I Married a Witch: Fredric March’s Comic Curse
Oct 21 2008 - nov 18 2008
Fredric March wore gravitas like the grimace of fear and anger beading
his brow in William Wyler’s gripping home invasion THE DESPERATE HOURS
(1955). Choking back DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931), for which he won
his first Oscar, euthanizing Willy Loman in DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1951),
roaring sanctimonious through INHERIT THE WIND (1960), March faced his
big screen fates with Chekhovian resolve. Valjean of LES MISERABLES,
Vronsky in ANNA KARENINA, Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel (1897-1975)
from Racine, Wisconsin, served the U.S. Army during World War I,
received a degree in Economics afterwards, and chose theatre over
banking (and often film) in truncating his mother’s maiden name
Marcher. He also proved himself time and again as lithe a comedian as
Marcel Marceau. Beginning with his cinematic breakthrough in Edna
Ferber and George S. Kaufman’s flank of Barrymore ham, THE ROYAL FAMILY
OF BROADWAY (1930), March mugged his way through melodrama (A STAR IS
BORN) and cherished Americana (THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES) equally
hilarious. Fed straight lines by Noel Coward & Ernst Lubitsch
(DESIGN FOR LIVING), Carole Lombard (NOTHING SACRED), and comic
spellbinder René Clair (I MARRIED A WITCH), March fixed it so that even
DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY…. – Raoul Hernandez, Guest Curator, Austin Chronicle
DESIGN FOR LIVING
Tom,
a playwright, and George, an artist, share a garret in Paris where they
have struggled for success for 12 years. Gilda, a lovely young
commercial artist, enters their lives and their hearts and brings them
success. Amazingly, the ménage a trois manages to work out the kinks in
their complicated relationship – even after Gilda marries her stodgy
boss. This decidedly pre-Code comedy got onto American screens right
before the Hollywood censors cracked down on a whole host of
representations of “immorality.”
>> Read More
Death Takes a Holiday
Death
is curious about why people fear him and cling to life, so he takes a
short holiday as “Prince Sirki” and persuades Duke Lambert to invite
him to a weekend party in his villa. There “Sirki” meets Grazia, who
despite her engagement to Corrado, feels strangely drawn to the
mysterious stranger. Two other female guests, Rhoda and Alda, are also
intrigued by the Prince, but Alda feels frightened when she looks into
his eyes. Death actually wishes to experience love and chooses Grazia
as the object of his inexperienced “affection.” In such a scenario,
complications are bound to arise.
>> Read More
Nothing Sacred
Small
town folks were usually depicted cinematically in the 30s as fish out
of water when landing in New York City, but Hazel Flagg figures out a
way to put one over on the big city slickers. Getting a quack diagnosis
that she is dying from radium poisoning after painting too many watch
dials, the eager young woman wins a free trip to the Big Apple where
she is the proverbial toast of the town and object of a journalist’s
fantasies. >> Read More
I Married a Witch
Burned
at the stake several hundred years before, Jennifer returns to life to
make life hell for the descendant of her Puritan executioner. But her
love potion gets misdirected and she instead becomes infatuated with
Jonathan rather than vice- versa. Attracted but not drawn to her, the
man is more focused on his fiancée and his upcoming senatorial
election. Jennifer’s drunken warlock father only further complicates
matters in this classic screwball comedy.
>> Read More
The Best Years of Our Lives
Still
one of the most powerful and relevant postwar movies to come out of
Hollywood, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES follows the lives of three
returning veterans trying to reintegrate into their rather unremarkable
pre-war lives. One has lost his hands in combat , another is returning
to a dead-end job and a dying marriage, and the third (March), though
securely middle-class, has been dramatically changed by wartime and
intense male bonding, which transcended class divisions.
>> Read More