try!

Things like:

Why do twins separated at birth and raised by different parents in different parts of the US in "The Parent Trap" both have British accents?

Let's Get Together Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

This film holds a special place in my heart. I wanted to be Hayley, I wanted Maureen O'Hara for a mom and I wanted to go horseback riding into the desert night with Brian Keith (and not come back until really late). The fact that both Hayleys (one reared in Boston, the other out west) speak like Brits does not detract from my enjoyment of the movie, but I just wondered why no one in the film mentions it! Is a puzzlement.

Why does Kim Novak have her shoes on when Jimmy Stewart fishes her out of San Francisco Bay after a fake suicide attempt in "Vertigo"?

Kim's Brand: Shoes That Never Leave Your Feet!

I think I have seen this movie more times than any other. Isn't it perfect to be obsessed with a movie about obsession? But it never ceases to annoy me that Kim has her shoes on when Jimmy carries her out of the bay. How did they stay on? I even tried this myself (not in San Francisco Bay, but in a decent body of water) and my Manolos went out to sea.  Jimmy's character is a detective. He should investigate! Indeed, is a puzzlement.

Why does Barbara Stanwyck return Fred MacMurray's hat in "Double Indemnity" when he clearly took it with him when he left her house?

Is that a hat, or are you just glad to see me?

This is the sequence of things: Insurance salesman Walter (Fred MacMurray) comes to Phyllis' (Barbara Stanwyck's) home to renew her hubby's car insurance policy. Hubby is out, but Phyllis, in a towel & anklet, is in. They flirt, Phyllis gets a bright idea, Walter gets hot, tells Phyllis he has her number is then shown the door. He picks up his hat and puts it on his head as he walks out the door. Later, there is a knock at Walter's door. Phyllis has delivered a forgotten hat to Walter at this home. She doesn't seem to have a hat, yet Walter tells her to put it on the chair. What is going on here? Is a puzzlement.

Why does everyone refer to Joan Fontaine in  "Suspicion," "Rebecca" and "Jane Eyre" as mousy and unattractive? Are they kidding?

I wonder if anyone can see my copy of "In Style"
 inside of this dreary book.

Typical of Hollywood to make beauteous Joan a plain Jane. Of course, in Hollywood, even plain people are beautiful. Real plain people are not allowed.

But really, how many times does Joan have to be called plain? First, by virtually everyone in "Rebecca." Next, the characters in "Suspicion" were none too kind, with Cary Grant calling her "Monkey Face." Orson Welles in "Jane Eyre" thought her quite mousy, too (although Olivier, Grant and Welles found her charming enough to pursue). Look at her! She's gorgeous! Yes, is a puzzlement.

In "Torrid Zone," Ann Sheridan leaps from a banana train, gets thrown in jail, sweats up a storm in the tropics and never once gets her white dress dirty. How does she do that?

Ann laughs because nothing Jimmy can throw at Ann
 can get her dress dirty (or maybe she is just laughing at that mustache?)

Ann is a down on her luck nightclub singer who somehow winds up on a tropical banana plantation. It is hot, it is dusty and not too sanitary. How does she manage to keep the same white outfit clean, pressed and immaculate (not to mention the hair and make up)? Indeed - is a puzzlement.

Now, maybe I am missing some things (it's been known to happen) or maybe key scenes were cut from the films' final versions. Anyway, I've been trying to come up with some plausible answers and I think maybe I have!

Possible Solutions:

Parent Trap: Hayley's Boston Grandmother (Cathleen Nesbitt) is British. She is also quite formidable and demanding. Is it possible that she commanded the twins to speak the King's English while in Maureen's womb?

Vertigo: Being that Kim's character was really a criminal, is it possible that she glued them to her hose so that, in the even she had to beat it, or worse- walk home if Jimmy didn't "save" her, she wouldn't lose her shoes? 

Double Indemnity: Phyllis D and Walter must have been talking in code. There was no hat, but Walter invites her in anyway. He might have been dumb, but he wasn't that dumb!

Joan Fontaine: All of these people who call her plain are really friends of Olivia De Havilland and are just plain jealous. A vast conspiracy, IMHO.

Torrid Zone: Annie was a smart shopper. Once she saw an outfit she liked, she bought multiple versions. As far as hair and makeup - well, she was just a natural beauty, no?

Since I love all of these movies - despite my petty nit-picking - I shall continue to overlook these little nagging questions and just sit back and enjoy the show. After all, if I were going to question EVERYTHING, well then, why doesn't Charles Foster Kane's mother, who allegedly loved him so much, ever see him after she gets the money? Did she run away with someone? And why do the bad guys in "North by Northwest"believe Cary Grant is Kaplan when all of the newspapers are calling him Thornhill? Don't they read the papers? And why are there no Arabs or Africans in "Casablanca"? And didn't I just say I was going to STOP asking these questions?

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