Jean Arthur films: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Jean Arthur films on TCM
Jean Arthur will be Turner Classic Movies’ “Summer Under the Stars” star on Sunday, Aug. 30.
Jean Arthur was Columbia’s top star from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s, when Rita Hayworth became the studio’s reigning queen and Arthur semi-retired from films. Her characters were cynical but idealistic, strong but vulnerable, independent-minded but deeply devoted to whoever her leading man might be. In other words, Jean Arthur was the Ideal Woman: Complex, passionate, warm – and she had sparkling eyes only matched by her equally sparkling smile. (And there was that voice. It should have been trademarked.)
Of course, since it’s all about Jean Arthur, every single one of the TCM presentations is worth at least a look, including The Silver Horde (1930), in which Arthur has a supporting role and neither looks nor sounds at all like the actress she would become a mere four years later.
George Stevens’ elegiac Western Shane (1953) shows that violence is costly to both heroes and villains, and that the Wild West wasn’t just wild – it was also beautiful, poetic, cruel, and awful lonely. As settler Van Heflin’s wife, Arthur doesn’t have all that much to do in it, but her presence in the film is crucial for it makes one understand why Alan Ladd’s itinerant gunslinger would both want to settle down and then leave for good. Unfortunately, though a major box office hit, Shane turned out to be Arthur’s last film.
Two lesser-known Arthur vehicles, The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) and If You Could Only Cook (1935), though a bit flawed, also have their charms. For one, Arthur is her usual warm, funny self in both of them; additionally, in the former she’s beautifully assisted by Best Supporting Actor Oscar-nominee Charles Coburn (actually the film’s male lead) and in the latter she’s paired with classy Herbert Marshall.
Written by Norman Krasna, The Devil and Miss Jones (above) pits labor (Arthur, Robert Cummings, and Spring Byington) against capital (department-store tycoon Coburn). Needless to say – especially considering that the film was directed by ardent right-winger Sam Wood – both sides end up realizing that they have more in common than they thought, and that seemingly ruthless capitalists are actually kind and compassionate at heart. Arthur’s then husband, Frank Ross produced. (I should add that The Devil and Miss Jones has absolutely nothing to do with the XXX-rated Georgina Spelvin cause célèbre of the early 1970s, Devil in Miss Jones.)
Directed by the competent but uninspired William A. Seiter, the screwballish social comedy If You Could Only Cook places an auto magnate (pretending to be your average unemployed Joe) side by side with an (actual) unemployed cook. Needless to say – especially considering that the film was made during the Great Depression, a time of economic and political upheaval – after the truth comes out both sides end up realizing that love conquers all, including class divisions. (Heck, why not? One has to believe in something.) Too bad that Ernst Lubitsch or George Cukor didn’t get to direct this one, as Howard J. Green and Gertrude Purcell’s screenplay has lots of good lines and situations even if it loses comic steam near the end.
There are quite a few Jean Arthur movies that are hard to find as they’re unavailable on DVD/VHS and haven’t been shown on television in years (if at all). For Jean Arthur Day, TCM has come up with only one premiere, the 1934 melo Whirlpool, which is certainly better than nothing. However, it would be cool if they unearthed other rarities (in case they aren’t lost) such as The Past of Mary Holmes, Virtuous Husbands, The Defense Rests, Ex-Bad Boy, Get That Venus, and myriad other Jean Arthur flicks that, whether good, bad, or godawful, I for one would be happy to check out.
Jean Arthur films on TCM: ‘Summer Under the Stars’ schedule (PDT) – Aug. 30
3:00 AM The Silver Horde (1930)
Director: George Archainbaud.
Cast: Joel McCrea, Evelyn Brent, Jean Arthur, Louis Wolheim, Raymond Hatton, Blanche Sweet, Gavin Gordon, Purnell Pratt.
75m4:30 AM Public Hero #1 (1935)
Director: J. Walter Ruben.
Cast: Chester Morris, Jean Arthur, Joseph Calleia.
90m6:00 AM Adventure in Manhattan (1936)
Director: Edward Ludwig.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Reginald Owen.
73m7:30 AM Whirlpool (1934)
Director: Roy William Neill.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Jack Holt, Donald Cook.
80m8:45 AM Only Angels Have Wings (1939)
Director: Howard Hawks.
Cast: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Allyn Joslyn, Sig Ruman, John Carroll, Don ‘Red’ Barry.
121m11:00 AM Shane (1953)
Director: George Stevens.
Cast: Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, Jack Palance, Ben Johnson, Edgar Buchanan, Emile Meyer.
118m1:00 PM The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)
Director: Sam Wood.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Charles Coburn, Robert Cummings, Spring Byington, Edmund Gwenn.
92m2:45 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Director: Frank Capra.
Cast: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Eugene Pallette, H.B. Warner, Beulah Bondi, Harry Carey, Ruth Donnelly, Astrid Allwyn, Grant Mitchell, Jack Carson.
130m5:00 PM You Can’t Take It With You (1938)
Director: Frank Capra.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, Edward Arnold, Spring Byington, H.B. Warner, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, Donald Meek, Mary Forbes, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Harry Davenport.
126m7:15 PM The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936)
Director: Stephen Roberts.
Cast: William Powell, Jean Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Boles, Robert Armstrong, Lila Lee, Grant Mitchell, Erin O’Brien-Moore, Ralph Morgan, Lucile Gleason.
82m8:45 PM If You Could Only Cook (1935)
Director: William A. Seiter.
Cast: Herbert Marshall, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo.
72m10:00 PM Too Many Husbands (1940)
Director: Wesley Ruggles.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, Melvyn Douglas, Harry Davenport, Dorothy Peterson, Melville Cooper, Edgar Buchanan, Tom Dugan.
81m11:30 PM The Impatient Years (1944)
Director: Irving Cummings.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Lee Bowman, Charles Coburn.
91m1:30 AM Party Wire (1935)
Director: Erle C. Kenton.
Cast: Jean Arthur, Victor Jory, Charley Grapewin.
69m