The Horse's Head

#726) Verbena Tragica (1939)

OR “Nobody Up There Likes Me”

Directed by Charles Lamont
Written by Jean Bart and Miguel de Zárraga

Class of 1996

Other notes

• For those of you unfamiliar with a Multiple-Language Version (MLV) of a film: In the early days of sound film, studios would often shoot multiple versions of the same film in different languages, often using the same sets, costumes, and in some cases actors (this recycling was much easier to do in the studio system days when everything was in-house). The most famous example of all these is Universal’s Spanish-language version of “Drácula”, which would eventually be added to the Registry in 2015. Spanish language versions were the most common MLV thanks to the abundance of Spanish speakers both in and outside America (European languages fared okay until the rise of Nazism throughout the ‘30s). As previously mentioned, “Verbena Tragica” is unique in that no English language version was ever made, most likely owing to the film’s themes of adultery (which was permitted under the Hays Code as long as it wasn’t “treated attractively”). MLVs were already outdated by 1939; dubbing technology had come a long way, and studies showed that international audiences didn’t mind reading subtitles if it meant seeing Hollywood stars (and not their foreign language counterparts) on the screen. A film like “Verbena Tragica” was one of the last of a dying breed of movie.
• I had been warned prior to my viewing that the versions of “Verbena Tragica” available online do not have an English dub or subtitles. What I ended up doing was watching the film on the Library of Congress’ YouTube channel, with the Spanish subtitles auto translated into English. It wasn’t pretty, but it was better than nothing. For the most part, the subtitles gave me a general idea of what was happening, and since most of the film is expository dialogue and not visual storytelling this was quite helpful. There were of course a few parts where a character’s regional phrases or fast talking threw the subtitles for a loop, and it’s times like this that I really regret taking French in high school. Do yourself a favor and learn a little Spanish; not just for watching this movie, but for life in general. It really comes in handy. [UPDATE: the version embedded at the top of this post now features English subtitles! Thanks to Eric from filmregistry.net for sharing.]
• There is not a lot of information out there about this cast. Probably the best known of this group is the lead, Fernando Soler, who was a mainstay of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. The rest of the cast seem to have been primarily international actors, with “Verbena” being a brief pit-stop in Hollywood; only Cecilia Callejo (Lola) had a lengthy career in America. Fun Fact: Prior to being an actor, Juan Torena (Claudio) was a footballer in Barcelona! It’s one of the better athlete-turned-actor performances on the Registry, and I don’t recall him using his hands that much.
• As usual with my Registry viewings, I went into “Verbena Tragica” cold, and given its ‘30s production period, I definitely wasn’t expecting adultery to be part of this. It’s all handled delicately; you never see the affair, and characters generally talk around it, but the mere acknowledgement of it from a ‘30s film is quite daring. Between this and the Spanish, watching “Verbena Tragica” was like watching a telenovela (cine-novela?).
• One more cast member shoutout: Manuel (Mateo’s manager) is played by Carlos Villarías, who played Dracula in the aforementioned Spanish language “Drácula”. I guess Hollywood only had so many Spanish speaking actors.
• I cannot fathom an English language version of this movie given the Production Code of the time. How do you tone down adultery without completely compromising this story? And who were they going to cast in the English language version? Since Columbia’s track-record was mostly low-budget B pictures in 1939, the odds are very good that this would have been handed off to actors no one has heard of before or since.
• Is it just me or does Mateo kinda looks like Broderick Crawford? Hey, Crawford was floating around the studios back then, maybe he could have played “Matt” in the English version!
• Let’s take a breather from all this family drama and have us a song! Mamacita breaks out her guitar and sings “Gitanerias”, written by Mamacita’s actor Pilar Arcos. It has nothing to do with nothing, but this is back when movies were still general entertainment and no one was paying attention to the B picture, so why not have a few songs in there? Plus, if it weren’t for the musical numbers, I think this movie would technically be considered a short subject.
• After a few more dramatic scenes of Mateo, Blanca, and Claudio we get club singer Luis performing not one, but two more songs! Musician Sergio de Karlo plays Luis, and he is definitely not playing that guitar.
• [Spoilers] Well this movie took a turn, but I guess this was to be expected (the word “Tragica” is in the title after all). Mateo and Claudio’s fight on the fire escape starts promisingly, but then Claudio goes down with one punch, so that’s disappointing. The climax features my favorite performance in the entire movie: the neighborhood police officer who comes to arrest Mateo; as played by the only White guy in the cast, clearly speaking his lines phonetically  (“Lo see-en-tay Mah-tay-o, pair-o tee-en-ess ko ven-eer kon-mee-go.”)

Legacy

• As best I can tell, “Verbena Tragica” premiered in Panama in December 1938 before playing New York and Los Angeles in March 1939. According to the UCLA film archive, the film was “very successful in the cinemas of Los Angeles’ Mexican neighborhoods”. The film was less successful in Mexico, which was making its own great movies without the aid of Hollywood, thank you very much.
• Charles Lamont’s tenure at Columbia Pictures was short-lived, primarily due to his dislike of Harry Cohn (join the club, Charles). Lamont spent the rest of his directing career at Universal, making movies with such Universal mainstays as Abbott & Costello, Ma & Pa Kettle, and Francis the Talking Mule.
• Since its NFR induction nearly 30 years ago, “Verbena Tragica” has maintained its unique spot in film history, with many a film school and museum holding screenings of the film (presumably with better English subtitles). The film is celebrated for its diverse cast of Spanish and Mexican artists, and for its representation of an oft-forgotten practice in Classic Hollywood filmmaking.

#725) Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

OR “Brandon Recognition”

Directed by Kimberly Peirce

Written by Peirce and Andy Bienen.

Class of 2019

Other notes

• First, let’s pour one out for Fox Searchlight Pictures, which dropped the “Fox” from its name after being acquired by Disney in 2019. “Boys Don’t Cry” is the first Fox Searchlight film on the Registry, joined four years later by “12 Years a Slave”.
• One of Peirce’s goals with this film was not to mythologize or lionize Brandon Teena, and I feel she succeed on that front. The film always feels authentic; everyone’s dialogue sounds true to life (a very difficult feat to pull off), and all the performances are grounded and realistic. Even the moments where emotions run high never feel too forced or overly dramatic. It makes you trust the film and its portrayal of Brandon as a real person caught in a horrible situation.
• Everyone in this movie is great, but Swank is the undeniable MVP. There is something quite compelling about Swank’s work; her Brandon is so instantly likeable that you accept his situation immediately and root for him, even if you know this story won’t end well for Brandon. On a lighter note, my favorite detail in Swank’s performance is the aggressive manspreading Brandon has while seated. It’s a nice subtle touch.

• The rest of the ensemble rises to Swank’s level and delivers good work. Peter Sarsgaard is the right balance of charismatic and threatening without ever tipping over into cartoon villain territory. You recognize John (and his accomplice Tom as played by Brendan Sexton III) as a regular guy whose internal struggles led to some very bad decisions. I also really enjoyed Chloë Sevigny, playing Lana as troubled and contradictory, but always real and alluring. And no, you are not seeing things; Lana’s friend Candace is played by Lecy Goranson, aka Becky #1 from “Roseanne”. Goranson was cast based on her resemblance to Lisa Lambert, the real person the composite character of Candace is based on.

• I don’t have a lot to say about the film itself, mainly because I was so engrossed with it during my viewing, but also because the film is just that good: there’s only so many ways I can complement any aspect of this film without becoming repetitive or breaking out my thesaurus. Also, as a cisgender male I do not feel qualified to discuss the nuances of transgender identity presented by this film. I will, however, give one more department their due and shoutout this movie’s cinematography. Kimberly Peirce started out as a photographer, which explains why she and cinematographer Jim Denault include several shots of the Nebraska night sky presented through timelapse photography (inspired by the work of Jan Staller). I’m not sure what it all means, but you can’t begrudge Peirce for wanting to add a bit of artistic flourish to the proceedings, especially something that doesn’t harm or disrespect the real story being told.
• The sex scenes between Brandon and Lana are noteworthy because of the double standard that seemed to stem from them. Peirce has talked at length about how “Boys Don’t Cry” was initially rated NC-17 but was bumped down to an R after some trims. While most of these edits pertained to the rapes scenes later in the movie, Peirce was upset that it was the sex scenes between a cisgender woman and a transgender man that more concerned the MPAA, particularly the length of Lana’s orgasm. Peirce talks more about her issues with the MPAA rating system in the great documentary “This Film is Not Yet Rated”.
• At some point I knew that “Boys Don’t Cry” was based on real events, but I forgot prior to this viewing, so it was a surprise to me when the film ended with text explaining what happened to John and Lana after Brandon’s death. The film mercifully doesn’t begin with some variation of “Based on a True Story”, which allowed me to get caught up in the lives of these characters rather than the historical accuracy of it all (I spent the last third of my viewing yelling at Brandon and Lana to get out of town like it was a horror movie). The end text was a sobering reminder that this all happened, and despite the progress made in the last quarter century, is still happening. 

Legacy

• After premiering at the New York Film Festival, “Boys Don’t Cry” opened in October 1999 in about 25 theaters across the country. The film went in a wider release following its two Oscar nominations, and by March 2000 (the same month of the Oscars) the film had grossed almost three times its production budget.
• While “Boys Don’t Cry” was a hit with critics and award shows, one person who didn’t like it was the real Lana Tisdel, who sued Fox Searchlight for unauthorized use of her name, and for portraying her in the film as “lazy white trash” (Tisdel eventually settled out of court). While Brandon’s mother JoAnn Brandon never accepted Brandon’s lifestyle and refused to be interviewed by Peirce for the movie, she has since become more understanding of Brandon and those like him, and appreciates what “Boys Don’t’ Cry” has done to raise awareness for the transgender community.
• “Boys Don’t Cry’ has gone on to be a landmark in queer representation in film, helping pave the way for larger conversations about our transgender community. While the film’s cultural footprint throughout the 2000s was primarily as a transphobic punchline on TV, that has thankfully lessened in more recent years, and the film and its subject matter continue to receive the respect they deserve.
• Hilary Swank followed up “Boys Don’t Cry” with several big movies, including Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby”, for which she won her second Best Actress Oscar. Peter Sarsgaard continues to grace our screens with reliable character work, as does Chloë Sevigny, whose work as an actor is matched by her work confusing the internet with her fashion choices.
• Kimberly Peirce’s next film was 2008’s “Stop-Loss” based on the experience of American soldiers in the Iraq War. To date, Peirce has only made one other theatrical movie – a 2013 adaptation of Stephen King’s “Carrie” – but she continues to work frequently in episodic TV. Peirce is also an activist for queer and woman’s rights. Upon the NFR induction of “Boys Don’t Cry” in 2019, Peirce called the moment “a culmination, unimaginable and wonderful.”

#724) Show Boat (1936)

OR “Mississippi Yearning”

Directed by James Whale

Written by Oscar Hammerstein II. Based on the stage musical by Hammerstein and Jerome Kern, and the novel by Edna Ferber.

Class of 1996

Other notes

• Showboats were an actual type of theater throughout the 1800s, its popularity waning with the rise of motion pictures. After hearing a throwaway reference to showboats made by director Winthrop Ames, Edna Ferber became fascinated by the dramatic potential of showboats and began researching them for a novel. The book was published in 1926 and caught the eye of composer Jerome Kern, who pitched Ferber on the idea of a stage musical adaptation. The musical opened on Broadway in December 1927, and was a landmark in dramatic musical productions, back when stages musicals were frivolous comedy revues with minimal – if any – story. Universal had the film rights to the novel “Show Boat”, and began production on a silent film adaptation, but the popularity of the musical, along with the rise of sound pictures, led to the addition of sound sequences featuring songs from the musical. Ultimately unsatisfied with this Frankenstein-ed attempt at a “Show Boat” film, Universal greenlit an all-sound adaptation of the musical in 1933, and after a few false starts (and another director – Frank Borzage), production began in 1935.
• We’re off to a good start with an elaborate opening credits sequence, the first musical number (“Cap’n Andy’s Ballyhoo”), and a rapid introduction of all the main characters. Right from the start you get an idea of this movie’s overall issue: trying to cram a three-hour musical (itself an encapsulation of a 341-page novel) into a two-hour movie. There’s just too much territory to cover and not enough time to do it all justice.
• Our two leads are…okay. Irene Dunne is pleasant and convincing enough as a young woman blossoming into adulthood, and as best I can tell did all her own singing. Allan Jones was last-minute casting for Ravenal, joining the film after it had already started shooting! He sings fine, but you never really believe him as a shady gambler. It helps that their first duet together, “Only Make Believe”, is a favorite of mine: Part of a subgenre of Hammerstein songs about people saying they’re in love without saying they’re in love (see also “People Will Say We’re in Love” and “If I Loved You”).

Legacy

• “Show Boat” was a hit upon its release in spring 1936, but not enough of a hit for the film’s producer and Universal founder Carl Laemmle. The financial success of “Show Boat” was a rarity for Universal under Laemmle (and his son Carl Laemmle Jr.), whose track record primarily consisted of overbudget flops. Shortly after the release of “Show Boat”, both Laemmle Sr. and Jr. were ousted from Universal in a hostile takeover. Neither made another movie in their lifetimes, and Carl Sr. died just a few years after his unceremonious firing.
• In the 1940s MGM, hitting their stride with lavish movie musicals, bought the film rights to “Show Boat” from Universal with the intention of remaking it. They also bought the rights to the 1936 film, primarily to remove it from distribution so it wouldn’t compete with their remake. MGM’s version, starring Ava Gardner and Howard Keel, was released in 1951 and is a streamlined and somewhat sanitized version of the show. While this remake was successful in its day, the gradual return of the 1936 version on TV and home video led to a re-evaluation, which – as evident from the above NFR write-ups – deemed the ’51 remake the inferior movie.

• The stage version of “Show Boat” was revived often during the 20^th century, each version making its own additions and tweaks, including interpolating songs written especially for the 1936 film. The last major American production of “Show Boat” was a successful 1990s Broadway revival directed by Hal Prince. While the show’s popularity has certainly waned over the years, it did enter the public domain on New Year’s Day 2023, and at least one theater company is taking a shot at a major royalty-free revision.

• Although references to “Show Boat” in modern culture are mainly reserved for the show itself rather than the 1936 film specifically, Paul Robeson’s rendition of “Ol’ Man River” has kept the film’s legacy afloat (if you will). “Ol’ Man River” became Robeson’s signature song, and while many have covered it across the decades, the version I always think of is Billy Crystal’s Oscar parody celebrating Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River”. “You produce/You write the score/You sang in ‘Paint Your Wagon’/ Please don’t sing no mooooo-oooore”.

#723) Lady Helen’s Escapade (1909)

OR “The Woman with No Name”

Directed by D. W. Griffith

Written by Stanner E. V. Taylor

Class of 2004

Other notes

• One very important note regarding this film’s YouTube presentation: for whatever reason, the print made available by the Library of Congress did not include intertitles which, as you can gather from the complex plot synopsis, would have been very helpful to have. During our post-screening discussion back in September, it was theorized that the digital version was scanned from a paper print (which would have only included the visuals and not the text). If you’re going to watch “Lady Helen’s Escapade”, do yourself a favor and read a plot description beforehand (feel free to read mine again).
• If nothing else, “Lady Helen’s Escapade” is a chance for me to watch and write about a D. W. Griffith film that isn’t mired in controversy. It’s also interesting to watch a Griffith film while he’s still figuring out this new medium. No revolutionary close-ups or cross-cutting, just point and shoot. “Lady Helen’s” was released eight months before “A Corner in Wheat”; one of Griffith’s first toe dips into the pool of artistic filmmaking.
• Florence Lawrence is quite a capable leading lady, never overselling the comedy the way some of her co-stars do, which unfortunately leads to her getting wrongfully upstaged in her own movie. It’s a shame there isn’t more of Lawrence’s filmography around to see what kind of range she must have had.
• I’m amused by the massive fur coat being worn by Lady Helen’s boyfriend. It looks like he’s being eaten by a wooly mammoth in real time. PETA would need an entire Sherwin-Williams to take this guy down.
• As is often the case in these kinds of early romantic comedies, the men pining for Florence are ignoring her obvious disinterest in them. If only this print had intertitles, then she could have made her plea.
• Once again, you owe it to yourself to read a plot synopsis before watching “Lady Helen’s Escapade”. The ending is so quick and disjointed that you get the sense the intertitles did a lot of heavy lifting. At the online premiere, our excitement before the film turned into bafflement by the end; a sort of “That was nice, but what happened?”

Legacy

• Shortly after making “Lady Helen’s Escapade”, Florence Lawrence was lured away from Biograph to Independent Moving Pictures with the promise of better pay and – more importantly – billing. Lawrence’s reign as America’s first movie star continued into the 1910s, though a series of personal setbacks, as well as injuries sustained in a 1915 fire, led to her decline in stardom. By the 1920s, Lawrence was working solely as an extra or bit player (almost always uncredited, somewhat ironically). Florence Lawrence’s final films were as a bit player for MGM before her death in 1938.
• Perhaps Florence Lawrence’s greatest contribution to history is one outside of her film work. In 1914, Lawrence invented an “auto signaling arm” for cars, but didn’t patent her idea, which would go on to become both the turn signal and the brake signal. Sadly, given my own experience on the road, most people do not use Lawrence’s invention when changing lanes on the freeway. Do not let her legacy be in vain!
• D. W. Griffith continued to crank out shorts for Biograph through 1914, when he left following disputes regarding budget overruns. Griffith continued to push the envelope for films as an artform, and if you’ve read this far then you’re well aware of what he made in 1915. Moving on…
• Although most of Florence Lawrence’s filmography has been deemed lost, “Lady Helen’s Escapade” survives, and in 2024 was finally made available online. My thanks again to Benjamin Wilson for his work campaigning for this film’s digitization, and Eric Levy for inviting me to its online premiere. It was wonderful meeting so many film lovers face-to-face (via Zoom) and sharing our silent film knowledge with each other. Bonus shoutout to Isabel of “Irresistible Cinema”, who was also in virtual attendance and covers the NFR on her website. Check her out!

#722) Our Daily Bread (1934)

OR “Red Acres”

Directed King Vidor

Written by Vidor, Elizabeth Hill, and Joseph Mankiewicz

Class of 2015

Other notes

• Once the Great Depression hit, King Vidor started thinking about how John and Mary from “The Crowd” would be affected. The idea of them moving to a farm and starting a co-op came about when Vidor saw a Reader’s Digest article proposing a similar idea as a solution to unemployment (hence the film’s declaration “Inspired by the Headlines of Today”). In 1933, Vidor had a deal with RKO to finance the picture, but after months of development the deal fell through once RKO realized that Vidor could make a higher profit on the film than the studio. Unable to get any other studio interested, Vidor financed the film himself under his newly formed Viking Productions (though he did eventually secure a loan from Bank of America) and used his friendship with Charlie Chaplin to get a distribution deal with United Artists.
• King Vidor had originally planned on hiring his leads from “The Crowd” – James Murray and Eleanor Boardman – to reprise their roles as John and Mary. By the time production began, however, James Murray had relapsed into alcoholism and Eleanor Boardman had separated from her husband…King Vidor. Tom Keene and Karen Morley were cast instead based in part on their physical resemblances to the original actors. Once you know that casting tidbit it becomes obvious that these actors were cast based on their looks because neither one is that great. Heck, Tom Keene would go on to star in “Plan 9 from Outer Space”!
• All this “Crowd” talk begs the question: Is “Our Daily Bread” a sequel to “The Crowd” or not? While most internet listings refer to this film as a sequel, the real answer is “Not really”. Despite the same lead characters, the two films aren’t directly connected, and no prior knowledge of “The Crowd” is needed to understand “Our Daily Bread”. Still, there’s nothing stopping you from considering it a direct sequel if that’s what you really want, although at some point in the intervening six years, John and Mary have learned to speak without the use of intertitles. And didn’t they have kids?
• This film continues the early film trope that Swedes by their very nature are hilarious. They pronounce j’s like they’re y’s! Isn’t that nutty? Side note: Chris’ actor John Qualen played Swedes/Scandinavians for comic relief in several movies, including another NFR film; “The Searchers“.

Legacy

• “Our Daily Bread” premiered at the Chicago World’s Fair in August 1934 before its general release that October. At some point after its initial run, “Our Daily Bread” was re-released by its new distributor Astor Pictures Corp. under the much more evocative name “Hell’s Crossroads”. King Vidor revealed years later that while the film recouped its investment, it did so just barely with little to no profit.
• As with many a film on this list (especially those not financed by a major studio), “Our Daily Bread” lapsed into public domain and was frequently played on TV. In fact, “Our Daily Bread” was one of the first films ever shown on TV, airing on New York’s experimental W2XBS (now WNBC Channel 4) in April 1940! If a movie airs on TV but no one owns a TV yet…
• While “Our Daily Bread” has lingered in relative obscurity for the last 90 years, it is not without its fans, including Orson Welles who once called it one of his top 10 favorite movies. The film’s reputation has improved over the last decade, starting with the film’s NFR induction in 2015, plus a screening at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival as part of a King Vidor retrospective.