Fire Over England (1937)

Produced for London Films by Alexander Korda and Erich Pommer, ‘Fire over England’ is the first of three films that paired both Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh together, it is also credited with being the film in which both stars fell in love with each other. Also starring Raymond Massey as King Philip of Spain, Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth I of England and in a small uncredited role as Hillary Vane is James Mason who at that time was still a relative unknown. When Korda came to re-release the film some seven years later Mason was a box office star for rival studio Gainsborough and so Korda released a new trailer that implied that Mason was one of the major stars of the film.

The film deals with Olivier who having been captured by the Spanish and then escaping from Spain returning to England and accepting a mission to go undercover to the Spanish court of King Philip in order to find out the names of those Englishmen who are in league with the Spanish King. But Philip is an untrusting man and has Olivier arrested, but with help Olivier escapes once again from Spain just as the Spanish Armada is about to be launched against England.

The role of Cynthia, played by Vivien Leigh was instrumental in the actresses gaining the part of Scarlett O’Hara in ‘Gone with the Wind’ (1939). During a screening of ‘Fire over England’ the brother of David O. Selznick, Myron, a talent agent, suggested Leigh for the part of Scarlett and after a number of screen tests she won the part.

Nothing Sacred (1937)

A screwball comedy filmed in Technicolor starring Fredric March and Carole Lombard for Selznick International Pictures. From a screenplay written by Ben Hecht based on a story by James H. Street, Hecht had wrote it with John Barrymore in mind for the role taken by March. But David O. Selznick had other ideas and after refusing to hire Barrymore due to the actors alcoholism, Hecht walked away from the production. The role of Hazel Flagg was intended for Janet Gaynor, following her success with ‘A Star Is Born’ (1937) but once director William Wellman met Lombard he persuaded Selznick to recast the role.

Although the film was a critical success it did make a loss at the box office. ‘Living It up’ (1954) was remake which chose to gender reverse the main roles, with Janet Leigh now playing ‘Wally Cook’ (March’s original role, and Jerry Lewis as ‘Homer Flagg’. The film also starred Sig Ruman who plays the role of Dr. Emil Eggelhoffer, a role he played in the original 1937 film.

Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo (1937)

Charlie Chan was a Chinese-Hawaiian detective created by Earl Derr Biggers as an alternative to the usual oriental stereotyped villains. The first Chan film was a ten chapter serial made by Pathé studios, ‘The House Without a Key’ (1926) starred George Kuwa as the detective. 1927 saw Universal Pictures release ‘The Chinese Parrot’ starring the Japanese actor Sōjin Kamiyama but both pictures proved unpopular. In 1929 Fox Film Corporation produced ‘Behind That Curtain’ this time starring the Korean actor E.L. Park but yet again the film was unpopular with Chan appearing only in the last ten minutes of the film.

Then Fox Film recast the role using a white actor, Warner Oland, a Swedish actor who claimed some Mongolian ancestry. ‘Charlie Chan Carries On’ (1931), now considered a lost film, was the first of sixteen films that would star Oland as the detective. Also starring as Chan’s ‘Number One Son’ was Keye Luke who would also play Master Po in the successful TV series ‘Kung Fu’ starring David Carradine.

‘Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo’ would be Warner Olands last film as Chan as well as the last film he would make. Suffering from alcoholism which not only affected his health but his marriage, Oland began work on what would have been his seventeenth Chan film, but a week into shooting he walked off the set and shooting was abandoned. After a short spell in hospital and a divorce he returned to Sweden but contracted pneumonia complicated by emphysema and later that year, (1938), died. His unfinished Chan film, ‘Charlie Chan at the Ringside’ was reshot as ‘Mr. Moto’s Gamble’ (1938) with Peter Lorre as the title character with Keye Luke still playing Lee Chan, but only for this one film.

Looney Tunes: Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937)

Debuting Daffy Duck this ‘Looney Tunes’ animated short produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions starred Porky Pig and is notable for Mel Blanc providing the voices of both Porky and Daffy for the first time. Porky’s original voice artist, Joe Dougherty, who suffered from a real life stutter, was unable to control it and so was fired following ‘Porky’s Romance’ (1937). Originally in black and white it was later colourised in the 1990′s. The cartoon itself was also reworked in 1938 as a ‘Merrie Melodies’ short entitled ‘Daffy Duck & Egghead’ Egghead would later become Elmer Fudd. In this Technicolor short featuring Daffy in his second appearance the duck is actually named.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

What the Hollywood movie industry of the day called ‘Disney’s Folly’, ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ began development as early as 1934. Having to mortgage his house in order to finance the film it went on to cost $1,488,422.74 and was the first full length cel animated feature in cinema history.

Based on Grimm’s’ original story, Disney wanted the main attraction of the film to be based on the Dwarfs whom he felt had great scope for comedy. With a list of names from a pool of potentials such as Deafy, Hickey and Gabby, those eventually chosen, and not all at the same time, were Doc, Grumpy, Bashful, Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy and Dopey. As for the Queen she was to be a fat and batty character but Disney began to realise that wouldn’t work and so the Queen was given a more beautiful visage. He also realised that the focus of the story had to shift from the comedic dwarfs to that between the Queen and Snow White. Because of this a number of sequences that were either completed or partially completed were dropped from the movie. Two sequences that were dropped resulted in Ward Kimball, the animator of those scenes, almost leaving the studio. Disney persuaded him to stay by making him the supervising animator of Jiminy Cricket in the next feature to be produced by the studio, ‘Pinocchio’ (1940).

The film premiered at the Cathay Circle Theatre in December 1937 where ‘Disney’s Folly’ became ‘Disney’s success’ as it received a standing ovation from such stars as Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich. Disney along with the seven dwarfs graced the cover of Time Magazine and the New York Times said “Thank you very much, Mr. Disney”. A major box office success ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was the highest grossing movie in the U.S in 1937 and is one of the top ten American film money-makers of cinema history. At the end of its original run it made $7,846,000 in international box office receipts and earned RKO $380,000.

At the 10th Academy Awards in 1938, the film was nominated for ‘Best Score’ but lost to ‘One Hundred Men and a Girl’ (1937). However at the 11th awards ceremony a year later Shirley Temple presented Walt Disney with an Honorary Award “as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field”. The Award was a full sized Statuette together with seven miniature ones. The film was praised by both Charlie Chaplin and Sergei Eisenstein who went on to call it the greatest film ever made. MGM was inspired to produce ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939) and Max Fleischer went on to produce his animated feature film ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ (1939).

Way Out West (1937)

The comedy pair are charged with delivering the deed to a gold mine to the daughter of a dead companion only to be tricked into giving it to the daughters guardians. With the comedy short now becoming less profitable Hal Roach began to produce full length features. One of Laurel & Hardy’s most remembered comedies, ‘Way Out West’ (1937) features a number of musical numbers. In one musical number sung by the Avalon Boys both Laurel and Hardy perform a soft shoe dance routine which they had rehearsed endlessly. ‘Trail of the Lone some Pine’ was sung by both stars with Laurel miming to Chill Wills deeper voice and then Rosina Lawrence’s high falsetto voice. The song was later released in 1975 into the UK’s music charts reaching number 2 in the process.

The film’s title is a spoof on ‘Way Down East’ a silent picture from 1920 directed by D.W Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. In another spoof Laurel bares a leg to flag down a passing stagecoach in a scene similar to Claudette Colbert’s film ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934). The score for the film, composed by Marvin Hatley, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music but lost to ‘One Hundred Men and a Girl’, one of Universal’s Deanna Durbin musicals.

The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

The pen is mightier than the sword! Paul Muni’s second biographical film, (the first being ‘The Story of Louis Pasteur’ (1936) for which he won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’), sees him playing the French writer Emile Zola who takes on the French army on behalf of both himself and disgraced Captain Alfred Dreyfus who was framed and charged with treason and sent to Devil’s Island.

The film was nearly a year in preparation due to both research and a number of rewrites as well as various experiments in make up in an effort to age Muni through four decades of Zola’s life. In the end Muni grew his own full beard and the film was shot in a backwards sequence allowing for his hair and beard to change from white to dark and being clipped as the filming progressed.

Directed by William Dieterle who also directed Muni in ‘The Story of Louis Pasteur’ (1936) and starring Gloria Holden as his wife the film was both a critical and financial success with reviews calling it ‘the best biographical film’ made up till that time. The film also stars Erin O’Brien-Moore in the small role of ‘Nana’, the prostitute who would become the muse for Zola’s story of a streetwalker who rose to being a high class prostitute. The role was wanted by Bette Davis but because of her star status the studio refused to let her play it.

Nominated for an unprecedented ten Academy Awards it won only three ‘Best Picture’ (Warner’s first film to win in that category), ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Joseph Schildkraut for his role as Dreyfus, and Best Writing: Screenplay. Muni, nominated for ‘Best Actor’ lost to Spencer Tracy for ‘Captains Courageous’ (1937) and Dieterle lost ‘Best Director’ to Leo McCarey for ‘The Awful Truth’.