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Last night ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
swankyfunk and I hit up the BOWERY-THEMED pre-Code 1930's double feature! For those of you who are not familiar with the Bowery, in the late 1800s in Manhattan, the Bowery was where you went if you wanted to see a reasonably-priced show . . . or get drunk . . . or visit a gay bar . . . or buy a prostitute . . . or go gambling . . . or get in a fight . . . or get rolled in the streets and have all your money stolen . . . you know, that sort of thing. One of the movies actually begins with the once-famous scandalized song:
The Bowery, the Bowery,
they say such things and they do strange things,
on the Bowery, the Bowery,
I'll never go there anymore!
All of which I knew, partly due to a book I read recently called The Bowery Man, by Elmer Bendimer, which spends its first and most interesting half (and the reason why I read it) on the history of the Bowery and then turns into a long discussion of the psychology of the homeless men who populated the Bowery in the sixties, eventually reaching the conclusion that it takes dedication to become depressed and homeless enough to be a genuine Bowery man.
. . . but anyway, the Bowery was significantly more interesting in the 1890's, and despite having read up on my scandalous history they still managed to surprise me! Even the Mae West/baby Cary Grant vehicle, She Done Him Wrong, which, I mean, I've seen (and loved) Mae West vehicles before! I was expecting Mae West to sashay in, sing some songs, sling some quips, seduce temperance leader Cary Grant with her sexy ways, happy ending for all. And that was true for about half the film, I guess, which goes something like this:
EVERY GUY ON THE BOWERY: Dang, Mae West is hot.
MAE WEST'S CURRENT BOYFRIEND: Mae West, I love you!
MAE WEST'S WANNABE FUTURE BOYFRIEND: Mae West, I love you so much that I'll frame your current boyfriend so you will be my girl!
MAE WEST'S EX-BOYFRIEND IN JAIL: Mae West, I love you so much that I'll break out of jail and kill you if I find out you've been dating someone else!
MAE WEST'S SEXY RUSSIAN FLING: Hey, don't look at me, I just want to sleep with you. . . . aw, what the heck, also, I love you.
MAE WEST: Aw, shucks, y'all are sweet.
FALLEN WOMAN: Suicide!
MAE WEST: Aw, honey, don't do that! Have a pep talk and some diamonds.
FALLEN WOMAN: Okay, I feel better. Thanks, Mae West!
MAE WEST: Hey, cute-but-virtuous Cary Grant, how 'bout you come up and see me sometime?
CARY GRANT: I believe in your soul, but I must resist your sexy wiles! *flees Mae West's room*
Which is so far so standard. BUT THEN ( spoilers! No, I mean it! )
And then, of course, there was the second feature, The Bowery. Fair warning, first of all: this movie is racist even for 1933. At one point, the resident spunky moppet sets Chinatown on fire in an excess of high spirits, and we get repeated Wacky Comedy Cuts to flailing Chinese people in the burning window calling for help while our boisterous Bowery firefighting bruisers decide to get into a fight instead of putting it out. In another film, this might be satirical commentary! In this film, well, you know, boys will be boys. So . . . there's that.
The plot centers on rival big boys on the Bowery campus Chuck Connors and Steve Brodie. They HAAAATE each other. HATE. And throughout the course of the movie, they fight brutally for possession of:
a.) Chuck's saloon! (In what is clearly the best scene of the movie, Chuck, realizing that he is about to lose the saloon to Brodie after Brodie's Brooklyn-bridge-jumping stunt, invites in a bunch of DEUS EX ANGRY HATCHET-WIELDING OLD LADIES, because why not.)
b.) Fay Wray, a down-on-her-luck lady of refinement that Chuck is smitten by and takes in to be his housekeeper. Steve Brodie comes in, sexually harasses her, and then hits her in the face. Instant love! (To be fair, Steve does have dancing feet and an explosive cigar. Metaphor?)
c.) Most importantly, Swipesey, the spunky window-breaking lethal-fire-starting neighborhood-terrorizing street moppet. He who has possession of an adopted street moppet, the movie shows us, is truly a happy man.
But in the end . . . ( more spoilers! )
OH, THE BOWERY. (And now I am going to have that song stuck in my head all day.)
swankyfunk and I hit up the BOWERY-THEMED pre-Code 1930's double feature! For those of you who are not familiar with the Bowery, in the late 1800s in Manhattan, the Bowery was where you went if you wanted to see a reasonably-priced show . . . or get drunk . . . or visit a gay bar . . . or buy a prostitute . . . or go gambling . . . or get in a fight . . . or get rolled in the streets and have all your money stolen . . . you know, that sort of thing. One of the movies actually begins with the once-famous scandalized song:The Bowery, the Bowery,
they say such things and they do strange things,
on the Bowery, the Bowery,
I'll never go there anymore!
All of which I knew, partly due to a book I read recently called The Bowery Man, by Elmer Bendimer, which spends its first and most interesting half (and the reason why I read it) on the history of the Bowery and then turns into a long discussion of the psychology of the homeless men who populated the Bowery in the sixties, eventually reaching the conclusion that it takes dedication to become depressed and homeless enough to be a genuine Bowery man.
. . . but anyway, the Bowery was significantly more interesting in the 1890's, and despite having read up on my scandalous history they still managed to surprise me! Even the Mae West/baby Cary Grant vehicle, She Done Him Wrong, which, I mean, I've seen (and loved) Mae West vehicles before! I was expecting Mae West to sashay in, sing some songs, sling some quips, seduce temperance leader Cary Grant with her sexy ways, happy ending for all. And that was true for about half the film, I guess, which goes something like this:
EVERY GUY ON THE BOWERY: Dang, Mae West is hot.
MAE WEST'S CURRENT BOYFRIEND: Mae West, I love you!
MAE WEST'S WANNABE FUTURE BOYFRIEND: Mae West, I love you so much that I'll frame your current boyfriend so you will be my girl!
MAE WEST'S EX-BOYFRIEND IN JAIL: Mae West, I love you so much that I'll break out of jail and kill you if I find out you've been dating someone else!
MAE WEST'S SEXY RUSSIAN FLING: Hey, don't look at me, I just want to sleep with you. . . . aw, what the heck, also, I love you.
MAE WEST: Aw, shucks, y'all are sweet.
FALLEN WOMAN: Suicide!
MAE WEST: Aw, honey, don't do that! Have a pep talk and some diamonds.
FALLEN WOMAN: Okay, I feel better. Thanks, Mae West!
MAE WEST: Hey, cute-but-virtuous Cary Grant, how 'bout you come up and see me sometime?
CARY GRANT: I believe in your soul, but I must resist your sexy wiles! *flees Mae West's room*
Which is so far so standard. BUT THEN ( spoilers! No, I mean it! )
And then, of course, there was the second feature, The Bowery. Fair warning, first of all: this movie is racist even for 1933. At one point, the resident spunky moppet sets Chinatown on fire in an excess of high spirits, and we get repeated Wacky Comedy Cuts to flailing Chinese people in the burning window calling for help while our boisterous Bowery firefighting bruisers decide to get into a fight instead of putting it out. In another film, this might be satirical commentary! In this film, well, you know, boys will be boys. So . . . there's that.
The plot centers on rival big boys on the Bowery campus Chuck Connors and Steve Brodie. They HAAAATE each other. HATE. And throughout the course of the movie, they fight brutally for possession of:
a.) Chuck's saloon! (In what is clearly the best scene of the movie, Chuck, realizing that he is about to lose the saloon to Brodie after Brodie's Brooklyn-bridge-jumping stunt, invites in a bunch of DEUS EX ANGRY HATCHET-WIELDING OLD LADIES, because why not.)
b.) Fay Wray, a down-on-her-luck lady of refinement that Chuck is smitten by and takes in to be his housekeeper. Steve Brodie comes in, sexually harasses her, and then hits her in the face. Instant love! (To be fair, Steve does have dancing feet and an explosive cigar. Metaphor?)
c.) Most importantly, Swipesey, the spunky window-breaking lethal-fire-starting neighborhood-terrorizing street moppet. He who has possession of an adopted street moppet, the movie shows us, is truly a happy man.
But in the end . . . ( more spoilers! )
OH, THE BOWERY. (And now I am going to have that song stuck in my head all day.)