The Glenda Farrell Project :: Take 6 :: A Life and Legacy In Her Own Words.

After becoming completely and obsessively twitter-pate'd with her, when I first started digging into the career and personal life of Glenda Farrell to find out all I could for this highly sporadic but completely heartfelt tribute series, it's sad to say there really wasn't a whole lot out there to find. A few web blurbs here; a fan page there; a PDF of an old magazine article -- if you were lucky; but no written biography to consult, or even speak of, sadly, for one of the most under-appreciated film talents of the 1930's.

Thankfully, an extremely informative vein was finally struck when several posts and photos on a Glenda Farrell thread were unearthed at the Silver Screen Oasis; with the majority of posts composed by Hardwicke Benthow, who was kind enough to reach out to me several posts back to compliment me on these efforts to shine a light on Farrell's career. And so, in kind, I am happy to report that Benthow has collected all of those posts and, after embellishing them even further, has published them again for all to enjoy, including a brand new page of Glenda quotes as she talks about her career in her own words.

Glenda Farrell: Her Life and Legacy.

Glenda Farrell: In Her Own Words.

Precious stuff, folks. Now click on over and get to reading!  

"You see, I tried – every agent tried to get me into pictures, but I never was a very pretty girl. I always had deep circles under my eyes, and lines down beside my mouth. I’d test, and they’d say, “You don’t photograph.” So I’d come back to New York, to the stage. So at the time they called me for Little Caesar, I thought: 'Oh—what’ll I use for a face?'” 

One of the things I am most thankful for from 2012 is getting a crash course on the life and times and film career of Glenda Farrell. And the more I dig, the more I love. And so, to share that love, we're kicking off The Glenda Farrell Project for 2013 and beyond, as I will do everything in my power to share my Glenda love in the usual, obsessive compulsive fashion in all matters and means and ways. Stay tuned! Lots more to come.

The Glenda Farrell Project :: Take 5 :: Crime-Busting Glenda Solves the Mystery of Robert Florey's Girl Missing (1933)

___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___

"I don't have to get tough, I am tough."

___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___  ___ 

When two ex-chorus girls are ditched by a sugar-daddy who got wise, left with a $700 hotel bill to contend with, they soon find themselves embroiled in a kidnapping plot when a fellow gold-digger disappears while on her honeymoon. Smelling a rat -- personified by the gigolo who secretly arranged this marriage, our heroines, while in pursuit of the offered reward for the new bride's safe return, soon uncover an inheritance grab and a conspiracy to commit murder!

Girl Missing was Glenda Farrell's first time at the top of the bill. After receiving good notices for her supporting roles in the likes of Little Caesar, I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang and The Mystery of the Wax Museum, a movie she absolutely ran away with, Jack Warner decided to finally reward his burgeoning star with her own vehicle, teaming her up with Mary Brian -- "the sweetest girl in pictures." Brian had started in the silents, debuting as Wendy in Peter Pan (1924), made a successful transition to the talkies, and had recently completed Lewis Milestone's The Front Page (1931), where she played the jilted fiance of Pat O'Brien's Hildy Johnson. Now partnered with Farrell, one should note that Girl Missing was one of the first films to feature two female leads in this kind of murder-comedy-romance-buddy picture.

Meanwhile, behind the camera, after serving as an assistant to the likes King Vidor and Josef von Sternberg, director Robert Florey's first big break came when he co-directed and helped rein in the Marx Brothers for their first feature film, The Cocoanuts (1929). Big things seem to be in store for the fledgling director and, after a string of bizarrely avant-garde but well received shorts, Florey was Carl Laemmle Jr.'s original choice for Universal's Frankenstein, then slated to star Bela Lugosi. However, Florey and Lugosi were soon bumped off the project for James Whale and Boris Karloff. Both were given Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) as a consolation prize. Alas, Frankenstein (1931) appears to be Florey's one and only big chance and he blew it. After which he bounced around from studio to studio, mostly working in the B-Picture units. And speaking frankly, there isn't much to commend for his efforts in Girl Missing, but, luckily, his cast, led by Farrell, overcompensates for this pedestrian effort.  

The film was scripted by Carl Erickson and Don Mullaly, who also wrote Wax Museum, and they definitely scribbled to Farrell's strengths -- meaning her motor-mouth, acid-tongue and the application of both to cut anyone around her off at the knees. And this snappy, wise-cracking tale full of pertzel'd twists and unexpected turns was another spin on Avery Hopwood's play, The Gold Diggers (1919), where enterprising ladies hook and reel in themselves a sugar-daddy, making them pay out the nose for the *ahem* milk they expect to get for free; only here, there was no show to put on just money to be made and, in this case, a mystery to be solved.

In the supporting cast, Guy Kibbee has a glorified cameo as the posh who sniffs out their scheme, turns the tables, and abandons our heroines; an act that officially puts the plot proper in motion. Edward Ellis is pretty great as the police inspector who bears the brunt of Farrell's loquaciousness. (And sharp eyes will recognize him as the thin man from The Thin Man.) Helen Ware and Ferdinand Gottschalk are hysterical as a couple of grifting fudds posing as the high society parents of the missing bride, played with much vice and venom by Peggy Shannon. And Lyle Talbot (another frequent co-star of Farrell's) plays a slimy cad whose fault all this is, really. There's also a great secret toy surprise to be found in the form of a then unknown actor playing a bamboozled grease-monkey, who loans out his “flivver” to our gal-pal-amateur sleuths so they can catch up to the hero of our piece (Lyon) before his own sabotaged car does him in:

All told the film is pretty good time and it's fairly easy to see why it got made. The Brothers Warner had a huge hit with The Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) and had been spinning cash-ins ever since. Gold Diggers of 1933 would hit theaters a couple of months after Girl Missing premiered, and Warners would continue making sequels and spin-offs mined from both veins of the same premise until these offshoots kinda collided with Gold Diggers of 1937. In Girl Missing, Farrell and Brian definitely have great chemistry together as they run circles around the cops, solve a murder, unravel the conspiracy, save the hero, and, most important of all, make some money. (And they both look positively gorgeous dudded up in all those Orry-Kelly fashions.) And if nothing else, we should be grateful because it showed this kind of film had box-office potential, setting a solid template for a series of films where Farrell was paired up with Joan Blondell, who provided the sturm und drang for Havana Widows, Miss Pacific Fleet and Kansas City Princess to mucho box-office success. 

"Glenda is at all times very natural. She isn't one bit camera conscious ... Her movements are always quick and her speech spontaneous. When she goes into a scene she never follows the script to the sacrifice of her naturalness."

One of the things I am most thankful for from 2012 is getting a crash course on the life and times and film career of Glenda Farrell. And the more I dig, the more I love. And so, to share that love, we're kicking off The Glenda Farrell Project for 2013 and beyond, as I will do everything in my power to share my Glenda love in the usual, obsessive compulsive fashion in all matters and means and ways. Stay tuned! Lots more to come.

Girl Missing (1933) The Vitaphone Corporation :: Warner Bros. / P: Jack Warner / D: Robert Florey / W: Carl Erickson, Don Mullaly / C: Arthur L. Todd / E: Ralph Dawson / M: Bernhard Kaun / S: Glenda Farrell, Mary Brian, Ben Lyon, Lyle Talbot, Peggy Shannon, Edward Ellis, Guy Kibbee

The Glenda Farrell Project :: Take 4 :: Movie Poster Spotlight :: Joan and Glenda Got What It Takes (and They Take a Lot) in Ray Enright's Havana Widows (1933)

 

When a couple of burlesque performers (Blondell, Farrell) are suspended for refusing to *ahem* dance at a private party, they both conclude a major career change is in order. Here, fate rears its hair-brained head when they run into a former chorus girl who found herself a rich sugar daddy, made a killing in the divorce settlement, and is now living the high life. And so, our gal pals hit on a plan to head to Cuba, where this kind of gold-digging marital turnaround has become a cottage industry and set their sites on a rich fish (Kibbee), hire a seemingly permanently intoxicated lawyer (McHugh) to help grease the scam, and stay one step ahead of the dope (Jenkins) whom they duped into financing the trip. Mayhem ensues... 

  (M'rowr. Gawd I love pre-codes.)

As much as I love Glenda Farrell, I love her even more when she's teamed up with real life gal-pal, Joan Blondell. You want rapid-fire dialogue? Howard Hawks would be eating his own damned heart out at after witnessing the (acid) tongue-tying tête-à-têtes these two got into once they've warmed up. Havana Widows was the first time Warner Bros. teamed this duo and it was only supposed to be a one off, but these blonde-bombshells proved so popular the studio quickly had them paired-up again for about five more films to mine the same, gold-digging vein. (Which is extremely rare for Jack Warner, who liked to spread his stars around to make him more money.) And though Havana Widows isn't the best of the bunch (-- for the ones I've seen, that nod goes to Miss Pacific Fleet), it still has its moments as it tries to find the temperature.  

 

"With Glenda, Warners first paired us in Havana Widows (1933) and we clicked. She’d ask me, “Who’s Laurel? Who’s Hardy?” We’re both in the Pat O’Brien vehicle I’ve Got Your Number (1934) but I don’t think we have scenes together. So we still were not considered a team. But Havana Widows was such a hit we did Merry Wives of Reno (1934)* and Kansas City Princess (1934) and Miss Pacific Fleet (1935). Oh, I forgot Traveling Saleslady (1935), We’re In The Money (1935) . We were in Gold Diggers of 1937 together but not really as a team. The only other female comedy team was Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd, but they only made shorts. I’d go home at night with my sides aching because she was that funny. I recently saw her in a Torchy Blane movie on TV and she was the whole show. Like most of us, she got rotten treatment from Warners. But she did rebound on live TV and we stayed close until her passing last year (1971). I cried buckets I can tell you."
 

-- Joan Blondellxxxxxx

 
Click here for the full interview with Blondell at The Columnist.

* As far as I know, Blondell wasn't in Merry Wives of Reno. 
 

 
One of the things I am most thankful for from 2012 is getting a crash course on the life and times and film career of Glenda Farrell. And the more I dig, the more I love. And so, to share that love, we're kicking off The Glenda Farrell Project for 2013 and beyond, as I will do everything in my power to share my Glenda love in the usual, obsessive compulsive fashion in all matters and means and ways. Stay tuned! Lots more to come.
 

Havana Widows (1933) First National Pictures :: Warner Bros. / P: Robert Lord / D: Ray Enright / W: Earl Baldwin / C: George Barnes / M: Leo F. Forbstein / S: Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee, Allen Jenkins, Lyle Talbot, Frank McHugh, Ruth Donnelly

The Glenda Farrell Project :: Take 3 :: Glenda Gets a New Kitten (1933)

 Original Caption:

"A Trio of Leopard Corsages: Mrs. Alexander Leftwich, Glenda Farrell, Patricia Ellis (daughter of Mrs. Leftwich) pose with three pets on the Warner lot. Maybe the leopards will grow into three nice coats some day?"

  Original Caption:

"Some Baby: Glenda Farrell has adopted a baby leopard which accompanies her to the Warner Studio every day where she is filming The Mayor of Hell."

Okay, a couple of things. First, aside from establishing that they were taken in 1933, despite some feverish digging and smiting the Google most verily, I have been unable to unearth the exact circumstances that led to these publicity shots (-- but I hope the comment about the fur coats was way, way off base, I mean, *sheesh*). Second, these photos are so freakin' adorable I can't even even. And lastly, though neither Farrell or Ellis are listed in the credits for The Mayor of Hell, that doesn't mean they weren't in it somewhere. I haven't seen the film so I cannot confirm any kind of cameo or background appearance in this Cagney hard-boiler, but I do know the Warner brass worked the hell out of their stable of actors -- or, it could just be some cooked-up Studio B.S. period. If anyone knows for sure, drop us a message in the comments section. Thanks!

Update: (Information courtesy of Samuel Wilson / Mondo 70: Wild World of Cinema): Looks like we can date those photos more precisely. Film Daily for Jan. 27 1933 lists Farrell as Cagney's co-star for Mayor of Hell. Two weeks later, the Feb. 10 issue names Madge Evans as the co-star. Glenda may have been promoted out of her role, since the same issue reports that she had just signed a long-term contract that meant getting the lead in her next picture.

"Not many actors could talk. So they shoved the ones that came from Broadway into everything. It all went so fast. I used to ask myself, 'What set am I on today? What script am I supposed to be doing -- this one or that one? All I shouted for was a day off. We got it. Sunday. But I had to stay in bed that one day to get ready for the next six days of shooting."

-- Glenda Farrell xxxxx 

  

One of the things I am most thankful for from 2012 is getting a crash course on the life and times and film career of Glenda Farrell. And the more I dig, the more I love. And so, to share that love, we're kicking off The Glenda Farrell Project for 2013 and beyond, as I will do everything in my power to share my Glenda love in the usual, obsessive compulsive fashion in all matters and means and ways. Stay tuned! Lots more to come.

  

The Glenda Farrell Project :: Take 2 :: Frank Capra's Lady for a Day (1933) :: Missouri Martin Wants a Man!

Lady for a Day is a slightly scorched bag of instant Capra-corn where a shady gambler (Warren William) finances a Pygmalion on Apple Annie, a local destitute / good luck charm (May Robson), for reasons that would and could only make sense in the Frank Capra Universe. Not that there's anything wrong with that, 'natch, because before you even realize it you've eaten the whole bag -- and enjoyed it quite thoroughly.

Here, our gal Glenda plays Missouri Martin, the gambler's Girl Friday, who's put in charge of pulling silk from the sow's ear for Annie's make-over, and later plays the Jiminy Cricket to make sure our hero sees the con through to the inevitable happy ending.

But before we get to the end, we need an introduction. And, brother, what an introduction do we get:

 

Preach on, sister.

"All comedians are unique performers. It's possibly something they're not aware of themselves, until they get the part that brings it out and displays it to them, so they become aware of the fact that they play comedy and that they got laughs. Then they begin to develop this certain quality, develop it till they get bigger and bigger laughs. This is something the comedian himself can do. A writer can write divine lines, beautiful lines, and they can cut around, and the director can direct the actor, all so that she may be a great comedienne in this particular part, but they may never reach that again. Because if they don't have the lines, they can't do it. However, this may be the start of the development of a technique and flair for comedy—because I think most actors start out not knowing they're comics, and suddenly find that a unique way of reading a line gets a laugh. A simple line can be read by five different people, and only one person get a laugh, and that one person can get a big laugh on it. It's his own individual way of interpreting the line. This is the thing a comedian does, and he cannot do it unless he's experienced, unless he learns the way to get the laugh and knows what's in back of it."

-- Glenda Farrell xxxxxxxxx

 

One of the things I am most thankful for from 2012 is getting a crash course on the life and times and film career of Glenda Farrell. And the more I dig, the more I love. And so, to share that love, we're kicking off The Glenda Farrell Project for 2013 and beyond, as I will do everything in my power to share my Glenda love in the usual, obsessive compulsive fashion in all matters and means and ways. Stay tuned! Lots more to come.
   

The Glenda Farrell Project :: Take 1 :: It'll Take More than That to Stop Torchy Blane!

Here, our latest cinematic obsession grabs a cab after another grump-off with her long time beau over who will solve the latest murder mystery first, the reporter (she) or the cop (he), before anymore bodies meet a gruesome demise courtesy of a ruthless Chinese tong out to knock-off a trio of jade-poachers, and anyone who gets in there way -- like, say, a nosy, motor-mouthed reporter -- who leave each intended victim a secreted message on when and where they will die...

"Baby, am I..."

And they would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for that meddling reporter and her navy submarine!

One of the things I am most thankful for from 2012 is getting a crash course on the life and times and film career of Glenda Farrell. And the more I dig, the more I love. And so, to share that love, we're kicking off The Glenda Farrell Project for 2013 and beyond, as I will do everything in my power to share my Glenda love in the usual, obsessive compulsive fashion in all matters and means and ways. Stay tuned!