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Thu Jun 28, 2012 8:52 am
For many of Warner Bros. pre-Code movies from 1931 to July 1934, the two phrases I think best apply to the movies are “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and “lightning in a bottle.” Let’s take one Warner Bros. movie from that period as an example, “The Narrow Corner.”
In 69 minutes, the makers of “The Narrow Corner” convert the novel by W. Somerset Maugham into a fast moving South Seas story made in the Warner Bros. studio sound stages and the back lot. The screenplay writer, Robert Presnell, worked as a screenplay writer on five Warner Bros. movies in 1933, according to the IMDb. A 1933 standout for him is “Employees Entrance.” As I recall reading, when Darryl Zanuck left Warner Bros., Presnell was one of the staffers who got promoted to producer to take over part of the work Zanuck did. So, there were no more screenplays from Presnell for two years.
In the cast is Dudley Digges, who plays opium addicted Doctor Saunders, who is in the habit of saying “no more, no less” when telling his servant how many pipes of opium he intends to smoke later. Digges made five movies at Warner Bros. in 1933, ending his run at the studio playing a crooked Indian agent in “Massacre.” The worldly wise and cynical character Digges plays in “The Narrow Corner” has something in common with Digges’s role as lawyer Pratt in his last major studio role in 1942 for 20th Century Fox, then run by Darryl Zanuck. Unlike lawyer Pratt, Doctor Saunders does not hide his toughness behind a jovial façade.
Director Alfred Green was a workhorse for Warner Bros. in 1932 and 1933. He directed at least 10 movies in those two years for Warner Bros., 4 movies starring Douglas Fairbanks in that time period, including a favorite of mine, 1932’s “Union Depot.” One of Green’s films was 1933’s “Baby Face,” a poster child for pre-Code Hollywood movies. Another was 1932’s “The Dark Horse,” whose main character is a political campaign manager who does anything to get his candidate elected. The candidate, Zachary Hicks (played by Guy Kibbee), is a likeable enough sort totally unqualified to do anything but run for office. Hicks sound familiar?
In “The Narrow Corner,” Green moved the action fast, concentrating more on the romance between Fred Blake (Fairbanks) and Louise Frith (played by the beautiful Patricia Ellis) than the relations between Blake and Eric Whittenson (Ralph Bellamy), a neighbor of the Friths who had the inside track on Louise before Blake’s arrival. Is there more to Whittenson’s interest in Blake than being helpful? Whittenson’s sudden death leaves that question unanswered.
The IMDb website gives you a lot of information, but there is some information you cannot encapsulate in tabular form. How did Warner Bros. manage to produce a full slate of movies in the early 1930s? I saw a picture of Darryl Zanuck at his desk in the studio, piles of scripts on the desk. How did he take those scripts and arrange to turn some of them into movies?
Zanuck seems to have approached making a movie like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. As studio production chief, he could just take the talent he already had under contract and assign them to a production. Some stars were not Warner employees, so he would hire them. When you look at the movie credits of movies made while Zanuck ran Warner Bros., you notice that sometimes the name of writer of a play or novel that Warner made into a movie is a name that later reappears as a screenplay writer for the studio. Rian James and David Boehm are two writers whose works were made into movies at Warner Bros. and afterwards, these writers stayed as screenplay writers at the studio. A steady paycheck in 1933 was a good thing to have.
In an interview, director Ken Annakin talked about how Zanuck got the performers who appeared in “The Longest Day.”
“You know how he managed to put together that amazing cast: he had those four secretaries going 24 hours a day, seven days a week, working in shifts, keeping in touch with every film that was being made around the world that had actors that he wanted, asking when they could be free for two days, three days, and so on. That was very clever, and I don’t think it has been done much nowadays.
http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.c ... ation.html" target="_blank
Now back to “The Narrow Corner” for a final comment. Maugham’s novel, described as the third and last of his “exotic” novels, hit bookshelves in November 1932. The Warner Bros. movie of the novel has a release date of July 8, 1933. As usual then, fast work by Warner Bros. in turning a novel or play into a movie.
In 69 minutes, the makers of “The Narrow Corner” convert the novel by W. Somerset Maugham into a fast moving South Seas story made in the Warner Bros. studio sound stages and the back lot. The screenplay writer, Robert Presnell, worked as a screenplay writer on five Warner Bros. movies in 1933, according to the IMDb. A 1933 standout for him is “Employees Entrance.” As I recall reading, when Darryl Zanuck left Warner Bros., Presnell was one of the staffers who got promoted to producer to take over part of the work Zanuck did. So, there were no more screenplays from Presnell for two years.
In the cast is Dudley Digges, who plays opium addicted Doctor Saunders, who is in the habit of saying “no more, no less” when telling his servant how many pipes of opium he intends to smoke later. Digges made five movies at Warner Bros. in 1933, ending his run at the studio playing a crooked Indian agent in “Massacre.” The worldly wise and cynical character Digges plays in “The Narrow Corner” has something in common with Digges’s role as lawyer Pratt in his last major studio role in 1942 for 20th Century Fox, then run by Darryl Zanuck. Unlike lawyer Pratt, Doctor Saunders does not hide his toughness behind a jovial façade.
Director Alfred Green was a workhorse for Warner Bros. in 1932 and 1933. He directed at least 10 movies in those two years for Warner Bros., 4 movies starring Douglas Fairbanks in that time period, including a favorite of mine, 1932’s “Union Depot.” One of Green’s films was 1933’s “Baby Face,” a poster child for pre-Code Hollywood movies. Another was 1932’s “The Dark Horse,” whose main character is a political campaign manager who does anything to get his candidate elected. The candidate, Zachary Hicks (played by Guy Kibbee), is a likeable enough sort totally unqualified to do anything but run for office. Hicks sound familiar?
In “The Narrow Corner,” Green moved the action fast, concentrating more on the romance between Fred Blake (Fairbanks) and Louise Frith (played by the beautiful Patricia Ellis) than the relations between Blake and Eric Whittenson (Ralph Bellamy), a neighbor of the Friths who had the inside track on Louise before Blake’s arrival. Is there more to Whittenson’s interest in Blake than being helpful? Whittenson’s sudden death leaves that question unanswered.
The IMDb website gives you a lot of information, but there is some information you cannot encapsulate in tabular form. How did Warner Bros. manage to produce a full slate of movies in the early 1930s? I saw a picture of Darryl Zanuck at his desk in the studio, piles of scripts on the desk. How did he take those scripts and arrange to turn some of them into movies?
Zanuck seems to have approached making a movie like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. As studio production chief, he could just take the talent he already had under contract and assign them to a production. Some stars were not Warner employees, so he would hire them. When you look at the movie credits of movies made while Zanuck ran Warner Bros., you notice that sometimes the name of writer of a play or novel that Warner made into a movie is a name that later reappears as a screenplay writer for the studio. Rian James and David Boehm are two writers whose works were made into movies at Warner Bros. and afterwards, these writers stayed as screenplay writers at the studio. A steady paycheck in 1933 was a good thing to have.
In an interview, director Ken Annakin talked about how Zanuck got the performers who appeared in “The Longest Day.”
“You know how he managed to put together that amazing cast: he had those four secretaries going 24 hours a day, seven days a week, working in shifts, keeping in touch with every film that was being made around the world that had actors that he wanted, asking when they could be free for two days, three days, and so on. That was very clever, and I don’t think it has been done much nowadays.
http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.c ... ation.html" target="_blank
Now back to “The Narrow Corner” for a final comment. Maugham’s novel, described as the third and last of his “exotic” novels, hit bookshelves in November 1932. The Warner Bros. movie of the novel has a release date of July 8, 1933. As usual then, fast work by Warner Bros. in turning a novel or play into a movie.
