Director: George Fitzmaurice (one of his last films) Producer: John W. Considine Jr. Story: Based on a book of the same name by Baroness Emmauska Orczy c. 1899 (known for writing The Scarlet Pimpernel)
Costumes: Adrian
Music: Franz Waxman
Cast:
William Powell Luise Rainer Robert Young Maureen O'Sullivan Frank Morgan
Summary: The son of the Russian Czar, the Grand Duke Peter (Young), is kidnapped while at a costume ball in Vienna, along with his aide (Morgan). The girl who lured him away (Sullivan) wants him to write to the Czar and tell him to free her father, a Polish patriot. Powell is chosen to deliver the letter, which is hidden in a compartment in a pair of fancy candlesticks. Rainer, a Russian agent, is also delivering a candlestick, one that contains warrant for Powell's arrest. The candlesticks are switched, leading to a merry chase all the way to Russia as each tries to retrieve their candlestick. When both candlesticks are stolen, they must work together to get them back. During the process they fall in love, even though they must continue to outwit each other to fulfill their duty to their respective countries.
Young and Morgan
Young and Sullivan
Sullivan
Staying at the same hotel
Discovering the mix-up
The candlestick is delivered
Your Highness, we are free.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this movie. You knew how it was going to end but it was fun to watch them keep running into each other and getting so close to getting the correct candlestick back only to lose it again. The secret compartment in the candlesticks was really cool. A typical William Powell movie.
There has been one more Hollywood death before the close of 2014, a year that saw the death of two child stars, a poker playin' cowboy, an ugly cowboy, a girl who could whistle, and a comedian. Luise Rainer (pronounced "Rye-ner") was a bright star the dimmed quickly, yet who will always be remembered in Hollywood history.
Born Jan. 12, 1910 in Germany (some sources say Vienna).
Died Dec. 30, 2014 (pneumonia) in Eaton Square, London (in an apartment once occupied by Vivien Leigh).
Nicknames: The Viennese Teardrop, The New Garbo
Height: 5'4"
With first husband, playwright Clifford Odets, whom she met while filming her first movie, Escapade. Her marriage ended with divorce in 1940.
With her second husband, Robert Knittel, a New York publisher, with whom she had one daughter, Francesca. They were married from 1945 to his death in 1989.
Her Films
Rainer's Hollywood career consisted of only nine movies.
Escapade (1935): Set in Vienna in the early 1900s. The wives of two brothers are in love with an artist (Powell). He paints one of them (disguised in furs) and is then confronted by their husbands. He denies knowing either lady and makes up a name for the woman he painted. It turns out there really is a lady by that name (Rainer). They in turn fall in love. Complications arise.
Also starring: Frank Morgan, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen
Fun Fact: Myrna Loy was set to play the lead female part but dropped out. Rainer was chosen to replace her. She received rave reviews for her debut performance: "There is no need to tell you about any of the players except Miss Rainer. You are already aware that there is no man on the screen who can top Mr. Powell when it comes to playing the role of a fascinating philanderer. Nor can a word from this observer add anything to the reputations of such artists as Mr. Morgan and Mr. Owen. If either of them ever gave a bad performance, I missed the film. But about Miss Rainer: her great charm is her simplicity and directness. Because of her wide-eyed facial expressions, the manner in which she pronounces some words, plus certain tricks of inflection in reading lines, Miss Rainer will be accused of imitating Elisabeth Bergner." - source
The Great Ziegfeld (1936): A sumptuous, three-hour long biography of Florenz Ziegfeld (Powell), from his beginnings in show business to his final show.
Also starring: Frank Morgan, Myrna Loy (playing Ziegfeld's second wife, Billie Burke), Fannie Brice, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, and Ray Bolger.
Rainer plays Ziegfeld's first wife. Her part is small but the telephone scene (which was almost cut) garnered Rainer her first Oscar nomination and win. She based the scene on part of a play by Jean Cocteau, "The Human Voice."
Fun Facts: Was the first biopic to win an Academy Award for "Best Picture."
Billie Burke (who was originally supposed to play herself) visited the set and posed for a photograph with Myrna Loy, who was playing her. Loy is only in the last 40 minutes of the film.
The Good Earth (1937): Based on the book of the same name by Pearl S. Buck. The story of a farmer in China: a story of humility and bravery. His father gives Wang Lung (Paul Muni) a freed slave as wife (Rainer). By diligence and frugality the two manage to enlarge their property. But then a famine forces them to leave their land and live in the town. However it turns out to be a blessing in disguise for them
Rainer plays O-Lan, originally offered to Chinese-born Anna May Wong
Her second Oscar dress - a nightgown. Here is a dress that reminded me of it.
Rainer won a second award for her role in The Good Earth. This made her the first actor/actress to win back-to-back Acadamy Awards. She was also the first actor/actress to win two Academy Awards. The following year, 1938, Spencer Tracy , Bette Davis and Walter Brennan also became double Oscar winners.
Rainer was forced to attend the Oscar ceremony by Louis B. Mayer to receive her Oscar. In the early Academy Awards ceremonies the winners were announced beforehand in the newspapers. A team of MGM staff arrived at her house and made her dress in appropriate evening wear, and rushed her to the show - just in time.
For my second and third pictures, I won Academy Awards. Nothing worse could have happened to me.
The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937): A male Polish secret agent (Powell) and a female Russian secret-police spy (Rainer) smuggle messages to St. Petersburg in candlesticks. While chasing after stolen candlesticks they discover each other's identity and fall in love. You can read my post on this movie here.
Also starring: Robert Young, Frank Morgan, and Maureen O'Sullivan.
Big City (1937): To avoid a taxi war, city officials blame a gang bombing on driver Joe Benton's (Tracy) wife Anna (Rainer)and put her on a ship to deport her. The mayor is speaker at a boxers' banquet where Joe pleads for them to go with him to the wharf and rescue Anna (about to deliver their baby) from the ship.
The Toy Wife (1938): The beautiful and frivolous wife (Rainer) of a plantation owner (Douglas) in antebellum Louisiana, proves unsatisfactory at running the household, leading her serious-minded husband to enlist the help of her unmarried sister. The end is a real tear-jerker.
Also starring: Robert Young.
The Great Waltz
The Great Waltz (1938): A biopic about Johann Strauss set in 1845 Vienna. Features a classic triangle with Rainer as the self-sacrificing wife.
Dramatic School (1938): Aspiring actress Louise Muban (Rainer) attends the prestigious Paris School of Drama during the day and works at a dreary factory assembling gas meters at night. She daydreams and "acts" her way through life, and her fellow students at school begin to suspect her stories are just that - fabrications. After Louise begins to weave an actual meeting with a debonair playboy into a fantasy of club dates and romance, her co-student Nana (Goddard) discovers the lie when she too meets the playboy. Nana sets a trap for Louise, and the result is an end to one fantasy and the realization of another.
Also starring: Virginia Grey, Paulette Goddard, Lana Turner, & Ann Rutherford
Fun Fact: MGM had planned for Greer Garson to make her film debut in the film, but shortly before shooting began, Garson injured her back and the role was recast with Luise Rainer.
On Rainer's performance: "Her portrait of the young actress almost insanely devoted to becoming a star is among the most coherent any performer of the Thirties achieved." ~ John Baxter, Hollywood in the Thirties (1968).
Hostages (1943): An anti-Nazi film, a comeback, and an end to Rainer's movie career. Watch it here.
Still from The Toy Wife
I don't believe in acting. I think that people in life act, but when you are on the stage, or in my case also on screen, you have to be true.
[on quitting Hollywood] I was very young. There were a lot of things I was unprepared for. I was too honest, I talked serious instead of with my eyelashes and Hollywood thought I was cuckoo. I worked in seven big pictures in three years. I have to be inspired to give a good performance. I complained to a studio executive that the source was dried up. The executive told me, 'Why worry about the source. Let the director worry about that.' I didn't run away from anybody in Hollywood. I ran away from myself.
With her two Oscars (one of which she used as a door stop)
Of all the living winners of a competitive Oscar Rainer had hers the longest.
She shares the honor of having several firsts with the Academy Awards. She was the first actor to achieve the perfect Oscar track record (two nominations-two wins). Only five other actors have achieved this. She was the first actor to receive double Oscars consecutively. She was the first to obtain two Oscars and was the first to achieve double Oscars before turning 30. She was the first actress to win an Academy Award for portraying a real-life person.
The first (and so far the only) multiple oscar winning actor or actress to reach the age of 100.
In what was meant to be a birthday tribute, TCM will be showing all but her first and last films on Jan. 12
