Mysteries of New York #1

[From THE MAD MISS MANTON (Leigh Jason), a seriously silly, fun Manhattan Murder Mystery scripted by six separate writers yet actually good, even if the plot is impossible to follow. Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda are the leads, warming up their LADY EVE chemistry -- crime-solving socialites is all I ought to have to say to you to get you excited -- and the supporting cast has Hattie McDaniel, Sam Levene, John Qualen and Grady Sutton adding various forms of fun. Miles Mander adds thinness.]

City Heights

Screening CITY LIGHTS for students — not seen it for years, myself — I was thunderstruck by the bizarre cross-resonance generated at the end of the film. Released from prison, Charlie goes brokenly in search of the blind flower seller, revisiting the places he knows her from, without success. Then he wanders past a flower shop –

Wow. Just wow.

Not because CITY LIGHTS has a transcendentally beauteous ending — which it does — but because I suddenly flashed on a very different movie with a strikingly similar moment.

A Chaplinesque image, no? Think THE GOLD RUSH.

Released from hospital, Jimmy goes brokenly in search of the blind flower seller, revisiting the places he knows her from, without success. Then he wanders past a flower shop –

I can’t even begin to process this. (I will now begin to process this.) I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that Hitchcock admired Chaplin, indeed I’d be surprised if he did not. I seem to recall they met and discussed whether Hitch should adopt American citizenship (he did;  Chaplin remained “A citizen of the world.”) But I never thought in terms of influence. And I would never have picked VERTIGO as a likely conduit for that influence. (What would I have picked?) Of course, it’s impossible to be sure there’s any conscious or even actual influence at work here — but it suddenly and epiphanically felt like there was.

I mean, Jimmy didn’t have to meet Kim outside a flower shop, even though Hitch has linked her character(s) with floral imagery since the start. Hitch realized that using a fresh location not seen earlier in the film would help soften the coincidental nature of the characters’ meeting. Chaplin, less concerned about such things (though he said, very wisely, “I don’t mind coincidence but I despise convenience,” a principle he broke with impressive frequency) has the flower shop situated right around the corner from the spot where Charlie got himself arrested. In all, despite it’s metropolitan title and themes, CITY LIGHTS portrays a city confined to a few minimal locations, New York type bustling thoroughfares, Victorian London slums, a mansion, a boxing ring. It’s the kind of city where failed detective Jimmy Stewart’s mentally shattered investigative procedure — simply go to the places where you’ve seen her before — would work.

The Vernal Equinox Intertitle: The Most Beautiful

Spring begins! And here, to celebrate, are some of the most beautiful intertitles I’ve ever seen, from Cecil B DeMille’s FORBIDDEN FRUIT (1921). The film itself is a Cinderella story with added criminal subplot, some minor social commentary wrapped up in a delirious wallow in poshlust-porn. Any time somebody picks up a cigar or perfume bottle, an obliging close-up will leer up at you to let you know just how outside your wage bracket it is.

The plot isn’t too special, and leading lady Agnes Ayres doesn’t display much range… her opposite number, Forrest Stanley, is better, and Theodore Kosloff brings a certain saturnine appeal to the evil butler character (not present in the original fairy tale). The real appeal is in the design, not just of the title cards [two-colour titles in a b&w movie! There's luxury for you. Nobody wants to see Agnes' pasty face blossom into pink radiance, but we're clamouring for some tinted lettering, thank you very much] but the sets [a small thing, but I was impressed that the rich folks had not just a telephone in their hall, but a whole telephone booth] and especially the costumes, by Mitchell Leisen and Clare West and Natacha Rambova. The fairytale looks like Rambova alright — DeMille cuts away to actual reenactments of bits of the Perrault fable, for no pressing narrative reason, and the resulting indulgences are a feast for the eyes. A starvation diet for the mind, but your eyes will go home fat.

As a plus, there are some fun cartoony visual ideas. In one scene, the lovestruck hero can’t concentrate on his oil well holdings, because Agnes’ face is haunting him –

And here’s DeMille’s evocation of “greed” ~

More DeMille on DVD: The Cecil B. DeMille Collection (Cleopatra/ The Crusades/ Four Frightened People/ Sign of the Cross/ Union Pacific)