Post by rmichaelpyle on Jun 4, 2009 6:11:14 GMT -6
Watched a film last night which still has me bothered because I'm wondering about its redeeming values. The film was "Corsair" (1931) with Chester Morris, Alison Loyd (in case the name doesn't ring a bell, it's because this is the name used by Thelma Todd for this film!), Fred Kohler, Ned Sparks, Emmett Corrigan, William Austin, Frank McHugh, Frank Rice, and a very interesting Mayo Methot (looking half-way pretty before alcoholism puffed her up to almost a brutal ugliness). This was Roland West's last film as a director. He'd done "The Monster" (1925), "The Bat" (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and most famously, "The Alibi" (1929), the latter two also with Chester Morris. His style was legion and recognized.
Now, the film is about a football star in college who graduates (Morris, of course) and gets a job on Wall Street with a firm run by Thelma Todd's father. He finally gets fired, but because he won't participate in a scam (evidently something very prevalent in those days - if it isn't still!); but takes up pirating!! Actually, he becomes a hijacker of booze (afterall, this was during Prohibition) from the supplier of Thelma Todd's father, the man who fired him. He becomes so good at it that Thelma Todd really goes for him now. The end includes two murders - neither of which is resolved - and Todd and Morris becoming lovers, or so one assumes, and with Morris becoming the President of a company in a foreign country, a company that had been the scam originally in the beginning of the film for the Wall Street firm, but which has suddenly become very successful. The whole theme of the film stinks, from beginning to end, and the idea that we as an audience are supposed to support it made me uneasy. If the world behaved like this - and for the most part, it does - with no redeeming values ever inherent and a murder or two let go along the way, well, it would eventually go to hell. Maybe that's what this film was saying. It did it's job. By the way, Thelma Todd not only steals every scene she's in, she's so good as to make me want to watch her in many more pictures. She acts circles around everyone in the film. Mayo Methot was also quite good, surprisingly so for such a minor part. I'd recommend this to see what pre-code really means. It's this kind of film that led to the Breen code, and perhaps I'd agree with the import of the Breen code based on this film.
Now, the film is about a football star in college who graduates (Morris, of course) and gets a job on Wall Street with a firm run by Thelma Todd's father. He finally gets fired, but because he won't participate in a scam (evidently something very prevalent in those days - if it isn't still!); but takes up pirating!! Actually, he becomes a hijacker of booze (afterall, this was during Prohibition) from the supplier of Thelma Todd's father, the man who fired him. He becomes so good at it that Thelma Todd really goes for him now. The end includes two murders - neither of which is resolved - and Todd and Morris becoming lovers, or so one assumes, and with Morris becoming the President of a company in a foreign country, a company that had been the scam originally in the beginning of the film for the Wall Street firm, but which has suddenly become very successful. The whole theme of the film stinks, from beginning to end, and the idea that we as an audience are supposed to support it made me uneasy. If the world behaved like this - and for the most part, it does - with no redeeming values ever inherent and a murder or two let go along the way, well, it would eventually go to hell. Maybe that's what this film was saying. It did it's job. By the way, Thelma Todd not only steals every scene she's in, she's so good as to make me want to watch her in many more pictures. She acts circles around everyone in the film. Mayo Methot was also quite good, surprisingly so for such a minor part. I'd recommend this to see what pre-code really means. It's this kind of film that led to the Breen code, and perhaps I'd agree with the import of the Breen code based on this film.