The Fred MacMurray Blogathon is here!!! I apologize for the lateness at getting this post up. My aunt decided earlier this week to come visit this weekend so I've been getting ready for her and I keep forgetting about my own blogathon!! So if I'm a little late in seeing your posts that's why.
P.S. If you share your post on Twitter make sure to tag @solidmoonlight and I will retweet!
P.S.2. Don’t worry if your post is a day or two late. I’ll be happy to add it 😊
Fred MacMurray had one of the most diverse film careers in Hollywood. Screwball in the 30s, Noir and War films in the 40s, Westerns in the 50s, Disney and Television in the 60s, the man did it all. He also had an impressive list of leading ladies: Carole Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, and Madeleine Carroll to name a few. For quite some time I've been wanting to host a blogathon celebrating his incredible career and this year I've finally decided to do it.
The Blogathon will start on August 30th, our honoree's birthday, and conclude on September 1. Topics may cover any aspect of his career. Since MacMurray has such a huge amount of credits to his name I'm asking for no duplicates. You can view his filmography here.
Once you've decided on a topic, please drop a comment below with your choice, blog title, and blog link. Share one of these banners on your site and you're done!
I can't wait to see what everyone chooses and I look forward to celebrating this truly versatile yet underappreciated actor with you all!
***If you want your blog linked please make sure to include it in your comment. A lot of your names bring me to a Google+ profile and your blog isn't always linked, which means I have to Google your name/blog for a link.***
People by nature love comparisons. This brand is better than that brand. This tastes better than that. Originals vs. sequels. Batman vs. Superman. You get the picture ;)
Which one do you like better, honey?
Comparisons especially abound when it comes to movies. Originals, remakes (which I hosted a blogathon on), sequels, trilogies... you name it, we compare it. One of the most controversial of comparisons when it comes to the film world is BOOK vs. MOVIE. In most cases, people will be strongly divided, usually depending on which version they encountered first. If you've read the book first and loved it, you will most likely be disappointed with the movie (though you may come to like it later, just not as much as the book). If you've seen the movie first, chances are the book will be so different it seems like a different story entirely, with only the basic plot and character names intact.
However, in rare cases, you will end up liking one or the other BETTER than the one you read/watched first. This was the case for me with ABOVE SUSPICION.
Book (with film dust jacket)vs.Movie
Above Suspicion is the first book of well-known writer Helen MacInnes. Previously I have read three of her books (Horizon, Message in Malaga, & The Salzburg Connection) and enjoyed them immensely. She is a fantastic writer. Her stories are interesting, full of action and plot twists, and she describes the places and time so well you can imagine that you are actually there. You hear what the character hears, smell what they smell, feel how they feel. You are completely transported to another time and place.
When I learned that her first book, Above Suspicion, had been made into a film starring Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford, I immediately wanted to see it, but I wanted to read the book first. I recorded the movie to my dvr and checked the book out from my local library. Unfortunately, the book didn't get read and the movie was accidently deleted. So when TCM aired it again I made sure I watched it - I could read the book later.
While the movie was interesting, it didn't quite match my expectations as how a MacInnes novel turned movie should be. Joan Crawford was extremely unbelievable as a newlywed (maybe if the film had been made in the 1930s or if this had been my very first Crawford film). She's the typical "wife wanting to help her husband," though with Crawford you would think it would be the other way around with MacMurray helping her. It is only near the end of the film, when Crawford must disguise herself as an elderly woman in order to leave Nazi Germany that she is more in her element. There are others who agree with me and of course those who think otherwise...
What the critics said:
Variety: Both MacMurray and Miss Crawford completely handled their roles, despite drawbacks of script material.
New York Times: Joan Crawford...is a very convincing heroine.
Critic Howard Barnes for The New York Herald Tribune: There are so many floral, musical and cryptographical passwords in the film's plot that the whole show becomes a sort of super treasure hunt... Unfortunately, neither Joan Crawford nor Fred MacMurray looks quite bright enough to unravel the tangled skeins of this screen melodrama.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Here is the story in a nutshell: Set in the tension filled year 1939,A married couple takes their annual trip abroad/honeymoon. Because they are "above suspicion" they are asked to do a job for the secret service - locate a missing scientist by following a chain of contacts to ensure he is still alive.
The red rose hat, to help the next contact recognize them. Conrad Veidt (standing in back) died a few weeks after filming wrapped.
The book, a best seller, was loosely based on the life experiences of MacInnes and her husband, who served with the British Intelligence Center. While on their trips around Europe, MacInnes would write down her observations as well as predictions on Nazi activities based on what she read in the newspapers. It was her husband who encouraged her to turn it into a book.
MacInnes went on to write 22 more novels, nearly all successes due to the painstaking research that went into each one, combined with her own personal experiences. Three more of them were made into films: Assignment in Brittany (1943) starring Jean-Pierre Aumont and Susan Peters, The VenetianAffair (1967) starring Robert Vaughn and Elke Sommer, and The Salzburg Connection (1972) starring Barry Newman and Anna Karina.
I did not get a chance to finish the book unfortunately - it's been incredible busy recently - but I think Hollywood stuck pretty close to the book, just condensed. With the book the suspense can be built up more slowly and in more detail, which is something I like, if it's written well and her books always are. I think the main problem with the film for me is simply the casting. MacMurray is fine but someone a little more... helpless, but not too helpless, would have been a better fit than Crawford.
Crawford knitting behind-the-scenes and a patriotic "V for Victory" publicity photo.
To read a more in-depth post on the film, check out this great post from Silver Scenes. Here's a great little post about the book.
Today's post for the Movie Scientist Blogathon is another, earlier, MacMurray film, Murder, He Says (1945). I caught this "dark comedy" on TCM in January, as Fred MacMurray was the Star of the Month.
The main difference is that MacMurray is not the scientist this time. He is a pollster, that is, he goes around in the less populated areas and polls the people in the area on what appliances they own. In the case of this film Pete Marshall, MacMurray's character, is looking for a fellow pollster who disappeared in the area.
I'm with the Trotter Poll. We're like the Gallop Poll but not as fast.
By doing some questioning at the general store, he finds out that his friend was last seen going to the Fleagle's, a family that everyone seems to be afraid of. Dusk is falling as he makes his way on his bicycle to the Fleagle homestead. He becomes unnerved after seeing a glow-in-the-dark dog running through the woods. Next thing he knows, he has fallen into a large hole. One of the Fleagle boys comes along but instead of helping him out of the hole tries to push him in! When another member of the family comes along and has him come up to the house.
The Fleagle gang consists of whip-totin' Ma Johnson (Marjorie Main), the twins Mert and Bert - Bert has the crick in his back (both played by Peter Whitney), Ma's latest husband Mr. Johnson - a cooky scientist (Porter Hall), and Elany - who goes around singing the sensless rhyme "Honors flysis/Income beezis/Onches nobis/Inob keesis"(Jean Heather). Pete is also introduced/forced to meet Grandma (Mabel Paige). Grandma glows in the dark, just like the dog Pete saw in the woods. She tells him that her family has poisoned her and that before she dies she wants to tell a secret - the whereabouts of a stash of stolen money totaling $70,000.
Glowing Grandma
Once they are alone, Grandma gives Pete a sampler with some music notes stitched on it. She tells him to give the sampler to Bonnie; she will know what it means. Bonnie Fleagle is the one who stole the money from a bank.
Grandma dies a few minutes later and the Fleagles set to work to try and get Pete to spill where the money is hidden. He keeps telling them the secret is in the sampler but they don't believe him so he has to make something up. He tries to fool them but doesn't get away with it.
Pete and Mr. Johnson, the inventer of the glow-in-the-dark poison.
Later, cousin Bonnie shows up - only she's not really cousin Bonnie but Claire Matthews (Helen Walker), daughter of the bank teller who was blamed for the holdup. She reveals herself to Pete and asks for him to help her clear her father's name by finding the money. Being a nice guy and not wanting to leave her to the ruthless Fleagles, Pete agrees to stay.
Pete and Claire/Bonnie try everything they can think of to find where the money is hidden. Pete tries playing the melody from the sampler on the organ in the hopes that a trap door will open, like in that Bob Hope picture The Ghost Breakers (1940).
There are some hilarious scenes in this film. In one the family has sat down to eat some grits and gravy. Pete realizes that Bonnie's plate is poisoned and keeps turning the lazy-susan table until nobody knows who has the poisoned plate. When Pete blows out the lamp, all of the plates but Mr. Johnson's are glowing.
Another funny scene is when Pete pretends to be able to see and talk to the ghost of Hector P. Smedley, the pollster man that the Fleagle's murdered. Mert and Bert are terrified when the ghost "chases" them through the house.
The most hilarious scene, which could only be pulled off by someone with MacMurray's comedic talent and timing, is when someone knocks out one of the twins in the potato bin as he is wrestling with Pete, who then has to sit on top of him, pretending that the twin's legs are his own when the real Bonnie (Barbara Pepper) shows up. She has broken out of prison and is also looking for the money. The legs of course are going in ways that Pete's real legs never could and this lends to the comic situation. You can watch the scene below.
With the real Bonnie there it really becomes a race against time (and death) as everyone scrambles to find the money first.
A Few Fun Facts:
In some scenes, MacMurray's wedding band can be seen.
In the film, MacMurray mentions the Bob Hope film The Ghost Breakers (1940).
There is a scene in Haunted Honeymoon (1986) where Gene Wilder pretends that someone else's legs are his own, similar to MacMurray's scene.
Final Thoughts: This movie is definitely "different." You don't know quite what to expect but once you've watched it you are glad you did.
Today's post for the Movie Scientist Blogathon is a classic Disney film starring Fred MacMurray: The Absent-Minded Professor (1961).
If you are a fan of Disney and a fan of Classic Film you have probably seen this movie (and likely more than once). You have also then probably seen the sequal Son of Flubber (1963).
The Absent-Minded Professor is based on the short story "A Situation of Gravity" by Samuel W. Taylor. The film stars Fred MacMurray as Prof. Ned Brainard of Medfield College. He is a lovable but forgetful guy (he's forgotten to attend his wedding to his secretary Betsy Carlisle, played by Nancy Olsen, three times!) who has invented a gravity-defying formula for flying rubber, which he calls "Flubber."
Even his note doesn't help.
Fun Fact: Time Magazine published the formula for the mixture they used in the film. The recipe called for "To one pound of salt water taffy add one heaping tablespoon polyurethane foam, one cake crumbled yeast. Mix till smooth, allow to rise. Then pour into saucepan over one cup cracked rice with one cup water. Add topping of molasses. Boil till lid lifts and says 'Qurlp'."
The Prof. has applied this mixture to his old Model-T, enabling it to fly.
Scheming Alonzo Hawk (Keenyn Wynn) is out to close the school so Prof. Brainard tries to show his invention to the government in order to raise funds. Hawk and his son Biff (Tommy Kirk) do all they can to spoil the deal for him, making him look ridiculous in front of everyone so that no one will believe in his Flubber.
Fun Fact: Three generations of the Wynn family appear in the film: Ed Wynn (Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland) is the bumbling Fire Chief, his son Keenyn Wynn is the bad guy, Alonzo Hawk, and Keenyn's son Ned Wynn.
Tommy Kirk with Keenyn Wynn as Biff and Alonzo Hawk
The basketball scene is sure to have you rolling with laughter as the Medfield team soars above the heads of the other team (including the basketball goals!) with the help of a little Flubber on their shoes.
This film is hilarious and fun for the entire family. If you have never seen it then you are in for a treat.
