Cinevent Notes PARDON MY PAST

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Richard M Roberts
Godfather
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Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Cinevent Notes PARDON MY PAST

Postby Richard M Roberts » Fri May 17, 2013 5:31 am

Todays Cinevent note if for the 1945 Fred MacMurray movie PARDON MY PAST:


PARDON MY PAST

One of the actors who has benefited from the revisionist hindsight of a rediscovered film career after the lingering aftershocks (no, that’s not the right word, afterblands is more like it) of MY THREE SONS have finally faded from view is Fred MacMurray. That never-ending series, which even he himself was not a particular fan, to the point where his contract demanded a two and a half month shooting schedule where they covered ALL of his scenes for the whole season, leaving the rest of the cast to talk to Fred’s stand-in for the rest of the year as they finished the episodes, definitely reduced MacMurray’s status status among critics and film buffs to a point where most people forgot what a versatile and solid actor he was.

So versatile that most folk don’t realize that before he was an actor, he was a musician! His Father and namesake, Frederick MacMurray was a successful concert violinist who unfortunately died when young Fred was five. After his Father’s death, Fred and his Mother settled in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where Fred went through Grade and High School and apparently had a very happy and cherished childhood. Later in life, MacMurray was always happy to remember his upbringing and lifelong friends there. In PARDON MY PAST, Beaver Dam is the destination Fred and fellow sailor buddy William Demarest are heading to start a Mink Farm!

Graduating from Carroll College in Wisconsin, MacMurray began working in dance orchestras as a saxophone player. Working first in Chicago, Fred made his way to Hollywood in the late 1920’s, where he became a member of Gus Arnheim’s Coconut Grove Orchestra, playing sax and even vocalizing on a record or two. Fred moved over to George Olsen’s Orchestra in 1930, then later joined a touring comedy stage band called The California Collegians, that took him to New York where he joined the Three’s a Crowd Musical Review on Broadway, then a National Tour. After that, Fred toured Vaudeville and night clubs singing, playing various musical instruments, and doing comedy. This led to his being cast in a lead in the Broadway Musical ROBERTA, with his good friend Bob Hope, and that led to his being signed by Paramount Pictures in 1935 (Hope remembered with some comically feigned bitterness that Paramount signed MacMurray several years before they signed him, but also happily recalled that MacMurray was the first to welcome him to the lot when he joined them in 1938.).

Anyone who refers to MacMurray’s early work as a Paramount leading man as “pedestrian” (as some of these so-well informed folk on imdb have done) obviously haven’t seen much of it. One of the first assignments given Fred was THE GILDED LILY, a sparkling and delightful teaming with Claudette Colbert, with whom he would partner in a number of films over the next twelve years. He then moved on to the prison drama MEN WITHOUT NAMES, then a loan-out to RKO to work with Katherine Hepburn in George Stevens’ ALICE ADAMS, then back to Paramount to work with another actress with whom he became a friend and frequent film partner, Carole Lombard in HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE, wrapping up 1935 with one more Claudette Colbert vehicle, THE BRIDE COMES HOME, all winners. Through the 1930’s, Fred would prove himself adept at drama (TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE (1936), MAID OF SALEM (1937)), westerns (THE TEXAS RANGERS (1936)) , and lots more comedy (THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS (1936), TRUE CONFESSION (1937)), all presenting a deceptively effortless everyman sort of personality that quickly won over audiences.

By the 1940’s, Fred MacMurray was a major star, and a very familiar face that Paramount continued to use in a general range of leading roles, with occasional loan-outs to other studios for films like TOO MANY HUSBANDS (Columbia 1940), DIVE BOMBER (Warner Bros 1941), and ABOVE SUSPISCION (MGM 1943), but even with a comfortable A-list starring berth, MacMurray was willing to take the occasional chance and stretch his wings. He was just one of many male stars who first turned down the role of weasel insurance salesman/murderer Walter Neff in Billy Wilder’s adaptation of James M. Cain’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY, but the Director finally talked Fred into risking the damage to his “nice-guy” reputation by doing the film and it ended up being the role of his career.

Which pretty much brings us up to PARDON MY PAST, which was the only film Fred MacMurray ever produced himself. His Mutual Productions was making the film for Columbia as he set out to freelance after ten years as a Paramount Star (his last film for them having been the terrific black comedy MURDER HE SAYS (1945)). Taking no chances with his first self-produced picture, Fred played his “nice-guy” image to the hilt, and loaded this late-screwball comedy with a fine pile of veteran performers. Fred plays Eddie York, whom, upon returning to New York with his pal William Demarest from a stint in the Merchant Marines, plans to head to his beloved Beaver Dam, Wisconsin to raise the afore-mentioned minks. Unfortunately, the screwball element immediately rears it’s ugly head in the form of gangster Akim Tamiroff, who is convinced that Eddie is actually millionaire Francis Pemberton who owes him $12,000 in gambling debts, and confiscated the $3,000 Eddie has on him.

Eddie determines to find the real Francis Pemberton and straighten things out as he and Demarest head to the Pemberton Estate, where once again, he is mistaken for the real Francis Pemberton by the whole Pemberton Family, including crusty Grandpa Harry Davenport, and poor-relation Joan (Marguerite Chapman). Unable to escape, Eddie finds all sorts of problems in the Pemberton household, including the always-worrying movie fact that the Pemberton financial affairs are being handled by----oh, oh, ------Douglas Dumbrille.

Well, you know you’re going to lose the Farm if Dumbrille’s behind the desk, so then it’s up to Eddie to straighten out both his and Pemberton’s affairs, which is the crux of the Screwball Situation and of course, at some point some split-screen work as the real Francis Pemberton shows up to scatter the nicely arranged farcical circumstances. Who cares, it’s all deftly played by pro’s at this sort of thing, a perfect afternoon or evening’s entertainment.

William Demarest, grand old grumbler of the Merv Griffin Show, was a life-long friend of Fred MacMurray’s and essays this pre-Uncle Charlie teaming with his old friend here. True to form, this Bronx tough-guy actually hailed from St. Paul, Minnesota, whom, after an apparently short-lived career as a professional boxer found his way into Vaudeville and Broadway. Recent year turn-up of some of his late-silent and early-sound film appearances has finally given us some views of an almost-youthful Demarest, but we mostly remember him as a busy and ubiquitous middle-ager and beyond. Financially stable thanks to an early investment in a little thing called the Vitaphone with another old friend, Clyde Cook, Demarest continued dividing his time between the Studios and his beloved golf course through to the end of the 1970’s, while also making numerous appearances on the Merv Griffin Show pretty much until the day he died in 1983.

Director Leslie Fenton was a British-born actor from the Silent Era, specializing in either weak second-leading men, usually alcoholic or drug-addicted brothers of the leading lady, and oddly enough, the occasional chinaman (you’ll see him playing one in this weekend’s CHINATOWN SQUAD). By the late 1930’s, Leslie figured that he was getting too old to play the weak-kneed brother, so he switched to directing and proved a capable helmsman of a number of solid action pictures and westerns, taking time out for a stint in World War II where he commanded one of the motor launches in Operation Chariot, a British Command Raid on the French Port of St. Nazaire in March, 1942. Fenton keeps the comic pace in PARDON MY PAST breezy and peppy, and wisely doesn’t get in the way of a talented cast. Married to Ann Dvorak for more than a decade in the 1930’s and 40’s (not bad Leslie!), he retired from directing in the early 1950’s and lived happily until his death in 1978.

PARDON MY PAST won’t make anyone’s top-ten list, but it will fill the bill just nicely this Cinevent Weekend. Screwball Comedy pretty much withered and died on the vine in the post-war 1940’s, here’s a look at one of the better late-entries of the genre.


RICHARD M ROBERTS

Mike Paradise
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Joined: Tue May 14, 2013 10:33 pm

Re: Cinevent Notes PARDON MY PAST

Postby Mike Paradise » Fri May 17, 2013 10:50 am

Richard, I think the only thing you didn't mention about Fred MacMurray is that he was married to a very talented and beautiful actress named June Haver. She was known at Fox as the "pocket Grable" due to her diminutive size (5'2" tall). She appeared in Where Do We Go from Here? (1945) with her future husband, Fred MacMurray AKA Steve Douglas, who she wed in 1954.

Mike Paradise

Richard M Roberts
Godfather
Posts: 2895
Joined: Sun May 31, 2009 6:30 pm

Re: Cinevent Notes PARDON MY PAST

Postby Richard M Roberts » Sat May 18, 2013 2:49 am

Mike Paradise wrote:Richard, I think the only thing you didn't mention about Fred MacMurray is that he was married to a very talented and beautiful actress named June Haver. She was known at Fox as the "pocket Grable" due to her diminutive size (5'2" tall). She appeared in Where Do We Go from Here? (1945) with her future husband, Fred MacMurray AKA Steve Douglas, who she wed in 1954.

Mike Paradise



Yep, after his first wife Lillian passed away in 1953.


RICHARD M ROBERTS


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