Mitchell Leisen

[Stefan Andersson]

Anybody care to comment on A/V quality of this Spanish dvd (Columbia) of THE LADY IS WILLING? Could be a nice alternative to buying the 6-disc UK box.

[rohmerin]

Anybody care to comment on A/V quality of this Spanish dvd (Columbia) of THE LADY IS WILLING? Could be a nice alternative to buying the 6-disc UK box.

it's cheap, it's in English and Spanish but without subtitles (only Portugues, what the fuck!). The quality I think is similar to the Uk edition. The Spanish dub is from ¡¡¡ Latinoamérica ! Horrible dvd for us the Spaniards.

[Stefan Andersson]

Swing High, Swing Low was supposed to look good on the VHS from VCI. I wrote them suggesting a DVD release. Anybody else want it on DVD?

[Stefan Andersson]

Sorry davidhare, can´t really amplify so much more. A Sight & Sound article on the movie had a tag at the end singling out the VCI Entertainment release, that´s what makes me interested.

About a year ago I ordered a VHS from Amazon Marketplace said to be the VCI VHS, or maybe allegedly from the VCI master. Anyway, the VHS I got looked terrible, washed out contrast, wobbly, no sharpness and generally looking like a 6th generation dupe.

Your info on the legal state of the movie is news to me. Maybe Criterion could work it out.

Off topic: VCI also had/has Zinnemann´s EYES IN THE NIGHT on VHS.
I supposed MGM let the rights lapse, right?

[yukiyuki]

Has someone spotted Edith Massey in Arise My Love?

[Knappen]

Holy crap! There's a Mitchell Leisen retrospectiveat the Cinémathèque française while we Criterion guys are having our octoberfest in Paris.

[justeleblanc]

Holy crap! There's a Mitchell Leisen retrospectiveat the Cinémathèque française while we Criterion guys are having our octoberfest in Paris.

Am I wrong to assume most of these prints are not coming from the Universal Fire scramble?

[ptmd]

Am I wrong to assume most of these prints are not coming from the Universal Fire scramble?

Yes, those are mostly French prints with French subtitles, many of them in the collection of the Cinematheque. Unfortunately, until new prints are struck, it is unlikely that there will be a similar series in North America anytime soon.

[colinr0380]

Holy crap! There's a Mitchell Leisen retrospectiveat the Cinémathèque française while we Criterion guys are having our octoberfest in Paris.

OK, now I'm jealous!

[Scharphedin2]

Just one screening in the week that I will be there

[Knappen]

I'm coming october 1st - the day I'm taking over the apt.

David, I think you may have missed the two following title pages. The titles you see at first glimpse are only the French titles from A to C. The most effective would be to use the calender to the top right.

Murder at the Vanities
Swing high, swing low

I'll simply provide the service for you all:

1933:
Cradle Song
Tonight is ours (Leisen co-director though not listed on the IMDb)
The Eagle and the Hawk (idem)
1934:
Bolero
Death takes a Holiday
Murder at the Vanities
Behold my Wife
1935:
Four Hours to kill
Hands across the Table
1936:
Thirteen Hours by Air
The Big Broadcast of 1937
1937:
Swing High, Swing Low
Easy Living
1938:
The Big Broadcast of 1938
Artists and Models Abroad
1939:
Midnight
1940:
Arise, My Love
Remember the Night
1941:
Hold Back the Dawn
I Wanted Wings
1942:
Take a Letter, Darling
The Lady Is Willing
1943:
No Time for Love
1944:
Practically Yours
Frenchman's Creek
Lady in the Dark
1945:
Masquerade in Mexico
Kitty
1946:
To Each His Own
1947:
Golden Earrings
Suddenly, It's Spring
1948:
Dream Girl
1949:
Song of Surrender
Bride of Vengeance
1950:
Captain Carey, U.S.A.
No Man of Her Own
1951:
Darling, How Could You!
The Mating Season
1952:
Young Man with Ideas
1953:
Tonight We Sing
1955:
Bedevilled
1957:
The Girl Most Likely
1967:
Spree (not announced)

Also:
Three episodes of the Twilight Zone

[Via_Chicago]

Until last night, I'd only seen one other Mitchell Leisen film, his wonderful 1937 comedy Easy Living. Now having also seen his late (1951) screwball-esque comedy The Mating Season, I'm beginning to understand davidhare's appreciation for Leisen in the context of an auteurist understanding. Indeed, even in these two films, separated as they are by some fourteen years (and a vastly changed Hollywood marketplace), one can discern some significant thematic and stylistic similarities (although I'm wont to actually engage in a direct stylistic comparison of the two films, since it's been some two years since I saw Easy Living) between the two pictures, suggesting continuity to Leisen's filmmaking and thematic concerns.

Like it's 1937 screwball predecesor, The Mating Season is not just a wickedly funny comedy, but also a thinly-veiled critique of American class distinctions. While the film trades in some pretty common stereotypes - the snobby, snooty upper crust versus the clever, economical lower classes - it is still not without its nuanced and sympathetic portraits of both classes. While a good portion of this is due to Ritter's wonderful lead performance (supporting, my ass), part of it also has to do with Leisen's immense talent for filming and framing his characters. His camera movements seem, in some sense, to be the great equalizer, framing his very unequal (economically speaking) characters completely on equal terms.

However, what distinguishes Leisen's films for me though is not this thematic preoccupation with class, but instead the lovely humor, the warm tones, and the utter delicacy of his filmmaking. While The Mating Season is an incredibly funny movie, it's Leisen's handling of the material that elevates it above a simple comedy. The film moves with so much assurance between moments of tremendously funny comedy and moments of moving tenderness. I'm reminded most explicitly of Ellen's first night working as Maggie's cook. We spend ten-fifteen minutes watching this very funny sequence of failed recognition, but then, only moments later, we're treated to a touchingly tender moment between mother and son. There are countless other examples of this (the McNultys in the closet, mother and son at the train station), and these just enrich the film in immeasurable ways.

I would have never watched this movie were it not for david's consistent praise for Leisen. So to david, thank you!

[myrnaloyisdope]

Glad to see some love for The Mating Season, which is definitely a keeper. Although I must say I am a little surprised you wrote an entire paragraph about the film and didn't mention Gene Tierney, for shame. What a gal.

Your next stop should be 1938's Midnight, which is wonderful and probably my favorite picture of his.

The tricky thing about searching for thematic continuity in the work of classic Hollywood directors is that for the most part directors just did the projects that were assigned to them. Sure Easy Living and The Mating Season have some thematic similarities, but I'm not sure it's the result of a conscious attempt by Leisen to incorporate the themes of class disparity in his films. He directed a lot of films in a bunch of genres, and he wasn't a screenwriter so I'm not certain you can look for thematic continuity in his work without ignoring all the work that doesn't fit.

The only directors from the era who you can see a consistent thematic arc are those who wrote their own screenplays ala Wilder and Sturges, or those whose reputation was such that they could choose their own projects such as Ford and Hawks.

I adore Easy Living, but for me it's much more of a Preston Sturges film than a Leisen film, and fits very neatly within the thematic concerns of Sturges' work. That's not to take away from Leisen's direction which I feel is very effective, but Leisen like many of his contemporaries was a professional whose effective, simple, and competent direction kept him in business for a couple of decades.

[HarryLong]

The tricky thing about searching for thematic continuity in the work of classic Hollywood directors is that for the most part directors just did the projects that were assigned to them ... The only directors from the era who you can see a consistent thematic arc are those who wrote their own screenplays ala Wilder and Sturges, or those whose reputation was such that they could choose their own projects such as Ford and Hawks.

While I agree with the first part of your statement I take slight issue with the second. A director will still respond to certain aspects of a script and, in his/her shaping of a film, underscore those elements. It can even be unconcious and automatic. Leisen, as noted in several posts here, takes the scripts of Wilder and Sturges and makes romantic comedies out of what might otherwise be screwball comedies. A highly romantic aspect certainly typifies the Leisen work I've seen (admittedly not everything); in that, I think a key film in his CV is DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, a film Paramount no doubt acquired as one of a number of projects that would "answer" Universal's success with weird subjects in the early 1930s. But rather than the kinky, sadistic qualities exhibited in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS or MURDERS IN THE ZOO, Leisen emphasizes the romatic aspects of the plot so successfully that the viewer easily accepts the ingenue's love for Prince Sirki, whose human disquise she has always seen through.
Now while it might be argued that this does not make an auteur of Leisen, it does mean that his work has an identifiable tone to it, much the same as the films of another non-auteur (according to some), George Cukor.
It may be this emphasis that the cynics Wilder and Sturges hated seeing brought to their material (and it should be added Leisen is nowhere near as successful in managing crowd slapstick as is Sturges - the automat scene in EASY LIVING is one of that film's few unsuccessful scenes, yet Sturges probably could have pulled it off with his eyes closed).
One can also cite the almost succulent way Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray are photographed in HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE (has Fred ever looked so completely edible?) which does wonders to soften these two "heels," as someone here termed them, and make their attraction to each other in their first meeting more romantic than the script probably intended. Despite that, Leisen gives us that final image of Bellamy alone, possibly the most powerful one in the film, as if reminding us that for every two people who find happiness there's at least one who's bereft.
GOLDEN EARRINGS similarly builds a credible romance out of a situation where one character starts by basically using another.
Leisen may have successfully directed a number of comedies, but I think he's more properly a romantic director.

[HarryLong]

Very true and I've made the same observation elsewhere I think.

I hadn't run across it; my apologies.

It was an observation I made during a conversation with another film buff when we were discussing EASY LIVING some months ago. I hadn't seen it in many years & he'd sent me a DVDR of it. It caused me to delve into Leisen's films with more focus than previously and I've probably emerged with a whole raft of "fresh" observations that really aren't.

But I think that if Leisen had made more films along the lines of DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, we'd be discussing him alongside Borzage rather than with Sturges.

[rohmerin]

A DVD of No time for love has been released in a good print in Spain. I didn't love like the rest of Leisen's films, but it's good enough for buying it.

[HarryLong]

This may be common knowledge here but I couldn't find it posted: DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY was quietly released some time ago on a beautiful R1 DVD... as the main supplement on the 'Ultimate Edition' of MEET JOE BLACK, see DVD Price Search. If it's completely out of print, shoot me an e-mail.

I sure didn't buy that special edition of MEET JOE BLACK because I was fascinated by Brad Pitt masticating peanut butter or Anthony Hopkins doing deer-in-the-headlights for two-plus hours. I've heard it is OOP, but some places might still have copies left. And it has shown up on TC< a few times.

[CRT]

Remember the Night, despite its peerless cast and Sturges' contribution, is nigh on unwatchable. There's not a laugh to be found within miles of this film, and I believe Sturges had feelings similar to Wilder's after working on it. I guess you have to pay some kind of tribute to a guy who was so talentless as to inspire two great screenwriters never to let anyone else but themselves direct their scripts.

I completely agree. Sturges is my favorite filmmaker, and Barbara Stanwyck probably my favorite actress, and this film near broke my heart that a film involving both of them could be this unfunny. I understand it's definitely more of a drama than a comedy, but the ONLY thing that had me in stitches in the entire length of the film was the overzealous speech to the jury at the beginning.

[Gregory]

Matt, now that (part of) that old post from you has been resurrected, may I ask whether Remember the Night was the main basis for taking a dim view of Leisen, or if there have been others that were equally disappointing for you? Like I said in my post on Hands Across the Table, I was a late convert to Leisen because I happened to see some of his lesser works first. I would certainly disagree that Remember the Night is one of these, but my point is just that I do find him an inconsistent filmmaker, albeit a great one.

[Matt]

Matt, now that (part of) that old post from you has been resurrected, may I ask whether Remember the Night was the main basis for taking a dim view of Leisen, or if there have been others that were equally disappointing for you?

I cringed when I saw Leisen's name come up in the credits for Remember the Night, but I had been turned off on him a long time before. I can't remember exactly what did it initially, but it's almost surely feeling that Midnight should have been, with that cast and those screenwriters, a shining diamond of comedy, a perfect blend of Lubitsch and Sturges. In my disappointment, I had to lay blame with Leisen because the film just feels like he didn't know what to do with it: it's so slack and uneven.

In all truthfulness, though, I have not given the man a fair shake. I've seen far too few of his films to form such a strong opinion and, at the time of posting, had not yet seen Easy Living, a film which mostly does justice to its Sturges screenplay. I'd be willing to give Remember the Night another shot--with expectations lowered--if it turns up on TCM.

[Matt]

Matt Not meaning to be rude but you should start by completely forgetting about Lubitsch and Sturges and just looking at someone altogether unique.

Oh, you're absolutely right. The only films of his I've seen are those written by screenwriters who went on to later fame as directors in their own right (and, uh, Golden Earrings and one of the Big Broadcast films, I think). Is Death Takes a Holiday a good place to start with a re-evaluation? I also have Murder at the Vanities in the Universal pre-Code set waiting to be watched.

[CRT]

I forgot Leisen did Hands Across the Table. That one is wonderful, as is Midnight. I guess I was just shocked at how unimpressed I was by Remember the Night. I guess I was expecting a masterpiece on scale of the Lady Eve when I saw both names involved.

[justeleblanc]

I forgot Leisen did Hands Across the Table. That one is wonderful, as is Midnight. I guess I was just shocked at how unimpressed I was by Remember the Night. I guess I was expecting a masterpiece on scale of the Lady Eve when I saw both names involved.

Midnight is wonderful. Remember the Night is less successful because the script was crap. I love Sturges, but he can't blame Leisen for a shitty script.

[CRT]

I forgot Leisen did Hands Across the Table. That one is wonderful, as is Midnight. I guess I was just shocked at how unimpressed I was by Remember the Night. I guess I was expecting a masterpiece on scale of the Lady Eve when I saw both names involved.

Midnight is wonderful. Remember the Night is less successful because the script was crap. I love Sturges, but he can't blame Leisen for a shitty script.

I guess that has to be it. It's just hard to believe Sturges could ever write a bad script. One could suggest this was before his "Perfect" streak in the early 40's', but he wrote the screenplay for William Wyler's "The Good Fairy" before this, and that's a masterpiece.

[Jonathan S]

Among the Leisen films I particularly like are Arise, My Love, Kitty and Lady in the Dark. The latter, for all its obvious flaws, has probably the most explicit and "positive" gay male character I've seen in a Code-era Hollywood film, Mischa Auer's photographer who gets incredibly excited by a muscular male model. He even gets the last line, a withering comment on the cliched heterosexual wrap-up.

I'd love to see Take a Letter, Darling which sounds like a wonderful role-reversal comedy.