Turner Classic aired this 1938 Mervin LeRoy film as part of its October salute to Carole Lombard. It's a breezy, somewhat pedestrian romantic comedy, with the standard mistaken identity, squabbling between lovers, etc. Lombard certainly deserves Star of the Month treatment, and she is always fun to watch. Fans of that type of movie and/or that era of filmmaking will enjoy it.
I enjoyed it myself, but something about it bugged me--still bugs me, in fact, a week or so later. I think I'm finally tired of seeing--spoiler alert if you've never seen a Ralph Bellamy movie--Ralph Bellamy get screwed over.
See, Bellamy is in seemingly dozens of these kinds of movies ("His Girl Friday," "The Awful Truth," who knows how many more), generally playing a swell fellow who has a thing for the lead actress, thinks he has her in the bag, then winds up holding the bag while someone like Cary Grant walks off with her.
It's no surprise to see this happen in "Fools for Scandal." Even Leonard Maltin's "Movie Guide" devotes some of the meager space in its capsule description to saying, "Bellamy plays the sap again." Only this time, he loses out to Fernand Gravet. Fernand Gravet! Now, being bested in romance by the likes of Cary Grant is one thing; no man can reasonably argue that decision. But Fernand Gravet?
Poor Ralph Bellamy gets stuck playing the lifeless stiff; the sensible, decent sort who good gals are told they should marry. What's wrong with this kind of man? Absolutely nothing, but because the movies are the movies, this character is basically a villain, and audiences root for the heroine to run off with the free-spirited, funnier, Cary Grant-ier gent.
For some reason, seeing this happen again in "Fools for Scandal" just triggered a reaction in me. I felt more than sorry for ol' Ralph. I felt kind of angry. It's not his fault he doesn't have a charming (possibly fake) Euro accent. What's so bad about being solid? I don't think I want to see Ralph Bellamy get the shaft any more.
Fortunately, I have a few episodes of "Man Against Crime" AKA "Follow that Man" in my collection. In that early-fifties TV show, Bellamy is Mike Barnett, a rough-edged P.I. who doesn't have to worry about getting stranded in his tux like a fool while some dame runs off with a dandy. Most importantly, there's a good chance that in any given episode, Bellamy will get to punch someone's lights out. That makes me feel better.
So, yeah, "Fools for Scandal" is OK, but I think I'm gonna watch some "Man Against Crime" now.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Just so you know, the same fate happens to Bellamy in another Lombard film, "Hands Across The Table" (1935), where he portrays a wealthy aviator confined to a wheelchair! He loses Lombard to Fred MacMurray, though he's pretty cool with it given his condition.
"Hands Across The Table," arguably the best thing Carole ever did for Paramount -- both she and the studio didn't know what it had in her for more than half her contract there, which ran from 1930 to '37 -- can be found on the 2-disc "Carole Lombard Glamour Collection" that Universal issued in April 2006.
Fortunately, later in his career Bellamy got to play someone who was anything but a sap, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in "Sunrise At Campobello" (on both stage and screen).
For more on Bellamy, including a five-part audio interview he gave in 1983, go to http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/8890.html (It's my site on Carole Lombard and all things classic Hollywood.)
Post a Comment