Rosalind Russell in ‘Take a Letter, Darling’, USA, 1942, directed by Mitchell Leisen
Source: British Film Institute, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

Festival

No Angels

Mae West, Rosalind Russell und Carole Lombard

10.–20.2.22

Retrospective of the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival

The Retrospective of the Berlin International Film Festival  2022 will showcase the comedic oeuvre of American actresses Mae West, Rosalind Russell, and Carole Lombard. The spotlight will be on some 30 films that bear the unmistakeable signature of each of the actresses in a classic Hollywood comedy.

Publication

No Angels

Herausgegeben von der Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek

 

edition text + kritik, München
Mai 2021, 163 S., s/w Abb.

ISBN 978-3-96707-504-5

15 €

Mae West

Mae West began her film career at the age of 39. Already successful in theater and variety shows, her screen debut was in Archie Mayo’s ‘Night After Night’ (USA, 1932). She shortly rose to become the best-paid actress of the 1930s. In contrast to the era’s ideal of beauty, her trademark became her stylization of her own figure. Almost all of the 12 films she made will be screened in the Retrospective, including Wesley Ruggles’ ‘I’m No Angel’ (USA, 1933) and Raoul Walsh’s ‘Klondike Annie’ (USA, 1936), in which West played her perhaps most controversial role, as the disreputable Frisco Doll, who flees to Alaska and, along the way, assumes the identity of the pious missionary Sister Annie. Mae West wrote most of the stories and scripts for her own films; her aggressive use of her sex appeal often brought her in conflict with the Hollywood censors.

Mae West in ‘I'm No Angel’, USA, 1933, directed by Wesley Ruggles
Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

Rosalind Russell

Rosalind Russell’s breakthrough as a comedienne came in George Cukor’s ‘The Women’ (USA, 1939). In the long career that followed, she would play both dramatic and comedy roles. In the comedies, Russell’s characters are often successful businesswomen who must choose between love and a career. She holds her own in a male-dominated world as a quick-witted journalist (‘Four’s a Crowd’, USA, 1938, directed by Michael Curtiz) or a worldly-wise judge (‘Design for Scandal’, USA, 1941, directed by Norman Taurog). With her impeccable timing and utter command of physical comedy, Russell was a master – indeed, a mistress – of slapstick. This Retrospective will give us a chance to rediscover her thespian skills.

 

Rosalind Russell und Brian Aherne in ‘Hired Wife’, USA, 1940, directed by William A. Seiter
Source: British Film Institute, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard acted in silent films before advancing – like Mae West – to become a star at Paramount Pictures in the 1930s. Before dying young in a plane accident in 1942, she acted in more than 40 films, most of them comedies. Her interpretations carried a sense of the feminine and ranged from the naïf to the elegant woman of the world. She was brilliant as the carefree rich socialite in ‘My Man Godfrey’ (USA, 1936, directed by Gregory La Cava), as a spirited actress in ‘Twentieth Century’ (USA, 1934, directed by Howard Hawks), and in ‘No Man of Her Own’ (USA, 1932, directed by Wesley Ruggles) as the small-town girl who yearns for the big, wide world and even bigger love. Her acting style was a blend of lightness, charm, and wit, which she displayed in a multitude of variations.

Robert Montgomery und Carole Lombard in ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’, USA 1941, Regie: Alfred Hitchcock
Quelle: Deutsche Kinemathek

The films of the Retrospective

  • Edward Gargan, Mae West, John Miljan
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    In the American South, a vaudeville performer falls victim to a crooked bar owner who tries to cheat her out of her diamonds. Mae West is shown off to best advantage in this musical comedy as “the greatest sensation of our 19th century”.

  • Rosalind Russell, Walter Pidgeon
    © 1941 Turner Entertainment Co. All rights reserved.

    A principled judge succumbs to the flattery of a purported artist. She doesn’t realise that an unhappy plaintiff has tasked the man with involving her in a scandal. A romantic comedy with slapstick elements.

  • Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A con artist transforms herself into a French cabaret star. But with the chief of police still trying to arrest her, she gets involved in politics. In her last film for Paramount, Mae West gleefully takes down a corrupt representative of law and order.

  • Errol Flynn, Rosalind Russell, Hugh Herbert, Patric Knowles, Olivia de Havilland
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, © 1938 Turner Entertainment Co. All rights reserved.

    A reporter falls in love with her editor. While he starts flirting with the publisher’s fiancée, the husband-to-be is hoping to catch the eye of the reporter. A tumultuous screwball comedy with Rosalind Russell and Errol Flynn.

  • Monroe Owsley, Tito Coral, Ivan Lebedeff, Mae West
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A bawdy saloon singer inherits an oilfield and a fortune. Mae West plays a self-assured woman fighting for the approval of both high society and the man she wants, and landing some pot shots at the moneyed aristocracy along the way.

  • Mae West, Randolph Scott
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A movie star is stranded in a rural boarding house after her car breaks down, where a well-built auto mechanic catches her roving eye. In this ambiguous film-within-a-film comedy, Mae West once again has the last word.

  • Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard
    Source: British Film Institute, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A New York manicurist is determined to marry a rich man but falls in love with a poor one. Critics deemed this comedy with a pronounced sense of social status a forerunner of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’.

  • Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne
    Source: British Film Institute, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A secretary marries her boss to keep his financial assets safe. But she’s really in love with him and determined to turn the short-term trade-off into a long-term investment. As usual, Rosalind Russell is a sure bet!

  • Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, Image courtesy of Park Circus/Sony

    A divorced reporter is persuaded by her ex-husband and ex-boss to cover one last story for him. In the course of one chaotic night, they find themselves reunited. A classic of screwball comedy starring Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant.

  • Mae West
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A frothy comedy about a honky-tonk performer who snags an affluent high-society New Yorker. Mae West is a lion-tamer with a thirst for love who makes a beeline for upward mobility, leaving a trail of criss-crossed men in her wake.

  • Mae West
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A singer wanted for murder in California impersonates a missionary in Alaska. Among her converts is a detective, who falls for her charm. Mae West is worthy of devotion as an amoral adventuress.

  • Carole Lombard, May Robson
    Source: Collection Austrian Film Museum, © 1934, renewed 1962 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    A risqué dancer adopts a homeless old woman as a PR stunt. But the hard-drinking ersatz mother has plenty of road dust on her and turns out to be a tough manager. This comedy takes up arms on behalf of “fallen women”.

  • Robert Montgomery, Carole Lombard
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek

    An argumentative couple finds out that their marriage is void. Before the inevitable reconciliation, the husband in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic screwball comedy experiences a maze of torturous jealousy.

  • Mae West, W. C. Fields
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A lusty story of the Wild West starring two greats of Hollywood comedy. Wrangling over romance with a masked bandit, W.C. Fields and Mae West deliver a tart-tongued duel that turns every stretch of dialogue into a verbal gunfight.

  • Carole Lombard, William Powell
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A spoiled New York socialite hires a homeless tramp as the butler for her affluent, dysfunctional family. This ingenious, witty depression-era comedy has a frenetic plot that takes on the characteristics of a theatre of the absurd piece.

  • Rosalind Russell, George Tobias, Janet Blair
    Source: Park Circus, © 1942, renewed 1970 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    Two sisters from the Midwest try their luck in New York. Their tiny basement apartment becomes a bubbling hub of moody neighbours, oddballs, and aspiring suitors. A delightfully chaotic screen adaptation of a Broadway hit.

  • George Raft, Mae West
    Source: Collection Austrian Film Museum, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A speakeasy owner loses his heart to a young, uptown girl, while his club is threatened with takeover by gangsters. In her film debut, Mae West proved to be main attraction on New York’s nightclub scene.

  • Carole Lombard, Clark Gable
    Source: British Film Institute, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A professional card shark marries a small-town librarian who wants to make a better man of him. Years before they married in real life, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable play a bickering couple in this gay comedy set in sinful New York.

  • Carole Lombard
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek

    A New York journalist publicly plays up the fate of a small-town beauty who is allegedly fatally ill. But in fact, she’s perfectly healthy. This sweeping indictment of sensationalism and shock culture is a big-screen delight in glorious Technicolor.

  • Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A comedy set in the 1890’s underworld of New York nightlife. Mae West is at centre stage as a singer and gangster’s moll who casts her roving eye on a mission director (played by Cary Grant).

  • Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A businesswoman and two men – one a millionaire, the other a penniless artist and her secretary. Rosalind Russell was the perfect choice to play a woman fighting on two fronts in this cinematic battle of the sexes.

  • Rosalind Russell, Melvyn Douglas, Siegfried Arno
    Source: Collection Austrian Film Museum, © 1941, renewed 1969 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    A newlywed believes that the way to stave off divorce is to withhold sex from her groom for the first three months of marriage. Rosalind Russell is nothing if not seductive in this entertaining farce.

  • Carole Lombard, Stanley Ridges
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek

    In 1939 Warsaw, a Polish theatre troupe costumes itself in German uniforms to thwart a Nazi spy. Ernst Lubitsch’s best known film is a glorious anti-Nazi satire, featuring a glamourous Carole Lombard in her last screen appearance.

  • Carole Lombard, Una Merkel
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, courtesy of Universal Studios Licensing, LLC

    A would-be writer confesses to a murder she didn’t commit. At trial, she dares not admit to her truth-loving lawyer and husband that she is a liar. A comedy about marriage and justice with a goodly dose of irony.

  • Carole Lombard,  John Barrymore
    Source: Collection Austrian Film Museum, © 1934, renewed 1962 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    A theatre impresario loses his biggest star to Hollywood. During a train journey, he tries to win her back, by hook or by crook. This temperamental duel between Carole Lombard and John Barrymore shaped the screwball comedy genre.

  • Rosalind Russell
    Source: Park Circus, © 1943 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

    The culture sector goes screwball when New York’s most successful literary agent tries to transmogrify the tweedy author of a rousing romance novel into a dashing actor who can play him onscreen.

  • Mimi Olivera, Rosalind Russell
    Source: Deutsche Kinemathek, © 1939 Loew's Inc. All rights reserved.

    A wealthy New Yorker’s marriage starts to collapse after her girlfriends learn about her husband’s affair. With only women in front of the camera, Rosalind Russell is brilliant as a snarky schemer in this satire of high-society and female wiliness.