Men on Her Mind

source: Men on Her Mind

She had no sex appeal and was as interesting to watch as paint drying on a winter's day. This is just the opinion of Universal International. Warner Brothers and RKO saw her differently because she garnered academy awards for them.

Knew from reading 'The Girl from Tenth Avenue's' plot synopsis to not expect too much from the story, which in feel is not much different from a lot of other films at that time. Where more often than not one had to suspend disbelief and not watch looking for sense. Bette Davis has done many fine performances and seldom less than watchable (depending on the material of course, with her being unable to do anything good with the bad material in 'Wicked Stepmother' and 'Bunny O Hare'. Also like what (not enough) has been seen of Alfred E Green's work, prime examples being 'Baby Face' and 'Dangerous', the latter also starring Davis and earned her her first Oscar win (while extremely good in that film quite a number of her other performances were more deserving). Colin Clive's life and career were too short, but he was watchable too and still love the two 'Frankenstein' films he starred in. Seeing 'The Girl from Tenth Avenue' a while back, to me it was good fun and an inoffensive way to spend just a little over an hour but didn't fit my definition of being a great film. 'The Girl from Tenth Avenue' is not one of those films that compels from the get go. It instead takes time to settle and find its footing, starting off a little too slow and having too much of a confined and stage origins feel. Most of the characters are sketchily developed and gives some of the cast too little to do. The cast mostly do a good job though and make the most of what they have to work with, but this was very much a Davis vehicle and it does show a bit in how the characters are written and how much screen time they have. Ian Hunter however doesn't have an awful lot of presence apart from towards the end during his big scene with Davis. Have said already about not trying to expect too much from the story, and still stand by that with some of it being predictable and quite silly. Especially in the first half. If that is something that has been a common criticism in my recent reviews it is because it was a common factor for films during this period, so reinforcing is inevitable. Like has been said though, 'The Girl from Tenth Avenue' is not a film to switch off and dismiss prematurely. It really does get better, more gripping and one is rewarded enough when sticking with it. Davis gives a great full throttle performance and of the rest of the performances Alison Skipworth shines the most and on sparkling form. Katherine Alexander also has one of the film's best scenes and Clive brings dignity to an underused role. Green's direction is mostly smart and keeps the high emotions of the drama in the latter stages gripping. Much of the script is snappy and thoughtfully written, not rambling too much and it doesn't get verbose. It does get over-heated at times but not in a way that's unbearable. The second half of 'The Girl from Tenth Avenue' has plenty of moments of tension and poignancy, especially towards the end with two scenes (aforementioned) that particularly blister, much of it down to Davis being so good. It is well shot and doesn't look cheap. In summary, not a great film but passes the time more than adequately. 7/10

Katherine Alexander throws over wealthy Ian Hunter to marry richer Colin Clive, so Hunter goes on a pub crawl. Poor but honest Bette Davis goes on the toot with him to see how the better half drink and winds up married to him. She offers him back the ring and the marriage contract, but they decide to keep it going until he's done with her. After nearly a year, with her studying how the upper crust behave under the tutelage of ex-Floradora girl Alison Skipworth, Miss Alexander pushes her husband out and goes after Hunter.... and Miss Davis retaliates. It's the sort of foolish role that Warner Brothers put Miss Davis in, which she handles in a straightforward and honest manner. Interestingly, two movies later, she would win an Oscar under the same director, Alfred Green. The script obviously had something to say about the way men and men use each other, but that's lost in the final cut. Certainly, the cavalier manner in which everyone treats manner is a bit of a surprise under the Code. Ian Hunter was one of those large, good-looking, competent actors, best remembered by playing Richard the Lion-heart and the only one of Jessie Matthews' leading men who didn't seem afraid of women. Born in 1900, he appeared in about ten silent films, played some leads in British films, then moved to the United States for a long stretch. He made his last movies in Italy in 1963 and died a dozen years later.

Director: ALFRED E. GREEN. Screenplay: Charles Kenyon. Based on the play Outcast by Hubert Henry Davies. Photography: James Van Trees. Film editor: Owen Marks. Art director: John Hughes. Costumes designed by Orry-Kelly. Music composed by Heinz Roemheld. Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Associate producers: Robert Lord, Henry Blanke. Copyright 31 May 1935 by First National Pictures, Inc. A Warner Bros-First National picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 26 May 1935. Australian release: 7 August 1935. 69 minutes. U.K. release title: MEN ON HER MIND. SYNOPSIS: A lawyer goes on the bender when his fiancée throws him over to marry another man. NOTES: Starring Elsie Ferguson and Charles Cherry, the stage play opened on Broadway at the Lyceum, 2 November 1914. It was directed by author Hubert Henry Davies and, despite bad reviews, ran a successful 168 performances. The movie was partially remade in 1937 (again with Bette Davis and Ian Hunter) as "That Certain Woman". COMMENT: What's a "B" movie? A theater manager once answered that question very succinctly: "Any movie that runs less than 80 minutes." Not only does "The Girl from 10th Avenue" qualify on that score, it also corresponds with my own definition, namely it's a small-budget picture of limited appeal to general audiences. Cinema patrons would tolerate it as a support but never as a main feature. Aside from the Waldorf scene, production values have little to offer. Green's direction is unimaginatively stolid. True, Miss Davis does her histrionic best to spice up the proceedings, but her over-the-top acting, coupled with her unattractive clothes and make-up, destroys what little credence the script occasionally manages to build up. Fortunately, the support cast, with the exception of Ian Hunter (who starts promisingly but goes down-hill from there), comes to the rescue. Colin Clive and Katherine Alexander are especially convincing.

. . . somehow being bamboozled into wedding a Corrupt Corporate Fat Cat One Per Center always has been presented as the proverbial "Fate Worse Than Death" by our always eponymous Warner Bros. Truth-to-Power whistle-blower film agency. THE GIRL FROM 10th AVENUE is a prime example displaying the eerily accurate, spot-on work Warner Bros.' prophetic prognosticators have provided for We True Blue Loyal Patriotic Working Stiffs for nearly a century now. Shining the glare of a probing spotlight upon the musical chairs marriages endemic among the mercenary monied class, THE GIRL FROM 10th AVENUE uncannily projects the Real Life threat to American Values posed by the "peccadillos" of these Pachyderm Party Pariahs. If such hormone-hyped hypocrites harvest Off-Screen Positions of Power, Warner warns us, we'll soon have a mistress-encumbered buffoon like "Dwight" lording over us, followed by serial actress marrier "Ronnie," all leading up to our current triple blue movie illegal alien starlet Third Lady initiator "Don Juan." Unfortunately, too many Americans laughed off THE GIRL FROM 10th AVENUE after papal censors required that a nonsensical "happy ending" be appended, allowing those of the egregious elephantine persuasion to thoroughly ravage our USA Homeland's Moral Fabric.

On a drunken bender after witnessing his old lover Katherine Alexander coming out of a church, just having married Colin Clive, wealthy Ian Hunter impulsively marries Bette Davis, the shopgirl who rescued him from roving reporters. Her goal is to keep him on the straight and narrow, and for a while it works-until Alexander decides she wants him back. This generic women's picture is quick and to the point but extremely illogical and resolved oh so predictably. Davis gets to repeat her dramatic rants from 1934's "Of Human Bondage" (minus the cockney accent) and the same year's "Dangerous" (which won her the first of two Oscars), but this time, she's defending herself against her husband (preparing to leave her) rather than trying to humiliate him. Clive is a more convincing drunk than Hunter (who acts too sober in a few moments of some severe drunken scenes) in his one moment of intoxication. Alison Skipworth steals every scene she is in as the tipsy former Floradora Girl with a past of her own. The film never reaches 10th Avenue, taking place mostly many blocks away on Park Avenue, although the NY Public Avenue (5th Avenue) is briefly glimpsed. The one moment of spark comes at the luncheon where Skipworth and Davis show up to make Alexander (in a rather one dimensional part) cringe.

If you want to see Bette Davis in one of her earlier pictures this is a must-see film. As far as the film itself, it is one of the most boring and average scripts and it is very formulaic code material. There is nothing new and interesting about the story. Standard soap opera. It is predictable, boring and pretty much a waste of time. But for a true Better Davis fan, this deserves watching. Otherwise this is about as bad as it gets.

The Girl From 10th Avenue is one of those B programmers that the brothers Warner were throwing Bette Davis into before they realized what a talent they had. She had already done and got rave reviews for Of Human Bondage, but it made not a whiff of difference. She was a few films from her consolation Oscar for Dangerous. When Davis got films really beneath her she just went full blown Bette with the voice and the mannerisms that impressionists made a living on for decades. In this film she's a shopgirl who lives in Hell's Kitchen on 10th Avenue who happens to aid a 5th Avenue playboy Ian Hunter when he's been out on a toot. The two wind up married. But can they make a go of it and can Bette fit in with the society just five city blocks from her roots. This was another Depression Era plot, the shopgirl who marries well and tries to make a go of it. Joan Crawford over at MGM was well known for these roles, though the best of them was the gold digging Crystal in The Women. Davis has to deal with Katharine Alexander who Hunter had broken off with and Hunter has Alexander's ex-husband Colin Clive as a confidante. Who really scores well is Alison Skipworth who back in the day was a Floradora girl who made a society catch of her own. Skipworth shows Davis the ropes in her own inimitable style. The Girl From 10th Avenue gets a couple of notches higher rating simply because Davis pushes it up.

Well-heeled lawyer Geoff Sherwood (Ian Hunter) stands in a crowd waiting for the bride and groom to come out of the church. He's drunk and talking about making a scene and detectives decide to have him hauled off to Bellview—but Miriam Brady (Bette Davis), a young woman who sews labels on clothes, takes his arm and moves him out of danger. A couple of his friends follow along and ask her to stick with him. His ex-fiancée Valentine has just gotten married. They drink, and by next morning they're somewhere in upstate New York, married too. Miriam, being an extraordinarily decent girl, tells him she'll disappear, but he asks her to stay around. They stay married, move into an apartment in a nice building owned by the redoubtable Mrs. Martin (Alison Skipworth), who sort of adopts Miriam. The Geoff-Miriam arrangement appears to be working, at least to him, but when Valentine reappears and sets out to recapture Geoff, Miriam won't stand still. She tricks Valentine into making a scene—throwing a pineapple—in a tony restaurant. But Geoff is easily led and prepares to leave Miriam; she leaves first. But in the process he realizes... well, it ends happily. Hunter is somewhat self-contained, neither a loud drunk nor a loud arguer. Miriam is right when she says he hasn't thought things through very well. Davis is just the right combination of toughness and uncertainty, much more of the former than the latter, and though she's not the most beautiful actress of her day, she knows how to light up the screen and shake the definition of beauty until it collapses at her feet and she rises above it, glowing.