Out of the Blue

source: Out of the Blue

I've never seen Anne Dvorak in a comedic role before. She is s absolutely hilarious in this, playing the clingy, bar cruising drunk to perfection. Her characters drinking problem is a constant gag throughput the film and even her clothing plays a big part in moving the plot along. Also nice to see George Brent and Turhan Bay playing against type. Virginia Mayo is beautiful as usual. The 2 old ladies (one is Mrs. Turnbull from I Love Lucy) are also quite funny and the dogs are adorable. The plot is totally ridiculous, perfect for a screwball comedy, with lots of twists and mixups along the way. Lots of snappy dialogue, funny one liners and plenty of laugh out loud moments. Never heard of this one before but I'll never forget it.

Now that his wife is away for a few days, a henpecked husband tries to find some adventure and romance. Having picked up a perpetually drunk young lady called Olive, he takes her around to his apartment, For Friendship And More. The rendez-vous doesn't go as planned and when the man discovers that he has a corpse (or rather "corpse") on his hands, he plants Olive's body on the terrace of a neighbour he dislikes... I recommend "Out of the Blue" to viewers who like a) German shepherd dogs b) silly hats c) snappy comebacks and witty dialogue d) funny performances by good actors e) all of the above. I do not recommend the movie to perfectionists who expect a plot to make perfect sense, all of the time : there are a few aspects here and there which require a kindly measure of indulgence. For instance, it is not entirely credible that the police, warned about the presence of a corpse lying on an apartment terrace, would inspect the apartment but not the terrace. I gather the movie is based on a story by Vera Caspary, of "Bedelia" and "Laura" fame. This would mean an author indulging in an affectionate spoof of her own genre, to wit the crime thriller or mystery. In real life, of course, people would be well advised not to keep a German or Belgian shepherd dog in an apartment on the tenth floor : these are not only active, energetic animals that need a lot of exercice, they are also fiendishly good at jumping fences and climbing walls. Alas, poor Rabelais, at least he reached the ripe old age of fourteen months...

I watched this Eagle-Lion comedy yesterday on YouTube and thoroughly enjoyed it. The reason I had been wanting to check it out was because one of the stars, Carole Landis, was born in my hometown. I haven't seen all her movies yet, so I needed to check this one off the list. And it was certainly worth the time. One of the user reviews I read here on the IMDb said the entire cast was playing against type..and I somewhat agree with that assessment. Aside from Carole who did a fabulous job as a domineering wife, there was another performer who stood out for me in this motion picture. It was Turhan Bey...he plays a Greenwich artistic type who has a succession of beautiful women parading through his apartment. One of them is shapely Virginia Mayo. The other IMDb user jokingly commented that Turhan is virtually unrecognizable in this part without his customary turban, which he wore in several adventure pictures at Universal in the 1940s. I don't think I have paid much attention to him before as a movie 'star' (and we can use that word a bit lightly perhaps)...but while watching OUT OF THE BLUE, I found him to be a fine actor who gave a convincing comic performance. In fact, they all do a nice job here, and the film should be more well-known by today's audiences.

Wishy washy title but saw that it was billed as screwball comedy and had gotten some good reviews on IMDb so it ended up as my pick for 'movie night' in our home. I was not familiar with Ann Dvorak who was getting secondary billing in this movie but once she was introduced to the story the movie picked up... and she stole every scene. I want to see more of her in comedy films and hope that there are some. George Brent deserves some kudos also as the main foil in this screwball comedy. He did a nice job. If you have a chance to watch this film then do it. The opening scene is weak but it really picks up after that and does not stop until credits are ready to roll at the end.

Ostensibly set in Greenwich Village but actually never leaving the confines of Eagle-Lion's studios, OUT OF THE BLUE's basic plot-line adumbrates better-known comedies such as THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH and THE ODD COUPLE. Arthur Earthleigh (George Brent), a put-upon husband, has to fend for himself while his spouse Mae (Carole Landis) goes away for the weekend. He encounters serial drunk Olive (Ann Dvorak) in a club, takes her back home but finds his adulterous dreams frustrated by a combination of conscience and drunkenness. Meanwhile his neighbor David (Turhan Bey) appears to be continuing his career as a serial womanizer with dog-breeder Deborah (Virginia Mayo), but his romantic dreams are frustrated by Olive. Leigh Jason's production is distinguished by contrasting performances. Once Warner Brothers' leading man but now sporting middle-aged spread, Brent is quite happy to play the well-meaning but clueless husband led a merry amatory dance by Olive, apparently unable to cope with rapidly changing situations. Turhan Bey acts the sophisticate, dressed in a white tuxedo and showing his perfect manners to Mayo - while successfully seducing her - but even he has no real answer to Olive's machinations. Ann Dvorak enjoys herself with a madcap role as Olive, as she sups vast quantities of brandy and flops lifelessly down on the sofa in a series of drunken stupors. Playing a couple of old women reminiscent of those in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (released three years previously), Julia Dean and Elizabeth Patterson have great fun playing cards but showing far more interest in their neighbors' affairs. It's clear that in this tight-knit Greenwich Village society - where an unidentified murder is on the prowl - everything that happens is everyone else's business. Needless to say the comedy ends happily with Brent reasserting patriarchal authority over his wife Mae, while Deborah establishes mastery (or should it be mistressy) over Turhan Bey's David, even though such authority is only skin-deep.

What makes this movie so remarkable is that all the actors are cast against their type. Romantic lead George Brent plays a henpecked hubby in this film. Glamor gal Carole Landis plays a prissy mouse of a housewife. Turhan Bey doesn't wear a turban in this film, but plays a cool and wise-cracking New York man-about-town. And drama queen Ann Dvorak plays a screwball drunk lady with more than one screw loose. It's a gem. Then add to this the remarkable supporting cast, a script with some zingers I can still remember after not seeing this for 40 years. And it gets great Cool Points for having legendary jazz artist Hadda Brooks play the piano and sing in this film (she also performed in the Bogart / Grahame film IN A LONELY PLACE; and had one of the first regular TV shows ever broadcast in Los Angeles in the late 1940s).

If any other studio but Eagle Lion had released OUT OF THE BLUE, it would still be listed as one of the best of the zany screwball comedies that still were being produced in the 40's. What is even more interesting is that all of the main stars play AGAINST TYPE, and the result is not only funny but a pleasant and welcome surprise...even today. A madcap comedy, OUT OF THE BLUE focuses on a henpecked husband, the ditzy lady he picks up in a bar, and assorted others who provide ammunition for a comedy of mistaken identity, blackouts, suspicious women and henpecked husbands. The most wonderful surprise of all is the hilarious performance by Ann Dvorak as the tipsy and zonked-out cause of all of the fracas. She is a riot, a shocker for fans who knew her only and always as a DRAMATIC actress. Another key surprise is George Brent as a put-upon hubby of a domineering wife, played expertly by Carole Landis. Add Turhan Bey as a sophisticate (!!!) and Virginia Mayo as his current lady friend. Leigh Jason is the director, and his work, too, is "out of the blue". This film should not be a forgotten little gem... it has been available, briefly, on VHS. Try to catch it.

Ann Dvorak (Olive) is one of those people you really must avoid in life. Not because she likes a drink – that bit is quite fun – but because she never goes away. Even when she is dead, it would seem. This is a comedy that makes use of screwball comedy set pieces. It's all about misinterpretations. And it's pretty funny in parts. Some of artist Turhan Bey's (David) reactions are expertly dialogued, especially when a dead body turns up on his balcony and he discovers what has actually happened. The director could have made more of singer Hadda Brooks. If she's going to appear in a film, then give her a full song. Ann Dvorak takes the attention away during Hadda's scene and we don't really want to hear Dvorak singing the title song "Out of the Blue". You have to be in the mood for this type of comedy and if the mood takes you, it is quite a good example. I'll be keeping onto it for a future viewing when in the mood. It's got a pretty good cast and is one of Carole Landis's last films.

Ann Dvorak carries the film. The rest of the cast are merely adequate and are not adept at comic timing and delivery. The film fails as a true screwball comedy because the pace is too slow. Had the pace been a bit more frenetic, it might have succeeded. This was the director's fault more than anything. Ann Dvorak's career peaked in the 1930s. Some of her best work came after that. Most of it was in dramas. It was a delight seeing her do a comic role. I urge those not familiar with her to do more research and check out some of her 1940s and 1950s performances. One that comes immediately to mind are The Secret of Convict Lake and A Life of Her Own.